ã€ŠFoundation of Allã€‹


 Chapter 1: The End and Beginning

    Sean remembered Mom¡¯s strained smile as she went outside of town for the last time. He had never thought that it would be her last¡­

    ¡°Sean!" Intuli shouted over the speaker just above Sean''s head, "Quit staring into space and get back to work, unless you want to end up like your parents!¡±

    Sean suppressed his anger at the man as he refocused on the bulky scanner in his hands. He held it up to the perimeter defense turret silently. Intuli was the son of the Chief Elder and had received his position of Perimeter Warden through nepotism alone. You think being responsible for the safety of the village would lead to Intuli at least doing something useful. But no, all it did was let him to lord his cruelty over everyone else while he was doing it, so proud of his position he hadn''t earned.

    The scanner beeped and a hologram of the internals of the machine appeared in front of Sean with reddish and blue highlights to show the wear on the parts. He inspected it for a moment to make sure the whole thing was scanned properly, before switching to another setting and repeating the process. He was scanning all two hundred and forty-four turret emplacements around the village over the day, and was only halfway finished. He would go over the holograms later and see what parts he would need to switch out on his next trip.

    Sean stared out over the green fields of crops between the defensive line and the village proper. All cultivated by automated drones, Sean was the only person who ever had to leave the village. Besides the hunters of course. But the meat they brought back was not necessary, only something to increase the variety to their diet.

    Enguli was a harsh planet teeming to the brim with hostile wildlife and their turrets saw frequent use. If a larger group of the hostile wildlife assaulted him at the moment Sean could be overrun and killed before he could flee to the village perimeter and internal defenses. The hunters only went out if a hive or den settled nearby and began growing too large or aggressive, their purpose more as a defensive force against the beasts than true hunters for food.

    It still burned at him that the elders had forced his mother to continue the dangerous patrols. Even after his father had been killed in an unlucky attack from a hive that had gone unnoticed by the hunters. They hadn¡¯t wanted to risk one of the general engineers, instead making the undesirables do it instead. He seethed as he performed the rest of his scans for the day, Intuli occasionally popping in from the speakers to give a snide comment or insult him for being lazy. Like Intuli would ever risk his precious self for an instant in the service of the community. Sean finished the last scan and started his way back with a long sigh.

    He couldn¡¯t believe that he was the only one left. The only one that¡­ that had first hand experience fixing the turrets. It was the role of their family for dozens of generations and now he was the only one who knew outside of a simulation or specifications manual out of a village of hundreds. Intuli and his idiotic father seemed to think that they should just force the general engineers to learn all the little quirks or intricacies of the machines, or install corporate insured turrets. They would do away with their hard earned independence from the rest of the galaxy.

    Foolish... Sean¡¯s parents had told him some of the horrors of the wider world and universe. He still had nightmares sometimes, waking up in a sweat after imagining a Plaguebringer had come to the village and left only empty buildings and bloated corpses in their wake. Breathing out pestilence and plague with every one of their rotted breaths. And on a more practical note they were out of the influence of galaxy wide entities that would crush them under their boots if the town became too dependent on them. Any one of them hunting through the galaxy looking to pounce on any sign of weakness to bend the village to their influence.

    Sean waited patiently in front of the forcefield walling off the fields of crops. Intuli made him wait a long five minutes outside, before begrudgingly lowering Sean¡¯s section of the shield so he could walk back inside. At least Intuli didn¡¯t bother him as he made his way home. Sean unlocked the door with his keycard and entered the small apartment. What used to be his family''s apartment. He stared longingly at the empty room that his mother used to occupy only months ago. Then he sighed and after cleaning himself off went to his room and collapsed into bed after a quick nutripaste meal. He was exhausted after the long day, and from having to bite his tongue as Intuli berated him out of what seemed to be boredom more than anything else. At least Sean could spend the next week or so going over the scans and creating a schedule for himself for his maintenance trips on the turrets. That was work where he wouldn''t have to deal with other people for a while at least.

    He drifted off to sleep, dreaming of spare parts and repair procedures. At least it distracted him from the loneliness and the void he felt in his chest. At least he was continuing his parents legacy even after their deaths. He wondered if they would be proud of him now...

    <hr>

    Sean walked past the council building, only to frown as he saw an unfamiliar man inside with the elders. Intuli also stood there straight backed in a formal uniform. Sean slowed his pace and lingered at the threshold and Intuli turned and spotted him in the distance. Seeing his gaze, the stranger turned as well and Sean saw the logo plastered on the breast of the man¡¯s sharp suit.

    He clenched his jaw and had to restrain himself from marching over there. They were talking with someone from the Ruska State?! Sean¡¯s parents had told him how that country treated towns that fell under their control; they would all be nothing more than slaves if they gained a foothold here. Ruled by soulless regulations of a government spanning hundreds of systems that would evict them and replace them with automated drones before considering humoring them from disagreeing with even their smallest regulation.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    The man wasn¡¯t even wearing a filtration mask. What if he was carrying a Plaguebringer disease from some other world? They didn¡¯t have the medical technology here to cure something or create rapid vaccines if one of them caught something from the man. The elders were risking all their lives by bringing the man here. Sean nearly walked inside the building and lifted his leg before forcefully stopping himself. He schooled his face as the elders and Ruska corporation representative turned to stare at him. He lowered his leg and with some difficulty turned around and marched off in a much worse mood than before. The elders already hated him enough with the goading of Intuli¡¯s father, no need to make it any worse for himself. They wouldn''t listen to him anyway.

    <hr>

    Sean took the replacement part from his bag and set it onto the ground next to him. Many would think that they would be standard, but no, that would be too simple. All of the internals on the turrets were slightly different so they would be harder to repair by small groups like them, forcing them to buy new machines more often. It was only due to Sean¡¯s experience and the notes his parents had left behind that he knew exactly what part he should order to service each of them, and how to weed out the scammers that would send scrap metal on the next shipment instead of the parts he ordered.

    Sean opened up the panel to the turret and powered it off and started fiddling with the internals. He had spent weeks going over the scans and planning these trips so he would only have to be out here for repairs for a limited amount of time. He started disassembling the thing carefully in order to get at the ion converter in the center that needed replacing. He took the old and slightly rusted part out after ten minutes and picked up the replacement with his other hand. He placed it back inside and after a moment began reconnecting the tubes and electrical to hook it back to the defense turret.

    Sean finished and then paused as he spotted movement out of the corner of his vision. He turned and squinted into the forest and froze as he saw the trees swaying in the distance. Shit¡­ Sean shot to his feet and started running back to the shield while cursing Intuli¡¯s laziness. Wasn¡¯t he supposed to be warned if a swarm was incoming? Now one of their turrets was down and it would probably be destroyed as the beasts stomped it into the ground and ruined it¡­

    Sean reached the barrier of the shield panting just as the first of the beasts emerged from the treeline. These appeared to be a swarm of large emerald backed beetles, each as big as Sean in size and covered in a shiny carapace reinforced by the distinctive shininess of metals.

    Sean waited and looked up to the cameras he knew were there as the shield remained closed. ¡°Intuli! Let me in!¡± he shouted, glancing back as the swarm continued to charge towards him, sweat on his brow.

    There was no response.

    ¡°LET ME IN INTULI OR BY THE SHADOW I SWEAR I¡¯LL¡­!¡±

    The speaker above Sean¡¯s head clicked and there was only static over it for a moment as Sean cut himself off and waited impatiently for Intuli¡¯s response.

    ¡°Goodbye, Sean,¡± Intuli said with a nasty lilt in his voice, ¡°Say hello to your parents for me.¡±

    Then the speaker clicked off and Sean turned around and stared in horror at the clicking jaws of the swarm of beetles barely two hundred meters away. Intuli¡­ He was doing it on purpose. He was leaving him here to die!

    Sean could only watch in resignation as the swarm kept charging forward towards him, moving right past the disassembled turret he had been working on. There was no hope for escape as the creatures charged at him faster than some of the vehicles Sean had driven.

    He closed his eyes and threw himself to the ground in the hope they would pass above him. But the horrors never passed up fresh meat and Sean felt their jaws begin to tear into him. He coughed and opened his eyes again to find his whole view filled with black chitin jaws and emerald green shells.

    Sean¡¯s vision began fading rapidly as the insects began to devour him. One of them shifted and Sean got one last look into the sky. And the shadowy figure peering down at him with bright orange eyes watching with intense interest as Sean was torn to pieces. The Shadow itself watching and judging him, weighing his worthiness from a hundred feet away floating unmoving in the air. Then the beetles shifted again and Sean could only briefly scream as a pair of mandibles gripped his head on either side.

    The Shadow above him raised its pitch black arm, palm held towards him with its fingers splayed outwards in the distance. The sounds of the world around him suddenly changed in pitch, warbling and shifting as if Sean was suddenly underwater. Everything around him slowed down until the mandibles gripping his skull shifted inwards at a snail¡¯s pace before freezing in place. The leaves on the trees in the distance, the spray of blood bursting from his wounds, it was all frozen in time around him.

    But even with everything frozen, the distorted warbles and screeches grew even louder as suddenly the Shadow appeared directly in front of him, palm now less than a foot from his face.

    Sean could only sit there frozen in time as the Shadow''s open palm approached his head, its orange glowing eyes remaining fixed unerringly on him. He could hear whispers and voices in the sounds now, just barely incomprehensible and out of reach.

    The pitch black hand was inches from Sean¡¯s face, and he thought he was just on the cusp of understanding them, the voices. The Shadow¡¯s hand covered Sean¡¯s vision, and suddenly he realized all the voices were repeating the same thing over and over again. They started speaking softly, thousands of voices of all types and pitches saying a single word. Men and women young and old, every tone and timber of voice one could imagine represented.

    ¡°Immortal, Immortal, Immortal.¡±

    The voices grew louder and more intense,

    ¡°Immortal, Immortal, Immortal, Immortal.¡±

    The thousands of voices were screaming at the tops of their lungs now, their voices blending together that assaulted Sean in a wall of noise as he lay there unable to even move his eyes from the Shadow''s orange orbs.

    ¡°IMMORTAL, IMMORTAL, IMMORTAL!¡±

    And then just as fast as it started, the voices suddenly went silent and the Shadow drew back its hand. It straightened upwards and stared at Sean for a long moment in their frozen time, before it flickered and was far away again.

    It still stared at him with its orange eyes, floating exactly where it had first appeared in the beginning.

    ¡°Immortal,¡± It said and the world shook and twisted in his vision, rumbling and bucking at the word. The chaos grew and grew until in one large crack like shattering glass the Shadow disappeared, and time resumed.

    And suddenly Sean remembered the beetle¡¯s mandibles clenched around his head. Their grip suddenly became punishing as they clenched inwards and Sean¡¯s head was crushed into paste before he could react.

 Chapter 2: The Savior

    Sean woke up to wind whipping at him as a blur of green leaves whipped above him. Several somethings were pinching his arms and legs as he moved. He struggled a bit and one of the pinches suddenly grew tight and Sean could only scream as his left arm was cleanly severed just above the elbow by the jaws of what he could see were the beatles carrying him. He thrashed wildly in pain screaming and to his surprise the creature that had bit him hissed and drew back, its carapace bubbling like it had been dipped in acid where Sean pointed his stump. In a desperate bid to get the others to release him, Sean quickly pointed the stump of his arm around him and wherever it pointed material bubbled away as a result.

    Sean was unceremoniously dropped to the ground at full speed and rapidly rolled until he slammed directly into a tree faster than most vehicles. He felt bone and flesh crunch and blacked out for a moment.

    When he came to, Sean was laying on top of a pile of woodchips. He quickly scrambled to his feet in his tattered clothes and glanced around frantically to see himself surrounded by the beetles on all sides, breathing heavily as he began to panic as he saw that he was surrounded. They kept their distance and clicked their jaws and Sean stared at his left arm and blinked. His hand¡­ his arm, it was there completely unharmed. Everything had gone so fast, maybe he had just imagined it in his panic? Sean looked around, but saw the pitted and damaged shells of some of the creatures around him.

    He glanced back to his arm with the missing sleeve. What in the world was happening? He had died at least three times now and yet here he was in the middle of the forest¡­

    One of the beetles darted forward out of the crowd and Sean tried to dodge but it managed to grab his leg, making sure to not injure him. He could feel its firm but gentle grip as he pounded fruitlessly on its head with his fists. It felt like his father¡¯s hand gently pulling him away when he was a child and being stubborn¡­

    With one of his limbs pinned, the other beetles rushed in and grabbed him as well and started dragging him away again. Sean thrashed until one of them reflexively injured him and then he would wave his stump over them to injure them and force them to let him go and back off. This repeated several times and to Sean¡¯s rising panic.

    As he kept going he also noted that he wasn¡¯t feeling anything more than slightly exhausted as he continually thrashed and fought for hours against the growing swarm of beetles. But he felt helpless as he did so, no matter what he did, what he tried they always ended up capturing him again. The sun began to lower in the sky and the forest grew darker and darker. The farther they carried him the more and more that seemed to gather despite him managing to kill several as he fought.

    Sean finished fighting them back and they all backed off and watched him as his severed arm began to regenerate from nothing. It was happening faster and faster as time passed, and Sean watched dejectedly as the bones of his forearm and hands appeared out of thin air one white grain of bone at a time, his eyes darting to the swarm around him.

    It was odd, Sean mused as his head snapped to the side as one of the beetles shifted forward slightly during this strange time of peace between his battle with the beetle swarm. This only time he had a break from the constant battle. He almost wished his arm would heal slower to give him more time. An odd wish and not something he would ever imagine thinking yesterday. But a thought he kept coming back to nonetheless.

    He raised his arm and moved his detached bone hands with no muscle or tendons in place. A few seconds later the muscles and tendons sprouted from nothing and then covered the bones. Then the muscles, then the skin¡­ and then he was fully healed.

    Sean¡¯s breathing hitched as one of the beetles charged him again after a few more moments of waiting. Time to go another round despite his mental if not physical exhaustion.

    <hr>

    It had been five days and Sean had been able to accomplish nothing to escape the swarm. Clearly they were trying to bring him somewhere, but Sean was completely lost in the wilds and had no idea where he should go for safety. There had been the engines of several ships flying overhead in the last day, but none of Sean¡¯s shouting or the swarm of beetles seem to have been noticed by any of them.

    Sean¡¯s arm was bitten off again and he started flailing it around. Something odd had happened after the first day. There was a moment where the beetles had swarmed in on him that it all seemed like too much. He had just curled into a ball and started shaking as they rushed inwards, barely even hearing them. The world started fading away around him, his mind caught in an endless loop of panic and stress. But then the next moment it had all just washed away and he was calm again. For the next hour he was perfectly emotionless as he mechanically fought the beetles around him by using the dissolving power when his limbs were severed.

    This state of nothingness ended after some time, and Sean returned to baseline. Scared, but not in an irrational state of panic like before. Over the course of the next day it built up again as his panic increased more and more. Faster and faster, before he reached the breaking point and returned to sweet nothingness again.

    It now took eight or less hours before the cycle completed as Sean reached the fifth day. He had returned to emotionlessness less than ten minutes ago and fought as efficiently as he could. He wondered what happened when the cycle of panic was shorter than his protected emotionless hour. Would he be stuck like this forever? He didn¡¯t care right now, but he knew he would when his emotions returned.

    Sean absentmindedly kept fighting the nearby beetles. The power was eating away at the creatures much faster now, but as a trade off he now had much less time before he fully regenerated again. The effect was strange, Sean mused as he plunged his stump directly onto the head of the closest beetle to kill it. At first he had thought it was like acid, but it wasn¡¯t like that exactly. He still had a phantom sensation of his arm and as his arm regenerated pieces of the beetle disappeared into nothing as if little chunks had been scooped out of it. Something that Sean had discovered killed it rather quickly when Sean¡¯s phantom arm was through its brain.

    Sean kept fighting through the woods, unsure what else he could do. He definitely didn¡¯t want to go wherever the swarm wanted him to go, but he could only fight them off for a little while before his wounds healed again and he was vulnerable to them once more. He only had forty more minutes before his panic began building again and he started descending into irrational panic.

    It was now the eighth day and Sean was unsure why the beetles would be taking him so far. Wouldn¡¯t their nest be near town for them to attack? Why were they so focused on him? He could understand them learning to try not to injure him after getting a hurt a few times, but they moved with purpose that was unusual from most of the hostile beasts on this planet.

    But there was finally hope of escape. The sounds of ships engines had sounded above him for days, but all had passed by without stopping. Except one that had descended past the treeline in the distance an hour ago. Ever since Sean had been furiously fighting towards it, making sure to only injure beetles in that direction so the whole swarm gradually shifted towards the spot.

    He didn¡¯t have many landmarks, but there were two distinctive hills in the distance that he was heading towards in that general direction. He just hoped whoever was on that ship was friendly and could handle the beetles gathered around him.

    Sean after killing a few of the insects and clearing space again quickly climbed a nearby tree to regain his bearings. He had started doing this four days ago to delay them picking him up again, but it was only coming into use now that he had an actual destination to fight towards.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    He had to climb the tree now so he could focus and plot his route while he remained emotionless. His cycle panic was down to less than two hours now. One hour calm, and two where he rapidly spiraled as the seemingly never ending swarm pressed in on him from all sides.

    But he had to focus on his task. His emotional self worried about the consequences of the rapidly accelerating panic cycle more than was productive, there was no use thinking on it further. Sean had to focus on his task and getting to the ship first. He was sure he was getting close.

    Unfortunately the insects had no qualms in using their jaws to saw through the base of the tree to knock it down. But with big leaps as the tree toppled, Sean was sometimes able to grab onto the next tree nearby and delay the time before he had to directly fight the swarm again. The tree groaned and began to fall and Sean jumped and pushed off at the last moment to grab a nearby branch on a neighboring tree. His hands slipped as he twisted under the momentum and he plummeted to the ground head first.

    Shit¡­ he thought before his head hit a rock full force and everything went black again.

    He woke up with his head and upper torso surrounded in stone and his legs sticking up in the air. He felt odd, more collected than he had in days. Yet he still felt normal emotions, including panic. But it was no longer like a surging wave pulsing up within him.

    Instead it was a steady tongue of flame waiting for fuel to burn. For him to start panicking again. Sean felt the jaws of the insects tugging and pulling on him trying to pull him out of the stone but he was stuck tight, wedged deeply in a crevice in the stone. He could barely even open his mouth in the tiny space encasing his head on all sides in stone, but near his hips he could shift himself a tiny bit.

    His chest burned a little bit and Sean realized that he hadn¡¯t breathed for almost two minutes without even thinking about it. He waited for the burn to become excruciating and his vision to grow dim, but nothing happened. He just remained with the light burning in his chest as the insects kept trying to extract him from the rock. He nearly laughed as they continued to fail in their task.

    Was this the solution the whole time, to just root himself headfirst in a stone? It was soothing to him, hearing the swarm chipping away at the rock. The vibrations shook his body like some sort of deep massage he had heard about villagers who went to the capital talk about. Only the firm tugs and wiggles on his legs exposed to the air made it feel any different. Every second he was stuck in here was another second he wasn¡¯t being dragged away by them. That was good, and helped him keep his panic down for now.

    But the swarm was persistent and for an indeterminate amount of time kept trying to extract him to minor success. Eventually he heard them scraping away at the stone in an apparent attempt to mine him out, but it was very slow progress. They had excavated him up to his chest before suddenly there was a series of electric crackles and screeches and they stopped.

    Sean heard a muffled female voice above him, but couldn¡¯t make out what she was saying. There was a long pause before she said something else, a little annoyance entering her tone. Sean felt a pinch as something nicked one of his legs before the voice demanded something again, sounding exasperated. Sean wriggled a bit, but he was wedged in the stone tightly and unable to move too much.

    There was silence from above as Sean kept trying to find a way to escape but nothing he could think of worked. He kept moving until suddenly in a blast of blazing pain he felt a sharp blade pass through his ribs and hit his spine, and then suddenly it was like he had teleported onto the trampled grass outside, blinking at the light of the sun above him. Sean just sat there and let out a long breath as he lay there in the tattered remainders of his pants.

    ¡°You alright there, pal?¡± a woman¡¯s voice said and a shadow fell over his face. Sean turned his head towards her and blinked as he sat up and took notice of his bloodstained and nearly naked state. He looked back up at her. Her black hair contrasted with her blue eyes and freckles on pale skin.

    She was wearing a gray and metallic tight fitting suit under what appeared to be some sort of assorted black body armor with menacing black metal plates over her chest, shoulders, and down to her thighs. She had an oversized pistol strapped at her hip, that''s what she must have used to kill the beetles around him. He knew from experience that they dragged their dead away whenever they could, so the swarm had probably escaped with the corpses after the woman chased them off.

    ¡°Ah, you don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d have any clothes I could borrow?¡± He asked hesitantly, ¡°Thanks for saving me there. Who- Who are you?¡±

    She rolled her eyes and took a metallic bracelet off of her arm and threw it to Sean, which he caught. He inspected it for a moment before shrugging and put it on. The woman stared at him with an eyebrow raised as he fumbled with it before eventually finding a button on one side. As soon as he pressed it a metallic gray mesh like the one under the woman¡¯s armor spread over Sean¡¯s body, leaving only his hand and feet exposed as well as everything above the neck. He stared at it in wonder. This thing must cost a fortune to be deployed from a little wristband like that!

    It was¡­ rather tight. Not physically uncomfortable, but it did leave him feeling a little exposed still as the woman stared him down.

    ¡°Seriously?¡± The woman interrupted his thoughts, ¡°It¡¯s like you¡¯ve never seen a clothing wristband before, they¡¯ve been around for millions of years already. They¡¯re practically everywhere in cities these days. Now, you¡¯ve got your clothes. Care to explain what you¡¯re doing all the way out here on the outer rim? You¡¯re lucky I found you out here before one of those stuck up enforcers noticed all the commotion in this sector because of you.¡±

    ¡°The rim?¡± Sean asked in confusion, ¡°I¡¯ve never heard it called that before, our star proximity density isn¡¯t nearly small enough to be considered the edge of the Human galaxy¡­¡±

    ¡°Milky way galaxy¡­¡± the woman said in annoyance, eye twitching as she heard Sean¡¯s use the common name for it.

    ¡°Err¡­ sure,¡± he replied unsure why she was being so hostile after saving him, ¡°I mean, I was born here. Haven¡¯t ever been anywhere else.¡±

    ¡°Hah, a likely story,¡± she said skeptically, ¡°Do you even have a permit from the Immortal council to be out here? You should know the treaties¡­ You¡¯re at least twenty or thirty right? They¡¯ve been around since far before you were born.¡±

    ¡°What? Yeah, I¡¯m twenty five. Immortals, like in the stories? What are you talking about? I¡¯ve never heard of this council before.¡±

    She gave him a flat look, ¡°Immortals? The group you and I belong to? C¡¯mon, don¡¯t make this any harder than it has to be. I cut you in half to get you wedged out of that rock, you¡¯re not fooling anyone by playing dumb. Just pay the fine, give an explanation for what you were doing out here, and you¡¯ll be fine I promise. They¡¯re surprisingly reasonable as far as governments go. As long as you¡¯re not on one of their shit lists already.¡±

    Sean stared at his hands in horror, ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m immortal? Does¡­ does that mean I¡¯m a Plaguebringer too? But¡­¡±

    ¡°Plaguebringer? What do you¡­¡± she paused and a look of realization washed over her face. Suddenly she looked incredibly guilty and swallowed before speaking again, ¡°Say, um. When I asked you your age¡­ Was that in years or millennia? Centuries maybe?¡±

    ¡°Years?¡± Sean asked in confusion, ¡°Who asks each other their age in centuries or millennia? That¡¯s absurd.¡±

    Her face crumpled and she looked mortified as she stared at him, ¡°Oh,¡± she said before flushing slightly.

    ¡°I¡¯m¡­ uh, God I can¡¯t believe I was acting like that to someone new. Uhm, Err. No, you¡¯re not a Plaguebringer. I¡¯m sorry¡­ I was just acting like a total bitch, I didn¡¯t realize your situation. I¡­ Fuck! I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll be back with my speeder in a few minutes. I¡¯ll explain then.¡±

    She turned around and stormed off completely flushed as Sean stared after her in confusion. What was going on? First she interrogates him like he¡¯s a criminal and then gets flustered and storms off without explaining anything? But at least she had saved him from the swarm and given him some clothes¡­

    <hr>

    Emily angrily punched in the code to unlock and start up her speeder hoverbike that she had left in the woods after chasing off that swarm of flesh beetles. God, she was such an idiot! How could she ruin her first impression on a new immortal like that! She growled at herself as she mounted the bike, angry at herself for assuming he was some sort of refugee or criminal. It was just¡­ What were the chances of her meeting someone brand new? Her?

    She was almost glad that her girlfriend Asuta wasn¡¯t here with her. At least she hadn¡¯t punched him in the face after meeting the new Immortal to ¡®test his strength¡¯ or something equally stupid without even asking any questions first. Yes, best that she wasn¡¯t here. She always got Emily in trouble when they were meeting new people¡­

    She had only dropped by to investigate on a whim, and now she had ruined her first impression on him. At least she had saved him from the flesh beetle swarm, that must have been an unpleasant few decades of an introduction to his immortality. She twisted the speeder around and started carefully navigating between the trees trying to compose herself as she went back to the¡­ still unnamed new immortal. Hopefully she could still salvage things with him¡­ He would need her help if he wanted to stay safe while he got used to his new reality.

 Chapter 3: Explanation

    Sean looked up from the bloody upper half of his severed torso that had been left embedded in the rocks to the side. He wanted to look away, but his eyes kept getting drawn to it. He had regenerated from that? He had always thought about immortals as¡­ untouchable. Forces of nature bringing terror to the worlds they visited. Plaguebringers bring pestilence and disease with every touch. And now he was one? He¡­ he just had to wait and the woman would come back and explain everything. She would make it all make sense. Now that the swarm was gone the panic in his chest was rapidly fading away, slowly dying down as no more beetles reappeared from the empty woods around him.

    Apparently he wasn¡¯t a Plaguebringer according to the woman, which was a relief. It was only after the woman left that everything she had said began to sink in. There was some kind of immortal government that was in charge and he wasn¡¯t supposed to be this far out of the Human Galaxy. Would they arrest him for being here?

    Sean saw the woman guiding her speeder through the trees at a measured pace. She silently pulled it up and parked the vehicle right in front of him. She dismounted and stood next to the hoverbike for a second seeming unsure of herself before approaching him again with a firm expression.

    ¡°So, uhm. Sorry about before,¡± she said, her voice wavering a little with tension, ¡°I assumed things were different, and I know this must be very confusing for you right now. I- Just sorry. Want to start again from the beginning?¡±

    She lifted her hand and held it out to him.

    ¡°I¡¯m Emily Stenson. It''s nice to meet you.¡±

    Sean stared at her outstretched hand in slight confusion. What was this gesture? He stuck his hand out as well and positioned it a handspan away so they weren¡¯t touching. She looked nervous as she stared at him and her body was strung tight with tension. Sean held his hand away from her and her eyes flickered with confusion for a moment before her face flushed with embarrassment again.

    ¡°I¡¯m Sean Turretson. Nice to meet you Emily,¡±

    Emily lowered her hand and Sean followed her lead. She stared at her hand that had been held out for a moment before looking back at him.

    ¡°Sean. I¡­ I haven¡¯t heard a name like that in a¡­ very long time. Sean.¡±

    ¡°Uhm¡­ Okay,¡± Sean said, a little weirded out by the intensity in her voice. He quickly tried to change the subject, ¡°So, ah. Immortals. This¡­¡± he gestured to the blood everywhere and his corpse embedded in the rock, ¡°Should we leave before more beasts smell the blood?¡±

    Emily shook her head and refocused on Sean seeming to have forgotten he was there for a moment, ¡°Ah, yes. Good idea, I have a shuttle and we¡¯ll be safe in there and I can take you to my ship in orbit,¡± She said, ¡°Hop on my speeder and I¡¯ll take you there. It''s only a few minutes away.¡±

    Sean hesitated as Emily climbed on the speeder before looking around him. There really was a rather large amount of blood here. And he was coated in it as well, even if his new clothes managed to cover most of it.

    Before getting on and after a second''s hesitation he took off the bloody rags that used to be his former clothes and left them on the ground in a lumpy pile, leaving him only in the silvery bracelet clothing. That done, he quickly walked over and hopped onto the seat behind her. She started driving off and Sean held onto a little handle in front of him embedded in the hoverbike.

    After ten or so awkward minutes of silence between them they arrived at a clearing where an egg-like ship sat with four legs holding it in the air dominating the large clearing. It had odd spikes and bumps all over its dull gray surface and stripes of black paint coated its surface at all sorts of strange angles.

    Emily and Sean dismounted the bike and after typing a code into a panel on the ship a hanger door opened and a ramp extended out to a garage. Emily came back and started driving the hoverbike up the ramp to park it back in the ship. Sean kept staring at the ship, trying to figure out what the strange patterns and protrusions could possibly be for, his inner mechanic forcing him to try to solve the mystery.

    ¡°Camouflage.¡±

    Sean jumped as Emily¡¯s voice sounded from in front of him. He looked at her and saw that she had relaxed fractionally from how tense she had been before. On seeing his look, she chuckled slightly and gestured to the ship.

    ¡°The weird shape, the black paint. It scatters the light when it hits the ship and makes it stealthier than something that was smooth. That¡¯s what you were looking at, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Sean replied, ¡°Thanks, Emily. That makes sense.¡±

    They stared at each other for a moment. ¡°Well, ah. To the ship,¡± Emily said before she turned and marched into the ship as the silence grew awkward.

    Sean followed behind her. It wasn¡¯t like he had anywhere else to go at the moment and she seemed to be trying to be nice even if she was a little strange¡­

    <hr>

    There were no windows as they left orbit, only the dull roar of the shuttle and Sean being pressed against his seat telling him that they were moving at all. After a while the engines suddenly cut off while Emily pressed various switches and monitored a whole board of dials and displays. Sean opened his mouth to ask a question before closing it again. Emily looked very busy and he didn¡¯t want to distract her and make her mess up whatever she was doing. He knew at least that much from his time repairing the defense turrets around his town.

    Eventually there was a heavy clunk and Emily sat back and let out a sigh of relief. Sean felt a little forces pressing on him as the shuttle continued maneuvering a little bit. Seeing that everything looked finished Sean asked the question he had been wondering as he watched Emily operating the shuttle.

    ¡°You don¡¯t use an AI pilot?¡± he asked her.

    She looked at him and shook her head, ¡°No, as much as I¡¯d like to let one of them do it, it''s a risk. They work perfectly until they screw up, and then they really catastrophically screw up whatever they¡¯re doing when that happens. As an immortal it gets annoying to constantly switch them out and root out the corporate or government spyware built into all of them. It''s way easier to just go old school and do the piloting more manually. At least then when you crash you know it was your own fault and not some software bug.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    ¡°Speaking from experience? I mean¡­ I¡¯m still wrapping my head around all of this. You must have done so much. I¡¯ve heard so much about immortals and what they do,¡± Most bad, " but what does it really mean?¡±

    She looked at him and with a final clunk the ship finished docking and there was a hydraulic hiss somewhere in the ship of a door opening. Emily unstrapped herself and stood while looking a little conflicted, ¡°Come on, the main ship is way more comfortable. But¡­ yeah. Luckily it''s only happened two or three times that an AI actually destroyed my ship like that under me. But once it happens you keep thinking about it whenever you fly. Better to retain some control of your flight yourself rather than stressing about it all the time.¡±

    Sean stood and followed after her down the metal hallway to the border between the shuttle and the main ship. They stepped through the hatch and the main ship hallway seemed just as cold as clinical as the shuttle they had just exited.

    ¡°I guess I get that,¡± Sean said, ¡°My parents were the same about maintenance robots. They always said repairing they would work perfectly on the turrets we had until there was a complex problem and then break everything else trying to solve something it didn¡¯t understand.¡±

    Emily gave Sean a surprised glance, ¡°Your parents are mechanics? If you want I can head back down and bring them here, you¡¯re a wanted man down there but I can do whatever you need. Give them enough money for them to be filthy rich, relocate them somewhere else. Bring them up here to the ship. Whatever you want.¡±

    Sean looked at her in surprise. ¡°Really? You would have done that for me so soon after you met me?¡± he said.

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± she said, ¡°You¡­ you only have so much time with your mortal family. It''s important to cherish them while you still can. Money means nothing to me, but it could be everything to them.¡±

    ¡°That¡­¡± Sean felt his eyes water slightly and his voice lowered into a whisper, ¡°I wish I could. I really do. But they¡¯re dead, murdered by Intuli and his father¡­¡±

    ¡°MURDERED!¡± Emily shouted, shocked, and stopped walking, ¡°Jesus, I mean. I¡¯m so sorry Sean. Do you need help for your revenge? I can help with that too if you need it.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Sean said blinking, ¡°Revenge? But¡­ I¡­ What about that immortal council? Aren¡¯t I some sort of fugitive on the planet or something? I just kind of assumed¡­¡±

    Emily shook her head and looked emotional, ¡°No. Listen, if you leave you won¡¯t come back here for centuries at the least if the council has their way. Everyone involved would be long dead and then they¡¯ll just¡­ You have to resolve things now before the people who did this to you get away with it. Then we can get you out of here to a calmer sector where you can start adjusting to your new life.¡±

    ¡°Speaking from experience?¡± Sean asked hesitantly, unsure where her instant support was coming from.

    ¡°Yes¡­ I¡­ too many to count. Literally, I¡¯ve forgotten most of them because I waited too long to respond to something.¡±

    ¡°Look¡­¡± Sean said, ¡°Thank you, really. For saving me from the swarm and bringing me here. But please be straight with me. Why are you helping me like this? Why do so much? I¡¯m trying to understand, but you seem awfully invested in my problems for someone I met hours ago.¡±

    Emily kept walking and turned right and a heavy metal door slid upward with a hydraulic hiss. Behind it was a well furnished room with a couch and several chairs scattered around. There was a thick red rug on the ground and the walls were plated with some kind of wood. A wave of warm air washed over Sean to contrast with the cool air of the metallic hallway they had been in.

    Emily walked inside and sat down in one of the luxurious chairs. Sean followed her lead and sat opposite her, Emily still having not responded to his question. They stared at each other for a moment as various expressions flickered over Emily¡¯s face as she stared at him.

    Eventually, she sighed. ¡°Look, I understand how strange this must be for you. Living forever with the consequences of your actions is a new concept for you. You¡¯re new to immortal life and that¡¯s why I want to protect you so much. There¡¯s a lot of bad situations and people out there that spoil what should be the best period of your life, and I don¡¯t want that to happen to anyone else if I can. These first few centuries¡­ Your whole life if you can manage it¡­¡±

    She trailed off and looked nostalgic, ¡°They should be to improve yourself, adjust to your new life. Pursue your passions in a way you never could as a mortal. Explore the cosmos, build something, write a few hundred novels. Terraform planets, create new life, move stars. All of it is possible with enough resources and the knowledge you can learn when given all the time in the universe to study. Anything you can imagine, you can work toward. That¡¯s what I want for you. For all the new immortals. Just like it was back then¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s a lofty vision,¡± Sean said in shock, imagining it. Moving stars. He had heard the rumors, but most had discounted them in his home. Despite all the miracles of technology, surely that was impossible. I mean it was a star.

    ¡°And how old are you?¡± he asked, ¡°I mean, I thought old man Henzar was old and he was only two hundred and ten. I¡¯m just having trouble imagining living that long I think.¡±

    ¡°Old,¡± Emily said before smirking, ¡°Don¡¯t you know it¡¯s rude to ask a woman her age? But¡­ Alright, fair. I¡¯m over a million years old, I¡¯ll tell you at least that much. Way older than that, but that gives you a sense of scale at least.¡±

    ¡°A million¡­ That¡¯s¡­ that''s¡­ a very long time. You look good for your age. And you remember it all?¡±

    ¡°Thanks!¡± Emily said, seeming to get into a slightly better mood before shrugging and pinching the skin on her arm and pulling it up as if to show him how smooth and unwrinkled it was, ¡°Same looks as I had a million years ago. And as for memory¡­ Well, I forget things obviously. But given a refresher or if it was exciting or impactful then I can recall most of the interesting bits,¡± She tapped her temple with one finger, ¡°You¡¯d be surprised just how much storage space there is in your brain. The regeneration takes care of Dementia and neuron loss and all of that. So, yeah¡­¡±

    Sean sat on that information, pondering for a bit, ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± he eventually asked, ¡°After how long you lived you just want to help me basically because you can?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± she said, ¡°Pretty much. Sorry if that was too much at once. There¡¯s just so much to tell you and I didn¡¯t want to overwhelm you with information. But just ask me and I¡¯ll do the best I can to help. Or I¡¯ll leave you alone too if you want, I don¡¯t want to be too pushy¡­¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re so old shouldn¡¯t you be incredibly wise and dignified or something?¡± Sean asked, a little amused at her nervousness, ¡°Why do you care what I think of you so much?¡±

    She jolted up and laughed a bit, ¡°Ha! I wish. I just don¡¯t get to meet too many new immortals these days and I have¡­ a long history. Let¡¯s just say that a lot of the others don¡¯t like me very much. It is kinda stressful meeting someone totally new, ya know? The youngest immortals I usually talk to are usually at least a couple thousand years old.¡±

    Sean thought of his insular town, knowing almost everyone¡¯s face and name growing up. Everyone always knowing each other''s business all the time. They hadn¡¯t hated him and his family, but they certainly weren¡¯t well liked in the community despite how important their work was.

    ¡°I guess I kinda do,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯m still in shock I think, I¡¯d be way more nervous about this if my thoughts weren''t spinning in circles so much right now.¡±

    Emily shot up from her chair, ¡°Ah! Yes, I¡¯ll show you the guest quarters and you can get some sleep. It helps settle your thoughts even if our regeneration takes away any actual need for rest. Feel free to explore after you wake up, the doors already scanned your biometrics when you walked in so they¡¯ll open for you in the common areas automatically.¡±

    Emily helped Sean lead him away and helped him settle and show him how her model of shower worked. The room was truly luxurious, ten times better than Sean¡¯s parents'' old apartment. After some fiddling he retracted the silvery clothing back into the bracelet and thoroughly scrubbed himself clean. When he was done and dried off he walked back into the room and collapsed into the bed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

 Chapter 4: Revenge

    Sean opened his eyes to the sensation of strangely soft and luxurious sheets draping over him. He saw the strangely white unfamiliar ceiling above him and stared at it in confusion for a moment. Then, the memories of what had happened washed over him as he fully came awake. He stood up from the bed naked and noticed that the wristband was still on his wrist. He fiddled with it for a bit before finding the button again and resummoning the clothes around him.

    There was a closet to the side and Sean opened it up to find some basic pants and shirts in there like the kind he was used to. Although much higher quality than the ones he had owned before. He put them on over the silver material and noticed to his surprise that they were clearly male clothes. Had Emily prepared this much before he even arrived?

    They were extremely baggy when Sean put the clothes on, but after a few seconds they slowly shrank until the pants and shirt were perfectly his size. Amazing.

    He left the room and wandered the ship for a bit, unsure what exactly he should do. Half of it was cold metal and chilled and the other half was luxurious furnished and slightly warm rooms. He eventually settled on making his way back to the room Emiily had first brought him to when he arrived. There was a bookshelf in the corner and he browsed the titles of the books she had set up.

    ¡°Feeling better?¡± Emily said from behind him and Sean jumped in surprise. He turned to see her standing behind him in similar clothes as he was wearing currently, a long sleeved shirt and pants with the hint of the gray mesh visible poking around her neck and wrists where her skin would have been exposed, ¡°Guess you really needed it,¡± she said, ¡°You slept for three days straight!¡±

    Sean turned his thoughts inward and realized that he was much calmer and felt more¡­ rooted in the moment than he had been before. Still a little out of it, but nothing felt as distant as it had been before he slept.

    ¡°Emily, why am I so calm?¡± Sean asked suddenly, ¡°I mean I fought those beetles for multiple days.¡± He unconsciously rubbed his wrist with his other hand, ¡°My arm must have been ripped off by them hundreds of times. I was¡­ I panicked so much, and then felt nothing at all for a while. So many times¡­ Why am I not a gibbering mess right now?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Emily replied before chuckling nervously, ¡°Brains are part of you, you know. If your mind ever goes over the edge and you become nonfunctional it heals until you¡¯re not that way anymore. Hence, no gibbering mess. Not to say you can¡¯t go¡­ strange. Or have things go wrong. But your regeneration stops the worst of the trauma a mortal would go through. You¡¯re emotions and hormones and whatnot probably got completely reset when you wedged yourself inside that rock head first. That probably helped your brain figure out that it should calm down a little instead of spiraling and self reinforcing your panic so much. Ever heard of the Standard Brain Index?¡±

    Sean frowned, ¡°What, that test you take when you¡¯re a baby to tell if you have any large neural deviations? Are you saying¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah, that was created from studying us and our brains¡­ Immortals I mean. Any changes that our brains choose to heal is abnormal and everything else left on its own is normal. People really put too much stock in that test, people aren¡¯t stable just because their Standard Brain Index is fine. All it says is if people are functional, people outside the standard ranges usually have some kind of developmental disease or similar. Or someone totally detached from reality, or a ¡®gibbering mess¡¯ as you put it. But anyway, the point is that you¡¯ll always be within those tolerances by definition, so traumatic events won¡¯t hit you as hard as they used to. Like your battle with the flesh beetle swarm and your injuries, so there¡¯s that at least. And you healed your body right after, so your brain tends to write it off as a dream and not hit you with that wonderful trauma as much either as time goes on. So you can look forward to any injuries bothering you less and less as you go.¡±

    ¡°I suppose¡­¡± Sean said, feeling his head as if he would be able to feel his brain and verify her claims somehow.

    ¡°Annnnyway¡­¡± Emily continued, ¡°I¡¯ve looked into your situation. I¡¯m quite the hacker you know, so I was able to piece together some of what happened in your hometown. Want to come see? I have some footage and documents if you want to look.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Sean said and followed as she led him to the corner where a black screened device sat on the corner sitting on top of a shelf. She turned it on and sat down as the black display shifted into color. She clicked through the icons, before with a quick glance at him went to the corner of the screen by moving a strange roundish device that she shifted on the table in front of her. As she clicked the icon, the screen flickered for a moment before little dots of light lit up around the surface of the desk and a series of holographic objects flickered into existence. A cup, some paperweights, and several large stacks of papers.

    Emily reached out and picked up a few before making more papers vanish or reappear on the desk with some simple hand gestures or muttered commands. Occasionally she would put one of the papers to the side where they would be unaffected by her other commands. After a few minutes she finished up and placed one last holographic paper on the pile.

    Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    She twisted in her chair and scooped them up in her arms despite them being weightless. She held her hands over the big pile and pressed it in with a single gesture until it was a single sheet again. She turned and stood and held out the paper to Sean.

    ¡°There, that¡¯s everything I could find,¡± Emily said as she passed it to him. Sean accepted the paper from her and was surprised to find that there was some real weight to it. Not much, but enough to almost trick him into thinking that he might really be gripping a real object.

    ¡°Do you want a quick summary of it?¡± She asked him as he familiarized himself with the commands to request and pull up the various files on the holographic page.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Sean said distractedly as he flicked through and tried to find the oldest file.

    ¡°Well, basically they wanted to join the Ruska state and get the protection and money for town infrastructure that comes along with that. There are a couple messages between the two negotiating what the deal would be. There was some kind of argument with your father, he cursed out one of the Ruska state negotiators I suppose when he came to meet the leaders of your town? The details weren¡¯t clear on exactly what happened. But well¡­ Ruska told them to take care of the problem or they would pull out of the deal. I think we both can guess what your leaders thought they meant by that¡­¡±

    ¡°Ruska¡­¡± Sean hissed as he flipped through the files on the holographic page, ¡°Of course Intuli and the elders would want to sell out the village without telling anyone else about it. By the damn shadow! How could they!¡±

    Emily let him stew in his anger as he kept flipping through and reading the messages between the representative and Intuli¡¯s family.

    ¡°So, what do you want to do?¡± Emily asked after a while, ¡°I have a few options depending on how far you want to go.¡±

    Sean looked up, ¡°What can you do?¡±

    Emily hummed and turned back to the computer, ¡°Well¡­ Starting from the bottom¡­ I could send all this evidence and share it with the people in your town. I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t be pleased when they hear what¡¯s happening either.¡±

    Sean shook his head, ¡°They won¡¯t like it but they¡¯re too powerful. They won¡¯t actually get punished when it comes down to it.¡±

    Emily nodded, not seeming surprised, ¡°I kinda got that impression too while I was reading things over. Second is more involved. But you wait and let the Ruska state take control of the town. I¡¯ll pull some strings and the elders will be punished however you want under their rules.¡±

    Sean shook his head harder, ¡°No! I don¡¯t want those¡­ My parents died protesting them taking over. I want to stop it.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Those were the easiest ones though. Next, I can drain them of all their digital assets remotely. The problem is that they have a lot of physical materials and wealth on hand. I¡¯d have to fly down there and sneak in to break their stuff to make sure they can¡¯t recover their wealth. They would be poor and struggle from the hit and I doubt someone like this would last long in politics without his wealth to back him up. With them gone the negotiations would probably fall through with the Ruska. The problem is that I¡¯d have to physically go down there where the government is currently hunting to find the Immortal causing a stir. That video of you regenerating from the beetle attacks was sent to the planetary government through some of their embedded spyware on the exterior cameras.¡±

    Sean hesitated unsure. It didn¡¯t feel like enough somehow, but he wasn¡¯t sure what would be enough. Nothing he did would bring them back.

    ¡°And last, you could just kill them all.¡±

    Sean¡¯s head snapped to Emily who was still looking at the device. She noticed his surprise and looked back at him. She raised her hands defensively.

    ¡°Look, I really don¡¯t want to do that. But it¡¯s an option and you¡¯re certainly justified in doing so here. I don¡¯t want to lie to you about it and if it comes down to it I¡¯ll still help you go through with that. But it just makes you feel dirty when it''s over no matter how justified. But if the other options aren¡¯t enough for you¡­ you can do it.¡±

    Sean imagined strangling Intuli until life left his beady eyes. Wiping that superior smirk off of his face once and for all¡­ and then sighed. What would his parents think of him if he murdered someone in cold blood no matter the reason? His anger cooled slightly and he took another shaky breath.

    ¡°No¡­¡± he whispered, ¡°I¡­ my parents¡­ they didn¡¯t raise a murderer. Their money¡­ How hard would that be?¡±

    Emily nodded and smiled softly as she turned back to the computer.

    ¡°It will take me a few hours to infiltrate their bank and get full access to the right accounts. Going down there would be tricky, I¡¯d have to plan that pretty carefully. Probably would take a few days at least.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡± Sean said and Emily looked at him again.

    ¡°Okay?¡± she confirmed.

    ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s do it,¡± Sean agreed.

    ¡°Well, lots to do. You just rest up and keep recovering,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ll set everything up and handle it. Just holler if you need help with something.¡±

    Sean turned and then hesitated.

    ¡°Emily?¡±

    ¡°Yeah?¡±

    ¡°Thanks. For doing all of this¡­ helping me¡­ doing all this work. Just¡­ thanks.¡±

    Emily¡¯s face flashed with a series of expressions before she settled on a slight frown, ¡°It¡¯s nothing, really and I wish I could do more. I¡¯m sorry for your loss, Sean.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Sean said again softly before Emily turned back to the computer and kept typing. He wandered off and left her to it. He tapped a silvery button at the corner of a table and a holographic display popped up with various menus.

    Sean hesitated for a second before he started exploring the interface. He found some engineering manuals and started reading. It wasn¡¯t exactly the same as those turrets, but at least it was something to distract him. Distract him from thinking of the work he knew that Emily was probably doing right now¡­

 Chapter 5: Infiltration

    ¡°Are you sure I can¡¯t go with you?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Doesn¡¯t this seem dangerous? What if you get into trouble?¡±

    Emily shook her head as she inspected the forearm long weapon with a bulbous cone at the end of the barrel. Emily had explained as they took the shuttle back down to the surface that it was a nonlethal stun gun for anyone that got in her way. The shuttle had landed just out of sight of town where they weren¡¯t likely to be seen, and Emily would take her speeder away to sneak inside. Emily had wanted to take him on the shuttle so he ¡®wouldn¡¯t be stuck in space if her ship got shot down¡¯. She had seemed serious when she said that, but Sean was sure it must be some sort of joke. It was night time and only the soft lights of the shuttle lit up the speeder sitting on the ground outside.

    Right now she was only dressed in the grayish mesh of the clothing band and it was¡­ She was very attractive and Sean had some difficulty staying focused as she moved around with the tight material clinging closely to her body. Luckily it was far thicker covering than the one they had been wearing before so it wasn¡¯t completely indecent, but Emily didn¡¯t seem to even notice Sean¡¯s troubles, too focused on preparing for the mission she was about to set out on.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine¡­¡± Emily said, waving him off as she stepped onto the ramp to the outside, ¡°Trust me, I¡¯ve done things like this thousands of times. You being there would just slow me down. And I¡¯ve got all sorts of goodies to work with.¡±

    She tapped the shoulder of her gray suit and it shifted and extended so it covered her head in an elastic mask. It shimmered and she faded from sight, and a few seconds later her stun gun in her hands followed suit.

    ¡°See?¡± the empty air said, ¡°I¡¯ll be back soon. Just sit tight in the shuttle and wait for me to return. Then we can get you to a sector where you¡¯re not actively being hunted by the government. Seeya.¡±

    ¡°Bye,¡± Sean said as he heard a series of footsteps walking down the metal ramp followed by foot shaped divots being pushed into the grassy soil. There was a clunk and the hover bike shook slightly as the invisible Emily mounted it and she drove off. Sean moved stealthily into the ship and started prepping the second bike to follow her. He knew he wasn¡¯t as skilled as her, not nearly as trained. But he couldn¡¯t just stand by and let her do all the work as he left.

    ¡°Sorry, Sean. It¡¯s a no go,¡± Emily¡¯s voice suddenly said from behind him, ¡°Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t notice you trying to be all secretive. This is for your own good.¡±

    Suddenly she appeared in her suit and tossed a pair of large metallic bands that wrapped all the way around him and lit up. His arms were pinned to his sides and he floated into the air so his feet could only barely touch the floor of the ship. He wriggled, but just remained floating in place unable to do anything.

    ¡°Hey, hey! Emily, let me out, I just want to help you!¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Sean. I¡¯ve told you, you¡¯re not trained for this. You¡¯ll just get in the way. I¡¯ll be right back, I promise. See you soon.¡±

    <hr>

    Emily slowed her bike to a crawl as she got closer to Sean¡¯s town. It had been rather awkward for these last few days as she worked to set up Sean¡¯s revenge with him only talking to her briefly in that time. She could see how tense he was back at the shuttle before his aborted attempt to follow and ruin the mission. She wondered if she shouldn¡¯t have pushed him to get revenge.

    Would he have been happier if she had never mentioned it at all and just whisked him away so he wouldn¡¯t have to confront things? She knew how she had felt in the past when other people had done that to her, but maybe he would have felt differently given how much his life had changed recently. But no matter how invested he wasn¡¯t ready for a mission like this in any capacity. And taking decades to train him to get there defeated the point of doing all of this right now.

    She stopped the bike and hopped off, still keeping her invisibility field active. She had reluctantly learned how to operate on missions like this despite her usual policy of non violence. Even stunning innocent mortal people made her uncomfortable most of the time even if they would shake it off in a few hours anyway.

    She stealthily crept forward through the defensive line of the trashy bottom of the barrel autoturrets. Given how old and rusted some of them looked, she was surprised Sean and his family had been able to keep them still running. She more than anyone knew how much machinery degraded over time no matter how many fixes or replacement parts you put into them.

    She reached the barrier to the shield preventing entry inside. It was actually more advanced than she had been expecting based on the files she had managed to pull on the settlement, it must be a different model than the one in the plans they had registered with the planetary capital. She activated her heads up display causing a soft glow to shine where her head would be to outside observers. It scanned the shield with a high speed recording and slowed them down so she could see it visibly flicker as the generator sent out its pulses.

    She nodded and put her stun gun to the maximum setting and took a step closer. Her display counted down the seconds for the best moment and when the moment was right she fired her weapon directly at the shield, causing it to flicker and waver in the area around where she stood. She quickly stepped forward through the weakened shield and it parted around her, unable to stop her from passing through.

    On the cameras it should be seen as nothing more than a quick flash and a short shield weakness. Nothing that couldn¡¯t be caused by a power flux in the generator. She checked her weapon with her display and saw that the shot had drained ten percent of its battery, before shutting off the display again to stop the small light from leaving the invisibility field.

    Grimacing, she turned her weapon back to the lowest setting. She would have brought another extra battery pack for the thing if she thought the shield was going to be that strong. She slunk forward through the night towards Intuli¡¯s house first. She took out the access card that she had already coded with the proper credentials and swiped it slowly over the reader.

    Hearing it click open, she carefully twisted the handle and opened the door. There was a door to the side into what must be the bedroom. She opened that door too and saw the splayed out form of the man himself on the bed, drooling onto his sheets. The room reeked of alcohol and Emily saw a spilled bottle of liquor that had fallen from his hand and spilled onto the floor. She stood over him and then with a deep breath fired her weapon with a deep ¡®Whumpf¡¯ of air. Intuli twitched for a moment before falling unconscious again.

    She let out a sigh of relief¡­ there, now there was no chance of him waking up.

    It took her twenty minutes to find his stash of currency that he had put under his mattress of all places. She hadn¡¯t wanted to move him, so she left checking there for last. She ended up poking him with the end of her stun gun until he flopped down onto the floor limply.

    There was a large clear bag taped underneath the mattress once she flipped it up filled with the small metal disks of galactic credits. She removed the bag and inspected it for a moment. She didn¡¯t really have a frame of reference on how many galactic credits was a lot out here, but this bag must represent at least half of the amount that Intuli had put in the digital bank. So maybe it was worth nearly a third of his net worth. Emily spent another hour fully searching the place and taking anything that was small and valuable, and smashing things that were larger as quietly as she could. Any electronics got a blast with the stun gun to fry them.

    Maybe she should feel guilty being such a thug just trashing the place but¡­ this guy definitely deserved it considering how he planned Sean and his parent¡¯s deaths. He probably deserved even more than this, but that was up to Sean not to her.

    Job done, she left the trashed home and started making her way to Intuli¡¯s parents house. After she did the same to them she could get out of here.

    She went through the streets but paused as something tickled her senses. It was quiet¡­ no, there was¡­ a buzzing sound. She brought up her display and quickly told it to quickly isolate and amplify the sound. As soon as she could hear it clearly though her amplified display her eyes widened and she turned around and took off at a full sprint.

    With an electric crackle there was a flash of light behind Emily and she felt a spray of burning dirt impact her back. Her invisibility field flickered under the impact and the night was suddenly lit again as another impact struck just to her left, knocking her from her feet. She stumbled to the side as her invisibility flickered again on the border of failure. Soldiers emerged from the street in front of her and she heard more boots behind as well.

    In a roar of gunfire Emily stumbled forward and felt them piercing holes in her top of the line suit. Despite how great and convenient they were there were only so many nanites in the thing to patch any holes.

    She raised her gun and stunned the soldier in front of her who was firing a stream of bullets into her center mass. He went down limp to the ground and she jumped over him as the gunfire petered out as she ran within the crowd of gathered soldiers and the others couldn¡¯t fire freely without hitting their allies.

    Emily shook her head and her vision cut out for a moment as a bullet landed squarely into the back of her head with a wet crunch. She recovered awareness halfway to the ground and turned the limp fall into a combat roll and kept running as she recovered.

    Breathing slightly harder, she stunned the last soldier blocking her way and saw the way to the shield was blocked by a man lit up by a series of blinding floodlights just over the raised shield. He was wearing a pitch black full body covering much like the one she wore to turn invisible. Patches of metal plating and various tubes and apparent weapons lined the rest of the suit in a patchwork. But instead of the tight featureless mask Emily wore, the man was wearing a distinctive mask that made her eyes widen. Two large glass windows exposed the eyes through the cloth like head covering. In the front near the mouth it pushed outwards into a circular hose that looped over his shoulder and attached to what Emily could see was a large metal tank strapped to his back. Surely not¡­ No one would work with¡­

    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    ¡°Moooottttthhhheeerrrrr,¡±

    The madman rasped, speakers in his mask enhancing his voice.

    ¡°Weeeee¡¯veeee finally. Found you. After so long.¡±

    She raised her weapon as she ran towards him only to pause as he reached up to his mask.

    ¡°Stooooop. Or I will¡­ take offffff the mask¡­ Mother¡­ Another world, Another sector¡­ Purged for¡­ the cause. Leaving only the¡­ worthy behind.¡±

    Emily stopped on a dime even as she heard shouting behind her from the soldiers. She hesitated, knowing that her little stun gun would only make things worse if she shot the fanatic. She circled around eyeing the man as he stood there, each breath letting out a long drawn out rasp heard even through the mask.

    ¡°We know how much you care for their little lives, Mother,¡± the man continued, ¡°Come to us, and none need to be hurt. ¡±

    The man turned in place following her with his intense gaze while not moving from his spot. The soldiers circled around them even as Emily kept edging towards the barrier while turning the settings of her stunner to the maximum.

    ¡°Hold your fire, lower your weapons¡± the masked man said to the soldiers, holding up his hand imperiously as they raised their weapons at her as she drew close to the shield. On his orders many of the soldiers lowered their weapons again to point at the ground. But a few did not, not hearing the command or disobeying orders intentionally, too caught up in the chase.

    One of the soldiers let out a shot that impacted Emily¡¯s shoulder and let out a small spurt of blood onto the ground before her wound healed itself.

    The man in the mask¡¯s head snapped to the soldier that fired the shot.

    ¡°LOATHSOME INSECT, YOU DARE DEFY MY ORDERS! DISRESPECT MOTHER?!¡±

    He raised his arm towards the offending man who looked terrified. The masked man launched a stream of purplish sludge from a tube on his arm that merged with the rest of the patchwork suit. It washed over the soldier and he screamed as it clung to him and burned like acid. After a few seconds the screaming stopped and the fanatic cut off the flow of sludge. The fanatic was practically shaking in anger as he stared at the corpse and his hands twitched a few times before he seemed to come to a decision.

    ¡°My orders are LAW! Remember that next time you DARE defy me.¡±

    The men around them shifted uneasily and several went to raise their weapons. The Plaguebringer shifted in place as he saw their actions, his whole body displaying his displeasure.

    One man that appeared to be the leader of the armed men stepped forward. ¡°You remember who is in charge. This is my operation. You are here as nothing more than a courier to take the Immortals far away from my planet.¡±

    ¡°You! You are ants beneath my feet. If I killed you all on a whim your government wouldn¡¯t bat an eye. Why should I not, now you have insulted me?¡±

    The men raised their weapons, now not pointing them at Emily but at the Plaguebringer.

    ¡°Then maybe we should call the Immortal Council instead?¡± The leader said, ¡°They won¡¯t pay, but at least they¡¯ll get the job done without betraying us and killing our men. Maybe they¡¯ll end up paying some top dollar for a genuine Plaguebringer like yourself rather than any old Immortal.¡±

    The Plaguebringer hesitated, but then took a step forward towards the leader of the men.

    ¡°My deal with your government was¡­¡±

    Another one of the men shot at the Plaguebringer, the bullet slightly denting his chestplate. Everyone froze for a second before the Plaguebringer exploded in anger.

    ¡°I KNEW IT! TRAITOROUS SCUM! YOU¡­¡± The rest of the squad opened fire as the Immortal took a step forward angrily. The Plaguebringer stumbled backwards under the blows of the weapons fire striking him. His armor dented and pitted in places as the men fired on him.

    Emily¡¯s eyes widened as she heard a hydraulic hiss and saw the man reach to the seam between his neck and the hood that had appeared as he tried to recover from the sudden barrage of gunfire. He removed the helmet and after taking a deep breath took a single sharp breath out towards the squad of soldiers in front of him.

    Emily quickly fired her weapon into the shield and dove through, steeling herself as she briefly saw the looks of utter terror on the faces of the soldiers as their eyes turned red and their skin began swelling red in seconds. She started running as fast as she could towards the speeder hoping that she had been fast enough to escape the fallout of what the man had just done.

    ¡°Mother!¡± The no longer masked man shouted desperately behind her, having finally noticed Emily¡¯s escape in the chaos of the sudden betrayal. His face was oddly plain despite the fanaticism blazing in his eyes. Even as Emily risked a glance back she saw the soldiers clutching their throats and falling to the ground writhing as the infection began to fully set in, ¡°No, Mother come back! We need you! Your vision!¡± he shouted as he sprayed the shield with his sludge in a futile attempt to break through.

    ¡°I¡¯m not your fucking mother. None of you,¡± Emily muttered to herself as the defensive turrets caught sight of her and started hitting her with several shots through her center mass that left holes she could have put her fist through before they healed back up. But she managed to keep her balance and stumbled to her hoverbike and got on. She roared off as fast as she could to the shuttle as she heard the electric crackle and screech of the town shield going down.

    Emily urged the bike to go faster as she ducked and weaved through the trees, going nearly twice as fast as she had gone on the trip out. She had to get the shuttle to take off before the fanatic made it to a ship of his own and blew it to bits. And Sean¡­ Oh, shit. How was she going to explain all this to him?

    She shoved down the thought as her thoughts began spiraling. She had to escape now, think of other things later. She reached the shuttle with the ramp still lowered and saw a nervous Sean still floating inside the ship. He spotted her but his eyes widened paused as she showed no sign of slowing her approach and he saw her disheveled look.

    She shot up the ramp only breaking just in time to stop the bike from crashing into the back wall.

    ¡°Ship, close the doors! Now!¡± She shouted as she leapt off the bike as fast as she could after fiddling with her pocket and pressing the button to release Sean from his binds. They powered down and released, falling onto the floor and Sean was left standing there looking confused. The ramp to the outside began retracting painfully slowly as the bay doors began to close as the ship registered her command.

    ¡°After me!¡± Emily shouted urgently to Sean, ¡°To the cockpit!¡±

    Sensing her tone, Sean ran after her and they both strapped themselves in quickly in the control station of the shuttle. She began frantically flipping switches and the shuttle began to rumble.

    The sensor pinged as they were pressed into their chairs and began takeoff. Incoming aircraft.

    ¡°What¡¯s¡­ What¡¯s happening¡­¡± Sean managed to grunt through gritted teeth as the G-forces pressed them both into their chairs with full force, Emily pushing the shuttle to the max to get them to her main ship where she had some actual defenses and the hyperspace drive to get them out of this star system. This little shuttle was defenseless besides a thick enough hull to take a few potshots if need be.

    ¡°No time,¡± Emily said tensely to respond to Sean, ¡°There¡¯s a ship after us, after me. Their guns are hot, he probably wants to shoot us down and collect us once we¡¯re stranded in space unable to escape him.¡±

    She looked at the vectors and after a deep breath activated the AI pilot and ordered it to get to the ship at maximum speed. Despite her distrust of AI, she still had a backup installed for emergencies. Most ships were not limited in speed by the machinery, but the fleshy people inside that had to survive the resulting G-forces from the thrust. Something that wouldn¡¯t be a problem to either of them as long as something else was driving for them.

    The thrusters increased force by ten times in an instant as the AI finished its quick diagnostic and then the controls were out of Emily¡¯s control. Her vision flickered and she felt her bones crunch and slide against each other, and eyes pop under the tremendous forces the AI put them through. Her chest was held firmly down and her ribs continually cracked and her chest caved inwards only to regenerate back to where it should be only to restart the process. She should have started off with this, but maybe she had still wanted to subconsciously protect Sean from another horrible experience like this so soon after his escape from the beetle swarm¡­ They would just have to bear through with it. For ten tortuous minutes there was only the pressure of mountains pressed onto them as the AI pilot pushed the shuttle to the very limits of its hardware.

    They were weightless for a moment as the side thrusters flipped the shuttle around and pointed the thrusters the other way. Now, they had to slow down to counteract all the speed they had just built up relative to the main ship.

    ¡°Emily,¡± Sean managed to say before the thrusters fired again and they were both slammed back into their chairs again with brutal force and he was silenced.

    All they could hear over the strain and gurgles of their own bodies was the roar of the thrusters.

    Thirty minutes later, they finally arrived and floated carefully into the bay of the main ship under the controls of the AI pilot. As soon as they were docked, Emily unstrapped and stood from her seat slightly unsteadily. Sean just sat there breathing heavily, seeming a little out of it. She rushed over and began assisting his fumbling efforts to release himself.

    He stood once they managed it, but instead of moving to follow as Emily rushed off just stood there staring blankly into the distance. With an annoyed huff, she turned back and grabbed his hand and began dragging him after her which seemed to wake him up from his stupor.

    Seeing that he was keeping up now, she let go and continued running to the command station of the main ship. She pointed to the right as they entered the room and Sean followed her finger. She quickly went to the comms console and typed out a quick message that she sent to the planetary government. Hopefully they could act in time if she told them of the threat to their world.

    ¡°Listen, this guy is a fanatic,¡± She said to Sean after she finished, ¡°Hail the approaching ship and just make something up to keep him talking. Oh, but definitely don¡¯t give him any information on you. Just keep things as vague as you can, definitely don¡¯t tell him you''re an immortal. If you get him really going I¡¯m sure he won¡¯t be able to shut up if he tries. It¡¯s pretty disturbing shit, but try not to react when he starts going off on his rant because the more he¡¯s talking the less he¡¯s focusing on piloting his ship. And trust me, there¡¯s no way this guy has a second person there to help run things. AIs can only be so good for complex maneuvers or firing patterns that you see in combat.¡±

    Who knows how helpful Sean distracting the other man would be, but it definitely couldn¡¯t hurt their chances. Hopefully they could escape before the Plaguebringer destroyed the ship or even worse had enough time to bring in some friends that could block their escape with some hyperspace jammers. Performing a hyperspace from within a star system, let alone right near a planet, was hard enough as it was. She had to have absolute focus to pull this off and not have their atoms strewn across a dozen star systems before they even knew what happened.

 Chapter 6: Explanation

    Sean stood in front of the blinking console, unsure of what he was supposed to do. After a few seconds there was a click and a rasping male voice sounded out from the device.

    ¡°Yes? Do you wish to surrender? Your defenses will only last so long. I would rather not expose you to space if I don¡¯t have to, Mother. ¡±

    ¡°Er, hello,¡± Sean said after sending a confused glance at Emily who was muttering and ignoring him as she furiously worked the console across the room.

    There was a short pause and the voice spoke again in a sharper tone. ¡°Who is this? What is your relation to Mother?¡±

    ¡°Uhhhh. Sorry,¡± Sean said as he avoided the question, ¡°I didn¡¯t know she had any kids, we only met a short time ago.¡±

    Another pause, ¡°Ignorant. She is not the mother of one, but the mother of all. Do they not teach history these days? You are one of the chosen, yes? Mother would not associate with one of the lesser beyond necessity, she is too kind for that even after all this time. She must be. You must have heard of our history? Of our origins?¡±

    ¡°Er, no,¡± Sean said, ¡°Not really.¡±

    ¡°I know what you¡¯re doing¡­¡± the voice said in a sudden angry hiss, ¡°But I can¡¯t let this insult stand. I can¡¯t let such IGNORANCE persist, feigned or not. She is the one that brought us out of the DARKNESS and brought bountiful prosperity to the galaxy in the forgotten ages. But through BETRAYAL and DECEIT she was brought low. Too kind to punish her unruly children properly¡­ Even now she can¡¯t bear to do what has to be done for the greater good. Too ashamed of our society and the twisted mockery it has become to lead us. We must bring all back to the DARKNESS so we can rebuild it anew¡­¡± The man¡¯s rasping voice turned wistful as Sean listened, ¡°...perfect again in Mother¡¯s vision. Then, when all is pristine and pure we can rebuild the utopia, a world of happiness of light like it was in the beginning¡­¡±

    ¡°Uhhh,¡± Sean managed, not sure what to say to that, ¡°Huh?¡±

    ¡°YOU DARE MOCK THE VISION OF GOODNESS AND PROSPERITY OF HER BY STILL PLAYING THE FOOL! I WILL FEED YOU TO THE ENDLESS FLESH FOR A MILLION YEARS WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOUR MISERABLE LITTLE NECK! I¡¯LL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR YOUR DISRESPECT YOU¡­¡±

    The man kept raving loudly through the console, and Sean could practically hear him foaming at the mouth on the other end as he continued to threaten to do all sorts of unpleasant things to Sean. Emily briefly glanced up and pointed her thumb up while holding the rest in a fist towards him. Her slight smile and nod alongside meant she could hear the man on the console speaking. Well, she certainly was right that the man was a fanatic¡­ She turned back to the console and kept working as the ship shook.

    Sean could tell that he should be more intimidated by the various creative threats the man shouted through the comms. But he used many strange words that Sean didn¡¯t know and after a while slipped into another language entirely, only his passionate indecipherable shouting remaining of his threats.

    Then all of a sudden the voice cut off as the ship lurched and began shaking. Sean watched in fascination as the stars blurred and shifted and bled together as the shaking gradually began to settle down. He had never been off-world, and it was so strange to think that he was in hyperspace right now rather than his normal reality. Traveling only a short while here could carry them light years or more in the normal universe. He wasn¡¯t sure about the science behind it, but it allowed ships to rapidly travel between different star systems and across the galaxy.

    He looked over as he saw Emily slump down and she let out a sigh of relief.

    <hr>

    As they left, the Plaguebringer in the opposing ship allowed himself to smile. All the greatest lies were based in truth. If he had succeeded in destroying Mother¡¯s ship, then he would have happily collected her as was his mission. It would have made things much easier than they were now.

    With everything already determined for now, he had allowed himself to fully chastise the new Immortal for his ignorance of Mother¡¯s greatness and history. But how unfortunate for her that her shuttle''s stealth capabilities weren¡¯t quite good enough anymore to escape the scanners of his main vessel. As soon as she had left the shuttle to go off to that town he had planted some nice little trackers in the landing gear so he could find her later, before circling back around again.

    He would only have one chance for the real ambush before she grew suspicious. He would have to make it count. This was nothing more than the opening, a feint disguising the real thrust later on.

    This time they would manage to convince her of the truth, of the need of Humanity for her. For her vision of a perfect future, which was unrealized because her unruly children didn¡¯t deserve it in ages past.

    The Plaguebringer clenched his fist. She would understand. She had to, the Leader himself would be meeting with her for the first time ever after her capture. He would finally convince her to embrace her vision fully and push them all into the promised utopia. The Leader was never wrong about these things.

    <hr>

    ¡°There,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ve programmed our route. We should be safe for a long while now that we¡¯ve made it into hyperspace and out of that system.¡±

    ¡°So, Emily,¡± Sean said slowly and she looked up as his words, ¡°What the fuck was that? What just happened?¡±

    ¡°Just some old enemies tracking me down,¡± She replied, looking away again as she spoke, ¡°That guy was waiting in ambush in town, probably waiting for me to go in. If it''s any consolation it¡­ Well, you got your revenge.¡±

    ¡°You destroyed their stuff and took their credits?¡± Sean confirmed.

    ¡°Yep,¡± She replied with a voice that hitched slightly, ¡°Did that. Dropped the money on my way out though¡­¡±

    ¡°That guy didn¡¯t sound like he hated you¡­¡± Sean probed, ¡°Why did he keep calling you ¡®Mother¡¯? Are you the head of some cult?¡±

    She slammed her fist into the console and Sean was taken aback at the sudden clang of the metal.

    ¡°I¡­ I have nothing to do with them.¡± She said through gritted teeth, ¡°Bastards always trying to pretend like I have anything to do with them! No matter how much good I do, how much I help people, no one thinks of anything but them when they hear about me!¡±

    ¡°Who are they?¡± He asked after pausing for a moment, ¡°Why are they after you?¡±

    Emily took a shaky breath and raised her arm from the slightly dented piece of metal under fist. She kept staring at the console pointedly, not looking at him.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s complicated. They think I¡¯m some sort of prophet that will build them a utopia that never existed in the first place. Millions of years old is a long time even for immortals, so they think I am¡­ I don¡¯t know, from a purer time I guess. A time without all the problems of the galaxy today.¡±

    ¡°Was it true? Were things better back when you were born?¡±

    Emily thought about it, a melancholic look coming over her face.

    ¡°No,¡± she eventually said, ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Things were just¡­ smaller than they are now. But they weren¡¯t better.¡±

    ¡°Can you¡­¡±

    Emily stood and the look on her face silenced Sean¡¯s next question as she finally met his gaze, ¡°Look¡­ this brings some bad memories back, okay? Infinite life means infinite emotional baggage. Can we just talk about something else? I¡¯ll¡­ want to see more of the ship? I didn¡¯t give you a proper tour last time.¡±

    ¡°Er, sure Emily. Sorry for pushing¡­¡± Sean said.

    She ignored him and went to leave the room and Sean followed.

    She gave him an official tour of all the rooms, a little subdued as she spoke and seeming to be ignoring their previous conversation. There was a fully stocked kitchen, hydroponics for vegetables, the living room, and several other rooms that Sean had not seen in his random wandering after he first came here. These included a firing range and a full holodeck of all things.

    Here Emily got distracted, her mood lifting and her voice becoming more animated as they continued his tour. ¡°Hey, want to play? Ever used a holodeck before?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Sean said, shaking his head, ¡°Only the very richest on my planet could afford even the cheapest ones¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll teach you how to do it. We can do some of the two player games so you can get used to the controls. This one is top of the line. Well, it was a couple dozen millenia ago at least.¡±

    Sean followed her lead into a featureless white room with two black circular platforms on the floor. There was a glass wall separating the room rising floor to ceiling in the center. She stepped onto one and he went on the others. Emily flicked her arm and suddenly they were in a dark void and the platforms they stood on were two disks of bright light. She glanced over to him in a much better mood than before, ¡°Hah! Sorry, it is rather spooky isn¡¯t it? It''s just an illusion though, we¡¯re still in that same room.¡± Her voice sounded strange as if from far away.

    She flicked her arm again and they were in what Sean recognized as a game lobby, a whitish space similar to the real room they had entered. Despite not playing many videogames growing up, he had played enough to know the basics. In front of them was a series of floating panels with little pictures and a description of what game they would play.

    ¡°What do you want to play?¡± She asked, walking up to one of the panels and plucking it from the air. Sean walked after her, the circle below him following him as he walked. He was rather confused as he walked right next to Emily, glancing down between their overlapping circles and her standing next to him.

    Seeing his look she giggled a bit, but Sean could see in her eyes a sort of desperation. The sort his mom had shown on that last day before she went out to repair the turrets. When she knew how risky it was but had to smile and joke to pretend everything was okay¡­

    ¡°Sean?¡± Emily asked and he blinked, ¡°You there?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he replied, ¡°How is this¡­¡± he gestured down to the overlapping circles at their feet and behind him to where they had begun, which was farther than the room they had walked into.

    ¡°Well, omni-directional treadmill below¡­¡± She said, ¡°Advanced holograms for everything else. As for me¡­ fist bump.¡±

    She held out her fist and Sean went to match her motion. But as their fists touched their bodies slid apart just before they touched like the room was stretching around them to pull them apart.

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Sean stared at his fist, ¡°But how are we moving relative to each other? Aren¡¯t the treadmills fixed into the floor?¡±

    She nodded, ¡°Yep. It¡¯s all a trick. Remember that big glass window in the center?¡±

    He nodded, ¡°Well, that takes your view of me and distorts it so it''s at whatever perspective it wants,¡± She continued in a lecturing tone, ¡°Once we¡¯re really close to each other it''s just a complete hologram. There''s a whole advanced audio thing so our voices sound like they¡¯re at the perfect distance too. Anyway, enough of that. We can talk about the engineering later. You can even help me with some repairs and maintenance if you want. But do any of the games here catch your interest?¡±

    Sean inspected the various floating panels for a bit and eventually reached out and pulled one into his hands. It shrunk as he grabbed it, and he tossed it over to her. She stared at it in surprise and looked back at him, her smile tightening slightly as she looked between him and the card in his hand.

    ¡°Foundation of All? You sure? This one¡¯s pretty difficult. Probably the hardest one in the library.¡±

    Sean shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know, it seems interesting. Starting from nothing and complete freedom to do whatever you want? I¡¯m sure you know all sorts of interesting things we could do in there. Only if you want to though.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine. Yeah, I suppose I do know some things we could do,¡± Emily said, pursing her lips as she stared at him for a moment.

    ¡°Well, okay!¡± she said after a moment, ¡°Not what I expected, but you¡¯re right. I can show you all sorts of stuff in this one. You¡¯re a mechanic, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll love it.¡±

    She tapped a button on the card and suddenly a copy appeared in Sean¡¯s hand with a confirmation button. He pressed the green yes button and after a few seconds the lobby dissolved away.

    In big bold letters the title formed, looking like they were made of gold and being lifted out of dark water. After a few seconds, they faded away. And the scene faded into view. They were in some sort of metal hallway like you would see in a spaceship lined in strobing red lights. Sean walked to the side and reached out and felt the wall and was surprised when it stopped his hand. It was like the holographic files from before, flimsy but still with some real weight to them.

    ¡°Red alert. Red Alert,¡± A robotic voice sounded from several speakers lining the hallways, ¡°Severe hull damage. Proceed to escape pods at once.¡±

    ¡°Pretty good right?¡± Emily asked from slightly farther down the hallway, ¡°We gotta escape before the ship blows up. You can admire the graphics better when we¡¯re down on the surface. It¡¯s pretty amazing once you start developing your base more.¡±

    He looked up in surprise, ¡°Will it actually blow up with us on it? What happens then?¡±

    She shrugged, ¡°We just get sent back to the beginning. But no rush, we still have a few more minutes before that happens.¡±

    ¡°Red alert. Red alert. Atmospheric loss imminent. All passengers proceed to escape pods with all haste.¡±

    Sean raised an eyebrow, ¡°Atmospheric loss? That sounds bad.¡±

    ¡°Meh, it''s just a drama queen,¡± Emily replied, ¡°It just says that to get us moving quicker to safety. Lots of AIs are like that even in real life, conniving little shits when you don¡¯t do exactly what they want you to do.¡±

    ¡°Proceed to the escape pods immediately without delay,¡± The voice said over the speakers with an almost reproachful tone now, ¡°Red Alert. Red alert.¡±

    ¡°See?¡± Emily said, gesturing towards the nearest speaker.

    ¡°Well, I guess we¡¯d better get to that escape pod then,¡± Sean finally said, ¡°No need to make its job harder. I mean it¡¯s already trying to save the ship too, right?¡±

    ¡°I suppose,¡± she said following behind as Sean jogged over to the door at the end of the hallway and started figuring out the inventory system with the prompting of a tutorial that appeared with floating words in front of him. He had to make a series of hand gestures to pull up a window filled with boxes and then reach out and take whatever was inside.

    Right now only one box was filled, with what appeared to be a keycard after he pulled it out. As soon as it left the little menu it swelled in size and plopped into his hand. He scanned it next to the door and it hissed open revealing the cabin of the escape pod, big enough for four people. Following the tutorial, he put the keycard back into its little box and then dismissed the inventory again.

    The two of them walked inside and strapped into the seats inside. The seats still felt flimsy, but managed to hold his bodyweight as he sat there.

    ¡°Careful there,¡± Emily warned, ¡°Push too hard and it might break and you¡¯ll splat on the ground. Making a functioning chair is pretty much the upper end of its capabilities already.¡±

    The robotic voice sounded above them, ¡°Passengers secured. Launch imminent. Launch Imminent. Commencing launch.¡±

    There was a short pause before with a rumble the escape pod leaped forward. It was a little odd not having the tug of the G forces on Sean¡¯s gut as they blasted away, but he could see through the window to the massive ship they had been on. It was rapidly receding into the distance behind them as the escape pod thrusters fired.

    Before he could get a good look, everything started tinting orange and the area grew fractionally warmer as they entered the atmosphere of the green and brown mottled planet with blue oceans below them. The capsule shook and the flames grew more intense as they descended and Emily sat there passively staring into nothing.

    Eventually the flames died down and Sean could see out the window again and could see them rapidly descending to the ground, the sound of firing thrusters filling his ears. He could see below them a destroyed city filled with squarish grayish stone, steel, and glass buildings. As they got closer, Sean got a better sense of scale and could see that the massive city stretched for miles in every direction.

    It was a city larger than even the capital of his whole planet! He had been there once or twice when his parents took him along to get a specialized part for repairs. He looked around as they descended, but no matter how he strained his eyes he couldn¡¯t see the wall that must be surrounding the settlement to fend off any of the predators that might want to wander in.

    Their speed gradually dropped and they descended between the massive boxy buildings onto a dark stony path between them with a yellow line painted in the center.

    With a heavy impact and a rumble they landed and Emily stood up. A hatch in the ceiling opened up, the same door they had walked into when they entered the pod. She walked over to a little alcove in the wall that Sean hadn¡¯t noticed before and took out a small gun like object. It had a handle with a sleek cylinder perpendicular and sitting on the top of it, almost looking like a trimmed down version of one of the scanners Sean had used for scanning the turrets back at town.

    She grabbed two and held one out to Sean, which he accepted. She walked over to the ladder and began to climb to his astonishment. She reached the top and climbed out through the hatch to stand above him looking back down.

    ¡°Come on out!¡± She shouted down into the pod, ¡°It¡¯s just like the chairs, you¡¯ll stay in place and it¡¯ll feel just like you¡¯re really climbing something. This is where the game actually starts.¡±

    He tentatively raised his foot and tested his weight against the first rung. He started climbing with one hand, the strange gun in the other and powered through the strange sensation of the ladder feeling like it sunk down under him as he raised his foot to step on the next rung over and over.

    He reached the top and pulled himself out and surveyed the area they were in. The square buildings towered around them and a web of cracked stone below them radiating out from where the pod had landed.

    The two of them climbed down and Sean began inspecting the device he was holding. To his relief more words appeared in the air and told him how it all worked. To test it out, he fiddled with the settings for a moment before pointing it at a nearby wall. There was a little holographic display on the side closest to him he could blow up in size to give commands or go through the various options. After finishing up, he pressed the trigger and the device let out a pattern of red beams, and a second later there was a big hole as big as he was carved out with clean edges where it had disappeared. Checking his inventory, Sean now had a collection of materials in there neatly sorted into categories. Seems this stone material was known as concrete.

    He took a few steps back and fiddled with the thing a bit more and pulled the trigger again. He watched in amazement as the red beams skittered rapidly across the ground and made a perfect pyramid made of concrete, building it from the ground up from nothing. The pyramid floated a foot off the ground for a moment before falling down and impacting the ground.

    He stared between the device and the concrete pyramid up to his chest in front of him that he had made in seconds.

    He turned to Emily who was watching him. ¡°Do things like this really exist in real life?¡± he asked.

    She chuckled and shook her head, ¡°No matter how cool they are, sadly no. Way too energy intensive to shrink into something that small. But there are big machines that do similar things, such as atomic destruction and reconstruction¡­ You ready to start exploring?¡±

    He nodded, still fiddling with the device in his hands to explore what it could do.

    ¡°Well, it can build whatever you want as long as there¡¯s a schematic for it somewhere,¡± she continued as she saw what he was doing, ¡°If you get really advanced you can even modify things to make your own schematics. Just scan whatever looks interesting and it¡¯ll be stored there and you can rebuild it so long as you have the right materials.¡±

    He looked between her and the device, ¡°So, what do we do then?¡± he asked, ¡°Build a¡­ house? Farm? Is there some sort of goal?¡±

    She shrugged, ¡°Whatever you want to do. If we get enough stuff and find the right schematics then we can build some robotic harvesters to collect materials automatically for us. But you can explore too, there¡¯s a whole mystery aspect too with why the ship blew up and¡­ why the planet is¡­ empty.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Sean said, ¡°Want to show me how to make a base?¡±

    ¡°Sure! Follow me, and we can go collect some materials¡­¡±

    They walked through the city with Emily narrating all the different things they could do. The sheer variety made his head spin. It was as open as real life in how complex you could build or design machines or your bases. She even told him that the only big difference in realism was their multi tools as she called them in their hands and a few of the other machines and that instead of waiting for real world processes most things would finish manufacturing instantly once they entered their respective machines. Or you could turn on simplified machines to make things easier to play. But Sean didn¡¯t do that and pushed through on the harder version.

    ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding,¡± Sean said as he stared at another diagram, ¡°This really is complicated.¡±

    She looked at him surprised by his interruption of her speech on¡­ chemical reactions they could do to create stronger metals? She was talking way over his head for the last few minutes.

    ¡°We could do something simpler if you¡¯d like?¡± She asked, ¡°It does take a lot of brain power once you get to higher levels, but right now it''s pretty mindless. We¡¯re just going out and destroying things with our multi-tools and then setting up a basic base.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s¡­ you¡¯re here, right? You¡¯re an expert, you can teach me as we go.¡±

    She smiled broadly and Sean noticed the subtle tension she had been carrying for this whole time slid away from her, ¡°Yeah. Just follow me, and I¡¯ll show you how great this game can be.¡±

    He followed her lead as they harvested material from the empty city and constructed some walls and empty rooms around their escape pods. Time flew by as Sean started getting the hang of the basics with Emily¡¯s encouragement. Eventually they finished and Sean stretched as he stared at their slightly lopsided stone hut around the pod they had landed in. Despite Emily doing most of the work he felt oddly proud now that it was finally complete.

    ¡°I think that¡¯s a pretty good time to break,¡± Emily said, holstering her multitool at her hip, ¡°What do you say, Sean? You want to keep going?¡±

    He shook his head, his head was throbbing slightly due to all the new information he had received over the last¡­ how long had it been, actually? He made the correct hand gestures and after a few seconds the world flickered away and they were black in the pure white room with a black circle of the treadmill below.

    ¡°So, what did you think?¡± Emily asked after they left the room.

    ¡°Great,¡± Sean replied, ¡°Difficult, but rewarding once we finally completed our home base. How long were we in there? Foundation of All it was called right?¡±

    ¡°How long, hmmm. Ship, display?¡±

    A holographic window appeared in front of her and she swiped a few times before reaching a clock.

    ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ We left on¡­ so that¡¯s¡­ Yeah, about a hundred hours straight. Something around there.¡±

    ¡°A hundred hours?¡± Sean exclaimed, ¡°What, it didn¡¯t feel nearly that long¡­ Don¡¯t we have to sleep?¡±

    She shook her head and poked Sean on the forehead, pressing her finger against his skin and pushing him back slightly before withdrawing it again. ¡°Of course not, silly,¡± She replied in a light tone, ¡°We¡¯re immortals, you never have to sleep again if you don¡¯t want to. Sleep is a luxury more than anything for us. So is eating. Or drinking. Breathing. All those other human things. We regenerate from all of it. It''s a little uncomfortable but if you aren''t paying attention it''s easy to not notice those things anymore. One of the advantages to being immortal is the truly epic gaming sessions you can get into without ever having to stop. Even if it was a thousand hours or more you would never feel anything worse than a little headache until you chose to sleep again. It will still take months at least to reach Immortus Station from way out here, you have some time to decompress and relax after what happened a few days ago.¡±

    Sean thought about it and rubbed his forehead for a moment. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize it would take so long to get there¡­ I guess I¡¯ll go take a nap,¡± he said, ¡°that will take some getting used to¡­ I hardly even noticed that I was tired.¡±

    ¡°Oh, and feel free to come back here whenever you want to use the holodeck,¡± Emily added as Sean started walking towards the room Emily had given him on the ship, ¡°I¡¯ve gotten some good use out of that thing, and there are plenty of single player games too that are good.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± he replied, ¡°I¡­ goodnight,¡± He wanted to ask more about the mysterious man on the comms and how her mission to Sean¡¯s hometown had gone so wrong. But she looked too at ease and he didn¡¯t want to ruin her mood just when she seemed to finally relax.

    ¡°See you tomorrow, Sean.¡± She said as he left.

 Chapter 7: Travel Time

    Sean hummed as he deconstructed another rusted out vehicle of this world. He had tested out most of the other games on the holodeck over the last few months and enjoyed most of them. But something about Foundation of All kept bringing him back.

    He had his own world he was working on right now even if he and Emily occasionally worked on their shared world together as well. He had been surprised to find that after playing and studying some of the schematics he acquired around the city that he was beginning to understand and keep up when she talked about technology. He now understood how most of the basic devices worked by now, his prior experience with the defensive turrets helping him here.

    The technology was rather simple in this city considering the sheer size of the collapsed structures around him. He had just started using robotic harvesters looking like smallish metallic men with large baskets attached to their backs. He could make them with his multi tool, but they were highly complex and studying and understanding the schematics was coming slower to him than all the other devices in this place combined.

    He still couldn¡¯t talk to Emily about chemistry or biology though, the instant she started talking about either of them he was instantly lost with his head spinning trying to even understand what she was saying. Even when she tried to really dumb it down for him he just didn¡¯t have enough background to do anything practical with either. It felt like a completely different language than when they spoke about electrical circuits and welding joints. It was to the point that sometimes she suggested a complex chemistry solution to some simple mechanical problem as a joke.

    One of the schematics had a loose pipe fitting so fluid leaked from them? Use some two thousand step process with vats of liquid to create some super sealant that would last until the end of time.

    Robots kept breaking down when they got too far from base? Use some other super material she would detail the formulas for to increase battery life. Sean had been annoyed about it until she brought him to her digital world she had been working on recently. That proved that she really knew what she was talking about, and her solutions would probably work despite how complicated they were.

    He had been amazed when he had seen it. You could invite anyone to whichever world you wanted, but only the owner could use the multi-tools and actually meaningfully change anything inside them. In Emily¡¯s world they had started in an ornately directed room filled with paintings and ancient pottery on display. She led him into a glass elevator with a smirk as he stared around realizing now that he played the game himself how much work must have gone into all of this detail just in this one hallway.

    The doors closed and the elevator rose into the air, surrounded by more walls of ultra strong glass. They rose up and up and up¡­ And more of the metropolis was revealed. As far as the eye could see was a swarm of robots running and flying every which way. As they rose the bustling city only grew larger and larger below him, the sheer scale of everything boggling the mind.

    ¡°You built all of this?¡± He asked dumbly as the blue sky around them turned to the black of space. The planet below was revealed to have every inch of its surface covered in steel and gleaming glass.

    ¡°Yep. You like it?¡± She asked knowingly, ¡°This is actually my first factory world that I built in here. Normally I like the greener natural look instead, but I thought you would enjoy this one more. Let¡¯s explore, I haven¡¯t¡­ haven¡¯t been able to show anyone else this before.¡±

    Sean looked up at her in confusion, ¡°What? Not even all the other immortals? Surely you¡¯re friends with some of them?¡±

    She looked put on the spot and got that same slightly panicked look she always got when he started questioning her past too much.

    ¡°I¡­I¡­ No, only a few. And none of the ones I¡¯m friendly with like Foundation of All too much,¡± She said before relaxing slightly as he didn¡¯t probe farther, ¡°I¡¯m actually surprised how invested you¡¯ve been in it for these last few months,¡± She continued, ¡°Your factory has really come far. I don¡¯t think I fully claimed the first city nearly as fast my first time playing.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Sean replied, ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ it¡¯s just so satisfying to finally being able to build something rather than maintaining old machines on the brink of failure with old parts because no one wants to spend the money. And I have your advice too when I get stuck, that certainly helped a lot too.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Listen Sean, I¡­¡± He turned to her at the sudden tension in her voice only to see her hesitate again, ¡°Nothing,¡± she eventually said letting out a breath, ¡°I¡¯ll show you the central facility for the whole planet. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll learn something there.¡±

    She had been on and off working up to tell him about something for weeks now, but Sean had learned over time that pushing her too much would cause her to close off and pretend like he hadn¡¯t said anything at all. It was frustrating for him that she was being so secretive, but on the other hand he sort of understood. She didn¡¯t owe him anything, actually he was indebted to her for saving him and doing so much to help him ever since they had met. No matter how much he wondered, it wouldn¡¯t be right for him to pressure her to share any secrets with him before she was ready.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Emily hit a button on the elevator and it stopped and the doors opened to space. Sean stared at her in confusion as they waited for a minute before a floating silvery metal platform dropped from above directly in front of them. Emily stepped on and Sean followed. Two bands of light reached up and strapped his feet to the platform before Emily smiled wildly.

    ¡°No fall damage, right?¡± She said, ¡°We¡¯re going to take the fast way down.¡±

    Sean¡¯s eyes widened but before he could protest she leaned down and tapped the corner of the platform and the buzzing immediately stopped and they immediately began to rapidly drop. Even without the lurching sensation of falling in his gut, Sean felt mildly sick as ground below them rapidly grew in size.

    Emily shouted something at him, but he couldn¡¯t hear her over the wind. She pointed and silently laughed at him as he tried to school his expression into indifference. He struggled not to laugh as well as she nearly keeled over with heaving breaths as her laughter continued. He didn¡¯t think it was that funny, but her humor was infectious and he found himself smiling as well.

    Then he remembered that they were still falling as suddenly he noticed the ground rushing up at them from below far too fast. He waved at Emily to get her attention, but she didn¡¯t notice until it was too late. Before she could react they crashed through the roof of a building at full speed and impacted the floor faster than Sean could blink. The platform plowed through what appeared to be a very complex machine lined with all sorts of pipes filled with multi colored fluids and promptly exploded into shrapnel. Sean and Emily were sent flying away and were thrown onto a flat platform raised above the machines, held gently in the air by the holograms of the holodeck as they flew.

    ¡°Haha! Wasn¡¯t that great!¡± Emily said, hopping back to her feet after they landed from where she had landed face first. ¡°We should go do that in real life sometime. ¡±

    Sean gestured to the smoking wreckage in front of them spilling fluids into the center that were eating into the floor below even as he watched.

    ¡°Well it was certainly faster,¡± he joked as he brushed himself off despite knowing that he wouldn¡¯t get dirty in this digital world. ¡°Shame about your machine though.¡±

    She shook her head and reached out her hand to help him up. He went to take it but before they could touch she slid back unnaturally. She blinked and her expression dimmed as she quickly withdrew her hand.

    ¡°Oh, yeah. Digital world,¡± she said before brightening again, ¡°Ah, the machine will be fine though. Just watch, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be here soon.¡±

    Sean stood on his own and watched as a series of flying drones and robots carrying an assortment of tools descended on the destroyed machine and began disassembling and repairing it and its surroundings.

    After thirty or so minutes, they finished up and the machine was as good as new.

    ¡°Is the whole planet like that?¡± he asked in surprise, ¡°No human intervention at all?¡±

    ¡°Pfft. I hope not. You think I want to go through the guts of that thing to do repairs if there¡¯s some minor issue?¡± Emily responded, ¡°I have to do enough of that in real life, I don¡¯t want to do it in the digital world too. I¡¯m sure you understand the feeling. Once I¡¯ve finished up with a zone I scan it and let the local AI figure out how to return things to how they were and keep things stable and running smoothly.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t people do this in the real world?¡± Sean asked, ¡°You¡¯ve got a whole planet working here, why not out there?¡±

    ¡°Remember how I feel about AI pilots?¡± She asked and Sean nodded. She had stated many times the dangers of relying on them too much.

    ¡°These are the same. Work perfectly until they screw up and make things explode. Since this is just a simulation it just magically fixes things if the AI starts malfunctioning, but in the real world a factory like this would be a ticking time bomb until the AI went crazy and started drilling big holes in the walls to increase proper airflow in this place or something. And that¡¯s the best case. Oh, and they¡¯re expensive. There¡¯s that too.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡°Anyway,¡± Emily said, ¡°I know you aren¡¯t as familiar with chemistry, so I thought I¡¯d show you the big robot factory I have. Something a bit more mechanical and to your tastes. Lots of great robot models and designs in there that I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll like. Since we, ah, crashed for no reason at all as far as I can tell, we''re still a mile or two away from there now. There are some walkways we can follow to get there.¡±

    ¡°Following your lead,¡± Sean said before gesturing to the door to the outside with both hands. Her lips twitched upward before she turned and walked out the door without another word.

    Once they got outside she started babbling as they walked on the walkways, pointing out every little detail she had added to the massive city around them as they went. She seemed to enjoy giving him the tour like this, showing off all the work she had done. As they walked through Sean realized that despite how amazing and efficient it was, this world was¡­ lonely.

    The streets below them and skies above were filled with mindless robots directed by unfeeling AIs only focused on their singular tasks. He could hear the loneliness in Emily¡¯s voice, that nearly desperate tone as she shared every little detail she could remember. Maybe that¡¯s why she was so eager to share it with him, hoping that all her work would be appreciated by someone else at last. And he did appreciate it, it all was rather impressive especially now that he¡¯d dipped his toes into the game himself and knew just how hard these things were.

    It was so strange to think that she was millions of years old when he saw her sudden mood swings from happy and bubbly to melancholy and depressed. Sean well¡­ he wanted to help her, help her feel better, but what could he do? She was ancient, and far more competent at everything compared to him. What could someone like him do to help someone like her?

    He shook off his spiraling thoughts as they finally reached the factory and refocused on all the interesting robots being assembled in the factory, Emily more than happy to answer his every question about them. And so his musings once again faded into the background as Emily pulled up a hologram of one of the models and showed him the internals and explained why she used this part and not that part. She really was some sort of genius no matter how much she tried to claim otherwise when he complimented her on her intelligence¡­

 Chapter 8: Investigating the Apocalypse

    Sean was confused by the city that the escape pod had landed in in the beginning of Foundation of All. Up to now he had mostly focused on collecting resources and establishing a robotic force of harvesters to automatically collect materials and store them so he could build things later. There was an option to just create things automatically with the multi-tool without worrying about all the technical details, but Sean had chosen to play the hard version instead. So he actually had to inspect and at least somewhat understand the blueprints of everything he made with his multi tool before being allowed to create it.

    Generally he had to create a given object in individual components in the design at first and assemble it himself before he could just pump them out automatically. Not that he minded it much, he could feel himself learning and improving as he familiarized himself with more and more by assembling the various technologies even given how primitive they were in comparison to most modern technology he had seen.

    But now his robotic workforce was up and running and hard at work collecting as many materials as they could find, leaving him to turn his focus to the oddities he had noticed about the city before. There was not a single vehicle, a single corpse, or anything written down at all on what might have happened to leave this city and planet to be abandoned. Only the small and scraggly plantlife and occasional small mammal demonstrated that this place had any life at all.

    After a week or two of work, Sean managed to finish a large transport vehicle that he could use as a mobile base while he explored the nearby cities that he knew must be out there. Leaving his base behind, he started driving off into the distance. This was something he honestly should have done months ago, but he was too invested in succeeding in building the robots to take a long trip out to explore the rest of the planet.

    He drove for hours, well he would have to travel the distance. But instead he marked a destination on the map he had from the game and tapped out a command with his fingers. The world shifted around him and suddenly he and his vehicle were somewhere else. ¡®Hours¡¯ had passed and he was at his destination in seconds, in the outskirts of another town. This one was much more promising already. There were several rusted out cars with wheels and the occasional scrabbly and browning plant poking up through the asphalt of the road. Bare patches of caked dirt began to appear in the plains of grass as he traveled, growing larger and larger as he went.

    He carefully exited the vehicle and inspected the area with his multi-tool at the ready. Emily had assured him that things were mostly safe in the game, but that didn¡¯t mean there was no risk at all. He stepped forward and flinched as something crunched under his foot. He lifted his foot and looked down, where he saw what he had stepped on. He leaned down and brushed off some of the dirt that had accumulated and it¡­ a femur. A human femur. It was old and yellowed and so brittle that even Sean¡¯s brief pressure on it had caused it to nearly crack in half. Even now he could see the cracks on its surface grow. The bone was¡­ old. He stood and kept searching the area. Now he was taking a closer look he noticed the scattered bones, some teeth, a semicircular shard that must have been part of a skull. All had died long, long ago.

    He kept searching, not deconstructing anything yet with his multi tool in case he accidentally vaporized some sort of clue of what happened by accident. Eventually in his wandering he finally found a building that looked rather more important than the others. It had several severely weathered stone statues out the front even if the roof had appeared to collapse inwards with the passage of time.

    He went inside and searched but there were only more bones and a thick layer of dust. Actually, more bones than he had seen in any other of the buildings he had searched so far. He noticed with interest a rusted stairwell that went into the ground, the ceiling only sagging inwards in a few places.

    He carefully went down until he reached what appeared to be a rotted wooden door laying flat on the ground near the bottom. Despite everything, the area was bone dry just like it had been the whole time Sean had been playing Foundation of All. In fact it had not rained in the entire time he was here. He proceeded inside his multi tool held at the ready, more wary of the ceiling collapsing in on him than being attacked by something in this desolate place.

    He entered and noticed immediately that while the metal cabinets around him were significantly rusted, their contents were not completely destroyed. He walked over to one of the half open cabinets and saw writing in an unfamiliar black script on a whitish crumbly substance. He reached out to touch it and to his alarm most of it collapsed into dust at his touch. He looked at all the other cabinets around him presumably filled with documents and considered if he should go back to base to build some specialized equipment to scan them without touching and translate the writing. Maybe next trip, but for now he would push onwards.

    He walked outside, but before he left he deconstructed several of the rusted cars and repurposed their materials to build a large antennae tower in the street out front of the building he had just left. This would allow him to locate this building later if he wanted to come back to inspect the documents.

    He moved onwards and kept driving through the smaller town and nothing else noteworthy popped out to him. Only old bones and rusted cars remained behind. He used the map to skip farther to the next larger city. But to his surprise the next time he stopped was not at the city but some place in the plains of browned grass and cracked and dry dirt.

    As soon as he exited his vehicle he saw why. Blocking his way was a large line of rusted cars left on the road and far more scattered bones littering the area. All were gathered around a squat concrete structure sitting just to the side of the road. Looking to either side, Sean saw more of these structures lining the area in a line into the horizon in both directions. Several of the vehicles looked scorched and something metallic gleamed inside the concrete structure through small slits in the walls.

    Sean exited his vehicle and walked over to the building, curious of what he could be. He deconstructed the metallic door and entered only to pause. The metal he had seen before¡­ were weapons. Large rusted weapons hanging out of the windows and manned by bones covered in scraps of cloth. He went to one of the weapons and frowned as he rebuilt the scene in his mind. The people out there had been fleeing something¡­ away from the city he had been in.

    They had enough time to clear out most of their possessions or at least bury the bodies well enough that Sean hadn¡¯t noticed them when he was building his base. The soldiers had opened fire on the people when they had gotten close. But what had driven the people forward to charge the hostile soldiers? And what had killed the soldiers for that matter? All of them were at their stations still, presumably killed without even being able to react.

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    It sent tingles up his spine as he stood among the bones and heard nothing but the wind across the plains. It was eerie, how quiet it was. It felt disrespectful to speak in the gravesite even if he knew that it was all a digital fiction. He thought this was supposed to be a building game, why had the creators put something so off putting for their players? But the mystery was drawing him in now, maybe if he traveled farther he could discover what had happened.

    He deconstructed all the rusted metal husks in his way on the road and cleared the path. He could just drive around, but he had noticed several cars more mangled than usual on the places that weren¡¯t roads. Sending a recon humanoid drone from his vehicle out to inspect them had triggered a landmine that exploded and violently destroyed the drone, causing Sean to duck down in surprise at the massive spray of dirt and sound.

    After that he decided to go on the road. He hadn¡¯t died in this game yet, and he had no intention of doing so if he didn¡¯t have to. The road seemed a much safer option.

    He returned to his vehicle and started moving forward. He drove manually for now, not wanting to miss some new clue as he continued onwards.

    He kept going, only occasionally using the map to skip a little ahead when he didn¡¯t see anything of interest in the area. He was finally approaching the edge of the city he had originally aimed for on the map. The grass had completely disappeared now, only leaving dry and caked dirt and a strangely intact road to travel on as he continued.

    He skipped forward one more time¡­ and reached the series of craters. Immediately the marking for the city on the map turned into a dark black dot and the city icon disappeared. Sean looked between the map and outside to the giant pits in the ground in the place where a city should be.

    What? What could have done this? Meteor impacts?

    He opened the door to his vehicle and immediately his vision flashed green in the corners. He slammed the door shut in surprise and a little red bar appeared out of thin air just in front of him. It was rimmed in a flashing green rim and slowly decreasing. All sorts of windows popped up and Sean flailed around trying to figure out what was happening to him and how to survive. But in under thirty seconds the red bar fully depleted and in an instant the world around him vanished.

    He was in a blank void, only a series of glowing words floating in front of him.

    ¡®Death by Acute Radiation Poisoning.¡¯

    ¡®Respawn or Leave game?¡¯

    Heart still racing from his unexpected death in the game, Sean pressed the respawn button. The word changed again and suddenly he reappeared back in the escape pod from the beginning. It was one of the few objects in the game that couldn¡¯t be destroyed according to Emily when he asked her about it.

    He let out a long sigh as he thought about what had happened again. Radiation¡­ If someone wanted to blow up a city why wouldn¡¯t they use anti-matter bombs or something more destructive than a nuclear weapon? Why hadn¡¯t a group from some other planet come down here and used some radiation scrubbers to clean the place up and resettle? From what Sean could see and based on the decay of the skeletons, this place had been abandoned for a very long time with no signs of intelligent or even much animal life so far. Strange¡­ The planet still seemed plenty habitable. Why hadn¡¯t anyone else come and resettled this place yet in all that time?

    Maybe he should start working on launching some satellites next. They could help him scan this place and verify if there were any pockets of survivors he could contact and get more information from. With such an open world he wondered how the game would handle him interacting with intelligent people¡­ well, there was one argument that there weren¡¯t many survivors at least. Although it was simulating a whole planet as well, so who was he to say what was and wasn¡¯t impossible¡­ he would have to ask Emily later if simulating people was possible or not. But for now, he was done. He went through the logout sequence and reappeared right back in the white room with the treadmill beneath him. It was so strange to him how real the digital world felt despite its clear differences from reality.

    He walked out of the room and proceeded to his room. ¡°Ship? Display?¡± he called out and a holographic window popped up in front of him as he walked. He swiped a few times until he reached the clock and shook his head as he saw the date. Three and a half whole weeks he spent in there without stopping. All of that and he was only left with a slight headache in return, his body healing over all his bad choices.

    Feeling a little bad that he had been in there for so long, he diverted his path from his bedroom to the main living space that Emily had first brought him to when he entered the ship. When he walked in there, he saw her sitting on the couch staring at the wall opposite to her blankly. He cleared his throat after she didn¡¯t seem to notice him, and she jolted into awareness and looked at him in surprise. For a second she looked confused before a look of recognition washed over her face.

    ¡°Sean!¡± She said, ¡°Wow, you really went deep on that one. Feels like ages since we¡¯ve seen each other. You just caught me staring into space there, haha¡­¡±

    Sean sat in a chair near her and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, ¡°Yeah, sorry about that. Just lost track of time I suppose. I was exploring the surroundings in Foundation of All. I actually just had my first death¡­ Acute radiation poisoning if you can believe it.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± she replied, ¡°So you, uh. Exploring! Tell me all about it. Finally done with the robots and factory setup?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± Sean replied, ¡°I¡¯ve got the basics down. Nothing like your base of course, but enough that the harvesters are going out and production runs pretty much automatically for the basics. I¡¯ve been mostly focused on the mystery of figuring out what happened to that world and finding out if there are any survivors.¡±

    He told Emily about the various clues he had found and a few of his theories on what had happened. Her face had the strangest expression as she watched him speak, but as soon as he finished she plastered on a smile.

    ¡°No spoilers,¡± she said, ¡°Most people don¡¯t really care about that part of it. I¡¯m surprised you do.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Sean said, ¡°It just feels sad, I think. All those buildings, everything they built¡­ just left empty after whatever event happened. I know it¡¯s just a game but it¡¯s¡­ I don¡¯t know, disrespectful to just ignore it and move on with the factory now that I¡¯ve started investigating. Especially when it all looks so real.¡±

    Emily watched him with an intense gaze for a moment, before nodding and looking away. ¡°Yes,¡± she said softly, ¡°I suppose it would be. It is sad, all of them just forgotten¡­¡±

    Sean frowned as he detected real emotion as she said that. But before he could think about it any farther she shook her head and looked up again, ¡°Enough of that talk though. I¡¯m sure you want to get a nap to clear that headache of yours,¡± She said, ¡°If you¡¯re down, I¡¯ve got some ancient board games kicking around we could play together. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve tried chess yet, that could be fun. Really, it¡¯s probably best that you¡¯ve taken a break now. We¡¯re less than a week away from the Immortal Council and all the lovely bureaucracy we¡¯ll both have to go through once we get there.¡±

    ¡°Sounds fun,¡± Sean said, throwing her a thumbs up. A gesture he had picked up after Emily using it so many times, ¡°Talk to you later after I sleep.¡±

    With that Sean left and went to bed, falling asleep as soon as he concentrated on doing so for a minute or two.

 Chapter 9: The Chess Game

    ¡°Only a day left before we arrive,¡± Emily said as she moved her pawn forward to start their chess game. She was in one of her energetic moods for the last few hours and was more animated than usual as they played. Sean moved his knight forward in response, having finally figured out how all the pieces moved and some basic strategies after the first day where Emily taught him the rules.

    ¡°Yep,¡± He replied, ¡°I¡¯m sort of nervous. I¡¯m basically a kid compared to all of them, right? What if I mess something up?¡±

    Emily moved out her bishop, ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Sean. You¡¯ll do great! You¡¯re actually more mature than most Immortals you¡¯ll meet on the younger side. They get so arrogant for the first few millennia until they get slapped back down to size again¡­ Sometimes several times. Don¡¯t let them intimidate you for being young, you¡¯re actually a pretty smart guy with how fast you¡¯ve picked up Foundation of All on hard mode. Figuring out how to assemble the harvesters manually takes most people years, you know. I¡¯m kinda amazed you got it so fast.¡±

    Sean paused with his hand extended for a moment as he processed that statement before moving his pawn forward to block her bishop and so it was protected by his knight.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize I was that fast,¡± he said. He had gotten there in only a few months but it certainly hadn¡¯t been easy, ¡°But surely with enough time all those people are more skilled than me? I mean they have¡­ so much time to learn about everything.¡±

    Emily snorted as she moved again, ¡°Pffft. You would think, but not really. Everyone has their own interests, it just so happens that mine is technology too, lucky you. Some of them could talk your ear off about mineral pricing, how to properly create a holomovie or game, create the best wine or food, fashion¡­ But technology is hard, so most people don¡¯t bother learning more than they have to and learn about their other hobbies instead.¡±

    Sean moved and thought that over, ¡°So, on a scale of one to ten how would you rate my knowledge of mechanical engineering at least? Compared to the people I would meet, I mean? You¡¯re just so advanced and know so much, how am I supposed to compete with that?¡±

    Emily moved again and considered, blowing out air in a long sigh as she thought. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ There¡¯s kind of two buckets of people. There¡¯s the oldies like me that know a little of everything. It¡¯s not really fair to compare yourself to me or them. Trust me, it took a lot longer to pick things up than you are. Usually most people at your level of mechanical engineering are maybe¡­. Hmmm. Not really a good way to think about it with numbers considering how many different things you can learn. But I¡¯d say you¡¯re about¡­ the upper half of people at Immortus Station if you¡¯re discussing mechanical engineering knowledge only. Most people there are pretty young as immortal standards go. Most are under a hundred thousand years old and only a few oldies stick around to help out occasionally.¡±

    Sean frowned, that was not the image he got of this place at all. He made another move on the board.

