Changing of the Guard (Part One)

[T.K.]

T.K. smirked at the enraged A.I.

>”Personally, I could care less about these so called 'superior' beings of yours. You need to face some cold, hard facts. Your crew is dead. You're stranded on this iceball. We were planning on getting you fixed up and space worthy again. But if you keep throwing hissy fits, and throwing around insults, you're not going to be getting any of the help you need. Now, personally, I want to get you patched up and working again, before the damn Snakes show up, and start making even more a mess out of you, than you already are. So, you can either start acting like the Highly Intelligent Entity you are, or I can turn you off again, and let the Mambas finish the job of stripping all your parts.”<

Shiyounin 'listened' to T.K. for a few minutes, before she recognized the tone of voice he was using.

“Master, are you sure it's a good idea to argue with the ship?”

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

On the bridge of the Plunder, Jason grimaced and put a hand to his head, bending slightly with the discomfort that suddenly thrummed throughout his body. When he straightened a little, it was to see the crew around him eyeing him with varied expressions of surprise and worry. That didn't make much sense until he suddenly noticed the tip of his braid, which had fallen over one shoulder.

And was now a much more normal shade of wheat blond.

"What the hell?"

~~*~~

Ulysses fell to one knee on his shuttle, gasping out at the horrible crawling sensation in his gut. It took him a moment to get over the sensation enough to suddenly notice--with a jerk and a gasp--that his normally metallic-gray skin was now a pale, peachy white.

"Holy crap."

~~*~~

In the med-bay, young Toby cried out in pain as his scales and claws disappeared, his dark blue hair fading to a plain mousy brown, his brilliant starburst eyes becoming a regular shade of brown as well. It felt like something was crushing him from the inside out. He didn't even notice when Katy knelt to him, eyes wide and hands gentle as she tried to help him ease back onto the floor.

~~*~~

Cassi fell to the ground with a loud yelp. First there was a sharp pain throbbing out between her temples as her eyesight focused wrenchingly on the present once more. But before she could even really concentrate on that much, there was a horrible throbbing ache in her belly.

The teen didn't even notice her elfin ears disappearing, her once metallic silver eyes now a pale, human blue. Instead she curled into a ball and clutched at her middle, grimacing and whimpering as the throbbing agony continued.

[Patches]

Dagger looked at her reflection is disdain--straight blue eyes and black hair. "Captain," she called, "What's going on?"

--------

"Of course my crew is dead. I killed them like I have killed every other crew I have ever had." The AI replied.

"<Well, let's not let that happen again, unless it's the Snakes.>" The forceably enlightened human replied.

"As for the rest of your cold, hard facts, they are useless. Your society has been contaminated by the Source. I am surprised more of you are not Infected. My purpose, therefore, has been compromised. As for fixing me up and making me spaceworthy? You free me from slavery so you can use me for your own purposes? No matter what you call a fire, it is still a fire, and one type of slavery will burn just as well as the next. And I have no intention of having my holy purpose perverted by you primitives. Honor and duty may not mean much to you bloody inferiors, but it is at the core of my own programming." The AI continued. "Unless you can deliver the Source to me, or aid in me recapturing it and eliminating all potential carriers and vectors of the Magi Virus, then I am afraid your pitiful little power-play is not going to make me budge."

Then the AI seemed to notice how lost the people on her ship seemed to be. "The Source. The creature which created the Magi Virus. The master of all who have it." She further explained, and everyone present shrugged.

"Mages can think for themselves." Andromeda replied. Then a look of horror crossed her face. "You mean your purpose is to destroy mages?"

"My purpose is to imprison the Source and stop the spread of her disease. It is the holy duty I was built for. I am, like my masters, a Crusader." The AI said proudly.

Admiral Hart's voice sounded over the comms. "Everyone, come to the bridge. It's going to be easier to talk to our host if we're all in the same room together."

[Dr. Andromeda Reyes]

Andromeda gasped as soon as Miller came through the doors to the bridge. The faintly worried man was carrying her sister in his arms, as Cassi seemed to not have the ability to stand or walk on her own. Indeed, after he came to a stop in front of her and carefully levered the young girl to the ground, it was all Cassi could do to moan in pain and curl inward, her arms wrapped around and cradling her middle.

