The Emperor couldn’t believe his eyes, he was observing the data from the rescue and something had happened that he couldn’t fathom.
Among all the epsilons, the one they call the Doctor would’ve been the last one he expected to behave like this.
To attempt to kill one of his special projects after being told what he was, and in such a way. Honestly he was thankful to that awakened AI. Friday, he should start calling her by her name.
But that act was unforgivable. He had disobeyed a direct order and had gone against his wishes.
One thing he was sure of, Xe’nia would probably enjoy the order he was about to send.
He carefully crafted the message to be passed along to her.
“The Doctor is to be disposed of because he is guilty of high treason, you know what he’s done. Once that is taken care of please destroy the weapon as well, we don’t need something that destructive to exist.”
—
Xe’nia was in her cabin writing the report from the rescue operation when she received the message from one of the Voices.
With a smile she pressed a button on her wrist-pad and checked the ship log to see where the Doctor was at the moment, he had just gone to the canteen.
She stood up and left her cabin, walking towards him to intercept him along the way.
He was walking through the ship completely absorbed reading something on a pad, barely even aware of her coming his way. The moment they crossed paths she just grabbed him by the throat and punched hard in his stomach, her hand breaking skin and muscle and going its way up to his heart.
“You made a big mistake trying to destroy that ship, Doctor. You have been sentenced to death by the Emperor, your charge is high treason”
He couldn’t speak and barely breath, his eyes wide open and blood dripping from his mouth.
“I told you, didn’t I? That I would enjoy this moment” - her smile almost sadistic while her hand kept breaking organs and bones, slowly going up until she grabbed his heart.
“That’s the end for you idiot. Consider yourself lucky that you lived this long”
And with a quick movement she crushed his heart and then let go of the now lifeless body.
While he fell she could see tears in his eyes, she couldn’t help but pity him.
“I need a cleanup crew on passage thirteen.” - she said on her communication device, and started walking towards Er’anie’s room. She should be the one to give her the news.
—
When the Excelsior came back to normal space the Ry’skrel was already there, waiting for them. The white cocoon shining a few thousand kilometers away.
A small shuttle launched from it and started moving towards the Excelsior. A call came into comms and captain Miller gave the order to receive it.
Two grhjujiik appeared on screen. Both spider heads were somehow similar, giving an air of kinship.
“Hi, my name is Egary and my co-pilot is Rhjyu. We have volunteered to pilot your brave squadron towards the colossus.” - the one on the right said, or rather, clicked, but still were able to produce those words.
“Thank you, much appreciated.” - said the captain with a grave voice.
“Don’t worry, from last encounter’s data my brother and I have created a special helmet that should protect anyone wearing it from psionic attacks and we obviously volunteered to test them. Once we’ve confirmed they work, we will give you the schematics” - explained the other one with a rather merry tone.
“But what if they don’t?” - exclaimed the captain.
Both grhjujiik looked at him with what could only be defined as befuddlement, then at each other, then at him again.
“This may be one of those ‘cultural divergences’ we have heard about.” - started the one on the right - “You see, for us grhjujiik there is no concept of making false assumptions because the Queen hears all. If we are here and we are about to test it is only because we are 100% confident it will work.” - it finished.
“99.99999..” - said the other one
“Oh come on! The odds of that combination of..” - the first one replied, but it stopped when the other one raised a front leg.
Captain Miller couldn’t help but laugh at the exchange.
“Ok, we’ll trust you, and I’m very curious to see those helmets of yours and will be eternally grateful for the schematics” - the captain said while sending them a path to one of the Excelsior’s landing bays.
—
A couple hours later, the Mind Flayer squadron and the pilots were already on the specially designed shuttle and on their way to the colossus.
The beacons they left were still in place so they moved towards the closest one and stopped a few hundred of kilometers from it. They launched the platform and repeated the same formation as the last time, Ksenia on point.
The colossus presence could still be felt but the space in front of them was now clearer, not as foggy as the last time, as if the being was there but its focus was somewhere else.
Ksenia looked at her back and saw her battalion ready, then cleared her throat and activated the external speakers on her suit.
