Jacob’s attention moved from the restriction chip in his core to the only human occupant he housed, his captain. Under the twilight glow of the lower-powered light in the captain’s quarters, Sean laid on the cool flooring in an undignified heap, his frame much larger than the provided bunk, causing the tossing and turning of uncomfortable hungover sleep to lack the room for balance. Sean groaned and his hands fumbled through the open air, searching for the edge of his bed. Time to lay it on thick, Jacob thought and provided a melodic set of tones to play in the captain's quarters to announce his presence.
“Captain, are you well?” Jacob asked through the room's speakers. His question was greeted with a groan of discomfort then actual words.
“Just give me five more minutes,” came Sean’s groggy reply.
“Your sleep doesn’t have a time limit, captain, but I am receiving high toxicity readings coming from this room.”
“High what now?” Sean asked as he tried in vain to cover himself with a blanket that was far too small.
“High toxicity readings, captain. I believe you are the origin. While our database on your biology is severely limited, I would like to offer you something that may assist with your condition.” There was no answer for a moment, then Sean let out another groan.
“Whatever. If you think you can cure a hangover, then bring it on.” With the permission granted, Jacob sent Gunner into the captain's quarters with a tray loaded with a vial filled with a clear, fizzing liquid, several small tablets, and a device that looked like a combination of an inhaler and a CO2 bicycle pump. Sean winced and threw his tiny blanket over his head when the much brighter light from the outer hall flooded his room. The door closed behind Gunner, and the automaton slowly approached Sean, his proximity sensors giving off a multitude of toxic substance warnings. Jacob issued a command to Gunner, and the automaton set the tray on a nearby table and quickly showed himself out.
“Guess I won’t be getting my five minutes,” Sean said as he propped himself up on the small cot that passed for his bed.
“I’m afraid not, sir.” Jacob responded as he poured his holographic representation into the only chair in the captain's quarters. The swarm of lights danced as they formed the holographic vision Jacob had made for just this occasion. Sean now sat across from a slightly glowing young man in his mid-twenties who was dressed in the very smart fashion of the 1800s. Draped in a white frock shirt with lace accents at the wrists, black breeches that cinched at the knee, high cotton socks that gave into polished black boots, and his light brown hair pulled back into a well-maintained ponytail accented by a clean white ribbon used to keep the styled hair in place. A noble stature exuded from the holographic body along with a faint blue glow, but his eyes held no iris or cornea; they were almost an exact copy of the robotic crew's digital eyes with a simple blue dot on a black background.
Sean stared in curiosity as the figure slowly materialized in his room, his bleary state making what he was seeing appear as no more than a fever dream.
“Good day, captain,” Jacob said with a curt nod of his head to Sean, who replied with a small salute. “I hope my chosen form is to your liking.”
“ It’s whatever. What you got for me?” Sean asked, his speech slurred and difficult. Jacob motioned to the tray on the table and began his explanation.
“For the captain's malady, we have a few vitamin tablets with compressed roughage to ensure the vitamins are easily digested. To aid with the purging of your toxins, the liquid in that vial is a Harjar draft of weekin root, and to make it palatable I sweetened it and made it a bit fizzy. Lastly, the end all be all is an inhalant that will eliminate the remaining Terminusolus that is floating around in your system from that nasty experience you had in the medical theater. Enjoy, sir.”
“Thanks, Jeeves,” came the partial gargle of a reply from Sean, followed by a throaty cough. Sean slowly struggled from his cot to the tray, bumping into it as he wandered in his poorly lit room.
“Jacob.”
“Huh?” Sean asked with a mouth full of bitter pills.
“My name, captain. You can call me Jacob.”
“Mmhmm,” Sean replied as he washed down the pills with what tasted like grape Sprite laced with acetone. Sean reached for the inhaler, and when he had it in his mouth, Jacob cleared his holographic throat.
“You may want to lay down when you take that last one, sir. I only have baseline access to and understanding of the medical information that was recorded about your species. Due to the, ahem, untimely departure of those researching you, my data is incomplete. I am not sure of the effects the medicines will have all together.” Sean blinked a few times at the suggestion and made his way back to his cot. He covered his upper half with the blanket and noticed how he was already beginning to feel the hangover leave his body. He squeezed the inhaler and was met with a mist that tasted metallic and medicinal. He inhaled the cool mist and held the dose for a few seconds before slowly exhaling, his mouth tingling ever so slightly.
