chapter 43 keep in touch (work in progress)

while he was busy sorting through all that, sister chaos used Daniel's gear and fished him many samples in an extremely experienced manner, after waking up from the concentrated state he invited her to the squatter lab, after all, different from the cultivators he had to eat and sleep

sadly the only edible thing on this planet were mushrooms, which didn't taste bad, but lacked the condiments to make them taste good like garlic or onion none of those was a possibility on this polluted rock

even if Daniel could expel these toxins he wouldn't voluntarily poison himself just to eat something tasty

luckily sister chaos came to the rescue and made some strange vegetables appear, there were some three-pronged black carrots, some onions that seemed to be bleeding, and the strangest thing of them all was a completely normal head of celery, that was out of place next to the darkly themed vegetables

but Daniel couldn't care less about what they looked like, he wasn't a cook, and since sister chaos offered to cook, he was more than happy to let her take care of everything

sister chaos was cooking and said "I practiced cooking a lot, my experiments always take a long time to give results, so I can't always be asleep and ended taking up quite a few hobbies"

Daniel was starting to like sister chaos's company, she was easy to talk to and shared her vast knowledge with him easily, for the first time he felt like he had found a kindred spirit, like a person casually meeting a fellow fan casually at a cafe

Daniel decided that he had to find a way to gift her something to offset the debt even just a little bit, so he decided to try to find out more about her during dinner to know what she would like

soon later Daniel and sister chaos were eating dinner, it wasn't fish or fries but was nonetheless very delicious, even if it looked like someone murdered a group of vegetable people and boiled them in their own blood

Daniel put the plan into action and asked "why did you go so deep in genetic engineering?"

sister chaos sighed and said "I'm a unique lifeform, so I started trying to create another one, but you know, the universe doesn't seem to like the idea"

Daniel thought about it then said "I think there's something about it in the data you sent me, since your genes are so evolved and powerful, why are you trying to use humanoids with already complex genes?"

sister chaos became a little depressed and said "exactly because my genes are too powerful, if the body isn't strong or adaptable enough they just die"

Daniel thought about it and nodded then using the knowledge she gave him said "why not try to look for a primitive species? to quote you: every species is most adaptable when they are on the first steps of evolution"

in Daniel's mind, these experiments were on a sample of a species, what he didn't know was that sister chaos used entire planets as Petri dishes

sister chaos thought in her head "it's true that I said that, but the progress was so slow, at some point I stopped paying attention to prehistoric races, I started to just use mass inoculation, eliminating the weak of the species, and making them stronger for future experiments when they evolved a little"

then said to Daniel "it's not a bad idea, I have used them before, but I have still to go back and check the results since my genes had barely taken hold, now that I think about it there was a promising one in this galaxy I had almost forgotten

Daniel asked to sister chaos that was lost in her thoughts "what's the name of this galaxy?"

sister chaos answered "milky way galaxy, I have to go check that planet, thanks Daniel"

daniel nodded, then since he wasn't able to find a way to reciprocate said "thanks to you, you even cooked dinner and shared your knowledge with me, I don't know how to thank you"

sister chaos who was getting up to leave, thought about it, then said "just keep in touch and come visit me once in a while"

daniel was frozen looking at her and started to repeat "keep in touch . . .keep in touch . . keep in touch" and started walking toward the working area he had previously prepared in the squatter lab like a zombie

sister chaos smiled and let him go since he seemed to be in an enlightened state, it was better to avoid distracting him and leave him alone, than she left, soon later the people of retak went back to normal, and the panic generated by her presence disappeared

Daniel started to gather his thoughts, he already knew that Tickles's nanites inside the maru and scouts at home were still connected to the main cluster that formed Tickles with no regard for the immense distance

as previously stated he could easily follow that signal back to verulus if necessary, but now he also knew that he was 4 galaxies away from the nearest Sun federation territory, the milky way galaxy and 3 others were part of the chaos forbidden zone present in the sun federation starchart

this was important because Tickles wasn't connected to any signal repeater, so the fact that he was able to catch a signal that was in the middle of the sun federation was mindblowing, this technology had a power beyond the tenth stage

being able to communicate at a great distance shouldn't be underestimated, some well-placed information could win a war better than any bomb, if Daniel could use it not just to send long-distance messages but to keep in touch in real-time it would be an extreme tactical advantage

on one side it could substitute the personal device, communicating with the people he liked, independently of how much distance there was between them

on the other side, he could control vast armies of maru's at mind-blowing distances just by having a few of Tickles nanites controlling them

