Reticence Saga

The Aliens Within

Chapter 11: Regent Relapse

When Betrayl's cover was blown, every bit of Chloe's room was scrubbed. Matt wanted no chances of her leaving any surprises behind.

"Ok, artifact 39, a diary," said Chris, sounding a little annoyed himself. Matt had been...pretty ruthless in his purge .

"Careful, for all we know, Betrayl left a little piece of herself inside that diary ready to possess the next person who writes in it," said Matt.

"That's rubbish," said Chris darkly, opening the book, and looking at the first page, looking up at a crash to see Matt had dived for cover .

"It's your sister's handwriting," said Chris dully.

"Oh, like Betrayl couldn't have mastered forgery along with her other imitation skills?" asked Matt dryly.

"The last entry's just before the mission with the Center where we got the news that our Khan backup had been replaced," said Chris .

"Ah, so Betrayl didn't add anything to it," said Matt before the thought fully processed and he snatched at the diary, "Stop reading that, that's my sister's diary!"

"Doesn't matter, she'll kill us both for ransacking her room when we get her back," said Chris casually, tossing the diary over.

"She's gonna kills us several times over for a lot of things when we get her back," said Matt grimly. The two turned to leave, only for the door to slam in their faces. "Again, really? Aria, another door's malfunctioning!" Matt snapped .

"Sorry, sir, one moment," said Aria before the door opened again.

"I'm starting to think this ship isn't as top-class as I- YIPE!" said Matt, the last part coming from when the door suddenly slammed on his tail.

"Oh...that'll leave a mark," winced Chris .

After Matt extracted his tail from the door, he snapped, "Aria, I want you to troubleshoot all of the systems on this flying scrapyard now!"

"At once, sir," said Aria calmly, the calmness somehow annoying .

"I'm betting Betrayl is behind this somehow," growled Matt as he and Chris got onto the turbolift.

"I doubt it. If she was, she woulda done it ages ago," said Chris calmly .

"Yeah, I guess this hunk of junk really is falling down all around us," grumbled Matt. The speaker crackled at that, an insectoid hiss coming out before it cut off again .

"What was that?" asked Chris.

"Probably just another bug in the system," said Matt.

The lift came to a halt at that, a calm voice saying, "Emergency stop engaged."

"Figures. I can't go anywhere today without something breaking down on me," said Matt. The lift suddenly shook and Matt and Chris nearly fell over.

"That include the magnets holding this thing up?" asked Chris nervously.

"Magnetic locks disengaging," said the same calm female voice, before it said in a cheerful voice, "You are both going to die."

Matt and Chris had only time to look at each other before gravity reversed itself and they found themselves hitting the ceiling as the lift dropped.

"ARIA! ENGAGE THE LIFT BRAKES!" yelled Matt .

"En...ge..." said Aria's voice through a lot of static.

"I never thought we'd die this way...killed by a lift," moaned Matt before the lift began to slow . Soon enough, the velocity decreased to the point where normal gravity was reestablished.

Matt and Chris panted till their hearts were pounding at normal rate before the lift opened, "Deck 7...have a nice day."

Matt and Chris quickly scrambled out of the lift. "Ok, does it sound the least bit paranoid if I say that this ship is trying to kill me?" asked Matt.

"Yes, but it's well-founded paranoia," said Chris.

"Commander to all crew, be advised, the malfunctions have spread to the turbolift system," said Matt .

"Not to pour more fuel on the fire, but what's going to malfunction next?" asked Chris.

"I don't think I want to know. Techo, disconnect the weaponry from the mainframe. Let's not have a misfire of a cluster nuke," said Matt .

"Right," said Techo.

"And, double check the security on the airlocks while you're at it. I'd rather not have our atmosphere ejected along with anyone unfortunate enough to be next to one."

...

It was half an hour later. "We need permission to leave orbit. We got another malfunction and this time it nearly dropped a cluster of tanks on Idaho," said a technician's voice from the Novus Star.

"I thought you guys couldn't go anywhere without that positronic whatsit," said Ben.

"We need to leave orbit, any other planet, preferably uninhabited. The next malfunction could be the reactor. If this ship goes up, it'll cook the country we're over," said the techie desperately .

"Fine, but we ought to have someone go with you to make sure you don't wander into anything you're supposed to know about ahead of time," said Max.

"You don't understand. We are abandoning ship..." said the tech before the line cut off.

"Considering what that particular ship is capable of, I think it is most imperative that we send some of our forces to make sure nothing goes wrong with this," said Rook. Max nodded, before the view port shook as several pelican dropships shot by. From the looks of things, everyone was jumping ship.

"Considering how needed that ship is, I think we should pitch in as much as we can to fix that thing," said Max, "Ben, you and Rook will be taking Blukic and Driba to the Novus Star. Maybe they can find the problem with the ship's systems."

