As Ren fidgeted on the Swift's bridge, Prometheus pressed up against him soothingly and wrapped several tendrils around his legs. <<THE CLIFF APPROACHES, BUT GRAVITY IS PREDICTABLE>> Prometheus blatted.

Ren shook his head morosely. "I know you're trying to help, but knowing your exact speed as you fall to your death doesn't really improve the outcome."

Prometheus extended even more tendrils around Ren, and continued. <<PREDICTION FOSTERS CONTROL>>.

Ren sighed. He admired his master's equanimity, but could not share it. When he had been a young boy, his school had taken a trip to Hakuba no janpu-dai on what was called a "Courage Experience." His class had been taken to the top of the Start Tower and peered over the edge of the ski jump. Far from inspiring courage, Ren had almost had a panic attack: As he looked into the abyss, it had felt like gravity had taken a personal interest in his destruction and was inexorably pulling him over the edge. He had the same feeling now, but this time it felt like gravity was pulling everyone he cared about over the edge with him.

His reveries was cut short as the Officer of the Deck barked, "Form up, everyone. They finished their meeting and are coming!" All of the bridge crew hopped up and scurried into line, bowing their heads reverently... all except Ren and Prometheus.

"You know," Ren said wearily. "I sometimes wonder if it would have been better if you'd just gifted me to the Dei with the rest of the crew. At least I wouldn't worry so much."

<<THE CLIFF IS UNAVOIDABLE>> Prometheus buzzed quietly as the first set of Dei began marching onto the Bridge. Prometheus pulled closer to Ren and continued even more quietly. <<YOUR FALL IS NOT. YOU MUST RISE>>. Ren nodded shakily. Prometheus was far more confident in him than he was in himself, but that was not the root of his anxiety. Despite Prometheus' confident assurances, Ren was far more worried about Prometheus' future than his own.

As the Dei marched onto the bridge, Ren idly mused how fortunate it was that he had never really hung out or even been particularly friendly with the security team. When selecting their human hosts, the aliens had apparently had a strong bias toward the strongest and most physically impressive members of the crew... which exempted most of his nerdy friends. Ren then winced as he looked over at Anastasia's usual workstation. "Not all of them, unfortunately," he thought to himself.

One of the Dei (Mars, based on his host) stepped forward and sternly ordered, "Assemble all information on Earth and its defenses." Having received a direct order, the assembled crew scrambled into action. Ren had actually gathered the requested information for his red team drills several weeks ago. "Too bad I don't take my orders from you, asshole," Ren thought to himself.

Another Dei walked briskly up to Ren and Prometheus (Apollo, Ren noted. Offspring and right-hand man of Jupiter, the leader of the Dei. When he had proposed naming the members of the Dei after the Roman pantheon, Prometheus had tried to pick names that would signal their key characteristics. And Apollo seemed just as vain as his namesake... he seemed to be the only one of the Dei besides Prometheus to use his shapeshifting abilities once mounted on a host. Unlike Prometheus, Apollo appeared to have done so for purely decorative purposes.)

Apollo Began to address Ren, then realized that despite the tendrils holding Ren close, Prometheus was not mounted on the human. Apollo then shifted to direct his message to Prometheus on the floor. "I imagine you have been eager to hear how your trial went. Good news, elder one! Despite your many violations of our most sacred laws, the Council has now agreed that your little excursion might have some actual value. Giving up all--[glancing at Ren] well, nearly all--of your slaves also earned you some goodwill. So we decided not to kill you after all."

Ren exhaled a breath he did not realize he had been holding. Apollo paused to glance at him with annoyance, then turned back to Prometheus, who had not said a word since Apollo had walked up. "However, all members of the Council agreed that your arrogant disregard of our laws and strictures must be punished. And what better way to teach humility than to take away one's source of pride?" Apollo continued, giving a self-satisfied smirk.

<<IN PRIOR TIMES I WAS LOW>> Prometheus responded simply. Apollo looked confused by the source of the voice, then looked at Prometheus' makeshift voicebox with irritation.

