Warhawk's Sacrifice - Ch. 8 - Family Affairs - Alpha (Patreon)

Sweat poured from Seb’s face as he sprinted forward. The three-dimensional treadmill stopped as he jumped to a halt before shuffling side to side. The camera predicted his movements and adjusted its speed accordingly. It wasn’t perfect. There was a half a second delay any time he changed direction, but he got used to it over the many weeks they’d installed it in their gym.

Before he went to prison, Seb wasn’t the most active guy. He would run every so often and do pushups and situps when the groceries felt a little too heavy. But it wasn’t until he went to prison that it turned into a passion.

Prison offered very few things to keep his mind busy. He had the gym and his books. The very few relationships he maintained were a necessity in case he said the wrong thing to the wrong guy. However, he always prioritized defending himself above all else, which is why his fitness was important.

Being a ship captain was no different. The amount of combat and fighting they’d been involved in since he’d gotten out of prison only reinforced the necessity that he stay at the top of his game. He split his weekly workout into three days of weights and four days of cardio. He focused his lifting routine on muscle stamina rather than raw strength. It kept him lean and agile; able to take on anything that was thrown at him.

After his timer buzzed throughout the room, Seb hit the stop button on the remote he carried in his hand. The treadmill came to a halt and Seb walked off the platform. He smiled every time he jumped on to the unmoving ground, as it felt like he was walking faster than normal.

With a fresh towel, he wiped the sweat from his face and around his neck. He grabbed his water pouch and squeezed the remaining contents, savoring the cool liquid as it quenched his parched throat. He tossed the empty container into the corner trash can before heading toward the exit.

As he reached the threshold, Syn’s voice echoed from the room’s speakers. “Captain, Eni has requested your presence in her server room. She said Zara’s making the call.”

“Thanks Syn!” Seb shouted, running out the door. He rushed down the side hallway, rounding into the cargo bay, and through the opposite side of the ship. When he entered Eni’s room, he found her, Vi, and Nalla all sitting on the couches and chairs.

“Hurry and get in,” Eni shouted, waving him over. “And shut the door. She’s calling him now.”

Seb shut the door and sat on the couch near Vi. Eni spun in her chair and tapped on her keyboard. From the table projector in between them, two different perspectives appeared in front of them. The first showed Zara, who was standing wearing some of Seb’s sweats. Her lips twisted and her foot tapped as she waited.

She’s nervous, Seb thought.

When the other screen appeared, Seb’s eyes widened. Sitting upon a golden throne lay the largest sepix he’d ever seen. Based on the imps scurrying below his platform, Seb assumed he’d have to be over a hundred feet in length. His form was the most draconic visage he could imagine.

He had two massive wings that were as equally wide as he was long. He wore no clothes, given it would take an entire warehouse of wool or cotton to fit him. Red scales covered the majority of his body, while the ones that covered his stomach shifted to a muted yellow. Two horns twisted toward his jaw, with two more pointing up in twisting spikes.

The head of the Saladonus squinted and brought his ship-sized head closer to the screen. “Zara? Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“What a grotesque form you’re wearing. Take it off. It's unnerving.”

“It’s this season's latest fashion. Human hybridization is popular. So, no I will not change my form, Silus.”

“You will address me as father, Sir, or your Caput Draconis.”

“Of course, Silus,”

Her father scowled. “Unlike your mother, I tolerate you because you were born from my loins and will assume control over the family one day. However, do not test my patience or you will find one of your siblings your replacement.”

Zara smugly grinned. “We both know you wouldn’t do that. The rest of the lot are either too stupid or too insane to put at the helm of the company. Whether or not you want to admit it, you need me, which is why you tolerate me.”

“You are correct, as always,” Silus said before the corner of his mouth perked up. “How do you fare? You look ragged. What are you wearing? Street clothes?”

“Yes, well, someone has to get their hands dirty to get things done.”

“You? Getting your hands dirty? Now I think I’ve heard it all,” Silus let out a deep roar of laughter which shook the camera. “Besides, you know how this works. Everything comes from the top. We must distance ourselves or fall into legal traps with the GRC.”

“Trust me, I know. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t important.”

“If only you knew the things I’ve done to keep this family from becoming a bunch of bottom feeders. I’ve put in my time doing the whelps' work. Centuries of—”

“No need to reminisce about the good ol’ days, Silus,” Zara said, holding up her hand. “I don’t need to listen to another tangent. To answer your question, I’m well enough.”

“Where are you? I’ve heard you have not returned to Merovingian headquarters in many weeks.”

“Is this channel secure on your end?”

“Of course.”

“That’s what they’re thinking,” Eni said, laughing.

“I’m in the Galactic Core,” Zara said.

“What are you doing all the way out there?” Silus asked.

“Have you heard about the human pilot who has recovered a precursor?”

