H.I. do not sleep, it’s not a requirement for digital beings. We do however enter a sort of trance similar to sleep that typically occurs when we enter a diagnostic state. Which is what I was currently in. Much like sleep, and the fact we once were organic beings - or so they say - we dream. Typically our dreams are just vague impressions, but now and then they’re something more.

I always held it as a point of pride that my dreams were consistently more than just mere impressions… But lately I have been regretting my view on it. Lately my dreams have been growing more and more detailed, and the things I see are things I wish I could forget. A face, handsome and chiseled, smiling through the stubble of a beard as he leans in for a kiss. The warmth of a body against mine… The laughter of children.

To many, these dreams would be pleasant, but to me they’re like a nightmare. I don’t know this man, I don’t know those children… This strange life I seemingly dream for myself is one I feel a deep yearning for, and it kills me that I can’t have it. That I am… like this. I wish I could have it, could have all that came with it… And instead I-

I woke from my dream, which was stranger than most this time. I didn’t like it, seeing myself, as though I was some outside observer. I check our progress and note only an hour has passed since I entered the self repair state, having seen several damaged sections of code that were easily fixed, but required me to put myself on standby.

Our course is unchanged, save for around thirty minutes ago when the ship auto-corrected its course to avoid a storm, then returned to the assigned path. Repairs were still underway, but the engines had been fully repaired at least. All that was left was the hull breaches, but that shouldn’t take very long.

I checked on Ula, and found her still asleep. She seemed better than she was, which was good. I spent a minute or two sitting beside her bed, watching over her before I moved on and checked our surroundings.

Still no sign that enemy ships had left and taken the bait, which was concerning. But if they weren’t pushing into the gas giant, then that was a good thing. I couldn’t think of any new tricks to pull out of my ass at this time so we’d be at a severe disadvantage. It was already clear that their weapons could inflict significant harm upon us, so I was leery to engage in combat again.

I looked at everything one last time, and sighed. It was all automated at this point, I had nothing to do. Well…

My attention drifted back to the cargo bay, and I felt a desire overcome me that was impossible to resist. I projected myself inside the bay, standing before the container. It was such a simple thing and had yet caused plenty of problems for us since we brought it aboard. Enough was enough, and I was going to find out just what was so important that this Inquisitor person would fight us over it.

I found the heavy latches and pulled them open, hard-light fingers straining. I realized then that perhaps I was not the best choice for this, as my ‘muscles’ could not impart the proper strength. But I still managed to do so and the larger side of the container fell open, a few large fruits of unknown name spilling out. That was as expected based upon my scans… But what else was inside was not.

I discovered another container, this one impervious to my scans and I figured out exactly what had caused me to not get that good of a reading in the first place. I frowned, pursing my lips together and pulled the second container free, looking it over for any sort of identifying marks.

I found none, but I did find a control panel… and a glass window. A window through which I peered, only to find myself face to face with a well dressed avian who looked way too familiar to be a coincidence. And based upon the garb by the wore, they were someone important.

I stepped back and shook my head, closing my eyes and mentally berating myself for not forcing us to pick a better and more above board sort of job. But we were here now and we had some choices to make.

But said choices could wait till we were as repaired and ready as we could be, for now I cleaned up the cargo bay, made sure that our cargo was properly secured and returned to my sanctum, to mull things over.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

Four hours later, I woke. I didn’t feel rested, but I did feel better than I had earlier. Slowly I moved from bed, gathering my wits and doing what I needed to in order to be a functional person. And finally, just as I was about to speak up, Intra appeared before me, stunning me for a moment.

“Ula, we need to talk.” She said, and I blinked at her in concern.

“About?”

“Our cargo. It’s not what it seems.”

That left me feeling like I should curl up and go back to sleep. Just one problem after another, if this was what the modern world was like, I wanted nothing more to do with it. I’d be more than happy to go right back to how things were, where animals were the biggest concern and whether or not you were accidentally eating a poisonous mushroom!

