Traveler's Blessing

Chapter 17: Synchronization

It took Lincoln two seasons to convince Floukru to join the Coalition. Knowing Luna will not set foot in Polis to bend her knees, Lexa made up an excuse and said Luna is barred from ever entering Polis. Which made no difference for Luna since she doesn't want to draw attention to herself anyway. In place of their leader, Floukru sent an ambassador to be sworn into the Coalition. It was a simple initiation ceremony compared to Louwado Kliron kru. Under the agreement, Floukru will be a safe haven and a sanctuary state for orphans and those that no longer want to fight.

After the Coalition, Lincoln was still traveling back and forth between Polis and Flou. He spends most, if not all, of his time with the Boat People under the pretense of building up the alliance. Secretly, he is trying to salvage any technology that is still on the oil rig. Fortunately, offshore machinery is built to withstand corrosion over time. Generators onboard are manufactured with materials and coatings that can withstand extreme temperature, salt, wind, and marine condition. Therefore, most of the equipment has survived the first nuclear apocalypse. Luna doesn't mind; she thinks Lincoln is just a curious person.

Costia's ruse with Lincoln is starting to fall apart because of Lincoln's secret agenda. There are suggestions that Lincoln and Luna are an item. Of course, Costia knows that is not true, but Lincoln staying at Flou all the time is not helping their case. Since the rumor started, Lincoln has been getting cold or rather colder receptions from Han and Lexa every time he visits Polis. Han is as predictable as ever; he is probably angered by Lincoln's supposed unfaithfulness to Costia. And Costia is really worried that her Best Tree Girl will challenge Lincoln to a solo gonplei one of these days. Lexa's dislike of Lincoln is a bit more subtle. It is in the way she dismisses him, and Costia always wondered if Lexa is destined to dislike Lincoln. There is no good reason why Lexa would place a kill order on his head for disobeying her in the previous life. Surely the Commander can pardon Lincoln if she can excuse Skaikru for slaughtering her people.

Despite these minor inconveniences, both Costia and Lincoln agree that the oil rig mission is more important. Lincoln has been tinkering with heavy instruments, such as hoisting systems, cranes, pumps, batteries, engines, and other power supplies. With the right parts, he told Costia that he should be able to build an EMP with the high voltage power source he found. One that is strong enough to disable Mount Weather within a one-kilometer radius range. Regrettably, finding all the parts he needs is not that easy, and he has tasked Clarke to help him when she returns to the Ark.

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"What did you say Lincoln need?" Raven is talking with Clarke through telecom and is shifting through a pile of electronics and machine parts. In her previous life, she barely became a mechanic when she turned 18. In this life, she is the youngest Zero-G in all of Ark's history, not just 52 years. She is considered a prodigy and has earned certain access rights to off-limit levels that she didn't before. This includes the Mecha station's storage and equipment salvage yard, a wing on K deck next to Sub 3, where the hundred-and-thirty-year-old escape pod salvaged from Mir-3 is stored. Raven has already started prepping the escape pod, not enough for anyone to notice. But she told Clarke that this time she wanted a smooth entry to earth. She did not enjoy being knocked out unconscious the first time she dropped.

She is a regular at Mecha's storage shack, often rummaging through things that are not categorized. No one would question Raven since she was able to repurpose many parts that others would consider as junk, using it to fix a myriad of Ark system issues over the years.

Her second life as Raven is much easier than the first time. Even though Raven's mom is still an alcoholic and often trades Raven's rations to get moonshine, but due to Raven's child-genius status, she is not forced to rely on the boy next door, Finn, to feed her. They are still friends, but their relationship is platonic and no longer romantic.