I was feeling a bit out of my element at the moment as I sat there cradling my Leva’s head across my legs. Ess was unconscious and sporting nine circular jagged burn marks along the side of her body from my inexperienced medical treatments. I supposed that what I had done was passable. It couldn’t have been worse than what a symbiotic Levasucker could have done I supposed. I mean, I did have the guidance of the Last Engineer’s helm to guide me. I was so thankful that the helm had been programmed with medical treatments and that it had actually kicked in gear when it had.

“That was too close,” I whispered to myself as my fingers traced over Ess’s starburst of scales. I had started to have my gloves retreat into bracelets around my wrists while I was petting her. I could still feel through the gloves, the same as I could with my hands, it just looked strange and bothered me.

What would I have done if the helm’s programming hadn’t come to the rescue? I hadn’t even been aware that cr or the Last Tunneler’s gloves could do that. All of my experience with cr had been wide-open power. I just did not have the skills or fine-tune control to heat something up to the proper temperature needed to fuse a Leva’s tough skin and scales together.

Not only that, but it had happened again. I had gotten angry and hadn’t managed to retain control of myself, resulting in it escaping. It, the jumble of characters that “!^*!” my hive called itself. How could I go home like this? Emotions were a part of life and getting angry was just one of those emotions.

I felt like I was drugged and unaware of the side effects happening inside my body.

Who could I ask to take a look at me? Who possibly could help me with my problems? I was a human who had become a digital being that was subsequently assimilated by an alien creature. I felt like I was becoming a bomb or worse. Too many things were out of my control.

“And now you are hurt,” I muttered as I leaned against Ess and looked down her length at the ugly scars now marring her side.

“Plus, I lost Meditati,” I said as I tried to think of my available options. Life wasn’t like a video game, you didn’t have quest logs to tell you where to go next. Or did I? I decided to use my Prime Speed Control key to give me time to think.

I had three concerns right now. I needed to make it so that Ess couldn’t be hurt again, heal her, and find Meditati’s module. Two of those were easy fixes, at least in my mind. I would use up the rest of my obsidian cr to cover the rest of my hatchling in a barrier of cr and track down that busybody that had been back and forth checking us out while we searched the asteroid. If anyone had seen someone or knew something about where the module had gone, I suspected that the pilot of that ship could at least give me a hint as to where I should look.

Healing Ess… was something that I was a little unsure about. I opened a search command and had it look for anything that mentioned healing. The first result surprised me. I hadn’t thought much about the Nurse alien metamorphosis as an option.

“Nurse repairs life?” I questioned as I weighed the options. It would make it so that I wouldn’t have to worry so much about Ess getting into trouble in the future. It was worth a shot if it helped heal her scars and repair any damage that losing energy caused. As for energy, I could solve that right now.

I turned off my Prime speed key and stood up slowly, lifting Ess gently. I carried her to the center of the nest that she had been working on hollowing out and laid her considerable length down in the middle. I was willing to try to feed her some nest material but was keeping that as a last resort since I didn’t know if feeding her while she was passed out would be a good idea. I hoped that her laying amongst the radiating mass would preserve and possibly start to fill her energy reserves up again.

At my command, dark obsidian cr flowed across the floor and went to work covering the top of her body, leaving her belly exposed to the nest for the time being. I had gold cr accent the edging of her scales so that I could see the outline of her body. If I only used obsidian cr it was impossible for me to tell which way she was facing. Against a hostile creature that feature of obsidian cr would be invaluable, but for being able to see my wyrm and to be able to use depth perception, not so much.

As it was, she looked unreal. It was as though white scale shapes were floating in space down her length.

Leaving her there, I stepped away from the nest and over to where the piles of depleted nest material lay. Out of annoyance at how messy it all looked, I guided the creation of two double rows of shelves to contain the shrunken orb-like masses.

“That won’t do,” I muttered. Any sudden shift while we were flying would send the chunks all over the bay again. I commanded the cr to compress the hardened material into cubes and to secure them in place with little brackets. This produced a much more visibly pleasing and safe result.

“Nice, billets of depleted and shaped goo,” I said as I admired the full shelves. Surely someone had thought up a name for the substance other than Leva nest material by now. If not, I was going to start calling Leva goop.

With the bay cleaned up, I summoned the gold cr pulp cubes up from beneath the floor and stared down at the last eleven that remained. I hoped that eleven was enough to force a metamorphosis to happen. I really didn’t want to have to go harvest some more cr or to sacrifice parts of my ship. If I remembered correctly, the Last Tunneler’s gloves reduced a lot of raw gold cr to make just one of those cubes. I wouldn’t have a ship left if I tried to do that.

“Here goes nothing,” I said as I reached down and began to let my worker drones eat the cubes one at a time.

It took nine of the eleven cubes before I felt a change happen inside me. It felt like I had turned on a stove and the heat was slowly becoming noticeable. Curious as to what would happen if I let them eat the last two cubes I watched as they both dissolved into my open palms.

“Okay. I would like to create a Nurse please.” I told my awaiting hive. I felt like I was hot, not sweaty hot as though it was humid but hot all over like I was running a fever. I hadn’t felt this way since I had become a Guest of the Tela. I felt sick.

“What is happening?” I asked as my head felt light and the room started to spin. I swore that even the cr around me was dripping and flowing like a melting candle.

