“Elinsys… calling Major Elinsys... ” Elinsys heard her name being called out so she cracked her eyes slightly opened. Her room was dark, the lights were still off. “Elinsys get up, please?” The voice belonged to her new roommate, an annoying child to Elinsys rather than the very deadly parasite which has decided to call Elinsys her home: Leferia. “Whaaat?” Elinsys turned around onto her belly and covered her head with a pillow. “Leave me alone, I do not care.” It was way too early for Elinsys to get up, her alarm didn’t go off yet. “It is important, very important.” Leferia acted like a pet who was hungry and jumped onto your bed to make you get up. “It is a matter of life or death, for both of us.” Elinsys was slightly pet-peeved by Leferia referring to HER body as theirs, especially when Leferia acted concerned whenever Elindsys did anything. This is the third time she has woken up Elinsys today. First time being for not brushing her tusks and teeth, the second being when Elinsys started to have back pain. Sadly there was no ridding herself of Leferia when she starts, so Elinsys decided to listen to Leferia, even if for a minute. “Fine, tell me, but if it isn’t important, I will complain about you being a huge hypocrite. Complaining when I do something unhealthy, but waking me up three times in the same night.” She was sitting up in her bed now. “So… what is the limit? On the times I am allowed to wake you up per night? Once, twice? I would prefer if there was no limit personally.” Leferia was sitting next to her. Elinsys looked at Leferia, not in her mind, but here. On her bed, next to her, talking to her face to face. Her wings were gone now. With an expression of puzzlement she looked Leferia up and down. “How are you… here?” Leferia looked at Elinsys, then at her arms, then at the rest of herself. “Hallucination, or I guess, an illusion?” She raised her shoulders slightly, before continuing on. “Well did you expect I would stay in your mind? Don’t be a silly turox.” She chuckled to herself. “Yes, I expected you to stay in my mind. Not appear in… spirit form. This is very unnerving, can others see you?” Elinsys pointed to Leferia and moved her hand up and down. “No, only you, well, maybe others, but that would be unlikely, unless you were to show me to them. That is a complicated notion and would require too much time and resources to be in any way interesting to me.” She pondered the idea for a few seconds, before shaking her head. “Do not worry, I have no actual physical presence. I am but a manifestation of your mind, or should it be from your mind?” She put her hands onto her cheeks and moved them up and down. Her cheeks moved in an unnatural way, almost like there was no skull holding them in place. “Please stop doing horrifying things at random. It is, well, horrifying.” Elinsys looked away, towards her alarm. She had a few hours before she had to get up, hopefully she would go back to sleep soon. Leferia stopped moving her cheeks. “You find this weird?” She moved her cheeks to be above her eyes now, then back down. “I find that most perplexing, how could you find it weird?” Leferia’s face, if it could even be called a face, was deadpan. Elinsys was glad she didn’t eat anything yet, otherwise she might have thrown up. “Yes, please stop right now and get to the point. Or was your ability to break all the laws of basic biology for fun the point?” Leferia stopped her hijinks before putting her hands and Elinsys’ hands together, interlocking their fingers. “You see, you can feel me, because I am a part of you now. I control what you feel by touch, what you smell, what you see.” She moved a bit closer. “Sadly for me I can’t be in charge constantly, very sad.” She frowned, but it was not genuine. Leferia was making fun of her. “So do not worry, I won’t turn you into a walking corpse. I actually want to help you, that is why I woke you up.” Elinsys stared blankly at the vision in front of her, it was hard to fully follow Leferia. She spoke fast and had a bit of an accent, her using words which only poets of old use is also a bit of a problem, but she always slows down, if she notices Elinsys not following. Sometimes Elinsys pretends not to follow, just to annoy her, to push her fake smile and kindness to the limit. To break her will and make her reveal her true self, one day she will break. “I was talking too fast again? Sorry about that. My point, the reason why I woke you up, is quite simple.” Leferia stopped when she realized she was speeding up