19. Unmoored

NINETEEN

UNMOORED

Faktil quo Laus

Faktil tugged in a breath of air. He stopped attempting to swim as it occurred to him he was no longer underwater. There was a metal grate floor beneath him instead of sand. He blinked in bewilderment, and that's when he spotted the scaly arm stretched in front of him.

Reptile! He instantly recoiled. What was the enemy doing here? Had the Jurou Biljana caused the sudden storm?

He rolled to his back, prepared to fight, except there was no one in the tunnel with him. Faktil blinked again as it occurred to him the reptile arm was his arm. He was wearing the same disguise he had on when he infiltrated the enemy ship.

What happened? Faktil shook his head in confusion as he jumped to his feet, ducking so he didn't hit the low metal ceiling. One moment he's fishing in the ocean with Naomi, the next he's laid out in a ship maintenance tunnel. A strangely familiar tunnel.

"Naomi?! "

Where is my mate?!

Dread filled him as he looked both ways down the passage. From the growing pit in his stomach, he knew he wouldn't find her here.

"Naomi," he rasped, utterly confused about what happened to her and an entire island.

His gaze landed on what looked like a fried egg scuttling behind the conduit by his feet. It was a Dremin, like Traveler. Horror and devastation filled Fafktil as his memory came flooding back. He had infiltrated the Jurou Biljana vessel. He'd come to this maintenance passage to plant the nano virus on the main security node.

I must have come across this Dremin and scared it.

Faktil's heart beat faster and he started to hyperventilate, recalling something Traveler shared about his species. The Dremin were able to tap into more than just the ship systems, they could tap into a person's mind, creating things that weren't there.

"No!" Faktil bellowed, his voice echoing in the passage. "No!" he raged, punching the grate floor.

Naomi was too wonderful, too vibrant. She couldn't have been an illusion. His love certainly wasn't a fabrication. He'd smelled her heady floral perfume, touched her soft skin and tasted it, too. Her voice was lyrical and her taunting sense of humor enthralling. He'd held her as they slept in paradise, and awoke her with a trip to nirvana. His beautiful mate couldn't be some chemically-induced daydream.

"No," he cried out in denial, bile rising in his throat.

Except, what else could it all have been but a cruel hallucination? He sneered at the empty, cold metal passage aboard the enemy ship. This was as far from a tropical paradise as one could get.

Faktil slumped to the floor, hugged his knees to his chest and buried his face, the devastation swamping him. His shoulders shook as he held in his torment, though he desperately needed to howl in anguish. If he made any more noise, he'd draw the enemy, but with Naomi gone, he honestly didn't care if the reptiles caught him or not.

Naomi

Tapping on her arm roused Naomi. She lifted her head from the sand, her gaze briefly landing on Bandit before processing where she was. Somehow, she was on the beach. She had searched the bay until she exhausted herself and apparently the tide washed her ashore. It was a wonder she hadn't drowned.

"Oh god, Faktil!" Naomi sobbed, as she looked out at the bay, remembering every horrific moment from the instant they went overboard.

Frantically, she scanned the beach and spotted the kayak. It had washed ashore. Perhaps Faktil did, too. He survived a shark attack. Maybe he could hold his breath for a really long time. She had no clue of all the things he could do, he was alien.

"No-me," Bandit squawked in distress as she leapt to her feet.

"I'm sorry, Bandit, we have to find Faktil. He needs us. I need him." She started jogging up the beach.

Faktil quo Laus

Sitting in the maintenance tunnel, Faktil replayed the way Naomi danced on the beach. He was desperate to hold onto the image of her for fear it would fade away. It happened with his sires and his mother. Their faces were no longer crisp, their voices just a murmur. He didn't care if the evidence screamed that Naomi was just a fabrication. He couldn't lose the memory of her, too. Faktil knew he needed to get up and continue with his mission, but couldn't bring himself to, at least not right away.

He was starting the replay of Naomi on the beach again when he felt the tentacle slide across his calf. Faktil spotted the Dremin, and recoiled.

"Flesh bearer, I am contented to discover you still exist," Traveler said.

Even though he knew this Dremin, Faktil was reticent after what he just experienced.

