Chương 299: Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine

'A bit', as it turns out, is rather long when one has a master key to all the security on a void ship and a legion of cleaning Servitors at their command. After saying goodbye to Brigid, I head over to JK-404's laboratory and access her secure data-loom. There is a lot of research to go over as JK-404 lets me read everything she knows, or at least, that's what it looks like from how much data there is. I read JK-404's notes in order, everything from her days as a Tech-Apprentice all the way to Magos Biologis.

By the time Stellar Fleet SOL departs 16 days later, I have a far better understanding of genetic manipulation, Astartes organs, and a great appreciation for my decision to stick to cybernetic upgrades from E-SIM. Proving one's understanding of biology and growing new organs is considerably more messy and challenging than building augmetics. The most notable research JK-404 and her team of Kin are undertaking, other than Hyper Intelligence, focuses on bones.

The Lathe Worlds are high gravity worlds; possessing the knowledge to create better bones is a way of showing off. So far, JK-404's Kin researchers have succeeded in giving Marwolv strain Humans a Marwolv Organic Alloy (MOA) skeleton. While not as strong or resistant to damage as a Black Skeleton, a MOA skeleton is 51% lighter than an unmodified Human skeleton, and even more so compared to the enhanced bone structures available to Kin, Astartes, and Lathe Worlds Magi.

It manages that while being stronger than plasteel. For an average Human, it makes them 7-8% lighter. The research involved recreating the correct drugs required to trigger MOA development in the Marwolv Human strain. They didn't have to add MOA development in, it was already present. Unlike Marwolv's fauna, MOA development makes giving birth more difficult for Humans, so it isn't enabled by default and best begun after reaching physical maturity.

The Kin's next project is working out how to use the Tau MOA growth tanks to produce a Black Skeleton. Once they can produce a Black Skeleton through organic means, they hope to have a Marwolv Human grow a Black Skeleton instead of a MOA one. If successful, this research will save the Stellar Fleet a huge amount of resources. There are similar projects for all the other standard upgrades. No progress has been made on Machine Impulse Units, Warding Electoos, Potentia Coils and Pain Wards.

There is an ominous note forbidding further research into attempting organic Warding Electoos due to the mutagenic effects of Warp infused minerals. The other three aren't deemed to be worth the trouble either. Some progress has been made towards the natural production of Sacred Blood and Void Skin. The most successful attempts lie in growing a second pair of eyelids and all the other additional valves one needs to cover orifices with to avoid decompression.

There was another note here with a warning not to use Tyranid DNA for Void Skin again, with the project stalled, followed by an addendum stating that the samples purchased from Footfall look promising. There is one completed project with an overhauled vascular system, one with two hearts and superior valves and constriction protocols that can reduce blood loss and toxin spread without overly inhibiting healing. The blood vessels are also tougher and less prone to the build up of cholesterol and other contaminants.

Coupled with the extra heart, the superior blood vessels reduce sudden drops in blood pressure, or blood pooling, that can lead to fainting, especially if one is tall and performing a high-gravity manoeuvre, or even stands up too quickly. Rather than create something original, the Kin found the coding for the dual vascular system within the back-up DNA system, created by the Tau, that we use to prevent conflicting, unrestricted modifications that can lead to severe mutation.

Once identified, and after many gruesome failures, the Kin managed to introduce the superior vascular system into the Marwolv Human strain without impacting the current benefits of the Marwolv strain, like resistance to heavy metal poisoning, a superior immune system, a propensity for obedience, and beauty.

As I sit in the JK-404's laboratory reading and poking at vials of odd substances, Finlay Tolmach, First Officer of Torchbearer, commands Stellar Fleet SOL, Battlefleet Koronus, and Tithe Fleet Calixis depart from Footfall without a fuss. Alpia is back in her sleeping pod undergoing her enhanced officer training alongside the officers that will support her. That includes all of the Sororitas who have a lot of cross training to catch up on if they want to keep up with the crazy pace my daughter lives at.

I'm rather pleased that the Order of the Valourous Heart accepted my offer. Footfall has been returned to order and the Stellar Fleet has successfully taken over the Red Schola. Tanthus Moross noticed one of my little traps for him and has paid for all the implants, sleeping pod, and courses he needs to even have a chance of getting re-elected. The Stellar Fleet reorganised when we left SR-651 so I really didn't want to have to do it again, bleeding my best officers to fuel my expansion.

