Bryce

We made several improvements to the new pact, but the essence of it remained the same.

Either of us could still cancel it at any point, and neither of us had any special privileges to enforce orders or command each other, but we added the ability to adjust the amount of mana that Thea was receiving.

It could go from zero to fifteen percent and while either of us could make the change at any time, the lower of the two numbers would win out if we were competing for any reason.

I convinced her to start with seven percent for now. It would leave me with barely any left, but I wanted to see how quickly her body could adjust to that amount.

“I’m really not so sure about this, Bryce. Five percent was plenty, and it made me feel like total shit. I had to melt a hallway just so I could walk straight.”

“Your body just needs to adapt. It won’t kill you,” I promised.

Thea smirked while raising an eyebrow. “That’s not very reassuring.”

I channeled mana into the contract, and it burst into flames. I felt the pact slide into place near my core.

Thea immediately threw up.

~~~~

“Okay, now what, princess?”

Thea was lying on the bed across from me, nursing a headache. Daelin had pulled a chair up next to her and was managing her vitals.

“Well, first we need to establish priorities, then we’ll need to gather information and finally create a plan.”

“Easy enough. My number one priority is getting out of this alive. Although, it’d be kinda nice if you lived, too. I’ve got a few plans that involve you. Also, I like Daelin, he’s fun.”

That wasn’t surprising. I could hardly expect Thea to feel invested in a mostly human colony that she just learned existed.

“I would prioritize the survival of New Eden,” Daelin said. “If you’re correct about Aiden’s plan to leak information about what you’ve been doing up here, then we need to stop him. Failing that, we’ll need an alternative that will stop a corporate purge.”

That’s exactly what I expected from Daelin, and it’s a large part of why I liked the human. He was obviously ready to die if it meant protecting the colony. I just had to make sure it didn’t come to that.

“Okay, so we need to stop Aiden from getting a message to New Eden. Otherwise, we’ll just need to stop a corporate purge. Easy enough, right?”

That elicited a smirk from Thea and a look of contemplation from Daelin.

I looked towards Daelin. “Do we know if Aiden is alone? Or what he’s been doing for the last thirty hours? I can’t imagine he’s been sitting around twiddling his thumbs.”

“I’m afraid not. Salinthea has made a few trips to the cafeteria while you slept, but she didn’t run into anybody else. It’s likely that he holed himself up in the docking bay or on the bridge. I don’t think it’s possible for him to leave while the lockdown is in progress.”

Aiden being alone made a certain amount of sense, because there really shouldn’t be anybody else on the station. I didn’t design it for long-term living. The one concession I had made was to allow Daelin unfettered access, and that was only after collapsing from exhaustion for the third time. Really, I had been incredibly lucky that Daelin had been aboard when Ava and Aiden had enacted their coup.

“Okay, so step one is to find Aiden and figure out what he’s up to. Daelin, are you able to access the security cameras? My implants still aren’t working and I don’t think the med-lab has the correct permissions.”

He shook his head. “No, they never trusted me with that kind of thing.”

“In that case, we’ll probably need to access them through the bridge computers, which will be a problem if he’s used the bridge instead of the docking bay.” I turned towards Thea. “Can I rely on you to get us there?”

“Of course, but isn’t your magic better than mine? I mean, with the amount of mana you throw around, you should be more than capable of defending yourself from some corporate rent-a-cop.”

She wasn’t entirely wrong, but it was nowhere near that simple.

“I’m mostly an academic mage, and the combat spells I know are almost entirely theoretical. Besides, when casting on a space station, more power isn’t usually the best option. I’m liable to miss and blow a hole in the hull.”

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Thea shrugged. “Yeah, okay. I don’t really love the idea of dying in the vacuum of space, so I’m fine if you want to leave the fighting to me.”

“So we get to the bridge and try to figure out what Aiden is up to. What’s the plan after that?” Daelin asked.

I didn’t have an answer, at least not a good one. There weren’t many ways for Aiden to make it out of this alive.

“I think there are too many variables to plan beyond that. We just need more information.”

Thea stood from the bed and reached her arms high into the air until there was an audible pop. “Then let’s go get some information.”

There was no use in trying to plan anymore without knowing what Aiden was doing, so I motioned to Daelin and we followed Thea.

It wasn’t a long walk to get to the elevator on this floor and when we got to it, I saw how Thea had been bypassing the lockdown.

The elevator door was hanging off its rails with a Thea shaped handprint melted through it. I was impressed.

“Did you make yourself fireproof, or did you just heal through the burns? How much would you say your strength has increased? How did you concentrate this much heat into such a small area without melting the rest of the door?” I was looking for some sort of mana signature that would hint at what Thea had used to open the doors while I interrogated her.

