By the time they made it back to the docks the skin across his chest had pulled itself back together, mostly. It was still raw and pink looking. But he could no longer see the nanite mesh underneath. Most of the pain was gone as well as if the shattered ribs had mended themselves together. More likely the nanites had literally pieced him back together. That was a job he would expect of only the highest grade medical pods. Definitely, not an AI basically doing field surgery, more so one that was supposed to be a ship AI. Navigation and flight, sure. Body modification and medical procedures… unlikely. He realized how little he knew about the ship and its AI. That was something he would have to correct when he wasn't being hunted, of course.
"Captian, the ones I cut off will be here shortly. Are you sure you don't wish me to liquidate them? I can leave behind the organic matter." He considered it, but between the idea of adding a body count to his crimes. Combined with his dislike for how readily an AI was willing to terminate human life was problem some. Sure, AI were used to assist in combat all the time. But he had never heard of one able to kill on its own. That went against the most basic rules of AI.
'Give Aln a chance. I want to see what they can do.' He was only half lying. The little Xeno had pulled a number of objects from pockets of their coat and was hovering along happily. "There are three outside the ship, hiding around the ramp area. Let's avoid killing if possible."
"Of course." Deck was just considering another short simple response when they did something to the small object in their hand. A two foot long slender rod extended, pastel pink. With a heart on top and little sparkly wings poking out below the heart.
"The hell is that?" Nai spoke for the first time since she realized he didn't need her help anymore and her clinging to him was actually slowing their progress. She had dropped his arm like it was on fire and hadn't said anything since.
"Cute isn't it?" They smiled that gapped tooth grin at them and wheezed happily.
"Sure. But what good is that going to do us?" Nai cocked an eyebrow.
"Just watch." They were just down the corridor from the ramp of the ship. They were currently standing right out of sight. They brought the heart of the rod to their face and gave it a sloppy noisy kiss then thrust it away. A pink glowing heart launched away in a streak. Shortly after there was a shriek from down near the ramp. Nai and Deck watched in a mix of shock, awe, and confusion as they repeated it twice more. They watched as the hovering alien spun the rod before snapping it to a stop and giving them another of their big goofy grins. "Mission complete!"
'Captian, that was a discharge of psions.' Eve's voice broke his shock.
'Their a psionic?' Now Deck really was confused. Alnimox wasn't a psionic race, not even one noted to produce rare mutations.
'No, that rod produced them. They were artificial psions. Please bring them aboard. I wish to scan them.' Eve's voice sounded a little too much like a creepy stalker.
'Uh, we need to have a serious talk about privacy.' Deck peeked around the corner in the direction of the ship's ramp while Aln muttered about the mild reception to apparently their big display.
"Looks clear. Good job Aln." Deck looked back at them and they wheezed happily before spinning the pink rod once before it shrank down.
Nai gave him an unreadable look before moving past him towards the ship. She was still creeping until she spotted three bodies flopped over. It looked as if they had been hiding behind a small life vehicle. "Interesting ship. I've not seen this model before." Aln floated past Deck who had stopped to pick up the crude slug gun from one of the men. The other two looked to have been armed with a few heavy maintenance tools. After a short pause he scooped up them as well. Spoils of war, no matter how slim.
He popped open the slug gun, it was a break action single shot weapon. Probably made somewhere on the station illegally. There was a round in the chamber and a quick patdown got him two more. He felt better armed.
Nai was watching from the open ships door down the corridor and when he started up the ramp she motioned impatiently for him to hurry. "Calm down. I don't see anyone else coming."
"I know that's what bothers me. Let us get out of here." Nai grabbed his torn shirt and tugged as if she could move his larger frame any. All she did was manage to tear his ruined shirt a little more. Behind them the outer door slid shut and a second inner partition came down.
"Eve. Can you get us out of here?" He dumped the two maintenance tools into one of the access cubbies as he spoke.
