Three months later…

Isis had stayed to herself mostly. Visius had assigned her a servant of her own. Gilly looked to be rather old, one of her arms had been replaced with a crude mechanical one and she appeared to be blind in one eye, for it was nearly all white. Gilly was polite and treated Isis as one would royalty, which put Isis off, not being used to such treatment.

Multiple times Isis tried to speak to her as a normal person, but to no avail, Gilly would keep her head bowed and would not meet her eyes no matter how many times Isis asked.

Grateful, though, Gilly answered any questions Isis had and helped her understand vital knowledge of living on this vessel.

Striigg had delivered a servo skull a while back.

The skull had a weapon, a gun of sorts it looked like. It had been fitted with a speaker in the mouth and a small mechanical arm.

At first the floating skull creeped her out. With it floating over her shoulder and following her everywhere. Once she trapped it in the privy, hoping to have a break from it for a while.

But, that was when she found out… it could open doors.

Its voice, when it spoke, was mechanical and she began to find it very useful. It led her to where she wanted to go and explained everything she saw.

It even aided her in learning to read. Though, even with help, that task was turning out to be a trial.

It had no name, rather it had a designation. T-8043M84.

With everything she was trying to remember, a series of numbers was not sticking. So, she decided to call it Tim. After a kid she knew growing up that had followed her around.

She would smile when she thought about him. One of the few friends she had.

Isis still stayed within Visius' quarters and he would visit her often. She suspected once every other day. He made sure she had no issues and answered any questions she had that Tim or Gilly could not answer.

Nightmares kept her from sleeping though. She seemed to always end up on the Hulk, attacked by shadows with no way to fight back for her powers were stripped there.

The nightmares would leave their mark. Isis began waking from these dreams with scratches and bruises where these shadows and decimated corpses would grab at her. She began to stop eating, her appetite vanishing along with her sleep. Depression set in.

The Realization of everything she had lost and the reminder of her sister's demise every night took its toll.

To keep her busy she returned to the chapel she had found and began the tedious task of cleaning it. Gilly aided with out complaint and even told Isis that she would have the use of servitors if she ordered. With the help of the servitors the job was made even more easy.

The chapel had become Isis' retreat. With the ability to lock the heavy doors, with Striigg's aid. She began to take her work there. She studied her reading, and was even able to sprout a plant from the seeds she had collected in an old helmet she found laying around. Gilly was even able to acquire soil. When Isis asked where she found such soil, the only answer she got back was 'from the under belly'.

...

It was during one of Visius' visits that he mentioned that they have discovered a T'au planet.

Explaining that the T'au, a Xenos race, has a network over hundreds of planets. Their race was small in comparison, but may be able to provide information regarding this hulk.

Isis, intrigued now, listened, she had never seen or heard of an alien race before. Sure, people here might as well be alien, being so different. But it was something to pull her out of her funk.

Visius wanted to storm the planet and take the information by force, explaining that the T'au would try to negotiate, but their way of Castes tended to lean to pledges and mind-washing that they had no time for.

Isis countered, asking why not try to negotiate in trade for the information, that way, when they leave they could turn to another T'au planet, if need be, for more information.

Visius gave his disapproval, but Isis insisted on trying, and if that did not work…They would go with his plan.

He relented, for reasons only he knew.

It was when Isis requested to join the negotiations that Visius did not seem to want to budge. Knowing her naive mind would easily be swayed by the Xenos.

In Isis' mind, Visius said it was a planet, so more than likely this planet would have a sun. Oh! How Isis wanted to feel the sun and breathe fresh air.

She did not want to resort to begging.

"How am I to learn, if I do not experience your ways? Please, allow me to join, observe only. I will not intervene at all. I will only watch."

Visius paused and looked down at her, "It is for your safety I hesitate on you joining."

"I will be with you and your terminators." She grew quiet as the look on his face didn't falter.

"Ok, I really just want to see the sun." She confessed. "If they have one. But, yes…For experience as well."

Silence.

"Very well."

Isis about jumped with excitement.

"I will inform you if they accept."

…

Short chapter. I know…