=====A=====

The ship's interior was cramped, bodies pressed together in what amounted to little more than a cargo hold. All of the occupants were chained up in some way or another, shackled to the floors or walls, with cables attached to manacles and collars that could deliver debilitating eclectic shocks. The various prisoners were silent, but an air of despair weighed heavily on them all.

Though an exception, of course, was sitting right next to me. Holding in a sigh, I leaned close and whispered "You're sitting too straight."

Kori turned her head to look at me, most of her features obscured by the hood of her slightly ragged robes. "Hmm?"

"We're supposed to be beaten-down prisoners." I explained, my own tattered robes shifting as I gestured to everyone else. "You're sitting too straight for that."

"Well I can't exactly relax." she whispered back stiffly. "How am I supposed to sit?"

"Try slouching a bit, like the weight of the world is on your shoulders."

She paused for a moment before she slowly started to hunch forwards, setting into an awkward slouch. "How's this?"

I stared for a long moment before I, again, had to hold in a sigh. "Just… just lean against me like you're tired."

This she could do convincingly, shifting her weight so that she leaned against me, her head resting on my shoulder. No one seemed to notice our little byplay, most of them more focused on their own dread and impending fates. Which made sense; these people were being traded from one slaver to another after all.

Finding a shipment of slaves that was headed to this specific Psion station wasn't as hard as I would have thought. The information gained from the data terminal let us narrow the field of when and where the station would be next hunting for resources, and the Last Port made a point of tracking the slave trade throughout the system. Add that to the fact that the Psions relied too much on their tech to hide themselves and forgot that some money can loosen lips, it wasn't too long before Kori and I had snuck in with the rest of the slaves.

That said, we weren't the only ones. I spared a glance around the cramped cabin to check in on the team that had come with us. While Kori and I were willing to do this on our own, the Last Port did owe us for all the operations we helped them carry out over the past few months, so some of their members volunteered to come with and help us get what we were looking for. It wasn't entirely altruistic; they were also looking to steal any equipment or rescue any prisoners they could from the Pison station, but Doc had insisted that our mission took priority.

I counted the three heads of those who had come with us and made sure to note their positions relative to me. If my calculations were right, based on the speed of the transport ship and approximate location of the station, we would be arriving just about-

Sure enough, I felt the subtle shift in momentum though the ship's inertial dampeners, feeling the ship slow down. A small shift in my posture let Kori know what was happening, and it wasn't much longer before I felt the ship settle to a stop. And not much longer after that the door to the compartment opened, the bright light outside the ship briefly blinding most everyone inside and silhouetting the boxy robot standing in the opening. "MOVE." It commanded flatly, and all of the slaves felt the hi-tech collars and manacles drag them to their feet by some invisible force.

We half shuffled, half were dragged off the ship into a wide open hangar, a number of different models of Psion vessels lining space and a clear view of the empty void through the force field covered opening. I couldn't tell if it was the exact same one I had exited the station from the first time; that was close to a year ago and I was in a bit of a rush back then. But, the layout was vaguely familiar to me, and I was able to pinpoint the area where they kept the smaller ships with a glance.

Sure enough, I spotted what I was looking for, all the way on the other side of the hangar past some larger ships: A Psion Scout-class vessel. An ugly looking cylinder surrounded in concentric rings that would be Kori and I's ticket back to Earth. Of course we couldn't just go and grab it right there, we had to make sure it wouldn't be shot down on its way out first. Not to mention the other things I needed from this station.

Our group was led through the hangar towards the interior wall by the boxy robot, the machine rolling ahead of us on stubby treads while its dome head looked straight forward. Passing through a door into a wide corridor, we were led through a gate with more robots splitting the slaves into groups. Myself, Kori, and our three compatriots were led straight through by the first one, rounding a corner until we came to a more narrow hallway. To the right of us there was a large window looking into a room full of monitors, with a pair of Psions stationed inside. One of them noticed our approach and stepped out, stopping the robot. "Hold! Where are you taking these subjects?" The lizard alien barked out. I noted that he was armed with one of those stick-like laser rifles, just like the one standing in the threshold of the doorway.

"SPECIAL PROJECTS." The robot said. "ULTRAVIOLET CLEARANCE."

The Psion scrunched up their face. "What? I wasn't told about this." They turned back to their partner. "Did you know-"

The moment the two Psions had one another's attention, the wide EM spectrum jammer in my chest activated and I let out a low whistle. In an instant everyone moved, rushing towards the two guards as all of their restraints suddenly unlocked. The one closest to me barely turned back in my direction before one of my hands was clamped around its muzzle and the other was ripping its weapon out of its hand. Kori did much the same to the one in the doorway, barreling into the much smaller alien and pinning it. The machine that had escorted us here did nothing, as I had hacked it long before we had even set foot on the transport ship.

It was over in a matter of seconds, no alarms raised. A few swift blows and the Psions were taken care of, and the lot of us hustled into the security station. The door closed behind us and a command polarized the glass. I tossed off my rags and placed a hand on the computer console, a finger melding with an open port and cracking into their systems. As I got to work, I looked back at the others. "Comm check."

