《Captain's Crusade》


 prologue

    There are many who would call me a pirate, a terrorist, a revolutionary, a murderer, and so many other nasty or evil things. I guess i am those things, but when you look into those who make these accusations, and what my actions have brought about, well maybe i am exactly what the universe needed. I mean THEY are the ones running around glassing planets just for shits and giggles, THEY massacre entire cities just because a small minority wont bend the knee! So if I am the demon destined to destroy the universe just because i refuse to bow or break before any being''s whim, then SO BE IT! at least I will always have *her* at my side,so as long as I''m with her, nothing is impossible. Not even defying destiny.


    So, this story starts with a young man, considered a mistake and a mutant by his parents, he was abandoned at a state-run orphanage in Harlem NYC. It starts with me; my name is Alexander Quartermayyne, yes I know its really pretentious, I was a bit chuuni as a kid ok? I was in my final semester of senior year in P.S. 1633 in queens, when I was walking back to the orphanage I STILL lived at(I was never adopted, I guess the lack of color in my eyes disturb people or something meaning I was never adopted, or stayed in a foster family for more than a few weeks before being returned) i was assailed by an overwhelming nausea followed by a single word shrieked into my mind :"BELOVED!" then, it all went black, and I felt the world race up to meet me as a large shadow hovered over me....This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    the next thing I knew, I was laying in a VERY comfortable and large four poster bed with dark violet silky curtains and blankets. The room was dark and quiet, however when i started to sit up, realizing quickly I''m naked, a faint, soft light started to glow overhead through the curtains and quiet music started to play; wait a minute: that''s MY morning playlist?! WTF?! "You''re awake! thank the ancestors, I was worried I messed up something when I collected you." "COLLECTED ME?! What am I a damned baseball card?!" "sorry, that may have been the wrong terminology, I meant brought you onboard..." "Onboard!? is this some sort of ship then? are you telling me, whoever you are, that I am on a spaceship like those cheesy web novels?" "ummm......yes?" the voice responded, sounding more and more feminine by the moment. "The Human Race on Earth is a new player in a very old game, while my people, the Velmak, are some the original game-makers so to speak! and before you ask, you can and cannot see ME so to speak already....I am Ellyallia, or rather THEEllyallia. I AM THE SHIP. and you, you are my destined bondmate, my beloved captain."

 1

    "huh? wha...? you serious? cool." crawling out of the bed, I feel my eyes being drawn, with a feeling as if I wasn¡¯t in total control, to a robe on an end-table nearby. looking around I saw that I was in a small bedroom with two doors, one on each side of the room. There was the big bed in one corner, now that I was up, I saw that it was in a diamond-like shape, with a flat bottom sticking outward into the room. Peering back into the curtains I saw the three-sided head of the bed had a raised headboard/end-table hybrid with a few drawers inside, but nothing on the top or the shelf just under it.


    Looking around the room, with the nagging feeling dragging my eyes back to the robe constantly, I saw that the room had a few dressers built into the walls, at a closer inspection, I noticed thateverythingwas actually built into everything else. The bed¡¯s posters were really pillars running floor to ceiling, the end-table was bolted in a muted fashion to the floor, there were no free-standing items in the room at all. ¡°so, you are claiming you ARE the ship? Are you some sort of ai in a submarine or a battleship or something?¡± I asked the air, expecting that who or whatever was talking to me was listening on some sort of two-way intercom.


    ¡°well, yes and no to that question, I AM the ship you are currently aboard. HOWEVER! I am not a terrestrial water-bound vessel. I am in fact¡­¡­a starship.¡± The voice responded; did she sound hesitant at the end? Why has she sounded like she needed me to believe her, neither of us knew anything about each other though? ¡°alright then, if I¡¯m on a real-life spaceship,¡± ¡°NO!! Not a spaceship; I am a Starship! BIG DIFFERENCE THERE!!¡± the voice, what did she say her name was? Ellyallia? Yah that was it. ¡°hey, um, Elli? Can I call you that?¡± ¡°Of course, that is if I can call you Alex?¡± Elli responded immediately.


