Rising Ark

Noah Ark was curious. Her fathers had noticed this trait when she was a child, and even now as an adult, she couldn’t help herself.

“Celtic Isles and a dangerous family heirloom,” she noted, having sneaked behind her client—Katy, “If you’re not a mage, someone would lose a low-stakes bet.”

Katy did his best not to startle, not particularly succeeding. Noah stayed silent as he gathered himself together.

“I’m afraid you’ve lost some money then, captain: I’m empowered. My younger sibling is a synerge though, not that I’ve spoken much to them.”

“Half-sibling, or are you just what they call a lack-magek?”

Katy slumped his head.

“More than half my family is at this point. The power left our blood some centuries ago.”

“If your family’s old enough to have a dangerous heirloom, why would you admit the power left?”

“Because that’s how we lost the heirloom.”

Noah could sense a conversational circle when it approached, so instead she swiftly dodged.

“And how does the Widow know you well enough to recommend you aboard?”

“What makes you think she knows me?”

Noah imitated his exact position from earlier.

“I’ve definitely met you before.”

She returned to herself.

“Or were you mistaken? Not to mention our engineer definitely knows you too.”

“She wasn’t the widow when I met her,” he explained, “Or perhaps I just didn’t know her name at all. She traveled the world as far as I could tell, and would come to see us every once in a while.”

“Us?”

“My family. She’s not young, as you might have guessed. Seems to know us from several generations back, maybe more.”

Noah nodded, taking the information in stride. She’d never thought of what age the Widow might actually be, but her thoughts reached back centuries, maybe more.

“And Blossom?”

“Who?”

“Our engineer?”

“I assume her story must be similar. People who live that long tend to bond to entire lines rather than individuals. She must be special though, if the The Widow was willing to come with her and abandon the rest of us.”

Noah shrugged.

“They came as a package set with the ship. There’s not much I know about them beyond that.”

“And why did you buy it?” Katy asked.

“Buy what?”

“The ship, I assume you purchased it and took their deal.”

“I needed it,” Noah said, “And my brother needed to get off-world.”

“What did he do?”

“He killed a Walters.”

“I have a feeling that name means something to you?”

“They’re a prominent family, mostly superhuman.”

“So he murdered someone from a powerful family. Should I be worried about my stay here?”

“Only if you get put in the med-bay—”

The rest of Noah’s answer was drowned out by the alarm.

“Looks like you’re making good on that promise of an attack!” she yelled before changing position to yell at the kitchen, “Avery, I’ll meet you up top!”

Blossom recognized the feel of attackers and sounded the alarm. Theoretically, the Widow should have been updated, but the Rising’s sensors generally got to Blossom first.

“We may need to get involved,” she warned the writhing walls of the ship before placing her hand inside and fully connecting. She couldn’t see anymore, but she perceived everything going on, including the fact “Katy” seemed to be in proximity to the captain, following her through the hatch.

“We don’t have a spare fishbowl for you,” Noah warned.

“A spare what?”

“Helmet, so you can breathe out there. Avery’s joining me. We’ll keep you posted if we need backup, right Blossom?”

Katy began searching around, presumably for her.

“Aye, captain.”

Katy stopped. The “plants” that made up the ship’s inner workings weren’t empathic, but they gave her enough information about the passengers that Blossom could tell Katy had connected the dots.

She moved her focus to Sam, who had his scalpel ready in case of an attack.

“Noah’s handling it, my love. She’s done this plenty of times before, she’ll do it again.”

“I appreciate the reassurance, Blossom, but you’re not as central, and nothing from our engine room will do much for anyone who might steal it.

She rolled her eyes, not that he could see it, and moved her attention to the kitchen, where Avery was so focused he might have missed the alarm.

“Avery,” she barked from behind the oven.

To his credit, he didn’t flinch, just looked in the direction of her voice.

“Are we under attack?”

“Yes, did you not hear the alarm?”

“No,” he admitted.

Blossom scowled.

“Noah needs you to help her up top. Our passenger is trying to help her.”

“Would he?” Avery asked, “I really shouldn’t step away from the kitchen. There’s sauces.”

“I’ll ask.”

Messenger was not the job she’d expected when the ship had started, but it definitely made her feel vital beyond keeping the ship itself from falling apart.

“Avery wants to stay with the sauces,” she told Noah through the sealing fishbowl, “If our passenger wants a fight, I say we let him have at it.”

Noah easily handed off the second fish bowl.

“Don’t get killed before you pay us.”

“I won’t.”

Blossom refocused her attention to split between the hull of the ship and The Widow’s cockpit.

