"Identify yourself, Gue'," he demahe word spoken like a curse. "You are trespassing in T’au space."

  Well, someone’s having a bad day.

  “Am I?” I smiled back at the hologram with the best amicable expression I could mahe System seems pretty dead to me, but as, this is the only pce we could reach. You see, we’d been attacked on the way by dreadful creatures of livial and had to stop to repair our ship.”

  "It is i’au space," he said. "Even if the infrastructure and poputioill developing. As for your tale, I care not. Leave immediately."

  “I’m afraid that would end with our death in short order,” I said apologetically, while my gravitational sensors worked in overdrive. There. Found you. “Our ship is still a few days away from being serviceable.”

  The fish head had the gall to harrumph despite my best attempts at diplomacy.

  ‘Tell him why we are here,’ Selene’s voice whispered into my mind. ‘He thinks you are a standoffish human mert captain at best. He’ll probably ge his tune once he knows you want to join his glorious civilization.’

  “You see, good Sir,” Who still didn’t bother to introduce himself- Fuck. I didher. “Me and my crew were just on our way to seek employment under your Empire. So if you would be so kind as to allow us a few days to repair our ship, we would be well on our way to the poputed p.”

  "Employment?" he asked dubiously, looking me up and down with what I suspected was a frown. "Are you seeking asylum? No. What is your true i, Gue'?"

  “We are meraries,” I said. His ship is locked in. If need be, I bst him into oblivion … but that would be the end of the diplomatic approach, which would be a shame. Let’s brown nose a bit more. “We heard your empire employs various races as auxiliaries in their armies, and we decided it would be our best option. Since we’d be hunted down and burned for our presumed ‘heresy’ in the Imperium, our only hope was to escape and hope our services would be enough pensation to take us in.”

  "I … see." he squinted his eyes, long fihoughtfully stroking his . He go the side, as if receiving input from his drone befiving a nod. "If you speak with siy, you will be weled into the Greater Good with open arms. We do not discrimihat is, provided you are being truthful about your iions."

  He seemed to smile before tinuing. "We will o verify this before transp you to the sept world. After all, we must ehat no infiltrators or saboteurs threaten our harmonious society."

  ‘Val,’ I ected to the Eldar currently flip-floppiween amusement ahing. ‘ I trust you to make sure any of them that e to board us think this a regur imperial ship aside from the passengers?’

  ‘Of course, Mistress,’ He said. ‘As much as I’d love to have you test your psychiesse by influeng aire group of them unnoticed, we would have to start much smaller first. I will hahem easily. Do you want them to be impressed by the ship, or have them think it archaid inferior to their own?’

  ‘Go with the sed,’ I said. ‘It’s better for them to uimate us.’

  “Well, when we expect your arrival, then?” I asked the hologram. “We'd very much appreciate being escorted to safety.”

  The Tau straightened up, his arms csped behind his back as he gave a single arrogant nod. “You expect us in … 15 Terran minutes?”

  I returhe nod with an amicable smile on my face, one which quickly disappeared ohe hologram fizzled out. “We should have goh stealth. I’m going tle that blue fucker if he keeps up that attitude.”

  “Novel challenges are good frowth,” Val hough I didn’t for a sed think he didn’t murder the Tau captain a hundred creative ways in his mind while that versation pyed out.

  Seleantly patted me on the back, still looking a bit sheepish over our st versation. I sent her a smile. She was trying to cheer me up, and that was what mattered to me.

  “Throgg,” I g the hulking Ork poking his head in through a door. “Make sure your little brats behave. I don’t want to fight the Tau just yet. Beat as many of them ag out into a pulp as you have to if it means keeping them in line. Also, assemble a small tihat’ll act as guards.”

  "Undastood, boss!” He nodded eagerly. "Dey'll behave demselves."

  Okay, fifteen minutes, let’s speed up this shipbuilding. I rolled my shoulders before letting my power loose. I wasn’t creating anything too out there, I was just remodelling the ship to look like a run-of-the-mill Imperial Light Cruiser. With my mind-core’s help, making materials that looked like the ohe Imperium used in the few schematics Zedev had was not that much of a challenge.

  Unfortunately, most of them were … trash. Garbage. Sure that thi of bark sure looked like the metallic material they used for the hull, but a regur human could peel it back with their bare hands.

  Look and fun were much harder to aplish in tandem. Oh well, Zedev was w on that. Hopefully. I hadn’t peeked into his mind in quite a while and wasn’t really sure what he had been up to tely.

  Oh well, he wouldn’t have e along with me if he wao be a pain in my ass or the like. Plus I think I would be able to feel if he had any sort of animosity towards me. Throgg certainly doesn’t hide how much he wants to beat me up, but I guess I shouldn’t really pare an Ork and a Magos.

  Bio-energy flowed through the ship. It was already about ohird done and the schematid temptes for the materials were also almost done, so when I pushed my mind-cores to the limit with a quifusion of bio- and soul energy; I had the finished blueprint in mind.

