Star Force: Temple Wars by Aer-ki Jyr (books to read in a lifetime txt) 📕

than that of memory from where they had hidden the Maty long ago. Any ship entering the nebula would become lost as drift would deny accurate course measurements without the stars to navigate by. It was one place that was even more desolate than the interior of stars, for they always had the center of gravity to navigate by…but out here, there was no center. Just a dark sea to get lost in, and one that could not be jumped through, forcing all entry to the star system to come from the far side.

And it was in such a place that the Maty would be safely lost to the galaxy, though that was the polar opposite of its original intended purpose.

Plausious watched the darkness on sensors as the density of gas altered in small ways. He was watching for any sign of the Maty’s presence as his anticipation grew, but nothing was visible. Everything was endless nothingness…until one moment later it all disappeared as they passed through the cloaking field that surrounded the boundary shield that kept the nebula off the Maty station and the several starships already docked at it.

They weren’t large ones, though far bigger than the Star Force dropship the Reignor rode in. The Maty itself was not the same shape as he had been shown, but he’d been told that it could alter for a variety of reasons, and internally there was much work going on. Mostly research, but also experiments by Star Force to created their own toxin blocking shields for the Gahana, which so far had not resulted in success.

The short trip into one of the open hangar bays on the Maty had Plausious’s chest tightening up, and it was more than emotions. Something was affecting him, and it was coming from the Maty.

“Reignor?” Davis asked, noticing a change in him.

“Do you feel that?”

“I don’t sense anything. Is it telepathic?”

“No. Not in the normal sense. But I can feel it. It’s like it’s shining a light on me and my body is responding to it.”

Davis linked in to his people onboard via his armor, which he wore in thin gauntlets under his Star Lord’s uniform, though no one knew that was the name of it yet. They responded quickly, assuring him everything was the same as before and no new manifestations had come from the unpredictable machine that was the Maty…or the many others within it. Nor were any of the Gahana active above their normal, limited interface with the station from their protective slumber.

“This is the same as it has been. Do we need to go back?”

“No,” Plausious said firmly. “I need to see this through.”

“Alright,” the Director said, with all three of them staying quiet for the rest of the landing approach, though the Ren’mak was massaging the Neofan’s shoulder with his talons nervously, meaning he was either telepathically linked with Plausious, or he could sense something as well.

He didn’t ask for further explanation until they landed and walked down the ramp out of the dropship and the Neofan fell to a knee with the Ren’mak taking to the air and hovering over his head protectively.

Davis took a step towards him, but got a telepathic warning to stay back, soon followed by one of the Gahana’s machines peeling out of a nearby wall and transforming into a biped that nearly matched the Neofan’s body shape, though it was full of hard angles and geometric shapes.

“Declare your intentions,” it said in Neofan as Plausious was knelt before it in obvious distress…and Davis noticed the walls were also transforming into weapon nodes.

“I seek…knowledge,” The Reignor answered, gasping for breath.

“Many have come with the identical purpose, but your aura is not symbiosis as theirs was. You require something else. State it.”

“I am questing,” Plausious said simply, with his squeezing his hands open and shut as if he was fighting off some internal attack.

“You do not know what you are questing for,” the machine said, and Davis didn’t know if this was automated or being remotely controlled by the Gahana…nor did his people on the other end of his telepathic comm link.

“I do not.”

“You are questing for a quest, as a rare few who come to us have. Most have turned back, unable to accept the burden such a quest requires. If you have the strength, step forward. If not, turn back and the pain will disappear.”

“I…choose…forward,” the Neofan said, struggling to stand as he took a single step, then another, and another as he walked towards the machine that was transforming more and more with his proximity to it, taking on a closer shape to his own body until he was standing before it and looking into his own mirror image.

It raised its right hand and held it before him, with Plausious forcing his left to raise and match it, feeling like he was fighting the force of a black hole to stay standing, and every inch he got closer to it the resistance became worse, but there was another fight going on inside his mind as the Maty was invading his memories and conscious thoughts by some means that he could not resist. It was inside him, measuring and categorizing him, and putting forth a test of worth in this moment that he would not shy away from…though every fiber in his body demanded he turn away and end the torment.

But his will, sculpted through the survival challenges he had enduring on that nameless Hadarak world, had cut away any hesitancy long ago. And only with his full focus could he press forward into the wall of pain and stress that made his body feel like it was about to explode…but when his hand touched the machine’s it all evaporated in a moment, and a cool sensation flowed into him.

Except it wasn’t just a sensation. It was nanites entering