A long game of cat and mouse; Morrigan’s words rang true as nine months passed since the Federation’s Siege of Gelia, nine long months of luring the Federation ships that gave chase to their demise one by one.

  It was slow progress but progress nevertheless towards Morrigan’s ultimate goal of erasing the Federation from the galaxy. Wandering aimlessly, the Archangel had managed to disable or destroy 18 ships and two space stations owned by the Federation, having run out of paint long before and succumbed to using the blood of their victims to leave grim vestiges of Morrigan’s conquest in their wake.

  Morrigan however, spent several months endlessly worrying about the safety of her family, using Nora’s logic to force her nerves down and vent her frustration amongst the raiding teams amongst her crew, spending more and more time on raids as time progressed. However, no matter how much time she spent butchering the enemy, the fear for her family was ever present.

  Sitting within Shepard’s quarters though, she, Sigurd, Nora and Morrigan laughed as they shared a crate of vintage wine stolen from a Battleship weeks before. Skoll lay curled up in the center of them, Shepard having taken the chance on letting the bioelectrical canine aboard the bridge, as they shared stories of their lives.

  “The best part was the scream,” Shepard stated through her laugh, “When the canister of paint exploded, the bastard thought he was blinded by some failed assassination attempt; running around the ship stark naked trying to clear his eyes and screaming about assassins!”

  “Oh! That gives me some ideas!” Nora said excitedly earned a narrow look from Morrigan.

  “Don’t even think about it or you’ll be sleeping on the couch!”

  Nora pursed her lips in playful shame though everyone could see the amused smile hidden beneath.

  Sigurd took a sip from the glass of red wine in his metallic hand, “This shite is bloody great, what year ye say this was?” He asked with intrigue.

  Morrigan took a puff from her cigar before reaching down and grabbing one of the bottles, “Um, 2,222.”

  “Ha! Still got a tad few on it!” Sigurd grinned before taking a long drink from the glass.

  “Wait…” Nora said as she processed the math in her head, counting on her fingers rapidly in a way that made Morrigan giggle, “You’re over 172 years old?!”

  “Aye, but still younger than this bag o’ dust,” Sigurd snickered as he thumbed towards Shepard. With a snort, Shepard gave Sigurd a wrinkled middle finger for the good humored joke.

  “I thought I told you?” Morrigan questioned before turning to Sigurd, “A hundred and eighty…. Nine? Now?”

  Sigurd pointed one of his mechanical fingers at her, “Got it in one, lass. Speaking of age, October 19th, 24 today, aye?” Sigurd asked with a wicked knowing grin.

  Morrigan blushed and looked away, “Who the hell told you when my birthday was…” she said with a groan.

  Out of the corner of her eye she could see Sigurd look at Nora who scrunched her lips together trying not to smile or laugh. She shot Nora a dirty look that only made the eccentric blonde clam up even more yet have her squirm at the same time.

  “Deary, why didn’t you say it was your birthday? The entire ship should be celebrating!” Shepard interjected sounding more like a wizened grandmother than the ruthless admiral she was.

  Morrigan shook her head obstinately at the notion, “No, not a chance. The crew are forced to celebrate there reasons to celebrate in private and I will do no different.”

  Shepard chuckled at that as she took a puff off of one of her private stash cigars, “Its called privilege of position, you’re wasting a lot of the perks of being the Inquisitor, Mori.”

  “Nope, if the crew doesn’t get the same treatment than neither do I,” Morrigan stated with high regard for her crew as she shook her head.

  “Says the outrageously gorgeous woman drinking nearly two century old wine!” Nora jabbed.

  Morrigan narrowed her eyes at Nora as Sigurd lost himself in raucous laughter, sipping from the glass in her hand as her gaze shifted back to Shepard, “Okay, fine! Some of the perks are nice… but to be fair, we acquired enough booze to drown half the crew and have allotted them special shift times they're allowed to partake each day if they choose, so, I’m only a partial hypocrite.”

  Everyone laughed at that as the room conceded her point. Morrigan looked at the bottle that sat against her boot and sighed, “But we do owe it to Nora though, this whole piracy thing is working out well.”

  “Oh, yeah! You wouldn’t believe some of the shit I’ve seen during raids. Gets pretty wild sometimes. The best is getting fresh food rather than the preserved bullshit most ships have. We used to throw a huge party if we scored the fresh stuff… those were fun times,” Nora said wistfully as she began to reminisce about her past.

  “Not a bad idea, lass. We should find a spot for the whole ship to hop off an have a good row,” Sigurd said with innocence despite everyone's face twisting in expectation of his usual crass demeanor.

  “Pick another word you brute,” Shepard huffed, “Its bad enough I hear about your extracurricular activities about our ship.”

