Chapter 4: Borderline

[Morty]

The Shis processed the information dubiously. "Nothing anomalous." she answered, thinking. "Only... I didn't see two of any species, every one is unique as far as I can tell. What could that mean?" she hissed, sharing the android's sudden disquiet. Why had their memory been wiped? Kiruza disengaged herself from her static position and accessed the lab's humidity control before her aerator could start whirring again. "Much better." she said as the room began to fill with cool mist. Suddenly, a loud POP! sounded from somewhere deep in the ship. "What was that?" she hissed, dorsal spines standing on edge.

[Nohiki]

"I've noticed the ship seems to be built By humans, FOR humans. Yet all of us understand the controls perfectly." shared Ariaka. *Pop* She ran over to the closest monitor, bad feeling about what she is going to see. Indeed the airlock in the hanger was empty. "*************!" she cursed and hit the panel with her fist. "The commando's gone. Lock yourself in, i have code that will let me in without asking. I have a feeling that guy's heading his way." she said, nodding towards the unconscious Tal'Set. "He claims to be of his kind. Here, i'm bringing up security feed and security controls. Fire at will, it crossed the line!" she said and ran out, heading for the armory. She didn't bother with the small arms like the minigun, and headed for the heaviest that was still safe to use within the ship. Pretty soon she emerged on the security feed, two huge particle cannons mounted on shoulder racks and with belt of stun grenades. "Rucha? I need you to get to the bridge and check all screens, that big ugly thing is on the lose again, can you tell me where it is?" she sent a text only to the terminal in Rucha's room, hoping the Ceretai was still there. The two of them seemed to make quite a team. Bomb squad. Heh. she remembered Lee's words.

[Zetherus]

The commando stood up after picking up every last piece and started to relocate to a different spot by entering through the mess hall. As he made his way his wrist computer started to alert him of the presence of the ship. "Alert! The vessel has notified your location. Plant your D.M.E and escape." He stopped in the center of the mess hall and saw an odd alien sitting at one of the tables eating but ignored it and yelled at his wrist V.I. instead. "NO! I'm not going to kill bunch of Innocent beings. Instead tell me where an Anero'nolmi prisoner is located on this ship's plans." He demanded as he initiated a way point to be sent to Tal'set's location once found. "There is a familiar blood signature extracted off your war-blade that signifies the prisoner's location in the cryo-bay. The prisoner is in the door on your right, down the hall then to the left as marked." His armor emitted a holographic arrow that pointed to Tal's location and he began to walk that direction activating his deflective shields knowing that the android would meet him there.

[Nohiki]

The commando showed up behind the corner. Ariaka had her arms folded on her chest, leaning against the right wall from her point of view. "Well we've both expected this, didn't we? So shall we just get over with this?" she said and punched a red button on the wall with her elbow, sealing herself and the commando inside a little compartment. She couldn't vent the air, so she did the other thing that already worked once. From behind her back and pulled out a silver cylinder and burst it open, liters of liquid nitrogen pouring out and cooling the room quickly. It was risky as she didn't know how her own system would be affected, but all she really needed was the commando's shield failing.

[Zetherus]

The commando felt the room he entered drop to ultra subzero temperatures that immediately alerted him of the assault. He Dropped to his knees as his armor started to lose engine power quickly. "Stop before you make a mistake. I'm trying to help someone here." He yelled as he initiated a heat barrier replacing his deflective shield around his body making him completely venerable to any type of weapon.

[Kauria]

Rucha arrived at the bridge, only to see that Ariaka had already found the strange warrior. "Looks like you don't need my help with that. Anything else I can do? Things look a little tense down there."

[Nohiki]

"The only mistake was not to send you back home in pieces! We didn't need help until you showed up!" yelled Ariaka and roundhouse kicked the commando in the head, hoping to only make it pass out.

