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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/DestroyatronMk8 on 2024-12-03 05:16:59+00:00.
The search was quick and pointless. The chamber was large, but there wasn't much in it beside the corpses of the Greys. Four tables outfitted with restraints. Five stations with control spheres, all inoperable. Several trays filled with torture equipment. There were odd devices mixed in with the knives and screws, but Yvian decided not to mess with them.
The dead greys didn't have anything useful on them. Didn't have anything on them at all, actually. Yvian kicked one of them in annoyance and immediately regretted it. The impact made her bare toes sting. She kicked it again, this time using the bottom of her foot. Motherless sons.
The others were gathering around her. Yvian wasn't feeling very Captain-like, nude and banged up as she was, but she took charge anyway. "What do we know?"
"Not much," said Lissa. "Their technology's nothing like anything I've seen before. I can't tell which parts are devices and which are just decoration." She frowned at one of the control stations. "The aliens were touching those glowing spheres, though. It looked a lot like what we do with Lucendian control crystals."
"That makes sense," said Scarrend. "They're psionic. Like us."
"We're not psionic," said Yvian.
"We are now," Scarrend disagreed. "That Lucendian crystal in your brain can connect directly to the soul of a Lucendian ship. We can feel them at range. We can feel each other's emotions to a small degree as well."
"We can?" Yvian blinked.
"You didn't notice?" asked Mims.
"It might be a little too subtle for Captain Sis," Lissa teased. She gave Yvian a smile. "You probably thought you were just getting better at reading people."
"I am better at reading people!" Yvian protested. "I'm insightful!"
"Yeah," Lissa agreed. "Because you're psychic."
"The point," Scarrend chuffed, "Is that our implants give us a small amount of psionic ability. The Grey Ones use psionics to control their ship functions. It is possible we could do the same."
"That's a dangerous thing to try," said Mims. "We don't know if our minds or the implants are compatible. Touching one might fry your brain."
"Even if it doesn't you might end up touching the souls of three billion hostile aliens," Lissa pointed out, She frowned. "You know, Sis, I'm not sure Kill Them All is a viable plan. This ship might as well be a planet, and we don't even have guns."
"I'm just happy we're not dead yet," said Mims. "If I was the Greys, I'd have activated some defenses by now. Sent in some drones or flooded the place with plasma. At the very least, I'd have decompressed the section we're in."
"There is no mechanism to decompress this area," Kilroy reported. "This ship's life support systems appear to be biological instead of mechanical." The machine pointed at one of the destroyed control stations. Liquid was oozing out of the charred remnants of a control sphere terminal. "As are many of the ship's functions."
"Well they have to have some way of dealing with intruders." Yvian winced as she shifted. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the bites she'd suffered were really starting to hurt. "I got the impression they bring a lot of beings up here. We can't have been the first ones to get loose."
"Affirmative," said Kilroy. The machine pointed up. "In addition to the phased abduction beams, this unit detects energy weapon turrets hidden in the ceiling. The ion grenades disabled them."
"So we're looking at restraining beams and turrets? That seems..." Lissa frowned. "Kind of basic."
"It's plenty," said Yvain. "If Mims hadn't had ion grenades we'd be dead."
"It's still basic," said Mims. "No redundancy. No backup plans." He nudged a Grey One corpse with his foot. "The bastards seemed pretty arrogant. They were offended that we hurt them. I think that's why they kept tracking us down."
"Playthings," said Lissa. "They called us playthings. They're mad we fought back."
"Not as mad as they're gonna be," Yvian decided. "We're just getting started. Kilroy, do you know where their bridge is?"
"Negative," said the Peacekeeper. "There is a significant amount of electromagnetic interference. This unit's sensor readings are only reliable within a four hundred meter radius."
"Hard way it is." Captain Yvian tightened her grip on her knife. "Kilroy, take point. Scarrend, you're rear guard. Let's go find a control node."
The chamber had five doors. Kilroy lead them to one of them. They couldn't find a control panel, so the Peacekeeper unit pried it open. "Alert," said the unit. "Hostile forces incoming." Then he disappeared.
