Domel Arcturus

I was shocked, distraught, and trying to stop myself from throwing up. To think that the first person I've ever met after I woke up from a long sleep was reduced to just a bloodied hand clutching his unique weapon. I felt devastated and loss like never before. It felt like something was yanked out of my heart.

The void was quickly filled with darkness, in which I quickly moved towards the traumatized fur-covered alien and lifted him by his throat.

"What did you do to him?!" I said, seething with rage. "Spit it out!"

The alien tried to give an explanation, but he clearly could not with my hands gripping his throat. Given his diminutive form, I would snap his neck due to my unrestrained strength and my blind rage.

He was only saved by his companion. While not standing as tall as I was, he was quite formidable and managed punch my gut to save his companion. In my rage, I flowed the energy stored within me into a powerful electric shock (I left my Draconus on the Vyrkaya) and was ready to electrocute them to death if it wasn't for the voice a person who I assumed killed.

"Stop!" he said with a very croaked voice full of pain. "Arc, stop!"

I abruptly stopped and turned to find George, barely conscious. He ripped his shirt's sleeve and used it to close the big wound where his hand was, but it wasn't enough to stop the blood from dripping out. At this point, he was still in danger of dying due to shock and blood loss."

"They're...." It came out very slurred and barely intelligible, even with a translator. "Helping. It was a Trikelian."

"A Trikelian?" I said, surprised. I did consider Trikelian as a probable cause, but the ship crashed long before the Exodus, so I did not pursue it. The most probable cause would be an attack by the pre-spacers.

"It's still here...somewhere," said George, straining while looking around. "I was careless. A healthy Trikelian's...a dangerous beast."

George was straining to talk due to the pain and the alarming rate of his blood loss. As I came to his aid, the power throughout the ship was restored with both Areil and Saif already reaching us. George slumped on his knee over the pool of his own blood. He was, however, still able to get some words out.

"Burn...sword...wound."

Quickly remembering that George's sword was a plasma sword, I snatched it from the small furred alien and turned on the plasma setting, causing the sword to burn brightly. Without hesitation, I cauterized the stump where his hand was. He screamed in pain, but most of his energy was already sapped due to the blood loss, so even his scream was weak. I did not even think what the shock would do to him just as Zarya reprimanded me for being reckless.

"Arc, you idiot! He's going into shock!" exclaimed Zarya in my comm.

I realized my mistake a bit too late when George slumped over my wing-arm, unconscious. Worried, I asked Zarya, "Is...is he okay? What's his status?"

"He's stable, but you could've killed him," said Zarya with an alarmed tone. "You're lucky he's tougher than he looked."

I could not even sighed in relief because George's survival was only the least of our problems.

Without warning, the Trikelian attacked us from the dark corner George emerged from. I shielded George from its fast tentacle attack and almost got my head cut off if I did not shield my head inside my wings and tilt my head away. My wing got ripped off because of that attack. Areil acted quickly and cut the tentacles using her searing claws, a fire conversion ability. There was a loud shriek as the tentacles were cut off and the Trikelian scurrying into the darkness.

"We need to get out of here," said Saif, tense. "I didn't know there's a monster nest on this ship!"

"That monster is not this planet's native," I said. "It's a Trikelian, the parasite alien I was talking about."

"And that parasite caused that?" he said while pointing at George. "That's not how a parasite works!"

"And this is not the time to argue about it. We are still in danger here. Areil, take George and get back to Vyrkaya."

"What's your plan?" she asked.

"Finishing the job and get this ship out of this planet," I said. "I can't believe this."

I then turned to the pre-spacers staring at us in confusion.

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding earlier," I said. "But you two need to get off this ship. We're going to fly this out of your planet, and we have no plans to return. You might as well forget we're ever here. No one's gonna believe you."

"No...," said the smaller alien. I could see his face was confused that we spoke their language. "Take us with you. This ship is our home and we won't part with it."

"But you won't be able to...."

"We're already dead anyway," said the bigger, bat-like alien. "This ship is the final place they will find us. It is a sacred place."

