Chapter 2: Troublesome Aethers

Emirie places the last plate on the table before she steps back to admire her
work. She did it very well this time. She remembered knife and fork, and didn't
break any cups, and "where are the spoons?" Emirie slumps audibly as she realize
that she forgot something again. "Coming Dauth." She responds in her best
drone-like voice as she pulls out one of the chairs and use it to help reach
the drawer containing all the spoons. "Why do we need spoons anyway?" Emirie
says, with her face buried into the drawer and her back turned away from Dauth.

"Dessert. I've made honey-flavored ice cream to serve after dinner is done."
Emirie tenses slightly as her ears perk up in expectation. "Though not for
you." Emirie frowns and her ears fall down in disappointment.

"Why not?" She says as she turns around, holding several spoons in her small
paws.

"Because..." The big Tae'Dae turns around, taking care not to tear anything
down with his burly paws. "you weren't supposed to even be here."

"So? Now I am here, and I'm working my paws of to prove that I'm capable of
being a part of the crew. Shouldn't that be enough?"

Dauth sighs, obviously uncomfortable. "Maybe. I don't know, I'm just a cook. It
was your mother who told me to not make any for you." The bearlike man displays
a goofy grin, trying to make himself look innocent.

"Bah." Emirie protests as she spreads the spoons out across the table. "That
stupid... idiot. Why does she hate me so?"

"She doesn't hate you." The Tae'Dae takes a seat next to the table and his eyes
fixate on Emirie. "In fact, she cares about you a lot."

"So why then does she put me through all this? Why am I slaving for everyone in
the crew the entire day, and only being allowed to rest when I eat or sleep!"
Emirie almost punches the last spoon in place, before she collapses down on a
chair opposite of Dauth.

"It's not nearly that bad." Dauth leans forward and notices that small tears
are forming in the corner of the young furrikin's eyes. "Your mother loves you
dearly."

"Oh yeah?!" Emirie looks up, her vision blurred by tears. "Yeah, I am so
incredibly lucky who has a mother that loves me soooo much. Everyone says it,
even she, so of course it must be true." Her voice is dripping with bitterness.
"Tell me then, Dauth. If mother loves me so much, why doesn't she ever believe
what I tell her?"

Dauth opens his mouth to say something, but he doesn't get the chance when the
ship suddenly shakes violently, throwing both Dauth and Emirie off balance.
They both jump of their chairs in surprise, when another blast hits the ship. A
frown appears on Dauth's face. "Pirates." He says as a third blast flies just
above the ship. A soft humming flows through the ship as it repairs itself,
before the ship shakes violently due to three successive volleys fired from
their own ship.

Emirie frowns in worry, her thoughts jump to her mother in an instant, hoping
that things would go well, when Toi comes barging into the room. The
Loboshigaru focuses his attention on "Dauth. We're going to need your help." He
doesn't wait for Dauth to comprehend what he said, and instead drags the large
Tae'Dae with him out of the kitchen.

Emirie has barely comprehended what just happened, when another volley of shots
are fired into the ship. She stumbles and falls down, along with Dauth's pan of
frying oil. The boiling oil spreads out across the floor, and Emirie has to
jump back to avoid touching it. When she looks up from the slippery ground that
was just created, she also sees that one of the bookshelves in the next room has
tipped over and is blocking the path after Toi and Dauth. She frowns, realizing
that it will take too long to clear away the debris, and instead turns around
to run the other way. She knows that there is a staircase to the Aetherhold
further to the front of the ship. She dashes through several rooms, all of them
empty. She figures that everyone else must have run ahead to get to wherever Toi
took Dauth. She finally finds the stairs and speeds down to the darkened belly
of the ship. It takes a few moments for her eyes to readjust themselves to the
lack of light, but the darkness doesn't stop her. She charges on through the
narrow hallway to get to the main chambers of the Aetherhold, when she suddenly
hears the sound of fighting. Ahead of her, past the main chamber and into the
other wing of the ship, she can see two huge forms fighting. She dashes towards
the fighting, and the horrible truth becomes all to clear to her when she sees
Bhoditix fighting and losing against a burly orclach. She gets to the scene
just in time to see Bhoditix thrown into the wall and remain lying on the
ground, gasping painfully for air. Red mist appears in the corner of Emirie's
eyes as she charges headfirst into the orclach. "Leave him alone, you
monster!!" She shouts right before crashing into his leg and ricocheting onto
her back.

