EG3 Ch 2 (Patreon)

Violet returned to the holodeck as Aikari swirled, appearing back in place floating above her while sitting on an invisible ledge her nine black and red tails swaying behind her.

"Welcome back," the AI rendition of her master chirped. "More training?"

"Of course," Violet said. "I want ten percent faster than the previous version."

"Ten percent faster than last?" the AI asked quickly, a small trace of hesitance in her voice.

Violet already had her beamsaber out and squared in front of her.

"Are you certain?" the AI asked. "You were already significantly above nominal on the prior exercises."

"I was not fast enough before. I picked a fight that I didn't win." She glared at the AI. "And that cost us all dearly. I need to be faster still."

"Understood." Aikari bowed, her tails fanning out as images appeared on the holodeck. The AI acted as if it was an illusion power like all divine Kikai shared, but really that was just more mimicry of her master within the room filled with technology.

On the other side of the holodeck, three figures appeared. One was the captain, prone on the ground. The other two were a two-tailed and a three-tailed Kikai that suddenly came to life, jumping forward with beamsabers of their own.

Violet twisted and spun, her own saber swinging freely as she took down her opponents, or at least tried to.

The second she cut one, the other blurred out of the way, going for the captain far faster than in previous attempts. Violet's tails flicked, and she bodily threw herself to the side with her power. It was so hard she felt her muscles strain and her tendons rip as she jumped in the way to save the holographic version of the captain.

Of course the maneuver wasn’t nearly dehabilitating as it sounded. Her body healed just as quickly as she damaged it, giving less than a flicker of weakness.

The one she had cut didn't go down having the same enhanced healing as her and spun around, its tail flicking and sending a wave of force at the prone captain.

It was all Violet could do to flick back and forth, tearing her body apart as she blocked each and every attack toward the captain, not an iota of effort left for her to go on the offense. But still she pushed herself further, her muscles tearing, her bones creaking and threatening far worse as she put herself to the absolute limit.

Being a divine gave her extraordinary powers and prowess, but all of that was utterly useless if she didn't learn to master these abilities and put them to the greatest use. She could not and would not repeat the errors of her past.

She cried out, her arm bending too far backward and her elbow giving out, only for the whole simulation to come to a sudden end. She paused and glared at the AI controlling it all.

"Why did you stop? I hadn't lost yet." She snapped as her arm cracked and she reset her elbow for it to heal.

"Apologies, mistress, but I do not believe the captain would have you push yourself to this limit." The digital Kikai fanned out her tails as she bowed.

"The captain doesn't even get to have an opinion right now, because I failed," Violet was on edge.

"The captain is still alive," Aikari said.

"Barely, by the grace of Melgara's mad science. He's been made into something we cannot understand nor predict. Something that, if the other divines come to learn it exists, will be hunted for the rest of his life. His survival is far from the success you're making it out to be."

"I understand, mistress." The AI bowed ever so slightly. "However, from my limited interaction with the captain, I do not believe he would wish for you to injure yourself repeatedly in his name."

Violet twisted her elbow and reset it so her healing could take effect. "It was just a scratch. Now, will you restart it ten percent faster?" she asked.

The AI's tails fluttered as she stood back up. "I feel as if the responsible choice would be to deny you another session," the AI said.

Violet was about to remind her that despite her being on the captain's ship and referring to him as master, she was ultimately something Violet had inherited from her own master. Though it was also very possible that the AI would not listen.

"Can I interest you in a game?" the AI said, and Violet paused, squinting at it to understand what it was trying to do.

"Possibly a good one.” Violet answered.

“Here's the game: we are going to guess what the captain would say in these instances."

Violet sighed. "I will remind you, I do have overrides on several of your capabilities."

The AI smiled. "Never fear. I will report all logs to the captain. After all, I am currently installed in his ship, and I'm certain he'll want to know everything that he missed while he was unconscious. In fact, I would guess that requesting a full, detailed report from me will be one of his first actions upon waking up. Perhaps after Lily frees him from what I assume will be a wonderful and copious display of affection."

Violet scowled. She knew she would have to cede some of the captain's immediate time to the overly attached Helivore, but she would claim her own soon enough. "Fine. Can we resume at the current speed?"

