Andrew opened his eyes to discover he had been transported into a similar cell. Like before the walls matched the skin of the elf who brought him here. They still appeared to be made of the same polished marble-looking material with golden veins running through it but, like the elf's skin, were tinted light green instead of white. Just like before the walls and floors looked like polished stone versus the elf clearly being made of skin and having a matte finish. This similarity of wall pattern to skin pattern struck him as funny, but before he could inquire with her if this was happenstance or elf navy standard, she disappeared in a magenta flash. Leaving him to explore his new confinement.
He found that his crew was with him, and they were still split into two cells, separated by sex. Just as before the cells were each connected to a central room and sealed from it by a rainbow energy field. However, this central room only had two cells off it instead of the four as before. In that central room were three golems. These golems were not made of the black stone the previous golem had been. These were made from reddish granite and stood nearly motionless, two looking at a respective cell and the third looking away from them. Andrew assumed the third golem was looking at where one of those aperture doors might open and took note in case, he was able to get free and make a run for it. He was distracted by his thoughts of escape when he noticed the same purple lines going out of their heads as he had seen with the elves but was surprised that unlike the elves no light purple lines connected each golem to the other.
As could be expected, Andrew was the first to open his mouth, "Umm, I should be in the other cell. I can't believe y'all keep misgendering me!!!"
The crew groaned. The Golem who was watching his cell merely glanced at him.
"Is this a ship?"
This time no golem even twitched, remaining diligent in their guard duties.
"Hey Moe, are you just animated statues, or can you talk? What about you Larry? Curly?" Andrew continued.
The golems seemed to not notice, remaining unmoving.
Vladimir interjected, "Lather stop your nonsense, it accomplish nothing but headache for rest."
"Maybe you're okay with being treated like cattle, being communist and all, but I'm from Texas and we don't much appreciate being treated like animals. " Andrew said the last part in an over-the-top Texas drawl.
The two golems watching the cells, turned to look at them somewhat quizzically.
Vladimir with a sneering smile responded, "Workers of all Lands Unite!"
As he said the last word the Golems spoke in unison with him in a reverent tone. Then adding, "To Each for Each for the Greater!"
The golem Andrew had called Larry stepped forward looking passed Andrew to Vladimir.
"How have you come by the great teachings?" it asked, in a reverent and beautiful asexual voice.
"Teachings of Marx common in my country. How do you know Marx teaching?"
"There was no Getl named Marx. Who is this Marx you speak of?"
"You know Karl Marx the person responsible for more deaths in the 20th century than just about anyone else?" Andrew added with a snarky smile.
"He was a warrior? How did he come by the great teachings?" Larry queried; excitement clear in his tone.
The smile on Andrew's face wilted, "What do you mean the great teachings?"
"The Great teachings of the Getl, they are not only our gods but also our teachers. They teach us how to work together so we all may prosper. In their infinite love, they created the first of us, so we might help make the universe more at peace. "
Captain Rostron spoke up "What is your meaning in saying 'the first of us'?"
"The Elves, trolls, and golems of course. They crafted us from nature. Elves they made in their glorious image, Trolls they crafted from the ever-healing clay of the world and we golems came last. They make us mostly from wood and stone. Their love not only created all beings but gave each of us the ability to replicate ourselves, so we might better serve them in bringing peace to the universe. While this was their greatest gift to us, it is merely one of their myriads of gifts which they bestowed on to us, demonstrating how generous and kind they are."
The purple lines going to the golems flashed quickly. Right before they felt the ground rock as if an earthquake had occurred. A large groan reverberated through the walls as if an animal had been injured, so deep Andrew felt it reverberate through his chest and sinuses.
"Please, for your safety you need to sit on the benches, it seems we are under attack from our ancient enemies. There is nothing to fear we will be underway soon and it's unlikely they will pursue." Larry said as he sat on the floor, restraints growing, like vines, out of it, and fastening around him as he did.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
All of the crew, but Andrew, were sitting or lying on the benches which came out from the wall. As the golem sat restraints grew out and around everyone on the bench, securing them to the bench. Though they seemed to put little pressure on the crew members who could even sit up while being restrained. The restraints growing or retreating as needed to keep the crew members secure while they transitioned.