“Yes… but how did you—” Silus’s eyes widened. “You’re not involved somehow, are you?”

“In a manner of speaking. He has been working for me in an off the books capacity. He’s the one who came up with the idea to join the Hypercore circuit, and it was a member of his crew who qualified.”

“Yes, I remember receiving your report around that. It provided a nice cash infusion when we needed it the most, and it continues to be a steady earner, especially after the news of Mario Benioff’s death.”

“Yeah, well there might be some correlation between that and the man the GRC seeks.”

Silus cocked his brow. “Explain.”

“Sebastian Warhawk, my asset, had a precursor device that he believed would lead him to a vault. But he couldn’t locate it. For that, he needed the help from an Oracle. He chose the one bonded to Benioff.”

“That’s probably wise that you did not choose the one bonded with Gorom. Doing so would have made us look weak. Gorom would have leaked it to the other families that we came to him to seek a meeting with his Oracle. The strides and positioning gained with the involvement in the Hypercore circuit would have been all for naught.”

“I agree which is why we met with Benioff. Unfortunately, Sebastian reached out to the Oracle behind Benioff’s back. Benioff found out and took Sebastian hostage. He forced him to lead him to the precursor vault, expecting to find treasure, lost technology, or something valuable. However, while Sebastian did lead him there, the device he had would only work for him. I assume it’s some kind of DNA lock of some kind. Anyone else who has tried to use it ends up with a nasty headache.”

“So he was the only one who could enter the vault?”

“Precisely. While I don’t want to bore you with the details, instead of lost technology, he found a precursor. They call their species nakai. When they escaped, Benioff and Sebastian entered into a scuffle, and Sebastian killed him.”

“Who else knows about this?”

“Just his crew and I. All of Benioff’s staff and crew were killed as you’ve no doubt heard from the news.”

“Is the vault still intact? Could we send a team to investigate?”

“It wouldn’t be worth it. After they left the vault, some kind of fail-safe triggered and destroyed the structure and surrounding area. Benioff’s ship was destroyed and the team scrambled the black box data so there weren’t any records except them traveling into uncharted space.”

“And you’re sure this… nakai… was the only thing retrieved from the vault?”

“Fuck, she’s going to give us away!” Eni shouted. “Me and my stupid mouth.”

Seb shushed her and the group leaned forward, waiting for Zara’s answer.

“I’m certain,” the princess said.

Everyone in Eni’s room breathed a sigh of relief and smiled before continuing to watch.

“Where is Captain Warhawk and the nakai now?” Silus asked.

“Trying to outrun the GRC. They just left Timura Outpost. But there’s something I need to tell you. This is no ordinary nakai. It’s some kind of living weapon created for what they believe is an apocalyptic scenario they predict is going to happen to our galaxy.”

“Weapon?”

“Yeah, Timura Outpost was almost completely destroyed. Dozens of soldiers shot at her, and I watched as the bolts bounced off of her.”

“Preposterous,” Silus said with a short laugh. “You must be mistaken. The footage you saw must have been altered or fabricated.”

“No, Silus, I was there. I saw it with my own two eyes.”

“You what?”

Zara let out a sigh. “I’m currently aboard their ship. I’ve been traveling with them since the incident with Benioff.”

Silus brought his vehicle sized claw up to his chin and his eyes darted back and forth. After a few seconds, he looked up and spoke. “Here’s what you need to do. You need to get your coordinates from their navigation system and—”

“Silus, you can stop right there,” Zara said, holding up her hand. “There is no way we’re going to be able to get the jump on them. The captain and his crew are the best in their respective areas. That's why I hired them.”

“Do they trust you?”

“No.”

Silus snorted, blowing plumes of smoke from his nostrils. “What’s the point of this call, then? Just a check-in? This could have waited until you finished your business with them.”

Zara crossed her arms and smiled. “I’m surprised at you, Silus. I’d have expected you to see the opportunity placed in front of us.”

“I’m busy enough as is. If you have a plan, then spit it out. I’m not known for my patience.”

“As I’ve known my whole life,” Zara said, sighing. “Capturing the Amnesty is a fool's errand. However, Sebastian is smart enough to know he cannot run forever. He’s asking for protection. Specifically, our protection against the GRC.”

“This coming from a spacer?” Silus as squinting. “It seems far-fetched. This smells of you. You’ve not grown attached to your asset and found yourself compromised, haven’t you?”

Zara glanced at her nails. “I’m insulted you would even think so.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Silus said, smiling.

“No.”

Silus glared at her a few minutes before leaning back up. “Very well. Having the FLS protect Captain Warhawk and his crew from the rest of the GRC would be no easy feat. For us to even propose this in front of the other heads of the table would compromise us unless there was a good enough reason.”