I must have passed out because the next thing that I knew I was blinking my eyes open slowly. The cargo bay floor was right next to my face and I was looking at the bottom shelf of stacked Leva goop. Yup, I had passed out.

“Hello, father.” A soft voice said inside my head.

Ah, crap. What had I done now?

I used my Prime Speed Control key to freeze time and to playback the last few moments. Sure enough, I had passed out like an Oscar award-winning actor seconds after I had asked my hive to create a Nurse for me. My head had fallen backward as my eyes became glazed and unfocused, leading to a spectacular tumble to where I now lay.

I hadn’t noticed it before but my mind felt... heavier. It felt like I had a brick sitting inside my mind.

“Ah, I am sorry about that. My mind takes up a bit of room inside here. Workers barely take up anything.” I heard the little voice say inside my head. This wasn’t like Invicta at all. Invicta was on the edges of my mind, this little voice felt like I was thinking it.

“Well, yes, silly. How else would you guide me?” I heard her little voice laugh.

“So, you are inside my mind?” I asked tentatively. I hadn’t expected anything like this. The worker drones hardly ever spoke unless spoken to.

“Yup, and boy did they do a number on you.” She said as I thought of everything that had happened since becoming a Guest to the Tela.

Oh no! I was becoming possessed! I hadn’t been the one to draw up those memories.

“Calm down. I just need to learn what has happened and what is going on.” She said as I felt my worker swarm obey her and show her their collective memories as well.

“Wow! You are really special. Lucky and special. !^*! don’t have male monarchs. Monarch Queens are all born female from the Hive Mother. You were so lucky that the Queen who created your hive died before she could finish. Now you are the first male Monarch to exist.”

“Um, is that going to cause problems for you?” I asked as I turned off my Prime Speed Control key. It didn’t seem to make any difference to my Nurse if I was using it or not. She was inside my mind. I pushed myself up from the floor jerkily. At least I still had control of my body.

“Why would that be a problem? You are my Father. I will serve you.” She said before I felt a rush of heat through my mind.

“As I said earlier. Your mind is all messed up. May I start fixing it?” She asked as I blinked a few times before heading over towards the nest where Ess was coiled up.

“First things first, I need to stay on track,” I said as I climbed over the outer lip of the nest. “Can you heal my Leva please?” I asked as I moved roughly to come to rest next to the side that held Sublimis’s scars. Why was I moving like I was drunk?

“Sorry Father, a Leva is an incompatible life for me to exist inside of. Your memories hint that she will heal that on her own when she wakes though."

“Incompatible how?” I asked, thinking that she might be lying to me.

“A Leva is mostly energy-based. I can’t force her life energy to do anything. She has to learn how to process and cultivate it herself. I can repair you and your kind, however. As for why you are moving oddly, that is my fault, your mind hasn’t adjusted to having me inside it yet. I take up more space.” She said as I could slowly feel my movements returning to normal.

“So can I fix your mind and body already? Your memories show me that this is not the real way you are meant to be.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, for one thing, your emotions were tampered with the moment that you were absorbed by the digital entity known to you as the System. In addition to that, the Absorption and Assimilation process almost turned you into a drone. Your anger emotions are still linked to your worker drones. When you get angry you become a drone until you gain control again, killing or fighting everything in your path that your anger is focused on.”

“What? Can you prove any of this?” I asked in fear. Had I lost myself?

“Ha! When was the last time you realized that Invicta was naked? I mean, really realized it like a human male would? You haven’t been turned on since starting this life as a Guest. If that isn’t an indication that your mind has been messed with and your emotions suppressed then I don’t know what would.”

I stared at the scars on Ess’s side, not seeing them as I tried to force my brain to remember what life had been like before I had touched Hxerdinand’s shoulder and been unmade by the cr of the Tela. I remembered dating, kisses filled with heat, my heart beating fast in my chest, and passion. Ever since becoming a Guest, everything had been suppressed, like the top half of my emotions was just gone.

Sure, I had noticed that Invicta wasn’t wearing any clothes but it hadn’t bothered me. It had just tickled the back of my mind a little. Teasing me with something that should have been different.

“You won’t make me into the Swarm of Death will you?” I asked. I had learned to be more cautious the hard way after I had almost blended Silver’s sister into dust. I kept feeling like every choice I made was influenced or the wrong one.

“Mmm… nope. I serve you. We could make a Swarm of whatever you want though. It doesn’t have to be death.” She replied softly.

“Why did the hive call you the ‘Unseen Daughter of the Hive?” I asked as the question popped into my head. It was a strange thing to be called rather than just Nurse of the Hive.

“Oh, because we serve unseen. Nurse swarm are masters of camouflage. We have to be in order to keep the Hive Mother and Matriarchs alive. Too many creatures will target us first if they knew that we were the ones who could heal and restore the Swarm after it was damaged.” She said with pride.

I waited, weighing my options and trying to think of why I wouldn’t want my mind restored. I had felt… odd this whole time. It was like I couldn’t see what was right in front of me. Would this add the details back that I had been missing? If it did, it would be worth it.

“Ok, please be gentle and fix my mind,” I said, hoping that I was making the right choice.

“Ok, but it might sting a little. Like yanking a bandaid off.”

It was then that my unfocused eyes noticed something wonderful. Sublimis’s scars were slowly receding. She was healing! It was very slow but it was happening.

That was the last happy thought I had before the pain hit me in the head and darkness took me again. Who rips bandaids off of brains!?!