These feelings of worry were an odd sensation. I could tell that Nurse knew and understood why it was happening to me. It seemed that since she fixed my brain, all of the normal stresses that built up would be there. I just needed to learn how to deal with them myself rather than letting a system deaden my emotions.

“Yes, the best thing for you to have peace of mind is for you to strengthen yourself and to expand your capabilities.” Nurse said.

“Why did that just sound like you were my dad telling me to face a bully?” I asked as she rapidly superimposed an image of the planet Mercury, Magus the 2nd as he had looked before he threw me out towards the sun, and a little chubby boy who used to try to take my lunch money. The collage of images was absurd but made a strange sense in my mind.

“Because of how your mind works, some advice is timeless. If you are weak you should always work to become stronger so that no one can push you around. The problem with bullies is that, in life, they become generals and politicians. This allows them to hide behind other people who will pay the price for the fight. It is always best to face the bully himself if you can find him.” She said as the cycling picture came to rest on the planet mercury. “However, in this case, the Tela built Arbiters to enforce their rule.”

Meditati simply stood there and listened to my conversation with Nurse. I felt a tiny trickle of trust grow for her because she wasn’t butting in. She had requested me to grant her a connection so that she could hack the ship and she was simply waiting for me to respond.

“My advice is to let Meditati help you. There are some places that I and the swarm are not able to fully serve you. I would have just suggested atomizing this entire vessel since they have created undue stress for you. To swarm, these life forms serve no purpose in our expansion. I know your mind and how it works though... how you would do anything to protect that child Blidda who laughed at your jokes earlier simply because it is part of your upbringing.”

Meditati’s facial expression barely changed as she listened to Nurse but I felt a spike in the background data that only registered as a lump of fear. It seemed that Nurse’s psychotic swarm nature and how closely she was bonded to me made Meditati nervous.

This was a little funny to me because she had no idea of just how Nurse fully worked. How Nurse was just an extension of my will regardless of her swarm genetic programming.

“Agreed. Meditati, I am letting you have the access that you need from here on out. I am not looking forward to the conversation that I will have to have with the sisters and the crew when you hack everything though.” I said as I looked out through the virtual window that Meditati had opened earlier.

Before I could do anything, Meditati suddenly split into four copies of herself. One immediately moved to the side and began staring off into space, the flow of data being pulled through her from the Blidda’s ship. I could tell that she was already surging her way through the Blidda’s network defenses with ease. Two more Meditati’s walked away as well but they seemed to be focusing on something else concerning the ship and its passengers.

The last Meditati simply met my gaze as I dropped out of VR and turned off my Prime Speed Control key. I let her control a tiny amount of swarm so that she could use to manifest herself as a little three-inch tall image floating in the air next to me. She took my limitations in stride as the sisters reanimated from the moment that I had left them frozen in.

Jelesv’s eyes became slits and I couldn’t help but notice the slight smirk starting to form on her lips as everything returned to normal around me.

“You are too late, human.”

“The weapon was deployed and this room is currently being bombarded by the field through those nubs that she has strategically installed around the room.” Meditati’s voice came from her little floating image. “My module is currently dead.”

My helm’s hud showed that what she said was true, it was being blocked by the weapon. Jelesv had managed to turn on the weapon somehow and would have killed Meditati once she fully turned herself on.

“Jelesv is attempting to warn the rest of the ship but I have blocked her and her sister’s access completely.”

I felt like I was still using my Prime Speed Control key as I watched Jelesv’s facial expression slowly change from triumph to shock and then to fear as she focused on the little image of Meditati and worked at processing her words.

Kivasa was also still trying to understand what I had meant when I told her that I was going to let an “evil” Tela AI take over her home. Meditati’s sudden appearance and words were only just being understood for what they were and how fast it had all just happened.

It was her and her sister’s turn to finally be the ones to utter “What?” several times in a row as they both tried to come to grips with the sudden change.

“Kivasa and Jelesv, this is Meditati.” I said, finding my voice almost echoing with reverb.

Both of the sisters' ears stiffened when they heard my voice. Clearly, Meditati had changed it and added what I was lacking.

“Look, I tried to warn you. I am not Blidda so you shouldn’t have tried to become aggressive with me through your native tonal speech.” I said after a few moments of the two of them just standing there.

