Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 82c: guests
Two weeks passed in an instant. An instant that Scilla spent exactly as she said. Inviting her friends to her wedding and with Wiola. At the end of those weeks Scilla guided: Wiola, her pama Liwa, Dhalia Hakavor and the Ibarra family consisting of Nuria, the adopted kid Aura and the grandmother Paz to her spaceship. Scilla was forced to park in a clearing in a near forest as the Innocenti was far too big to be parked at her old home. Once reached the clearing they could admire that marvel of engineering. The Innocenti was 148 meters long. Shape wise it was a unique spacecraft. The body increased in width from 5 meters to 54 when it reached 122 meters. Then it reduced gradually to 34 meters. Sort of like a badly shaped and cut rhombus. Same could be said for the height of the ship which reached 34 meters. It also had some metallic appendices that looked like big concave wings around 8 meters long. There were 8 of them. 2 placed in the front upper side at 45 degrees with the ship horizontal plane and 2 a the front bottom with the same orientation. The same exact structures also repeated in the back of the ship. The Innocenti appeared weaponless and at the same time far too heavy to be able to fly. There were really few visible exhausts. The exterior was not the only surprise. Inside the ship was incredibly small. Not cramped, but it surely didn’t feel like a 148 battleship. It was never built to accommodate many people. The ship crew was set to be at best 16 people. But it could operate with just 1 pilot. The rest of the crew was not really needed but their presence would ease the toll on the pilot's brain connected to the ship. As a consequence the ship had only 8 rooms with beds excluding the captain's room. Half of the rooms had double queen size beds, the other half had 2 single beds. The entire structure was built to accommodate Leans but was clearly not built by one. The corridors and rooms usually were at best 3,1 meters tall. Enough to accommodate a tall standing Lean, but not enough to allow said Lean to stretch her arms vertically. In addition to the standard rooms, the ship had an emergency living unit composed of 20 bunk beds dug inside a wall. The ship had 4 internal floors. A base floor which was the highest and also the cargo zone. The main floor where the crew would spend all the time and the remaining two were mostly needed for maintenance and redundancy. Even if the name may suggest a more innocent spacecraft. It was not. The ship was actually heavily armed. It had 4 missile launchers and other 4 nuclear torpedo launchers. It mounted 8 triple cannon railgun turrets but most importantly it was equipped with 4 high range scatter weapons. A super stupid idea that had been left undeveloped for so long that was now going to revolutionize combat.
Most believe that space warfare is either world war 2 in space or space naval combat yet reality hit differently. Truly to its name space is immense and almost entirely empty. There is no cover in space. There are countermeasures. Outmaneuvering missiles isn’t possible, especially with an organic crew that has to survive the acceleration. Yet space is massive and missiles leave a clear trace of their routes. No matter their tracking method they can all be fooled. AI image tracking can be blinded with radiations. IR tracking with good old flares that shine hotter than the ship. Laser guide with deflectors and clouds of sand. Missiles are also easy to stop with just automated small-caliber guns. As long as they can be seen, they can be stopped. Kinetic weapons have their limits as well. Other than recoil and heating, bullets are usually unguided as the lack of air makes fins useless to rotate the projectile even if you add a computer to them. Yet most would say that they travel faster and unseen. Which is both true and false. Long distances in space make so that predictions on target trajectory are less accurate and bullets can always be countered as light travels way faster than them. As a consequence battles in space tend to be fairly close to each other. Close enough to hit the enemy before a computer could counterattack you.
Scatter weapons however are considerable shotguns in space. Each shot spreads in a fairly small region that however is usually good enough to hit from safer distances. Surely the damage is lower, but such weapons increase the probability of returning home to fight again once repaired.
