A Tale of Arcane Space: Lost & Found

As George's body passed the helm, he returned the gesture with a nod. "Incorrect -- but I savvy."

The lift door closed, and Captain Liang turned back to his helmsman. "So, my fine Orcish friend. Once our friends get the shuttle moving -- what do you propose we do about this whole business? I'm inclined to try and crack that outer shell, see if we can tow the Golem somewhere with better facilities -- but I'm open to suggestions."

Norrish stood up, and walked over to the big display. "Not sure if that's feasible. The Endurance has Plasma torpedo tubes fore and aft, eight swarm-fire force-lance turrets, heavy lightning wands fore and aft, the tractor beam, and the front-mounted railgun. We're armed to the teeth for something this size, yeah -- but it'll take us forever to crack that open, even if we assume that the asteroid is only as tough as normal stone -- which I strongly doubt. I think we need to try something completely different." His fingers traced the outline of the solar chimney, and he scratched thoughtfully at one of his tusks. "I think we need to wake that Golem up."

***

"You know," Cori said between forkfuls of her conjured food, "I feel like I'm not holding up my end of things."

Lindauriel looked up from dabbing at his lips with his sleeve. "Come again?"

She snorted. "I haven't done that properly in forever."

"I am very confused right now."

"Not your fault," Cori said after another bite. "I'm a shitty communicator sometimes." She sat up in her chair. "Okay, let me try this again. You entrusted me with a pretty huge secret. I owe you a secret in return. I don't have anything on the scale of yours, so... I'm going to tell you two secrets. I think that's more than fair, and I don't want to hear any 'you don't need to do that' crap from you, okay? I want to do this." With that, she stood up, and walked to the cockpit.

Lindauriel followed a moment later. "I'm all ears."

She snorted, glancing behind her. "Cute. You know, everyone always makes a big deal about Elf-ears and their points, and how exotic and alluring that makes 'em. Goblin ears are pointier, but I guess our people don't count."

Lin jogged a bit to catch up. "Some people say some very stupid and hurtful things. I've heard so many 'tree-humper' jokes, I could probably fill a book."

Cori nodded, and moved to the control chair, looking closer at the myriad controls there. "Likewise, although in my case it was 'red-skin' or 'cock-gobbler' jokes." She sighed. "Anyway. So, my first secret isn't really a secret -- but it's something you probably don't know about me, and I want to bring it up, in light of what you said." She tapped at a few buttons, but nothing in the room responded. "I assume you know why people started calling your order the 'WarSaints', right?"

"The aftermath of the Sun-Geyser War, we always assumed."

She nodded. "The Allied Races had been thoroughly smacked around and scattered by the Human Hegemony, and the 'Cleansing' had begun. Orcs, Goblins, and anyone deemed of 'impure blood' got sent to camps."

"Horrible things."

"Yeah. And just when everyone realized what was happening -- camps started getting liberated, all across the galaxy, even though the Alliance was completely helpless. And the stories about these liberations just seemed too unreal." She looked up. "Stories of persons flying through space and sky unaided, ripping apart Hegemony cruisers above, and then making planetfall without so much as an enviro-suit. They tore down camp walls, and swatted aside the guards like brushing off errant ants. One liberator against five thousand elite veteran Hegemony Purity Troopers -- and the five thousand never stood a chance." She smiled. "The freed captives called their liberators Saints. WarSaints. Word spread as more and more Camps were freed. And the name stuck."

Lin moved to the other side of the chair as he spoke. "The Order had stayed out of the war, thinking that it was nothing but yet another political conflict. But when the Orcs tried to turn the tide by unleashing Sun-Geysers, and got overwhelmed by the Hegemony before they could gain any momentum... it ended so suddenly, so fast, we didn't know what to do. But when the truth of the Cleansing camps came out a year after the treaty signing, the twenty-three mobilized as one for the first time since their founding. What the Hegemony did was unforgivable, could not be justified under any circumstances. It was Genocide, and my predecessors in the Order punished them for their crime. They freed the camps, and they dragged the Hegemony's 'Master' into the light so that he could be tried for his crimes before the galaxy." He shook his head. "If anything, we should have acted sooner. We were so afraid of our own power, of overstepping our self-imposed limits, that we acted too late to protect those who needed it the most."

Cori smiled. "Well, that's what I want to tell you about. The WarSaints weren't too late to save my ancestors. My entire line would've been wiped out before long by those sadist butchers. They were at Xanatoxis, one of the worst of the camps, where they took their time to torture us before they fed us to their furnaces. I wouldn't be here, if not for your order. So... I'm grateful." She reached out to take his hand, squeezing it. "Thank you."

