Tychus saw her. When he raised his arm partially and closed his fist around air, the imperfections of the cloaking suit became obvious against his skin. All at once he discerned her face nearly pressed to his chest and her body scrunched together as hard as she could get it, attempting to be as small as possible. The faint brush of air against his skin when she couldn't hold her breath anymore brought him back to the present from his observations.

"Got yourself in a bit of a bind now, don't you?" Looking into her eyes sharply, he saw the tenseness and will to run being fought. "Don't run." He warned, all too aware of the rush he was getting as it was.

"Just kill me." Jayce whispered. There was a pistol holstered on her hip, but she didn't have to be a damn combat veteran to know it wouldn't do anything worth mentioning even if she drew and fired fast enough.

Tychus paused, unmoving as he entered a moral struggle. Killing her would be a kindness, but she was also not infested. They could use her to work around the Adjutant and with some luck save her too, he decided. Lowering his hand back to his side, he took a slow step backwards: every movement slow so as not to spook her into a run. "Not going to kill you. We have control of ourselves. Gonna try to get you outta here in one piece, doll." Jayce nearly passed out, but she wasn't sure if it was from holding her breath or relief.

In the laboratory, Stetmann was learning to feel out and manipulate the simple infested Terran.

"It is empty. Fill it and control it." Shlassa intoned, eyes glittering.

Stetmann felt revulsion, both at himself and what he found inside the Terran- or lack thereof, the thought of what he was doing and how this had been a man once left his control flagging quickly. He had directed the infested to hand him his notepad, but it dropped to the floor as his thoughts wavered, the infested becoming immobile- like a puppet without strings.

Sitting down, he rubbed his temples and took a breath while Shlassa chittered in annoyance before pausing, dead still.

Jayce clumsily disabled the cloaking suit, almost in tears from relief and disbelief as she became solid. "I saw you and the others come out of those egg-things. I couldn't believe that there would be any humanity left in you, I am sorry." The suit fit the woman ill and she looked bedraggled with disheveled hair, dark rings under her eyes and grease stains smeared on her cheeks. Tychus recognized her immediately, he had pinched her butt once when he was still stuck in the suit.

"Shh. Don't know how watched I am." In truth, Tychus was trying his best to school his thoughts and not draw attention. There was no way Shlassa wasn't watching, maybe even Kerrigan too. He might not kill the woman with his own hands, but there was no saying someone else wouldn't.

Nodding, Jayce looked around nervously and whispered. "What now then?"

Rubbing his mouth in thought, Tychus looked over her suit and then the room around them. "Gonna have to hide you again. I'll get the lights." Brushing past her, he was aware of the gun she had on her hip, but not concerned. If he survived Stetmann blasting a hole in his chest, no normal gun was ever going to take him down.

As the lights were switched back on, Jayce became aware of an Adjutant alert blaring in Swanns office- she could vaguely see the red light flashing through the window. Feeling a chill inside her guts, she pulled out the small data pad in her utility belt and accessed the message. Her eyes widened. "Tychus..." The infested on the ship were moving en masse towards the armory- and the door was jammed open with a damned cargo box.

"What?" He had come over quickly, a prickling sensation rippling through his mind.

"The infested are coming! I can't close the armory door either!" Her panic that had subsided such a short while ago had returned full force- she stuck the data pad back into her belt and turned to look at Tychus, nearly getting bowled over by him as he grunted and stumbled.

A force had entered Tychus, knocking him to his knees and taking his breath away. When his body started to rise without his permission he realized what was happening and tried to lock his muscles, his body, in place. "Run." Was all he could growl out as his hands took a clumsy swipe at her.

Leaping backwards as though he was on fire, Jayce wasn't going to question what was going on, not with an order like that. She ran towards Swanns office full tilt, all but falling up the stairs in her haste.

