His eyes shot open. He gasped for air, feeling as though he'd been trapped underwater for hours and only now was able to surface. Quickly taking in his surroundings, he saw that he was strapped into a seat inside of a ship. His leg had been bandaged, gauze wrapped around his calf tightly. A bit of a red spot could be seen through it, but it seemed as though the bleeding had stopped.

He looked to his right where Note was standing over him, her optics narrowed in concern. But upon seeing that he was conscious again, she seemed to relax. "Oh, thank god. Ten, he's awake!"

There was a shuffling noise accompanied by movement to his left, and then Ten knelt down in front of him. "Val! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I—" He stopped talking for a moment, his tongue feeling dry and coarse like sandpaper. He ran it along the roof of his mouth experimentally, recoiling at the sensation. "I'm fine, I think. What happened?"

"You had some kind of fit," she explained. "You couldn't move, and we had to carry you onto Note's ship with the Cell chasing us, we barely made it. Then the Sentinels appeared and scared them off, but ..."

She became quiet. "The farm ... it was completely destroyed. The fields, the house ... they burned it all to the ground."

His heart sank. He'd never seen or heard Ten sound so broken as she did now; her head-fins drooped low, and she spoke hoarsely from crying. Her usual jovial attitude had all but vanished, wetness beginning to well up in her eyes. She looked to the side and hastily wiped at her eyes with one of her lower arms, but once that first tear slipped through, the dam was broken. Beads of water forged trails down her cheeks as she silently sat there, knowing that her life as she knew it was over.

That feeling of despair wasn't unique to her, however—the farm had been the only home Val had known. It was the only place he really knew in Spectra at all, if he was honest. Without it ... he was just as lost as he'd been on the day he'd first awakened.

"Where are we?" he whispered, looking over at Note.

"The Mercantile," she answered. "I figured that the Cell might not be so eager to go after us while we're here, not unless they want to bring every Sentinel in Spectra down on themselves. This gives us a chance to lay low for a bit while we do what we need to."

"What do you mean?"

She looked at the rear of the ship, its door currently lowered into its ramp position. "Come on, we can talk about it on the way. Probably best not to linger here, though."

Without waiting for a reply, she stepped around Ten and made her way to the ramp, walking down it and out of sight. He watched her leave, then set about getting himself upright. Unstrapping himself from the safety harness, he rose up onto his feet and massaged his shoulders. He still felt a bit sluggish, but that feeling would likely wear off once he started moving again.

"What ... what are we going to do?"

Ten was looking up at him, her emerald eyes full of apprehension and uncertainty. "We can't hide on the Mercantile forever, but where else can we go? The Cell are still out there, waiting for us. Are we just supposed to run from them until we die?"

Usually, he was the one looking to her for guidance, he wasn't sure what to do as he now found himself on the other side of that dynamic. He lowered himself down next to her, and swallowed hard. "I ... I don't know. I'm just as lost right now as you are."

He held out a hand to her, and gave an encouraging smile. "But we're we're in this together, and I know that whatever we do ... you'll have my back, and I'll have yours. Alright?"

She stared at him for some time, unmoving. Then, tentatively, she placed her hand in his and squeezed it.

"... Alright."

He nodded, then stood back up and walked down the ramp with Ten in tow. Note was waiting for both of them at the bottom, and turned back around once she was sure they were coming.

Val glanced around and felt his jaw drop in shock. He'd learned a few things about the Mercantile over the years, but seeing it up close was an entirely different thing. They were in the midst of a massive docking bay, one that stretched for hundreds of meters in all directions. Behind them was an enormous semi-transparent shield that kept the docking bay pressurized and that they could see into space through. In front of them was a massive angled wall, one from which thousands of catwalks and clamps stretched out to connect with ships of varying sizes and makes.

At the end of each catwalk, including their own, was what appeared to be a cylindrical elevator, its shaft running vertically from the top to the bottom of the docking bay, just like the many others to each of its sides. Note speedily walked towards theirs, looking over her shoulder every so often to ensure that they were still following.

"So," he called out, "you mentioned that we have something we need to take care of?"

"A few things, actually," she replied curtly, stepping into the open elevator and stepping aside to allow them access. Val and Ten entered, taking a look around and noting how spacious the elevator's interior was.

"Welcome," came a synthetic voice from a panel on the wall. "Please select your destination."

Note pressed a button on the panel, then stepped back towards the center as the compartment began to ascend. After a few moments, their view of the dockyard was lost as they travelled too far up the shaft.

"First of all, we need to get ourselves some protection," Note explained.

"Protection? You mean, like, weapons?"

"Those wouldn't hurt to have, but no," she said. "I mean that we need to find someone who knows a thing or two when it comes to fighting. If the Cell do come after us here, we have to make sure that we've got someone else watching our backs."

He furrowed his brow. "And how exactly do you think we're gonna get someone to agree to that? Just walk right up and say, 'Hey, we're being pursued by a race of homicidal gene-splicers! Want to join us?'"

Note made a flourishing motion in the air with her fingers. Reddish-pink dots and lines manifested and surrounded the digits for a brief moment before she put her hand back down. "Money's usually a pretty strong motivator. Get me to a terminal and I can have us rolling in credits within the hour."

He realized where she was going with that train of thought, and protested, "Hey, hang on—we're not stealing anything!"

She threw him a sideways glance. "Do you have a better idea? We're going to need money for more than just a bodyguard. Food, shelter, transport, clothing, the list goes on. We can't just expect to navigate all of our exchanges through quid pro quo—"

"I don't care, we're not about to start robbing bank accounts—"

"We don't have to."