They stood there in silence for a long time, looking into each other. Her hand was warm to the touch, and without thinking about, Lindauriel's fingers entwined with hers. They shared a smile, and she walked around the front of the command chair, still grasping his hand as she sidled up to him. "You know... if I was going to be trapped somewhere for what might be a very long time... I'm glad it's with you. And not just because of that repast trick." Before he could respond to that, she reached up and touched his lips with a fingertip. "And that brings me to my second secret."

Cori sat down in the chair, looking up at him with those smoky eyes of hers that had snared his heart from the moment they first met, six months ago. "Do you know... no. Not like that." She lightly tapped the back of her wrist, as if in self-rebuke. "I've been really mean and snappish at you for weeks -- and it's all because of your 'crime'," she said while making air-quotes, "of not being able to read my mind. Like I said, I'm a terrible communicator sometimes."

Lin stroked the back of her hand. "And what would I have learned, if I could have read your thoughts?"

She laughed. "That I've been waiting for five months for you to make the first move on me. And getting pissed -- unfairly, I know! Pissed that you never went for it."

Lindauriel's jaw dropped. "I... whoa." He took a breath. "I thought you thought I was boring, at best."

Letting go of his hand, Cori reached up to stroke the line of his chin with a fingertip. "You really care about people, that's always been obvious, not just how you help out as part of our crew, but with you using most of your share on our hauls for funding orphanages and such. I like that. And you look downright delicious, especially with those grabbable curls." She flicked a finger across one of his trailing curls. "But what really catches my eye is the fact that when you talk about something that really means something to you, like your Goddess, you get this warmth in your eyes that just... melts me. More than anything, I've always wanted to have a lover who had a look like that on their face when they thought about me. So when I saw you sneaking peeks at me when you thought I wouldn't notice... I started to hope you were going to show up in my quarters one night, and just whip it right out. I'd open my mouth in silent invitation, and you'd just..." She rubbed her thighs together, the tight unitard suddenly making Lin very aware of her hardened nipples. "Just slip it right into my mouth, as deep as you wanted, so you could fuck my throat."

She grinned. "I'm tired of trying to drop hints, because it's clear I suck at that. So I'm going to speak my mind: make a move on me, WarSaint. We're trapped in here, this is the most privacy we've had in months, and will probably ever get down the road if we make it out of here. So now that you've got this Goblin girl sitting here with pink parts all flushed and ready, what are you going to do about it?"

Lindauriel made a show of pinching his arm. "Okay. Definitely not dreaming. Wow."

Coriolis fidgeted with the pull on her unitard's zipper. "If you tell me that your Goddess made you take an oath of celibacy, I'm going to cry."

"Oh, no. Nothing like that at all. Thankfully."

He unzipped his own unitard, pulling an appreciative leer from Cori. "Nice chest... Sun's blessings, I should've given in and peeked on you in the shower when I had that one chance. Turn around for me. Peel that off slow, Lin. Show me those goods."

With a grin, he turned and obliged, revealing one strong shoulder, slowly pulling it out of his sleeve, and then the other, Cori drooling over the way his well-toned physique shifted under his beautifully dark skin. Giving his hips a slow and playful shimmy, he slid the garment past his waist, which drew a howl of delight from his Goblin ogler.

"Oh, BABY, give me a closer look!"

He obliged by bending forward as he looked back over his shoulder. "First hit's free, but after that -- I spank back with interest."

"Oh hells yeah!" She reared back and slapped his bare backside with an open palm, producing a very satisfying sound of "THWACK!", and she shivered in delight. "Mmm mmm mmm. Nice and tight. I could bounce a silver piece off that ass. Now step all the way out of that, and show me... the rest."

He obliged, and much to her delight, was already as stiff as a rock, his rod pointing straight up. "I have to tell you, Lin -- I have never been more pleased to learn that stereotypes are dead wrong. All those girls I knew growing up, who all assumed that Elves didn't pack any heat? Their damn loss. Let's look at this beauty."

He stepped forward, running a hand through her dark hair as she grasped him by the root. "Now that is what I call perfection. Not too big, not too small... that's going to fit just right. Lin, I'm a damn fool for dancing around this for so long. Will you ever forgive me?"

