He picked himself off the ground, dabbing the bleeding corner of his lip, where he'd been elbowed by a jab that had gotten past his deft parries. He'd been more surprised how naturally quick his arms and legs responded to the sharp jabs and fistfull hooks. Then in the split second of his own awe and hubris, the fist flew into the side of his jaw, flinging him face first into the metal edge of the control desk. That had gone even worse than the fight.

It stung smartly as he dabbed at the surrounding area. Thankfully, he could just suck the blood clean off his lip. No need to sully his newly gifted

His assailant grunted as Cassio's dug the heel of his boots into his back and wretched the man's extended arm to the breaking point. Cassio blew his bang out of his face as he pulled the gun off the holster.

He held it to the man's palm, giving it an easy push in the wrong direction. The pinned man made a gargled grunting noise, tapping the ground with his other hand. Unfortunately, Cassio had managed to jab the attacker in the throat just after he'd made impact with the desk. Likely, the throat was suffering some mild inflammation and ego bruising.

The man's eyeless sockets scrunched tight and then flickered open, revealing the intricate network of bioware cybernetics implanted into the backs of the sockets. They glowed faintly. One green, the other red.

Hemlock leaned against the desk and inhaled deeply at the holgraphic version of the Zvenigrad in all it's behemothic glory. He reached out to where the Odyssian docks were located and the model adapted its vantage to give him a better view. As he leaned further, the model blew up in size, magnifying the secotr, enough to see glowing imprints of people moving about.

The holovisor pinged at one of the forms, moving towards the Thorn ship dock, ringing up the individual as someone named Aconite, some sort of mechanic. Hemlocked use his fingers to pry in more detail at the way the holotable displayed every living and robotic thing on this ship with high-fidelity voxel capacity. Meaning, this guy could watch you pick your nose as well as every acne scar and zit forming on your chin as a render model moving in real time if he so wished.

The technology was similar to the holovids available for viewing, but the holovids required a viewing port, like the visor he was currently wearing, or a full dome head set to maximize your experience. The other holotable he'd ever seen was in the medic sector, when they'd passed the diagonistics room, but it hadn't been active at the time.

None of the other technology could transmit data in real time like this though.

The man screamed again, but this time with a sharp shrieking that pierced his ears. He ducked his head as several dark ahadows dropped from the vaulted ceiling towards his head and into Cassio's face.

Cassio batted them away, using the butt of his gun and his quick left hook to snatch at them. The unidentified flying objects hoarded around Cassio's head, forcing him to release their master and step back.

The arm fell with a slap to the ground and the man twisted slowly onto his back groaning loudly. "That's enough, you guys."

The ufos immediately stopped their harrassing and flew back up into the dome. On second glance, the dome was actually made of hundreds of those things. They lined the inside in small capsules, marked only by the green lights glowly in the center. The flight modules tucked their motors in and nestled back into the capsule, lights turning green as the folded into place.

"What are they?" One had remained on Coppertail's shoulder as he hobbled to his seat and collapsed heavily. His question went unanswered as Coppertail's new comrade shifted its head back and forth between Hemlock and Cassio. Now that the man was sitting, the heavy cloth of his half paneled robe revealed his own metallic brace, wrapping up his leg. Except his had an prosthetic shin and foot ttached to the bottom.

They could almost be comrades. Crippled comrades.

"Show me where he is, Coppertail." Cassio demanded, his gun trained on the man's chest.

Coppertail's brows shot up, "How in Psion's name am I supposed to know who you're talking about! There are a hundred thousand people on this ship and at least 15 thousand off site plus another million or so in the known colonies."

Cassio rolled his eyes, "The one known as Yngvir."

Coppertail raised his arms, sweeping the air, "As if that's supposed to help me!"

"What other information do you need to track him?" The edges of Cassio's voice turned sharp, running low on the blunt patience Cassio seemed to be in shortage of.

Coppertail's robotic friend clicked and and ticked as its head rotated 180 dsgrees to the holographic model of the Zvenigrad. "The best identification information would be his sync number, but since I doubt either of you have that information, we can start with height, weight, approximate build, foot size, and if either of you know, his blood type."

Without missing a beat, Cassio rattled off, " 77, 178, 185, beefy, 26, and Vel-."

Coppertail whistled through his teeth, "I'm guessing you two had a very close relationship during the sync, or your his doctor."

The gun shot just made a soft click and Coppertail dropped to the ground, held up only by his prosthetic. The man cursed wildly as the robotic flapper began churping erratically. Coppertail lifted himself into the chair, then grabbed his dead leg.

"What the fuck was that?" Coppertail's voice rose in decibels, spit flecking out of his mouth.

Cassio holstered the gun as Coppertail pulled out a thick needle from his thigh with trembling hands. Cassio stepped forward, boots clicking sharply as he clipped them together at the heel. "I suggest you find him fast before the paralyzing toxins from that needle does lasting damage to your nerves. Fortunately for you, I'm a medic. Unfortunately for you, you are not my patient unless you cooperate swiftly and effectively."

Hemlock hid the impressed expression as he turned his face away from Coppertail's vison. He mouthed at Cassio, "Incredible!" making a thumb's up gesture low with his hand. Cassio didn't take notice.

Coppertail grimaced as he rolled into his slot inside the nook of the crescent shaped table. "Blackmail doesn't suit you, princess."

Hemlock caught the flare in Cassio's gaze. Twice now Cassio had been called princess. Although he couldn't say for certain about Coppertail, Rowan hadn't used the ephitet as an insult. Rather as a casual title, like one might say a fact, or Sir.

Between leaving Rowan's stash of highly destructive and dangerous gadgets, and their swift jorney to the Hawk's Nest of the Zvenigrad, at the very tail of the ship, he'd only come across more questions than answers.

He wasn't a tracker, nor a perfect fighter, nor had a particularly keen sense of intuition, so he wasn't sure why he was helping Cassio find Yngvir. He'd probably be more useless not making a disaster out of every situation.

Coppertail typed into the keyboard, without having to glance at the letters, numbers, or symbols. If it had been Hemlock managing this part of the investigation, firstly he would type painfully slow, searching for each letter at a time, he had no idea what programming language this platform used, and as far as he could see, the things Coppertail was typing weren't even popping up to indicate you were doing the right things.

The holomodel rotated, spun, and did a full scan that lasted approximately 15 seconds by his count. Then it beeped, the model turning red. Words popped up on the screen.

0 units found matching criteria.

Cassio cursed then spun around slamming a fist into a pillar. Coppertail twisted around, "You sure you gave me the right info?"

Cassio hissed through gritted teeth, "Let's just say, I've been rather close to the subject in recent weeks."

Coppertail shook his head, "We haven't had a dispatch in at least four weeks now, besides the Odyssians, but they’ve all returned."

Only the darkness in Cassio's face responded to the information. This would make everything much harder. And they didn't have any time.

"So? Was the service done swiftly and effectively enough for you?" Coppertail said.

Cassio brushed passed with a flourish of his green coat tails. "The effects will wear off in 6 hours."

"What about the damage it might cause?"

Cassio slammed his fist into the airlock escape. "The only damage caused is the lack of faith I have in this ship's surveillance, if you are its eyes and ears."

Coppertail gaped as the door slid shut and between the crack of the closing door, he saw Coppertail lean back in his chair and rub at his temples.

He caught up to Cassio's striding steps, "So... how exactly are we supposed to find him if the head of security can't?"

Cassio growled, "Shut up."

He clamped his mouth shut, but the question remained, filling him with nausea once more. How does someone disappear off a ship that can track every life signature?

Was Yngvir dead?