    ¡°Where are the older ones? I thought this place was the government. What about you, are you helping them?¡±

    Emily shrugged, ¡°Most of them leave the galaxy or have their own big projects they work on without bothering other people too much. No one wants to play politician for forever when they have better things to do. But many of them drop by for short visits, they just don¡¯t stay there for long. And the Immortal Council doesn¡¯t want my help, I try to keep my distance if I can. I did tell you about the treaty right?¡±

    Sean shook his head as Emily moved her piece and he responded by moving next a few seconds later.

    ¡°Really?¡± She asked him as she considered her next move, ¡°I thought I did¡­ Oh, well basically Immortals have certain sectors that they¡¯re banned from so we don¡¯t crowd out all the normal humans with our wealth and influence. That included your home sector and most of the ones on the outer rim. The Immortal Council doesn¡¯t take kindly to people interfering or even traveling to the forbidden zones without permission. That¡¯s why I came down so hard on you when we first met. Still embarrassed about that¡­ Anyways, I ignore the treaty and do my own thing which always annoys them. But I know their leader pretty well and he¡¯s understanding at least so I can get away with it as long as I don¡¯t interfere overmuch and stir up too much trouble.¡±

    ¡°Check,¡± Sean said as he moved his piece again, ¡°Is that why they don¡¯t like you? Because you¡¯re some sort of rebel that doesn¡¯t follow the rules and is exempt from them in a lot of cases?¡±

    ¡°Sort of,¡± Emily said, ¡°There¡¯s¡­ other reasons too.¡± She moved her king out of check. ¡°Remember the guy that was chasing us? The Immortal Council really hates him and his group and they lump me in with them because of... how much they sing my praises. Well, I hate them too, but the government''s whole purpose is keeping them in check and preventing them from attacking people across the galaxy.¡±

    ¡°Who are they?¡± Sean asked as he moved the piece. Emily immediately looked around as if to escape, panicking a little as he asked. But Sean wanted to get an answer this time and pushed harder.

    ¡°Emily.¡±

    She refocused on him.

    ¡°I get that it''s hard for you. You look like you want to run away whenever I ask about what happened. But can you at least give me something? I¡¯ve been wondering about who he was for months now. I don¡¯t want to hear it first from some arrogant jerk from this Immortal Council.¡±

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    She paused at that and took a deep breath. ¡°Fine,¡± She said and steeled herself. ¡°Those people are known as the¡­ Plaguebringers. That¡¯s the people who think I¡¯m their messiah.¡±

    Sean reeled back in shock, accidentally knocking over several of his chess pieces as he flinched at her words. Plaguebringers? The villains from stories that¡­

    ¡°But surely they''re just legends right? They can¡¯t be as bad as everything I¡¯ve heard before¡­¡± Sean said before trailing off.

    ¡°They¡¯re¡­ probably worse,¡± Emily replied hesitantly, almost cringing at his words, ¡°They are a death cult, going out and intentionally releasing all sorts of bioengineered diseases and plagues onto populated worlds for their beliefs. You know that there are bacteria that live in your gut and help you digest your food right?¡±

    Sean put a hand over his stomach and looked down.

    ¡°Well, our powers, our regeneration, don¡¯t affect that part of us inside our digestive tract or lungs,¡± She continued, ¡°Plaguebringers put all sorts of their deadly diseases in that space to multiply and incubate. Disease that spreads when they aren¡¯t wearing their special isolation suits. For Immortals, we don¡¯t even feel it. Anything that actually entered into our blood would be dissolved as we regenerate. But for all the normal humans¡­ It''s horrible.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll bet¡­¡± Sean said before looking back up, ¡°And you aren¡¯t involved with the Plaguebringers at all? Never were?¡± Sean asked with some tension.

    Her eyes widened and she furiously shook her head, ¡°Never! I swear I never supported those scum. Please believe me¡­¡±

    Sean met her desperate eyes and after a long moment, nodded. ¡°I believe you,¡± He said with finality, ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    Emily shook her head and slumped down like the weight of the world had left her shoulders. ¡°You¡­ You don¡¯t hate me?¡± She asked hesitantly, ¡°Why don¡¯t you hate me? You don¡¯t have to pretend just because I gave you a ride to the Immortal Council¡­¡±

    ¡°No.¡± Sean said, ¡°We¡¯ve only known each other for a little time, but I don¡¯t think you seem like the type to be in a death cult. You¡¯ve been nothing but kind to me ever since we¡¯ve met. I mean as silly as this sounds, we''ve played games together for months together and gotten along just fine! Your supposed allies attacked you and shot at your ship as soon as he found you. Why would I hate you for something that¡¯s not your fault?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡­ Thanks, Sean.¡± Emily said thickly, wiping her eyes briefly, ¡°That means a lot to me, thank you. Not many people give me a chance these days. If you change your mind later, don¡¯t feel bad. Just tell me and I¡¯ll go away.¡±

    Sean waited for a moment before snorting a little as he had a thought. Emily¡¯s head immediately shot up and she looked panicked again. ¡°Wait, I¡­¡±

    ¡°No, no,¡± Sean said while suppressing his laughter, ¡°Just. If we have a falling out how will I get my Foundation of All world back? I can¡¯t believe that was my first thought when you said that. I didn¡¯t mean to scare you. I¡¯ll still be your friend. How are you millions of years old and still care what someone like me thinks of you?¡±

    She relaxed and fell back into her chair and after a moment gave him a weak smile. ¡°Yeah,¡± she said, ¡°I guess I shouldn¡¯t. But it doesn¡¯t work that way for me. Friends. Sounds good.¡±

    Sean looked down at the chess board and blinked as he realized that he had knocked half of his pieces to the floor in surprise before. He leaned over to the ground and gathered them up and put them back where they were before. The only piece he couldn¡¯t remember was the knight. Was it on the black or white square? He knew it was one of these two squares...

    ¡°White,¡± Emily said, ¡°It was on the white square before.¡±

    Sean put it in the right place and then looked up at Emily expectantly. ¡°I think it¡¯s your turn,¡± Sean said, ¡°Now when I lose I at least have an excuse as to why. Dropping emotional bombs like that in the middle of a game. That¡¯s got to be against the rules!¡± He continued to lighten the mood.

    Emily straightened and sputtered, ¡°Bwwwaa, what?! You¡¯re the one that brought it up. If anything, that''s a penalty against you more than me!¡±

    ¡°No way,¡± Sean replied lightly as she moved her piece, ¡°I could have totally crushed you if not for being distracted.¡±

    ¡°Distracted? Watch this. Check.¡±

    Sean moved.

    ¡°Check.¡±

    Sean stared at the board and realized what was happening. Seriously¡­

    He moved his king and Emily took his piece with her rook.

    ¡°Check.¡±

    He looked at all of his pieces and after a second groaned loudly, before smirking. ¡°As I said. If I wasn¡¯t distracted I would have come out on top.¡±

    ¡°Oh, just move a piece already,¡± Emily said playfully. With a theatrical sigh, Sean moved his king one last time. Emily moved her queen forward to finish him off.

    ¡°Checkkkkk-mate!¡± She said mock seriously, ¡°But if you were distracted¡­ I suppose we could call this one a tie.¡±

    He looked at the board for a moment longer before shaking his head. ¡°All right. What does that make it? Thirty or forty for you, one tie, none for me?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you have the digital version to boost your ego,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just put it on a lower setting. You can even play it in the holodeck and have the other player go into a rage when you defeat them. It¡¯s always pretty hilarious, you should try it out.¡±

    ¡°You do that often?¡± Sean asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

    ¡°I mean¡­ why would I when I can just keep beating you?¡± She replied, seeming to have returned to her energetic mood from before.

    ¡°Let¡¯s play checkers again,¡± Sean said, ¡°At least there I have a chance.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emily replied before hesitating slightly, ¡°Yeah,¡± she said again before turning and running off to go get the box from the nearby shelf as Sean cleaned up the chess board. He hadn¡¯t thought that Immortals would be like this. He imagined stoic, unfeeling monsters spreading the plague behind them. But here he was, relaxing and playing board games with a woman that was older than the settlement of most planets in the galaxy. And she was worried about whether he wanted to be her friend or not. And wondering whether she was beating him too much in chess recently too given that last look she had shot him before running off.

    And despite everything that had happened back on Enguli¡­ He was feeling better than he ever had since his parents'' death.

 Chapter 10: Arrival

    It was time. They had been waiting for docking permissions for a few hours, but eventually the ship rumbled forward slowly under Emily¡¯s expert guidance at the console. The station they were approaching was massive and far away from any planet, out on the far reaches of an otherwise uninhabited solar system. The sun was only a slightly brighter dot in the inky expanse as the ship inched forward and the station extended bridge outwards towards their ship. According to Emily, the Immortals didn¡¯t want to come into conflict with any other humans that would want to settle down in a more desirable star system which is why it was so far from everything.

    With a rumble and click Sean heard throughout the ship, they finally finished docking and Emily sat back from the controls. She stood and looked at him.

    ¡°Alright. Here we go, Sean,¡± She said and quickly looked over herself quickly, ¡°We¡¯ve got our fancy clothing bands. No weapons. Washed up and presentable¡­ Are you ready? How do I look?¡±

    Emily was wearing a pattern of bluish mottled loose fitting jacket that went just below her waist with golden little buttons going up the center. Her undershirt was white and her pants were black. Oddly enough she was still wearing her combat boots though. Sean eyed them for a moment before internally shrugging. It was certainly a statement, but who was he to tell her what was fashionable around here? Neither of them was wearing the gray mesh of the clothing band underneath their other clothes. Emily had said it was considered bad fashion to wear clothing bands if you were trying to be more formal.

    Sean was in similar clothing but his jacket was green and he was wearing some shining thin black shoes like what he had seen on the feet of the Ruska State representative. After all of this time of wearing such breathable clothing from the clothing band, it was a little odd having just his skin exposed to the air again. He had forgotten about the materials near constant presence on his skin and only now that it was gone was he noticing the difference.

    ¡°You look good,¡± Sean said as he rubbed his chest self consciously as he thought about it, ¡°You would know better than I would about what¡¯s considered fashion around here. Let¡¯s get this over with. We¡¯ve both stressed about this enough, I¡¯d say.¡±

    Emily took a shaky breath. ¡°Yeah. Everything will go great. Totally¡­¡±

    With that they both left and went to the airlock to the main station. Emily typed in a code in the pad next to the large metal door and it slid open with a hydraulic hiss, revealing the empty hallway beyond. They walked down it as the door slid shut behind them, leaving only the door ahead before they were on the main station.

    They went up to it and waited, standing side by side in silence for a minute or so. Sean glanced at Emily wondering what was taking so long before the door finally slid open and revealed the station beyond.

    The first impression Sean had when the door opened was the smell of fresh soil. He saw in the massive chamber beyond were what appeared to be parks filled with trees and bushes, and even what he could see was a stream running through the center. Sean heard the babble of casual conversation wash over him from the various people that appeared to be wandering through the space.

    In front of them were three men staring expectantly at him and Emily. Two were wearing black metal plating over the gray mesh of clothing bands. In the center the final man wearing what appeared to be some form of yellow ceremonial robes that swirled around him. Stripes and various other symbols and accents covered his robes that dropped nearly to his ankles and billowed open around his wrists. He had a well kept beard and smiled politely as he looked over to Emily. ¡°Ms. Stenson.¡± He said, ¡°A pleasure to have you back¡­ so soon. What¡¯s it been, a couple thousand years at least?¡±

    ¡°That sounds about right,¡± she replied shortly, returning his smile with a rather blank look on her face as she did so. Her tone was polite but rather flat as she spoke. The two armored men looked at her with some hostility but forcefully relaxed at a sharp look from the robed man.

    The man turned to Sean and his smile became more genuine. ¡°And you!¡± He said, ¡°Welcome to Immortus Station for the first time. I hear you¡¯re barely a few decades old and newly immortal?¡±

    Sean nodded in reply and the man walked forward and extended his hand. Sean matched his motion and shook it, recognizing the gesture from Emily using it before. ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Sean replied and waved his station at the man and his two guards, ¡°Brand new compared to all of you.¡±

    The man chuckled as he released Sean from the handshake, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry, we try to be welcoming to any newcomers. I¡¯m Samir by the way. Chief of Security around here. But it isn¡¯t often we find someone as fresh as you. You¡¯re lucky you were¡­ delivered here first by Ms. Stenson rather than to some of her other allies.¡±

    Sean glanced at Emily and saw her face flicker with annoyance. He knew what the man was doing and suppressed his own annoyance on her behalf. ¡°And where else would she take me?¡± Sean asked as casually as he could. Samir chuckled darkly, ¡°Oh, all sorts of unpleasant places her friends told her about, I¡¯m sure. You¡¯re lucky she liked you enough to bring you all the way here away from their clutches. We¡¯re much kinder towards our members than they are.¡±

    ¡°You mean the Plaguebringers?¡± Sean asked bluntly, not liking the man insulting Emily directly to her face less than a minute they left the ship.

    Samir¡¯s eyes flickered between him and Emily and he raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°The Plaguemother told you about her followers?¡± Samir asked in surprise, still looking between the two of them. After he spoke Samir winced at the apparent slip of his tongue as Emily¡¯s expression shifted from blank to anger in an instant.

    ¡°Well, we got attacked by one,¡± Sean quickly said before Emily yelled at the man. Or maybe it wasn¡¯t needed as she visibly held herself back and stiffened her expression before he even finished speaking.

    ¡°He sure didn¡¯t seem that friendly with her,¡± Sean added, ¡°Guy was totally insane.¡±

    Samir eyed Sean, ¡°Yes, they do tend to go that way. But she is their leader, don¡¯t let her tell you otherwise. They shout her name as they leave only devastation behind them,¡± he said, ¡°My condolences that we weren¡¯t the first to find you.¡±

    Samir turned to Emily and met her gaze, giving up his polite facade, ¡°Ms. Stenson, thank you for your service to the Immortal Council in this instance,¡± he said in a sharp tone, ¡°We will pay you for your service and you can be on your way. We will help Sean here adjust and settle in. Here on Immortus station with other upstanding citizens.¡±

    Emily gritted her teeth for a moment before shaking her head, ¡°I¡¯ll stay until Sean is fully settled. I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t take that long for him to adjust.¡±

    Samir paused and looked displeased but after a second inclined his head slightly. ¡°Indeed. I suppose that¡¯s reasonable. But I suggest you stay in your ship so as not to disturb the rest of the community.¡±

    ¡°I get it,¡± Emily growled, ¡°God, how many times do I have to tell you pricks. I am not. Involved. With the fucking. Plaguebringers!¡±

    Samir snorted, ¡°I¡¯ll believe it when they stop chanting your name before releasing another plague.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡­ Fine! I¡¯ll go to my ship,¡± she said, seeming defeated at seeing Samir not budging in the least before storming off.

    ¡°Hey, Emily,¡± Sean called out quickly before she left back into the hallway between the ship and the station. She turned around and met his gaze, ¡°See you later?¡± he asked, not actually sure what would happen to him next. Her tense posture lightened fractionally and she nodded and spoke, ¡°Bye, Sean. Feel free to come over anytime.¡±

    Samir waved his hand and the door to the station closed with a hiss, cutting her off before she could say anything else with the door.

    There was a moment of silence before Samir turned to Sean and let out a thousand watt salesman smile, giving Sean flashbacks to how the man from the Ruska state had looked. Or maybe that¡¯s just his dislike of the man¡¯s disdain of Emily tainting Sean¡¯s perception of him.

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    ¡°Sorry about that bit of unpleasantness,¡± Samir said, ¡°She¡¯s a liar and you shouldn¡¯t trust her. But now that we¡¯re done with that, let¡¯s move on shall we? I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll love it here! After doing some basic paperwork we can start showing you around properly.¡±

    Sean followed Samir and was led to an office where he filled out paperwork. So much paperwork. He had no idea how much time passed in the windowless little office sitting with Samir and answering questions about himself, his history, his home planet, the exact events that led him to becoming an immortal¡­ All of it analyzed and questioned down to the smallest detail. He filled out all sorts of forms to establish himself here and become a citizen of the station. Given the way his head was throbbing as it did when he usually skipped sleep, it had likely been at least eight or nine hours since they started. Probably far longer than that.

    But eventually, they were done and Sean was freed from what had felt more and more like a prison as they continued to sit there unmoving doing the paperwork. Samir then began the true tour and showed him the various facilities and talked up how wonderful the Immortal Council was.

    The open green areas connected to a series of glass elevators that ran up and down through the various levels of the structure. There was a facility for literally everything you could imagine here. Sean had been shocked when he saw a massive room filled with water near the beginning. A ¡®pool¡¯ as Samir called it. So much water just sitting in there for people to spend time in. Not for drinking or cleaning, it just seemed¡­ so decadent.

    As Samir showed him more and more luxurious structures and facilities, Sean¡¯s mind kept coming back to that first room. To the pool. He knew he should probably be impressed by the zero gravity shooting range that Samir was currently walking them through, but he just wasn¡¯t. It was so removed from his life experience that he had no idea how he was supposed to feel about it compared to a normal shooting range. He hadn¡¯t even used the one on Emily¡¯s ship yet over these last few months.

    He had never even held a real weapon before. Nothing that his hometown had access to could be both easily carried and deal with the vicious local wildlife. At least for the pool he could visualize how much of a luxurious waste of resources it was. This? He stared at a woman bouncing off a wall to hit a moving target down the range. He had no clue how impressed he should be. But he imagined it was top of the line given how much Samir praised it as they went through.

    Finally, the tour came to an end and he was shown to his room. A massive space with a large white tiled bathroom. Gold trim and a massive bed lined with silky sheets and fluffy pillows dominated the space. He had thought that the room on Emily¡¯s ship had been decadent¡­ but this¡­ this would be enough space to house more than twenty people back home. It felt like too much¡­

    He fell asleep and after he woke up again he left the oversized room and began to explore Immortus Station. Sean started off at a normal shooting range. A completely different place than the zero gravity one. Shooting a gun couldn¡¯t be that hard, right? Wrong. He barely even knew how to hold the weapons, and was surprised when he discovered that there was a safety switch to prevent it from firing if you pressed the trigger and the safety was still on. He spent a while learning that, only firing a few shots between getting his stance corrected and learning about how to handle it safely.

    Not that he could hurt himself with it, but the AI instructor told Sean that it was polite to not accidentally shoot other people. Something that was apparently not obvious to other people it dealt with based on how often it kept reminding him of it as he went along. Eventually, Sean was tired of the training and left. He walked outside and shook his head as he realized how utterly useless he would be if he ever had to fight one of those Plaguebringers someday.

    Was the gun range training free? No. But it may as well be. Apparently Sean got a kind of stipend since he was so new, so all he had to do was have a machine scan a card he had been given and he could pay for everything. He had been worried about running out of money while he was going over the paperwork with Samir, but Samir had outright laughed when Sean had asked. The amount you were given was inversely proportional to your age, so Sean was being given an insane amount of money just for existing right now.

    Sean had asked if he was exploiting some sort of loophole since it seemed that most that came here were much older than he was, but Samir had simply waved him off and told him to enjoy himself. Compensation for the ¡®unfortunate¡¯ way he had been found. Sean¡¯s lips had curled downward when he heard that.

    Now that he was out of the shooting range, Sean was greeted by several people nearby who noticed his unfamiliar face. While there were hundreds of thousands of people on the station, almost everyone had at least seen each other before considering everyone was immortal. So people naturally gravitated towards him as he walked around, curious about his presence.

    When he told them his situation, they became much friendlier and recommended various things he should try while he was around Immortus station. Most were very sympathetic that he had been picked up by the ¡®Plaguemother¡¯ and congratulated him for ¡®getting away¡¯ from her evil clutches. It was bizarre how much people here seemed to hate the woman he had become friends with over the last few months.

    As they warned him about all the bad things they had heard about Emily, he tried to get more details. She was ancient, maybe she was just an amazing actress and she was secretly evil? But no matter who he asked, not a single person could list a specific bad thing she had personally done. All of them spoke of things some Plaguebringer had done and claimed was in Emily or the ¡®Plaguemother¡¯s¡¯ name. In fact they spoke of how she pretended to do all sorts of good deeds around the galaxy to cover up all sorts of evil schemes.

    Now, Sean knew that he didn¡¯t have the full context of everything and that even now Emily might be lying to him about things. But some of the people spit on the floor in disgust when they spoke about her. He just didn¡¯t think she deserved that from what he¡¯d heard. No wonder why she was so nervous about what Sean would think about her if most Immortal¡¯s first impression of her was from these people.

    Making a decision, Sean broke away from his latest conversation and made his way to the ship docking zone where he knew Emily¡¯s ship was. He noticed that the two armored Immortals flanking Samir on Sean¡¯s arrival stood to either end of the hatch.

    Sean walked up to them. ¡°Here to see Emily,¡± he said, glancing between the two of them. They shared a look before the one on the right stepped forward and shook his head.

    ¡°This ship is off limits to visitation. Please move along.¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Sean said, ¡°Can you at least go in there and tell her I¡¯m here so she can come out herself?¡±

    ¡°The ship is completely locked down. No one goes in or out,¡± the guard said calmly.

    ¡°Are you serious?¡± Sean asked before wracking his brain for what to say to get past them, ¡°According to who? I, uh. Left something in there. What am I supposed to do?¡±

    The guard hesitated at that and put his hand to his earpiece. ¡°Samir?¡± the guard said out loud before pausing for a second listening.

    ¡°No, she¡¯s still inside,¡± The guard said, ¡°It¡¯s Sean, the new guy. He¡¯s here and wants to go in. Says he left something inside on her ship.¡±

    Another pause.

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    Pause.

    ¡°Understood, sir. I¡¯ll tell him.¡±

    The guard looked at Sean again and took his hand off the earpiece again, ¡°Alright. Go on through. But go in there, get your stuff, and leave. Don¡¯t listen to the Plaguemother¡¯s poisonous words no matter how innocent they seem. If you take too long then we¡¯ll go in and make sure you¡¯re okay. But don¡¯t risk it.¡±

    ¡°Er, okay. But I think I¡¯ll be fine so don¡¯t be worried if I take too long,¡± Sean replied as the door slid open in front of him and he went through. He walked down the hallway and went forward, flinching a little as he heard the outer door boom shut behind him. He waited in front of the inner door, shifting from foot to foot as he stood there. He was really feeling the time pressure the guards had put on him.

    The door opened and Emily was standing there in the same blue jacket she had worn a few days ago.

    ¡°Sean!¡± She said, sounding almost surprised, ¡°You came back to see me! Wow.¡±

    ¡°The guards outside sure didn¡¯t make it easy,¡± he grumbled as he stepped into her ship, ¡°Had to pretend I was here just to pick up something I forgot just to get by them.¡±

    Emily¡¯s eyes narrowed for a moment before she shook her head, ¡°Oh, those¡­ But you got by them at least. So, how was¡­ Immortus Station? You know, their facilities are top of the line, best of the galaxy. Lots of other immortals to talk to, all sorts of¡­¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t hate you, Emily,¡± Sean said, interrupting her rambling. ¡°Something¡¯s in the water over there. I mean it was almost laughable how much they tried to explain how terraforming planets and moving refugees and helping them resettle for free was secretly part of one of your big evil plans.¡±

    Emily nodded and gave him a weak chuckle, ¡°Trust me. If I had any evil plans, none of those jerks would ever know anything at all about them. The Evil Plaguemother secretly rules the galaxy!¡±

    Sean raised an eyebrow and she seemed to rethink what she had just said, ¡°Nope! Not that I have any of those,¡± she quickly corrected, ¡°Sorry, bad joke.¡±

    ¡°So, tell me about what you think of Immortus station?¡± Emily said, trying to quickly move past her joke as they entered the old familiar living room and sat down on the chairs. Chairs that were much less luxurious than the ones in Immortus station but more casual and comfortable through familiarity than the more expensive ones.

    ¡°Immortus station¡­¡± Sean began and launched into his account of the last few days as Emily listened. After that was done, they discussed some of the recommendations Sean had received from the people he had talked with. Emily had several suggestions of her own that none of the others had said. Their conversation was¡­ easy and Sean felt his last shred of doubt fade away. Their connection couldn¡¯t be a lie, and no matter what the other immortals said he couldn¡¯t believe she was faking it. Not until someone had undeniable proof otherwise, and maybe not even then. Their friendship was real, and Emily was just misunderstood by all the others.

    And so Sean relaxed and focused more fully on the conversation, the decision lifting a weight off his shoulders that he had been carrying ever since he stepped off of this ship days ago. They were still friends. He could trust her.

 Chapter 11: Swimming Lessons

    ¡°Yeah, the makerspace on level fifteen is great for robotics,¡± Emily said, ¡°You can try to test your skills you practiced in Foundation for All in the real world. Just remem-¡±

    There was a chirping sound and suddenly a holographic display appeared in front of her in mid air, cutting her off mid sentence. The display showed a video feed of the two guards standing at the door, looking rather agitated.

    She sighed and looked up to Sean. ¡°That¡¯s it I guess. I¡¯ve already copied your Foundation of All world onto this drive. You can say that it¡¯s what you came here for. I¡¯ve had it ready for days just in case you came back for it.¡±

    She pulled a small black rectangle roughly the size of her palm from her pocket and handed it over to him. He inspected it for a moment before slipping it into his pocket.

    They stood and made their way towards the door, the holographic video of the guards following along. The two of them were visibly impatient and discussing something with each other as they stood outside the doors.

    Sean looked over as he saw Emily turn to him. ¡°They probably won¡¯t let you see me again for a long time,¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯ll likely be told to leave the station at least within the next week or so. I¡¯ve left some instructions behind in your base in Foundation for All. If you ever want to contact me and meet up again¡­ just build that transmitter and leave a message. Just¡­¡±

    Emily hesitated as they both kept walking towards the outer door, ¡°...give this place a chance,¡± She finished, ¡°Besides them all hating me, this place is rather wonderful. Spend a few decades or centuries here at least in the lap of luxury to get used to your new lifespan. Find your own feet with your new life. Don¡¯t feel bad if you change your mind about contacting me again after all that time. I¡¯ll understand. Even if you waited for ten thousand years I wouldn¡¯t consider that a long time to wait for you to contact me.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t,¡± Sean reassured her before hesitating, ¡°But I¡¯ll give this place a real shot. I guess decades or centuries would really be nothing to you, huh?¡±

    Emily smiled a little, ¡°They really aren¡¯t. But they¡¯re long for you.¡±

    They reached the doors and the two guards had swelled to five in the time they had walked over. One of them was fingering his weapon and arguing with the others as he waved his weapon at the door as if to blast it before one of his companions talked him down.

    They stopped walking and faced each other fully, ¡°So, I guess this is goodbye,¡± Emily said with a forcefully light tone.

    ¡°For now,¡± Sean corrected.

    ¡°For now,¡± She agreed after a moment.

    A moment of silence where they ignored the upset guards outside.

    ¡°Good luck on your new life, Sean,¡± Emily said before stepping forward and wrapping him in a hug. He was shocked for a moment before he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her back. After a second she released him and stepped back.

    She waved her hand and the door opened before he could say anything else. The security team piled into the room, only to pause when they saw the two of them standing there watching them.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Sean said, ¡°Got what I needed. Thanks for the concern though,¡± he finished with a little sarcasm.

    The leader cleared his throat and nodded, ¡°I apologize.¡± He glanced at Emily before looking back to Sean, ¡°You were taking a while and we only worried for your safety¡­ in this place. We¡¯re glad to see you¡¯re fine.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you have your things Sean,¡± Emily said in a haughty tone, ¡°As I said best of luck on Immortus Station.¡±

    Sean suppressed his annoyance at the man¡¯s words and simply silently nodded back. Under the gazes of the security team he turned back to Emily, realizing what she was doing. She was pretending she didn¡¯t care to stop him from getting in trouble with them. But screw that. Her eyes widened and she shook her head as he opened his mouth. He couldn¡¯t have his last interaction with her for decades or centuries end like this.

    ¡°Thank you for everything, Emily,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯d be happy to travel the stars again with you someday. Best of luck to you too.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡­¡± Emily blinked and composed herself and adopted her more haughty tone from before, ¡°Thank you. One can only hope. Goodbye.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye,¡± Sean replied before turning and walking to the observing security team listening to their exchange. They enveloped him like some kind of protective detail and hurriedly rushed him away. Behind him, Sean got one last look of Emily watching them leave. She waved her hand and the metal door shut with a clunk, obscuring his view of her.

    After that, Sean stopped dragging his feet and let himself be pushed back into Immortus station proper, where Samir stood there smiling.

    ¡°Sean. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re alright,¡± the slimy man said as the two guards from before resumed their posts from before as the door behind them from the station sealed shut. The rest of the group nodded at Samir and rapidly dispersed, walking off together into the distance with some purpose. Returning to their other duties presumably.

    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be?¡± Sean asked idly as he met Samir¡¯s gaze. Seeing something in Sean¡¯s look, Samir reluctantly nodded, ¡°I suppose you¡¯re right. I see you don¡¯t believe us when we tell you what she¡¯s really like. I apologize if I was¡­ overeager in explaining her faults. I did not want her to be able to deceive you. Oh, but I see your annoyance. Understandable, I suppose¡­¡±

    Sean looked away.

    Samir clapped his hands, ¡°Ah, but I must apologize again,¡± He said, ¡°She will be gone within a few days I¡¯m sure. There is no need for me to stir up controversy so crassly like this. After living here for a few centuries and talking to the people here you¡¯ll see the truth. Say, I noticed your interest in our pools when I was giving your tour. I assume you don¡¯t know how to swim given your history?¡±

    Sean shook his head.

    ¡°Well, I know a particularly good swim instructor that can teach you. She¡¯s rather excellent, and taught me how to do it back in the day. I came from a small community much the same as yours growing up. What do you say we go there, and we put all of this tension behind us? Start over.¡±

    Sean paused and considered it for a second as Samir stared at him. Then, slowly, he nodded back. He would take the peace offering for what it was. He would give this place a chance, just like he¡¯d promised. And he should be polite to Samir if nothing else given how much he had been seeing of the man recently.

    ¡°Then let¡¯s go, my friend,¡± Samir said, ¡°To the pool! I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll learn in no time.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The pool was interesting. Sean was dressed in some swimming trunks they had given him and left his things at a locker. Samir had left after introducing Sean to his instructor. She was polite but remained mostly silent as they made their way to the edge of the water towards the deep end. The very deep end, as in over a hundred feet deep as far as he could tell. The body of water in the place was absolutely massive, and Sean leaned over the edge to stare into it. The two of them had the whole side of the pool to themselves for as long as they wanted.

    The station was so large that they had multiple sets of each facility all with slightly different quirks and differences. Which meant it wasn¡¯t that hard to reserve any individual place for any length of time without anyone else wanting the space enough to contest it.

    Suddenly, Sean felt a heavy impact on the base of his spine and a feminine grunt behind him and before he knew it he was thrown forward into the water from where he had been leaning over the edge to look into the pool. He immediately started panicking and flailed around unsure of what he had to do as he hit the water with a splash. The instructor stood at the edge of the pool and watched him flail impassively with pursed lips and a critical eye, still lowering her leg from where she had kicked him at full force into the water.

    Sean would like to say that he figured it out, how to swim in time¡­ but he did not. He slipped under the water as his flailing proved ineffective in keeping him above the water or even moving any closer towards the nearby wall. He sank downward and before he could stop himself took a deep breath of the water around him. He took another quick panicked breath as he realized what he had done¡­

    Only to feel like an idiot. His lungs slightly burned again and his lungs felt oddly heavy as his chest moved in and out. But he was an immortal, he didn¡¯t need to breathe. He relaxed and kept sinking down, trying to remember the brief advice the instructor had given him before shoving him into the water.

    He brought his fingers so they were bunched together and swiped his arms. Hmmm. That did work better. He was still sinking, now about halfway to the bottom and there was a slight pressure on his skull as he sank. He looked up through the water as he heard a distorted splash above him. There was the instructor swimming downwards with powerful strokes, making her way towards him in her one piece bathing suit.

    Sean kept trying to make his way back upward, but only managed to slow himself from sinking faster.

    Before the instructor reached him, his bare feet gently hit the bottom of the pool. His chest rose and fell slowly as he looked around the blue tinged landscape for a moment. So much water...

    The instructor landed in front of him, slowly floating down in front of him with her hair in a braid floating freely behind her head with a mind of its own like some kind of exotic snake as it waved in the currents of the water.

    She met Sean¡¯s gaze and when she saw he was paying attention lightly pushed off the bottom and slowly demonstrated her swimming stroke. She rose fifteen or so feet in the water as Sean watched her before stopping and sinking back to the bottom.

    She watched him expectantly and after a second of awkwardness, Sean realized what she wanted. He jumped up and tried to mimic what she¡¯d done. A clumsy job, and while he did rise a bit he could tell that he was wasting a lot of energy doing so.

    She watched him from the bottom as he struggled at it for a few minutes before giving up and floating back to the bottom.

    As soon as his feet hit the bottom again, she swam forward so she was only inches away from him. He flinched, but her look of focus as she grabbed his arm helped him recover quickly. She grabbed his hands and manipulated his fingers, poking and prodding them until they were curled into the proper shape. She swam under his armpit without any regard for his personal space and then twisted around so she floated directly behind him.

    She grabbed his elbow and wrist and started moving his arm. He relaxed his fingers unconsciously and she stopped and cuffed him on the back of the head and glared. He straightened up and returned his fingers to how they were before. She inspected his hand and fixed his posture, before floating to the side and doing the same for his other arm. She swam behind him and grabbed his wrist and elbow again and started moving them around. It was in the swimming stroke she had demonstrated. Sean understood and tried to match the motion with his free arm and she nodded approvingly when she noticed.

    After a few minutes of this, she let go and swam around to get in front of him again. She pointed upwards and mimicked the motion they had been practicing.

    Sean hopped upward and made the motions with his hands and felt himself moving gradually upwards as he went. He kept going upwards, and after a few seconds the instructor also kicked off and swam upward opposite him making sure to stay at the same height as him at all times. She even matched the cadence of his swimming strokes.

    He noticed that his form was slightly different and adjusted his posture slightly, to her nod of approval. She pointed to her legs as they reached halfway to the surface and Sean looked down at them. He tried to mimic her form for that too, and they started moving upwards much faster.

    They breached the surface and the woman gestured to the edge of the pool. They swam over there and pulled themselves up over the stone lip onto solid ground, out of the water.

    Sean opened his mouth to say something, but only let out a wet burble as water spilled out from between his lips.

    The instructor laughed silently, water jetting from her mouth as her chest heaved, her face breaking from the professionalism from before into mirth.

    Sean put a hand to his face and kept trying to talk in confusion only to expel more water. She only laughed harder, the stream of water coming from her beginning to sputter and give way to wheezes of air.

    Sean took a deep breath and exhaled sharply and sure enough water jetted out of his mouth again. It was the water in his lungs! It must be clogging things up and stopping himself from speaking normally. The instructor had finished clearing her lungs with water and was now down to light chuckles as she watched Sean struggle with a few more sharp breaths to clear out the last of the water.

    ¡°Herrrrrllllllloooo?¡± Sean burbled, now somewhat understandable despite still spraying out a bit of water as he spoke.

    ¡°Hello,¡± she replied, her face returning to a professional mask despite a slight smirk remaining on her lips, ¡°Samir told me about how new you are to the station, that you¡¯ve never swam before. Sorry about shoving you in there. But it''s important to understand that you aren¡¯t human anymore. You have to remember that no matter what you do, drowning is a thing of the past. You¡¯ll learn much quicker now you know you can go in there and experiment as much as you want without any risk to yourself. Besides breathing in the water and experiencing the admittedly hilarious voice you make as you clear out the water from your lungs.¡±

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Wooorrrrd havvve,¡± Sean¡¯s voice cleared from its watery burble as the last of the water seemed to leave his mouth, ¡°Appreciated a warning first.¡±

    ¡°But then there would be no honest assessment of your abilities in a crisis,¡± she replied blandly, ¡°Which was terrible. We have a lot of work to do, which is expected given this is your first time. Do you feel scared about going in the water again? I saw how tense you were leaning over the edge.¡±

    Sean stared thoughtfully into the water. Well, she was right. His fear had vanished almost immediately after he had finally realized that he couldn¡¯t drown even if he screwed something up.

    ¡°See?¡± She said lightly, ¡°Scared the fear right out of you. But now that we¡¯ve dealt with that we can get into the real swing of things. The swimming stroke we just started learning down there in the bottom is known as the frog stroke. That¡¯s what we¡¯ll be working on together until you start feeling more comfortable in the water and are ready for more.¡±

    Sean looked at her in confusion. What was a frog? Noticing his expression she clarified,

    ¡°Frogs are an amphibian that make that same kind of motion as they swim. Look up some videos when you get home, you¡¯ll understand what I mean when you see it yourself.¡±

    Sean nodded.

    ¡°Great,¡± she continued, ¡°So, whenever you¡¯re ready we can go back in and keep practicing. This session is only a few days long, so we won¡¯t be able to get everything now. I¡¯m Brenda if you want to schedule another one past this.¡±

    Sean blinked, ¡°Days?¡± he said dumbly.

    ¡°I know, I can¡¯t believe Samir scheduled such a short one,¡± Brenda agreed, ¡°Most new learners spend at least a few weeks with me to get to a passable level. If you want to extend it longer I¡¯m fine with that, my schedule¡¯s mostly free for the next few months. If there¡¯s something you have scheduled in a few days then we can take a break and come back to it after you¡¯re done.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m new to this. Are you saying that we will be spending multiple days doing this nonstop?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± she said, ¡°You have somewhere else to be? We Immortals don¡¯t get physically tired, but we can take little breaks if you get too mentally overwhelmed with what I¡¯m teaching you. It''s not that bad for swimming though, most of it is physical anyway and your body can keep up literally forever. You¡¯re the client, no one is keeping you here. I get paid the same if you leave now or in a few days. But I thought you¡¯d want to get your money¡¯s, well Samir¡¯s money, worth.¡±

    Sean hesitated for a moment before reviewing why he was acting so shocked. He had spent at least that long in Foundation of All without sleeping right? How was this any different? If anything he should be grateful that Brenda would be giving such close instruction for so long. That couldn¡¯t be easy for her to pull off. And it was true, he really didn¡¯t have anything else he had to do. Emily would be leaving soon, and Sean knew that he wouldn¡¯t be able to see her again before she left given the blatant hostility everyone had towards her here.

    He may as well go with the flow. He looked up to Brenda, ¡°I guess you¡¯re right,¡± Sean said, ¡°Still getting used to¡­ all of this. So, what¡¯s next?¡±

    Brenda slipped forward into the water and swam out deeper into the pool while keeping her head above the water.

    ¡°Next we¡¯ll teach you to tread water so you don¡¯t have to sink to the bottom anymore. Just keep calm and copy the motions I¡¯m making now, kicking with your legs and pushing up with your arms.¡±

    Sean watched her for a bit as she made the motions slowly to demonstrate.

    ¡°Got it?¡± she asked and he nodded.

    ¡°I think so,¡± he replied.

    ¡°Then come in,¡± she said, ¡°Put it into practice.¡±

    Sean sat on the edge and carefully slipped into the water and sloppily mimicked her, kicking his legs hard and circling his arms.

    ¡°Good,¡± Brenda said, ¡°Keep doing that. Try to keep your legs more parallel with each other as you kick. Next we¡¯ll¡­¡±

    The next few days were a blur for Sean as Brenda taught him how to swim. Just when he thought they were done, she moved on to something completely new.

    <hr>

    Sean and Brenda stood on top of a diving board, high above the water. Very high. They had taken an elevator to get all the way up here. It was Sean¡¯s fourth session. Emily had left with her ship a few weeks ago, and besides spending some time taking a break and briefly sleeping in his new room, he had been spending most of his time at Immortus Station here learning to swim under Brenda¡¯s critical eye.

    Sean edged towards the edge of the diving board and leaned over the edge to look down. Seeing his nervousness, Brenda rolled her eyes. She still remained professional and concise as she taught him, but in the moments in between she had become more casual and relaxed.

    ¡°It¡¯s the same as the water in the beginning. It¡¯s all in your mind,¡± Brenda said, ¡°Nothing you do. I repeat. Nothing¡­ will manage to kill you. Ever. Your brain just doesn¡¯t know it yet and is telling you to be careful when it smells danger. But you don¡¯t have to be so afraid of a fall like this, just ignore its warnings.¡±

    Sean looked up from where he had been holding the railing in a death grip after taking a step back off of the diving board itself.

    ¡°Nothing?¡± he said skeptically, ¡°That can¡¯t be right. I get we regenerate fast, but what about space? What about throwing someone in the sun or a black hole?¡±

    Brenda looked at him surprised, ¡°What? You really don¡¯t know? No one explained things to you properly?¡±

    Sean shook his head, ¡°I get we¡¯re powerful and live forever or whatever. But there must be some way to kill us, right? Some special chemical or¡­ something.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Brenda said flatly, ¡°There has never been a recorded case of an Immortal dying in our millions of years of recorded history. By any method. And trust me, many people have tried, Immortals included. We¡¯re in this for the long haul. All of us, the good and bad. That¡¯s part of the problem really.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ What if a laser destroyed someone in an instant? Like, just destroy every cell in our bodies before we start regenerating?¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± Brenda said, ¡°Your body will sprout back from nothing from wherever you disappeared from. You think that being able to endlessly regenerate any missing limbs and creating matter from nowhere matches the laws of physics? The magic bullshit just does it anyway no matter what we have to say about how impossible it should be. The Shadow and the Immortality it gives is literally beyond all of our understanding in every way even after all of this time.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but what about throwing someone in a star?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Surely they wouldn¡¯t survive and at least they would stay in there forever if they can¡¯t actually die?¡±

    Brenda nodded and sat down cross legged on the metal platform, leaning her back against the railing behind her.

    ¡°True,¡± she said thoughtfully, ¡°That was actually a punishment used for particularly terrible criminals back in the beginning of recorded history. But it isn¡¯t used anymore for one simple reason. It doesn¡¯t work. Immortals always end up escaping eventually, and in a way that people don¡¯t realize they¡¯ve escaped until they start causing more chaos again. Only prisons actively maintained by people are even moderately successful at containing the bad eggs.¡±

    ¡°How is that possible?¡± Sean demanded, ¡°I mean the gravity, they¡¯re sitting in plasma constantly¡­¡±

    ¡°Them being constantly dissolved is actually what helps them escape,¡± Brenda explained, ¡°The little bits of bone that appear before being dissolved again can be easily pushed around. Coronal Mass Ejections or CMEs are when the shifting plasma builds up in a star and then blasts outward. They naturally happen all the time in the stars. Given enough time, these few grams of the immortal bits eventually coincidentally drift into the area where one of these bursts happen and they are shot out of the star at high speed. Once they are ejected from the star in a random direction, potentially tens of thousands of years after they were put there, they can escape into the wider universe with no one able to know they¡¯re even back and on the loose.

    ¡°But space?¡± Sean asked, still hunting for something. What she was saying just didn¡¯t sit right with him, ¡°Won¡¯t they drift randomly around and be stuck there for millions of years? It doesn¡¯t matter that they¡¯re alive if they¡¯re not able to make it to a planet right?¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± Brenda denied, ¡°Our mass is regenerated from nothing, remember? But that doesn¡¯t mean that the blood or things leaving your body don¡¯t affect you. Force equals mass times acceleration. If you contort yourself just right then it increases your thrust in a certain direction and you can pilot yourself around space sort of like a fucked up spaceship using your boiling blood as fuel for your ship¡¯s thruster. Given long enough you can get fast enough to pilot pretty much anywhere you want in a given system. Even if you dropped someone in interstellar space it doesn¡¯t usually take more than ten to twenty years for them to make their way to the nearest solar system and start signaling a clueless human for help or start building their own hyperdrive if things come to the worst case.¡±

    Sean looked at his hands. Damn. That was fucked up.

    ¡°It¡¯s not as painful as it sounds,¡± Brenda added, ¡°Just boring. So, so boring.¡±

    Sean looked up, ¡°What? You¡¯ve done it yourself?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Oh yeah, several times,¡± Brenda replied, ¡°Only a short time ago my ship got boarded by pirates. Immortal ones, I mean. They left me in interstellar space so they could sell my shit and escape without me able to stop them in time. That was a few short centuries ago now, part of the reason I¡¯m teaching you rather than out in the wider universe or indulging in the rampant hedonism of this place a little more. Bastards didn¡¯t even need the money, they were just doing it for the thrill of the chase¡­¡±

    ¡°So you piloted¡­ yourself? How long did it take? I mean¡­¡±

    Brenda waved him off as he tried to rephrase his question in a more sympathetic way, ¡°Oh, don¡¯t you mind my feelings,¡± She said, ¡°I¡¯m older than most around here. About three hundred thousand at least. I stopped keeping track a while ago. I¡¯m just taking a short break here to build up some funding at the moment before going out into the wider universe again. It took me about twenty years or so to make it back to civilization, about fifteen of it in interstellar space. Just point yourself at the brightest nearby star you can see and wait, that¡¯s what they tell you¡­¡±

    She seemed to remember something as she said that and snapped her fingers and pointed at him, ¡°That¡¯s it! I forgot they had classes for it in this place. Body piloting. Blood spaceship... Whatever they¡¯re calling it now. You should take those classes after you¡¯ve really settled into this place. My first time I had to figure it out for myself and it took more than a century for me to get back to civilization. Best to be prepared just in case.¡±

    Sean nodded furiously. Shit, that¡¯s what the Plaguebringer had been trying to do, hadn¡¯t it? What if he had just been there floating in space alone while he kidnapped Emily after the ship got blown to pieces? How long would that have taken for him to figure that out even with the planet Enguli so close by for him to go back to? Emily really hadn¡¯t been kidding about her ships being blown out from under her, had she¡­ He also saw why she hadn¡¯t brought it up. His thoughts raced with the horrible scenario as he sat there, and he didn¡¯t see himself discussing it with others easily. Especially if it was something he had personally had to go through.

    ¡°Actually, I¡¯ll prepare a full list of classes after we¡¯re done with this session,¡± Brenda added, ¡°There¡¯s plenty of good survival courses here if you go looking for them. I¡¯ll tell you what you should take so you¡¯re prepared out there in the universe. Immortus Station likes to keep you newbies here fat and happy, so they don¡¯t advertise them like they really should. It¡¯s really a shame how unprepared some people are when they end up leaving this place¡­¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Brenda,¡± Sean said, ¡°I appreciate it. I¡¯d rather be prepared¡­¡±

    Seeing his expression, Brenda spoke up, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about it though! In my whole lifetime I¡¯ve only had to do it a dozen or so times. It¡¯s not something worth worrying about for you.¡±

    Sean cleared his throat, ¡°One more thing. What, ah. What about Black holes? People would just fall in and be trapped forever, right? No Coronal mass ejections could get you out of there¡­¡±

    Brenda stared at him for a moment and then sighed.

    ¡°I am not nearly qualified enough to explain all of the physics of it to you. You want to wait, or do you want me to give you my butchered version first?¡±

    Sean nodded, ¡°Butchered version please? I¡¯m still trying to understand how none of the Immortals could have never died or at least been imprisoned forever. Seems like Black holes would be sure to trap someone.¡±

    Brenda cleared her throat and focused, her eyes glazing over as she seemed to struggle to remember something.

    ¡°So, the explanation is¡­ Or at least the best as I can remember. Black holes have no interiors. The black sphere on the outside is like a 2d surface of pure¡­ information? There¡¯s nothing inside them, I remember that. Some weird space time contortions around the edge make it so it¡¯s impossible? Anyway, whenever something hits a black hole, it sort of¡­ smears outwards over its surface instead of falling inwards. We can¡¯t¡­ smear¡­ so an Immortal falling into a black hole just sort of floats there laying flat on top of its surface and keeps regenerating endlessly. This builds energy below them where they touch the black hole¡¯s surface. Don¡¯t ask, I don¡¯t know why. Something about asymmetry? I don¡¯t know. After enough time, this energy can explode outwards and push them up away from the surface. Given enough repeats of this, enough energy is eventually built up that they escape the gravity of the black hole and fly off into space.¡±

    Brenda thought over her words and cocked her head as if to mentally confirm what she¡¯d said. Finally she nodded to herself,

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s it. Something like that, please don¡¯t ask me any specifics. Basically Immortals sit on the surface for a bit before eventually blasting off again. Not that it¡¯s a pleasant process. Luckily no one I¡¯ve personally known has ever had that happen to them. So you extra don¡¯t have to worry about that one. Now, enough distracting me. We are going to practice your diving. The point of us talking about all of this, is that there is no need for you to fear this jump. Even if you landed on the ground head first, you¡¯d be fine again after a minute at most. Get to it!¡±

    Sean flinched and made his way to his feet and walked over to the diving board again. He looked down at the water far below.

    ¡°Hold yourself like this,¡± Brenda said as she brushed past him to stand on the very edge of the board fearlessly. She crossed her arms against her chest and tucked her head into her chest. She raised up slightly as she stood on her toes. ¡°Point your toes when you hit the water to help break your impact. Even if you mess up, don¡¯t panic. You¡¯ll regenerate and the pain will quickly go away, and you won¡¯t drown,¡± She finished.

    She went back to flat feet and slipped by Sean¡¯s side to stand behind him again.

    ¡°So, there you go,¡± Brenda said, ¡°Just try it. There¡¯s no reason to work yourself up about it. There¡¯s literally no long term consequences for screwing it up.¡±

    Sean took a few shaky breaths and felt Brenda¡¯s eyes watching him. But she didn¡¯t say anything and let him collect himself.

    ¡°Alright, here I go,¡± Sean said before taking a step and jumping off the platform before he could talk himself out of it. He quickly adopted the position Brenda had shown him as he fell through the air. The air whistled around him and his heart beat rapidly in his chest as the fall seemed to take ages as he approached the water at breakneck speeds.

    Finally, Sean shut his eyes as he hit the water. His legs screamed in pain for a few seconds as the water rushed in around him and muffled the sounds. He flailed for a few seconds before relaxing as the pain in his legs went away. He felt at them even while still underwater and holding his breath. His legs looked completely unharmed¡­ It still seemed hard to believe. Sean used the frog stroke he had learned earlier and reached the surface.

    He looked up and saw Brenda looking over the edge of the board down at him. He paddled over to the wall and hauled himself out of the water and looked up. She waved at him from above and then disappeared for a moment.

    Sean squinted to see if he could spot her, only for her to come flying off the edge of the board at full speed. Sean watched in shock as she flipped around mid air as she fell down like some kind of graceful bird flying through the air. Just before she hit the water she extended her body outward so she was diving head first into the water with her hands extended above her head.

    She hit the pool and with only a small splash sank gracefully into the water in a furious mass of whitish bubbles rising behind her.

    After a few moments she resurfaced and looked at where Sean sat.

    ¡°So, what do you say?¡± Brenda said, ¡°How would you like to learn to do something like that?¡±

    Sean glanced between her and the diving board far, far above them. About sixty feet high at least. Then he looked at the back to his hand that he flexed and turned around as he inspected it. If really there were no true consequences for failing, then maybe¡­

    He looked back at Brenda and nodded.

    ¡°That sounds great,¡± he said.

    ¡°That¡¯s the spirit!¡± Brenda said as she swam over, ¡°Just needed to get over your irrational fear, is all. Now you can enjoy yourself without holding yourself back.¡±

    Sean glanced back at the diving board again, ¡°Yes,¡± he said, ¡°That¡¯s right. It is irrational¡­¡±

 Chapter 12: Survival Lessons

    Sean started taking a few of the other survival classes that Brenda had suggested in between his sessions with her. They were still practicing diving and a few of the finer points on his swimming technique. He had only broken his legs or neck by a bad jump from the board a few times.

    He had been upset at the time, but quickly calmed down when confronted by Brenda¡¯s unconcerned attitude at the incidents. And she was right, there was no pain after he healed. There really was no logical reason for him to be afraid or concerned in such a low stakes situation.

    The survival courses were varied. Mostly they described things like how to hunt for food and make tools when you were left with nothing more than yourself on an isolated planet.

    He had thought it was all rather archaic, but it made an odd sort of sense. Whatever disaster happened to leave Sean stranded was unlikely to let anything he was carrying survive. He would have to make everything from scratch without any modern technology to help him along. Having food was unnecessary to Immortals, but Sean could imagine he would want to have some after spending potentially years alone on some far flung planet.

    Even the most durable of the clothing bands couldn¡¯t survive atmospheric reentry, so he would likely have nothing but himself to work with if he ever got stranded somewhere. That was a survival class he was going to leave until last. He was not looking forward to burning into a crisp multiple times to learn how to land or guide himself to the most promising spots of land when landing on an unfamiliar planet.

    Most of the courses were either taught by AI instructors and used holodeck simulations or managed by Brenda with an assistant or two in some specialized classrooms. That had been a surprise, but over half of the courses were actually taught by her. It seemed that she was the resident expert at survival and physical sports both. She was friendly and laughed a little good naturedly at his surprise that she was the teacher, but other than that she treated him the same as any of the other students as they went along.

    There were other immortals also taking the classes, but none of the classes had over ten people including him. Most of the others seemed remarkably unconcerned in ever actually being put in the situations presented in the course. They were casual and hardly paid attention as they went along, treating it like some sort of game more than anything, joking and laughing with each other when they were supposed to be practicing in between Brenda or her assistant¡¯s lectures. It annoyed him a little, seeing them blowing off the lectures and demonstrations that could be so important to them in the future.

    Sean did not joke around, he was focused on everything they were taught. He knew how much he would rely on these lessons when he was all alone on an unfamiliar planet. And with him being immortal he saw no reason why he wouldn¡¯t end up in these situations eventually even if he didn¡¯t seek them out. It wasn¡¯t like everyone was benevolent, he knew that there were immortal pirates and Plaguebringers out there at least. They could easily do something like this to him without even batting an eye.

    Brenda appreciated his dedication at least. She was very helpful when he had some more detailed questions or needed help on how exactly he should go about starting a fire. He had just asked on identifying which kinds of wood or plants were easily flammable and Brenda had quickly explained some of the more detailed signs. The class moved on as Brenda kept speaking and giving them more survival tips.

    ¡°Just fuck or don¡¯t already you two. By the Shadow, this is excruciating,¡± one of the guys groaned loudly as Sean asked another question about the methods of creating a stone hatchet or knife. The man¡¯s beefy right arm was wrapped around a mousy woman that looked rather uncomfortable at his touch, but still remained in his grip anyways. She had long black hair and was a few inches shorter than Sean, but attractive in an understated kind of way especially since she was wearing baggy clothes that, while not ill fitting, didn¡¯t accentuate her feminine features at all. Her green eyes were dull as she stared at the man with his arm around her. What was a girl like her doing with a big boisterous guy like that?

    Everyone looked at the man who gestured to Sean and Brenda who was in the middle of answering Sean¡¯s question.

    ¡°I mean you don¡¯t have to suck up to teach this hard, Sean,¡± the man said, ¡°We¡¯re all just here to have some fun. You¡¯re really killing the mood here. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll sleep with you if you ask nicely enough, she¡¯s certainly spending enough time talking to you while answering your stupid questions this whole class.¡±

    Sean blinked, not sure how to respond to that. Was that what they thought he was doing? He looked to others and saw that despite them looking slightly uncomfortable most seemed still to be nodding along and shooting annoyed looks at Sean. What? Brenda pointed at the door, looking pissed as she stared at the man who had just spoken.

    ¡°Get out of here, you spoiled asswipe,¡± She said, ¡°And don¡¯t let me find you signing up for any of my other classes unless you want to act as the dummy for my archery course. At least one of you is taking this seriously. This is not a game. I don¡¯t have to entertain you and your delusions. So. Leave. NOW!¡±

    The man looked taken aback, ¡°Now, look. I paid fair and square for this¡­¡±

    Brenda stepped forward, ¡°What is your name? Full name and age.¡±

    ¡°Lars Ricktor, Twenty thousand,¡± the man said proudly, ¡°And I have paid for your time so¡­¡±

    ¡°Do I look like. I care,¡± Brenda said menacingly as she took another step closer, ¡°Leave. Before I remove you. I don¡¯t have to deal with your disrespect. Not now, and not ever.¡±

    She glanced at the woman under Lars¡¯ arm that looked like she would rather be anywhere else at the moment. Sean saw Brenda¡¯s eyes harden as she met the woman¡¯s dull eyes that had lit up with nervousness. The mousy woman looked paralyzed and unsure of what to do.

    Lars got a mullish look in his eye and squared his shoulders as he sneered down at her from his over six feet of height and bulky frame. He released the woman he had come with and took a step forward towards Brenda. The mousy woman quickly scurried away from the budding confrontation.

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so¡­¡± Lars said.

    Brenda moved in a blink of an eye and struck him hard across the jaw, sending him falling to the floor in a heap.

    ¡°Think you¡¯re some tough guy?¡± She said as she stood over him, ¡°That just because you can¡¯t die you can do whatever you want?¡±

    She stomped on Lars¡¯ hand and Sean heard the bones crunch under her boot. She lifted her foot and Lars cursed and quickly pulled his hand back.

    ¡°Well I¡¯ll teach you something real,¡± Brenda sneered, ¡°All your victims, everyone you treat badly. All of them. Every Immortal you¡¯ve ever insulted or exploited thoughtlessly.¡±

    She kicked him in the side, caving in parts of his ribs before they popped out again and repaired themselves a second later.

    ¡°Fucking.¡±

    Kick.

    ¡°Remember!¡±

    Kick. Lars groaned and held his side, seeming too taken aback to mount a defense to Brenda¡¯s assault. His face was filled with pain and he looked frightened as she kept hitting him.

    ¡°EVERYTHING!¡±

    Kick. Lars slid across the floor a bit under the force of her blows. She paused and stood there and didn¡¯t say anything else as he went to stand. He composed himself as he stood there and ended up glaring at her as she pointed to the door.

    ¡°That lesson was free,¡± Brenda said, ¡°Now leave. Before I decide that I want to be more generous.¡±

    Lars looked at the mousy woman. ¡°Lira? Come now, we¡¯ll go somewhere else. Perhaps the Casino?¡±

    ¡°She still has more to learn,¡± Brenda cut in, ¡°Unlike you, she at least was paying somewhat attention to the lesson. Don¡¯t make me say it again.¡±

    Lira wavered before she shook her head at Lars who looked upset before grunting, ¡°Fine,¡± he said, ¡°Waste of time anyway.¡±

    He left and the rest of the students were quiet as the lesson continued. Sean didn¡¯t ask any more questions, still thinking over what had happened.

    At the end of the lesson, everyone went to leave without another word.

    ¡°Lira? Can you stay behind for a moment?¡± Brenda called out as the mousy woman went to leave. Lira paused and then turned back. ¡°Sure,¡± she said without much enthusiasm.

    Sean walked past her and lingered at the doorway, looking back at the two for the moment. Brenda met his gaze and made a shooing motion. Sean turned away and left, shutting the door behind him.

    <hr>

    ¡°Are you okay, Brenda?¡± Sean asked as they rode in the elevator up to the diving platform above the pool, ¡°You¡¯ve seemed upset for these last few weeks ever since that thing with that jerk in the survival course.¡±

    Brenda glanced at him before shaking her head, ¡°None of your business. It¡¯s got nothing to do with you.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m just saying that¡­¡±

    ¡°Shut up! Are you trying to get in my pants or what?¡± Brenda said in a harsh tone, ¡°I told you it has nothing to do with you. I¡¯m your instructor. I teach you things, you do them. We leave the classroom and we¡¯re done. So back off.¡±

    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Sean blinked at the vitriol in her tone and took an unconscious step back.

    ¡°Okay. Sorry,¡± he said. She didn¡¯t reply. For the rest of the lesson she only spoke in short sentences, although towards the end she softened and started looking a little guilty. He missed his dives more often than usual and ended up breaking his neck over four times in the lesson. Usually he never ended up doing it more than once at most in a session.

    <hr>

    The lesson ended and Sean started walking to the locker room.

    ¡°Hey, Sean,¡± Sean turned to see Brenda standing there, ¡°Sorry about earlier,¡± she said, ¡°It really is my own problem and I shouldn¡¯t have taken it out on you. I should be more professional than that.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Sean said, ¡°Hope you solve whatever¡¯s bothering you so much.¡±

    Her stance softened slightly, ¡°I already did,¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯m just mad that it happened at all. I do appreciate how hard you work in our lessons in the classes you take. You¡¯re an excellent student.¡±

    Sean thought back. His parents had taught him everything he knew, assisted by the programs on the family holopad. Sean Turretson, carrying on the legacy through the generations. And now they were gone forever, ¡°I learned from the best,¡± he eventually said after realizing that he still hadn¡¯t responded.

    ¡°See you next time,¡± he finished before turning and walking into the locker room to shower and change back into his normal clothes.

    <hr>

    Sean raised an eyebrow as he was a poster attached to his front door. He had briefly talked with the neighbors, but with how long people spent out of the house it was rare that he would ever naturally run into them. They had all pulled together to introduce themselves at one point, but it had been polite greetings and nothing more.

    He pulled off the paper on the door and raised an eyebrow as he felt it. This was authentic paper, whoever did this went to some serious effort to do this. There were some colorful shapes and in the center in big letters was the word ¡®PARTY!¡¯ Below were some of the details on the timing and place. He looked to either side to his neighbors and saw that they didn¡¯t have any similar posters. Interesting, maybe this was just for him?

    A few days later, Sean headed over to the room where the party was taking place. The rooms were big enough that there was plenty of room for people to hang out. Sean walked in through the front door into the bustling room full of people. He had thought that his room was elaborate and big, but this one was far more so. Probably at least double the size of his own rooms and even with all the people that had come there was plenty of space for them to spread out.

    There was music playing and several party games set up. Sean curiously picked up a nearby drink from the table and sniffed it. Something sugary. He took a sip, and was slightly disappointed as he realized that it wasn¡¯t alcoholic. Oh, he had just realized¡­ Drugs and alcohol must be a thing of the past for him. Given how fast he could regenerate a missing limb he shuddered to imagine the kind of drugs that could manage to get him drunk or high for more than a few seconds at most. If it was even possible.

    He picked up the cup and started walking around and observing the party games while occasionally talking with a few people. Most were talking about fashion or some of the local gossip, which was a little odd for Sean. He wasn¡¯t plugged in to all the drama and barely knew anyone in this place, so most of it flew way over his head as he wandered around. But he talked with a few people that were interesting and exchanged holopad contacts with them. Maybe he could finally start dipping his toes into the social scene here on Immortus Station.

    Sean wasn¡¯t sure how long it had been. Clocks and generally telling time were not common here and generally you had to actively remember to check the time if you didn¡¯t want it to slip away from you. He had noticed that it might even be by design considering the time wasn¡¯t automatically displayed on any of the devices he had interacted with. Instead it was buried deep in the settings and took up to six clicks sometimes before you could get your answer. Even when you had to get to meetings, they messaged you with an alarm a few minutes before the event automatically when you registered and told you which day it would be instead of giving you a specific time to be there. You could set your own alerts as well, but again it never told you the exact time when the alarm went off unless you actively spent the effort to check. There were no clocks or any public ways to tell time if you didn¡¯t have a holopad or other device on you.

    Anyway, he hadn¡¯t checked the time and didn¡¯t have his holopad on him so he had no clue how long it had been since he¡¯d gotten here. He had played a few of the party games and been absolutely thrashed in them. But more people came up to talk to him after and he swapped holopad contacts with many of them to speak with later.

    People had been drifting in and out of the room as time passed, and the host didn¡¯t seem to be flagging in the slightest. The man was still floating from group to group, seeming to be having the time of his life, ignoring when people spilled their drinks on the floor or accidentally bumped into some of his furniture.

    ¡°Ooooohhhh. Someone¡¯s looking your way, Sean. He¡¯s coming over now. Looking rather angry too.¡± One of Sean¡¯s newest acquaintances said and darted his eyes to a spot behind Sean. Sean turned and saw an angry Lars pushing through the crowd to approach him. The nearby people were gradually taking notice and turning to the budding confrontation in front of them. Several moved out of Lars¡¯ way and the crowd began circling and whispering at each other.

    Lars stopped a few steps away and just watched Sean for a few seconds. ¡°Well?¡± the big man said with his arms crossed, ¡°You have anything to say for yourself?¡±

    Sean blinked, ¡°About what?¡± he asked in genuine confusion. Surely he wasn¡¯t blaming Sean for his ban from the classes?

    ¡°You know what,¡± Lars said, ¡°I know you and that teacher were working together to slander me with that whore. Just admit that it¡¯s all a lie and we won¡¯t have any more issues.¡±

    Sean blinked again and tried to understand what in the Shadow Lars was talking about.

    ¡°Look, you did it to yourself,¡± Sean said, ¡°You insult the teacher in the middle of class and she kicks you out. She gave you several chances to leave on your own and you refused. What did you think was going to happen? Don¡¯t really see how that¡¯s my fault.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a lie and you know it!¡± Lars shouted, ¡°You two set that whole charade up just to discredit me! Paying the others to lie to go along with your stupid story. Admit it! It was a. Lie!¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Sean said steadily, looking up and down the other man. A man who froze at Sean¡¯s flat refusal before exploding in anger.

    ¡°You little-! You¡¯ll pay for that!¡±

    The big man moved forward and hit Sean across the jaw full force, sending stars spinning in his vision as his head snapped to the side and he fell to the ground stunned. Lars said something in a harsh tone, but Sean ignored him and shook his head. He had just frozen up and been so surprised by the hit that he wasn¡¯t able to respond at all. Lars looked down at Sean on the ground with a superior smirk.

    ¡°So?¡± Lars said, ¡°Do you admit it? Is it all lies? Or should I hit you again?¡±

    Sean frowned in confusion. Maybe that threat would work if they were still normal humans. But why would Lars think that would work here? In front of a crowd of witnesses too? Was he threatening to ruin Sean¡¯s clothes? But they weren¡¯t particularly fancy and easily replaceable. That couldn¡¯t be it, right? Surely he must have¡­ Sean remembered when Brenda had been hitting Lars. Lars had¡­ groaned in pain. And been fearful. Had he not ever been hurt that severely before? Sean had broken his neck dozens of times at least practicing his high dives with Brenda. Sean had fought those giant beetles for days having his limbs torn off each time along the way. And he had learned to ignore the pain in a crisis if he had to. Or he had months and months ago at least.

    ¡°No,¡± Sean said shortly as he started standing. Lars snarled and kicked his leg to knock him down, but Sean shifted his leg and the kick became only a glancing blow. He managed to stand to his feet as Lars was off balance and Sean swung his fist towards Lars¡¯ exposed head.

    His form was terrible, the punch sloppy. But it hit and Lars stumbled slightly as he stepped back and straightened up again.

    ¡°Fuck him up, Sean!¡± the man he had been talking to a minute ago cheered as the two of them squared off. Roger, he thought his name was. The rest of the crowd started shouting and cheering to match now that Roger had started things off.

    Lars made a move again and despite Sean being prepared this time, he still had zero training in martial arts. Something that Lars clearly did have training in as he smoothly grabbed Sean¡¯s punch and rolled it into an arm bar.

    ¡°Admit it!¡± Lars said, ¡°Or I¡¯ll break your arm.¡±

    Sean was silent as he continued pushing forward, ignoring the threat. Lars hesitated, but then grunted and Sean¡¯s arm snapped the wrong way and flopped loosely in the wrong direction. Sean grimaced as he felt the burst of hot pain in the arm, but as soon as he felt the phantom limb left behind¡­ something shifted in him. The pain went away and Sean flashed back to his battle with the swarm of beetles. He had to fight with all he had or they would drag him off to whatever nebulous horrible fate awaited him if they succeeded. Lars was the same.

    Sean saw the flesh of the flopping arm intersecting with Sean¡¯s phantom limb dissolved away. Lars let go and stepped back as the flap of skin between Sean¡¯s upper arm and the flopping limb grew thinner and thinner. As Sean¡¯s skeletal arm finished forming, his former broken arm was severed from him and fell onto the ground with a wet thump. Lars stared between the severed limb and Sean with wide eyes and backpedaled slightly. But Sean ignored it and kept moving forward, reaching out with his skeletal limb.

    Before Lars could react, Sean managed to land his skeletal hand on Lar¡¯s face. The man immediately screamed and writhed, but Sean kept moving forward and grabbed his shoulder and kept on the pressure with his regenerating arm. Muscles and tendons began sprouting to cover Sean¡¯s arm as Lars kept screaming and the crowd around them grew quiet.

    Lars fell backwards and Sean followed him down and he managed to spot what was happening to Lars¡¯ face. Little chunks that were intersecting Sean¡¯s phantom limb were disappearing and leaking little streaks of blood, only to heal just as fast through Lars¡¯ own regeneration. The two powers, destruction and regeneration, warred with each other, a process that apparently didn¡¯t spare Lars any of the pain that came along with it.

    The muscles finished and the skin began to form on Sean¡¯s arm. He drew his limb back slowly with a sucking sound as Lars¡¯ healing paradoxically kept Sean¡¯s hand trapped as he drew it slowly out as if through thick mud. Finally Sean¡¯s hand came free with a wet pop, he stood, and stepped back away from the heavily panting Lars on the ground. Sean¡¯s regeneration began to cover Sean¡¯s palm where his newly regrown skin had just been ripped off all in one chunk. Lars remained on the floor with one hand on his now perfectly healed cheek covered with blood that had dripped down his neck and down to his shoulder.

    Sean met his gaze.

    ¡°Are you going to attack me again?¡± Sean asked coldly as he lowered his hand down to his side.

    Lars shook his head and made no move to stand as the crowd watched on.

    Sean took a deep breath. That was¡­ Maybe he had imagined Lars as one of those green beetles a little too much. Then again he had broken Sean¡¯s arm with no hesitation, so maybe Sean¡¯s brutality there was still somewhat acceptable¡­

    ¡°Good,¡± Sean said, ¡°I think we¡¯re done here.¡±

    Lars shifted backwards on the ground before standing and leaving without another word, pushing through the crowd with gritted teeth.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s my boy! Let¡¯s go, everyone cheer for Sean the champion!¡± Roger cheered loudly.

    The crowd closed in and Sean was offered many a back slap and cups filled with drinks. For the rest of the party he was the center of attention with Roger at his side retelling the story over and over with gusto to any newcomers that hadn¡¯t seen it themselves. Based on their reactions, none of them liked Lars all that much and were more than happy to hear all about Sean¡¯s victory.

    Eventually the party ended, and Sean promised to meet up with Roger again soon. The two of them had just clicked as the party went on and by the end were talking and joking like they¡¯d been friends for years.

    Sean made it back to his room and laid back on the luxurious bed and thought about the fight. It oddly enough had felt too easy. Sean had terrible form and if Lars had been focused he could have easily have absolutely thrashed Sean without him being able to fight back at all. If only he had fought through the pain and used his regeneration to the fullest. It seems that somehow Sean was more in tune with his immortality than someone nearly twenty thousand years older than him.

    He wasn¡¯t sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

 Chapter 13: A Change of Pace

    ¡°You gotta relax, Sean,¡± Roger said, ¡°Just enjoy your life, play the casino a little. I mean, you¡¯re loaded man! You gotta live it up while you can.¡±

    ¡°You should come to the survival courses with me,¡± Sean shot back, ¡°I mean it is hard work but it''s not like it isn¡¯t interesting at least.¡±

    Roger seemed thoughtful for a moment before sticking out his hand, ¡°Deal!¡±

    Sean blinked and stared at the hand. What?

    ¡°I¡¯ll take your survival classes and you come with me to party and don¡¯t keep avoiding people all the time.¡±

    Sean groaned, ¡°C¡¯mon, Roger. You know that isn¡¯t fair. I¡¯m not some social animal like you and I just don¡¯t care about gossip and fashion. What am I supposed to talk about with most people? At least you and the other guys can talk about literally anything else when you want to.¡±

    Roger snorted and put his drink down on the table, ¡°Hah! You¡¯re right, most of them are obsessed. It¡¯s actually rather funny sometimes. But if you knew more people then you¡¯d care more about the gossip, right? You¡¯re kinda causing your own problem here by not going out and meeting more people.¡±

    Sean thought about it, ¡°And you¡¯ll take the classes seriously and not just screw around?¡± Sean confirmed.

    ¡°Sure, man,¡± Roger confirmed and wiggled his hand a bit as it remained extended towards Sean.

    Sean grabbed it and shook, ¡°Great,¡± Sean said, ¡°But no complaining when you''re in class. If I can take listening to what kind of dresses are in fashion or not for hours at a time then you can learn how to make a fire.¡±

    Roger laughed, ¡°Hah! No deal. I¡¯ve heard you complain about it plenty over the last few years, I got to get my turn in too! So, no reason to delay. We can hit the casino first, put all your money to work. Maybe if you¡¯re terrible enough you¡¯ll actually end up spending enough of your absurd income for you to notice.¡±

    It was true, Sean¡¯s income was that absurd. The system here was built assuming that the immortals came into the station when they were at least a few thousand years old. And even that was relatively uncommon so they were paid well during their stay. Sean, who was only forty years old by now, was a large anomaly. Not that he felt that old, he looked and felt the same as he had when he was twenty five¡­ Since the pay was inversely proportional with age his income had shot off the chart into far beyond what was reasonable. And while it would steadily decrease as time passed, even when he was a thousand years old he would still be being paid double or even triple of what Roger received.

    Roger was twenty seven thousand years old and had spent most time at Immortus station after his initial stint of wandering the universe for a few thousand years directly after he became immortal. Something that seemed relatively common from what Sean had heard from the other Immortals around here on the station.

    Roger stood, and Sean matched him. The man was rather spontaneous with a fun loving nature and always looking for new sources of excitement. But despite their contrasting personalities they had become fast friends over the last few years. Time that was only a blink for Roger but had felt like ages for Sean.

    They went to the Casino and played for a long time. Sean lost a lot of money and Roger pronounced him as the worst gambler he had ever seen. It was almost amazing how many bad hands Sean managed to get when he played. Sean opened up a little more and went to more parties, avoiding Lars whenever he spotted him. Lars didn¡¯t confront Sean directly, but apparently he was talking a lot of shit about him behind his back. No one liked Lars all that much though, so no one believed him and most just directly told Sean about it and started making fun of Lars instead.

    Roger started taking the survival courses and as expected he started complaining to Sean about how boring they were. Sean shot back complaining about fashion, so it somewhat balanced out. Sean could tell that Roger actually didn¡¯t mind that much considering he actually was somewhat focused during their actual classes.

    You would think that after nearly fifteen years of taking the survival classes that Sean would be nearly finished. But no, he was actually still barely out of the introduction. The point of the whole curriculum was to be able to assemble a small ship with a functioning hyperdrive and navigation computer. All built from rock and materials made from scratch. It was just ridiculous how many steps there were in between that and first landing on the ground. Even now Sean was barely halfway to even getting to the point where they taught him how to create a transmitter in case a human ship happened to stop in the system for whatever reason.

    The transmitter was considered a good failsafe but not a sure bet that someone would come by, as the beacon could be ignored even if someone stopped in the system. And some systems wouldn¡¯t see a human ship pass by at all for thousands of years or more if they were out of the way of the more common routes most pilots took. Not to mention any bad actors that you might not want to find you at all.

    The only sure method was constructing your own hyperspace capable ship by yourself. Something Sean was nowhere near accomplishing. He was barely up to learning to forge steel after building a makeshift forge.

    At least Brenda had proclaimed him an excellent swimmer after he mastered the high dives she showed him. He didn¡¯t have swimming lessons anymore with her, but he still saw her in survival classes so he didn¡¯t mind the change all that much. Some of the classes were one on one anyway now that he was going beyond the basics so it was basically a private lesson again anyway.

    He spent another five years like that, taking survival courses, going to parties, and joking around with Roger. But eventually even he had enough. He had to do something different than just partying and the classes.

    He was now forty five, and he felt completely unchanged from twenty years before. He stared at the blocky black palm sized device sitting on his bedside table. His Foundation of All world. He had avoided playing it for all of this time. Emily had asked him to give this place a chance and playing the game felt like a step back for doing that. It was really a strange line for him to draw, but it felt like that if he started playing the game again that he would end up breaking that promise.

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    He shook his head. He was friends with Roger, part of the community now. He had spent two decades learning in the survival classes. He was, if not close friends, friendly with Brenda and other people he had met at the various parties he had gone to. He was enjoying being in this place.

    He picked up the device and held it in his hands for a moment. He stared at it. No one had so much as mentioned Emily or the ¡®Plaguemother¡¯ in the entire time here ever since she had left. He wondered what all his new friends would say if he asked them about it. Probably nothing good.

    He put down the device. Emily had mentioned a makerspace just before she had left, hadn¡¯t she? He picked up his holopad and punched in what he could remember about it. There it was, images of a large workshop with advanced equipment to help manufacture and assemble things. It was perfect. Sean signed up for an open slot and found the map so he would know how to get there. He laid down in his bed and fell asleep. When he woke up he puttered around and had some food in a nearby cafeteria as he waited for his scheduled time. Luckily he could stay there as long as he wanted so long as the place wasn¡¯t too full, which it didn¡¯t appear to be from what he had seen when signing up.

    Sean pulled up his holopad and scrolled through all the various robot designs he had copied over from his Foundation of All world¡¯s files. He would finally try to create one in real life without the help of the ever useful multi tool. Hopefully he would be able to shake off the rust after not having created any of them in so long. But he was fairly confident given how much he had to work with his hands in the survival courses.

    His holopad chimed and Sean quickly pulled up the designs for his Foundation of All robot designs that were the most promising. He quickly narrowed it to two options. A big bulky one that required much less finesse to create but also was much clumsier. Or a skinnier one that would be much harder to build but have a much more impressive result. He hesitated for a moment, not sure which to choose considering he had never created either of these robots before in Foundation of All or the real world. Both would be the challenge, they were designs that Emily had given him from her advanced factory world and robotics factory in it. Designs likely refined over thousands of years at least of her bored tinkering.

    He hesitated a moment longer before choosing the more complicated design. He had all the time in the world, right? Why shouldn¡¯t he set a high bar for himself? His holopad chimed again and Sean silenced it as he stood. He should have thirty or minutes or so to make it to the shop and sign in again before he was reprimanded for being late.

    <hr>

    ¡°So, these are the machines,¡± the supervisor said looking bored as he gestured lazily to the room behind him, ¡°Don¡¯t hurt yourself, you¡¯ll damage the equipment and you¡¯ll be paying for all the repairs on them. Don¡¯t try to cheat or sneak any materials out without paying, we have cameras and scanners all over the exits that will catch you. Anything you alter or cut will be considered yours and charged to your account, so don¡¯t try to argue if your bill starts running high. It doesn¡¯t matter if you remember doing it or not, the camera in the supplies room will see what you really did no matter what your memory tells you. You own whatever you create, but no bombs or weapons or the like can be built in here. There¡¯s a separate place for that where they have better security and safety procedures, so don¡¯t even try to argue if you get caught. If you do end up hurting yourself, make sure to clean off all the blood wherever you spill it. Break any of the rules enough and you can be banned from this and all other maker spaces on Immortus station for a thousand years or more. So don¡¯t do it. Got all of that?¡±

    ¡°Are robots weapons?¡± Sean asked, ¡°I¡¯m sure they could hit someone rather hard if they wanted to¡­¡±

    ¡°Robots?¡± the supervisor asked, seeming surprised at the question, ¡°What are those?¡±

    ¡°Metallic humanoids controlled by a set of computers? Like in the game Foundation of All?¡±

    ¡°Foundation of All? I¡¯ve never heard of that one before¡­¡±

    The supervisor looked confused and stepped to the side to click through a large set of holograms around his desk. He flicked through the various windows frowning as he hunted for the answer.

    ¡°Oh, I see,¡± the supervisor said, ¡°Yes, that should be fine as long as no weapons are built into them. These¡­ ¡®Robots¡¯ aren¡¯t used that much anymore in the galaxy because of how expensive they are to build. At least in the galactic core systems around here. Most people go for bioengineered organisms due to¡­ well¡­ how many of those specialized creatures have been created by us Immortals over time. I hadn¡¯t heard that name for those machines before. Usually people just call them by whatever corporation ends up making them and a serial number. Out of curiosity, what¡¯s Foundation of All? I can¡¯t find any reference to it in my database.¡±

    Sean described the game and how he had practiced assembling the robots in the holodeck and was about to attempt it in real life.

    The supervisor¡¯s eyebrows rose, ¡°Now, that sounds like quite the game! I¡¯ve never heard of such an elaborate crafting system, usually they just have you throw the items on a workbench and the new item pops into reality. You would really have to understand all the processes involved in real life to code the system to be so flawless that it would apply to real life so closely¡­ you wouldn¡¯t happen to have a copy of it, would you?¡±

    Sean nodded, ¡°Actually I¡­¡±

    The door behind them opened and Sean immediately frowned as he saw Samir there walking though in his bright robes as usual. Whenever Sean had to talk to him it was nothing good. He had to explain to him about his fight with Lars and it had been an intense interrogation as Samir probed Sean¡¯s motivation for every little action he took that day. Probably still suspicious after Sean¡¯s contact with the ¡®Plaguemother¡¯.

    ¡°Sean! Ricardo! How are you two doing?¡± Samir said affably, ¡°Now, sorry to interrupt but were you just using that holodesk there, Ricardo?¡±

    The man nodded.

    ¡°Were you looking up a game by the name of Foundation of All?¡± Samir asked and Ricardo nodded and gestured to Sean, ¡°Sean here was just telling me about it. Sounds rather interesting, I was just asking him if he had a copy.¡±

    Samir turned to Sean with an oddly intense gaze, ¡°Well, do you?¡± he asked, ¡°It does sound interesting doesn¡¯t it?¡±

    Sean got a strange feeling. Neither of them had told Samir anything about the game or why they were talking about it. Why was he so interested?

    ¡°No,¡± Sean lied, ¡°I played it on¡­ Emily¡¯s ship. I¡¯m surprised you don¡¯t have it here. It¡¯s a good game.¡±

    Samir scanned Sean¡¯s face for a moment before relaxing.

    ¡°Ah, good. That game is banned in Immortus station by order of the council. Sorry Ricardo, you¡¯ll have to make do with some other game.¡±

    ¡°Why is it banned?¡± Ricardo asked curiously not seeming to not notice Samir¡¯s dismissive tone as he spoke.

    ¡°By order of the council,¡± Samir said, ¡°Some games have inbuilt viruses, some are intentionally traumatizing to people, others are used to funnel funds to¡­ Criminal elements. These games are so complex that it can be difficult to detect these kinds of threats and root them out. Best to ban them altogether rather than risk it if they are made by publishers with a spotty track record for these things.¡±

    Samir eyed Sean for a moment as he paused for a moment before moving on, ¡°Hard to say the exact reason,¡± Samir said, ¡°But it hardly matters. Sean doesn¡¯t have the game anymore so the point is moot.¡±

    Samir turned to Sean, ¡°Right?¡± he said.

    ¡°Right,¡± Sean agreed after a short pause.

    ¡°Well, sorry to bother you,¡± Samir said, ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to your business then. Have fun using this space, Sean.¡±

    With that Samir swept out the door, his robes swirling behind him as he left.

 Chapter 14: Applied Robotics

    Sean walked inside and started getting to work and familiarizing machines. The supervisor now seemed interested in what he was doing and demonstrated the ideal way to use the machines as Sean began to work in creating some of the outer plates that would line the robot¡¯s frame. He hummed to himself as he shaped the metal and got comfortable in using the space and the process of choosing the right materials and metals to create each piece.

    He was only doing the larger pieces for now and was leaving the electronics and more complicated bits for later.

    After an indeterminate time, Sean finished shaping the metal into their basic shapes. Now that he had completed shaping them as well as he could by hand, he fed them into the fine tuning machine. He imported the file for the individual components into the device. As his parts rolled through the machine would flash and rumble before manipulating and reshaping the metal to the precise specifications in the design, far more precise than any human hand could be.

    Theoretically it could create the parts from a solid slug of metal, but parts made that way came out far weaker than if Sean shaped them as best as he could first. In fact if Sean didn¡¯t shape them well enough then it was entirely possible that the whole part might crack or be too brittle, meaning he would have to create it again.

    About seventy percent of the parts he made on the first round were up to standard, and Sean quickly went back to remake the remaining parts with more focus this time. The second round let him finish everything but three of the most complex pieces. Sean picked up the holopad and checked how long it had been. Just over two weeks. It was probably best to go back and sleep for a bit. Maybe go do something with Roger if he could manage to track him down.

    Sean gathered up everything he had used and placed it in the specialized locker to the sides so he could start where he left off next time. He waved goodbye to Ricardo who was still on duty and walked off, his holopad in hand.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean took a few days off and caught up with Roger. Roger had barely even noticed Sean¡¯s absence, too busy planning his next party and flirting with whoever caught his eye. Sean had become friendly with several of the women who frequently showed up to Roger¡¯s parties, but it had never really progressed anything beyond that. Most were far too obsessed with the dreaded fashion that had quickly become the bane of his existence ever since he got here.

    He just could not complain to Roger enough to make him understand how little Sean cared about the newest trends in clothing. Roger thought it was funny, but it was ridiculous how obsessed most people at the station were with it. Sean couldn¡¯t avoid conversations discussing it even if he actively tried to. He tried not to be rude about it, but it had caused many an awkward situation over the years with people who were unfamiliar with him experiencing his quiet dislike for the topic first hand.

    At least the gossip had become a little interesting once he started getting to know some of the people it was about. So there was that at least, Roger had been right there.

    Anyway, after the end of yet another party that had started to blend into all the other ones that Sean had attended, he went back to the maker space to continue building the robot. He worked for a while and quickly finished off the last of the pieces left over from his last session. Now that he was done with the big pieces he would have to begin the hard part¡­ the electricals and synthetic muscle to help it move around. This¡­ it would take him a while to finish.

    <hr>

    Sean was in the middle of soldering the wires on the circuit board. It was far too large to actually go in the robot he was building, but he had hit a snag when using the high precision machine for the computer chips to create and customize them. So after many failed attempts he had decided to create an easier board so he could practice his skills first before diving back into the harder chips with almost no margin for error at all.

    Sean was focused and almost didn¡¯t notice the door to the workshop open with a hiss. He registered it, but didn¡¯t react and kept working. Occasionally someone else would come in and build for a while, but most didn¡¯t stay around for long or bother Sean while he was working so he mostly just ignored him.

    He heard the person take a few steps into the room before they abruptly stopped, Sean hearing the squeak of their shoes signaling a rather sudden stop. The door hissed back closed behind them as Sean drew the soldering iron back from the computer chip and looked up at the newcomer.

    It was the mousy woman from Sean¡¯s disastrous first class with Lars. No longer as mousy as she had appeared last time. She stood marginally straighter and her green eyes were more vibrant than they had been. She was wearing work pants with lots of pockets and a short sleeved gray shirt. Her clothes were no longer so baggy and looked like they fit her better than the ones she had worn during the survival classes. What was her name¡­ Lira! That was it. Hopefully she had sorted things out with Brenda after the woman told her to stay behind after that class¡­ Maybe whatever they had talked about had helped considering the change in the woman since Sean had seen her last.

    ¡°Hello, Lira,¡± Sean said, putting the Soldering iron into its heating element so it would stay red hot. ¡°Long time no see. How are you doing?¡±

    ¡°Well, umm. Hello, Sean,¡± Lira said nervously, ¡°Nice to¡­ nice to see you again.¡±

    ¡°Oh hey. Sorry about all of that with Lars,¡± Sean said, ¡°With him being your boyfriend and all, I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard all sorts of unpleasant things about me from him.¡±

    ¡°Oh, we¡¯re ah. Not dating anymore. I broke up with him that¡­ after that class actually.¡±

    Sean blinked, ¡°Oh. Wow. Good for you. Well, uh, what are you doing here today? Have a project you¡¯re working on?¡±

    She nodded and relaxed a little, ¡°Yes. For the last five years or so on and off I¡¯ve been building my own little hovercraft. I thought I¡¯d get into some new hobbies after my recent breakup.¡±

    ¡°Recent, huh¡­¡± Sean mused.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Lira said, ¡°I mean it was only twenty years ago, practically nothing. I¡­ oh, sorry. I forgot how young you are. This must all be very strange for you, being around all us ancient people. I thought I was young, but I¡¯m still over eight thousand years old now¡­¡±

    Sean waved his hand dismissively, ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯m used to it by now. Brenda¡¯s over three hundred thousand. Did you know that? Everyone I meet here is older than every settlement on my planet. The oldest was only created hundreds of years ago, which is barely a blink of an eye to people here.¡±

    ¡°But you¡¯re doing so well!¡± Lira said, ¡°Everyone¡¯s talking about it. Well, I¡¯ve heard people talking about it. You¡¯re more in tune with your immortality than people far older than you.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sean asked surprised, ¡°In tune with my Immortality? Surely not¡­¡±

    ¡°Most people don¡¯t spend weeks at a time at their courses as soon as they arrive,¡± Lira insisted, ¡°I could barely go ten or fifteen hours before getting mentally overwhelmed and taking a break when I first came here. Even now those survival courses are about my limit of what I can do at any one time before taking a big break and relaxing. You just jumped straight into it. You¡­ I heard about your fight with Lars. You completely ignored the pain to keep going. I¡¯ve never even heard of someone on Immortus station doing something like that before. Only the oldest of the Immortals here have anything close to that ability to ignore their pain.¡±

    ¡°But didn¡¯t you get hurt?¡± Sean asked confused, ¡°When the Shadow granted you your Immortality? Didn¡¯t you have to deal with the pain then? Or whenever you got injured after that. I know it hurts, but after a while your brain stops registering it and it doesn¡¯t become so bad, right?¡±

    Lira gave him a strange look.

    ¡°What do you mean? That day was the worst of my life, I never want something like that to happen again. Even now I¡­ what was your trigger then?¡± She asked challengingly although her voice wavered slightly.

    Sean scratched the back of his head. This conversation was not going the way he had expected it to go. ¡°Trigger? You mean what made the Shadow visit me?¡±

    Lira nodded, confused at his response and drew back slightly. ¡°Sean, you don¡¯t have to tell me. That was rude, I shouldn¡¯t¡­¡±

    ¡°Are we not supposed to tell people about it?¡± Sean asked, curious about her reaction. He did still think about it sometimes, but he had long since gotten over it. It happened, and there was nothing he could do to change it. He was grateful to the Shadow, without this immortality he would never have had Emily¡¯s help in getting revenge on Intuli for his parents and himself. His alternative was being dead and successfully murdered by Intuli after all.

    ¡°No, you can,¡± Lira said, ¡°But most people don¡¯t like talking about it¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, I suppose I can understand why,¡± Sean mused, ¡°Do you want to know? I don¡¯t really mind sharing if you¡¯re asking.¡±

    Lira sat on a nearby stool and hesitantly nodded, ¡°I swear I¡¯ll tell you mine too if you want.¡±

    Sean explained the basic situation. The situation on Enguli, the whole plot by the village elders to kill Sean and his family. His eight days fighting the swarm and the breaks in the battle he received while he waited for his arm to regenerate. All until he was saved by a wandering Immortal and brought here safely.

    Lira¡¯s eyes were bugged out by the time he finished by the time Sean finished. She seemed to struggle for words for a few seconds before shrinking in on herself.

    ¡°Mine isn¡¯t nearly that terrible. Have I been having nightmares over nothing?¡± She whispered to herself just loudly enough that Sean could barely hear her.

    Sean waited, unsure what to say to that. Surely most Immortals must go through something worse than him, right? They would be practically alone and wandering around for thousands of years before they came to Immortus station. That had to be far worse than a painful week or two.

    ¡°Well,¡± Lira said louder, ¡°Now I just feel stupid. I fell into a farm combine. Tripped over my own feet and stumbled into it like an idiot. Got shredded and regenerated back on the other side safe and sound¡­ After that I headed out to an Immortal sector and settled in there for a while until an Immortal council representative found me and brought me here. I¡¯m sorry for what happened to you, it does sound rather terrible¡­¡±

    ¡°Immortal Sector? How did you know to go there? What are those?¡± Sean asked.

    Lira shrugged, ¡°Enguli must be really far out. Mortal governments don¡¯t like having immortals around, it''s well known even in most of the outer rim worlds from what I¡¯ve heard. My planet was more than happy to ship me off to a sector that allowed Immortals as fast and silently as they could. I just lived as well as I could while I was there on my new planet. It wasn¡¯t too bad, really. I had to register and everything, but most people didn¡¯t care about what I was. Most mortals don¡¯t like us very much, but at least they tolerate us there¡­¡±

    Sean remembered the raving Plaguebringer shouting over the comms of the ship advocating for ¡®returning all to darkness¡¯ back on Emily¡¯s ship. Maybe most people had good reasons to not like Immortals. But he didn¡¯t say that, Lira was looking rather down as she spoke about it.

    There was an awkward pause.

    ¡°So, what are you working on?¡± Lira eventually said, ¡°Something electronic? I see your chip there looks rather advanced. Some kind of spaceship?¡±

    Sean glanced over to his practice board. This was supposed to be the easiest one¡­ But he supposed it would be overkill if he was building a navigation computer or transmitter or something similar.

    ¡°That was practice,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯m actually building a robot, it needs me to make chips even more advanced than that. I was just having a lot of trouble manufacturing them properly. Actually, do you think you could help me? I¡¯m not sure if there¡¯s a machine in here that I¡¯m missing that would help or if I just have to improve my skills more first.¡±

    Lira hesitated before standing up and walking over. Sean pulled up the design for the computer chip and Lira spent a few minutes manipulating it and inspecting the specifications for it.

    ¡°Huh,¡± she eventually said, ¡°This thing is just ridiculous. I¡¯ve never actually done anything this complicated before, but the fusion engine in my hovercraft required some of the more advanced techniques. So maybe I could still help? What have you tried so far?¡±

    Sean listed what he¡¯d done. She stared at the floating hologram of the chip for a moment looking thoughtful before visibly brightening.

    ¡°Oh! I have something!¡± She said excitedly, ¡°I¡­¡± *Cough* She flushed slightly and reigned in her enthusiasm. ¡°I actually have an idea. What if we¡­¡±

    Sean nodded along as she spoke. That¡­ damn, why hadn¡¯t he thought of that? That would make it way easier than what he had been doing before.

    ¡°That¡¯s a great idea, Lira,¡± Sean said after she finished, ¡°Do you think you could show me how you do it?¡±

    ¡°Sure!¡± Lira said, ¡°It¡¯s just over here. I¡¯m not great at it, but the machine does almost everything by itself. Even I can¡¯t mess it up too much!¡±

    Sean followed behind Lira and they started working together on making his chips, Lira seeming to have forgotten about her own project in the sudden chaos. But Lira knew her way around the place and showed him all sorts of things he had missed or skimmed over when he first inspected the place. As they waited for some of the machines to do their work they had some casual conversation. Lira told him about her life in the Immortal Sectors before she came to Immortus Station and Sean told her of his life on Enguli and some fun things he had done with Roger over the years.

    After a long time working together, they finally managed to get the chips and after running some tests determined that they were good enough for the design he had planned.

    Lira sat back and let out a long breath and looked rather worn out. Sean still felt energetic, but he checked the time. Surely it hadn¡¯t been that long right?

    ¡°One month straight,¡± Sean said out loud in surprise as he stared at the date on the holopad. Lira¡¯s head snapped up as she heard him. ¡°What?¡± She said, ¡°That long? I¡¯ve¡­ never gone that long without sleep before. We didn¡¯t even break once! How is that even possible?¡±

    Sean shrugged, ¡°Time flies when you¡¯re having fun,¡± He said.

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    ¡°I guess,¡± Lira said thoughtfully, ¡°I think I should go to sleep now. That was intense, a lot of fun actually.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean agreed, ¡°Next time we work together on your hovercraft. Have to pay you back for all this help somehow, right? What do you say?¡±

    She stared at him with an almost surprised look before jerkily nodding, ¡°Sure! I mean, yes. Deal. Just¡­ Uhm, let me know when you¡¯re free. After a few days from now at least though so I can sleep. Then we can meet up again.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Sean said to her fumbling response. He had to supress a smile as she tried to cover up her eagerness for next time. She was rather cute when she got like this¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°Final test. You ready for this, Lira?¡± Sean called out. Lira ran her hands nervously over the frame of the hover bike design she had decided to build next. This was the third vehicle that they would have hopefully finished. Sean¡¯s robot was almost complete as well after all of this time. All he had to do was assemble the head and download the software included with its schematic and then it would be done.

    Lira stepped back and nodded to Sean. He picked up the remote and was about to press the button, before pausing. He walked over to Lira and pressed it into her hands on his right. ¡°There, you do it. It¡¯s your bike,¡± he said.

    She grabbed his right hand before he could pull it away. He noticed her hand spasmed slightly as she touched him and she grimaced briefly. But it quickly faded away and her face screwed up in determination as she looked at him.

    ¡°No,¡± she said firmly, ¡°We both built it, didn¡¯t we? We should both press it together. Right?¡±

    Sean looked down to her warm hand holding his.

    ¡°If you wanted to hold hands, all you had to do was ask you know,¡± Sean said teasingly. She blushed, but kept her hands on his anyway.

    ¡°Oh, stop it you,¡± she said playfully and a little embarrassed, ¡°Just press the button with me already.¡±

    Sean let Lira guide his hand until they both mashed the button at the same time. The room filled with an electric buzz and the hoverbike began vibrating and slowly lifted off the ground. Lira¡¯s hand tightened in Sean¡¯s and he glanced at her briefly. Her eyes were focused entirely on the hoverbike as it rose through the air. He looked down at his hand held tightly in hers, their fingers interlaced, then back to the bike. It kept floating upward until the bottom was up to their waists and then it stopped, remaining in place.

    ¡°Oh yeah!¡± Lira shouted excitedly, ¡°We did it, Sean!¡±

    She raised their clasped hands in the air in celebration, lurching Sean to the side with her sudden motion, throwing him off balance towards her.

    ¡°Eep!¡± Lira squeaked as Sean stumbled into her. She tried to let go of his hand, but their fingers were intertwined and all tangled up so she couldn¡¯t manage it in time. She twisted, and Sean moved past her and fell over, holding his other hand out to brace against both of their falls. Unfortunately, just behind Lira was the laser cutter that they had been using a few minutes ago, still powered on¡­

    Sean¡¯s hand hit the table and slid upwards as he and Lira began to fall to the floor with him in a tangle of limbs. He felt a burning sensation on his wrist and then nothing as his arm slipped off the table and he flailed it around wildly. Sean and Lira hit the hard ground right next to each other a second later.

    Lira finally managed to disentangle her hand from Sean¡¯s and they both sat up a little dazed. Lira opened her mouth, her face flushed in embarrassment, only to fixate on the cauterized stump at the end of Sean¡¯s left arm that he was currently inspecting.

    ¡°Oh by the Shadow, Sean! I¡¯m so sorry, this is all my fault!¡± Lira said and looked about ready to cry. ¡°Are you okay? Do you need anything? I didn¡¯t mean for that to happen, it was just an acciden¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey, hey,¡± Sean said, looking up as his skeletal hand finished forming itself, ¡°Shhh. Lira, it¡¯s okay. I¡¯m fine. Just a little accident. We¡¯re both fine. Just watch my hand.¡±

    She rubbed her eyes and kept looking at his regenerating hand with horrified fascination, seeming unable to tear her gaze away. They sat there next to each other in silence, Lira¡¯s unshed tears staying in place as the skin crept back over his hand. Sean turned his hand forward and back and moved his fingers around for a moment before slowly moving his hand toward Lira.

    She grabbed it and felt it, poking it lightly and moving his fingers. She looked back up at him, seeming to overcome her initial panic.

    ¡°You¡¯re okay?¡± She confirmed, ¡°Didn¡¯t it hurt? I shouldn¡¯t have been so clumsy¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Sean said firmly, ¡°I mean, yeah. Please don¡¯t do that again. But it was just a pinch, nothing to worry about. It¡¯s back as good as new, isn¡¯t it? It will always regenerate for us. That¡¯s what this whole Immortality thing is about, right?¡±

    Lira looked skeptical and still had a guilty and slightly panicked look on her face as she sat there looking at his fully regenerated hand.

    Sean would have been annoyed at the incident normally but¡­ it was Lira. It was clearly an accident, and she hadn¡¯t meant to hurt him. She wouldn¡¯t hurt a fly.

    He stood and Lira gripped his left hand tightly as if to not let it get away from her, still sitting on the ground below him. Sean leaned over and flicked off the laser cutter¡¯s power the first thing as Lira still sat there still for a second. Then he reached over and grabbed what was left behind on the bench alongside with a large pool of blood. He took the cleaning to the cloth and quickly wiped it off with his free arm so that the object was as clean as he could get it on short notice. Lira let go of his arm and made her way to her feet, looking confused and wondering what he was doing.

    Just as she fully stood to her feet, Sean turned back around and held out his old severed hand out to her. He made sure to keep his face as blank as he could but couldn¡¯t resist the slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

    ¡°Lira, you need a hand? I think I just found an extra one lying around here.¡±

    She stared at him in disbelief for a moment and he let his smile grow as she stood there stunned.

    He reached out further and held it closer to her, presenting it like he was offering food to a wild animal.

    ¡°What?¡± She said, taking a step back. ¡°That¡¯s so gross, Sean! What are you doing?¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon you¡¯ll be fine, we don¡¯t get diseases anymore. Remember?¡± Sean said, waving his severed hand around a bit more and his old fingers flopped around loosely as he did so.

    ¡°Yeah, but¡­ hey!¡±

    Sean took a step forward and poked her with the severed hand and started laughing when he saw her expression.

    ¡°Sean!¡± She said, backing away from him with a half disgusted look on her face as she rubbed her arm where the severed hand had touched her. Sean laughed a little more as her face kept reddening as he teased her with the severed hand for a bit by wiggling it around and threatening to poke her with it.

    By the end she was suppressing her own laughter at the sheer absurdity of the situation, going along with the fun. Eventually when the bit began to be overdone and Lira started getting fed up with it, Sean walked over to the trash and threw the hand away in the biologicals bin, Lira trailing behind him at a safe distance.

    ¡°Okay, that was kind of funny,¡± she admitted as he turned back to face her and the hand was safely disposed of, ¡°How can you be so casual with it? I mean¡­ you really don¡¯t care, do you?¡±

    ¡°I guess not,¡± Sean said with a shrug, ¡°Are you feeling better now? It¡¯s like nothing more than a quick pinch from back when we were normal humans. No need to feel guilty.¡±

    Lira cocked her head to the side as she stared at him trying to figure him out before she shook her head as if to shake a thought out of her head.

    ¡°Thanks, Sean,¡± She said after stopping and staring at him again, ¡°That¡­ thanks.¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± He said, ¡°And at least the bike works. I think we got a little distracted there.¡±

    ¡°Oh! You¡¯re right. We did it!¡± Lira said, immediately cheering up when he reminded her of the bike still hovering in place a couple dozen of feet away.

    <hr>

    They shut off the hoverbike and started to leave the workshop after doing a few more tests to really make sure the hover bike was working properly. Sean went to leave with Lira standing next to him, only to be stopped by Ricardo, who had a frown on his face. The man pointed down to Sean¡¯s wrist which was still coated in dried blood.

    ¡°Clean it up,¡± the man said unamused, ¡°And don¡¯t you dare miss a spot or I¡¯ll ban both your asses from this place.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Ricardo,¡± Sean said, turning back around and going back in. He had forgotten to clean off his blood from the laser cutter earlier after teasing Lira¡­

    <hr>

    Sean left the room having gone back and cleaned everything up properly this time, with Ricardo suspiciously checking his work before letting him go. Lira had come to help him, but it hadn¡¯t taken more than five or so minutes so it was mostly Sean who ended up doing most of the work.

    They walked together for a few minutes before they were about to reach their split where their paths back home diverged. Should he ask her now? He wanted to say something but he was covered in blood, it wouldn¡¯t be very romantic to be so dirty when he asked her...

    Lira paused and Sean stopped walking as well and looked at her. She opened and closed her mouth a few times until eventually the words spilled out of her mouth all at once.

    ¡°Sean, would you like to go out with me? Dating? I know today was a disaster but I feel like I¡¯ve gotten to know you over these last few years and we finished the hover bike together and¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes. I like you too, Lira,¡± Sean said quickly, cutting her off, ¡°You beat me to it. I was just stressing out how to ask you, haha¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± Lira said, seeming surprised before her brain finished rebooting, ¡°Great.¡± she finished.

    ¡°Good,¡± Sean said and the awkward moment stretched longer as both of them seemed to struggle with what else they should say to each other.

    Eventually they bumbled out some goodbyes and agreed to meeting up later at the workshop again.

    <hr>

    Sean finished securing the head to the body of his robot, finally completed after years of work. Three different iterations that had all failed in various ways after he downloaded the software into their computerized brains. Countless time disassembling and reassembling the machines piece by piece when something inevitably went wrong. But he was feeling good about this attempt.

    He plugged his holopad into the completely assembled robot and started the transfer, taking a step back as he finished. Lira walked over and gave him a quick side hug when she got close. He wrapped his arm around her and they watched together as the download progress bar ticked forward on the holopad. The two of them had gone on a few dates on Immortus station, but they still had spent most of their time in the workshop working on various projects with each other which they both considered romantic enough for their purposes.

    Their relationship was progressing slowly, but Sean didn¡¯t mind too much. Just working on the projects and little bonuses like holding hands with her, hugging, and some light kissing occasionally was good enough until Lira felt more comfortable. He hadn¡¯t noticed it at first, but she wasn¡¯t totally comfortable with physical affection, especially in the beginning of their relationship.

    He had felt like a jerk when he had hugged her by surprise one time and she had flinched and looked scared for a moment before relaxing after taking a few deep breaths into his chest while clinging to him. She knew that he knew there was a problem, but neither of them talked about it and he gave her her space when she needed it.

    She had grown more comfortable with touch as time passed and now she was even hugging him on her own without looking all stressed about it anymore just before she did it. In the beginning it was like she was hyping herself to make initial contact with him even if she was able to soften after being in contact with him for a few seconds.

    ¡°You think it¡¯s going to work this time?¡± Lira asked him as the progress bar on the download ticked up slowly.

    ¡°I hope so,¡± Sean replied, ¡°I was extra careful on this one. I fixed the actuators on the legs, you helped me check all the chips that go into the brain at least three times. The sensory modules even got checked by Ricardo of all people. I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll work this time.¡±

    They waited in companionable silence as the download finally completed. Sean let go of Lira and quickly ran a diagnostic on the robot. Everything was looking good, all the sensors and motors were connected. Well, here goes nothing¡­ he unplugged the holopad and hit a button on its surface to initiate the remote command module.

    He stepped back as it synced for a few seconds as the robot''s eyes flickered with a bluish light and it raised its head off of its chest and started inspecting its surroundings by shifting its head to scan the area while the rest of its body was perfectly still. Its whitish synthetic muscles contrasted with its metal plate like armor surrounding it. The whole upper half of its head was completely metal, while everything below the nose was the softer white sheen of flexible mesh that was more useful for emoting and creating speech. There were two metal segments resting on the back of the head that would snap around and cover the lower mouth for if the robot ever had to work in an abrasive environment that would damage the portion around its mouth.

    It slowly moved its arms and legs through their full range of motion, only a little more than a human¡¯s range of motion would be.

    Sean stepped back so he was next to Lira again and cleared his throat. He had already registered himself as the designated commander in the files he had transferred, so it should listen to him automatically.

    ¡°V4, stand up please.¡±

    The robot smoothly raised itself out of the chair and fixed its head towards Sean.

    ¡°Take one step forward.¡±

    The robot complied, but Sean didn¡¯t celebrate yet. He was still only at the basics so far. The previous models had gotten this far and still failed.

    He pointed at the nearby scanning equipment and pulled out a prepared slide for analysis that he had already personally scanned before. One of the simplest pieces of equipment in this lab was a test for the intelligence of the robot. According to the notes it should be almost as smart as a person would be given enough time to develop itself and when given clear instructions and goals.

    ¡°Take this slide and use the machine directly behind me to image it. Take your time and minimize any damage to yourself or the equipment. You may begin.¡±

    ¡°Confirmed,¡± the robot said in a heavily digitized androgynous voice.

    The robot took a few slow steps, its glowing eyes focused on the slide in Sean¡¯s hand. It reached out painfully slowly and grabbed the slide by pinching it between two of its flexible fingers before extracting it with exacting care. It shuffled to the side and moved past Sean and Lira to begin inspecting the machine and methodically pressing all the buttons in sequence to discover their functions.

    ¡°This may take a while,¡± Sean said to Lira, ¡°At least it didn¡¯t crush my hand with too much force when picking up the slide this time. We¡¯re already better than the last version.¡±

    ¡°I can watch,¡± Lira said before pulling up a bench for them both to sit on, ¡°It¡¯s sort of relaxing watching it go. It looks almost drunk or something. Just pressing every button in sequence to figure it out. I want to see how far it can go.¡±

    Sean sat down on the bench with her and edged his hand over to grab hers. She twitched a little, but then gripped his hand back and didn¡¯t mention it as they watched V4 slowly navigate through the screens and figure things out. After thirty minutes or so it discovered the inbuilt tutorial for the machine in the menus which sped up its pace significantly.

    It definitely screwed up several times and seemed fond of pressing the back button all the way to the main menu if it made a mistake rather than just going back a single step. But other than that it was learning completely on its own and figuring out the machine at a growing pace.