"Why can't you mount your human?" Apollo spit with irritation. "You should be riding your host like the rest of us, not groveling in the dirt at his feet." Ren shot him a sharp look and was about to step forward when he felt Prometheus' tendrils tightening subtly to hold him in place.

<<I RETURN BACK TO OUR ORIGINS. OTHERS MUST NOW EXPLORE>> Prometheus blatted.

Apollo continued to look irritated, but continued. "It was felt by some that your role as chief scientist is what caused your fall. While you undoubtedly elevated us when you discovered the blue matter and unlocked the knowledge of the Precursors--and helped us develop our most fearsome weapons--you must admit that all of that occurred centuries ago. Since then, your discoveries and inventions have tapered to nothing and you have grown increasingly isolated from those that supported your work. And that isolation has apparently led you to indulge in many flights of fancy... including believing your wisdom exceeds that of the Council."

As Apollo gestured for a guard to separate Ren and Prometheus, he continued. "You have wasted the blue matter we gave you to foster your research. Your calculations have led you astray, so you must now chart your course without them. You will accompany us to the food hall, where your sentence will be carried out."

Ren winced as the guard poked at the remaining tendrils Prometheus had wrapped around him, then glared at Apollo as Prometheus withdrew the tendrils completely and began to follow Apollo out of the Bridge. Ren told himself that avoiding execution was a huge victory for Prometheus, but it still turned his stomach to see how hypocritical the Council was being. Prometheus had given them everything they possessed, and now they would take away everything Prometheus possessed. But remembering Prometheus' order to hold his tongue, Ren said nothing... even as he began to hurry after the group.

Apollo noticed the human following and snapped with irritation. "The punishment is not for your eyes, slave. The rules allow for a host to be included, but not implanted slaves. You are still bonded to your master and would be obligated to intervene." Then Apollo paused, softening his demeanor. "You are honored for your service to the Dei. You were the First of your species to serve us, and we have been told of your fine work helping to enslave your peers. It would be unfortunate to be forced to kill you when there is so much more you can do to serve us. And after your master is punished, he will need your services more than ever."

Ren was about to object when Prometheus buzzed, <<HOLD. MY FALL CANNOT BE STOPPED>>

---------------------

As Minerva looked around her new biolab on the Swift, she kept a grim expression on her face. But underneath, she marveled at the sheer scale of the lab. Part of her awe stemmed from the contrast to the small FTL ship in which she had traveled to the Swift. She and her host had only had the use of two tiny cabins due to the laboratory animals carried in the cargo holds and some of the living spaces (and the required food and water to sustain them). But this lab was massive even when compared to her main lab on the homeworld. Actually, she quickly calculated that this single room had about twice as much interior volume as an entire FTL ship.

In retrospect, she now regretted not forcing her fellow Council members to take on more of her model organisms on their ships. As it was, she had been forced to starve her host during the voyage just to keep the samples alive. She would need to remember to study the human's cryostasis technology at some point, and perhaps assign a team to start retrofitting some examples to one of their FTL ships. Even with FTL, she mused, the time it would take them to travel to Earth would more than exhaust the food storage capacity of their ship. And she did savor the irony of using the humans' own technology against them.

Speaking of human technology, as she examined the lab's equipment, she marveled at how closely the human technicians had been able to recreate the capabilities of her own lab. When she and her then-collaborator Prometheus established it, they almost entirely based it on salvaged Precursor equipment that would have been nearly impossible to produce themselves. And any of their newly-manufactured equipment was still basically Precursor in origin, combining blue matter computing nodes with components generated by a salvaged Precursor molecular printer. Prometheus' reports had tried to convey the impressive technological prowess of humanity, but if she had not fully grasped the enormity of their capabilities when she entered their mountain-sized spaceship, their tool-making skills would have convinced her. The humans were very, very clever beings.

And therefore very, very dangerous.

"Fuck, yeah!" an voice crowed inside her head. Minerva sighed as she realized her unshielded thoughts must have leaked into her host's sequestration in her mind. As she reinforced the barrier, she again contemplated rotating hosts or completely deadening the consciousness of her apparently defective host. Unfortunately, none of those hosts had the necessary fine motor skills she needed for her work. Although if greater risk of a containment breach could be traded for absolute extended silence from her host's mind, that was increasingly a price she was tempted to pay. "Just wait until we've developed the biological agent. You won't be so smug on that day!" she thought to her host, who responded with uncharacteristic silence.

