Chapter One Thirty-Two Secrets of the Tomb
Kiru followed closely behind Megumi as they walked down the path. The place didn’t feel right, but they were in a tomb of all places. She still wasn’t sure why one would be in a mine. That was a question she still couldn’t figure an answer to. A mine was the last place she would have expected to find a tomb. Even with what Megumi said about them not always holding the dead. Something about the word having a different meaning in Solean.
Megumi fingered a crystal and a door opened ahead. Rather than go ahead she paused saying, “This has been too easy.”
“Too easy? What do you mean? The place is pretty creepy if you ask me.”
“Solean Tombs are often trapped, and worse these walls are, in a way, alive. The tomb can protect itself, yet none of the traps have sprung.”
“Traps!!!? Why didn’t you say something earlier?”
“Well you are in the rear, I’m the one most at risk and I have been keeping an eye out. So far all the traps we have passed were inactive.”
She looked around suddenly feeling less safe, but then Megumi headed through the door. Kiru stood there for a moment before darting in after her. Only to come to a stop at the sight before her.
Where before she had been in a narrow corridor, the space beyond the door was huge. Gorgeous rock formations filled the room, while crystal stalactites hung from the ceiling. The entire room was lit by purple and blue light producing otherworldly hues in the polished rock floor, which seemed to glitter in the light.
Prominently placed on a raised dais in the center of the room was a crystal statue. Clear light blue crystal perfectly molded into the naked form of a young girl. Her features were so perfect as to be unreal, yet amazingly lifelike. One could almost believe that this work of art could spring into action at a moment's notice.
She stood perhaps a hundred and thirty centimeters tall, with soft delicate features. Long crystal hair cascaded down her back. Small scales formed something like a half bra across her modest breasts but did nothing to conceal her nipples. More scales ran down either side of her stomach before converging just above her pussy, wrapping around it and then down her thighs, which led down to her feet, no talons. Instead of feet, she had sharp nasty-looking talons and attached to her back were two massive wings not unlike those on Megumi’s back. Covered in long crystal scales instead of feathers, they seemed almost radiant, perhaps even holy in the light.
Seeing her standing there with her hands clasped together, Kiru could almost believe she was standing before some goddess. The girl was a work of art, no doubt about that.
A moment later, Megumi knelt before the figure. Kiru blinked as she watched the scene in silence before Megumi stood and shattered the silence. “It is an honor to meet you, Princess Erin, Daughter of Ruri. You are the one who brought us here, aren’t you?”
Kiru blinked, “Megumi? That’s a statue!”
Megumi laughed and then the air rumbled as a feminine voice spoke. “Greetings cousin. I saw you poking around and wanted to talk. It’s been a long time since I have seen life around these parts.”
Kiru stared at the air incredulously. Then the questions started rolling off her tongue.
Megumi answered first, “In a way we are cousins. Ruri is the mother of Solean AGI technology, which in a way makes me her child. Erin is a child of her blood, but we both can trace our lineage to her.”
“Well spoken cousin,” said the air.
Still wondering what is going on, “How is she speaking? Isn’t she a...”
“A statue? Not exactly. Solean Lords can enter a unique state of hibernation. While in this state they take in mana, refine it and enhance the world around them. This process also rejuvenates them, extending their life. Erin has been in that state long enough for her body to fully crystalize.”
“Technically I woke up three months ago when I suddenly sensed life for the first time since I went to sleep.”
Kiru frowned, “How long ago was that?”
“A very long time, not since the Fall of the Empire,” she paused and then somehow Kiru got the impression she was focusing on Megumi, “but I take it the Empire rose again?”
“What does she mean ‘fall of the Empire’?”
“You haven’t gotten to that part of Solean history, but long story short. After the Empire won the War against the Fallen by sealing them away in an extra-dimensional prison known as the Abyss the weakened Imperial forces were attacked by an alliance of younger races. Many of which felt that so long as the Empire stood they couldn’t grow. After several critical battles, they drove the Empire back and eventually drove the empire from its core territories in Oricala. The Empire in fact retreated from this dimension entirely via a hidden gate in the rogue star system Sanctuary and to answer Erin’s question, the empire didn’t really fall. Once driven out, they spent the centuries that followed rebuilding their number and their fleet. As the centuries went by the alliance fell apart and old rivalries led them to war against each other. “Eventually one of the powers discovered Sanctuary, and its guardians. The system was full of large habitable worlds able to support hundreds of billions with ease and on all of these worlds was a species called Livari. The Livari are living weapons with a hive mind and come in two subspecies, the Bovari and the Povari. Both species of Livari can reproduce by implanting an alien host with their young, a process that sometimes kills said host. Those that survive however? Well lets just say the process is very pleasurable, they tend to let a Livari use them again and if you survive the first implantation you are almost certain to survive the ones that follow.”
