The Tales of the Silver Wind

"Then why not ask us? Why did you think it wise to sneak onto my ship and force us at gunpoint?" Lulu asked not enjoying the fact that they knew they were in the nebula and did nothing until Sebastian was in trouble.

"Because you aren't Venus Oculari," the man said in a cold matter-of-fact voice.

"Neither are you, for all I know you were born after the fall of that empire," Lulu rebutted.

"True, I was. The Captain-major was, and he will always be one of us. Now return my officer," the man ordered.

"No, until Sebastian is returned to us whole and in sound mind, you won't be seeing this man. Nathan take him to the brig, set the field to max," Lulu ordered. "If you think I'm going to give in then you aren't very smart," she said giving Adriana the silent signal to arm the weapons and raise the shields.

"Very well," the man grumbled after one of his officers whispered into his ear that she had targeted his engines. "I'll leave my officer in your care for the time being. My commander will be informed of this," the man said sternly before cutting off the commlink.

"I bet she will be," Lulu sneered. She hated people like that always thinking their race was the best and damn the rest. "Adriana, I want detailed scans of that ship. If they even think of firing on us, I want to hurt them the best that we can. Gil if they even think of diverting from the course, we're on, inform me at once," she ordered as she turned on her heel.

"Lulu where are you going?" Adriana asked turning around in her seat.

"To comfort a very volatile Akasha," Lulu said as the bridge doors rolled open. Her heart raced as she neared Akasha's cabin. She had no idea how Sebastian had survived in their realm when any sane person would seek a more hospitable climate. "Akasha?" she said knocking on the door. "Can I come in?" Lulu asked reaching down pushing the control button for the door.

Her hand flew to her mouth as she saw something no one ever saw in a Candary. Her legs carried her to Akasha's bedside, sinking down onto its edge, resting her arm along Akasha's shoulders. "It's going to be okay Akasha. Sebastian has survived worse than this before," Lulu said sweetly trying to bring comfort to her friend.

"I know he will," Akasha said in-between her legs as her forehead rested against them unable to bring herself to look at Lulu. "It's just I can't be at his side when he needs me," she said her chest heaving feeling her hot tears soaking through her pants.

"Maybe we can fix that," Lulu said offhandedly.

"What?!" Akasha said looking up in shock.

"I don't trust them not to do something to Sebastian while he's under. I need someone to keep an eye on them," Lulu said gently squeezing Akasha's shoulder, "plus I know Sebastian will recover quicker if he knows you're there."

"You think so?" Akasha asked wiping her tears away.

"Mmmhmm," Lulu nodded, "plus if they don't agree, well then, I doubt they have ever faced a very angry Candary mate that's been separated from her love," she said smirking wickedly. "I mean they did raid my ship for Sebastian, is it not fair that we as pirates return the favor?" A soft smile spread along her lips at Akasha's vehement nod.

"Then come, let us see if we can ruffle some feathers," Lulu said gently taking hold of Akasha's hands helping her to stand. "You can't go see Sebastian in such a state that would only dishonor the Löwe."

"Yes, you are right. Sebastian wouldn't want to see me in such a state," Akasha said chuckling softly as she dried her cheeks.

"Then you go get yourself cleaned up and I'll see to it that I get you on that ship one way or another," Lulu said nodding sternly.

"You want to bring a Candary onto my ship?!" the captain of the frigate said in disbelief.

"And my doctor to keep an eye on my crew member. So I know you aren't messing with his mind and body," Lulu said staring the man down as she waved towards Amanda.

"I'll have to run this by my commander," the captain said running his hand down his face.

"Then do so and make it quick," Lulu said placing her hands on her hips. "If I don't like what my people tell me, then I wonder how your own man will fare."

"Don't you dare threaten me," the man growled turning red in the face.

"I don't threaten Captain. I simply state facts on what's going to happen," Lulu said coldly. A sinful smirk graced her face as the man abruptly shut their commlink off. "Amanda do you have everything you need?" she asked turning to look at her as the bridge doors rolled open. Lulu caught the hints of a perfume Akasha only wore when they were alone. Akasha had once told her only mates were meant to smell the scent as it was meant to be a binding scent between the two. Lulu hoped Sebastian could smell it whatever was happening to him on that ship.