When Jayce turned and ran, Tychus felt the instinct to chase and catch surging through his burning muscles, all he could do was let out a primal yell as he shambled after her. Jayce punched in her key code to lock the door with shaking hands, watching through the industrial window as Tychus looked to be fighting literal possession. She also saw the shambling bodies of her former co-workers passing under the armory door, her mouth open in sick horror while her hands sought out the buttons for the auto-turrets on the command console.

Desperate, Tychus cried out in his mind as the blades embedded in his arms flipped out with a practiced ease- Shlassa was at the wheel. Stop! She is useful! We can use her! Heaving for breath, he stood at the base of the stairs and turned rigidly to face an auto-turret as it popped up out of the floor.

She is weak, and you will destroy her. Do not fight me, Terran. I will break your mind.

As one, each man aboard was pulled into their mental conflict the second Tychus addressed Shlassa. Guns, booze and papers fell from hands as they reached up to press at temples and cradle faces.

Tychus had leaped forwards and severed the first auto-turret at its base the moment it began firing at him, thick bullets that had only partially embedded into his flesh were already being pushed outwards by his unnatural healing. The other auto-turret was firing at the infested who were stumble-running towards it, and it was quickly broken by the pounding of inhumanly strong limbs. When Tychus' eyes settled on the window where Jayce stared at him, Horner, Stetmann and Warfield all saw it.

Slamming his fist into the floor beneath him, Warfield snarled. NO! Don't you dare kill that girl! Don't you dare!

Tychus was climbing the stairs towards the door and the infested were coming with him.

S-stop! Horner cried in his mind, not sure if he was telling Tychus to not kill the girl or for his mind to stop being ripped to pieces.

"Shlassa! We can use her! She can help us use the ship because she is not infested! Stop, please!" Stetmann was in the lab with the broodmother and on his knees on the creep-covered floor, using his voice as he struggled to help Tychus fight the broodmothers physical control.

"She will die. Stop struggling." Shlassa responded cool and collected, killing was second nature and weakness would never be tolerated.

Blood began to ooze out of their noses and ears as Horner, Warfield and Stetmann were fighting in Tychus' mind.

When he reached the door, Tychus jammed his claws straight into the steel on one side and began to peel it open like a tuna can while the infested banged on the window.

My Queen.

What, Shlassa?

The Terrans have found a survivor and their minds are about to break trying to save it.

What?

Kerrigan immediately focused on the Hyperion and what was happening inside it, her fist clenching at the Zergling that had been coiled under it and making it hiss with pain.

We failed everyone else, but we can save her! Fight it Tychus you son of a bitch! Warfield was on his side on the floor, nearly reduced to twitching and flailing.

All of them were throwing themselves against Shlassa's control and being batted aside like toddlers.

Tychus was looking Jayce in the eyes as the door screamed in protest and bent, nearly wide open enough for him to squeeze through. Jayce had taken her gun out of its holster and had it pointed at her head, attempting to gather enough bravery to pull the trigger and spare herself.

ENOUGH! Kerrigan's will was to Shlassa as Shlassa's will was to the four men, and they were all immediately freed. Blood leaking out of his ears, Tychus flung himself forwards with far more vigor, breaking through the door and throwing himself at Jayce. The gun went off, but into the wall when Tychus slammed Jayce's arm roughly to the side with a snap and a startled cry from her.

Practically laying on the woman, Tychus rested one arm over the top of her chair and rested his forehead on that, still holding her arm aloft with his right hand as he struggled to collect himself.

"It's alright. It's alright. They won't kill you." He mumbled, trying to be reassuring but for the most part just squeezing the womans possibly broken arm and breathing all over her face as she lay there stunned. The infested were already dispersing, being sent to idle elsewhere. Stetmann, Warfield and Horner were recovering similarly to Tychus- laying wherever they happened to be at the start of the ordeal and breathing heavily.

Shlassa. Kerrigans ire burned the broodmother, who recoiled where she stood in Stetmann's lab.

My Queen!

You were chosen to safeguard my charges, and you nearly turned them into vegetables just now.

They fight me! I was simply eradicating a survivor, and they chose to die over it.