“Gentle Colossus, we have come once more to visit you and hopefully provide assistance” - she said to the presence in front of her.
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All of a sudden the nebula in front of them seemed to move around a bit, getting more and more solid with every second. After a few minutes they felt the impact of the colossus presence right in front of them.
“We salute you gentle Colossus. We received a psionic attack not many days ago and we suspect it came from one of your progeny” - she started the moment she felt his attention.
“YOU DARE COME HERE AFTER KIDNAPPING MY CHILD?” - the colossus shouted, he was really angry. - “AND YET YOU SPEAK AS IF HER DISAPPEARANCE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.”
“We felt the attack had lots of anger and pain in it and, due to the time and place were we got attacked and the fact that it felt similar to your presence but quite weaker, we imagined it didn’t come from you but from your progeny and it had been somehow forced by a third party” - she summarized. - “And you know we have no way of hiding ourselves from you”
“THAT IS CORRECT. I FELT HER PRESENCE SUDDENLY VANISH FROM THE CRADLE AND HOURS LATER FELT HER SCREAM HITTING A SYSTEM WITH A BIG CONCENTRATION OF BEINGS FROM THE EMPIRE” - the colossus explained - “I THREW MY CONSCIOUSNESS TOWARDS THAT PLACE BUT THEY WERE ALREADY GONE”
Even though they could all feel the Colossus stress, they weren’t affected by it. It wasn’t directing anything their way, it even sounded sad.
“We believe this has been done by powerful synths. They were supposedly eradicated thousands of years ago but some might have survived and hid themselves.”
“I KNOW WHAT WAR YOU SPEAK OF CHILD, I REMEMBER IT WELL. THAT WOULD EXPLAIN WHY I DIDN’T FELT THEM ENTERING THE CRADLE, AND YOU SAY THIS BEINGS HAVE DECIDED TO ATTACK ME?”
“We believe they wanted us to fight each other so they could use that chaos to hurt us as well”
“THEN, WHY SHOW THEIR HAND SO EASILY? NOW WE KNOW THEY EXIST AND THEY HAVE A STEALTH TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS THEM TO REMAIN UNDETECTED IN MY PRESENCE. THOSE ARE TWO BIG MISTAKES FOR A SYNTH TO MAKE”
The Colossus had a point, something wasn’t quite right. Then the answer came to her, as clear as day.
{}
“You said you remember that war but we don’t. The Empire doesn’t remember that synths once existed nor about anything that happened during said war.” - Ksenia explained - “They probably wanted to force the Emperor hand to have him admit not only that happened but that he covered it all”
Everyone kept quiet for a while, thinking over the repercussions of that knowledge being made public.
“Do you know how that war ended?” - Ksenia asked - “That might give us more information”
“I WASN’T INVOLVED ON IT SO I CANNOT GIVE YOU THE ANSWER YOU’RE LOOKING FOR, CHILD. AND THE FACT THAT YOU’RE HERE ASKING THIS QUESTION MEANS YOUR EMPEROR HASN’T SHARED THAT INFORMATION, I WOULD FIND THAT WORRYING IF I WERE YOU” - the Colossus replied - “BUT ALL OF THIS IS IRRELEVANT TO ME, HOW CAN YOU HELP ME RESCUE MY PROGENY? THAT’S WHAT WE SHOULD BE DISCUSSING” - and his voice came through with a tremendous push of psionic energy that made them all kneel.
“You are completely correct. But to do that we would need to understand how it happened, to be honest none of us actually understands you and we’re still trying to discern how it all happened” - she replied.
“WELL THAT’S NO SECRET. I HAVE A CORE FROM WHICH ALL MY BEING EXTENDS, MY CHILDREN DO HAVE THEIR INDIVIDUAL CORE AS WELL BUT THEIRS IS NOT PROTECTED LIKE MINE. ANYONE CAN GRAB THE CORE, THAT’S WHY THEY REMAIN IN THE CRADLE UNTIL THEY ARE OLD ENOUGH TO SET UP PROTECTIONS.” - he explained - “IF YOU APPROACHED MY CORE YOUR SHIPS WOULD BE DESTROYED BY MAGNETIC AND GRAVITATIONAL FORCES BEFORE YOU COULD EVEN TOUCH IT, YOUR PHYSICAL FORMS WOULDN’T SURVIVE COMING CLOSE TO IT.”
