Intergalactic conquest with an AI

The hangar bay was eerily silent as the red spiderbot skittered across the metallic floor, its movements unnaturally smooth and deliberate. After observing the two maintenance workers from the shadows for a few moments, the bot sprang into action with terrifying speed.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

With a single, fluid motion, it leapt onto the first worker's head, its sharp, metallic legs piercing through the skull like hot knives through butter. The worker didn't even have time to scream before collapsing to the ground, lifeless.

The second worker, stunned by the sudden attack, froze in place, but the spiderbot was already moving. In a flash, it extended a small metallic dart from its underbelly and fired it into the worker's forehead with pinpoint accuracy.

The dart left a clean hole, and the second worker crumpled to the ground, dead before he even realized what had happened.

The spiderbot scuttled over to the bodies, its sleek red frame glowing faintly as it extended a thin needle from its abdomen. The needle punctured the chest of the first corpse, injecting a viscous, black liquid into the body.

It repeated the process with the second corpse before retracting its appendages and silently disappearing into the shadows, its glowing eyes scanning for its next prey.

Meanwhile, Rex barely lasted a second after hitting the bed. As soon as his body made contact with the soft mattress, he collapsed like a felled tree, his deep breathing filling the room as he drifted into a heavy, dreamless sleep.

Carlos was no different. Despite all his boisterous talk earlier, he was out cold within moments, sprawled across his bed in an unflattering pose, snoring loudly.

Across the cruiser, however, Cleo, Ys, and Sharon were far from relaxing. The three of them had spent the past two hours perusing the mall section of the cruiser, browsing for clothes and accessories while Cleo and Ys engaged in their usual passive-aggressive banter.

Finally, they made their way to the spa, eager for a few hours of pampering and relaxation. But just as they were settling into their luxurious surroundings, something unexpected happened.

The warm, calming glow of the spa's ambient lighting suddenly flickered, and then, in the blink of an eye, every light inside the cruiser shut off. The entire ship was plunged into darkness, the soothing hum of its systems abruptly silenced.

"Kyaaaa!"

"What's happening?!"

"Where are the guards? Someone! Help us!"

Panic erupted among the passengers as screams and shouts filled the once serene cruiser. The only source of illumination came from the swirling, multicolored light of the wormhole outside the ship's windows, casting eerie, shifting patterns on the walls.

But as terrifying as the darkness was, the silence that followed was worse.

For Cleo, however, the absence of light wasn't a problem. Her thermal and night vision activated instinctively, allowing her to see the room as clearly as if it were daylight. Her sharp, analytical mind began assessing the situation immediately.

Ys crouched beside her, her green eyes faintly glowing as her natural night vision kicked in. As a khryssari, she could see just fine in the dark, her serpent-like pupils narrowing as she scanned their surroundings.

Sharon, with her race's innate ability to adapt to low light, was also able to see clearly, though her nerves were far from steady.

"Can either of you see what's happening?" Sharon asked, her voice tinged with anxiety as they huddled behind the reception desk of the spa.

"Negative," Cleo replied calmly, her tone neutral as her glowing golden eyes flickered. "Other than the panicked civilians running and falling over themselves, there's nothing unusual. No sign of an immediate threat in this area."

"Same here," Ys added, her tone frustrated. "It's just chaos. People are screaming and trampling over each other like idiots. But that blackout, it's not normal. What could cause such a sudden loss of power?"

Cleo's eyes narrowed slightly as she processed the question. "It's improbable that the energy core has been compromised," she said, her voice cold and calculated. "If it had been, we'd all be dead already. The wormhole would have torn the cruiser apart the moment the core failed."

Sharon's brow furrowed. "Then what could it be?"

"That's what I'm about to find out," Cleo replied.

Without another word, Cleo moved to a nearby maintenance panel built into the wall. This USB terminal was normally used by the ship's maintenance crew to access local systems for repairs and diagnostics.

She crouched in front of it, her left hand shifting fluidly as her fingers reshaped themselves into a metallic USB connector.

"Give me a second," Cleo said as she plugged into the terminal. "I'll see if I can activate the emergency lights. They run on a separate hidden energy battery, so even if the main power is down, they should still function."

