The relationship between humans and their hair was a curious one. It was a matter of fact that no memories were ever stored within them – but cutting them short somehow signified the end to an era. Following that, Yun didn’t recognize herself anymore. Her long mane had made way for a tousled bob.

It wasn’t the only change in her life. An unfamiliar ache coursed through her body from having slept on the ground. Privacy wasn’t a thing anymore with nothing but a thin cover of clothes marking her ‘room’ in the central camp. The Star of Ashina would have whined about it and by extension, she would have too – yet here she was feeling strangely content. She observed herself in a holographic mirror and sculpted her body as artists would do with a statue.

The chameleon necklace rested on the cavity between her collarbones. It was the source of a lot of these changes. With her finger on the control segment, the colour of her hair changed to raven black and then added a few nuances to seem more natural. A subtle blush appeared on her cheeks that contrasted with her red lips. By the time black eyeliner accentuated her eyelids, she grunted in frustration. Old and trained habits had won out and she was right back in the process of dolling herself up. She nudged the finger back and both, blush and eyeliner vanished.

“Think natural. You’re a media idol no longer”, she whispered.

The next changes were more drastic. Her eyes darkened until she looked ten days out of sleep. Blemishes marred her skin and took away the picture-perfect look. She had gone from a glamour supermodel to a tired and lived woman with the touch of a finger. Yun reached into the mirror and spun it around. Not much she could do about the shape of her body – but she wasn’t satisfied with her transformation either.

There was more to the once Star of Ashina than just her looks: it had included attitude, body language and even the tone of voice. Much of that showed when she took a few steps forward. Her hips accentuated each step with a flourish, the shape of her body was put on provocative display, simply because of how she presented herself.

Artificial. She had been a dream just out of reach, wild enough to stimulate the fantasy but also soft enough to appear relatable. She was marketed to be something to possess and protect. Yun turned around and tried to imagine walking like Strehin instead. She lasted two steps before laughing. Again, she turned and walked. It was harder than she thought. Again. When she was finally satisfied, her gait looked weary and her posture had lost its allure. It wasn’t Strehin. It wasn’t Balayuna either.

“Last, remains the voice”, she said and first lowered it slightly. A press on the mirror activated the audio mode as indicated by a speaker symbol.

“My name is Yun”, she said. The mirror played it back and she shook her head. She would need it a bit deeper.

“Yun is what they call me”, she spoke and shook her head again. That had been too deep. In her mind, a woman like her would have a somewhat raspy voice with just a tint of annoyance to it.

“Yun. My name”

She added a bit of gruffness and squealed when the mirror played it back. It was just so perfectly imperfect. Her last step was making her uniform look the part. She had gotten one as part of the welcoming package. It looked good on her body and that was part of the problem. Yun started to fiddle with it until the fabric creased. She stretched the area around her stomach to indicate that she might have a larger belly than she did and even went as far as to strain the waistband, just enough that it sagged. Little touches like that added up to give the impression of a woman that was tired and a bit out of shape.

Yun finally deactivated the mirror and picked up the small hand computer it had come from. She attached it to a special pocket on her wrist and took a deep breath. The woman called Yun had been born. She turned around and left her tent.

Sovan sat hunched over a small metal container. To his left was a bowl of soup and his right side was overloaded with a variety of tools. The tip of his tongue came to rest between his lips as he worked on a rectangular metal box. Voices from the camp reached his ears and burned in his mind. Whenever they laughed, it felt like they were laughing at him. He tried his best to ignore it but the smile on his face wouldn’t even convince himself.

Satisfied with his work, he put the metal container on the ground and nudged it with a foot. Four small limbs sprung from it and ports for attachments appeared on the outside. The little machine walked in circles before it suddenly turned towards Sovan. The little thing raced up the tree trunk and finally came to rest on his legs.

“Behaviour matrix seems good”, he mumbled, “no sign of oddities, movement lags a bit”

The metal creature was the core compartment of a robotic pet. It was part of the odd jobs his team of fix-it-alls were occasionally tasked with. He grabbed it and felt the machine struggle in his hands. The fact that the ‘cute’ pet had neither skin nor a head made it look that much creepier.

His mind was so attuned to the bustle of the camp that the sudden silence made him stop. The Star of Ashina – no, the young woman named Yun walked out of her tent. His smile turned genuine, whatever she had done with herself – it was a job well done. When Strehin had announced the singer’s death, a wave of confusion had hit people. It grew when their ‘new’ crew member showed up.

