I’d gotten so used to the dust high of Lotus Sister that after a while, I didn’t even realize it was still there. But now we’re all starting to come down from it, and no one’s feeling that harder than our newest additions.

“Oh heavenly Eye, ooooh Lord of Jade,” moans Reiiko, finally ungagged after agreeing to be good under threat of death. So far, she’s proven herself a dirty, rotten, sexy liar.

“How do you people live like this? Guri, fetch my opivape.”

Slumped over in the corner with his face buried in his claw arms, Guriko grunts something unintelligible. The other two arms wrap tighter about his knees.

“He’s not your subordinate anymore,” I remind her. “You’re equals now. Do you even remember where you are? He doesn’t have your damn opivape.”

The heron hybrid tosses a lock of her long, blue-black hair over her shoulder.

“You’ll pay for this, you mangy canine slut,”

“Now, what did we say about language?” I tsk back, though in honesty her ravings are the only thing keeping me distracted enough to maintain my sanity.

“You’ll address me as Lady Reiiko or ‘My Lady,’ you slatternly dog.”

“I’m a fox-girl, actually,”

“Are you sure of that, you treacherous skank? I was merely being generous. In truth you stink of Boar.”

“Treacherous? That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think? And I don’t mind that. Ever been to EarthBoar District on Jade Palace? Smells nice. Like fresh new growth and soil.”

“Hm, not that one then. Is there a district that smells of shit and garbage, perhaps?”

“That’s really not very ladylike of you, Reiiko.”

Over near the far wall, Kirron chuckles.

“We’ve just been cleared. Shield passage in five,” says Tiberia, sitting up in bed and stretching her nub arm. “Four…three…two…one”

We all brace ourselves as the tremors begin.

“Everyone ready?”

Reiiko spits more insults, Guriko does something that sounds like a sob, a groan and a sigh all at once. Kirron gives a curt nod and Mr. Brisby takes Tiberia’s hand as she hops off her bunk.

“A ‘yes’ would be nice,” I mutter, eyeing the hatch with the drink spigots. The stimulant juice’d be a gods send at a time like this, but it’s been cut off. Of course.

The ship shudders its last, the tension in the air so thick I could choke on it. Thanks to Tiberia’s mycelium connection, we have a good idea of what to expect. It‘s a major advantage, but somehow knowing that doesn’t seem to help much with the nerves.

A fleshy valve in the upper corner of the cabin pulls open. That’s our cue. I exhale, then haul in the biggest breath I possibly can, holding it in as, with a hiss, a billowing green gas streams from the valve to fill the room. Tiberia runs to the bathroom, and a moment later there’s a splash as she plunges her head into the water-filled sink.

This is it. Freedom or death.

I let myself collapse, the thud of my body hitting the floor followed by four others a few seconds later.

More seconds pass, the gas growing thicker as my lungs began to ache. And a few more seconds…and a few more…until my whole body is screaming for breath, my every instinct fighting the denial. Black spots swim across my vision, and I squeeze my eyes shut. The pain in my lungs is like a fire eating me up from the inside. I can’t take this any more, I’m going to pass out. I—

There’s a sound like something huge inhaling. Prying my eyes open a hair’s breadth, I see that the gas is beginning to clear. Just a few seconds more. I only need to hold my breath a few seconds more.

And then I black out.

~*~

AR System engaged. Potential Threats identified. Blink-Scan initiated.

I wake to chaos, ice-cold skin, and stats scrolling across my blurry vision. There’s a lot of movement and shouting overlaid with the sizzle of biobolts glancing off Sai shields. A four-legged figure looms less than a pace away from where I lay against the wall, lit in blue. I blink hard, my vision clearing just as another bolt flares across Kirron’s shield—which falters for a moment before evening out again.

Calculating optimal response.

Shield engaged.

Sai Pool: 40/90

My shield glows to life around me and I lurch to my feet, Kirron grunting as his attacker’s blade pierces his own. He blocks the blow with his arm-gun…which isn’t good for much else, having been disabled while we were away. The impact forces him backward, and I step sideways to make way—pushing past him to put myself between him and his assailant, Captain Horn.

As I focus on the shark man, his stat glyphs flare into sharper focus.

Threat Designation - Captain Horn, “Greedy Traitorous Bastard”

Species: Hybrid - Human, Hammerhead Shark, Loggerhead Sea Turtle

OP Level: 68

Estimated Health: 205/220

Estimated Sai Pool: 0/0

Estimated Strength: 86

Estimated Cunning: 57

Augments -

Basic Kit

Warrior Kit Type D (Mercenary)

Spacer Kit (Command)

I must have inhaled some of the gas after I passed out, because my limbs are sluggish and awkward as I square myself off against him.

My metal tails, however, are not.

There’s an echoing shriek like an angry wind from somewhere behind me, and the cold glow coming from that direction flares. The walls sparkle as a rhyme of ice begins to form, and my shield catches another spray of bolts. Captain Horn ducks just in time to avoid Mr. Brisby’s Sai summoning. The dragon swoops around in a loop and out of sight, followed by the meaty sound of another body hitting the floor.

