EG 3 Ch 33 (Patreon)

"Why, Violet, your tails look rather nice," Tiri led the conversation down a different path while we all sat on the bridge waiting through the last few hours until things would kick off.

The divine Kikai fluffed her tails happily, pulling them around her. "They've been well taken care of lately," she said with an obvious blush, as she tried to sneak a peek at me out of the corner of her eyes.

"Good. Your tails deserve to be well taken care of," Tiri nodded.

Sometimes I wondered why they couldn't just state the obvious and had to beat around the bush. Either way, I learned some new brushing techniques, as it were.

"Back on topic," I said, "what kind of weapon do you think is going to be in a place called Project Tomorrow?" I glanced out the viewport. Our ship was once again hidden by Lily's abilities. She had completely covered the exterior of the ship in a living dampening material. Though it took up four airlocks and those bypasses had been a pain, it was well worth it.

"I think some sort of doomsday device," Melgara said. "Perhaps they've learned how to weaponize black holes."

Minnie turned slowly in her seat. "The Void cannot be controlled." she said, as if the idea was scandalizing.

I stared at Melgara, who seemed to be a little interested in causing trouble today.

"We simply won't know what device they have until we get in there, which is why perhaps we should have a few different plans." I looked around the bridge at the rest of my crew.

"Fair." Melgara relented immediately, and I was just thankful she wasn't going to try and rile anybody up any further.

"If it is some massive, dangerous device, I will intervene," Minnie warned.

"Really?" Melgara was the one most surprised by Minnie’s offer.

"There are some things that should not exist," Minnie said, her face remaining stoically blank. “If this device could cause damage to entire worlds I will remove it and ensure its production is brought to the Federation assembly.”

"You're right," Melgara agreed. "And we'd be happy to have your help, if that's the case, Minnie."

The ancient dragon nodded. "I'm taking no sides in the conflict, but I would hate to see another weapon of mass destruction. As much as the universe moves ever closer to the Void and will inevitably reach it, I am in no rush to hurry that process along. The Void is patient."

I wasn't sure if, as a void-touched, I got to comment on the nature of the Void too. "I'd like to think I could wait a few years," I said, only to get a wide smile from the gothic dragon. Seems I get to comment on the void after all.

"I'm glad you understand."

Lily gave me a strange look and I just shrugged, not really understanding exactly what I had done either. But I had earned the ancient dragon's approval, and if that included even a little bit of help should things get out of hand, I was more than happy to lean into it. After all, I had seen her in conflict once and was still utterly amazed at how large she was when she went full dragon. If there was one of us that could take down a space station, well, I would put my money on Minnie, and I would be confident in that bet. For all that Lily was genuinely terrifying in her own right, Minnie was a goddamn capital-class swallowing spacefaring dragon, which was a league all its own.

She could probably latch onto a station and tear it apart piece by piece if she needed to.

"Fine," Lily said. "If I can't handle it, I will ask for your aid."

The dragon smiled. Lily bristled, but turned the conversation back to planning.

"We'll move as a group for this one," Lily half-asked, half-declared.

"We should," I agreed. "Unlike the last station, this one should be all military personnel. We don't necessarily need to stay as quiet. We're bound to lose the advantage of surprise, so there's no point in expecting it and no point in planning for it," I reasoned.

"Let's move as a group," Violet bobbed her head.

"If we're not going to have the advantage of surprise, being together is the best solution," Lily agreed.

The comms blinked in front of me, and I grinned. "Mr. Sky Blue has come through, and we've got our ship added to a list of contractor credentials. No one should be asking too many questions when we simply roll up for a job."

"Except that they won't have been expecting us," Melgara pointed out.

"Yeah, well. Then aren't we lucky that Tiri is so convincing." I replied.

"And I'll stay on the ship," the green-tailed Kikai wanted to confirm.

"Yes, you'll be on the ship. With Brick. And I assume you're not trying to join in on the fun?" I asked Melgara.

