Jo was nowhere to be seen when I got out of the tantaja tube a minute or two behind her. She came out of the tube and was running as soon as her feet hit the deck, hustling off to the bridge in a mood fit to tear someone’s throat out. That Admiral LeBeau might be in for a rather curt conversation, I just hoped we didn’t end up with a diplomatic incident.

  I’m pretty sure Jo had better control. Pretty sure.

  The corridor was thankfully clear when I emerged - or so I thought. I wormed my way out of the tube and hoisted myself slowly to an upright position, muscles in my back, neck and shoulders screaming at me for all the abuse they’d taken over the past few hours. I might just need to go see Tratsa to get checked to make sure I didn’t knock anything out of joint.

  With a groan of fatigue, pain and frustration, I stretched my arms high above me and arched my back, hearing a sharp staccato pop-pop-pop as Vertebra slid back into place. “Oh damn,” I moaned, “so much better.”

  Hands slid around my waist from behind, and a familiar teasing voice chuckled softly, “You aren’t supposed to make those kinds of sounds unless I’m involved memanya.”

  I jumped a little in surprise, but relaxed quickly. Of all the crew who could have been here to find me, Boudya was the one that troubled me least. Now that I was calm, I’m not even sure why I avoided her earlier. She should have been the person I went to to help me through the panic. “Ah, are you volunteering to rearrange my joints and violence my muscles into jello? Cause I’m totally willing to submit.”

  “Really now,” she drawled, turning me around and pushing me up against the bulkhead, “I thought you weren’t up for that kind of play?” she chuckled, leaned down and stole a quick kiss, “Seriously though, are you okay? Tratsa and Stacy have been frantic. Stacy’s beside herself with the fact she couldn’t track you, or get through to you after you left the shuttle bay. What happened?”

  I’d been all ready to crack a joke to downplay things until we were in private, but then my brain parsed what she’d said. “Wait. You mean she wasn’t just giving me space? She couldn’t reach me?” I blinked, then turned my attention inward and thought carefully, Stacy? Can you hear me?

  There was no reply, just the echoes of my own thoughts. Had the implant somehow gotten damaged? That was going to make things inconvenient.

  When I noticed Boudya was about to say something, I held up a finger to forestall her, and closed my eyes. I focused all my attention on that section of my brain I thought of whenever I imagined where my implant was interfacing with my neurons, and formed the words very carefully, just like I had when I’d first started speaking to Stacy non-vocally. Stacy? Please talk to me. Tell me I didn’t somehow break the implant! Are you there?

  TOMMY-BERRY!!! The voice through the implant was so loud I winced, hoping it wouldn’t set off a headache, what with everything else happening. I’m so sorry! I should have been a better wing-woman! I should have done more to guide you with the Commander! Please forgive me! Don’t ever block me out like that again, I was so worried!

  Her voice was so distressed that it left me shocked. “Uh, Stacy? I didn’t even realize I had blocked you out. I didn’t know it was even possible. I just thought you’d decided to give me space to calm down…”

  “You need to get Tratsa to check on the implant Thomas,” Boudya told me seriously, concern written plain in her eyes. “If this isn’t something that should be possible, it should be checked on.”

  I nodded, and considered the other odd thing that had happened while I’d been in the tubes. “Uh, Digi-bits, would you happen to know what a kaon lance is?”

  “A kaon lance?” there was a brief pause, “it’s a weapon developed by a species called the Riquotyr. There are references to them in the giobhioni history files about them nearly defeating the ktonshi before the contagion was introduced, and it was weapons like the kaon lance that allowed it. The engineering details for it are in the database the Keeper gave you. DEEP in the database. Neither one of us had delved that deeply into it! Where did you hear about it?”

  I looked straight into Boudya’s eyes then, and the shock I was feeling must have been showing quite clearly on my face because a moment before my knees went weak, she caught me. “Thomas, what is it?”

