We Need a Deathworlder!

Pressing her helmet against the clear section of the pod, Simone can’t yet peel her eyes from the child within stasis. He stands a bit tilted as he was barely awake from a nap before being placed within. One of his eyes is cracked open, though no sign of consciousness comes through it.

The Terran feels hot streaks roll down her face from her eyes, along with a powerful yet vague sense of relief.

“You’re losing me Thatch… your son?” Thorn says as he peeks at the husk of a space carcass neighbor.

“Her son…” Simone nearly whispers in response, “Sharra. She’s so happy…”

A Cali’s upper hand takes hold of Simone’s forearm.

“Is this why she wanted to come back here? For him?” Chak inquires.

“Yeah… I think so. A lot of those background feelings are making a lot more sense now. She… she kept him and her mate a secret… It… it was for a good reason… Though I don’t know what the reason was. I do know she made sure that he would be given the best chance in the situation she was in.” the redhead replies, wanting to say more. However she didn’t quite know how to say it.

Chak slowly peeks but recoils upon catching the lively visage of the Manarian child. It’s such a surprise that she could feel her legs numbing up. She’s at first confused as to why she has such a visceral reaction to a immoble child, until she remembers what Simone entailed. It was real, the galactic-wide encoding project is real.

To her very core she felt a nearly uncontrollable fear, and if she felt that way… every other species in the galaxy may indeed be inflicted in the same way. This child may have survived the test of the cold everlasting unfeelingness of the universe till now, but even if he’s saved from this orbital tomb… there is truly no place for him.

Chak takes a deep breath, knowing what must be done.

“Then we should work quickly. We don’t know how the Seekers will react if they find him as well.” she chirps before turning to Devin, “Work with Simone, and find out our options to extract that child as safe as possible in our narrow timeframe.”

“Right.” the male Terran agrees as he approaches Simone’s side to set up his equipment.

Taking a surprising amount of effort to tear her eyes free from the child, Simone looks to Chak.

“Thank you, hun.” she speaks with immense appreciation lacing every word, knowing the additional turmoil this may cause in the future.

“Of course, we’ll figure this out. We always do.” Chak assures before looking back to the doorway where the ancient bodies of the Terrans lay, “Thorn, can you please take care of them?”

“Yeah, I got body bags on me. Didn't think I’d be using them for Terran ones here, but that’s life for ya.” the older Terran responds with a casual salute, revealing where Simone picked up the habit from.

“Thank you.” the Cali says before returning to Simone, “Is there anything else we need to find here? Anything at all?”

It’s difficult for Simone to separate her thoughts cleanly from the Manarian meddling. But takinging the time to focus she comes to a realization.

“Yeah. A few things.” she says before nudging Devin, “I’ll be right back. Don’t take any risks with him, I’m trusting you with this.”

Nodding, Devin doesn’t say a word showing that he is in his zone.

With that, Simone gives the toddler one last gaze before forcing her boots to move out of the room.

“This way.” she informs Chak as she moves around Nee and Dov to the locked door.

Increasing her strength output she hammered her fist over the hidden locking mechanisms. It takes a short while, but eventually the integrity gives way, allowing the door to be forced open most of the way.

“Where exactly are we going?” Chak asks as she follows through the doorway. She can’t help but gasp from seeing several free floating Manarian husks.

“Just down to the end of this passageway.” Simone replies, being sure to carefully push the ancient bodies to the side and away for the Cali behind her.

Pressing on Simone eventually stops at an open doorway to her left. Taking a considerable moment to prepare herself.

“Simone?” Chak says from behind, taking hold of the Terran’s armored paw. Who squeezes back in thanks.

“Communications room.” Simone clarified before stepping in.

Other than the floating debris and bodies in the room, it was surprisingly untouched considering the havok the rest of the station endured. Simone scans her eyes over the two floating bodies, but only one takes her fully undivided attention.

A female Manarian, a bit older in her years. In her back is still the sunken blade that did her in all those millenia ago.

Being overly careful, Simone takes hold of the wispy clothing and drags it down to her gut level.

Sharra, the infamous scientist who afflicted an entire galaxy from a time long past. Now hovering before the very Terran who holds what remains of her copied consciousness.

