“Nice of you to finally bother taki of your toy cube,” I said, levelling an unimpressed gaze at the zy Ne while I slurped up the st remaining splotches of bio-matter on the floor.

  “It has been a month at most,” Trazyn remarked with a verbal shrug in his voice. “It’s not like you’d die of old age like a human, is it? o be so sour about a measly month.”

  I levelled a narrow gaze at him, then cast it about to take in my surroundings. We stood in a rather small room that had all the motifs and signs of the inside of a Neade building. I sent my aura out a bit further than would have been strictly polite — at least what I would have felt polite to be when talking to other Psykers — and took in the whole … ship that we were riding in.

  “Nice ship you got here,” I said, spinning around like I could see right through the heavily reinforced walls that seemed to be made just so nobody could do just that. “So, I believe you summoned me up to give me my payment for st time? Or do you have something new for me to do?”

  “No new assigs worth your time are forthing I’m afraid.” Trazyn shook his head, and I could almost see the squint in his artificial gaze as he tried to guess whether I could really see through his fancy walls. “But I’d be loath to bee known as o paying back a service doo me. With the … ued level of challenge faced irieving the test Artifact of Vul, I’m willing to part with samples of a higher rarity … if that is still the form of payment you are ied in?”

  “It is,” I said, then thought for a moment as I added with a hint of wariness, “Unless you’d be willing to teach me how to mould some fane ons out of neis?”

  “I’m afraid the facilities o shape neis into ons and the knowhow to how to make them is not something I am willing to share … “ he said, starting off in an almost offeo by the time he was trailing off at the end, it shifted into something more thoughtful as his hand came up to tap his metallic . He shook his head after a moment. “No. Let us keep to the inal agreement. You provide me services in lih what could be expected of a merary, and I provide you with unique and curious samples of bio-matter. and simple.”

  I gave an overly dramatic sigh, then spat at his death mask. The a Ne overlord stared at me as a tiny meical scarab pinged off of his fad I stared right babsp;

  “It’s rude to put mind-shackle scarabs into your business partners,” I said, not quite sure whether to be amused or offe his audacity. “I don’t think most people react well to having tiny is bend their thoughts this way and that.”

  “… the risk to reward ratio is usually more than worth the gamble,” he said, a hand reag down to grab the scarab currently dissolving iro bio-acid I had on hand. “I have only met a few beings capable of eveing them once impnted. Shame. Will this be a problem going forward? I’d perfectly uand if this breach of polite behaviour on my part is cause enough for you to termihis … agreement we have between us.”

  The sheer audacity of this pile of scrap. I wao shake my head in astonishment, almost awed by the Ne’s gall to tell it to my face that it was a ‘shame’ he couldn’t mind trol me. “I want a piece of the Fulgrim e you have. On top of the price I’m owed for the st mission, of course. If you agree to that, I’ll fet this attempt at mind trolling me.”

  Trazyn only took a sed of time to think before he gave a nod. “Done. Unless you want the entire e?”

  “I know it’d take more than that to get that out of yrabby hands.” I shrugged. “Plus, what the hell would I do with a perfect Primarch e? It’s perfectly fih me if it sits around in your colle for a while more.”

  His gaze narrowed at my final words, but he let it go easily enough. “Name your price.”

  I couldn’t help but grin at that, my voice almost a purr as I asked, “Do you have a list of all the stuff you have?”

  *****

  “And this, is sustainable?” Selene asked with a hint of incredulity in her voice as she watched me struct the skeletal frame of my prototype spaceship far down in the belly of the now finished headquarters.

  “Sure is,” I said cheerily, applying another yer of an updated pseudo-adamao the hull. “I am in a energy positive already, the Orks just love to die and reprodud that’s giving me a fuck load of energy. I could make a few more spaceships and only then would I get back to being even with the initial energy I had when we nded on this barren rock.”

  “This is just so … “ she trailed off, watg on as the ship practically grew around the skeletal support system like something anibsp;

  “Awesome?” I asked. “Awe-inspiring, magnifit?”

  “Eerie,” Selene said with an amused roll of her eyes that took the edge out of her words. “It feels so indescribably wrong to just watch a ship grow itself like a living being. Even with knowing everything you’ve told me, watg this feels like I’m being wito something unholy and unnatural.”

