No Guardian, I

Part 6

The Eliksni stooped over Jas's improvised workbench and stared, appearing very interested, at the disjointed collection of composite material parts that were carefully arranged on the table's surface.

"Curious, yes? Splicer work, Jasker-human, this is," she said in her hoarse accent. "Deftly performed."

"Splicer?" Jas asked, bending the microns-thin extruder nozzle of his multitool towards the base of what would be the third carpal bone-joint, stenciled in a steady hand on a piece of plastic. At a button press, restructured glimmer began to be pushed out, soft and malleable for a time, but which would harden to form a true titanium-ceramic composite. Most of the time, the process would be controlled by a computer, but Jasker could not really take his entire workplace when he left. This personal prototyping device should suffice.

"Splicer, yes. Chirurgeon, in your culture. Prosthetist, eugeneticist... doctor. Regrow limbs, replace organs, yes? Their work. Very much revered. Sacred. You do a splicer's work now."

"Oh, I see... Give me a second."

Working here, in the middle of nowhere, in a Fallen trailer filled with technology he has never seen in his entire life, was refreshing. As was the fact that the trailer was on the move, a vehicle amongst many others, towed along on its repulsor undercarriage by two Sparrow-riders. The road was hardly jarring, but a few of the composite bone-parts sported lumps of material here and there, marks of when Jas has been made to jump by the odd bump. He'd clean these later, with his multitool switched to its drill function.

The hand was shaping up nicely. When completed, it would be as mobile as a human hand, and way stronger than steel of comparable weight. The only things that bothered Jas were the mech-muscles he'd have to install and whether they would be compatible with Sixes' consciousness-body interface. He had already torn a bunch of those from a derelict frame found in the collection of junk the Eliksni's truck carried.

"Thank you again for letting me use your shop for this." he said to the Eliksni, carefully pushing the completed part away. Three more to go, and then he'd start cleaning the excess material and fitting them together.

"You are welcome, Jasker-human. Always nice to learn something new, yes? And I have learned a lot. Will have to pay you back, yes?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand you. I've given nothing to you that you should pay for." Jas removed his enhancer glasses and turned to regard the Fallen standing next to him.

She wore a soft blue surcoat over a moulded and riveted breastplate that came to what would be a human's midriff. A bronze maille aventail, attached to her tan, four-horned helm fell down on her upper shoulders, its fringes weighed down with trinkets and spent ammo casings. The faceplate was raised to her forehead, given that she was in the Ether-spiked atmosphere of her truck, revealing a lip-less maw filled with needle-pointed fangs beneath her four piercing-blue eyes. A great, sand-colored fur-trimmed cloak was draped over a skeletal chair in a corner.

The Eliksni carried no obvious weapons, though a pair of curious pistols hung in their holsters from a dagger punched into the wall near a pile of pillows that likely served as a sleeping place. Jasker wondered at the force hidden in those spindly arms, if she could do something like that with such obvious ease.

"We, Eliksni, value tech. Worship it. Machinists like yourself - you are god-makers. I, am god-maker too. Want to be better one. Know little, need to learn. Have a project, yes? But lack tech. You have shown me how to make things in a different way. Given me... ideas. That is valuable. Worth rewarding, yes?"

"I don't..."

"Yes, you don't. Do not. Accept the gift, when I give it to you. Questions later, yes? When you finish the walker-god's hand."