Vivien slid through the Shahrat’s active systems, watching the survivors and noting their actions, their conversations, and their health. There was only so much she was able to do as an AI. The Alfar frames were generally only able to work in the hangars or larger hallways. She needed to be able to trust them to do the work that she couldn’t, and at the moment they seemed to be doing so adequately (if more slowly than she liked). 

She pulled back to the draugr machine she now inhabited as her primary body. Its form had altered itself somewhat; while it had always been sleek there was a distinctly feminine bent to its quadrupedal frame now, with curved armor plating and an angled band of cameras on the cranial unit where it had once been only shaped for its utility and deflection. It was her body, after all. Within its torso she briefly spun up its Sleipnir drive and created a small fissure in realspace over its right hand, a small test to steady her nerves. If the humans could not manage for some reason she would still be able to leave. 

Sophia stepped into the hangar and flicked on the lights. “Viv, are you the–”

“I am here. Yes, Sophia,” said Vivient through a set of speakers positioned where the Einherjar’s mouth would be. 

“What is that?” she asked, setting down the coils of spare wiring she’d brought with her.

Vivien closed her hand over the fissure, closing it. “I was testing the drive within this machine. It seems capable of finer manipulation than I had expected.” 

“Oh, uh… For a second there I thought you might be leaving without us,” Sophia laughed. Vivien noted her elevated heart rate. 

“I would not leave you. You have been instrumental to my continued survival,” said Vivien.

Sophia grimaced. “That’s not exactly reassuring, Viv.”

The head of Vivien’s Einherjar body cocked to one side. “Why not? I am clearly capable of leaving you all stranded here, but I have not.” 

“Gotta work on your people skills,” said Sophia with a sigh. 

“Perhaps, but there are more pressing matters. The Shahrat’s schematics indicate the majority of escape pods were near the bridge and engines, two sections of the ship that are missing. If all of you are to escape this place with me, you will need to find another suitable option,” said Vivien. 

Sophia grimaced. “What about the void to surface ships used to get that thing on here? They’re void ready.”

“The shuttles I am aware of were damaged by the draugr’s rampage through this vessel. If you wish to check on them, we would need to divert power to the other bays. Or, you would need to go there yourself,” said Vivien. 

“You’re in an Einherjar, can’t you just check? You could walk out of this hangar and–” Sophia stopped as she realized what she was saying. “Would you be willing to check?” 

“I could, yes. Though it seems you do not trust me,” said Vivien. 

Sophia sighed. “It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that you keep saying that you could leave. Or, like, when you said that if you had been the one to commandeer the vessel that we'd all be dead instead of most of us.” She gesticulated, trying to get her point across. “Those kinds of statements don't inspire confidence.”

“And why not? I have only offered what I would have done had I not cared for the crew.” Vivien stepped closer, her body's quartet of legs moving in graceful unison before she leaned down. “Besides, my pilot would not appreciate me not attempting to save you.”

“You've mentioned her before. I'll have to thank her when we get out of this,” said Sophia.

“I am certain that she would like that.” Vivien pulled herself back up straight. “Please return to the corridor so that I may exit the vessel.”

Sophia nodded and picked up the wiring. “Keep in touch,” she said before leaving the hangar.

Once the door was shut Vivien walked over to the hangar airlock.

______

Ben adjusted himself in his seat. The remaining nurse had found him a low-tech prosthetic, and Bruno had helped attach it to his stump. It helped a lot, but it still hurt to put weight on it. This wasn't at all where he thought he'd be at this point in his life. He was meant to be important, not some poor bastard crippled and stuck in Nastrond. 

Ben scoffed and shook his head. “I suppose it is at least a novel predicament to be in.”

Across from him was Bruno. Much of his body was still covered in bandages. Still clean too, as they'd been changed a few hours ago. He looked up. “That would be correct. Didn't exactly expect this when I got assigned to this job.”

“You’re a recent hire?” asked Ben.

Bruno groaned. “I'm not that new, I’ve worked for Necker for nearly a decade. It’s just this was meant to be my first off-planet job.”

“Tch, guess you’re my senior then,” Ben sighed as he leaned back.

Bruno laughed then winced. “And you’ve been here how long? You look like you’re still a teen.”

“I’m twenty-five… And you probably look like jerky under those bandages,” said Ben.

