96 96. Draconic Sentinel

'Day one hundred and sixty-seven of the year eleven or the June sixth of the year two thousand one hundred sixty-five.', Liam thought, looking at his face in the mirror as he used a straight razor to cut the overgrowth of his beard that needed express trimming.

He didn't look any day older than the first time he looked at the reflection of this face, a face that for close to a third of all of his year of life combined he had worn and will until he ceased to be. It was his face.

He couldn't think of himself as anything else but the image in the mirror, but there were changes in his expression and demeanor from the first day, it was evidence proof the changes were not skin deep.

'I wonder how my family is doing… Since I died. Assuming time doesn't flow in a vastly different manner.', Liam pondered, he was far more coherent about this subject than on his first day. It was cold but reassuring to be mostly at peace with it.

For all he knew the universe he was originally from didn't exist anymore and as grim this possibility was it was far more rational than to think he could even hope of finding his way back to it in any reasonable amount of time.

Even if it wouldn't change he will try when the opportunity presents itself, when he will create the opportunity, foolish and wishful as it factually was. It would be to see how they were, to have closure, he needed and wanted one even if that result would be very unpleasant.

He acknowledged his death, he wasn't sure if it was exactly this but for him, it mattered little. He wasn't with them anymore and they weren't with him for what would be by virtually all accounts forever so the differences were only semantic.

And in a way, the Liam of before had passed away, he was a completely different being now, still, he was very much still him, just different.

As for how he came to be here, he realized he didn't care, be it from divine intervention that did it for a giggle or some random cosmic events of infinitely small chance. It was pointless to think about it, it would only be a fruitless waste of time and energy, still knowing would be good but he wouldn't go on a crusade to find out when more important things were on his plate.

And if by some miracle he were to be allowed to be back before the switch of reality he would vehemently reject the offer. He couldn't go back, he wasn't a sous chef of a Michelin-starred restaurant with a pendant to play a video game a bit too much anymore, he had responsibility and was so much more like his other half.

"Good morning love… Thinking about your past it seems.", the soft melodic, and relaxed voice of Eywa reached his ears at the same instant he felt her chest against his wide back and her reflection, that of a white-haired Na'vi with pink irises appeared. A curious and entrancing smile on her face showed her pearly white double pair of long canine teeth.

He was aware from the beginning of her presence, even if the mirror didn't reflect her image as she refracted the light rays away from her Avatar in such a way that she turned almost entirely invisible, her movement didn't emit any sound as she floated and her heart and breathing were silent, her smell was blocked off as well.

With this combined, she was nonexistent to regular senses but her presence through the bond was as clear as the day. Then her tricks using Psionic vanished as she spoke and hugged him behind his back, her arms enlacing around his muscular torso.

"Hmm, yes… It's just one of those days. You know, I just wonder what they must have felt… Even if it's ultimately pointless. I just wish I could have said goodbye and sorry for missing the birthday and all that came after.", he mumbled while she hummed, she knew, she knew he wasn't of this 'universe' so to say.

Liam being in actuality an entity from another reality came as the most logical possibility even before Liam told her so years ago and in the next few seconds spoke about this place as a work of fiction, but it was very far apart from reality. It was more of an amusing note for Eywa to jest on with her mate than something leading to an identity crisis, she understood what it entailed but she didn't care.

To say she was indifferent if amused would be quite an accurate description. So what if some old mortal human had the idea of a being similar to her existing and wrote about it in another universe? It did and meant nothing for the present day, all information known by Liam from this 'movie' is beyond obsolete.

It wasn't even a new concept to her, she was oh so incomprehensibly old, uncountable generations of Na'vi and Tulkun had passed, within them for the latter's composed since their cultural revolution of almost exclusively great philosophers and thinkers that were all artists such as singers, poets, and authors.

It needed to be, such social hyper intelligent, and hyper-emotional transcending humans in all three by a substantial amount needed an equal amount of stimulation to not have their sanity affected negatively.

So countless stories and theories were woven into reality from observation and novel concepts were told to her with great enthusiasm. As such the concept of an infinite number of realities outside of her universe, that Liam and humans called the Multiverse, but again it was thought of as only fiction. Until now that is.

