Predictably enough, the prisoner had resumed screaming again and at that signal, Sophia had headed back in to talk to Prince again.
"Did they say anything worth mentioning during the time I was gone?" She asked, trying not to get her hopes up.
"They shouted more racial slurs against you. Then tried to negotiate with me instead, saying we might escape with our lives at the headquarters if we surrendered to them. And finally, they started crying and begging when the pain came back gradually."
Sophia looked at the prisoner. Despite the pain, their bloodshot eyes were open and intently looking at her. But there was no pleading in those eyes: only resolve and murder intent.
"Obviously, the prisoner was crying and begging for your benefit." She pointed out. "Moana is probably going to murder me if I deny medicine we have to a prisoner of war. But what are we supposed to do then?"
"You are right," The field surgeon said, making her presence known. "So quit trying to coerce that prisoner with medicine: that's called torture. Do the right thing, prove to that alien that we are morally better, and let's figure it out from there."
So Sophia gave the prisoner sixteen drops of the 1% leftover potion she had left. To be precise, she had enough for three more times before she had to make more, in about two hours.
Anyway, the prisoner kept screaming for the entire time it took for the potion to take effect before calming all at once.
This time, they started speaking without Prince's prompting who eagerly did the translation once more:
"They said: You are weak. And so is your brew. I can feel the difference."
"Did you purposefully give them less?" Moana asked, indignant.
"I gave him what we determined was enough," Sophia argued back. "And it turned out to be exactly half of what we gave him last time. And I was right. Their pain is manageable enough that they can think and speak. Any more than that and the tunnel vision side effect would outweigh the benefits. And trust me: we don't need a stubborn alien willing to die for their stuck-up principles."
In the meantime, the prisoner got impatient at being ignored and talked some more, aggressive rather than arrogant, this time around.
"They said: You hear me weakling? Mark my words: if you ever give me the chance to threaten you with no mercy, I'm going to see it through."
"See?" Sophia told to Moana once more. "They think we are weak. And educating them about war crimes would just give them ideas. They already confessed genocide and they were bragging about it. To them conversing with us is like talking to pigs, or more like vermins. They would rather die than help us or let us help them."
"Let me give it a try," Moana asked and Sophia gestured her to go ahead and nodded to Prince in agreement.
"We can help each other or pointlessly die together," Moana said. "What my teammate did not tell you about us however is that we revive after death and we are champions at holding grudges. So let me put things back into perspective: do you really want our first contact with your species to end with 'fuck you, we are going to exterminate you or die trying'?"
And yet, the alien ignored her and turned their head to Sophia before answering.
"They said: Unlike you, I can feel that empty shell and tell she isn’t lying. How that's possible? She neither has a soul nor is soulless and she is not lying yet what she is saying is impossible." Prince translated before adding, with his own personal voice. "I know it doesn't make any sense but that's what they said. I think that what Moana said about respawning broke them."
"I think that thing is saying that Moana might have latent psionic potential. And confirming that they are not aware of being part of the tutorial, which is solving the questions of rival species representatives and sapience. That thing is not sapient. It's a cheap replica of a sapient. And it's currently showing its limits." Sophia concluded at the still befuddled alien, unable to solve the contradictions with the help of imagination as a true sapient would.
And then she talked to the false alien, resolving the conflict in its place:
"How that's possible doesn't matter. It's true and you know it. Now, answer my companion's question: do you want your death to start a war between our species?"
Unlike Moana, Sophia did not bother bending the truth while lying. Instead, she reformulated the field surgeon's lie plainly, now knowing that, for some reason, that thing could see through Moana's lies but not hers, though they were both talking through Prince. And so, she was willing to bet everything on that bluff.
As that alien culture worshipped strength, Sophia would play along to Moana's gambit: impersonating the quiet, gentle yet unbeatable strength, turning the table around without coming out as bragging or arrogant.
And then, the alien finally replied:
"They asked for some alone time to think. To be noted that it's the first time they asked for anything politely." The tressym explained.
"Tell them to wait 5 minutes to get their meds and then they will get 25 minutes alone." Sophia conceded.
The team truly needed to find a way to replicate a drip so they would need to feed the prisoner that numbing potion every half an hour. But for now, Sophia did not trust the prisoner to be left alone for that long without supervision.
After all, it had that psionic trick that could control the entire ship. While they needed it to exit the floor, Sophia would not have nightmares if it tried anything funny and they had to kill it out of self-preservation.
And so they waited and then, gave the prisoner some privacy to "think." Meaning that Sophia only pretended to leave like everyone else, only to stay behind under the cover of her stealth-singing.
After all, better safe than sorry. Right?
★☆★
In the end, the prisoner did exactly what it said it would be doing and so Sophia pretended to come back to feed him the potion before leaving him 'alone' once again. There was no harm in giving it a semblance of freedom and there were actual benefits in looking confident enough to let it alone for so long.
