Coeus?

Chapter 44: ~New Respect.~

While it is true that the mages would've never conquered space without gravity magic, the same also holds for various other magical affinities. One example is the ability to create working habitats with an ecosystem. Plants are still the best producers of oxygen and also serve as food basis for various animals.

Hence the blessings of nature magic aren't any less valuable for a life in space. Being able to influence the growth rate of plants and animals, as well as having powerful healing magic and the ability to manipulate living matter is one of the most valuable abilities for a life in space.

Many young mages with the ability to use nature magic find themselves a job as caretakers of a habitat even without specialized education.

-The true history of space flight

***System 82456, Coeus***

***Cyla***

Don't worry. Relax.

I watch Gideon's newest flip-out in silent fascination and shudder as he carves his way through the last remaining Drazi. The camera inside his suit is transmitting everything. Gideon is somewhat of a special existence and, surprisingly, I don't dislike that. Even though his actions seem to be those of a crazed serial killer from time to time. No, he probably is a crazed serial killer from time to time. I wonder why I have no problem with that?

Letting him loose on aliens, monsters and other scum doesn't feel wrong to me. And he certainly has the strength to back it up.

Maybe sharing our thoughts with each other rubs off. He gets to be a little more emotional and empathic while I get a little more... ruthless. After the massacre inside the Drazi's VR I was shocked at what had gotten into me. Even more so because I felt nothing wrong about it.

I frown and decide to worry about it later. Maybe it's not troubling me simply because I know Gideon better than most other people. Despite being a genius he is actually very simple. And if you press the wrong buttons, like the Drazi, you end up on his black list. In my mind that's better than having to deal with a too-emotional and unpredictable person.

Taking over the Drazi ship is going well. Only a few Drazi were in space suits when Gideon opened the ship to space, so all our drones are doing right now is hunting down the few survivors.

I took over their main computer core and shut it down for the time being. This should stop the remaining Drazi from doing anything too complicated with their ship.

The two pods which hit the Coeus have also been dealt with. Ed and his men did fine in handling the other one. Ed and his men aren't teleporters, so there wasn't much else they could do besides waiting for the enemies to cut their way into the ship.

They didn't give the Drazi any chance to do anything else though. As soon as the aliens opened a breach in the hull they got blasted with all sorts of spells and weapons. It's like that when you try to force your way though a small, defended bottleneck.

The Drazi are a lot like those aliens in one of Gideon's games. I think they are called the Zerg? All about numbers, but no quality. Their chances of taking our ship were reduced to zero when we blasted most of their boarding pods.

We shouldn't underestimate their tactics though. This time we had an entire fleet as backup to blast most of their boarding pods to pieces. What if they attack a single, damaged ship like this? Can the Coeus be defended if the hull is breached in twenty different spots at once?

From now on we should keep a sufficient number of battle drones inside the hull to deal with such attacks.

An incoming call from the Forlorn fleet draws my attention. Since Gideon is busy with the pod's pilot I decide to answer in his stead.

The image of the Forlorn commander appears inside my mind, so I send him an image of myself to return the favour. How can we help you?

The Forlorn shifts in its seat and I can make out something like a command bridge behind him. We just witnessed that you successfully intercepted the fleeing Drazi. It also seems that you managed to capture one of their ships?

Yes, we are learning a lot about them, I answer. There is probably no point in denying the obvious.

There is also a very disturbing broadcast coming from the Drazi ship. They are sending information about you and your boarding action to the other fleeing vessels. He makes a gesture which shows that he is agitated about the contents, but trying to be polite. We intercepted the message since Drazi made a public broadcast to reach both their vessels. It seemed polite to let you know about it.

Thank you. But our ships are in the process of intercepting those ships. It's highly unlikely for them to get away. If we don't catch them in this system, then our ships will overtake them and stop them in the next one. They won't be able to carry their information home. I inform the Forlorn. Probably they have trouble seeing our ships at this distance.

