Chapter 47: ReZero
"We’re not going after him blindly...but we’re going."
Bak loosened his tie, his cybernetic hands were now covered with silicone skin-like material giving the illusion of his hands being normal ’human-like’.
"The navigation officers will handle the route mapping."
"Kagu can do it."
The admiral’s eyes narrowed til they were practically slits, "I’m not giving any more information to a unit when I don’t know where its loyalty lies."
"She solved it... I’m pretty sure she already knows everything."
"...you’re coming with me to Control."
He didn’t give the soldier any room to object and began to walk towards the door of his office.
K had no choice but to follow.
The two walked to Control sector.
Occasionally, Bak would speak to some people on his comms and stop by to pass information to a patrolling soldier nearby.
By the time they reached Control, he was a seething mess. Immediately barking orders at the people slacking at their stations, some one must have pissed him on their way.
At least it wasn’t K this time.
"Where the fuck is the navigation team?"
A round man waddled forward, holding his hat as he bounded towards them.
"A-admiral, I just got your message delivered to me. Please, come this way."
The round man, who K came to learn was Mr Silas, led them further from main Control into another section. Soldiers trooped in and out in small groups, saluting them as they passed.
The people at their workstations stood and bowed before settling back to work.
"We received the coordinates you sent," Mr Silas led them to a large black table. "And, we had them expanded and placed on a real life scale."
The table hummed and came to life.
"Display!"
The table lit up and dimmed again. Then slowly, tiny dots began to hover in the air. Meredith popped out of the table and floated to the far end. Three red lines stretched from it, curving around themselves before meeting at a certain point.
It was the Kagu’s projection but magnified. A hundred times more.
"The coordinates you sent to us has been magnified and mounted onto here, Sir."
"And?"
"As you can see, the coordinates lead to uncharted territories. Far beyond our exploration team’s reach, not to mention..." He rounded the table to where the lines converged. "You see this point here?"
He pointed at the meeting point.
"If you zoom in, they don’t actually converge or... meet..."
He waved and the lines became thicker.
Like he said, the points overlapped each other instead of meeting. Like they were pointing to three different directions.
K’s head felt heavy, the area surrounding his eyes began to throb as he forced out in a gravelly mumble.
"So you’re saying, the coordinates are leading to three different places?"
"Yes and no. To be honest, I dare say the calculations were mostly likely a bit off the mark by who calculated them. That can be the only explanation for the inconsistency."
How could it be wrong?
An artificial intelligence calculated it.
A database research artificial intelligence at that too.
"I guess your calculations are flawed. K."
Bak turned to face him, his lips curled up in half a smirk and half a sneer.
"..."
"Go back to your quarters. We’ll find Thira, it will take time but we will."
K’s fists curled and uncurled at his sides.
"Keep the coordinates, he’s somewhere between those lines."
And then he marched out.
The floor behind him thumped with each step he took, nose flared. He reached Thira’s lab.
As soon as he stepped into the room, the table closest to him crumpled into the wall. He picked the chair and did the same thing, throwing them into the wall, smashing beakers and test tube.
Anger will get you no where.
"Oh fuck you!"
...
"You said you’d tell me everything once I freed you. And here you are, clueless as fuck, giving me more questions than the answers I’m searching for!"
I told you, I burned my memories alongside those rings. I did remember and know these things at some point... but I sacrificed those memories to reach you and free myself.
"Bull shit. You used me, didn’t you?"
...I did not.
"Fuck!"
Another table was sent flying.
"Watch it! Take your raging else where, you just broke months worth of research! Have you finally lost it?" Kagu rambled angrily.
"Run it again..."
"What?"
"Run the calculations again."
"Why? We solved the variables together, didn’t we?"
"Run it again!"
He snapped before he could stop himself.
"...the Head of Navigation magnified your projections and the variables we got did not meet."
"What? Impossible! Normally, they wouldn’t converge into a straight line but they would surely converge at a point. So how?"