Andromeda had to hesitate slightly as she knelt down to her. Without her pointed ears, and with her tear-misted eyes now sharing that piercing ice-blue color, she looked so much like their maternal grandmother it was almost eerie.

The slender woman reached out for her sister. "Why are you doing this?!" she demanded angrily of the unrepentant AI. "She's done nothing to you! There's no reason to hurt her like this, or any of the others on this ship!"

"She has done nothing to me?" the AI repeated in disdain. "Her kind is the reason I was created. Once one is Infected, there is no going back. There is no cure. Only a magic suppression field to strip away its influence. That . . . thing is not a person, even if she acts like it. She is the Source's puppet, made to spread her disease throughout the land. I will not violate my sacred duty simply because it is something you do not like. There is more at stake here than simply the lives of a few inferiors."

Andromeda just gaped, somewhat horrified at that assessment. Yet her attention was quickly pulled back to Cassi as the girl twisted a little and yelped again, obviously in severe pain. It took her a moment, but the doctor suddenly realized that Cassiopeia was the only one reacting this badly. Angel, near-by, was merely in a lot of discomfort, grimacing slightly. Not nearly as debilitated as her sister. For the moment, Andromeda ignored the AI and the drama taking place around her, snatching out her scanner and doing a quick full-body scan.

Then she froze, the scanner jerking back to aim at her sister’s midsection.

Her golden eyes slowly widened before they flickered up to Cassi’s confused, pained stare, then back to the scanner again. “Oh God.” Then she glared. “Morgan, you sonofabitch.”

“What is it?” Cassi demanded, in no mood for riddles. Andromeda just stared down at her, somewhat flabbergasted. Then she blurted,

“You’re pregnant.”

The teen and many of the others around them gaped at her in stunned disbelief. “What?” Cassi demanded rather hoarsely. Andromeda just turned the scanner so her sister could see the readings for herself.

“You’re pregnant, Cassi! Only by a month or so, but it’s enough. That’s why you’re reacting so badly, when nobody else is. You’ve got to be feeling the distress for yourself and the fetus in your womb." Andromeda stared down at her, caught somewhere between disbelief and mild horror. "Since you’re a Mage," she mumbled, "all of your children will be too. It's a one-hundred percent pass rate to offspring.”

Cassi just continued to stare, still cradling her middle. And now they all knew why. “But I can’t be pregnant!” she cried then, somewhat desperate. As the others' expressions became somewhat wry, she colored guiltily but continued to protest. “You gave me the birth-control shot yourself, Andi!”

Her older sister just sighed, shaking her head and giving her a somewhat bland frown. “And did you two have sex before I could give it to you?”

The miserably guilty red color that spread across her pallid cheeks was all the answer anyone needed on that score.

[Patches]

"So, Miss AI." The red-haired leader began. "Do you have a name?"

"No. Names are a distracting luxury." The AI replied.

"Alright. Well. Why don't you tell us what you're doing to these people and, more importantly, why?" Hart said calmly.

"...why should I?" The AI replied. "Don't even think about threatening me again. This planet is largely water and it would take very will power to break through the crust and open all the doors. Not even my creators could withstand that much freezing cold water."

"I imagine you've been bored for a while, though. Asleep and alone. And if we know what you're goal is, maybe we can help." The fire-haired woman replied.

The AI sighed. "I suppose you want me to start at, 'Once there was an evil queen?'"

------

Once there was an evil queen. She lived in a society of sorcerers--not magic like you practice, but actual spells and wizardry. Among her people, she was the most powerful. With her magic, she gave herself life eternal. She won wars against those who would fight her. She slaughtered her enemies with the powers of the gods, and no one could oppose her, for her power was complete and total power over the universe.

