An Incubus - 180 - Tainting an Angelic

Chapter 180 Tainting an Angelic

I woke in the infirmary on the Shadow Fall. I had never used so much aether so fast before. One of the Medicus Magicae nearby looked over at me. I sat up, finding myself naked in my incubus body. As I inspected my state, she explained, “We removed the damaged power armor, and we were going to put you in the tank to heal, but it wasn’t necessary.”

I inspected my body and found my cooked flesh was healed. I remember the intense burning as I overloaded the suit’s batteries. I stood and reverted to my high school Caleb body as I was most comfortable in it. The Eladrin Medicus sighed, disappointed. Captain Aida entered the infirmary. She was still wearing her armor. “What happened after I blacked out?”

Captain Aida’s eyes looked up from my groin, her face unreadable. She handed me a crew uniform, “The angelics destroyed all the Pyramids on Mercanious. The extra aether you pushed into the shuttle allowed us to evade long enough to get back into the transit and return to the Shadow Fall.”

“Have you figured out why they destroyed the Pyramids? Are there competing factions among the angelics?” I inquired. I pulled my Eladrin combat armor from my mind space for this body instead of wearing the crew uniform and dressed.

“You will have to talk with Eshanya. I don’t think it makes any sense either. We are preparing for them to attack the Shadow Fall next.” The Captain waited while I dressed, and I followed her to meet with Eshanya.

Eshanya was in the planet operations center, which had all her work camps. Just looking at everything quickly, it looked like she was trying to bring as many materials as possible to the Shadow Fall. “Are we leaving the planet?” I asked the busy succubus.

“I don’t think the angelics will risk sending their advanced battleships down to the twenty-second layer, but a dozen ships of the caliber you encountered on Mercanious can grind up the Shadow Fall if we are on the ground. We do not have enough aether to transition, but we are going to attempt to reach orbit.” She looked me up and down, “You should have returned to your planet, incubus. I have a feeling things are not going to go well for us.”

I watched the screens and the myriad of actions taking place. “What about Andromeda? Are we going after her? You said you knew where the Eternity is? And the other succubus, Deserae?” Eshanya could feel her blood sister, like I could feel Andromeda, but her senses were more refined from ages of use.

Eshanya’s face clouded in anger, “She is moving the Eternity. I can sense it. She will likely return to the seventeenth layer and the planet Gaian. Andromeda kept a lot of her wealth secreted away there. Now that we are no longer bound to her Deserae can take it.”

“Are you sure Andromeda is on the Eternity then?” I asked.

“More than likely. There are safeguards in the system. She needs Andromeda to access the surface and bypass orbital and lunar defenses.” Eshanya revealed. “Can you not feel her moving?” Eshanya questioned me.

I took a few moments to focus on the severed connection. It was hard as the movement was so small, but my Andromeda compass was shifting, pointing in a minutely different direction.

I considered what she had just told me. “So are you just going to let her take it? After she gains access to the planet, wouldn’t she kill Andromeda?”

Eshanya’s visage clouded in anger, “There is not anything I can do. The Eternity is mostly repaired, while the Shadow Fall is in shambles. Now that we are moving to high orbit, it is going to take even longer to repair her.”

“How long?” I asked the succubus. “How long until they reach this planet? Gaian you called it.”

“A week to return to the seventeenth layer and,” she tapped the consul, “Fourteen days in FTL to reach the planet.”

“If I took a shuttle, could I get there before her?” I asked.

“A shuttle can not make the FTL trip. Maybe a gunship…the Shadow Fall has two gunships. But my little incubus, they would not be a match for the Eternity.”

She was saying it was a suicide mission. “Would you allow me to try?”

Eshanya gave a musical laugh, “Really? Are you that stupid?” I kept a serious face and arched an eyebrow. I was just hoping Carrie’s omen was right. My faith was in Carrie and not my chances at defeating a battleship.

“Fool.” She said harshly but shook her head. “Fine. I will give you a gunship. It needs a crew of five. If you can find five volunteers among my crew—you can commit to this certain madness with them.”

“Fantastic!” I said more out of reflex than actual happiness or excitement. I left Eshanya in disbelief.

I found Captain Aida in a fitness room. She was sweaty and in thin fabric clothes while sparred against a robot opponent. “I need your help, Captain.”

Captain Aida turned the bot off and looked at me, “What now, incubus? They are making you a new suit of armor. Should be ready in a few hours.”

“That is great. But I need to find five people to crew a gunship to take me to the planet of Gaian. I need to get there as soon as possible. The Eternity will be there in twenty days. I need to beat them there.” I said straight-faced.

It was the first time the Captain looked shocked, “You are going to take on the Eternity with a gunship?”

“No. I am hoping to get Andromeda’s treasures before they arrive and barter them for her life.” I said with bravado.

Captain Aida laughed, “Do you even know what the treasures are on Gaian?”

