Over the next few days we encountered several more forces of assimilated soldiers along the freeway. Thanks to our advanced technology and sensors, we were never caught unawares and always had plenty of time to form up with our shields and barriers to get into a properly defensive position before the fight started.

  Exactly as I thought, Almana started asking for more advice and assistance after she saw how efficiently we worked, and while at first she offered a joint-command position to Captain Seash, very quickly afterwards she fully gave him command over all combat operations. From there, he shifted the resistance soldiers into more supportive roles, and while Almana wanted us to have a resistance escort to make sure they would notice if anyone got assimilated, that position almost reversed as the resistance soldiers stayed around their Imperial counterparts. Not to say the resistance soldiers weren’t helpful, in fact they were honestly vital; when it came to the assimilated soldiers, the best way to combat them was to simply overwhelm them with numbers and guns. Now that both teams had been properly integrated, we all worked together with the same strategy and tactics in working systematically on the same few enemy soldiers and making sure they were totally downed before moving onto the next. It was precise, methodical work, but with the way Seash coordinated us, it seemed like we’d be able to fight through any separatist force with relative ease.

  So far the only time we lost any of our soldiers was once at night we were ambushed, and even with all our auto turrets and the barriers established, the confusion of the dark took its toll. Two resistance soldiers were killed, and in the morning Almana and her people had a little ceremony for them, burning their bodies to offer the souls up to their sky goddesses. The rest of the day was all rather somber, but when it was time to fight another force of assimilated soldiers, the resistance unleashed their frustrations through pure ferocity, ending the engagement faster than any before.

  After every fight, we stripped away more weapons and gear from the assimilated soldiers, and after a few engagements, we had enough extra pulse-rifles to equip all the resistance soldiers with the advanced weapons, making our unit even more deadly. There were some barriers, shielding and explosives the enemy never really used, so we offered those up to the resistance soldiers too, and after a few days it seemed like we were on much more even footing with all the advanced gear shared amongst us. It was ironic, but fighting through Beta-09’s puppet soldiers actually made us more effective as our resistance soldiers collected better gear, rather than weakening us or diminishing our numbers along the way. With the momentum we had now, it looked like we’d be able to continue through to the capital with no problems at all.

  While we traveled during the day, same as always, the soldiers all got along well, mingling together so we seemed like one unit now. Inside the buses it was actually quite rowdy, and even though everyone was ready to drop everything and fight if needed, it didn’t stop them all from enjoying themselves, joking around and sharing stories, causing a whole mess of noise and laughter throughout the day.

  On the other side of things, Eve seemed completely detached from everything now, spending most of her days basically hibernating. I was still worried about what was on her mind or what her plans were, but whenever I pressed for information she just laughed me off as though I was being ridiculous, insisting she wasn’t scheming or planning anything. She would wake up every so often and talk with me about Earth and what life would be like away from the Empire, looking at me like a starry-eyed girl who was talking about her big city dreams with her country boyfriend. Then when the conversation fizzled out, she promptly went back to sleep as though she’d never been interrupted.

  It was a little frustrating for me and I felt wildly bored during the long stretches when nothing was going on; I wasn’t a soldier so I felt like I didn’t really fit in with the way they all swapped stories, and I wasn’t really an Imperial or at least didn’t support the Empire like they did, so I never felt like I could be friends with them either—didn’t want to be friends really, not wanting to pal around with people who might turn their guns on me if the order came through.

  Thankfully I wasn’t totally alone as Almana stayed with us and offered me plenty of company. Same as with me, she didn’t seem to totally fit in with her soldiers when it came to just paling around; they respected the hell out of her and seemed like they would straight-up follow her into hell and back, but that was all a little different than being able to just joke around. Plus, she didn’t seem like an Imperial, not really. Sure, Vyrane was still a part of the Empire, but since they mostly just stayed on their home planet, their allegiance seemed much more focused on Vyrane.

