Don't really know what I'm supposed to think of that Marie Mercier person if I'm honest. Sure, she seemed like your everyday Maltese-Gallic aristocrat, at least as far as such a thing is plausible, but other than that, she seems pretty dead inside. Never really showing and strong emotions, that practiced smile whenever someone tried being curteous to her. At least it appears that she was useful for whatever Ezrael had asked of her, and so I guess I shouldn't complain. She stayed for about a week before going again, and I am sure she was spying on us. There was this one time where I encountered her in the corridor pretty close to the bridge of the Corvo. Creepy. Had she tampered with the controls? The video recordings? Leon's sex tapes?! Gah! This not-knowing is driving me crazy even now!
Still, it's a new year now. New year, new... stuff. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Christmas and new year on Curacao quite a lot. I'm pretty sure nobody can say having as comfortable a workplace as I do. I got Ezrael a very ornate watch as well as a photo album of snapshots made by the internal video cameras of the Corvo for Christmas. God, this must've taken me days of sifting through video recordings to get done. Then again, some things that go on on the ship are quite interesting to watch, so I'd probably be fibbing if I said that it was just work.
Anyways!
Nancy gave back Valery. Was a pretty unceremonious affair as well, as it literally happened one moment to the next, but I'm not complaining. This... emptiness that prevented me from thinking clearly is finally gone. You'll look back at this moment and remember how good that felt, dear future-me. With things being back to normal, I was able to advance our little spiel a little. I really wish I could move freely and prepare everything myself, but that's not possible. Loyola's paranoia in high esteem, but it does vex me when someone backtalks about whether I'm sure people can be trusted. That, and it was a pain to sneak out one night and copy the crew dossiers that Ezrael keeps a copy of on the Corvo. For what, even? Who the hell cares if those weirdos Ezrael keeps locked up on the Apahanta are a liability or not? It's not like they can do harm anyways. If they try, they'd just be... pacified. You know, looking at how I use euphemisms, I really wonder if I'd be a good villain. Rawr!
Speaking of rawr, I should get back down to Nancy. We're currently having a vacation on Curacao, which is totally fine while things are being prepared. Me, my better half and Nancy and Sombra, Leon and Ezrael somewhere else. It's actually really nice, except the sunburns (again) and some awkward leftover feelings from Nancy's, well, contact with Val. I hope that normalizes.
Haven't done one of these in a good while. To be honest, I don't reckon I rightly need to because, let's face it, I'm just that kind of genious that doesn't need thought crutches like that.
Couple things changed. Most of it I did actually forget, but not because I 'forgot' them, but because they were simply not important enough to really keep in mind. There is a certain monotony when it comes to everyday life, and I haven't yet figured out whether I like it. I certainly do feel the need to apply myself in some sense, given that I also tried to find some sort of occupation in Gran Canaria to fill empty time. Back then, we were simply sitting on the Corvo a lot. How long ago was that now? Certainly a few months.
Ugh, I can feel this becoming a recount again, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid. Regardless of how long ago it was, Ezrael and I agreed that it would be best to stay on Curacao rather than on Canaria. It wasn't really a decision made on logical grounds. Canaria was being menaced by the Coalition and the Corsairs at the time, both factions having interest in the system, in addition to the Hessians, and so we thought it was best to simply go to Curacao. While Gallia is menacing that world as well, we simply decided that that world was worth defending more than the other. It was a diceroll, one that was heavily tilted in favour of Curacao given that Ezrael was born there. Fair enough; I don't mind either way anymore. The bloody heat is driving me crazy though.
Oh yeah, the Corvo.
Given that it is pretty much our home, we offered Ezrael to 'tweak' the cloaking device a little. While I admit that we wanted to get the Power Cell off his hands, it also would mean that our own dwelling would be better protected. Since we couldn't really access Kaarst Drydock from where we were, though, we had to be a bit more unconventional. Having heard of the Tundra, I wondered whether an incubus could just as well eat into the hull of a ship, and it turned out that it could, although a bit more drastically than I would have liked. In a bit less than two months, it ate not just through the cloaking device but through the entire engine section. Right now, the floor looks a bit like it is covered in pixie dust, the way it's sparkling. One would think that these little crystals sprouting out of the ground would be brittle, but they're really not. Since there was no way for me to really, well, traverse the ground without treading on them, I put on thick shoes, thinking they would cut my feet if I didn't wear something like that, but it turned out they're surprisingly elastic.
