All the air in the room violently rushed out through the hole my maestro's foot created in the cargo door, and I watched as Abaddon, Reaper, and Kaeya were sucked into the void of space.
Their arrival on Viliana's ship was confirmed by their shouts of pain in my earpiece as they haphazardly flew into her waiting cargo bay, and I let out a sigh of relief. "Get out of here, Viliana," I said into my earpiece. "I'll follow you guys with the Liberation."
"You're really going to risk your life for that damn ship?!" Viliana shouted angrily. "Isn't one person dieing enough?"
"I'm not risking it for the ship," I replied calmly, my emotions still subdued by Kaeya's power, "I'm risking it for the ship's contents. We need the Prodigy Suit to stabilize Kaeya's psychic powers."
"You're insane, you know that?"
I tore open the damaged cargo door in front of me with my maestro's powerful arms, making enough room for me to move through, "I do. Now get out of here."
The cargo door of Viliana's ship closed, and her ship vanished into the black expanse. I tested out the maestro's thrusters, cautiously accelerating out through the hole in the cargo doors, and then I turned towards the station's docking bay.
Two red dots appeared on my display: a pair of Federation frigates undocking and moving towards me.
"Power down immediately or you will be destroyed!" came their message. I responded by accelerating towards them.
They wasted no time opening fire upon me with their railguns, but I deftly spun out of the way of their shots, my maestro exceptionally agile with the absence of any equipment or armour.
Then an idea popped into my head.
I dodged another volley of fire from them and then put on a burst of speed, closing the distance to them as fast as I safely could. I landed next to the bridge of one of the frigates with a heavy crash, several warnings about damage to my maestro's legs blaring, and then I threw a punch at the reinforced windows protecting the bridge.
They shattered beneath the force of my titanic fist, and violent depressurization pulled out any loose objects in a flurry of small debris. Unfortunately no crew came out with the debris: they were properly prepared for a fight.
I went to accelerate upwards, pulling away from the damaged frigate, but as I did so the other frigate fired on me once more, hiting my left arm and tearing it entirely off.
Both legs heavily damaged.
Left arm destroyed.
Thrusters fully operational.
I pushed my suit's thrusters as hard as they could handle, the g-forces of my acceleration causing my vision to diminish to little more than a small tunnel as my heart struggled to circulate my blood under the pressure.
I rocketed towards the docking bay, flying towards it at a frankly idiotic speed so the frigate couldn't get any more shots at me: unfortunately I overestimated the damage I had done to the second one.
The incoming fire warning came too late for me to dodge, and a railgun round tore through the back of my maestro, destroying nearly half of my thrusters and disabling the shoulder joint for my right arm.
With half of my thrusters down there was no way I could slow down before reaching the docking bay. I might still be able to survive the impact.
I opened up a broadcast towards the docking bay as I hurtled towards it, rapidly closing the remain kilometres, "This is Special Technician Kalani Shairolette of the Teracon Navy Reserve. I am requesting to land on the Liberation."
I held my breath, watching the docking bay growing larger every second, and then the response came, "This is Elestranda, support AI on board the Liberation. Your landing request has been accepted; the hangar door is open."
A landing trajectory appeared on my display, and I did my best to move into it with the thrusters that remained on my suit. The frigates behind me held their fire, no doubt unwilling to risk hitting the station, and I smiled. I'd done it, I'd made it back to the Liberation.
Then my display blared a warning, a third ship detaching from the station almost right in front of me.
The Dark-Ops ship.
Its railguns trained onto me, the acceleration rails visibly glowing as they prepared to fire, and I slumped back in my pilot's seat. There was no way to avoid their fire at this point. I had made the wrong play.
At least Kaeya was safe now.
Then another broadcast came from the Liberation, "Captain Kaeya sortieing in the Prodigy."
The Dark-Ops ship spun around as the Prodigy suit burst out of the station's docking bay like a shooting star, its speed rendering it utterly impossible to track with weaponry. The Dark-Ops ship fired again and again at the Prodigy, at Kaeya, but their shots didn't even come close to hitting her, and she crashed into their hull like a wrecking ball.
