Valiant: Tales From The Drift

[Tails #5: Vaunted Visit]

Log Date: 8/23/12763

Data Sources: Jazel Jaskolka; Lysanne Arrignis

Event Log: Lysanne Arrignis

Dandelion Drift: Bridge

4:17am SGT

“NO.”

Jazel flinches back at the force of my disagreement. And normally I’d feel sorry about it, given how fragile he’s been lately, but this isn’t something I’m going to sugarcoat for him.

“She won’t hurt anyone, I promise—” he begins.

“Seriously, Jazel?!” I interrupt, pausing in my pacing around the bridge. I point to the lump on the side of my head where the morphox punched me, then motion to Dandy and the green-blue bruises she has from her fight with the morphox. “Are you seriously going to say that to my face?!”

He’s quiet for a bit, avoiding looking me in the eye. “Well, she didn’t kill either of you…”

“She didn’t kill us?” I demand. “Jazel, do you know how low you’re setting the bar here? Your metric for an optimal outcome is that she didn’t kill anyone. Do you realize how insane that is?”

He rubs the back of his neck. “You gotta start somewhere.”

“She literally sucked your soul out of you.” I hiss, forming a circle with my forefinger and thumb, and shaking the other three fingers at him. “Literally almost killed you, and you want to let her stay on this ship and travel with us?”

The chair he’s sitting in rocks back and forth as he bounces the toes of his shoes against the floor of the bridge. “…yes?”

“YOU ARE INSANE.” I snap at him.

“While I agree with your prognosis, Ms. Arrignis, I would believe you should perhaps take a moment to breathe and calm down.” Dandy says quietly. “Your blood pressure has slowly been creeping up over the last several minutes.”

“I am currently stuck on a ship with a nine-tailed soul-stealing fox bitch that can ghost-walk through walls, extract the souls from mortals, and walk off a lightning bolt to the chest.” I hiss at Dandy. “My blood pressure is exactly where it needs to be in a situation like this.”

“Admittedly, your stress does match the severity of the situation.” Dandy concedes. “But shouting will get us nowhere. And despite my reservations about his judgement, I am interested in Jazel’s rationale for letting the morphox stay onboard.”

I turn an incredulous look on her. “You’re agreeing with him?”

“I did not say that.” Dandy counters firmly. “I’m simply interested in how he deescalated the situation. She left the world she has lived on for four hundred years and came up here just to prey on him. Something he said not only convinced her not to kill him, but also convinced her to let the rest of us live as well. I am curious as to what he told her while the rest of us were unconscious.”

Jazel sinks down in his chair a little as the both of us look at him. “Well, Jazel?” I ask in a quiet, warning tone. “What did you tell her?”

He looks a little shifty at that, his fingers playing with each other as he seems to think about how to answer that. “I… may have told her that we would help her find an alternative to soul-stealing so she could live in harmony with others.”

“You what?”

“And she believed you?” Dandy says suspiciously, overriding my interjection.

“Uh, well…” Jazel equivocates, looking away again. “Yes and no. It’s complicated.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” I grouse, starting to pace again. “We need a straight answer, not this vague bullshit. Did she believe you or not?”

“Well, she believed that I believed that I would try to find an alternative for her, but she didn’t believe that I would succeed, but she was amused that I was going to try, so she was going to humor me.” Jazel explains. “So while she believed I would try, she didn’t believe I would succeed. Hence the yes and the no.”

I need a moment before I can respond to that, trying to sort out exactly what he’s saying in my head. I’m not the only one; Dandy’s brow is furrowed as she works through the opacity of his statement as well. “So we’re stuck on this ship with a ticking time bomb.” I eventually say.

“No no, you guys are safe!” Jazel says quickly. “I made her promise that she wouldn’t hurt you guys if we helped her.” He smiles, like he thinks himself clever. “So, so long as we help her, she can’t hurt us.”

“Jazel, how are we going to help her.” I growl through gritted teeth. “Souls are not like meat, you cannot just synthesize it like a protein brick or hotswap it with a plant-based tofu substitute and pretend it’s the same thing!”

“I’m… still working on that.” Jazel admits. “But I’ll figure something out, I promise.”

“Jazel, would she have killed you if you hadn’t made this bargain with her?” Dandy asks suddenly, before I can get my retort in.

The question takes him off guard, and it seems like he has to take a moment to really think about it. “Uh… yeah, probably.”

“Very well. It may not be ideal, but if it kept you alive, then we will simply have to adapt to it as best we can.” Dandy says. “You will make this research your foremost priority, correct?”

I look at Dandy in disbelief. “You’re taking his side?!”

“Considering the events that led to our present circumstance, I do not see many ways this could’ve been prevented.” Dandy explains calmly. “Most of the preventative actions would lain primarily with Deputy Milor, since he was the reason she reached the ship in the first place. As it is, we cannot change the past, so we must adapt to present circumstance. And, speaking of Deputy Milor…” She turns to look at the screen on the bridge’s windshield that has the camera feed of Milor cuffed to a chair in one of our onboard labs. There’s a muzzle locked around the bottom half of his face, ostensibly to keep him quiet. “…what are we going to do with him?”

“That’s a good question.” I sigh, running a hand through my hair as I stare at the video feed. “I have no idea.”

Lysanne’s Memories

6 years ago

“I’m glad both of you were selected for this commission, Lys.”

“I’m glad we were too.” I reply to Ms. Jaskolka. “It’s a lot easier to take a commission like this when you’re assigned with someone you’ve known for years. I don’t think I know anyone on the research vessel we’ll be assigned to.”

“I’m sure both of you will do fine.” Ms. Jaskolka says, reaching up to adjust the brim of her witch’s hat. We’re both dressed in formal attire, myself in my Preserver uniform, herself in a traditional witch’s dress. We’re not the only ones at the starport; but we’re probably the ones that are best-dressed.

“Is Jayta going to be here to say goodbye to her brother?” I ask, looking for ways to fill the time while we wait for Jazel to get here.

“No, she said she was busy at her college. Had semester finals coming up or something.” Ms. Jaskolka says, reaching up to tuck some of her short black hair behind one ear.

“Is she still jealous of Jazel…?”

“I don’t think so, not as much any more.” Ms. Jaskolka sighs. “It’s gotten better since they went to their separate colleges. Jazel being gone has given Jayta some room to define herself outside of her brother’s shadow. Though she’s taken it a little far, wanting to become a scientist. It’s like she doesn’t want anything to do with her heritage.”

“Really? She doesn’t want to be a witch?”

“Goodness no, she doesn’t want anything to do with the coven… it’s hard being sibling to a witchling. I think she feels like the rest of the coven looked past her and only ever saw her brother. Which they did, I will not lie… but Jazel never wanted or asked for that kind of attention. I do worry about him, now that he will be out on his own… he mostly has his head on straight, but I know how he gets when something grabs his attention.” She looks at me. “You will keep an eye on him, won’t you?”

“Yeah, of course.” I answer, straightening up a little. “Been keeping an eye out for him since we were four, after all.”

“I know.” Ms. Jaskolka says with a smile, reaching out and giving my hand a little squeeze. “You’ve always been like the big sister he never had. I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know. You’re part of our family, even if you don’t share a name with us.”

I smile back at her. “You’ve been more supportive of me than my parents have been, so I’m okay with that.”

“Ravoc! Get back here!” a shout echoes across the starport. Both of us turn to see a juvenile vorcruelian the size of a housecat skidding and sliding across the tile floor of the starport’s lobby, with Jazel chasing after it, his Preserver uniform half-untucked and dragging his suitcase along behind him.

