memshares

[engineers]

⭐️ PRE SERIES
- No wonder I'm different from everyone else. Everyone like me is here.
- In all the years I lived there, it only snowed once.

⭐️ BOOK ONE
- The destruction of Beijing Beta

⭐️ BOOK TWO
Encouraging HJS - "What makes you think you can decide what's defective and what's correct?" (CH 29) combine with her operating the mech ("My old man was humoring me. Here. A noise filter. Try it." CH 41) + ("Girl, clear out slowly. Slow down, don't be nervous. You're the most talented student I've ever seen.. JSH stops the mech, CH 41)

"Young man, can you fix that screen?" (CH32 -33)

Stopping the riot with the sight of Beijng-B. "Listen to me. Listen. To. Me."
"Sc...scan for me." (CH48) + "Stars can be reborn, but what about you?" (CH 49)

⭐️ BOOK THREE
Conversation with Foucalt - Don't try and fool me with those words of yours. (CH 61, P19 - P20)
The Space Station funeral (CH 65:57)

"Rescuing" LJH from the city ladies (Ch69:84) + Fortune Telling

"Are we just animals in your eyes?!" - William Yu, the Rainbow Virus (72:102)
"Zhanlu... give LBX full administrative access." (78:144)

"Lin Jingheng, did you know you're a heartless piece of garbage?" (79:154)

⭐️ BOOK FOUR
- Turan and the sedative / the death of Lin Jingheng

⭐️ BOOK FIVE

Comments

lin jingheng | stars can be reborn, but what about you?

[engineers]

[ lin jingheng has been gone for days. you have good danger sense, and you can tell - you just know he's done something stupid. you just know he's in trouble, and so when the trash space station is settled, you get in one of the clunky little mechs on the space station, connect to its neural network, and you go out to trace his signal the minute you're able to catch onto it. it's impossibly faint, and when you arrange for a warp, you appear in the middle of the Desert - one of the largest asteroid belts in the Eighth Galaxy. it's incredibly dangerous, and you're a good pilot, but you're not lin good, and you hop from place to place and dodge asteroids to make sure you're not going to get crunched, all the while trying not to panic, and then, you see it - there's a familiar ecopod. your heart leaps in your chest, somewhere between relief and despair, because the ecopod can only mean one thing, it has to mean --

a second later, there's an explosion, as just out of the range of your tiny little mech, a heavy mecha self destructs. the ecopod scatters, and you do everything you can to keep from getting smashed against the asteroids, as frantic as a tiny rodent trying to leap from asteroid to asteroid amidst stardust and aftershocks, and with careful piloting and sheer nerves and terror, you manage to get your net thrown out to gently loop around the ecopod - a piece of debris smacks into your mech and rattles you so hard it hurts your teeth, but you don't care, you don't care - you frantically open a communication line directly to the ecopod, and yell - ] Lin, can you hear me?! Please choose between losing some weight or dropping some speed here, I can’t hold on anymore!”

[ lin jingheng doesn't respond, but zhanlu's smooth robotic voice does, as the net slips free, and you swear. “Good evening Headmaster Lu, it’s a pleasure to see you.”

you shriek, half hysterical. ] The pleasure's not mine! You and your master almost scared me half to death!

[ zhanlu makes a noise. "I agree. Today was absolutely terrible." in striking contrast to his voice, another aftershock explosion slams across the asteroid belt, rattling your mech, and pushing the ecopod further away from you. "This Ecopod is created from my shapeshifting functionalities and cannot continuously provide proper nutrients and medical care like a proper Ecopod.”

zhanlu is of course, reading you the textbook functions, which you don't need. you wave him off at first, fussy and desperate and trying to focus, starting, ] That's fine, I have everything on this mech, here -

[ but zhanlu keeps talking. "And as a mech core without a mech body in a complete vacuum environment, the protection I can provide my master is equivalent to that of a mech’s built-in shield cover. My current battery power only allows me to maintain this function for three minutes, and we are now entering the countdown for the last minute; 59, 58…”


your heart drops into your stomach.

