The hivemind is conquering for me?

After a general run down of the events of Alexandria, Hailey was leaning her head on the back of the couch, allowing her auburn hair to flow freely behind the couch. Her uniform had gotten a little dishevelled after listening to the story with and her hands were currently covering her face as she was thinking.

I just sat there in silence allowing her to think it over while I happily sipped on my drink. Suddenly, Hailey sat upright and looked straight at me. "So to summarise your experience since the last time I saw you. You arrived on that planet. you were aunt Kats guard, you went into Ancient Spartari ruins where you fought giant reptiles.

Then you continued all that mining and found another ruin with robots from the founding era. Fought a robot to the brink of death, recovered. Then fought against the planets guard for hours. Then you fought of the swarm singlehandedly for enough time to save the mercenaries and get off the planet safely."

I looked at the ceiling for a second, thinking over everything she said. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." I said and took another sip nonchalantly.

Hailey was shocked. What Apollo just said to her could easily be a war propaganda film and most likely will be after the mercenaries get back to Ecumenopolis 4 and begin yapping.

"Apollo, I don't think you understand how much of a big deal what you did is. If you give this information officially to me, I could give you actual commendations and even land on Ecumenopolis 1. Heck, if you were in the military you would already begin to be offered marriage proposals and at least 2 Sepiidan wives. If you really want, I could pull some strings and-"

I interrupted Hailey by placing my hand firmly on her shoulder. "Hailey, I'm going to stop you right there." I said as I leaned in towards her to emphasise my point. "I don't need any of that. I don't need attention drawn to me, I don't want attention drawn to me. At the moment, I am beyond what I new happiness could be with my current standing and I wish not to change that.

So as a personal favour to me, can you not bring up commendations and the like again?"

Hailey's eyes darted back and forth between Apollo's. It was taking her entire composure not to look down at his lips and just maintain eye contact. That and the feeling of his strong hand on her shoulder made every single nerve in her body move to her shoulder.

Hailey knew she had to speak soon, but her mouth had become dry and the best she could mutter was. "O-Ok."

"Brilliant, thank you." I said as I leant a little further forward to readjust my sitting position. As I was about to pull back, from the door Hailey had not locked, The door knocked and then opened slightly.

Adia entered the room as she was allowed, but stopped at what she had seen. Arcon Apollo pulling back from Hailey, who's eyes were closed and chin raised up with anticipation written over her face.

Hailey flinched at hearing the knock and looked over rapidly, while Apollo having repositioned sat back comfortably and continued to drink his delicious beverage. Adia grew flushed, she had been in the military and pre military since she was 12 and had not had the experiences most other girls would have by the time they were 20.

She may have been fine among fellow guards, but she had not expected such lewdness from her boss, who never showed emotions other than anger.

"I-I-I'm S-S-Sorry Centurion, I-I-I Will come back shortly" Adia said trying to Excuse herself. "Adia halt!" Hailey commanded causing Adia's years of training to kick in. "Report what you interrupted us for." Hailey commanded once more.

Adia gulped at Hailey's neutral tone. It somehow seemed more malicious than usual. "Yes ma'am." Adia saluted. "I came to inform you that the inspection has just finished, behind schedule."

"Was the inspection to satisfaction?" I asked as Kathrine would probably want to know after she woke up. Adia turned her helmet visibly to look at Hailey for permission to which the woman simply let out a subtle nod.

"There were no traces of narcotic contraband or any of the usual things we check for. However, a crate of guns with mysterious origins were found which I would like to follow up on with the centurions permission, despite the fact they had fresh paper work for them." Adia reported.

"Apollo, are these guns Adia is talking about the Deimos weapons you spoke of?" Hailey asked. "That depends. Were the weapons you found black and red and appear to use laser cells?" I asked towards Adia, who gave a nod of confirmation. "Then yes those are the Deimos weapons.

