S.P.E.C.T.O.R – [A Sci-fi space adventure with fantasy elements]

“So, did anything else that you think I should know about?” Adam asked as he slowly sat up from the medical bed he had been lying in.

“Negative.”

“Alright then, I suppose I should go take a shower before getting some food,” Adam replied before he headed for the med bay’s shower.

After taking his shower, Adam got dressed in some clean clothes and made his way towards the mess hall.

Just as he was passing Rowena’s cabin, her door slid open to reveal Rowena, who gave him a surprised look as she saw him before breaking into a smile and saying, “Well, look who’s finally awake. I take it the surgery went well?” 

“Yes, thanks for asking,” Adam replied with a smile of his own.

“Heading for the mess hall?” Rowena asked as she walked alongside him.

“Yeah, my body needs some food.”

“I can imagine you’ve been asleep for three days after all.

“True, so since I bumped into you, I just want to mention something while we are alone,” Adam said as he stopped walking and turned to face Rowena.

“What’s this? Are you going to ask me out? Seeing as it’s you, I might consider it, though I’m not sure Stacey would approve,” Rowena replied while giving him her signature smirk.

“Not quite, I want to give you a quick warning about the conversation you just had,” Adam replied while shooting Rowena a serious look before facing forward again.

“Huh?” Rowena asked in surprise.

“I’m only going to mention this once and leave it at that. I have no problem with you reporting to your progenitor what he has asked of you; after all, I can understand both his and your concern when it comes to pureblood.

However, if you should ever report something that I dislike, or that compromises me or anyone else on this ship, then I will have to ask you to leave.”

“You know about that?” Rowena asked in surprise.

“Nothing happens on this ship that Spector doesn’t know about and through Spector myself.”

“I see,” Rowena said in understanding as she finally realised that Spector had been monitoring all her communications.

Rowena couldn’t really be blamed for not considering this fact, after all, although most ship AI’s do make a record of any communication that the ship undertakes, it normally requires a person to search for and find anything specific, and before that, they have to know to even look for it.

Even though Spector’s AI was far more advanced than any that Rowena had encountered, it hadn’t crossed her mind until now that the AI could monitor communication in real time and report everything back to Adam.

“I meant no offence,” Rowena said apologetically.

“I know that, and I also know that it was the Brood progenitor who contacted you about this topic and not you contacting him. I can tell that you purposefully didn’t contact him before now, as you wanted to observe how my blood would affect Stacey.

However, now that he knows about it, you have no choice but to keep him updated on her progress, right?” 

“That’s correct.”

“That’s fine, though I suggest that you also let Stacey know about this; the last thing you want is her finding out that you were secretly spying on her and her alienating you.”

“You’re right about that,” Rowena replied with a sigh.

“Who was it that informed the Brood progenitor about me anyway?” 

“The Nonpareilus progenitor, Lord Omniel.”

“Ah, I take it he learned it from Oracle Andromeda?” 

“No, as far as I’m aware, he learnt about your pureblood from his sibling, the Demon King.”

“The Demon King?” Adam asked in surprise before thinking of something and saying, “Ah, that’s right, Lord Malacoss did say that the Demon King wanted to meet me for some reason.”

Rowena was about to respond, but thinking that he had the answer, Adam changed the subject and said, “I have to ask, is there something in your blood that forces a race to obey their progenitor? Or can you refuse them if you so wish to?” 

“While it’s true that there is a type of natural instinct any race has to obey the orders of their progenitor, we do still have free will. Most, however, wont do that since they are not only the leader of our race but also our creator.”

“I see. Another question, Brood are created through reproduction right?” 

“What’s this? Are you thinking of impregnating Stacey?” Rowena asked as her signature smirk returned.

“I will take that as a yes,” Adam replied, ignoring Rowena’s comment, before he continued, “How then did the Brood progenitor or for that matter, any of the progenitors make the first of their race without engaging in sexual reproduction?” 

“I’m honestly not sure. I’m afraid that’s something that you will have to ask one of the progenitors. All I know is that the Brood progenitor brought the first of my kind into being, as to how he did it or if his way of doing it is the same as the other progenitors, I don’t know.”

“Does the Brood progenitor have children? I mean, I suppose you’re all his children in a way, but in this case I mean those through sexual reproduction.”

“He does. He has had several over his lifespan; I believe the last child he sired was around fifteen years ago.” 

“What about you? How many husbands, children and grandchildren have you had?” 

“Why the sudden interest in me?” Rowena asked curiously.

“It only seems right to get to know someone I am travelling with better, plus it only seems fair for you to tell me more about yourself when you’re reporting to your progenitor about me.”

“You’re not going to let that go anytime soon, are you?” 

“Would you if you were in my shoes?” 

“No, I suppose not.”

“Exactly, the only reasons I’m putting up with it are because I can understand why you and the Brood progenitor are concerned, as I have said and also because your Stacy’s grandmother and I don’t want to reopen the rift between you that is finally starting to mend.”

“Good point, then let me ask you something first, do you know how old I am?” Rowena asked.

“I thought it was inappropriate to ask a woman her age,” Adam replied.

“Well said, it is indeed inappropriate; however, this time around, I’m asking if you know my age and not you asked me my age, so I think we’re fine.”

“Initially, I had no idea; however, over time, I have gained a few clues.”

“Such as?” 

“First, there is how you treat Tephe, as if she were a little girl. This could just be because of how she was raised; however, you still kept that up even after the timeline changed, so you have to be older than her, so over five hundred.

Then there was the fact that you were invited to Revi’s coronation, which must mean you are over two thousand years old. However, you said that you were surprised to receive the invite, which leads me to believe that you were not very well known at that time, so you can only be slightly over two thousand.”

“Impressive deduction skills, to be exact, I’m two thousand and fifty-seven years old.”

“Ok, so why are you telling me this?” 

“Huh, I was expecting more of a reaction from someone whose race aparently doesn’t even reach one hundred most of the time,” Rowena said with mild disappointment.

“If you had told me that when we first met, I may well have had a stronger reaction; however, since I have interacted with many of the long-lived races in my chat and even met some, such as Tephe, it doesn’t really bother me much now.”

“Fair point, then, if you could become one of the long-lived races, would you?” 

“Why are you asking me this and avoiding my question?” 

“I’m asking you this so that I can answer the question you’re going to ask me after I answer your question,” Rowena replied.

“And how do you know what I’m going to ask? Do Brood have precognitive abilities like in that crap vampire movie where the male lead sparkles?” 

“Right, that movie is totally crap, the girls and I were just talking about that earlier when we watched the movie.”

“You chose that piece of crap to watch? Why?”

“I wanted to understand why the Earthlings in your chat referred to me as a vampire, and Spector suggested that movie based on the amount of credits, or I suppose money, that it made.”

“I suppose that makes sense, but it only made that much money because it was aimed at teenage girls and is more of a romance movie than a vampire movie.”

“Which would you suggest then?” 

“Difficult to say, I like the action movies with vampires, so I’m partial to the Blade and Underworld series. However, people rate other movies like Interview with a Vampire, or Dracula.” 

“Dracula?” Rowena asked with mild surprise.