Martock awoke to a nightmare. Surprisingly, it was about him. He grabbed Helios with oversized hands and plucked his terminals, drinking his blood.
“That would be satisfying.” Martock muttered. But it was another creature eating Helios now, and it was far bigger than even Helios’ nightmare version of Martock.
The capacitor was a quarter full, the koveran chamber was completely empty. This Bedang seemed to make recovery long and painful. He could feel infections crawling all over the ship. He began to doubt if they’d make it out alive. They would have to try something now.
Wake up, Puritan. Helios shuddered awake from the nightmare, the tethers holding him in place. We have to move.
Helios tried to light his gravimetric lens. I don’t know if I can… one of my terminals is infected.
The acid had burnt its way through one of his skids. It disrupted the energy cells beneath.
By the Nova, what good are you if you can’t fly. Martock muttered, checking on the drones. Seventeen had been lost overnight to the acid.
He checked the shuttle bay. He hadn’t wanted it to come to this. He didn’t like his chances in a non-jump-drive capable craft alone in a ring with a Bedang, but if the ship couldn’t fly… You’re going to leave me?! It almost sounded hurt.
I think so. There’s not much we can do. You’re as good as dead anyways. Martock replied calmly. Where’s your failure of a Captain? he scanned for Aiyes.
He’s in a coma.
At least it’ll be quick and painless for him once your hull fails and you’re eaten alive. Martock said, readying the shuttle.
I’m going to die… aren’t I? Helios asked dejectedly.
Yes, yes you are.
I don’t want to die! Please get me out of here!
I can’t.
Please! Please don’t let the acid take my wings! he pleaded.
Did the ship really call his terminals wings, or was Martock’s interface triggering déjà vu? Either way, it brought back memories of pleading, and pleading was something he was used to: The constant begging for survival, for freedom, for escape.
Why is it that none of you are ever happy with what you’ve had? Why all the begging? Why does everyone always beg? Does nobody have any dignity? Can’t anybody accept their fate and just let it happen? Why cry about it? Why whimper and cower and quake in fear of the inevitable?
Because you have the power to help me.
That’s what all of you think? Isn’t it? It’s not me that’s killing you. It’s you! It’s the decisions you’ve made, your ancestors made. That’s what got you to this point. Terra was an outcast, someone would have ultimately picked them off. Nyx was a side-effect of that, an inevitable outcome. I taught her that. I thought I did…
He returned his focus to Helios, And you! A tracker for hire! A mercenary! Did you ever stop to think about the dangers of your line of work? Did you ever stop to consider that maybe a Puritan shouldn’t be risking its life working with murderers and assassins and bounty hunters?
We track lost loved ones, too.
Whatever, sure you do. That one contract – use that to mitigate the guilt of all that have died because of you. You didn’t even flinch when you saw the egg. I can review the memories now and all I see is excitement, undeniable excitement at the thrill of tracking down a Vorchan.
We didn’t know—
You knew who I was! I know you knew! You forget I have access to your failing mind.
But you’ve done so much worse. Who are you to pass judgement!
I have, and when fate comes to strike me down. When Justice rears its ugly head and devours me, I won’t beg for my life like some despicable vagrant.
Helios didn’t know what else to transmit. He knew he was doomed now. I’m going to die… he transmitted. A calmness washed over the neural band.
So… Helios. Have you seen Death? Martock asked, raising his hands, letting koveran energy seep through slowly.
I see it now. Helios replied.
You accept it?
I think I do.
Good. Then you have seen Death; accepted it as a brother in arms. It’s my gift to you: Enjoy the strength it gives you.
Helios pondered this, a surge of energy overcoming his calm.
Now get us out of here you BLOODY BEEMS! Martock roared, infusing Helios’ drive with power.
Helios jumped at the strength of the neural transmission, the energy from his capacitor leaping the gap in his terminal and igniting his gravimetric lens. He pushed on with all his might, breaking out of the Bedang’s throat in a single pulse.
Helios could hear the creature’s cry of surprise as it saw the beems break free. It began to pursue him.
“You dare swallow me!?” yelled Martock, he was glowing red. His energy seeped through his arms into the bulkheads around him, which passed through the insulation into the circuitry and the capacitor and the koveran chamber. Soon the beemveins were glowing red and the gravimetric lens was like a small nova.
The Bedang tried to stop but it was too late. Helios flew into the creature like a crimson arrow, disintegrating it. Helios sucked the energy in through his beemveins, letting it flow through the ship into Martock’s arms, who cried out in ecstasy.
Do you feel that power? Martock asked.
I do! Helios exclaimed giddily, spinning from the energy. The majority of his wounds had healed.
With this power we can do anything! And all it requires is the life of those below us! Martock exclaimed. With this power we can fuel the Kahless and get to Zemoria. We can power the koveran shards with sacrifice! Will you help me Helios?
I will! Helios replied.
Then prove to me your loyalty. We will offer our first sacrifice to Kahless.
Aiyes…?
That’s right. While his life energy is weak, it will be enough to test this theory, and heal the rest of your wounds.
I… Helios’ resolution was beginning to fade. Martock hadn’t thought a bond between ship and Captain could be this powerful.
Or do you wish to be the first sacrifice? A healthy Puritan would charge the chambers quite a bit.
You would need something like me to transfer the koveran energy. Helios transmitted, realizing he might be more important than he thought.
That’s right. Martock replied.
I will help you. Let Aiyes live. Helios demanded.
Martock sucked away some of the ship’s energy, running his symbiotic limbs over the hull, raking it. The koveran burns were a bright red in the darkness of space. Very well. Martock said. Now that I have a new comrade, it’s time we eliminated your predecessor.
–
–
Nyx was still sore, and angry. It was taking a lot of effort to make up for last week, when Fawkes had taken advantage of her in his exosuit. She hadn’t been forgiving with the tail after that. Their sessions had become games of dominance now, with both fighting for the top violently. Surprisingly, Fawkes enjoyed it, letting out his emotions was relaxing, almost therapeutic. He just wished her fangs weren’t so sharp, and that damned tail didn’t have such a deadly leading edge. The red spikes on the tip were growing back too. He bit her at the thought. She yelped, waking up.
“Oh you’ll regret that!” she exclaimed, immediately lunging at him. He swiftly swayed out of the way, gracefully manoeuvring himself behind her. She thrashed at him with her wings as he tried to mount her, and then got kicked in the face by her rear paw.
“Ow…” he whimpered, testing his face, a side had gone numb. It was enough time for Nyx to get on top and exert her dominance.
“Give it up, Fawkes! I’ve had years of practise!” she exclaimed, licking him voraciously.
Contact!
Dammit Flames!
Ship! Martock!
Again?
It’s glowing red! Doesn’t look friendly – he must be fully symbiote now.
Shit, jump us out. Fawkes replied automatically, he didn’t have time for this right now.
Jumping. Their starscape changed as Flames appeared at a random nodepoint a few hundred light-years away.
There we go.
“What’s wrong?” Nyx asked.
“Nothing.” Fawkes replied, tripping her with his tail and getting on top, pinning her down as best he could.
–
–
Martock was howling in rage! “HOW DARE THEY FLEE WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGING ME! PURSUE THEM!”
I only have one chamber!
“Argh!” Martock raised his hands, drawing in all the koveran energy around him and refilling Helios’ chamber. Jump you pitiful Puritan!
–
–
Fawkes was enjoying this, he was still on top, though staying there was difficult, and he had been slashed at by her tail twice now.
Contact!
What?
It’s him again! Flames transmitted in surprise.
Jump us again! Fawkes yelled, trying to ride Nyx. She butted back with her head, knocking Fawkes a little farther back. He was in her tail’s optimum striking area.
Jumping. The starscape changed once more.
“Did I hurt you?” Nyx asked worriedly.
Fawkes feigned pain, long enough for Nyx to let her guard down and give him the chance at pinning her tail under his leg. The attempt failed, and the tail was free, engaging his tail in deadly rapier duels while they scrambled to mount each other once more.
–
–
“Dastardly Descendent…” Martock sighed. There wasn’t enough koveran energy here for another jump.
What do we do? Helios asked.
We find sacrifices to continue our hunt!
Not Aiyes!
Scan, Puritan! Sniff for prey! Helios noticed beemspace signatures a few AU’s off. Onwards! Fresh meat awaits!
–
–
Nyx had the upper hand again, and kept Fawkes pinned by his neck as they finished.
“Damn it.” he sighed, shuddering.
“Nice try.” Nyx growled. “You kept my tail at bay.”