"Yes," Amanda nodded. She wasn't going to allow these people to do whatever they wanted with her patient.

"Captain, they're hailing us again," Gil said over his shoulder.

"That was fast," Lulu said perplexed by the quick turnaround.

"My commander has agreed to your demands," the captain grumbled.

"Good. My people are already ready to...," Lulu began to say only to turn around in time to watch as Amanda and Akasha disappeared into tiny bits of light.

Amanda quickly pressed her medical bag against her chest as she and Akasha rematerialized on the base of the receiver pad. Akasha hissed and bared her fangs, her claws extended ready to sink them into the flesh of the four guards who stood armed and ready to render them into a pile of green goo.

"Hold!" Said a commanding female voice as she stood in the doorway. Her crisp, black uniform sat snugly to her body. The heels of her boots, polished to a mirror shine, echoed off the artificial gravity plating. Medals swung along the left breast of her uniform as she stepped forward. "Where are your manners, men? These are guests as ordered by the commander herself!" the woman barked as she dressed the men down with her eyes. "I have the honor to be your escort while onboard the Escaflowne," she giving Akasha and Amanda a small curt bow, "I am lieutenant first-grade Amsher. If you'll please follow me, I will escort you to our medical bay," Amsher said gesturing to the door.

"How is Sebastian's condition?" Amanda asked as they stepped into the hallway. "Has the malfunction of his nanites impeded the operation?"

"As I am aware, the purging process has only just begun. We had to ensure that his implants were still intact before we could proceed," Amsher said in a cold matter-of-fact tone.

"This purging, what is it?" Akasha asked her cat-like nose wiggling at all the strange scents that floated on the air.

"In order to ensure that the new implantation takes root, the old nanites must be filtered out of his blood stream. As you might have guessed it will take time to be a hundred percent sure that we have captured every last one of them. If we don't, then the error in which this malfunction was caused will only be inherited into the new batch of nanites," Amsher said looking over at Akasha as they walked down that white washed corridor. "However, the version of nanites the Captain-major was implanted with is very old, and very rare. As we speak our engineers are scanning his nanites, so we may replicate the same type of model, just without the imperfections that model had when it was rolled out a hundred and fifty years ago. As I have been made aware, the malfunction only began when the Captain-major reactivated his nanites after such an extended period of time.

"I am not saying this to dishonor the man, but he should have known in doing so would have caused the very thing we are currently trying to fix; or maybe he just didn't know, that I cannot say," Amsher said coming to a stop at the far end of the branch of the hall they had turned onto a few seconds ago. "Please if you would," she said as politely as she could as the doors to the tube lift open. "The medical bay is several decks below us."

"What is his condition right now?" Amanda asked slyly glancing over at Akasha. She knew it was taking all of her will not to go tearing through their ship looking for Sebastian.

"I cannot say. For I am not a doctor, my designation is as a soldier nothing more," Amsher said plainly. "However, if you wish I will inform our doctors to discuss the matter with you."

"Thank you, but I'd like to examine my patient with my own eyes and my own tools," Amanda said growing in confidence as Akasha nodded in support.

"Very well, I shall inquire on your behalf," Amsher said as the doors rolled open onto a wide open floor. Medical beds sat in neat rows every three feet apart from each other. Amanda's eyes scanned over the equipment in wonder. Even the core worlds on which she had studied on never had such wonders in their wards. The most prestigious thing her school had was a very outdated neural mapping interface, what she saw around her would've put her teachers into an awe-induced coma. Her blonde hair whipped wildly as Akasha rushed pass them.

"Sebastian!" Akasha cried out as the doctors and nurses tried to restrain her. Her finger tips were only inches away as Sebastian laid naked and motionless on the medical bed. To her those few inches meant light years to her as she strained to touch her mate if but for a fleeting moment.

"We can't let you...!"

"It's quite alright Daniel, let the woman go to her," Amsher said trying to keep her disgust from her voice, "man."

"Sebastian, I'm here," Akasha said sweetly as the pads of her fingers skimmed along his cheek.

"Are you the head doctor here?" Akasha turned her head as Amanda spoke.

"Yes?" Daniel said looking to Amsher for clarification only to receive a simple nod to his unspoken question.

"What is the condition of my patient?"

