“Will do, Captain. Pleasure to be aboard.” Gus saluted, and Mick gave his usual chilled grin. They toddled off, then I went through a procession of greeting the 50 or so new inhabitants of Uprising.
It was odd to be among humans again, and I thought I should make an effort with everyone this time around. I wanted a close-knit crew, with no fuckheads fucking things up, like Roger. Despite the flowery words, I'd be watching that motherfucker like a hawk. By the time the meet and greet was done, I found myself oddly exhausted. In the last ship from the Thoth came Elyek and Astrid.
It had only been a few days, but boy was I glad to have Elyek back. I was more excited to see them than I was Astrid. After Ember, Elyek was the solid rock in the Uprising that held me up. Although to be fair, Acclo was quickly ingratiating themselves into an important position. I didn’t mind; in fact, I was very impressed with them. I would have to speak to Elyek about their role, I didn’t want them to step on Elyek’s toes.
Group hug, round two ensued. “Elyek! It's so good to get you back,” I cheered. “Once you’re settled, I’ll need to cover some things with you. First, we just have a few things to go over with Astrid and Rufus first.”
“Sure, I'll be around. Just give me a shout on my comm when you’re finished. Astrid’s great by the way, I really like her. I thought all humans would be like you two, but none of them are. In fact, I would say you two are real anomalies in your race.”
“Yeah. Well, Shaun is a serious fucking anomaly, to be honest,” Ember laughed.
“Ha! And Ember’s a sharp-tongued shithead.”
Elyek grinned. “I love how you're different. Who would have thought it was possible to make insults the language of love?”
“It's a strange skill Ember has; I'll give you that.”
Ember punched me on the arm.
Next, we made our way over to Astrid and Rufus, who were waiting expectantly. I thought about a hug, but then decided against it; we weren't on that friendly of terms. Astrid and Ember hugged, and that was enough. “Right, you two,” I greeted them, “welcome to the Uprising.”
“Thanks for having us over,” Astrid replied, smiling. I definitely sensed nerves from her: she must have been worried about the whole transcendence carry-on. She continued, “We’ve brought uniforms for everyone on the Uprising. The Torax uniforms, so I’ve been told, have exponentially more fireproof fibers woven into them. Gerome believes their suits will be able to withstand the heat they create. Any damage should self-heal, too.”
“That’s some great work. Will you thank Gerome for us?” Ember said.
“Yeah. He's done good,” I added.
“Of course I will. He’ll enjoy the praise, I’ve no doubt.”
I noticed Rufus looking a bit forlorn. “You okay, dude?” I asked.
“Yeah. It's a beautiful ship. How did you come buy it?”
“We bought it,” I answered flatly. We had already covered this story during our first meeting. Rufus could be a doofus at times. “Come on. Let's get settled in the office and we can go through this whole transcending business.”
“I can’t actually believe you're going to help us transcend,” Astrid said, excitedly.
“It's a piece of cake, really, I don't know why Ogun held you all back so much,” Ember answered.
“He seemed to view the whole process with great reverence. Maybe it was a cultural thing he couldn’t let go of,” Astrid replied.
“I think he was full of shit to be honest. But never mind, we’re going to fix that now,” I added.
We entered the captain's office from the main corridor. It was great not having to go through the bridge, and I imagine crew members wanting to visit the captain would prefer not having to trudge through a load of people at their workstations.
“Alright guys, take a seat,” Ember began. “Shaun will talk you through everything.”
“I will?”
“Sure Shaun. You pulled me through, didn't you?”
“Well, yeah. Except, you've got like 63% wisdom, compared to my poxy 34%, and you always tell me I can't do everything by myself. We’re a team, right?”
“Fair enough,” Ember said with a smile, then turned to the two seated captains.
“Okay. So both me and Shaun felt like there was a curtain of darkness over us when we entered our minds. Do you know what I mean by this?” Ember asked.
“I do, indeed,” Astrid said.
Rufus nodded in agreement.
“Well, let's lift that veil. I’m gonna enter your head, Astrid. Your mental representation will be sitting in a chair in your Control Room with its eyes closed. I’m gonna go in and take your hand, then I’ll ask you to open your eyes. You need to concentrate on my hand; that’s your link to the Mindscape. Don't let go. Don't even think about letting go. If you do, I can't promise you we’ll ever recover your mind.” She stared at Astrid intensely, who returned the look with a worried but determined expression.
“I can do that, although I’ve a natural fear. Can you both come in and take a hand each? I don't know why, but I'd feel better about the whole thing.”
“Sure we can,” I replied.
“Okay then,” Astrid said, exhaling deeply, “do it.”
Ember and I both entered Astrid’s Control Room, and there she was, sitting calmly.
“Hey, Astrid. We’re both here. We're going to take a hand each now. It’ll feel weird, but just focus on it being our hands,” Ember said as we both took a hand.
“I can feel it,” Astrid gasped, “but it feels nothing like hands.”
“Yeah, that's where your imagination comes in, Astrid,” Ember said a little abruptly, I thought.
“I don't really know what you mean, but I'll try.”
“Well, that’s it. That’s all I've got for you. You can
