//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Sword 
// Story: When We Saw the Universe 
// by KKDW 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 5: Sword


Phaurn eventually rejected my recommendation that he take some of our own body armor and a blaster into combat, though in hindsight I guess he didn’t need them.

– Extract from When We Saw the Universe by Captain Twilight Sparkle

The week past without anything eventful occurring; only the usual reports of more planets that had been attacked by the Bolkarn, and Bolkarn ships that had been attacked by the Red Starfighter.  The Dominator II was launched again on schedule, and within a few hours was launching another assault on a Bolkarn occupied planet.  The assault came in the middle of a storm.  The planet Xocvi was known for particularly violent storms, the Bolkarn had taken shelter from it leaving the slaves to cower in the tunnels.
Lyra went down to the planet aboard the new Carrier 3.  Carriers would always be occupied by the same troops, though a few members of Lyra’s squad who had been killed on Krankor had subsequently been replaced.  One of those replacements was Phaurn.  He was sitting directly opposite Lyra, squeezed into a space between two others that was a little too small for him though he didn’t seem to mind, the two on either side of him clearly did mind.
Lyra looked out through a window at the cloud layer below them.  She could see lightning flashing through it though they weren’t close enough to hear any thunder.  When they entered the clouds the carrier was battered by wind which only lessened slightly when they emerged from them.  The sound of thunder drowned out almost any other sound and the view through the windows was obscured by the rain, with only an occasional blurred lightning bolt visible.  The Carrier touched down with its rear end facing the mine a short distance away, and its occupants rushed out almost immediately, Lyra cast a small field of magic around herself to keep the rain off.
The Bolkarn had been taken by surprise and were unprepared to fight off an attack in this weather.  The weather itself wasn’t a disadvantage for the resistance.  The visors of the helmets they wore were similar to the translator headset visors, and they did more than just translate.  Just before emerging from the Carrier Lyra and everyone else had activated an infrared setting on the visor, allowing them to see everyone around them in lurid colors that didn’t really fit with the situation.  The Bolkarn did wear helmets, but they didn’t have visors or anything that would allow them to see their enemies coming, they preferred to fight using only their own unenhanced senses.
The troops charged forward, and a handful of disorganized Bolkarn rushed out to meet them.  The sounds of rain and thunder surrounding them were joined by the sounds of gunfire.  Lyra was running forwards on all fours, her blaster suspended in the air by magic and firing shot after shot into the enemy.  Suddenly, a small rock caught her arm and she fell forwards, rolling over her head and landing on her back.  Her gun flew away and was lost in the darkness.  Lyra felt slightly disoriented, her head had struck the ground in the fall and damaged her helmet.  The damage had affected the infrared function of her visor and all the colors were now blurring together making it impossible to make out anything.  Reluctantly Lyra switched it off and lit up her horn to get her bearings.  In the light of her horn she saw a Bolkarn looming over her.  In his hands he was holding a large hammer with a long shaft.  Her eyes widened in terror as he raised it above his head.
“No!  Not again!” she thought.
The Bolkarn brought down the hammer, and Lyra quickly rolled aside onto her front as it struck the ground.  She tried to get to back on her hooves but she slipped on the wet rocks and fell back down again as the Bolkarn raised the hammer for another strike.  She closed her eyes as she heard the hammer cutting through the air, waiting for the blow to land on her.  It didn’t.  She heard it strike something, somewhere off the ground.  She opened her eyes and looked back towards the Bolkarn.  There was Phaurn, he’d drawn his sword and had blocked the falling hammer with it.  The Bolkarn jumped backwards and prepared to swing his hammer round again, this time aiming for Phaurn.  Once again Phaurn brought up his sword to block it.  Another swing, another block.  Lyra carefully stood up again and watched the display in amazement.  The Bolkarn was now focusing on defending himself with the hammer, with one hand at each end of the shaft and bringing it up to meet the strikes of Pharun’s sword.  Then Phaurn managed to swing the sword into the Bolkarn’s left arm.  The blow wasn’t strong enough to penetrate his armor but the shock of the impact made him let go of one end of the hammer, and now with an opening Phaurn brought his sword upwards and then swung it down into the Bolkarn’s shoulder, finding a small gap in the armor and slicing downwards to cut the Bolkarn’s arm off.  To Lyra’s surprise he didn’t give up, as the now one armed Bolkarn continued to swing away with the hammer, though now with his one remaining hand gripping the middle of the shaft.
