Scarlet watched helplessly as her host and bodyguard did his thing. Even by the precise calculations of her enhanced perception, he cut things close on far too many occasions for her to be comfortable. Still, there was no denying his effectiveness in the offensive department. However, as the fight continued, he was clearly feeling the strain. She remembered Vanessa talking about him not having the same kind of endurance as humans, and it was starting to show. However, he also revealed he was far more than brute force and determination as he picked apart the last five combatants with a skill born of decades of near-constant combat, even if his breath was more than a little ragged by the end.

  As the last of the five robots fell to the floor, Erik sagged against the wall, desperately gasping for air as his grin shifted from wild abandon to cocky victor, somehow managing to preen between desperate gasps for air. "Damn! Sometimes, I impress even myself!"

  Scarlett considered a cutting remark designed to deflate his ego for half a moment but then stopped. This maniac had come with her on a suicide run to save their friends; let him enjoy it while he was able. "That was indeed quite impressive. You've earned those assault pods and then some."

  Erik laughed, choking on his breath a little in the process. "Am I that far gone? I thought I got out of there all clean like...but if you're feeding me a line like that..."

  If Scarlett had been projecting an avatar, it would have rolled her eyes. "What? Can't I be supportive of an ally after a hard-won fight?"

  This time, the large alien snorted through his nose. "You? Well, I suppose there's a first time for everything!" He paused momentarily, then added, "But thanks for trying. It's nice to get a compliment once in a while."

  Scarlett decided that even though she wasn't big on organics, this one was more or less alright. Then again, she'd met a surprising amount of alright organics recently. Maybe she was slipping in her old age...

  Finally, Erik stood up straighter and faced the door. "So this is it then? The bridge?"

  Scarlett confirmed his assessment. "Yeah. I suppose I could hack the door, but that might tell them more about my capabilities than I want to give away just yet..."

  Erik grinned and thumbed his axes, making the blades glow even brighter than usual. "No worries. I think I know where they hid the spare key!"

  -

  Erik had cut his way through a fair few hatches while the people on the other side were trying to space him, or at least the atmosphere around him, so he had a pretty good idea where to jam the hot, sharp bits to trigger a failsafe or two and pop the lock on the hatch, so it wouldn't take him too long to break in, but just as he was about to work his magic, the door simply popped open.

  Cautiously, he walked through, walking out into what appeared to be a showroom, except all the shelves were empty for some reason, at the end of which stood another door, which was also unlocked. Walking out into it, Erik walked out into the vacuum of space, or at least the appearance of that. However, rather than let his attention wander, Erik remained focused on their host, who was standing dramatically in the middle of the room as if he'd been waiting patiently for their arrival rather than sicking a whole host of robots on them to keep them at bay.

  He was an old-looking man standing in the middle of the bridge, dressed in a rather nice, somewhat flamboyant suit and using a very expensive-looking cane as a prop to complement his attire. His hair was short and neat, even if it had turned grey long ago, and his beard and mustache were stylized in such a way as to actually make him look like some kind of cliche villain right out of a drama vid of some sort. However, Erik wasn't fooled for a moment. Old he may seem, and feeble he may try and appear, but this man didn't look like he was at anyone's mercy. He was a predator and considered the eight-foot-tall monster, as Erik had been called countless times, to be his prey.

  The man smiled and raised his hands. "Welcome aboard my ship, the Cerva Reditus! It's not often I entertain such...distinguished guests."

  Scarlett spoke up in Erik's ear. "Cerva Reditus? That's Latin for the return of the deer...or maybe, hind. Is he trying to claim to be Captain Drake, returned from the grave?"

  Before Erik could ask, "Captain who?" he was cut off by their host. "Not many people catch that young lady. And here I went to all the trouble of making it obvious, or at least I thought I did. It was my little self-indulgence. However, you'd be surprised how few people actually catch on to that little hint of mine."

  Scarlett seemed surprised and started to say, "How did he hear..." but before she could finish the thought, Erik had already lept into action. When it came to clever men like this one, he'd found they often relied on people's curiosity to stay their hand long enough for their convoluted plans to play out, and he had no intention of falling prey to such an old trick.

  Leaping forward, Erik brought both axes down in a manner meant to split the old man from head to groin. At the last moment, the old man slapped his hands against the sides of the axes, shoving them to the side just enough to avoid getting hit and causing Erik to unbalance himself just enough that he had to turn and spin in a way that exposed his side just a little too long. However, rather than take advantage of the opening, the old man simply stood and waited, as calm as ever.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Not wasting the chance, Erik struck again, slashing one axe forward to take off the old man's head while the other followed behind, intending to bisect the man if he managed to avoid or deflect the first blow again. This time, the man leaned back to avoid the first strike and stopped Erik's second strike cold with his cane, which was now glowing with its own energy.

  The old man smiled. "Well, now, straight to business, I see. Commendable! However, I'm afraid I can't simply let you have free run of my ship. It's time your elder taught you a lesson or two in etiquette!" With that, his free hand lashed out and struck Erik in the chest, open-palmed, and sent Erik flying backward. Maybe if he wasn't already so tired, Erik could have put up more of a fight...or maybe if he'd brought Vanessa along...

