While the guests of the Celestial Sanctuary are sleeping, many happenings are ongoing in the background the moment after they had arrived earlier. The two trusted crew of this Orbital Assault Ship made haste to their respective assigned stations to complete the task given to them by their mistress.
The ship chief science & arcane officer goes to work immediately upon reaching the science & arcane deck. Logging into the work terminal revealed his full name, where the work terminal computer identified his name as Alfred Skystrider before granting him access to all the equipment & instruments to be used.
At the same moment, Mr. Skystrider received a text message transmission from the medical deck where the internal communications systems reveal the sender is none other than Pixar, who had been instructed to look after a patient which is now being treated in the medical bay.
She had made a request that both of them sync their work so that they could understand the medical case better attend to the patient, he agreed to her request & she begins transmitting the medical data obtained from the medical scans on the patient, who is Dixon.
Both of them started working hand in hand, checking & comparing the data acquired from their respective samples. While Pixar has Dixon as the source of her samples, Skystrider uses one of the energy orbs provided by Queenie, which are the crystallised energy collected from Dixon when they went on a rampage in his body as the sample for his study & analysis.
“Interesting.”
Pixar remarked in her thoughts as she goes through the data she got from the medical instruments. She finds that Dixon’s corporal & astral profile to be a very rare one much to her curiosity.
Engrossing with her work, she did not realise the soft tap of her left shoulder. She turned to see who is the one who did it, just to find that it is her mistress, Queenie, who is also known as Cosmos is here. Standing beside her mistress is a man who is about her age, which is Larson who is known as Omega.
“Mistress.” Pixar greeted her with a slight bow.
Queenie however put her right index finger at her lips, signalling her attendant to be silent to allow Dixon the much needed rest that he needs after all the ordeals he had for the day. Standing further away from them a little are the De la Croix couple who is also there to check on the person they regard as a son of their own.
Pixar moved away from the bed which Dixon is sleeping, allowing her mistress & her family members to come & take a look at the young human man which they will be adopting as part of their family soon.
Events such as this are not a strange thing to her, as sentient beings with a long life span such as her will adopt wards who they find to have certain connections with. The people whom she serves are people who wielded great power & influences in the realms whom they are associated with.
It is a common practise to date that many high profiles individuals such as her mistress & her family members to be secretive on the identity of the ward which they had adopted. Many who wanted to associate with them for devious reason is a constant matter they have to be aware of.
That is why such secrecy is being maintained for the safety & well being of those who they had regarded as their own children. Furthermore in the realms which are under the domain of trust of the Realm, Passage & Gate Foundation, there are laws & regulation which protects those adopted wards.
The group of visitors stayed around Dixon for a while, checking on his current condition after he was admitted to the medical deck of the Celestial Sanctuary. Mason checked the vital readings from the machine which is monitoring the young man while Pauline stroked his hair while looking at his sleeping face which shows an improved condition before they brought him to the ship earlier.
“Pauline, it is time.” Her husband called her.
“Yeah, I know.”
Pauline places the crystal that she took earlier from their home before boarding her sister’s ship. The object glows & projected a figure which is no other than Gwynne, the AI which is looking after the indoor court in near their home on Earth.
“Gwynne, look after your uncle to be. Alert us the moment he wakes up.” She orders the AI.
“Yes mistress.”
All of them, including Pixar left Dixon & Gwynne for the meeting in the ship’s wardroom. Using the internal transports that are present in the ship, the journey takes a short time through the massive hull of the vessel.
Although all of them in their group are able to teleport, they choose not to do so as it is something that they do should the need arises such as emergencies like enemy boarding action or accidents.
After some time travelling, all of them reached the wardroom of the ship where the commanding officer, Captain McDonald, his science & arcane officer, Mr. Skystrider & the commander of the Celestial Knights, Lord Applegate has been waiting for them.
“Mistress, what do you have for us with such secrecy?” The skipper of her ship asks.
“A great house of the core worlds will be adopting a ward captain.” She replied.
“Aye, so as I thought so from what I could piece from all the pieces placed upon me.”
“Good, I trust that all arrangements are on the way.”
“It is as we speak now milady.”
“Well done captain, carry on as you see fit.”
“Worry not, it shall be done in time.”
“Lord Applegate, I will have to trouble you & a party of knights to invite the close kin of the ward to be present in our ship.”
“Your wish is my command milady. I shall see to it as you requires.”
“Excellent, Great Master I hope see their arrival as soon as possible. Pixar, would you be kind to tell us what have you discover of our patient together with Mr. Skystrider.”
“Right away mistress.”
Pushing a panel at the table of the wardroom, a display appeared showing the data related to Dixon, which have been compiled from the energy samples collected from him when he is afflicted by energy rampage & the medical treatment performed on him when he is being admitted for injuries caused by energy rampage.
While both officers of the ship who are tasked to examine Dixon presented their findings on the young adult along with the audience giving full attention to every detail discovered about him, something else is happening in the medical deck of the ship which goes undetected by the sensors of the ship.
Gwynne, who is looking after Dixon started to feel drowsy a phenomena which is not suppose to happen to a construct of an artificial intelligence. At the same time, Dixon who is sleeping started to dream.
The AI tried hard to stay awake only to find that her eyes are getting heavier with every passing moment in the medical deck. While the construct is fighting the abnormality which it is experiencing at the moment, Dixon found that he is now in a cave, which is shrouded in mist.
Thinking that he is now trapped in a place, Dixon started walking around the area in his attempt to find an escape route to flee from the location which is had perceived to be dangerous to his life.
Gwynne by now finds that she is unable to resist the power which compels her to sleep & she soon succumbs to it after putting much effort to resist its call for a slumber. The moment she closes her eyes, she immediately finds herself be in the same cave like Dixon.
Gwynne too, begins to explore the place she is now in to have a better understanding of the situation that she is in now. After some time wandering around, she soon comes upon a junction in the caves where one goes left while the other goes right. There she stopped for a while to make a choice of which path to take in the caves.
While Gwynne is thinking of which path to choose at the junction, she hears footsteps coming from the left passage of the cave. Not knowing if it is friend or foe, she readied herself for all the possibilities ahead of her in advance. Conjuring an energy ball at her right hand, Gwynne gets into a stance for a shot put.
The AI waited with for the approaching footsteps, which is getting louder every moment & upon seeing a figure shrouded in fog which is emerging from the left entrance of the passageway, she throws the energy ball at it without hesitation with the intention to hurt first, check later.
The energy ball hits at its intended target where it hurt the most, furthermore on contact, the projectile exploded to release a long bang & a bright flash at the person who is emerging from the left passageway in the cave.
“Bullseye!” Gwynne exclaimed upon hitting her target.
“Ouch! My eyes! My ears!”
A familiar voice can be heard shouting after the energy ball has done its deed as the user intended. Gwynne is shocked upon hearing those screams of agony, as it is a familiar voice which she is recently acquainted of. As the fog cleared, she froze in terror upon realising the identity of the person she had just attacked.
“Oh shit…” She muttered in sheer horror with what she had done.
