My 1000-years love

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

A little later, he gently sat me on the table where I had woken up.

“It looks like you need new clothes,” he whispered with a smile and stepped away from me. The sudden loss of his body heat made me shiver, and I covered myself with my hands. Seeing this out of the corner of his eye, he smiled again.

“Tiginara, make something comfortable and...” he looked at me meaningfully, “beautiful for our patient, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind, S’arch Laor,” responded a deep, vibrating female voice that seemed to come from all the walls of the room at once. Probably some sort of onboard computer.

“Is your name S’archlaor?”

The man laughed, and I found myself staring at his dimples again.

“No, S’arch is a title. S’arch means companion of the Archon. I am his right hand.”

Hearing the word “Archon,” I vaguely remembered something from ancient Greek history. The stupor from the recent pleasure still hadn’t passed, and I was asking insignificant questions.

“Where did you get those wounds on your back?”

“Where from? From a recent skirmish. I’m the captain of the battleship that your friends blew to pieces.”

“I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about right now.”

“You were attacked by pirates. How could you miss that?”

“I just woke up in this thing and don’t understand anything, to be honest.”

“Ah. When Tiginara emerged from the wormhole a couple of hours ago, a whole fleet from Tiutioadan was already waiting for her. She could have handled it on her own, but her annihilation arms were knocked out, and your Tiginara got a bit ‘upset’ and started rebooting systems. She began losing ground. That’s when Sgan called for help; I was nearby with my unit. We had to jump in and cover Tiginara a bit while she was thinking about restoring the shields. Unfortunately, my boy didn’t make it,” Laor said, slightly saddened. “He was blown to pieces. So we took some damage too. But everyone was saved, thank God. The Archon pulled everyone onto his ship. Now we’ll take turns recovering in your module.”

While we were chatting, a drawer slid out of the panel with clothes inside. Without any embarrassment, I quickly dressed in my new outfit and sat back down on the table. There was no underwear, which didn’t escape the man’s notice. The pants were gray, almost jean-like in their washed-out texture, similar to Laor’s own. They had a comfortable flare. The jacket was fairly feminine. And the pearl-white sweater with a hood and a boat neckline clung noticeably to my chest and fell loosely below. My chest had become firmer and higher. Clearly larger than my usual 34A size.

Although the man’s gaze at my updated bust didn’t express any displeasure, he grumbled out loud, “She calls this beautiful clothing?”

“What did you expect? A wedding dress?” Tiginara muttered back in the same tone.

“That could work too, but later,” the man said thoughtfully.

“What kind of joke is this?” I thought, but only snorted aloud, earning a questioning look.

“Considering the events ahead, the standard military space fleet uniform will be optimal for her,” Tiginara stated.

“What events?” we asked in unison.

“I do not consider myself at liberty to answer that question,” Tiginara replied curtly and fell silent.

Alright then.

“Who is Tiginara? The ship’s AI?” I asked.

“T-GInArA is an acronym: Titanium Gravitational Inorganic Artificial Assimilation,” the alien began with the enthusiasm of someone eager to teach a newcomer.

“Sorry, I don’t quite understand. How does that work?”

“Well, you see, organic life forms are not the only ones in this and the adjacent universes. One of the many forms of existence is gravitational intelligent organisms. Under the influence of gravitational interaction, some gravitons grouped into self-organizing and self-replicating systems, which became suitable as carriers of consciousness. They live directly in space, feed on gravitational bursts from black holes, and so on,” Laor explained, never stopping his low, enveloping voice. He came close again and placed his hands on either side of me. His gaze, veiled with desire, caressed my eyes, lips, and chest so openly that I began to get aroused again. “About 5,000 years ago, they made contact with our civilization and proposed some form of cooperation. Their movement in space was too passive, and life was extremely boring even for such meditative minds. They offered us their power, their ultra-precise minds, calculations, and their gravity-based forces, which are the basis of our long-range weapons. Usually, each gravinid takes a name, but our T-GInArA for some reason kept her original acronym.”

“And why titanium? Is it the form?” I didn’t even know if I was truly interested. But his scientifically informative whisper sent shivers down my body.

“In order to integrate the gravinids into ships, they needed a more material carrier,” Laor explained, his enthusiasm for the engineering aspect dispelling the s****l tension.

Honestly, I was somewhat relieved, as I wasn’t ready for a second round just yet. Fun is fun, but it was time to figure out how to get home. Laor stepped back a bit.

“Simply stuffing them into the hull of the ship didn’t work. So, we spent about a hundred years developing inorganic chemical cells from polyoxometalates—metal atoms bonded with oxygen and phosphorus. Essentially, titanium plays a key role. We managed to create a cell-like structure that could hold the gravinids in a material form understandable to us. They categorically refused to take humanoid shapes—their consciousnesses are on a different scale now—and preferred integration into our spacecraft. This way, they gained the ability to travel, communicate with other beings in the universe, and continue developing. So now, they are our ships, with ultra-precise brains and super-powerful weapons.”

“Uh-huh...” was all I could muster, blinking.

It seemed I had much more to face here.

The man fell silent.

“Well? It seems we will have to leave this room eventually,” Laor said thoughtfully, looking at me. “As I understand it, you’re neither an Allion nor a Raat? Then who are you?”