again. “I wish to help you with your back problem.” Elinsys wanted to burst into laughter, and she did. Her room was soundproof. Leferia was not amused when Elinsys started to laugh. “Oh come on. I am being serious.” Elinsys did not hear her, well, she did, but she pretended to not hear her. “I know you can hear me, I am literally in your mind.” Elinsys quieted down her laughter, very slowly. “Sorry, I have not had a good laugh for some time. So what is this about my back?” She asked, eyebrow raised and arms folded across her chest, she wanted her gone, but any advantage she could get was good. As long as the down side was not too bad, or if she could deal with it later. Leferia clapped her hands together and smiled. “I have a plan on how to fix our bad back, it is in a rather poor state for such an important part of our body.” Leferia touched Elinsys on her spine, which earned her a slap on her wrist. “Ouch, fine I won’t touch you without asking.” Leferia rubbed the spot Elinsys hit. “Now, hear me out, I can fix it. Okay, fix it might be a wrong word… I can make it hurt less. Slowly fixing it, very slowly, but steady progress would be made. I should have it back to tip top shape in a month, longer if we take any other damage.” Elinsys was silent for a long time. The back pain was slowly driving her insane, but Leferia would want something in return. “What do you get?” Leferia clapped her hands again, a smile forming on her face, this one more genuine than the last one. “Well I would need the proper organs to do it, control of some internal systems of our body. Maybe I could do it while you sleep? You let me control you during the night...” “No.” Elinsys put her hand on Leferia’s mouth. “I will not give you control over my body, not even for a second.” Next thing Elinsys knew, her hand no longer was on Leferia’s mouth. Leferia had no mouth. Her face split open in two, Elinsys’ hand now between the two parts. Rows of teeth waiting to chomp down and consume her hand. Quickly Elinsys pulled her hand back grabbing her wrists to make sure it was fine. Leferia laughed. “Oh, I am sorry, but I can’t hurt you. I am an illusion, remember that?” Leferia covered her mouth, when she removed her hand it was back to normal. “I can take on any shape I wish, especially when I have no physical form.” She was smiling, but her expression quickly turned to one of worry when she looked at Elinsys. Elinsys was shaking, trembling, breathing fast just like her heartbeat. Looking her hand up and down, moving her other palm all over it, just to make sure everything is fine. When she finally calmed down, she punched Leferia. “I understand why you did this, but come on… you know I was joking.” Leferia was rubbing the part of her face Elinsys hit. “Do not do it again, you and your jokes will be the death of me.” Elinsys was sweating, and still holding onto her hand. “I almost lost my legs once, almost had to get cybernetics, I had luck then.” Leferia had an expression of realization, her mind finally grasped just what she did. “Oh, okay, yeah. That was a cunt move.” She mimicked Elinsys’ movements, also rubbing her arm now. “I guess when you have no body for so long, you forget how fragile you are.” “Fragile? Losing your arm is not some daily occurrence.” Leferia looked at her, before looking at her arms. “To me, my species you could say...” Her arms started to transform to look more Shil’vati like. “Losing an arm is annoying, but we have ways to fix it. Now it did take a long time, at least before, but with your technology, I could lose an arm a day and be fine.” Elinsys looked at Leferia and sighed. “You missed my point, as you always seem to. Losing your arm, it is very traumatic, even if it can be replaced to look the same, to feel the same. It still would be wrong, painful to some, you might be more used to it, switching between hosts. Sadly for me, I do not have such… problems like you.” Leferia got up from the bed and entered the bathroom. “I am taking a shower.” The door closed behind her. “You are not real.” Elinsys stated, before lying back down and trying to fall asleep. Why goddesses? Why? Is this punishment for the rebellion? *** Elinsys was sitting in her office once again, this time she had a visitor. She wished Leferia wasn’t here, but the woman decided to stick around and follow every step. Always poking around, looking over every wall and floor, every crew member they encounter. Now Leferia was twirling around in a guest chair, to the clear annoyance of Elinsys. “This is