“Uh, no. Eshayna didn’t tell me.” I replied. “I assumed it was technology and precious metals.”

She laughed at me, “Enough treasures to fill a battleship, but also, there are conclaves with certain genetic purities Andromeda is preserving. They only answer to Andromeda.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. So they will shoot us down?” I said.

“More than likely. But if you want, I can ask around. I know a pilot and co-pilot who is likely on board.” She smirked as I knew who she was referring to. “You would also need two engineers who specialize in FTL and one FTL navigator. Do you still want to pursue this idiocy?” Captain Aida took a towel and wiped off her sweat.

“What the fuck. Why not. Who wants to live forever.” I said, throwing up my hands. Of course, if this failed, I would be cursing Carrie from the afterlife for setting me on this course.

Captain Aida smiled, “Just so happens I have my FTL navigation certs. Never thought I would need them. I think I will need a little bit of a payment to put my life in your hands.” Captain Aida led me to a private room for an extended payment session. My aether pool was almost empty, so I used the session to work on replenishing aether over harvesting life essence.

A few hours later, I returned to my cabin, which was now empty. It was lonely as I tossed one of the balls from the table in hand on the sofa. Butterflies were making a mess of my innards. Was this a sign I was on the wrong track? So far, I had just been persuing my gut feelings—was this my gut telling me to turn the fuck around?

I returned to my cabin, which was now empty. It was lonely as I tossed one of the balls from the table in hand on the sofa. Butterflies were making a mess of my innards. Was this a sign I was on the wrong track?

I retreated into my mind space to think. Everyone in the library was still working on solving the World Gate problem. They all knew what was happening in the real world. I was here for advice, and Pandora offered her viewpoint, “I would have returned with the others to Earth.”

Nashima, in her feathered humanoid body, offered, “Are you prepared to travel to the seventeenth layer? The lowest tier being there would be lower tier two.”

Lilith offered her perspective, “Maybe you can take the gunship to the Earth on the seventeenth layer and return home that way.” Lilith was suggesting I abandon my mission.

“Basically, you are all saying that I am making a mistake.” A second version of Pandora nodded at my statement. Even the doppelganger agreed with them. I offered, “Maybe Captain Aida won’t find enough crew for the gunship.”

Nashima laughed, “I doubt that. She will find your crew. That Eladrin woman will do what you ask with the exception of returning to Earth.”

Pandora whipped her leg around provocatively over her recliner, spreading her legs to me, “Oh, I am sure you could convince her to return to Earth with you. You just need to be more persuasive. Maybe practice with me.”

I decided to get off the topic of our fate and ask about the research, “Did you find anything? Do you know why they destroyed the Pyramids?”

For some reason, Lilith had thick-rimmed glasses and put them on like a sexy librarian. Which, I admit, was a turn-on for me. “We have been toiling away in here. We understand how the World Gates work. With enough limestone, we could even instruct you on how to build your own. As to why the angelics destroyed the Pyramids on Mercanious.”

Pandora interrupted her, “We think they don’t need them anymore. Our guess is they are also likely destroying the evidence.”

“But we didn’t stop them. I thought they needed the Pyramids to collapse the transits. Wasn’t the World Gate connecting in a triangle supposed to connect all three planets and drain the aether out of the transits?” I was confused. I had talked with my mind constructs over the last month, and they mostly figured out the math involved in the Pyramids. Rincewind was sure they were planning to create another Great Descent by cutting off the planets with their efforts.

Lilith looked at me, waiting for me to figure it out. I just shrugged as my mind constructs were obviously smarter than me. She answered, “Earth, Mercanious, and Everhome are most likely just one of many such projects in the galaxy and universe as a whole. Destroying these three planet’s transits is hardly going to create another Great Descent. A thousand or ten thousand such actions…” She let it hang. “My guess is they destroyed the Pyramids because someone was getting too close or your actions drew attention to them. But the Pyramids are just the easiest way to create the trifecta of World Gates.” She tossed one of the books on a table as a sign they were done. “The process has started here, like the veins of a growing cancer, and they probably have a dozen different ways to continue it.”

My thoughts turned to the fact that maybe my actions had delayed or caused them to abandon their plans for Earth then. Maybe I had already saved Earth? I spent a few hours listening to them explain their research. Lilith treated me like a child, but I understand the majority of it. How she was smarter than me was confusing since she was just an aspect in my mind. Eventually, I returned to the sofa in the quarters and waited on Captain Aida.

Captain Aida commed me in the room. “Your pilot and co-pilot are on board. I have your two engineers as well. You are familiar with both as you enhanced their cores. I thought you might like to know that Eshanya is harvesting the angelic from Mercanious. She no longer has value as a prisoner.”