"I'll pass, if that's all right with you. This isn't exactly my specialty. But I'll be on comms if you need me. And then, of course, I'll be the getaway driver, too." Meglara told me.

I smirked. Meanwhile, Violet scowled. "You make it sound like we're criminals."

"This is, at the very least, very gray. They are hunting you, and they are certainly not the good guys. But we are attacking a people's military base. By most definitions, we are the bad guys." Melgara's statement caused Violet to grow quiet with contemplation.

"Yeah, well, the world likes to see things as black and white when they rarely are. Truthfully, the universe is just filled with a bunch of people operating on personal truths. And all we can do is stay true to ourselves when it matters most." I smiled over at Violet. "If you do what you do for a good reason, then you won't regret it, even if someone else thinks you're the villain."

Violet blushed and looked down at her hands. Meanwhile, of all people, it was Melgara who was staring at me wide-eyed, like I had just struck a very personal chord. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but it was undeniable that something I said rang very true with her, by the way she was frozen at the controls.

"I aspire for all of you to think as the captain does," Melgara said after a moment.

"Nothing to add?" I asked.

"No. I wish more people thought the way you did, Captain. Too often, the judgment of those in positions of authority is taken as truth, when it certainly isn't an objective truth, much less a personal one."

"Well then." I smiled. It seemed like we were making more and more progress as a crew. "We'll go in loud and proud. Me, Lily, and Violet, with Minnie on backup here on the ship if needed. Melgara on getaway driving, and Tiri and Brick as support."

Aikari then spun into existence above me, clearing her throat.

"Yes?" I asked, unable to help the teasing smile that drifted at the edge of my lips.

"And me?" she asked, her tails bristling.

"Huh? What about you?" I asked with a tilted head.

Aikari huffed several times as she started stomping back and forth in the air above me.

"Obviously you're going to stay on the ship. I don't think waltzing over there with your processing core is going to be the smartest choice. The chances of it getting damaged are too high.” I told her.

The digital Kikai slumped, her tails falling to the floor. Her shoulders hung and she dragged herself away.

Violet gave me a look that could only be interpreted as her asking me to find something for the AI to do.

"Though as we go through the station, I'm certain there's going to be a lot of information worth parsing. We'll set up a connection back to the Griffon, and I'm sure you sorting through it all would be a big help to those of us on the ground."

"Really?" The digital Kikai became animated, bounding next to me with a giant smile. "You're not just saying that?"

"Nope. You really can process information faster than any of us."

Lily huffed out of the corner. It was everything I could do not to shoot her a glare while I was trying to cheer up the ship's AI, who I was at times wondering if I should regret having brought onboard.

"Yes. Of course I can do that faster than all of you. So much faster," she said, bouncing up and down.

"Exactly. So you'll stay back on the ship, but be ready," I said quickly, and she slapped a sloppy salute with a giant smile on her face. And I could not help but smile in return.

I suppose I wasn't the only one that didn't want to be left out of the missions.

***

My foot tapped as I watched the research station.

After what felt like eternity knowing we were close to time, the fleet that had been surrounding it suddenly began jumping to hyperspace one after another. I sat up straight in the captain's chair, slamming a fist down on a silent alarm as red lights began to flicker throughout the ship.

"Captain." Violet was the first to reach me. She stuck her head around the bridge and saw the last of the ships jumping to hyperspace, leaving not a single ship floating around the station.

"Is it time, Captain?" she asked, even as we all started to mobilize.

"Yeah." I glanced over at the ceiling. "Lily, get suited up."

"I'm coming," she said, doing her best, despite seeming a little grouchy.

I frowned at Violet and could only give her a shrug at Lily's response.

"It's fine, Lily." I offered.

Violet waved a hand. "She’s just prickly that I was here first." The Kikai divine crossed her arms as Lily came onto the bridge, with Melgara trailing just behind her.