“Ha! I did!” he exclaimed, not feeling it.
She pulled it out. He suddenly felt it as it slid free.
“For a while, anyways.” she said, flicking it clean. “So what was distracting you?”
“Martock tried to attack us twice.”
“Interesting. Twice? In a Puritan?”
“A symbiote-Puritan. We’ll have to be careful.” Fawkes said, still trapped underneath her. He motioned for her to get off. She didn’t move.
“I think I’ll stay like this for a while.” Nyx growled, nibbling at his neck.
She really is the dominant one in this relationship. After all the females you domineered to death you end up choosing one that is doing the exact same to you. Isn’t there a term for that… what was it? Irony? Poetic Justice? I don’t really remember.
Shut up, Flames. I let her do it.
Of course you’d say that.
I’ll get better.
What’s sad is she doesn’t even have a neural interface to help her! You have full augmentation from me and you still can’t get the upper hand!
I told you… I let her do it. Fawkes transmitted again, though the lie was obvious. She really was extremely good at grappling.
Tail! Flames exclaimed, helping him deflect the attempt.
“Hey, I thought we were done!” Fawkes growled.
“I’ll say when we’re done!” Nyx hissed.
“Yes dear…” Fawkes replied in a meek but mocking way.
Nyx kissed him. “Are we at the sixth hatchling yet?”
“Flames will have to get us back on course. It could take a while. But at least we know Martock is pursuing us and not our children.” Fawkes said. Her tail was getting dangerously close. He barely managed to deflect it in time. “Are you even listening?”
“Sure, Martock, dangerous. Rawr!” she clamped down on his neck, pinning him again. The angle his head had to take forced him to divert his eyes, which made dodging her tail much more difficult. He tried using Flames’ senses. It hadn’t worked too well the last time, but he began to wonder if that was because Flames was purposefully foiling his defensive attempts.
I would never! Flames exclaimed, sensing the thought.
Whatever Flames! I hope Violet does the same to you. Finds your sensitive little maintenance ports, then gets a really really big and sharp and serrated stick. Like the tip of a Caledon! I hope she finds a Caledon and just pushes it all the way up in—
Fawkes! That’ll never happen! But Fawkes noticed Flames was automatically sealing off his maintenance ports from the thought. It wouldn’t work either. And no part of me is more sensitive than the other.
Really? Fawkes asked, stroking his ventral side with a powerful phantom caress.
HEY! Flames yelped, spinning. The sudden acceleration knocked Nyx over, giving Fawkes another chance at pouncing. He decided to fly clear and catch his breath instead while Nyx righted herself.
Sorry, Flames. Fawkes had gone a little too far with that one. I won’t do that again. Hormones and all, you know. Sorry!
But Flames was keeping a close watch over his neural transmissions now, setting up a firewall that kept phantom sensations from being projected at certain places.
No, Fawkes. I think I understand. You can’t poke your own mate so you try poking me. I understand completely. It’s called transference! You’re transferring your frustrations over to me in an attempt to alleviate them. But you know Fawkes, I’m above that. I understand your frustration over your emasculation and forgive your attempt at transference. Flames replied with mock-condescendence.
You’ve been reading too many psychology holonovels. Fawkes transmitted, dodging Nyx. While she had the strength on the ground, Flames had the grace in the air – usually. His wings were getting tired.
“Enough, Nyx. Really.”
“Really really?” Nyx asked, hovering a few meters away from him. They were all the way at the top of the shuttle bay.
“Do you think we could… finish before we hit the bottom?” Fawkes asked before he could stop himself.
Nyx was trying to couple with him in the air.
“Wait!” Fawkes exclaimed, changing his mind, “I don’t think it’ll work. I need time to recover first. Maybe some other time.”
“Too late! You suggested it! Now I have to find out if we can!” Nyx growled.
“It was a slip-up, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Fawkes was diving away now, trying to get to the exit.
Nyx overtook him, blocking the way out.
Fawkes pulled up, propelling himself up to the ceiling and back to the massive shuttle bay doors at the opposite end of the exit. Nyx stayed between him and the exit, approaching intently.
You should assert yourself.
I can’t outgrapple her! Help me!
How?
Open these doors, I’ll go around!
No way. I’m not letting you risk your life in a vacuum because you can’t handle your mate.
Dammit Flames stop saying that. I can handle her!
Then why are you trying to flee?
It’s a game, you wouldn’t understand!
It doesn’t feel like a game.
Like I said, you wouldn’t understand!
Sure, Fawkes.
Fawkes was being corralled into one of the corners. He had his legs up against the corner, digging into the bulkhead with his claws. He made sure to wiggle a little so Flames would feel the sting.
“You’re trapped, Fawkes! We’re doing this, whether you like it or not!” Nyx roared.
“We’ll see!” Fawkes propelled himself at Nyx, knocking into her with all his might. She yelped and started to plummet. She wasn’t recovering. Fawkes dove after her but was too slow. She hit the ground with a loud thud. The shuttle bay was deathly quiet. “Shit!”
He crash-landed next to her, crouching down beside her, sniffing her for blood, checking her for damage. It was only then that Flames bothered to scan her, revealing full health.
She’s faking. Flames reported.
Fawkes froze, “Sh—“
Nyx smothered him with her wings. He stumbled back, unable to see, falling on his own tail. He was defenceless! Her tail slowly started snaking around, stroking him idly.
“Don’t! Don’t don’t!” Fawkes begged.
“Then repeat after me: “Nyx is the best and will always be the best.”
Fawkes repeated. Flames’ amusement was suffocating on the neural band.
“There is no other Vorchan for me but the most beautiful Vorchan in existence: Nyx.”
Fawkes wondered if there were Vorchans more beautiful than Nyx. He really hadn’t seen one. But he repeated obediently, afraid to stray from the script with her tail in such an advantageous position.
“The most powerful Vorchan in existence: Nyx; the most…” Nyx was running out of things to make him say.
Dominant! Flames suggested. “Dominant?”
“I like that. Dominant. The most dominant Vorchan in existence: Nyx.”
“There is no other Vorchan for me but the most dominant Vorchan for me in existence.” Fawkes repeated, enunciating the word ‘dominant.’ “Will you spare me now? If you don’t I’ll never trust you again!”
“Do you really think I’d be so cruel? That I’d take advantage of you when you’re completely vulnerable and defenceless… like… the way you did when you had that exosuit?” Nyx growled.
“I’m sorry!” Fawkes said. “I just wanted to know what it was like…”
“And how was it?”
“Wonderful!”
He thought she was going to jab him with her tail, but she didn’t, letting him go.
“Fine… I didn’t mind it either.”
“I thought you hated it!”
“The same way you hate the tail.”
“I really hate the tail!” Fawkes replied.
Nyx approached him and he scampered back, readying his tail for the parry.
“Okay…” Nyx seemed to be thinking up something. “How about this: After we save this sixth hatchling. You get full dominance! And I’m not allowed to use the tail. I will do anything you say.”
“Anything?” Fawkes asked.
“Absolutely anything.”
This could be interesting.
Make her… Flames had to transmit the image, because it was beyond actual words.
That’s disgusting.
How about…
No! The fact that she won’t use her tail is wonderful enough. I can’t remember the last time she did that.
She’ll use her tail… she won’t be able to help it.
“And if you don’t do whatever it is I ask you to do? Regardless of how despicable it is?”
“Well you can’t ask me to kill myself, or anything like that.” Nyx said, suddenly worried.
“I’d never do that!”
“Or bite off my tail, or eat my claws… or…”
Flames transmitted another image. That’s creative, Flames, but no. “It’s okay, Nyx. I won’t make you do anything like that. I’ll be happy enough if you don’t use that tail.”
“But you don’t mind the tail, right?” she asked worriedly.
“Well I know how important it is to you.” he said carefully, knowing how she’d reacted when he’d instated the ‘no tail’ rule.
“Because I really can’t help it sometimes.”
“Well you’ll have to help it now! You promised no tails after the next hatchling is saved!”
“Fine. No tail after the hatchling is saved.” Nyx said.
“That’s what you said.”
“That’s right.” she targeted him with those red eyes again, “But that doesn’t mean I can’t use my tail now!”
Fawkes lunged for the door, beating his wings as hard as he could.
“I’ll have to make up for the lack of tail in our next session!” Nyx called after him, nearly catching up before he made it through the doors, crashing into the bulkhead. Nyx crashed into the bulkhead next to him, and he got pinned with her in the confined corridors. It was a lot harder for her to get the advantage here, and she knew it.
Do you two ever stop? Flames asked.
