083: Darkness, Peering – Five
When Pryseia and Nevara burst through the medbay's doors, Malakh unconscious on a stretcher between them, Rhea's decades worth of practice in emergency medical situations took over, and so she was calm and collected as she directed them to place Malakh on one of the empty beds.
Because the newest facet of her - not the doctor, but the wife - was in a blind panic as she slipped on her Longan Unit and began her scans.
She felt herself delivering a diagnosis to Pryseia and Nevara, was vaguely aware of V'tala and Elytra, woken by the noise, demanding to know what was going on. A hasty explanation of how, on returning to the Pelekys after stringing the bodies of the Leviathan together in such a way as to provide them with a modicum of protection should any other stray monsters cross their path, they found Malakh collapsed and unresponsive on Castore's open cockpit.
Doctor Marinos let them know that Malakh was asleep, and that while the internal damage she'd received wasn't fatal - she had no idea of the source, only that it was something close to electrocution, but not quite - she would need to keep her under observation and rejuvenating in one of the beds until she woke up of her own volition.
All Rhea could see was the blood crusted around Malakh's nostrils, and all she could think was how?
With the majority of the crew either recovering in the medbay or overseeing it, Pryseia and Nevara took up guard duty, as there was nothing they could do to aid in their friends' recovery.
Nevara returned to the bridge, her attention glued to the output from their sensor array, keeping a watch out for absolutely anything. Pryseia, meanwhile, forced herself to nap in Zaanlaa's cockpit - a skill she'd had to develop while in service to the Thalatte - ready to launch on a moment's notice.
But mercifully, no Leviathan came within scanning range by the time V'tala and Elytra were deemed fit for duty, and they took over for Pryseia and Nevara respectively, allowing the latter pair the chance to get some proper rest.
Malakh woke up not long after them the next day, and it was all Rhea could do to not break down in relief.
"What happened?!" She asked, and the tremor in her voice had Malakh bolting up into a sitting position even as Rhea reprimanded her for it.
"How long was I out?!" Malakh demanded, cradling Rhea's face in both hands, her thumbs tracing along the edges of the shadows beneath her eyes.
"Nearly eighteen hours," Rhea told her as she reached up to hold Malakh's wrists, needing to feel the thrum of her pulse beneath her fingertips, "What. Happened."
"I… communed with Castore."
"What?!"
"I'm not quite sure in what capacity, but the Storlayacas are alive," Malakh said, her eyes going distant as she recalled what she'd experienced, "And they've woken up. I was trying to boost the psychic dampening, and I could feel its attention on me. It was responding to what I was saying."
"It spoke?!"
Malakh made a noise in the back of her throat. "Yeah, but no? It can, but we can't hear it. Not really? I was getting tone more than details. I'm not explaining this very well."
"Pryseia and Nevara found you unconscious in the cockpit," Rhea told her, "You were hurt, like you'd been electrocuted, but more psychically than physically."
Malakh nodded at that. "Makes sense. Castore showed me something, probably more symbolism like in the place we got Pryseia and V'tala sorted out, of this hand coming out of space and removing something from the progenitors of my race. I got the sense that it did this to every race, tore out something that would make communication with the Hyttan possible. Talking like we were, I think it damaged Castore as much as it did me."
"That's not comforting."
"You're telling me! But it was worth the damage, I think. I asked it to help shield us against the Leviathan. Whatever it was that hand took from us, that thing would have protected us against the Leviathan. I need to run some tests, but I think the Storlayacas will be able to protect us from the Leviathan now."
Rhea let out a watery laugh at that, tugging on Malakh's wrists to pull her close enough so that she could rest her forehead against hers. "I don't want you near that thing ever again. I want you running your tests right away. I want to maroon us on some far off world and never bother with the rest of galactic society for the rest of our days. Most of all, I want a nap."
"I know, I'm sorry." Malakh whispered, tilting enough to place a chaste kiss on Rhea's lips, "I don't think either of us were expecting that to happen. Any of that. This whole situation is fucked."
"It really is," Rhea agreed, returning the kiss, "It didn't happen to tell you what was going on with Vi, did it?"
"No such luck. There hasn't been any change?"
"Not to her or the ship, as far as I can tell. Though to be fair, I've been a little distracted."
Malakh sighed, closed her eyes and just existed with Rhea for a few moments. She could feel a tremor of exhaustion run through her wife's body, and she hated that she was the cause of it.
"I need to check on things, and you need to rest." She told her, even though what she wanted was to get into bed with her wife, her vedja, and hold her until she fell asleep.
"I know," Rhea replied, and Malakh wasn't sure if that was in response to her words or her thoughts, "Let me run a scan on you first. I need to know you're okay, and we need to let the others know you are too."
"Please," Malakh said with a weary laugh, "I feel fine, but a little confirmation won't hurt."