“This is her.” Simone updates Chak, “The bitch that’s probably the root cause for all the shit going on in my life. The encoding, the children of Gaia, my mother…” the Terran bites her cheek as the swirling background feelings in her mind process millions of different outcomes, “I could be working on my colony, probably inheriting my father’s business… still having my father in my life… Her actions here ruined my chance for a normal fuck’n life, thouands of years before I was even born.”

Chak remains silent, just allowing her fiance to say what she needs to say.

“I really never had a choice, did I? One way or another I was going to end up here regardless. Somehow I ended up with her in my head, and I doubt that I won some incredibly unlucky raffle. Why me? Why am I the only one with her? I sure as hell know others don’t have this bitch in their brain, otherwise this station would have been found long before now. Even fucking now, when i’m literally here and holding her in my own hands… I don’t have all the answers. And I’m starting to think I’m not going to get many more. No matter what I do.” Simone vents. Though anger isn’t what backs her words, rather it’s unsettled contemplation, “Sharra was a goddamn true-to-life villain. An inhumanly cruel swine who in service to her nation did more harm than anyone could ever hope to achieve in the universe. I hate her with every fiber of my being for all that she has done. And yet… I know first hand that she genuinely loved her son and did everything she could to protect him and her mate from… something… She knew what compassion was… she understood it. I’m not sure if that makes it all a little better or far worse.”

Chak can’t help but think of her father. That despite everything he has done, he might still have the capability to love someone other than his own greedy self. He made choices, choices that perhaps did weigh on him to some extent. Though the Princess knows diplomacy with him is no longer an option, regardless of his feelings or justifications. He made those choices, and she has made hers. In time, they both will see the consequences follow through.

“Whether they were good or bad, she had reasons and made choices accordingly. We live in a result of those choices, but that doesn’t mean you never had your own.” Chak points out, “You chose to fight those who tried to change you. You chose to save me and embark in my own plight. You chose to help a mother and became one yourself. You’ve made so many choices, Simone. And yes, you’re standing here because of her. That child gets another chance, because you’re here. But… what’s the choice you're going to make? That is not for some dead Manarian to decide. It’s yours. I’m choosing to do everything within my power to help him.” the princess says, comfortingly wrapping a lower arm around the redhead’s waist.

Simone smiles and nods.

“You’re right.” she agrees. Glancing down at Sharra’s face the Terran sighs, “I’ll keep him safe, you fuck’n piece of trash.”

With that, Simone peels free the triangular device on the corpse's forehead and pushes the body away. Holding it up, Simone presents it to the Cali.

“This is like their version of a Lens, should hopefully have important data in it. If we figure out how-”

“Another seven vessels have dropped out of FTL and are inbound! Friends of yours!?” Thera’s voice comes through both their comms. Images accompany it with six armed medium sized transport craft and a leading destroyer warship in the vague shape of a rounded shark tooth.

All of which are branded with the colors of the Children of Gaia.

“Negative! Not friendly! I repeat, not friendly!’ Simone roars back before opening a direct line to Thorn and Devin, “We need to evacuate asap! Devin, can we get the kid out?’

“No, not without exposing him to the vacuum of space. Sorry Red.” The man responds genuinely.

“Fuck!” the redhead snaps as she hurries back with Chak towards the podbay.

“The Seekers have fled, we are pulling our ships closer to the station wreckage! They have yet to fire upon us.” Chucknuq reports.

“This can’t be a trap. They must have followed us here… but how!?” Chak speaks up before she is stopped by Simone’s arm from turning into the podbay.

Simone’s heart races, as the thought of her old crew somehow being linked with the Children of Gaia forces itself into the forefront of her mind.

She racks her brain for any possible sign, anything she might have overlooked. Then the image of what Sam became and of what Thorn currently is now comes to her.

Was his story all a lie?

Was everything with them all a lie!?

Did they just fucking use her to find this place!?

“Simone!? We have to go!” Chak cries out, noticing the redhead stare off into open space in the midst of a growing panic attack.

Hyperventilating, Simone shakes her head. She has to get moving, it’s all over anyway if her old crew proves her panicked conspiracy true.

Press on. Press on. Press on.

