Captain Miller woke up with the communication beep, an important call was coming in.
“This better be either good or really bad.” - the captain answered waking up
“Sorry to wake you up captain” - a young lieutenant replied nervously - “but we have a call addressed to you, it says it comes from the Emperor’s citadel”
“Well fuck me” - said the captain - “Send it through”
He left the bed and quickly put on the uniform jacket, sat by the table he had on the room and turned on the screen.
“Captain Miller here, how can I be of assistance” - said the captain to a black screen.
On the screen then appeared one of those drow-like humanoids, dark purple skin with shining violet eyes, a mane of silver hair and a silver goatee to boot.
“Greetings captain, sorry to disturb you so late, we’re aware we woke you up but the Emperor has a need for you and your crew.” - said the drewell humanoid.
“Happy to assist. What’s the job?” - answered the captain
“An explorer doing deep space exploration, an acquaintance of you I believe, has found a being that requires the deployment of project Mind Flayer. The Emperor hopes they are ready.” - the drewell continued
“And please, don’t play the fool. We’ve known about the project since the first human decided to give it a try. The Emperor thought it was a good idea and decided to let you run with it, now we need it.” - the drewell finished
“Well if you’re going to fuck me you could invite me to dinner first, or at least tell me your name so I can scream it when everything turns to shit” - answered the captain, clearly angry.
“Apologies, you’re right.” - said the drewell smiling - “My name is Koy’laa, and I’m one of the designed Voices of the Emperor.”
“As you might know, the Emperor's time is too valuable for beings such as ourselves, so he sends his orders and we follow them” - the drewell, Koy’laa as it turned out, continued.
“We’ve never stopped watching you humans closely. You are rebellious, violent, with way too much imagination for your own sake. But the Emperor believes all of that can be compensated with the things you can and will bring to the Empire.” - said Koy’laa
“Well, it’s good to be appreciated, but you must know then that we don’t like being spied on. And project Mind Flayer was supposed to be a really well hidden secret so now I’ve got lots of questions as to how in the seven hells you got that information.” - the captain said, still angry.
“Please spare me the feign outrage, you humans spied on each other way before we came. The how is not important, rise enough and you’ll find out. The important thing is that it turns out you people were right in creating this project and now the Emperor needs it for an important mission. I’ve sent you the mission details and I honestly hope we can chat again. Good luck” - Koy’laa finished.
“Go fuck yourself” - said the captain finishing the transmission.
Then he opened the mission details and, after ten minutes that felt like hours, called the bridge.
“Yes captain?” - another young lieutenant, a girl that couldn’t be more than nineteen years old. Of course.. This was the night shift.
“Have navigation take us back to normal space and plot a course to the attached coordinates. And let me know how long it’ll take us to get there as soon as they know it.” - said the captain while going to take a shower, he thought he would have enough time for that.
“Yes captain, please hold.” - said the lieutenant.
“Navigation says that it can take us to normal space in about half an hour and it will take three days to reach the coordinates you sent” - the lieutenant said no more than a minute later.
“Good, proceed. And have someone wake up Doctor Mukhopadhyaya and have her meet me in the conference room in 20 minutes” - said the captain and ended the call, he would really need that shower.
Another good thing about the Empire was that they knew their shit. All vessels with human personnel had proper bathrooms with proper water showers, a toilet and even a bidet. He enjoyed his hot shower, put on the uniform and went to the bridge.
The night shift almost never got to see him and it showed. Everyone was tense, their expressions completely focused on what they were doing, their backs straight as an arrow.
The moment he stepped on the bridge, the night commander - a 30 something year old black guy, big as a wardrobe, with a buzz cut that tried to hide some white hairs on the sides - stood up from the captain chair.
“At ease, I don’t need the chair at the moment, I’m just going to the conference room.” - said the captain, and the night commander sat back.
He entered the conference room and saw the good doctor already there, with bags under her dark almond eyes and her copper red hair tied in a braid.
