Chapter 2

Stone stood at the edge of the table looking over Tak’i’s battered body. He had brought her into the medical bay and stripped her of her torn slave garb. She made no move to stop him and simply stood emotionless during the process, her eyes half lidded. He walked her over to the shower station and washed the grime and blood from her head and her armored petals. He noticed that even though the surface was clean, blood still kept running into the drain as the shower head passed over her abdomen.

He took her to the medical scanner and laid her down on the examination table before lowering the scan arm over her chest and moving to the scanner control console. He initiated the scan and watched the DNA readout create a picture of her natural healthy form and then overlay her current state over it.

“Avah, will the equipment we have work on her?.”

“We can repair the tissues, commander, however any psychological damage that is present will likely remain unchanged or worsen after the procedure.”

“Worsen?” He asked skeptically.

“You do realize I am lying here awake, right?”

“Not really,” Stone replied “You were acting like some kind of catatonic walking corpse. I just assumed you had signed out.”

“Well I am awake now and I am wondering why I am naked.”

“It’s easier to clean you when you don’t have clothes on.” He replied dryly.

“And why did you feel you had the right to clean me?” She replied, her voice starting to have a dangerous edge.

“I didn’t want you to get blood all over my ship.” he replied stoically. “Do you want me to repair what was done to you?” He asked more harshly than he intended.

“I am sure you can heal the scrapes and bruises but my tethers are gone.” she replied with fresh tears welling in her eyes. “It’s not like they grow back. I have nothing left but a lonely life filled with pity.”

“You do sound pretty pitiful.” he said as if she were describing a case of indigestion. She glared at him with murder in her eyes.

“Heal me and then kindly fuck off.” she replied, words dripping with venom.

“There she is.” he replied, the smile apparent in his voice. “Try not to move, it will confuse the sensors.

At his unspoken command, a flat metal table materialized out of the floor above her head, and mechanical arms dropped down out of the ceiling with flat metal sprayers on the ends. “This is probably going to hurt.” he said as the sprayers began to cover the table in a thick viscous liquid, moving to her stumps then over her body, finally ending at her feet.

“I don’t feel anything.” she said covered in goo and very much starting to doubt that it served any purpose other than further humiliation.

“Initializing regrowth.” Avah said as the substance thickened and began to pulse. The tethers reformed first as the nanites used Tak’i’s DNA to reproduce them healthy and without blemish. Tak’i being unaware of this laid unfazed until the nanites reconnected the nerve tissue to her stumps. Her eyes burst open wide as she heard the song once more and her tears flowed freely as her parents’ worry and sudden relief flowed into her mind. She sent the song of mourning to her people for her crew and the story of how they died. Suddenly anger blossomed in the song. Her commander was furious and the counsel of the Apex Unity demanded her immediate return.

Thinking he was oblivious to all of this, Tak’i felt Stone’s self satisfaction emanating from him and couldn’t help but smile at him. The idiot had no idea what he had just done.

“I’m not an idiot.” he said in a voice tinged with laughter.

“Repairs complete.” Avah said in her sweet monotone as the arms retracted into the ceiling and the metal table once again melded back into the floor, leaving Tak’i’s tethers hanging off of the top of the medical bed.

“There are hundreds on my homeworld that would give anything for what you have done for me.” Tak’i said lifting her tethers and stretching them, causing soft pops as they made a slightly disturbing medusa dance. Her face went from one of joy to one of pleasure as she felt around the bed and Stones suit with the blood red spikes at the ends.

“As fun as this is to watch, you are not the only one who was injured and I am sure the others are worried about you. Well, Opal, Malfite and Cortis are probably worried. They are in the waiting room outside. Torren appears to be trying to arm himself in one of the cargo bays and Tinkerer and Salvager are in their quarters.”

“Probably making more Tinkerers and Salvagers.” Tak’i laughed. At Stone’s silence she went on to explain. “This is a very large ship, much too big for them to maintain on their own so their natural instinct is to make enough maintenance crew to cover this and any other ships that are connected to it.” she laughed and grew solemn. “I guess that’s why the Kentari are always so excited to capture a mated pair. They are a very prolific species.”

“That is excellent!” commander Stone beamed, the feelings of joy and excitement washing over Tak’i as if they were her own. She knew they were not, however, and she eyed Stone warily at the realization of how powerful his abilities seemed. Even her own people did not have the ability to override the actual emotions of others. Sure they could listen in on surface thoughts and, if they wanted to, broadcast their own emotions to communicate. However, actually making other people feel what you feel as if it came from them was unheard of.

