Volume 5: Gamma-20, Chapter 5.9

We returned topside to find the preparations for the mission had finished; all our gear was packed away in the cargo holds, and the deploy team was on board ready to depart.

Durgo called everyone together for a final debrief before it was time for us to disembark, having us all crammed into a small navigation room that had a round table with a holographic map display of the surrounding systems, with just enough chairs for everyone on the team.

Of course, Eve decided she didn’t need a chair of her own and climbed into my lap instead.

Durgo threw us a quick glare but didn’t say anything about it as he started the debrief.

“Once we’re clear of

The Radiance

, we’ll open a gate to travel through void space, with a relative time of four Imperial days passing. Once we enter the Derrion System we’ll head right towards

Jessipie-90

and offer our clearance codes to grant us entry to their ship.” Durgo explained.

I held my hand up, “That’s to let them know we aren’t pirates, right?”

Bryx nodded, “Standard protocol for rescue vessels to have Imperial clearance codes, they’d be fools to let us onboard without them.”

“We’ll dock our ship with theirs and head inside and follow our mission parameters from there.” Durgo looked at Eve and me, then towards everyone else, “You all have your orders and know what needs to be done once we’re on board, no need to deviate from the established plan then.”

I rolled my eyes but tried not to make it obvious; the Lord Generals were always overplanning and hated the idea their teams might need to improvise, and yet we had to do it

constantly

—more so on Vyrane than ever before and look at how they complained afterwards. I could almost guarantee this mission would require some amount of improvisation too, so I had to wonder how they would make it all our fault once more.

Oh, a meteor crashed into the ship? Eve should’ve used her space magic to fix it—but of course can’t go around revealing her Predazoan nature, so there will be another demerit in your employee profiles. Yeah fucking right.

“Once Gamma-20 has been eliminated we’ll need to see if we can get

Jessipie-90

back up and running on her own. If we can’t, we’ll just have to tow her to the nearest system with a repair station. That’ll definitely add more time to the mission, could be another cycle, but obviously we need to make sure the cargo can be safely delivered to Imperial space—priority number one; secure the cargo.” Durgo said.

I held my hand up again, “What happens if like pirates try to rob us of all the quintillion credits worth of super valuable cargo?”

Zyno shook his head, “Pirates don’t usually hang around deep space, they mostly work in frontier space; the statistical likelihood of a pirate being out in the vast emptiness of deep space and finding anyone is near zero, so definitely not worth it—quite dangerous really.” He explained.

I sighed, “Okay, what exactly is the difference between deep space and frontier space?” I asked.

Bryx pressed a button on the map projector and the hologram zoomed out to show hundreds of distant galaxies surrounded by an oblong, highlighted circle, “This is Imperial core space, everything centered and secured within the Tritentarian Empire. Any gaps between systems are filled at the very least with relay or rescue/repair stations.” He clicked the button again and a bunch of smaller circles around the first ring highlighted, “Frontier space is the edge of the Empire with newly assimilated planets, with systems that haven’t been fully secured yet; there might be gaps or voids between relay stations, maybe entire solar systems that are still completely empty.” Bryx pressed the button one more time and the map zoomed out again, showing galaxies outside the ring of the Empire that were scattered and far apart from everything else, “Deep space is outside the Empire, unexplored or lifeless space with no civilization or settlements. Once you start going beyond the Empire, local galaxy clusters seem to be much farther apart, with a lot of empty space between them. Resources are much scarcer out there, with significant distance between systems; it’s incredibly unsafe to head out there as there’s almost no support available once you get outside the Empire.”

I gestured towards the map, “Then what the hell is

Jessipie-90

doing there?”

Hennor leaned forward in his chair so he could look at me, “There’s basically only three kinds of Imperial vessels that go into deep space; the first are deep space freighters that need to be removed from Imperial space, either collecting rare materials or carrying dangerous and volatile goods. Next, exploration vessels trying to map out deep space to expand the Empire’s frontier lines. And of course, clandestine research vessels that require the highest levels of secrecy.”

Eve looked at me with a smirk, “One guess where NX-947b was.”

I nodded, “Deep space.”

Eve leaned forward to kiss my nose, “Very good darling.”

“Pirates and smugglers will go through deep space to avoid Imperial detection, but they wouldn’t be out there hunting for targets.” Zyno added.