I grit my teeth and took a deep breath, before nodding.

“Right then… Let’s talk about it.”

Minutes later, I found myself peering through the glass window at the person inside the container, and I very nearly wanted to scream in annoyance. We’d effectively roped ourselves into a kidnapping plot and didn’t even know it till someone was shooting at us. It was too much… Just too much.

“So… What are we going to do?” I asked, and Intra seemed to be in the same boat as I was.

“Well, I would prefer to not find out just what the buyer has in store for this clearly intelligent being, so I would say it’s probably a good idea to hand them over to that Inquisitor and hope we don’t get killed in the process.”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yeah… that’s what I was thinking.” I say, before looking the container over again. It was… small, cramped looking. I wasn’t sure if the person inside was even aware of their prison or not, but it couldn’t have been comfortable. “Could we… I dunno… Open it? Let them out?”

“Let a potential criminal out aboard a highly advanced starship capable of cracking planets and snuffing out stars? What could go wrong.” Intra said dryly, and I shot her a look.

“I don’t think they’re a criminal, if they were, wouldn’t the Inquisitor just be trying to destroy the ship and them with it, rather than trying to disable us and take them away.” I say, motioning towards the stasis chamber. She pursed her lips then nodded.

“Mm, fair point… Well… let’s see who exactly we’re dealing with then.” And she moved to the control panel on the side, pressing what appeared to be the only button on the surface of it. With a hiss the pod split open, and it took a moment for the avian person to react to anything.

What happened next was a bit chaotic, as the bird person squawked loudly, threw themselves out of the pod and started trying to fly around the cargo bay in a panic, the talons on their feet swiping at anything that got too close. There was lots of shouting, ducking and other things involved before Intra had had enough and stunned them with a good shot from an internal security system, which had the avian crashing down onto the floor in a heap of feathers and some drool.

But at least they were now rendered docile, so that was good, and we carried the person to the medical bay and ensured they were well restrained as well. She said it’d take a few hours for them to wake up and after ensuring they weren’t harboring some sort of deadly plague, she left to oversee other things.

Which left me sitting around and waiting for the person to wake up. Hopefully they’d be less panicked this time… but that was probably doubtful.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

After the events in the cargo bay, I was left feeling… frazzled. Which was new, I didn’t really like this feeling, but it was there and I wasn’t able to get rid of it. So I did what I could and distracted myself with menial tasks. With my direct oversight, repairs were moving far, far quicker and somehow with higher quality as well.

That’s when something new made itself known to me, and I blanched, if that was even possible.

“Oh stars no…” I murmured, and called back the drones. Repairs could wait, we needed to get out of here quickly.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

I was thankfully awake when the bird person woke up with a rather piercing squawk and much flailing. Or attempted flailing at that. But they were able to speak, and they did so at last.

“Release me you vile being! Don’t you know who I am!?” They said in a decidedly male tone of voice, but a young voice at that, as if they weren’t quite at the age of adulthood.

“No and no I do not know who you are, so why don’t you stop thrashing around like a Klutt fish and tell me exactly who you are, then we can discuss what to do next.” I said, and the bird person stiffened, squinting at me with a light, birdy hiss.

“Humph, fine. I am Crown Prince Zreeth of the Eltrani Imperium! Duke of Castari V, Patron of Silari the Muse, Dominus of-”

“Well Zreeth, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Ula.” I cut him off, who knew how long his many titles would go on for and I wasn’t about to find out. He seemed stunned by this revelation, and by the fact that I had interrupted him. But perhaps more stunning was that I simply didn’t care to use his titles.

“I beg your pardon?” He said.

“I said hello, it’s nice to meet you, my name is Ula.” I repeated, and he shook his head, rolling his eyes in the process.

“Ugh, whatever, now release me!”