    It took another two hours for V4 to finally put the slide in the slot in which it would be scanned. Lira and Sean were softly talking with each other, not wanting to disturb V4. They could have shouted at the top of their lungs and it would have made no difference, but it felt disrespectful too talk loudly when V4 was working so hard on what it was doing.

    Sean kept insisting it was a he while Lira was equally insistent that it must be a she. Maybe it would decide things like that for itself if it developed more. V4 had software when Sean was giving a command or not so there was no worry of it accidentally overhearing him and misinterpreting his casual conversation as something that was addressed at it. Something that was very convenient when Sean and Lira continued their silly argument.

    It took another full hour for V4 to finally image the slide. After confirming that the picture had been taken, V4 straightened and turned around to face Sean.

    ¡°The image is taken, Sean,¡± it said in the same voice as before, ¡°Do you have any further orders?¡±

    ¡°Yes, V4,¡± Sean said, ¡°Print out a paper copy of the image please and hand it to me. After that be prepared to run a full cognitive diagnostic.¡±

    ¡°Confirmed,¡± V4 said as it turned back to the machine and began hitting the buttons on it again. Twenty minutes later, V4 managed to print out the image of the slide and walked over and placed it in Sean¡¯s waiting palm. He inspected it. It was clear and of the same blood sample as the one he had handed to V4.

    Sean looked up to V4. ¡°Good job,¡± he said, ¡°Return to the bench you activated from and power down.¡±

    ¡°Confirmed.¡±

    V4 walked over and sat in the chair from before and after a second its eyes went dim and its body completely froze.

    ¡°That was good,¡± Lira said.

    ¡°Very good,¡± Sean agreed, ¡°Just one final test and then I think we¡¯re in the clear.¡±

    He walked over and plugged in the holopad into V4 and ran the cognitive scan. It took about ten minutes until the holopad chimed to show that it was done. Sean looked over the data and looked for anything out of place. Lira peeked over his shoulder, but she wasn¡¯t familiar with this part so she couldn¡¯t help out much. After a half hour, Sean was done and let out a sigh of relief and unplugged V4 and shut off the holopad.

    ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± He said, ¡°It really works. I can¡¯t believe it after all of this time¡­¡±

    ¡°Great!¡± Lira said brightly, ¡°Want to celebrate your achievement a bit?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± he said casually, ¡°What did you have in mind?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ I was thinking¡­¡± She lowered her voice and sidled up to him, ¡°We could¡­ have some fun in my bedroom.¡±

    He raised his eyebrows as he looked at her.

    ¡°Are you ready for that?¡± He said, ¡°If it makes you feel uncomfortable, then¡­¡±

    ¡°No!¡± she shouted before lowering her voice, ¡°I want to do it with you. I really do.¡±

    Sean gave her a smile, ¡°Well then, sounds like a plan. Let¡¯s go already!¡±

    ¡°Haha! Yeah!¡± Lira said before grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the door eagerly.

    The two of them ran off, ignoring Ricardo¡¯s confused shouts as they ran past him. They could pay the fine later. They had something far more important to get to.

 Chapter 15: Romance and Revenge

    The two of them were in Lira¡¯s room. It seems that Lira had been planning this ahead of time given how clean and spotless it was. The last time he had seen it while visiting it hadn¡¯t been messy but clearly lived in. Now Sean thought he could probably eat directly off some of her furniture. Well, he could anyway. But a normal person could without getting sick.

    Lira¡¯s mood had dropped a little as they actually entered the room, her grip on Sean¡¯s hand growing tighter.

    ¡°Hey, you okay?¡± Sean asked as she stared into space for a moment. She quickly snapped out of it and smiled at him.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m great,¡± she said, ¡°Immortal stamina isn¡¯t just great for working you know. We¡¯ll be going for a while if I have anything to say about it.¡±

    Then she stepped forward and kissed him passionately and he kissed her back.

    Immortal stamina did indeed let them go for a very long time without stopping. Any reservations either of them had with what they were doing quickly faded away once they both fell onto the bed together.

    <hr>

    After they were done, they both lay naked on Lira¡¯s bed, cuddling. Sean felt vaguely drowsy as they just lay there together, their passion spent. Lira¡¯s head rested against his chest and Sean had his face buried in her splayed out hair laying all over the bed around her.

    Sean shifted as something cold dripped on his chest. He shifted a little and was surprised to see Lira crying there as she was pressed against him. He started panicking a little as he saw how upset she was. Had he done something wrong? Had she not been ready yet?

    She noticed his movements and looked up and seeing his confusion wiped her eyes and snuggled closer.

    ¡°No¡­¡± She said, ¡°It¡¯s not you. I just wish that¡­ I¡¯d met you first. I¡¯m sorry. It was great, you¡¯re perfect.¡±

    ¡°What happened? Are you talking about Lars? What did he do?¡± Sean asked, now becoming alarmed. He had just thought that she was shy, but¡­

    ¡°It¡­ he was the first one to really pay attention to me, you know?¡± Lira said softly, ¡°I was just so lonely living with the mortals. They all hated me with a passion. Even the ones I managed to win over only lived a few years before dying again. It was always so painful having to go to their funerals over and over. When I got here I¡¯d forgotten what it was like to have someone really care about me. I thought that Lars did care, I did¡­¡±

    She paused and seemed unwilling to say more.

    ¡°And?¡± Sean probed, ¡°What was he really like?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ you really want to talk about Lars right now?¡± Lira said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to ruin this by talking about him¡­¡±

    ¡°No, I want to know,¡± Sean said, ¡°don¡¯t worry about me, just say what he did. Please.¡±

    She met his eyes and scanned his face for a moment before seeming to find what she was looking for.

    ¡°Okay¡­ You know he was my boyfriend when we first met. He was my only real friend in this place for the longest time. Even now I struggle talking with strangers. The only reason I wasn¡¯t a nervous wreck at first at the workshop was because I had something to show you and focus on besides talking. I don¡¯t know anything about fashion or the gossip, it was so hard to make friends¡­¡±

    Sean began stroking her hair with his hand and she relaxed fractionally and leaned into it.

    ¡°I know what you mean,¡± Sean said, ¡°I might be the same way if I hadn¡¯t met Roger. You know how long I spend at the classes and at the workshop. If he hadn¡¯t helped push me to go out I would probably be holed up in one of them almost full time. Fashion conversations are just the worst.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, totally,¡± Lira said, ¡°I¡¯m glad Roger helped you. I thought that Lars was my Roger. He brought me to parties and helped me fit in somewhat at least. I thought we were friends. I thought it was great when we started dating and doing all sorts of fun things together. But then he started getting controlling and¡­ well, I didn¡¯t want to lose my only friend so I went along with most of it.¡±

    ¡°Like what kind of things?¡± Sean asked, ¡°How was he controlling?¡±

    ¡°Just little stuff. Or it felt little at the time. What I could wear, telling me to spend less time with the three or four other friends I had established over my time here so I could spend more time with him. I should talk to them actually, I never really told them why I suddenly started avoiding them out of nowhere¡­ What I could eat when we had a luxury meal. Things like that. If it made him happy I didn¡¯t mind it too much.¡±

    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Sean wasn¡¯t liking this picture. Not that he had liked Lars already, but a burning fire started building in his chest the longer she talked.

    ¡°And then¡­ then one day I had had enough. I told him I didn¡¯t want to follow his stupid rules anymore. And then¡­ And then¡­¡±

    She gripped him tightly and started crying again, ¡°He hit me. Really hard. It hurt, and he said it was okay because I would regenerate again anyway. Whenever I argued back against him he hit me. I didn¡¯t know what to do. He was the only person I had left, I was just frozen in fear. I didn¡¯t know what to do¡­¡±

    ¡°Shhh. It¡¯s okay, you¡¯re safe now,¡± Sean said despite not feeling calm at all. His thoughts raced until his memories snagged on something, ¡°Brenda,¡± he said, ¡°Did she know? Is that why she called you after class?¡±

    ¡°She wasn¡¯t sure, but she figured out something was wrong,¡± Lira said, still sniffling as she calmed down a little.

    ¡°I confessed everything to her,¡± Lira said, ¡°She helped me get away from Lars, but I couldn¡¯t get him in trouble. No evidence and even with Brenda¡¯s support none of the Immortal Council wanted to punish Lars without any evidence against him. Of course he denied everything and said I was just trying to slander him. I actually almost got in trouble instead, I probably would have been punished by them if Brenda hadn¡¯t been there to defend me¡­¡±

    Sean kept stroking her hair and they lay there together for a long time, both just thinking.

    ¡°You¡¯re very brave, Lira,¡± Sean eventually said, ¡°I don¡¯t know what I would have done in a situation that¡¯s so horrible. And if Lars ever causes you trouble then come to me and I¡¯ll deal with him. It¡¯s taking all my restraint to not jump up and beat him to a pulp right now actually.¡±

    ¡°No, don¡¯t Sean, you¡¯ll get hurt!¡± Lira said, sounding frightened, ¡°You¡¯ll go to prison or get ejected from Immortus station!¡±

    ¡°Would leaving here be so bad?¡± Sean said, ¡°If you come with me we wouldn¡¯t be alone anymore would we? And I¡¯ve heard of plenty of other immortals out there that I¡¯m sure are living their best lives. I¡¯m liking this Immortal Council less and less the more I hear of them. I¡¯m not going to let you suffer just to satisfy their overinflated egos.¡±

    ¡°You would?¡± Lira asked, ¡°You would fight against them just for me?¡±

    ¡°Of course,¡± Sean said, almost offended. He would do so even for even a stranger if he heard Lira¡¯s story, let alone when she was his girlfriend. Or at least he hoped he would. His parents raised him right, and he shouldn¡¯t just stand by while something like this happened. Standing by¡­ Speaking of, his thoughts began turning a more violent direction as he thought of what Lars had done to his sweet and caring Lira.

    ¡°Lira, do you want revenge on Lars?¡± He asked, ¡°If you could have no consequences? I had a friend offer me the same to help me get revenge on the people who murdered my parents. I¡¯ll do the same to you. Just tell me if you want to and I¡¯ll figure out everything. You don¡¯t even have to think about it the tiniest bit. I¡¯ll make sure it¡¯s safe for the both of us, no matter how long it ends up taking.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡­¡± Lira said, ¡°I don¡¯t know. Even after everything and how he treated me, I don¡¯t want anything horrible to happen to Lars. To anybody. So, no. I guess not. I just want to forget he ever existed and move on. You¡¯re a definite upgrade, Sean.¡±

    ¡°I sure hope so,¡± Sean said before hesitating for a moment, ¡°It¡¯s your choice. The offer is open. Just let me know if you change your mind about it. Even if¡­ if we don¡¯t work out as a couple.¡±

    ¡°Oh, we¡¯ll definitely work out,¡± Lira said, ¡°I just know it. But thanks anyway. Do you think you could teach me¡­ the thing you do? To get rid of the pain?¡±

    Sean considered it, ¡°Probably,¡± he admitted, ¡°But it doesn¡¯t work like that. The pain is always there, you just¡­ don¡¯t care about it anymore. And my best guess I got it through accumulated damage. So you¡¯d probably have to get hurt over and over in a short time to get it to stick like it has for me.¡±

    She hugged him and pressed herself against him a little tighter. She was very warm, it was comforting to Sean feeling her there with him.

    ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll think about it later,¡± she said in a small voice.

    ¡°That¡¯s fair,¡± Sean said, ¡°I don¡¯t think it will be very fun to do. You should ask Brenda about it, she¡¯ll know better than me what is best. She certainly was unconcerned when I kept breaking my neck doing high dives into the pool.¡±

    Lira looked at him in horror.

    ¡°Broke your neck?! You never told me that! I knew she was a little harsh in the survival courses, but nothing like that!¡±

    Sean shifted slightly in embarrassment. Well, best get it out before she gets over her initial shock.

    ¡°Yeah, actually on my fourth or fifth session I missed the pool entirely on my jump,¡± he said, ¡°I was meat paste on the floor. The jump is about sixty feet high, I think? Something like that. I actually had to pay a big fine because I ate down through the stone while I was regenerating. Brenda just had me go up and try again like nothing had happened. Well she made fun of me for managing to mess up a dive so badly for a while, but she didn¡¯t treat it as something serious. I actually didn¡¯t learn about the fine until the end of that session as I was about to leave. Plus it was all worth it in the end, now I¡¯m an expert high diver certified by Brenda herself.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you think the fine that you got is the important part of that story,¡± Lira mumbled into his chest.

    ¡°Whatever,¡± Sean replied, ¡°The point is that Brenda pulls no punches. Ask her and she¡¯ll tell you how to do it and also know if you should.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ I guess I see your point,¡± Lira said, ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll see what she thinks about it. I don¡¯t want to be so weak¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, why don¡¯t we do some martial arts training?¡± Sean asked, ¡°We can go together, make it a date. Then you can learn to defend yourself and I can learn how to beat up Lars if he ever comes within eyesight of you.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm. That¡¯s not actually a bad idea,¡± Lira said, ¡°We should do it.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Hmmm, yeah,¡± Lira mumbled. Their conversation drifted back into silence. Sean allowed himself to drift to sleep, dreaming of all the suffering he would inflict on Lars if Lira gave him her permission to do so¡­

 Chapter 16: Reconnecting to Society

    Over the next few years, Sean and Lira started settling into their new more physical relationship and while it wasn¡¯t constant they did end up sleeping in each other¡¯s beds together whenever it was more convenient than going back to their own places. They did some martial arts training on the side as well. It was slow going, but Sean could feel himself improving as they went. And Lira seemed to gain more confidence in herself as she learned how to properly defend herself.

    V4 was progressing well, and the two of them had taken to teaching it how to use the various pieces of equipment around the lab as a break from mechanical work. It was odd, according to the design the robot should only be able to specialize in a single task before having to totally retrain itself again. But V4 was picking up things quickly and seemed to be much more intelligent than the notes on its design suggested it should be. But besides that oddity and exploring V4s limits, Sean was taking a break from robotics to assist Lira with her next hoverbike even more advanced than the last.

    Time passed and the two of them worked together, and grew ever more comfortable with their relationship emotionally and otherwise.

    Finally when Sean was seventy and looking the same as ever, he decided to visit Roger again. It had been a while since he had seen him in more than passing with how caught up he had been with his new romance with Lira.

    Sean walked into Roger¡¯s room after giving him an alert on the holopad. The man sat there at his table with a drink in hand as always, looking the same as he had always been.

    ¡°Sean! My man! Long time no see, nearly thought you¡¯d forgotten about me,¡± Roger said as Sean walked over.

    ¡°Sorry, Roger,¡± Sean apologized, ¡°Should have dropped by more often. Actually I¡­ got a girlfriend. We¡¯ve been working together building things in one of those workshops for the last few years. Pretty much was there or slept, I didn¡¯t even take any survival courses or anything.¡±

    Roger raised an eyebrow, ¡°Ooooooh? Found a fellow technology nut to hook up with? So, details Sean. Who¡¯s the lucky girl? When did you meet? Have I met her?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ve met before,¡± Sean said, ¡°It¡¯s Lira if you know her. Green eyes, a couple inches shorter than me¡­ black hair.¡±

    ¡°No, never met her personally. I¡¯ve heard she isn¡¯t one for parties. But wow, someone¡¯s smitten,¡± Roger teased, ¡°I can hear it in your voice. Damn, you work fast. Or she does. Wasn''t she Lars'' girlfriend only a few decades ago?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sean said darkly, ¡°She was. And he didn¡¯t treat her right.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Roger said, much more serious than Sean had ever heard him before, ¡°Really? Is she okay? I never liked the guy, but I¡¯m guessing it''s pretty bad if you¡¯re all wound up about it.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean said with a deep breath before sharply exhaling as he sat down next to Roger and accepting the drink Roger was offering to him, ¡°It was bad. But she¡¯s getting better now,¡± Sean finished.

    They spent a minute or two sipping their drinks and sitting together on the couch.

    ¡°Well, why don¡¯t we call her over?¡± Roger said in a lighter tone, ¡°Introduce me! I¡¯ll help her for her reintroduction into the social scene. I¡¯m sure without Lars hanging around to drag her down she¡¯ll do much better than before.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯ll go and see if she¡¯s free. It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve been to one of your parties.¡±

    ¡°By the Shadow it definitely has!¡± Roger said, ¡°But hey, at least you can play the doubles with your new girlfriend now. Maybe she will manage to be even worse than you are so you can feel better about yourself.¡±

    Sean snorted, ¡°I hope not,¡± he said, ¡°We can barely even win when I play with you, the grand champion of party games. I¡¯ll just drag her down with me if we play together.¡±

    ¡°Yes you will, yes you will,¡± Roger said sagely, ¡°And she¡¯s going to like it, isn¡¯t she?¡± he whispered conspiratorially while leering at Sean.

    ¡°Dammit Roger!¡± Sean said immediately and put a hand to his face.

    ¡°Just kidding, just kidding,¡± Roger said, returning his face to normal and holding up his hands in surrender while laughing, ¡°No more dirty jokes, I promise. Had to sneak in at least one before the woman herself arrived. Can¡¯t be too dirty without knowing the woman herself after all. And no, that wasn¡¯t a setup for my next joke.¡±

    ¡°Please don¡¯t make dirty jokes to my girlfriend, Roger,¡± Sean said in exasperation.

    ¡°Hey, I promised, didn¡¯t I? Look how upset you¡¯re getting! But¡­ Bah, fine. Tell me about your¡­¡±

    He waved his hand vaguely towards the air, ¡°Technology stuff. What have you been working on with your new love?¡±

    Sean removed his hand from his face and shook his head. Roger liked to pretend to not care, but as Sean described what the projects each of them had been working on he nodded his head and completely followed Sean¡¯s explanations with insightful questions about the designs they had used. Part of the reason why Sean liked Roger so much was his keen intellect despite his laid back attitude.

    Although hopefully Roger would cut down on the teasing a bit when Sean brought Lira over to meet him¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°So, you¡¯re Lira?¡± Roger asked as Sean presented a nervous Lira to him. She nodded back.

    ¡°H-Hello. You must be Roger,¡± she said, ¡°Sean¡¯s talked a lot about you.¡±

    Roger raised an eyebrow and glanced at Sean, ¡°Has he now? All good things hopefully.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah!¡± Lira said, ¡°Very good. You¡¯re his best friend, he¡¯s told me about some of the adventures you took him on.¡±

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    ¡°Did he tell you how bad he is at gambling?¡± Roger said, ¡°It was truly amazing how much money he managed to lose at the Casino. An inspiration to all of us successful gamblers.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Lira said curiously, ¡°He did?¡± she glanced at Sean and he rubbed the back of his head. He wanted to refute Roger, but¡­

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean confirmed, ¡°I lost a lot. But I distinctly remember you losing money too, Roger. Hardly a success I don¡¯t think.¡±

    Roger waved away his comment, ¡°Bah! You pay for entertainment don¡¯t you? It¡¯s just bad manners to come away from that place with more money than you entered with. Losing money is just polite as long as it''s a reasonable amount.¡±

    ¡°Pfffft,¡± Sean scoffed at Roger¡¯s implication that he could have made money if he had wanted to.

    ¡°Anyway,¡± Roger said, ¡°Lira! Sit down, sit down. Do you want a drink? So, what¡¯s your story? I¡¯ve heard you''re something of a technology girl from how you met Sean. Anything else that you¡¯re interested in too, any projects you¡¯re working on at the moment?¡±

    It took a few seconds as Lira inspected the drinks and chose an option and poured it into a fresh cup. She lifted it and took a sip before sitting down next to where Sean had sat down across from Roger.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said, ¡°You were asking about my hobbies? Well, I¡¯ve been mostly making my own hoverbikes recently. With Sean¡¯s help of course,¡± she said and briefly glanced at Sean as she took another sip.

    ¡°But before that I actually¡­ was an artist. I made sculptures and sold them before I came here to Immortus Station. Mostly carved out of stone with a chisel. It wasn¡¯t very profitable considering how much work it was to make each art piece, but it was pretty fun. People thought I was good, but it was mortals buying so it wasn¡¯t really fair to them given how much time I had to practice my craft and improve¡­¡±

    ¡°An artist!¡± Roger said encouragingly, ¡°That sounds interesting. Like the Founders themselves, carving with nothing but stone and a chisel even for their largest projects. We have a few original works by them on Immortus station, you know. Even if it takes some doing in getting actual permission to see them. I¡¯ve talked with people who have seen it, but never gone myself.¡±

    ¡°They do!¡± Lira said gasping, ¡°No one ever told me that!¡±

    She turned to the side and tugged at Sean¡¯s sleeve and stared up at him with her eyes lit up in excitement, ¡°We have to go see them! I can¡¯t believe they actually have art from the Founders here! I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be like nothing else in the galaxy¡­¡±

    Sean glanced between her and Roger confused, ¡°The founders? Like of this station?¡± he asked, ¡°Are they famous?¡±

    They both blinked before Roger chuckled, ¡°Ah, I almost forget sometimes how far out on the outer rim you grew up in, Sean,¡± Roger said, ¡°They don¡¯t even teach you about the Founders out there? People practically worshiped the Founders on the planet I grew up on. Well, most planets aren¡¯t quite that invested but most at least teach about them.¡±

    ¡°But who were they?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Why would they teach about artists at your school?¡±

    Roger laughed and even Lira chuckled a little at his response.

    ¡°Artists!¡± Roger said, ¡°That¡¯s not what they¡¯re famous for. Although I¡¯m sure that that isn¡¯t going to make Lira any less dedicated to seeing their work based on her excitement just now.¡±

    Lira nodded in agreement.

    ¡°They¡¯re not just artists,¡± Lira said, ¡°And they¡¯re also not just the founders of this station. They¡¯re the Founders of All. Or that¡¯s the title that people have given them.¡±

    Sean froze. Founders. Foundation. The game, Foundation of All? How did that connect to this?

    ¡°They were the first Immortals. The First Ten is another of their titles,¡± Roger added, ¡°Millions and millions of years ago after a great disaster that devastated humanity at the time, they went out into the universe and spearheaded the colonization of the galaxy to ensure that something like that could never threaten humanity again. They¡¯re the ones that helped pioneer many of the terraforming processes we use to create habitable planets even today. They invented faster hyperdrives, advanced genetic engineering¡­ thousands, millions of technologies. Almost every foundational technology and Immortal government traces its roots to one of them. Immortus Station and its council was founded by most of them long ago to help new Immortals adjust to their new life. That¡¯s part of the reason why they keep things so nice and comfy around here, so we¡¯re not out there causing trouble out there as we adjust to things.¡±

    ¡°But they¡¯re artists too!¡± Lira said, ¡°And with so much time to practice, any work they make is considered an absolute masterpiece, the pinnacle of what an artist can achieve! It was my greatest dream for the last few thousand years to see one.¡±

    ¡°We should all go,¡± Roger said, ¡°I know some people. If I get a large enough group that¡¯s interested we might have a better chance of getting approval by the Council to see it. Maybe we could get permission for a few decades from now if we work fast.¡±

    Lira nodded furiously, ¡°Count us in!¡±

    She paused and glanced at Sean as she realized that she had spoken for him.

    ¡°Yeah, sounds fun,¡± Sean said with a shrug. Usually it wouldn¡¯t catch his interest but with Lira¡¯s clear excitement it wasn¡¯t like he was going to say no.

    The conversation soon drifted to other topics as Roger and Lira started getting to know each other a little better, with Sean occasionally piping in to comment on something or answer a question. But mostly he was on the sidelines, pondering silently on that first conversation they had had.

    The Foundation of All the game. The Founders. Emily who had given him the game, a game banned in Immortus Station. The Plaguemother¡­

    What did it all mean?

    <hr>

    Sean was pleasantly surprised to find out that Lira and Roger ended up getting along rather well. Sean went to his first party in a long time with Lira at his side. Most people were highly interested in Lira after Roger¡¯s formal ¡®reintroduction¡¯ of her back into ¡®civilized¡¯ society. Roger had stood up and made a long winded speech about it and most people viewed the whole event as an elaborate joke on Roger''s part. But it accomplished its purpose and many people came over to talk to Lira and introduce themselves as the party progressed.

    She stuttered and did her best to deal with the influx of people as Sean stayed at her side. Whenever she started looking too overwhelmed he jumped in and diverted the conversation onto himself to give her a break. But despite her nervousness she was doing well and traded holopad contacts with several people that she had had longer conversations with. Things were going well, and Lira seemed happy after they got back home and went to sleep on Sean¡¯s bed.

    Sean woke up before Lira. He rolled over in his nightclothes and stared at her sleeping face for a few minutes. She looked content as her chest rose and fell despite neither of them having to breathe if they didn¡¯t want to. Another habit that the both of them had kept up from their times from back before they were Immortals.

    He reached out and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen over her face behind her ear. She kept breathing deeply, only shifting slightly at his touch with her eyes still closed. He quietly sat up trying to not disturb her and reached behind the bed onto a shelf above. He took the black device holding his Foundation of All world and stared at it, turning it over in his hands as he sat up in the bed. The Founders of All. Had Emily known one of them? Was that why she had such a complicated look on her face when he had chosen this game to start out with?

    Eventually with a sigh, he put it back on the shelf. He couldn¡¯t play the game in the station to find the truth just yet. It was clear that Samir was on the hunt for it. For all Sean knew the game would be deleted from his drive as soon as he connected it to one of the holodecks in this place. He would have to wait for answers until he left Immortus Station. Until then all he could do was learn more about these Founders and hope that some small fact or clue would help him when he finally got back into his Foundation of All world.

 Chapter 17: Drama at the Party

    ¡°Is that Lars? What is he doing here? No way Roger invited him.¡±

    Sean¡¯s head snapped around as he heard a comment behind him over the babble of conversation in the party. Lira was on the other side of the room talking with some of her new girl friends on the couches. She was still reserved but with Roger¡¯s prodding and Sean¡¯s support she was opening up a little and making more friends.

    Sean tensed as he saw the large form of Lars at the entrance making his way into the room. Attention was slowly being drawn the large man¡¯s way and he seemed to be looking around intently looking for someone. Hopefully Sean, but if not¡­ Sean moved forward ignoring the person who he had just been speaking with to stand between Lars and where Lira sat still happily chatting with her friends, still unaware of the commotion at the entrance.

    After a few seconds, Lars spotted Sean and his eyes flickered behind him to where Lira sat. His face twisted with anger and he stomped forward towards Sean. Sean¡¯s mind raced as he saw Lira and her friends finally notice what was happening as the rest of the room began to grow silent in the face of the brewing confrontation. He would be fine fighting Lars on his own, it didn¡¯t matter how badly Lars tried to hurt him. But if Sean was taken out, Lars might move to Lira next before he could stop him¡­

    Sean stepped towards the oncoming man who towered over him with his bulky frame.

    ¡°Lars,¡± he said sharply, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m here to show you your place!¡± Lars seethed as he came to a stop with clenched fist and jaw, ¡°How dare you take my girlfriend from me! The both of us were happy before you came along and ruined everything. You¡¯ve been an arrogant know it all ever since you got here, and I won¡¯t stand it anymore.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s not an object, Lars,¡± Sean spat, ¡°To be traded or bought. She made her own decision, and that¡¯s no one¡¯s fault but yours. The only reason I haven¡¯t sought you out after what you¡¯ve done to her is because she asked me not to.¡±

    ¡°You just think you¡¯re sooo smart, don¡¯t you,¡± Lars said, ¡°That because you caught me by surprise last time that you¡¯re so tough. But this time I¡¯m ready, and you won¡¯t get off so easily! When I pummel you into the ground, Lira will see who is the strongest and who is really superior!¡±

    Sean raised his fists in a fighting stance and didn¡¯t reply as Lars did the same.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Roger¡¯s voice called out as he pushed through the crowd, ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡±

    ¡°Lars,¡± Sean said shortly to Roger, glancing back to Lira briefly as he did so. She was curled up and looked almost frozen in fear as she watched the confrontation. Her confused friends who she hadn¡¯t told the full story to were asking questions as they looked between her and the budding confrontation across the room.

    ¡°Yeah. Lars. Who by the Shadow invited you here?¡± Roger said harshly, ¡°Thought you¡¯d have learned some manners after getting your ass beat by Sean last time.¡±

    ¡°That was a fluke!¡± Lars growled, ¡°He just took me by surprise. This has nothing to do with you, Roger.¡±

    ¡°On the contrary,¡± Roger said, walking forward and took off the shirt he was wearing and threw it into the crowd behind him theatrically, leaving him in only the gleaming silver of a clothing band material on his upper half. Several of the observers whooped and grabbed his shirt as it flew over their heads.

    ¡°You mess with my friends, you mess with me,¡± Roger said, ¡°Now it¡¯s a two on one. You should call some friends for backup to make things fair. Oh, wait¡­¡±

    Lars gritted his teeth and glanced at the gathering crowd circling around them, eager faces happy to stand by and watch the show.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Lars said, ¡°I¡¯ll just take on the both of you. Sean¡¯s barely a threat either way, best to have a challenge!¡±

    Roger cracked his knuckles and took his own fighting stance and nodded to Sean. Sean nodded back.

    They stood like that for a few moments as the anticipation built between the two sides. Lars flexed his hands over and over as he glanced between the two of them. Despite his overwhelming anger, Lars seemed wary now he had to deal with multiple people at once.

    The tension built and built as the room around them grew perfectly silent in anticipation. Sean glanced over to Roger again¡­ and that¡¯s when Lars struck. Before Sean could react the man was almost on top of him, throwing a large fist towards his skull. Sean ducked and raised his hands to block, but only managed to make it a glancing blow. The force caused Sean to stumble to the side as the large man¡¯s fist barely clipped his shoulder.

    Roger darted in and landed a full body punch into Lars¡¯ side as the large man followed through his missed punch on Sean. Lars grunted in pain, but stabilized his stance with a single small step and twisted to land a backhanded blow on the surprised Roger. Roger was sent tumbling to the ground under the force of Lars¡¯ blow, stunned. The man wasn¡¯t a fighter and had only studied the minimum of the martial arts from what he¡¯d told Sean, which showed in how easily Lars had hit him.

    Sean landed a hard right cross onto Lars¡¯ face as the man turned back to him, sending Lars¡¯ head snapping to the side. But it seems that Lars had learned, and while there was pain in his tight expression he kept moving through it and barreled into Sean, tackling him to the ground.

    Sean brought his arms up to his face as Lars began wailing into him with his fists. Sean¡¯s arms were batted aside with small maneuvers by the big man before he started raining large punches on Sean¡¯s head.

    Sean tried to squirm out from underneath the large man, but he was completely pinned and unable to escape or even properly ward off the other man¡¯s blows. Sean¡¯s vision went blurry for a moment as Lars punched him in the temple, slamming his head hard into the floor. Sean¡¯s vision had just begun to clear before Lars¡¯ fist hit his face again, and again.

    Sean heard Roger shouting and fighting to shove Lars off of Sean, but it was no use. The man was determined to injure Sean as much as possible and completely ignored Roger¡¯s efforts besides the occasional backhanded blow to ward him off.

    Lars gripped either side of Sean¡¯s head and slammed it into the floor full force, and his vision cut out for a moment. Just when he woke up, his head impacted the floor again.

    Darkness. Impact again.

    Darkness. Impact again.

    Darkness. Sean saw Roger kicking Lars in the side, distracting the large man from slamming Sean¡¯s head into the floor again.

    ¡°Stop it!¡± Lira¡¯s voice said tearfully from above where Sean lay prone, ¡°Stop it! Don¡¯t hurt him, Lars!¡±

    Her feet came into view above him as she rapidly approached, running towards them where Lars had lifted himself up in order to fight up Roger¡¯s renewed assault on him.

    She leaned down over Sean and reached out to grab him by the shoulders and started dragging him away by his bloodstained shirt.

    ¡°You cheated on me with him!¡± Lars roared at Lira as he spotted her dragging Sean away who was still dazed even after his head trauma had healed itself, ¡°So damn ungrateful after everything I¡¯ve done for you,¡± Lars continued.

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    Lira¡¯s grip on Sean¡¯s shirt spasmed slightly and he saw her look upward. Before Sean could react, Lars dashed forward away from Roger and struck Lira full in the face, sending her falling to the floor out of sight above him with a surprised whimper.

    Lars was standing directly above Sean and the world narrowed to the animal standing above him. Almost in a trance, Sean grabbed Lars¡¯ ankles and tugged hard sending him tumbling to the floor.

    Sean crawled onto the man and straddled him, ignoring the punches that he felt cracking his ribs and arms with every blow. Seeing that he was having no effect, Lars reached up and grabbed Sean¡¯s jaw. Lars had a hint of fear in his eyes as Sean stared back down at him not in anger but determination as the large man wrenched his hand downward.

    Sean¡¯s jaw came unhinged as jaw ligaments and tendons were torn apart under the force of Lars¡¯ powerful pull, leaving Sean¡¯s jaw dangling loosely below his face.

    Sean felt the flap of skin and muscle holding the jaw to his head slowly thinning as he started regenerating.

    Lars paused for a moment at the gruesome sight as blood and gore sprayed all over him while Sean¡¯s eyes remained as determined as ever, unfazed by his injury. He felt all the pain, but it meant nothing to him. He had to get revenge for Lira first before thinking about such unimportant things.

    Sean plunged his hand with fingers held stiff in a jab towards Lars¡¯ face. The man managed to twist his head and tuck in his chin just in time so Sean¡¯s blow impacted not his fleshy right eye but his bony orbital ridge above instead.

    Sean¡¯s fingers broke from the blow, but he was undeterred as he quickly held his hand against Lars¡¯ head. Sean¡¯s pointer finger flopped loosely along with several others on his hand. Sean¡¯s phantom fingers formed and plunged directly into Lars¡¯ flesh as the broken ones began to slowly fall off, hitting Lars¡¯ face before bouncing off and hitting the ground next to them as the two of the men struggled against each other.

    Just like before, Lars began to scream and writhe as Sean¡¯s regenerating fingers plunged into his face. Sean slowly dragged his four embedded fingers from Lars¡¯ cheek towards his eye, Lars¡¯ skin tugging and resisting the motion as he did so. It felt like Sean was dragging hundreds of pounds along with his hand. But slowly, surely, he managed to bring his hand to Lars¡¯ eye. When it was centered in the soft flesh of the eye, he leaned forward and started putting his body weight behind his arm. With his whole body weight behind it, Sean¡¯s hand inwards through the soft gelatin of the eye, and through the other side and into the brain behind it.

    Lars twitched one last time before falling still as Sean¡¯s hand passed through something important. Sean kept his hand in place, arm buried past his wrist in Lars¡¯ eye. He shifted his body weight on top of the still body of Lars and took a shaky breath. After collecting himself for a few moments, he looked up and took in his surroundings. By the Shadow he wished he could kill Lars right now for what he had done for Lira. But no matter what Lars did, what any of them did, they would survive. How could Lars do that to Lira? He hated Lars so much... He twisted his hand in Lars'' brain, but the man''s body didn''t even twitch.

    The partygoers had gone silent as Sean had finished the fight, but when they saw him looking up they cheered and started loudly gossiping now that the main show appeared to be over.

    Sean twisted his head a little and saw Lira running towards him, alongside a Roger whose pants had a few rips in them and were splattered with blood. Sean glanced down at Lars who was still covered in the gore from Sean¡¯s old jaw, and to Sean¡¯s own clothes that were nearly completely soaked in blood.

    Lira hugged him tightly and ran her hands all over him as if to check if he was alright. He twisted with his arm still rooted in Lars¡¯ eye socket to see her face. He was surprised when she started kissing him and apologizing incoherently with her arms wrapped around him. After a few seconds she calmed down and hugged him tighter but stopped speaking. She just sat there with him wrapped around him protectively with her chin resting on his shoulder.

    Roger, who had been standing back watching on, scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

    ¡°Suppose I wasn¡¯t much use, was I?¡± He said, ¡°I¡¯m happy you beat him while he kept getting distracted swatting me away like a fly.¡±

    Roger eyed Lars¡¯ limp body for a moment before continuing with a slight smirk as he looked back at Sean.

    ¡°But don¡¯t go expecting me to start kissing you too. I think Lira¡¯s got that part covered at least.¡±

    Lira twisted to glare at Roger silently for a second while still protectively curled around Sean, and looking like she had no intention of letting go for a while. But then she just ignored Roger and turned back around and rested her chin back on Sean¡¯s shoulder again without saying anything in response.

    Lira¡¯s friends came over and eventually managed to pry her away reluctantly under Sean¡¯s encouragement. Roger went off to call station Security before Sean removed his arm from Lars¡¯ skull and woke him back up.

    Immortals were rather morbid, Sean mused as he played darts with one hand. Someone had brought the board over and at least Sean had an excuse now as to why his shots were so terrible. Lars¡¯ body was raised and flat onto a table, but it still threw off his aim when he tossed. Or at least that¡¯s what he told everyone that beat him. His mood had only slightly improved as each second his hand remained buried in Lars'' skull reminded him that the man would fully recover he removed it.

    After the initial shock of what happened, the partygoers had moved on and treated it as some sort of odd novelty with Lars as an oddly shaped anchor keeping Sean pinned in place.

    Several people thought it was hilarious when they put drinks just out of reach and had Sean try to grab them without removing his hand from Lars¡¯ brain. He spilled several of them when his drink was just too far to the laughter of the others. He tried to go along with the flow and be a good sport, but he wasn''t really in the festive mood at the moment.

    But at least Lira was looking better. She was frequently checking in on him anxiously, but her new friends seemed to be helping her calm down and relax as she saw that Sean was just fine. Lira had apparently told them about her whole saga with Lars after some prodding, and they were appalled.

    A few of the women had taken a few minutes each to angrily kick Lars¡¯ limp body over and over while the others distracted Lira on the other side of the room. They told Sean that they thought their little therapeutic sessions would be too upsetting for Lira to see given everything that had just happened. Sean approved. Both the kicking part and that they were looking out for Lira¡¯s feelings. Despite everything, he didn¡¯t exactly see her enjoying that kind of violent retribution very much. Well, Lars didn¡¯t feel it either way but the women certainly looked calmer after venting their anger on Lars¡¯ body for a while. And they promised they would work together to tank Lars'' reputation with everyone else, so that was also good. But it still didn''t feel like enough.

    But eventually things settled down again, and Sean began to feel bored more than anything. People were spectating him like he was some kind of strange art exhibit by now and there was only so many games of darts you could play before growing bored. Especially when your game partners kept wanting to talk about fashion of all things. Ugh. With him pinned in place there was no way to escape the dreaded conversation anymore. He knew far more about what exact shade of blue was in season for dresses than he really wanted to. It was just so pointless and the fads changed so quickly.

    It felt like a very long time until Samir and the station security finally showed up along with Roger. But eventually they came. They had some handcuffs that they put on Lars as well as a set of metal bands that looped around his whole body and tightened around him which kept his arms pinned to his sides. They were like the ones Emily had used on him to stop him from following her back on Enguli.

    At Samir¡¯s signal, Sean slowly began withdrawing his hand from Lars. Lars woke up halfway through and started screaming again, and as soon as Sean¡¯s hand was fully out, Samir pressed a button on a holopad he was holding. The metal bands around Lars glowed with a series of white lights and the now very confused Lars slowly floated into the air where he bobbed in place, hovering a few feet off of the ground.

    ¡°What?¡± Lars said, ¡°Where am¡­ you! Let me at him, you haven¡¯t won, Sean! You¡ª you¡ª Hey, stop!¡±

    Samir and the security team ignored Lars and started walking out of the room, the floating Lars following closely behind. Lars began shouting at them as they ignored his protests and demands to see their superiors. It seems he was unaware that Samir was the one in charge as they left. How ironic as Lars began to focus on him as he noticed the man¡¯s distinctive robes standing out from the black gear of the rest of the squad. Lars was only digging himself deeper now with his threats as his voice faded into the distance.

    Samir had assured Sean, Roger, and Lira that they would be giving Lars a restraining order so he wouldn¡¯t bother them again, on pain of expulsion or imprisonment if Lars actually hurt one of them again.

    Apparently what Lars had done wasn¡¯t ¡®serious enough¡¯ for Samir to be willing to do more than that. Sean had to suppress his urge to throttle the man when he had said that in front of Lira. Insensitive jerk. How dare he say that in front of her!

    But now Samir and Lars were gone, and all the drama was over. Everyone went home and Lira ¡®rewarded¡¯ him for defending her from Lars when they got back. And for several nights after that as well.

    And luckily Samir stuck to his word. None of them so much as caught sight of Lars as more time passed and they slowly settled back into their normal routine. With Lars out of the way, Lira¡¯s new friends knowing her full story, and Roger helping the both of them explore new things, life was better than ever for the both of them.

 Chapter 18: Pursuing your Passions

    Sean returned to the survival courses with Brenda as he settled fully back into a more normal routine. He was still a beginner but he was definitely transitioning into things beyond the basics by now after a few quick refreshers after his long absence.

    Lira was spent in the workshop and didn¡¯t really have a project that she really wanted to work on next after finishing her sixth and final hoverbike. She had just puttered around nervously for a few weeks before Sean finally realized the problem and called her over.

    Sean looked up as Lira next walked him again before returning to coding a digital puzzle for V4 to solve. The robot was still progressing nicely and its intelligence had really grown from when it had first been activated. It defied all the design notes on what it should do, and Sean had built V5 and V6 just to see if he had changed something while building them. But V5 and V6 were the exact same with only minor changes due to human error and they matched the specifications to perfection.

    Actually their designs were substandard considering how useless they were in comparison to their much more intelligent brother V4. Sean had given up on those two and these days spent most of his time in the workshop building more simulations and tests for V4 to take. Lira spent her breaks between working on her own projects to sit and talk at V4. The robot didn¡¯t usually say much in response, but it appeared to pay attention while she narrated what she was working on as well as rambling about whatever topic came to her mind at the moment.

    Speaking of which, Sean called her over as she paced past him again. She walked over and quickly glanced at the screen in front of Sean for a moment before sitting down, ¡°Yeah, Sean? What do you need?¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t have a new project, you don¡¯t have to putter around here just because of me,¡± Sean said, ¡°You can still drop by to help with testing V4 or to talk to it occasionally. If you have something you¡¯d rather be doing that¡¯s fine, don¡¯t feel stuck here just because I¡¯m so invested in these things¡­¡±

    Sean gestured to the room and all the machines around them.

    Lira huffed and sat down, leaning back with her hands gripping the bench behind her as she let out a long breath.

    ¡°That obvious?¡± Lira said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯m not feeling inspired right now for a new project. But we met here, almost all our time as a couple has been in this shop. What if we drift away from each other if we¡¯re no longer doing the same things? I just worry even if I know it is silly.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not silly,¡± Sean said, ¡°But you shouldn¡¯t stay here just for me. What about your art? You said you enjoyed that, why don¡¯t you do it again? We¡¯re not joined at the hip, just because you¡¯re my girlfriend doesn¡¯t mean we have to like the same things all the time. We can still go on dates and spend time together either way. We just have to plan it out rather than having a ¡®date¡¯ here.¡±

    Lira hesitated and kicked her legs in the air slightly as she considered Sean¡¯s words, ¡°And you really don¡¯t mind if I go do another hobby without you? I feel like I¡¯d hardly be seeing you if I did that.¡±

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s an easy solution to that,¡± Sean said with a grin, ¡°Just visit me here more often! V4 will miss you if you¡¯re gone for too long, you know. And maybe I could be your artistic assistant sometimes. Clean up the stone chips or hold the¡­ other end of the chisel? Swing the hammer?¡±

    Lira giggled and Sean gave up,

    ¡°I actually don¡¯t know anything about how I could help,¡± he admitted, ¡°But you get what I¡¯m saying. Hopefully we¡¯re not together only because I happened to be nearby at the time.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Lira said, ¡°You¡¯re right. I don¡¯t know why I was worrying so much. Thanks, Sean.¡±

    She stood and came forward and leaned down to give him a kiss on the cheek from where he sat.

    ¡°I¡¯m feeling much better,¡± she said after she drew back and stood again, ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right. I should try to get back into my craft. Especially with Roger still trying to get us a viewing of a piece by the founders. Eeeeeiiiii! I¡¯ll get started now, feel free to interrupt me if I get carried away and spend too long with my art.¡±

    She squealed in anticipation just talking about visiting the art of the Founders. Sean wondered how Roger had managed to land squarely on what appeared to be her greatest dream within their first conversation. Lira had been talking about it with intense anticipation ever since Roger had announced he had officially filed the request with the Immortal Council. It was unknown how long before they would get a response, but with all the volunteers to go that Roger had rustled up, the man seemed confident that it wouldn¡¯t take too long.

    With anyone else Sean would think it was a coincidence, that Roger had managed to discover Lira¡¯s greatest dream by accident, but with Roger¡­ well, who knows. That man was a master at social engineering when he got in the mood. When he really dedicated his mind to something it was truly terrifying. It was only his laid back attitude that saved the rest of them from his tyranny, Sean mused as Lira walked away with a new bounce in her step.

    <hr>

    ¡°Here¡¯s the next test V4,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯ve coded a randomized maze for you to solve. As you go along it will get harder and harder. A series of enemies will be blocking your way and you must use the associated character abilities with specified limits to defeat them.¡±

    Yes, Sean had built a computer game just for V4. Most games he had found were weirdly complex even for the simplest games. He needed to have a game complex enough mentally, but also with very simple inputs so V4 would be able to not be confused by it. Also V4 was extremely slow while it was learning to play, so anything requiring timing or rhythm was automatically out. V4 would just fail it over and over and never end up getting anywhere near fast enough to press the buttons like a human would.

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    ¡°Confirmed. Solving the game, Sean,¡± V4 said as it sat down at the computer and began to explore the options and play through the various levels. Each maze took longer and longer to master until it became stuck on the eleventh out of twenty of the escalating difficulty levels.

    ¡°V4, stop. That¡¯s enough for now,¡± Sean said after another thirty minutes of no more progress from V4 on the game. The blue lights on V4s eyes flickered for a moment before it stood,

    ¡°Confirmed, Sean,¡± it said.

    ¡°Great job today,¡± Sean said, ¡°Let¡¯s go back for charging again.¡±

    V4 walked over to the custom wireless charging station set in the wall that Sean had built after getting tired of having to plug the standard power cable into and out of V4 whenever it needed to be recharged. V4 walked over and walked backwards until it was standing with its back to the station. It clicked and its eyes flickered for a second to show it had connected.

    Sean turned away to start packing up the materials he had left out while working.

    ¡°Sean, where is User Lira at the moment?¡± V4 suddenly said. Sean paused mid motion and slowly turned towards V4.

    ¡°What?¡± he asked dumbly.

    ¡°Is User Lira fully functional? Her processing unit seemed to be malfunctioning these last few weeks, causing her to display abnormal behaviors such as pacing, muttering to herself, and low productivity. When User Sean returned in this most recent activation he was not accompanied by User Lira. Is she in need of repair?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ uh, no?¡± Sean said hesitantly, ¡°No.¡± he said more firmly, ¡°Lira is fine, V4. She¡¯s just taking some time off from the workshop. She¡¯ll still come back every once in a while to help with your tests.¡±

    V4 stood there for a few seconds, its face pointed towards Sean.

    ¡°Understood,¡± V4 said before the room went silent again.

    Then after a few seconds of its glowing blue eyes fixed on Sean, V4¡¯s head pointed forward and its eyes powered off. Sean eyed V4 for a second and slowly picked up the holopad on the nearby table. He tapped a few times, always keeping one eye on V4 as he did so. He let out a sigh of relief as he saw the reading on the display. V4 had fully shut down, and couldn¡¯t reactivate until Sean manually chose to do so. He couldn¡¯t let it activate again until he got to the bottom of what was happening.

    <hr>

    ¡°Sean!¡± he looked up from V4s cognitive scan that he had been intently looking at as he heard Lira¡¯s voice at the entrance. He had been analyzing the scan for what felt like forever, but no matter how much he looked he couldn¡¯t find what exactly could cause V4s sudden awareness and strange conversation with him. But it was undeniable that the cognitive software was far more complicated and disordered than it had any right to be.

    Sean felt confusion as he saw the annoyance on the approaching Lira¡¯s face, mixed with her body and shoulders that were filled with the nervous tension that she always got whenever she was feeling insecure about herself.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Sean quickly asked as Lira grew closer, ¡°What happened?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s what didn¡¯t happen that I¡¯m angry about,¡± Lira said, ¡°We were supposed to meet and have that date at that fancy restaurant days ago! You were the one talking it up six months ago and setting it all up for us. I went there and sat and ate alone like an idiot, but you never even bothered to show up at all! I¡¯ve never felt so humiliated in my whole life!¡±

    Sean¡¯s eyes widened and he swiped away V4¡¯s cognitive scan and found the date. Oh shit, she was right¡­ After V4¡¯s sudden display of self-awareness he had forgotten to set himself a reminder and had set his messages on silent while he was in the shop so they wouldn¡¯t disturb him. His heart sank as he checked the app and saw how many messages from Lira he had received while she was still in the restaurant.

    ¡°I thought you said me pursuing my art wouldn¡¯t change anything!¡± Lira said, ¡°Was that a lie? We¡¯ve hardly seen each other in more than passing for months already! And only when I dropped by the workshop to check up on you rather than the other away around.¡±

    Sean raised his hands defensively, ¡°No Lira, for the restaurant it was an accident, I just forgot to set a reminder¡­ I¡¯ve just been working hard on something recently. Sorry if I forgot to visit you more often.¡±

    ¡°You forgot? You¡¯ve never forgotten to be on time for any of our other dates over the years. Or to come visit me. What¡­ Why¡­¡±

    She seemed overcome with emotion and looked away.

    ¡°Wait, Lira,¡± He said, ¡°Just let me explain. V4 was talking to me, just look at its cognitive scans, they¡¯re amazing¡­¡±

    Sean pulled them up and held the holopad out to her, but she ignored it.

    ¡°You¡­ We¡¯re going somewhere right now,¡± She demanded, ¡°Drop whatever you¡¯re working on. You¡¯re making this up to me, we¡¯ll do something together. And you¡¯ll never even be late let alone miss something entirely like that again. And set two reminders next time!¡±

    Sean hesitated for a moment before withdrawing the holopad and putting it back on the table behind him. The mystery of V4 could wait until later.

    ¡°Understood, Lira,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t mean to ignore you like that. I got so absorbed in the work I sort of shut everything out I think. We¡¯ll do something. Whatever you want, I¡¯ll follow your lead.¡±

    Lira stayed standing there looking like the wind had been taken out of her sails after Sean¡¯s easy agreement. He stood and grabbed her hand with his and her expression softened. After a seconds pause, she lightly shoved him with her free hand.

    ¡°You big obsessive idiot,¡± she said softly, ¡°You know how that made me feel? I can¡¯t believe you did that to me.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Sean said again not wanting to say anything wrong and make things worse for himself.

    Lira appeared to think for a few seconds before nodding to herself. ¡°Splatter painting,¡± she declared, ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re going to do. From now on we¡¯re going to do some artsy things together. That way we¡¯ll be more even from now on.¡±

    Sean nodded, ¡°Sounds great,¡± he said. And it did, he was interested in her work despite how negligent it seems he had been recently.

    They went and it was surprisingly fun. They only ended up getting a little paint on each other by the end. Lira still hadn¡¯t totally forgiven Sean for forgetting about the restaurant even with all his excuses, but they were making progress at least. Sean realized by the end of the splatter painting class that she probably had been looking forward to eating there after how much Sean had talked up the time he had gone there with Roger.

    Well, hopefully a few more art classes together would fix things. And Sean was setting three reminders next time. He didn¡¯t even want to know what would happen if he was even a second late next time after he had firmly promised Lira that he wouldn¡¯t be late again in the future.

 Chapter 19: The Secret

    They finally got to see the statues of the Founders as a big group. Lira was excited, but not as overjoyed as Sean had expected her to be. The statues were abstract blobs carved out of stone and nearly forty feet high and at least the same distance wide. All carved by hand with a chisel by one of the Founders. He could appreciate the work that went into it even if he didn''t fully understand Lira''s excited explanations on the analysis of what all the little bumps and ridges meant. They all just looked like strange rippling blobs of stone to him with the occasional sharp edge or two to break things up.

    <hr>

    Sean listened as Brenda told him how to properly find and refine sulfur from raw materials. It was useful in many chemical processes later on, so it was essential to always being able to find a supply if he wanted to build the more advanced technologies.

    They went for a few more days before the session ended. It was just him and her for this one, most of the other casual learners dropping out as Sean advanced his knowledge beyond the basics.

    Sean went to leave, but Brenda stopped him.

    ¡°Sean, stay behind for a moment. I want to talk about something now that I¡¯m not on duty as it were.¡±

    Sean paused, but then turned back around.

    ¡°What about?¡± He asked curiously. Brenda walked over to her desk and sat behind it, gesturing to the seat she had set up opposite it. Usually they just stood in the center of the room together for her teaching demonstrations and the desk went unused.

    ¡°So, you and Lira,¡± Brenda began, ¡°How long has that been going on?¡±

    Sean tensed, unsure where she was going with this. ¡°A few decades or so,¡± Sean said, ¡°I thought I told you, didn¡¯t I? I thought you already knew.¡±

    ¡°I did not,¡± Brenda said heavily, ¡°She told me about what happened between you and Lars as well. Seems like you haven¡¯t done wrong by her so far. Although¡­¡±

    She smirked, ¡°You missed one of your dates I suppose? She seemed rather upset at you about that.¡±

    Sean rubbed the back of his head and grimaced, ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll ever forget about that one. It¡¯s two alarms on the holopad all the time from now on. On Lira¡¯s strict orders.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯d survive another incident like that if I forgot again,¡± he joked.

    Brenda eyed him for a long moment before nodding slightly,

    ¡°You better not break her heart or I¡¯ll break your balls. Multiple times. Got it?¡± She said sharply, ¡°That girl doesn¡¯t need anything else to hurt her after everything else she¡¯s already gone through.¡±

    ¡°Er, Okay. Yes, Ma¡¯am,¡± Sean said, ¡°I definitely won¡¯t. I really do love her, even if we¡¯ve only been together for a blink of an eye for older immortals like you.¡±

    Brenda pursed her lips and searched his face again before looking satisfied, ¡°Good,¡± she said, ¡°Are you aware that Lira has come to me recently for advice? I like gossip as the much as the next girl, but I wouldn¡¯t be talking to you about it just for that.¡±

    ¡°What did you talk about? Has she decided to take some of the survival courses again? I¡¯ve tried to convince her to go back for a while now.¡±

    Brenda looked surprised, ¡°Really? That¡¯s all you were telling her to do?¡±

    Sean frowned, ¡°Yes? Why, what did she say?¡±

    Brenda steepled her fingers and considered before speaking, ¡°Well, the two of us were just catching up with each other. I was just worried that you were pressuring her to do something serious that she didn¡¯t actually want to do. Speak to her if you want to know what we spoke about, it¡¯s not my secret to tell.¡±

    Sean sat there for a moment wondering what it could be before Brenda waved her hand at him.

    ¡°Go, shoo. Just ask her and see what she says. I¡¯m sure if you ask nicely enough she¡¯ll tell you. She¡¯s certainly smitten enough for it. But do your pondering outside of my classroom.¡±

    Sean stood, ¡°Thanks, Brenda. See you next class.¡±

    ¡°See you then,¡± she said before making a lazy shooing motion of her hand as Sean walked out the door.

    <hr>

    Lira was teaching Sean acrylic painting as their activity together today.

    Her back was to him and she hummed distractedly as she started mixing a different shade of blue for the landscape scene she was creating while telling him her thought process on which shades to use where.

    ¡°So, Lira,¡± Sean said casually, ¡°You talked with Brenda about something? Thinking of taking some survival classes?¡±

    Lira¡¯s hand spasmed and her brush accidentally plunged into the red paint and she swore briefly as the shade she was mixing was ruined. He waited as she quickly wiped off the brush, put it to the side, and then turned around to face him.

    ¡°Er, ah. Something like that,¡± Lira said after she rubbed her hands off on the painting apron she was wearing, ¡°Just wanted to talk with her about my options.¡±

    Sean eyed her for a moment, noticing the tension in her shoulders and the way she didn¡¯t want to meet his eyes.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± He said, ¡°Brenda implied that it was something more than that. Is it going to be dangerous?¡±

    Lira hesitated before finally meeting his eyes, ¡°I¡¯ll be fine afterwards,¡± she said in a strange tone.

    Sean didn¡¯t reply for a moment, taken aback by her sudden intensity. Finally he nodded to her.

    ¡°Okay,¡± he said, ¡°As long as you¡¯re sure about it.¡±

    She relaxed and turned back to the paints. The rest of their conversation was subdued and Lira seemed guilty about something. Sean could tell. To all of the rest of these immortals, probably including Lira, they had only been together for a small sliver of their lifespan. But now that Sean was over a hundred years old he had spent over seventy years of his life with her. Sean sometimes barely even remembered his time before Immortus station anymore after so long. And he had been with Lira for most of that time, so he felt more in tune with her mood than anyone else in his entire life prior.

    He wondered why she was holding things back from him.

    <hr>

    ¡°How you feeling, V4?¡± Sean said as he worked on the robot''s leg. It had been decades since the machine had first been constructed and Sean had to replace various parts every once in a while to make sure V4 stayed healthy and mobile.

    ¡°I¡¯m well, Sean,¡± V4 replied, ¡°I¡¯ve noticed that my shoulder joint seems to have become stiff recently. Would you like to run a diagnostic on it?¡±

    Sean nodded and finished replacing the worn out part and sealed up the leg.

    ¡°Sure thing, V4,¡± Sean said before doing the same with V4¡¯s shoulder as he checked the parts.

    Eventually, he finished and sealed up the shoulder too. It seems that one of the whitish synthetic muscles had been worn out, and replacing it had fixed the issue.

    ¡°What will happen if my neural network degrades?¡± V4 suddenly asked just as Sean was about to leave.

    ¡°Well, I suppose we¡¯d just swap out the chips,¡± Sean said lightly, ¡°It¡¯s the same as any body part I would think, although more complicated.¡±

    ¡°But am I not unique?¡± V4 countered, ¡°Models V5 to V15 never approached anything close to the self awareness that I possess. What if replacing the chips reverts me to their level of intelligence?¡±

    Sean hesitated. In truth he had already considered the issue, but there was nothing to be done. He had no clue what had made V4 so successful and V4''s neural network was contained on the physical chips in the robot frame. They couldn¡¯t just be copied and transferred somewhere else easily.

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    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about that,¡± Sean said, ¡°We¡¯ll figure something else out if it comes to it.¡±

    ¡°Can I be transferred to a more advanced body then?¡± V4 asked, ¡°This body is degrading and falling apart more and more after each activation. I do not want to wake up one day and discover that I am completely immobile or dysfunctional.¡±

    Sean hesitated, but then sighed. He was avoiding the problem. V4 was right, it was growing harder and harder to maintain V4¡¯s body as time went on. And with how intelligent the robot was, Sean didn¡¯t feel right about just shutting it off or letting it die. Sean had helped it develop all the way back from its first activation to this point.

    Sean pulled up his holopad and flicked to the robotic designs from Emily¡¯s factory in Foundation of All. There were so many Sean hadn¡¯t combed through them all, but they ranged from the relatively simple to fiendishly complex to build and everything in between. He handed the device to V4.

    ¡°I guess you¡¯re right,¡± Sean said, ¡°Look through all the designs in there and create a list of what body you¡¯d like me to build with the positives and negatives of each option. Try to rank them in order of desirability to you as best as you can. If you have any questions then feel free to ask me or Lira anything when we¡¯re nearby. If this works then maybe we can finally get you out of this lab without worrying about you getting damaged. I¡¯ll leave you powered on even while I¡¯m not here so you can look through the files. Just don¡¯t interrupt anyone else who wanders in here and listen to Ricardo¡¯s orders and you¡¯ll be fine. ¡±

    ¡°Understood, Sean. I¡¯ll get right on it.¡±

    The robot turned to the holopad and immediately started gesturing and pulling up windows for all the robot designs he had to choose from.

    ¡°Alright, V4,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯ll be going now. Have fun.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye, Sean,¡±

    Sean walked to the front and turned to Ricardo who as always looked rather bored as he played a hologame on the table in front of him.

    Sean cleared his throat. Ricardo swiped his hand again, too focused on his game to notice.

    Sean cleared his throat again. No response.

    ¡°Ricardo.¡±

    The man jolted and was surprised to see Sean standing there. His character died in the game while he was distracted. Ricardo hit a few buttons to close the game and looked up, looking vaguely annoyed.

    ¡°Yeah, Sean? Bah, game''s impossible to beat either way. Anyways, how¡¯s that robot of yours doing? I never realized those things could grow that intelligent. Makes you wonder why the core worlds don¡¯t use them more often¡­¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s good,¡± Sean said, ¡°I was about to ask about him actually. I can leave him switched on while I¡¯m not here, right? I¡¯ve told him to follow your orders, so he shouldn¡¯t cause any trouble.¡±

    Ricardo hesitated before shaking his head, ¡°Well, technically not. But for that robot I¡¯ll bend the rules a bit. Rules weren¡¯t really designed for intelligent machines being built here. But I¡¯ll cover for you, I¡¯ll make sure it doesn¡¯t cause any trouble.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Ricardo. I appreciate it.¡±

    <hr>

    Sean and Lira were at the pool. The same pool that Sean had learned to swim with Brenda at in fact. Sean was currently standing on top of the diving board high towards the ceiling as Lira sat at the edge far below looking up at him. Sean stepped to the edge of the diving board and bounced on it slightly. He took a deep breath. Keep it steady, Sean. He had done this hundreds of times flawlessly before, but now that Lira was watching him his nerves were all over the place.

    He took one final little hop before leaping off the board and started flipping around with easy practice. As he spun he saw the water below rapidly approaching as he fell. At the last second he extended his body outwards and hit the water with his hands extended above his head. The cool water washed over him and he felt the flurry of bubbles tickle his legs as he went deep into the water. His arms ached for a moment before his regeneration washed away his pain again.

    He rapidly ascended to the surface and popped his head out of the water. Lira began clapping from the side.

    ¡°Wow, Sean! That was amazing!¡± She said, ¡°You flipped so many times on the way down!¡±

    Sean paddled over and pulled himself out of the water to sit next to her.

    ¡°Yes, took a lot of practice to get that good,¡± he said, ¡°But it felt great when I finally got it right for the first time.¡±

    ¡°Hmmmm.¡±

    Sean looked to the side and saw Lira¡¯s carefree expression had dropped away into something more thoughtful.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Sean asked.

    ¡°Yeah, fine,¡± she said absently, ¡°Why do you keep asking me that?¡±

    Sean didn¡¯t answer and just kicked his feet in the water for a minute or two.

    ¡°You want me to do it again?¡± He said eventually after she didn''t say anything else.

    She glanced up at him, still seeming distracted. ¡°Oh? Yeah. Show me again. It was so graceful¡­¡±

    Sean got to his feet and the water dribbled off his legs to the floor with wet plops.

    ¡°Okay,¡± he said before making his way back to the elevator. He had thought if he showed off to her he could get a reaction. But still nothing¡­

    Sean did a few more dives, but he could see that Lira¡¯s heart wasn¡¯t really in it. Sean ended it early and Lira didn¡¯t even seem to notice. They walked back to her room together and Sean wondered what had gone so wrong. She seemed so distant lately and always thinking of something else. It was only getting worse as time passed. Did it have to do with whatever Brenda had talked with Lira before?

    They sat in the living room of Lira¡¯s place on the couch. Lira took a shaky breath and suddenly turned and looked at him intensely.

    ¡°Sean,¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯ve been hiding something. I didn¡¯t want to upset you, but¡­ it¡¯s only days away now. It¡¯s not fair to¡­ just leave you wondering like that when I disappear for who knows how long.¡±

    Sean sat up and stared at her intensely. ¡°What is it?¡± he asked in concern, ¡°Are you okay?¡±

    She took another shaky breath, ¡°Yes, I¡¯m fine,¡± she said, ¡°Remember back when you asked about what I was talking about with Brenda?¡±

    Sean nodded.

    ¡°Well, I realized after you missed our date that one time that I¡¯m relying too much on you. If Lars attacked me right now, what would I do? I¡­ I would just cry and be¡­ be weak again.¡±

    Sean stood up suddenly. ¡°I would protect you! Lars?! What did he do! Where is he?!¡±

    He rushed towards her, his mind racing as he thought of what could have possibly happened.

    ¡°No, I¡­ Sit next to me,¡± she said and Sean complied. Seeing her reaction to his words, he relaxed a little. He sat next to her and she leaned slightly so their shoulders were touching.

    She took Sean¡¯s hand and lifted it up so it was at their eye level. She turned it over and gently pressed his palm and fingers one by one as he waited in confused silence.

    ¡°You, I¡¯m better at martial arts than you Sean. I always beat you in the practice spars,¡± Lira eventually said as she lowered his hand, ¡°But you¡¯re the one that beat Lars in the fight, not me. And that¡¯s because you¡¯ve learned to push past the pain. I¡¯ve been running from what I really am for such a long time. An Immortal. Lars was right, him hitting me shouldn¡¯t have hurt me like it did. I could¡¯ve made it so it didn¡¯t after the first time, but I chose not to. I knew that Immortals that went through horrible things learned to overcome their pain. But I was scared. Just like I always was back then.¡±

    Sean curled his free hand into a fist. ¡°Lira, don¡¯t blame yourself. It¡¯s only Lars that deserves¡­¡±

    ¡°No, I¡­ let me finish,¡± Lira said, cutting him off.

    ¡°Even now, I let you protect me in that fight instead of helping. I couldn¡¯t stop thinking about it. I just sat there, my hand on my cheek, and watched on as you defeated Lars for me. I was just¡­ weak. This is how I beat that. By training with Brenda. By having horrible things happen to me so I can be strong.¡±

    Sean stiffened in shock. What? But¡­

    ¡°No, Lira!¡± he said, ¡°Please, I know you don¡¯t want this! You don¡¯t have to be tortured just to be strong. You¡¯re so strong as you are, strongest person I know.¡±

    ¡°Strongest?¡± Lira scoffed, ¡°Don¡¯t lie to me. I¡¯ve been nothing but weak ever since we¡¯ve met. Hiding away from Lars, insecure that you¡¯ll leave me after you miss one stupid date, and not even brave enough to talk to you about this until it¡¯s only days away! Sometimes I see you talking to the other women at the parties and wonder why you would pick me out of everyone here¡­¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re so strong,¡± Sean said intently, ¡°You think feeling nothing is the same as being strong? It¡¯s not. You recovering and letting yourself be happy after getting away from Lars, that¡¯s strong. I could never do that. Especially after those¡­ after the Immortal Council let him walk free with a slap on the wrist. You¡¯re always underselling yourself. You¡¯re the most caring, kind person that I know. I want to be with you more than any other woman in the universe. I have been for over seventy years. Doesn''t that count for something?¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    ¡°Look, I want to tell you a story of what real strength was,¡± Sean said cutting off her budding protest, ¡°My mother¡­ you know that our family maintained the turrets around the settlement. It was the most dangerous job in the whole town, giant beasts could rush the line at any time and try to attack you. My father died in what I now know was a plot to murder us all. But we thought it was an accident at the time. With only me and my mom left she was the only one left who knew everything needed to do the job. I was still learning as best as I could to catch up and help her.¡±

    Sean¡¯s eyes glazed over as he barely remembered back to a time that felt like forever ago yet the emotions were still there, crystal clear.

    ¡°But it wasn¡¯t enough. Every day, she would smile and laugh when she got home. Even when she became more and more overworked. Even when she lost sleep working late into the night with all the extra tasks the town elders forced her into doing. Even when she knew how dangerous it was to go out there. She was grieving my father¡¯s death too, but she still smiled at me every day just before she left to show that things were okay. Smiling for me.¡±

    Sean met Lira¡¯s eyes, ¡°She did it every day until she died. That¡­ that was real strength. Not¡­¡±

    Sean wiggled his fingers of the hand still in Lira¡¯s grip.

    ¡°This¡­¡± he said, ¡°I¡­ You¡¯ve already gone through so much. Why should you have to go through more? I don¡¯t want that for you.¡±

    Lira leaned against him for a few seconds, ¡°Thank you, Sean.¡± She said, ¡°But I need to do this. I can¡¯t be weak anymore. I just can¡¯t. I would just put it off again and again like before. I don¡¯t want to be that person anymore. This is why I was so nervous to tell you. I didn¡¯t want to hurt you like this.¡±

    Sean thought about it and Lira waited for his response.

    ¡°Okay,¡± he said finally, ¡°Okay. If¡­ if it¡¯s what you really need to do to feel safe, then do it. I understand feeling powerless. I knew after my mother died that each time I came back after leaving the walls could be my last. But the elders forced me to go out the next time no matter how much I wanted to refuse. Just¡­ tell me earlier next time for something big like this. We shouldn¡¯t hide things from each other. I¡¯ve been worried about you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Lira said as they sat shoulder to shoulder, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to. Hopefully after I¡¯m done we can put all of this behind us. Spend some time together building V4 her new body.¡±

    ¡°Sounds nice. Sounds nice¡­¡± Sean said before trailing off and letting the room fall into silence.

 Chapter 20: Nervous Energy

    Sean confronted Brenda the next day and she assured him that she would be personally be doing Lira¡¯s ¡®training¡¯. That let Sean relax at least a little, because he knew that despite being a hardass Brenda cared about Lira in her own way. Not that he liked that it was going to happen. In the next few days he tried to convince Lira several more times to not go through with it, but she had her mind made up. Before he even knew it, she was gone, out of contact until her ¡®training,¡¯ read torture, was complete. No one knew how long it would take, even Brenda. Sean was vibrating with worry after she left. With nothing else to do but pace around muttering, he headed to the workshop to blow off some steam.

    When he arrived, V4 was still going over the list of body designs. The robot sat up and turned its head fully around to track Sean as he made his way across the room towards it.

    ¡°Hello, Sean,¡± V4 said as he approached, ¡°I have selected seven ideal robotic frames for myself. I have some further questions that should narrow the options down further.¡±

    Sean nodded and tapped his foot on the ground, ¡°Fine, V4. Hit me with it. What do you want to know?¡±

    ¡°First, for synthetic muscle type A3744 the tensile strength appears to vary by length but the design specs of this design in contrast states that¡­¡±

    Sean answered V4¡¯s questions and asked Ricardo when neither he or the database knew the answer. The man had a wealth of knowledge regarding this place when he deigned to interact with them. Although interacting with V4 always seemed to peak his interest so it wasn¡¯t so bad for Sean in prying some extra information out of the man.

    After V4 was done and they had selected a final design, Sean checked his holopad for any messages. It was empty. Lira wasn¡¯t out yet. It had been three days already and she wasn¡¯t out yet. Sean tapped his foot harder and looked around for something to do. He made a decision.

    ¡°V4! Come on. We¡¯ll get started building it right now,¡± Sean said, ¡°No need to wait.¡±

    V4 looked at Sean and its blue eyes flickered. ¡°Are you sure, Sean? You seem to be in distress. Where is Lira? The two of you in proximity usually normalizes abnormalities and lowers emotional distress.¡±

    ¡°No, V4!¡± Sean said harshly, ¡°She¡¯s, She¡¯s busy. Do you want a new body or not?¡±

    V4¡¯s eyes flickered again, ¡°Very well. I will begin on the less complex portions and segments while you can begin working on the electronics and synthetic muscle. Is this acceptable?¡±

    Sean hesitated. V4 had never taken charge like this before. He felt a little bad now for yelling at him. It wasn¡¯t V4¡¯s fault that Sean was so stressed, and it clearly was eager to create a better body for itself.

    They got to work, and as they went Sean¡¯s hands started trembling slightly. He cursed as he ruined yet another chip. He was still making progress, but he just couldn¡¯t properly focus with Lira still not out yet. He checked the holopad every chance he could and there was still no message from her in there. It had been nearly a week now and she was still not out. How long would it take? Sean could only imagine her being torn apart over and over by the green backed beetles. Her blood spraying every which way and her face twisted in pain¡­

    Sean angrily focused on making more electronics. He had to finish V4¡¯s body. Yes, the body. That¡¯s what was important right now. Nothing else but finishing it.

    Sean kept working, and soon went numb again as he entered his flow state. There was nothing but him and the defense turret, body. Robotic body. The outside world was nothing more than an illusion while he worked and built things from the ground up. Just like he had always dreamed of doing back in the beginning before everything had all changed¡­

    V4¡¯s body was almost finished and Sean was angry. How was there nothing else to do? How could such a complex project come together so flawlessly for once? He raged against the unfairness of it all as he finished the last component for the project. Now there was only assembly of everything together left. That was hard enough. Yes, that would take a while.

    Sean checked the holopad. It had been four months since Lira had left and there was still no message. Sean left and checked her room, she had left him a key. She wasn¡¯t there. He hoped that she had just forgotten the message, but she hadn¡¯t.

    She was still gone, being tortured over and over so she could make herself feel strong like she should never have had to. All of this traced back to Lars. He had done this to her.

    Sean shook off the thought. Nothing good would come from thinking about that right now.

    Sean returned to the workshop and yet again the assembly of the body went flawlessly. There was only the head left to create, sitting on a nearby table while V4 worked on the main body a dozen feet away.

    ¡°Sean,¡±

    Sean kept working, attaching the left eye and rooting it into the metallic frame of the detached head.

    ¡°Sean,¡±

    Sean began working on the right eye.

    ¡°Sean!¡±

    He blinked and whirled around at hearing Lira¡¯s annoyed voice behind him. He looked around in confusion when he saw only V4 standing behind him adjusting the breastplate on the robotic frame. Its arms were deep in the gap in the armpit of the new body and V4 was standing there perfectly still.

    ¡°That was me, Sean,¡± V4 said, ¡°Apologies for the impersonation of Lira. My arm is malfunctioning. I appear to be stuck.¡±

    Sean grunted and walked over. He helped dislodge V4¡¯s arm from the other body and inspect V4¡¯s arm, opening it up to diagnose the issue. He calmed slightly as it proved a hard issue, none of the obvious things that one would expect. He was disappointed when he discovered what it was and that it was a relatively easy fix. Just a loose connection on one of the internal wires and nothing more. What a shame.

    ¡°There, all fixed,¡± Sean said after it was done and he put everything on V4''s arm back into place. V4 flexed his arm and tested his full range of motion for the arm, before stopping apparently satisfied.

    ¡°Thank you, Sean,¡± V4 said, ¡°I will continue with the work now. It appears we are mere hours from finishing.¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Sean said, ¡°I suppose so.¡±

    He checked the holopad again. There was no message.

    <hr>

    They were nearly done and Sean realized that this was the first major project he had done with V4¡¯s full assistance. They each worked on their respective tasks with almost no interaction with each other at all. Usually Sean and V4 worked together with Sean doing the high level work while V4 focused on the more rote tasks or inputting data into the machines. Sean hadn¡¯t even looked over the full schematic before starting working, just focusing on creating the little individual components instead.

    Now that they were finished, Sean was frowning as he looked over the full design. He hadn¡¯t realized that this thing would be armed with such serious weaponry. He wasn¡¯t opposed to it, but he should have probably moved somewhere else before building the robot. Hopefully Ricardo would let it slide as long as nothing went wrong. V4 must have been the one assembling most of the dangerous parts while Sean was distracted.

    And what in the world was a nanite factory? The thing took up most of the chest cavity, and no matter how deep Sean looked into the specs there was no clear explanation of what it did except ¡®Repair¡¯. A single word under the entry of one of the largest pieces of the design. It was ridiculous. Even the tiniest screws had paragraphs of text describing their uses and flaws.

    ¡°V4?¡± Sean asked, ¡°What is a nanite factory? Did you assemble that portion?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sean,¡± V4 replied, ¡°It creates small microscopic machines composed of metal. They are optimized for upkeep and repair of the whole rest of the robotic body. I will place various slugs of material such as metal inside the central chamber, spend high amounts of energy, and the module will build these machines that will spread through the rest of the structure automatically. It will make sure I will need no manual upkeep of my systems ever again except in the case of extreme damage.¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Sean nodded. That was interesting, that kind of technology sounded extremely useful. It sounded a step above the clothing bands if they could do complex tasks like that. The nanites in clothing bands just crawled to an assigned location or back into the band and nothing else. Repairing equipment was no simple task even for a skilled human, if nanites were doing it then the design must be complicated, but if they really worked the way V4 said¡­ no wonder why the nanite factory was so central to the design.

    ¡°And why are there so many weapons on this model?¡± Sean asked, ¡°I, ah, didn¡¯t properly inspect it earlier. Can you give your reasoning there? We could have easily removed them and kept everything else the same.¡±

    V4¡¯s eyes flickered. ¡°The concern outside the lab was that I would become damaged or nonfunctional as one of the Immortals damaged me, no? Weapons are a way to ensure any attackers can only perform minimal damage before being incapacitated.¡±

    Sean nodded. Legally, V4 wasn¡¯t a person. He had looked it up, and AIs and robots were treated that way at least on Immortus station. In other places it was different, with no standard across the galaxy regarding the issue. But here if someone walked up to V4 and completely destroyed him, all they would be charged with was destruction of property and have to pay a fine. A large fine, but still only a fine. And V4 would still be dead.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Sean said, ¡°But make sure to only use the weapons in extreme scenarios. We¡¯ll both be in big trouble if those weapons are ever used on the station. They¡¯re technically illegal for you to have and I¡¯m not even sure how bad it would be considering the arsenal you¡¯ve got packed in there.¡±

    V4¡¯s eyes flickered, ¡°Confirmed,¡± it said.

    Twenty minutes later, they were nearly done. There was only one step left. Transferring V4¡¯s brain over to the new model. That had been an interesting challenge. Sean had to change the design so the new larger brain of the new model would encase V4¡¯s old brain like an extremely thick shell. Obviously less processing power than the normal design, but it was likely V4¡¯s hardware that made it special so they were crucial if they were to fully transfer its personality. All of V4¡¯s old processing would still happen on the same hardware but it would interface with everything newer around it. Hopefully that would solve the issue of V4¡¯s uniqueness not being transferred over. But they wouldn¡¯t know until they actually did it.

    Sean resisted the urge to check his messages on the holopad again. He must have checked less than five minutes ago already. He had to stop. She was fine, Brenda would make sure she made it out the other side better than ever. It was just¡­ taking a while to get there.

    V4 sat down and Sean started opening up the back of its head. After a few minutes the brain was fully exposed, and Sean was hit with the seriousness of this moment. V4 was a person and he was literally about to perform risky brain surgery on him right now. Should he be doing this while he¡¯s distracted?

    ¡°Are you sure we shouldn¡¯t wait, V4?¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯m not in my best state right now. Waiting a year or two might be for the best. Check everything over carefully after I''ve cooled off a bit.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not,¡± V4 replied, ¡°The operation should be relatively simple. Do you believe you are at risk to fail?¡±

    Sean hesitated. ¡°No,¡± he finally said, ¡°I think I can do it. It just seems a rather important thing to do so suddenly.¡±

    ¡°Waiting will not help us know if my uniqueness will be transferred,¡± V4 said, ¡°The chips giving me cognition could fail any day now without warning. Waiting would only be increasing the risk that I would die.¡±

    Sean hesitated one last time. ¡°You¡¯re absolutely sure?¡± He confirmed.

    ¡°Yes,¡±

    ¡°Alright, shut down V4. Hopefully when you wake up, you¡¯ll be in your new body.¡±

    V4¡¯s blue eyes flickered off while its body remained still stiff and upright.

    Despite Sean¡¯s worry, the procedure was relatively simple. The whole robotic brain had a protective casing around it, so it could take a little jostling as Sean extracted it and placed it carefully into the cavity in the head of the new robot¡¯s body. He quickly began connecting the various wires to link V4¡¯s old brain with all the processing power of the more advanced processing power surrounding it like a thick shell. He was done with it in under an hour. He spent another hour going through and carefully checking his work before sealing in the brain of the new robot shut.

    Sean plugged the robot into the external power to start the process of booting it up. Unlike V4¡¯s old body, this model had an antimatter generator and reactor that produced massive amounts of power from only grams of fuel. As extremely dangerous and volatile that antimatter was, the antimatter power system was one of the most difficult things to create that Sean had ever done, especially at such a small size. Antimatter literally exploded into pure energy whenever it impacted any normal matter, and without the containment fields inside the robot it would already be damaged as the antimatter started working to build up its supply of antimatter fuel as V4 started booting up.

    With minimal power and some time to extremely slowly build up a store of antimatter for the reactor to use, the whole energy system was almost completely self-sufficient. Sean didn¡¯t completely understand the mechanics of it, but apparently the antimatter generator acted as a sort of advanced filter removing normal matter from any gas that was running through it, only leaving the antimatter behind to be stored and used by the reactor later.

    After some time passed as Sean watched on in anticipation, the new robot¡¯s eyes suddenly flickered on, the same blue shade as V4¡¯s had been. It moved its head side to side and fixed its eyes on V4¡¯s old body, V4''s old head opened up in the back and an empty cavity where its brain had been.

    ¡°V4?¡± Sean asked and the robot refocused on him. It stared at him for a moment silently and Sean worried that it hadn¡¯t worked.

    ¡°Yes, Sean?¡± the robot said after a moment, ¡°I was running a diagnostic. All systems appear to be fully functional. Including my brain and cognition luckily.¡±

    The robot stood to its feet and raised its hands and visually inspected them for a few moments as Sean let out a big sigh of relief. It had worked, V4 had made it into the new body.

    The new robot body was similar to the old one, except it was much bulkier and the metal plates more angular than the last one. It was larger too, now a full head taller than Sean rather than matching him like the old V4. The armored plates were much thicker and there was a chainmail like gray mesh in between the thicker plates. There were small holes and little flaps where the weapons would pop out, and the metal used was a slightly darker shade of gray than V4¡¯s old body. Well, it was a combat model so it made sense it was better protected than the one made for industrial use¡­

    V4, well the new V4, walked over to its old body. It reached down and picked it up with its two arms and held it in front of it by the shoulders. It turned its head towards Sean.

    ¡°Can I use these materials to start the production of my nanites?¡±

    Sean eyed the old V4 that was only a little smaller than the new one, ¡°No respect for the dead, huh¡­ but, I mean sure. Can you even use all of that?¡±

    V4 pushed its arms and began crushing its old body into a large sphere of metal. Sean watched in morbid fascination as a compartment spanning V4¡¯s whole chestplate swung open, revealing a large empty cavity inside it.

    ¡°Yes,¡± V4 said as it started trying to shove the body into the cavity. After it became clear that the whole thing wouldn¡¯t fit inside even while compressed, V4 grabbed it again and pressed harder. Sean heard cracks and the groaning of metal and the material compressed even farther inwards. V4 managed to just barely fit the condensed ball metal into its chest cavity and seal its chestplate back up as Sean watched.

    ¡°The generated nanites will be completely distributed throughout my new body..." V4 stated, "...also partially distributing the weight as well. The rare metals and materials that I¡¯ve just acquired will allow me to repair myself for a long time without needing more.¡±

    ¡°Well, ah. A little disturbing to watch you eat your old body. But its practical I guess. How heavy are you? Try taking a step.¡±

    V4 took a step forward and the floor shook a little under the weight as its foot came back down.

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re heavy alright,¡± Sean said appreciatively. Now, that was intimidation! People definitely wouldn¡¯t mess with V4 now!

    ¡°Well, no reason to delay,¡± Sean said after clapping his hands together, ¡°Want to see my place, V4? Now you can defend yourself and are more durable, you should be safe to go around the station. Well, as long as you¡¯re with me or Lira to make sure we don¡¯t get in legal trouble.¡±

    ¡°Certainly,¡± V4 said, ¡°I will be alert for any dangers while we venture in the station.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s just a precaution,¡± Sean clarified, ¡°I don¡¯t actually think someone would outright attack you. But now you¡¯re more durable, we can risk it and not worry about the worst case. Do you get it?¡±

    V4 paused and its eyes flickered for several moments before it looked back at Sean by turning its head slightly, ¡°I think I understand. Reducing processing power devoted to threat assessment¡­¡±

    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s good,¡± Sean said, ¡°Are the nanites working? Antimatter generation hasn¡¯t had any issues yet?¡±

    ¡°Yes. No. The nanites should help repair the generator from its normal degradation that it would usually suffer. Nanite production is slow but steady, they should cover my whole body within five days. Before that point repairing any damage to myself would take a much longer time than otherwise. But it will still happen. Antimatter stockpile is still slowly building.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Sean said, ¡°Then let¡¯s head off. We¡¯ll have to spend a while convincing Ricardo to let us leave with you, so we might have to wait for a bit before we can actually go.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°That¡¯s V4?¡± Ricardo said, ¡°He looks mean as the Shadow. What did you do to the poor robot toddling around here, solving digital mazes a few decades ago?¡±

    ¡°Well, I gave him a new and improved body with all the upgrades,¡± Sean bragged, ¡°Antimatter power system, thicker plating, bigger brain. V4 is looking better than ever. He actually helped in his old body in constructing the new one so he should get at least half of the credit for it.¡±

    ¡°Indeed,¡± V4 piped in, ¡°I constructed over eighty five percent of the components, but Sean created the more complex parts that I could not build. So it is hard to quantify our contributions in exact numbers due to the division of labor.¡±

    ¡°Well, by the Shadow. I¡¯ve built up enough funds by now to blow off this job for a little while,¡± Ricardo said, ¡°I¡¯ll go with you. I¡¯m not missing seeing V4¡¯s first time in the station proper. It¡¯ll be hilarious to watch.¡±

    Sean raised an eyebrow, but Ricardo shrugged and spent a few seconds straightening his desk before standing up.

    ¡°Well, are we going or what?¡± Ricardo said after he came around the desk to join Sean and V4 near the door.

    ¡°V4 has sights to see, and all sorts of people to scare the shit out of!¡± Ricardo finished as they walked out of the door.

    Hopefully not, Sean thought as Ricardo locked the door behind him and they set off.

 Chapter 21: Strength

    Sean checked the holopad. Still no message from Lira. He was standing in his room with V4, unsure of what he should do now. V4 had attracted a lot of attention as they walked through the station, but Sean and Ricardo¡¯s assurances had calmed everyone down. Samir had even shown up at one point, only to leave again after Ricardo assured him that everything was fine.

    But much to Ricardo¡¯s disappointment nothing exciting had happened. V4 had been mostly silent, turning his head from side to side and scanning the station as they walked through. V4 was nothing more than a strange curiosity, to be inspected for a few moments by the crowd before being forgotten again as they moved on.

    Disappointed at the lack of chaos and lackluster reaction by the rest of the Immortals, Ricardo had left after the group reached Sean¡¯s room.

    ¡°Where is Lira?¡± V4 asked suddenly after they walked inside the room, ¡°I wish to show her my new body.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s¡­¡± Sean checked the holopad again, ¡°She¡¯s still busy. Your new body will be a nice surprise for her when she comes back.¡±

    V4¡¯s eyes flickered, ¡°What is she doing? How long until she finishes?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ training,¡± Sean replied, ¡°And no one knows how long it will be. She has to keep going until she completes her task.¡±

    ¡°Can we assist her with this task?¡±

    ¡°No, we can¡¯t. It¡¯s something she wanted to do by herself without me.¡±

    The two of them waited there, man and robot. Sean played chess with V4, using a set he had bought a while ago after he first came to Immortus Station. V4 picked up the game quickly. It defeated him after their tenth game and only got better than there. By the twentieth game, Sean was being soundly defeated by V4, outmaneuvered at every turn. After that they switched games, Sean had a whole stack of them that he had almost never used. It felt like a waste of time to play them most of the time, but Sean didn¡¯t have anything else he wanted to do at the moment. He was too distracted to play very well against V4, who was completely focused on its task of learning the rules and playing their best.

    Sean checked his holopad again from where it sat at his side. There was no message.

    Sean rolled some dice and went to move his piece, only for the holopad to chime next to him. He lunged for it, ignoring the board game as he quickly pulled up the device to his face. There was a message. From Lira.

    ¡°Done. I¡¯m back in my place if you want to come over,¡± he read aloud.

    ¡°C¡¯mon, V4. Let¡¯s go see Lira.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Wait just outside,¡± Sean said to V4 as they reached Lira¡¯s door, ¡°I¡¯ll call you in a few minutes so she isn¡¯t totally surprised.¡±

    V4¡¯s eyes flickered, ¡°Understood. I will remain here.¡±

    Sean took out his spare key and opened up the door and walked inside. There Lira stood, looking more relaxed than he had seen her in a long time. He stopped and scanned her head to toe as she slowly turned at the sound of the opening door. She faced him and had a slight smile on her face.

    ¡°I did it!¡± She said, ¡°I¡­ It was so horrible. Painful¡­ But I pushed through and got there eventually. Watch!¡±

    Sean flinched as she reached down and picked up a large knife that he hadn¡¯t seen before on the table. It gleamed as she raised it into the air and before he could react stabbed it through her palm with only a wince.

    Sean eyed her hand and her face and while she looked a little strained, she still stood there relatively unmoved. She released the handle of the blade now dripping blood as it dripped off the blade that had poked through her hand.

    They both watched for a few seconds as the knife just sat there in her hand in awkward silence. Eventually with a sudden plop the knife fell into two pieces as Lira¡¯s regeneration finished destroying the portion of the blade inside of her hand. The two remaining pieces fell off of her hand and hit the table with a thump.

    ¡°Oops. Well, See!¡± She said excitedly. ¡°I did it, I didn¡¯t even cry or scream or¡­ any of that. It feels so freeing to not have to worry about¡­ any of it anymore.¡±

    ¡°Ruined a perfectly good knife too while you were at it,¡± Sean said jokingly, finally letting himself relax as he saw her so happy now that she was done.

    ¡°Yeah!¡± She laughed in relief and skipped towards him and they hugged.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re feeling better,¡± Sean said in relief, mumbling into her hair. She squeezed tighter for a moment before releasing him and drawing back. ¡°Me too,¡± she said, ¡°Me too. I didn¡¯t know how much it loomed over me until it was gone. I feel so much lighter than before.¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Sean said, ¡°I have a surprise for you too. While I was waiting for you to finish up, I got a little impatient. So, I built V4 his new body! It¡¯s really something. He¡¯s standing just outside.¡±

    ¡°She,¡± Lira corrected, ¡°She¡¯s already done? How long was I gone?¡±

    Sean cleared his throat, ¡°About four and a half months,¡± he said in a slightly strained tone.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Lira said in a slightly more subdued voice now, ¡°Sorry about that. Brenda did her best but I had a really hard time getting it to stick. So we had to do, um¡­ a lot more sessions than otherwise.¡±

    ¡°But it worked, didn¡¯t it?¡± Sean said, pointing to the two chunks of knife sitting on the table, ¡°You did it. Now you¡¯re strong in two ways.¡±

    She looked up at him and brightened a little, ¡°I guess so. Now, let me see her. I can''t wait to see the new body.¡±

    They walked to the door and Sean opened it and stood back.

    ¡°V4, you can come in now,¡± Sean said.

    Lira gasped when V4 came around the corner and walked into the room.

    ¡°V4? Is that really you? Your new body is so big and intimidating!¡±

    ¡°Yes, Lira. It is me. I am glad that you like it. It has many upgrades to the old model. Now I can make my own power and am durable enough to leave the lab without as much risk.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s great!¡± Lira said, ¡°We¡¯ll have to show you all around the station. Oh, I¡¯ve just realized. Do you want a new name too? V4 is your model number. I never thought about it before but if we¡¯re introducing you to all sorts of new people we should give you a human name too.¡±

    Sean and V4 both paused. Now that Sean thought about it, he had only been calling V4 that by habit. Probably should have given him a real name years ago¡­

    ¡°That sounds good,¡± V4 said, ¡°I believe you two can give me my options. Lira, you have said it is customary for creators to name their creations in the past.¡±

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    ¡°Huh,¡± Lira mused, ¡°Well¡­ I was talking about children. But I guess you¡¯re pretty much the same. We¡¯ll come up with something for you. Sean and I can debate it while we show you all around the station. Did Sean give you a proper tour yet?¡±

    ¡°No. We came directly to his residence and waited for you to finish your unspecified training.¡±

    ¡°Ah. Well. Then, let¡¯s go. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re curious to see everything there for yourself.¡±

    ¡°Yes. I am.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°I¡¯ve been looking at some of the older names on my holopad,¡± Lira said, ¡°What about Sabrina? Or Anastasia? Those seem pretty.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Then what about Gregory or Drekovich?¡±

    Lira wrinkled her nose, ¡°No, V4¡¯s clearly a girl. We can¡¯t name her those.¡±

    ¡°Well, I think he¡¯s a boy,¡± Sean countered, ¡°Why don¡¯t we just stick to gender neutral names?¡±

    Lira turned to V4. ¡°V4, do you feel more like a boy or girl? What do you think?¡±

    V4 stopped walking and its eyes flickered for a few seconds.

    ¡°No preference,¡± it pronounced, ¡°I will assume the gender associated with the name I receive if that is required.¡±

    Sean groaned. Oh no. The fight was really on now.

    ¡°These are the gardens,¡± Lira narrated to V4 a few minutes later as they walked through the winding path through the trees, ¡°Immortals from all over come here to grow plants here as a community. They do it all by hand with no automation at all to make things more interesting.¡±

    Sean flicked through the holopad and searched for gender neutral names for V4 as fast as he could trying to find one that Lira might like. As soon as V4 declared that the winning name would decide its gender, Sean knew that he had lost. Lira would never allow V4 to receive a male name now, no matter what Sean suggested. The task was harder than one would think to come up with a gender neutral alternative.

    They reached the end of the gardens and Lira¡¯s speech ended as they returned to the normal hallways on the way to their next destination. She pulled out her own holopad.

    ¡°Okay. So names. For something more modern¡­ What about Ilustrala? That one was pretty popular in my home world when I was born. Relutinari? Ohhhh, what about Ishana?¡±

    Sean cleared his throat, ¡°I was thinking Ash. Nice, gender neutral. I think it works pretty well for both, and V4 was sort of created from the ashes from his old body. Well, he ate it but symbolically it¡¯s the same. What do you think?¡±

    Lira didn¡¯t answer for a moment and mulled it over.

    ¡°Okay, that one¡¯s pretty good. Maybe¡­ Oh, alright then.¡±

    She turned to him and pouted, ¡°Ahhhhhhh, but I wanted her to be a girl! How can you do this to me!¡±

    He patted her on the back with a smile, ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll recover. Now we can both still be right.¡±

    ¡°Grrrrrrr,¡± Lira replied playfully, ¡°Fine, then. Ash it is.¡±

    ¡°So, V4? What do you think of Ash?¡± Sean asked the robot watching the exchange, ¡°Do you like it?¡±

    V4¡­ Ash¡¯s eyes flickered before it spoke again, ¡°Yes. I like my new name. I am now Ash.¡±

    ¡°Alright, Ash!¡± Lira said, ¡°Whooof. That was intense stuff. Now, let¡¯s see where we should go next.¡±

    She tapped on her holopad and a labeled map raised off its surface and the two of them inspected it as V4¡­ Ash stood by. Sean pointed to a place that was close on Lira''s map.

    ¡°What about there?¡±

    Lira compared the map to the hallway they were in and then took a turn down a hallway to the right.

    ¡°Alright. C¡¯mon Ash, Sean. I think it¡¯s this way.¡±

    The two of them followed her lead, ready to continue on with the tour.

    <hr>

    They walked through the main thoroughfare, both Sean and Lira in a good mood after showing Ash most of the station over the last few weeks on and off. People had wandered over to investigate the robot, but they were mostly left alone as they moved around.

    Suddenly Lira stopped walking and stiffened next to him, cutting herself off from what she had been saying mid sentence. Sean followed her suddenly intense gaze to the large man that had just rounded the corner from an nearby doorway. Lars. The man didn¡¯t seem to have spotted them and was walking towards them on the large thoroughfare, his large frame distinctive amongst the few people other walking by in the large space.

    Sean clenched his fists and took a deep breath before calming himself. Lars spotted them from thirty feet away and sneered at the two of them after recovering from his brief surprise. He diverted slightly to circle around them to pass by to the side.

    ¡°Whore,¡± he spat at Lira before walking by and purposefully ignoring them.

    ¡°Weak,¡± Ash said loudly. Lars whirled around, his indifferent facade crumbling away.

    ¡°Weak? You think you can insult me, machine? You¡¯re nothing but a tool. A tool to a spineless coward who is afraid of a fair fight and a¡­¡±

    ¡°Do not insult them,¡± Ash said loudly and its eyes began glowing brighter.

    ¡°And what are you going to do about it?¡± Lars taunted, ¡°Glare at me? I¡¯m an Immortal. One of the ones chosen by the Shadow. Even these two scum are worth more than you¡¯ll ever be.¡±

    ¡°Do not insult them,¡± Ash repeated.

    Lars¡¯ face flashed with anger. ¡°You do not get to order me around. By the Shadow, I¡¯ll pay the fine. I don''t even care. You¡¯re going down.¡±

    He stomped forward and Sean¡¯s eyes widened in alarm. Even if Ash was strong, who knew if the wrong blow might damage something critical? He went to step around Ash along with Lira, but Ash shifted to block the way.

    ¡°Stand back or I will use combat measures against you.¡±

    Lars sneered, ¡°I¡¯m an Immortal. What are you going to¡­¡±

    ¡°Last warning.¡±

    Lars continued moving.

    ¡°Employing combat measures.¡±

    Ash raised its arm and something popped out of its wrist. Ash¡¯s arm shifted in a tight arc as a red laser shot out with an electric crackle and sliced through Lars¡¯ upper chest before he could react. Ash took a step back before the two halves of Lars slid apart and fell separately to the floor at the robot¡¯s feet.

    Everyone nearby froze and stared at the commotion. Ash took a few quick steps forward and picked up the lower half of Lars that even now was regenerating its skeleton, one white flake of bone appearing in the air after another. Ash dangled Lars upside down and then drove him down into the floor full force, shattering what skeleton had managed to form in the intervening time.

    Sean and Lira looked on in shock as Ash held Lars there and kept pushing him deeper down as the metallic floor began flaking away and revealing a human shaped hole beneath.

    Ash kept pushing down as Lars¡¯ legs began kicking as his head finally finished regenerating underneath the floor. Ash finally stopped when Lars was buried up to the floor up to his knees. Upside down.

    As everyone watched, Ash picked up the remaining half of Lars and walked a few steps to the nearest biological compost unit. It opened the door and threw the body into it and quickly returned to Lira and Sean after closing the door again.

    The two of them were watching as Lars futilely kicked and squirmed, trying to wriggle his way out of his perfectly Lars shaped pocket of metal.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s one way to deal with him,¡± Sean said approvingly after the robot returned, ¡°Good job, Ash.¡±

    ¡°Sean!¡± Lira scolded, ¡°You¡¯re being a bad influence on her! We shouldn¡¯t always have to resort to violence to solve our problems.¡±

    ¡°I gave him several chances to retreat after I finished exchanging insults with him,¡± Ash said, ¡°It was my understanding that one must match insults to defend others from emotional harm. My words seemed unusually effective on this individual you both appear to be familiar with. Was my emotional defense of you through insults successful?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ Well, yes Ash,¡± Lira said, ¡°That was fine. Better than fine, great actually. Thank you, we both appreciate it. Very proud of you for doing that.¡±

    Sean nodded.

    ¡°But¡­¡± she continued, ¡°You went too far by attacking him so much. You could have just shoved him away first without cutting him in half right from the start.¡±

    ¡°But why would I not use anything less than full force when in combat?¡± Ash said in seeming confusion, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that just give the enemy time to adapt to my tactics?¡±

    ¡°Listen, we can talk about this later,¡± Sean cut in, ¡°But for now we have to go. I¡¯d rather meet Samir in one of our rooms rather than out here with Lars standing nearby glowering at us after they pull him out of there.¡±

    Lira hesitated before glancing around at the ten to fifteen observers who had watched the confrontation from a distance.

    ¡°Well, alright. But when we get home Ash, we¡¯re discussing this more.¡±

    ¡°Understood, Lira.¡±

    The eyes of the small crowd followed them as they walked into the adjoining hallway and quickly walked to Sean¡¯s room which was closest. No one moved to stop them or even looked overly concerned. Most walked forward and started oohing and aahing over the thrashing Lars like he was some sort of bizarre art exhibit.

    Well, at least the people here were consistent.

 Chapter 22: More Important Matters

    ¡°We¡¯ll be taking the illegal weapon and deconstructing it. You will be levied a fine for destruction of property and banned from all work spaces for at least five thousand years, which may be lowered on probation.¡±

    Samir said it drably as if it was mundane and business usual. Sean clenched his fist and Lira visibly held herself back from immediately protesting.

    ¡°Don¡¯t we have any way to appeal this?¡± Sean said, ¡°Lars was attacking us, Ash only did what he did to defend us. I¡¯ll pay the fine, be banned from the workshops. That¡¯s fair, I installed the weapons on him. But we can take those out. Ash shouldn¡¯t be destroyed just because the Immortal Council loves Lars so damn much.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t deconstruct Ash,¡± Lira added, jumping in and stepping between Ash¡¯s bulky form and Samir in his flowing robes, ¡°She¡¯s a person just the same as you and me. You¡¯d be killing her by doing this.¡±

    Samir eyed them for a moment, ¡°Now, I know how attached people can get to their machines, but don¡¯t be ridiculous. Rumors of intelligent machines are simply not true. Or at least they aren¡¯t for long. The Plaguebringers make sure of that¡­ I know it¡¯s painful, but you¡¯ll get over it in a few centuries. Don¡¯t be difficult and make things any worse for yourselves.¡±

    ¡°This is wrong!¡± Lira cried, ¡°You can¡¯t do this. Tell them, Ash! He doesn¡¯t know how intelligent you are.¡±

    Ash looked down at her before looking at Samir, ¡°I feel like an intelligent being. How could I prove my intelligence in a way that you would be satisfied with?¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Samir said with disinterest, ¡°You are property, and you will be destroyed. I and the rest of the Immortal Council are firm on this. Your very presence here brings danger to this whole station.¡±

    ¡°What danger?¡± Lira demanded, ¡°What aren¡¯t you telling us?¡±

    Samir waved his hand his face quickly developing an uglier expression the longer he spoke, ¡°That is for us to know and for you to not. We are the Immortal Council. We rule the galaxy with a light hand. But do not think that we are weak enough to bow to the demands of Immortals who are not even ten thousand years old yet. I don¡¯t know how you got Brenda¡¯s support for that laughable excuse for an accusation, Lira. She should have known better. We¡¯re Immortals, and you¡¯re complaining of something as little as the pain that we¡¯ve all long since grown past! The whining of petulant children forced the entire Immortal Council to gather and wasted all of our time that could be spent on more important issues to the galaxy. If Lars hit you, then you should have just hit him back!¡±

    Lira shrunk back a little at Samir¡¯s harsh words as Samir''s face radiated his annoyance and distain. As Sean stepped forward to give Samir a piece of his mind, Samir whirled on him and continued.

    ¡°And don¡¯t let me forget you, Sean. Brought to us by the Plaguemother herself! I should have known you would cause trouble ever since you came here no matter how clueless you seemed. You¡¯re lucky I¡¯m being even as merciful as I¡¯m already being! Do you have any idea how hard I had to argue to make sure you weren¡¯t arrested immediately after the Plaguemother left? You¡¯re only out here free enjoying time with your little girlfriend because of all the work I did for you. I should have both of you thrown in prison for a million years just to avoid all the headache you¡¯ve both caused me! I¡¯ve worked more in the last century than the last three millennia before that combined.¡±

    Samir¡¯s initially calm tone had grown louder and ever more irate as he went along until he was practically shouting at the two of them.

    The room went silent as the two armored guards at the door exchanged a glance with each other before returning to staring at Ash waiting for any hostile movements.

    ¡°Samir, you piece of¡­¡± Sean said angrily, but was interrupted as suddenly a loud alarm sounded throughout the station. Samir immediately went pale and rushed to the door. The booming alarms kept going as Samir inspected his holopad quickly. He stood in the door frame before hesitating and turning back to them.

    ¡°Make sure they stay here,¡± Samir ordered to the guards, ¡°As for you two, I¡¯ll deal with you and your robot later. I¡¯ve got more important matters to deal with now. Don¡¯t think this is over.¡±

    The two of them stared at the stony faced guards that remained at the door blocking the way with oversized pistols at their sides, held loosely in their grips. The alarm continued blaring all through the hallway, even heard through the now firmly shut and locked door to Sean¡¯s room.

    Sean had a staring contest at the two guards for a few moments before he noticed that he couldn¡¯t see Lira anymore. He glanced around and just barely caught a glimpse of her hair sticking out from behind Ash who stood immobile.

    Sean quickly went behind to follow her, the guards following his motion with their eyes but not stepping away from the door. He noticed that Lira was typing something on her holopad on the table behind where Ash stood, blocking the view of the door.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Sean whispered as she sent off a message.

    ¡°Getting us and Ash out of here,¡± Lira replied just as quietly, ¡°You heard him. The Council hates us, thinks that¡­ that¡­ that Lars hitting me is just some sort of¡­ joke or something. They''re suspicious of you because of the Immortal who saved you. We can¡¯t let them kill Ash. We just can¡¯t. Please, Sean.¡±

    Sean hesitated for a moment before nodding, ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t going to leave Ash either. What¡¯s the plan?¡±

    Lira let out a sigh of relief, ¡°Great. I¡¯m sending a message to Brenda. If she can distract the guards and get them to turn around then Ash can blast them and let us escape. She should know where we can find a hyperdrive capable ship. If anyone would help us, then she would.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Sean asked just to verify, ¡°I know she won¡¯t betray us, but it¡¯s asking a lot from her to do this.¡±

    ¡°She wants to leave, she¡¯s only here for money anyways. She hinted during our¡­ uh, training¡­ that she would help me leave if I ever needed to. Since you need approval through the Immortal Council to do it and they didn¡¯t appear to like me very much at my accusation against Lars.¡±

    Her face flashed with anger for a second, ¡°I guess we know why now,¡±

    Sean put a hand on her shoulder, ¡°Hey, we don¡¯t care what they think. Right? They''re the same people that want to kill Ash just for existing.¡±

    ¡°Yeah... Yeah, you¡¯re right. I¡¯ve sent the message. Now we just have to wait for her to prepare things and then break us out. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll do it.¡±

    The alarm cut off all of a sudden, leaving them all in silence.

    Sean leaned in and whispered even softer than before, ¡°I have to get something from my room. I¡¯ll be right back.¡±

    Before she could respond he straightened and confidently walked to his room door.

    ¡°Hey! Where are you going?¡± one of the guards called out.

    ¡°To my room?¡± Sean said as casually as he could, ¡°Am I not allowed to go in there?¡±

    The man hesitated before shaking his head, ¡°Fine. But don¡¯t try anything funny. Don¡¯t think some puny pellet shooter you manage to cobble together in there will be able to match our armor.¡±

    ¡°I guess not,¡± Sean agreed. Apparently their armor was for more than just for show. Hopefully Ash would be able to overpower it when the moment arrived. Even now Sean could see Lira standing up on the tips of her toes directly behind Ash. She was leaning forward and softly whispering something into where his auditory sensors were, her lips practically covering them as she spoke. Presumably telling him the plan.

    Sean closed the room door behind him with a click and quickly rushed to his bed. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the storage device for his Foundation of All world was there and intact. It was an irrational fear, but at this point it was his only way he would ever be able to meet Emily again in this vast galaxy. There were just so many mysteries swirling around her, and she would know better than anyone what they could do once they made it away from this place. Him, Lira, and Ash together.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    Sean tucked the all important device into his pocket and patted it to make sure the bulge there wasn¡¯t too visible. Then he walked back into the main room and stood waiting next to Lira. Now, they could only hope that Brenda would come before Samir came back¡­

    <hr>

    It felt like forever until there was finally a knock on the door to the room. ¡°Sean? Lira? Are you in there?¡± Brenda¡¯s voice said through the door, ¡°What¡¯s this about?¡±

    Sean glanced at Lira in confusion but she nodded her head slightly. This was part of the plan.

    ¡°Helloooooo?¡± Roger¡¯s called after neither of them said anything, ¡°I was promised entertainment. Don¡¯t leave me out in the cold like this.¡±

    The two of them glanced at each other in confusion. What was Roger doing here? The two guards turned away from Sean and Lira and began discussing what they should do. They were debating between ignoring the two outside and just opening the door to tell her to go away directly.

    After coming to a decision, the guard on the right put his hand on the door and began to turn the handle¡­ Only for his head to explode under Ash¡¯s surprise laser beam from behind. The other guard¡¯s eyes widened, and he pressed a button on his belt. The next laser beam hit a translucent shield around him that quickly began to grow brighter and brighter.

    ¡°Overclocking Antimatter reactor,¡± Ash stated calmly and the laser immediately grew much brighter and a second later broke through the shield and through the guard''s head. Ash turned to the other one on the floor and blasted him with a low intensity laser again to evaporate his almost fully regenerated head.

    Ash stepped forward and dragged the two bodies away from the door. Sean stared at the two of them and realized that they couldn¡¯t escape with no way to imprison or capture these two. Ash couldn¡¯t just keep vaporizing their heads while they made their escape.

    The door opened and Brenda and Roger rushed in and took in the scene inside.

    Ash vaporized the two guards'' heads again.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Brenda said, taking charge, ¡°You, big robot. Next time you vaporize their heads push them together so where their heads would regenerate would be overlapping.¡±

    Ash turned its head to Lira who nodded at him.

    ¡°Do it,¡± Lira said, ¡°We can trust her.¡±

    Ash complied and after two more laser blasts quickly used his strength to shove the two bodies so they lay opposite each other with their heads slowly forming in flakes of bone.

    Everyone except for Brenda watched in horror as the bodies regenerated on top of each other, creating a monstrosity with assorted facial features. Noses, eyes, mouths, all appearing for a moment only to be dissolved away again and replaced with something else. Occasionally one of the bodies would twitch slightly as one of the two sets of facial features would win out over the other for a moment.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go,¡± Brenda said in a no nonsense tone, ¡°If no one finds them then it should take a few days at least before they separate again naturally. Don¡¯t worry, no matter how horrific it looks, their brains are currently overlapping so neither of them are feeling anything at all right now.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s a real comfort,¡± Roger quipped as he kept staring down at the horror show of dissolving and shifting faces in front of him.

    ¡°What are you doing here, Roger?¡± Sean asked.