With two quick swings of her gigantic axe she silenced their railguns, and then she shot towards me.
"What are you doing?" I said to her as she grabbed onto my Maestro, decelerating me enough that my landing on the Liberation would be, while hardly gentle, not life-threatening.
"I'm saving you," she responded cheekily, her voice sounding noticeably better now that she was in the Prodigy suit. "I can't have some mere Special Technician commanding my ship, can I?" I could hear the smile in her voice.
"I'm gonna kill Viliana for bringing you to the Liberation," I growled, my head hurting from the g-forces I'd been subjected too.
"I asked her to," she responded as we shot into the station's docking bay, "it's not her fault."
"I told her to get away from here," I said, Kaeya's psychic power starting to fade and leaving me feeling a multitude of strongly negative emotions.
"And I told her to get me on the Liberation as fast as possible," she replied, audibly suppressing her anger. "I will not stand idly by while you sacrifice yourself for me."
I crashed to the floor of the Liberation's hangar, my maestro reporting critical damage to pretty much every single system on it. As I finally came to a halt against a now-bent wall Kaeya spun around, raising her axe towards someone standing on the catwalk near us.
There was a long moment of tense silence.
"Get off my ship if you don't want to die," she growled at them, her voice magnified by her suit's speakers.
They leaned casually on the catwalk's railing, seemingly unimpressed by Kaeya's colossal suit. Their voice was gruff and heavy, like weathered iron, "Your ship? This hasn't been your ship for decades, or have you forgotten?"
I deactivated my suit and unbelted myself, climbing out of the cockpit. "You think that this ship belongs to the Federation?" I called to him. "What a joke."
He vaulted over the railing and crashed down to the hangar floor, the 4 metre drop of little consequence to him. "It's in a Federation docking bay, on a Federation station, and has seen only Federation personnel for decades now. I think it's quite accurate to say that it's Federation property."
"You stole it," Kaeya spat at him. "You murdered my crew, plundered my ship, and tortured me for decades, and you think that that gives you ownership?"
He drew a sword from its sheathe at his hip and pointed it up at Kaeya, "Personally, I wanted to dispose of you a long time ago. You're only alive because my superiors thought that they could get information out of you."
"And look where that got them," she spat back.
He nodded, the glowing eyes of his helmet turning to me, "Indeed. I told them many times that you were a liability, but they never listened. Now I have to clean up their mess myself."
He started walking towards me but Kaeya stomped a foot down in his way, the impact nearly knocking me over as I climbed down my wrecked Maestro. "You really think I'm gonna let you near him?" she said, cold rage in her voice. "This is your last chance to get the fuck off my ship."
He responded my simply swinging his blade through the Prodigy's ankle, severing its foot from its leg in two clean motions. Then he leapt over the now inert foot.
My blade leapt to my hands as he landed beside me, and I caught his blade with mine. Their meeting was like smashing two extremely powerful magnets together, and we were both flung backwards by the repelling force.
Then Kaeya, balanced on her remaing foot, brought her axe down on him.
He braced himself, his blade raised to receive the weapon, and deftly directed the colossal axe into the floor beside him. It embedded itself multiple meters into the floor, and the man severed the axe's head from its haft with his blade.
Kaeya hopped backwards before he could get at her remaining foot, and I moved to her side as the man calmly walked towards us. "Who are you?" I asked him, my blade raised towards him.
"My name is irrelevant," he replied flatly. "What matters is that you two won't be leaving this station alive."
He lunged at me and I hastily parried aside his attack, our blades once again repelling each other. Unfortunately he followed up his lunge with a power-armoured kick, and searing pain filled my chest as he sent me flying backwards.
I crashed against the floor a few meters away, and I hauled myself back up as fast as I could manage. As I looked around for my blade Kaeya tried to smash him with her suit's fists, but he deftly dodge around them, every swipe of his blade causing immense damage to her arm's internal systems as it cleaved through the armour.
I found my sword, picking it up with difficulty, and then I raced to figure out how we could defeat this ridiculously powerful man.
There weren't any other maestros in the hangar, nor any weapons. All we had was lots of open space and the wreckage of my maestro.
And an open hangar door.
