Chapter Eighty-Three (Daxin) (2/2)
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”You have a visitor coming, Nakteti,” Major Carnight said. ”He's on the heavy elevator right now. He may be alarming.”
Nakteti nodded, sitting on the couch and watching a Tri-Vid channel that just showed the interior of a greenhouse with nothing else but ”The Plant Growing Channel” displayed.
”Who is it?” Nakteti asked. ”A member of my crew?”
Major Carnight shook his head. ”A living legend. The last of the Immortals.”
That made Nakteti bounce off the couch. She knew immediately who Major Carnight was talking about. The terse and distant Daxin, who had saved her ship, saved so many of her crewmates, and had sent his most valued companions to come with her to make sure her crew and her would reach safety.
The door opened and the massive cyborg stood in the doorway, looking around slowly.
Everyone pretended the warborg's eyes had not instantly flashed to amber for a moment before going to solid blue.
”Daxin!” Nakteti ran across the room and hugged the massive cyborg's leg.
”Captain Nakteti. It is good that you survived,” The cyborg rumbled.
”Every member of my crew who was alive when you found us survived to make it here,” Nakteti said. ”A lot of them need medical care, all of them need therapy, but they are alive, thanks to you and Fido.”
”Fido Gooboi,” the big metal quadruped said.
Nakteti moved over and hugged the big metal Gooboi. ”Thank you too, Fido, for saving us.”
”Newboi Nak-nak welcome,” the Fido answered.
”I just wanted to extend my appreciation for taking good care of Fido,” Daxin stated. He stood there for a second and then held out a plas-cloth bag. ”Here. A gift. For you. I purchased it. For you.”
Nakteti took it. ”Thank you, Daxin. Thank you, for everything,” she said. She looked inside and saw a simple t-shirt that said ”I Went to Terra and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt.”
”It has sleeves for four arms,” Daxin said, somewhat awkwardly.
”It's wonderful. Thank you so much,” Nakteti said, hugging Daxin's leg again.
”I must depart, I have a time limit. My ship makes everyone nervous,” Daxin said.
”Take care, Daxin. It was nice to see you,” Nakteti said, rubbing Daxin's leg. ”Thank you, again, for everything.”
”You are welcome. It is mandated by the Immortal Code of Conduct that I extend you assistance. It is good that I did,” Daxin said, starting to turn away.
”Daxin?” Nakteti said, using her data-link to gather up a package of data.
”Yes, Captain Nakteti?” The big cyborg stopped halfway into his turn.
”If you ever need refit, or if Fido needs to go for a walk, you are always welcome at Second Chance,” She said. She held up her hand. ”Will you accept this file?”
Her datalink pinged that there was an open file transfer line. She made a tossing motion and the file transmitted to Daxin.
”I thank you for your generous offer, Captain Nakteti,” Daxin stated, finishing his turn.
//FIDO GO HOME WITH DAXIN! BE GOOD NEWBOI NAK-NAK// was transmitted to her implant.
”Goodbye, Fido. Be well,” Nakteti said as the quadruped followed Daxin out into the antechamber.
Everyone but Nakteti breathed a sigh of relief when Daxin left.
Nakteti rushed in and changed into the shirt. It was too big for her, and fell down to her knees, but she was happy to sit in it and watch the Tri-Vid.
She could sense how hard it had been for Daxin to visit her.
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Port Authority breathed a sigh of relief when the Adaptus Cruiser lifted off and cleared atmosphere. Most of the station authorities were happy when the ship broke Earth orbit. It headed to Mercury, made a short stop, then to Mars, where it made another stop. After that it stopped once near Neptune, then jumped out of the system.
Daxin knew the war wasn't over.
It had barely begun.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Wait, let me get this straight. The Precursor the Daxin the Immortal was fighting was run by Overqueen Neural Arrays?
Are you freaking kidding me?
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DIGITAL SAPIENCE SYSTEMS
I've looked over Daxin's neural files myself. There's no mistake. It was a Generation-Zero Goliath.
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CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COOPERATIVE
THAT? That's what you're focusing on? Not the fact that apparently there's a still living Omniqueen and... oh, I don't know... HE FOUND YOUR GENESIS SYSTEM!
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TERRASOL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
We're still going through the data. Some of those jumps gave glimpses to some pretty alarming stuff out there in the Long Dark.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
GAH! How long have you been there? I swear, you are the worst lurker I have ever seen. Stop sneaking up on us.
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TERRASOL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Would you rather I rang a little bell when I came in?
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
It's bad enough all the seers are weeping. I'm telling you, something is coming. I felt something the other day. Something really weird. I mean, really really really weird. We're talking weirder then we first encountered Terrans.
I mean, seriously, an Overqueen brain with a dozen or so lesser queens? What the hell were my ancestors thinking?
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CLONE DIRECTORATE
”Death to the Lanaktallans” apparently.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
You know, sis, you're not the only one with a bad feeling. We spotted something not too good the same day you complained you sensed something weird.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
What?
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Idiot fleets out by the Eye of Gorthaur. You know, the big Hellspace rip out there? Idiot fleets and a couple of the sensors buoys I keep out there detected Hellspace communications.
Something's got the Idiots out there fired up.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Oh, dear.
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