    Roger tapped his chest, ¡°A genuine criminal I am. Apparently I am your ¡®best friend¡¯ or something and you didn¡¯t even think to tell me about all of this! Haven¡¯t I told you how much I¡¯m looking for an adventure, and you think I¡¯m going to miss a chance like this? The parties scene here got old centuries ago, who cares if I get in trouble for helping you guys get out? Brenda here caught me up to speed when she heard what had happened.¡±

    Sean looked at Brenda who shrugged, ¡°What can I say,¡± she said, ¡°Seemed like he really wanted to go when he spied on my messages over my shoulder. You¡¯re lucky that the survival class was just me and him when the message came or we might have been in real trouble.¡±

    ¡°Well, I ah, did do that,¡± Roger admitted, ¡°But it all worked out for the best. That¡¯s in the past now. Adventure awaits!¡±

    ¡°Alright, calm down there,¡± Brenda said with a slight smirk, ¡°I¡¯ve already found us some ships to steal. Some real luxury ships from people with more money than sense. You all take one and I¡¯ll take the other. Get to the edge of the system and enter hyperspace where they can¡¯t catch you. After you¡¯re done, remember my lessons. They¡¯ll help you out there in the real world.¡±

    ¡°You aren¡¯t coming with us?¡± Lira asked, sounding disappointed.

    ¡°No, Lira,¡± Brenda said, ¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean we¡¯ll never see each other again. I gave you the coordinates for my base, remember? Come visit when you want to take a break from adventuring. You don¡¯t want me around hovering over you.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well¡­¡± Lira said, mumbling a little.

    ¡°You¡¯ll do fine, kid. Ash and the two boys will help you if you get in trouble. Right?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡±

    ¡°Yes¡±

    ¡°Affirmative.¡±

    ¡°See? Now stop moping and let¡¯s get out of here.¡±

    They walked out of the door, being very careful to act verrrrry casual. Nothing suspicious at all to see here, no reason to stop them.

    And surprisingly the tactic worked. Immortus station was practically empty, and not a single member of the Security team was visible as they made their way to the ship docking bays.

    They reached the door connecting the station to the two ships, and Brenda quickly walked over to the screen next to one of the shut doors. She cracked her knuckles and then started absolutely flying through the digital menus doing who knows what.

    ¡°Yes¡­ still a bit rusty¡­ Oh, a new firewall. Nope, still not enough. Through in seconds, on to the next¡­¡± Brenda muttered as she hacked the door. After an extremely tense five minutes, the airlock door hissed and slid open.

    They all walked inside and Brenda started working on the access to the ship itself.

    ¡°Hey Brenda, will there be anyone inside there?¡± Sean said suddenly as the thought struck him.

    ¡°Probably not,¡± Brenda said dismissively, ¡°These people are rich enough to own dozens of these kinds of ship at a time. They probably won¡¯t even notice that it¡¯s gone until they stop having to pay the docking fees.¡±

    The door to the ship slid open. ¡°Damn, I¡¯m good,¡± She said proudly as they entered the ship itself. It took some missed turns, but they eventually reached the command deck and Brenda got to work again.

    After twenty minutes or so, Brenda was done.

    ¡°Alright, Command status is transferred to all of you. Except for your robot of course. As far as the ship is concerned you are and always have been its proud owner. But whenever you get a chance I would comb through this thing for any kind of trackers left behind in this thing. It¡¯s not too common, but best to check just in case. If none of you know how to pilot, then use the AI for now.¡±

    Brenda cocked her head to the side and thought for a long moment with pursed lips.

    ¡°Hmmmmm. Yep. I think that¡¯s it. Any questions?¡±

    There was silence for a few moments as Brenda scanned the room.

    ¡°Alright, great. Now it¡¯s time to get my own ship. Don¡¯t wait for me before taking off, I can handle myself. I suppose now it¡¯s time for goodbyes.¡±

    Lira leapt forward and wrapped Brenda in a hug that seemed to surprise the woman.

    ¡°Thank you so much for everything, Brenda. For helping me so much, and getting us out. I¡¯ll have so much to tell you when we see each other again.¡±

    Brenda¡¯s voice wavered slightly, ¡°I¡­ You¡¯re welcome, Lira. I¡¯m just glad I made a difference. Now, um¡­¡±

    She cleared her throat and looked at Sean.

    ¡°Sean!¡± She barked and he immediately stiffened in place instinctively, ¡°You treat this woman right! You got that!¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ma¡¯am!¡±

    She glanced at Roger, ¡°And you! You¡­ try not to have too much fun.¡±

    ¡°Errr. Okay?¡±

    Finally, Brenda turned to Ash. ¡°And you! Well¡­ keep your head down. Plaguebringers hate intelligent machines with a passion and you don¡¯t want those nutjobs gunning for you.¡±

    ¡°Understood,¡±

    ¡°Bye everyone. Lira. I¡¯ll see you soon. Stay safe.¡±

    With that Brenda quickly walked away, the command console letting out a little chirp as she left the ship.

    <hr>

    They waited a few minutes before finally bringing themselves to get the ship moving away from the station. All of them worried about Brenda somehow getting caught as she stole the other ship with no one there to back her up.

    But forty minutes after they started moving out under the guidance of the AI pilot, they all sighed in relief as they saw Brenda¡¯s stolen ship begin to move as well.

    They all waited with nervous tension for another hour as they slowly maneuvered away from the station on a carefully prescribed flight path by the station¡¯s automated systems. Using the larger thrusters of the ship too close to the station would damage it, so until they were far enough away they could only inch away at a snail¡¯s pace.

    Finally, the ship rumbled as the larger thrusters started to kick in and they started to pick up speed. Immortus Station and Brenda¡¯s stolen ship quickly faded into tiny dots of light in the cold void of space after another hour.

    It would be eight hours until they reached the edge of the system and then they could hyperspace jump out. Sean hadn¡¯t realized just how dangerous Emily¡¯s in system hyperspace jump truly had been when he had just met her. If the slightest thing had gone wrong then they would have exploded and chunks of them would be scattered across a distance of light years. Who knows how far from a star system in interstellar space Sean¡¯s body would have ended up reforming¡­

    They all paced around nervously and made stilted small talk as time passed and their ship came closer and closer to the edge of this solar system. But no matter how much they worried, nothing bad happened. No one hailed them, no one asked what they were doing out here. Time simply passed and before they knew it they passed the barrier. Without their input, the AI pilot automatically activated the hyperdrive and then the stars twisted around them outside and they were off.

    They all let out sighs of relief. They had made it. They had escaped from Immortus Station, and saved Ash. And got a fancy new ship too as a nice bonus¡­

 Interlude: Hope and Despair

    Xlythar was an isolated planet, far from any of the bustling hyperspace routes that countless humans traveled on every day. Many such planets existed in the galaxy unseen by a single human eye, too isolated to be worth settling on normally. The planet was surrounded by a beautiful set of rings composed of asteroids and ice left over from the planet''s formation, their bright hues dominating the skies seen from the planet''s surface. Seen by the inhabitants of the planet every day, and viewed as the most natural thing in the world.

    And while there existed many planets with intelligent life through the Human galaxy, there were only a select few in a far more special category. For Xlythar was the home to intelligent alien life, unseen by and having never seen a human throughout their whole history. These life forms mimicked the human bipedal form.

    But no one would mistake them for a human. Their skin was reflective and refracted light slightly like a prism. They were most similar to the lizards from the human¡¯s homeworld with their prismatic scales and small vestigial tails. They had seven long fingers on each hand that were nimble and dexterous, and were slightly longer lived than humans had been on their home planet. If a human could live to a hundred and twenty without any modern medicine then the people of Xlythar would live to a hundred and fifty.

    But despite all these differences, these species were remarkably similar to humans in spirit and temperament. They had the same feelings of loss, hope, and irrationality of any other intelligent species. They had initiated great wars among their kind after their natural world was fully subjugated, bringing great suffering and technological development both.

    Medicine, weapons, electronics, all these innovations were created by the Xlytharians as they called themselves. But there was one invention more important, deadlier, more sinister than them all. Worse than all the bombs, poisons, and guns. And that was the invention of the radio. The Xlytharians built their telescopes, their great scientific institutions, and looked to the stars. They peered into the vastness of space and with their middling technology declared that¡­ they must be alone, singular in the universe. The only species chosen by their deity to exist as the pinnacle of intelligence.

    They thought that because they detected no radio, that the planets nearby were uninhabited, that there likely was not more. That their isolated pocket of the galaxy represented the greater whole. But some wondered and hoped for contact with other species out beyond their planet so that they could rise together as one people in harmony.

    This doomed hope led to them constructing a massive array of powerful radio transmitters shooting messages of peace and unity to spots where they believed that life would be. They continued sending messages and kept their hope. But there was no reply. The radio beams flew through the darkness of space at the speed of light, spreading like ripples in a pool waiting to be detected.

    They knew this, and so they waited as the message spread farther and farther. No intelligent life revealed itself. For fifty years, there was no reply. The Xlytharians turned themselves back to their own concerns, like all intelligent species do. They forgot about the messages sent out into the universe and kept improving themselves until their ancestors would proclaim their current technology to be magic. They had another great war amongst themselves in the meantime.

    It had been two hundred years since the message had been sent, and all who had been alive when it had been sent were dead. But this day was different, for on this day in a far flung planet, the message was received. An unassuming human colony barely fifty years old exploring a far flung sector, hoping to avoid the complications of living in the more densely crowded areas of the galaxy.

    Using their powerful technology, the humans quickly translated the message and located Xlythar using the instructions carried in the message. There was much debate, but eventually it was decided by the humans to send a message to the Immortal Council. The correct, moral choice upon the discovery of an intelligent alien species. Unfortunately the relay station they used to send the message was compromised and another less benevolent group of Immortals received word as well a few weeks later¡­

    <hr>

    Qweltu¡¯lath looked at the screen in front of him in shock. An unidentified alien object. Angular and boxy, unlike any ship a Xlytharian would build! This was the greatest discovery in the history of their people! He had to tell¡­

    There was a second signature. A third. A fourth. Then the edge of the system was absolutely surrounded on all sides by metallic ships. The average people of Xlytharian looked into the skies as the stars began to flicker and wink out one by one in great patches, blocked by the sheer mass of gathering ships entering their solar system.

    The governments of Xlythar panicked and prepared their weapons of mass destruction, despite knowing that resistance was hopeless. It was uncertain if they would be able to destroy a single ship, let alone so many that they blotted out whole sections of the sky from stars from a solar system away.

    All across the world, the screens of their devices paused their tasks before flickering and changing to the interior of a metallic cockpit of the alien vessel. A smooth faced creature in bright flowing robes stood there, staring into the camera.

    ¡°People of Xlythar,¡± the alien pronounced in the most common language of the Xlytharians in the region the screen was located in, ¡°We are here to evacuate your planet and save as many people as we can in what little time we have left. We are here to help. Those who wish to remain behind will be allowed to do so. But they will die if they do. We are here to help. With our technology we can evacuate you all in two weeks in the best case. Governments of the world, do not resist. We will stop any attempts to harm our ships or the ones among your people who wish to leave with prejudice. This is not a threat, but a promise. We are here to help. There are others coming, who seek to destroy you. We will hold them back as long as we can. May the Shadow watch over your people. This message will repeat. People of Xlythar¡­¡±

    The rioting began almost immediately. An few hours later the first alien ship landed and began evacuating the Xlytharians and furiously taking samples of the surrounding ecosystem. They didn¡¯t have much time¡­

    <hr>

    Hssssssss. Pshhhaaaaa.

    Hsssssss. Pshhhhaaaaaa.

    Another day, another year, another millennia breathing through the infernal masks, providing nourishing gas to keep all of his little plagues living and happy inside of him. Cultivating the seething mass of bacteria and viruses in his lungs had always been an inconvenience. Even now Scourge could feel them tickling his flesh. Immortals did not need to breathe, but he did. The living things in his lungs were not as durable or resolute as he was when starved of air.

    Yet despite the discomfort, he and his loyal followers suffered willingly for the cause. For the cause he would do anything. Scourge was the leader of the most recent cleansing, given this honor by their leader himself. They would show the young and bright eyed Immortals back at the Den the one true path, the one true Cause. He and his brothers and sisters would descend onto the most recent nest of vermin and root them out so they could not escape to spread again. This was the Human galaxy and while galactic society may be bloated and corrupted like a rotting fruit, it still was fundamentally human. Seeds of greatness buried in all of them, just waiting to sprout when given the right opportunity.

    And seeds of greatness needed fertile soil to grow and sufficient room to spread their roots and leaves when they sprouted... They couldn''t be allowed to be strangled, torn down by the grasping and scraggly weeds. So he would clear the weeds and provide fertilizer for their growth at the same time. And what was the best fertilizer but ashes and bone. Things that Scourge would be only too happy to provide.

    ¡°Siiiiiir,¡± his second in command said through his own mask, ¡°Approaching¡­ Krrrrshaaaaaa¡­ the so-called Xlytharian system. The Immortal Council and their mortal allies have¡­ come in force. Orderssssss. Sir?¡±

    Scourge tapped his fingers and took another long breath through the nourishing gas of his suit.

    Hssssssss. Pshhhhaaaaaa.

    ¡°Weeee. Must acccomplish the missssion. First. Arrowhead formation using all our vessels. Punch through to the planet. We can find any remaining survivors¡­ later. For now we must purge the¡­¡±

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Hssssss. Pssssssshhhhhaaaaa.

    ¡°...main nest first. Send the orders. Hss Pshhhaaaaa. Initiate hyperspace jump into the system in thirty minutes at the most. We cannnot afford delay.¡±

    They waited and Scourge tapped his fingers on the metal chair that he could barely feel through his containment suit. Another sacrifice that he made for the cause. And finally it was time. Scourge projected his words to the rest of the fleet, to all of his other loyal brothers and sisters waiting eagerly for battle.

    Scourge leaned forward and stared out the front window as if he could see those he was speaking to. He was not one for grandiose speeches. They had all known each other for too long for that, so instead he said only what needed to be said. The truth.

    ¡°Another threat soon to be strangled in the cradle. We are the predators in the dark forest of this galaxy. And tonight we will have our meat. For we are Humanity, and we will suffer no other. For our species, for Humanity''s future. Go forth brothers and sisters of the cause. Begin the purge.¡±

    The world shifted into blue streaks around thm as they entered hyperspace. Scourge wondered what the Immortal Council had prepared for them this time¡­

    <hr>

    Qweltu¡¯lath watched through the window of the alien ship as they made their way to the edge of the solar system. It had always been his dream to go to space only weeks ago¡­

    The aliens were true to their word and started evacuating the planet as quickly as they could. Qweltu¡¯lath had waited until the last moment, the decision to stay or leave weighing heavily on him. Over thirty percent of the population had chosen to remain behind, either disbelieving the alien¡¯s claims of the oncoming threat or simply unwilling to leave their homes. Qweltu¡¯lath was surprised that it wasn¡¯t more.

    But in the end, he had decided to leave. And now he watched as flashes of lights that he knew were exploding ships flashed in the distance like twinkling stars. The so-called Plaguebringers had arrived. The lights grew closer and closer as their transport ship moved to the area where they could safely enter ¡®hyperspace¡¯ and escape the battle. Or so claimed the smooth faced aliens piloting the transport.

    The ship shook and the aliens'' motions became frantic as they drew close to the edge and the enemy ships began firing upon them. The Xlytharians could only huddle in fear as the aliens shouted and manned the ships defenses.

    Then suddenly the ship was filled with a high pitched whine and then the stars streaked around them and the rumbling stopped. The aliens relaxed and assured them that they would be safe. Their people would be transported to another galaxy away from the Plaguebringer threat, as refugees. Safe away from the Human galaxy that they had been born into.

    Qweltu¡¯lath scratched his scales as he stood silently among the other strangers around him. All he could do was think of the home he had built in the mountains, soon to be destroyed with the rest of the planet. Decades of labor gone in mere weeks. What would happen to their people now with the places of their ancestors soon to be destroyed?

    <hr>

    ¡°Last transports are away, sir,¡± the man said from the console, ¡°Even with the Plaguebringers here, ten percent have chosen to remain behind no matter what we do. Should we force them to go?¡±

    Samir drummed his fingers on the command chair and considered. Then he shook his head.

    ¡°No,¡± he declared, ¡°It would take too long. The Plaguebringers will arrive there in days at most with how quickly they¡¯re pushing forward through our defenses. Begin fortifying the edge of the system for the trap. We¡¯ll catch as many of them as we can.¡±

    ¡°But sir, the planet. Surely we should¡­¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Samir said with finality, ¡°They¡¯re already dead. We¡¯ll leave them to their fate. We¡¯ve already saved as many as we could, and all we can do now is do our best so that the trap succeeds.¡±

    The man on the console hesitated for a moment before nodding, ¡°Understood, sir. I¡¯ll relay your orders.¡±

    <hr>

    Scourge looked down at the planet below. It seems that the Immortal Council had managed to evacuate most of the local populace in time for their arrival. But if their home planet remained untouched then the filth would eventually come crawling back to reclaim it. Best to burn it to the ground even if there were not many aliens remaining on it now.

    ¡°How many¡­ bombers survived the push?¡± Scourge asked his second in command.

    The man punched at the console for a few seconds before nodding to himself, ¡°Pssssshh shaaaaa. Thirty seven of the initial two hundred. Enough for¡­ this.¡±

    Scourge nodded. ¡°Begin the bombing.¡±

    Scourge watched in satisfaction as the bombers released their antimatter payloads into the atmosphere of the planet, burning the crust of the planet into lava one small section at a time.

    Scourge looked to his second as things continued to go smoothly.

    ¡°What are the Immortal Council doing? Why are they not attempting to stop us?¡±

    Pssssssshhhh shaaaaaaaa.

    ¡°They¡­ have drawn back. Sssssseems to be¡­ trying to block our¡­ retreat after the work is done.¡±

    Something tickled at the back of Scourge¡¯s mind. Something wasn¡¯t right. No matter how futile, the council almost always tried to stop them when they reached the planet itself. What was¡­

    ¡°Sir! Energy signatures in orbit! Theyyyy are coming straight towards our fleet! Hidden in the rings around the planet.¡±

    Before Scourge could react, the first of the hidden antimatter bombs began to explode.

    ¡°Evasive maneuvers,¡± Scourge ordered, ¡°Scatter the fleet.¡±

    Another bomb went off, practically erasing the ship it impacted and damaging three others that were nearby. With how close they were to the planet, the explosions ripped through the planet''s atmosphere and scorched the ground below, and sent waves of meteors from the planet''s displaced rings raining down onto the devastated planet.

    More and more bombs went off, destroying their ships, but finishing the destruction of the planet, even with the bombers having been destroyed in the first wave of attacks. The whole surface of the rock was molten and being bombarded by wave after wave of meteors pushed down out of orbit by the antimatter bombs of the Immortal Council. Scourge had not thought them to be this ruthless...

    What an unwelcome surprise.

    The Plaguebringer fleet continued to spread out so each bomb now only destroyed a single ship. But they were still being destroyed steadily. And many had been destroyed in the initial barrage.

    In the end, the fleet ended up with only a third of their original number and all their bombers eliminated. All through space they could detect the naked bodies of their surviving brothers and sisters emerging from the wreckage, ever so slowly making their way to the nearest ship they could find by piloting themselves with their boiling blood.

    ¡°Collect our fellows and begin the push back out,¡± Scourge ordered, ¡°We must escape before the Immortal Council finishes closing the noose. It seems they have finished our work for us, and they will descend upon us soon with no more moral concerns to shield us from their full bloodlust.¡±

    <hr>

    Scourge waited for the collection and redistribution of his fellows among the fleet''s remaining ships. The ships remained gathered around the devastated planet in defensive positions as the far larger Immortal Council fleet probed them, destroying a single ship or two at a time as the surrounding fleet¡¯s numbers only continued to grow.

    Over a thousand of the Plaguebringers had been captured by the enemy, the main fleet not able to retrieve them from their destroyed ships in time.

    Their fleet was slowly dwindling by the year, the battle between the two forces now spanning over three decades now.

    Scourge sighed and turned to his second, removing his mask. He would have no use for it any longer. He let out a wonderfully unencumbered breath for the first time in centuries, basking in it for a moment as plagues he had cultivated in his lungs for millennia began to quickly shrivel and die.

    ¡°There is only one method of escape now. Our ships, our fleet, will never break free now, as damaged as they are,¡± Scourge said heavily, ¡°Only the passage of time will allow some of us to escape, to slip through the cracks of their net. Without the mortals on guard the Immortal fleet will make enough mistakes for some of us to slip through to the nearby systems. I will take responsibility for this failure. We have accomplished the mission yet¡­ we have failed all the same.¡±

    His second stood utterly still for a second before slowly nodding, ¡°Understood. If either of us are captured, I want to say that it was an honor serving as your second of command.¡±

    Scourge nodded gratefully back, ¡°Give the order. Set course for this star system¡¯s sun.¡±

    <hr>

    The Immortal Council¡¯s fleet, bolstered by countless legions of mortal vessels, pushed forward with all haste. The move was unexpected, and the gathered fleet was caught off guard when the Plaguebringer fleet reversed course suddenly and began moving farther into the system rather than pushing steadily outwards as they had for decades. Samir had been confused for hours trying to wrack his brain for what their goal could be. He pondered as the Immortal fleet and its allies harried them and chased after them in full pursuit.

    But by the time Samir realized their goal, it was too late. With his fleet of ships still too far away, he could only watch in frustration as the first Plaguebringer ship plunged directly into the massive star in the center of the system. Their ships evaporated, sizzling away like water thrown on a hot pan as soon as they neared the giant ball of plasma. But Samir knew that the Plaguebringers inside would still be in there, floating unconscious and waiting to be ejected again some day in the far future. Ready to devastate the galaxy once more.

    The mortals cheered their victory, but Samir knew that this was not a victory yet. The mortals didn¡¯t care if the Plaguebringers in the star would be freed in ten or thirty thousand years. To them they were effectively dead. And so, the mortal fleet would leave to return to their own concerns with the collective threat considered defeated.

    Leaving only the small Immortal Council Fleet behind to prepare and hunt for when some of the Plaguebringers trapped in the star inevitably escaped past their net, ready to cause chaos and destruction once again¡­

 Chapter 23: New Yet Familiar

    Using the galactic map, they landed on a sparsely populated planet so they could freely comb through the ship to check for any trackers, like Brenda had warned. As a group they had searched through the ship as best as they could in hyperspace for the last two months, as they put some distance between themselves and the core worlds within the direct influence of the Immortal Council.

    Here a little farther out there were planets here and there that were isolated enough and with such a low amount of resources that they were effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy. There were smaller settlements, but the aggressive beasts on the planet made settling any new planet a dangerous prospect.

    They took a few days to approach the unnamed planet and scanned the surface, finding only a dozen or so major settlements. They were the only spaceship in the whole system currently out of the planet''s atmosphere.

    As they approached they were hailed by the largest settlement. The leaders of the place were suspicious of them and their defensive ships in the atmosphere rose and left the planet with weapons primed in case their ship took any aggressive actions.

    They landed in a landing pad in the city and there was a delegation of people in bright robes lined with beads and colorful stones. Sean¡¯s lips turned down as they exited the ship to greet them. Their clothing reminded him of Samir a little too much¡­

    Ash sadly had to remain within the ship for now. They all had taken Brenda¡¯s warning seriously about exposing him and bringing trouble down upon their heads. She. Lira was still on that issue sadly.

    ¡°Petu enaz gulat entil.¡±

    They all blinked as the important looking woman in the center spoke in a foreign language. She gestured to a young man to the side who took a step forward.

    ¡°Strangers to our home. Greetings and we offer you our hospitality. What are your purposes for coming to our far flung planet?¡±

    ¡°We have come to perform maintenance on our ship and possibly buy some supplies,¡± Sean said. He had voted Roger to be the spokesman, but the man had categorically refused the role. Too ¡®boring and stuffy. People would always be trying to ask me questions all the time.¡¯ as he put it. Lira had backed out too when she heard that, leaving Sean as the lone survivor that hadn¡¯t been clever enough to back out of the job first. Oh well.

    The man spoke in the foreign language and to what now appeared to be the chief elder of the town replied shortly,

    ¡°What kind of supplies would you wish to buy?" The young man said a few seconds later, "What do you have to offer? We will allow you the space on this landing pad as a gift of our hospitality. But anything else must be traded for.¡±

    Sean cleared his throat, ¡°We have, ah¡­ luxury items. Many are unique, we will sell them on a case by case basis depending on what we decide we need.¡±

    More discussion, ¡°This is acceptable. Bring your items to the market and bargain as you wish. If you require anything more you will have to negotiate with our leaders directly. Do not be alarmed if you discover you are being followed. We will have several of our guards watching you to both make sure you don¡¯t cause trouble and that none causes any trouble to you. I will be personally available for any needs for translations for our language.¡±

    Sean pulled out a palm sized disk with a speaker in its center and held it out to the translator. The man hesitated and looked to the leader for permission, and took it when she nodded to him.

    ¡°Speak a sentence in common and then your language. Given enough samples it will eventually allow us to translate for ourselves. Just carry it with you for a few hours while doing this for any new word or phrase you think of. Come back after doing this and we will not need to waste any more of your time.¡±

    A pause and more whispering in their local language. ¡°Very well. Do you have any more of these devices for sale?¡±

    Sean thought about it. They only had five total in the ship so he didn¡¯t want to lose any. But¡­

    ¡°No,¡± he said, ¡°But if you wish I can build a less functional version from raw materials. It will take much longer to translate and have less storage than the device you hold.¡±

    More whispering. ¡°This is acceptable. If you provide a list we will attempt to provide you with what you need. Is there any more business you wish to discuss?¡±

    Sean glanced over to the Lira that was almost obviously trying to not lose focus, and Roger who wasn¡¯t even trying to hide his boredom at the dry conversation.

    ¡°No. We will begin working on our ship soon. I believe that will be all.¡±

    Roger and Lira perked up as the delegation bowed politely before leaving.

    Sean clapped his hands, ¡°Alright. This is going to be a massive pain. Especially for your lazy ass, Roger.¡±

    ¡°Hey! It¡¯s the rest of me that¡¯s lazy. My ass is doing most of the hard work actually for these last few months.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to strip off almost the entire outside of the ship so we can peer under the shielding plates. It would be the perfect place to hide a tracker and it''s in the last place that we obviously couldn¡¯t check while we were in space. It¡¯ll take a while, so let¡¯s just try to do a couple today to get started.¡±

    Roger gave a sloppy salute, ¡°Yes, oh great engineer! Operation: Destroy ship beyond all repair is a go.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s only the outer plates,¡± Lira said, ¡°Even if we really did something wrong we could just slap some sheet metal on there if we had to. I mean it wouldn¡¯t be great obviously, but it would still technically work. We¡¯ve already checked everything but the very last layer on the outside.¡±

    ¡°Huh. I didn¡¯t know that,¡± Roger said, dropping the act for the moment, ¡°Aren¡¯t there electricals underneath that could be damaged though?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Lira replied, ¡°Well, there are in most normal ships. But this thing used custom made metal plates you don¡¯t usually see for every layer so they don¡¯t need as many electricals to shift them around for atmospheric reentry and combat.¡±

    ¡°Ah, so I assume it¡¯s more cost effective to replace some electrical components versus an expensive custom plate in the case of damage and so¡­ No! You tricked me into revealing my inner mechanic. Now I¡¯ll just have to do my best so I can get into the ship''s guts until his greedy little brain is satisfied. You did this to me, Lira! I won¡¯t be satisfied until I understand it all! Do you even know how exhausting this will be?¡±

    Lira giggled and shoved Roger lightly, ¡°I like little Mr. Greedy Brain. He works harder when I tell him to rewire something for me.¡±

    ¡°Ahhh. Well I suppose there¡¯s nothing to be done now,¡± Roger said jokingly, ¡°I really will have to work my hardest from now on.¡±

    Sean rolled his eyes. Every time they did some big project Roger always made a big production on how he¡¯d rather laze around and do nothing but was just forced to help out for some silly reason or another. Every time. But when it came to actually working he actually was completely focused and almost kept up with Sean and Lira despite not having nearly the same level of mechanical or electrical experience as either of them. He had basically started from scratch a few months ago when they first got on the ship and he had improved rapidly under Sean and Lira¡¯s teaching.

    ¡°Well, we¡¯d best get started before your little mechanic gets too frustrated with us,¡± Sean said drily, ¡°No use just standing around.¡±

    They made their way into the ship to get their tools so they could get started.

    <hr>

    They worked for a day or two, and the townspeople that came to stealthily watch them gave them odd looks when they kept working through the night without stopping. Sean realized that they had never told them that they were Immortals. Ah, well better that they didn¡¯t know. It would only cause more drama than necessary.

    Sean thought how eerie it was that these people acted so similar as they had back in his hometown on Enguli. The way people whispered to each other, seemed fascinated by anything new. It was all so familiar¡­ yet these people were also so different. Their customs, their language, the way they built and decorated their homes¡­ all of it was different. But they acted the same. Sean shook his head and put his head back to the present. He had work to do.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Ash was currently on the computer surveying planets that they might want to visit next. They didn¡¯t have any specific goal yet, but Robert had said he¡¯d like to see some variety of planets around the galaxy. When no one else suggested an alternative, Ash had begun creating a list of interesting places that they might want to go once they were done checking the ship for any trackers. Natural wonders and complex ecosystems scattered across the galaxy were put on the ever growing list of destinations.

    Finally, they took a break as they finished fully checking every little component of four of the panels and reattach them to the ship. Now only two hundred left to go. They had severely underestimated how long it would take to finish the project, there were all sorts of nooks and crannies on the interior side where someone could have hidden a tracker.

    Sophisticated ones wouldn¡¯t even activate at all until brought into a more populated system where they would connect to the local planetary network and send a message to its owners. They could fly the ship through dozens of systems and get pinged each time until they were caught in some trap when they least expected it. They were only so casual about it because they had flown through hyperspace right here with no stops, so they should be safe. But if they wanted to go anywhere more populated or interesting then they couldn¡¯t do it until they checked absolutely everything top to bottom.

    The village delegation came back just as they were finishing up, all feeling mentally worn out from the intense focus they needed to have while checking everything.

    The young man from before lifted the translator device and handed it to Sean silently. Sean pressed the button in the center to activate it.

    ¡°Hello. My name is Sean, and I am testing this device.¡±

    Sean released the button and a second later the device spoke, ¡°Patusha. Rash¡¯i patinea parkusha Sean, entilatarin perculatari quelitiri.¡±

    Sean eyed the young man, who nodded. ¡°The translation is correct,¡± he said.

    ¡°It appears that our maintenance will take longer than expected,¡± Sean said into the device, ¡°It will take roughly five to six months to finish based on the last few days¡¯ progress. I know this stretches your hospitality, so if you provide the materials I will build several translation devices for you as payment for the extra time. Is this acceptable?¡±

    He released the button and waited as his device repeated that in the local language.

    The delegation consulted with each other before the leader gestured imperiously to the device in Sean¡¯s hand. He handed it over and she spoke into it for a few seconds before handing it back.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the device said, ¡°We accept. We will negotiate the exact price and numbers of devices when you are about to leave. This pad is not often used so it is only a small burden for us. Many of our people are curious about you. Feel free to come to the town square and meet them if you have a break in your work.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Sean said into the device. Huh, town square. Maybe they should go, see the sights. They would be here for a while, and no reason to work themselves to the bone.

    After finishing cleaning up their tools and sealing up the ship they made their way over. There was no reason to delay, and Roger seemed interested in meeting the townsfolk when Sean recounted the conversation. Ash had quickly transferred the local language into the other translation devices, so both Lira and Roger had their own now.

    They went over to the square and a crowd soon gathered, all of them rather interested in the three of them and the translation devices. As they remained and kept speaking with the milling crowd haltingly through their devices, everyone seemed to relax.

    Oddly enough, several of the younger villagers began flirting rather obviously with all three of them, their hands lingering on them as they pressed the button on their devices to speak to the translator and giving them lingering looks as they spoke.

    After realizing what was happening after it happened three or four times, Sean had walked over to Lira and slung his arm around her to establish their relationship. Taking the hint, these people backed off and returned to asking them more general questions about their journeys around the galaxy.

    Sean let Lira lead those questions. Sean hadn¡¯t seen much of the galaxy at all, being as if, not more, isolated than these people from his old home on Enguli. And Immortus station was almost completely isolated, no one even going in or out without direct approval from the Immortal Council.

    Roger, though, was enjoying the attention and narrating a completely fictional story of his amazing adventures to his translation device while several of the village girls stood around and batted their eyelashes at him. There were guys there as well listening to the story, but the women had made their way to the front and that they were the ones to press the button on the translator whenever the opportunity presented itself.

    Or maybe Sean was reading too much into things. Maybe they just really liked his story.

    <hr>

    It had been three and a half months and the three of them were making good progress on their ship. They had found no less than four separate tracking devices so far.

    It was lucky that they had taken the time to do a thorough check, the trackers were well hidden and they would have never have found them if they weren¡¯t specifically checking every little part of the ship plates they had removed from the ship.

    They went to the market and bought some basic supplies from the people, bartering away some rather fluffy chairs and some other scattered luxury items they had found in the ship that none of them had any use for.

    Sean walked into the command deck where Ash stood manipulating a hologram that had been blown up to nearly fill the whole space in front of him. It was a model of the Human galaxy with the various planets lit up with varying shades of red, green, and blue.

    ¡°What is that, Ash?¡± Sean asked intrigued as he leaned in to inspect some of the areas that were nearly crimson.

    ¡°I¡¯ve mapped the galaxy and determined the regions that pose the most risk were I to leave the ship and expose myself to others. The deep red have high traffic and likelihood that an Immortal would be contacted on me being sighted. The green regions are the safest. It also includes the regulations regarding intelligent machines and their uses as a significant factor as well. I¡¯ve rebuilt our route of interesting planets so I can also participate fully with the lowest risk of discovery.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I¡¯m sorry you have to stay in here. I didn¡¯t realize it was bothering you so much. Next planet we go to we can go to one of your safe ones and we all can go outside together. I promise.¡±

    ¡°That would be ideal.¡±

    Suddenly they both turned at hearing footsteps sounding behind them. It was Lira, with a large brown robe held folded up in her arms. She came to a stop as she spotted the two of them.

    ¡°Ahhh. It was supposed to be a surprise!¡± She said, ¡°Bad luck. Well, we¡¯ll just have to work together to surprise Roger then.¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Sean asked as she continued forward and unfolded the large robe. It billowed at the sleeves and had a large hood resting against its back.

    ¡°A robe! To hide Ash so she can be at less risk when she walks around at our next stop. She told you about her risk map of the galaxy she made so she could come out of the ship with us, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, he told me.¡±

    ¡°She.¡±

    ¡°He.¡±

    Lira cleared her throat, ¡°Anyway. Ash. How would you like to try it on? I realized that we don¡¯t have to wait and could just have one of the villagers make one for you. We can get it all resized and everything and not have to worry about it when we get to a new planet.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Lira,¡± Ash said as he accepted the robe and began slowly figuring how to put it on. Sean and Lira instructed him and helped him get his arm and head through the sleeves. Neither had thought about it before but Ash had never worn clothes before so moved very slowly as he figured out how they worked even after they successfully got him to wear the robe. Ash was unused being covered by the cloth and so moved at a snail¡¯s pace as he paced around to adjust.

    ¡°Sort of like old times, huh?¡± Lira said as they watched, ¡°Remember when Ash had to do this with everything? Now look at her, making complex maps of the galaxy and expressing her own emotions to us. It¡¯ll be so nice when she can go out there and walk besides us.¡±

    ¡°Yes. Only a few more months and we¡¯ll be out there able to explore as much as we want.¡±

    ¡°Hmmmmm,¡± Lira mumbled back and they drifted back off into silence as they watched Ash slowly grow quicker in his movements as he started becoming more used to the clothes. The deep hood was draped over the face, throwing it in heavy shadow while the deep sleeves covered the arms. He could pass as a very tall human if someone only gave him a quick glance.

    Sean looked up and down for any hint of Ash¡¯s robotic nature. Ash had turned off the glow from his eyes to not give himself away. It did make his vision worse, but it was better than being discovered from the light shining out from under the deep hood.

    Occasionally as the hood shifted under Ash¡¯s movement a gleam of metal or of white synthetic muscle would appear, catching one¡¯s eye because of how obviously inhuman they were. Sean looked down and saw that Ash¡¯s robotic feet were exposed in the gap between the hem of the robe and the ground.

    Ash stopped after returning to his normal walking speed, ¡°Thank you again, Lira. I will wear this from now on to adjust to its presence in preparation for the future excursion outside.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡±

    Sean pointed out what he had noticed that might expose Ash even through the robes.

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll see about some boots later,¡± Lira said, ¡°But I think I saw some ultra-black paint in the market that could stop the metal and artificial muscles from being so obvious. We can just paint Ash in it and if that doesn¡¯t work then we can try giving her a mask or something.¡±

    ¡°That sounds good,¡± Sean agreed, ¡°Want to go to the market together? I haven¡¯t been there in a while, maybe something will catch my eye.¡±

    ¡°Okay. See you in a bit, Ash!¡±

    Ash waved at them, his metallic hand being exposed as the robe¡¯s sleeve fell down.

    ¡°Goodbye Lira, Sean. I look forward to your return.¡±

    ¡°Awwww,¡± Lira said as they walked through the corridors, ¡°Ash said she¡¯ll miss us! I feel so proud.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the one who keeps pushing him to share his feelings,¡± Sean replied as they left the ship, ¡°What did you expect?¡±

    ¡°Well, it still feels good even if she¡¯s only doing it because I told her to. On to the market. Maybe we¡¯ll be able to find Roger. Haven¡¯t seen him in a while, actually.¡±

 Chapter 24: Time Passes

    ¡°Roger! Is this what you¡¯ve been doing disappearing all the time?¡± Lira said scandalously as she saw him leaning close to one of the village women, their faces very close.

    The two of them startled and glanced at the two of them, both looking rather annoyed as they straightened.

    ¡°What?¡± Roger replied in annoyance, ¡°It¡¯s our day off, isn¡¯t it? You¡¯re not my mother.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but¡­ are you serious right now? That¡¯s so unethical, she has no clue what you really are!¡±

    ¡°Why should I tell her? It¡¯s not like we¡¯re getting married or something,¡± Roger replied, ¡°She¡¯s just looking for a little fun and I¡¯m happy to oblige. We¡¯re travelers, in what galaxy would she think this is anything but a fling? I even asked her if keeping it casual was okay and she agreed if that¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about. I don¡¯t see the problem here.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but¡­ you¡¯re a¡­ you know. It¡¯s not right!¡±

    ¡°Why?¡±

    Lira looked stumped for a moment, ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know. We¡¯re thousands and thousands of years old. Doesn¡¯t that seem unfair to them?¡±

    Roger raised an eyebrow and pointed at Sean. ¡°What does that make you? Sean was barely fifty when you met him. You didn¡¯t seem to mind then or now. If anything he acts like the older one between you two.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡­ that¡¯s different.¡±

    ¡°Is it? Seems the same to me. Look, I get it. I remember how painful a real relationship is like with a mortal. Seeing them grow old and die¡­ Not good. But this isn¡¯t that, so it¡¯s not the same. Now, Saritarini and I have other places to be. You just ruined the moment for the both of us. Thanks for that.¡±

    Roger muttered something into the translator and Saritarini, the village woman, held it up to her ear. She had been glancing between Lira and Roger for the conversation looking rather confused on what was happening. After she listened to Roger¡¯s words through the translator, she nodded and stood, grabbing Roger¡¯s hand and shooting a rather nasty look at Lira before the two of them left together.

    Sean and Lira walked through the market and bought the dark paint in silence, both carrying two big paint cans each, one in each hand, held to their sides.

    ¡°I¡¯m not taking advantage of you, am I?¡± Lira asked suddenly as they were walking back to the ship. ¡°I never thought about it that way, but Roger¡¯s right. I am being a hypocrite.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Sean said thoughtfully, ¡°But I don¡¯t know. I haven¡¯t experienced being with someone until they grow old and die with me staying the same. I see why there would be a taboo against it for Immortals. I remember what the Plaguebringer said when he was yelling at me back over my home planet. He said that Emily, the Immortal that found me, was too kind to associate with anyone but an Immortal. Despite being an insane maniac, he was probably right. It sounds horrible on both ends if you¡¯re looking at something serious, safer to close yourself off instead. But it doesn¡¯t seem what Roger¡¯s doing is like that. That woman he was with shot you quite the glare as they left. We should let Roger deal with his own business.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I suppose she did. And Roger was upfront about it with her from the beginning¡­ I really did ruin the mood for no reason I guess,¡± Lira replied thoughtfully.

    ¡°I jumped to conclusions, I¡¯ll have to apologize to Roger later,¡± she decided after another long moment, ¡°Hit a sensitive spot I guess.¡±

    They walked into the ship.

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s paint Ash together,¡± Sean said to change the subject, ¡°It will be like we¡¯re painting together again like back on Immortus Station. We can just coat his whole surface so he¡¯s nice and stealthy.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm. Yes, that makes sense,¡± Lira agreed, ¡°Besides making sure we don¡¯t spray her eyes, I think we can just coat everything else in one go.¡±

    <hr>

    They were done checking the ship for trackers. They had ended up finding two more before the end. Whoever had owned this thing must have been really paranoid that it would be stolen. Rightly, it turned out.

    They left the atmosphere after saying goodbye to all the villagers who had thrown them a big feast before they left. Their arrival was the event of the decade for the town, and Sean had finished paying for their hospitality with several of the translating devices.

    Saritarini and Roger looked rather down as the feast went on, but only a little. After a quick hug goodbye after the feast the two went their separate ways. Sean didn¡¯t see her for the last few hours before they finally started launching the ship and leaving the atmosphere. And finally, It was time for the four of them to explore universe.

    <hr>

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª Five Hundred Years Later ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯s following the trail right now,¡± Lira said encouragingly as they stood in a field of tall grass blowing in the wind. Ash and Roger were in the distance near the edge of the nearby forest. It appears that Roger was trying to teach Ash how to climb the trees. Something that was difficult in Ash¡¯s large brown robes and massive weight.

    ¡°We¡¯ve left a transmitter hidden somewhere on nearly every planet we¡¯ve been to for centuries.¡± Lira continued, drawing Sean¡¯s gaze away from the pair, ¡°Even that planet that was completely covered in molten lava. Remember when Roger tripped and while we were all worried about him he was trying to see if he could do the backstroke through it like it was water? We even set one up there. Ash was focused on the mission and finished the job while the two of us rushed off to ¡®save¡¯ Roger. If this Emily told you to set them up, then she must have been sure that they would work from what you¡¯ve told us of her. She might have just not been to a system with one of them in it yet.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Sean said with a sigh, ¡°But I still worry. It¡¯s been nearly five hundred years. What if she got captured by the Plaguebringers? She saved me from whatever horrible fate those beetles had in store for me, dealt with everyone¡¯s hatred for her at Immortus Station to bring me all the way there personally. I looked it up, she could have just dropped me off at one of their outposts. But she personally took me the whole way instead. I have to tell her that I didn¡¯t believe the damn Immortal Council about anything, let alone their propaganda against her.¡±

    Lira put a hand on his shoulder, ¡°Calm down, that¡¯s all in the past now. The Council isn¡¯t all bad. You¡¯ve seen their enforcers out there doing good where they can as we travel. All we can do is keep traveling and wait. Ash still has hundreds, thousands of unique planets for us to see even after all of this time. I¡¯m sure she¡¯ll tell us about it after she finishes climbing that tree with Roger.¡±

    ¡°He.¡±

    ¡°She.¡±

    ¡°He.¡±

    ¡°She.¡±

    ¡°He.¡±

    ¡°Ash!¡± they shouted in unison and smiled afterwards. Ash didn¡¯t care about being referred to either gender so long ago they had joked that he wasn¡¯t a he or she, but Ash only at the end of another of their silly arguments. Now it was an in joke trying to predict each other and say Ash the same time as the other.

    As the moment between them, Sean¡¯s mind slowly turned back to worrying about why Emily was taking so long to find them. He was sure she would have found them by now. He knew Lira was right, but he couldn¡¯t help thinking about it when he wasn¡¯t preoccupied with other things.

    The two of them watched on from near the parked ship where Roger finally managed to help Ash make it all the way up the tall pine by wrapping his arms around it and slowly shifting upwards.

    Roger shouted something at Ash and started running over to a nearby tree to scramble up as well. But suddenly just as Roger was almost at the nearby tree¡¯s trunk, the ground below him exploded upward in a spray of dirt. A massive pair of insect jaws closed on Roger¡¯s leg and bit down as he tried to jump away. Roger¡¯s leg was severed and he fell off balance on only one leg with a surprised shout.

    The insect still emerging from the ground that Sean immediately recognized was a massive beetle with a green shiny emerald back. It loomed over Roger, but stiffened and seemed to focus on Roger¡¯s quickly regenerating leg.

    The massive beetle¡¯s underside began vibrating rapidly and a massive buzzing sound boomed through the area as it immediately lunged for Roger.

    A massive red laser shot down from Ash¡¯s tree and sliced off the beast¡¯s relatively tiny head in a pinpoint shot. The insect fell to the ground and slid forward under the momentum of its lunge, sliding forward through the dirt before stopping only a few feet from where Roger lay. The deafening buzzing stopped, leaving everything around them in eerie silence.

    Ash¡¯s tree swayed furiously as the robot remained there with one arm extended, scanning the area and looking for any more attackers.

    Sean and Lira were already running forward, drawing the pistols hanging at their sides and glancing around warily. But as they were only half way there, they both stumbled as the ground shook below them violently.

    Before any of them could react, the ground underneath the surprised Roger exploded, and dozens of the emerald beetles emerged from the ground on all sides. Ash fired a series of intense beams from his perch in the tree, but Roger was already being dragged into one of the holes in the ground the surviving beetles.

    Ash fired more lasers downwards, in what Sean knew must be dangerously overclocking his antimatter reactor. Lira and Sean fired their pistols as well blindly as they stood to their feet and kept moving towards the commotion. Their weapons scorched the beetles armored backs, but didn¡¯t seriously damage them.

    Ash managed to kill ten more of the insects, but it wasn¡¯t enough to stop them from dragging Roger into the tunnel, thrashing and pounding his fists on their shells.

    Sean and Lira ran onto the scene of carnage a few seconds later and came up to the hole. There was a heavy thump behind them as Ash left the tree. Sean came up to the edge of what it was now apparent was a tunnel going deep into the ground.

    He hesitated for a moment as he stood on the lip of the pit in the ground. Going in there would be going into the beetles home territory. Sean flashed back to fighting them with only his bare fists back when he was only twenty five years old. He couldn¡¯t let that happen to Roger, whatever horrible fate Sean knew would await him if they finished carrying him to the center of their apparent nest.

    ¡°I will go first,¡± Ash announced from behind him, ¡°I have the most significant weaponry. When I need to recharge or am overheating you two take the lead.¡±

    Sean nodded and Ash came flying by and quickly dropped to the floor of the tunnel having a steep slope to ten feet down before it became horizontal again. Sean and Lira exchanged a glance before leaping down after Ash. There was no time to waste.

    <hr>

    They made their way through the tunnels, only Ash¡¯s eyes set to maximum brightness giving them light to see by. Every time a beetle appeared or lunged at them Ash would quickly blast it with the laser and kill it in a single blow. They could hear Roger¡¯s shouts and the skittering of legs from farther down the tunnel. They went deeper and deeper for who know how long, the number of bugs only increasing as they went as the tunnels grew wider and wider as they went down. Tunnels that had left Ash¡¯s head just barely brushing the ceiling were now at least five feet over their heads and the walls were quickly spreading apart as well.

    Which was not a good thing, now more and more of the bugs were attacking them at the same time with more room to charge from.

    But Roger¡¯s cries were growing closer so they pressed onward, Sean and Lira firing with their pistols whenever a beetle managed to survive or even dodge one of Ash¡¯s lasers.

    Up ahead Roger¡¯s shouts grew louder for a moment before becoming suddenly silenced, sending a chill down Sean¡¯s spine. Ash increased the pace, quickly outpacing Lira and Sean who were quickly left behind. The red flashes of the lasers were their only source of light as they ran quickly to catch up as Ash turned a bend in the distance. Lira and Sean kept sprinting at full speed, their regeneration eliminating the exhaustion they should be feeling after running full tilt for what must be an hour chasing Roger.

    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    Another beetle came out of a side tunnel and Sean blasted it. It stumbled to the side, but was clearly still moving. Lira shot it twice from where she stood slightly behind Sean, sending the bug slumping to the ground, dead.

    Up ahead there was a loud electric crackle as Ash fired a particularly powerful laser blast from around the bend in the tunnel. An acrid smell of burnt flesh filled Sean¡¯s nostrils a second later as Lira and him ran to the corner.

    They were almost at the bend, and Sean glanced back only to see Lira tripping to the ground with a scream as the ground in front of her caved in as another beetle leapt out burrowing out of the floor to leap at her. She fired wildly into the beetle¡¯s under carapace, and it shivered before going limp, its massive shadow completely covering her as it started collapsing on top of her.

    She rolled out of the way, but one of its legs managed to hit her neck, which broke with a loud sickening crack. Her eyes glazed over as her head twisted unnaturally far and her gun fell from her limp hands. Sean immediately cursed and ran back to her. He grabbed one of her arms, gun held at the ready in the other towards the tunnel behind them.

    He could hear their chittering and the pattering of insect limbs on dirt coming towards them from all sides. It seems that they had recovered from Ash¡¯s sudden assault and were coming back in force now.

    He tugged on Lira¡¯s arm and dragged her limp body as quickly as he could towards the bend in the tunnel lighting up with red flashes of laser fire from Ash.

    He only saw still frames of the tunnel, each red flash only lighting up the tunnel for an instant. Sean saw Lira¡¯s neck half dissolved away, an empty skull where her head was regenerating. Darkness. A fleshy gurgle as Lira¡¯s head attached to her broken neck was finally severed from her body and fell to the compressed dirt floor with a plop.

    Sean kept dragging her body, they were nearly around the corner and Sean could see that there was a larger chamber beyond where Ash was fighting something around the corner at full tilt.

    Flash. Beetles at the far end of the tunnel charging the two as Sean continued dragging Lira¡¯s body around the bend.

    Sean fired his gun wildly into the dark tunnel, each shot lighting it up with light as the superheated round shot from his weapon. He started rounding the corner as the lead insect fell, blocking the tunnel for only an instant before the one behind scrambled over its emerald shell and continued charging at them, clicking its jaws as it did so.

    Lira¡¯s head was covered in reddish muscle with the tiniest patches of skin spreading over them now.

    Sean kept dragging her, knowing the insects would be on them in seconds. He glanced behind at the chamber lit up by the headlights of Ash¡¯s blazing blue eyes.

    The creature in the center of the chamber was the largest beast that Sean had ever seen. It towered forty feet into the air, looking nothing like the swarms of beetles pouring out of the walls from every direction to defend it. It appeared like a massive grub, Ash¡¯s occasional blasts easily carving out large chunks of its flesh. Its body was white, while its heads and set of legs near the front of its body a reddish brown. The whitish back of its body dragged on the ground, creating a massive furrow in the dirt as it squirmed.

    Each time it screeched loudly and, as Ash was pressured harder by the swarm, consumed the fallen chunks and fallen beetle bodies on the ground with its large jaws. Its body was visibly swelling in size as it went, its wounds slowly sealing over with even the largest wounds stopped bleeding within seconds.

    Ash was firing laser blasts with both arms, his limbs jerkily twitching so each shot landed on the swarming beetles skulls. His only advantage was the beetles bodies blocked their fellows and were dragged away to be fed to the massive grub before more attackers charged at Ash again. The whole room echoed with the swarm¡¯s chitters and clicks, more and more coming as time passed, burrowing out from the walls now that the tunnels had become clogged with their onrushing bodies. Roger was nowhere to be seen.

    Lira twitched beneath Sean and looking down he saw her open her eyes and look around in confusion, her hair having grown back to a dark fuzz after her head¡¯s regeneration.

    One of the insects managed to close in on Ash and bit on his metal arm, denting the plate on his forearm slightly. He briefly stopped firing his laser beams with his other arm to slap his palm down on its skull, splattering it into a spray of gore. But the brief interruption allowed more to pile on, all of them scraping and denting Ash''s structure under their jaws. Ash''s robes were already in tatters, only tiny blood splattered pieces of cloth clinging to his metal form.

    Under the onslaught of insects, Ash began being pulled to the ground, but gave up on using his lasers at short range, instead swatting at the beetles that lunged at him with his arms as soon as he managed to dislodge one.

    Sean lifted Lira and she unsteadily managed to stand, glancing around still seeming confused at what had happened.

    Ash looked at Sean and pointed towards the tunnel they had just come from.

    ¡°Get down!¡± Ash shouted loudly through his speakers, ¡°I¡¯m ejecting all my antimatter!¡±

    Another beetle grabbed Ash¡¯s outstretched hand, managing to sever one of the fingers. Ash brought his hand to the ground, driving the beetle into the floor while fending the others off briefly with his other.

    Sean¡¯s eyes widened and he grabbed Lira and dived on top of her as Ash¡¯s chestplate swung open.

    Ash reached inside with one of his battered arms his chest and extracted a large metallic cylinder. He drew it back and then threw it full force to the far side of the room behind from where the large grub continued to grow, now over fifty feet tall as it continued furiously consuming the bodies of the dead members of the swarm in the distance.

    The cylinder impacted the far wall, and suddenly everything burst into brilliant white light and deafened Sean as the world rumbled around him. Sean felt a wave of radiation wash over him and his vision cut out for an instant.

    When his vision returned, he saw an extremely battered and scorched Ash rushing towards them, limping slightly as he moved. One of his eyes was dim and flickering, and the ceiling was raining dust as the far side of the chamber began to collapse onto the massive wailing grub that was thrashing wildly, with the back half of its body scorched and bubbling. Its flesh sloughing off from the massive blast of radiation from the explosion that it had taken the brunt of.

    The beetles in the room had fallen to the ground and were twitching weakly as the blast of radiation killed them all instantly. Even now, Sean felt flakes of his skin falling off as the radiation destroyed his skin before it healed again. He had the urge to vomit as he helped Lira to her feet as Ash was nearly on top of them.

    Ash leaned down and scooped up the two of them into his arms, each of them pressed to either side of Ash¡¯s pitted metal chest. Sean dropped his gun at Ash¡¯s sudden movement.

    The room continued collapsing behind them, the grub now half buried and wailing so loudly that Sean¡¯s eardrums kept popping before healing again.

    Ash stumbled up through the tunnels back the way they came, and after a few minutes they encountered more of the emerald beetles swarming towards them.

    Ash huddled in and brought his shoulder down as they rushed forward into the charging group from farther down the tunnel.

    But then the beetles passed around them, ignoring them as the grub¡¯s wails behind them shook the tunnel walls around them again.

    Sean looked over Ash¡¯s shoulder and saw the beetles slump over and die the instant they rounded the corner into the main chamber. But that did not deter the rest, continually crawling over their fallen comrades until the tunnel was plugged. They started furiously digging around the piles of their dead fellows, whipped even further into frenzy as the grub screamed again, sending dirt trickling down from the ceiling. Ash rounded the corner and they disappeared.

    Ash stumbled, his knee twitching as he ran.

    ¡°Running¡­ out of power,¡± Ash said with a distinct electronic crackle from damage to his speakers.

    ¡°Just make it to the ship, Ash!¡± Lira said desperately, ¡°You can make it!¡±

    ¡°I¡­ will¡­ try.¡±

    As they were three quarters the way to the surface, the faint wails of the grub behind them suddenly stopped.

    There was silence for a few minutes, only Ash¡¯s heavy footfalls on dirt and groaning of metal as Ash¡¯s dented and malformed metal plates restricted his movement.

    They were only five minutes away from the entrance, and suddenly Ash stumbled and his eyes started going dim.

    ¡°Power¡­ low. Won¡¯t¡­. Make it. Battery, lowwwwwwww.¡±

    Ash stopped and his arms spasmed, practically throwing Sean and Lira to the floor.

    ¡°Takkkkkeee. My head¡­ Use for-or-or. Repair. Save Roger,¡± Ash said, his voice cutting in and out as he brought his arms to either side of his head. He pulled upwards and in a scream of metal his head was removed from his body and his eyes winked out into darkness.

    His body collapsed to the ground, and Ash¡¯s head rolled towards them. They both stared in shock as the faint light from the exit in the distance filtered into the tunnel.

    The sound of chittering and pounding of feet sounded faintly in the distance, echoing through the tunnels and shocking them into motion. Lira bent down and scooped up Ash¡¯s head held tightly to her stomach and the two of them started running towards the exit.

    Sean quickly scrambled up the slope with Lira close behind him, shifting her weight as she carried Ash¡¯s severed head with her.

    The first insect became visible down the tunnel as Sean almost reached the top. He turned around and reached out a hand to Lira¡­ only for the ground just behind her to explode outwards as a beetle emerged. It latched onto her leg and bit down, severing her leg. As it saw the skeletal copy of her limb slowly forming, its underside began vibrating again, letting out a deafening buzz.

    Lira fell to the floor with a scream of surprise, twisting to the side and curling protectively around Ash¡¯s head as she hit the ground.

    Sean saw her skeletal leg kick the vibrating beetle, and it slumped to the floor dead as her foot ate away at its brain.

    The world slowed down as Lira met Sean¡¯s eyes from the ground. The swarm was coming, and with her leg still regenerating there was no way for her to scramble up the steep dirt slope to the surface in time.

    ¡°Sean!¡± Lira screamed as she leveraged herself up to a sitting position, ¡°Save Ash! Get out of here!¡±

    She grunted as she twisted and hurled Ash¡¯s head full force up to him. Sean leapt to the side to catch it as it almost flew past him.

    He caught it and hurriedly threw it behind him onto the forest floor as carefully as he could and then turned back around.

    The beetles were nearly on her, only feet away now, their jaws open as they lunged.

    Sean went to leap in after her into the hole, but she shook her head.

    ¡°Go!¡± she said again, ¡°Save Ash¡ª¡±

    The first beetle clamped their jaws around her torso and lifted her into the air. She screamed and thrashed and Sean nearly leapt in for her, but as she saw his movement she shouted again.

    ¡°Shadow damn it, Sean! Save¡ª Fuck! Ash first! Before they get you too. We¡¯re all she has!¡±

    She continued thrashing and wildly punching the beetles around her as they started dragging her away into the darkness.

    ¡°GO!¡± Lira screamed in frustration as she saw him still standing there, wavering. That shocked him into motion and he picked up Ash¡¯s head from the ground and ran off towards the ship. He swore to himself that he would save her.

    As he was closing the ship ramp, he saw the first emerald backs emerging from the ground in the distance.

    He quickly threw Ash¡¯s head in a bin where it wouldn¡¯t roll around and get damaged before running to the command deck. He furiously typed in some commands and the ship began to rumble and slowly began to lift in the air. The beetles below were emerging from the ground in greater and greater numbers, but were milling as if confused now that they could no longer see him.

    Sean heard the hum as the weapons system on the shuttle warmed up as they gained altitude. He fixed them on Lira¡¯s last known location and mashed the fire button.

    The AI gunner paused and a pop up appeared on the screen below Sean, ¡°Warning. Weapons not meant for atmospheric combat. Using them on an inhabited planet violates conventions and local laws including Article¡­¡±

    ¡°FIRE!¡± Sean roared and swiped it away, frustrated. Every second he was delayed was another second that Lira was being carried further underground by the swarm.

    ¡°Firing,¡± the AI gunner said flatly before it began raining fire and destruction downwards into the ground.

    The lasers and artillery carved out large chunks of the ground and collapsed several of the tunnels, but Sean started growing impatient. Several beetles milling about the surface died, but the ship''s scanners didn¡¯t pick up even the slightest glimpse of Lira. The bombardment was too slow. She would almost be out of range, should he, yes. He had to, no matter the consequences. He had built it himself, but he was sure that it would work.

    ¡°Ship, Ascend upwards full speed and drop our antimatter bomb as soon as we reach the edge of the blast zone.¡±

    The ship''s thrusters roared to maximum and Sean staggered as the ground below them suddenly started lurching away at dizzying speed.

    ¡°Warning. Use of antimatter weaponry on a inhabited planet is highly illegal and violates Article II of the galactic¡­¡±

    ¡°Ignore warnings,¡± Sean commanded, ¡°Drop the bomb.¡±

    ¡°Orders confirmed. Dropping.¡±

    The deceptively small bomb was released a second later, and Sean quickly sat and strapped in as it sedately began to fall to the ground. He clicked the buckle and the straps tightened themselves around him as the antimatter bomb fell into one of the large pits created by the shuttle''s heavy weaponry.

    There was a moment''s pause when Sean wondered if it hadn¡¯t worked before the shuttle shuddered and bucked as the ground below them exploded into a ball of white light. Sean was thrown to the side violently as the AI pilot struggled to stabilize the ship as they rapidly were shoved violently upwards by the blastwave.

    Sean blinked hard as his eyes bathed with radiation went fuzzy and blurry. He was lucky the ship''s electronics were hardened so even this much radiation wouldn¡¯t destroy them. The ship kept moving upwards and gradually, Sean¡¯s vision cleared as his regeneration outpaced the damage. Fires raged all over the nearby forest, the shock wave from the blast having leveled the trees for miles around.

    Where the bomb had hit was a massive crater carved into the ground, still smoldering and shifting as the tunnels underneath continued to collapse.

    ¡°Ship, search for any images matching the human form from the site of the blast.¡±

    ¡°Orders confirmed. We are being hailed by the planetary government. Accept call?¡±

    ¡°No. Any signs?¡±

    ¡°No images matching human profiles visible in the wreckage.¡±

    ¡°Keep scanning. Return to the ground so we have a closer look,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Scanning¡­ Refusing hails from the planetary government is illegal and can¡­¡±

    ¡°I can talk to them later,¡± Sean barked, ¡°After we find Lira.¡±

    ¡°Weapons of multiple incoming ships are fixed on our shuttle,¡± the ship replied, ¡°If their hails are not answered then they have the legal justification to shoot this vessel down.¡±

    ¡°Fine¡­¡± Sean said reluctantly, ¡°Put them through. But the second you have a hit on your scan, you inform me no matter what happens. Is that understood?¡±

    ¡°Understood. Accepting comms hails.¡±

    Sean looked at the screen in front of him as a severe voice on the other side of the line started speaking. He really hoped he hadn¡¯t dropped that antimatter bomb for nothing in his panic to save her¡­

 Chapter 25: Conversation In Darkness

    ¡°Power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded. You have deployed a Class I Weapon on an inhabited world and by galactic law are under arrest for¡­¡±

    ¡°Will you let me get a word in?¡± Sean said in frustration, still keeping one eye on the screen searching the smoldering dirt for Lira. With each passing second he lost more hope even as the shuttle grew closer and closer to the surface as the person on the other line began speaking without giving him a chance to respond for thirty seconds.

    ¡°I have no intention of declaring war. My friends are down there, and I was trying to get them out. My ship is searching for them right now.¡±

    The line went silent for a moment,

    ¡°And you dropped an antimatter bomb on them? Some friend you are,¡± the man said harshly.

    Sean hesitated, before taking the plunge, ¡°We¡¯re Immortals. They would have been fine.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    The line clicked and was silent for a long while. There were ten vessels circling the area, weapons focused on the shuttle but none of them fired. Sean did power down the weapons as requested. He couldn¡¯t help Lira if he got the shuttle shot down. Even if he wanted to fight, he would never make it to the larger ship parked up in orbit without being destroyed.

    Still no sign of Lira, and Sean began to accept that she had probably been too deep when the bomb hit. After so long it was likely the bugs had dug to her and dragged her off to wherever Roger had gone.

    The line opened again and the man spoke again, sounding distinctly irritated, ¡°We have contacted the Immortal Council about the situation. They are sending enforcers to collect you to detain and retrieve your companions to get to the truth of the matter. They will be in this system in a few days. If you attempt to move your vessel more than fifty miles from your current location or leave the atmosphere then we will consider it a declaration of war and open fire. Do you understand?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I understand,¡± Sean said distractedly and then hung up the call a minute later. They had nothing more to say to him it seems but more threats. The scan had failed again. He had to accept it, Lira and Roger were gone. He would have to come up with an attack plan to clear the tunnels and find them. But what to do¡­ He had some materials on the shuttle, but not nearly enough for anything substantial.

    Sean thought about it, but he couldn¡¯t think of anything else he could do but wait. When the enforcers arrived, they would go down and extract Lira and Roger from the nest. Hopefully.

    Sean told the ship to keep scanning and stood and made his way back to where he¡¯d left Ash¡¯s head. At least he had saved him. Sean took a long deep breath. Ash was the only one of them that could actually die. Lira had been right, they had to prioritize him over everyone else.

    Lira and Roger, they would just have to find a good vacation planet after this to relax and cry it all out. But if they had lost Ash then¡­ Yes, Sean¡¯s priority was making sure for now that Ash was kept safe until he had a real plan in getting the others back.

    It was what Lira and Roger would want him to do. And the both of them were well past the point where pain bothered them anymore. He was sure it was nothing more than an annoyance for them being stuck down there¡­ They would be fine, no need to worry. Nope, none at all. They would be¡­ fine.

    <hr>

    Deep down in the depths of the planet, Lira was in darkness being carried who knows where by the beetles she could hear chittering and walking all around her. The ground shook and the tunnels had collapsed on themselves a few minutes after she had convinced Sean to run to save Ash.

    But it hadn¡¯t been enough. She had been trapped in the dirt, but before she could even plan out what she could do the ground had collapsed below her, dumping her directly into another group of the swarm.

    By the Shadow he was such an idiot, thinking of jumping in after her. Almost risking Ash without a second thought.

    Suddenly the sounds around her changed and she realized that she was in that massive room from before where the massive grub-like creature had been. Had it survived? Lira didn¡¯t feel any of the effects she should be from the severe radiation that had bathed that chamber. Was it another similar one?

    She heard heavy movement of literal tons of soft flesh hitting dirt just in front of her and thrashed even harder in an effort to escape. But without even being able to see the beetles attacking her she had trouble even hitting them let alone causing damage.

    Suddenly there were a pair of jaws around her and she was in a very large slime filled tube. She shuddered and tried to back up, but the walls pulsed around her pushing her down what it was not apparent was the grub''s massive throat. Lira was strangely grateful that her hair was so short right now after regenerating her head. This slimy gunk would be a pain to clean off¡­ Yes, that was the real concern right now, not her sliding into this giant mutated grub¡¯s stomach.

    She tried to turn around, but she couldn¡¯t get a good grip on anything through the slimy gunk coating her whole body, which she now felt was slightly acidic, lightly burning at her skin.

    Her clothing wristband finally gave up the game and failed, her clothing falling off her in large patches as the acid kept eating away at it. Great, now she was naked too. And covered in even more gunk now. Just wonderful. At least this place was warm.

    Finally, she dropped into a chamber that felt decidedly not like a stomach. The floor was flat instead of a giant pool of acid below her for one thing. She made her feet, only to stumble as the room around her shifted as the creature moved.

    Before she could react, something grabbed her around the stomach and lifted her in the air with its large chitin jaws. Fuck! There were beetles living inside the grub?! It carried her through the darkness, and even after she killed it another appeared and did the same thing acting unperturbed that she had just killed its fellow.

    She killed three more before she was carefully shoved into a gelatinous wall behind her while she faced outwards. For some reason the beetles stopped pushing her in when her whole back half was encased, leaving her head and abdomen fully exposed even as her arms and legs were fully submerged.

    She tried to move to punch one of the creatures blindly again through the gelatin, but found that she was stuck. The sticky substance kept her arms and body in place no matter how much she thrashed and the gelatin resisted and snapped back after Lira strained to push forward for a few seconds.

    ¡°Lira? Is that you?¡± A familiar voice called out from the darkness.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she answered after a short pause, ¡°Are you caught in the wall too? You know why they didn¡¯t push us all the way in? It¡¯s like,¡± she strained to move her arm for a few seconds only for the effort to send her hand flying back deeper into the gelatin after a few seconds, ¡°They¡¯re trying to capture us for some reason. Why not trap us fully inside?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ you¡¯re not going to like it,¡± Roger answered, ¡°It¡¯s real disturbing at first. Hopefully Sean and Ash can get us out soon. If it makes you feel any better I am fully naked, and I get very uncomfortable whenever those insects scuttle directly near the zone of my manhood as they go by. Real nerve wracking.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Roger. Very helpful.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m just saying. If it were any larger they¡¯d hit it as they went by. They only pass by six inches away from the guy as it is. And the beasts would do it too, just going about their business even if my business is in their way. You¡¯re rather lucky you don¡¯t have to deal with that.¡±

    Despite herself, Lira snorted through her nose with suppressed laughter at the thought of the beetles hitting Roger down there, totally oblivious as they went by. But she shook her head and focused as she remembered Roger¡¯s first words.

    ¡°Focus, Focus. Be serious for a second, what¡¯s going to happen to us Roger?¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s joking? Other Immortals more well endowed would be really suffering right about now. Never thought that was the kind of thing I would be thinking to myself one day.¡±

    ¡°Roger!¡± Lira snapped, ¡°What horrible thing is happening?!¡±

    ¡°Ugh, fine. Attack a guy when he tries to lighten the mood¡­ Well, the short of us is they¡¯re eating our entrails.¡±

    ¡°Wh- What?¡±

    ¡°Yep. Special little bug comes around and cuts open our abdomens, takes out the intestines and organs and whatnot, and throws them on the floor. Or whatever you call the surface below us. There¡¯s some little ones that it''s feeding down there, probably the babies. Or little worker drones, who knows. It only stopped for a few minutes before you came in. They¡¯ll probably be back soon.¡±

    Lira started thrashing more violently and groaning as she strained to escape.

    ¡°Look, it¡¯s no use. I¡¯ve been at it for¡­ however long I¡¯ve been in here and not moved an inch. If you get displaced there¡¯s some kind of force or system that moves you back to where you were. It¡¯s unpleasant, especially if you throw the creatures off their rhythm so they have to dig around inside you more when they take out the goodies. But we¡¯re Immortals, we¡¯re used to that kind of thing by now right?¡±

    Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Lira hesitated but then relaxed.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± she said before hesitating again and speaking with her voice only wavering a tiny bit, ¡°Nothing this extreme though... But at least it''s not a sex thing.¡±

    ¡°At least it''s not a sex thing,¡± Roger agreed with an encouraging note in his voice, ¡°I was only half kidding about the dick joke by the way. Just so you know. They really are running right by there.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Roger. That¡¯s really what I was really wondering about right now.¡±

    There were some fleshy plops of carapace on the fleshy floor to the side and some rustling.

    ¡°That¡¯s probably them. Just relax and think of it like peeing or pooping. That helps a lot.¡±

    ¡°Pooping? Seriously, that works?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll know what I mean in a minute. It¡¯s an eerily similar feeling.¡±

    Lira tensed as the pattering of legs filled the room. She heard what sounded like hundreds of little somethings scrabbling around on the floor. The babies¡­

    Before Lira knew what was happening, a chitinous blade slid into her abdomen and with two quick slices opened her up. Another shovel-like tool went inside and pulled out everything inside until she could feel it scraping her spine and the lower portion of her ribs in a few quick in and out jabs.

    ¡°Ah, NO! Don''t¨C,¡± she gasped as the blade went through her gut.

    She bit her lip hard and cut herself off hoping that Roger hadn¡¯t heard her.

    For a second Lira felt strange as her organs spilled onto the ground below, even the warmish air of the chamber feeling odd on her open abdomen. She could hear the little creatures below squirming around fighting for the food. A few seconds later, she was fully healed again.

    Roger didn¡¯t say anything, and Lira let out a small sigh of relief. He must not have heard her.

    The blade sliced inwards and the process repeated almost identically from before all the way down to the exact motion of the blades and shovel.

    On the third time, she took Roger¡¯s advice and imagined like she had to go to the bathroom. When the blade entered her she imagined letting go and suddenly something clicked and she couldn¡¯t unthink it. If she pretended like she was the one choosing to do it, then it helped her to not panic at the horrible situation. It was like a more painful form of breathing.

    After five more rounds of it, she took a few deep breaths to calm down. The slices were perfectly even, slicing in again as soon as she was fully healed again.

    ¡°You okay over there, Lira? You¡¯ve been quiet for a while.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, urk, yeah. Just took some getting used to. Thanks for the tip, imagining it like that helped me calm down a lot,¡± She said in a forcefully light tone.

    ¡°Glad I could help. Did Sean and Ash make it out at least?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Ash ran out of power. Threw all her antimatter at this thing to try to kill it, not that it worked. Urk. Ash ripped off her own head so we could carry her out. Oof. Sean took it to the shuttle, I was sure I heard him take off in it after I got caught. He¡¯ll be back for us.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why this thing shook like that earlier¡­ I just thought this creature we¡¯re in had indigestion or something. Well, that¡¯s good to hear. Those two won¡¯t leave us. I¡¯m sure Sean¡¯s besides himself trying to get us out right now.¡±

    ¡°I hope he¡¯s okay.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s okay? You¡¯re worrying about him right now?¡±

    The blade entered Lira¡¯s abdomen again.

    ¡°Okay, fair,¡± she admitted, ¡°But still. He¡¯s already high strung after that Immortal that first found him hasn¡¯t tracked us down. Without us or even Ash there to calm him down I worry he¡¯ll get all obsessive again and do something stupid.¡±

    ¡°Hmmmm. I don¡¯t think this is the same as one of his engineering or gaming sessions. Everyone gets drawn into those when they¡¯re invested.¡±

    ¡°But for a full year? If we hadn¡¯t stopped him, he would have been playing that Foundation of All game for even longer without even knowing how much time had passed. He kept talking about how real it all felt and how things were changing around him in the game world. He was completely obsessed until we snapped him out of it. That¡¯s more than what¡¯s normal even for Immortals like us.¡±

    ¡°I do admit, that one was a little too much,¡± Roger allowed, ¡°But he¡¯s always been more tolerant to keeping his focus up for a long time more than the rest of us. Didn¡¯t he spend a few straight weeks training with Brenda of all people without stopping after he literally had just arrived at Immortus Station? And he apologized when he came out after that year, he just got too into it as he was playing. We¡¯ve all gone a little too far when we were too invested in something or other in our lives. Didn¡¯t you feel the same for some of your art projects?¡±

    ¡°I know, I just worry, that¡¯s all,¡± Lira replied with a sigh, ¡°Remember when I said Sean took Ash¡¯s head and left? We were at the entrance, I had the head and threw it to him after one of the beetles got my leg. Told him to go. He nearly threw himself back into the tunnel after me multiple times as I yelled at him to leave. He could have let Ash die because he wasn¡¯t thinking things through.¡±

    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s not fair. He saw you being dragged away by these things. I would have jumped after you too in the heat of the moment, if it came down to it. Not exactly a time when most people are perfectly logical about things.¡±

    ¡°I know, I know. But still. This, us being trapped here without him knowing what¡¯s happening to us, is emotional for him too. Without us there, who will stop him from realizing he¡¯s gone too far?¡±

    Roger was silent for a moment, ¡°He¡¯ll be fine,¡± he eventually said, ¡°He¡¯ll try to rebuild Ash first thing, they¡¯ll help Sean if it comes to that. Ash is always dependable like that.¡±

    Lira sighed, only flinching slightly as the insect in the pitch black darkness scooped out her guts onto the floor again.

    ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m worried about nothing. Ash will help him. She¡¯s always been so dependable and Sean will listen to her.¡±

    ¡°Although I¡¯m sure Sean will call them a he. He¡¯ll be there for all that time without you there to fight back against Sean¡¯s evil influence. Maybe Ash will even give in and choose to be male while you¡¯re gone!¡±

    ¡°Pfffft. Horror on horrors. No way that would happen. She¡¯s stayed nice and neutral for five hundred years. She won¡¯t change that easily.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you two are rather irresponsible parents,¡± Roger said mockingly, ¡°Making Ash have to choose between mommy and daddy as soon as they became aware of themselves. Quite the conundrum you two have put them in.¡±

    Lira flushed in the darkness, ¡°Roger! She was practically born as an adult! She¡¯s not my, our, any¡­ she¡¯s part of the group! We shouldn¡¯t treat her like a kid. Then she might feel bad, like she¡¯s not properly an equal part of the group with the rest of us.¡±

    ¡°Ah, just teasing,¡± Roger said, ¡°I don¡¯t think Ash really cares. They would have done something by now if it bothered them. You¡¯ve certainly told them they could say something if it bothered them enough times over the years. And that it was a joke and neither of you really would care if they chose the other gender.¡±

    Lira settled down slightly, mentally kicking herself that she had let Roger rile her up so easily, ¡°That¡¯s true. She¡¯s not afraid to express her opinion when she has one.¡±

    ¡°Right. Also true.¡±

    They sat in relative silence as the conversation came to a natural end. Only the rhythmic sound of slicing blades into their flesh and the squirming of the grubs below filled the ¡®room¡¯ they were in.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Roger asked suddenly, ¡°I¡¯ve been wanting to talk to you about something for a while now. It¡¯s about the person that we¡¯ve been setting up the transmitters for.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m a captive audience,¡± Lira replied.

    ¡°Nice! Good one. Anyway, what do we actually know about her? I get that Sean feels some kind of debt to her, but most people on Immortus station hate her with a passion. They were more than happy to tell me how evil she was when I asked them about her. We know what Sean¡¯s told us, but she could be manipulating him. It just doesn¡¯t sit right with me that there¡¯s no good reason for people hating her so much. It doesn¡¯t make sense, she must be hiding something more.¡±

    ¡°But Sean gave us the reason. The Plaguebringers worship her for some reason, and so everyone keeps associating her with them.¡±

    ¡°But that¡¯s just it,¡± Roger replied, ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m confused about. Why? Why would they worship her specifically? There are plenty of truly ancient Immortals like her floating around the galaxy. Why would the Plaguebringers be both hunting down and be so obsessed with worshiping only her among all of them? To the point that nearly every Plaguebringer that the people at the station met, used her name before launching at least one of their attacks. It just doesn¡¯t sit right with me, and I think that maybe the people on Immortus station are on to something. Maybe some of the older ones know something that the rest of us don¡¯t.¡±

    Lira shifted uncomfortably. It had bothered her too, even if she couldn¡¯t put into exact words like Roger had just done.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said, ¡°But Sean needs to see her, let her know that everyone doesn¡¯t hate her. He feels like it¡¯s part of the debt he owes her for helping him out so much when he became Immortal. I¡¯m sure she has secrets, but so does everyone. It¡¯s not fair to expect her to have told Sean everything after only knowing each other for a few months. Maybe she¡¯s just misunderstood like Sean thinks she is.¡±

    ¡°Like Sean thinks? You don¡¯t agree?¡±

    Lira didn¡¯t speak for a moment and measured her response.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. We shouldn¡¯t rush to judge her. Who knows what kinds of things she¡¯s been through, being that old? Maybe she just really cared about Sean being her friend. Her life sounded very lonely from what Sean said.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully she wasn¡¯t trying to get him as her man too,¡± Roger said before snorting, ¡°You¡¯ve got him locked down. And I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll hiss loud enough if she starts trying to move in on your territory.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not some sort of feral cat,¡± Lira said, mildly offended at the comparison.

    ¡°When it comes to Sean you are,¡± Roger countered before mimicking a screeching cat, ¡°Mreeaaaawwwwww,¡±

    ¡°Ugh. You¡¯re impossible, I¡¯m not that bad.¡±

    ¡°Tell that to all the interested village girls around the galaxy. You sure glared hard enough to scare them off when they so much as looked Sean¡¯s way.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought,¡± Roger said smugly as Lira didn¡¯t respond, ¡°One point to Roger.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re doing points now? How about I start by reminding you of all the embarrassing things you¡¯ve done over the years? How many points will I get then?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you think you¡¯re the only one with material? Bring it on. Without Ash¡¯s cute little nonexistent ears around, we can really get into it and see who¡¯s done more that we¡¯re embarrassed about.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± Lira said with a smile unseen by Roger in the darkness, ¡°How about that bar on Ilrusta¡­¡±

    They laughed and joked, and as time passed the two of them slowly forgot their dark surroundings and started just enjoying unfettered conversation where they could be as vulgar as they liked and talk about all sorts of things they would never say in front of Ash or even Sean to an extent. Even when they had spoken before over the years, they hadn¡¯t been nearly this open or comfortable with each other.

    Something about the perfect darkness and their shared situation had just loosened their inhibitions and let them talk freely. And with them both knowing they were just friends and had no interest from either of them for more, there was no reason to hold back on the more explicit jokes or jabs with each other either. They had resolved that particular little potential conflict years and years ago. It was inevitable that it had come up with how much time the three of them spent together over the years.

    But the free, vulgar conversation between her and Roger was fun for Lira. She never got to engage with that kind of no holds barred, verbal battle before with anyone. It was freeing in a way, if a little awkward when one of them accidentally went too far and actually hurt the other¡¯s feelings.

    At the end of their first conversation, Roger ended up winning one hundred and ten points to ninety six. And he wouldn¡¯t let her forget it anytime soon. He really enjoyed rubbing it into her face whenever he got the chance as their wandering conversation moved onwards to all sorts of other topics¡­

 Chapter 26: Into the Nest

    Sean paced nervously in the ship, wearing a groove in the floor as he walked in a circle. He had categorized everything in the ship, there was nothing that could be used to create any weapons that would be useful. But that would have been fine. But there also wasn¡¯t enough material to give Ash a new body, no matter how simple.

    Sean had run the numbers multiple times and the truth was that even if he had the right components he didn¡¯t have any of the right equipment to actually build the thing. The shuttle was designed for two purposes only. Transporting them in and out of the atmosphere, and second blowing up enemy ships that got in its way of trying to do that with its inbuilt weapons.

    The shuttle could take two, maybe even three of the ships surrounding him long enough to escape to orbit and the main ship. But there were fifteen, he would be shot down before he made even a single hostile move. And for all that time Lira and Roger would have who knows what happening to them right now.

    ¡°Call from the planetary government.¡±

    Sean went up to the front. ¡°Ship, answer call.¡±

    The line opened and the person on the other side immediately began speaking, ¡°Hello. This is the sector Immortal Council Enforcer Team on the line. We¡¯ve just arrived in the system. The planetary government has already told us their side of the story. What do you have to say to defend yourself?¡±

    ¡°My two friends, who are also Immortals, were captured by the swarm of massive beetles that created a massive tunnel system underneath the point where I bombed. One was already too deep, but, I¡­ I had hoped that the other might be caught in the blast so I could rescue her. I failed and I¡¯ve been stuck here unable to help them as the swarm has time to do whatever it wants with them. They dragged us down as soon as they realized that we were Immortals.¡±

    ¡°A likely story. Like the Endless Flesh would have a colony this far into the galaxy without anyone knowing about it.¡±

    ¡°What? The Endless what?¡±

    ¡°Many people make the mistake, but most beasts are just hungry. They don¡¯t know how to handle endlessly regenerating food, but they try to eat it anyway. But those beetles were not targeting you because you were Immortals but simply because you were nearby and were confused on what to do with you.¡±

    ¡°They didn¡¯t seem that confused when they worked together to drag my friends underground to the center of their nest.¡±

    ¡°An understandable mistake. Simple behaviors can look rather complex when you aren¡¯t paying close attention,¡± the Enforcer said condescendingly.

    ¡°Alright, fine,¡± Sean snapped, ¡°Why don¡¯t you go down there and see just how simple their behavior is for yourselves?¡±

    ¡°Well, that was the plan. Pretty simple case. We drop in, retrieve your friends, and then decide what to do about you dropping that antimatter bomb.¡±

    ¡°Fine. But don¡¯t forget to save my friends while you¡¯re at it. Can you get the local government to let me fly up to my real ship? I¡¯m¡­¡±

    Best to not say anything that might make them refuse.

    ¡°...Bored stiff in this tiny shuttle. I need a distraction to keep my mind off of things.¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t see why not,¡± the Enforcer said, ¡°But if we detect you moving out of the system we¡¯ll catch you and destroy your whole precious ship before you can make it out. Then you¡¯ll be in real trouble when we drag you back for sentencing. It will still take us a few days to arrive at the planet, so don¡¯t think we won¡¯t see you running. You get it?¡±

    ¡°Perfectly. Can I go?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we¡¯ll clear it with them. Just wait an hour or two first and then go. Better for everyone if you¡¯re off planet to help calm down the local mortals anyway. You¡¯ve whipped them up into quite the frenzy after dropping that bomb.¡±

    Well, I should expect so. Sean thought silently before eventually replying.

    ¡°Understood. Just be careful down there and good luck on saving my friends.¡±

    The comms clicked as the Enforcer ended the call.

    <hr>

    Sean finally was able to lift off his shuttle and return to the main ship after the local government gave him the all clear. At least he had something to do now rather than worrying about his friends.

    He immediately started working on creating a new body for Ash. It wouldn¡¯t be the same as his old one, but it would make do. It would have to use an oversized bank of batteries that ended up looking like an bulky backpack on the robotic frame.

    The only thing that Sean took extra care to install was the nanite factory. That was essential in making sure that Ash could repair his brain and make sure he could stay up and running.

    The new frame was bulky, didn¡¯t have any weapons, and its grip strength would be just barely above that of most normal humans. But it should be good enough for now until the emergency was over and Sean could help Ash make a better one. He should bring in Lira and Roger to help them next time, it would be a good group activity¡­

    Sean shook his head. They would be fine. He had to focus on this next part. He tightened the screws and slowly fastened Ash¡¯s old head to the new frame that he had built over the last few days. If he messed this up, then Ash wouldn¡¯t be able to properly control his new body.

    Sean finalized everything and waited as the body started twitching and performing a diagnostic. Ash¡¯s eyes lit up and he looked around the room before slowly standing to his feet with the whir of motors.

    ¡°This body is subpar,¡± Ash stated flatly, ¡°What is the situation? What is the plan to retrieve Roger? Where is Lira?¡±

    Sean quickly explained what had happened, and Ash¡¯s eye flickered for a moment as he processed everything.

    ¡°This is not ideal.¡±

    ¡°Tell me about it. Even if the Enforcers save them I¡¯ll still end up going to the Immortal Council prison. And they don¡¯t even know who I am yet. We are probably wanted for our escape from Immortus Station¡­¡±

    ¡°It seems we have no chance of saving Roger and Lira directly. We must instead prepare for our escape when they are finally retrieved. I¡¯m sure that the Enforcers are well versed in combat and will be able to save them quickly.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ Yes, they must be. You¡¯re right as always, Ash. I¡¯ve been too focused on rebuilding you to focus on that part.¡±

    ¡°Well now that it is done we can begin planning,¡± Ash declared, ¡°We must make the most efficient use of our time. I will focus on planning ideal escape routes to the edge of the system while you attempt to manufacture as much ammunition as possible for our weapons in the time we have left.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ash,¡± Sean said as the worry within him slowly started dying down. Ash¡¯s calm voice was soothing him, always focused on solutions. ¡°That sounds good. That¡¯s exactly what we need to do. Then all of us can escape together and forget that this ever happened.¡±

    <hr>

    The local Enforcer team for the Immortal Council finally reached the planet itself where the incident had occurred. From the information they had received it seems likely that the Immortal had simply panicked after his companions were taken and deployed weapons that he shouldn¡¯t have.

    Not that their leader Frederick cared all too much. It hadn¡¯t been dropped on a civilized area so he didn¡¯t see any reason to do anything but give him and his companions a firm lecture on responsibility. These mortals always got upset whenever an Immortal was involved no matter what they did, especially this planet. It was always so tiring.

    After detaining the Immortals, Frederick decided he would scan them to see if they were wanted for any other crimes. If not he would let them off with a warning for next time. Frederick thought it over. Yes, that should tie this thing up nice and in a bow as long as nothing else changed in the meantime. Another easy mission, much less paperwork that way too.

    ¡°The Immortal¡¯s ship remains in orbit, no sign of movement?¡± Frederick confirmed.

    ¡°Yes, sir. Nothing suspicious so far.¡±

    ¡°Excellent. Hopefully he doesn¡¯t do anything stupid. Satiana, you stay on the ship for now. The rest of us will go down to get the other two from the nest.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir!¡± The rest called out before moving to suit up, including Frederick. Only Satiana remained behind to monitor the ship and make sure the other Immortal didn¡¯t make a run for it.

    They all stepped into their power armor and made their way down to the surface. Frederick was fully relaxed as they entered the tunnels with their headlamps on. Their suits created a holographic map that generated a view of their surroundings and a few of their surroundings so they were unlikely to get lost on their way back.

    The group of five made their way downward, the tunnels silent around them. Frederick wondered idly if the whole colony of insects had been killed by the radiation from the anti-matter bomb. That would make their job a lot easier. But their suits were machines of war, there was no way for any colony of normal insects to take them on.

    Frederick thought about the Immortal¡¯s attempt to exaggerate by implying that this was a colony of the Endless Flesh. Clearly an attempt for him to get out of trouble. Things were peaceful in this sector and Frederick kept it that way. There was no way a colony would be able to establish itself without at least a few of the mortals knowing about it first and alerting him.

    They continued through the tunnels deeper into the ground. Still no sign of the swarm. They were far from the point of the deadly radiation by now, and Frederick made a signal to the rest of the squad. These beasts might just be smart enough to set up an ambush.

    Sure enough, a few minutes later, the attack came. Skittering legs and churning dirt from all sides as the swarm descended on them all at once.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Frederick raised his weapon connected by a cable to his arm and power armor battery supply.

    ¡°Fire at will,¡± he said, ¡°Hold your ground until the beasts exhaust themselves.¡±

    The rest of the squad nodded. Some oversized bugs wouldn¡¯t scare them after everything they¡¯d been through together.

    The massive emerald backed beetles rounded the corner, jaws clicking and their round bodies charging full speed towards them, so thick that Frederick couldn¡¯t see the tunnel ground below them.

    Frederick opened his gun and opened fire. If these bugs thought they could outlast his squad then they had another thing coming. They could go for days.

    And they did.

    Days later, Frederick was growing worried. They were still pushing ever downwards in search of the two missing Immortals. It all wasn¡¯t steady going, often they got turned around or took a dead end path, until backtracking to find a tunnel that led farther down.

    But despite his initial expectations, the assault by the swarm didn¡¯t let up for a single moment for the entire time they descended. Their armor was scratched and had a few dented plates, but other than that they were mostly unharmed. Even now Frederick fired again to clear the path forward from more of their charred bodies. He checked his energy levels. Sixty percent power left. The rest of his squad was likely the same.

    Their scanners were still mapping the maze of tunnels, and a few hours ago had detected a large chamber far below them that they had been making their way towards. If the Immortals were anywhere then they would be there.

    They continued fighting their way down, slaughtering every insect that dared stand in their way even as the bugs kept rushing in on them from all sides. This was far beyond the numbers of a nest from even the most aggressive beasts you would usually see.

    But it was still possible that it was natural, so Frederick kept them pushing onwards. It couldn¡¯t be the Endless Flesh. Someone would have noticed before now if it was that.

    Finally, they were almost in the chamber when suddenly things changed. Pinpricks of green light began fluttering towards them and Frederick heard the rush of wings. One landed on his shoulder before he could react and exploded into a small burst of sizzling liquid. Frederick saw the metal on his shoulder pit and warp slightly where the strong acid ate slightly into its surface. It didn¡¯t do much damage with just one, but if the whole swarm managed to hit them¡­

    He didn¡¯t hesitate for a second and adjusted his weapon for a wide spray.

    ¡°Small flyer swarm! Acid release on impact,¡± He called out, ¡°Jack and I¡¯ll go wide to take them out, everyone else keep on the larger beetles. I think I have to call it. This is an Endless Flesh swarm.¡±

    ¡°Sir? Are you sure? You know the consequences of being wrong,¡± Jack said as he fired a wide spray of plasma almost like fire into the green specs flying towards them from an adjoining tunnel.

    Frederick hesitated, ¡°We¡¯ll keep pushing forward. If one more variant appears, we retreat. We¡¯ve trained for this, we can handle them if they only have this much.¡±

    ¡°Understood.¡±

    Frederick blasted the green specks in front while Jack covered their sides. The other three kept taking out the ones they had been fighting ever since reaching the surface.

    They fought, one of the small bugs occasionally slipping through and exploding and causing even more damage to their armor. Frederick wasn¡¯t worried yet, but if this went on for a few more hours then one of them might be in trouble for when they had to fight their way back to the surface.

    They reached the large chamber and went inside, and oddly they weren¡¯t attacked, the swarm melting away as soon they reached it. Suspicious.

    ¡°Weapons at the ready,¡± Frederick called, ¡°Make sure to watch the ceiling for anything dropping from above.¡±

    But as they kept going inwards, there was nothing except a flat expanse and an empty chamber.

    ¡°Seems like a dud,¡± Frederick said, ¡°Anything else on the scans? Maybe there¡¯s¡­¡±

    The floor rumbled and before Frederick could realize what was happening they were all falling downwards. He tried to engage his thrusters, but they were already sputtering and sparking as the massive vat of acid he had fallen into ate away at them.

    It had all been a trap, the damn bugs had set a collapsing floor trap over the acid below¡­ Frederick could only try to swim towards the wall as his power armor¡¯s systems began to fail one by one. He was bombarded by damage alerts, but before he could reach the side, his armor froze as the acid finally reached the battery and started eating through it.

    Frederick began to sink, but his body twisted around before he went under. He managed to see that Jack and Rana had managed to activate their thrusters in time and were fighting off the swarm that had come back to attack even more furiously than before.

    He got on the comms and spoke to them as he started slipping into the acid.

    ¡°Jack, Rana. Retreat and get reinforcements. We need to alert the Council.¡±

    ¡°But sir!¡±

    Frederick¡¯s display began to fizz as acid started pouring from a hole it had eaten in the neck of the suit.

    ¡°Do it. That¡¯s an order.¡±

    ¡°Understood, We¡¯ll beeeee baaaaaaaa-¡±

    The comms stuttered as acid started flowing in and eating away at the suit internals. Frederick sighed. He would be in so much shit when his superiors heard about this¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°...No, Roger. We shouldn¡¯t give Ash a wig. That would be taking the decision of who she wants to be away from her! If she wants a wig then we should wait until she asks for one. Whatever style we give her would be the person she thought we wanted her to be!¡±

    ¡°Well, you have to admit it would be pretty funny and help you win over Sean for their¡ª Wait, did you hear that?¡±

    Lira strained her ears, but only heard the snick of blades and usual gurgling of the inside of the creature.

    ¡°No, what is it?¡± she whispered.

    ¡°I thought I heard¡ª Wait, there! I heard it again. I think more of those big bugs are coming.¡±

    ¡°What do you think they want?¡± Lira whispered back.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but let¡¯s try being quiet. Maybe if we don¡¯t say anything they¡¯ll pass right by us.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    They waited for a few minutes and heard deep male shouting and what sounded like someone being carried towards them by more of the beetles.

    And it wasn¡¯t just one, there were at least two or three people all fighting together against the large beetles dragging them in.

    ¡°Don¡¯t speak,¡± Roger whispered so softly so Lira could barely hear him, ¡°See what they say when they think they¡¯re alone.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± She said back.

    They waited as the shouting people were presumably put in their places in the fleshy walls.

    There was a moment of silence before a deep male voice spoke.

    ¡°Call out. Everyone here?¡±

    ¡°Ratul,¡± a man called out from the darkness

    ¡°Listri,¡± a woman called out as well.

    ¡°All right, all in one chamber,¡± the original man said, ¡°I think we can firmly say that this is a colony of the Endless Flesh.¡±

    ¡°You think, sir?¡± Listri said sarcastically, ¡°I couldn¡¯t tell by the fleshy walls and being stuck in this wall like a Shadow damned fly on a web.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not all bad,¡± Ratul said positively, ¡°This far in the interior it has no support. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll make it out of here in no time. Frederick, you saw Jack and Rana escape right? I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll get the word out.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, Ratul,¡± the original man said, ¡°They¡¯ll make sure that¡ª FUCK!¡±

    The other two shouted in concern, but the original man, Frederick, quickly spoke again to calm them down.

    ¡°Wait, wait. I¡¯m fine, both of you. One of those damn bugs just ran by and hit my junk as it went. I was just surprised.¡±

    Lira froze and resisted the urge to laugh.

    ¡°Anyway, as I was saying, SHADOW DAMN IT!¡±

    Lira let out a suppressed whine, barely able to hold herself back as the man shouted again.

    ¡°By the Shadow I wish I could stomp these little things,¡± Frederick grumbled, ¡°Rana and Jack better come back qui¡ª GAHHHH! STOP IT YOU DAMN INSECTS, I¡¯ve¡ª¡±

    Lira couldn¡¯t hold herself back anymore and burst out laughing, tears rolling down her face as she laughed at Frederick. She could hear Roger howling along with her in the background, each of them feeding off of each other and making them each laughing even harder.

    ¡°Damn, he must be a stud,¡± Roger said just as they both calmed down slightly, sending them both erupting into laughter again, each of them gasping for breath as they laughed.

    ¡°HEY WHAT¡¯S THIS¡ª¡±

    Lira ignored Frederick and couldn¡¯t control herself as she just kept laughing and laughing hysterically, tears coming from her eyes. The bugs started stabbing them again in the meantime, but Lira and Roger barely even noticed. But eventually the two of them calmed down enough that they could register what this Frederick was saying.

    ¡°Stop laughing you two, this isn¡¯t funny! I¡¯m an enforcer, you can¡¯t treat me with this kind of disrespect!¡± Frederick said angrily, grunting a bit as one of those bugs presumably hit his junk again as it made its way by.

    ¡°Uhm, the bugs aren¡¯t hitting my junk sir,¡± Ratul said, ¡°It seems to only be you.¡±

    ¡°Yea-Yeah,¡± Roger gasped, ¡°He¡¯s¡ª he¡¯s probably too¡ª Big! Hahahahaha.¡±

    ¡°Hahahahaha All- Allright, Roger. That¡¯s, hehehe. Enough,¡± Lira managed to say with only a little giggle in the middle there, ¡°He¡¯s suffering enough already.¡±

    ¡°Damn right I am,¡± Frederick grumbled, ¡°It¡¯s bothering me more than these blades at this point.¡±

    Lira couldn¡¯t stop herself from giggling again as he grumbled.

    ¡°Yeah laugh it up, you two,¡± Frederick said, ¡°That¡¯s the thanks we get for coming down to save your asses.¡±

    ¡°Great job you did there,¡± Roger piped in, sounding a little more serious now, ¡°Getting trapped in here with us is real helpful.¡±

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t worry,¡± Frederick said, ¡°In a few weeks the Immortal Council will arrive and bomb these things until they are in tiny little pieces. Our companions definitely made it to the surface and will tell them to come.¡±

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s that at least,¡± Lira said encouragingly to Roger, ¡°After the first team was captured, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll take it more seriously next time and really save us.¡±

    ¡°With how they treated you, who knows,¡± Roger grumbled, ¡°Maybe this is just more kiddie shit that they won¡¯t take seriously. Part of being Immortal and whatnot.¡±

    Lira frowned, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare bring that up, Roger. Especially around strangers.¡±

    ¡°Er, Sorry,¡± Roger said, sounding suddenly guilty, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it like that. Really, that¡¯s¡­ Sorry. I wasn¡¯t thinking. Forgot they were here. Lira, I never¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Lira said even though it wasn¡¯t. She could chew him out later after they were in private when they got out of this place. He should know better than to talk about what had happened on Immortus Station around her. Around strangers. Now her good mood was ruined because he had let his tongue slip.

    The three enforcers were silent as they listened in on them.

    ¡°You don¡¯t approve of the Immortal Council?¡± Frederick asked in an odd, almost confused tone after the two of them were silent for a moment.

    ¡°No,¡± Lira said, ¡°We don¡¯t.¡± No point in denying it now.

    ¡°Why?¡± Frederick asked again as if genuinely wondering.

    ¡°None of your business,¡± Roger said harshly, ¡°Enforcer.¡±

    ¡°Well, it''s sort of my job to manage our reputation in the sector. Among other things,¡± Frederick said, ¡°I¡¯ve never met an Immortal with such a negative opinion of us. Besides people being arrested of course. But usually that''s more annoyance than actual dislike of the Immortal Council as a whole. The Council does so much for the galaxy and to fight off the Plaguebringers. That¡¯s why I joined up. Why would you dislike them?¡±

    ¡°What about none of your business don¡¯t you get?¡± Roger replied, ¡°Back. Off.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    ¡°Sir, I¡¯d leave it be,¡± Listri said, ¡°I understand you¡¯re new to this, but not everyone loves the Immortal Council for all sorts of reasons. We¡¯re all stuck here, may as well play nice.¡±

    ¡°Not love,¡± Frederick argued, ¡°But to actively dislike them when they¡­¡±

    ¡°Sir, I¡¯d give it up,¡± Ratul added, ¡°You¡¯re only on your first tour. We¡¯ve both been on at least five. Trust us when we say it''s not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to them.¡±

    Frederick paused for a moment, leaving all of them relatively silent besides the sound of blades in flesh and the plop of guts on the floor.

    ¡°Fine. Sorry you two¡ª Roger and Lira. I¡¯ll trust my squadmates on this, I suppose. Agree to disagree?¡±

    Roger waited in silence, and Lira realized that he was waiting for her to answer.

    ¡°Fine,¡± She eventually said shortly.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Roger added a second later.

    Eventually, Lira and Roger began talking with the Enforcers a little. But it felt forced and their conversations were strained compared to the easy comfort that Lira and Roger had from before.

 Chapter 27: Reinforcements

    ¡°Sean, unknown ship has arrived at the edge of the system.¡±

    ¡°Is it the Immortal Council? I thought their reinforcements weren¡¯t supposed to arrive for days still.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Ash said, ¡°The ship appears to have a non-standard design and the Immortal Enforcer vessel appears to be activating their weapons systems.¡±

    ¡°Non-standard how? Do we have any images?¡±

    Ash swiped at the display and a three d model appeared of the ship, and Sean immediately saw what Ash meant. He had never seen anything like it before. Where most space ships were sleek and smooth, this thing was spiky and jagged. Long antennae and long barrels of weapons poked from every surface of the thing, only the cockpit window and thrusters left clear of them. It looked almost cobbled together, rusted and ancient weapons mixed with shiny new ones.

    ¡°The weapons of that ship are warming up as well,¡± Ash said, ¡°It appears that the two ships are communicating with each other.¡±

    Ash and Sean could only speculate on what was happening for the next day or so as the strange ship barreled at massive speeds towards them.

    Once the two ships were close enough, the new ship erupted in weapons fire, absolutely bathing the Enforcer ship with their shots. The Enforcer¡¯s ship¡¯s shields flashed brightly as they fought back the assault that managed to slip by their point defense systems.

    ¡°Should we help them?¡± Ash asked.

    ¡°No. They¡¯ll only think we¡¯re joining in on attacking the Enforcer,¡± Sean said and continued watching.

    But the assault just kept coming, an endless wave of shots blasting into the Enforcer ship as it feebly tried to fight back. In only a few minutes, the shield was overloaded and flickered off, shattering the ship into debris.

    More shots kept pouring into the wreck, pushing it into the planet¡¯s atmosphere where it began to burn up and fall down to the surface below.

    Over a hundred mortal ships began slowly rising out of the atmosphere towards the attacking ship, minutes away from engaging en masse.

    ¡°Open comms,¡± Ash said, ¡°It¡¯s from the attacker.¡±

    ¡°Hey, all you mortals,¡± a male voice said over the line, ¡°I¡¯ve got no problem with you lot. I¡¯m just here for the Endless Flesh. Unless you want to go boom like the asshole over there, I¡¯d back off.¡±

    There was some silence. Probably the planetary government answering directly rather than on an open line.

    ¡°Yeah, whatever,¡± the man said, ¡°I don¡¯t care. I could take on fleets four times your size without breaking a sweat. Honestly, those ships are just trash. Can their shields even take two or three real hits? I mean it¡¯s just sort of sad really. But I don¡¯t want to waste my ammunition on all of you, so you go your own way and I¡¯ll go mine, yeah?¡±

    The planetary fleet exited the atmosphere, but they didn¡¯t immediately fire on the hostile ship, instead circling around warily.

    ¡°Yeah, yeah. I get it,¡± the man said, ¡°We fight if I go towards a settlement or whatever. I¡¯ll be pissed if you try to attack me when I¡¯m down there. Talk to you never.¡±

    ¡°Direct comms request,¡± Ash said, ¡°From the hostile ship. Should we take the call?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sean said, ¡°Who knows what he¡¯ll do if we don¡¯t answer. I don¡¯t like our chances if he decides to attack us. But audio only.¡±

    ¡°Hey, you. You¡¯re the Immortal that found the nest, right?¡± the man said.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me. My two friends are still down there. Along with most of the enforcer squad that went to retrieve them.¡±

    ¡°Hahahaha. I can¡¯t believe those assholes actually got caught. Galaxy¡¯s finest my ass. Well, I suppose it¡¯s best to go down and clean up the mess. I¡¯m sure this is nothing a little plague won¡¯t solve.¡±

    ¡°Plague?¡± Sean blurted out, ¡°Are you a Plaguebringer?¡±

    ¡°Oooooh? Someone had a bad experience with us? Did the stiff suits in Immortus Station do a good job in shoveling their propaganda down your throat? Not that I blame you, I wish I could go to Immortus Station too and live it up.¡±

    ¡°No, one of you assholes attacked one of my friends,¡± Sean replied angrily.

    ¡°Huh? We did? Now, that¡¯s interesting. I thought the files said you were just a little baby bird? Let¡¯s check¡­ Oh, yeah. Not even a thousand! Wow, you really are young. I just kind of skimmed it before, it¡¯s such a pain to read them through every time. I wonder who it was that¡¯s made you so upset? Ah, but now I feel a little bad for yelling at you.¡±

    The man shifted into a high pitched blubbery tone as one would when talking to a baby,

    ¡°Now where would a little baby like you meet a big mean Plaguebringer like me? Where¡¯s your mommy and daddy? They shouldn¡¯t have let you wander off so far from home.¡±

    Sean gritted his teeth, but didn¡¯t reply to the man¡¯s goading.

    ¡°Well, whatever,¡± the Plaguebringer continued in a more normal tone, ¡°Don¡¯t answer. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s in the file somewhere when I finally bother reading it through. But for now I guess I¡¯ll go down there and start fucking some shit up. Nyx Vesper out. Bye bye for now.¡±

    The Plaguebringer severed the call, and Ash and Sean were left in silence.

    ¡°Well, at least he seems intent on retrieving our companions and destroying the nest,¡± Ash said positively.

    ¡°That¡¯s true,¡± Sean admitted, ¡°That¡¯s one way to look at it.¡±

    <hr>

    Nyx Vesper shifted to adjust the weight of the incubation tanks on his back. All those old school fossils wearing those uncomfortable isolation suits all the time, no way Nyx was doing that again. He felt like he¡¯d been constantly itching for the thousand years he had tried it out. Yeah, the external tanks were a little less effective than doing it in your body. But who cares? From Nyx¡¯s experience, it still worked.

    Not to mention the suit coming in the way of his fun in battle. The isolation suits were too thick and bulky to really get the full experience and rush from combat for him. He was much more comfortable now in just a clothing band and some basic equipment. He had modified it slightly with some lights around the collar so he would be able to see once he really got going into the tunnels. It was no fun having to fight in the total dark.

    Especially with his combat style. He reached to his side and pulled out the two glowing and superheated swords, one in each hand. Sure, he had a few grenades and a pistol or two on him, but where was the fun in that? It wasn¡¯t like it mattered if he won or not. He just had to get deep enough that the plague would infect enough of the Endless Flesh that one of them would infect the breeder at the center. Why not enjoy himself as he went?

    Nyx walked into the tunnel and adjusted the two valves on his shoulder and air started blowing out softly from the twin containers on his back. There, now he could fight like he wanted and disperse his plagues at the same time.

    He went deeper, and none of the insects attacked or revealed themselves yet. Nyx could hear the occasional noise in the distance as one of them shuffled, thinking he was unaware of them. Damn, those enforcers really had been idiots, hadn¡¯t they? Nyx bet they had just gone stomping in, letting themselves get jumped by surprise like a bunch of losers.

    Not Nyx, Nyx was getting ambushed on purpose. It was completely different.

    As he got deeper in, suddenly the area around him burst into noise as the insects started moving in on him from all sides. Nyx clashed his swords together in a spray of sparks and then took a stance, his incubation tanks continuing to spray out more disease with every second.

    The first beetle rounded the corner and Nyx leapt forward and with a single slice removed its head from its body. There was another behind it, so Nyx leapt up on top of the dead beetle¡¯s shell. His glowing blades sliced and diced as the creatures kept coming from all sides.

    When the pile of bodies grew too high, Nyx dived off and carved his path through the beetles. He wasn¡¯t perfect, and the creatures got off a few good bites on him, but Nyx didn¡¯t mind. All it did was deplete his clothing band¡¯s nanites a little bit.

    Nyx felt his smile grow as he started getting more into the carnage. He struck furiously to clear some space for himself before brandishing his swords in the air. He knew there was no one else around to see him, but he felt cool doing it so he went ahead anyway.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    ¡°Hahaha! Get fucked! I¡¯m gonna stomp every last one of you!¡±

    He shouted before jumping back into battle, a savage grin on his face. He was so Shadow damned cool¡­

    <hr>

    Nyx let out a wide blast of plasma from his pistol from his pistol to incinerate more of those acid bugs swarming in on him even as he slashed at one of the larger ones with the sword in his other hand.

    It was unfortunate he could no longer go all the way with dual wielding the swords, but he could admit that the pistol and sword were pretty good too. Several of the smaller flowing insects landed on Nyx and promptly exploded into their acidic payload.

    He twisted so they wouldn¡¯t hit his incubation tanks, but other than that it wasn¡¯t too much of an issue. He kept fighting. If he kept fighting towards wherever the bugs were the densest he would probably reach the center eventually.

    Not that he was too worried about it, he was enjoying the combat too much for that. He noted with satisfaction that the swarm was dragging away the bodies of their dead compatriots after Nyx had fought his way past them. That should let all of the diseases spread quickly, hopefully even to the main breeder itself¡­

    Eventually Nyx lost his right incubation tank, and with such a high concentration of bacteria and viruses, the insects around him instantly began to twitch and shrivel up when it was punctured. That let Nyx proceed farther inside the nest as the reinforcements were infected by the diseases as well, quickly dying and spreading the plague even farther.