Relief was first and foremost when the rest of the crew learned that Malakh was okay. Awe was second, on learning what she'd experienced.
The Storlayacas were alive. And they were awake.
A check on Castore revealed that the psychic dampeners Malakh had initially installed - just attached to the interior of the cockpit with an adhesive and a separate power supply - had been fully and permanently integrated into the mech's systems. From the test she ran on them, the scalability of their output would more than be able to account for both multiple and stronger Leviathan, the power of the system being drawn from Castore itself.
("Boosting the power had been in my initial plan," Malakh had explained, "I'd been hoping to tap into the Hyttan power source that runs these things. I just didn't expect it to be this successful.")
A check on the other Storlayacas revealed that they'd all integrated the dampening tech as well.
("I guess they're in communion with each other too." Elytra's voice had been quiet with wonder as she said it, staring up at the mechs in a new light.)
This upgrade couldn't have been timelier, as a trio of Gammas had come within range, and had turned in their flight to head straight for the Pelekys.
With the broadcast streaming, Kaizoku, Grim, Augury, and the Knight engaged these Leviathan, the four of them quickly falling into a rhythm to take these things down. With a brutal efficiency that surprised even themselves, they made short work of the attacking trio, and had added their bodies to their growing collection before dematting back into the Pelekys.
"Well the upgrades to the dampeners certainly work," Rhea sighed with relief as she finished her checkup of Elytra and V'tala, "I'm not detecting anything disruptive to your psionic systems."
"I couldn't even feel them this time," Elytra told her, "Even with the dampeners and just the weaker single ones we faced, I could feel a trickle of what the Leviathan were projecting, but this time? Nothing."
"That is heartening to hear." Pryseia breathed, clapping her on the shoulder, "Facing those four the other day was a trying experience, even with my own lack of psionic capabilities, to say nothing of how wretched it was for the pair of you. I am relieved to see that Malakh's collaboration with Castore bore fruit."
"Now we just need Vi and the Pelekys to come back online." Nevara said, glancing over at the console in the medbay that Viatrix preferred to appear on, "And perhaps then we could go on that vacation Rhea so desperately desires."
"As if you don't want it just as bad." Rhea accused with a grin, which Nevara easily returned.
Malakh's tail was twitching in agitation behind her as she explained, "I had a look at her earlier, and if what I'm reading is correct, then the download of whatever she got has finished, and updates are currently being installed."
"Do you know what they are, or how long they'll take?" V'tala asked.
"No and no." Malakh told her, "Just that it's Hyttan, with how impossible to decipher it is, and that it's changing both her programming, and that of the Pelekys itself."
"Do you think it's going to change her," Elytra asked quietly, "Like on a personality level? When she wakes up, will she still be the Vi we knew?"
Heaving out a sigh, Malakh admitted, "I have no idea, and I'm honestly terrified of that possibility."
They lapsed into silence then, and Elytra could feel the dread of that sentiment curling around them all like smoke from a fire that none of them had the ability to put out.
After everything they had done to get to this point in their lives, that sense of powerlessness was highly unwelcome.
With everyone's watch shifts being scrambled due to the psychic injuries half of them had taken, Rhea and Malakh's shifts had lined up, and the pair of them were able to get to sleep together.
And they did, after they took care of each other's needs first.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it had to have been hours later when Rhea awoke to the sensation of Malakh's hand pressed against her ribs. She opened her eyes, her flirty statement dying on her lips as she took in the woman above her.
Wearing only her vedja pendant and wedding band, Malakh was propped up with one arm, the other braced against Rhea as she stared off sightlessly into the low lighting in their room, her face a mask of intense concentration, her ears perked up and slowly swivelling as if she were tracking something's movements by hearing alone.
"What?" Rhea whispered as quietly as she could, her own senses on high alert at Malakh's behavior, but Malakh only made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat in response, her attention still locked on to whatever it was she was hearing.
Rhea didn't interrupt her after that, just lay back and tried to hear what Malakh was alert to. The comparatively higher gravity of her homeworld may have given her a strength advantage in comparison to the other races of the galaxy, but it certainly didn't give her a boost to her hearing. Beyond the ambient hum of the ship's systems running, Rhea couldn't hear anything out of place.
If there was something wrong, it was something that only a deorviran's superior sense of hearing could pick up on, and so Rhea would have to wait for Malakh to share what she'd heard.
She tried to close her eyes at that point, allow herself to be pulled back under until either Malakh found what she was listening for, or their next shift rolled around, but in the quiet like this, Rhea found that she couldn't take her eyes off her wife.
Her vedja.
In the dim glow, her vibrant colouring was muted, the pale streaks prominent against the darker blotches of her short coat, looking like finger marks that trailed across her body. Rhea had traced them with her own enough times that she sometimes pretended they were brands left behind by her, her ardency so potent that they'd burned permanent reminders of her love across her beloved's body.