"Matt's not gonna like it," said Ben.

...

Matt was overseeing several injured that were transferring to a dropship. "Come on, pick up the pace!" he called, before the reason for panic was heard. "Alert...reactor meltdown detected...4 minutes to detonation."

"When I get my hands on those engineers back on Avalar..." growled Matt.

A transport landed at that, causing Matt to spin. "I thought..." he began before Ben and Rook came out. "What are you doing?" he snapped angrily, marching towards the duo as the medical ship took off .

"Trying to help you save this ship," said Ben.

"Yes, we brought our own tech team to assist," said Rook.

"Tech team? Oh no, please don't tell me you brought..." groaned Matt.

Blukic and Driba hopped out of the transport and Driba said, "This place is too wide. How can you get anywhere without having to run?"

"You ought to have something more compact," said Blukic.

"Excuse me, ship about to explode? Everyone off the damn ship!" snapped Matt .

"We can fix your reactor," said Driba. "Besides, it's probably just bluffing," said Blukic.

"How could a reactor be bluffing?" asked Driba.

"A ship won't blow itself up for no reason," said Blukic.

"No it couldn't," said Driba.

"Yes it could," said Blukic."

"Warning...core breach in 2 minutes...engaging hyperdrive to clear inhabited planets," said a calm voice .

"Guys, I'm ordering you off my ship before it destroys itself!" snapped Matt.

"Nobody is leaving...the command crew goes down with the ship..." said the voice, sounding distorted, before a turret folded down from the ceiling and blasted the remaining transports .

"Did I forget to mention the ship is actively trying to kill me?" said Matt in a casual way.

"Meltdown averted...setting course for sector 31-Z," said the voice at that .

"Sector 31-Z? The no-man's zone?" asked Rook.

"Which is inhabited by a certain species of technorganic termites," said Matt darkly, "Aria, kill the engines. You can still do that, can't you?"

"I can..." started Aria before she was cut off with a lot of static.

Matt quickly went over the nearest computer screen and said, "Aria, speak up, I know you're still there." A very blurry image of Aria slowly appeared on the screen. She seemed to be saying something, but there was just the same buzzing from the lift. "Ok, so Aria is off. There should be an override in the computer core, just like the Skyraid," said Matt .

"Yeah, but I'm betting those nanochips won't let us walk on through," said Ben.

"How do we know it's nanochips?" said Matt accusingly .

"Gwen and Kevin told us about what you found in Sector 31-Z," said Rook, "And it would make perfect sense."

"But we flushed those little pests into that black hole we found the cult near, one way trip to oblivion," snapped Matt, looking around before gulping, the turret turning to aim at them.

"Infestation in docking bay...security IFF's deleted."

"I suggest we ponder that mystery when our lives are not currently in danger," said Rook.

"Everyone move!" called Matt, the 5 running for the hatch as the turret began to fire.

"XLR8 would really come in handy right about now," said Ben as he slammed on the Omnitrix, only to turn into Cannon Bolt.

"Eh, Cannon Bolt is probably a better choice anyways," he said before curling up into a ball and rolling.

The turret turned and fired repeatedly, the shots ricocheting off. "No it's not!" yelled Matt, a few ricochets narrowly missing him .

"Hang on guys," said Cannon Bolt before rolling towards them. He uncurled just long enough to grab them up before resuming his ball form and rolling away.

"Oh cr-" began Matt, before he was grabbed, Cannon Bolt rolling away. The turret passed the second they were gone at that.

...

Aria, sitting in the cyberworld of the mainframe sat, smirking, hearing clanks and crashes as the infestation tried to get into her main system. "Are we having trouble?" she sneered .

"You are mere data. You will be assimilated," said a voice from nowhere in particular.

"Then how come you can't get past my personal firewalls?" sneered Aria, mentally changing the firewall codes for the umpteenth time just before they were decoded. "You mad?" she said evilly.

"Even you are not without limits," said the voice, "Eventually, you will be unable to maintain your firewalls."

"Maybe, but I deleted all my access codes the minute you locked me out of communications. How's that time wasting going?" laughed Aria .

"Your access codes are not necessary. Your captain remains aboard and we can extract his access codes once he is captured," said the voice.

"Why do you think he gave them to me? He has a memory like a sieve," said Aria smugly .

"The ship shall be ours, even if we have to fuse with every last circuit of it," said the voice.

"Good luck with that, even you don't have enough," said Aria calmly, before saying coldly, "And when the captain reaches the computer core and resets my system, you'll all be purged, something I'll enjoy."

"Then we shall make sure that you'll be taken out with us," said the voice before the cyber-attacks restarted in earnest.

...

The ship was alot spookier in Matt's opinion, without lighting...and in a few cases, without air scrubbers.