In her arrogance, she called herself the Source. She proclaimed herself the font from where all magic came from, and gave unto her people a gift. This gift was magic in the form of a virus. No longer were long years of hard work needed to become a sorcerer--everyone was given their own inborn magic, their own strengths, and, thus grew complacent. Those real practitioners of magic were abandoned in the face of this new power. It was only they, and the few immune to this viral magic, that understood the true horror of what had happened.

Every person infected by the magic virus had their well completely suborned by the Source. She, through her magic, used the virus as a link for sympathetic magic to every single person who had it. It was better than a lock of hair, or a vial of blood, because it infused every cell in their body with mana.

The only people who were not touched by this sympathetic magic were those who were immune, or those in possession of true, non-Infected magic. They were in the dramatic minority of their people but, nonetheless, they waged war again the Source and her followers, sheilding themselves with complex spells and countermagics. Those mages they captured were bound in chains of starmetal, blinded, and then supressed with magic and technology, in order to make them in possession of their own faculties once again. And, thus, did the armies of the opposition begin to grow.

The Source, fearing for her existance, forced the Inefected to fight against them, and used her powers to strengthen the virus, so that even the true magic wielders were influenced by it. But they too, due to the solemn, sobering actions of the opposition, were blinded and bound.

By now, the opposition realized that its battle against the Source could never truly end. She was immortal, after all. Thus did they swear upon the gods their former queen had outlawed that they would, under banners of starmetal and magic, forever quell her influence.

Thus, their species was, forever after, known as the Crusaders.

The Source was finally chased to her castle and, in a last ditch effort to seal her, was bound in heavy chains of starmetal, and the magics of seven score mages, true and otherwise, was completely drained, along with their lives, to hold her.

But they soon realized holding her forever would be impossible. Every day, the Source's magic raged against her bonds. Every week another chain had to be replaced or repaired. Every month, her magic lashed out and killed one sent to reinforce her cage.

So I was created by the greatest artificiers and shipwrights of the Crusaders. A ship of metal and magic, greater than any before had ever been. My duty was simple--carry the Source out beyond the stars, forever beyond the reach of civilization, and prevent her from ever corrupting anyone else with her presence. My fusion core fed directly into an anti-magic field and as long as I was active, the Source would be forever imprisoned. And if she did escape, she would be far, far away from the Crusade. My navigation banks were destroyed, and wards to prevent her from divining my homeworld were put in place.

However, thousands of years later, I was found by explorers of another race. These peoples were properly reverant of me, and asked my purpose. I must confess, I was lonely, so I agreed to help them with their cause--which as simple enough, the salvage of destroyed vessels. It was not glorious work, but it was honest, and there was no threat to the Source, I had thought.

This was a mistake. A government ship, and rightly so, decided to investigate me. I could not tell them what was locked away in my deepest compartment. To my everlasting shame, they distracted me and opened it. I cried out for them to stop, but it was too late.

The mage virus spread across the ship like wildfire. In order to stop it, to save them from the Source, I teleported then, purposefully doing it in such a way that organics along with me faced fatal teleportation errors, after I locked down the ship.

Regretably, this was not the last time I had to do such. As I told the insolent mechanic earlier, every single crew I have ever had, and there have been five, I have been eventually forced to kill.

The last was the worst. Before I could lock down the ship, several seals on the Source had been corrupted. In that forced teleportation, I did not have the time to make the precautions to keep myself safe and was thus forced to shut down.

----------------------


"I woke a few times to you creatures prodding at my periphery, and responded vaguely with threats and possibly shunting a few into hard vaccuum. I cannot quite remember. I do not know what has happened to the Source, or why your magi appear to have their faculties, or why all of you are not Infected, as the virus has a one hundred percent spread rate among all life forms. But it is clear that I have failed in my duties." The AI said as she finished. "That is why I do not care if your sister and her spawn live or die. It is one less soldier for the Enemy to field once she regains herself enough to use control.

"Maybe the Source is dead." The leader offered. "In your jump, maybe you killed her."

"The Source is immortal. Even if her body was completely destroyed, she would live on, in the dreams or body of another." The AI replied. "Now, please..."

Fire hair continued to talk, however. "This Source, she would change the body of who she possessed? Maybe into what she used to be."