Once connected, her glowing golden eyes began to fill with rapidly scrolling numbers and code, her neural systems syncing with the ship's local grid. The markings on her arm lit up with golden patterns, and these same markings extended onto the wall, pulsing faintly as they interfaced with the ship's systems.

Ys leaned over the counter, her eyes on Cleo. "I swear, if you tell me you packed a portable power generator in your magic backpack, I'm going to lose it."

Cleo smirked faintly, though her focus remained on the terminal. "Not this time. Let's hope the cruiser's emergency systems are as robust as advertised."

Sharon peeked over the desk, her green eyes scanning the panicked passengers stumbling through the dark spa. "If this is sabotage, it's extremely precise. The timing, the location... It doesn't feel random."

Cleo's expression didn't change, but her voice carried a subtle edge. "If it's sabotage, we'll know soon enough."

As Cleo worked to bring the emergency lights online, the faint chittering of metallic legs echoed faintly in the distance, unheard by the trio amidst the chaos.

While Cleo continued her work at the maintenance terminal, furiously sifting through code to activate the emergency lights and systems, something unexpected began to happen.

The shift was subtle at first, a faint hum in the background suddenly cutting out, replaced by a strange, almost imperceptible silence. Then, chaos erupted.

"Wow, Cleo, I think you might want to hurry up," Ys said casually, her voice laced with amusement as she suddenly began floating off the ground. She stretched her arms out playfully, spinning slowly in mid-air.

"Wait... what's happening?! Someone help me!" A random passenger screamed as they, too, began to float, flailing helplessly as they drifted upward.

All around the mall, people and objects alike began rising off the ground. Bottles of oil, towels, chairs, and even a floating fruit tray drifted lazily toward the ceiling. The disorientation caused a fresh wave of panic among the passengers.

"Who the hell turned off the gravity generator?!" Sharon shouted, her green eyes wide with alarm. She clung desperately to one of the desk legs, her golden hair drifting weightlessly around her face.

Meanwhile, Ys seemed entirely unbothered, a smug grin on her face as she floated effortlessly. In fact, she looked like she was having fun, casually flipping in mid-air as though it were an amusement park ride.

Cleo, of course, had already adapted. Without saying a word, she reshaped the soles of her feet into gravity boots, locking herself firmly to the floor. She continued typing into the terminal, her golden eyes glowing faintly as streams of data scrolled across her vision.

"Sharon," Cleo said suddenly, her voice calm but serious. "How long can you survive without oxygen?"

Sharon froze mid-sentence, her panic escalating. "What?! Why are you asking me that? What kind of question is that?! I—I don't know! I've never thought about it before!"

Cleo didn't respond immediately; her focus was still on her work. Her tone remained clinical. "If the gravity generator is disabled, it's highly probable the oxygen generator is next. Whoever or whatever is doing this is taking out critical systems in sequence."

Cleo didn't need oxygen, of course. Her body was made of nanomaterial, so that eliminated her need for any kind of oxygen entirely.

And Cinse Ys was a Khryssari, a race of space-dwelling, atmosphere-independent beings that didn't need oxygen either. However, for someone like Sharon, who relied on oxygen to survive, the stakes were far more dire.

Many of the other passengers, who required specific atmospheric conditions to breathe, were already wearing specialized atmospheric suits. But Sharon, as part of a species that relied on oxygen like most of the races, the cruiser atmosphere was of oxygen, so now she didn't have such protection.

"Then we need to move," Cleo said decisively, disconnecting her finger from the terminal. She turned and walked toward Sharon, grabbing her mid-panic and scooping her up into her arms like a princess.

"Wait... what are you doing?!" Sharon yelled, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Carrying you to safety. If the oxygen cuts off, you'll suffocate before we reach the medbay," Cleo replied, her tone utterly neutral.

"Ys, stop playing around and let's go," Cleo added, turning to her Khryssari companion. "Something bad is happening, and we don't have time to waste."

Ys sighed, her floating grin disappearing. "Fine, fine," she muttered. Her arms extended unnaturally into long, glowing green tentacles, which she used to grab onto nearby furniture and propel herself forward like a strange, elegant spider.

As they moved, Cleo glanced back at Ys, her glowing golden eyes narrowing.

"What?" Ys asked defensively when she noticed Cleo staring at her.

"That's gross," Cleo said flatly, her tone as dry as ever.

"W-what!?"