Lights sizzle and flicker, sending crazed shadows dancing around the wreck of the cabin. Two pairs of smooth faced, elegant sims each swathed in silver trimmed in black tunics and sporting a pair of twin blue steel muzzles of equally elegant guns flow through the twisted frame of what had once been a wall. Their weapons swivel first toward Aknet where she crouches, her own weapons aimed protectively over Vladie, who, at the sight of the guns pointed his way, mouth contorting as if he might vomit, instantly hugs the wall as if he could become invisible. The next pair of sims aim their barrels towards the gathering of forms toward the control console.
Disrupting their cool, efficient lethality, Jupiter bursts into the room, followed by a cautious Kiza, then Night with his obsequious scowl, Felicia hanging on his arm. Bob, balancing his precarious Gemma burden, moves away from the growing cadre of militant sims with a half scowl, half trepidation, before bumping slightly into Aknet, which sends his eyes and mouth round as oranges. Lastly, Morkenin glides in, cocooned within a protective ring of glittering, lock-stepped sims, each bristling with drawn weapons. Morkenin herself sports a short silvery pole, and a slim gun gleams at her hip. She has forgone her royal pearls in favor a practical set of tall gray boots, a shimmering gray tunic covering her from knee to wrist, complete with a deep, full hood currently draped across her shoulders.
Glancing up, Stinger lowers his weapons, rushing to Kiza and folds her in his arms, wrapping her in his dark bronze wings.
Jupiter scans the devastation in single, sweeping motion. The gathering of family parts to reveal Nino off her summer weight sweater and laying it on something as yet indistinguishable on the floor. Only then does she realize Nino lays the sweater on Caine's prone form. Her face twisting first with horror, then falling into disbelief while her eyes scan the length of the beam jutting cruelly from the soft flesh just above his hip. The red trickle has widened to a slick, shining pool, his life draining quickly away. Falling to the floor, her fingers trace his chest lightly, as if she fears causing him more pain. Blood spreads across his stomach, coating Jupiter's trembling hands. Caine's eyes flutter, and his own grip on the embedded spike slips.
"Help him!" she commands, to everyone, anyone. Aleksa's knees buckle, her mind torn back to that moment in her own apartment, Jupiter blisfully ignorant within her own belly, cradling her own dying beloved in her arms. She kneels there beside her daughter, wrapping one arm around her, resting her head on her daughter's shaking shoulder. Her head jerks up at the sound of Gemma's matter-of-fact words.
"Your Majesty, this is a first class clipper with full medical facilities." Morkenin makes no move to acknowledge the Aegis sim, but pauses before snapping her fingers to the entrance behind her. Another silver clad anonymous sim steps forward, steering a large, dark, hovering kit towards the gathering around Caine. Propping open the lid like an ominous, floating trunk, the sim pulls a shimmering sheath of some cloth like fabric, and with a flick of the wrist, it unrolls. Stinger's eyes widen even as Morkenin points to Caine's prone form. Jupiter's gaze follows the sim as it leans forward and stretches the filmy cloth and deftly envelopes Caine, his fading body glowing softly beneath a pulsing haze.
"A stasis shroud," Bob says with a cheery smile, taking another two cautious steps farther from Aknet.
"It only slows time; it cannot stop it from ticking forward," Morkenin corrects. The deep, silky voice catches Nino's instant attention, and she looks up with interest, but the derisive expression on that lovely, timeless face with its haunted, empty, ancient eyes leaves her chilled to the bone. Jupiter glances up, tensing at the sight of the bloated bag, nearly the size of Jupiter's head, emblazoned with a stylized, silver wolf's head, bulging with a thick, gently glowing blue liquid.
"No!" Jupiter recoils at the site of the nectar with a violent shake of her head.
"What is that?" Aleksa asks at Jupiter's ear, regarding her daughter with anxiety.
"Nectar," comes Kiza's breathless reply, her eyes round by the sight of so much wealth dangling from the sim's smooth fingers.
"It can help?"
"It will save him." Stinger releases Kiza and moves to kneel beside to Aleksa' side, his wings tucked, his face grave.