Hasn't been really fond of this change, Ezrael, oh no. When he found out about it, he was sort of furious, and in all fairness, I could at the very least understand why he would be so. Must've seemed like his ship was being destroyed, but that's really not the case. While the execution took a different course than I would've thought, the end result spoke for itself. The ship is now able to bend EM waves around the ship's hull much more effectively than it was before, albeit for the price of a huge power spike that would be well visible across at least twenty clicks. I'm not a computer expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the blue cloud the ship emits when engaging the EM distortion field around itself reminds me of Sigma 13. Can't quite place why yet. Maybe if I could catch a sample of that substance, but it dissipates too quickly for me to do anything about it. Currently, I am sitting on the Corvo alone in the middle of the Omega-9 system. I want to figure out how smooth this device runs. What I did notice was that, when engaging cruise engines, the ship started to shake in varying degrees of severity. I want to figure out whether this correlates with the cloak time in any way and whether I can do anything about it. I mean, what better way to test than to sit literally in a system that is frequented by Hessian and Coalition patrols, right?
And since I've got nothing better to do, I think I'll go back to teaching Mittens scrabble. He's a sly one with his choice of words.
Oh yeah, before I forget: Ezrael is currently doing... something. Okay, I did forget that, but not my fault. I was playing scrabble. Yes. Anyways, he wanted me to arrange a new ID for Nancy. Fair enough, I guess. I can ask a friend whether he would do that for me, but I'm not sure how far such a forgery would get Nancy. I guess it'd depend on what she wants to do with it.
And just so you know, I may use the word 'forget' a lot but what I really mean is 'neglect to mention'. Yes.
There are a few things that annoy me. Sudden rain when I step outside the house to get something, forcing me to go back in and get an umbrella, just to start walking and the rain stopping a minute afterwards. Needless to say, annoying me is easy. What I am not, though, is an angry person. I wouldn't say that it is easy to anger me, mostly because I am kind of a demure person that would rather seethe inwardly. I really didn't know what to think when I found out Elena killed her ***** baby.
Uh, I guess I haven't mentioned her here already, so I guess I should mention that Elena is some freelance mercenary or whatever who floats around Liberty a lot. Yeah, that's really all there is to it, I guess. Pretty generic character from all I could tell. You'd find hundreds of her in a single city. Recently, Ezrael and I had a bit of a struggle because apparently, Ezrael had picked up the habit of putting on a superhero costume complete with visor and everything to go out and be, well, a damn hero. Apparently, Elena met Bassam Hussaini, who wanted to infect her, though that was stopped by Ezrael. Idiot. I told him he should stop trying to act like miss generic was anything but a stranger and that he couldn't just go and help everybody. We're not in some hero movie. People die. That's just what happens. We need to make sure and protect our own instead of risking something for random people on the streets.
But alright, I thought, maybe this character isn't so bad after all. So, while he was away, I invited Elena over to bake cake with me on Curacao. I wanted to see if there really was something about her that would explain the painstaking lengths Ezrael went to. Elena had been noticably pregnant before, though when she showed up on Curacao, I couldn't hear a second heartbeat. I first thought it was because the window was open and the sound of the ocean was drowning it out, but no, even later in the evening when it got colder and we closed the window, there was nothing. This is what really got me about the entire thing. Dunno and don't care whether Elena is an alright person or not, she managed to kill her baby in some way. Probably wanted it gone too, otherwise she wouldn't have been that damn cheery when we met. ***** hell, such people really don't deserve the blessings they get. I'm here trying to conceive for months now and she just throws it away. Could've given it away if she didn't want it in the end, but for the love of God, let it live.
God, this is why I hate that abortions are legal.
Anyways, I need to steer away from this topic. Ezrael later made some light ruckus about 'mimimi, don't see her again, mimimi' as though I was dangerous. There has been an accident on the Apahanta recently. Apparently, some energy conduits blew and Ezrael stopped the ship from exploding. He's burnt, and that quite a bit. He got skin grafts for his arms and hands, but it will take some time before he can move his limbs again. Right now, even putting on a jacket is difficult for him to do alone. It's strange seeing him this vulnerable. Usually, he tries to convey the opposite image. Does a pretty good job at it too. I guess maybe this will at least slow down his sex drive, though. I still feel like ***** every time I picture him with other girls, but I can't bring that up again. I'm sick of chewing through the same every time that happens. I guess I just need to try it myself. Sombra visits me quite often. Maybe next time I'll ask her how to be more confident for things like that.
