Intergalactic conquest with an AI

"Wait. Ys? As in Ys Ys?"

Rex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why her?"

Cleo sighed, her cheeks puffing out slightly as she crossed her arms in frustration. "

Her race has one of the most advanced psychic abilities in the galaxy,"

she explained reluctantly.

"She can not only perceive astral images but interact with them directly. If anyone could identify what your astral form looks like or tell you more about this lady in white, it's her."

Rex chuckled, leaning back with a grin.

"You don't sound too thrilled about this, Cleo. What's the matter? Jealous?"

Cleo's face turned an adorable shade of red as she glared at him, her wings twisting slightly.

"Of course not!

" she huffed, clearly flustered.

"I just don't trust her to not... to not say something stupid, that's all!"

"Right,"

Rex teased, his grin widening.

"Totally not jealous."

Cleo groaned, covering her face with her hands

. "Just... just go ask her and get it over with,"

she muttered, her voice muffled by her palms.

Rex stood up, stretching lazily.

"Alright, alright, I'll go talk to her. But if she starts teasing you while we're at it, don't blame me!"

Cleo peeked at him through her fingers, her golden eyes narrowing slightly.

"I'm blaming you already, Rex."

Laughing to himself, Rex turned and made his way out of the room, leaving Cleo behind to stew in her mixture of irritation and embarrassment.

Meanwhile, in the training area, Ys was busy throwing Carlos across the room for the third time, her emerald-green wings flaring with excitement as she laughed. Carlos groaned as he struggled to his feet, muttering,

"Why do I do this to myself?"

Rex strolled down the dimly lit corridors of the ship, his boots softly echoing against the metallic floor.

The faint hum of the vessel's engines reverberated through the walls, steady and reassuring. Passing by one of the massive reinforced windows that lined the corridor, he paused, his eyes drawn to the endless expanse of dark space outside.

But something changed.

His golden eyes, so full of life and mischief, suddenly dimmed and shifted to an abyssal black, as if all the light within them had been snuffed out. His expression turned eerily blank, and yet his gaze remained fixed in one direction, unyielding, as if piercing the void of space itself.

His hand rose slowly, pressing against the cold surface of the reinforced window. His low and hollow voice broke the silence.

"I'm coming for you,"

Rex murmured, the words almost inaudible but filled with an unsettling weight.

Then his body gave out. His legs buckled, his hand slid from the window, and he collapsed onto the cold floor without another sound.

When Rex finally opened his eyes, the warm glow of the room's ceiling lights greeted him. He blinked a few times, groaning as the stiffness in his body made itself known.

"Ugh... how did I get here?"

he muttered to himself, rubbing his face with one hand. His body ached in ways he hadn't felt in years.

"Why do I feel so damn sore? We need a new bed. This one's so stiff it feels like I got into a wrestling match with Ys and lost."

He stretched, his muscles protesting loudly, when suddenly the sound of the dormitory's automatic doors opening caught his attention.

"Rex!"

The familiar voice made him sit up, or at least attempt to. Before he could even swing his legs over the edge of the bed, Cleo rushed into the room, her usual composure momentarily slipping. She stopped just short of his bedside, visibly controlling her emotions. Find adventures at empire

"I... see you're finally awake,"

she said, her voice quieter now but still trembling slightly.

"Do you feel any pain? Can you remember anything?"

Rex tilted his head, a little thrown off by her unusually frantic demeanor

. "Mmm, no... I don't think so. I remember walking toward the gym to meet Ys, and that's about it. After that, nothing. Next thing I know, I'm waking up here. Why? Did something happen?"

Cleo's hands moved fluidly, crafting several small robotic birds from her palms. They flitted around Rex like glowing fireflies, scanning him with beams of blue light while emitting soft, rhythmic hums.

She studied the results on the translucent holo screens floating around her, her expression unreadable.

"Don't move,"

she finally said, stepping closer and gently placing a hand on his chest to stop him as he tried to sit up again. "

You've been unconscious for three months. Your organic parts are severely weakened. You'll need to take it slow for at least a few weeks before you're back to full strength."

Rex blinked, the words taking a moment to sink in. Then his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped.

"Hold on. Three months?! I've been out for three months?!"

He attempted to get up again, alarmed now, but Cleo firmly placed both hands on his shoulders, her strength easily pinning him back down onto the bed.

"Rex, stop,"

she said, her voice calm but with a hint of exasperation.

"You're not fully recovered. Moving around recklessly will only make things worse."

Rex frowned but didn't resist her, slumping back against the pillows. "

Alright, alright. I'll stay put. But you've got to tell me what's going on, Cleo. Three months is a long time. Did something happen while I was out? Did I do something weird before I passed out?"

Cleo hesitated for a moment, her golden eyes studying him carefully. She sat down on the edge of the bed, her usual composed demeanor finally softening.