    ¡°ok, Elli. I want to believe you, but humanity has nothing beyond a few primitive orbitals and nothing capable of having such a large cabin with what I¡¯m assuming an attached bathroom.¡± And this was true the last few years, after the huge SpaceX launch, NASA finally got the overhaul they needed to drag their decrepit carcass into the 21<sup>st</sup> century. This led to a huge space travel boom ultimately leading to the founding of the first lunar colony in late 2024. That was 5 years ago now, and as if it was a dead horse clich¨¦, the moment anyone got commercial space travel, the militaries of the world immediately weaponized what was meant to unify humanity and went to town on all the weaker players on our global game-board. Then the unimaginable happened; in 2027, North Korea finally carried through with their bullshit. They did it, that lunatic actually did it.


    What the world learned that day was several things: first, that the ¡°hippies¡± were right all along, no one country should have weapons of that nature or scale, it was too much risk and temptation. The next thing the world learned is just how effective the U.S.¡¯s anti-missile defenses were, that madman¡¯s nuke never even made it out of the country. The 7<sup>th</sup> fleet off the coast was ready for it and blew it out of the sky and recovered the warhead before anyone else even registered the launch. Afterwards, while America was readying for a long slog through hell once more in the name of freedom and vengeance, a miracle happened; the Chinese swarmed over the border and annihilated the ruling regime and hand delivered the last of the Kim line to General Hawkes as he was still mobilizing his vanguard for their opening charge.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The news talked for years how out of character this was for the people¡¯s party of china, but it did lead to the greatest step forward for humanity since the industrial revolution. With china, Russia, and a newly reunified Greater Korea all adding their outrage to the American people¡¯s calls for disarming and control, the world joined hands and destroyed over 10,000 nuclear weapons and over 90% of all production capability.


    What was left was placed under direct U.N. peacekeeper control along with the various space-born military assets that had been constructed. The largest of which was little more than a soup can with rocket engines and machine guns strapped to it. I¡¯d never heard of anything capable of having such luxury onboard as the technical complexities of such a large space with essentially no use in a vacuum, would have been a nightmare both technologically and financially. ¡°So, what you¡¯re an alien ship then? Some sort of prank right now ya?¡±


    ¡°no this is no prank, if you would like to come to the observation deck, I can show you what proof I can.¡± Elli responded, ¡°once you put the DAMNED ROBE ON! Do you have no shame?!¡± she shrieks from all around me. Huh? Oh¡­. my face heats up, both in embarrassment and rage, as I realize several things. First, I was naked; naked and in the presence of an unknown, but presumably female, being. Second off, SHE¡¯S IN MY HEAD! ¡°GET OUT OF MY HEAD! NOW! If I really am your ¡®beloved¡¯ you¡¯ll stay the FUCK outa my head. And if this whole thing you obviously want me to get into with you requires this at least stay out until I make my own decision. Ok?¡± I realized halfway through my rant that I don¡¯t understand what is going on at all, but maybe I¡¯m not the only one.


    Elli responds frantically, ¡°sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! My people can¡¯t communicate with each other like most species due to the whole being living spaceships, so telepathy is our main mode of communication. I didn¡¯t realize that it might cause you discomfort like that.¡± She says almost like she¡¯s gunna¡­ ¡°Aww shit, please don¡¯t cry Ell. I didn¡¯t mean it like that, it¡¯s just I don¡¯t like feeling like I¡¯m being manipulated, and having you drag me around by my brain when we don¡¯t even know each other at all, well¡­.¡±


    ¡°Of course! I understand, your people don¡¯t have any experience with true psychics, so you still react to mental sharing with fear and anger. And yes, what I want from you WILL require us sharing our minds AND souls. Permanently. To be honest it is sort of like my people¡¯s version of¡­. * marriage*¡­.¡± she squeaks out the last bit almost shamefully. Oh¡­shit¡­ is she for real? Marriage? Binding our minds and souls together forever? With a space... sorry, no, a star-ship?