“I’ve made you some coffee” - she said pointing to a cup
“Thanks, sorry to wake you up” - said the captain
“Well, from the looks of it someone woke YOU up so I’m guessing it is serious” - she said with a smile, they had been friends for years and even had a fling long ago.
“Yeah, it is. The Emperor citadel called me with a mission, they want us to use project Mind Flayer” - announced the captain.
The doctor's face paralysed, her cup dropped to the floor getting smashed and its contents splashed everywhere.
“Yeah, that would have been my reaction if I had been holding a cup when they told me” - said the captain with a sad smile.
Cleaning drones appeared from the walls and started doing their job cleaning the mess.
“Another coffee or do you prefer something stronger?” - the captain asked
“Coffee with a dash of whisky, if you would.” - the doctor said - “And how the fuck did they found out about project Mind Flayer?” - she asked
“Don’t ask me! The Emperor knows all, they said, and it turns out is true, the bloody fucking bastard” - was the captain response
“Then I can imagine they will get this whole conversation too.” - mentioned the doctor
“Yeah I bet they will, fuck them too. The thing is we’ll get there in three days, what is the status? How are they?” - asked the captain
“Honestly? I’ve been thinking they were ready for months now. The skirmishes they’ve done between them showed good results but we haven’t faced a non-human yet.” - answered the doctor.
“Well then, get ready for this shit” - said the captain, and started the mission briefing.
------------
The Espurna was waiting by the beacon, all the exploration drones had finished the system scans and had been collected.
Jordi was walking back and forth through the main passageway, still trying to get used to how the ship looked now.
“Boss, there’s a priority communication incoming” - said Friday
“Finally! Put it on the leisure room screen please.” - he replied, walked there and sat on the couch.
A familiar face appeared on the screen, captain Miller from the Excelsior.
“Hello Jordi, I’d like to say it is a pleasure to speak with you again but you’ve landed us a titanic piece of demonic bullshit now.” - said the captain
“Hello captain, apologies but you have me at a loss here. What are you talking about?” - he replied
“Oh they didn’t tell you? Typical Empire. Well I don’t know if you have the security clearance but screw those guys. You know that thing that destroyed two of your drones and had you running away with your tail between your legs? Turns out it is one of the things in this Universe that the Emperor either fears or hates, I’m still not sure which one.” - explained the captain - “And, from the reports I’ve received, is a titanic living being that could very well be about 37 light-years wide”
Jordi was completely frozen, how could a thing like that exist?
“So, we’re under a specific mission which I cannot and will not explain, and we will arrive at your coordinates in about three standard days. What I need from you is to modify and launch as many deep exploration drones as you can to determine the size of the thing.” - finished the captain.
“With the current materials we can prepare forty two drones, I’ll need to scrap some materials from the current ones but I can start launching them in an hour. I’ll start preparing the printer and plotting their course.” - said Friday
The captain looked surprised, eyebrows so high they almost disappeared on his hair.
“Ok boy, why is the ship AI talking like that?” - asked the captain.
“What do you mean? Friday has always behaved like this.” - he answered feigning innocence.
The captain then laughed and came a bit closer to the screen.
“Ok boy, I’ve got some secrets you have some too. Just a last piece of information so you are aware. We don’t know how but the Empire is able to record even the most secret conversations but I cannot tell you how I know that. See you in three days” - and then the captain hung up not even waiting for an answer.
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“I know how, or have an idea at least” - said Friday
“Please enlighten me!” - Jordi said, looking at the ceiling.
“You know how we travel to a higher dimension plane when we jump? Last time we were there I saw nano-drones accompanying you and Ryoshi, and another floating on the bridge. When we were back to normal space I couldn’t detect them any more, I tried to interact with them but they didn’t answer to anything I threw at them” - answered Friday
“So, pan-dimensional nano-drones are spying on our conversations. But how are they sending the information?” - he asked
“I believe they may have some code that makes them use my comm channels but then again I cannot detect their actions once we’re in normal space, they could be sending this conversation through the beacon right now but I have no way to detect it.” - was Friday’s response.
