(Hey, so because I can only do a little bit at a time, I've decided to update the draft instead of waiting until it's all finished, so you can see my work. New content will be added incrementally and the draft number updated new stuff will be ** down below. see ya next draft! )Having delivered Beau safely into the arms of her fellow humans, Jasmine’s next task was no easy feat. Finding the other translator capable human.
The starship they captured and made their escape was unknown to all aboard. There was no map, no signs to tell here where anything was, and asking for Itsuki’s where abouts was harder than she expected. When she tried to reach out to any of the pirates, every one of them scuttled back, adverted their gaze and Shivered in place as though awaiting judgement or punishment.
“Have you seen the void singer?” She asked “he's a little taller than me, black armour, feels cold?”
“N-no, your grace”
Heads or limbs shook in the negative, then winced at her sigh of disappointment.
“Thank you for your answer,” she nodded her head, “as you were,”
The pirates would stand there confused, they weren't used to the acknowledgement of their inadequacy being so minior. Since asking wasn't getting the results she desired, Jasmine had to use her powers to find him.
She closed her eyes and searched the sea of people wash over her. Those around her were like tiny fires, a single memory that burned as their true selves. Most aliens were simple feelings, soft cloth, fresh paper, the shine of metal, it wasn't their fault though, those that lived in the carefully regulated council had diminished Freq on purpose. They didn't live long enough to gain the experience needed or have a nervous system complex enough to hold more invigorating Frequency’s.
Humans had both.
Jasmine pushed her own sense of self and searched for itsuki, the cold winters evening, the fragile shards of broken glass, the loneliness of internal struggle.
A young man who was still learning who he was.
The emotions were like a beacon in the dark, all she had to do was follow them ever deeper into the bowels of the ship.
The cold lead her through the remnants of war.
Jasmine and her entourage had not been welcomed aboard the ship, the Rajavan in command had created all sorts of monsters for them to contend with. In their pursuit of efficiency and awe of the human condition, The Lady of the Arc had smashed animal DNA together to create some of the most terrifying chimera ever thought possible.
The memory of the Sharkodile still gave her shivers.
Blood, gashes, broken equipment and… evicera still littered the hallway, it had been days and now, it was beginning to stink.
Jasmine covered her nose as she went deeper down the hall, closer and closer to the monster vault. there had been hundreds, perhaps thousands of the chimera suspended in stasis, waiting for a command to awaken and attack, they only facd a small percentage of the force.
Then she heard voices, barking orders and the chours of acknowledged answers, roars she recognised.
As she cleared the open doorway she was met with a rousing;
“Commander!!”
The squadron of Council Rangers who had abandoned their posts to follow her had found a use for their skills in her absence. The ten foot tall dinosaur space marines were lugging lumps of dead meat and throwing them into… a simply enormous vat of acid.
The entire situation caught her off guard, she stood staring as the piece of Tigerantula (a striped spiders leg the size of a lounge suite) hissed and popped as it melted in the vat. **“Jasi!!”
The nickname snapped her out of the trance and a relieved smile crossed her face,
“Rynard!!” She bellowed back, rushing over to the old dinosaur. Rynard had the appearance of a predator, all teeth and muscle but it hid a heart of gold and a razor sharp mind. He sat as a supervisor, overlooking the younger soldiers clean up, Jasmine gave him a big hug.
“Still in one piece?” She asked, he shrugged.
“Almost-” he stuck his left leg out from his seat, his foot swinging limp from his ankle “-Doc said to stay off it until they can find the chems to fix it. Until then,” he grinned with his whole face “I get to sit my tail down and shout!”
“I'm glad you're seeing the bright side,” Jasmine complemented, “it looks like you've got everything covered here, have you seen itsuki at all?”
“Frosty?” Rynard scratched the underside of his chin, “the shorty’s been messing about with the machines all day, muttering about access codes or something,” he used his tail to point over the crowd “you might be able to make sense of him,”
“Thanks, I'll be back once I find ‘em, you just stay there doing a good job.”
“As ordered Commander,” Rynard chuckled, a fist thumped against his chest plate.
Past the rotting corpses and empty stasis vats, Jasmine found the gene-fabricator an, awe-inspiring machine that could create bio-engineered technology in real time. She had witnessed the tech being handled by an Engine Lord back at the military branch to create the suits she, Beau and itsuki used.
The young man stood at the console, head down, eyes glued to the screen.
“[hey,]” she spoke softly through her mind, “[hope I'm not interrupting anything important?]”
Itsuki shook his head, and sighed dissatisfied.
“[It's important, but I'm not making any progress,]” he waved her over to see.
Jasmine walked up and peered over his shoulder, Itsuki stepped to the side and as he did so, the language presented on screen shifted from Japanese to English.
“[I've been trying to guess the password on the machine for the last few hours,]” he folded his arms “[at this point it's gotta be an encryption or randomised jumble, either way without a way to automate well never guess it on purpose,”
“Funny,” Jasmine replied out loud, “ we can command the entire ship but can't gain access to any of its systems outside the bridge…”
Itsuki shrugged, “[we got the keys to the car but don't know how to drive,]
“Clever metaphor,”
“[the aliens like em almost as much as they worry over you,]
“Ha!” She laughed, and a spark of light had him squinting “were you worried?”
Itsuki shook his head.
“Not for a second,” he lied.