Mother of Stars

How to Steal a Fleet - Skylar

"How long must we wait?" Kyrom asked, still gazing at the endless line of contained space rocks outside the ship. Some of them, in fact, seemed a bit too structured to be rocks. There were other ships among the vast collection.

"Until I have fully commenced the attack." The Defects began filing themselves out of the bridge using the nearest exits.

Kyrom glared into the back of one of their skulls. "And how long is that?"

He got no response. We glanced at each other silently as the green glow of the Defects faded from the bridge. I stepped back as Kyrom jumped down from the bridge intersection. His teeth were bared in frustration as he growled just loud enough for the rest of us to hear. "They are doing their utmost to tempt me, I have no doubt."

"At least they let us heal," Nylis pointed out. She and Droami were now sitting upright on the table.

"That is another mystery. Why didn't you start healing immediately?" Kyrom asked the Grephen.

Droami looked at Nylis thoughtfully, his ears perked up in curiosity. "It must be that the Defects drained our bodies of nanobots to assist the ship in its changes. Once the changes were finished, the nanobots were returned to us."

"Such is my thought on the situation," Kyrom said, "but I wanted to know your opinion in the hopes I was wrong."

"You wanted this to not be the case?" Thayre interjected, tilting his head.

"No." The captain gave him a disappointed look. "This shows the extent of the Defect's abilities, as if they haven't been demonstrated already. Repurposing nanobots is a surprisingly complex task, only known to be accomplished by few."

"How few?"

Kyrom's slitted eyes danced around the bridge as he tried to remember. "Teams of our greatest scientists were definitely able to accomplish it. There were rumors of several of our people accomplishing the task individually, but there has been only one I've seen demonstrate it in person. Neila."

"How does everything always come back to her?" I asked, gazing skeptically at the captain.

"She is seen as an anomaly by our people," Kyrom said casually. "Her intelligence is more than double anyone else in the history of Asturn. If the Defect's demonstration is anything to measure, it is at least as smart as her, and probably smarter."

Everyone was silent as they absorbed the implications of Kyrom's statement. Chester finally spoke up. "So, even if we somehow get Neila back, we might be screwed anyways?"

"It is tempting to draw that conclusion, but given that her mental state is far different than what it was, we don't really know what she's capable of now." Kyrom shrugged. "Maybe more, maybe less."

Thayre gave a fake grunt to get everyone's attention. "I think it best we follow the Defect's lead for now."

"Then we shall," Kyrom said, pointing a clawed finger at each of us as he gave the commands. "You, you, and you shall stay in the east-middle hangar with the Defect's ships. The rest of us with join the Defects in the west-middle hangar." He turned and started toward the far entrance of the bridge, with Thayre and the other two Asturnians in tow. He added reluctantly, "And of course, await the Defect's orders."

Thayre glanced at us just before they exited. Though his head was encased in armor, I could sense the look of concern. It was probably meant for me; The other two had far more experience and wouldn't warrant such concern. If anyone were a liability to the mission, it would be me.

I turned and led the way to our assigned hangar, the heat of latent anger settling in again. Why was it me who was thrust into this situation? Why did Connor force us to be the heroes?