“Alright, while I am gone, Relkir is in charge.”
There were a few tuts and grunts among the six Decaylings. Litvir didn’t like that.
“Is it because he’s a Rethan like you?” Tenuk asked.
“No, it is because, before he died and changed his name, Elkay here was in charge of 2 billion other beings and was my superior!” Litvir hissed. “And, out of the six of you, he has performed the best in all the exams you have done so far. This will only be for however long it takes for Decay Lord Kal to deal with me. Teekay, Eksi, you two are coming with me as Kal needs to check you over too. Tenuk, I need you on comms and lookout in the cockpit. Phovos, Relkir, keep an eye on things, one of Kal should be with you shortly.”
The Decaylings all sighed, then bowed. Litvir grunted, then made his way down to the cargo bay, where their ship had docked with Shield Six, the silver, six-striped ship belonging to their new fellow Thantir Decay Lords. Litvir had to duck to get into the new ship, but Eksi and Teekay found it somewhat refreshing, being somewhere that better fit their smaller size.
“Heya, Litvir!” Tah, technically the being in charge of this ship, chirped as they entered. Being mechanical, Tah only seemed to express emotions through his voice and glowing eyes, and those emotions were still somewhat hard to decipher to non-telepaths. “This shouldn’t take too long, although we only have one small crystal cell, so Eksi and Teekay are going to have to take it in turns. Where is Galyn?”
“He is still unconscious and within his cocoon…” Litvir sighed. “We are somewhat concerned. We also do not know what to do with Seimeni.”
Tah clicked twice. Another member of Kal, the white-painted Koh, appeared by his side. “Understandable. Nuh and Leh will have a look at Seimeni, while Pah, Gah and myself will look after Eksi and Teekay. Koh, Akah and Tahvra will deal with you.”
Koh bowed slightly. “Come with me, please.”
Litvir glanced at Eksi and Teekay, then followed the white Cleanser down the main corridor. They stopped in the middle, and a ladder unveiled itself. Koh awkwardly climbed the ladder, then instructed Litvir to do the same. This ladder led to a large observatory with a glass roof, but it was oddly short, and Litvir found his head pressing up against it. In the middle of the room was an inflatable bed with handcuffs on the top two corners.
Also present were two beings which had belonged to the same universe Litvir had been born in, but they were wildly different creatures. Akah was a Lanex, an upright, humanoid being wearing a white mask and a mechanical attachment over his left eye. The rest of him was armoured, and little actual skin could be seen. Tahvra on the other hand was a Vohra, and was no larger than Koh. Had Litvir been a less educated being, he would have called Koh a robotic version of Tahvra. They had similar body shapes, the same armoured headplates, massive eyes, thick necks and unusual armour plating. But Tahvra was completely organic and Koh was completely mechanical.
“Lie down, please!” Koh instructed. Litvir did as he was asked, and Akah secured the handcuffs around Litvir’s wrists, which only just seemed to fit. Akah then backed away, standing in the corner with his signature scythe weapon. Koh and Tahvra took over, placing several sensors across Litvir’s head, avoiding Litvir’s armoured head plate. Litvir found it interesting that he shared a similar feature with these beings. Although, in Tahvra’s case, that was to be expected. The Rethavok, Litvir’s own species, were descended from the Vohra. Somehow.
“So what exactly does this entail?” Litvir grunted. “And do I need to turn my psionic powers back on? I must admit, it is strenuous for me to keep them locked down.”
“It’s pretty simple. Tahvra will comb through your memories and lower consciousness while I scan for any anomalies in your upper consciousness. We’ll do our best to keep things private and confidential. Don’t worry about turning it all off, we’ll sort that out for you.”
“And Tahvra here is taking the lead?” Litvir queried.
“Yep. Cleanser telepathy is incredibly oppressive, we brute force our way into the minds of others. Tahvra’s much more gentle, probably because his kind evolved with telepathy while we had it forced upon us, since all Cleansers except for us Kal can’t actually speak. Ready when you are, Tahvra.”
Tahvra glanced at Koh then nodded, placing his tiny claw against the side of Litvir’s head, just behind his right eye. To Litvir’s surprise, he found that the Vohra had immediately turned on Litvir’s telepathy, and was now going through Litvir’s distant memories, memories of Litvir’s juvenile years.
“You have more siblings than I do…” Tahvra muttered. “Way, way too many. I can see why you killed your own mother. Also, your telepathic systems make pretty much no sense.”
“Tahvra, you’re not supposed to discuss memories!” Koh snapped, his ice blue eyes lighting up rather brightly.
Litvir though just shrugged. “Oh, I do not mind. I very rarely discuss my ugly past with anyone. And my telepathic networks are completely self-built. Rethavok do not have higher level telepathy, so I had to teach myself and Kuta how to do these things without too much agony. The only other Rethan outside of my family to have telepathy is the old High General, and he simply cheats and uses Skyavok telepathy…” Litvir trailed off. He could feel Tahvra going through later memories, and as he travelled through the decades, there was an aura of uncertainty and disgust emanating off him, one that Litvir and Koh had both picked up on.
Tahvra immediately apologised. “Sorry! It’s just… I… how did you do all of this?”
“We’ve done this to deities, Tahvra. You know-”
“Yeah, I know, but Litvir was mortal, same way I was. I…” Tahvra stopped, then apologised again. “I shouldn’t judge you. Sorry.”