Kathrine said that she got special permission of King Sigismund to keep half of them while a good portion are going to the R&D military branch and a few are being sent to the other King um... is It Dickon? Sorry, I forget names sometimes, as a gesture of good faith from Sigismund."

Hailey filched in place at the mention of her Father. In principle, she enjoys forgetting the man exists and gets very easily agitated when he is brought up in conversations by others. However, she shook off the feeling this time and chimed up. "Oh really? Its rather rare for Sigismund to do something out of the kindness of his heart like that.

He must really respect my aunt to allow her to keep half." She said before looking over to Adia. "Adia, look on my aunts open file. Her decree from Sigismund will be front and centre regarding those weapons, no need to look into it further. You are excused." Adia simply nodded her head and proceeded to leave with haste.

"Forgive me If I'm being forward Hailey, but from the way you spoke about him, it sounds like you personally know King Sigismund?" I said, causing surprise to show on Hailey's face. "Oh my, I must be slipping in my skills. Yes I know King Sigismund. He is my uncle...

Well I say uncle, he's actually that friend of the family your parents have, who you for some reason call uncle, Like I call Aunt kat, though I do consider her actual family. I've met Sigismund only a few times. He is tough to be around because of his rage, but he was in general terms nice to me."

"His rage?" I ask curiously as I attempted to move the conversation slightly. I knew I was not the best at picking up emotions, but I did see Hailey wince her eyes when she said 'parents.'

"Oh sorry, I forget it's not public knowledge sometimes. Hmm, Considering your my friend and all, I guess I'll tell you." She said and smiled when I smiled at her comment. "King Sigismund became the current military king because he is incredibly strong. I am not sure how his Psionic ability works, but in general his emotions make him more or less powerful, depending on how he is feeling.

They also amplify his emotions too and his general hate for every alien species in the galaxy always leaves him in a state of strength that is hard to scoff at."

I nodded my head, impressed by the Psionic ability described to me. "Depending on the mental state of the person with the ability, it could either be incredibly powerful or standardly mundane or even a hindrance. I should ask Jewel the next time I see her about the ability." I thought aloud.

"Who's Jewel?" Hailey said with an eyebrow raised. 'Crap, being with Onyx for the week has left me verbalising again.' Thinking quickly I said. "Jewel is my Psionics teacher. She taught me everything me and my sister know about our powers. The woman's practically ancient and really knows her stuff." I said, hoping I had not blown my well cultivated backstory apart.

Hailey looked for any falsehoods in my wording and concluded what I said to be true, for the most part. She would have attempted to dig deeper if the woman he mentioned was younger and a potential love rival to her husband candidate.

"Is that so?" She said. "Well, I hope to one day meet the spectacular woman who taught a man as strong as yourself."

I let out a soft chuckle at the compliment and thought inwardly this time. 'Trust me cutie, no you don't.'

"Well then miss Hailey, I think its time I took my leave. I don't want the ships getting impatient and unable to leave just because I was having a pleasant conversation with even more pleasant company." I said with a smile.

"Give me a moment, I will walk down to the ship with you." Hailey said as she stood up from the couch and began to fix up her uniform. I appreciated her politeness, but declined as I stood up. "I appreciate the sentiment, but there is no need for a short walk. Please I would be more at ease leaving you in a comfortable environment such as this instead of surrounded by space rock."

Hailey found no reasonable excuse and simply accepted my proposition. "Very well Arcon Apollo, the last couple hours have been riveting and I thank you for sharing them with me." She said as she once again as she outstretched her hand.

"The pleasure was all mine and who knows, with my luck, we may see each other again the next time I travel this warp lane." I said, causing a chuckle from both of us, before I kissed the back of her hand.

After saying a standard goodbye after that, I did not dillydally any longer and began walking back to the ship. Walking down the corridor, I look to my left at a small commotion. Caleb had just left a storeroom with two men and a women.

All at the same time, we made eye contact with one another as they clocked onto my presence and I could not help but think.

"Caleb, Again?"