"Sweep him out!" I shouted to Kaeya, pointing down the length of the hangar.
She understood me instantly, and the Prodigy's arm moved so swiftly that I couldn't follow it. The armoured man responded as best he could, raising his sword to intercept the incoming arm, but his blade wasn't remotely large enough to sever the entire arm in a single strike. Kaeya smashed into him with an earsplitting metallic crack, and he was sent flying out of the open hangar door like a ball thrown by a professional pitcher, the empty void of space eagerly carrying him away.
"Elestranda!" I called out, "Close the hangar door and raise the shields! We're leaving immediately!"
"I'm afraid that a disabling device has been placed inside my reactor," she responded. "We're currently restricted to backup power."
A fit of violent coughing overtook me and I hunched over in pain, gripping at my injured chest.
"Is my piloting suit still on the ship?" Kaeya asked Elestranda.
"Negative, Commander. I'm afraid that it was taken away with the rest of the equipment on board."
She let out a curse. "I'm not yet stable enough to fix the reactor; I need my piloting suit."
An idea popped into my head. "How's your fabrication array doing?" I asked the AI. "Can you run it on backup power?"
"For a limited time, yes," she answered. "The fabrication array on the Liberation is also loaded with the entire database of Technician Sentinel Nathanael, so it is capable if producing anything you might need."
"Perfect," I said replied. "Kaeya, can you push your severed foot into the array?"
"I see," she replied, doing her best to move the broken off part. "You're going to reclaim the psy-crystal from the Prodigy in order to make me a new suit."
"The other option is that I go and fix the reactor," I said between painful coughs, "and I don't think that you're going to let me do that."
"That is correct," she replied, worry heavy in her voice. "Elestranda, did they take the restorative tanks?"
"I'm afraid so, Captain," Elestranda replied. "The Prodigy is the only equipment that remains."
Kaeya finished pushing her enormous severed foot into the fabrication array, and I went over to its control panel. A moment later the array began deconstructing the robotic foot, repurposing its materials to create a new copy of Kaeya's special piloting suit.
"You know, I could go-" I started, only to be cut off by Kaeya.
"Absolutely not! I can see your vitals, and you aren't in any condition to be working inside any reactor, nevermind the Liberation's."
I slowly lowered myself to the floor, sitting against the wall next to the fabrication array. "It's good to have you back," I said, tenderly nursing my ribs.
"It's good to be back with you," she replied warmly. It almost looked like the Prodigy was smiling at me...
The fabrication array chimed, indicating its completion of it's job, and Kaeya reached down and picked up her newly made suit. It was a standard space-worthy piloting suit in most ways, but it was coloured a deep purple as a sign of Kaeya's special rank as the Prodigy's pilot. Additionally, its fabrics were laced with an exceptionally rare crystalline compound that stabilized Kaeya's psychic powers, suppressing the voices that would otherwise overwhelm her. It was a curse, having to wear her piloting suit all the time, whether we were on a date or just going for a walk, but she had always said that it was the price to be the Prodigy's pilot.
It didn't seem worth the cost to me.
She stepped out of her cockpit and onto her titanic suit's open hand, pulling off her filthy prison clothes and slipping into her piloting suit. Something changed in her as she finished donning it; a subtle shift in her posture, a brightening in her eyes. She reached down and touched the Prodigy's hand, causing it to gently lower her down to the ground.
She ran over to me, giving me a quick but passionate kiss, "I'll be right back."
"I know," I said, smiling. She ran off to go fix the ship's reactor.
I tapped on my earpiece, connecting it directly to Elestranda. "Hey," I said quietly, "why did they leave the Prodigy behind? It's the most advanced thing on this entire ship."
There was a long pause before Elestranda replied, and I immediately recognized the signs of a Teracon AI encountering classified information restrictions. "I cannot entirely say," she said in an overly measured tone, "but I do recall there being a robot that attacked Federation personnel whenever they approached."
Wait, what?
"This robot attacked on its own?" I asked her.
"The robot was not being piloted," she responded slowly, working her way around what I could only imagine were hundreds of classified data restrictions.
I stared up at the Prodigy, and I got the same feeling I always got when I looked at it for too long.
