A Weapon’s Serenade

Focalor had asked the girls and Baal to join her in the forward lounge.

“Nemesis, show them what you just showed me.”

Nemesis projected a transparent image of the upper torso of a man above the table. “I took the liberty to take some readings of our guests, just in case they intended to smuggle something aboard. This is the upper body of professor Broysc. This is his skeleton.” Nemesis added bones to the image and continued. “You can already see that his spine has been altered. Once I noticed that, I dug deeper and found this.”

A network of wires and plates appeared wrapped around his spine and shoulder blades.

Kuria raised an eyebrow. “That looks like a crude version of a weapon.”

“Precisely. My analysis shows that it is indeed a weapon, but the materials used are not from Hell. The craftsmanship is crude but consistent with techniques used by the Hand during the fall of the Asuran empire.”

“So that means Broysc is Asuran…”

“No, that would be an incorrect assumption. Cross-referencing this weapon with the ones designed by the pandemonic military shows several crippling flaws. Pandemonic weapons are overdesigned, built with the ability to hold a full soul and support a fully developed mind. This weapon cannot do that. In my assessment, the Hand attempted to recreate the weapons after Atryca had successfully been transplanted and Vashta had managed to flee, leaving the Hand without any weapons to use for their newly discovered means of pseudo-immortality. There is a personality imprint in this weapon, likely the remnant of an attempt to transfer a human soul into it. This imprint is partially merged with professor Broysc’s own mind. His body shows traces of a relaxant that could suppress this personality.”

There was silence for a while. Anne decided to break it. “That’s why we can’t trust Broysc. If we assume the crew of the Corpus Christi is actually old FBC personnel, they would know about this weapon. The FBC likely implanted Broysc with it themselves. Maybe in an attempt to get to any knowledge it might hold? I don’t know. No matter what, it makes him volatile. If his drugs stop working for whatever reason or he runs out, which is very much a possibility out here in the middle of nowhere, who knows who or what he becomes. If he even remains a person you can reason with.”

“It is inevitable. One aspect the Hand managed to recreate is a protective measure that adapts the connection between weapon and host to circumvent interference. This weapon will likely take longer to adapt, but it will re-establish the full connection eventually. He must change the type of drug he takes when this happens, if he wants to keep the weapon’s influence out of his mind. I highly doubt that the ships here are stocked with alternative drugs. Broysc will become volatile sooner or later.”

“He is already religious, believing the, likely Christian, God gave this world to humanity. Unless this personality imprint also overwrites that belief, we will have an unstable religious zealot on our hands.”

Focalor sighed. “And that will be a problem. Another problem in addition to the Corpus Christi… they warned captain Harriman, not us. Currently, we cannot consider them allies and if they are former FBC, they are likely opposed to our presence as well.”

Melody glanced at Baal. “This would be the time, sparkle boy.”

Baal nodded. “The Corpus Christi is a known entity to us. I apologize for not telling you sooner, but I did not know the identity of the ship. The fact that the admiral has not reacted to an unannounced visitor means that only we and the USS George Hammond can see them. That in turn means that this is the vessel the FBC built using technology we gave them.”

Focalor looked incredulous. “Pardon me?”

“Thirty years ago, the FBC approached us, asking for any means possible to fight off a potential demonic invasion. Archangel Gabriel decided to use this opportunity to create a puppet organization we could use to intervene in case you decided to do anything major in this world. That then happened when you attempted to free Lilith. The FBC agreed to help us with that and in turn we would provide them the blessed ammunition you already secured and some other magical technology. We did not provide them with our most advanced things, only easily replicated and circumventable technology. Selective stealth fields, environmental control systems, advanced but limited energy sources, self-replenishing weapon systems. We did not oversee the application of this technology, but we were informed that the FBC had started combining it with magical devices from other sources and their own expertise to create a prototype vessel. It appears that this prototype is the USS Corpus Christi.”

“I need exact specifications of everything you gave the FBC.”

“I will retrieve the documentation after this meeting.”

“Good. Nemesis, I need you to keep working on learning everything you can about this replica weapon. If you can divert the resources, I would also like an in-depth analysis of this submersible ship. Do you think a direct meeting with Harriman would be a good idea? We need an ally.”

Nemesis’ eyes darted around for a moment. “A direct meeting with captain Harriman would at minimum expose his allegiance. Revealing the truth to him would bring clarity into at least part of this situation and allow him to make an informed decision.”