Threat (5) neutralized.

Horn carries the movement forward, though, bringing his fat lasersword around in a low arc that I have to jump to avoid. I whip a tail out as I come down, opening a bloody slash across his axe-shaped face.

Snarling, he retaliates, bringing the sword back around to slash at my belly. I spin sideways, but not fast enough. A cry rips out of me as a searing pain drives into my side, sending me stumbling. Behind me, someone shouts. I can only hope it’s Kirron. Half a heartbeat later a glowing lasso appears from behind me and to the left, looping around and nearly pulling the lasersword from Horn’s hand. He curses and yanks it free, but it slows him just enough.

My left tail wraps about his right wrist, holding his sword away as I drive the spear-sharp tip of the other straight at his gorge. It scrapes through the top layer of skin and then glances away, as though there’s armor hiding just beneath the surface. Or a shell.

Captain Horn bares his teeth and unleashes a low, threatening chuckle like the first roll of thunder that heralds a storm. With one powerful jerk, he rips his arm free of my grasp. His shadow swallows me up as he bares down, backing me against the wall. I try to step sideways, to circle around him—but with the blistering pain in my side I know I won’t be fast enough.

Looks like it’s gonna be death, then.

The shark man draws back his lasersword and disables the blade, flipping it around to wield the pommel like a mace. Going for the knock-out, not the kill. A rage unlike anything I’ve ever experienced bursts up from my core. Anything to avoid losing a bit of extra beachhouse cash. Fucking bastard.

The shadows around me deepen as something huge appears behind Horn. In the blink of an eye, the shark man is snarling and struggling and spraying blood as the pinchers of an enormous claw lock round his neck, hauling him back. The fury that I thought could burn no hotter blazes into an inferno, scorching all else away. The exhaustion and drugs that drag at my limbs. The uncertainty. The fear. Even my sense of self. The world narrows down to my target and absolutely nothing else.

As the captain thrashes and roars, all his attention fixated on freeing himself of Guriko’s vice-grip, I strike again with one tail, this time plunging it straight down his big, fat mouth. His teeth clamp around it, doing little more than scraping the metal as I drive the tail down his throat and deep into his gut. Then I hook it into the squelching meat of his innards and pull.

Blood and organs splatter across the floor as my tail withdraws.

Threat (1) neutralized.

Sai Gain: 20

This time I actually feel the power as it surges into me. Remembering what Tiberia told us, I focus my intent as I imagine my strength increasing and my Sai pool growing. The swirling, chaotic sensation of the Sai becomes a sort of stream. It flows through me, infuses my being with its essence.

Alert: Strength increased by 5

Strength: 41

Alert: Sai Pool increased by 5

Sai Pool: 20/95

Alert: OP Level Increase

OP Level: 41

For about half a wonderful second, the fury in my blood evaporates and I’m ecstatic. It actually worked! Then a high, soft scream issues from the back of the cabin near the bathroom. As I whirl around to see what’s happened, the agony in my side reasserts itself and I double over. Teeth grinding together, I look up through the curtain of my hair.

Bodies litter the floor, some still, others not. One of them is Reiiko, her Sai heron extinguished. That explains the melting ice. Another is Mr. Brisby. Kirron and Guriko are both locked in battle with crew members. But the source of the cry is Tiberia. Pinned in the corner and lifted off the ground, the octopus man’s slimy tentacles curl around her neck as his hands grope at the rest of her.

Ignoring the pain in my side, I engage Stealth Mode and ghost over to them. As my tail plunges through the man’s gut, I watch in the mirror of Tiberia’s wide gaze as his eyes bulge and the light goes out of them. The tentacles fall limp, and the bunny girl slides to the floor. I pull my tail back and let the corpse drop away.

Threat (3) neutralized.

Sai Gain: 6

Again I focus my intent, but though I feel the power streaming through me as I did before, apparently it’s not enough to trigger a change in my stats. Tiberia rushes past me, dropping to her knees at Mr. Brisby’s side. Reiiko stirs, groaning. A shout from behind me draws my attention to Kirron, locked in combat with the moray eel man. A few feet away from him, the pufferfish guy hauls himself to his feet and snatches a fallen laserblade, powering it up and drawing it back. In the next heartbeat the blade is a blur of orange light aimed straight for Kirron’s spine.

My tails slam the bastard back to the ground—his blade skimming Kirron’s flesh rather than driving into it. As I wrap one appendage around both the man’s arms and another about his neck to strangle him, a short, gurgling scream and a sudden illumination draws my attention back up. In the same moment, my Sai exhausts itself and I phase back into visibility.

The moray man slumps, dead-eyed, over Kirron. Though the centaur’s shield is gone, his entire body is lit by the glow of the Sai antlers now sprouting from his head. A glow so powerful it even shines through the flesh of the eel man where it’s driven a hand’s length deep into his neck.