“Sofiel? Why?  Where is she doing this?” I bolted up, moved to the corridor, and started running to the brig. Why did I even care about the angelic? I couldn’t save everyone. It just felt wrong to let her be killed for life essence, though. The guards at the door let me pass.

Inside, I found a horrid site. Sofiel was strapped naked and spread eagle to an exam table. Her body was covered in sweat, and Eshanya was standing over her. “It is already done. Her core is ruptured, incubus. You can not save her.”

Sofiel’s head turned to me listlessly. Pain was clearly evident in them. I moved to the table, planning to comfort her in her final moments. It was the least I could do. I stroked her damp hair and looked at her aether core. It looked like a shredded balloon. I could feel the power emanating from Eshanaya as she had gotten a remarkable harvest of life essence.

Eshanaya spoke, “Your nature is preventing you from embracing your true potential incubus.”

“I don’t kill for killing’s sake, Eshanya,” I said harshly. I wrapped my aether around the shredded remains of Sofiel’s aether core and embraced them in a sphere of my own aether weaving. A few hours ago, my session with Captain Aida had only recovered a third of my aether. When I did this for Carrie, I had been there when her core had ruptured. It had been a few minutes for Sofiel. Her eyes told me she knew she was dead.

Eshanya berated me, “You are only prolonging her suffering, incubus.” She shook her head, disappointed, and left the room. She was probably already enhancing herself with the infusion of life essence she had just received.

I had only managed to capture a sliver of Sofiel’s life essence inside the cocoon of aether I made. It was not going to be enough. I made a hole in the shell and forced in some of my own life essence inside. Thankfully, I had learned some control in the last month playing that silly pool game. Otherwise, I would have probably smashed all my work.

Sofiel inhaled sharply as the demonic life essence was pushed into her core. She naturally tried to fight it off like an infection. Her remaining aether was too little to fight my influx, and I enveloped hers. I swore as this was not going to work. Her body would reject my aether if that was all there was. I forced my aether to assimilate hers instead of consuming it. It was against the nature of my own demonic life essence to let the angelic life essence win. It was like fighting with myself to create a yin-yang symbiosis.

Sofeil’s eyes went wide as her core stabilized. It was a turbulent stabilization and was still only held together by my aether encasing it. I would need to somehow use the shreds of her aether core to rebuild it. I reached into the core and teased the first strand. No, I needed to shrink the core to ensure I had enough pieces of Sofiel’s core to make a complete sphere. I pulled my shell tighter. One piece at a time…

Captain Aida appeared in front of me. “The gunship is ready to depart.”

I looked up, surprised to see her. “What? That soon?”

“You have been in here most of a day trying to keep this angelic alive. Eshanya thinks your efforts are wasted.” She looked at the naked angelic with some pity. Her body had a film of sweat and white particulate matter.

I unfocused my efforts and realized I was also a mess. I had been using my aether sparingly to avoid running out, but I was dangerously low as well. “I want to take her with us. I can not get too far from her, or I will not be able to hold her core intact.”

Captain Aida looked dubious but talked into her suit. A few moments later, she nodded, “Some guards will transport her to the gunship. The Shadow Fall is in orbit, and we need to launch soon if you hope to beat the Eternity to Gaian.”

After wiping her down, some Eladrin Marines came in and covered Sofiel with some thin garments. They then escorted her on the table to the gunship while I trailed behind. As she was loaded on the ship, Eshanya was there watching. I approached her, and she addressed me, “A waste of your efforts, incubus. Even if you save her, she will just be a shadow of her former self, and you have tainted her core so much the angelics will never take her back.”

I wanted to growl angrily at her but held back. “It is my choice,” I said calmly. The gunship was huge compared to the shuttles. Almost a hundred feet in length.

Looking at the gunship, Eshanya noted, “I hate to give up such a valuable craft, but if you see Andromeda, tell her it was the best I could do.” My opinion of Eshanya had dropped considerably. While she helped free the Cartwrights, it was a low-risk endeavor for her. Now that the stakes had risen to rescue Andromeda, she placed her ship and herself first.

“Well, I hope it can be returned to you in one piece then,” I noted with some sass. I boarded the ship to find the crew compartment was not that large. The cockpit had three seats, and then there was a small common area behind that was a bunk room. Narrow access hallways led back into the ship for the engineers to conduct maintenance. This gunship was mostly engines and weapons. Sofiel was being secured by the two Marines in the small bunk room with eight beds.

Captain Aida indicated the beds, “Normally, there would be two more engineers for the weapons systems. We just have six plus you and the…” she pointed at Sofiel being strapped in.

I did recognize my two engineers. Both were black-haired Eladrin, and I had improved the cores on them. They nodded at me while they continued to run checks on the gunship’s systems. The two Eladrin male pilots were already joking about how they were going to destroy a battlecruiser with just a gunship.

I moved to a bunk near Sofiel. I still had a lot of work to do to rebuild her aether core one strand at a time…