“We’ve engaged with eight large Eskarii battleships, despite our numbers they appear to be well coordinated with the dozen smaller ships of their own and have been keeping our forces at bay while they evacuate their home world. Their determination seems to have caused a stalemate of attrition,” stated a man on the holoscreen mounted to the wall towards the left of Amaranthe’s desk.

  Amaranthe however, rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of clear boredom as he toyed with a small model ship while listening to the report.

  The commanding officer on the other end raised his chin and solidified his position upon seeing the disinterest of his superior, feeling an annoyance that slowly began to show on his face.

  Amaranthe flicked his wrist out from underneath jaw, “Why would I care about this? Just burn their world to the ground and get back to your orders. Find me my precious little rose,” Amaranthe said, his tone shifting from boredom to forceful as the subject shifted.

  “But, sir, we’ve lost communications from three of our ships heading towards the Saurian home world, and we recently lost contact with a Destroyer near the Eskarii home world… it’s slow but out forces are slowly thinning. I’ve even heard reports of…” the admiral tried to follow up on the reports of increased piracy as well as the destruction of a minor trade port near the outer fringe however, Amaranthe cut him off by slamming his fist onto his desk.

  “I don’t care, Admiral! Raze the world and find me the girl! She is far more important than a few damned ships,” Amaranthe ordered before cutting the connection.

  “I'm surrounded by imbeciles!” Amaranthe said aloud before turning to the chief engineer that stood in his office. “I hope you have good news?”

  The engineer swallowed hard before stepping forward, “Uh, well, we’ve completed the frame work on your ship and have begun attempting to implement the armaments you’ve requested… sir, with your numerous large requests for this ship… we’re having difficulty making sure it can properly house a viable number of crew members…”

  Amaranthe snorted and shook his head as he wheezed in disbelieving humor, “What’s so hard about it? Grab capable bodies, train them and stuff them in the ship; it’s not that hard. It’s not like it needs deployable marines so stick with the damned basics and make it work!”

  The engineer shook his head, “With the size of the guns, we would need heavy equipment and between the wide range of mechanics, engineers and support personnel, we can only manage about forty percent of the required personnel within the time frame desired, sir.”

  Amaranthe leaned forward as his face reddened in anger, “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re incapable?”

  Amaranthe watched the color drain from the engineer’s face as the reality of his situation set in. With eyes darting from side to side in panic, the engineer stammered, “N-no. Its-its just…” he paused as his mind raced for a solution, “Why don’t we automate the weapon systems?”

  Amaranthe look up at his subordinate in pleased curiosity, “Automate it? We can do that?” The engineer’s eyes went wide at his new found interest.

  “Um, yeah? I mean sure, we can do that. Granted, it would still require personnel to set up and control remotely however, between auto-feeding of munitions and remote control, we could bring the manpower into a more reasonable amount nor would we have to create intricate spaces for personnel which would balance out the time table.”

  The Lord Commander tapped his finger in thought as he considered the option, “And we wouldn’t lose any aspect of superiority? How long would this take?”

  The engineer tapped away on his data-slate as he ran calculations, “If everything goes as planned, we should meet the deadline you have set… perhaps if training of personnel goes well, we could even beat it by one to two months. As for the firepower you desire, nothing would change. Your plans would remain as you desire in that regard,” the engineer explained.

  Amaranthe nodded as he followed the explanation, “That is very good news indeed. You’re a lucky man, Mr. Sheffield; If your plan works as you say it will, you are going to be a very rich man, so see to it that it gets done,” Amaranthe stated with the subtle hint to the contrary, if the engineer were to fail.

  ◇◇◇

  Surrounded by the absolute silence of her room, Morrigan took a deep, calming breath as she sat on the floor beside her bed; a blurred starscape rushing past her window as the universe passed by.

  Come on, come on! Hurry up with it, woman! Apollyon complained impatiently.

  Her eyebrow twitched as Apollyon’s words rang in her mind. She huffed indignantly. “I’m working on it…” she said before stretching her neck, moving her head side to side before taking another deep breath.

  Yeah, slow as shit! You owe me after holding back from all that sweet slaughter!

