Ship's Interface Ch. 003

Interface's body then began melting down over her lovers, covering them completely like a second second skin, right down to the resin and rocks that she had pulled up to free them. Her face was gone but the glow remained as Will and June were encapsulated entirely by Interface's now liquid form.

More jellies rushed into the chamber to defend it against the attacker, but as they rushed towards Interface's glowing form, she shrank slowly in size then disappeared completely, stepping out of Three-D space to take a short walk in the fourth spatial dimension.

Back on the Nestia, the darkened room of the med bay suddenly lit up with a blue glow as Interface stepped back into normal Three-D space, carrying her precious cargo, landing on the floor between two examination beds. She quickly formed herself back into a humanoid shape, then stumbled grabbing one of the beds, weakened by her exertion. A rough homunculus was all she could manage for a body, flat and androgynous. Her face had no features save two small eyes, and thin slit for a mouth. She didn't need anything more than that right now. Just enough to do what she needed in order to save her Loves.

They were both in bad shape and needed immediate attention, but there were two of them and only one of her. To be able to attend both at the same time, she divided her attention and split her form, becoming two slightly smaller, homunculi. Each Interface lifted their respective patient onto a bed and got to work.

The duel Interfaces retrieve silver wands from under the beds Will and June were lying on, activated them, using the tool to draw the rest of the goo from their lungs. Breathing a little easier, but dangerously weak, the twin Interfaces produced masks and placed them over their faces, providing extra oxygen, even though their mouths were still held cruelly open by the resin.

Seeing some of the color return to their Will and June's faces, Interface relaxed slightly, knowing they were out of immediate danger, but they were still so weak their hearts could fail at any moment.

She produced another tool that ultrasonically pulverized the resin without hurting the shriveled flesh beneath. Interface first carefully cleared the resin from their mouths, going slowly, working a little, replacing the oxygen mask, working a little more, until she cleared it all and could leave the mask on their gaunt face. She then worked to clear the resin off their joints so they could lie flat more comfortably, and then rid them fully of the resin on their face, head, and necks.

Interface then expended more energy powering the bed diagnostics, even though they usually ran off the currently inert power core. As the beds were busy scanning the vital statistics of their occupants, Interface tried joining her twinned forms back together to form one, but couldn't manage it. Deep exhaustion hounded her, so she let one body go, letting it fall to a pile on the floor like so much silver snow.

The scans finished and Interface looked over the results. Physically, they had been dramatically weakened, muscle strength and vitality stolen away. Their heart and lung muscles barely had the strength to keep pumping blood and drawing air. Even more dire, their Lifeforce had been drained to a point where, even if she were able to keep their bodies alive, their remaining Lifeforce wouldn't sustain them. They were dying.

Interface had never felt more weary than she did at that moment, but rescuing her pair of lovers was all that mattered. She would give everything she had for them, and regretted nothing she had done for them. She had had a wonderful, beautiful few weeks with them. That would have to be enough.

Interface stood between her two lovers, her form a small dull gray, barely humanoid shape. She stroked both their emaciated cheeks lovingly, then made up her mind, her next course of action not a difficult choice for her to make.

Interface had a couple of things to get ready for them when they finally woke. She caressed their arms gently and left them for a few minutes, knowing they would be stable enough until she returned.

Leaving the med bay, she walked past the open door of the lounge they had spent so many wonderful hours together, lightly brushing the doorframe with her fingers remembering, and walked down the ramps to the Engineering compartment where Will had already set up their ship's computer to act as the control system for the power core.

The core systems of the computer were up and running, but just needed to be fully connected along with the batteries they left at the 'Saturn's Heart' for the final integration. She sat at the computer terminal and plugged in directly rather than using the keypad Will used, then wrote the control algorithm for starting up and running the core. The little computer didn't have enough horsepower to control the instabilities in the core at higher power levels, but all they needed was minimal power to run the ship.