you bellow - ] Zhanlu! [ in horror, in sheer horror, no no no you can't lose him no no no - and you do something stupid, so stupid. you take that tiny little mech and you accelerate it to near suicidal levels of speed, darting past the asteroids - the safety systems start to scream at you, a single crash would explode your mech at this high speed and you inside of it, the alarms are blaring and zhanlu continues counting, and you swear in frustration as another push from the explosion pushes the ecopod, and as you throw every ounce of your mental strength into powering the mech, you start gaining, gaining on the ecopod, 500 feet 400 300 200 --

there's no time to take the net back out and cast it. it floats with you at top speed.

you pass the ecopod, then you slam your hand into a throttle lever on the dash and hit the button that reverses the internal gravity control in your mech. every object in the mech, pilot included, is thrown to the opposite side of it. your back crunches hard into the metal side of the ship, but the gravity pressing outwards has its desired effect, and it brings the ecopod in like a vacuum, directly into the net. zhanlu counts. 25... 24...

there's no time to hurt. you scramble up to your feet and rush back to the control panels, slapping a button to open the receiving bay of your mech, but of course, of course the gravity dragged in a piece of debris, a massive cargo door along with the ecopod. it shrieks and groans, as it tangles up with the net and leaves the ecopod floating, and you have to fire a particle cannon at it to try and get it to release - the door releases, but the ecopod dips free of your clutches, too, out of the net, and the panic and adrenaline turn to horror -

15...14...

you're sweating buckets, ice cold down your back as your consider a life without lin jingheng, but there's no time, no time to do anything but react - you grab the gravity switch and throw it back again, reverseing gravity for a second time and slamming yourself into the opposite side of the cockpit, but this time, it nullifies and you're able to cast out the last capture net you have. it catches the ecopod, and you choke with relief as the net makes contact -

10... 9...

- you hit your emergency brake, and open the receiving bay, and the ecopod slides safely into the welcoming cargo hold of your neck, the door shutting out the vacuum of space, which takes exactly ten seconds to safely pressurize - and, in the nick of time, the doors close and the ecopod's protection system shatters. you don't evne have time to check, but you use those ten seconds to rocket free of the final wave of aftershocks.

and then you sprint downstairs.

you stumble all over yourself, crashing into ten things down the hallway, your mind focused on one and one thing alone, one thought alone - lin's been out of contact for a full day, out of tracking range, just because he's in here he wasn't conscious what if he's dead what if i was too slow what if what if --

the door slides open, and laying in the cargo hold, ecopod now transformed back into its dormant arm form on his chest, is lin jingheng.

you sob. you can't help yourself, just one hiccuped noise as clumsily make your way to him. something is - something is wrong. he's so tiny, he's - drained, almost, drained and impossibly weak and down to nothing, his cheekbones hollowed, his skin dry and sallow, and he's bloodstained all over the place. he looks like he's lost thirty kilos overnight, he's so, so pale and you feel your blood starting to rush in your ears as you scrabble to check his pulse. ]

Please respond. [ you beg. your voice sounds foreign to your ears, like it's coming through water, as lin's head lolls lightly against your wrist and you think no, no, no, i can't, no, no, no don't you leave me i can't not without you no no no no ] Lin, please, please respond -

[ ten seconds pass.

and then you hear it. a single, small thump of a heartbeat.

you sob out a relieved sigh, and you start to gather lin into your arms. he's so thin it's terrifying. so light, it's too easy. you know, you know he's alive, but you can feel that the back of his shirt is wet and you know it's blood and his skin is unbearably hot to the touch. you shove him into a medical capsule, and you watch as the diagnoses pop up on the screen.

Rainbow virus.

That sends your heart to your feet.

Severe dehydration. Neurological processing overload.

Gunshot wound.

but he's still alive. lin's still alive. you push him into the medical bay of your mech, even if it's tiny, and you press your face to the glass window, and you close your eyes, and your brain is flooded with thoughts, of lin asphyxiating in space, of his blood vessels bursting and the explosion that would evaporate the water from his body. what would he have done, if you weren't there? he would have died. and one thought stands out above the others, as he stares down at the placid, bloodstained face in the medical capsule.

Stars can be reborn. What about you?

your despair and relief are replaced, quietly, by anger, and you curl your fists against the glass.

(because he did this on his own. because he didn't ask for help. because now, lin jingheng has to recover from the virus that nearly wiped out their civilization. because it looks like it must have nearly killed him. he did it on his own. it makes you so angry that you quietly plot how you're going to yell at him for an hour, because it's the only thing you can do to keep from breaking down in tears.)