“Oh, Maugrimm have mercy…” Ms. Jaskolka mutters, tapping her fingers to her other hand to waken her grimoire. “I’ve told him a dozen times he needs to change the lock on that cage. That little beast has figured out the combination by now.”

I stifle a little giggle, watching as Ms. Jaskolka walks over to help her son catch his pet. Folding my arms, I reflect on how things haven’t changed all that much, even though we’ve grown up now.

Big sister indeed.

Event Log: Lysanne Arrignis

Dandelion Drift: Lab #4

5:30am SGT

Milor’s head jerks up when the door to the lab spirals opens, and I step in with Dandy following behind me. Walking over, I press the button on the muzzle, which unlocks and splits in half, falling off his face.

The first words out of his mouth are “I NEED TO PISS. NOW.”

“It’s good to see you too, Milor.” I say, walking around behind him so I can start on the cuffs. “We’re going to need to talk after you take care of business.”

“I haven’t gone to the bathroom in over thirty hours, you blonde psychopath!” he hisses, straining against the cuffs until I unlock them. “What the hell are you even doing?! I woke up muzzled and cuffed to a chair and nobody’s told me what’s going on!”

“It was for your own good.” Dandy explains as he stands, rubbing his wrists and bouncing on his toes like he’s got ants in his pants. “The morphox was still aboard the ship, and we needed to keep you quiet and out of sight until we figured out how to deal with her. Having you running your mouth would’ve been counterproductive.”

Milor looks like he’s about to say something to that, then shakes his head. “You know what, I don’t even care. Where’s the bathroom?”

Dandy motions to the door. “If you’ll follow me.” Without waiting, she turns and steps back out into the hall, and Milor follows her like she’s leading him to the promised land.

After a good fifteen minutes in the bathroom, Milor steps back out, looking much relieved. Dandy and I are waiting for him, blocking on the hallway on either side so he can’t bolt off. Not that he would get very far, with Dandy being able to lock down the ship as she desires.

“Alright, first things first.” he says as he finishes drying his hands off on his pants. “Where’s my gun?”

“We’re holding that, pending the outcome of our talk.” Dandy says.

“Any more questions?” I ask, my arms folded. “Best to get ‘em all out now.”

“Yeah, how’d you deal with the soulstealer?” Milor says, working on tucking his shirt back in again.

“We didn’t.” I answer flatly. “She’s still wandering free on the ship.”

He stares at me, then finishes tucking his shirt. “I’m gonna to need my gun back.”

“We are not actively trying to contain her.” Dandy says. “Jazel appears to have reached some sort of accord with the creature that has resulted in a cessation of hostilities for the time being.”

Milor looks around, raising an eyebrow at Dandy. “…the kid managed to convince her not to kill us all?”

“Apparently. I don’t trust it, but we’re still alive.” I say. “So at the end of the day, we did what we came here to do. The morphox is going to be coming with us, so nobody on Vissengard will ever have to worry about her again. No more ritual sacrifices, no more trouble for the settlement.”

“Well that’s… great.” Milor says, looking perplexed. “Why am I still here, then? I should get back to the settlement and tell everyone.”

“You can’t tell anyone.” I order. “If you do, the Vaunted will find out, and they’ll come after us, since the morphox is supposed to be their jurisdiction now.”

Milor looks confused. “Okay? So? If they do, just give ‘er to them. Problem solved.”

“We’re not going to do that.” I say firmly. “The Vaunted will probably deem her a safety hazard and euthanize her. But we’re Preservers, and we believe there are better ways to handle a creature like this. We’re not going to let her be euthanized when there’s a chance she could be resocialized.”

Milor opens his mouth like he’s about to say something, raises a hand, then seems to reconsider it, closing his mouth and resting his head against his knuckles as if praying to some unnamed deity for patience. “We are talking about the same beastie that you clobbered in the back of the head two weeks ago, right? The one that snarled at us like a wild animal? The one that sucked the soul out of your friend like a wet spaghetti noodle?” He squints and looks around after that. “Speaking of which, where is he?”

“Mr. Jaskolka’s current whereabouts are not your concern.” Dandy answers in a clipped tone. “And he is not the topic here. What we need is for you to commit to remaining silent as to what happened to the morphox. Once you do, you’ll be free to return to the settlement.”

Milor narrows his eyes, looking back and forth between the two of us. “…are you threatening to hold me prisoner here?”

“No, we’re just asking you to do your part, since you brought this monster up here in the first place, and now we have to deal with her.” I retort with a certain sort of self-righteous stubbornness. “We’re taking her off your hands and doing Vissengard a favor in the process. And if you keep your mouth shut, then she’ll continue to not be a problem.”

“So you’re just gonna take fluffy miss foxtails and quietly slink your way back to whatever corner of the galaxy CURSE wants you to poke next?” Milor says, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a toothpick. “And all I need to do is shrug and play the fool when someone asks me where she pranced off to?”

“Can you do that?” I ask, folding my arms.

He uses the toothpick to scratch under his chin, head tilted back thoughtfully. “You still owe me two bottles of Venusian whiskey.” he reminds me.

“You’re a simple man, Milor.” I say, shaking my head as I turn and start down the hall. “C’mon, we can take care of that right now. Dandy, can you get the man his gun?”

Dandy doesn’t answer. When there’s no response, I pause and look over my shoulder; she’s staring off into nowhere, her pupils narrowed to pinpoints. Milor reaches out and waves a hand in front of her face, to no response. “Think she just crashed. I seen it happen to harvest ‘bots all the time when they work a double without taking downtime to reconcile their processing cores.” He tucks the toothpick in his mouth, hitching his hands on his hips as he reminisces. “Been years since I went bot-tippin’. Wonder if her gyroscopic correctors would kick in if I gave her a push.”

“Touch her and I’ll touch you with my buzz baton.” I warn him. “Dandy? What’s going on? Is something wrong with the ship?”

Dandy’s pupils widen again, and she blinks. “The Vaunted frigate is moving into boarding range. They’re hailing us with orders to let them aboard so they can search the ship. The settlement sent them a request for search, seizure, and return when the deputy departed Vissengard with the skipper and did not return for twenty-four hours.”

“Truly, absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Milor mutters. “Grimes probably busted a blood vessel when he found out I took the skipper back to y’all.”

“Shit. No. We can’t have them searching the ship.” I murmur, cupping a hand over my mouth. “Dandy, can you open a channel to them? If it’s Milor they want, all we have to do is show them that he’s fine and that we’re going to bring him back to the settlement soon.”

“I can. I assume you want visual transmission so that we can demonstrate we have the deputy and he is in good condition?” Dandy asks.

“Good condition? You cuffed me to a chair and didn’t feed me anything for a day!”

“It’s the first phase of a new weight-loss plan called the ‘Hostage Diet’.” I quip, turning and heading back towards the lab. “Let’s do visual transmission, Dandy. Hopefully once they see he’s okay, they’ll chill out.”

“Setting it up now.” Dandy says, motioning Milor back towards the lab. “If you would, Deputy.”

“The things I put up with.” Milor mutters, reaching up to adjust his widebrimmed hat as he follows us back to the lab. By the time we’re stepping back in, Dandy’s already got a comms screen up on one of the main windows. It isn’t too long before the waiting screen resolves into the steel-grey bridge of the Vaunted frigate; sitting in the captain’s chair is woman in a Vaunted uniform, with short orange hair.