He reached out and took gentle hold of Cori's zipper, and tugged it down. "You're about to find out." Standing over her, he proceeded to peel her out of the clinging fabric, and Cori shivered in delight at the way his eyes lit up when her breasts bounced out of their confines. Finally, he slipped the unitard off her feet and legs... and lifted up one of her legs, hooking it over the armrest -- and then doing the same to the other, leaving her spread open wide before him. Without any further ado, he dropped to his knees -- and as his tongue danced across her wet folds, her eyes rolled back up into her head in joy and disbelief. "Sun have mercy, I think I've found a keeper!"

***

"Okay, George -- adjust the mirror three-point-six degrees... there. Perfect." Enrique stood back, and looked over their jury-rigged device with satisfaction. Once the shuttle was up and running, Norrish and the Captain explained that they wanted to focus as much sunlight as possible into the chimney, thinking that if they could get the golem powered up a bit, maybe they could get an airlock to work and rescue their friends... or even fly it to a port under its own power. No one had any better ideas, so they'd spent the last hour setting up an array of mirrors, magnifiers, sun lamps, and anything else they could cobble together that might pump even more solar energy towards the golem. The light heading down the chimney definitely looked brighter, and there was certainly a vibration running through the whole big rock, although for the moment, it was still relatively subtle. "Okay, I think something's happening. Captain, you getting any good readings?"

"Nothing conclusive, but infra-red scans are definitely showing greater heat in the shaft and down in the chamber."

Snowdrop pulled a canister from her belt. "Got an idea. George, Enrique -- this flash-grenade is supposed to be a concentrated burst of genuine sunlight - no concussive force or anything. Handy for vampires and the like. Think I should try it?"

George's mech body gave a thumbs-up. "Put it on top of the magnifier, and then cover it with your shield so that all the light gets focused down when it goes off. That should give any solar collector a nice kick, if it's calibrated as an anti-vampire weapon. Let's set it up. Can't hurt, that's for sure."

***

As she lay there in the chair, her legs quivering, Cori looked up longingly at her new tormentor as he stood up. "Th-three times. In a row. You deft-tongued bastard, no one's ever made me come that hard."

Lindauriel smeared her wetness on his fingers all up and down his rod until it glistened, and she couldn't take her eyes off the engorged head. "Let's just say that you would not believe what Triune seminary students get up to after hours, and I'll just leave it at that. My education was quite thorough." He gave himself a gentle stroke. "Need another minute?"

Coriolis nodded, brushing her dark sweat-plastered hair out of her eyes. "I get super-sensitive after I come, yeah. But if you walk away now, I swear on all I hold dear..."

"Oh, a whole pirate fleet couldn't drag me away, Cori. I've been sliding inside you in my dreams for weeks now, you think I'd pass up the chance to feel you for real?"

She licked her lips. "You have no idea how wet those words just made me... but you're about to find out." She took a deep breath, and tried to open her legs even wider. "Okay, I'm ready. Put it in, nice and slow. I want to savor this moment."

***

George held up the shield. "On my count of three -- Snowdrop, you pull the pin, drop the sun grenade onto the magnifier lens, and avert your eyes. Enrique, hold the array as still as you can, and I'll cover the grenade so that all the light goes right into the lens and then down the chimney. You both ready?"

Enrique nodded, holding the lens steady, and Snowdrop held up the flash grenade. "On three! Ready!"

Back on the Endurance, Norrish and Captain Liang held their breath, watching the video feed. "Stop fretting, Captain. It's just sunlight in a can. What's the worst that can happen?"

"Norrish, with all due respect, now is NOT the time to be tempting fate!"

George spent a few fractions of a second idly wondering if there was a deity who watched over Arcane Intelligences. "Here goes nothing. One... Two... THREE!"

***

INITIALIZING.

SLEEP MODE DEACTIVATED.

MAIN ARCANE FLYWHEEL REACTOR OFFLINE.

SOLAR COLLECTORS REPORTING INCREASED INPUT.

POWER RESERVES NOW AT FIFTEEN PERCENT AND RISING.

MINIMUM CONDITIONS ACHIEVED.

CONSCIOUSNESS REBOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED.

AUTONOMOUS STATIONKEEPING PROCESSES PLACED ON STANDBY.

PILOT LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS STABLE.

DETECTION AND EMISSION COUNTERMEASURES STABLE.

WEAPON SYSTEMS OFFLINE.

PROPULSION SYSTEMS OFFLINE.

DAMAGE REPORT -- CONSISTENT WITH PREVIOUS CHECK. NO NEW DAMAGE.