Lyra was so focused on the spectacle of this fight that she’d forgotten about the rest of the battle raging around her, she was brought back to reality when a bullet ricocheted off the ground just next to her.  She looked around the place at everything that was happening, or at least everything she could see through the rain.  She needn’t to get back into the fight, she needed her weapon.  She lowered her head and began to sweep the light from her horn across the ground.  Eventually she found an abandoned resistance blaster; whether it was actually hers or not she didn’t know, but she picked it up anyway.  She quickly checked that it still had power before charging back into battle, running past Phaurn and his Bolkarn opponent as she did so.  As she passed she noticed that he’d now relieved the Bolkarn of his other arm and that the Bolkarn still hadn’t given up, he was now swinging a series of kicks at Phaurn.  She averted her eyes from this, deciding that the whole affair was now starting to get a little silly, and spying a small group of Bolkarn a short distance in front of her she began to open fire.

Several hours later Lyra was back on board the Dominator II and trotting down one of its many corridors.  The ship was now flying away from Xocvi and heading for its next destination.  The assault on the mine had been successful and the resistance hadn’t lost any troops this time though a few had been injured.  The surviving Bolkarn wardens were now in the ship’s brig and the rescued slaves had been given temporary quarters on the lower levels of the ship and at the end of the first week of its mission the Dominator II would transfer them to another ship which would take them back to Xentrill.
After getting back on the ship Lyra had gone through the usual post-assault debriefing and had taken a quick shower while telling Bon Bon about what happened during the assault.  She’d given a lot of detail to Phaurn’s one on one fight with the Bolkarn who probably would’ve killed her if Phaurn hadn’t intervened.  After seeing him in action Lyra wanted to talk to him, according to the ship’s computer he was in one of the training rooms a few floors below their new cabin, and now she was heading there.  The sounds of her hoofsteps echoed around her, with the sound of metal on metal from her arm mixed in.  As she proceeded down the corridor she counted the number of doors she passed, Lyra hadn’t been into this part of the ship before unless she was heading through it to another part and with every door being unlabelled and seemingly identical she wouldn’t know which one she wanted so she’d asked the computer how many doors down the training room was.
She finally stopped in front of the 17th door, and there was a much larger gap then normal between this one and the next.  The door opened for her and she stepped through it.  The room was almost twice the size of the ship’s bridge.  There weren’t any lights in the room since every surface of the room was painted a bright white that seemed to give off light by itself.  The walls, ceiling and floor of the room blended together and looked as though they weren’t there making the room seem like a featureless white void stretching on forever.  The only evidence that there were any surfaces in the room at all was the open door in the wall behind Lyra which eventually closed and blended into the whiteness, and the very small shadows being cast on them.  The room was already making Lyra feel uncomfortable.
Phaurn was in the middle of the room; at least Lyra thought it was the middle of the room, sparring with a hard light hologram of himself.  The hologram was a pale blue color and transparent probably so that it wouldn’t be confused with the real thing.  Lyra stayed by the door and watched what he was doing.  Every time the hologram made a swing at him Phaurn managed to block it, but whenever he’d make a swing at the hologram that would be blocked as well.  Eventually Phaurn made a wide and wild swing which knocked the sword out of the holograms hand and sent it flying across the room where it faded from existence.  Phaurn stood back and returned his sword to its scabbard as the hologram kneeled down in front of him before it vanished.
“So, Impressed Sergeant Heartstrings?” Phaurn asked turning towards Lyra.
“Yes,” Lyra said.  Then she realized that while they’d been in the same carrier on the way down to Xocvi she hadn’t properly introduced herself to him.  “How’d you know who I was?”