"All of you, be safe, I'll drive the Griffin into the station." Melgara took her seat.

She fired up the ship, and I assumed Lily retracted her main body. We had played through this scenario already. Melgara opened up a hyperspace window and then cancelled it at the last moment before cruising our ship through the area of space. The goal was to make it look like we had just dropped out, versus sitting in place masked.

Immediately, a message pinged up front. I tapped at my desk, wearing the uniform of the business we were impersonating.

"Hanover's Duct Cleaning Service." I smiled at the Kikai on the other side of the screen.

He blinked, then glanced down at his terminal. "I don't believe we had an appointment scheduled," he said.

I grinned. "Really? It's—" I pretended to glance down at my own instructions. "It says here you're the next stop, though. We won't be back over on this side of the galaxy for another couple months." I rubbed my chin and almost laughed at the absurdity of this service being outsourced. A station really should have a full maintenance contingent to do everything, though this one was rather small.

The man on the other side frowned and glanced down at his system again. "Well, it does seem to be about due. You're going to come to loading bay three, and we're going to check over your tools before you are allowed on station. There will be a guide with you every step of the way. Do not leave your guide's line of sight for any reason. You will be shot if it appears you're intentionally evading them."

I held my hands up. "We're an honest crew. Just here to get some work done. I would prefer not to be on the other end of a blaster. Not from mighty fine folks like yourself."

He squinted for a moment, but there was nothing quite like a compliment to bring someone around.

"These are the rules. Best keep to them if you don't want to end up on the wrong side of a blaster."

I gave him a sloppy salute. "Yes, sir."

He seemed exasperated at my act and began tapping on his screen. "Loading bay three. Only essential personnel and tools."

I grinned. "We'll be ready to jump aboard momentarily," I promised.

***

I wheeled the large cargo container out of our ship as Kikai military personnel approached. They had a sort of predatory walk, one foot in front of the other, like they were ready to tackle me on a moment's notice. I gave a nervous chuckle and lifted my hands clear and high overhead.

"Please step away from the crate," they said, tightly strung.

I wondered why they were so intense. Besides bringing on some sort of weapon, a station was the equivalent of a fortress. And one like this, out in no man's land, would be given plenty of warning before a fleet of ships descended upon it. As for us? We were a small ship and even if we packed it to the gills with soldiers we’d have a small fraction of what was on a station.

"Of course." I stepped back, hands still held high. The last thing I wanted was to give the jumpy soldiers a reason to shoot. While I supposedly had some better healing abilities, I had no desire to test those. Plus, Lily might lose it if I got shot.

A few with the scanners waved them over the crate before they nodded, and another pried it open. Though the second it opened, black spines erupted at every angle except at me, skewering and killing all of the soldiers present before ripping them right back into the box.

There was a split second of silence before alarms blared, and the mass resolved itself into Lily as she strode out of a broken side of the crate, her black heels clicking, a simple sound amongst the klaxon of sirens.

"Well, I suppose that went well." Violet jumped out of where she had been completely surrounded by Lily's mass.

The door swung open, and a kikai that moved too quickly to be anything other than a divine shot through. Violet's saber met hers, and the two of them exploded in a frenzy of blows that Lily pointedly ignored as she walked to the doors that had closed, her fingers turning into claws of some material hard and sharp enough that she punctured through them and began to pull. Her lithe frame strained only briefly before the doors gave with a screech. Soldiers on the other side began firing into the landing bay.

I pulled Akari's rifle from the mess of the crate before swinging it up to my shoulder and immediately peppering the soldiers on the other side.

Lily grunted and redoubled her efforts before the door was fully ripped open, the metal bent at the center from where her hands had been. I could once again appreciate just how softly Lily handled particular parts of my anatomy.

She must have sensed something, because she turned. "Captain?" she asked with a tilted head as laser fire hit her back without her even flinching.

"That was impressive, Lily," I said, coughing into my hand. "But maybe we have bigger things to worry about."