    ¡°well I wouldn¡¯t say I am against it, but aren¡¯t you really jumping the gun here?¡± I asked as I walked towards the left-side door which just had a small panel next to it light up. I see a button blinking green at me, so I push it and the door slides open to either side. ¡°oh wow, that¡¯s cool¡­ huh?¡± I stop to look at the recess where the door slide into and notice what looks like¡­grayish skin? Muscle? What the fuck is¡­ suddenly, Elli shrieks like a schoolgirl in an anime that just had senpai walk in on her, ¡°PERVERT! Stop peeping at me!¡± she yells straight into my ears; ¡°oh crap, I¡¯m sorry¡± I jerk back and move quickly through the still open door, ¡°I didn¡¯t realize when you said you were the ship, you meant you WERE the ship. Like you are a real-lifeliving star-ship.¡± I state while blushing furiously understanding that if this is the case, I just did the Ellyallia version of looking down her shirt.


    ¡°well ya, of course I¡¯m the ship I said that several times now, by the abyss.¡± She spits out, "Also, it is so adorable that you¡¯re blushing like that even though we are completely different variants of lifeforms.¡± She purrs. Huh, this might be really interesting if that¡¯s how she responds to my essentially peeking at her.

 2

    As I walked out the door, I noticed the cabin I woke up in was at the end of a short hallway about 25-30ish feet long with a large lounge/galley area with a pair of strange, empty tubes like small elevator shafts at the other end of it. I was curious about them, so I asked Elli, ¡°hey what are those tubes over here El?¡± she responds over the PA after a few seconds, ¡°oh those are grav-lifts, they are the main form of moving between my decks, I have three by the way. You are currently on the third deck, the living space for crew. For now, I want to explain a few things, so please help yourself to anything in the galley, then take a seat.¡±


    I walked over to the galley and checked out the appliances and foodstuffs there. I was surprised that I actually recognized most of what I saw appliance-wise. I queried Elli on this development, and she responded ¡°of course, this ship was designed for long-term deep-space missions. This means that the crew would have been aboard for months or years at a time, with shore-leaves being few and far between. The builders decided in order to maintain morale, true home-cooked meals would be invaluable and kitchen tech hasn¡¯t really developed any further than what earth has either; thus, this galley/lounge space replaced what would have been a simple mess hall. At the same time, they also added a gymnasium workout area on the bottom deck at the expense of almost a quarter of the cargo hold.¡±


    I asked her if there was anything like coffee onboard and was directed to the relevant machine. Once I was caffeinated, I dropped onto one of the couches in the lounge area and asked Ellyallia, ¡°ok I¡¯m as good as I¡¯m gunna get, so please, what the FUCK is going on here. What are you, and what do you want from me?¡± Elli was more than two minutes in responding, when she did it was very hesitantly. ¡°Ok, so TL: DR is essentially I am an alloy/polymer-based parasite that latches onto starships as they pass through my species¡¯ spawning grounds. We are known as the Velmak, we are very powerful but extremely fragile in our natural forms. Our nature is to seek out strong shells to house ourselves and ships tend to be built out of the very alloys and polymers we feed on grow, thus we have developed the ability to actually assimilate into the very ship we have latched onto and use the hulls as a sort of combination endo-exo skeleton hermit crab shell deal. The original ship had spaces for engines, reactors, fuel tanks, maintenance crawlspaces, etc.; now that I am this vessel, these areas no longer exist, although the reactors still do, they¡¯re simply subsumed by my flesh.¡± She pauses to allow me a few minutes to digest this information.