The only exception was Andrew who was standing.
"Human, did you not hear me? The bearded devils are attacking. While they pose us no real threat if you don't sit down and allow us to secure you, you may be injured."
Andrew smiled and opened his mouth to respond, only to be brought up short by a clearing of the throat and a polite yet stern gesture towards the bench by his captain. Just as the captain gestured the ground lurched again and the motion caused Andrew to lose his balance and forced him to sit on the bench. While another groan echoed through the walls.
As he fell forward restraints shot out from the walls, like spring loaded vines, ensnaring him and gently guided him to the bench. The whole room jerked hard to the left and another more resounding groan reverberated through the walls.
Without warning a magenta glow flashed into the room, nearly blinded Andrew, and was followed by an odd feeling. It reminded Andrew of a jump drive engaging. Though much less jarring and far more blinding. When his eyes adjusted, he found that their situation had not changed, but before he could inquire with the golems. Another blinding magenta glow lit the room followed by that same odd feeling again. Before his eyes adjusted their restraints retreated into the walls and the golems got back to their feet and walked to a set of control panels.
Andrew, still slightly disoriented, it was Captain Rostron who was the first to speak up "Might I ask, who is this Ancient Enemy of yours?"
The golems seemed not to even notice he had spoken, their control connections pulsing wildly while they worked on their respective control panels.
Andrew opened his mouth to speak and the ceiling, floor, and walls around the energy barrier quickly grew together until there was nothing but a solid wall where the energy barrier had been. The action reminded him of skin healing around a puncture wound, just done at super speed.
With this the crew grew restless, most being elite people, they were not used to waiting around with nothing to do. The monotony was made worse by the fact that the only way most of the crew could crudely tell time was when the lights brightened, in what they guessed was morning, and when they dimmed when they guessed it was supposed to be night. Based on the occasional magenta flashes accompanied by weird feelings, it seemed they made quite a few jumps. Though Andrew seemed to be the only person to see the magenta flash even though by this point the entire crew had been implanted with a control worm. The crew busied themselves trying to predict the next jump as it seemed to happen on a regular basis. The crew speculated that the time in between was how long it took the ship to charge the jump drives. Andrew, being the only one with a working Kata kept note of the time, but it seemed the crew were so bored they didn't want him to tell them the time when it happened, they only wanted him to verify who was closest with their count.
Andrew was happy to have Ziggy back, without him he wasn’t even sure how he would have figured out that the dimming and brightening cycle was 30 hours long. He guessed like everyone else who was occupying their time counting the seconds between jumps, 7200 seconds give or take a few. After some messing around with Ziggy's settings He was able to change the length of day to 30hrs, which meant Ziggy could now give an accurate representation of time. Though he wasn't sure when the elves started their day, so his time and their time likely weren't in sync. I mean he didn't even know how they measured time, though he suspected that by some fluke they too used seconds, minutes, hours. By his estimation, this had to be the case, or the fact that their cycles were exactly 30 hours long had to be a fluke of nature.
The door didn't reopen for days, leaving the crew to do what humans do when left in a high-stress situation, bicker. Well, bicker and try to find a way out of their situation. Things calmed down slightly as they found that they could get their basic needs met, though how these things were discovered disturbed Andrew. The first discovery was that there was a toilet which would grow out of the wall if approached when the subject needed to go to the bathroom. Of course there was privacy, and so many crew members were reticent to go, but eventually needs would outweigh their wants. The toilet was discovered by Nesterov, it happened as he paced the room. Andrew had been starting to doze off at the time, when he saw a purple line snake its way out of the wall and attach itself to Nesterov. Who then broke the pattern he had been pacing to walk directly up to the section of the bench where Dwayne had been sitting. Dwayne leapt to his feet as Nesterov approached. "What the heck!!!" Dwayne yelped as he did so.