“By their coloring and pupils, they are in a state of shock,” Meditati said as Kivasa’s eyes were the first ones to show any movement. It seemed that she truly did have an adaptive mind compared to the other Blidda that I had yet to meet.

“Kevin?”

“Yes, Kivasa.”

“Are you here to kill us all?”

“Nope, not at all.”

“Really? Truly? I… I don’t feel so well.” She said as she seemed to gradually lose control of her face and body.

I noticed that her sister had a strange look on her face as well. Both of their sets of eyes were starting to look a little glazed.

“Ah, Kevin, they appear to be dying from asphyxiation brought on by intense fright. It is something that can happen to Blidda in certain situations. It had almost happened to Kivasa earlier from your memories when she thought you were in league with the Tela.” Meditati said.

“Really? I thought that she was joking.” I said as I stared at the two sisters in horror. “What can I do?”

“Oh, that is easy, just press on their necks between their collar bones. That will unblock the nerve that seizes up when they experience a death fright.”

“Here?” I asked as I reached out and pressed on a hard plate between both of the sister’s collar bones.

“Just a little lower, you will feel it give and should feel their pulse pick up.”

I found the right place and pressed, feeling a slight give with what would have been the trachea on a human. Sure enough, it seemed that by adding pressure it had helped to fix some of whatever was causing them to seize up.

“So, before you ask, no this isn’t normal. This is caused and is a possibility when Blidda live in space for too long without their planet’s gravity and excessive atmospheric pressure. It is a fear and combat response that, had they been on their home planet, would have allowed them to stun their opponent with short bursts of intense vocal sonics.” Meditati explained as I watched the two sisters slowly recover.

Kivasa was the first to move, her hands reaching up to clasp her long fingers around my wrist, simply holding on while she finished recovering. Her sister was a little bit slower to recover and seemed the weaker overall of the two. She simply fixed her eyes on me while I held her up and continued to do whatever I was doing to help her get over her near-fatal panic attack.

I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t every day that I had to hold pressure on someone’s nerve ending so that they wouldn’t die.

“Ok, now that they are stable, slowly lessen the pressure slightly and let them figure out their own balance between their fear and the pressure it causes on their nerve,” Meditati instructed as I just stood there listening to the sisters breathing and the soft humming sounds of the forgotten drones.

I did as I was told and watched as the sisters both worked on getting their personal fears and bodies under their own control. Jelesv seemed to have the most difficulty fighting her fear because she tensed up and grabbed at my hand, forcing me to apply harder pressure back to her nerve.

“Jel, calm down!” Her sister managed to pant out once she had recovered enough to speak. “He saved us. It makes no sense for him to do that or his AI to show him how to unblock our Uvn way.” She continued to say, trying to get through to her sister.

Slowly, like a balloon with a tiny hole, Jelesv’s fear lessened and she managed to get ahold of herself and to calm down enough so that she didn’t need me to apply pressure or to touch her anymore.

Once they both were well enough for me to release them we simply stood there staring at each other for a bit while they simply breathed and glanced between my face and the little image of Meditati floating next to me.

“I believe,” Kivasa said softly. “That apologies are in order.”

It was at that moment that a little alarm clock started rattling inside my brain. I had left Ess alone for way too long on the station and there was a Tela scientist on her way. Nothing that these Blidda had to say really mattered. I knew they weren’t doing this on purpose, holding me in place, but felt like I had to get back as fast as I could. I felt like I had stepped in quicksand ever since I got on board this vessel, being sucked into niceties when I had too many things going on. There was only so much that I could take and I had just reached my limit.

It was like going over to my aunt's house for five minutes to say hi and only managing to escape five hours later.

“Look, this is all well and good but I am leaving now. I have wasted enough time here already.” I said as I willed my swarm to create an Alpha cube for me.

“Here, take this. It will allow me to find you later.” I said as I tossed the cube to Kivasa before I began heading back towards where I knew an airlock to be. I had seen one on our mad dash here.

“Would you like me to set a minder on the cube so that they can reach you through it? I can also leave a part of myself inside their ship to keep an eye on them and their dangerous data.” Meditati asked from where she kept pace with me.

“Sure. That sounds good. Did you get what we needed from here?” I asked as I spied Kivasa rushing after me.

