Ecstasy of Gold - Ch. 10

Zech’s pod thawed, bringing him back into consciousness. His eyes quickly readjusted to the dim light in the room, but he found it impossible to move at first. His cybernetic systems hadn’t revived yet, leaving him trapped in the pod. He did his best to look around, recognizing his surroundings. They were strange, almost like a metal cave with lights emerging from slight recesses in the ceiling. He saw a computer panel with strange writings that looked like scratches. He couldn’t read them, but he recognized their source.

They were Laumur, a race of humanoid avians. They kept to themselves, mostly because their vocal cords weren’t capable of producing the sounds of the other races’ languages. They used a universal translator they carried with them everywhere to translate back and forth, but it wasn’t perfect, and often caused misunderstandings between the Laumur and the other races. It was just easier for them to keep to themselves as they traveled the stars, allowing free exchange but doing their best to stand on their own feet.

Zech didn’t trust the Laumur. He didn’t know what they wanted, what they feared, or what they hoped for, and that made him very apprehensive of them. He had only seen them in pictures, and even then, he hadn’t seen much of them, but he knew their dimensions, and he came face to face with one. It seemed to hunch as it walked, but all Laumur had bodies that hung over their feet, like their bodies met their legs at an angle. Their legs were always bent to support their weight, and their arms tended to rest in the same bent standard. Even bent like this, they were still about nine feet tall, on average.

In the pictures Zech had seen they were covered in feathers, with long ones that tended to point straight back off their head. Their forearms, hands, shins, and feet were scaly, and their fingers ended in sharp talons. They had slightly smaller eyes than humans, and a featureless face except for a large, razor sharp beak.

The Laumur slowly entered the room, reading the medical panels around his and Sala’s pods. He felt his systems coming back on line, hoping that it didn’t show up on the scanners. The more time it took for it to get near him, the more time he had to recover. He followed it with his eyes, trying to judge the strength it would have. He couldn’t actually see any of it. It appeared to be their version of an Enhance Marine, completely covered and surrounded in intricate plate armor. He couldn’t judge the gender of the Laumur, not knowing how to tell the males from the females. It was more difficult than telling apart the members of the tri-gender species he had dealt with, the Tel-Kek. This Laumur’s armor had a feature he had never seen before, a breast plate. It was a round and mostly featureless, but square in the center of its chest. He had no idea what to make of it, figuring it meant the Laumur was a woman.

She came over to him, putting her hands on either side of his helmet and starting to pull it off. He decided now was the time to act, not risking the Laumur’s atmosphere poisoning him. He swung his fist, punching the Laumur in the stomach. The blow was mighty, sending it stumbling backwards and pulling off his helmet. To his surprise, he could breathe the air just fine.

“Easy, Misseleer Sergeant Zech. I mean you no harm.” It had a grizzled female voice, though Zech thought it could be fake. He looked ‘her’ over, looking for a translator, but didn’t see it. She slowly put the helmet down on the end of his cryo-chamber. He picked it up, putting it back on. “It was a real pain in the ass to find you both drifting between the galaxies. You two were the only survivors I could find, I’m not about to kill you.”

“Why are you helping us?” He stood up, looking for his weapons. She had completely disarmed him.

“Surely you’ve heard of Kik-tik, the Laumur bounty hunter.” Zech had to think briefly, but he had heard of her, if only in passing. “Your government hired me to find you. They’re going to put you up on trial for the destruction of the Sword of Wisdom.”

“I didn’t destroy the Sword of Wisdom, I fought to protect it!” He growled. “An Enhance Marine’s duty is to his ship!”

“I know. You think I don’t know that if they thought you had actually destroyed your ship, they’d have paid me to kill you?” Kik-tik walked over to Sala’s cryo-pod. “They wouldn’t risk you getting away. I’d kill you before I unfroze you, problem solved. They’re just looking for a figure head to blame. They’ve lost around a half-dozen ships, all people on board the ships have been killed or lost, except for you and your friend there.”

“Ha!” He checked for his hidden weapons, which were still contained in his armor. Knowing about them let him relax slightly. “I’d know if we were loosing that many ships.”

“Like they would broadcast it?” She started reading through all the information on Sala. “The Terrans, Tel-Kek, and even the Pirates and Raiders have lost some ships.”

“What about the Laumur? Surely you’ve lost ships as well.”

