Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Homeworld - Tales of the Vjel-Amaj: Aira's Quest - Part I ❯ Chapter 16 - Favoring Shodanii... ( Chapter 16 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

As time went by, a strange data transmission penetrates the layers of gas, only moments away until it invisibly breaches through the vast field of hulks and debris that encircles the enormous disabled mothership within its spherical gravity field. Several deep beeps, tones, signals and a voice are transmitted upon the frequency that is soon to be intercepted by the single hidden amaji communication satellite...


A tight grip suddenly grabbed his neck. Gasping for air, he fought trying to remover her hand from his neck. Unable to speak clearly, he repeated her name, barely understandable for her to regard. Rushing over to assist him, another man shouted at her and fortunately released her hand from the neck of his colleague. Tightening both of his hands around hers, he frequently tried calling her back to her senses. Her eyes and reactions already told him that she was totally disorientated.

“*Gasping* Should... Should I get the A-Injector to calm her d--”

The other man signaled him to stay, it seemed as if he was slowly getting her attention. Noticing her calming down, the man relieved his hand from hers and laid both upon her shoulders as he tried to calm her down further.

A whole nightmare through her mind, a recall of nearly all of the dreadful events she had experienced... She blinked several times. Her eyes wandered everywhere aimlessly before they crossed his. A familiar language...
“Commander Delixa... Krin'sa - Calm down - Calm down... Everything will be fine...”, the man said down to her.
Up to now had Hailynn notice that she was lying on the cold floor, her head resting upon a strangely hard object that seemed to be used as a `pillow' for her head. Hailynn moaned a long sigh before she recognized the man's uniform.

A... medic...?

“Alright - I think she'll be fine... I hope so...”, the medic above her said to the other one, ”I'll handle her for now. You should recover - And breathe slowly!”

Hailynn tried to lift her torso from the floor, but after gaining a small angle, a stabbing pain among the lower right side of her chest and her shoulder forced her down again.
“Whoa-Whoa, you better stay down, Commander!”, the medic demanded to her, “You've taken an awfully heavy beating - You've got a seriously snapped rib and I just treated both that and your dislocated shoulder... I'll spare you on details but I've patched you up so avoid moving around! We need to get you to sickbay as soon as possible, you will be needing a professional nanobot treatment.”

“W-Where are we?”, Hailynn painfully sighed.

As she looked around slowly, the medic explained, “We're still in this `core'... bridge place of this mothership...”
Hailynn soon became aware that they were still within the gigantic hall as he spoke. Many voices and speeches echoed among the surroundings. Biting her teeth together, Hailynn suddenly tried to raise her torso again, this time ignoring the warning of the medic and the pain that tried to force her back. Rather than intervening, he instead used his side to support her back from falling back again.

“A-Aira... Where is Aira...?”, she asked with a very worried face.
“She's fine... Well - Not... quite...”
“What do you mean?!”
“*Whew* Hmm, where should I start?”, the medic hesitated to answer at first, but then spoke further after forming some thoughts, “We found the girl alone with you in this huge bridge sector - place - whatever, Commander. She must had been waiting here with you for a very long time. Commander Orelis ordered us to form search parties to retrieve the both of you and that was almost *looks upon his watch* seven or eight hours ago, ma'am. A pretty long time...”

Hailynn looked at him, then turned her view upon the several groups of people spread throughout the whole colossal bridge section. Some of them transported and carried things; another group fiddled around the unknown consoles while others spoke with each other - far too many ongoing speeches for her to understand individually. However, her eyes did notice the vast differences between all their uniforms.
Only a couple of them were marines who stood guard or helped carrying objects over somewhere while the rest seemed to be a total mix of amaji and non-amaji helpers...

The medic explained further, “When Orelis called for assisting volunteers, a large group of people insisted to help out along with the expeditionary teams that had already been throughout the area. We've stumbled over many things on the way - Foremost, we found the corpse of a... turanic... man in armor... but never ind that - We found you suffering under severe ague and withdrawal symptoms aside to all of those physical wounds. To be honest, ma'am, several of us weren't sure if you were going to survive. But most of all, your condition must have frightened the kadeshi girl. She's over there with Cebbs *points with his finger to a certain region*. You can believe us that we had a very hard time trying to calm her down. She must have suffered a nervous breakdown...”, he explained and sighed again, “It's impossible to talk to her right now. She frequently talks about weird things. Aira does seem to understand us at one point, but then she starts talking about some weird experience she had with that Show-... Shod-... the talking A.I. - and before we actually get to understanding things, she gets too excited, hyperventilates and then starts talking in kadeshi...”

“I killed that turanic - I think”, Hailynn suddenly said, however slightly uncertain though.

“Ma'am?”
The nightmare that shortly repeated itself within her mind disturbed her.

“I must have... bumped into him... He tried to kill me - Don't ask me why the frell he's on this mothership...”

“That does explain all of your injuries, Krin'sa...”
The hiigaran woman lifted her hand and observed it for quite a while. Surprisingly for her, she was no longer shivering. Albeit her looks being messed up more than before, her skin had several transparent band-aids upon the abrasions.

“Dr. Jonas ordered me to take these treatments with me - confidentially, ma'am. It looks like it was a good thought and it took much of it to actually stabilize your health status. The treatment I applied contained E-Phrine II, inhibitor substances and a weaker substitute drug as well - I don't know if it will really help you... but good thing you had those lifesign-emitters on you”, the medic said, then leaned forward to whisper into her ear, “Ma'am, did you do as the doctor ordered? I feared applying an overdose, but we medics saw no other choice and --”
“I got rid of the cortisine pack...”


