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While I was having a wonderful reunion with my friends Jebzzbej was having a meeting with a side of Nurse that I had yet to experience. The inside of Nurse's mouth was not dark or dingy, as one would have expected. No, it was actually well lit and quite expansive, all things considered. The surfaces that made up the walls seemed to writhe and pulse oddly as if things were living in the walls.

"So, what now Kevin? Are you going to kill me then?" Jebzzbej asked in a detached tone after she had been suddenly snatched from the airlock.

Earlier, when the human had rudely turned his back on her, she had been moments away from giving him a piece of her mind when his pet had attacked her. Somehow, wherever the tail of the Leva had made contact, it had managed to crush her cr. This should have not been possible.

It could only mean one of two things. One, that the Leva was actually fake, simply a representation of a living Leva and made entirely from Kevin's new density of cr. If that was the case it would have easily explained its odd black and white coloring. Why Kevin would make his swarm do this and to create a pet for him was something that Jebzzbej had no answer for, so she marked it as being unlikely.

The other thing that it could have meant was more troubling. It meant that the human had weaponized a native space-faring animal. Not just any animal but a creature that could grow into a titan. She didn't know how or why he would have done this, but the ramifications were very troubling. The Tela had dictated that doing so was illegal, punishable by death. The weaponization of animals had been done before on a massive scale, never with the Leva though, and had resulted in massive casualties and loss of trade revenue all across the cosmos. It was like setting up a living and migrating minefield. Truly appalling behavior.

She had been about to warn the human of this dangerous realization when a massive limb had cut its way into the airlock to grab her. It was the same forelimb of the parasitic swarm creature Kevin had named strangely "Nurse".

Just a whole lot bigger.

Out of fear for her life, Jebzzbej had turned on her personal Prime Speed Control key to think of a way to escape the massive limb tearing the walls apart to reach her. This action had proved useless, given her newfound understanding of just how fast Kevin's swarm could move. It did, however, give her a few moments to think.

As she thought back to her earlier actions, she quickly began to understand just how badly she may have handled her meeting with the human. She should have swallowed her pride and chosen not to chase after him into the airlock. She had just been so enraged at how disrespectful he had been, going so far as to laugh and to praise his pet for bodily flinging her across the entire room. That and the fact of the existence of his weaponized pet. If the Tela hierarchy discovered what Kevin had done, it would mean both of their lives being sought for termination. She had been meaning to use that tidbit of information against him, buying her silence, right before she was eaten by Nurse.

"He dared to allow his pet to strike my person..." Jebzzbej said aloud, tasting the words as she stuffed her human persona back into her memory archives. "Oh, yes, I see that it was a mistake to embody that personality in front of the human." She muttered to herself as her mind returned to its more analytical and emotionless self. Even during her time on earth, the commoners had held disdain in their hearts towards her power and fame. When she got back to her Core, she would need to run simulations as to how the current modern male would respond to a powerful female who came to his time from the 18th century. She suspected that the advancements in their native cultures would show just where she had made mistakes. She had been away from earth for too long and was out of touch with its current progress.

Right now, she was probably moments away from death. A regrettable result, she mused. She briefly considered ejecting her Personal Live Matrix from her body in an attempt to save herself, but seeing just how fast this thing could move, it probably wouldn't even make it into the trade hall before it was captured.

As a final precautionary measure, she had sent her findings and final thoughts to a timed-release broadcast back in her lab and simply turned off her Prime Speed Control key to accept her fate. Kevin would pay dearly if he killed her, her recording would see to that from beyond the grave.

"Well?" She asked as she changed her form back to her natural Tela form. She noticed that her cr was broadcasting false connections. It could only mean that Kevin's parasite was moving through her cr body. 'Why would his parasite do that?' came a slightly worrying thought. Was it going to take control of her?

"Hello? Kevin?" She asked the stillness as she observed her ship as it started to flake apart, layer by thin layer.

"Curious." Came an odd and strangely creepy voice from all around her. The voice was a mix of voices, as though it didn't care to stick to one sex or age. "Your ship is fake. Just a solid blob of cr. Now, why would you bring so much cr to a simple trade deal?" She heard the voice ask as more and more of her ship seemed to flake away. The flakes appeared to be... being eaten by the walls and floor.

"I was going to create anything that you wanted..." Jebzzbej began before the creepy voice continued, speaking over her.

"Hush... I don't need you to speak and to waste my time with lies. I already know that you use your ship to capture any alien race that dares to harvest Leva nest material. The little robots that make up your ship give up their knowledge freely when consumed. I know that you were planning on capturing my master once your facade of a "trade" was done. Well, you would have if he hadn't been able to resist." Nurse said as the speed at which the ship was devoured rapidly accelerated until there was nothing left.

This admission made Jebzzbej freeze in place, her mind understanding completely that this being could infest and take over her life if it so chose. She would get no revenge if it did, no, all of her memories would be laid bare to this creature if it consumed her Personal Live Matrix.

"Kevin!?! You need to stop this!"

"Kevin is not here right now, I volunteered to deal with you while he is off reuniting with people he cares about."

"Are you the parasite called Nurse?" Jebzzbej asked as a sudden idea formed in her head. She hadn't known that the parasite could talk. She had thought that it was just the human trying to rile her up. What if she could convince it to serve her instead?

"No, that wouldn't work. The swarm cannot be bought, threatened, or frightened." Nurse said even before Jebzzbej could open her mouth to speak.