Both of them stopped and turned to look at Ten. She was standing against the back of the elevator, looking between the two of them with a tired expression. "I told you, farming okinlas is a very profitable business. I have access to Prag's—"

Her voice caught in her throat as she said his name, but she quickly cleared it and continued. "I have access to ... his financial account. Technically our account, but it was created in his name. We've got more funds than you'd think, I just need to find a terminal with a connection to Spec-Net."

"Spec-Net?" he asked.

"The Spectra-Network," Ten clarified. "Its servers are hosted right here on the Mercantile, it keeps us all connected on a galactic level. Where there's people, there's usually Spec-Net."

Val and Note looked at each other, and she shrugged nonchalantly. "Sure, that works."

After a moment or two, he turned back to Ten and nodded. "Alright, we'll start there."

"Now arriving at the terminal for Dockyard 31-C.

The elevator came to a quick stop, and a second set of doors behind them opened up. The trio stepped out and found themselves on one of many paved paths, each leading from their specific elevator through a massive, cavernous sort of entry terminal. Before them was some kind of laser grid composed of blue beams that stretched from one side of the terminal to the other.

"Where's all the security?" Val asked, looking around. "You'd think that for a station like this—"

"That's it right there" Note said, gesturing towards the luminous grid. "It's a biometric scanner, every terminal is equipped with one. When you walk through it, it detects any weapons or items that have been determined to be unsafe beyond reasonable expectations. Perfectly fine for us to walk through, so long as none of us are hiding anything on or inside us." She turned to look at them. "That's not a joke by the way, these things can detect illegal cybernetics. So I'd advise not walking through if you've got anything like that on you."

Neither he nor Ten said anything back, so she nodded and pulled her jacket closer around her. "Good. Then let's go. Remember to avoid drawing attention to yourselves, and keep your heads down."

Val faced forward and forced himself not to look around in curiosity. "Why?"

"I don't know if you remember, but that racer ship doesn't exactly belong to me," she hissed. "I'd rather not have that fact discovered."

To be honest, he'd completely forgotten about that detail, but he wasn't about to admit that to her. Instead, he simply followed behind her as they kept walking on the path and passed through the grid without issue. At the end of the terminal, a large tunnel ran perpendicular to them, one that was currently empty. They made their way over to it and stood on a boarding platform overlooking a several meter drop. In the center of the drop was a set of metal rails that stretched off into the distance of both sides of the tunnel.

"Tram systems," Note explained. "They run through all the districts of the station, you can get pretty much anywhere using them. It's almost necessary, given how big this place is."

"I guess we'll follow your lead then," he muttered. "I mean, you're the only one of us who's actually been here."

"Well, the first thing we'll want to do is withdraw those credits," she said, looking back at Ten. "No one's going to take us seriously without a down-payment of some sort."

"Understood," the irva agreed. "Anything else?"

The synthoid pointed at Val. "He needs a medical examination."

Val's gaze snapped towards her. "What? I told you, I'm fine—"

"You were glaring at those Cell like you wanted to rip them apart in one moment, and in the next you were floundering like a fish out of water," she shot back. "What do we do if that happens again? Ten and I can't just lug you around wherever we go."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm standing perfectly fine right now without your help—"

"Have you had strange dreams before? Visions?"

He froze. Ten leaned in, her eyes narrowing in concern. "Visions? What visions?"

"The ones where we relive lives that aren't our own," Note answered quietly, her voice barely above a whisper as she carefully watched Val. "The ones where voices speak to us as though they know us in ways even we don't."

"How do you know about those?" he growled in a hushed tone.

"I know you've had them because I've had them," she revealed. "I recognized that look in your eyes as you stared down those Cell. The one where, for a brief moment ..."

She regarded him with an uncertain expression. "You're someone else."

"Your nightmares," Ten realized, turning towards him. "Those nightmares you've had for years, is that what she's talking about?"

He said nothing in reply, but turned back to face Note with a resigned expression.

"You've made your point. I'll get myself checked out."

"Good," she chirped back to him. "For a second there, I thought I might have to drag you there kicking and screaming."

"I still wouldn't rule it out," he muttered grouchily. He hated feeling like there was something wrong with him, but it might not be the worst idea to see a professional about what had happened, especially if it had anything to do with his odd nightmares.

A sudden noise coming in from the left side of the tunnel alerted them to the presence of the tram as it slowed to a stop in front of them. The doors opened to allow entry, and they all stepped inside. Other occupants lined the sides of the tram, either sitting in open seats or standing while gripping onto handholds that ran across the ceiling.

He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but he didn't recognize the races of any of the inhabitants aboard, there were no irvas. What he did see was what appeared to be a large, metallic, insect-like creature that stood on four legs connected to a sleek abdomen. That abdomen elongated into a torso with two segmented arms, and a curved, teardrop-shaped head that sat atop the whole thing.

A display of hexagonal lights illuminated on the front of its head and formed themselves into angular 'eyes' which stared back at him. He hastily looked away and decided that he'd had enough of scrutinizing the other passengers, opting to keep his gaze trained at the floor for the remainder of the trip.

"Departing terminal. Next stop, Straxe Plaza."

"Then that's where we're going," Note piped up, acknowledging the tram's announcement. "Straxe is a big place, we should be able to find what we're looking for around there."

"If you say so."

The doors of the tram slid closed, and a dull thrumming could be heard beneath them as it powered up once again. It began moving towards the tunnel on the right, and they all found handholds as it carried them further into the belly of the Mercantile.