I shrugged.

“I think I’m from Earth.”

“And what is your name, beautiful stranger from Gaia?” he asked, smiling as he brushed a lock of hair from my forehead.

And once again, for the umpteenth time in the last hour, I experienced a tremendous shock. Even greater than realizing I had awakened on a spaceship hundreds of light years from Earth. I distinctly remembered being from Earth, knew I was the mother of two wonderful boys, and remembered their names. But there wasn’t even a hint of what my name was? What was my profession? What job did I have? Did I have a husband? What was my nationality? Although I could say for sure that I hadn’t had s*x in a very, very long time. So, no man in my life.

“Oh, God...” I whispered.

“Let me guess,” Laor said cheerfully, which annoyed me a bit, “you don’t remember?”

I nodded again.

“You know, it might just be a side effect of our reparative-adaptive module.”

“That sarcophagus?”

Laor laughed.

“Yes. The sarcophagus.”

“And what did it do to me?”

“Since you’re from Earth, the main thing it should have done was to change the density of your cells so you could exist painlessly on our ship. We do this with all specimens from lower planets. Otherwise, you wouldn’t feel so comfortable now. Additionally, it reset age-related, gravitational, and toxic wear on your cells, and so on. It corrected any defects in your biological shell.”

“What? Defects? Changed my density? What kind of crap is this? Now I’m not as I was? Did you mutate me without my consent?”

I started hissing like a cobra in horror.

“Calm down, daughter of Earth.” He smiled and raised his hands, palms out, as if surrendering. I must have looked quite fierce because this six-foot-plus guy started backing away for some reason.

“Nothing bad, believe me. Your cells are now like they were when you were fourteen, assuming you had grown up in ideal conditions without exposure to toxins and gravity.” I remembered my suddenly “rejuvenated” bust and skin. Well, okay, maybe that wasn’t so bad. Although usually, people ask for permission first.

“And what’s this crap about changing my density? That’s nonsense! Am I a jellyfish now?”

“That’s not nonsense! Humans’ outer shells are much denser than ours, and our ships aren’t as dense as your technology either. We even exist slightly in different dimensions, so when we’re on Gaia, ‘humans’ simply can’t see us or our ships, but in space, they can. The vibrations here are completely different.”

“Y-y-you,” I finally exploded, “are you telling me that you’ve moved me to some dimension where my children will never be able to see me again???”

“Children? You have children?”

I ignored his surprised remark and started growling so loudly that it hurt my own ears.

“Nooo!!! Give me back! Give me back to my children!!!” My fingers curled up in rage, and my hands reached for Laor’s throat. But I didn’t even touch him before he grabbed his neck and started choking, his eyes wide with surprise. I froze, not understanding if he was playing with me or why he was writhing so strangely.

“S-s-stop!” he barely whispered.

Staring fearfully at my own curled fingers, I slowly relaxed and lowered my hands. Laor gasped and slumped to the floor.

“What... what are you?” he rasped after a few seconds. “Not every Raath can do things like that, and on this ship, there’s only one telekinetic — and that’s Sgannar.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.” The uncontrolled anger was replaced by confusion and despair. I felt my chin start to tremble again.

“What to do? What should I do now?” I muttered to myself, running my hands through my hair and swaying side to side. “Even if I persuade them to return me, how will my boys see me? I’ll become their personal ghost? Well, at least...”

“Listen,” Laor interrupted my flow. “I have no idea where you got these abilities because you’re definitely not Raath, but if you have them, then maybe, like them, you can change the density of your cells with the power of your mind, thus existing alternately in human and our dimensions. Although I can’t do that, for example.”

“Why?” I asked without interest, still glancing around the room distractedly. Honestly, I didn’t care what he could or couldn’t do, or why. Laor had just arrived on the ship and wasn’t involved in my abduction. I needed to find their leader. It seemed to be this Sgannar, or whatever his name was...

“Because I’m an Allion.”

“Ah,” I drawled, “now I understand. And who was that jerk who took me from my apartment? I clearly saw him! He had turquoise eyes and a hairstyle like he had an exposed wire stuck up his ass! Was it him? Your Sgannar the Raath?” Laor interrupted my tirade by clamping a hand over my mouth.

“Shhh, foolish girl. Don’t speak of him that way, even if he’s not here. He can read everything happening on this ship. Oh, Almighty! No! Sgannar brought you here? And you and me... T-GInArA! Why didn’t you tell me any of this? You saw what just happened between us!!”

“I didn’t see! S’arch Laor, how can you say that? My entire consciousness was focused on repairing the annihilation arms until you called me here. And the girl had a hormonal surge after the dynamic transformation, needing a serious release to reset her hormonal system. Otherwise, the imbalance would have become permanent, and she’d have to be repacked into the transformation module for a couple of cycles. Though why I’m explaining this, you already know this basic information. How you deal with the Archon is your concern. My concern is to safely ferry you through space. Now, excuse me,” she finished indignantly, without a hint of remorse. “Restoration complete, we’re jumping into the Ascella-Darrai wormhole.”

A barely noticeable ripple went through the ship, and everything fell silent again.

“Almighty, I hope you’re not the Archon’s woman?”