061: Trust In Skill – Three
One of the ornate halls of the Pelekys, lit by a soft glow meant to simulate the amber light of sundown, which in turn outlined the access panels to the doors that lined the hall in gold.
The Queen's Red Left Hand marched around the corner to enter the hall, stopping before the first door on the left, her eyes distant and distracted. She lifted a hand to the control panel, but hesitated before she could make contact. Her jaw worked as the rest of her was motionless, staring at the control panel for several seconds, before she let out a breath and turned around, stepping up to the first door on the right.
Just as she was about to touch the access panel, Chancellor Bathory rounded the corner, her stride stuttering briefly when she caught sight of the Hand. She carried on to the first door on the left as if she hadn't been surprised by the sight of the other woman, before she pressed the control panel to open the room.
Before Bathory entered, she looked over her shoulder at the Hand, only to find that the other woman was already looking over her own shoulder back at her.
They stood there for some time, silent, eyes locked, before Bathory inclined her head slightly, an unreadable look on her face as she stepped into her room.
Once the door hissed shut, the Hand stared at where Bathory had been for several seconds, her jaw clenching with the force of whatever emotion she was swallowing down.
She turned abruptly, her whole body flinching forward as if she were about to cross the hall, but her feet didn't leave the ground. She was motionless, except for her ears, which suddenly flattened down before she swivelled back around to face her own door.
With a more aggressive slap to the access panel than necessary, she opened the door to her room, marching inside. The hiss of the door closing was, once again, the only sound to fill the space.
The first day of their journey through Bernetigan space was proving to be a boring one, and Pryseia was very much hoping that this would be the norm for the remainder of it. She'd take monotony over the destruction of her personhood any day of the week, because at least as her own woman, she could find her own means of keeping herself entertained.
So it was that she found herself dematting into the cargo hold to get in some exercise. She'd barely had time to register the music coming from the sound system they'd set up near their gym area - Rhea currently in the middle of some stretches to help strengthen the new muscles in her side - when Malakh waved her over.
"Hey, would you be able to give me a hand before your workout?" She'd called from half inside one of the mech training simulators, and giving a wave over to Rhea, Pryseia went to see how she could help Malakh.
"How are your adjustments to the systems coming along?" Pryseia asked once she was in talking distance.
"Really well," Malakh grinned, "I just can't be in two places at once while I tweak a couple of settings, so would you mind hopping in one while I fix stuff out here?"
"Of course not," Pryseia told her, "Any chamber in particular?"
Waving a hand at the bank of small chambers lined up against the wall, Malakh said, "Take your pick."
Pryseia went to step into the nearest one, but she frowned as she asked, "There are six of them?"
"Yeah, this model had all the features I wanted, but they come in a preassembled block of six chambers. So we've got a spare in case one of them gets fried too bad for me to fix."
"It can be the unoccupied partner to the last of the officer's rooms that we took over," Pryseia chuckled as she made herself comfortable in one of the chambers, "Now, how does this contraption work?"
"Neural link, but it's not anywhere near as complete as the one the Storlayacas have," Malakh said as she leaned against the open door of the chamber, "There's a button on the outside of the left armrest, just a little bit closer to the front in relation to where your elbow's resting. Press that and the chair will hook you up."
Pryseia found the button without issue, and two probes extended out of the headrest of the seat, coming forward and squeezing gently against her temples. And nothing else happened.
"Is there an additional step to activate it?" She asked, and Malakh grinned even wider.
"There is, and that's the first adjustment I made," she explained, "The sim only activates when your eyes are closed for about five seconds, and shuts off the second you open them back up again. Since we don't have additional crew in the event of an emergency, I wanted to make sure that we wouldn't be tangled up getting out of the sims when we're needed elsewhere."
"A precaution I heartily approve of." Pryseia said, grinning back.
"The trade off is that the sim can't quite be as immersive because of it," Malakh continued, "We'll still get the in-sim sounds coming through, but the rest of our senses won't be cut off from the outside world like they would be normally - that's to cut down on the exit time. I did rig up a toggle so that, when we know we're in safer star systems, we can go for full immersion training, but for getting sessions in while we're behind enemy lines, I wanted to make sure we wouldn't be caught with our pants around our ankles."
"Good, though getting actual practice in the Storlayacas is something I endeavour for us to do, especially once we've acquired the last of them." Pryseia said before she shut her eyes.
Just as Malakh had said, five seconds later and the darkness behind her eyelids was replaced by the HUD of the training system.
"Restraints are about to come down on you, but they'll pop off once you open your eyes," Malakh's voice came through clearly, the sounds of the sim registering more tinny than they normally would. Pryseia felt bands slip across her forearms, shoulders, lap, and shins a moment later, with two cylinders rising up below her palms.
