Promised Misfortune WIP

 

It unfolded itself from the inside of the pod, limbering out on long legs and arms, thin torso and long neck; it wore a black and red pressure suit, skin-tight and ridged to accentuate its muscles, bulging at the crotch and shoulders; its face was predatory, small eyes and a large, demented grin full of wicked teeth, hair in a long, thin mane running from forehead to the back of the neck. It approached with a rhythm of mixed messages, fear and lust, death and delight, gently picking a mote of dust off one shoulder. “Gentlemen,” it said with a voice that beckoned and recoiled, “I have come to stay.”

“Tikon,” Hasin said; he was sweating, cold and heavy. “To what do we owe this pleasure?”

The being called Tikon leaned against the wall, resting its head against a cabinet, and continued to smile. “Oh, dears, the pleasure is all mine. I heard about your endeavors, if you will, and thought to myself, oh, that is where I want to be.”

“We don't want, or need, your help.” Jah said, unaffacted by the hormonal influence the creature exhuded from every pore. “We can do this without your kind.”

Tikon's smile wavered, but did not falter. “Oh, really? A tazinik? Exemplary! This will be a delight,” it said, approaching again, idly scratching at its chest. “Your kind taste amazing.”

Jah bared his own teeth, short and black. “Slink towards death, incubus.”

Hasin closed his eyes and let out a deep, loud breath. “Stop. Both of you.”

Tikon stilled, and Jah blinked, slowly, and stood up straight.

“Tikon,” Hasin began, leveling a piercing gaze on it, “You are very gracious,” he began, choosing his words carefully, “but my companion is not wrong. We did not seek you out, nor would we. We would prefer it if you would leave.”

Tikon finally stopped smiling. “You are denying me?”

“I am.”

Tikon's smile exploded with ferocious glee. “Amazing! The strength of will required to, no, not worth speaking about. I am definitely not leaving without seeing this through to the end. In fact,” it stopped suddenly, its eyes darting to the counter, to the razor-sharp lightblade. Before even the quickest of them could react one hand snaked out and snatched up the blade, ignited it; it burst to life with a snap and a hiss, the three-inch blade of plasma providing enough light to horrifically illuminate its grinning visage from below. “I propose,” it began.

Jah grabbed Hasin and hauled him back just in time to realize the gesture was meaningless, as Tikon ran the blade along its own outstretched palm, raising a curl of smoke and a shallow gash of deep purple blood. “A bond!”

Hasin, Jah, and Uella stared as Tikon turned off the blade and extended its bleeding hand towards them. “With this melding of my life-blood with your flesh, I offer my life to yours until the end. As companions of the wound your lives are mine, to protect as I would my own; our goals unite, our joys and sorrows are one. We will forever live.”

Uella spoke for the first time since Hasin and Jah had known her, for the first time in over a month. “Are you completely insane or just mostly?” she asked.

Tikon took a step forward, grinning madly. “Oh, I am utterly bugfuck nuts, head over heels for you, my dears, my sweets, my loves!”

Hasin licked the sweat from his lips. The offer was incredibly endearing. “Do we dare?” he asked in a low tone, which only Jah heard. Jah stared hard at his captain.

“Don't. You. Fucking. Dare.”

Hasin's eyes locked with Jah's, though his face remained locked on Tikon's. “We accept,” he said, stepping forward as Jah and Uella, stunned, let him reach out and grasp Tikon's bleeding hand.

The pain was sudden, intense, and incredibly brief. With a searing heat the blood from Tikon's hand burned a matching scar into Hasin's own palm, though he neither yelled nor flinched. “The bond is done,” Tikon said.

Hasin stared down at his hand, watched the bubbling skin.

Tikon changed, subtly. “Lovely ship we have,” it said, looking around with a child-like wonder. “Kalish construction, unless I miss my guess?”

Uella sighed. “Kalish-ayela.”

Tikon blushed. “I apologize, dear love, with all the power in my heart. Of course, now I see it, now I see it, in the subtle lines of the bulkheads and the curves of the fixtures. Is she yours?”

Uella blushed, herself. “Yes.”

Jah finally managed to close his mouth. “I cannot fucking believe what I just witnessed. Did we really are you actually this thing is an incubus! A parasite! It's basically a walking, talking disease!”

Hasin took his turn to sigh. “It is our newest crew-member. Tikon, meet Jah, and Uella,” he said, gesturing to the others, “and welcome to the Promised Misfortune.”

Tikon had already taken a seat at a crash-couch and was spinning in it joyously. “Charmed!”

Uella Sin-Abajel was hip deep in heat-dispersing muck, her head completely engulfed by an opening in the engine block allowing access to the literal beating heart of the Promised Misfortune; with deft movements she removed and reattached various hoses and conduits in various configurations, occasionally breathing deep, drawing in the scents of the soul of her creation, and making adjustments. Finally, with one last heavy breath, she determined she had done the best she could given the circumstances, twisted one last lock into place, and withdrew from the cavity.