"His vitals are stable for the moment. As I'm sure you've been told, we were just about to begin the purging process," Daniel said gesturing to the monitors over Sebastian's head. Taking Amanda by the arm leading her away from the others. "I take it you are the only doctor on board that ship?"

"Yes," Amanda nodded.

"Then did you ever do an intensive scan on his body?" Daniel asked knowing the reimplantation would fail if they didn't have the old programing. Without them he knew the Captain-major would die along with his commander's dreams. "Before the malfunction I mean."

"Yes, I did. Why do you ask?" Amanda asked uncertain that these people could be trusted.

"We need that data, the data that we could salvage from the Captain-major's central processer was too damaged for us to piece together. Without that data we might as well end this here, and let the man die in peace," Daniel said only wanting to save his patient.

"I must examine my patient first, then we can talk," Amanda said standing her ground.

"Very well," Daniel agreed. "Don't take too long, the purging must be started soon," he whispered low before waving the nurses away.

"How is he?" Akasha asked trusting Amanda's opinion over theirs.

"Stable, for how long I don't know," Amanda said checking and rechecking her own, and their readings to ensure they weren't trying to pull a fast one.

"Are you satisfied?" Daniel asked after watching how the woman moved over his patient.

"For now," Amanda nodded.

"Good. Then we shall begin the process," Daniel said waving for his nurses to rejoin him and silently telling them to get out of his way.

"Your Candary friend seems...," Amsher trailed off as she and Amanda stood off to the side watching the doctor work, while Akasha paced behind the row of medical beds they were standing in front of.

"Wouldn't you be if you knew not if the man you loved would live or not?" Amanda asked watching as Sebastian's blood was pulled through the IV towards the hemopurifier. Where once the blood is cycled through the numerous filters, then it would be returned to the patient's body. However, the process was going to take more than one pass through to rid Sebastian's body of his malfunctioning nanites.

"I wouldn't know," Amsher said coldly, "our partners are chosen for us, love has no equation in the matter." Amanda felt a little sorry for her upon hearing that. She wondered if Sebastian had been forced into a marriage when he was still a soldier.

Amanda knew this was going to be a waiting game the moment Lulu told her about sending her to this ship; and she was determined to do just that. All so she'll know that they hadn't tampered with Sebastian in any way. Her eyes flickered up noting how the doctor quickly scribbled down notes before handing the pad to the nurse.

"The process is straight forward, now all that remains is for us to wait, since the machines are keeping the Captain-major alive at the moment," Daniel said running his hands under the UV disinfectant light. "If there is any trouble just call for a nurse," he said before leaving.

"I see, and how is Sebastian's condition now?" Lulu asked over their communicators after five hours had passed.

"Amanda said he's stable for now, they're still cleaning his blood," Akasha reported before quickly adding in a hushed whisper, "I hope he's going to be okay," she said trying not to allow her voice to shake.

"Akasha, it's going to be fine. I'm sure they didn't go through all this trouble just to let Sebastian die on them," Lulu said over the communicator.

"Doctor?" Daniel called as he waved to her. Akasha nodded as Amanda placed her hand on her arm before she ventured off towards the far side of the medical bay.

"Yes?" Amanda said as she neared.

"We are going to need that data, so our programmers can comb through it to weed out the problem that caused this error," Daniel said placing his hands into the pockets of his lab coat.

"Right," Amanda nodded unzipping her medical bag pulling out her wave tablet. Wondering if it would sync up with their technology. "Where can I transfer the files?"

"Right here," Daniel said gesturing to the wall interface. Placing his hand on its glossy black surface his DNA powering on the contraption. Walking her through the process of linking her tablet with the ship's mainframe. "I must say you do take very detailed notes," Daniel muttered as he stroked his chin as he scanned through the files that had been transferred so far.

"Thank you, while we might have slid backwards technology wise since the age of your empire, we are still trained as you might have experienced on your home world," Amanda said taking pride in herself.

"Well, that is something to be grateful for," Daniel said as he studied the close ups of Sebastian's nanites. He had helped create the new phase of the ones that they were currently using, even he had to admit they weren't nearly as advanced as the ones he was currently staring at. However, he knew the nanites weren't all that made an Imperialist so special. They could replicate the devices that were implanted in his body, that wasn't a problem for them. Whatever his forefathers had done to the man's body, their scans couldn't discern what it was. If they had any files on the process, then maybe they could experiment, yet that was still too risky for his commander. He knew they needed every able bodied person they could get to keep their home and the outpost on that 'L' class planet they had terraformed that supplied their base from falling to the hands of the raiders that prowled the nebula. Maybe in the future, when they had time, with the help of the Captain-major they could figure out the process. As of now his commander's dreams would have to wait until they got the man back on his feet. "Seems the code is intact, good," Daniel said before sending it off in a coded message to the programmers at their base.