Gritting her teeth, Kerrigan debated smiting the broodmother right then and there.

Then you let the survivor live and inform me. Right now it is useful, you will leave it be. But if this happens again, Shlassa... You will wish that I had killed you.

Yes, my Queen! Shlassa bowed to nobody, so distressed she was to have upset her Queen in such a way.

Tychus nearly fell asleep right there, half laying on Jayce as he was, until she hissed in pain and reached for her injured arm. "Shit." He mumbled, letting go of her arm which was already developing a dark hand-shaped bruise, the gun dangled from her fingertips and fell to the floor with a clatter.

"Tychus." Jayces voice was soft, oddly calm as she stared at the chest nearly smushing her face. "It was a zombie apocalypse in here no less than two minutes ago. What the hell is going on?" Maybe she was in shock. He'd have to get Stetmann to look at her arm at the very least, but he was so tired.

"Had a chat with the higher-ups and managed to get you a free pass." How he kept his humor, even when the last of the bullets shot into his chest from the auto-turret popped out of his skin and landed in Jayces lap, no one would know.

Stetmann, Warfield and Horner had all curled up where they were and entered a deep sleep of recovery. Even with each man having intense regenerative abilities, the damage their minds had taken nearly sent them into hibernation.

Forcing himself to his knees beside the chair Jayce was sitting in, instead of on it and her, Tychus laid heavily on his side against the cold plated steel- unable to stop from closing his eyes. "We'll get you fixed up. Just need some shut-eye. Don't shoot yourself, sweet thing." He mumbled before falling asleep. Jayce was cradling her broken arm as it throbbed, sincerely considering trying to kill him with the pistol while he was apparently vulnerable. Standing up, she leaned over to pick the gun up with her good hand, wincing and gritting her teeth.

Swallowing thickly, she pointed the gun at his head and blinked away tears angrily- This is a kindness! He would have killed an infested without a second thought too. Jayce was trying to convince herself as her hand shook and more angry tears tracked through the grime on her face.

The lights flickered harshly, making Jayce falter and look around- fearful of another Zerg assault. When she saw the stooped shape of what had to be a Protoss standing on the opposite side of the window, though she had never actually seen one, she was stunned.

Zeratul had entered the ship as fast as safely possible when he sensed the confrontation, how the Terrans had rallied together in an attempt to save the lone survivor had sparked hope inside him. Though their battle was over, a small victory for them, he sensed the inner conflict of the woman. Stop. He implored, planting a large four-fingered hand up against the glass with a clack. There is not much time. You must not kill them, you are of great importance to the humanity of these men. You can save them, there is always hope! In truth, he was not entirely certain about his statement, but nothing in the future was certain right now. He had appeared, taking advantage of the broodmother and Kerrigans relaxed mental grip on the crew to deliver his message, and disappeared in a flicker of the lights as soon as he was done speaking.

Am I going insane? Jayce questioned what she had just saw and heard, staring hard at the window. Why would a Protoss even be here? The angry throbbing of her arm as it swelled up around the break brought her back to the present. The arm of her ghost suit was going to require cutting, it had become too tight for anything else. Slamming her gun back into its holster, she swiped the back of her sleeve across her face and stepped over the sleeping Tychus gingerly. The Adjutant could help her find some pain killers in the med bay. We'll see about that free pass.

Jayce walked past the corpses of the few infested one auto-turret had taken out quickly, trying not to think about them. Pulling the data pad from her belt, she placed it on a box and clumsily brought up a floor plan, charting a route to the med bay one-handed before picking it back up. The path was a bit roundabout, but she would give all infested and Zerg-related matter a very wide berth, which was preferable even though her arm throbbed with her heartbeat painfully. Walking under the jammed open armory door, Jayce gathered her courage and went forth. The ghosts of the people she had spent so much time with were her companions in the dimly lit halls, reminding her of what she originally joined Raynor's Raiders for in the first place, and how it all went so wrong in the end. With the Adjutant's guidance, she would make it to the med bay within a few hours and give herself basic medical treatment, following the computers guidelines.