“The computer told me you were asking where I was.”
“Oh.”
“And I’m assuming you didn’t come down here just to watch me practice.”
“Well, no.  I guess first I should say thanks.”
“For what?”
“Well, you pretty much saved my life on Xocvi.  You know, from the Bolkarn with the great big hammer.”
“Oh, so that was you.  I didn’t notice at the time, for one thing you all look the same in that body armor and the weather certainly wouldn’t have helped there.”
“It certainly didn’t.”
“Is there anything else you which to say?”
“Well yes, I… um,” Lyra took a deep breath before continuing.  “Could you teach me how to use one of those?”
“You mean this?” Phaurn asked as he drew his sword, Lyra nodded.
“Hmm, I’m not sure you would be able to use a sword,” he said.  “After all your species lacks hands and they are necessary for the art.”
Lyra raised her arm and spread out its fingers to make it quite clear that she did have one.
“Ah, well you have that problem overcome I see,” he said.  “Computer, produce one small training sword for Sergeant Heartstrings.”
“Acknowledged Sergeant Phaurn,” the voice of the computer said.
A few seconds later a small hatch opened in one of the walls and Phaurn extracted the sword from within it and tossed it over to Lyra and she picked it up.
“Step forward Sergeant,” Phaurn said.
Lyra did so, and both of them were standing a short distance apart in the middle of the room.
“Now, I think the first question we have here is one of balance,” Phaurn said, pointing his sword at her.  “You are a life form designed to stand on four limbs, yet you will be using one of those to use your sword.  So, will you be able to keep your balance while using it?  Try waving the sword around, see what happens.”
Lyra made a few swings of the sword, varying the distance and direction each time.  She remained on her feet.
“Good.  But you were staying on the same spot.  During combat you will have to be constantly moving around.  Try again, and this time move.”
Lyra nodded and tried again, taking steps in different directions as she did so.  At first she was just stepping and then swinging but after a while was able to be doing both at the same time.  And not too long after managing that she lost he balance.
“Bother!” she exclaimed as she got back to her hooves.
“As I thought,” Phaurn said.  “If you wish to learn how to use a sword you will have to learn to maintain your balance.”
“I guess so,” Lyra said.  “Or I could just do this.”
Lyra’s horn lit it and the sword was enveloped in a pale green glow as it rose up from the floor.
“Ah, so I assume then that your race is telepathic.”
“No, we’re not.  This is magic, not telekinesis or anything like that.”
“I see.  So, do you think that using this method would be suitable in combat, more importantly will you be able to keep…” he paused, searching for the right word, “will you be able to keep ‘hold’ of your sword like this?”
“Dunno, let’s try it.”
“Very well then.”
Phaurn stepped back and took up a combat stance while Lyra spread out her legs and lowered her head.  Then Phaurn stepped forward and swung his sword at hers, Lyra’s sword was sent flying away and the magic glow around it vanished.  The sword struck the wall and fell to the floor with a clatter.
“I guess not then,” Lyra said.
“Indeed, it seems you will have to use the arm after all.  And I think we may have another problem there.”
“Oh?”
“Your size, most races I know that are likely to be using swords or similar weapons are much taller your race.  I am for one, as are the Bolkarn.”
“Yeah I had noticed that… wait, the Bolkarn use swords?”
“I have heard that they do, though I have yet to see them do so, and I assume you haven’t either.”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway, with the size issue the disadvantage would be that you would not have enough reach to match the height of your opponent’s sword.  Whereas they could easily reach down to strike you.”
“I see.”
“I think if you were to stand solely on your hind legs that may alleviate the problem.”
Lyra thought about this, she could rise up on her hind legs for a few seconds, but even when doing that she wouldn’t be standing up straight.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen I’m afraid.”
“Then I suggest you  practice your balance on three legs,” Phaurn said as he picked up Lyra’s fallen sword and returned it to the small compartment in the wall it had come from, just as the hatch closed Lyra thought she saw the sword turn into vapor.  “I will consider whether or not I shall give you lessons in the art of the sword.”