"When will Sebastian wake up?" Amanda asked as the interface powered down.

"We can wake him now, but we are keeping him sedated due to the pain of the purge. I can't see what harm a brief conversation will do," Daniel said looking over at her. Looking over at the woman finding her quite attractive to his eye, hating the fact that his mate had already been chosen for him. Although Amsher was a very fine woman to be paired with, nevertheless, her cold militaristic attitude made their conversations very dull in his eye.

"Thank you, I don't think Akasha can take any more waiting," Amanda said flashing the man a smile.

"Ah, I can understand," Daniel nodded.

"Sebastian?" Akasha cooed gently stroking his face as the doctor brought him out of his slumber. Watching how his eyelids fluttered as his mind fought to the surface. Her hand slipping into his telling him that she was there. Her heart raced as those green eyes of his glanced over at her, then darted around as he took in his surroundings. "Be at ease my Perämies we're currently onboard their ship," Akasha whispered reassuringly as the back of her fingers brushed along his cheek.

"S-ship?!" Sebastian said groggily.

"Yes Löwe, they took you out of the pod by force no less," Akasha said coldly her violet eyes glinted as she peered at the doctor. "But they've started the purge, I don't know how long they'll let us talk before they put you back under."

"D-don't let them," Sebastian said weakly reaching over taking hold of her forearm, "must stay awake."

"Sebastian, the pain will be...," Akasha began to say only to see the determination set deep within his eyes. "Okay my Löwe, you have my word they won't put you back under," she said sweetly gently stroking his hair.

"Captain-major, I highly advise you to rethink this," Daniel said sternly looming over Sebastian. "The pain you must be feeling along with the refusion process is enough to drive anyone insane." However, Daniel wasn't prepared for the smile that greeted him.

"That rank you call me means nothing, the Venus Oculari empire is no more. That man died when those fools ordered his and his men's execution on that wasteland of a world of Rigel 14. I am and shall always be Sebastian Landis, and pain is a way of life for an Imperialist," Sebastian said putting on a brave face. He would be lying if he said the pain was manageable. It felt like his whole body was being pulled apart from the inside out. Nonetheless, this was nothing compared to when he dragged his mangled body out of that heap of bodies that he had been buried underneath. It was only because of the nanites of his comrades, whose blood had dripped down on to him, that kept him alive. At the time he was grateful to those tiny bots as they sought out the one remaining receiver still functioning that broadcasted the signal that gave order to those machines.

"Very well," Daniel said. While he wasn't happy to see any one of his patients in pain, he knew the stubbornness of soldiers first hand, so he wasn't going to push Sebastian when he had clearly made up his mind. "If the pain gets too great for him, give him one of these," he said waving to the autoinjectors as he looked at Amanda, "five milligrams should be enough to curb the pain for a while."

"I understand, thank you doctor," Amanda said with a nod.

"Hang in there, the process is going faster than we had expected," Daniel said patting Sebastian's shoulder before leaving them.

"I wonder what he meant by that," Amanda said offhandedly as the med bay doors rolled closed.

"The bots are designed to separate from the blood should they no longer receive the signal," Sebastian said weakly tapping the center of his forehead. "Man, this ship is on its last legs," he said finally taking a good look at his surroundings.

"What?! It puts the Silver Wind to shame," Amanda said looking around seeing nothing wrong with the ship.

"You would think that," Sebastian said closing his eyes feeling the vibrations of the ship's engines, "serve long enough on one of my people's ships you would feel this ship's engines are on its last legs. The hull is old and brittle allowing the vibrations to travel along the bulkheads. No wonder they didn't risk sending it out the moment they knew we were in the nebula. One good resonation with those clouds out there," he said making an explosion gesture with his hands. "But given what they probably use it for, it will do with whatever they are facing out here. However, any further away from their home base they wouldn't last a minute in an actual battle."