  From there, it was just a matter of throwing enough bio-energy at the problem. It pained me to waste it, but I’d hopefully be getting most of it back ter. Plus, regur materials like these barely cost a thing, even when I had to make a ship’s worth of them.

  Tyranids sure are jam-packed with energy. I could cover a smaller p with a newly made forest and still have some ge remaining. Baal sure was worth it.

  “Done,” I hummed, letting my aura enpass the ship from end to end. “Not sure how we’ll fake an exhaust plume or the geor, but the rest should look how it should.”

  “It is missing the millennia of wear and rot,” Zedev ented, his meical eye flickering rapidly as he leaned on his war-stave-thingy. “Do not let them examihe geors iail. The Tau know how they should look, even if they don’t know the meisms behind their ws. They would be able to tell a fake on deeper examination.”

  “Alright,” I nodded. “Want a top-up? You are looking dht corpse-like today.

  “Revitalising my anic parts would be greatly appreciated.”

  “Still don’t wao ge it up a bit?” I hummed. “Maybe some Eldar bits, or perhaps Astartes?”

  “ive,” he said in his go-to static voice. “Relying on another’s mastery over the flesh as a Magos Biologist to improve upon my anic parts would be shameful. If I have them repced, I will do the procedure myself.”

  “If you say so,” I shrugged. “Hit me up if you want any samples for that.”

  “Uood. Your … help is appreciated.”

  I poked him in the side, sending a jolt of bio-energy through him and damn, was he all sorts of fucked up. There were more drugs in his blood than oxygen, and his flesh hied, almost mummified. His body wasn’t too happy with being treated as hardware. Even his immune system was beaten into submission by drugs to accept the copious amounts of mae parts grafted onto him.

  And all this after I healed him to tip-top shape just months ago.

  “All done,” I hummed. “Tell me when you need another healing, it barely costs anything so I don’t really mind even if I have to do it daily to keep you alive.”

  “Aowledged.”

  ******

  I easily tracked the Tau ship as it closed in on us, even as it manoeuvred through the asteroid field. There was just a distinct taste to things that were alive or had something living on them in my Tyaranid-sourced gravity sensors.

  Then they were there, dog with our knock-off cruiser. Holy, our ship was as empty as the Sahara, even with the number of Orks and their lesser kin reag the thousands. Light Cruisers — the oversized Imperial o least — were still almost a kilometre long.

  I had all the ons disabled and visibly powered down, uhe blue asshole who had a dozen railguns ready to fire all the way till a smaller transporter docked with our ship.

  Tiny drones shaped like flies and mosquitos watched on as a small ti of Tau stepped into the ‘weling hall’ where Val waited for them with a ti of his own spread out behind him menagly.

  I chuckled as the fident stride of the cadre ander — I think that’s what they were called? — broke and he nearly pnted his fato the floor as he noticed the dozen hulking Orkz eyeing them like a fresh eat.

  Those were Throgg’s stro and biggest boyz so far. They were born from the pile of corpses and the rivers of gore that were left behind after we cleared out the Orkish ship. They’d been surprisingly well-behaved so far, probably because Throgg now stood at an imposing two and a half metres tall and had thighs thicker than their waists.

  Plus, they could beat the ever-living shit out of each other on the lower decks if they kept the ship intact, and their overall numbers kept increasing. Apparently, Throgg also set up a rule as Da Boss that anyone who wao beat up the ‘Da Big Boss’ — Me — had to first beat him up. Which meant no Ork tried to jump me yet for a scrap, aside from some rabid newborns that I kicked away as if they were feral cats.

  “Greetings, friends,” Val said and I could tell maintaining that amicable smile and the gentle demeanour was causing him not insignifit psychic damage. Especially since he thought of the Tau as beings even more insignifit than humans due to their near imperceptible souls. “Wele to our ship. I am Valenith and I will be yuide, if you’ll have me.”

  I was, of course, ba the and deck — the small room that had once been the only room in the previous ship — as I was only all too happy to hand over boot-lig duty to Val when Selene suggested the idea.

  Of course, rifles snapped up as the Tau collectively took a step back. It was holy admirable that none of them proved to be trigger happy enough to blow holes into my Orkz. They had discipline. I had to give them that.

  And fancy ons. Beautiful fancy ons. I wasn’t sure what exactly they were, but they were clearly not the bulky, brutalist ons of the Imperium.

  Ion Rifles? I hummed, having taken a quick glimpse into one of their minds. The Tau iion blinked in surprise, but shook it off after a sed. Nice. He seems fine, even though he clearly felt me poking around. I’m gettier.

  “No need fression, friends.” Val stepped forward and more than a few barrels turo point at his face. His face twitched almost imperceptibly. “You won’t be attacked if you don’t strike at us first.”