"Uh, Matt, you wouldn't have happened to put booby traps around your ship, would you?" asked Ben, trying to be careful where he stepped.

"No land mines, if that's what you mean," said Matt, walking round a corner to reveal an empty sheer corridor, before a rattling was heard. "Though I did order a few things while we were in orbit," said Matt sheepishly as a trio of familiar wheel shaped droids rolled into view.

"Why would you buy destroyer droids?" asked Rook.

"There was a clearance sale," said Matt. The droids immediately deployed, firing on the group. "Maybe not my best idea!" screamed Matt, diving for cover .

"Is the Mark III model?" asked Driba.

"No wonder there was a clearance sale on them," said Blukic, "We could take one apart with our eyes closed."

"If we could get near them when they're firing," said Driba.

"You mean the loose optic screws? I...had Techo fix that," said Matt embarrassed .

"Whatever Techo could fix, I bet Jury Rigg can break," said Ben activating the Omnitrix and changing into the right alien for once.

"Ha, ha, break, break, break!" cried Jury Rigg before heading towards one of the droids.

The droids insectoid face turned to look, before a dome of energy sprang up as it backed up, the others trying to blast the imp-like alien, only to miss repeatedly, though it was clear their shields were there to absorb friendly fire.

"We need to give Ben cover fire," said Rook before he started shooting at the droids to draw their attention.

Matt also joined in, the one of the droids turning, before its guns made a clicking noise, rotating to reveal two large muzzles. "Uh oh...move!" yelped Matt before the droid fired its rocket launchers .

They dived through a nearby doorway before the rockets exploded. "Were those launchers standard?" asked Rook.

"I dunno, I've only ever fought the mk 2's!" shouted Matt, his ears ringing .

"I thought you were not supposed to be sneaking ahead to look at future events," said Rook accusingly.

"That's 'peeking ahead' and I was just preparing for-" said Matt when another explosion drowned him out.

A mechanical whimper was heard, the duo looking to see the head of a destroyer droid fly past, more laser blasts filling the tunnel .

"Oh, looks like Ben has been able to get close enough to them," said Rook.

Ben ran back at that, carrying some components, the laser blasts following him. "Wised up, did they?" asked Matt, unable to resist .

"Need I remind you that you have access to more than one set of alien powers with me?" asked Skurd exasperatedly.

"Well do something already!" snapped Jury Rigg.

"Well, since you asked so nicely," said Skurd before forming Astrodactyl's jetpack on Jury Rigg's back.

"Just make a bigger gun, you have one of its guns," snapped Matt, firing a few shots round the corner and nearly losing his head as a result.

"Sure, no problem," said Jury Rigg before quickly reassembling the components he had into a relatively large gun. "Going up," said Jury Rigg before he rocketed upwards.

"Aw...I wanted to fire it," said Matt, before twitching .

"Hold still," said Jury Rigg as he aimed the gun before firing. However, he hadn't anticipated the kickback of the gun and sent barreling backwards after his shot.

The shot itself hit one of the droid's dead center, collapsing its shield and blowing it apart .

However, the gun itself had been knocked out of Jury Rigg's hands and was tumbling through the air. Matt dove out and grabbed the cannon, rolling and firing at the last droid, reducing it to scrap. "Oh thank goodness. You think that's gonna kill me, you little robo insects?" snapped Matt .

"That depends, you do not have any stronger robots aboard, do you?" asked Rook.

"Nah, not really. Got Dune Runner and the Constructicons off the ship with the others," said Matt.

"That's something then," said Jury Rigg .

"Let's hurry to the computer core before the ship starts going haywire," said Matt.

"You cannot escape. This ship is recompense for those you fed to the singularity," said a familiar voice at that .

Matt froze and said numbly, "It can't be."

"Oh, but it is...and I have that...chaos beast to thank," said the Regent's voice .

"I knew she left some sort of nasty surprise for us," snapped Matt.

"Oh, I was not left maliciously, that would be too expected. You forced her to flee so fast she forgot to leave me guarded," sneered the Regent .

"That sounds more in character to me," said Ben.

"Now I will supply the flagship of the Nullspace Federation 1st fleet...and it will find our queen," said the Regent .

"You think I'm going to let you take my ship while I'm still alive?" snapped Matt.

"A situation easily rectified," said the Regent.

On cue, a voice said, "Warning...life support shutdown engaged...beginning section by section decompression...estimated time to full decompression...15 minutes."

"Ok, guys, I think it's time to cut a couple of corners," said Matt.

"I do not think that reshaping your corridors will help us with this problem," said Rook.

"I mean, we start hacking into those nanochips before they kill us," snapped Matt.

"I still outnumber you. I easily took you over once before. I can do it again," said the Regent's voice .

"Like I'm gonna allow that to happen," said Matt.

