Primaris Technology (I)

Belisarius Cawl reached Chemos in less than six days, bringing his ship, his son, and most of his possessions with him. It could be said that, apart from the two laboratories on Mars and Sotha, the Archmagos had brought everything he could that might prove useful.

Judging by the scale of it alone, anyone unaware of the situation might have thought he was going to fight someone to the death. The truth was far from that, but Cawl probably did want to fight someone to the death.

Unfortunately, that person was already dead.

"Reckless! Utterly reckless!" the Archmagos snarled through gritted teeth, clutching an old data-slate. "How dared he so flagrantly alter the human genome?"

At those words, Karyl and Fulgrim, standing nearby, exchanged a knowing glance.

The fourth person present, Anazion Sotha Cawl, wore a very strange expression. His peculiar pale-purple lips twitched twice before he finally managed to restrain himself and say nothing.

The Archmagos himself had no awareness of this whatsoever. He continued rapidly flipping through the data-slate while lavishly disparaging the primitive and inferior technology Fabius Bile had employed. He did not even spare the data-slate in his hands.

He said that "no one would buy this even at a flea market," that "it doesn't even have a quick-browse interface," and asked "what kind of person still uses such antiquated technology?"

This lengthy tirade, filled with mockery and reluctant praise, lasted nearly twenty minutes before finally coming to a reluctant end.

With a cold snort, the Archmagos returned the data-slate to its place. Then, awkwardly turning amid the equipment and cables, he squeezed his way over to the empty cultivation tanks and began inspecting their interface panels one by one. All the while, he continued muttering in dissatisfaction, like a child who had broken his favorite