Silverline (7/?)
Title: Silverline
Pairing: N/Minah
Rating: PG-13, eventual NC-17 (violence, porn)
Genre: AU, scifi, crossover, romance, angst
Summary: He was part of an elite group of cybernetic supersoldiers, trained to carry out missions with ruthless efficiency. He returns home from war to find his family and childhood home gone, the woman he once loved the only surviving link to his past. Trained to uphold the law, he now finds himself breaking it to protect those he loves, to help those it has forgotten, and to rediscover the man behind the machine.
Notes: This is the first in a series of VIXX/Girl’s Day crossover cyborg AU stories (with appearances of idols from various other groups I like). These stories are inspired by medieval legends adapted to a space western setting. This installment is loosely based upon Robin Hood. And yes, I was totally on this before “Error."
Minah awoke in the dark, temporarily disoriented. She knew she wasn’t in her own bed, and the not-wholly-unpleasant aches and pains in her body assured her that she had done a lot more last night then party with her crewmates and the Dragon’s crew. The pillow she slept on smelled nice-heavenly even, and so familiar.
She turned to see Hakyeon sleeping beside her, appearing almost angelic in the rays of moonlight that seeped though the high window of the room. She had no idea what time it was, but she was sure it would be dawn soon, and she couldn’t be seen leaving his room.
Truthfully, she wasn’t sure she was ready to address what had happened between them yet.
Still, it was difficult to resist the urge to touch his face, or to kiss him, before she slipped quietly out of the bed. In the scattered piles of clothing they’d left on the floor, she managed to find hers. Slipping as quietly out of the room as she could, she stole one final look at his sleeping form before backing of the door, closing it discreetly behind her.
A noise in the hallway caught her attention, and she froze. Turning her head toward it, she glimpsed a rumpled-and chagrined-looking Nana sneaking in wearing an oversized tunic that couldn’t possibly belong to her. In fact, it was so large that there was pretty much only one person it could belong to-a certain brigand who called himself the Dragon.
Well, this was awkward.
Nana’s eyes met Minah’s, and in that moment, both women knew they were not going to speak of this. At least, not now.
They both quietly continued on their separate ways to their quarters.
---
Minah was the first one up on the Archer; or at least, she was the first to get to the mess hall and program a strong cup of coffee into the beverage synthesizer. As soon as the taste hit her tongue, she felt instantly revitalized-OK, well, not so much, but better than she had before.
She had not slept much the previous night at all. Even after returning to her quarters, she’d only slept a few more hours-it wouldn’t do for the ship’s captain to sleep the day away, especially when they were on a mission.
Not that the rest of the crew were in tip-top shape. Nana was the next to stagger into the mess hall, looking far the worse for wear. She had thrown on a robe (the morning on Darnantes was crisper then they were used to) but was probably still donning the Dragon’s tunic underneath.
“Good morning, Nana,” Minah greeted her.
Nana’s only answer was a muffled groan as she sank down at the table, head in her hands.
“I feel like I got slammed by two alpha-class warships, then disintegrated only to be re-integrated wrong,” she moaned after a moment.
“Nothing like a homemade moonshine hangover, huh?” Minah set a fresh mug of coffee down in front of her beleaguered first officer.
Groggily, Nana reached for the mug, shooting her captain a grateful look.
“Well,” she said after a moment, “You can tell your cyborg boyfriend there’s nothing little about the Dragon. Or Tao, for that matter.”
“He’s not my boyfr-wait, what?” Minah immediately plopped down on the chair next to Nana. “Kris and Tao?”
“They have kind of a thing. They asked me to join them last night, after we’d all had enough moonshine and well… I did.”
Minah was aghast. “Nana! And I thought you were the level-headed one.”
“Need I remind you whose quarters I saw you sneaking out of in the wee hours of the morning?”
Minah’s cheeks burned, and she quickly took a sip of her coffee to cover it up.
Before the awkward conversation could continue even further, Lizzy strolled into the mess hall, looking far more chipper than her crewmates. “Morning, captain, Nana,” she greeted them. “You both look like hell.”
Nana threw the younger woman a dirty look, while Minah said simply, “Thanks.”
Lizzy helped herself to a cup of coffee from the synthesizer. “So last night I figured Nana was getting a personal staff fighting lesson from Tao and Kris. Only without the fighting.”