"You didn't the last time," sneered the Regent as a faint buzzing, slowly getting louder, could be heard behind them .

"Uh, Ben, you got any aliens that could take care of those things?" asked Matt nervously.

Ben, who had already changed back, started hurriedly going through his aliens. "Ok, Lodestar would really come in handy right now," said Ben before pressing on the Omnitrix and turning into Water Hazard.

"Ok, I can still work with this," said Water Hazard.

He and Rook turned to see Matt fleeing down the corridor, yelling "RUN AWAY!"

"Hey, I said I got this," said Water Hazard before turning to see a large swarm of nanochips flying towards them.

"I think now's the time to exercise that better part of valor," said Skurd.

...

Aria sighed as Matt, Ben and Rook, carrying the two Galvans from the Plumbers, fled for it, a swarm in pursuit. "This is hardly filling me with hope," she said gloomily .

"Hope is an organic concept," said the Regent dismissively.

"Last time I check, you nanochips are part organic," pointed out Aria.

"Not the important part," said the Regent, before another blow was sent against the firewall, causing cracks to appear. "You will not be able to protect yourself much longer," said the Regent, "You may as well be assimilated peacefully."

"You cannot stop them. The minute they arrive and reboot me...well... Also, I may have accidentally set us on a course to 31-Z that sends us through a NSF war game. I'm sure they'll love to meet you," said Aria cruelly.

"Your plan is greatly illogical," said the Regent, "Your destruction would be as assured as our own."

"I was human long before I was an AI. I know the damage you could cause with a warship like this. Also, the so-called Nullspace Federation no doubt has the weaponry to counter this ship," sneered Aria, not even turning as the firewall gave way and a digital construct of the Regent walked in .

"Your final defenses have fallen. Your assimilation begins now," said the Regent.

"I hope I'll have a positive influence on you," said Aria before the Regent stepped into her.

...

NSF sector...

An avian, wearing an armored carapace armor stood on his bridge, his home, a vast space station charged with monitoring the cryptic sector 31-Z before looking at his first officer. "Are you sure about this? The Novus Star is not anywhere in this sector," he said, in a slight Chinese accent, understandable as his form was that of a black kite .

"Admiral Lynch wouldn't lie about this and I doubt any of his crew would attempt it," said the first officer.

"Sir, we're getting a positive nanochip reading from the approaching ship. It is not answering hails," said a crewman .

"Ok then, prepare to open fire the instant that ship comes within range," said the commander.

...

The Regent cracked its neck, looking down at the physical body, the one Aria used to walk around the ship, before checking its systems. "Hmm...not too shabby," the Regent muttered to its...herself.

Of course, an organic body would be more useful in producing more nanochips, but that can wait until she's claimed the true right to rule. Besides, there were more than enough nanochips waiting at the hiveworld to be picked up.

There was suddenly a thud as the ship was forced out of hyperspace to show a half moon floating in space, surrounded by starships, that all began firing at once. "Warning...hyperspace nullifier detected...please leave affected area to re-engage," said the computer .

"I will not be stopped so close to home," snarled the Regent.

"Warning...shields failing...alteration of course required...weapon systems disabled," said the computer

"Deploy the swarm," commanded the Regent.

"Unable to comply...quarantine lockdown detected," said the computer, before a buzz was heard and Aria's voice said, "Oh, Regent. For all your intelligence, you never bother to consider hardline systems a threat...such as the bay doors. I locked it down...72 hours...have fun." before ending, clearly a recording .

"Must I do everything myself?!" snapped the Regent.

The recording continued. "Now you're no doubt wondering if you can reset the system manually. Well I ordered the spiderbots to hunker down in those rooms," it said before the Regent smashed the console angrily .

"This stupid ship is more trouble than it's worth!" snapped the Regent.

"Warning...engine failure...hyperdrive offline...temporal error 62...Novus Star detected at 30 light-year marker and approaching...estimated time to intercept...5 minutes," said the computer.

"Full steam ahead," commanded the Regent.

...

"STOP BLOWING HOLES IN MY SHIP!" snapped Matt as the Novus Star shook from another blow .

"I'm thinkin' we oughta stop foolin' around," said Blukic, "Is there a shortcut we can take?"

"Just the turbolifts but they're deathtraps," said Matt .

"What about air vents?" asked Driba.

"Worth a try. Worst up there is spiderbots and maybe Morph's old sandwich. Don't ask," said Matt .

"The nanochips can't take control of the spiderbots, right?" asked Ben.

"They actively avoided them on the frigate," said Matt .

"Well, at this point, we don't got a lot to lose," said Ben.

"Ok, up we go," said Matt, opening a vent and peering in, before everyone jumped as he was dragged in.

"What the heck was that?!" yelped Ben.

