Chương 44: Chapter Thirty-Nine - Rest

Alexis moved to the edge of the cot, then fell forwards and onto the points of her feet, which was... all of her feet, now. She expected it to be extremely difficult to balance on two narrow points, but surprisingly, it wasn't. Alexis took a step forward, KYS hovering close to prevent her from falling. She took another step, then another, then turned around and walked back. The feel was off, but it wasn't terribly hard to walk this way. The feet had surprising flex.

Then her feet shifted, and turned from long, narrow points into something more similar to a normal foot while a long, narrow heel stabbed out from the back and touched the ground.

"Oh, neat!" she said.

"Liking the new legs?" Octavia asked.

"Yeah, lots!" Alexis said. She couldn't help a giggle. These really were nice. The slight pinch around her waist was going to take some getting used to, but otherwise, she felt like she was at roughly the same height, and the legs responded to her thoughts when it came to moving. They might have been faster and were definitely more flexible than her old meat legs.

"How about you?" Octavia was sitting on the edge of the base of Jeanne's bed, her armour almost entirely removed. She was holding up a shirt over her chest for modesty, which was entirely unnecessary. Alexis wasn't going to ogle, and KYS was a medicae servitor, she'd probably seen plenty of naked people. Alexis grinned. Octavia was taking her own steps towards transhumanism, though they were far lighter than full limb replacement. Still, the mechanical system plugged into her back was impressive.

"Ah, thank you for the robes," Alexis said. It came out a little awkward, but she hoped that Octavia understood that it was a heartfelt thanks. She really did appreciate it.

"Eh, no problem. You helped Jeanne. Uh... not that I couldn't have myself. I kinda freaked out there." Alexis giggled again. My, she was doing that a lot, lately!

"That's okay! I think that Vanguards are supposed to help each other?"

"There is a noted propensity for Vanguards to assist each other. Mostly since their long-term goals tend to overlap."

"Yeah? And what are those?" Octavia asked.

"The protection of their species against otherwise inevitable extinction." Well, it was hard to argue against that. Alexis nodded, then shrugged her way into the robes. She was still wearing about a third of that body-glove she'd bought hours ago. It was ripped in a few spots, but it had done its job. She'd consider replacing it properly later, but for now.

"Ah, what's your short-term plan?" Alexis asked.

"We've been in this one room for a solid two hours. People are gonna be wondering," Octavia said.

"My plan's to carry Jeanne here to the sisters, then, urgh, I don't know. Face the music or whatever. I doubt they'll just shoot me on sight for being a heretic. And if they do, I guess I'll have to shoot back, but I hope it doesn't come to that. You?" Alexis considered for a moment, then shrugged.

"Get back to the Servitorium. I have friends to repair. I should probably report back to Ordinator Velpexa Thame at some point, but I think it would be understandable if I don't do that right away."

"Losing two limbs in a day is a good excuse, yeah," Octavia said. Alexis grinned.

"Three! The arm's new too!"

"Ah... wow, you really aren't lucky."

"Huh?" Alexis asked with a tilt of her head. She was plenty lucky! Most people that lost limbs didn't get improved replacements within hours. Alexis idly ran a hand along the edge of her new Martian red robes. They were surprisingly coarse-feeling, but in a way that gave her the impression that they were tough. It was a nice gift. She'd have to find something to give Octavia in return. Just helping her friend wasn't cause for a gift like this! Their goodbyes were rather stilted.

Neither of them being all that good with that sort of thing, and then Alexis left the small room. She discovered several figures waiting outside. A pair of Sisters of Battle, a few Voidsmen, and her two remaining servitors. Or maybe it was more like one and a half remaining servitors? Though that wasn't fair to poor K84-321. He had lost his lower limbs to the same foe as her.

"Ah, hello, everyone," Alexis said as she looked over the crowd. A few of them looked ready to speak up, and honestly, she wanted none of that.

"And goodbye." She fast-walked over to CS-3-2/11, almost ran into the combat servitor when her new legs carried her much farther than expected, and then she gestured for her servitors to follow. Somehow, that worked, and soon enough she was walking through Forge 44 where a massive cleanup was underway. She noticed Ordinator Velpexa Thame at the far end of the room, directing a small crew of Tech Priests who seemed to be gearing up to cleanse the forge of any mutant taint.