“Hi!” I say, forcing a smile and a friendly wave. “I’m guessing you’re the people that were looking for the Deputy, right?”

“Captain Tashilo of the Grazer.” the woman answers, her eyes roving over us. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, and yes, we received a missing persons report from the Helios settlement regarding one of their deputies, though he appears to be alive and well.”

“Yeah, he’s fine.” I say, reaching back and patting Milor. “He did us a favor and brought our skipper back the other day, and we invited him to a few drinks while he was here, and one thing led to another, and, y’know.”

There’s silence all around. Some of the officers on the Grazer’s bridge look up from their consoles to stare at me, and suddenly I realize what my phrasing seems to imply.

“So!” I say loudly, feeling heat rise to my face. “What I mean by that is one thing led to another, he got blackout drunk, slept for twelve hours, and woke up with a hangover. And that’s why we haven’t brought him back yet.”

“Right.” Tashilo says slowly. “Well that’s… good to hear. Deputy, it sounds like you’ve been having a good time while your coworkers have been worried about you.”

“Yes.” Milor grunts. “A good time. We’ll call it that.”

Awkward silence settles in after that, and sensing it, Dandy clears her throat and goes on. “We’ll be returning the Deputy shortly, Captain. Apologies for any inconvenience this has caused you. We can take him back down to Helios, unless you would like that privilege?”

“I appreciate the offer, but the Vaunted are not an orbital taxi service.” Tashilo says. “I’ll trust you all to handle it; I see no reason to board if the Deputy will be returning to the surface of his own accord.”

“Oh actually, Captain!” One of the bridge officers spins in their chair, holding up a hand. “Since we’re here and in position, I think we should — we’ve had no luck finding this creature that we were called to find, but I understand the Preservers had been working on this for months before we arrived. With your permission, I’d like to meet with them and take a look at their research, perhaps glean some insight that might help us find the soulstealer. I understand that the male Preserver had several encounters with the specimen.”

I can feel my heart drop into my stomach as Tashilo mulls it over. “That’s a solid point, Librarian. I’ll admit we could use a little help tracking this thing down; the Hunters and Huntresses are getting tired of bushwhacking the forest all day long.” With that, Tashilo looks back to us. “Preservers, I’ll be coming over with my analyst team so we can compare notes. I know that the settlement’s playing politics between CURSE and the Vaunted, but I could honestly care less, and the sooner this is over with, the sooner this ship and my crew can get back to helping with deterrent patrols against the Collective.”

“Oh really? You’re coming over? Right now?” I say, my voice going up an octave and nearly cracking.

“Is there an issue with that?” Tashilo asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Nope! That’s perfectly fine!” I say, forcing another high-pitched smile. “I’ll tell the ship’s adjutant to prep for docking!”

“O…kay.” Tashilo says slowly. “See you soon then, Preserver.”

The comms channel closes out with that. In the ensuing silence, Milor gives me a flat sideways look. “Really? Blackout drunk? Now you’re just reinforcing stereotypes about the frontier.”

“We are so screwed.” I groan, running my hands through my hair.

“We can handle this. We just need to loop Jazel in and keep the morphox away from the parts of the ship that the Vaunted are in.” Dandy points out.

I take a deep breath to calm myself. “You’re right. Okay. Where is Jazel right now?”

Dandy pauses for a moment, probably doing a scan of the ship. “Presently he’s in the kitchen, making short work of a toasted bagel with cream cheese.”

“Oh, now that sounds really good.” Milor says wistfully.

I wheel on Milor. “How can you be thinking about food right now?!”

“I haven’t eaten anything in thirty hours!” he snaps back at me. “Would it have killed you to throw a slice of bread at me?”

“We probably could’ve given him a slice of bread.” Dandy admits.

“What is with you and siding with everyone else today?” I demand, throwing my hands up. “Okay! Whatever! Fine! Let’s go get you a bagel or something, Milor. I have to go talk to Jazel anyway, so I’ll walk you to the kitchen. Dandy, can you keep the morphox locked in the parts of the ship where the Vaunted aren’t?”

“I can try.”

“I’ll take what I can get. C’mon Milor, you hungry bagel whore. We need to make sure Jazel doesn’t blurt out the truth when the Vaunted come over for their little meet n’ greet.”

Lysanne’s Notes

Some days it can be easy to feel like I’m the only adult on the Drift.

That’s not to say Jazel and Dandy are childish, though each of them can be, in their own ways. But some days, between Jazel’s myopic hyperfocus and Dandy’s weak grasp of organic social structures and hierarchies, it can be really easy to feel like I’m the only normal, functioning person on the ship.

Jazel’s problem is that he has difficulty caring about things, people, and events that are not important to him, or interesting to him. His world seems to exist entirely within the context of what piques his curiosity — everything outside that spectrum is a matter of disinterest for him. Politics, sports, current events — most of them go entirely ignored unless they have some bearing on something that he’s interested in. When something tries to forcibly intrude on that spectrum, that disinterest evolves into disdain, and is usually voiced. Based on what I’ve heard from Milor, Grimes found that out the hard way.

And while I get it — and I understand it, to some degree — it’s not one of Jazel’s better traits.

Dandy, on the other hand, is too often clueless.

And to her credit, that’s not her fault. It’s a known fact that most Cybers inherently struggle with the nuances of organic societies, and out of all the Cybers I’ve met, Dandy has been better at it than most of them. But organic cultures are vast and varied, and Dandy is just a single digital intelligence. Because of that, she can be childlike at times, struggling to understand what’s instinctive or implicit to Jazel and myself.

Which again, is not her fault, but it is still something I have to work around sometimes.

But at the end of the day, I care about both of them enough to put up with their flaws. They have their moments where they frustrate me, but I know that when it comes down to the grind, I can rely on them. And besides, even those flaws lend themselves to moments I enjoy with them. If they were just coworkers, their quirks and oddities are something I would view as a burden.

But for as much as we’ve been through together, they will always be more than coworkers to me.

Event Log: Lysanne Arrignis

Dandelion Drift: Dining Room

6:32am SGT

“It’s… a rather impressive vessel you have here.”

The remark comes from Tashilo, her eyes wandering the architecture of the dining room. Like the rest of the ship, it shares the elegant white interior design, full of gently curving shapes and forms. She’s brought her lieutenant along with her, and two analysts, both of which are sitting at the dining table. Dandy’s put a snack platter and some drinks out for them.

“Well, it doesn’t belong to us, obviously.” I explain from where I’m standing on the other side of the table. “CURSE provisioned the vessel for us on the condition that we adhere to the assignment schedule. I won’t lie, it is a very nice ship, though. I’ve enjoyed living on it.”

“I’ll admit I was expecting a research vessel when I stepped aboard, not luxury accommodations.” Tashilo says, leaning on the back of one of the chairs. “I have never followed CURSE terribly closely, but even so, I was not aware they had access to this kind of revenue. I only wish the Vaunted were as generous with outfitting their fleet.”

“Pff. You think CURSE would burn money on a floatin’ palace like this?” Milor scoffs from where he’s sitting at the head of the table, boots kicked up on the edge. “Nah, carrots. CURSE didn’t pay for this. They stole it fair and square.” He makes a motion to the elegant walls and cool lighting all around us. “This right here? This is all Challenger provenance. Ships built like these got real rare fifteen years ago, and never really made a comeback.”

“That’s where it was familiar from.” the lieutenant remarks, as if remembering. “I knew I’d seen this design aesthetic before, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember where from.”