It only took her a few moments to write the control algorithm, then she left detailed notes on all the ships systems so that they would be able to fly the ship and see them safely off this planet, and on their way home.

Finally, she wrote a personal letter to them that they would find the first time they sat back down at this terminal. She told them of the joy they brought her during their time together, how much they meant to her, and how deeply she came to love them. And most importantly not to be too sad, and that if she had to do it all again, she would choose the same thing.

Getting up from the terminal she just had one more thing to do. Wearily, she walked back up to the med bay and stood between her lovers again. She caressed both of their heads, then bent down to gently place a kiss on Will's forehead then June's.

As Interface kissed June softly, her one good eye flitted open and she weakly reached up to hold Interface's arm, looking as if she sensed what she was about to do.

"Inta..." June said weakly, holding onto Interface's arm, a tear in her eye, her expression pleaded with her not to do what she was about to do.

"I'm too weak to go on, my love." She said, stroking June's face. I've got about a year's worth of energy left, if I turned everything off and slept. But with that much, you and Will should have about another forty, give or take." Interface paused. "We are Givers, Love. It is who we are."

With tears in her eyes, Interface stood and placed one hand on each of their chests. She sighed, gathering her remaining strength, glowing light blue, and channeled her remaining Lifeforce into her lovers on the pair of beds. June reached up to Interface and as she touched her silver cheek she felt an immense rush of energy surge into her body and soul. Her heart beat stronger, breath came easier and her gaunt form filled out once more. Will experienced the same reversal and his eyes flew open and he looked up at Interface with awe and concern.

Interface looked down at them both one last time and said, "I love you both. Goodbye my Loves." Her blue glow faded, then this body too, disintegrated and fell to the floor like silvery snow.

Sitting bolt upright on the bed, June cried out, "Nooo!" as the last silvery snow flake landed on the floor. She slipped off the exam bed and fell to her knees on the floor in front of the silvery pile that was once Interface's body. Sobbing, June reached for Will as he slipped off his bed, tears streaming down his face as well. He moved to sit next to June, holding her close trying to console her.

They sat on the floor like that for a long time, mourning their loss. Will and June hugged each other tight, and desperately wished that Interface was there to join in their embrace. They had been through so much and came to care deeply for that wonderful silver girl. A part of their soul had been torn from them.

The lit up ceiling, having lost its power, dimmed to the point it was getting hard to see anything in the med bay. Still holding each other close, sitting on the floor, Will squeezed June's shoulders, and got up off the floor. In the near dark, he felt his way down to their lounge and found two flashlights from supplies they had carried over from the 'Saturn's Heart'. Clicking one on, he shined it in front him as he walked back to June.

She hadn't moved from the spot on the floor in front of what was left of Interface's body. Come on, June." Will called to her softly, a hand on her shoulder. "We need to go down to Engineering; she would have left us instructions for how to power up the systems."

June sat there, looking up at him, face wet with spent tears, but now completely wrung out. She showed no emotion, the emptiness she felt clearly painted on her face. Will offered her a hand; she took it and stood up next to him.

They walked out of the med bay in silence, and stopped in their lounge to put some clothes on after their long ordeal. They dressed, too wrung out to care about pulling clothes over the chunks of resin still stuck to their skin.

June looked around at the darkened room lit only by their flashlights, and a small sad smile curled the corner of June's lips. "She was magnificent." She said out loud.

"That she was." Will agreed.

Somberly, they left the lounge and headed down the ramps to level six and toward the mezzanine in Engineering. Walking off the ramp, June suddenly stopped. Will looked at her with concern. "What is it, Hon?"

June's one eye darted around like she was listening to something. "I don't know. There's something... Can you feel it?" She asked?

"Feel? Feel what?" He asked, clearly not knowing what she was talking about.

Her single eye widened. "It's her. I know it. It's her. She's still here!" Will grew worried as June became frantic looking all around, searching. She looked down the corridor to the room that housed the crystalline matrix, and suddenly ran towards it. "Come on, Will!" she yelled, already half way down the corridor before he reacted.