Fawkes tried to get behind her again, getting an idea.
She pulled in close as he was seemingly backed against the bulkhead, only to be tripped suddenly as he shot below her, his head between her legs and right at her tail. He clamped down on it. She pulled away, and he used that momentum to jump on her from behind, putting all his weight on her shoulders. She collapsed, overpowered. He then put both feet on her tail.
“HA!” he exclaimed in victory.
“You’ve grappled me, but now my tail’s in the way of all your pleasure.” Nyx growled.
That was true… Fawkes could imagine the satisfied look in her red eyes just now. “Pinning you has its own pleasures.”
She tried to pull herself free. “Ok, you win. I don’t like not seeing you directly.”
“Not yet!” Fawkes exclaimed, thinking up imaginative ways to get her tail out of the way. What if…
“Oh you wouldn’t.” Nyx growled. He was running his tail along her underside, trying to arch it properly… “It can’t work… it… OW!”
“HA!”
“Spikes! You have spikes! That’s not fair! Stop it!”
Fawkes laughed victoriously, though the angle the tail was at barely gave him any depth at all. He wasn’t even sure what she was complaining about.
“I see how it is. I get the upper hand and suddenly it’s not fair?” Fawkes asked.
“That’s right! Get used to it!” Nyx replied with a smirk, struggling to get her tail out from under his feet. She suddenly did and Fawkes mounted her with unbelievable swiftness and strength, knocking her on her stomach.
“Fawkes…”
“You know I realized something.” Fawkes said pleasurably.
“Really?” she moaned, trying to get her tail around. It was up, and on the outside of his right foot, and she couldn’t arc it around. “Oh…”
“That’s right. I think I’m going to enjoy this position.” Fawkes growled. “Tail-free.”
“If you’re lucky, and I could always.” she tried to slip out, but the pleasure and the weight kept her pinned.
“Always what?” he asked, kissing the top of her head.
“Always…” she gave up, shuddering from the pleasure.
“Now, I win!” Fawkes gasped, suddenly very tired.
Finally! Flames transmitted. I wonder how much these recordings could sell for.
I’ll kill you. I really will.
I wouldn’t. Maybe I’ll show them to Violet.
She’ll never want to have anything to do with any of us again.
I don’t know, it might be her thing.
Flames…
“Fawkes…”
“Yes Nyxey?” Fawkes crooned.
“You know this counts as the no-tail, right?”
“It doesn’t. You said after the hatchling is saved.”
“Yes but I didn’t think—“
“You said it! You better keep your word!”
“Fine.” she sighed. “Then I better see if this works.”
She lunged forward a few inches, decoupling and coiling her tail, suddenly she pushed herself backwards, her tail shot up at his underside and he immediately jumped free from the sharp weapon that nearly impaled him. “Holy crap!”
“That’s right! I’d be careful in that position.”
“I will be! You see, thinking we were done, I gave you a little more leeway. You wouldn’t have been able to do that had I been fully alert.”
“Whatever, Fawkes.” she laughed.
“And that could kill me!”
“Wound you, maybe, not kill you though. You have strong scales!” she said, scanning him.
“It would hurt a lot.” Fawkes said, trying to look pitiful.
“That’s true. You could always ask for that position when we save the hatchling, and say I can’t spike you.”
“I never thought you’d ever spike me like that.” Fawkes pouted.
“Fawkes!” she kissed him, “I wouldn’t, not until we were done, anyways.”
“I thought so.” he kissed back.
Okay. While you two were being… Vorchan… I got us back to our last location. We’ll be at our destination in forty-five.
Good job Flames.
Good job to you, for getting the upper hand.
It was difficult. I never thought such a natural position would elude me.
Natural for a dominant male, not a meek thing like you. Flames replied automatically.
Do you really think I’m meek? Fawkes asked.
I think any other Vorchan would have been eaten alive by Nyx by now.
Thanks… I think.
–
–
Helios caught one! He held the beemster tight under him. The parents had fled after he’d burned the male descendent with his symbiotic strength.
Good job, Helios. Now you can do whatever you want to him, but it has to be at the Kahless. Let’s go forth.
I can’t do a synchronized jump without a bond…
Then bond!
Right, but—
Gender doesn’t actually matter. Try, you’ll see.
Ok… Helios initiated a bond, their gravimetric lenses became one, the beemster cried out in distress, the parents returning, circling warily.
We could lure them to the Kahless and sacrifice them too. Go.
Helios jumped the pair of them back home, where he began absorbing the beemster’s koveran energy. The Descendent parents followed, only to get targeted by over a thousand weapon systems. They were out of koveran energy. Martock ordered the fleet to hold fire. “Let them see what fate awaits them. Unleash your symbiotic strength, Helios! No repression! Do what comes most naturally!”
Helios roared, tearing at the ship with his gravimetric lens, blood filled the air as bulkheads collapsed and internal structure was damaged.
The two Descendents lunged at him, opening fire. Helios pushed the wounded beemster out of the way and flew straight for the Descendents, unleashing a wave of koveran energy that damaged both Descendents. They regained control and came around for another pass. Helios targeted the female, preferring a quick bond with a ship of the opposite gender. He grabbed her voraciously, initiating a bond while circling behind the Kahless.
The male Descendent followed, afraid to open fire. It was going to try to pry him loose with its gravimetric strength.
It underestimates our power. Finish this one quickly so that I may add its strength to Kahless’.
Helios let his instincts take over as he did a full-bond. The bridge filled with pheralax as he entered that catatonic state after the initial bonding sequence. Martock snapped him out of it, letting him focus on the task at hand. He helped Helios shunt away the rest of the Descendent’s energy, throwing it into an eternal sleep. If only you had serrated edges… then we could do real pain. The symbiote loves pain!
Martock reached out to the female Descendent, raking her hull with koveran burns until she stopped screaming.
The male Descendent hit Helios hard, his port side was ruptured and blood began to gush out, the energy getting absorbed by Martock and re-integrated into his hull. DESTROY HIM! Martock demanded.
Helios grabbed the male Descendent, pulling it in close before snapping it in two, drinking the Koveran energy. Both the male and female Descendent were in pieces now. Space was filled with blood and debris.
Now the beemster…
I think he escaped.
Find him!
There’s too much blood. I don’t know what’s his and what isn’t.
Argh! Martock burned Helios’ hull from the rage, making the ship howl in pain.
But Martock was pleased. The koveran shards had started charging from the energy transfer. He would continue sacrifices until the shards made a jump to Zemoria possible once more.
–
–
Tisius had never seen anything like that before. His hull still flooded the space around him with CKRO as he tried to recover from the sudden exertion. He let the adrexin fade, making sure he had an escape nodepoint locked onto in case that thing appeared again.
It had looked like a Puritan, but behaved like something he’d never seen before. Like a predator. He couldn’t see his parents in the nodescape anymore.
Tisius was afraid to cry, knowing the monster might track him. He didn’t want to move, but lit his gravimetric lens in case he had to flee.
He would stay here for a while, trying to accept the reality that had just been unveiled before him.
–
Tisius decided to fly eventually. He wasn’t sure where he would go, or what else he would do, but he felt it was important that he fly. He had never been alone before, and now he was starting to realize he might be alone forever. No, that wasn’t true. His parents would return, none of that had really just happened. It was all just a bad dream. But then why were there burns along his hull?
“Descendent! This is Night Fanton of the Zemorian interceptor Sida’s Pride. State your intentions in Zemorian space with a type-5 status.”
Tisius wasn’t sure what all that meant, and it had been difficult to understand, the transmission having taken him nearly 2 minutes to decode.
“I’m lost. I was attacked by a creature. I think my parents are gone… I don’t know what to do! Can you get help? Are you listening?”
Tisius smelled the ship, it didn’t smell alive, but it looked alive. It had beemveins like him, as well as skids that ended with terminals. He could even see a gravimetric lens at the tip: A bright aquamarine.
When he tried to come in closer to feel the ship it backed away and flew towards the blue planet off in the distance. It was the brightest thing in his nodescape. This place felt familiar, and safe. He could sense other ships looking at him. He decided to follow the ship to the blue planet.
–
Now this is a bad place.
The co-ordinate ended in an asteroid field. It meant this was an asteroid facility, and it must have moved. They didn’t have the vector codes.
Can you find a hollow roid? Fawkes asked.
Flames didn’t feel safe here. Scanner returns were muffled by the debris. His mass sensors were overloaded with data. Even his gravimetric senses told him there were a lot of things nearby. He deployed his AHC, moving through the field carefully. It’s a big field…
How long would it take?