“Aside from Gamma-20, there shouldn’t be any danger on the mission, so once she’s taken care of and we’re working on getting

Jessipie-90

back on course, everything should be fine and easy.” Durgo confirmed, then changed the hologram to display the Derrion System, “Once we’re cleared with

Jessipie-90

, either through our own repairs or transporting her to a repair station, that’s mission complete for us and we can return to

The Radiance

right away. All told mission projection timeframe is around two cycles, three if we need to tow

Jessipie-90

.” Durgo shut off the hologram and looked around at the crew, “Questions?”

Everyone seemed okay with the mission so far; we had our orders, no crazy backstories this time, no weird alibies to remember, and we all spent a little time studying the mercenary guild and rescue vessel protocols. As far as I could tell, this mission should be a cakewalk compared to our time on Vyrane.

“Very well.” Durgo said, then pointed to Eve, “And remember, high-command wants you camouflaged before we exit void space for the Derrion System, don’t want to risk Gamma-20 making any proactive moves against us like what happened with Beta-09 when you all went planet-side.”

“Shit, that’s right.” Eve said, as though she’d forgotten. She turned to me, “We’ll have to figure out a good disguise for me over the next few days.”

I shrugged, “We’ve got time.”

“Alright, dismissed everyone; your time is your own until we make it to the Derrion System.” Durgo confirmed, then promptly left with Roote.

Following the agents, Bryx left with Willa, heading for the cockpit. In line with keeping the teams all compartmentalized, high-command wanted to limit how often we’d have regular pilots with us, mostly wanting soldiers and marines who were trained to fly if we weren’t required to do anything crazy that needed a dedicated pilot—like dropping planet-side in the middle of an active warzone. Bryx would be our pilot with Willa as his copilot, and apparently just flying through void space and then towing a stranded space vessel wasn’t outside their wheelhouse.

I looked over at the researchers, “You boys have any plans for the travel time? Brought a deck of cards and a couple boardgames if anyone wants to play.”

Zyno shrugged, “I’m down, but I brought my emulation station and we can hook it into the TV in the lounge area if you’d rather play video games.”

I smiled, “I like the sound of that.” I looked over at Hennor, “What about you, big H? Wanna play video games with the cool kids?”

Hennor smiled awkwardly, “Maybe later; I’ve never been comfortable while traveling through void space. Usually, I spend the time in a sleep pod, but since we don’t have any on this vessel I’m going to take some sedatives and try to sleep through as much as I can.” He got up, bowed respectfully, then left.

I didn’t have a lock on Hennor yet; he was one of the newer researchers from

The Judicator,

handpicked by high-command to supervise some of

The Radiance’s

researchers. He seemed mild-mannered so far—timid really, just about shit himself in fright every other day back on Vyrane. If he had some agenda before of spying on us or didn’t trust the Predazoan asset and her handler, I’d say the fact we saved his ass time and again definitely cooled that off. Still, he hadn’t shown himself to be very friendly yet, so I wasn’t about to drop my guard around him anytime soon.

I stood up from my chair and picked Eve off my lap, putting her on my shoulder in a classic fireman’s carry (my enhanced strength making it as easy as lifting a bag of marshmallows now), causing her to trill a cute little giggle as she kicked her legs before me.

“Adam!” She squealed in delight.

I nodded to Zyno, “You grab the games, I’ll meet you in the lounge.”

Zyno just rolled his eyes at my antics, “Got it.”

We left together and I split off down the hall, carrying the giggling Eve all the while.

“Adam, put me down!” Eve said between laughs, though she clearly wasn’t trying to get free.

I smacked her ass beside me head, causing her to yelp, “Shut up, you love it.”

Eve trilled another cute giggle, “I do, but you haven’t even asked me what

I

want to do while we’re traveling.”

I spanked her again, “I know damn well what you want to do, but since we’re gonna be in a cramped ship with no private bedrooms, I don’t think we’ll be doing it much.”

Eve kicked her legs again, “Adam!”

I held up my other hand to halt her protest even though she couldn’t see it since she was facing the other way, “I didn’t say we

wouldn’t

do it, just that we wouldn’t be doing it as much as we could if we had proper privacy.” I assured her.

Eve’s giggles trailed away into a sigh, “What am I ever going to do with you?”