Nana glared at Lizzy over her coffee mug.
“And Minah, you have got to dish on the cyborg sexing. Any more non-human parts of him we haven’t seen?”
Minah nearly dropped her coffee. “Wh-what?”
Lizzy threw her a withering look. “Come on. My quarters are next door. You two aren’t exactly quiet.”
Now it was Minah’s turn to groan and drop her head into her hands.
“Glad you got some use out of my collection, though. It’s been sitting around for far too long.”
“Is there anyone who doesn’t know about me and Hakyeon?” Minah wanted to know.
“Probably not. Well, maybe the ships orbiting the planet. There’s no sound in a vacuum.”
“Wait, what? Minah slept with Hakyeon?” Raina wandered into the mess hall, looking more rested than her crewmates, at least.
Minah thew up her hands. “Write it in the sky, why don’t you?”
“I knew it!” Raina exclaimed. “So does he… you know… have any like, special functions or anything?”
“How about his stamina?” Lizzy jumped in. “I bet he’s got mad stamina. And is he flexible?”
“You guys!” Minah exclaimed. “He’s a cyborg, not a sex-droid.”
“Indeed, though it seems I am in excellent physical shape,” a male voice spoke up. With utter nonchalance, Hakyeon strolled over to the drink synthesizer while the women seated at the table focused their efforts on looking in every direction but at him.
“My non-human side seems to have no adverse effect on my sexual performance,” he added.
“From what I heard I’d say it’s pretty good,” Lizzy spoke up.
“Where’s Hyeri with that laser pulse rifle when you need her?” Minah muttered.
---
Despite the slow start to the day, Minah made sure to call a meeting of her crew after everyone was awake and had more or less pulled themselves together. She had to remind her crew that they were here on a mission, after all. Truthfully, she was grateful for the distraction. She wasn’t sure she was ready yet to address what had happened between her and Hakyeon, and she certainly wasn’t ready to be alone with him yet. She couldn’t say that she regretted her decision. She had walked into it with both eyes open; she knew the score. She just needed some time.
Hakyeon, it seemed, felt the same way or at least, sensed her need for space and kept his distance. Still, it was unnerving to run across him, to meet his eyes and feel that spark of electricity, that sizzle. Things had permanently changed between them. There was no going back. Yet, she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to go forward.
When Kris heard about their mission (Nana must’ve spilled the beans at some point) he did not volunteer to accompany them, but wished them luck.
“I’ve heard of that guy,” he told Minah. “Frankly, I’m not sure why you’d want to get mixed up with him. They say once you strike a deal with the Priest, he owns you. I’d rather take my chances with the sheriff.”
“Actually, the Priest owes my father,” Minah pointed out. “Apparently my father saved his life, or something. My father is… gone, so I’m here to collect.”
“Well, best of luck with that.” It was clear from Kris’s tone and expression that while he respected her decision, he also considered her a bit mad, and definitely didn’t want any part of it.
At the moment, however, Minah wouldn’t have minded his crew’s help. The forest had only grown even denser the deeper they ventured into it. The Archer’s crew hacked and slashed their way through the undergrowth, following a path that was long-since abandoned by human foot. The landscape had taken on a life of its own post-terraforming, the trees and plants seeming to have evolved and mutated into something entirely harder, tougher, and more impenetrable.
“I know these coordinates your father gave us are all we’ve got, but… what are you going to do if they don’t pan out?” Nana wanted to know, sidestepping a vine growing directly across their path.
“They’ll pan out.”
“But what if they don’t?” the first officer persisted. “We’re going through a lot of trouble here based on a hunch and years-old intel.”
Minah halted her progress abruptly, causing Lizzy to almost bump into her back. “You want to turn around and go back to the ship, then?”
Nana held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture, one hand clutching a sharp Angsoi dagger. “I was only concerned we might be partaking in a wild goose chase here.”
“Your concern is duly noted.”
“Can we at least get a break? If carpal tunnel wasn’t instantly curable with the doc’s little healing doo-hickey, I’d be getting it from hacking our way through this forest.”