  “Hummm.” I halted, Blinking over to my girlfriend to take in the view from her perspective and just watched as metallic carapace grew over the skeletal frame while tunnels grew like veins and hallways formed to serve as ans of the ship. It was deeply strange, but I really didn’t have the personal background Selly had, nor the religious education that likely gave birth to those feelings she had. “I see that, I guess. Do you want to do something else? We don’t o be here for the ship to be … built. Wanna gon riding? Maybe a stroll through the wilderness?”

  “I think I’ll check up on your rescue,” Selene said, shaking her head a bit. “You have fun with your ship. Don’t stop for my sake … see you around ter? You said you built a nice pool into this thing?”

  “I did,” I said, feeling only the slightest bit disheartened by Selene shooting down another impromptu date. Guess she needed some aloime too, oh well. “Alright then, see you in the evening?”

  “Yeah, bye!” She gave me a little wave before disappearing with a swirl of psychic power. Her Blinks were still more stomping through space than gracefully slipping through, but it was gettier.

  Smiling at the thought, I threw myself bato designing the ship, but without Selene being there to talk with, I allowed my mind to expand and supervise a few more projects.

  In a set basement room well below the surface a test was going on, supervising and teasing out the kinks of the mental effects Tau Ethereals had over their kin from the other castes.

  Coldstohankfully took my handshake at face value when he left, and I’d mao nab a few skin cells from him.

  With the Tau being as simple anisms as they are, that was more than enough to reverse eheir full geic tempte.

  In another, I ying around with replig generic Imperial materials like psteel, rockrete and ceramite while aill was dedicated to stress testing various drone bio-forms.

  My mind-cores, oher hand, were now w almost exclusively on refining my bat Form with the addition of the Fulgrim sample I got. It still had major problems, I had to see how to best mix ahings together for the best effect, but it was looking good.

  Even the Norn Emissary’s bone sword tempte was ing along nicely, its cost to produce having gone down another 21% sihe st time I’d used it in my fight with the Custodian.

  I checked on the progress of the p rge. The floral ecosystem was going pretty nicely, my mind-cores calcutions and simutions having turned out almost entirely corred all the various species of pnts and fungus meshed together pretty well.

  The animal ecosystem was a bit rougher, a few predators already starting to get far to ‘apex’ and dominant for the whole variety of species I’d introduced to the po st.

  That’d require some heavy-handed intervention if I wao keep my variety. Maybe some separation would do them good once tis started f as my o filled up a bit more.

  That was my st problem, the o. My little pnts worked overtime to produce water out of whatever they could get their roots and leaves on, but it was a slow and monotonous task that they heless worked to plete with udable stoicism. With them being pnts, that was sort of a given, but that was her here nor there.

  Anyway! With Selly off to py with our resident Psyker, I decided to get one of my other projects that’d bee in the ‘idea’ phase unched.

  *****

  Robarus, or ‘Bob’ acc to some etric aliens, was just enjoying his leisurely afternoon with a cup of sour tea in hand and the soft breeze blowing in his face. Before him, a verdant world spread out like a beautiful painting ae having seen hundreds of ps in his long life, Robarus still found this ohralling in a way few other ps were.

  Maybe it was the knowledge that ferocious beasts from a dozeh worlds fought for dominance beh the verdant opy, just out of sight? Or that he had seen the barren, lifeless rock this moon had been just a month ago?

  Truly, if he hadn’t seen the alien woman doing it, he would have wondered whether the Emperor finally rose from his Golden Throne, only to bless this one p with abundant life. As, weird Xenos seemed to wield more power these days than the God Emperor of Mankind.

  Robarus wagered proteg the collective soul of humanity from the Great Enemy was a trying task, but it was ohat went unseen by most. He had heard of miracles happening in a few faraway stretches of space, but those were more rumours and hopeful delusions than anything else.

  Doesn’t matter anymore. Robarus thought, closing his eyes as he ehe clear air bereft of the fumes of heavy maery or eveink of humanity ravishing his nostrils. Nothing mattered anymore, nothing besides the fact that he had Fae back. Even his ained youth was sedary, though a wele surprise.

  He’d never say no to another few turies with the love of his life.

  The only hangup he had was the price of such a thing. Rejuv treatment already cost a fortune and a half, and that was if one even had the political pull to evehe ce to pay that fortune for the treatment. What he had gotten was beyond even the most advanced rejuvenatioments he knew about.

