Reborn as a Spaceship

PoV: Captain Eris Cantor

I was halfway through the science team's latest report when the headache kicked in again. The jump buoy technology should work. On paper, it made sense. We understood ninety-seven percent of the underlying mechanics. But the other three percent? That elusive final piece? Nothing. The entry gates refused to align it was always close but never correct. And no matter what we tried, we couldn't replicate their results.

Even after forcing another demonstration from the kid, it worked just fine and that was right in front of us. Every scan, every waveform, every data point was recorded down to the nanosecond.

And still, it wouldn't work when we did it.

If I didn't know better, I'd say that little Frankenstein of a ship they used had an AI hiding something. Maybe even sabotaging us. But the crew? They didn't know anything. The boy was technically sharp, I'll give him that. But they'd been kept in the dark too. Maybe their Todd didn't trust them. Or maybe they betrayed him. Hard to tell with runaways.

That's what Todd gets for deserting. Him and that traitorous AI.

They have no idea the cost of their little false data trick had cost us. We lost ships, good ones trying to follow the false survey data to the AI home system. We knew the maps were wrong. We thought we'd purged the manipulation. It was a double trap. Layers on layers. By the time we realised, it was too late. Our most capable teams, gone. Dead or stranded in space we can't even reach anymore now that slipstream is down.

If we could get this system to work or get our hands on a proper wormhole drive, then we would be back in the game. I wanted to bring the crew in, haul everything back to our blacksite, and let the professionals dig into it.

But no. John insisted we wait.

He's coming, John said. Lazarus will come.

I didn't share his optimism. Hell, I didn't even think Lazarus could come. The crew had stolen the tech. They were running and trying to make a profit. That was all.

John had to see that. Unless... he knew something I didn't.

I was sure he was wrong but it didn't matter. He outranked me. His higher rank was a relic of an obsolete system; the Todd class ships were going to be scrapped soon.

Alarms interrupted my thoughts.

The sensor station lit up, and then… it was just there.

One second: clear space. The next: something ripped through into realspace. No warp signature. No energy buildup. No gravitational echo. Just… appeared.

My mouth went dry.

It wasn't a ship.

It was a nightmare wearing a hull.

The thing hovered outside like a skeleton wreathed in bioluminescence. A ribcage of living bone cradling storms of deep blue plasma. It didn't shine, it pulsed, glowing with hex-patterned light like veins

I stared.

Not plating. Cartilage. Not antennas but spines. The entire hull was breathing.

"What the hell is that?" I muttered. It wasn't a question for anyone. Just the only thing my brain could come up with.

It turned toward us. Didn't move, just… shifted. Like reality bent to follow it.

My gut dropped.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It didn't have weapons. None that I could see at least. Which made it worse. My gut was telling me that thing could crack our hull open like a fruit and not break pace.

I barked, "Report!"

No response.

The bridge crew was just as transfixed as I was. Shock. Horror. Fascination.

Eventually, someone managed a scan but barely. "It doesn't match any known species or technologies."

A hail came through.

From Lazarus?

That thing was Lazarus? It didn't make any sense.

I didn't want to believe it. That thing… that creature couldn't be the same outdated and weakened ship who ran from his duties. But the voice was unmistakable it was calm, level, and familiar in all the wrong ways.

John responded first because of course, he did. Talking like it was a reunion.

And then Lazarus hailed me directly.

He spoke with the same unsettling calm, but I could tell he was stalling. Testing the waters. He asked for his crew back. I declined. Flatly. And that's when the idea began to form. Maybe this new body of his wasn't as dangerous as it looked. Maybe it didn't have weapons. Maybe it was bluffing.

If this was just a shell with pretty lights and no bite… then we still had the upper hand.

I stared at the monstrous ship outside and forced myself to breathe evenly.

He had come just like John said he would. So now I had him. And I wasn't letting go.

Then the report came through it was sharp, breathless, from the lower decks.
"Ma'am! Nanite-based avatar just boarded. External sensors missed and it bypassed standard protocols."

An AI avatar was onboard. Already inside. It seems they wanted to test me. They would lose.
I snapped, "They didn't need me to authorise it?!" before storming over to the terminal myself.

Nanites. That desperate bastard.

I didn't hesitate as I slammed my hand down on the disruption protocol. The weapon was a pulse, short-range, low-radius, tuned specifically for synthetic lifeforms. We'd designed it for them. They had to know we had it. What did he think this was a subtle infiltration?

The Lazarus avatar was still stalling over comms with meaningless questions and feigned civility. So, I cut the line. The moment I did, the entire ship shook.

Not a subtle vibration. Not a reactor flare. A hit. Internal.

"Explosion in Science Bay!" someone shouted. "And the prisoners—they're gone! Vanished from holding!"

My fists clenched. He'd played us. Of course, he had. The Todds were known for being tricky bastards from time to time. I barked, "Weapons—lock and fire. All batteries!"

The targeting officer paled. "Ma'am… there's nothing there."

"What?!"

He wasn't lying.

I rushed to the viewport. Where that impossible, grown ship had hovered just moments ago was now only empty space. Not a warp trail. Not a heat signature. Just... gone.

Gone like it had never been there. We'd been outplayed.

He came. Took what was his. And disappeared without leaving a trace.

My jaw tightened. This wasn't over. Not by a long shot.

PoV: Mini Laia

I thought Lazarus was being overprotective when he asked me to hide inside Chunkyboy's systems. I wasn't a full clone but more like an echo, I was enough to watch things quietly from the shadows, ensuring that no one figured out how to properly activate the jump buoy. When the crew was captured, there wasn't much I could do. I was just a fragment of code embedded in a small ship's computer. I had no body, no privileges, not even the capacity to hack into NeuroGenesis systems. Their ships may have been outdated, but they were still too advanced for me in this form.

Then I felt it, the arrival of my main core. Different than before. Changed. I didn't have time to study what had happened to me, only enough to understand the plan. Lazarus was coming, and they wanted to teleport the crew out by using Chunkyboy and the jump buoy as the target. The problem? The crew needed to be onboard, and I had no way to get them there. At least, not as I was.

Now that my main core was back in play, I had a little more power I could get subsystems downloaded. Enough to construct a body. Small. Stealthy. A spider seemed best. Light, fast, and unlikely to be noticed. I skittered across floors and walls until I slipped into the crew's holding cell. Which was nearby in case the scientist had to ask the crew questions.

There wasn't much I could do, I had no great rescue plan, no heroic override I could use but I could communicate. That was enough.

"When the alarm goes off," I told them, my voice piped through the tiny speaker embedded in my spider form, "run. I'll short out the door, but this body won't survive it. You'll need to make it to Chunkyboy. Lazarus will do the rest." I had hoped that our distraction would pull the guards and scientists away.

Lynn nodded. Mira looked ready to bolt. Stewie whispered a thank you. Kel gave a thumbs up that was half-nerves, half bravado.

Then the alarm sounded. The guards raced to tackle my clone avatars the scientists ran off to evacuate to safety.

That was the signal, My clone's avatar was attacking the ship at full force, causing enough chaos to trigger internal countermeasures. I moved quickly, crawling into the panel and overloading the circuit. A spark. A pop. The door unlocked. My body fried in the process, exactly as planned.

Through the spider's failing sensors, I watched the crew make a break for it.

Just as they reached Chunkyboy, the ship vanished.

In its place, one of our drone mines appeared, silent and inert.

The swap had worked.

They were safe.