"How can you read my thoughts?" She asked as, without her willing it to happen, she watched her mind sent off deletion and scrubbing protocols for her recent info dump on Kevin if she died. This parasite had taken control away from her so easily. What was more troubling was its lack of emotion or boasting as it proved that it was in complete control of what happened next. It had invaded her just like she had done to the LOW's weapon earlier, only without a trace of emotion.

Oddly enough, the parasite was being extremely gentle and slow with whatever it was doing. Her body's cr was reporting errors, but none were being destroyed. She figured that the parasite could have easily torn her apart, had it been so inclined.

"As to your question. I have drones that have completely integrated their minds with your Tela coding. All I need to do is to link them up to certain places inside your Matrix so that I can have them see and do anything that I want. It isn't even difficult when you understand how your machines are made."

Thoughts of how she could use this ability against rival science families and Citizens flashed through her mind. With this power, she could rule over all the Tela and the subsequent alien races under the watch of an Arbiter. She could own everything. Jebzzbej flinched the instant she had those thoughts pass through her mind because she knew that this parasite could hear her every thought. There would be no lying to this being and there was no escape until it chose to let her go. If it chose to let her go.

"Now you understand." Nurse said as she formed a Global Arbiter Control key out of Jebzzbej's cr and set it afloat in front of her eyestalks. "This key is forfeit from your possession and will be delivered to my Monarch upon the end of our talk."

Jebzzbej stared at the key and couldn't even build up the urge to argue with the parasite. It wasn't like it was the only one, all Jterg family had access to the coding. The problem with it leaving her possession was that she didn't dare to tell anyone that she had it taken away from her. Even locking the key out by changing the protocols was not something that she was willing to do because it would let everyone know that she had lost it when it sent out the update.

She might as well just tell her parents that she never wanted to have research rights ever again. Yes, she had fumbled its use as leverage against the human. The problem was that the human was just so impulsive and emotional.

Again, it was almost as though he had outside help.

Jebzzbej's eyes followed the key and for a brief moment, a memory of her time back on earth flashed before her mind's eye. It wasn't the key itself that spawned her memory, more it was the situation that she had been forced into by the parasite. The moment when power was wielded against another without the recipient being able to slow or dodge the blow.

In her memory, she had been holding a writ of a young nobleman's claim of titles aloft in her clenched fist. The young nobleman had been unaware of her secret powers, unable to understand how she had managed to hear his secret conversations or to discover his traitorous messages that he delivered to rivals. Jebzzbej had truly enjoyed the look of fear and despair that inevitably spread across the nobleman's face as she recited his wrongdoings before the council. She had been the one in power then. It had been her guilty pleasure while on earth, the ability to wield the power that her family had amassed over the ages against the alien natives. The power and wealth that came with it. This power had been intoxicating.

At this moment with the parasite, however, the roles had been reversed. It was her turn to be taken from and chastised like a powerless child.

"Yes. Focus on that thought. That is interesting." Nurse said before time stretched. Jebzzbej knew that her Prime Speed Control key was being used but she had no way of turning it off anymore. She was sent back into her memories on earth for a time and had to relive and experience choices that she made against other people whenever they dared to displease her. The memories were all taken without regard to context or duration, they all simply showed her using her power and influence to take away from pitiful humans on such a dirty and insignificant planet.

A considerable amount of time passed and eventually, Jebzzbej couldn't take it anymore. She had lived on earth for more than one hundred years and her memory was perfect. This parasite was a master of torture, scheming to leave her in an endless playthrough of boring and unstimulating past events, with no hope of progress or freedom. It was a hell that Jebzzbej could not ever, in her darkest dreams, have thought up. Truly this parasite was a monster.

"Mercy! I beg for mercy! Look, I get it! You are the one in control here! The roles have been reversed and I am the weak and pitiful Tela in regards to your overwhelming might. Please just please let it end! Kill me now!"

"Kill you? Death is not allowed."

"You are not going to kill me?" She asked in horror. Would she be left in an endless rerun of her existence forever?

Nurse remained silent as she considered the scientist. It had only been a coincidence that she had discovered one of Jebzzbej's innate fears. It seemed that the Tela, being immortal, had some deep-seated fears related to the loss of control of their minds and lives. Who knew that she would crack after six years of having to relive her life back on earth? Nurse had merely been wasting time while she waited for Kevin's reunion to be over so that they could leave. As for why she had focused on the Victorian era, she knew from Kevin's mind that these memories would be fascinating to him, so she wanted to collect them for him to view at a later time. Since she wasn't allowed to hurt the Tela, and since Nurse's mind was easily able to keep up, she had used the Tela's personal Prime Speed Control key so that she could browse the scientist's expansive collection of memories while very little time passed in reality.

The Tela's mental stability seemed to be struggling. Nurse was actually impressed that she hadn't resorted to bribery, buyouts, or threats like a human would have. The scientist's analytical mind remembered and took every word that Nurse had said into consideration. She knew that she was held and that she was unable to escape until "the end of our talk" that Nurse had promised.

Nurse could only think of one thing that the Tela might know that would be of value to her Monarch, so she turned off the Prime Speed Control key and spoke to the distraught Tela.

"Ok, I propose a trade."

"What? What kind of trade?"

Nurse took the key away from in front of the scientist and instead manifested a copy of the male ant figurine that Kevin had managed to collect two of. One from the treasures of the Blidda and the other as a castoff from the LOW.

"For every current location that you know of these... I will show you a glimpse, just for a brief moment, of what things are like in my home dimension."

It was in the next few moments, twenty-four to be exact, that Jebzzbej learned just how wrong she was about so many things.

"I... " Jebzzbej began, struggling to get her words out. "I didn't know how close death was... or how beautiful everything would be."

...

"I want to go there."

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