That's good. We are also hoping that you'll share any information you get from that captured ship? And maybe the weapon which you used against them? the commander asks. We are also gaining information from the pieces of the Drazi fleet. It would benefit both species to share such intelligence. The new ships which the Drazi used were definitely not of their standard type. The ships were much bigger and better shielded. They must have a new shipyard somewhere in the sector.

I don't have the authority to share such information. It would be good if you hand such a request to your diplomats in Antares. They can handle it with our diplomats, I answer.

That's reasonable. There is no need to take the whole fleet back by the way. Our commanders decided that our fleet will stay in this region to strengthen the defence. But it would be nice if you take a messenger back to the homeworld with you. Thank you for your time. The Forlorn disconnects.

If that wasn't exceptionally polite? When we discussed our plan with them the first time they didn't seem to be too happy about it.

Though they still don't have a concept of saying goodbye before they cut the connection.

I return my attention to the ship's interior and realize that Gideon teleported back into the ship's hull. He is about to enter the command module, but I shut down the air lock.

While he is mashing the locks controls I establish a connection with his suit's communication. You can't enter the ship like this! Especially not since the air lock connects directly to our living room. I won't be the one who cleans afterwards.

What do you mean? he asks, astounded.

Look down at yourself! Find a way to clean up. You are a walking bio-hazard! Gideon looks down at himself and starts trying to wipe away the green, gooey Drazi blood. All he does is smear the parts which hadn't dried yet and scatter the parts which had. But it's clear that he won't get clean like this.

After a few seconds he starts grumbling. I guess I'll have to go all the way to the air lock at living module two. They have a decontamination field set up.

I smile. That would be wise.

For a while I follow Gideon's path through the gravity maze of his own ship, then I switch my attention to the rest of the fleet. The weapons platform is closing in on the captured remains of the Drazi ship. Since it's partly a dockyard, it has enough space to take in the whole ship. Once the ship is safely stored away, we can return toAntares.

Our two hunting parties will have to go home on their own, which isn't a bad thing since they can use the opportunity to seed even more reconnaissance platforms.

Once that's done we can hand the problem of dealing with the Forlorn to the diplomats and return to Sol. Going on such lengthy trips is really troublesome.

I start giving commands to coordinate the fleet. Then I take my time to lock down the Drazi ship's network in any way I can.

After a while my mind wanders back to our journey. Coming out here took us two weeks. Going back will take another two. Maybe our eggheads can use the new technology to establish a direct teleport to Antares? That would be really handy, I hate those long travel times.

Gideon and I have already known each other for more than five months, and we spent most of that time inside this ship!

The problem with teleportation is energy, but the new antimatter reactors should solve that. Hopefully. Why do my breasts feel so strange?

***System 82456, Coeus***

***Gideon***

On my way back I encountered Ed and his men. They also decided to stop the Drazi at the ship's hull. Now we are waiting at the air lock since the decontamination field can take only one person at a time.

So how did it go? I ask Ed who is floating next to me. Since the living modules weren't added by me, the engineers placed the air lock in an area without gravity.

They poked a hole into the hull, but otherwise they did no damage. We have to decontaminate the insides of the ship though. We used magic to blast them to pieces while they were still inside their landing pod. Some of the goo flew out and into the ship.

No survivors? I ask.

Ed shakes his head. Sadly not. We didn't expect how tightly they were packed in there. In addition, the few survivors of the initial blast fought like maniacs.

I interrogated some of them, but it got harder with each time I tried. Calming them down became almost impossible after the first two. I really tried my best, but no nicety was able to stop the aliens from being upset. I even tried simply hugging number four and sang a children's song I got from its brethren. That made him completely mad with fear though. It was right to assume that human standards don't apply to the Drazi.

At least I got some valuable bits of information from the pilot. He wasn't high in rank, but he knew at least some navigational data. Those hamsters have a long way behind them, I explain. It's probably best to hold a really long meeting after this. I also have to write a report about the language and their society... or not. I'll simply dump all the information to the net. There are specialists for stuff like this. I try to scratch my chest, but the damn suit is in the way. There is definitely something going on. Their star charts have dates added to them. The Drazi flew practically blind until they reached Forlorn space. Then the charts got a sudden update not too long before the Oibras incident, with Sol and Antares pointed out as the homeworlds of two competitor species. But according to the Forlorn they don't even know that Sol is our homeworld.