[Zetherus]

When the android kicked the giant in the face it was like kicking a chunk of iron. His face didn't even move when the android had kicked him. He looked at the android and growled while showing his metal teeth. "I've have killed thousands of Vok and LL4 Iftis in my past, that is cyborgs and giant flesh building transformations that wanted to kill our race. What makes you think you can defeat me with that pitiful attempt. I am Keilumtol the last of the known ancients of my world that has killed a Dread'Vok lord." He stood up showing resistance and deactivated his barriers so the cold engulfed him. He growled once again. "I don't care what happens to you or your crew I'm going to help that one I've injured and repay the debt. You on the other hand are a liability that does not deserve my technology to heal him." He walked by the android not showing any thoughts on attacking and soon after his armor began to fall off of him. "System failure! Alert! The pulse core is offline. Systems shutting down to preserve remaining power." His armor's V.I alerted then died out. He pulled a very large knife from a projector on his right leg that had some type of glowing red liquid dripping off of it and stabbed into his stomach then kept walking. He had no armor just his nano suit after he had lost the last pieces of his chest plate and leggings. He made his way to the door where Tal'set was and attempted to open it just to have his left arm freeze solid when he was hacking the door terminal then his whole body froze. He stood in front of the terminal frozen like a statue.

[Nohiki]

"He's in care good enough." said Ariaka and hit the giant's forehead, making the frozen body fall down like a plank. She opened the door and started dragging the commando inside, giving it a little bit of chill here and there, just to keep him out. "Quickly, can you get me another Anero'Nolmi capable pod?" she asked her slithering friend, hopping between the corridor and cryo chamber, collecting the pieces of the commando's armor. "I'd hate to kill him because i don't know of any way how to do that mercifully." she said, shaking at the idea of death in space.

[Morty]

The Shis recoiled from the freezing air from the corridor as the android stepped inside, a cutting laser clutched in one hand. She set the ineffectual weapon down when she saw the insurgent was safely subdued. "There should be plenty of pods now that I have made room. This one should be suitable." she hissed, collecting herself as she went over to one of the pods and lifted it open to admit the rabblerouser. "As for a merciful death, I think I have a chemical stored away." said the Shis, completely serious.

[Nohiki]

"You might wanna step outside." said Ariaka after she dragged the KOed warrior to the pod, her hand around the knife sticking out of his body. "If I wind up in pieces, well... Sorry, you'll have one more body to put in a bag." she joked. Her sensors picked up some unusual and potentially hazardous readings, but simply removing the item shouldn't trigger any cataclysmic event. "Then again, he probably stabbed himself for a reason. I know how ridiculous that sounds, but hey. Fire the pod up." she said and closed the pod, steam hissing as it air-tightened. "Rucha, do a sweep for bombs and anything out friend might have left behind. I have a pool of liquid nitrogen to mop up." she said and went back to the corridor to deal with the problem. She felt like she'll never have time to do the checkup she wanted.

[Kauria]

"All clear on explosives, but he seems to have left us with one lovely broken generator in the engine room that wasn't there last evening," Rucha reported, examining the scans.

[Nohiki]

"Dibs!" yelled Ariaka, eyes twinkling. "If i can rip it off, i can get rid of the annoying recharge cycles. Oh man that would be awesome!" she said, thinking about what it would be like to go on a planet without a backpack full of power cells or move outside half the lifespan of the shuttle. Planets. "Does this system have any habitable planet? Or gas giant for that matter, we have quite enough deuterium in tanks but let's take every opportunity." she asked to the bridge.

[Kauria]

Rucha bit off a corner of her breakfast, and smiled through her mouthful when she heard Ariaka's reaction. She swallowed and leaned towards the display. "Not seeing any gas giants, but a planet on the other side of the star is apparently habitable, seeing as how it's inhabited." She pulled up the information the map of the system helpfully offered. "It doesn't tell us anything about patrol radius, but I'll bet they have one. This is one of the outermost Federation-allied systems, though hopefully that allegiance is a little watered-down way out here."

[Nohiki]

"Could this be the correct jump already? I really thought the were giving us coordinates for home, not a target. I say let's wait for the jump drives to charge and test the other possibilities as well." said the Android. "Any idea WHO the inhabitants are? If that planet belongs to Ceretai, Shis, or purple dressed hermit people, i would strongly recomend not going there. With all that has been going on on this ship i bet you my spare arm somebody would recognize you." Ariaka shared her concerns.
Meanwhile, Ariaka's cat woke up on the bridge and saw Rucha. The animal ran over, jumped on her lap and sat down purring.