Lyn was long used to violent conflict, and had for some time believed that they were no longer capable of being shocked, but the sheer ferocity of the tableau in front of them stopped them dead in their tracks. Barely a minute ago, their own ego would have assured them that if push truly came to shove, Novek would be first to become a liability in a fight — that assumption was now flipped on its head. Not because of a realization that he had some greater ability for violence — indeed, his was far less, in absolute terms. The capacity, or willingness — no, eagerness — on display made evident the vast gulf between them.

  A tremor of revelation shook the calcified foundations of their worldview, which cracked and split with the force of it. “We can win.”

  Nat and Moira had so far both remained silent as they took in the surrounding scene in the dim aetheric light. An eyebrow made of shadow within light lifted as the gestalt turned to Lyn. It was Nat who spoke, “Was that in question? I'm not positive he even needs our help.”

  Only at the response did Lyn realize that they'd whispered the words aloud. “What? No, not… How long until the Talent expires?”

  At most a few minutes with the extra mass, though since neither of you need to breathe regularly, Nat could speed things up if more time is needed.

  “If you could, please. We'll need enough time look down the halls, aid Novek, and find somewhere safe to exit the Talent.”

  “Will do.”

  The already dim world of the Talent darkened significantly, and Moira's overlay no longer tracked Nat's motions exactly, but instead seemed to catch up to him in flickering motion. Some softly glowing lines appeared on the ground, leading from the door about half way back into the room.

  The lines are the boundaries of the air, after that it'll get thick, so don't break your toes on it. Nat, unlike Lyn, you'll have to step out of the air bubble to trigger secondary respiration as soon as you start to feel short of breath. Also, let me know if you want more light anywhere in particular.

  “Thank you, Moira. I'm going to check on disabling the soldiers — could you make me a light, please? Nat, could you two check on Tanner and Khe?”

  A small, blurry ball of blue light coalesced, floating above Lyn's shoulder — six tiny wings flapped in a flickering stutter.

  Quietly, almost to themselves, Lyn whispered, “I may not be able to disable them without your help, at least not safely — I am not sure what effect the Talent will have. Will that cause you any difficulty?”

  Moira's voice was similarly quiet, only in Lyn's ear, Understood, but the difference even a significantly accelerated reference frame will make to electrical current is almost negligible.

  A small arc sparked as Lyn snapped their fingers — watching the behavior, “Good point — I can't see any difference. However, there is another potential issue — If I output normal power in a short burst, it will be as if I output tens, or hundreds of times more amps. I'm not sure that I can lower the power sufficiently to be safe, but still effective.”

  Oh. I may need a few turns to consider that.

  “I've never heard you say that, before. What does that mean?”

  We're going fast enough that long consideration on my part may have a noticeable delay.

  “Take your time — if it helps at all, without your aid, I would have to choose lethal levels, to be sure of our safety.”

  That does help, thanks.

  Moira's voice came out at full volume, Everyone watch your step for a moment, I'll be right back.

  Moira's glowing ball stuttered out and vanished, as did the overlay echoing Nat's motions. The room slowly began to dim, as the aetheric light ceased to be renewed.

  Nat's voice rang out from the other side of the room. “Lyn, I can't be totally sure without pushing my way through, but this entire hallway seems to be full of people trying to get others out of manacles and cages.”

  Lyn sucked in a breath before shouting back, “Well, that explains Novek — and limits our options. How does Tanner look?”

  “I can't be sure yet. I'll need to push up to check — Moira's senses couldn't see his other side.”

  I'm back. Okay, I am ready to materially participate in an activity that would, without my explicit participation, be assuredly be lethal to humans, in an attempt to reduce harm.

  “What? Lyn?”

  We're going to try to save these poor idiots from being slaughtered by Novek, by potentially electrocuting them. Say, they wouldn't happen to be demonstrably engaging in an attempt to harm other humans?

  “There's a bunch of Brin and Ber in these cages. I don't see any Humans, but maybe? Take a look for yourself.”

  I already did. I was hoping you found one I missed.

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  “No, sorry.”

  Lyn reached for the first subject. “This one is going to bleed out if their wound isn't cauterized immediately, which I will only do if I can be certain that they do not immediately become a threat.”

  Okay, that will have to do. Alas, it appears that Lyn has already started. Yes, it is a tragedy, but my hands are tied.

  Nat's confused question was quiet, but audible in the silence, “Who are you talking to?”

  My conscience.

  “Do you need my help over there? I can— Ow!” The sound of Nat's commentary was interrupted by a pained exclamation.

  Oh, thank goodness.

  Lyn turned to the small floating ball of light, even though they knew that Moira was no more there than anywhere else around them. “Thank goodness for what?”

  Nat just tripped over a bullet frozen in flight. It appears our gunners are poorly trained, and thus a menace to the other Humans in the hallway.

  Turning back to their test subject, Lyn's fingers sparked, and a tiny arc jumped between their thumb and forefinger, “Your creators made some strange choices — you know that, Moira? Help me modulate this for cauterization, please.”

  Okay, the frequency will be modified by the reference frame, it's being multiplied by the reference frame, effectively, so aim for the 500Hz range given our 600:1 average. Voltage is fine in the 700V range. Amperage is where this is going to get dicey. Aim for 1.5mA for a few seconds, then you'll need to observe if coagulation begins, else pulse again.

