Melia looked around confused. The last thing she remembered was sitting down in a chair. Only for the chair to attack her. A forcefield had sprung up separating her from her friend, Erisa. Then some arm came out of nowhere and pressed against her neck. That was the last thing she remembered seeing, then there was darkness.

The all-encompassing black had faded away to reveal a calming meadow. Lovely, healthy, but alien grasses extended as far as the eye could see. Vibrant flowers bloomed here and there adding color while a gentle breeze blew in from the west and caressed her bare skin. The sun was just right, with a couple of white clouds drifting lazily above her. Not far from her was a massive fruit tree bearing a red-skinned alien fruit. The tree was beautiful and sturdy, its branches providing a large shady area out of the sun.

Looking around she found that she was alone. Other than the tree, and a nice smooth rock in the sun, there was nothing but grass for miles. She sighed and headed for the rock to her left. Melia had no idea how she got here. She figured she would rest on the rock, and try to figure it out.

The rock proved to be quite comfortable and relaxing. She sprawled herself out on it, and enjoyed the mild sun for a while. All the while her mind was trying to work out how she got here, and what happened to her. She jumped when suddenly a distinctly female voice spoke up. Melia looked towards the voice and saw an alien figure standing near her. A naked alien figure, that was a little shorter than her. She stood maybe a hundred and thirty centimeters tall. She was bipedal with large wings stretching from her back. Scales coated her arms and legs in a spiral pattern. Her wings were also covered with scale feathers, and colored with gold and silver. Thinner scales coated her underboobs and stomach, yet her small pink nipples were quite visible. She had a modest bust and a toned figure. The young-looking alien had a very cute round face with large and lovely golden eyes. Her hair was a gleaming silver that fell halfway down her back and framed her lovely cute face.

The alien gave her a very cute smile, giggled, “If you are done staring, perhaps you could introduce yourself. My name is Megumi, and you are?”

She sat up straight, and changed her posture. “Melia Resiha. I have some questions like where is this? How did I get here, and what are you?”

A chair suddenly appeared and Megumi settled into it. “Well to start, you are actually still aboard the Constellation sitting in a chair. This is the mindscape. That chair linked you to me. As for what I am. I am a Solean AI, and the primary AI of the Solean Imperial Battleship Constellation.”

She looked around and then catching what she said realized that the chair must have had a neural interface of some kind. In other words, she was talking with a computer directly. The implications were staggering. Direct mind-to-computer interfaces were beyond the Erali, and no one they knew of had that kind of tech either. Maybe the elder races, but they tended to be rather secretive. Then there was the fact that she was talking with an AI. “I’m guessing you designed this space to be comfortable?”

Megumi nodded, “I did. We have a few things to discuss, and it’s far quicker to discuss them here.”

Suddenly, a pen and a thick booklet appeared next to her. She glanced at it, and then looked at the AI questionably, “What is this?”

“A contract. I am offering you a captaincy of sorts. Normally that would be done from a position of equality. Where ship and captain are full partners, but seeing as you are untrained, and unfamiliar that won’t work. I have adapted the terms to fit the situation. You will only be in charge of the sentients onboard.”

She started reading it, and after a couple of pages, she asked, “Why should I agree to this?”

Megumi leaned forward menacingly, “I don’t have to offer you anything, but we are in a position to help each other. Your people, the Erali, are at war with another race called the Neku. Although some of the history there is suspicious. I suspect some interference from a third party.”

She blinked, “Wait!? History? How do you know the history behind the war?”

Megumi gave her an ‘are you stupid look,’ and said, “Easy. I have a direct neural connection with you. I have full access to your memories, right now. Don’t give me that look. I avoided anything private. I can help with that war though. Given that the Neku used to be behind you in tech and not so aggressive in expansion. I am almost certain a third party orchestrated their rise to power and subsequent expansionist phase. That means someone is messing with the balance of power in this region of the galaxy. Something that warrants investigation. I can do that, and more. I could save your race from being conquered.”

That sounded all nice, but she had been reading the contract. She already knew what she would be giving up. Along with the side effects of what Megumi was offering her. She would be fully linked with the ship, an extension of the ship. Her will would be the ship’s will. If she accepted, she would be captain, but only in name. The ship would be her master, not the other way around. Then she noticed the part where she would have full access to the ship’s database. There were restrictions on her ability to share what she learned, but the very prospect of being able to read the ship’s database was very attractive to her. Her desire to learn was strong.

