Relay travel was fast, thousands of times faster than conventional faster-than-light drives, but it was not instantaneous. Asteria gave it an estimate of eighty light years per minute or forty-eight hundred per hour. At that speed, it would be possible to cross the entirety of the Milky Way in less than a day.

In practice, it was much longer due to the need to move between relays inside a system or even between systems in some cases. Mordin estimated it would take them around four days, and two refueling stops, to reach their first stop and two more for Kenn to reach the migrant fleet.

Which meant Taylor had plenty of time on her hands. Once the scare from the initial jump had faded, she went to explore the ship with Niusa. She had never been inside of a genuine spaceship before after all, everything was new and exciting to her.

The crew facilities of their train-shaped ship took up the top half of the ship. Behind the cabin was a stairway down into the hold to the side followed by a cafeteria with a bar-style kitchen tucked into a corner and some tables scattered throughout. After that were the crew quarters which were arranged like cabins on a passenger train. Each was modest in size but there was enough room for five crew and some facilities.

Past that was the engineering section. It had the second access stairways down, a long workbench on one side with some consoles that displayed the status of the ship, some metal closets on the other to store parts and equipment. The entire back half was empty except for a winch on a rail that extended towards the last section of the ship, the room that housed the drive core and ship reactor.

Taylor entered the reactor room and immediately felt the slight magnetic bleed that the fusion reactor containment coils gave out. The drive core, a basketball-sized sphere of element zero trapped inside a thick titanium chamber, gave out a pleasant humming and some slight, almost melodic, ripples in the gravitational field.

"It feels nice, doesn't it?" Niusa said. "Relay jumps are unpleasant but the hum of an ezzo drive never fails to soothe my mind."

"Like a song made of gravity?" Taylor asked.

"Hmm, that's a good way to describe it. I wonder what you sense with all of your weird abilities."

"I'm sure Asteria sees so much more than me with her sensors," Taylor leaned on the metal railing. "Shards are ridiculous like that," she sighed. "Don't tell Mordin," she winked, "I think he enjoys the puzzle."

"I can see why," Niusa giggled, "every time you open up about these mysterious powers of yours it sounds more implausible than the last. Asteria is the name of your power?"

"Yes …" Taylor was interrupted when the ship shook. "What?"

"It sounded like …" Niusa started.

"… an impact," Taylor finished.

Both of them bolted towards the cabin. A second impact rattled the ship before they reached Mordin and Kenn at the front.

"What's happening?" She asked.

"Impact on kinetic barriers," Mordin said. "Likely warning shot."

On the central console, she could see another ship approaching them on the radar. It was at least five times their size from the looks of it. The IFF tag was conspicuously absent which gave her a hint as to the nature of who their aggressor was.

"Lone Batarian heavy cruiser," Mordin informed her. "In terminus system, likely pirates. Or Batarian navy pretending to be pirates. Very little difference."

"We can't escape," Kenn said, despondent. "If we try they'll blow us to pieces. Our barrier is almost gone already."

Taylor sighed, the universe was making it very hard for her to change her ways.

"Cut the engines," she said, "I will go greet our guests."

----------------------------------------

Ghalo watched as the freighter landed in the large cargo bay of their converted heavy cruiser. At first, he hadn't thought the scheme would work but after their third catch, he was convinced. Several of their contacts on Omega would sell ships in good condition for slightly cheaper than usual to unsuspecting marks through unaware proxies. Once the sale was done, their guy on the inside would send them a message and Ghalo or another team would pick them up at the next relay.

It was almost too easy.

They could rob the crew blind, maybe sell some of them if they had a good catch, and send the ship back to Omega for another sale. This crew apparently included one Asari, the blue bitches made for excellent slaves once they were properly broken. They would have to get rid of the two suit rats, nobody wanted them, even as free labor.

His crew took positions around the ship and the interior defenses came online. There hadn't been much resistance the last few times but there were always some desperate poor sap. The cargo bay door of the freighter opened and revealed only a lone Quarian bitch with her arms crossed. She didn't even have weapons.

"Gentlemen," she said with her creepy voice.

"Shut the fuck up suit rat," Ghalo dismissed her. "Kill everyone but the Asari," he ordered his men.

Two of his men moved to grab her but they suddenly stopped moving a few meters from the Quarian. "Tsk." The suit rat uncrossed her arms and stepped off the ship. His two men fell apart at her sides, cut in half through their combat armor by something invisible.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Shoot her!" He shouted as he raised his assault rifle and pressed the trigger.

None of their weapons fired.

"My turn," the Quarian said and snapped her fingers.

Several large mechs suddenly appeared around her. They stood on eight spindly legs and resembled the spiders some humans were so afraid of. Ghalo had never understood how an insignificant insect could instill fear. He finally did. The mech did not use any weapon but instead skewered several of his men with its limbs.

"What are you waiting on? Fire!" He shouted into his radio.

"They can't hear you," the electronic voice of the Quarian came from behind him. Before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. When he looked down, the monster had torn his heart from his chest through his armor. "In space, nobody can hear you scream!"

He tried to scream anyway.

----------------------------------------

Taylor walked through the cramped hall of the heavy cruiser. Terrified screams could be heard in the distance as her mechanical spiders performed their grim work. The Batarian pirates tried to organize and resist her assault but she controlled everything on the ship from the bulkheads to the reactor. Their radios were jammed and the lights were off. The last thing most of them saw were eight glowing red eyes.

She disliked killing but she knew it was an inevitability of the situation she had found herself in. The Terminus Systems were not like Brockton Bay where law enforcement existed but was mostly useless. Here, there was no law, might made right.