Sovan sighed. It said a lot when everyone’s first reaction was to accept it and move on. There was a saying along those lines, that when the Kirin strikes the Tiger, the wise peasant becomes a pilgrim. Balayuna was dead, Yun lived and everyone was supposed to see no connection between the two. Case closed. He watched her leave the camp and returned his attention to the robotic pet. His tools were archaic. A screwdriver, a brush – yet fixing this thing was a moment of bliss for him. It took a few swipes to clean the dirt out of the metallic limbs. This time, the pet did not just move but it dashed around with grace.

A few more tweaks in the programming followed and the robot brushed along his legs and suddenly raised one limb to gently smack him. Yep. Perfect. He quickly shovelled a spoonful of soup into his mouth and then picked it up again. All that was missing was the head and the tail. They snapped in place with a click and the cheeky robot swatted him again.

“That’s about right”, he said with a chuckle and deactivated the machine. Sovan snapped the skin segments in place and fixed them with a few simple screws, before coating it in a thin nano-fluid.

“Now what did the request say... a red Somali Cat breed... simulated fur with all features? Shedding included? Oh grey gods”

Sovan reached into the maw of the robot kitty and pressed his index finger on a small incline. A holographic display appeared above the machine. It didn’t take long to make the settings and a moment later, red fur sprouted from the robot until it looked identical to the real thing. At the same time, he started to feel odd. The cat looked so lifelike that its unmoving body unnerved him. He switched it into active mode and got a scratched arm as a thank you gift. Even artificial pets hated him - which really was just an endorsement of how realistic their programming was. He carefully put the cat down and used his ocular implant to send a pick-up notice to whoever had ordered this thing made.

It didn’t take long before a woman with a familiar face appeared before him. What was her name again? When the woman frowned, he immediately recalled her name.

“Anna Troviac, don’t tell me that thing is yours?”

“Solokov and no, it’s not”

He quietly made a mental note to program something that showed him the names of everyone he looked at. The woman grabbed the cat and promptly got a scratch of her own.

“I hate cats”, she exclaimed and held the thing as far away from herself as she could. Anna turned around without another word, but Sovan kept watching her all the way to her destination.

“Strehin’s office, huh, I wonder which guest... what?”

He saw the iron dragon snatch the cat from Anna. An actual genuine smile showed on the face of the administrator as the tall woman vanished into her tent with her new companion. Emperor alive, what?

There was an inherent beauty in the design of spaceships. Whether they followed form or function, space or atmospheric flight, it was a joy to see them in motion. Not this monstrosity though. Yun craned her neck to stare at the docked Odyssey Calibur. It roughly followed the shape of a Kraken with the tear-shaped hull and swept-back arms that doubled the length of the vessel.

As far as spaceships went, most used a mix of engine systems. A friend had once explained it to Yun. For in-system flight, a quantum vacuum thruster worked well enough. With the nearly limitless energy from the reactor, it could keep accelerating until the g-forces overpowered the gravity core. Granted, the friend also kept using words like zero-point-energy and particle translation but she got the basics of it: Powerful thruster makes the ship go zoom.

The other side was the Stellar Drives. While normal drives used some part of the grey particles, Stellar Drives were built around them. Her friend had explained the Stellar Drive as calling the universe to make way. If you asked nicely, space warped around the ship and the vessel engaged in a controlled fall towards its target destination. Once you got to the point of screaming at it however, the warp reached a point it should mathematically, physically and logically never reach. At that point, the grey particles activated and punted the ship lightyears away. The gist of it: Space magic makes the ship go VAVAVOOOOMBAA.

The Odyssey Calibur probably surprised no one by screaming at the universe all the way through: There was no visible drive compartment. It didn’t even bother with wings for atmospheric flight – the vessel just powered through. Yun wrapped her arms around herself and made her way into the ship. Her first mission. It wasn’t anything glamorous, just a simple scout and salvage operation. On an alien planet. Ravaged by thermonuclear war.

“Just another Monday”, she said with a grin. The lift platform heaved her into the belly of the beast, where she found the short doctor with a whole assortment of fashion murder weapons.

“Oh, our ‘newest’ crew member”, said Kathrain and grinned in her direction, “We had to prepare something special for you. Don’t go breaking it”

The short woman then handed her one of the murder weapons: A hazardous material suit in bright garish pink. Yun took it and offered a bow in response.