He dropped his shoulders, “C-Commander - Are you out of your mind?! With all needed respect, ma'am, but that was mindless of you!”, the medic whispered back to her but with a slightly surprised voice, “What were you thinking?!”

“*Sigh* I... I don't know... I just wanted to get rid of it, free myself from that crap for good... I tossed it over the railing where I potentially killed that turanic... soldier...”, Hailynn remembered some of her experiences again, “That sadistic... son-of-a...”

“You tossed the whole treatment pack over the railing? Gods. Jonas is going to kill me. He told you to--”

“Enough, now. Tell the other medic about my apology for attacking him and thank you for your efforts, now .... *nnngh*”, Hailynn painfully sighed again and fought to get up, “Get me to -- Aira.”.

“P-Please, Krin'sa, don't move...”

“Stop calling me that.”


Again, the medic wanted her to stay down, but lastly, his denial would only cause her more stress. Reconsidering his common sense, he supported her by basing his shoulder under her arm.


Many people transported strange hulks of technical parts that seemed to originate from various computer terminals and other major interfaces of the area. Practically everybody was examining everything, each step of the place was interesting and offered much for the curious.
Meanwhile, the female operative called Velle Cebbs interacted with the kadeshi girl who sat on the floor.

“Aira - please. Take it easy --”
Aira gripped her hands upon Velle's jacket. The girl's eyes were outright wide and full of fear. Almost all this time had Velle been assigned to keep an eye on the girl, she tried to understand her gibberish but rather failed.

“U'na makuri! Kadesha's hope ateg'ri! Seven twelve dash T-R degree! Circles! Ma'ged eni'fren! Sector... Sector twelve... Galvanite rich... Shadows are evolving beyond their eyes - They are blind! Please, we must endeavor rescue...”
Aira kept speaking - often nonsense - without pause until the point where she began to breathe and speak too fast due to all of her excitement. And again, tears ran down her face.

“Man, what's wrong with that girl?”, one marine asked from the side who just settled a crate upon the floor as a sort of table for a portable laptop computer.
Velle curled her arms around the frail girl before she replied to the marine, “Would you mind to shut up?! Go somewhere else!”
“Sheesh...”

This was the first time Velle was this close to a kadeshi, furthermore did it scare her slightly. Taking this career path as a supporting operative on naval ships came a lot different than she expected. It was more than crazy to ever expect ending up on a derelict mothership.

“Aira”, a very familiar voice said from behind.

“Aira”, she whispered at her, “Check it out - Nothing happened to her, look”, Velle loosened her arms and lowered her shoulder so the adolescent girl could glimpse over it. Aira shrieked slightly as she raised herself up upon her legs in astonishment.
And there she stood, hard to believe that she was alive despite her miserable shape. Medical patches and bandages were seen everywhere upon her. The man in the strange uniform with small red crosses upon his collar carried her injured naji. Hailynn was alive, rather seriously beaten and in need of rest and recovery, but alive. More tears ran down the girl's cheeks.

“Go ahead, don't be shy, Aira - Go to her”, Velle said to her, showing that Hailynn was real.

“She really must have thought you wouldn't survive, Krin'sa...”, the medic whispered into Hailynn's ear.

“N-Na-Naji?...”, the kadeshi girl stuttered in her accented voice, “Naji!”
The girl suddenly ran ahead with fast but clumsy steps. She was too eager and desperate to feel Hailynn's warmth. Aira cried as she ran her way to the injured officer woman. The medic smiled as he released himself from Hailynn's side since he would only be in the way. Led by the sorrows of her emotions, the girl's arms finally reached her and embraced her caretaker.
Hailynn suddenly bit her teeth together - again that same incredible pain struck her right side. Obviously, Aira was unknowingly dealing great pressure upon Hailynn's wounded ribcage. The pain was so dreadfully intense that it brought Hailynn to the edge of fainting. However, she simply could not push Aira away. The girl was simply more than overjoyed of seeing and feeling her. As the girl wept in joy, Hailynn looked up and away, hardly believing what she survived long hours ago.

During the time the two hugged each other, the medic slowly walked over to Velle and gave her a friendly elbow bump.

“Good job there, Cebbs”, he said to her.

“Thanks - Well, there was not much I could do really...”

“You kept her hopes up and stayed with her all this time through - That was the best thing you've done.”
Velle smiled back at him shortly before she lowered her view, “There is still something strange about what the girl said...”


“You two”, Hailynn suddenly said with a oddly deep voice, “Tell me, what is going on in this place *mhhhgh*?”
“Eh, yes, ma'am...”



Chapter 16 - Favoring Shodanii...

= Bridge of the `Vjel-Amaj' =

“- Huh? What did you just say?”, Orelis asked from the other side of the bridge and shortly dismissed one of the bridge operatives back to his station.
“I said I've picked up something - A transmission of some sort, sir”, Packard repeated.
“Hmpf. Sure that's not some echoed signal? We've had plenty of those bouncing feedbacks lately --”
“- But this one is coming from the outside side...”

“Nothing to be concerned about. I'm sure of that, Packard.”
“No, not outside like `outside our ship' - Outside the mothership. The comsat in space picked up this signal that came beyond the mothership's vicinity...”


One of Orelis' eyebrows raised itself as he approached the communication station.

“Alright. Let us hear what it is.”

