Resurrection

"Resurrection" (1x09) is the ninth episode of Memory=Null, in which our group meets a weaver, and encounters a deadly situation.

Synopsis
Captain Sam, having no idea what is going on, asks what the thing is. Thicc replies that it’s Herbert, and asks if he can get them closer. He says he can, but that it will be dangerous because asteroids and space debris are scattered throughout the nebula. Thicc asks Tina how far she could blink them, but her range is only about 1000 meters, and they are much further away than that. As they are talking, the cocoon suddenly cracks as parts come off and drift into the nebula. Something grabs the edges of the cocoon and starts tearing it apart. As it emerges, they see a creature with a huge mouth, massive teeth, two horns with holes underneath, and massive black eyes which look like shattered glass. It has eight tentacles coming out of the back, and two front facing tentacles with claws. It’s mostly black with a few red stripes, which would make it incredibly difficult to see against the blackness of space. As everyone tries to process what they have just seen, Thicc, Hannah, and Tina all begin to hear a dripping sound familiar to Thicc. The same four year old kid appears between them, though the rest of the crew cannot see him. Adus informs Thicc that he’s ready for them to come over, though they will need vac-suits, as he does not have oxygen production capabilities yet - that is their first stop. Adus asks if they want Artis to come with them, which Thicc does.

The four of them suit up after Thicc checks them for Vox tampering, and Adus blinks them over to him. They are weightless inside the bridge of the weaver. They begin to look around the bridge, which is a strange combination of organic and mechanical components. Thicc finds the comms station and hails The Trident, letting them know that they are fine and are still exploring around. As he finishes, Adus turns, and Thicc finds he can see the entire weave through the main window. One of Adus’ tentacles reaches up and plucks out a single strand. His two front tentacles then reach up and tear space open as they enter a weird, multicolored psychedelic dimension - similar to spike space, but different. Thicc asks where they are going, and Adus responds with an emotional wave of massive hunger.

Hannah informs Thicc that while Adus has weapons, they are not operational yet as he is still growing the torpedos. She also says that as Adus grows, they can designate what purposes various rooms will serve. Adus soon tears back into normal space, now in a completely different sector and very close to a star. As he flies closer to the sun, he opens his mouth and begins siphoning hydrogen into a chamber behind the bridge. After about ten minutes, the gas inside the chamber ignites, and then compresses into a tiny star. The veins throughout the walls all begin to glow as gravity begins to normalize, and Thicc falls head-first into the floor. Now content, Adus begins to head towards a nearby asteroid belt.

Adus appears in his child form and informs them that they now need to go retrieve some oxygen producing plants that grow on the asteroids. Thicc and Tina exit the airlock and head over to a nearby asteroid with a cave inside. As they enter the cave, they find several adorable, six-limbed, lemur looking creatures - which kind of look like the creature on Thicc’s backpack. Several of them leap over onto Adus, who informs them that these are one of the things they are picking up. They are very psychically aware creatures, which he can use to do small tasks. Thicc and Tina finish bringing the plants back to the bio-room, which is filled with oxygen in about thirty minutes. Thicc holds a meeting to name the splemurs, starting with Mr. Fluffington, Not Words, Jeff, and King Pippin II - they will name the rest later. Near the end of the meeting, a courier ship arrives in the sector and delivers a message from Pippin titled “HELP”. Inside is a picture of Pippin looking very, very annoyed, dressed in full Renaissance attire, and the message “Please come kill everyone”. Thicc takes a selfie of himself, Hannah, and Mr. Fluffington the splemur, and replies:


 * Dear Your Majesty, King Pippin of Mechs,


 * It is so good to have heard from you. Your new attire looks wonderful - like a warm summer’s day in court. We’re currently doing well. We found a splemur and named it after you. There are several more splemurs that don’t have names - please send suggestions. We’ll come and get you shortly. But seriously - send splemur names.

Thicc selects a polyspectral MES beam as Adus’ next construction. Preparing to return to the Titan, he sits down at the navigator’s station, which connects to him by plunging a prong into his neck. As Thicc reaches out and grabs the thread that will take them back to The Triton, Adus wraps a tentacle around the same thread, and tears back into hyperspace. With Thicc’s job done, the prong retracts back into the chair. Thicc asks Tina how she’s holding up, and she mentions that she is slightly weirded out by the fact that the ship has a bathroom with a bidet. Thicc says that they shall never speak of that again. Tina sits down at the pilot’s station to acclimate to the chair, and the prongs adjust to use her pre-existing ports on the back of her neck (which she mentions hurts less than what she currently uses for her mech). The station also moves itself to adjust to her reach. Hannah jacks into the gunner’s station as it begins projecting images of the outside of the ship into her eyes. As Artas sits at the comms station, her tentacles raise up, revealing natural ports on the back of her neck. However, when she stands up, the station (similar to the projectors at the gunner’s station) detaches and moves with her.

