The Ineticist

Author's note:

Hey everyone! Sorry the third installment is a month late. As I have said in the comments on Ch. 2, I had spontaneous travel pop up and some medical stuff within the fam. I hope you like the developments. As per usual, feel free to leave any and all feedback in the comments or direct message! Happy New Year's everyone!

*****

Kara thanked her lucky stars that Kyle had agreed to let Nico put him under while he recovered. After the tumultuous rousing, Kyle reacted just about as well as she could have hoped under the circumstances. She had to admit to herself that if she had been in his shoes, there would have been hell to pay and a body count to match.

The rest of the journey passed without another hitch. She had just finished the reading through the last of the damage reports as the Cerberus limped home through the stars. A slight chill ran down her spine when she thought about just how easily Kyle could have crushed the ship and everyone on board. When she had arrived at the med bay, she was prepared to ghost him to save her crew. Threats and bravado aside, there was a large part of her that doubted if she was up to the seemingly titanic task.

The moment the doors had opened, Kara's memory blurred into an incoherent mess that made a kaleidoscope seem organized. The most she had been able to pick out was the overwhelming hopelessness that emanated from the unconscious Kyle. When Kara had finally come around, her body was aching and burning like an animal in heat. She couldn't stop her hands from touching every inch of him, from his ragged mane of black hair to the husk-like emaciated excuse for a body. She had kissed him, forced herself against his lips as her tongue sought out the wonderfully mysterious taste that made her combust all the more.

The sensations of being obliterated at the core level and being brought back like blowing on smoldering coals to stoke a flame was maddening, she couldn't wrap her head around what those sensations even meant.

Kara rested her head on the cool surface of her desk, the memories bringing a flush of heat high on her cheeks. That man made her experience such a vast spectrum of emotions in such a short period that her head spun. She couldn't differentiate between any of them. Was she aroused or furious? Was she longing for him, or longing to be rid of him? Did she want to kiss him or kill him?

The com chime provided a much needed respite from her rampant thoughts. Her navigator, Scotts, updated her, "Cap'n, we've reached the nebulous cloud layer. Switchin' to minimum power and raising shields to maximum. We headin' home, or goin' to Command?"

Kara's orders were to return immediately to Dessorosa, but being holed up on the ship for a tad less than two months was killer. He could wait a few more days while she let out the dogs, "Home, Scotts. The air is staler then your mother's bread and the cabin fever is spreading like the plague."

There was a smattering of chuckles in the bridge before Scotts replied, "Be careful, she might invite you over for dinner one of these days, Cap'n."

"Only if you keep lying to her about who's keepin your bunk warm," Kara grinned.

"Poor woman couldn't take the truth," Scotts' said sadly.

"I hope you have a good adoption agency on call if she starts asking for grandkids, I don't got nine months to play the pregnant wife, especially without the fun to make 'em,"

"We could always give it a shot, now can't we?" Scotts' said wryly.

"I don't think Hunter will be too fond of me turning you back to the straight and narrow, I pay him too much as it is. He wouldn't stop bitching until I gave him another raise," Kara bemoaned.

"That's all our kids are worth to you?" he asked in mock outrage.

"Little Sally and her brother Herold wouldn't be able to see mommy and daddy too often, now would they dear? The divorce would get messy, as my ships worth more than your life, and why would I give you half of anything seeing how most of your stuff is mine anyway?" Kara pointed out, contractually she owned everyone on her ship from the moment they boarded to the moment they departed.

Another chime chirped before Hunter's voice joined the open relay, "Scotts, focus on not getting us killed in the static clouds please. Cap'n is right, she's stingy enough as it is, I'd hate to be forced to put a price on your life."

"How much would I be worth to you?" Scotts asked dangerously.

Hunter was quiet, and Kara laughed, "About half a credit if you fuck up my ship, Scotts!"

"Aye, Cap'n!" Scotts' barked in a faux-military fashion.

Kara closed out the call and settled back into her chair. She pondered the best course of action when it came to Kyle. Dessorosa couldn't claim custody of him because of their deal, but the Brass would be more than eager to fight her for the custody of the man. They wouldn't be above claiming galactic security and whisk him away to a black site.