  Talking with Almana, I could tell she was very down to Earth—or down to Vyrane I guess? Whatever. She was cool and calm, took command when necessary, and never seemed to get overwhelmed no matter what happened. She was quite inquisitive about Earth and ended up telling me a lot about Vyrane in return. Same as anywhere else I went in the Empire, it was fascinating to see how advanced technologies changed civilization, and being able to talk to someone part of that advanced civilization without being fully assimilated into the Empire yet was really interesting. My curiosity seemed to amuse Almana, but she had no problem answering all my questions, same as I had no problem answering hers.

  Still, despite my new friendship with Almana, I was really starting to miss Eve. Even though she was right next to me, it felt like she was a hundred miles away—same as how she felt so far away since I couldn’t directly touch her with the inhibitor field separating us.

  It was a few days later on the freeway, after another skirmish with the separatists, while we were cleaning up the road and remains, I looked around to see Eve had wandered off on her own again, nowhere I could see.

  I left the crew I was working with to go see where she was, making sure she wouldn’t be getting into any trouble, when I found her sitting on the backside of the bus transport, holding her head in her hands as though she had a terrible headache.

  “Evie, are you okay?” I called out.

  Eve stood up quickly and smiled brightly, putting her hands behind her as though she was hiding something, “Yes darling, never better.” She nodded her chin towards me, “Are we just about ready to ship off again?”

  I walked over to her and held her face in my hands, trying to see if she looked sick or something, “Seriously, what’s been going on with you lately?”

  Eve shook her head, then took my hands in hers and moved them away from her face, “Nothing’s been going on with me, Adam, just bored is all; ready for this stupid mission to be done.”

  I’d put this talk off for too long; something was going on with Eve, and I wasn’t about to just let it drop like nothing.

  “Eve, it’s just us against the Empire; we promised we’d work together to get free, to let each other know what all’s going on with each other—what we’re thinking. Something’s going on with you now, and I think it’s beyond time for you to tell me what it is.” I said seriously.

  Eve looked up in my eyes for a few silent moments, and I could see she was working out what all she should say to me—what all she should reveal. The fact she was clearly hiding something from me was worrisome, but beyond that the thought she would continue to keep it secret from me after I confronted her was even more concerning.

  Finally, Eve let out a long, weary sigh, “The complications of the inhibitor field are worse than I feared; I’m not doing well at all now.” She admitted.

  “What’s going on?”

  Eve gestured to herself, “I’m an Outsider god, Adam, don’t you understand what that means?” She pressed, and I just shrugged since I really had no clue what that all meant except for the silly Cthulhu mythos from Earth. “It means I’m a trans-dimensional being—I exist beyond the boundaries of this universe, outside it.”

  The pieces of the puzzle were starting to click in place, “And the inhibitor field is keeping you contained within this one dimension or something?”

  Eve nodded, “Yes, exactly. There’s so much I can do that breaks the physics of this universe because I draw power or energy from beyond it. But right now, that energy has been cut off, and the longer I remain contained, the worse I feel.”

  The crazy thing was I thought something like that was going on—some weird complication with her Outsider magic. Despite the fact I was able to guess the problem, I would have no idea what we could ever do for a solution—no idea how the magic worked at all. “How does that even work? How can you be in two dimensions at once—outside the dimension you reside in?” I asked.

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  Eve sighed again, “Adam, there’s no possible way you could ever comprehend what I am or how I’m divided between dimensions. It’s not even just two dimensions either; there’s this one that holds my physical body—the avatar of accumulated biomass, and then a void beyond that holds infinite, dark energy that shapes and controls that biomass.”

  Despite how far beyond all this was to a human, I refused to give up in trying to understand.

  “Which is the real you? Are you the physical form before me, or the energy beyond our dimension?” I pressed.

  Eve shook her head, “It’s all the real me, but the part of me that exists beyond this dimension isn’t an entity like you would understand, more like a spirit tethered to my body. My hivemind consciousness that controls my thoughts and actions resides within my physical form, but everything beyond that is a metaphysical part of who I am—like a soul or something similar.”

  “Your body and mind exist in this physical universe, but your soul exists beyond or outside it?” I tried to clarify.

  “Yes, that’s about as good as you’ll be able to understand.” She confirmed.

  I crossed my arms and leaned against the transport, “Then right now, your soul has been cut off from your body.”