In the meantime, Michel, Paolo, and Sophia had been on high alert for any suspicious signs proving that the alien was manipulating the ship remotely. But so far, the ship was as dead as the moment they entered it. Only the lights were on and nothing else.
But Sophia wasn't convinced.
Since Moana intervened, they had done nothing but wait, and wait some more, for some fake sapient alien to make up its fake mind about keeping its fake life or dying pointlessly. And every minute lost was one minute closer to that fight to the death with that troll they had been trying to avoid.
But after four hours, the prisoner was once again in a talking mood and yelled to get their attention, still ignorant that Sophia had been at its side all along.
And so she made her 'entrance' into the prisoner quarters with Prince and Moana soon on her tail.
"The prisoner is ready to negotiate and asking to speak with the 'empty shell' alone," Prince said, rolling his eyes.
And so Sophia did not disappoint the tressym with her answer.
"Not going to happen." Sophia refused immediately before turning to the field surgeon to explain herself. "Sorry Moana. I trust your judgment alright. But if you are even remotely susceptible to the prisoner psionic, it's not worth risking it."
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And this time, the other girl took a long time thinking about it before quietly nodding, accepting her argument without a fight. And then, the prisoners spoke once more, and so did the winged cat:
"The prisoner is saying that what we offer them is not enough. What we get out of it is clear. But the only thing they get out of it is their continued survival and dependence on us. They think they have 'reasonable' demands and counteroffer."
"I'm listening," Sophia answered laconically.
And so Prince kept translating:
"They can drive the spaceship for us. Even help us fight the troll with the ship's weapons. But in addition to the potion for the pain, they want half of the troll blood in healing potions, and a 'nice' exoskeleton for their legs once we reach the next trading hub to resupply to sweeten the deal. Then, they would get us to the headquarters on the condition that we surrender any claim on their ship and cargo once we get there. And we would then go our separate way, pretending we never met."
That was an unexpected offer. Especially about offering to fight the troll in such a way. But a spaceship ordinance, even as small as this one, would certainly be more powerful than anything they encountered so far. If it wasn't a bluff and they were truly willing to help kill the troll, that they would claim half of the troll's blood to try to heal themselves was indeed extremely reasonable.
And then, asking for an exoskeleton for their legs in exchange for their services... It was both reasonable and quite daring as nothing would prevent them from running away and betraying them after that. But if the team bought that exoskeleton and only gave it to them as a parting gift, it would be a lot more prudent, from Sophia's perspective. Yet, there was also the unknown quantity of the exoskeleton price.
And so she told the alien: "I can promise you everything but the exoskeleton." Sophia stated firmly. "The ship, the cargo, the troll blood, the potions, it's a done deal. But I won't make promises I can't keep. So I can try, but no promises about your legs."
Prince translated and the alien nodded gravely before responding.
"He said he would trust us on it after hearing it from the empty shell," Prince said, rolling his eyes once more.
Once again, Sophia silently agreed with Prince. Yet she turned to Moana and nodded, playing along. They needed results and had lost enough time as it was. And so Moana repeated almost word to word what Sophia had just said, getting yet another nod from the alien, satisfied this time.
Finally. Finally! After many hours of waiting, they had reached an agreement.
★☆★
After that, the alien had been extremely cooperative. They refused to share their names or to disclose any information aside from what their deal entailed. But though only the prisoner could operate the ship, they had been straightforward about the ship's capabilities and how they could make the best of it, especially for the upcoming fight.
They even helped them get acid for the upcoming fight. They simply let them know that cleaning the ship's air recycler would turn any water used in the process into a very potent acid. And taught them the appropriate safety procedure to do the trick.
Since they had negotiated for half of the troll's blood to speed up their recovery, the alien had completely changed the team's plans concerning their pursuers. And though they did not know it yet, the hunter had become the hunted.
The spaceship and its weapon indeed changed everything.
It could shield their less melee-oriented teammates and provide enough firepower to distract the troll while Sophia would do her own kind of magic to remove the troll protection. And then, with the worst part of that combat entirely dealt with, they had more than a fighting chance to finish it off without casualties, making the whole encounter finally viable and worth fighting for.
Even if the team got only half of the troll blood, its value could not be understated. And the same was true about the troll heart and bone marrow. Even if no alchemical potion could replicate the insanity of the troll regeneration, even partial regeneration and saving a companion at death's door with one such potion made it invaluable.
Lono's hands could be healed.
Actually, they could afford to heal the entire team and then, still have enough to make two potions each. But that was without accounting for the other pricey ingredients required for healing potions. Somehow and without much valuables to exchange, they might have to trade some of the valuable troll blood to acquire the potion ingredients they needed, both for their own needs and to honor their part of the deal.
The numbing poison would still be a huge dent in the team's finances. But a deal was a deal.
And thanks to the troll, what had first been a desperate attempt to escape had turned into a mutually profitable relationship. Sure the prisoner lost their legs, but they got the ship, the entirety of its cargo, and the promise to compensate for their loss as much as the team possibly could.