"I believe the current session was a failure. After all, the captain would likely consider destruction of self during an operation to be taking on more than you can currently handle. Thus, it would be best to take it back one step until you can handle that without any damage to yourself." The AI offered.

Violet stared at the AI for a long moment. However, it only floated happily, tails swishing in the air, with the occasional flicker as her holographic unit cycled through its operations.

"You will refrain from informing the captain of my current activities?" Violet clarified.

"As long as you continue to operate within acceptable, healthy parameters, I see no reason that my report to the captain could not simply be that you underwent rigorous training. However, continued self-harm would need to be reported as a potential mental instability. After all, I cannot risk the operations of the crew by ignoring obvious risk factors that would affect any mission they would choose to undertake." Even though it was an AI it had a smug grin, knowing that it had won this exchange.

"Fine, fine." Violet waved her hands. "You win."

"I do not see this as winning, merely continued operation at optimal capacity. However, if you consider that I win, then consider this checkmate." Aikari gave her a vicious grin.

"You win. Checkmate and all of that. I'm tipping over my king." Violet mimed the action. "Now, more training, please. I need to be stronger and faster for when the captain wakes."

***

Tiri stood next to the open panel, her foot tapping away, and she had no doubt anyone within said panel should have been able to hear said tapping foot. Yet despite that, no one had appeared, and she was growing increasingly irritable the longer she waited, holding the plate of food.

"Brigax!" She finally grew impatient enough to shout his name.

There was a resounding bang, like an out-of-tune gong had been struck, followed by a groan of pain.

"What's wrong, dear?" The big green lug managed.

"You missed lunch," Tiri said, "so I thought I would bring it to you," she spoke in a voice that was sickly sweet.

Brick's head suddenly appeared out of the panel. Tiri had no idea how the massive Grogax managed to squeeze himself inside the tight space. Though he’d certainly lost considerable weight.

"Ah, there you are," she said.

"Here I am." Brick was all smiles before his flat nose wiggled in the air, and he went to reach for the plate, only for Tiri to pull it back with a faintly lifted eyebrow. "Thank you, dear."

She cleared her throat and still withheld the meal.

"I promise not to miss so many meals." He told her.

Her lifted eyebrow remained for a moment before she relaxed. She had to make it clear to him that he needed to take better care of himself. "You're lucky you're cute," Tiri said imperiously.

Since the captain had gone into a coma her boyfriend had been depressed. Which seemed to mean more time lost in his work to avoid the present realities.

"If that's what keeps you around, then yes, I am incredibly lucky," the Grogax said with a smile, and pulled himself completely out of the panel, lifting himself up and towering over Tiri.

The Kikai then handed over his plate, which Brick immediately chomped into like he was starving.

"If you are so hungry, maybe you should come to lunch."  She told him.

"I forget," Brick said around a mouthful of sandwich.

"You forget to eat?" Tiri said in disbelief.

"Yeah, I just forget," he pouted. "I was rewiring a conduit, and then while doing that, I saw one of the valves was installed off center, or at least not in the same configuration as the others, and so I had to fix it. Otherwise, if someone else tried to work on this, they'd probably just try and mirror how it's done on the other side of the ship, and then they would cause a resounding short."

Tiri squinted at him. "There was no immediate problem," she interpreted.

"If I waited until there was an actual problem for everything, the ship would fall apart," Brick said, polishing off his sandwich and licking his fingers, only to see the scowl on her face. He froze, slowly pulling them out of his mouth, and starting to look around for something to wipe his hands on.

The grease-stained rag that was the nearest and most likely candidate was halfway to his other three hands before Tiri's fingers drummed along her biceps where her arms were crossed, and he slipped the cloth back onto the rack, looking around helplessly. Tiri decided to help him out and pulled out a small paper towel she'd prepared just for the situation.

"Thanks," Brick said, not meeting her eyes but cleaning himself up nicely. "Well, then, I assume since we have food, things are going well?" he asked.

"Yes, they just came back from another restocking, though according to Minnie, there were guards searching the area, and they aroused a small amount of suspicion. We should be fine, but there is a layer of caution that I think we should be applying." Those two were too reckless just because they could upend a contingent of soldiers on their own. They didn’t appreciate how much military might the Kikai could bring down on them.

"Of course," Brick said. "Whatever you think is best here."

Tiri stepped up, and Brick leaned down so they could share a quick kiss. "I am growing increasingly worried about what happens if the captain stays in his coma any longer. I'm concerned about what Lily will do."