    I was unsurprisingly, speechless. I was wearing an alien robe, drinking alien coffee, lounging on an alien couch, onboard an alien ship turned actual alien! ¡°uhm¡­¡­. okay¡­¡­ I think I understand what you are now, but what does this have to do with me?¡± I questioned Ellyallia, ¡°Does this have to do with what you said earlier about us sharing minds from now on or something?¡± Elli responded immediately, ¡°well, yes. It does actually; the Velmak are one of the most psionically powerful species to ever exist, thus we are subjected to vast amounts of corruption from the veil between the physical universe and the astral plane where our powers originate. Like most psionically awakened races and beings, we require a soul-bond with another being with a compatible soul, which is unimaginably rare, to anchor ourselves into the real world and protect ourselves from the veils¡¯ corruptive energies. Without this bond, we become rabid monsters whose only purpose is to destroy and devour all life in the universe.¡±


    I was, again, dumbstruck. This living spaceship/woman was saying what essentially amounted to: magic is real; I am a wizard; if we don¡¯t chain our souls together, I¡¯ll eat the universe. It was obviously a lot to take in, so as I sat there mulling over what I¡¯d been told, I thought about my life on earth. No home, no friends, no future, no hope, no love. There really was not very much holding me here, but Elli here was constantly proclaiming her love for me, and she needed me to be her spiritual rock, so speak; and unlike everyone else in my life, SHE seems to need me. On the other hand, this whole soul-bond situation sounds pretty damned permanent and very close to what may essentially be magical marriage; what if we didn¡¯t work out as a couple? ¡°hey, Elli, what is this whole thing supposed to be for each of us? What would I get out of this? What would you expect from me in our daily lives? Is this just a do the bond then go our separate ways, or is this more of a till death do us part?¡± I queried Ellyallia.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. She responded with ¡°well, it could be either one depending on what you want if we go through with it. On that note, if it helps you decide, I can create a temporary mind-bridge between us that will allow us to spend a few moments fused together all at the speed of thought. That means we would be spending a few eternal moments and be able to see one another in our entirety.¡± She sounds nervous while speaking of this, so I figured she must have done something like already while I was out. But even though I woke up with her in my head, she hadn¡¯t done anything other than drag my eyes to the robe I was wearing now; on top of that, the instant I demanded she leave my mind, she did so without complaint. So¡­. well¡­. *sigh* this is a lot more difficult to decide what I wanted to do about all this than I realized.


    Eventually, after almost three hours of quiet contemplation, I finally made a choice. ¡°alright Ellyallia, you said we could share minds, temporarily right? Id like to try it and see what happens.¡± After a few seconds, ¡°EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!Yes!Yes!Yes! let¡¯s go! Let¡¯s go! Let¡¯s go!¡± Ellyallia squeals. She directs me toward the med-bay on the main deck, and once I arrived, she had me climb into one of the med-pods lined up against the back wall. ¡°Ok, so I will be using the pod¡¯s systems to connect our minds, once its finished, we can speak again about the future.¡± As Elli speaks, the pod begins to close, and I begin to fade to black. The next thing I know, life is pain. For what feels like an eternity, I feel nothing but pain until something, shifts, and I feel an overwhelming presence begin to smother the outer edges of my perception.


    Naturally, I started to panic, not knowing what that whatever it was, was. As this happened the presence suddenly stopped its advance and held unnaturally still. Suddenly I realized that the unknown entity was simply how my mind was interpreting Elli¡¯s mental presence. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I immediately started calming down significantly, and her mind continued to envelop and swallow mine, but this time instead of feeling an instinctual terror, I was welcoming to her touch. As we mingled in this timeless moment, I began to feel something I had never felt before in my life: the acceptance another person. This brought about another new sensation, I had never felt anything like it, but if I had to explain it, I would¡¯ve said it was like a soft heat began suffusing my entire being and it was completely directed towards that endless, unfathomable mental entity subsuming my mind into itself.