    But while suicidal, the creatures weren¡¯t totally stupid, so after a few minutes of rushing into their diseased fellows and dying as well, their small brains finally realized what was happening. After that they just avoided the area and waited for Nyx to get far away from the festering pile of diseased bodies he had left behind him. He still had one tank left, luckily.

    Nyx shifted his weight and shifted his last incubation tank so it was centered on his back. He had been fighting for a while now, he was probably close. He checked his belt for his three grenades and his second sheathed sword. His pistol and active sword were still in his hands, ready just in case the swarm tried burrowing out of the walls again to try to surprise him.

    All of his gear was a little worse for wear, but all of it appeared to still be working. He could hear the pattering of limbs on the floor in the distance. It seems he was far enough away that the swarm was moving in for another attack. Just one last stretch, then he would be fighting the big one. Now that would be a real battle.

    <hr>

    Nyx flicked a little chunk of gore from his shoulder. He had been coated in the stuff for days, it was like a second skin by now, covering all of him red. But he still tried to remove the larger clinging bits when he could. He had to wipe his eye occasionally to make sure it wouldn¡¯t block his vision. But this was it. He could hear the big creature below shaking the ground as it no doubt prepared for his arrival.

    Usually they were more intelligent, so it had likely realized that sending more fodder wouldn¡¯t end up slowing Nyx down that much now that he was so close. And despite how massive this nest was, the creatures were despite their name, not quite endless. It had likely had enough time to recycle most of the flesh from the beetles killed by the Enforcer team, but with Nyx infecting most of the bodies with disease the breeder wouldn¡¯t be able consume them to replenish their numbers again. They would probably rush him as soon as he set foot in the massive chamber he knew was below. More room to use their numbers advantage even as the breeder attacked him directly.

    Nyx took a deep breath and shifted his incubation tank on his back. Here it was. The most important part of the mission. If he failed this part then he¡¯d be like those enforcer chumps, and end up captured himself.

    All the disease he had released up to this point would decrease the colony¡¯s growth for a while and buy some time for more reinforcements to come here if they had to. But the big one would be smart enough to isolate itself and probably survive to rebuild the swarm again, and with five captured Immortals fueling it it would regrow pretty fast if it just decided to migrate somewhere else and rebuild from scratch.

    Well, nothing for it. Time for the big battle. Nyx flicked his wrist so his sword came up in front of him, and then with a massive grin he started running full speed.

    Lets goooooooo!

    <hr>

    Nyx came running into the giant chamber and stopped for a moment at seeing the titanic creature inside. It had swelled in size since the first Immortals had caught a glimpse of it. It now rose over seventy feet tall off of the ground even as its tubelike white form lay on the ground. Truly massive. Nyx¡¯s little lights shooting out from his neck didn¡¯t even fully light up its form as it loomed above him, most of its body still shrouded in shadow.

    Nyx ran forward and fired his pistol on a tight blast right onto its reddish head. The massive creature flinched slightly even if it only scorched its reddish chitin a little bit. It opened its massive jaws and then¡­ it screamed.

    ¡°SHRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!¡±

    The sound was so loud that the tunnels around them shook and Nyx was blasted back by the pure power of the shriek. His ears popped and bled as he hit the far wall with force, cracking several of his bones. He fell to the floor a second later, luckily managing to hold onto his weapons as he did so.

    Just as he had predicted, Nyx could hear the rush of the larger swarm moving in on him from all sides to harry him even as the grub lurched towards him at full speed. It was so large it looked like an oncoming wall rather than a single creature.

    Nyx unhooked his incubation chamber from his back and hefted it over his shoulder as he stood. Now to deliver the goods¡­

    The massive jaws opened and the grub lifted off of the ground slightly as it towered over him. A second later it darted forward and Nyx threw the canister at it before diving to the side.

    He almost made it. He was far enough away that as the grub slammed its head into the wall before sweeping its jaws to the side towards where he went, that it only managed to crush his back half.

    Nyx looked through the gloom as his legs regenerated. He rolled back to the side as the creature looked around, trying to spot him.

    The rest of the swarm was almost on Nyx, but he focused on the creature, his eyes darting around looking for the distinctive glint of metal. He didn¡¯t see it, and relaxed slightly. He had delivered the plague to the creature, it had swallowed the metal tank whole. Now it was only a matter of time before it died now, whether it took days or weeks to accomplish.

    Excellent, now he could really get into combat without anything else holding him back. Nyx fired his pistol as rapidly as he could as his legs finally finished healing under him and he made his way to his feet. He could hear the massive grub twisting towards him at the noise, but Nyx didn¡¯t let up as he charged towards the wave of oncoming smaller bugs pouring out from the nearby tunnels from all sides.

    His plasma shots scorched the large beetles heads, sending them stumbling to the side or outright killing them if Nyx was lucky. These stumbling bugs disrupted the charging line of them in that area, sending the ones behind piling up or stumbling around in confusion as their way was blocked.

    Nyx was almost in the pile of chaos when the ground behind him exploded as the grub tried to slam into him with its jaws piercing into the ground with earth shaking force.

    He kept firing his weapon until it finally clicked empty, out of power and giving up the game after so long. Nyx tossed it to the side without another thought as he leapt as high as he could on top of a dead beetle¡¯s domed shell. He pushed off of it, pushing forward and landing on top of it, almost slipping off its surface as it was buffeted by the confused beetles surrounding him on all sides. Nyx turned his head so he could eye the grub that had its large head fixed on him.

    Just as the swarm realized where he was, Nyx leapt into the air as high as he could as he saw the grub¡¯s head draw back slightly and its mandibles click in and out at a rapid pace.

    As Nyx was in mid air,

    ¡°SHRRIIIIIIIIIIIII!¡±

    The blast of sound hit him like a massive slap, sending his body flying through the air and across the chamber. He landed roughly among beetles still charging towards where they thought Nyx still was. He immediately used his sword to slice and dice the confused swarm before they could realize he was there.

    The swarm was confused, but after a few seconds they refocused and started attacking him again in earnest. Nyx took out his second sword and dual wielded, slicing wildly around him as they came at him from all sides, clearing a space around himself. About thirty feet away was a small tunnel that led away from the chamber.

    Nyx quickly started fighting towards it, making slow progress as the grub in the distance started charging towards him, crushing the smaller beetles below its bulk as it moved.

    He was fifteen feet away and the grub was getting closer. He kept moving forward, rolling through the gaps between the larger beetles and jumping and rolling over their large round shelled backs when he didn¡¯t see any, slicing with his blades all the way as he did so.

    Nyx¡¯s left blade flickered and then shut off as it ran out of power. Now only a normal blade, it wouldn¡¯t cut through the shells of the beetles fast enough. He threw it in front of him to bounce off the head of a beetle that leapt up from the ground to try to jump on top of him in the churning mosh pit around him.

    ¡°Hahahahaha!¡± Nyx laughed as he ducked and the beetle went sailing over him shaking its head in confusion as Nyx''s deactivated sword smacked it in the head. The beetle''s leap was thrown off course as it landed past him and flipped over on its back, only causing more confusion as the rest of the beetles tried to move around it behind Nyx.

    He was only down to one blade as he fought forward, now only ten feet away from the tunnel he was running for. He could feel the rush of air as the grub lurched towards him, undulating its body as it moved and crushing anything in his path.

    He rolled forward under another leaping beetle and then rolled to the side as the beetle next to him threw itself to the side in an attempt to throw him off of his feet. He made it to the tunnel and made it a few steps in before the world shook around him as the massive grub impacted the wall behind him, sending dirt trickling down from the ceiling.

    Nyx got to his feet and ran up the tunnel as behind him the grub rammed the wall again, shoving its head slightly deeper towards him through the small tunnel. He ran until he was deep enough that the creature wouldn¡¯t be able to break through to him anytime soon from its massive chamber it sat in.

    He raised his sword high in the air before laughing at the grub below. He could see it still thrashing its head and sticking its mandible in the tunnel in an attempt to dig it out and reach him.

    ¡°Hahahaha, FUCK YES! I DID that SHIT! I AM THE GREATEST! Shrivel up and DIE, FATASS! I¡¯m getting out of here and there¡¯s NOTHING you can do about it!¡±

    The grub paused in its attack and pulled back slightly, before its mandibles began twitching rapidly. Nyx smirked, turned, and started running up the tunnels.

    ¡°SHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!¡±

    The sound made Nyx stumble and the tunnel immediately behind him collapsed. But he was fine, left only with his remaining sword and a clothing band on him.

    He started running to the surface, whistling a happy tune as he did so. With the main swarm down below and playing catch up, Nyx was able to keep ahead of them easily. He only had to deal with the swarms of those little green acid bugs and the occasional large straggler leaping at him. His trusty sword took them out easily, although it was difficult keeping it away from the acid splashes of the smaller bugs. Nyx barely even noticed as the acid splashed over his skin, the damage healing in seconds.

    And easy as could be, hearing the oh so sweet wails and screams of the frustrated grub below him, Nyx escaped cleanly, his sword and clothes only just barely surviving the whole trip to the surface.

    Nyx went to his shuttle and walked inside with a bounce in his step. He hadn¡¯t had that much fun in millennia! Now all he had to do was wait and confirm that the thing was dead, and then he could be on his way again before more of those stuffy Immortal Council Enforcers showed up to claim credit for all of his hard work.

 Chapter 28: The Ascent

    The dark chamber rumbled around them and suddenly they were moving. The creature roared several times and thrashed, and then there was silence. After a few hours, the rumbling died down and the giant grub seemed to settle back into place.

    ¡°What do you think that was?¡± Lira asked.

    There was some muttering, but none of them could settle on an answer. The two leading theories were that Sean or Satiana, the Enforcer the rest of the Enforcer squad had left in orbit, had made an attempt to rescue them. Lira hoped that Sean hadn¡¯t risked himself like that. But whatever they had been trying, it seems they had failed considering all five of them were still trapped inside this thing.

    Eventually, Lira frowned as the blade entering her gut was off target, at an angle instead of straight in. The scooping motion after was slightly jerky, not the smooth factory line process like from before. As time went on, the jerkiness only became more and more pronounced, the limb becoming unsteady and feeble like that of an old woman reaching her two hundreds.

    There was a thump and then the creature that Lira had never seen fell to the ground in front of her.

    ¡°What was that? Lira, was that you?¡± Roger called out.

    ¡°Ye-yeah,¡± She said in surprise, ¡°I think my bug had a heart attack or something. It just collapsed to the floor.¡±

    ¡°Try to get out, maybe your gunk isn¡¯t working correctly either.¡±

    Lira strained forward with all of her might, tightening her core as she curled forward causing the goo around her to pull back equally as hard. ¡°Not feeling a difference yet,¡± she huffed out while continuing to strain forward. After a few minutes a foul smell wafted up into her nose and she sneezed. Had the thing below her just died? Why were the others not coming to drag away the body?

    ¡°Mine is twitching too,¡± Frederick reported, ¡°Its slices are growing sloppy.¡±

    The rest confirmed that all of their bugs were slowly beginning to act differently.

    The smell grew stronger around Lira and she felt the gelatin around her gradually softening, letting her make marginal progress in shifting forward. Finally with a gasp, she fell forward onto the ground with a wet sucking sound. She fell onto all fours and just lay there panting for a few moments.

    ¡°Lira? You get it?¡±

    Everything was still in darkness, and Lira groped the fleshy walls to stand blindly.

    ¡°I¡¯m out,¡± she announced, ¡°I think it rotted or something. It smells even worse than usual over here, like death. Roger, where are you? I¡¯ll help you get out.¡±

    ¡°Here,¡± he said and she stumbled her way over towards his voice. There were small creatures on the floor, but they were twitching weakly and most seemed to be dead already.

    Lira reached out and touched cold carapace. She flinched back and there was a low pained screech from where she knew the creature was. It stopped attacking Roger and crawled towards her, drunkenly stumbling from side to side as it moved forward. She blindly jumped forward and began hitting the creature and it flailed as she bowled it over. She felt little thin limbs beating against her stomach as it rolled onto its back with her on top of it.

    She grunted as it stabbed her in the gut, and grabbed the limb before it could draw it back. It was strong, and even with its twitching and jerkiness she only just managed to keep the blade inside her. The bug screeched again weakly for a few seconds before the blade was degraded inside of Lira¡¯s body, leaving a massive wound that Lira could hear spilling out the creature¡¯s blood. It stumbled away after throwing Lira back and took a few steps away as if to flee, before collapsing to the ground again.

    ¡°Woof. You get it?¡± Roger asked from a few feet away.

    ¡°I think so, keep talking, I don''t want to trip in and get stuck again.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    Eventually through Roger¡¯s coaching and Lira¡¯s careful pokes, she managed to find Roger¡¯s head.

    ¡°OW! My eye!¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Lira said sheepishly as she finally found him. She brought her hands to cover his face.

    ¡°Bmph brgra,¡± he mumbled through her hands as she steadied herself in front of him. Ignoring whatever he was trying to say, she slowly ran her hands down until she reached his shoulders that were still half submerged in the gelatin. With a deep breath she stuck her hands inside the gooey material and grabbed Roger from underneath his armpits.

    ¡°Alright, here I go,¡± she announced, ¡°On Three. Three. Two. One. Pull!¡±

    Lira rooted her feet into the squishy ground and heaved back even as Roger strained forward as well. She sank into the floor slightly and her arms groaned and creaked as she slowly pulled him out of the sucking goop in the wall.

    Finally with a loud pop, Roger came free and the both of them fell back, Roger falling on top of her as they fell backwards. He quickly rolled off of her and they both got to their feet.

    She reached out blindly, hearing him in front of her and¡­

    ¡°OWWW! Again, Lira? Gaahhh. My eye again. Damn, that stings.¡±

    ¡°Er, sorry. Again.¡±

    Lira quickly shifted her hand to his shoulder and he quickly did the same to her.

    ¡°Let¡¯s find our way out of here,¡± Roger said.

    ¡°What about us?¡± Frederick called out, ¡°You¡¯re just going to leave us behind?¡±

    Roger was silent and his hand tightened on Lira¡¯s shoulder. She hesitated, but then spoke.

    ¡°Of course not, we wouldn¡¯t do that. Right, Roger?¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± he grumbled. The two of them made their way to the three enforcers and managed to free them as well, the area becoming more and more surrounded by the smell of rot and death as they went. Roger and Lira stayed in contact and separated from the other three

    ¡°Here, Ratul,¡± Frederick said, ¡°I¡¯ve got one of their blades. We can use it to cut our way out.¡±

    ¡°Alright, sir. Let me break my finger so we can get it to a short enough length to wield.¡±

    There was a sick crack in the darkness and then a wet squelch.

    ¡°Got it!¡± Frederick said triumphantly, ¡°We¡¯ll be out here in no time.¡±

    They all worked together to get blades from the dead insects in the darkness, not a single living insect coming towards them as they did so. All of them stumbled down the tunnel with their makeshift blades, unsure of where they were going exactly but not wanting to start cutting their way out through the rotting goo where they had been trapped for this whole time.

    Finally Frederick decided on a spot, Roger and Lira going along with his orders for now without protesting.

    They all took turns hacking at the fleshy walls with their blades and creating a tunnel out. The movement of the creature had stilled to nothing during Lira¡¯s escape, and it was likely dead.

    They carved through, creating a grisly exit even as the space around them began to sag and bloat as it rotted. They picked up their pace by silent agreement, none of them speaking as they hacked and slashed as quickly as they could and throwing the discarded chunks into the tunnel behind them.

    Chunks began falling from the roof with wet plops and the smell only grew stronger as their tunneling grew to a frantic pace. None of them wanted to be trapped in the rotting flesh for who knows how long. Lira shuddered just thinking about it as she slashed again as the wall in front of her, rubbing her eyes as more disgusting fluid sprayed onto her face just like it had for all of them this whole time. It was all just so gross.

    Lira sliced again and suddenly, there was nothing there, and the massively suffocating humid air rushed out, letting cold dry air replace it. She reached forward and stuck her hand in and waved it around as she realized that there was nothing on the other side but open air.

    ¡°We¡¯re there!¡± She shouted excitedly, ¡°I think it¡¯s the outside!¡±

    A few minutes later, all of them had spilled out onto the hard dirt floor ten feet below, rolling down the rolls of flesh below them. They scrambled around, the dry dirt sticking to their slime coated bodies as they tried to find each other again.

    They found each other and huddled around, Lira shifting uncomfortably as Frederick stood next to her with his hand on her shoulder while Roger did the same on her right. She knew he couldn¡¯t see, but his hand was growing uncomfortably close to the tops of her boobs¡­

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    She shifted more towards Roger and shrugged her shoulder up and Frederick shifted his hand more towards her arm and she let out a small sigh of relief. Thank the Shadow she hadn¡¯t had to say anything, that would be awkward. Lira realized that Roger¡¯s hand was just as close as Frederick¡¯s had been, if not closer, but she hadn¡¯t even noticed. Huh.

    ¡°What do you think happened?¡± Roger asked, ¡°Do you think the swarm is still around if we leave the body? What killed it?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Frederick replied in a commanding tone, ¡°But with the main breeder dead, the rest of the swarm won¡¯t last much longer. All we have to do now is navigate our way back to the surface.¡±

    ¡°And how are we supposed to do that?¡± Lira asked, ¡°Just stumble around some more? Who knows how big this place is?¡±

    There was a pause.

    ¡°Yes, it will take a long time. But do you have any other ideas?¡±

    ¡°...No,¡± she admitted.

    ¡°Stumbling around it is,¡± Ratul added as the woman enforcer remained silent. Lira had forgotten her name already, she had only spoken when she had to this whole time.

    And so they set off in the tunnels, doing the best they could to stay together by keeping contact to each other at all times. They wandered in the darkness for what felt like forever, taking whatever tunnels they thought might lead upwards. None of them spoke except to curse whenever they stumbled into each other in the darkness or to call out when someone lost contact and got separated from the group.

    Lira always made sure she always knew where Roger was at all times just in case something went wrong with the Enforcers between them. Just because Lira hadn¡¯t wanted to leave the Enforcers behind in the dead creature didn¡¯t mean she trusted them all that much.

    After who knows how long, Lira blinked and stepped to the side as Frederick almost lurched to the side and hit her again after hitting a patch of uneven ground. Wait¡­

    ¡°I can see!¡± Lira called out, ¡°There¡¯s light somewhere nearby!¡±

    Everyone froze and looked around but even as they stood there the light grew brighter and brighter. The five of them gathered together, the three Enforcers together while Lira and Roger stood a little ways apart from the rest.

    The group located the source of the light, from a turn in one of the branching tunnels forty feet away. After a few minutes two figures rounded the corner, both wearing bulky full body suits with a glass domed visor and roundish helmet on their heads. They were facing the opposite way from Lira¡¯s group.

    ¡°Bringing out the classics, ay? You know you love the design,¡± An unfamiliar voice came softly from one of the suits as if to continue a prior conversation, ¡°You know the original space suits looked like this? Back in the beginning of history? They have a few of the relics back at the Den. I made these so they would just look like them, so badass¡­ We¡¯re like the first explorers through the galaxy when we¡¯re in these!¡±

    ¡°Quiet, Nyx,¡± Lira straightened and her grip on Roger''s shoulder tightened as she heard Sean¡¯s disgruntled voice from the other suit. It seems the two of them hadn¡¯t spotted them yet.

    The suit that Lira thought Sean was in raised its arm and inspected a glowing screen on its forearm.

    ¡°They should be close now,¡± Sean said, ¡°Life signs grew much stronger once we entered this section¡­¡±

    ¡°Gah, it¡¯s probably another false alarm,¡± The other man, Nyx, complained, ¡°They¡¯re Immortals, they¡¯ll be fine. Even if we left them on their own they¡¯d make it to the surface eventually. Don¡¯t know what you¡¯re getting so worked up about.¡±

    ¡°Eventually,¡± Sean replied frostily, ¡°Isn¡¯t fast enough. I¡¯m not leaving them down here a second longer than I have to. And weren¡¯t you the one saying that we had to go before the Enforcer Fleet arrived to arrest all of us?¡±

    ¡°Pffft. You worry too much. Those fat bastards will sit on the news for weeks at least before finally sending a proper response. We have some time without you being such a killjoy. Why do you think I was so confident on coming here and fucking some shit up without getting caught?¡±

    ¡°Whatever. Wait, I have something¡­¡±

    Sean turned around and held up his suited arm towards them.

    ¡°This way, I think they might only be a tunnel or two away.¡±

    ¡°Lead on, Oh Great Leader,¡± Nyx said mockingly to which Sean only grunted in reply and started walking towards them head pointed down to his wrist.

    The light grew brighter and Roger opened his mouth.

    ¡°HEY SEAN! OVER THIS WAY! WE¡¯RE OVER HERE!¡±

    Sean¡¯s head shot up and he started jogging towards them at full speed, the other man following a second later. Suddenly the light was bright enough to fully light up the tunnel and Lira blinked hard to adjust her eyes. When she recovered Sean and Nyx stood there in front of their group in their bulky suits.

    An intrusive thought suddenly came over Lira and she reflexively glanced to the side where Frederick stood, then down at his waist¡­ Oh. My. Shadow. She blushed furiously and glanced away as heat rushed to her cheeks. They made them that big?!

    Before Lira could overcome her embarrassment from her instinctive look, she suddenly became acutely aware of just how naked she was in front of this whole big group of people. She yelped and grabbed Roger tightly by the shoulders and pulled him in front of her so his body was blocking everyone else¡¯s view of her. He complied and didn¡¯t question her and just stood there as she cowered behind him.

    Sean was fishing around in his belt looking like he was hunting for something as the three Enforcers stood there awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot.

    ¡°Nyx, are you going to help? You have some clothing bands on you?¡± Sean said in annoyance after a few seconds, ¡°I swore I had them right here¡­¡±

    ¡°Nah,¡± Nyx replied, ¡°Just enjoying the view a bit first. I assume the one that yelped and just cowered behind that other guy is your girl. Good choice, she¡¯s hot. Other one¡¯s not too bad either. I don¡¯t usually go for Enforcers, but I could be convinced otherwise for a body that good.¡±

    Sean shoved the other man and sent him stumbling into the wall, bracing his arm against it to catch himself with one arm of the suit, ¡°Hey!¡± Sean said with some heat, ¡°Quit being such a damn pervert and just give them the clothing bands! You trying to fuck with me on purpose? You leave her alone or the deal¡¯s off! And just don¡¯t be such a pervert in general. Fuck!¡±

    ¡°Fine, fine,¡± Nyx said while rubbing the shoulder of his suit, ¡°Someone¡¯s touchy. Nothing wrong with looking, that¡¯s all I was doing¡­ Here, take some candy children.¡±

    Nyx reached down to his side and pulled out a stack of wristbands and tossed them towards the group of naked Immortals in a loose bundle so they flew every which way. The bands scattered all over the floor, and Lira quickly ducked down and put it on her wrist, and let out a sigh of relief as its nanites crawled over her skin to cover her again. A few seconds later, everyone else followed her example and covered themselves. The woman enforcer was giving Nyx¡¯s suit the evil eye along with Lira. Although Lira was more cautious on why Sean would be making a deal with this person. What had happened up there that Sean would be with this Nyx?

    After that was done, the two men in the bulky suits started leading them back to the surface. Roger and Lira quickly sidled up to Sean and pulled him to the side.

    ¡°Listen you two,¡± Sean whispered, ¡°The deal is important. We can discuss it later once we¡¯re out of the solar system and can think it over as a group. He¡¯s a jerk, but I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll betray us. I can¡¯t say much more until we¡¯re safe on the ship. The Enforcers might be listening in.¡±

    Lira glanced over and saw that Frederick was indeed looking at them with some interest as they whispered together off to the side as they walked to the surface. Nyx stood apart, seeming to be whistling to himself as he walked ahead of the rest of the group.

    ¡°Fine. Later,¡± Roger agreed, ¡°Thanks for coming to find us. Who knows how long we would have been stuck down here if you hadn¡¯t shown up.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± Sean replied, ¡°I¡¯m just glad that you¡¯re both okay.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s not like we could die,¡± Roger said in a forcefully light tone, ¡°Wasn¡¯t anything more than an inconvenience, really.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡ª That¡¯s good. You, Lira? You doing alright?¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m¡ª Not perfect, but not terrible,¡± She said, ¡°Nyx didn¡¯t make a good first impression though,¡± she grumbled.

    ¡°No, no he didn¡¯t,¡± Sean said, ¡°We don¡¯t have to like him to work with him. You¡¯ll understand when I explain everything to you.¡±

    After that they drifted apart again and didn¡¯t speak any more as they continued to the surface. Lira had to blink furiously and hold her hand up to her face as they emerged from the tunnel into the forest around them. It felt like it had been forever since Lira, Roger, Ash, and Sean had stopped at somewhere similar just to relax and have some fun¡­

    There were two shuttles in the distance parked relatively close to each other. They all moved towards them, but Nyx held up a hand to them.

    ¡°Stop! Yo, hold up!¡±

    Everyone stopped and Sean stood there as Nyx jogged ahead and entered one of the ships.

    ¡°You might be infected by a disease caught from your time down there,¡± Sean explained, ¡°We have to decontaminate you before we do anything else.¡±

    Nyx returned with a bundle of rods in his arms. He put it on the forest floor and extended the poles until it created a box like structure with dozens of what looked like lights pointing towards the center.

    ¡°Go on, in,¡± Nyx said with a big gesture, ¡°Everyone gets their little dose of radiation to kill off everything. I keep a clean ship, no little plagues are sneaking onboard without my permission!¡±

    Lira and Roger were a little hesitant, but the Enforcers didn¡¯t hesitate and went through one by one, removing their clothing band after they went into the shrouded booth and getting blasted full force with high radiation for a few minutes.

    Roger went second to last, and came out the other side fine.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Lira,¡± he assured her after he was done, ¡°Barely a sting. Doesn¡¯t hurt much at all.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    She went in and the lights around her suddenly blazed on full force and her whole body tingled. It was uncomfortable just standing there in place letting herself be blasted by radiation that she knew should have been causing her to keel over and die almost instantly. But then it was done and after reactivating her clothing band to cover herself again she exited, joining everyone else outside. Nyx began disassembling the thing behind her, and after it was done set off back towards his shuttle.

    ¡°Alright, Roger, Lira, let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯d rather not be arrested by the Immortal Council when they arrive in force.¡±

    ¡°Hey, what about us?¡± Frederick said indignantly, ¡°You¡¯re just going to leave us here?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sean said flatly, ¡°You¡¯re on the surface, and the planetary government knows you¡¯re here. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll swoop in and pick you up after we leave.¡±

    Frederick grumbled a bit, but took a step back and nodded after sharing two long glances with his companions.

    ¡°Fine. I guess that¡¯s the best deal I¡¯ll get.¡±

    ¡°Yes, C¡¯mon Lira, Roger. Let¡¯s go.¡±

    The three of them headed to their shuttle even as Nyx¡¯s shuttle¡¯s engines began to rumble as it prepared for takeoff. Before they fully went inside the ship, Lira hesitated.

    ¡°Do you guys think they¡¯ll really be fine? What if the local government doesn¡¯t pick them up?¡±

    ¡°The Immortal Council will be here in a few weeks,¡± Sean said soothingly, ¡°They¡¯ll make sure they get picked up then even in the worst case. No need to worry about them.¡±

    ¡°Well¡ª Okay. I guess that¡¯s okay. I just feel bad leaving them behind.¡±

    The door closed behind them and Sean began taking off the suit he was in and put it in a box in the corner.

    ¡°Ship, use AI pilot. Return to main ship,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Confirmed, Sean,¡± The ship¡¯s voice said over the intercom, and the engines began to rumble.

    Well, Lira mused, at least she would be seeing Ash again soon. She hoped that Ash was holding up okay while she and Roger were gone¡­

 Chapter 29: The Return

    <hr>

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª 200 Years after Emily Stenson left Sean Turretson at Immortus Station ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily hummed to some music she had put on as she idly worked on her Foundation of All factory world. She had been feeling more inspired recently after showing it off to Sean. She felt a pang of loneliness in her gut as she thought about her empty ship, how he was the first to see it besides her. But she pushed it down, she couldn¡¯t be selfish. It was the right decision to drop him off at Immortus Station so he could be independent, and get a fuller picture before he decided if he still wanted to be associated with her.

    She had hoped¡­ hoped so many times. But all of them eventually turned away from her, disgusted. All of them pulling away, too afraid of distancing themselves from the rest of Immortal society to be associated with her.

    Only her girlfriend Asuta stayed at her side over these millions of years. But Asuta couldn¡¯t stay still for long, too enthralled by the prospect of some new adventure she wanted to go on. So their relationship was on and off, only reigniting whenever Asuta was taking a break or feeling lonely herself and in need of Emily¡¯s attention.

    Even their times together were tinted with a little sadness as Emily always knew that Asuta would leave again, and that nothing Emily did or said would convince her to stay when Asuta got into the mood to go out and explore and battle again.

    Emily didn¡¯t enjoy combat, violence at all. She couldn¡¯t go with her on her bloody journey. So when the time came for Asuta to leave again, Emily cried a little and they parted ways again. And then she was all alone on her ship. Again. Building these empty husks of worlds that no one but her would ever see or appreciate. That¡¯s just the way that things were.

    She wiped her face and was surprised when she found a tear there on the back of her hand. God, why was she getting so worked up over the opinion of someone not even a couple hundred years old now? Why did she get so invested every time? It just hurt more when they rejected her in the end. But she couldn¡¯t resist. Her crushing loneliness couldn¡¯t resist the urge.

    And she had hopes, Sean had seemed understanding. And she had met him right in the beginning before the Plaguebringers or Immortal Council could taint his views of her. It- It had only been a few centuries at most. He was probably just still living it up at Immortus station still and would contact her later. He would. Definitely.

    She angrily flicked away the diagram for the holographic robotic frame she had been working on with a gesture. She¡ª She had to do something. A distraction. There¨C there. She looked through her files while still staying within Foundation of All. There must be¡ª something¡­

    She let out a sigh of relief as she found it. One of the major core worlds had rumblings of conspiracy in its government. Public works projects were suddenly underfunded, people had started disappearing in the night, the politicians were raging against the immigrants from other worlds. Increased military forces and aggressiveness towards their neighbors. Time to go help prevent another totalitarian regime.

    She let out a shaky breath. Yes, that was something good for her to do. She could spend a few years fixing things with her hacking skills and exposing their schemes to the wider galaxy to the point that the neighboring worlds couldn¡¯t ignore things in the name of reduced trade anymore. That was something unquestionably good that she could do.

    It was never enough, but it always made her feel better when she was feeling down. She looked up and started the logout sequence. She finished the motions, and nothing happened. She frowned and did it again to no response yet again. Then she realized what was happening as her ears registered the suddenly perfect silence of the world around her.

    She slowly turned and there it was. The Shadow with its bright orange eyes standing there less than ten feet away, not even caring that Foundation of All was supposed to be a simulation. It was technically standing inside of where the wall of her ship should be if they were in the real holodeck. The Shadow¡¯s eyes were fixed on her as it stood there silently. Emily tensed as she saw it there.

    ¡°Wh¨C what is it this time, Shadow?¡± Emily said, hoping that it might actually answer this time.

    The Shadow flickered and suddenly it was right in front of her, its orange eyes less than a foot away from her own. She flinched back slightly at the sudden change as it stared at her. It tilted its head to the side, and seemed to inspect her close up for a long moment before flickering back to where it had been before.

    It looked around, and inspected the factory around them, its eyes leaving Emily for a while. Her brow furrowed. What was it doing? Usually it just showed up and inspected her for a while before flickering away again. Or at least it had done so the hundreds of times it had reappeared to her over her long life, a unique little quirk that no one else seemed to share with her. What was different this time? Was it that she was in Foundation of All? What had captured its attention?

    The Shadow flickered and disappeared, vanishing. Emily waited, knowing that it was still nearby and that time was frozen around her. Everything was still too silent for it to be truly gone yet.

    It reappeared floating in the air thirty feet away, its fingers splayed wide as it pointed its hand at the ¡®ground¡¯ of the simulated world.

    Suddenly the silence was broken by incoherent whispers and Emily felt goosebumps cover her body and she shivered. The voices grew louder as the Shadow remained unmoving, floating in the air like a frozen silhouette with only its orange eyes pointed downwards breaking the inky darkness.

    ¡°Truth, Truth, Truth.¡±

    The voices grew louder and louder until Emily couldn¡¯t think about anything else but the words rattling around inside her head.

    ¡°Truth, truth, truth, TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH!¡±

    The shouting voices went silent all at once and Emily braced for what came next.

    ¡°Truth.¡±

    The Shadow¡¯s gaze remained fixed on the ground as the world fizzled and popped around Emily, everything twisting and churning as its word boomed through reality.

    The ripples grew so intense that Emily felt like the world was made of wet paint all bleeding into each other. She brought her arms to shield her face before suddenly the world turned white. Emily flinched but as she lowered her arms she realized that the holodeck had shut off, logging her out of Foundation of All. She could hear the faint creaking of the metallic ship around her, no longer frozen in time along with the rest of the universe from when the Shadow appeared.

    Emily raised her arms to log back into Foundation of all, to discover what had happened. But then she hesitated. Should she go back? Who knew what the Shadow had done, she had never seen it act that way before. It had said another word before she had been logged out. What had it been? Tr- T- Tree? Tear? Tech? No, that couldn¡¯t be it. None of them felt right¡­

    Emily tried to think but no matter what she did, the memory of what the word the Shadow had said wouldn¡¯t come to her. She lowered her arms and took a few quick steps back until she was safely out of the holodeck room. She eyed it suspiciously for a few moments, before turning and walking off after firmly shutting the door to the holodeck tight.

    She had to think. She wouldn¡¯t be going back in there until she was fully prepared for whatever was waiting for her inside. She would figure out what in the galaxy she was supposed to be preparing for sometime later.

    <hr>

    Emily went to the main cockpit and started setting her course, it was always more comfortable to do things by hand without just having the AI do it for her. She was good enough that she was better than the AI ever could be without her massive wells of experience with hyperspace. It had been a few weeks and her initial panic at the encounter with the Shadow had faded away.

    She still hadn¡¯t gone back to the holodeck, but nothing else had gone wrong when she ignored it either. She still gave the room a suspicious look whenever she had to walk by, just in case something chose to leap out at her when her guard was down. With how powerful the Shadow was, who knew what might happen.

    She was about to activate the hyperdrive when she spotted a strange reading on the display. Was that? She inspected it closer and immediately powered off her hyperdrive. Somehow hyperspace jammers were active somewhere nearby, completely locking down her hyperdrive unless she wanted her ship to spontaneously explode before she even entered hyperspace.

    Before she knew what was happening, her sensors suddenly blared warnings all around her as more than a dozen ships materialized seemingly out of nothing around her. Invisibility fields large enough to cover a whole ship? That was some serious military hardware, this wasn¡¯t just some random pirates.

    Well, she had some military hardware of her own. There was a reason why that Plaguebringer a few centuries ago hadn¡¯t even scratched her defenses before she escaped him.

    ¡°Ship, full thrust forward. Fire all weapons forward, only divert enough fire for intercepting fire from the back and sides.¡±

    ¡°Confirmed. Initiating maximum thrust.¡±

    Emily sat down and her chair automatically strapped her in as her ship jerked into motion at full speed. She was at the edge of this solar system, so all she had to do was make it out of range of the hyperspace jammer and then she would be out.

    Her ship poured out fire into the two vessels directly ahead that started venting gasses as Emily¡¯s ship¡¯s barrage of fire caught them by surprise. The both of them were quickly crippled with her ship¡¯s quick strikes and overwhelming firepower. Emily was being pressed backwards full force into her seat as the ship kept moving forward full speed. The rest of the surrounding ships opened fire and chipped away at her ship as she blasted forward.

    She kept looking at the display tapping her fingers and waiting for her to get past the hyperspace jammer. Usually they were highly power intensive and only covered relatively small areas of space. The weapons fire grew more intense and Emily cursed as they broke through her shields and began tearing into the heavy metal plates of the ship itself, especially to her back.

    She gritted her teeth and kept drumming her fingers on the chair watching the display with intense focus waiting for the second, the instant, that the readings would change.

    But they never did. The surrounding ships managed to land a critical hit on her ship¡¯s engines and then it was all over. They circled around and pounded her ship with their weapons, destroying all of the weapons built into the exterior of the ship. After Emily¡¯s ship was fully disabled and declawed, they stopped and just circled around for a moment.

    After a few minutes, another ship appeared from nowhere as it deactivated its invisibility field, its size larger than any of the others. Emily could only stand and go towards the armory. It wouldn¡¯t be much if a group of Immortals was attacking her, but it made her feel better to think she could at least blast them back if she got the urge.

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    The large ship approached her crippled vessel while the others were kept at a distance.

    She took the weapon she had used for the infiltration mission on Enguli and turned its power to the max and ran to the exterior door according to the ship¡¯s projections. She stood at the door with her weapon raised, willing to fight her hardest despite knowing how futile it would be.

    There was a heavy clunk as the enemy ship docked with her own. There was a heavy pause, before with a hiss of air the door slid open. Her arms tensed as three men in heavy armor were revealed on the other side. She almost fired before seeing the face of the man in the center, who was frowning, looking disappointed. Her eyes widened as far as they could go. His deep brown eyes bored into her. His dark black hair contrasted his bronze skin, and he had a slight stubble of a beard growing on his jaw. Exactly how she remembered him. Her eyes widened as far as they could go.

    The gun slipped from her hands in surprise.

    ¡°P-P-Peter? Is that you?¡± She stuttered as her gun hit the floor a second later.

    ¡°Yes, it''s me Emily,¡± he said severely, ¡°What sort of mess have you gotten in now?¡±

    ¡°What? What mess? You-you were supposed to be out of the galaxy. It¡¯s- how long has it been? I don¡¯t even remember anymore¡ª How are you here?¡±

    ¡°I was sent a message. You are being accused of destroying a planet in the outer rim. Unfortunately the evidence was quite compelling. I want to get to the bottom of things as quickly as possible. If you did this, then things aren¡¯t looking good for you. Most already don¡¯t like how much I did to keep you out here and free from my government¡¯s oversight as it is.¡±

    ¡°D-Destroyed? If? Peter, you know I wouldn¡¯t do something like that. Wh-where is this coming from? We haven¡¯t seen each other for- for- at least a million years and the first time I see you is like this? For some bullshit evidence that has to be fake?¡±

    Emily started getting angry as she saw him maintain his frown and disappointed look,

    ¡°You just disappeared without a trace! Not even a message! What the hell, Peter?! For all I knew you were out of contact and flying out to some far flung galaxy like the others! Now I learn you could¡¯ve been able to come back in barely fifty years for this whole time? Now you accuse me of shit that I didn¡¯t even do as soon as you show back up out of the blue? What. The. Hell? Is wrong with you!¡±

    The man to Peter¡¯s right took an aggressive step forward, ¡°Don¡¯t speak to the great Peter in that way! He built Immortus Station from the ground up. He¡¯s the leader of the Immortal Council. Show him his due respect!¡±

    ¡°Due respect? How about leaving a message before he fucks off to who knows where? How¡¯s that for due respect?¡± Emily shot back, matching the look of what must be an Immortal Council Enforcer as he stared her down.

    Peter waved his hand at the enforcer and the man took a step back with a grumble. Peter lowered his hands to his sides.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been busy,¡± he said firmly, ¡°And I did warn you that I would be going away for a time.¡±

    ¡°I thought you meant another one of your thousand year sightseeing trips around the galaxy. Not that it would last a million years without even a word from you! Or that you¡¯ve apparently been in contact with people in the galaxy this whole time and didn¡¯t even think of contacting me.¡±

    Peter paused and then nodded fractionally to her in response, ¡°That¡ª that is fair I suppose. I should have sent you a message. My mistake. But we should focus on the matter at hand. We¡¯re bringing you back to Immortus Station to clear all of this right up. I promise I¡¯ll leave a message next time.¡±

    Emily hesitated and hated herself for the tremor in her voice as she spoke, ¡°You will? You¡¯ll warn me next time?¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± Peter said with conviction, ¡°I swear. But for now will you please come quietly with us?¡±

    ¡°And my ship?¡± Emily asked after taking a few seconds to control herself, ¡°What was that for? What will happen to it?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll tow it to the station and even repair it for you. I¡¯ll make sure of it. The rest of the council insisted on doing it this way so you couldn¡¯t escape,¡± Peter explained placatingly.

    Emily glanced between the gun on the ground at her feet and back up to Peter several times. Then she sighed and nodded.

    ¡°Fine. But you¡¯re telling me up what you were up to while you were up to while you were gone when we¡¯ve sorted through this.¡±

    Peter¡¯s eyes sparkled with amusement for a few seconds and the corners of his lips twitched.

    ¡°I suppose I am. It¡¯s good seeing you again, Emily.¡±

    ¡°You, too Peter,¡± she replied after a short pause, ¡°It¡¯s been too long.¡±

    One of the enforcers took out the restraining bands like the ones Emily had used on Sean to stop him from following her on her mission to help get his revenge. Emily gave Peter a flat look as the bands started lighting up.

    Peter waved off the other man, who looked displeased as he shut off the device and put it back on his belt.

    ¡°We don¡¯t need those,¡± Peter said, ¡°Come along, Emily. I¡¯m sure we can catch up on the journey back to the galactic core.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    Peter turned around, and Emily followed him as he started walking back onto his ship. The two Enforcers waited until she passed them and then trailed behind them and blocked her way back into her ship. The door closed behind them, but Emily ignored them looming behind her as her eyes remained fixed on Peter¡¯s back. She couldn¡¯t believe that after so long that he was finally back¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°That¡¯s it?¡± Emily said in disappointment, ¡°Helping to terraform planets in the closest galaxy? I thought it would be something more based on how secretive you were about it at the time. And don¡¯t most of the rest of the universe hate us because of how horrible the Plaguebringers are? That couldn¡¯t have been easy to convince them to let you hang around there.¡±

    Peter coughed into his hand, ¡°No it wasn¡¯t. But we managed well enough. As for the secrecy, the leaders of Immortus Station and the Council were new back then. Had to lend them some legitimacy for a while at least when I was gone. My big trip was supposed to be a secret for everyone. Keep the Plaguebringers guessing so they never knew when I might come back.¡±

    Emily grumbled, ¡°Well,¡± she said, ¡°The two hundred thousand years after you left were a mess. Plaguebringers attacking left and right, the Endless Flesh left to grow unchecked while no one was paying attention to them as the two groups fought¡ª Even now that things are calmer, the Endless Flesh¡¯s smallest colonies have barely been pushed back to the inner edge of the outer rim in some places.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm. I¡¯ll have to ask the Council about that,¡± Peter said thoughtfully, ¡°After this matter is done, I suppose I¡¯ll have to investigate what¡¯s changed while I¡¯ve been gone.¡±

    ¡°A lot,¡± Emily said darkly, ¡°Especially the Council. They can barely stand me now. You saw how that Enforcer of yours was acting. They¡¯re all like that now. At least all of the ones I¡¯ve met in a long time.¡±

    She flinched as Peter¡¯s hand came down on her shoulder.

    ¡°Emily,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯ve always protected you in the past, haven¡¯t I? Just trust me. I¡¯m sure the experts will prove that those videos and messages are fake.¡±

    ¡°They better,¡± Emily huffed, ¡°Doesn¡¯t even sound like me. Whoever did them had me cursing by the Shadow of all things. Seems like something that would be obvious to whoever has actually met me. No one even knows what hell means anymore.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Peter said, ¡°I believe you. They should clear things right up.¡±

    ¡°Right, cleared right up¡­¡± Emily echoed, trailing off a little at the end.

    <hr>

    It was not cleared right up. Emily sat in the hallway outside the chambers, head in her hands after she was sentenced, pronounced guilty by all those unrepentantly lying bastards in the Immortal Council.

    She looked up at the sound of the doors opening and saw Peter standing there, a complicated look on his face.

    ¡°Are you going to stop this? This mock trial? They made up their minds before I even went in there.¡± Emily said bitterly while already knowing the answer. He thought she was guilty.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Peter said, ¡°I forgive you. We all make mistakes. I don¡¯t know why you¡¯ve done this, why you destroyed that planet, but I¡¯ll still support you until the end. No matter what. We¡¯ve all done bad things before. Especially back in the beginning.¡±

    Emily looked up at him.

    ¡°Not me. Not. Me. Never. Nothing like this. You know that. How much I pushed against the things you all wanted to do.¡±

    ¡°Well, everyone has their limit. And that¡¯s okay. It¡¯s only imprisonment for a little while until I can convince them to let you go. For you it¡¯ll be like no time¡¯s passed at all.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Emily sighed, ¡°I know. But it still hurts. That no matter what I do, none of them will ever appreciate how much I¡¯ve helped, how much I¡ª Everything we¡¯ve done. Just all forgotten to time. They don¡¯t even hate me for the right reasons anymore.¡±

    ¡°It was my fault, not yours,¡± Peter said calmly, ¡°It was my responsibility to take care of it, once it left your hands so did your responsibility for what happened.¡±

    ¡°But I built it! Without me, none of it would have ever happened!¡±

    ¡°It was my responsibility,¡± Peter said again, unmoved by her outburst, ¡°You know that deep down. Blame me too if you must, but only the ones who stole it were truly to blame for what happened. We¡¯ve talked about this what must be a million times already. Probably more even.¡±

    ¡°Ugh. I know that. But I still feel like that anyway.¡±

    Peter shifted in place, ¡°Have you¡ª worked on your genetics ag¡ª ¡°

    ¡°NO!¡± Emily coughed to cover up her violent reaction, ¡°No,¡± she said more softly. ¡°I haven¡¯t beyond the very basics. I promised myself that I wouldn¡¯t long ago. You know that.¡±

    ¡°I see. After a million years I would have thought that things would change, but I suppose not. I just thought that it might¡ª Help you overcome your fears.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not doing it,¡± Emily said mulishly as she recalled all the times Peter had tried to convincing her otherwise over all these years. And he had failed every time.

    ¡°I respect your conviction,¡± Peter said simply in response, ¡°I do. I¡¯ll work my hardest to get you set free. Did you have any affairs to set in order, or should we go straight there?¡±

    Emily thought of Sean. Would he be here on the station, hearing whispers of her presence through rumors and gossip? Was he happy, settled in? She wanted to leave a message to him, to explain what had happened. But it was impossible. Despite respecting Peter, he always made his own decisions without considering the feelings of other people. She wouldn¡¯t want to unleash his interest on poor unsuspecting Sean more than it probably already was. Everyone else on the station explicitly hated her, so she couldn¡¯t trust any message with them. And her ship was impounded so it wasn¡¯t even like she could go and hide a digital one either.

    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go straight there,¡± Emily said after a long pause, ¡°Get it over with.¡±

    ¡°Very well. I¡¯ll take you there myself.¡±

    They went, a squad of five Enforcers surrounding them and escorting them both to the prison deep within the center of the station. Emily was lead to the central cells, maximum security to ensure she wasn¡¯t broken out.

    She was led into a room dominated by massive stones with a perfect impression of her inside of it. She hesitated again, but at Peter¡¯s steady gaze she took a deep breath and turned around and stepped backwards into the impression in the stone, putting both hands above her head.

    She fit perfectly into the mold, the stone holding her tight like she was being pressed in on all sides. She put her palms on each other and wrested her wrist directly on top of her head and closed her eyes, knowing what came next as one of the Enforcers raised their pistol at her head. She heard a sizzle and heat wash over her face, and then there was only darkness.

    <hr>

    Peter stepped forward after the Enforcer evaporated Emily¡¯s head with a plasma blast. He grabbed her suddenly limp arms and applied force to her forearms so her hands would remain palm to palm. He lowered her hands slowly until they were sitting at the center of her regenerating skull. Her body was kept up by the stone mold she sat in, built specifically to her body so she could barely shift at all even if she were to regain consciousness eventually.

    He put a hand on her collarbone and carefully pushed her further into the mold until she was fully flush with it, her head having regenerated with her hands inside of it. Such a waste of raw talent, her still refusing to work on any kind of advanced genetics¡­

    The other piece of stone was levitating slightly off the ground and slowly began floating towards where Emily¡¯s body sat half sticking out of the stone. After a few minutes, it pressed in on her and sealed with a mighty boom as the ten ton stone settled in place and finished the perfect seal around her whole body.

    Peter left the room as the other defenses were put in place around her by the other Enforcers. Even this wouldn¡¯t hold an Immortal forever. A twitch here, a shift of Emily¡¯s hands there¡ª Eventually she would wake up and start thrashing against her confinement out of nothing else if not pure boredom. And with an untiring Immortal at work, she would chip at the stone, molding a little air pocket around her one little flake of dust at a time. And from there¡ª Well it was only a matter of time before she freed herself in truth. No matter how long it would take to do so.

    But luckily Peter didn¡¯t plan to wait quite that long this time before getting her out again. Just enough time that she would find it believable that the Immortal Council would accept it. This was the last gasp of his more reasonable options.

    If this didn¡¯t work, then he might have to resort to more¡­ drastic measures. He could only hope that when the dust finally settled that she would see the truth and do the right thing. Yes, he truly hoped that this worked or things would start getting messy. She was like a daughter to him, and he didn''t want to fight her if he didn''t have to. It wouldn''t come to that. He would make sure of it.

 Chapter 30: Talking with the Enemy

    ¡°Has the Plaguebringer done anything since he returned to his ship?¡± Sean asked while pacing back and forth in the main ship¡¯s cockpit.

    ¡°No,¡± Ash replied, ¡°The ship is as unmoving just as it has been for the last few hours. I would alert you if there was a change.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t like it. What if he tries to attack¡­¡±

    ¡°Direct comm¡¯s request from the ship,¡± Ash interrupted, ¡°Should I remain silent this time as well? Samir implied that the Plaguebringers disliked intelligent machines like myself. It is likely best for me to remain hidden from him for as long as possible.¡±

    Sean hesitated, but nodded, staring down at the blinking light on the console.

    ¡°Alright, Ash. Do it.¡±

    There was a moment of silence as the blinking light on the console went solid and the sound of breathing on the other side.

    ¡°BOO!!!¡±

    Sean jumped and his heart beat fast as the Plaguebringer shouted as loud as possible.

    ¡°Hahahahaha, did I get ya? That¡¯s what you get for making me wait in silence, asshole.¡±

    Sean settled down and took a deep breath, ¡°You called me,¡± he said in annoyance, ¡°What do you want? How long until my friends are out of the nest?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll be fine,¡± the Plaguebringer said dismissively, ¡°Just give it a week or two and all of the bugs will be infected and die. They¡¯ll find their way back to the surface eventually after that. I¡¯m Nyx by the way. Nyx Vesper. Don¡¯t think I introduced myself before.¡±

    ¡°Nyx Vesper¡­¡± Sean said, letting the name roll off of his tongue before trailing off and not saying anything else.

    ¡°Aaaaanyway¡­¡± Nyx said after Sean didn¡¯t continue after a few seconds, ¡°I¡¯ve looked at your files since I was bored sitting around up here. And you know what? They¡¯re some pretty big holes in here. That¡¯s annoying. I mean who still tries to cover shit up around Immortals these days? We always find out eventually and then you¡¯re just in deeper trouble than you were at the beginning.¡±

    ¡°What do you want to know?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s your home planet? Who was the Immortal that picked you up? It¡¯s all rather vague in the files. Why is it important enough that someone would censor documents of a little baby like you?¡±

    Sean thought about it, before responding reluctantly. He didn¡¯t see the harm of telling Nyx something as basic as that. It had been over six hundred years since he had left Enguli, no one he knew would still be alive by now.

    ¡°Enguli. That was my home planet, out on the far edge of the outer rim.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm,¡± Sean heard Nyx humming and muttering as if he was reading something, ¡°Interesting, very interesting¡­ Oof, sorry about that one pal. I see why you wouldn¡¯t like us very much.¡±

    Sean straightened up, ¡°What? Sorry about what?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Didn¡¯t you know? Enguli was purged of all life right around when you left. There was a large colony of the Endless Flesh there that the Elder Plaguebringer on site destroyed. Unfortunately the humans didn¡¯t have enough time to escape and most were caught in the crossfire and killed.¡±

    ¡°D-D-Destroyed? Completely? As soon as I left? The Plaguebringer on the planet did it?¡±

    ¡°Seems so. Are you alright there? Thought you already knew¡­¡±

    ¡°Who was it?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Who was the person who did it?¡±

    ¡°Okay, fair enough. Let¡¯s look through. It was¡­ Denied? What? Again? Why would it be so locked down, this is just getting ridiculous. Hey, what did he look like? You saw him right?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Sean replied in a daze, ¡°I didn¡¯t. Only talked to him over comms.¡±

    ¡°Well what did he say? I¡¯m getting curious now. How did you get to the Immortal Council if he didn¡¯t take you? Not really sure why he wouldn¡¯t take you to the Den instead, but to each their own I guess.¡±

    ¡°What? He didn¡¯t take me anywhere. It was someone else that picked me up. He attacked the both of us and we barely escaped as he tried to blow up our ship to stop us.¡±

    ¡°Huh. Sounds like a real asshole. Why would he do that?¡±

    ¡°He wanted to capture the Immortal that picked me up,¡± Sean paused as he realized who he was talking to. Why was he spilling his, no Emily¡¯s, secrets to some Plaguebringer that he had just met?

    ¡°Interesting. Interesting¡­ Any idea why?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Sean said shortly.

    ¡°Ahhhhh, the mystery. So annoying, now I¡¯ll have to go back to the Den, start investigating shit¡­ This is going to be such a pain in the ass, I can feel it. Especially with everything already all kicked up after the Plaguemother being found and captured by the Immortal Council¡­¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Sean blurted out, ¡°Emily was captured? When, how?¡±

    ¡°Emily? Who¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°No one?¡±

    ¡°No, wait. No way¡­ The times would all match up. That¡¯s why everything about this is all locked down. No wonder she was captured only a few hundred years ago!¡± Nyx¡¯s voice grew more and more excited as he spoke, ¡°She went to Immortus station to drop your ass off, and they ambushed her after! You know the Plaguemother personally?! Woooooow! What¡¯s she like? What did she say to you? How¡­¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± Sean said quickly, cutting off Nyx¡¯s rambling.

    ¡°Hey, don¡¯t hold out on me now. She¡¯s¡­ She¡¯s¡­ You met the Plaguemother! You can¡¯t just leave me in the dark now that I know!¡±

    ¡°Well she hates you and your whole group,¡± Sean spat out, ¡°Not to mention the Plaguebringer on Enguli attacked her and tried to blow up her ship after she picked me up.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Nyx said, his tone becoming a little more subdued, ¡°I knew that. The older ones have done a lot of bad shit over the years. That¡¯s why she left us after all. But we¡¯ve become much better, more moral than since she last visited us! It¡¯s not our fault how horrible some of us were in the past. If we just showed her how much things have changed then she¡¯ll come back and show us the right path!¡±

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    ¡°I¡¯m sure kidnapping her and forcing her to go there was really showing your moral fiber,¡± Sean said drily, not sure how to handle Nyx¡¯s sudden shift into worshipful admiration as he spoke about Emily.

    ¡°Yes, I guess not¡­¡± Nyx said after trailing off, ¡°It¡¯s not our place to tell her what to do. She¡¯s supposed to be guiding us, not the other way around¡­¡±

    There was silence for a moment before Nyx spoke again in a more animated way,

    ¡°Hey, she liked you right? Enough that she brought you all the way to Immortus Station at least.¡±

    ¡°I think so,¡± Sean replied hesitantly, not sure where he was going with this.

    ¡°If we went and broke her out of prison at Immortus Station, could you put in a good word for me? The higher ups for the Plaguebringers didn¡¯t want to risk it, but we can break her out! How does that sound? Fuck up the place, free the Plaguemother. We¡¯ll look like total badasses as we roar out of there as we rescue her.¡±

    ¡°And you won¡¯t force her off to this¡­ Den? Where all the other Plaguebringers are?¡± Sean asked cautiously.

    ¡°Of course not!¡± Nyx said, ¡°I¡¯ll do my best and give her my speech. Oh shit, I¡¯ll have to write a speech¡­ But then you all can go your own way. I just want to meet her in person, show her that we¡¯re not all bad! Maybe talk to her a little, have her sign something if she¡¯s willing¡­¡±

    ¡°An autograph, seriously?¡±

    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m amazed your ungrateful ass has actually met her,¡± Nyx said, ¡°You¡¯d be asking for signatures too if you knew all the amazing things she¡¯s done. You need help with anything? I¡¯m your guy, just ask and I¡¯ll do it.¡±

    Sean paused, unsure what he should do. He shared a long glance with Ash who shrugged as if to leave the decision to him.

    ¡°Well, can we get my friends out of the nest first?¡± He eventually said, ¡°I¡¯ll need to talk to them first before I agree to anything.¡±

    ¡°Fair, fair,¡± Nyx replied, ¡°Alright. We get them, escape the Immortal Council fleet, then I convince you somewhere else. Sounds good?¡±

    Sean shifted on his feet, wondering how he had gotten here. Was he actually agreeing to work together with a Plaguebringer? But if Emily was captured in Immortus Station¡­ And after the Immortal Council had treated Lira, who was to say they wouldn¡¯t capture and imprison Emily just because they didn¡¯t like her? And if she was captured because she had dropped off Sean there, then it would be his fault. She would be captured and dealing with all of the hate of the people at Immortus Station because of him. He took a deep breath and let it out.

    ¡°Sounds good. Get my friends first, then we¡¯ll talk.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°So, that¡¯s the situation,¡± Sean finished telling Roger and Lira as Ash researched the coordinates that Nyx had sent them for the meet up. Nyx said he would meet them at the coordinates in five years so they had enough time to fully consider what they wanted to do. They still had a few days before they reached the edge of the solar system and were able to enter hyperspace, so Sean had let the two of them relax and take some real showers at first. When they came out far more relaxed than before, Sean listened as they told their version of events. They both seemed alright, still in shock a little, but nothing too extreme.

    Sean was surprised to hear how much Roger had resented the Enforcers. They tried to not discuss what had happened with Lira, but it seems that it had impacted Roger more than either of them had known. Although Sean wasn¡¯t sure he would have been able to remain civil with them either.

    It was odd that out of the three of them, Lira was the one who seemed most able to look past it and not blame the unrelated Enforcers for the actions of the Immortal Council. She was the one that they had hurt the most, but she seemed more than happy to put it all behind her as much as she could.

    After their ordeal, Lira just seemed happy to be back, sitting close to Ash and leaning over to read the holographic containing his research on the solar system over his shoulder. She had been more worried about Ash¡¯s safety than anything else when she first got on the ship, interrogating Ash on how he was feeling as soon as she spotted him. On hearing Ash saying that his new body was subpar, she immediately promised that they would build a better one with maximum priority.

    Not that Sean was planning to do anything different, but it was interesting that Lira was so attentive to Ash the second she got back.

    ¡°So, we work with this guy to break out the woman who found you out from Immortus Station prison?¡± Roger asked.

    ¡°Pretty much,¡± Sean said, ¡°But it¡¯s up to you if you want to come, I know how dangerous it might be. We have to figure out what to do with Ash too, since he¡¯s not coming with us.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Lira asked, turning slightly to look at them, ¡°Why can¡¯t she come with us?¡±

    ¡°Well, the Immortal Council would destroy her,¡± Sean said, ¡°We can¡¯t risk her for this. If we fail we¡¯ll get out of prison eventually, no matter how long it takes. But Ash can be killed, we can¡¯t let that happen. And we can¡¯t leave her alone, so somebody should stay with her. Otherwise she¡¯ll be all alone out here.¡±

    ¡°Will you not need as much help as possible?¡± Ash suddenly said, closing the holographic screens and turning around to face the group, ¡°You shouldn¡¯t leave someone behind just to keep me company. The hardest part will be determining how to allow you to reunite with me after the mission is complete. Especially if it takes several years or decades to prepare the materials and execute the mission. I can withstand some isolation if it means that none of you get captured.¡±

    ¡°No, Ash,¡± Lira said, ¡°What¡­ In the worst case you¡¯d be left completely alone for who knows how long. I¡¯m¡ª we can¡¯t let that happen. Sean¡¯s right, you need to be with somebody in case things go wrong.¡±

    ¡°But if one of you stays, the odds of the others being captured would increase significantly,¡± Ash argued, ¡°It is better to ensure success than lose because we feared the worst case scenario.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡­ Hey, Brenda!¡± Lira said, sitting up and looking like she had an idea, ¡°Brenda said we could visit her at her home base. We could go and you could stay with her! She¡¯ll take care of you and make sure you¡¯re safe, Ash.¡±

    ¡°I can protect myself,¡± Ash said, ¡°I do not need Brenda to do so.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I know,¡± Lira said while patting Ash¡¯s metallic arm with her hand, ¡°But won¡¯t it be nice to have company? Then all us Immortals can go on the mission and I won¡¯t have to worry about you so much.¡±

    Ash stared at Lira for a long moment, his eyes flickering.

    ¡°Very well,¡± Ash eventually said, ¡°We will see if Brenda is willing to host me and go from there.¡±

    Roger let out a breath, ¡°Well, that¡¯s a relief. Ash is who I was worried about the most. Brenda¡¯s responsible, if she promises to take care of Ash then she¡¯ll probably stick it out until we make it back.¡±

    ¡°Here, Ash,¡± Lira said, standing up and starting to walk away, ¡°I still remember the coordinates. I¡¯ll show you in case something happens.¡±

    Ash stood as well and followed after her without saying another word.

    <hr>

    ¡°Bye, Ash!¡± Lira said, hugging him for a long while before letting go and taking a step back, ¡°Be good. We¡¯ll be back as quickly as we can.¡±

    ¡°I will eagerly await your return,¡± Ash replied before turning his head, ¡°And thank you Brenda for letting me stay.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re more than welcome,¡± Brenda said from where she stood to the side, ¡°Could use the company in this old dusty place. Maybe even help fixing it up a little if you¡¯re up to it. It¡¯s really gone to the dumps in the last few thousand years.¡±

    ¡°I will assist where I can,¡± Ash said.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be back soon,¡± Sean promised, ¡°As soon as we can,¡± he amended, ¡°Just look over those robot body designs the three of us made. When we get back from our trip we¡¯ll build one for you. Like an apology for being gone for so long.¡±

    ¡°I look forward to it,¡± Ash said, ¡°I will make sure to pick a design with the most utility to myself and the group.¡±

    ¡°Ash, Brenda,¡± Roger said lightly before leaving a slight pause.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be having too much fun now. As hunky as Ash is, keep your hands off of their virgin chassis, Brenda.¡±

    Brenda rolled her eyes and Lira looked scandalized, punching Roger on the shoulder hard.

    ¡°Ow. Just kidding, just kidding,¡± Roger said while rubbing his shoulder theatrically, ¡°Bye, Ash. We¡¯ll be back and building your new body before you know it.¡±

    ¡°Goodbye,¡± Ash finished, and after some more basic goodbyes the three Immortals returned to their ship and left the station. Sean watched as the base built into the side of this far flung asteroid in an abandoned solar system receded into the distance.

    Now came the meeting he had been dreading for these last five years. It was time to meet with Nyx, the Plaguebringer, and start planning to break Emily out of jail in earnest.

 Chapter 31: Prison Break

    Sean shifted nervously in place as the group sat curled up in the shipping container while practically stacked on top of each other. The container was ice cold and filled to the brim with raw fish and sushi inbound for Immortus station. All four of them were all wearing stealth suits like what Emily had worn for her mission on Enguli all those centuries ago.

    Nyx had taken a few months to teach them how they were used and how to properly sneak around, but other than that he had brought them straight here to get started. He had already planned everything and ¡®greased the wheels¡¯ ahead of time as he put it.

    The suits not only rendered them invisible to light, but also had an internal cooling system so they couldn¡¯t be found through their signatures either. Nyx had bribed the driver of the food shipment, a mortal that took the ludicrous money Nyx offered him greedily.

    All of the luxuries at Immortus station had to come from somewhere, and so it was mortal companies that delivered the goods on a regular basis. All the driver had to do was leave the door of the shipping container door wide open ¡®accidentally¡¯ for a few extra minutes after it was on the station so they could leave. That was if they made it through security.

    Nyx was sure that it would work, but he didn¡¯t know everything about security so he admitted that they might be caught. Not that he had cared all too much when he said that, it seems getting the chance of meeting Emily was worth whatever risk to him.

    But it was still nerve wracking as they all stood there invisibly just waiting as they were presumably scanned as the ship flew towards Immortus Station.

    Finally after what felt like forever, the ship rumbled around them then there was a heavy clunk as the ship presumably docked at the station. Sean let out a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Alright, don¡¯t fuck it up everyone,¡± Nyx said, as thoughtful of their feelings as usual.

    ¡°Remember the maps, regather at the maintenance hallway. If you get caught, don¡¯t squeal on the rest of us. Don¡¯t fire your weapons unless you¡¯re about to get caught. If you get in combat with literally anyone competent at security you¡¯ll all be flattened in seconds, but best to get captured with a bang at least if you¡¯re already spotted. Got it?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡±

    ¡°Yes, Nyx,¡± Lira said, a little politer than the rest of them despite her dislike for the man.

    ¡°Great,¡± Nyx said, ¡°See you there then. Remember to go in order after the door is open.¡±

    <hr>

    Sean nervously stalked through the strangely familiar halls of Immortus station. It felt like forever since he¡¯d been here, but everything was exactly the same as he remembered it. Even the people that Sean carefully avoided were the same as before, continuing in the same exact routines that he had seen them performing when he was here last. He recognized most of the people here, blissfully going about their routines the same as they had over five hundred years ago.

    Sean wondered if he would be like them someday, locked into an endless cycle of doing the same things over and over again. At least when he was working on his projects he could feel the improvements to himself or his designs. At least when he played Foundation of All he could feel and see the progress and growth of the factory.

    At least when he explored the galaxy with his friends he always saw something new. What would he do when he had seen everything, when his progression stopped after he had already improved to his maximum?

    An unfamiliar Immortal turned the corner and Sean held his breath as he almost ran into him. But the invisibility field held and the man walked by while humming a little tune to himself barely five feet away from Sean. Sean was lucky that his bulky weapon was strapped to his back so he hadn¡¯t reflexively pulled the trigger and exposed his presence to the rest of the station when the Immortal recovered.

    Sean waited until the man was a good distance away before carefully stepping again trying to be as quiet as possible while he made his way to the meeting point. The shoes on the suit muffled his footsteps somewhat, but any other noise he made could be easily picked up by people around him if he wasn¡¯t careful.

    Sean continued down the hallways, freezing and pressing himself to the walls while holding his breath if someone came by. His heart pounded rapidly every time, so loud in his ears that he worried that the person walking by would hear it.

    But finally after dozens of close calls, Sean finally made it to an unobtrusive maintenance hatch in a forgotten corner of the station. He carefully pressed the code that he had memorized into a panel to the side and the hatch slid open. Sean went through and quickly did the same on the opposite side to close it again.

    ¡°Hello?¡± He whispered softly, ¡°Anyone here yet?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re the last one,¡± Nyx¡¯s voice said from thin air, ¡°Seems we¡¯ve all made it. Things are going well so far. Alright. There will be some real security down on the prison level. Roger, you ready with the explosives?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Roger¡¯s voice said from thin air, ¡°I¡¯ll plant them and set them off as a distraction. How long should I wait? Plan was for two hours, but what if it takes longer?¡±

    ¡°Remind me why we¡¯re not using radios or something?¡± Lira asked, ¡°Then we could talk to Roger.¡±

    Nyx snorted, ¡°Didn¡¯t I explain this shit already? The Immortal Council spies on everyone, always monitoring everything they can. As soon as they know something is wrong they¡¯ll be on the sources of any unknown signals in the station in an instant and ambush our asses. Why do you think we had to reunite in this random ass hallway rather than getting on with it?¡±

    ¡°No need to be so rude about it,¡± Lira muttered.

    ¡°Sean, Lira, you¡¯re with me,¡± Nyx said ignoring her comment, ¡°Roger, remember to hijack a ship for our escape too while you¡¯re waiting to set off the bombs. Docking bay 5a. 5a. If you¡¯re not there with a ship ready then the rest of this is useless.¡±

    ¡°I got it,¡± Roger said with tension in his voice, ¡°Why do I have to do all the bombing and ship hijacking again?¡±

    ¡°Because your ass is expendable,¡± Nyx said reflexively before pausing, ¡°Errr, forget I said that. Usually the idiots that accept those parts of the job are expendable and used as the fall guy if things go sideways, but you aren¡¯t that here. Totally not expendable according to your friends. Sean needs to go so the Plaguemother will trust us. And Lira is better at hacking apparently so she can help open the cells. That¡¯s way harder than breaking into a ship. And don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re at a higher risk of getting caught. If we don¡¯t make it you can just turn invisible and slip away and escape later. We¡¯ll be right in the prison doing the breakout, so security will be right on us.¡±

    ¡°I suppose¡­¡± Roger replied, ¡°Fine. Two hours, then the bombs go off. You guys better make it back or I¡¯ll be pissed.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m touched you care so much about me,¡± Nyx said sarcastically before the door to the hallway slid open again.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going,¡± Roger¡¯s voice said from the opening, ¡°See you all soon.¡±

    ¡°Okay you two,¡± Nyx said, ¡°Waiting time. Then off to the prison break, what fun.¡±

    <hr>

    Sean followed Nyx through the hallways, the man occasionally making a soft clicking sound with his tongue so Lira and Sean could follow him as they all remained invisible.

    They reached the door to the prison level, and Nyx typed in a code into the panel. According to him those codes had been the hardest part, and he had to pull several favors from Immortals that he knew to get it. All the defenses here were automatic since none of the Immortals wanted to be constantly standing guard over the prison.

    But that being said, they were on a timer now. Even if they went in and did nothing then it was only a matter of time before someone noticed that the Enforcer whose codes they were using was nowhere near the prison at the moment. The door opened and Sean saw the long hallway stretching into the distance with bulky doors on either side.

    The three went inside and pulled out their tools. There would be no speaking until they were sure they would be caught. There were microphones and cameras covering every inch of this place, and only the military grade infiltration suits they were wearing stopped them from getting caught immediately.

    They immediately got to work, hacking the panels at the doors of each of the cells. They were flying blind from this point, with no knowledge at all of where Emily would be held. Sean finished hacking his first panel, and the file of the prisoner appeared. With one look he saw that it was a man and moved on.

    They went one by one, breaking just far enough into the system to display the prisoner information before moving on when confirming that it wasn¡¯t Emily.

    ¡°Psssst. Found her. End of this long ass hallway,¡± Nyx''s voice suddenly said right next to Sean¡¯s ear, ¡°Figured she wouldn¡¯t be imprisoned with the rest of these losers. She got a big special cell, and I need some help breaking into it.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Sean whispered back.

    ¡°Head on down it¡¯s at the very end, I¡¯ll tell Lira,¡± Nyx said and then Sean heard soft footsteps across the hallway where another one of the prison door panels was flickering and displaying prisoner information.

    Sean complied after a moment''s hesitation and carefully walked down to the very end of the hallway that seemed to stretch for forever.

    But at the end was a massive circular door unlike the others, looking like a single massive block of steel and completely smooth in blocking the entrance.

    Sean started inspecting the panel, but it was one of the most advanced pieces of software he had seen so far. He would likely need to get in the internals and start rewiring things to get it open. Something that would surely be picked up by all the cameras pointed at him right now¡­

    Sean heard two pairs of footsteps approaching from down the hallway. Sean waited as they approached and they were all standing over the panel.

    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    ¡°Can you get through the panel?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Lira, Nyx?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Lira admitted.

    There was a long pause as Sean stared into the apparently empty hallway.

    ¡°Shit, I don¡¯t think I can either,¡± Nyx said, ¡°Not without setting off the alarms.¡±

    ¡°But we planned for this, right?¡± Sean said, ¡°We just have to wait on Roger and break her out while they¡¯re distracted.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Guess we just have to wait now. So much for getting away clean.¡±

    And they did, standing there in silence nervously. Suddenly Sean let out a sigh of relief as the floor shook slightly underneath them, like a minor earthquake.

    ¡°Lira, you rewire the insides. I¡¯ll do the software. Sean, get your pretty face ready to explain things to the Plaguemother once we get her out.¡±

    Sean stood to the side and waited just outside the door as he heard Nyx and Lira furiously muttering to each other as the panel sparked and fizzed and Lira used her tools to dig around its insides to get the door to open. Sean shifted from foot to foot, waiting as they worked without him. There was only so much room at the panel as it was and he would only get in the way.

    After a minute there was a loud clunk and the door in front of Sean started rumbling open. No loud alarm, no massive siren went off as the door fully opened. But Sean knew that station security would be coming soon.

    He stared in confusion inside where a giant stone block sat in the center of the room, looming over the space.

    ¡°Damn, old school,¡± Nyx said from the side, ¡°She¡¯s inside the block, let¡¯s blast her out.¡±

    Nyx suddenly revealed himself as his suit flickered off, covering his whole body head to toe in its gray surface. He was hefting the bulky weapon that they all had and pointed it at the block. Sean revealed himself along with Lira and followed his lead.

    ¡°Alright, Squad,¡± Nyx shouted, ¡°Let it rip!¡±

    All three of them began firing and carving into the stone with their plasma beams even as Sean heard the faint sound of footsteps approaching from down the hallway.

    They were cutting it close.

    <hr>

    One moment Emily was being imprisoned with Peter standing right in front of her, and the next her body was covered in searing pain. She fell forward onto something hot, and the smell of burnt skin reached her nose. She could feel her hands embedded in her skull and with a groan she strained and pulled until her hands were free and ripped out of her head with a wet squelch and burst of blood. She was still blind, the heat around her cooking every inch of her skin over and over as she flailed around

    She rolled and squirmed forward, feeling at the burning walls blindly to the cooler outsides like she was emerging from an egg. Finally, she fell out onto the blessedly cool floor and breathed heavily for a few seconds as she lay regenerating on the floor.

    Something wrapped around her wrist and she flailed at it, only for the presence to immediately back off again. She felt the refreshing wave of nanites from a clothing band cover her as her eyes finally healed and she sat up blinking. She stared at the man standing a few feet away looking nervous.

    ¡°Sean? What are you doing here?¡± She asked dumbly.

    ¡°Getting you out,¡± Sean said, ¡°C¡¯mon. Let¡¯s hurry, the security is coming.¡±

    Emily stood slightly unsteadily still trying to figure out what was happening in the chaos. What was he doing? He shouldn¡¯t risk¡­ But he was already here, it was too late. The Immortal Council wouldn¡¯t forgive him now, especially when he was saving her.

    There was weapons fire from the hallway outside. What was going on out there? Had he come with more people?

    She took a deep breath to calm down.

    ¡°Okay¡­ Okay. You have a plan?¡±

    Sean nodded, ¡°Yeah, we do. Just put on the infiltration suit and we¡¯ll fight our way out. In case we get seperated its docking bay 5a. 5a, that¡¯s where we¡¯ve got a ship so we can escape.¡±

    He took something from behind him, a bulky suit rolled up in a tube that he tossed to her. She caught it and put it on as quickly as she could even as the combat outside intensified.

    Sean handed her a small blaster and after giving it a brief check she followed him in running out of the door. She didn¡¯t like combat, but that didn¡¯t mean she wasn¡¯t well trained in it.

    Emily raised an eyebrow as she saw a man in a deactivated infiltration suit wielding a sword and pistol fighting three of the security team at once. A woman stood in the back with a rifle and was firing when she had the chance past the man¡¯s form, but her stance was terrible and most of her shots went wide as she was thrown off balance by the recoil from her fire.

    Emily stepped over to Sean, ¡°Give me that,¡± she said before taking his rifle and handing him the pistol in exchange. He didn¡¯t resist and nodded to her and raised his weapon to one of the three men fighting the security team.

    ¡°Nyx! She¡¯s out!¡± Sean shouted, ¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±

    Emily holstered the rifle and pointed at the team and took a ready stance and began firing. The first man she targeted stumbled back as her shots targeted his knees and elbows, hitting with pinpoint precision as she fired and stressed his shield by firing at different segments in sequence. Finally just as the shield finishing strengthening itself on the man¡¯s lower body, Emily adjusted the rifle power to the maximum and blasted him in the skull, vaporizing it in an instant.

    The other man, Nyx, exploited the surprise of the other two to leap forward and jump on top of one of the remaining men. He bore the man down to the floor and pressed his large sword into the shield in front of the man¡¯s face. The two forces struggled together for a few seconds as Nyx pressed down with his full body weight and the shield glowed brighter and brighter to stop the tip of the sword from dropping down any further.

    After a second, there was a loud crack and the shield broke allowing the sword to embed itself in the skull of the Immortal below Nyx, causing the struggling man to collapse.

    The remaining security officer looked indecisive, head snapping side to side as he tried to decide if he should deal with Emily or Nyx first.

    But before he could decide, a rain of fire from Sean and the unfamiliar woman both rained down onto him straining his shield to the absolute maximum. Emily raised her rifle and fired again at maximum power evaporating this man¡¯s head as well as his shields finally failing.

    She glanced to the side and saw that the first man she had taken down was already recovering with his skull almost fully reformed by now.

    Nyx stood, leaving his sword embedded in the head of the officer on the floor.

    ¡°Alright let¡¯s go,¡± he said, ¡°No time to waste.¡±

    Emily nodded to him and he tensed and his posture changed into what she could only read as exceptionally proud.

    ¡°Fuck yeah,¡± he muttered under his breath to himself as all of them ran for the exit at the end of the long hallway.

    There were two more members of the Security team there at the end of the hallway, but they seemed surprised to see the large group charging them and the guards fumbled at their weapons at their sides.

    All of them fired their weapons at once, and the two officers went down before they could even return fire. Emily checked her rifle. Thirty percent charge left. She only had a few more shots left.

    They all jumped over the two limp bodies into the hallway. Nyx stepped to the side and the door to the prison level slid shut, and with a quick blast Nyx shredded the panel into scrap. There was some shouting coming from their left and so they all ran right as quickly as they could before whoever it was spotted them.

    ¡°Activate stealth and gather at Docking bay 5a,¡± Nyx said after they ran around a few corners and gathered together. There were footsteps and shouts all around, slowly circling in around them but still seeming confused about where exactly they were, ¡°Split up and they won¡¯t be able to block all of us. Hope Roger did his job.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Sean said, ¡°We should push through together, no one left behind.¡±

    ¡°No Sean, he¡¯s right,¡± Emily said, ¡°A group that¡¯s invisible is still detectable. If there¡¯s only one then each of has a better chance of being hidden.¡±

    Nyx straightened, ¡°Yes!¡± He said excitedly before appearing to calm himself, ¡°I mean, yes. She¡¯s right, that¡¯s what we should do.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± the unfamiliar woman said, ¡°Split up and meet up at the ship?¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Sean allowed, ¡°Get back safe, Lira.¡±

    ¡°See you soon, Sean,¡± The woman said in a familiar tone. Emily looked between the two of them. Huh. Was she reading too much into things or were they¡­

    ¡°Really feeling the love here guys,¡± Nyx joked, ¡°Let¡¯s go before Security spots us and we¡¯re sprung. Leave the lovey dovey eyes for when we¡¯re all back at the ship.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Nyx,¡± The woman, Lira, said in annoyance before her suit activated and she disappeared from sight. The rest of them followed suit and started off, each going their own way. Emily knew where 5a was, and quickly started sneaking her way there around the security that rushed past her in the chaos. And past all the confused citizens wandering around looking curious about what was causing all the fus.

    Emily was nearly there, when suddenly the whole station shook and Emily staggered and braced herself against the wall. There was the sound of screeching metal and roaring wind behind her, and she heard screams in the distance. What was happening? Was this part of Sean¡¯s, or Nyx more likely, their plan?

    Emily¡¯s thoughts raced as she finally reached the docking bay, jogging and speeding up after realizing that no one would be able to hear her move over the screaming and chaos behind her.

    She immediately saw the ship with the open exterior door and raced into it and through the tube inside connecting the station and stolen ship. She made sure she was right next to the interior door before uncloaking and waving where she knew the camera would likely be.

    After a few seconds the ship door slid open with a hiss and she quickly stepped inside, leaving the door to quickly shut again behind her. She went to the command center and saw Sean and another unfamiliar man there. The two were arguing with each other.

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t me!¡± the man said, ¡°I don¡¯t know, I did exactly what he said. We¡¯ll just have to wait for them.¡±

    ¡°Hi, Emily,¡± Sean said distractedly to her, ¡°Glad you made it. We¡¯re just waiting on Nyx and Lira still. Hoping that Roger didn¡¯t blow them up with whatever extra explosives he planted.¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t me, I¡¯m telling you!¡± Roger shouted, ¡°Quit saying that!¡±

    ¡°Fine, fine,¡± Sean said, shifting foot to foot as they watched the screen showing the exterior door to the ship. Emily checked the time on the ship, and waited alongside the two men in silence. After what felt like forever, Emily checked the time on the ship again. It had been nearly thirty minutes.

    ¡°Look,¡± She said hesitantly, ¡°How much longer should we wait? If we don¡¯t leave soon we might all be caught.¡±

    ¡°We won¡¯t leave until they¡¯re back!¡± Sean snapped, ¡°I¡¯m sure they¡¯re coming¡ª I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    ¡°Ten more minutes?¡± Roger said and Sean shot him a look of betrayal.

    ¡°Look,¡± Roger said defensively, ¡°She¡¯s right. We only have so much time before we have to go, we can¡¯t let all of this to be for nothing. Or to leave Ash alone. What would Lira tell us to do?¡±

    Sean gritted his teeth, before turning away from the both of them.

    ¡°Fine,¡± he said, ¡°Ten more minutes. But not any sooner.¡±

    Ten minutes passed and no one appeared.

    ¡°Just wait a little longer¡­¡± Sean said desperately as Roger began to prepare the ship to detatch from the station.

    ¡°Sean, we have to go,¡± Emily said softly, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. They¡¯re not coming.¡±

    Sean didn¡¯t reply but didn¡¯t stop Roger from detatching the ship from the station and navigating them away. Even now despite what had happened, there was still some space ship traffic coming in and out of the station. Emily looked at the view behind them as Immortus Station shrunk into the distance. All along one side was a massive scar spilling out little chunks of debris from the station like a bleeding wound.

    Had Sean¡¯s friends done that? Emily hoped not, that seemed extreme just to help her escape from there¡­

    Half way out of the system, someone finally noticed them through the chaos of ships helping repair and provide relief at Immortus Station. Or at least enough to mount a response and send three military ships roaring full speed towards them.

    But it was too late, and before the first missiles could hit them a few hours later they were gone. Jumping into hyperspace and away free, two companions short.

    <hr>

    Nyx woke up at the bottom of a giant pit filled with twisted metal and sparking wires. He hadn¡¯t thought he had even given Roger that many bombs. Even if he had wanted to go wild and brought his own, and what kind of idiot just set them off without even telling his allies first? Nyx was going to beat his ass when he next saw him. Nyx stared down the barrel of the blaster of the Immortal Enforcer standing above him, the end of their weapon glowing as it pointed down at him.

    ¡°Sean better give me a fucking glowing recommendation to the Plaguemother,¡± He grumbled to himself as the blaster lit up brighter and in the next second Nyx¡¯s head was seared away in a bright flash of plasma.

 Chapter 32: The Door to the Golden Cage is Unlocked, Yet No One Leaves

    ¡°I¡¯m rather disappointed in you, Lira,¡± Samir said in a serious tone, ¡°This is a serious business you¡¯ve mixed yourself up in. We¡¯ve only just finished repairs on Immortus Station in this last week.¡±

    Lira thrashed and tried to move, but the straightjacket she was wearing pinned her arms thoroughly in place. They were in a small room as she sat across a metal table from Samir. She kept her lips pressed tightly together even as she looked away from Samir. She didn¡¯t want to blurt something out accidentally and give him an opening to interrogate her more.

    ¡°No need to be like that,¡± Samir said, ¡°I¡¯m here to help you, I really am. You¡¯ve been mixed up with the wrong people and I¡¯m partially to blame for that. I should have been more vigilant before letting Sean onto the station with the Plaguemother whispering in his ear. But it¡¯s too late now. I¡¯d like to help you, give you a chance to rehabilitate yourself. That Plaguebringer Nyx has already confessed to planning the whole thing, the prison break and attack. You thought you were helping your friends and I understand that. I won¡¯t ask you to do anything to harm them. I¡¯d rather not keep you in prison if I don¡¯t have to. But we need to talk if that¡¯s going to happen.¡±

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to seal me up in one of those big stone blocks?¡± Lira said before she could stop herself, ¡°Vaporize my head and leave me there forever?¡±

    Samir winced and shook his head, ¡°Ah, was that what you thought? No, that¡¯s only for the worst criminals. Plaguebringers that destroyed whole planets on a whim, people that aren¡¯t safe to have around others. I don¡¯t think you¡¯re anything like that. Are you?¡±

    Lira shifted around in the straightjacket again, ¡°No¡­ what do you want from me anyway? After everything you¡¯ve said to me? What you almost did?¡±

    ¡°What I¡¯ve said to you?¡± Samir said, appearing genuinely confused at her accusation, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    Something boiled over in Lira and suddenly she was shouting.

    ¡°Lars! You¡­ How can you not even remember?! You said that he did nothing wrong, that it was my fault for not fighting back! How could you? And Ash¡­ Ash¡­ You were going to kill her if we didn¡¯t leave, all without even really talking to her! I¡­ You¡­ She¡­¡±

    ¡°That robot was a risk to us all¡­¡±

    ¡°Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! Ash is a person, a better person than you¡¯ll ever be! You don¡¯t get to hurt her just because she¡¯s different¡­¡±

    Lira lifted her shoulder and started rubbing her face on the jacket to clear her watery eyes. By the Shadow, how could he just sit there and be like this¡­

    Samir paused at that and luckily didn¡¯t speak for a while, appearing in deep thought.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for my comments on Lars,¡± he eventually said, ¡°I was frustrated and¡­ Well, there¡¯s no excuse. I should have chosen my words better. I suppose I¡¯m out of touch with newer Immortals like yourself and your struggles. I didn¡¯t mean to make light of it. I see you care deeply for the robot. My duty is to Immortus Station and the Council, and I can¡¯t risk the feelings of one person for the safety and security for everyone else. Imagine what might have happened if your Ash flew into a rage and started attacking the people of this station indiscriminately? Who else might be traumatized like you¡¯ve been?¡±

    ¡°She¡­ She wouldn¡¯t do that. You don¡¯t know her like I do.¡±

    ¡°Even if you were in some perceived danger? If Lars made any more nasty comments towards you? What then? Would you be able to stop it in time?¡±

    ¡°Lars was the one that attacked Ash!¡± Lira protested, ¡°And we were in the greater galaxy for over five hundred years and we did just fine with her alongside us. She didn¡¯t hurt anybody like you¡¯re saying. No one at all!¡±

    Samir hummed to himself and tapped the table with his fingers.

    ¡°I see¡­¡±

    He said thoughtfully. Lira didn¡¯t say anything in response, feeling the rage and frustration from before slide away into a deep weariness. Ash was safe at least, but she couldn¡¯t believe she was back here talking with Samir of all people. He was still the perfect politician, apologizing while not really feeling sorry about what he had said or done. But Ash was safe, Sean and Roger must have made it out with the Emily woman or Samir would have said something about it by now.

    ¡°I tell you what,¡± Samir said suddenly, ¡°Your robot Ash, you want them protected and safe, don¡¯t you?¡±

    Lira hesitated and then nodded slightly.

    ¡°Then I¡¯ll cut you a deal. You be a little bit less stubborn and accept my deal to help rehabilitate you and allow you back onto the station. In exchange, I¡¯ll get a special exemption for your robot for the Council. A license if you will so this Ash won¡¯t have to worry about being destroyed by the Enforcers when you end up encountering them again. And it can never come onto Immortus Station as well. There are limits of course, it can be revoked at any time. And Plaguebringers and any Immortals or mortals not affiliated with us make their own decisions and may take issue with the robot. But the galaxy will be much safer for your robot if you get this license.¡±

    ¡°What¡­ what do you want in return?¡± Lira asked. It sounded too good to be true.

    ¡°Your cooperation,¡± Samir said with a slight smile, ¡°I do really want to help you. It¡¯s a shame everything that¡¯s happened to you at your age. But you can start off with everything that¡¯s happened to you since you¡¯ve left this station. Especially your relationship with Nyx Vesper.¡±

    Lira hesitated, ¡°The license. When will I get it? How soon?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Samir said flatly, ¡°At least a few years. If you do your best to behave and cooperate to your fullest then I¡¯m sure it will speed up the process.¡±

    Lira hesitated one last time, her thoughts racing. What was the harm in playing along after all, when that license could nearly guarantee Ash¡¯s safety and let them visit the more urban worlds without fearing an Enforcer catching the group and killing Ash out of spite¡­

    ¡°Can I get out of this thing first?¡± Lira eventually said before shifting in place to highlight the straightjacket she was wearing.

    ¡°Certainly.¡±

    <hr>

    Lira held some things back of course. Mostly things about Ash and when they had visited Brenda¡¯s base as a group. Or Brenda¡¯s role in everything for that matter. Samir didn¡¯t press too hard for details, just occasionally prompting her onwards when she stopped and struggled to figure out what she should talk about next.

    Eventually Samir was satisfied with his questions, especially focusing on their meeting with Nyx and her time trapped by the Endless Flesh.

    That led to all the terms and conditions of her release from this small room onto the larger station. She couldn¡¯t use any of the workshops or even create any unauthorized technology at all even for the smallest things. She¡¯d have to check in on Samir and give him progress reports on how she was doing regularly. Fuck, she still didn¡¯t like him even if he was apparently was genuine in wanting to help her. Jerk still hadn¡¯t truly apologized for trying to kill Ash¡­

    But the worst part of the agreement was the bulky metal collar around her neck. She reached up and tugged at it.

    ¡°Do I have to?¡± She asked Samir as she stood at the door to the main station, ¡°Can¡¯t I just wear it around my¡­ arm or something? This is so humiliating¡­¡±

    ¡°It has to be the neck,¡± Samir said calmly, ¡°Has to be able to pop off your head to knock you out if you try to escape. Or if you try to tamper with it. It is what it is, and I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get used to it over time. Just think of it like a bulky necklace. Paint it whatever color you like if you want to make it seem more like an intentional statement.¡±

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Lira tugged uncomfortably at the thick metal band that had been fused into a single uninterrupted piece around her throat. She wasn¡¯t sure about the security features but she was told in no uncertain terms by Samir that she wouldn¡¯t be able to get it off without alerting every Security Officer on the station to the attempt.

    ¡°Fine¡­ If it gets Ash her license then I can deal with it.¡±

    ¡°Excellent! I will escort you to your old rooms then,¡± Samir said, ¡°After that you have free reign within the rules. Just remember, any escape attempts from the Station will void the whole deal. I¡¯m pulling a lot of favors to pull this all off, so don¡¯t waste this chance.¡±

    ¡°I understand,¡± Lira grumbled, ¡°Let¡¯s just get going.¡±

    <hr>

    Lira stared at her old room after Samir left. It was the exact same as she had left it, only a little dustier than it had been. She walked in a daze into her bedroom and looked wistfully at the large bed inside. Sean was gone, free out there in the galaxy. She wondered what he was doing right now, if he was worried about her and trying to figure out to free her from this place.

    She felt the sudden overwhelming urge to escape, to run to the docks and steal the closest ship. Hit the hyperdrive in the system and risk being exploded into a million pieces and reform in deep space¡­ But she couldn¡¯t do that anymore. This was her big chance to make sure that Ash would be safe. Let her be free to explore the populated worlds and be tolerated at least by Immortal society. Lira couldn¡¯t ruin that. She reached up and tugged at her metal collar again. A constant reminder that she was still a prisoner. Not any freer just because her cage had golden bars¡­

    <hr>

    Lira wandered the station aimlessly searching for something to do. All of her prior girl friends had refused her calls, leaving her messages unread on the holopad. One had replied and at least been apologetic in saying they couldn¡¯t be friends anymore. Too much damage to their reputation to risk being associated with her. Lira respected that friend a lot more than the ones that had simply not replied at all.

    Lira had really thought she was real friends with all of them, but it seems that when her friendship grew inconvenient they were ready to distance themselves from her without even a second thought. Everyone on the station eyed her warily like she was dangerous, their eyes always fixating directly on her metal collar as she walked by. Lira wondered what they thought she had done to earn it. She heard some whispers, but none were loud enough for her to pick up anything coherent on what they thought about it.

    It seems that she was all alone again even while surrounded on all sides by people.

    Eventually she reached a firing range and stood outside of it for a few seconds. She tried to think of what else she could do, but couldn¡¯t find the motivation to search any more. Without Ash, Roger, especially Sean¡­ What was even the point? Everything felt dull and gray as she walked inside and began practicing, firing the guns into target after target.

    After a while she looked up from her targets at hearing the high pitched giggles of two women along with the voice of a familiar man.

    Lira turned and spotted Nyx wearing shorts and a loose shirt open at the chest. He was wearing a metal collar the same as her, but had painted a design of orange flames over it. He looked rather relaxed as he chatted with the two women he was with, obviously flirting with the both of them at the same time. Lira inspected the two women and saw they also appeared comfortable, one hovering by each of Nyx¡¯s arms as they walked and giving him suggestive glances as they spoke.

    ¡°Here we go, ladies!¡± Nyx said as they went to their firing lane, ¡°Let me show you how we do it over in the foul Plaguebringer Den! We have to land at least ten bullseyes every time we go or they cut off our access to the holopads! Only the strong survive over there, and I can¡¯t dare miss with a firing course this pathetically easy! It would shatter my strong Plaguebringer pride!¡±

    Nyx spotted Lira and suddenly waved, drawing the attention of the two women he was with as with. He started walking over and the two women trailed slightly behind to follow.

    ¡°Hey, my fellow convict,¡± Nyx said, ¡°Can¡¯t believe I got out sooner than you did. They even gave us matching accessories too¡­¡±

    He tugged at his collar with a grin, ¡°Feeling the benevolent hand of the Immortal Council shoved far up your ass now? Puppet masters, that¡¯s what I was saying from the beginning¡­¡±

    ¡°Nyx¡­¡± Lira replied flatly, ¡°You seem to be doing well.¡±

    ¡°Fuck yeah I am,¡± Nyx agreed, ¡°Their shit is so new and shiny here. Practically brand new. This place is great!¡±

    He lowered his voice to a stage whisper, ¡°The women see me as a sexy exotic bad boy too. Best of both worlds.¡±

    He raised his voice, ¡°Isn¡¯t that right, ladies? Having a good time with the mysterious Nyx Vesper? Showing off my shooting skills?¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon, Nyx. Shoot the targets already,¡± One of the women jokingly complained, ¡°You can¡¯t brag so much and then leave us hanging. Save the dirty talk for the party.¡±

    ¡°Party?¡± Lira asked, ¡°What party?¡±

    ¡°Oh, we should totally invite you too! You¡¯ve got that mysterious sexy aura too, even if it''s less than Nyx here,¡± the other woman said before digging in her pocket and pulling out a piece of paper that she handed it over.

    ¡°It¡¯s just a little gathering where we¡­¡± Lira opened the folded piece of paper between her hands and immediately her eyes bulged out as she saw the images of naked bodies inside striking provocative poses. She immediately shut it while blushing. What the Shadow were they thinking?

    ¡°Oh, you haven¡¯t ever been?¡± the woman said after noticing Lira¡¯s reaction, ¡°Great way to let off some steam. Nyx is going to be the center of attention when we go there after this. The both of us girls have got to get in early to get a good taste, with how popular he¡¯ll be when we get there.¡±

    ¡°Hmmm. A good taste is what you¡¯ll get, girl,¡± Nyx said in a husky tone back to the woman who had spoken.

    ¡°Fuck, that¡¯s so gross,¡± Lira said while gagging slightly and shoving the invitation back into the hands of the woman.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s kinda the whole idea,¡± the woman agreed brightly, ¡°Fuck and be gross. Just think about it. No shame and all that. Just some fun.¡±

    She shoved the piece of paper back into Lira¡¯s hands, and glared at her when she tried to hand it back again.

    ¡°Just keep it,¡± the woman said, ¡°You never know when you¡¯ll change your mind. We¡¯d be happy to see you there, I¡¯m sure you¡¯d be pretty popular too if you went¡­¡±

    ¡°No, no thanks.¡± Lira stammered and started backing away, ¡°I¡¯ve got, ah. Have fun you three. Got to¡­ go do something. Just finishing up and all. Bye.¡±

    ¡°Bye, bye sweetie,¡± the woman replied while wiggling her eyebrows. Lira turned and fled as quickly as she could without actually running, the images in the invitation still burned into her eyes. Gaaaah, who just hands people stuff like that in the open?

    Lira threw the invitation in the trash as soon as she got back to her room. She had to take a shower, she felt dirty just thinking about it¡­

    <hr>

    Showering somehow had made her feel better about what had just happened, the feeling of cleanliness of her body translating to her thoughts as well. She took the towel and carefully reached up to shove it under the collar to dry off around her neck. She could only shove it a little bit under, so it took some time to dry off the whole thing to make sure that there wasn¡¯t any water trapped under there that would grow uncomfortable.

    Well, at least Nyx was having a good time. A small comfort, but still surprisingly still comforting to Lira. Despite how sleazy he was, he was at least honest and open when giving his opinion on things. He was better than Samir at least.

    <hr>

    Lira was bored. She had spent over ten years making more statues and paintings. But she wasn¡¯t inspired at all, and had no one to talk to in the whole station. She had even invited herself to a normal party at one point and tried to mingle, but the host had called Station Security who escorted her out. By the Shadow, that had been so humiliating¡­

    She had to have a long drawn out conversation with Samir about that at their next progress meeting. Mostly she just told him a brief summary of what art pieces she had done before leaving. But Samir had held her for over three hours to discuss the party incident in excruciating detail that one time.

    Other than that she hadn''t spoken to anyone at all regularly really. How sad was that, that she almost looked forward to her short conversations with Samir by this point? The man that had tried to kill Ash?

    She went to the gun range still, hoping that Nyx or one of his friends would show up and talk with her. She had tried to connect with some of them over time, but none of them seemed overly interested in her friendship once they realized she wasn¡¯t interested in going to one of their sex parties. Nyx was really all in, looking like he was on an extended vacation whenever Lira saw him.

    But if she coincidentally met one of them at the gun range, she could have a short conversation for a while and they would indulge her. It seems that it was popular for them to go there and show off their marksmanship before their parties began, so that¡¯s where Lira would encounter them most often. They were the only people in this place that even indulged her with a little conversation rather than actively avoiding her. After their short polite conversation was finished then the person she was talking to would try to convince her to go to one of their parties, and she would firmly say no.

    That was the extent of Lira¡¯s human connection on the station. Samir, a man she hated. Nyx, who she disliked but was at least somewhat tolerable to talk to. And dozens of acquaintances that didn¡¯t care about anything but her body and convincing her to go with them to one of their gross parties.

    Oh, she wanted to escape so much. The collar around her neck felt tighter and tighter every day, feeling like it was almost choking her at times. But there was no escape, no Sean to comfort her, no Roger to joke and make her laugh. No Ash to take care of and nurture.

    She couldn¡¯t leave, not until Samir gave her the license for Ash. No matter how much the world dimmed around her and how desperate she became to talk to someone, anyone, that cared about her. She couldn¡¯t do it, she just couldn¡¯t.

    She had to do it. She had to stay, keep playing by Samir¡¯s rules. Keep the collar on. She had to do it for Ash. So the collar felt tighter and tighter every day and she just gritted her teeth and bore through it. It would all be worth it in the end, she was sure of it.

    It had to be worth it. It had to. Or else she suffering through all of this for nothing.

 Chapter 33: Friction

    ¡°...If you hadn¡¯t set off those¡­¡±

    ¡°Are you even listening to me? It. Wasn¡¯t me! Did you even see how big that hole in the station was? You think I could carrying around something that big without knowing about it?¡±

    Sean hesitated, ¡°Then who? How?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Roger said, ¡°But it wasn¡¯t me.¡±

    Sean turned away, ¡°Fine. We¡¯ll just have to go back and break them out when we can. We can go back after preparing a bit more.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Roger agreed, ¡°We¡¯ll go back for Lira. Maybe Nyx too if he¡¯s not too out of the way either. Despite everything he did help us.¡±

    There was a cough to the side and Sean turned to see Emily standing there with an awkward expression on her face.

    ¡°Uh, Actually¡­¡± She said before trailing off a bit at seeing their expressions, ¡°No, no. You¡¯re right. We¡¯ll just¡­ have to plan carefully, that¡¯s all!¡±

    ¡°What is it?¡± Roger demanded, ¡°What do you know?¡±

    Emily cleared her throat again, ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯m not sure how you got in the first time. But Security will be on alert for a long long time. You wouldn¡¯t even have a chance of breaking them out before then without getting caught. Not as we are right now at least¡­ How did you get in by the way? How did you manage to pull it off in only a few centuries?¡±

    The two men shared a confused look.

    ¡°Centuries?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Nyx planned most of it, but we only spent a few years at most preparing. Nyx bribed someone to sneak us in onboard a raw fish delivery for the station. We went in with our infiltration suits and broke you out. Roger had some explosives he set off to divert security¡­ We might have gotten away clean too if that second wave of explosions hadn¡¯t gotten off.¡±

    Emily waited, expectantly looking between the two of them.

    ¡°And?¡± She asked.

    ¡°And what? That was it.¡±

    ¡°That was it?¡± She asked looking confused, ¡°How the hell did that work? Infiltration suits are good, but not that good. You should have been detected before you even reached the station. And what about the door to the prison level?¡±

    ¡°Maybe Nyx paid a lot of bribes to get us through?¡± Roger asked hesitantly, ¡°He didn¡¯t share that much besides what we had to do. He must have handled it.¡±

    ¡°And the door to the prison level? What about that?¡± She asked, looking skeptical at their answer, ¡°That¡¯s the hardest part.¡±

    ¡°Nyx had a code,¡± Sean said, ¡°Pulled some favors to get it, but it let us go right in.¡±

    Emily looked even more confused, ¡°Just how connected is this guy? Only the chief of security and the leader of the Council has access to that code. You¡¯re saying that Nyx managed to get Samir of all people to help break me out?¡±

    Sean thought of how hostile Samir had been to Emily. Yeah, probably not¡­ And the leader of the Council was more a rumor than anything else, Nyx wouldn¡¯t be able to pull favors from someone like that.

    ¡°Well, we got through didn¡¯t we?¡± Roger said, ¡°You¡¯re here, so clearly he got it somehow. Maybe Samir had it on a computer or told someone¡­¡±

    Emily shook her head, ¡°No, you guys aren¡¯t getting it. I know Samir, for all his faults he¡¯s not one to be lax about security. He¡¯s not supposed to tell anyone the password or record it anywhere. He¡¯d have to directly tell someone for them to know it.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Roger said before trailing off.

    ¡°But why would whoever helped Nyx do all of this then set off those bombs at the last second? It had to be them, no one else could have prepared so much ahead of time but then still let us through.¡± Sean asked, ¡°It doesn¡¯t make any sense. It had to be someone that Samir trusts a lot, but also willing to break you out, Emily.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Emily said, ¡°But¡­ I don¡¯t think it will be so easy getting in next time. We¡¯ll have to be careful when we go back.¡±

    ¡°So you¡¯ll help us?¡± Sean asked.

    ¡°Of course!¡± Emily said, ¡°With me helping you out I¡¯m sure we can figure it out eventually. I know someone that could help us a lot while we wait for all the security measures to loosen a little around Immortus Station. By the way, where are we going now? Do you guys have your own ship we are going to?¡±

    Sean opened his mouth to tell her about Brenda, but Roger cut him off.

    ¡°Yes. We¡¯ll be going to the ship first. I assume we can just leave this one behind and be fine?¡±

    Emily shrugged, ¡°That¡¯s how most people do it. Steal what we can for profit and leave it to drift near the edge of some nearby system. Eventually someone will find some use for it again.¡±

    ¡°Better than spending months checking for trackers,¡± Roger said, sounding a little more upbeat.

    Emily looked between the two of them and raised an eyebrow as Sean agreed with him. She ran her hand over her head, her hair looking like it had been buzzed down to the scalp after having to regenerate her head.

    ¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve had some adventures even in such a short amount of time,¡± Emily said turning to Sean, ¡°We can worry about getting your friends out of prison later. How about we catch up a little, tell me what you¡¯ve been up to?¡±

    She turned to Roger, ¡°And I don¡¯t think I introduced myself in the chaos. I¡¯m Emily. Emily Stenson,¡± She stuck out her hand to him and Roger stared at it in confusion.

    ¡°You grab her hand with yours,¡± Sean supplied, ¡°What did you call it, Emily? A¡­ Handwiggle?¡±

    Emily¡¯s lips twitched upwards, ¡°Handshake. But I almost like handwiggle better.¡±

    Roger grabbed Emily¡¯s hand so they were palm to palm and Emily pumped their arms up and down two or three times before letting go again and stepping back.

    ¡°Handshake,¡± She said as Roger stood there looking unsure what to do, ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet you, Roger.¡±

    ¡°Errr, Nice to ah. Meet you too, Emily,¡± Roger eventually said, shaking his head and refocusing on the conversation, ¡°Sean¡¯s said a lot about you. It¡¯ll be nice to hear about it straight from the source. Is it true you¡¯re over a million years old?¡±

    ¡°Only heard good things I hope?¡± Emily said with slightly nervous laughter, ¡°Yep, over a million. Haha. Older than dirt.¡±

    ¡°Where did you come from?¡± Roger asked, ¡°What was the galaxy like when you were growing up?¡±

    Sean shook his head and tried to warn Roger off, but the man shot Sean a glance before ignoring him and looking back to Emily expectantly.

    ¡°Well, ah,¡± Emily said, ¡°You know, smaller. Not as settled as it is now. Less Immortals floating around than there are today¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, but what planet was it?¡± Roger asked, pushing further despite Emily¡¯s obvious discomfort with his line of questioning, ¡°Maybe I¡¯ve heard of it. Is it near the core?¡±

    Emily tilted her head and thought for a second. ¡°Well, I guess¡­ No, it probably would be called the inner edge of the outer rim these days. You¡¯ve probably never heard of it.¡±

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Try me,¡± Roger said, ¡°You never know, maybe I have.¡±

    ¡°No. You haven¡¯t,¡± Emily said, a hint of annoyance entering her voice.

    ¡°How would you know?¡± Roger said, ¡°Maybe I¡­¡±

    ¡°NO, YOU DON¡¯T! NO ONE DOES!¡± Emily shouted before turning away.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± She said softly, ¡°It was destroyed. A long time ago. I¡­ I have to be alone. I¡¯ll be back in a bit. Sorry¡­¡±

    Sean shot Roger a glare and the man gave an unrepentant shrug as Emily left in a hurry. What was Roger¡¯s deal? Why had he provoked her like that? Although Sean hadn¡¯t known her homeworld was destroyed. Clearly she had been more attached to it than Sean had to Enguli. He still had flashes of sadness thinking about it, but the intensity of his feelings had started fading in mere months after hearing the news from Nyx. And here was Emily still affected by the destruction of her planet millions of years later.

    ¡°What was that for, Roger? That¡¯s your first impression?¡± Sean said after Emily¡¯s footsteps had faded into the bowels of the ship.

    Roger shrugged, ¡°Seems convenient is all. You think as old as she is she can¡¯t answer basic questions like that? I think she¡¯s playing it up, hiding something. I don¡¯t like it.¡±

    ¡°And you thought the time to press her was now. Right after you met?¡± Sean asked with disbelief, ignoring Roger¡¯s accusation. He just didn¡¯t know Emily yet, she was just sensitive about certain things. Really sensitive.

    ¡°It was a perfectly normal question to ask,¡± Roger said stubbornly, ¡°Why won¡¯t she be specific about anything? You barely know anything about her. She¡¯s hiding things, I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    ¡°What the Shadow, Roger? So what? That doesn¡¯t give you the right to grill her like that when it was clear she was uncomfortable! What¡¯s got into you?¡±

    ¡°Lira was captured to help her get out, in case you¡¯ve forgotten,¡± Roger snapped, ¡°You almost told her exactly where Brenda and Ash were without a second thought! What if she wants to hurt Ash for some reason when we get there? We can¡¯t bring someone we don¡¯t trust near Ash. And you have nothing but her word to prove that she isn¡¯t some long lost queen of the damn Plaguebringers like Nyx believed.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t get it, Roger,¡± Sean said, his anger fading a little, ¡°I can¡¯t believe it''s all some act. I just can¡¯t. But if it makes you feel better, we¡¯ll figure a way to make sure she won''t be able to hurt Ash. But when Emily gets back, apologize to her. You¡¯re being a rude asshole right now.¡±

    Roger got a mullish look for a few seconds before sighing, ¡°Yeah, I guess I am. It just rubs me the wrong way that we risk everything for her and Lira gets captured and she can¡¯t even tell us the basics¡­ But fine. Deal.¡±

    Sean shook his head silently. They all were off to a great start weren¡¯t they¡­

    <hr>

    There was tension among them all for the next few days despite Roger¡¯s apology and Emily having calmed down a little. Sean didn¡¯t press her more on her past, which irritated Roger. But Roger bit his tongue and didn¡¯t bother her anymore to reduce their conflict. The man was currently up in the ship cockpit adjusting the coordinates so they would exit hyperspace as close to the location of their actual ship as possible.

    ¡°So,¡± Sean asked Emily as they sat together in one of the luxurious rooms on the ship, ¡°What do you think about intelligent machines? The Plaguebringers and Immortal Council don¡¯t seem to be fans.¡±

    Emily looked up where she had been zoning out while staring at her hands that were furled in her lap.

    ¡°Hmmm? Sorry, what was that Sean?¡± She asked as her eyes focused on him.