  Morrigan watched Sigurd grin wickedly, sitting back waiting for him to annoy Shepard as he normally did.

  “Come on, gran, when’s the last time ye dusted off the ol’ mantrap and had a good go of it?”

  Nora and Morrigan both bit there lips to keep from busting into laughter as Shepard eyed him in annoyance, “Listen, Tin Man, I may be old but that doesn't mean I won't get off this chair and kick the every living shit out of you,” Shepard said sternly though everyone in the room could catch the undertone of amusement in her voice.

  “Are ye sure? Ye got a bit of spitfire in ya; For all I know ye could be me ma!”

  Shepard took a playful swing at Sigurd that caused him to flinch, nearly falling off the armless chair he sat on since a metal chair was all that could support his dense weight. Everyone laughed hysterically between the joke and the result I’m good humor and friendly banter.

  “But seriously, do you know how many of our women have taken sick days to recover? You’re only lucky that productivity is still up otherwise you’d have every department head out for blood,” Shepard criticized.

  Regardless of the warning, Sigurd beamed with pride as he sat a little straighter with his iconic shit eating grin, “Aye, tis what happens when ye go non-stop for hours!”

  “With how often you bang, it’s almost like you’re part machine or something,” Nora stated in a sardonic tone that made Morrigan spit wine between the four of them and rudely wake Skoll up from his peaceful nap.

  “Ha. Ha. Very funny lass,” Sigurd said crossing his arms as he felt his ego deflate a touch, instead watching Morrigan apologize and coo at Skoll who huffed and laid back down.

  Nora too watched Morrigan sit on the floor and pet Skoll, admiring her love before a daunting idea caused her mind to nearly shut down. With wide eyes Nora looked up at everyone and asked, “Wait… does this mean there are going to be a bunch of Sigurd babies aboard!?”

  Both Shepard and Morrigan looked at each other with quirked eyebrows before turning to Sigurd who only chuckled darkly.

  “Ye figured out me master plan,” he stated dramatically before waving the notion off, “Need not worry, lassies. When I had me augmentation the docs pulled all the cream out of the crop. No wee Sigurd’s ‘ll be stumblin’ ‘round.”

  To everyone’s surprise, Nora’s sunk, “That’s… that's actually kind of sad.” The way Nora said those words raised a very serious question in Morrigan’s mind as tried to read into Nora’s thoughtful, sad expression.

  “Nay, lass. Could ye imagine a bunch of me runnin’ ‘round? I mean, the galaxy would be a better place but yeah. Tis several reasons they discontinued me kind,” Sigurd explained which raised even more questions by everyone.

  “What do you mean?” Shepard asked inquisitively, being the first one to raise the question.

  Sigurd grunted and awkwardly scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, ye see, aside from the obvious,” Sigurd said gesturing to the exposed metallic portions of his body, “There were several highly experimental an dangerous surgeries.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Sigurd leaned forward enough to show everyone the lateral segment of nodes and plates that suggested it ran down the length of his spine, “When installing that, the docs cut open the skull and connect the whole thing to, well, just about everything but, the key to it all is two specific connections ye see.”

  Sigurd flexed his muscles for a moment, showing off the synthetic muscle and nano-weave armor that encased the majority of his body along with the cybernetic enhancements, “Aye, the juice is made to kill nerves, enhance strength and durability but what it also does is inject directly into the adrenal gland as well as the several portions of me brain, the key one bein the one that controls impulse.” Sigurd tapped a sharpened metal finger on his forehead to emphasize his point.

  His explanation was met with confused stares as Morrigan cocked her head to the side, “But why would that require you to be sterilized?”

  Sigurd nodded at the question with a hesitant sigh, “Aye, that. Well, I was made towards the end of the bunch… by 30 years or so an before chem controllers were made, Berserkers were wildly uncontrollable. What do ye think happens when ya take a killin’ machine an crank der adrenal gland up to 100 an switch off impulse control?”

  Morrigan instinctively clutched a fist full of Skoll’s fur which made him throw his head up in concern and quickly lick the face of a wide eyed Morrigan.

  Sigurd nodded knowingly, “Now yer gettin’ it lass. The old models dished out a whole world o’ violence an not just the good kind.”

  Shepard cleared her throat as she chose to resign herself from the topic, puffing on her cigar absent minded lying. Nora on the other hand looked between Morrigan, Skoll and Sigurd before her brain registered the implication.

  “But… you're not like that?” Nora asked attempting to form her words into a statement rather than a question.

  Sigurd snickered at that and took a long drink from the remainder of his glass of wine, “Nay. Lucky for me I enjoy good ol’ fashion violence. I’m more likely to sodomize the enemy wit’ there own spine than be ungentlemanly towards a lass.”