boring. How can you do this every single day? I would have spaced myself by now.” Leferia made a whooshing sound. “Go right ahead. I won’t mind.” Elinsys continued to type away at her terminal, a slight smile on her lips. “I think the closest airlock is only down the hall.” Leferia looked at her, unimpressed. “I can’t open the airlock, silly. If I wanted to space myself, well, you would have to follow me.” She pretended to actually consider the idea, before standing up. “Anyhow, we should really clean up this place. How can you live like this?” Elinsys looked away from her terminal towards Leferia. Her office was in perfect condition, the only thing out of place was Leferia. “What are you talking about? This place is immaculate.” Leferia looked around and sighed. “To your little eyes, sure, but to mine? No. Look, at all the dust, everywhere.” She pointed at every surface in the room. “Your desk, the chairs, even the fake painting has dust on the top of it.” She pressed her finger on the screen and moved it to the right. She then looked at her finger, it wasn’t dirty. She let out an exasperated sigh. “You get my point, don’t you?” She moved towards Elinsys and sat down on the desk. “Maybe you like to keep it dirty.” She smiled, before looking towards the door. “Someone is coming, tall.” Elinsys looked at the door, before asking. “How do you know?” Leferia looked at Elinsys. “I am counting how long it takes them between steps. And based on that I can guess she is tall. Taller than you.” She extended her arm above Elinsys head. “Her?” Elinsys’ brow perked up. “Yes, can’t you smell the body spray? Also your males are way too small for such large steps, so it is only logical.” She waved her hand to the person now standing in the doorway. “Hello.” Leferia smiled at Elinsys. Elinsys, averted her gaze from Leferia, now she would have to ignore her as much as possible. Which was hard, as Leferia already was making horns with her hands behind the woman. Then also a pair of wings appeared behind the officer. Can she do that whenever? “Yes, how may I help you?” Elinsys looked at the officer, straight into her eyes,so as to limit how much of Leferia’s hijinks she saw. The officer was from the bridge, she was panting. “Major, why are you not responding to our calls? Fera has tried to contact you five times, I have been sent to come and get you.” Elinsys looked at her for a moment, before checking her ear. She must have forgotten her communicator. “Oh I am sorry, I slept badly last night. Must have forgotten it in my room.” She stood up and headed outside. “You tell Fera I will be on the bridge within a few minutes, first I must stop by my room.” She closed the door behind them, closing Leferia inside the room. Elinsys frowned, seeing Leferia down the hall and not still behind her in her office. One day, I will be rid of you. “There is a bit of an emergency, you must come now. You will most likely have to suit up and go out, ma’am” The officer was walking next to Elinsys. Trying to keep up the pace. “What do you mean?” Elinsys was looking on her right. Every few steps she would walk by Leferia again who would only smile at her as Elinsys passed her by. *** Elinsys and the officer reached the bridge.It was filled to the brim with crew, who were moving about and shouting at each other. Leferia was also here, sitting in the Captain’s chair. If others could see her, she probably would have been thrown into the brig. That would be a delightful sight. Elinsys smiled at the thought. “Elinsys, come here. We are waiting for you.” Fera was standing outside the meeting room. When Elinsys reached her, she pushed her into the room and locked the door behind them. Leferia was already sitting in one of the chairs, her legs up on the table. She was as distracting as always, but Elinsys kept ignoring her. “Elinsys, finally. We have an emergency on our hands.” Melora started the meeting. “We have received a signal, a distress signal. It would appear a Shil’vati trader has been… the message is quite unclear about it, but we believe their engines have stopped working.” Elinsys sat down in her chair, Leferia sitting next to her. Fera and Rixva were present of course. Henera and Kolani were also here, but over screens rather than in person. “Now it is our duty to respond to this call. They have not responded to our hails and our scans have revealed nothing but debris.” She looked over at Fera, who was holding her omnipad. “Yes, the scans have revealed that the trading ship has been unoperational