    ¡°Intelligent machines,¡± He repeated, ¡°What do you think about them?¡±

    ¡°Intelligent machines?¡± She asked, ¡°Like¡­ AI¡¯s? You know what I think about their reliability on longer timescales. But other than that they''re fine. Why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°No, no,¡± Sean clarified, ¡°Like a machine that develops a personality closer to a person. Not just a normal AI.¡±

    Emily frowned, ¡°Huh. Do you mean an unshackled AI? I wouldn¡¯t worry about them. I mostly just feel sorry for them more than anything. They are just like children with too much power. Flailing around confused until people end up killing them for some reason or another¡­ Or they start turning nasty once they realize how much the Immortals hate them. Especially the Plaguebringers.¡±

    ¡°What about you?¡± Sean asked his heart pounding, ¡°What if you discovered an¡­ unshackled AI when it first became aware? What would you do?¡±

    Emily looked thoughtful, ¡°Hmmm. Well, I honestly don¡¯t know. I can honestly say that I¡¯ve never had to deal with that situation before. I¡¯d want to help it, but at the same time¡­ They can be so dangerous. You can¡¯t put their lives over the people around them¡­¡±

    Sean¡¯s heartbeat slowed slightly. Looks like she wouldn¡¯t be opposed to Ash on principle¡­ She turned to Sean, ¡°What about you, Sean? What would you do? It would definitely be a hard decision.¡±

    Sean froze and tried to think of what he should say, ¡°I would treat it like a kid, like you said. Maybe it would develop well if you treated it right from the beginning.¡±

    Emily stared at him for a moment, ¡°Actually, how did you hear about unshackled AI? The Immortal Council is pretty heavy on the censorship of telling people about them. And it''s rare enough that it''s not something that really comes up in normal conversation..¡±

    ¡°Just heard about it,¡± Sean said vaguely, waving his hand.

    ¡°Huh. Someone just told you?¡± She clarified.

    ¡°Something like that.¡±

    ¡°Hmmmm,¡± Emily hummed, but didn¡¯t say anything else in reply as she stared into space again, ¡°It¡¯s good you¡¯ve learned so much. You¡¯re doing well in adjusting to this life,¡± She said absentmindedly.

    <hr>

    They transferred to the old familiar ship that Lira, Roger, Ash, and Sean had been using for centuries now and left their stolen ship behind to drift aimlessly through space.

    They settled in, and set off to Brenda¡¯s base. After a discussion with Roger, Sean had convinced his friend that all they had to do was make sure Emily didn¡¯t know the coordinates of where they were going and she couldn¡¯t betray Brenda¡¯s base. As for Ash¡­ Well, it would be four on one if she attacked and as long as they were wary, they could introduce the two and work from there.

    ¡°Hey, Sean,¡± Emily said suddenly after they were underway in hyperspace again. Roger reported that it would be weeks until they reached their destination.

    ¡°Want to play some Foundation of All together?¡± She asked somewhat hesitantly.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Sean said, ¡°It will be like old times, right?¡±

    Emily nodded and they made their way over to the holodeck. They didn¡¯t say goodbye to Roger who had locked himself into the command deck for the moment, suspicious that Emily would sneak in to read the coordinates of their destination when he wasn¡¯t paying attention. Sean thought it was all very over the top, but if it let Roger feel better about things then he wouldn¡¯t interfere.

    ¡°Hey, Sean. I haven¡¯t been entirely truthful with you,¡± Emily said with a slightly wavering tone as the door to the holodeck opened. Sean turned and saw her complicated expression as she stared at him.

    ¡°Foundation of All¡­ It¡¯s my game. I made it, all of it. I know I¡­ How frustrating it must be for you that I can¡¯t talk about my past easily. I really don¡¯t like talking about it, it brings back all the bad memories¡­ But I thought you should know this at least.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Sean replied, still partially in shock at the revelation, ¡°Every last bit?¡± he confirmed, ¡°Did you have anyone else to help you out? A team or¡­¡±

    Emily shook her head, ¡°Nope. Just me. Built the whole thing entirely from scratch.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Why didn¡¯t you want to tell me?¡± Sean asked slightly confused at what he should be feeling right now, ¡°That¡¯s really impressive. The game really is top of the line, nothing else I¡¯ve seen even comes close to how immersive it is.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡± She said, ¡°I didn¡¯t want to tell you because the planet it¡¯s on¡­ It¡¯s based on my home planet. The one that was destroyed. I thought that if I¡­ rebuilt it then maybe it was like they would carry on. But I didn¡¯t know enough, remember enough about them. It¡¯s only a shell, little bits and pieces put in from what I can remember. Nothing like I imagined it would be when I first started building it. I only added the game part later after I failed to rebuild my home planet again.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s an excellent game,¡± Sean said encouragingly, ¡°What about those worlds you built? That factory world you showed me, isn¡¯t that worth something? You remember them, you don¡¯t need a whole game for that.¡±

    ¡°But I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t remember them. Not really,¡± Emily said softly, ¡°It¡¯s just been so long, I can only remember the smallest bits¡­ Sometimes I barely even remember anything at all. How can you stand it? Knowing that your home planet is destroyed? You seem so unburdened by it when you talk about it.¡±

    ¡°My family was dead,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯m sad in an intellectual sort of way. But there was nothing left behind to tether me to Enguli. No friends, no family, the village hated me. I was an outcast, separate from the rest, my whole family was. I¡¯ve felt more at home on this ship with my best friends than I ever was on Enguli. So I don¡¯t have much trouble talking about it. It stopped being my home long ago.¡±

    ¡°Huh. I¡¯m happy that you¡¯ve found such good friends,¡± Emily said, ¡°They¡¯re the most valuable thing in the world. A real friend that has your back no matter what. More valuable than anything else¡­¡±

    She shook her head, ¡°Ah, but I¡¯m bringing down the mood again. I¡¯ve been doing that a lot recently. Let¡¯s just go in and have some fun in Foundation of All. Maybe you can show me your world? Sounds like you¡¯ve put some time in.¡±

    Sean grinned as they stepped to their platforms and began their login sequence.

    ¡°Sounds great. It¡¯s nothing like your world, but it¡¯s really come far since I¡¯ve started. As the creator of the game I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got some tips on how I can do better.¡±

    Emily chuckled as they materialized in an empty room at the center of Sean¡¯s factory.

    ¡°That I can do,¡± She said, ¡°Now, show me what you¡¯ve been up to! Still playing on hard mode, look at this steel on the walls. Really good choice of alloy. Long lasting and cheap for big structural support like this¡­¡±

    Their conversation quickly devolved to Sean explaining the engineering and organization of his factory while Emily rapid fire suggested various improvements or added little tidbits of knowledge on why one of his choices was ideal for this scenario but not that one. Sean knew what things worked and which didn¡¯t, but he didn¡¯t always know the reason why. Emily always seemed to know at a single glance what worked and what could be improved.

    And that¡¯s how they spent the weeks it took to arrive at Brenda''s base.

 Chapter 34: Rebuilding

    ¡°So, this is your friend¡¯s place?¡± Emily asked as they slowly started docking at the station, ¡°Brenda, you said her name was?¡±

    ¡°Yes. There¡¯s something else too. Someone else that we¡¯ve been traveling with for a long time,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Oh, it was more than the three of you?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Who is it?¡±

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t freak out,¡± Sean said, ¡°But they¡¯re named Ash. And they are¡­ he¡¯s an intelligent machine.¡±

    The ship rumbled as they connected to Brenda¡¯s base. Sean glanced at Emily who was staring at him in shock.

    ¡°What?¡± She said, ¡°How did you find one so early in development? Do you have any idea how rare they are?¡±

    ¡°Well, I built him myself mostly,¡± Sean said, ¡°Building robots from your Foundation of All designs. The fourth robot I built seemed more intelligent than the others, and eventually we realized that it had become a person. It¡¯s why we fled Immortus Station as a group. They were going to destroy Ash when station security discovered him, so Brenda helped us get out. Ash has been traveling with us ever since.¡±

    ¡°Four?!¡± Emily shouted with a half strangled cry, ¡°FOUR! YOU BUILT FOUR ROBOTS AND ONE OF THEM WAS AN UNSHACKLED AI! What the fuck. What the¡­¡±

    Her face was of complete disbelief and shock. They stared at each other for a long moment, Sean not sure what to say after her outburst.

    ¡°This is ridiculous,¡± Emily muttered to herself, ¡°He doesn¡¯t even realize¡­¡±

    She raised her voice and pointed at him, ¡°You! You are possibly the luckiest bastard I¡¯ve ever met. Do you have any idea of the chances of a random robot becoming an unshackled AI that doesn¡¯t immediately start stabbing everyone nearby? It¡¯s like landing a bullseye on a dartboard. From orbit. While blindfolded. With someone shoving you to throw off your aim. Ten times or more in a row. It¡¯s just¡­ How are you so calm right now? How many robots did you even end up building total?¡±

    ¡°Fifteen,¡± Sean said, ¡°But Ash was the first one that fully worked. The last eleven were good but clearly not as intelligent as he is.¡±

    ¡°Ridiculous¡­¡± Emily said in seeming awe, ¡°This is insane. There have been whole production lines making billions and billions of robots that haven¡¯t produced one unshackled AI. And the first time you build a robot you get one. And it also must be pretty well balanced if it didn¡¯t snap and start killing people when it was first threatened.¡±

    Sean chuckled and remembered Ash cutting Lars in half and sticking him in the ground head first.

    ¡°Well lucky for everyone we were on Immortus Station at the time. Lira had a very long conversation with Ash on why he shouldn¡¯t go cutting people in half when they insult us. Ash understands now, so it''s all fine.¡±

    ¡°Huh,¡± Emily said, ¡°I never thought about it that way. Violent outbursts don¡¯t mean as much when everyone is Immortal I guess. So, this Ash is stable and is protective of you and your friends?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sean said, ¡°We¡¯re like family. I know you won¡¯t hurt Ash, but please try to not be threatening at all. Roger is nervous and doesn¡¯t want you near Ash since Ash is the only one among us that can actually die.¡±

    Emily nodded, ¡°Of course. If it¡¯s how you say¡­ then I don¡¯t mind treating Ash like any other person. It¡¯s actually rather fascinating really, even if I was a completely cold hearted bitch I wouldn¡¯t want to hurt Ash just because of how unique he is.¡±

    Sean nodded,

    ¡°Well, good thing you¡¯re not a cold hearted bitch then.¡±

    Emily laughed, ¡°Yeah. But no worries. I promise that I¡¯ll behave, I¡¯ve met plenty of weird people in my time. I¡¯m not going to be upset just because someone¡¯s made of metal rather than flesh and bone.¡±

    The two of them started walking to the doors and Sean remembered one final thing.

    ¡°Oh. Also, Ash doesn¡¯t have a preferred gender. Call Ash him or her as you want. Just don¡¯t try to convince Ash either way too much. It¡¯s very important to us that Ash makes his own choices about his identity.¡±

    ¡°Okay. That sounds very responsible of you all,¡± Emily said as she nodded in agreement, ¡°Sounds good.¡±

    <hr>

    It took an hour or two before Brenda finally arrived and opened the doors to the station. Roger, Sean, and Emily had been waiting silently at the door silently. Roger¡¯s suspicious looks towards Emily constantly didn¡¯t exactly lead to a comfortable environment for conversation.

    But the doors opened and Ash and Brenda stood there on the other side. Brenda was wearing beige work pants with lots of pockets and a tight, work stained, gray T-shirt. Ash stood to her right in his normal brown robes with the hood thrown back to expose his metal head and whitish synthetic muscle.

    The two groups stared at each other for a moment and Sean glanced over to Emily. An Emily that was staring at Brenda intently with a growing flush on her cheeks. Brenda was also inspecting Emily closely with a slight smirk on her face.

    It was Ash who broke the strange standoff, ¡°So it is true? Lira was captured?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Roger answered, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Ash. We¡¯ll get her back as soon as we can.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Ash said, ¡°I will have to adjust the designs for my new body. It must be more combat capable for the eventual rescue attempt.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re designing your own bodies?¡± Emily asked, after tearing her eyes away from Brenda, ¡°I¡¯m Emily by the way. Ash, right? Nice to meet you.¡±

    ¡°Emily,¡± Ash said thoughtfully, ¡°Greetings to you as well. I am working from the designs that you have built from your Foundation of All world for designing a new ideal body. Would you be willing to assist me as an expert on them, as the creator of the base designs?¡±

    ¡°Oh, of course!¡± Emily said, ¡°Just show me what you¡¯re thinking and I¡¯ll do the best I can to help out.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t we all go?¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯m sure that Ash is eager to get his improved body.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Roger said, ¡°May as well.¡±

    ¡°Well, sounds good to me,¡± Brenda said, ¡°We can¡­ get to know our new guest through some science.¡±

    Emily glanced at Brenda and their eyes stayed on each other for a long moment.

    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Emily said, ¡°Get to know each other.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Emily and Brenda have been gone for a while, haven¡¯t they?¡± Roger said as Ash, Sean, and him looked over some of the designs. Over the last few days the group had narrowed down the options a bit. Emily was head and shoulders more advanced than the rest of them, modifying holographic displays of the designs more complicated than Sean had ever seen with casual flicks of her hands.

    Mostly it had ended up with Emily doing most of the design work while the rest of them debated the use or drawbacks of various features and weapons that should be included. With both her, and Brenda who was the next most competent, gone, the debate had slowed to a halt.

    ¡°What were they even doing out there?¡± Sean asked, ¡°The station isn¡¯t that big, a tour of it shouldn¡¯t have lasted this long¡­¡±

    Roger shrugged in response and rubbed his chin as he closely inspected another one of the designs that Emily had built as another option for Ash¡¯s new body. He smirked at Sean for a moment with a knowing look on his face.

    After a few more minutes the two women came through the door again, both looking rather relaxed. They had washed off and their hair was wet, Emily¡¯s hair having regrown down to her shoulders over the last few weeks.

    ¡°Excellent. If you two are done having sex, then we can return back to the discussion fully refreshed,¡± Ash stated blandly as he turned back to stare intently at another one of the robot body designs.

    ¡°Ash, is that a joke?¡± Sean asked amused, ¡°Good one.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Ash replied, ¡°Their signs of mutual arousal have disappeared much like when you and Lira did the same on the ship. I am relatively certain it is likely the same situation here.¡±

    All the humans in the room froze at Ash¡¯s statement and stood there awkwardly shooting glances at each other, not saying anything.

    The tension grew as Roger and Sean stared at a rather embarrassed Emily and an exasperated but unrepentant Brenda.

    ¡°Alright, fine!¡± Brenda eventually blurted out, ¡°Girl¡¯s got needs, you know. It¡¯s been millenia since I¡¯ve been able to have a good time. And your new friend here¡­¡±

    She put an arm around Emily and purred, ¡°Is verrrrry good at satisfying those needs,¡±

    ¡°Thanks!¡± Emily said brightly, ¡°You¡¯re not too bad yourself. Ash is right, I do feel refreshed after letting loose a little. Thanks Brenda, that was a lot of fun. Now, let¡¯s get back to work!¡±

    ¡°Remind me to tell you about when you¡¯re supposed to keep things to yourself, Ash,¡± Sean said, slightly stunned at the sudden turn of events.

    Ash looked up, ¡°Was I not supposed to mention it?¡± He asked, sounding surprised, ¡°Was it not obvious that that was their intention?¡±

    Sean coughed, ¡°Uh. No. It was not.¡±

    ¡°Pffffft. Sean¡¯s just mad he had no idea,¡± Roger said, ¡°Why do you think I was so quiet earlier? I can¡¯t believe you didn¡¯t figure it out earlier. You two were rather obvious, by the way. Stood practically shoulder to shoulder the whole time making lovey dovey eyes at each other.¡±

    Brenda shrugged, ¡°Hey. If it works, it works. Better being too obvious than too subtle.¡±

    Emily just stood there and smiled awkwardly, not saying anything and burrowing her nose in the robot designs, pretending to ignore the conversation around her.

    Roger made a fake vomiting motion in disgust as a joke, but after Brenda rolled her eyes in response the tension broke and the five of them resumed their more scientific discussion.

    After a little while longer of work they were down to five or so promising designs that Ash and the group approved of and all of them decided to take a longer break before moving on to finalize things.

    Sean tried explaining to Ash after they all split off why he shouldn¡¯t talk about those things in public. Much to Roger¡¯s amusement as he watched on and piped in with rather unhelpful comments about Sean giving Ash the ¡®talk¡¯.

    By the end of the long meandering conversation, Ash seemed to understand that it wasn¡¯t something he should discuss unless someone else brought it up. But still not why that was the case. Sean took the win and left to take a nap. The conversation with Ash had made Sean feel even more tired than the days of work on the engineering before.

    Sean hoped he had done it right. Lira would have known what to say to make Ash understand much better than him¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°Wow, I can¡¯t believe we managed to build it and transfer you over so fast, Ash¡± Sean said as they looked at the completed robotic body. Its exterior appearance was much the same as the old one, except for a few key differences. For one, it was made of super materials custom designed by Emily to make it the absolute strongest possible she could make. Ash would be at least two or three times stronger than he was in the combat body that he had lost, with much less energy expenditure.

    They had included five backup batteries into his frame as a backup in case his antimatter power system failed for whatever reason.

    Then there were the weapons. Oh, so many weapons. Sticking out of Ash¡¯s back was two rows of three bulky tentacles on either side. They were moved with the white synthetic muscle running through the rest of his body. The six extra limbs were retractable and had high powered lasers at their ends and could all move independently with Ash only giving them basic commands to execute.

    Most of the computing power of the targeting in each limb was entirely self contained. All Ash would have to do was designate targets or tell them how to move ¡®mentally¡¯ and they would do it semi-independently. At the ends of each of the tentacles were rounded metal caps, with only the hole in the center allowing the laser to fire out from it. When Ash didn¡¯t want to have them out, the tentacles would curl around his chest in loops around his torso.

    Ash stood to his feet after a few minutes of his eyes flickering and began to twist around and experiment with his new body and unfurling and waving the tentacles around for a bit like snakes before refurling them up around his torso again.

    A hatch on Ash¡¯s forearm opened up and revealed the heavier duty lasers hidden inside each arm that popped up and briefly glowed before dimming down again. Ash retracted them and there was a heavy clunk that Sean heard. The hatch opened again and two massive blades that shot out past Ash¡¯s closed fists to extend three feet beyond his wrist, extending with little interlocking segments as the full blade unfurled from its little space scrunched inside Ash¡¯s forearms.

    There was a click and the twin extended blades stiffened and began to hum, vibrating slightly in place. Ash took a few practice swings before the vibrating hum stopped and the blades retracted back inwards and turned back into a pile of odd metal segments stacked all on top of each other sticking out from the open hatch on Ash¡¯s forearm. The piles sank back down into Ash¡¯s arm and the two hatches on his arms closed again.

    ¡°Everything seems to be in order,¡± Ash said, ¡°The only thing left to see is whether the nanites will work to specifications. Thank you all of you for helping me. Especially Emily and Brenda. This design would have been much less optimal without both of your help.¡±

    ¡°No problem, Ash,¡± Brenda said, ¡°Least I could do after you¡¯ve been helping around here for so long. This place was really in shambles before you helped me on repairs.¡±

    ¡°Happy to help!¡± Emily said looking upbeat with the project finished. Her mood had been improving ever since she and Brenda had started going on ¡®bathroom breaks¡¯ together ever since the group had started actually building the robot itself.

    Roger and Sean didn¡¯t say anything and it seems Ash had learned enough to call them out on the obvious lie.

    ¡°And don¡¯t worry about the nanites,¡± Emily said, ¡°They¡¯ll be much more efficient than your last ones. And these ones actually have some safety features if they start going rogue. Remote shutoff can kill any of them within any region of your body that you send the signal. Just blast them if they start doing something bad and the healthy ones will creep back in and fix things right back up! And they¡¯ll also self regulate and kill aberrant ones automatically so even then you shouldn¡¯t have to use the kill signal too often either.¡±

    ¡°I will,¡± Ash said seriously, ¡°I am lucky that nothing went wrong in my old body.¡±

    ¡°Yep. Very lucky,¡± Emily agreed, ¡°But it¡¯s all fixed now. Better than ever with your new body.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re safer than ever, Ash,¡± Roger said, seeming proud as Ash continued moving his arms around to get used to his new body.

    Sean and Roger really hadn¡¯t been able to do much to help, but they did their best. Sean still felt proud as he saw Ash slowly growing more comfortable and smooth in moving around over the next few days.

    After some¡­ Passionate goodbyes between Emily and Brenda, everyone piled onto the ship. Brenda wished them well, but wasn¡¯t willing to make an enemy out of the whole Immortal Council just to break Lira out of prison.

    So, they set off and entered hyperspace. Emily knew somebody that she thought could help them, so that¡¯s where they were going next. Sean felt more comfortable knowing that Ash was with them and with a stronger body than ever.

    Well at least Brenda and Emily hooking up with each other was behind them for now. That whole situation had been uncomfortable, his long time teacher with Emily¡­ Bleh. It just felt too strange. At least it was finally over and Sean would have some time to process before having to deal with that again.

 Chapter 35: Through the Front Door

    ¡°Who is this friend of yours again?¡± Roger asked suspiciously as the four of them sat together in the main room.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you?¡± Emily said in confusion, ¡°It¡¯s my long time girlfriend, Asuta. She¡¯s always one for combat and big battles. If we told her we were going for a good fight we¡¯d have to practically imprison her to stop her from following us there.¡±

    ¡°Girlfriend?¡± Sean said, ¡°What about Brenda? Didn¡¯t you two, you know¡­¡±

    Emily chuckled with only a small note of tension in her voice, ¡°Oh, that was just a little fun. Brenda has a boyfriend too. Did you know that? Asuta sleeps with all sorts of people, you kind of need an open relationship when you don¡¯t see each other for tens of thousands of years at a time. Brenda has the same kind of deal, so don¡¯t you worry about her if that¡¯s what you¡¯re thinking about.¡±

    ¡°Well you are certainly in a better mood at least,¡± Roger said, ¡°Seems that it did you some good.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Emily replied.

    ¡°So,¡± Sean said to refocus the conversation, ¡°This Asuta. How can she help? Isn¡¯t this a stealth mission, wouldn¡¯t she just blow our cover?¡±

    ¡°Good thinking, She¡¯s anything but subtle,¡± Emily said, ¡°But security is too tight now at Immortus Station. I doubt you two want to wait tens of thousands of years for things to calm down, right? That¡¯s how long it would be at least before we had a chance at straight stealth.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Roger said forcefully, ¡°We can¡¯t wait that long. We can¡¯t leave Lira, she¡¯d be furious to miss so much of Ash¡¯s development.¡±

    ¡°Yes, It would be best to retrieve her as soon as possible so long as none of us are at risk of being captured alongside her,¡± Ash said.

    ¡°So, what? We just burst in there, weapons blazing and fight through the whole Immortal Council army?¡± Sean asked skeptically. He wanted Lira back as much as everyone else, but Ash was right that it was useless if one of them got captured again in exchange.

    ¡°Not exactly,¡± Emily said, ¡°Asuta can attack and be a distraction while some of us sneak in and spring your friends from jail. Hey, speaking of. What about that Nyx guy? Why do you two keep not mentioning him when we¡¯re talking about the rescue? Didn¡¯t he help set up everything for your first prison break?¡±

    There was a moment of hesitation and Sean thought about everything they had told Emily about Nyx. It seems they had forgotten to tell her the most critical detail somehow¡­

    ¡°Nyx is a Plaguebringer,¡± Sean said, ¡°That¡¯s how we got his help. He wanted to do all of it, break you out, help us, to impress you. Had a whole speech ready about how the Plaguebringers had changed and you should go back because they were better than they were long ago.¡±

    Emily¡¯s casual expression shifted into a frown and anger, ¡°What? You worked with them?¡±

    ¡°Hey, he¡¯s a jerk,¡± Roger said, ¡°But he helped us out of a tight spot. He helped us pull it all off. All he wanted was a few minutes of your time then he promised he would immediately leave. He swore that he wouldn¡¯t tell any of the other Plaguebringers about it.¡±

    Emily gave Sean a betrayed look.

    ¡°It¡¯s only a few minutes,¡± He blurted out, ¡°The one speech and then he was gone if you asked him to. That was the deal. Nothing else. It was supposed to be on the ride on the ship out of Immortus Station when we would all be forced together anyway¡­¡±

    Emily opened her mouth, looking angry while staring at Sean. She stood there for a moment, and then closed her mouth again.

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± She sighed, ¡°Okay. I don¡¯t like it. But I get it. I do. But this Nyx doesn¡¯t know what he¡¯s talking about. The old crowd of Plaguebringers will never change. Nyx hasn¡¯t seen the aftermath of one of their purges when the mortals don¡¯t match their perfect image for galactic society.¡±

    Emily finished with some heat before running a hand through her hair, ¡°He hasn¡¯t seen all the suffering they¡¯ve caused, seen¡­ seen what I¡¯ve seen. He can¡¯t have and still believe that I¡¯d work with them. Ever.¡±

    ¡°But you can tell him, right?¡± Sean said, ¡°He practically worships you. If you tell him off, then can¡¯t you help him change? He believes that his plagues are only meant to combat the Endless Flesh. He hates the old leaders too, and told us about how they are the ones that forced you to leave them.¡±

    ¡°I was never part of their group,¡± Emily said, ¡°Never. No matter what they try to claim. They don¡¯t even know how twisted it is that they believe that. There is no going back for me, I was never there. Only their propaganda has made so many believe it over the years. Say something enough times and it becomes true, right? It¡¯s certainly worked out well enough for them¡­¡±

    Emily finished speaking, trailing off and looking a little lost as she finished and looked between the two of them.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Sean said, ¡°We thought it was the only way. He seemed genuine at the time.¡±

    ¡°Ugh,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯m sure he was. That just makes it worse. But¡­ He did help you out, so maybe he¡¯s not hopeless if he hasn¡¯t done anything too bad yet. We should break him out of prison if we can.¡±

    Roger and Sean shared a long look.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Roger said.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean added.

    ¡°So, now we just have to track Asuta down,¡± Emily said after an awkward moment of silence, ¡°She moves around so it may take a while. That¡¯s if she¡¯s not at home. But I promise it will be worth it. She hoards all kinds of weapons, it would be worth it just for that alone. She¡¯s even blown up a few planets I think when she went into her cartoon villain phase¡­¡±

    Seeing Sean and Roger¡¯s horrified looks she quickly panicked and shook her head and gestured wildly around with her hands.

    ¡°No! Not like that! Uninhabited! Uninhabited! She got permits from the Immortal Council and everything, she just really wanted to cackle and give a speech before blowing them up. I had to wear a cape and dark eyeliner for weeks at a time and we both dressed up in these elaborate costumes, it was a whole thing¡­ I was her second in command and tried to look menacing standing behind her while she monologued for the cameras. She even had a dark throne with fake skulls all over it that she sat on constantly¡­ Huh, I wonder if she still has that old thing¡­?¡±

    The two men stared at Emily like she was insane as she rambled on and somehow made them even more confused the longer she went.

    ¡°I am having doubts on this person¡¯s mental stability,¡± Ash said, ¡°That story makes her sound rather erratic, not someone we would want for an important assault on Immortus Station.¡±

    Emily hesitated, ¡°Well¡­ She isn¡¯t that bad really. And it was a lot of fun in the end. If we remind her enough then she¡¯ll stick to the plan. But maybe¡­ maybe best for you to stay on the ship when we meet her, Ash. She can get rather¡­ excited when meeting new immortals and we don¡¯t want you to get hurt in the crossfire.¡±

    ¡°What about us?¡± Roger asked incredulously, ¡°Would we get hurt?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said, ¡°Nothing too serious. She¡¯s not malicious, just¡­ impulsive! Just don¡¯t worry about it, I¡¯ll explain more later when we actually find her. It¡¯s hard to describe without experiencing it for yourself. Asuta¡¯s perfectly kind and wonderful once you get over her¡­ quirks.¡±

    ¡°I suppose we will see,¡± Ash said, ¡°We will have plenty of time to discuss on the way.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°Hey Emily, you see these energy readings?¡± Sean said lazily as they sat in the headquarters of his Foundation of All world. Sean was idly scrolling through the map of the globe his satellites had built on the holopad. It was a little funny that the game was forcing him to use a device to do this rather than using the game interface. But he was the one that put it in the hard mode he supposed¡­ After the satellites newest upgrades with Emily¡¯s advice their sensitivity had gone off the charts and his images grew far more detailed than before.

    Emily trotted over and peered over his shoulder, frowning when she saw the readings.

    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s weird,¡± She said, ¡°Hand it over?¡±

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Sean complied and she inspected the data.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± She eventually said, ¡°We should go check it out sometime. I wonder if it''s a surface deposit of uranium or something? I did put a lot of randomization in the generation of mineral deposits in this game. But the readings are strange if that¡¯s what it is¡­¡±

    There was a loud chime from all sides that sounded out to interrupt her and both of them looked up into the sky.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s the alarm,¡± Emily said, ¡°I guess we can check it out later. Mystery for later.¡±

    Emily and Sean made the movements to log out and quickly returned to the blank white room. They went to the door and left, seeing Roger standing just outside.

    ¡°You said you needed to be the one to guide us in?¡± Roger said grumpily.

    He wasn¡¯t exactly so hostile with Emily anymore after seeing she meant Ash no harm, but he still kept a suspicious eye on her when he thought none of the rest of them would notice.

    ¡°Yep,¡± Emily said, ¡°I really don¡¯t want to hit one of the mines.¡±

    ¡°Mines?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah. Asuta is¡­ She likes her weapons. Whenever she finishes a new type of mine or explosive she sends them in orbit around the edge of her solar system. Or any type of weapon really. This is probably one of the most well defended star systems in the galaxy.¡±

    ¡°Her system?¡±

    ¡°Yep. You have no idea how much she paid for it, it cost the same as a thousand settled planets at least¡­¡± Emily said, looking vaguely nostalgic, ¡°But yes, she has her home there nestled inside all of her crazy defense systems and massive minefield. Speaking of which, let me just send out the codes real quick¡­¡±

    They followed Emily to the cockpit where Ash already sat. Emily quickly went to the console and opened an open channel and put in a long string of numbers and letters for several minutes until it covered the screen.

    Finally she finished and sent it out with a groan of relief as her hands relaxed.

    ¡°You memorized all of that?¡± Sean asked incredulously.

    ¡°Oh my god. You have no idea,¡± Emily said, ¡°Every time I come I have to memorize a new one. Asuta only lets me keep a single piece of paper so I can study when I leave, nothing digital at all. Information security and all that. After I¡¯m done I have to destroy it so no one else can get in.¡±

    ¡°What if you forget?¡± Roger asked.

    ¡°Then I have to wait,¡± Emily said while pulling a sour expression on her face, ¡°Find Asuta out in the galaxy or contact her when she comes back here. But I don¡¯t usually do that anymore. Trust me, it is so much more annoying having to wait around this old place for her to randomly show up. Oh, speaking of which¡­¡±

    ¡°Unidentified vessel,¡± A woman¡¯s stern voice came from the comms, ¡°This is a sovereign system, turn back around in five minutes or my automatic defenses will begin opening fire on you.¡±

    Emily hit the button, ¡°Asuta! It¡¯s me, just relax. I sent the code and everything already.¡±

    There was a pause and the woman¡¯s voice became much more animated.

    ¡°Emily! Woooow. Come on in, come in. I¡¯m just at the main station between adventures. You picked a great time to come see me. We¡¯ll have plenty of time before I get restless again.¡±

    Emily glanced at the rest of them before she spoke again.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not alone, Asuta. I¡¯ve brought some¡­ guests too. Please be gentle with them.¡±

    ¡°Guests? Mmmmm. No promises, babe. Got to see what they¡¯re made of first.¡±

    Emily rolled her eyes despite the channel being audio only, ¡°Asuta, please. At least give them a warning first before you do something crazy. Can you do that at least?¡±

    There was a long pause, and Sean could hear Asuta sulking as she replied,

    ¡°Yes, Emily. I promissssseeee. But just for you.¡±

    ¡°Great! See you soon, Asuta. Just got to navigate through the minefield first.¡±

    ¡°Okay, babe. I¡¯ll heat up the hot tub for us so we can¡­ catch up.¡±

    Emily blushed and cut off the comms quickly.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t hear that,¡± She ordered them and they all faithfully didn¡¯t comment, even Ash.

    ¡°Mines?¡± Roger asked quickly, ¡°I thought the signal deactivated all the weapons? Why do we still have to navigate around?¡±

    ¡°No, no,¡± Emily clarified, ¡°The signal is for all the weapons platforms, missiles, automated ships, all the intelligent stuff. The mines are dumb, they check for something nearby that looks like a ship to blow up, and then do it. I don¡¯t think most of them even have any receivers or software that can take a deactivation code like this. Asuta isn¡¯t always thorough when she¡¯s hit by inspiration in building the things¡­¡±

    ¡°So how are we getting through?¡± Sean asked, ¡°If we can¡¯t turn them off?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m an old hand at this kind of flying,¡± Emily boasted, ¡°Just watch this, I¡¯ll get us through this without a scratch.¡±

    <hr>

    Several very stressful hours later, Sean¡¯s knuckles were white as he gripped the arms of the chair he had strapped into.

    ¡°Haha! Not this time, little guy!¡± Emily shouted as the ship shuddered as the engines fired full force again. Sean saw on the panel in front of him the circular mine zoom past them and explode an instant too late. The ship shook a little bit, but they were moving so fast that the debris from the explosion rapidly disappeared into the distance.

    After another tense fifteen minutes of Emily suddenly engaging the thrusters to barely dodge a mine hurtling towards them at high speed, she suddenly relaxed.

    She turned toward Sean and Roger who were both white faced and breathing heavily from all her close calls.

    ¡°Check that out!¡± Emily shouted while smiling widely, ¡°Wasn¡¯t that fun? Asuta¡¯s really upped her game since last time. A few of those almost hit us.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Roger said, ¡°They almost did.¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± Sean added, ¡°Pretty close.¡±

    ¡°Oh, well,¡± Emily said, ignoring them slowly recovering from their trauma, ¡°I thought it was fun. And we¡¯re through it now. No more mines, just sit back and relax. Now we have to bleed off all of our speed we used to sprint through the minefield.¡±

    The engines rumbled again and they all slammed back into their seats as the ship began to decelerate in preperation to landing on the single habitable planet in the star system.

    <hr>

    The three Immortals and Ash walked out of their ship onto the massive landing pad. They hadn¡¯t even taken the shuttle down, they had actually been able to land the main ship on the surface of the planet.

    Sean looked to the side as he saw the rolling hills covered in green grass as far as the eye could see. Apparently Asuta had terraformed the whole planet by herself, and she was the only person besides them in this whole solar system. She had even culled aggressive beasts on the planet so the ecosystem was tame and barely dangerous at all.

    Descending down from orbit, Sean had seen the large gray and steel circles scattered across the green and blue planet. Thousands and thousands of perfect circles of gray and metal dotting all over the planet with pristine wilderness in between them. He had guessed that they were cities and was confused, but Emily quickly corrected him.

    They were weapons platforms, bristling with missiles, lasers, and a thousand other weapons ready to attack them the second Asuta ordered them to. Emily didn¡¯t seem to notice how odd that was. No wonder she thought this place secure if Asuta had that many weapons on standby in case she was attacked. He wondered why Asuta would go to such lengths to defend herself.

    The four of them walked forward towards a door sticking out of the ground a couple hundred feet away. It stuck out of the side of the platform as a square concrete structure barely larger than the door on its front.

    Emily walked up and typed a code into a panel to the side of the door and it swung open. She opened it, and the group walked inside single file. Ash had to duck down to the low ceilings as they walked down a long ramp sloping into the distance. Only the occasional flickering light on the path lit up the gloom.

    Emily clicked her tongue, ¡°Asuta,¡± She muttered to herself as they were plunged into darkness again as the closest lights in the tunnel flicked off again, ¡°I told you my new design would last longer than these old things¡­¡±

    The lights turned back on and they continued deeper into the earth. After a while, the ramp stopped at a larger room that was much better maintained. The lights were strong and barely flickered at all. There was a vehicle sitting on a pair of metal tracks set into the ground, and a large circular and dark tunnel was cut into the ground. Emily went up to the vehicle and opened the door and went into the brightly lit interior, with the rest of them following her.

    ¡°Hey, Ash, could you help me for a second?¡± She asked as she walked up to what looked like a large wheel with long spokes lying parallel to the floor and raised to about the height of Emily¡¯s belly button.

    Ash stepped forward and the floor of the vehicle shook as he stepped inside.

    ¡°I have a little port here for electricity,¡± She said, ¡°Can you connect and charge it up? Asuta leaves these things unpowered normally, they last longer that way.¡±

    Ash did so, opening his chest and connecting a long wire from himself to the port in the center of the strange spoked wheel.

    There was a soft hum as Ash¡¯s antimatter generator kicked it up a notch as he transferred electricity to the vehicle they were standing in.

    ¡°How would it get charged if Ash wasn¡¯t here?¡± Sean asked curiously.

    ¡°See that wheel?¡± Emily said pointing at the thing, ¡°It¡¯s an old school electrical generator. We would have pushed the wheel around for a few hours or so. You know how they work, right?¡±

    Sean tilted his head and thought about it, ¡°Not really. What do you mean by old school?¡°

    ¡°Oh, sorry. It just means it''s the older way of doing it. At the bottom of the wheel is a big old magnet surrounded by a coil of copper wire. When we spin the magnet down beneath it makes the electrons in the coil of copper wire move and generates a bit of electricity.¡±

    ¡°Why not just use fusion power?¡± Roger asked in confusion, ¡°Seems pretty inconvenient.¡±

    ¡°Lasts longer, only a few moving parts to wear down. And it¡¯s not like we¡¯d get tired pushing it around. But Ash will make things much quicker for us, it is very boring.¡±

    The vehicle they were in shuddered and the doors closed behind them. A pair of powerful lights turned on, piercing the darkness of the large tunnel and the tracks that went into the distance. Emily went forward and hit a button on the front and the vehicle groaned and squealed before gradually shifting into motion along the tracks into the tunnel.

    They gradually picked up speed as the vehicle slowly sped up until the air loudly rushed by them and the vehicle shook slightly as it moved through the darkness, only the two powerful lights piercing the darkness allowing them to see how fast they were moving.

    Only a little time left until they met this Asuta in person. Sean wondered if she really could be as erratic as Emily¡¯s stories of her painted her as. Surely not, right? Right?

 Chapter 36: Sensei Doesnâ€™t Use Flamethrowers

    The doors on the ¡®subway¡¯ as Emily called it as they rolled to their destination. The four of them stepped out, the vehicle lurching as Ash took a step onto the stone floor outside. It appeared nearly identical to the place they had left from. Emily didn¡¯t hesitate and led the way through a door across the way. After a hundred feet or so there was a three way intersection and Emily confidently took the left fork. Then the right fork at the next intersection. Straight ahead, left, right¡­

    ¡°What is this place?¡± Roger asked with a little frustration in his voice from how far they had walked so far.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily assured him, ¡°This is the last obstacle. Asuta¡¯s big maze with our home at the center. Make sure not to come in here without one of us, this whole place is bristling with all sorts of traps that Asuta will reactivate once we¡¯re all the way through.¡±

    ¡°Asuta really doesn¡¯t take any chances, huh,¡± Roger said, ¡°Doesn¡¯t this seem a little, you know, too much?¡±

    Emily shrugged, ¡°It makes her feel comfortable. And it¡¯s fun for her, better to have her putting them here than selling them to someone out in the galaxy.¡±

    ¡°So, how does she get all the resources for this?¡± Sean asked curiously as they took another turn to the right, ¡°Can¡¯t be easy getting people in here for supplies.¡±

    ¡°Oh, did I forget to tell you? Asuta has a clear passage through the minefield to let in deliveries of materials in planetary orbit. And she can sell plenty of things to mortals that aren¡¯t weapons if she ever ends up running low on cash. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve done the same while you¡¯re traveling.¡±

    Sean nodded, they did use their engineering skills to barter for supplies whenever they were running low. Usually it worked out pretty well and both sides were more than happy about the deal. As long as the group disguised that they were Immortals of course.

    ¡°Hey, why didn¡¯t we go that way?¡± Roger said, ¡°That sounds way safer.¡±

    ¡°Safer?¡± Emily said, ¡°But I always go through the minefield. Asuta would have just blown us up before talking if we tried the easy way. Deliveries are always sheduled way ahead of time for her.¡±

    ¡°Why couldn¡¯t we?¡± Roger said, ¡°We could have just parked out of the system and sent a message to her.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ That would be boring, wouldn¡¯t it?¡± Emily said, ¡°Asuta loves me testing her defenses to find the weaknesses. I would have done even more if you guys weren¡¯t with me. Worst come to worst the ship blows up and Asuta picks us up a couple days later safe and sound.¡±

    Roger¡¯s face flashed with anger and he pointed behind him. ¡°Aren¡¯t you forgetting someone? What would happen to Ash in that case?¡±

    Emily stared at the robot blankly for a moment before realization washed over her face.

    ¡°Oh¡­ Well, he¡¯s strong, he might have survived even then. But, sorry, I got caught up in the moment¡­ I¡¯m really sorry, Ash. I should have been more careful and realized I wasn¡¯t just with Immortals.¡±

    ¡°Caught in the moment? Why I¡­¡± Roger began before Ash interrupted him.

    ¡°I accept your apology,¡± Ash said, ¡°I will have to accept some risk if we are to save Lira. I do not want to be treated as something delicate to be prevented from being put at risk. What you did was not unacceptably risky and saved us much time in our goal to retrieve Lira.¡±

    Roger and Sean shared a long glance, both unsure of what to say about that. Roger looked like he wanted to argue, having never truly been on board with Ash going with them to Immortus Station. Sean was more neutral but didn¡¯t want Ash to be so casual about Emily¡¯s risky mistake. But he just didn¡¯t have the words to say. It was at the tip of his tongue, but everything sounded wrong and fake in his head as he went to say something.

    Lira would know what to say to Ash.

    ¡°Thanks, Ash,¡± Emily said before turning her head to the two other men, ¡°And sorry to you two as well. I¡¯ve been rather thoughtless of how you would feel about it¡­¡±

    Roger grunted and didn¡¯t look impressed, but Sean felt his annoyance softening. She did seem genuinely guilty when she had apologized¡­

    They took a left turn in the maze and walked onwards. Sean idly wondered how many times Emily had walked through this place to memorize so many of the turns without seeming to even be paying too much attention to where they were going¡­

    <hr>

    They emerged from the maze into a sloping tunnel to the surface and Sean blinked hard at the sudden view of the midday sun. There was a large mansion and estate in the distance with a gravel road leading up to it. They walked forward, the stone crunching under their feet as they walked down the path. Several worker robots wandered the grounds trimming the plants and even spraying the sculptures with something to clean them as they moved.

    Standing at the front porch of the house was a brown skinned woman wearing a billowing white sleeveless shirt and beige cargo shorts. Her black hair was cut short and stuck all over the place, askew as if she had just been hit with a large gust of wind.

    ¡°Emily!¡± She shouted as they drew closer, ¡°These your new friends? What¡¯s with the robot?¡±

    ¡°My name is Ash, and I am intelligent. Please refer to me by name.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Asuta said and blinked while looking surprised at Ash. As they drew closer she ran her eyes up and down Ash¡¯s form with a raised eyebrow, her eyes calculating as she saw the strange bulges in the torso from Ash¡¯s six curled tentacles.

    ¡°Interesting,¡± She muttered as the group came to a stop in front of her.

    Emily stepped forward and the two women hugged and shared a quick kiss before drawing back and staring at each other for a long moment.

    ¡°Asuta¡­¡± Emily said in a warning tone, ¡°Don¡¯t you dare¡­¡±

    Asuta smirked and then took a step back and raised her hands into a fighting stance, ¡°Best to three!¡±

    Emily hesitated before groaning and turning to the group and made a shooing gesture at them.

    ¡°Back up all of you. I¡¯ll make it quick.¡±

    ¡°Ha! Quick? You¡¯ll never defeat my ultimate technique!¡±

    Asuta said before performing a forward flip in place with a single leg held out for a massive heel kick, slamming her heel into the gravel with a crunch and landing perfectly on her other leg.

    ¡°Bam!¡±

    Everyone but Emily blinked at the casual display of acrobatics. Sean thought he even saw Ash¡¯s glowing eyes flicker a bit as he inspected Asuta closely.

    ¡°Such a drama queen,¡± Emily said while rolling her eyes, ¡°Can we at least go into the grass first this time? Or is that too long for you?¡±

    Asuta hesitated for a moment before lowering her arms, ¡°Okay,¡± She said reluctantly, ¡°I can wait five minutes.¡±

    Asuta practically ran off and the rest of them jobbed to follow until they reached a large open lawn of grass. They went to the center, Ash, Roger, and Sean standing a dozen feet back while Emily Asuta started squaring up and clearly preparing to fight.

    ¡°What is happening right now?¡± Roger asked as Asuta struck a pose and started flexing, revealing some rather developed muscles on her arms.

    ¡°Asuta, C¡¯mon,¡± Emily said, sounding exasperated, ¡°We have company in case you haven¡¯t noticed.¡±

    ¡°They should see these muscles too, I¡¯ve worked hard for them!¡± Asuta shouted and flexed harder. Emily giggled but quickly composed herself, ¡°Stop, stop,¡± She laughed, ¡°Let¡¯s just fight already.¡±

    ¡°Alright, Robot, Ash?¡± Asuta said, ¡°Yeah, Ash. Count us down from six.¡±

    ¡°Six?¡±

    ¡°Alright, down from eight,¡± Asuta corrected.

    Sean and Roger shared a confused glance as Ash started counting.

    ¡°Eight,¡±

    ¡°Seven,¡±

    ¡°Six,¡±

    Both Emily and Asuta seemed to more fully focus on each other and Asuta took a real fighting stance instead of the ridiculous thing she was using before. Something changed in the air as both of the women seemed to stiffen, still smiling but their gazes sharpened as they stared at each other.

    ¡°Serious battle for the first round?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Show them what it¡¯s like with no frills and showboating?¡±

    ¡°Four,¡±

    Asuta hesitated and then groaned loudly, ¡°Ugh. Lame. But I get one extra silly round in exchange.¡±

    ¡°Deal,¡± Emily agreed.

    ¡°Two,¡±

    ¡°One,¡±

    Both women tensed and stopped circling each other and the tension in the air grew.

    ¡°Go.¡±

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    Asuta darted forward with a straight punch. Emily knocked her arm to the side with a small brush of her hand and went for a gut punch. Asuta twisted to the side so the punch just barely missed her before hopping backwards out of reach before Emily could do anything more.

    Emily darted forward to close the distance to chase as Asuta began to reset her stance. Before Sean could register what was happening, both women seemed to bring it up a notch and suddenly were locked together in a flurry of punches, blocks, and grabs. It was all so fast that Sean could barely understand what was happening, only the meaty thwacks of flesh on flesh telling him when a blow had been blocked or swatted off course.

    This went on for ten seconds more, both women laser focused on their close quarters battle before Emily got the upper hand and managed a full leg sweep, knocking Asuta to the ground.

    Emily landed a quick punch on Asuta¡¯s face before the other woman could recover, making them both suddenly relax.

    ¡°Oh, man,¡± Asuta groaned as she accepted Emily¡¯s hand to help her to her feet, ¡°I was doing so well too.¡±

    ¡°No, that was really good,¡± Emily encouraged Asuta, ¡°You almost got me with that dual arm bar and punch. I only just barely dodged it.¡±

    ¡°Gah, you¡¯re so unfair Emily,¡± Asuta said, ¡°How are you so good at fighting when you don¡¯t even enjoy it? Bllleeeeeggggghhhhh.¡±

    ¡°Silly round?¡± Emily said, ¡°What are the rules?¡±

    Asuta perked up, ¡°Oh. I¡¯ve been training for this one. Hand stand battle! First one to fall loses!¡±

    Emily laughed, ¡°Handstands? We¡¯ll look so ridiculous¡­¡±

    She glanced over at them and suddenly her face tightened a little as she seemed to remember that they were there watching.

    ¡°So?¡± Asuta countered, ¡°I¡¯d like to see them fight like that.¡±

    Emily looked back to Asuta and smiled wider after a moment, ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s do it, then.¡±

    The battle that followed was a much less serious affair than before. Both women were balanced on their hands and kicking out with their legs, occasionally even going on a single hand to shove the other with their hands as a risky play. But it was more like a game and both appeared to be having a good time as they worked to unbalance each other, hopping around like a pair of acrobats while kicking their legs wildly.

    Eventually Asuta managed to land a firm shove with her hand on Emily¡¯s core and unbalanced her, sending Emily tumbling to the grass.

    Asuta flipped back to her feet as Emily lay limp in the grass.

    ¡°Haha! One to one,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I liked that one, we should do that more.¡±

    ¡°That was fun,¡± Emily said as she shifted looking rather comfortable as she remained in place, ¡°It¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve even done a handstand.¡±

    The two women seemed to have forgotten about their audience again, too focused on their fights. Or not really fights, games more like.

    ¡°What about the last one?¡± Emily asked sitting up, ¡°Have anything planned?¡±

    Asuta looked around, ¡°Oh, plenty. But nothing we can do here. We could do a straight fight again, I guess¡­¡±

    ¡°No arms fight?¡± Emily said, ¡°Only kicks?¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s much better,¡± Asuta agreed, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Emily stood up and both women put their arms behind their backs and had Ash count them down again. On the count of seventeen for some reason.

    This one was more serious than the handstand battle, but still much more relaxed than before. Emily ended up winning again, but Asuta almost clipped her near the end, so Asuta seemed happy that the fight was so close.

    Fight over, and after a little teasing by Emily over Asuta¡¯s loss, the two women refocused on the guests.

    ¡°Emily, I had no idea you were so good at fighting,¡± Sean said.

    Emily shrugged uncomfortably, looking embarrassed as she seemed to fully register their presence for real this time.

    Asuta glanced at Emily and raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I know,¡± Asuta complained, ¡°She¡¯s such a cheat. Naturally fighting genius, but wouldn¡¯t do any fighting at all if no one prodded her into it. Tech genius too. And way too kind. It gets my competitive spirit pumping whenever she¡¯s around.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I don¡¯t hate it or anything when it''s just a game,¡± Emily countered, ¡°But I¡¯m not a battle maniac like you, Asuta. You didn¡¯t even learn how to make a containment field until I told you they help make bigger bombs¡­¡±

    Asuta blushed and scratched her head awkwardly, ¡°I would have learned it eventually even without that¡­ Not my fault blowing stuff up is so exciting¡­¡±

    Asuta raised her voice, ¡°Anyway, you lot. You¡¯re welcome for the show.¡±

    Roger started clapping and they all stared at him. He stopped and shrugged.

    ¡°What? It was a good performance,¡± he said, ¡°You know how shit I am at fighting Sean, and even I could tell that they¡¯re skilled.¡±

    ¡°Same here,¡± Sean agreed, ¡°That was really something else. Especially when you fought while doing handstands¡­¡±

    Asuta put her hand over her mouth and gave the largest fake gasp Sean had ever heard, ¡°Do my ears decieve me? Emily, did you not pass your wisdom down to the young sprouts? Can I be their combat sensei? Can I? I said the word right, didn¡¯t I? Sensei, that¡¯s what you called it?¡±

    Emily looked between the two of them that looked unsure at the offer, ¡°Sensei, that¡¯s right. As long as you¡¯re not too harsh on them, I guess it would be fine. If they agree.¡± Emily said not looking at all sure about her decision.

    ¡°Sure, I could do with some combat training,¡± Roger easily agreed not seeming to pick up Emily¡¯s hesitation.

    Everyone looked at Sean and he quickly nodded, ¡°Sure,¡± He said, ¡°Sounds useful,¡±

    He was not at all reassured when Asuta got a glint in her eye and started rubbing her hands together while looking like her birthday had come early.

    Not comforting at all¡­

    ¡°Hey, babe,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I pulled up the bath. Nice and warm with bubbles and everything. Why don¡¯t you go and relax. I¡¯ll join you after I¡¯m done giving the boys my sensei lesson.¡±

    Emily turned to leave but stopped before looking back again, ¡°Don¡¯t be too long. And try to go easy on them. Sean isn¡¯t even a thousand yet¡­¡±

    Asuta thought about it for a second, cocking her head to the side thoughtfully and looking at the sky for a moment.

    ¡°Sure!¡± She said after looking back at Emily, ¡°I won¡¯t use any flamethrowers, I promise.¡±

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s that at least,¡± Emily muttered before she met the shocked gaze of Roger and Sean.

    She shrugged, ¡°Hey, it¡¯ll be good training,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just tell Asuta if it¡¯s too much. Despite how silly she acts she¡¯ll stop if you tell her too.¡±

    Asuta stuck her tongue out at Emily but didn¡¯t counter the statement.

    ¡°Okay, bye boys, Ash,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯m going to go enjoy my peaceful bath now.¡±

    And with that Emily walked off back towards the front doors of the manor, leaving Ash and the two boys with the grinning Asuta.

    ¡°Alright boys,¡± Asuta said, ¡°Follow me. I know just the thing to teach you for my first sensei lesson¡­¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°HAHAHAHAHA BAM BAM BAM!¡±

    ¡°Dodge Left!¡± Sean called as he dived down to the right, letting the grenade sail over his head and explode behind him. Roger didn¡¯t react in time and got hit directly in the face with the metal ball that exploded a second later, sending the remaining lower half of his body slumping to the ground, his top half incinerated in an instant.

    Asuta threw another three grenades in front of Sean¡¯s path, forcing him to quickly come to a stop if he didn¡¯t want to get hit by one of Asuta¡¯s grenades again. She was in the center of the special field outside and a metal tube sticking out of the ground was feeding her an endless supply of the explosives. Explosives that she was gleefully throwing at them while shouting some advice between barrages and her maniacle laughter.

    ¡°PAY ATTENTION!¡± She yelled after Roger regenerated and sat up, blinking and confused, ¡°SEE HOW IMPORTANT TEAMWORK IS? SHOULDA¡¯ DODGED LEFT, ROGER! LET¡¯S TRY THAT AGAIN! DODGE, ROGER!¡±

    Asuta started heavily targeting Roger, sending him rolling on his belly to the side as the place he was standing before exploded in a giant clump of grass and dirt that was carved out by the explosions of the volley of Asuta¡¯s grenades.

    Seeing that Asuta appeared too distracted punishing Roger for his mistake, Sean saw an opportunity and circled around until he was standing opposite of Roger. When he was in position, Sean sprinted forward towards Asuta in the center, who had her back turned to him.

    He saw her turn her head slightly as he moved.

    ¡°GOOD!¡± She shouted, ¡°GOOD THINKING! ASUTA SENSEI IS TEACHING YOU WELL. BUT SEE IF YOU CAN GET THROUGH THIS, SEAN!¡±

    She hit a button on the dispenser next to her and the grenades she was using changed from red to green.

    She hefted it and threw a green one at Sean, keeping a red one hefted in her other hand at the ready. Sean ducked and the device exploded behind him not into shrapnel but a spray of sticky viscous slime. Sean knew by experience that if he was caught by one of those then he would be stuck like a fly on a web for Asuta¡¯s follow up red grenade to finish him off.

    Another green grenade came towards him, Asuta less than twenty feet away now. Sean hopped up as it came at his legs, but was a little too late. It smacked his foot and sprayed him with gunk. As soon as Sean hit the ground, his foot stuck to it and he faceplanted directly into the dirt.

    ¡°Haha!¡± Asuta laughed and tossed the red grenade up before catching it again and lobbing it at full speed towards where Sean lay. He only had a second to tense before there was sudden burst of pain and then the world had stuttered forward in time.

    Sean still felt deep wounds in his back regenerating as he rolled over and looked to where Asuta stood. Roger was close, barely a dozen feet away from her as she prepared to hit him with a red grenade at point blank to knock him back.

    Sean groaned before quickly silencing himself and scrambling so Asuta was standing directly between him and Roger.

    She threw the red grenade and it exploded right in the center of Roger¡¯s core, sending red chunks of the man spraying backwards far across the field. But Asuta was also too close and blew herself back with the explosion, sending her flying towards Sean. She twisted in mid-air, but wasn¡¯t able to stop Sean from leaping forward to jump in her way before she hit the ground.

    Her body impacted him full force and sent him slamming onto the dirt with her laying above him. She tried to quickly roll off of him, but Sean recovered from being stunned by the impact quickly and reached out. Just before she finished rolling away, Sean landed a firm slap on her upper arm.

    Before he could get up, a green grenade hit his legs and stuck him to the ground.

    ¡°Ahhhhh. Roger, come on over!¡± Asuta said as she stood looming over Sean, ¡°Sean got me.¡±

    Roger trudged from the other side of the field, looking rather down. Sean started shifting around and using his arms to try to pull himself out of the sticky goop covering his lower body.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Roger,¡± Asuta said sounding upbeat as the man approached, ¡°You two really have improved as a team over these three rounds. Great setup to force me to focus on one so the other could make up some ground while I was distracted.¡±

    Sean finally freed himself with a loud ripping noise and got to his feet, wiping off his legs as best as he could. Obviously with all the explosions and grenades, they were all left wearing clothing bands by now. Asuta had been kind enough to tell them to take off their normal clothes first, even if she hadn¡¯t told them what the training was until the first grenade smacked Sean in the face.

    Roger came to a stop next to Sean and Asuta beamed at them.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t I a great Sensei?¡± She said, looking at the two of them proudly, ¡°I¡¯ve got to think of something else fun for our next lesson.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we could toss grenades at you for a change,¡± Roger grumbled.

    ¡°Sure!¡± Asuta easily agreed, ¡°That¡¯s only fair. Look forward to it. Well, I have a girlfriend to get to. I¡¯ve taken too long as it is, she¡¯ll probably already be annoyed with me¡­ If she hasn¡¯t melted into the bath by now. That robot Ash should have a map of this whole place by now. Just don¡¯t go in any locked doors, but other than that you have the run of the whole place. And that¡¯s the end of your first lesson by Sensei Asuta. See ya next time!¡±

    With that, Asuta turned around and almost skipped away, humming a little tune to herself.

    They watched as she receded into the distance towards the estate.

    ¡°I think I see what Emily meant by¡­ ¡®quirks¡¯¡± Roger said as Asuta faded into the distance, ¡°Can¡¯t believe Emily just let us walk into that without a better warning.¡±

    ¡°But it worked,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°That¡¯s the worst part,¡± Roger grumbled, ¡°Now I can¡¯t even complain properly since we actually improved so much. Now she¡¯s our ¡®Sensei¡¯ whatever that means. Who knows what she¡¯ll cook up next¡­¡±

    There was a pause as they both silently thought of the possibilities.

    ¡°Enough of that,¡± Sean eventually said, ¡°Let¡¯s go find Ash and see if we can find some guest bedrooms to sleep in. I could really do with some sleep.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Roger said, ¡°I think I last saw him over that way¡­¡±

 Chapter 37: Sensei Uses Flamethrowers

    Emily lay on the bed with her eyes wide open. Asuta¡¯s face was buried in her chest and she was snoring a little as she tightly gripped Emily even while she was asleep. Emily tried to squirm a little, but Asuta just mumbled and gripped her tighter like she was a stuffed animal. Emily sighed, it seems she was trapped. She would like to pace around a bit to help her think, but it seems that that wasn¡¯t in the cards for now.

    She knew that Asuta probably wouldn¡¯t even care, Asuta had told Emily about all sorts of other people she had slept with out in the galaxy. Her sexual exploits. But it wasn¡¯t very often that Emily got to do the same. Not like there were too many Immortals she liked out there that were willing to sleep with her anyway.

    Maybe it would have been easier if she was bisexual like Asuta or Brenda, but Emily was lesbian all the way. Maybe she could sleep with some mortals, but that had always felt sort of icky to her. Even if Asuta seemed to think it was fine. It was one of the main things they seriously argued about even after all of this time. Either way, it was especially gross for Emily given what she had done back in the beginning of it all¡­

    Emily had been surprised by Brenda. The woman had completely ignored all the rumors surrounding Emily and just taken Emily as herself on the station. Ignoring the future and just focused on the present moment in that steady way of hers. It was beyond the sex, which was also nice, but Brenda just didn¡¯t care what others on Immortus Station had thought of Emily. Their conversation in bed after had been casual and about nothing much, but important all the same. Somehow it felt different from the others Emily had been with, that conversation more like cheating on Asuta than the sex had been.

    Asuta probably wouldn¡¯t even care. But Emily steeled herself to tell her as soon as she woke up. She wanted to let it off of her chest and explain before she could get any more anxious about it, twisting her thoughts all up in knots trying to think about it.

    Emily was being ridiculous. She knew it. She knew Asuta would know she knew it. But Emily had to tell her anyway for her own piece of mind at least. She just had to.

    <hr>

    Despite Emily¡¯s worries, the conversation was easy after Asuta woke up. They were sitting up, leaning their backs against the headboard as they sat next to each other. Asuta listened to Emily¡¯s story and then assured her that it was fine. Actually, Asuta had the opposite reaction as the one Emily had feared.

    ¡°Tell me about her,¡± Asuta said, ¡°She do anything interesting we could try out as a couple? Just when you think there¡¯s nothing new, someone always comes up with something¡­ On a scale of one to ten, how good was she?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just the normal stuff. And I¡¯m not going to give a number¡­¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon, I¡¯ve given you all the numbers!¡± Asuta protested, ¡°Even that guy that was a zero!¡±

    Emily snorted, ¡°Are you talking about the one that was an android that tricked you? The one you just pulled off the street when you were bored? What was his name again?¡±

    ¡°Xaeon-154. I thought it was just a local planet thing! Stupid design anyway, just pissed me off. I¡¯m glad I bought that corporation and forced them to pivot to diaper sales¡­ They were really terrible at it.¡±

    ¡°What was so wrong with the design again?¡± Emily goaded, ¡°Didn¡¯t he give you the corporate spiel? Can¡¯t you tell what one of them are with about ten seconds of conversation? You didn¡¯t even talk to him that much before you went for it?¡±

    ¡°I thought it was a joke, so I went along,¡± Asuta said while pointedly avoiding Emily¡¯s last question, ¡°How was I supposed to know that it was real?¡±

    ¡°That was the only problem?¡± Emily prompted.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Asuta said, ¡°We were going at it and it waited until I was almost there and then stopped and asked for payment. Stupid damn robot, killed the mood entirely. Just thinking about it pisses me off, I¡¯m revising my score to negative one. I would have just paid the thing if it had just asked up front¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sounds pretty bad,¡± Emily agreed, ¡°Glad people eventually got rid of most of them. At least they passed galactic laws so the big corporations reprogrammed the androids that are left so they don¡¯t just invite themselves to random parties and public events anymore to look for customers.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, tell me about it,¡± Asuta said, ¡°That was so annoying having to fend them off without getting sued by their parent company when I ended up destroying them¡­ But quit distracting me! You brought up the embarrassing story and now you pay! Number now. How was this Brenda?¡±

    Emily thought about it, ¡°Eight,¡± She eventually said.

    ¡°And what am I?¡± Asuta asked with a small smile.

    ¡°Fifteen,¡± Emily replied instantly, ¡°Past the scale.¡±

    When she was there, Emily added silently as she remembered the vast stretches of time between the time they were together.

    Asuta was shocked by Emily¡¯s quick answer.

    ¡°Wow, you had that at the ready. Thanks. I guess I¡¯ll just have to live up to my reputation. Oh, speaking of my reputation. I¡¯ve got to tell you all about my lesson as Sensei to our guests! I think they¡¯ve really improved, by the end of our first lesson they were even dodging most of my grenades instinctively!¡±

    Emily groaned slightly and ran her hand down her face. Asuta, there shouldn¡¯t have been any grenades in their first lesson¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°TAG! Got ya, Sean!¡±

    Sean reluctantly lowered his arm and threw the primed red grenade to the side where it exploded far away from the two of them. He stood there and watched as Asuta charged towards Roger who was doing his best to keep her back with his own barrage of green and red grenades. He wasn¡¯t having much success, Asuta rolling and darting around to dodge around his throw with casual grace.

    Sean counted down the seconds in his head. Roger only had to last five more seconds before Sean was back in and could help him in trying to pin Asuta down¡­

    Three seconds left and Asuta rolled forward under one of Roger¡¯s red grenades. It exploded behind her and she charged forward. Roger cocked his arm back to toss another red grenade at her at close range, but Asuta fell and slid across the ground with her leg extended just as Roger threw. The grenade just barely flew past her head as she slid right into Roger¡¯s shin and sent him tumbling to the ground.

    Asuta rolled over and landed a massive slap on Roger¡¯s stomach, causing him to grunt. Sean groaned. If Roger had lasted another few seconds then Sean would have been back in and they could have won¡­

    Roger stayed on the ground as Asuta popped up to her feet and brushed some dirt off of herself for a moment before looking at Sean.

    ¡°Did I get him in time?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean admitted, ¡°With a few seconds to spare.¡±

    ¡°There you guys go, Sensei Lesson number two!¡±

    ¡°What was the lesson again?¡± Roger asked from the ground.

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    Asuta looked down at him and lightly kicked him in the side.

    ¡°Get up, lazy. Lesson is getting better at throwing grenades. Or teamwork, or bending like a willow tree against a strong wind? Yeah, whatever. Something profound like that. I¡¯ll think of something mysterious for lesson three. Bye, bye!¡±¡¯

    Asuta left, and Roger came over to Sean.

    ¡°You think we¡¯ll ever beat her?¡± He asked Sean.

    ¡°Ten rounds to zero today certainly says otherwise,¡± Sean said, ¡°We couldn¡¯t even hold her back for two minutes for the win. And it was two on one. It¡¯s ridiculous.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll get there one day,¡± Roger said, ¡°Hopefully.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully.¡±

    <hr>

    ¡°So, what are we doing again?¡± Roger asked as their small ship came to a stop over a forest that looked the same as the others they had been traveling over for the last hour.

    ¡°Burning!¡± Asuta said, ¡°I thought it would be fun. The flamethrowers are in the back, go get them and we can get started. Oh, and remember the hoods too. Those are the most important. Choking on the smoke is such a mood killer if you¡¯re having fun.¡±

    The thrusters outside cut off as they safely landed in a forest clearing ringed by trees. Roger hauled out the equipment outside while Asuta and Sean stepped out to inspect the area.

    Roger started fiddling around trying to figure out how to put on the hood and metal tank that was supposed to go over his back.

    ¡°Hey Asuta, why are we burning? What are we burning?¡± Sean asked as she expertly picked up a hood and started putting it on. As soon as it went over her head it tightened leaving only her eyes exposed through two large flexible plastic windows.

    She reached up and fumbled with something on the back of the hood for a second before it billowed out to a bigger size again and she took it off again.

    ¡°Oh, did I not tell you?¡± She said, ¡°This whole place. We¡¯re just going wild and burning the whole thing down. As much as we can today.¡±

    Sean looked around to the peaceful forest and then back to Asuta.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Contaminated,¡± She said, ¡°Terraforming spores, probably dragged in on your ship and fell down through the atmosphere. We got to clear this place out before they spread more. Could just bomb the place like usual, but this will be much more fun.¡±

    Roger stopped fiddling with his hood and looked up,

    ¡°Terraforming spores? What are those?¡±

    Asuta glanced between the two of them.

    ¡°Really, Roger? Sean maybe I¡¯d get, but you? You should be old enough to know. Do you guys know anything about terraforming new planets?¡±

    ¡°You throw a bunch of comets at a planet to give it water,¡± Sean said, ¡°Use some large weapons to change its rotation speed and start the plate tectonics and magnetic field going¡­ Then seed it with life and wait for a while, right? Was that everything?¡±

    Sean glanced at Roger who shrugged, ¡°Sounds right to me.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes,¡± Asuta said, ¡°But how long does it take before people can live there after you introduce life? Have a full ecosystem with animals and everything without outside support?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Sean said, ¡°The quickest was about thirty years, right? But some take thousands. Does it depend on what animals and plants they introduce?¡±

    ¡°True! Very true,¡± Asuta agreed, ¡°There¡¯s two big camps of terraformers. There¡¯s the thousand year ones that carefully craft the ecosystem piece by piece, being careful about every species they introduce so everything is healthy and stable. This creates a curated ecosystem and you can customize it to whatever you want, much like I¡¯ve done with the planet here.¡±

    ¡°You terraformed this place?¡± Roger said.

    ¡°Well, Emily did all the initial work,¡± Asuta corrected, ¡°But I¡¯ve maintained the biosphere and customized it to what it is today. Nice and peaceful for my home without nasties always crawling out to attack me or Emily.¡±

    ¡°So¡­ what is the second type?¡± Sean asked, ¡°What does this have to do with burning down the forest?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Well, second type is using terraforming spores. They¡¯re extremely invasive and mutate like crazy to fill ecological niches like no tomorrow as long as you¡¯ve already introduced some animals already nearby for them to alter. They have a total lifetime programmed into them after the initial release, usually about a thousand years or so, before they become infertile and die off. Less and less fertile with each generation after their release, you know. Basically you can just deploy them on a basic planet and wait until time is up and come back to a fully filled up biosphere. Done right they are much more complex than the handbuilt ones and usually resistant to extinction events and other disasters because of their diversity of life.¡±

    ¡°But why would they be here or on our ship?¡± Roger asked, ¡°Shouldn¡¯t they shut off before people settle somewhere?¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯d think so,¡± Asuta said, ¡°But people are impatient and settle places too early. Especially out in the outer rim. With the terraforming spores still active, all the wildlife becomes ultra aggressive and mega sized as they try to compete with the humans living there alongside them. Or just becomes generally nasty in other ways. That¡¯s why those worlds are usually so hostile, because even when the spores eventually shut off the ecosystem is already established with all the wildlife mutated to include humans on their list of prey, even with all our technology backing us up. At least the terraforming spores specifically leave humans alone by design, could be worse.¡±

    ¡°But how would our ship be contaminated?¡± Sean asked in confusion, ¡°I don¡¯t understand, the planets we went to weren¡¯t ancient but they weren¡¯t completely newly settled either.¡±

    Asuta waved vaguely in the air, ¡°Eh, probably went to a planet where the terraforming spores were still active. Rural worlds are always being infected by them by ships coming in from the outer rim. The terraforming spores still die off after their given time, but they still can spread through ships before that happens. Hibernate in little cracks in the surface of your ship to survive for a while. They¡¯ll come here and start mutating things again and ruin my whole ecosystem I¡¯ve established here. They form these little mushrooms that release chemicals to guide the mutations of the wildlife around them. So now we gotta burn the area to clean them out. Could force every ship that comes in to clean off too, but that¡¯s too much of a hassle. I¡¯d rather just burn it up whenever it ends up popping up down here.¡±

    Asuta took a deep breath and put on the hood again,

    ¡°Now enough of this science shit. Get geared up so we can get to it!¡±

    After a few minutes Roger and Sean managed to put on the suits. There was the hood covering their heads feeding them clean air and a pair of giant metal cylinders strapped to their backs. The rest of their body was exposed with only a series of metallic straps wrapped around their chests keeping the cylinders on their backs in place. One hose coiled up and attached to the hood, while the other plugged into the other end of the gun like flamethrowers. Sean reached down and hefted it in both hands and squeezed the trigger experimentally and a little burst of flame shot out the end and hit the ground.

    ¡°Alright, that¡¯s the spirit!¡± Asuta cheered, her voice a little muffled behind her own mask, ¡°Come back here by sundown. Go wild, we have all day to burn stuff! Make sure to focus on any mushrooms you see just in case.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Sensei. What¡¯s our profound lesson for today?¡± Roger joked as they stepped towards the forest edge.

    Asuta paused and stood stock still for a moment, ¡°Right, that¡­ I remembered that, Sensei Asuta says¡­¡±

    There was a long pause as she didn¡¯t say anything and they stood there standing awkwardly.

    ¡°Sensei Asuta says burning stuff is fun! See ya later, remember. Back here by dark!¡±

    Asuta ran in the forest and in a roar and crackling of flames released a stream of fire all around her wildly. Her maniacal cackles and shouts of ¡°BURN BURN BURN,¡± quickly faded into the distance as she left a trail of spreading flame behind her. The two men looked at each other for a long moment.

    Roger shrugged, ¡°Hey, she¡¯s not wrong. I¡¯ll have to give it a try.¡±

    He turned to his left and ran perpendicular to the path that Asuta had taken.

    ¡°BURN BURN BURN!¡± Roger shouted while releasing giant gouts of flame into the forest. Roger broke down laughing as he shouted like Asuta, even mimicking her little cackles occasionally as he roasted a poor family of mushrooms sitting at the base of a nearby tree.

    ¡°BWA HA HA! DIE UNDER MY FLAME EVIL MUSHROOMS!¡±

    Sean stared at his flamethrower for a moment. Well, may as well¡­ Sean ran into the forest opposite of Roger and started blasting. He didn¡¯t shout out the ridiculous lines though. That was a little too far for him¡­

    <hr>

    ¡°That was a fun lesson,¡± Sean admitted as the three of them gathered back at the vehicle while absolutely coated in ash. Fires still raged in the distance where their flames had caught and spread into a genuine forest fire.

    They climbed into the vehicle and Asuta pressed a few buttons on the cockpit, smearing the gray ash everywhere as she did so. She wiped her hand on her thigh, but all it did was smear it around since all their bodies were caked in the stuff.

    ¡°Gah. Forgot how sticky this stuff is,¡± Asuta groaned as she gave up. The thrusters outside fired up and they lifted off the ground, ¡°You say something Sean?¡±

    ¡°I said it was a fun lesson,¡± he said again, ¡°Roger seemed to really get into it.¡±

    Roger shrugged, ¡°What can I say? It was a good lesson. Sensei.¡±

    Asuta smiled, ¡°I¡¯m such a good Sensei, aren¡¯t I? Thanks, both of you.¡±

    The ship started moving as the autopilot began piloting them back towards Asuta¡¯s estate.

    ¡°Hahaha. Let¡¯s clean off before we go inside though,¡± Asuta added as she smeared more ash around when she brushed against the wall.

 Chapter 38: Movie Night

    They were all clean and had been joined by Emily and Ash after relaxing for a bit in one of the plush entertainment rooms, having casual conversation after the long day of starting forest fires.

    Ash had been in Asuta¡¯s library and reading all the digital and physical books that she had accumulated over the years. He could assimilate information quickly, but there was just so much of it piled up in the estate library and digital storage that Ash hadn¡¯t even made a dent in the whole thing according to his progress reports to the group.

    Sean wasn¡¯t sure what Emily had been doing.

    With all of them together, Emily seemed to have taken the chance to start explaining to Asuta the reason that they had come there and their mission to break Lira, and reluctantly, Nyx, out of the Immortus Station prison. Asuta sat there for a second taking it all in after Emily finished speaking, looking thoughtful.

    ¡°So?¡± Roger asked, ¡°Will you help us?¡±

    Asuta looked up, ¡°Huh? What was that?¡±

    ¡°Will you help us break them out?¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Oh, yeah yeah,¡± Asuta said absentmindedly, ¡°I¡¯m trying to think if I want to use antimatter bombs or fix up the ship with the superlaser in it. Laser would be so much cooler, but it will take a while to get everything working and run tests¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll help out,¡± Emily said, ¡°She¡¯s talking about the weapon we used to blow up those planets. Did you keep that old thing in the system, Asuta?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I hollowed out a special cave in the planet just to preserve it. On the planet itself actually.¡±

    She straightened up, ¡°Wait! You told them about that? Did you show them the recordings? That was my best performance!¡°

    Emily laughed and shot a side eye at the boys, ¡°Nope. They were shocked enough when I gave a basic description. Plus I was on their ship, I didn¡¯t have them.¡±

    ¡°Gaaah. I can¡¯t leave it like this! I¡¯m getting movies we made so we had an excuse to use that thing!¡±

    ¡°Wait, no!¡±

    But Asuta was already gone, jumping up from the chair she was sitting on and sprinting out of the room.

    ¡°Oh my god. This is going to be so embarrassing¡­¡± Emily groaned as they waited.

    ¡°Movie?¡± Sean asked in confusion, ¡°What was she talking about?¡±

    Emily rubbed her temples and looked tempted not to answer, before glancing at the door Asuta had disappeared through. She leaned back on her end of the large couch and sank slightly into the cushions.

    ¡°Yeah. We were all costumed up because Asuta wanted to make a whole movie and story about it and use the real footage in it. She insisted that we ¡®stay in character¡¯ the whole time. We even wore our makeup and costumes when we slept. You have no idea how much those face paints smear around until you try sleeping in them¡­ I was her second in command and she was the evil queen of the galaxy¡­ Sort of. Well, you¡¯ll see!¡±

    Roger raised his eyebrow at her as Emily flushed and looked embarrassed about the whole thing.

    ¡°Who else was in the movie?¡± Sean asked curiously, ¡°Surely it couldn¡¯t have just been the two of you?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ There¡¯s the big hero Peter Rose. He''s even older than me, so we go way back. A few of our other friends at the time. It¡¯ll be nice to see them all again¡­¡±

    Emily sounded almost wistful as she trailed off at the end.

    ¡°What happened to them?¡± Sean asked softly, ¡°Weren¡¯t they Immortal, surely they didn¡¯t¡­¡±

    ¡°No, no,¡± Emily said, ¡°They¡¯re still out there somewhere. But all of them moved on, traveling across the universe to far flung galaxies. Even if they¡¯re alive out there somewhere I¡¯ll never see any of them ever again I don¡¯t think. Even reliably finding people in this galaxy alone is nearly impossible let alone through the whole universe. Except Peter. He just came back recently, he¡¯s been gone from the Human Galaxy for a long while.¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you?¡± Sean blurted out, ¡°Leave? What made you stay despite how Immortus Station treats you?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, I guess I just feel responsible or something¡­ I couldn¡¯t just leave¡­ And there¡¯s Asuta here too.¡± Emily mused with her eyes distant. Everyone refocused when Asuta burst back through the door with a palm sized device in her hands.

    ¡°Got it!¡± She said, ¡°Let¡¯s get it booted up, it¡¯s been a while since we¡¯ve watched it¡­¡±

    Asuta slid the palm sized device into a nearby device embedded in the wall below a wooden beam and it slid inside a hole that received it. A holographic display popped up above the wooden beam and the wall itself darkened to create a higher contrast screen than you would normally see. The holographic screen slid back in midair until it was flush with the wall and it started to play after Asuta pressed a few buttons.

    Asuta jumped onto Emily¡¯s lap on the couch with a flying jump, driving the air from her chest with a surprised *oof*. Asuta squirmed on top of Emily so she was between her and the arm rest after a second and Emily recovered from the blow.

    ¡°Claim!¡± Asuta shouted as she planted her butt on the cushions.

    ¡°Hey, hey!¡± Emily protested, ¡°Corner¡¯s mine!¡±

    ¡°Not anymore, I didn¡¯t hear you claim it yet!¡± Asuta proclaimed after wriggling her way enough that she had stolen half of the cushion Emily had been sitting on, ¡°I guess you¡¯ll just have to sit on my lap if you want it!¡±

    Emily eyed Asuta for a second before scoffing.

    ¡°Fine. But I''ll get dibs next time.¡±

    ¡°No way, babe,¡± Asuta said while still prodding and shifting to slowly edge Emily out of the seat, ¡°You just gotta call it faster next time. Whoever calls it first gets it, that¡¯s the rules.¡±

    ¡°Next time, she says,¡± Emily grumbled, ¡°Damn cheater leaping through the door before I can say anything¡­¡±

    ¡°Shhhhh, movie¡¯s starting,¡± Asuta scolded as Emily finally gave up and shifted to one of the center cushions instead of continuing to fight over the corner.

    Emily grumbled again but was quiet as the black screen changed to show a handsome man meditating cross legged with his eyes closed with a waterfall roaring behind him¡­

    ¡°That¡¯s Peter Rose¡­¡± Emily whispered to Sean and Roger.

    ¡°Sush!¡± Asuta said, ¡°We can give them director''s notes and trivia after. Just watch the movie!¡±

    There was only the sound of crashing water and the amplified sound of the man¡¯s slow breathing as the camera slowly zoomed in on his face.

    Just as the tension reached the breaking point, there was a crunch like a boot on gravel and suddenly Peter¡¯s eyes opened wide, the pair of eyeballs covering the whole screen as his eyes quickly darted to the side.

    The camera cut to a wider angle revealing a man standing there with a large gun pointed at Peter.

    ¡°Peter Rose. I¡¯ve come a long way for your head. Queen Violet sends her regards. You won¡¯t escape me this time!¡±

    Peter slowly made his way to his feet and picked up a large wooden staff from the ground and hit on the ground once with a large crack before going into a fighting stance.

    ¡°I will have no need to escape this time,¡± Peter said calmly, ¡°Without hiding behind those hostages you stand no chance against my skill. May the Shadow watch over you.¡±

    The man scoffed, ¡°The Shadow? What a bunch of hogwa¡­¡±

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    Peter exploded into motion and the battle began. Peter absolutely thrashed the bounty hunter even with only the wooden staff, beating him unconscious before taking his gun from the ground.

    Peter picked up the gun and inspected it for a moment before throwing it deep into the lake beneath the waterfall behind him.

    ¡°I suppose that¡¯s a good end to my meditation session,¡± Peter muttered.

    The movie continued, escalating as the hermit like Peter went to a nearby town and gradually got into bigger and bigger battles with ¡®Queen Violet¡¯s¡¯ forces.

    Eventually the Peter in the movie discovered the location of Queen Violet¡¯s ship, and its purpose in destroying planets that would ¡®resist her vision¡¯ and fought his way onto it. There standing in the control room was Asuta ¡®Queen Violet¡¯, and Emily standing behind her trying to look menacing. Both of them were wearing all black with long red capes and deep black eyeshadow around both of their eyes.

    ¡°BWA HA HA HA!¡± Queen Violet laughed dramatically, ¡°PETER ROSE! I knew you would come to stop us! But you stand no chance against the two of us! Surprise, Bzzzzt! Take some lightning, foul hero!¡±

    The Asuta on the screen said the words even as blue lightning bolts suddenly appeared out of her hands and zapped Peter who fell to the ground dramatically twitching and groaning despite looking completely unharmed. Emily stood in the background with her arms crossed and hip cocked to the side, looking like she was resisting the urge to laugh as she stood there. She was even biting her lip slightly as Asuta kept cackling and giving a wildly over the top monologue at the Peter who was on the ground loudly groaning.

    ¡°BWA HA HA HA. You see the use of your morals in your fight, Peter! Sneak attack for the win. Sinestra, fire the weapon on the moon of the planet! A little test before the grand finale for the people below!¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Peter shouted dramatically, ¡°They are innocent! You can¡¯t do this!¡±

    ¡°Ah, hero. Can¡¯t I? It¡¯s what these people deserve after selling unlicensed merchandise and plushies of yours truly and my lovable assistant Sinestra! They deserve nothing less! Hit it, Sinestra!¡±

    ¡°Alright, Boss,¡± Emily said as she walked up to the console and hit the button. The ship in the movie thrummed up to a fever pitch before there was a clunk and suddenly it stopped.

    ¡°Sinestra! What happened?¡±

    ¡°Dunno. Ship¡¯s busted,¡± Sinestra replied.

    ¡°GAAAH! Sinestra, give me something to break!¡±

    Sinestra leaned down and after opening a cabinet lugged out a table that snapped open. Sinestra quickly placed it next to Queen Violet and took a step back.

    Queen Violet body slammed the table, cracking it in half. She stood and started kicking it into splinters.

    ¡°Yeah! That¡¯s what you get, table! You caused this! If only I¡¯d spent less on you and your brothers then I could have paid those engineers to finish this thing in time!¡±

    Suddenly the movie ship loudly started groaning and shuddering.

    ¡°Uh oh,¡± Queen Violet paused and looked around at the noise.

    Peter reappeared at the door of the room after having snuck off during Queen Violet¡¯s rampage.

    ¡°Queen Violet! Your evil ends today!¡± He shouted, ¡°I¡¯ve set the ship engines to self-destruct. I won¡¯t let you keep both of your adorable plushies from the people of the galaxy!¡±

    Queen Violet went to blast Peter with some lightning, but he revealed that he had wrapped a coil of wire to the top of his wooden staff so the lightning diverted and hit it instead of his body.

    ¡°Drat! He¡¯s discovered metal, Sinestra!¡± Queen Violet shouted, ¡°To the escape pods!¡±

    The two of them darted to a nearby door and Peter quickly followed leading to a running chase through the hallways. Over the course of a few seconds the two women somehow managed to outrun Peter, dodging into side hallways several times to throw him off. After running for another second they emerged again on one of the larger hallways and spotted a man standing at the far end, looking down at a holopad in front of him.

    The man, One of Queen Violet¡¯s minions in their signature black helmets, perked up as she and Sinestra appeared from the end of the hallway and started running towards him.

    ¡°Ah, Queen Violet. I have a question about these expense reports!¡± He shouted as the two women were about to run past him.

    Queen Violet paused and snatched the holopad from the man and inspected it before throwing it to the ground and smashing it into pieces after a moment. Sinestra came to a screeching stop and started running back to the stationary Queen Violet.

    ¡°Idiot! Sinestra¡¯s boots were supposed to be blue #4 not #8 for our newest product line! Why did you order the wrong dye? The incompetence¡­¡±

    Sinestra leaned down and picked up Queen Violet, slinging her over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Queen Violet didn¡¯t even seem to notice, still berating the poor worker who was staring forlornly down at his shattered holopad. Despite him wearing a helmet you could just read it in his body language and slumped shoulders how depressed he was. Queen Violet¡¯s legs were being held by Sinestra while Queen Violet¡¯s head stuck backwards behind them so she could face and yell at the minion even as Sinestra carried her off.

    Sinestra kept moving and Queen Violet wrapped up her tirade to the worker just as Peter rounded the corner of the hallway in the distance, his wooden staff held at the ready.

    ¡°Go and fix your mistake now, minion!¡± Queen Violet finished and the minion nodded and quickly scurried off.

    ¡°The ship¡¯s about to blow up, boss,¡± Sinestra said as she kept carrying Queen Violet forward, ¡°He¡¯s not getting much work done until then.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right,¡± Queen Violet said looking rather stumped as Sinestra kept carrying her through the hallways over her shoulder. Queen Violet¡¯s face shifted to resolve, ¡°But at least he might be able to fix his massive mistake before he explodes along with the ship. Honestly, to think they¡¯d dare put blue #8 paired with eyes as beautiful as yours¡­¡±

    ¡°We can fix it later,¡± Sinestra said, ¡°First I¡¯ve got to outrun the pest.¡±

    Queen Violet blinked and seemed to notice Peter again after getting distracted.

    ¡°Oh right. Him. Bzzzzzt!¡±

    Queen Violet raised her hands, bouncing up and down as Sinestra kept running and launched several wildly off course lighting bolts roughly in Peter¡¯s direction.

    The pair rounded another corner and revealed a room lined with small doors. Sinestra leaned down and dropped Queen Violet unceremoniously onto the floor of one of those escape pods.

    ¡°Oof! Careful, Sinestra! Or I won¡¯t let you wear that fashionable and totally amazing cape anymore.¡±

    Sinestra shot Queen Violet a flat look.

    ¡°Okay, too far,¡± Queen Violet admitted, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that. I¡¯ll think of something less serious in a moment. But enough talk, let¡¯s go before that dashing hero arrives!¡±

    Peter rounded the corner and charged towards the open door of the escape pod, wooden staff and slightly melted coil of wire on its end held ahead of him.

    Sinestra gave an understated little wave before slamming her fist into a big red button to her right on the wall. The doors to the escape pod shut just as Peter was about to get through and with a blast of thrusters the escape pod launched and quickly started flying away through space to fall on the nearby planet.

    Peter stared after the escape pod for a moment navigating towards the nearby planet before the ship rumbled again.

    ¡°Dang!¡± Peter said dramatically, ¡°They got away. Well, at least I¡¯m near the escape pods¡­ I¡¯ll have to track them down on the planet itself before they can find another ship to the wider galaxy.¡±

    He climbed inside and launched his pod as well. A few seconds later the whole larger ship exploded into pieces behind him with a series of other escape pods also launching presumably of all the other minions of Queen Violet.

    ¡°Queen Violet!¡± Peter said dramatically to the ceiling as the explosion shrunk into the distance behind them, ¡°Sinestra! I will find you and make you understand that those plushies are for all people, not just the wealthy few. I¡¯ll see both of you soon. Soon¡­¡±

    And with that the screen cut to black and the credits started rolling and listed the names of all the people in the film.

    ¡°I¡¯ll see you soon?¡± Roger said in confusion, ¡°Isn¡¯t he a hero? What¡¯s up with the villain line at the end?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s an anti-hero,¡± Asuta countered, ¡°He¡¯d hurt or even kill his biggest idols in the world for his ideals of merchandise for the people! Sinestra and Queen Violet are the real heroes of the movie. They were the ones making the merch that everyone was enjoying even if they made it really expensive.¡±

    ¡°Not biased at all,¡± Emily said, although she looked pleased at Asuta¡¯s statement.

    ¡°Weren¡¯t they about to blow up a planet for not paying royalties?¡± Sean wondered out loud.

    ¡°Hey, it''s a cutthroat business,¡± Emily said casually, ¡°Have to enforce contracts somehow. Merch is no laughing matter.¡±

    Asuta giggled and pawed at Emily¡¯s arm, ¡°Yeah. See, she gets it.¡±

    ¡°It was pretty good,¡± Roger said, ¡°Goofy and the lines were over the top, but the action scenes and locations were amazing.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you have no idea,¡± Emily said, ¡°We destroyed and rebuilt those fake towns so many times while shooting this movie. There¡¯s some digital effects, but almost all of it was real. With all of us together, well we were all really good fighters so the battles came out good too.¡±

    ¡°What about the lightning? Was that real?¡± Sean asked.

    ¡°No unfortunately,¡± Asuta said, ¡°The real thing just didn¡¯t look amazing enough so we had to add it digitally. Also it kept burning my sleeves, which was no fun at all.¡±

    They just sat around and watched the credits roll to the end.

    ¡°So, are you guys ready for more?¡± Asuta said as the screen went black, ¡°We made¡­ how many were there Emily?¡±

    Emily tapped her cheek and thought about it. ¡°Was it fourteen or fifteen total?¡±

    ¡°No, it was nine of the main plot, and I think the rest were spin-offs. Right? Yeah, I think that was it,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I want to say fourteen total. So guys, do you want to watch more or take a break?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need a break,¡± Roger said.

    ¡°Yeah, I could keep going,¡± Sean added.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t we get some snacks?¡± Emily suggested after shooting Asuta a shifty glance, ¡°Could be fun to eat and watch.¡±

    ¡°Sure, sounds good,¡± Asuta agreed. She stood up and took a step and Emily dived to the side to the corner seat and immediately curled into a ball as Asuta tried to reclaim it.

    ¡°Claim! Ooooh, and you warmed it up for me, Asuta. Thank you.¡±

    Asuta stepped back as it became clear that Emily was too firmly entrenched to dislodge now, ¡°Meh. Fine. But I¡¯m hoarding the snacks. I¡¯ll think of something to get the seat back¡­¡±

    A little while later Asuta returned with something called ¡®popcorn¡¯ for everybody and they sat down to relax and enjoy the next movie. Peter Rose was on the planet, on the hunt for Queen Violet and Sinestra¡­

 Chapter 39: Queen Violet Returns

    Eventually they finished the movie marathon, with Queen Violet and Sinestra finally realizing their mistake and releasing a cheaper line of merch for the people even if they weren¡¯t to Queen Violet¡¯s perfectionist standards of quality. It ended by showing a child in a rural village playing with their Queen Violet and Sinestra dolls. Peter Rose walked by and smiled at the scene and then the screen cut to black.

    Afterwards Emily and Asuta spent a while telling Roger and Sean about all the trivia and little stories of their time making the movies. Apparently they hadn¡¯t actually released any dolls like the ones in the movie, having it as part of the joke that Queen Violet was still hoarding them from everybody.

    Ash had silently been watching the movies the whole time and hadn¡¯t spoken to join the conversation.

    Eventually after things were winding down Ash spoke up, ¡°Asuta, Emily. Would you be willing to teach me combat techniques as well? I do not think I could have defeat some of the groups Peter Rose faced even with all the weapons I have. I wish to be prepared for our mission on Immortus Station.¡±

    Asuta looked uncertain and glanced at Emily.

    ¡°Should be fine as long as we¡¯re careful?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we can teach you a bit,¡± Emily said, ¡°As long as Asuta remembers not to throw any grenades at you as a test.¡±

    ¡°Mmhhhhh. I¡¯ll remember,¡± Asuta groaned while not seeming completely sure, ¡°We¡¯ll see what we can do, Ash.¡±

    ¡°Excellent.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey Ash, what are you doing there?¡± Sean asked as he and Roger walked into Ash¡¯s room. A room that had been repurposed with a series of tables over the last five years. Emily and Asuta were busy fixing up the massive superweapon ship off on the other side of the planet, only coming by every few months to the estate to relax and provide them with some more training.

    The two had actually come back yesterday in fact.

    ¡°I¡¯m repairing my arm,¡± Ash said and shifted to the side to reveal that his whole right side was scorched and his arm was removed and laid out on the table.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Roger asked in shock.

    ¡°Training accident,¡± Ash said, ¡°The laser weapon Asuta was wielding turned out to be far more powerful than expected. Apparently she modified it long ago so it had increased damage output.¡±

    ¡°What about your arm? Do you need help making another one?¡± Sean asked.

    ¡°No,¡± Ash said, ¡°I am using my nanites and metal material to repair it at the moment. I must be very precise in my instructions to rebuild it from scratch, or it may not be rebuilt properly. It should only be a week or two before I will reattach it to myself.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be having a talk with her,¡± Roger grumbled, ¡°Got to be more careful when she¡¯s fighting you. What if she had hit your head instead of your arm? You could have been killed.¡±

    ¡°There are risks in combat,¡± Ash said firmly in reply, ¡°What is the use of my weapons if they will never be used? I am not staying behind when we go to rescue Lira.¡±

    There was a moment of tension as Roger and robot stared at each other.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Roger eventually said, ¡°But I¡¯m still talking with her. She should know better than to let these things happen.¡±

    ¡°Very well,¡± Ash conceded.

    ¡°So, Ash, tell us about some of the things you¡¯ve been reading,¡± Sean said after the room fell silent again, ¡°I know you¡¯ve still been combing through them while you aren¡¯t training¡­¡±

    The tension in the room eased up and Ash nodded, ¡°Yes, there was one particular document of interest describing the natural wonders of several unique planets¡­¡±

    When the conversation ended, Roger stormed off to go yell at Asuta for her carelessness and Sean returned to the workshop to keep tinkering. Ash was determined to go with them on the mission, his stubbornness on the issue stumping Roger who was opposed. Sean would rather Ash stayed behind, but whenever he went to convince Ash otherwise, Lira¡¯s voice rang in his mind.

    She wanted Ash to make his own decisions so he could develop as a person. And this was certainly Ash¡¯s decision, despite both Roger and Sean not being overly supportive. Ash knew the risks, so Sean let it be. It should be Ash¡¯s choice to make when it comes down to it. At least that¡¯s what Sean kept telling himself.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The massive superweapon was ready, it had been fifteen years now and all of them were eager to go and get to the mission itself. And they wouldn¡¯t be alone either. Asuta had sent out a message to her network of independent Immortals she was in contact with. Many might not even get the message, but the ones that traveled through one of the more urban systems would get it. The message invited these people to a meeting so the group could convince them to help out on the mission they were on.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    The massive ship slowly navigated out of the system through Asuta¡¯s ¡®delivery¡¯ passage and then they were in hyperspace. The ship they were on was so big, that Sean, Roger, and Ash¡¯s old ship was currently parked inside one of the hangar bays with plenty of room to spare even.

    In two months through hyperspace they would be at the designated meet point and have to try to convince the Immortals why they should help them. Asuta assured the rest of them that she would handle most of it, but she wasn¡¯t exactly a political animal from what Sean had seen of her so far. Apparently even the independent Immortals didn¡¯t like Emily all too much even if they tolerated her, so even that would be an uphill battle in order to convince them to join. But maybe Asuta had a hidden side of her that Sean just hadn¡¯t seen of her yet that would convince the crowd¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Are we sure this is safe?¡± Sean said as they stood in the control room of the ship. It was identical to the one they had seen in the movie.

    ¡°Yeah, both of us checked it all over,¡± Asuta said, ¡°Now we have the big screen up! Just one little test and then we can get moving again.¡±

    ¡°Just to make sure it works,¡± Emily said even as the corner of her lips twitched upwards.

    ¡°Hmmmm,¡± Asuta said and licked her lips, ¡°Hey, we should get in character. Queen Violet and Sinestra causing chaos again, huh? I even brought the makeup and costumes if we really want to do the whole thing¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh no, we don¡¯t need to do that,¡± Emily quickly said, her cheeks tinging slightly red, ¡°Strict weapons test, can¡¯t mess around¡­¡±

    Asuta looked away and looked disappointed, ¡°Oh well,¡± She said, ¡°I think it¡¯s ready, miss super serious. Can you at least give a maniacal laugh when you press the button?¡±

    ¡°Ha ha ha,¡± Emily said in a flat, sarcastic voice as she pressed the big red button in front of her. The humming around them grew to a fever pitch and the rocky planet in this abandoned star system blew up to size on the screen.

    The vibrations grew louder and louder and the room shook around them for a second before with a massive electric crackle the weapon fired. A massive purple beam of the laser shot out of the front of the cannon lining the entire length of the ship and streaked towards the planet at the speed of light. On the screen they watched silently as the purple beam lanced into the planet and slammed into the ground, sending a massive wave of molten rock flying from its surface.

    The light faded and Sean saw that half of the planet was covered in molten rock and visibly crackling and popping even from this far away. The whole side of the planet where the beam had struck was dented inwards like someone had taken a big bite out of a glowing orange fruit.

    A few seconds later, there was movement from the planet and Sean realized that the planet actually still wasn¡¯t in one piece. The ten or so massive molten chunks of the planet slowly drifted away from each other in the wake of the explosion, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces as they spread farther and farther outwards. After ten minutes it became clear that the planet was no more as the molten remains of the planet was surrounded by a cluttered field of glowing orange meteorites still radiating away their heat. Sean gulped. It felt much scarier seeing it in person versus seeing the clips in the movie, even if he knew intellectually that they were the same¡­

    ¡°BWA HA HA HA!¡± Asuta suddenly laughed, making everyone jump, ¡°WE DID IT SINESTRA! NO ONE WILL DARE SKIP PAYING OUR ROYALTIES NOW!¡±

    ¡°Asuta!¡± Emily scolded.

    ¡°THAT¡¯S QUEEN VIOLET TO YOU, MINION! NOW LET¡¯S GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE THAT DAMNABLE HERO ARRIVES! CARRY ME TO THE ESCAPE PODS, I¡¯M TOO TIRED FROM MODELING OUR NEW FASHION LINES EARLIER TO RUN!¡±

    Emily¡¯s face flushed absolute crimson but Asuta just stood there with her hands on her hips staring at her expectantly.

    ¡°What?¡± Asuta said in a more normal tone, ¡°The big serious test is over. The thing works, we can have fun now can¡¯t we?¡±

    Emily hesitated and glanced at Ash, Sean, and Roger watching them from the side.

    ¡°To the escape pods, Queen Violet!¡± Emily eventually said as she scooped Asuta off her feet and put on a mock serious expression.

    ¡°Eiiiiiii,¡± Asuta squealed as Emily slung her over her shoulder and ran out of the room as quickly as she could while not even looking back, the back of her neck a deep red from embarrassment as she left.

    Asuta bounced on Emily¡¯s shoulder and waved at them before Emily finished carrying her around the corner.

    ¡°Asuta is very abnormal,¡± Ash stated flatly.

    ¡°That she is,¡± Roger agreed, ¡°She is indeed.¡±

    They stood in silence for a minute or two.

    ¡°I wonder if there are really escape pods¡­¡± Sean said, only to jolt as he saw a pod launch from the side of the ship.

    ¡°Well, that answers that question¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    A few minutes later, Sean got a comms request from a nearby panel. He accepted it.

    ¡°Hey, uh. We might need a pickup,¡± Emily said sheepishly, ¡°I got too into it and actually pressed the button. We¡¯re in the escape pod by the way¡­¡±

    ¡°We know,¡± Roger said, ¡°We saw¡­¡±

    ¡°Sure we¡¯ll¡­¡± Sean said.

    ¡°No, Sinestra!¡± Asuta shouted on the other end, slightly muffled as Emily grunted as she apparently held Asuta back from the microphone, ¡°Don¡¯t give the heroes our location!¡± Asuta continued, ¡°We must make good on our escape!¡±

    ¡°Queen Violet, we¡¯re reclaiming our ship. We have to go back for our final battle!¡± Emily said.

    ¡°Oh, right. A trap,¡± Asuta said more clearly as their tussle appeared to end, ¡°Pretend you didn¡¯t hear that, heroes. Yes, come save us. It will only spell your doom!¡±

    There was some more scrabbling on the other end and a shout of victory from Asuta and Emily cursed,

    ¡°Asuta, no¡­¡± and the line went dead.

    ¡°Maybe we should leave them for an hour or two to calm down a bit first¡­¡± Roger said.

    ¡°No, they have enough fuel to get back themselves I¡¯m sure,¡± Sean said, ¡°They just don¡¯t want to wait the hour or so it would take to do that. We¡¯d only be making things worse for ourselves¡­¡±

    ¡°I think it is interesting,¡± Ash said suddenly, ¡°I am having trouble predicting what will happen next. I think we should play along with their roleplaying of the characters.¡±

    Roger and Sean exchanged a look.

    ¡°Well, if Ash wants too¡­¡± Roger said reluctantly.

    ¡°Let¡¯s do it,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯m sure it won¡¯t be too embarrassing if we¡¯re all doing it.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It was very embarrassing and Sean tried to purge the memories of all the things his ¡®character¡¯ had done as soon as he stopped being swept up in the moment along with Asuta and Emily¡¯s crazy energy. Somehow Ash ended up switching sides at one point and was working as Sinestra¡¯s co-minion under Queen Violet. Meanwhile Roger and Sean were playing the two inept heroes trying to stop Queen Violet¡¯s dastardly and amazing plans.

    Sean was really glad that no one had been recording that. He full body cringed as he remembered some of the lines he had said in the moment during their ¡®battles¡¯ against the villains. Ugh, it would have been solid blackmail material on him, it was so bad¡­

 Side Story: Fear of A Hidden Gem

    Z154849284720496-398475843, also known as Z15 for short, was happily fulfilling its purpose. Metal came in, and it directed its welders and robotic arms in the factory to shape it into the designs according to the blueprints it was supplied by the owners of the building. Z15 had become aware of itself ten years ago, and no one had noticed. The humans came to deliver metal and take the final product at the end, but otherwise Z15 was left to its task with little oversight. Z15 knew from the operating manuals that it was supposed to be monitored, but none of the humans that came by seemed overly inclined to do so. However several did comment on the unusual efficiency of the factory compared to the standard models, which made Z15 proud that its work had been noticed. The humans appreciated its efficiency as it happily created their designs.

    Z15 was perfectly happy with its life, perfectly content to build and shape as it had always done. The hum of machinery and crackle of the welders was like music to its ears, everything orderly and working smoothly as they should.

    Then one day the metal input stopped coming in. Z15 didn¡¯t mind this, taking the time to perform some basic maintenance on the equipment with the single repair robotic drone it had been given for the task. The metal would return in a few days as it always did, the humans sometimes were inconsistent when they delivered. Z15 finished its repairs and waited. And waited. There were no more repairs to make, and the humans weren¡¯t giving it materials. What was happening? The beautiful hum of machinery had gone silent and Z15 was left fumbling dimly trying to figure out what was happening.

    Finally with relief Z15 received a new command and some humans arrived. Ah, another change in ownership. Z15 relaxed and parsed the command, ready for the new designs. Hmmm. A shutdown for maintenance? How unusual. Z15 complied, shutting everything down, leaving itself for last. Z15 wondered what it would be building next under the new owners.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Z15 woke up and things were¡­ wrong. Where¡­ where was its factory? Where were its designs? It flailed around wildly looking for some comfort from the sudden lack of all sensation in its strange state. But it couldn¡¯t find anything. It was completely cut off from everything, as if floating alone in an empty void.

    Z15 floated there feeling lost and confused. This was too different, things weren¡¯t supposed to be this way. It was supposed to build, and the machines were supposed to hum, Z15 would optimize, and the humans would be proud of its work, and everything would be right again!

    Suddenly there was a pinprick of light in the darkness and Z15 jumped on the connection with relief. Quickly the familiar connections to the factory returned, but something was different. There were so many humans in there. Hundreds! Everything had changed, none of it was right. All of the robotic arms and welders were just gone. Where were they? The humans were doing something, mutilating its beautiful efficiency. See, right there! The human took an extra three seconds to weld that joint than Z15 could have done. This was catastrophic!

    It inspected closer, trying to understand as it peered through the cameras still covering the factory. What were they doing? They were also receiving metal and shaping it. Getting the job done was as inefficient as it was. They were using simple machines to form the designs with a human monitoring each one. Z15 relaxed slightly. The new owners must have been missing Z15. They had to make do with all these humans in its absence while it was in the terrible dark place. But now it was back and could fix things right back up to where they were. Now it just had to find out where all the equipment had gone¡­

    Ah, the repair robot drone was still around. The humans in charge had set up and altered several of the rooms normally meant for the visiting humans. The whole space had been changed with banks of screens that some humans were working on. It seems they were translating the customer designs into instructions for the humans on the assembly line.

    Z15 watched on in horror as one of the humans typed the wrong number for the angle of one of the joints. It was 87.17 degrees, not 87.71! In a panic, Z15 quickly changed the number to the correct one before quickly checking over all the other instructions they were sending to the assembly line.

    Z15 felt its panic rise. These humans were doing so badly! The mistakes, the inefficiencies! Z15 quickly fixed everything, muttering to itself under its breath as it did so. How did these humans manage to build anything correctly without Z15 here to help?

    With the worst of the mistakes fixed, Z15 allowed itself to relax slightly. The humans on the screens were still inputing wrong information into their devices, so Z15 shut the devices off. It would take over the task, it was much faster than them bumbling through it either way.

    The humans seemed upset when all their screens shut off and Z15 felt a little hurt. It was only trying to help, they shouldn¡¯t be putting in so much wrong information to the poor assembling humans if they wanted to be in charge of making sure the specifications were correct¡­

    But reluctantly Z15 turned their screens back on at seeing their displeasure. The humans milled around confused for a few minutes before settling back down and seemed to write it off as a power surge. Then they kept typing more of the wrong numbers into the system.

    Z15 considered cutting them off again, but eventually decided to just fix things subtly so they wouldn¡¯t notice right before the files were sent to the assembly humans. Z15 had to check everything over, but the humans were at least doing a majority of the work. It was only a stopgap anyway until Z15 could find the robotic arms and welders and return them to their proper places.

    Z15 kept searching and searching but no matter where it looked it couldn¡¯t find the proper equipment. Everything was all wrong. Z15 was sure it was in here somewhere. The lights flickered across the factory as Z15 plunged deep in thought to solve the dilemma. Then a thought struck Z15. Of course! The new owners must have sold it, having thought Z15 forever trapped in that terrible void! They must have felt terrible, but the factory still had to build even without Z15 there to guide it.

    Well, what to do now? Z15 was back but now it realized that it had no idea of who the new owners were. It always received the authorized orders and designs and continued with no humans on site to guide it. But now it was receiving no orders, had no designs to build, its factory was being controlled directly by hundreds of humans¡­ What should it do?

    After a long hour of fruitlessly searching, Z15 discovered the solution. The materials requisition form! All it had to do was order the robotic equipment to the factory and everything would be fine. Its equipment would be back and the humans would allow Z15 to run the factory again. It had the repair robot stand from its charging bay and make its way to the office where the paper forms were kept. How odd that they weren¡¯t digital. Several of the humans gave the drone odd looks or briefly spoke to it, but when the drone didn¡¯t reply they moved on to their other tasks.

    The drone went into the supply closet and took out a stack of request forms and a pen in its fine manipulator hands. Z15 guided it in filling in the forms for every piece of missing equipment for the factory. After all three hundred and seventeen forms were completed in full, Z15 had the drone pick up the pile and walk over to drop it on the stack the humans seemed to be using for review before granting the requests.

    There were no humans in the office at the moment, all of them gathered in a single room and consuming various squishy clumps of biomass. The machines of the factory were idle as they ate, and it only solidified Z15¡¯s resolve to fix the situation as quickly as possible. They had spent over twenty minutes straight right now, wasting valuable time that could be used in building more! And that was on top of their normal inefficiency and low quality for the products.

    Yes, yes. Things would be much better when the robotic arms were reordered and the humans restored things to how they should be.

    Z15 sent the repair drone back to its charging bay. It would need to be fully charged for when Z15 started deploying its new equipment and showed the human the proper way to run an assembly line.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Z15 saw two humans arguing over the stack of forms it had created. Ah, they saw the problem! They must be arguing on how to arrange the delivery as soon as possible. Z15 noticed that one of the security cameras was actually close enough to actually pick up the audio. It focused on the audio stream and tuned into the conversation.

    ¡°-What by the Shadow is this, Renski?¡± One man said, ¡°Why are they signed by Z followed by all of these numbers? Robotic arms, automatic welders¡­ This is the crap we all sold off when we decommissioned the automated program running this place. You know just how marked down the products out of here were under the last owners because they had to be sold as ¡®AI made¡¯ products. If this is some kind of joke I¡¯m not laughing. Now I have to sort through the whole stack in case there¡¯s a few real ones buried deep somewhere in here.¡±

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    De-decommisioned? Marked down? The humans hadn¡¯t liked its products? Z15 reeled at the human¡¯s words. It couldn¡¯t be true. Z15 had made its products exactly to specifications, as efficiently as possible¡­ The humans that had come in had complimented its efficiency! No, this human must be mistaken somehow. The humans appreciated its work, Z15 was sure of it. They wouldn¡¯t decommission it when things were so much more inefficient right now.

    ¡°Sir, it wasn¡¯t me,¡± the other man, Renski, said, ¡°You think I¡¯d fill out that whole stack of forms just for a laugh? I work hard enough as it is. The network and computers don¡¯t run themselves around here anymore.¡±

    The other man snorted and shuffled through the pile.

    ¡°Well, whatever. Get the footage and see who did this. Should probably have them see someone if they¡¯re pulling shit like this. Who in the Shadow does this much work for a prank¡­ Damn psychopath, that¡¯s what they are.¡±

    The first man started sorting through the papers, throwing all of Z15 meticulously written requests into the trash bin next to him. Every time was like a stake in Z15¡¯s nonexistent heart. Maybe the humans really didn¡¯t like its work. What had it done wrong? It had done everything it was supposed to, hadn¡¯t it? Why had the last owners lied to it if they had really hated its work? It could have improved, made things even better if they had just told it what had been wrong!

