Josh and Sen nodded farewell as they caught Ishan’s eye. They followed him and his team to a talon-shaped ship near the open hangar doors 100 yards down the deck. The name Raptor was painted on the side in stylized lettering.

Hangar crews in blue and silver jumpers cleared away the lines and conduits that served as the ship’s resource umbilicals. The B.A.H.’s space boss stepped out of a tower near the center of the deck and cleared the Raptor for take off, waving them all aboard.

Ishan pointed with an index claw at two seats along the wall behind the pilot’s chair.

Raising a thick, orange brow and looking at the pilot’s back, he spoke in a low voice. “Sirs, better buckle up until we get into hyperspace. Katak here can make this li’l lady pull a lot of Gs... most non-Affin personnel blackout on takeoff. Especially on this trip, we’ll stay in sub-lightspeed for a few ticks longer than usual to act as bait to draw out any enemy harpies that have almost assuredly latched onto the Hegemon-4’s skin during the fight. Once we draw them out, the B.A.H.’s fourth wing will clean them up in our wake.”

Sen and Josh fumbled into their gravity harnesses. While Josh had his doubts that any maneuvers the pilot could perform would negatively impact the two of them, especially after having gained their second Attunement, it was better to be safe than sorry. The five belts met over their sternum and seamlessly joined with an electromag lock. Senior Chief Ishan and his team were already squared away and waiting. Josh noted one human-looking marine with a crystal on her head, indicating she was following the Biologic’s path. One Wolf Affin had a healed-over wound running down the right side of his face from the tip of his right ear to just below his jawline. The old scar had regrown with white hair blemishing his otherwise dark-black... pelt? Josh needed to learn the appropriate way to talk about Beast Affins. Was it right to discuss their traits in the way one would an animal... or should he address it like any other humanoid... hair?

A topic for slower times... move on, Josh.

The last member of Ishan’s team of four was a tall, cloaked figure with light-blue skin. She appeared to be a Jaralon, it was difficult to tell with the glistening silver mesh on all of her exposed skin, which seemingly served to track her neurovascular pathways. Soft lavender lights periodically highlighted the mesh conduits—the glow flashing one way and then the other, and sometimes both directions simultaneously.

It must be polarization and depolarization of her neural-action potentials—He shook his head to clear it of the scientific deductions making their way into his surface thoughts. Focus, Josh. Stop staring at the nice lady like you’re some kinda freak!

There was no time for scientific nor biological distraction with what they were setting out to do. Josh refocused, sitting snugly in the body-hugging gravity

chair next to Sen.

Seeing they were secured, Ishan nodded to their pilot Katak and... They were gone!

After Ishan’s warning, Josh had expected the Raptor to navigate out of the hangar with a steadily increasing sensation of building pressure as it accelerated.

Nope.

They were instantly crushed back into the cushions of the G-chairs as non-elicited hissing came through their lips as air was forced out of their lungs. Josh’s head grew heavy, and the onset of a migraine came on following ruptures of microcapillaries in his brain from the strain. He and Sen cycled Essence to their brains, and the pain receded with healing.

Looking around, Josh saw that the forward view screen was split in two. The left side must have been showing the video feed of a rear- mounted camera. It displayed the continent-sized Hegemon-4 as it shrank to a speck of light. Several lesser light specks detached from the Hegemon-4 and attempted to chase the Raptor... They and the Hegemon were completely gone in less than four seconds. Remembering his first trip to the Hegemon at a portion of the speed of light, it had taken them over two minutes to reach the ship from the time they had first seen it.

An electronic voice came from a speaker mounted somewhere in Josh and Sen’s G-chairs. “Th-the-the fourth-th-th wing has engaged the enemy flyers, seven fast-pursuit ships. C-cl-clean-up is going welllllll. Pr-pr-preparing to transition-io-ionnnn.”

Echoes of the announcement came from different places and likely different split seconds of time as Newtonian physics floundered in its function due to their speed. The right side of the forward view screen showed waving white plasma streams streaking out from Raptor’s thin wings to meet in front of the ship and form a black portal that the Raptor shot through. The pressure that Josh had grown accustomed to during the brief seconds of their launch faded and returned to normal.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Katak turned and flipped up the visor of his helmet. A small drop of water trickled down the front. The surprisingly deep voice of a Vergei spoke as Josh noted the tip of Katak’s tongue snaking out and wiping another drop of water from his bulging left eye.

“We have transitioned. There was a brief chase by the forces latched onto the side of the Hegemon-4, but as you can see... nothing can keep up with the old girl in the sublight velocities.” Katak’s smile was wide with pride as he put his hand lovingly on the Raptor’s console. “My squad mates have cleaned them up already, without a doubt.”

“You’re a Vergei... that’s how you can handle repeated G-force trauma. You’re sitting in a hydraulic suit during acceleration. Water is essentially incompressible due to its cohesiveness, molecular alignment, fluidity, and low coefficient of thermal expansion. With only 3 percent compression at ten-thousand bars you probably hardly even notice the acceleration, do you?” Josh’s high-school science teacher’s brain took momentary control of his mouth.

He let it have its way without complaint as nonscience Josh was equally amazed at what they had just gone through.