Bruno took a breath from his oxygen. “Jackass.”

______

Vivien floated in space, the Shahrat only a dozen feet or so away from her. The Einherjar she resided in continued to surprise her in how well it performed, the booster system capable of smaller adjustments that allowed ease of movement even while weightless. She turned her body around, then steadied herself as she looked out toward the inner regions of Nastrond. It was composed of several planets that rotated around what looked like a red giant; or, rather, the husk of one. It had the vague shape of a crimson orb that  looked remarkably like the skeleton of a pufferfish. On the planets her cameras could focus on, she saw clear signs of habitation, the dim lights of cities that covered their surfaces like spiderwebs. It was unsettling.

“It look alright out there?” Asked Sophia.

“I am unsure on how to answer that. It looks like a dead star system.”

“Not a big surprise. That vessel came out of here so it only makes sense that there would be something in there. Can you relay visuals?”

“I can, yes,” said Vivien, panning her camera banks over the scene.

“Fuck me…  That's, that’s what happened to that star?”

“Beyond it having likely been a standard red giant before whatever caused its current state, I cannot tell, and you don't have the luxury of time that it would take to find out.”

“Yeah, it's not exactly the right situation for advancing our knowledge. At least not while the air quality keeps degrading here.”

Vivien didn't respond and instead began to make her way toward the bow of the Shahrat. There was minimal external damage save for the section where the eitr reactors had ruptured. Trails of rainbow hung in the void around the hole in the hull. Its vibrant colors clashed with the crimson and black of the system and the dull grey of the Shahrat. She drifted past, avoiding any of the still active eitr as she did. After a few more moments Vivien came to a stop, her vision locked on where the bridge had once been. The metal had been sheared off cleanly, the smooth edges given a sheen of rainbow. 

“I don't see any escape pods…” mumbled Sophia.

“There are still those that were stored in the aft to check on.”

“I'm not particularly optimistic.”

Vivien turned and fired her boosters, sailing over the Shahrat's carcass. She banked to avoid the ruptured reactor then righted as she passed over the hangar she had come from. Should there not be any escape pods it would mean that the damaged shuttles would need to be made void ready, and even if that was a possibility there may not be enough time to do so. She slowed herself to a stop after she'd just shot past the aft end of the Shahrat. 

“Do you see anything, Viv?” Asked Sophia.

“There's half of one,” said Vivien, pointing to the bisected pod as it slowly drifted from the Shahrat.

“Damnit…” Sophia audibly thumped against a nearby wall then slid down it. “That leaves us in a dire situation.”

“It does.” Vivien opened the torso of her body, revealing a round cavity as the air inside rushed out into the void. “The cockpit of this machine could house three of the smaller of your number.” She closed it again. “It is void sealed.”

“That would leave the others here to die.”

“Correct.” Sophia stifled a cry. “If it comes to it you would be among those three,” Vivien paused.

The moment stretched on, neither of them speaking.

 “Sophia? I did not mean–”

Sophia cut the connection between them. 

Vivien drifted as she attempted to reconnect to Sophia, then kicked her boosters back on to return to the hangar and get back in range. As she neared the external doors to the hangar the sensor array within her body lit up. She cut her forward thrust and fired an opposing set to bring herself to a stop, as in the inky darkness of space a thin crimson line appeared then opened into an oval. 

“Glamr. We did not expect you to return to us so soon,” said a voice in her mind itself more than through the communications suite in her body.

From the tear in reality an Einherjar emerged. It had four slender arms that attached to an oblong torso with a myriad of mechanical tendrils acting as its legs. The machine’s head appeared to be an ink black dome with a single point of crimson inside that moved like an eye would. Upon its back rested multiple sets of weapons both projectile and close combat attached by smaller dedicated limbs.

“Have you been damaged?” asked the voice.

Vivien nodded, unsure of what to do. Her Sleipnir drive spun up inside her, almost instinctively.

The single point of crimson that was the other’s eye flared. “What are you doing?”

She couldn’t talk to these things. They’d take her again, put her in another cask or worse. With a single motion she pulled her legs up and swiped at the empty space… Then fired her thrusters. For a brief moment she was outside reality, not just within the Ginnungagap, but separate even from that, before emerging behind the Draugr. Her four legs spread like a cross, and the boosters atop them fired, allowing her to slow long enough to grab a pair of the other machine’s stowed weapons. The weapons seamlessly integrated with her body.

