An Incubus Life - 181 - Body Snatchers

Chapter 181 - Body Snatchers

Why was I trying so hard to save the angelic? Guilt. It was my guilt for my role in her plight. Sofiel was no angel when it came to how she treated the orcs she supervised on Mercanious. She was responsible for Vida being sent to Earth and certain death. Yet I considered her redeemable.

Her aether core was an absolute mess. As the gunship started to take off, I tuned out the voices of the crew as they prepared for the long trip. I was also going to the 17th layer. That seemed too unreal. I wondered if Rincewind had ever been that high before. The dangers were real, and the lowest tier creature and person would have a lower tier two core.

I ignored the crew of the gunship as I began trying to stitch Sofitel’s aether core back together. I needed to maintain my aether spherical containment while I worked. Using my aether as a thread to knit the fragments of her aether core was a painfully slow process. All this time, my own aether was draining.

I was interrupted by the speakers in the cabin. “Transitioning to the 21st layer,” the pilot’s voice echoed in the cabin. I felt the gunship move through the transit, and when we emerged, scans were being conducted for danger.

The copilot noted, “Lunar orbiting spaceships on radar. Next transition in fourteen minutes.” A long pause before the copilot’s voice came back, “Locals not moving to engage. All clear.”

I could feel the aetheric density difference. It felt like I had been breathing thin air before, and now I was finally breathing fully oxygenated air. It was still not fast enough to restore my aether as fast as I was spending it. But it still helped. The next transition to the 20th layer helped even more, and I finally understood what Andromeda had warned me about. The aether concentration the higher you went was invigorating. It was like going from smog to fresh air.

“No threats on radar. No extra-orbital technology detected.” The copilot announced. I was too busy to look at the sensor data.

I turned to my work and heard Captain Aida make a decision. “Do not transition to the 19th. We are going to FTL on this layer. We will travel across this layer to the star system with the associated planet of Gaian.”

The pilot didn’t argue. “Affirmative Captain. Awaiting your navigation coordinates to enter FTL. Moving out of the gravity well and moving into deep space.” I was going to travel faster than light, but I was too busy trying to save Sofiel to watch. I hope this effort was worth it. It would still be a huge endeavor, and Sofiel looked terrible and in pain.

I felt some vertigo as the gunship entered FTL a few hours later. Captain Aida was standing over me, “Incubus, she is not going to make it.”

I paused in my work to look up at her, “I am still going to try.”

Captain Aida signed, “Her core reading is under one and falling.”

A confused look crossed my face, and I pulled out my reader. Sofiel’s reading was 0.96. That was impossible! What happened to…I was shrinking her core by compacting it as I worked to save it. Damn it. This situation was not like Carrie, whose core swelled and cracked. I just had to keep that core from shattering. This time the core had been shredded. Maybe I could use some of my own aether to rebuild her core. Her life essence had already been tainted with my life essence, and now I was going to corrupt her core with my aether as I rebuilt it.

As I worked, I was Frankensteining her core, and then I hit a wall. “I am almost out of aether,” I announced to the cabin.

Captain Aida was in the cockpit with the pilots. She turned, “You tried. Let her go, she is ready, too.” I looked down at the angelic, and her face was still twisted in pain. I had been forcing her to remain alive for hours…no, almost two days now.

One of the engineers was nearby, “I need essence. I will give you an enhancement, your choice.” The engineer looked at the Captain, who just shrugged, letting her make her own decision.

She slowly nodded, and I explained what I could offer her. She decided on the constitution enhancement. The bunks had privacy screens, and I selected one close enough to Sofiel to maintain the containment of her aether core. The session with the engineer was more clinical than pleasant, and my focus was divided. I was focused on pulling Aether, which was more difficult than normal.

Of course, we were in FTL, which put us a good distance from the transits that brought aether from the Source. I kept the engineer beneath as I balanced the vortex, containment and watching her core. A few hours later I managed to recover one-third of my total aether and give her the elixir of constitution.

“I just realized I never got your name,” I said as her sweaty and exhausted body was beneath me. The hours of bliss still had her eyes a little glassy.

“Shael. Engineer, third class.” She smiled.

“Well, I Shael not forget your sacrifice,” I smiled back and thought that my pendency for saying stupid shit after sex was still going strong. I should just go with the kiss on the tip of the nose, and a thank you. I sighed as I extracted myself and moved back to my work on Sofiel. At least saving the angelic would give me something to do during the long trip.

Sofiel was sleeping when I sat next to her after dressing. Her core was turbulent with my demonic taint, but it was keeping her alive. Her core had also reduced to 0.81 while I had been collecting essence. She couldn’t travel to the 17th with her core. Had Captain Aida put us in FTL on the 20th layer because she knew the angelic would die if we kept transitioning? Captain Aida was sleeping in her own screened bunk, and the copilot was in the cockpit monitoring the gunship.