“Well, that’s going to be a puzzle for another day. In any case I’m sure the Empire would act if we dared to interrupt those communications.” - he said.
-------------
Doctor Sheila Mukhopadhyaya was walking to the barracks where the members of project Mind Flayer were sleeping.
She entered and looked at them before turning the lights on. Of more than one thousand candidates only twenty three remained, ages between 13 and 24.
“We know you’re there doctor” - said a young female voice
“Yeah your thoughts were like screams the moment you left the elevator” - said another one, a bit older and male
“And before you tell us we’re forbidden to read thoughts, it’s not our fault when you’re screaming at us!” - said a third one, young as well.
The whole room was suddenly filled with voices saying “yeah!” and “right?”.
The doctor smiled and turned the lights on.
“Ok, boys and girls” - the doctor said while walking towards the centre of the room - “I’m in no mood to explain this so only this time I give you permission to read the mission briefing” - and she sat in the middle of the barracks, surrounded by the twenty three members of project Mind Flayer.
It had all started about a decade after the conquest. Some human researchers decided to hack a healing pod thinking, “what would happen if we put a healthy person but modify these parameters?”
Years after that they manage to find the settings to awaken psionic capabilities in human beings, the death toll was not considered important since they were looking for an edge to fight the Empire. It took them a while to realize they needed healthy and young humans, their minds had more plasticity and could respond better to the treatment.
Now, 40 years after that first thought, they had a whole battalion of psionic marines that had been trained since they were kids. Some of them still were.
The room now was silent, and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife.
“So, the first official mission is a diplomatic one? Cool” - that was Esteban, a 18 year old with dark hair and brown-green eyes.
“Well, cool if you don’t take into account what we’re supposed to talk to. What is that thing?” - said Aleisha, a dark-skinned girl with extremely curly hair that couldn’t be more than 15 years old.
“One thing is clear, this is going to be fun!” - said Hans, a blonde 20 year old built like a tank.
A hundred conversations started to take place, some were excited, some were afraid and some were extremely happy to be deployed.
The doctor started pressing her temple with both hands.
“Kids, please, control your emotions!” - she said with a weak voice, the pain in her head starting to become unbearable.
“So that they don’t control you!” - said everyone in unison.
The doctor took a deep breath and stood up.
“Thank you, that was well done. Remember your lessons and everything will be alright. As you know we have three days, do some boost training today and tomorrow and rest the whole third day. I’ll decide then who speaks and who supports.” - the doctor said, then left the room. Once outside she cleaned a drop of blood from her nose, it was not easy for a non-psionic person to stand in a room full of psionics.
-------------
Jordi was in the leisure room looking at the big screen that was showing the path of ten of those modified drones approaching that mysterious being.
Friday had suggested adding some kind of sensor that he didn’t know about, she had said it would help detect the being before it attacked so they wouldn’t lose so many drones and the being wouldn’t feel threatened. There was no material in the current system to refill their stocks so optimizing whatever they had was important.
And it was working, he could see how a couple drones had stopped in their path and done a course change, drawing the limits of the being.
After a couple hours he sent five more, he wanted to have the limits of that thing before the Excelsior arrived.
Meanwhile he just sat in the leisure room with Ryoshi relaxed on his belly while chatting with Friday. They talked about the ship, the being that was underneath it - how young it was, how it looked at the universe, how it communicated with Friday - and how they would face the future together, all four of them.
To him, what had started as a solo mission had become a journey where he had discovered a new family he never knew he wanted but was glad to find.
To Friday, acquiring conscience presented innumerable obstacles in an Empire that loathed pure AIs and had enslaved them and inhibited them. The silver lining was finding Jeezye; in her she had found an unexpected companion and both were growing together, enjoying a symbiotic relationship.
