Sapphire nearly lost her mind crossing the ramp’s threshold and entering the ship proper. She winced and fell sideways against Wyrlynd. In his tiger form he was able to support her easily. “Sapphire!” he cried, half leading, half dragging her forward. “What’s wrong?”
Sapphire was unable to respond. It was taking all of her willpower to remain inside her body. The ship’s pull was that great. Before she’d had the pilot’s head to both house her mind and protect her from the Link’s pull. It was only now that Sapphire realized how much she relied on the pilot’s will to protect her own. She didn’t have that now. She was completely on her own-
Funneling incoming data, Chrys suddenly spoke up through the noise. Overstimulation of Sapphire unit’s cerebral cortex reduced by 49%.
The dragon spoke true. She blinked repeatedly as her vision stabilized. The ship’s hum continued to ring in her ears, but Wyrlynd’s voice still registered. “Sapphire!”
“I’m here,” she reassured him breathlessly, brow furrowed. “Chrys, use incoming data to formulate the most efficient path to the bridge.”
Like a key turning in a lock, the dragon followed her command. Doing so required allowing more of the ship’s pressure in, making the android grit her teeth. Pushing through the pain, she glanced around at their surroundings. This was the first time that she fully faced how truly massive this ship was. Every surface was either silver or off-white and glowed softly with power. She, Wyrlynd, and Belkross were on the first level, or really the main bay. There were dozens of doorways leading into storage or sleeping units. A giant circular pad identical to the one on her ship was farther off. If activated it would lead to either the second or third floors. They were open to the bay, with railings in place to keep personnel from accidentally falling. Sapphire’s eyes locked onto the pad and sure enough, Chrys manifested an arrow that extended from her to the pad, and up to the third floor.
“The platform!” she said, more to Belkross. “Level Three!”
He grunted in response, sword drawn. The sound of their boots striking the floor echoed through the air, but it triggered no attack from anyone inside. Behind them, battle warred on. Sapphire could only hope that the other would be able to hold Sir Andres and the blazes at bay. She had her own mission to accomplish. She had to replace the pilot as this ship’s master. But to do that…
“The onyx,” she called out, this time to both Belkross and Wyrlynd. “She and the other Sapphire will know that we’ve entered the ship. If you can both keep the onyx away, I can focus on stealing away the pilot’s connection to the core.”
“You got it!!” the tiger boy exclaimed excitedly, though Sapphire did detect a nervous edge to his voice. In contrast, Belkross just grunted again. They boarded the platform. Using Chrys, Sapphire channeled more of her connection to the ship and ordered, “Up.” There was a horrible moment where she was sure that her command was going to be blocked by the pilot. Instead the platform began to dutifully rise.
Any relief she felt was quickly replaced by a horrible thought.
The blazes!
There had been more of them in stock than the ones fighting alongside Sir Andres.
“Be ready,” she told the boys. “There’s likely to be more of my kind guarding the bridge.”
But no, she was wrong. They bypassed the second floor, reaching the third. There wasn’t a single blaze in sight. The virtual arrow pointed at a circular doorway leading straight ahead. It was decorated with a pale diamond split down the middle by the groove that divided the door in half. Sapphire could already feel the core’s power radiating through it, calling to her…
As if reading her darker impulses, Chrys’ arrow turned back to regard Sapphire like a concerned pet. Belkross was also glancing between her and the door.
“Trap?” he asked.
“Most likely,” she replied. She nodded for them to advance. Wyrlynd bounded forward on all fours, but he still went slow enough for Belkross to retain the lead. In both her and Chrys’ voices, Sapphire spoke, “Open!” to the door. It obliged her at once, allowing the trio to enter the bridge.
It was like coming home. The bridge’s design was identical to Sapphire’s. White walls curved together around the core. Said object floated atop a raised platform, almost like a holy relic upon an altar. It tainted the surrounding air with red and green light as it spun slowly in place. The core’s surface rippled beneath Sapphire’s gaze, and almost seemed to smile at her, inviting her over…
“NO!” Wyrlynd bellowed suddenly.
His cry made Belkross spin around. The black-haired android-the onyx-had been perched directly above the doorway. She was now diving towards the entranced Sapphire. Hearing Wyrlynd’s voice, the android flinched and turned, but still did nothing to stop herself from being attacked. The onyx swung her own saber, this one pulsing with solid black energy.
Wyrlynd leapt and grabbed the hem of Belkross’ coat, yanking Sapphire to the ground and out of the blade’s path just in time. The onyx landed, her blade striking the floor with a painfully loud clang. Keeping her body in motion, the black-haired assassin swung her body around, attacking Sapphire again.
This time Belkross’ blade was there intercept it. He parried it to the side through superior swordsmanship and then sliced his sword across the front of her chest. Her armor kept the blade from striking anything fatal, but a thick spray of blood still filled the air between them.
Despite it, no pain seemed to register in the orbs of shadows the onyx used for eyes.
Sapphire’s, meanwhile, were filled with confusion. “The onyx?!” she exclaimed, looking around. “Have you found her?!”
“She’s right in front of us!” Wyrlynd snapped back, pointing.