It felt like it was looking back at me.
"Elestranda, how many AI above level two are there on this ship?" I asked her.
"There is only me," she responded promptly, my rank as a Special Technician giving me access to the ship's technical details.
"How about lifeforms? Biological or not."
"Going by Teracon definitions there are three: you, Kaeya, and me."
"And going by a different definition?"
"I postulate that there are four."
I thought about that for a moment. "What have you become?" I whispered to the massive robot standing over me.
A few minutes later the low hum of the battleship's massive antimatter reactor indicated Kaeya's success, and I reached up to the fabrication array's control panel again. The foot wasn't much in terms of materials, but it was enough for a basic weapon for the Prodigy.
"Shields up," I heard Kaeya order Elestranda through my earpiece. "Navigation priority goes to Special Technician Kalani Shairolette."
"Gravity jump two light years in any direction!" I immediately ordered Elestranda.
"A jump while docked would be dangerous. Are you sure that this is the best course of action, Kalani?" Elestranda asked me.
"We don't have any time to un-dock," I answered.
Through the open hangar door I could see the two Federation frigates approaching, and I had no doubt that they weren't coming to nicely ask us to stay.
Kaeya returned to the hangar a moment later, a large box in her hands. We shared a look and she immediately put down the box, rushing over to the Prodigy. "I figured you could use a new weapon," I yelled to her, pointing to the fabrication array.
She gave me a thumbs up with the gigantic hand of her suit just as the fabrication array chimed its task's completion, and then she picked up the gigantic rifle that had just been built.
"I was expecting something bigger," Kaeya said, giggling.
I couldn't suppress my smile. "It's how you use it that matters," I replied, laughing. The searing pain in my ribs ended that laughter immediately.
Kaeya hopped over to the open hangar and crouched down, aiming her vehicle-sized rifle at the two approaching vessels.
The two vessels flashed, and a moment later the Liberation's shields exploded into brilliant light, four railgun rounds hammering home.
Kaeya returned fire.
Her rifle wasn't an existential threat to them in a head-on fight like this, but their external systems were more than vulnerable, and Kaeya placed her shots masterfully. The first frigate wasn't prepared for the retaliation that struck it, and both of its railgun batteries were torn apart by two bursts of raw kinetic energy from Kaeya's rifle.
The second frigate had a much more cautious Captain, and they maneuvered to avoid Kaeya's rifle fire. With their aim thrown off they could no longer risk firing at us though, and Kaeya continued to force them to maneuver for a full minute.
Then she stood up and hopped back over to me, casually resting her rifle against the wall. "That's all the ammo," she reported, chuckling.
"That doesn't seem like something to laugh about," I said, confused.
"Oh, it isn't," she replied jovially, stepping out of her suit and joining me against the wall. "I guess that I'm just feeling elated now that I'm finally able to hear my own thoughts again."
I smiled, marveling at how lovely she could remain even in as dangerous a situation as this. "Elestranda, what's the status on our jump?" I asked.
"It's gonna be really rough on the ship," she replied, "but I think we're about ready to go."
Another railgun round slammed into the shields, the second frigate no longer being harassed by Kaeya's attacks.
"I think it's about time we depart. Kaeya?"
She grinned at me, intertwining the fingers of one of her hands with mine, "Elestranda, initiate gravity jump."
The ship lurched violently, the piercing shriek of stressed metal filling the air. Sparks showered down from the roof, and the lights went black a moment later. Then, several moments later, the ship steadied and the sounds died out, the lights returning to life one by one.
"Hull stress was extreme," Elestranda reported, "but no critical damage was sustained. We have successfully jumped."
I leaned over and gave Kaeya a passionate kiss, and she returned it whole-heartedly. We had done it. After so many decades Kaeya was by my side once again, and this time I wasn't going to lose her. I was overjoyed.
The image of Aria's body fused into crystal refused to leave me.
"Kalani?" Kaeya said, her tone suddenly very serious.
I frowned, "Yeah?"
She took a deep breath, "I think that you deserve to be told the truth about our past; about why you know how to pilot a Maestro, and why our bond was so strong from the moment we met as adults."