Then the antlers flicker and vanish and the dead crewman crashes to the ground like an especially big sack of extremely ugly rocks.

Threat (2) neutralized.

As I stand there gaping, the pufferfish man’s heart beats its last.

Threat (6) neutralized.

Sai Gain: 4

Knowing I might need it, I let the Sai flow into my Pool without converting its energy. Then, as one, Kirron and I turn to the last enemy standing…in here at least. But the cyber centaur outstrips me immediately, the wound across his back trivial compared to my own. It’s all the help Guriko needs. With the crewman trapped between them, the crab-man snips his head off with about as much effort as he might use to pluck a tulip.

Threat (4) neutralized.

For a while Guriko, Kirron and I just sort of stare at each other. My chest heaves as I work to catch my breath. With the adrenaline already draining from my veins, the wound in my side is suddenly ten times more excruciating. Then the floor is rushing up to meet me. I greet it on my hands and knees.

“Six!”

There’s a pounding of hooves and then Kirron’s at my side.

“Tiberia, her wound—“

But the bunny girl is already padding over to me, a limping Mr. Brisby in her wake. Still lying on the floor, Reiiko moans insults at no one in particular. One of the wounded crewmen coughs, and Guri trundles over to him as Tiberia presses her bleeding hand to my laser-cauterized wound.

Crunch.

Threat (7) neutralized.

A coolness spreads through my skin from the point of contact, and the pain eases as the whole area goes numb. Then she pulls away, leaving a good quarter of my midsection coated in translucent gel.

“Look,” I reach over to poke Kirron’s leg. “Twinsies.”

He scoffs and turns his back, trotting towards the door that’s conveniently held open by the body sprawling through it.

“Spare us the dumb jokes and save your energy. We still have the pilot to deal with.”

“Don’t we need her?”

Kirron looks to Guriko. “Technically speaking, all we need is someone with oceanic DNA. Someone who can breathe in saltwater.”

The crab man flushes, looking from Kirron to me and then just continuing to shake his head.

“Oh, no no no. I can’t be no pilot. I’m not gettin down in that damned—“

“Guri, please,” I beg, taking a step closer to him and giving him my best puppy-dog eyes. “We can’t trust her. Besides, it’ll be temporary. You don’t even need a kit to do it. And once you’re tapped in, it’s like it’s you swimming the celestial sea. Just you and all the space in existence.”

He sputters, putting up his hands as if to shield himself from a threat.

“I can’t…I—“

“You just have a nice long think about that,” interrupts Kirron. “I’m going to go take care of the pilot.” Then, turning, he leaves the room. A moment later, the rest of us follow him, even Reiiko finally hauling herself to her feet to hobble after a still speechless Guriko.

But the pilot, as it turns out, isn’t all that tough without a crew to back her or a captain to authorize extreme measures. Sure, there are people who’ll insist the pilot’s the one with the real power on a bioship. Pilots, mostly. But in the end, most ships’ two factor authorization process means they’re hobbled without their captain.

We drag her up from the dark waters of the cockpit writhing and pleading.

“Don’t kill me, please! I swear my allegiance to you. I swear it on the heart of the Arowana. I—“

Her words are cut off as Reiiko pushes forward to shove a wad of biojell into the pilot’s mouth—almost definitely the same one that’d been used on her. Then Kirron and Guri haul her up off her feet.

“Who wants the Sai gain?” I ask, looking from one to the next of them.

“The captain should do it,” pipes up Tiberia.

Then, for some reason, she turns to me.

“Er, the captain’s dead,” I protest. “Like, really dead.”

“And you killed him, Miss. Six. Now you’re the captain.”

There’s a moment’s strained silence.

“I—is that really how it works?” I stammer, an edge of panic bleeding into my tone. Is that what I want?

“Ah, of course. Can’t be bothered with silly things like merit or group consens—“ Kirron’s sniping is cut off as the pilot manages to spit out the biojell.

“Please don’t do this. Just let me back in and I’ll—“

In the next instant, her words devolve into a gurgle as I bring a tail slashing forward to open her throat.

Turns out, that’s what I wanted.

Subject neutralized.

Sai Gain: 11

This time I direct the energy by focusing on my Stealth ability, savoring the sensation of energy flowing throughout my body. No alerts crop up, but I can feel the growth in power. The level’s not far off.

Guri hefts the pilot’s limp, bloodied form in his claws, and the rest of us follow as he makes his way to the transfer bay. Reiiko presses the control panel to open the door, a look of grim satisfaction on her beautiful face as Guri dumps the corpse in with all the others. The door reseals itself, and everyone looks to me.

Sighing, I punch the side of my fist to the red panel just above the normal one. It lights up, prompting me to trace a glyph on its screen to confirm. The glyph glows brilliant scarlet as I finish, then goes dark.

The airlock opens, and the entire crew of the Arowana is sucked out into space.

Behind them, Serpentis Station spirals against the swirling violet backdrop of Stone Sister moon, glittering darkly.