The gray-skinned man turns and shifts his feet so that he is standing above
Emirie's prone form. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" He bends down so
that his face hovers only inches above Emirie, and she can't help but wince
slightly at his small evil eyes and the overpowering stink of his breath. The
orclach uses his right hand to lift her up by her long ears so that her face
becomes equal to his.

"Let me go!" Emirie cries, writhing and trashing around in the grip, as tears
begin to form from the pain. "Let me go this instant you big brute!" Emirie
swings a fist towards the face of the orclach, but he simply holds her further
away so that the fist hits nothing but the empty air between them.

"Now now. We were just getting to know each other." The orclach flashes a grin,
revealing rows of yellowed teeth. "In fact, I think I'll keep you to myself so
that I'll get to know you better." The orclach pulls out a bag from his pocket
and opens it.

Shock creeps across Emirie's face when she realize what is about to happen. The
shock quickly changes to determination however, as she places her feet on the
orclach's chest and kicks off, sending herself swinging away from the monstrous
form of her captor. He turns to look at what Emirie is doing, when she reaches
the end of her swing, and swings backwards, feet first, straight into his
throat. The orclach howls in pain as her kick crashes against his frame,
forcing him to let go of her ears. Emirie doesn't hesitate, and quickly grabs
hold of the bag which the orclach dropped, before she dives down to bite him in
the heel. He cries out in pain again and swings his arm towards her to smash her
down. Emirie is quicker however and dodges out of the way before she jumps on
his arm, and from his arm onto his shoulder, and from there she opens the bag
and pulls it over the large head belonging to the orclach. She quickly tightens
the rope on the bag, before she jumps down, still clinging to the bag. The
sudden shift of weight causes the orclach to stagger and trash around, waving
his arms wildly. Emirie isn't done however, her eyes scan across the floor for
anything to use as a weapon. Her eyes stop at an old mop, which she quickly
scoops up. She climbs a few steps in the stairs and then leaps out into the
air. She brings the mop down in one quick stroke, and the resounding crack and
loud thud as the orclach falls down convinces Emirie that she made a very
convincing argument for the orclach to stay down.

Emirie pants loudly and stares at the lifeless shape of the orclach, when from
behind her, she hears a barely audible whisper sounding like "That was...
awesome." Emirie turns around to see Bhoditix staring up at her with a goofy
grin. "Didn't know you could hit that hard." He says a bit louder, causing
Emirie to blush.

"Oh, that was nothing. How about you? Are you okay?" Emirie walks over to
Bhoditix to examine him.

"Oh, I guess." He winces. "I think he broke my leg though. It hurts just to
move it."

Emirie quickly looks over the leg and nods softly, confirming that it is indeed
broken. She sighs and looks up to Bhoditix's face again. "Sorry, but I can't
stay."

"I know that." Bhoditix puts on a brave smile. "Go give em one from me."

"I will. Trust me on that." Emirie smiles and stands up, she takes a deep
breath to gather up her courage, before she bolts up the stairs. Familiar rooms
pass by her as she dashes through the ship, all the while struggling through
blasts and shakes from the aetherfighting. Finally, the doorway into the sick
bay comes into view. Just through there and she'll be back in the central hub.
Only... Emirie throws herself to the floor as the door is burst open by a
flying Taurian. Emirie remains prone until she hears the confirming thud. She
quickly stands up, not bothering to turn around and see what became of the
Taurian, since the pull to see who could do something like that was too great
to do the smart thing.

Emirie peeks through the open doorway to find another Furrikin standing on a
table. The woman, who has the appearance of a skunk, is staring down a much
larger Loboshigaru. Emirie tenses her body as she looks around the room. All
around her, she can see the downed bodies of pretty much any race that must
have gone up against the Furrikin and lost, as each of them has at least one
syringe implanted somewhere on their body. The entire ship shakes as another
blast hits it, causing Emirie to shake and lose her focus, though neither the
Loboshigaru nor the Furrikin budge an inch. She can't help but get a feeling of
awe from watching this stare-down contest, when suddenly one of the paws
belonging to the Loboshigaru has reached out and flown inches past the head of
the Furrikin. Emirie rubs her eyes in astonishment and looks back, only to see
that the Loboshigaru has switched from having his right paw stretched out, to
having his left paw stretched out... if it is even possible to switch punches
that quickly. Emirie doesn't have time to mull over the question of what is
quicker, the paw or the eye, for now the Loboshigaru has launched into a full
blown assault against the Furrikin. Amazingly, the Furrikin manages to dodge
each blow from the flurry, and in the blink of an eye, execute a counter by
holding one of the Loboshigaru paws firmly, before she delivers a devastating
kick into his elbow. The Furrikin has barely put her foot down before it
reaches out to kick a syringe into her free hand, and with a quick flick of the
wrist the syringe flies through the air and burrows itself deeply into the gray
fur of the Loboshigaru. He releases a sickly cough and staggers backwards,
before he collapses down on the ground. Emirie stares as the Furrikin finally
relaxes her posture, at which she collapses and coughs up blood. Clearly her
dodging wasn't as insane as it first seemed. Emirie frowns and runs over to
look up at her fellow kinswoman. The older woman looks down on Emirie, her eyes
cold and firm. Emirie gulps and backs away, only to hear more shouting.