I continued to work on Sofiel’s core, and her dry voice cracked as she spoke, “I am a shadow of my formal self. My entire body is racked with pain and starved of aether. Just kill me.” The copilot turned around in his seat as he had heard.

I growled at her, “After I fix your core, you can kill yourself, Sofiel. Until then, I will fix what is broken.”

Sofiel shook her head in disbelief and turned her head away from me. I continued my stitching of her aether core fragments and fed her life essence more demonic life essence to strengthen her life force. It was probably corrupting her core even further, but she needed the life essence to feed her body. She inhaled sharply whenever I fed her the demonic essence, but her core never rejected it and consumed it with abandon.

The days passed quickly with my laser focus. Shael helped me once more to add more aether fuel, and she took the recall elixir as her payment. The aether was fairly thin between the stars, but my abilities allowed me to pull a modest amount aether over hours.

Captain Aida distracted me by putting her hand on my shoulder as she passed, “It has been a week, and it looks like she has stabilized. You should rest yourself, incubus.” Her voice displayed some admiration.

“Did you go to FTL on this layer to save the angelic?” I asked the Captain to confirm my thoughts.

She shrugged, “If we went any higher before FTL, your efforts would have been wasted. It just made sense.” Captain Aida slid into her navigation seat and did her daily work confirming our vector and speed.

I looked down at the angelic. She was no longer in constant pain but definitely was not happy with her situation. Her aether core was only 0.43 now, but it was thick patchwork and could sustain itself even without me shielding it with a shell of my own aether. I released my hold of Sofiel’s core.

“Sofiel, how do you feel? You seem stable. Can I release you?” I figured it couldn’t be comfortable being restrained for so long. Her lower tier meant she couldn’t power her powerful abilities any longer. She also still had her aether restraints, so she couldn’t cycle aether anyway.

Captain Aida came from the cockpit, hearing my question, “If you are going to release her, make sure I am available to watch her. She can sabotage the gunship if she is given free rein.” I nodded as I had planned to watch her myself and restrain her again after she had a little freedom.

Sofiel sat up and looked at me, “Now what?”

Yeah, Caleb. Now what? I asked myself. “We will drop you off before we transition to the next layer.” I asked Captain Aida, “What type of planet in Gaian on this level?”

The Captain tapped on a wall computer to answer my question, “Tropical climate. 29% percent oxygen, and wildlife is considered…dangerous. Ah, very similar biome to your own planet of Earth some 65 million years ago.”

“Sixty-five million years? You mean dinosaurs?” I moved to the screen to see for myself. I tapped away and brought up the wildlife. Massive reptilian creatures dominated the planet, very similar to the dinosaurs I was familiar with. It did not appear to be hospitable for a human. Maybe we could send Sofiel into transit heading toward the 21st layer instead of to the planet’s surface. A few taps and the transit revealed it was a very similar environment to the planet; the same went for the planet on the 21st layer. It was the only option for Sofiel, though. She couldn’t come with us to the 19th layer.

Sofiel’s neck was craning to look at the screen around me. “Any humanoids?”

Captain Aida tapped the screen for the information. “Just beastkin. Predominant species are of the feline variety.”

“Will you give me any weapons?” Sofiel asked, resigned to her fate.

“Yes. When we drop you in the transit, we will give you weapons.” I tried to sound reassuringly.  She was no longer in pain and would live. “How old are you anyway?” I don’t know why I asked. It just seemed relevant.

“Thirty years by Mercanious orbits. About fifteen years ago, I took over my duties there for my older sister, Lanera.” Sofiel said calmly.

That actually explained a lot. Sofiel was extremely young in the scheme of things. “I know it doesn’t mean much at this point, but I am sorry this happened.” Sofiel was apathetic, probably doubting my sincerity. An hour later, she lay down and was restrained. I took the time to rest myself as I hadn’t had a chance for weeks. I even turned down a rather forward request from Captain to join her in her bunk. As I lay down, I entered my mind space.

I was in the pedestal room in my mind space and walked to the library. Nashima and Lilith were working. Nashima nodded to me in appreciation. She had been monitoring my efforts in the real world. Lilith was more academic, “Caleb, do you realize you have tainted the angelic?”

“Yeah, it was the only way,” I stated.

“If you had consulted me, I could have helped.” She sighed like I was an idiot. And waved at all the books I had assimilated in the two-story library. She sighed like I was a lost cause, “Well, you do realize it is your taint?”

“That sounds kind of dirty,” I replied with mock humor.

“Maybe to the angelic. Your demonic aetheric signature is attached to Sofiel, part of her. Your life essence fingerprint. People can also use her to track you to your location.” Lilith explained.

Nashima raised her hand, “That is my theory. But you can test it. After you leave here, try to locate Sofiel as if you were tracking Andromeda. It will confirm my suspicion.”

“So this is a bad thing then. I suppose you want me to kill her then?” I sighed. After all my work, I would find it hard to do so.

