Book One - Chapter Eighteen: Charlie Bit Me

Back in my room, I collapsed onto the bed. My muscles burned with the sweet agony of progress, but my mind was sharper than it had been since waking up aboard this floating cat palace. I snatched the manual from where I'd hidden it, the leather-bound brick weighing down the mattress like a dead body. I knew I didn’t need to hide the tome, it was issued as per protocol. But still, I felt it was too important to risk getting taken away.

“Alright, you dense motherfucker,” I muttered, cracking it open. “Give me something I can use.”

The next two days blurred into a brutal rhythm. Mornings spent squinting at text so tiny it gave me migraines. Afternoons sweating through increasingly sadistic sessions in the Rehabilitation Chamber.

Evenings back with the manual until my eyes quit and consciousness bailed on me. A power nap, then another late-night session in the Chamber. I was making Squeak and Meylin earn their keep, dragging them out of bed at random hours for just one more run.

Part of me knew this wasn’t the right strategy. I’d heard stories of people who overtrained, crammed too hard before a test, and just completely wiped out. But I didn’t have the luxury of moderation. I had to give everything, push for every scrap of advantage, dig until I hit bedrock.

And the strange thing? The more I pushed, the better I felt.

It didn’t make sense. But ever since the Core lodged itself inside me, I wasn’t wired the same. I felt like a busted car that only ran smooth once you hit eighty but anything slower and the whole thing rattled. I wasn’t built for idle anymore. I was a “this thing only goes to eleven” situation.

So I kept going.

Hour after hour.

Faster. Harder. Louder.

It wasn't glamorous. It wasn't dignified. But it was working.

Each rehab session left me stronger, the Core energy flowing more freely. Charlie got weirder about my progress, his cheerful sadism cranking up each time I survived what should've been certain dismemberment.

“CONGRATULATIONS ON RETAINING ALL YOUR LIMBS, EARTH REPRESENTATIVE!” he'd boom after a particularly savage session, his digital voice almost disappointed. “TOMORROW WE'LL TRY HARDER!”

So I carved time from sleep; trading rest for training, sanity for study, comfort for another round in the rehab chamber.

The manual finally started to crack under sustained assault. Like panning for gold in sewage, I occasionally found something worth keeping. Loopholes, precedents, exceptions to rules that might just give Earth a fighting chance.

By the third day in the Rehab Chamber, my sweat paid off with something tangible.

[PERK UNLOCKED: PURE STICK-TO-ITIVENESS]

You don't quit. You should. But you don't.

Maybe it was all those years of being a failure. Maybe it was the never-ending stream of rejections or getting fired from every crappy service job in a thirty-mile radius. Maybe it’s because your parents divorced when you were eight but still lived together throughout your childhood, and awkwardly pretended to be okay with bringing dates home… Maybe it's Maybelline! Who the fuck knows.

Either way, your ability to tenaciously beat your head against a problem when any sane person would've given up has yielded rewards.

[PERK EFFECT: +2% Success Chance on Repeated Attempts]

Each time you fail a check, your odds of succeeding next time go up by 2%, because you're just that stubborn. Does it make sense? No. But neither did that time you passed a final exam on two hours sleep and a fistful of gummy worms.

Also grants passive resistance to shame, social cues, and basic survival instincts. Go get 'em, Tiger.

[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED]

Force— uh, I mean… ManaPush.

A completely unique power that is only available in this System and definitely not reminiscent of any popular space wizard franchise with notoriously litigious legal teams.

You've learned to reach deep, deep within yourself and summon energy to shove objects away from you, allowing you to manipulate the waves in the… mana around you.

Just imagine what you'll be able to do after sitting cross-legged on a log and training for a few days in a swamp. Why a swamp? No reason in particular. Don't ask about it. IP laws are a bitch.

Effect: Push objects up to 100 lbs with your mind.

Range: 15 feet.

Side Effect: Each use makes you slightly more likely to speak in weird, backwards sentence structures.

I stared at the notification.

The power flowed into me, electric and familiar, like I'd been born with it and only just remembered.

I lifted a hand toward the nearest dummy. Focused. Pushed.

The thing went flying, hit the wall, and collapsed.

Charlie let out a delighted screech. “FINALLY! PATIENT’S MANA PATHWAYS ARE WAKING UP. TWENTY-THREE PERCENT EFFICIENCY AND RISING! YOU ARE WELCOME.”

I wiped sweat from my brow, unable to keep the grin from my face.

Hope.

Real, dangerous hope.

I spent the next few hours testing it in drills; timed pushes, deflections, ricochet shots off training drones. Nothing world shattering, but enough to prove to myself I wasn’t completely defenseless without my apron.

I learned to give myself short aerial hops and shove a few dummies at a time.

It wasn’t world-shattering yet. But if I could level it, refine it...