We've become quite good friends, Sombra and I. I can't really help but think that Sombra is somewhat damaged, though. I don't know, there is just something about the way she is so subservient and eager to please that rubs me the wrong way. You know, people call what I am automatons, but this sort of falls more into the category, I'd say. We usually do things like listen to music together, watch movies, maybe get groceries or go to the beach. Ezrael always jokes that we should do girly things like paint our nails, but we never actually did that. She's a good friend, though, and I enjoy having her over. It's still weird touching a girl like that sometimes, but it works. Mostly it was just for Ezrael and his phantasies, though.
Nancy has gone missing a while back. I had gotten her a new ID card, ironically with the help of Bassam Hussaini, and she went to work for OSC for a while under the alias of Lily Austin. Then she disappeared and nobody knew why. Ezrael asked me if I could look into it, but I'm a cuddly sociopath with daddy related issues when it comes to sex, and not a whizard or an index to... Okay, I should cut back the sarcasm. I mean, I'm not even talking to anyone in particular and using sarcasm as a way to make myself less vulnerable, when I'm actually talking to myself more than anything, is sort of not healthy I'd imagine. Recently, she appeared again. Some Navy dude had captured her apparently, though since it was Liberty, and not Bretonia, I imagine they had nothing to prosecute her. That's good, at least. Still, scary thought. I really don't know what else to say about this. One would think there would be more, but no. It's not like I can change any of that.
I recently sent out some applications. I'm trying to get some work as a paralegal in some university near where we're living on Curacao. It's just that I mostly got nothing to do and I hope that I might be able to kill some of the boredom this way. Most of it would be part time, but work times in such environments really depend on what is going on. I do hope that some criminology faculty will take me. I go an interview soon. Let's see how that goes.
I should put this thing down. Sombra usually comes in the afternoon and it is almost time. I should probably tidy up this place a little. The couch is a mess.
Well, it happened. I warned him so many times. I told him that he should be careful, but it was always me who's the idiot, right? Now you're gone, probably got killed by a Cultist ship in Delta. Do I sound callous? Well, yes, but this is the kind of thing that makes me angry. He is so self-absorbed about being a good person and helping others that he forgot how much it would hurt those close to him if he were gone. How did this all start, though?
It was some three weeks ago that Ezrael contacted me, wanting to have a dinner on Lividia. Given that he was there and wouldn't move away, I didn't reply, and wanted to surprise him with my arrival, but when I did arrive, he was not there, and neither was the Apahanta. I asked around in Lividia's administrative branch and they told me the Apahanta had departed a while prior and cloaked. I tried contacting Ezrael by then, but there was no reply. I moved to Omicron Delta, asked around and eventually, was told that there had been a Cultist attack and that the Apahanta had been seen during it, but not after it. There was no debris, though, leaving me to believe the Apahanta either jumped away or was being jumped by an escaping Cultist ship. It has been almost four weeks since then and I am starting to lose hope that I will find him at all. I contacted a few people who could maybe help with the search, but other than that, I can't do much.
I have been spending the last two weeks flying around the lower Omicrons, the Omegas and some Tau systems aimlessly, asking around and staying at Freeports. It keeps me busy and prevents me from losing it again completely like I had when I first realized he was probably... dead. Next up on the list is a stay on Freeport 10, after which I will see if I can find anything in the upper Omicrons. My credits are running low, so I probably will need to find something to help me pay food and fuel.
I arrived on Freeport 10 and immediately knew the place was seedy. I had heard rumors about the place being so isolated that the local Zoners sometimes went mad with it, but when I was there, I couldn't see any of that. I think it has to do with the Cardamine trade which goes through that system, so Freeport 10 naturally gets a lot of smugglers and other lowlifes as visitors. It also explains why the place was so seedy that I could've been spitting bits of it out. It was a good thing I only wanted to be there for a night and refuel so I could continue searching. I know there likely isn't a point anymore, but I thought I didn't have a place anymore, so what was the harm.