"No!" Jupiter commands, raising a hand to block the sim, flinching when her skin brushes the bag instead.
"But, if this medicine can save him?" Aleksa swivels her confused gaze between Stinger and Jupiter.
"It isn't medicine." Jupiter spits out the words. "It's people!" Aleksa mouths the word, uncomprehending.
"The harvest" Stinger says softly. Standing above them, Morkenin scoffs and waves a derisive hand.
"Not that distasteful waste of resources!" She lifts her chin, motioning with an elegant wrist to the blue glow. "Every bit as pure, yet my family's fruits are denigrated by the politics of ancient history!"
"You mean, dead people?" Aleksa's eyes widen with dawning compression. Her fist clutches Stinger's arm, and he lays his hand to gently cover hers when Morkenin continues with a chilling stare aimed exclusively at Jupiter.
"All life is sustained by death! Your primitive superstitions have no place here!"
"Your Majesty, Caine will die without it." Stinger touches Jupiter's shoulder for reassurance, for strength.
"What other choice is there, Your Majesty?" Kiza leans in with a hopeful shrug. Jupiter looks to Aleksa, then Nino, then towards the hulk of softly glowing machinery as if noticing its intrusive bulk for the first time.
"Is that it?" All eyes follow Jupiter's gaze.
"Exactly as the designs said," Nino nods with a hint of pride. "But," she begins, and Aleksa interrupts in her haste to help Jupiter.
"Nino is skilled with building it. I input the calculations, but I do no understand what they mean." Morkenin, her quizzical brow knitting into an entranced intensity as she strides towards the metal monstrosity hulking like some ancient armored beetle.
"This?" She says and reaches out a long fingered, strong boned hand. "My great ancestor's pinnacle of achievement? The bane of our existence?" She runs a finger along the arrays of wires, hungrily stroking the gleaming blue metal. "Does it work?"
"Work?" Aleksa moans. "What is it supposed to do?"
"Save lives," Jupiter replies softly. "Save lives, repair lives, extend lives." Jupiter's hands shake as lays a bloody palm upon Caine's wounded body, her eyes glittering with tears and, yet, also with anticipation.
"You mean, it replaces nectar?" Stinger asks, gazing at the machine with new eyes.
"A market on every corner," Jupiter repeats Titus' words to herself.
"This smacks of sedition, Empress," Night smirks, torn between greed, hope, and his own desires of power. His eyes flick with the schemes ticking behind them. Felicia peers over his shoulder at the machine and the sheave, then at Night with a thoughtful brow. Famulus, standing aside as if at attention, begins to shift her feet and scowl as the consequences slowly dawn on her.
"Silence," Morkenin commands, with a dismissive hand which clearly implies that she will deal him him, rather harshly, later. He falls silent, but his face remains mutinous, and he shrugs off Felicia's nervous touch.
"How does it work, Empress?" Kiza dares ask of Morkenin.
"Work? And I would know, having barely studied it?" Then she raises her palm. "As with all our technology, it must be based on manipulation of gravitational forces." Nino's eyes widen and she claps her hands together.
"Gravity. Of course." Nino breathes out the words with sudden comprehension. "Gravity, the eternal song of the universe. The root of the tree of our destinies. But no," she gives her head a single rough shake out of her own reverie. "It can do nothing."
"Ridiculous," Morkenin chides. "My ancestor may have been shunned, but true genius is often misconstrued."
"We miss a part. There are no instructions on how to build."
"Terses," Morkenin scoffs at the lack of proper respect, then her curiosity wins. "Show me," she demands, tapping on the shave and holding the glowing schematics beneath Nino's nose.
"Der'mo!" Nino exclaims, flashing the haughty woman a patronizing eye, before rapidly flipping through the images, slowing them to a stop, and taps the glassy top in rapid succession before standing back with a hint of triumph. Morkenin examines the component.
"That is the central processing unit." Morkenin flips the sheave into silence. "This, person, is correct, Jupiter Jones. Your splice lover is doomed." All heads snap up at this dire pronouncement.
"What?"
"This design. It's ancient. Obsolete. No one has used those modules in five million years. Perhaps lying in some junk yard. Forgo this folly," and she motions to the sim and its bag filled with condensed humanity.