Maybe, just maybe, I could become a full coffee-space-ninja before this whole thing was over.

And if not?

At least I could move shit with my mind.

That was something.

I returned to my quarters sore, sweating, and high on victory.

My mana powers were still baby-tier, but they were mine. I’d earned them. No apron. No brews. Just me and the mysterious mana soup that weaves all living things together.

And for the first time since being yanked into this galactic fever dream, I felt like I had a shot.

Like maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t completely and utterly screwed.

A feeling that lasted, oh, about two hours. Until that evening.

The night before the hearing.

My final rehab session had just begun when everything went sideways, hard.

“WELCOME TO ADVANCED REHABILITATION - LEVEL SEVEN!” Charlie boomed as I entered the chamber. “TODAY'S GOAL: COMPLETE DISMEMBERMENT – I MEAN, COMPLETE FITNESS ASSESSMENT!”

The chamber had transformed into a hellscape of an obstacle course. Platforms hovered at varying heights, appearing and disappearing randomly. Serrated pendulums swung in mismatched rhythms. Something that looked suspiciously like actual lava bubbled in pools below.

“Did you upgrade since our last run?” I asked, eyeing a particularly nasty-looking contraption that appeared designed specifically to remove limbs at the joints.

“BUDGET INCREASE!” Charlie chirped. “THE KAREN DELEGATION MADE A GENEROUS DONATION TO THE REHABILITATION DEPARTMENT. WASN'T THAT THOUGHTFUL?”

My stomach dropped. “Very.”

“THEY SEEMED PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN YOUR PROGRESS,” Charlie continued, sounding confused.

“I bet they did.”

“SCENARIO COMMENCING IN THREE... TWO... ONE...”

I tensed as the floor beneath me lurched upward, launching me toward the first platform. I caught the edge, hauling myself up with Mana Push just as it began to tilt.

“REACH THE OBJECTIVE WHILE AVOIDING INCOMING PROJECTILES!” Charlie announced gleefully as a glowing target materialized at the far end of the chamber, easily fifty feet away with nothing but death and dismemberment between us.

“Define 'projectiles,'“ I grunted, already jumping to the next platform.

“ANYTHING MOVING FASTER THAN TERMINAL VELOCITY IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION!”

As if on cue, the wall panel to my left split open. Something silver and decidedly pointy shot toward my face.

I dropped flat, the projectile whistling over my head close enough to trim a few hairs.

“That's not a training projectile!” I shouted, rolling to avoid a second that embedded itself in the platform where my chest had been. “That's a fucking harpoon!”

“LANGUAGE, REPRESENTATIVE!” Charlie admonished. “ALSO, INCOMING!”

I flung myself sideways as a section of ceiling detached and crashed onto my previous position. The impact sent shockwaves through the chamber, nearly vibrating me off the edge.

That's when I noticed it; a shift in the chamber's background noise. Not really a noise… but a feeling. A wrongness that hadn't been there before.

“Charlie?” I called out, launching myself to another platform as the current one began to dissolve. “Something feels off!”

No response. Just the increasingly ominous mechanical grinding.

The air crackled with electricity. Warning lights, actual warning lights, not part of the simulation, began flashing along the walls, bathing the chamber in pulsing red.

“Charlie! System check!” I shouted, narrowly avoiding a wall that slammed shut where I'd been standing a millisecond earlier.

“SYSTEM... MAL-MALFUNCTION...” Charlie's voice broke, static filling the gaps. “UNAUTHORIZED... PARAMETERS... DETECTED...”

The platform I was aiming for suddenly vanished. I plummeted, arms windmilling like a cartoon character who'd just realized gravity existed, until I managed to grab the edge of another hexagon ten feet below. My shoulders screamed as I hauled myself up.

“End program!” I barked. “Emergency override!”

I threw a Mana Push at the incoming platform; too fast, too heavy, too now. It didn’t stop the thing. Barely nudged it. But the force was enough to blast me backward, yanking me out of its path a heartbeat before it would’ve turned me into barista jelly.

No Morning Brew. No safety net. If I died here, I died.

“Charlie!” I screamed, voice cracking with panic. “End the fucking program!”

“CANNOT... COMPLY...” Charlie's voice was barely recognizable now, like he was being digitally waterboarded. “SAFETY PROTOCOLS... DISENGAGED... SOMEONE HAS TAMPERED... WITH MY... OUCH!”

The chamber went full doomsday. Platforms materialized and disappeared without pattern. Walls slammed together with crushing force. Projectiles – no longer even pretending to be training equipment but fully embracing their identity as instruments of murder – shot from hidden compartments.

One grazed my arm, leaving a burning line of pain and an artistic splash of red on the nearest wall. My blood. The stuff that was supposed to stay inside me.