Daniel was drooling at the idea of traveling the universe, even if he always imagined doing it on a spaceship, but this puddle thing didn't seem that bad, by the rate at which it was charging, a new cyan drop should be ready every 20 days or so

much less time than it would take, from a habitable planet to the other with a normal hyperdrive, sadly he also knew, that he will probably be locked up by the family as soon as he gets home

if he can use it to go back, a small part of Daniel was hoping he could not, to stop being caged as he had been till now, he wanted to at least visit another planet before his adventure was cut short

but he also missed his family and wished he could tell them he was fine, and that's why he thought about a Tickles based communication system in the first place, and since he already had a general direction to follow, he had to find out how the connection that shared the information to all of Tickles nanites came to be, so Daniel already knew it was possible, and the problem was just figure out how it happened and see if he could repeat it

before doing that, he needed to observe it again, luckily Tickles ability, seemed much faster to charge than Daniel's, and it should be ready in 4 to 5 days, he could then use it, and look carefully at how the signal is generated and sent, to the faraway clusters of nanites

Daniel was also curious about what kind of energy these abilities used, since spiritual energy would be sealed in his body, and soul energy couldn't physically interact with reality, but he couldn't even start to perceive it, so it would be a waste of time to worry about it now

since he still had to wait, Daniel went back to work on the project now named jelly filter featuring sister chaos, so he had to prepare the equipment for when she came back from that other planet she went to check out

and he had a huge problem, because sister chaos uses spiritual energy during her experiments, while Daniel needed to invent a machine that could do the same operation without it, and didn't have much time

luckily Retak medical research even if not at all advanced, could give Daniel some basis, upon which he could build a more advanced version, basically make his own equipment, so he searched online and found a laboratory doing research on genes, and decided to go undercover to take a look

he had to prepare well first, so he used tickles to create false credentials, he was now a doctor, with a degree in genetics, and he also gave himself full access as an army inspector, there were still some problems though, even with the credentials he was still a 7 years old kid, but the rich and privileged of Retak soon gave him a solution

while wearing the F.A.S.S.A, he was high enough and buff enough to pass for a short man, so all he had to do was find an excuse to hide his face, and he soon found it, the rich and powerful were obviously not breathing the toxic air, they had some kind of hazard suits they could use to protect themselves outside, so he changed his fake credential to a rich scientist and created a fake hazard suit to wear over the fassa

with everything ready to go, and the night as a cover, Daniel started flying towards the lab, while the maru's and a part of tickles kept working on the giant live wells and catching more samples

the next morning Daniel, arrived in front of the guards that were armed to the teeth, and were protecting the gate of a squarish gray building

the soldier seeing Daniel took a step forward and said "credentials and authorization"

Daniel gave him the papers he prepared with tickles, and the soldier said "welcome doctor Tyrion"

he didn't know why, but even if he could use his real name since it wouldn't have any consequences, he decided to use a different one, for fun, while smiling under the suit Daniel said "thanks" and walked in

the building had a really simple layout, everything was labeled, and Daniel easily found the director's office

a very thin and tall man was reading different reports with a serious look, he had left the office door open, and Daniel who just arrived knocked on the open door, while wondering about the complete absence of support staff, like secretaries

the man raised his eyes and said "yes? who is it"

"dan Tyrion, I'm here for the inspection of the facility" said Daniel

the man suddenly remembered the strange email he received yesterday, he sprung up and said "doctor Tyrion, welcome, I'm director Grel, sorry I was distracted by these reports I received this morning, please come with me, I'll personally take you around"

Daniel nodded, and started following the man who soon continued "we have many labs here, the most advanced and acclaimed is the genetics branch, but the other departments work very hard too . . ." director Grel kept talking like a machine gun

Daniel had to say that this director had his way with words, he could easily exalt the good parts and hide the bad, he kept the attention on the genetics and microbiology departments, while the physics and engineering were barely mentioned and others were completely omitted since they were the weak points of the research facility, who seemed to have a department for everything

after a while, they finally entered the genetics lab, and tickles in his puddle form, came out of Daniel shoe and covertly entered a server who had the lab data inside, while Daniel kept nodding and pretending to listen to director Grel

to keep the research safe, the servers where the research data was stored, were disconnected from the internet, and Daniel had to enter to get a physical connection, soon he realized that he had overestimated how well they were separated, as tickles entered he found the data of all the labs, even if separated from the internet, the various departments were still connected to each other

and on that disappointment, as the mission was completed much more easily than Daniel hoped, Tickles started copying everything, because even the discarded skins of the vegetables can be used to give taste to a broth, in the same manner even what seemed to be useless information could hide something useful for Daniel who still lacked a lot of the basics, and this would soon be proven right, but for now, Daniel couldn't think about it as he had to keep following Grel

Grel was smiling and continued his long explanation "here in the genetics lab we have the best professors and researchers, the equipment it's top of the line, and we don't spare any money to make sure this is as good as it can be"

Daniel was already bored, but he had to buy some time while tickles downloaded everything, so he kept following

suddenly a woman said in an imperious tone "whose this, what is he doing in my lab?"