“Well, that’s all very interesting, but we are here to talk about something else.” one of the Librarians says, clearing his throat. He nods to Jazel, who’s sitting in the chair beside me, wrapped in his shawl and lost in his own world. “As I’m sure you’re all aware, we’ve had some trouble with tracking down this creature that’s been troubling Vissengard. The mayor of Helios told us that your group had been working the case for the last three months, and while he was not impressed with your slow methodology, we understand that it yielded results. We were wondering if you could share some of those results with us, so we could refine our own search for the creature.”

“Well, what do you know so far?” Dandy asks. “We do not want to provide you with redundant information.”

“Not much.” the female Librarian says. “I’m Cardiff, by the way. This is Jankens. We only know what the locals and natives have told us, and all they’ve given us is contradicting descriptions of a wraith-like creature that wanders the forest at night.”

“Which is honestly quite vague and unhelpful.” Jankens adds. “But, seeing as you all have encountered the creature before, having an actual description would help us with knowing what to look for.”

“Well, what you’re looking for is a Rantecevangian morphox.” I say, reaching out to pick at one of the cheese slices on the snack platter. “Feminine, humanoid, black hair, silver tails. Nine of them.”

“I’m sorry, I missed that.” Cardiff says, opening up a new window on her tablet and starting to type on it. “A ranting what?”

“Pretty liddle fox lady with a hankering for souls.” Milor says, reaching over to grab one of the drinks and cracking it open. “A real charmer until she gets you in a liplock.”

“Oh.” Jankens says, blinking. “Well, that’s certainly much different from what the locals were describing…”

“Could you spell the species name, please?” Cardiff asks. “This will help if we need to do some research of our own.”

“Certainly.” Dandy says, before spelling it out for the Librarians, letter by letter.

Once she’s done, Jankens leans over and looks at the word. “That’s a mouthful.” he says, before looking back to us. “As I understand, you all have had not one, not two, but many encounters with her. What are your recommendations for drawing her out or tracking her down?”

“Well, she’s a soulstealer.” I explain, picking apart the slice of cheese I’ve got. “And she’s a predator. Her hunger motivates her. She’s pretty straightforward, and you’re most likely to encounter her after dark in the forest.”

“Hmm.” Cardiff pauses in her typing. “Can she be coaxed out of her comfort zone during the day?”

“Maybe? Hard to say. Most times we ran up against her, it was by chance.” I say, shrugging as I pop the last of the cheese in my mouth. “We didn’t go out after dark because it would’ve been too dangerous. We could barely hold our own during the day; going out at night would’ve been suicide.”

“But you did go out at night, once.” Jankens says, looking between the four of us. “That’s what the mayor said. Your last excursion took place at night.”

“Yes, and I wouldn’t recommend doing it again.” Milor says after taking a swig from his bottle, feet still kicked up on the table. “Trust me on that. Saw some shit that entitled me to a free bucket of brain bleach.”

Cardiff raises an eyebrow. “You were there that night, Deputy?”

Milor waves it off. “Was just playin’ guard duty. Person you want to ask about it is the kiddo over there. Bet he knows more about her than the rest of us do, all the way down to what her lips taste like. Ain’t that right, kid?”

Jazel blinks, then glances at Milor. “What? Were you talking to me?”

“Someone seems distracted.” Tashilo remarks, folding her arms.

“He’s still recovering from our last encounter with the creature.” I explain, shooting a brief glare at Milor before going on. “We’re going to be taking him to a doctor once we reach the next metropolitan system.”

“Recovering?” Jankens asks, perplexed. “Did the creature do something to him during that night excursion?”

“Sure did.” Milor says before the rest of us can answer. “Pinned him down and sucked his soul out of his body like a medium soda at the drive-thru.”

“Milor.” I warn through gritted teeth.

“Is that why he’s so… distracted?” Cardiff asks, looking at Jazel again.

“We managed to get her to spit it out and put it back in him.” I explain quickly. “But the experience was traumatic, and there have been some psychological aftereffects. He’s not quite all there at the moment.”

“I can imagine.” Jankens says, leaning forward on the table and peering at Jazel. “Mr. Jaskolka, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you some questions about this creature. As I understand it, you were the one that understood her best — is there anything you could share about her that would give us insight into her decision-making process?”

I hold my breath, looking at Jazel. His eyes wander the room, as if he hasn’t heard Jankens’ question, but after a moment he answers without looking at the Librarian. “She is simply doing what she was made to do.” he says simply. “Birds fly, fish swim, and her kind were designed to eat souls.”

Jazel’s daydreamy answer strikes an awkward silence into the room. Jankens retreats from where he’d leaned forward on the table, looking a little offput by the answer. “You don’t say.” he says, exchanging a look with Cardiff. “So would you say that she is a sapient but simple creature? No complicated motives driving her actions?”

“No, there’s more there.” Jazel says, turning his head in another direction, as if listening to something. “She’s been around for a while. Alone for a long time. There’s a lot about her that we don’t know yet.”

“Yet?” Cardiff repeats, raising an eyebrow.

“Jazel.” I say gently. “Remember what we talked about?” I reach over to shake his shoulder, to see if I can jar his memory and remind him of what we’d gone over before the Vaunted boarded the ship.

But when I go to set my hand on his shoulder, it hits something invisible, something soft and warm.

Whatever it is recoils on contact, and Jazel suddenly tilts away from me, though it appears almost as if he’s been pulled, rather than moving on his own accord. I snatch my hand back, staring at him; the Librarians are startled as well, and Cardiff yanks out a wand, flicking it at Jazel. A wave of pale yellow light spills from the end of the wand, washing through the room; when it passes over Jazel, it outlines the silhouette of an invisible person standing behind his chair. As the wave of light subsides, the veneer of invisibility starts to fade in patches, color seeping into the form until it resolves into the morphox, hunched over Jazel with her arms draped over his chest and her head down beside his, as if she’d been whispering in his ear.

There’s a moment of shocked silence in the dining hall. Milor jerks his boots off the table, sitting up straight; Dandy backs up a pace, moving to put herself between me and the morphox. The Vaunted just stare, and the morphox’s orange-yellow eyes dart about, her pupils narrowing to slits. Her lips draw back, baring her teeth in a silent snarl when she realizes everyone can see her.

“Oh shit.” Cardiff murmurs, wand still raised. The words break the reverie, and behind her, Tashilo bursts into action, reaching down and unholstering her pistol.

“Wait, don’t!” Jazel shouts. Tashilo brings it up and takes aim anyway, and Jazel bolts to his feet, dislodging the morphox as Tashilo’s pulling the trigger. There’s the static-y crack of a coilgun discharge, and Jazel’s jerked backwards by the shoulder, thrown against the morphox with both of them slamming into the wall, the chair tangled between them.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Milor shouts, scrambling up out of his chair. “Hold your fire, you just shot the kid!”

“Jazel!” I scream, flying out of my chair and pushing past Dandy. Hitting the ground on my knees, I start to untangle him from the chair and from the morphox, who’s dazed and shaking her head as she pushes herself back to her hands and knees.

“Why are you harboring this creature?!” Tashilo belts, starting to circle around the dining table with her gun still raised. “How did you get it off the surface of Vissengard? Why did you try to hide this from us?”

“Jazel, Jazel! Can you hear me?” I demand, rolling him over on his back. His eyes are wide, and his chest is rising and falling with quick, shallow breaths as he reaches for his shoulder with one hand. Just barely visible through a bloody hole in both his shawl and shirt is the tip of a coilgun mini-spike, sunken deep into his shoulder.