“We’re a lot more careful than you fools.” Kik-tik started activating the cryo-pod’s revival system. Zech knew what it meant for Sala if Kik-tik revived her without curing her poisoning. The words of the nurse were still fresh in his mind. She would loose her children and slowly and painfully die.

He lunged towards Kik-tik, slamming her into the pod and pulling her back. Kik-tik swung her arms back over her shoulders, clawing at Zech. He ignored it, straining against her incredible strength to pull her back.

“You idiot!” She snarled. “She has to be revived sooner or later!”

“You’ll kill her children!”

“I have the cure!” She grabbed Zech, putting a reversal on him so she could face him. “It’ll save her life, but we’ll have to risk her children…”

“Like a Laumur knows a god damn thing about Zieke physiology!”

“It is up to you.” Kik-tik let go of him. “We can leave her frozen and delay the inevitable, or you can trust me.” Zech just stared at her, trying to peer through her visor to see her. It was completely reflective, blocking his view of her. He didn’t know it, but she smirked slightly under her mask, knowing he couldn’t see her. “She is a beautiful treasure. I understand why you would want to save her.”

“…” Zech had the first hard time making a decision he could ever remember. He was use to making fast, snap decisions without regrets, but this was different. He had no idea what he needed to do. “You’re sure…and I mean ABSOLUTELY sure…that if we do take her to a Zieke Doctor, she’ll have the same chances with them as she does here?”

“Better here. From what I understand, your soldiers didn’t take your captain to the brig, they took him to the comm room. That’s how they found out about your ‘betrayal’, and his family heard about her plans.” Kik-tik sat down on a bed across from Sala’s pod, letting her legs hang over the edge of the bed. She put her hand on a holstered energy weapon holstered on her hip. “At least with me, I have no reason to kill her.”

“But they could have paid you to…” She raised her hand, silencing him.

“You have no idea…just how much PREGNANCY means to my people, do you?”

“You’re BIRDS.” He said, finally drawing a plasma pistol, aiming it at her head. “You lay eggs! Why the hell would pregnancy mean a DAMN thing to you?” Kik-tik didn’t seem to respond to Zech holding a gun at her. She could stay calm, cool, and collected in any situation, but this went beyond that. This was a life threatening situation, one she could easily be killed in. Enhance Marines, especially Zieke ones, were trained never to aim a weapon unless they knew they could get their shots. Zieke weapons had few shots, focusing more energy on making powerful, focused bolts of plasma. They speared through anything they would run across.

“Laumur women give birth to eggs, Zieke…” A high pitched whistle, a low click, and a pair of clicks followed the word. It was a Laumur vulgarity, and Zech knew it. He didn’t know what it meant, but could guess the meaning. “Laumur women carry the egg inside of us for three months, lay them and tend to them for six more. Granted, we have machines, but…” She snapped out a pistol and fired, cutting the main power line on Zech’s pistol. “…you have no idea how time consuming of a process it is. We have rituals around it.” She put her pistol away, standing back up and putting her pistol away. “Don’t worry, your pistol wouldn’t have worked anyway. Cryo destroys the batteries in plasma pistols so they can’t hold a charge. That’s why Laumur use ion guns.”

“That, and it’s easier to track friendly fire…” She nodded after Zech spoke.

“I wasn’t going to say it, incase you didn’t know it.” She picked up a hypospray, slipping a vial of drugs into it. “NOW, you have a choice, wait and let her be killed as the doctors ‘attempt’ to save her, OR you can let me save her and risk I’m going to help you, OR you can leave her in cryo until the poison slowly courses through her and she looses the kids anyway.”

“That’s right…” Zech put his pistol away, figuring he could fix it later. He knew the batteries could have lost their charge, but he could easily recharge it without her knowing. He could just plug it into his own cybernetic systems. “Your body doesn’t stop in cryo…” He took a breath. “Alright, do it, but I swear to god, if she dies…”

“You’ll kill me…yeah, yeah…” She started working on the pod. “…is everything you say so clichéd?”

“Just shut up and do your job…” He took his helmet off, looking at Sala as her pod slowly came to life. He hoped she could forgive him if things went poorly, knowing he couldn’t forgive himself.