Maybe it was foolish, but without even finishing reading the contract. She grabbed the pen and signed it. It was an impulse, but then again many life-changing decisions were made on impulse. It never occurred to her what she was signing up for. If she had maybe she would have had second thoughts.

Megumi’s avatar smiled happily, jumped out of her chair and pulled her into an embrace. She said something, but Melia never caught it. She enjoyed the simple contact, and a moment later the world went black again. This time, it was Megumi putting her to sleep. In preparation for a simple procedure, one that was outlined in the contract, but she never read.

She stretched and groggily came back from the darkness. It took her a moment to refocus, and when she looked around she saw several concerned faces. Her friend Erisa was still here, but she had been joined by a couple of doctors and a few scientists. They were arguing, which gave her a moment to recenter herself. It took her only moments, to realize that she was aware of more than what her eyes and ears were telling her.

Then she realized that she knew everything about the ship, including how to fix it. How to restore minimal systems. It was all very simple, she merely had to restore a single ARU matrix, and the ship would do the rest. There was a matrix core just two decks above her position and two hundred meters aft that was in fair condition. The core itself was lightly damaged. The matrix had been disabled by a bioplasma bolt punching through the hull and severing the core from the power grid. There were three main leads into the core, and she merely had to restore one of them for it to function.  

There were other decisions to make as well. Such as priority for restoring systems. They did not have long to get the ship functioning. Thankfully that wasn’t her concern. The only thing she had to worry about was bringing the ARU back online. Well, that and assuring her friends she was fine. She didn’t want to be locked in a medical bay for observation. 

Just then, the others noticed she was awake. Erisa was the first to speak and asked her how she was feeling. She sighed and started with two words, saying that she was fine.

While Melia was trying to talk her way out of the auxiliary bridge she was in. Megumi was considering her options in case she failed. Internal security options were limited, but she had a few options. She had a number of drones she had recovered from a science ship’s wreck a few days before that fateful battle at Sataro Prime. They were designed for capturing specimens for research. They had a light pulse weapon that fired a low yield charged particle bolt. The yield was variable, and if set high enough could kill. Its main purpose was to incapacitate the targeted creature. Once incapacitated, the drone would tag the creature before transporting it to a science vessel. Typically the creature would be returned to its environment after a brief study.

She also had a few standard security drones, but they lacked the ability to tag a specimen. The science drones would be preferred in this scenario. The tags were designed to monitor every aspect of the specimen they tagged. She knew little of the Erali, and while the nanites had taught her some things about them, she wanted to know more. Getting a few of them into a medical bay would be quite informative. The tags would even let her keep an eye on them afterward.

Honestly, the drone idea was her last resort. She did not feel it would be needed. If talking did not work, she figured that isolating the others from Melia with forcefields would be the best choice. It would give her a great deal of control, and there was no risk of harm for either party. She could find a way to get a few Erali specimens into her medical lab at any time. No reason to rush, she was in no hurry. Honestly, she was more intrigued by what she had learned about the Neku. She wanted to know who was pulling their strings and why. It was clear from Melia’s memories that someone was trying to alter the balance of power here, but they were doing it from the shadows. Clearly, they did not want to draw attention to themselves.

Thankfully the problem resolved itself without her having to do anything. One of the doctors had a scanner, and said, “Other than trace amounts of a sedative, I’m not detecting anything. I’d still like you to come by sickbay for a check up, but it seems that you are fine.”

Megumi wasn’t surprised the scanner failed to pick up the nanites. They were designed with a simple mimetic cloaking device. They mimicked the natural cells in the host body to escape detection from the immune system. This had the benefit of also disguising their presence from weaker scanners. His scanner was simply not powerful enough to distinguish them. As for the implant the girl now had, the bio tech was rather hard to isolate with such a primitive scanner. That was actually intentional. They needed to protect their secrets afterall. However even if he did find it, there was no easy way to remove it. Megumi could do it, but she doubted that the Erali could.

Melia smiled, “I’ll stop by later. There is something I want to check out first.”

The doctor nodded, and left with his colleague. Erisa gave her a look, and followed her out of the room. The forcefield didn’t even stop her, seeing as Megumi had turned it off after she was done. Melia had woken up before they even noticed that she was no longer isolated in a forcefield. Erisa padded along after her, and Megumi got the impression she didn’t believe Melia. Even if the two doctors did. The scientists stayed around to start studying the chair. They never made their opinion known.