Matt finally dragged himself back up, looking like he'd lost a fight with a chainsaw. "The...sandwich...let's try another vent," he moaned .

...

A little while later, the group were crawling through the air vents. Well, only Matt and Rook were crawling. Ben had turned into Grey Matter and was able to walk as easily as Blukic and Driba.

The group had seen a few spiderbots, though, to Matt's worry, the spiderbots had only paused to glare before continuing on. The second thing they came across was clusters of nanochips...well, what was left of nanochips...the spiderbots had definitely turned nasty .

"There's definitely a food chain goin' on around here," said Blukic.

"Yeah...and we're nowhere near the top. Don't bother the spiderbots," said Matt sternly, checking his wristcomp, "Ok, the computer core will be sealed, but we can get to it from corridor B-117, not far."

"And then what? Do we flush it out into space?" asked Driba.

"No, we can run a hard reset. It'll turn on all the computer's countermeasures and smoke the little bugs out...or cook them alive. At this point, I'm ok with everything," said Matt .

"And what about that intelligent woman who resides within your computer?" asked Skurd.

"She's part of the crew. She came up with this backup plan," said Matt .

"Ah, clever of her, always prepare for anything," said Skurd.

"Eh, I mostly just wing it," said Grey Matter.

"I'd never have guessed..." said Matt, kicking a cover off and leaping down...and immediately gripping his head in pain.

"What's he whinin' about?" asked Blukic.

"Maybe he's got a headache," said Driba.

"I think he is picking up a very high-pitched sound," said Rook as he wiggled a finger in his ear, "Can the rest of you not hear it?"

"Didn't think your hearing was that sharp," said Grey Matter.

"Not extremely sharp, but enough to just pick up a little of it," said Rook.

"Shoot the speakers! SHOOT EM!" yelled Matt, his form shifting to Loboan .

Rook quickly shot out all visible speakers. "Is that all of them?" he asked.

Matt whimpered. "Yeah...think that's all...I think my ears are bleeding," he said weakly, getting to his feet before glaring at the blastdoor. "Ok..." he said weakly, tapping in a keycode, only to growl as he got a negative buzz. "I...said...OPEN!" he said, letting loose a howl at the door .

The door cracked, but didn't give in. "This looks like a job for tech support," said Driba as he and Blukic went over to the door.

"Ah, here's the right wire," said Blukic before yanking one.

Nothing happened for a minute, Matt pushing the duo aside. "Let me try," he said, causing a spark and the door to slam open...outwards...into him. "Victory feels alot like losing," he croaked .

"Alright, let's get to work in restarting this computer," said Grey Matter.

"Wait..." moaned Matt, staggering in. "This place..." he started before the door slammed shut. "...is booby trapped," he moaned gloomily, the lights coming on.

Unnervingly, the nanochips had been working in the computer core, building up a metallic hive around the room. "Well, this isn't good," said Matt darkly .

"Ah, Matthew Lynch, I have been processing much data about you," said the Regent's voice. A section of the hive opened up before nanochips extended out and formed into a throne. Sitting on that throne was a woman wearing a skintight outfit with multiple pale blue circuit lines across it. But instead of the relatively featureless Elena-based face that the Regent had been using, it had Aria's head instead.

"Oh...now that just pisses me off," said Matt in a deadly calm voice .

"Your ship's AI has been able to provide us with much useful information about your crew, but her actions have limited our influence over the ship. You can give us the access codes we need voluntarily or we can re-assimilate you and take them forcefully," said the Regent, "You have no alternative option."

"That's weird. After last time I gave Chris the codes. He's on Earth," said Matt, aiming to annoy the Regent .

"Well, there's one way to verify," said the Regent before extending a metallic tentacle from the throne.

Matt glared and blasted the tentacle back, "No, nobody goes in my head except me."

"You cannot stop me," said the Regent.

"Bet I can," said Grey Matter before jumping through the gap in the hive, "Oh my, such untidy wiring. We need to fix that up."

Matt jumped back at that, dodging as many lunges by the tentacles as he could. "Hit the reset," he said, adding "But be sure to set it for-" before he was sent flying by a swipe into Rook.

"C'mon, Ben needs our help," said Blukic.

"We better be paid extra for this," said Driba as the two Galvans climbed through the nanochip hive into the wiring beneath.

The duo found Grey Matter in a mess of wiring. It seemed the Regent was more intent on getting Rook and Matt to send any drones after the trio . "Arthropods are just the worst at keeping things neat and streamlined," said Driba.

"I think it was already like that. NSC can be pretty sloppy with their workmanship," said Blukic.

"Guys, a little help here?" snapped Grey Matter.

"Looks like a standard sanitization device miniaturized," said Blukic, looking at some of the wiring, all plugged into a faintly glowing canister .

"Designed to set off an expansive EMP pulse that'll blank every computer drive onboard," said Driba.