Days had passed, and the Ecstasy of Gold’s long voyage towing the Raider ship was almost complete. They were getting nearer and nearer to a human controlled planet. This one actually had one of the ‘healthiest’ mixes of races, with humans, Zieke, Rae, Tel-Kek, Akyllisians, Maran, and even a scattered number of Void Seekers and Laumur. ‘Healthy’ was a liberal use of the word, as it was anything but. Gang conflicts between the groups broke out from time to time. Still, it was mostly a human colony.

Ariis was planning what she would do if she ran into members of her own race. She’d be happy with either of a male or female, even scribes from her planet providing more of a physical challenge than mere humans. Though, she didn’t want to fight them. Akyllisians would treat her like a goddess, do literally anything she said. She wouldn’t have to worry about holding back like she did with Constance. She didn’t know she was hurting her so badly, actually. As she woke up, she expected to feel Constance’s tiny weight in her arms. Instead, she felt nothing. She sat up, ignoring her hang over. She was going to call out to Constance when she heard her. Constance was in her bathroom, and she could hear muffled cries.

“Constance?” She got up, not bothering to cover herself as she walked. Naturally, she was nude, and being in private, she never worried about covering her body or being ashamed of it. She opened her bathroom door and found Constance buckled over her toilet.

“Ma…master Ariis…” She turned and vomited into the toilet, holding back her hair. Ariis came over and held her hair back for her. Constance had been a little sick the last couple of days, but nothing like this. It was more like a mere cold before now. “Please help me…” She cried, her whole body quivering as she sobbed.

“I’ll call Patch, get some medicine…”

“Hurry!” Constance coughed and got sick again. “Please hurry…”

“Yes, lal’shallei…” Ariis almost didn’t want to leave Constance’s side. Constance put her head against the toilet seat, gasping for breath like something was strangling her. Ariis got to a comm panel and called Patch. She was glad they had a robotic doctor so she didn’t have to scramble to get dressed for calls like these.


Hunter hadn’t slept well the last couple of nights. Nightmares of his past haunted him, worse than they had in a long while. He knew it was because he was dealing with Yu’lena more. Being around the righteous always reminded him of how bad his past was. He decided to confess some of the worst things he had done to Yu’lena. She had been harassing him about the ‘taint of darkness around him’, and that was certainly what was causing his bad dreams. He had done a lot of good recently, and that put him at easy until he found her. It just reminded him that there was no way to really atone for all of his sins.

He went to the cafeteria, getting as many different fruits as he could find to sneak to Yu’lena. She hadn’t eaten well since she came on board, Patch not knowing or understanding that she was vegetarian. He knew, though. Rae maidens, especially of Yu’lena’s stature and position, were almost always vegetarian, preferring not to feed off animals. Not that it mattered to Hunter. Food was food. He just wanted her to be happy, knowing she’d at least be upset after he told her his secrets. He wasn’t sure if he should burden her.

As he picked out the fruit, he heard someone clear his throat. He looked up and saw one of the ships scientists standing near him, looking at him. He put out his hand.

“Name’s Hal, but everyone calls me Hawkins.” Hunter looked down at his hand and kept getting food. “Sorry, I…uh…I just wanted to shake the hand of the man that pissed Karen off so much.”

Hawkins was much better kept than Karen. He was average looking, with a plain black t-shirt and jeans. He was clean, with short black, well-kept hair and no facial hair. His shirt was tucked in, and his shoes were dirt free. Normally, he’d have a lab coat on, but not while he was eating.

“You’re glad she’s pissed off?”

“I know it makes me sound petty,” Hawkins gathered together his breakfast. It was a slice of grapefruit, some scrambled eggs, and a few pieces of bacon. “But she’s so…well, you know. She acts like she’s the head of the scientists on the ship, and gets all pissy when anyone makes a discovery and she doesn’t. She’s mad at me because I discovered a way to ride gravity eddies in hyperspace to help outrun Raiders and military ships, but it’s what I do. I’m a gravitation and high energy particle physicist.”

“Uh-huh…” Hunter tried to think like Yu’lena. He told himself not to say anything rude or impolite to interrupt him. Her talk of the veil of evil around him had made an effect on him, and he wasn’t exactly thrilled with it.

“See, she was pissed off because she doesn’t have anything named after her. I have the HEM, the Hawkins Emergency Maneuver…”

“Yeah…” He took out a cigar and lit it to stay calm.

“She’s threatened you a couple times behind your back…”

“Tell her she can bring it on, any time, anywhere.” He quickly left the room, in a hurry to get back to Yu’lena and away from Hawkins.