“No! No, no…” It’s a panicked little exhalation, and I look up to see the morphox kneeling on the other side of Jazel, half-reaching for him with both hands. A look of panic is crossing over her face as she sees the blood seeping into his shawl; when Tashilo comes around the end of the table, the morphox whips her head towards the captain. Tashilo stops short when she sees the murder in the morphox’s orange-yellow eyes.

“Cardiff, Jankens! Contain the creature!” Tashilo orders. “Lieutenant, I want cuffs on the rest. If they’ve had her up here all along, we’re gonna be filing charges.”

“You just shot him!” Milor protests as the lieutenant moves to join Tashilo around the table. “Kid needs medical attention, not cuffs!”

“Dandy, Dandy, I need something to stem the blood!” I say, feeling around on the table for napkins or anything I can press to Jazel’s shoulder.

“Please move, Ms. Arrignis.” Dandy says, kneeling beside me. “I can triage the injury, but I need space to work.”

As I move out of Dandy’s way, the morphox stands with clenched fists, fuming at Tashilo. “You tried to kill my pet!” she hisses, her tails lashing in agitation. “You are not welcome he-”

She doesn’t get to finish the sentence because a burst of yellow light slams her against the wall again, sparks flying everywhere. Looking over the table, I can see Cardiff standing, her wand outstretched at the morphox. Beside her, Jankens is starting to roll up his sleeves. Milor is arguing with the lieutenant about why cuffs don’t need to be put on him. Dandy is cutting Jazel’s shirt off him and using it to start tying off his injury.

Everything’s gone wrong, and I don’t know what to do.

I look at the morphox again as she steadies herself against the wall. Her eyes keep darting to Jazel, and I remember what he told us earlier this morning.

I… may have told her that we would help her find an alternative to soul-stealing so she could live in harmony with others.

It all falls into focus with that. The reason she’s agitated over Jazel getting hurt, the protective behavior, the reason she’s stalking him around the ship. He offered her something, and she thinks he can deliver on it.

Which sucks, because now I can’t give her up to the Vaunted.

“Wait, hold up, stop!” I shout at Tashilo, putting up my hands. “Look, we got her off Vissengard, okay? She’s not a problem any more! We’ll take care of her from here on out, and I promise we’ll keep her from hurting anyone else!”

“Captain, they are not licensed to handle creatures like this.” Jankens warns, starting to draw lines of light in the air in front of him. “They’re Preservers, not behavioral psychologists. If this is really a soulstealer, then what we’re dealing with is on par with a Shanarae, and you know how that goes.”

“I’m sure you mean well, but we’re at the line where your job ends and ours begins.” Tashilo says, keeping her gun leveled at the morphox. “We’re going to be taking all of you into custody, and dealing with this the way it’s supposed to be.”

My eyes flick to Dandy, but she’s too busy triaging Jazel’s injury to pay attention to me. I look to Milor next; he catches my gaze, and I can tell that he doesn’t agree with what’s going down. He just needs to be convinced to act on it.

“I’ll throw in a third bottle of Venusian whiskey, Milor.” I call.

He rolls his eyes, using the chair he’s holding to prod the lieutenant away a bit. “You still haven’t given me the first two bottles!”

“You know I’m good for it.” I promise, glancing at the morphox. “Now!”

Milor drops his chair, quickdrawing his plasma pistol and firing a pulse through the seal that Jankens is drawing in the air. It shatters in a shower of sparks; as the Librarians recoil and Tashilo twists to take aim at Milor, the morphox shoves off the wall, leaping into the table and pelting for the door. The lieutenant shouts, pointing at her; Tashilo turns back towards her, firing off a pair of shots as the morphox flees the dining room and disappears from view.

“Get after her!” Tashilo shouts to the Librarians, before turning back to where Milor and the lieutenant are fighting over his gun. There’s another static crack as Tashilo fires her coilgun, and Milor drops to one knee with a shout of pain, clutching his thigh. The lieutenant yanks his plasma pistol from him as Tashilo marches over to him and grabs him by the collar of his shirt.

“Dandy, we need to go now. Get Jazel to the medbay.” I murmur urgently to her, feeling for the bird bone bracelet on my wrist, my fingers tracing over the spell runes carved into it.

Dandy nods and slides her arms under Jazel, then twists to her feet and bolts for the door with inhuman speed. The lieutenant, in the middle of cuffing Milor, shouts a warning to Tashilo again; when she swings around to take aim at Dandy, I snap the bone bound into the bracelet. A pulse of stored energy wreathes around my hand, and I slam it into the floor in the direction of Tashilo, the lieutenant, and Milor. A shockwave of force tears through the room, throwing all the chairs, drinks, and the snack platter in that direction, before hitting the three of them and slamming them up against the wall.

Letting the bone fragments drop to the ground, I bolt over and loop my arms under Milor’s, starting to drag him towards the door until he manages to get his good leg underneath him, and one arm over my shoulder. “Getting shot in the leg is not worth a bottle of whiskey.” he hisses through gritted teeth as Tashilo and the lieutenant start to dig their way out from underneath the chairs.

“Get after them, lieutenant!” I can hear Tashilo cough from the room. “I’ll follow up with the Librarians!”

“Dandy, we can’t keep up!” I shout as I help Milor out into the hall, and we round the corner. Dandy’s already way down the corridor, her running pace relentless and mechanical even when carrying Jazel; she skids to a halt, looking back at us. As we cross the threshold of one of the corridor sections, a bulwark door spirals closed behind us and seals off.

“Gods, I forgot how much I missed Cybers that could manage ship defense from anywhere on the vessel.” Milor grunts, trying to limp a little faster so we can catch up to Dandy. “Please tell me she also has medical subroutines.”

“She’s got basic triage and caretaker protocols, but she’s not a medical Cyber.” I reply, trying to adjust my pace to match his. The sudden whir of the bulwark door unlocking behind us causes both of us to look around; the door spirals open a touch, then grinds to a halt. “Dandy! What’s going on?!”

Dandy doesn’t answer right away; I look back around to see that she’s staggering, one hand clutched to her head as she winces. “The lieutenant flashed his badge and ordered the door unsealed. The Vaunted are galactic law enforcement; their orders carry the force of law, and all vessels that have semi-autonomous systems and are registered with the Colloquium must recognize and comply with Vaunted jurisdiction. I cannot keep the doors sealed if they order them open.”

“Ah shit.” Milor grunts, his limp turning into an urgent hop-skip. “And here I was, thinking a Challenger vessel and its attached Cyber would still have immunity.”

“Open the door all the way!” I hear the lieutenant order from the other side of the partially-opened bulwark door. Dandy grits her teeth at that, and the door spirals all the way open, just as the bulwark door for the next section of corridor we’re in spirals shut.

“That’s only gonna to slow him down.” Milor mutters as we start limp-skipping down the corridor, with Dandy walking backwards in front of us, so she can keep her eye on the next closed bulwark door. “I suppose if you’ve got compliance coded into your OS, that means you’re compelled to avoid harming a Vaunted officer as well, right?”

“Yes, but another one of my core obligations is the safety of the individuals that crew this vessel.” Dandy answers. “However, I do not want to test what happens when those two directives come into conflict with each other.”

“You’re the only one that’s in any shape to fight a Vaunted lieutenant.” Milor points out as Dandy winces again, and the bulwark door behind us unseals. “I’m pretty sure that blondie here doesn’t have combat training.”

“I don’t need combat training.” I mutter, reaching down to the deckholder on my belt, and drawing a card. As the bulwark door spirals open, I chuck the card back at the lieutenant; a second before it reaches him, it disappears, turning into… a mild breeze that ruffles his hair a little bit.