Half sitting as she was, arms doing the heavy lifting of holding her up, it had her muscles bunching enticingly beneath her flesh. Rhea traced the curve of Malakh's bicep with her eyes, following the slope of her shoulder to where it led to her jaw, to the sensitive spot on her pulse point that Rhea knew could wring the prettiest sounds out of the woman above her.
In the gloom of the room, Malakh's eyes were blown wide as she took in as much light as she could, her irises a thin band of copper around pools of black. From this angle, Rhea couldn't see the red sheen of Malakh's tapetum lucidum, but she knew it was there. She'd been caught under their light just hours ago, Malakh looking up at her with her face half hidden, bracketed by her thighs, and the memory had her clenching around nothing. She took a steadying breath, even as want pooled in her core.
Malakh made another sound then - a low, disgruntled rumble - her ears finally falling still.
"Sorry," she whispered, "I thought I heard… I'm not sure what I thought I heard. Something sounded off. But I-"
Her words died in her throat as she finally shifted her gaze to the woman below her, Rhea gazing up at her with half lidded eyes and sultry smirk, laid bare beneath her, every curve on display where they weren't hidden by the blanket that had slid down to her stomach. Malakh's eyes were momentarily caught on the rise and fall of her chest below her hand, lingering along her breasts before she drew them up to Rhea's eyes, her vedja's gaze igniting her in such a way that all her restless curiosity was shunted to the side.
"It's not anything to do with life support, so it can wait." Malakh said, her voice pitching low, and her hand against Rhea's ribs drifting lower. She found wet heat a moment later, Rhea's punched out groan not the only thing drawing her in.
It wasn't until almost a day later that they discovered the source of the disturbance Malakh had picked up on.
They'd taken on extra fuel for their journey through Bernetigan space, just in case, but thankfully they hadn't needed to use up all of it. With their extended stay in the void, trapped as they were with most of their engines offline and not using up their fuel, they'd been able to extend how long they could go before a top up. It wouldn't be indefinitely, but it would be longer than if they were jetting around at FTL speeds.
Even still, Malakh had been keeping an eye on just how much fuel they'd been burning through with keeping the lights on, and knew when she needed to add more.
So it came as more than a little shock when she discovered that the ship's fuel reactor was gone.
"What do you mean, gone?!" Pryseia's confusion was evident over the comms, her and Nevara in their Storlayacas while Rhea was on the bridge, "The Leviathan never came within striking distance of the ship, has something else torn it out?"
"Sorry, I'm freaking out, we've taken no damage," Malakh said, pacing in front of what used to have been a standard Thalatte issue fuel reactor, "But we don't have a Thalatte reactor anymore. Whatever's happening to the Pelekys, it's changed our fuel source. We have a Hyttan one now."
This wasn't the only change, they quickly discovered.
Underneath the bodies of the Leviathan they'd been hiding the ship behind, the sleek black plating of the Pelekys itself had been altered. Still impossibly black, still built with layers of material all to aid in its stealth capabilities as much as possible, the outer shell now had a distinctly organic look to it.
A distinctly Hyttan look.
The interior as well had been changing without them realizing it. The arched, temporary, decorative panels they'd fabricated and hung along the walls in order to build the gothic aesthetic of their Kith personas were now no longer temporary. Fused to the walls themselves, the harsh lines of their original construction had given way to more fluid and organic shapes - still intimidating, still with built in lighting that they could customize to set the mood, only now they had extend beyond just the few hallways and rooms they'd put them up in, and everything outside of their bedrooms had grown matching panels.
The changes didn't just end at cosmetics. Running a system check, Malakh found that everything about the ship was running at an efficiency that shouldn't have been possible. Certainly not with Thalatte tech, at the very least. She could still understand all of the coding running under the hood, which was a blessing, but everything else had clearly been converted from a Thalatte standard to a Hyttan one.
"I guess we know why the ship's been offline?" Elytra said as she joined Malakh in their fabrication room, the interior now altered to match their Kith aesthetic.
"Yeah," Malakh said with a disbelieving laugh, her eyes darting as she read the information her Longan was feeding her, "Gotta take systems offline in order to upgrade them. Makes me wonder, if we weren't dead in the proverbial water, if the life support wouldn't be getting an upgrade as well?"
"Well, maybe if we land on that beach Rhea wants, we can get off the ship and see if it'll do anything about that." Elytra tried to joke, but it came out decidedly unsure.
Malakh felt manic as she nodded along, everything she was seeing saying that the Pelekys was now better than it had ever been before. "Probably gonna need that vacation so you two can come up with something to make this make sense for our audience, because living it? It's pretty fucking hard to believe!"