“So it might still be a no then.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“You may.”
“Well, I’ve seen various species since I left my own planet, and while I am still seeing new ones when I do they’re often in groups or not long after I see another.  I haven’t seen any others of your race.  Is there a reason for that?”
“There is,” Phaurn said.  “My people come from the planet Vendagol, and the people of Vendagol do not leave their planet.  If we have enemies in the universe we say that they should come to us, let them fight us on our own soil.”
“So why are you here then?”
“I am the Champion of Vendagol.  My people are a race of warriors and nearly all of us live and sometimes die by the sword.  The champion is the best swordsman among our people, and they are tasked with going out into the universe to teach others the art of the sword.  However, since I left Vendagol you are the first to have approached me for that.”
“So why did you join the resistance then?”
“After learning of the activities of the Bolkarn I decided that I they should be stopped,” Phaurn told her.
“But if your people wait for an enemy to come to your world rather than going out and facing them doesn’t joining the resistance sort of go against that?  Or is a champion exempt from that rule as well?”
“I would assume they are not, though I don’t believe the issue has ever come up since an enemy of our race would no doubt be made up of a large army and it would be unwise for a champion to take on such an army alone.  Thus I join the resistance, and the resistance does not share the rules of my race.  So I have decided that while I am with the resistance I am not a member of my own people and not subject to their rules.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense,” Lyra said.
“I’m glad you think so, now if you’ll excuse me I would like to continue my training alone.”
“Oh, of course.  Well I guess I’ll see you around,” Lyra turned to leave, glancing round at the four walls.  “Um… where’s the door?”
“Here Sergeant Heartstrings,” said the voice of the computer as the door opened.
“Thanks computer” Lyra said.  Lyra had wanted to give the computer her own personal nickname for it like most of the rest of the crew, but after being on the ship for a year she hadn’t been able to come up with one.
“You’re welcome Sergeant Heartstrings,” the computer replied.  “Also, Engineer Liha Halpstaluz Beeon has wishes that you to her workshop as soon as possible.”
“Did she say why?”
“She did not.”
“Well tell her I’m making my way there right now.”
“Acknowledged Sergeant Heartstrings.”
Lyra left the training room and headed for the elevator at the end of the corridor, setting it to take her to the Engineering section once she got in.  The Engineering level was one of the higher levels towards the back of the ship.  Each of the ship’s engineers had their own workshop where they’d work on fixing damaged equipment or components of the ship as well as occasionally tinkering with their own personal projects.  Like the rest of the ship the corridors of the engineering section were blank and indistinguishable, or at least they would be if each engineer hadn’t personalized the doors to their workshops like most of the crew did with their personal quarters, and this helped with finding the specific engineer someone wanted to see.  On the other hand Lyra wouldn’t need that help anymore, she’d been to Liha’s workshop so many times she could probably find her way there with her eyes closed.
After trotting down the corridor without looking up at the doors she was passing she knocked on the door to Liha’s workshop.  Once the door had opened she stepped inside and spotted Liha sitting at a table tightening a screw belonging to a piece of technology Lyra didn’t recognize.  The room was rather untidy.  There were small bits and pieces littering the floors and tabletops, in either small quantities or large piles.  One pile was obscuring a wall mounted computer screen.  There were a few shelves set in the walls containing various manuals for the use and repair of different pieces of equipment.  On one wall was a large printout of the blue prints for the Dominator II, it was rather dirty and there was a large rip in one corner.  Other walls had racks mounted on them holding different pieces of tech, including a few blasters.
“Hey there Lyra,” Liha said, looking up from her work.
“Hi,” Lyra replied.  “So why’d you want me?  Do you to make some adjustments to my arm?”
“No, but since you’re here I’ll probably do that anyway.”
“Ok.  So what did you want?”
Liha told Lyra to take a seat and began explaining her plan for acquiring photographs of the Red Starfighter and their fleet.
