I jogged to catch up with Akash the moment I had left the room. 

"Hey, are you doing okay?" I asked. "Even I know that fighting against the Morde Kash is something that should be done at a distance, and preferably with heavy artillery."

Of course, that wasn't something that I knew with any personal experience with the creatures, I was just going off of the similar species that I had seen in various forms of media over the years. If these things were like the borg or the cybermen, then a single touch could be enough to set off the conversion process. Though I wasn't sure how they would handle biological material that was as exotic and unique as the wood-like flesh of Akash. 

"I am doing fine," Akash said, there was a short edge to his tone. "I take it Belana has summoned you to deal with this Morde Kash situation as well." 

"Yeah, that's what I'm assuming anyway," I replied, "The notification didn't mention what he wanted me for, just that I needed to show up as soon as possible."

That being said, if Belana wanted me for anything else after Akash's fight then I would have been quite surprised at the timing of it all. 

We rounded a corner, and the moment we were out of view of the rest of the Initiates we were absorbed by the telltale white flash of teleportation magic. 

The magic deposited us in what I could only describe as bedlam. 

While there had been a medical bay in the Initiate room, the one that we were in now was lined with actual beds instead of anti-gravity areas for patients to float in. Not only that, there were a combination of the medical droids we had seen before and aliens, seemingly from Belana and Lara's species, walking around in thick biohazard suits. 

All of a sudden I felt distinctly underdressed. 

In the middle of it all was a screaming, flailing, Thiss. 

The alien was strapped down to an operating table by energy cuffs, but the biological members of the team were still being sure to stay as far away from the creature as they could. They knew that if they got too close they would be at risk of being absorbed into the Morde Kash hive mind, and if they were absorbed there was likely a major chance that they'd end up infecting everyone else in the room as well. 

"Is it common for you to abduct your Initiates in the middle of a tournament?" I asked as I spotted Belana walking toward us. "Or have you come to finish the job that the Null Space Hybrids couldn't when you left us all for dead on the ocean floor?"

To his credit, Belana didn't rise to my jibes, though from a slight twitch in his brow I could tell that my words had rankled him. No one liked to be called out, and it was probably even worse than you were being called out by a species that you so obviously thought you were better than in every single way. 

"Very funny, Mr Lyre," Belana shot back, "But please, enough of your incessant bantering, no matter how hard that may be for a human such as yourself, we are in a bit of a situation if you haven't noticed." 

"And so you have, once again, called upon Jacob and me to help dig you out of it," Akash weighed in, piling even more onto the inept squadron leader. "I look forward to seeing the back of the guard, if these are the actions of one of its most esteemed leaders." 

Still, Belana didn't rise to our taunting. Maybe he had more leadership qualities than I had been giving him credit for. 

"Yes well, your opinions of myself and the operation of the Guard aside, we need to talk about the Morde Kash in the room," Belana said, gesturing toward the snarling alien, its bent limbs still struggling to break free of their bindings. 

"How did you even let something like that into the tournament?" I asked, "Surely there have to be screenings for an eventuality exactly like this." 

"Well, let's go over the facts, shall we," Belana said. "The fact of the matter is, Thiss wasn't a member of the Morde Kash when they became a part of the Guard Initiate program. They were completely fine. 

"Some time over the past few days is likely when they became infected, and then they used some kind of perception shimmer to hide their bio-augments from view until they got into the fight with Akash." 

That was a concerning thought. 

If Thiss had been infected over the past few days, that meant we didn't only have an invasion of Null Space invaders and Lara's human crew to worry about, there was also a rising cyber-army on the horizon too. 

So much for Prespian City being a world with the perfect defence, instead it had trapped a helpless mega-city of billions of civilians in between numerous growing threats that they had no real way to get away from.

Things were reaching a boiling point, and if we didn't figure something out soon to relieve the pressure they were going to spill over and cascade out of control. 

"Okay then… well, what do you suggest Squadron Leader Belana?" I asked, putting extra emphasis on the 'Squadron Leader' portion of the sentence. 

"After this tournament is over, you had planned to leave this world and the Guard behind had you not?" Belana asked. 

I nodded my response. 

"In which case, I must ask you to stay just a little bit longer on Prespian City. Not as a member of the Guard, but as consultants of sorts. Independent contractors," the Squadron Leader went on. "You will be paid in full for your services, but this potential invasion must be put to bed before it can begin. One Morde Kash is nothing, but an army can overhwlem a world quicker than any Null Space horde."

Well, that would solve our money problems pretty soundly.