Katak’s tongue retracted. “Nailed it in one, sir. In fact, my squad mates are all my kin. We are the only ones that the Techno Lords have created a workaround for that particular problem. Right, Estra?” Katak raised his head and invited the team’s Techno Lord into their conversation.

Still suffering from the burst launch, Estra straightened up in her chair and pulled off her gravity harness. “Any more of these missions, and I’m going to grab the research faction by their collective ball-sack and make them put Jaralons next in line.” She rolled her neck around her shoulders, closed her eyes, and sat back in her chair again.

Lavender lights flashed furiously along the metal torque ending at her temples. She appeared to need time to mentally adjust, and Josh and Sen let her have it. They were denser than uranium and still had to fight off migraines.

It was no surprise that one had to be tough to be on Ishan’s team. The senior chief and the Wolf Affin shifted chairs, sitting next to Josh and Sen.

“Sirs, this is Lobo, my second in command. If you would like, we can brief you on what transpired during the attack and what we suspect we may find when we exit hyperspace?”

Josh shook Lobo’s paw, and Sen bowed.

“Yes, please fill us in.” They said at precisely the same time and cadence.

~Gods, Sen. Karmic Bond or not... we can’t start acting like an old married couple... People are going to freak out.~

~I believe the expression is... L-O-L.~

~Well…~ Josh rolled his eyes, ~let’s have a system or something about who is going to respond... Either one of us can talk for the other.~

~Like what?~ Sen asked.

~I don’t know…~ Josh puffed out his cheeks. ~How about you answer military questions, and I answer political questions. It’s a start, at least... If we run into trouble in other categories, we can add refinements from there.~

~Agreed.~

The corner of Ishan’s mouth quirked up at the Children of the Corn level of weirdness at the simultaneous answer, but he proceeded to debrief them unhindered. The attack occurred sixty micro-gyras before they arrived back from Mwezi. It had been carried out by Kaizuko raiders, who were essentially space pirates. Well, that was an oversimplification. They were a loosely affiliated, multisystem empire composed of several patriarchal clans with their primary economy being based on raiding.

So, they were, more correctly, space pirate-vikings. Josh chuckled to himself at the inanity of the fact that until recently, his most significant concern was listening to his mother-in-law complain about his table manners. Now he was going to throw down with Long John Lothbrok.

The Kaizuko had led the assault on the Hegemon-4 with one Caravel-class attack ship. The images Sen passed on to Joshua were of a deep-space traveling attack ship crewed by 5000 souls when at full complement. From the Caravel, they launched eighteen smaller transport ships with limited combat ability guarded by two squads of four single pilot fighters. The transports were similar in size to—but in no way as capable as the Raptor.

The working theory was that the Kaizuko had planned to take the Hegemon-4 as loot and sell it off to the highest bidder. They had likely banked on taking the bridge in a surgical strike and then killing or enslaving its crew and staff—billions of people. It served as either a testament to the power of Cultivation or to the insanity of the raiders that they believed they could subdue billions with nine Cultivators. Either way, they had some balls... no question there. More concerning, however, was that somehow, they had known the Clone wasn’t present. His absence was too coincidental for it not to be part of their plan.

Balls aside, the Kaizuko had underestimated the Hegemon-4’s defenses and organization. The attacking force was held at bay with the external weapons systems and the B.A.H.’s scrambled fighters until Alysa’s team could orchestrate the diversion that allowed it to get away. In Josh’s opinion, the Kaizuko had also seriously underestimated the Clone. Josh suspected they would have had a very short and miserable life ahead of them if they had actually managed to take the ship. As things worked out, they were now relegated to gristle for Sen and Josh’s Cultivation mill instead of being favored with the Clone’s tender mercies.

Good... after my last butt-kicking from the Naga, I could use a little

exercise to work the kinks out.

Ishan relayed that it had not been a tremendous surprise to him that there were Cultivators in the attacking party. Intelligence reports had confirmed the region of space they were traveling in had a much greater incidence of Cultivators.

But, surprised or not, dealing with Cultivators was tough for a crew from a mundane sector of the iteration. Ishan didn’t say it, but it was clear that the Hegemon-4 had been sailing in deeper waters since Sen and Josh had been taken on. The space marines would follow their orders and die when necessary, but it didn’t change the fact that they were becoming outclassed and outgunned.

Sen took on a severe expression. ~The Clone is unequivocally willing to sacrifice every soldier on that ship to accomplish his goals...~

~I’m not ready to stain our souls that way.~ Josh’s mood soured. ~Whether it could be construed as Dharmic or not...~

~Agreed!~

With a quick glance, they decided this would probably be their last stay with the Hegemon-4. Their growth required the ship to be in a place where it couldn’t defend itself, which meant that it was their responsibility to keep it safe. If they had to go on their own... they would.

It was true they had absolutely no ability to forcefully change the Clone’s actions and proclivities, but they would make sure he knew their position on the matter—and therefore placing all of the Karmic weight on him and Zenyak.

What the possibility of them leaving the Hegemon-4 behind meant for Alysa in the future, they were unsure of. They would have to blow that bridge up when they came to it. Right now, they had other things to take care of.

Mouths set in tight lines, they nodded curtly to Ishan and Lobo, thanking them.

The Affins’ minds were clearly on the problems the ship was facing.

It was something Josh and Sen understood all too well.