The Mech Touch

When Ves approached the compartment holding the escape pods, he slowed his pace while keeping his heavy assault rifle pointed forward.

With all of the weirdness surrounding the escape pod that inexplicably entered his ship, Ves couldn't afford to take anything for granted. What if this was just a ruse by some infiltrator with a sick sense of humor?

Though he felt tempted to dump the escape pod from the ship remotely, Ves nonetheless felt a little bit curious about the occupant of the derelict escape pod.

He could still remember the frightening face that Lucky transmitted. The screaming mouth, the dark, dried skin, the scared expression and the sense of age all signified that there was something very weird about the corpse!

"How long has this escape pod been drifting in space?"

Ves didn't know the answer to this question. He still hadn't managed to match the model of the escape pod yet, nor did he study any of its markings or properties that could explain its origin.

Whatever the case, Ves had a feeling that it didn't belong to the Friday Coalition or any of the nearby states.

When the hatch slid open and Ves tentatively entered the compartment, Lucky was still shivering while clinging on the shoulder of his combat armor.

Lucky, who never exhibited fear, now appeared completely afraid! This was something that Ves had never seen from his brave but fool-hardy cat!

"What is wrong with you, Lucky? It's just a body! You've killed plenty of people! Why should you be afraid of another corpse?"

"Meow meow meow!"

Ves ignored his cat and slowly shuffled over to the escape pod resting in one of the center spaces left open by the departure of another escape pod.

His rifle muzzle aimed straight at the center of the pod, ready to fire a deadly particle beam if a threat ever happened!

The moment he passed by the scanning bot that shut down for some reason, Ves felt as if he entered into a strange field.

He quickly checked his combat armor and rifle's telemetry and saw that they were still running at normal power.

Whatever affected the scanning bot didn't appear to affect his gear.

Strange.

Very strange.

His apprehension towards the mystery escape pod increased and his vigilance rose to a greater height.

There was definitely something suspicious about this escape pod!

The moment he came within reach of the escape pod, Ves paused and waited for something to happen.

Nothing.

Seeing that he failed to elicit a reaction, ves slowly put down his rifle and whipped out a multiscanner.

He carefully activated it and began to scan the escape pod via a number of different methods.

He quickly encountered an anomaly.

"No results?"

Aside from optical scans and some other scanning methods, his multiscanner failed to pick anything up! It was as if there was a chunk of indescribable matter in front of it that they simply failed to grasp!

Ves became a bit alarmed! Either the escape pod was wrapped in some kind of anomalous energy field that interfered with his scans, or its materials were naturally resistant to scanning methods!

Whatever the case, Ves knew that he wouldn't be able to obtain any usual data from his scanning efforts.

"It looks like I'll have to take a closer look."

He felt very leery about investigating the odd escape pod in person, but the corpse resting inside the escape pod was simply too strange to be left alone!

Once he put away his multiscanner, Ves held his rifle at the ready while slowly examining the surface of the escape pod for any control panels.

He eventually found a small and damaged cover which had become stuck to the surface. Ves had to leverage the strength of his combat armor to pry off the cover.

After he did so, Ves spotted a few buttons which no longer worked and a simple lever that served as a backup option to open the escape pod.

Ves slowly grasped the lever and pulled it with a forceful jerk!

The pod seemed to come alive for a bit. A few surface lights that hadn't been destroyed by all of the microimpacts began to light up in a strange pattern.

After a few seconds, the front surface of the escape pod abruptly slid open.

At least that mechanism still worked.

The front cavity exposed a tube-shaped interior that held enough room for a single person and some supplies.

"What the?!"

"MEOW!"

Ves expected to encounter a mummified woman locked in a frightening scream.

He did not expect to see a pristine body of a woman sleeping peacefully in the pod!

"Where did you come from?!"

Ves jerkily jumped back and brought his heavy assault rifle to bear on the body!

Had Lucky been pranking him?! No! His cat looked just as scared and confused at this unexpected turn of events!

The dried, mummified corpse turned out to be a living human body! Not only that, but the woman didn't appear to look dead at all! He carefully perceived her slim chest rising and falling at a very gradual pace, as if she was deep in hibernation!

Even as his heart started to beat faster, Ves study the woman's appearance as carefully as he could in order to figure out her identity.

She was a slim woman with a thin figure and a face that emanated classical beauty. There was an indescribable charm to her, as her pale-as-white skin made her out to be a ghost.

Was she a spaceborn clansman, or was she pale for some other reason?

The strange thing about her skin was that it appeared to be completely healthy and moisturized, as if the image that Lucky transmitted was completely false!

Her hair was lustrous brown that seemed to shine in an eerie fashion underneath the harsh light of the escape compartment. Her hair trailed down her face in curls so bouncy that it seemed as if her hair was as lively and vibrant as a living person!

Her vacsuit, which should have been aged and eroded to the point of becoming unidentifiable, now appeared to be factory new!

Ves could immediately tell that the quality of the vacsuit was something else. He failed to identify its materials, but he could tell they were all very high quality.