  “I-I haven’t just heard about them.” I told them. “I built one. Out of scrap parts I gathered up in the tubes while I was freaking out. I, uh…gifted it to Jophixa.”

  Silence for a few moments, then Boudya grabbed me up into a princess carry and started heading towards MedBay. “Yup. Tratsa is gonna give that implant a deep going over.” She stated bluntly, and I knew from our history together that when she used that tone that there would be no arguing with her. “There is definitely something fucky going on here.”

  I seriously needed to put some weight back on. This is the second time in as many days I’ve gotten the princess treatment by someone on this ship. Geez.

  I felt the ship slip into hyperspace before we even reached MedBay. The transition was far more subtle with giobhioni technology than any known in this area of the Orion Spur, but I’d been on board the Elegance long enough to adapt to the far more delicate vibrations that reverberated through the hull when it happened.

  Admiral LeBeau must have been really serious about wanting us to get there in order to back them up. It made me curious why an admiral of the Commonwealth fleet, with the ability to call up a full battlegroup if she needed it, was so set on us joining the operation now that Fisch’s corporate assholes were likely on the way there. We were just one relatively small ship after all, if the former Enigma Osiris research exec had his own fleet with him, would we really be enough to tip the balance? Something wasn’t adding up.

  Something poked me sharply in the ribs. “Elegance to Mr Aacen, please confirm your coordinates.”

  Shaking away my thoughts, I found myself looking into Tratsa’s blue eyes. “Uh, sorry Tratsa, my mind was wandering.” I said, then noticed some worry in her eyes and smiled at her, “I think it’s the princess treatment. Makes my brain go all dreamy and absent.”

  She blinked in confusion for a moment, looked over at Boudya, then rolled her eyes with a chuckle. “Seems our terran here is picking up a new fetish. Too bad I won’t be able to indulge it.”

  “If he ever finally starts putting weight back on, I’m not sure I will either.” Boudya chuckled. “We might have to enlist a certain blonde major to help out with that. I hear she seemed pretty pleased with herself after she put him to bed after we both got knocked out.”

  Tratsa was just about to say something when I put a hand over her mouth. “Ok, that’s enough of that talk. No recruiting. I’m gonna have my hands full with the Four in my life already.”

  “Four?”

  “That’s part of why we need you to do a full work-up on his implant Doc!” Stacy put in, “Baby-cakes there did some things during his…lets say self imposed ‘time out’ that shouldn’t be possible! Like, I have a log of him accessing the Keeper technology database when he shouldn’t have been able to! There’s no tablet or terminal address linked to the access. It almost looks like I was the one that accessed it.”

  “What?” both ladies said at the same time. I just gaped.

  “Yeah! Sweet Tomminoms there went rooting around in my depths when I wasn’t looking! I feel violated!” She paused as my eyes widened, “no no, sweet axum-berry pie! I was only joking, please don’t…”

  I sighed with relief, and shook my head, “It’s okay Digibits, just please don’t joke about that.”

  Tratsa was already pushing me down on the examination bed, and lowering the cranial scanner into place so she could run diagnostics. “Ok, so what does his plumbing Stacy’s deep unmentionable places have to do with him having four ladies in his life? I thought it was just you and me, Boudya.”

  Boudya laughed outright. “You’re forgetting Stacy! She’s in his damned head for void’s sake, and you’ve heard her flirting with him! We just have to accept she’s not going anywhere.” then she shook her head, “As to the other - It seems Thomas pulled the designs for something called a kaon lance out of the database - through the implant, subconsciously - built it using scrap parts that had been damaged due to the planetary shockwave…and then, get this, gave it to the commander.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Bright blue eyes hovered over my face and stared holes into my soul. “You built a weapon out of scrap parts, and gave it to Commander Jophixa?”

  “Uh, it seemed like the best way to fix things?”

  She turned to look in Boudya’s direction. “I’m surprised she didn’t rip his clothes off right there in the tantaja tube. Our commander is known for having a wee bit of a thing for exotic weapons, and a kaon lance is almost mythical!”