  Eve’s eyes grew wide, and she smiled at me as though pleased I figured it out, “That’s exactly right, and you can imagine how awful it must feel to be detached from your soul.”

  “Shouldn’t we have known something like this would’ve happened right away when you were contained?” I asked.

  Eve shrugged, “I didn’t feel the separation initially, still had plenty of void energy stored up in my body I suppose. The longer I’ve gone while being contained, the worse it all gets, and as my energy drains away, the weaker I feel.”

  That itself was concerning as Eve never liked to admit if she was weak at all, always so confident in her power.

  “How bad is it?”

  Eve leaned into the transport with me, “Initially, I felt like my extra-sense was just incredibly dulled, but I still felt something if I really concentrated. Then, as you’ve noticed, I told you I couldn’t feel anything from anyone anymore, completely separated from the minds around me. But now it feels like rather than just my extra-sense being blocked, my mind feels sluggish with my mental capacities diminished.”

  “What, like you’re getting dumber?”

  Eve narrowed her eyes at me, “Blunt as always, my rude boy, but I can’t really deny those claims.”

  Even without her extra-sense Eve’s incredible intelligence was formidable and something we could rely on to help us get free from our current situation. But if she was losing that intelligence, would that drop us to a point where we couldn’t plan our way out of containment? Would we end up stuck in the Empire because the containment robbed Eve of her intelligence?

  “How bad is it? Are you going to continue to decline, will you end as bad as someone with dementia or something?” I asked.

  Eve sighed, “It’s not that bad, but it’s still quite limiting. Basically, while being cut off from the void energy, I’m pretty much completely reliant on my available biomass, so I only have access to the brain matter I can create now.”

  My eyebrows shot up, “Well that shouldn’t be too bad, you could just create for yourself some super brain, have it work as good as your old void energy powered…brain…thing…” I fumbled towards the end.

  Eve looked at me flatly, “It’s not that simple Adam. Yes, I can create for myself an impressive brain, but my body still suffers from the lack of void energy, and as I continue to burn away my void energy without being able to properly replenish it, all my biological processes suffer terribly. Honestly, most days it feels like my mind is mush—like I’m inebriated or something.”

  I smiled at that, “At least we finally found a way to get drunk.”

  Eve smiled too, but I could see she wasn’t really amused, “Yes, what an enjoyable experience.” She said dryly.

  Jokes aside, this was a really serious problem, and definitely not something Eve should’ve kept to herself.

  “What happens when all your void energy burns up and you’re just left with the biomass?” I pressed.

  Eve waved my words off, “I can’t run out of void energy while still retaining biomass; eventually, I’ll start burning off excess biomass to convert into pure energy to sustain my systems.” She held a hand up, “However, burning through that kind of biomass will drastically reduce my lifeforce, meaning I’ll either need to start consuming actual, living biomass once again to sustain myself, or just accept the more limited lifespan.”

  My stomach dropped out when Eve mentioned the limited lifespan, “How long are we talking?”

  Eve shook her head, “Not to worry, we’re not dealing with hours or days here. As I was before, I could’ve survived for millions of years without consuming additional biomass, but once I start cannibalizing biomass for energy, I would only be able to live for a few thousand years.”

  I let out a heavy sigh of relief, sure that a few millennia would give us more than enough time to get free to give Eve access to her void energy again.

  “At least we have plenty of time to figure out a solution.” I said.

  Eve looked off into the distance, “The problem is I don’t know what will happen once I start cannibalizing biomass for energy, I don’t know how that will change me, and that timeline is much shorter.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “What are you thinking could happen?”

  Eve turned back to me, “I don’t know, it depends on what gets cannibalized. I could end up losing more powers and abilities, might not be able to keep a consistent or solid physical form. I might not even be able to keep my hivemind organized; I might lose my mind in the chaos.”

  Okay, that was definitely something we needed to be worried about.

  “Should we admit to the Lord Generals there’s been so many complications? I can’t imagine they’d want to risk losing their most valuable asset when shit like losing your mind and powers is on the table.” I reasoned.