She would have to play this game a bit more cautiously than she usually did because despite her private contractor status, she still operated within Coalition government laws and was one of its citizens. She would have to call her contact in the Brass and have him help her navigate the situation.

She tapped a ponderous rhythm on her desk before she buzzed Nico, "Doc, we should be back home in a few hours, have you started to wake up Kyle yet?"

"Yes, Cap'n. The process should take around half a day for him to fully regain his faculties." Nico's stern professionalism rang clear through the com interface.

"Can you keep him out for just a bit longer?" Kara asked slowly.

"It isn't a question on could I, but will I. We made a deal, Kara. We promised we would wake him up once we returned back to Elysium. What justification do we have?" Nico said indignantly. The one thing they didn't have in common was a sharp sense of ethics and duty.

"Before you trample me with that high horse of yours, I believe it is for his best interests. I think we should keep him asleep and transfer him to the base. I'm giving everyone shore leave for at least a month while I get this mess sorted out," Kara explained conciliatorily.

Nico was silent for a moment, reining that sharp tongue Kara knew all too well lurked under the calm exterior, "You're worried about the Brass aren't you?"

Kara smiled at the woman's perceptiveness, "You could say that their interests most likely don't coincide with Kyle's."

"He won't be able to hide forever, and we both know how he gets when he feels he is cornered," Nico mused. "It might be worth having him complete physical therapy under the tutelage of some of our specialists. He might be more amicable with working towards making sure he won't ever be in a situation where he feels he doesn't have a choice. With your permission, Kara, I'll speak to the officers about it."

"Granted, Mercy will keep me in the loop whilst I'm away," Kara pinched the skin of her brow; the muscles under the skin were taut and resistant.

"How long will you be gone, I'm going to assume it will be most of the generous shore leave?" Nico's voice was sympathetic knowing just how uncomfortable Kara would be navigating political waters.

"That assumption isn't far off the mark," Kara replied grimly. "I want to get this over with as soon as possible, but the idiots love a dick measuring contest and to stroke their own egos too much. It might be a while."

"Well, good luck Cap'n. I have faith you'll come home without having clawed your own eyes out." Nico's giggle eased some of the tension inside her chest, she sighed as she wished for mercy's talented fingers but pushed the feeling aside.

"Make sure Kyle makes a full recovery, Doc. I might need a punching bag that isn't afraid to punch back when I return," She ended the call with a flourish as she stood to get ready to depart.

The travel time aboard the transport shuttle to Elysium command from her home amongst the drifting asteroid fields took roughly twelve hours. The luminescent gaseous nebula looked beautiful but its attractive nature was like a cosmic siren call. The Coalition's elite had colonized this specific area of space roughly five hundred years prior in the heights of the war.

Elysium used to be a solar system much like the Sol system back before humans had set out to journey amongst the stars, but it was much like a preview of events to come. Once they had reached the system, at the time simply titled S. 047P. Once they had arrived, it was not what they had once hoped.

A stellar event occurred in which the gravitational center, a super massive star, had gone critical and erupted into a supernova. The whole system was wiped out in an instant leaving behind a field of dead rocks and extreme radiation. It was abandoned for a time before an entrepreneur sank trillions of credits into what he had called the 'Elysium project'.

Over the span of the rest of his life, he developed a variation of experimental terraforming that turned the large asteroids and planetoids hollow and created viable living conditions inside. He effectively created an everted planet.

He called it Elysium because it became the collective personal paradises of those in power, or who had the credits. The natural nebulous cloud blocked the area from sensory probes and with the scattered debris, extreme electromagnetic and radiological interference, the system became the perfect bulwark. Much like the pirate coves of the past, where dangerous sea currents and underwater rock formations proved to be the folly of any uninvited or ill-informed, Elysium had precise flight corridors that constantly shifted which were only known to the EFC. While almost impenetrable, internal traffic was always a right pain.

Kara stared out of an observation port as her thoughts swirled around much like the ethereal clouds outside. After a time, Elysium command floated into view. The large planetoid looked unassuming and completely overshadowed by the black hole it orbited.