“So what are you, exactly?” She asked conversationally, letting her emotions pass instantly (a trick she learned in talking to her mother. If they passed quickly enough, her mother did not pick up on them).

Still laughing, Stone replied. “I am the last of the Mor’Thai.” His smile faded as he recited the story of his people as it had been told to him by Avah so many times in his life. “The Mor’Thai are a race of celestial (arrogant speak for inorganic) sentients. We live and grow for about 8 million cycles and then our energy returns to the source. Our bodies break down into sand and the gravimetric turbulence on our homeworld will occasionally strike the sand, creating the spark of new life.” he paused, obviously nervous.

“We were a peaceful people for a long time until the first visitors to Mid’Bar brought war with them. We had never seen organic life of any sort and we were curious. Our oldest, Su’Fat’Khul approached their vessel and heard the whispers from their minds. The thoughts confused him and he warned the others nearby to flee. They had stolen something to bring their people energy, they were starving and afraid. They exited their vessel and saw him floating outside: To them, a massive blue Crystal floating in the sky. The cowered in their ship at first then their thought turned to how powerful this floating crystal must be and they thought to capture it. Su’Fat’Khul crushed their ship with them inside with his Vary’tita, Compressing it and them to the size of a small stone and launching them into one of our suns. Our homeworld was Cicumduodenary and we thought the matter settled and spent another 3 years at peace.”

“Look, I don’t need a step by step history lesson. Skip to the part where you ended up here and are the last of your kind.” she said looking bored, not quite believing a solar system could have 12 stars and not tear itself apart.

He continued, irritated at her tone. “Our galaxy was attacked by a massive armada of drones. Our ships slaughtered them at first and we even managed to push them to the edge. We redesigned our vessels over the 3 million year stalemate to stand and fight their weapons and shields effectively forever.

Then it happened.

The perimeter fleet sent a panicked transmission, saying that all the other galaxies nearby had disappeared over the course of a week, each one winking out after the other. We soon found out why; the cloud of drones so thick light could not pass through descended on our galaxy from every direction. Our ships stood firm wreaking havoc on the drones but could not stop them getting through. The captains were swarmed shooting blindly into an endless night that sought to devour them. The only light reaching them was the red bolts of enemy weapons’ fire harmlessly striking their barriers.” he spoke as if in reverence for the bravery of his people in their last moments.

“I was still in stasis during all of this by design. I was sealed away the moment my spark was ignited by a very powerful gravity storm on my homeworld. It was said that I was made from the sand of the Admiral who led our fleets in the first push to put them out of our galaxy. He returned to the source on our homeworld after a million cycles due to an explosion on his ship. As it was landing, a gravity storm struck it and all hands were lost. The DeathKnell fleet was built by our finest artists and engineers to be a mausoleum for our people and in the event of our destruction to travel back in time to give us more time to prepare for whatever destroyed us.”

“Avah jumped us out of the galaxy as the drones reached our homeworld. The drones vaporized our planet and all of our stars reacted violently, the nova detonating every star until the shockwave reached the galactic core which then itself detonated.”

“I awoke with our fleet orbiting a small sun Avah made to feed me. There were no other stars and she said the galaxy exploding must have caused the others to follow suit. My mission is to find others and to help them advance so that in 6 million years we can meet the drones with my people in a united front to prevent the destruction of reality itself.” he finished.

Tak’i simply looked at him speechlessly. She did not detect any deceit from him and the cold knot that had formed in her stomach during his speech had turned to ice. This boy was supposed to save the universe? “Well at least we have time to prepare.” she said in a small voice.

“I don’t know. everyone here seems far from a united front and from the training simulations I have been in against the drones, all of the ships I have seen here are far weaker then they are.” he said, sounding afraid. “I am not so sure my mission will succeed.”

She slowly rose from the table, twisting her body and stretching, searching for the pains from bruises that no longer existed.

“Then I suppose we had better get started sooner rather than later then.” Stone could hear the smile in her voice and he gestured with his arm to a pile of clothes sitting on a small ornate table near the shower in the medical bay.

“Better put those on.” he said as he walked to the door leading to the small waiting room.

She dressed quickly, struggling to get her head and tethers through the top of the form fitting garment. “Perhaps in the future you could give me something that clasps in the front, this is irritating.” he heard in a stern reverberating chime.