  “More like a gentleman’s dildo,” Nora said offhandedly before taking another drink.

  Sigurd chuckled darkly as he pointed at Nora, waggling his eyebrows in a way that nearly made her spit her drink out as everyone heard Morrigan sigh.

  All attention fell on Morrigan as she stroked Skoll’s fur. “I know you’re not like that but, this conversation does make me realize how much of a strange bunch we are, and I couldn’t be happier to have each of you in my life and I appreciate you all being here for me…”

  Nora awed loudly as both Shepard and Sigurd gave her genuine, heartfelt smiles, the psychotic Berserker throwing in a wink as he raised his empty glass towards her before attempting to take another drink.

  Shepard chuckled and grabbed another bottle of vintage wine, before raising her own glass beside Sigurd, the man that generally drove the old woman nuts yet found tolerance in being around him to raise a toast beside him as she looked down on Morrigan on the floor, “And I appreciate not having to shoot you; Happy birthday Mori, dear.”

  “Skál!” Sigurd said loudly as Nora giggled at Shepard’s comment before too toasting to Morrigan.

  “Alright kids, get the hell out of my room; this old wind bag is going to bed. Go and enjoy yourselves,” Shepard remarked shooing everyone out.

  Sigurd stood up and grabbed ahold of the chair he sat on before leaning down and snagging an unopened bottle of wine, “Speakin’ of, pretty sure I ‘ave a date with a nurse tonight.”

  Nora snorted, remarked on his doggish behavior as they both stepped out of the room leaving Skoll and Morrigan standing by the threshold. Morrigan turned and looked at Shepard who had laid back across her bed in apparent drunken comfort. “As much as I appreciate it, you do realize shooting me wouldn't have done much, right?” she asked boldly.

  Shepard opened her eye and looked at Morrigan before shutting her one good eye again, “I’m aware, but if I recall correctly, it was you who made a point that focus is key to a mage’s ability, was it not?”

  Morrigan blushed having forgotten her class aboard the Void Star, “Solomon told you.”

  Shepard nodded, “He was quite proud of your ingenuity, as simple of an idea as it were.”

  Morrigan hummed thoughtfully before switching off the light, her vision instantly adjusting to the darkness. Before she could step out though, Shepard called out her name.

  Morrigan turned to see Shepard looking at her through the darkness with a thoughtful look on her wrinkled face, “I’ve noticed the haze in your mind lately, which is why I had you here tonight. You need to take time to decompress and realize what you did was bold but the right move.”

  The corner of Morrigan's mouth twitched as the repressed memories of Gelia burning resurfaced, “Was it though? We almost got caught… and my family…”

  Shepard cut her off though in a tired tone, “Take it from me, Mori. Leadership is never easy and no decision is perfect. The truth is we didn’t get caught and having the Federation chase us saved more Eskarii lives than if we had done nothing like I suggested… maybe I’m getting old, overly cautious, but in the end, your plan worked and that’s all that matters. More lives were saved and, if you give it some thought, if your family didn’t make it out before we got there, then they had plenty of time to escape by the time we left. Take solace in your decision Mori.”

  Morrigan stood there in silence as she considered the advice she was given, advice gained by years and years of experience as the leader of a ship. “I just hope it was enough…” Morrigan said at barely a whisper as she turned and stepped out of the room.

  Her plan worked in a way; the Federation chased her relentlessly through the galaxy and continued to fall into her trap. Yet, until she saw her mother again, or anyone else of her family, she knew she couldn't erase the doubt and worry in her mind.

  ◇◇◇

  In the far back corner of the gymnasium, Ebony sat with Taylor, Henry and Jackson as she wiped the sweat off her forehead and neck with a damp towel, “This isn’t going to last forever, you know?” she said, as she looked over her exhausted crew.

  Given the increase in raids, Ebony decided that extra physical training would be a good idea to ensure survivability, yet, there was an uneasy feeling that failed to elude her.

  “Going on about Taylor’s ex again?” Henry inquired as leaned against the wall sprawling out to cool his overheating body before snorting derisively, “You really gotta learn to let some things go EB.”

  Ebony rolled her eyes at that, “Not that you jackass.” She scratched her head nervously as she considered how to word what she wanted to say. “I um, Morrigan isn’t as bad as I thought… but that doesn’t mean she's not one wrong move from becoming an overpowered tyrant,” she stated sharply, “Don’t get me wrong, she’s actually a very kind and caring person. She cares a lot about everyone on this ship and by extension us, but, she's on a whole different and insane level… I mean, slashing up an entire fleet of ships before high tailing it? Then there’s the raiding, I can’t be the only one who has watched her…”

  Jackson nudged her to get her to refocus before she went off on another tangent, “What’s your point?”