Alexis went around the long way, subtly avoiding the man and the corner of the room he was in. That mostly meant stepping past crews of Voidsmen and menials hard at work picking up corpses and cleaning up the post-battle mess. As soon as she was free, Alexis made her way back up the long tunnel that led to Subsidiary Plasma Generation Site Tau-B, and then from there, up one deck and towards one of the main thoroughfares through the ship.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The Broken Scale was a Cobra-class Destroyer. A slightly-modified one, which in the grand scheme of things, wasn't so old at a mere three centuries. Most of those had been in the service of the Rogue Trader's house. The class was one of the smallest in the Imperial Navy. Though it was far from the smallest ship. There were plenty in the Merchant Fleet that were far smaller.

Still, as far as dedicated warships went, there were few that were more compact than this one. And yet, it was still large enough that Alexis was certain that even with a century, she wouldn't be able to explore the entire vessel. She eventually found herself in a more familiar stretch of tunnels, and from there, put on some speed towards the space she considered her home onboard The Broken Scale.

It was only when she reached the end of a corridor and found herself alone that she realized she had outpaced her servitor friends.

"Oops?" Going back, she discovered them an intersection back, CS-3-2/11 struggling to carry K84's remains while KYS was in the lead slightly. Alexis found it strange how her legs no longer felt anything. No tiredness, no soreness. They were... certain. Was this what they meant by the certainty of steel?

She hoped that one day soon, she would be allowed to peer more deeply into the mysteries of the Mechanicus, but even without that, having part of herself become the machine was helping her uncover some of the more obvious truths. The Servitorium was more or less as she remembered it, but stepping into the space felt... strange.

It had been her workplace for a few years now, and she had been hoping, for a long time, to one day fill a greater role here, and maybe one day in the far, far future, she could replace Ash-Theta when he retired. Now? Now it felt a little smaller than she remembered. Ash-Theta was overseeing a trio of Tech Adepts further in, all three of them working on some emergency maintenance on some of the larger servitors. Past those were a half-dozen Acolytum. The same rank she'd held this morning.

They were ferrying materials around and doing some more menial tasks. She didn't recognize them, so they were likely pulled in from elsewhere to fulfill some critical work here. She was almost in her room when Ash-Theta noticed her. The man spoke something to the others in a quick burst of Binharic, then stomped over. He was surprisingly rapid when he wanted to be considering his size. Most of that mass came from a set of heavy-duty pneumatics on his back, designed to assist him in lifting and moving servitors.

"Servitor Overseer, sir," Alexis said with a small bow. He stopped before her, then scanned her up and down. There was no hiding that she was different. Her robes were finer than his, cleaner too. Her legs stood out, and her arm wasn't fully hidden by her long sleeves.

"Alexis Lambda-3," he said.

"You've returned?"

"Yes. I... went to help."

"Did you?"

"Help? I think so, yes. We... my servitors and I helped to kill the enemy leader, sir. Ah, you can ask Ordinator Velpaca Thame about it."

"And he is the one that gave you access to new biotics?" he asked.

"No, sir," she replied truthfully. She didn't like lying to him, but... well, it was common sense, wasn't it? Ash-Theta was a good man. In many ways, she viewed him like a father. Or maybe more like a strict uncle? She wasn't sure. The Mechanicus didn't put much emphasis on familial bonds that way.

"Sir, I think I was... lucky, today. Mostly lucky." Her new hand twitched closed and she finally met his eye.

"I'm going to be a servitor underseer, sir. I don't know what kind of test is required for ascension, but I would like to make an application for it. Ah, maybe not tonight, however?"

"I see," he said.

"Did you learn much, today?"

"I... did. I communed with a machine spirit, sir. A real one. I knew that we spoke of that, a little, but it was... a lot. I think I learned a lot. But I don't know if I understand everything I learned, yet." He continued to stare.

"You are relieved of your duties for the next day-shift," he said.

"I will have additional questions soon. But someone with new biotics needs time to heal. The machine might be certain, but the flesh beneath is less so."

"Yes, sir," she said with a bob of her head. Then she smiled.

"Thank you, sir!"

"Hm," was his reply before he backed off. Though he did pause.

"Your servitors..."

"Ah... sir. 054-648 was lost in the line of duty, sir. I'm sorry."

"Servitors come and go."

"I guess. Ah, these three are mine."

"Are they?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. They're going to be my battleclade." He half-turned.

"So, you have chosen that path, of all paths?"

"I think so," she replied.

"This ship is very infrequently in need of warriors. After-tomorrow, I expect you to be working your usual shift."

"Yes, sir!" Alexis slid into her quarters, then sighed at the mess. Instead of fixing things, she went to the corner, pulled down an old plank, and then scrounged around for the softer old robes she always used as an emergency pillow. Then, after giving her friends a last check-over and setting them up to recharge and rest, she fell down onto the plank, shut the lights, and quite promptly fell asleep.