“Does this happen often?” Arkay asked as he struggled for breath. It turned out that stopping a runaway space ship from crashing into a floating island without damaging anyone or anything was much harder in the space between universes than Arkay expected. But between him, Elkay, Nuh, Gah and Ret, they had managed to stop the ship from utterly destroying Savepoint’s parking lot.
“More than it should…” Elkay tutted. “Last time this happened, it was a ship consumed by Corruption, and the Corruption left a message on the wall only I could read. But this ship looks… weird.”
“I thought most ships would look weird?” Ret asked. “This uh, space between thingies, it IS very big. The Travellers’ ship was a giant white ball.”
Gah clicked a little. “While that’s true, this is actually a ship from our pentacluster.”
“Pretty sure it’s a Mini-Warmth…” Nuh muttered. “But we ought to send someone inside to have a look for survivors. Because these ships don’t just crash like this. And the chance of one just happening to crash right here is very low.”
“Unless it has an automated system that tells it to try and land on flat surfaces?” Gah countered. “I mean, our ship has an automatic navigation device that would gently land the ship somewhere suitable if none of us six are conscious to pilot it ourselves.”
“Well, either way, I think we need to check the ship out…” Arkay frowned. “I can sense something alive inside it.”
Before anyone could say anything, Arkay made his way over to the ship and inspected the front of it. The ship wasn’t very large at all, about 10m long and 4m wide, but weirdly round, with shark-like fins on each side and an engine in the back. The top of the ship was coloured blue and silver, looking a bit like a solar panel. The front window had been completely smashed, and Arkay could smell blood. Not fresh blood though.
Rather than going in through the window, Arkay opted to use the door on the side of the ship. It opened somewhat easily, and Arkay let himself in.
“Smells weird in here…” Elkay muttered. He’d decided to follow Arkay inside, just in case. “Like death.”
“Old death. Whoever owned this ship died at least a year ago…” Arkay trailed off, looking around, mostly in the cockpit. His eyes glowed blue briefly. Realizing what Arkay was doing, Elkay did the same.
The cockpit was empty, but the two Synaisthyns both noticed there had been a struggle. A conflict between a Voidborn and a small creature that looked a bit like a Skyavok, but with far less plating, according to the time-strings they were picking up. The smaller creature hadn’t stood a chance, and was swiftly killed by several stab wounds through the neck and chest. And as Arkay and Elkay explored further, they found the remains of the creature, now nothing more than bleached bones.
But the creature had died, trying to protect something. They had slumped down by a door, which had been torn off its hinges. The door had clearly been locked, and past that, there were ten strange pods. While everything else on the ship had been inorganic, made of metals, glass and plastics, past that door was a strange, fleshy space, containing ten glistening, translucent sacks. Nine of which had ruptured and somewhat melted back into the fleshy walls, and, hanging at the bottom of where the sacks were resting, more skeletal remains could be seen. Child-like skeletal remains.
“Is… is that what you could sense, Arkay?” Elkay hesitantly asked, pointing at the last sack.
“Yeah. There’s a child inside it…” Arkay inspected the sack more closely. By the side of the sack was a small screen, showing the creature’s vitals, but also stating that the sack was in “Suspended Mode”. But according to the screen, the creature had already hatched and was waiting for some sort of confirmation to open up.
“Is it a Skyavok? It looks like one.”
“Don’t think so. Baby Skyans have all their plating even as a baby, same way Rethans do.”
After a moment of thought, Arkay pressed his hand against the sac. It was more solid than he expected. Doing so though caused the screen to blink and exit out of “Suspended Mode”. The screen blinked again, beeped, then changed to “Exit Mode”.
Thankfully, both Elkay and Arkay had slight time powers and managed to shield themselves from the sac as it shattered. Embryonic fluid covered the floor, but quickly drained away. The creature was suspended from the ceiling and wall by several tubes, which gently dropped the creature on the floor, before retracting back into the walls.
Completely oblivious to its surroundings, the creature stretched out briefly, yawned, then curled up into a ball and fell back to sleep.
“You know what?” Elkay whispered.
“What?”
“I think I know what that is.”
“What is it?”
Rather annoyingly, Elkay didn’t answer. He got down on his knees and very gently scooped the baby up in his arms. The creature didn’t seem to react much, but it did snuggle up closer to Elkay.
“Alright, just so we’re on the same page, you’re not going to say that this baby creature is a Synaisthyn like us, right?”
Elkay shuddered at the thought. “No, no, it is not a Synaisthyn. I believe it is a Beh’enlu.”
“A what?”
“A baby Beh’evok.”
Arkay blinked in confusion. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“And it was just sitting here, in this artificial womb thing, all this time?”
“I guess so…”
Elkay turned around and headed back outside the ship, taking the baby with him. Arkay hesitated, quickly scanned the place for any traces of Corruption or Voidborn influence, then chased after Elkay.
“Alright, I’m picking up thoughts from you right now!” Arkay exclaimed. “Are you seriously considering raising it?”
“The other option is leaving it to die inside that ship. We have two Beh’evok here who probably have some idea how to look after it, and we can always ask the Phantai, who are also mostly Beh’evok, and ask them what to do as well.”
As Elkay and Arkay stepped back outside, they were greeted by Nuh and Gah, plus Teekay and Kaytee, who were already getting to work on securing the ship and repairing it, Vikalos, Galyn and Itaviir, all of whom realized what was going on, came out to greet them as well. But, although Elkay wasn’t trying to pry, he noticed that Itaviir in particular was… scared. Genuinely scared.
“Elkay, deary, may I take the child?” Vikalos politely requested.
“I assume you would know best, right?”
“Well, better than you. I hate to sound rude, Elkay, but you don’t seem much like a motherly figure. That and we know best about Beh’en biology, and we need to check the poor thing over.”
Elkay handed the baby Beh’evok to Vikalos, who had brought a warm blanket and swiftly wrapped it up. Vikalos and Galyn then went to one of the recovery rooms meant for people who needed to recuperate after purifications. However, Itaviir remained in place, clearly unnerved and silently inspecting the outside of the ship.
“Are you alright, Itaviir?” Arkay asked.
“Not really.”
“What’s wrong?”
Itaviir took a long, deep breath, not sure whether he should talk or not. After some hesitation, he did his best to explain.
“I recognise that ship. It was one of the emergency capsules attached to the old Warm I used to guard before I joined the Phantai…” Itaviir fell silent. “I… I should probably go and tell Vikalos and Galyn that…”
Itaviir hesitated some more, then stomped off, to join his partners.
Arkay and Elkay both glanced at each other.
“I am concerned…” Elkay eventually muttered.
“Me too. But I’m pretty certain that the baby isn’t his… Timelines don’t add up…” Arkay frowned. “I’ll speak to Elksia and Litvir, they might be able to clear things up a little…”