"Well, this sacred place's going to fly off, so I hope you won't regret it," I said. Damn, I thought. First George, now these two tribal-clothed aliens. If the Empire's still around, I'd be stripped of my military rank! Guess being woken up years after the Exodus has its merits, after all.

The only way to flush this tentacled bastard out was to flood the whole ship with lights and rob it off its hiding places. Even so, that Trikelian effortlessly cut off George's hand without resorting to controlling a corpse, making it far more dangerous than the Trikelians we fought before. We soon realized that, with the power turned on, the AI would be activated and from my limited knowledge of a ship's AI, it would not tolerate intruders. But, instead of the 'intruder alert' going off, nothing happened. Then, we soon realized that the ship was helping us.

We tried our best to prevent an ambush, but it was bound to happen. However, just before we realized that the Trikelian was in a dark crew quarters ready to strike, the door to that room violently shut itself, surprising us with a shriek of the Trikelian's tentacle cut off by the sheer force of the sliding door slamming down upon its fast-moving tentacles. It looked like a malfunction at first, given that doors were given safety measures so they would never hurt anyone.

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Kyrand, who stayed silent throughout this whole event, suddenly appeared in my vision, floating as I looked around and stayed in my vision like an illusion.

"You really think that's a malfunction?" it said. "It's too much of a coincidence, isn't it?"

"What are you suggesting, Kyrand?" I asked.

"Ask the ship's AI. You might get the answer soon enough," it said with a chuckle.

"Some help you are."

But Kyrand's suggestion did make me realize that even if the ship's AI would regard us as intruders, it would be able to assess the situation and assist us. Of course, that was if the AI was advanced enough to differentiate friend or foe without some sort of signal code. We had no idea how old this ship was. Still, with the danger very close to us, we had no other choice.

"Computer. Check anomalous elements on this ship," I said while running through the dark corridor. "Find a Trikelian."

To our surprise, it replied. Not a standard, computerized replied, but a reply from someone.

"I am trying to prevent the Trikelian from ambushing you." The female voice came from the ship's PA. It did not sound like a computer's voice. "The thing's too slippery for me and I can't kill it. You have to do it for me."

"What?" said Saif, confused. "But you're...."

"I will explain later. Get to the bridge and initiate takeoff sequence. I need your authorization. I'll show you the way."

I was not sure if the voice's owner was a Vyrnian or an AI. She replied to the inquiry instead of telling us before it. Maybe it was a timing thing. However, Kyrand's suggestion made me think that maybe there was something else going on with the ship. That Trikelian trapped on the ship was part of the mystery.

But despite the tension, we still heard a curious banter between the small furry alien with big, concerned eyes and the big bat-like alien. They clearly did not communicate that well before we came to them, and the language barrier had clearly not made them trust each other that much. Now with that barrier gone, they started talking to each other, and what I heard seemed to indicate that they were once enemies, except involuntarily. I really did not want them to be involved with us due to our status as outsiders but hearing the smaller one said "outcast" made me realize why they asked us to take them away. I guess they just want to escape a harsh life. I did hope it wasn't because they were dangerous criminals. That, of course, provided that the planet even had anything resembling a society after the previous one's collapse.

Whoever was helping us with routing off the Trikelian did her job well. But just as she said, she could not kill the Trikelian. Despite her help, it was still quite an effort to escape from the Trikelian. We could not even fight it, considering what it did to George. We could risk it since we were Vyrnians, but we could not afford to be incapacitated. I was aware on how dangerous a healthy Trikelian would be when they were not possessing a corpse or a living Vyrnian. While their mobility became limited by the body they possessed, they deemed it a good trade-off for the Vyrnian brain. This was the reason why they were so dangerous and why we needed to get this thing off this planet while the ship was still pretty much isolated.

Even if they could not possess the races of this planet, they were still very dangerous. We knew their threats, so it's time we tried our best to get this danger off this planet before it harmed anyone else.

Reaching the bridge with the ship powered on was much easier with functioning elevators. However, years of disrepair made them slower than what it was used too. Even then, we managed to cut through several decks before we finally reached the bridge. With everything turned on and ready to fly, I focused my attention to the security of the ship. Weirdly, we did not find any Vyrnians on the bridge, so I quickly assumed that she might not be talking to us through the bridge. I did not consider the other possibility.

