The quarantine took very little time to complete as Chimera went through the assembled crew, locking into each of them and checking their vitals with her tendrils.

  It wasn’t as she feared, no sabotuers or changelings remained on the crew despite the fact that there were a few who did not take to her biological upgrades. Still, she applied only one change to the ones who refused, and that was a blocker that would prevent any pheromone deployment from affecting them.

  It was necessary, not only for peace of mind but for prevention. Glendara was a mistake that they could not afford repeating, and despite how Chimera felt about the half Elfari spy, she wasn’t about to put the rest of her crew in danger simply because she wanted to trust them.

  Grabbing a bit of the deep wyrm for her own DNA analysis, Chimera moved into the Meras proper, calling out to her friend from within the space vessel with her connection.

  Unlike the changes that she made to the crew, Meras was the ship as well as the name of the Dryad Core, the heart of the vessel. After a bit of upgrades of her own, the Meras was more akin to Chimera’s own nature than that of any other vessel in the Elfari Navy. Based on a design of Astan make, the vessel was a cruiser with a great deal of both sleek design, and open areas to allow for precise and effective movements.

  Meras herself seemed to love the changes, though based on what she felt from the dryad’s thoughts in her mind palace, it was mainly due to ‘wanting to be different’ than her sisters.

  Chimera felt the presence of the ship’s mind touch hers, a feeling of joy accompanied by curiosity at the new passenger.

  ‘Hey Meras, good to see you in one piece. Got a bit of an update for you regarding some scary stuff.’

  Chimera relayed her recent discoveries as the ship’s mind catalogued what she knew. She also took the sample that Chimera gave after she was done with her own analysis. The dryad held a mischievous temperament at times, and the almost comical evil laugh in her own thoughts made Chimera curious as to what the ship core would do with the sample.

  The skin of the deep wyrm alone could improve basic armor design, not just for the ground forces of the Harriers, but the ship’s own space oak plating.

  Perhaps she wanted to improve the armor of the pod fighters, Chimera’s fighter design that incorporated her malleable DNA and abilities.

  Either way, it seemed the core wasn’t willing to divulge her secrets yet,

  “Hey Meras, could you build a room next to my quarters for Iaos here? Due to that whole snafu with Lysa, I’m sort of stuck babysitting and protecting her.”

  The ship responded with a sound, something akin to an agreement but one that was distracted.

  Suddenly Chimera felt a bit worried that the Meras might be getting some strange upgrades thanks to the rocky deep wyrm.

  She sighed.

  Let it go Mera, you got shit to do.

  After teleporting to her quarters, Mera dropped off Iaos in her own room while the ship was growing the new quarters for the arch druid.

  “So Meras is likely going to bug you about how you want to design your room and all. Not to worry, she’s only a little scary when she does that. Just be polite and whatever you do, don’t show weakness, I’m almost certain she gets excited when she knows it freaks you out.”

  “Almost certain? Is she not your ship’s mind? How are you not certain?”

  Chimera shrugged, “she’s her own person, how could I possibly know everything about her? Just be careful when showing weakness.”

  Iaos seemed to squirm at that, and Chimera could hear Meras in the back of her mind, laughing and giggling at the shy creature.

  ‘I know you’re gonna mess with her, but be gentle about it, yeah? She’s been through a lot.’

  Meras giggled in her mind, “nothing like a few pranks to get your mind off of dark thoughts. Not to worry friend, I won’t go too far.”

  ‘That’s all I ask.’

  Turning back to Iaos, Chimera gave her a farewell as the room started growing tendrils that prodded the now panicking arch druid. Mera pretended not to hear the cries for help as she teleported to the medical bay, where the other person who occupied her mind palace awaited.

  Bayleaf was treating a soldier from the looks of things, the blood dripping from his ears indcative of a sonic attack or something similar. Chimera figured he must have been one of the few that were on the ground when Monga launched that scream that almost leveled Anvilage.

  “He's gonna pull through, Doctor?” Mera smirked as Bay, who with the practiced control of a medical professional, did not immediately yelp and shove a probe into the soldier's ear.

  She did however glare in Chimera’s direction as the two spoke via their mental link.

  ‘Really? Right when I’m with a patient?’ the medic spoke, her voice echoing in Chimera’s own.

  ‘Relax would you? Worse comes to worse, I can just speed up his body's regeneration. Easy peasy.’

  ‘That does not inspire confidence in me, we don’t need more of our kind running around in this vessel.’

  Chimera pursed her lips at that. Bayleaf was still annoyed by the changes that took away her Elfari heritage it seemed. She talked it through with her once she transitioned from an elf to a Terasi like Chimera was, but it wasn’t really her choice to do that.

  But that’s what you got when you messed with someone’s DNA without knowing that it could irrevocably change your body make-up. Mera still placed the blame in Bay’s park for that one.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  It still stung at times that the reason Bayleaf was messing with a piece of Chimera’s body was to find out how to destroy it, in case Mera ever turned on the Elfari.

  She didn’t even want to be a part of this stupid war, or be conscripted just so she could break the strange gravity well that took hold around Steros.

  Mera wanted to go home, to Asta, where her mom and her best friend were.

  She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Complaining about it to Bayleaf wouldn’t get anywhere, and despite the salty reception she got, she was still determined to help Bay and her people.

  Especially after what she saw the Verdant Hood was willing and capable of. No one, not even an enemy, deserved to be treated like fodder the way the Hood did to not just their own people, but their prisoners.

  Chimera waited as Bayleaf finished up with the soldier, who turned out to be a native to Anvilage with his reddish disposition. He thanked the two as he moved out of the room, leaving Bay and Chimera to their own.