A while. Over a year at this speed.
Nova dammit.
Right.
Any habitable planets?
I don’t know.
Check.
Flames shot out of the asteroid field, glad to be able to increase his speed now that he was clear of the damaging debris. He scanned the area for koveran signatures. There was a build-up on the third moon of the gas giant eight orbits out. It was seven astronomical units from their A-Type star.
He set a course for it.
Fawkes kept Nyx informed as Flames approached the moon, dodging the iridescent tendrils of gas that escaped the massive celestial body it orbited. The gas giant tugged at his gravimetric lens, making it difficult to concentrate. This place is very hazardous.
Makes it all the more imperative that we find our child.
I wonder who this one will belong to… Flames asked passively.
What?
Nothing.
Fawkes pinched his terminals.
Hey! The lens destabilized.
What are you trying to say, Flames? Fawkes asked.
Nothing. It was a bad joke.
It better have been.
It was! There was sincere regret at the remark in the neural band.
If I was bigger I’d hit you. Fawkes growled.
I’m sorry. Flames apologized. He restarted the lens.
A bright flash.
–
Fawkes awoke to warnings in the neural vision. There were heavy gees keeping him pinned against the ground. Flames wasn’t responding to his transmissions. He tried to take over the internal sensors to see if Nyx was alright but more pertinent matters distracted his brain as hull integrity warnings activated.
The ocular strips were useless, blinded by the radiance emitted by the gas giant. He wasn’t sure how they’d got here, or what had happened, but he had to get them out of this endless thunderstorm. Ions raked Flames’ hull, attracted to the lens. Massive flashes ricocheted through the bridge as they grounded out in his systems, paralyzing him. The hull buffeted as particles shot past them at incomprehensible speeds. They were out of control.
He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable. The storm began to fade, space returned to Flames’ ocular strips. They were shooting clear of the gas giant. They must have had enough momentum to go around. He focused all the sensors ahead and made sure they wouldn’t hit anything before he started on damage control, getting what little drones Flames had out to seal the hull breaches.
Having done all he can for Flames, he began his search for Nyx. The internal sensors were offline, they didn’t have as many redundancies as the external systems. He found her charred body in the shuttle bay. He immediately checked her over for vitals, relieved to see she was alive. He grabbed a drone, making it scan her thoroughly.
“You need medical attention.” he said to her. She had been electrocuted, her body had succumbed to severe burns. The webbing was all but gone on her wings, having split and bent over her joints. He needed bemicytes. He had bemicytes. He ran to one of the loose panels in the shuttle bay and ripped a way to Flames’ smaller veins. He bit into the vein with his fangs, over-riding the emergency shut-off valve and letting the blood pour freely. It was the first thing you learnt about as a Beems Captain: Bemicytes.
He grabbed the nearest clean oil-rag and soaked it in Flames’ blood, he then began wrapping the blood-soaked towels over Nyx’s body. He needed a lot of towels – he delegated two drones to towel supply. He couldn’t believe there were only thirty-seven drones in the entire ship. Hundreds must have been destroyed by electrical currents.
It was his fault: De-activating the lens must have made Flames a ground for the gas giant, forcing a short-circuit when the terminals tried to use the beemveins to supply the capacitor energy needed for the initial start. Fawkes didn’t quite understand how such a thing could happen though. The gas giant must have been particularly ionized.
All he could do now is wait, and hope his friends recovered.
–
–
Titan and Litigus had ventral guns. Darwin didn’t know Descendents had ventral guns. In fact, he didn’t know anything about Descendents at all. He watched the two ships’ show of force as they sprayed energy rounds down towards a Raumen city.
“That should do it. Thirty-seven-hundred cap rounds from each of us. If they don’t surrender their Vorchans now they’re asking for it. I’m using explosive rounds next.”
“Good job Zack.” It seemed Zack was the commanding officer. He wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that Zack’s Descendent was significantly larger than the other one. At a distance it wasn’t noticeable, but when they were side-by-side you can clearly see the difference between the two Descendents. Even their colours varied: Zack’s Descendent a dark red while Ganon’s was an exotic bright red with yellow stripes and a blue lining. He wondered if the colourful one was a female. Then he began wondering if Zack’s Descendent had been caught lying, and how the ships punished one another… if they even had mates. He stroked his wound, it still stung, and since the attack, he hadn’t stopped feeling he’d lost Lucienda, like that spark had been extinguished during that encounter. It was almost like that session in their shower was a goodbye.
“They’re contacting us.” reported Zack. “Should I patch them through to you?”
“Yes.” Darwin replied. He was watching from one of the hotels on the planet. He had arrived as an ambassador, but they hadn’t taken him seriously enough to actually give him an audience. He was still glad he’d tried, though, and the hotel gave a nice view of the starships as they flew by.
Lucienda licked his wound. Darwin winced. They hadn’t brought exosuits on this trip, knowing the Raumens wouldn’t risk harming them, not with Descendents up above.
“General Darwin?” the delay between the sound and comprehension meant it was a Raumen. Darwin pulled away from Lucienda, giving the comms chip his full attention.
“This is he.” he growled.
“We’d like to discuss this issue regarding the Vorchans you wish to have returned.”
“Excellent. I’m in room two thirty-seven at the Grand Ball Hotel in Selia.”
“An ambassador will meet you there in one hour.”
“One hour…” Lucienda growled. While Darwin had started drifting away, Lucienda had gotten closer, subconsciously aware of the void that was forming and doing her best to close it.
She kissed him affectionately, paws on his shoulders as she gently raked the base of his jaw with her incisors. This had been so pleasurable to him once, but he felt fearful, backing away.
“Sorry.” he said meekly. It was such a beautiful planet too, a beautiful view: The sun rising in the window, with two massive starships having basically done a low-pass for them.
“I shouldn’t have attacked you.” she said apologetically.
“I deserved it.” he replied reassuringly.
“But now you’re afraid of me.”
“I’m not afraid of you!” he snapped, growling. She backed away.
“Let’s get ready for their ambassador and get these damned Vorchans freed.” he said irritably, very frustrated.
Lucienda didn’t say anything. She retreated to their bathroom.
Darwin sighed and sat down on his bed, looking out at the window. His mind idly thought of their next planet, a few light years away. The Descendents already knew where it was. He wondered how they could see that far…
“Darwin.” Lucienda said, she had put highlights in her spikes, and coloured her horns with LeSans Blue. It was an expensive make-up. Darwin had never let her buy it at Terra, but he adored the colour. She smiled. Her incisors had an elaborate iridescent softener on them called Fluff, another Terra commodity. It was for Vorchans that had particularly sharp incisors and just couldn’t help but use them when they were in that special mood…
“Where did you get all that?” Darwin asked, awed by her stunning beauty.
“I asked around.” she growled seductively.
He looked away, and then looked back, then away, tapping his comms chip.
“This is Darwin.”
“How can we help you? The ambassador will—“
“Tell the ambassador I will see him later tonight. Something’s come up.”
“At what time?”
Darwin glanced at the clock. It was 0830. He then looked his mate over in all her glory. “Err… 1830.”
“We will see you then, will you give assurances that the Desce—“ Darwin cut the comms link, pouncing on Lucienda.
–
–
Something was on top of him in his sleep, smothering him. Fawkes struggled against it, flapping his wings to try and get it off. It vanished as he woke. A dream.
He heard footsteps. He froze, listening. Nyx was lying next to him, asleep and stable, covered in towels that were covered in medical packages. He had found a partially functioning exosuit and slipped into it before falling asleep. He armed its weapons. Two of the six hardpoints gave a malfunction warning: The second gauss rifle and one of the thirty millimetre ammo boxes.
He activated the scanner only to have his entire heads-up display fail on him. The suit tried to revert to classic sight systems but the sight was melted to the visor and useless. He felt his neural connection with the weaponry and activated their laser sights. A few actually responded, giving him a relatively decent but very obvious targeting system.
The shuttle bay was dark, the emergency lighting having failed in sixty-three of the eighty-seven lights. It meant there was a lot of shadow, and his night vision wasn’t that great.
“Who’s there?” he called to the shadows.
He wondered if the radar warning receiver still worked. He began to run a diagnostic on it but the diagnostic failed. He started running a diagnostic on the diagnostic.
He loaded tracers into the thirty – at least he’d hoped he’d loaded tracers. He’d thought of loading tracers and given the command through the neural link, but there was nothing to confirm that tracers were actually loaded.
