Chapter 2: The Power is Shared With Another

Mev found his release a relief as he had begun to feel a disturbance, a premonition the Morro would soon be making an appearance, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. They were still too far away for him to be able to sense them but he was feeling a precognitive feeling they were approaching. It wasn't a feeling to be discounted, he knew they were coming.

He hurried to the compartment where the ships internal wireless communications equipment was located; it was both his work area and his duty station if GQ were sounded. As soon as he entered the compartment he overrode the security camera and opened the small void where his weapons were hidden. They were his one violation of regulations since non-issue weapons were not allowed on board the ship.

The first was his sword which was the usual weapon of a High Lord of Venda. But the hand forged blade of a High Lord of Venda was no ordinary weapon. Once he received the blade a High Lord would begin to use his power to enhance it beyond being a mere sword. Mev could use the sword to store power he could later draw upon at need and could be used to direct and emit energy beams toward distant targets. Mev had received the sword eight years before from Krazto the master sword smith and it been his companion ever since. Despite being hand forged the sword had been made from an alloy which was as fine as any industrially produced metal in the Republic.

The second weapon was one which Mev had made himself. In appearance it was similar to a standard Republic fleet hand blaster but in the hands of anyone except for a High Lord of Venda it would simply be an inert piece of metal and plastic. Like his sword this weapon could accept and store power for future use and could be used to discharge beams of energy in the same way as a blaster except with far greater intensity and duration. In Mev's hand it was a devastating weapon but for anyone else it was just a useless toy. He kept both items stored with a spell to keep them hidden and away from prying eyes.

Satisfied all was as it should be Mev closed the void and restored the security cameras to normal operation. He then ran a quick check on the equipment under his care and discovered all was well with it.

Due to the number of military and civilian refugees on board the ship Mev had received permission to sleep in the equipment compartment. Every berthing compartment on the ship was filled to overflowing, every stateroom was completely occupied. Many of the crew had moved out of berthing compartments into equipment spaces if the space was safe for inhabitation.

Now that he has a moment of quiet Mev sat in his chair and closed his eyes, relaxing his body. He sent his awareness outside the ship, sweeping the area around the ship. Mev tried to make such sweeps several times each day especially since his range of perception considerably exceeded the capabilities of the ships sensors. Mev preferred to know what was happening outside the ship and what they might encounter. Since Mev had begun receiving precognitive flashes of an encounter with the Morro so he had been paying even more attention to the surrounding space than usual.

After searching for a few moments Mev was unable to find anything unusual in the space surrounding the ship so he relaxed back to his normal awareness. The ordeal of the security check was over, at least for the moment, but Mev knew he would be under a lot more scrutiny now. The higher profile would likely become an annoyance sooner or later but there had not been any way to easily avoid it.

Suddenly the admittance buzzer sounded indicating that someone who wasn't on the access list for the compartment wanted to enter. Most of the equipment spaces on the ship had access restricted to those in the crew who needed access. The civilian refugees on board were not on the access lists for any of the equipment compartments. Mev pressed the admittance button on his console and the door slid open.

As soon as the door was completely open the person who had requested entrance walked into the compartment. It was Kathleen Chen, one of the civilian refugees and Mev's close friend. She was the only other person on the ship who knew what Mev really was. The two shared the common experience of their home worlds having been ruined by Morro attacks. Kathy had escaped the destruction of her home and entire family by being away on a visit to a remote space station. The station had been evacuated just before the Morro attack and one group of the escapees had been taken on board the battle cruiser several months before.

"I heard what happened, I'm so glad you are all right!" the girl exclaimed as soon as she was completely inside the compartment and the door was closed behind her.

"It was some inconvenience for a time but I passed through it. Fortunately the drug that was administered only has a temporary effect and is not a fatal poison like many such drugs," Mev replied.

"It's supposed to be completely safe, why was it different for you, Mev?" She asked.

"It's due to the differences in my nervous system which greatly increase the sensitivity to such drugs. I think partly it is a result of a deliberate modification of the genome over the 4 successive generations of my race. We have the power to alter our own genetic structure within certain limits and my ancestors made changes which made us more resistant to external manipulation and control." Mev replied. "If ingested orally or applied to the skin drugs and poisons have no effect upon the body of a Vendan high lord, the organs have defenses which prevent absorption or damage. But injection directly into the blood stream bypasses those defenses. So as a second layer of protection there are receptors in the nerve cells which bind to any psychoactive substance. Unconsciousness or even death is considered to be a desirable side effect of the activity of those receptors."

"It seems strange your people thought it was better to die than be under the control or influence of something outside themselves," the girl said.

"I think it stems from a well justified fear of the power of command which was discovered soon after the change came upon us. There were a number of sad incidents which led to the desire to defend against it and anything similar." Mev continued.

"At least you're all right."

"For now but it may not last long."