The taller woman, who had forged ahead of her captain, was currently so busy cutting her way through knee-high undergrowth that her head came dangerously close to a low-hanging, thorny vine. In a lightning-quick motion, a flash of metal passed before Nana’s eyes, a diamond-sharp knife cleanly slicing the vine before being retracted into a mechanical finger.
Nana nearly jumped, whirling around. “How does he do that??”
“Glad you have your built-in Swiss army knife under control,” Minah remarked to Hakyeon, feeling her cheeks burn at the thought of where that mechanical hand had been recently.
He glanced down at her, and she could see from the heat in his eyes he’d been thinking the same thing.
The glance they exchanged did not go unnoticed by Nana, who said dryly, “So how many more hidden abilities do you have up your sleeve, Robo-boy?”
“Enough to save your pretty face from that.” He pointed out the vine. “Climbing ajal. The venom is not fatal, but anywhere those thorn scratches will puff up like a blowfish for a few days.” Though most plant and animal life on the system’s moons was terraformed, the introduction of alien life forms, whether accidental or deliberate, was inevitable.
“How do you know all this?”
“Ran it through The Archer’s database. My software is able to interface with the ship’s.”
“Our own built-in communicator. Nice.”
They had reached a particularly difficult stretch of terrain, the rocky ground making it difficult to find stable footing. As Minah made her way over the rocks behind Nana, her foot slipped on a particularly slick piece of moss, and she found herself pitching backward. Her hands flailed out for some kind of hold but there were no trees close enough. Before she could fall, two hands shot out from behind her and caught her, and she found herself held flush against Hakyeon’s body.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
“I think so. Thanks,” she mumbled. It was the closest contact they’d had since they’d slept together, and it wreaked as much havoc on her senses as she’d imagined it would. Even in this circumstance, she found herself overwhelmed by his nearness, the smell of him, the feel of his hands on her body, even through all the layers of fabric that separated their skin.
“Maybe we should take a break. We need to be careful out here.”
Minah shook her head. “We’ll be fine. We’ve faced worse.”
Hakyeon merely nodded, respecting her decision, and released her. Turning away quickly so he wouldn’t see her face, Minah forged on ahead.
As the afternoon wore on, the crew became increasingly restless, and Minah was starting to wonder if she should have heeded Nana’s advice. The first twinge of worry undermined her previous confidence in her father’s instructions. What if Nana was right? What if it was a wild goose chase?
Just when Minah was considering calling for a break, however, she was granted a reprieve-the forest began to thin out. Thin slivers of sunlight breaking through the canopy of branches broadened and brightened to rays, and soon, it began to feel like daytime again. The morale among the crew seemed to lighten as well, and as they made their way through the forest, it wasn’t long before the trees fell away entirely to reveal a small clearing.
They had hiked several miles into the forest by now, the clearing surrounded by forest on three sides and the first in a range of wooded hills on the other. At the far end of the clearing from where the crew emerged stood an ancient, crumbling building so overgrown with vines that they almost covered it entirely.
“What is that?” Hyeri wanted to know. “An old way station?”
“Architecture’s too antiquated,” Nana answered. “It appears to be a chapel.”
“And how would you know that?” Lizzy asked. “It’s not like we had a lot of religion on Calistra.”
“I have an interest in ancient architecture,” Nana informed her.
“Ancient is the word for it," Hakyeon jumped in. “Ship’s database tells me the architectural style matches western Europe on Earth, late medieval era, early fourteenth century.”
“OK, that is getting downright freaky,” Nana remarked.
“Why would a medieval church be in the middle of the forest on a remote moon?” Minah pondered.
“A medievalist hermit really wanted to get off the grid?” Nana suggested, but before the conversation could continue, the crew’s attention was quickly diverted.
A large, hulking figure emerged from the chapel, dressed entirely in black. As it approached, Minah could see that it was a man, probably not as bulky as he appeared, since he donned antiquated armor designed to resist aluminum bullets. He brandished a similarly antiquated aluminum-bullet rifle, but its age made it no less deadly.
He instantly had several far more modern weapons trained upon him.
“Hey!” Hyeri suddenly exclaimed. “What’s with our weapons?”
At the same time, Minah noticed that the phase part of her phase pistol wasn’t firing up. The same was true for all of their weapons-all deader than they would be if they didn’t think of a new strategy fast.
“EM pulse that knocks out all phase or laser-based weapons,” the man informed them. “We’ve got every frequency in the book from the USF and known alien species.”