The lieutenant slows a little bit, as if not quite sure what happened. Milor gives me a flat look. “Honey, you need a more reliable weapon than that.”

“Look, it’s not my fault I drew the two of tempests.” I grumble at him, fumbling at my deckholder to draw another card. It comes up green again, and I shove it in his face. “There. Seven of tempests. Happy?” With that, I flick it down the corridor at the lieutenant right as he’s drawing his sidearm. The card disappears again, but this time the resulting blast of wind knocks him on his back, sending him sliding across the floor for a distance. Both bulwark doors spiral shut again, followed by a third as we cross into another corridor section.

“That should buy us enough time to get to the lift and the medbay from there, but we need to hurry.” Dandy says urgently, running ahead of Milor and myself. “I likewise won’t be able to seal the medbay doors if one of the Vaunted orders them open, so you two will need to produce a plan of action if one of them figures out where the medbay is.”

“We’ll handle it. Just get us there.” Milor grunts.

Though it only takes us a minute or two to reach the medbay, it seems forever with the trail of blood that Milor’s leaving through every hall. Two of the stations whirr to life the moment we step in, with Jazel’s medical profile loading onto the screen behind one bed and a new profile generating behind the other one. Dandy’s quick to deposit Jazel on his bed, while I help Milor to the other one.

“For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure the spike passed right through, so it’s a clean wound.” Milor grunts as I help him up onto his bed. “Shouldn’t be too hard to tie it off to restrict some of the blood loss, then clean and pack it.”

“We’ll let the medical scanner be the judge of that.” I say, helping lift his injured leg up onto the bed. On Jazel’s bed, Dandy is already following the treatment plan prescribed by the medical program, based off the symptoms she’s fed to the algorithm. As the glass chamber closes around Milor’s bed, I take a step back as the scanner ring starts to run the length of his tube. “Dandy, is there anything I can do to help?”

“Take the steps that you can when the program returns Milor’s prescribed treatment plan.” she answers, setting an empty auto-injector back into its housing in the operation tray in exchange for a set of forceps. “Jazel, the local anesthetic probably has not kicked in. This will likely hurt.” she says as she carefully positions two cloth-wrapped fingers on either side of the tip of the spike buried in his shoulder.

“I’ve had worse.” he answers, trying to be nonchalant about it, but I can see that he’s gritting his teeth as Dandy carefully digs the forceps in, clamping them around the spike and slowly pulling it out. Setting it on the tray beside her, she takes another injector, this one a little heftier and filled with a gel that’s made of little tiny blue beads, and slowly starts squeezing some of it into his wound.

Turning back about, I move back to Milor’s bed as the triage scan concludes, with a treatment plan scrolling out on the screen behind the head of his bed. There’s the sound of a medical tray being assembled behind the medbay’s walls, before one of the panels pops out and slides back, presenting me with a tray of medical tools and injectors. The glass lid of Milor’s tube splits apart and retracts, leaving him free to be operated on.

“So, what’s the first step, doctor?” Milor grunts, staring at the tray.

“An awkward one.” I mutter, reaching for the scissors on the tray. “I have to cut off the leg of your pants so we can work on the injury unobstructed.”

Milor takes a moment to consider that, then nods. “Well, fair warning: I don’t shave my legs, so brace yourself.”

“I’ve seen hairy legs before, you backworld redneck.” I retort, taking his pants leg and starting to cut into it with the scissors. “Now stow the sass, or I won’t be so gentle.”

“If this is what you’re like when you’re gentle, I’d hate to see what you’re like when you’re being rough.” Milor winces as I start to cut the leg of his pants so I can peel it back to reveal his injury.

“Lysanne, there’s something over here you should see.” Dandy calls from behind me. “Switch places with me. Jazel’s treatment is finished, and I can take care of Milor’s.”

The words sound ominous, even though Dandy speaks them without any inflection. I turn to find that she’s already beside me, taking the scissors as she speaks to me in a quieter tone. “Left side, just under his collarbone. It wasn’t there during his last checkup. The damage looks recent.”

I stare at her, then at Jazel, rushing over to his bed. He sees me coming and clutches his shawl a little tighter about himself as I reach his bed. “Let me see it, Jazel.” I order warningly.

“It’s nothing.” he says weakly. “Seriously, it’s fine.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” I say, reaching over and grabbing the edge of the shawl, yanking it open. Underneath, Dandy’s cut away most of Jazel’s shirt to dress his wound, and for a moment I don’t see anything - but then I look a little harder, and I can see what Dandy was talking about.

An X carved into his skin just below his collarbone on his left side, glowing the same hue as the spirit blooms on Vissengard.

“What is that?” I ask him in a dangerously quiet tone.

He seems to realize that I’m not going to leave it alone, so he looks away while he answers in a soft mumble. “I made a pact with her.”

“You WHAT?!” I demand, slamming my hands down on the frame of his bed. “What were the terms of the pact? What did you promise her?”

“Exactly what I told you guys!” he says defensively. “That I’d help her find an alternative to eating souls, and in exchange, she wouldn’t hurt you guys. There’s nothing new here; this is stuff you guys already know.”

“You didn’t tell us you’d bound yourself to her with blood and covenant!” I fume, my fingers digging into edges of his bed. “What happens when she figures out you can’t deliver on your promise? The protection you bought for all of us evaporates like smoke!”

“I can make it work.” Jazel argues. “I just need time.”

“How much time, Jazel?!” I shout, throwing an arm wide. “She needs souls to survive, and she didn’t get her fix on Vissengard! How long do we have before her hunger forces her to feed? Months? Weeks? Days?”

“We’ll have time. Plenty of it.” Jazel answers, wincing as he pulls his shawl back over himself to hide the pact mark and his injury. “I’ve got a way to buy time whenever we’re starting to run low. Trust me, it’ll be fine.”

“How am I supposed to trust you?” I demand wildly. “You keep on running off without telling anyone, or leaving out important information when you tell us things. How are we supposed to trust anything you say if you won’t tell us the whole truth? Are you going tell us about how you plan on buying time whenever you’re running low? You got a secret stash of souls in your sock drawer that you can just feed to her whenever she’s getting the munchies?”

Jazel just presses his lips together, looking away. “…it’ll be fine. I can make sure she doesn’t get hungry enough to eat us.”

“Ugh!” I shove away from his bed. “You are impossible. You are the most impossible, stubborn, repressed, inconsiderate, fluff-huffing fox-fluffing witchling I have ever met!”

“I’m the only witchling you know.” he points out, looking confused.

“Exactly, you give witchlings a bad name!” I snap at him, then whirl around and stomp back to Milor’s bed. “How is he looking?”

“Clean wound, easy to treat according to the prescribed plan.” Dandy answers as she carefully applies successive layers of liquid bandage to one side of the hole through Milor’s leg. “Much the same as Jazel’s injury. Still, they are major injuries, and we should get both of them reexamined at a medical facility at our next convenience. Neither of them are in mortal danger, but they need proper medical evaluations and recovery plans.”

“All that matters is that they’re not in immediate danger.” I say, running my hands through my hair. “We’re going to need to get them to a hospital, yes, but first we have to get away from this system, and we can’t do that until the Vaunted are off the ship. And I don’t know how we’re going to do that, and get the frigate to disengage their docking tube.”

“They won’t do it of their own accord.” Milor says as Dandy begins spraying the other side of the hole through his leg. “We’re gonna hafta knock out the Vaunted on this ship, then corner the captain and twist her arm into going back to her ship and disengaging the docking tube. Either that, or we roll up our sleeves and storm the frigate.”

