‘Approaching landing pad.’ Tahsya’s voice, which was dripping with the professionalism of a military pilot, broke the serenity inside the gunship’s cockpit.
‘Where are we?’ I asked absentmindedly.
‘Why not try asking your machine spirit friend?’ Niandra replied flatly from beside me. That caught me by surprise on two fronts. First, this was the first time the assassin had actively talked to me. Second, is this supposed to be a test or friendly banter?
I shot her a side glance before trying my luck checking the active flight log with the machine spirit. There mixed within all the updates was the Identification, Friend or Foe exchanges with air traffic control. After a brief moment, it concluded we were friendly and held off multiple anti-air turrets from shooting us just minutes ago. I checked the details on the IFF exchanges and read the digital signature of the air traffic control.
‘Hmm… Fortress Endurance Sigma?’ I read it out loud.
‘By the throne, you really can speak to the machine spirit!’ gasped Tahsya while the rest of the crew looked at me like witnessing a ghost.
‘Not a word of this to the outside!’ Thaberus dropped his warning, thus everyone refrained from further commenting and we finally got to see the last astropath on the planet.
What surprised me more about the astropath was not the astropath himself. I’ve read about them as a hobbyist and had this mental image of what a stereotypical astropath looks like: blind, pale skin, balding hair, wielding a staff with a stylized eye on it, wearing a stylish eyeshade, and probably has a few random wires sticking out of their head.
Arradus Rein the astropath was all that but with some crucial missing details from the lore I read. He also enjoyed a level of security, health care and comfortable living standards rivalling that of the planetary governor.
The layers of security checkpoints I went through reminded me of what was depicted in some of the superhero movies on how they kept really dangerous supervillains on lockdown. We passed through multiple blast doors and checkpoints manned by stormtroopers with hot-shot lasguns ready, and even heavier guns like heavy bolters and plasma cannons mounted on gun-servitors were ever-present on all strategic locations in the building.
It was clear they were not taking any chances on the security. As usual, Thaberus’ inquisitorial rosette opened all doors and we made a steady pace towards the innermost sanctum.
In a way it made sense. To put it bluntly, even the planetary governor can be easily replaced in leadership capacity if the unthinkable happens, but there was no immediate replacement for an astropath should Arradus be slain by the enemy. With the scheduled starship arrival on indefinite delay, he was literally the last link between the planet and the wider Imperium, the VVIP of the planet.
It was no exaggeration to say his very wellbeing affected the fate of the billions of souls residing here, hence the around-the-clock security measures and extreme precautions taken on his health management. Arradus for his part had an air of awkwardness about him like he did not know whether to stand or sit in our presence.
Then again it was in no way mundane for an Ordo Hereticus inquisitor in full battle gear, armoured capotain hat with a greatcoat, inferno pistol on the belt and more to come visit you in your quarters.
It was, however, plain for me to see that Arradus and Thaberus were acquainted. As expected of an inquisitor worthy of his salt, Thaberus had apparently double-checked the integrity of the sole surviving astropath on the planet.
‘Arradus, this is Syrine.’ As always Thaberus cut straight to the point and I was glad he did remember to cut off the lady title when addressing me. ‘Work with her to see if you can establish contact with any nearby imperial world and send out a message requesting reinforcements citing renegade Astartes.’ Then Thaberus turned to me. ‘Please see to it no harm comes to him in the process, his… talent is sorely needed in this challenging time.’
Finally, he gathered his retinue. ‘Niandra, you stay here with them. The rest of you, with me.’ Niandra turned her head but before she could say a word Thaberus made his point. ‘Both of them are, as of now, of absolute strategic value for this world.’
‘Surely you are as indispensable?’ I asked.
‘No, I am not.’ He answered matter-of-factly. ‘If I am taken out of the equation, either Amael or Niandra will take over command and proceed with a more defensive approach on what to do next.’
I looked at him, finding it interesting that an individual can nonchalantly mention the possibility of self-demise, but he totally ignored my gaze.
‘Inquisitor, you are leaving?’ Arradus asked.
‘Yes, Mister Rein. Unfortunately, heretics tend not to purge themselves. May the Emperor guide you on your work,’ Thaberus replied. With that said he left the room, his retinue fell in behind him to their undoubtedly bloody inquisitorial business, their boots echoing down the hallway foreshadowing the violence to come. Niandra saw them off and then melted into the shadows.
That left me and Arradus. I ran [Analytica] on the astropath. His readings came back as expected.
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Name: Arradus Rein, human, psyker, astropath.
‘Hello.’ I said, greeting the psyker.
‘That ... was such an unusual way of greeting, you aren’t from around here are you?’ Oops, guess I did it by doing greetings in English instead of Low Gothic. Hello in English just felt so natural after decades of usage, it completely slipped through my lips.
