I sat strapped into an unfortable seat as the shuttle shuddered and screeched in the effort of breaking through the atmosphere, half a minute passed like that, with me w whether this junk blowing up thousands of meters in the air would kill me or not. By some miracle, the shuttle calmed and with a few tendrils of my soul energy passing through its reinforced walls, I sensed no air around it. I was in space for the first time ever, yeah it was on a shit ride and I couldn't watch the enormous p getting further and further away but I still felt giddy. When I opened my eyes as the small tendrils retreated through my e to my... whatever that pond of soul energy was in the immaterial, —I should e up with a name for that, 't call it the anymore— I found Selearing at me weirdly from the other side of the shuttle. It was somewhat weird that she wasn't somewhere closer to the pilot but maybe she wao keep an eye on me or whatever, not that I minded. "Something on my face?" I raised an eyebrow at her as I ran my fiips over my cheeks and lips despite knowing nothing was on them. I found myself enjoying the effort I had to put into reading Selene, uhe rest who were like open books with my telepathy. Well, aside from the Magos, what was his name again? I'm sure I recorded it somewhere in my mind. "No," she answered, seeming more fused than suspicious, "I just didn't expect to see an Inquisitor enjoy flying on a faulty shuttle that much." "Hmm," I narrowed my eyes, "Why have you decided to bee a Rogue Trader? Aside from the retive freedom of course." "Money, Power, and the Thrill of it all, I re," she said after a moment of thought, "though I didn't have much choice as I was an only child so I ied the Warrant of Trade by default." "I'm not too different," I shrugged, "Money, Power and Freedom are a given as an Inquisitor but I try to enjoy every little thing that sends a jolt of thrill through me," I smiled at the woman, "not knowing whether this junk of a shuttle will explode while trying to exit the atmosphere is quite thrilling, thank you for the experience." "...you are wele," she now looked at me even more weirdly but just shook her head as I gri her probably like a lunatic. I'd make food Ordo Xenos Inquisitor in my ho opinion, I knew more than most of them about the aliens and I got the usual Inquisitor insanity by default. Being near unkilble by usual methods tends to someone's personality. "Got any Astropaths on board?" I asked a few moments ter, my grin fading away with the question. "One," she shook her head mournfully, "the psychic shockwave sent the rest either into raving lunacy or killed them ht, only the Astropath Transdent remains, though she is atose." "Well damn," I looked at the ceiling, "oh well, whatever, we got bigger problems thaing others right now." "A Tyranid invasion would o be reported," she me, "but we have to survive it first to do that." "Right," I shrugged, "Not sure how we are going to get ahough, I don't know if your navigator mentio but the Astronomi has gone poof a few months ago," I said as I made a mock explosioure with my right hand. "He did," she was looking at me weirdly again, I wonder why? *snicker* "He was also in a bad state when we left the ship to nd so he might be dead by now." "That would be bad," I act like a Navigator? Maybe if I could eat him somehow, get that third eye thingy for myself. "We'd be trapped on this p with a Tyranid fleet ing right at us," she stated with a stony face, "Yes that'd be bad." "Right?" I nodded in self-satisfa, I think I like this womay. We stayed silent for a few more minutes before I decided to ask something that came to mind just now. "Would you mind if I extermihe mutants crawling around your ship?" I was sure to find some iing ones livihat disgustingly radioactive reactor. "I don't think you need my permission to do your job," said Seleh a raised eyebrow and I just shrugged. "It's your ship," I stared into her questioning grey eyes, "I've met sue Traders that'd take me doing that like I've deflowered their daughters or something." "I see it more as you g her of a disease so go ahead," said Selene and I nodded back thankfully, a good retionship with her is going to make my life much easier. Sileurned until the metal hull started screeg again as it ected to the Wanderer. It was an iiup, instead of entering a hangar or something this smaller ship that was far te for a shuttle ected to the underside of the rge ship. Meical tubes and limbs extended from both and interlocked until the two were held firmly together. The eg hallways