He fired the first round up into the air, relieved to see a bright red streak exit the autocannon. He fired off the rest of the tracer rounds, illuminating the shadows.
There were a lot of silhouettes, but they vanished as the tracers stopped firing, disappearing into the darkness. He was surrounded.
“Fawkes?” Nyx moaned.
Fawkes’ imagination was having a great time exaggerating the ferocity of the silhouettes the tracers had revealed, making him feel as if he and Nyx were in a cave full of demons.
“Nyx.” Fawkes said, embracing her. He kissed her gently, glad to see she was awake. If they’d die now at least they’d die together. “We’re surrounded.”
“I can see them.” she said, staring at one of the shadows.
“See what?” he asked, not even sure if Nyx was fully conscious.
There was a pause as Nyx looked with those red eyes. She wasn’t looking at anything in particular. She closed her eyes once more, exhaling peacefully.
“Lower your weapons!” boomed a Raumen voice.
Fawkes was so relieved to see a Raumen woman in a soldier’s uniform exit the shadows. She had an escort of four soldiers. In his mind he had seen eight-legged incisor-wielding death-demons with dark yellow eyes. He looked at the other shadows, hoping none popped out.
The Raumen repeated her demand, meters away from him now, her rifle pointed at his head. “We’re here to help you.” she said.
“Oh, well in that case…” Fawkes de-activated the useless exosuit, focusing all his attention on Nyx. “She’s badly wounded.”
“We can help her back on Charax.” the woman said. “I’m Commander Delinay.”
“I’m Fawkes.” he replied automatically, no will left to question or fight.
–
He let them bring their shuttles in through the bay door, surprised the electrostatic membrane still functioned well enough to keep a vacuum seal throughout the shuttle’s landing procedure.
“This happens occasionally.” explained the officer. “This planet is notorious for claiming starships. You’re lucky your ship is a Descendent. Most of them recover over time.”
Fawkes was glad to hear someone talk about something that was happening. It brought him slightly closer to reality. He still didn’t feel like saying anything though, nodding catatonically and keeping his attention on Nyx, making sure nobody gave him an excuse to attack.
–
It took quite a few hours and an iv for him to slowly start recovering from what had happened. Judging by the plethora of medical equipment on his body it seemed he hadn’t been spared the wrath of the gas giant either, but he did feel a lot better. As did Nyx, he noticed, her snout nuzzling his cheek. Her wings were still burnt, but webbing heals quickly.
Sorry Fawkes. Flames transmitted.
Fawkes was so glad to just know he was alive. He reached out to his ship mentally.
With most of the diagnostic systems back online, he was able to get a more accurate damage assessment: Flames body wasn’t too badly burnt, all the electricity focused on travelling through the beemveins, which could take arcs of over a hundred thousand degrees. Unfortunately, Flames internal structure couldn’t, and Fawkes could almost trace the path the lightning had taken through his ship’s body.
All of the chambers were damaged, including the ones that held vital organs, only one if his nutrient pumps were actually functioning. The koveran chamber’s electrical connections had been completely melted, which meant the capacitor was completely isolated from any assistance from the koveran chambers, not that he’d risk an energy conversion at Flames’ state anyways. His power levels were reading all over the place, forcing him to judge strength by ‘feeling’. Unfortunately, Flames felt the way he looked: horrible.
It wasn’t your fault, Flames.
My koveran chambers don’t work, my cap is capped at ten percent, my organs—
I know, Flames. We’ll get you fixed up.
How? I can’t jump, I’m useless. If I were a starship I’d be a write-off. He transmitted dejectedly.
Your beemveins and koveran chambers are intact—
Yeah but my terminals were lightning prongs, they’re useless. I don’t know if I can fix them, Fawkes! I don’t know if I can ever fly again. Flames was starting to panic, fear of losing his mobility overwhelming him.
Fawkes tried to calm him, putting his phantom paws over the ship’s nose and his phantom wings over the front of his skids. They were the only parts of Flames besides the beemveins that had been unscathed by the high temperature assault.
Your heatshields are fine. Fawkes transmitted reassuringly, stroking the ship’s nose.
What good that will do if I can’t jump…
We’ll get your terminals fixed. “How are the locals here Nyx?”
She had remained quiet as Fawkes and Flames conversed on the neural band, noticing the agitation on Fawkes’ face.
“How is Flames?” she asked.
“Let’s just say… We won’t be getting anywhere anytime soon.”
Nyx nodded, “The locals look nice, but they don’t look like they’re doing all of this for free. We have universal credits right?”
“We do. A lot, and they probably assume as much, otherwise they wouldn’t have saved us.” Fawkes whispered.
“Good. Well I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear this:”
“What?”
“We’re on an asteroid!”
Fawkes reached out to Flames’ damaged ocular strips. He was floating weightlessly against a drydock tethered to a small roidal colony.
“They must have been nearby. We’re lucky they were able to tow us this far.” Fawkes said.
“And if we’re luckier we’ll find our child!” Nyx replied excitedly.
“We’re in no position to be freeing slaves at the moment, and Martock has the ability to find us.” Fawkes groaned, “We have to get Flames spaceworthy as soon as possible.”
“They suggested we trade Flames in for a small salvaged Zemorian cruiser – jump capable.”
Fawkes’ suddenly felt much better, which also horrified Flames, who was listening to the conversation. Don’t sell me!
“They have this Zemorian ship here?” Fawkes asked. Flames was delegating all of his remaining drones to terminal-duty, desperately trying to get himself spaceworthy, still not believing what his captain was saying. “We need that ship.” Fawkes said simply.
Fawkes… Flames could have been crying on the neural band, emanating betrayal and grief.
“So we’re actually trading the ship in?” Nyx asked, not sure if this was a routine thing that Captains did every once in a while or not.
“We need a jump capable ship.” Fawkes said coldly, “Otherwise we all die when Martock returns.”
–
Fawkes spoke to the cruiser’s owner later that day after he’d settled all of his medical bills and docking fees.
“So your Descendent’s neural plexus is compatible with a standard navy interface?” asked Jiles, the owner.
“Yes, see for yourself.” Fawkes said, inviting the neural interface to their band.
“Are you still connected?” Jiles asked.
“I am.”
“I wouldn’t want to break Heron’s law. I’ll wait until you say your goodbyes.”
You must be planning something… Flames transmitted hopefully.
Of course I’m planning something. Fawkes replied.
I love you! Flames exclaimed, giving Fawkes an affectionate neural caress.
But I still have to trade you in.
I understand. What about Martock?
He’s going after me and Nyx, not you. This will give you time to heal. Just don’t get yourself killed under Jiles. Please don’t get yourself killed. Fawkes repeated desperately, taking one last neural whiff of his ship’s entire body. Goodbye…
He activated the link deletion algorithm. I’ll see you again soon? Flames asked, his transmission was fading, the algorithm mercilessly cutting off all neural links to the ship to give way to the new one. You will. I promise. He wasn’t sure if Flames had heard that last transmission. He was just a distant presence in his mind now. They reached out to each other, their type-3 bond letting them sense each other at this proximity. It felt like he was in Martock’s lounge again, all alone, Flames an ethereal mote in his mind.
“He’s…” it was hard for him to say it. He could feel Nyx resting her head on his shoulder, giving Jiles that red-eyed glare, “yours”
“Excellent.”
Fawkes automatically accepted the invite to the Zemorian cruiser. It’s systems lit up in his nodescape, all of it seeming to emanate a subconscious blue. The ship was ninety meters long, with four fore pulse cannons and six on either broadside. The back of the ship was reserved for the terminals and a backup fusion drive that looked like it drew power from one of the reactors, an interesting redundancy. Not feeling anything was strange. Hi. He transmitted instinctively, not sure if he could ever acclimatize to a ‘dead’ ship.
Invalid query. “What do you think?” Jiles asked.
“It can talk?”
“Very limited, manual control is usually better but it’s computer core can do simple tasks. There should be a manual somewhere in that core. Well, it was nice meeting you!” his expression changed as his link with Flames activated. He started howling in pain. He fell limp to the floor.
“Are you alright?” Flames transmitted to Fawkes’ ship.
“What the hell just happened?” it was strange conversing with his ship in such a way.
“I don’t know.”
Fawkes knelt down next to Jiles. He was glad they had done this transaction in the man’s personal chambers. A scream followed by a man lying on the ground with two Vorchans looming over him in a public place would have made this worse than it already was.
Flames neural invite washed over him.
Entity: Flames. Requesting tether. Reported the cruiser. How did it recognize Flames?
What? Fawkes asked.
Invalid query.
