Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 387: Potato Pancakes

Chapter 387: Potato Pancakes
"Okay, we are all sitting and eating this delicious looking... what are these?" Gorund asked toward Peter Reese.
"Pancakes." Peter answered with a shrug as he passed around a container and scooped out some of the contents onto a plate next to the girl’s pancakes. "What dwarves don’t have pancakes?"
"Yeah, but we call them flapjacks. But these are not pancakes. There is supposed to be flour, bits of sweets, and a side of meat. Maybe a nice acidic drink to go with it. But more importantly it had syrup!" Gorund progressively grew louder as he explained what he meant.
Peter frowned and nodded, "yeah we have those two. But these are a bit different. I decided to make something a bit more difficult to make-"
"Are these spuds?" Gorund really was in a foul mood apparently. Or maybe that was just the usual way he woke up.
"They are called potato pancakes." Peter growled out as slapped down some of the ground up paste he had been divvying out. "It is good, especially with apple sauce. Now shut up and eat it before I shove it down your gullet."
Gorund grunted, "yeah yeah if you say so. Do not have to get snippy with me twig." He then leaned over and whispered to Jace. "What crawled up his bunghole?"
"You insulted his cooking. Now as much as I would love to get off topic. Would you like to get back to what we were discussing?" Jace asked as he dipped a piece of potato pancake into the applesauce. "Mhmm... good."
"Ah!" Gorund grunted in surprise. "You are right. Explain what happened, why did your appearance change? Also why are you talking strangely?" Gorund asked, pointing out something that Jace did not pick up on.
"Talking strangely?" Jace asked as he tilted his head slightly in confusion.
"Hmm...? Yeah, when you talk there is like a scratchy noise in my ears." The dwarf answered.
Jace frowned and then closed his eyes focusing on himself. Doing the mediation exercise he used many times before. He could feel a ball of energy in the center of his body but that was it. He felt all the energy he had saved up was gathered there.
But when he tried to manipulate it something was wrong. He frowned after a moment and decided to leave it alone. He could not sense anything else amiss with his body. "I have no idea what you mean regarding my voice. I might be something specific to my new race." Jace informed the dwarf as he focused back on his food.
"Okay, then how about why you evolved?" Gorund asked with a bit of unnecessary flare and hand waving.
Jace shrugged. "It was a process that started a while ago. I am part of an experiment the military was doing. But now it seems to have been completed. Part of that experiment was seeing if we could achieve the nanosystem’s objective of evolution for greater survivability." Jace explained as he finished the first plate and frowned as he could feel his stomach demanding more food. He grabbed some more food and started stacking it onto his plate.
"Oh? I heard about the nanosystem as well. Has someone studied it?" Gorund asked innocently but flinched when both Jace and Peter glared at him.
"Ha... you are not from this galaxy so it makes sense. But that is forbidden, in large part because the system is sentient and no one wants a bunch of invisible microscopic machines breaking you down at a level you cannot detect." Jace explained. "Although that has not stopped people and the results were always catastrophic."
Gorund waved his hands. "Got it. No experimenting on your nanobot system." Gorund then seemed to think of something. "Actually can it be considered nanobots?"
"No," Jace shook his head with a chuckle. "But try explaining the actual size of the machines inside nanohumans bodies to thirteen year olds when they are first learning about that."
"There is also the fact that the name just stuck even though it was realized that it was smaller later on. It is mostly a branding thing that even the Nanosystem seems to be caught up in. Just do not think about it too much and accept it." Peter Reese explained as he cut Jordan’s food for her.
"Hmm... okay. So this Nanosystem helped you evolve?" Gorund asked as he downed some of the juice and grunted in approval.
"Yes, it is part of its purpose in the first place. To help the user’s race evolve. Of course we have no record of it actually happening and it looks like I am probably the first to have successfully evolved into a new species. Although I will admit that my entire body hurts and is sensitive. Then there is the fact that I clearly need to retrain my body to get a better physique again." Jace declared with a scoff, "it is actually quite annoying almost like starting from zero."
"There has to be a few benefits." Peter pointed out as he leaned back in his chair. He was done with his food already.
"Well I can tell my strength is the same as when I went to sleep. But I can also tell I can get stronger now. But then there is also my hunger and-"
"Wait!" Peter interrupted Jace mid-explanation. "Are you telling me you can get stronger than the previous maximum for humans?"
Jace blinked then tilted his head and nodded his head up and down. "Yeah of course. I basically evolved to a form of higher race. Of course I would be able to get stronger. That is not the end to the positives but it is still annoying that-"
"Stop!" Peter yelled and leaned forward and then rested his forehead against the table. "This guy basically prestiged his race like a game and he is complaining? What the hell."
Jace shrugged, "anyways. I basically need to add strength and body training to my regiment again. But today I am going to finish on the enhanced communicator I had been working on or actually I should write down the idea first and then work on that. Then I think we should be able to finish the hover bike today."
"Hmm... sounds good to me. Until someone comes to pick me up I am going to try and figure out how to forge that Chemi-metal you made." Gorund declared as he burped causing the girls to quietly giggle.