  Ebony let out a long breath, “We’re from the Federation,” She stated as she looked at each present member of her team, “This whole raiding thing has been good, it was a good plan she had despite… you know, but we all know it’s only a matter of time before the Federation figures it out and when that happens…”

  Everyone nodded along, even Taylor who strained loose sweat from his beard, “Yeah but we have no idea what it is they’ll try. But I think it goes without saying that eventually they'll figure it out.”

  “True man, but then again, it’s been nine months and we’ve been getting the jump on them pretty consistently. Perhaps that special maneuver the Archangel is capable of is helping keep us from being found,” Henry pointed out casually.

  Taylor groaned at the mention of the constant work needing to be done on the ships warp drive, “Don’t remind me… I thought my father could be bad but Gene is something else entirely. That man likes those engines way more than people. I will say this though, the skinny lizard guy of Mori’s, Yekku, I think his name is, is a damned wizard. I don't know about you but I think we’ve been in the wrong since the start.”

  Taylor’s comment gathered everyone’s attention, “What do you mean?” Jackson asked.

  Taylor smiled fondly as he picked at his fingernails in an attempt to clean the reminiscent grease out from underneath them as he sat, “I can’t understand a single thing it says but I’ve watched it strip engines, capacitors, power relays-honestly anything that thing touches turns out better in some shape or form. Even those new guns we’ve been given, those short little things that pack a mean punch? I’ve heard he designed the things and not only that, but Aleksei said he created it in under ten minutes!”

  Taylor watched eyebrows raise in surprise as everyone listened, “What I'm saying is could you imagine how better off humanity would be if we had him on our side from the start? Or ten of him? 100? I’m not sure if his entire species is that ingenious or not but I’ve heard that they’re essentially a species of builders.”

  “Yeah, I can see your point but you’re forgetting the rest of the entire race though, like those two big bastards Mori keeps around,” Ebony interjected looking towards the center of the gym to see Stephanie deftly dodge a savage downward swing from the hulking white Kêzi’kan, Xol. A loud thud resonated through the floor as the unpowered mace head bounced off the ground as Stephanie side stepped him with her whirring chain blade that mildly echoed around the room.

  Everyone turned to watch Stephanie hold her blade over her head to guard against a blow from behind aimed for the back of her skull by the shorter creature. Sparks flew as the motorized teeth skipped off of the jagged metal club H?’tet wielded, H?’tet having returned to service since his recovery from his injury.

  Stephanie and H?’tet both ducked beneath another savage swing from Xol before Stephanie dodged forward and clocked Xol right in the jaw with a back swing of her hilt.

  In that moment, Xol stood up straight and nodded to Stephanie with respect as she hunkered down defensively, breathing heavily from exhaustion before Xol barked an order at H?’tet, all three of them resetting their sparring positions for another round.

  “If the skinny ones are engineers then those are the warriors…” Ebony stated before looking back to her team, “Then there are the big ones we heard reports about, bigger than Xol.”

  Taylor shrugged, “Maybe, but it's possible we've been in the wrong the entire time. Plus have any of you talked to the Eskarii on board?”

  Before anyone could respond Ebony held her hands up in submission, “Listen, I’m not saying you’re wrong, honestly I’m kinda siding with you on this but my whole point was one of us should probably talk to her about this…”

  Henry quirked an eyebrow at Ebony with a sly smirk on his face, “Why don’t you?”

  Ebony shook her head adamantly, “No, it’s taken me this long to start getting used to all of this, I’m not risking pissing her for by saying her plan may backfire.”

  Jackson nudged her again chuckling to himself, “Then you may want to stop using words like “crazy” or “insane” when talking about her.”

  Ebony blushed and shrank into herself as Henry and Jackson chuckled at her meanwhile Taylor tiredly rubbed his face, “I’ll take care of it.”

  Henry snickered as he looked at Taylor, “Have you and her even spoken to each other since we got here?”

  “In passing mostly or when I give reports on repairs if she doesn't feel like dealing with Gene. But, out of all of us she'll probably listen to me,” Taylor commented before he looked back across the massive room to watch his girlfriend spar.

  Ebony stood up and brushed her pants off, “Thanks Taylor, let’s call it a night though. It seems I kicked my own ass tonight.”

  Henry chuckled dryly as he too got up and assisted Jackson up, “That’s what happens when you spend all your time on that slate of yours, makes you soft.”

  Ebony smirked and cracked him in the back of the head causing him to wince, “Soft enough for you?”

  Henry stepped further away as he shot her a grin, “Nope, pretty hard right now,” he stated before dodging a smack that followed up with his perverted comment, laughing as he jogged away from the team.