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Screeeech! Screiiiiiichhhh! Screeech! Screech! Tink tink tink… screeeech!

For a while, I simply lay there as the strange noises continued to sound out somewhere nearby. I couldn’t see what or who was making the racket but I could tell that it was coming from the floor. Or through small holes built into the floor.

-Vent holes- Came a timely update from the teacher in my head. My teacher had named itself Helm and seemed to be quite diligent in teaching me new terms and expressions that I would never have known without its help. It even created pictures for me to look at inside my head when it told me a new term now. A “Vent hole” as it was called seemed to be a gap under parts of the floor that I was laying on. There seemed to be several positioned all along the edge of my cavern… I mean my room that my parent had made for me to recover in.

Helm was special and I really was thankful for its company while I worked at the monotonous job of strengthening my body. For some reason Helm was keeping count for me and would occasionally tell me how good I was doing. A while ago I had felt whole and completely healed but Helm had said that I was only 78% towards my goal of 100%. This had surprised me and had made me return for a closer look at my energy pathways once more.

The sounds continued coming through the vent holes without stopping. I had nothing to compare the noises to besides the beautiful things that my parent had shown me. These strange noises… were not good noises. The sounds didn’t physically harm me… they just kept causing me to lose my place while I was working on exercising my pathways along the outer edge of my skin.

I had learned that I could do this by accident while I worked on the larger areas in an attempt to get the number to go up again. I simply found that if I filled an area with energy and slowly flexed it, causing the energy-filled area to expand and contract under pressure, it would be able to stay flexible from then on. It was as though every part of me grew stronger the more energy it held.

The maximum amount of energy storable was elusive because there were always smaller and smaller pathways to work on.

Fill, flex, stretch, fill some more, flex, and perfect! Next area.

-Energy-based research in progress. 99% complete-

Screeeeech! Scree-scree-scree…

Arrrg! What is going on out there? I mentally raged as I flooded my mind and body with energy and coiled upwards.

Out of pure habit, I kept absorbing the energy from the nest that I lay on. I had worked so hard to master this technique that I now could maintain my skin’s steady absorption even while doing other things.

It was something that I was highly proud of and I couldn’t wait to demonstrate it to my parent.

I looked around and found the part of the wall that was called a “Doorway” and moved towards it. It slid aside when I drew near and what lay beyond made me pause in open curiosity.

It wasn’t my parent who was making the noise. No… it was five other beings of different shapes and sizes. And what strange beings indeed!

I moved my head slowly closer to observe what they were doing. Two of the larger beings were raking their claws over and over again against… I didn’t know the term so I waited for Helm to help me.

-Shelves.-

Yes, they were doing something to the shelves that held the nest parts that I had eaten earlier.

-The Herv are removing the Leva nest billets from the shelves.-

Ah, that is interesting, so they were all called Herv?

-Negative. These are Herv, these are Yelvos, and this is called a Skii- Helm said as it highlighted each of the beings one after another for me to learn their names.

So they were trying to get some of the billets. It seemed that they were already succeeding as well. Two of the billets were already on the floor at their feet.

The other beings, the two rounded shapes known as Yelvos and the one thin shape known as a Skii were oddly opening and closing their hands in anticipation while leaning towards the two billets laying on the floor.

The thin-shaped one must have noticed me somehow because it turned its thin body to face me suddenly in a rapid and jerky movement.

What a strange creature…

-Weapons detected. Sealing off armor.-

What is a weapon?

---

Vis-L4 couldn’t wait to grab the next billet that was released from the insane grip of the impossibly strong shelves. The agreement was that no one would even touch the billets until there was enough to split between the three of them. The wait had become unbearable with how slow Ger and Veerm labored at releasing even just one of the billets.

One might have thought that they were playing a joke if not for all the strain witnessed by the three waiting members of the party. It actually looked like Ger and Veerm were getting worn out, something that Vis-L4 had never seen occur to a Herv, let alone the twins.

