Matuscarantos

  A sharp clear tone pyed in my mind.

  [ Congratutions User Liam Mors, you have reached the first Mana Threshold and have unlocked the Comprehensive Technomancer's System Guide.

  This guide has been provided to you by a collective of past Technomancers.

  To get started, please state aloud, "I, Liam Mors, accept this guidance." ]

  This was rather unexpected. To say I was shocked, would be an understatement. I went to my tiny sleeping room, for the small amount of privacy it could afford me while I figured this out. If one of the droid saw me acting strangely they might say something to their masters, or call the guards. Then I'd be bantha poodoo.

  What in the Stars was a Technomancer? Yes, yes, obviously some who does something with or to Technology. The "mancer" part is what threw me for a loop, what did it mean? The screen said it was a guide, perhaps I should ask it. Okay, here went nothing.

  "What is a Technomancer?"

  [ A Technomancer is one who combines the science of machines with the arts of magic. ]

  Magic, no one believed in magic. I certainly didn't. Was this some kind of eborate joke. Had Keelie slipped some dream powder into my water rations again?

  But magical manipution of technology sounded awesome. What would it hurt to py along? If it was a prank, I'd get a little embarrassed and maybe a ugh at my own expense, or if was a drug none of this was actually happening. So why not have a bst while I came down off the high.

  "I, Liam Mors, accept this guidance."

  [ Acceptance confirmed.

  Stand by for knowledge transference in 10 seconds.

  Apologies, this will hurt. ]

  "Wait, what?"

  What came next felt like what I'd always imagined a Gamorrean power axe splitting my skull open would feel like for that brief nanosecond I would've still been alive. Except this pain continued on far past a nanosecond, far past a minute or an hour. I wanted to escape into the blessed arms of unconsciousness but was somehow denied the release. The agony continued throughout the rest of the day and that night. Colors became sounds, sounds became scents, my skin could taste the air and the dirt.

  I was only just coming to accept this suffering as my new standard of existence when the pain ended.

  I'd never been so happy to feel nothing.

  [ Transference completed.

  Please think, 'Status' to see your changes. ]

  I wasn't ready to think anything at that point. I was still too busy trying to remember how to think. What the spark was that? I id there breathing for a while because that was all I could do. In and out, just a normal thing to do. No horrible pain here.

  When my mind cleared and something like the normal flow of thoughts returned, I cautiously decided to try thinking, 'Status'.

  [ Liam Mors

  14th Inheritor of the CTS

  Species: Human (Type 5)

  Characteristics: Physical 5 / Mental 7 / Social 3 / Mana 1

  Abilities: Scan Machine 1 / Repair Machine 1 / Summon Parts 1 / Sense Mana Source 1 / Absorb Mana Source 1 / ]

  [ Please note that barring special circumstances guidance is now complete. Good bye and Good luck, Liam Mors. ]

  What you're just going to drop this in my p and leave. I don't even know what any of this stuff means... except that I did. I understand everything. As I thought about what something meant I got an answer. Though I almost sensed the answers would not always be complete. Somethings were best learned by doing.

  My characteristics were broad representations of my current levels of fitness.

  Physical was the combined average of my strength, agility, endurance, and more. Mental was the combined average of my IQ, acuity, speed, memory and more. Social was as much a measure of my social status, as it was of my bearing or appearance. These characteristics could be increased by exercises, training or genetic or cybernetic enhancements.

  Unsurprisingly, having vast sums of credits would dramatically improve my Social score.

  Mana was my Mana Threshold. At the first threshold, my body generated 1 mana per minute and could hold up to 100 mana at a time. To improve my Threshold I needed to find or make and then absorb Mana Sources, much like that green crystal stuck in the Astromech droid. Turns out that I'd always had mana potential but this was the first time I'd come in contact with a Mana Source.

  Interestingly, instead of wasting mana once I'd hit the storage limit, it could be focused and then shaped into a mana crystal. So with enough time and effort I could raise my Mana Threshold on my own. Though I had the feeling it wouldn't be quite that simple.

  My abilities were fairly straight forward for right now. By using them, they would over time, increase their baseline performance. However, if I managed to increase my mana threshold, not only would all of my abilities get stronger, new abilities might be unlocked.

  Pretty simple really. In fact, it all seemed way too simple, but maybe I was underestimating the potential of this Technomancy.

  Well, let's see if I could make these abilities useful, my mana pool was full, and I was now hours behind schedule.

  I went back into the repair area, and called the next droid over. This was a rundown Gonk model, and he'd seen far better days. He was limping over. Damaged servo motor probably.

  Personally, I'd never seen the need for the walking tray holders, but I felt nothing but compassion for them. Apparently I wasn't alone in this opinion, this droid had been modified to have four arms. These arms seemed to have come off of a WED-15 droid, they were thin and simple arms. This made them easy for the Gonk's limited processors to adapt. Given the makeshift nature of this mod, the arms would be capable of much, but every little bit helped.

  Normally, I'd repce the servo motor, clean him up, maybe adjust his coding and call it good. Today, I had new tools to test.

  Scan Machine had a base cost of 10 mana, and it could analyze any damage and record any machine's blueprints. This would help pinpoint any problems. Certain materials or advanced complexity in the machine could increase the mana cost of the scan.

  Using the Scan was an easy act of will. Light seemed to fsh through the droid in an instant and then my vision was overid with the optimal schematics for the Gonk. The chassis was once upon a time solid durasteel, but over the years had been sp welded with bronzium, desh, ps-steel and more. The shoddy work appeared highlighted to my eyes. The droid's wiring was all jumbled up, causing signal errors and shorts. The servo motor in its leg was indeed shot. I could see through the droid making it easy to spot the problems. Normally fixing all of this was a couple hours of work at a minimum.

  "Alright, little guy, I see the problem. Let's see if we can fix you up." I liked talking to the droids that came into the station, especially the ones that couldn't speak basic. Not that I ever had a hard time understanding them, I just liked to let them know I thought they were worth talking to.

  "Gonk." That was "Please". Easy to understand.

  Now before I went and tried to sort out this mess by hand, lets test out Repair Machine.

  Repair Machine could with time and enough mana return any machine to its optimal state. It's cost was a hefty 10 mana per second. For that cost it could repair 1 kilogram of simple materials per second. The cost went up with complexity of the damage and the grade of material. So let's see what eight seconds and probably eight kilos of material would achieve.

  The short answer, quite a bit. Using the ability was again dead simple, I just had to focus on wanting the droid to be repaired. the process itself was interesting it started from the inside and worked outward, which for my purposes was great. The chassis should be the st thing repaired. After all you might have to damage it to get to the needed internals.

  Another use of scan reveal the Gonk droid's servo motor was fixed, and all the wiring was in top shape. Over half of it's chassis was now the original durasteel. I had enough desh alloy in storage to make him all nice and neat by hand.

  The Repair ability had saved me almost two hours of work. If I had any compint, it was that repair didn't affect the programming of the droid at all. But I really didn't mind recalibrating the little guy's settings. When I was done I sent him home.

  "Gonk." That was "Thank you". Super easy to understand, I don't know why people have a hard time with that.

  If I worked on these new abilities and got their costs down, Repair alone would save me tons of time and materials. This was amazing. it was like the Stars themselves had heard my plight and sent my salvation.

  Now, once I earned my freedom, I'd have to figure out how to find more Mana sources.