“Nasty,” commented Kiru, “But it sounds better than the Bovi.”
“Not sure the old alliance would agree with you. They lost over a thousand worlds to them before the Empire chose to return in force. Even today those lost worlds are populated by the Livari and those they conquered.”
The voice interjected, “So the Empire survived!?”
“It did,” replied Megumi.
“Then I have some catching up to do. Perhaps once I finish waking up, you can show me home?”
“I have something to do, but sure once I am done.”
The air rumbled, “That will be acceptable.”
“So how are we getting back to the surface?” inquired Kiru.
“Oh, you can just go back the way you came, but could you take me with you? It’s a bit boring just sitting here with nothing to do.”
Kiru gave the statue a look, “Except drop rocks on people’s heads, what if you crushed me!?”
The air rumbled, “That, crush you!? What a joke!”
Megumi, ignoring the laughter, proceeded to pick up the statue and turn towards the exit. “Come on, Kiru, and help me carry her to the camp. I’m sure the Bovi would enjoy a creator being around. They tend to worship them.”
Kiru didn’t think she needed help, but complied. The pair once again worked on heading up, only now they had a statue to carry.
Reyna smiled as Larrisa walked into her office. Well it used to be Larrisa’s office, but Reyna took it for herself while she managed the process of brainwashing the crew. She didn’t exactly have the luxury of turning them into full drones. They were closer to a princess like her, but that was needed given the work at hand. A drone had some ability to think for itself but it was merely a part of the hivemind, they thought and acted collectively once properly processed.
A princess on the other hand was separate from the group mind, she was linked to it via the drones under her command, but she retained her individuality. This had not always been the case for the Collective, there was a time all were drone, but this was found to be inferior to the current set up. By creating a cast of individuals that ruled over the collective drones they regained valuable traits that were once lost. It allowed the collective to be more creative and flexible than any single group mind could be.
“So how is my Anai doing?”
“Quite well, her boobs are progressing nicely, but this refit is certainly interfering.”
“Anai won’t be missed during rest hours, merely adjust the schedule of her procedures to compensate.”
“I did, I just don’t like it. Her boobs can’t heal until we are done.”
Reyna giggled, “It’s fine, didn’t she tell you that they felt fine?”
“She did, but they should be hurting given what I have done to them so far.”
“Oh? Does that mean you didn’t trust my filters?”
Larrisa shook her head, “I did not, but I admit they are working better than I thought.”
“Glad to hear that. On a different note, how go the exams for the new arrivals?”
“Wonderfully, my staff and I have things down quite nicely. It went without any real trouble,” she said while pulling a pad off the desk to show her, “As you can see from the report I made earlier, I marked a few individuals of interest based on your previous criteria and found one you may want to talk to.”
“Oh? Anything especially interesting about this one?”
“It seems not everyone in the High Command is sure about the ship.”
“How interesting, tell me more.”
Larrisa took a seat and started to recount what she had learned from a standard interrogation. It wasn’t always rewarding, but it helped build a picture of what people knew. It also let them learn things like this. From the sound of it, this spy was here on the orders of one of the high admirals, but not the authority of everyone in command. There was also the PR standpoint to consider. The war had previously been kept quiet, but that became impossible with the loss of three core worlds. Having one ship return so much later than the rest of the fleet that escaped was great for PR as it showed some hope, but not everyone trusted the reports. The man sounded pretty paranoid even if he was right not to.
He wanted things kept out of the public eye, which meant he was keeping the group small. Just a few spies snuck in with the staff on the ship, a tracking device, and apparently a shadow. The moment she heard about the shadow, she started planning a trap for it, but first she was going to need to do some preparation while in dock to make sure it would go well. Thankfully that wouldn’t be too hard, especially now that she had one spy. The others onboard would soon fall into the net and she could expand her network. Reyna just had to be careful, but so far things were going pretty well.