“You can take here with you.” Lilith held up her hand before I could object about her small core. “You will need to shield her core from the intense aether radiation. I believe her cellular structure should be able to withstand the stresses. She was a lower tier three being just a few weeks ago. It will take significant time for her body to recess to lower tier one.”

I considered her words. My mind constructs knew more than I did, which was getting annoying. “So, how do I shield her core?” I relented.

Lilith smiled with a smirk, “I am so glad you asked. You need to set up the shield and can have one of us maintain it. She can not get more than ten meters from you as that is about the maximum range my influence can reach with your help.”

“Your influence? I thought you said anyone in here can maintain the shield.” I questioned.

A brief flash of guilt, and Lilith shrugged. “Well, it needs to be one of your natural constructs. Nashima, Casper, Calypso, and Arya were built with genetic samples. So that leaves just either Pandora or me. Who do you prefer?” She asked, arching an eyebrow.

I looked at Nashima for confirmation, and she shrugged like she didn’t know if what Lilith was saying was true. “Okay, fine. We can try this. How does it work?”

Lilith’s smile seemed a little too self-satisfied, “It is like the pedestal. Basically, we establish a presence in her mind space. Since her core has collapsed so far, she has no awareness of her mind space, but it is still there. We basically camp there and supply the shield from inside her space.”

“Do we need her permission?” I asked as this sounded kind of intrusive.

“No. I can do it, but I should be completely unaware. But we do need to construct something similar to the pedestal in your mind space. It is similar to what I have been researching for short-term projection of us physically into the real world.” Lilith explained patiently.

We moved to the pedestal room, and Lilith guided me through the process with the books as a reference. My pedestal was not very elaborate. It was just a white marble pillar six feet high with an array of runes across it. It took hours to complete, but the time dilation meant it was a relatively quick process.

Lilith smiled. “The last step is just activating it, and it should sense any cores nearby with your signature. Just an investment of a life essence of two. The more life essence you invest, the greater the range. One life essence should be just about 10 meters long but will be renewed as the construct consumes it over time. And yes, Andromeda used the life essence you harvested to keep her connection to you.”

“And this will not harm Sofiel?” I asked of a slightly giddy Lilith. Lilith was never giddy.

“She will be fine, completely unharmed.” I studied the construct. “Answer me this then. Why are you so happy?”

“Because I should be able to see through Sofiel’s eyes when it connects.” Lilith grinned. I nodded slowly as I could see why she was excited. I invested two life essences into the marble column, the runes flared, and Lilith disappeared.

I panicked as I tried to sense her in my mind space. Lilith was gone. I exited the mind space and rushed over to the prone Sofiel. Her eyes were closed, but she was breathing. I sent out my senses and tried to sense myself. Nashima was correct. I could sense Sofiel’s aether core like it was a faint echo of mine.

Sofiel’s eyes snapped open; her eyes were unfocused, and her breathing became erratic. She let out a long, low groan before her breathing stabilized and her eyes focused. Her eyes tracked to mine, “Huh, it worked.”

“Lilith?” I asked with a sinking feeling. Captain Aida appeared next to me, a pistol pointed at the head of Sofiel. “Stand down, Captain. I think I just erased Sofiel.”

Sofiel rolled her eyes, “No. Sofiel is in her. I just have control of her mind space. If she gets too far away, I will just snap back to your mind space, Caleb.” She tested her restraints. “Can you?”

I rolled my eyes, “Sofiel is going to be rather upset you are puppeting her body.”

“She will never know. Uh, well, that is just a guess. I sort of put her and her mind space construct to sleep. But sleep is not the correct word. Well, you can ask her after I leave.” Sofiel/Lilith smiled brightly.

I rolled my eyes and released her restraints. Captain Aida kept her energy pistol trained on the angelic. Sofiel’s body sat up and studied her hands, flexing them. She finally looked at me, “Well, this is definitely different.” She stood unsteadily as she figured out the body. Captain Aida lowered her weapon and then sent it back to her mind space.

“She is your responsibility, Incubus.” Captain Aida moved to the cockpit to continue her work.

Lilith informed me, “This is a good step in helping us project into the real world. It is just occupying a mind space that already has life essence echo, but we are learning.”

“Lilith, you didn’t tell me you were going to control Sofiel’s body,” I said tersely.

“I didn’t know. I thought the extent would be that I could observe the world through her eyes. But when I got to her mind space, her construct was so weak that I just restrained it. From there, it was easy to take over. I am still anchored to the column we created.”

She patted my cheek. “Don’t look so glum. On the bright side Caleb, her core is shielded. You can take her with you to the 17th layer, just make sure she doesn’t get too far away, or I will get yanked out, and the shield will be destroyed.” Lilith’s eyes wandered to the wall of the computer, and a big smile formed. “If you don’t mind, there are some things I would like to research.”

Lilith walked past me and started to use the computer. I had just crossed another line. A form of enslavement. If Sofiel had been aware of what was happening, she would have been very upset when she had regained control. The one positive, Pandora was not in control of Sofiel’s body.