In Space With a Junkyard Ship chapter 94

POV: Lola

“We will make it to the ship in approximately 10 minutes.”

All of us relaxed as soon as we heard that. There was a bit of a panic when we lost contact with Captain and Dean’s squad.

Remi did send a morse code type ssage telling us to continue to act like nothing was wrong, but it was so hard not to try to help them, especially when we felt Dean and his squad disappear from the space all bonded with the Captain could perceive.

We could now see them again, which especially relaxed Sam. The wait was excruciating, but finally from the caras I could see them returning. Then we all heard Captain’s order.

“Prepare for takeoff,” all of us imdiately started to move.

The motion around the ship was instant. Everyone was moving around, going through their task lists for ergency takeoff.

I personally didn’t have much to do, but I helped as much as possible, coordinating tasks as so finished them before others so they could help finish so of the tasks not on their list.

I contacted Bob, as he still had quite a lot of cargo outside.

“Do you need more workers to bring the rest of the things inside?” I asked him and almost imdiately got the response.

“No, the Captain said to keep them out. Says it's highly unlikely that we will be leaving right away.”

That confused a bit. Didn’t we just murder five people who were probably a part of a larger organisation? Of course, I still didn’t know a lot of the details, but none of this seed good.

Finally, the Captain entered the command bridge, Dean following him closely. I expected Sam and Dean to hug or sothing, but they didn’t do anything besides giving a small nod to each other.

“Captain, are you alright? What exactly happened?”

He then explained what happened, and I felt a cold shiver, sothing that I should not be able to feel. Just the thought of being ripped away from Captain felt repulsing.

“Captain, why were our minds still connected to yours even though we didn’t have a bond?” Dean asked, and that part of the story really interested as well.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Honestly, I have no idea. We can contemplate on that later. FH, bring up the news feed.”

As soon as Captain finished saying that, the screens changed, showing a reporter of so sort near a building that was on fire but was quickly being put out, talking to a newscaster.

“The details are sparse, but it seems like the large explosion here wasn’t a terror attack by the cult known as cha Ascension. Instead, this seed to be one of their hideouts.”

“So you are saying this was so sort of an accident?” the newscaster asked the reporter on site.

“No, from what we understand, this was deliberate. It seems that the explosion was triggered purposefully.”

“This was our on-site reporter Cordal Fihr. We will get back to him as soon as there’s more information about what happened there.”

Now only the newscaster was on screen. He was about to say sothing more but stopped like he was listening to soone speaking.

“This is incredible news. The cha Ascension cult that was believed to only contain mbers who were rogue AIs and their sympathisers. It seems that instead the AIs were controlled and made to do the things that they did by their controllers. It seems that this cult might be more infiltrated in the workings of this city than originally believed.”

I saw as the Captain relaxed from that news. “Good, seems like the bonded AI’s that were released by killing those five are doing as much damage as possible to their forr owners. They will co after us eventually, but they will for now have to worry about surviving the city’s authorities.”

“Wait, so we're staying?” Bob asked, and I was quite curious as well.

“Perhaps it will all depend on the new skill I got. If it can truly strengthen my bonds so no one can rip them away so easily, then we will stay. If not, the best option is to leave. Everyone keep up to date on the news. I will go and focus on the new skills to integrate them properly, then we can see what we will do next.”

The captain left for the 4th floor to his ditation room. He seed a bit troubled, but I could see why. This place was supposed to be a new start that was perfect for our needs, yet now we had made a powerful enemy the first day here.

All of this happened so fast I have not even had the proper ti to realise that sothing went wrong. I could’ve lost him. There has to be a way we can be stronger. My thoughts were interrupted as Dean asked a question.

“Lola, do you know how captain can have so many bonds? Normally it takes even drone lords multiple rank-ups to get to the numbers he has.”

“I have been out here in this galaxy for so little ti, I honestly have no idea what is normal and what isn't. You two should be better inford than .” I answered Deans question hoping they could figure it out as I had no idea.

“Most likely it’s a combination of things, like him being half cybernetic, perhaps the fact that he also has the mind and basic affinities that could also boost the number of bonds, and of course his chanist’s affinity. It is weirdly nad, not the usual kind of na for an affinity that deals with making almost anything and controlling AIs.”

It seems like Sam has put so more thought into this than Dean or I have.

“I am more interested in the fact that you could still feel connected to the captain. You said that it felt like your mind was protected. Can you explain?” Sam asked Dean, who took so ti to think things over before he answered.

“It’s difficult to explain, and the only reason I could sense what was happening was because with the other bond, the only trace left of the captain was what was protecting my mind. If I have to describe the feeling, it was like my mind had a protective bubble around it that felt like the captain, but it wasn't directly connected, not in the way a bond is. I do not know if I can explain it better.”

Sam started to pace up and down, sothing he obviously picked up from the captain as he liked to do that as well.

“That is definitely extrely unusual. You even said that they tried to get access your mories but couldn't because of this protection?”

“Yes, they couldn't even get anything from my squad mbers.”

We waited and waited, but Sam didn’t seem to co to any conclusion, finally seeming to give up.

“I literally have no idea what could cause this. It’s certainly useful, but hopefully we won’t ever have to rely on that protection again.”

All of us agreed on that. We waited like that, doing nothing in particular, and eventually Bob started to leave when we all felt it. Our bond to our captain seed to solidify sohow, like the connection we had to him was more secure.

My happy feeling over captain’s success was quickly extinguished.

“I do not think that this amount of strengthening will do it,” Dean comnted.

“Well damn it, that ans we’re leaving. It's going to be a pain having to store everything once again, but also a good challenge,” Bob said as he once again started to leave.