Old Frontiers: The Severan Contingency

Chapter 3, Part 2

The time was close to dinner. Quinton had worked up an appetite gallivanting across the deserted Kressar City. Though his body might signal him for food, his trip across the previously habitat-and-now-lost city had left him far too spooked to contemplate food. He might as well be looking at the remains of Port City after some disaster. What that might be he couldn't even fathom though. There were no remains to suggest what had happened other than the entire city had up and left simultaneously.

The governor's mansion, which was little more than an apartment block converted into a single residence, had a small barrier fence around it. Trash such as wrappers, various free-flying papers, and other unprocessed waste had caught up in the fencing. Though the Kith didn't feel anything approaching a breeze from ventilation, obviously there was something moving air around as he was still breathing.

Quinton hopped over the fence and stopped in the middle of the dead lawn. The double doors were wide open. Someone had fled here in a hurry and apparently didn't believe they would be back. He walked up the steps into the interior and switched on one of his suit's shoulder lamps. The Kith could see fine, but the light would likely momentarily blind anyone or anything hiding inside, though he had seen no evidence that anything had been to Kressar in years.

"Weapons." Quinton approached the front desk that had a variety of weaponry arrayed against it. There was a number he'd never seen before. Had Kressar's scavengers been more successful than elsewhere?

He was drawn to one in particular. A long barrel with a round grip that appeared to serve no practical purpose. There was no ammunition, but he thought the weapon was far too slender for any sort of energy capacity.

Quinton stood on his tip-toes and pulled the long rifle off the desk. What was it? He turned it over in his hands and felt warmth emanating from the circular grip. When he tried to pull his hand away he found that not only was he stuck, but the weapon had somehow fused with his palm. He reeled backward, taking a tumble back towards the entrance as he fought to free his hand from the grip, succeeding in only making it worst.

The Kith rolled up and looked at growing horror at the melding of the weapon. For a moment panic threatened to overcome reason, but then he remembered having seen something like this before. Where? He scrambled to silence his mind as the warmth spread from his hand to his arm.

There was a Kith explorer that ran with Hero Tahe, who had herself stumbled upon the first intact Teclomat ship. He'd demonstrated how add-ons for Castar-twins were discovered and their bizarre means of implementation. Khotor, that was his name. He'd found some speed upgrade that had physically fused with him and his suit.

Quinton allowed a glance down at his hand where the rifle had sort of become an extension of his limb. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, repeating a nonsensical mantra from his youth, that was more a hum than a word. Using it before to calm himself under stressful situations had always worked and this time was no exception.

The Kith opened his eyes and watched the weapon fuse with his suit and vanish entirely.

"Whoever designed these needs to work on the communication between user and suit," he said aloud. There was no instruction manual and occasionally Kith died trying to meld with a suit. Quinton had been both lucky and stupid. Lucky that his Castar-twin had accepted him and stupid for trying it out in the first place.

He took in another breath and concentrated on the strange weapon the same way he could visualize utilizing the Dark launcher. Quinton could literally think about using the launcher and the weapon would retract from its compartment on his right arm. This new upgrade, however, didn't respond or appear to change anything.