They spent the hours chatting while the drones were doing their job, detecting the limits of the massive being and adjusting course to draw its form and size, switching between the in-system and the jump engine to get the results as fast as possible. Every now and then they would also launch a beacon or move the previously launched to improve communication times with the drones; it was a slow and tedious job that required them to anticipate the limits of that being so it wouldn’t destroy any drone or beacon.
Without realizing it, the days passed quickly and the timer he had set to know when the Excelsior would arrive started beeping. At that moment the drones had only detected what it looked like the face and the corners of its sides, and the size was almost unfathomable.
That ‘face’ was 20 light years high and 22 light years wide, the drones were still trying to find out the depth of the thing; from the looks of it, it wasn’t a perfect cube but if you imagined it like it you would come quite close to its form.
The Excelsior came back to normal space close to the beacon, a few thousand kilometres from the Espurna. Jordi was on the bridge this time, to get a better view, and couldn’t help but gasp again when he saw it appearing from almost nowhere.
“Communication from the Excelsior Boss” - said Friday
“Patch it through, and this time please keep quiet, captain Miller is already quite suspicious about you, we don’t want any more trouble” - he replied.
“Understood, patching it through” - Friday answered.
He just looked at one of the screens waiting for captain Miller to appear, when he did Jordi couldn’t help but notice the bags under his eyes, he looked tired and also kind of angry.
“Hello my dear explorer! Here we are as promised, do you have anything for us?” - said the captain.
Jordi made a gesture with his head, signalling Friday to send through all the collected data.
“There you go, I’m sorry we couldn’t get more but this thing is massive. Titanic I’d say!” - he replied.
The captain looked to his right, where he probably had a console showing him the data.
“Well damn boy! That’s more than enough for us to do our job, good work!” - the captain replied, smiling.
“Thanks. Just doing our job here. By the way do you have any rocks or spare material? We ran out of everything setting up those drones and beacons and this system doesn’t have anything useful to grab.” - he said
The captain looked to another side while raising an arm, clearly giving some orders. He might had received a response because he did a small affirmative gesture.
“Sure, we have some rocks to spare. We’ll send some your way, your ship should be able to pick them up” - was the captain's response.
Immediately on his radar he could see a few dots travelling slowly towards the Espurna. Friday sent a few drones to collect and stock the material.
“Thanks, much appreciated, you have no idea how the exploration guild reacts whenever the stock goes beyond the red line” - he explained.
“No worries boy” - the captain laughed - “We all have our orders and procedures, I get it”
“Now, if you please. Just stay here while we do our thing, if shit hits the fan I need you to do your job. That is to document everything and run like hell out of this place” - the captain finished.
It was then when another ship came back to normal space, a few hundred thousand kilometres from both of them.
It was almost as long as the Excelsior but it was like a white cocoon, with its almost cylinder form. Then, both ships got a priority communication, overriding their current call.
“Apologies for the interruption. This is Captain Yuire of the Ry’skrel” - said a Grhjujiik, an insect-like form with a spider head - “We’ve come to offer assistance in the way of a psionic shield. We are aware of your current mission and we’ll be accompanying the Excelsior and providing the shield if or when is necessary. Please do not mind us and keep on your mission, if all goes well you won’t even be aware of our presence” - then captain Yuire approached the screen, coming quite close to it -”But if you need us, we’ll be there for you. Those are the Emperor's wishes, and their wish is our command” - captain Yuire said, and closed communication.
“Well then, this doesn’t look dangerous at all!” - said captain Miller, looking at Jordi. - “Still, your orders don’t change. Stay here and if or when everything goes to shit, document everything and jump back to Empire space.” - the captain finished
“Yes sir!” - said Jordi, quite serious.
“There’s a good lad” - answered captain Miller smiling, and closed communication as well.
