"Are you going to answer my questions now?" Red asked.
Ayjax sighed, "You need to wait a little longer. I have to talk with your friend first. It's crucial that I learn everything about this operation before we come back for those damn robots."
"Great," Red grumbled.
He grunted, "Calm down. It won't take long. In the meantime, you can explore the rest of the ship. It's your first time on a ship this big before."
"I just came from one that was bigger…"
Ayjax gave him a flat look, "I'm serious. Besides, you probably want to get out of this rain."
Red glanced at the downpour. A flash of light illuminated the night. He was indeed soaked.
"Whatever."
"Here," Ayjax handed him a small wooden object with a core at the end of it, "If you want, Torrent can give you a tour of the ship. You can use this to talk to him directly so his voice doesn't echo throughout the rest of the ship."
Red accepted the strange wooden rod. As soon as Ayjax described what the object was supposed to do, his curiosity peaked. If there weren't potential for actual shock cannons beneath his feet, he'd probably take the chance to take the rod apart. Who knew what kind of unique mechanical parts could be inside? It might allow him to take the next step in one of his own projects. He followed Ayjax back down to the main deck. He approached Derrin, but Red turned to the doorway that led to the interior of the ship.
He spared the pair a glance before ducking into the ship. The interior was warm and dry, a complete flip from the roaring storm outside. Red tightened his grip on the rod in his hand. He had very little mist left, and his neck had started aching again. With a sigh, he sent a pulse into the rod.
"Hello again, Red. Ayjax has asked me to give you a tour of the inside."
"Uh, sure, that's fine," He didn't really have anything better to do.
Red spent the next half an hour wandering around the ship as Torrent pointed directions. He didn't want to complain about the ship's guiding skills, but it was pretty dull. After a massive adrenaline rush, all he wanted to do was eat and get some rest. He wanted answers, but he was beginning to wonder if it could wait till morning.
After the fourth empty storage room, Red asked, "So is this like all of it, or is everything else going to be like this?"
"Well, let's see, there are quite a few more storage rooms we can check out. There is also the prison in the hull of the ship, but that's empty at the moment… What else…"
"What about the weapons?" Red asked, "I know you have powerful systems."
This was the only reason he had put up with the tour for so long. The weapon systems used to fight the Gearborn were keeping his hopes up. He was certain that they were some sort of shock cannon. Red was hoping to get some proper inspiration from a professional. Calling the ship a professional seemed a little odd, but at the end of the day, it knew more about itself than anyone.
"Weapon systems?" Torrent murmured, "Are you certain you want to see something like that? They can be quite deadly."
Red gave him a flat stare. Well, he tried to at least. It was pretty hard to give someone a flat stare when they were simply talking in your mind. In the end, it looked more like he was investigating the grain of wood in the hallway wall.
"Well, if you insist. I was given no instructions on the contrary."
"Great," Red said, excitement tinging his voice for the first time the whole tour.
He followed Torrent's instructions and was led into a very long room. One wall led to the center of the ship. However, the other side was the outer wall of the boat. Red could hear the torrential waves crashing into the hull as he walked into the room. His eyes bulged as he stared at the endless rows of magical artillery.
"This is incredible," He stammered.
There were rows of cannons down the side of the ship. On older boats, they would have required humans to operate the entire system. Torrent's system was all automatic. The cannons themselves looked like a massive version of his shock blasters if they were far more polished. Each cannon had over ten cores powering it. He couldn't help but gape at this. It had taken him years just to obtain the two cores he currently had. Having this many simply sitting there felt like staring down a money pit.
"Do you need to refill these with fresh cores every time they get drained?" Red asked as he bent down to examine the first cannon.
"No, it's all based on Ayjax's mist. He'll refill them as soon as he manages to regain his mist a bit."
"Is this all you have for defenses?" He was so focused on the cannon's wiring that he forgot that he could simply ask the question in his head.
"There are a few others, but they mostly require Ayjax to be actively funneling his own power to use. For example, there is a barrier that can be used to protect the ship against shockblasts."
That caught Red's attention as he thought back to the contraption he had been working on. It was his own take on creating a barrier system. They were incredibly rare and expensive; even more so than shockblasters themselves. Red had only ever heard of them being a part of massive ship infrastructure. His design wasn't. That was the plan, at least. He had been stuck on one major problem for weeks now.
"Can I see it?" He asked urgently.
Even if this didn't give him the ideas he was looking for, it would be incredibly helpful to see how a true system operated.
"That may be a bit challenging."
Red let his moment of focused wonder pass, "Why? It doesn't matter how complicated it is. I'd still like to see."
"You are very interesting. Ayjax essentially gave me full control over the system except for the source of mist. He wouldn't be able to understand what was going on if it bit him on the nose. He leaves it to the expert…which is me."
"Sounds about right. So where is it?"
Torrent led him to the front of the room near the bow of the ship. Due to the size of this ship, it took him a few minutes to arrive there. During that time, he walked past so many cannons that he eventually lost count.
At the front of the ship, there was an extremely complicated device. Red wasn't sure how else to describe it. Even his mechanical knowledge wasn't enough to decipher what was going on. Numerous cores were interconnected with wires that spread out in every direction. All of it was connected to a Gearborn core at the center.
"That's…a Gearborn core," he stuttered.
"Well spotted, Captain Obvious."
Red grunted, "I'm just surprised that it is allowed to be used for something like this. Aren't you worried that it will, I don't know, take control of the ship?"
Torrent abruptly laughed, "No Gearborn core is going to corrupt me."
Red focused back on the intricate wiring in front of him, "So what part of this is connected to the barrier?"
"All of it."
"All of it?"
"Indeed."
"That…" Red paused.
That didn't make any sense. Very few people understood how difficult and complicated it was to create a shield barrier, or any core-powered tools for that matter. Red was one of those people…and yet this whole thing seemed wrong. It clearly worked, or Torrent wouldn't have mentioned it, but the fact that it required so much wiring didn't make much sense. The barrier would have to protect the entire ship, so in theory it would be massive.
However, what it needed was thicker wiring, not more of it. Still, if he could repurpose the concept as a whole, then maybe. Red pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket. The page was crinkled from being drenched, but it had dried out during the tour. This was his most current version of his barrier design. Pulling out another blank piece of crinkled paper, he sat down and got to work.
"Uh, what exactly are you doing?"
"I'm trying to solve this problem. I didn't want to say anything, but your barrier design is pretty bad. I mean, I'm not really one to talk…I haven't made mine successful either. Yet. But still, whoever designed this should be fired."
"They already were after they tried to wire a remote cannon button to the wheel, and it almost blew up the helm."
Red nodded, "Makes sense."
"Ayjax is ready to see you now."
"I'm busy," Red said without glancing up from his incoherent scribbling.
"This is his ship. You must comply with him."
"Must is a strong word. How about when I get the time?"
"I thought you had questions to ask?"
"I do indeed," Red paused and looked up, "You think I could rewire this system to my new design?"
"No," Torrent replied instantly, "Now you must see…"
"That's too bad, I guess I'll just have to ask Ayjax then…"
"He can wait a little longer," Torrent replied hesitantly, "Just don't ask him about that."
"Sounds great."