A disturbance in the constant reflection of light within the cargo hold caused Vis-L4 to direct its attention backward on its flaps and to look behind itself. The door without a seam had slid open and a creature of darkness was looking out from inside the room.

Vis-L4’s sight beams were absorbed without a trace wherever it touched the creature made of darkness. Only a pure white arcane symbol of death and doom was visible on the forehead of the great beast as it observed the crew.

“A Dark Abomination!” Vis-L4 mass broadcasted in a panic before reaching for its weapons and brought them to bear on the creature who spawned from the ends of darkness.

The legends of the Skii spoke of such a creature, a creature that ate light and would come for Skii when they were judged unworthy of entering the light of the beyond.

“I do not believe in you!!!” Vis-L4 mass broadcast before blasting his weapons at full intensity at the monster before it.

---

Sublimis watched as the thin being began beaming two nearly continuous beams of light at her head.

Was it trying to talk to her? If so, it was not doing a very good job. There was no variance in the tone or power of the beam.

How odd.

She moved closer out of curiosity, peeking her head out from inside the room.

---

“What is the Skii broadcasting about? This was supposed to be a silent operation!” Mangjjjj sent to Mingllll as it was forced to drag its sensors away from the tantalizing and nose-lifting smell of the Leva treasure lying at their feet.

“I don’t know. Ger and Veerm are complaining that their arms are getting sore. They want to know why it is happening.” Mingllll sent back as it rubbed its hands together.

“Mingllll! Beware! The door behind us has opened. Get your weapons ready. It appears as though a crew member might be inside. I can’t smell anything though, the room appears vacant of smells. Prepare a scent grenade on my command. Vis-L4 seems to be able to see something and is taking its weapons out…. and firing them.” Mangjjjj said as it registered the scent of hard ozone coming from Vis-L4’s mighty beam weapons.

Both Mangjjjj and Mingllll grabbed for their sonic blades and extended them to their full-lengths before energizing them to their maximum power.

The two Herv stopped what they were doing to cover their small ears with the pads at the base of their hands as they closed their eyes in distress.

Yelvos sonic blades were especially painful to any alien who was sensitive to sound and though the Herv ears were small, they did not enjoy being in close proximity to four such blades at full power.

Above their heads, the extended claws of the pair showed heavy signs of damage from their strenuous abuse trying to free the stubborn billets. Droplets of sweat could be seen trickling through the coarse fur of the twins and dripping to the deck. It was a rare thing to see a Herv actually sweat.

As Vis-L4 mercilessly emptied its weapons into the doorway the build-up of ozone particles in the air allowed the pair of Yelvos to begin to make out an outline of a massive object extending slowly between the opening. It was huge!

Mangjjjj commanded Mingllll to approach from the left and carve it up while Mangjjjj moved around behind Vis-L4 and moved forward to attack from the right.

The approach of the blades caused the massive thing to retreat as though in fear or agitation.

“Cut it to pieces and collect the pieces for scent study,” Mangjjjj commanded Mangjjjj as something strange happened to Vis-L4.

Vis-L4 spasmed and began releasing Skii death pheromones as its pores opened and began venting its internal fluids in all directions. Its body slowly shrinking and hardening before toppling over to the ground in front of the doorway.

Both of the Yelvos attacked as one, causing the large object to pull back further inside the room, getting away faster than they expected it to be able to move.

“Throw your grenade!” Mangjjjj commanded as both of the Yelvos tossed their races version of scent-based weapons into the room before they hid on either side of the door frame.

The resulting explosion revealed a massive coiled figure atop a thick and lumpy platform.

“I see it, but I don’t know what it is.” both of the Yelvos sent to each other at the same time as they observed the snake vibrate in agitation. It seemed to be intent on coiling around and over its own body, as though it was trying to get rid of the scented paint released by the grenades.

“No damage! How can it be?!?” Mangjjjj sent as something began to annoy both of the Yelvos.

