Chapter 15

Vish’ala slept through the remainder of our stay on the planet, which was only another few hours. With our collection of materials complete, I laid in an escape trajectory and took off back towards the edge of the system. During those hours, my mind dwelt on what had happened. There was some guilt that I felt: in part because I didn’t do more to control myself, and also because it seemed the pheromones, I had been releasing were probably the cause of her attraction to me. We would see how things were once she woke and hopefully had a clearer head about things. As we neared the end of the system’s gravity well, I activated the Luminal drive and watched as a vortex opened into hyperspace.

We were about an hour into our return trip when Vish’ala finally began to stir. I resisted the urge to look back and watch as she stretched. I could hear the groans and moans typical of stretching after a nap, though my mind imagined something different was the cause of those sounds. I admonished myself for letting my mind and imagination drift towards that line of thought as I confirmed our charted course and locked in the autopilot.

“Mmm,” Vish’ala said, during another stretch. “I feel amazing, who knew a nap would be so good. I had the strangest dream though...”

I then heard a gasp and a quick shuffle of fabric, before more movement and soft cursing occurred.

“Okay, what happened?” She growled. “I don’t remember taking off all of my clothes, so what the hell happened?”

I turned to face her, “So you don’t remember purposely washing yourself in a bid to entice me? That you further attempted to entice me by asking for my help? That, once you got the reaction you wanted, you then pounced on me and teased me relentlessly? That you tore off my shirt and shorts to get me naked and then without asking put me inside you?”

I watched as shock appeared on her face and a flush of what I assumed was embarrassment appeared on her face. “Umm,” she said softly. “I remember starting to bathe myself and I might have timed it to happen as you came out of the pod, but I only meant to entice.”

I looked at her sternly, “Be that as it may, you did do all those things, and, given our proximity, Tali said it was a matter of time.”

Vish’ala cocked her head in confusion, not knowing exactly what I meant by the statement.

I scratched my head and said, “We have been in close proximity for the past week. Even with the life support systems scrubbing our air, you had to have been picking up the pheromones I have been giving off. Apparently, they have been changed and enhanced by the Omega Protocol. Tali was aware I would be changed to better suit the needs of the protocol, but never delved into the finer details, until now. The pheromones put you into intense heat and caused you to act the way you did. She believes that it could be to create a ‘pride’ of sorts as the protocol was designed for the chance their civilization fell.”

“They didn’t just change your pheromones, Captain,” Tali announced as she appeared on the bridge. “It seems their ability to manipulate genomes was greater than they had documented. I am not even sure the tech was Mac’skarian, but, regardless of that fact, you have been modified to create more than a pride, it has made it possible for your two species to procreate.”

,

If my jaw could hit the floor (like in the cartoons I watched growing up) I think it would have. A quick glance over to Vish’ala told me she, too, was shocked by the revelation, though I thought I saw something else in her eyes as well.

“So, you’re telling me I can have children with Mac’skarians?” I asked. “So, I have been changed to now be able to procreate with an alien species and not my own anymore?”

Tali shook her head, “Based on my analysis of the samples I have of you and Eva, you should still be biologically compatible. Somehow, they have made you compatible with both. I am unable to access anything to explain the process or the reasons why, as they are behind a security lock out.”

I told her to use mine and gave her the authorization code, but she said that even my code didn’t allow access to the files.

“Well, that is just great,” I said with a hint of sarcasm in my voice. “So, we have no idea just what else they may have done to me? What about the other females on the station? Am I going to have to isolate myself until we find a way to limit my exposure to them?”

Tali shook her head. “As far as I am aware, there have been no others that had shown the same attraction as Vish’ala had. She was affected due to being in close proximity here on the Obsidian and due to how closely you worked together when helping repair the station. As for the rest of the female population of the station, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. The unpaired females of the station have not had enough exposure to you for your pheromones to have an effect on their behaviour. I do have to suggest that Vish’ala go to the medical labs when we return to the station.”

Both of us gave her a confused look and I swear I might have seen a hologram blush for the first time there. I had forgotten that, despite her artificial nature, she was capable of having very ‘human’ reactions.

She glanced away and replied, “Um, well, as part of the changes made, your potency was increased to ensure the survival of the species.”

