Ayaka was the first in the conference room to react to Joon-ho’s sudden collapse. “Proxima, dispatch RES-QR response to my location immediately!”Her words shook the rest of the attendees out of their stupor and a low hum of activity picked up in the background. Dr. Standing Bear muscled her way through the gawking civilians around her and rushed to the fallen awakener’s side. She pulled an instrument from the pocket of her traditional white coat and ran it over Joon-ho from head to toe.“I... what... how!?” she stuttered.“How what?” Ayaka practically snarled.“He’s suffering from mana deprivation. I don’t understand how that could be! We simply aren’t made to store mana—it flows through and enhances us, it isn’t something we require to function...” the petite Native American woman muttered, shock still clear on her features. Then her gaze sharpened and she continued, “The trees. The trees, Commander! They must’ve done something and I think I know what the source of the anomalies we
Elsewhere....Ayaka found herself standing in a bright white nothingness. If she didn’t feel a hard surface under her feet, she would have been incapable of telling up from down. But even with that as a reference point, she could see absolutely nothing anywhere around her.She looked down to see what she was standing on and a part of her mind absently noted that she was naked. For some reason, though, her nakedness didn’t bother her in the slightest. Her rational mind knew that it SHOULD be bothered, but for some reason she simply couldn’t muster up any fear, nervousness, or anxiety at all, despite everything that had happened over the past few days giving her plenty of reasons for those negative feelings to have latched on to and taken root in her psyche.Looking past the obvious, it soon became apparent that whatever it was she was standing on was so perfectly camouflaged with the glowing white mist that blocked her view in every other direction that she could see nothing. But the m
“Hello, Marco,” whatever was inhabiting Ayaka said in its distant, echoing voice.Fleet Admiral Bianchi simply stared back, irritation written across his face. “And who, or what, are you?” he said in an overly calm tone.“I am....” the being wearing Ayaka tilted her head as if listening to a distant sound. “He wakes.” She floated, still cross-legged in the air, to Joon-ho’s side.Joon-ho’s eyes fluttered, then snapped open and he sat up with a gasp. He looked around for a moment in wide-eyed panic, then, upon realizing where he was, visibly calmed himself. “So I’m not dead yet, am I?”“No, child. You’re still very much alive,” Ayaka’s passenger said, stroking Joon-ho’s hair. “And I am... glad, that you are.”Joon-ho looked at Ayaka for the first time since waking up—really looked—and out of all expectations, merely said, “I’m dreaming, aren’t I. Very funny, Proxima. I didn’t know you had it in you.”{Had what in me, Warrant Officer Lee?} the AI interjected.“Wait... this isn’t a dream
Admiral’s ready room, TFS Proxima.Fleet Admiral Bianchi dropped into the chair behind his desk, forgoing even his usual customary groan. “Commander Takahashi—”“Laifu, Marco. Commander Takahashi is... elsewhere, at the moment. She has much to learn and little time in which to learn it.”“Fine. Laifu, then. Explain yourself,” the admiral ordered.“I am life.”Admiral Bianchi was silent, waiting for Laifu to continue. The silence stretched for a full five minutes before he realized she had “explained” everything she meant to explain. “What do you mean by that?” he asked.“Exactly what I said, Marco. I am life.”The admiral had no idea what to say to that, so he just pinched the bridge of his nose. Headaches were coming faster and harder than he could deal with, apparently, and before one was resolved, another was already crowding in to take its place. “Let’s pretend for a moment that I have no idea what you mean by that. Explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old child.”Laifu tilted he
Fleet Admiral Bianchi wasn’t exactly sure he liked the thought of that level of existence being under his command.Laifu laughed again. “Don’t worry, Marco. Commander Takahashi is under your command. I... am not. I cannot be, for many reasons, foremost of which is that there are rules by which I MUST operate and things I am strictly forbidden from doing.”“Are you reading my mind?” The admiral’s eyes narrowed.“No, Marco. I don’t have to read your mind when your worries are written on your face.” Laifu gave him an encouraging smile.“So what are you forbidden from doing?” he asked, wanting to get an idea of what he could expect once Commander Takahashi was released and under control of her own body again.“I’m sorry, Marco. I can’t tell you the rules. All laws and rules have... loopholes, shall we say. But trust me, not telling you the rules is the best thing I can do for you.”“Why is that?”“Temptation, dear Marco. You would be tempted to find ways around them, and perhaps even succ
The next day, TFS Proxima, the SCIF.Fleet Admiral Bianchi had decided to gather a debriefing question list, considering Joon-ho was incapable of remaining in a mana void for any length of time, lest he risk collapse and death. Laifu had explained his situation the night before during their conversation before returning control of Ayaka’s body to her. It had been quite a surreal experience for the admiral, and he was still contemplating the ramifications of Ayaka’s new mana attunement. It wasn’t every day that you met one of the beings that governed all of existence, after all.“As you were,” he said to the rest of the people in the room, who had stood to attention as he’d entered. “Since Warrant Officer Lee is... otherwise occupied, my chief of staff will be collecting the questions your sections have for him.”Everyone at the table was silent.“None of you have any questions?” he asked.“No. We simply don’t know enough to know what we don’t know, Admiral,” Dr. Standing Bear finally
Ayaka and Joon-ho looked over their orders, which were incredibly broad. Normally, military orders would provide detail after detail, along with multiple contingencies at every escalation step up to and including planetary destruction.Thanks to training in the simulation, they even knew what a planet looked like after being hit by one of the spinal-mounted planetkiller coilguns mounted on some of the TFS ships. And they also knew what would happen if even a TES exploration cruiser were to continuously bombard a planet with their spinal-mounted coilguns.It only took the two a few minutes before Ayaka began asking questions. “Who is going to be assigned to our task force, Admiral?” she asked.“Whoever you need, Captain. You have full authority and first priority to pick whomever you think you’ll need on your team.”“What about materiel, Sir? It simply says here that we’ll have ‘full access to any and all necessary resources.’”“Full access means full access. You even have first priori
The wildly corkscrewing lander entered the atmosphere at combat speed, echoing sonic booms and contrails of moisture in its wake, tinted black and gray by the fireball of superheated air surrounding the craft itself. Soon, though, the smoke, fire, and vapor dissipated as the pilot brought the lander to a sudden halt just a meter above the ground, then smoothly drifted down the rest of the way until the deployed landing skids took up the weight of the craft without a single jostle or bump.The indicator light in the passenger cabin switched from red back to a warm amber as the pilot’s voice came over the intercom. “We’re on the ground,” the pilot announced to the diplomats. Luckily it was also transmitted directly to their implants, because none of the five members of the diplomatic mission could actually hear the announcement over the sound of their own retching.“Thank god,” Ayaka sighed, then closed her eyes and focused on what she was feeling in her toes to take her mind off her st