I fold my arms, tilting my head at him. “Oh? So you’re going to take on a frigate full of Vaunted Hunters and Huntresses with what? Your silly hat, a toothpick, a gimp leg, and a single plasma pistol?”

Milor shrugs, as much as he can while he’s laying down. “I’ve had worse odds before.”

“I’d like to know what the hell you’ve done to make storming a Vaunted frigate with a pistol and a gimp leg sound like ‘decent odds’.” I say as Dandy finishes spraying the liquid bandage on Milor’s wound. “There is no way in the twenty-three hells that you are taking a fully crewed Vaunted frigate. Even with the three of us to help you, we couldn’t pull it off. Hell, I’m not even sure we’d be able to handle the Vaunted that we have on our vessel.”

“We may not have to.” Dandy says, setting the can of liquid bandage back on the medical tray. The idle screens in the medbay start showing camera feeds from across the ship, likely at an unspoken command from Dandy. “The creature appears to be taking care of that for us.”

I follow the images on the screens; it takes me a couple seconds, but I realize that they’re the feeds from corridors where the Vaunted Librarians are. There’s an explosion on one of the feeds that shows Jankens getting thrown against a wall by the blast; the morphox walks past him, moments before a lasso of yellow light winds around her and draws tight. At the other end of it is Cardiff, with her wand; the morphox looks towards her, and a pulse of blue energy races back down the lasso, slamming into the wand and shattering it into pieces, many of which end up lodged in Cardiff’s hand. The lasso dissolves as Cardiff reels, clutching her wrist; the morphox starts down the hall, closing the distance at a run. Cardiff tries to stagger away, but the morphox catches up to her, grabbing her and slamming her head into the wall, and she drops like a limp curtain.

Milor gives a low whistle. “That’s a fine fox. She knows how to get stuff done.”

I glare at Milor. “Do you realize how much legal trouble we can get into for injuring galactic law enforcement?”

“Didn’t look like you had any trouble with givin’ them the ol’ blast hand in the dining hall.” Milor points out. “Seems like that ship’s already left the starport, if you ask me.”

“With the Librarians out of commission, that leaves only the captain and the lieutenant.” Dandy points out. “While this evens the odds, I am concerned for their safety. I don’t believe the creature is interested in differentiating between lethal and nonlethal approaches.”

“You’re prolly not wrong, but who’s gonna to go out there and tell her to dial it back a little?” Milor says. “Far as I can tell, there’s only one person on this ship she’s interested in, so there’s only one person on this ship that could yank on her tails and get away with it—”

The sound of the medbay door opening and closing interrupts him. All three of us look over to Jazel’s bed.

It’s empty, and through the windows of the medbay, I can see Jazel quickly staggering down the hall outside, one hand clutched gamely to his shoulder.

“Oh hell no, you’re not pulling that shit again!” I explode, twisting and bolting towards the medbay doors. Skidding out into the hall with Dandy following me, I start after Jazel in a full-on sprint, aiming to catch him before he reaches the lift. It won’t be hard to outpace him, seeing as he’s unsteady on his feet.

But Dandy seizes the collar of my shirt from behind, yanking me back and nearly choking me in the process. I cough and stagger to a halt, forced to backpedal a couple paces as I start to demand what she’s doing. The question dies in my throat as the Vaunted lieutenant rounds the corner from an adjoining hall, pistol raised; it places him squarely between us and Jazel, who reaches the lift and keys the doors open.

“Shit.” I hiss, my hand going down to my deckholder on instinct.

“Aught! Nope!” the lieutenant shouts, taking aim at me. “Hands where I can see them! Up in the air!”

I grit my teeth, pulling my fingers away from the card I was about to draw. My eyes go over his shoulder, to where Jazel’s hesitating, and our gazes meet for a second.

I can tell from the look in Jazel's eyes that he’s sorry for what he’s about to do, but he does it anyway, tapping the control panel inside the lift.

The sound of the lift doors closing causes the lieutenant to look around, and when he does, I draw a card from my deckholder. I’m another half-second from throwing it when I notice what it is, and hastily shove it back into the deck, backpedaling towards the medbay.

“What are you doing? Why didn’t you throw it?” Dandy demands as we flee back to the medbay, the lieutenant shouting at us to stop.

“It was the king of flames, it would’ve blasted out this entire floor!” I answer as I scramble back into the medbay, only to find that Milor’s bed is empty now as well. “Oh c’mon!”

The door to the medbay spirals shut behind Dandy, but only for a moment; we can hear the lieutenant slam a fist against the door. We both turn to face the doorway, with Dandy pushing me behind herself as the lieutenant shouts a muffled command. “Fully open this door, immediately!”

I can see Dandy wince and hunch her shoulders; the door spirals open a moment later, the lieutenant stepping in with his pistol raised. “Hands raised! Stand away from each other!”

I start to move, but Dandy twitches, putting a hand back to keep me behind her. “No.” she refuses.

“I’m only going to ask one more tim—” the lieutenant begins. He never gets to finish, because Milor rears up from where he’d been hiding behind the bed nearest to the door, and slams a fully-loaded medical tray down on the back of the lieutenant’s head. It lays the lieutenant flat-out against the floor, and Milor takes a limping step before tilting over, bodyslamming the lieutenant against the ground, seizing him in a headlock before he can get back up.

“Made a big mistake, getting your grimy mitts on my pistol.” Milor grunts as the lieutenant thrashes. “That’s an engraved, vintage, custom-built Ronan-era plasma pistol. If I find you put a scratch on that thing, I’mma put a scratch on you, buster.”

“Jeezus, Milor, don’t kill him!” I say, coming out from behind Dandy and kicking the lieutenant’s pistol away from him.

“I’m not gonna to kill him, I’m just going to put him to sleep for a bit.” Milor retorts as the lieutenant’s struggles start to lessen. Dandy starts gathering up the supplies from the tray as the lieutenant finally goes limp, and Milor loosens his hold on him a moment later. Getting to his good knee, he starts patting down the lieutenant until he finds his plasma pistol, taking it back and holstering it. “Thieving little shit.”

“Alright, so that’s three down, now we just need to get the captain, right?” I say, edging around the lieutenant and peeking out into the hall cautiously. “Milor, Dandy, could you take care of her? I’ll track down Jazel.”

“Think we’ll want to go together for that, blondie.” Milor says, patting the lieutenant down until he finds the cuffs and snaps them on the man. “Based on what I’m seeing on the screens, we’d be headed in the same direction anyway.”

I look around. Dandy’s still got security feeds from around the ship playing, and on the main one, Tashilo’s backing down a hall, firing at the morphox. The spikes ricochet off a translucent blue shield around her; the morphox looks like she’s taking her time, stalking down the captain, as it she was savoring the end of a hunt.

And on another screen, Jazel’s staggering along, making his way toward them.

Event Log: Jazel Jaskolka

Dandelion Drift: Dining Room

6:46am SGT

It’s hard to think.

I can tell the anesthetic that Dandy gave me is starting to kick in, but there’s still a lingering ache radiating throughout my shoulder. My mind is hazy with pain and my body is exhausted, even as adrenaline keeps it going; I feel weak, and I know I’m running on fumes. I can push through for now, but pretty soon, I’m going to run out of steam, and I don’t know what that’ll look like. There’s a good chance it’ll resemble me fainting, or blacking out.

Not impressive, I know, but I’m hardly a hulking specimen of male virility.