“Again… you’re not thinking of the potential here. We’re at war. I told you we’ve found a weapon. I’ve seen the devastation she can do. And if we position this a Saladonus initiative, if we manage to be the ones to use her and end the war, then the power would shift in our favor. it would be our family at the head of the table.”

Silus’s toothy smile filled the screen. “I’m impressed, daughter. With thinking like that, it won’t be too long before you replace me.”

“Thank you, father,” Zara said with a slight bow.

“But your information better be accurate. If I bring this to the table, and you should fail, the shame brought upon our family’s name will last generations. There are always other sepix looking to carve their own seat.”

“I understand.”

“Await a call from me.”

“We will be on the move, but will ask that we drop from FTL daily to check for any correspondence.”

“Very well. Take care of yourself. Verinadae watch over you.”

“You too.”

When the hologram disappeared, everyone in the server room leaned back in their chairs.

“Interesting…,” Seb said, rubbing his chin.

“What was?” Nalla asked.

“Zara didn’t tell her father about the vault data, and up until that conversation she’d not once mentioned us to him or the things we’ve done.”

“It seems like their relationship is strained,” Vi said. “Maybe she has a reason not to trust him?”

“Probably,” Seb said. “I’m just surprised. I thought she was feeding the FLS everything.”

“Don’t start trusting her now, Captain,” Eni said, waving a finger at him. “We all know how much you want to believe in people. That woman is always playing her own game. Remember what she’s not only done to us, but also you.”

“People deserve a second chance,” Nalla said. “Perhaps she’s been trying to shield us from her the FLS for some reason. If she’s doing so to help us then maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt?”

“Nalla, I love you, but that kind of thinking will bite you in the ass. Mark my words.”

Nalla shrugged. “Maybe I just have a little more faith in the goodness in the galaxy.”

“It’s fine,” Seb said. “I’ll be careful.”

“I don’t like the idea of using Iris,” Nalla said. “She’s not a weapon, she’s a person.”

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you saw what Vi and I saw at Timura Outpost,” Eni said with a short laugh. “Zara’s not wrong. She was melting solid metal beams like snow in an oven.”

“I’d have to agree,” Seb said. “She was created by her own people as a galactic defender. There’s no denying her purpose. However, I do understand your position, Nalla. Just like her choice to join us, it will be Iris’s choice to partake in this. I’m not going to force her to do anything.”

“So, do you agree with Zara’s plan? Vi asked.

Seb shrugged. “It really depends on how the FLS plans to use her. I'm not going to needlessly put her in danger. At the same time, and after what we saw at Timura, I’m not sure what would constitute her being in danger. We were in more danger trying to get to her than she was getting shot at.”

“What do you think Mischa’s going to say?”

Seb grimaced and took a long breath through his teeth. “That’s going to be a harder sell. I’ll probably have to be the one to talk to her. But if Iris agrees to do it beforehand, then I’d imagine she’ll be able to help convince Mischa.”

“I still don’t like that all of this is reliant on Zara and the FLS,” Eni said, crossing her arms. “It feels like we’re jumping from one fire into the next.”

“I honestly don’t like it either. However, I don’t see any other alternatives unless we want to live our lives like hermits and become… I don’t know… moisture farmers.”

“What’s a moisture farmer?” Nalla asked.

Seb let out a short laugh. “I don’t know. I just said the first ridiculous thing that popped in my head.”

“I’ve lived enough of my life running and hiding,” Vi said. “Trust me. It’s not worth it. It weighs on you mentally more than anything. The constant looking over the shoulder and masking your face. You live in a constant state of fear and slowly lose who you are.”

“We’ve been living in a constant state of fear ever since the first bounty got put on my head. It would be nice not having to worry about getting jumped every time we land.”

“Then I guess we’re stuck going through with this,” Eni said, letting out a heavy sigh. “The only other option that Syn and I came up with was just a variant of your plan.”

“How so?”

“Rather than going to the FLS, we present the same offer to the Allmother.”

“That’s insane,” Vi said, letting out a nervous laugh. “You didn’t really consider it did you?”

A wicked smile formed on Eni’s face and she leaned forward and spoke in a hushed tone. “I know it’s crazy, but just think about it for a moment. We have an FLS princess onboard our ship. We could present her to the Allmother as an offering and in return, she gives us protection.”

“Now I know you’re crazy.”

“What? It’s not a terrible idea.”

Seb leaned back and spoke toward the ceiling. “Syn, please tell me you explained to her why it’s a bad idea.”

“Affirmative, Captain. I explained to Comm Officer Eni that the Allmother is an unknown variable. There is no way to predict how she would act. Nor do we have a way of communicating with her. There’s also the galactic political implications should the GRC find out she was protecting us and Iris. Currently, the ongoing war is only between the FLS and Allmother. Should the GRC find out that the Allmother is protecting us, I predict with an eighty-three percent certainty that the remaining members of the GRC would enter the conflict directly.”