Kori also threw off her tattered robes, revealing her Karnian disguise underneath. "Orchid, check." She said, using the alias she had adopted with her disguise.

"Tigorr, check." The Karnian man said as he likewise devised himself of his rags. Next to him Demonia hissed out "Demonia, check." Felicity wasn't here with us this time, her skills weren't suited to this sort of infiltration. Instead, we had someone else rounding out the party.

"Primus, check." The Euphprian man with flowing orange hair and broad physique said as he stood back the door, his whole body tense. He was one of the newer additions to the Last Port. Normally he wouldn't have been considered for this, but the man had some knowledge of Psion systems and protocols… somehow. He wasn't forthcoming on exactly why, but both Doc and Maddie had vouched for him, so I had let it slide. In the now, he looked back at the rest of us. "As far as I know we should have about half an hour before anyone will come to check in on them. Are you sure you know what you have to do?"

The last question was directed towards me, so I answered "Break into the station's main computer core, compromise it so that we can disable security and create a distraction, and then get us onto a scout ship to fly away. And in the middle of all that, look into their project logs and see if we can't bring that Lantern with us."

Primus frowned slightly. "I have some trepidation about trying to secure the Lantern… but I agree that we should rescue any prisoners we can."

"And steal everything that isn't nailed down." I added.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, that too."

I felt a sort of 'click' in the back of my mind as my instruction into the security system was successful. The first time around I had managed this with brute force (and partially eating the hardware), but my skill and knowledge was orders of magnitude greater now. As such, it was a simple matter to set up several backdoors along with a direct connection with my nanites. "I'm in." I said, withdrawing my hand from the console. "This will keep us covered for a bit. Stay here while I make my way to the main computer core. Once we've got that, we'll have a much easier time moving around the station."

"And you're sure you can do it?" Primus asked. "Not to gainsay your abilities, but I imagine it will be much more difficult than cracking a simple security station."

"He can." Kori spoke for me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "He can do anything."

I didn't quite manage to hold in my helpless sigh, placing a hand over her own and giving her a look. In spite of our respective mask, we both knew we were smirking at one another.

I stayed like that for a moment before I pulled away, and the light around me rippled as I covered myself in an optical cloak. Jumping up to the ceiling, my body shifted to my xenomorph form before I crawled to a service junction panel nestled in the top corner of the room, popping it open and slipping inside within moments. The inside of the chute was cramped and full of exposed tubing and wires, clearly meant for service drones rather than people to move through, but my form managed it easily enough. With the aid of my connection to the security network, I wasn't completely blind as to where I was going. There was a list of security sensors in these ducts I could follow that would take me right to my goal.

Man. their internal security is crap, I found myself thinking as I moved, spoofing each sensor node I came across with surprising ease. Granted, compromising the security network made this easier, but I was pretty sure I could have done it without if I had to.. The Psions most likely relied on the fact that no one was supposed to find this station in the first place, let alone sneak their way inside. Well, their lack of foresight was my gain, and in short order I navigated through what felt like a kilometer of service ducts and a dozen junctions before slipping into a (comparatively) more cavernous space.

It was a tall room dominated by three pillars, made out of some kind of green and yellow metals. Arranged in a triangular pattern, they were numerous cables and struts interwoven between the pillars, along with plenty of ports, hatches, and blinking lights of all kinds. The room was noticeably colder than the rest of the station I had been through, and the only reason the entire space wasn't covered in frost was that the air was dry as a bone.

What is it with Vega technology and techno-pillars? I mulled, circling around the outside of the room as I double checked for any unaccounted for sensor equipment. Finding none, I opted for the simple approach and moved into the middle of the pillars, climbing up halfway before I 'spread out'. Most of my mass turned into mechadendrites and connected to various ports and cables in range. In short order, my entire body had turned into a sort of spider web that covered the interior space of the computer core, and connecting to the system showed me what I was working with.

Ah, Trimavarite Executive Processing, I thought. These were three separate cores that worked in tandem to double check each other's work and provide redundancies. A decent design for a scientific research station, and provides a good measure of security against outside hacks… but is significantly more vulnerable to inside hacks if you're dumb enough to put all three right next to each other. With almost all of my nanite mass focused on it, it wasn't long before I deciphered the error checking messages running between the cores and started spoofing them, altering the data so as to build myself a way in. After a few minutes of this I had complete control of the check system, and a few minutes after that I had my entrance into the cores, effectively establishing myself as a fourth 'authoritative' core.

I still had to be a little careful to not unbalance the whole system, but it was more than enough to start peeling back the layers of code and see what I could access. I had picked out this chamber when I was searching security as it looked to be the nerve center of the entire station, but I hadn't been entirely certain. Sure enough, sorting through the cores' functions told me that this was the center of the station's operational systems; things like life support, power management, ect. But, to my annoyance, it wasn't directly connected to certain other systems I was looking for. Like wherever they were keeping their R&D data.

