Welcome To The Family
Posted on Mon Sep 10th, 2018 @ 11:29am by Captain Remas McDonald
1,580 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: Abborax's Ship The Insessor
Timeline: MD 61 01.20
Certain lines can’t be uncrossed,
Certain maps will get you lost,
Once you’ve past the border then you’ll have to play their game.
Roll their dice but count their cards,
Break their glass but keep the shards.
The world's are out of order. They've been broken since they came.
The broken doors are hidden,
In their blood and in their bones.
My darling child, be careful now, and don’t go out alone.
'Myriad Paths', a nursing song from the dead city of Perambulation.
Abborax manifested in a form more suitable for the occasion.
He wasn't sold on the 'Federation Proxy' he'd made for visiting their ship, but it was growing on him. Long limbs, clever facial muscles, and dexterous fingers: it had possibilities. He knew of at least a dozen Myriad entities who would be curious enough to want the pattern for one sent to them to stitch out of dissociated matter. He could garner a good few favours out of that, perhaps even buy his way back into some sort of respectability within the court of the High Executor.
Maybe the novelty value would be enough without the other bargain chips.
It had been a shame to abandon his Proxy on the Traveller, along with the shuttle. But it was a small cost, and Rissesssix would no doubt be tearing through the ship seeking out what violent delights she could find. Ambulatory Hives were simple creatures, barely sapient, but quite driven to destroy. Useful was the word.
Speaking of useful...
Abborax walked the halls of his ship until he found a room suitable for his needs. Wide, domed, ribbed along its sides by branch-like supports that glowed with the furious computation of a mind. He held out his hand, this time down to his side, and the hull beneath his feet fluttered. A bowl like a protuberance arose, a handful of silvery beads resting within its hollow. He scooped up a handful of the beads and threw them into the air ahead of him.
The beads flew into the air...and came to an eerie halt in front of him.
The mass of beads began to separate out, zigging and zagging on miniature effector motors. Slowly they formed the points of a poorly drawn stick figure, and then the silver beads began to glow. Brighter, and brighter, until with a flash, a holographic avatar sprang up around them, the beads forming a projection matrix within.
"Welcome aboard The Insessor Arivek." Abborax said in greeting.
Arivek swallowed hard as he looked around him. This was the first time, since coming online, that he had been away from a Starfleet vessel or installation. It was liberating, and yet scary all at the same time. "You have holoemitters everywhere?" he asked, his eyes following the lines of the room.
"Not as such. Emitters are like chains, they tie you down and constrain you to a set volume. I much prefer a life free of such folly," he said, gesturing to the bowl and cupping a small handful of the beads within. He tossed them into the air, where for his audience they came to an abrupt halt and spread apart slightly. With a flash of photon's a winged thing made of lurid colours and scale flapped into existence.
The thing fluttered around the two for a moment, before landing on Abborax's shoulder lightly. It looked like a tiny dragon crossed with a lionfish. All sleek aerodynamic scales and bright eye-hurting colours that proclaimed foolish danger to nay predator who would dare eat it. Abborax attentively cooed at the creature, and then with a flick of his hand sent it flying away to vanish in a flash of light, the bead's zipping back to land daintily in the bowl.
"Maker Beads," he said by way of explanation. "Think a combination of your matter synthesisers and holographic technology. Useful in a fight for temporary repairs that work just as well as their genuine counterparts. Now come, there is much to discuss."
Arivek scrunched his forehead. To be honest, he wasn't quite sure what the man was talking about, but he followed him anyway. "Seems to me, whether you use holoemitters or maker beads, you're still bound to something in the real world."
"And yet all of the interesting things in life happen in this three-dimensional simulacrum we call baseline reality. You can't enjoy existence without a means of doing so, no more than you could jump into the air and fly off at warp speed," Abborax chided. "Without a physical anchor, a mind can become quite detached from the realities of one's station."
They passed from the domed room into a corridor, the ship's architecture still the rib-like bracings and thin bark like walls.
"Besides, you can't tell me it didn't' feel good to show off a little. Rub their flesh noses in the fact they had been played?" Abborax grinned, turning to chuck Ari lightly in the shoulder. "Artfully done, by the by."
The words left a bitter taste as he heard them. "Betraying them was never my intention," Arivek said, looking down as they walked. "And you played me as well. You used me to steal from the Traveller."
"Then they should have done a better job of securing that which they prized so highly. I would be called foolish for not taking what was so plainly offered," Abborax said wryly. "Bit of a habit for your ship's crew: they go where they are not wanted, and then do nothing to safeguard against even the most minor of intrusions. If that were not the case I would not have been able to gain your trust, and you would not have sided with me. You are loyal only to yourself, it's a trait I find somewhat endearing. Very...Myriad."
Arivek wanted to argue. He wanted to prove Abborax wrong, but he couldn't. Starfleet did have a habit of sticking its nose where it doesn't belong and this time, they got bit. In the end, he had to take care of himself.
Abborax continued on, leading Ari to another vaulted chamber much larger than the one he apparated in. Here parts of the floor and walls had branched outwards, forming supports and buttresses within which a towering device of composite materials and metals hung. Cylindrical in form, with more of the vine like cables snaking into power and data conduits, it was unusual to see a starships main computer so exposed as this.
Against one wall fragments of deck plates and bulkheads rested, still glowing from whatever device had cut them so neatly from the Travellers bowels.
"And now a prize worthy of the attention it will bring me in the eyes of the High Executor," Abborax breathed, a broad smile on his face. "I have waited a long time for this moment."
"You're going to need me to make it work," Arivek said, taking a few steps towards the massive device. "The Computer will only respond to those who have clearance. And she has impressive safety measures."
"Well, it's a good thing you decided to come along then isn't it?" Abborax said with a flick of his hand. Holographic display panes appeared in the air, each displaying a standard LCAR's screen. "It will take us a little under a day to get to the Whisper Gate, and perhaps another to get to from the terminus to the High Executor. They will require a sampling of data before we get close to show our intent."
He turned, placing a hand on Ari's shoulder.
"It would be the height of foolishness to go before the High Executor empty-handed. You are a treasure, to be sure, but she can be...fickle, flighty. I would not wish to see you or I added to her collection."
"In other words: if I know what's best for me, I'll get you a sample of data." Arivek nodded, "I can do that, not a problem. I'll need a non-networked console to interface with the Computer and a storage device of your choice."
Abborax didn't even bother with a gesture this time. The floor between Ari and the integrated computer core puckered, and a standardised Federation computer data stack rose from the floor supported on the same vine-like growths of metal. A logo on the side of the device proclaimed: INS Surpassing The Percieved.
"A broad sampling," Abborax suggested. "But nothing too important. A hint of something, a suggestion. And nothing to do with the method of how you arrived here. That is our trump card, are one and truly only bargaining chip of real worth."
"It took me years to develop the technology that brought us here," Arivek said as he walked towards the console. "Trust me, I won't be giving that up easily." Looking behind him, Arivek nodded to the man, ignoring the large pit in his stomach. "I'll have the requested information soon."
"Good. I'll come find you when we arrive," Abborax said...and vanished. And Arivek was left alone in empty space of the hold, the torn out computer core humming merrily to itself.
Arivek walked over to the console being held up by the black tentacles. He reached out to begin the work but couldn't. The pit in his stomach grew until he sunk to the ground and began to sob.
"What have I done?" he asked himself, quietly.
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