  “Heard that you wrangled up a deep wyrm using my tractor beam trick. Well done! We’ll make a cowgirl out of you yet!”

  Chimera smirked as Bayleaf sifted through Mera’s own memories to figure out what the hell a ‘cowgirl’ was. Mera brought it to the forefront of her mind for Bay to see, and the Elfari Harrier gapped.

  “So your people went after animals as well, but for breeding?”

  Chimera laughed, “for livestock. According to what our history says, ancient humans used to wrangle up these cows for food and other goods. Cows were so widespread that they numbered in the millions back on the homeworld. Don’t know what happened after it was lost, but cows kind of disappeared along with them. Still, the image stuck with us, the intrepid human on a horse, wrangling the cows so they could bring them back to the ranches. It was a pioneer sort of thing, a way of life.”

  Mera felt her smile grow, “the frontier was a sign of freedom, of discovery. The endless plains, the widespread forests, the valleys and rivers, and even the deserts, all of it was wild and untamed, undiscovered. It’s why our kind loved space. According to our history, many called it the ‘final frontier’, the last great plain to be discovered, and explored.”

  Bayleaf looked a bit confused as she listened, “so this ‘cowgirl’ was an explorer to your humans?”

  Mera shook her head, “nah, they were just people trying to make a living in a vast world. But the spirit behind what they did? That stuck with my mom and her brother. It’s what made her want to be a hero scientist. In order to cure him, she needed to be bold, venture out and discover cures for a rather malignant virus.”

  “Which led to your creaton, right?” Bayleaf followed, her mind opened as the memory traveled between them in the mind palace.

  “Exactly. She knew Crimson R could cure Aden, but the consequences led to me. ‘Nothing ventured nothing gained’, it was another term humans used when it came to taking risks for potential gains, and it all stems from our willingness to explore new possibilities.”

  Despite the history being shared, Bayleaf seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as she turned to watch Mera.

  “It’s almost as if you see yourself as a human, despite otherwise.”

  Chimera nodded, “I may be a Terasi or a bodysuit weapon given sentience, or even an ancient dead race of slime aliens, but my mother was human. I will always be like that, at least in here.”

  She tapped the side of her head.

  “Just like you will always be an Elfari.”

  Bayleaf seemed to settle at that, so Chimera called that a win for helping her deal with the existential crisis. Sadly that earned her a bop from the Elfari, who for some reason could read her thoughts.

  She was about to speak when the intercom of the vessel activated.

  “All crew, return to your battle stations. Repeat, all crew return to your positions immediately.”

  Mera nodded at that, “duty calls, lets get to the bridge.”

  Bay returned the nod with one of her own, grabbing hold of Mera as the two teleported to the bridge. The scene was rather chaotic as some of the crew had yet to return to their stations, but enough had that the ship could begin start up protocols.

  Vice Captain Bark Ironside was already in the Captains seat, his staff in the slot next to him as he communicated with both the ship and the Dryad Core.

  “Captain, all systems are nominal and the start up sequence is prepared. We’re just waiting on a few shuttles to return from reconnaissance.”

  “Thank you Bark. Don’t mind me, you got this all handled so lift off when you’re ready.”

  “Yes Captain. You all heard her, let’s get our bird back in the sky.” Bark ordered as the crew responded with increased movement. Being the old captain, the synergy between him and the others did a lot to smooth any worries Chimera might have had.

  Being a Captain in name was a bit daunting, but she had a good crew and a good second on her side.

  Chimera pulled out a scrying tablet from a port in the wall as she settled in a chair next to the entrance of the bridge, typing in a few prompts to pull up the image of an ornery giantess.

  The Chieftain of the city of Anvilage, and the one who taught Chimera the power of Aura.

  The tablet worked to establish a connection, a busy signal playing while Mera waited for a response.

  Finally she saw a crackle across the screen as the red skinned leader appeared on her screen.

  “Well, if it isn’t the child. I assume the wyrm was slain by the looks of things?”

  “Not a child, you burning coal lady.”

  That made the chief grin, “good to know you’re in good spirits. I assume you wanted to make sure of things on our end?”

  Mera had to give it to Kass, she could read people rather well. Though after training with the woman for a while, maybe she just knew her better than she thought.

  Teachers tended to be that way about their students.

  “Yes, I wanted to be sure. We’re settled on our end, the wyrms dead and the Hood have evacuated the moon. I don’t think you’ll have to worry, but if you need help with rebuilding I could-”

  “Stop, small one. Don’t promise things you cannot deliver. Your job is not over yet.”

  Mera gritted her teeth.

  “Still, we can spare some time. I know you have been injured after that sonic blast. Just let me-”

  Kass held up a hand, a solemn look in her eye told Chimera all she needed to.

  “Go, Mera, and continue the fight. Leave my people to me, we are not so fragile that a child needs to come to our aid. Besides, It would hurt my pride to have to accept so much assistance after we failed to notice the blight in our own backyard.”

  Mera closed her eyes.

  “Fine, we’ll just land and drop off your people first. I will be leaving medical and masonry supplies though, and you can’t stop me.”

  Kass had a smile that reached her pointed ears, “aye, that would be welcome. Farewell in your duty, child, and make the snakemen pay for touching our soil.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that. I was going to do that anyway.”

  A loud bark of laughter escaped the giantess, and even as the call ended, Mera could hear the boisterous laugh in her head.

  She’s a weirdo, but a good teacher.

  A determined look plastered itself on Mera’s face as she pulled up her data on the defense network that she built around Torsca.

  I’m not letting any more of you snake bastards touch these people.

  The defense network, a mixture of gravity based weaponry and magnetic accelerator cannons, slowly activated as Mera readied them for the coming threat.

  Hopefully, she thought to herself, it would be enough for what was coming.