Work Text:
Demarcation: Subspecies, Exile
by Scorpio
Data and information flowed into his brain at 210bpm's, almost twice his previous speed thanks to the newer and more efficient techno implants. He was physically jacked into the Navigational Controls and Weapons Systems of the small two-man long range fighter craft, marveling at the improvements made to the design and data retrieval systems during his years of suspended animation.
The fighter ship was in essence a space faring weapon designed to be used by a Warrior-Sentinel/Warrior-Guide team. The Sentinel would connect to both of the Propulsion Systems and to the Piloting Controls. It would be his task to keep the small ship moving. The Guide, jacked into Navigational Control, would plot a course for the Sentinel to follow as well as use the Weapons Systems as needed. By using a jack-cord to connect to each other, they could operate the ship as one solid unit.
They had done this before, lots of times. James was one of the best pilots in the Inter Planetary War Corps Sentinel/Guide Division and as such, many of their missions were long distance in nature. This time was different however. This time they were not soldiers in the Techno Lords war against the lesser organic species in this quadrant of the galaxy. This time they were fugitives fleeing their home in a stolen craft.
When James offered to return Blair's missing memories to him, he was offering up his freedom as well. When Blair excepted his old life back, he gained the love of his life, his soul-mate, and also the knowledge that he would be executed for his crimes of independent thought and action. It was worth it.
Now though, they were playing their last card in a gambit that would end the game one way or another. They were attempting to flee the area of space controlled by the Techno Lords into the realm of the Exiled One. That in itself was a dangerous and perilous plan born of desperation and need.
The Exiled One was, in fact, a Techno Lord who had been shunned by his fellows and then forced to flee himself after coming to the defense of the Organics and their right for freedom and independent sovereignty. Since that time, others (both organics and subspecies alike) had been exiled to the region of space that the Exiled One was sent to. None were heard from again. No one knew if that was because they were dead, or because they were living in peace and had no desire to return. It was, however, a chance that James and Blair were both willing to take.
Laser fire jolted the ship and pulled Blair from his mental wandering and back to the matter at hand. Daydreaming would have to wait. He would, hopefully, find out soon enough for himself anyway.
"James. Divert more power to the Refractive Shields. I'm almost finished with the calculations for navigation to the Exiled One. We should be ready to fold space in another moment."
Blair felt the fighter ship execute a series of loops and dives, but was not seriously distracted by this show of James piloting skills due to the inertia dampers. The steady thumping rhythm of the Hyper-Stratic engine was a soothing and familiar background as his mind dove into the swirling chaos of numbers, alga-rhythms and vectors. Coordinates pulsed along his synapses and his techno Data-chips hummed and surged with power supplied by the electrical impulses from his spinal column. Suddenly, chaos snapped into a semblance of order.
"James. Navigational course plotted. Transferring file,... *now*."
The jack-cord which was plugged into the technology adapter-jack behind Blair's right ear hummed with electronic energy as it poured information in one large data-dump into the cybernetic neural-net located within the torso of James's exo-skeleton.
"Transfer confirmed. Activating Inversion Coil."
The high pitched whine of the second, and more powerful propulsion system grew louder and louder as it methodically increased it's energy output by a factor of two. Scanners showed two more fighter ships coming up from the rear. Blair focused his full attention on them as he shifted the majority of his concentration to the Weapons Systems.
The ships following them were most likely Sentinel/Guide pairs under orders to retrieve and/or terminate the traitorous rebels, yet Blair was reluctant to atomize them. He felt that it would be like destroying a younger version of himself and James. It was his theory that all Sentinel/Guide pairs, if left together and alive for a long enough time, would develop a stronger sense of personal loyalty and devotion to each other than to the Techno Lords who were their masters. He figured that *that* was why any Sentinel/Guide team that survived long enough was then eventually separated.
Instead of shooting to kill, he used all his skill and experience to merely disable them. He sent off a series of laser blasts. He would never find out if he benevolent intentions did any good however. It was at that point that his life changed forever.
"Initiating Spatial-Reality Fold, course heading 1923.08."
The whining sound of the Inversion Coil reached an ear-drum splitting crescendo and Blair found himself ordering James to dial down his hearing via the jack-cord link. His thoughts of protecting his own ears had barely entered his mind when the ship gave a gut-churning lurch into the fold. Time and space had no meaning and all possibilities were possible. All systems reported fully functional, yet Blair was sure that he didn't even exist except as a figment of his own imagination. They passed through the eye of god and saw the beginning and end of time merge into one.
Then suddenly, they were on the other side of the Spatial-Reality Fold, flying into a new and completely uncharted region of the Universe,... 200,000 light years from all that they knew.
END
Demarcation: Subspecies, Exile