  A low growl rumbled in the back of her throat as her frustration for the impatient deity grew. “You’re making it really fucking hard to concentrate, Apollyon. Neither one of us knows how it happened or why and you badgering me isn’t helping me remember,” she gruffed out into her mind, so she was sure the deity could not ignore what she said.

  Ever since experiencing the brief moment of physical existence Apollyon had been focused on making her recreate its manifestation, though she had lacked the time to try. Having finished with dealing with the raid spoils she could attempt to satiate the deity’s curiosity as well as her own.

  Several days were spent sorting through and delegating what was stolen from the now derelict ship she had left floating through space as the Archangel resumed its journey towards Gelia. Once all was set and done, Morrigan followed Apollyon’s idea of tagging the ship with her iconic crimson claw sigil, letting all who crossed paths with ghost ship know who had desecrated the Federation Destroyer.

  Now, Morrigan had a moment to lock herself in her room and enjoy the peace it brought, as long as Apollyon refrained from annoying her.

  Finnneee, just hurry it up, will ya? Apollyon badgered one last time before going silent. Morrigan shook her head as if dealing with an annoying child before readjusting her sitting position and taking another long breath, calming her annoyance to focus on the moment in her memory.

  Silence encapsulated her as she focused on what happened, her own heart beat within her ears fell away as she remembered gazing upon the surface of Tik’Taq’To through tear-filled eyes. She recalled the warm that surrounded her, the surprise to see the nearly forgotten image of Apollyon sitting above her in the reflection of the window.

  She concentrated on that warmth she remembered, intertwining her focus with the energy that coursed through her body and willed for the visage of Apollyon to appear in front of her.

  After a moment of intense focus Morrigan opened her eyes to the sight of the sleek yet simplistic dresser that sat across the room from her with no embodiment of Apollyon in sight.

  She sighed in frustration at another failed attempt and slumped forward. “Why isn’t this working?” She asked herself bitterly as she began to rethink her approach. She remembered the panic she felt, and the desperation, yet she felt neither of those in the moment. She thought it was the desire to curl up and let the world fade away that caused her energy to respond and bring forth the only thing in that moment that could bring her comfort.

  You’re asking me? You’re the one driving, Apollyon retorted.

  Morrigan rolled her eyes as she sat back up, looking out the window to watch the galaxy pass by. Ignoring the deity in her head, her mind wandered into the past and wondered what it was that triggered the abnormal event.

  She recalled running from everyone, ducking into the maintenance shaft to find seclusion, only for Sigurd to find her and be her support. However, she knew what she needed was hours prior to her conversation with Sigurd. It was the moment she wanted nothing more than to be away from reality, to sink into the deepest part of the void and feel the comfort of nothingness.

  “That’s it! I think?” Morrigan thought to herself excitedly.

  If you say so… Apollyon said unconvinced.

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  Morrigan took a deep breath as she sat cross-legged, letting her arms lay limp on her thighs and delved into the memory of that day. She recalled not the time spent in the maintenance tunnel but the dream. The feeling of being surrounded by perfect safety only for it to violently turn into a bone shattering cold; before her memories woke her up.

  Morrigan furrowed her brow as she tried to remember the memories within the dream, one of many conversations she and Apollyon had over their years of cohabitation.

  Apollyon had gone missing in her dreamscape, but she wondered something else; she knew that Apollyon embodied the definitive infinity of Destruction, something that would always exist without any rhyme simply because existence exists, yet what was the void around her? Something about the void that demanded her submission felt different, as if it rejected the idea of something as convoluted as Apollyon yet, something about it felt all too familiar. It felt similar to how she understood Apollyon’s explanation of who she was, a fateless child; the ability to choose who or what she would be.

  Morrigan focused on how that made her feel; confused yet content, the feeling of certainty over the uncertainty of life in which she ruled over every action she made. However, thinking about it, it made no sense to her at all since she knew that the fundamental rule of Chaos, according to Apollyon, that everything is fated and finite; which made sense to her.

  This begged a very important question; what certainty could be held over something so uncertain, to be definite in the vast infinity of the finite?

