Bryce

“I hate to be the one to tell you this,” Thea said. “But that man is dead. Like very, very dead. I have never in my life met a man who was more dead than that man right there. He is cadaverific.”

“Thea, at this point, you’re just being rude.” I walked in to get a closer look, but it seemed like Thea was right. Well, minus calling him ‘cadaverific’, because I didn’t think that was an actual word.

“It’s quite alright, captain, the doctor is an Illethyrm. That was just his most recent vessel.” Lorelei walked past the corpse to retrieve a head-sized jar. She held it up to show me, but I couldn’t see anything.

“An Illethyrm?” I asked, but then I saw a near transparent noodle-like creature swimming around the jar. It was around 15 centimeters long, and I recognized it immediately. “You mean a corpse worm?”

“Well, corpse worm is a bit of a slur,” Firra said from behind me. “Phaylex probably wouldn’t complain about it, but that doesn’t make it any less rude.”

“Sorry, I’ve never met an Illethyrm before,” I apologized. “They’re usually just used as the villains in bad serial dramas.”

“No offense, captain, but isn’t your partner here a demon?” Lorelei asked. “I’d think you’d be above such prejudices.”

“I’m a devil, not a demon,” Thea said. “And I think Bryce was just super desperate when she met me, so she put up with the differences.”

“Thea! That is not what happened!” Okay, maybe that was sort of what happened, but definitely not the way she made it sound.

“I guess it’s my turn to apologize,” Lorelei said. “The only devil I’ve met was one of Chorus’s fallen, and she didn’t look or act anything like you.”

“Oh gods, one of Chorus’s children fell? Was she like super chaste or something?” Thea asked.

“She was a bit shy and very kind,” Lorelei said. “Legion wasn’t a good fit, so she left with her partner to do some sort of altruistic non-sense on a human world back in a core system.”

“Huh, good for her,” Thea said.

“Anyway,” Firra interrupted. “We’ve still got five scared scientists who have barely slept or eaten in the last five days. I’m assuming you’ve got a ship docked somewhere that we can move this conversation to?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “We had to board in stealth. As far as I’m aware, they still don’t know we’re here. Thea and I are going to have to clear the ship before we’re able to dock.”

“Are you serious?” Firra asked. “There are at least fifteen union grunts, plus their captain. How are you planning on dealing with them?”

“How did you board without docking?” Lorelei asked. “It takes over a week to get to the nearest beacon. Which means we’re still in real-space, and must be moving at nearly half light speed.”

“We caught up to you and then just kind of jumped aboard,” Thea explained. “Apparently, our ship is faster than most.”

“The details don’t really matter right now.” I wanted to change the subject before we got too deep into the questions. “What we need to do is figure out how to keep all of you safe while me and Thea clear out the rest of the ship.”

“I could melt the door after we leave,” Thea offered. “And then when we’re done, I can just open it again.”

“How exactly are you planning to do that?” Firra asked. "That door is reinforced dura-steel. It'd take a bomb bigger than you'd survive to get the damn thing open."

“Not to get too technical, but I was thinking I’d try fire.”

“And when that fails?” Firra crossed her arms over her chest.

“I'll make the fire hotter?" Thea asked. “I don't think I understand your question.”

“It may be worth me coming with you,” Lorelei interjected. “I have some technical ability and should be able to seal the door without damaging it.”

“Sure,” Thea said. “As long as you’re not holding us back.”

“Firra, I’m going to take Doctor Phaylex along with us,” Lorelei said. “Would you mind staying here to defend the other scientists?”

“I don’t mind staying here.” Firra answered, then furrowed her brows. “But are you sure you want to take the doctor? It sounds dangerous.”

“I believe he could be an asset,” Lorelei answered. “Besides, I’d hate to leave him in this jar for longer than strictly necessary. He’ll never admit to it, but I know he hates the diminished mental capacity.”

“Fine, just be careful,” Firra conceded. “The paperwork is already going to be bad enough without me having to explain how the lead researcher and the head of operations were killed after I let them go off with two complete strangers.”

“Hey!” Thea grinned up at me. “Bryce isn’t that strange.”

“Shush you.” I pulled the devil in for a side hug before turning to Lorelei. “Are you ready to leave? This is somewhat time sensitive.”

“I'm ready when you are, captain.” Lorelei was holding Doctor Phaylex’s jar, and was completely unarmed.

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I wasn’t at all sold on bringing her along, but it seemed like Firra was questioning our capabilities. If that was going to become a trend then it would be problematic. I figured that if Lorelei was head of operations then her experiencing everything first-hand was going to make a few future discussions much simpler.

Lorelei sealed the door on our way out, and while she did that, I pulled up the ship’s schematics. There wasn’t any way to know for sure how badly the nav-core exploding had damaged the ship, which was going to make navigating the halls difficult.

The lights were still red, but they had muted the alarm. Hopefully, that meant we weren’t venting oxygen into real-space. We did technically need the ship in one piece in order to siphon their fuel.

My original plan was to start by taking the bridge, but the communications center was looking like a more appealing target. We were going to be discovered at some point, and I wanted to eliminate as many of their crew as I could before that happened. If I could do that before they got a message out, then all the better.

Thea poked me in my ribs, which pulled me away from my planning and might have caused me to squeal. But it was just a little, and I don’t think anybody noticed.

“Hey princess, isn't there something we should be doing?” Thea was smiling, and Lorelei was trying her best to suppress a giggle.

