Master's Journey: Shadow Ascent #3 (Patreon)

Author's Notes: We meet the rest of the crew! Or, at least, the ones most likely to be immediately important!

[story]

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‭“I’ll get to know the rest of the crew, if it’s all the same,” you offer a short nod to the android, who nods in return.

“Very well; I’ll have your things ready in your quarters, when you’re finished.” L-Zero turns stiffly, leaving the bridge, and you turn your attention back to Oudega.

“Alright, anyone else I should be introduced to?”

“This way,” the admiral points a finger forward and leads you in the opposite direction the android headed off, towards an elevator at the rear of the bridge. Ushering you inside, he directs the little box to hurl itself downward into the ship’s lower level. When the door hisses open, you find yourself in a place much less clean and posh, built for labor rather than command and communication. Workers scramble about, making last-minute preparations for the Basileia, and the moment you step outside the elevator, you find yourself faced with someone new to you.

“Admiral,” the woman salutes to Oudega, but seems uninterested in you for now. She’s nauelli, but unlike Etha, she’s built much more the way you expect a nauelli female to be built – she’s tall and athletic, a fair bit of lean muscle evident even beneath her jet-black uniform, a uniform quite similar to your own. Her blue skin is a shade or two darker than Etha’s, black hair worn in a tight, professional frame around her fierce countenance. Contrasting that air of professionalism, though, are the jagged, darkly colorful tattoos that crawl up her neck in gloomy shades of green, purple, and red, also visible on the backs of her hands. Who knows how much of her they cover.

“Corporal Pax,” the admiral nods at her, then pauses, “or, should I say, Weapons Officer Pax. Meet Aln’vos, the captain of the Basileia.”

A flutter of shock and panic rush across Pax’s face, but dissipate quickly as she regains her composure. Confusion follows, but it’s an equally brief dalliance. Turning to you, she salutes once more, immediately accepting the new pecking order – especially, you assume, because it involves such a juicy field promotion. “Captain.”

“Paxie, you didn’t steal my power coils, did you?” comes a voice from nearby, belonging to a small figure that’s currently rooting through a massive heap of assorted mechanical parts. Of the figure now, though, you can see little more than a long, non-prehensile tail swaying to and fro in the air.

The look of confusion returns to Pax’s face, and she quickly turns. “What did I say about calling me– and why would I have your power coils?”

“Bettah question, why would I not have ‘em?” the voice calls back, then finally turns around, giving you a better look at the speaker, lifting a massive pair of goggles off of her eyes and nestling them in her wild mess of flower-like lavender hair. She’s a mekreon, one of the small, wandering people of the Manyflight, and you’d be surprised if she even reaches four feet in height. Her skin is a creamy teal color, lightening several shades on the throat and palms, though she’s covered in so much grime that you can barely tell. She’s cute in a gremlin-like sort of way, with large, dark green eyes, a wide mouth, and a button nose.

“Because you’re an idiot,” Pax sighs.

“Oh… right,” the mekreon says thoughtfully, then takes notice of you and the admiral, waving a three-fingered hand in a friendly gesture. “‘Sup! I’m Klikkit, the lady in charge of keeping this bucket a’ widgets together.”

“Aln’vos, Captain,” you nod back, raising a hand in similar gesture, but she’s already scrambled off, spotting her power coils and chasing after the tiny, wheeled robot that took them. “Huh. She’s an interesting one.”

“Pain in the ass, more like,” Oudega indulges in a rare smirk, “but a damn fine engineer.” He leads you farther into the lower deck, and finally into the medical bay, where you see the final three officers you’ll need to meet, standing around a table of strange instruments and already in the midst of some sort of argument.

“Magic is absolutely a science. Just because it’s mysterious and difficult to master doesn’t mean it’s in any way special or different,” says the first, a feminine figure that’s short, slim, and frail-looking, clad head-to-toe in a white protective exo-suit. A matching cowl conceals much of her appearance, though a clear screen beneath it lets you make out her face, revealing delicate, refined features and heather-gray skin, though it’s difficult to see much else. Between her sub-five-foot height and protective environment suit, you can safely assume she’s one of the it-U, the resident nerds of the Crux Worlds.

“Yet some species have natural affinity for it, a mystical connection to the Shadow Current, as we have,” says the laboratory’s second inhabitant, this one far stranger – it’s one of the xux, a sorcerous, semi-humanoid, semi-weightless species not unlike a jellyfish, thin tendrils reaching out from its umbrella-like head to ‘feel’ the air around it. Its brownish-maroon, partially-translucent flesh is mostly exposed, its rank and personality expressed through strange baubles and totems rather than an actual uniform. “Just because you lack faith, does not mean you possess understanding.”

“While I dislike agreeing with xux as a general rule, Xha’bu has a point concerning different life-forms' connection to magic. My people, for example, are unable to use magic of any kind, even if awakened.” The third speaker is an android, though less stiff than L-Zero. She’s also explicitly feminine and even rather pretty, with a chrome chassis over a nearly-black framework that almost resembles a medieval suit of lightweight armor, painted with symbols that mark her as the ship’s medical doctor. Gentle golden eyes look out from a mostly expressionless face, and white ‘hair’ you assume to be a wig doesn’t quite reach her shoulders.

“At attention,” Oudega says firmly, causing the three to immediate stop their debate and turn to face him. “This is your captain, Aln’vos. Captain, these are the crew’s final officers – our resident biologist and researcher, Quiy; our Shadow Officer, Xha’bu; and lastly, our medical doctor, A-Ex.”

“A pleasure, captain,” the android says gently. “We should schedule a physical at your earliest convenience, likely after the ship has launched. I just recently finalized my readings for Xha’bu, here.”

“And you steal them from me like a daring scoundrel, I expect no less,” Xha’bu burbles through a mouthless face, not unlike Doctor Kreeath, though perhaps even more unsettling.

“I will… take it under consideration,” you nod.

“The rest of the crew you’ll come to know in time, but for the moment, this is the Basileia’s most critical personnel besides yourself,” Oudega folds his arms. “But for now, it’s time to get this thing into the sky, and into the Shadow Current. Is there anything else you’d like to do before I head back down to the hangar?”