for a few months. The Veneration will approach from the port side, the Javelin will be on the opposite side. The Frontier will stay back enough to jump away in case it is required.” She pulled up the scans of the ship and her plan of boarding. Elinsys raised her hand a bit, Fera stopped and looked at her. “Yes, sorry for asking. Are we expecting trouble?” Fera nodded slightly. “We are not expecting any other ships to appear, this maneuver of ours is to make sure you can be extracted from any part of the ship. And if any trouble comes from it, we will be able to fire at it from two directions. It is just a security precaution.” Elinsys lowered her hand and looked at Leferia, just to check what she was doing. Leferia was paying attention to the presentation, too much attention if you ask Elinsys. “We will send in two teams, one being led by Elinsys and the other from my ship led by my security head.” Fera pointed to the entry points they will use and possible extraction zones. Fera continued talking about the security protocols and what to look for, but Elinsys was distracted by Leferia, who was now standing on the table. Elinsys eyes widened and she almost said something, almost. Leferia continued to be a nuisance, a distraction, a problem for Elinsys. Walking from person to person and blocking Elinsys from seeing them, walking around the table in circles. Elinsys tried to focus on the plan. “She is one smart pup, huh?” Leferia asked, putting her arm around Elinsys and pointing to Fera, who was walking before Elinsys. Escorting her to the hangar. Elinsys only rolled her eyes, she couldn’t answer Leferia without Fera hearing her. Elinsys tried to focus on the mission. *** The engines roared to life and the transport craft started to shake, Elinsys could feel herself lifting up slightly due to the loss of gravity. The seats were designed with this in mind, but it was still a strange feeling. “A minute until we drop out. Check your weapons.” Fera spoke over the coms. The landing party did as instructed. Elinsys felt a bit nervous, going out into space on a derelict ship was never safe. Nothing around space was safe. “Are you scared?” Leferia asked, pretending to be sitting in one of the seats. “If you are lost to the void, I can probably pull you to the ship.” Leferia smiled, or tried her best at it. Pull me back to the ship? You are not real. Elinsys had to keep reminding herself to be quiet, otherwise she would earn herself weird looks from the rest of the pod. Then she would have to see a doctor. “Boarding procedure begins now. Please stay in your seats until the engineers set up the boarding equipment.” Fera spoke up again. Elinsys and Leferia watched as two engineers went towards the ramp and set up a cannon. The smaller one stuffed a harpoon like projectile, except it had no edge, but rather a round plate on the tip, into the barrel and floated away slightly. The first fired the weapon. Elinsys could only feel the vibrations from it moving along the transport. The hook smashed into the side of the derelict ship and extended itself, locking itself by gravity to the ship. When the engineers started to pull it back the cable only became more tense, signaling they could go across now.. The two engineers hooked up the rope to the side of the ship and backed away, their job was to keep it stable. Elinsys was the first to hook up and move herself along the cable towards the ship. Leferia was moving by her side, floating along. She moved her mouth, but Elinsys couldn’t hear her. Then she seemed to laugh, if one could call that laughter. “Sorry about that, sometimes I forget.” Her voice came over the coms. Elinsys moved along, trying to ignore her as usual. “I do have feelings, you do know that? I truly want us to work together, if I didn’t I would have found another host. I chose you, out of so, so many other people.” Leferia was dangling off the cable. Elinsys turned off her coms. “Can anybody hear me?” She asked, just to make sure nobody could hear her. “I can.” Leferia smiled at her and continued to dangle before her. Moving down the cable with Elinsys. “I wish you didn’t. I wish you weren’t here making my life harder. I am banished to some place where if I die my corpse might never be retrieved. Then I go to the Sea of Souls without a proper burial.” Elinsys didn’t want to think about that, millions of souls moving like waves, crashing into each other with great pain, trying to escape the things which were hidden under the waves. The Dwellers in the