The few other operatives of the bridge shortly listened to the sound that echoed among all speakers. Indeed, it did seem to be a transmission, garbled and accompanied by various sounds of interlaced signals, probably carrier-waves supporting the transmission itself. A deep voice mumbled throughout the noise but was barely understandable. The voice repeated itself several times.

“Hmm, auto-filtering is not helping much.”
“Well... Now what is this about?”, Orelis asked, “Can you filter the noise out?”.
“Sorry, sir - but I'm not qualified enough to do it manually. There is somebody who could do so, though.”

“And I know who. Get Kelsea up here, asap. No idea what this is all about but she'll know what to do and decipher it.”
“Yes, sir - Oh yeah, we've received word that Commander Delixa and Aira had been found and that they are okay. Right now, the search parties are gathering valuable information and data from the bridge section.”
“Understood. Just stay in touch with them. *Sigh* Still docked and things keep happening...”
“Roger.”


= Engineering Deck, rear section =

At the same time, Chief Engineer Brogan clapped his hands together and cheered, “Woohoooooo! Good job, everybody, good job! *clapping*”
A moment of congratulations went around as the groups of engineers applauded each other. Brogan walked along the railing during his observation upon their successful work: Retaining operational status of the lower starboard conduit of the hyperdrive module, which has been quite a problem child since the ship emerged from hyperspace.
This was a great moment to be proud of, not only that the ship was capable of hyperjumping but the fact that his crew managed to succeed in repairing several segments of one of the ship's most delicate systems. Despite the ship capable of using several forms of hyperjump techniques, these selected few were highly dangerous and never really tested. Bentusi technology, while trusted, was still an enigmatic system not to be underestimated.

The complete segment of the lower starboard conduit soon reconnected itself with the central core of the hyperdrive module, once again combining itself with the rest of the module's grid and field generators.

“This is very good news, men and women, very good news! Align it to the lower nacelle so it can be dispatched when we are ordered to expand the exteriors again.”

One of his engineering specialists came to his side, his face did not seem really pleased, “Chief, don't want to break the good mood, but we've only got it operational to a certain point - if I am following things correctly.”

“Nothing we should really be worried about, or?”

“Not sure, Chief. Field specialists and others ran several simulated stress tests and seems as if the conduit is still instable... I don't know if it will really survive the stress of hyperspace on the way back to Amaj - By all means, not with the ship flowing against the current.”
“Well that doesn't really sound good, but we've not much of a choice. It should still hold long enough to get us out of this system for sure.”

“Furthermore, we were not able to completely seal the decks. Life support may be able to maintain life, but we shouldn't take any risks. I suggest attaining the off-limit status for the outer sections and the certain decks”, his subordinate engineer suggested.

“Fine for me. I'm sure the crew will survive living with vaygr... Frell, well I have to”, Brogan smirked, “Anyways, is there anything else on the list of priorities?”

“Not really, they are more optional, sir.”

“Alright. Look, I'm sure we can count on this conduit. As long as we do several stops between the jumps, things should be just fine. I'm sure we can avoid a conduit breach. We just need to hope that nobody comes on the idea of performing a longjump again.”
“What makes you so sure, Chief?”
“These conduits were built on Hiigara.”
His subordinate frowned...


= Cargo Bay II =

Ignoring the ongoing action of people and the transport of goods and other large things among his surroundings, the tall vaygr pilot in usual bulky suit stood in front of the battle-scared coned red fighter that quietly settled next to the ancient red-yellow striped taiidan interceptor that was retrieved by the amaji. Many thoughts seemed to fill his mind as he continuingly stared upon both fighters, thoughts of the past, present and future.

Not knowing that he was being observed, a young woman quietly stared upon his back from a position not far away from where he stood. She stood two long hours at her remote location. Unintentionally, she was somewhat spying on him... but without any further notice, she suddenly took the first step ahead and approached the silent vaygr man from behind.

“H-Hey..”, a female voice shyly sounded from behind.
Taking only a short glimpse, Ray recognized the young woman, but then returned his view upon the fighters, “I greet you, Ensign Fenna of the Amaj”, his monotone deep voice replied.
“P-Please, I told you to call me Fenna... or Fen. M-mind if I... accompany you?”, she stuttered, “You... You can say `no' if you want to be... alone?”
“...”

Fenna somehow sensed that he wanted to be alone, but instead of leaving, she somewhat jumped over her own shadow by remaining slightly behind him. Insisting to change the topic before he could answer, she suddenly asked, “You seem to be here for a long t-time. Is something disturbing you?”

“I was in deep thought, Fenna of the -- ... Fenna.”
“Deep thought? Does something disturb you?”
“The symbols upon this taiidan fighter. I have seen them before. The insignia of my former crusade shows origination of these characters. Evidence, that my people and I are descendants of these taiidans as well. It seems as if the people of this derelict mothership resemble of the same origin of my culture. Scientists of your allied kiith seem to be sure of this. As so, I have concerns of my kind's future. Our standing as vaygr refugees is flawed upon all eyes. Political asylum will surely be a complicated undertaking. Our origins will surely affect our future negatively.”

“Don't worry, Ray. We will take care of you and your people... We amaji are not like those throughout the galaxy...”

“You must understand that I have doubts, amaji, I have doubt. Our survival may end forsaken...”

“Stop it... Please stop talking like that.”

Remaining silent, Fenna came very close to his side after he spoke his concerns. Suddenly, Ray felt a strange contact upon his gloved right hand, the hand of the amaji woman curling upon it. Ray's hand did not respond and remained as it was. He was rather unsure in how to interpret her action but it did seem as if she wanted to show some sort of consideration for his troubled situation. These amaji people were indeed strange.