[Dwayne Diggory, Primary Engineer, Sledovatel. (Would you like to know more?)]
The crew turned to try to see what caused the outburst from the usually silent man. What they found was that the bench where he had been sitting had changed. While the front of the bench remained in place, the part touching the wall had descended 20cm or so and seemed to join with a hole that had appeared in the wall. Making what looked like the bottom of a waterless toilet, which had been built into the wall. Nesterov walked up to this and started to undo his zipper, when he stopped, having noticed the crew all staring at him. "Privacy please" Nest demanded of the crew.
All heads quickly turned away and Nesterov could be heard urinating."Done" When they looked back, the bench had returned to its original state. That of a featureless bench sticking out of the wall and a sink and mirror had appeared just to the left of what had been the toilet. Nesterov was there washing his hands in a rather deep sink. Both of which were absorbed back into the wall once Nesterov walked away.
"Nest why did you pick my spot to piss on?" Dwayne exclaimed.
"Not sure, seemed like right place." Nesterov responded with a smile, eliciting chuckles from the group.
"It wasn't his fault Dwayne, he was being controlled by our captors when he did that," Andrew interjected apologetically."Sure the elves made him do it. Let me guess they did it with more of this 'magic' you claim they're using on us, Lather?" Alexander said as if talking to a moron."Actually, Alex, yes. I get you don't want to believe it, but at some point, you'll realize that 'magic' or some technology so advanced it might as well be magic is involved. I mean unless you have some better way to explain dark force lightning from their fingertips, ability to heal us without a device, invisible force waves so strong they can throw me 20 meters with ease, or I don't know maybe the walls which grow and change to our needs?""Lightening only you have seen. Healing only you have experienced, though there is no doubt you were healed, I just doubt that it was with a wave of an elven hand that did it. Glowing colors in the air that again only you see. I don't know why you'd play like this, but no offense, but I wouldn't put it past you just to get the attention you so crave. As for the other stuff I'm sure there's a logical explanation for it. ""Yeah, that logical explanation is called magic, but whatever. Right before Nest went and pissed in Dwayne's bench a purple line of control magic came out of the wall right above Dwayne and drew Nest there""Sure it did Lather. I'm sure it had nothing to do with Nesterov and Diggory's ongoing tension. Come on man do you even hear yourself? Purple lines floating in the air, what will you come up with next?"
"Well, that proves it. I guess Dwayne just happened to be sitting on the toilet this whole time and Nest just happened to know this somehow, right? Come on man, even if you don't want to call it magic, you have to see that's too much coincidence, right man?"
"Whatever Lather, maybe they'll control me to show me where we get the food from" Alexander quipped and laid down on the bench.On cue, another purple line snaked out of the same section of wall as the first and connected to Alexander's head. Upon connecting, Alexander quickly got up and walked across the room, passed what they now knew as the toilet and to a place on the wall just 30cm or so to the right of it. As he approached a tray came out of the wall with an odd set of dull multicolor gelatinous cubes on it. Apparently without thought Alexander grab one and popped it into his mouth, before anyone could stop him. "Uggh that tastes like tree sap, why did I do that?" "Yes Mr. Mendel why would you do such a thing?" replied Captain Rostron.
"Sir, I really have no clue, I was just so hungry it seemed like a good idea at the time"
"Yeah, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Purple line that led you there. I mean I'm sure you knew that the food came out right next to the toilet by intuiting from these featureless walls. Right?" Andrew said in slight exasperation.
"I agree it does seem weird but there has to be some other answer other than magic."
"Mr. Mendel, I have to admit, after observing Andrew's reaction to something emerging from the wall just before you took action to consume that peculiar jelly, even I am beginning to entertain the possibility that Lather's account may have some validity. " Captain Rostron added dryly. "Wait! You didn't believe me until now Capt?""Lather, apologies, but the idea of magic is quite difficult to accept."
"Well, I guess better late than never, but at least we know that elves can have humor, " Andrew said with a half-smile before he sat on the bench