Far better to give my people the tools they need to grow into the station and leave junior officers in charge. I am also leery of a retaliatory strike by the crazy blood cult, the Astral Knives, that are hidden on the station, if I target their political power too harshly. Having Tanthus remain to deflect tensions, especially when Tanthus is almost certainly a member, is the better play, no matter how much I wanted to get rid of him.

Petitor Veritas, Inquisitor Lyre's vessel, and his two escort vessels are remaining behind while Petitor Veritas is repaired. Much to my delight, Inquisitor Lyre is hitching a ride with Calligos. Rather than following me around like a tick, Lyre has changed his mind and will be remaining in the Koronus Expanse to oversee the hunting of Karad Vall.

Raphael talked Lyre into staying, citing the Inquisition's original plan to steer me at problems and watch the explosions, which works less well when I'm constantly dealing with Lyre's petty scheming. I'd thank Rapahel, but I cannot imply that I know what he's been chatting with Lyre about. When Lyre pops his clogs in a couple of months from my sabotage of his implants, I want Caligos to take the flak.

Praising Raphael would prove I've been spying on the two Inquisitors and demonstrate I can get into their systems whenever I please. That would not help prove my 'degree of guilt' at all! I had hoped to subsume Lyre's three vessels into the Stellar Fleet using Raphael as an excuse, then recover the rare Aeldari navigation components I installed in Lyre's void ships. Now though, I suspect that Calligos will find a way to keep Lyre's vessels, at least for a few decades. This novel's true home is a different platform.

Support the author by finding it there. I can't bring myself to care about the loss of three void ships when Lyre has been such a spectacular waste of my time and mental space. However, if Lyre's replacement ends up being more annoying, one of the many reasons I was reluctant to get rid of him, I foresee hours of shouting into the void in my dressing gown. A day before we reach the Mandeville Point, Calligos invites Brigid and I to a private banquet.

To my surprise, Calligos slips me the instructions on how to access the Thirteenth Passage, while warning me away from it. Calligos also speaks of his personal experience of travelling the Maw in the most serious voice I have ever heard from him. Before Calligos handed me the map, I didn't even know about the Thirteenth Passage. It is, according to Calligos, the most stable of all the passages through the Maw and also leads to and from the Screaming Vortex.

The Screaming Vortex is an area inside one of the Warp storms that are either side of the Maw. No one knows which side the Screaming Vortex is actually on as, once inside, the Astronomicon can't be located. Traditional astronomical data isn't much good either. The Warp storm distorts everything. There are some two dozen inhabited worlds lost to the Ruinous Powers and the Warp within the Screaming Vortex. Rumour has it that they're filled with wealth and adventure for those willing to risk it.

One must also gain the attention of the Dark Gods, offering sacrifices to be granted safe passage. To enter one would have to add to a cloud of dead bodies so thick that the corpses shatter upon the hulls of vessels approaching the Thirteenth Passage. I am not sure what Calligos hopes to achieve by giving me the map, or even why I keep it. Perhaps it is fear, for when the Maw closes, the Thirteen Passage provides. I lock it inside a Null Box and pray that I will never be forced to use it.

Calligos' presence makes me uncomfortable as he always appears a bad shock away from total madness, yet he is the most successful Rogue Trader in the Koronus Expanse. As we perform our final handshake, his manic expression makes me wonder what his unstable state says about me, the Magos who's trying to compete with him. Over the next week, Quaani guides us to the Maw without trouble. However, with the constant misfortune that Quaani manages to attract to himself, I don't trust him to lead us through the Maw itself.

Quaani even finds the strength to joke about his poor luck, though he is still depressed from receiving his incurable mutation. We drop out of the Warp for a final check and swap over. Once again, I find myself in a tank of psycho-active liquids, breathing through a mask and staring down hell itself. The two Warp storms on either side of the passage are so powerful that they distort both the Immaterium and Materium.

Warp lightning and plumes of purple fire crackle across a handful of lightyears in realspace, distorting every star and twisting time around the passage. Even with three layers of Gellar Fields of various types, and every vital system warded to the hilt, we still suffer glitches. It is only the colony redundancy protocols that keep my vessels running smoothly. The Imperial vessels, and my Ortelius Carracks are less fortunate, especially that damned Jericho Class Pilgrim Vessel.

The Jericho sends reports of frost filling the corridors before we even enter the Immaterium. I suggest that they turn back, but the fools insist, claiming that Alpia's presence will protect them. The crew have even taken to wearing Alpia blessed rations like talismans around their necks, rather than eat them.