You interrogated them with telepathy? Ed asks.

I raise a hand. Yes, but before you preach to me about laws, remember that the laws don't apply to aggressive aliens.

Yes. Though, be careful. Telepathy shouldn't be used that casually. Are you sure that your mind is okay? he asks concernedly.

Yes. No problem. Theirs, though, are not. There is some kind of incompatibility between our minds and theirs. It feels like attaching yourself to an old CPU and over-clocking it until it fries, I explain.

We continue talking on a private frequency until we finally get to use the air lock ourselves. Apparently I caused Ed a few problems when I called him Dad. His men overheard it and are now thinking of me as his illegitimate son. Quite a price to pay for trying to disturb my gene provider a little.

But Ed should get no problems besides being talked about behind his back. He is a drifter without family, so calling me illegitimate is overdoing it anyway.

According to his story he should be happy to have someone who is carrying on his genes. We continue our conversation with small talk until I say my goodbyes to 'Dad'.

On my way back to the command module I instruct the Coeus to deal with the hole inside the hull and the contamination problem. Setting the IMs to incinerate everything organic should do it.

Back inside the command module, I get out of my space suit and into some more-comfortable clothes. Being inside this thing for too long is really uncomfortable. I should try to add a finer webbing for the ventilation tubes. A greedy and dirty thought wanders through my mind: Maybe Cyla also wants to get out of her suit to get a bath?

I enter the command module, where I find Cyla lying on her acceleration chair. Unfortunately, her eyes are closed, so she is still doing some coordination for the ship and the fleet.

I stroke her beautiful long hair and smirk as my eyes wander down her alluring figure. What did I do to deserve someone like that? She isn't just understanding of my nature but also has very pleasing looks. Or did I simply have luck for once?

Cyla redesigned her suit herself. To my dismay she removed the see through parts completely and settled for a less frilly design. In hindsight it may have been the right decision. What's the point in having them when all you get to see is sweaty skin?

I've really changed a lot since I met her. My previous self would have never indulged himself in so many dirty thoughts.

My attention returns to the suit. At least Cyla kept to the female design which is emphasizing her curves. Those hips and the chest-piece are simply perfect. One moment. Did she lengthen suit's frontal seal? It runs down from her neck all the way to between her legs. How dirty, but I can see how that makes it easier to put on the suit. Maybe I should do that too?

I find my eyes staying stuck to her chest, which is really distracting. She won't be angry when I feel her up a little? Earlier she tried to call me Dearest. It felt a little strange to resort to such a nickname, but if I am her dearest I am surely allowed to do that.

Bending over her I use the opportunity which was given to me, but the hardened carbon plates of the suit make the experience a little less worthwhile than I hoped for.

It's probably a stupid idea to undo the seals, but she already did a lot of things to me while I was sleeping. If I return the favour she can't say anything against it.

I slowly undo the seals and pull the suit open. Cyla, you are a dirty girl! I know that she thinks of herself as a decent and moral woman, but deep down she is evil and a little perverted. She forgot to put on underwear!

I pinch her nipples and cup her breasts in my hands. It is really nice to be the one who gets his share. Normally she always wakes up earlier than me. I kiss her collarbone and suddenly her arms grab my head.

Then my eyes wander up and meet hers. Her face is red all over, but she is smirking. So you aren't only the ass-type.

I try to smile. Why does it feel like I was caught? Good morning. I wanted to ask if you want to take a bath?

Is that the right way to ask? She raises an eyebrow.

If you mean that I have to undo more seals the next time... I reach for her belly. You know that your suit-design raises certain questions?

Her eyes wander down her own body and her expression drops. Her face turns even redder. Then she jumps up and flees the cockpit. That wasn't the intennnntioooon!

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