Awakenings

Nova Prime did not speak but seemed to be in a state of trance. Tama knew that she was probably communicating with the Xandarian Worldmind.

When she snapped out of it, her patient complained, "I'm confused. The last three weeks the Worldmind has given me very specific instructions about a threat we are facing. Now the Worldmind is telling me that this all has been an illusion due to a brain virus."

Tama said, "I can concur. You and many officers have been infected. Most were deceived to leave the Corps and to join a secret organisation. You and officer Yon stayed here and were ... manipulated to cover this up."

Irani Rael, the Nova Prime, was stunned by this message. With a trembling voice she said, "That's terrible. I'm perplexed. Part of me believes what you tell me and part of me doesn't. It all seemed so ... real. How can I be sure that I'm not deceived right now?"

Tama didn't know exactly what to say. She wasn't a psychiatrist. She said, "I know that what happens now is real but what you have experienced in the past weeks is not. I know I removed the effects of the virus from your brain. I'm not sure how I can convince you."

Nova Prime stared through the window and watched the busy city for a moment. Then she continued, "I have sabotaged decisions because the Worldmind told me so. Or so I believed. If I haven't been in my right mind, then I have failed as a leader. On the other hand, if I'm not in my right mind now, I can't lead either."

"It's not your fault, this could have happened to anyone," Tama tried to console her.

"It can't happen to Nova Prime!" she exclaimed angrily. "I can't trust myself. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm not fit for duty at this time. We need to transfer the Nova Force."

She paused and seemed to enter a trance-like state again. Then she continued, "Even if the Worldmind doesn't agree. The Centurions have to make a decision."

"I can declare that you're not fit for duty," the doctor suggested.

"Please do so. Start the procedure. It's better that way." Then she inquired, "How is Centurion Yon?"

"I'll go meet him next." She left the room and entered the next one. The Centurion was struggling to come out of his sedation. The man was as confused as Nova Prime. Tama tried to explain the situation as good as she could. Then she asked a psychologist to help the man. She left the room and went down to visit Peter and Rhomann Dey. They still looked very ill. Tama gave them a shot that remedied the fake illness in minutes. Then she informed them about the Nova Prime coming to her senses and her intention to resign. Peter took his com and told Rocket that the plan had worked.

Sam visited the holodeck. He was curious about the progress Rocket had made. When he came in, the raccoon said, "Peter just called. The plan worked."

"That's great news!" Sam replied enthusiastically. "Splendid!" He looked at the holographic images Rocket had produced. In the meantime, more than 100 portals had appeared, most of them far away from the visible universe. In another corner of the holodeck a display ran, showing a group of indigenous people who entered a cube building with food and things that looked like toys. "Wow, that's a large portal network!" Sam exclaimed.

"Most of them are relay stations," Rocket said. "See the blue dots? That's where the cube buildings are. The green dots are relays. A portal can span at most 3 billion light-years, so they need a lot of relay portals to reach far distances."

"How did you find out?"

Rocket smiled slyly and said, "I followed the traffic. See those ladies with the food? They come in every day. Them and natives from other planets.

Sam understood and nodded, remarking, "I had a hunch you're a clever guy."

"You don't know half how smart I am."

"And so delightfully modest." Then he added, "Can you control the network?"

"Yes I can. There's a message stream between the hubs and the relays ta negotiate pathways. I can hack into that stream and reprogram the command structure. We can own the whole thing."

"Cool," Sam said. His admiration for the smart raccoon was genuine and his face displayed a radiant smile. He didn't have the technical skills to do this kind of hacking himself, but he trusted the raccoon to be quite capable to do what he said. "And where is Gamora?" he asked.

"Here, still on the same spot in the Virgo cluster. She guards a teleportation device, like Drax did."

"I presume they know we can track her."

"Yep. They've set up a trap already. The adjacent hubs are filled with warriors, ready to be beamed over when we get in." Rocket showed a hologram of one of the hubs.

Sam said, "I've never seen this species before. Yellow humanoids with fish heads."

"I don't know them either. I guess they're from an unchartered galaxy. They don't look so dangerous. Hardly dressed and armed with spears."

"We can test their battle skills in a holo-emulation. I bet they have something up their sleeves."

"Can you do that? Good idea. We should get Drax here, ta let him get a taste of it."

"I'll get him," Sam said. He went out through the corridor and went to the tattooed warrior who was resting on a bunk. "Are you ready for some exercise, Drax?"

Drax got up and said, "I most certainly am. I feel pretty useless."

Sam asked Groot, "Groot, can you give the man his weapons back?"

Groot did, it was no problem to him.

"So you trust me again, little cat?"

"I do. I think you're back. How's your head feeling?"

"Better. The fuzziness is gone."

"Fine. Then you're officially healed."

Drax followed Sam into the holodeck. There, the tattooed warrior saw Rocket and greeted him. The raccoon smiled back. It looked like Rocket had forgiven Drax for the mess he had made.

Sam explained, "This is our holodeck. We found some enemy forces. We want you to give your best shot in a simulated battle."

As if to answer, Drax stretched himself and cracked his joints. He took his blades and spun them around. "I'm ready," he said.

Sam did a bit of programming and finally a few fish-men appeared. "OK," he said, "disable them. The program will try to make them respond as realistically as possible."

Sam hadn't spoken his last words when Drax already made a few calculated paces towards the three enemies. Two of them dispersed. The middle one didn't move. Then a barrage of little arrows was launched from a collar-like ring around his neck. Sam used a viewing tool to zoom in on the neck. The entire collar was made of brown arrows the size of toothpicks.