I made it to the lounge area and promptly dropped Eve off on the old couch, then leaned down to pin her there, my face an inch above hers, “Love me forever.”

Eve smiled and leaned up to kiss me, her hair-tentacles wrapping around my shoulders to pull me in closer, “Of course, darling, always.”

***

Traveling aboard

The Radiance

was so smooth I often forgot I was in a spaceship, and even most of the dropships were smooth enough I barely felt anything while flying.

Krook Hook

was not so smooth; we left

The Radiance

and I swear I felt it drop when it exited the hanger bay and its own artificial gravity kicked in, vibrating slightly all the while—like what you’d feel beneath your feet when riding a bus back on Earth.

When we opened the warp gate there was a great groaning noise that went through all the hallways, and then as we drifted into the void it all suddenly stopped, and everything smoothed out nicely.

As always, traveling in void space felt strange; it didn’t feel like time was passing (technically it wasn’t, or at least it was dilated in a way drastically different from our normal dimension), you wouldn’t feel tired as your body wasn’t really aging and your energy was in a weird, elongated cycle of regeneration. But your senses were also muted, as though the process of collecting information was paused, and it seemed like your every thought needed time to catch up. Still, you got used to it, so we spent the days lounging around as though nothing had really changed.

Once we were set traveling through void space, Bryx and Willa didn’t need to remain in the cockpit anymore, so they wandered around the vessel looking for something to do. Unlike on

The Radiance, Krook Hook

didn’t offer much in terms of entertainment, so the time traveling was rather boring for people who didn’t know how to preoccupy themselves.

As he said, Hennor spent most of his time sedated, though came out of the bunk room every so often to check how everyone was doing—or to puke and then clean himself up. Bryx would come join us in the lounge area and watch us play games for a few relative hours before leaving, never wanting to join in though. Willa had a tablet and had no problem spending her time reading. Roote had some strange puzzle cube that he put together and took apart constantly, creating different shapes and looking like he was solving some mathematics equation. We didn’t see much of Durgo, but he skulked by every so often, working on his tablet on some command reports or whatever.

Of course, Zyno, Eve and I enjoyed all the downtime, having games to play together thanks to Zyno’s emulation machine. Following along with my idea of playing board games, he loaded up the Mario Party games, where friendships were tested, alliances were created and destroyed, and violence was only a few bad turns away from being unleashed.

Aside from the occasional, though expected fight, we all had quite a bit of fun. Even though we were in the cramped, derelict vessel, I didn’t mind it at all—in fact, I rather felt like a real space cowboy for once; I admitted to Eve I’d love to go off on adventures in a vessel like this, working as mercenaries or whatever.

Actually, the idea of being part of a rescue vessel seemed like it would be quite exciting, traveling out to frontier or deep space to tow stranded ships. Eve said she liked the idea too, but would at least want a more modern vessel for us, something more comfortable—with a decently sized bed.

Speaking of beds, since we only had the two bunk rooms, if we wanted a little private fun, Eve would pull me down into the basement of the ship to fool around—which we did frequently, and that really made me feel like I was living the space cowboy life.

We still had to decide what form Eve would take for her disguise this time around, and we were actually running out of time for it as our window for relative time to exit void space was slowly ending.

“I’ve told you time and again, no form or suggestion will ever make me upset or jealous.” Eve insisted, sitting on my lap on the bench of the tiny kitchenette while I was eating the hard, fibrous pure protein meals I was more than sick of at this point.

“You say that, but it still feels, I dunno, dishonest if I’m the one to make the suggestion.” I admitted.

Eve groaned, “How is it dishonest? It’s still me—that’s the point! You can’t cheat on me with

me

after all.”

I nodded along, “I know, but it feels like I’m asking you to be someone

other

than you.” I gestured to her, “After all, you made it a point to build this body as my perfect mate or whatever, so choosing a form that’s different seems like I’m saying it’s not good enough.”

Eve held up a hand to stop me, “See, you just said it; I

built

this body—created this form. I could’ve chosen to create

any

form—I

can

create any form, no reason to get hung up on just the one.”

I sighed, “Yeah, I know.”

Eve leaned her head on my shoulder, “And this is just a physical form, something I can break down, unmake and remake like it’s nothing. I still have my hivemind, my consciousness, my void spirit or soul.” She looked up at me, “I told you before, biology is my plaything; no reason to get so hung up on those silly little details.”