  Another laugh rang out from Boudya, “From the smell of things when I found him, I think she might have!”

  “No, she did-” I tried to say, but Stacy interrupted.

  “Wait, is that why she was so pissed off when I informed her of the urgent comms from Admiral LeBeau?”

  I gave a sheepish smile and a one shouldered shrug, which caused both Tratsa and Boudya to break into giggles. “Oh Stacy honey,” Boudya said breathlessly through her giggles, “Thomas is out of the doghouse, but now you are in it. You better find a good way to apologize, a woman like her can hold a grudge, I’m sure.”

  “First of all,” she explained. It was just her and I in MedBay right then, along with Stacy’s every present - well, presence. Boudya had made her way back to engineering once she was satisfied that I wasn't about to have another crisis. “I’m not detecting anything medically serious. Everything inside that skull of yours is operating along the same parameters I understand are normal for humans.”

  I breathed a sign of relief at that. “Well that’s good to hear. Especially with all the damned blows to the head I’ve taken over to the last few months. I keep wondering until it starts causing permanent damage.”

  “Yeah, you really need to make more of an effort to prevent that.” Tratsa said seriously, running her fingers through my hair, “We’ve got ways to help with that, but there’s only so much that can be done if you suffer anything major.” she paused and took a deep breath. “All that being said. The implant has deployed new filaments since my last deep scan of it, and they’ve aligned themselves in parallel with your memory centers.”

  “That shouldn’t be possible, Tsaki.” Stacy put in. “All functions that I’d designed into the implant had been completed, any nanites remaining after the last designated connection were to return to the core implant and utilize their material to further harden it.”

  That caused me to sit up straight, “Wait, hold on… I don’t remember you saying anything about the implant utilizing nanites!”

  “Why wouldn’t I use nanites?” She asked, “they are the perfect means for establishing neuroelectrical connections with an implant. Far less intrusive than even the best Tsaki!” She paused for a moment, then chuckled softly, “Oh, don’t tell me you are thinking of your people’s fiction regarding out of control nano-bots turning everything into gray goo!”

  I raised my eyebrows, and turned to glance at Tratsa, who sighed. “Stacy huh. You may think it’s a silly fear, but at the same time, his implant is behaving oddly. And you said yourself that the nanites were not supposed to be establishing neuro-connections with his memory, that they should not even be present at all anymore, correct?”

  “Yes but-”

  “I’m not angry at you Stacy,” I interrupted her, “but I am irritated.”

  “I’m sorry…” she said quietly.

  “You’re forgiven, but please try not to hide things from me again okay?” I shook my head, “So the implant now has access to my memory centers, my sensory cortex, and my cerebrum? But it’s not supplanting any of them right, it’s working in parallel?”

  “It appears so, yes. We’re going to want to keep an even closer watch on it in case something else comes up.” She leaned over and kissed my forehead. “In the meantime, I think this might explain your little connection to your digital girlfriend’s databases.”

  I almost opened my mouth to say she’s not my girlfriend, but I thought better of it. I mean, when it really came down to it, she and I were probably more intimate than a couple who have been married for decades.

  After a moment’s thought, however, what Tratsa said about it made sense, and I was about to say something when Stacy beat me to it. “So you think maybe, Sugarbear was trying so hard to think of something to fix things with the commander, that it triggered a connection? His brain subconsciously went plumbing my depths like a horny old goat sleep-groping?”

  “Stacy! Don’t-”

  “Something like that, yeah.” Tratsa grinned, clearly enjoying seeing me blush. “For all we know, that could have triggered those nanites to initiate the memory linkages. It’s a good thing you two trust each other so much, right?”

  The rest of the conversation degraded into the two of them double barrel teasing me about the entire matter until I smacked my little giobhioni doctor on the ass hard enough to make her squeak.

  Witnessing the visage of an annoyed giobhioni was an experience she was likely to forget.