“Right.” she utters before making that turn to see that the two ancient humans were already moved. Leaving a stain where the ages past dried blood kept the two in place on the ground like cement.

“Th-Thorn!?” Simone calls out, her nerves still remaining high.

“Right here! The shuttle is open and ready for us, but we still got one last passenger to grab!” he replied as he flew through the podbay and thrusting around into the hidden room.

Simone haggers out breaths as she follows him in.

Devin still works away at his equipment, frantically doing his best to see if the toddler’s pod has any relevant feature for the pressing situation.

“Red I could use some translating!” he barks.

“On it.” the redhead replies, guiding herself over to him and the panel on the pod itself.

The Manarian indication text presents itself and as Simone’s brain tries to make sense of it another call comes in.

“The flagship is hailing us.” Chucknuq informs.

Simone grits her teeth and narrows her eyes at the text. She needs time and this little kid needs her.

“Patch it directly to me.” she says.

“Are you cert- hm… aye-aye.”

Waiting for the line to fully connect, the redhead clears her throat. Before anyone on the Gaia side can utter a word she beats them to the punch.

“Look, if this is about our ship’s extended warranty you can cram it. You people always call at the most inconvenient times and I gotta say it’s really starting to tick me off.” she says with as much sass as she can muster while reading, “Seriously, whether it's when I’m sitting down with dinner or when I’m trying to go to sleep my Lens goes off and completely throws off my vibe!”

“Simone Thatch. As pleasant as our records show.” a richly thick woman’s voice responds before a profile video feed accompanies it, “At least we managed to squeeze out some sort of use for you.”

The woman’s face is tanned by sunlight and her chocolate brown hair is tied back with a polished sharp bone keeping the ponytail in place. Around her neck is a handcrafted necklace of small beads with a long prehistoric obsidian spear tip down the center. Shoulders down however, she is dressed in surprisingly modern maroon military wear, though Simone doesn’t recognize it as Union standard. Though a dark human handprint over her breast pocket does stand out.

“Glad I can be of service. Now kindly fuck off would ya? You obviously don’t want this place blown to kingdom come otherwise it would already be spacedust. We’ll get out of your hair and leave it all to ya, don’t worry.” Simone says before selecting an option in the panel.

“How observant. But we will be more than willing to decimate the crafts around that station. In hopes to reduce collateral however, we are open to your peaceful surrender.” the woman responds, her expression giving away a bit of an eye twitch.

“Sure, but just give me a few to spread your offer around would ya? Put it to a vote and see where everyone stands. Oh! By the way, that brain virus you sent my way? Nearly did me in, I’ll give ya that. But a bit counterproductive if you needed what’s in the old noggin.” Simone says, hiding her annoyance that she is finding nothing at all useful.

The woman glances to the side towards someone not within view. Her face is both annoyed and even unnerved by whoever’s there.

“That was a contingency. One which was not recalled in the time we would have hoped. You have made many enemies in the Children of Gaia’s ranks, Ms. Thatch.” the woman explains, a feverish anger sparking in her eyes.

“Oooh… that looked personal… What did I do? Cut you off in traffic? Steal the last frozen burrito from your freezer? Send you a Rolling Rick on a message chain?” Simone rattles on, shaking her head at Devin to say that there was nothing useful.

To which the man leans back in stress, trying to come up with something that could work. Thorn reaches out a hand to his shoulder and seems to ask something through the comm, but Simone is too distracted to know what.

The feed of the woman shows her fit her hands behind her back and straightens her posture even more than it already is.

“You’ve met my late husband, Kole.”

The redhead’s face cringes as tightly inhales air through her teeth.

“Ooooooh… My condolences…. Your taste in men must really be a dumpster fire…” Simone mumbled, feigning pity.

Not amused in the slightest, the woman’s eye twitches much more noticeably.

“You have no clue how lucky you are. If you were standing anywhere else in this damn universe I’d-”

“What? Turn my braincase into chunky wall pudding like my wife did to your poor hubby-wubby? Ha! Fuck you and that facist trash. He got what was coming to him, and you will too you caveman-fetishizing-cunt!” Simone releases, now free to actually focus more on the conversation.

The woman’s face was glistening red, like a boil about to burst. But before she can say anything more, another voice speaks up.

