“As’ni, pay attention.”
As’ni looked up. “Ari?”
“I’ll need your help to fix this pretty ship. Okay?”
As’ni bounced to his feet, still clutching his toy. “Yes! As’ni help! Yes, yes!” His head bobbed with each word.
Ari put a hand on the crystal creature’s shoulder and steered him to the opposite wall. “Put your back against the wall. I’d like if you could share some of your energy with her without hurting yourself.” He eyed the simple creature. “You think you could do that?”
“Yes! As’ni do.” He clutched both toys in one hand to his chest and didn’t let go. “No problem, Ari.” As’ni thumped his back against the wall.
“Good,” Ari nodded. “If it hurts, you move away, okay?”
“Yes, Ari. As’ni do.”
“As for you,” Ari addressed the spider-bot on his shoulder. “I want you out of here.” He nodded to the open entryway. “Leave the engine room altogether so you don’t get caught up in anything happening here. Also, I need you to keep Morgan out.” The muscles in his neck tensed. “Make sure she doesn’t come anywhere near this room while I work. I swear, if she gets one scratch…” He left the threat hanging.
“Like the great Issac Asimov once wrote,‘Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.’Fortunately for you, I’m highly competent, so I can ignore your absurd threat.“ With a parting snort, the spider-droid pulled his wings out and hovered before zipping over the frozen Ozevroc to speed out the entryway. Hopefully, JR12 would catch up with Morgan before she headed back.
Returning inside the dim interior of the prone ship, he double-checked that his two companions were where he wanted them. Satisfied all was ready as could be, he closed his eyes. The stillness in the room weighed heavily on him. Pressed in on him. As if the universe held its breath while it waited.
Ari pressed his hands, strong and steady, where the ship’s navigation controls used to be. He might not be a healer in the traditional sense, but the energies he carried were all-encompassing. The drive to repair the ship’s core grew stronger as he searched forElemi’sessence within the android, reaching to grasp her ethos. To give him more leverage, he shifted his focus inward and shut off his external senses. The organic mesh ofElemi’sliving body, her threads of consciousness, of memory, housed in the android, stretched out before him. As he gathered who she was, he healed some of the tangled and frayed bits of the ship caused by the damage.
Slowing his breath, Ari deepened each inhale until he filled his chest with the energy he needed. With no hesitation, he reached toward the core of her—not physically—but with something else entirely. Something within him that was unique to him hummed beneath his skin. It wasn’t light, not exactly, but it was warm. It pulsed at his fingertips, invisible but undeniable, answering a universal call he’d never make out loud.
Elemi’soverall consciousness brushed against his, tentative at first, as if she was testing him after being burned.
There was resistance—pain, fear—a tense emotion telling him she didn’t want to be split. Didn’t want to risk breaking what she had even more. He didn’t force her. Steadily he waited, holding the connection open for her to complete the invitation to join with the ship, her original form. For this to work, it had to be her choice.
Thankfully, her hesitation dissipated as the warmth of her consciousness spread out from him.
Her tendrils of energy slipped through the cracks in the damaged threads of the ship.
Together, they stitched and mended, piecing the broken fragments back together.
Elemi’sessence shifted from the shadows into the stronger dual light he controlled.
The process wasn’t quick. It wasn’t smooth. It was chaotic, fragments of her mind scattered, only to return when he guided them with gentle, controlling intent.
His heart pounded, not in fear, but in rhythm with hers as she and the ship slowly healed.
When the power within Ari drained, As’ni‘s psionic energy joined in, bringing with it a sense of joy and playfulness.
That’s when the faintest hum within the ship’s hull broke the silence. The connection deepened, stronger now, until it wasn’t just him reaching into the ship.Elemireached back, allowing him to join her fully with her android body and the ship.
Then, with one last thrust, Ari rearranged the damage done to the ship in a microscopic speck of time and space, and he rebuilt the ship to her former glory.
Stretching out his consciousness, he followedElemi’sthread of awareness, now split in two. Instead of one being cut in half, she was a sentient being with two forms. Whole—alive, aware, and unique as onlyElemicould be.
Nostalgia washed over Morgan as Chloe stepped through the airlock, Aylzrunth’s towering onyx form by her side. Though she and Chloe came from completely different worlds on Earth, their shared experiences aboard theStarChancebrought them together. It’d be nice if she and Chloe could explore a closer friendship when everything settled down.
Better yet, she’d love to bring her friend to Aethralis. Wouldn’t that be something? Now, all she had to do was figure out a way to get the High Guardian to agree to it. Maybe she could introduce Chloe as a representative of that mercenary group, the AoA, to be on call if that shield holding the Titans got weaker. Yeah, that might…
“Yo, Wrench Queen.”
Morgan jumped when JR12 buzzed in front of her.
“You stuck or something?”
