Refined liquid quintessence was the breakthrough that allowed space travel as we know it. Stabilized and concentrated mana allowed for a relatively safe yet energy-dense power source to allow such breakthroughs as energy shielding, the faster-than-light Etherglide Drive, and yes, even personal devices for those unfortunate enough to have low personal mana.
– Kalva Sorens, Instructor at Paluten University
The docking clamps settled up on Apex's sides and took hold. His mental seething unseen to the dock workers, he held his neck out straight and his tail still. It was difficult, even without the biological need to twitch. Ever since awakening in this body, he had not felt tired in the traditional sense, though he was not sure if that was something to worry about. It was normal for him and other dragons to stay awake for days or even weeks at a time, then slumber for an extended period. Whether that would remain true for this mechanical vessel was unclear.
“Perfect,” the man on the comms said. “You said you had someone coming to unload the cargo for you?”
Sallus breathed a deep sigh of relief, even though she hadn’t been the one flying Apex. She keyed the transmitter on. “That’s right. They should be here shortly. You’ll get your docking fee, and then some. We have a little work that needs done on this old bird. I’ve got a repair crew coming, so add the facilities fee to our tab. There’s a 15% tip if we’re left alone.”
That sounded like a blatant bribe to Apex, and he would have thought that would attract attention. Nobody seemed surprised about it at all, though. “You believe there is a Cult of Renewal cell here that will help us?”
The elf stood up and stretched, letting out a long groan before answering. “I’m not sure about a cell. I think there is, but even if there isn’t, I know a few merchants and fences in the area that would be willing to trade what we have in your belly for a resupply and some renovations. You managed to save one engine and the reactor is intact, so that’s something. I think we’ll have to give away the launchers and the one magazine you didn’t destroy to pay for everything, but it should be enough.”
“Mmm…” In truth, Apex was not at all thrilled about the idea of letting a bunch of cultists on to be his crew. He knew it would be something he’d need, but if they really were cultists they would be fanatical. He suspected that Sallus was high up in the cult, so likely wasn’t brainwashed.
What choice did he have for now, though?
“We can also turn over that prisoner to the cell if they’re here,” Sallus added as she packed a small bag. “It’d be one less thing to worry about. I’m uneasy carrying around an officer of the navy, even if we aren’t in Commonwealth space.”
“No,” Apex replied immediately. “He stays on board, at least a while longer. I find him useful.” The dragon paused. “And if you can find someone who knows how to do it, get someone here to fix my voice. I didn’t sound anything like this.”
She frowned back at him, then Sallus shrugged. “Have it your way. Just stay put and don’t let anyone know you’re an intelligent ship. I’ll be on the base, getting some changes of clothes and a nice, hot bath.”
Apex watched her go, grumbling internally to himself.
This was the unpleasant truth. She claimed that she needed him more than he needed her, but he saw the lie in that. She knew how to fix him – surprisingly well, in fact – and had the knowledge, connections, and resources to not just keep him running, but to put him in proper fighting trim.
That did not make for a balanced partnership, and he was sure she knew it.
The question was… did she know that he knew?
He still seethed inside. Every time he felt those distant, flickering sparks of power, he fought the urge to lunge for them. Vengeance would be his, he had sworn it so. This, he knew, was why Sallus had pulled him from the past through whatever unknown necromancy she had learned.
Questions remained about that, and how she had done it. Had she even known of his promise? That seemed… unlikely. But the fact remained that he could not trust everything she said, and even with his burning desire to seek out and take back what was his, he was a dragon.
He was not stupid.
He would be prepared, this time. And to be prepared, he needed the whole story.
Apex flicked his attention to the locked crew compartment where Naven was staying. The man was just stepping out of the shower, drying his hair, and Apex absently sent a message to Sallus to remind her to pick up some clothes for the human. His uniform was already ragged, and if anyone saw him in it – unlikely, but possible – it could raise questions even here outside of Commonwealth space.
“Naven,” he spoke bluntly. “We must talk.”
He looked at the camera, this time properly aware of where it was, and smirked. “Yes, oh great one?”
The dragon fought down a surge of irritation. “Do not speak to me thus. I should have earned your respect by besting your ship in combat. Yet I know you do not fully believe that I am who I say I am. Insincere respect is a greater insult than insolence. Remember that I can at any time simply stop the flow of air to your room.”
That got the human’s attention, and he scowled at the camera instead. “Fine, but I feel weird calling you Apexillos. Do you have another name I can use? Something that you don’t find insulting?”
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Now this was more like it, Apex thought. Aloud, he continued, “Sallus at times calls me Apex. It is… annoyingly abrupt, but it will suffice. If it serves as a bridge so that we may negotiate, you may use it as well.”
Naven kept his scowl, but slumped onto the bunk to get dressed. “Fine. I haven’t forgotten that ‘besting me in combat’ killed the rest of the crew, though.”
“It was a battle. Casualties will occur. You would not have hesitated to destroy me, especially had you known I was this so-called Emperor Dragon, yes?”
The human didn’t answer audibly, but made a face that certainly looked unpleasant. Apex chose to accept that as acknowledgment and continued. “You do not know me, and I do not know you. Yet you know Sallus is with the Cult of Renewal, and you oppose their viewpoint. You are not in alignment with her, but that does not mean we must oppose one another in all ways.”