But I could work on that in a moment. "I've got access to main engineering," I commed the others, accessing a more detailed map of the station. "Between it and my security access, I should be able to find you a safe spot to relocate to if we time it right…" That security station would be checked up on eventually, and the Psions finding empty would be a lot less problematic than if they found my team in it. I analyzed the station map for a moment before I grunted. "Looks like the Containment level isn't too far away from your position, and it has a direct path to the hangar. There's a storage room that should be safe to regroup at."

"Is the Lantern on the Containment level?" Kori asked.

"Don't know, need to do some more digging first. But still need to figure out where they're keeping the experiment data, and it's as good a place as any to start." I replied, accessing several doors and elevators while loading a 'routine' diagnostic program into main security. "Alright, ready when you are."

"Understood, on your mark." Kori responded.

"...Mark." I said, setting the security system into diagnostic mode while unlocking the doors and elevators.

"Moving." Kori said, and my team hustled out of the security room and to the nearest lift. Half of my attention was watching/covering them on the various sensors and causing 'glitches' to divert any nearby Psions' attention away from them, but the other half was focusing on digging more information out of the station's systems. There had to be some way to get something on what happened here all those months ago…

It was then that my search gave me something to work with: internal messages between terminals. I couldn't access project files or prisoner rosters directly from where I was, but I could scour their emails for anything about them. I set up a system to search by keyword in short order, and quickly found something interesting.

Terminal-38562 =- Terminal-72431

[The Lantern has been secured and separated from their power ring. Base species is unexceptional, currently being held in general Containment. Experiments to test species's potential changes from long term power ring use are pending, as the original species needs to be studied first for a baseline.]

Wasn't sure what that 'base species' stuff was about, but at least I now knew the team was headed in the right direction. But, while it would make interrogating them easier, them not having their Ring was a bit of a complication if I wanted it for myself. Not critical if we could swipe that scout ship, but something to keep in mind. It was around this time that my team reached the storage room, so I waited until they were behind the closed door before I commed "Just confirmed that the Lantern is in fact being held in Containment, and without their ring. Lucky us."

"Do you know what happened to their ring?" Kori asked.

"Not yet, but so long as we can secure the scout ship I'm willing to settle for just them and leave. After I find the info I'm looking for." I replied. "In the meantime, hang tight. That spot should be safe for the moment, and it shouldn't be long before I've compromised everything I can from here. I'll have more information for you then."

While I couldn't see them inside that storage room due to the lack of cameras, I could still hear Primus and Tigor start work-shopping how they were going to take the Containment level. A bit premature maybe, but there was nothing else for them to do at the moment so I let them talk. I got back to searching internal messages, looking for an event I was sure the Psions had something to say about. I tried a few variations of the key phrase 'containment breach' before I found what I was looking for.

Terminal-38562 =- Terminal-34438

[Damage reports are still being compiled, but the initial assessment is that we lost 13 personnel in the escape. The older Tamaranian was recaptured, but the younger one escaped, along with specimen 82-Bal. The procedural failure of the Tamaranian Energy Infusion experiment has been cataloged, and those responsible have been terminated.]

Looked like Kommand'r must have made her own way off the station later somehow, but I was far more focused on the designation the Psions gave me. I added '82-Bal' to my search params, and got a new list of internal messages, all of them about me. Most were mundane things about my handling and observations about how I was adapting to the 'Bleed-Resonant Nanomaterial' as they called it. One of the earlier dated ones caught my attention though: it was someone on the science staff asking where I had come from.

Terminal-72431 =- Terminal-Prime-1

[I was attempting to get confirmation on 82-Bal's species, but I have been unable to find any acquisition reports involving it. In fact, there is no record of the subject being brought aboard the station at all. So far I've had to cross reference the xenobiological database to make my best guess. I cannot make accurate predictions of the Bleed-Resonant Nanomaterial's progression without having a baseline to work with. Where exactly was 82-Bal acquired?]

And things only got stranger with the reply. From the overseer of the station no less.

Terminal-Prime-1 =- Terminal-72431

[That is restricted information. All information on subject 82-Bal is to be removed from research servers and stored on my personal server. All experiments and data derived from said experiments are to be given to me first.]

What did that mean? I definitely showed up on this station by extra-normal means, but why was that information being kept secret? Whatever the case, it looked like I needed to find the overseer's office if I wanted my answers (assuming that's where they kept their personal server). That… complicated things, but I wasn't leaving without finding out what happened to me that day. I just had to dig a little deeper.

Such was my focus, that I barely noticed it. A slight power drain brought my attention to an external communication dish, which sent out a signal into space before shutting off again. I had more important things to worry about, so I just filed that away and refocused on what I was doing.

Except that about 30 seconds later, a minor alert came from the station's gravimetric sensors, indicating a slight disturbance sunward. It was a little hard to spot amid all the other sensory reading coming from the star, but that quickly changed as the reading grew stronger and stronger. My focus was pulled towards it as the alerts turned into warnings and the reading multiplied, space starting to warp in several places a few dozen miles from the station. A few moments later several starships materialized out of those rents in space.

The last alert told me what I already knew, just as the klaxons started sounding. [Multiple Starslip Signatures Detected]

I had seen enough of them over the past few months to recognize the ships. Gordanians.