"Does this ship have an intruder defense system on board?" I asked.

"Already out of commission thanks to the Trikelian," said the female voice. "But I can give you a suggestion. You can jettison it to outer space. I cannot do it without the authorization from a Vyrnian."

"Ah, so, you're the ship's AI, after all."

"More or less. I'll tell you what you need to know, but right now, focus on the pressing matter."

"Then we need to get away from this planet before that thing--"

The Trikelian banged at the door with such force that we thought impossible. The bridge's doors were the most reinforced in a Vyrnian ship due to the importance of the bridge crew in a ship's operation. I hoped it was enough to stop the Trikelian before it got in.

"Initiate takeoff sequence!" I said.

The ship's engine roared to life and started taking us off its resting place. Years of sediment accumulating around the ship threatened to damage it, but we had no time to worry about that. We could only hope the ship's bridge would not be too damaged by this risky takeoff. I was surprised that this ship was even capable of flight after hundreds of years in disrepair. It was even more fascinating to know that the ship's AI was still functioning. However, we had no time to be fascinated. The Trikelian was still trying to break through the door, and worse, it was learning. Even before we knew it, it got through by smashing the control panel on its side.

We would be fighting for our dear lives if we were not prepared. I may not have my Draconus with me, but I still had a lot of juice in me to zap the slippery bastard into a fried octopus or whatever the hell that thing was. I had enough of it hijacking the dead and causing us grief.

The door slid open and as expected, the Trikelian attacked the closest Vyrnian it could get, namely myself. Without delay, I used the same technique I did, but this time without expending most of my energy reserve. I called it Thunder Burst due to the thunderclap sound effect it produced. Very dramatic, I know, but it was very potent, especially when my target happened to be a super conductive slime.

I must admit that hearing it shrieking in pain sounded like music to my ears. I pretty much admitted that I had a sadistic side. In my defense, if you happened to have your friend bleeding and almost died, you can't deny that this whole thing was sweet, sweet revenge. Also, I hated Trikelians with a passion. They caused the Exodus, they forced me to hurt my Vyrnian ally, and one of them almost killed George. There's no way I could ever forgive them, not even if they beg for mercy.

However, despite the risk of me enjoying it too much, I had control over my emotions as I knew I had people to protect. I quickly shouted my command to the ship's AI.

"Computer!" I exclaimed. "Open the emergency bridge airlock! Everyone, hold on!"

Yep. That was my idea. It was very risky, given the situation. I timed it the moment we broke the planet's atmosphere and into the dark, cold space. Areil, acting quickly, held my tail as I was being sucked out of the ship with the Trikelian. It shrieked and desperately tried to grab the sides of the hatch, which it succeeded. Hardy bastard.

"Just fuck off and die already!" I shouted, in desperation. The Trikelian was similarly desperate as it was still trying to attack me with its fast tentacle. I managed to dodge it, but it wrapped around my neck. It was trying to take me along as it was sucked out of space. I hated how it still wanted to kill me after all it's done. I would've given it all my respect if it wasn't for my hatred to it. All I could do was curse it as its grip tightened.

I was just going to let out a short electrical Burst when the Trikelian shrieked even louder, apparently in pain or because it saw something horrifying. It's shocked reaction caused it to release the grip around my neck and the side of the hatch, spacing it. Just then, without my command, the airlock abruptly closed, and I dropped onto the bridge's console rather awkwardly, bruising my side.

Recovering from the ordeal, I wondered what caused its response. But before I could even ask, the computer, for some unknown reason, asked about me.

"Are you alright?" said the computer via the captain's personal communication desktop.

"A little bruised, but I'm alright," I said. "And that's the first time I have ever heard a ship's AI being concerned. You still owe me an explanation."

"I guess I owe you for activating me," it said. "You see, I'm not an AI. When you turned the ship on, I woke up, or rather...I was 'juiced'."

"If you're not an AI, then you're one of this ship's crew's descendants?"

"I am not. I am this ship, and you're inside me. It's, uh...doesn't sound right when I said it out loud. Should've used a different word to it."

That answer surprised and confused me. Somehow, what we got was not just any ship.

It was a living ship.