I scraped together what little money I had left and bought some Kusarian takeaway. Gotta say, whoever had the idea of eating something so small as noodles with sticks deserves to be beaten. I was in the biodome when I threw them away in anger and got the attention of a blonde girl by the name of Jessica. I have to admit that in any other situation, the way she approached me might have been considered extremely rude, or even intrusive, but I was too hungry to take offense. Continuing to eat with my fingers because I have no manners, we talked and eventually my money shortness came up and she offered me to help out with a little problem that she had with her sister. Apparently, her family is really big on things like physics, and her little sister was not properly understanding something which Jessica wanted me to demonstrate. Fair enough, I though, even when the thing that I would be tasked with doing was basically just getting asteroids hurled against my Prosecutor's shields and performing several maneuvers.
Following her, we departed the Freeport to meet up with her folks, but on the way there, we were intercepted by a wing of Auxesia ships, which questioned us about what we were doing, and quite rudely at that. I told them that Ezrael was missing, as they apparently didn't know that yet. Being unable to find the ship she had been looking for, Jessica and I decided to leave the Taus for now and wait a day in Kusari before returning, hoping that by that time, the groups of people, Auxesia included, were not there anymore.
The Siren's Bell is a nice ship, I have to admit. Contrary to the Corvo that Ezrael and I have, they knocked down a lot of the walls to keep the ship as open as possible, and entire deck being some sort of living space while the others are more dedicated to work. I met Jessica's sisters Ivy and Rachel, the former striking me as fairly odd, to be perfectly honest. She might be slightly autistic. Rachel just seems tired all the time, but both of them are quite pleasant people. I hope I can stick around for a while longer even after I helped Jessica with Ivy's education. I doubt running around for the rest of my life will bring him back anyways.
It becomes a little easier to write these entries, I feel. It isn't really necessary but it helps keep order of things. It has now been more than two months since Ezrael's disappearance and things have sort of returned to a state of normalcy again. There is now a routine and it sort of is comforting.
About two weeks ago, I visited Freeport 10, when I was still spending entire days searching Sirius to find Ezrael, I came across a girl named Jessica Snow. I had been pretty famished from spending the better part of twelve or so hours in a cockpit and so I'd gotten some takeaway. Fried noodles with soy beans. The only problem was that these weird slit eyes thought it'd be a good idea to eat something using sticks, and they had only given me these with the food. I only noticed that when I sat down to eat in one of the biodomes of the Freeport, and being unwieldy with them, it came like it had to and I couldn't use them. Jessica noticed my misfortune and just approached me like that, telling me how it works. Not that it helped. What is so wrong about forks?
We talked and she eventually convinced me to do something for her, as she promised to pay me. I had next to no money anymore, so this was quite convenient. She was looking for a pilot, which I am, to perform an assortment of spaceborne maneuvers for her younger sister Ivy in order to explain several physics things to her, I think. Ivy is homeschooled by Jessica's sister Rachel, I think. It also took rather long, almost taking four hours to do everything I was required to do. At least I got free food and a place to sleep for the night, which was rather alright.
Oh yes, I forgot. To do all this, we had to find her folks first. They live on a Corvo called Siren's Bell, and usually parks outside of most traffic. Taking me there wasn't unspectacular, as when we entered Tau-29, we ran headfirst into a patrol of Auxesian pilots. I think they immediately recognized me in particular, since they began to ask rather intimate questions. I couldn't rightly help but tell them that Ezrael was missing. At least they didn't hold us and let us leave after that. We then proceeded to find the Siren's Bell. Still, I really hate that Auxesia now knows about Ezrael's disappearance. Not that they suspect me of having made him disappear.
Over the time of my visit, Jessica and I got to talk a lot. She seemed to me like a pretty normal person, although she constantly thought I would find her obnoxious for whatever reason, saying that 'she would not rightly know when she was being overbearing'. Given that I lived together with some admittedly very obnoxious people for more than a year, I still don't really know what she means with that. She is less loud than Sombra, and that is saying something. Other than Ezrael, Sombra, et cetera, Jessica seems to be very fond of children, however, and wants to have them herself at some point. She can't stop swooning over Ivy, who is adopted into the family.