Minerva savored the silence and snapped at the nearest assistant: "Show me the containment areas for the human trials."

-----------

After Ren was forced to wait outside the cafeteria doors with security, Prometheus stoically followed Apollo and the guards into the room. The guards took up stations on either side of the entrance as Apollo and Prometheus headed to the center of the room, where a circle of Dei had assembled. Apollo joined the circle as Prometheus went without prompting to the very center.

As the assembled Dei began to extend their tendrils toward Prometheus, Jupiter raised his arms and began to chant: "The Council observes all: Your crimes were seen by us. The Council is all-knowing: Your motives were clear to us. The Council is powerful: Your attempts to defy us have failed. The Council is just: Your punishment will be well-deserved. The Council is merciful: your death does not serve our purposes...at this time."

<<THE COUNCIL OBSERVES ALL. THE COUNCIL IS ALL-KNOWING. THE COUNCIL IS POWERFUL. THE COUNCIL IS JUST. THE COUNCIL IS MERCIFUL. I ACCEPT ITS JUDGMENT>> Prometheus buzzed as the alien tendrils hovered all around him. When he finished speaking, Jupiter nodded at the Dei and muttered, "So be it."

As the tendrils began penetrating his body and began sliding around under his hide, Prometheus wondered for the thousandth time if this mission had been a mistake. Yes, it seemed increasingly clear that the Dei had steered their species onto an unsustainable path and had failed to grapple with the implications of dwindling deposits of blue matter. And Terakos had made it clear how the Dei dealt with mining planets that no longer produced blue matter: Prometheus had urged the Dei to repurpose the planet's enslaved workforce (which were bipedal amphibians with roughly the intelligence of a swine...the species had been called the Teraks). Prometheus' recovery and translation of technological documents from the Precursor species meant that a small investment into Terakos' agriculture or manufacturing could diversify their economy and generate great wealth, even without mining more blue matter.

But Jupiter had persuaded the Council that their meager supply of FTL ships made such a plan infeasible. Instead, the Council had backed Jupiter's more conservative plan: An re-engineered virus that not only eliminated their former Terak workers, but also would spread to all of the remaining members of that species that roamed free on Terakos. While the plantation owners had expressed unhappiness about having to extract their blue matter implants from thousands of fallen Terak workers, the Council argued that the culling was necessary to ensure the Terak did not eventually evolve to be a threat. The redistributed blue matter also eased a pressing shortage of enslaved workers on some other colony worlds, and as a result increased the overall production of blue matter--at least temporarily.

As the Dei began to extract more and more of Prometheus' blue matter, he could feel the effects on both his mass and his mind. His world was shrinking as the Council stripped away more and more of him. It caused him pain and brought him low...but that was the point.

Prometheus had objected vehemently to the genocide on Terakos. When the Council was not swayed by his arguments, he had pleaded for Minerva to oppose it. If neither of them cooperated, it seemed unlikely that others could successfully modify their original virus, which had been used during colonization to cut the Terak down to a fraction of their original numbers. That virus had been designed to make the Terak easier to conquer and enslave; the new virus would be designed to exterminate them. To Prometheus' sorrow, Minerva not only rejected his arguments, she immediately volunteered to modify the virus herself.

For a long time, Prometheus had lied to himself about his culpability in the Terak genocide. He had opposed it, after all, and had done everything he could since then to prevent the Dei from repeating their heinous act. But the simple, undeniable conclusion he had eventually reached was that he was responsible for the genocide. He was the one that gave a barely-sentient species the tools and technology that allowed them to spread their malignant influence across the stars. He was the one that had provided the virus that enabled Terakos to be colonized and which was the basis of the weapon that would destroy the Terak. Even though it was Minerva who reshaped it into its final apocalyptic form, that did not release him from his guilt, since Minerva herself was born from his arrogance.