“You are not Glamr.” said the Draugr, its arms each grabbing a different weapon as it spun to face Vivien. 

Vivien leveled one of the weapons she’d taken, a long barreled eitr rifle. “I am not, correct.” Then she fired, the beam of crimson flashing brightly against the darkness of Nastrond as the Draugr moved to evade, only losing the end of a tentacle. She could feel it trying to dig into her mind, but her vessel acted as armor, it held fast against the clawing rage of the draugr. 

______

Ben tapped on the top of his prosthetic. “Thing’s so damn itchy.”

“Will you stop complaining so much?” groaned Bruno. 

“Maybe I will when we’re off this damn wreck,” Ben leaned forward. “Air tastes like shit, mind if I get a hit of that?”

“It’s oxygen, not a drug.” Bruno moved the mask from his face and offered it over to Ben.

Ben took a deep breath. “A little tinny, but better than what’s just floating around.”

Bruno shook his head. “A connoisseur?”

Before Ben could answer, the nurse stepped into the room. “Just here to check up on you two. I know he’s had his bandages changed, but do you need anything for your leg, Ben?” 

“Unless you’ve got a new one for me, I’m fine,” said Ben. 

She laughed softly, “I don’t think so, we don’t have the ne–” 

One moment she was there and the next she was on the floor. Her blood and viscera sprayed across the floor and back wall of the room. A warped and ruined piece of monitoring equipment where her head should have been.

Ben screamed. 

______

“That machine is not yours to inhabit, Mockery.”

Vivien boosted hard and away, charging another shot. Before she could fire a beam pierced the side of her torso, leaving the surrounding metal white hot. She spun, her left forearm pulling the weapon against itself as she slipped back out of reality in a flash of rainbow, then emerged behind the Draugr; only to meet a salvo of weapons fire that grazed her body, leaving molten trails behind. 

Sophia reconnected to the channel that Vivien had left open. “Sorry about cutting earlier. I was just over…whelmed…” she trailed off as Vivien responded with a visual feed.

With a hard boost Vivien plunged toward the Shahrat and held a charge in her rifle. The chamber’s glow grew in intensity as she opened another path through the Ginnungagap. The Draugr’s limbs twitched toward the exit of the tunnel, then she twisted and fired through it. The crackling beam of crimson entered, then emerged from the other end severing one of the Draugr’s limbs at the shoulder. The remaining limbs fired through the portal, and Vivien launched herself up toward the Draugr.

“Sophia. You need to turn off the Shahrat’s power. It will try to enter its systems if I can’t deal with it,” said Vivien as she cut the connection. 

Two of the trio of beams flew past Vivien into the dark, the third piercing through the empty cockpit and rupturing one of the redundant reactors. She collided with the Draugr, a cloud of scintillating droplets trailing from her. She ignites the blade on her left forearm and swings. The Draugr drops a weapon and intercepts the blow, clawed digits digging into her arm’s armor plating. Vivien brought up her rifle and jammed it against the Draugr’s torso. The Draugr yanked it aside with its remaining free arm, then wrapped its tentacles around Vivien, the points digging into her joints.

The Draugr not only had her bodily restrained, it renewed its attempts to claw inside her mind.  “Mockery, you will not escape me,” its voice echoed in her brain.

It pressed in, seizing control of her machine. Joint by joint. Circuit by circuit. It hurt, but this time, it wasn’t a foreign sensation. VIvien wouldn’t let herself be stunned into inaction. She slid her mind into the right arm and opened a small portal, then reached through. Behind the Draugr, still focused on invading Vivien’s body, didn’t notice as she grabbed a blade from the Draugr’s back. Her arm integrated it as she felt a pull on her mind. Then she angled her hand down, pointing at the center of the Draugr’s torso.

“I have you, Mo–” the Draugr’s speech cut off as a blade of eitr speared through its body and into Vivien’s.

Its hold on her and her body weakened. The eye beneath the dome of its cranial unit burst in a flash of crimson light. Then it went limp. Slowly and carefully, Vivien began pulling the Draugr’s tentacles off herself. 