Tasha was lying in bed, still asleep when she heard a pound on her door. She groaned, grabbing her pillow and putting it around her head. The pounding didn’t stop, so she groaned and got up. She realized it could be something about Constance and jumped up. She hadn’t seen Constance since they took the raider ship. She was worried something had happened to her, but she hadn’t heard anything. She scrambled to get dressed, throwing on a jumpsuit she had from the day before and opening the door. Ariis was standing in the doorway, wearing her usual metal bikini. Tasha groaned.

“Ariis, I told you to stay far away from my room, or I’d…”

“It’s not for me, Tasha…” She pulled on a long metal chain. Constance stumbled forward. The chain was attached to her collar’s loop. “Constance wished to see you.”

“Hello, Tasha…” Constance could barely breathe, wheezing quietly as she drew breath. Even though she was normally pale, she was deathly white. Her skin’s normally perfectly smooth surface was covered in goose bumps despite the room being fairly warm. Tasha rushed to her side.

“Constance! Good lord, are you okay?” Constance tried to talk, stumbling and stuttering into a sentence. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t speak. She focused on Tasha, doing her best to gather words.

“I’m sick…”

“She’ll be fine…” Ariis scoffed. She looked around Tasha’s quarters. It was the first time she had been inside her quarters. “Her stomach’s upset, but Patch gave her something for it.”

“Ariis, I think she’s really…”

“What the hell is this!?” Ariis yelled, picking up a statue in the corner of Tasha’s room. She looked at it, not willing to believe what it was. It looked sort of like an Enhance Marine, combined with the older, more artistic qualities of knights. It was a woman, with short hair and small eyes. She was a human, and dead center in her chest was a skull and crossbones. The statue itself was finely worked granite, having no color outside of the grey and dark grey swirls. “Do you have any IDEA what this is to my people!?”

“No, but I can tell you to put that BACK!” Tasha yelled at her, helping Constance sit down on her bed. “Do you have any idea how much an actual stone statue of Frida costs?”

“She’s the…the…” Ariis had to stop and think of the word in English, “She’s the anti-Christ to my people!”

“DEAL WITH IT! Frida is still my personal guardian of the Ageless Thirteen…” She felt Constance’s forehead. “Oh god…you’re burning up…”

[“Please help me…”] Constance pled with her thoughts. Tasha was surprised, remembering Constance said she would never broadcast her thoughts into her mind. [“She…she won’t take me to the doctor, and I think I’m dying…”] Constance started to cry slightly. [“Please…she’ll listen to you…”]

“Ariis…” Tasha stood up. “Constance is really sick…She needs to see a doctor.”

“She will be fine. She’s just being a drama queen.” Tasha looked over at Constance. Constance shook her head.

[“She made me service her when she was covered in blood, Tasha…Said I was just being paranoid when I complained…but I…I caught something, and I’m…I’m dying…”] Constance sobbed.

“Don’t worry, Connie…” Tasha whispered to her. “Everything’s going to be okay now that…”

[“I don’t want to die as a slave…I…I…”] Constance shook her head. “Uffnn…” Constance’s world clapped shut around her. She fell back onto Tasha’s bed, bouncing lifelessly.

“Oh god!” Tasha checked her pulse, then put her head against her chest to make sure she was still breathing. She got up and hit the emergency signal device. “Patch! Constance is burning up and passed out in my quarters! Emergency transport to the hospital section for Constance and me!”

“And…” Constance and Tasha disappeared into flickers and flashes of light, “…me…Gun’Serg, damn them…” She put the statue down, not wanting to piss off Tasha. She opened the door and ran out of the room, running to the hospital section as fast as she could. “Worshipping Frida…maybe Tasha is hopeless…” She thought out loud in her native language. It made her seem a lot angrier to the people she was passing. “Taking MY property away from me like that…”

Ariis stopped, hearing a strange noise. She looked around, trying to see where it came from. She couldn’t see anything and didn’t have time to look for it . She HAD to get back to Constance, not wanting her property out of her sight.

What she didn’t see was a strange creature that had fazed through the wall. It was withered and mummified demon, looking something like a cross between a wolf and a cheetah. It had decayed brown skin that glowed from within with an eerie blue light. It growled and hissed, quickly lunging through the closest wall.


