The loss of leaving Quanta was indescribable. She always knew something was missing, but now she could clearly see the outline of what was not there. She wanted to feel again, to care again. Even if those feelings were not her own.
But there was one silver lining to her loss. She had a goal now. She would become a knight, pilot a Warlord, and feel once again.
They were on some planet, out on the edge of its sun's goldilocks zone. It was cold here, farming was tough. It was the type of planet that had no knight, no defenses. Whoever ran the kingdom that this planet was part of, would turn up once a year and collect its tithe. Otherwise it remained ignored.
The locals had not bothered them, and they had not disturbed the locals.
Castor was out cooking under the Jump Ship. He had made a little camp fire and was boiling a pot of stew over it. Lillian could tell because he had taken a few infantry drones with him to watch the perimeter, and she was able to sit over their data streams and watch him cook.
He had told her to stay aboard the jump ship; it was warmer here. Not by much, it's colossal size making it hard to hold heat. But the hull blocked the biting wind, and that helped.
She looked over to Quanta, Lillian thought about going to it, crawling inside. But without Castor's express orders it would never let her. She could kill him and take Quanta for her own - if it even worked like that. But honestly she didn't fancy her chances. The man was a trained soldier through and through, Lillian was a farm girl who had spent too much time with her grandmother.
Castor returned with stew. And handed her a bowl. "You're healing up good and proper, but you gotta keep your strength up. It'll still take a few days for you to fully recover."
Lillian took the stew from the man, stirring it. She saw that it contained a number of suspect vegetables and what she hoped was meat; she could not be sure. She ate, it was surprisingly delicious for how it looked. "Thank you. It is good."
"I've become a dab hand of trench stew over the years." Castor boasted.
"Can I pilot Quanta?" Never a harm in asking.
He let out a little chuckle. "You got the taste already." It was a statement not a question. Being a pilot was this man's life, he understood.
"Yes. But more than that. It was like I found something I did not know was missing." she said.
He gave her a look, but nodded. "Yeah I can train you up. You are gonna need it if you are gonna try and claim the black beast. Which is an insane idea by the way."
"Is it not your job to take me to the black beast?"
"To take you there, yeah. But once we're there the best idea would be to turn around and walk away. Every Warlord is different, they aren't all as sweet as Quanta here."
Quanta pinged them with a song of satisfaction.
Lillian turned her head and smiled toward the machine. She almost felt the feelings behind the smile, she could see the edge of them.
"It's so weird that you can sense that." Castor remarked, "never seen anything like that before."
"But I have seen you hold remote conversations with Quanta before?"
"Yeah because I had this nailed to me." He twisted around, showing Lillian the archeotech remote command unit, that was inserted into the back of his neck. "The thing is a pain too, it's always itchy. But you, you can do it all natural like."
"I do not understand how I am able to do this." She stated.
"I'm guessing, else you would probably be emperor by now." He said with a smirk. "You and me are the only pilots able to talk remotely like this. I'm guessing that was part of the reason I got picked for this job."
The stew was finished, Lillian handed him back the wooden bowl and spoon. "Thank you for the meal."
"Ain't no problem, glad you enjoyed." He ordered a couple of infantry drones over to where they sat. Lillian felt him release the one closest to her from Quanta's authority, leaving it a free drone. "Here, see if you can do this." He said. His body went slack, as he slumped down against the bulkhead. Lillian felt a strong data stream flow from his command unit to the drone in front of him. The drone gave her a wave and then pointed to the free drone. "NOW YOU TRY." Castor spoke through the drones speakers.
Lillian opened her mind's eye and fully focused on the infantry drone in front, it yearned for connection and command. Lillian was happy to oblige, claiming it as her own. It opened up to her, laying itself bare. The data dump was bigger than the time with the pistol. She glanced through the surface of the information, she would look through the rest later.
She flowed into the drone, looking through its eyes, flexing its sensors. She moved her hand, it moved its hand. She pushed in fully, taking over. Her human body slumped to the ground next to Castors.
She felt so strong, fast and sharp.
"GOOD HUH." Castor said.
"YES" she replied, "I FEEL SO STRONG."
"HERE, TRY AND DEFEND YOURSELF."
Castor's drone threw a couple of punches at Lillian's drone. He went very soft at first, allowing her to adjust to the drone's sensors and reaction speed. Castor had always found that new recruits learnt better when they had a series of small successes.
Lillian was a faster learner. Very quickly she was ducking and weaving even throwing back jabs of her own.
Castor increased the pace, throwing in some grappling for good measure. For a girl that had obviously never fought before, he was rather impressed. She was able to copy him quickly, and he did notice her using some of the unbuilt techniques that the infantry drones come pre-programmed with.
They kept it up for a while before the remote command unit started putting a strain on Castor's mind. He returned to his own body, feeling the loss that came with losing the strength of metal and the sharpness of sensors. His human body was old, and while he had taken care of himself, the cumulative wounds from 30 years of wars had taken its toll.
Lillian returned to her body, feeling the sense of loss much the same as Castor. "I enjoyed that," she said. It was possible she meant it.
"Good, good. It can be useful to take over drones in certain situations. But don't over rely on it, you can end up losing sight of the bigger picture."
Lillian nodded, trusting the man.
Castor wandered off, rummaged around in containers that were strapped to Quanta and then returned with a couple of blankets. He passed one to Lillian and then settled down not too far away. "Get some rest, tomorrow we will work out what our next steps are." He said.
Lillian suddenly became very aware that she was going to be sleeping alone with a man she barely knew.
She has grown up on a farm, she was not naive to the wants of males. She had seen animals rutting during the season, and had herself dissuaded a number of advances from men when she was younger. It had become so persistent that she ended up doing everything she could to hide her looks. She had eventually rolled in the hay with her fiance, he would not stop pestering her, and she wanted to see what the fuss was about. She had found the experience to be underwhelming.
Castor could sense the sudden tension. "Relax, I ain't interested." He said, without even opening his eyes. He let out a slight chuckle. "Even if I was, I couldn't do nothing about it. I took a mine to the crotch in my twenties, I piss like a sieve now." This wasn't completely true, Quanta had managed to fix the damage, but it had never quite worked right after. Not that it mattered anyway. He had his first love; he would never need anything else.
Lillian relaxed a little, still wary, but she trusted the man.
She wasn't quite sure why.