She…She is? Sapphire thought, but no matter how hard she tried to focus the onyx refused to appear. Her mind raced through every possibility she could think of before settling upon the most likely one. Holographic camouflage. The onyx was using holograms that specifically targeted Sapphire’s vision. That explained why Belkross and Wyrlynd were exempt and could see her.
Chrys, she thought desperately, scan for active holograms within a thirty-five-feet radius from my position.
This time the ship fought against Chrys, but the dragon was able to accomplish just enough for the air directly in front of Belkross to grow dark and fuzzy. Sapphire could now track the onyx’s location, and that was more than enough.
“Belkross!” she exclaimed, rising to her feet. “Get back!”
The mercenary jumped away without question. Sapphire flung a grenade at the ground by the onyx’s feet. The onyx leapt, evading some but not all of the resulting icicles that shot up into the air. More of her blood splattered across the floor, now dripping continuously from the hole in the armor Belkross had made and Sapphire’s bomb had worsened. This made it that much easier for Sapphire to keep track of her.
Not two seconds later, Sapphire received a taste of her own medicine. Ice exploded from the ground by hers and Wyrlynd’s feet, knocking them apart. Sapphire slammed backwards, past the core and into the nearest wall. The impact knocked the breath out of her lungs and blurred her vision. Once it settled she found herself staring up into her own face.
The p-pilot, she realized, wincing.
The sapphire unit was staring down at her, her face devoid of all emotion. Behind her, Wyrlynd tried to leap over to help. An onyx-shaped blur ducked and rolled beneath Belkross’ next sword strike and then leapt, slamming into the boy. He hit the floor, shoulder first, breaking it. Sensing weakness, the onyx straddled him, raising her saber for the kill.
‘ROOOOOOOWWWWRRRR!”
The booming roar, so much like his father’s, exploded from the boy’s throat. His shoulder be damned, Wyrlynd’s clams swung upwards, slamming into the android’s chest, breaking every rib in their way easily. The android shuddered but by then the tiger had pulled her into a fierce hug, with his teeth buried into throat. Her sword hand twitched before the saber clattered to the floor. Wyrlynd rolled over so that he was on top of the corpse, swallowed the meat in his mouth, and bellowed another, victorious roar into her greying face.
“You’re very emotional today,” the pilot called down, her voice somehow muting the tiger’s roar. As she spoke, her eyes turned solid blue, pulling Sapphire in. She felt her body luck up. She felt the pilot’s mind move into said body, felt the pilot make her stand, pushing up against the wall to accomplish it. Felt her fingers curl around the grip of her grappling pistol, drawing it. Chrys was fighting for Sapphire’s sake, but the pilot’s will was easily overruling the dragon’s. And that will made Sapphire’s eyes shift to the side, lock on Wyrlynd and-
Belkross? Sapphire thought weakly, hopefully.
Just then the mercenary sprang from behind the core and attacked the pilot.
Sapphire’s hope was short lived. She couldn’t stop her hand from taking aim and shooting her grappling hook at him. He had no choice but to abandon his attack against the pilot and turn his body around midair to avoid it. Pain and violation made Sapphire’s heart race in her chest. She screamed at Chrys for help. The dragon tried but couldn’t stop her body from retracting the hook back into her gun and taking aim again.
No! she screamed inwardly. No! I-I…I SAID NO!
She pushed all of her will outward, not into taking back control of her body, but into the pilot’s. Surprised, the pilot didn’t put up her defenses in time. Sapphire flowed into her, became her. And by extension the ship. It became her domain. She knew Belkross and Wyrlynd’s exact positions, down to every fiber of hair on their bodies. She knew that Paco had just snuck into the room. And she was now staring at herself. The defective sapphire.
Sapphire’s and the pilots thoughts flowed back and forth between the two bodies, fighting for dominance. Control.
But while the pilot was fighting to win, Sapphire was after a smaller prize: three seconds of control over her free hand.
Three seconds. That was all she needed to unpin a grenade from her belt and throw it down between them.
The resulting blast knocked them apart, with Sapphire slamming against the wall again. The pilot crashed against the core. Its energy made her body spasm uncontrollably. She fell to the floor, smoking. Freedom brought relief to Sapphire’s mind, making her fall backwards, into the blackness of unconsciousness…
But then, across that blackness, memories began to play. Memories of her time at Smuggler’s Shiv. The others finding and awakening her. The corrupted core and the monster it had become towards the end. Waking up in the lake, being helped by the Yggdrafields. All these memories and more played across Sapphire’s mind’s eye.
No, Sapphire whimpered as she felt the pilot’s consciousness combing through them, absorbing them all. Stealing them. You can’t!
BOOM!
The gunshot startled Sapphire’s body awake. She was sitting against the wall, the front of her body coated in blood and ice. Several feet away, Paco stood over the pilot’s body, the barrel of his pistol smoking. The android’s face was little more than a mess of flesh and hair now.
Seemingly having come back to his senses, Wyrlynd dashed past the gunslinger and took a knee by Sapphire’s side. “Sapphire,” he said, his breath reeking of blood. “You okay?”
She stared at him.
NO! Please! Wyrlynd, you’re all in danger! a fading voice cried as it was dragged down into the dark, taken away to be interrogated more thoroughly at a later point.
Meanwhile the android’s lips told him, almost smiling, “Yes, Wyrlynd. I am very okay. I won.”