“I’M SORrrrrRY Jeeeeerrrr—J-j-j-jeeeerrrr—CANNOT... CANNOT... CANN—”

The voice fractured into static, dragging out the last syllable like a broken record trying to scream. Then, just a low, insectile buzz.

Charlie was gone.

This wasn't training anymore. This was an assassination attempt.

“Charlie! Door override! Security alert!” I screamed, diving behind a momentarily solid wall as three more harpoons embedded themselves where I'd been standing.

Nothing but garbled static answered me.

A massive section of the ceiling detached and plummeted toward me like the world's largest game of whack-a-Jerry. I rolled aside just as it crashed into the floor, sending shockwaves through the chamber that rattled my teeth.

I needed a plan. Without my apron, without my brews, my options were limited to “die screaming” or “die slightly less screaming.”

I didn’t see the next harpoon in time. It slammed into my ribs and launched me into the wall like a kicked ragdoll.

Pain detonated in my side. I felt something give, sharp and wet.

[HP: 73%]

Before I could even fall, something else struck; fast, heavy, metal. It clipped my leg and pinned me.

[HP: 49%]

My HUD screamed red, flaring. My body followed suit. Muscles locked. Vision tunneled.

Then the piston came.

A ceiling-mounted hammer. It crashed down on my shoulder, spinning me midair.

I hit the ground hard, limbs twitching.

[STATUS: BLEEDING]

[PERK ACTIVATED: GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT]

+20% Damage Resistance (Health < 50%)

+15% Stamina Regen

[HP: 17%]

I tried to stand. A harpoon whistled past and tore into my thigh. Blood sprayed. My knee buckled.

The world tilted. My thoughts frayed.

Pain was all that was.

But I was still breathing.

[HP: 6%]

A low chime echoed in my skull.

[Resilience Stack: MAX]

Activate Resilience Stack Bonus?

[YES] | [NO]

“Yes! Activate!” I shouted.

Breathing hurt. Thinking hurt. Existing was a group project my body was about to quit. But the HUD flickered again. New colors, new code bleeding through the red.

[+15 Constitution | +10% Temporary Health Gained | Movement Speed temporarily Increased by 175%]

[HP: 16%]

My body surged. Not healed but fueled. A warm pulse spread through my limbs, mana filled adrenaline.

The pain didn’t vanish, it sharpened, focused. I could breathe through it. Move with it.

I had the Core. I had Mana Push. I had a terrible headache, and the rage of someone who knew this was no accident.

I closed my eyes, just for a second, and the energy was there, waiting like a dog on a leash.

I grabbed it.

Opened my eyes.

A wall of spikes was rushing toward me. I flung my hand forward, channeling everything; pain, defiance, resilience, everything, into the push.

Notifications lit up in my HUD but I ignored them.

Power surged through my arm, crackling gold at the edges of my vision.

“STOP.”

The spikes froze midair, trembling against invisible force, then shot backward, embedding into the chamber wall with a satisfying explosion of sparks and cut wires.

I didn’t wait. I moved faster than I should’ve, than I could’ve, dodging debris, vaulting gaps, ducking just under a blade-slice meant for my head.

A section of floor gave out beneath me, but I launched off a falling panel, redirecting myself toward a ledge. Caught it. Pulled up. Kept going.

[Temporary Health Depleting…]

Twenty feet to the door. Fifteen. Ten.

Shit, that wasn’t long enough at all.

It would have to do.

The chamber shuddered. A grinding roar echoed from above.

I looked up. Saw the ceiling unhinge. Tons of reinforced murder dropping toward me like the universe had just screamed “Checkmate.”

Instinct overrode panic. I threw both hands up, drawing on every spark of Core energy I had left. I forced everything into Mana Push.

Golden light erupted, forming a dome around me as the ceiling crashed.

The impact hit like a planet. I dropped to one knee. My shield cracked. Bones ached. Something inside me gave way. Rib, maybe.

“Not like this,” I growled, holding the weight back through clenched teeth. “Not. Like. This.”

With everything I had, I shoved upward. The dome pulsed, expanding in a golden shockwave that hurled the wreckage just far enough.

I dove. Rolled. Slammed my fist into the control panel by the door.

Squeak and Meylin were on the other side, along with two cats in exo-mechs, hydraulics whining as they attempted to pry the doors apart.

I staggered forward and threw my weight into it, adding everything I had left to the effort.

Sparks. Screams from the circuits. Then a groan. Then—slide. The door opened a crack, just enough.

I slipped through.

WHAM.

A massive platform slammed into the door behind me, shaking the corridor like a bomb had gone off. Metal buckled. The frame screamed. The chamber behind me collapsed in on itself, steel grinding steel, systems tearing themselves apart in a mechanical death spiral.

I hit the corridor floor hard, coughing, bleeding, ears ringing.