Hasin was watching her, up on the catwalk above the engine compartment; he couldn't stand the heat down below, already he was sweating uncomfortably. “When you're done~” he began, stopping short when he heard her squeal and bash her head on the engine block.

Uella groaned, rubbing the rapidly growing bruise adding a hint of color to her pale, tattoo'd head “Warn me, next time,” she said, looking up at her captain with a combination of barely-concealed pain and anger.

Hasin smiled sheepishly, fighting back a snicker. “Sorry, La.”

Uella stomped up and out of the thermal mud, waiting at the top of the stairs to let the majority of it drip from her skin and back into the pool below. “S'okay, cap,” she replied, the anger dead in the pit of her stomach, replaced by embarrassment for her perceived loss of control. “What do you need?”

“After you get cleaned up, please come up to the bridge; Tikon's found something in their scans of the planet and they want a second opinion.”

Uella looked up at Hasin, raised an eyebrow. “What would I see that you or they can't?”

“They say it's kalish, whatever it is.”

Uella stood under the steaming flow of water, letting it wash the remainder of the thermal mud off and down the drain; she hated losing even a few drops of the precious stuff, but knew it was necessary for maintaining the living environment for the others. If it had been just her, as it had been for the past few thousand years, she wouldn't have bothered; in fact, the shower itself likely would never have been installed, nor the modifications to the ram scoop to filter oxygen and hydrogen from the aether and atom-smash it into water.

While she let the water flow over her skin she gazed her inner eye back on the last two months, normally a blink in time to her, but so full of events, changes, growth: the arrival of Hasin and his offer, Misfortune's urging that she accept it, the additions of Jah and Tikon. Tikon. Tikon. Tikon.

Uella's body blushed as she thought about the parasite creature, the being of pure lust-rage that was so enamored with them and their quest, that knew so much about kalish. It was comfortable and distressing all at once. Misfortune assured her that she was not being affected by it's pheromone drives, that these emotions were real, hers; this knowledge did not help. Uella leaned her forehead against the cool wall of the shower and let out a deep, ugly sob. So much had changed, so many emotions, so much to endure. She wished for the simpler times, when it was just her and the Misfortune, moving ever towards the end of time.

Jah leaned back into his couch, eyes closed, ears perked back, and listened. Every sound for meters assaulted his auditory senses: Uella bathing, Tikon tick-ticking away on the console, Hasin shifting his weight. Jah blocked each sound out, one after another, until all he could hear was the background drone of the Misfortune itself, then he blocked that out as well. Pure silence. Blissful silence.

He reached out and flicked a lever on the device beside him, and the silence was slowly filled with a new noise, a light, flitting sound produced only by a select few masters on an instrument that took hundreds of years to learn to play, let alone play with such skill. Jah listened, deeply, to the sound, then took up his own naudiron, the neck held in one hand, the bow in another, a third supporting the base of the instrument and fourth beginning to manipulate the keys along the body; as he prepared to draw the bow across the strings he breathed in deep, held it long and hard.

The sound was excruciating to Tikon, but its face betrayed nothing. These were its blood, now, they were not family, they were Tikon as much as it was Tikon. Their idiosyncrasies were Tikon. That Jah enjoyed playing the horror-device, that Uella waded through the heat-mud for hours on end, that Hiran Hasin refused to stop sweating, all were Tikon. It knew this was for the best, that these facets of Tikon would lead it to the promised prize, and that though they were strange and sometimes hostile they were still amazing and delightful, just like Tikon. It would kill for them, would die for them, would celebrate victories and defeats with the same lustful gusto. And it loved-hated every moment of it.

It knew Uella would love what it had found, would be as excited as it was to learn more about the kalish vessel on the planet below, to plumb its depths and acquire new material for the Misfortune; it knew that Jah would relish the opportunity to hunt, to eat real meat he caught with his own arms, and to sleep under the forest canopy for even one night; Hasin, Hasin would love to see everyone happy and enjoying their quest.

And Tikon? Tikon would share their joy until it turned to sorrow. Forever.

Hasin watched Tikon with guarded trepidation; the parasite was bonded to him, and as far as he could tell not just not a threat, but a tremendous asset. That didn't make it any less terrifying, sometimes, especially with their history, although Tikon betrayed no recollection of what happened all those years ago. For not the first time Hasin wondered if Tikon was not the same Tikon. His attempts to research it further were always stymied by blocks on the data, heavy wards against prying eyes learning too much about the incubus species. Every time he discovered a new way to wiggle more information out of the database he only obtained more questions, more concerns.

He knew that Uella was in love with the incubus, though what he knew about kalish said she should be incapable of that emotion. Jah was angered by it, enraged they existed in the same universe, terrified of the outcome of conflict between them. Misfortune loved it as much as Uella, though in different, deeper ways, much like it loved all of them.

Hasin's thoughts were interruped by Uella stepping onto the bridge, taking in the view of the planet below.

“Hey, Tik,” she said, taking the seat beside Tikon and turning to look at the screen before it. “What'd you find?”

Tikon turned its smiling gaze onto her. “You're gonna love it, dearest, I promise.”