The dreamscape that Chimera found herself in began to fade after a while, replacing the surrounding environment with a familiar scene.

  That of the quarantine lab she found herself in earlier.

  She lazly turned her head side to side, checking the surroundings that she could see while also stretching her neck from her nap.

  It was filled with the crew of the ship, and not a single one was a different race.

  Chimera closed her eyes as she sifted through the memories of the doctor she… ‘gifted’ in order to gain some context for what she might be seeing.

  Elfari, even sounds like elves. I wonder if they ever came to Earth… not that I could check that as the homeworlds been gone for… actually don’t know, Sarah never bothered to check.

  Chimera smiled as she thought of her creator.

  “Sarah, could really use your help here, mom.”

  She shook her head softly, “no, she would say something like ‘gather data and check the surroundings. No time for pity partys.’”

  So Chimera did just that, sifting once more through her newly acquired knowledge, while cheking her environment for the Elfari.

  Hmm, based on that Bayleaf girl… these people are militaristic, based in meritocracy, but still adhering to an Imperical system with a royal monarch and their family.

  Guess the Emperors got to be a badass then… wait, no. They have an Empress.

  Chimera nodded as she gathered her thoughts.

  Bayleaf’s a Imperial Harrier, some kind of elite task force operative, and the reason she was here was…

  Chimera froze.

  Looking for specimens to use for their war with something called the Verdant Hood?

  Chimera placed her hand in her other hand like a gavel.

  That monkey lamprey thing was their ticket to finding out regeneration, and they were going to use it to imbue their troops…

  And… I just showed them I could do that for one of their crew…

  Damn it!

  Chimera held her head as she banged it against the wall of her pod.

  “Idiot! Why did you even do that?”

  Part of herself argued back, “She helped us out, it only seemed right!”

  Chimera sighed heavily after, “No good deeds, eh?”

  Go unpunished.

  Chimera felt a piece of the wall fall to the place she was sitting at.

  Grabbing it, she absorbed the part of the inner wall, a thought coming to her mind as she smiled.

  The pod must be able to survive deep vacuum in order to function. This stuff is clearly wood, so biologically, could I…!

  She had been analyzing the ship’s structure with her body for a bit, but after being found out by Bayleaf and that… Tarva? Chimera didn’t have a chance to fully dive into the study of this material.

  Stuck in a cell surrounded by the stuff, now seemed like as good a time as any.

  Switching to her blobby form, she absorbed the piece of wood she just got, breaking it down to get closer to the DNA underneath.

  Holy Hell… what is this stuff?

  Chimera had felt, been hit, and hid beneath a few dense materials before, that safe she and Meghan used to help her with her robotization project being one of the densest.

  This wood was… was basically tungsten steel!

  It was so dense that Chimera wondered how even a small piece was able to break off from the whole.

  Still, she could analyze, she definitely could absorb it now that she got a complete DNA chain.

  Now, it was time to test it.

  Chimera pulled a tendril from her back as she tried to cover the entire tendril with the space wood.

  Before her eyes, the chain began to replicate, heavily drawing energy from her P.E.G to try and synthesize this material.

  Slowly, her tendril was enveloped, and the tendril, despite being flexible at first, started to straighten and harden, turning into a pointed shaft.

  The density started to pull at Chimera, weighing her down as the heavy limb pulled her down with it.

  “Woah, I underestimated the weight… this stuff is too Ahh-,”

  Chimera flopped down with her tendril, her sitting form now pulled to the ground with the heavy tree tendril.

  “Okay, so not doing that again.”

  She pulled the tendril, breaking off the part that was still connected to her as the tendril fully became a shaft in the shape of a spear.

  Shuffling over to the spear, Chimera picked it up, finding that despite it density before, the spear wasn’t too heavy that she couldn’t wield it in two hands, plus a few tendrils.

  It was heavy to be sure, but the tip on the end looked sharp enough to pierce through a shield.

  As a test, Chimera poked at the wall of her pod.

  Thunk! Screeeeeerch!

  The spear pushed through!

  “Huh? This stuff is insane!”