It was the best sort of deal a criminal could hope for in those circumstances: the lion's share of the benefits and trading a brutal death for an early retirement. After all, their fellow gangsters weren't so lucky.
But now, they were nervously waiting for the troll to show up.
Which Sophia had estimated it could happen anywhere from 18 to 30 hours, based on the troll and their own speed, the distance they had traveled, and the time they had wasted. But it was an awfully long time to wait and there was no certainty in her calculation as her estimation of the troll speed was the most important and yet most unknown factor in that case.
What it meant however was that they might be unable to sleep for a really long time while they were waiting and could only take very short naps while others stood guard, over the horizon, and over the prisoner.
Only Michel not only could but had to sleep, mainly because his precognitive power was mostly driven by precognitive dreams and so, he needed his sleep more than anyone else.
Anyway, Lono, Paolo, and Sophia were keeping watch in turn outside the ship, readying themselves for a direct confrontation while Moana, Michel, and Prince from doing the same from inside the ship.
Moana, because she was no frontliner and the alien listened to no one but her. Prince because fighting wasn't his strong suit and only he could translate Moana's instructions. And Michel because his precognition talent made him the de facto strategist of the team, even if he needed both Moana and Prince to relay his instructions.
As for Lono, Paolo, and Sophia, they were outside because they were the team's heavy hitters and unlike the others, they couldn't contribute to the fight from inside the ship. They had to take the risk and expose themselves. Plus, for all its firepower, the spaceship did not have any weapon to negate the troll magic protection. And so it would be up to them to deal with those.
And then, the troll finally showed up, though a bit early after only 15 hours of waiting.
It was Michel who first spotted it in the distance from the bridge deck, informing Sophia and Paolo through the system only seconds before the spaceship started opening fire on the troll, enraging the already aggravated monster:
Spotted the troll at three o'clock, charging straight toward us. Its suit took some damage since the last time we saw him. He looked healthy but even more emaciated than before and positively pissed off. I'm going to ask for an opening salvo to slow it done and let you prepare to welcome him.
And indeed, the ship's weapons did the trick in slowing down the troll's advance. It was invulnerable but still susceptible to pain. And given the damage that its spacesuit sustained, it had already burned quite a lot of nutrients regenerating itself. And though Sophia had no idea what the equilibrium was between magic and biology, this monster needed quite a high metabolism to sustain such a high ability to regenerate.
And so Lono and Paolo got into position while Sophia disappeared and started moving, in order to pickpocket the troll protection from behind while the troll was otherwise distracted on two fronts.
And then, the ship took off and hovered around its initial position, so to keep threatening the troll while keeping strategically just out of reach. To hit the ship, the troll would need to jump, which in zero gravity translated to expose itself entirely to ranged attacks with no way of dodging the bullets, or arrows. But so far, though perfectly bipedal, the troll had kept charging on all four, using its oversized hand to secure an iron grip to the flight deck hull.
And then, the troll finally closed the distance.
And the plan and most of their careful planning went to shit.
First, the troll did not take the bait, completely ignored Lono and Paolo, and chose to go after the main threat that the spaceship posed, jumping and going face on the ship cannons.
And so Sophia had only two choices: wait for Michel and the alien countermeasure, which promised to be explosive, or jump after the troll and take the extra risk to complete her mission.
She chose to wait.
And soon enough, the troll was sent flying to the opposite wall by the predictable barrage of explosives that answered its foolish attempt. But now, thanks to that new and objectively worse positioning, Paolo and Lono were in a central position, between the troll and the spaceship. And Sophia was nowhere near the troll either.
The troll recovered immediately and came back charging in the general direction of her teammates and the ship, so it was hard to determine if it would stop and attack her teammates this time, or just try and trample over them to reach the ship.
That's when the ship responded again with a second salvo to slow it down. But as he got closer, the shots stopped a bit too late, and came dangerously close to her teammates for comfort. What was that alien doing? Trying to double-cross them while under the threat of the other half of their team? Michel was extremely vigilant and would not mind finishing off the prisoner if he had to.
But it did the job and slowed done the troll right enough for Lono and Paolo to engage and then, slow down the troll's advance further so the troll was indeed in the middle of their joint effort to threaten and distract the monster while she was closing in to take advantage.
But then, as she did the deed and took one of the troll amulets, all hell broke loose.
The system suddenly decided that her action of robbing the troll protection was hostile, and the alien decided to open fire in the heart of the melee once again.
Sophia narrowly escaped death from both the troll and the ship and did not have time to think. But only meters away from her, she had caught a glimpse of Paolo, rushing over to Lono who was floating, unconscious, and bleeding.
With desperate determination, she switched to her Luring Song, forcing the troll to ignore her once again and concentrate back on the ship. In the meantime, she finished the job and claimed the troll's last two amulets and destroyed all three of them, so the troll could not reclaim them from her dead body.
With a teammate already down and possibly dead, Sophia was determined not to let anything else to chance.