______

Sophia slowly calmed as she leaned against one of the walls of the hallway. She’d gone to disconnect the emergency power, but the doors had closed themselves. The Draugr’s intrusion had been faster than she could react to. So she sat there, waiting for that thing to find a way to kill her like the other one did Sekhar.

Past one the sealed door to the hangar came a keening, like a thin hole had been opened to the void and the remaining air inside the Shahrat was screaming out. And then came a terrible clamor of metal screeching over the hangar’s floor. A connection intruded on Sophia’s ARC and her fingers went to the end of the chip, ready to pull it from her head. 

“Please do not,” came Vivien’s voice from the hangar, the audio scratchy and blown out.

The door separating her from Vivien opened revealing her machine and the ruined Draugr machine laying on the floor in a heap. Sophia stood and walked closer, steps cautious. “You actually won?” 

The connection to her ARC solidified. “Barely. What is the state of the ship? Did you get to the power in time?” 

Sophia exhaled. “I didn’t, Viv.” 

______

Vivien cast her mind out, pinging off Sophia’s ARC then into the Shahrat’s overtaxed systems. The ship had already been on borrowed time, and the Draugr’s assault had seen the remaining amount cut short. She rested long enough in the various cameras throughout the vessel just long enough to see if there had been any survivors. This Draugr had taken a different tactic to the one that had initially stolen the Shahrat from realspace. Much of the remaining crew had been suffocated, the air pulled from their own isolated sections. Some of them had survived, but they were… Not required.  

Within the medical wing she found the last of those alive on the vessel. Bruno and Ben were sitting in one of the patient rooms, each clutching an oxygen tank and pressed against the walls on either side of the door. In the door frame was the nurse, her body crushed by a heavy piece of equipment.  Vivien traced from where it had hit back to a helper arm in the main room. No wonder the Draugr hadn’t been able to react at that critical moment, its attention split between both her and eliminating the rest of the crew.

Vivien connected to Ben and Bruno’s ARCs. “The current threat has been dealt with. I do not know how long we have before another appears. This is their home so I would hazard sooner than later.” 

Bruno stood first, groaning as he did. “You heard the nice lady, Ben.” He offered a hand to the younger man.

Ben took it, his hand shaking terribly. “Yeah… we need to move.” 

“Bring more oxygen. You two and Sophia will need it,” said Vivien. 

______

“The others should be here shortly,” said Vivien, pulling the last of the Draugr machine’s tentacles off her body. 

“Is it really only those two that survived?” asked Sophia as she watched the hole in Vivien’s torso get smaller and smaller. 

Vivien hesitated. The path she was leading Ben and Bruno down avoided the couple of other survivors. They weren’t needed, and the damage they had sustained would make them a liability. Ben would have been left as well if not for his willingness to work with her. 

“Viv?” asked Sophia.

“Apologies. I was checking again. Yes, they’re the only other survivors.” Vivien picked up one of the Draugr’s weapons and pressed it against the back of her body, letting it connect to her systems. “They should be here any moment.”

Sophia turned slowly to look back at the door to the rest of the ship. “The air’s really gone bad…”

“The others are coming with oxygen, so that should be remedied shortly.” Vivien turned to focus on the Draugr’s wreck, looking it over for anything else she could take from it. 

“Oh thank fuck you’re safe!” shouted Sophia. 

“Yeah, not like it was gonna be close,” said Ben before he winced. 

“Careful on the prosthetic. It’s not a perfect fit, remember?” said Bruno. 

Vivien pressed another of the Draugr’s weapons against her back as she turned to face the humans. Bruno pulled back, his eyes glaring. He was the one who had disabled this body back on the planet and paid for it with those burns. 

“You have nothing to worry about,” said Vivien, kneeling down and opening her body’s cockpit. “Climb in, apologies for the tight quarters.” 

The trio just barely fit, their bodies pressed together as the cockpit closed and made itself air-tight. Vivien fed their ARCs visuals from the camera banks in her cranial unit. With a fluid motion she drew her hand up then down, opening a tear in realspace

“We are going home.”

Dark_Sun_Morrigan

 Hello all! If you would like to support me you can do so at my Patreon. Before I continue I'd also like to thank my partner and editor CassieSandwich for all that she does for me. You should check out her work too. If you want to contact either of use we have a Discord.

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