However, even such “futuristic” weapons were not the main innovation. The third floor of the Innocenti was also dedicated to control and contain a particle cannon. The only one in service among all known nations. The particle cannon could be defined as an energy weapon that accelerates single protons almost to the speed of light. The particle beam generated is individually useless. A stream of single protons will make such a tiny hole that it is negligible. However, when the beam is 30cm wide it will strip away any piece of armor like a hot knife cuts through butter. Making moving armor substrates to refill the generated gaps is possible yet no ship had such technology. As it stood at the time, the main drawback of such a cannon was the absurd energy consumption and ammo consumption. The cannon was supplied with condensed jump drive fuel which consisted in condensed hydrogen.
In its size and armament, the Innocenti was a majestic beast improved by fear and paranoia. Fear of losing its most valuable cargo. Scilla. Iris was basically indestructible, but Scilla wasn’t. Scilla was weak. Fragile. Just like most living things. Just like life itself. So Iris tried all she could to protect her treasure.
Scilla gave her guests access to only a small portion of the second floor. Scilla brought all of them into the main hall that connected most of the places they were given access to.
“so that was about it for the ship tour. You don’t have to worry about getting lost or going in the wrong room. The ship AI will not allow it and will guide you back. Just to be sure, don’t play with knives”
“why?” asked Dhalia.
“cause the AI may believe you are trying to harm me and will kill you”
“oh… fair enough. Old Paz mind sharing a room?”
“I don’t mind kiddo.” replied Paz.
“Scilla do you mind if Me and Aura took a double bedroom?” asked Nuria.
“of course not. Are you nervous?”
“not really, but Aura has never been on a spaceship”
“well kid you are lucky. It surely doesn’t happen often to travel in such beauty”
Aura remained silent, mostly concealed behind her adoptive mother. She had yet to turn 15 and was still really shy. Especially in a completely different environment surrounded by strangers.
“since it’s your first time do you want to come with me in the cockpit?”
After some reassurance from her mother, Aura accepted. However, she was not alone. Moved by curiosity Dhalia and Paz asked to be present as well and so all of them went into the piloting room and took off.
None of them believed that they would reach Leanira in less that 2 days, yet just hours later they appeared before the planet.
Dhalia was just too shocked to speak. Scilla left them and the ship relatively far away from Csuicha’s home and then went to pick up her friend. Just as she believed, Csuicha had indeed accepted and was already prepared with her crew. Csuicha was surprised to see no ship lading with Scilla.
“so. You are not asking me to walk into a forest right?”
“of course not. I’m asking you to turn off the anti-air defense system because the ship has no friendly markings.”
Once safe to land, Scilla recalled the ship that arrived at the residence and landed by itself on an empty field.
“Before we go in. I must ask you and your guards to take off your weapons. All of them. There will be a security check where you will be asked to deposit them. You can retrieve your belongings upon disembarking.”
“I won’t allow anybody to shoot you. If that’s what you fear.” replied Csuicha.
“I fear no bullet. It’s the ship AI. Iris made it to keep me safe so if it sees you as a threat to me it will kill you. It’s as simple as that”
Disarmed Csuicha and her 16 guards were allowed on the ship. Of course, there was not enough full rooms for all of them, especially as 2 were kept for “Iris’s friends” that they had yet to pick up. On their way to space, Scilla also stopped at the spaceport to pick up her last friend Mira who was still working there.
It took 4 days and 1 hour to approach their first stop. The 3th Esterian colonized planet, Elvitica. It was a hub of commerce as it was one of the 3 planetary systems that composed the so called inner sphere alongside Vioneta and Iglaria. Those were basically forced stops along any major commerce route as all of them passed in the inner sphere. Elvitica was also the capital planet even if it was not their home world which was Glacia. There the supreme council had its home alongside all main institutions of the Esterian Technological Union. Elvitica was also the residence of Nixie and the other two remnants. Scilla landed in a civilian spaceport and by the time she disembarked, Esterians stoops had already surrounded the ship. She called for their commander and to him she gave a storage device. Inside there were orders with the official signatures. The soldiers having no reason to doubt them and considering the clearly Esterian-looking ship, followed them. He brought a squad of police officers to assist Scilla in her mission to pick up Nixie and the Chimeras. The other Leans were allowed to disembark as well but they had no permission to set foot outside the spaceport/local airport. So even with their feet outside on Esterian soil, they had little to no possibility to observe their civilization. What they could see was a fairly high amount of small civilian spacecraft landing and then taking up to space again.
