The hivemind is conquering for me?

I woke up after two hours of bonding time with Onyx. I sat up and realised I was in the ships medical ward. All of my self inflicted injures had already healed and I seemed to have played the exhausted victim rather well.

Walking through the ward, Ernie's wife, Janet, was walking through and checking on others in the ward. As she walked past me I said. "Hey Janet." To which she replied. "Hey Apollo." And continued to walk on.

She got two beds further before she dropped her clipboard and ran back to me. "Oh my days you are awake!" She said as she bear hugged me. "When we brought you in, you were completely unresponsive, we were beginning to prepare you for coma treatment."

Oh thats my bad. I could feel them poke me occasionally during the last two hours, but I just ignored the real space and had fun in my Mindspace. "Sorry to have upset everyone, I had severe Psionic burn, I used to much and It took the wind out of my sails so to speak." I said as an excuse.

"Oh Malaka!" Janet said as she pulled away from the bear hug and slapped her forehead. "I was supposed to in form lady Kathrine when you wake up. I'll be right back." She said as she began running off. She stopped a few seconds later and turned around.

"Apollo." I looked over and saw a look in her eyes that made me uncomfortable. "I cannot thank you enough for what you did for the mercenaries and my Ernie down on Alexandria. Just know, anyone here will do 'anything' to repay even a small fraction of what we owe you. 'Anything.' " After she said this, she took off.

I visibly shuddered after she was gone. "Those eyes. Brrrr!" 'Absolute nutcase. I am lucky I know no one else like that...'

As I took stock of my surroundings, I noticed my dishevelled armour was still attached to me. I activated standby mode and the armour compressed onto my arm. The minigun had nowhere to store itself, so I just placed it on the ground and dressed myself into the overalls that were on the bedside table.

Just as I sat back down on the bed, I heard high heels clunking on the floor in a brisk pace towards me. As she opened the sheet around my bed I used to get changed, tears melted from the corners of her eyes as she looked upon me with utmost relief.

"I knew you would survive, I just knew it. It was like every fibre of my being knew you weren't sacrificing yourself and that you would be fine." Kathrine sobbed into my shoulder. I raised my eyebrow, impressed by her instincts.

" I almost did die to be honest." I flat out lied. "I was paralysed by a queen guards stare and a whole horde of warriors was about to descend upon me, when Bertram, out of nowhere, in a valiant sacrifice, shot the queen guard right in the ear hole making it break its sight with me. Without him and the others who gave their life to protect you all, I would not have survived."

Behind the partition, I heard a muffled sob followed by footsteps running away. 'Hopefully with that, the men will get some closure.'

"Anyway, enough about me I am fine, exhausted but fine. What's the situation currently?" I asked. Kathrine pulled away from my body and wiped her eyes with a tissue. She kept her hand on my own though as she started. "After your blue animal brought you to us, we brought you aboard and took off moments afterwards.

Spartari command gave us the all clear to leave the engagement and commended us for going above what was expected of us. They then proceeded to give us an armed escort away from the engagement to a point we could safely FTL out of there. In all honesty dear, not much has happened chronologically as you have only been asleep for just over two hours.

Your body heals itself incredibly fast as when I last saw you, you were a walking open wound."

"Heh, I know. One of the mutations of my Psionic awakening. Its also the reason I last so long in the bedroom." I said as I squeezed her hand. "Ugh! You little pervert, thinking of such things now." Kathrine said feigning disgust, but smiled as she turned away.

"What about of casualties?" I asked. Kathrine's face turned solemn. "We lost roughly 2/5ths of our men With the Deimos the Planetary Guard and the swarm, numbers just kept piling up. The swarm got the most of us during the chase before you stood up as they kept taking straggler after straggler.

Still, they knew what they signed up for by being mercenaries and their life insurance will pay for their families well being for the foreseeable future."

I felt in a juxtaposition. I felt sad as I grew to like the mercenaries during my short time with them. However, I also felt glad that I got to see my Jewel again and the cost of a large amount of the Alexandrite population and a few mercenaries was an ok cost for me.

Kathrine saw my conflicted face and got the wrong Idea. "Hey, don't feel bad you couldn't save more handsome. What you did both in the temple and against the swarm were miracles. You should be proud of yourself."

I did not really know how to respond to her statement so I simply nodded and opened my arms for a hug, which she dived into.

Our time was cut short when Caleb walked into the ward. "Hey Apollo, I heard you are doing Ok, I am glad to hear it." He said. I nodded in affirmation towards him. "Kathrine, can we talk a second? I have some urgent information." He urged. "Speak freely Caleb, Apollo is obviously to be trusted." She replied.

"Very well. I have received a Report that Captain Jacob did not survive his emergency surgery. The wound to his torso was deep and the bite to his shoulder was infected before the surgery even began. He passed 10 minutes ago."

Kathrine placed her hand over her chest. "Oh thats awful news. How is Mindy?" she asked. "I am not to sure, The information came from the company leader, Gellon, the weird chap. Apparently Mindy locked herself in her room after seeing Jacob pass and wont leave." Caleb replied.

Kathrine proceeded to thank Caleb for the report and he took his leave. "Poor girl must be devastated. I mean they were having there problems those two, but the last thing she would ever want would be for him to die. Heck, If my bastard for a husband was to croak soon, I know I would cry even though I don't even like him."

"Really?" I asked. "Tcch your still too young dear. Relationships are complicated, I don't love my husband, but he did give me my children and I will always care for him because of that. Those type of feelings never disappear, no matter how much of a fat, Sepiidan cunt worshiping, shit he is." She whispered the last part.

Kathrine placed her head back on my chest and I began to stroke her hair. We stayed like that for a while before she had to go. "I'm sorry handsome, I have so much work to do, will you be ok?" She asked. "Yea, I will be fine. I will just go back to my room and give myself a happy hour, since you did not offer." I joked. She swatted my chest and called me an dick while laughing before she left.

Once I made my way back to my quarters, I opened my door and was planning on going straight to the bedroom, but a figure was sitting on my couch. Her silver hair and blue skin exposed for all to see. Her eyes had bags from crying and when she looked up and saw me, I could visibly see relief wash over her as it rejuvenated her features.

She said nothing as she stood up, simply walked over to me. She reached her arm out, but hesitated and pulled back. "You know, I'm not that frail. There's no need to be scared." I said, causing a sharp breath of relief from her.

Janine proceeded to hug me tightly again before she looked up at me. "One second." She said as she reached up on her tip toes and kissed me. The kiss was good, great even. Everything was nice, no weirdness, yet it did not feel right.

Janine pulled away with the same look on her face. "Yea just making sure. Don't get me wrong great kiss, I even got a little wet with how nice you kiss, it just doesn't feel right."

I sat down on the couch and she sat next to me. "Yea don't worry I felt the same, by the way, amazing lips. It just did not feel right. What brought it on anyway?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, I have never felt the way I feel about you with anyone. I have always kept my distance and not allowed anyone too close. I just wanted to make sure of what I was feeling and checking if I found you desirable at all.

I guess my parentage just doesn't allow for me to find males desirable, as and don't get a big head, you are practically my ideal partner, you're just not a woman, which sucks."

I smiled at the compliment while Janine leant against me. It felt nice having someone so close in a way different from what I have experienced all my life.