Niusa had told her what Batarian pirates did to the Asari they captured. What she had seen with her own eyes while working for the Blue Suns.

They all deserved to die.

And she would be the one to pass the sentence.

One of the pirates rounded a corner and came face to face with her. In the pitch blackness of the ship, the last thing he saw were her eight glowing eyes before she twisted the space inside of his head into an impossible knot with a flicker of psionic energy.

The headless body fell to the ground and she stepped over it on her way towards the bridge.

----------------------------------------

"I have dealt with the pirates," Taylor said, her voice monotone. "The auto-pilot has been programmed to bring us near the edge of the system. My drones are taking care of the bodies."

"Taylor …" Niusa said.

Her friend had removed her helmet and the blank expression she wore broke her heart. Taylor's face had shifted slightly, she had eight glowing yellow eyes and her jaw seemed more insectile with a pair of mandibles protruding in front of her mouth. Niusa suspected that it wasn't entirely conscious on her friend's part.

"Understood," Mordin said grimly. "Will go to the bridge and advise. Kenn."

The Quarian looked deeply unsettled by the scene before him. Niusa didn't blame him, it wasn't Taylor at her best. The girl who smiled and laughed while listening to her stories, who went against an entire army to save a district from a plague because it was the right thing to do.

Mordin didn't say anything more but he gave a slight nod of encouragement to Niusa before he descended down the stairs. Once she was alone with Taylor on the ship, she pulled her friend into a hug. Taylor tensed at first but after a few seconds, she relaxed.

"I will be alright," Niusa whispered.

----------------------------------------

Taylor woke up. She didn't remember falling asleep but the moments after returning to the ship were somewhat fuzzy in her memory. She was nestled against something soft and … blue. She blinked a few times before she realized that it was Niusa.

"Uh," was all she could say.

"Ah," Niusa yawned. "Awake?"

"Hmm," Taylor was at a loss for words.

"Feeling better? You were … worrying earlier."

"Sorry …"

"What happened?" Niusa gently ran her hand along Taylor's hair.

"Part of my power allows me to run multiple instances of my mind in parallel," she explained, "it also allows me to … tweak things. Things like emotional responses for example." It had felt so familiar. To simply push her emotions away. The welcoming embrace of her cold and calculating side. Focused on a single objective.

"I feel like you shouldn't do that, Taylor," there was no judgment in Niusa's voice, "but you saved us from pirates at the same time."

"So uh … what did you do?" Taylor asked.

"Hmm, something my mother used to do when I was little," Niusa said. "It's similar to melding in a way but doesn't join two beings instead it just … soothes the mind. With you it worked but it felt like I was touching something … larger. Like your mind is too large for your tiny body."

"It probably is," Taylor chuckled. "Or maybe Asteria took a peek, she is very curious after all."

"And … thank you, Niusa," she added.

----------------------------------------

Taylor entered the bridge of the Batarian ship. It was much more spacious than the one on their small freighter, the ship being at least a thousand feet long and a hundred wide. At the center was a large holographic console where Mordin and Kenn were. Around the edges of the circular room, slightly recessed into the floor, were a dozen crew stations, and above them was a large hemispherical viewscreen that showed the stars outside.

"Taylor," Mordin greeted her. "Glad for recovery."

"Thanks Mordin," she smiled at him. "Sorry you had to see that Kenn."

"What was that?" The quarian asked, his posture uncertain. "You took over that ship's systems like it was a toy and summoned dozens of huge mechs out of thin air."

"My species has … unusual abilities," Taylor tried to explain while not revealing too much, "and things can get out of hand when we get angry."

"I saw one of them drag a headless batarian into the cargo hold," Kenn looked at her, "while you were unconscious. Are they …" He looked uncertain about the question.

"No artificial intelligence," she reassured him. "Just very good programming."

"That's … good," Kenn nodded. "They're still very creepy, just so you know."

"It's on purpose," Taylor confirmed. "What's our status?"

"Ship secured," the salarian said, "all systems operational, drones disposed of pirate bodies through airlock."

"There weren't any captives on board?"

"Did not have time to completely search ship. Internal sensors do not report any life signs besides ours."

"I'll send a few drones to scout," she summoned a group of her small beetles and sent them away. "In the meantime, let's assume the ship is empty. If those pirates had friends, they'll likely check on them at some point. I blocked any outbound communications so they couldn't send a distress signal but it doesn't mean there aren't regular check-ins."

"We could bring it to the flotilla," Niusa said. "Kenn said he needed a ship for his pilgrimage, this is much better than the freighter, right?"

"Batarian navy likely to raise objections," Mordin pointed out. "Heavy cruisers expensive."

"This ship doesn't have an IFF module," Taylor said, "I checked. So someone must have removed it. Whether it was the batarian navy to perform their slave running operation or a pirate, it's not our problem."

"The flotilla might open fire without asking if a batarian cruiser enters the system," Kenn interjected. "Raids to capture slaves are not common but they happen from time to time. Usually when the flotilla arrives or departs from a system."

"Could you warn them ahead of time?" Niusa said. "We can enter the system with weapons powered off and shields down too, as a show of good faith."

"I can try," Kenn said, looking unsure about the exchange. "You captured the ship by yourself, Miss Taylor, it should be yours. Your group already helped me get a ship."

"Hell no," Taylor shook her head. "One that ship way is too big for us, it would serve the quarians much better, and two it is ugly as hell. We’ll keep the freighter instead. We can call it a trade."

"If you wish," Kenn seemed stunned by her reasoning. "I will send a message to the fleet."

"Estimated travel time, four days," Mordin said. "Drive core on cruiser faster than previous ship."