I took in a deep breath, then let it out twice as slowly, “You promise you won’t get mad at my suggestion?”

Eve smirked at me, “You want me to be a vyrane, don’t you?”

I shook my head quickly, “No, nothing that

bad

, something else.” I quirked up an eyebrow, “But you’d be okay with that too? I mean I’ll admit they were a pretty attractive race.”

Eve rolled her eyes, “Darling, I’ll say it again and again, none of that bothers me; you could ask me to take a form like Almana and I would gladly do it to fulfil your fantasy, so long as you choose me looking like Almana, rather than Almana herself.”

“Are you serious?”

Eve nodded, “Of course, I wouldn’t lie to you. I don’t even mean taking some form

like

Almana; if you really wanted me to, I could look

exactly

like her down to the cellular level—like a clone really, and I could even copy her mannerisms and everything.”

“And that honestly wouldn’t bother you?”

Eve made a funny face like she really didn’t get why I was so hung up on the details, “And why would it? You’d be with me—me and only me, regardless what form and flesh I might be wearing. Again, I can’t get jealous of myself, can I?”

Considering how jealous and possessive Eve could be, it was almost surprising how accepting she was over the idea—encouraging even. Though I suppose that would be one way to keep me interested in her forever; if at any point I was attracted to someone else (despite how impossible that was since I was so obsessed with Eve), I could just tell her to take on the new form and try it out with Eve, never even needing to involve the other person to indulge in my new attraction.

I sighed one more time, “Alright, I got one.” I paused and looked at Eve, feeling like I was revealing a big secret. “An imphonite.”

Eve’s smile was brilliant and mischievous, “Like Kianna?”

I waved her off quickly, “No, not like her, a unique one—all pale and goth with your usual flair and personality.”

Eve’s smile was wicked, “Those short stacks really get you going, don’t they?”

I shrugged, “I like the idea of throwing you around, all wild and curvy and shit.”

Eve trilled a cute giggle, “You already throw me around with your newly enhanced strength.”

I smiled then, “Yeah, but imagine how much more I can throw you around as a short stack, toss you around and tie you in a little bow as I fuck you.”

Eve’s eyes flashed at me, showing steadily increasing lust, “Wish you would’ve told me this earlier, we won’t have any time to play around once we exit void space.”

As though to accentuate the point, Bryx’s voice rang out from the overhead speaker—sounding all old and staticky like it was barely working same as everything else on this rust bucket.

“Everyone, we’re opening the exit gate; prepare for the shift.” He announced.

I looked down at Eve, “You think you should—”

Eve waved me off, “We’ve got time.” Her smile returned, looking playful, then she wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned close so she was whispering in my ear, “Tell me what you want from this new body, be specific.” She pressed herself closer against me, pushing her boobs into me, “Tell me your fantasies, I’ll be happy to fulfil them.”

Before I could get into it with my outrageous sex kitten,

Krook Hook

made that annoying groaning noise as it activated the warp reactor, although this time it was much louder. The vessel was shaking a lot more than before too, almost violently.

“Shit, you really think it’s safe for a ship to—”

Suddenly, there was a horrible, high-pitched rending sound followed by a rumbling explosion that shook us so violently we fell out of our seats. Almost immediately after, an alarm started blaring as red warning lights flashed along the ceiling.

“What the fuck—”

The plating on the walls started to expand causing several panels to pop out of place, as steam and sparks flashed out behind them. The lights flickered off so only the red warning lights were left to illuminate our path.

Eve grabbed me and held me close, wrapping her tentacles around me protectively, “Adam!”

“Everyone, brace for—” Bryx said over the loudspeaker, but a moment later the transmission cut off as a huge explosion shook the entire vessel, causing more paneling to break off the walls, with plates from the ceiling crashing down around us.

Then suddenly it felt like we were falling—not down, no, it felt like we were being pulled forward by some incredible, unseen force. It was so strong, I could barely stand up, and I could see the bowls and cups in the kitchenette fly forward as though they’d been thrown off the shelves.

“Eve, what the hell is—” I stopped when I saw a look of abject terror on Eve’s face.

For the first time ever, my immortal, Outsider god girlfriend looked afraid.

Eve looked at me, an expression of carefully controlled panic clearly on her face.

“Adam, the warp gate’s been destabilized.”