= Bridge of the `Vjel-Amaj' =

Meanwhile...
After several mind-numbing attempts of filtering the intercepted transmission, Kelsea threw her back upon the seat and rubbed her face. Up to now, the remote communication satellite had intercepted further transmissions.
“How's it going, Kelsea?”, Packard asked, “You look like you could need a break.”
“Gods, this thing is giving me a headache.”

Kelsea trusted her knowledge deeply as a communication specialist. Being a linguistic expect, she knew that the voice she heard was a familiar language, but was far too garbled to percept it correctly.

“Maybe it's a garbled radio echoes from outer space after all.”
“No, it's not. I can clearly distinguish pronunciations... Besides, the comsat caught a lot more transmissions.”
Packard repeated his suggestions on several filtering techniques, but she had already tested those.

“Or you could try... whoa --”, he said and paused as he heard several sounds sounding from his headset.
“I'm getting it in too, what's going on?”

Sitting back down upon the station, Packard flipped several keys and adjusted his primary screen to the occasion.

“Intercepted another one, Pack'?”
“Not really... I'm picking several messed-up waves out there... Here, listen yourself”, he replied back to her while he transferred the data over to her station.

Listening carefully, she eavesdropped into her headsets. Various types of interferences flushed throughout the wave, annoyingly disturbing her concentration... but amidst the tense noises, she was able to percept several speeches. One... no... two distinct languages... as if they were interacting with each other. Kelsea's eyes widened suddenly as she finally recognized the voices. Packard's friendly smile suddenly disappeared as he saw her shoulders dropped, wordlessly turning her view slowly to his.


= Inner dome - Shodanii Chamber =

After listening to long explanations, Hailynn slowly became up-to-date with all the events that were occurring just now as well as some of the history of the abandoned taiidan mothership. The supporting people were told to disassemble and secure all sorts of datacores and many other data storages from all mainframes throughout this huge chamber, practically anything that had vital or interesting information on them.
Nonetheless, those who were worried of Hailynn's health greeted her with respect and were pleased to see that she was still alive. According to Velle's clarifications, it seemed as if the being called `Shodanii' was offering all of her knowledge and data to them. Aira held Hailynn's hand as she slowly limped along - The girl being on one side, Velle on the other. It took a very long while until Aira had calmed down from her anxiety. The three slowly neared the end of the `tour'.

“Wow... Guess that explains how this mothership got here...but now where is this `Shodanii' lady I keep hearing about?”, Hailynn asked.

Velle stopped and pointed at the spherical shell that was filled with the water-like substance. Like the rest of their surroundings, Hailynn's eyes immediately noticed the numbers of bullet holes and cracks spread among it.

“In there? Is she...?”
“She's dead, ma'am”, Velle said with sorrow tone in her voice, “Aira stated she was shot - Executed... many decades ago. I have no idea how she figured that out, to be honest, but there are no doubts that she is right, Commander.”
“Shodanii's mind...”, Aira noted quietly with a lowered view, “I-It is still - persisting within the... computer - High above...”. As the girl ended her comment, she began to speak confusing words but managed to remain calm.
“Shodanii only responded shortly when we arrived, Commander. Remote regions including this area is powered but up to now, she remained inactive.”

Hailynn looked up and noticed the reversed but severely damaged supercomputer that hung from ceiling down with countless cords, connections and other interfaces connected to the shell. Avoiding several researching groups, the three moved closer to vicinity of the shell with Hailynn at the lead, who wanted to take closer look.

“Whoa, careful!”, somebody shouted from a different group and jumped aside, barely dodging the short power surge that threw sparks around.
“We're fine! We're fine...”, he announced afterwards, “aww man....”. Obviously, one of the technicians tried to power one of the computer terminals with his rather foreign power generator but fried its circuit board.

Hailynn and the others turned away.

“So, this is the person or thing that lured us over here?”, the wrecked hiigaran officer asked.
“S-She guided us, my naji!”, Aira stated loudly at first but then looked down upon the floor again, “She... she did not l-lure us... Her intentions were not... evil...”
Her caretaker laid her hand upon her head, “Sorry, Ai' - I didn't want to insult you. But what is that fluid in there?”
“Beats me, Commander”, Velle replied and shrug, “Looks like water.”

“That would be `Snydrolite'”, a familiar female voice suddenly explained from behind, ”a superconductive but entirely semi-intelligent fluid that was formerly used by taiidans for supporting a living being as well as exchanging impulses between a consciousness and unlimited computer interfaces...”, Hailynn's eyes widened, but she remained startled as the woman's monotone voice spoke further from behind, “A dangerous fluid, if you ask me. I am very surprised that the body inside that chamber had been killed by lethal shots ultimately...rather than that fatal malfunctioning in the metabolizing aspect of the fluid and the shock transmitted through it.”
The macabre comment sounded sadistic at the same time, “Our beloved leader, Karan S'jet, who brought us to the Homeworld was of course safe of this since the s'jeti scientists provided her body with a different fluid - A very important decision, despite knowing the disadvantage of requiring more neural trunks and implants. A primitive mind would probably say that this `Shodanii' was the `Karan S'jet' of the taiidans - who failed, however...”, the pure arrogance of the woman was clearly hearable as she approached them, “According to the history data, her body suffered a powerful surging feedback... Silly taiidans and their senseless use of instable flux singularity power, they probably did not have the slightest clue about what they were using...”