"I can't," Jupiter almost wails, covering Caine's shrouded body with her own. Stinger tries to speak, while Kiza tries to interrupt him. Nino begins harsh words to the Empress while Aleksa reaches out to console her daughter.
Under the rise of discordant voices, one quiet, simple word rings clearest.
"Wait," Bob's voice chirps. "Wait," he says more softly, looking down with chagrine at the sudden flood of attention, and, something else. His ear buds whir slowly, and he glances with trepidation at the sheave. "Show, show me the specifications." With a grudging pause, Morkenin hands the sheave to Nino again. Under her fingers, the images emerge, and she hands the device over to Bob. Bob hesitates, then takes it with one hand, and with the other, his finger tip pops open. He slides its tip into a small port on the side of the sheave. For a moment, he is silent. "Like Gemma said. I'm an old design."
"What is it, Bob?" Jupiter asks, fear tightening her throat and leaving her voice thin and high. Bob's mouth opens, his ear buds whir faster and faster.
"I do. I do have something that will work. Just one."
"What is it?" Stinger demands. "Hurry up then, we need it now!"
"Here," and he untangles Gemma from his back, laying her against the device while he, himself, sits down beside her. His hand trembles as he reaches behind his own neck. Then, he turns to Gemma. "Would you? I don't think can."
She gazes at him a moment. "Are you certain?" Seeming unable to speak, Bob merely nods once. "I was wrong," she says so softly that only his ear buds can hear, "you are very brave, after all." At this, Gemma softly lifts her hand, snaps open the base of his skull, and with a few tappings and tugs, she pulls forth a thin, sliding shelf. Bob's eyes grow stiff with fright, but he sits perfectly still. Gemma proceeds to peel a thin, oval, gel-like piece roughly the size of her open palm.
All eyes are riveted on Bob while his bright eyes flutter, his ear buds whir, his mouth falls into a tiny, sorrowful frown. Then, Bob's ear bud's grow still. His hands fall. His head slumps slowly, coming to rest on Gemma's remaining leg.
"What did you do?" Jupiter gasps as Gemma raises the glistening piece upwards.
"His primary control module," she says in her quiet, even way.
"What is that?" Valdie asks, peering over the crowd.
"His brain," Stinger explains. Vladie's mouth forms an 'o' not unlike those Bob once used.
"A noble sacrifice," Morkenin says. Jupiter's turns her puzzled, sorrowful expression on her. After all the death meted out by Morkenin's order, here she honored what all others considered a mere machine.
Gemma extends her hand, and Jupiter carefully accepts the delicate film with equal measures of awe and sadness. Though it glistens as if wet and cold, in her hand it lays warm and dry, with layer up layer creating a shimmering, infinite depth, like some fairy crystalline gel.
"Here," Nino says in her ear, not comprehending why, but understanding Jupiter's pain. She flicks a small section of the machine, and a similarly shaped receiving plate slides open. She lays the thick filmy layer on a central depression, then slides it into the machine. All eyes watch the machine, waiting for some grand demonstration of its abilities.
Behind them, unseen, Gemma gazes at the quiescent features that were once a lively, if often bemused, Bob. With one finger, she strokes his unnaturally still cheek.
A sudden tone breaks the silence, a ringing warning tone echoing into the ship from the landing bay. Morkenin's head snaps around. "What have you done? My defenses are compromised! My ship is being boarded by those filthy rebels!"
Night smirks. "My clever minions!" he crows with delight. Felicia favors him with a weak, wavering smile. Famulus is not amused.
"Choose, Jupiter Jones. And quickly." Morkenin's voice holds no compassion, merely cold, hard challenge.
"We're out of time," Stinger says over Jupiter's shoulder. "We know the nectar can save him!"
Tears sting Jupiter's eyes. She glances from Caine's still form, to Stinger adamant's face, back to Caine.
"I love him, too," Stinger presses, and points at the blue bag hanging like a Domacles sword above Caine's prone form. "There is no time for questions!"
Jupiter's face twists with the agony of decision. Seeing Jupiter's pain, Kiza moves up silently behind Stinger, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder, and leads him away.