She spins around to look into the central hub, where Toi is fighting with a
pirate Aslaran. Around both of them can be seen the unconscious form of crew
members and pirates, among them Dauth. She winces softly inwardly to see new
friends so badly hurt, but she understands that this isn't the time to be soft.
She bolts forward and bites her teeth into the leg of the Aslaran, throwing him
off balance long enough for Toi to deliver a devastating uppercut, and knock
the pirate out. Toi smiles a bastard smile at Emirie, both pleased and
disappointed at the same time. "Thanks for your help. Heh... but I'm afraid it
won't help."

"Why?" Emirie says with a surprised frown. "We've beaten them back haven't we?"
She looks around when she suddenly becomes aware of the smoke pouring out from
the Empath gird.

Toi follows Emirie's eyes and nods. "Yeah, they've blown up the Empath module."
He frowns. "I'm not even sure if your mother survived that." Emirie notices that
sudden realization dawns upon Toi. "Though I'm sure she did."

"Oh no..." Emirie stumbles and leans against the stairs. "It can't be."

"Yeah... well it is. When the grid blew up, you must've felt the shook earlier,
we entered evasive maneuvers. That costs a lot of energy for the ship though
and..." Toi frowns. "When we're out of that power, we'll be sitting ducks. And
without your mother there is nothing we can do."

"No..." Emirie whispers softly, and she looks up the stairs. "Well... if I'm
going to die... I at least want to get one last look at Aetherspace."

Toi nods and bends down to wrap his paw around Emirie. "Come. Let's go up and
watch." He says as he offers his hand to Emirie, which she grabs in a firm
grip.

Together, the two climb up the stairs to enter the circular chamber around the
command console. Emirie gazes out through the translucent windows of the ship
to watch the aethers flow around her. Her eyes flow from waves of slipstream,
to temporal storms raging in the distance, to the massive shapes of Cloiers and
Slanikks and Lixins far away. Her eyes continue to sweep across the
surroundings, stopping momentarily at the large pirate Algorithne entity that
was just waiting for this bumpy ride to end. A small tear appears in the corner
of her eye as she turns away from the signal of doom. She silently cursed it,
cursed it for hurting her friends, cursing it for taking her mother away from
her, and cursing it for now taking even her own life. The hopelessness of the
situation slowly dawns upon her as a solution creeps into her view. It takes a
few seconds for Emirie's despair-filled mind to realize what she is staring at,
but when she does, she finds that maybe all hope isn't lost anyway. On the other
side of the ship, a huge maelstrom of aethrical power swirls in a dazzling
display of it's might. "Toi. Is that one of the power vortexes found in
aetherspace?" Emirie asks with a slight sound of mockery in her voice.

Toi blinks curiously and looks down at Emirie, before he looks out in the other
direction. "Yeah, that is... hey wait!"

But Emirie doesn't have the time to wait. She drags Toi with her through the
hallways until she arrives at one of the two power collectors she knows to be
here. "Tell me. Everyone who is a part of the crew can lock into these modules
right?"

"Well, yeah but..."

"And I'm part of the crew right?"

"Yeah you are. But what help will it be to gather power now?" Toi scratches his
head in confusion.

"It's not for the power..." Emirie grins as she locks herself into the module.
"It is for the risk." Emirie draws upon all the lessons she has learned from
her mother and quickly assumes control over the collector. "Here we go..." She
whispers as she sends out waves to resonate with the vortex and drag energy
from it, and just as she hoped the vortex reacts violently at the assault. It
lashes out a tendril of energy that drags the ship into the depths of the
vortex. Emirie screams out as the awesome energy flowing through the module
overwhelms her, and she collapses on the ground, her consciousness quickly
fading as she feels the ship being flung towards an unknown destination in the
aetherways.