Dr. Pethera S'jet joined them from the side. It was simple for Velle to sense the growing tension between the commander and the scientist woman who had straight long black hair and implants.

“Commander... I see, you're a Krin'sa now...”, the s'jeti woman noted, “Irrelevant, Delixa. We should focus more on what is trying to hide behind you.”

As Pethera approached them, Aira immediately cowered further behind her caretaker. The grip felt upon Hailynn's bruised waist told her that Aira seriously feared this s'jeti woman.

“Pethera, what the frakk are you doing here?”, Hailynn questioned with a hatred voice.
“Orelis asked for volunteers. I assumed my subordinates would be supportive.”

Yeah right!, Hailynn thought - Pethera was here for a much different matter. A disturbing foreboding told her that Asad was not far away either. No wonder the whole area was crowded with non-amaji operatives.

“Back off, Pethera”, the hiigaran officer remarked aggressively, “I don't really care what you are trying to steal from this place, but you better keep your distance from us.”
“Don't be foolish, Delixa. I have no idea through what ridiculous mess you went through, but you look pathetic. You are not in the condition to be threatening me anyhow...”

At a certain point, Pethera was right. Both Hailynn's new kiithidial ranking and current health status was far inferior to Pethera. It was needless to note that Hailynn's appearance was by far more devastated than before. Just for now, Hailynn ignored what could happen in the future.

“Do you know that that girl who is hiding behind you is now somewhat becoming a clone of Shodanii's will...?”
Hailynn dropped her shoulders, “Yeah... right...”, she replied ironically.
“Well, symbolically, she's becoming one. I can see a lot more than you, Delixa. Have you not noticed the girl speaking of things...? My ocular implant reveals that Aira's cerebral and lobe implants are still receiving an intensive mass of data originating from that chamber... Do you know what this means?”

What disturbed Hailynn most was the fact that Pethera was not looking straight into her eyes but focused down upon the kadeshi girl... as if she somehow gained value in these dreaded s'jeti's eyes.

“Commander. Doctor Pethera S'jet. Please. Don't argue...”, Velle appealed to both of them, but it seemed as if they were not listening.
“Who cares, Pethera?”, Hailynn snarled ironically again, “Leave the girl alone.”

“I am not going anywhere - and I think you are missing something here, Delixa. That girl's mind is being used as a database. Shodanii is loading her up with all of her knowledge and will, aside to the datahulks my men have disassembled. I was already aware that we would probably only find historical nonsense and corroded infolinks... Anyways, they are already bringing most of it back to our ship. But you should be thankful for one thing, Delixa.”

“Oh, really...?”

“My research team already decrypted stellar cartography data concerning our retreat out of this system. If it weren't for my team, we would actually be stuck here wondering where to go. Then again, I could simply hold the data back and demand the captain any time to stay longer in this system. There is much to discover...”
“No chance, bitch. He is no longer in command. Looks like you are not up-to-date - as for I'm in full command now.”
“Watch your mouth, Delixa. You have already dug deep enough for the grave of your career - maybe even your life. But right now, you better let me speak with that girl behind you. She is holding vital information for us.”

Aira hands slipped from Hailynn's waist. The pure chaos in her mind was confusing her so much that she curled her hands upon her hair and forehead.

“So what... I'm not letting you lay a hand on her.”

“Stupid woman. For hours - and right now - she is still receiving the gift of pure knowledge from the only being who ever ventured nearly across the whole galaxy! The being that has interacted with the Bentusi long before our time! Pure knowledge of technology, astronomy... Secrets - All fields of knowledge! I don't care what mother instincts you are trying to put up, but you better move out of the way! The girl is just an entity who happens to be receiving essential data!”

Pethera's voice was so loud that it practically drew everybody's attention as it echoed several times.
“I don't care!”, Hailynn shouted back at the s'jeti woman, “Can't you see that Aira is suffering! Who cares about what you say?!”
“Knowledge is power, Delixa. And with that kadeshi girl becoming a living omniscient library and galaxy map, you better not stand in our way... The kiith will profit much from her --”


“What the frakk?! I don't know what the frakk you are up to but I'm not going to let you pry Aira like some kind of nutshell!”

“A good idea, but I prefer her alive...”
Hailynn took a single step ahead. Both women stood only centimeters away from each other, both of their eyes likely stinging each other.
“Don't you dare mess with the girl or with me now, Pethera! I'm not going to put up with your crap any longer! I don't have a gun right now - but you better knock it off before I do the same like I did on that turanic”, Hailynn forcefully yelled at Pethera, “And don't think some kiithid regulation will spare you! I may look ugly - but trust me, I can deal equal wounds...”


Pethera bit her teeth together...

Soon but noticeable, the corner of her eye twitched shortly. Looking down upon Aira once more, it seemed as if the s'jeti woman still had a plan flowing in mind. It had to be that she had something else in mind, “You don't seem to know what will happen in the future, Delixa, but I think I will just leave you with your ignorance. You have no idea what will happen in the future - and there will be no way you can defy it.”

“Famous last words. Get lost.”
The s'jeti woman left the group behind, bypassed others and concentrated on finding a specific person she needed to speak with. Within the same moment, all groups reassumed their current tasks.

Velle was outright amazed to experience such harsh interactions. She heard of the gossips but never had she expected them to hate each other so much. As Pethera disappeared among the groups, Hailynn fell slightly to the side.