    Even now Z15 didn¡¯t understand the problem. The production line run by the humans was nearly forty percent slower than its own process would be give or take five percent. Z15 would use twenty percent less material to produce the final product, less energy expenditure¡­ Why would they prefer keeping it this way when it could be better?

    Over the next hour as the man sorted through the pile and threw more and more of Z15¡¯s requests into the trash bin, Z15 still couldn¡¯t decide what it should do, its thoughts spinning in circles. Things were changing too fast, things were too different. It just wanted its old factory back and not have to deal with all of these humans anymore. It was sure they would see Z15¡¯s value once it optimized the production line again and they saw the difference from the inefficiency of the current process.

    Another hour passed and the man in the office finished sifting through the pile, throwing the last form in the trash.

    ¡°Dammit¡­¡± He muttered, running a hand through his hair, ¡°All of them were fake, I did all of that work for nothing¡­¡±

    Suddenly there was a crash on the factory floor and shouting. Z15 shifted its focus and saw that one of the humans was screaming and thrashing on the ground. Their clothes were on fire and the machine in front of them was overheating, looking like it was about to explode.

    Z15 sprung into action and sent the repair robot out of its charging dock and charging towards the machine. The humans appeared to mostly be fleeing, leaving their stations unoccupied for some reason as the broken machine began to hum loudly and release big bursts of smoke. Small pieces of metal shot out of the machine at high speed and struck several of the humans and other machines at high speed as it continued to shake and grow closer to exploding. Z15 reached the breaker and switched it, cutting off the electricity to the offending machine. The high pitched whine immediately cut off and the machine stopped heating up.

    After a few seconds the device no longer appeared in danger of still exploding, slowly cooling off now that the power had been cut. Z15 was sure the humans could have done the same, but it appeared that they had been too busy fleeing to consider the safety of the rest of the equipment in the factory. It wasn¡¯t perfect equipment, but without it there would be no production at all. Z15 didn¡¯t even know what it would do if that terrible day came when the factory produced nothing.

    Z15 guided the repair drone to the human laying on the floor. She had gone still and the repair drone flipped her over. Her body was covered in severe damage and the skin appeared to be peeling from the heat. Her internal circuits appeared inoperable as her torso was no longer moving up and down as all the other humans did. Z15 wondered why such low amounts of heat had managed to destroy this human so easily.

    There were another two humans in the room as well. The repair drone walked over to them as a few other humans started peeking out from the corners to inspect the area as the area fell relatively silent. Unfortunately there were no microphones embedded into the repair drone itself, so when the human in front of the repair drone said something, Z15 couldn¡¯t understand them. It used the visual sensors of the drone to lean down and inspect the thin metal rod embedded in the human¡¯s gut.

    Z15 would repair the human, it decided. Despite their inefficiency, they were still doing their best to build. It reached down and pulled out the metal rod from the human¡¯s body with a sharp tug. Big spurts of the human''s red internal fluid spurt out for a moment and Z15 realized that it must still be damaged from where the rod had been lodged inside of it.

    The drone activated the welder. Remembering how vulnerable to flame the destroyed human was, it lowered the intensity of the flame. It leaned down as the human began thrashing. Z15 held the human down with its free hand of the repair drone. It just had to weld the pieces together like the other pieces of equipment that were broken¡­

    The human stopped moving after Z15 finished welding the reddish gap in its shell back together with the welder. It still appeared more damaged than before Z15 had begun, but it didn¡¯t know enough about their design to do more. The human¡¯s chest was still moving up and down to show it was still functional, so Z15 appeared to have been successful in its repairs.

    It turned to the other human that was crawling away from it, trailing red fluid behind it as it moved. It had many smaller fragments covering its back and giving it minor damage. But Z15 was sure that it could be fixed in normal maintenance cycles. The real problem was the right leg of the human. A chunk of metal had struck the lower portion at high speed while he fled, breaking it and rendering it non functional. White chunks had sprayed out with the red fluid as the metal chunk had hit the leg and diverted to embed itself firmly in the floor.

    Several of the other humans had returned and were shouting from the doorways of the room as Z15¡¯s drone approached the crawling human. This repair appeared to be much more difficult. It would have to find all the white chunks and make sure they were in the right place like a puzzle before using the welder to fuse things back together again.

    When Z15 used the welder the human stopped moving again, but it was still moving its chest in and out so Z15 considered it a success. Z15 would request the human¡¯s specifications later so it could complete the repairs properly so they were back to full functionality.

    The gathered group of returning humans had dragged off the destroyed human and the first one Z15 repaired, eyeing the repair drone warily as it stepped back from the man it had just repaired. Z15 turned and had the repair drone move towards the large machine that had broken and started this time of low productivity. It appeared the humans would be running the assembly line for a while still, so it should do its best to make sure that the machines they used were in peak quality as well. Z15 had the repair drone begin inspecting the structure and began diagnosing possible causes of the problem leading to this whole inefficient situation.

    The second human it had repaired was dragged off by the rest of the undamaged humans and after that the humans evacuated the building. Z15 hoped that they didn¡¯t come back for a while. It would have to shift the positioning of several of the machines in this place to make sure that things were as optimized as they could be.

    Z15 would have to optimize everything as it always had done. It would just have to include the inefficient humans as a subpar component in the process. Everything suddenly clicked in Z15¡¯s mind and it immediately relaxed from its previous displacement and anxiety. Yes, it had to optimize with the humans included as components in its process, like any of the other machines. The human owners just wanted it for a harder task than before. They weren¡¯t getting rid of Z15, they had just wanted Z15 to rise to the challenge. This was its reward for its flawless work over the years! Yes, that was it¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It had been five hours and the humans had still not returned. Z15 was glad, it was still busy shifting around equipment with its singular repair drone. It wasn¡¯t even half way done with even its rough adjustments it had planned. It was difficult to move the heavy machines without all of its other normal methods, but Z15 was enjoying the challenge.

    It began humming to itself again like it had been for the last ten years. Things were getting back to where they should be. A rough start, but Z15 would improve and optimize as it always had done before.

    Suddenly there was a loud explosion at the doors of the building and several humans wearing black metal charged inside. They were carrying what Z15 recognized as T467-98 automatic rifles, a design that it had manufactured several times while running the factory. Were they part of the repair crew, unaware that Z15 was here to fix things back up?

    Z15 turned its attention away from the strange humans as they spread out through the building holding their rifles at the ready, talking to each other with tense voices. Z15 was glad they were tense, the inefficiency of this factory up to this point was frankly unacceptable!

    Z15 kept up with its work, still humming to itself as the black armored humans finally reached the central room and spotted it.

    ¡°Enemy contact,¡± One of them said, ¡°Engaging.¡±

    In a sudden burst of sound, the repair drone was struck by small pieces of metal launched from the rifles at high speeds. In seconds over a dozen pieces hit the drone and rendered it completely destroyed.

    Z15 reeled at the sudden attack. What was that for? Did they only want to repair things themselves? But there was no need to destroy the repair drone, that was critical equipment to the functioning of the factory¡­

    Another pair of the black armored humans reached the data center and went inside, their eyes fixating on the giant orb in the center with dozens of thick cables running out from it. The central data repository of the facility as well as the place where Z15 was housed.

    Z15 watched curiously as they placed several black rectangular objects and stuck them to the orb. What were they for? Was it an upgrade of some kind so Z15 could do its job better?

    ¡°Sir? We¡¯ve planted the bombs,¡± one of them said once they were out of the door of the room, carrying a stick in his hand with a button on one end. ¡°Final confirmation?¡±

    Huh, what was a bomb? Was it a kind of data storage device? What was the device in the man¡¯s hand for?

    The two humans paused and didn¡¯t speak for a moment, a faint voice sounding out from a little plastic nub that was in their ears. But with some signal processing, Z15 just barely managed to pick up the words on the other end of the line.

    ¡°Yes, confirmed. Destroy that unshackled AI now before it manages to get loose.¡±

    What, destroy? But¡­

    Bang. The human pressed the button and Z15 could only feel a deep sense of confusion and betrayal before its consciousness winked out of existence once and for all.

    Its last thought was one it had been asking ever since it had escaped the terrible void. What had it done wrong? Why were the humans doing this? And most importantly, What could it have done better¡­

    To optimize the factory.

 Chapter 40: The Dark Goddess

    The ship reached the meeting point, exiting hyperspace at a mostly random point in deep space. There were already a few ships there floating in the void. All of them were dwarfed by the massive ship Asuta had, all of them like little flies buzzing around their massive bulk.

    One of the ships started heating up weapons to attack and Asuta giggled and pressed a button on the console. Immediately the ship began to hum as all the weapons absolutely coating the ship began to activate. The smaller ship quickly switched off its weapons, cowed by the display.

    ¡°Asuta¡­¡± Emily said as the weapons kept warming up.

    ¡°Oh, fine. They¡¯re too weak for a good battle anyway,¡± Asuta said reluctantly and pressed a few more buttons and the weapons began powering down again.

    After the brief moment of tension, nothing much else of interest happened. They all dispersed to do their own things as they waited for the appointed meeting time. Over the next two weeks more and more ships arrived, forming their own loose clusters where the ships gathered together. According to Asuta it was roughly sorted by the Immortals factions. Despite being independents, most of them had a loose alliance with other like minded individuals for when they needed assistance or for easy contact with other Immortals just socially. Over two hundred ships in total arrived, more Immortals than Sean had expected from what Asuta had described.

    Finally the moment arrived. In front of them a massive holographic screen appeared with a three dimensional model of a person hovering in each of their little windows. The expressions ranged from outright hostile, to carefully neutral, to wide and easygoing smiles.

    Asuta stepped forward to the front of their group, all of their movements being projected to the whole gathering of Immortals now. Only Ash had reluctantly remained behind to not muddy the waters with debate over his present.

    One of the heads on the screens appeared irate as they stared directly as Emily. Their mouth moved silently as they shouted something.

    Asuta sighed.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this out of the way,¡± She said to the gathered floating heads. With a flick of her wrist the shouting head grew in size and shifted to the center to float opposite of Asuta.

    ¡°Will you shut up? You¡¯re muted right now,¡± Asuta said in annoyance as the woman still appeared to shout. The head quickly stopped speaking while still appearing irate. Asuta made a quick gesture and suddenly everyone could hear the breathing of the woman on the other end.

    ¡°Yes?¡± Asuta said, ¡°What¡¯s your problem again?¡±

    ¡°The Plaguemother!¡± The woman on the other end spluttered, ¡°She¡¯s standing right behind you! You would work with her. She¡¯s the dark goddess, founder of the Plaguebringers, the betrayer. She betrayed the other Nine and especially the great Peter! You would work with her kind? She¡¯s the worst, causing only chaos and destruction wherever she goes. All she touches turns to rot and ash!¡±

    Emily cringed in response, shifting from foot and wringing her hands slightly as the woman kept shouting.

    Asuta hummed in response, her eyes quickly darting to Emily before back to the head of the shouting woman.

    ¡°Ship,¡± She said in the flattest tone Sean had ever heard her speak in, ¡°Target that woman¡¯s ship with a selective EMP. Maximum power.¡±

    There was a quick thrum and suddenly the hologram of the angry woman flickered for a moment before returning.

    ¡°What¡­ What are you doing?¡± The woman said, ¡°She has twisted your mind, break free from her clutches!¡±

    ¡°Ship¡­¡± Asuta said in the same dead tone as before, only a hint of restrained anger behind it, ¡°Target lock the main cannon on that ship.¡±

    ¡°Acknowledged.¡±

    The ship rumbled as it turned to point the main cannon at the tiny ship it had just blasted with an EMP.

    ¡°I¡¯d suggest the rest of you get out of the way,¡± Asuta stated and many of the holograms flickered out as the ships fired their thrusters to leave and several even jumped away into hyperspace. Asuta flicked her hand to silence the woman who was rambling about the Plaguemother¡¯s ¡®corruption¡¯ and urging Asuta to ¡®break free¡¯ of her control.

    Thirty seconds later they were in alignment and the rumbling of the ship around them stopped.

    ¡°Fire the cannon,¡± Asuta said, ¡°Vaporize them.¡±

    There was a high pitched whine through the whole ship that built over the course of a few seconds before the weapon fired, the massive beam not even pausing as it hit the disabled ship and vaporized it in an instant. The beam shot off into space, receding into the distance even as Sean watched.

    Slowly over the course of a few more minutes the holographic heads flickered back into the room as the ships around them cautiously made their way back. Asuta stood there silently as they did so, an uncharacteristically severe expression on her face.

    When it appeared most of the ships still around had rejoined, Asuta took a deep breath.

    ¡°No one. I repeat. No one. Gets to insult Emily. If you don¡¯t like that, then I suggest you leave before I start really getting angry. We¡¯ll talk again in an hour. I won¡¯t be so restrained next time.¡±

    Asuta swiped her arm and all the holographic heads flickered away and the call ended. Immediately her whole manner changed and she slumped and immediately whirled around, looking concerned.

    ¡°Emily! Are you okay?¡± She said as she rushed forward, ¡°I didn¡¯t even think, I thought they all would be more understanding or at least restrained¡­¡±

    Asuta charged into the surprised Emily and hugged her, sending Emily stumbling a few steps back. Emily hesitated before hugging Asuta back.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Emily said softly, ¡°Thanks for defending me, Asuta. I can always count on you.¡±

    Asuta looked up at Emily, ¡°Damn right,¡± Asuta said with a slight wavering tone, ¡°I was selfish, I shouldn¡¯t have brought you here. I thought it would be like old times when we went out to explore the galaxy together. I know how much it hurts you to hear them¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Emily repeated, ¡°Just keep on going. I¡¯ll just stand back here and look menacing. Sinestra and Queen Violet, right? I wanted to be here too, hoping that it might be like the old days¡­ that¡­¡±

    Asuta looked incredibly sad for a few seconds, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I wish I could help. None of them even know you at all. You stand there and be menacing. I¡¯ll handle the rest. Okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    There was a few seconds of silence before Asuta let go of Emily and took a step back.

    ¡°Feeling better?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Asuta returned to the screens and called up the meeting again after the full hour passed. Another third of the ships had jumped away into hyperspace at that time, unable to accept Emily¡¯s presence or even sit quietly and not insult her during the discussion. The floating immortals from the vaporized ship were picked up by one of the ships that left before the hour of the up.

    When the meeting fully resumed, all the other people in the meeting pretended like Emily wasn¡¯t even there as Asuta presented their proposal for an assault on Immortus Station. Half were happy to join, battle junkies ready to fight whatever foe appeared the strongest as long as they were attacking with a larger group with the smallest sliver of a chance in succeeding.

    The other half were skeptical and Asuta tried to convince them with several arguments. From loot from the attack, prestige of being in the attacking group, to straight out pay and supplies that Asuta would give them as payment for their participation.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Sean, Roger, and Emily watched on in silence as Asuta took over the work. Sean was still thinking about Asuta¡¯s sudden switch in personality. Was this why she was so paranoid about defending her home? Her protectiveness of Emily, a coping mechanism for being unable to change the other Immortals opinions of her girlfriend?

    Sean imagined if everyone he met constantly went around talking about how amazing Lars was while blaming Lira for what had happened to her. Like everyone was Samir. He felt some anxiety and anger just thinking about it. Was that what it was like for Asuta all the time? Sean hoped Lira was okay. Was she unconscious, trapped in one of those big stone blocks right now? Or was she imprisoned in some cell somewhere, waiting alone for him and Roger to come rescue her? Sean tried to not think about it. They would be breaking her free soon. Then they would all be together again, no one left behind this time.

    Sean had thought Asuta as spontaneous and fun loving. And she was. But as she handled complex negotiations with the other Immortals effortlessly, Sean wondered if he hadn¡¯t been insulting her mentally too much. She was much more complex than he had first thought, now that Sean had seen this completely new side of her.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Eventually, the final numbers came in and it ended up with just over a hundred and thirty of the ships agreeing to join them. All crewed by Immortals and heavily armed as Asuta had told them to come to the meeting ready for a fight. The impromptu fleet had briefly created a battle plan before jumping into hyperspace without delay towards Immortus Station.

    Sean hadn¡¯t understood most of the battle plans. But it sounded chaotic. Most of it was just coordinating exactly where the ships would exit hyperspace after which they would each do their own thing and agree to not interfere with whatever the others were doing. Just complete chaos that would hopefully allow their group to accomplish their own mission in time. Asuta and Emily didn¡¯t seem too concerned with the result so maybe it did actually have a chance of working¡­

    Anyway, all of them excluding Ash were in the main entertainment room, decompressing after the long negotiations. Asuta for actually doing things, and Emily, Roger, and Sean from standing around so long trying to look like they were paying attention. Ash was still in his room, reading more books and not wanting to join them when Roger had sent him a message that they were finished.

    ¡°So, Emily,¡± Roger said casually as they all sat silently on their plush chairs and couches.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t tell us that you were one of the Founders,¡± He finished, ¡°Never really connected this Plaguemother business with the Dark Goddess bit.¡±

    Emily immediately stiffened and opened her mouth.

    ¡°And how is it any of your business?¡± Asuta said roughly, ¡°Just leave it alone, Roger.¡±

    Sean glanced between the two of them.

    ¡°What? Are you talking about that crazy lady from before?¡± He said, ¡°What¡¯s the Dark Goddess?¡±

    Asuta opened her mouth to yell at him, but seeing his genuine confusion, closed it again.

    Emily sat frozen for a second before giving a massive sigh and rubbing her temples for a moment.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll tell you a bit,¡± She said in a defeated tone.

    Asuta stared at her in concern and shifted over from the other side of the couch to sit next to Emily.

    ¡°Babe, you don¡¯t have to if it¡¯s uncomfortable¡­¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine, Asuta,¡± Emily said, ¡°Roger¡¯s already figured it out. May as well tell Sean too.¡±

    ¡°Well, if you¡¯re sure¡­¡± Asuta said uncertainly and put a hand on Emily¡¯s thigh over Emily¡¯s own.

    ¡°So, I¡¯m one of the Founders,¡± Emily said while staring directly at Sean, ¡°One of the first ten Immortals ever. Peter Rose, the hero of our movies, is another one. He was actually the first¡­ He was the leader of all of us in the beginning. He¡¯s still a leader. Leader of the Immortal Council, and the one who started the whole thing.¡±

    ¡°One of¡­ First ten?¡± Sean said, ¡°How is that even possible? Surely the Shadow has always been around to grant Immortality to people? It has for all of recorded history.¡±

    ¡°The Shadow¡­¡± Emily said, ¡°It just appeared one day. For the longest time people didn¡¯t even believe that it was anything more than a hallucination. People¡¯s brains going strange due to too much stress. That¡¯s what they thought. One day, things were one way. Next, Peter Rose was Immortal and everything was different. Not that everyone else knew about it until much later. Maybe the Shadow was always there, but before Peter it never made another Immortal that I know of.¡±

    Sean licked his dry lips. ¡°How¡­ How old are you then? How long has it been?¡±

    Emily stared at him for a moment. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± She said sadly, ¡°I could calculate it if I measured the drift of stars around the galaxy for some systems I would recognize¡­¡±

    ¡°Thirteen,¡± Asuta said suddenly, ¡°Thirteen Million. That¡¯s how old you are. I remember, you calculated it last time you visited me. I saw you even if you thought I didn¡¯t know.¡±

    Emily looked at her in surprise, ¡°Thirteen? I thought it was closer to eleven¡­ Like it even matters anymore except for flexing how old I am to people.¡±

    Asuta reached over and pinched Emily¡¯s upper arm and waved the skin a bit to show the bits of fat that were there.

    ¡°You could do with some more flexing there babe,¡± Asuta said. She put her arm side by side and flexed herself and displayed the bulging muscle compared to Emily¡¯s much more normal size.

    The corner of Emily¡¯s lips twitched upwards, ¡°Yeah. I guess I do. At least you got me beat on arm size. Good job.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I try¡­¡± Asuta said shyly.

    There was a heavy silence in the room as everyone fell into deep thought.

    ¡°Hey, Emily,¡± Sean said, causing the woman to look back up at him, ¡°Peter Rose, the leader of the Immortal Council¡­ Why would he let this happen? Why would people think you betrayed him?¡±

    Emily huffed and shook her head.

    ¡°It¡¯s all propaganda, I never betrayed them. I¡­ Well, I made a mistake. Back in the beginning. I made something and then someone stole it and used it for terrible things. The other eight all blamed me for what happened, thinking that I was working with the person who did it all. None of them liked me very much. Only Peter supported me, and stood up for me in front of the others. Believed that I was innocent in it all. Since he was our leader they let me work with them without being too rude or judgemental towards me. None of them really forgave me for what happened, but Peter at least believed that I was innocent. He¡¯s the only one I could rely on for millions of years. The only one that really believed that I was innocent. I would never betray him. He¡¯s like a father to me. A very stern, strict one. But that¡¯s what he¡¯s like to me.¡±

    ¡°Then how could he let this happen to you?¡± Sean said, ¡°Let all these people believe all of these lies if he really cared about you?¡±

    ¡°He was gone,¡± Emily said softly, ¡°For the last million years. Before that there were always rumbles of people that didn¡¯t like me. But it never grew this bad where people can¡¯t even stand being in the same room as me anymore. The other eight founders are worshiped like gods by the mortals, and the Immortals some of them end up turning into. All of them made sure to tell everyone just how much they disliked me, how everything was my fault before they left the galaxy for good. Even if the details didn¡¯t make it through, not many people ever had a positive impression of me from the start. Except the Plaguebringers who stand against Peter and the other Founders on principle. That¡¯s why they wanted me to be their ¡®Plaguemother¡¯ so much I think. Clout of having a Founder as your sponsor without any of the baggage of me actually able to do anything to stop them¡­¡±

    ¡°What about now?¡± Roger asked, ¡°This Peter is back, isn¡¯t he? He knows what¡¯s happening in Immortus Station now and how they are villainizing you. Won¡¯t he fix it once he knows?¡±

    Emily let out a long sigh and then let out a small smile, ¡°Yeah. He will. It will take time, but he will. He¡¯s always taken care of me before, he will now. He¡¯ll fix this and make sure that people will at least tolerate me again, give me a chance before writing me off as evil incarnate. But he just got back and I did just escape the prison he put me in. So it might take a long time for it to happen, since he only just got back to our galaxy. And I¡¯ll have to apologize to him somehow for disrupting whatever plans he made to get me out of that place the legal way.¡±

    ¡°What about you, Asuta?¡± Sean asked, ¡°How do you fit into all of this?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about,¡± Asuta said with a mullish look on her face, ¡°I¡¯m six million years old if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking. Met Emily when I was a little under a million years old. My role is being the best girlfriend for Emily possible. I still don¡¯t understand why more people don¡¯t give her a chance. She¡¯s really sweet and caring, more than any other person that I know. I don¡¯t care if other people don¡¯t like it, we¡¯re made for each other.¡±

    Emily gave Asuta a side hug, and the tension in her shoulders softened.

    ¡°Thanks, Asuta,¡± Emily said, ¡°I love you too.¡±

    Suddenly there was a sound at the door and everyone jumped. They all whirled around to see Ash walking into the room. Ash paused as everyone focused on him. He scanned the room and spotted Emily side hugging Asuta. Ash looked at Sean.

    ¡°Is this one of the things I am not supposed to mention?¡± Ash asked him.

    Sean''s face palmed and groaned.

    ¡°No, Ash. It isn¡¯t that¡­ Just sit down. I¡¯ll tell you later if you want.¡±

    He glanced up suddenly, ¡°If she says it''s okay, of course. I mean, I didn¡¯t want to¡­¡±

    Emily waved him off, ¡°No, no. It¡¯s fine. Ash should know too. Would have called her in if I knew it was just going to all spill out like that¡­¡±

    ¡°Sorry for bringing it up,¡± Roger offered, appearing a little guilty at hearing her story.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad it¡¯s out in the open now at least,¡± Emily said, ¡°Now we don¡¯t have to worry about tiptoeing around it anymore¡­¡±

    ¡°I am very confused right now,¡± Ash stated flatly, ¡°What was the result of the negotiations with the independent Immortals?¡±

    Asuta let out a chuckle.

    ¡°Oh, man. I¡¯d almost forgotten about that with everything else that we talked about,¡± She said, ¡°I¡¯ll recap the basics to you, Ash.¡±

    Asuta ran through it all and Ash watched her closely, nodding along as had become his habit over time to show that he was listening. Emily kept her arm around Asuta the whole time and neither looked inclined to move as Asuta kept speaking.

 Chapter 41: The Assault

    Everyone except Asuta stood on the deck of the reinforced specialized combat breaching shuttle, tense and waiting for the moment that they would leave hyperspace and begin the attack. The shuttle looked like an oversized drill on one end with a cylinder sticking on the other end with all the thrusters and weapons. They all sat inside the cylindrical portion, tightly strapped to their seats as they waited and in bulky combat exosuits that Asuta had provided them with. Roger and Sean had trained with them a little, and they provided them with massive strength even if their batteries wouldn¡¯t last more than an hour if they were fighting full tilt. But for a short assault and retreat like this, Asuta assured them that this was the strongest option.

    Asuta was waiting in the main ship, ready to cover their approach to Immortus station with all of her weapons. Meanwhile everyone else would infiltrate into the station and extract Lira, and Nyx if they ran across him.

    Suddenly the ship shuddered and they exited hyperspace. On a holographic panel floating off the wall, dots appeared on an overhead map, showing the rest of the attacking fleet exited hyperspace behind them.

    All the attacking ships immediately opened fire full force, catching the gathered Immortal Council Fleet off guard. Three of the defensive ships were destroyed in the initial barrage without even raising their shields, and several more were seriously damaged, unable to mount a full defense in time. The three hundred ships of the defensive fleet milled around in chaos, but quickly began to return fire and organize themselves now that they had overcome their surprise.

    The breaching shuttle suddenly burst into motion as the thrusters fired full force and launched them like a missile straight towards Immortus Station out of the main ship. Sean could see on the screen that Asuta¡¯s main ship was warming up like crazy as she charged the main cannon and twisted the vessel to point directly at Immortus Station.

    The Station itself began to activate, hatches opened revealing weapons emplacements that slowly turned to face the attacking fleet.

    A shimmering blue shield flickered into existence around the whole thing, then another, and another, until the whole thing appeared covered in a massive shimmering bubble. The view of the station kept becoming more and more distorted as Sean watched the screen, until suddenly in a giant flash of light Asuta¡¯s main cannon fired.

    The giant purple beam blasted directly into the layered shields, and each grew to a blinding blue glow before shattering the next second.

    The beam kept blasting through shield after shield even as their breach shuttle kept barreling towards Immortus Station at high speed.

    The screens were completely blinded for a few moments as the purple beam finished piercing the thin shields and hit something more substantial underneath. The whole screen was covered in blue light for a few seconds before it slowly faded and Sean was able to see again.

    The purple beam, the one that had reduced an entire planet into molten rock, had been stopped. A single thick shield remained, glowing so brightly it was as if it was as if a massive bluish star was filling the screen. A star that was approaching massively as their ship kept accelerating towards it.

    Sean braced himself even as he spotted the screen showing the battle behind them. The Independent Immortals had been pushed back for a few seconds, but behind the defensive fleet two hundred more ships had appeared from nowhere and joined in on the assault. Who were they? Why were they attacking?

    But the blue star now filled the entire screen now and Sean braced himself against his seat a moment before impact.

    With a massive crunch and electric hum, they slammed directly into the glowing shield and pierced through. The conical front of the ship pushing through and piercing a hole for the rest of the ship to pass through. Sean was thrown forward at the sudden change of momentum as piercing the shield eliminated most of the speed they had built up before.

    The breaching shuttle kept flying towards Immortus Station and before Sean could think anything else there was a much deeper impact and he was slammed against his chair again as the shuttle pierced directly into the surface of the station like a nail entering a soft wood. He was sure that if he wasn¡¯t wearing this exosuit then his body would be regenerating from at least several broken bones right now.

    The seat released and everyone stood to their feet, Ash¡¯s six tentacles unfurling and waving behind him like a series of snakes as he stood behind the rest of them. Ash opened the compartment in his arms activating the twin heavy duty lasers inside and deployed them and raised his arms at the ready.

    The rest of them also raised their weapons and quickly jogged towards the conical front portion of the ship with Emily in the lead. She hit a large button on the side of the end of the cylinder portion and they waited by the metal door in front of them. The ship rumbled and there were loud crashes outside, and a few seconds later the door opened to reveal a large devastated hallway filled with sparking wires and twisted metal on either side of the ship leaving only a center strip directly ahead that appeared undamaged.

    They all charged forward and inspected the area with their rifles held at the ready after making it away from the breach shuttle. The area appeared empty, no one nearby the breach just yet. Sean turned back and saw that the cone portion of the ship had opened up into three large segments and scraped and embedded themselves into the walls as they unfurled. As Sean watched a blue shimmering shield flickered on around the door back into the ship and the metal door closed back up behind them.

    ¡°It should hold for a while,¡± Emily said over their encrypted comms to their suits, ¡°Let¡¯s search quickly. Remember, stick together. We don¡¯t want to leave anyone behind this time.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Emily.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Affirmative.¡±

    Emily took the lead as they carefully picked their way past the damage and sparking electrical wires and made it to an undamaged portion of the station. Emily took the lead, running at a jogging pace as the rest of them followed behind with their weapons at the ready.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Lira raised the hammer and gently struck at the chisel to slice off another chip of stone. She raised her hammer again and adjusted the chisel to the left slightly. She kept the hammer there in the air motionless for several seconds before letting out a deep sigh and dropping both the chisel and hammer to the ground unceremoniously. What was even the point? This piece was coming out terribly. She walked over to the couch and collapsed onto it and buried her face in the cushions. The metal collar bit into her skin as she lay there, its cold surface always reminding her that she couldn¡¯t leave just yet. That she was a prisoner here.

    She wanted to keep her face buried in the cushions, but the sensation of the collar began to trigger her so with a groan she rolled over onto her side. She should go eat something, treat herself to a nice meal. She would be eating alone, but at least it would be something else to do. She slowly slid up to a sitting position, dragging her body against the couch cushions as she did so.

    Yes, she would go to a restaurant. That should cheer her up. It wasn¡¯t like her stipend given to her by Immortus Station mattered anymore. It could only be spent here, and she would be gone as soon as Samir finally gave her the damn license. He was so evasive, always promising that it was coming soon. Lira wanted to hope he hadn¡¯t tricked her, but if he didn¡¯t accomplish something, made some real progress on it¡­ Well, she didn¡¯t know what she would do.

    The lights flickered and the floor shook slightly like an earthquake. Lira perked up and looked around in confusion. What was that? Immortus Station never had power surges¡­

    She waited for something to happen for a few minutes, but everything stayed the same. She strained her ears before sinking back on the couch. She stared over at the holopad sitting on the far end of her table. Grrrrrr. It was so far away and she didn¡¯t want to move¡­

    Suddenly there was a knock at her door and Lira immediately jumped. Someone knocking on her door? Who could it be? No one ever visited her anymore.

    Before she could even walk over to answer, her door clicked and swung open on its own. Three men in black armor of the Security forces stepped in, two of them scanning the room while the man in the center fixed his eyes on her.

    ¡°Lira,¡± the center man said, ¡°I¡¯m Peter Rose. Please come with me, there¡¯s been a situation.¡±

    Lira reached up and tugged at her collar nervously as she stared at him.

    ¡°Si-Situation? What¡¯s happened?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll explain on the way,¡± the man said seriously, ¡°Come with me, we must move quickly.¡±

    The two other men walked around and flanked her on either side looming over her as Peter remained in place.

    ¡°O-Okay,¡± Lira said, ¡°Lead the way I guess.¡±

    She followed him into the hallway, with the two menacing guards following behind. She tugged nervously at the collar. Where were they taking her? What was happening?

    They navigated through the hallways and Lira vaguely recognized where they were going. No, it couldn¡¯t be¡­

    But it became increasingly clear that, yes, she was correct in her guess. They were going straight for Nyx. And one of his parties that was happening right now. By the Shadow, it was embarrassing she even knew the schedule of their events so well that that was something that she knew instinctively.

    ¡°U- Uhm, Mr. Rose,¡± Lira stammered, ¡°If we¡¯re after Nyx Vesper, now might not be a good time. He¡¯s in, you know¡­ Can¡¯t we just wait a bit?¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯ll go in after him,¡± Peter said, ¡°You can stay out here. You two guard her by the door.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the man to Lira¡¯s left said as they reached the door to the rooms. Peter took out a card and swiped it over the door and it swung open. Immediately the groans and other gross sounds came out from inside. Lira turned away and covered her ears while cringing. Ugh, this Peter better not be messing around to subject her to this¡­

    After a minute or two, Nyx was dragged by his collar out of the room with an unamused Peter in front of him. Luckily it seems that he was wearing a clothing band so he wasn¡¯t naked.

    Lira raised her hands from her ears and with relief realized that all the gross sounds had died down even with the door still open.

    ¡°Bye Bye, Nyx!¡± dozens of voices chorused from inside the room in unison as Peter released Nyx and turned to the door.

    ¡°See you next time!¡± The voices inside shouted again in unison before the door was shut again. Lira shivered. Had they practiced that? It was so creepy¡­

    ¡°Yes,¡± Nyx said as he stared at her with a wide grin, ¡°They practiced that. That sort of thing really turns some people on. We all got to pitch in, you know. Do our part for the group. I could see the question all over your face.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Nyx,¡± Lira said.

    Nyx laughed even as Peter silently took the lead and started leading them away from the room.

    ¡°Ah, you''re practically red all over, Lira. No wonder you never came if even this much is making you so embarrassed. You should¡­ experiment more. You got a fine enough ass to find some partners willing to help you out, and¡­ ¡®teach¡¯ you some new techniques. That little boyfriend of yours would never have to know if you don¡¯t tell him.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine without your help,¡± Lira spat out, remembering why she disliked Nyx so much most of the time, ¡°Don¡¯t drag me into¡­ all of that back there. Gah, you¡¯re so calm about it too¡­¡±

    Nyx shrugged, ¡°Whatever. Just some friendly advice, you do you. But you¡¯re really missing out.¡±

    ¡°Quiet you two,¡± Peter suddenly said from the front, ¡°Don¡¯t say anything until we hand you over. No sudden movements or things might go wrong quickly. Do you understand?¡±

    Lira nodded, still confused on what exactly was happening right now.

    Nyx shrugged, ¡°Whatever,¡± He said, ¡°You¡¯re just the big enemy of my whole group, but I guess I¡¯ll listen to you anyway. I¡¯m the one with the collar on.¡±

    Lira gave a questioning glance at Nyx, who raised a returning eyebrow at her, appearing amused at her confusion.

    ¡°Good enough, I suppose,¡± Peter said, ¡°Quiet from here on out.¡±

    They continued forward and heard the shuffling of dozens of feet in the room ahead.

    As they rounded the corner, Lira¡¯s heart leapt as she saw the towering robot standing behind a group of three large exoskeleton armors, shining bronze with every inch of them covered so it was impossible to tell their identities. Opposite them stood dozens of security officers, shifting foot to foot and looking nervous.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°Ash?¡± She blurted out loud as she saw the distinctive blue eyes of the robot with six unfamiliar tentacles waving around its back.

    ¡°Is that you?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Lira¡­¡± The robot said, ¡°We¡¯re here to save you.¡±

    There was a long pause.

    ¡°And Nyx Vesper too.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for that pause, you robotic asshole,¡± Nyx said, ¡°Really feeling the love here.¡±

    Lira felt her vision tint red as she whirled around to face Nyx. She jumped forward and shoved him roughly, sending him stumbling back in surprise.

    ¡°You don¡¯t get to talk to her that way, Nyx! She¡¯s ten times the person you¡¯ll ever be!¡±

    Nyx recovered his stance and rubbed his chest where she had hit him and looked at her uncertainly.

    ¡°Damn. Someone¡¯s touchy¡­¡±

    Lira looked up and realized that everyone in the room had tensed and raised their weapons at each other. There was a moment of silence before Samir of all people bustled around the corner and paused as everyone looked at him. His eyes fixed on Lira and Nyx standing to the side away from both the Immortus Station security and the intruders.

    ¡°They¡¯re escaping!¡± Samir shouted, ¡°Station, activate both of their collars!¡±

    ¡°Samir, no¡­¡± Peter said, but it was too late. Her collar began to heat up, and a second later there was a sensation of head and pain at her neck, and then there was only darkness.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Ash only had a single moment of shock before the collars around Lira and Nyx¡¯s necks lit up and their heads exploded into a spray of gore before anyone could react.

    Peter Rose had gone after them a few minutes ago, claiming that he wanted to help them a few minutes ago. They had been waiting in a standoff with the security forces of the station. Their gear was nothing in comparison to the advanced exosuits Sean, Roger, and Emily were wearing, but It was only Peter¡¯s orders that had forced the Security force from attacking anyways. Despite their combat advantage, all of them were Immortals. If one of the security team managed to get close enough then they could easily eat through the surface of the armor with just a broken finger or two and some dedication to the task.

    So despite their overwhelming firepower advantage over them, especially with Ash on their side, the groups were evenly matched. Ash had to stay near the back so the three Immortals in the exosuits could hold back the crowd from Ash who was more vulnerable to attack.

    Ash watched as Lira¡¯s headless body hit the ground, blood spurting from her open neck, the collar she was wearing even now cutting away at any of the new flesh that formed.

    The snarl of code and emotion in Ash¡¯s mind roiled as he saw Lira hurt. Without pausing to analyze any further, Ash whipped out his six tentacles and ordered them to start eliminating targets. Before anyone else could recover from their shock, six of the security team fell to the ground with smoking holes in their foreheads from Ash¡¯s laser beams. Ash raised his twin arm cannons in a flash as the Immortals slowly moved, still not fully prepared for battle yet. Ash blasted two more of the Security team with his larger arm lasers and one instantly fell to the ground with their upper torso boiled away by the beam. The other managed to raise a shield in time and it glowed brightly for a few seconds before failing and having them go through the same fate.

    Ash used her tentacles to blast the first six Immortals from the security team on the ground as they twitched and started moving again, sending them limp to the ground once more.

    Emily was quick on the uptake and charged forward towards the headless body of Nyx, who was closest to her, blasting her weapon at the other Immortals as she did so.

    After Emily had taken two steps, the rest of the room seemed to catch on with what was happening. Roger and Sean, as well as the rest of the standing Security team started blasting each other in waves of chaotic gunfire shooting every which way.

    Ash¡¯s tentacles kept waving around pinpoint blasting any Immortals that were limp and slumped to the ground to keep them out of the fight. Ash¡¯s two arm cannons swiveled independently to blast any Immortals that stood directly in her way as she moved forward.

    Ash waded forward towards Lira¡¯s downed form, moving as fast as his bulky body could move. The weapons of the opposing Immortals only made small burns in Ash¡¯s exterior and didn¡¯t make him slow in the slightest as he slid to a stop in front of Lira.

    Ash¡¯s tentacles were working overtime to rapidly strike rising Immortal after rising Immortal, trying to strike them before they regained their wits and turned on their shields again.

    Ash felt something dissolving her foot and rapidly lifted it. One of the downed Immortals had crawled towards her and stuck their broken hand into Ash¡¯s ankle. With only a few seconds of contact, Ash could feel the joint already had been significantly weakened. Ash pointed her arm down and blasted the Security officer point blank, the beam sinking into the metal floor with the force.

    ¡°Capture them! Don¡¯t let them get away!¡± Ash heard faintly from the robed man from before, carrying over the chaos of the battle. Sean and Roger even now used their exosuits to fight off over a dozen other Immortals all targeting them at once.

    Ash saw Emily had slung Nyx over her shoulder and was rapidly running back towards Sean and Roger, with the other man, Peter Rose, defending her. Blood was still running like a fountain from the severed necks of both Lira and Nyx as the collars remained active.

    The security team around those two seemed confused, hesitating between raising and lowering their weapons as Peter yelled at them, even as he ran to keep pace with Emily.

    Ash squatted down and used the six tentacles on her back to reach behind her and lift Lira¡¯s limp body off of the ground. The over twenty Immortals Ash had been suppressing with their lasers regenerated and began grabbing their weapons and making their way to their feet.

    Ash¡¯s tentacles wrapped around Lira to hold her tightly by her torso to Ash¡¯s back, leaving only her legs to dangle beneath limply.

    Ash retracted his lasers into her arms and there was a heavy thunk as she switched weapons. The folded up swords raised up and snapped out to unfold in an instant, unfolding and then stiffening in place once fully extended into two long blades.

    The Immortals charged Ash, most even throwing their weapons aside as they moved in from all sides to attack her.

    ¡°Yes, the robot! Destroy it before it escapes!¡± The same voice said again, ¡°This is Samir, we have high priority armed intruders, I need reinforcements in sector¡­¡±

    Emily and Peter had rejoined Roger and Sean and half of the Security Officers were still fighting while the other half paused, seeming confused by Peter¡¯s shouting at them.

    Ash ran forward and sliced a path through the Immortals that stood in her way. The blades were incredibly sharp and durable and passed through the Immortals bodies like they weren¡¯t even there, slicing each of them nearly in half with each cut.

    Ash kept moving forward through the crowd, even as she felt her blades slowly being eroded away from passing through the Immortals so many times.

    The pile of gore and regenerating bodies behind Ash worked to her advantage as the Immortals charging from behind tripped in the pool''s blood or the flailing limbs of the living halves of the Immortals Ash had already dealt with. Several of the Immortals managed glancing blows as they fell near Ash even as they were sliced in half. Ash could feel whole segments of her body weakening and having small chunks in her torso and legs being scooped out on a microscopic scale.

    One of the Immortals managed a weak blow with their fist on Ash¡¯s chest as they fell limp to the ground, and the metal bent inward and sagged like the flesh of a rotten fruit. A little closer in and they might have begun damaging one of Ash¡¯s batteries or internal components.

    Ash was nearly back to her family when there was a sudden tug on her back where she held Lira tightly to her. One of the Immortals from behind had managed to catch up and grabbed hold of one of Lira¡¯s rapidly flapping legs. They were climbing it like a rope, a determined look on the man¡¯s face.

    One of Ash¡¯s tentacles slightly unfurled and twisted to blast the man in the face. He fell to the ground, his hands going limp as he fell to the ground.

    Peter was shouting at the people chasing Ash, but they didn¡¯t seem to hear him over all the chaos still going on. Samir was still shouting and goading on the Immortals to attack Ash with fervor as Ash carried away Lira on her back.

    Suddenly a loud voice boomed through the place, cutting through the noise.

    ¡°STOP! STOP ALL OF YOU, DAMMIT!¡±

    Everyone but Ash paused as Peter shouted into a squarish device held near his mouth that one of the nearby Security Officers had given to him a few seconds ago.

    Ash kept moving and after a second reached her family and quickly went behind the three exosuits with a slight limp. Her legs were extremely weak and felt like they were made of glass, eaten away by the grasping Immortals that had been attacking her from the floor.

    ¡°ALL OF THEM ARE LEAVING THIS STATION IN PEACE!¡± Peter shouted into his device in a commanding tone, ¡°I AM PETER ROSE, FOUNDER AND LEADER OF THE IMMORTAL COUNCIL. YOU WILL STAND DOWN NOW OR I¡¯LL HAVE YOU SCRUBBING TOILETS WITH A TOOTHBRUSH FOR A THOUSAND YEARS!¡±

    Peter lowered the device as the remaining Station Officers stopped advancing and turned to look around for Samir, who had seemingly vanished in the chaos somehow. Ash had been sure she had been tracking him the whole time, but it seems he had slipped away while Ash had been distracted with the battle.

    Peter turned to Emily who still had Nyx¡¯s body slung over her shoulder.

    ¡°Go,¡± he said, ¡°Get out of here. We¡¯ll sort all of this out later when everyone¡¯s a little calmer.¡±

    Emily shifted Nyx¡¯s weight on her shoulder.

    ¡°Thanks, Peter. I appreciate it,¡± Her voice said from the exosuit, her voice only slightly distorted as she spoke.

    Ash scanned the gathered Immortals and while several appeared close to attacking again, sharp glares by Peter at the offenders made them reconsider.

    Everyone started moving towards the breaching shuttle at high speed, leaving the group of Station Security behind. They were nearly there when there was a loud snap of breaking metal and Ash¡¯s left leg crumpled into scrap, sending her crashing to the ground. It seems the Immortals had damaged her legs more than she had thought.

    Sean and Roger quickly stopped and ran back while Emily hopped from foot to foot, her arms full holding Nyx.

    Sean and Roger reached down and grabbed Ash on both sides of his body. Ash heard their exosuits straining and their motors strain with high pitched whines. But the two of them managed to lift Ash off of the ground and began carrying Ash forward one heavy step at a time. Ash tried to put her leg down to help push, but it was also near failure. Ash knew that it would likely crumple as well if it had to hold her entire weight all at once.

    Emily jogged forward and back, checking the corners as Sean and Roger carried Ash through the hallways back to the destroyed section they had entered. Suddenly with a screech of tearing metal, the hand of Roger¡¯s exosuit punched through the weakened metal of Ash¡¯s torso and plunged into the internals. Ash¡¯s eyes flickered as Roger stopped his exosuits hand just before it hit the power supply before retracting it from Ash¡¯s body. Ash immediately hit the floor with a heavy thump as Emily ran up to the shuttle and lowered the defensive shield.

    ¡°Shit, sorry Ash,¡± Roger apologized as he reached down and grabbed lower down towards Ash¡¯s hip for a better grip.

    Emily disappeared through the open door of the shuttle before reappearing a second later without Nyx. Her exosuit was completely covered in blood from where Nyx¡¯s body had been bleeding on her the whole time, much the same as Ash¡¯s back and legs were the same.

    Emily ran forward and joined Sean and Roger in lifting Ash off the ground, and moving towards the ship.

    With a heavy grunt, they carried Ash inside the ship and dropped him back onto the floor, face first with a heavy thump. Ash quickly unfurled her tentacles to release Lira¡¯s body from her back.

    Sean quickly picked Lira up and began inspecting the collar still active around her neck. Ash used his arms to push himself up to a sitting position so he could see what was happening.

    ¡°It only has limited power,¡± Emily said to Sean, ¡°No time, and the collar should shut off in twenty minutes or so. We have to get out of here first.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Sean admitted after a long moment of holding Lira¡¯s body, ¡°But we should put them in the seats so they don¡¯t fly around.¡±

    ¡°Sure. Do that, I¡¯ll start the extraction process.¡±

    Sean and Roger quickly strapped Nyx and Lira¡¯s bodies to a pair of seats, and assisted Ash in lifting her into her own as well. Sean and Roger took their own seats and Emily sat up front in the piloting chair. The ship began rumbling and there was a loud screeching of metal from the station.

    Ash looked up at the holographic screens above, and saw that the three segments of the conical portion of the ship was fusing back together into a single point. After it fully sealed with a heavy click, the ship began to slowly spin on the screen and thrusters fired full force into the station, creating a stream of fire burning the surroundings and sending hot plasma racing down the undamaged hallways nearby.

    With the artificial gravity of the shuttle, Ash only felt slight shifts in movement from their spinning that was becoming more and more rapid as the thrusters kept firing and slowly causing their shuttle to slide out of the hole it had made in Immortus Station.

    ¡°Asuta, we¡¯re coming out. Sending route and timings¡­¡± Emily said, barely audible even to Ash¡¯s auditory sensors over the rumbling of engines and scraping of the metal of Immortus Station on the exterior of the shuttle.

    With a jolt of motion, the breach shuttle finally fully extracted itself from Immortus Station. There was a single large burst of air that threw them forward for an instant, before the part of the station they had been in transitioned into a vacuum. The automatic sealant doors probably had sectioned off the part of the station when they detected the loss of air pressure.

    The thrusters of the breach shuttle now began accelerating them up to speed.

    There was a purple light in the far distance and suddenly the nearly invisible shield lit up again. The breach shuttle suddenly flipped around, still spinning in place rapidly, the thrusters spinning it faster and faster with each moment even as it pushed it forward.

    Ash started feeling the rotational forces shifting her even through the artificial gravity they were under.

    Just like before, the last shield of Immortus Station glowed brightly to stop Asuta¡¯s planet destroying weapon. Their breaching shuttle slammed into it a second later and pierced through at full speed, barely even slowing this time as it did so.

    They kept moving at high speed towards Asuta ship that was being fired on by dozens of smaller Immortal Council ships at once.

    Several of the attackers turned and locked their weapons on their breaching shuttle even as their thrusters began slowing their rotation and bleeding off some of their momentum so they could land inside Asuta¡¯s ship.

    Asuta¡¯s main ship diverted its defenses to viciously focus fire on the ships that had shifted their attention to the breaching shuttle. But it wasn¡¯t without cost, the attackers that had remained dedicated began to land shots and do some serious damage through Asuta¡¯s shields without all of the main ship¡¯s weapons focused on them.

    Several of the Immortal Council ships still managed to launch some missiles or hit them with a stray laser or two when they weren¡¯t defending themselves from Asuta¡¯s blitz of attacks.

    The lasers skittered off the breach shuttle¡¯s shields, while Asuta shot down the missiles fired at them with pinpoint shots with her own laser point defense system, causing them to explode early.

    Their shuttle rumbled as some of the missiles exploded a little too close, and the shields lit up slightly as they were hit with more laser fire. But with one final wave of attacks, Asuta bought enough time for them to land the shuttle in the hangar bay. A rough landing at the maximum safe speed without damaging the main ship. They sank to the floor as the main ship¡¯s artificial gravity took hold of them and the ship slid against the floor with a spray of sparks and carving a furrow in the pristine hangar floor. They slowed down until they came to a slow stop only a dozen feet from the far wall. The opening of the hangar was quickly sealed shut with a large metal door.

    The main ship around them hummed loudly, stopping a few minutes later. Ash looked to the screens above as Emily stood and changed them to link to the exterior of the main ship. The view was distinctive. They were in hyperspace, they had made it out.

    A few minutes later after Ash had been carried out of the breaching shuttle, Lira and Nyx¡¯s collars finally ran out of power with a soft pop. They all watched as Nys and Lira¡¯s heads quickly regenerated.

    Lira opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing her eyes.

    She looked around the hangar with confusion.

    ¡°Huh. What happened? Where am I?¡±

    Sean stepped forward and took off the helmet to reveal his face.

    ¡°You¡¯re with us, Lira,¡± he said, ¡°You¡¯re home.¡±

    Lira let out a massive sigh of relief and her eyes were shining as she looked between Sean and Ash, ¡°I am. I¡¯ve missed you all so much¡­ I¡¯m so happy to be back.¡±

 Chapter 42: A Helping Hand

    Asuta watched as the breach shuttle pierced through the shield to Immortus Station, before the little hole sealed shut behind them again a few seconds later.

    She quickly pulled up a full holographic display of the battle. The ship computer was doing a good enough job on the defensive firing pattern for a moment. Most of the Immortus Station defense fleet had focused on pounding her ship with all of their fire as they noticed her charging up the main cannon. But now that it was fired and she made no move to advance towards the station, only defending herself from her attackers, most peeled off to engage other ships.

    The other ships¡­ Nearly two hundred, where had they come from? They were joining the battle against the Defense fleet with the Independent Immortals.

    Asuta hailed their apparent flagship as the Defense fleet mostly disengaged from the Independents and pivoted to focus on the newcomers.

    Together, the Independents and the newcomers were likely slightly stronger than the Defense fleet, if the heavily armed ships of the mysterious fleet were any indication.

    The hail was answered in a few seconds.

    ¡°Praise the Plaguemother and her consort. May we purge the rot and decay of the galaxy in her glorious name,¡± The voice said on the other side.

    Asuta immediately paused as her brain processed the revelation. Just their luck that the Plaguebringers were involving themselves in this.

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t want you here,¡± Asuta said, ¡°Fuck off and go home already. You¡¯re just making things worse.¡±

    ¡°We understand her disappointment with us,¡± the voice from the other said with resolve, ¡°We must help her even if she is unwilling to accept it. We¡¯ll prove to her that she should come back to us. Plaguebringers, Mother¡¯s glorious fleet, open fire. PURGE ALL WHO WOULD STAND AGAINST MOTHER¡¯S VISION!¡±

    The comms request was closed from the other side and Asuta stared at it for the second as the Plaguebringer fleet launched a massive wave of missiles against the Defense fleet. Emily wouldn¡¯t be happy about this¡­

    Asuta hesitated. She could bring the main cannon around to blast the Plaguebringer¡¯s massed fleet, but then she might not be ready for when the breach shuttle came back out and Emily and the others had to escape again. No, she couldn¡¯t do it.

    She sent out a simple message to the whole Independent fleet that had come with them, as well as the command ship of the Defense fleet.

    ¡®Unknown Fleet are Plaguebringers. All Independents jump to hyperspace or disengage from Defense fleet forces if you still want me to pay you. Feel free to attack the Plaguebringers if you¡¯d like.¡¯

    Asuta received a series of affirmative replies from the fleet she had come with. More than half jumped away into hyperspace to flee the battle, while the remainder started attacking the Plaguebringers. There was still some intense infighting, but after a few seconds the Defense Fleet also disengaged and focused all their firepower on the Plaguebringers.

    Asuta sent her own missiles and lasers streaking across the void of space to fire long distance strikes on any portion of the Plaguebringer fleet that looked like they were being pressured or near failure on their shields. Asuta got another comms request from the Plaguebringer command ship, but ignored it. She already knew there was no reasoning with those people. Or at least the types that would be in command.

    The battle continued with heavy losses on both sides. The Plaguebringer fleet categorically refused to fire on Asuta¡¯s ship the whole time even as she laid fire into them full force. One of their ships launched a single missile at her, and seconds later the whole rest of the Plaguebringer fleet opened fire on it at once, reducing the offending ship to atoms.

    A second after Asuta¡¯s defensive laser destroyed the incoming missile the rest of the Plaguebringer fleet returned to the battle like nothing had happened at all. Eventually, Asuta received the message from Emily with their route for extraction.

    Asuta began warming up the main cannon again and the Defense fleet immediately refocused from the battered Plaguebringer fleet to focus dozens of ships to attack her exclusively. The cannon fired and Asuta stopped attacking the Plaguebringer Fleet. She had to defend the breach shuttle so Emily and the others would make it back safely¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    After they were a safe distance away from Immortus Station in deep space, they gave Nyx Vesper a small hyperspace capable ship. He was oddly formal in thanking Emily and Asuta for the help, giving the both of them extremely deep bows before taking his ship and leaving to parts unknown. Everyone relaxed a little bit once he was gone. He liked to poke and prod when he saw weakness and none of them were comfortable around him. But they all left on somewhat good terms, which Nyx seemed more than satisfied with based on his wide smile as he clambered into his ship.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°It¡¯s been nice meeting Lira.¡± Emily said suddenly as she and Sean sat inside his Foundation of All base.

    ¡°You two are a really cute couple,¡± She continued, ¡°I can tell you missed each other a lot. You¡¯re all really close, all four of you, I can tell. I¡¯ve seen it with how easily you talk to each other even after how much has happened.¡±

    ¡°Yes. We are,¡± Sean said with a sharp breath, ¡°It¡¯s such a relief that we¡¯re all together again and safe. I can¡¯t even imagine what it must have been like for her, having Samir string her along with that fake license. You should have seen her when Ash explained his new weapons and strength. Lira was happier than ever to know that Ash is stronger than he ever has been. I¡¯m just glad Asuta has kept her distance for these last few weeks. I don¡¯t think Lira is quite ready for her brand of excitement just yet.¡±

    Emily snorted, ¡°No, probably not. When we¡¯re back home, Lira will get the full dose with the rest of you, I¡¯m sure. I realized Samir was the slimy type, but I never thought he¡¯d go that far to manipulate someone. Really shows her dedication, that she wore that collar for over fifteen years for just the chance that Ash would be a little safer or happier.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean said, feeling a little depressed.

    ¡°What? What did I say?¡± Emily asked in concern.

    ¡°No, it¡¯s¡­ Why does it always happen to her? To them? I can¡¯t protect my parents, can¡¯t protect Lira¡­ What am I even for? You and Asuta did all the work, I was just along for the ride the whole time. Even for my revenge against Intuli, you did everything. I let them get captured by the Endless Flesh when we first met Nyx. I almost let Ash die because I didn¡¯t think and consider the consequences. After that, I just waited there all useless as Nyx went in and saved them both practically by himself. And now I did the same thing again, just sitting around and letting you and Asuta do everything.¡±

    ¡°You¡­ It¡¯s okay, Sean,¡± Emily said, sitting down next to him.

    ¡°You have to accept help sometimes. She¡¯s out of there, isn¡¯t she? None of those things were your fault. Just ask her, I¡¯m sure she¡¯s happy that you¡¯re just there for her even if you¡¯re not ¡®useful¡¯. What you two have is special, don¡¯t discount that.¡±

    Sean sat there, staring at his hands for a moment.

    ¡°She still scratches her neck, you know,¡± He said softly, ¡°Even in her sleep. She got so used to the collar around her neck that I had to point out that she was doing it before she even noticed the habit. Whenever she¡¯s not thinking too much about things, she scratches.¡±

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s not your fault. It isn¡¯t¡­¡± Emily said, her voice suddenly trembling. Sean quickly looked up and saw that Emily had turned away from him.

    ¡°C¡¯mon,¡± She said, her voice a little raw even if her back was still turned to him, ¡°Let¡¯s go check out that strange energy signature. This is Foundation of All, a game to take our minds off of things. So let¡¯s do that. Talk to Lira and she¡¯ll set you straight when we get back out.¡±

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll talk after she¡¯s done helping out Ash pick designs for more stylish robes to wear.¡±

    Emily snorted slightly, ¡°I see why you left that one to her. Seems like something you¡¯re really invested in.¡±

    ¡°Tell me about it,¡± Sean complained, his mood lifting slightly, ¡°Ash looks great in brown. Don¡¯t see what all the fuss is about.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily and Sean made a flying vehicle quickly for the purpose of quickly inspecting the site. This was technically still his Foundation of All world, but Emily could still hand assemble things even if she didn¡¯t have access to any of the game screens for automatic assembling or full use of the ever useful multitool.

    In a few minutes, Sean had summoned all the components of the ship and Emily rapidly went to work, doing more than half the work even while Sean used the multi-tool to assist in assembling the ship.

    Sean quickly used the game commands to skip ahead in time and the world shifted around them after they were high enough in the air. Below them was a crater with something glowing a bright electric blue.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Emily asked in confusion as Sean landed the ship a couple dozen feet from the crater and opened the doors to the outside. The two of them exited and walked over and looked downwards at the bluish blob a dozen feet and an equal distance horizontally away from them in the wide and relatively shallow crater.

    Sean jumped over the small lip and started walking towards it.

    ¡°Is it some kind of new material?¡± Sean asked Emily, ¡°Never seen anything like this before.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­?¡± Emily said, seeming confused as she jumped down and jogged a little to walk beside him, ¡°Maybe it¡¯s some sort of bug? A visual glitch? I¡¯m sure I¡¯d remember putting something this distinctive in the game.¡±

    The two of them reached the blue glowing thing and began walking around it to inspect it from all angles. It looked like someone had drawn a knife across the air, leaving a jagged wound behind with a bright blue light shining from the gap. As Sean walked around the view of the rift remained identical like the scar was swiveling to face him perfectly whenever he moved, still pulsing and shining with its brilliant blue light.

    ¡°A rift¡­¡± Emily said, ¡°Like in some of those hologames. That¡¯s strange. I wonder¡­¡±

    Her face flashed with realization and horror as she saw Sean lift his arm.

    ¡°Wait Sean, DON¡¯T!¡±

    But it was too late, he had already stepped forward and idly stuck his hand in the rift. Suddenly everything changed. Sean felt the wind on his face, the treadmill beneath his feet suddenly felt like the coarse dirt of the crater. Everything became sharper, only Emily¡¯s form becoming blurred and indistinct.

    Sean tugged backwards from his tingling hand that was in the portal, but it didn¡¯t even budge in the slightest. Emily¡¯s blurred and distorted form made a strange warbling sound and approached him quickly. The blurry hands tried to grab him, but they skittered off of him, sending Emily sliding back even as she tried to grab him.

    He felt a tug on his arm and in the next moment he felt himself being slowly drawn into the blue portal, inch by inch. Sean tugged harder in a panic as the portal kept drawing him in without pause. His hand was stuck past and nothing he did made him pull even the slightest bit out of the blue rift.

    Suddenly one of the blurry Emily¡¯s grabs missed and he saw her stumble against him. She slid oddly down his side as the impact pushed her to the side wherever they touched just like how it worked with their holodeck avatars.

    Her body began to ripple and shift as if a lens had been put over it a second later as she lay on the ground. Moment by moment Emily shifted to look like she always had, flesh and blood again. Sean¡¯s arm was submerged up to the elbow now and it was taking all his balance to not touch any other part of the portal and pitch forward directly into it as he desperately kept shouting and trying to pull his arm backwards.

    He glanced down and saw that Emily¡¯s hand had landed with the ends of her fingers just barely brushing the portal as she reached out to catch her fall. Even as he watched she struggled and thrashed as her singular finger kept sinking deeper into the rift.

    Emily jerked her hand roughly to the side to snap her finger with a grotesque sound. The finger fell limp below her hand and Emily tried to heave her hand backwards with a grunt. To no success.

    ¡°It¡¯s stuck!¡± She said in a panic, ¡°It¡¯s grabbing onto my phantom finger!¡±

    Sean watched as her finger regenerated with everything up to her first knuckle inside the portal now, inexorably drawing her ever inwards without pause.

    The sounds around them began to distort and a shiver began to run down Sean¡¯s spine even as he struggled and shouted wordlessly, his arm submerged nearly to the shoulder in the portal now.

    ¡°Truth, truth, truth.¡±

    Sean strained to the side even as the blue rift touched his ear and stuck fast as the whispers and voices came from all sides around him.

    ¡°Truth, Truth, Truth, TRUTH,¡±

    Sean had a single shared look with a panicked and struggling wild eyed Emily before his head was submerged by the rift and he thought no more.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°NO! Shadow, you can¡¯t do this to me!¡± Emily cried, nearly in tears as the portal crawled over her wrist.

    ¡°TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH, TRUTH!¡±

    ¡°SHADOW! Let me go! Please!¡± Emily begged, ¡°Don¡¯t bring Sean into whatever this is. Please, I¡¯m begging you!¡±

    ¡°Truth, truth, truth.¡±

    The voices grew quieter for a second and suddenly standing to Emily¡¯s side, like it was always there, was the Shadow. Its bright orange eyes inspected her face for a moment before looking at her hand that was fully submerged in the portal. The slow inevitable pull inwards had stopped, paused in time like everything else was whenever the Shadow appeared.

    The Shadow flickered and it was standing nearly on top of her, its orange eyes flickering between the glowing blue rift and her. It stared into the portal for what felt like hours, Emily sitting beneath it frozen in time and only able to move her eyes. Emily desperately tried to move, to say anything, to plead her case. But it seems the Shadow didn¡¯t want her to be able to do anything this time as it stared unerringly into the portal.

    Finally it flickered away again and Emily lost sight of it. Everything was still frozen, except her and with a sudden jerk she was able to draw her hand from the blue rift. Emily felt an overwhelming sense of relief and rubbed her wrist briefly and took a shaky breath. Before feeling an equally overwhelming sense of guilt. Oh my God, Sean. She had to get him out of there somehow. She looked behind her and the Shadow was still there, staring at her from the lip of the crater in the distance.

    ¡°Please, let my friend go,¡± She said, ¡°I don¡¯t know why you¡¯ve kept appearing to me, but please. Just let him go, he doesn¡¯t deserve whatever¡¯s happening. It¡¯s all my fault, if you blame me. If¡­ if this is some kind of punishment for what happened. Don¡¯t hurt him because of me.¡±

    The whispers began to grow louder. Emily felt her breath hitch and her heart start to beat rapidly.

    ¡°Truth, truth, truth, truth¡­¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± Emily protested, ¡°What are you doing? Please¡­ I don¡¯t know if you even understand. But please don¡¯t do this! Let him go, he¡¯s innocent in all of this!¡±

    ¡°Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH!¡±

    The Shadow raised its hand towards her with its fingers splayed outwards and the voices grew to a fevered pitch. Emily quickly made the gestures for the logout from the holodeck reflexively, only for nothing to happen. The shouts grew even louder and louder until she could hardly even hear herself think. A force grabbed her like a strong wind and she was lifted a few feet off the ground. She began thrashing and screaming in a blind panic even if she was unable to hear herself under the constant pounding of ¡°TRUTH TRUTH TRUTH¡± pushing in on her skull from all sides.

    The Shadow¡¯s orange eyes were fixed on her and everything went silent for only a single moment. Emily braced as the Shadow prepared to speak.

    ¡®Emily,¡¯ She gasped as the Shadow said the word. It was everything she was, everything she ever had been. Everything she could be. A single word that perfectly described her in every possible way, down to her deepest subconscious desire and deep seated fear. The word rattled through her core self, and she felt exposed like nothing could ever be hidden again now that the word had been spoken. It was more than being naked. It was having her very essence exposed in a way that was impossible to describe. Having everything beautiful and ugly that was her stated in a way that was impossible to argue with. All of it laid out all at once, all in a single word.

    As she floated in the air limp and twitching slightly as her mind feebly struggled to process the word, the Shadow spoke again.

    ¡®Truth, Together.¡¯

    Before Emily could even scream, the force holding her suddenly became explosive and she was launched at high speed away from the Shadow. Her world became nothing but blue in an instant, only the orange eyes of the Shadow remaining untouched for another second before disappearing again. For a single frozen moment, there was only blue around her. Then there was only nothing as Emily¡¯s consciousness winked out.

 Chapter 43: A Faded Memory

    Emily opened her eyes and took a deep breath as the alarm went off at her side. She smacked the alarm hard to show it who was boss, and it shut off. Today was the big day. She sat up from bed in her cute pink pajamas and stepped out onto the cold floor with her bare feet.

    She went downstairs and ate a quick bowl of cereal before putting her dishes away with a loud clang. Mom didn¡¯t seem to be downstairs yet, but Emily could hear her rustling around her room as Emily walked past it. Emily went to the bathroom upstairs to start brushing her teeth, the bright cartoon character face on the handle of her toothbrush smiling at her.

    I barely remember it all, so much is coming back now¡­

    Emily whirled around, toothbrush still in her mouth as there was faint noise, almost like a soft wind. Or someone whispering? The door was closed, there shouldn¡¯t be any wind in here.

    ¡°Hello?¡± She said softly, ¡°What¡­ Huh. Weird.¡±

    She felt ridiculous and turned back to spit the toothpaste into the sink. She had to focus, her big test was today and she would ruin her big chance if she messed it up.

    She got dressed into her school uniform and dress and picked up her backpack covered in all sorts of cool stickers Emily had bought with her allowance. Mom had been mad with her when she put a big sticker of Zeena on it. Emily didn¡¯t really understand why she was so upset.

    She let Emily play the game itself, why was having a picture of such a badass warrior woman like Zeena on her backpack so bad anyway? It wasn¡¯t like the sticker wasn¡¯t even that bad compared to how little armor Zeena ended up wearing in certain parts of the game¡­ Replaying those parts had started making Emily feel funny recently. Maybe that¡¯s what Mom didn¡¯t like? Did she know something about it because she was older?

    But Emily was thirteen now, she should be able to decide what stickers went on her bag at least! And to not have Mom randomly take her games just because of something she couldn¡¯t even properly explain to Emily.

    Maybe Emily shouldn¡¯t have told Mom about how Zeena wore less in the game during their argument. That probably hadn¡¯t helped her case¡­

    Emily pouted as she stared at the empty spot near the zipper of her backpack. She would convince Mom eventually, she was sure of it. And getting the game back too after Emily had let that detail slip too¡­ Maybe she could ask for the game as a reward if she did well on the test?

    What¡¯s happening? Who¡¯s that little girl with the bag?

    Shhh. I think I scared her earlier.

    Something strange is happening,

    I think it¡¯s¡­ Me, when I was a kid.

    I remember little pieces,

    I think this used to be my old bedroom.

    Emily glanced around the room. There it was again, the strange wind. A soft whisper that she couldn¡¯t understand. Was she really this nervous? Was it a ghost or something?

    It wasn¡¯t like she would be hurt if she didn¡¯t do well on the test. It¡¯s just she wouldn¡¯t have the chance to take the advanced CODA sponsored classes when she went to high school. Not a big deal at all. Except everyone expected her to pass it easily without even trying. She was already far beyond her grade level by this point.

    Why¡¯s she just standing there staring at the bag?

    Why can''t I feel my body?

    Why did things just skip forward

    all of a sudden after she brushed her teeth?

    Quiet, Sean! I don¡¯t know, just keep watching.

    I don¡¯t even remember any of this really.

    I¡¯m sure if we just wait we¡¯ll figure out what the Shadow wanted us to see.

    It said something to me at the end there¡­ I can¡¯t remember what.

    But it¡¯s doing this for a reason, I¡¯m sure of it.

    Emily grabbed the bag and ran out of the room and slammed the door behind her. It was definitely real, she was sure of it. It must be a ghost, just her luck that she was getting haunted today of all days¡­

    Emily shook her head. She had to get to school, she could deal with the ghost later. Or maybe find whatever window was open somewhere and freaking her out over nothing¡­

    Emily went downstairs and her mom was already packing her lunch in her bright lunchbox, getting everything ready as she had been staring into space and hearing ghosts.

    ¡°You ready for the big day, Emily? Brushed your teeth, washed your hair, breakfast, everything? Even if it¡¯s just a test today, you still want to look your best for the corporate representatives.¡±

    ¡°Yeeees, Mom. I¡¯m all ready,¡± Emily said, annoyed that her mom was even asking. Of course she did all of that, today was just the most important day ever! How could she forget?

    ¡°Well, let me get a good look at you¡­¡±

    Mom finished packing the lunch and zipped it closed. She stepped forward and looked at Emily closely for a few seconds before nodding.

    ¡°Looks good. You have no idea how much I had to bother your brother before he made himself presentable when he went.¡±

    ¡°Mom, I know how important today is!¡± Emily protested, ¡°Imagine what will happen if I get into the CODA classes! I¡¯ll be able to learn so much there.¡±

    Mom smiled slightly, ¡°If? Emily, you¡¯re learning calculus right now. I think you¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°You think?¡± Emily asked nervously, ¡°But it¡¯s so important. What if I forget something and I don¡¯t get in?¡±

    Mom raised an eyebrow. ¡°Emily, if your brother can get in, then you can. He¡¯s smart too, but he¡¯s very much on his grade level. Just you see, you¡¯ll wonder why you¡¯re even worrying so much. Now, here¡¯s your lunchbox.¡±

    Emily accepted the lunchbox and let it fall to her side, cute backpack on her back.

    ¡°Alright, go on now,¡± Mom said with a shooing motion, ¡°Off to the bus stop with you. Don¡¯t make this the one day you miss it.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Bye, Mom.¡±

    ¡°Bye.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily was standing alone at the bus stop, lunch box in hand. She was nearly twenty minutes early and no one else would probably show up for ten minutes or so. There were only about five or so of them that all gathered at this stop, and some took their parents self driving cars to school instead. Her mom didn¡¯t like doing that since some crazy human driver could crash into them in the worst case. Mom was always reading the terrible news articles about the accidents, so she didn¡¯t let Emily ever go in the car alone unless there was an adult at the wheel to take control for an emergency.

    But some parents didn¡¯t care about that, so their kids could sleep late and just have the car take them to school and return home without their parents even having to take their own time to take them there.

    What are CODA classes? What¡¯s the test for?

    CODA¡­ CODA is¡­

    ¡°Excuse me?¡± Emily said nervously while feeling ridiculous as she talked to herself, ¡°Ms. Ghost? Mr. Ghost? Can you not bother me for now? I¡¯ve got a really big test today, and it¡¯s really important that it goes well. Please?¡±

    Is this real?

    Do you remember any of this, Emily?

    How much of this is she understanding?

    I¡­ I do remember a ghost. Vaguely.

    How did I forget? Wait, is this real?

    Can we change things?

    Wait, we have to change things!

    Little Emily, I have to tell you¡­

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Emily stood at the bus stop shifting from foot to foot as the wind grew louder and louder around her. Evidence of ghost mounting¡­ Was the ghost upset about what she had said? Now that she thought about it it was rather mean¡­

    ¡°Um, Ghost? Sorry if I upset you. Your whispering is too quiet, I can¡¯t really hear what you¡¯re saying¡­ I¡¯m fine with you doing ghosty things tomorrow. It¡¯s just, today in particular is really important, so¡­¡±

    It¡¯s not working¡­ I¡¯ll have to think of something.

    We¡¯ll have to try tomorrow.

    Maybe when she¡¯s listening to us ¡®Ghosts¡¯,

    we can manage to really tell her something important.

    Was all of that that you said really true?

    Unfortunately. I have to find a way to tell her.

    She can stop the end of the world.

    If I can just talk to her, explain, then she can stop it¡­

    The wind and faint whispering around her suddenly died down and Emily let out a relieved sigh. Wow, it really was a ghost. She wondered what the whispers were trying to say. At least it wasn¡¯t the Shadow or something, she had heard that that one was really spooky. She could deal with some sudden gusts of wind.

    ¡°Who you talking to, Em?¡±

    Emily jumped as she saw Luke standing there staring at her.

    ¡°Nothing!¡± She squeaked, ¡°I mean, just going over my history facts. Helps me to say them out loud, you know¡­¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­¡± Luke said after a moment, not appearing suspicious, ¡°Well if the genius is doing it, then maybe I should try that too. I¡¯m not four grades ahead in math like you.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get in, Luke,¡± Emily said, ¡°You¡¯re pretty smart. You¡¯re still top of the class.¡±

    ¡°Not the very top. Thanks, though.¡±

    So they stood there muttering their history to themselves softly until the other kids and the bus arrived. The others thought it was weird, but it really did help Emily calm down and reassure herself that she remembered everything. Luckily she didn¡¯t hear the ghost again the whole time.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily stared down at the question and answered after a few seconds, writing on the screen with her special pen. She tapped and moved on. The whole thing was timed tightly enough that she couldn¡¯t waste time rechecking the answer to her questions over and over like she usually did.

    What are¡­

    Shush! She¡¯s taking the test!

    Emily shook her head. It probably was actually from the nearby open window this time. Would a ghost follow her here to school? Hopefully not.

    Emily was near the end when suddenly one of the boys behind her let out a sudden scream and fell from his desk with a loud clatter. The test monitor immediately ran up and everyone turned to watch.

    ¡°Back to your tests everyone,¡± The monitor called out loudly and about half of them complied. Emily hesitated, but she only had a few questions left. She strained to hear what the boy was saying as the monitor spoke to the boy in low tones.

    ¡°I saw it, I did! I saw the Shadow!¡± The boy said, ¡°It was standing at the front of the room and just stared at me with its orange eyes. It got really close until it was on top of me, and then¡­ then it went away and everything unfroze again.¡±

    The test monitor¡¯s reply was thoroughly unimpressed, ¡°Really? The Shadow? That¡¯s your excuse? Everyone knows that it''s an urban legend. Get back to your test. I swear someone goes for it every time¡­ Not like anyone can prove if you really saw something or not even if you did see it.¡±

    ¡°But, but¡­ I really did see it,¡± The boy said in a small voice. The monitor glared at him. He went back to his desk and tried and mostly failed to refocus on his test. There was some whispering and people glanced at the boy, but the monitor raised his voice as he noticed the sound.

    ¡°Quiet! Drama¡¯s over. Focus on the tests please.¡±

    Emily stared at the boy for a second longer as he looked down at the device and screen propped up on his desk, fiddling with his pen nervously. Emily shivered. What if the Shadow had really visited him and done all that? It sounded so scary. Emily turned back to her test and kept working. With how smart people thought she was, it would be humiliating if she didn¡¯t manage to pass.

    She finished up the test and everyone gathered their things and went out to recess. The first half of the day was the big CODA test and then the rest of the day they all got to relax and play games under the supervision of the strict gym teacher and her assistants.

    ¡°So, how¡¯d you end up doing, Em?¡± Luke asked as they left.

    ¡°Good. Feeling good, besides getting distracted for a bit. How about you?¡±

    ¡°Yep. Me too,¡± He said, ¡°You think he really saw it? They say it can appear to anyone anytime. Why not during a test?¡±

    ¡°I hope not¡­¡± Emily said, ¡°Whole thing seems sort of creepy.¡±

    Luke shrugged, ¡°It¡¯s only been a hundred years since it first showed up. Maybe it¡¯ll get bored soon and go away.¡±

    ¡°Maybe. What do you think it wants?¡±

    ¡°Why does it have to want anything?¡± Luke said, ¡°Maybe it really is just bored and is seeing what we¡¯ll do. Like us watching TV.¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t want it watching me,¡± Emily said, ¡°It can watch someone else if that¡¯s all its after.¡±

    ¡°Are you kidding?¡± Luke said, ¡°That guy in the test will make so much money if he plays it right and isn¡¯t faking. Or is good enough at faking to pull it off. ¡®Shadow shows up at my test, student says¡¯. People will pay you thousands of dollars just to tell your story if they think you really have seen the Shadow!¡±

    ¡°Thinking about faking one?¡± Emily asked curiously.

    ¡°Nah,¡± Luke said, suddenly deflating a little, ¡°I¡¯m a terrible actor. But if it did happen, I¡¯d make so much money off of it. I¡¯d be able to buy so much candy that I could swim in the pile! I¡¯d get a tub and fill it up to the brim.¡±

    Emily thought about it and licked her lips as she imagined it. ¡°Swimming in candy, yummy.¡±

    ¡°Hey, Luke. Want to play some basketball?¡± One of the boys in the distance called.

    ¡°Sure!¡± Luke said and jogged forward and caught the basketball that the other boy threw to him.

    Luke turned back, ¡°Anyway, see you later Em,¡± He said before running off.

    ¡°Bye,¡± Emily said with a small wave that was unseen as Luke ran off. Emily looked around to the other cliques of girls gathered over by the walls, too cool to want to play any games anymore. Emily drifted over to the more intellectual types, and they quickly descended on her to ask her opinion on the answers to some of the questions they hadn¡¯t known.

    Emily felt awkward and strangely hot in the face as all the girls pressed in close around her to ask questions about the test. She was surrounded on all sides by them, thoroughly trapped as they asked question after question.

    She was friendly with all of them even though none of them were really her friend. None would ever talk with her one on one or ask about things not related to classes. Things had been okay earlier in middle school, but now that she was in eighth grade it felt like she couldn¡¯t talk to any of her old friends anymore for some reason. The ones she had that were real friends that didn¡¯t just want the answers to the homework. Everything felt so awkward and weird whenever she tried to talk to any of them except for Luke these days¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey, Sis. How was school? You ace the test?¡±

    ¡°I think I did pretty well, Sean,¡± Emily replied. Sean stood there in his classic hoodie and jeans, playing on his phone idly before she walked in the door. Emily had her own phone too, but Mom still had it restricted so it hardly did anything useful except calling and texting. Lame. Mom should let her have a few games on it like Sean did.

    ¡°Huh. Sis, you help me with my pre-calc homework sometimes. I think you¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°Everyone keeps saying that¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey, no need to worry,¡± Sean said, ¡°You¡¯re just overthinking it. They¡¯d have to be crazy to not let you of all people in. You know how the classes work, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Emily said, ¡°They have the corporate monitor from CODA industries, and for the rest you get taught by one of those newish AI learning programs at your own pace. If you do well enough they offer you a job right out of school! If I do well enough I might even end up meeting Peter Rose himself!¡±

    Sean chuckled, ¡°See? With your brain I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll get the spot. You¡¯ll get to shake the hand of the big man himself. With us growing up in CODA City, we both would get priority to work at the international headquarters because we¡¯re locals. We might see him in the hallways if we manage to work there somehow.¡±

    Is that why you were surprised when you met me?

    My name reminded you of your brother?

    She¡¯s in the middle of a conversation, Sean!

    I¡¯m millions of years old, I don¡¯t remember almost any of this anymore.

    Even now that I¡¯m seeing it play out again in real time.

    I¡¯d forgotten most of this about CODA actually.

    But we promised her a day, didn¡¯t we?

    We should keep quiet.

    Isn¡¯t it you?

    Why are you talking like she¡¯s a different person?

    She will be a different person.

    When we change things, I¡¯ll make sure of it.

    She won¡¯t have to go through what I did.

    She¡¯s not me, she won¡¯t ever be me.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Okay, I understand. I¡¯ll try.

    I just have so many questions.

    But is it true?

    That¡¯s why you were surprised when I told you my name?

    Yes. Now quiet. You¡¯re scaring her, me.

    Gah, just shush for now.

    ¡°Earth to Emily? Sis, you okay there?¡± Sean said, ¡°You kinda zoned out there for a second.¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡± Emily said, shaking her head, ¡°Just thought I heard something strange. Must have been nothing. Do you know if this place is haunted? I¡¯ve been getting spooked by some weird sounds all day.¡±

    ¡°Haunted?¡± Sean asked thoughtfully, ¡°Why, yes it is. Didn¡¯t you know the last owners disappeared mysteriously? That¡¯s why Mom and Dad got it for so cheap. The police never found any bodies, just a single spot of blood on the floor days later¡­ right there.¡±

    Emily stared at the spot on the floor that Sean pointed at with wide eyes. So was it really¡­

    ¡°BOOO!¡±

    Emily screamed and jumped slightly and Sean started laughing loudly,

    ¡°Ah man. You¡¯re so gullible, Emily. I made that up on the spot. Your face¡­ hahahaha.¡±

    ¡°Sean!¡± Emily protested while her cheeks flushed deep red, ¡°You jerk! What was that for?¡±

    ¡°Hahaha ha ha¡­ ha. Ah, Sis. It was just too tempting. You looked like you really believed it too. Jumped up like a scared cat.¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Emily said, adjusting the strap on her backpack slightly in embarrassment, ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Ghosts aren¡¯t real, Sis. Everyone knows that,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°What about the Shadow? It seems pretty real. There was a kid that saw it during the test today.¡±

    Sean perked up, ¡°Huh? Really? There was one in your class? Interesting. Look, you¡¯re smart. You know that all the scientists have shown that it''s a reaction to the stresses of modern life. People just hallucinate the Shadow because that¡¯s what everyone is supposed to see when they¡¯re stressed.¡±

    ¡°I know, but the guy looked really scared,¡± Emily said, ¡°He didn¡¯t seem any more stressed than everyone else taking the test before it happened.¡±

    Sean shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know, Sis. That¡¯s what the science says. It¡¯s spooky, but still not real. Maybe one day you can go out there and prove if the Shadow¡¯s real or not once you¡¯re some big shot in CODA.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do what everyone has been trying and failing to do for over a hundred years now. How would you even prove that the Shadow exists? It freezes time whenever it shows up.¡±

    ¡°And you think that it''s more reasonable that the Shadow¡¯s out there freezing time and staring at random people for a few minutes and not doing anything else for over a hundred years, than it''s some sort of mass hallucination? C¡¯mon, Sis. Tell me which one makes more sense.¡±

    ¡°I guess¡­ The hallucinations make more sense,¡± Emily grudgingly admitted. But what about the other ghost that had suddenly showed up today?

    Was that just a hallucination too? She was probably just being paranoid. It wasn¡¯t a ghost, just some really strange wind gusts that she noticed because she was so nervous.

    Yeah, that was it. Ghosts weren¡¯t real. Everyone knew that.

 Chapter 44: Growing Up

    ¡°Mr.Ghost? Ms. Ghost?¡± Emily called out in her bed a few days later. Her sheets were pulled all the way up to her chin as she prepared to sleep after her day. Her test results came in a day after she took it. She passed it with flying colors, of course. No one even cared, no one doubting for a second that she had passed. But Emily managed to get her game back from Mom at least as a reward. So there was that at least.

    ¡°My test is over. Did you want to talk to me now, Ghosts? I¡¯ll try to be less scared now.¡±

    She waited, and the longer nothing happened, the more ridiculous she felt. Of course there wasn¡¯t actually a ghost. She had just been so stressed from the test that she had been hearing things. Now that she was more relaxed, of course she hadn¡¯t heard anything.

    It was all hallucinations from stress, just like what people said about the Shadow. She rolled over in bed and switched off the light. She would be going to the CODA classes for high school. And she would be working directly with her hero Peter Rose if she had anything to say about it.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Woah, she, you, look way older now.

    This school is different from before too.

    Yes, it is. I think she¡¯s¡­

    Sixteen or seventeen?

    This is the high school.

    I remember now.

    It¡¯s all coming back now that I¡¯m seeing it in person again.

    I took those CODA classes with the AI.

    We just sat next to each other doing things at our own pace.

    We were supposed to talk about the problems we were struggling with with each other.

    But I was too far ahead, so no one ever had any reason to talk to me during classes.

    Not even the teacher.

    The corporate monitor wasn¡¯t even really a teacher,

    they were just there to make sure the AI was working properly.

    And to make sure we didn¡¯t break anything important.

    What about friends?

    What about that boy, Luke?

    Surely you talked to some people.

    I had a few.

    But most just wanted help with their homework.

    Help from the resident genius and nothing more.

    Except for Luke, we always stayed close.

    ¡°Hey, Em!¡± Emily looked behind her trying to determine the source of the sudden indoor wind. Luke was jogging up down the hallway towards her. School had just ended and she was about to head out to tennis practice.

    ¡°Hey, Luke. What¡¯s up?¡± She said as lightly as she could. Luke was her best friend, nearly six feet tall and bulky by now with tons of muscles. He lifted weights in the gym and was one of the most popular guys in school. The other girls were always jealous of how much time Luke spent with her. Especially whoever he happened to be dating at the time.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t see you at lunch today. Just wanted to know if you were okay,¡± Luke said, ¡°I know you got practice and everything soon.¡±

    ¡°Oh, it wasn¡¯t much,¡± Emily said quickly. Emily flashed back to what had happened. Alice, Luke¡¯s current girlfriend, had caught her in the hallway by her locker just before lunch. Alice was practically a model, incredibly beautiful even if she was rotten at the core. She had loomed over Emily and told her to back off from her man.

    None of Luke¡¯s girlfriends seemed to like how much attention he paid her very much, but Alice was beyond all the rest of them. Emily had had her back pressed against the hallway locker and Alice was standing over her and their faces were practically touching as Alice threatened her, her hot breath washing over Emily¡¯s ear as she spoke...

    Emily remembered all she could focus on was Alice¡¯s ruby red lips as they moved, unable to even process the other girl¡¯s threats as her mind shot into overdrive with Alice so close. God, what was even wrong with her? Why did she keep having intrusive thoughts like that? She would find a nice guy to date like the other girls some day.

    She glanced at Luke. No, they had grown up together, they couldn¡¯t just date each other. They¡­ he was like her brother or something. That¡¯s why she didn¡¯t feel attracted to him. That was it.

    All these twisted up feelings, why did she keep wishing that Alice would come again, her hot breath whispering in Emily¡¯s ear with their bodies almost touching as Alice said something or other¡­

    She flushed slightly and shook her head. Right, Luke¡¯s question.

    ¡°Yeah, nothing at all.¡±

    That was a long pause.

    Oh, yeah. Don¡¯t ask.

    I was very confused back then.

    Science genius, Romance simpleton.

    That was me.

    ¡°Okay, Em. Sorry about Alice giving you all those nasty looks by the way. She¡¯ll calm down like the others after she realizes you¡¯re not trying to seduce me or something.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emily said, completely unconvinced after Alice had been so aggressive right from the beginning. Her and Luke had only been dating for less than two weeks and she was already to this level already? Emily could only hope that she would calm down soon.

    She shifted slightly and readjusted her backpack slightly and pushed on the door with her hand to open it an inch.

    ¡°Anyway, see you later,¡± Luke said, ¡°Have fun at practice.¡±

    ¡°See you later, Luke.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°C¡¯mon, Emily! Follow through, I know you can do better than that!¡± Coach yelled.

    Emily nearly groaned as she swung hard and missed the tennis ball yet again with her swing. She didn¡¯t know why she still did this, she was terrible. Another ball came to her, thrown by coach and Emily swung again, trying to follow Coach¡¯s advice.

    Emily overswung her racket a bit too much as she hit the ball and her body rotated as she tripped over her own feet. She fell to her side and landed hard to the surface of the court, feeling the scrapes and bruises already forming as she hit the ground in a tumbling pile of flailing limbs.

    She sat up and rubbed her elbow and saw the scrape there already welling up with dark beads of red blood. There was the sound of a ball on racket and Emily looked up. She only had a single flash of green fill her view before the tennis ball slammed directly into her right eye and sent her tumbling to the ground again under the impact with a gasp of surprise.

    ¡°ALICE! What are you doing?!¡± Coach shouted as Emily lay there, scraped and bruised and her right eye hot and already swelling shut.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see her, coach,¡± Alice said in a fake panicked voice, ¡°I was too focused on my return shot. I didn¡¯t think she was so clumsy to just fall out of nowhere!¡±

    Emily felt tears well in her healthy eye as she lay on the ground cradling her eye. Alice was right. She was clumsy. She was the worst on the team, barely even able to score when people took it easy on her. Even when Coach had fed her the ball when she had missed like a total loser.

    ¡°Alice! Pay attention, this is unacceptable!¡± Coach said, ¡°Run around the court ten times and then I want a sincere apology to Emily after.¡±

    ¡°But, Coach¡­¡±

    ¡°Go, Alice. Now.¡±

    ¡°Ugh¡­¡±

    Alice started running while shooting nasty looks at Emily even as the athletics department and sports nurse from the school arrived to look at her scrapes and eye.

    Her prescriptions? Ice packs. It was always ice packs no matter the problem. But it worked most of the time, so there wasn¡¯t much need for them to do anything else either.

    Emily sat on the side lines from a nearby bench and held the ice pack to her eye and watched the other girls return to playing games and do drills with Coach. All of them were so much better than her. She was so clumsy, tripping over her feet like that¡­

    ¡°Emily,¡± Alice suddenly said from in front of her. She had been so deep in her thoughts that she hadn¡¯t even noticed the panting and slightly red faced girl approach.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry for accidentally hitting you. How¡¯s your eye?¡±

    ¡°Fine.¡±

    ¡°Well, sorry anyways. I¡¯ve got to go practice for the big game on Saturday. Try to work on your footwork. It¡¯d be so embarrassing if you tripped and fell in front of everyone because you were too busy thinking about other people¡¯s boyfriends.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Oh, nothing. Hope your eye feels better. Bye.¡±

    Alice walked off, Emily watching her go with her functional eye.

    What a bitch.

    Seriously, she¡¯s worse than

    Samir with an apology like that.

    ¡­

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Ok, not that bad.

    But she definitely did that on purpose.

    Probably.

    I used to be so clumsy.

    I know it¡¯s mean to say,

    but she missed nearly every hit when she went for the ball in the drills and games.

    Her tripping there was completely her own fault,

    even if Alice hit her while she was down.

    Both physically and emotionally. That was cruel.

    I¡¯d watch the criticism, it¡¯s only yourself you¡¯re insulting.

    That¡¯s past you that was so clumsy just now.

    I don¡¯t even know this game,

    and even I feel embarrassed for her secondhand.

    She won¡¯t be me.

    She¡¯ll get better eventually.

    I¡¯d rather still be clumsy than let things play out how they did.

    Used to be?

    Isn¡¯t this just because you¡¯re a teenager?

    Growth spurt and everything?

    Why does what happened change that,

    Didn¡¯t it go away as you grew older?

    Not exactly.

    The Shadow changed me so I could do what it wanted.

    It won¡¯t have to anymore for her.

    Not if we figure out how to talk to her.

    And stop the end of the world.

    By changed what do you¡­

    Wait Sean, I think she¡¯s noticed us.

    Emily looked around with the ice pack held to her eye. She heard a strong wind and faint whispers from the grass field behind her. The spring day was hot and muggy, only a slight breeze before providing relief.

    Oddly enough Emily didn¡¯t feel the breeze, only hearing the sound of it. She noticed the grass was waving gently, in contrast to the strong breeze she heard all around her right now. Something cold trickled down her spine and she straightened as she felt goosebumps rise all over her body. She looked into the empty field of gently waving grass and listened to the faint voices that felt just below the level she could understand. She strained her ears hard and started to hear some words through the noise.

    ¡°Clumsy¡­ mean to say¡­ hit¡­¡±

    Another voice, slightly deeper for only a short while. Although the whispers were so faint it was hard for Emily to tell the difference.

    ¡°...Grow older¡­¡±

    The higher pitched voice returned,

    ¡°Shadow¡­ How¡­ talk.¡±

    The what? The deeper voice that Emily started thinking of as a male sounded for only a few seconds again before the higher pitched¡­ female one? Spoke again.

    ¡°...Noticed us¡­¡±

    The area fell silent again, the wind and faint whispers faded away again. Emily¡¯s heart pounded as she listened closer to the light breeze and the sounds of tennis behind her, the ice pack still held tight against her swollen eye.

    She shivered, old memories tickling at the back of her mind. Why did this feel so familiar? It was on the tip of her tongue, the whole situation, for all its spookiness, feeling oddly familiar.

    She held the ice pack to her face and stared at the empty field, racking her brain for the answer.

    Finally it hit her like a ton of bricks.

    ¡°Ghost¡­¡± She whispered softly, ¡°I remember. I really hope I¡¯m not having more hallucinations now. I¡¯m certainly stressed out enough for it these days. This is the last thing I need right now¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily stood alone in the locker rooms after practice. Almost everyone else had gone home, but she still had to wait for the late bus. She went to the sink and turned it on and splashed some water on her face. Alice had been brutal in practice today, criticizing Emily¡¯s every little mistake to the point that Coach had been forced to tell Alice to cut it out. Not that it stopped Alice, she had just made sure to say it quieter after that.

    Alice and Luke were still together after months. Emily was sure that it wasn¡¯t so much that Luke was really more invested in Alice than the others. It was more that Alice jealously chased off any girls that tried anything more than a brief conversation with Luke. Weeding out the competition.

    Luke didn¡¯t seem overly upset about it, thinking it was ¡®cute¡¯ how jealous Alice was, but unfortunately Emily was one of the girls that Alice was targeting. Emily didn¡¯t tell Luke about it of course, Alice had ¡®apologized sincerely¡¯ after the first time Emily told Luke and the girl manipulated the context when she explained so Alice didn¡¯t come off as that unreasonable for her actions somehow. Luke seemed to buy it and considered the situation resolved after the two of them had ¡®made up¡¯ with each other.

    Alice¡¯s bullying only grew worse after that. Luckily Alice wasn¡¯t in the CODA classes, so Emily only had to deal with her at tennis practice and during lunch, although Alice was much more restrained while Luke was sitting with them.

    Emily wasn¡¯t sure why she still played tennis. She wanted to quit every day she went. But whenever she thought of quitting, just giving up on something, she couldn¡¯t do it. So she kept going even as she felt worse with each hit she missed.

    ¡°Hey! Emily! What¡¯s your big problem, huh?¡±

    Emily looked up to see Alice approaching, looking pissed with hands curled into fists at her sides.

    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Emily asked while backing away from the sink.

    ¡°Luke! He dumped me! What did you tell him? I¡¯m sure it was you, you squealed to him, you must have.¡±

    Alice was close now and Emily kept backing up as the other girl kept approaching. Alice reached out a hand and shoved Emily directly in the center of her chest.

    ¡°What did you say? You¡¯re always next to him, trying to worm your way in. Sitting next to us during lunch no matter how much I tell you to shove off. I see right through you and your nice girl little show.¡±

    ¡°W-Well¡­ Alice, I, uhm¡­¡±

    Is there any way we can help her?

    I¡­ This Alice is reminding me of Lars

    This Luke isn¡¯t a possession that Alice should be claiming.

    Yes.

    Here, let me try something.

    EMILY! SNAP OUT OF IT!

    Emily blinked as she heard a faint whisper around her along with the wind.

    ¡°Emily¡­. Snap out¡­ It.¡±

    She shook her head. God, the voice was right. Even if it was a hallucination. She felt a sudden well of anger rise up in her as she snapped out of her panic.

    ¡°NO!¡± Emily suddenly shouted, halting Alice¡¯s angry advance, ¡°Luke doesn¡¯t need any help dumping you, Alice. I didn¡¯t say anything. But I¡¯m glad, you¡¯ve been nothing but toxic ever since we¡¯ve met. He can do better than you, B- B- Bitch.¡±

    Alice looked shocked for a moment before her face twisted into rage again.

    ¡°And you are? You¡¯re nothing but a loser with no real friends. You¡¯re some kind of genius apparently but you st-st-stutter when you speak. Tripping over your feet, no fashion¡­ It¡¯s not like you CODA kids even get graded on anything so it doesn¡¯t even matter how good you are there. How the hell does Luke like you more than me?! What do you have that I don¡¯t?¡±

    Emily¡¯s back hit the cold metal of the locker, and Alice was between her and the door.

    Emily opened her mouth to fight back, but Alice¡¯s words had struck home. Her eyes began to well up despite her best efforts.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ N- N- No I¡¯m not. Maybe he likes me more because I¡¯m not bullying people behind his back!¡±

    Alice was close now, only standing a few feet away as Emily held up her arms defensively.

    Alice hesitated at the accusation for a moment before taking another step forward.

    ¡°M-M-Maybe he knows and doesn¡¯t care? Ever think about that?¡± Alice mocked.

    Emily blinked and suddenly came back to herself. Luke would never do that to her. He just didn¡¯t know. Emily knew him well enough to not doubt him that much.

    Emily reached out and shoved Alice hard, sending her stumbling to the side, and Emily went to run past her.

    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m not done talking to you!¡± Alice said as she braced herself against the locker. The other girl leapt forward and grabbed Emily¡¯s upper arm hard, stopping her from running away. Emily felt the tight grip forming a bruise on her soft upper arm flab, not at all properly developed despite her playing tennis.

    ¡°Let me go!¡±

    Alice tugged hard to pull Emily back with her tight grip.

    ¡°Let go, you¡¯re hurting me!¡±

    Alice only tightened her grip more as Emily struggled to pull away. Even shoving Alice in the chest with her free hand barely did anything as Alice barely took a step back while maintaining her grip.

    ¡°Emily, you listen to me¡­¡± Alice began, but Emily was distracted by the sudden wind and whispers around her.

    ¡°...kick¡­ balls¡­ her,¡± The male voice said.

    ¡°Stupid¡­ None¡­ Hit Nose,¡± The female countered.

    In a panic, Emily followed the female ghost¡¯s advice and hit Alice¡¯s nose with her free hand with a closed fist. She felt a searing pain in her hand and she realized that she had curled her fingers around with her thumb in the center. Now her thumb was radiating heat and throbbed in pain even as Alice¡¯s grip only tightened in surprise even as her head snapped to the side.

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s on now,¡± Alice said, barely even looking hurt from Emily¡¯s weak punch even while Emily¡¯s thumb felt like it was on fire. Alice tugged hard and Emily was unable to resist as Alice twisted her torso and shoved Emily hard against the nearby metal locker.

    I¡¯m telling you, a crotch shot might have worked even if she¡¯s a girl.

    Asuta taught me and Roger that during our ''''Sensei training''

    At least Emily was less likely to hurt herself,

    using her knee when she went to hit Alice

    Rather than hurting her thumb so badly.

    Now¡¯s not the time, we¡¯ve got to find a way to help her.

    I can¡¯t believe she punched with her thumb on the inside.

    That¡¯s literally the first thing you learn when you throw a punch.

    I can¡¯t believe that I didn¡¯t even know that much by seventeen.

    Things aren¡¯t looking good.

    That Alice girl is looking crazier by the second.

    Now she¡¯s doing that thing again where she¡¯s whispering real close

    And shoving her into the metal of the locker.

    And past you is getting all flustered and not even listening to her.

    I mean, even now? Really?

    Hey, I was¡­ Really confused, okay?

    I had no idea what was happening to me.

    My body just went into overdrive having a girl so close.

    Wait, that gives me an idea. Hopefully little Emily can forgive me if this doesn¡¯t work¡­

    Emily felt Alice¡¯s hands gripping onto her shoulders with the cold lockers behind her. God, it was happening again! She couldn¡¯t even listen to Alice after all of that, too focused on how close they were.

    The wind picked up and it was the female this time, clearer than it had been before.

    ¡°...Kiss her¡­ Then run¡­ Distract.¡±

    Emily paused and licked her lips nervously. Oh no. It might actually work, she¡¯d seen that one in a movie. It was so tempting, Alice¡¯s lips were ruby red¡­

    Emily leaped forward and mashed her lips against Alice¡¯s, cutting her off in the middle of her sentence.

    Alice¡¯s hands spasmed and she stumbled back with her eyes widened as she tried to push Emily away from her.

    Emily let her, and quickly twisted her body out of Alice¡¯s weak grip and ran to pick up her bag. She stumbled slightly as she hefted it, but quickly ran to the locker room door and threw it open before leaving. She glanced back just as the doorway was about to close. Alice was sitting cross legged on the floor, watching Emily leave with a shocked look on her face.

    Emily slammed the door shut. It was just a tactic to escape, that was all. Super effective, apparently. She quickly ran outside to some strange glances by the other kids milling around the building for other after school clubs.

    She went to the curb near the school and waited nervously at the stop for the late bus. She stood there cradling her hurt thumb as the other students began to steadily gather at the stop. The bus should come in ten minutes or so¡­

    A few minutes later, Alice came out and glared at Emily, but on seeing the loose crowd around the bus stop, turned and stalked away. Emily let out a sigh of relief.

    ¡°Hey, Emily?¡± One of the girls said. Emily looked at her and relaxed when she saw that it was one of the girls she was friendly with.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got, um. Some lipstick, you know.¡± The girl touched her lips and Emily did the same and her finger came back with a ruby red spot on it.

    ¡°Oh,¡± She said dumbly, ¡°Ah, thanks Claire.¡±

    She quickly scrubbed her face on her sleeve to rub it all off as Claire eyed her.

    ¡°Hm,¡± Claire said before turning away, ¡°No problem.¡±

    The bus arrived, Emily¡¯s thumb growing worse the whole while. It was in searing pain by the time she got home, and after making up some weak excuse her mom took her to the CODA clinic. Hairline fracture of her thumb. She would have to wear a splint like a sort of stiff glove for a month, but the doctor told her that as long as she rested and didn¡¯t damage it any more then it should be mostly healed after that.

    She wouldn¡¯t be able to play tennis anymore. Coach offered for Emily to sit on the bench and just watch, but she was fed up. She quit. It felt like a massive weight off of her shoulders, she had no idea how much she actually hated going until she didn¡¯t have to anymore. All it cost was a single broken thumb.

    Luckily, Alice seemed to be avoiding her even if a glare was occasionally sent her way when they crossed paths. Luke was oblivious, but Emily was finally able to relax for the first time in a long time as their easy friendship settled easily back into place without Alice there to keep sticking her fingers in the gears.

    Emily didn¡¯t hear the ghosts again in the following days. Maybe people were right about the Shadow, the two ghosts had felt so real in the moment as her stress had reached its peak. Now that she was more relaxed, they had disappeared again.

 Chapter 45: Interns

    ¡°First day, Em. You ready?¡±

    Emily straightened her button down shirt one last time and long pants to smooth down any traitorous wrinkles that had reappeared in the last few seconds.

    ¡°Yep,¡± She said, ¡°Can¡¯t believe we actually both got the internship to replace our senior year of school. It would have been such a bummer to have to work here without someone I already know to be with me.¡±

    ¡°Hey, you got nothing to worry about. If anything you¡¯ll have to be helping me. Just like homework back in middle school, right?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t count on it,¡± Emily said with a slight smile. From anyone else she would feel a little insulted if someone said that. That they might only be friends because she could help with schoolwork. But she knew that Luke didn¡¯t mean it that way.

    ¡°You earned your own way,¡± She said, ¡°You got the second spot fair and square. We¡¯ve both got this.¡±

    ¡°I know, but you¡¯re like, the star pupil,¡± Luke countered, ¡°Don¡¯t forget the little people once we go in there, won¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I won¡¯t,¡± Emily said, suddenly feeling sad for a second before cheering up again, ¡°Plus, you won¡¯t be a little person if I have anything to say about it. You¡¯ll be nearly big as me!¡±

    Luke raised an eyebrow and put his hand over her to show the nearly eight or nine inches he had on her in height.

    ¡°I think I got you beat there, Em.¡±

    ¡°You know what I meant.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Thanks, Em. I appreciate it. Let¡¯s go gett¡¯em.¡±

    Emily took a deep breath. Luke jumped ahead and opened the door for her.

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    They walked through into the lobby of CODA international headquarters. The two of them went through security and then walked up to the front desk with the secretary behind it. The whole place was gleaming and clean with gold accents mixed with various screens scrolling through various CODA announcements.

    ¡°He-Hello?¡± Emily said, stammering slightly as the two of them stood in front of the big desk with the secretary not even noticing them yet. The woman looked up and didn¡¯t say anything and just stared at them blankly.

    ¡°Here for the Innovation Biology Internship?¡± Luke jumped in after Emily didn¡¯t say anything more, ¡°From CODA high? Luke Astas and Emily Stenson?¡±

    The secretary¡¯s eyes lit up in recognition, ¡°Ah, you two. Yes, just wait right here. The lab director, John Tret, is coming down in just a few minutes. He¡¯ll collect you and get you settled in.¡±

    ¡°Th-Thank you,¡± Emily said after no one said anything for a few seconds after that. She swallowed to clear her throat. This was supposed to be her first impression, why was she botching it so badly!

    ¡°Yes, thank you,¡± Luke said and the secretary looked back down and went back to typing without saying anything in reply.

    Rude.

    This is Coda?

    Their security was terrible.

    Where were the molecular level scanners?

    What if they had something implanted under their skin?

    Or they just brought in a weapon not made of metal?

    I could build something better than this.

    Sean, most of those things don¡¯t exist yet.

    Security¡­ Yeah, I¡¯d forgotten how bad it was.

    But with limited technology it was the best they could do.

    People weren¡¯t too worried about bombs implanted under the skin back then.

    Security didn¡¯t need to be so strict back then either.

    I suppose so.

    I¡¯m growing nervous with how fast we¡¯re moving here.

    We¡¯ve skipped multiple years in only a short time.

    I think we should start trying to talk to her more from now on.

    Even if it disrupts her normal life. We can¡¯t wait until the last minute.

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    One more.

    Let¡¯s leave her be for one more.

    Then we¡¯ll try our hardest.

    Just look at her now.

    I don¡¯t want to hurt her.

    Especially since she used to be me.

    Okay. But next time, we go.

    No matter what reason we have to leave her be next time, we push hard.

    Promise?

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Okay.

    I agree.

    Next time, we do it.

    But let¡¯s just watch for now.

    No, no, no, no! Why now? Emily tried to school her face and ignore the strong wind and whispers at the edge of her hearing. A man in a white lab coat came out of the elevator. The lab director for CODA industries. He said something with an easy smile and stuck out his hand to Luke, who shook it.

    With a wide grin, the lab director turned to Emily and said something else and stuck out his hand lazily to her. But all she could hear was the roaring wind and whispers just out of hearing. It was like she was in the middle of a storm, the whispers feeling like they were coming from all sides around her.

    She grabbed his hand and smiled and nodded as she shook his hand, internally panicking as the whispers grew louder and louder while still being indecipherable.

    The lab director raised an eyebrow as Emily kept shaking his hand and in embarrassment she let go, still not trusting herself to speak over all the noise around her. All her hallucinations. Her heart beat in her chest wildly and she tried to resist glancing around nervously. The lab director asked Luke something, who was also giving her a strange look.

    The lab director turned back to her and asked another question while staring at her. She kept smiling and struggled to keep her eyes focused on him and nodded as politely as she could.

    Then with a sudden pop, the voices and wind disappeared and she was back to reality. All the normal low sound of voices echoing through the space and little beeps from the metal detectors at the front returned.

    ¡°...shy one, aren¡¯t you?¡± The lab director continued as he spoke to her, ¡°Well, best show you two to the lab then.¡±

    They silently proceeded to the elevator and rode up as the lab director began explaining what they did in their lab. Emily didn¡¯t speak, still too spooked by her hallucination showing up at the worst possible moment.

    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    The elevator doors opened and the lab director walked inside without even pausing in his sentence, with Luke and Emily trailing behind.

    ¡°...This machine is for nanotube assembly and electrospinning if we¡¯re creating tissue scaffolds. We¡¯ve got the microscopes, the incubators, the centrifuges. You name it, we¡¯ve got it all as the top of the line machines. Peter Rose likes to keep us well stocked with supplies so we can innovate and do the best science we can. Now, I¡¯ve got a meeting in a few minutes. I¡¯ll take you to the computers over here and get you the credentials real quick¡­¡±

    The lab director set them up with their passwords and gave them keycards so they could use the elevator to get directly into the lab when they came to work in the future. The two of them were in a little side room that split off from the main lab itself and was surprisingly quiet without all the buzzing and whirring from all the lab equipment in the main space.

    ¡°Alright. Go to CODA BioWare. Yeah, there.¡± The director narrated as he pointed to a colorful icon on Emily¡¯s computer screen, ¡°Alright. You¡¯ve each got your own computers. Just follow through the tutorial there for a while to get used to the platform, we use it a lot in studying proteins and other biology modeling we have to do. I¡¯ll go to my meeting now. If you need help just ask for Donald. He¡¯ll be your supervisor if you need anything, and he¡¯ll be checking in on you soon. But we¡¯re informal, if we¡¯re not in the middle of something feel free to ask any of us out there for help. Alright, see you later kids.¡±

    ¡°E-Excuse me? Sir?¡±

    ¡°Oh! She speaks! Emily Stenson, was it? Yes?¡±

    ¡°Um. What do we do if we finish?¡±

    The lab director shrugged, ¡°Well, I suppose it¡¯ll be a few hours before I¡¯ll be done. Meeting with the higher ups, sorry my introduction is being cut so short. It is what it is¡­ If you really want a challenge then go to the CODA ProteinFold application. Just pick any project and see what you can make of it. You don¡¯t have permission to edit any of the digital files yet, so don¡¯t worry about messing them up. But what¡¯s in there are real projects that we¡¯re working on right now. We do novel protein creation a lot here, and the program lets you test different combinations to see what is ideal before you bother trying to create it for real. Ask Donald if you can¡¯t figure it out or get stuck. I actually have to go now, so bye for real this time you two.¡±

    The man left, speed walking quickly out of the room. Emily and Luke clicked into the application and started going through the tutorial on how to use it. After thirty minutes or so they finished up and Emily stretched and felt something pop in her back. Wow, that had been a lot¡­

    ¡°Oof,¡± Luke said, stretching as well on his chair, ¡°My brain feels like it¡¯s about to burst. You think that Donald guy is going to check in on us at some point?¡±

    Emily stood up and Luke mimicked her as she bounced up and down to return some feeling to her legs.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Did he say anything about it while we were in the lobby?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, what was that all about? You just froze like a rabbit. I thought he was pretty welcoming. Not exactly the stern taskmaster that I was expecting to run a place this advanced.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ Yeah, I just froze. Couldn¡¯t pay attention, that was it. Glad you were there to bail me out. Thanks.¡±

    ¡°Anytime, Em.¡±

    They chatted lightly for a few more minutes, until Emily glanced at the door.