“That is worth something. There is not much we can do right now anyway. I will contact Umbria and Famine so there is someone in charge of the chariot while I’m gone. You girls go have some fun with Isha and Serena. Baal, you get me as much information as possible on the deal with the FBC. Nemesis, you know what you’re doing. I will go meet captain Harriman in person.”

“Captain Harriman.”

Captain Harriman nearly fell off the boat. “How did you get here?! I’m sorry… you must be captain Focalor. A pleasure to meet you face to face.” He turned to face the disguised executor.

“I wish it was under better circumstances, and I will happily tell you how I managed to get aboard your ship undetected. I just need one answer first.”

“Of course, go ahead.”

“Are you religious?”

Harriman shook his head. “I would like to believe that there is something out there but I don’t think any church got it right.”

“So, you would say you are open to possibilities?”

“That describes it perfectly, yes.”

“Then I have high hopes that you will not just run out screeching for a priest when I tell you that I am a demon. An actual demon from Hell.” Focalor shifted into her proper demonic form.

“Oh dear. A succubus too from the looks of it.”

Focalor chuckled. “No, but I will take the compliment. Thank you. I got onto your ship by simply teleporting. Obviously I can use magic and that’s how I got here.”

“Fair enough. This is not what I expected, but at this point, it’s not overly surprising. The zeal with which admiral Douglas spoke about this mission and the importance of reigning you in was a big sign that this wasn’t a normal disagreement. If your big black airship wasn’t enough already. Given your response to our message and the fact that we are talking, you are not like professor Broysc described, are you?”

“Let me guess, he described us as scheming, manipulative, evil, all those things?”

“A little more euphemistic, but yes.”

“Well, I can’t ask you to trust me. There is no reason for you to trust me, but there is a reason for me to trust you. Your message and the warning you relayed to us. I want to return that favour. I met with admiral Douglas and professor Broysc a few minutes ago and it didn’t go well. For context, we are resettling a sapient non-human population right now, right here. Just a few kilometres under water. We can’t leave them unprotected and we also can’t allow any humans to interfere. We are rescuing them from the consequences of human actions.”

“And that means you can’t tell the admiral and Borysc any details. You are already taking a massive risk telling me. I concur that letting them in on what exactly is going on is a bad idea. The moment someone like Broysc finds out that there are other intelligent beings on this world, he would push for their eradication. He is a fanatic.” Harriman sighed.

“With luck, we can convince Douglas to leave your ship here as an observer and have the rest leave. But I have my doubts. Add to this the fact that we found some information about Broysc that leads us to believe that he will become increasingly fanatical and unstable the longer he stays here. He needs an ever-changing supply of drugs to keep sane and those will run out eventually. We don’t know what happens then.”

“That’s what they meant…”

“Yes. His religiously founded human supremacism and his increasing instability are why he cannot be trusted.”

“And we don’t know if we can trust the Corpus Christi either. I know, I can trust you to a degree. At least I know you wont stab us in the back.”

“I appreciate that trust and I think I can trust you that far as well. While we cannot die, you can and I don’t want you to. If we want to get you out of this alive, we should work together. Covertly, of course.”

“I agree. While I don’t have the means to, you might be able to get more information on that submarine. I think they will become pretty important soon enough. We have reason to believe Douglas doesn’t know about them.”

Focalor nodded. “We assume the same. And yes, I will try to get as much as I can about the Corpus Christi, and more importantly, her crew. Once I know more, we will talk again. We have a way to communicate covertly now and we should use that.”

“Good. I, for my part, will have my crew stand by for anything. If the worst happens, we are prepared to flee.”

“Our weapons are precise enough to not harm you, but I appreciate that you are prepared.”

Harriman frowned. “I wish we didn’t need to be.”

Focalor tilted her head in thought. “Do you think it would be a good idea to just teleport onto the Corpus Christi?”

“Absolutely not. But it might be the best chance to get any information and it would be funny.”

“I suppose you can’t warn them.”

“Sadly no. They can contact us covertly but we have no means of response as long as they remain under water.”

“Might be time for a surprise visit then. I will have to alert my people first though. Just in case this goes badly.”

“Alright. If you can give me thirty minutes, I can have my people ready too.”

“Good. I will teleport over in thirty minutes and then come back here after that. Just so you know that things went well.”

“Thank you. Not just for taking the time to inform us but for putting your faith in us.”

Focalor nodded. “You took the first step, I am just following your lead. This trust is the only way forward.”

“Let’s hope so.”