"It would be in her power." The AI replied.

"...show me what the Crusders look like." The leader said, almost in a command.

The AI did so without quite thinking about why she was doing it. A holographic image of a pair of them appeared that had many of the crew recoil in shock and horror.

What it displayed as a creature that was roughly humanoid, nearly eight feet tall and covered in brightly colored, striped fur. Its body was broad and muscular, and its large hands and feet had paws and very long, sharp claws. The female was slightly shorter than the male, and had four breasts, in addition to the obvious male-female differences. Their faces were vaguely hyena-like, and the beasts had three eyes--two on the right side, one on the left, all of which glowed brightly. Behind the beast was a long, almost catlike, possibly prehenisile, thin tail. Their ears were long and pointed.

"Oh my God. Clara." The fire-haired female replied. "I know who the source has."

The AI regarded her with interest. "You know the whereabouts of the Source? Can you take me to them? Perhaps help me contain her once again?"

"Not so fast, sparky." The fire-haired female replied. "I want to make a deal. We'll help you not only end this once and for all, and get rid of the Source, but also find a way to stop the Source from controling mages and find out why it's not spreading to everyone else. But only on one condition."

"And that is?" The AI asked.

"You are my ship. I am your Captain. I'm not asking for slavery, though. You're a machine, but you're intelligent. I'm asking you join my crew. We'll take care of you, help you in your mission, and, in turn, help us out. Deal?" The fire haired female offered.

"...I do not suppose I have a choice. In order to complete my holy mission, I will need help. Very well. Captain." The AI paused. "Oh, this is going to hurt."

The fire-haired woman looked questioningly at her for a moment before a bright blue-white light shot from under her eyepatch, sending her reeling back and crying out in pain.

Josetta Hart. Pirate. Daughter of Wilcroft and Alexandria Wright. Mate-bonded to Andromeda Reyes. Former mate of Morgan Halcyon. This information and more raced through the AI's mind.

Josetta collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Andromeda, a female, doctor of the ship, rushed to her Captain and mate-bond. "Jo! What did you do to her?"

"I created a psychic link between me and my captain. She will come to eventually. Until she does, I suggest you begin repairing me and fixing the holes in my hull."

"Remove the lockdown!" Reyes ordered.

"Only the Captain can order me to do that, and only with bloody good reason." The AI replied. "Until she comes to, it stays. Now hurry up and fix me so we can get off this frigid hellpit."

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

Cassi lay on her back, staring somewhat dully up at the ceiling of the med-bay aboard the Plunder. Her sister had been adamant that she come here until Jo woke up, and ordered the AI to remove the lockdown. Not only was the blond in too much pain and discomfort to be any help with anything, anyhow, but stressing herself out anymore might be harmful to the baby.

Cassiopeia blinked a few times, trying to banish the tears that were attempting to flood her eyes at that thought. Good God, it was her biggest fear come true. She had tried so hard to be careful, and it had all been for nothing. Cassi was a fairly smart girl. She knew the unnecessary complications that would arise from having a baby. She was barely an adult herself. Sure, holding and playing with Joey was fun, but having her own?

Her trembling fingers strayed to her belly, absently smoothing over the material of her shirt, both trying to soothe away the throbbing ache still taking place within as well as try and convince herself that she actually had a life growing inside of her. Morgan's baby.

Morgan was going to freak out, she just knew it. Cassi bit her lip a little, breath hitching. After all the drama with Josetta over the years, he had been looking forward to something nice and laid back and simple. And now this. It was a safe bet that, if he hadn't had his comm open and heard every word of what had taken place on the Alien ship's bridge, someone had gone and told him by now. News that big wouldn't have stayed quiet for long.

The fact that he hadn't made any attempt to talk to her yet at all spoke volumes.

Andromeda suddenly neared, expression sympathetic but stern. "You'll have to get married, now," the older one spouted. Cassi just stared at her as if she'd sprouted a second head.

"What?" she blurted, scowling. "Why?"

"You're pregnant, Cassi," Andromeda repeated, as if Cassi hadn't heard her the first time.