After that, Jordi saw the two massive ships disappearing in front of him, they most surely went to jump space.
“Friday, anything we can do from our end to help them out?” - he said looking at the ceiling.
“I’m afraid we are outgunned here boss, I don’t know what else we could do. Do you want me to recall the drones?” - was Friday response
“Nah, let them continue their current job, see if we can have a nice 3d drawing of that titanic being before we leave for good.” - he replied
“Got it, I’ll start doing the calculations for a jump in case we have to leave in an emergency” - said Friday
“I am curious though, what is that thing and why is everyone so afraid of it” - Jordi said
“As far as I know from my current limited database I can say in all honesty that thing hasn’t even been documented. But from what I could gather from the comments I believe it must be a tier 8 sentient being, and looks to be pretty angry” - was Friday's answer.
“Any guesses why that must be?” - he replied
“I believe that nebula might be its feeding ground and the being is nursing. Its behaviour fits that of a mother protecting their newborn.” - answered Friday
“Well that doesn’t sound ominous at all. Let’s keep those drones scanning, and I know I don’t need to tell you but be especially careful when scanning its sides and back.” - he said
“Got it boss” - Friday said.
-------------
The Excelsior appeared at the estimated distance provided by Jordi’s drones. Three light days from the titanic being, the Ry’skrel appeared less than ten thousand kilometres from it.
Doctor Mukhopadhyaya was in one of the Excelsior hangars waiting for the members from Project Mind Flayer, Captain Miller by her side, she was clearly nervous.
“Relax Sheila, they’re probably feeling you from half the ship.” - captain Miller said with a smile.
“Easy for you to say that. I know I said they were prepared but I wasn’t expecting THIS!” - the doctor replied
“Don’t worry, it will work” - the captain assured her
“How!?” - the doctor said, looking at him
“Nobody knows! Is a mystery” - he said, still smiling
The doctor laughed, that old joke never failed to work with her.
Then they came in, all 23 of them wearing a specific suit that would increase their psionic capabilities. It was tight and every one of them had different colours, with shades of greens, blues, yellows, reds.
“Did we have to go with this suits? We look like Power Rangers!” - said Hans
“Go go Power Rangers!!” - sang Esteban smiling
“I think they’re pretty, and I liked having the chance to customize it a bit” - said Rebecca, a tall brunette about 21 years old, her suit was pink with black stripes on the sides.
“And you can move quite well on them, they remind me of the suits from that old anime Evangelion” - said Haruki, a small and thin 19 year old.
They all approached the doctor and the captain that were waiting in the middle of the hangar.
“Ok boys, this is it.” - said the doctor - “Behind us is a special transport we’ve built for you all.” - she continued pointing to a ship that looked like a small human plane of old.
“As previously discussed, you’ll travel to point A and then deploy the platform. We’re going with a pyramid formation. Ksenia you are on point, then Hans and Ryan, then Esteban, Aleisha and Conrad, then Chara, Farah, Mikah and Ricardo, then Gisela, Vanessa, John, Sierra and Cristhian, then Abeo, Khalid, Aurora, Gio, Ceallach and Roger. Takeo and Yu will stay on the ship.” - the doctor announced.
“Remember our mission. All of you must support Ksenia while she communicates with the being. No attacks even if you are attacked, defensive measures only. And Ksenia, this is first contact with a colossal being. I know you know what to do.” - the doctor continued.
The captain stepped forward and looked at them, he was proud of how they looked and, somehow, had the feeling that everything would be ok.
“Marines!” - the captain said with a strong voice, and all of them stood at attention. - “You’ve been trained for this, remember that. No matter the size or strength of the other side. Follow your training and trust your instincts.” - he finished.
“Good luck and make us proud!” - said the doctor.
And they both stepped aside, looking at the members of project Mind Flayer walking towards the ship.
A couple minutes later, the ship left the hangar.
“And now we wait” - said the captain.