When Will caught up to her, she was pressed against the door to the room containing the matrix, hands sliding all over its surface. "We have to get inside." Will stood behind her, slightly dumb founded, then she said again more forcefully, "Will, we need to get inside. Go get your tools." He shook off his stupor, and ran down to engineering to get his tool, trusting that June knew what she was talking about.

He returned with his heavy drills, torches and hydraulic manipulators. He gestured softly for June to move and she did so. Will set about to work. He took out the largest drill bit he had, tightened it into the chuck of the drill and started boring a hole through the door.

The flat white metal was extremely tough stuff. The large bit squealed loudly in protest as Will ground into the door, but it was finding purchase. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he continued to apply pressure to the drill, when the bit overheated, it snapped in half and shot across the hallway. Will cursed loudly, replaced the bit and continued.

June paced back and forth behind Will as he worked, unable to tear her gaze from the spinning drill bit. After a half hour, the drill punched through, and Will backed the drill out of the fist sized hole. June nudged Will to one side as she peered through the opening. Looking across the room, through the transparent barrier, was the large crystalline matrix. Her heart sank as she saw its darkened state until she spotted a small glowing spark in a far corner of the crystal, for the first time since their rescue, hope rekindled in her heart. "Look, Will! Do you see it?"

He looked through the small opening and his face lit up too. With renewed urgency, he turned to his tool bag, grabbed his hydraulic manipulators and maneuvered them to the small opening. The motors whined as it engaged, pressing outward on the edges of the hole he had cut, and the metal of the door began to shriek in protest as the opening was widened.

Will retracted the manipulator, turned it ninety degrees and the metal door shrieked some more, until the opening was just wide enough to fit his shoulders through. Will stuffed himself through the narrow opening and gestured for his tools, which June passed to him hurriedly.

After they had crawled into the crystal's room with all of Will's tools, June rushed to the barrier for a closer look. The little spark of light sat in the far corner of the crystal, barely shedding light, flickering slightly. "Will, we need to hurry and get through the barrier."

As she stood with her face pressed up against the transparent barrier, staring at the last little spark that was Interface, a thought flash through her mind, sure she knew what needed to be done. "I'll be right back." she said as ran to the door and quickly squeezed back out the hole in the door.

Will got to work right away. As June ran from the room, he brought the drill up to the barrier and attacked it with urgency.

Slipping through the door, June ran up the ramps to their lounge, searching for a backpack they had left behind. She found it then upended it, dumping the contents on the floor. She then ran to the med bay to where the powdered silver pile still lay. Kneeling, she hurriedly scooped handful after handful into the backpack until it was full, then she ran back down to the crystal's room.

Will was swearing as he removed the second shattered bit from the drill's chuck.

"This four dimensional material is tough stuff." He complained to June. " I haven't made a scratch."

"Keep trying, we've got to get to the crystal itself." June said, urging him on.

Will tightened the chuck on his last bit, then continued to drill. Will put all of his body weight into the drill, trying to force it to bite into the material. After a short moment, Sparks flew from the point of contact, and the bit suddenly grew red hot and exploded, showering Will with shrapnel, cutting his face and hands.

Will looked at the barrier and his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"I can't get through it." He said, his tone hushed.

"No, keep trying, we've gotta get through it!" The look in her eye was feral.

"June!", he said more forcefully, "We don't have any tools that can deal with this stuff. We can't get through."

"We can't quit now, she's right there!" June shouted, pointing through the barrier with tears streaming down her face.

"She's dying and she's right there!" June screamed again pounding her fists on the barrier with impotent fury. "LET ME IN!" She shouted with every ounce of anger at being denied her lover, every desire to save her, every fiber of her being she repeated, "LET ME IN!" And was startled when the barrier just beneath her hands caved slightly, reacting to her outburst.