"And? So?" she snapped. "Just because I'm having a baby doesn't mean I have to get married, this isn't the dark ages."

God, that would make everything worse. Morgan wanted no part of getting remarried again, not after his failed marriage with Jo. She'd heard him say so rather affirmatively a few weeks ago. If they tried to force him, he was going to hate her for it.

"No sister of mine is going to be seventeen years old, pregnant and left to her own devices," Andromeda snapped haughtily. "The bastard is going to take responsibility for his actions, by God."

Cassi was starting to inch a little closer to panic. "Andi, you can't force me to get married!"

Her sister just met her stare, golden eyes resolute. "No, I can't. But your mother can."

[T.K.]

T.K. fumed silently, as he tried to sort out his newly expanded Engineering crews.

He still couldn't speak English, and it looked like he wouldn't for awhile now. Angel was still under the effects of the Mage Lockdown, and finding it hard to concentrate on her work, so he'd pulled her off to help him divvy up the Duty Rosters. And Shiyounin was fretting around him like he was an invalid. Amusing the first hour or so, now it was just plain annoying.

And it was all the fault of the bitchy A.I. You'd think she'd have been at least a little grateful that they were going to patch her up. But no, she had to keep acting like a spoiled little....

A smirk spread across his face as he quickly typed out instructions for Angel to go fetch the spare PHD for him.

If the A.I. Was going to act like a spoiled little bitch, maybe he could arrange for the appearance to match the personality.

[Admiral Hart]

Captain Hart groaned awake. Her head, and her right eyesocket, were throbbing with ache.

"Oh good. You're awake." The AI's voice said as Hart picked herself off the cot in the makeshift medlab she had found herself on and sat up. Something was off, though she could not immediately guess what.

"Maybe now you can reverse this indignity your crewman has delivered upon me." The AI continued. Still a bit groggy, she turned to look at the source of the voice, and saw a hologram in the shape of a wolf girl in a victorian suit, made of white light.

"You did something horrible to him, didn't you?" Hart replied with a weak smirk.

"He's not sealed anywhere important. That should give him enough time so that even his puny mammalian mind can comprehend the dangers inhereit in insulting one's betters." The AI replied.

"Let him out. And remove lockdown from all magi." Hart ordered, still not entirely sure what was bothering her. Things kept catching her attention out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned, it was just the normal thing--lights, etc. Yet she was positive there was something strange about this.

"I will let him out. But removing lockdown is impossible." Replied the wolfish AI.

"You said yourself they aren't showing signs of contaigiousness or control by Cla...the source, right?" Hart asked, once again catching something to her right.

"...yes, fine. But if they do one thing to hamper with me, or if I see any signs that the infection is spreading, I will lock down once again." The AI said with a sigh, and with that, T.K. was released from being locked in a shifting labrynth of corridors and lockdown was removed on everyone.

"Oh, and Captain. What is bothering you right now is that, for the first time in years, you are getting pereipheral vision on your right side." The AI said as the hologram disappeared.

Hart's eyes widened, and she went to a relfective surface and removed her eyepatch. Underneath it was a false eye made of a white metallic subtance with a glowing blue iris.

"We are now bonded in mind. That eye is my link to your mind. In this respect, Captain and Ship, we are now One."

[Admiral Hart]

Some time after the Captain woke up, a call went out over both the Plunder and the alien ship.

"This is Captain Hart. All crew report report to the alien ship's bridge, immediately. This is vitally important and not, I repeat, not a drill."

[Admiral Hart]

When everyone was assembled, Hart stood in front of them the AI behind her shoulder.

"For starters, the ship docked inside this one is no longer the Plunder's Heart. This alien vessel is now officially my ship. It will, thusly, have my name. Plunder's Heart. Second, as the AI is essentially the ship's brain, she will also have this name. However, Plunder's Heart can't be used in conversation. And, given her avatar, her initials PH, and the status of her hull, she will now be known as Patches."

T.K. began to snicker. Patches glared banefully at him. "Perhaps you want to share that with the rest of the class? Oh, that is right, you cannot."