‘You are a sharp one, astropath.’ I jested in my awkward attempt to cover my slip up.
‘Please, Lady Syrine, just call me by my name.’ He actually looked kind of embarrassed. But… he called me that and it hit me hard. If there was one thing I might never get used to it would be being called a lady.
‘Fine.’ I said, ‘in return, please drop the lady when addressing me in private, let us treat each other as peers.’
He paused slightly before asking, ‘so how do we go about this? Pardon me but I am at a loss on what is going on around here.’
I thought for a moment and decided to just get straight into it. ‘Please brief me on how you do your work and we will see what we can do from there.’
Everything considered we went off with a good start. Arradus began his lengthy crash course with me on the art of Astro-telepathy while I paid full attention to him with ceaseless usage of [Cogitatio Acceleratio] between his lectures.
With this incredible body that housed my amazingly sharp mind it felt like cheating; the moment he finished making a statement and describing a concept I would speed up my thought process with [Cogitatio Acceleratio], conjured mental notes and diagram to fully grasp whatever he said, pausing the process to ask important questions, rinsing and repeating until satisfied.
After about two hours or so, I was beginning to have a good understanding of the whole process, though it must be mentioned with thought acceleration constantly in effect. From my point of view, it felt like I had been working on it for a full day.
As for Arradus, he seemed to be getting more animated as the lecture went on, my crucial questions only added to his enthusiastic energy as the session dragged on. He must have found lecturing to be a very refreshing experience as evidently there was little to no chance to discuss his work if ever in his line of service.
Even with all that enthusiasm pushing him I could see Arradus was reaching his limits, so after telling him to take a break and politely declining his invitation for a quick dinner, I continued the work alone. For unknown reasons hunger and thirst never seemed to cross my mind, I wondered about it for a moment before deciding to leave it at that, there were just too many unknowns in this new existence.
With the freshly learned techniques, I went into a meditative state, re-running the lessons with thought acceleration in the back of my head for the final wrap up. The process continued until a feeling of sufficient understanding hit my mind and I knew it was time for a small trial run of what I have learned.
This feels so trippy. I felt my senses expand into the next realm. The world went weird for a brief moment as I attempted to send out a psychic message. +Hello?+
Arradus who was having his belated dinner nearby jolted and apparently tipped over his drink on the dining table. I could hear the mess he was creating across the hallway.
+Was... was that you? Lady Syrine?+ He sent back.
+Astropath, what did we just agree on?+ I returned. More sounds could be heard from across the hallway, the type of sound eating utensils made when dropped to the marble floor.
A slight pause later. +Could you please turn it down a little? The intensity you are sending the message hurt my head.+
I gasped at the reply, after focusing on adjusting thought intensity as best I could by making it as light as possible and sent another message. +Sorry, how is it now?+
+Much better, thank you...+
Suddenly I felt his presence had a dramatic change, the best way to describe it was a great sense of fear started to flood from his direction across the hallway.
Having just survived multiple attacks earlier in the day my sense of alarm was cranked up to the maximum level in an instance. Standing up, my [Cogitatio Acceleratio] kicked in as I activated [Auspex] for an instant mind sweep around the area. In an almost painful slowness within my accelerated mind, my surroundings were revealed to me as information dripped in pace with my sensor net as it expanded outwards.
There were 3 maids, 2 medics, 2 servitors, 18 armed guards with hot-shot lasguns and 12 gun servitors with heavy bolters within 100 meters outside his living quarters. Also in the detection net were dozens of active security cameras, none inside Arradus’ living space. Niandra was in another nearby room checking on security details. Arradus had a laspistol on him, a very typical setup. Glaringly missing was any kind of threat that would have spooked Arradus.
+Arradus?+ I asked, being very careful with my intensity this time. Another slight pause later he answered.
+Wha...+ He was practically trembling on his psychic message, +WHAT ARE YOU?!+
+Arradus, what are you even talking about?+ Concerned and confused, I asked while walking towards the astropath. What I saw stopped me in my tracks, Arradus had his pistol drawn and the gun was pointing in my direction, I could see my own reflection on the stylish eyeshade that covered his blind eyes. The blatant hostility that was emanating from him was more of a mixture of fear than intent to kill, he was simply terrified.
‘Arradus, what is wrong?’
‘Stop right there, don’t get any closer!’ He aimed his pistol in a threatening manner, the intensity of his emotion made me wince. ‘How did you do that when you are not even a psyker? Are you even human?’ He demanded, his voice was starting to break due to the amount of duress he was experiencing.
Caught by this unexpected turn of events, I was totally dumbstruck by his revelation.