Erisa walked down the corridor. She was trying not to think about her last conversation with Megumi the ship’s AI. Not that it was easy. She felt so violated, and so tiny. It was also a bit irritating to think that she had an alien device embedded in her spine. One that was actively transmitting a whole slew of data and worse could render her docile in a moment. Something she had experienced not all that long ago. Just before the ship gave her a task. Something so simple a child could do it. Erisa wasn’t sure how she felt about being an errand girl, but she wanted to avoid getting on that AI’s bad side.

As for what Megumi wanted her to do. It was simple really. She idly fingered the crystal chip in her pouch. A small little something she wore on her hip. That crystal was part of her task, and she found herself thinking back to that. Megumi had told Erisa that she was to deliver it to the head researcher, but under no circumstance was she to attempt to leave the confines of the ship herself. That part had her worried a bit, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. Not with an alien implant lodged in her spine. Somehow she had a feeling she was going to be stuck with it for a long time. 

Pushing that thought aside, she thought about the alien crystal in her pouch. The ship said that it expected her people’s scientists to take about six months to decode it and devise a proper interface. The data within would then fuel research projects for at least five years that would accelerate her people’s development by decades. It would give them shields, armor, and weapons that would allow their ships to compete evenly with Neku equivalents. If that was true, and she fervently hoped it was then this little chip was the most valuable artifact she had ever had the honor of holding. It could turn the tide of the war. Although now that she had seen the ship in action, she felt this ancient wreck could do that as well, but it was only one ship. As powerful as it was it could not be everywhere at once. Not to mention she had no desire to rely on something they could not control. Besides, it already demonstrated that it could not be trusted. The implant in her spine, and what it had done to Melia, tricking her like that, were ample examples. What it had done to Melia bothered her the most. The cute scientist was the one who made being out here bearable, and now she was nothing more than a slave. Erisa thought her a fool to sign away her free will for knowledge like that, but she blamed the AI for that as well. 

Erisa knew how much Melia loved to learn things, and she knew just how tempting the ship’s database would have been to her. She could picture in her mind, how the ship used that as bait. Lured her in, and glossed over the whole no free will thing. Even Melia had not admitted to that happening, she was sure that was what happened. Not that it helped much, but Erisa swore to herself that she would find a way to get the implant out of herself, and free Melia from her enslavement to the computer. It was something she had to do for herself. Not that she fully realized how self-serving that desire truly was. Then again she wasn’t fully aware of why she was so mad at Melia for signing her will away. 

She rounded a corner, and made for a lift. It would take her the rest of the way to her destination. Soon she would be able to hand off the crystal chip, and then could head back. While she didn’t know how to save either herself or Melia, the young Erali fully intended to do her best to keep Melia out of trouble.

Meanwhile, Megumi was processing the data from her initial biometric assessment of her prisoners. After the first couple of ships were captured the rest of the fleet fell in short order. A good number surrendered outright, a few kept up a pointless fight and were captured anyway. There were however a few ships that had chosen death and self-destructed. It was a waste of life, but a choice Megumi could respect. There were those that would prefer death over being captured, and apparently, the crews of those particular ships were that type.

With the battle over, she had been focusing mainly on processing the data coming in from her ongoing interrogations and analyses. One prisoner, in particular, had caught her attention though. A young captain, who seemed to be quite intelligent. She was also a prime specimen. There was a great deal of potential with that one. A potential she may never have realized given what had been done to her. What had been done to all of them.

Megumi finally had the evidence to prove her theory. Someone was pulling the strings of the Neku alright. Whoever they were, they had a reasonable understanding of the mind, and had some skill with mind control. Almost all of the Neku she had captured showed signs of having been conditioned using techniques that Megumi found primitive. Although they were rather sophisticated by the standards of the Neku and the Erali. She doubted a Neku could have developed the techniques, not on their own. Not that it mattered, the fact that they were being brainwashed in this fashion was intriguing enough, and worth investigating. 