“Simone. I thought your father would have taught you better than to use such foul language.” a much older woman’s voice speaks up.

The redhead can feel her blood freeze up in an instant. She doesn’t recognize that voice, but she really doesn't need to.

“Who’s that…” Simone utters, already fearing the answer.

“You know who.” the older voice responds.

Having not expected this, nor able to bounce back, the redhead looks to the nearby Princess. She knows she can't help, but her eyes demand something remotely comforting. Something that can avert her emerging blinding rage.

“I don’t like hurting people. But hear me, I’m going to watch the life leave your eyes, and I’m going to savor every goddamn millisecond. I promise, with all my heart.” the redhead states coldly.

“So dramatic.” the older woman says with an eye roll tone, “Listen now, your precious Cali toy doesn’t have to die. Or any of these gutter-folk you’ve associated yourself with for that matter. Surrender and send yourself with everything you’ve collected in a shuttle our way, and the rest can go. I’d say that’s rather generous in these circumstances.”

“Shove it you crazy bitch!” Simone immediately snaps.

“There’s your father’s temper. Well, out of the generosity of my heart I’ll give you ten minutes to calm down. You know this is the best option you will have. I’d think twice before proving yourself to be even more of a disappointment.”

With that the line drops, leaving everyone looking at the redhead in concern.

Biting back her pride and rage, Simone looks to the two other Terrans.

“I bought us ten minutes, maybe more. They really don’t want to lose this place. Any ideas?” she says.

“Thorn has one… but… it’s a big gamble. If not outright insane.” Devin replies with little confidence.

Simone gazes directly at the older man expectantly.

“I’ve been scanning this place around us up and down. I think it can be done.”

-

Scales turning ghostly white, Chucknuq lines up the Kwip-chap’s cannons precisely where instructed. Though aiming such an arminanet so near where presumably his crewmates stand does not sit right with him in the slightest.

“At the ready…” he updates.

“We’re all set too. Fire on my mark…” Simone responds, “Mark!”

Placing more trust in Simone than he has ever done before, the Captain forest the cannons a single time without hesitation. He watches as the impact strikes, reeling a huge segment of the already shattered station even more free in a tailspin. But the impact point has struck perfectly on it.

“By the stars… may I not regret that…” he whispers to himself before engaging his next instruction to hide the Kwip-chap behind as much debris as possible.

-

The silent explosion rocks both Simone and Thorn with such force that if it isn’t for their augmented strengths, they would have been thrown cleanly free into open space.

The newly created massive seering-red opening within the podbay exposes dashing stars and a swiftly moving moon surface as the structure they braced within spins.

“Yippee Ki-Yay! Haaahahaa!” Thorn cheers before nodding to Simone on the other side of the kid’s pod to prepare, “We’re only gonna get one shot! Trust me Red?”

Along with the adrenaline, Simone feels a pang of guilt for letting her brain think that these idiots could have any involvement with the Gaia fucks. The cultists are insane, but these spacer bounty hunters are on a completely different level.

“With all my heart you crazy cowboy!” she shouts back.

“Shuttle on approach!” Devin’s voice notifies through the comm.

Taking her cue, Simone taps at the pod’s panel for it to open. Normally it would have had to first begin a flushing sequence, but that’s to Devin’s fiddling it skipped that procedure entirely. Instead the pod opens and the status fluid like crystalized gelatold warbles free into the vacuum.

In a swift and graceful movement Thorn takes a thankfully airtight bodybg and scoops up the inhabitant along with as much stasis fluid as he can manage.

Then the two bolt out of the hidden room in a flash just in time to watch the shuttle scrape on in through the new opening and practically crash into the opposing wall of pods. With the shuttle door already open, Chak stands inside at the ready to manually throw it closed. Together with both of their augmented might at max, the Thorn and Simone kick off the handprint wall -denting it- and like bullets with cargo zoomed right in. Before they can hit the shuttle’s other side they put all their thrusters at full burn, leaving distinct scorch marks before coming to a stop.

Chak having slammed the door shut the automatic repressurization kicks in, and within seconds completes in bringing the atmosphere back.

Wasting no time Simone throws her helmet to the side and opens the body bag, begging the stars themselves that the one contained within it will not be permanently staying.

