“Isn’t this just so cool?”

  “I suppose?” Selene eyed me strangely, having been dragged into my little warded off se of the ship. She wore a frown and had a slightly disapproving air about her.

  What did I do now? I didn’t torture ao make this thing? I hummed, squinting at her frowning face to uhe mysteries hiddeh. My now fully metallic right arm came up to caress my .

  What? I had some leftovers, and as such, my right arm was 100% neis from the elbow down.

  “Couldn’t you do everything that thing does already though?” She asked, strutting up and taking my gleaming hand in her own. She tur over, poking at my palm and running her finger along the seamless metal of my wrist.

  “I mean,” I averted my gaze. “Sort of? But this is free. Aal, and cool. … Look!”

  I shifted the hand, a minuscule bit of bio-energy flowing into it and from the wrist down it transformed into a sword.

  “Impressive,” she said evenly, then shifted her own hand into a bone sword and cut my neis bde in half with a half-hearted swing.

  I stared at her sword-hand as it slowly morphed back, then up at her steely eyes. She raised an eyebrow.

  “*Cough*”

  I levitated the cut-off part and held it up to my cut stump, the two metal parts melded back together by themselves. With zero energy cost. I’d have o eat a newborn’s worth of bio-energy to heal a wound like that if it was made ur flesh and blood.

  “So you were saying?” Selene crossed her arms and stepped her feet, that challenging eyebrow still raised.

  Unfortunately for her, she looked adorable while gring up at me, looking unimpressed with a barely cealed smirk tugging at her lips. Not the time. She is angry … for some reason. Annoyed, is a better word I guess, so whatever I did couldn’t have been too bad.

  “It was free to repair though,” I said carefully. “Plus this will hopefully i with other Ne tech we decipher.”

  “Mhhhmm,” she hummed.

  “Didn’t know you could turn your hand into a sword,” I attempted to ge the subject. Holy, the main reason I did this was that I wanted something more in lih my sci-fi fantasies. Tendrils and birthing eldritch monsters were all nice, but having what were basically super-advananites in my body just made me giddy.

  I never liked Bio-punk much as a geher, si teo be rather disgusting and gory.

  “Really?” Selene gave me a smile. “Maybe you would have known if you as much as stuck your head out of this room in THE LAST TWO MONTHS.”

  Oh. I blinked, mouth opening in surprise. I held myself back from face palming and ‘ahhh’-ing as the metaphorical lightbulb lit up above my head. So that’s where I fucked up.

  “Sorry,” I said with a grimace, looking at my feet. My initial reaight have been cklustre — I mean, I just pyed with my oy for a few weeks, what was there to be angry about? — but the more I thought about it, the worse I felt.

  We are sort of dating and I just ghosted her for two entire months. That’s shitty.

  “I-,” taking a deep breath, I forced myself to look up a her eyes. I almost averted my gaze instantly as I noticed the glimmer of hurt beh her pyful smirk. Don’t be a wimp. You beat back big bad Tyranids, you look yirlfriend in the eye. “Sorry for … well, how I’ve been ag. I- No, I guess there are no excuses fn you for two months.”

  I almost ehe apology with a flirt, ‘there are no excuses fn my beautiful girlfriend for two months’ was right oip of my tongue before I residered. That would be making light of her feelings, especially that hurt at being so easily fotten.

  Stupid orack mind. Being an eldritch monster only made it worse. I thought inwardly, feeling angry at myself. Self-trol was something I cked, but I thought anger or a hunger frowth would be the only feelings I had to look out for, but it seemed curiosity could just as easily result in trouble.

  I opened myself up to her, letting her aura seep through my mental defences and taste my feelings.

  Selene visibly defted after holding my gaze for a painfully long five seds. She let out a sigh and massaged the bridge of her nose as I tinued fidgeting.

  “You are so troublesome,” she sighed again, hands on her hips as she looked up at me. An imperceptible tension seemed to have drained out of her and her aura calmed siderably, but while the worry was gohe annoyance remained. “Two months. I was thinking you just must be doing somethiremely important to shut yourself away like this. I don’t know, pnning a new scheme or w on enhang this ship for the stretch of the journey … but you were just pying with your oy.”

