The Gemini System was a masterpiece of gravity.
Two massive Star-Entities—one blue, one gold—danced around each other in a tight, spiraling orbit. They were younger than Vitalis, their skin smooth and unscarred by aeons of travel.
But they weren't dancing. They were thrashing.
"Visual confirmed," The Queen stated on the bridge of Vitalis. "Targets identified: Gemini-Alpha and Gemini-Beta."
Zin stepped up to the viewport. His breath fogged the glass.
"My god," he whispered. "Look at the connection."
The Twins were not free. A colossal, silver structure—a metal ring the size of a planetary belt—encircled both entities, clamping them together.
Thick, mechanical cables pierced their sides, connecting their circulatory systems. The ring pulsed with a sickly green light, pumping synthetic hormones directly into their hearts.
"It's not a prison," Zin realized, reading the hormonal data streaming on his screens. "It's a fertility clinic."
Elara fell to her knees, clutching her stomach. "They are screaming, Zin. It hurts them. They are being forced to... to merge."
"Forced Mitosis," Zin corrected, his voice trembling with suppressed rage. "The League is inducing a reproductive cycle. But why?"
"Scan complete," The Queen announced. She brought up a 3D schematic of the metal ring.
In the center of the ring, suspended in a magnetic field between the two tortured parents, was a small, glowing sphere.
It was growing rapidly.
"A Zygote," Zin said. "A baby Star."
"Why force them to breed?" Gorge asked, looking at the screen. "Don't these things reproduce naturally?"
"Nature is messy," Zin explained, his eyes cold. "Nature creates random mutations. Nature creates wills. The League doesn't want a child. They want a Blank Slate."
He zoomed in on the Zygote. Mechanical probes were already inserted into the forming embryo.
"They are editing the DNA in real-time. They are lobotomizing the baby before it's even born. They are building a Star-Ship that is alive, but has no brain. A perfect, obedient slave."
The horror of it settled over the bridge.
To the Aseptic League, life was just hardware. They were manufacturing a fleet of living battleships.
"If that embryo reaches maturity," Zin said, "they will kill the parents and harvest the child. We have maybe... 4 hours."
"We can't fire the Phage Cannons," Elara warned, wiping her tears. "If we damage the ring, the feedback loop could stop the parents' hearts."
"We don't fire," Zin agreed. "We perform a C-Section."
He turned to the tactical map.
"The ring acts as an artificial placenta. It feeds the embryo. We need to board the ring, infiltrate the central laboratory, and sever the umbilical cables manually."
"Boarding action?" Gorge cracked his knuckles (which sounded like breaking rocks). "My favorite kind of surgery."
"This isn't a raid, Gorge. It's a rescue," Zin warned. "We are splitting the team."
Zin pointed to two locations on the massive metal ring.
"Team A (Gorge and the White Cells) will attack the Power Core here. Draw their fire. Make noise."
"Team B (Me and Elara) will infiltrate the Gene-Lab here. We need to detach the embryo safely and release the clamps holding the parents."
"And the baby?" Elara asked softly.
Zin looked at the glowing sphere in the magnetic field.
"We deliver it," Zin said. "Into the void. Vitalis can adopt it. But first, we have to kill the doctors."
"One problem," The Queen interrupted. "The ring is defended by 'The Antibody Elite'. Not droids. Not ships. But biological warriors engineered by the League."
"What kind of warriors?"
The Queen displayed an image intercepted from the ring's internal sensors.
The figure was tall, sleek, and white. It had no face, only a single vertical slit. It held a weapon that looked like a giant scalpel.
It moved with liquid grace.
"The White Phantoms," The Queen said. "They are designed to hunt viruses. Specifically... us."
Zin adjusted his coat. He checked the charge on his Starlight Scalpel.
"They hunt viruses," Zin said, walking to the airlock. "But they've never met a Cancer."
He looked back at his crew.
"Suit up. We are going to ruin their experiment."