Yvian backed away from the door. Lines of green light sizzled past. There were screeches and screams. Then silence. Kilroy reappeared. He had a fresh coating of green blood. He held a pile of strange looking guns in his arms. Yvian took one. It wasn't as sleek as the blasters she was used to. The pistol grip was small, but the body of the gun was bulbous, quickly narrowing to a point. Clear material formed three circles around the barrel of the weapon.
She pointed the gun at a bulkhead and squeezed the trigger. It made a high pitched hissing noise. A line of green death sparked against alien metal. "Huh. You'd think they'd be DNA locked or something."
"Foolish," Scarrend agreed. He took two of the guns from Kilroy. Lissa and Mims each took another. Kilroy tucked the last one into his suit.
"More will be coming," said Mims. "We should move." He grimaced. "Kilroy, can you take care of any automated defenses? I've got more grenades, but only six of them are ion."
"Affirmative." The Peacekeeper's eyes glowed red.
Yvian stepped out into a corridor. It was round. Most of the bulkheads were the silvery alien material she'd seen earlier, but there were lines of pulsing organic tissue running through it like veins. It was bright, but Yvian couldn't see a light source. The corridor stank less than the chamber she'd left, but not by much. Bright Lady, she hated this place.
Kilroy picked a direction. They walked. Periodically the Peacekeeper would disappear. When he came back they'd continue, stepping over the corpses of Grey Ones and glancing at torn bulkheads that used to contain restraining beams or turrets. Fifteen minutes of walking brought them to another set of doors. Kilroy ripped them open. He entered. Yvian waited, listening to the sounds of torn metal. A minute later he invited them inside.
This chamber was just like the one Yvian had left, but with few corpses. It was not unoccupied. Three tables contained creatures Yvian had never seen before. Pixenoid, but furry. They had big floppy ears, and might have been cute under different circumstances. They were very dead. The creatures were strapped down, covered in cuts and burns. Their faces were contorted in pain and horror. Their chests had been opened. Organs were missing.
"Motherless sons..." Lissa muttered.
"This was recent," said Mims. He touched one of the dead things. "Still warm."
"The Grey meatbags evacuated as we approached," said Kilroy. "This unit can hunt them down, Captain Mother Yvian."
"No, stay with us," the Captain decided. "There's no point hunting stragglers if we're going to kill all these things at once."
"Do you have a plan for that?" asked Lissa.
"No clue," Yvian admitted, "but that's what we gotta do. You felt those things. They're not going to stop." Scarrend snorted. Yvian frowned at him. "What?"
"Sorry Captain." The Vrrl chuckled. "It's just, you have no plan."
"That's not-" Yvian protested.
"No plan," Scarrend continued. "No resources. No idea what we're up against. And still you set an impossible goal. You trust yourself and your allies to do the unthinkable with no regard for the odds." He chuckled again. "It's insanity on the same level as the humans."
Yvian scowled. "You're an asshole."
Scarrend laughed. "Don't be offended, Captain. Your refusal to accept reality is your finest trait."
"To be fair," Mims cut in, "we've done a lot of impossible things these last few years." His lips quirked. "It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're too stupid to know better."
"No one does stupid like Yvian." Lissa agreed. She grinned. "Right, Captain Sis?"
"You're all assholes," Yvian muttered. She mustered her dignity and limped to the nearest control terminal. The glowing sphere at the top of it was undamaged. The pedestal holding the sphere was a mix of metal and that odd dark organic material she'd seen in the corridor. She held out a hand, stopping just short of touching it.
"You should let me do that, Captain," said Mims.
"I got it," said Yvian. She hovered her palm over the thing. She didn't feel anything coming out of the sphere. Was she really psychic? She didn't feel psychic.
"You're the leader," Mims argued. "I'm more expendable."
"Captain's prerogative," she told him. "You're in charge if this goes wrong." She let out a breath and closed her eyes. Her palm descended, resting against the sphere. It was warm. Hard. Kind of slick. Hmm. Yvian had expected an immediate connection, like when she touched a Lucendian ship.
"Is it working?" asked Lissa. Yvian raised her other hand, motioning for the others to shush. She focused, trying to feel the sphere the way she'd felt the Crystal ships. Her soul reached out. There.
"It's working," Yvian whispered. "I feel ...
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