depressurized as we stood in front of the bulkhead, watg the blinking red mp turn green. The bulkhead opened with a loud screeot having seen oil for probably the st tury which overshadowed the hiss of air rushiweewo rooms. "Would you like to go hunting now, or..." Selene looked at me, throwing a questioning sidelong g my seemingly unarmed form. "I want to che the Astropath Transdent and the Navigator beforehand," I said with a g her before returning my gaze to the hallway leading into the main ship. "Sure," she nodded easily, an Astropath Transdent is a psyker soul-bound to the Emperor himself, something like a very binding warlock pact, they should have a small shard of HIS soul ioo. I stood above the sleeping form of the Navigator, the man arently was called Aaron Folnx, he seemed to be in his fifties with his skin pulled gaunt against his skull. I'd have thought he was wearing chalk as skih how pale he was but I guess energy isn't the best for your health either. It is a very addictive aructive drug, almost as much as the godlike power it gives to psykers. From this close, it was evident that the Navigator wasn't the source of the radiant light that helped me first notice this ship. That light was ing from a few rooms away, where I'd been told they are treating the Astropath. Navigators were an iing breed, while psykers were gateways into the , people like this man were windows. They could glimpse into it but couldn't draw on its powers and his soul sighat. He shone brightly but only a bit brighter than the Captain and his little soul floated on top of the dark waves of the like a tiny boat. His mind was calm but active, nothing like what I'd expect from a atose person. His thoughts raced wildly, dreaming about whatever people dreamed about in this grimdark future. I cared not besides his retive stability, I retreated from his mind and turned my attention towards what was actually iing. "Wao wake him up?" I tilted my head as I threw a g Seleanding a few meters behih two of her spec-ops bodyguards looming over her shoulders. "If it isn't too much trouble," she nodded and her gaze switched to the slumbering navigator. My palm was draped over his skull with my fingers digging under his disgustingly mangy hair. My psychic power didn't need direct trol to work but they didn't know that. I g the third eye in the middle of his forehead, now closed to the world but I k to be the source of his powers. It'd be so easy to kill him, absorb him, and assimite his powers. Just like I'd doh everything iing so far but not now, I didn't want to be stu this rod only this half-dead man could guide this ship through the hell that was the . My palm didn't o touch him for my psychic powers to work but it did help in cealing the hundreds of tiny white tendrils extending from it and into his body. They phased through his body as they felt, touched, and sensed how his body was made up. Even without eating him, with my expanded knowledge about the human genome and mutations I reed I'd be able to replicate his powers with a bit of trial and error, especially since he won't notice a few of his cells and hair going missing while sleeping. His body was weak and without nutrients which I had to restore just a bit with my own stores of bio-energy as I call it, even his pale cheeks got some color to them after a few seds of me pumping energy into him. I went over his whole body with my microscopidrils awo times just to make sure I memorized everything correctly before I sent a tiny pulse of soul energy into his mind. The man jerked and sat up like a spring, jumping to his feet o his medical bed like a hyperactive kid as his three-eyed gaze flickered all over the room before nding on Selene and then finally me. His two human eyes were focused but the third on his forehead was gzed over and looking around still like it couldn't find what it was searg for. "Lord Aaron," Selene drew his attention, "are you alright?" "Ah," he blinked owlishly at me once before tearing his gaze away and fog in on Selene, now with all three of his eyes, "Fine? no... PHENOMENAL, I haven't felt this great iuries." Selene snapped her head away as she saw his tar bck eye starting to turn in her dire but one of the medicae staff wasn't so lucky, a single peek into the abyss of the sent her vulsion on the floor but a moment ter one of Selene's Shadows took him away. The man grinned and I was afraid his skin would crad fke off uhe strain but he even spun around a bit before zeroing in oh a curious look in his sunken bck eyes. "Do you not have a soul?" P3t1