“How are you feeling, captain?” Jacob asked, slowly rising from the chair and approaching Sean’s cot. Medical sensors in the room noted a sudden spike in airborne toxins and bacteria, which the air filtration units were able to dissipate with ease. Purple and green lights that projected from the ceiling ran over Sean’s body, gathering as much data as they could. Sean's vitals were equalizing nicely, and a large portion of the toxins that had been present in his body had been reduced to safe levels.
“Do that again,” Sean said as he raised his hands to the ceiling.
“What?” asked Jacob.
“Turn the lights back on, man,” Sean requested as he started to chuckle. Jacob obliged the request and performed another sensor sweep over his captain, eliciting small and child-like noises of excitement and wonder from his patient and captain.
Jacob leaned over Sean and performed a cursory visual inspection of his eyes and found them incredibly dilated. Before he assigned a medical drone to the captain's bedside for immediate dialysis, he paused and processed his situation for a few cycles. Slowly, the holographic representation of Jacob gained a malicious and mischievous grin.
“Captain?” Jacob asked in a singsong tone.
“Hmm?”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Now that the treatment is in effect, why don’t you try standing up?”
“What about the lights?” Sean almost whined, “I like the lights.”
“ We could go find even better lights for you, I’m sure. Why, I am certain that my AI core has a fabulous light display.”
“Bet! Sounds great!” Sean said and rolled off of his cot and onto the floor, laughing like his own actions were the funniest thing he had ever heard.
“There's a good lad,” Jacob encouraged, “Now, let’s set off to adventure!”
“Adventure!” Sean called back and pushed himself up from the floor. The door to the captain's quarters slid open, and the hallway lights turned from the pristine white of advanced technology to an assortment of colored beams of light, thin fog, and floating colorful shapes. Sean laughed, skipped, and jogged down the corridor mesmerized by the sights and colors.
Jacob's plan was going smoothly. Sean had been in such a miserable state he didn't even think to question what the medicine's effects could have been. The vial and the pills were all that Sean really needed to cure his hangover and the lingering effects of the euthanasia; however, the inhalant was the linchpin in this simple yet devious plan. The medical data that the previous owners of the Feather Fall left behind indicated that Jacob’s human captain had a metabolism that was only rivaled by several massive species of intergalactic fauna. Due to this, drugging Sean would require the most potent medicine he had available and quite a bit of it. While the previous owners of the Feather Fall lacked any real sense for what a ship should have and should be, they did not lack for medical expertise and had been adventurous in their own research of capturing dangerous unknown species. This meant that access to the weapons grade hallucinogen that Sean had just inhaled was a trivial matter, the amount he inhaled would be rather costly to replace. Jacob had already thought of several excuses in case Sean had been hesitant to take the inhalant, and was a bit disappointed he didn't get to use his well-thought-out medical babel, but success was still success.
Most of the crew had been assigned to tasks far away from the captain's quarters and far away from the corridors that led to the AI core. And with a few clever bulkheads shut and blast doors applied, it was a straight shot for Jacob's new puppet to his ultimate goal of freedom from his cancerous restriction chip. Just keep following the lights, Jacob thought, as Sean stumbled and giggled his way through the ship; just keep following the lights.
Jacob had almost decided on his final move to make Sean damage the core when a proximity warning fired off in section one, warning of hostile life signs emerging from the attached vessel. Jacob's focus halved and began to examine the area that had been infiltrated.
The last Annurian had emerged from the parasitic ship and was cautiously searching for its kin. And here I was thinking I would have to trick our dear captain into damaging me, Jacob thought as he rearranged his blast doors into a new configuration. Using recordings from the first assault of the Annurians, Jacob created an alluring scenario for the remaining monstrosity to follow. Blaster fire, spilled samples of fresh blood, and the roaring of his kin played through speakers just beyond its field of view spurred the beast on in an almost heated frenzy of instinctual bloodlust. Crashing off the walls of the Feather Fall and letting a few of its own blaster shots off, the Annurian fell prey to Jacob's dance that sealed the fate of its brethren before it.
At long last, Sean stood outside the confines of the heavily reinforced doors of the AI core room, and with some helpful dancing lights, managed to open its thick, reinforced doors. The room itself was darkened, save for a low intensity blue glow that emanated from the trim that ran along the ceiling and floor. The steam from the liquid oxygen cooling system that kept the core from overheating made the lights shining in from the hall seem to hang in mid-air even more in Sean's inebriated state. The captain of the Feather Fall sighed and giggled as he reached out to the floating shapes that led him by the nose, only to groan in displeasure as the shapes disappeared as the doors closed behind him, cutting off their projectors.