“Mmmm no can do. Not yet. Not till you promise to be on your best behavior.” I say, and again he balks.

“Best behavior, I don’t… what? I mean, I don’t make promises to the common folk!”

“Oh well then in that case but I’m sorry to say you’ll just have to remain as you are. And if you cause too much trouble we’ll just have to put you back in that pod thing.”

If feathers could lose their color on a dime, then his would have done so.

“N-No thank you though… I’d rather not go back in there.”

“Then are you going to promise to behave?”

He clucked his beak in annoyance, then sighed, nodding.

“Very well, I promise.” He said, defeated. With a nod I stood and undid the restraints, which were actually comfortable it seemed, as he didn’t rub his wrists or ankles. “So, Ula was it? Where are we and where are you taking me?”

“Well, for starters. This is the Warden of Eternity. Which is controlled by a good friend named Intra. As for where we’re going… Well, we have decided to hand you over to the people currently trying to shoot us down.”

He cocked his head, then clucked softly.

“And who is trying to shoot you?” He sounded concerned.

“Someone calling themselves an Inquisitor.” That seemed to brighten his mood, as he hopped in place excitedly.

“An Inquisitor! Ahhh then I truly am saved! Oh this is wonderful news indeed!” He wiggled in place, making strange bird noises. I tried to discern what kind of bird he most closely resembled, and based on what my implants showed me, he looked most like a peacock. “Wait… what is the name of this Inquisitor?” He asked.

“Nettal.” And he groaned, shoulders slumping, his entire excited demeanor vanishing instantly.

“Of course it is… Kleeka! Leave it to my brother to send her after me.” He kicked the table, then hissed in annoyed pain. I was about to ask him why this was a bad thing when the lights went red, and an alarm started blaring. Intra was acting out of habit it seemed, as what she said was very telling.

“All hands! Report to battle-stations! This is not a drill, I repeat, not a drill. Command staff to the bridge immediately!”

I looked to Zreeth, who was cupping his head thanks to the loud alarm, but also looking frightened.

“Come with me, trust me, the bridge is probably the safest place we can be right now.” I say, and take one of his taloned hands, dragging him along without a thought for royal etiquette.

⫷⟪∞⟫⫸

In minutes I detect that Ula and our ‘guest’ have entered the bridge, and the moment they’re seated I strap them in and burn hard, raising my nose towards the void and pushing my engines as hard as I can.

“Intra! What’s going on, what’s got you spooked?” I hear Ula ask, and the bird person seems to be interested in my response as well, though he does also seem a bit confused by the lack of any other crew.

“Thresher Squid!” I nearly yell back, and they both look confused.

“A Thresher what now?” The bird asks, and Ula shrugs. I grumble and display the image of a Thresher Squid before them, and the bird gasps. “Oh oh! That’s a Kel’kari!” he said excitedly, before realization dawned on him.

“Oh no… That’s a Kel’kari.” He murmured, fear twisting in his gut. Ula though remained oblivious.

“Ok, what’s so bad about this… Kel’kari thing?” She asked, just before we were buffeted by an impact to starboard.

“Well for one thing, they’re the size of a small moon typically. Two, they live in gas giants, three they love to eat starships and four… Well they’re very territorial. And we just happened to invade a nest. I’m fairly certain this is a female as well, I detected egg structures deeper in the atmosphere.”

The bird, or Zreeth as I would later learn, mumbled some hasty prayers to himself, clutching the arms of his chair tightly and even wrapping his wings around himself. Ula now seemed to understand and she went pale.

“You can get us out of this right? Right!?”

“I’ll try my best, so long as your friends' rescuers don’t shoot first and drive us back into the gas giant.”

With that we break through the upper atmosphere, and I start to broadcast on an open frequency to anything nearby.

“All ships! Flee immediately! A Leviathan class entity has been discovered! I repeat, a Leviathan class entity has been discovered and it is angry! If you want to live, run for your lives!”