    I was starting to understand what it was to accept another in their entirety for who and what they were no matter the concerns or opinions of others, and that was when I understood; with our minds entwined as they currently are, we were ¡®experiencing¡¯ the existential truths of each other¡¯s beings. Nothing I could¡¯ve said at that moment never would have been good enough, so I simply ¡®moved¡¯ my mental being and burrowed deep into Ellyallia¡¯s mind and pushed out as much of this wonderful, accepting warmth I was experiencing towards as much of her presence as possible. She responded by infusing herself deep in my mental being, and I knew, somehow, that she had just converted the temporary connection into a permanent bond between the two of us and was preparing to begin the ritual or whatever that would combine our souls together; and I was perfectly content with it. I had no idea why I was okay, let alone happy, with this but the truth was, I was actually eager for this.

 3

    The next thing I knew, the med-pod was opening, and I was dropping to all fours on the deck. As I was puking up the alien coffee from earlier, I collapsed onto my side next to the puddle, panting and heaving. ¡°what¡­what¡­ the fuck!? just happened to me? I feel nothing but PAIIIINNN!!!!¡± I whimper-yelled at Elli. She takes more than a few minutes to respond, and when she does it¡¯s with trepidation in her voice. Not to mention she¡¯s back inside my head again, but this time it feels like instead of an ice pick being slammed into and trough my skull only when she actively interacts with me, her presence in my head is constant and makes me feel like I¡¯m snuggled in a huge, heavy blanket wrapped around me like a burrito in front of a roaring good bonfire in winter would.


    Her answer to my stuttered query is thus: ¡°When you dove into my mental embrace and started frantically pushing all the warmth and acceptance you could at me, I took it as your approval to proceed with the soul-bonding, I have no idea why you¡¯re like this right now, so all I can do is say that I¡¯m sorry this is happening. I never knew this was what would happen when you were released after such an ordeal, the best guess I can make is that I may have let you go too quickly maybe?¡± As I lay there contemplating her statement, the agony in my lower chest/diaphragm area started to abate rapidly, as the pain died away it was replaced by a similar warm feeling to what was engulfing my mind. This new sensation felt GOOOODDD, it felt STRONG, more so than anything I¡¯d ever felt before or even heard of.


    I tried to sit up and felt a strange tightness in the back of my neck, when I felt at it, I noticed the muscle under the skin felt thicker than before. Rightly worried, I asked Ellyallia about it figuring it had something to do with our new bond, but just as I thought about asking her she answered, ¡°don¡¯t worry about that it will dissolve on its own in a few days as its broken down by your body. It¡¯s simply a mass of my own flesh, more specifically my stem cells, your body will break the mass down and the cells will disseminate throughout your body¡¯s various systems in order to improve their efficacy and durability at a base genetic level.¡± Oh¡­ shit. Oh fuck, that¡¯s, well that could be well, I don¡¯t know just yet.


    Ok, so I¡¯m bound mind, body, and soul to a living spaceship and probably just became some sort of inhuman, mutant freak that will be hunted by his own people for the rest of my life. Well, it¡¯s not like I had anything holding me here on earth anyways, so I can just grab a few things for the road and head out to space with my new um¡­. ship-waifu? Ya ship-waifu works. Out to space with my new ship-waifu and just never look back.


    Although with how these kinds of stories usually go, she¡¯s probably being hunted by some evil organization hellbent on her destruction for some stupid reason of their own hubris-making. So, of course, Ellyallia squeaks up, ¡°ummmm¡­¡­. Well, I guess I don¡¯t have to explain this bit then? Um¡­ok, well they are an illegal black ops mercenary group and they built my shell. They were testing it in a lesser known velmak spawning nebula that is located a good distance off the nearest star-way route when they were captured by my mother. She didn¡¯t realize who they were nor would she have cared, they had a ship and she needed a shell for her newborn daughter, me.¡±


    ¡°So, your mother stole this ship-shell from what¡¯s essentially space terrorists and gave it to you, at which point you came to find me and now we are both being hunted by said space terrorists?¡± I asked. ¡°wonderful. Alright then, do we need to worry about them right now or do we have time?¡± when I ask this, a holographic map opens up in the middle of the medbay showing the milky way galaxy. ¡°this is where we are over Earth,¡± Elli states while a flashing dot appears near the rim of one arm of the galaxy. ¡°this is the velmak spawning nebula where I was born.¡± A new dot appears on the opposite side of the map.