The grey vacsuit also came with all kinds of modules that assisted in various survival scenarios. Unfortunately, it didn't come with any markings, emblems or serial numbers that could help him identify its providence.

This was very strange!

The same went for the escape pod. The interior should have contained a bunch of information such as the manufacturer of the escape pod, the company who purchased it, the date when it was launched and so on. This was a widespread custom meant to identify escape pods in case they met with calamity.

Losing one's life in space was very depressing for those who have been left behind.

The fact that the completely-intact interior did not print out this information meant that there was definitely something wrong with the escape pod and its occupant!

As Ves began to get over his latest shock, he carefully investigated the sleeping body by poking it with the muzzle of his rifle.

It was like poking an actual human body. The woman's skin bent and springed like the skin of a living person as opposed to a mummified corpse!

Ves began to doubt whether Lucky observed a dried corpse at all. However, he refrained from dismissing Lucky's prior observation. He still trusted his cat to an extent!

"Take a sniff, Lucky. Is there anything dead about this corpse?"

"Meow.."

"No smell at all?"

"Meow!"

"How can that be?! Almost every body releases an odor!"

"Meow meow!"

This exploration just got odder and odder.

Acting out on a suspicion, Ves concentrated his mind and attempted to find out whether the dormant woman or the escape pod was affected by spirituality.

The moment he switched to his spiritual vision, he discovered to his horror that a lot of spiritual energy wrapped around the escape pod! Little of it affected the body, but Ves noted from the flows that it appeared to be the source of all of the spiritual energy!

Though Ves hadn't touched it directly, it became clear that the quality and strength of the spiritual energy was beyond his own level!

This sleeping woman was definitely capable of beating him on a spiritual level!

His discovery immediately prompted him to reevaluate the risks of dealing with this anomaly.

Despite his superiority in arms and equipment, he began to doubt whether he could gain the upper hand in the event the woman woke up and turned hostile for some reason.

Without sufficient leverage, Ves wouldn't be able to remain in control, and that was very bad!

Since he already fell victim from a loss of control, Ves did not relish the prospect of falling into the same trap!

Ves no longer wanted to delve into the secrets of the escape pod and its occupant. Whatever was behind its mysterious appearance on his ship was clearly above his ability to cope with the situation!

Though Ves often liked to gamble every now and then, even he realized what a loser's bet it was to continue his investigation!

Besides, he was already in a very precarious situation! With the Coalition Reserve Corps breathing down his neck, he had to do his utmost to evade pursuit!

He didn't have the time or desire to delve into this matter any further!

Since the risks vastly outweigh the potential gains, Ves made the only choice that minimized the risks.

He pulled the lever on the escape pod again to close its cover. Once he did so, he punched a button on a control panel on the side, activating an emergency measure that automatically flushed the cavity of the escape pod!

A suction occurred as the escape pod rapidly shot through a tube and emerged back in space!

"Good riddance!"

"Meow!"

Both Ves and Lucky became a lot more at ease once the weird escape pod left the ship. The relief was palpable.

Ves relaxed and holstered his rifle on a mount on his combat armor. Lucky stopped clinging onto him like a scaredy cat and began to float leisurely in the air as if he never shamed himself!

"Let's forget about this, Lucky. This is one anomaly that is best left forgotten!

Both of them exited the escape compartment and returned to the bridge.

There, Ves settled down and inspected the condition of the Scarlet Rose while she was slowly distancing herself from the ejection site of the escape pod.

Hours went by as her FTL drive finally finished cycling. As soon as the ship was ready to go, Ves instantly punched in the command to transition out of the star system.

With the ship entering the higher dimensions, Ves finally let down his guard.

No mercenary, Fridayman or mummy ought to be able to threaten or infiltrate his ship while she was traveling in FTL!

Ves often considered this period to be a form of respite, as no external threats should ever be able to affect the functioning of the ship.

Only threats from within should be able to endanger the ship, but Ves was pretty sure that no one managed to sneak aboard the ship.

Just to be sure, Ves performed an escape sweep. The ship and her monitoring system automatically began to search the entire interior of the Scarlet Rose for any anomalies and unanticipated presences.

What was out of his expectation was that the bridge immediately rang an alarm.

"An intruder?! Where?!"

After manipulating the interface, the projection displayed a very familiar compartment!

The room which held a lot of escape pods suddenly contained a very familiar presence!

He spotted the same damaged and outdated escape pod that he just ejected earlier!

"What?! How could it go back to my ship?!"

Ves quickly rewinded the footage and discovered it appeared just seconds earlier!

"That's impossible!"

The Scarlet Rose had just transitioned into FTL travel! Nothing should have been able to enter the ship in this state!

"Get rid of it! Now!"

Ves activated a remote command that forcibly flushed the weird escape pod from the ship yet again!

Even though it was highly inadvisable to eject an escape pod while in FTL travel, Ves did so anyway! Ves did not care whether the escape pod would disappear or get strung out over a thousand different dimensions. He just wanted to get rid of this eerie object!