Bayleaf tugged at one of her hairs as she monitored the readouts from her desk, a nervous tick she developed whenever she was stressed.

  Granted everyone and everything worked out for the best, but the situation before her was starting to make her antsy, hence her tick returning after a good week of relative peace aboard the Meras.

  Before her lay Chimera, her body having forgotten any semblance of her Elfari disguise and instead showing her what Bay assumed must be her truest form.

  A red blob-like entity with a core that looked not too dissimilar to a black hole stared back at her, figuratively speaking as the thing didn’t have eyes. It was inert as far as she could tell, without so much as a flicker of motion from the thing besides a tendril reaching out to grab a few pieces of elk that were made in the mess hall.

  No response, no words, she couldn’t read the mind of the thing at all either, as she was pretty sure it didn’t have a mind to read.

  It simply ate and stood still.

  Bay took another look at the readings on her data tablet. The Meras’ new upgrades included a type of sensor that the Elfari never even heard of before, along with various sensors to track and detect biological signals. The newest sensor seemed to be made specifically to scan Chimera.

  A blue wave would slowly work up and down as it scanned, showing an impressive biology that Bay could only describe as both simple, and horrendously complicated.

  The fluid inside the blob was DNA, all of it, every single cell inside was composed of copious amounts of different strands, chains, and even floating RNA. None of it was similar at all, and from what the scanner showed her, Bay was certain that there must have been thousands of different organic beings kept in that blob’s body.

  Along with this discovery was a multitude of miniature structures, similarly shaped and lined within the inner membrane that housed the black hole-like center. They reminded Bayleaf of Mana Pylons, energy structures some archmagi back home would use to power their homes and workstations.

  The food from the mess hall would reach these structures and slowly the scans would show an increase in activity within the entity. After a while, the food became unnecessary altogether, as the pylons moved to empower and start the spinning sequence that they themselves were utilizing.

  They power each other after a certain threshold, is that why she was able to use so many spells? The energy output must be astonishing if she can keep it up.

  Bayleaf took notes, hoping that she would soon be able to pick Chimera’s brain about what the alien was literally made of.

  She didn’t have to wait long, as the last of the little pylons finished revving up, leading to her Captain shifting into her young adult sized Elfari form.

  “Oof,” was the first thing to come out of her mouth, “they weren't kidding about the feedback loop.”

  “Mera?!” Bay snapped out of her notebook to look down at her.

  “Oh Bay! Got anything to eat? I think I used up all my reserves not dying.”

  Bay smiled as the two moved out of the medical ward to the mess hall, poking at Mera and asking probing questions about the blob form she saw earlier.

  “Oh, yeah that’s my real body… before all the stuff happened and I got used to looking like this.”

  Chimera shifted to her human form as she explained, shifting back to her Elfari form shortly after.

  “I revert to it whenever I need to, since it’s pretty useful in a fight. Being a small target and amorphous has its advantages after all.”

  “So you use it in combat?”

  “Oh yeah,” Chimera waved her hand nonchalantly, “all the time. It saves my skin more often than not, but with the memories I share from the people I touch, it just feels better to be like this.”

  As the both of them talked and walked towards the mess hall on the ship, Bay imagined how they must both look to the crew, with the tall medical officer talking to the child-like commander.

  She chuckled a bit at the thought.

  …

  The door they were walking towards slid open to reveal the new mess hall, which also doubled as a rec center for the crew to play games and socialize. It otherwise looked like a normal cafeteria, just with a few couches and monitors for watching streams and gaming in the middle.

  Chimera took it all in for a second before she spotted a tray and buffet line across the massive room. She immediately rushed over, shifting to her blob form as she absorbed the entire spread of food, an amount that likely could have fed about fifty crew members, in a few seconds.

  “Oh that hit the spot… even got some new DNA from the mess.” Chimera spoke with a smirk, shifting back to her Elfari form, now sporting a few elk antlers.

  Walking to grab a lettuce wrapped sandwich with a slab of quail eggs and greens, Bay took a generous bite of her own before she answered.

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  “You’re lucky we're outside of Anvilage. That could have fed the crew for a few weeks.”

  Captain Chimera smacked her lips, “you don’t think I know that? I’ve already upgraded the crew with high functioning metabolisms. They won’t need to eat for a few days yet.”

  “It’s been a week since you zonked out.”

  “Whaaaat?” Chimera drew out her answer as Bay showed her a calendar.

  The calendar was a projection from her hand showing the day of the week, which according to what Chimera was seeing, adjusted itself for whatever world it was on.

  She guessed that the Empire had a lot of logistic issues that required it at some point to afford having a spell created for it, as the moons must have some differences in their own rotations.

