After breakfast the mercenaries went to their training hall. Or it was more like Gorshak dragged the rest along.

It was a simple room with some targets in the back.

Gorshak spoke up, “Welcome to our training room. We use hard-light weapons here. Just take one of the handles and customize it.”

Liz asks, “What do you want to test first, this form or my other one?”

“Which one is stronger?”

“The other one.”

“Then start with the other.”

Liz takes one of the handles. She chooses a short and broad blade. Well, it's only short compared to her daemon form.

In her form she now towers over the 2m tall orc. Gorshak had chosen a shield and an ax.

“Let's start.”

He uses his ax to hack at one of her forearms. Liz simply puts her word in the way and secures it by pushing it to the ground. To create and opening she then pushes his ax arm away.

It didn't just create an opening. With a crunch Gorshak's arm goes limp. With her force she had dislocated his shoulder.

Instead of crying out in pain, Gorshak just laughs. “I guess that concludes the test. A bit fast and anticlimactic but efficient. It is quite surprising that not even the best body mods and nanomachine improvements of the orcs can stand up to our strength. Can you help me put my shoulder back?” Liz nods and transforms back into her natural form. “Testing the strength of that form we will have to postpone. I hope that is more reasonable. That way I can train with another strength warrior and don't have to play tag with the speedy spindle.”

“Sure, strength based hacking and slashing won't benefit me in the long run. I need to train my melee capabilities. It will also help should I run into a situation where I can't transform. Like in a tight space. I also got some basic improvements but not much. But only a translator and immune system increases. Many improvements don't work for us mimics.”

“How good are your ranged capabilities?”

“With standard issue rifles about 7 out of 10 shots are hits in weak-spots.”

“Good enough you will mostly don't need it. But still train with a rifle for a bit. I'll leave the rest to Alaron and Urghat.”

Alaron started first. He specializes in keeping the enemy from moving and pushing them around. Then Urghat joined in. She was able to create static electricity and moving air to either crush or suffocate enemies.

Both had little to no effect. As soon as any effect would hit her it flowed around her as if she wasn't there in the first place. Even when Urghat pulled all air away from her she was able to breathe normally.

Alaron grew more and more enthusiastic over time. “Fantastic. I have never heard of psionics and shamanism ignoring a target. Well, first we can say welcome to the team. It is always good to have another vanguard that can push through psionic attacks.

Can you tell me more about the daemon as you call it?”

“Sure.”

Urghat cut in, “Grats on passing the test. I'll be leaving first with the others. After talking with Alaron you have a check up with Vasili. If you are then still motivated call me or Ylaya. I think we are intrigued with Alice's collection.”

Liz nods at Urghat.

“Where do I start? We had some scientists that thought it might be interesting to see what sub-dimensions look like. The way to open gates to completely other dimensions was too hard for them to build or find. They opened a gate to hell as we dubbed it. Out came an endless horde of demons. The legion was of course called to that mad battlefield. We were the ground troops. Together with some elites that were physically focused we held back the hordes while the psionic elites reduced their numbers. After about a week of endless slaughter space ripped apart and the gate closed.

One being had come through at last. The daemon. It simply cut through our elites like a hot knife through butter. I think not even a level 0 Psyker was able to damage it. The hide should be around Alpha grade strength. It was a frenzied being with nothing resembling self-preservation instincts. All of our troops pulled back and they wanted to bombard it or maybe it was to offer the last hit to a son of a noble.

Either way I was able to secure the the kill through either luck or fate. Then I got this form.”

“That is actually very nice. Most nations have only a single level 0 Psyker. But you have to be careful around physical based races. While Alpha grades are rare they aren't that rare.

For one it is good to have a vanguard that can bulldoze through psionics and shamanism. But we can also have some more tests and new tactics with you being basically immune to friendly fire.

We can do that later. Let Lance guide you to Vasili. He wants to do a health check up.”

Lance cuts in. “Get something to eat first. It is about lunch time now. The others have already eaten.”

---

In the mess they get the typical vegetable nutrient soup.

“I'm so happy that you got some meat rations before leaving. While they aren't top-grade they at least make the soup eatable.” Alaron complains.

“Have had worse. Have you ever tasted the emergency bars of the mimics? Those are the grossest thing you can imagine. Sticky but dry and hard. Also taste like shit. But at least they can keep you alive and working. Compared to that the soup is like a gift from heaven.

When we talk later about what to do in the future I think we should propose to have a stasis ward for foodstuff. The biofarm can technically sustain us infinitely but as you said the soup is barely bearable.” Liz suggests while eating.

“Liz, are you finished? Vasili asks when you are coming by.” Lance sounds through the mess.

“I'm coming.”

---

Vasili looked somewhat fanatically at her.

“Don't you already have a wife? And I'm already married you know.”

“Ah sorry I'm just really happy to have another one of you mimics here. The genome of dwarves, elves and orcs is relatively simple to decode. But I have already seen with Alice that your chromosome set is an absolute beauty. So much densely packed information. But that isn't everything.

Somehow your genes are charged with some kind of unknown energy which would make it impossible to clone you. It also makes it impossible to grow artificial organs for you. That is kind of bad but your bodies are able to regenerate all non lethal wounds. If I had to call one race quasi-immortal it would be yours. You aren't even aging.