…I didn't have lungs at the moment, so I had to settle for only mentally letting out a sigh.

Before any of my team could start panicking, I commed all of them. "Team, a small Gordanian fleet just starsliped next to the station. I can only assume it's an attack force."

"What?! Now?!" Tigorr shouted. "Now of all times they decided to act on that information?!"

"A signal was sent out from the station about a minute ago." I did a quick check of the system. "And whatever it was erased itself after it was sent. I'm guessing there's a mole on the station." Awfully coincidental that it happened right after we arrived. Almost like… well, just have to keep that in mind. "In any case, I estimate we've got-"

I was cut off as the first barrage of projectiles reached the station, and a curving shield flared to life to stop it. It must not have been a very effective shield, as the whole station shook slightly at the impact. Connected as I was, I could see the drain that put on the station's systems, and the Gords were already firing off another salvo. "...Very little time." I said, looking past them to see the follow up. "We're going to have boarding parties very soon." Following in the wake of the wave of shells was a cluster of smaller ships headed for the station, a mix of transports and fightercraft.

Primus's voice was tight as he said "...We may have to accept that the mission is impossible now."

Demonia disagreed. "Cowardice! We will never have this opportunity again! We must take the risk!"

This quickly spiraled into a heated argument between the 3 members of Last Port, though Kori remained silent. Because we both knew that we weren't leaving until we got what we came for, regardless of what the others thought about it. "Give me a minute…" I whispered to her, before I turned out the conversation and withdrew into the ship's systems, taking stock.

Our operation now had a time limit at best, and at worst we were going to have armed soldiers to deal with shortly. Well, no, at worst the station gets blown up with us on it, but whatever the case I needed a way to deal with this. And find the station overseer's personal server. I was not leaving without that data.

Accessing the station's systems, I scanned for anything that could be useful. The station did have some point defense lasers, but I didn't have direct access to them and they were already firing anyway (for what little use they were). The station did have its own starslip drive, but would take time to fire up, and the approaching ships would probably tear the station apart before we could manage it. I could try disengaging the safeties and charging it faster, but the station wasn't built to handle that kind of stress. It's just as likely tear itself apart as work, just how Komand'r's ship would have if-

…Hmm. That could work.

I dove into the power sub system and found the list of station systems, quickly latching on to a particular one: Gravity wave emitters. Unlike the single massive emitter that Komand'r's ship had, the station had a complex network of smaller ones, most likely meant for handling space debris rather than anything larger. But like Komand'r's ship, they could directly draw gravitational energy directly from the station's core. So long as you disabled a dozen safeties. And didn't care about the station slowly tearing itself apart.

And I could handle both of those.

Abandoning any pretense of digital stealth, all the safeties were disengaged in sequence, and gravitational energy was rerouted to the emitters on the side of the advancing attack force. As several small fighter craft drew close to the station, several of the emitters near them focused and unleashed gravity waves an order of magnitude or two stronger than they should have been. The shields on the fighters had already been tested against the station's inadequate point defenses, but when the wave hit them their fronts crumpled like tin cans. Each flattened for a moment before exploding into shrapnel, forcing the transport ships near it to swerve away.

At the same time, the whole station shuddered as gravitational backlash rippled through the structure. It was different enough from the rumbling caused by the Gordanian attack that Primus stopped bickering with the others to ask "What was that?"

"That was me overclocking the station's gravitational emitters into a proper weapon." I replied, locking out the Psion techs who were desperately trying to re-enable the safeties. "The good news is that it will slow the Gordanian's advance. The bad news is that the more I do it the station will tear itself apart."

"Then we have time to rescue the Psion's prisoners?"

I paused. "Maybe. Depends on how willing the Gords are to push their own through a meat grinder."

"Then we should at least try. They won't fare any better under the Gordanian than the Psions, assuming they bother to let them live at all."

He wasn't wrong. Those prisoners were going to be caught in the middle of all this if we did nothing. Trying to save them would make accomplishing my own objective more difficult… but even 24 light years away from home, I was still a superhero. I had to at least try.

I quickly processed all the info I had for a few moments before I responded. "Alright, here's the plan: time is short, so we're going loud. I'm taking power away from the defense systems on the far side of the station, which will draw both the Gords and the Pisons away from you. Then I'm blacking out the Containment Level; the moment emergency power kicks in, that's your signal to go in fast and hard, I'll open up a path from you to the hangar, and with the ongoing assault no one should notice. Of course that just means we'll have to worry about the Gordanian fighters shooting us down rather than station point defenses, but one thing at a time."

"And your own objective?" Demonia asked.

"I have a lead. Sort of. I'll meet you in the Containment Level before heading after my own target. Now get ready."

20 seconds later, the advancing Gordanian ships noticed the weakened defenses and moved to take advantage. 20 seconds after that I cut the main power to the Containment Level. A fraction of a second later the emergency power kicked in. "Now!" I commanded, and the rest of my Team burst out of the storage closet and rushed down the surprised Psion security guards nearby.