“Not every frequency,” Hakyeon countered. “My tech is still entirely operational.”
The man sneered at him. “You have no weapons.”
“I don’t need them.”
He stepped forward, toward the man in black, pulling back his hood to reveal the metal plate attached to his forehead. As he pulled back the hood, his mechanical hand also came into view.
This gave the man in black momentary pause. “Sweet Logres, what are you?”
“You know, you could make this easier on us both if you’d put down the gun.”
“Not as long as you’re at my chapel. How did you find it?”
“My father knows the Priest,” Minah spoke up. “Are you the Priest?”
The man did not reply. “He is expecting no visitors.”
“That’s how I knew where to find him,” Minah persisted. “He gave my father these coordinates.”
The man in black’s stance never budged, even after Minah gave her father’s name.
“You know, standard protocol would be to kill you, since the Priest has no business with you and he can’t have you spreading the word of this location,” the man remarked. “It’d be a shame, especially with your robot man’s tech here.”
“You mean you’d try to kill me,” Hakyeon said.
The man in black’s gaze and weapon swiveled toward the cyborg. “Is that a challenge?”
Hakyeon sighed, casting a sideways glance at Minah. “You know, this being your champion thing is really a lot of work.”
“Hey, we might be at a medieval chapel, but it’s still the twenty-second century,” Minah countered.
The next events happened with lightning quickness. The man in black fired. Hakyeon’s mechanical hand shot out, grabbing the barrel of the rifle, stopping the man in black in his tracks as the bullet embedded itself harmlessly into a tree. The next couple of seconds found the man in black sprawled on his back, Hakyeon’s metal foot on his chest, and his rifle now in the possession of the cyborg and pointed straight at his face.
For the first time since the confrontation began, not only was the man in black rattled, but he looked downright terrified. “What even are you?”
Just then the door of the chapel opened and another figure stepped out, also clad in black. As the figure drew closer, Minah could see that the person was a woman. She gazed at the scene before, expression cool and unflinching. Instinctively, Minah knew right away who they were facing.
“You’re the Priest!” she blurted out.
Pairing: N/Minah
Rating: PG-13, eventual NC-17 (violence, porn)
Genre: AU, scifi, crossover, romance, angst
Summary: He was part of an elite group of cybernetic supersoldiers, trained to carry out missions with ruthless efficiency. He returns home from war to find his family and childhood home gone, the woman he once loved the only surviving link to his past. Trained to uphold the law, he now finds himself breaking it to protect those he loves, to help those it has forgotten, and to rediscover the man behind the machine.
Notes: This is the first in a series of VIXX/Girl’s Day crossover cyborg AU stories (with appearances of idols from various other groups I like). These stories are inspired by medieval legends adapted to a space western setting. This installment is loosely based upon Robin Hood. And yes, I was totally on this before “Error."
Minah awoke in the dark, temporarily disoriented. She knew she wasn’t in her own bed, and the not-wholly-unpleasant aches and pains in her body assured her that she had done a lot more last night then party with her crewmates and the Dragon’s crew. The pillow she slept on smelled nice-heavenly even, and so familiar.
She turned to see Hakyeon sleeping beside her, appearing almost angelic in the rays of moonlight that seeped though the high window of the room. She had no idea what time it was, but she was sure it would be dawn soon, and she couldn’t be seen leaving his room.
Truthfully, she wasn’t sure she was ready to address what had happened between them yet.
Still, it was difficult to resist the urge to touch his face, or to kiss him, before she slipped quietly out of the bed. In the scattered piles of clothing they’d left on the floor, she managed to find hers. Slipping as quietly out of the room as she could, she stole one final look at his sleeping form before backing of the door, closing it discreetly behind her.
A noise in the hallway caught her attention, and she froze. Turning her head toward it, she glimpsed a rumpled-and chagrined-looking Nana sneaking in wearing an oversized tunic that couldn’t possibly belong to her. In fact, it was so large that there was pretty much only one person it could belong to-a certain brigand who called himself the Dragon.
Well, this was awkward.
Nana’s eyes met Minah’s, and in that moment, both women knew they were not going to speak of this. At least, not now.
They both quietly continued on their separate ways to their quarters.