  Eve’s expression grew dark, “I don’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing how badly they’ve weakened me, nor do I want them to know the inhibitor field could be such a powerful weapon against the Predazoans. No, I want to find a way for us to be free ourselves, never telling the Lord Generals how we suffered while we were contained.”

  I let out a weary sigh but didn’t press the issue; Eve was too stubborn and prideful to ever concede that point, even if it would really help us. Of course, I understood where she was coming from, and I too wanted to get free with our own power, relying on no one but each other.

  Before I could respond, Eve spoke up again, leaning into me with her head on my chest, “And I’m sorry I’ve been so distant and dull lately, but I just feel so tired all the time as my energy burns away without being able to replenish it. It feels like I’m constantly starving or something, and hibernating seems to be the only way to alleviate it.” She looked up into my eyes, “Are you feeling neglected? Am I being a bad girlfriend now?”

  I just chuckled and shook my head, “No one could really blame you for what you’re dealing with. If sleeping the days away helps you deal with the pain, then I want you to keep sleeping as much as you can.”

  Eve’s big blue eyes were wide, sad and pleading, “Are you sure? I want to spend more time with you, really I do, I just don’t feel like myself lately.”

  “That’s because neither of us have been ourselves lately, bound and burdened by the Empire; we aren’t free to be who we want to be now, instead we’re these shells of who we want to be.” I said.

  Eve sighed and shook her head slowly against my chest, “I just hate this so fucking much, and not being able to touch you is absolute torture, and the teasing sex with the inhibitor field almost makes it worse.”

  I didn’t want to say anything about it, but yeah, sex with the inhibitor field sucked compared to the raw feeling of Eve’s skin on mine; it still felt great, and it got me off just fine, but it wasn’t the same at all, and even after I climaxed I didn’t feel that amazing, transcendental release like I did with Eve normally. It was like we started but couldn’t finish, like the stress was still there. I couldn’t explain it as I still was able to have an orgasm and should’ve felt some relief, so all I could think was it had some kind of weird magic or energy involved with our unique bond or something.

  “I’ll give you a blowjob anytime you want, and whenever you want to fuck I’m more than willing to oblige, but it just doesn’t feel right now, and I don’t think it will until we’re able to touch each other directly again, so really I think this unsettling feeling will just continue to grow and increase no matter how many times we make each other cum with the inhibitor field active.” Eve confirmed.

  I sighed then, “Well, not like we really have any privacy lately, so we can’t really fuck around much anyway.”

  Eve looked up at me with that mischievous grin, “Like that’s ever stopped us before.”

  I smiled too, and I was glad to see Eve was still being my goofy playful girlfriend she normally was, but I hated how much she suffered now due to that stupid inhibitor field. It also gave me some significant concern like we were racing against a ticking clock, needing to get freed before Eve lost her mind as her body started cannibalizing itself when she ran out of Outsider energy.

  “What do you want to do from here?” I asked.

  Eve looked in my eyes again, holding my gaze for a time, looking into them like she found great comfort.

  “Nothing for now, just let me sleep and try to recharge my energy in my own way. I’m also tooling around with my cells inside my body, trying to see what all I can do within the inhibitor field.” Eve told me.

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “Like working under the hood for some maintenance?”

  Eve smiled, “Something like that. You just focus on the mission and make us seem like a good, compliant duo. Try to gather friends and allies if you can, meanwhile I’ll see what I can do with this broken body of mine.”

  So really, there was nothing for me to do, just sit around and wait for my impossibly powerful Outsider god girlfriend to handle it all. But really, what could I ever do? It was her body, and biology was her plaything; all I could ever be is a source of comfort for her.

  I wrapped my arms around Eve, pulling her into a tight hug, “I love you Evie, forever and for always, and no matter what, we’ll get through this.”

  Eve wrapped her arms around me too, “I know Adam, and I love you too. And I promise you, one day I’ll take you away from all this, the Empire and these stupid missions, and I’ll show you a paradise like you could never even imagine.”

  We comforted each other as well as we could in the short time we had behind that bus, waiting for the rest of the soldiers to get the road cleared up, and while I couldn’t say I was hopeful with everything going on, I trusted my Eve beyond anything else in the universe, and I knew one way or another, someday we would eventually be free.