“We're going this way.” I ignored them, and the burning in my cheeks, to start walking towards the comms center. “Don’t worry too much about stealth, but please try to avoid any major structural damage.”

“Major structural damage?” Lorelei asked.

“You had nearly a two-day head start on us,” I explained. “We had to burn through most of our fuel in order to catch up. Which means we need to steal the fuel off this ship, and we can’t do that if it’s destroyed.”

“Is that a risk?”

“It is anytime you fight aboard a ship,” I said. “Doubly so when Thea is involved.”

Thea snorted. “I’m pretty sure you’ve done way more damage to ships than I have.”

“That’s… fair,” I conceded. “Although, I’m always very deliberate when I do it, and I seem to remember a certain incident with a high-powered rifle on a space station.”

“That was my first time using a gun, so it doesn’t count.” Thea said. “Besides, I would hardly call that ‘structural damage.’ The station was completely fine until you accidentally blew it up.”

“You blew up a station? On accident?” Lorelei asked.

“Be careful in believing what Thea says. She will almost always tell the truth, but it’s usually in a way that’s deliberately misleading.”

“So you didn’t blow up a station?” Lorelei seemed relieved.

“No, I absolutely did. It just blew up earlier than I was expecting, so Thea likes to say I did it by accident.”

“Oh.” Lorelei went back to looking worried. “Who exactly did you say you were?”

“There’s somebody up ahead,” Thea whispered. “We should probably get ready for a fight.”

Most of my spells were still active on me and Thea from when we jumped. But Lorelei was unprotected, so I took a moment to cast a quick shield spell. Then I reinforced it with additional mana just to be safe.

“Wait,” Lorelei called out in a whisper. “Try not to damage their brain. If it’s still intact, then the doctor can access their memories.”

That was a bit morbid, but really just served to remind me that the elf worked for Legion. Besides, if the doctor could access the memories of the corpses he inhabited, then it was worth using that to our advantage. So I nodded to Lorelei before following Thea.

It turned out the somebody up ahead was actually three somebodys that were passing around a bottle while loitering in a hallway. Two of them were half-orcs and the third was an honest to the gods halfling.

“Hello there!” Thea greeted the trio. Which startled them, causing all three to reach for their guns.

“I don’t recognize you,” the halfling man said. “Identify yourselves.”

“Well, I’m Thea and this is Bryce. We’re here to rescue the people you were planning on selling.”

There was a beat of silence as the three of them processed Thea’s introduction. The half-orc woman must’ve been the smartest of the bunch, because she was the first to pull out her pistol and fire at us.

One spell assisted leap later, and I stabbed my mana-blade through the woman’s heart. I dismissed the weapon after I was sure she was dead, in an attempt to limit the damage to her corpse. Which turned out to be a good thing, because Thea wasn’t nearly as delicate with the other two.

The poor halfling was a pint-sized pile of ash, and the male half-orc was missing his head entirely.

“Sorry,” Thea apologized while rubbing the back of her neck. “I’m still getting used to the new mana. The last person I fought was a little tougher, and I forgot to hold back.”

“You’re probably fine,” I said. “We just needed the one intact corpse.”

“Well, I hope the doctor likes being an orc woman,” Thea said. “It’s probably going to be a little different from being a human man.”

“It should be fine,” Lorelei said. She was approaching slowly while eyeing the aftermath of our short battle. “Illethyrm reproduce asexually, and tend to acquire a certain degree of gender fluidity as they age. Especially when they switch vessels as often as the doctor.” Lorelei kneeled near the dead woman and inspected her. After a moment, she nodded to herself and began casting a spell.

She was an innate caster, like most of Legion, and it seemed like a safe bet that it was necromancy.

It seemed like she was attempting to repair the corpse. It was slow going but seemed to be working well enough.

It took a few minutes, but the half-orc woman looked completely unharmed by the time the spell finished. Lorelei then removed the lid from the jar and set it by the dead woman’s neck. The Illethyrm slid out of the open container and easily through the half-orc’s thick skin.

“It will take a few minutes for the doctor to get used to the new body.” Lorelei sat back on her ankles and wiped sweat from her forehead. “Sorry, healing with necromancy is easier on a corpse, but still takes a lot of mana and focus.”

“It’s alright,” I said. “Healing magic is one of many types that I haven’t studied, and seeing it in action is always fascinating. Especially when done through non-standard means.”

“I didn’t take you for the academic type, captain,” Lorelei said. Thea laughed, but I ignored her.

“I used to be a professor of arcane magic,” I explained. “There were never many students, so it was mostly just a research position.”

“Those truly are the best kinds of positions,” Doctor Phaylex said. The doctor was lying on the ground with their eyes closed.

“Hello doctor, how are you feeling?” Lorelei asked.

“Much less confined, thank you.” The doctor sat up. “There is certainly more space to move about in here, but it may take some time to get used to the other differences.”

“Well, you are a woman now,” Thea pointed out. “Assuming you want to continue in the previous occupant's footsteps.”

“Oh! Am I?” The doctor looked down at their new body. “It’s been some time since I was in a female body, and it's a half-orc too! How exciting!”

“That’s what he said!” Thea laughed.

“Actually, I believe I’ll be going by ‘she’ while in this vessel,” the doctor said. “And I’m only now realizing that you were making a joke. Very well done, it was most humorous indeed.”