"I don’t know, Kagu. Just run it again."
"Our calculations can’t be wrong, I did the recalculations multiple... I’m never wrong... especially when it comes to things like this."
He stared at her outlet then back up at her.
"Why did Thira create you really and don’t you fucking lie to me, you’re on fucking thin ice ?"
"..."
"Well?"
"To be assimilated into you...and have control over your body."
...
..
.
Stars...
It was cold.
Different from the chill in the laboratory.
"You’ve been sleeping for a long time, are you that exhausted?"
Vae’thira lunged forward but was pushed back just as quickly by a large hand. Its rings thrummed against his chest.
"Don’t get up so quickly, you’ll get dizzy."
Next to him lay the most beautiful U’Kan he had ever seen...and the one he loathed to no end.
"It has been a long time, hasn’t it?"
A finger trailed down the side of his face, "you’re still as charming as ever, my dear Vae’thira."
"I belong to no one..." he gritted out and swatted the hand caressing him.
"Not even to your goddess?"
"...she has forsaken her people—"
"So did you."
"..."
The U’Kan pushed himself up, it was then Thira realized they were both on a bed. His head swiveled around as he took in his surroundings, he froze when recollections of this place hit him.
His stomach curled and pulled. The urge to regurgitate became stronger with each object he recognized in the room.
"You sick...bastard."
His hands trembled at his side as his ring flickered on and off, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he found it hard to breathe.
"I knew you’d like it, the place we became one flesh... your mother even witnessed it." The U’kan chuckled and slid off the bed.
Standing at a terrifying 8 feet, long limbs stretched into place and sauntered towards a table.
U’Kans were huge creatures like ’giants’ as humans called them but Thira was never really afraid of them, he never felt small in their world but before this one?
He felt smaller than ever before.
"I had them prepare your favorite, aren’t I caring?"
The U’Kan who had taken everything from him.
His faith.
His life.
His dreams.
And now, he had been drawn back.
Back to the place he had done everything to run from.
"How did you find me?"
"How?"
"..."
"You’re forgetting something, my beloved—"
"Don’t call me that!"
The U’Kan chuckled, walked over to where he sat and knelt before him.
"You didn’t run from me... I allowed it, the others might have failed to find you but me? I’ll hunt you across the universe if I have to... just to find my kept one."
His hand moved before he could stop it.
A loud pa! echoed though the room. Thira winced as he held his throbbing palm.
"Let go of me!"
He had attempted to hit the vashki before him but of course, a U’Kan’s reaction rate was unmatched when compared to him. Porcelain fingers squeezed around his, pressing into the plating and causing small cracks.
"Spending years away from me has made you rather... uncouth."
"Let go of me! You disgusting piece of shit!"
"...yes... very uncouth."
"Khae’el!!"
He pressed against his neck where his comms would have been but was met with the cool feel of his own neck. "??"
"That’s what you named the defect?"
"Where are my things?"
"You know, they call him the demon child here."
"What did you do to my things?"
"I fed them to the fire... you don’t need things of that planet anymore. This is your home. Qashka will always be your home."
Before Thira could protest, a knock rapped at the door.
"Your majesty, this lowly perceptor humbly asks that you grant him audience."
A ring flared around the U’Kan’s neck with irritation.
"What do you want?"
"The Miwa must be moved, his quarters are ready."
"..."
A low growl rumbled in its chest.
"Why is that?" Thira called out mockingly. "Do I sully the abode of your useless Emperor?"
The preceptor nearly combust where he stood.
"Insolence! How dare you speak ill of the emperor!"
"I have more insolent words to say to your stupid emperor! Unhand me!"
Tuk’s rings hummed pleasantly as he chuckled and let go of the Miwa.
Thira didn’t waste a second.
He pushed him away with the strength he could afford and stormed out, nearly knocking the preceptor down with the door.
"Your quarters are this w—"
"Fuck off!"
He stormed off.
"What’s a ’fuck off’?"