Define ‘tether’.
Tether: an organized link where one captain is given full neural control of multiple link-capable craft.
Who was your last captain?
Jiles Bishop.
Are you linked to him?
No. Jiles is deceased.
Were you linked to him?
Yes.
Was Flames linked to him?
Yes.
That motherfucker.
Unknown query ‘motherfucker’.
“Flames, I think Jiles was trying to link to both ships.”
“I don’t know. I’m wondering if it was my injuries that overwhelmed his interface? How good are the navy interface’s axon blocks?”
Fawkes was suddenly aware of all the burns on his body too. “He must have known you were wounded, otherwise he wouldn’t have offered his ship up for trade.”
“Accept my invite!” Flames exclaimed.
“There’s something else going on here, some sort of tether. I think I can keep a link with this ship. It’s what Jiles was trying to do too.”
“Why would Jiles want to keep that tiny thing?”
Fawkes tapped into the cruiser’s visual sensors. He could see Flames staring at the tiny ship in what must have been contempt. “Let me ask.”
Cruiser, why did Jiles want to keep you?
Invalid query, define ‘keep’.
Keep: Not unlink with.
Invalid definition syntax.
Why is Jiles dead?
Feedback loop.
From what.
From your interface.
Why.
Firewall.
“Flames, can you speak to this ship? I don’t know what the he’ll he’s saying.”
“Hi, cruiser!” Flames transmitted.
“That’s not what I meant.” but Fawkes felt pretty confident now that it wasn’t the tether that killed Jiles. Accept tether.
Flames became apparent in his mind again. He braced himself for a surge of pain but nothing happened.
Ohh so that’s what happened! Flames transmitted.
Invalid qu–
Shut up Cruiser. It wasn’t that he didn’t have axon blocks. All navy interfaces do. It was just that with this ‘tether’ my link passes through this cruiser and then over to your interface. Since the cruiser can’t feel pain, his interface didn’t expect my pain through the neural link.
So was he trying to steal you or not? The cruiser mentioned a feedback loop and a firewall?
Right. Fawkes could sense Flames’ mind pillaging the cruiser’s computer core for information. The feedback loop was caused by your interface’s firewall. He was trying to dump the pain from me into the cruiser which should have killed you, but it was deflected by the firewall and looped back into him.
Flames, how the hell did you figure all that out in three seconds?
Well you see: unlike you, I assert my dominance over the things I’m paired with and make sure they do what I want. Like my new friend Cruiser.
Fawkes noticed that Cruiser was floating towards Flames in the drydock.
You know she is pretty good looking. I can practise on her so I don’t overwhelm Violet!
Suddenly the cruiser was a she, and called Cruiser. At least Flames was feeling better.
Can you use ‘her’ to jump out if Martock appears?
That’s the idea, but I’d like to get to know her first.
How long has it been since you bonded? Fawkes sighed.
Too long, Fawkes, too long. Flames replied, gazing at the small cruiser expectantly.
I can tell. Don’t break it. Fawkes turned towards Nyx, only a few minutes had passed, and she was waiting for his explanation. “Let’s find our child.”
–
–
“All Vorchans are registered under your name now.” explained Tike, the planet’s ambassador.
“You can erase the registration. They will be safe with us.” Darwin already had recovery craft coming down to pick up the refugee Vorchans. He was monitoring the boarding using a limited interface he’d been given through his own combat interface. It gave him the ability to access a portion of the ship systems and understand the craft themselves as they spoke amongst each other on the public band. He had learnt a lot about them this way. Their squadrons were complicated, and Litigus was a female Descendent. She generally followed Titan everywhere, which had made Artemis put them in the same squad. Ships generally related to each other based on their ‘flocks’, which mirrored their squads. Artemis told him to learn as much as he can about the different relationships the ships had with each other before changing the actual fleet structures. It was an interesting dynamic to fleet compositions – social and military hierarchies entwined.
Laze and her Captain Gabriel were in charge of Vorchan recovery. Laze had her own flock of five ships that followed her around. It was a complicated social structure, with the other four ships having formed their own social allegiances with other ships in other flocks. Through those allegiances he had already noted down several Descendents that just wouldn’t mix. Like Laze and Litigus, if those two flocks came into contact with each other the ships would become agitated and start spewing insults, with two of Laze’s flock immediately moving on to mingle with another flock that belonged to Aureate, a colourful Descendent that had a redundant terminal system. Luckily, this would make Laze back away to recover her two ships, thus defusing the encounter with Litigus.
All in all, there were one hundred and sixty three Descendents in orbit over this planet. Overwatch duties were given to the largest flock: An imposing-looking ship and Captain by the names of Devo and Meyoko, respectively. Devo had forty ships that followed him in his squad, several having formed smaller social groups inside that squad. None dared stray from his formation, though. Darwin wondered if that had something to do with the fact that Meyoko was a Vulcan female, a very vicious one judging by what Artemis had to say about her. Though knowing Artemis he’d probably tried to pounce her. With the Vorchans recovered, Darwin had Gabriel fly them back to Terra, where those that decided to stay would stay and those that wanted to go home would go home.
Liberating these planets was easier than he’d thought. He wondered if the next planet would be as… submissive. It was called Gaia, and was notorious among the Descendents for its high koveran signature. Many of the ships knew ships that operated around Gaia, some apparently had family there too. They would arrive at Gaia the next morning, but first Darwin would have to meet Meyoko, she was unofficially the Fleet Admiral of the ships, even though she technically answered to him. Darwin decided to meet her at a restaurant in the city he was in: Selia. He chose a relatively fancy one that looked like it would accept Vorchans. It was called Grummen’s.
Vorchans loved eating, so a dinner place was a good idea, and since he was bringing his mate, the Vulcan wouldn’t feel encroached on. He had avoided having a meeting at his hotel room for that very reason, since the presence of a bed could set off her instinctive responses, even if it was just subconscious. He wanted to get this relationship off to as good a start as possible if he’d be living aboard her starship.
Meyoko was there on the hour, and was well-groomed, having chosen some black make-up to accentuate her spikes and horns. Her eyes were a piercing blue, as was the standard for most Vulcans. Her black stripes were very elaborate, and he noticed her ship’s name was engraved on the left side of her chest, looking like it had been handwritten by her very own stripes. He wouldn’t even have noticed it had it not been written in Vorchan.
“It’s nice to meet you.” she said, watching the two Deserts. Her tone was defensive.
“You too.” Lucienda replied, she wasn’t smiling.
Oh Nova no, not this early into the dinner. I haven’t even said anything yet. Darwin smiled meekly. “This is a nice place.” he said. They had chosen one of the larger private booths. The chairs had been removed to accommodate them. Vorchans didn’t really need chairs anyways.
“It is.” Meyoko replied, scanning the room. “A little dark.”
Dark… make it brighter. How will I make it brighter? There were unlit candles in the middle of the table. He contemplated using his ancestral flame to light it, but realized that was illegal on Terra.
“We should get a light for these candles. It should lighten things up. Will you grab a light for us honey?” Lucienda said to Darwin.
“Sure.” Don’t eat each other while I’m gone.
Darwin excused himself and made his way over to the bar, where he was sure the barman would have a lighter.
“Do you have a lighter?” he growled.
“Sure.” the barman reached into the cupboard and grabbed a lighter. Darwin opened his mouth, beckoning for him to put it in his jaw. “No way. I’m not going anywhere near those fangs.” he said, putting the lighter on the table.
Darwin couldn’t pick the tiny lighter up with his fangs, and it fell out of his claws. Vorchan lighters were so much bigger. He noticed people were watching him. He was blushing, which was very noticeable on his desert skin.
Fuck it, he thought, leaving the lighter and heading back to the booth. No I can’t go back empty-handed – he turned around, the barman was already putting away the lighter. Raumens were watching him with amused expressions on their faces.
–
“Did you grab a lighter?” Lucienda asked, seeing his empty fangs.
“No…” he muttered miserably.
“Why not?”
“I couldn’t pick it up.” Darwin sighed.
“You couldn’t pick it up?” Meyoko asked, amused.
“It was too small.”
“You should have asked him to light the candles for us then.” Lucienda said matter-of-factly.
“If you had a plan why didn’t you go and get the lighter instead?” Darwin asked confrontationally.
Meyoko snorted. They looked over, seeing the candles lit.
“Did you—“ Darwin was surprised.
“I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.” Meyoko growled.
“Well there we go. Why didn’t you do that Darwin?” Lucienda asked.
“I didn’t think it would be appropriate.”