The Siren's Bell had moved to Kepler while I stayed the night and I left that day again, though not to continue searching for the Apahanta. I was emotionally very tired of it, but sitting at home on the Hoffnungsschimmer. I offered Jessica to go on a trip with me. It was more of a whim, but she agreed. I took her to the place on Canaria where Ezrael, Thallia, and I had once stopped after we had taken a day to just wander from one town to the next. Things... got a bit emotional. I sort of unloaded my pent up frustrations about Ezrael's disappearance on her in that moment. It probably wasn't a very clever idea to visit that place of all places, but in the end, I think it was not so bad. She helped me come to terms with Ezrael being dead, and because of that, I think we have gotten pretty close.
Upon returning to the Siren's Bell, I had a talk with her sister Ivy. For a seventeen year old, she is rather strange. I do not like the phrase 'wise beyond one's years', as I think it's cheesy, but Ivy does not talk like someone her age at all. Maybe it's the isolation of being mostly around her family and being exposed a lot to science stuff that I don't even understand if I tried very hard, but she is so smart, it's almost creepy. I also think that, in hindsight now, she was constantly trying to couple me with her sister, and well, it worked. I think we're quite alike and with Ezrael dead, I guess I don't really need to keep my hopes up. She's not a replacement. That'd be unfair.
When I returned to the Hoffnungsschimmer, I tried contacting Nancy, but all I got was the reply of some Catherine Gotthard or something like that. Charlotte Gotts? Well, it was some doctor who claimed that Nancy had been injured and was now staying in a hospital on Denver until she was better again. She offered me to visit and I did. The clinic was located in a very remote location, which surprised me. Any sort of ambulance would have a difficult time reaching this place. It ultimately became apparent that this place was connected to the LSF in some way. Unwilling to leave Nancy there, I used force to take her with me. There was another visitor named Mason Coleman, some Forlorn Hope mercenary who wanted to visit Nancy. I managed to talk him into helping me. Useful idiot.
Being that Nancy had had one of her memory lapses due to too much exertion again, Valery was given to her again. Better to keep an eye on Nancy, as she tends to get into too much trouble if left on her own. I myself feel... weary. The initial sickness after being alone after more than a year soon abated with medication, but regardless of how much I rest, I just can't seem to really, well, be as strong as I normally would be. It feels like having a fever, just without much of the direct pains. It's hard to explain this... haziness. The phantom pains in my arms are also back and driving me insane. I know they're not real, but damn, that doesn't help. Still, I got to do one thing still. This John Silverstone fellow gave me the money to put a bounty out for people looking for Ezrael. I guess I can do that, given that I don't need to pay for it. Why does he care so much, anyways?
Silence, besides the occasional pressing of a button, or the adjustment of an instrument. There wasn't really a need to speak, or communicate otherwise. Not if they didn't need to uphold a charade. In front of them, the wide window of the RNC-Schiller's bridge revealed the vast emptiness of space. A solitary sun, a couple of clicks away, its rays bent around the outside of the battleship, rendering it invisible, except a small, residue radiation that one needed to pay attention to in order to pick up.
They were watching a couple of dots move around a holoscreen that had been projected over the vista. A group of blue marked dots moved from one end of the screen to the other, slowly, their destianation being jump hole that would lead them out of Honshu and into the contested Sigma-21 system. Behind them, two groups of three smaller, red triangles, each surrounded by a circle to indicate that they were cloaked, followed, keeping a certain distance. The blue dots moved directly towards the Schiller, which had positioned itself to block the jump hole.
10. 9. 8. 7. 6.
It wouldn't be much longer until the convoy they had set their eyes on would arrive, forcing them to do their play. From what they knew so far, the convoy was supposed to bring valuable supplies and manpower to the Battlegroup Hyono. A new shift of soldiers, to replace the ones who had served the initial month of the conflict and to replace the fallen. It was a perfect target. Difficult to reach for the Rheinland Military, but the Schiller had its ways of circumventing useless battles.
5. 4. 3. 2. 1.
The vessel decloaked, just as the convoy moved into the range of the Schiller. As if by an unspoken command, the holoscreen indicated that the two groups of triangles had decloaked behind the convoy, and in complete sync, both the Schiller and the two bomber wings' weapons roared to life, stopping the incoming convoy dead in its tracks, its snubcraft escorts caught completely off guard, disabled. Only now we could really appraise which vessels we had stopped. Two armoured transports.
