Chapter 162: Rotten Meat
I could hear the loud cries of concern from my guys as I dropped to my knees, holding my head in both of my hands. I was tempted to take off my helmet in hopes of getting rid of that loud sound. It sounded like the feedback that a microphone sometimes sent out.
Unfortunately, I understood that the sound was coming from the device implanted inside of my head and not my helmet. Thus, taking off the helmet wouldn’t help with the sound and would only add more potential trouble instead.
"Can you hear me now?" came the deep voice again, cutting through the sound, only to be drowned again. "Fucking solar storm... Mei Xing!... –help.... –important... I need you!"
I felt myself getting picked up in strong arms and looked up to see Ye’tab carrying me out of the Saalistaja craft and across the icy plains to my own fighter craft. I closed my eyes to try and block out as much as I could, but it still wasn’t enough.
The high-pitched feedback continued, intermittent with Jun Li’s voice, until my brain was threatening to shut down to over stimulus.
I opened my eyes, only to see Midnight standing in front of me, his arms held out and his lips moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. Just the screaming.
"Can you hear me?!?" shouted Jun Li, and everything went blessedly silent.
"I can hear you know," I replied, panting. "There was too much feedback before," I continued to explain, not once telling Ye’tab that I was feeling better and could be put down.
"We have received another distress call from an Alliance ship," said Jun Li quickly, just in case he was cut off again.
"And?" I sighed, snuggling deeper into Ye’tab’s arms. We were back inside of my ship with all of my ’mates’ around me, but I was quite comfortable. It seemed like Ye’tab wasn’t all that interested in putting me down, either.
"And we are required to go check it out," pressed Jun Li.
"Really? Because this seems like déjà vu to me," I responded, rolling my eyes. I took off my helmet and cracked my neck. "Can you go on the speakers so that everyone else can hear you?"
"Better?" asked Jun Li, this time coming from overhead instead of in my ear.
"Much," I said with a nod as I looked at the males. "Now, can you repeat what you just said?"
"Yesterday, at approximately 2039, a distress call came in that an Alliance merchant ship was under attack from the Uugazts," repeated Jun Li, and I saw both GA and Da’kea input something into their wrist units while Midnight pushed a button behind his ear and started to talk quickly.
"And I said that we already played that game, and it turned out to be a trap. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... well, that won’t go over well for them," I replied to Jun Li as I saw Midnight approaching me with a shake of his head.
Looking at both GA and Da’kea, they were also shaking their heads at me. Breathing in deep, I cracked my neck, still firmly in Ye’tab’s arms. "And apparently, we are the only ones to get this ’distress call’," I continued, interpreting the guy’s motions as them not having received the same call.
"But are they really dumb enough to try that twice?" asked Jun Li after a slight pause.
"Well, we did tell them that we were nowhere near the ships the first time, and they are used to dealing with Pippa, so yeah, they might think that we are dumb enough to fall for the same tactic a second time," I answered with a sigh.
"Then how do you want to handle this?"
"Are we able to leave the planet? Or is the solar storm still preventing us from getting back to you?" I asked, trying to quickly come up with a plan. The biggest question that I had was whether this was another ship experimenting on human women. And if it was, was she still even alive to try and save?
"The solar storm has ended. You should be able to leave whenever you want," confirmed Jun Li after a moment.
"Then send them a message back that we are on our way, but we are far away, and it will take us a bit of time to get to them," I said. I might be willing to bite at this bait, but I would do it on my own terms.
"Got it," replied Jun Li. "Oh, and Sha Shou wants the larger Saalistaja ship." He quickly cut the link, leaving the rest of them to stare at each other in awkward silence.
"Sha Shou?" asked Da’kea.
"Yeah, she was technically my armor after I blood-bonded with it. But I think that my ship did something to her, changing her into an AI. Now she is upset that Jun Li has both a ship and a body, and I offered to find her a ship to take over," I said, not too sure how it was going to go over.
"You created an AI from your armor?" asked Da’kea.
"No, I didn’t create the AI; I think my ship did," I clarified, in no way willing to take the blame for bringing another AI into the world.
"But you just pointed out that that it wasn’t until you blood bonded with her that she became an AI," pointed out the older male, causing me to cringe.
"You think that there is more to my genetic code than just being an Ethawainian Royalty?" It was now my turn to ask the questions. Except in this case, I was really scared to have them answered. Just what have the Sisalik done to me?
"I think that there is no documentation left of the Ethawainians, let alone their royalty, to know what was possible for them to do," said Da’kea slowly, and I could feel Ye’tab tighten his arms around me, reassuring me that he was there. "You are both an old species and a brand new one. As such, I don’t think that we can simply dismiss anything that happens around you as a mere coincidence."
"But how is it possible that I can affect electronics?" I asked, completely confused.
"Our armor is linked to us genetically. It is programmed to heal us on a cellular level, provide the optimal environmental conditions for us to live, protect any weaknesses we might have, and continue to adjust as needed. It was also supposed to react to only males," said Da’kea as he stared at me.
"But even the Nanos have weaknesses," continued GA as he picked up from where Da’kea stopped. "For example, our locs are our greatest weakness but also our greatest strength. They let us know what is going on in our environment at all times and allow us to react accordingly. However, if we are bombarded with too much information, then it basically shuts down our system, and we cannot function."
"We cannot cover them because then we would lose the sensory information, but if an enemy were to touch them, or Dark Lord forbid, cut one off, it would be excruciatingly painful, and we would be helpless," added Ye’tab looking down at me. "It is considered to be the worst form of torture for any Saalistaja to endure. And most will kill themselves in an attempt to end their pain."
"I am sorry to hear that," I said. However, I wasn’t sure how that was connected to my creating an AI with my blood.
"The point is that after we were chosen by you, our locs were encased in armor that still allowed us to receive sensory input but protected them at the same time. That means that you affected us on a genetic level, which resulted in a genetic modification to our Nanos at the same time," finished Da’kea, looking at me like I just hung the moon.
"I think that your blood, combined with Jun Li, created an entirely new species of AI," added Ye’tab, as if I didn’t have enough to deal with.
"I think that there are a few things wrong with your line of thought," I said slowly. For the first time in my life, I was trying to not offend the men around me. "I have not once exchanged blood or given you my blood in any way. Your transformation had to do with my pheromones, if I remember correctly."
"Exactly," nodded GA, not at all caring that I should be responding to the latest Alliance ’emergency’. "The pheromones that you secreted entered our olfactory senses, and, like everything else that enters our body, the Nanos investigated it and reacted to it. They do the same thing if we consume rotten meat or a poison of some kind and then expel the substances from us before we are harmed by them. However, in your case, instead of expelling the substance, they seem to have clung on to the scent until it managed to transform them on a fundamental level."
"I’m sorry... did you really just compare me to rotten meat?" I demanded, looking at him.