“Indeed. Everything about their weapon and how it interferes between the infinitesimal gap between linked cr. I am already working on an area of denial weapon for Tela-based cr as we speak. I would even be interested in expanding this research into...” She started to say something else before she was cut off by Nurse.

“Any research or delving further than Tela cr would be inadvisable unless Kevin requests it.” I heard Nurse say calmly in my head to Meditati.

‘Oh, that was right. If it could be used against Tela… it might be further developed into a weapon against my swarm as well.’ I thought.

“Indeed. While it wouldn’t be able to unplug your swarm from their life energy or to remove their loyalty to their monarch… it might be able to cause areas of silence where swarm are unable to hear the hives directives.”

“What would that do?”

“It would put them in a state of hibernation until the field was removed.”

“I see,” I said as I neared the airlock.

“Kevin!” Came a cry from behind me as Kivasa rushed up with her sister a little distance behind her. She was still clutching the cube tightly.

“Yes?” I said as I turned to glance back at her.

“So. This means that you will be coming back to us?” She asked, cupping the cube before her in both hands.

“Yes. I just really have other things to do right now.” I replied as I looked back between the two sisters. For some reason, a bruise had developed in the spots where I had pressed against their chests to keep them both alive. It was a stark splotch of dark gray color that marked their otherwise smooth and light gray and green color of skin.

It looked kind of bad, to be honest.

I couldn’t help but hiss a little between my teeth as I thought of all the ramifications it might cause when another Blidda noticed it. Just another reason to leave really fast before dads and uncles popped out of the woodwork saying that I had to marry them both now. Or worse mothers and grandmothers.

I opened the outer airlock door and got ready to make a mad dash back to the station when I heard a less authoritative voice speak behind me.

“Kevin, thank you for having your Tela AI upgrade our ship's degrading systems,” Jelesv said softly.

“Hmm?” I muttered as I half turned to look back at the scientist sister. She seemed so different than the Blidda female who had been aggressively demanding things from me just a short while ago. I guess nearly dying could do that to a person. Either that or it all was because my voice still sounded like I was speaking through a rusty tuba.

“You are welcome Jel,” I said, not really sure how to talk to her or what to say. My usage of her sister’s shortened version of her name seemed to perk her up a little.

The airlock door closed in my face, blocking my vision of the sisters as the numbers cycled down and the gas was quickly sucked out of the lock. I couldn’t help but smile a little as I turned and walked the short distance to the outer door.

“What did you do?” I asked Meditati as her little three-inch avatar was absorbed back into my swarm suit.

“I optimized their travel pods, maps, communications, hygiene, medical, translation, and fuel systems just to name a few.”

“Why did you do all of that?” I asked as the outer door zipped open, letting me see the expanse of stars outside the ship.

It was beautiful.

“Why? Because she life bonded them all to you in exchange for their escape from the Tela scientist. In essence, she handed you a sizable empire vessel of Blidda in exchange for her people’s safety. In my opinion, it was a very clever exchange because their weapon was worth so much more in the grand scheme of things. If used properly it will remove the restrictions of the Tela and may allow cr to be discovered and used by more alien races.”

“Why do you sound so sad when you say that last sentence?”

“Because… most of the alien races that I have followed and watched my entire existence would be deleted from the cosmos if just one of the red-listed aliens learned how to harvest cr.” She said as I moved rapidly away from the ship.

“Want me to leave some swarm for you to inhabit when you return?” Nurse asked, breaking into my troubled thoughts before I got too far away.

“Sure, thanks Nurse,” I said as I used my swarm senses to single out my distant ship as a guide for me to start heading towards. The large sheets of swarm that had been aiding the Blidda ship in its escape separated and recombined with my body, filling me out and bulking me up from the extra cr that I had drained from my ship.

“Please use this time to learn about the capabilities of gold cr for me Meditati. I would like to see how much more powerful it is than mud density.”

“With pleasure Kevin.” Came her reply as I steadily increased my speed up to its upper limits that I felt it was capable of generating.

“Oh. My. Word.” Was all she uttered as I watched the distance countdown on my helm faster than even I expected.

I had my friends and pet wyrm to get back to and I didn't want to be late.

I hoped no one had thought to enter my ship without my permission. I could only imagine what would happen if Ess tried to headbutt a Yelvos.