"Dies ist das Rheinwehrschlachtschiff Schiller," I spoke up, standing in the middle of the Schiller's command deck, broadcasting the message on local frequencies, as to avoid unwanted attention. We estimated that Battlegroup Hyono awaited this convoy to arrive within the next twenty minutes. That was our time window if we intended to succeed. As awaited, the cripplied vessels didn't respond. "Triebwerke aus und ergeben Sie sich. Wir werden jetzt an Bord kommen." Again, as if through an unspoken command, the Schiller moved, slowly positioning itself between the two armoured transports. I didn't wait to see it. I knew it would happen, just as much as anyone else on the vessel. Dead silence followed me around the ship as I walked towards the boarding stations that had been pre-prepared for this. I looked at my watch. 17 minutes. Battlegroup Hyono would undoubtedly send a regimen to scout the area if we didn't manage to clear out the armoured transports fast enough. My hope had been that the element of surprise would throw them into enough disarray that the boarding maneuver would not give them enough time to pick up weapons and defend themselves. However, realistically, we were likely facing highly trained soldiers.
By the time I arrived at the bridgehead that had forcibly opened a way into one of the two vessels, the boarding party had already entered it. My steps echoed through the tubical pathway as I entered the transport on the starboard side of the Schiller. I was not afraid of being hurt. I would know in advance if someone were to approach me who wasn't with me. I stroked a strand of hair behind my ears before continuing. For this occasion, we had even dressed up in Rheinland Military uniforms. I had to admit, they were stylish. Less stylish, however, were the insides of the vessel I entered. The ambush had caught them completely off guard, and, given that we had aimed for their engines, some of the conductors had overloaded, causing damages to the hallways. Some panels had fallen off the walls and ceiling, and some minor fires had scorched the ground as cables spilt out of the holes, to be extinguised by the fire extinguishing systems.
Fifteen minutes. There were a couple of burn spots on the walls, doubtlessly from weapon fire hastily directed at the boarding forces. Roughly fifty per transport. I had never been on one of these vessels, yet I knew where I needed to go judging by the others who had paved the way. Soon, I saw the first bodies on the floor. Not dead. At least most of them, but seduced. I had a weapon with me in case any of them had flown under our radar, but none moved. Crossing the last corridor, I came face to face with the door of the medical bay, a place that had been sealed the moment the ship had been attacked. Due to the ambush having destroyed their reactors, most of the vessel's functions were currently running on emergency power, and the doors could only manually be opened. Two men were already on the task, prying open the doors with two large metal bars, fruitlessly. I knew, just as well as they did, that there were people inside. It only made sense that some people would be injured during the ambush, and be brought here. I watched the two men struggle against the locked door mechanism for a while longer, before I decided to take a different approach. They stepped back just as I stepped forward.
"This is the Rheinland Military boarding party. We have gained control of the vessel. Surrender now and open the door." With the metallic screeching of the breach attempts gone, I could actually hear some of the things that were going on inside. I knew there were people there, but not how many. We needed them alive, preferably. We couldn't merely blow up the door. That might damage them.
Instead of a straight answer, a voice from inside gave a trembling laugh. "Th- they want to get in here, yes?! C'mere, fishy fishy fishy. I know you want me, but you can't come in here. I am safe!" He almost shouted the last bit. The voice was a singular male one, slightly shakey. The accent was negligible, which was surprising. The way he referred only to himself made me think he was alone. "They can't come in here! The door is too heavy! Yes." The last bit was spoken in a smaller, almost inaudible voice.
"I take it you are alone?" I asked back, leaning against the door frame slightly to assume a more relaxed position. "There is no purpose to staying inside of there. We will open the door at some point. Come out, and you will be treated as a prisoner of war." 12 minutes. I had to keep in mind that it would at least take five minutes to get everyone off the ship. Behind me, people were already collecting the bodies and carrying them back into the Schiller.
Another cackling laugh. "Fishy?! Is that you? I could swear I heard you earlier. Did you come to eat me now?" What he was saying made no sense, and it was wasting precious time. What happened to this man? "I saw you eat them before. Yes! I did! Long, sabre-like teeth it had!"
I blinked. Had he seen...? But he couldn't know. We wouldn't proceed this way. It would take too long. It was easier to stun everyone and bring them to the Schiller for processing. "They are dead now. The infiltrators hid among the crew and tried to sabotage our operation," I continued, figuring this would be feeding into his narrative. "I can show them to you if you want. They're right outside here."