Brick paused in what he was doing. "Oh, don't worry. She's not even that bad yet."

"Not that bad? She is completely, utterly obsessed with a man in a coma." Tiri replied. She basically only went to get food and then draped herself over him in the medical bay all day.

"Well, duh. She's always been fairly obsessed with the captain." Brick was somehow oblivious to the danger in the ship with him.

Tiri stared at him.

"She's been worse. Oh, much worse." Brick nodded along. "I mean, she'll probably eat the populace of this planet before she goes after us, though, so we have at least that long before we should be concerned."

Tiri stared at him incredulously, unable to believe what he was saying. "Please tell me you don't think that's something that will actually happen."

"Oh, of course not," Brick said quickly. "Lily has completely changed from when she first lost the captain. I mean, you should have seen it. She took over a whole ship, from what I understand, and twisted those people inside out until they revealed everything they knew about what had happened to her captain."

"This is the more positive possibility?" Tiri asked slowly.

"I don't know if I would call it positive," Brick said quickly.

"Of course you wouldn't call it positive. Only the insane would," she snapped. "So you still think it's a long way off before we're in danger?"

"Long, long way. At least the captain's here," Brick left unsaid was what would be happening if the captain wasn't. "She has him here, even if he's in a coma. She'll stay relatively grounded, I think. Now, if he dies..." Brick paused. "We're getting off the ship as fast as possible. I have a small go-bag just in case such an occasion should occur."

"And what do you think would happen should the captain pass?"

"Lily most likely would become an existential crisis for the entire universe. I'd put odds on her trying to end all life simply to punish the universe for taking the captain from her. Good news is, she'll probably focus on the Kikai first." He smiled a touch too wide like he’d lost his mind.

Tiri stared at him in disbelief. "Like myself?"

"Well, she'll probably have a little bit of a soft spot for you and Violet. And maybe the rest of us. Maybe she'll save us for last, but I'm not sure how coherent she'll be in the moment." He answered honestly before realizing he needed to correct it. “That is if something happens to the captain, which it won’t according to the doc.”

Tiri just stared at him. "Please never engage in trying to give someone a pep talk, Brick."

The big lug tilted his head. "I mean, if I wanted to, I bet I could give one hell of a pep talk. But point taken. I'll leave that to the rest of you. We're still far away from the worst-case scenario. I'm just pointing out it could be much worse."

"Let's hope it never gets there. Now, when are you going to finish today and come back to our room?"

Brick looked down at his projects and then looked up at her. "Soon," he suggested, and she crossed her arms.

"I want a time, Brigax, so that you can set an alarm, and then I can set an alarm for when you inevitably fail to show up."

"Right, right." He chuckled and did his best to look completely innocent, at which Tiri crossed her arms and stared back at him. The two of them were locked like that for just a moment before Brick sagged in defeat.

"Five thirty. I'll be there for dinner," he said, seeming to want to say later but knowing that the answer would not go over well.

"You'll be dressed and ready by five thirty. I will not have my man showing up to the dinner table covered in grease."

"It makes me look like a hard worker," Brick countered.

"Taking the time to make yourself presentable makes you seem reliable."

"I'll stop at five fifteen." He slumped like a child who’d lost his favorite toy.

"I'll have some of that grease release on hand in our room."

Brick scratched the back of his head. "Thank you, dear."

"You are very welcome." She stepped up, and his lower two arms picked Tiri up while the upper two hugged her, and they shared another kiss.

"Well, I have to get back to scanning the area for salvage.” Tiri sighed.

“If we're going to have to leave this area soon or go back into hiding, we need to increase our food supply." Brick offered.

"Yes, so we can all eat more Lily juice," Tiri said with a note of disgust.

"It's not that bad," Brick said.

"I don't know if I like my food machined from a Helivore." Tiri tossed out, not saying what might happen should said Helivore become upset.

"She's just channeling her inner cow," Brick said.

"Because a cow is just a machine that makes beef?" she asked, knowing how Brick felt about some of the more basic things in life.

"Exactly. She's just becoming a machine that makes food."

Tiri sighed heavily through her nose. "Yes, well, I will see you for dinner." She didn't continue the conversation any longer, and in a twirl of a fluffy tail, she left.