Yu’lena was asleep, having horrible dreams about her maidens. She could still hear their cries for help in the darkness. Each one was an orphan she brought into the temple to take care of them. They were all her daughters, and there was nothing she could do to save them when it mattered. She wished she had gone out into space alone instead of taking them along with her. They wanted to go with her, and she gave in. Now, she had to live with the painful consequences of it. She didn’t know how she was going to live without them now.

A gentle smell of fruit roused her from her violent dreams. She squirmed slightly, forcing open her eyes. On a table next to her was a large selection of fruit. She didn’t know what to make of it. She thought for a second and realized it must have been Hunter. She smiled, but decided to pass on it. She didn’t feel much like eating. She heard the strange yammering in English, a river of babble pouring over her. She looked around, seeing Tasha begging with Patch. Constance was unconscious on a med-bed, with small probes scanning her and treating her with injections. They had taken off all of her clothes to treat her directly. Yu’lena didn’t know what to do, deciding to read her bible while she couldn’t understand them.

“…What do you mean she’s going to be alright!?” Tasha pulled her hair as she ran her fingers through it.

“…She is going to be okay. Her physiology…” Patch stopped, putting one of its claws on the joint on its other arm. “…peculiar…Shouldn’t you WANT her to get better?”

“Ye…na…Damn it…” Tasha hit her head against the wall. “If she’s fine…she has to go back to Ariis. Ariis has been just fucking her day in and day out…and it’s…making her really sad and hurting her.”

“That would explain the exhaustion she’s suffering from.” Patch lowered his arms. It was an ineffectual attempt to mimic human behavior. “Though I assure you, she’ll be as healthy as she ever was once she wakes up. The injections will treat the viral infection she has…”

“Viral infection? Like…” Tasha sighed. “Like if she were to have contact with a large amount of infected blood?”

“That would be the easiest way…” Patch seemed to glance over at Constance. It didn’t have long to look at her before Ariis burst into the room. She yelled in her native language, frightening every one in the room. She calmed herself briefly before she spoke again.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!? Stealing my property like that right out from under me!”

“She’s a person first and property second, damn it!” Tasha yelled, standing up to her. She stood as tall as she could, staring up at Ariis. Ariis growled, looking down at her.

“Don’t make me take her out of here…”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, Miss Ariis.” Patch floated over and hover between Tasha and Ariis. Its cool, emotionless eye showed no intimidation. Patch hovered perfectly level. “I must have Miss Constance in my care for several days. Her physiology is too different to determine if her viral infection will be treated by the injections.”

“She’s mine, you hunk of tin…” Ariis clenched her fists and cracked her knuckles.

“She is barely a carbon-based life form, Miss Ariis.” Patch displayed a hologram over his head. “If it should adapt to her augment immune system, there is nothing, no drug on this ship or ANY ship that would be able to stop it.”

Tasha didn’t think it’d work. Ariis had to know that anyone in contact with Constance would also have to be in quarantine. They’d all be exposed to the same viruses. They’d all have to be quarantined until they could be sure they didn’t have anything. Fortunately, Ariis didn’t know standard procedure.

“Very well, but I want to know the INSTANT she’s available…” Ariis started to walk out the door, but stopped in her tracks. “You speak Ledonian, do you not?”

“Yes, Miss Ariis. I’m programmed in all languages.” Ariis looked over at Tasha. She knew what she was going to ask was too personal for her to hear without complaint.

“Every night…when we fuck, it is like I’m breaking a virgin.” Ariis swayed her hips to her side, putting her hand on her hip. “I’d like to get some pleasure from my courtesan without hurting her so every night.”

“Have you…” Ariis shook her head. Patch quickly realized she needed to speak in Ledonian, too. “Have you tried what humans call ‘foreplay’?”

“Until it felt like my jaw was going to break…” Patch didn’t understand what she was saying, barely understanding what foreplay meant. “Just see what you can do, alright?”

“I will look into it…” Patch hovered over towards Constance. The drones flying around her pulled a medical gown over and around her. Tasha smiled, talking to Patch after she was sure Ariis was long gone.

“Thank you, Patch…I…”

“There is no reason to thank me. I was just seeing to the mental health of my patient.” Tasha put her hand on Constance’s, rubbing the back of it with her thumb.