Somewhere behind the carnage, I heard Charlie’s final, glitching gasp:

“Thaaaank yoooouuu for co—zzzzrrk—please... take a bro-chure...”

It sounded like someone had microwaved the galaxy, left a fork inside, and cranked it up.

Alarms wailed. Emergency strobes bathed the corridor in red.

“Representative Jerry!” Squeak called, eyes wide with panic. “What happened?!”

I spat blood.

“Leg day,” I said dryly.

[TEMPORARY HEALTH BOOST EXPIRED]

[CURRENT HP: 4%]

[WARNING: SEEK IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION AND PHYSICAL REHABILITATION]

For fuck’s sake, I thought. Really?

I forced myself upright, every nerve screaming protest. Pain lanced through what felt like every part of my body. But my voice, somehow, stayed steady.

“Chamber went nuts,” I said flatly, anger boiling beneath.

Meylin’s gaze swept the wreckage. His expression darkened though I couldn’t read it.

“But how?” Squeak asked, blinking rapidly. “These Chambers have quirks, sure, but this? This was catastrophic.”

“It was intentional,” I growled. “Someone did this. Someone poisoned the fucking water hole. And I have a pretty damn good idea who.”

“You don’t mean...” Squeak’s voice cracked. “That someone on board sabotaged it? That’s… that’s ridiculous. Isn’t it?”

He turned to Meylin for confirmation. But the older rodent said nothing. He just stared at the ruins, jaw clenched, ears twitching.

Then he looked at me. Then at the wreckage.

He didn’t speak. Didn’t blink.

“Whatever happened, Representative,” he said carefully, stepping closer, “whatever may have been done—”

He dropped his voice so that only I could hear it.

“—I do not offer advice lightly. Not out of disrespect, but out of duty to my people and the limitations of my position. That said,” He looked me dead in the eyes. “Be very careful with what you think you know. Even if you're right. Especially if you're right.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, not liking the tone.

“I’m saying,” he said grimly, “that to accuse without evidence, especially in this place, under this jurisdiction, is itself a crime. A severe one.”

It wasn’t clear if he was threatening me or warning me. Maybe both. But whatever this was, Meylin was no longer just an escort. He was something else now. Something dangerous.

Squeak, by contrast, looked horrified. Innocent. Like he was seeing the ship for the first time.

“I believe you’ve had enough Physical Rehabilitation for today,” Meylin said at last, pulling away. “We’ll get you to the medical bay. Then you’ll rest.”

He turned, tail lashing.

“You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

Medical staff arrived moments later and carted me off to the medical bay. They were not humans but some kind of six-armed beings with too many eyes, fussing over my injuries. Deep cuts, bruises, and a sprained shoulder, broken ribs, a few holes to patch.

As they patched me up, I caught sight of a figure watching from the end of the corridor. Assistant Deputy Cassandra. She stood perfectly still, her expression unreadable, before turning and disappearing around a corner.

Back in my quarters—bandaged, sore, and with a half-hearted apology from ship management about the “malfunction”—I sat on the edge of the bed, mind racing.

There’d be an official investigation, of course. And it would officially find nothing.

Time was running out. The hearing was tomorrow morning. I was pretty fucking certain that the Karens had just tried to kill me. The Arbiters were sniffing around Earth. And I was still missing my most powerful weapon; my apron.

I needed allies. I needed a plan.

And according to the manual, I had at least one card left to play.

Planetary Representatives had the right to select delegates to speak on their behalf. Up to five entities who could represent Earth's interests alongside me.

I finally decided who I wanted.

“Room,” I said, standing despite the protests from my battered body. “I need to make a formal request to Admiral Whiskers.”

A soft chime acknowledged me.

“Please inform the Admiral that Earth's Representative wishes to invoke his right to select delegates for tomorrow's proceedings.”

Another chime, followed by a melodic tone I hadn't heard before.

“Request logged and prioritized,” the room's system responded. “The Admiral will be notified immediately.”

I sat back down, wincing as my muscles complained about this latest offense. Then I reached for my earpiece, activating the connection that had been silent since Todd's warning.

“Todd,” I whispered. “Todd, if you can hear me, I really hope you can find that Whipsteele guy.”

Static hissed in my ear.

I leaned back against the headboard, exhaustion washing over me. Tomorrow, I'd face the Council that would decide Earth's fate.

The realization of how few people I could truly rely on in this cosmic nightmare hit me hard. Riley, Peña, Green Lady. Were they even still alive? And would the Council allow them to stand with me?

I closed my eyes, letting the doubts and fears wash over me. Loss and rage battled for dominance. I pushed them aside. There was no time.

Earth was counting on me.

And I'd be damned if I'd let it fall without a fight. We would win our freedom.

Even if I had to blow up a fucking galaxy to get it.