She had already extracted what she could from them, but the crews knew little about who was pulling their strings. She did learn that a new species had recently shown up on the Neku homeworld. Something the Erali had no knowledge of. That was also worth investigating. She would need to acquire a specimen or two. Carefully though, she didn’t want to alarm her targets unnecessarily. Thankfully the perfect tools had fallen right into her lap for that in the form of several thousand Neku prisoners. Enough prisoners to replace her long-lost crew in fact. Well not completely. Seven thousand four hundred and fifty-nine Neku might have been enough to man the significantly smaller Neku ships, but she was a Battleship roughly twelve kilometers long. Designed for not only a large crew but to carry an army of shock troops. She could easily transport a few hundred thousand troops and a crew in the low tens of thousands.

In any case, it was time she got started. As they were, the Neku prisoners were useless to her. However, the Soleans were masters of bio-mechanical technology and had a sophisticated understanding of the mind. Factors that had played well into how they had maintained their vast empire. Only one race had surpassed them in biotechnology, and that was the Darkations. The ruthless parasites that she was fighting before she was disabled. A race whose disappearance was yet another mystery for her to solve, but she had no clues to start on with that. Not yet anyway, but she knew it would only be a matter of time before she found a lead. At that moment she noticed that the prime specimen she had her eye on had finally woken up. The only specimen she had given a private cell, in fact.

A young woman woke groggily. Her body felt weird almost as if someone was stabbing every inch of her skin with needles. Worse she had a killer headache and could barely think. At first, she had no idea where she was, her surroundings didn’t even register with her. For a moment she had even forgotten that she was a Neku, and what she looked like.

It took her aching lethargic mind a good several minutes or so to start working again. As the pain faded, she began to take a look around. The room she was in looked to be a cell of some sort. However, she could see no exit, where she would have expected to find a force field, there was only a solid-looking wall. Beneath her, she could feel the warm, and smooth surface of a polished metal shelf that was anchored a meter off the floor. Apparently she had been on it long enough for the metal surface to grow warm. More disturbing though was the fact that she was nude. Her clothing was gone.

The young woman was understandably quite confused, as it took her lethargic mind a good while to take in her surroundings. It took a while longer for them to fully register, and it was several moments after that when she finally remembered what happened to her. How she had been on the bridge, the power had failed. Some kind of drone was shooting her officers, and she had tried to make a break for it. That was where her memory ended, trying to run for the hatch. She didn’t remember anything after that. The young woman did not recall making it to the hatch, either.

Once her memory reconnected it took her only moments to conclude that she had been stunned and captured. Her captors had apparently confiscated her clothing. Not that she knew why. She took another look around the room, and that is when she noted a pair of indents in the walls. One on her left, and the other on her right. Feeling the need to do something, she decided to investigate her tiny cell. As the cell wasn’t very large, barely five square meters if she had to guess, probably less. The shelf she had been lying on took up half the room. Honestly, the young Neku felt like someone had stuffed her in a closet. The cell was about the size of one afterall. Not the smallest closet she had seen, but it was still fairly small.

It took only a couple of steps to reach the indent on the left, and she quickly noticed that it seemed oddly door-shaped. Near it, about where a control panel might have been placed on her ship, she found a smaller circular indentation. Curious she fingered it, and to her shock a door slid up into the ceiling. Revealing another room, less than half the size of this one. This one was clearly a restroom. With barely enough space for the single alien toilet and an odd sink. Placed above the sink was a mirror, reflecting her nude form standing in the doorway.

She took a moment to look herself over in the mirror. Her hair was a little messy, but she didn’t see any new marks on her skin. As Neku went, she was on the short side at 147 cm, but she had a good figure. She was lithe and agile with a sleek frame. That honestly made her mounds look just a little bigger than they actually were. Most people said she was quite cute, but didn’t strike the most imposing figure. Honestly, she had to agree with them, especially seeing her nude form in the mirror. Without a uniform to help, all someone would see was a cute and nude felinoid. She had a nice tail sticking out from her butt with a rare jet black coloring. Like most females, she had no fur on her body below the neck with the exception of the tail. Cascading loosely down her back was her messy jet black hair, and a cute pair of jet-black triangular ears sprouted from her head. 