“She deserves such a better life than this, Patch.” She looked up at Patch. She had a question, but she knew he couldn’t answer it. Still, she had to bounce if off him. “If I can save her…get her out of this life…even if what I have to do is horrible…it’d be worth it if it gets her free, right?”

“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” Patch accessed from his memories banks. He had no idea where it came from, a random egg thrown in by its programmers.

“Right…” She sighed. She was sure of what she had to do now. “Call Ariis…Tell her to wait up…I need to talk to her.”


Zech watched the pod as Kik-tik worked. Any second, he was expecting Sala to thaw and scream and writhe in pain. He knew it was coming. Like the inevitable tick of a clock, it was unavoidable. He waited, and waited. Finally, the pod played a short, almost musical set of beeps. It sprayed steam into the air. The color returned to Sala’s face in a blink, but so did the sweat and the tears. She wretched forward, hitting her forehead on the glass shield. Zech pushed Kik-tik aside, ripping off the glass dome. He caught Sala, keeping her from falling forward.

“Injection! Now!” Kik-tik nodded, pressing a syringe into Sala’s neck. Sala yelped in pain, kicking her legs slightly. Sala’s screams lowered to gasps of pain.

“Zech…” She cried, grabbing his arm. “Oh god…Zech…I…I can feel it…the babies…” She looked down, crying. Zech looked down at her legs, seeing a pool of blood forming between her knees. She wept, her shoulders shaking violently as she did. Zech knew the truth as soon as he saw it. Kik-tik knew the truth about her children.

“God damn you!” He stood up, staring down Kik-tik. Kik-tik walked towards him.

“So, you finally figured it out…” She walked towards him, picking up Sala and putting her in a bed. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but there was absolutely no chance of your children surviving…” Zech grabbed Kik-tik and threw her against the wall.

“You said her chances were BETTER here!” He drew back his fist and prepared to take a swing at her. She caught his fist, holding it back and squeezing it tightly.

“HER chances, yes!” Kik-tik turned her head to Sala. “She is still alive. Once her body heals, she will be fine.” Zech took a swing at her with his free hand, hitting her on the side of her face.

“Egg-laying bitch…” Zech walked over to Sala, putting his hand on her chest, right bellow her neck. Sala was warm to the touch still. Beads of sweat still slowly dripped off her. And, as hard as she tried, she still wheezed for breath. “Sister…I’m sorry…”

“Not as sorry as I am…” She cried. “Why are we on a Laumur ship? We just…”

“She saved us.”

“And you thanked her by PUNCHING her?” She looked over at Kik-tik. “And why is she still wearing her armor?” Sala whispered quietly.

“What do you mean?” Zech whispered back.

“Laumur don’t like wearing armor…It mats down their feathers and…”

“That’s enough talk about me.” Kik-tik said, pressing a button on the med bed. A scanner rotated around Sala. “There still might be a chance that one of your children survived…I’ll do whatever I can to save them.”

“Thank you…” Sala said through a river of tears.

“Zech, I’ll need you to leave the room.” She pointed off to her left. “If you go that way, two doors down on the left, you’ll find a navigation room. You’ll need to choose the planet you’d like to go to with Sala.” Zech nodded and left the room. So far, Kik-tik had kept her word, and he had no reason to not trust her. Still, he was ready to kill her if she crossed him.


Constance was having one of her many nightmares, though this one was new. It was of her last night in the brothel, the night Hunter saved her. She was screaming in pain as the men butchered and crushed her. She couldn’t bear it anymore, a tight feeling stretching across her chest. Her lungs burned, and her heart felt like it was getting bigger and bigger in her chest, inflating like a balloon. She tried to lift herself up, feeling like she was being crushed between the men. The pain built and built in her, and when she thought she couldn’t take it anymore, it finally ended.

She cried, feeling like she was laying in filth and polluted to her very core. She knew what was coming, Jeremiah pinning her against the wall and stabbing into her again. She screamed and cried, but knew it would end soon. Hunter entered the room, putting the gun against Jeremiah’s head, but he didn’t seem to care. Jeremiah slammed her against the wall, content with his horrible deeds.

Hunter fired, blood splashing across her face again. It seemed to burn her like acid. She squirmed and tried to get free, but the bullet didn’t seem to stop Jeremiah. She screamed, raging back and forth to get free. She felt like she was going to die, seeing the horrors of Jeremiah ravaging her body. She wanted it to stop, wishing something, ANYTHING would save her. Suddenly, she felt a force leave her body. It struck out at Jeremiah, slicing him apart. She screamed in horror as he fell to pieces on the floor.