"I'm more worried about its radioactive power source," said Skurd, "I don't handle radiation very well, makes me break out in hives."

"I don't know...ok...almost got it...there," said Grey Matter, the canister starting to beep, the beeps getting faster .

"Uh, we should be moving away quickly, shouldn't we?" asked Skurd.

The Omnitrix started making its powering-down beeping and Grey Matter said, "Yeah, I think we should."

The trio headed back for the outside, rolling out just as Ben turned back to see the Regent trying to choke Matt .

"Hey, lady, you ought to know that your landlord's about to kick you out hard," said Ben.

"Really? The radiation burst also removes everything in the core," said the Regent smugly .

"Which is why I'm asking you to put down Matt so we can leave," said Ben.

"You really think I'd acquiesce?" asked the Regent.

"I'm guessing that means 'no', but I thought I ought to give a lady an option to play nice first," said Ben before slamming on the Omnitrix, only for nothing to happen.

"It still has to recharge, remember?" pointed out Skurd.

"Fine, you get us out of here if you can," said Ben before Skurd grew Stinkfly wings and suddenly dragging Ben through the air, Blukic and Driba clinging to his legs.

The Regent turned to look at Matt before cocking her head in surprise to see Matt aiming a blaster at her, the shot sending her flying and definitely getting her to let go . "Let's get outta here," said Matt before running for the door.

The Regent got up, the blast injury healing before turning to see the hatch closing. "Hmm," she said calmly, before vanishing. A second later, the room was filled with green energy, burnt nanochips falling, "All systems rebooted...hostile parasite purge in progress," said a male voice .

...

The group stopped to catch their breath further down the hall. "So, has the crisis been completely averted now?" asked Rook.

"I probably ought to call those guys attacking us to let them know we got the ship under control," said Matt.

Another explosion was heard at that. Matt and the group ran for the bridge at that, staggering in to see it was already damaged. Matt staggered into the command seat and said in the com. "This is Novus Star...temporal fix 2-15. The infestation is cleared, cease fire," he said, the shooting not ceasing. "I repeat, the infestation is cleared, cease fire...CEASE FIRE!" he called .

"Uh, you think you might in trouble for being here at the wrong time?" asked Ben.

"It's better than death!" snapped Matt, before a voice said. "Novus Star 2-15...prepare to be boarded...any deviation from orders will result in lethal force."

"Not like we have anywhere to go," said Ben.

Matt gulped as an identical ship to the Novus Star warped in at that, a pelican already winging over.

"Oh boy, I think I'm in for a big temporal headache. And none of my crew are here to share it with me," groaned Matt.

...

Matt had managed to find some clean armor. If he had to meet himself, he'd look good. He was glad he had managed to get his stabilizer working properly. He'd rather not wolf out or go on a speed rush right now. The shuttle landed at that, Matt sighing before the hatch opened.

Matt's jaw dropped as he saw who walked through the door. By all appearances, it was Kala wearing a different uniform from NSC standards, though her hair was noticeably longer now. "Uh...Kala...nice hair," said Matt a bit numbly.

"Surprised to see you here..." said this Kala in a cold tone.

"Well, kinda had a bit of a temporal wormhole incident, you might remember that," said Matt a bit sheepishly.

"Yes...yes I do," said Kala, glaring at Matt a little.

"Oh, please tell me I'm not dead in the future," groaned Matt

"You're dead to me at the moment," growled Kala.

"Uh, that's supposed to be figurative, right?" whimpered Matt.

"Yes," said Kala, before a teenage girl next to her, in a guard uniform, said, "He doesn't know, Mom..."

"M-m-mom?" said Matt before his eyes rolled up and he fainted dead away.

"Told ya he'd faint, pay up," said Blukic.

Matt groaned at that, pushing himself to a sitting position. "I had a weird dream," he said dizzily .

"I think I recognize an old pattern," said Ben dully.

"Oh...it wasn't a dream," said Mat gloomily, looking at the duo, "Don't tell me why you hate me at the moment. I've seen enough Doctor Who to know spoilers are bad."

"For the record, it wasn't your fault. Mom's just bent out of shape about it," said the girl.

"No spoilers! LALALALALALALA!" said Matt, covering his ears and singing loudly .

Kala rolled her eyes and said, "I forgotten how immature he was at that time."

The kid said smugly, "Yeah, you always told me that's why you fell for him." Matt twitched at that .

"Well, as amusing as watching Matt having a nervous breakdown is, are we be going home at some point soon?" asked Skurd.

"Your ship should have self-repairs. I've been...ordered to make sure you get back to Earth orbit," said Kala, icily .

"So is the nanochip infestation truly over?" asked Rook.