"Aye," he said slowly. He did indeed still exist. His brow then furrowed. "What are you doing here? Is Thorac with you?"

The Dremin was supposed to be with Thorac, taking control of an enemy destroyer, not here.

"Thorac and I became distressed. We expected to communicate with you three solar units ago. Did you forget that you are squishy and need to be cautious? Were you damaged by the scaly flesh beings?" Traveler poked his calf.

Three days? Faktil's brow furrowed as what Traveler said sank in. That meant that he'd been unconscious in the tunnel for at least four days. He'd been on the island twice that long. Obviously time moved differently in the dreamscape.

"It wasn't the Jurou Biljana. It was one of your people, a Dremin." He tried to temper his anger and devastation since Traveler wasn't the one responsible.

"You located one of my kind?"

"Aye! It knocked me out and messed with my head!" This time Faktil couldn't suppress the snarl.

"Your head is asymptomatic. That statement must be a colloquialism. "

Faktil growled in exasperation. He was usually amused by Traveler's mannerisms, but today it was tedious.

"I came down here to plant the virus and then I was suddenly on Earth. I thought I crashed. I found a female. We bonded. Then I woke up here again," he choked on the words.

"That is the simulation," Traveler relayed matter of fact.

The blithe explanation riled Faktil further.

"Simulation? Simulation! Did you hear me?!" He angrily leapt to his feet, banging his head on the low ceiling. Traveler clearly didn't comprehend this was not normal for his people and was a devastating violation. "I met Naomi. I thought she was real! I bonded with her. She is my mate." He paused as the terrible reality again hit him. "She was my mate," he rasped. Saying her name hurt.

"Keep it down," another person chimed in.

Faktil whirled around to see the reptile coming down the tunnel.

Great! He reached for the disrupter strapped to his thigh.

"Thank Osegrin, Traveler found you," the reptile said, dropping his disguise.

Thorac. Faktil sighed, his shoulders easing. It was a relief to see it was his friend rather than the enemy.

"I had no assistance from your deity in finding Faktil," Traveler commented to Thorac.

"That's not what…" Thorac cast Traveler an exasperated look. "Forget it."

Under different circumstances Faktil would've laughed. He could only imagine how the pair carried on while completing their part of the mission. Instead, he sank back down on the floor.

"We're clear for a bit." Thorac gestured back at the main corridor. "None of the reptiles saw me duck in here, not that the lazy degenerates would care. Are you all right? What were you saying about a mate?" Thorac's face contorted in concern and confusion.

"Faktil encountered a Dremin who placed him in a simulation. He mated one of the elements," Traveler summarized.

"One of the elements!" Faktil snapped, hating that Naomi had been reduced to just some building block in a simulation.

"Break me," Thorac cursed and hunkered down beside him on the floor. "Tell me what happened."

"I woke up in the water, in one of Earth's oceans," he began. "I didn't recall boarding this vessel and I couldn't remember how I got to Earth from this sector. I thought I chased the Jurou Biljana and crashed. There was an island and I swam to it. That's where I found Naomi. She was afraid at first but then she took pity on me and healed me." Faktil gripped his friend's shoulder. "She was so real. She shared stories about her clan, her sister Kiana. She had an impudent sense of humor. She became my mate." Faktil shook his head as it hung low.

"I am sorry." The horror in Thorac's voice was slightly mollifying. At least his friend understood a fraction of how devastated he was. "Why would one of your people do this?" Thorac questioned Traveler.

"To learn more about you in a safe and controlled environment. Did you attempt to harm the Dremin when you encountered it?" Traveler asked.

"I don't think so." Faktil rubbed his head, replaying what happened once he arrived on the enemy ship. "I hailed you just after I safely boarded and unloaded the spare rift drive parts."

"I remember." Thorac nodded.

"I made some excuse about needing to eat and sleep, so they assigned me temporary quarters." Faktil snarled as he recalled what happened next.

"What?" Thorac worriedly asked.

"The reptile sharing the same quarters walked in while I was making water, out of my disguise," he explained.

The Osivoire didn't urinate or defecate, so their combat shells weren't programmed to allow the function.

