A quick glance at the fleet attacking me showed that the vessels matched up with those of the pirate fleets I'd seen earlier. Hacking their communications confirmed that this was the case, and that they were coming after me for revenge. Mentally, I sighed - these people really needed to learn when to give up. I quickly locked my Artemi on their ships and opened fire, reducing the majority of the opposition to scrap metal. The rest were quickly picked off by my ships, leaving me without a loss. Again, a rather boring affair.

Okay, time to deal with the pirates for good.

I started sending out hacking software from the ships I'd been using to take down the pirate forces at their bases and began to crack into the pirates' hidden channels. I sorted through the various data pieces I came across, occasionally deleting some of the more disgusting data (keep your sexual interests on Flash drives, people), until I found the locations of the rest of their bases. I quickly sent out additional forces to begin tearing said bases apart, while is used hyper advanced capacitors to empty their energy reserves. All in all, it wouldn't take me more than a few days to fully render this group of space pirates nonexistent. As for any other ones that might show up, well, there were talks about setting up a defense force to deal with pirate threats, something I had decided to help, albeit without being overt: I carefully nudged the SETI equivalents of an colony I found toward either Centauri 45 or Chiron, so that they'd learn about the burgeoning Federation and, hopefully, join it. If they decided to fight the Federation, well, I had the Fed's back.

There, problem solved. Now I needed to find something else to do.

Train my weaponry skills? No real need, and it was getting boring.

Train my psychic skills? My 'teachers' were busy helping the kids and those powers were already well developed as is.

Train my Molecular Control skills? Well, aside from getting an implant for that, I hadn't really exercised that skill yet, and it would be nice to have a psychic backup power.

Of course, that meant learning from the Great Dreamer...

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"So, you wish to learn how to master the powers of molecular control?" questioned the Dreamer. "Learn how to control your foes' bodies, just as the gift allows you to control their minds?"

"Yes...and how do you know about the gift?"

"You did not think I controlled my forces entirely through their MC implants, did you?"

"...Good point. So, how does this work?"

"At first, you will only be able to affect beings who have Molecular Control implants. As you improve, you will find that foes who do not possess these implants will also be within your power to control. Of course, that will take time, so I suggest you first test this techno-sorcery, as you would call it, with the animals you have assembled for that very purpose."

It was referring to the rats and mice I'd gathered up and implanted with MC implants. I'd moved them to an MC lab I'd set up on my hub world, so that I could test my new powers unmolested. Well, unless Melissa showed up, anyway. I'd set up a few basic tests that I could use my skills on - a maze to guide my test subjects through, peanut butter that I'd get them to eat, and a small attack dummy I'd get them to chew through. If I could master those basic skills, I'd have a good starting powerset to work with, as well as a fallback if a target resisted mind control.

"Um, how do you use the implants?"

"They work similarly to the amplifiers you humans have for psychic powers. Simply focus on the target, envision what you wish to do to them, and it will happen."

Well then, here we go. I focused my attention on one of the rats and send out thoughts directing it toward the maze.Sure enough, it began to move toward the start of the maze. My skin tingled as I did so, but this wasn't because of unease - according to my scanners, the MC implant in the rat was sending electric impulses to its limbs, while suppressing signals from the subject's brain, preventing it from resisting. The rat was easily guided through the entire maze, after which, I ordered it to chew through the target dummy. Once it had gnawed the wooden figure's limbs off, I ordered it to eat the peanut butter. Then, I severed control - my psychic abilities told me it was scared and felt violated by what I was doing, so I decided to give it a rest before I hurt the poor creature anymore. I might need to control this creature to get a gage of my powers, but that didn't me I liked subjecting it to this cruelty.

Feeling thirsty, I had one of my machines bring me a glass water, which it placed on a nearby table. Dimly I reached out for it, expecting the table (which itself was a drone of sorts) to bring the water toward me. To my surprise, it didn't. Confused, I turned toward it, only to hear a splash and see the contents of the glass covering the floor...even though the glass showed no signs of spillage. Confused, I reached out my hand again, and to my astonishment, the water instantly levitated into the air, forming an orb. I stared on for a moment, before imagning an ellipse, and sure enough, the water took on an ellipsoid shape.

"Ah, I see you have noticed another usage of molecular control," remarked the Dreamer. Surprised by the suddenness of the statement, I let the water drop, but caught it before it hit the floor.

"So I did. Um, is this reserved solely to water, or any fluid?"

"It can affect anything, water, air, rock, even flesh. The implants are merely a bridge to the full potential of this power."

"I see. Anything else you'd like to teach me?"

"No. Your present dream tells me that your body will need time to come to terms with it's newfound power, and pushing it any further risks splitting that dream. Besides, I need to give you something else."

"Ok...wait, what do you want to give me?"

"The artifact, as was promised. Your future dream indicated that you would like to have it, and that it has siblings."

Oh... that. "Thank you. Well, send away."

"As you wish, young dreamer."

A moment later, my sonar systems detected a sub headed my way - a medium scout, based on my knowledge of Terror from the Deep. I deactivated my defenses, allowing it to come within range of my base. The minute it landed, an aquatoid came out of the ship, deposited the artifact at the airlock, then retreated into the ship, which swiftly left. A moment later, I had a drone pick up the artifact (well, its container) and, after subjecting it to rigorous inspection across all spectrums, bring it to me.

Once I had the Artifact, I placed it on a table and began to examine it. That last only a moment before, much to my surprise, the container began to show glowing lines on it, before opening up, revealing the artifact to me. To my surprise, it resembled a jellyfish, albeit one subjected to heavy cybernetic augmentation. It seemed to float in the air for a moment, before its container reformed around it, dealing the artifact away once more.

Well, that was interesting.

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With the artifact now in my possession, I quickly sent it back to my hubworld, along with the ones I had acquired on Chiron. I would have to integrate them into my multiverse gate soon, as hopefully, they would help me unravel the mystery before me regarding who sent them and why. It was bad enough Melissa was using me as a pawn, but if another group had similar aims, then-why am I getting another alert from Centauri 45?

...Oh, it's another group of ships that are refusing classification, and they match up with designs that pirates used. I sighed at this realization. Some people didn't know when to give up. This was starting to get annoying. I readied my forced to intercept them, just as the new fleet began firing at my forces, with the first volley hitting my fleet before they could react. Quickly, I aimed my weapons at them and-why am I getting more alerts?

...Another fleet showed up?

Ugh, when will people learn.

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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!