I opened up the passages and lifts between the Containment Level and the hangar, and set up an algorithm for the defenses to prioritize attacking any Gordanian ships that targeted Pison vessels. I then disentangled myself from the main computers and moved out. As stealth was a secondary concern by that point, I exited back into corridors at the first opportunity. As such, my trip to the Containment Level was a lot faster and less subtle than my movements thus far. Alarms were blaring and covering most of the sound of my movements, so I only ran into one or two random Psions that happened to be in my way. I took them down without issue before continuing on.

By the time I reached my destination, my team had already taken down what security staff was left in their section of the Level, though I found them standing outside of a large metal door adjacent to a console. They spun with their weapons raised as I sprinted towards them, but paused when they saw it was me. "The prisoners are through here," Kori said, "But the doors are on a local subsystem. Can you-"

She was cut off as I simply speared my hand into the console next to her, spikes unfurling and manually bypassing the security protocols.

"...fair enough." She finished, and moments later the massive door slid open with a groan.

Past the opening door we were greeted with a long hallway, with yet more metal doors lining each side. I felt an odd bit of nostalgia, as I recognized the layout from when I was first imprisoned here, though I quickly shook it off and moved forward. "Supposedly the Lantern is being held here, but I don't know who or what they are. We don't have time to properly question everyone, so just take them all and we'll ask questions later."

Prisoner information wasn't directly connected to the main network and we didn't have time to go looking for it, so we simply ran down the hall and checked door by door. The identifier plates had serial numbers rather than names, but they did also have specific details on species and planet of origin. This let us skip over the obviously animal and monstrous experiments for the actual people. Though a few of the latter were still a bit 'modified', but I was in no position to judge.

One after another we pulled confused Psion prisoners out of their cells, some getting with the program quicker than others. We were most of the way down the row when the gaggle of captives had started to become unruly, and the rest of my team had to step back to manage them. This is more than I expected, we're not gonna be able to take them all on the Scout ship, I thought as I moved to the next door. I couldn't exactly stop with the time crunch we were under (those gravitational backlashes were getting stronger), so I opened the door and stepped inside.

The room was bathed in deep red light, and in the center was a Tamaranian man, of all things. His hands and forearms were enclosed in thick manacles, which were attached to the ground with a chain. Dressed in rather minimal robes, the man himself was slumped forward on his knees and only barely managed to lift his head to look at me. To my eyes, I could barely see any ultraviolet patterns beneath his skin. Sun starvation.

I strode forward and grabbed onto the manacles, simply crushing them in my grip. The man looked at me in tired confusion, and then in worry as my other hand came around and an aperture formed in my palm. He then relaxed as ultraviolet light emitted from my palm and washed over him, the man letting out a moan of relief. He didn't resist as I half supported/half carried him out of the room. "Primus, how are things looking?" I shouted as I exited the room.

"We've only got 3 more to check." He replied. "You, me, and Tigorr can handle that and get the hell out of here."

I looked past him to see most of the crowd we had collected hustling away from us. "And is that where they're all going?"

"Orchid is leading them to the hangar, she said that the Scout ship we planned on stealing wouldn't be large enough. She's going to try to repurpose the ship we came in on. She also managed to get all the prisons to listen to her… the woman has an impressive ability to get people to do as she asks."

I hummed. "That's my Kori," I muttered under my breath. The man I was carrying let out a confused groan, and I half handed/half tossed the man at Demonia. "Get him with the others, go!"

Demonia looked a bit annoyed at being ordered around, but she did as I asked, allowing me to go all the way down to the end of the row. The problem was, which I realized as I hurriedly hit the switch to open the door, that I was in such a rush I forgot to actually check the identification plate on the door. I held back a curse and raised my arms, ready to hold back any monstrosity that might have been waiting for me.

The door opened upwards, and I stared into the mostly empty cell. After a few seconds, my head tilted downwards.

Sitting at my feet, like it had been waiting for me to come home from a long day at work, was a pale-fured corgi. The dog stared up at me with its mouth hanging open and tail wagging happily, as if it wasn't sitting inside of an alien prison cell.

I blinked dumbly. I then looked at the identification tag.

243-Max

Species: Unknown

Planet of Origin: Unknown

I looked back at the dog and ran several scans on it, but everything came back with the same result: this was a perfectly normal Earth dog. After several long seconds I reached down and picked it up, the corgi not resisting as I cradled it in my arms. It did however let out a small noise and titled its head at me.

"...Welp. I guess I have to love you forever now." I said in resignation.

The dog barked at me happily in response, before trying to lick my face.

The station shook beneath my feet violently, enough to make a normal person stumble. Mentally checking the station's status caused me to scowl; one of the auxiliary generators was just torn apart by all the backlash, and the Gordanians that managed to get on board were already pushing deeper into the station. We had even less time than I wanted.

I hustled back to the others, who were shepherding the few remaining prisoners down the hall. Tigorr looked between me and the dog in my arms. "I did not like the feel of that last rumble. Are we good to go?"