“Why wouldn’t it be appropriate?” Meyoko asked.
“On Terra it’s illegal.”
“Illegal? To use your fire?”
“Yes, isn’t it illegal where you’re from?”
“Of course not. In fact we get flameburst training in basic.”
“Basic?”
“I was a soldier for the VE before I defected and went mercenary.” Meyoko explained.
That sounded very interesting. “How is the VE?”
Meyoko explained basic training, and how she’d ended up getting into a fight with their drill Sergeant in her final year there. She had been a grunt for twelve years of her life because of that, finally deciding to join Syndicate: A small Vorchan mercenary group. Through there she’d come across Devo, or his egg, more precisely. She had left Syndicate to take care of Devo’s egg. He hatched a year later.
“What’s it like taking care of an egg?” Darwin asked.
“Well. I had to find a place to plant him since I didn’t know any other Descendents at the time who could be surrogate mothers. So I just had Syndicate drop us off on the nearest floral planet. They checked up on me every few months but then they just stopped coming. I don’t even know what happened to them.”
“How’d you come across the egg?” Lucienda asked.
“Well…” Meyoko looked away, thinking of a way to phrase the response. Darwin could tell she wasn’t comfortable with the question.
“You don’t have to tell us.”
“No it’s alright. It’s just complicated. You see Devo had belonged to a trader who’s name I’ve forgotten. He was one of many eggs that the trader had aboard his ship. Our mission had been to board the ship, destroy it, and drop the eggs off at a pre-determined location.”
“So you stole the egg?” Lucienda asked.
“I guess you can call it that?”
“What else would I call it?” Lucienda growled.
“Well we were already stealing the eggs. I just stole it again.”
“And Syndicate didn’t care?”
“Not really. Our client didn’t know how many eggs there were.”
“And none of the other Syndicate members wanted their own egg?” Lucienda asked.
“Lucienda…” Darwin growled.
“They didn’t. Nobody wants to get tied down with an egg. They take a while to hatch and then take years to mature, and then you don’t even know if it’ll choose you, or even acknowledge you at all. Some just grow up and jump away, off to Zemoria most likely to get drafted like all the other Descendents. But I took that risk and it paid off!” Meyoko sighed contently, lost in the memory.
“What’s the upkeep on a Descendent anyways?” Darwin asked.
“That depends on how sexy he is.” Meyoko replied with a grin.
Darwin wasn’t sure if that was a joke, but he laughed anyways.
“You see, ships like Devo aren’t very good at producing the drones they need to take care of themselves, and crews need to be paid. But if you find a few Puritans that’ll swoon at your very presence, you can easily get some free drones in exchange for some… p and p.”
“P and P?” Darwin asked.
“Pleasure and Protection! The bond lights the Puritan up in Devo’s nodescape, keeping her safe during her courier missions and making her a more valuable transport ship because of the link.”
“Nodescape?” Lucienda asked.
Meyoko explained the basics of nodescapes to them as they finished their dinner, she didn’t have time to explain what a bond was, which was probably for the best judging by the sheepish grins she had when saying the word.
It was getting late when they’d finally gotten their chambers aboard the Descendent.
“We haven’t had residents for a while. I’m not too good at crew briefings but if the door opens when you walk up to it you can go through, if it doesn’t then you can’t. I’ll show you the bridge in the morning before we depart for Gaia.” Meyoko said. “If you need anything, I’ll be in my own chambers. To get there just turn right until you reach the last chamber door.”
“He won’t need anything.” Lucienda growled.
“Oh right, you have a limited link, right Darwin?” Meyoko asked.
“I do.”
“Hi!” the transmission registered as Devo.
“I just made this channel. Memorize it. It’ll be the ship channel. You can talk to any of us through here.”
Darwin noticed Lucienda wasn’t in the channel. “And Lucienda?”
“She can’t join. She might have a combat interface but she doesn’t have the clearance or the training to use it for communication.”
“I barely do.”
“You must have. Learning to communicate on a neural band isn’t something you just figure out. Not unless you’ve had a Descendent before?”
“No, I was in the reserves. Neural training was part of it. We used the combat interface for squad communication and weapons employment.”
“Interesting. You know I won’t fall asleep for a while. Devo has a bunch of checks I wanna monitor first. You can tell me about your time in the reserves!”
“Sure!” Lucienda never asked him about his time in the reserves. He hoped she didn’t notice the neural conversation. Nope, she was already asleep. “Well I joined when I was seventeen. My parents hated the idea, but I felt it was my duty.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice in the VE. I was born into a soldier clan.” Meyoko explained.
“Harsh. So after a few years of training in the reserves, low and behold, my planet gets invaded! Artemis was my squad commander. I’m sure you know him.”
“Oh I definitely know him. Who doesn’t?”
“Right, so he—“
“Hey, you wanna continue this conversation verbally in the lounge?”
Darwin really wanted to tell his life story to someone, so he immediately accepted the offer, sneaking out of his chamber to socialize with Meyoko in the lounge.
–
–
Nyx came across the scent that night as they explored the asteroid. The authorities hadn’t discovered Jiles’ body yet, so they still had time. Fawkes had told Flames to jump out the moment Martock appeared. The stakes were high, which made things more desperate than before. Fawkes knocked on the door of the room that supposedly held their offspring. Nyx’s tactic of going to the most expensive houses first had definitely worked. Who else could afford a Vorchan?
“Who is it?” asked a man’s voice.
“Fawkes, I’d like to talk to you.”
Fawkes took a deep breath, checking over Flames’ AHC. Ha there is no way it works. Don’t even bother looking at it.
Can you do anything?
I can augment you; that’s about it.
So I can see the bullet fly towards me in slow motion and live an entire perceived second longer?
Pretty much.
Great.
Trajectory analysis?
I wouldn’t trust it.
I’d never trust it yet I still use it!
Well now it’s even more useless, eighty percent of my sensors are still down.
Exosuits?
Too late for that, and there’s no way I could repair one. All the drones are busy keeping me intact.
Why didn’t I trade you away legally again?
Because nobody can be trusted!
You should be glad.
I love you too.
The door opened. Obviously he was in an armoured suit with two guards at his flanks. “What do you want Vorchan?”
“Did you buy one recently?” Fawkes asked.
“What’s it to you?”
Fawkes tried to use Flames’ senses to look into the building, but they were too weak. Damn Flames a count of potential enemies would be nice.
I was no use finding the kid; I’ll be no use now. I recommended jumping out and coming back later.
We’d never find this asteroid again.
You don’t know that.
“We’re looking for our child.” Nyx said, trying to sound somewhat pitiful.
Now’s not the time to argue, Flames.
I know. I’ll see what I can do with Cruiser.
Yes, see what you can do, and not sexually, look into those pulse weapons.
It’s not always about that!
Ha!
“Your child? You’re Butch’s parents?”
Butch? Really? “We think so. If you let us look at him we can confirm it.”
“One sec.” the man closed the door. “Butch! Get over here!”
Some shuffling, the door opened again. The three of them instinctively started sniffing each other. Butch’s tail was wagging. “I recognize your scent.” he observed.
“We’re your parents!” Nyx exclaimed.
Butch was a dark brown, with black and green stripes on his body. “I look nothing like either of you.”
“You’ve got my stripes!” Nyx retorted.
Butch put his paw up against Nyx’s body, comparing the colours. “It’s been four years…” he said.
“I know. We just escaped.”
“You’re escapees?” asked the man.
“Yes.” Fawkes replied, no point hiding it now.
“So you want him back?” the man asked.
“That’s the idea.” Fawkes replied.
“And if I refuse you rip us apart?”
“You said it not us.” Fawkes snapped.
“Butch you wanna go with these people?”
“I don’t know them.”
“Well there’s your answer. It was nice meeting you guys.”
They shut the door.
Well there’s that.
We’ll never find this asteroid facility again, Flames.
“What do we do, Fawkes?” Nyx asked. “We’ll never find this asteroid again.”
“I don’t know.” Fawkes said, knocking on the door again.
The man opened it, this time he had his rifle in his hand. “What? Is this the part where you try killing us?”
“No. We’re just wondering if we can visit occasionally.”
“Butch! Do you wanna see these people again?” the man asked.
“Not really.”
“Look. I understand maternal instincts and all that, but Butch really isn’t interested. We’re fine here. We don’t need you intruding on our lives.”
“Do you treat him well?” Nyx asked.
“Sure. The four of us get along. We base out of this asteroid and get whatever work we can take.”
“Must be lucrative work to be able to afford a Vorchan.”
“You GalCore or something?” the man asked suspiciously.
