Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 483: To Court

Jace shielded his eyes from the sunlight as he left the bunker. After three days he had grown used to the artificial light. Now he would have to let his eyes get used to the normal sunlight quickly.

He heard several cocking of weapons and the distinct power up noise of some energy based weapons. Jace looked around and noticed a number of guards that came to pick him up were holding their weapons up and aiming them at him. While the guards from the prison were much more relaxed.

"Someone is jumpy..." Jace chuckled as Jacquette pushed him forward past the jumpy guards.

"Ignore them. Let’s get onto the ship. We only have three hours before the trial starts." Jacquette reminded him as they walked past the other guard and up onto the space ship platform where a long gray brick of a ship was waiting.

The side door of the ship opened up and Jacquette led him inside. Going right toward a seat in the middle of the ship and pushing him down into it before crouching down and clicking some locks in place so his legs were bound. Then pulling a harness around that kept him in the seat.

Once that was done she moved to the side as the rest of the guards poured in around the edge of the ship. Jacqueette moved to the door and closed it before whistling to the front. "We are all in. Take off and get us to the moon."

Interesting fact. Hysole actually had three moons orbiting it. One was a desolate rock with just a few breathing domes where people undergo the official processing. That one was called Craggle for some reason. He never managed to find out why.

On the opposite side is a vibrant jungle planet with some of the most dangerous wildlife that the Victorium has ever reported. Including some creatures that could tear through a ship’s hull with their claws. It was where people were sent for execution. It was called Vettos, he never managed to find out why it was called that either.

Then there was the final moon. It was just called the Courts. It had a massive city covering the entire surface and going down into the planet. It had a number of hotels and residential horses since anyone that worked on the other moons or Hysole actually lived here. It had several court houses ranging from big to small depending on the publicity of a case with a bunch of different judges for each house. Although this time they would be using an external board of individuals for the trial.

The ship shook slightly as it started moving through the orbit. "Heh... talk about a rocky flight. Do you think it is the pilot or the ship?" Jace asked openly.

"Shut up Prisoner! You are not permitted to speak!" One of the guards yelled out in his booming voice. It was a Tacole and the regalia indicated that he was in charge of the other guards.

"Actually I can speak." Jace informed the man with a chuckle. "I think you are thinking of something else. But I get it, with your bad eyes I would be easily confused as well. Now then, since Captain Dipshit took the fun out of that joke I think it would be a good idea to do a few games just to get acquainted. What do you guys think?"

"Grrr..." Captain Dipshit growled out. "You think-"

He was interrupted as the ship shook heavily and the guards were thrown off their feet. Jace frowned as he heard a loud creak of metal. He activated his electrical vision and looked past the ship walls to see what happened and frowned. "Hey, you are going to want to release my restraints." Jace informed them.

"No! You think we are fools! This is clearly an escape attempt." Captain Dipshit growled as he pulled himself up. "Get up and forge a position around the prisoner. He is not escaping!" Captain Dipshit barked out orders as the ship suddenly lost power.

Jacquette moved up next to him and discreetly slipped a handcuff key into his pocket. "What do you see?" She asked as she stayed next to him.

"I do not quite know." Jace answered honestly as a loud sparking noise was heard throughout the ship. He then looked around. "But here is a question. If power just went out, why do we still have gravity?" Jace asked as sparks began appearing on the floor near the edge of the ship.

"What? They are cutting through the ship!" Jacquette called out as she pulled out her own weapon and readied it.

"I do not know any species or groups whose tactic is to grab an entire ship before cutting through the hull to get to the contents." Jace pointed out as he quietly slipped the key into his hand and loosened the harness holding him to the chair. He did not take it off completely because he had a feeling the floor was about to fall out from beneath them. "Can you reach your superiors?" Jace asked.

"Nope. We are completely cut off. We can’t even check on the pilots; they are in a separate part of the ship for security." Jacquette informed him.

"You do not have to check on them. This enemy broke their windshield. They floated off into space awhile ago." Jace informed her. "Fortunately-"

He was cut off as the ground suddenly began falling and the chair pulled him down with him. He gritted his teeth because of the sudden fall and the almost immediate stop was a bit jarring. For the others it was worse as they fell into piles and onto the ground.

Jace looked around as the dust cloud that was thrown up began dispersing. But as he took a breath of air his eyes widened in terror. "Shit..."

[Foreign nanotechnology detected. Avatar life in danger. Fighting for control. Normal systems malfunctioning. All *&(*&%&^&()*%$#@%$%&*(*).]

That was not a good sign. That dust cloud was not dust. Those were nanobots. He hurriedly began pulling off the harness as all the guards began loudly choking and some were shaking while spitting up blood.

As soon as the harness and restraints fell to the floor he crouched down next to Jacquette who was heaving like she was struggling to breath. Then he channeled electricity through her body but left the nanobots that were on his own. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

She suddenly sat up and leaned over before throwing up black dust onto the ground and hacking it up. Jace was moving over to the next person and channeled electricity through their body but when he destroyed the nanobots their body went still. "Damn..." He whispered as he looked around at the other guards and confirmed their deaths. "Jacquette... it is time to go." He informed her as she struggled to pull herself up.

"What about the others?" She asked with a wheeze of air as she pulled herself up and looked at their twitching bodies as they started to pull themselves up.

"They are already dead." Jace informed her as he looked past the cloud of nanobots to the forms that were shambling toward them.

"Then why are they moving?" Jacquette asked as she pointed to Captain Dipshit who slowly pulled himself up to his feet. But his movements were stiff. Then he spun around and looked at them. His eyes still closed as he swayed.

"Because nanotechnology is controlling their dead bodies. Come on!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her through the cloud. Channeling electricity to cover their bodies as they moved. "I thought these things were stuck in the Crystoph Federation territories."

"There is a Crystoph Federation ship in orbit around the Courts." Jacquette reminded him.

"Yeah... that would do it. Come on, we need to knock out the main engines." Jace told her as they ran out of the hangar that was covered in dust and into a normal looking hallway that was only slightly different because the walls and other parts of the ship had been mostly eaten away by the nanobots.

"How is it possible that there is nanotechnology that has been developed this far without anyone knowing?" Jacquette asked as Jace glanced at a partially eaten map before pulling her along the hallway to their destination. Fortunately the ship had not gone to warp yet.

"Actually, if the theory is right. MILD already discovered and neutralized the creator. But obviously we missed something if they still exist." Jace informed her as they walked around a corner and he skidded to a stop. In front of him were figures in armor. But they were shambling just like the other forms from earlier. They slowly turned to him. "Looks like a hive mind. What do you think?"

"Yeah no. I am still grappling with the fact that people are coming back from the fucking dead. Wait! Why are we not dead?" Jacquette asked suddenly.

"Your body’s nanobots were able to keep them from killing you long enough that I could destroy the nanobots in your body. As for me... I am partially immune. Now enough explanations. If it is a hive mind then it is probably listening." Jace declared as she readied her weapon and Jace looked for a weapon of his own. Pulling a fire extinguisher off the wall.