Chapter 0008

One of the pirate cruisers was torn in half by a devastating explosion. Flames licked at its edges, even as the unrelenting void of space snuffed them out. And even though the cruiser itself was beyond beaten, the Diomedes hardly slowed its barrage.

The battleship continued to pelt the cruiser with savage intensity, as though it needed to ensure the enemy’s outright erasure.

Nearby, dozens of pirate fighters were deeply entangled with the Federation fighters and were also losing terribly. Their tactics of shock and awe certainly worked against the station and its meager defenses, but were hardly a match against highly trained and battle hardened pilots.

Their chaotic sleight-of-hand tactics were of little use in a protracted engagement, and those shortcomings emerged more and more as the fight drew on.

On the other side of the Diomedes, the pirate cruisers who were scooping up the evacuees were also experiencing their share of troubles. Since the start of the fight, they had been peppered with accelerator fire from the looming battleship.

One of them had been struck so relentlessly that their electrical systems began to fail, and the ship’s power waned further and further. Eventually, the accelerator fire dug deep into the cruiser’s systems and modules, and bled them dry of every bit of energy possible.

The ship’s primary power plant ultimately sputtered its last gasp and the whole ship went dark.

“We need to get the hell outta here!” cried one of the other pirate captains. “Full retreat!”

Klaxons blared as the cruisers’ port modules spun up.

Any pirate fighters still in the fight immediately disengaged and ran back to their home cruisers without hesitation. The captains certainly weren’t going to wait for them - at this point it had become every man for himself.

If they weren’t in teleport range by the time the cruisers were fully charged up, they were going to be mercilessly left behind. As chaotic as they were, not a single pirate wanted to be left high and dry. Especially with the Federation bearing down on them with lethal force.

One by one, the cruisers ported out in blinding flashes of light, their tails tucked firmly between their legs.

~

Admiral Tori stroked his beard as he analyzed his fleet’s handiwork. A wide grin spread across his face as he surveyed the damage.

“Report,” he said with an amused tone.

“Sir,” an analyst replied, “three enemy capital ships have been neutralized. Two down, one out. Thirty-seven enemy skirmishers have been neutralized. Thirteen down, eight out, and sixteen yields.”

“That’s about a third of their fleet,” Tori mused. “Not a bad start. Continue.”

“In addition, scanners indicate that sixty-three lifeboats are en route to the Diomedes. Roughly twenty lifeboats are estimated to be in the neutralized cruiser’s hold.”

“See if you can triangulate their escape route. I want to make sure we wipe these pirates out as much as we can. But first, we must head to Helios and offload the evacuees there. We’ll continue the chase after a quick rearm and repair.”

“Yessir.”

The admiral then turned to one of his officers standing close by.

“I’ll be retiring to my quarters. XO, the bridge is yours.”

After the Admiral left the bridge, whatever tension was deep in the air immediately let up. The Executive Officer then sat in the command chair, but with a much more casual demeanor than the admiral.

“You heard the man,” he said. “Let’s scoop everyone up then get the hell outta here. We’ve got some work to do.”

~

Down in the hangar bays, an emergency crew dealt with the lifeboat wreck itself. They took it apart with plasma cutting tools then carted away the pieces as fast as they could. There would soon be many more lifeboats and many more evacuees, so clearing the landing pad was critical.

At the same time, Eva, Miko, and the rest of the lifeboat passengers were safely escorted to the side towards the medical teams. Each and every one of them was carefully looked over, to make sure none were wounded.

Even though the passengers were in a massively dangerous situation where they were all a hair’s breadth away from utter annihilation, not a single one was critically injured. The most any had suffered were a few bumps and bruises and scratches.

They gathered around Eva and Miko even while they were being medically scanned, and thanked them profusely for helping them get away. Both the frightened passenger and the nervous crewmember were practically weeping as they gave their thanks.

Eva wasn’t sure how to handle the situation in the slightest. Sure, she might have helped these people, but it wasn’t like she did it for them. She wanted to get away from the pilots herself, after all.

“N-no need for any of that,” she stammered. “I was just doing what any of us would do in that situation. And honestly, I almost got us killed a few times. Maybe if I wasn’t so gung-ho we wouldn’t have gotten shot up in the first place.”

“You are mistaken,” Miko retorted. “Not everyone would have done what you did. Most would have simply folded.”

Some of the others around them echoed that sentiment, and doubled down with their thanks.

All Eva could do when faced with all sorts of admiration and attention was simply blush awkwardly. She had never gotten much praise in her old life, and hearing them now completely flustered her. Tears started to pool in her eyes, so she quickly turned away to control them.

But as she did so, she came face-to-face with one of the medical team’s officers. She took note of his strong jaw, squared shoulders, and athletic body. A tinge of desire spread through her, and she immediately wondered what his muscles felt like under his uniform.

And of course, she was impressed by the uniform itself! It was straight and cleanly pressed like all the others, except he had rolled up his sleeves. It made him look like a man of action. Or at least, a man who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

That was an aspect that truly drew him to her. Of course, Eva found him to be stunningly attractive, which caused her already flushed face to turn a bit redder.

Although they were facing each other, his attention was fully focused on the readouts on his medical pad.

“Commander Chase, Navy Physician,” he began. “Let’s get you examined and… check…”

The words completely left his mouth as he glanced up and saw Eva. He was equally flustered by her, and found nothing but an awkward silence as his attraction to her took him over.

Eva never really thought of herself as attractive, maybe conventionally so. But not jaw-dropping, sentence-stopping attractive. She knew that others found her attractive, certainly. But she mostly chalked it up to bad taste on their part.