Ironically and amusingly enough it was a very popular subject of fiction and parody of existing fiction for the whale even if vastly different due to obvious variations in culture and species, one of the most popular was living as a completely different being to try and understand life from another point of view.

And even without her children constantly feeding her their creations and ideas by their simple existence and creativity, creating positive feedback she would have supposed such a thing was a possibility.

The fact it came to be true was but an interesting factoid for her.

This and his slightly brooding mood aside she nuzzled her face into his hair, breathing in deeply causing her to emit a faint purr-like sound from her body at the scent as her tail coiled around his arms with enough force to break bones then she said before floating away, "I'm doing breakfast… Don't take too long or else let it be known that nothing will be left."

After she left he continued grooming himself, the monomolecular blade of his utensil moving right around the beginning of his throat when suddenly he felt a very brief prickling and numb sensation in half of his hand but that was enough to lead to the blade cutting nearly five centimeters deep.

Luckily he wasn't the size of a regular man as otherwise, it could have cut through his trachea and carotid arteries, two injuries that even as he is were potentially life-threatening without express medical care.

"Fuck.", he swore more out of shock than for the pain product which was negligible at best, the razor vanishing into his inventory as he lifted his chin and see a droplet of his blood slowly trickle down.

It had changed recently, its dark red color now with hints of blue and purple as it shined a faint kaleidoscope of color similar to the rainbow reflection of crude oil under the sun, the texture not having changed much though. He observed it for a short few seconds before it closed off before his eyes, leaving only the blood behind which he cleaned off with his inventory.

The nature of the blade made it so the damage was little, it was one cell wide and so it was quick to heal as the number of cells to regenerate back was extensively smaller.

"Time is running thin…", he noted, studying his hand, his sun-kissed skin showing the sign of internal bleeding, a telltale sign of veins bursting, but that wasn't only this, it affected all of the tissues in various ways.

It was more of a worry if one of those sudden movements happened when he was close to humans or Na'vi blood would flow if too close, they were both so fragile, the former far more than the latter. He hated this, the lack of security he possessed with his bodily control.

It wasn't the first instance something like this happened, the first time was one week after the Green Obelisk was built and it was far less important, it was in the pinky finger of this very same hand. He wasn't dying, no, but it could lead to that even if it was of a nature antithesis to it, his body was breaking down and rebuilding.

Sighing in deep thought he finished his morning routine, looking at the upper part of his face where patches of his skin shifted to that of a translucent blue gleaming with energy. This had also progressed, slowly but it did, it was gaining in density more than anything. In a way waiting for the perfect moment, one he was preparing for.

Once this was done, sent data of the change to the servers as he walked out of the bathroom and arrived at the sight of a large table full of great and many meals of Na'vi origin yet modified, embellished with what he thought his mate.

There were plans for the day, far from majorly important due to those being currently pending as resources needed to be collected en masse.

The Green Obelisk had made a massive dent in their storages and so would the next two Obelisks but things were progressing fast. It is just that resource management was a complex matter all on its own, it was a budget, one that took into consideration hundreds of parameters. The Obelisks weren't the only things demanding tons of resources being poured with abandon in them.

A few hours later Liam could be seen finishing fitting the last armor pieces of a simplified version of a Tek Armor on his adopted son that only granted protections and life support, certainly to an extreme degree but not much more for evident reasons. It required more than being a baseline human to use, nevertheless a young teenager.

"Can I ride it!?", the excited voice of the eleven-year-old boy newly fitted in question echoed as he ran out, clink of his boot on that cemented ground.

What was being referred to turned its massive rectangular and reptilian head of steel down to Miles, its two bright blue bionics eyes focusing into the approaching human with a curiosity bordering on human level yet distinctly that of something that wasn't.

Its body of metal and synthetic flesh started after its thick but flexible neck of the same material, first were two prominent shoulders that developed into large folded wings reminiscing the boy of a type of extinct furry flying mammal he learned about in biology class, the bat. Their equivalent of thumbs is used to support the upper body.