Keeping one hand clutched to the spike wound in my shoulder keeps me focused as I stagger down the halls as quickly as I can, following the sound of coilgun discharges. I’d already come across both of the Librarians; though they were both looking a little worse for the wear, they were still alive and unconscious. I’d passed them over, because if Kayenta dealt with them, it meant she was going after the captain next.

It isn’t long before I manage to catch up with them, and I round the corner to see Kayenta pinning Tashilo against the wall with a single hand. The captain's been disarmed, her pistol lying on the floor beside her; the walls are pocked with holes where coilgun spikes have ricocheted or gone astray.

“You mortals are all the same, whether down there or up here.” Kayenta says, batting away one of Tashilo’s fists again. Her other hand is splayed across Tashilo’s face, pinning her head to the wall with one of her nails digging into the captain’s cheek. “You struggle and fight like you think you stood a chance. Did you really think you could hunt me and win?”

“Your ego’s so big it’s got its own gravity well.” Tashilo grunts, reaching down and yanking out a combat knife. Kayenta catches Tashilo’s wrist with her free hand and twists it, forcing her to drop the knife, but Tashilo is quick to swing a leg up, kicking Kayenta square in the side, forcing her to stagger and steady herself.

“Now you try my patience.” Kayenta snarls, her hand moving from Tashilo’s face to her neck, grabbing her there. Lifting her up with unnatural strength for her slender frame, she slams the captain against the wall and keeps her there, her feet dangling a couple inches off the ground. “I am still hungry, and it has been five years since I fed. Your soul should keep me sated for a while, given how defiant you are.”

It’s at that moment that I catch up to both of them, and reach out to lay a hand on Kayenta’s shoulder and tell her “No.”

At least that’s what I’d been planning to do.

Instead, after pushing myself to the limit to get down the hall in time, and with the anesthetic starting to kick in and making me woozy, I reach out, trip over my own feet, and faceplant into Kayenta’s mid-back, gurgling “Nnnrgrrbr!” as my legs fully give out and I slump weakly to my knees.

“What in Maelstrom’s name—” she hisses as she twists halfway, then sees me as I struggle to push myself off her back with my one good arm. “Little feast. What are you doing here?”

“Let her go.” I pant, my vision swimming with dizziness. Now that I’m off my feet, I can feel my consciousness trying to slip from me.

“You cannot command me.” she says, turning her back to me as she reaffirms her chokehold on Tashilo, despite the captain’s struggles. “Go back to your friends. They will take care of you while I take care of this.”

“You won’t feed on her.” I cough, reaching up to grab weakly at the tail of her shirt. “You hear me, Kayenta? You don’t need to feed on her. Remember our pact?”

“The pact never said I couldn’t feed on other souls. Just that I wouldn’t hurt your friends.” she answers without looking around, and using her free hand to block another kick from Tashilo as she struggles to breathe. “Be thankful. This means you won’t have to sustain me for a while yet.”

I’m in no shape to stop her, and she won’t even turn around to look at me. Trying to figure out how to get some traction, I’m coming up short until one of her silver tails brushes my cheek, and I remember what Milor said as I was slipping out of the medbay.

There’s only one person on this ship that could yank on her tails and get away with it.

Reaching up, I grab one of her nine tails near the base, and give it a firm tug.

The reaction is instant. She straightens like a board, shoulders hunching upwards as she slowly turns and fixes her gaze on me, august eyes burning with incandescent murder. The expression is gratifying, even if it foretells imminent doom, and everything seems to be tilting at an odd angle.

“Let her go.” I order again, before the dizziness finally wins and I slump sideways on the floor, my world spinning even though I’m not moving.

As I lie there on the ground, I can hear something thump to the ground, followed by coughing, hacking, and gasped breaths. Soon after, I can hear words being whispered close to my ear as arms slide under me and lift me up.

“You’re lucky I need you alive, little feast.”

It’s a struggle to stay conscious, and shapes and images seem to be going fuzzy around the edges, getting blurrier and blurrier. If I had to guess, I’d probably say it’s a combination of blood loss, fatigue, and the anesthetic, but I can barely keep my eyes open. All I can really process is my head lolling against someone’s shoulder as I’m carried down the hall, my vision slowly slipping away from me.

Lysanne’s gonna pitch a fit.

Dandelion Drift Security Footage

Deck 3, Hall 2

6:48am SGT

In the security footage, the morphox picks up Jazel Jaskolka, cradling him in a classic bridal carry. The witchling is limp and small, bundled in his shawl; after sniffing at his hair, she starts walking back the way she came, exhibiting little apparent difficulty with carrying him, despite being slightly smaller than him.

Behind her, Captain Tashilo is still coughing and gasping as air continues to flood back into her lungs.

The morphox has nearly proceeded out of view by the time the Vaunted captain manages to push herself back to her hands and knees, wheezing for breath. A glare is cast down the hall, presumably at the morphox’s departing back, and Tashilo reaches for her sidearm, only to find a boot pinning it to the floor. Following it up the leg to the body attached to it, she finds herself staring up at Milor, who reaches up to take his toothpick out of his mouth.

“Now that’d be awfully poor sportsmanship, shooting another gal in the back while she’s carrying her pet to safety.” he drawls, his other hand resting on the grip of his holstered pistol. “Do yourself a favor, carrots. Walk away from this one. Discretion is the better part of valor and all that.”

“You better get your foot off my gun or I’m going to shoot you in your other leg.” Tashilo rasps, glaring at him.

“Look, carrots, I’m not tryin’ to pick a fight.” Milor shrugs. “I’m just sayin’, y’got your ass handed to you but you’re still goin’ back for more. The kid told her not to kill you, and Fluffy McFoxtails listened to him.” Milor nods down the hall in the direction the morphox went. “But he’s out cold now. You try to pick a fight with her again, and he’s not gonna be able to stop her from tearin’ you a new one. So mebbe stop and think about what you’re doin’ before you do it, yeh?”

Tashilo glares up at him as she works her way up to crouching on one knee. “You’re out of your mind if you think we’re just going to let you all leave with that creature. She’s an arcane safety hazard that should be handled by professionals, not treehugging mages and vegan witches.”

Milor holds up a finger. “Hold up now. I will freely admit the kid’s an idiot, but he’s not a vegan. Save that insult for the blonde.” Tucking his toothpick back in the corner of his mouth, he goes on. “As for lettin’ us go… well, I think it would be a wise decision on your part.”

“Now you’re just mocking me.” Tashilo growls, narrowing her eyes as she pushes to her feet.

“Hardly.” Milor replies mildly, taking his foot off the gun. “See, I overheard that arcane safety hazard you were talking about, and she’s hungry, but can’t hurt the kid’s friends. You all, however, are not his friends. See where I’m going with this?”

Tashilo pauses in bending down to grab her pistol. “Are you threatening me?”

“Nah, carrots.” Milor says, turning to start limping in the direction that the morphox went. “I’m just sayin’, it’s not wise to trifle with a cornered, hungry animal. Especially when it’s only one docking tube away from you and the rest of your crew.”

The captain remains still for a moment, then picks up her handgun and slowly holsters it. “I hope you like being an outlaw, deputy.”

“I’ll tell the robutt to drag your lieutenant and Librarians to the docking tube, so you can take them back to your ship.” Milor replies over his shoulder. “See you ‘round, carrots.” With that, he limps along the hall until he passes out of frame in the security footage.

After standing in place for a long moment, Tashilo turns and stalks off in the opposite direction, soon disappearing out of frame as well.