Rory Swann woke to piercing silence, listened to Stetmanns message somberly and dressed without a word. When he looked at himself in the small mirror he would normally use to shave, he beheld a body covered in chitinous armor of a pale brown color and strange spiny hair, similar to Kerrigan herself but short. He almost laughed when his face seemed human, so out of place it was, complete with beard and all. The real kicker, he thought, was his all new arm. How many times did I dream about having it back? At what cost did I get it? Bitter, he walked into the quiet halls of the Hyperion and thought about Stetmann and his message. They still need me. I can still help people. So he set out to do just that: the first order would be to deal with the Adjutant and then getting this tub up and running.

Stetmann, Tychus, Warfield and Horner all woke up roughly at once. Warfield looked blearily at the legs of his chair, pressing a hand to the side of his temple as he forced himself up with the other. Stetmann felt warm, as if he was laying on a soft blanket. When he opened his eyes the illusion shattered, the creep on the floor throbbing in its disturbing fleshy way, he would have gotten up faster had the motion not hurt his head so much. Horner woke up on the unforgiving cantina floor, the drink he had in his hand when he had been pulled into a mental struggle had long dried, but there were shards of glass pressing against his thickened skin annoyingly. Tychus groaned, having been shoved against the back wall of Swanns control room, but otherwise left untouched.

Tychus' eyes focused slowly, brows furrowing in confusion at the foreign shape of the person at the control panel. Only when Swann turned around to look at him after hearing his second rasping groan did he register who it was.

"The dead awaken, apparently; Not the best place for a nap though. Why the hell did you go and trash my control room?" Swann sounded rather cross. Tychus supposed they had not been on the best of terms after roughing him up in the cantina, but he couldn't find the strength to give a damn about being combative. All at once he recalled why he was, indeed, laying on the floor in Swanns control room. Sitting up fast, his eyes focused on where the gun had been on the floor. "Where'd the girl go?"

"Girl? You on the sauce or what? Why don't you get outta here, I'm trying to get this place running." Swann clearly had the Zerg hair thing going on, but he was also wearing his thick mechanic outfit which obscured everything else, so Tychus didn't pay it much mind.

Wetting his parched lips, Tychus stood up and slowly walked out of the room, leaving Swann eyeing him. He had already done his double-takes and staring while Tychus was down for the count, he was done being surprised.

"You just keep doin' what you're doin'. Got some business to attend to." Absently he swiped at the crusted blood on his upper lip and ears. He was recalling bits of what happened quicker by the second, the destroyed auto-turrets and corpses of the infested helping jar the memory when he saw it. By the time he was ducking under the armory door he was making a bee-line for the med bay.

Tychus? Stetmanns voice was clear as a bell in his head, raising his ire immediately.

Get the hell out of my head. He wasn't sure if the message was sent, but if Stetmann didn't want to have to pray for some queen bug bitch to save his ass from evisceration, he wouldn't do it again.

Stetmann gathered up papers and affixed them to his clipboard, keeping his eyes down and avoiding Shlassa, who thankfully was silent and ignoring him. He had felt Tychus seething, but it was so clear and easy- and he had so many theories why it could be. He needed to get everyone together. Talking to them in their minds would have been the easiest, what with the comm system still down, but he decided against it after Tychus' reaction. He would just have to find everyone more manually, maybe with a little cheating.

Horner was piecing together what had happened, sitting on a stool in the cantina and sorting through his mind. He felt like he actually was Tychus for a time, and he had been fighting so hard to just control himself. It was too surreal, distressing, and he needed another drink.

Warfield was walking through the halls of the Hyperion, thinking on what had happened, like everyone else. He remembered the woman clearly, but couldn't recall if Tychus had managed to not tear her to shreds, the imagery in his mind was so vivid. He was looking the woman in the eyes, she had the gun to her head, and he was about to get in. That was when it went dark and he couldn't find any memories beyond that. His feet guided him to the armory, where he'd find out for sure if she lived or not.