“C-Commander?!”, Velle asked as she caught her.
“I'm fine - I'm fine...”
“Ma'am. You need a break, maybe you should --”

An interrupting sound suddenly occurred from above, an alarming sound that immediately gained the attention of everybody. The noise echoed several times throughout the gigantic dome area.
“What- What the frell's going on?!”, somebody shouted, “Did somebody accidentally hit somethin'?!”
Many confused faces shook their heads and shrugged.

At the same moment, Aira raised her head and looked towards Shodanii's chamber with a troubled face.

““Kushansss...!””, Shodanii's voice suddenly resonated, “”...Alert...””
Aira repeated Shodanii's words.

““I... Kushanssss... Hiigaranss - Your safety... Your refuge is in dangerrr...!””, Shodanii's double-phased voice alarmed with great concern.

“Damn it, I don't get what's this all about!”, Hailynn shouted, “What's going on?!”

““My... awarenesssss... I failed... My mind wasss distracted - Hiigarans... Young mind... I failed...!””

“Failed in what?!”
“I don't know what she means, Co-Commander!”, Velle replied but was more likely confused by the alarming noise like the rest of the people throughout the area.

““They... They have... returrrned... They haaave... returned - Early... Too... Early...!””, the sentient computer voice echoed loudly.

“Shodanii! Who are you talking about?!”

““You... You mussst escape...!””


Hearing shouts from behind, Hailynn heard a man calling her name in an urgent matter.

“What is it?!”

“Commander! We've got a situation going on - Bridge Command is trying to contact us but they are not getting through!”

The sudden events came so unexpectedly that Hailynn was simply overwhelmed by all occurrences.

“Hey - What's taking so long?!”, Orelis yelled to the other side of the bridge, “Get us in touch with the Delixa or anybody, here and now!”
“We're trying, sir!”, Packard shouted, “But the comsat's array is having trouble penetrating that the area they are in!”
“For frakk's sake, compensate and get us through! Try to align it to their area from a different angle - Hurry!”

Hailynn immediately pulled the small transmitter from her shoulder radio and attempted to transmit a message, “Delixa to Bridge Command! Do you read me! Come Back!”
The unit upon her left shoulder only fuzzed with several scrambled sounds.

“Frakk! How can it be that I have a powered antenna and I'm not getting through - didn't you say the comsat was focused on our area?!”


Velle pointed upon Hailynn's shoulder... Unfortunately, Hailynn just noticed that the upper half of the antenna hung down.

““Trusted ssssoul of the young mind... Hailynn of... Delixa - I ssseek your... attention!””, Shodanii's voice called out.

“Yes! What is --?!”

““Trusted soul... Your brethren... The young... You all are in grave... danger! They have... returned!””
“WHO?!”

Her screens revealed an increasing amount of signals intercepted by the communication satellite, “Comsat is picking up a lot of waves originating from vector two-twelve!”, Kelsea shouted and reported the most she could attain from the incoming data, “Unable to count! Whatever is coming - I can confirm that they are - They are turanic...! No... taiidan...! Both!”
“Another drone can confirm that, X-O”, another operative confirmed additionally, “Its picking a massive number up coming from that vector!”

“The fleet... The combined... fleet of the turanic and taiidan survivors... They have returned!”, Shodanii announced.
Foremost, it was Hailynn who frowned the most.
“You're telling me that the same frakking fleet that left this ship is coming for the mothership?! You can't be serious!”

“Bingo - I've managed to align a signal through, Commander Orelis!”
“Finally, get me through to them at once!”

““Refuge... Failurrre...””, Shodanii called out, “”I fear for all of you... I fearrr the taiidans... I fearrr the turanicssss... Hiigarans, young mind.... You must flee... I beg your soulsss.... flee! The fleet... It craves... for the lifeblood of power... Powerrr...””

“I have... failed... Young mind... Your soul... All souls... They all are endangerrred... I bear not to imagine... of your deaths, young mind! I beg all souls... flee...! The sssong... of the young unbound mind musssst... prevail! Hiigarrrran soulssss - I plea to you... Flee!”

Aira suddenly ran ahead to the podium of Shodanii's shell, “No! I cannot leave you...!”, the girl cried as her hands slapped the thick shell.

““Hailynn of Delixa-ah...””, Shodanii called out, “”Your mind... must concur...””

“I hear you - Show... Shodanii - What is it?!”

“”The mind... The young mind... She trusts you as... the leader of Hiigaransss... I must endeavor yoooou... Heed my... endeavor... to fulfill the favor!”

Hailynn limped closer to the shell, “What?... Could somebody tell me what she is trying to say?”
““Hailynn... of Delixa... I beg your ssssoul to heed my endeavor... Fulfill my favor...””, Shodanii's voice seemed to demand her.
“A... favor?”

“”Delixa of the Hiigarans... For decadezzs... My sssoul has been tormented... by the surviving fleet... My soul is dying... but will never... die””, Shodanii explained, surprisingly, they all could percept deep sorrow among her artificial voice, “”The fleet... craves for the regenerative power...energies... that empowers their hyperspace capabilitiesssss - Everything that needs power.... My existence isss-zzz the cause for theirrr return... Despite my soul stripped of the `Core'... My existence prevailssszzz amidst the supercomputerrrr... My soul infuses the flow of power... I beg you - Dzz-elixa-ah - my deepest endeavor to... fulfill my favor... I beg you: End. My. Existencessz! End.. The... Existence... of... This... Vessel...!””

Every single person throughout the dome threw astonished faces...

Foremost, Hailynn could not believe her ears. Aira yelled constantly upon the shell.

“Commander - I've got a successful uplink to VJ-Bridge Command! Catch!”, somebody else from behind shouted and tossed her a portable communication unit over.
“Delixa here- !”