  “You are in no position to make threats,” the cadre ander barked, though his nervousness was clear to my empathy. “Keep your … men in line.”

  “I’m afraid that isn’t how it works with my green friends.” Val shook his head helplessly. “The best I do is to keep them from attag you.”

  The Tau’s mouth opened for a retort, but no sound came out. Instead, he visibly calmed down as the angry lines on his blue face slowly disappeared. Ay and suspi drained out of his aura, irely, but it went down to a level where logic could win out over emotions.

  “I see,” the cadre ander said. His eyes still roved the t Orkz, but now took note of the faone of them moved and none of them even had their ons poi his men. “You will find railguns make short work of an unshielded vessel, should you fail to restrain them.”

  He waved his hands, making a hand sign meaning something along the lines of ‘lower ons, remai’. Me catg that from their surface thoughts meant Val surely caught it too. The old Eldar might be a master of throwing lightning bolts, but his mastery over Telepathy was leagues beyond my own.

  As the squad of Tau lowered their rifles, pointing them at the ground, but not taking their fingers off of the trigger, the cadre aared at Val for a lengthy few seds before speaking up. "Should you keep your word, though, you have nothing to fear from us. We are here to ensure your captain spoke sincerely and to determihe best way to transport your ship to the p with a shipyard. My sincere apologies for not introdug myself earlier; my name is Shas'El Sha'draig Korvash."

  “Wele aboard, Shas’El Korvash,” Val said with a smile I almost believed was sincere and gave a nod, having maintained his amiable demeanour even through the blue t’s tihreats and p. “Now, where would you wish to go first? I uand imperial ship designs are much different as to your own, so feel free to ask for my help in reag whichever part of the ship you wish to see.”

  “Your assistance is much appreciated,” Korvash said and stepped up to Val, giving wary go the Orkz. “I believe starting with the geors would be appropriate.”

  “Follow me please,” Val said, then spun around and strode through the line of Orkz who jumped out of his way like a bunch htened cats. I let out a snort as I caught a faint sign of what he did there. A simple burst of induced extreme fear, impnted right into the mind. “You two came with me. The rest of you disperse.”

  The Orkz obeyed, much to the wide-eyed amazement of the Tau.

  “And off they go,” I hummed, leaning bato my newly made fluffy sofa. “That went well.”

  “They were unnaturally antagonistic,” Seleed from my side, arg her o stare at the Illusory hologram floating before me.

  “Yeah, tough luck for us, I guess.” I narrowed my eyes, gng at the tight grips they had on their rifles. “Though I suppose they must be mighty fused. They just saw a crew made up of a Human, and Eldar and a bunch of Orkz work together. The unknown be terrifying and that is what we are to them right now.”

  “Or they just had some horrible experiences with humans,” Selene tered. “That cadre ander was Fire Caste, based on his name. And a high-ranking o that, a Battlesuit pilot. Those aren’t supposed to be sitting around on spaceships.”

  “So a military transport ship had to be the oo stumble upon us,” I said. “Oh joy. Could be true. Fighting against the Imperium, especially defensively against an invading crusade, certainly wouldn’t endear Humanity to them.”

  Selene just gave me a nod, frowning at the s. “He influehe Tau, didn’t he?”

  “I think so,” I scratch my cheek.

  “You think so?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “I couldn’t feel his energy moving at all. I don’t think he even drew on soul energy from my Pool, he just used what he had naturally stored in his body.”

  “I see,” Selene murmured, and a moment ter felt tiny tendrils of energy py on her fiips like questing shey thinned further as her face sched up in tration. She gnced up at me, then back at the threads of energy. “How far away do you think these are from being imperceptible?”

  “Depends on who’s doing the sensing,” I shrugged. “For me? I think Val is doing something fucky with space to hide his own energy when he uses it stealthily. So he is kind of cheating.”

  “So you’re saying thinning them is never going to be enough?”

  “Not for me, no.” I rapped my fiips ohigh. “Want to do something I wouldn’t notice, do you?”

  “No,” she sighed, ahe threads dissipate. “But what better measure to use thae of the stro Psyker I know?”

  “I think w smarter and not harder is the way to go with psychics,” I hummed as my fingers ran up and dowhigh. “Though finesse is certainly a must. Having some spatial manipution unravel on your head could end badly.”

  “Mhmm,” Selene gave an affirmative sound, visibly restraining herself from squirming as my touch travelled further up her thigh.

  “How long do you think it would take for them to find their here?” I wondered aloud, resting my cheek on a closed fist as I traced the side of her torso with my fiips up to her bra, then back down to her hips.

  “An hour, maybe?” she said, her voice trembling the slightest bit. “Long enough.”

  “Long enough, indeed.” I grihe up a soundproof wall and separated the two of us from the rest of the room. “I think both of us had muake up for, so let’s see how much we squeeze into this hour.”

  “You have the best ideas,” she purred, now leaning into my touch as her own hand found its way over to my knee.

  P3t1