  The lingering question left her mind spiraling as the room spun, her body feeling weightless as she lost the perception of the room around her. Morrigan wanted to panic at the sudden shift of perspective however, she felt nothing as her body felt like nothing, leaving her to touch the one thing she knew was there, the destructive energy that filled her body.

  Uncertain about what to do as she was afraid to try and open her eyes, she wished for Apollyon to take ahold of her and prove to her she hadn’t thrown herself into insanity by questioning the laws of reality. So, she intensely focused and pushed the energy outward around her, hoping that some semblance of reality would ground her and pull her from the madness.

  Warmth radiated as she pushed out, causing her to feel nauseated as her senses went ballistic as though reality around her felt as if it warped around her by the attempt to bring the deity into reality.

  In what felt like forever, she felt part of her hair brush away from her cheek before falling back into place. “Mori, open your eyes,” Apollyon’s voice came from every direction.

  A wave of calm washed over Morrigan as she heard Apollyon’s voice, opening her eyes to see a wide mist of energy flowing out of her chest. Slowly she lifted her gaze to see the floating torso of the visage of Apollyon, the soft glowing alien and once horrifying body she briefly saw now on full display.

  Apollyon’s mouthless face connected to six curving tusks and horns that encapsulated its badly, near desiccated, humanoid skull. The sinewy neck that connected to bony shoulders, the long, dense arms which led down to the all too familiar claws of her power with a long blade of apparent bone that buried within the forearms. Last was the bony and meaty looking torso that faded mid way, leaving the deity floating yet ultimately tethered to her as energy flowed back and forth.

  “Hey kid,” Apollyon said, it’s voice reaching her ears from a distance yet ever present as it stretched its arms and touched the ground on either side of its floating torso with a pleasant groan.

  Morrigan’s breath caught in sheer wonderment as her mind stayed locked onto her focus of the energy between them, her mind filling with questions without the means of expressing them.

  Instead, she simply looked down at her hand and watched herself raise it, holding it out. Apollyon’s burning crimson eyes took notice and it raised its own massive hand, claws expanding far past her own until their palms touched. The warmth that she felt in her hand made her release the breath she had been holding.

  “Apollyon,” she stated, her mind racing even more as her mouth hung open until a wide smile spread across her face.

  “Mostly,” Apollyon mused as it looked down inspecting the area around it for its missing parts before returning its gaze to her. It was a strange thing to see Apollyon’s jaw move as it spoke yet hear the voice come from every direction and from every distance other than the five feet away that it was, “But you did it, little goddess, this is- what is this?”

  Morrigan snorted as Apollyon got distracted when its hand landed on the sheets laying on her bed, it’s clawed hand dragging the fabric off the bed to be held in its large palm, “Those are sheets, you've seen them before,” she mused.

  “Well yeah, but I've never felt them like this though, is this how you feel? Is… I, and here I thought I felt everything you felt. You've been holding out on me!” Apollyon accused playfully.

  She shook her head as she giggled, “I don’t know, this is all so weird…” she trailed off as she ran the tips of her fingers across the fabric of her pants, “I don’t feel anything, except you…” she said looking back up at the towering deity.

  She realized, given the length of Apollyon’s arms and how just with half of the torso, Apollyon sat three feet taller than her and would likely stand over 12 feet tall at the least, if not taller, if it had its entire body.

  She watched the deity’s arms fold in as Apollyon brought a single claw to rest its chin on, the imagery comically disproportionate to its head as it’s eyes narrowed in thought.

  “I appreciate this but this leaves many questions, many of which I thought I knew,” Apollyon noted.

  Morrigan nodded dumbly as she looked around, “I have so many questions. I know they’re there but this requires so much focus… I can’t remember what they were now?” she furrowed her brow before looking back at Apollyon, who looked at her curiously.

  Apollyon reached out towards her a hand of exceedingly long claws, brushing the tips across her jaw line as her head bobbed and shifted with zero resistance, “You look extremely out of it. Do you feel alright?”

  Morrigan, noticing her gaze move with the tips of claws that touched warmly to her face, pushed back against the massive hand letting her face brush up against one of the claws, “All I feel is you,” she said softly with a smile.

  Apollyon watched her closely, inspecting her reaction to its touch and watched for any telling reaction she could possibly make through the interaction, “What were you thinking about? Do you remember how you did this?”