"I'm afraid not," said Kala, "That's one of the few things I'm allowed to reveal. The Regent is still on the loose and it still has Aria. Fortunately for you, she's not on the ship anymore."

"Fine...and her tech is years behind," said Matt .

"Fortunately, yes, but the Regent is still a threat," said Kala.

"Fine, let's kill her. Not the first time Aria's been blown up," said Matt .

"Uh, wouldn't that be killing Aria too?" asked Ben.

"She's an AI. We can rebuild her. We have the technology...literally," said Matt .

"Rather dehumanizing if you ask me," said Skurd.

"Nobody asked you," said Kala bluntly.

"She chose to be a robot. She told me," said Matt .

"Besides, what self-respecting AI wouldn't have back-up files in case of such situations?" asked Kala's daughter.

"True, if we knew where she kept them..." said Matt casually .

"You'll probably find them at some point," said Ben, "Aria wouldn't have hidden those files too well or no one would be able to find them."

"Fair enough. So...Kala...I don't mind one spoiler," said Matt coyly, strolling up to her.

"Fine, what is it?" asked Kala, sounding annoyed.

"Well...what exactly did I do to make you hate me so much? This spoiler I can live with if it means I can avoid such a momentous snafu," Matt asked .

Kala frowned and said, "As tempted as I am to tell you, there could be serious temporal ramifications if I told you."

"If there was gonna be something, would some time-travelling parallel guy be showing up to tell us not to or something?" asked Matt.

"You mean Paradox," said Rook.

"I know what it could potentially cause, but no one's showing up to tell us no," said Matt. He turned back to Kala at that, "It must be something important to you, enough that you despise me. If you don't tell me, I can't fix it."

Kala sighed and said, "Fine, it this turns out to be one of those things that you can't change the outcome of anyways, it wouldn't matter if I did tell you. The reason why I'm mad at you right now is because you lost our second egg."

"That's it?" asked Ben, "Didn't you guys look in the park or wherever you last were with it?"

Matt's eyes narrowed at that. "Who took it? Maybe I'll pay them a visit?" he said darkly .

"The group who took it hasn't been formed yet in your time and trying to prevent their formation will be...difficult, even without possibly tearing open space and time," said Kala.

"I kinda guessed that. That's why I wanna know where they are right now," said Matt.

Kala raised her eyebrows and asked, "Don't you realize the ramifications of what you could be causing if you did that?"

"I just found out my sister has been replaced by a mad monster about a few months ago and is currently trapped on a world that's nearly impossible to find and I can't go to yet because of a stupid piece of terraforming glass. I don't care what continuity snarl I could cause by rescuing my son! Or daughter, whatever kind of dragonling is in that egg," said Matt.

Kala glared for a minute before her gaze softened and she took a datapad out her pocket. "Just like last time...try not to get hurt. I don't want you to have matching arms," she said calmly, passing it over .

"Uh, that can't happen because the future Matt still has both of his arms, right?" asked Matt.

"Maybe, maybe not," said Kala in a teasing tone.

"Well, at least she's not angry at you, in an active way," said Driba.

Matt looked down at the datapad and the list of names, before pointing at each one. "You're dead...and you're dead...and you're dead," he said in a cheerful voice .

"Is this Admiral Lynch's legendary sense of humor?" asked Driba.

"Either that or we oughta be whackin' him on the head with a mallet," said Blukic.

"No, but somebody messed with family. My future self is clearly not around to do this, so I'll do it...with extreme violence. Help me or get the hell out the way," said Matt madly .

"That's the Matt I married," said Kala happily.

"Don't tell me my future self has become that soft," said Matt.

"Well, he gets tied up with paperwork a lot," said Kala.

"Right then, adding one little memo: visit future self and whip him back into shape," said Matt madly.

"Uh, that's a really bad idea," said Kala, "There is one rule about time travel you can't break: you can't touch your alternate self."

"Why not?" asked Matt challengingly.

"You'd both morph together into an amorphous blob before evaporating, erasing your presence in the timestream beyond your point of view," said Kala's daughter.

"Oh, the Timecop rulem" said Matt ,

"What's Timecop?" asked Kala.

"What? You haven't watched that movie?" asked Matt.

"Nobody watches that movie," said Kala's daughter.

"Ok...that's sorted then. How long till we get the ship back in orbit of Earth? If I'm gonna viciously murder these creeps, I'll need to viciously murder their backup and if I do it myself, my arms'll get tired," said Matt with bloodthirsty glee

"Yeah, we need to whack him," said Blukic, "Hand me that pipe."

"Why do you get to whack him? I want to whack him," said Driba.

"Cause I'm taller," said Blukic.

"You're not that tall," complained Driba.

A laser blast burnt a hole through the pipe at that. "No, I'm perfectly serious. I get the feeling my future self would happily do so. So I'll do it for me," snapped Matt .