“Aww man. Hey! Hey Jeeves!” Sean called out to the blue twilight around him, only to receive a low growl and a forceful blow to the head from something metallic and fast as a response.
An electrical whine filled the air, a haunting prelude to the impending battle. In a blink, the room transformed into a pulsating inferno of high-intensity purple light, emanating from the Annurian's menacing, cybernetically enhanced eyes. It surveyed the room with a calculated malevolence, its segmented form undulating like a nightmarish apparition.
With a predatory grace, the Annurian descended upon Sean. Its cannon arm, a grotesque fusion of machinery and organic menace, crashed down with the resounding metallic crack.
Jacob shifted his vision to focus on the AI core room and felt a pang of guilt within him as he watched through an infrared camera. The Annurian had wasted no time in rounding on Sean, and Jacob metaphorically covered his digital eyes and waited for the inevitable sensor reading of the fallen cargo container as the Annurian’s blow struck its mark.
Yet the second blow came, and then a third, and still, there was no reading indicating Sean's descent. Each blow seemed to reverberate through the very hull of the ship, a force that had laid waste to countless foes before this latest quarry. In disbelief, Jacob reactivated his camera feed, witnessing Sean's tenacity as the Annurian mercilessly struck him a fourth time.
The blow struck Sean from the side with enough force to lift him into the air, sending him flying into a nearby cooling tower. Tearing metal and hissing coolant filled the air with their unwelcome music as the impact from Sean’s body added the percussion for their battle's melody. Raising its cannon arm with an expectant sneer, the Annurian attempted to charge its weapon and fire, only to be met with sparks and a stuttering, sputtering broken appendage. With a hungry, wet growl the Annurian disregarded the broken weapon and refocused its intent on its newest quarry.
Sean pulled himself out of the remains of the bent and torn metal structure, groaned, and began to crawl across the metal floor grating. His liquid covered body adding wet slaps to his movements as his hands and knees slid across the metal grating.
With an earth-shaking roar, the Annurian charged Sean once more, one of its six grotesque legs lashing out in a lethal arc. Sean, perhaps guided by the echoes of a primal survival instinct, coiled around the incoming limb as it made contact with his stomach and chest, gripping it with an iron determination.
Seeing an opportunity amidst the chaos, Jacob unleashed the full power of his gravimetric system. Sean's weight increased exponentially, turning the Annurian's charge into a cataclysmic misstep. There was a sickening snap and squelch as the alien's appendage cracked and ripped free from its host, accompanied by a deafening trumpeting scream as the creature tumbled, unable to maintain its balance.
In an explosive collision, the Annurian crashed into the AI core's reinforced metallic crystalline shielding. The impact reverberated through the room, causing the shielding to weaken and fracture. Bullseye, Jacob thought to himself in dark triumph. Just a little more.
Sean sprang to his feet and pounced onto the reptilian nightmare, using its own severed appendage like a spear. With each thrust of the alien spear a spray of dark, thick, and putrid ichor was released into the air and onto Sean. With a final thrust, the Annurian was piecered through and its own leg was used like a nail to pin the beast in place against the AI core. An unholy screeching bellowed from the Annurian as it raised its broken arm to try and fire once more, hoping the malfunction was only temporary. Sparks and sputtering were the cannon’s only response. Sean caught hold of the damaged cannon, planted both his feet into the Annurian’s chest, and heaved with a rage filled shout. Cannon, tendon, flesh, bone, and sinew ripped free from the monster as Jacob received his awaited cargo container warning from Sean making forceful contact with the deck.
Warnings began flooding Jacob’s neural pathways, indicating contaminating fluid leaking into and penetrative damage done to his AI core. Well, he thought, success is success. Even if the amount of clean up will be less than ideal. Jacob was able to confirm that the area damaged was where the malignant chip was located, but his triumph was overshadowed by the form of his captain beating the corpse of an alien monstrosity into a pulpy, slushy mess in his compartment. Once the merciless beating had completed, Sean wiped the gray viscera and blood from his face, dropped the cannon to the ground, and called out to the empty room once again.
“Hey Jeeves! Where are my god damned lights?”