  Chimera pulled it back and pushed it through again, this time with more force.

  The Spear punched a hole straight into the wall, with only a small amount of force needed to keep it going.

  So Chimera kept going, using all of her strength, enhanced with her P.E.G, pushing the dense spear of space wood straight out and through!

  Following it, Chimera squeezed into the hole she made as she felt the spear land on the outside of the pod.

  A moment later, she followed with it, landing outside of the pod with a spear of space wood in hand.

  “Holy crap, this is my favorite find yet!”

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

  She did a little dance as she held up the spear, “thank you space wood!”

  However, her moment of triumph was interrupted by a cacophony of weapons clicking, the sounds of plasma casters sizzling, and a few arrows shining as a whole group of the Elfari aimed their arsenal at her.

  Chimera froze as she took in the sight around her, and took note of their positions as well.

  This… doesn’t look good.

  She looked at the floor below.

  I could try to dig, but I don’t know enough about the ship to know if that leads outside… Walls are the same. The only place I know of is over there.

  She peered behind her, seeing the opening leading to the laboratory she found the doctor in earlier.

  Chimera took a moment to ready herself, which caused the rest of the Elfari to tense, almost as if they could sense what she was attempting.

  Crap…

  Just as she was about to move, a movement caught her eye that shot in front of her.

  “Cease, hold your fire!”

  Chimera took a step back as she stared at the person in front of her.

  It was a rather lanky Elfari, with a staff made of the same wood that surrounded the ship. His body was tall, and while his arms and legs had no definition, he still moved as though he was used to carrying himself with speed and power.

  A beard of brown hair with a head of snow white hair greeted her as he turned to address her.

  “I. Mean. No. Harm.”

  Chimera tilted her head.

  Did this guy… is he trying to talk to me like a baby?

  He made another gesture, “You. Friend. No Harm! Promise. Okay?!”

  He continued to mime out his words, trying to see if Chimera was understanding his words.

  Chimera couldn’t help it, she burst into laughter as the brown bearded Elfari seemed taken aback.

  “Hah! Hoh, what the hell?! That’s too good!”

  Chimera fell to the ground in a heap, shifting back into her child form and dropping the spear at the same time.

  “I… *hah* I know I look young, but I’m not a baby for crying out loud! Haha!”

  “You speak our language?”

  He seemed so confused and helpless for a moment that Chimera couldn’t help but smile at him.

  “Yup, got all the deets from your doctor lady. Took me a while to figure it out, but I think I got it.”

  Chimera picked up her spear as she held it upright with the spear point up.

  “Name’s Mera, short for Chimera.”

  The lanky man seemed stunned by the proclamation, as did the rest of the warriors and archers behind him.

  “What… I’m sorry, did you say Mera?”

  Chimera nodded, “figured that might be easier for you guys since you don’t have a word for my real name.”

  Chimera turned around as she started walking towards the doorway, straight into a group of the Elfari warriors.

  “Well, glad that's settled then. Since you guys are friendly, that means I can go, right?”

  The Elfari blocked her way.

  Chimera sighed, “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.”

  The lanky man approached her, “While it is a shock to know that you speak our tongue, you are not a crew member, and you most certainly are not an Elfari. I apologize, but you must remain here until we can be certain you are not a threat.”

  Chimera sighed even louder, “Oh come on, just give me a pod and I’ll leave. I won’t harm you, I’m not carrying any diseases, and I certainly have no beef with any Elfari or Verdant Hood. I-”

  Chimera stopped herself, “damn it…”

  The lanky man’s face scowled, “so you know of the war then.”

  Chimera glared back, “I already said I’m not involved. Don’t do something stupid.”

  The bearded Elfari closed his eyes as he spoke, “even if that is true, you cannot leave.”

  Chimera couldn’t help it, she snarled as she pointed the spear at the Elfari, “I’m not going to be a prisoner, I’ll fight to the death if I have to! You aren’t using me for any experiments, I refuse!”

  Chimera felt her power spike as she readied herself, the Elfari around her readied their own weapons, but before anything could begin, the lanky Elfari held up a hand.