Drax collapsed, screaming with pain.

Sam commanded the hologram to freeze. He took his medical device and checked Drax. Then he pushed a button and Drax recovered. "What happened? Sam asked.

"These needles sting like hell. I was burning with pain."

Sam zoomed in on a needle. He observed it for a short while, and then concluded, "This defence system is not to be underestimated. The needles contain a cocktail of many poisons. If this gets into your bloodstream, you need immediate medical care." Sam tried to pull one of the stingers out of Drax's skin, which led to renewed agony. "OK, this doesn't work. The darts bury themselves in the flesh. End hologram."

The darts and the three aliens disappeared.

"What do you think, Drax, how can a warrior protect himself against this?"

Drax was thinking. He suggested, "Either kill them fast. Or use a blade to shield off the arrows."

"I'm not sure ... they have an awful lot of these poison darts around their neck. And maybe they can keep firing, even after you chop their heads off."

Rocket, who had been observing with half an eye, suggested, "You need a kinetic shield. I can make one."

"Can you make one right now?" Drax asked.

"I'm kinda busy with the transporter network." Then he glanced at Drax, who looked restless after his forced vacation. "OK," Rocket said, "I can do two things at a time." He left his program running and gave a series of instructions to the talking head, the holodeck interface. Finally, a classic looking oval shaped buckler with a grip appeared.

"This shield has a built in force field that is larger than the visible surface. Projectiles will bounce off the front side and beyond, so yer entire body is protected."

Drax took it; Sam activated the three aliens again. This time, Drax charged with the shield in one hand and a big knife in his other. After a while, he managed to decapitate the three Fish Men without being hit by an arrow.

"Nice!" Rocket said admiringly.

Meanwhile, the holomovie with the natives was playing in an endless repeat loop. Sam asked Rocket, "Aren't you tired of watching that footage?"

"What, are ya blind? Those babes are gorgeous."

"Really? I'm not that into humanoids."

"I am fer sure," Rocket enthused.

"You are?" He pondered and said, "But they are so big and hairless. And their ... body openings are so big too. I mean, I can't complain about my own gear, but if I would have sex with one of them, my thing would flop out all the time."

Rocket laughed, "There are other ways to have fun, ya know." He flicked his tongue involuntarily.

Sam grinned, "I see." Then he started to look more serious and said, "I'm thinking ... we got soldiers, we got workers, we got hubs and pathways ... you know what that adds up to?"

"Yes, it's a hive," Rocket answered.

"So what we're looking for is the queen bee."

"A queen with a good taste for women. I bet it's a king bee."

"Or a group of king bees. Any idea where they are hiding?"

"I have a hunch. See the network pattern? Here's where the web is most dense," he said and pointed at blue dots that were twice the size as the rest. "That's where we need ta go."

"Any more freak warrior surprises?"

"I'll look into that. Don't worry, I'll keep Drax busy."

"Fine. I leave you two to it. I need a cat nap."

The feline left the room and curled up on a bunk in the Milano.

The next day, the Nova senior officers had a meeting. Nova Prime explained the current situation. She had invited Rhomann Dey and Tama Zun to fill in the gaps. It was a long meeting and many questions where asked. Centurion Yon was absent; his psychologist had advised him to take a leave to recover first.

Finally Nova Prime spoke, "I have decided that the Nova Force must be transferred. Know that the Worldmind itself objects to my decision. However, during my illness I have caused too much doubt and confusion. We need to have a new, trustworthy leadership to face this danger."

As a response, the Centurions spoke in disorder. All kinds of objections were ventilated. Finally, one Centurion rose and asked, "Do you have someone in mind?"

"I recommend Denarian Dey."

This suggestion took Dey by surprise. He held his hand palms forward in defence and said, "No, that can't be right. I'm honoured, but I'm the wrong person for this job."

Nova Prime defended her choice, "You're the best man. You were the only one in this corps who knew about the real threat and you had the guts to fight it. If there is anyone worthy to take my position, it's you."

Dey was not convinced. The Centurions weren't satisfied either. Some muttered that it was unprecedented that a lower officer would be promoted to Nova Prime, others insisted that in a time like this, the Nova Force should stay were it was.

Then suddenly, the Xandarian Worldmind itself appeared above the middle of the table as a towering, transparent figure. It had the female appearance of Kree Nova Corpsman Ko-Rel. She spoke, "This confusion must stop. We are paralysed. The time for action is now."

The last word she spoke still rumbled across the room, when a bright flash of light emanated from her chest and hit Denarian Dey. Rhomann Dey felt, much to his surprise, how an incredible force surged through his body. His uniform changed and his insignia transformed, making room for a complete Nova star; the eight-pointed star of the Nova Prime.

At the same time, the old Nova Prime changed back into Centurion Irani Rael and looked visibly relieved.

The decision was made. Dey felt the need to protest but before he could, he fell into a short trance in which the Worldmind introduced himself and gave him his first orders. Dey didn't know what else to do. He stood up, respectfully walked towards his predecessor, who rose up for him. They shook hands. Before he knew it, they had swapped places. The new Nova Prime looked at the gathering of Centurions with a befuddled expression and wasn't feeling very happy. Unceasingly, the Worldmind kept talking in his mind about urgency and the need for immediate actions. Almost like a puppet, Dey repeated what the Worldmind told him. The instructions were clear.