About half an hour later, they tear out of hyperspace back at the nebula, and Tina pilots them into the nebula as Adus begins to absorb the metal particles that make it up. As Thicc looks out through the nebula, he sees what appears to be part of a structure. Scans reveal it to be a massive ring, hundreds of metres tall. Hannah realizes that it’s a jump gate - pre-scream tech that allowed travel between galaxies. As they had to be powered by powerful psychics, most were dismantled for scrap after the scream wiped out anyone who could power them. As they contemplate this new discovery, Thicc’s phone receives an email - despite the fact that there is no exchange satellite in this sector:


 * From: [ERROR]


 * They have taken the Monarch. Run.


 * - Cain

Adus appears in his child form and says “The pride and shame of an empire has fallen”. A lone fighter streaks out of the nebula, and upon seeing Adus and The Triton, immediately starts broadcasting a distress signal. Upon making contact, the pilot reveals himself to be Janus. He says that the Vox have taken over The Monarch’s Fortune, he and his passenger are the only non-infected who managed to escape, and The Monarch is only minutes behind him. Thicc tells him to stay close to Herbert. Without any weapons on either ship, they decide to try and bring The Triton into hyperspace with them. Tina tells Janus to turn his fighter around and set a collision course with The Monarch as Hannah helps her blink Janus and his passenger (a siren), both injured, into the cargo bay. While Hannah and Artas stay to guard them, Tina and Thicc rush back to the bridge. As Tina pilots Adus to meet up with The Triton, The Monarch emerges from the nebula and launches a swarm of weapons at them. Right before it reaches them, Thicc grabs Pippin’s thread as Adus grabs The Triton with his back tentacles, tears a hole in space, and barely manages to pull himself and The Triton into hyperspace.

Back in the cargo bay, Artas is tending to the other siren while Janus bleeds out on the floor. Though they have no medical supplies onboard, Thicc and Hannah manage to stem the bleeding long enough for Artas to stabilize him. They move Janus and the siren into more comfortable and secure rooms, and make contact with The Triton. Thicc “explains” to Captain Sam what the situation is, though he informs Thicc that they only have about a day worth of oxygen left.

It’s decided that it would be best to rest, resupply and refuel, so Thicc redirects Adus to a star in sector 504. The Triton heads to the refueling station to repair and refuel, as they are leaking atmosphere. Adus finds some metallic asteroids and starts chewing on them, to the immense physical displeasure of everyone onboard. They decide to try to purchase supplies from the nearby research station, and Thicc asks Adus to try to look like a regular, boring ship, rather than a giant space monster, which Adus finds quite amusing. As they approach the station, they are asked for their identification sign, which is somehow provided despite Artas not doing anything. Once they dock, Thicc and Hannah go onboard. As Adus leaves, they look back out the airlock and see a boring freighter ship - he apparently has the ability to alter his appearance.

The duo finds a branch of Hindleberg’s (half the store is backpacks, the other is general supplies) where they buy two more backpacks for Sank and Artas, two weeks of supplies, and a coffee maker. They also pick up a whole bunch of coffee from the local Sparbucks, about a weeks’ worth of alcohol, some medical supplies, and a birthday cake for Adus. After loading everything onto Adus, they link up with The Triton and transfer their mechs and Sank over, as Adus has now grown large enough to accommodate them. Thicc sends an update on their status back to Devon and warns Captain Sam about the Vox.

With The Triton gone, the crew decides to go to sector 501 to find Pippin. Thicc and Tina have a vulnerable conversation about how screwed up the entire situation is. Sank later joins the conversation, and they fill her in on what she doesn’t know (minus Thiccs’ true nature). They eventually break out the birthday cake and celebrate Adus’ first re-birthday. Sank also notifies them that Adus has been trying to install things on their mechs ever since they were brought on board. They head down to the storage bay, where they see several large arms waiting to work on the mechs. Sank mentions that there’s no kitchen on board, and that she doesn’t know what to do with herself if she can’t cook or work on mechs. Thicc suggests that she could work with herbert on whatever he has planned, and when Sank responds that she doesn’t know how she would do that, a console rises out of the floor with schematics, which Sank immediately gets engrossed by.

Thicc and Tina head back up to see if Janus or the siren are awake yet. They find Hannah and Artas standing guard outside, claiming to have been talking about “books” (The Siren’s Forbidden Love). They decide to talk to the siren first, who introduces herself as Ninla, a high priestess of the Weaver’s Conclave. She says that The Monarch’s Fortune had been picking up several crew members from an important mission when the takeover occurred. Janus, having military training, realized what was happening and managed to fight his way through the ship and get them to safety. Thicc introduces everyone, and attempts to hide from her that they are on a weaver, though she quickly realizes what she is aboard, and that it is Adus, the God of War. She begins to try to comprehend everything she has just learned, and what it all means, and offers her assistance in any way she can. Suddenly, Janus starts banging on the wall in the other room, yelling for someone to let him out, as he has important news.