  “Perhaps… we could compromise.”

  Chimera felt her heart racing, “compromise?”

  The Elfari nodded, “you are capable of healing, is this true?”

  Chimera only glared back at the string bean.

  “Look, Mera was it? The creature that you killed was important, and without it, we cannot return to Steros. What you did for Dr. Bristleleaf, we must bring it to the Empress. Our people’s future is at stake.”

  Chimera backed away, but the Elfari only surrounded her to cut off any escape.

  The lanky Elfari sighed, “I had hoped that we could come to an understanding. If you serve us, you will be taken care of, and the Empress may even keep you as a vassal.”

  Chimera ground her teeth.

  Damnit, there’s no way out of this, do… Do I have to kill them?

  Before she could move, the Elfari tapped its staff against the ground, sending a wave of branches her way.

  Chimera tried to move out of the way, only for the ground around her to grasp her legs.

  Before she could try to stretch away from it, the branches smashed into her, tying up her limbs and wrapping her body in a cocoon.

  “Damnit! Let me go!”

  She tried to stretch, to shrink and push out of the bindings, but the tendrils only sealed around her, leaving no gaps for her to push or squeeze through.

  Smaller, and smaller, the cocoon shrunk around her body, crushing it and making her as small as her blobby form would allow.

  “Not… like… this!”

  She resisted with every part of her body, pulling and pushing against the walls to give herself any kind of leverage.

  The wood hardend, allowing none of her body to expand or contract.

  “Do not resist!”

  “Fuck you!”

  Chimera started cycling through her abilities, creating fire to burn the wood, dense wood to try and push through the cage, electricity to singe the walls.

  The wood prison around her absorbed it all.

  “DAMN YOU! I”ll get out of this! You can’t keep me here forever!”

  She roared as the cage around her settled into place, locking away even the light from the outside, darkness creeping in the ever shrinking box.

  …

  This… this was a mistake!

  Bark stared at the Oaken Prison spell he just cast as the sounds and noises from the creature… no, from Mera, started to grow louder.

  She tried to attack us, I could sense her intent, but how did it end like this?

  The spell, Oaken Prison, was poweful on his ship as it was based on the space oak that surrounded them. It grew in strength the more he infused his mana into the spell.

  However, the spell’s mana intake was becoming stronger and stronger, and he could feel the drain become intensive.

  Right now, he had half of his enormous mana pool, and it felt as though fire was burning in his channels as he continued to enforce it, to make sure the creature couldn’t escape.

  Bark shook his head.

  This wasn’t supposed to be how this went. She seemed receptive… So why?

  Bark felt as though it had to do with his words, but he couldn’t help it.

  He couldn’t let this… Mera, escape, not without figuring out her secrets.

  Eternal youth, power beyond reckoning, if we could only get her to cooperate.

  Bark thought of a possible spell that might make that possible, but if it failed…

  The resentment that he felt coming from the creature spoke of a fate worse than death should he let her go.

  He had to be certain, and the only way to be certain…

  Was to take her before the Empress.

  “Sir, the creature is sealed.”

  One of his warriors nodded to him which he acknowledged.

  “Good, prepare it for transport. Under no circumstances is anyone to speak to the creature, and keep it under surveillance. Four teams of eight.”

  The warrior seemed to be uncertain of himself, “sir, is that really necessary? That’s half of the security team on one creature.”

  Bark turned to face the soldier, “do not mistake my commands, all of this is necessary. Do I make myself clear?”

  The soldier nodded, “of course sir!”

  Bark pointed at the cage, the last of his mana sealing the box, “go then, I must recover from the spell. Be sure to follow my orders to the letter.”

  The young Elfari saluted, his arms crossed as he tilted his head in his direction. Afterwards, Bark saw him gather the other members of the security force.

  He felt an urging communication from the medical wing with Meras’ help, and allowed her to guide him to the wing.

  He also felt an undercurrent of sadness coming from the ship as they moved through the hull.

  This is odd, why is the spirit unhappy?

  …