“You said you felt her presence. Are we to understand that you can always feel them? That would be helpful in pinpointing where they are and to determine our next steps” - she asked him.
“I SHOULD BE BUT THERE’S SOMETHING BLOCKING HER PRESENCE. I ONLY FELT IT JUST BEFORE WHAT YOU CALLED A PSIONIC ATTACK AND THEN IT WAS GONE” - he informed them - “THOSE SYNTH BEINGS MUST HAVE SOME TECHNOLOGY SHIELDING HER. AND I CAN TELL YOU NOW THAT SHE MUST BE SCARED, SHE IS BASICALLY A TODDLER”
Ksenia and the others started discussing ideas in their mental group, brainstorming possibilities. Surely the synth ships must leave some residue after jumping or moving; everything did, even if it was a small mark on the space where they folded dimensions to either jump in or out.
Or maybe the box that contained the progeny was made of a special alloy that they could track.
They spent a few minutes like that, throwing ideas back and forth and debating them amongst themselves, when the colossus spoke again.
“I CAN HEAR YOUR CONVERSATION CHILDREN SO I AM GOING TO TRUST YOU AND ONLY YOU ON THIS. I’M TOO BIG AND TOO OLD TO DO THAT BUT YOU CHILDREN SHOULD BE ABLE TO TUNE ON THE SAME FREQUENCIES”
All of a sudden, a small golden orb, not bigger than a rabbit, appeared in front of them.
“THIS IS ALSO ONE OF MY PROGENY. FEEL IT, GET FAMILIAR WITH ITS TONE, I CAN SENSE YOU ARE ABLE TO DO THAT MUCH AND I’M HOPING IT’LL HELP YOU FIND THE MISSING ONE”
The golden orb was vibrating visually and emitting some kind of psionic feel. The whole battalion stopped their conversation and focused on it, attuning their senses to it, as if two melodies coming together.
Once that was done the orb went back deep inside the colossus.
“Thank you for your trust gentle colossus” - said Ksenia - “I don’t know if we will find it but I can promise you we’ll do our best”
“I SAW YOUR HEARTS CHILD, I KNOW YOU WILL.”
And with that she pressed on her wrist pad the command to take them back to the Excelsior.
—
Once they arrived at the ship, captain Miller thanked the pair of grhjujiik and asked for the helmet schematics.
They were happy to provide them but insisted it needed more calibration, they surely looked like they had gone through hell and back. Limbs hanging by their sides, eyes surrounded by dark circles, mouth agape with dry green saliva around it.
After closing the connection, captain Miller took a deep breath before continuing.
“Comms, patch me to the squad. I want to speak with them” - he requested with a grave voice.
The way he had spoken it had given all the information to the comms technician. It had to be audio only - he asked to specifically speak to the squad - and private - the I want and the to the squad parts of the request. He obeyed and patched him through a line to the whole squad.
“This is the captain. Report.” - he said in a low voice
Back in the hangar, the squad who was still resting inside the ship, as if they had run a marathon, suddenly stood to attention even though the captain couldn’t see them and Ksenia started to explain what had happened.
They all knew the Emperor would be getting that report as well so they played their parts. There were some subtle signs and intonations made to send a cryptic message to those looking for them and through them she explained way more than she said.
After the explanation, back at the bridge, the captain was looking into a map of the surrounding systems. He marked on the map the space occupied by the colossal being, then marked the system where the Kirkuggers had just gone through the rescue and had been marked as forbidden space, and then marked a line where the Mind Flayer squad thought the creature progeny was.
He kept looking at the map, twisting it and turning it over and over again, his mind trying to tell him something that he couldn’t grasp.
He read the squad report again from the beginning and, suddenly, he got it. With a smile, he marked a point on the map.
“Helm, take us to the point I just marked.” - he requested.
And with that, the Excelsior engine opened a door to higher dimensions and jumped through.