---
Minah was the first one up on the Archer; or at least, she was the first to get to the mess hall and program a strong cup of coffee into the beverage synthesizer. As soon as the taste hit her tongue, she felt instantly revitalized-OK, well, not so much, but better than she had before.
She had not slept much the previous night at all. Even after returning to her quarters, she’d only slept a few more hours-it wouldn’t do for the ship’s captain to sleep the day away, especially when they were on a mission.
Not that the rest of the crew were in tip-top shape. Nana was the next to stagger into the mess hall, looking far the worse for wear. She had thrown on a robe (the morning on Darnantes was crisper then they were used to) but was probably still donning the Dragon’s tunic underneath.
“Good morning, Nana,” Minah greeted her.
Nana’s only answer was a muffled groan as she sank down at the table, head in her hands.
“I feel like I got slammed by two alpha-class warships, then disintegrated only to be re-integrated wrong,” she moaned after a moment.
“Nothing like a homemade moonshine hangover, huh?” Minah set a fresh mug of coffee down in front of her beleaguered first officer.
Groggily, Nana reached for the mug, shooting her captain a grateful look.
“Well,” she said after a moment, “You can tell your cyborg boyfriend there’s nothing little about the Dragon. Or Tao, for that matter.”
“He’s not my boyfr-wait, what?” Minah immediately plopped down on the chair next to Nana. “Kris and Tao?”
“They have kind of a thing. They asked me to join them last night, after we’d all had enough moonshine and well… I did.”
Minah was aghast. “Nana! And I thought you were the level-headed one.”
“Need I remind you whose quarters I saw you sneaking out of in the wee hours of the morning?”
Minah’s cheeks burned, and she quickly took a sip of her coffee to cover it up.
Before the awkward conversation could continue even further, Lizzy strolled into the mess hall, looking far more chipper than her crewmates. “Morning, captain, Nana,” she greeted them. “You both look like hell.”
Nana threw the younger woman a dirty look, while Minah said simply, “Thanks.”
Lizzy helped herself to a cup of coffee from the synthesizer. “So last night I figured Nana was getting a personal staff fighting lesson from Tao and Kris. Only without the fighting.”
Nana glared at Lizzy over her coffee mug.
“And Minah, you have got to dish on the cyborg sexing. Any more non-human parts of him we haven’t seen?”
Minah nearly dropped her coffee. “Wh-what?”
Lizzy threw her a withering look. “Come on. My quarters are next door. You two aren’t exactly quiet.”
Now it was Minah’s turn to groan and drop her head into her hands.
“Glad you got some use out of my collection, though. It’s been sitting around for far too long.”
“Is there anyone who doesn’t know about me and Hakyeon?” Minah wanted to know.
“Probably not. Well, maybe the ships orbiting the planet. There’s no sound in a vacuum.”
“Wait, what? Minah slept with Hakyeon?” Raina wandered into the mess hall, looking more rested than her crewmates, at least.
Minah thew up her hands. “Write it in the sky, why don’t you?”
“I knew it!” Raina exclaimed. “So does he… you know… have any like, special functions or anything?”
“How about his stamina?” Lizzy jumped in. “I bet he’s got mad stamina. And is he flexible?”
“You guys!” Minah exclaimed. “He’s a cyborg, not a sex-droid.”
“Indeed, though it seems I am in excellent physical shape,” a male voice spoke up. With utter nonchalance, Hakyeon strolled over to the drink synthesizer while the women seated at the table focused their efforts on looking in every direction but at him.
“My non-human side seems to have no adverse effect on my sexual performance,” he added.
“From what I heard I’d say it’s pretty good,” Lizzy spoke up.
“Where’s Hyeri with that laser pulse rifle when you need her?” Minah muttered.
---
Despite the slow start to the day, Minah made sure to call a meeting of her crew after everyone was awake and had more or less pulled themselves together. She had to remind her crew that they were here on a mission, after all. Truthfully, she was grateful for the distraction. She wasn’t sure she was ready yet to address what had happened between her and Hakyeon, and she certainly wasn’t ready to be alone with him yet. She couldn’t say that she regretted her decision. She had walked into it with both eyes open; she knew the score. She just needed some time.