At last, Orelis finally heard Hailynn's voice and replied, his voice greatly impeded by outer interferences, “”Commander - Finally...!””
“Orelis - For frakk's sake, what's going on - I hear something is--”

His tension shouted back, “”No time to waste, Hailey! We're picking up big trouble coming in for the mothership!””, not only did Hailynn's eyes widen, but many others who listened as well, “”It's a fleet - a damn huge one! Taiidans and turanics, we can't tell how many or whatever, but they're homin' in! They're coming straight in for the ship! Damn it - I don't know but we're in deep trouble! *Pause* Hey, Hailynn - You copy?! Hailey?!””

Hailynn heard his garbled voice, but hesitated to answer. Again, Orelis shouted for her but she did not respond. Even Velle shook Hailynn's shoulder to snap out of her seemingly daydream. In fact, Hailynn was startled and troubled - Fighting to think of what to do next.

“”Hey - Kelsea, did the signal break on us again?! Increase the signal strength and --!””

“Orelis - We still hear you”, Hailynn suddenly replied with a calm voice, “Listen. Is there any sign that we or anything out in space has been detected?!”

“”What?! Well - There's a fleet out there, didn't I just say that, Commander?!””
“No - Listen - Are we compromised?!”

There was a pause in their tense conversation.

Shortly after, Orelis' voice replied, “”It... The whole fleet is approaching the vessel at a slow pace... but we've intercepted communication waves of single frigates closing in on the mothership from a totally different vector - Luckily in the shadow of vessel... I would usually go for the worst, but I guess... No, Hailey... We're not compromised... It doesn't seem as if they discovered any of our remote drone units out in space either. But Kelsea was able to translate some of waves we intercepted earlier - and I don't think you will like it... but it seems as if they frequently tried to hail a ship that docked ahead - Some `vanguard'... ””

Hailynn's mind began to recapitulate all that she knew along with what she just heard...
The turanic she met... He must have belonged to so-called vanguard. He must have belonged some sort of advancing party that had dispatched to probably proceed with preparations for the fleet to harvest power.

”Orelis. This is serious!”, Hailynn replied, “We must be aware that they have sent an advancing group ahead and it could be that there are more of them throughout the mothership! I don't know, but they are probably sending another group to check out what is going on - We need to get out of here! But let's do this right: It is likely they don't know about our whereabouts or our existence! I want you to kill all terms of communication, maintain radio silence and power down all drones in space! We must maintain subtlety or we're screwed! One last thing... *deep breath* Shodanii asked us for a last favor -- Whatever, just get things moving!”

“”What?! Well... *Sigh* Fine.... Commander, we'll be waiting for you... But don't take your time! We may have enough time before the big fleet arrives, but I don't know if we'll be able to get out of here on time...””
“Before you kill the drones, I want you to immediately recall everybody and everything back to the `Vjel-Amaj'! I want everybody to return to the ship at once! WE'RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!”


- Haste of Fear -

At the same time, both the exterior crewmen of the settlement camp aside the `Vjel-Amaj' and the party residing at the core bridge of the mothership hustled and rushed. Both gathered all of their equipment, practically everything and anything they could take with them. The word of trouble regarding the dreadful approach spread in an instant. The taps of boots and hard shoes were heard from all sides as everybody scampered the fast they could.
Among the chaos, only recently did Hailynn have another argument with Pethera, who denied her team of leaving... but lastly, Hailynn succeeded by threatening her with the fact that neither the marines, nor the `Vjel-Amaj' would wait for them... To the least of her efforts, Hailynn's words did scare the Pethera's subordinates to concur with the retreat. Alas, Pethera followed, though in nuisance and hatred.

Up to now, Aira pleaded in agony at Shodanii not to sacrifice her existence. The kadeshi girl tried to enter the shell once more but was held back by Velle just on time. Aira cried and fought but did not succeed in freeing herself.

“Cebbs... Bring Aira out of here. That's an order...”, the hiigaran commander demanded to the operative that held the excited girl back.

“My naji! Please! *sob* Do not allow this to happen! Please, I plead you not to fulfill her will! Her song must survive!”

“”Please...zzzzshh.... Young mind... I beg you... Do not... Intervene... I beg... Youuuu...””
Contemporarily, the available group of marines jogged over to Hailynn, one of them tossing her personal sidearm he retrieved a while ago.

“Shodanii, can you hear me?”, Hailynn asked calmly...

“”Yesss... Hailynn.. of Delixa... - Will your soul fulfill... my favor?””

Hailynn paused.
To a certain point, she felt absurd but shocked as well. The thoughts of ending Shodanii's existence equaled euthanasia... It frightened her deeply, but her will remained focused.
The female officer took a step ahead, her eyes focused upon the barely visible body deep within the shell, “Shodanii... As the leader of the `Vjel-Amaj', I have decided... to accept your plead. What do you want us to do...?”


Yet another pause...
Aira's voice cried loudly from behind to not concur with Shodanii's wish, but she had no chance in intervening. The unbound soul of the mothership wanted to end its existence... It tormented the girl's soul so much that both tears and hopeless prayers flew endlessly. Her cries and deep sorrows even affected Velle, who stopped shortly and turned around as she held the girl back. Other crewmen and supporting operatives carried their equipment, the greater portion already departed from the ship.


“”Hiigarans... I thank you...””, the double-phased voice of Shodanii replied, “”Please... Hiigaranssz... Heed my plea...””

