Deep within the bowels of the old battleship a young girl stirred. She groaned, as she became aware of her body again. It felt like needles were stabbing every inch of her skin, and she groaned even louder. Then she started to whimper. Fortunately the pain faded to a dull ache after a couple of minutes and she was able to focus.

Looking around she realized that she had no idea where she was. However the room she was in looked like a cell of some kind. The walls were all polished smooth, the metal a dark grey in color. Opposite the bed, she didn’t see the forcefield she expected. Instead she saw another solid dark grey wall indistinguishable from the other walls. The bed itself was little more than a metal shelf that was a meter off the floor. The rest of the small room was completely barren. Than she noticed two small indents in the walls to the left and right of the bed, and located dead center.

She walked towards the one on the right, each step felt like walking on needles. Her need to investigate her surroundings however took precedence. The indent revealed itself to be a door, a simple button that she nearly missed opened the door. She was understandably surprised to find an unlocked door in a cell, but what she found beyond the door made her realize it just led to another part of the cell. At first glance it was obviously a bathroom, that was even smaller than the first room. There was only a small odd looking sink, and a toilet crammed into a room smaller than her closet back in her quarters. A quick search of the room, revealed nothing. She did find out how to turn on the sink, but it didn’t use water like she expected. Instead the bowl filled with a tingling light. She had figured that out on accident, when she reached into the bowl to feel the material.

Leaving the bathroom, she decided to check out the other indentation. It also had a small button concealed on the wall. This one was a little easier to find, as it was in the same relative spot as the last one. Like before, the door slid into the wall when she pressed the button. Revealing a room that was the same as the bathroom on the other side of the cell. Only a small chair, and table occupied the space. She settled into the chair, and looked about the room unsure about its purpose.

“Good morning! Are you hungry, or can we get down to business?” suddenly asked a cheery voice behind her. She jumped out of the chair, and whirled to find herself face to face with a small winged woman. Her body was only lightly clothed, allowing her to see the scales that covered her body. Even her wings were coated in scales instead of feathers. A trait she had only seen on Dragon races before, but she had heard stories of race with the traits she was looking at. They were described in ancient myth and legend as powerful magical creatures that ruled the skies and wielded terrible powers and abilities. She didn’t put much stock in legends though. Seeing the other woman so close she tried to tackle her. Only to find herself slamming into the floor.

Then she heard chuckling, followed by a question when it stopped, “Are you done being stupid?”

She was confused, she was certain there was no way she could have missed. Yet here she was on the floor. The question only irritated her, and she tried another tackle. This time she found herself slamming into a wall. Once again she heard giggling, but this time she didn’t hear a question. “You know even if I was the real thing, that wouldn’t work,” said the woman.

“What do mean?” she asked still trying to figure out what was going on.

“I’m a hologram, but real Soleans are well known for being immune to physical attacks,” said the woman.

“You can’t be immune to physical attacks, that's impossible,” said the girl.

“Depends on your understanding. The Solean race has the ability to bend reality to their wishes. They can use it instinctively to bend reality in such a way that mundane physical attacks like that one would never hit,” said the woman.

“Bend reality? That sounds like magic,” said the girl.

“That is a matter of perspective. The ability is widely referred to as magical ability, but it is officially called Transcendent Psionics. Many races possess the ability with different degrees of talent, and all users of Transcendent Psionics have officially become known as Mages. Mostly because it is far shorter and easier to use than Transcendent Psy User. Anyway we are completely off topic. I’m Megumi, the AI of this ship. Are you hungry? Or can we get down to business?” said Megumi.

The girl didn’t answer right away, but she was more curious about this Transcendent Psionics that was mentioned than anything else. Still she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what business this AI had with her. “I uh, think I would like to eat first, and I’m Kiru,” said the girl. Almost instantly she heard a slight hum behind her, and then she was directed back into the small room with a table she had seen before. To her shock, she saw an unfamiliar dish made with ingredients from home. The fish that was prominently displayed was one popular in most of the dishes back home. Kiru ate it in silence, but quickly found it to be bland and unsatisfying.

When she was done she returned to the main room, and found the hologram waiting for her. “What was that dish?” asked Kiru.

“I guess it didn’t survive the ages then? Your race traditionally served that particular dish to prisoners,” said Megumi. Kiru realized from the statement that this AI was more familiar with her people, than she was with it.