It had been a few years since she’d witnessed Katy’s abilities in action. Their attackers started with a mechanical assault, unwilling to sacrifice real crew. Blossom cringed as Katy froze the nearest ones so its joints struggled as he broke it to bits with a few slashes of his sword.

This turned all the attention to him, as no matter Noah’s skill, she was still less dangerous than the person inflicting temperature in a neutral void. She managed to pull a few off of him, but not many.

Blossom watched with concern she didn’t realize she still had. She couldn’t do anything to help though, as the vines that formed the Rising couldn’t reach outside beyond giving her an idea of the action. She focused her attention wholly on the Widow.

“We’ve got to get them off our hull,” she said.

“It’s good to know you still care,” the Widow said, “Katy and Noah should be capable of staying on if we spin.”

The Widow’s proposal wasn’t completely altruistic. She liked spinning, and she was good at making the ship listen to her. If she could justify a spin, she would do a spin.

“So can the androids,” Blossom said, listing off the specs, “Magnetic traction: Spinning will only serve to make someone throw up.”

“Then I am out of ideas,” the Widow said.

Blossom checked back in on the fight. There were less androids at the moment, but more were falling through.

“Is there any crew on there at all?” she asked.

“Our scanners can’t reach far enough to determine that,” The Widow answered.

“Then I need a better look at the ship,” Blossom said, hoping she could recognize an unmanned cruiser.

She moved her attention to the solitary Senyr, currently making notes on a specimen of the plants Blossom used for the ship. Senyr wanted to find a way to make them last longer without Blossom’s presence.

“Meet me at the cockpit,” Blossom ordered their scientist, suffering through their toss-up of the notepad.

Senyr didn’t respond initially, instead saying aloud, “Update on abilities, Blossom can speak through unconnected plants within a certain vicinity of the main body. Test exact distance later.”

“And the cockpit?”

“Of course.”

Katy and Noah were a disjointed team, if they could even be called a team at this point. They were both skilled fighters, and held their ground well enough that the overwhelming robotic force was never quite enough for them.

They just didn’t really work together at all.

Noah worked in brute force, grabbing the androids, occasionally skewering them, and throwing them far enough that there would at least be breathing room before they reached the ship again.

Katy lacked the strength for Noah’s methods. He manipulated the temperature of his attackers, nearly freezing them before breaking up their brittle forms with a sword that could reform itself after taking damage.

If Noah had seen the sword in action, she probably would have reaccused him of being a mage. However, she only caught glances of it through the horde of androids currently trying to subdue her companion.

“This is why I wanted Avery,” she complained while she threw another one off, “Because they would have seen both of us as equal threats,” Toss, “But no,” Grab, “You had to shatter one immediately,” Toss, “And make them all focus on you because I can’t shatter one with a sword I had hidden the whole time.” Skewer.

She swung her skewered victim away as several more androids thumped onto the hull.

“At least with their attention focused here,” she muttered, “They won’t go after the rest of the ship.” She immediately flinched at the prospect. Her crew could handle itself, absolutely, especially with Avery still inside, but she’d hate to see any of them hurt.

“Well I can’t blow them up without hurting you!” Katy argued against her previous comment.

“You can blow them up?”

“Not without great risk to you!”

Noah blew the thought of danger away.

“I can take it. I’m a Champion.”

Whatever Katy’s response, it was drowned out by the sound of more androids.

“Where are they all coming from?”

“It’s a Catapult transport!” Blossom yelled through their helmets.

“Why Catapult?” Katy asked.

“Named after one of the first AIs!” Noah yelled, “There’s no one in it!”

“Of course not,” Katy muttered, “It would be stupid to send a person.”

“So we need to go for the ship?” Noah asked.

“Either that or make it impossible for them to get into the ship,” Senyr explained, “The survival matrix retreats if it thinks it won’t have the numbers to overwhelm whatever they’re after.”

That information was all that was needed for Noah and Katy to become a team.

“You blow them up,” Noah ordered, “I’ll get to the transport’s computer as a back-up.”

“You’ll need some momentum.”

“That’s what I’m counting on you for.”

“What are you planning?” Blossom asked.

They didn’t answer as the execution took less time than the description. First the androids were all but frozen, then superheated as Noah used the momentum of the explosion to launch herself over to the transport.

She locked in with one of her arm-blades to steady herself before climbing in.

“How do I break this without making things worse?” she asked.

“I think your usual tactics will be fine,” Blossom said.

“Perfect!”

Noah slashed through the controller, and saw all of their attackers retreat.

“I’ll start on the cleaner report.”

“I forgot the other person at risk from the explosion,” Katy said in strained tone, “I hope you didn’t mean what you said about not ending up in medbay.”

He collapsed onto the ship.