Her face was quite cute with a small button nose, a few long whiskers, a rounded shape, and a striking pair of eyes. The iris was mainly red and shot through with gold with a large vertical pupil. Poking slightly out from under her upper lip was a cute little fang. It was a mark of her race’s predatory past, like the retractable claws she had in her hands and feet. Her limbs were also built so that she could run on all fours if she needed to, but normally she only walked on her legs. 

Shifting in the mirror, she checked out her backside, and that is where she found something new. A perfect red circle that stood out against her creamy skin. It was quite visible and drew the eye to her back, and it was just centimeters above her tail. She had no idea why it was there, but her captors had marked her in some fashion. She fingered the spot, but it didn’t feel weird. Not that the young Neku knew what to make of it.

With no way to answer why it was there, she dropped it, and checked out the odd sink. It did not take her long to figure out how to turn it on, and it immediately flooded with an odd light that made her skin tingle. It was weird, but when she removed her hand she found it perfectly clean. 

Starting to get curious about the other indent, she left the bathroom. She figured this one might be the exit, and if that was the case it was likely locked. The first one was clearly part of the cell, and there was no reason to lock her out of the bathroom. The young woman decided not to check the toilet out, and it wasn’t like she needed to use it yet either.

To her surprise, the other door slid open the same way after she found the control. It was in the same relative position making it easy to find. Revealed to her was another small room the same size as that tiny bathroom. The only thing in there was a small table, and a chair. It had the same metal walls as everywhere else. It made her wonder where the exit was though.

She settled heavily into the chair. By now she was feeling normal again, if somewhat famished. In fact she was wondering about more than just the exit, but also about mealtime. Her lack of clothing was also an issue, but the chamber was perfectly comfortable. The cell had such a perfect balance of conditions that she hardly noticed. Behind her, she heard a cheery voice, “Good Morning Princess! Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

She looked behind her to see a winged woman standing in the doorway. A young woman she had never even seen enter, nor had she seen her species before. Although she had seen depictions of similar entities. Legendary figures with supposedly magical abilities that ruled the stars. The woman before her perfectly resembled a precursor, specifically the most powerful race of precursors; The Starlords. Up close she could even see the resemblance they shared with dragons when such beings deigned to take a more humanoid form. Although she lacked the tail, and her wings were larger, but she looked just as young as every humanoid dragon she had seen depicted. Maybe a little younger. For some reason, immortals always looked like children or young teens.

While confused to see her there, this seemed like a perfect chance. With barely any thought she leaped from her chair trying to tackle the woman. The next thing she knew, she had slammed into the floor and looked up to see the alien female giggling. “Well princess, are you done being stupid?”

She looked up at the alien utterly confused. The young woman didn’t even realize she was muttering until the alien crouched, looked her in the eye, and told her, “The reason that attack didn’t connect is because I am not physically here. I”m Megumi, the ship’s AI, and this is just a holographic avatar. I used to have a physical one, but I lost it. I’m making a new one though.”

“You’re a hologram?”

“Yes, princess. Now you never did answer. Are you hungry? Thirsty?”

She sighed, it seemed the perfect chance to escape didn’t just miraculously show itself. With a thought, she reached forward, and watched as her hand went right through the other woman. Megumi really was a hologram. As she pulled herself off the floor, the young woman finally said, “Could you please stop calling me princess? I have a name, it’s Kiru.”

“Noted, Kiru.”

Now on her feet, she made for the open door, and finally answered, “I am feeling a little hungry.”

“I figured it was about time for that Kiru. I’ll have something prepared right away. It should not take long, and in the meantime, we can discuss your future.”

Kiru did not like the sound of that. Not that there was anything she could do about it.