The shuttle descended through swirling gas clouds and passed through hidden rocky gates that rumbled open to let them pass. Guide lights flared to life as the shuttle glided through the dark tunnel ever deeper into the heart of the rocky sphere.

A second gate opened before them and the hidden gem of the Elysium system surrounded them on all sides. A sprawling metropolis that filled the sphere in all directions, held to the surfaces through an oscillating gravity core that pushed its spoke like arms in all directions as if keeping the outer shell from crashing in.

"Take me straight to the tower," Kara instructed the pilot.

The man nodded and banked towards an indomitable structure of soaring spires and arches. The titanium alloy that Command was built from shined an iridescent silver hue from the artificial sunlight that filled the cityscape. They landed on the top of one of the lower spires, the shuttle smoothing alighting upon the landing pad. The shuttle door slid open and she leapt out, relishing in the relief of moving her cramped muscles from sitting for such a time.

Two guards posted on either side of the door into the tower saluted her, their dark grey uniformed crisp and identical. They led her inside mechanically, not a single sound escaped their lips as they marched forward. They took an elevator down to the center floors before transitioning into the center most spire, riding a second all the way to the security check point three floors before the pinnacle.

The elevator doors slid open to a short hallway blocked off by a blast door that stood in resolute in its soul duty. They stepped up to the opaque window set in the wall to meet with the checkpoint guard. Kara rolled her eyes at the greenhorn that looked freshly plucked from the academy.

"Captain," The greenhorn greeted her with a timid smile. "If you could surrender any weapons you have on your person, you can pick them up upon your return."

Kara shook her head, "That isn't how this works, sonny. Just buzz me through."

The greenhorn cleared his throat nervously, "I'm sorry Captain, protocol states—"

She stepped up to the glass, smiling at him disarmingly, "Listen here sugar stick, I don't adhere to your protocol. I don't disarm myself for just any man, you see?"

The guard looked to her escort for aid, but found none in their stony faces. Kara had to admit they were well disciplined. Not one look at her shapely legs or chest, she was impressed. "Would you like to call the boss? He's expecting me."

The corners of her mouth twitched as the man nodded and made his call. She waited just over a minute before the shouting started. She couldn't hear a word, but the look of startled fear was priceless. A moment more and the blast door slid away to grant them passage.

Kara sat in one of the plushy chairs across from Dessorosa. The dimly lit office was quaint to say the least. The large old fashioned oak desk dominated the center of the space, mounted with a multitude of holo-screens that fed him endless amounts of information involving his dominion over Elysium. Dark cabinetry lined the walls giving rise of bookcases that met the ceiling with a flourish. The books were categorized and alphabetized to such a degree he could have given the vast city libraries a run for their money.

The grizzled veteran only had three personal items in this space. The first was a astroglobe that sparkled with starlight as the images flitted from one celestial system to the next in exquisite detail; The second was a quartz crystal that had been bisected, each half had been polished to glass like perfection and had writing etched into each surface in some long forgotten language; The third, was a picture of his two brothers grinning beside a younger version of himself.

Kara couldn't help but smile at the picture, a window into a time where his ever-present frown didn't mar his features. The wild dull brown beard now peppered with gray was straight and meticulous. The glasses that sat on his then unbroken nose now perched lopsidedly on the poorly set bridge looking fragile and warped. The once laughing eyes, a rich woody brown, now seemed hard and charred.

He saw the fond look on her face as he followed her gaze to the photo, "It's been twenty years since we took that. So much has changed."

"You could talk to him," Kara picked up the frame and traced the faded metallic edges.

"Who, my brother? No. He wasn't the same after Oliver died. Still blames me I suppose." Dessorosa looked sadly at the youngest of the bunch. The three brothers looked very similar, with the large powerful frames and brown eyes. Dessorosa had inherited his father's unruly brown hair while the other two had received silky looking wheat colored hair.

"We both know Uncle Oliver's death wasn't your fault. It was an accident. My dad knows that." Kara gave him a sympathetic look.