    ¡°the velmak, as living organic beings have no need of fuel for our warp drives as we can pull aether straight from the astral plane to power our drives and reactors. Because of this, we can travel without concern for resupply and refuel unlike normal ships. Given the distances involved, the ¡®space terrorists¡¯ as you called them will take an estimated six months minimum to even arrive in this system let alone prepare any sort of action against us here on your homeworld.¡± Ellyallia announces. ¡°we do not need to worry overly much about them just yet although we will need to soon enough.¡±


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.I nod along and push up onto my knees and slowly stand up shakily. ¡°ok, if that¡¯s the case then I say we start preparing for our escape from Earth back to whatever passes for galactic civilization. They can¡¯t get us if we¡¯re beyond their reach. These guys obviously were developing some sort of super ship meant to spearhead some bullshit revolution or whatnot against some perceived evil that doesn¡¯t really exist or some dumb shit like that. If they really are coming all this way just to try to keep this ship a secret, then it stands to reason either they or what they were mucking about with were/are illegal.¡±


    we talked about what was coming, our future together, and many more topics over the next 2 weeks while we adjusted to our new normal. After almost a month after Ellyallia had originally kidnapped me off the street, I was teleported back down to the surface. (on a side note I was terrified and exhilarated when I discovered my new wife had a freaking teleporter!) We were both worried about my absence causing us troubles in the future, so we decided to get my Earthly affairs in order before we were forced into abandoning Earth for possibly the rest of our lives. I decided that if I was going to be living a new life, I needed a new wardrobe. So roughly a week before I returned to my life on Earth, I went to a few local pawnshops and sold some precious metals like gold and platinum for quick cash; with the proceeds from that endeavor in hand, I went to a tailor and got a dozen simple suits, coats of various lengths, and a few hats. Yes, even a couple of fedoras *sigh*. I also bought various style holsters and sheaths for the numerous knives I scavenged from Elli¡¯s armory. I had decided that I would have only a single pistol style plasma thrower I kept calling a blaster and it was going to be a unique piece which would take a few days to fabricate.


    A few days later, Elli dropped me off near the school that morning before first period as the plan was to simply ignore the time-gap and just resume my life as it was in hopes that eventually everyone would just let it all fade from the fore in time. Elli was worrying that I¡¯d be dragged in for questioning by men in suits, whereas I my side was summed up with ¡®everyone go MEH¡¯; but what actually happened was we were both right. I caused quite the commotion when I called the teacher out for skipping me on role call which led to me being dragged down to the principal¡¯s office almost immediately. The principal spent over an hour screaming at me about skipping school for a month without notice and for refusing to say anything other than I was married now and was planning a wedding once I got the money for it in another month or so. That got her to shut up. Ha!


    I thought I would be in the clear once I dealt with the school, but how wrong I was. The principal was finally winding down when two walking CIA spook stereotypes waltzed in like they owned the place, which honestly, they very well might have. They never even got a word in edgewise though; by they even closed the door I was up and past them. I heard shouting from the goons and a shriek from the principal as I hauled ass out of the office and back to class while laughing my ass off the whole way. the government thugs gave up before they even got out of the office fortunately for me.


    I got to second period shortly after the bell rang, and when I walked in, I saw many shocked faces and even a few credit chits being passed. HEY! Where¡¯s my cut?! Seriously? Ok well whatever. ¡°well, where have you been?! Huh?!¡± the old hag teacher sneers at me. ¡°finding love and getting married. Neither are anything you¡¯ll ever experience with that attitude.¡± I quipped back at her. Lots of ooohhhhsss around the room at that. A few seconds later, ¡°WHAT THE FUCK!? DID YOU JUST SAY YOU¡¯RE MARRIED!?¡± comes from the back of the room. I turn to see who was freaking out and sure enough it was Eugene ¡®Butch¡¯ Wilkens, my lifelong bully. Time for some sweet revenge.