"Of course captain." He felt the ship shake slightly as the Zero Reactor powered on fully to wrap the ship in a gravity sheath. Then the shift as the locking arms released dropping them to hover. They made another by the book's departure, this time without a security detail panicking. Though he figured the dockmaster might be having a fit since they were leaving without permission. Also, without their docking fees paid.
"Man those interest rates are going to kill me." Deck felt his butt pucker some at the thought of how much they were going to charge him.
Nai snorted a laugh. "You got bigger things to worry about than a little debt." She was eying his bare chest, it was almost completely healed on the surface now.
"Do you mind if I take a look around the ship?" Aln shuffled over no longer flying.
"No. Just… respect peoples privacy." Deck spoke to the little xeno but got a exasperated response in his head from Eve that she understood.
Before anyone could depart the ship lurched to the side. "Incoming fire." One of the display screens in the entrance room lit up showing three small frigates firing on them. They had barely cleared the station's curtain and weren't able to dodge. He watched as two small bolts of plasma careened towards them and felt his heart slide up into his throat. They had no shields or armor. Even a single hit….
Both bolts deflected away slamming into the station to be absorbed by the station's shielding. "Impressive!" Aln hopped excitedly.
"What happened? How did they miss." Deck was glad Nai asked so he didn't have to.
"I'm currently using the ships gravity sleeve to alter the course of the attacks. But while doing so I won't be able to activate the hyperdrive. We are at a stalemate Captain." Eve's voice came over the intercom.
"Amazing. The processing power necessary to do something like that is… just amazing." They seemed at loss for words for a moment.
Several more rounds came in only to veer slightly off at the last moment. Just watching made Deck's heart race. It looked like they could only alter them slight and at the last moment. If they got a straight enough shot off…
"How do we get out of this?" Deck finally asked.
"You will need to engage a manual jump. To do so you will need to overload the primary drive." There was a pause as they deflected several more shots. "It is dangerous tho." Eve's voice sounded strained.
"That is an understatement. But probably the only option." Aln was surprisingly calm next to them.
"How the hell do I trigger a manual jump?" He glanced to Nai who shook her head.
"Really? You don't know how? Should be easy. Show me to your main drive." Aln had their hands on the hips looking up at him.
"Er…" Lights lit up making a path.
"Oh, good job captain." Aln started shuffling along, even using their hands to swing themselves forward making Nai and Deck share a look of shock.
"Uh, not going to use your belt?" Deck asked.
"Can't. Burnt it out. Haven't managed to stabilize the core yet. Honestly surprised it lasted so long." They were half hopping half swinging themselves along the path.
The ship lurched to the side slightly. "Sorry about this. We are in a hurry." Deck grabbed them by the back of their jacket with one hand. They were surprisingly heavy but hardly a burden for him. He jogged down the lit path and down a short set of stairs. 'Definately need to study the ship better.' Everything had just been happening too fast.
Deck dropped them down where the light ended at a set of exposed components that all looked the same to Deck. Panels lit up, cylinders glowed and power conduits of glowing energy connected many of them. Aln who hadn't complained one bit about being carried swept their gaze over the system and made loud wet smacking sounds.
"Amazing!" Their hands started dancing over panels in a blur. Deck wasn't sure what they were doing but different lights and conduits were glowing while some went dark. "This one. Pull this one and plug it up there." Aln was hopping to point at one glowing conduit and another section that looked kinda like a port.
Deck grabbed the conduit and yanked. It snapped free of the plugging and with it was several bursting arcs of energy that crackled against the wall. Deck shielded his face with his free hand and pointed it at what looked to be a clear wall. When the discharging stopped he heard. "Oops forgot to mention it might discharge." Deck gave the short alien a glare and got an apologetic shrug back.
The ship lurched slightly again and Deck shoved the conduit into the port Aln had pointed out. Suddenly the ship hummed and thrummed. Deck could feel a slight vibration flowing through the ship then the world stretched away from him.