“Oh, that’s a lot of questions. I didn’t make myself fireproof or heal myself, I’ve just kinda always been. I still feel the heat. Although, I guess if it got hot enough, it’d probably hurt me, but I’ve never heard of anything that hot… uh, my strength? My magic was at least four times as powerful, but I had to stop because it was burning my dress, so I’m not actually sure what my new limit is. My physical strength is probably about the same.”

“Burning your dress?”

I looked over at her and sure enough, the edges of her dress were singed, but I would hardly call it ruined. That, of course, just gave me more questions.

“Yeah, it was a gift, too. Supposed to be completely fireproof. Esme said that it was woven from volcanic spider silk, but now I think it’s a knockoff. She’s going to be pissed.”

I had never heard of a volcanic spider before, but that was a tangent that was probably better saved for when we had more time, so I climbed onto the elevator and the other two followed me.

“So, you and Esme, are you two a thing?”

Daelin attempted to cover a snort with a cough, but I ignored him. Subtlety had its place, but that wasn’t in relationships.

Thea was smiling at me now. The elevator doors attempted to close, and we started moving.

“Nah, she’s probably the only straight succubus that has ever existed. But I don’t hold it against her, we all have our flaws. Why do you ask, princess? You interested?”

The elevator stopped, and I stepped through the doors into the open space of the bridge. I immediately approached the security console and used my authentication codes to unlock it.

“I might be, but it’ll probably have to wait until we have fewer problems.”

“Sounds like pretty good motivation for me to fix things.” Thea smirked, and I turned my attention back to the console.

First, I checked the logs. I had to ensure that Aiden hadn’t contacted anybody. If he had, then this was all over. Thankfully, there didn’t appear to be any outgoing messages.

Next, I checked the security cameras. We already knew that he wasn’t on the fifth or third levels. Thea had also been to the fourth level several times to get food from the kitchen and we were currently on the first. That only left the hangar on the second.

I switched to the security camera in the hangar and could see Aiden pulling pieces of equipment out of my personal shuttle and stacking it near a strange-looking array in the center of the large room.

“It looks like Aiden has built himself some sort of transmitter.” Daelin spoke from over my shoulder. “Would that sort of thing work?”

I shook my head. “No, the corporation was pretty serious about all of my research staying up here. So, they built the entire station like one giant Faraday cage. He’d have to get the transmitter into space in order to get a message out, and there’s no way he’s getting the bay doors open with the lockdown in effect.”

“So we go down there, kill him and leave. That sounds simple enough. Is he even armed?” Thea was sitting on the other side of the bridge with her feet up on the communications console.

“I don’t know if he’s armed, but I want to talk to him first, anyway. Maybe we can come to some sort of peaceful arrangement.”

Thea snorted at that, and Daelin looked concerned.

“I’m not saying that anything would come from it, but I wouldn’t feel right killing him if peace is an option.” I logged out of the terminal and started towards the elevator doors. “Thea, could you get the doors for me?”

“Sure, but I agree with Daelin. We should just kill the guy.”

“I never said we should kill anyone.”

“You didn’t have to. It was written all over your face.” There was a loud rending sound as Thea pulled the elevator door off its track. “After you, princess.”

She bowed at the waist and wore a cocky grin. I entered the elevator with a curtsy and a smile.

Thea entered last, and I selected the second floor.

“I’m definitely going to kill him if he’s armed. I don’t think negotiating is going to work and I will not risk my new mana battery just because you feel bad for the guy who nearly killed you.”

I scoffed. “Mana battery?”

“Yeah, mana battery. If you’re planning on getting yourself killed by negotiating with this asshole, then I’m not going to get attached. So yes, mana battery. Unless you’re going to do the sensible thing and just kill this idiot.”

We arrived on the second floor, and the elevator opened to reveal the sealed airlock leading into the hangar. “Fine. If he’s armed, then you can kill him, but otherwise, let me try to talk it out first.” I walked over to the control console, but stopped before opening the hangar door.

“One moment, let me cast a shield spell. There’s no reason to go in undefended.”

“Executive, I’d recommend against putting strain on your meridians right now,” Daelin said.

“Sorry, but I won’t be able to heal them if Aiden kills us the moment we walk through the door.” I started casting.

The pain was immediate and incredibly intense. I could feel the damage spreading further as I forced mana through my meridians. It took me a full five minutes of casting in order to complete the spell, but once I did, a faintly shimmering transparent shield sprouted around each of us.

Aiden must have heard me casting because there was a loud crack and a melon-sized hole appeared in the wall at head-height about a meter in front of me.

“Yep, he’s armed. I’m going to kill him.”