For once, Relkir was glad that he had the ability to mimic other beings’ abilities. He was currently in the middle of cutting a hole in the middle of a large, black wall, so he and his team could access an abandoned Voidborn vessel, and was doing so with fire powers he had borrowed off his half-brother Retvik. This was really speeding things up, because this was the second wall he’d had to cut through, and it was far quicker than dragging specialist gear around.
“So you’re sure there’s no one here?” Teekay asked Eksi as they both stood around behind Relkir. All three of them were nervous, after all, this was their first proper mission as Decaylings, and none of them wanted to fuck it up. Monitoring them were the Decay Lords Galyn and Litvir, while the other two Decay Lords were on their sister ship, Thantir Three, working at a separate location. While Litvir had given them a handful of suggestions, Galyn was completely silent, not just assessing the Decayling team, but Litvir’s teaching skills as well.
“I’m telling you, mate, we’re alone here!” Eksi was doing his best to be reassuring. Teekay and Eksi were both telepaths, and Relkir had some telepathic powers of his own, but Eksi’s telepathic links were by far the strongest, and he was constantly bouncing mind-based signals across the Voidborn vessel, checking for movement.
A loud crack was heard as Relkir finally made it through the wall. A round plate of metal collapsed inwards, revealing a new room. Unlike the blank, black room they were currently in, the new room shimmered in gold, with silver cables running along one wall.
“Are you sure-”
“Yes!”
Relkir waited for the edge of the hole to cool down, then stepped inside, blinking his eyes several times to switch to normal vision. There was enough visible light to see normally, and an odd, humming sound drifted through the air. As Eksi promised, there was no one else around. And, thankfully, this new room contained the first of three consoles that they needed to access.
With a tut, Teekay blinked in front of Relkir and started scanning the equipment, his hand hovering over the strange devices. In his other hand were three small sticks containing tracking data, one of which he flicked open, looking for an opening. After several seconds, Teekay found what he was looking for, and inserted the first of the sticks into a port on the console’s side. A green light flicked on, confirming that everything was working.
“We good?” Eksi asked.
“Yeah, first one down…” Teekay went back to scanning the room, his eyes drawn to the wall of cables. He ran his free hand across them, towards a panel in the next wall. “We need to go this way. Relkir?”
Relkir grunted, knowing that he needed to somehow move this panel. As he pressed his heavy claws against it though, his fingers became sticky, giving him a strong grip. It didn’t take much effort for Relkir to rip the panel from the wall, revealing another room. The silver cables continued to run through into the new room, past some kind of weird, sparkling pool of liquid.
“Who in the name of the void puts a random jacuzzi in a room next to a bunch of servers?” Eksi blinked as they entered the new room. “Like, Teekay, you seen anything like this? You worked in IT, right?”
“No, I worked as head of security for the All-Ksa and was also Ksa of the K-Class for a while. Very different.”
“So why are you suddenly an electronic whizz?”
“I’ve always had a thing about electronics…” Teekay admitted. “I just happened to be born in the wrong class and never really took steps to move towards what I was genuinely good at.”
Eksi shrugged. “Probably for the best though. Otherwise you’d probably be dead or trapped, completely unknowing, in a completely new universe. Where do we go from here?”
Teekay followed the cables along the wall again, being careful not to fall into the bubbling pool of water. This time though, they disappeared into a small console plugged into the rear wall, without any sort of doorway or path leading onwards. Teekay pressed his hand against the wall, then knocked several times.
“It’s hollow. Relkir, can you…”
“Yes, dear…”
Relkir approached the wall, then pulled on the console. Surprisingly, it came away from the wall quite easily, revealing a narrow path lined with yet more cables. However, this path was far too small for Relkir to fit through. At least, as he currently was.
“Well, this is awkward…” Eksi muttered.
“Not really…” Relkir grunted, concentrating on himself. He felt his body shrinking down, until he wasn’t much larger than Teekay or Eksi. However, his armour became harder and sharper, some sort of internal defence mechanism kicking into gear. Relkir’s adapting abilities were still somewhat foreign to him, but this change wasn’t too hard to make. He forced his way into the passage, then signalled for Teekay and Eksi to follow.