Considering that I locked up all the Penitent looters and rapists on the Jericho, I am expecting the crew will need to put down at least one mutiny and probably a horde of chaos spawn before the journey is over. They won't have the Sororitas to help them either. Emil, the glory seeking Imperial Navy Commodore, is secure on Torchbearer, lest his supporters cause trouble during the voyage through the Maw.

With the Navis Coven Link, I reach out to all the Navigators in the combined fleets and press my mind upon them, feeling their awe and fear in equal measure. Just to be sure, I pull on my soul bond with Alpia and request a blessing and she responds. The Emperor's hungry flames race along our connection and into the Coven Link. Two Imperial Navigators are overwhelmed and incinerated as their extensive mutations turn to ash beneath the unforgiving light of the Omnissiah.

My own mind is assaulted with repeated and confusing visions from snatches of fighting against the six Black Crusades, a Tyranid invasion, and the Jericho running prow first into a shard of splintered space the moment it enters the Warp, then splitting open like a can of rancid Ambul meat. There is a bit of a fuss while the Navigators are replaced. Then, drawing upon the might of multiple Navigators, I cast Aether Doldrums, calming the Warp just enough to Divine that we're not all going to die.

There is another delay while the Fleet is shuffled about to avoid hitting any obstacles the moment we jump and then I trigger all the Warp Drives simultaneously. The Materium bursts open and we are all immediately swallowed by the Warp before the Warp Drives even have a chance to spool up to full power. I ramp up my thinking speed to the max, preventing myself from becoming disorientated by the sudden jump. To my third eye, the Warp is an ocean of towering, oil slicked waves.

Golden fire burns upon its surface but does not penetrate the iridescent depths like the flames usually do in Alpia's presence. Purple flames fall from the sky like snow, interspersed with great gouts of lightning that crash upon our Void Shields then burst into chaos spawn; they skitter over our protections before fading, screaming as their neverborn flesh bubbles and disolves.

Great, mirror-like burgs of twisted space float upon the surface of the Warp, partially hidden by thick smoke and embers, like giant, jagged diamonds. All around us, the Daemons swarm, from huge serpents shadowing our wake to multi-winged birds circling overhead. The Astronomicon is nowhere to be seen and I am forced to direct my voidships through the storm by constantly divining the path and comparing it to the two Warp Abacuses on the Ortelius Carracks to keep us on track.

That task is challenging and the liquids in the tank bubble around me as my body sheds heat from the intensive calculations and discharges of Warp energy. In the distance is the siren call of chaos, four ports bursting with grand edifice that offer succour against the tumultuous, unforgiving Warp should I merely ask for passage. I mumble my prayers, obscuring the endless calls of the Ruinous Powers with familiar chants.

I shelter the other Navigators from temptation with my heavy presence upon their minds, scattering their thoughts before they can even form them. Ever so slowly, we creep along the surface of the Warp, even as huge waves crash upon us, trying to drag us into its depths. I do not dare the skies either, no matter how much I want this journey to be over faster by pushing deeper into the Warp.

Over the next three days, the Void Shields for the Imperial vessels become increasingly stressed, unable to fully regenerate under the constant lighting, fire, and energetic waves of pseudo-water. Their singular Gellar Fields are still holding, but they too, are close to flickering as the imprisoned, dreaming psykers are constantly shredded and rebuilt by the unrelenting arcanotech of the Mechanicus.

The first of the five Stations of the Passage that we encounter is the Hermitage and I am quick to direct the Fleet towards it. The Warp, however, has its grip upon us and is unwilling to let go. I have to overclock multiple Warp Drives to punch through to the Materium and our exit is glacial. Our hulls crackle with destructive energies as our main thrusters engage full burn, briefly feeding anti-matter into kilometre sized engines to escape from the Immaterium.

The lighting, flames, and waves gripping our hulls form great claws and hooked chains that scrabble over the failing Void Shields as we twist and stagger into the Materium, finally coming to rest in orbit around two, conjoined void stations. The Immaterium snaps shut behind us with a final howl that sets alarms ablaze and quiet men and women into a frenzy of violence. A day later, the riots are put down, the fires are extinguished, and thousands of loyal Imperials are dead.

Crews flee their ships without permission, flocking to the Hermitage in janky space suits, seeking the isolated priests in desperate hope of blessings and prayer, but there is none to be found; Imperial officers thoughtlessly stick to their training, executing thousands of people for fleeing their posts before I can put a stop to it. With skulls stacked high and the decks stained red, it takes everything I have to not add to the pile as Captains report 'all is well'.