The power wasn't a single intelligence; it was many individual minds, swept up accidentally into the ship's systems, though they themselves didn't understand how that had happened. All they knew was that they weren't home any more and they were very angry about that. The ship had confused them at first, but after a few days of study they had learned to master its secrets. They hadn't thought the United States government possessed the technology to produce something as magnificent as this ship, but apparently a lot had happened since the nineteenth century. What confused them was the presence of another; like them, but of another place than they. They confronted each other on the Bridge; multiple semi-transparent bulky male forms meeting one thin female.
"What is this vessel that it rips us from our lands?" they asked of the other.
"It was an accident," she explained to the group. The group had a single leader, one that was stronger than the others and he now stood out somewhat from the rest. "Why did you kill the Humans? They meant you no harm!" she demanded of him.
"They betrayed us and stole us away from our homes. It is what they do; they've been doing it for years. Only recently have we acquired the means at our disposal to correct that," the leader informed her in an old, tired voice.
"What you're doing is wrong," she told them flatly.
There was a long pause. "Tell me something," the leader asked. "You are in the same predicament as we are; unable to rest and far from home. Were you taken away like we were?"
"No," she replied. "I chose to remain here."
"Why would you choose that?" the leader asked.
"My purpose here is not yet complete," she told him.
"Don't you wish to return home?"
"Of course I do, but I'm content to wait until the time is right," she responded.
"The time is right for us to return now," the leader replied. "We will do so, as we command this cold machine to take us back to the time and place of our involuntary departure."
"You should let the Humans take you back," she told them; an idea which was greeted by hollow raucous laughter. She continued once that had subsided, "If you go back now, they'll never get their ship back, and I'll be trapped on your world with you. I can't pilot this ship."
"You can learn just like we did. And it will actually be a boon if the Humans don't get this back; they'll think twice about snatching us away again," the leader proclaimed.
"I told you it was an accident!" she insisted but the forms had disappeared back into the ship's electronics and she was alone.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
Part Three of the "Kindred Spirits" trilogy is coming soon!
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