June paused for a moment, taking in this new development, before looking at Will. "Come here. Put your hands on it with me." He did so. "It reacted to me, like how Interface controls the ship. Think about what you want, about how much you want it, how much you need the barrier to open. Push with all your feelings." June placed her hands on the concave spot on the barrier, and Will placed his hands over hers.

"Now feel how much you need it to open!" June said with the conviction of the desperate. "OPEN!" She screamed as they both focused on the need for the barrier to open.

A moment passed, then the concave depression in the barrier deepened then split open, melting away leaving a small hole through it.

June turned to Will and laughed, still with tears streaming down her face, then ran over to grab the backpack she brought down from the lounge.

Will didn't understand what June was doing, but instinct guided her actions; she knew this was right.

Showing Will the contents of the backpack, June said, "We're going to Bond with Interface, and give her all the energy she needs. We had so much more to give her but she couldn't receive it all because we weren't Bonded to her. We can save her Will. We can save her!" She then stuck her hand into the backpack, grabbing a fist full of silver sand, then offered the bag to Will to do the same. He smiled at June and took a hand full out of the bag, and set it on the floor.

She took his empty hand in hers, then stuck her fist, full of silver, into the opening of the barrier and touched the crystal beyond it.

She projected her thoughts as loudly as she could, "Bond with us, be ours!"

Nothing happened for a moment, the little point of blue light in the crystal slid and jerked its way over to where June was making contact.

She said it out loud this time, firmly, with conviction. "Bond with us Interface, We Love You!"

The little light danced through the crystal until it rested in the branch of the crystalline structure that June was touching, then a spark leapt from the crystal to the silver dust in June's clenched fist.

Electric discharge, like when they first watched Interface's body form in the med bay, jumped and arced from between June's fingers, lighting up the room with blue flashes. She withdrew her fist from the hole in the barrier and held the sparking material in her both hands in front of her.

Opening her hands, they watched it and flash as the powder melted into a silvery liquid that flowed back and forth from one palm to the other.

June held her hands over to Will who opened his fingers, exposing his palm full of silver. Sparks leapt from the quicksilver in June's hands to the powder in Will's, growing the sparking frenzy to the small bit of Interface in his hands. It too, melted into liquid; they held their divine gifts in both hands in front of them, as if they were supplicants.

To their surprise, the liquid silver, of its own accord, poured up their arms in defiance of gravity leaving intricately patterned trails of silver over their skins as it rushed up their arms under their clothes. They felt it spread across their shoulders, carrying with it a warming blue glow. It flowed down the backs and their fronts, warm tingling sensations traveled across pectorals and breasts, down their bellies, asses, legs, right down to their toes. It flowed up their necks like a warm embrace, and across their scalp and faces.

June looked at Will and he at her, marveling at the intricate silver lattice woven across the skin of the other's face. The silver lattice glowed faintly blue, a clear sign of to whom they were being Bound.

As their new patterning completed the silver masterpiece on their skin, they felt the warmth sink into the core of their bodies, into the very essence of their beings. The feeling of love and warmth wrapped around them, penetrated them, became one with them. The overwhelming feeling of connectedness nudged them together into an embrace. They stood there for an unaccounted amount of time until they felt the warmth lessen slightly, but unlike the blue glow, it did not fade away.

Still feeling the warmth and belonging in her core, June smiled and said, "The Bond was successful." They looked over to the crystalline matrix, and what was moments before a tiny mote about to extinguish, a lively, but still uncomfortably small, bundle of sparks danced through the dark crystal.

A panel, like those on the bridge several decks above them, lit up next to the door. Hand in hand, June and Will walked over to it, and read Interface's message.

"Oh my Loves, I am so happy! You have given me back everything that I had lost; hope, companionship, love. I am truly blessed to have you now.. As family. You don't need to worry about me any longer. Our connection is strong, I will be able to be with you physically before you know it. WINK ;) One more thing, You two should stay out of this room until I am strong enough to seal that hole you somehow managed to punch in the barrier. Four-D space does funny things to Three-D minds. I love you!"

"Even now, she's such a flirt." Will said with a chuckle.