I returned to firing, and before Lily could dive down the hall, Violet beat her to it. The divine that she had been fighting was now tailless and bleeding out on the floor, both of the tails laying almost ceremonially beside the body. I turned back to the hallway to see Lily scowling.

"Well, if you don't want her to beat you to it, Lily, then you best get a move on." I told her.

She cast a glance toward me, and I suddenly realized why she wasn't moving.

"I will be fine. I'm fairly certain there was a promise not to handle me with kid gloves," I said sharply.

Lily's jaw snapped closed, whatever she was about to say firmly dying in her throat and replaced with something else. "Of course. And I suppose you have Pip to use as a shield, worst case scenario."

From the crate came a resounding "Pip pip" as the little leviton shot out and swam around me.

I put the rifle up and began into the hallway, trailing behind the mess that Violet had made. I tapped my communicator. "This is the captain speaking. Do you have a location for me?"

"It's a custom station, but I doubt they're going to break too many rules," Brick said. "The center of the station is your best bet. It's going to be on floor seven or eight."

"Elevator it is," I said, stomping forward. The station wasn’t the biggest we’d seen, it was perhaps large enough for ten to twenty thousand occupants depending on how much they wanted to cram in here.

Violet and Lily were already jumping ahead. And based on their movements, I got the sense both of them were trying to clear the way for me. 

More security doors slammed shut, which then took the form of either Violet's saber chewing its own doorway through them or Lily ripping the door apart with a few moments of effort.

"Elevator bay should be just ahead," Brick reported.

I moved forward on alert, but both of the lovely women in my life had truly cleared the area of any and all threats. We’d have to have a talk about leaving me some so that I could keep getting better. This was pure coddling.

"Has it gotten a little quiet here? Any readings from the ship?" I asked.

"Best guess is they're doing a blockade," Brick answered, sounding just as confused. "But they've already started putting out a bunch of interference signals on this loading bay, so I'm going to be less helpful. Good news is they don't know where you're going."

"I'm fairly certain they can make an educated guess," I said. Given that the conditions for taking a station were basically either kill everyone or take control, it made it fairly obvious to me where we would be going.

"Elevator?" Violet asked, and I shook my head.

"There's no way I'm walking into that death trap. Lily, if you would." I asked.

While Violet was pushing one button, Lily ripped open the door for the next, far quicker than any of the bulkhead doors, and stared down the shaft before she glanced back at me. I didn't even argue, hooking the rifle’s strap over my shoulder before she grabbed me and jumped, claws extending from her hands and grinding against the shaft wall, barely stalling the plummet until we were near the seventh floor. Her hands and then her feet ground hard against the wall, slowing us to a stop.

Violet came down a second later, all four of her tails extended out as she floated in place with a smirk on her face. "Perhaps next time the captain should ride with me. We wouldn't want him to get whiplash, now would we?"

Lily turned to me, panic in her eyes. "I have not lashed you, have I?"

I smiled. "No, of course not. That was a very gentle ride that any normal human would have survived," I said, rubbing at my sore neck.

Lily turned a smug grin back on Violet, whose face said she didn't believe me in the slightest.

"I suppose if that's the captain's desire, then I have nothing further to add," Violet said, before she flicked her tail and the elevator doors exploded outward.

There was a brief pause as the soldiers on the other side quickly repositioned, but Violet only needed the slightest moment to take the advantage. Violet shot toward them and cut through them like a hot knife through butter, only for another divine to catch her and throw her into a wall hard enough that she went partially through a metal wall.

Lily put me gently on the side of the elevator where I could grab onto an emergency access ladder, before she too jumped through and joined the fray. Another divine jumped on her, and I got my rifle ready to sweep out and assist, only for a kikai face to pop up in my space, a large smile spread across the divine’s face.

"Well, hello," the divine said with a smile. "Bold place to invade." She said as her smile dropped from her face before her telekinesis ripped me out of the elevator.