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6 hours later Scilla returned and with her Nixie, Jinx and Lynx. The Esterians girls were surely wearing formal clothes and had huge suitcases with them. Once they met with the other Leans things heated up to die down immediately after.
“You! What are you doing here?” said Nixie with an irritated tone while looking at Csuicha.
“the same things as you I suppose. I’m here for my friend's wedding”
“your friend?”
“Scilla. You didn’t know?”
“I never told her. Didn’t see why I should have” said Scilla intruding.
“How did you meet?” asked Nixie.
“on the battlefield. If you want I can show you all the guests, but I don’t really know much about Sera’s guards” said Scilla.
“don’t really need that. I’m more curious about how did you manage to put your hands on Esterian technology” replied Nixie looking at Scilla.
“Just as I told you to convince you to come. I’m marrying Idra. She built this ship, I mostly wasted time”
“the story is a bit more believable now that I see your friend and Liin. At least I know that I’m not going to get killed or you are plotting the assassination of the century”
“you will take back those words soon”
“we will see about that. Why isn’t she here?”
“she didn’t want to.”
6 hours later they got to a different planet to pick up the last guest. Alba Corvi, the intelligence carrier. She lived on the 15th colonized planet Astera. Astera was a majestic planet mostly untouched as the colonization was mainly done for scientific purposes. Astera was at the extreme edge of the Esterian space and the closer by far to the Magnos rift. It was colonized because it was an anomaly. Far too big with a just lightly above 1g gravity pull. It was a super Terra with the gravitational attraction of a standard Terra. Flora and Fauna grew immense lush forests filled with life. Plants touched the sky literally as berry bushes could get up to 40 meters, sturdy grass up to 9 meters and trees were so big you could build skyscrapers by carving into them. This anomaly was due to the proximity with the rift and the presence of gravron elements. Astera was in fact one of the only 2 supplied of the extremely rare and precious gravron steel used in spacecrafts to make gravity plates. Other than research colonies and mines, Astera had nothing else to offer if not its dangerous nature. So it goes without saying that there were really few inhabitants.
During their descent, the ship picked up a signal on military frequencies. It was a request for support from a hunting squad. For Scilla it was the perfect excuse to test the ship's firepower herself as Iris always deprived her of such joy by stating safety concerns. With excitement Scilla rained hell upon the nest of dangerous animals until nothing was left behind. She then returned to her route and landed at a military base. There she disembarked along basically everybody else as they were allowed outside and didn’t want to miss the chance.
Few male soldiers alongside armed robots welcomed them with open arms. It was unusual yet understandable.
“Welcome to Astera, commander of the Innocenti. I’m Captain Nereo Bosco. Nice to meet you.”
“nice to meet you too. I’m Commander Scilla Lis and you already know the name of the ship”
“Never seen one like yours. Is it a new model?”
“nah. It’s a prototype.”
“so what brings you to my base?”
“I’m looking for Alba Corvi. Data shows that she lives here. I have this…”
“no shit Sherlock. I don’t need your piece of paper. I confirmed your ship identification and I also know you”
“how come”
“How could I not? Our angel Idra worked with you. I believed you had died in that incident as well but I guess not.”
“oh…”
“but fear not I have no resentment toward your kind. None really has. I’ll provide you a truck or maybe two or three, provided that you have a license, to go meet with miss Corvi. We are friendly people. A bit rough but friendly. You should let your entourage go have a look on their own as long as they stay inside the wall”
“the city is walled?”
“all cities on Astera are. They must be or beats will flood them and eat us. Oh and thanks for assisting one of our squads”
“no problem. Kinda wanted to shoot at something”
They exchanged few more words before the man left to go get the trucks. In the meanwhile, they looked around. The spaceport was the only zone that was clearly illuminated by the sun. most of the military base and the city clearly visible just past the military checkpoint, were all lying in the shadows cast by the infinitely tall trees.