Though the anatomical similarities to the small mammals stopped at the wings with the skin membrane replaced by one tapestry of hexagons made of hardened light, its second pair of limbs, its legs, shorter but sturdier with wickedly sharp taloned feet glimmering under the sun, then there was a long tail that fanned outward at end.

It was of size rivaling the legendary Great Leonopteryx if slightly smaller and wore all of the characteristics of a creature found in a heroic fantasy setting, it was a lesser kin of the dragonkind, the wyvern and it wasn't one of flesh and blood, it was superior. It was one of Tek, it was a Voidwyrm.

"Yes, we are going into space with Letum.", Liam answered, his voice reaching the ear of Miles through the voice channel as he looked toward the wyvern. The boy cheering and climbing up the beast of metal made to bring death, do, and destruction upon any threat that would be and also a method of transport in bonus.

Letum was its name as Liam intomed, and equally to the other creatures of Tek, or Children of Metal as they were called it was the name behind the Artificial Engramic Matrix controlling the bodies. One far less intelligent than a human just like all others in many aspects but far more in others depending on their tasks and specialization, he didn't create people. It's a step he preferred to never take.

It was one of two Artificial Emgramic Matrix, Letum was the 'female', not in the strict definition but in purpose due to its function to lay 'an egg' and bring life, as for the other, Carnifex currently on Naratxep was the 'male' it's a role to 'fertilize' the 'egg' producing more bodies for each of them depending on the 'sex' of the hatchling.

They could reproduce, something impossible for all others, and the major reason was the cost of production and that it was something not easily done or was it without a cost.

But it was worth it for in the end a self-sustaining and replicating army of wyvern sentinel capable of going at sublight speed when in extra-planetary movement was well worth it, and reproduction in such a way brought evolution, each generation will have a marginally small chance of mutation, if positive they will be kept and promoted and if not to be culled, recycled into nutrient for more to grow.

Frankly, it was a weapon beyond terrifying that only Liam and Eywa understood, she helped in some part of its making But it will never be out of his control and if it did by some impossible means, the duo of Artificial Emgramic Matrix and their bodies will be instantaneously shut down. It was ingrained in the most intimate and deepest part of their being, and it was a similar case with all the others.

'Good girl.', Liam mentally praised scratching the lower jaw of the Voidwyrm with his armored fingers, Letum's demeanor was submissive yet proud to the highest degree, its eyes filled with veneration as for what laid before was for its perfection given form, it's Creator and Father, a being to obey till death and beyond.

Following suit to Miles he climbed the wyvern and the ride began. The mechanical dragon launched itself and took flight as he held the boy for he didn't want Miles to be flicked away, not that any harm would come but that would be undesirable for the both of them.

The speed of the Tek beast rapidly reached the two hundred kilometers before suddenly slowing down when it reached a certain height to the confusion of Miles, the Voidwyrm continued for a few seconds thanks to its momentum.

A time that was used proactively by the wyvern shifting its wing in sharper position, neck, head, and tail held straight before the sound of reactors echoed and the confusion of the boy turned to shock then elation as the speed of earlier was multiplied by at least a factor of ten.

All potential harm was warded off by the Tek Armor, of course. Liam made the wyvern to various and complex aerial tricks before reaching space and once here the speed increased even more as they moved toward one special direction.

The Outer Space Training Ground, a large area in the orbit range of Pandora, was once hundreds of tons of trash of all kinds, mostly toxic waste. In the past tense, they all were recycled into an area to train in zero gravity conditions and the void of space. Two important factors that were self-explanatory as to why people needed to be acclimated with.

Miles wanted to watch it due to Neteyam speaking about it in great detail, sparking an interest in the human teenager and Liam needed to discuss with Jake what he had in mind in terms of equipment so that it could be implemented in future tactics and participate in general, so he took his son while at it.

One stone, two birds.

It was a regular and relaxing day, aside from this morning incident.

*

My P@treon if you want to give me money and have chapters I have finished in advance, around 23.

p@treon.com/user?u=60424165