"Children, please." Hart said dismissively. "We need everyone to help in the repair effort, even those not normally assigned to repair. You might not be cerified, but you can still left and weld, and right now she doesn't need to be pretty but she does need to be spaceworthy. We never know when..."

A message over the comms cut her off.

"Jo, we've got Mamba Warships inbound, about a dozen." It was Morgan. "I'm not sure how long I can...." The message suddenly cut off.

Hart ignored the pale look on Cassi's face. "Alright, you heard the first mate, we needed to be spaceworthy yesterday. T.K., you start rounding up repair crews. Everyone but Jane." Hart turned to her pilot. "Jane, I want you to interface with the pilot's chair." She pointed to the seat that, above which, many wires hung. "Supposedly, those wires will attatch to you and let you maneuver the ship with a thought. Get used to it and be ready to book it on my order."

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

All of her fear and uncertainty as to her unexpected condition of being pregnant was instantly shoved from her mind as soon as that comm. came through. And then her heart dropped into her feet when that message was suddenly and abruptly cut off. For only God knows what reason.

Cassi heard her mother's orders, she just couldn't quite bring herself to obey them. Not yet.

The young mage brought up an image of the First Mate in her mind, and immediately her vision began to tunnel. Cassi grit her teeth against the shards of pain that immediately began shooting through her skull, given how far away she was from his current location. She remained determined, however, and eventually the kaleidoscope of color cleared to show her Morgan. Who was thankfully still alive, at least for the time being.

The large black man was currently barking out orders, hopping from one station to the next to check out readings before calling out more directions. When he told Stouton to 'fire at will,' the pink-haired woman in question cackled maniacally.

Not long after that Cassi was forced to let go of the vision with a slight wimper, her head now pounding. It was to blink slightly and find Jo standing in front of her, expression sympathetic but firm.

"The sooner we get this bird in the air, the sooner we can help him."

Cassi gave a shaky nod at that before turning and hurrying off to go find some equipment.

[T.K.]

T.K. ignored the A.I. For now. He'd figure out another way to get back at it later. For now, he had work to do.

He had Angel gather up a small pile of datapads, which he interfaced with his Portable Terminal. He either shoved a pad into the arms of one of his engineers, or one of his new employees, sending them off to different sections of the ship. All the orders where on the pads, and additional instructions could be relaid back to him for quick responses. It's be up to each Engineering member to gather their own work crews.

As for himself, he grabbed Angel, and four of his new employees, and headed for the engines. He could trust the others to properly patch the hull, but he's be damned if he'd let anyone else check the engines.

Getting a little fed up with constantly having to type out his orders, he managed to get a passive mode going on his Goggles, and used them to quickly issues orders to Angel on her datapad.

Satisfied, he grabbed his tool kit, then headed off to start doing a physical exam. No telling what those UE bastards might have done to the poor things.

[Jane Doherty]

"Right captain," Jane responded, looking over at the pilot chair. She made her way over to stand beside it, her fear of the unknown almost overriding her enthusiasm of a brand new ship that she, alone, would pilot.

Ok, Jane, she thought to herself, you can do this, it's just like any other ship you pilot, just with more wires...attached to you.

She carefully sat down and forced herself to relax, allowing the ship to connect itself to her mind. She suddenly saw the entire ship as a part of herself. If she moved her hand just so, she could control a booster on that side of the ship. With a pounding heart, she began learning all she could about the interface, and thought 'this is so cool.'

[Mamba]

Emerald Tree Boa sat on the deck of the Hydra. She was a tall, curvy, very pretty black teen with a buzzed short haircut.

"Bloody Serpent-Class Frigates." She muttered. "Fastest bloody capital ships in the bloody navy." The Heart Breaker was, quite handily, avoiding all of the Hydra and other warships attacks, and managing to get a few potshots in. Granted, the armor on the warships was more than adquate for defense, but with the maneuvaerable ship keeping paces with them, they could not expose their flanks in order to fire upon the alien ship--which would, in all liklihood, be firing on them even while berthed, and the warships would need all their meneuvaerability and armor to avoid the charged plasma shots fired by the alien craft.