“No, this is definitely awkward…” Eksi repeated himself. “Teekay, your girlfriend is being weird again.”
“He’s fine!” Teekay hissed. “Just come on now, the faster we do this, the faster we can get out of here.”
This narrow path seemed to drag on for too long, just travelling onwards in a straight line. All of a sudden though, the ground abruptly dropped away. Relkir only just noticed, having grown massive claws and impaled them in the wall to stop himself falling. To his dismay though, downwards was the direction they had to go.
“I am not just dropping myself.”
“Don’t expect you to, dear…” Teekay reached for his belt and looked for something he didn’t mind losing. He pulled out a pen, and dropped it down the shaft. It didn’t take long for the pen to clang at the bottom.
“Alright, maybe I will just drop myself down…” Relkir removed one claw, hesitated then dug it back into the wall again. Instead, he reached forward, pressing himself against both sides of the shaft, lowering himself down that way. Eksi and Teekay waited for Relkir to descend, before Eksi lowered himself down with telekinesis, and Teekay opted to simply teleport. Much to their glee, the next console just happened to be right there at the bottom.
“Same as before?”
“Same as before.”
Teekay fiddled around with the console, before forcing the third stick into an open slot. Again, a green light popped up, signalling that everything was working.
“One more.”
The bottom of this shaft seemed to open up into a large room, but the cables were now running along the floor, proving to be a tripping hazard. Teekay led the way, with Eksi following close behind. Relkir shifted back to his normal size, now that he could do so, before also following.
The walls were oddly sharp and pointy, a contrast to the otherwise flat, plain walls they’d passed so far. They also seemed to be… moving. Teekay picked up his pace, blinking ahead with short, teleporting blasts. Eksi and Relkir just ran, chasing after Teekay as he disappeared into another, narrow corridor. At least this one was slightly taller, enough for Relkir to fit inside.
“Sorry, needed to get out of that room. Didn’t like how it was all closing in around us.”
Relkir peered back into the room they were just in. The walls had returned to normal, and the spikes had gone away.
“I thought you said we were alone in here, Eksi?” Teekay asked.
“Yeah, we are. Didn’t think there’d be, well, traps or something…” Eksi replied nervously. “We should pick up the pace.”
Teekay tutted, then did as he was told, still leading the way and still following the rows of cables. After walking for a little too long, they found the final console, which was resting awkwardly in the middle of a pool of golden liquid. Rather than risking touching the mysterious liquid, Teekay lifted himself into the air with a small amount of telekinesis and the help of a pair of psionic wings, then made his way to the console. It took him a little too long to find an open port, which was hidden behind several cables that were draped over the console itself. For the third time, Teekay inserted the small stick, and it quickly glowed green, showing everything was alright.
“Cool. Time to get out of here…”
All three Decaylings activated a small device on their belts. Teekay pulled out a new device, which pointed to the nearest exit point. To his dismay though, it seemed to point at an otherwise blank wall.
“Um…”
Teekay checked his device again, then nudged Eksi, suggesting he do the same on his own device. Again, they came up with the same result.
Before Eksi or Teekay could come up with a new plan, Relkir lit up one of his claws with burning plasma, and cut through the metal wall. A large hole opened up, revealing a dark, empty void and, with it, freedom from the Voidborn vessel. Relkir took a deep breath, then realized there was no actual air to breathe. Not that it mattered, as a telepathic message jolted the three Decaylings to attention. Their boss Litvir was talking to them directly.
“Good work, little ones, we are now receiving data. Coming round to pick you up now.”
“Huh, nice!” Eksi beamed as they stepped outside, into the darkness outside. “That went pretty smoothly, don’t you think?”
“Yeah… worryingly smoothly…” Teekay muttered, shivering in the lack of atmosphere. Thankfully though, Relkir wrapped his arms around both Teekay and Eksi, sheltering them from the cold.
“We did fine. I wonder how the other team is doing?” Relkir mused, as their ship, the Thantir Two, loomed into view.
“Guess we’ll find out in a bit!” Eksi was still smiling. “Come, on, let’s get out of here. Job’s done, let’s go.”