Special Technical Advisor

Rovi walked straight over.

"Who gave you permission to enter this holy place?"

A Tech-Priest whipped around. His red augmetic eye glimmered in the shadows with a bone-chilling warning light.

"This is a restricted area. Get out, mortal! Your breathing is polluting the sacred scent of Machine Oil."

"I heard it crying." Rovi stopped a few steps away and spoke softly.

The Priest froze for a moment, his servo-arm hanging motionless in the air.

"What did you say?"

"Its Machine Spirit is crying." Rovi raised a hand and pointed at the exhaust pipe shrouded in incense.

"It says it can't breathe. Its lungs are clogged with black poison. No amount of incense can make a suffocating being breathe."

Several Priests exchanged glances, the irises of their augmetic eyes rapidly contracting and dilating.

"Nonsense! This is blasphemy against the Omnissiah! We've already performed three Purification Rituals and applied the most expensive Sacred Oil!"

"The ritual soothed the spirit, but the pain remains in the casing."

As he spoke, Rovi boldly approached the enormous machine.

He pressed a hand against its cold, grease-stained Metal Casing.

He closed his eyes, pretending to perform some profound act of communion.

In truth, he was listening.

Not to some ethereal spirit's whispers.

He was listening to the physical sounds.

A faint, intermittent clanking from a valve.

The metallic lament of a machine struggling against carbon buildup.

"Give me a wrench. Size four, standard." Rovi opened his eyes and calmly held out his hand.

"You dare touch a Holy Relic with your filthy hands?!" the lead Priest roared, raising the Power Axe in his hand. Its teeth buzzed ominously.

"If I can't fix it, you can stuff me into the furnace for fuel."

Rovi looked at the axe, his tone utterly unruffled.

"But if this machine still isn't running tomorrow, who do you think Supervisor Kais will blame?"

The Priest froze.

Rovi pressed on, his low voice like a devil's temptation:

"He'll say you didn't pray hard enough, that your skills were lacking and caused production to fall. Do you want your red robes stripped from you and to be sent to the front lines as cannon fodder for the Faith Militant?"

The Tech-Priests fell silent.

Kais was certainly capable of doing that.

On this planet, human lives were fuel.

And bureaucratic buck-passing was the spark that lit it.

"Ten minutes."

After a brief bout of logical calculation, the lead Priest lowered his axe.

He took a heavy wrench from the tool rack and shoved it into Rovi's hand.

"If you leave so much as a scratch on the Sacred Casing, I'll flay you alive and stretch your skin over the exhaust pipe."

Rovi took the wrench.

It was heavy and slick with Machine Oil.

He steadied his breathing, then crawled like a rat through the service hatch beneath the machine.

It was pitch-black inside, reeking of rancid old Machine Oil and the sharp tang of corroded metal.

Rovi groped around in the darkness.

There.

The Intake Manifold's retaining bolt.

It was rusted solid, just as he'd expected.

Rovi gritted his teeth and put all his strength into turning it.

His muscles protested, and his bones creaked.

"Clack."

With a metallic scrape, the bolt came loose.

He quickly removed the manifold cover.

"Clatter."

A lump of black carbon buildup, hard as a rock, fell out.

It was the "tumor" left behind by years of Inferior Fuel.

Ignoring the grime, Rovi used his bare hands to pick out the remaining carbon deposits, bit by bit.

The rough metal edges sliced his fingertips. Blood dripped into the black oil, but he seemed not to feel a thing.

Once the carbon buildup was cleared, he adjusted the angle of the intake valve by feel.

"Pass me a bottle of Sacred Oil," he called from beneath the machine, his voice echoing through the metal cavity.

The Priest passed in a bottle of high-purity lubricant.

Rovi took it and carefully poured the oil into the dry gaps around the pistons.

When he was done, he tightened the bolts again, each movement as precise as a surgeon stitching up a wound.

He crawled back out.

His face was smeared with oil, and his hands were a bloody mess.

"Start it." Rovi tossed the wrench onto the ground, where it landed with a clear clang.

The Priest eyed him suspiciously, then pressed the Activation Rune.

"Vroom."

The machine jolted violently.

Then came a deep, powerful, steady rumble.

The gears meshed and turned, and the tracks kicked up dust from the ground.

The exhaust pipe no longer belched black smoke. Instead, it released a clear, forceful wave of heat.

"It's running..." The Priest stared in astonishment, nearly dropping the incense burner in his hand. "The Machine Spirit... has awakened! Its fury has subsided!"

The Priests looked at Rovi differently now.

Not as if he were a bug.

But as if he were a miracle.

A "Chosen One" who could communicate with the Machine Spirit.

"You... You know the Binary Prayer?" the lead Priest asked, trembling.

"I don't." Rovi casually wiped the blood from his hands on his clothes. "I only know how to listen to pain."

He picked up the wrench and respectfully returned it to the Priest with both hands.