“No. Are you mercenaries?” Fawkes asked.
He didn’t say anything. “You got Descendent support?”
“Yeah.”
“We can use it. What do you charge?”
“Ten mil for general duties.”
“Duration?”
“A week.”
“Can we see this Descendent?” Fawkes asked. Flames you feel like bonding with something that isn’t inanimate?
I don’t look very attractive.
Well, be charismatic, if this Descendent’s female we’ve got our ticket back to this asteroid.
This isn’t fair. The one time we could have used everything at our disposal and we’re a wreck.
We wouldn’t have gotten here without being a wreck.
Right.
“Sure.” the man sighed, “Come in.”
They entered a small lounge. There was a holovision in one corner, with papers and food all over the floor. The other two mercenaries were playing some sort of game on the HV. Butch seemed to be in his own room.
“I’m Fawkes. This is Nyx.” Fawkes said.
“I’m Bruno. That’s Mace and Fox.” Bruno said, pointing out the two mercenaries. “What do you need a Descendent for?”
“Escort. We’re being hunted.”
“By what?”
“A crazed tracker Puritan. It’s driving us crazy.”
“That should be no match for Stripes. I’ll give her a call.”
Her! Look sexy Flames.
Flames pushed the Cruiser away from underneath him, trying to look inconspicuous. It was already covered in scratch marks. I almost figured out how to steal its koveran energy. The Descendent jumped in. She was orange, with green stripes and redundant terminals. Gross. Flames transmitted, not attracted to the RT’s.
Hypocrite. You wanted to bond with Kite!
Yeah but she’s a beautiful blue, and – most importantly – Thanatos’ mate!
Flames…
No. You could sell me if you want but I’m not bonding with that thing.
Fine…
Don’t sell me!
No I meant the bond… what do we do then? How do we use this Descendent to our advantage?
“Hi! I haven’t seen you around here before.” transmitted Stripes.
Flames. RT means producer. Producer means free drones.
Drones… Fawkes could feel Flames’ desperation for drones. “Hi. I’m Flames!” he said, trying to sound as enthusiastic as possible.
“You don’t look too good…” Stripes said.
Neither do you! “I took a bit of a beating from that gas giant…”
“That’s horrible.”
“There she is, you should be able to get a look at her from Butch’s window. Or do you have a ship with link capabilities?” Bruno asked.
“Yeah. We’ve got a pretty nice Zemorian cruiser. We just finished finalizing the deal for it when Nyx came across a familiar scent.”
“Ah. Yeah Jiles has been trying to get rid of that for a while. He said he wants to upgrade.”
“Oh no shit? To what?”
“Descendents.”
“Those are definitely awesome.”
“Yeah. Expensive though. We can only afford Stripes’ part-time. She comes by and does gigs for us when she can. We pay her owner.”
“I didn’t hear you call her in.” Nyx said.
“Observant. I’ve got a limited link with her.” Bruno said. “All of her clients do.”
She sounds dirty… Flames transmitted, not interested at all.
She’s a mercenary Descendent warship. You should be madly in love.
She’s not a Puritan, she’s not violet in colour, and she’s not three hundred and seventeen point three-seven meters long.
Let it go. Live a little. Get us that link.
Are you ordering me to be charming?
Of course I am!
She’ll rip me apart.
Tell her to be gentle! What happened to being dominant?
My hull integrity is in the decimals!
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked. “I’ll probably be doing a few operations from out of here for a while.”
Jump her!
Shut up! “I lost a good portion of my drones, but I know how hard they are to come by…”
“Not for me! I’m a producer. Let me attach a maintenance umbilical so I can transfer some over.”
“Thanks a lot. It’s very nice of you. I’m not usually this… pathetic.” Flames muttered.
Smooth, Flames, smooth.
But it’s true! I can’t even move!
Stripes laughed. “Are you a ninety or did the burns just char you?”
“I’m a ninety!” Flames replied, a little too desperately as she moved into his blind spot. Judging by her relative size she was around six hundred meters long and thinner than Flames by around fifty meters.
“Can you move?”
“My terminals are still damaged. My drones are working on getting them operational again.”
“See if you were an RT you wouldn’t have had to worry about losing terminals.”
“The gas giant would have taken out all of your terminals.” Flames said.
“I’ve been hit by it before. It can’t. My RT’s ground out the electricity, making this a prime area for me. I don’t run into many other Descendents. If I do, they’re usually in your condition, or other RT’s…”
“I see.”
“You’re the first ninety I’ve run into for a long time. Is it true you can 550c?”
“If I try.”
“Can you use koveran fields?”
“A little…”
“You’re being humble.”
Flames muttered something unintelligible as the umbilical attached to his hull. He felt control routines appearing in his neurovision as the drones were transferred over.
“Ticklish?” Stripes asked.
“I guess having your hull percentage below perceivable makes you a little more sensitive…”
“Don’t you have a mate? Someone to assist you in these situations?”
“Err… well…” What do I say? Both answers are bad!
I don’t know, Flames. Think of something.
“She… no I don’t.”
Flames you are horrible at this. Do you want me to do my magic?
If you do that again I swear to Nova I’ll…
“Is that your Captain hailing me? Hi Captain! My owner isn’t here right now. If you’d like I can leave a message for him.”
“I’m not his captain. I’m your client.” Fawkes replied, suddenly aware of the limited interface Bruno had, “You flying rogue?”
“No, my owner’s doing his own contracts, we make more money this way. He doesn’t have to be around for simple escort missions.”
“What if you get attacked?”
“I have RT’s, I can hold out.”
“What about a mate to help you?” Flames asked, glad to have been able to flip it around like that. Thanks Fawkes.
“Well… I…”
“It’s the RT’s, isn’t it?” Fawkes asked.
“I don’t know…”
“I didn’t know you had a neural interface. You ex-military?” Bruno asked.
“Yeah.”
“VE?”
“Yeah.”
“Sick.” the mercenaries nodded approvingly. “Hey, you wanna help us out in some contracts later? You looking for work?”
“Well. That ship that came in: Flames. He’s hired me for escort duties.”
“How much is his captain paying?”
“Captain’s dead, lost in the storm. I figured I can’t protect him alone with my cruiser, so I figured I could hire Stripes to assist.”
“That makes sense. So he’s offering well over ten mil then?”
“It’s not the money, really, but yeah. He’s also offering a link if I can get him healed up.”
“Awesome! A link to your very own Descendent? This early? Doesn’t he miss his old captain?”
“Flames is ex-navy. He’s stone cold.” Fawkes replied.
“Sweeet.” the mercenaries were enamoured with him now. “We could definitely use a future Descendent Captain.”
“So we have a deal, then? You protect us, and once Flames is healthy, you’ve got yourself another Descendent that’ll help you out.”
“Fate.” said one of the other mercenaries.
“Yeah Fox, I think so too. The Black Nova guided you to us. It has to be it. What are the odds of you running into your child on a backwater planet in the middle of nowhere? Damn.” Bruno said.
“Yeah, and then a contract just as you order your new ship!” Fox exclaimed, raising his hands in victory as he scored a point in the game.
“Yeah, definitely. I was just looking for the cheapest place to grab a cruiser too!” Fawkes joked.
“Being cheap definitely pays off. So what’d you come here with anyways?”
“Uh—“ shit, what did I come here with?
With me.
That doesn’t make sense, you just hired me.
Oh right. Err. Puritan transport, cheap courier.
“Just a Puritan, cheapest one I can find.” Fawkes replied casually.
“Damn, didn’t know Puritans operated this far out.” Bruno replied suspiciously.
Good job Flames. Fawkes hissed.
Sorry!
“Nah they do man. They operate all over the place. They’re like ninjas.” Mace said, not even looking away from the holovision.
“I didn’t know you were a future Descendent Captain. That is really cool!” Butch exclaimed.
Nyx gasped as he came out from his room, fighting her urge to just groom him. Fawkes put a wing around her.
“Where’d you get the burns from?” Butch asked, looking at the destroyed webbing.
“Fighting space pirates.” Fawkes replied in the coolest, most level tone he could bestow.
“AWESOME!” Butch began bombarding him with questions about his adventures.
“Well. I’ve got nothing to do until Flames is repaired.” Fawkes declared, answering some of Butch’s questions.
“You can stay with us if you’d like to spend some time with your son. If you don’t mind the floor.”
“Vorchans love the floor!” Nyx said, nuzzling Butch.
“Well there you have it. I guess we’re staying for a while.” Fawkes replied with a smile, glad that everything worked out.