“Thank you”

“It’s nothing. Just pay attention to it. These suits are simple enough to use. Slip in, activate the sealing procedure and then make sure nothing damages the controller on your chest”, the doctor said. Yun watched the gravity-adapted woman walk over towards another suit. She spread it on a table and then pointed at it.

“It’s got multiple layers of protection and it should use self-healing to seal all damages. Once you’re done, you activate a purge and if any of you go up in pink smoke, they get a free vacation in quarantine. Don’t try it at home and stay away from the vacuum.”

“Alright, I’ve got it, thank you”

“You should come in for a few check-ups when you’re...”

“I really should be going. Thanks”

Kathrain’s smile lasted until the young mage had left the room with an additional minute as a buffer. Once she was sure she was gone, the doctor reached into a pocket and removed a small device that was little more than a button and a light. It served a simple purpose: use all energy in a short burst transmission. The light flickered twice and then turned green. She slid it back into a pocket of her jacket.

“Wouldn’t want this journey to end now”, she mumbled with a blank expression. Her fingers touched her temples. Strehin would not like this – which was why she was doing it out of sight. The Administrator was an admirable and valuable figure, more than perhaps she knew – but despite all her bluster, she had no stomach for the shadier sights of political plays. This little transmitter was insurance, all she needed now was to be in place to use it. She sent a mental command and waited for Heart to react.

.: Establishing a connection to Administrator Strehin. :.

“You?”

“Full score on conversational skills there”, Kathrain shot back, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to be on the ship but without them knowing I’m there”

Instead of an answer, Strehin glared off-screen. She reached for something outside of the camera.

“Sit down, Sturebock! Get off there!”

Kathrain’s implant provided an automatic translation for the old earth word. It was apparently a combination of the words stubborn and goat. Now there was one part of her that was dying to know what was going on that involved stubborn goats and another part that knew better. Her face remained perfectly blank. She chose patience and waited until the Administrator was back in the picture.

“For what purpose?” said Strehin as if nothing had happened. Four glaring scratch marks on her face told another story.

A wise strategist picked battles she could win. Forcing the crew into regular examinations? Onwards, to battle! Putting a death-switch on a potentially volatile crew member? Done. Asking Strehin about the source of the scratches when she obviously didn’t want to talk about it? She wasn’t suicidal. Kathrain chose to smile instead. It looked genuine, all the way from the curve of the lips to the tiny wrinkles around her eyes. With a bit of luck, it would help smooth over her lie.

“Two reasons, to see how they fare in normal gravity and check up on potential lingering effects from edenleap. I’d just schedule them normally - but you know how they get. The second I show up, they all seem to be miraculously cured”

“Oh no, you’re not!” was the answer and the Administrator vanished again. Sounds of something breaking came through, along with meowing from Strehins office. The administrator grumbled about personality settings wanting to kill Sovan for them.

“I can call back later”, suggested Kathrain, “It’s really not a big deal, just keep it in mind”

“Do it!” shouted Strehin, followed by, “NOT YOU!”

A large paw suddenly smacked down on the camera and the connection went out. Kathrain blinked a couple of times and sighed. She moved the remaining suits into a container and made her way deeper into the ship. There was no more smile left on her. While Strehin’s word was law, even the iron dragon was prone to errors. One of them was giving the fake celebrity a second chance.

The doctor ran a finger over the tiny transmitter in her pocket. She would observe. Examine. Judge. Either the young mage served a purpose that outweighed the political nightmare she would become – or Kathrain would press the button and remove one headache for Strehin. In a way, it was a form of medicine.

She found her way to a small dining room on the starboard side. According to the schematics from the automap, it was far removed from normal operations and offered a second exit should someone come here against all odds. Kathrain moved into the corner and sat down on the ground. With one hand in front of her mouth, she quietly recited a mantra.

“You live, because we wish it, you breathe because we allow it. You exist, because we demand it”

The brass decoration of the bridge reminded her of a scene from an old steampunk series. It was at least a couple of thousand years old and as a result, only a few remembered Captain Tastra and his adventures. Yun did! It was one of her few joys in life. The ragtag group of adventurers in front of her would have fit into his crew. There were six people, brave men and women from a variety of backgrounds. There was the plucky nurse with a cute smile and the engineer that seemed just a tad nervous around people. The gardeners hadn’t been part of Tastra’s crew – but they had muscles, looked good and seemingly knew how to carry their rifles.

“Alright, listen up everyone”, she began and tried to channel what she remembered from the show. Tastra had always stood tall with his gaze locked onto the screen. When she did it, the others gave her confused stares. Probably because the screen was blank.