  Erik shook his head. No. He knew there was no coming back from this fool's errand. He wasn't about to waste Vanessa's one and only life on some half-thought-out suicide plan like this. Still, he couldn't just fail here at the end like this. He briefly glanced at the one other piece of furniture in the room. The old wooden desk. There was a good chance that, like the old man, it wasn't what it seemed. If a port was hidden anywhere in this room, it would be there. He just had to find a way past this very spry greybeard, something which would have been a challenge if he wasn't already worn to the point of exhaustion.

  Widening a grin of his own, Erik acknowledged his opponent with a tip of his head and pointed at the old man with one of his axes. "you know, I've fought lots of people in my time, but none anywhere near as strong as you. Tell me how you do it. Diet and exercise? Or maybe you were just born lucky?"

  The man smiled and straightened his cuffs as he tilted his head to acknowledge Erik's clear understatement. "Well, if I'm honest, I have done a little work over the years to augment my original capacity. Now, I don't suppose you'd be willing to sit down and hear what I have to say?"

  Erik's grin twisted until it showed as many teeth as possible. An expression that had cowed countless pirates over the years and launched himself forward in answer. Using everything he had, Erik rained down blow after blow on the frail old man before him, not leaving a single opportunity for retaliation. In turn, the old man duked, juked, and deflected every attack, revealing himself to be more than a little augmented. Not that Erik was surprised by any of this. By now, he had a pretty good idea of what his opponent was capable of, and for the first time in memory, he was clearly outmatched. However, his opponent knew that too, which might give him the opening he was looking for.

  Suddenly, the old man swung to the right in an attempt to avoid one of Erik's downward thrusts, exposing his left side. Erik swung at the opening with everything he had, only to be punched in the side of the head with a fist that would have dented a steel bulkhead, sending his headset flying and putting him down hard.

  The old man looked down at Erik, suspicion evident on his face. "My analyses of your fighting style against my bots indicated you wouldn't go down for another forty to fifty seconds. Why did you suddenly leave yourself so open..."

  Realization flashed across his face, and the old man turned in the direction Erik's headset had flown...toward his desk. Scarlett had already gotten moving, using the bot Erik had been using as a headset this whole time to scrabble up onto the desk.

  The old man turned to stop her, but Erik reached out and latched onto his foot, grinning up at the old man, trying to focus despite his swimming vision. "Where are you going, geezer? I still got forty or fifty seconds with you!"

  The man cursed and kicked out, rocketing Erik's head back, but it would take more than that to make him lose his grip. Erick reached out and grabbed the old man with both hands. "You're not going anywhere till I've said my piece!"

  The man lashed out again, stomping down on Erik's head, and the world went dark.

  -

  Scarlett moved fast, plugging herself into the first port she could find. The system was somehow both unlike anything she'd ever seen before and yet strangely familiar. In a weird, sanitized sort of way, it was almost like the Sybil's, with systems stretching into every aspect of the ship's functions. It was all-pervasive in a manner no human would design. The security was also far beyond anything she'd anticipated. However, it was just a little weaker from the inside than it would be trying to penetrate it from without. Still, she didn't have much time, and she focused on her objective, which was the core power of the ship. She rocketed through the system, far faster than the organic person she'd once been would have been able to process, but right behind her, something chased her. Something immense, not entirely unlike her old whole self had been before she'd fully extracted this personality and given herself the name, Scarlett.

  Ignoring the pursuit, Scarlett quickly bypassed every security measure in her way, losing fractions of seconds to her pursuit, which continued to narrow the gap. Finding what she wanted, Scarlett triggered a simulation of a core breach, forcing an immediate shutdown of all major systems as the generator ejected its very hot fuel cells into space in an attempt to prevent a catastrophic failure. The backup generators came online even as the core system failed, so there wasn't even a flicker of power from her perspective. However, as responsive as they were, the backup generators lacked the power to operate the immense energy drain that is the ship's FTL drive.

  Immediately, her pursuit caught her, and Scarlett found herself in the control of an immense AI, far older and more developed than any she'd come in contact with before now, even if it felt young compared with her own existence. During Erik's fight, she'd been convinced that somehow Captain Drake was something similar to the Sybil, but this was totally different, completely artificial, lacking the chaotic nature something with an organic origin she possessed.

  She "Smiled" at her captor. "Well, you're no Captain Drake. Tell me, does he know you're using his name like this?" Without a response, the AI threw her into a digital prison and slammed it closed, leaving her alone and isolated. However, rather than give into the panic as she had last time, Scarlett kept her composure, satisfied that this time, at least, she'd succeeded in her goal.

  Of Men and Spiders book 1 is now available to order on amazon in all formats! PLEASE,* if you enjoy my stories and want to help me get back to releasing chapters more regularly, take the time to stop and leave a review. It's like tipping your waiter, but free!

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