But now that she was in a whole different universe, with a more refined physique and sharper mind, she wondered if she had become more attractive as well. She supposed that had something to do with what was happening now.

She always had a dirty mind, even in her old life. Now that she was in a wholly new universe, she found that she still retained that aspect of herself. While before she would meekly keep her thoughts to herself, she wondered if she ought to put herself out more.

This was a whole different life, after all. If she was going to chase after her own desires, why turn away her own lust?

Still, she wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. Or rather, she knew that she should try to flirt back. She simply didn’t know how to, nor did she have the confidence to try.

Instead, she cleared her throat nervously.

“I’m alright, commander,” she said. “I, uh, didn’t get hurt or anything. But you can check me out some if you want. I mean check out my vitals! Not me! Um. I guess me. But not me. You know what? Just do your thing. Check everything you need to and all that.”

Eva internally slapped her forehead in embarrassment. She had properly fucked it up without even having to work at it. As usual.

“I’ll definitely be checking you out,” Chase answered. “Every detail, to be sure.”

“Every… detail?” Eva muttered.

She easily imagined the commander examining her body, up and down closely. The thoughts pushed their way to her conscious mind, and caused her face to redden even further.

Commander Chase nodded happily, but after a few moments realized his own poor choice of words, of their potential innuendo. Then his own face flushed as he attempted to imagine her ‘details’, and quickly tried to regain his composure.

But the damage was already done: thoughts were stirred and his pants became slightly tighter.

“I mean, just please connect your DI to my medical scanner,” he said stiffly.

Both quickly brushed away whatever awkwardness they had just experienced and immediately refocused themselves. At least, as best they could.

Eva did as she was asked, and connected to his medical device through her DI. She found the process relatively simple - a request popped up in her mind’s eye, and she simply accepted. A slight tingle swept through her body as Chase’s device connected to the nanites embedded all throughout her.

Chase quickly reviewed her medical information as completely as he could, without lingering on any specific ‘detail’. The last thing either of them needed was another embarrassing moment.

“Yep, no physical problems that I can see,” he said. “Freshly regenerated, your cells are only a week old. No scratches or punctures. Maybe a couple light bruises, but nothing more than that. Picture of health, honestly speaking.

“Though there’s something odd about your genetic data, not sure what that’s about. I might have to dig a bit deeper. With permission, of course.”

“Deeper?” Eva asked tentatively. More dirty innuendo filled her mind - she couldn’t help it. It was the way she was born.

Both flushed briefly, then cleared their throats quickly.

“I mean research,” Chase followed up quickly. “I’ll have to do some more research. Otherwise, you look like you’re in top shape. Peak human, some like to say. And also, your mental fortitude’s top notch.”

“Um. Thanks?” Eva replied. “But shouldn’t most of our mental and physical fortitude be top notch? I mean, some of us just regenerated, so wouldn’t we all be fresh and with little problems?”

“Well, yes, technically there’s that. But any regenerations come with whatever problems your body had prior to the genetic and neurological snapshots being taken. If you had some kind degenerative liver disease, it would still be there.

“Or your age - getting regenerated wouldn’t necessarily wind back your age. You would still be however old you were at the time of… of expiration. So whatever age-related problems you would have had would come with that.

“All that aside, you’re a bit above and beyond that. You have no genetic problems that I can detect. None that aren’t repairable, anyway. I’m guessing it might be due to your Specialized Genetic Trait.”

“My what?”

Eva had never heard of it - Genetic Traits certainly weren’t a system in Bellum Aeterna, and naturally had no idea what Chase was talking about.

“They’re unique enhancements everyone has,” he replied. “Everyone’s pretty much born with one, but we can end up unlocking a second one at some point in our lives. They’re usually beneficial, but some people aren’t quite so lucky.

“Take mine, for example.”

Commander Chase then tapped on his medical pad and turned it towards Eva.

On the screen was an icon of a snake entwined around a metallic rod. It was labeled ‘Rod of Asclepius’, and had a silver border. The accompanying description noted, ‘Your understanding of human physiology is moderately enhanced’.

“Mine’s a Rare Trait,” Chase continued. “It’s a step up from the common variant, which just says ‘slightly enhanced’ rather than moderately. There’s also an Ultra Rare version which notes ‘greatly enhanced’, but it also comes with a serious negative. Like the Grand Minister’s Ultra Rare trait.”

He then tapped on his screen again, and changed it over to a different trait altogether.

When Eva looked, the icon was that of a bearded man holding a lightning bolt. It was labeled ‘Zeus’ Wisdom’, and had a gold border. The accompanying description said, ‘Your ability to influence those around you is great, but your empathy degrades over time’.

“How do I find what mine is?” she asked.

Chase looked at her oddly - everyone knew what their traits were from a very young age. The fact that she didn’t know puzzled him greatly.

“Er, just go through your Status window,” he replied. “It should be available. You could also give me access and I’ll show you through my instruments if you want.”

Although Eva was fine with sharing her trait publicly, she also wanted to see it herself. And also she wanted to get used to her own DI. What better way to learn it, than to start going through it.

So she went through the various tabs and opened up her Status window, as Chase had instructed. She went through her vitals and details, and opened up the Trait section.

As the commander stated, everyone started with one, and she was no different. A single trait sat in the middle of her mind’s eye.

Its icon was that of a dragon hatching from a star, and had a gold border. It was called ‘Tiamat’s Transcendence’, and its description noted ‘Your intuition borders on prescience, but you struggle to learn conventionally’.

Eva’s eyes widened with shock on seeing her own Ultra Rare trait. Never in a million years would she have thought she would have something like that.

“Get the hell outta here,” she muttered.