"You love him very much?" Aleksa asks, wrapping her arms around her doubt stricken daughter.
"More than I thought I could love anyone," Jupiter sobs gently.
"Then you must ask yourself, not what they want, not even what you want, but what he wants. Do you know that, my sweet daughter?"
Wiping her eyes with her blooded fingers, Jupiter looks to the contraption of blue black metal and hazy crystal. "Yes." She nods more vigorously. "He made me promise." Placing her hands on her thighs, she pushes herself to standing, and proclaims with more finality "We have to try the machine."
"You are a fool," Morkenin mutters, but snaps her fingers at a sim, who begins to peel back the stasis shroud.
Aknet steps forward, her thick arms offering to lift Caine's body.
"I doubt his bloody clothes will be useful in that, thing," Morkenin states matter of factly.
"Wait, what?" Jupiter asks with a slow look taking in the entire assemblage, then mutters, "Holy crap."
At Morkenin's gesture, the sim leans forward and runs her fingers over the stasis shroud. It pools to the floor to the renewed ragged gasps of Caine's labored breathing. While Nino and Aleksa raise the lid of the pod, Stinger peels the Aegis clothes, gleaming with slick blood, swiftly from Caine's body with a swift apini cuts. Hidden by her bulk, Aknet lifts him and arranges his limbs gently within the pod. The pod closed, Aleksa stands and strides quickly to the machine's console, waves her fingers through the beams of a small panel. The lid lowers, obscuring Caine behind the milky glass. Aleksa steps forward, waving her fingers through the hovering symbols, and the machine begins to hum. A dewy glaze films over the translucent pod, glistening on Caine's pale form.
"It's working, it's working!" Vladie calls over everyone's shoulders as the machine begins to hum and the flickering lights raise to a steady glow. Then he ducks just as quickly back behind Aknet at the sound of blasts hitting the ship. Morkenin raises an inquisitive brow as her eyes glow even brighter from the machine's energy. Then everyone steps back with alarm as the space around the machine just seems to waver, then bend, as if time and space are being altered. Aleksa falters, glancing around as the world seems to tilt around her. Nino, eyes bright with expectation, lays a reassuring hand on Aleksa's arm.
"What's it doing?" Jupiter asks as the world seems to tilt oddly around the machine.
"Using his own cells to make new ones," Vladie pipes up. "What, I can read," he replies in defense as everyone stares at him as if he had grown a second head.
"Just a few more." Aleksa pushes forward despite the gut wrenching feeling emanating around the machine. Jupiter swallows hard, and steps into the distortion field beside her mother, looking over the last instructions.
"Repair, or complete renewal?" Aleksa mutters, flipping through final list of optional inputs.
"Um, just repair." Even Mr. Night leans forward at this, eyes bright with curiosity. Famulus squirms with a growing discomfort.
"Alterations desired?"
"No, no, just original him," then she gasps, turning even as she ducks when a blue bolt singes the ceiling above her. "Good enough, make it go!"
Stinger leaps in front of Aleksa. He snaps open his wings, and shots glance off his bronze feathers. One solid hit erupts an explosion of prosthetic feathers. He is so close, his wing tips arching above her head, his chin inches from her ear. She shivers with fear and his heady closeness, before selecting a final 'Submit' option, and the glowing list fades. Behind him, Morkenin's sims form a defensive line, with Aknet towering above them returning the rebel's fire.
"You should have left us our weapons, Your Majesty," Kiza challenges, moving to the front console and begins flipping through the screens to views of rebels of every ship and every splice pouring into the clipper's bay. Aknet knocks her knotty fist against the wall, and a panel pops open with an array of guns, knives, even swords. She tosses a pair of guns and a short blade across the cabin to Kiza, who catches each deftly, and a single gun to Jupiter, who fumbles it before managing to strap it at her hip. "I hope you have reinforcements." Morkenin glances back over her shoulder, at the rag tag assemblage, at the machine full of promise and doom, considering every option.
"Come!" she commands her small sim army. "I'll lure them away."