Hakyeon, it seemed, felt the same way or at least, sensed her need for space and kept his distance. Still, it was unnerving to run across him, to meet his eyes and feel that spark of electricity, that sizzle. Things had permanently changed between them. There was no going back. Yet, she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to go forward.
When Kris heard about their mission (Nana must’ve spilled the beans at some point) he did not volunteer to accompany them, but wished them luck.
“I’ve heard of that guy,” he told Minah. “Frankly, I’m not sure why you’d want to get mixed up with him. They say once you strike a deal with the Priest, he owns you. I’d rather take my chances with the sheriff.”
“Actually, the Priest owes my father,” Minah pointed out. “Apparently my father saved his life, or something. My father is… gone, so I’m here to collect.”
“Well, best of luck with that.” It was clear from Kris’s tone and expression that while he respected her decision, he also considered her a bit mad, and definitely didn’t want any part of it.
At the moment, however, Minah wouldn’t have minded his crew’s help. The forest had only grown even denser the deeper they ventured into it. The Archer’s crew hacked and slashed their way through the undergrowth, following a path that was long-since abandoned by human foot. The landscape had taken on a life of its own post-terraforming, the trees and plants seeming to have evolved and mutated into something entirely harder, tougher, and more impenetrable.
“I know these coordinates your father gave us are all we’ve got, but… what are you going to do if they don’t pan out?” Nana wanted to know, sidestepping a vine growing directly across their path.
“They’ll pan out.”
“But what if they don’t?” the first officer persisted. “We’re going through a lot of trouble here based on a hunch and years-old intel.”
Minah halted her progress abruptly, causing Lizzy to almost bump into her back. “You want to turn around and go back to the ship, then?”
Nana held up her hands in a conciliatory gesture, one hand clutching a sharp Angsoi dagger. “I was only concerned we might be partaking in a wild goose chase here.”
“Your concern is duly noted.”
“Can we at least get a break? If carpal tunnel wasn’t instantly curable with the doc’s little healing doo-hickey, I’d be getting it from hacking our way through this forest.”
The taller woman, who had forged ahead of her captain, was currently so busy cutting her way through knee-high undergrowth that her head came dangerously close to a low-hanging, thorny vine. In a lightning-quick motion, a flash of metal passed before Nana’s eyes, a diamond-sharp knife cleanly slicing the vine before being retracted into a mechanical finger.
Nana nearly jumped, whirling around. “How does he do that??”
“Glad you have your built-in Swiss army knife under control,” Minah remarked to Hakyeon, feeling her cheeks burn at the thought of where that mechanical hand had been recently.
He glanced down at her, and she could see from the heat in his eyes he’d been thinking the same thing.
The glance they exchanged did not go unnoticed by Nana, who said dryly, “So how many more hidden abilities do you have up your sleeve, Robo-boy?”
“Enough to save your pretty face from that.” He pointed out the vine. “Climbing ajal. The venom is not fatal, but anywhere those thorn scratches will puff up like a blowfish for a few days.” Though most plant and animal life on the system’s moons was terraformed, the introduction of alien life forms, whether accidental or deliberate, was inevitable.
“How do you know all this?”
“Ran it through The Archer’s database. My software is able to interface with the ship’s.”
“Our own built-in communicator. Nice.”
They had reached a particularly difficult stretch of terrain, the rocky ground making it difficult to find stable footing. As Minah made her way over the rocks behind Nana, her foot slipped on a particularly slick piece of moss, and she found herself pitching backward. Her hands flailed out for some kind of hold but there were no trees close enough. Before she could fall, two hands shot out from behind her and caught her, and she found herself held flush against Hakyeon’s body.
“Are you OK?” he asked.
“I think so. Thanks,” she mumbled. It was the closest contact they’d had since they’d slept together, and it wreaked as much havoc on her senses as she’d imagined it would. Even in this circumstance, she found herself overwhelmed by his nearness, the smell of him, the feel of his hands on her body, even through all the layers of fabric that separated their skin.
“Maybe we should take a break. We need to be careful out here.”
Minah shook her head. “We’ll be fine. We’ve faced worse.”
Hakyeon merely nodded, respecting her decision, and released her. Turning away quickly so he wouldn’t see her face, Minah forged on ahead.