The bag almost busts as the stasis fluid evaporates away, leaving only the exposed Manarian toddler.

Pulling off her gauntlets and deactivating the rest of her power armor Simone begins to reach in, until Thorn takes hold of her wrist in caution.

“Wait a moment, Mama bear…” he mumbles as his cyan eye looks the child up and down, “No spinal injuries… no broken bones… not seeing inflammation… not concussed… Alright, Mama-bear away.”

Sighing in relief and in thanks Simone gently takes hold under the body and head to lift. Despite being a body bad for an adult Terran, this child's folded wings and grasper tail fills out quite a bit of it. The redhead actually finds the weight distribution a bit awkward at first, naturally expecting it to be like a Terran toddler.

But she manages to crawl back with him more or less cradled in her arms. Resting her back against the Shuttle wall she sits and brushes a bit of the boy’s head fur from his face.

His massive purplish plumes of ears twitch as his face scrunches up as if rudely woken from a nap. He lifts his tail up and rubs his own flat bat-like nose with the end grasper. He must have agitated himself, because he screeches out a sharp sneeze. Causing his four dark blackish red fangs to fully expose and his ear plumes to temporarily puff out even more.

“Hey buddy…” Simone utters, her heart melting in that instant.

At the sound of her voice, his two eyes blink open wide. He looks at her blankly, ears still twitching like crazy.

“Abommmmm maaaaaaaz…” he incoheriently mumbles in neither G.S or Manarian from what Simone can tell.

“Helloooo! Helloooo!” The redhead giggles as she pokes the boy’s nose.

In retaliation he snatches her hand with his tail grasper with surprising accuracy. Then without removing his eyes from her, he brings her hand closer and starts to mindlessly chew on it. Despite having sharp teeth, he doesn’t bite down very hard. In the back of Simone's head, she simply knows this is just how Manarian babies meet and greet new faces. In fact… she knows she’s going to have a lot of biting in her future. Maybe the Manarian-bits in her head is gonna be a very positive thing after all…

“Glad that’s he’s in one piece, but we’re still about to fuck’n die!” Devin shouts in the shared comm channel as he manually pilots the shuttle. To his side he witnesses a barrage of missiles launching forth from the Gaia destroyer ship.

“On your left!” Brandy’s voice calls out as she swings the Bust’s Blunder around in a sweeping maneuver as a protective shield. However instead of letting the guided barrage continue its course, the old warship lights up like the universe’s largest sparkling firework. The array of missiles are gunned down in splendorous glory. Any that make it through collide against the Bust’s Blunder’s shields with little effect on their own.

“Thanks Brandy… Chucknuq, takes us out the moment we dock!” Devin instructs.

“Aye! Hahaha! Cargo doors ready to receive!” the Captain replies.

Thinking on it, Simone decides to give her own orders.

“Troy… divert your guns to that station. Obliterate it into that moon.” she says, trying to not sound too sharp-toned in front of the kid.

“Hell YES!” Troy cheers before the line of fire from the Bust’s Blunder cascades down upon the remains of the station. In silent explosions and eruptions the main masses are torn to shreds if not sent on a one way trip to the moon’s ice crusted surface.

In mere moments, the shuttle docks within the Kwip-chap. Soon resulting in this perilous nightmare coming to an end as the two allied vessels delve into FTL one after the other.

-

Completely unaware of the extraction or level of danger he was just in, the toddler keeps staring up at Simone with his beautiful large golden irises resting in red. His cat-like pupils expand and contract as he finds interesting features of the ape’s face.

“Hmmmamble…” he warbles.

“Oh yeah? That so?” Simone replies with a soft voice.

“Ommmma!” the boy retorts.

Simone pretends to gasp, making the kid jolt in place.

“No waaaaay!” she says in playful astonishment.

As if her heart can’t take any more, the toddler screeches out a giggling laughter. His still developing wings flap slightly from under her arms revealing a gorgeous moth-like pattern on their inner membrane.

“Chak… you have to come meet him! Come look at his-” she starts to invite, before noticing that the Cali now stands outside of the shuttle partially hiding away, “What’s wrong hun?”