“It is fine. I know what I have done. I am… different now.” Litvir closed his eyes. He had expected something like this. However, he found it odd that he wasn’t picking up any of Koh’s scans. Before he could comment though, he felt Tahvra’s influence leave his mind.
Tahvra and Koh both remained silent, checking over their scans and their equipment. After a good minute or so of nothingness, Tahvra turned to Akah, who undid the cuffs around Litvir’s wrists and helped the Decay Lord to his feet.
“All clear!” Koh lacked the ability to smile, but he seemed happy. “Did find one anomaly, but it wasn’t from the Voidborn. Seems like your psionic Decayling left the tiniest nugget of influence in your mind when he tricked that Voidborn into leaving, because he used the Voidborn’s possession of you to work out how to trick them…” Koh clicked twice, then continued. “Pah and Gah have already finished with the two Decaylings, they’re on your ship now, dealing with Galyn. You should go meet with them.”
Litvir bowed deeply. “Thank you, I greatly appreciate your assistance.”
“No need to thank us, just doing our jobs.”
With another bow, Litvir left the room, climbing back down the ladder and making his way back to his own ship. As he entered the cargo bay, he was happy to see several familiar faces. Lying on the ground spluttering, covered in a golden liquid was Seimeni, surrounded in shards of white, ceramic material. It seemed that Nuh and Leh had managed to get her prison open, and Relkir was by her side, tending to her.
“Is everything alright?” Litvir asked.
Seimeni sat up and stared at Litvir, before sighing and lying back down. “That was horrible. Felt like floating in a permanent, black void… Is everyone alive? I… kinda don’t know what happened…”
Litvir nodded, but decided to spare Seimeni the details. “Everyone is alive. I shall debrief you once you have rested up and we have… dealt with Galyn.”
“Is he…”
“He is healing…” Litvir offered no further information. “Get some rest, Seimeni. You do not look well. You two, where are your siblings?”
Leh pointed down the main corridor. “Galyn’s room. As requested.”
“Thank you.” Litvir marched off, down the hallway. Oddly, Nuh, the black-painted Cleanser, followed. Galyn’s personal quarters were right down the other end of the ship. Most of the ship was just about the right size for Litvir and Retvik, the second largest entities on the Thantir Two so it was weird that Galyn didn’t mind everything being too small for him. However, his bedroom was paradoxically large, and the Cleansers in the room dealing with the giant, green, slimy cocoon looked hilariously tiny. Also present was Phovos, who looked pretty confused and concerned. Coating her claws were a green goo that matched Galyn’s protective cocoon.
The three Cleansers immediately picked up on Litvir’s presence, but didn’t speak to him, instead silently talking to Nuh. Nuh seemed to hesitate for a second, before tapping his fingers against the palm of his hand. Large buzzsaws folded out of the heavy metal bands around Nuh’s wrists, and the black Cleanser lifted himself into the air with his gravity powers, hovering over the healing pod. Pah heated up the tips of the buzzsaws, and after what seemed like a little too much effort, Nuh managed to cut a small hole in the top of the cocoon, round about where Galyn’s chest was.
Out of this small hole, a small, black and gold globule floated upwards. However, the exposure to air caused it to react violently, and it began to expand, before abruptly disappearing. In a flash of electricity, Tah had teleported the strange globule into a heavy metal container. A loud, dull bang was heard as the globule exploded, but was contained by the box.
“By the Nest, that was close…” Tah whispered as Nuh climbed off of Galyn and took the box from him. He held the cube in the air, before crushing it down into nothingness, destroying it in its entirety. “You should have called us as soon as you escaped Ahkron’s attack!”
“We, uh… would have… but our ship was damaged…” Litvir couldn’t help but stutter.
“Uh… what was that?” Phovos worried. “Like… was that some sort of bomb?”
“Yep. A Kenic Spore!” Gah rather casually explained, not nearly as shaken as his fellow Cleansers were. “Had we not contained it, it would have killed all the organic, fleshy people on board and probably turned us into baby Voidborns. Well, us and maybe Tenuk. He’s weird. You should probably get him checked out when you have the chance.” Pah prodded Gah in the side, suggesting he be slightly less amused.
“Will Galyn be alright?”
“Oh, he’ll be fine!” Gah continued being cheery. “We don’t know how his biology works though and I assume you guys don’t either since he’s from a long dead universe, but he should be fine. Anyway, what now?”
Litvir didn’t have an answer. Weirdly, neither did the rest of Kal.
“I think…” Nuh eventually spoke. “This is going to sound weird, coming from me, the unstoppable Cleanser Kal Wehl-Nuh, but I think we need to get out of this sector, as Theocydes originally suggested. Bunker down for a week, wait for Ahkron to pass and come back when he’s gone. Because, in all honesty, he tore through all of us and didn’t even hesitate. And while we’ve been messing around trying to keep ourselves afloat, goodness knows how many nearby baby universes have perished…”
Tah and Pah both instantly agreed. Litvir couldn’t help but agree too.
“So where do we go?” Litvir asked. “And how do we get out of here without drawing Ahkron’s attention?”
“We know a place…” Tah clicked in vague irritation. “Koh won’t like having to use the Olmak again, but we can stay safe, fix ourselves up and stay alive. We’ve sent out warnings, we’ve done all we can out here, we have to look after ourselves now…”