As the afternoon wore on, the crew became increasingly restless, and Minah was starting to wonder if she should have heeded Nana’s advice. The first twinge of worry undermined her previous confidence in her father’s instructions. What if Nana was right? What if it was a wild goose chase?
Just when Minah was considering calling for a break, however, she was granted a reprieve-the forest began to thin out. Thin slivers of sunlight breaking through the canopy of branches broadened and brightened to rays, and soon, it began to feel like daytime again. The morale among the crew seemed to lighten as well, and as they made their way through the forest, it wasn’t long before the trees fell away entirely to reveal a small clearing.
They had hiked several miles into the forest by now, the clearing surrounded by forest on three sides and the first in a range of wooded hills on the other. At the far end of the clearing from where the crew emerged stood an ancient, crumbling building so overgrown with vines that they almost covered it entirely.
“What is that?” Hyeri wanted to know. “An old way station?”
“Architecture’s too antiquated,” Nana answered. “It appears to be a chapel.”
“And how would you know that?” Lizzy asked. “It’s not like we had a lot of religion on Calistra.”
“I have an interest in ancient architecture,” Nana informed her.
“Ancient is the word for it," Hakyeon jumped in. “Ship’s database tells me the architectural style matches western Europe on Earth, late medieval era, early fourteenth century.”
“OK, that is getting downright freaky,” Nana remarked.
“Why would a medieval church be in the middle of the forest on a remote moon?” Minah pondered.
“A medievalist hermit really wanted to get off the grid?” Nana suggested, but before the conversation could continue, the crew’s attention was quickly diverted.
A large, hulking figure emerged from the chapel, dressed entirely in black. As it approached, Minah could see that it was a man, probably not as bulky as he appeared, since he donned antiquated armor designed to resist aluminum bullets. He brandished a similarly antiquated aluminum-bullet rifle, but its age made it no less deadly.
He instantly had several far more modern weapons trained upon him.
“Hey!” Hyeri suddenly exclaimed. “What’s with our weapons?”
At the same time, Minah noticed that the phase part of her phase pistol wasn’t firing up. The same was true for all of their weapons-all deader than they would be if they didn’t think of a new strategy fast.
“EM pulse that knocks out all phase or laser-based weapons,” the man informed them. “We’ve got every frequency in the book from the USF and known alien species.”
“Not every frequency,” Hakyeon countered. “My tech is still entirely operational.”
The man sneered at him. “You have no weapons.”
“I don’t need them.”
He stepped forward, toward the man in black, pulling back his hood to reveal the metal plate attached to his forehead. As he pulled back the hood, his mechanical hand also came into view.
This gave the man in black momentary pause. “Sweet Logres, what are you?”
“You know, you could make this easier on us both if you’d put down the gun.”
“Not as long as you’re at my chapel. How did you find it?”
“My father knows the Priest,” Minah spoke up. “Are you the Priest?”
The man did not reply. “He is expecting no visitors.”
“That’s how I knew where to find him,” Minah persisted. “He gave my father these coordinates.”
The man in black’s stance never budged, even after Minah gave her father’s name.
“You know, standard protocol would be to kill you, since the Priest has no business with you and he can’t have you spreading the word of this location,” the man remarked. “It’d be a shame, especially with your robot man’s tech here.”
“You mean you’d try to kill me,” Hakyeon said.
The man in black’s gaze and weapon swiveled toward the cyborg. “Is that a challenge?”
Hakyeon sighed, casting a sideways glance at Minah. “You know, this being your champion thing is really a lot of work.”
“Hey, we might be at a medieval chapel, but it’s still the twenty-second century,” Minah countered.
The next events happened with lightning quickness. The man in black fired. Hakyeon’s mechanical hand shot out, grabbing the barrel of the rifle, stopping the man in black in his tracks as the bullet embedded itself harmlessly into a tree. The next couple of seconds found the man in black sprawled on his back, Hakyeon’s metal foot on his chest, and his rifle now in the possession of the cyborg and pointed straight at his face.
For the first time since the confrontation began, not only was the man in black rattled, but he looked downright terrified. “What even are you?”
Just then the door of the chapel opened and another figure stepped out, also clad in black. As the figure drew closer, Minah could see that the person was a woman. She gazed at the scene before, expression cool and unflinching. Instinctively, Minah knew right away who they were facing.
“You’re the Priest!” she blurted out.