"Tell Supervisor Kais the machine is fixed." Rovi paused, meeting the Priest's mechanical gaze.

"By the way, if anyone asks who fixed it, say your piety moved the Machine Spirit and the Omnissiah answered your prayers. I'm just a mortal who stood by and passed you the wrench."

The Priests froze again.

In this world, credit mattered more than life.

And here was someone turning down more credit than anyone could imagine?

"Why?" the Priest asked, confused, his logic circuits seemingly overloaded.

"Because I want to stay alive," Rovi answered frankly.

"I helped you keep your positions and save face. In return, I need a little protection."

He continued:

"If Supervisor Kais wants to transfer me to clean cesspits—or somewhere even worse—I hope the Adeptus Mechanicus will speak up for me."

"Just say my hands are steady, and I'm good for passing you wrenches. I'm a useful part and shouldn't be casually scrapped."

The lead Priest fell silent for a few seconds.

His mechanical eye flickered red as he weighed the benefits.

They would gain credit for repairing a Holy Relic without paying a thing, and all they had to do was protect one mortal.

It was a good deal.

"Deal."

The Priest agreed.

"From today onward, you're Auxiliary Personnel in Workshop Seven. In the name of the Omnissiah, Kais won't be able to touch you."

Rovi let out a quiet breath.

He'd secured his second talisman.

Three days later.

The Planetary Governor's Mansion.

Alicia sat at her desk, a report in her hands.

It was a copy submitted by Tax Official Marquez.

She flipped to page fourteen.

"Machine Spirit appeasement fees..." She chuckled.

She picked up a Masterwork Dagger from beside her and lightly scraped at the bottom of the page.

A line of tiny writing appeared.

"Fuel is Food."

She understood.

She understood not only the words, but also what they meant.

Someone was telling her that the so-called "appeasement fees" were actually stolen grain.

And that grain had been turned into fuel.

But that wasn't all.

Alicia picked up another report.

It had just been delivered by the Adeptus Mechanicus.

<Miracle Report on the Restoration of the M36 Harvester>.

The report credited the repair to the Priest's piety, but the "Personnel Transfer" section of the appendix listed a name.

Rovi.

Appointed Special Technical Advisor to Workshop Seven.

"Interesting." Alicia set the report down.

A low-ranking Scribe had not only fooled the tax official, but also found himself a powerful backer in the Adeptus Mechanicus right under Kais's nose.

He hadn't come directly to the Governor to report it.

Because he knew informants died fast.

Instead, he'd demonstrated his value this way.

He was saying—

I have brains, I have skills, and I'm cautious.

"Captain of the Guard," Alicia called.

A woman wearing a Black Carapace came in.

"At your service, my lady."

"Go to Granary Seven. Bring me a man named Rovi."

Alicia paused.

"Don't make a fuss. Wait until tonight. Use my Personal Shuttle. Don't let that fool Kais find out."

"Yes, my lady."

The Captain of the Guard turned and left.

Alicia rose and walked to the window.

The Hive City glittered with lights beyond it.

Her uncles and cousins in the family were starting to stir.

The Ordo's Black Ship was also stationed at the edge of the system.

She was isolated and without support.

Until now.

In the darkness, she had spotted a glimmer of light.

"Don't disappoint me, Rovi."

She spoke to her reflection in the glass.

Granary Seven, staff dormitory.

Rovi was lying on a hard bed.

He wasn't asleep.

He was staring blankly at the mold stains on the ceiling.

He was reviewing everything he'd done over the past three days.

The ledger was fine.

The relationship with the Adeptus Mechanicus had stabilized for the time being.

Kais had taken the chip, and out of respect for the Adeptus Mechanicus, he hadn't caused any trouble—for now.

It seemed safe.

But Rovi knew this was only the calm before the storm.

Kais was a greedy man.

Greedy men had no limits.

Once the heat died down, Kais would make his move.

Rovi had to climb higher, to somewhere Kais couldn't reach.

Suddenly, footsteps came from outside the door.

Very light.

Unlike the patrol's boots, these were soft-soled shoes.

Rovi hurriedly sat up, reaching beneath his pillow, where he had hidden a discarded screwdriver sharpened to a point.

The door lock melted silently.

The door opened.

A dark figure slipped inside.

Rovi was about to spring up when a cold Bolt Pistol pressed against his forehead.

"Don't move."

A woman's voice, cold as ice.

In the corridor's light, Rovi saw who it was.

Black Carapace, and a Respirator Mask over her face.

It was the mark of the Governor's Personal Guard.

Rovi released the screwdriver.

He raised both hands.

He wasn't afraid.

On the contrary, the corners of his mouth lifted ever so slightly.

He'd bet right.

That female Governor was even smarter than he'd imagined.

She had understood the code.

"Get dressed," the woman said. "The Governor wants to see you."

"Now?" Rovi asked.

"Now."

Rovi got out of bed and put on his tattered robe.

"Use the back door." The woman lowered her gun. "Don't let anyone see you."

"Understood."