Actually, now that I thought about it, that made sense. Why else would anyone take a random stranger onto their ship and transport them? It was not out of the kindness of their heart. This leads me to another question; why was Kyla working so hard to help me? Did she have a quest to do so? Had Kyla done anything for me just because she wanted to, or was it because she had a quest?

  Shaking my head and wiping my tears, I came to two decisions. As soon as we made it to the core world, I would leave the ship and find my own way. Given that I was going to be starting from zero, I needed to change my name. John didn’t fit anymore. Maybe I should take the name Courtney as a way to remember her.

  The issue was something about me using that name didn’t sit right with me. Now that I thought about it, my mother had said that she had been hoping for a girl. In fact she had said that my name was only John because it was the first thing she could come up with. What was the name she told me…Veronica? No. Jacky? No. Jannit? No. Jessica? There it was.

  Something about that name resonated with me. As I realized that, a new prompt appeared before me. ‘Would you like to change your name to Jessica? Keep in mind you can only do so one time without going through a courthouse and filling out the correct paperwork.’

  I laughed at that. Even a system as advanced as this had paperwork. Accepting the change, I scanned my new information.

  It seemed like I had even lost my last name, not that it was useful. Reaching forward, I tapped a finger on the turret control circle. Nothing happened. The nanites didn’t disperse, but they also didn’t activate.

  Pulling back, I slowly moved a hand closer until I felt something brush against it. It wasn’t a physical object, but a sort of field. Like when you bring two magnets near each other, and the one in your hand pushes against the other one.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Holding my hand there, I felt for some sort of connection. I tried everything I could think of to take control of the spell. Finally, I just said, “Oh, come on. Connect with me already.”

  The sensation of something twisting around the base of my spine sent shivers down my back. All the hairs on my body stood on their ends as the sensation continued up my neck. Without warning, a single bolt of energy traveled from my head to the tip of my tail. Which was weird as I had not even realized I could feel it until that moment.

  ‘Species transformation accelerated. Species transformation completed. Full access to Kitsune Branch System granted. Full control of user nanites is transferred over to the user. Kitsune system nanite numbers are sufficient to take over. Kitsune system activated. Human nanites and systems are turned off and will be naturally purged.’

  My brain hurt as I read that notification. As the headache faded, I noticed that the computer interface I had been using for years was gone. The system in its place was both more powerful and smaller than it had been. Looking at my hand, I tried to pull up information on myself. Massive amounts of information started to pour into my head. Information on my body and its condition.

  Before I could yell out, the information diminished. Returning a moment later in the form of bars, diagrams, and text boxes. One such text box grabbed my attention; ‘Take control of the spell: Turret Control System?’

  Mentally agreeing to the prompt, it disappeared. A few lines of text flickered at the edges of my vision. As they did, the seat grew tighter as the straps pulled hard against me. Additional straps whipped out and grabbing onto my arms and legs.

  All of this happened faster than I could even react. Not that I could have done anything. When it was all finished, my vision darkened. Replaced by a view of somewhere else. Black ships flew about, shooting and smashing into each other as I flew between them.

  Other ships flashed past me as they blew up hordes of the black ships. I turned and looked backward and saw a massive ship chasing after me. It gave me the chills as it grew larger. A beam of energy flashed out of it only to miss as I dodged.

  Multiple different beams and weapons fired upon the other ship, blowing it up. The explosion dispersed enough to reveal the massive swarm behind it. Realizing I was actually viewing the battle outside, I felt for the turret. My view swiveled to look at a small dot on the surface of the ship.

  Activating the turret, that dot expanded in every direction. Filling a good five meters of space with a single massive weapon. I don’t know how I knew the information, but I knew that the gun had three different firing modes. The default setting was for it to rapidly fire small energy projectiles. It could do that for as long as it needed to.

  It could also fire a single, continuous beam of energy out and hold it for ten seconds before running out of power. This would deal a massive amount of damage in a straight line.

  The last was something of a combination of the two. All the energy of the massive beam is packed into one large projectile. It took a bit longer to charge and fire, but the damage could destroy large groups of enemies at a distance.

  I stuck to the rapid-fire mode and just opened up on the swarm. Firing at anything and everything I could. Small ships blew up everywhere. The larger ships gained crater after crater as each shot hit. After a couple of dozen shots hit them, they blew up as well.

  Something in the back of my mind told me that someone was trying to contact me. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone, though, so I ignored them. Focusing on killing everything I could. One of the ships I was targeting moved just out of my field of view. Frustrated, I mentally yelled at the ship to take it out. Another turret reacted instantly and fired at it.

  That turret was at the edge of my mind as it fired. Reaching out, I fought with whatever system was controlling it. Taking it over myself. Eventually, it stopped fighting my control as I destroyed more and more ships. Taking over other turrets whenever I wanted. My mind splintered as it tried to keep track of everything going on around the ship.

  Something in the back of my mind was screaming for my attention. Again, I pushed it back as I fired two massive beams into the thickest part of the swarms. Charging up another two turrets to fire an overcharged round each. The rest of the turrets kept everything back as they charged.

  Firing, I watched as two small stars flew off at a rapid pace. Ships that were in its way just vanished into its depths as the balls traveled into the center of two massive swarms. Everything seemed to freeze as the two balls expanded.

  Hundreds of thousands of ships instantly vaporized. Those that were further out were pushed back with such force that they smashed into other ships. Then the two explosions reached the ship. Every shield rippled as various pieces of the swarm hit them.

  Space warped around us as the ship popped into and out of the network. That allowed us to jump far enough that I was able to watch the explosion a second time from a distance. We also were not the only ones to jump. Dozens of different ships appeared all over in flashes of light.

  ‘Detecting that user health is in danger. Connections to ship being force severed by the system.’ Every system I was connected to started to rapidly vanish one after another until I was surrounded by darkness.

  I felt tied up as something held me to the chair. While I couldn’t touch or see it, I could feel a sticky trail going from my nose to my chin. My ears rang as a massive headache throbbed. Had I been beaten and locked up for killing so many things?

  A sharp blast of light stabbed into my eyes as the doors opened. Hands pulled my face first one way and then another. Multiple pinches went into the back of my neck. Waves of cold brought relief as the needles injected something into me. Without the feeling of pain, I passed out.