Chapter 144: The Scan

I would have liked to be able to relax. 

I would have liked to just chill out on the ship for a while, without having to worry about the next catastrophe on the horizon. 

The universe didn't really seem to care about what I wanted. 

If anything, the universe liked to take what I wanted and then give me the absolute and complete opposite. 

If I'd learned anything from my time in the world, both before and after my reincarnation, the universe was a jerk and it loved to laugh at the misfortune of the people that lived in it. 

The Mordekash were probably one of the most dangerous enemies that we'd come up against yet, an ancient enemy of the universe that was thought to be all but extinct. From what I'd heard, not even the Null Space Invaders put as much terror into the hearts of people across the galaxy. 

There was something uniquely chilling about a species that was essentially an artificial intelligence that absorbed the bodies of other living creatures, adding to its menageries of the undead. 

I dismissed the rest of the people in the room, leaving myself with only Yr'Arl, Akash and Fal to talk to. 

With a few button presses on a panel the table shrunk to a small round table instead of its previous large dimensions, allowing for a more intimate meeting between the four of us. 

"So, what's the play here?" I asked, "Do we even know where the signal from the Mordekash ship came from?"

Yr'Arl splayed the fingers of his right hand and began to chant slightly underneath his breath. White motes of light emerged from his palm, gently floating down over the table. They coalesced into the form of a holographic map, clearly displaying a star system. I assumed it was the star system that we were currently in. 

"So, this is where we are, Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre," Yr'Arl stated as a flashing light appeared next to the third planet in the system. "Using this information, and the direction that the signal came from, we can discount a large chunk of the system from potential Mordekash territory." 

A good two-thirds of the system flickered away, thankfully including the space that was taken up by the planet that all of the refugees had been transported to. However, that still left us with a third of the star system to worry about, and that was a lot of space. 

"Is there no other way that we can narrow it down further? That's a lot of space to cover, and we're only one ship," I said, the mammoth task that seemed to be building up ahead of us was nothing short of worrying. 

"The signal was degraded by the time it reached us," Fal chimed up, "But that could just mean that the ship the signal was coming from was damaged, if that's the case then it may actually be closer than the degraded signal suggests." 

In other words, there was absolutely no way that they could narrow down the space that Mordekash might be inhabiting. We'd either have to go out there and hunt them or build up our defences around the planet to defend against them. 

The first of the two ideas would allow us to have the initiative and it would keep any civilians far out of the way of potential conversion. 

But it was also incredibly risky. 

Without any knowledge of where they were, we would be expending masses of resources trying to find the Mordekash with no real guarantee that they wouldn't sneak past us and then convert the entire planet in our absence. 

The second of the two ideas, bolstering our defences, had its own risks. 

If we allowed the Mordekash to begin their assault at their leisure then if even one of them were to break through they could begin converting the people on the planet below. That was all it would take, just a single Mordekash to take down an entire world of civillians. 

It felt like we were in a completely impossible situation, and I had no idea what to do about it. 

<You can only do your best, Jacob,> BB said in my mind, surprisingly supportive and serious for once. <A good place to start would be learning to control your new stronger power level so you aren't stuck in this chair while you're on board the ship.>

"Right, we're in an impossible situation and… we can only do our best," I said, echoing BB out loud. "We should build up our defences on the planet below and inform the local government of what we've discovered so that they support us as much as they can. In the mean time, I'm in a position where I can't do much while on board the ship right now. I need to learn how to harness my new level of power properly, so that's what I'm going to do." 

Yr'Arl nodded, "Indeed Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre, in your current state you are in fact weaker than you were before due to not being able to fully harness your new levels of power," he said. 

"I take it you have an idea on how to fix that, then?" I asked. 

He gave me a stern, serious look and I felt a shiver pass through my spine in response. He was always a serious sort, but this felt like something different. 

"The people of my world… There are cases when some younglings are not able to fully control the manna that is granted to them, a similar situation to that which you currently find yourself in," he explained. "When we encounter children like this, we send them offworld to a temple of elders who can help them harness their abilities. I would like to send you to one such temple." 

It was an unexpected offer, and one I was somewhat reluctant to take considering the state of the situation. If I left would the Mordekash sense weakness and pounce? 

No. They probably wouldn't. They hadn't attacked while I was out of action, so why attack when I was away? 

"Thank you for the offer, Yr'Arl," I said, "I accept."