  ‘And fot about me.’ Went unsaid, but I wasirely socially i, despite what most of my as up until now might suggest.

  I put myself in her shoes. I imagined Selene ign me for months, shutting herself away without a word and then learning that she’d been twiddlihumbs basically and fot I existed.

  My grimace returned in full force. Just the thought made me feel horrible, and I’d just put her through that. This wasn’t the sort of thing one waves away with an ‘Oops, sorry’.

  “ I make it up to you somehow?” I asked.

  “You-,” her gre melted midway through the sentence as she took another breath. “Just. Don’t do it again. Please?”

  “I’ll try,” I winced.

  “This is the part where you agree with me and we make up.”

  “But I know I’ll probably break that promise,” I said. “Isn’t it better to not make it then?”

  As she seemed to be a bit stumped at my reasoning, I tinued. “But I promise that whatever I’m doing, you barge in on me whenever you want. I … think I wouldn’t have noticed even years passing by if finishing this thing didn’t break me out of my trance.”

  I could feel her annoyance fade away as she came to some sort of a clusion, her vibrant grey eyes staring into my soul.

  “I fet that you're not human at times,” she whispered. Her gaze softened as she stepped up to her hands around my waist. “But I suppose you are not. I ’t really force you to act like oo make me feel … “

  She frowned, probably not finding the word.

  “fortable?” I tried.

  “No,” she huffed. “In trol? I just don’t know what to expect with you. I get blindsided by silly things like this oer the other. Not that I mind most of the time.”

  She whispered the st part, and I gingerly returned her hug, my own hands going around her shoulders. “Spoy isn’t supposed to be a bad thing.”

  “Everything is bad when done in excess,” she said. “Deg to make yourself a metal body? Sure. Sitting in pce for two months without sleepiing or even thinking about anything other than designing that new body though?”

  “Okay, okay, I get it.” I pouted. Maybe a daily meal and taking a day to do something else every ten days could have been nice.

  “Good,” she smiled, then stood ooes and pced a quick pey cheek before slipping out of my hold. “I’d say your side of our bed went cold these st two months … but we don’t have a bed. Still, I think you get the idea.”

  “I think I do,” I grinned. “I have muake up for, don’t I? Two months of lonely nights and munoyao work out of your system.”

  Selene gave me a giggle, then with a st meaningful look turo leave. “We reached gactic space three days ago. You might want to chec- “

  [Alert: Spacecraft detected. 20000 km. Angle: 37/260. Note: Approag fast]

  “We have visitors,” I interrupted her, the room’s walls melting bato the ship and revealing the rest of the room. “Prepare for bat!”

  They stared at me strangely. The room looked rather lived in, there were dozens of clearly anic furniture all around with different bowls filled with various foods spread out over a shelf made out of the wall’s chitin.

  Huh. When did that happen?

  [Answer: ‘Lover’ Selene requested sustenand the furniture. Her request had been granted. Do you wish to see the Logs?]

  We have Logs?

  [Answer: Of course. The Logs are where all energy expenditures are recorded for ter review.]

  Huh. That … is entirely useless. Anyway, we have a spaceship to beat up.

  My eyes went over to my crew. The poor things seemed to be fused, which was uandable since every fight up until now was me chugging psma at our foes and pying with my fighters.

  As, I had a new metal hand and an enhanced body to check.

  Val was the only one who squi me, his muscles almost imperceptibly tensing as his mouth twitched into an eager grin.

  “What are you pnning?” Selene asked, sliding up o me and squinting suspiciously at me.

  “Well,” I grinned. “Once we reach Tau space, we’ll probably masquerade as Imperial deserters or meraries looking for hire. I thought getting into that Imperial mi was in order. … Especially sihat ship doesn’t feel Neade.”

  Why didn’t it feel Neade? Well, because it ositively glowing in the . It was in a way much different than a -Storm, but in others, it felt simir at the same time. An almost chaotic cascade of -energy coiled and twisted around it, bending the ws of realspace with its sheer iy.