Warily, Naven looked up from getting dressed. “What is it you are suggesting?”
Apex repeated to himself that he did not need Naven specifically… but he did need someone not in the Cult. This one seemed intelligent and, more importantly, willing to bargain.
“I would like to make an offer for you,” Apex rumbled. “I can offer you something that you want… and you can give me something that will not go against your oaths to the military.”
“I won’t aid an enemy of the state,” he pointed out. “And that’s what you are.”
The digitized chuckle sounded even more rough than before.
“We shall see.”
During the days of work that followed, Apex learned to listen in on transmissions. The methods used to send signals were clever, something he would never have considered himself, but once he had puzzled it out it was simple enough to find different ‘levels’ of communication and listen in on conversations. Many of them had been encoded in some way, and Apex had yet to puzzle out how this encoding worked, but even the open channels were interesting enough.
The attack on the patrol ship had left very little wreckage, but his… unorthodox means of defeating it meant that they had not attributed it to pirates. Commonwealth space was now swarming with patrols, which sounded like the opposite of what he wanted. It was only after realizing that Etherglide Drives were extremely rare on a vessel his size that it made sense. The equation changed when he could simply… go somewhere else.
Pain was also part of those days. Apex had to lay still as sharp pinpricks crawled through him constantly from the internal work that was being done. He endured it, for now, but kept an eye on each worker as much as possible. As much as the dragon disliked having creatures crawling through his body, it was a necessity. These were upgrades he sorely needed, and they needed done quickly.
“The problem is time,” Sallus had explained. “We can’t afford to stay here too long, even if they had the tech to properly refit you. But what they can do is work on your mana circuits. I’ve spoken to one of my colleagues, and we’ve devised a series of selective upgrades, limiters, and shunts that should keep you from burning out your circuits when casting spells. Just so long as you keep the spell power limited. What you did before should be easy enough, but I’m not sure how much farther you can push it without getting a proper upgrade.”
Fledgling magic, not the spellcasting powerhouse he had been before. It was better than nearly frying himself with a basic spell – basic by his definition, at least – but it was far from ideal. Preparing to face the heroes would be a long, frustrating journey, he was seeing now. That was one of the simpler updates his aged frame needed to be competitive with anything larger than a corvette.
He could not rely on his melee combat trick too often. Eventually, they would think to send a barrage his way before he could close the distance. That forced him to be an ambush predator, a tactic that was unpleasant and cowardly, in his mind. Dragons were not particularly hung up on honor and fair fights, however. They only preferred the straightforward fights as a demonstration of their strength.
And right now, Apex was not strong. Not yet.
Three of the four mana cannons on the corvette had survived. One was sold off for funds, or bartered, whatever Sallus did. The other two were mounted and connected to the wiring that had held his body’s previous, older cannons. The small one that had peppered his armored hull during the battle was also mounted, apparently to shoot down missiles. A flare system to burst hot torches from his sides was attached as well, as Sallus informed him that not all missiles used the guidance system he had confused during the battle.
It was the armor that bothered him. The battle-scarred look was not terrible, but he now understood that the metal plating was simple and primitive compared to the lightweight compounds modern ships used. Crimson Rock’s port, itself originally a mining station, did not have the shipyard facilities to quickly replace the armor across his hull, nor did they have enough of the composite materials to sheath a ship his size. The holes were patched, his wing actuator repaired, but now he had an even more patchwork appearance.
The only real saving grace was that the corvette’s shield generator had been salvaged and modified. This had been installed in his cargo area, somewhat reducing how much he could carry in return for some defense against beam weapons. The shield had never been meant to cover a hull his size, so it was weaker than he’d like and did not conform to his body shape, but it was a large step up in survivability nonetheless. The energy drain was inefficient, though. He would have to be careful with it.
He felt so, so weak.
Not that he would admit that to anyone.
In just under a week, Apex felt himself gliding through space, easing away from the huge asteroid – nearly a planetoid of its own – that housed Crimson Rock. The entire time, he had not been able to see anything but the dock itself. An unpleasant truth of being a starship, not a living being.
A total of seventeen new crew members, all of them Cult devotees, now walked through his corridors. It was not the most pleasant feeling, knowing they were likely indoctrinated fanatics, but it was amusing to see them freeze and cower any time he spoke aloud. He avoided doing so often, though.
“So, do you have the coordinates for the next location?” Apex spoke into Sallus’s personal communicator, now. The bridge often had other cultists staffing it, and Apex was… both surprised and unsettled by their technical competence.
“I do,” she confirmed. “I know the rough location of six of the thirteen, but only one of them is not behind layers of security. We’ll be raiding there instead of here. This region is a little too hot for us now.”
Apex had known that. He’d known it would be that way for days, now. He was also pretty certain that Sallus had never planned on raiding merchant ships in this area. They mostly ferried supplies like food and mining equipment, nothing that would be valuable enough in the amounts he could carry.
This had been a test, he was certain.
No matter. He rumbled acknowledgement – his voice still that deep, gravelly one – and spread the mechanical wings, just to feel like moving. No muscles to stretch, so he had no satisfaction in that… but he could almost imagine feeling the starlight over the fanned membranes.
Within, that sputtering ember of his once-defiant Essence screamed for completion.