  Lyn took a moment to adjust — feeling for the frequency and power like a musician with perfect pitch. Once adjusted, they reached out and pressed finger and thumb to the gushing neck wound. “Okay, I can do that. Starting now.”

  Also, not to defend them, but there were no other species that had been determined to have sapience at the time my instructions were written.

  “Interesting. And who wrote the tests for that?”

  You don't even need to ask. Who else could it be?

  “And did they determine that you had sapience at the time?”

  Some of them believed it.

  “And so this was codified into law, then?”

  Not as such, no.

  “Mm. How's this look?” Lyn had performed two cycles, and could see that the skin had closed — even in the sped up frame, thirty seconds was sufficient to see the spray lessen.

  The arterial spray has reduced; it may be enough to allow the induced coagulation to hold.

  “You have to know that the odds of a successful arterial repair with only surface cauterization due to non-pliable tissue is… minimal.”

  As a wide man once said, ‘We try things, sometimes they work.’ Can you build a pressure bandage for this that will hold until he can get medical aid?

  “Yes, I've got something suitable, actually. Also, did you mean a wise man?”

  No, I said what I meant. So, bad news — I'm doing the math on incapacitation and I don't think it's feasible to do more than cause a single jolt or spasm. Great to disrupt aim, but unless significant damage is done, they'll recover quickly. You could potentially disrupt cardiac rhythms non-fatally, but that would take time.

  “And we can't just go faster because it's about heartbeats. Great. Well, as Ceress might say, Fewmets and tripe. Nat! Grab as many manacles as you can find — we're doing this the hard way. Bah, and I loved this jacket.” Lyn shucked their long leather coat, and began to cut lengthwise strips off the bottom with a scalpel from their medical kit.

  Thank you for trying for the non-lethal approach.

  “Think nothing of it. No, seriously — I'm doing this, in large part, so you don't have to agonize over it for the next few years. I remember last time. How many of these do I need?”

  Of the twelve, eight might survive long enough to need binding.

  “How's Nat doing?”

  Nat's voice called out, sounding strained, from down the hallway, “So, there's a problem with bringing air and then pushing into the airless sections.”

  Lyn looked up as Nat staggered back into view, “Oh. It's a gas. It fills them. You can't step out into the vacuum, can you?”

  “No. No I cannot.” He let go of three manacles, which did not drop to the floor as Lyn expected, but instead froze where they were left. The reference frame switches were playing havoc with Lyn's intuition.

  And there's no ventilation in here, to move the gas around.

  “If we could do this quickly, please. I am beginning to feel like I'm drowning — it is… unpleasant.”

  “Okay, slight adjustment to the plan, then. Throw the weapons if you can, break them otherwise. With four Brin-sized manacles, I think our best bet is to lock two peoples' legs together. I'll finish these strips and bind their wrists as best I can.”

  Obviously on his way to becoming distressed, Nat merely nodded and picked up the manacles. “Okay. I'm on it. Where… are we going to hide when we exit?”

  Lyn did not stop cutting the strips as they answered, “I don't think we'll have enough time to. I think we move around the corner, huddle behind one of the cages, and trust Novek to handle things while we reset.”

  You can always re-enter quickly, they'd need to know you're there, how the Talent works, and move quickly to make use of a three-second window.

  A minute later and Lyn was trying to figure out the best way to tie together hands which were nowhere near each-other. This was not going to be as easy as they'd thought. “Moira, can you handle letting Novek know what happened while we're out of pocket? Also, I have no idea how I'm going to bind this guy and I can't push his gun away without breaking his hand.”

  “And Tanner — don't forget Tanner.” Nat added, from where he was kneeling by a pair of soldiers he was trying to manacle together by the legs.

  Of course not. I'll bring them both up to speed. I need a minute to calculate a muscle contraction pulse, Lyn. Nat, could you do me a favor and go touch both Tanner and Novek behind the ear for a few seconds each, please? I need to keep track of them while you're down the hallway.

  Nat stood with an audible sound of discomfort, and moved to do as Moira requested.

  Okay, so for the ones you're not sure are bound — and honestly, maybe just everybody still moving — pick a major nerve cluster — arms for guys still holding guns, legs for the rest. Same voltage as before, but about 100mA — same biphasic pulse you use for surgery to avoid tissue damage. Hold it for, let's say ten seconds to ensure the muscle contraction starts.

  Less than two minutes later and theoretically Novek would have an easy time on cleanup. Lyn hung the remaining strips of leather over one of his furry wrists with a light twist so they wouldn't fly off when he landed.

  A further minute long walk to where Nat had retrieved the manacles, and they chose a spot behind one of the larger cages to crouch down — just a few meters from some who were still struggling to open the cages. Lyn hoped they didn't startle and become violent, but supposed that Moira would intervene if necessary. Nat sat down heavily, and leaned against the wall, gasping and flushed. He looked about at his limit — the oxygen levels were high enough that Lyn hadn't noticed a decline, but then again Lyn didn't have the carbon-dioxide response which caused the human suffocation response.

  “Sorry, Nat. Thanks for putting up with this. Ready when you are.”

  His breath came in ragged gasps, but he still took the time to answer. “Even if they're… bad people… it's the… right thing… to do.”