"Wait," Jupiter calls after her, to be given a haughty lifted brow in return. "Your Majesty," she offers belatedly. "You may be good, but you can't hold them off alone."
Aknet's growl fills the room. "A worthy adversary deserves a worthy ally, your Majesty." And she steps forward, offering herself to Morkenin.
"Oh." Jupiter says with some surprise. "If that's what you want, Aknet."
Stinger sighs, and glances around before pronouncing. "You," Stinger points at Kiza as he steps closer to Morkenin's ring of sims, "stay. Guard them." Kiza's eyes glow with barely suppressed fury, battle fever warring with the weight of this her father's capture at Morkenin's own hands.
"You stay," she retorts. They glare pointedly at each other. He opens his mouth to argue, and she opens her mouth to refute his reasons, when Vladie's whine interrupts.
"Who will protect us?" And, denied his Aknet shield, he slinks down behind one of the extruded chairs.
"Are my royal guard on board?" Jupiter asks with growing determination.
"Those shiny robots?" Nino pipes up, flashing Vladie a look of pure disgust.
"Yes, your Majesty," Aknet replies. Jupiter frowns at Morkenin's imperious finger pointing Aknet to move before her, as if that act was simply what any splice should perform for a royal.
"How do I get them to come here?"
"We are yours to command," Aknet bows low, her bulk muffling the sounds of weapon fire beyond while she pauses in the ripped open wall, "your Majesty. Your guard will come at my call." And she raises her thick, clawed fingers to the small node on the side of her neck.
"Great, Ok then. Call them." Jupiter nods with a weak wave of acquiescence. "Kiza, go with Stinger." Stinger looks about to object, but he is incapable of denying his queen's command. Jupiter softens with "Morkenin is good, but she'll need all the help she can get." She winks at Kiza, who ducks her head with a grateful, grin smile. "What do I do with you?" Jupiter asks, turning back to glare at Mr. Night, who lifted his chin in defiance. Felicia, glued to his arm, avoids Jupiter's pointed gaze, her own eyes stabbing the shadows as if searching for her own escape. She stares pointedly at Famulus, frozen with fear with her back pressed against the wall, obviously longing to flee to her sovereign's much less damaged ship waiting somewhere in the embattled bay.
"I've got them covered," Gemma says, resting her weapon on Bob's still body.
Moving ahead of Jupiter, Kiza lifts an expectant hand. "I am my father's daughter," she says, every line in her body taut with a fighter's stance. With a rueful grin, Stinger grudgingly tosses his daughter a gun.
"Stick close, kid."
"Wait!" Jupiter calls, racing to one of the panels hanging sidelong against the wall. She reaches in, and lifts out a set of blue silver royal armor. "You'll want this." A grin splits Kiza's face, and she accepts the armor, which wraps like a living snake around her. Kiza peers into empty the locker, then back at Jupiter with alarm. Jupiter shrugs, laying a hand on Kiza's shoulder. "You'll need it more. Go. Protect your family." And with Aknet in the lead, the party readies their weapons, and exits into the dark of the ship.
"Whoa," Vladie breathes with envy at the last sight of Kiza's shining armor. "Can I get one of those?"
"No," Aleksa and Nino intone together.
"What about one of those?" he whines, pointing to the gun now holstered at Jupiter's hip. Aleksa just rolls her eyes. "Hey, I've shot plenty of bad guys!"
"Video games are not life, or death. Come here," Aleksa retorts, and she and Nino wave Vladie with sharp jabs to join them behind the ship's control console. Jupiter glances at her family, then the array of weapons, and sighs.
"Here," she calls out as she crosses the space to the open panel. She hands Vladie a single, rather over sized gun, then takes a smaller version to her aunt and mother. "Safety on, safety off. Point and shoot." Valdie cracks a giant grin before ducking behind the console beside a more reluctant Nino and Aleksa. Just as Jupiter takes up a position next to the space bending machine housing her love's broken body, a line of her own royal guard march in and form a half circle near the collapsed wall, their multi hued shells sparkling beneath the sizzling lights, all their blunt arms trained on that dark opening.
Below, in the bay, the sounds of battle ring up through the broken tiers of their precarious haven.