"Yep." I opened comms to the rest of the team. "Everyone, this is Stack. We've cleared Containment of everyone we could rescue, but the station is falling apart and we don't have long before the Gordanian's run into us. More than that, Orchid and I still haven't accomplished our objective. With that in mind, Primus, Tigorr, Demonia: Take the cargo ship with all of the prisoners and bug out the first chance you can get without being shot at. Orchid: That scout ship in the same hangar, see if you can grab it. I'm going to need you to pick me up."

"From where?" Kori asked.

"About 200 meters up the main spire, the station Overseer's office. I'll be making my own exit."

"Understood. And the Lantern?"

"Unknown. If one of the prisoners is the Lantern, they're not giving it away." I paused for a moment, looking down at the dog in my arms with narrowed eyes "You're not secretly a Green Lantern, are you?"

The good boy let out a confused whine at my question, so I just shook my head. I'm pretty sure Stewart would have mentioned if the Green Lantern Corps had a corgi Lantern. I handed the dog to Tigorr (who whined some more and squirmed in the Karnian's arms) and commed Kori again. "Stick close the station, I'll comm you when I'm ready."

"I'll be ready."

I closed comms and nodded to Tigorr. "See you on the other side." With that, I formed a magnetokinectic core in my chest, pushed off the metallic flooring to float upward, and then shot myself down the corridor.

The Overseer was the one lead I had for what happened to me all those months ago, and I didn't have any more time for investigating any further. The layout of the station I had gotten earlier gave me a path to get to their office; I just had to hope the Pison or his personal server was there. Either way, the trip upwards was an even shorter one than previous, as I used my effectors and the metal corridors to simply propel myself through the station like a bullet through a barrel. I may have also gone through a floor or two in the name of speed. Which meant that it wasn't too long before I was in front of a slightly fancier set of doors, ripping them open with my claws.

Inside was a large office with a long window across the back of it, lights and explosions flicking just past it as the Gordanians threw themselves at the station. Sitting behind a large desk was a Psion, who had just been in the middle of typing something before I ripped his door open. We both paused as we saw each other, and I noted the epaulets on his jumpsuit; This was the Overseer.

The Psion then reached for something under the desk, but I wasn't having it. I cleared the distance in blur, grabbing them by the throat and pinning them to the wall. "Hello there," I said, grabbing the gun they had managed to grab and consuming it in a flurry of assimilation spikes."Remember me?"

The Psion struggled uselessly in my grip, and when they spoke it was in a sort of high pitched warble. "N-no!" They barked out. "Who are you, some mercenary those Gordanians brought with them?!"

"...I suppose I looked a bit different back then," I muttered. "Maybe this will jog your memory." My head twisted and expanded, and in moments the alien was staring at the face of the xenomorph form I first had when they forced the nanomachines on me.

Their panic didn't exactly lessen, but they did stop struggling as recognition set it. "Y-you! Subject 82-Bal!"

I changed my head back, giving him a face to look at. "I've got a few questions, and neither of us have much time, so let's keep this brief. How did you bring me here?"

"Bring… you?" They asked, their tone something close to confusion. "I don't-"

I pulled them back and slammed them against the wall again, more to refocus them than anything else. "Nearly a year ago. One second I was on my home planet, the next I'm on a slab in this station. How?"

"I don't know!" It choked out. "No one brought you here! It-it was an anomaly!"

"...Explain."

"There was an unknown energy signature in the High Energy Lab. When we came to investigate, we found your meat body on the floor unconscious. We had no records of anyone bringing you aboard the station, or any experiments that would bring you here!"

There were a number of emotions trying to well up, but I crushed them down and asked "So I just… appeared? No explanation, no trace?"

"None!" The Psion insisted, before hesitating. "That is, not at first glance. We kept your meat body sedated for study, and we found your atoms were vibrating at an-an irregular frequency! You weren't from this universe!"

"...You're talking about Bleed frequency." I said. Matter from every universe vibrated at a slightly different frequency, and said frequency resonated in the Bleed. If you had the frequency… you could find the universe. "Did you write that frequency down?"

"We recorded what we could, but it was too erratic, shifting from moment to moment." The Psion shook their head. They had calmed down somewhat, perhaps realizing that talking was stopping me from getting more violent. "We were to research you for some time… until one of my more treacherous apprentices discovered that one of his projects reacted to you: a cluster of alien nanomachines he retrieved on an expedition. None of his experiments could get a reaction from them… but there was a reaction to you."

The lizard alien started to rant. "He took you out of containment and tossed those blasted nanomachines at you, resulting in whatever you have become. He was punished for his transgression, and perhaps things could have been salvaged… if the Tamaranians hadn't broken out of containment, if only-"

My grip around the alien's throat tightened slightly, cutting them off. I didn't have time to listen to them ramble. "Focus. If you don't keep talking about that Bleed frequency I'm going to start squeezing."