  Shaking her head away from the thought, she noticed that indeed ten days had passed according to the spell.

  “That’s worrisome, I’ve never been knocked out that long… ever!”

  Bay munched her sandwich as she spoke, “It’s under control, the High General took over your duties while you were incapacitated. We’ve a team heading to the wreckage site of the Hood ship, and the rest of the crew are helping with the relief efforts for those who lost their homes.”

  Chimera grew solemn as she thought about the people, “any casualties?”

  Bay smiled as she finished her meal, “thankfully only a few got hurt from debris, but no deaths.”

  Chimera took solace in that, “better hurting and alive then crushed and dead.”

  Chimera allowed herself to relax for a bit, allowing the food she absorbed to start fixing her own internals.

  And they were a mess.

  The magic fallout she experienced from directing so much energy fried some of the p.e.gs. Thankfully those could be restored with time, but Chimera estimated that she had about less than half of her normal number.

  Only biomass and time was going to fix those, so she had to be careful not to overextend.

  Though it seemed she would have the time to recover on her own, as the ship’s crew and their resident royal were already on recon and relief duties, leaving her with very little to do.

  Well, maybe not so little.

  “The Forge-Chief is requesting your presence Captain Mera.” One of the officers hanging around the mess hall approached her with a datapad, handing it to her as she rested her head against the soft cushions.

  “How soon? I sort of just got up.”

  She spoke lazily, but it seemed to charm the crewmate since she giggled back, “within the hour was the request, but I can inform her that you need to rest.”

  Chimera groaned, “no, we shouldn’t keep the big cheese waiting. Let her know I’ll be there.”

  Confusion followed as the crewmate nodded, turning away while muttering ‘big cheese?’ to herself.

  Chimera combed over the data pad she just received, a smirk on her face from the term she just used.

  She's' probably going to be wracking her head the whole time on what that means…

  Chimera felt her smile fade slightly as she was reminded of the Rice back on Asta, the once fighting rats and mice who apparently, according to her brother Aden, had made an underground society before it was raided by Monica and her brainwashed scientists and heroes.

  She helped them on a whim, and changed their entire lives for it.

  Now she was doing something similar but so much more.

  I need to leave this place better than I left Asta, right? The Hero, Chimera, wouldn’t leave these people to be slaughtered after she saved them. Even if there wasn’t a war, I know I wouldn’t leave them to die… right?

  The need to return home pricked her stomach, and she was thankful to the distraction in her hands.

  Scrolling through the information on the datapad, Chimera noticed that it was a information booklet on the current affairs of the city-forge Anvilage, the place they parked the Meras near. It wasn’t just any forge though, it was the forge, the place where most of the weapons and ship parts were built for the Elfari Empire.

  It made sense that even though the space oak was used as a hull that some parts simply couldn’t be grown and had to be manufactured by someone, so knowing this was such a place made Chimera understand the location a bit better.

  It also made sense as to why the Empire was so worried, because a motherdome capital ship bombarding this place was the equivalent of a bull in a high-tech data boards shop.

  Just the collateral damage might cripple their fighting power.

  She shifted her weight to get more comfortable, not noticing at first that Bay had left. However she did notice another person sitting next to her that was roughly her size.

  Chimera turned to see a similar being tinged with a green body, yellow eyes with no irises and a flower on the top of her head.

  The being also looked just like herself, only with green aspects to her skin and colors as opposed to Chimera’s own red tinged body parts.

  Chimera smiled at Meras’ new avatar body that they had worked on, who returned the smile with a full one of her own.

  “Nice to see that you’re getting to try out your new body.”

  The green double nodded, pointing at her throat.

  Chimera sighed, “we still haven’t figured out plant vocal cords though, no luck on your own?”

  Meras only shrugged, a small chirp coming out of her mouth.

  “So some progress, but nothing complex. Still, we can always link up if you need to talk.”

  Chimera grabbed one of Meras’ hands as she made a connection, the leafy palm feeling nice to the touch.

  “Learning?” Meras spoke into her thoughts, a curious blip transferring to Chimera.

  Mera looked back at the tablet, “yeah, about the locals. It’s always good to know what to look for in a city.”

  The ship’s avatar made a solemn nod, “local customs.”

  Chimera smiled, “exactly. It’s important to do recon wherever you go.”

  A small vine took hold of the data pad, pulling it between them as Meras started to look over the data as well.

  The leafy hand felt nice, but being smooched up next to the plant daughter of a local tree god felt even better.

  Just remember she’s got vines and thorns so don’t do anything stupid.

  Chimera looked over at Meras, wondering if the thought came from her. If she did, she never gave any indication as she scrolled along with Chimera on the pad.

  …