“I’ve already made a few of the bugs,” she said.  “So we just need to sort out planting them.”
“So how are we going to do that?  Sneak onto the Bolkarn’s home planet or something?”
“Exactly.”
“So how are we going to manage that without being caught?”
“Do you know what a shape changer is Lyra?”
“No, but from the name I can guess.”
“A shape changer, or a shape shifter, is a life form that can alter its appearance to whatever it wants.”
“Ah, thought so.  Actually there’s a species from back home that can do that too, they’re called Changelings.”
“Neat, are there any in the resistance?”
“Somehow I don’t think so, the Changelings are kinda the bad guys.”
“Oh.”
“Are there any shape changers in the resistance?”
“Not that I’m aware of, and if there are they’re not amongst the crew.”
“So how are we going to infiltrate their planet then?”
“With this,” Liha stood up and extracted something from a rack on one wall.
It was a black disc, about three inches across with a series of straps attached to it.  The disc itself had a series of buttons and a small screen set into it.
“This is an artificial shape changer, or an A.S.C for short.  We’re going fit it to some of our crew and turn them into Bolkarn.”
“Good idea,” Lyra said.  “So, why did you call me up here then?”
“I want you to help me test it.”
“Why me?”
“Well probably because I know you better than anyone else on the ship.”
“Right.”
“So, you okay with trying it out?”
“Sure.”
Liha connected the A.S.C to a computer terminal on another table and began programming it for the task before strapping it to Lyra.
“The straps are designed to expand if you turn into something much larger than your normal form,” Liha told her.  “And it also scans you before you activate it and stores your normal form in its memory so you can change back afterwards.  And I’m afraid we’re going to have to remove your arm, it won’t work with that.”
“Ok, hang on,” Lyra quickly removed the arm with magic and set it on a table.  “Will I grow one there as a Bolkarn?”
“I’m afraid not, the A.S.C uses what’s there to make the new form.  So if you have a limb missing as yourself it’ll be missing in whatever you turn into.”
“Darn.  What about the socket?”
“I’ve programmed the A.S.C. to grow around it, so it’ll be inside a stump.”
Once she’d finished strapping the A.S.C into place Liha stood back and examined her work, making sure it’d been done correctly.
“Okay, you ready for this?” she asked.
“I guess so,” Lyra said.
“Okay, here goes.”
Liha pressed a button on the A.S.C and Lyra felt herself changing and growing.  Her left foreleg became an arm; she felt fingers sprouting from what had previously been her hoof.  Her back legs expanded and the hooves extended into feet.  Her mane and tail receded, along with her horn.  Her eyes shrank and the rest of her body expanded.  Her increased weight caused her to overbalance thanks to her missing right forelimb.  Finally, the changes stopped.
“Did it work?” she asked, her voice was now a lot deeper.
“Perfectly,” Liha replied.  “Do you want a mirror?”
“No thank you, I’ve seen enough Bolkarn to guess at what I look like now.”
“Okay.  Try standing up.”
Lyra pulled herself up with the aid of one of the tables.  Slowly she raised herself onto her two legs, and steadied herself against a wall.
“Okay, now take a few steps forward.”
Lyra cautiously put a foot in front of her and took her hand off the wall.  Balancing on two legs wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be.  Then she took her other foot off the floor for another step and toppled over.
“Okay, you’re clearly going to need to practice walking but aside from that I’d say this worked,” Liha said.  “Get back up and I’ll change you back.”
Lyra got herself into a sitting position and Liha pressed another button on the A.S.C. to return her to normal before removing it and putting it back on the rack.
“Okay, now let’s take a look at the arm,” Liha said.
As she began examining the arm Lyra stayed sitting in the middle of the floor, an idea came to her.
“Liha, if the A.S.C. can change me into Bolkarn, can it be used to make some alterations to me but still keep me as a pony?” she asked.
“Yeah I should think so.  What sort of thing did you have in mind?”
“Could it change me so that I can walk on just my hind legs?”
“Yeah I think so.  Why?”
“Well…”