  Even for an Admiral of her experience, who had seen combat during the brutal years of the Reglarian Incurions, the sight of the giobhioni commander’s viscous, shark-like teeth, set below eyes that said “feel lucky you are beyond easy reach”, set off old instincts to grab the closest weapon in self defence.

  Thankfully, as the admiral in charge of Commonwealth Intelligence, the nearest weapon at hand was her mind.

  “I apologize for pulling you away from getting your ship fit for hyperspace again, Commander.” she began, putting as much sincerity as she could muster into the apology. “If I had any resources close enough to handle the situation…”

  The irritated commander held up her hand to forestall her apology, took a deep breath and visibly calmed herself. “It is not truly yours to apologize for.” she stated plainly, obviously curbing her irritation, “I believe the phrasing your people use is it never rains, but it pours. Always another grontnak demanding to be stomped when you’re already trying to smash the eight underfoot.”

  Admiral LeBeau couldn’t help laughing at the image of the petite but ferocious green commander dancing a mad jig as she tried to lethally stomp a bunch of crazed rodents scurrying underfoot. “Oh, don’t I know that feeling.” she said, “In my line of work, I just call that another day that ends in y. But this isn’t a social call. I’m sure your comms officer passed along enough to get you to put aside what you were tied up with - “ what was that momentary smirk about? She thought to herself, but continued, “A small flotilla of ships registered to a group called Unravelled Knot Enterprises, was spotted in a hyperspace tunnel headed directly towards the last known coordinates of The Journeyman. It could be a coincidence, but considering UKE is, according to some very trusted intelligence, wholly owned and operated by one Benson Fisch…”

  “Best not to take the chance, yes.” the commander tapped her chin, “And the reason you’ve contacted me, I assume, is because they will get there before you, and you do not have sufficient forces closer?”

  “Exactly.” LeBeau replied, “I’ve been given to understand by your Ambassador Stasti Ai’fix that your ships are much faster than ours. I’m hoping that even if your tunnel drive still isn’t at one hundred percent yet, you’d still beat them there if you left immediately.”

  The commander looked to her side for a moment then back to her with a nod. “Luckily enough, we just transitioned to hyperspace approximately ten of your minutes ago. We got moving as soon as Mr. Aacen confirmed the drive was completely repaired. We’ll make our way there at the best speed we can admiral, we do not want someone like Fisch getting near that contagion. He’ll either spark an uncontrollable outbreak, or realize his plans to turn the contagion to his own goals. Neither is acceptable.

  “Our biggest issue is that we are only one ship - two when we count Void’s Cutlass, and while I know the Kintzel’s would both like to ram one of those missiles right up Fisch’s reactor exhaust, taking on a whole flotilla might be asking a bit much.”

  “I know Commander,” LeBeau sighed, “All I’m asking is you try to delay them. Barring that, I’m giving you full authority, along with fleet ID codes to say you are operating under my directive, to destroy both The Journeyman and the Bathurst.” She paused as her aide gasped, and made a clatter at the side table where she was preparing tea. “We cannot allow either of those ships to come into any further contact with potential hosts, even if it means ending the lives of unaffected crew. Once the ships are destroyed, hopefully Fisch and his conscience devoid corpos will flee the system. He knows what’ll happen if authorities catch him.”

  The Giobhioni commander leaned in closer to the holocomm and gave her a long, measured look, then said, “We’ll do our best to avoid it if we can, admiral. Thank you for being realistic and planning ahead. You really don’t want this getting loose in major population centers if you can help it. Trust me on this.”

  “You don’t get to my position by avoiding pragmatism, commander. Before I let you get back to whatever had you so occupied…” another smirk, though I bet she thinks she hid it. What did I interrupt? “I’d like to ask one other favor. If you get the chance, and have the means, could you tag Fisch’s flagship with a tracker? I really would love to bring the man in for questioning.”

  “Oh, I would be more than happy too!”

  The Salvager’s Plague

  Ko-Fi or on