“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time,” Eni said, waving her hand in the air.

“There’s an old human saying,” Seb began, “It’s better to work with the devil you know than the one you don’t know. No one knows anything about the Allmother, but we know Zara and the FLS.”

“I just really don’t like her.”

Seb laughed before leaning over and rubbing Eni’s white head of hair. “I know you don’t, but if what’s on the codex is accurate, and there is some kind of force coming, we need to do what we can to buy us some time so we can figure out how to stop it. Speaking of, how’s the dictionary coming?”

“Slow and steady. I was hoping we’d be done by now, but we ran into a few issues. Having those supplies would have really helped us.”

“Another reason why we need that protection. Just being able to fix the Amnesty and get everything we need is a priority.”

“Not to mention our injured,” Nalla said, side eyeing Seb.

“They are our priorities,” Seb said. “Always will be. How are they both doing?”

“Roja is still stable, but the longer we keep her in this state, the more of a risk it is on her overall health. With Iris, she’s doing well now. I may have discovered a unique feature of her biology.”

“You mean besides the fact she turns into a fireball when she’s angry?” Eni asked.

“Yes, besides that,” Nalla said, grinning. “I’ve told this to Seb already, but not the rest of you. You know the tendrils that hang off of Iris’s head and end in those teardrop bulbs?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, as I’m sure you saw, Seb had to carry her back to the ship. She was completely spent due to exhaustion. When the captain set her in her bed, those little bulbs bloomed like flowers.”

“So she’s part plant?”

“Kind of. I believe that’s her body’s primary way of absorbing energy and recovering. I tested this by plugging in a UV light. Her hair followed it as I moved it across her body, and the tendril strands glowed. There were the circles that flashed down the length of the stalks and into her body, like they were drinking the energy. She didn’t seem to mind it and her skin showed no sign of irritation, so I left it over her bed and observed her. Ten minutes later, she awoke, smiling.”

“Wow, that’s impressive,” Seb said. “Well done, Doc.”

“That’s not all. Syn, can you bring up Eni and Vi’s footage of Iris’s transformation?”

“Of course, Nalla,” Syn said. “Bringing it up now.”

Two projected holograms appeared in between the group, showing two different perspectives. Nalla started the recordings. They played from the time that they were running from the station security.

Vi and Eni sprinted behind Iris and Zara, shooting off weapon fire for cover. However, Iris stopped dead in her tracks with a scornful look on her face. In Vi’s perspective, she’d just seen Mischa take a couple of shots in the back and roar in anger, corroborating the pair's earlier tale of what had happened.

Nalla paused the video as Iris’s body glowed. “After hearing Vi and Eni’s account of what had happened on the station, I asked Syn if she could pull their suit’s video and play it for me. If you watch it, before she explodes into her transformative state, you see a glow in the pit of her stomach, her whole body.”

Nalla played the scene frame by frame until Iris’s transformation completed. “This also leads me to my next theory. To me, this looks like a fusion reaction. The white glow is her inner particles slamming together, acting as a catalyst. When it completes, her body erupts not just in flame, but concentrated plasma. This also makes more sense when explaining what she is shooting out of her hands.”

“So she’s a flying power plant?” Eni asked.

“Possibly. Like I said, it’s just a theory.”

“Are there any implications that could be of concern?” Seb asked.

Nalla tapped the side of her cheek and looked up. “Potentially, but I’d need to run some tests. She could be throwing an exorbitant amount of radiation while she is in that state. None of your suits’ alarms went off when she was nearby, did they?”

“Mine didn’t, and she stood right in front of me,” Seb said.

“Hmm… her body may have a method for keeping the particles contained. But that wouldn’t explain any residual fallout from the plasma she shoots out.”

“Could just be a nakai thing,” Vi said, shrugging.

“Maybe…,” Nalla said slowly, nodding. “We’re dealing with something no one has ever seen before. She was created by her ancestors. So, only they would have the expertise. Either way, I want you all to be careful around her while she’s in that transformative state. If you notice feeling any signs of radiation poisoning: fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, etcetera after being around her, you need to let me know immediately.”

“You got it, mom,” Eni teased.

After the group shared a short laugh, Syn’s voice echoed over the comm above. “Captain, Princess Saladonus would like to speak with you in her room.”

Seb slapped his knees and stood up. “I guess I should go see what she wants. Probably to tell me everything we already know.”

“Good luck,” Eni said. “Don’t let her twist you with her womanly wilds.”

Seb snorted as he backpedaled out of the room. “You know me. I’ve got this.”

The three women laughed and shouted gibes, conflicting with his previous statement. Seb laughed and waved them off as he walked out of the room. He marched down the hall to the former storage closet and knocked on the door once he arrived.

“Come in!” Zara shouted.

When Seb entered, she turned around and placed her hands on her hips. “So, I think I’ve worked out a deal.”