Chak still having her helmet on, looks to the ground and away shamefully.

“Oh… I uhm… I’m alright… I’m glad he’s unharmed and in good spirits.” she mumbles, poorly covering her discomfort.

Simone looks back and forth confused, until it hits her. Dropping her melted heart into a freezing cold pit.

“The encoding…?” she asks.

“Oh! I- uhm… Seems so. I’m sorry.” the Cali confirms, unable to lie about it.

Not knowing what to say, Simone nods and carefully stands herself up.

“I’m… I’m going to check him in with Dave. Make sure he’s all good.” she notifies.

“Good! Uhm.. good.” Chak says, the awkward air more than apparent.

-

“Bruhhh! Guess who’s back!? Back! Back again! Smack a friend!” Dave greets as the Terran steps on.

“I don’t think that’s how it goes… and not for me this time! This lil’ guy needs a health evaluation.” Simone chuckles as she enters, bouncing the toddler in her arms.

“Whoaaa… bro! That’s like, a whole new species I don’t know! Crazy! I’ll do what I can do. Set the snot machine right here!”

Looking wearily at the circular machine, the boy wraps his tail all the way around Simone as she carries him to the bed.

“Sup slugger! I see we’re gonna have to take things chill-like. Groovy with me lil’ man! I’ll just give ya a little thorough scan here aaaaaaaaand done-zo! Yep all healthy in that department! Though I don’t have any records to go on so I’m gonna need a teeeny tiny blood sample.”

One of Dave’s tendrils slowly approaches only to be swatted away by a retaliting Manarian tail.

“Bingo!” dave declares, apparently using that brief contact as the opportunity for a sample, “More good news! Still healthy! But I will let you know that he is completely blind out of his left eye! Not from any injury or disease from what I can tell, but his eyeball is a bit… degraded. But it looks like the degradation has stopped and we’ll be sure to monitor this lil’ bro moving forward!”

“Is he gonna need a patch or something? Surgery even?” Simone asks.

“Nope! Looks like he can do just fine as is. From what I can tell he mostly perceives things with those big ol’ honkin fluff’n ears of his, damn I can tell they’re soft! If the condition progresses or worsens, then we can start talkin’ that stuff. For now, he gets a green card and a candy! I wish I had actual candy to give… so do a cool doc a solid and give ‘im one?”

Smirking, Simone nods and moves to cross the walkway for the mess hall.

“Will do. Thanks Dave!” she says as she leaves.

“Hey Red!” Thorn calls out while seeming to have a conversation with the Captain, “Lil’ mothman all good?”

“All good, he’s just- ah!” the redhead starts to respond before the child bites into her shoulder. Again not harshly, but certainly enough to be surprising. Her first instinct it to gently reprimand him, but… something tells her this is normal if not expected.

She should feel relieved, but her mind drifts to the possibility of the other non-Deathworlders on board being bitten in the future. What if this kid were to really hurt someone by accident? He doesn’t know any better. Would it be for the best if she did reprimand the biting? Even if that goes against what the background feelings are telling her?

“Oh my! Look at him! Adorable yet making my inside want to fold inside out! Bwhaha!” Chcuknuq says as he approaches with Thorn, though he does noticeably keep a bit of a distance.

“Yeah… still figurin’ what do to from here.” Simone admits.

“Chakalata’motaas did ask if we should hold a crew-wide meeting after we drop out of FTL. I didn’t think it was necessary until seeing the lad for myself. Perhaps we can all hash out what’s to come next then?” Chucknuq says, curiously eyeing the still biting toddler.

“That… would be for the best.” Simone grants a bit somberly.

“Something bothering you Ms. Thatch? Did something else happen in our grand escape?” the Captain inquires.

“Yeah… actually. I guess we’ll go over that later.” Simone admits. It isn’t a lie, several bomb shells were all dropped at once while on that star-forsaken station. A lot of emotions being jerked around like a damn pinball machine in a relatively short amount of time. So much to unpack, for sure.

But oddly enough… all she can think about is this kid. Probably because of what’s currently in her brain she… already feels like he is hers to raise. That already this boy might as well be her son, because… well… she feels like he is.

Even entertaining the thought of having to choose between him and the rest of her family here… disturbs her to no end.