  But uh storms, there urpose to that chaos. It was trolled, if only by the vaguest interpretation of the word.

  “Orks,” Val said, his voiehow tainted by both glee and disgust in equal measure. “Am I assuming correctly that you aim to ram that ship and board them?”

  “You assume correctly,” I said with mock haughtiness. I should get better at this fancy speech most races prefer in this gaxy … maybe. Eh, I’d rather not. Fuck them. “I bet you’re all bored to bits, sitting in this tiny ship for months. Let’s stretch s for a bit!”

  Space is extremely vast though. How did we stumble upon a single shitty Ork ship?

  [Answer: Course trajectory had been slightly altered to set the flight path on a collision course with the suspected Greenskin ship.]

  When? Why? I frowned.

  [Answer: Approximately 19 hours and 31 minutes ago.]

  [Answer: Main sciousness had been wishing to test the new ‘Neis Enhanced Human’ Prototype. Minor course alterations were deemed to be acceptable to please the Main sciousness]

  Well, t me pleased. I narrowed my eyes. And pissed. Whichever mind-core decided to go forward with those ges without asking for my permission is oe-deciphering duty for the month. NEVER do anything affeg me without my express permission.

  [Aowledged. Mind-Core#6789 has been assigo decipher the Tyranid ‘Norn Emissary’ gene sample.]

  Good. I o myself. Now, let’s get back to business.

  “Any questions?” I asked, looking over the crew.

  Bob nervously raised a hand a it up even as Fae elbowed him in the side.

  “Yes, Bob?” I asked.

  “Am I uanding it right when I assume you want all of us to board the Ork ship and fight them personally, uhm, My Lady?” He asked, his voice a touch strained as he tried not to wheeze. Little Fae was quite vicious, it seemed. I’d have to do something about that. I couldn’t have her disce questions and free thinking.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “Though you don’t have to if you don’t want to. This is mostly for the three of us, so the two of you sit this o.”

  It seemed his form of address at least saved him from a sed elbow to the kidneys. Lucky guy.

  “No more questions?” I asked after a few seds of silence, gng at Selene and Val, but only finding varying degrees of eagerness on their faces. “Alright the’s get- Oh, Fae, what is it?”

  The Eldar girl — no, she’s a woman, hell, she’s probably a huimes my age. Still, she gives me teenage girl vibes — sheepishly lowered her hand and cleared her throat before finally speaking up. “Could I also go? I- You gave me all this power, and I haven’t had the ce to test it yet in live bat.”

  “Sure,” I nodded. “That is the main reason we’re having this little exercise, too. We all have uff to test out, and a vely pced Ork ship might as well be the unfortue of our test run.”

  “I’d like to go too,” Bob spoke up, giving a g Fae. “If she goes, so do I.”

  A. I really have to do something about him looking like an old man. It would be much cuter if she didn’t look like his granddaughter.

  With another line joining my ever-growing to-do list, I gave a final sweep of the crew before nodding. The gravity engines slowly dialled down and I could feel the moment the sub-space tuhe bent space around us had created colpsed.

  And now we are only going at retivistic speeds. The ship didn’t like it; it wasn’t made for these close-light-speed velocities, so I quickly slowed it further. Without the sub-space tuhe ship would have been torn apart in a few minutes by the force pushing it, or rather dragging it forward.

  I reached out with my borrowed gravitational senses, located the Ork ship with the help of my third eye and perfected our trajectory. 10000 kilometres.

  “We have about five mio prepare,” I said. “Get ready. I’ll ram into the side of that junk. We’re likely to be fighting a horde of the green bastard the mome foot on their ships, so prepare well.”

  Fae and Bob both jumped and rushed about in a frenzy, while Val and Selene just stood beside me. I felt their auras join mine in surveying the enemy ship, though Selene’s felt a bit different.

  She’s using my and Val’s aura to project her own that far out? Where my and Val’s auras were thick tendrils of psychic power, Selene’s was a tiny thread catg a ride on my aura and only expanding into a searg web o reached the Ork ship. That’s smart. She’s really improving. I wonder what else she learned while I locked myself up.

  P3t1