"Y-yes, there's more!" They said frantically. "There was a moment during the bonding process your Bleed frequency stabilized! We attempted to probe the frequency with a Bleed Agitator to gain insight on you or the nanomachines, and some… material manifested in our lab. It's contained in my personal storage!" The Pison pointed to the wall behind it, and I could see the barely visible seam running along the bulkhead. "I can show you how to access it, but first I'm going to need-"

Using my magnetokinetic core, I tore several bits of metal off the paneling around the room and had it fly at the psion's limbs, forming manacles that anchored them to the wall spread eagle with a final piece clamping their mouth shut. The alien struggled as I moved towards the seam in the wall and thrust my hand into it. The material the wall was made of was tough, but it fell apart all the same as my nanites spread and ripped the metals apart. It took less than a minute to find the internal release, and the door slid/screeched open. Past the doorway was a relatively small room, lined with sealed cubbies marked with serial numbers.

My time inside their computers had given me a basic understanding of the Psion's filing system, so I wasted no time in finding one that was marked for data storage. Inside was a set of storage decks, which I quickly connected to and started downloading everything they had. And I ignored all of it save for a single piece of data, marked under the directory of 'Subject 82-Bal': An equation representing a specific oscillation in Bleed space, recorded a few days after my arrival.

I let out a small breath as I internalized the frequency, a small bit of tension leaving me. This wasn't quite what I had been looking for, but it was enough. If I was right, this frequency was the 'address' to my home universe. I knew travel through the Bleed was possible, and now I had the guiding star for where I needed to go. I had to figure out exactly how, but now I knew what to do.

A whining sound broke me out of my musings, and I looked down to see a familiar corgi pawing at one of the lower cubbies. "...Max?!" I said incredulously, using the name on the serial number in lieu of anything else. "The hell are you doing here?! You're supposed to be heading off the station!" The dog looked up at me and barked, before once again pawing at the drawer and looking back at me. I scowled "No I'm not opening up that drawer of dangerous hyper tech for you!"

Max whined again and a few moments later the station shook, reminding me that I really didn't have time to waste. Still, it reminded me there was still that 'extra material' that was created by their experiments that I needed to grab. I wanted every last scrap I could get before I left. Going back to the files I just downloaded, I found the serial number given to the cubby holding physical material for my file, and used that to find the cubby. It was even smaller than I expected, little more than an actually drawer, but I opened it up and-

I stared. Slowly, I reached in and pulled the sole object out, smooth pages rustling ever so slightly in my grip.

It was a comic book. Bold letting at the top named it 'THE NEW TEEN TITANS' with a '#1' in a small box next to it. On the cover was a familiar piece of artwork, all the Teen Titans in their 80's costumes running/flying towards the reader in dynamic poses. It had been a while since I had seen this cover art, but it looked just like I remembered it.

With one exception. Cyborg wasn't there.

I was.

I stared for a long moment. It wasn't exact, but it was what my armored form might look like if it was drawn by George Perez back in the 80's. Smooth plate broken up by exaggerated ridges, a mostly featureless head save for a nearly invisible mouth and a pair of small, round eyes, one arm shifted into a cannon of sorts.

…what did that-?

[Alert: Secondary Gravimetric Shunts failed. Gravimetric cascade imminent.]

I received the alert just as the station started to rumble and I felt the floor tilt.

[Critical structural damage suffered by Primary Spine-]

There was a loud screech followed by a crunching sound, and I felt gravity fluctuate. I turned to see the floor back in the office start to bulge and buckle, and the air hissed as it started slipping out of the room. I had just enough time to form some Psion hard shields and form a seal on the doorway before the room ruptured. I briefly heard the Director scream before all the air vanished and I was struck with raw force. The shields held but everything started to tumble, and the walls around me groaned and buckled as well. Electricity surged through the walls as there was a sudden kick, and the room past the shield started to… drift away,

The whole thing only took a couple of seconds, but by the end of it I found myself floating off the ground and the walls around me coming apart. As the room fell to pieces I saw a hole on the outer wall of the Psion station… because I was now on the outside of the various drawers around me twitched and opened at random, with their contents floating upwards now that the station's gravity wasn't affecting them.

It took a moment or two to piece together what had happened: The sudden structural failure of the Overseer's room triggered some kind of ejection mechanism of the secret vault, though it didn't quite do it fast enough to be unscathed. Most of the electronics I hadn't scooped up already were fried, and the walls themselves were breaking apart and slowly drifting away. Not that it was much of an immediate problem, I could survive hard vacuum just fine, but-

The dog! I spun around a few times before I finally spotted the ball of white fur, or at least it's behind. It seemed that the drawer he had been pawing at was one of the ones fried open, and it somehow managed to get itself partway buried in its contents. The way his feet were kicking told me he was alive, but I only had seconds before the hard vacuum started doing real damage. As I jetted over and pulled the dog out, I saw that he had managed to get something metallic wrapped around him, but I ignored it for the moment as my hand shaped into a mask for his face and turned-

I stopped once the dog was fully turned to face me, and I got a better look at what was around his neck. I could see that it wasn't just some random piece of metal, but a blue collar with a circular part at the throat. But most of my attention was focused on the symbol on that circular part; a center circle with lines coming from the top and bottom connecting to horizontal lines, and two more that came from the sides and curved back in, almost like wings.

I was much more familiar with a different version of that symbol, but I recognized a Lantern when I saw one. It just didn't belong to the Green one.