deep, soul eaters and other monstrosities she was told about in school. “Is that so bad?” Leferia asked, earning herself a nasty look from Elinsys. “I mean, you could come with me?” She extended her hand, still upside down, if space had an upside down. “What do you mean, come with you?” Elinsys’ heart skipped a beat. “Are you trying to say… that you are from the sea of souls?” Leferia looked at her, before glancing away. “Well, not really. I am from the void, which might be the sea of souls? Different cultures have different names and different descriptions. I do know it's the place the dead go, usually.” Elinsys stopped moving, she had to process this revelation. She didn’t believe much in the Sea of Souls, she hoped it was false and when she died there was nothing, but now? Now she had something to fear in death. “Cunt, just great. I will be tormented in this life and the next.” Leferia came up to her and placed her claws on her helmet, where her cheeks would be. “You don’t have to… if we stay together…. I can take you somewhere much nicer than whatever the Sea of Souls is. Think of a big castle with plenty of the greatest people you could imagine, artists, inventors, warriors. Just imagine it.” She came closer, her four eyes squished against the vizor. Elinsys started to imagine it, the wonderful architecture, the lights, the music, the food. Goddess Above the food! It would make her dad blush with shame due to his cooking being trash compared to it. The conversations she had, dancing, dueling, kissing that… “Wait. Are you brainwashing me!?” Elinsys screamed and punched Leferia, sending her flying towards the wreck. “I am sorry, but your imagination is terrible! You needed a helping mind!” leferia chuckled to herself, before disappearing from Elinsys sight. “Major Elinsys? Are you there? Why did you stop?” Fera came over the coms again, worry in her voice. “Is something wrong?” Elinsys snapped back to reality and turned her comms back on. “I thought I saw movement or something hitting the ship. I was worried the hook might snap away a plate.” She was lying, she only saw Leferia hit the ship, somewhere near the engines. “Please proceed forward.” Fera ordered. “Yes, ma’am.” *** A small part of the ship's hull was pushed into the interior of the ship. Elinsys and the boarding team entered through the new hole they made, large enough for one person to enter at a time. The moment she fell to the ground Elinsys looked around. The ship’s gravity field was working, barely, but it still worked. “Hallway clear, move out to secure the rooms. Move in pairs, check for traps and mark where you find corpses, if you find them.” Elinsys ordered. Her team would meet with Henera’s crew in the mess. Slowly they moved through the dark hallways, only the emergency light and their flashlights providing safety from the darkness. The ship was without a scratch on the inside, only the engines were gone, but what could have ripped them off. A ship's weapons would make holes, or cause them to explode, not rip them off the ship. Hopefully the black box is still in one piece and Rixva could pull the data from it. The rooms were empty, which was good and bad. One one hand it might meant everyone was fine, on the other… there used to be Roaches around these stars, there might still be few. Elinsys shuddered at the thought of seeing one of them, with those bulky armors and more weapons on them than a Shil’vati Death Squad. “Major, we are about to reach the mess. Just behind that door.” One of the Marines pointed forward. “Guns at ready, let me contact Fera.” Elinsys turned her comms on and called Fera, there was no answer at first. “Fera, are you there?” “No, there is no Fera. Only me.” It was Leferia. “How are you doing darling?” She asked with a slight chuckle. “We are about to enter the mess hall, please tell me Henera’s team location?” Elinsys sighed and wanted to punch Leferia. She turned her comms off, she didn’t want anybody to hear what she was about to say. “Elinsys, listen to me. Do not enter the mess hall, you will throw up and choke to death.” Leferia pleaded. “The suits have an internal vomit remover, it will stink, but I will survive.” Elinsys gestured to her team to move forward and open the door. “I do not want it to stink, please, please do not go in there.” Leferia sounded sincere to Elinsys, but she was manipulative. “Fuck you, you space herpes. Nobody wants you here.” The doors opened and Elinsys heard as her fellow Marines’ lunches were catapulted out of their stomachs.