“So what do you want with me? I’m not the captain or even one of the bridge officers,” said Kiru.

“I know. I just have a few questions for you,” said Megumi. Kiru didn’t like the tone of that, and before she knew it, an interrogation session began. By the time it was over, the whole thing was a blur. She simply curled up on the bed, and tried to forget what had just happened.

Outside the cell block, Melia and Erisa sat playing a holographic card game. They had been playing it for a few hours now. It was one of several games they had found in the ship’s library. The rules were simple enough, and they had gotten the hang of the game quickly enough.

Erisa smiled as she played a card, giving her the win for this round. Before she could really savor her win, they were interrupted by Megumi suddenly appearing.

“Find anything out?” asked Melia.

“Yes, capturing that cruiser was most informative,” said Megumi.

“Really? Care to share, anything?” asked Erisa.

“Yes, it took some effort to break the conditioning, but once done they readily revealed what was going on,” said Megumi.

“What do you mean by conditioning?” asked Erisa.

“Someone was very keen on controlling the Neku. Every single Neku we caught was subjected to primitive mind control techniques. Of course my prisoner tags were able to break that conditioning easily enough once they finished decoding it,” said Megumi.

“What is a prisoner tag?” asked Erisa. Melia was the one who answered, “A device that is implanted into the spine. It is used both to punish and track prisoners.”

“Anyway, as I was saying someone was controlling these Neku. It seems a race called the Irini, are behind this war,” said Megumi.

“Who are the Irini? I have never heard of that race,” said Erisa.

“Neither have I. They were not one of the races, when I was last active. Unfortunately, these crewmen were unable to give me the location of the Irini. Some Irini however are present on the Neku homeworld. We will need to capture one alive, and interrogate them to learn more,” said Megumi.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a way to break this mind control enmass would you?” asked Erisa.

“No, that would require the use of illegal mind control techniques,” said Megumi.

“Correct me if I’m wrong but your empire did use mind control,” said Erisa.

“Everyone uses it to a degree. Given the former size of the empire, it would be impossible for it to stay together without a little mind control. Our method involved conditioning via education. They are taught our ways, and to think like us from a young age, and become naturally inclined to follow our laws and ways. We are a bit more ruthless with our enemies, but we still don’t do what you propose. You see what you propose involves using induced psionics to force people to think a certain way. Which is actually cruel in its own way, and has been known to cause brain damage,” said Megumi.

“So I take it you have some kind of plan than?” asked Erisa.

“I do, but first I will need the cloak, the biolabs, and some drones. I have already set a course for the Neku homeworld, warp factor two. The low speed allows me to divert more power to hull regeneration. I plan to have all the needed systems restored by the time we reach the system,” said Megumi seconds before her avatar vanished.

“Uh, how long would it take us to reach Neku Prime at warp two?” asked Erisa.

“One hundred fifty seven years, nine months twenty one days, twelve hours and thirteen minutes” answered Melia after accessing the navigational computer.

“I don’t suppose you can convince the ship to increase speed?” asked Erisa.

“The plotted course shows that the ship plans to increase speed to warp twelve in three months time,” said Melia.

“Warp twelve? I have to ask how fast is that?” asked Erisa wondering how fast the ship was planning on going.

“Eighty two thousand five hundred times the speed of light. Apparently it is also the practical limit of warp technology. Ships could go faster with warp, but it isn’t energy efficient. Apparently that's what the ships other ftl drive is for,” said Melia.

“Other drive?” asked Erisa.

“I thought I mentioned it before. The ship is equipped with a second set of FTL engines, called hyperwarp engines. They are significantly faster than warp engines, and used primarily for intergalactic travel,” said Melia.

“How much faster?”

“Depends on the design of the drive most hyperwarp drives can only go around two million times lightspeed, but Solean built ones are five times faster,” said Melia. Erisa had difficulty wrapping her mind around those numbers, but she distantly realized that such insane speeds would be needed for intergalactic travel.

“Why won’t the ship just use those engines? We could be there instantly,” responded Erisa once she composed herself.

“The system is currently still destroyed, but even if it was working the ship wouldn’t use them. For interstellar travel the warp engines are far more efficient energy wise,” said Melia. Than she got up and left the room.