“Avah said the same thing and the rest of your uniforms have them.” he stated evenly. “Why doesn’t this one?” She said finally getting her head and tethers through the hole and watching the top and bottoms come together and seal seamlessly at her hips.

“I thought it would be fun to watch.” he said, making a chitter in her mind that reminded her of a chuckle.

She slapped the back of his suit’s head portion with one of her tethers hard enough to crack one of the rear facing lenses and heard the same chittering sound only louder.

“You’re a child,” she said in irritation as she stormed toward the blast door leading to the waiting room. “And you are a tree.” he said sarcastically just before one of the lenses on the left side of his head shattered.

They stumbled into the waiting room, him trying to get a fist around one of the flailing tethers and her trying to blind him.

She is very accurate with those sharp points he mused as another portion of his suit’s perspective went dark.

He had finally gotten his hand on one of her tethers when she froze and he turned what remained of his vision to see what she was looking at.

Opal, Malfite and Cortis had come to check on her but they were all staring out the wall-sized view screen showing the moon and the station they had escaped from.

That is, what was left of them. The navigational singularities of the assault cruiser had been fully materialized in preparation for the jump the entire time, one of the synthetic black holes was visible outside the view screen and was connected to a trail of rock dust leading to the moon the station had been orbiting, which had now cracked in half under the stress.

The station was still fighting gravity, its thrusters all emitting giant plumes of flame as it fought the crushing death that was coming in the form of a black hole the size of a frigate.

Fires and atmosphere could be seen leaking from the station as well as some smaller ships trying to flee before they succumbed to the forces and were sucked into the singularity.

“Huh, I must have forgotten to say commence jump.” he said in a neutral voice. As soon as the phrase was spoken, the colors outside of the view screen inverted as all eight singularities moved to the fore of the ship.

All light streamed together and seemed to be over exposed and a deep reverberating thump was felt through the deck by all as the assault cruiser entered and exited the gravity wells of passing stars.

“Let’s move to the bridge so you can get familiar with your stations and someone find Torren and tell him to return to his quarters. Leave Tinkerer and Salvager to what they are doing.”

The crew simply stared at him wide eyed as he walked past them and into the corridor leading to the elevator.

Opal and Malfite looked at each other and then to Tak’i “What manner of monster have we been sold to?” Malfite asked, gesturing toward the view window.

Tak’i stiffened at his words and her tethers rose from behind her, the red spikes resting on her shoulders and collarbones creating a crimson and white mane. “What exactly occurred that leads you to the word, “monster”? Was it him repaying them for butchering my people and shipping off the meat or freeing us? Maybe giving me back my ability to sing?” her tone was openly hostile and Malfite moved in front of Opal.

“I meant no offence”

“It sounded offensive.”

“I only meant him and his ship seem very powerful and from what I gather from the view, we are moving much faster than any ship I have ever seen.”

“I agree with the Apex,” Cortis said, coming to stand between Malfite and Tak’i. “I, for one, do not want to upset our new master or anger our new first officer who is obviously fitting into her new role. “I believe you should think more on your words before you utter them,” she said kindly, while always keeping her head tilted to see the reactions from both Tak’i and Malfite.

Tak’i relaxed and looked at Cortis tilting her head at an angle. “I am your XO. You will refer to me by my rank, not my race, in the future.” Tak’i then walked briskly to the corridor to follow Stone.

As soon as Tak’i rounded the corner Cortis’ dimenor changed and she relaxed. “You should really read a situation better before you stick your nose in it.” with that, she too walked out into the corridor to follow Tak’i.

Opal simply patted her mate’s shoulder and sighed before following Cortis. Malfite stood there for a moment longer, staring after her before grumbling in his chest and following behind.

The Bridge of the assault cruiser was oval in shape and had a dozen consoles looking outward around the front arc. Each with an armless chair, there was a hollow in the center of the room similar to the freighter but unlike the freighter there was a large comfortable looking chair with two consoles built into the arms, stationed directly behind the hollow. In the rear left of the bridge were 14 inlets that contained clamps used for storing exosuits. The deck, walls and dome ceiling were all made of the same black and white marble-like material while the consoles themselves, as well as the chairs, were of the rich redwood and ivory mesh found in the rest of the ship.

Stone moved over to one of the armor stands in the rear arc and backed his suit into it, the clamps from the inlet securing it in a standing position. The chest cavity of the suit opened and he hovered out, coming to rest in the hollow. The consoles in the room all came to life and the walls and floor changed to the dizzying external negative view of space as star system by star system passed them by in time to the thrum from the deck.