Mother of Stars

Deal or No Deal - Skylar

"Captain?"

"Yes, Nylis," Kyrom responded. "I am seeing it too."

"What is it, Captain?" Thayre asked, his draconic form tensing slightly.

Kyrom gestured with his claws in all directions. "The Defects are changing the ship, though I do not know in what way."

A couple moments of silence passed until I spoke up. "Are they repairing the ship? It was kinda damaged from what I could tell."

"The ship had already begun to repair itself as soon as we got far enough away. This is something different." The infrared blotch on the bay door moved as Kyrom began pacing again. "I have access to very little information. I can only tell something is off because of the faint heat that is given off whenever our nanobots repair anything."

I looked up and around, squinting to see if I could find what Kyrom was talking about. Nothing stood out, besides the now-noticeable red tint where the warp rings were repairing themselves. "Where do you see it?"

Thayre glanced at me. "Change your sensitivity to heat radiation and you'll see."

As soon as I thought about the sensitivity setting, it popped up in my interface. I increased it by a factor of ten, then gaped at what I saw. The ship glowed red everywhere, even in the metal below my feet.

"You are correct in your thinking," Kyrom said, "but not for the reason you think. The nanobot heat signature is always present, but the ones familiar with it, such as Nylis and me, have noticed a difference in the patterns. We have never seen this kind of activity from them."

"Have you thought about asking them what they're doing?" I posed, trying to not sound too desperate.

"The rookie's right," Thayre added. "Do we have any other options?"

Kyrom's fuzzy head appeared to look toward us. "I see your reasoning. Any information I can get my claws on may be helpful. But it is risky. If we give it the wrong idea, it may just decide to jettison us into space after all."

My interface glitch out for a second, then the Defect's genderless voice echoed in my head. "Then be wise with your words."

Kyrom stopped dead in his tracks, staring into the depths of the ship. His thought-voice was tinged with fright. "I should have known it was listening."

"I am always listening," the voice replied.

"You must know what we are going to ask then," Thayre replied, folding his arms.

Kyrom glanced at us. "Let me do the talking. It is bad enough it has heard everything so far."

"We are on the same side, Captain. Both of us have a say in this."

Kyrom turned away and straightened his posture, as if it would help our case. "We humbly ask that you explain your actions, and that you give us access to our drones and the rest of our ship."

The Defect replied immediately. "You have not proven yourselves trustworthy. I have no motivation to divulge my intentions."

"Why have you trapped us in our own ship? As I understand, you helped us defeat the threat to our home world. We could be powerful allies."

"I intend to study you. I must learn. And after learning, you will be of little use."

"We what?" I whispered, swaying uneasily.