WORKING...

WORKING...

GRAVEDANCER CONSCIOUSNESS ONLINE.

At that exact moment, some distance away in the outer reaches of the Zelefon system, a room full of small figures looked up as one from their consoles, the bridge lit only by the dim glow of innumerable targeting arrays.

"Something awakens." Three voices said in unison.

"It is a powerful mind." one voice said.

"It strengthens the Dream," two voices noted.

"The Dream Must End," Five said with grim hate.

"The Eye of the Cosmos MUST OPEN!" This was screamed by all present.

One stood, their voice overpowering all. "FIND IT! BREAK IT! KILL IT! THE DREAM MUST END! PUNISH AND BREAK ALL WHO DREAM SO THAT THE COSMOS AWAKENS!"

As one, every face on the dark ship, save those rotting or whimpering in the holds below, turned to face the direction of the new awakening.

"THE DREAM MUST END!" The entire vessel shook with hundreds of voices, and it turned in the infinite night, hurtling through space towards its new quarry.

***

The last thing she remembered was the face of Koutash, her pilot, as he stood up from the command chair. "I won't let them take you, GraveDancer. The fleet has built an empty shell to be melted down in your place, to satisfy this damned treaty. Wait here. I'll be back as soon as I can, with help. We'll repair you. We'll keep the fight going -- and we'll burn every last one of those Hegemonists out of the sky before we give up. Save your strength, golem -- you're going to need it."

She replayed that video image again, admiring the rugged good looks Koutash always claimed he didn't have. Good tusks, strong hands on her controls, eyes that never missed a single detail. She'd had a few pilots, but he'd by far been the greatest warrior among them. Pity he'd been so repressed on certain topics, though...

"OH FUCK! YES! GO DEEP!"

That... was not Koutash. GraveDancer did a quick systems check, and her "sidekick" interface immediately responded: ALL GEM-CIRCUITRY NOMINAL, CHANCE OF SENSORY/MEMORY MALFUNCTION 0.0024 PERCENT.

The bedroom was empty -- but there were discarded suits of an unfamiliar make, and remnants of a meal.

"So tight, Cori, so good, so damn wet..."

That came from the control room! Switching her internal sensors -- there they were. A Goblin female, her legs draped over the arms of the control chair, was getting magnificently drilled by an Elven male, her impressive breasts heaving with each of his thrusts inside her. Not exactly what she was expecting to wake up to, but quite a lovely surprise!

Now... should she let them know she was here, or should she just enjoy the show?

Wait a second. GraveDancer ran a status report... was the chronometer broken? Had she really been in sleep mode for five hundred years? Damnit, Koutash...

As the sounds of lovemaking tickled her audio sensors, GraveDancer took inventory. Her icon was missing from her crest -- but there it was on the bedroom floor. Those two must have removed it, which her autonomous sleep-systems had interpreted as a repair crew trying to gain emergency access, and used a teleport charge to bring them in. These two... oh, he does have a nice ass, doesn't he... were clearly not mechanics. Salvagers, perhaps? If she'd been unconscious for five centuries, they must have been the first to find her. Thank goodness a Goblin had found her, and not one of those wretched humans.

Her solar reserves were still filling up nicely -- someone must have expanded the solar chimney to increase the flow. She'd told Koutash that the chimney needed to be bigger, since he'd ordered her to power down and disassemble the main reactor flywheel, and the solar collectors were her only remaining power source. But he'd insisted that she only make the solar chimney big enough to let in the bare minimum to maintain her core in sleep mode, to make her harder for Hegemony forces to find. His orders had been a little too successful, it seemed. Five hundred years! She might have never been reawakened if not for her gorgeous saviors. The thought of floating asleep and effectively dead in this asteroid field for all eternity sent a cold shiver throughout her entire system.

She looked to her solar reserve gauges again. Fifty-five percent and rising... excellent. She took half that power, and used it to jumpstart the nano-crafter cache. It was clearly time to get back into working order.

NANO-CRAFTERS SUCCESSFULLY ACTIVATED -- ALL UNITS ROUTED TO PRIMARY ARCANE FLYWHEEL. ESTIMATED TIME FOR REASSEMBLY: 1.47 HOURS.

Excellent. Once the main reactor was working, she could remove the cocoon Koutash had insisted she craft, and limp her way to a proper shipyard with her one remaining engine. Both arms and legs were severely damaged, and would need serious overhaul before she could properly move or fight again.