Tick tick tick TICK TICKTICKTICTICTICZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both Yelvos were drawn to the insistent warnings of one of their vital sensors on their belts. It was screaming at them about a lethal danger in the area.

“Radiation! Such high radiation levels!! The monster is emitting invisible death at us!” Mangjjjj managed to send before a wave of energy flooded the cargo hold and fried the thieves where they stood. So powerful was the release of energy that knocked the surrounding surveillance and communications systems offline for a short while.

A short while later the radiation levels suddenly vanished and the systems sprang back to life, causing slight levels of panic and for security teams to trace vital systems to try to detect the source of the phenomenon.

To everyone affected it had seemed as if someone had used an EMP bomb aboard the station.

To some, it seemed as if someone was trying to hide their activities from the all-seeing eyes of the station.

No port seals had been broken and no one saw anyone acting suspiciously.

---

The two round-bodied Yelvos must have noticed me as well and they wanted to come closer like the thin Skii creature. The Skii was still pointing its lights at me for some reason and was starting to annoy me.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVRRRRRRRR!

Ah! What is that sharp and painful noise? It is coming from those things that the two Yelvos are holding in each hand.

-Yelvos sonic blade weapon detected. Lowering volume levels.-

That is a little bit better, it is still irritating though. Why can’t these people play nice noises and stop shining lights at my head?

Maybe it wants me to shine my light on it as well? It hasn’t stopped since it first noticed me.

Ok fine. Since you asked.

Ess emitted her indigo light from her photon emitters and it seemed to please the Skii greatly. It froze and stopped sending its annoying lights at her head. Slowly it bent over and bowed before her in awe before resting on the floor.

The other two round creatures didn’t seem to be impressed as they both sprang forward and began swinging their noisemakers ever closer towards Ess.

“Stop that! That is annoying!” She tried to convey as she backed up inside her room. The two creatures were very persistent and kept trying to get closer to her with their awful noisemakers.

‘I don’t know how to make a sound yet.’ she thought as she tried to ask her helm to help her make sound.

-Do you wish to enable thought to speech?-

Maybe? Is that what I need?

-Maybe is neither affirmative nor negative. Please choose an answer.-

‘What?’ she thought as she tried to concentrate on the strange words that Helm was trying to teach her. She backed as far away from the two Yelvos as she could within her room.

The two Yelvos tossed objects at her and ran out of the room.

Twin explosions blasted the room and covered everything.

‘Oh! What is this horrible feeling?’

-Smell. It is a smell. Your parent can smell so the option has been left open for you as well.-

‘Smell? It is horrible! Ack ack ack!’ Ess cried as she could smell something rotten inside her head. It was all over her body too! It reeked and had to be the worst experience she had ever encountered besides almost dying at the hands of the parasite.

‘Get it off me! Ack!’ she cried as she tried to coil and rub it off of her body.

She lost control of her energy absorption as she focused solely on ridding herself of the sickening smell that was permeating her head. Deadly radiation flooded the cargo hold and wiped all life within the outer room almost instantly.

---

-Mess detected in cargo hold. Activating Kevin’s Butt and Body Wash- The never deactivated key of Kevin noted before it went to work sanitizing and removing all traces of the dead thieves.

---

Ess was unaware of the effect that the nest had had on the Yelvos and the Herv who were standing too close to the sudden surge in radiation.

She even was unaware that it was silent once again as the Yelvos’s four sonic blades had fried long ago and had begun to melt into the floor from the constant bombardment of energy before getting scrubbed away.

‘Hey! You stinky noisy mean people! Where did you go?’ She wondered when Kevin’s cleaning service finally made its way onto her and helped her clean herself off from the scent of the bombs before finishing up in her room.

‘Mmmm... they seem to have run away.’ She mused as she looked around outside her door for any trace of the five odd creatures.

'Whatever, just one more number to go then I will be fully healed.’ she said before closing her door and going back to work on her energy pathways, blocking the radiation back inside her small space.

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