“This is a standard scout and salvage mission. We are to visit the unknown Black-cat Foundry on the planet below. The target scene has seen frequent battles by the entities known as groupies and it’s possible we might need to fend them off. You are hereby permitted to shoot to kill”

She looked each of her people into their eyes. The great Tastra had often realized trouble with nothing but a glimpse and a little gesture. Her command skills were lacking but she had maxed out her social abilities. When the nurse ever so slightly twitched, she looked at her and smiled.

“We should still try to avoid it if possible. Our flight will take ten minutes from launch. We’ve got twelve hours to scout the facility. Our mission is to extract resources as prioritized by the list on your implants. Any questions?”

“You are going to lead us?”

“Yes. Don’t worry, there’s just a minimum threat level on this mission”, she said.

Their reactions made it immediately obvious she had messed up. Never show your doubt, she recalled Tastra’s words of wisdom. He was right. Even if she was unsure about what she should do, they should never see it. She suddenly put on a smile and placed a hand on the central console. Bright lights touched her fingers.

“The raindrop doubts its purpose, but the storm marches on”, she recited a line from her hero and pressed her fingers down into the light. Soft tickling sensations ran over her skin. The ship rose from slumber a moment later. Flickering lights activated and bathed the bridge in bright light. The ground began to vibrate and a giant’s fist pushed down on Yun.

“Reactors online”, said a pleasant male voice from the terminal, “Gravity Core. Online. Magecraft circuits re-routed. All systems nominal”

“Hello Adam”, Yun said.

“Welcome back on board, leech. How may I serve you?” the computer replied.

She snapped her mouth shut. The crew looked at her with nervous chuckles. Yun closed her eyes and forced her breathing back under control. Even from beyond the grave, the real Star of Ashina could still hurt her.

“First, change how you address me”, she said with a side glance to the others, “My name is Yun, not leech”

“Affirmative. Hello Yun, not leech. How may I serve you?”

This time, the chuckles turned into outright laughter. Yun slapped the machine and plopped down in the captain’s chair. She looked at her crew with a defeated smile. They were good at looking in every direction but hers.

“Let’s go. Adam, bring us out of the docks and down to the stored coordinates”

“Establishing a connection. Requesting docking transit – warning, system not replying. Escalating... Accepted”

Screens came alive around her until it felt like the bridge floated in the dock. Six docking clamps detached from the hull and the Calibur soon accelerated as the space distorted around the ship. There was one more stop in the airlock and then they were on their way into space.

In her mind, a catchy theme song blasted on full volume. She quietly hummed it along with the lyrics as far as she remembered them. From the edge of outer space this man will ride afar, from the maws of chaos, he will rescue every star. Sitting in the captain’s chair, fighting every demon’s lair... this man he will plumb!

Yun blinked and stopped. Tastra wasn’t a plumber! Her silly chuckle got her another couple of stares but she didn’t mind anymore. The Calibur inched out of the dock and it was like she had opened a door and stepped into space itself. A burning light flashed from starboard, the computer systems filtered the sun and replaced it with a much less intense icon - but it still retained its awing presence. Low frequency sounds echoed through the ship as the Calibur accelerated away from the station. Sudden movement on the screens indicated the arms shuffled around to minimize the profile of the ship while warning lights indicated a slight increase in temperature load from exposure to the sun. For a jump ship this size, it was already shuffled out of the cooling systems a moment later.

“Activating kinetic defence formation”, said Adam and the arms suddenly fanned out around the ship. Like snakes out for prey, they locked onto parts of debris that got too close. Every now and then, they snatched up a piece and flung it away.

“That’s the fanciest shield I’ve ever seen”, said one of her crew and Yun nodded in agreement. It was just another quirk of the Calibur. Sure, it had shields. Every spaceship had them but what generally went under the label of shields was really a whole array of defensive mechanisms. For example, cooling systems were just as much a type of shield as were magnetic projections, radiation shields and even an overcharged gravity core. On most ships, there was no magic space bubble to catch incoming fire, just specialized systems all attuned to a certain type of danger.

Yun leaned back in her chair and rested her arms against the armrests. That was true for most ships but not all. Magecrafts were different. STRUCT mages could create bubbles of carbon that worked as ablative armour, FLOW mages were ugly cheaters anyway and FRAY users could disintegrate most things coming their way. IMBUE ships were more focussed on offence by merging weapon systems with energy boosts from the spell caster. Yun let her eyes wander over the screens all around her.