"He would also disown you if he knew what you've been up to these past six years. I'm surprised he doesn't already know, being the quadrant governor. Changing your name can only get so far. One of these days he'll find out." Dessorosa drummed his fingers against the wood in irritation.

It seemed the habit was hereditary, Kara smiled. "Look, I'll deal with it when the time comes. I'm not cut out for being the pretty little publicity whore that I'm expected to be. My sister can have all she wants of that. I'm fine doing what I'm doing, what I've built myself."

He nodded sagely, "It would be a treat to see his face when he realizes just who you are. He would have a fit."

Kara grimaced, "I'll sell tickets."

Dessorosa chucked before returning to his features to the business-esque stern mold that was the norm, "Family drama aside, we have other problems to attend to. This 'Kyle' for one. I've heard back from Brass and they are...let's just say eager to meet him. While this is not a military matter just yet, remember that the only thing holding them back is the Civ-dep."

"He's at home now recovering. Nico and the crew are looking after him, I'll be notified if anything drastic happens, and barring that everything should be low-key." Kara set down the photograph.

"What do you plan on doing with him, Kara?" Dessorosa asked after a few moments.

"Hell if I know. It would be a waste not to use him, guy's a monster. He seems reliable, though he is skittish and has a temper," Kara spoke absentmindedly; her mind was back at home at the lake house.

Dessorosa raised an eyebrow, "Just what I need. Two of you. Just when I thought my job couldn't get any harder."

Kara shot him an innocent smile, "What so ever do you mean uncle?"

"Don't try that shit with me girly, I know the devil in you," He chuckled.

Kara grinned wickedly, "Don't you forget it!"

"Keep an eye on him. I can't stress this enough when I say that he will be a target no matter where he is. If you keep him, you'll be a target too," Dessorosa laced his fingers together in front of his face.

Kara's grin faded, "Yeah, I'm aware. I'm still working on the problem at hand. There is just too much I don't know at the moment. I've instructed Mercy to get as much out of him while I'm gone as she can. The more we know about him, the more we know about what the hell the Imperium is doing in our space."

"Speaking of," Dessorosa tapped away at his keyboard, "The ship you captured will arrive at the shipyard by the end of the day. I have a whole department raring to strip it bare to see how it ticks."

"Send the specs to Dino when you got'em. He might be able to do some interesting stuff to The Cerberus with it. Even if Kyle doesn't want to join, we have a few others besides myself who are gifted so it might become a useful addition." Kara sent a quick message to Dino from her wrist-com to keep a look out.

"We have one other thing," Dessorosa stood from his chair. "We can discuss it over dinner."

"What about?" Kara asked.

"Your next assignment,"

Kyle stirred. The muscles in his shoulders and back felt stiff as he rolled over onto his side. To his surprise, he didn't feel the rough fabric of the bed he had fallen asleep in before. He spread out his arms and legs, reviling the soft embrace of warm cotton and the cloud like cushion of the mattress underneath him.

He opened his eyes to an unfamiliar room. He was lying on a large four poster bed that was ornately carved with flowers in various stages of bloom, coalescing into a branch-like canopy that carried a gray gossamer veil. The fabric shifted colors as light pierced through the thin membrane of the sheet as the hues shifted around to seem like billowing clouds. Kyle pushed himself into a sitting position as he looked out of the large arched window.

"I must be dreaming," Kyle muttered to himself.

The vista outside the window consisted of a large yard that stretched out until it met forest on either side, the trees soaring into the sky filled with various shades of green. A lake sparkled in the distance, the water shimmering like a heat mirage as light glimmered off its deep blue surface.

Kyle blinked and shook his head. This didn't seem like a dream, everything was much too vivid. He pinched his arm hard, the sharp pain confirming that he was indeed awake. He levered himself off of the mattress and explored the room. Beside on either side of the bed were twin nightstands that seemed to have grown into place, the floorboards were made of a dark wood that contrasted with the lighter toned walls and arched ceiling.

He opened the door to his immediate left, finding a spacious tiled bathroom complete with oversized bathtub and shower. Two sinks and wall length mirror told him he was in a couple's bedroom. He moved to inspect the closet, hoping it might shed some light on the original occupants.