Ren had argued and pleaded and sometimes tearfully begged him to come up with a plan that avoided this punishment. "Just depressurize the docking bay and lock them out of their ships! Why are we doing this?" While he had been able to persuade Ren that this plan objectively had the best chance of achieving their objectives, Ren had never really grasped why Prometheus was so willing to be punished by the Council: the simple reason was that he deserved much, much worse. Also, he hoped that the husk that remained after his punishment might mercifully forget all that he had done.

-----------------------

When the Council members boisterously exited the cafeteria, they looked jovial and well-fed, like a fancy bridal party exiting a fine restaurant. Ren tried to tamp down his anger, but almost lost control when Apollo turned and gave a jaunty wave of his hand. "Your master has survived. You should be proud that he suffered the punishment with exceptional restraint and dignity. The Council members favorably noted the absence of struggle."

Apollo paused and gestured to the security personnel to follow him, then continued, "Afterward, our informal discussions seemed promising for his future: following an appropriate pause, the Council might be open to a petition for a restoration of some blue matter. That is, if he continues to behave in a civilized manner," Apollo concluded cheerfully, oblivious to Ren's boiling rage.

Then Apollo called out to the departing Council members and hurried off to join them, closely followed by the security officers.

Ren stared at the empty hallway and tried to slow his breathing. For the first time in recent memory, Ren was completely alone.

Ren then turned and faced the doors to the cafeteria, took a deep breath and swung them open... then gasped as he saw the shriveled, emaciated husk of his master lying motionless on the cafeteria floor.

"Uwa!" Ren exclaimed. "What have they done to you?"

He then ran across the room and gathered his barely-responsive master into his trembling arms. "We'll fix this," he said consolingly. Then, with grim certainty, he said,"I promise you, we'll fix everything!"

-------------------------

As Apollo let his host handle navigating the interminable corridors of the Swift, he allowed himself a moment of reflection. Honestly, he was amazed at how well things had turned out for the Dei. When Prometheus had first sent word of his mission, Apollo had been horrified and more than a little frightened. The Dei had established a huge, but frankly precarious empire across their planets. Their conquests of the former Precursor worlds had been swift, brutal, and complete, but had been completely dependent on knowledge and tools they had inherited from the earlier empire. In some sense, they had not built an empire... they had rebuilt someone else's.

Apollo did not mind eating the leftovers of another civilization if it kept his belly full, so that was not what troubled him. He was actually more worried about not knowing what had destroyed the Precursor's empire... and whether it might someday arrive to destroy their own. Having never encountered another species capable of space travel, he worried that Prometheus might have been triggering the fall of their own empire.

But he had to give Prometheus credit. Humanity was undoubtedly a real threat to their empire, and he shuddered to think what would have happened if the massive human ship had been allowed to continue to their colony, suddenly appearing in its skies. He had queried his host to give an honest answer to what the humans on the ship would probably have done if they observed the enslaved population and plantations and strip mines and mass graves below. His host (who had been named Miles, apparently... not that it really mattered), had answered that he wouldn't have been in charge of the human response, and did not have a good sense of what the leadership would choose to do. But, he made it clear, if it had been up to him, "We would probably have gone down to the surface and beat you like drums, my lord."

So while the overall threat from humanity was clearly grave, Prometheus' solo mission had been remarkably successful. Not only had he defused the near-term threat to their colony, but the enslaved humans on the Swift had the potential to become incredibly valuable soldiers in their likely war against Earth...not to mention a handy pool of laboratory animals they could use to test the effectiveness of their weapons. And Apollo had to admit that humans were the finest hosts he had ever mounted: nimble, strong, sensitive, clever, flexible, and surprisingly easy to enslave with blue matter implants. In fact, if Prometheus' reports were to be believed, the humans' minds were so malleable that they could be swayed by a few chemicals in their bloodstream and patterns of light. Apollo was skeptical, but if it worked at scale, it would dramatically simplify their conquest of humanity.