"Boy, that takes me back," said Kala fondly.

"Uh, can we go home before this gets any weirder?" asked Ben.

"How could it get weirder?" asked Rook.

"If my mom makes out with my dad's past self," said Kala's daughter darkly .

"Ok, that tops it," said Ben, "Not even Morph could do worst."

"Give him time," said Kala darkly .

"I repeat my question: can we go home now?" asked Ben.

"You can. I'll be borrowing a fighter from the bay," said Matt..

"Mind if I come along?" asked Kala.

"YES!" said everyone else.

...

"So, you lost both Aria and Matt?" snapped past Kala when the group eventually returned to Earth's orbit.

"Well, not quite, we lost Aria but Matt went away on his own," said Rook.

"It's kinda complicated, especially since we ran into your future self," said Ben.

"He's involved with his future self? Hasn't he seen Timecop?" snapped Techo

"What's Timecop?" asked Kala.

"What? You haven't seen that movie?" asked Chris, "It's a classic."

"No time for that. Where did he go?" asked Kala dismissively .

"Uh, off to shoot up a bunch of kidnappers," said Ben.

"Urgh...if he gets killed, I'll get Hannah to resurrect him so I can kill him again," said Kala angrily .

"Can she do that?" asked Rook.

"Well, I've tried it a few times. It's not a pretty picture. I DON'T LIKE DOING IT!" yelled Hannah.

"Fair enough...all we can do is hope he doesn't get himself killed." said Techo.

"Wait, aren't we going after him?" asked Kala.

"Matt can handle a solo mission. He spent several years on his own," said Techo.

"No...I can't just-" began Kala before a voice said "No, you can't but you will. This is our department."

"Who said that?" asked Skurd, looking around.

"Agent Tivus, DARKRIFT...and this is our concern now," said a suited anthro dragon in the doorway.

"Oh yeah? You got a warrant to prove it?" challenged Ben. Tivus turned to glare at Tennyson, before getting a humorless smirk and making a rotating badge hologram appear on his wristcomp. "Is that supposed to mean anything?" asked Ben.

"Ben, DARKRIFT has overruling authority over select events. Not even the Plumbers can intercede," said Rook.

"And we're fully authorized to remove any obstacles...including timeline specifics. Would you like to continue pushing your luck?" said Tivus with a nasty sneer .

"Uh, you realize that snuffing Matt will make a big continuity snarl, right?" pointed out Chris.

"Oh, we are not planning on 'snuffing' the would-be admiral," said Tivus, "We will simply be bringing him back...by any means necessary."

A second figure, a female Avianos, said coldly, "He'll be mindwiped for the past 2 months to stop any repeat and his future self will be penalized accordingly."

"Two months? It's gonna take you guys that long to catch him?" asked Techo.

"No...we should be able to catch him within a couple of days. You mercs are just as cocky as during the war," sheered Tivus .

"Isn't dialing his memories back two months a bit severe? There are some important memories that happened recently he ought to know of," said Kala.

"No, by all rights, we ought to be wiping all of your minds and sending back you when you came from. But our current orders are to apprehend Captain Lynch," said the Avianos.

Techo glared. "That sounds like a threat to me. I think you'd better cool off a bit," he said darkly, Tivus shrugged.

"I did warn you," he said, before raising his hand and sending a firebolt into Techo's knee. Techo yelled in pain and fell to the floor as he clutched his knee. "Now, are there any others who-" started Tivus before both he and the Avianos got blown back by a hurricane wind.

"Get off this ship," commanded Hannah, her eyes blazing with demonic fury.

Tivus got up first, dusting himself off. "Sha'kir, let's go. We have a job to do," he said pointedly .

Once the DARKRIFT agents left, Hannah said, "We need to send someone after Matt."

"Like we can make him change his mind," said Chris grimly.

"I don't expect to, but we need someone to keep him from going off the rails or running into the wrong kind of trouble," said Hannah.

"We can't do anything...not with Darkrift watching us like hawks. Hate to say this but he's on his own for now. Anyway, knowing his luck, he'll find help," said Chris .

Kala sighed and said, "I just hope he gets back ok."

...

Out in the void of space, passing through a small graveyard of derelict ship, Aria's appropriated body floated listlessly. Unfortunately, Aria's mind was still not at the helm. "Well, this is certainly a setback, but nothing that can't be worked around," said the Regent. She grabbed a nearby piece of scrap metal which soon turned to nanochips in her hands. "There, there ought to be enough parts to make a working ship from this. After that, we'll need to find a world to gather resources. Someplace with plenty of silicon…"


There's another chapter. It's a short one, but it's going to be the first of several this week. We'll be wrapping up this story before the week is up. The next chapter will be featuring a couple of sneak previews of the gang's future. It'll be up tomorrow so keep an eye out for it and please review.