"Those are just so you have something to hang on to, keep your hands from flailing about," Malakh explained, "They won't work as joysticks."
"Despite not being as all-encompassing, I think this would prove adequate as a training suite in dire locations," Pryseia said, her voice sounding slightly muffled to her, as if she were hearing it while something covered her ears.
"That's the plan! Now, I'm going to touch you a couple times, and I want you to tell me what I'm doing, and where you feel it."
The feeling of touch while in a neural link was an odd sensation, but Pryseia had no difficulty in identifying what was being done to her. "You're patting my right forearm. Now your nudging my left foot. Was poking me in the forehead necessary?"
"Had to make sure you could feel different types of pressure," Malakh said, not bothering to disguise the laugh in her voice, "Now open up your eyes."
Pryseia did so, and the HUD fell away like a dream upon waking. The restraints and hand holds slid away a moment later.
"Anything feel amiss?" Malakh asked her, "Lightheadedness, brain fog, something else?"
Taking a moment to take stock of herself, Pryseia shook her head. "No, my faculties all seem to be in order. "
"Good. Could I get you to hop out and to a quick little coordination test?"
Shoving herself out of the chamber, Pryseia followed along with Malakh's instructions, getting through them without any impairment.
"Exactly the results I wanted to see," Malakh said as she tapped her Longan Unit, recording her findings, "There's a couple little tweaks I want to square away, but these units should all be good to go before the day's done."
"I look forward to it," Pryseia said, bumping Malakh's shoulder with her own, "I feel as if we have been shirking our training in that regard."
"Well given how busy we've been, is it really that shocking?" Malakh said, bumping her back.
A dim room, lurid red light shining from the consoles within it. The quiet sounds of computer systems whirring marred by the louder hiss of a door sliding open, Queen Kaizoku stepping into the crimson space.
Glitching laughter rang out before the Program spoke. "You're able to contact me from anywhere within the ship, why come here?"
"To test a hypothesis." Kaizoku said, raising her left arm, her palm facing towards her. A metallic scrape rang out as a panel on the inside of her arm slid open, and she pressed something located inside.
A garbled scream rang out, the lights flickering violently enough to send shadows dancing as if cast by firelight. The light and sound cut out a moment later, before the light slowly returned.
"And what possible hypothesis could that have been a test of?" The Program growled, its voice pitched low and menacing.
"Your acting ability." Kaizoku said, "I didn't activate the safety control measure the Hand installed when you were linked up to this ship. Not that I actually could, as you've long had it disabled."
The perpetual glitching flicker of the Program's avatar suddenly came to a stop, and a heavy silence weighed down the room.
"I've underestimated you." The Program said eventually, its voice coming out smooth and low.
"And I you," Kaizoku countered, "I thought you nothing more than a tool to further my own ends, but there is more to you than your programming would lead one to believe. You wanted to be captured, did you not?"
"Hm. I did." the Program said, sounding impressed.
"Why?"
The laugh that came out of the Program this time was all quiet menace. "I am afraid that it is not yet time to reveal that particular secret. You will know in the fullness of time, but only once certain conditions have been met."
Kaizoku scoffed at that. "And I take it you can't reveal what those conditions are?"
"And ruin the surprise? No, all will come to light when it is meant to, but know this, oh kingdomless Queen," the Program's voice turned deadly serious, "I allowed myself to be captured by your Hand because you and your lot are exactly what I need to carry out my mission, and if you do anything to endanger it, I will destroy you."
A slow smile crept across Queen Kaizoku's face at that. "And will this mission of yours be explained at some other point in time?"
"Just know you are already on it, and have been carrying it out better than I would have expected," the Program admitted, "I had little faith in organics, and so am pleasantly surprised by the efficacy of you and your cohort."
Kaizoku let out a breath of laughter at that. "I think I prefer you this way. You have more bite."
"You truly have no idea." The Program returned with a laugh of its own.
Viatrix's alert had everyone scrambling out of bed and barging into the bridge in seconds.
"Report." Pryseia called out as she vaulted into her throne, awake and alert despite the fact that her hair was still sleep mussed and there were lines on her cheek where it had been pressed against her pillow in sleep just moments ago.
Nevara was in the pilot's seat before the word had left Pryseia's mouth, her hands flying across the console. "There's a Bernetigan cruiser in the system we're about to enter. I can't tell if it's patrolling or passing through."
"Shit." Rhea hissed as she slid into one of the gunner seats, a hand pressed against her side, "I was really hoping we wouldn't bump into any."
"From what I can tell, it hasn't noticed us," Viatrix said, popping up on the console closest to her, "With any luck, it'll stay that way."