"I'll explain what I know,"

she said gently.

"But first, let me ask you again, are you sure you don't remember anything? Anything at all?"

Rex furrowed his brow, trying to think back.

"I told you, I was heading to the gym to meet Ys. I don't remember anything after that. Why? Did I black out or something?"

"You didn't just black out,"

Cleo said, her voice quiet.

"When we found you, you were collapsed in one of the corridors near the main observation windows. Your vitals were stable, but your neural readings were... strange."

"Strange how?"

Rex asked, his curiosity piqued despite the lingering grogginess.

Cleo's gaze hardened slightly, her hands folding in her lap as she continued.

"Your brain activity spiked to levels I've never seen before, beyond what any normal human or hybrid should be capable of. It was like your consciousness was... elsewhere."

"Elsewhere?"

Rex echoed, his golden eyes narrowing. "

What do you mean by that?"

Cleo summoned a holo-screen, showing a complex graph of spiking neural activity alongside faint traces of an energy signature

. "It's hard to explain,"

she admitted.

"Your neural patterns matched something similar to a deep mental connection, a psychic link, almost. But the energy signature we detected didn't match anything on record. It was like you were connected to... something, or someone not of this ship, not even of this plane."

Rex stared at the screen, his expression unreadable.

"And you have no idea what it was?"

Cleo shook her head.

"No. I've run every scan I can think of, compared it to every species in the database. There's nothing. Whatever it was, it wasn't normal."

Rex leaned back, his mind racing. He didn't remember any of what Cleo was describing, but the pit in his stomach told him that whatever had happened wasn't just some random blackout. The words he had spoken before passing out suddenly echoed faintly in the back of his mind.

"I'm coming for you."

Cleo reached out and placed a hand on his arm, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"You don't have to figure this out right now,"

she said softly.

"Your recovery comes first. Whatever happened, we'll figure it out together."

Rex looked at her for a long moment before finally nodding.

"Alright, fine. I'll take it easy for now. But Cleo... I have a feeling this isn't over. Not by a long shot."

Cleo's gaze lingered on him, her golden eyes filled with quiet determination. "

I know,"

she said simply.

As Rex rested back against the pillows, the hum of the ship seemed to grow louder, as if the very vessel itself was holding its breath. Somewhere out there, in the infinite darkness of space, something was waiting. And whatever it was, it wasn't done with Rex yet.

After the strange events that left Rex bedridden, his life had slowed to an unusual, almost comical pace. He could do nothing but lie in bed, waiting for his strength to return, all while being doted on and, frankly, fattened up, by Cleo and Ys.

They visited him at different times each day, always bringing food, drinks, and endless attention. Cleo made sure he ate full, nutrient-packed meals, constantly monitoring his vitals with her little robotic assistants.

Meanwhile, Ys, true to her fiery personality, always brought snacks, insisting that

"junk food is part of a warrior's recovery regimen."

Even Carlos stopped by from time to time, though his visits were less about nurturing Rex and more about keeping him company in a more...

relaxed

way. Instead of encouraging Rex to eat more, Carlos made it his mission to steal Rex's snacks, particularly the chips.

"Too much salt is bad for your health,"

Carlos would say with a grin, shoving another handful of chips into his mouth as the two watched holo-screen series together.

One time, Carlos even tried to sneak in a couple of beers for them to

share,

claiming that

"a little booze never hurt anyone."

But before they could pop them open, the ever-vigilant Aegis Units intervened, confiscating the contraband and dragging Carlos away.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

What followed was far worse than any scolding or punishment Carlos could have imagined. Cleo, with her usual calm but no-nonsense demeanor, forbade him from entering the ship's bar until Rex was fully recovered. For a man like Carlos, who practically lived for his evening drinks, it was a fate worse than death.

"I can't believe you snitched on me to the bots, Rex,"

Carlos groaned during his next visit, flopping into a chair next to the bed.

"I didn't say a word,"

Rex replied with a chuckle, lazily tossing a chip into his mouth.

"I guess the bots just have better judgment than you do."

Carlos narrowed his eyes suspiciously before sighing.

"Fine, but the second you're back on your feet, you owe me a drink or ten."

Despite the lighthearted moments, there was something... strange about those days. Something Rex noticed but never dwelled on too much. Every time Ys came to visit him, she would always, without fail, stare at the empty space behind him.

She wouldn't say anything about it, but her emerald-green eyes would linger just a moment too long, her expression unreadable.

"Ys, are you zoning out again?"

Rex asked once, turning his head to look over his shoulder, only to find nothing there.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" she replied quickly, snapping out of her trance and smirking at him

. "You must be imagining things, Rex. That bedrest is making your brain soft

."

Rex shrugged it off, chalking it up to Ys being her usual eccentric self. But what he didn't notice was how Cleo's sharp golden eyes were always watching, always paying attention.