The Odyssey Calibur was really about equality: It hated all things. When the hull of a derelict cruiser grew on their screen, three arms snatched it out of their way and with nothing but a short rumble running through the vessel, it was deflected away from them.

“Fancy is the wrong word”, said someone else after a moment of silence, “Stupid would be more fitting”

Yun chuckled, “Not so stupid actually. The original design was for a rescue vessel. These arms were meant to facilitate repairs or grab and hold objects. They can also function as landing struts in uneven terrain. It made sense on paper – but the press just called it the tentacle monster and that was that. I remember some weapons company bought the designs. They got bombed out of orbit.”

Adam cut into her explanation with his smooth voice, “Switching to orbital flight mode.”

The screens changed. While the planet still looked far out, several lines appeared along with data. A bright line indicated their current course. It aimed directly down at the planet but when dotted lines pushed to the side, the line split up into an ellipsis close to the planet. Two points were marked on either side: Apoapsis and Periapsis. As the Calibur adjusted its movement, the extreme points indicating the largest and smallest distance to the host body shifted until they formed a perfect circle.

“Stable orbit imminent. Adjusting course”

The planet jumped into view and filled their screens. Massive storm clouds raged below them.

“Switching to descent mode”, said Adam and the view changed again.

The line indicating both extreme points drifted apart. One end of the line curved towards the planet and their target zone. The sudden vibrations from entry shook Yun to the bone. Purple lines of energy twisted in wave patterns over the hull as the Calibur forced its way into the atmosphere.

“Deceleration, engaging descent.”

The purple lines vanished, as did the vibrations. In terms of space travel, the engine had stopped screaming bloody murder. A soft orange glow turned to bright flames around them. Their descent would look like a meteor to everyone else, just a massive object burning up in the atmosphere. Despite the coolant systems shrugging off the heat, the image of being inside the flames made her sweat.

With little warning, the flames fell away and a stormcloud materialized in front of them. It reached all across the horizon and welcomed them with angry lightning. Several thunderbolts struck the hull but all it did was to move the EM-Shielding indicator by zero dot one percent. Forces of nature, the ship cared not for. The ship still groaned and creaked from its own power. Yun felt her heart race. Planetfall was always magical to her. Each world was a garden of its own. Some worlds had megacities so large their surface appeared like abstract fractal art. Others had built arches to rival planetoids and installed statues the size of moons.

When the clouds finally parted, Yun closed her mouth and pressed her lips to thin lines. She knew the groupies had waged war but the world below wasn’t just brown or a desert. It had been hit hard enough that the ground had melted together like glass. Image identification marked a couple of aerial vessels that looked like darts. No matter how alien something might be, flight still followed rules. Yun frowned when she saw the fighters trade missiles and plasma bolts.

“Detecting nuclear impact in close proximity. Adjusting radiation and impact shields”

An explosion rose up several hundred kilometres port-side and turned into a ginormous mushroom. The aircrafts kept fighting, despite their imminent death.

“How’d we ever think they were peaceful?” one of her crew said.

“Appearances can be deceiving”, Yun added.

“Target sector is heavily contested. Yun, no leech, am I to engage the landing zone regardless?”

“We’ve got no other choices. Land in the crater and lock it down. Adjust shielding as needed. Expect kinetic and chemical projectiles, both impact and explosion based.”

There was no need to give these instructions. While Adam wasn’t a war-machine, it would be more than apt at managing shields. The shivering of her hands told the real story: She was unsettled and nervous. Smoke hung over their target area like a burial veil. Flames flickered from within burnt wrecks – lanterns to guide the dead souls of a massacre.

The Calibur dove into the smoke like an angry god. Wind pressure forced everything down: Tanks, groupies, trees and planes. The latter struggled to stay afloat but were locked in place a moment later when the gravity core expanded to fill out the crater. When the smoke finally cleared, the groupies had stopped firing. The Odyssey Calibur hovered like a bad omen that only got worse as arms spread out and latched onto the edges. A metallic thump, followed by a loud groan marked a successful landing.

The edge of the crater was filled with groupies that used their limbs to feel what was going on. Below them was the subterranean facility. The entrance had been bombed many times but the dome still stuck out of the ground like a sore thumb.

“Black Cat Foundry”, read Yun read on the embossed letters on the charred gates, “Alright. Adam, activate crowd control mode. Everyone! Check your equipment. Check your neighbour’s too. Suit up, lock down, we’ve got a job to do.”