"Raptor strain Zergling. Capable of scaling cliffs and more aggressive than lesser Zergling." Abathur droned while Kerrigan listened, watching the Raptor strain tear through Terrans with their own eyes and tasting the spoils with their hungry mouths. She was the Swarm.

"Can only choose one. Your choice?" The Swarm had stopped its interstellar travel for this, Abathur had found several useful bio signatures that the Swarm could make their own and brought it to his Queens attention. Kerrigan was always eager to guide the evolution of the Swarm.

"The Raptor strain will serve us best." Crippling the high ground advantage of some of their enemies most powerful weapons against the Zerg- Siege tanks and Colossus in particular, was a game changer and a no-brainer as far as Kerrigan was concerned.

"Swarmling strain discarded. Raptor strain integrated."

"Good." With but a thought, the mass of Zerg resumed their journey through space.

Tychus was standing in front of a medical table with tools laid out on it, telling Jayces story clearly though she was long gone. How long had they been asleep? He was still unsure, time meant a lot less to you when you had such a surplus of it. Looking at a strip of dried up bloodstained cloth and a container of half-spilled antiseptic fluid, he frowned. Arm was definitely broken. Grabbing the edge of the cloth he picked it up and held it in his hand, debating. On one hand, it was damn gross, but on the other he had no other means of finding someone who could be anywhere on the ship and cloaked to boot. Sighing, he gave in to the urge that had been pressing at the back of his mind the second he saw the blood. Sniffing the dried blood on the bandage deeply, his mouth watered in hunger; Not his hunger, the Swarms.

Jayce had tried so hard to follow the directions the Adjutant gave for checking the break and setting it, but she just couldn't do it with her left hand and the mind-boggling pain. She had given up after trying to check the type of break it was with a long needle that she had to jam into her skin, nearly dumping the whole container of antiseptic on herself afterwards with how bad her left hand was shaking. Frustrated, Jayce had resorted to digging up some heavy pain killers and anti-inflammatories, stealing some more rations from the mess and holing up in her room in the living quarters. The Adjutant had guided her around the infested the whole way, but she had almost given up on going for her room when the machine showed her footage of General Warfield laying in his room. Even the idea of being near one of those higher functioning infested sent her into a shaking fit.

She hadn't killed Tychus- the Protoss had ensured that, but she regretted it. Now she couldn't block the infested from taking out the Adjutant and getting the ship operational, only armed with her simple tools and data pad. It was just a matter of time before they found her now, and she would be ready to use the gun without hesitation this time. But first: sleep.

Swann and Warfield caught sight of one another at roughly the same time. Warfield had walked into the armory and towards the control room, wanting to have his question answered. Swann had stepped out of the control room after having the urge to smash things when the Adjutant was giving him trouble. The two paused mid-stride, making eye contact.

Attracted to his distress, Stetmann made his way to the cantina when he felt Horner there. Not entirely sure what he was about to find, he peered around the door cautiously as it slid open with a gasp. Horner was sitting at the table in the center of the cantina below the banged up jukebox, and had what was possibly all the booze in the whole room arrayed in front of him.

"Stetmann." Tilting his head slightly towards the younger man, Horner proceeded to pour the remaining liquid of the bottle in his hand down his throat, slapping his lips before smirking. "Zerg can't get drunk."

"Ah, well no... Our metabolisms are far too strong for intoxication anymore, sir."

Horner sighed. "What do you want, Stetmann?"

"We need to talk sir, I have important information to share and I believe everyone should be present. It is relevant to all of us and our situation."

"How does it even matter? We've lost. The artifact is destroyed, can't even remove our own Zerg taint now. Not to mention Kerrigan is going to use us to kill the people we were trying to save in the first damn place." It was rather sad, Stetmann thought, to see the unflappable and ever-optimistic captain of the ship be so somber.

Ahh we're getting so close to the start of the fun, I can hardly wait myself. Only one person left to wake up. ;)