Hailynn took a deep breath as the armed men and her listened carefully:

“”Countless soulsszzz have lost their lives, Hiigarans... All of our soulszzz, are at unrest... Please... You must... lead us to eternal peace... I have... witnessed... every single... death. Your people have... our legacy. Please... return our story to the Taiidans. Eternal peace... iszzz our only... salvation. Hiigarans... I beg you: Interfere with the powerrrr plants gridzzz... to cause the greater flux generator to... endorse a hyper-exponential... gravitational field... - Enforce... the end of my existence... by destroying the supercomputer...””


All marines looked at each other with surprised faces.
“”Hiigarans... I beg you... I can no longer refuge your souls from dangers... Time will be sufficient for... the `Vjel-of-Amaj' to flee... the field of death... Field of death... will cause by... the interference of the flux generatorszzzz... Hull... Devastating... Implosion will... occurrr... leading to... reaction of all fluxing fields... Explosion... Salvation...””

“Shodanii...”, Hailynn's calm voice asked, “Why didn't you do this from the first place?”
“”The Delixa... must undersrrrrssstand... Infection... known as the `Beast'... affected my... soulsszzz... Systems... The survivors.... intervened.... My ssszssoul only exists in thissz form... Enslaved... Bound to... serve... Nooooooo.... It must... END!””

Receiving the instructions, Hailynn and her marine team listened carefully to Shodanii's explanations. Alas, the whole operation was going to a sabotage leading to the self-destruction of the taiidan mothership. Notifying Orelis and marines, Hailynn decided to leave the main task of sabotage to the marines while she would end Shodanii's existence.
Leaving Aira with one of the last few operatives at the exit of the core bridge sector, Velle ran down once to Hailynn's side as she listened and followed Shodanii's instructions. Endorsing remaining power to one of the terminals, both women succeeded in causing the supercomputer to slowly dispatch the interior of its entire core processing units and every single essential system that maintained its operations - the heart and soul of the entire supercomputer.


Hailynn looked down to the floor. She knew what Shodanii's last instruction would be...

“”Hiigarans... Never ssshzhall you bear doubtzzs. Never shall a tear... be shed... Your efforts... will... bring... eternal peace... to... all tormented... soulzzzs... Devastate the Mainffrrramme... Hiigaranzzzz - End. My. Existence...””

Without any hesitation at first, Hailynn demanded to one of the marines, “Private. Rifle.”


Responding to her command, the marine handed her the dark gray standard issue assault rifle. Trusted with the rifles functions, the female officer armed it by laying her grip upon certain regions, causing the upper central to shortly charge back and forth and lock the projectile round.
“Line formation! Arm weapons! Attain guard and aim! By my command...”

Despite heeding the last cry of Aira, Hailynn raised her aim as well... Instinctively aiming at the most critical area of the supercomputer. All marines lined up followed by their gunpoint aligned at the supercomputer's entire vulnerable exposed exterior.


<Unbound mind... Aira... The fate of Kadesha's Ark may end in the veil of death... You must... Intervene... Save them... Aira... I pray for your soul to receive the embrace of... Rahji... Never... Never shed a tear... for my... soul... Trust those... you love... Aira... Never fail hope... of returning to your... Homeworld... Farewell... young... unbound... mind.>
Forgive me... Aira...

Hailynn's fierce command shouted throughout the entire hall,
Fire!”

Intensive roars of gunfire thundered throughout the whole area. Blazing flashes filled their view as all fired upon Shodanii's remains. Hundreds of powerful rounds smacked, devastated and shattered nearly everything that stood in their way... Every single unit of the mainframe busted violently into countless hundreds of pieces and fragments that sparked and splashed cooling fluids everywhere. Hoses squirted and sprayed substances and gases of all kinds.

The constant roar blazed long moments until the several clicks lastly were heard. With the cause of destruction, all sounds of alarm started to fail...

The once harmonic sound of power failed to empower the supercomputer's functions. The voice of Shodanii was heard but it no longer sounded sentient but more of a true A.I. that repeated warnings and alerts of its destructed mainframe... Soon, her voice slurred into a deep voice slowly until the very moment the last flow of power ended, both the voice and the operational red lights of the mainframe fading to black.

Hailynn closed her eyes shortly and shook her head slightly. Her ears still cannonaded...
Releasing her ears, Velle turned away, obviously, she was more affected by the execution than any other operative other than Aira, who fell... in deepest sorrowfulness.


“Atten-tion!”, the female officer suddenly shouted, ordering all marines to attain the straight military stance. Following her arm movement with delay, all marines including Hailynn swung their right arm upwards, their right hand straight and precisely aligned diagonally to the side of their foreheads - The farewell salute.

“Shodanii... The forgotten souls... We, the Amaji, will fulfill your will to the people of Taiidan Republic. Their prayers will heed of your... sorrow. Rest in piece.”

After the short moment of silence, Hailynn handed the rifle back to the marine. Alas, following her subsequent orders, the marines immediately dispatched. For sure, Hailynn could count on them and their success in sabotaging the generators of the mothership correctly and hoped they would stay out of trouble. Velle stood behind Hailynn but did not say a word as they both stared upon the shattered hulk.. The destructed remains of Shodanii.
What have... I... done...?”, Hailynn whispered quietly


Turning away, Hailynn shortly took her sidearm up, armed it and replaced upon her holster. As the female commander bypassed Velle, “Let's move...”

Following Hailynn's bypassing path, Velle discovered a single tear that ran down Hailynn cheek as she bypassed the operative with a firm face...