There was a period of silence, during which I counted the seconds. A man approached me from behind, carrying what I knew was a small satchel charge to break down the door if we needed to. "That is exactly what fishy would say!" came the voice from the other side of the door again, and I could hear clammoring on the other side, some metallic objects hitting the floor, as though someone was throwing things away without care. The room couldn't be that big.
"What are the odds?" I countered, hoping there was some sense in this person. "We will treat you like a combatant and open the door forcefully if you don't come out. Consider your options carefully." Sighing, I took a step back and the man placed the charge in the middle of the door, using clasps to keep it in place.
"I can heeeear yooou~" the voice sing-songed from the other side. "Click clack, little fingers fiddling with little buttons. I know you should take a person with smaller fingers for this."
I watched the man mount the explosive for a small while. "What is your name?" I asked, figuring that it didn't matter anymore, however. The man wouldn't comply.
"H- Hideo," he replied, almost immediately, and another object hit the floor, followed by a shuffling noise that I couldn't quite place. It sounded like paper. Or stiff cloth. "Nnnnot that it'll do you any good to know that, fishy! Fishy has no name. Yes."
"Maren," I introduced myself, seeing that the man with the satchel charge was almost finished. "We placed an explosive on the door," I began to explain. "We assume the room you are in is quite small, so you would do well to seek cover behind a bulky object. There are beds in there, right? You could turn them sideways and duck." I turned to get to cover, but I stopped again. Why'd it even matter if we didn't manage to get him out? We could leave him here, too.
No. If there was a chance we could get him as well, we should try. Starting to work again, I rounded a corner together with my entourage, before they detonated the satchel charge. It wasn't a big explosion at all. However, in confined spaces, it was still dangerous. As the dust settled, I peaked around the corner. The explosion had blasted away parts of the door. However, the hole that had been created was only so big, not allowing one to merely step through. Being less bulky than a man, I could probably climb through. We didn't hear anything from the other side of the room, so we assumed that the man on the other side was either dead or dazed.
There wasn't much time left, so I started emerging from behind the corner and I knew quite soon that the man behind the remains of the door was still alive when I got shot. A bullet perforated my uniform, punching a solid hole into my thigh and I gave a half-yelp, half scream, falling to my side, which prevented my head from receiving a similar hole as well. I couldn't move the leg. Not without excruciating pain at least. Moaning, I moved aside so Hideo wouldn't get another clean shot at me. A strangled cackling could be heard through the door, followed by a cough.
I cursed under my breath as I rested against the wall, blood leaking out of the hole in my thigh, the dark ichor soon seeping through my pants. The last thing I saw before consciousness failed me was one of the men who had accompanied me lobbing something through the hole in the door...
When I woke up again, I was alone. I knew that I had been brought back onto the Schiller to be patched back up. Memories rushed back to what had happened after the incident through the collected memory of the crew and I stood up, testing my leg daintily before finding that it was only a little sore. I noticed I was naked. Retrieving a set of rudimentary clothes, which were mostly utilitarian, as the human body still needed to conserve warmth, I left the medical wing, stepping through the halls of the Schiller with a goal in mind. The light was dim. We didn't really need it most of the time. Most of the wall plating was not mounted, as the ship was constantly writhing, consuming and ever expanding. The hybrid parts of it needed space, and the human ones maintenance. The plating was only aesthetical in nature anyway. A quick mental sweep revealed that the Schiller now had roughly three hundred more 'crewmen' than it had had before it had entered Honshu.
I entered the holding cell tract, having descended two decks. Most of the new arrivals that could not directly be introduced to our family were put here first. Most were unconscious, as the most common reason for why they would need to be held like this were their injuries, but some of them had other properties that made them difficult to work with — like the man for whose capture I had been shot for. I stopped in front of a holding cell, the figure behind the thin layer of energy hidden in the otherwise gloomy room. He was sitting. However, the way he was slouched forward belied his injuries. I deactivated the force field separating us and stepped in, the small noise of the capacitors powering down making him look up, wild eyed.