  He couldn’t afford it. Not in a million years, and there wasn’t even anything making sure the trade had to be fair. The Xeno his love was so infatuated with had all the power and then some. She could ask for Robarus’ soul iurn for his new lease on life, and he would have little choi the matter.

  He had been waiting for the other shoe to drop after he’d been given his youth back; he had been on edge, jumping at every move of the alien woman. Then an hour went by without the woman as much as gng his way. Then a day, a week and then a whole month. Then two.

  He had stopped b to worry and stress over it somewhere along the way, and was just doing his best to enjoy every moment of freedom, knowing very well it could be his st.

  When the woman, Ea appeared before him, floating just a few inches off the ground like some ethereal ghost, Robarus just gave a shallow sigh and stood. His eyes were serene like the face of a ke as he stared into the emerald eyes of the alien woman, f himself not to get lost in the fractal-like cracks shifting through the green of her eyes.

  “Whatever it is, I am ready.” Robarus didn’t blink and merely straightened his … tunic? Was that what the thing he had on was called? It didn’t matter. “But before you collect your price, may I say goodbye to my love? I’d hate to leave her without at least that.”

  The woman looked at him weirdly, tilting her head in that eerily unnatural way that would have been endearing had he not seeransform into monstrosities taller than most Space Marines before. It just felt fake to him, an alien trying to mimic human behaviour.

  Worse was that it was succeeding, though he supposed with the ability to read minds on a whim, that wasn’t much of a challenge.

  “What do you suppose I am going to ask of you?” she asked, a curious lilt entering her voice. She sounded versational, easygoing, even, and it almost lulled Robarus into the false sehat she was not actually here to cim his soul.

  “Eat my soul?” Robarus shrugged with the fatalistic acceptance of only one who kheir death was iable and nearing. “Twist me into some abomination?”

  “And why would I do either of those things?” Ea asked, sitting down mid-air atop thin air. Swinging a leg over the other, she leaned on her knee and propped up her with a knuckle.

  “I don’t know,” Robarus huffed, the shrug he gave more forceful than he would have wished. “I never cimed to know the minds of aliens, but I re power like yours doesn’t e freely. Maybe it’s souls that fuel it, or the flesh of is. I’ve seen strahings before, her would surprise me. As I said, all I ask is that you find it in yourself to allow me a final goodbye to my love.”

  “And people think I’m sappy,” the Xeno sighed, then shook herself like a wet dog as she returned her pierg gaze onto him. “No, there will be no need foodbye as I have no iion of eatiher your body or your soul. Do you know how little the human body is worth in terms of bio-energy? Less than an Ork’s clipped nails. Souls though, I have no taste for. I o daemons, and even those give me iion so I’ll refrain on that front too.”

  “Then what do you want?” Robarus asked, his voice growied as even his x nerves were pulled taunt and starting to strain. “I assume you’ve e to cim your price franting me my youth. Out with it, what is it that you want of me if it is her my body nor my soul?”

  “Well,” Ea said, squinting at him like a predator examining a particurly amusing prey. “I’ve been thinking of what to do with you. Val, Selly and Fae are all Psykers and help out as such, so is the new addition and the Orks are suitably good in a fight, but I had no idea what role would suit the single regur human in my crew. So, I’ve thought of something iing … Say, have you ever thought about architecture? Building stuff? While we’re at it, how do you feel about getting some anic upgrades to your flimsy human body?”

  “Wha-” Robarus started, then snapped his mouth shut with an effort of will as he thought the woman’s words over. She wants me to build her stuff? Like a Tech Priest or like some stru worker … No, she wants me to pn the buildings too.

  anic upgrades were a harder sell, but he could live with them. Supposedly, the woman’s human sort already had a fuck load of them if Fae was to be believed, and she didn’t look like a lumbering abomination so Robarus could reasonably expect that he too would keep his current shape if he accepted.

  Parts of him screamed in protest at the absolute heresy and lunacy of even sidering the offer, but Robarus had buried those parts of himself six feet under turies ago. They mattered less than a fart in the wind, and if this was what he had to pay for staying with Fae?

  “I accept.”

  He would have given his soul without resistance for the few months he’d gotten to spend with her. This much was nothing.

  “What do I have to do?”

  P3t1