“You mean that he could have bred me last night?” Vish’ala asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

Tali nodded, and I felt shocked go through me. I wasn’t prepared for that, and I had just let my urges take over last night because I figured there was no risk. Now there was a distinct possibility that I could be a father in the future.

“This is not the time to dwell on this,” Vish’ala said, surprising me out of my thoughts. “We need to get back to the station and deliver these supplies. There is no telling when our activities will be finally noticed, and I worry it would not be by a friendly party.”

I couldn’t argue with that, and we took our stations to monitor our course and the area around us. It was clear sailing for the next few hours, and we decided to have our rest breaks. We had awkward silences that we tried to occupy ourselves through. I concentrated on my reading, as the pod did give a lot of information, but there were more subtle things that I needed to read and to be able to recall at will. It was eight hours before our emergence home, that I started picking something up on long range sensors.

“Tali, is the stealth mode still operational in hyperspace?” I asked, as I tried to get more refined readings.

“Unfortunately, not, sir,” she replied. “Part of our stealth systems rely on the blackness of space to hide our location. The turbulence of hyperspace doesn’t allow us to hide as easily. The most they could do is make us a little harder to read.”

I nodded. “Vish’ala activate stealth systems and ready our defensive systems. I am picking something up on long range scans and I want to make sure that we are prepared just in case it is a threat.”

Vish’ala nodded, and the klaxon began to blare as we activated our weapons and shields. I ordered the klaxon to be turned off, as I didn’t want the noise distraction and began watching the readings on what appeared to be an unknown vessel.

“What if it is an old ally of ours?” Vish’ala asked, glancing over her shoulder towards me. “There is no proof that what we are detecting is hostile.”

I turned back to the console display, “If your people had any allies left, wouldn’t they have at least reached out to the station prior to our arrival there? They would have scoured your empire looking for survivors and rendering assistance. Your former allies either helped in the attack against your people, or they are too scared to go up against those that did. Until we are certain of who we can trust, we need to treat anyone we encounter as a possible threat.”

I heard no argument from Vish’ala and focused on the readings. We still had a bit of time in hyperspace before we would arrive at the station, and I didn’t want them detecting us.

“Vish’ala, change of plans. “ I called out. “Prepare to exit hyperspace when we are close enough to some other system. I want to see if they follow us, and if they do, I’d rather deal with them in normal space instead of hyperspace.”

She acknowledged with a ‘yes, sir’ and I watched our course alter as she directed the ship to a gravimetric echo that signalled a system. Hyperspace is filled with them, and they function as markers to star systems in normal space. This one had incomplete data, probably due to what happened with Tali and Alta’s systems.

A few minutes later, we emerged at the edge of the system, and I was elated to see an asteroid belt. I told Vish’ala to punch it and head there immediately while I moved weapons control to my station. Watching our scanner, I detected the opening of a vortex and could tell that something had emerged from hyperspace behind us.

The system had no life bearing planets, just two gaseous ones split by an asteroid belt. The planet on the outer limits of the system had a dense ring around it so I had Vish’ala take us there as fast as we could. It didn’t take long to enter the rings and find a place to hide the Obsidian. The rings were filled with various chunks of rock that were made of many diverse types of metals and rocks. Once we were deep enough that we could be adequately hidden, full stealth was activated causing the ship to begin to drift and rotate like all the other stellar debris. The suspect ship slowly approached the system, though it followed the trajectory we had taken. Thankfully, the movement we initiated to hide from them would move us far enough away from any residual ion trail we had left so that they shouldn’t suspect we were there.

The tension built as we waited and watched as the ship slowly approached the planet, though it seemed to be keeping its distance for now. We had already been running with our systems active at roughly a quarter of our usual power settings since we were only occupying the bridge. I had Tali decrease the system output as much as she could and maintain life support for us to limit our energy signature. Hopefully the modifications we had made to the hull plating would help shield us from scans, but, with no idea who or what was looking for us, we needed to be careful. They could have sensors that were even more advanced than our recent upgrades.

As they continued to close in on the planet, I began to get more detailed information on the ship. While the information was coming up on my screen, I hoped the passive scans wouldn’t cause their sensors to lock on us. Regardless of the risk, I needed to know what we were dealing with. We set the sensors to the lowest settings we could and waited to see what would be revealed as the ship drew to the edge of the rings.