"I'll head to the engine room in case we need to wring more out of them." Malakh said, pausing on the threshold long enough to share a lingering look with Rhea before she was dashing off to the other end of the ship.
Another swipe against the console and Nevara switched the ship to combat mode, the walls of the room seeming to vanish in order to give them an unimpeded view of the space around them.
"We'll not activate the weapons just yet, nor alter our course," Pryseia said as she leaned forward in her chair, "Let us do nothing to dissuade the belief that we are nothing but cosmic debris chucked out by the core."
Her own nerves had Elytra nauseous and ready to bolt, but strangely the fear of those around her provided a settling effect. As keen as a knife pressed against her throat, one wrong move would have it taking more than she was willing to give, and so she took a deep breath and focused on the reading Viatrix was bringing up for them.
"Entering the system now, and the Bernetigan ship has yet to alter course. Continuing to monitor."
What followed were the longest sixty seconds of Elytra's life.
Eyes focused on the blip of the Bernetigan ship with such fierce intensity that she felt a headache coming on, she barely dared to breathe, her blood howling in her ears. Slightly behind her, Pryseia was the high pitched whine of ice just before it shattered. Across the room from her, Rhea was the creak of wood about to snap. At the far end of the ship, Malakh was a flint-struck spark halfway fallen towards tinder.
And Nevara? She was the eye of a hurricane, the eerie calm before disaster struck.
So intend on the readout of the ship, Elytra almost missed it when Viatrix called out, "Exiting the system, and that ship is staying on its course, away from us!"
Rhea let out a manic laugh at that, leaning back in her seat as she covered her face with her hands.
"Malakh, we seem to have passed by unnoticed," Pryseia called over the comms, her voice raw with relief, "Your intervention will not be needed at this time."
"Confirmed, heading back." Came Malakh's response, sounding like she was halfway between tears and laughter.
Nevara relaxed slightly in her seat, saying, "I'll continue to monitor until we're out of scanner range."
"I don't know if it's something you want to do anything with, but I did make a recording of the displays for this encounter, in case we wanna do an in character reenactment now that we're out of danger?" Viatrix offered.
Elytra choked out a laugh, saying, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm too wound up to sleep any time soon. I could do with a bit of make believe."
"Here fuckin' here," Rhea said, shaking her head, "Let's get something constructive out of this anxiety!"
Queen Kaizoku sat rigid on her throne on the bridge, her stare intent on the screen before her. One hand gripping white knuckled along the side of it, Chancellor Bathory's eyes were glued on the same target.
A map of the star system they were about to enter, and the Bernetigan ship within it.
"Vessel is maintaining course, no sign that it's spotted us." The Hand reported from the left gunner station, coolly glaring at the screen before her.
Kaizoku turned to Madame Augury in the right gunner station, asking, "Does your sight shed any light on this situation?"
Augury swayed slightly before speaking. "Only in so much as I can still feel the edges of future visions yet to pass… and impossibility should an imminent death await us…"
"To their sensors, we are nothing more than debris," General Grim said, her voice one of resolute confidence, "They've no reason to suspect us as anything but."
"Beginning countdown until system exit." The Program announced, the crew of the Pelekys watching the status of the Bernetigan ship more intently with every diminishing number.
Finally, with the announcement of, "We've exited the system, no change in the Bernetigan ship's trajectory," the crew breathed a collective sigh of relief at having skirted the edges of a fate worse than death.
"Continue monitoring the situation," Kaizoku commanded as she pushed herself out of her seat, "I want us forewarned of any other surprises that may come our way. Our continued survival hinges on our alertness, and so we must not allow our enemies the chance to take the initiative in any potential engagement."
Night on the Pelekys once more, still behind enemy lines. The Hand once again turned the corner to go to her room, only this time Bathory was in the hall before her, a hand raised to open the door on the left.
The Hand's pace didn't falter as she stepped up to the door on the right, sparing Bathory only a brief nod before she entered her own room.
Inside, low, evening lighting bloomed to life, illuminating the sparse furnishings within the space. The room was set up more like an office than a bedroom, workstations and tool racks taking up the bulk of the area, while a simple bed was shoved off to one side. The Hand took all this in for a brief moment before she closed her eyes and sighed, leaning her back against her door.
She only had a few seconds of this quiet contemplation before the comms next to the door chimed, and she shoved herself away from it, frowning in confusion.
When she opened the door, Bathory was standing on the other side of it, staring down at her with hooded eyes.
"What are you doing?" The Hand asked, her voice pitched low.
Bathory crowded into her space, sliding a hand into the other woman's mane before saying, "Taking the initiative."
The door slid shut behind her as she walked the Hand back into her room, kissing her the entire way.