In search of the Progenitor

[Tenacity]

Miranda stood at the forward viewport of Altair's flight control deck, staring out into the dense, shifting purple and blue clouds that surrounded the station. Intermittent breaks and gaps in the dust revealed glimpses of the shielded fortress known as Dur Shurrikun, or the impenetrable minefields hidden throughout the nebula to deter intruders. The occasional Nomad form slipped by the viewport, a Labraid, a Sascya, even one unimaginably massive but somehow graceful Marduk and her escorts. Miranda found that she could link with the mindshare more easily now, and at will, and exercised that connection to link to the thoughts of the passing forms to learn where they were going, what they were doing. The Marduk was a mini-mindshare of its own, forming a stronger bond with its escorts so that the forms could all work in perfect unison and share their information freely.

"Miranda..." the man behind her spoke with his thick Rheinlander accent, and she turned to look over her shoulder back at him, "Your vessel should be arriving momentarily." She nodded and turned back towards the window, searching for any sign of the ship that they had procured for her. Gradually, a shadow appeared in one of the far clouds, and as the purple dust of the nebula boiled forward, pushed ahead by the object behind it, the vessel's forward section broke through, transforming from a dark silhouette into a bright steel starship lined with glowing windows and lights.

Miranda recognized the vessel almost immediately, a Storta-Class Outcast warship, an odd choice for her mission to be sure. She had captained a large ship in the past, during her days as a Zoner, and knew well the crew requirements necessary to keep such a vessel operational. Searching the Mindshare for information, stellar maps, she turned back to the Wilder, "Malta isnt that far from here... why did it take so long to procure the ship?"

The man grinned, "Follow me down to the airlock, I think it's time you had a tour of your new home."



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As the airlock pressurized and the Storta's interior door opened, Miranda was met with dim lighting, a thick bluish-purple haze settled at waist height, and an odd smell... something akin to a combination of mold and alchohol, but almost sweet somehow. The Storta's interior temperature was set below normal levels, but the chill, although quite apparent, did not seem to effect Miranda as much as she had expected.

As the two stepped out of the airlock and into the middeck hallway, Miranda's eyes ajusted to the low light and began to focus on the walls, floor, ceilings, consoles... everything was covered in tendrils that looked like living glass, pulses of light intermittently ran along the length of the tendrils like blood through veins, being moved by an unseen heart beating. The tendrils ran through the ship's air ducts, along the sides of the hallways, underneath the grated floor, and they accumulated wherever there were system control consoles or mechanical equipment, running in and out of the panels and machinery like worms devouring an apple core.

The Wild beckoned her to follow and made his way towards the bridge of the ship. As they passed through the dim hallways, they left a trail of disturbed purple haze in their wake. Occasionally, Miranda caught sight of the tendrils moving, spreading to new systems, still growing to fit the ship they were confined in. Taking notice of her focus, the man motioned towards the tendrils with a hand, "The growing process should be completed within a day or two, but most systems are functional."

Miranda turned towards him with a concentrating look, "What are they doing?". As she asked the question, she had to sidestep to avoid a tendril as it slithered down the side of the hallway, growing back towards the rear of the ship.

"Obviously one person cannot control a ship of this size on their own, and we dont have enough Wild or Spectres to crew an entire ship for you. A smaller vessel would not be able to survive where we assume you'll need to go, so we had to come up with a compromise. Roughly two weeks ago, we contacted the Oracles and requested this ship, which was moved to the Ravine shortly thereafter. One of our Power Cells, along with the seed of an Irra form, was implanted into the ship. The form began to grow, forming to the interior of the ship, interfacing with the systems, and linking them all back to the neural node at the seed's core, located on the bridge."

"So this ship is a Nomad, then?"

"Not entirely, no. The neural node, which normally contains the consciousness of a K'hara once transferred into the form, was modified to allow an external physical interface." She gave him a confused glance, "Essentially, a Nomad cannot transfer itself into this ship like it could with a normal Nomad form. Instead, you can link with the neural center of the ship on the bridge, the same way you linked with the power cell to absorb energy from it. Once you've established the link, the ship will become like your new body, allowing you to control every system onboard directly, and through thought alone. When the connection is severed, your consciousness will be back in your own body, allowing you to perform tasks away from the ship as needed. There's a scimitar-class fighter in the launch bay that you can use to travel to planetary surfaces and the like."

Miranda nodded, "I guess that answers how I'm supposed to control this thing by myself."

"The sanctum at the rear of deck three contains the Power Cell. That section of the ship is designed with a full view of surrounding space, allowing the Cell to absorb solar radiation and store it, you can use it to recharge and to extend your linking range to the Mindshare. Still, if you get too far away from Shurrikun you wont be able to communicate with us, you'll have to find a wanderer to relay information back here for you. Here's the bridge..."

They climbed up a small spiral staircase leading up to the bridge, a small room in the forward tower of the Storta. Each side of the room had a small console, covered in tendrils and pulsing with light, and two more similarly swarmed consoles lay at the front of the room. Where there would typically be a Captain's chair at the center of the bridge, there was instead a pedestal holding up a ball-shaped mass of small, interwoven tendrils, forming the neural center of the Nomad form inhabiting the ship. The other tendrils spread throughout the ship all connected here, reaching up into the base of the brain-like sphere.

Miranda approached the object, studying it with a childlike curiosity. "Go ahead, give it a try.", the urging voice of the Wilder behind her was almost blocked out, so intense was her focus on the ship's brain. She turned her hands upward, looking at her palms as tendrils of her own sprouted from her fingertips, each only slightly thicker than a hair. Turning her hands away, she placed them on the surface of the sphere, it felt like touching a pile of still snakes. As the tendrils emerging from her fingertips burrowed into the brain she felt something pulling at her mind, tearing it away from her body. At first she felt panic, but as her mind reached away from her body and into the sphere before her the feeling faded rapidly.

Suddenly, she felt numb... she wasnt breathing, she had no heartbeat. When she tried to move a finger, she felt the mechanical grinding of a turret turning in place. When she tried to move her legs, she felt the explosive force of a thruster kicking on, and the groaning sound of the airlock connection to Altair being stressed. When she tried to focus her eyes, it was as if she could see a dozen kilometers off into space, peering through the sensors of the the ship. The ship was her, she was the ship, they were one, almost everything onboard was linked directly to her mind and with a simple thought she could activate and control any system she wanted.

Thinking back to her body, drawing away from the brain, she pulled herself out of the link, the tendrils in her fingers withdrawing into her skin as she caught herself from falling backwards. "Well that was something new... I didnt expect it to make me feel like a machine." She gave the Wilder a mixed look of excitement and confusion.

"Well, it is a machine, it lacks the... grace... of our own forms, but at least you wont get shot on sight, at least not as often as the forms do. I need to get back to Altair, feel free to take the ship for a spin... ah, and she's named the Ascendant, we thought it was suitable for your unique nature."

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