Sea of Stars - IC II

[Blarghy]

To Echo on trading with the Mechanicus, 'So we end up being paid in thrones, tech or favours. It amounts to the same thing.'

"Or all three all," he pointed out cheerfully. "I have the utmost confidence I have in your negotiating skills your skills." So long as they worked with the Mechanicus instead of against them, the Navis had no issues with driving hard bargains.

'If not the Mechanicus I think the choices are really keeping anything interesting for ourselves or selling it to the type of people who trade in it behind the Mechanicus' back. I wouldn't recommend talking to people like that without a really good reason.'

"No reason is good enough reason enough," Kennoch said grimly. "The path of the heretek heretek heretek heretek leads only to damnation only damnation."

* * *

"Heh heh heh hee hee heee heee heee!" Echo giggled in delight with a hundred voices as he ran his gloves over the crate lids. These weapons were a fine prize, especially here. He was no less pleased with his new pet.

"Is it not adorable is it?" he rhetorically asked his bodyguards. They nodded, in contrast with their skeptical expressions. Kennoch arranged for a caged, wheeled cart with silk bedding and whatever treats the locals said the creature enjoyed. When not occupied with his other duties, he drug along one of the newly-hired beast trainers and pestered them with questions.

"I shall have to shall think of a name think. It will come to me will come."

But this affection did not fully transmit to Echo's first familiar, bound tightly though they were. Mr. Wah Dell knuckle-walked around the cage and glared at his competition. Echo felt the jealousy through their psychic link. He frowned but chuckled good-naturedly, knelt with effort in his void-suit, and gently rubbed beneath the monkey's furry chin. "I understand I. We've been alone been for so long so long long long. It's time you time had a family had."

An old memory passed between them, of a friend they'd likely never see again.

Spoiler: About Twenty Years Ago

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He wasn't Echo yet. He wasn't even a Navigator yet, really. The little boy drifting aimlessly through the halls of the space station wore an ever-present silk headband across his Warp Eye, lest it kill everyone around him and invite Chaos into their dimension. Did his cousins have the same lack of control at his age? He wasn't sure. Kennoch had never met any. For as long as he could remember, he'd lived in this guild-hall, guarded and trained by the Rings of Castermire. They revered him with the utmost respect, but none of his own kin ever visited him. He didn't yet know why. The mystery of his isolation weighed heavily on the child. Kennoch craved answers, certain that they'd bring him more comfort than secrecy.

He was wrong, but that's another story.

Today, as he often did, he drifted along between his lessons. Elite bodyguards followed respectfully. They felt his loneliness but couldn't mitigate it; the station did house other children, orphans or offspring of the Rings destined for their ranks upon adulthood, but such lowly people couldn't befriend a Navis. It was wholly out of the question. And so, despite never being physically unattended, the boy was spiritually alone.

"Lord Castermire." Another Ring jogged toward the boy and went to her knee respectfully. "I have a message. Magos Vokim invites you to his lab, if it pleases you." By her tone, she plainly didn't understand how it possibly could. This was part of Vokim's appeal for Kennoch: he unsettled the Rings, so when Kennoch was upset with his guards and tutors for some reason, he often visited the tech-priest to be free of them for a time. He couldn't tell if the Magos enjoyed his company, as like most of his kind, that inhuman pile of bolts certainly wasn't affectionate. Then again, when every other person bowed and scraped before him, that new type of interaction was pleasantly intriguing.

Kennoch hurried to the lab. He found Vokim and his acolytes busy with some new project amidst buzzing machines, bubbling chemicals, and a haze of incense. The lesser adepts murmured chants that he didn't understand, but the master-priest lurched heavily to meet his guest.

"Honored Magos," Kennoch bowed with a smile. "Omnissiah guide us and lead the worthy to wisdom."

++And to you, little Navis,++ Vokim rasped. Kennoch's bodyguards shuffled in their cloaks at this minimal respect, but their ward only waved them away.

"You can go," he told them sharply. They were all too happy to leave.

"What are you doing? Are you going to teach me something?" The boy looked around at this wealth of fascinating devices. If not for his third eye, he thought he might've joined the priesthood himself. But, like so many options in life, his genes closed that door tight.

++Of course not,++ Vokim replied. ++The mysteries of the Omnissiah are forbidden to the uninitiated.++ If he noticed Kennoch's disappointment, he apparently didn't care. ++However, I have procured a gift. This way.++

Vokim's medicae mechadendrite folded low to his shoulder as he walked. His artificial lung, a large pouch of air at his side that inflated and deflated noisily, puffed like a frog's throat. Metal feet scraped the floor, already well-scratched from his decades of pacing the lab. Kennoch thought he was a grand, handsome figure.

They came to an operating table. The patient surprised Kennoch: it looked like a strange boy about his own size, covered in yellow fur. Its face was oddly shaped compared to his own. When it looked at him, it squawked without words and rattled against the restraints. Lesser adepts rolled a second table beside the first and began preparing equipment.

++Your solitude has reached unacceptable levels,++ Vokim said bluntly. ++If not remedied, your primitive meat-brain will twist beneath the strain. Research of my...less advanced colleagues in the so-called "social sciences"--++ even through his unemotional voice, his disdain was clear, ++--documents negative long-term effects under these circumstances. I have determined that if you are to perform your functions properly, you require companionship beyond your slavish caretakers.++ Again, his lack of respect for the Rings became apparent.

++Sit.++ His mechadendrite gestured to the second table.

"So...this is supposed to be...my new friend?" Kennoch climbed into place and looked again at the restrained creature. It didn't look friendly. The way it thrashed around angrily, he suspected it would bite his face off, given the chance.

++Friendship is a luxury few nobles can afford. Friends betray. Lie. Turn to your enemies when it is to their benefit. Servitors are clearly superior in their reliability, but research deems them inadequate for these purposes. This Terran beast should serve better. My colleagues are divided on the cause, but I suspect it is the fur. Children like fur, yes? In any event, I can ensure its loyalty.++

A lesser adept pulled back Kennoch's silk hood and began marking a dotted line in ink across his bald, marble-pale skull. Another approached the beast and tried to shave its hairy head, but lost a finger for his troubles. Vokim snapped a quick buzz of code at his apprentice and waved him away as he bled on the floor. The Magos unfolded his mechadendrite, extended a needle, and jabbed it into the beast's neck. It fought and screamed for a few more moments but gradually slowed. Another needle rose, this time aimed toward Kennoch.

"Will this hurt?" the boy asked nervously.

++Not by my calculations.++ He stabbed Kennoch, who jerked back and gave a wordless shout of pain. Vokim threw up his hands and explained almost defensively, ++A rounding error, nothing more.++

His limbs quickly felt heavier. Kennoch tried to ask another question, but his tongue and lips turned to concrete. The room started to spin, and he only vaguely felt himself fall back against the table. He heard the buzz of a saw. His head tipped to the side, facing the other table, and he met the beast's eyes. It looked scared.

"Mmmee tttoo," he slurred softly. "Bbuut iisss ookkk...fffrriennndd..."