"Oh." Thorac cringed.

"I had to kill the scaly bastard. I claimed it was self-defense, that the male didn't want to share his quarters. Thankfully the ship magister believed me," he relayed.

"It is unfortunate you had to end another being's existence; however, these scaly flesh beings are responsible for much destruction and cessation of existence. I witnessed them ravage four planets before you found me. We are trying to prevent them from enacting more damage and must do some unfortunate things." Traveler stroked Faktil's leg with one tentacle.

Faktil smiled at the Dremin's attempt to console him, appreciating the gesture, even though it sounded like an adult explaining something to a juvenile. Sadly, he was accustomed to killing in battle, and felt no remorse for what he had to do.

"Thank you," Faktil said anyway as he patted Traveler's orb.

"Quick thinking. The reptiles are so violent, I'm sure that made you fit in even better on this ship." Thorac nodded in understanding.

"Still, I wanted to get off this vessel as soon as I could. I did a quick survey of the ship. I didn't find any heavy munitions in the holds. I managed to access all the storage bays but one. They contain replicators, common disrupters, and things fledgling races might find enticing," he explained.

"Their usual ploy, woo unsuspecting fledgling races with shiny things, before taking control entirely," Thorac huffed in disgust.

"Aye." Faktil nodded. "I then came down here to plant the virus. Which apparently didn't happen yet." He patted the kit on his belt. "I didn't see the Dremin at any time. It wasn't until I woke up, shortly before Traveler found me, that I saw it running off."

"We do not run. We ambulate," Traveler corrected.

"Ambulate," he conceded. Traveler was correct. The way the Dremin moved could not be considered running in any way, shape or form.

"From your synopsis, I surmise that your presence in this passage was perceived as a threat, since these areas are generally unoccupied." Traveler thoughtfully tapped the floor, a gesture the Dremin had picked up from one of them.

"I guessed that much. But why invent a female and make her my mate?" Faktil demanded. It was cruel and amounted to psychological torture.

"You are angry," Traveler noted. The Dremin was learning about emotions, but was still oblivious of their nuances sometimes.

"Yes, I'm angry, and I feel violated, and devastated." Though that didn't begin to describe the anguish he felt. "I could've simply been knocked unconscious, instead of this mind game." Faktil shook his head, still in denial of what had been done to him.

"I was not responsible, but I feel remorse for your distress." Traveler's tentacle fluttered against Faktil's leg in consolation. "I don't know what the other Dremin's intent was. All I can relay is that when a symbiosis is formed, the simulation created can only contain experiences or memories from the symbiotes. We simply manipulate some of the elements. "

"Except I never met Naomi." Faktil's brow furrowed.

"Beings you witness in passing, compilations of characteristics and behaviors, all comprise the simulation. My human friend Ava relayed that you create something similar to the simulation already…"

"Dreams aren't nearly this real. I had no idea you were capable of this," Faktil interjected with an incredulous shake of his head.

"We have been advised not to share the extent of our abilities," Traveler explained.

"I'm sorry about what happened." Thorac squeezed Faktil's shoulder. "But I think that's still wise advice. I can only imagine how your people would be manipulated if this became common knowledge."

"I agree," Faktil reluctantly conceded, understanding why Traveler only shared the barest detail about what they were capable of. In truth it was miraculous. "It's bad enough the reptiles got their scaly hands on your people, but at least they only think you are tech and don't realize you possess these other skills. Torment, I wish I didn't know," he sighed and rubbed the persistent ache in the middle of his chest.

"So, you really thought you found your mate?" Thorac nudged him.

"I did," Faktil rasped, unmoored by this return to reality.

Naomi

Tears streamed down Naomi's cheeks as she sat in the sand. She'd searched the entire length of the bay and found no sign of Faktil at all.

"No-me," Bandit cooed, standing right in front of her to get her attention.

She glanced at him then looked back out at the bay. It was getting dark and the tide was coming in, but she didn't really have the energy or the desire to move.

He's gone. My love is gone. The realization stabbed deep.

She hadn't known Faktil long, but in that short amount of time he'd changed her whole world.