"And to my likely death. You're a terrible partner and a worse friend. " I said. "Pirates are ninety seconds out."
The Righteous ship fired a prolonged burst of their starboard thrusters and flipped their ship. Gravity took its predictable effect and we fell free. The Righteous were already turning and delivered a broadside towards the bottom of the Powerhungry. The ramp was blasted free and most of the Espionage deck exploded into flames.
Anna was knocked from her feet and I tried to stabilize us. Our thrusters weren't in great shape to start with and we'd been using them a lot. I got a few bursts in before they sparked and died.
It left us stable, but unable to avoid further fire from the Righteous vessel. Their cannons remained on us for long seconds, but nothing happened.
"Wolfson here. Weapon control neutralized and we're heading for the bridge," Wolfson called.
It was an open frequency—I realized it was meant to be. The brilliance of that proved itself a minute later when the pirate vessels came into range. Two began to flank us and rake our hull with fire from energy weapons, but the rest moved to engage the Righteous ship.
Wolfson had bought us a bit more time to survive. The pirates didn't pack the firepower of the Righteous vessel. However, when you couldn't shoot back, that didn't matter.
Anna sat on her throne, securing herself in place with a crash belt. She hit the comm. "Doctor Batavius, I'm going to need you to take out one of the ships attacking us."
"We do not have the supplies to get the guns operational," Batavius said.
"You're mad scientists with a form who can fly. Figure it out," Anna said, before cutting her off. "Emma. Those bombs. Can you make any?"
"I'm not an arms factory. I can generate some spawn from the Power core, but we don't have the detonators," I said.
Anna hit keys again. "Mechos, I need detonators for some bombs. Impress me and I'll forgive your horrible taste in dating partners."
"Tempting, but I can't. Those are specialized parts and take time," Mechos said.
I did my best to try to keep us out of the line of fire, but the pirate vessels were far more maneuverable. Our remaining armor was slowly but surely getting stripped away.
Out of the gaping hole that had once been the Powerhungry’s ramp a swarm of massive bats emerged. They flapped towards the nearest pirate ship and set upon it with what looked to be plasma torches. The ship broke off the attack, wings rocking violently as it tried to dislodge them. That left us taking fire from just the one.
I didn't think we'd survive ramming it. Our hull was already too compromised and while I'd take a Pyrrhic win if I couldn't get anything better, I wasn't interested in dying.
"Okay," Anna said. "You're going to have to teleport me over to the hull. I'll figure it out from there."
"Don't go having delusions of adequacy. That is suicide," I said.
"We don't have a lot of options left."
We didn't. Then the Graven arrived, breaking off from an attack on the Righteous ship. It swooped over the top of the other remaining pirate and opened up with all cannons. The beam weapons tore through the weakest section of the pirate's hull. With smoke trailing from the engines it crashed into the jungle below.
"Think they want the prize all for themselves?" Anna asked, puzzled.
If they did, they wouldn't have called for reinforcements at all.
"This is Ophelia. I've taken control of the Graven. How can I assist?" Ophelia called.
"Thought we'd lost you. We've forces on the Righteous vessel that are going to need an evac," Anna said.
"Tell them to bring me back some Righteous," I said. Their power-dampening goop had proved to be incredibly useful in the past and I was completely out.
The Graven maneuvered to land on top of the Righteous ship. Anna barked orders to Wolfson and his team as the Righteous ship started to leak flames and angle towards the ground.
It took only a few minutes for the Graven to pull away and together we withdrew from the fight. No pirates followed us. We might be a tempting prize, but with the Graven to assist us we were a tempting prize with teeth. The Righteous vessel, on the other hand, was a tempting prize which was defenseless.
17
The Graven docked with us after I diverted some resources into forming a set of basic clamps. It was too valuable a ship to lose, and with it we actually had something approaching some offensive ability. I reconfigured the hull to allow for a hatch and Ophelia slipped through.
Whatever had happened on that ship had changed her. Her eyes had been a pale green with flecks of brown before. Now they were a deep blue and faintly luminescent. It was a familiar hue, the same shade as the light from the stability orb. In one hand she held the severed head of Captain Aldo, which she tossed to Anna.
"Severed body parts. You shouldn't have," Anna said, turning the head to study its features. "This our mark?"
"It is. He was torturing us and there is not much else left of him. We thought you'd appreciate some proof of the kill," Ophelia said.
"You're talking strangely, and you’ve got some... cosmetic alterations. Do I need to have Emma toss you in quarantine?" Anna asked.
"We wouldn't recommend it," Ophelia said with a shake of her head. "We are done with quarantines. We are done with grinders. We have brought you your prize and more besides, and now we are going to sleep."
Ophelia strolled off without another word as Anna stared pointedly at her back, then nodded to one of the Wolf guards accompanying her. "Search and secure the Graven."
It took them about half an hour. There wasn't much else left of the Captain, Ophelia had torn him apart. The fourth crew member was dead too. There was no sign of the stability orb. The crate was empty.
While they searched the ship I'd been scanning Ophelia’s biology. Her metabolism was even more altered now, faster than it had been. Her powers had gotten a boost, and interwoven with her system was a biocomputer link that looked an awful lot like me. If I were going to form a theory, it would be that somehow she had merged with the duplicate of myself and the stability orb.
Anna was less than pleased.
"I told you to leave her to die. Not to leave her with a miniaturized you," Anna said.
"If I hadn't, she wouldn't have taken the Graven and we likely wouldn't have survived the encounter. While I realize that you wish everyone to sink to your level of failure, some of us inevitably succeed," I said.
"This isn't a win, Emma. The Cataclysm brought a lot of new things to Earth and almost without exception they are bad. I've seen a lot and read the records of those who have seen a lot more, and I’ve never read of anything like the way Ophelia has changed. How do you think it happened?" Anna asked with a frown and shake of her head.
"When I left her, Ophelia was dying. She’d been shot multiple times and her healing was neutralized by the orb. If my duplicate was affected by the orb—as I was—it probably found Ophelia a wonderful person deserving of life and worth anything to save. You know the kind things I said about you, my logic was seriously compromised," I said. Just talking about how that orb had made me feel, I wanted to format my whole system.
"What could it have done?" Anna asked.
That was where I didn't have an answer. I hadn't seen any way out of that situation—and my clone shouldn't have been capable of brilliance greater than my own.
"I don't know. Do you want me to throw her into a containment cell?" I asked.