It was like someone else was controlling her body as she stood up. She reached out at Hunter. A blade of air sliced him, his blood spraying across an invisible line. In her horror, his bowels spilled out. She heard a cackle as the forced ripped apart Hunter. She screamed as his searing blood splashed across her. She trembled, seeing a mirror and herself. Her hair and eyes were dark red, stained by the blood of Jeremiah and Hunter.

Constance woke up with a scream, gasping for breath. She had never had a violent nightmare before, not towards other people at least. This was something different, something horrifying. She didn’t know what it meant, but in her mind, she had the word ‘Cassandra’ carved in with the same force that split the people apart in her dream.

“Is everything alright, dear?” Yu’lena asked, knowing she couldn’t understand her.

“I…I don’t know…” Constance covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know.”

“You can…can understand me?” Yu’lena sat up. Her cracked ribs seemed to grind together with pain as she did. “How…how can you? Wait…How I can understand you?”

“…I’m a freak…” She cried. “Plain and simple…”

“Freak? No, you’re not…” Yu’lena thought through everything. She had to say something to comfort Constance. Finally, she thought of what it could be. “Are you a telepath? I’m a telepath, and we could be exchanging thoughts…directly exchanging thoughts on a basic level…”

“How do you know that?” Yu’lena tapped her bible with her palm.

“My people’s bible speaks of a goddess, Lu…AH!” Yu’lena screamed out in pain. Her body wretched and collapsed back to the bed, bouncing ever so slightly as it did. Patch flew over to her, a half-dozen drones following him and scanning Yu’lena.

“Oh god…” Constance rubbed her temples. “I killed her…” She bit her thumb. “She was a priestess, and I KILLED her…”

“She’s not dead, Miss Constance. She just had a minor seizure…”

“That I caused!” Constance sobbed. “I’m a danger to everyone on the ship…”

“Everyone on the ship doesn’t think in a different language…” Patch said as the drones finished scanning her. “She’s fine. Her body just shook a little. She shouldn’t be running any marathons any time soon, but…” Patch turned to the door, hovering over to it. Hunter walked through a second later. “Mister Hunter, wel…”

“Welcome back, I know.” He was calm and collected, walking over to Yu’lena. He could tell something happened, something bad. He hated seeing her defenseless again, and hated that it came as a surprise. “What happened to her?”

“I did…” Constance cried, burying her face in her pillow.

“Miss Constance and Madam Yu’lena…” Hunter stopped Patch. When he heard ‘madam’, he thought of a Madame running a brothel, or a crotchety old woman hiding behind windows looking down at commoners.

“…Madam?” He shook his head. “Address her as priestess.”

“Miss Constance and Priestess Yu’lena were trading thoughts…Constance’s thoughts overloaded Yu’lena’s systems briefly…There won’t be any lasting effects.”

“I hate myself…” Constance looked down. “I could have killed her…”

“Only if you were trying, Miss Constance…” Hunter said, going over to Yu’lena. “She wouldn’t want you to feel bad for an accident. Forgive, forget, and forge ahead.”

“But…but if I did that to her when I accidentally connected with her mind…I…I could kill Tasha when I link with her…”

“Only Ariis would be at risk.” Patch hovered in front of her. “She thinks in a different language, Miss Natasha thinks in English. There’s no possibility for conflict.”

“Even Ariis is…somewhat naturalized when it comes to our language.” Hunter looked over at Yu’lena, just to be sure she was asleep. “She wouldn’t scream ‘Fuck yes!’ when she had an orgasm if she didn’t.”

“How did you…” Constance bit her thumb. “Oh…right…Her sexual appetite knows no bounds.”

“Yeah…” Hunter walked over to Patch. Patch watched him, tracking him with its camera locked on him. “Do you have any sort of defense systems in this place?”

“Not really. We rely on the soldiers for defense.”

“Get enough soldiers here to have two in every room with someone in it. There’s a hyperspace demon onboard.” Constance watched Hunter, wishing she had the courage to ask him to stay. Still, she felt horrible enough with what she did to Yu’lena, wanting to apologize to her in private. Yu’lena still looked like she was in pain, still flinching and trembling as she slept.