The military base was filled with robots of all kinds but there were few people around. Astera was in the middle of summer and the place was fairly hot but the real issue was the unbearable humidity. The only relief against it was the ship shadow and the light breeze that blew between the tree trucks. Close to them a group of 4 mechs was taking positions. Those machines were about 6 to 7 meters high and filled with cannons and guns. They were built to be fast and agile like a person but bigger to use heavier guns. Around those machines, to their surprise, there were women. A lot of them and “barely clothed”. Judging by their half wore suits, those women were mechanics. Their attire consisted mostly of a one-piece bright orange suit which they only half wore as they seemed to prefer to tie the upper part around their waist. Most of them covered their bra with frontally open tank tops to let more skin out in the air. Some had stains of black grease or oil on them. Their lack of “modesty” stood out but not as much as the absence of a bottom belly.
“why don’t they have belly buttons?” asked Dhalia.
“because we don’t have them” replied Jinx and Lynx together.
“how could you not? Aren’t you mammals?” asked Wiola. She, of course, was interested.
“To be mammals all you need is boobs and breastfeeding” replied the Chimeras.
“that’s right, but how… is the baby fed during the pregnancy?”
“I don’t know. Reproduction classes are only for adults” replied the girls.
“but I know” said Nixie.
“kids, close your ears”
“but mom?”
“close them. Miss Ibarra I suggest you do the same with your daughter”
“nah, she knows how things are born. She helped our neighbors with the birth of their livestock.”
“if you say so. Our reproductive organs are really different from yours and Human’s one. There is no pear-shaped thing with holes and all. It is just a tube connected to an atrophied ball filled with tentacles and a bigger tentacle. The organ has to be gradually activated by feeding it. The big tentacle has to be activated as well and eats incoming genetic material. It adapts to the outside genes, when ready and when we feel like it, it will allowed for a new creature to start forming around it. The rest of the tentacles seal off the organ while the new creature grows, fed internally by the feeding tentacle. When the kid is ready the sealing tentacles relax and slowly the main tentacle disconnects from the mother and… slides down... into the kid's digestive system. That’s the best way I can describe it. Once disconnected the kid usually comes out with just a super easy push. It also helps that kid’s size adapts to the body and will grow exponentially only once they are outside. Esterians milk on average is 11 times more nutritious compared to yours or Humans. This allows our kids to have a starting super fast development than slows down to our more slow grow about 1 or 2 months later”
“woah. That… really some clever design” said Wiola.
“I know. It allowed us to increase our numbers fairly fast”
“did you know sis?”
“soft of. I looked about it about a year ago when I noticed that Iris had no belly button”
“if that fascinated you, you should know what our asses can do”
“care to explain?” asked Wiola.
“we have a muscular rectum. So we can basically shoot out shit and at the same time pull it inside. Instead of forcing a probe during a colonoscopy you can just put the tip in and let the patient do the rest of the work.”
“why? That seems useless”
“it’s useless. It just appeared after the hybridization. Why Morfians had something like that is unknown.”
while speaking the hunting squad that they saved arrived at the base. 4 blood dripping mechs returned carried by drones bigger than helicopters. One of them, probably the head of the team, moved closer to them, lowered the cockpit and opened it. Inside a man connected to tens of cables and covered with machines.
“Hey, thanks for before red” said smiling.
While the Leans with Scilla were already getting angry, Scilla didn’t. She knew that he meant no harm.
“I saved you butt tin can boy”
“hey hey, we were just running low on ammo. We could have managed”
“if you say so next time I won’t help”
they were smiling, like comrades.
“good one. If you are still in the city once I finish my turn me and my wife can show you around”
“consider as if I had accepted but unfortunately we have a tight schedule”
“too bad. Well see you around reds. Give me a call next time you visit”
the mech walked away while the trucks arrived. It was time to see what Esterians civilization looked like.