[Don't worry Jacob!] A light tenor voice came from the collar as a blue aura surrounded the dog, floating out of my arms. [Everything's gonna be ok!]

I stared at the Blue Lantern for several long seconds. [...What.] I meant to ask how he knew my name, but that's all I managed to get out. Or at least tried to, with the lack of atmosphere.

Apparently I had broadcast my incredulous statement, as the dog replied [Those mean guys took my collar while I was zooping about, but you helped me get it back! I should pay you back somehow!] A pause. [Do you like snacks?]

By this point the safe room around us had broken apart enough for me to see the rest of the psion Station, and the terrible shape it was currently in. Much of the top part had been blown off into spiraling shrapnel, and the lower bits were pockmarked with smaller bits of destruction caused by Gordanian weaponry. Though the Gordanians themselves were in rough shape too, smashed to bits or crushed together; even one of the larger vessels that had hung back seemed to have a massive rent across its dorsal side, though I didn't know what could have caused it.

That was enough to snap me out of my confusion. [Uh, yeah, sure, but we have bigger issues right now.] I opened my comms and subvocalized "Stack to team, come in. Did you clear the station? What's your stat-"

A Gordanian fighter suddenly rounded around the side of the partially destroyed station, apparently doing a sweep of the debris. I didn't have time to move as the ship's nose pointed towards me and it began accelerating. I bit back a curse as I formed a hardlight shield to give myself and Max some cover, just as I saw the cannons on its underside start to glow.

But before it could fire, the fighter was suddenly rocked by a streak of brilliant green light spearing through it. There was a beat before the craft simply exploded from the inside out, a few bits of metal bouncing off my shield. I looked towards the streak of light as it curved around and headed back towards me, the energy dissipating to reveal my Kori flying toward me.

"Jacob!" Kori commed me as she flew to my side though she stopped as she noticed the blue-glowing dog next to me, giving me a questioning look.

"Seems like the Psions did cause themselves a Lantern, just not a Green one. Blue Lantern, long story, pretty sure we can trust him." I said, before giving her a concerned look. Her mask contained a small supply of air, and she was tough enough to endure hard vacuum as well, but... "What happened to the Scout ship?"

"I had to sacrifice it as a distraction to allow the transport to escape."

I slowly looked back at the large damaged Gordanian ship, making note of the Scout ship wide gouge it had in it. "...I see." I replied, before reopening the comm. "I repeat, Stack to team, how are you making out?"

"Still alive, much like you apparently." I heard Primus reply with a chuckle. "Guess I should have believed her. But we might not be for much longer. The Gordainians are picking off every ship trying to escape, and while Orchid bought us the time… I don't think we can come back and pick you up. Not without all of us getting killed."

A quick glance at the space around us proved him right; the station's defenses had completely shut down, and the Gordanian ships were closing in to tighten the noose. Normally having our means to get back to Earth taken from us yet again would have been very stressful, but this time… [Can you get us out of here?] I asked the Blue Lantern, patching Kori into the conversation.

[Yes!] The dog replied. [I know a safe place! We can go there!]

"Wait, Jacob, did you-?" Kori started to ask.

"Yes," I answered, giving her a smile. "I'll explain later… but I got what I came for." I didn't quite understand it, but it was more than I had before.

I could feel Kori smile behind the mask, and she nodded in turn. With that, I reconnected with the rest of the fleeing team. "Don't worry about it. The station's core is already unstable. I just need to give it a nudge and the whole thing will blow. That should distract them enough so they can't even think about coming after you."

Tigorr's voice cut in "What?! What about you and -?!"

"Don't worry about us, we've found our own way out. We're not dying here." I said, looking back at the dog. A thought suddenly occurred to me, and I continued. "And it looks like it might be our ticket out of the system too."

There was a pause on the other end before Primus said "So, this is goodbye then."

"Seems like. I hope we get back someday, but if we never meet again… tell Doc 'thanks for everything'."

"And do not forget," Koriand'r cut in, "While you may do what you have to in order to survive, you are more than the refuse the Citadel claims you to be. You are all the sons and daughters of Roshak, and I believe that you can bring an end to their oppression!"

There was a long pause on the other end, before Primus finally said "You're the strangest freelancers I've ever met… but maybe you're on to something. So, no goodbyes. We will see each other again." And with that, the comm closed.

I took stock of the Gordanian ships around us (including the few that seemed to be heading in our direction), and I sent a command to the station's core. Through the torn apart superstructure of the station, I could see an intense light start to build in the center of it. [Alright, if we're gonna go, now's the time!] I told the dog.

[Sure thing!] With that, the blue glow around Max intensified. A construct sphere formed around the three of us, similar to the ones Green Lanterns used when they traveled through space. The difference here was that around the sphere there seemed to be marks of some kind. No, more like a single line that looped while curving in at one spot. And the sphere itself looked kind of… fuzzy?

It took me a few seconds before it clicked. [...Is this a tennis-]

[BALL!]

An instant later we were launched into the depths of space.

=====A=====

A/N:Blue Lantern Pupper is to precious not to be real. Also, FF was really fighting me on uploading this.