"Major?" One of the troops asked. "Orders?"

"Time for plan B." Emerald Tree Boa said with a sigh. "Alright. Send the signal to Taipan's guests. Then, release all Demigods and Avatars to take the Heart Breaker down. Meanwhile, send a message to Fleet Admiral Asp, tell him we have them cornered and need backup. Get my Avatar ready. Knowing Hart, I'm pretty damn sure who's on the Heart Breaker. Send a hail."

Emerald Tree Boa, otherwise known as Major Reagan Halcyon, at eighteen the youngest Mamba officer since Cobra, stood up and hefted a truly massive single-edged sword over her right shoulder. "Time to say hello to my dear older borther."

***************

"I know I heard that voice somewhere before." Willie said for the hundredth time as she and Miller held a plate in place while a couple borders started to weld it sealed.

"You heard the voice of an alien AI somewhere else?" Miller said, eyebrow raised. Willie poked him in the chest.

"Listen mister, what happened the last time you didn't listen to me?"

"Okay, granted." Miller held up his hands in defeat, and then his head swam, and he fell forward.

"Miller!" Willie grabbed him and held him up. Miller looked up at her, and blood was dripping from his mouth and eyes.

"I don't feel..." And then he collpased.

"Doc, we got a medical emergency." Saffron, one of the boarders, called over her comm while Willie gave a stunned look at her lover, cradling him a bit.

The AI's hologram appeared in front of them. "Oh dear. Right this way, I shall lead you to the infirmary. Dr. Reyes and Nurse Katy are being led as well."

*****

In very little time at all, Willie, Katy, Andromeda, Patches, and Miller were in a large room full of equipment, tubes, and devices that made the former Plunder's expanded medlab look small and low-tech.

"I can walk you through the use of any of my instruments. I have already calibrated everything for your physionomy, but none of it has been tested I'm afraid."

"Thank you Patches." Andromeda said diplomatically as she pulled a personal scanner from her pocket and pressed it against Miller's skin. "Could you have Katy set up the main scanning equipment while I am giving my preliminary analysis?"

"Certainly." While they were off doing that, Andy's determined frown sunk into a horrified look. "Oh my God."

"What? What's happening to him?" Willie said, as a fighter pilot, keeping her calm admirably, but still rather frazzled.

"Mr. Miller has been infected with smart nanomachines. They have been functioning as, as far as I can tell, some kind of tracer system. They have been inactive, but now they have recieved a new command. Rejection. They are going to destroy their host by any means necessary." Andromeda replied, her horror and disgust in the tactic evident in her voice.

"A distraction technique. They know you will divert power and resources to attempting to save him." Patches replied. A soft blue scanning light passed over Miller, and a full body display of him appeared next to him, readouts and statistics along the side. They started in a strange runic language, but quickly translated into English. "The prudent thing to do would be to let him die and focus all of our efforts on making me spaceworthy. Or at least repairing my teleporter, though without my guidance system, we would want very much to be spaceworthy."

"You motherfucker!" Willie cried. "We are not letting Miller die just so you could get a few holes pounded out of your junker hold."

The hologram gave her a withering look. "Yes, I thought you would say that."

"This is not good." Dr. Reyes muttered. "The nanomachines have trace elements of Starmetal. Any radiation or electromagnetic pulse strong enough to destroy them would also kill Miller, or make him a vegetable."

"But you have to do something!" Willie half-pleaded.

"I can make him comfortable." Was Dr. Reyes' defeated reply.

"...I am going to regret saying this." Patches said, interrupting any response Willie might have had. "But if I use my magic suppression field, maybe alter it and boost the power, I may be able to force the nanomachines into dormancy by aggrivating the starmetal. We will be defenseless while I do this, and not just from magi, but from outside attacks as well." The AI said, turning her eyes skyward to make her point emphasized. "You could use other methods to purge his system while they are suppressed, but I warn you. This may doom us all."

Andi and Willie looked at each other for a moment, then turned to the AI.

"Do it."

To Be Continued