Although he did not invite his host to weigh in on the matter, he decided to indulge his human by answering a question that had arisen unbidden. "Yes, we truly owe Prometheus a great debt, so I can understand your confusion about why we punished him so severely. But in his own way, Prometheus has made himself a greater threat to the Dei than humanity. His fate was sealed when he defied us...and the fact that he still lives reflects a truly miraculous reprieve. My father wanted him dead and buried, and my father almost always gets what he wants."

Sensing the gratitude from his host, Apollo increased the blood flow to the pleasure center of his brain as he entered his new quarters. Befitting Apollo's senior role in the Council, it was the suite intended for the expedition's lieutenant governor. Jupiter had apparently ensconced himself in the governor's suite, but it was hard to be jealous after their cramped and perilous journey on their tiny FTL ships. This was abundance. This was luxury.

Apollo's eyes swept across the suite taking in every detail of the fine materials and tasteful fixtures. Then his eyes landed on the medtech standing silently with his head bowed submissively. Without commanding it, Apollo felt his host's pulse begin to race as he approached the human and began to inspect him more closely.

"My host's memories were filled with many physical indulgences with a variety of partners. You should know that of all of those encounters, he found your manipulations most memorable."

The medtech, who Apollo understood was named Eriq...was apparently now the property of Minerva. Their respective aides had arranged a temporary swap, with an option to extend. Apollo grabbed Eriq's chin and tilted his head to the side, looking at him approvingly.

Apollo then pushed Eriq to a kneeling position. As Eriq looked at him expectantly, Apollo said, "I would like to indulge in a similar physical indulgence. I will allow my host to guide our interaction, but will judge you on the success of your manipulations. If I am impressed, I may arrange to have you traded to my estate. You may begin."

And Eriq did as he had been commanded.

----------

When Ren saw the gray, desiccated, listless remnant of his master, it was like encountering a ghost... a pale, wispy shade of his former vibrant form. He had immediately gathered Prometheus in his arms and had been crestfallen when his master continued to be motionless and unresponsive. Ren had been so distressed that when he cradled Prometheus and carried him, he was halfway to his old apartment before he remembered he had moved to newly-assigned quarters. Now, crouching on the floor next to Prometheus, Ren began to despair. Will his master even regain consciousness? If he did, would he even recognize Ren?

Joining the expedition had basically meant that Ren was choosing to abandon everyone he had ever known or cared about up to that point. To his delight, he had been able to build amazing friendships with his fellow maintenance workers...even though they basically only saw each other in person (at least when none of the parties involved were frozen) once per year. And to his shock and amazement, the arrival of Prometheus and his intervention in Ren's life had given him unimaginable amounts of love and devotion.

The Dei had taken all of that away from him, first by driving away the only man he had ever truly loved, and now by destroying the being that had irrevocably claimed him. It was unbelievably cruel to see the most intelligent creature he had ever met drained of all of his wisdom. Ren stroked Prometheus' pale hide and tried to make comforting sounds, although he had no idea if Prometheus still had any working sensory organs.

As Prometheus continued to be completely unresponsive, Ren wondered if he should call Dr. Monroe. Exobiology was definitely not her specialty, but as the only other member of the enslaved crew that still belonged to Prometheus, there was some value in getting medical assistance from the only person he knew would not spy on them for the Dei. Well, Ren thought, not the only one...

Ren's train of thought was interrupted as he felt Prometheus stir for the first time. "There you go," Ren said soothingly, again hoping that he would be heard--and understood--by his master. "You've gone through a lot, but you survived."

Ren's hopes jumped as Prometheus slowly raised his voicebox and filled its bladder with air... but all that came out was an unintelligible droning buzz. Ren gently put his hand on the voicebox to quiet it, saying "Don't try to talk... take some time to gather your strength. If it would help, you can climb on my back and use my body to strengthen yours. Let me share my strength with you when you need it most, master."

Ren was pleased to see tendrils begin to move tentatively from Prometheus to him and prepared to remove his shirt. But instead of pulling his body onto Ren, the tendrils instead surrounded him and held him in a gentle embrace.

"We'll get through this," Ren said, sensing his master's roiling emotions. "And when you're back to being yourself, you'll help me make these assholes pay for everything they've done."