I knelt down in front of Hideo, taking in the extent of the damage. Either due to the explosion of the door, or when the Schiller disabled the transports, the man had been badly burnt. Not lethally, but I suspected these were second degree burns that coated half of his body. His uniform had either burnt or melted, fusing in an abhorrent manner with his flesh above the shoulder. He looked at me. "Where did you get this?" I asked, pointing at a small yet striking crystal that was embedded in a pendant he was wearing around his neck. He grit his teeth, evidently not in the mood to answer. "You're a Psionic," I stated, trying to see if saying it out loud would cause him to show a sign of recognition. "You are able to see things, aren't you? Either voluntarily or involuntarily, you have insight into our nature. This is how you knew we weren't with the Rheinland Military."
Whatever was going on in his head, I knew he was understanding what I was saying. However, his expression was merely that of passive pain. With a hand, I tried reaching for the pendant around his neck and took it from him. "You need a fulcrum point. Something related to us for your precognition to work. It is probably better if I take this from you." I watched him as his eyes followed the pendant in my hand. "This looks pretty bad," I continued, acknowledging his burns, visible through his charred uniform. "We don't rightly know what to do with you, you know. Psionics have always been rather ungrateful hosts." As he still remained quiet, I sighed. "You know, being quiet won't help you get medical attention. Why don't you talk with me, hmm?"
"***** you," he pressed out between his teeth. I noticed his mouth was partially burnt to the point where it'd be difficult to talk. We should really invest in more lighting in these cells.
"Well that's awkward," I mumbled, figuring that made it harder. "You know we will find out anyway, though. Why not tell me now?" I wondered if I should threaten him. It didn't seem like a good approach, given how careless he seemed. "I mean, you don't seem like someone who would want to be like us. In the end, we likely can't use you since you are already so broken. On the other hand, we will need to pry out of your head what you know about other potential Psionics. So what's it gonna be?"
He gave me a flat look. What a sassy thing to do in this situation. I had to admit, it was slightly surreal. "I don't-," he began, taking a gasping breath after these few words to continue. "You're asking something I can't give you. This is not how it works."
Now that was finally something interesting. "Then enlighten me. How do I need to imagine Psionic precognition?"
His eyes darted from the pendant in my hand back to my face. I looked down at the little thing in my hand. The crystal seemed to be a shard of a very old, depleted Nomad Power Cell. "You know carpets, right?"
I frowned. This really was a random thing to say. "Evidently."
"Before industrial production, they were woven on looms. The threads were first drawn vertically, then interwoven horizontally." He coughed and I clicked my tongue in impatience. "Imagine this, but the threads aren't cloth."
"Then what are they?"
He needed a few seconds before he could continue speaking. "Fates. Causality. However you want to call it. They work together with others and hold together, forming a structure."
"And you can view this structure?" I asked incredulously, severely doubting his words.
"No," he replied, trying to sit up straight against the wall he was leaning on but failing. "Snippets. They are triggered randomly for me. It is like zooming out, your mind expanding and for a split second, you know everything. Then it is gone and all I still have is a small but definitive certainty."
Could it be that the experience was different for each Psionic? The experience he described reminded me of what some people experienced shortly before suffering an epilleptic seizure. Some reported cases in which these seizures were preceeded by a state of altered consciousness, a so called aura. "And this?" I waved the pendant in front of his face. "Where'd you get this?"
"Would you believe me when I said I just found it?" He almost chuckled, but that seemed to be painful. "I mean, it looks like trash. It just spoke to me when I saw it and I couldn't ignore it."
He wasn't wrong in that regard. The crystal itself was merely milky white. Nothing out of the ordinary from a visual perspective. Turning it between my fingers, I mulled over what he had said. "There is one thing," I began, putting the pendant into a pocket of mine. "You shot at me twice." He tilted his head slightly, as if asking where I was going with this. "If your aura helped you recognize who we were, and who I was, and if you shot me twice but only hit once, why didn't you see it coming that the first one would only injure me and that you would miss the second one?" I arced an eyebrow. "You could have killed me."
He attempted a motion that, I was sure, was supposed to be a shrug. "I felt like I didn't need to."
"Now that is a ***** excuse if I ever heard one," I gave back flatly, looking at him. "What is this?" I mimicked his voice. "Ooooh, I didn't need to shoot you. I am so mysterious."
"Can you sod off now? I want to be in pain in peace," he gave back, closing his eyes. Standing up, I left him there. Someone else would go to him soon, but I doubted there had ever been a chance of getting more out of him.