The difference in the genome to other races makes it sadly impossible to copy certain traits. Biological immortality is still only a dream. But at least we have longer lifespans through nanites and psionics.” Vasili rambles on while trying to pierce her skin.

“Doctor even if you try harder it won't pierce. I don't know if Alice has told you already but when absorbing a form in the way I did, our natural form is granted some buffs. It is about 50% of the advantages the strongest form has over our natural one.

You would need something that is about as strong as half an Alpha grade warrior.”

“Ah sorry I was actually lost in my own world.”

A few minutes later he says, “We are done here for now. I have recorded your basic state. That way I am able to see if anything is out of the norm but will also be able to see what is normal.

I was also able to take some of your blood. I will look at your genes if you allow it.”

“Sure it's not like I loose anything with you doing it. From what I have heard everyone else in the crew has already given you their permissions.

I guess I'll show myself out.” Liz left since Vasili was already deep in his own world.

---

After leaving Gindor finds her on the corridors. “It seems like you have passed the tests. I welcome you officially onboard the 'Nova'. Let me tell you some special conditions of our group.

1. We have a common treasury. It is overlooked by me. If you need to buy anything you can ask me for a payout. If you don't have enough money you can ask another crew-mate to cover for you. You then come to me together. You can also give something to me as collateral.

2. We are not an open crew. Not anyone can join. To get in the member has to be tested and recommended by at least 3 of us. 5 of us banding together can veto it. But once you are in you can't be kicked out without a majority vote of the founding members. But as long as one behaves it should be alright.

3. Gambling and betting is allowed.

4. My inofficial rule: Everything is hared but the spouses.

Those are the most essential rules here. Hey don't look at me like I am a commie dwarf.”

“No I never would you are a commie dwarf with a good intuition.”

“Jokes aside, those are the guidelines we came up as a team. Except for the fourth. I just made it up on the spot. I really find it intriguing how many races think we are commies. We should be knwon as one of the greediest races. But well that's jsut me rambling. Can you tell Alice that the meeting is in 1 hour? I'll tell Vasili myself.”

---

In their room, Liz finds Alice together with Delilah.

“My husband is in a research frenzy again?”

“He sure is. Does he always do that?”

“Most of the time he is. At least when he finds something interesting. That's one of the disadvantages of being married to a genius. But at least he looks very sexy when focused.”

“I know, I know. But Alice also looks very cute when she talks about engineering.”

“I'm still here you know?” Alice interrupts them.

“Ah yes Gindor asked me to tell you that the meeting is in 1 hour. And as you might have already guessed I have passed the test.”

“So they really tested you. I guess they really wanted to test our new system to discourage newcomers and to show them how big the world is.”

“Yeah but I think Gorshak does it rather for his own fun. He really loves fighting. Since our last mission he was only able to fight Ylaya.” Delilah adds.

“He is a warrior with a no bullshit attitude. He cares only about strength... and Garuna.”

“You know I think I cut his fun a bit short. In my other form I was able to dislocate his shoulder with a single swing.”

“Gorshak is a high Alpha grade. Wouldn't that mean that you are a level 0?”

“But only in my other form. In my natural form I'm also Alpha grade now.”

An hour later they assemble in the mess. Gindor starts again, “I'd say you've had enough time to think about it. What are your plans and wishes for the future.”

Alice starts, “I think we should move away from here. Me and Liz can't or don't want to return to the Empire.

I would welcome exploring space. Seeing new worlds.” She almost drools. “And new technology.”

Gorshak continues, “If you drool on the table you have to clean it yourself. I am also not averse to traveling to new worlds. Finding new species to fight and getting new trophies.

While it might be a possibility to return to our tribes, it would have consequences that I'd rather not take on. Not only would we be mostly stripped of our ranks but also executed for having lost an entire expedition of good warriors.”

Garuna nods in agreement.

Ylaya also doesn't want to return home. In the God's Dictatorship, yes they really named it that, she was a simple bodyguard for Alaron. With his help she had been able to shake off the brainwashing of her nation. She was now a free elf and didn't want to waste it. Urghat is more of a warrior type o she agrees with Gorshak. Being able to stay with Ylaya also swayed her decision.

Alaron just wants to learn new knowledge. He also welcomes the decision. He also brings forth the idea to have a stasis chamber with meat. Having animals for their meat on a ship isn't efficient.

Vasili wants to decipher every secret of nature. He wants to find the purpose and goal of life. He doesn't have to be asked twice when given the possibility to discover more.

Delilah wants to stay with Vasili but wants to visit their home-world first. They had traveled her in stasis by accident. She wants to see how far mankind had progressed. She is a bit more interested in culture and habits of people. Her job of gathering information coincides with her interests.

Albert and Amy also declare their interests. Their republic had never sent out for them neither had they heard anything from it.

Gindor then concludes, “So we will go on a travel into the unknown depths of space. But before that we will stock up some meat on the station. Delilah can you build us the chamber? Use one of the empty storages for it. We should have more than enough energy with our new generator.

We also have two other things to do before going on our journey. First we visit our dwarven friends. While we no longer serve our republic, I still have some contacts. We will get some good alcohol on board. Liz, since you are the only one who hasn't experienced it yet. Expect a treat.” All the other crew-members nod. “Then we will go to the home-world of Delilah and Vasili. Sounds like a plan?”

The other 11 all state their approval.