Frustration is an interesting emotion. It can spur one to accomplish things or drive them to anger, violence or despair. Similar to anger but much easier to inflict on someone. Eli was frustrated, he had been all but useless and ineffectual since this hostile alien had showed up. Nothing he had done had amounted to much of anything except maybe start the first interstellar war between species ever. Even his attempt to rescue the Glint had been in vain. Eli had watched as the hangar doors closed as the Mad Dash floated out from them. The alien must have been done with the Glint and used Eli as a convenient way to get rid of them without any effort on its part.

Now Eli watched as the crippled ship made its way in space as Saule and Riyn tended to their crew. He couldn't do anything. Since he had hastily crammed the copy of himself, or the old Eli had crammed him into this suit, he couldn't think as fast or with the acuity he had before. Everything felt slower and foggy, even his own thoughts and memories. He could recall making railguns, Alcubierre drives and other things but couldn't understand what he was doing in those memories.

He busied himself with repairing what he could on the Mad Dash, small wiring fixes or replacing burnt circuits. The tasks didn't keep him from simmering in his frustration; the signal that he picked up while doing so did however. The Space Force fleet had arrived and made contact with the enemy. It would have been wonderful, if Eli hadn't illegally replicated himself.

He sighed and slumped against a bulkhead. All he could do now was wait and help out the Saule's crew.

~~~~~

Silghen's graspers had balled up in rage. The damn natural born had not only made wormhole tech, but had actually gone to the effort to make an antimatter generator. That huge capital ship, the Aperio, housed it and was using it subtly whenever Silghen fired. His barrages kept getting skewed out to wild angles kilometres away from any ship he targeted.

However the Human fleet couldn't get a lock on the Everlasting Justice either. It's Tanequal class dark matter effect stymied any known targeting system apart from being silhouetted by visible light from behind. The battle was a stalemate. Missiles littered space around him as the humans would occasionally fire volleys to keep him from gaining a superior targeting position. Almost certainly they had proximity sensors if he tried to navigate too close to them. Occasionally one of Silghen's rods would make it past and do damage. Not enough to limit any ship he hit, what should have been an easy purging of a Jeweller from a system had turned into a deadlock with an enemy he didn't want to fight.

An alert made itself known to Silghen. The planetoid closest to the system's star had lit up in EM waves. Silghen's lips retracted into what a human might consider a grin, but was something wholly different for a Tharg. He knew where the Jeweller was now; time to end it.

Well that's what he wanted to do. That alert had been twofold. All of those stray missiles detonated and a blazing white light lit the entire star sector. His ship cloaked in congealed dark matter stuck out like a headlamp in a tunnel.

~~~~~

As Eli passed a viewport in the Mad Dash, space erupted, the newly awoken crew cried

out. As this happened the entire ship disappeared into a hole in space that opened up before it.

~~~~~

As the displays marked out the elements and effects of the light, minimal and mundane, the human fleet let loose a salvo of weaponry at his position. Silghen snarled as he went into emergency maneuvers, the forces pressing his body into the suit he wore. It responded by swelling around his limbs and keeping his blood pressure in his head and torso consistent. The violent motions of rapid acceleration did throw off some of the unguided munitions. The guided missiles however angled outwards, trying to account for his change in space. Still several impacted and detonated.

The Justice rocked with the impacts but not as violently as Silghen expected. Rather his terminal informed him the humans had laced the missiles with exotic matter that had impregnated the dark mater cloak. They had a mark on him now, and stealth was useless.

~~~~~

As the Saule, Eli and the rest blinked away the spots in their vision they saw the ahip wasn't in space any more.

The Mad Dash floated serenely inside a large room. No doors or hatches could be seen on any of the room's surfaces. The wall directly opposite of the Mad Dash's bridge had one large window dominating it. Inside machinery and lights could be made out, with crystals blinking in rhythm with the lights.

Centered was a large tree of all things. Black bark covered it, with deep red foliage obscuring much of it. Three limbs grew out at equal height, but no red leaves sprouted from them.

The tree seemed to shiver as they watched. The limbs shuddered then moved to some console below the window. The thing moved with flourishes, like a conductor leading an orchestra or musician on stage. Golden mechanical arms extended from the walls and grasped the ship. As they did so the ship hummed as a voice from outside it spoke.

"I have rescued you my dearest gems, the Tharg will not touch my art."