  Morrigan shook her head as she swayed side to side like a drunkard, a small smile on her lips as Apollyon watched her nose start to bleed. Apollyon began to panic, realizing the danger of the little experiment.

  With wide glowing eyes Apollyon shouted, “Release your focus! Think of something else!”

  Part of her knew Apollyon just shouted at her yet the deity’s voice sounded so distant, “But, what?” She asked, unable to comprehend the severity in the deity’s command.

  She could hear Apollyon growl before its hand reached for her, a strange sensation building in her as she expected the calming warmth once again by the deity’s touch. However, in a moment that seemed to last forever, she watched the clawed fingers curl into it’s palm before flicking towards her.

  With an unexpected crash, Morrigan slammed into the end table on her side of the bed and choked on something warm that sat within her throat.

  The moment she sat up she coughed into her arm to catch a splattering of blood that had seeped down her throat and began to spill into her lungs before she managed to catch her breath.

  “What the fuck was that?” She asked between breaths.

  I have no idea, I’m running damage control right now, Apollyon stated inside her head.

  Morrigan looked around her room, taking notice of the sheet that had been dragged off the bed and that the ship was still in FTL travel yet she felt like she had lost track of time.

  Nothing seems to be broken… your nose though, it began bleeding which is why I forced you to break your concentration, Apollyon stated in a worried tone.

  Morrigan shook her head before getting up, balancing herself on the end table before managing to gain her bearings, “That was trippy as hell… it feels like it didn’t happen yet I know it happened,” she stated openly before stepping around the bed and into the bathroom.

  It seemed the longer you focused on releasing me the more, diluted, your mental state became. How are you feeling? Apollyon asked again.

  Morrigan ignored Apollyon as she washed the blood off her arm and face, the icy cold water revitalizing her awareness to the world around her, “I don’t know… I know I should be worried but, I feel… calm? I can’t think of a good word to describe it,” she stated as she inspected herself in the mirror.

  That’s weird and by weird, I mean I can’t really sense your emotions right now, as if they all have blended into, nothing…

  Morrigan looked in the mirror and opened her mouth to inspect her fangs, something she knew she was uncomfortable with and yet, upon seeing the new evolutionary anomaly, she felt none of her usual emotions.

  “I feel… fine? I think content,” she said with a genuine smile as she looked at herself in the mirror, a small blissful sigh escaping get lips.

  Content? What does that even mean? Why would you be content and why are you not freaking out? Why the hell am I the only one worried here?!

  Morrigan shrugged at her reflection before stepping out of the bathroom. “I'm not sure, but I can't remember a time I felt like this. I wonder if it's because I pushed you out?” she asked as an after thought as she pulled fresh clothes out and began to change.

  I doubt it, I mean, that was weird as hell and made me question a lot of things but… how did you even pull that off? Apollyon circled back around.

  Morrigan hummed thoughtfully as she pulled her head through a clean shirt, “Let’s see, I tried thinking about what happened when you appeared but none of that worked so I went back a little further to the dream I had, the one where I couldn’t find you, and then… and then things got really weird,” she said, concern lining her voice as she felt her anxiety return subtly.

  Interesting, I can feel that. I didn’t see this dream though but, it seems when you think about it you seem to have a very adverse reaction to it., Apollyon pointed out as Morrigan looked around the room in confusion.

  “It was weird, this is weird… why am I anxious again? Like, I don’t know. I ended up thinking about the nature of you and the nature of that dream and how it seemed to reject what you are… then reality got weird and the next thing I knew I was talking to you…and then, I'm not really sure…” Morrigan stated as she realized that the memory of Apollyon’s summoning was becoming fuzzier and harder to recall as if the memory was deleting itself from her brain.

  Rejected me? You didn't mention that before. Hmm, I'm going to have to think on this, just take it easy and do your best to relax, Apollyon ordered with a noticeable level of concern.

  “Yeah, sure,” Morrigan said, uncertain of what was happening with her. A new list of questions began to formulate in her mind as she finished getting dressed however, she refrained from focusing on them in order to keep her emotions from spiraling out of control. Instead, she decided she would listen to her deific companion and find the one person who could always balance her out.