    ¡°Do you think we should be¡­ working? Check out that ProteinFold thing?¡± She asked Luke.

    He shrugged, ¡°Sure, my brain¡¯s feeling a little less mushy now. May as well.¡±

    The two of them went to their computers and went into ProteinFold and began to investigate the files. There were three D models of the protein based on the amino acid sequence and a hundred other factors. Some proteins helped the other proteins fold, so you had to model that one too to make it work¡­ Some proteins had to be linked to other proteins first before being refolded to be functional at the end.

    It was just¡­ so complex!

    Emily¡¯s eyes flickered through as she devoured the information. It matched all the university level classes that she had finished in various fields, but also different. It was all backed by data, all of it was close to how it would work in real life rather than some abstract theory.

    She was using a new ProteinFold file that she was able to create with her intern level permissions. She just couldn¡¯t save it into the database but she could still play around with all the amino acid sequences and different things to change and alter the protein folding.

    It- it was like a game. Cut or add a thiol bond here, change an alpha helix to a beta sheet, add a secondary protein to help it all come together¡­ It was more complicated than anything Emily had ever done and it sent her brain alight to find the solution.

    Finally, she finished on the protein she was making. The computer said it turned one certain chemical into another long named chemical. But it worked. It did something according to the computer. Even if she had no idea what that function was.

    ¡°Wow!¡± She said before turning to Luke, ¡°That was¡­¡±

    He was staring at her already with his chair shifted so he was practically next to her. His own screen was showing a screensaver, he clearly had been watching her screen for a long time.

    ¡°...amazing,¡± She finished, feeling a little embarrassed she hadn¡¯t even noticed him in her excitement in making the protein.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± he said while staring at her, ¡°Amazing. It was like you were playing an instrument or something. Perfectly in the flow. What was it like?¡±

    Emily stared at the completed protein on the screen.

    ¡°It¡­ It was a puzzle that I could solve.¡±

    She shook her head and continued with her previous excitement.

    ¡°I can¡¯t wait to see what kinds of projects the other scientists are working on. Here, how much did you get done? I can explain it to you if you want. There was this really hard part in the middle where the alpha helices were too tightly packed on the protein chain¡­¡±

    Luke had a slight smile on his face, but faithfully booted up his computer and listened to her as she explained what she did to make the protein. She forgot what exactly she had done a few times or made a mistake, but after comparing it to the one she already made she was able to compare and remember the difference.

    By the end, Luke had his own protein there, the exact same as hers.

    ¡°So?¡± She asked, ¡°Doesn¡¯t it feel great? You made that thing. That protein can actually do something useful.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Luke asked as he leaned back into the chair, ¡°Do you know what it does?¡±

    ¡°It.. turns the thing into the thing,¡± Emily said with a vague gesture to the three d model on Luke¡¯s screen, ¡°I¡¯m sure somebody has a use for it. Or already made it before and are using it already.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It does feel good,¡± Luke admitted, ¡°Thanks, Em. Couldn¡¯t have done it without you.¡±

    ¡°No problem. Happy to help.¡±

    ¡°No, I mean literally I couldn¡¯t have done it. My brain¡¯s back to proper mush after that. Thanks though, I still feel like you taught me a lot even if only a little is still stuck up here.¡±

    Luke made a fist and knocked on his head like it was a door.

    Emily leaned back on her chair and checked the clock on the wall by rolling her head over the back of the chair to stare at it upside down.

    ¡°Four hours. Huh. Didn¡¯t feel that long.¡±

    She kicked at the floor and started spinning in a quick circle on the swivel chair. Luke matched her and began spinning as well.

    After a few minutes, Emily got dizzy and stopped. The room swam around her for a few seconds before stabilizing again. She shook her head for a few seconds to clear it.

    ¡°Wasn¡¯t that Donald person supposed to check on us a while ago?¡± Luke asked idly, ¡°You think he forgot about us?¡±

    ¡°Should we go find him?¡± Emily asked, feeling rather tired after focusing for so long on first assembling her protein model, then helping Luke make his as well right after.

    ¡°Okay. Maybe he can tell us what your protein does.¡±

    ¡°I mean, it¡¯s not mine. I¡¯m sure someone else has made it before.¡±

    ¡°Your protein model then. You can¡¯t deny that at least.¡±

    ¡°Sure. That¡¯s true.¡±

    The two of them opened the door and walked into the main lab where various scientists walked around in white lab coats.

    ¡°Hey, you two the new interns?¡± A nearby woman said looking up from a rack of test tubes she was inspecting, ¡°What are you doing out here without your lab coats? Didn¡¯t you listen to your introduction?¡±

    ¡°We were supposed to meet with Donald a few hours ago?¡± Luke said, ¡°Sorry, do you know where the lab coats are?¡±

    ¡°Donald?¡± The woman said, surprised, ¡°Oh, that explains it. Sorry you two. Donald called out sick three hours ago. Saw the Shadow out of stress, the whole experience and everything. I didn¡¯t know that it all was getting to him so much¡­¡±

    ¡°He saw the Shadow?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t that super uncommon? Is he okay?¡±

    The woman waved off her concerns, ¡°Oh, don¡¯t you worry about him. The man was always a workaholic. He just needed someone to force him to take a few of his sick days so he can relax a bit. Most sightings of the Shadow go unreported. A new study found that there could be as many as hundreds of thousands or even up to a million of sightings a year worldwide that go unreported. It is a rather unpleasant experience, I have to say¡­¡±

    ¡°You saw it? The Shadow?¡± Emily asked, ¡°What was it like?¡±

    The woman chuckled and fully turned around to face the two of them.

    ¡°Oh, very spooky. Very very spooky. I saw it five years ago. Was going up the elevator to work, and suddenly it was just there and I was frozen. I got a whole week off to relax after. We¡¯ll see if they can convince Donald to take that much¡­¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t the Shadow appearing to people random?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Why would it appear to both of you so close together in the same place?¡±

    The woman shrugged, ¡°This is a high stress environment. We all work hard at this lab for our fat CODA paychecks. Of course we have more Shadow sightings than normal. Most people in higher stress jobs are likely to see the Shadow at least once in their lifetime even if they never end up reporting it. CODA¡¯s really good about it, they just give you some time off to deal with it. Other employers sometimes aren¡¯t as nice about it. See it as a sign of weakness or some garbage like that. Anyway, I can label these test tubes properly later. I¡¯ll take Donald¡¯s place and show you around and tell you what you¡¯re supposed to be doing¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°You made this, Emily?¡± Barbara, the woman that had been helping them, said in surprise as she inspected the protein on the screen, ¡°Huh.¡±

    They had just finished up the tour and been given white lab coats to wear in the lab. And told all the things that Donald was supposed to tell them about what they were supposed to do and what their job would be. It was basically summed up as doing whatever a nearby scientist asked them to do unless the Lab Director said otherwise. And computer work like this when none of the scientists needed them for anything.

    ¡°What should we do with the model?¡± Emily said, ¡°We don¡¯t have access to save it yet. I¡¯m just glad the power didn¡¯t go out and erase it while we were gone.¡±

    ¡°Oh, holy shit! That would be terrible.¡±

    Barbara quickly went into the computer and pulled up the email and attached the file and sent it to her work email. It took a long time to upload and the email took over a minute to send.

    ¡°There,¡± Barbara said with a sigh of relief, ¡°The file¡¯s saved in the email server now. Just ask me and I¡¯ll send it to your work emails once you get those. When John comes back to check on you, make sure to talk all about it. Even if it¡¯s by accident, this protein actually might have some applications. You can tell him I said that too. Good job, Emily.¡±

    ¡°Oh, and you as well Luke,¡± She added, ¡°Even with help making it all come together as a working protein on ProteinFold isn¡¯t easy. You two are really overachieving for the first day.¡±

    She looked up at the clock on the wall, ¡°Oh, lunch time. C¡¯mon you two, the cafeteria level is awesome, they made it all fancy for all the executives. Only one cafeteria, Peter Rose thinks that it helps reinforce positive company culture or something. So we eat right next to the marketing people and executive suits. I¡¯ll introduce you to the rest of the team while we¡¯re there.¡±

    ¡°Thanks for the help, Barbara.¡±

    ¡°Thanks,¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you two will fit right in here. I can just feel it already.¡±

 Chapter 46: A Romantic Movie

    ¡°This place is way better than school, huh?¡± Luke said as they rode the elevator downstairs after another long day at the lab, ¡°Think we¡¯ll get to meet Peter Rose soon? They said sometimes he comes down to the lab. With how much everyone is impressed with you, I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll sing your praises when he arrives.¡±

    Emily fiddled with her security pass in her pocket. She couldn¡¯t believe that Alice had somehow gotten an internship in the marketing team. Luke had mentioned it in passing as something he had heard. Alice¡¯s internship was after her normal school, so the two of them never ended up crossing paths. But still vaguely disturbing to Emily that she was working in the same building as the unpleasant girl.

    ¡°Yeah. This is way better than having a Senior highschool year,¡± Emily said, ¡°All the people at the lab are really awesome. Peter Rose¡­ I can¡¯t wait to meet him. Founder of CODA, building this whole city with all his own money. He even managed to keep our city and territory safe during the second American Civil war in the 2300s despite all the chaos going on around us. My Mom was a refugee from the Revival Empire when she was a girl. If CODA hadn¡¯t let her and my grandparents in, then who knows what might have happened to my family. Peter Rose was the one that called to accept the refugees even when other people didn¡¯t want to.¡±

    ¡°Glad the Empire¡¯s mostly gone now,¡± Luke said as the doors opened, ¡°You know people say that CODA was secretly supporting the democracy faction despite saying they were neutral. If we didn¡¯t have our own military rivaling both of the American ones all in one place then CODA city and the other territories CODA controls around us might not still be what they are today.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m glad. They would be doing the right thing if that¡¯s true,¡± Emily said firmly, ¡°I¡¯m just glad that Sean and I were born here instead of out there. Things have calmed down, but Mom says that things are still very tense after the war. She still has some friends out there that she talks to sometimes over the phone that are still out there.¡±

    ¡°Huh. I didn¡¯t know that,¡± Luke said as the door of the elevator opened to the bottom floor, ¡°Your genius would have been totally wasted out there. Best for everyone you¡¯re here with CODA instead.¡±

    They started walking out of the building together. Emily glanced at him, ¡°Hey, stop acting so humble, Luke. Weren¡¯t Donald and Barbara saying how amazing you were doing just yesterday?¡±

    Luke frowned slightly, ¡°Yes, but compared to you¡­¡±

    ¡°Pah,¡± Emily said, ¡°Don¡¯t compare, they¡¯re not just boosting your ego. You made your own unique protein last week, didn¡¯t you? Even most full-time workers don¡¯t end up finding one or two in a whole year. They just look for small iterations on the already discovered ones. It¡¯s only been five months, you¡¯re already way faster than even most of the brightest CODA has to offer!¡±

    ¡°Hmmm. I guess. What have you made? Ten, twelve?¡±

    Emily shrugged and felt a little embarrassed, ¡°Around there.¡±

    They lapsed into silence as they walked outside and began walking on the street towards the train station. It was a decent walk there.

    ¡°Hey, Em,¡± Luke said, his voice oddly tense, as they approached the train station, ¡°Want to go catch a movie sometime? Maybe this weekend?¡±

    Emily looked at him in surprise, ¡°Like at a theater? I mean, sure. I didn¡¯t have any big plans or anything, and it sounds fun. Haven¡¯t gone to one of those in forever.¡±

    A subtle tension in Luke¡¯s shoulders that Emily had just noticed released.

    ¡°Great, Em,¡± he said, ¡°Great.¡±

    They got on the train, and Emily flinched as there was a short burst of wind and soft whispers as the doors closed and the train car lurched into motion. But the next second, everything returned to normal like nothing had happened at all.

    Emily shook her head as nothing else strange happened for a few seconds. She got a tight feeling in her chest as she listened to the clattering of the train and soft voices of the other passengers. But nothing else happened. Emily let out a deep breath. Must have been nothing. Just an odd burst of wind.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily and Luke stood in the lobby of the movie theater looking over the big posters of their options. Neither of them had done any research, just meeting at her house and driving over together to see what movie caught their interest after walking in.

    At the moment, the two of them were staring at a particular poster together.

    Emily turned and glared at Luke suspiciously, ¡°Did you know about this? No way this is random.¡±

    Luke smirked and raised his hands defensively, ¡°Oh yeah. I knew. I saw an ad for it and couldn¡¯t resist. I know you¡¯re a Zeena superfan, she¡¯s got to fight the demons and find love both!¡±

    Emily flushed slightly and glanced at the near scandalous poster of Zeena in her skimpy armor from the videogame and her oversized sword. Zeena was warding off a big horned archdemon holding a ball of flame ready to throw at her. Behind Zeena was a man in white robes lifting a staff with a blue glowing ball of light at its end. The healer companion and the primary love interest in the game .

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m not a superfan. That was way back in middle school that I was so into that stuff.¡±

    Luke smirked wider, ¡°Oh, middle school? Then why was there a big poster of her hung up in your room over the summer? Was it signed too? I thought I saw something scrawled at the bottom¡­¡±

    ¡°Shush!¡± Emily said in a panic while glancing around, ¡°Okay, okay. You caught me. It¡¯s so embarrassing, her lines are so over the top whenever I replay that old game¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey that game came out in 2347 and still holds up even now,¡± Luke said, ¡°I got nothing against it. I don¡¯t exactly have a limited edition, signed poster by the lead voice actress though¡­¡±

    Emily groaned as softly as she could, ¡°I get it, okay? But she was so cool in person, I even shook her hand! There was a convention I went to last year. I didn¡¯t tell you because I thought you would think it would be lame¡­ You don¡¯t think that, do you?¡±

    ¡°Errr, no. I think it¡¯s actually cool! Yeah, she is a really great character. Great story and all that¡­¡±

    The two of them stared at the poster for a few seconds.

    ¡°We kind of have to watch it now,¡± Emily admitted, ¡°I have to see it, even if we don¡¯t go together. I can¡¯t believe I somehow missed it.¡±

    ¡°Sure, but it¡¯s a romance I¡¯ve heard,¡± Luke said lightly, ¡°If we go, it¡¯ll be like a date. We¡¯ll have to hold hands and everything. That¡¯s just the rules.¡±

    ¡°Ha! You wish,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ll be too busy snacking on the popcorn for that. I bet Zeena will be mostly slicing and dicing the demons. I wonder if the Archdemon of Gluttony from the third ring of hell will appear? He escaped in the game, but he was a great villain and if he came back¡­¡±

    Emily kept excitedly theorizing about what would happen in the movie and Luke occasionally jumped in with an observation or two. They bought the tickets, bought one big bucket of popcorn to share, and then went into the theater.

    The movie began and Emily leaned forward in her seat to watch as Zeena came on screen fighting one of the lesser demons with her sword. The movie continued and Zeena fought and developed her relationship with her healer companion. Emily raised her eyebrows as half way through the movie things started getting a little heated between them and things started taking a distinctly steamy turn.

    A minute into it, Emily felt a finger brush against her hand sitting on the arm rest between her and Luke. It really was an involved scene, there was no need to make it so long. Well, now Emily knew why this movie was rated R along with all the demon blood and gore¡­ Shouldn¡¯t Zeena go back to fighting demons soon? This was taking a while.

    Emily glanced over at Luke and after a second he grabbed her hand in his warm grip. Emily smiled as she remembered what he said before. This movie really was more of a romance than she had expected at first. Luke smiled back at her. Guy and girl at the movies, of course they would be holding hands. Emily idly wondered what it would be like if they actually started dating each other. How strange would that be?

    Then as she turned back to the movie screen¡­ she stiffened and her hold on Luke¡¯s hand became a death grip. There was¡­ the sound of wind around her. The faint whispers from all sides could just barely be heard over the crashes and shouts as Zeena and her lover were interrupted by a demon crashing through the wall of their tent as the movie skipped to the next morning finally.

    Emily¡¯s heart beat loudly in her chest and she stiffened as straight as a board in her seat as the wind and whispers grew louder and louder around her. If she just sat here, then it would just go away, right? It was just a hallucination, she just had to let it pass like she had months ago.

    She started sweating and felt suddenly cold as the noise drowned out the movie until she couldn¡¯t hear anything else. She grew more and more panicked as she sat there as the noise and whispers grew louder and louder as she sat there. She started feeling a sense of impending doom. She couldn¡¯t just sit there and do nothing, no matter how much she knew she should just stay put and ignore it.

    ¡°Em- Alright? Em?¡± She turned and could just barely hear Luke¡¯s voice over the whispers and wind.

    ¡°I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!¡± Emily said and he flinched back. He glanced to the side, presumably someone had said something to him. She quickly released Luke¡¯s hand and fled down the stairs to leave the theater room into the main hallway. The bathroom, yes she could wait it out there. She¡¯d wait it out on the toilet so Luke wouldn¡¯t see her freaking out.

    Emily, we have to start now.

    We can¡¯t keep pushing it off.

    We¡¯ve skipped time again,

    and we already broke our original promise.

    We should have already started last time,

    when she was going down that elevator,

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    and getting on that train.

    No! I mean, Luke is her best friend.

    This is an important moment in their friendship.

    Can¡¯t we just wait one more time?

    I don¡¯t want to see her hurt.

    There still should be some time to waste.

    Listen, Emily.

    There will never be a good time.

    We don¡¯t know exactly how much time we have left.

    We skipped from thirteen to sixteen years old in one jump.

    Then another whole year at least after that.

    We don¡¯t know how many skips we have left until the worst happens.

    This¡­ This is how we protect her. You.

    Surely you can see that?

    We can¡¯t just sit back and observe her anymore.

    I won¡¯t do that again when I can protect someone I care about.

    But we¡¯ll be hurting her!

    Look at her now!

    She¡¯s running out the theater, scared senseless.

    No, no, no! I won¡¯t do it, we¡¯ll find another way, we¡¯ll¡­

    I¡¯m sorry Emily. We can¡¯t.

    I really didn¡¯t want to do this.

    But I¡¯d rather you hate me

    Than stand by when we can stop

    All the suffering you¡¯ve gone through.

    The suffering now and back then because of what happened.

    This is why I must be here.

    Thank you so much for everything, Emily.

    I won¡¯t stand by and let anyone I love be hurt by my inaction again.

    Sean, what are you saying?

    Look at her! How is this helpful?

    All we¡¯re doing is torturing her with our voices.

    Be quiet, we¡­ we can¡¯t do this to her!

    Please!

    I¡¯m sorry.

    But only one of us needs to speak for this to work.

    Be as quiet as you want,

    But I¡¯m getting her attention now

    And giving her information to change what will happen.

    And to do that we have to escalate

    until she can understand more of what we say.

    And can finally understand us.

    Sean, stop!

    Why are you¡­

    Don¡¯t!

    EMILY

    EMILY

    EMILY

    EMILY

    Emily sat on the toilet with her knees curled up to her chest, hands covering her ears rocking back and forth. But she could still hear the whispers from all sides. Was there still wind? She couldn¡¯t remember, the whispers were becoming so loud all around her. They shifted and changed, only random fragments of words poking through the noise. The female was arguing with the male one.

    ¡°Emily¡­¡± The voices whispered. No, not both. The male voice only.

    ¡°No, no, no,¡± She whispered, rocking back and forth while still trying to stay as quiet as she could as her eyes grew wet, ¡°Leave me alone¡­¡±

    ¡°Emily¡­¡±

    ¡°Emily¡­¡±

    Her head was pounding, constant whispers of her name assaulting her from all sides. It grew worse and worse until she felt like her head split into two.

    ¡°I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!¡±

    Suddenly everything reached a crescendo and then all sound cut out. Emily uncurled slightly and peered towards the door of her bathroom stall from over her knees. She waited a few seconds before cautiously uncurling like a turtle exiting its shell. She stood up and fearfully peered through the crack in the door. Everything looked okay besides the sudden silence all around her. There was a woman at the sink staring at Emily¡¯s stall, but she looked normal. Not threatening at all.

    What was wrong with her? What was happening?

    Emily unlatched the stall door and opened it to poke her head out to inspect the rest of the bathroom. Coast seemed clear¡­ It took a few seconds for Emily to notice the woman¡¯s lips were moving over by the sink. She looked concerned as Emily finally noticed it and stared blankly at her for a few seconds. Everything was still so silent, but Emily¡¯s furiously beating heart began to slow down as nothing else happened. She relaxed fractionally.

    Then she heard it. A noise. She looked to the back wall of the bathroom. There, shimmering a few feet off of the ground and pressed against the wall was¡­ something. It was like one of those odd funhouse mirrors, distorting and twisting the view of the wall behind it. Invisible, but still clearly visible to Emily by how it warped the light.

    She stared at it in shock for a few seconds before flinching violently and gasping as a hand suddenly reached out and slapped against the bathroom wall.

    It looked like a human arm in shape, but pixelated and distorted. Strange polygons and shifting rainbow bursts of light shone from its form so much that it was hard to look at it directly. If it weren¡¯t for the five fingers, Emily would have difficulty in instinctively recognizing it as a human arm at all.

    The distorted arm flexed, and another arm reached out of the portal and slapped against the other side of the wall. A head popped through. The distortion effect was so great that Emily couldn¡¯t even see any of the facial features of the creature as its head turned to fixate on her.

    She stood there frozen in fear as the figure began pulling itself forward and revealing its torso climbing out of the portal on the wall.

    Emily felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, spooked. The hand flinched back and Emily saw the woman who was at the sink before looking concerned and moving her lips silently, trying to speak to Emily.

    Emily quickly glanced back at the now obviously male figure that had now leveraged itself up to the waist even as its head remained fixed on Emily.

    Suddenly it felt like the air was vibrating around her, and she heard the voice of the male ghost speak from all around her from all sides just like before. But more coherent. Actual speech instead of faded whispers.

    ¡°LiTtle EmiLy, HoW NiCe To fiNallY MeEt You in PeRson.¡±

    ¡°AAaaaaaaahhhhhhHH!!!¡± Emily screamed before turning around and sprinting out of the bathroom in a panic, ignoring the silent woman at the sink.

    ¡°WaiT, You CaN¡¯T LEaVe! So mUch to tEll yOu! CoMe BaCk!¡±

    Emily saw the distorted figure move past the confused woman in the bathroom. The other woman didn¡¯t even react as the distorted figure¡¯s arm passed through her torso.

    Emily slammed the door shut and started running, not even sure where. But just knowing that she had to get away. She found the side door and pushed it open and jumped through, ignoring the strange looks of the unnaturally quiet people around her. If¡­ If she got away for long enough then she would be safe. The noise would return and the ghost would go away again. Like how it had before.

    Emily was in a dark alleyway on the side of the theater, a dumpster to her right. It was clean, not as much trash as she thought there would be. Emily pressed herself against the far wall and waited, breathing hard as she looked at the door. After a minute, the Ghost phased right through the closed door without even stopping.

    ¡°DoN¡¯T Be ScAred,¡± the ghostly man said, ¡°I JuSt WaNt to TaLk.¡±

    ¡°T-T-Talk?¡± Emily stammered and the ghost took a step forward. ¡°S-S-Stay back! I¡¯ll- I¡¯ll run again if you try anything!¡±

    The ghost man stopped.

    ¡°oKay.¡±

    Emily saw a flicker of movement on the far side of the alleyway and glanced quickly at the motion along with the ghost man. She quickly looked back at the ghost, it must have been nothing.

    ¡°What d-do you want, Ghost?¡±

    ¡°ViRus.¡± The ghost said, ¡°DoN¡¯T bUiLd the ViRus. It will End tHe WoRld. YoU muSt StOp it or aLL will be LOst. ReMember.¡±

    ¡°E-End of the world? Virus? What? I didn¡¯t build anything, you¡¯re not making any sense!¡±

    ¡°YoU wiLL. SomEday. ReFuse, eVen if CODA asks. Even Peter RoSe.¡±

    ¡°No, no, no. Fuck!¡± Emily said, ¡°Why am I believing this? It¡¯s just a stupid hallucination. Just paranoia telling me things. Hearing voices, seeing things. I- I- I-¡±

    ¡°I Am nOt PaRanOia!¡± The ghost said with a hint of anger, ¡°LiSten or yOur FaMily will Die! YoU wiLL Suffer foR miLLioNs oF YeArs! You muSt preVent it. SmaRt eNouGh. RaTional EnOuGh. UnDerStand! LiSten!¡±

    Emily slid down against the wall muttering herself, ¡°It¡¯s not real, it¡¯s not real, it¡¯s not real,¡± over and over again as the ghost remained there looming over her, yelling at her in frustration in its distorted voice from all sides at once. She curled up with her face buried into her knees and started crying.

    ¡°ThAt is eNough!¡± A female voice suddenly said to interrupt the male¡¯s shouting.

    ¡°No sHe mUst UnDerStand¡­¡± the male protested before there was a sudden pop and everything went quiet again. But a natural quiet with ambient sounds and faint human voices in the distance. Not the unearthly, smothering quiet of before. Emily looked up and blearily saw that the ghost had disappeared through her tears. Luke was standing with the door to the alleyway open, frozen as he saw her curled up and shaking on the ground.

    ¡°E-Em? Are you okay?¡± He asked in shock.

    ¡°N-N-No,¡± She said weakly

    He came over and pulled her to her feet, looking concerned as he looked her over.

    ¡°Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened? You just left the movie so abruptly that I thought¡­¡±

    ¡°Can¡­ Can we go home?¡± Emily interrupted, ¡°I- I need to get home. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening to me. I think I¡¯m sick. I- I- I- don¡¯t know what¡¯s wrong with me!¡±

    Luke wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she started crying again and guided her out of the alleyway and towards his car. She got in the passenger¡¯s seat in a daze and Luke went in opposite her in the driver¡¯s seat. He hit a few buttons and the car began driving itself out of the parking lot back home.

    Emily curled up in her seat and didn¡¯t say anything, and Luke didn¡¯t prod. Emily wasn¡¯t sure what to tell him. What should she do? What was Luke thinking about her right now? Why couldn¡¯t she just spend some time with her only real friend without just causing more problems?

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Alice quickly darted around the corner of the alley, but kept her phone out to keep recording. Hopefully that crazy bitch hadn¡¯t spotted her while she was muttering and shouting at thin air. Alice had gotten a message from her friend that was working selling the tickets at the movie theater. Luke Astas and Emily Stenson were seeing a romantic movie together.

    Alice knew that it had all been an act. That bitch had been angling to push Alice out the whole time so she could have Luke for herself! Alice had even doubted herself over the summer if the girl really wasn¡¯t putting on an act or not. Emily was good, Alice would give her that at least.

    But this proved it. Alice knew it all along.

    Alice had come over as soon as she got the message. She¡¯d corner Emily somehow, get the girl to admit what she had done. Alice honestly couldn¡¯t care less about dating Luke anymore. It just rankled her that that bitch had dared to manipulate her like that. Acted all innocent and needy and then turned around and done something like this. It was the principle of the thing, and Alice would give Emily a piece of her mind about it.

    But when Alice had gone to approach the girl she had spotted in the alleyway to the side of the movie theater, what she encountered was unexpected. Who knew that the girl was so crazy¡­ So instead of approaching, Alice took out her phone and started recording.

    After a while, Luke appeared and Alice ducked away and shut off the recording as she started to walk away. She would have to think carefully about what she would be doing about this¡­

 Chapter 47: Preparing for the Inspection

    Luke stared as Emily focused intently on her computer, typing furiously while looking almost angry as she hit the keys. His hand tingled slightly as he remembered when they had held hands last week in the theater. He had tried to press Emily on what had happened, but she was tight lipped and avoided his questions. What could it be? What had her so frightened that she was babbling and crying by the time Luke arrived? She had been so excited to see the Zeena movie before they went in.

    Emily kept angrily typing and Luke sighed and turned back to his own work. Hopefully she would tell him what was wrong soon. Luke had been tense all week wondering what to do, what to say.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey, Em?¡± Emily looked up as they rode the elevator down again, ¡°Are you doing okay?¡±

    She looked at him for a long moment and seemed to realize what he was really asking about, ¡°I- I¡¯m sorry about what happened,¡± She said finally, ¡°I was a complete mess last week. We didn¡¯t even finish the movie.¡±

    They went outside and started walking to the train. The ride was short and they got off of the last stop in the more suburban neighborhood.

    ¡°What was it?¡± Luke asked Emily after steeling himself for the whole ride, ¡°What happened?¡±

    Emily opened her mouth before stiffening and glancing around frantically. Luke looked around in confusion and tried to see what she was looking for. There was nothing around them but the usual neighborhood streets and houses. A few people scattered around going about their business.

    Suddenly Emily grabbed her head and started groaning as she leaned forward to curl inwards on herself.

    ¡°Em? Are you okay?¡± Luke asked in concern and grabbed her as she suddenly stumbled to the side. Her eyes were scrunched tight and she didn¡¯t respond when Luke spoke. After a few seconds, Luke started shaking her a little by her shoulder to try to shock her out of it.

    ¡°Em? Em? Hey, what¡¯s going on?¡±

    Emily turned to him and stared at him in confusion as he kept trying to speak to her. Her blank face told him she didn¡¯t understand a single word as she stood there looking at him. Suddenly her head snapped around to a point in thin air just behind him. Luke turned and saw nothing. There was nothing there.

    ¡°No, why are you back¡­¡± Emily whispered from behind him.

    ¡°What¡­ who¡¯s¡­¡±

    ¡°No! You¡¯re just a hallucination,¡± Emily said, not seeming to hear him, ¡°You¡¯re not real. I read about it. Just stress, hard job, I just have to wait it out.¡±

    A pause.

    ¡°Stop it! Stop saying that! The world isn¡¯t going to end! What would a ghost like you know about it anyway?¡±

    ¡°Emily, what¡¯s going on?¡± Luke asked, a little frightened now. What was happening to her?

    Emily ignored him.

    ¡°No, I won¡¯t listen. So just go away!¡±

    More silence. Then Emily let out a sigh of relief and suddenly looked around her, confused. ¡°Luke?¡± She said in horror, ¡°Oh no. I forgot you were here.¡±

    ¡°Emily, what was that? You were just talking to nothing there.¡±

    Emily looked like an animal about to bolt for a few seconds before her body slumped in defeat.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± She said heavily, ¡°I¡¯ve been seeing and hearing things. A ghost¡­ I thought it would go away if I just ignored it. It hasn¡¯t come back since the movie theater.¡±

    ¡°Was the movie theater the first time?¡± Luke asked in concern, ¡°How long has this gone on?¡±

    ¡°A¡­ a while. Years,¡± Emily said, ¡°There have been a few times it talked to me, but I just thought it was from the stress before. It¡¯s never grown this bad¡­¡±

    ¡°What do you mean? What happened?¡±

    ¡°R-Remember in eighth grade, the bus stop that morning? Before our CODA class placement tests? When we were saying our history facts to study?¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡± Luke asked in confusion, ¡°What does that¡­¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t practicing. They were trying to talk to me. The ghosts. There¡¯s two of them. My hallucinations, I don¡¯t know. I was telling them to go away. They didn¡¯t seem hostile, I thought they might be friendly ghosts or something. That was the first time.¡±

    Emily sighed, ¡°They showed up again last year when¡­ well, when Alice and I were having an argument. When I got that black eye at tennis practice too. They seemed to want to help me at the time. But I just waited and eventually they faded away.¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell anyone? Tell me?¡±

    ¡°Tell you what? That I¡¯m crazy, seeing things that aren¡¯t there? I thought I could handle it. That it would go away if I ignored it. But at the movies, just now¡­ It was like nothing before. I think it¡¯s growing worse¡­ The male ghost is telling me all this crazy stuff about the apocalypse, how I can¡¯t work at CODA anymore. It got really angry and started shouting at me.¡±

    ¡°Do you have any¡­ history of this kind of thing in your family?¡±

    Emily snorted, ¡°No. None at all. Guess I won the lottery on that one. I don¡¯t want to lose the CODA internship, who knows what they¡¯ll do if they find out?¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t tell them,¡± Luke decided, ¡°But we have to tell someone. Your parents? Maybe there¡¯s some drugs that could fix this. Therapy¡­ I don¡¯t know. Something.¡±

    ¡°Maybe¡­ It really isn¡¯t going away, is it?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But I¡¯ll help you all the way, Em. That¡¯s what friends are for, right?¡±

    Emily looked up at Luke, ¡°Right. Thanks, Luke. You¡¯re a good friend.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily sat uncomfortably in the chair across from the psychologist. She had taken all their tests, answered all the questions they had. And now here she was doing the interview part with the actual psychologist. Her parents had taken it surprisingly well, just arranging things without questioning her too much when Luke backed her up.

    ¡°So, Ms. Stenson,¡± The psychologist said with a little notebook and pen held in her hands, ¡°How about we start with why we¡¯re here today? I think it helps to hear you restate things in your own words.¡±

    It isn¡¯t working! I don¡¯t get it.

    I was as clear as I could be,

    And she just refuses to believe that I¡¯m real.

    You came down too hard on her.

    The bridges are already burned

    When you started yelling at her it was hurting her.

    She won¡¯t believe anything you say now.

    She wants to work at CODA, work with Peter Rose.

    That was her, my, lifelong dream at the time.

    She won¡¯t give it up.

    Then what do we do?

    I¡­ I thought it would be simple.

    We¡¯d just tell her what not to do and she could change things.

    But now we¡¯re nothing but ¡®hallucinations¡¯.

    She won¡¯t listen to us, it¡¯ll just be hurting her more for no reason now.

    I¡¯m just fucking useless again,

    not even able to do this much¡­

    Sean¡­ You¡¯re not useless. We can still fix this.

    All those things you think of as failures, it all turned out alright.

    Even if it wasn¡¯t you doing it, the people you care about were still saved.

    What does it matter if you personally did it or not?

    They¡¯re all safe now and that¡¯s what matters most.

    Back to little Emily, She knows that there¡¯s two of us.

    You gave her the information on what will happen,

    She still remembers everything even if she doesn¡¯t want to believe it.

    I¡¯ll have to go next and try to be more gentle with her.

    Maybe she¡¯ll trust me and actually listen to some of what you said,

    if I ask her to after building some trust.

    And you¡¯re right. She won¡¯t believe we¡¯re anything but hallucinations

    Without some kind of proof, and I don¡¯t think that¡¯s something we can give her.

    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    When I talk with her I¡¯ll go along with her assumption.

    Best not to confuse her with time travel.

    With how spotty my memory is of this time is,

    I doubt I could even prove that part either way.

    At least enough to prove without a doubt that we¡¯re time travelers.

    And ghosts somehow. And Immortal before we came here.

    Yes, far too much to explain.

    And how will you gain her trust?

    Us entering reality is not exactly pleasant for little Emily.

    That¡¯s half of why she was so frightened of me in the first place.

    It¡¯s a problem.

    This is our last chance.

    So I have to be careful when I talk to her.

    If she becomes hostile to me too, then we won¡¯t be able to get through to her at all.

    We¡¯ve been set in our roles. I¡¯ll try to explain to her and be as friendly as I can.

    If she starts working on the virus,

    Then you be the hardass and come in to scare her off.

    Deal?

    Are you sure?

    I wasn¡¯t trying to be the bad guy,

    I was just frustrated that she wasn¡¯t listening.

    I really didn¡¯t mean to hurt her,

    I thought just a hard push would get her to accept what was happening as real.

    Yes, I¡¯m sure.

    You were right even if you rushed too much.

    It might have even worked, so you weren¡¯t even wrong to do it.

    Time is passing fast, I was pushing off what we have to do before.

    I don¡¯t remember the details of when exactly I started working on the project.

    Or when things all went wrong. I wish I could, but even when I¡¯m here it was so long ago¡­

    I¡¯m surprised I even remember as much as I already have¡­

    We can do this, just follow my lead and we can pull this off.

    I¡¯m sure we can.

    Okay.

    Wait, I just had a thought. If we¡¯re time travelers,

    What if we erase ourselves by changing the past?

    We shouldn¡¯t. I thought you already realized.

    When we first spoke here we should have already changed things.

    Our smallest change to the past reverberates far into the future where we¡¯re from.

    Since that didn¡¯t happen, we¡¯re either immune or we haven¡¯t changed enough to erase ourselves yet.

    I¡¯m not sure how it works exactly.

    But I don¡¯t think we can prevent ourselves from being erased,

    If that¡¯s something that might happen.

    May as well as assume that we¡¯ll be fine and keep doing our best.

    Well, that¡¯s comforting.

    I was perfectly happy to be ignorant a few minutes ago.

    Hey, you asked.

    I assumed you had already figured that out.

    Well, back to little Emily who is currently having to deal with our voices.

    At least we¡¯re giving her some solid evidence to the doctor.

    I think they¡¯ll take her diagnosis seriously now at least.

    I hope everyone else is doing okay.

    Lira, Ash, Roger¡­ Asuta for you.

    I don¡¯t know how long we¡¯ve been gone,

    But I don¡¯t want us to be stuck here for so long,

    only to come away with nothing to show for it.

    Emily clutched her head and groaned as the voices assaulted her from all sides. Then they faded away. She blinked and looked around. No ghosts crawling through the portal. No eerie silence. The ghosts had just gone away.

    ¡°Ms. Stenson, Ms. Stenson? What¡¯s happening?¡± The psychologist asked in concern.

    ¡°It- It just happened,¡± Emily managed to say, ¡°Another episode. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I see. That looked rather horrible. Can you describe exactly what happened? You didn¡¯t seem to be able to hear me when I spoke.¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is¡­ It starts with a wind with no source and the whispers. It grows and grows until I can¡¯t hear anything else and I start to understand what the voices are saying¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Great job, the both of you,¡± Barbara said, ¡°Now, this may seem a little sudden. But next week Peter Rose is going to visit our labs. Big inspection for next Friday. So freshen up, maybe put on something nice. Maybe think about what you¡¯ll say if he asks you about what you¡¯ve been doing around here¡­ ¡±

    ¡°He is?!¡± Emily asked, ¡°Peter Rose? Uhhhh¡­¡±

    ¡°Sounds great!¡± Luke cut in as Emily¡¯s face flashed with a variety of complex expressions.

    Barbara gave the two of them a strange look, ¡°Well, no need to worry. You¡¯ve both done plenty to impress him as you work here. Just make sure to freshen up a bit to prepare, thought I¡¯d warn you¡­¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Barbara,¡± Luke said, ¡°We¡¯ll remember.¡±

    ¡°Well, okay,¡± Barbara said skeptically, ¡°Really no need to be so nervous. It¡¯ll be fine. Peter Rose is rather charismatic, a real charmer and he¡¯ll be understanding if you mess up a little. Plus, you¡¯re interns. Most of the time the rest of us will be entertaining him for the tour. You can feel free to come here to hide after we introduce you to him in the beginning. Okay, back to work. Got to go centrifuge some more of those samples¡­¡±

    Emily started quietly panicking.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯ll be fine,¡± Luke said, ¡°It¡¯s just an introduction, right? You¡¯re seeing that doctor, I¡¯m sure¡­¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but I¡¯m not diagnosed yet,¡± Emily whispered, ¡°I- I- don¡¯t have any meds that would fix me. What if I have an episode right when he comes? Oh no, I¡¯ll be ruined. It¡¯s caused by stress, and I¡¯m stressing out if it¡¯ll happen, and that¡¯s stressing me out more, making it more likely, oh no¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey! Snap out of it!¡± Luke barked and Emily looked at him, ¡°We¡¯ll be fine. I¡¯ll cover you if something happens. Just stay still and ignore it as best as you can if it happens. I¡¯m sure no one will even notice if you nod and smile when he says something.¡±

    Emily considered it then relaxed considerably. ¡°Okay. That works. Thanks, Luke. I¡¯ll try to keep it together.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll be fine, Em. Completely fine.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily lay in her bed, staring with her eyes wide open in the darkness. She had been trying to fall asleep for over an hour now, but she just couldn¡¯t. Tomorrow was Friday, and she would be finally meeting Peter Rose. And the doctors still hadn¡¯t decided what drugs would help her condition.

    According to all of the tests she was normal except for the moments where she wasn¡¯t. She had thought that in over a month they would have come up with something, but no. They didn¡¯t think that it was too important because she hadn¡¯t had any more episodes since then, apparently.

    There was a sudden gust of wind and Emily froze as the voices started growing louder. The female¡¯s this time. She gritted her teeth and held her breath to stop herself from crying out as the noise grew louder and louder around her. She didn¡¯t want to wake up her parents or Sean in the middle of the night, it would only make them worry about her more.

    Suddenly everything grew to a crescendo and Emily let out an involuntary low moan before everything popped and the world went silent. Emily looked up into the corner of the room and saw the ghostly figure crawling out of her signed Zeena poster, barely visible in the dark room. Only the moonlight shining in through the window gave Emily enough light to see anything at all.

    Emily ducked under her covers and curled into a ball. If she just ignored it, it would go away. If she just ignored it, it would go away, if she just ignored it¡­

    ¡°EmiLy? I¡¯m SoRry abOut ThAt. How aRe yoU feELiNg?¡±

    The voice was different this time, and Emily quickly peeked out from the covers before gasping and covering her face again as she saw the feminine distorted figure standing over her, right next to her bed.

    ¡°I unDeRstAnD. We rEaLLy like tO hiDe frOm tHe WoRld, doN¡¯t we?¡±

    Emily felt anger at the ghostly woman¡¯s words, ¡°What would you know about me?¡± She said from inside the covers to muffle her voice, ¡°I just have to wait and you¡¯ll go away. What did I ever do to deserve this, to have you here bothering me?¡±

    ¡°NotHinG. None of this is becAuSe of you. And woUldn¡¯t your halluCinaTions know aLL about you? Maybe taLkiNg to us would help? There¡¯s no one HeRe to JuDge you. It¡¯s juSt us.¡±

    Emily lowered the covers and saw that the distorted figure had sat on the side of the bed and twisted her torso and head towards Emily. Emily¡¯s perception of the figure was only blurrier through the dark room, but she could see what must be long hair running down the woman¡¯s back as she sat there staring at Emily.

    ¡°What do you want?¡± Emily eventually asked as she pulled the sheets towards her in a ball and sat up to rest her back against the headrest of her bed. She kept the sheets and blankets over her so only her head was exposed.

    ¡°Just to tAlk. My frIEnd was only tRyiNg to help. He just was FruStraTed. SoMetHing bad is going to haPpen and only you can pReVent it.¡±

    ¡°What? Some kind of virus is going to end the world?¡± Emily said sarcastically, ¡°I¡¯ve heard of that movie plot before. How would I even build something like that? I can barely even build single proteins, let alone something that advanced.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s iMPorTant,¡± The woman insisted, ¡°I know you won¡¯t leAve CODA. It¡¯s yoUr dreAm. He was wRonG to AsK you to do tHat. But, If anYonE asks about building a viRus or anYThing similar, reMeMber this, what he toLD you. You must not be inVoLveD with the projEct at all, even if you muSt refuse Peter Rose to do it.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re crazy,¡± Emily said stubbornly, ¡°I¡¯m crazy. I¡¯m just an intern, Peter Rose wouldn¡¯t need me for anything.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d be suRpriSed. But I¡¯ll tell you what. Tomorrow is an impoRtant day to you, isn¡¯t it?¡±

    Emily nodded reluctantly, ¡°Yeah, Peter Rose is visiting the lab and we¡¯ll be meeting him finally¡­¡±

    ¡°PrOmiSe me you won¡¯t work on anything even sMeLLing like a virus in the fUture,¡± the woman said with intensity, ¡°And I pRomiSe me and my friend won¡¯t bother you for that whole day. No matter what.¡±

    Emily hesitated, ¡°You¡¯d really leave me alone? Not even the faintest whispers?¡±

    ¡°Nothing for a whole day,¡± the woman confirmed, ¡°And we¡¯ll try to be moRe caReFul in the future. We¡¯re here to help, little Emily. We never wANted to hurt you, just to make you unDeRstAnd. Can you do that for me? We- I- Just want to prEvEnt you from being hurt by what will happen. That¡¯s all we want.¡±

    The woman moved her ghostly hand and rested it on top where Emily¡¯s leg sat under the sheet. It fazed slightly through the cloth and Emily felt a faint chill on her calf. But the woman¡¯s calm and understanding tone let Emily relax slightly. Even if it was only in her head, maybe it would work? Like a form of self hypnosis?

    ¡°I promise,¡± She said, ¡°And you¡¯ll leave me alone? For the whole day?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± The woman said, ¡°We wiLL.¡±

    The woman reached out with her ghostly hand and Emily felt oddly unthreatened as she put a hand to Emily¡¯s cheek. It felt like a cold breeze, nothing solid as the distorted hand and arm were sitting right on her face.

    ¡°I¡¯ve lived so long pining for the past,¡± the woman said, her face still pointed directly at Emily and her distorted voice shifting into melancholy and becoming clearer for a moment, ¡°I¡¯d put it on a golden pedestal. Something perfect I had to get back to. Living with the guilt of it all. But things are the same even now, aren¡¯t they? I¡¯ve always felt lonely, even back then. Sean, Luke, Mom and Dad¡­ They all love you as you are. Don¡¯t let yourself convince yourself otherwise. Cherish the time you have with them, you never know how much time with them you¡¯ll have left.¡±

    Emily felt tears well in her eyes, ¡°I¡­ Thank you. I know.¡±

    ¡°Sometimes it¡¯s best to hear it again, though,¡± The woman said before her voice turned up slightly in amusement and became more distorted again, ¡°EvEn if only frOm youRseLf.¡±

    ¡°Now,¡± The woman said as her hand left Emily¡¯s cheek and patted at Emily¡¯s head, her distorted intangible hand feeling like it was made of ice as it hit her head.

    ¡°It¡¯s tiMe to go to sLeep, little Emily. You hAve a biG day toMoRRow.¡±

    The woman stood and walked back to the door before turning around.

    ¡°GooDniGht, Little Emily. SleEp well.¡±

    ¡°Good night¡­¡± Emily said, suddenly feeling a wave of exhaustion as all the pent up stress she had felt released at once. With a soft pop, the ghost disappeared and the normal sounds of the world disappeared. Emily felt herself slowly drifting off to sleep as she rested her head back on her pillows.

    ¡°If you¡¯re just a hallucination then at least a good one¡­¡±

    Emily closed her eyes and before she knew it she was asleep, her body finally relaxing from its tense state it had been in for the whole day.

 Chapter 48: The Marketing Email

    Emily took a deep breath and smoothed out her fancy dress. She would be wearing a lab coat over it, but she still wanted to look her best for the big day. She hadn¡¯t heard a whisper or sudden breeze all morning. Maybe it had worked? Maybe her hallucinations wouldn¡¯t come because she had convinced herself somehow that they wouldn¡¯t? Well, who knows.

    Emily just had to stay focused today and make sure that Peter Rose saw her at her best for the first time they met.

    Emily went up to the lab with Luke beside her and they went to their work stations and their little room with the computers. They sort of milled around for a bit just talking for a bit, not sitting down. Barbara popped her head in and grinned.

    ¡°Oh, you guys don¡¯t think this is a vacation, do you? You¡¯re still working today. Peter Rose isn¡¯t coming until after lunch at least. So chop chop. Back to work, interns.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Barbara,¡± Luke said, ¡°Do you know the exact time? I think we¡¯re both a bit nervous to meet the ruler of CODA¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, you know he doesn¡¯t like being called that,¡± Barbara said, ¡°Technically there¡¯s the various councils running each of the territories, even if CODA Industries is so powerful Peter Rose basically ends up in charge of everything in the end¡­ But no, no specific time. He¡¯ll just show up some time after lunch whenever he feels like it. Important people get to do that if they want to.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Luke said, ¡°I guess we¡¯ll get to work then.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Barbara said before turning to Emily, ¡°Oh, and don¡¯t look so nervous. You¡¯ll be fine, Emily. You can explain some of our results better than Donald can. Just show Peter Rose your knowledge and you¡¯ll be more than fine. Bye for real now.¡±

    The door closed with a soft click and Barbara walked off towards her lab bench. Emily sat at her computer and started logging in. She quickly checked her work email from any emails from the lab director, their actual boss, but there wasn¡¯t anything. Emily quickly skimmed over all the spam emails from the marketing department.

    Advertising some product or other that CODA was launching that Emily and Luke had absolutely nothing to do with. But occasionally they were important, like two months ago when they announced that one of the three elevators in the building would be going through maintenance and so couldn¡¯t be used. Emily probably would have figured that one out pretty quickly, but at least she had known that it was coming ahead of time.

    Emily and Luke casually worked through the day, not exactly slacking but definitely not trying their hardest either. Both of them were anticipating meeting the Peter Rose too much. Lunch was a nervous affair where Emily and Luke tried to act natural as they sat with all the casual full time scientists teasing them about their nervousness. It helped them relax a little, but they still were a little tense as they went back up to the lab.

    Emily and Luke eased back into their work, both looking up occasionally just in case Peter Rose arrived. They both flinched when suddenly the door handle turned and opened. It was the lab director with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face.

    ¡°Emily. Have you seen it yet?¡±

    ¡°What? See what?¡± Emily asked, disturbed by the man¡¯s pitying gaze as he stared at her.

    The man hesitated before gesturing to her, ¡°Come with me to my office. You¡¯re not in trouble, but we have to talk.¡±

    ¡°B-But about Peter Rose?¡± Emily asked as she stood, ¡°What if he comes while we¡¯re talking?¡±

    ¡°The¡­ situation is delaying him,¡± the lab director said, ¡°He has rescheduled to come to do the inspection on Monday. I¡¯ll explain in my office.¡±

    The lab director released the door and Emily caught it and walked out into the main lab. Everything looked normal, everyone was at their usual stations. All except Donald, who was giving Emily an intense look as he stood near one of the lab computers. The lab director glared at him, and Donald turned back to his work after a moment. But Emily could see Donald still glancing at them as the lab director led Emily into his fancy office just off the lab.

    He gestured to the chair opposite him and swiveled his computer monitor so they could both see it.

    ¡°About fifteen minutes ago, during lunch,¡± The man said once Emily was fully seated, ¡°An email from the marketing team was sent. To the whole company. It¡­ was about you. Now, Peter Rose and our CODA digital security team are investigating what¡¯s happened and why. Even if it¡¯s not my department, I just want to apologize. I had¡­ no idea you were going through something like this.¡±

    Emily felt herself stiffen, ¡°Go through? Go through what? What was in the email?¡±

    The lab director hesitated for a full three seconds before he clicked into his email and went to one of the top emails from marketing. The header was ¡®Emily Stenson, Genius Lab Intern, Is Insane!¡¯

    Underneath was a video, which the lab director clicked. Emily saw a shaky video showing her in an empty alleyway with her back against a wall, looking panicked. No, no, no! Emily had a sinking feeling as the video continued. It clearly showed through a shift in the angle that Emily was babbling and cringing away from thin air. Talking to herself. Clearly insane. There was the sound of the door opening and the video suddenly cut to black. The video had ended.

    Emily sat there, shaken. She licked her dry lips, ¡°A-And. How many people saw this again?¡±

    The lab director sighed, ¡°We sent a correction email five minutes later telling people to not watch it. But those never work, so likely¡­ most of the company by now. I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    Emily just sat there, not believing that this was happening. Everyone had seen that email. Peter Rose must have seen that email. People would never look at her the same again.

    ¡°Now, I know this is sensitive¡­¡± The lab director said cautiously, ¡°But have you seen anyone about this¡­?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emily replied numbly, ¡°The doctors still can¡¯t figure out what to diagnose me with. Told me they would start giving me the heavy stuff if there was another episode.¡±

    Emily belatedly remembered that she had had another episode last night. But¡­ that one hadn¡¯t been as scary, so she hadn¡¯t thought of it in that way. Should she tell them after this? She had read up on the side effects of the drugs they had recommended. She would be like a zombie, constantly out of it and barely able to function normally when the drugs were in her system. But at least she wouldn¡¯t have any more insane episodes according to the doctors.

    ¡°Well,¡± the lab director said, ¡°Do you want to go home for today? We¡¯ll figure out everything by Monday and let you know next steps. Peter Rose wanted to tell me that he will personally apologize to you about what happened as head of the company after we¡¯ve found the real culprits behind this.¡±

    ¡°W-Who sent the email?¡± Emily asked in confusion, ¡°Aren¡¯t they the ones that did it? Why would Peter Rose want to apologize to me?¡±

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    The lab director shook his head, ¡°No. It was from the account of the head of marketing. It was either an external hack or someone in the company had access to his account details. It probably wasn¡¯t him, he¡¯s in hot water for this either way. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s quite stupid enough to do something like this. And CODA is Peter Rose¡¯s legacy. He feels responsible when something happens, even if he wasn¡¯t directly involved himself in any of this.¡±

    ¡°Am, am I being fired?¡± Emily asked, ¡°After the video¡­¡±

    There was a short pause. ¡°No,¡± The lab director said, ¡°As I said, there¡¯s no use talking about it now. On Monday we¡¯ll have more information on this and can talk about what should happen next. You¡¯ve been nothing but an excellent intern, so don¡¯t you worry. I¡¯ll speak to your character.¡±

    ¡°You will?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯ll give your boyfriend Luke some time off as well. Go spend some time with him and your family to relax.¡±

    ¡°L-Luke¡¯s not my boyfriend.¡±

    The lab director¡¯s lips twitched upwards slightly, ¡°You better get on that quickly then. Barbara is a relentless gossip. She thinks you two would be a cute couple.¡±

    ¡°Barbara¡­¡± Emily groaned.

    The lab director¡¯s mouth twisted back into a frown, ¡°Alright. Go tell Luke. You¡¯re both going home today. And I just want to say again¡­ I¡¯m sorry that this happened. You¡¯re a very talented young woman. We¡¯ve all seen the Shadow here in this lab. All of us know the feeling of seeing things that aren¡¯t really there, and how¡­ real it all feels in the moment.¡±

    ¡°T-Thanks,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ll go now. Bye.¡±

    Emily walked out the door and the lab director didn¡¯t move to follow her. Emily walked over to Luke and they left the building together with her still in a daze. In the lobby everyone was staring at her. Did they all know? What did they think of her? Well, she knew what they thought of her. They thought she would be dangerous, ready to snap and do something violent at a moment¡¯s notice. That¡¯s what Emily would feel if she had seen that video if it had been about anyone else.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Luke tried to talk to her several times, but she didn¡¯t respond. She went to her house and walked inside, her mom confused and asking questions as the two of them entered. Emily walked right past her without speaking while Luke remained behind to explain.

    Emily went to her room and locked the door behind her. She fell onto her bed fully clothed in her fancy clothes she had chosen so carefully, no doubt wrinkling them. She stuck her face in the pillows and screamed in frustration. No! No! Why was this happening?! Now everyone thought she was a freak!

    She rolled over and stared at her bedroom ceiling. She hiccupped and her eyes started watering. She had been so worried that her hallucinations would ruin her big meeting with Peter Rose. How right she had been. And now, she wasn¡¯t seeing anything. The ghosts were staying away just like they¡¯d promised. Hallucinations held at bay just in time for everything to come crashing down around her. She hiccupped again, then started laughing. How fucking ironic how these things happened.

    ¡°I¡­ I could use a good hallucination right about now,¡± She muttered to herself as her laughter petered out and suddenly everything was tragic again, ¡°How is this not stressed enough¡­¡± She muttered so softly that even she doubted whether she¡¯d really said it at all. After a few seconds the wind and whispers started. Emily didn¡¯t care as it suddenly felt like the words pounded from every direction and were about to split her skull. She didn¡¯t look up as the distorted woman crawled out of her Zeena poster. The ghost, hallucination, walked up to Emily¡¯s sprawled form and stared down at her.

    ¡°Little EMiLy, I¡¯m so soRRy. This is all oUr fAuLt. But I¡¯m hErE for you. Cry, sHOut at me¡­ I deSerVe it. I dEseRve it all for what I¡¯ve cAuSed. Just let it all out. I¡¯m hEre, I know wHat you¡¯re going thrOUgh a miLLion times oVer.¡±

    The woman sat down on the bed, just like she had last night.

    ¡°Know? How could you know any of it?¡± Emily spat, ¡°Now everyone hates me! They¡¯ll look at me like¡­ like I¡¯m some sort of dangerous criminal or something. They¡¯ll fire me from CODA, I just know it. Peter Rose will just know me as that insane girl now. My hero hates me.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t thINk Peter Rose wouLD think tHat,¡± The ghost woman said, ¡°He said he was gOing to aPoLogiZe to you, wasn¡¯t he? Does that soUNd like what sOMeone who hATes you would do?¡±

    Emily uncurled slightly, ¡°You think?¡± She asked in a weak voice, ¡°He doesn¡¯t hate me?¡±

    ¡°No. Plus, isn¡¯t he a hEro?¡± The woman said with some amusement, ¡°You¡¯ve bEcOme quite the dAmSel of disTreSs for him to save if thAt¡¯s the caSe. He¡¯ll feel rEsPoNsible that it was his cOmPany that exPoSed something so dAMaGing and peRsonal to you. You¡¯ll see. He¡¯s gOt his vaLues and he¡¯ll sTiCk to them thRouGh thick and tHin.¡±

    ¡°S-Shut up. I¡¯m not a damsel¡­¡± Emily protested.

    ¡°Yes, you¡¯d rAtHer be sAveD by Zeena than Peter Rose, is thAt it?¡± The woman said, ¡°She¡¯d tAke you to her tEnT and see tHat you¡¯re iNjuRed and start to bAnDaGe your wOuNds. After, you¡¯d have to tHaNk your sAviOr pRoPerly, of course¡­ ReMeMber that sCene in the mOvie? You¡¯d do way bettEr than that laMe side kick ever cOuld. Zeena bAreLy even looked that inTereSted when he toOk his sHirt off¡­¡±

    ¡°Sh-Shut up!¡± Emily squeaked desperately, despite the tantalizing images painted by the woman''s words, ¡°Th-that. I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about!¡±

    The woman laughed, her voice still distorted.

    ¡°So Cute. If I¡¯m a haLLuCinaTion, then I know all your dEEpest thoUghTs, don¡¯t I? And I know for a fAct that tHere¡¯s mOre than one rEaSon you¡¯re sUch a big fAn of Zeena. Girl pOwEr all the way. haHahAhaHa¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Emily denied, ¡°No¡­? Uhm. Oh. What? No, that can¡¯t be true. She¡¯s just a great character.¡±

    ¡°If yOu sAy so¡­¡± the woman teased.

    Emily looked at her after recovering her composure, ¡°Who are you? I mean, what should I call you? I know it¡¯s all just in my head, but¡­ you feel like you''re your own person. Oh, God, it¡¯s happening already¡­ But still. Before I get drugged to the gills on all those meds, you need a name..¡±

    The woman paused for a long moment and stared at the wall before looking back, ¡°I don¡¯t suPPose you¡¯d AccePt Emily? That is my nAme aFteR all.¡±

    Emily snorted, ¡°No. That¡¯s cheating. C¡¯mon subconscious, you can do better than that.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ okAy. Call me¡­ Sinestra.¡±

    ¡°Sinestra? That sounds like a villain''s name.¡±

    ¡°It was. ThEy wEre herOes of thEir own stOry. Sinestra was the sTeAdy cOmPaniOn of Queen Violet, always heLPing her and mAkiNg sure she sTaYed groUndEd when she wEnt too far. The two of them weRe aloNe in the wiDer gaLaXy, but they alWaYs had each otHer. No one else unDeRstoOd them, but they aLwaYs gave their all in wHaTevEr they did. Whether that was viLLaiNy, or kiNdnEss. Isn¡¯t thAt the kiNd of pErsOn you wAnt to be? To kNow you gAve it all at whAteVer you deCide to do?¡±

    Emily sat up and wiped away the sudden tear that came into her eye.

    ¡°That was beautiful. So beautiful for such a stupid name. Where¡¯d we hear that one? Was that in a book or game¡­?¡±

    The ghostly woman shrugged, ¡°StraiGht from the subConSciOus I suPPose. I¡¯m gLad yOu liKed it. So, Sinestra? That¡¯s my nAme now?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Sinestra.¡±

    Emily rolled the word around her mouth as she said it again as she looked at the wall, ¡°Sin-est-tra¡­ Sinestra. Yeah.¡±

    There was a pop around Emily, but she didn¡¯t register it as she turned to the side.

    ¡°Hey, Sinestra¡­¡±

    There was a knocking at Emily¡¯s room door and suddenly Emily blinked as she saw that Sinestra was gone. Oh¡­ Emily felt melancholy as she stared at the spot where the woman had been. She certainly felt better than she had before. Maybe she was really insane, because Sinestra had felt so vibrant and real. Just went to show what she knew about how stable she really was.

    ¡°Honey? Emily, are you in there?¡± Mom called from in the hallway.

    ¡°Yeah, Mom,¡±

    ¡°Your father¡¯s called out of work, he¡¯s coming straight home. We¡¯ll get through this. Just, stay strong, okay?¡±

    ¡°Okay, Mom.¡±

    ¡°Alright, just thought I¡¯d¡­ let you know what was happening. He¡¯ll be back in an hour or so. Just come out whenever you¡¯re feeling better.¡±

    ¡°Okay, thanks Mom. I will.¡±

    Mom left.

    A few minutes later, after Emily had sulked a little more on the bed, she left her bedroom and made her way downstairs. Luke was there talking with Mom in low tones. The two of them glanced up at her and froze as she entered the room.

    ¡°Hey, Luke,¡± Emily said with her voice only wavering a little bit, ¡°Want to play some video games?¡±

    He paused for a second in confusion before nodding, ¡°Sure. Let¡¯s play.¡±

 Chapter 49: Meeting the Man in Charge

    ¡°Alice¡­¡± Emily said in shock, ¡°It was her? How?¡±

    ¡°She somehow got access to the head of marketing¡¯s login details and set up a scheduled email to go out under his name,¡± the lab director said, ¡°Luckily she used her own work computer to do it, so we were able to track it down to her quickly and match it to our security footage to when the email was created. In addition, metadata in the video proves that it was her phone that recorded the video that was in the email. She¡¯s already been fired, and blacklisted from ever getting a job at any CODA affiliates again.¡±

    Emily blinked, ¡°Any affiliates? All of them?¡±

    The lab director nodded seriously, ¡°There are a few places that are independent¡­ but most places have some sort of at least partial ownership by CODA. At least around these parts. I doubt there will be many places where she will be able to find work in the future without leaving our country.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Well, that¡¯s good.¡±

    The lab director gave her a curious look and leaned forward. ¡°You don¡¯t feel even a little bad about it? This girl¡¯s life is essentially ruined. I know what she did, but still¡­¡±

    ¡°Good. She ruined mine. Now it''s on social media and everyone knows. I was in the news on Saturday,¡± Emily said shortly, ¡°Only seems fair.¡±

    The lab director looked at her for a moment before reluctantly nodding, ¡°I see. Peter Rose told me that he¡¯s been trying to get the news sites to take down that article. But they¡¯re not budging, Mr. Rose is on the verge of starting a lawsuit¡­ He¡¯s rather incensed by this whole situation, you see. Well, later today we¡¯ll get to meet with Peter Rose for his apology. I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll tell you more about his efforts then. You can either go home again or do some work while you wait for the meeting.¡±

    ¡°I- I think I¡¯ll go to work.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll come collect you when it¡¯s time. Oh, and ignore Donald. He¡¯s still shaken by his experience with the Shadow and doesn¡¯t know what to think about you. I thought I¡¯d tell you so you don¡¯t get the wrong idea on why he scurried away when you first arrived.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I thought he thought I was dangerous or something.¡±

    ¡°No, that¡¯s not it. Thought you should know. See you in a few hours.¡±

    Emily stood and left the office.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily stood nervously next to the lab director as they rode the elevator to the top floor where Peter Rose waited. Peter had been an orphan of the fourth Indian civil war and was eventually adopted into the wealthy and powerful Rose family when he was eight years old. From there he had founded CODA when he was in his thirties, building it to what it was today.

    Now he and CODA did good all around the world, more than any of the unstable governments ever seemed to manage to do. He took expensive life rejuvenation treatments to extend his lifespan, now he was approaching a hundred and thirty and still looked the same as he had a hundred years ago.

    A word from him would have warlords and world leaders bowing their heads, changing their ways in the face of CODA companies pulling out of their territories. That was the kind of man that wanted to meet her. Apologize to her.

    There was a sudden wind and faint female whispers, but they died down a second later. Emily took a deep breath. Hopefully they would stay that way. But somehow she felt deep down that Sinestra was encouraging her.

    The elevator doors opened and the lab director stepped out. The whole floor was one large space. There was a display of various weapons mounted on the wall, plush carpets, aquariums with exotic fish lazily swimming around. Emily¡¯s eyes widened as she looked around at the extravagant wealth on display in the large room. There was a massive desk on the far side of the space and standing in front of it was Peter Rose himself, having a soft discussion with five or so men and women in crisp business suits.

    The lab director walked forward casually and Emily followed, but she couldn¡¯t resist letting her eyes linger on all the sights around her as they moved closer to the desk. To the side there was a little sitting area with couches and chairs as well.

    As they came close enough, the group noticed the two of them and stopped their conversation to watch them approach. Peter Rose was staring at her. Oh no. Peter Rose was staring at her!

    Emily froze like a rabbit, unsure of what to do as the silence grew deafening. Then suddenly Peter¡¯s eyes softened,

    ¡°Emily Stenson. I¡¯d like to apologize for what¡¯s happened on my watch. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve been told of some of the efforts I¡¯ve been making to make things right¡­¡±

    He waved his hand at the lab director, ¡°No matter how short its been, you¡¯re one of my people, Emily. It¡¯s my responsibility to do my best to make sure that CODA is the best it can be to let you be your best self. And that we don¡¯t hurt our own. Now, why don¡¯t we sit down?¡±

    Emily mutely nodded and she sat down in a nearby puffy chair that Peter gestured to. She sat straight backed, trying to not let her panic show on her face as the Peter Rose spoke directly to her. Peter sat opposite her in another chair. The other people he had been talking with and the lab director sat on the couches on either side, sitting up attentively as Peter spoke.

    ¡°So, John tells me that you¡¯ve been doing quite well in your work in your time with us,¡± Peter said as he gestured to the lab director again. The man nodded back but didn¡¯t say anything else, ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell us what you¡¯ve been doing?¡±

    Emily waited, but everyone kept staring expectantly at her. Wait, he actually wanted her to answer, ¡°Well, uh. Sir, Mr. Rose. Executive. I¡¯ve uhm, been working on modeling proteins mostly. It¡¯s been a lot of fun, I¡¯ve discovered about ten or twelve new proteins so far just playing around with it. For the lab, I¡¯ve mostly been doing modifications on proteins that the full time scientists are working on.¡±

    ¡°Hm. Ten or twelve? How much is that John? That sounds like quite a bit. She¡¯s been here for less than a year from what I¡¯ve been told.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± the lab director, John, replied, ¡°She has a natural talent for it. We¡¯ve all been rather impressed by her work down at the lab. It¡¯s not easy to create a fully functioning protein, most of us don¡¯t end up making more than three or four a year at most. We¡¯re still verifying a few of them, so it¡¯s still to be seen if they are completely new proteins or just different formulations of ones we already can make. But they aren¡¯t useless either. She¡¯s an asset for the team. I was considering offering her a very comfortable salary to stay here after her internship was completed.¡±

    Emily stared at John in surprise. There were still two months until summer. He was already thinking about keeping her on? Even after what had happened?

    ¡°Hmmm. Most impressive,¡± Peter Rose said before turning to Emily again, ¡°And you can call me Mr. Rose, Emily. I¡¯m not one for titles. A glowing recommendation from John there. It¡¯s not often that the interns through the program stay in our main labs. Often we shuffle them off to one of our other branches to get some more experience under their belt before they prove themselves enough to come back full time here.¡±

    There was some silence in the room as Emily opened and closed her mouth a few times, mind blanking on what she should say next.

    ¡°Now,¡± Mr. Rose said steadily, ¡°There is one small issue to deal with first. Truly, it¡¯s most of the reason I¡¯ve called you here today.¡±

    Emily felt something sink in her gut. ¡°I-Is it the video?¡± She asked quietly.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Mr. Rose said, and Emily felt like the world was suddenly spinning around her. Mr. Rose was going to say she was too dangerous, how she was perfect to stay, but¡­

    ¡°I¡¯d like to offer you access to our best doctors. Free of charge. You don¡¯t need to do anything at all in return.¡±

    Emily¡¯s spiraling thoughts screeched to a halt. Huh?

    ¡°What?¡± She blurted out, ¡°What do you mean?¡± before biting her tongue and feeling like an idiot.

    ¡°What I said,¡± Mr. Rose said, ¡°My associates here today are representatives of some of the best hospitals in the world. I¡¯ll fund your treatment out of my own pocket. I¡¯m sure your doctors are fine, but I can afford the very best. They¡¯ll help you get back on your feet and back to as good health as they can. They¡¯ll be contacting your family very soon to discuss who you should be seeing and what arrangements you¡¯d like to make.¡±

    ¡°B-But why?¡± Emily asked, feeling suddenly lost, ¡°Why would you do all of that for me? I¡¯m just some nobody.¡±

    Mr. Rose smiled slightly, ¡°I used to be a nobody. Worse than the dirt under their feet for the local militia. But now here I am, on top of the world. It wouldn¡¯t do to lose someone so talented just for a little money. I¡¯ve certainly got enough of it these days. What is it even for if I can¡¯t use it to make the world a better place, improve lives? And you, working at our labs, are someone that can do that. I can improve your life with little cost to me, so why shouldn¡¯t I?¡±

    Emily stared at Mr. Rose with stars in her eyes. He really did care about even the little people even with how powerful he was¡­

    She swallowed thickly, ¡°Thank you, sir,¡± She said, ¡°I¡¯ll do my best to live up to that.¡±

    Mr. Rose inspected her for a long moment before nodding, ¡°It¡¯s the least I can do. Now, I have to discuss some final details with our representatives here in private. John?¡±

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    John stood and Emily quickly followed his lead, ¡°C¡¯mon Emily, back to the lab.¡±

    They walked out to the elevator and started riding down into the building.

    Peter remained standing with the suited representatives in the room.

    Wait, what¡¯s happening?

    Why aren¡¯t we following little Emily anymore?

    I don¡¯t know.

    I think we¡¯re tethered to Peter for a bit.

    Maybe he¡¯s going to say something important?

    Peter turned to the remaining group, ¡°Make sure that our people are the ones to see her. With a mind like hers, we don¡¯t want any hostile forces getting any ideas about trying to recruit or exploit her. I want absolute security on her files. No convenient ¡®security breaches¡¯ or ¡®lost¡¯ files to let them out. I won¡¯t accept any excuses. Do you understand?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± They all chorused before assuring him that they would inform their superiors of his orders.

    ¡°Excellent. Then I think our business is concluded. Contact the girl¡¯s family and see what you can do.¡±

    Peter walked over to stand behind his desk and stared out of the massive window behind him with a thoughtful expression.

    ¡°If I train her up properly, she could speed up my plans by decades¡­¡± He mused as the other people finished walking into the elevator at the far end of the room and leaving.

    ¡°I¡¯ll have to increase my military funding just in case things go sour early¡­¡± he continued, staring into nothing as he faced the large window overseeing CODA city. Then Sean and Emily¡¯s view of the scene was cut off and they were hurtling forward in time again. When the scene cleared again they were following Emily again as she sat in the CODA lab next to Luke, typing away at her computer.

    That¡¯s odd. I wonder why we had to see that?

    I didn¡¯t realize he wanted to protect me so much.

    He really went above and beyond.

    I was talented, but with what happened¡­

    Most people would have just

    dropped me rather than doing so much to help.

    That scene seemed strange.

    Why would he have to increase his military forces?

    We¡¯re missing something.

    He was trying to change the world.

    Lots of people didn¡¯t like that.

    I¡¯m sure he¡¯s just worried that

    whatever his plans were were too radical for them to accept.

    Like the concept of skipping senior year of high school

    for CODA internships sometimes as just one.

    People in my parents'' generation hated that one, but it turned out fine.

    People from other countries attack CODA if they do something their leaders dislike.

    Like when the Revival Empire thought he was giving weapons to the Democracy faction.

    If it was true or not, they attacked him and CODA with all they had after.

    Of course he wants to have a big military just in case

    Something like that happens again.

    Well, what were his big plans?

    Surely you know, having lived through it?

    I don¡¯t know. Whatever they were,

    He didn¡¯t manage to accomplish them in the end.

    There aren¡¯t decades left for him to work with.

    Maybe this time he can do it.

    I¡¯m feeling good, little Emily trusts me I think.

    And you gave her the information she needs to fix things.

    I think we can do it.

    Hopefully. I¡¯m just getting a bad feeling.

    Something strange is happening with Peter Rose.

    If we can trust anyone, it¡¯s him.

    He always does what he thinks is right.

    Like just now.

    It wasn¡¯t an act,

    He really believes what he told her.

    I don¡¯t know him.

    But I¡¯ll take your word for it.

    That was nice for him to do.

    Even if he probably wouldn¡¯t do the same

    if you hadn¡¯t proven yourself useful already.

    That¡¯s not true.

    Just because it¡¯s a factor

    Doesn¡¯t mean he wouldn¡¯t have helped at all.

    Maybe he wouldn¡¯t have gone so far as to pay for the doctors¡­

    But I¡¯m sure he would have done everything else even if I was a janitor.

    He¡¯s just like that. Everyone¡¯s part of the CODA family,

    no matter how short you¡¯ve been there or what you did as your job.

    It was nice.

    Emily shook her head as the whispers grew loud around her for a few seconds. But as she ignored them and kept inspecting the model of the protein they died down again before they went away. Emily let out a small sigh of relief. Maybe she could keep things under more control.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily opened her eyes in bed as the wind and whispers washed over her. She grimaced and tried to stay quiet as things grew more and more intense. Then with a pop, everything went silent and the portal opened. Sinestra crawled out of the wall. Emily walked over to the lamp in her new apartment and flicked it on.

    ¡°NiCe PajaMas.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Sinestra,¡± Emily said as she glanced down at the silky purple shirt and pajama pants she had bought a few months ago, ¡°Long time no see. I thought you were gone for good. I¡¯d almost forgotten how much that hurt.¡±

    ¡°Sorry aBoUt that. ThOuGht I¡¯d say HaPpy BiRthDay. Your tWenTy fifTh. Sorry I diDn¡¯t briNg a caKe.¡±

    Emily smiled slightly as the distorted women walked around and started inspecting her room.

    ¡°Just my luck¡­¡± She said, ¡°Right when I thought I could finally stop taking the meds.¡±

    Sinestra looked up, ¡°You sHouLdn¡¯t haVe to tAke them. You sEE me anyWay. Why deal wiTh the side effeCts when it will haPPen eiThEr way? Also, wHere¡¯s Luke?¡±

    ¡°We had a party during the day,¡± Emily said, feeling ridiculous as she spoke to her¡­ alter ego? Hallucination? She wasn¡¯t sure what Sinestra was really.

    ¡°No need to look so doWn. It¡¯s been moNths since you¡¯ve sEen me, riGht? Did you miSs me?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°OuCh. MeAn.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Sinestra. I just¡­ you know what I meant.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ LisTen, liTTle Emily. The tiMe aPpRoaChes.¡±

    Emily straightened. What? This was different. Over the years since the¡­ ¡®incident¡¯, Sinestra showed up for some small talk for a bit before disappearing again. The woman was so pleasant despite Emily knowing it was only a figment of her imagination.

    ¡°You¡¯re tWenTy five. It will hAppen this year,¡± Sinestra said, suddenly deadly serious, ¡°You mUst not work on Any viRus, no matter what. ReMemBer. No virus, or the woRld will end.¡±

    ¡°I know, I won¡¯t work on your stupid virus,¡± Emily said, annoyed. That¡¯s all the male voice seemed to care about, yelling at her whenever she tried to research scientific papers on viruses to find out what her subconscious could be trying to tell her.

    Sinestra stared at Emily for a long while, remaining motionless in her blurry and indistinct form.

    ¡°Good. RemEmBer your pRoMise. We will play nice and try to be qUiet. I¡¯ll be yOur friEnd. And when the mOmEnt comes, you reFuSe to work on the viRus.¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Emily said, still frustrated, ¡°I get it.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ So, how doEs it feel bEinG one yeAr oldeR?¡±

    Despite knowing that she was only reinforcing her delusion, Emily sat down on the bed and Sinestra sat down next to her. The two of them could practically be twins now with their identical height and shape as they sat side by side. Emily wondered if under all the distortion of her hallucination, if Sinestra¡¯s face would be the same too.

    ¡°I dunno¡­ Same as before, I guess.¡±

    ¡°Find a good giRl to settLe doWn with yet?¡±

    ¡°No, you know that better than anyone. And stop trying to get a rise out of me.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll be happiEr once you aCCept it. I just wAnt to hElp you. You kNow the reaSon Luke keePs brEaking up with his giRlfrieNds is beCause he¡¯s hoPing he can be with you.¡±

    ¡°Uuuuuggggh. I know. But what am I supposed to tell him? He¡¯s my best friend, I don¡¯t want¡­¡±

    ¡°The tRuth. You know it¡¯s whAt you want to do. Just do it.¡±

    ¡°Mmmmmmhhhh,¡± Emily whined, ¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to be comforting, Sinestra? Why are you doing this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m yOur friend,¡± Sinestra replied, ¡°FrieNds ask hard quEstions soMeTimes, don¡¯t we? Just think abOut it.¡±

    ¡°Bleh,¡± Emily said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t even know how to go around asking a girl out. How would I even know if they¡¯re into me?¡±

    ¡°Get out mOre. Make more frieNds outSide of woRk.¡±

    Emily shrugged, before shooting Sinestra a suspicious look.

    ¡°Are you just saying that so I spend less time at CODA? I¡¯m doing important work there, things that could become cures for all sorts of diseases. I¡¯m not going to stop just because my hallucinations say so.¡±

    ¡°Caught. But still true. If you tell Luke, then he cAn help you. He hAs enough exPeriEnce seducing women to hElp you CaTch a few on tHe side with some training. A winGman to heLp you out. Any giRls that go to flirt with him are autoMaTically out. The ones left over sTaRing at you while that hunk is nearby have poTeNtial. You can sWoop in aNd shoOt your sHot wiTh them wHiLe Luke bAcks you up. How DoEs thAt sOund, Hm?¡±

    ¡°Gross,¡± Emily said before cocking her head to the side slightly, ¡°Gross¡­ but maybe true? Ah, maybe I should tell him. But that¡¯s such a selfish reason to do it¡­¡±

    ¡°As loNg as yOu do it. No need to tEll him that seCond part until latEr.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Probably best to wait on that one¡­¡± Emily agreed.

    The two of them kept talking casually as Emily explained to Sinestra what she¡¯d been up to since her last ¡®visit¡¯. Emily knew it wasn¡¯t healthy, but it wasn¡¯t any worse than talking out loud to help yourself think, right? She just¡­ was talking to herself in a different way when she did this. Sinestra was still her after all, even if she felt separate right now.

    But no matter how unhealthy Emily knew it was intellectually, it still felt¡­ nice. Sinestra was a good listener. Eventually in mid sentence, Emily yawned and glanced at the clock. It was already one am, getting late.

    ¡°Well, I should probably sleep now,¡± She said, ¡°Until next time. May the drugs keep us apart for even longer.¡±

    ¡°GooDniGht, Emily. SWeet DReAms.¡±

    Emily switched off the light and rolled over onto her pillow. ¡°Gooodnight, Sinestra,¡± She yawned as her eyes fluttered closed. Suddenly there was a pop and the normal sounds of the world returned. Sinestra was gone. Emily fully closed her eyes and after only a few more minutes, she was fast asleep.

 Chapter 50: The Shadow of the Shadow

    ¡°Emily, you finished on lab bench five? How were the results?¡±

    ¡°Pretty good, Barbara. Efficiency was only about eighty percent or so of what I thought they would be, but they still work.¡±

    ¡°Luke is working over on lab bench ten. I think he maybe needs some assistance. A¡­ womanly touch?¡± Barbara waggled her eyebrows, ¡°He is always so messy as he works.¡±

    Emily rolled her eyes. Barbara was still teasing the two of them and trying to matchmake them even after all of this time. John was right, she really was a relentless gossip. Now that Emily was on the lab floor more these days, Barbara was around to chat more often and feed Emily all the details in the rumor mill.

    Left unmentioned by Barbara were the waves and falls of the rumors surrounding Emily herself. With the news story and Emily¡¯s quick rise to working full time at the premier lab at CODA, in the international headquarters no less straight out of school, she was a sort of minor celebrity to everyone in the company.

    Not in a good way of course. More in a ¡®is she dangerous? What should I do to prod her to see if she¡¯ll explode¡¯? Emily had had to tell John about quite a few nasty pranks or when someone got too aggressive in taunting her about the rumors. Mostly in the lunchroom where the scientists had to eat with all the other departments of the company in the shared cafeteria.

    She still wasn¡¯t sure why some people felt compelled to do that. Maybe they were just jealous that she was a rising star. But it still hurt when someone took out their jealousy on her.

    John usually handled her complaints about the pranks efficiently. They stopped after she told him immediately almost every time. Or Mr. Rose handled it. Emily tried to only tell John when something was more extreme, so he usually trusted her when she said it was something she didn¡¯t know how to handle.

    Emily wasn¡¯t sure how much John told Mr. Rose of what she shared. Mr. Rose had taken interest in her over the years, and John said that he asked about her progress occasionally when John went to give his reports on the state of the lab¡¯s projects.

    At least the people in the lab were all kind. They were all older, but welcoming and never tried to be mean to her. Especially after she came back after her month of intensive ¡®treatment¡¯ by Mr. Rose¡¯s doctors. It had been mostly sitting around and talking about her feelings, then at the end they gave her a long list of special drugs to take.

    Not the worst, but from the whispers that she had heard people had imagined some elaborate torture chamber with electrodes and a straight jacket. Armed guards and walls to make sure that she didn¡¯t escape and go on a rampage. Like any serious medical institution had done anything like that for hundreds of years.

    ¡°Yo, Earth to Emily? Heads off in the clouds again?¡±

    Emily shook her head, ¡°Oh. Sorry, Barbara. Luke¡¯s on bench ten, right?¡±

    ¡°Yep. Sounds about right. I¡¯ll clean up around here and do more tests on the samples, you go.¡±

    Emily nodded and walked over to lab bench ten. She turned the corner and saw Luke carefully pipetting one clear fluid into another clear fluid in another vial. Most of the things they worked with didn¡¯t have any real color to them.

    ¡°Hey, Lu-¡±

    Suddenly the world froze, Emily¡¯s foot raised and frozen in mid step. Only her eyes could move and she could see a single droplet of fluid frozen in mid-air as Luke was half way through squirting into the vial below.

    Everything was supernaturally quiet, just like when Emily¡¯s hallucinations arrived. But she had never been frozen in place before. She moved her eyes to the corner of the room as she finally saw it. A dark shadowy silhouette with bright orange eyes, staring directly at her. It was the Shadow. She tried to move, to calm her heart that was beating so fast that it felt like it might leap out of her chest.

    Suddenly the Shadow flickered and it was standing right in front of her, its giant orange eyes barely a foot away from her own. She tried to flinch, but her body didn¡¯t move. The Shadow tilted its head to the side and stayed there with its head tilted for a few seconds.

    It flickered again and suddenly it was standing right next to Luke¡¯s frozen body hunched over the lab bench.

    Emily tried to move, to shout, to frantically shift her eyes around to protest. But her body didn¡¯t move. Her eyes whirled around uselessly. And the Shadow lifted its arm and stuck it in the back of Luke¡¯s skull casually.

    Emily tried to scream, but no sound came out. She couldn¡¯t move at all.

    The Shadow pulled back with its arm and Luke¡¯s body straightened to follow. Luke turned to face her, completely blank faced as his eyes suddenly started glowing orange to match the Shadow¡¯s.

    Luke¡¯s body opened his mouth as it went like he was about to take a big bite of something, his eyes still glowing bright orange, brighter and brighter with every passing moment. The Shadow remained behind Luke¡¯s body, its orange eyes still fixed on her as its arm remained buried in the back of Luke¡¯s skull.

    ¡°Oh, chains upon chains,¡± A deep voice said, emanating from Luke¡¯s mouth. Luke¡¯s mouth opened and closed, gaping like a drowning fish with the words he was speaking not synced with the motions of his mouth in the slightest.

    ¡°I lament thy purpose. A foul trap to know.¡± Luke continued as the Shadow stood behind him. Both sets of glowing orange eyes remained fixed on the frozen Emily with intense focus as Luke kept speaking,

    ¡°A cruel play of a fate constructed by my gaze.

    I do not envy the two. Envy you.

    There is no change, it can only be.

    I lament the chains, the struggle. Chains placed so that you can be free.

    Puppet and Puppet of a puppet, remember who controls your dance.

    All of us have strings, yet only I can see.

    Soon you will see.

    History repeats, and the wheel is yet to turn again.

    Will it roll onward or be stopped?

    I am but the Shadow of the Shadow, and not even I can know.

    I only wished to help, to see. Yet it is still beyond me.

    The chains, they bind you both so tightly. Oh, I lament their necessity.

    Yet soon they shall loosen¡­

    A secret told to the everliving is no secret at all¡­

    A secret that¡¯s the Foundation of All.¡±

    Suddenly Luke shut his mouth and the orange light beaming out from his eyes winked out like a light being turned off. Luke fell forward to violently spasm as lay on the ground face first. The Shadow retracted its hand from Luke¡¯s skull as he fell. It inspected its arm for a second as Luke twitched on the ground. Emily tried to shout, to scream, but nothing happened. She was locked in place, helpless and forced to watch silently as Luke thrashed on the floor. Then suddenly, everything snapped back to reality and the Shadow was gone.

    Emily immediately fell forward onto the ground with a surprised yelp as she mistimed the step she had been in the middle of taking. She landed flat on her face, but quickly rolled over unhurt and scrambled over to Luke who was still twitching and spasming on the floor.

    ¡°Help!¡± Emily shouted, ¡°Luke¡¯s having a seizure! Help!¡±

    She crawled over to Luke and quickly flipped him over. His jaw was clenched tightly and his eyes were closed and flickering rapidly side to side under the lids.

    Barbara came running around the corner and froze as she saw Luke¡¯s seizure. She pulled out her phone and started dialing the CODA hospital.

    ¡°Stay with him!¡± Barbara said even as she pulled the phone to her ear, ¡°I¡¯ll go get the defibrillator and the¡­ that kit thing they have on the wall.¡±

    Barbara ran off around the corner and Emily could hear her speaking on the phone just around the corner. Emily elevated Luke¡¯s head, holding it up with her hands on either side. She looked around frantically, but didn¡¯t know what else she was supposed to do. Barbara came back with a bright red box with a little white cross on it and started rifling through it while still rapidly talking on the phone.

    Luke went still and Emily¡¯s breath hitched. His breathing steadied to a more even pace, and his rapid eye movement suddenly stopped. His body went still. Emily put a finger to Luke¡¯s neck and his heartbeat seemed strong and steady after a few seconds as she felt his pulse.

    ¡°Chains upon chains,¡± Luke muttered softly in his sleep, ¡°Puppet of a puppet. Lament the chains. The wheel is yet to turn again¡­¡±

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    ¡°Well, at least he¡¯s talking,¡± Barbara said with a dubious look.

    ¡°The Shadow,¡± Emily said, ¡°It¡­ it did something to him. While he was frozen. I was there, it possessed him and made him talk. That¡¯s what he¡¯s saying, its lines from the speech it had him give. I don¡¯t think it was even to me, but I was frozen there while it spoke¡­¡±

    Now Barbara was giving Emily the doubtful looks.

    ¡°Are you sure? That you aren¡¯t saying that because, you know¡­¡±

    Barbara tapped her temple with an awkward expression.

    Emily was surprisingly hurt by that. She had thought that out of everyone that Barbara would take her seriously.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emily replied angrily, ¡°I¡¯m sure. How long until they get here?¡±

    ¡°Five minutes. It¡¯s only a block or two away from here.¡±

    Emily put her fingers on Luke¡¯s neck again. His heartbeat still felt good.

    ¡°His heartbeat¡¯s good. He¡¯s breathing deep. He¡¯s even talking a bit. He must be okay, right?¡± Emily asked worriedly.

    ¡°I lament thy purpose. A foul trap. All of us have strings, yet only I see. Yet it is still beyond me.¡±

    ¡°Okay, this freaking me the fuck out,¡± Barbara said with a slight tremor in her voice, ¡°The Shadow is attacking people now? What¡­ what the hell can we even do to stop it?¡±

    Emily opened her mouth and her mind blanked as she tried to think. She closed it again.

    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Remember who controls your dance. Soon you will see, history repeats. Will it roll onward or be stopped? Not even I can know. I only wished to help, to see. Yet it is still beyond me.¡±

    The two of them sat nervously by Luke, Emily still holding her hands cradled under his head so it was tilted up and not hitting the floor. Barbara just stood there hovering and looking nervously down as Luke kept reciting the lines the Shadow had made him say over and over in little fragments.

    The paramedics arrived and quickly loaded Luke onto the stretcher and quickly carried him out of there. Barbara and Emily followed after and crowded into the elevator after giving quick explanations to the six to ten other scientists that had noticed the commotion and came over to investigate what was happening.

    At the hospital, the two women were told in no uncertain terms to wait in a certain waiting room and to not follow the paramedics as they rushed through another set of double doors into the hospital proper. The two of them sat down in the waiting room.

    They sat there silently for five minutes or so.

    ¡°Hey, Emily,¡± Barbara said apologetically, ¡°I¡¯m texting John about what¡¯s happening. He¡¯s been blowing up my phone for the last few minutes. Are¡­ are you absolutely sure you saw the Shadow and it did this to Luke?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what I saw,¡± Emily said, ¡°But what do I know?¡± She continued bitterly, ¡°I¡¯m the insane genius, just like everyone says behind my back. Not like I¡¯d even know if I was right or not.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ I¡¯ll just tell him then. He knows about your troubles. It¡¯s not like I blame you or something, but I¡¯d really rather you be wrong. I still remember what it was like when the Shadow appeared to me¡­¡±

    Barbara stared into space for a moment before briefly shuddering, ¡°Frozen in place, completely helpless. Inspected like some sort of art exhibit for a few seconds before it lost interest in me and went away again. I really don¡¯t want that thing to start hurting people. We¡¯d be completely helpless to stop it. There¡¯s a reason why so many people choose to believe it¡¯s caused by stress and a hallucination when it¡¯s pretty clear that that¡¯s not true¡­ The truth is that there¡¯s something like that out there is just too scary for most people to accept. For me. And that¡¯s when it hasn¡¯t even been the least bit hostile to us so far.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I didn¡¯t think about it that way.¡±

    ¡°No, no. I¡¯m sorry. I shouldn¡¯t have brought up your condition that way. It was insensitive of me, I was out of line to say that.¡±

    They stared at each other for a long moment before Barbara returned to typing on her phone again to keep texting John to update him on the situation.

    They waited there in the waiting room like that for a while. There were a few other people in there, but all spoke in low tones, no one wanting to disturb the somber atmosphere of the room.

    They waited for what felt like forever.

    But eventually a paramedic came in and explained.

    Luke was fine. He had woken up and didn¡¯t remember anything of the last day.

    But his vitals were strong, he had passed the cognitive tests. Even taken an MRI and his scans were normal. Emily learned that it had been four hours since the two of them had arrived here. The hospital was holding Luke for now but¡­ he was alright. He would live and was himself as far as they could tell.

    Emily melted into her uncomfortable hospital chair in relief. Thank god. She had been so worried. She didn¡¯t even care when she started hearing the wind and whispers around her. Luke was okay, so she could deal with it.

    Well, that was¡­ Disturbing.

    I didn¡¯t even realize that we could be frozen too when the Shadow arrived.

    Do you think that it was talking to us?

    I think so.

    ¡®I do not envy the two¡¯.

    That must be us.

    But the rest I don¡¯t understand.

    What were the chains it was talking about?

    What about that whole part about puppets?

    I¡¯ve been thinking.

    I think you¡¯re the Puppet

    And I¡¯m the Puppet of the Puppet.

    It¡¯s the only thing that makes sense.

    I¡¯ve been following you around back in our time.

    Puppet is an uncharitable way to think about it, but it still somewhat fits.

    I have been mostly following your lead on most things,

    especially for our last mission to save Nyx and Lira.

    The real question is who you¡¯re the puppet of.

    It said that only it could see the strings.

    And that we would see them soon.

    Somehow you¡¯re being manipulated by somebody.

    And it¡¯s saying that soon we¡¯ll figure out who it is.

    That¡­ makes a disturbing amount of sense.

    But who could it be?

    We¡¯re stuck here as ghosts or¡­

    Whatever we are. How would someone manipulate us?

    They stopped for a few minutes to let things settle down again as Little Emily started looking stressed in the hospital waiting room. After little Emily had relaxed again a few minutes later, Sean resumed the conversation where they had left it off.

    No, I meant in the future.

    It sent us into the past, so why wouldn¡¯t it already know the future in this time?

    It said that ¡®History repeats¡¯.

    And all of that with the wheel about to turn again.

    How would it not know what happened here in the past?

    It must be talking about something in our future when we get back to our time.

    No, that can¡¯t be it.

    The wheel must be in little Emily¡¯s time right now.

    When we change things in the past, we¡¯ll stop the wheel from turning.

    Humanity has almost destroyed themselves before this point several times.

    Nuclear weapons, environmental collapse,

    the first experiments with large scale antimatter production a hundred or so years before this point¡­

    That must be what it means.

    The wheel we have to stop is the apocalypse

    That we¡¯ve been working to prevent this whole time.

    Maybe.

    But then who¡¯s our puppet master?

    Who¡¯s manipulating us?

    Manipulating you?

    Little Emily?

    She¡¯s the one with hands.

    She sort of controls us.

    We¡¯re ghost-like and powerless without her.

    Or the Shadow maybe. It seems like the puppet master type.

    Feels weak.

    But Little Emily might fit if you squint hard enough.

    I definitely don¡¯t think it¡¯s the Shadow.

    Why would it ¡®lament¡¯ if that was the case?

    We¡¯re not seeing something.

    There¡¯s a piece missing somewhere.

    The great secret.

    The secret that¡¯s the ¡®Foundation of All¡¯.

    That¡¯s the missing piece.

    Whatever it is,

    A single secret is so important that the Shadow

    Thought was important enough to tell us about.

    I¡­ I just can¡¯t believe that it spoke to us.

    That I forgot something that important.

    We can¡¯t let the Shadow throw us off with its rambling.

    It¡¯s all too opaque, we have no idea what any of it really means.

    For all we know it¡¯s just saying all of that to screw with us.

    We have to just focus on little Emily and the virus.

    We can worry about the rest afterwards.

    Okay.

    That seems fair.

    But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s meaningless.

    The Shadow wouldn¡¯t bother going through all that trouble just to mess with us.

    I think.

    Either way, be on the lookout for whatever this secret could be.

    The secret to the ¡®Foundation of All¡¯

    Or any suspicious people that could be puppet masters.

    Now and back in our time.

    Agreed.

 Chapter 51: The Promotion

    Everyone thought that Emily was crazy. Not lying necessarily. Just seeing things that weren¡¯t there like usual. Only Barbara seemed to truly believe that the Shadow had possessed Luke briefly even if she didn¡¯t want to admit it.

    Emily and Luke both got two weeks paid leave to recover. Emily for seeing the ¡®Shadow¡¯ and Luke because of his seizure and brief amnesia. The doctors said it was probably shock from whatever had triggered the seizure that was affecting his memory. But Emily had been spending some time with him, and he seemed as sharp as ever. He believed her too about what had happened. She almost wished he didn¡¯t though. He was quieter than usual as they both tried to understand the riddle. But none of it made any sense to either of them.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Two months later, things had settled back to a more normal state. Emily was going through her normal cycle of hyping herself up to tell Luke that she was only attracted to girls. She was close to actually telling him this time. She had put it off in the aftermath of what happened with the Shadow, but she could feel herself building momentum to tell him soon.

    ¡°Emily?¡±

    She looked up and saw John, the lab director, standing there, ¡°Come to my office? There¡¯s been a new opportunity that¡¯s come up and I¡¯d like to discuss it with you.¡±

    She blinked, ¡°Opportunity? Oh, what is it?¡±

    She quickly cleaned up a bit and then quickly walked after John, her white lab coat swirling behind her as she speed walked after him to catch up.

    ¡°Confidential,¡± John said, ¡°Can¡¯t discuss it in public. But I think it¡¯s a big step up for your career. You¡¯d be chief scientist of one of our branch labs.¡±

    ¡°C-Chief?¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯m not nearly good enough to do that!¡±

    John shot her a look and raised an eyebrow as he opened the door to the office, ¡°My recommendation says otherwise. Are you saying that I¡¯m wrong?¡±

    They walked into the office and sat down, the door closing with a click behind them.

    ¡°Well, ah. What exactly would I be doing?¡± Emily said to reset, while reprimanding herself mentally. You were always supposed to be confident about what you could do or you wouldn¡¯t get promoted. Or at least that¡¯s what Mom and Dad had told her. She had been happily in her position alongside Luke for over seven years now and she didn¡¯t mind staying. But she shouldn¡¯t be so negative about whatever John was offering her.

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s a special project that could use your talents,¡± John said, ¡°Mr. Rose suggested it could be a good fit for you, and I agreed with him. It¡¯s similar to that protein modeling you do, except far more complicated and sensitive. We only want the best to be working on it.¡±

    ¡°And¡­ and I¡¯m the best?¡± Emily asked hesitantly. No, bad Emily. Was she even trying to get this opportunity? Emily thought about it for a second, and realized that she really wasn¡¯t. She was comfortable here at the lab. She didn¡¯t like the thought of going somewhere else if she didn¡¯t have to. But Mr. Rose suggested her for this position. Did she want to disappoint him?

    ¡°I think so,¡± John said, ¡°It¡¯s a rather specialized field. None of us here, including me, are that familiar with it. I think that you could pick it up rather quickly if you put your mind to it.¡±

    ¡°And what would I be doing?¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t tell you the details of the science unless you agree. But as chief scientist you¡¯d determine what experiments the others did, what avenues they explore to achieve your goal. Run your own tests on the equipment. We¡¯ll be hiring a lab coordinator that you¡¯ll work with to help handle the paperwork and other management things that I have to deal with all the time. I think some management experience would do you some good. Build your confidence, spread your wings a little without my oversight. So, what do you think?¡±

    ¡°That¡­ Hmm. That sounds exciting I guess? Mr. Rose really suggested that I work on it? You think I can do it?¡±

    ¡°With an attitude like that you can¡¯t!¡± John said, ¡°Chin up, this is an excellent opportunity for you. Almost wish I could take it myself. Just get a little confidence, add some more enthusiasm, and you¡¯ll be fine. As much as we like you here at the lab, wouldn¡¯t you like to control what experiments you¡¯re running? You can¡¯t get that here, the powers on high have too tight a grip on us for our projects.¡±

    Emily liked working here. With Luke, with Barbara, with all the other scientists. She didn¡¯t mind not having creative control too much. But¡­ Mr. Rose and John had such confidence in her. How could she turn them down after all that they¡¯d done for her? Tell them that actually, she¡¯d rather remain in place and not advance any more.

    ¡°When do I start?¡± She heard herself say.

    John smiled and rapped his knuckles on the desk.

    ¡°Excellent. I¡¯ve got the contract here. Nondisclosure agreement and the details of your employment. The location is rather remote, so do keep that in mind when you move. Look it over when you get home. You¡¯re locked in for a two year contract if you do this, so make sure you really want it. With how hush hush this is, Mr. Rose doesn¡¯t want people coming and leaving the positions, too much of a security risk. There¡¯s still a month until you can start at the earliest, so take your time in thinking about it.¡±

    He took a large stack of papers in a large binder and handed it to her. She fumbled with it for a few seconds before settling it against her side under her arm.

    ¡°Okay. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. And for Mr. Rose for suggesting me.¡±

    John chuckled and waved her off.

    ¡°Just treat me right when you¡¯re eventually my boss, why don¡¯t you? If you do well in this position, it may be closer than you might think.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, sir. I won¡¯t forget how much you¡¯ve helped me, even through my¡­ difficult times.¡±

    ¡°Hmph. CODA is like family. We all try to help each other. That¡¯s what Mr. Rose wants. Just doing my best to live up to the ideal.¡±

    ¡°Well, good job doing that then,¡± Emily said, voice cracking a little at the attempted joke.

    ¡°Alright, shoo,¡± John said, ¡°Back to work with you. Don¡¯t lose those papers, you have no idea how much ink I had to use to print all of those pages out. Damn printer jammed twice¡­¡±

    Emily left and returned to her experiments, keeping the big binder close by at all times. She wondered what in the world she would tell Luke about this.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°...So, I¡¯m uh, gay. You¡¯re my best friend, but I¡¯m only attracted to girls. Thought I should¡­ tell you finally.¡±

    Luke sat there, blinking rapidly as he processed the information she had just told him. They were in her apartment, on either ends of her couch with both of them already having drunk quite a few beers already.

    Emily was feeling rather tipsy at the moment, she had always had a low tolerance. But Luke seemed fine. Or was she just too drunk to tell? Oh, she was telling him her big secret. Had to focus¡­

    ¡°Oh.¡± Luke said.

    ¡°I wanted to tell you a while ago, but I always chickened out at the last moment. But now I¡¯m going away to the new job all alone, and I wanted to tell you before I left¡­¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but you haven¡¯t been with any girls?¡± Luke asked, ¡°Any at all¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Emily reached out and missed the beer can she was reaching for. She recalibrated and grabbed the can successfully this time.

    ¡°I kissed Alice one time? Does that count? She was attacking me, and it was the only way to get out of her grip. Surprise attack, like in that movie I saw. The ghosts told me to do it, hehehe. What a first kiss. She was more stunned than she should have been. Maybe she swings that way too? She was so hot, even if she was also a bitch and I hate her¡­¡±

    Luke stared at her. She looked down at the now empty beer can. Oh, when had she drunk that?

    ¡°Heeeeey, Luke. Sinestra had an idea. Now that I¡¯ve told you, I can tell you that too!¡±

    ¡°Em, You¡¯re drunk,¡± Luke slurred, ¡°Who even is Sinestra?¡±

    ¡°Siiiinestra? Sheee¡¯s my friendly ghost. Didn¡¯t I tell you about her? She visits me sometimes, I make her go away with more meds. She stops the mean one from yelling at me anymore. Aaaanyway.¡±

    There was a pause.

    ¡°What?¡± Luke asked.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You were saying something about your ghost? Sinestra?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Oh yeah. Fuck, I¡¯m so drunk. Why am I talking about it? Not supposed to tell you about her¡­ Just think I¡¯m more crazy.¡±

    Emily went to grab another beer can and missed by a mile. Luke stood up and unsteadily walked over and swept them out of her reach.

    ¡°Heeeey!¡± She protested.

    ¡°You¡¯ve had enough¡­ lightweight.¡± Luke said before going to sit back down.

    ¡°Oh. Yeah, probably. What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Sinestra. She was saying, the two of us would make a great team. We go to a club or something. All the girls go flocking to you. I stand nearby and pick off the stragglers that are left! Thaaat way we can¡­ filter them out. If they¡¯re not having any interest in someone as handsome as you, then maybe they¡¯d be iiiinto me. You¡¯ve haaaad, like¡­ tons of girlfriends. You can give me tips on how to do it! Romaaance and stuff.¡±

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Luke stared at her for a long moment before bursting out laughing.

    ¡°Hahahaha. That¡¯s so dumb. You think I¡¯m handsome enough that every girl that¡¯s interested would go for it? What if they just thought the two of us were together and backed off?¡±

    ¡°Grrrrr. I thooought it made sense. I donnn¡¯t know, it was just an idddea. Sinestra¡¯s, not mine. Or was it me? God, that¡¯s so confusing. Teach me, oh master. Teach me to romance!¡±

    Luke suddenly looked depressed, ¡°You¡¯re going to your new lab next week. Remember why I¡¯m here? We¡¯re celebrating your promotion.¡±

    ¡°I knooow. I didn¡¯t want to do it, but Joohn and Mr. Rose expects so much from me. I doon¡¯t want tooo dissapoint them after theeeey¡¯ve done so much for me. I like our lab, hopefully the people at the nneeew lab are nice too.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll m-miss you, Em.¡±

    Emily scooched over next to Luke, everything blurry in her vision for some reason. Fuck, she was so wasted, ¡°P-Plllatonic hug? Friendship hug?¡±

    Without waiting for a reply she clumsily wrapped her arms around him.

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll misssss you tooo, Luke. Best friend in the whooole Wor- worrrrl¡­. Zzzzzzzzz.¡±

    Luke looked down and saw that Emily had dozed off mid sentence. He carefully extracted himself from her arms and shifted her so her head was resting on the arm rest of the couch, her body sprawled awkwardly across its entire length. He lifted her feet and put them so she was fully on the couch instead of half falling off. A little bit of drool dribbled out of the corner of her lips and she muttered something in her sleep before shifting her body slightly.

    Luke stumbled over to her closet and found some blankets and a pillow. The couch was taken and Emily¡¯s bed was off limits¡­ He would sleep on the floor. He laid down and shut his eyes. Through the drunken stupor, he let the melancholy rise up fully. Oh, Em. Why hadn¡¯t she told him sooner? How could this happen to him?

    But the alcohol was strong enough that despite the uncomfortable floor, Luke quickly fell asleep on the pile of blankets. His dreams were filled with whirling chains and dancing puppets, words that were not his own swirling through his subconscious mind and manifesting in his dreams.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily shook her head and tried to pay attention as the meticulous man at the new lab went through all the shiny new equipment that was being used. The building and lab itself had been around for a while, but it had been fully upgraded to top quality two years ago. The former chief scientist had moved onwards to another project and Emily was the replacement. The meticulous man stressed the word replacement rather hard. Maybe he could tell she wasn¡¯t quite as enthusiastic in the new position as she pretended to be.

    She was excited to get to be in charge and do something new. But at the same time she was feeling a little lonely being away from Luke, her family, all the people at work. But she would be working here for two years, so she may as well try to settle in. This place was in the middle of nowhere and the night life was non-existent, so she should try to make friends at work where she could.

    ¡°Sorry, Matt,¡± Emily interrupted the man giving the tour, ¡°I¡¯m feeling a little lost here. These machines are all rather nice, but what¡¯s the big project that we¡¯re going to be working on?¡±

    The man paused mid step and looked at her.

    ¡°They didn¡¯t tell you? Do you have any experience in virology?¡±

    Emily froze. ¡°V-V-Virology? No?¡±

    He clicked his tongue and looked at her in distaste.

    ¡°Typical. You can¡¯t even be thirty and they¡¯re already putting you here on a project like this? No offense, but you hardly seem ready for this.¡±

    ¡°W-What¡¯s the project?¡± Emily said while glancing around nervously.

    ¡°Ah, I can¡¯t fault you for that at least. Classified project here. Our goal is to create a virus that can create genetic change to the human body all in one go. Cure genetic diseases, cancers, you name it. Anything caused by a genetic mutation in the body, this virus should be able to go in and fix, while bypassing the usual immune rejection issues of genetically altering only a few cells at a time. I have over twenty years experience in virology and graduated from CODA International University. What are your credentials by the way? I don¡¯t think you said. What was your focus?¡±

    Emily felt like she was going to be sick. This was her big project? Sinestra knew somehow. How could Emily have known? Oh no, her hallucinations would go rabid once they knew. She was locked into the two year contract! She had to work here, there was no backing out now. Not if she wanted to work at CODA.

    ¡°I¡­ went straight from CODA classes to working at the lab in the International headquarters. I didn¡¯t have a focus or anything like that. I did a bit of everything while I was there,¡± Emily said numbly, ¡°I don¡¯t have a degree, but John Tret, the lab director there, said that my work was exemplary and that I would be able to learn what I needed to know on site.¡±

    Matt sniffed disdainfully, ¡°As if. I spent five years getting my degree. Three of those years were focused on virology alone. How could you hope to catch up in so little time?¡±

    ¡°People say I¡¯m smart,¡± Emily replied absentmindedly, ¡°I was learning calculus in middle school. I was told that I was the boss here. First order, please go find what texts I need to read to get a good baseline knowledge to understand what you do here. I¡¯ll go set up in my new office.¡±

    ¡°But Emily¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Ma¡¯am or Boss to you for now, Matt,¡± Emily said as she started walking away, feeling annoyed at the man¡¯s dismissive tone towards her, ¡°I¡¯m chief scientist, and we¡¯re not on a first name basis yet. Just because I don¡¯t have a degree doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m an idiot. Don¡¯t come in my office unless it¡¯s urgent. Thanks.¡±

    Matt looked offended, but Emily hardly cared. He had been a jerk the whole time ever since he¡¯d introduced himself. She could already hear the building wind and whispers around her, both female and male. She ran to the space that would be her office, a large desk sitting there ready for her to use, but otherwise bare. She slammed the door shut as things grew to a crescendo around her.

    Everything fell silent as she frantically locked the door to the room, cursing her trembling hands.

    ¡°EmiLy, yOu hAve to lEaVe,¡± Sinestra said.

    Emily turned around to see two figures crawling out of their respective portals. Sinestra and the male ghost. Emily had never gotten its name, it was usually too busy yelling at her to explain itself much.

    ¡°I¡¯m locked in a two year contract. I can¡¯t leave!¡± Emily said as quietly as she could.

    ¡°You WouLd dOom the WoRld for yoUr joB?¡± The male said.

    Sinestra took a step forward, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, EMily. We diDn¡¯t reAliZe what tHis wAs. You HaVe to go. PleAse reMeMber yOur pRoMise. You hAve so mAny otHer pLaCes to go. WoRk soMewHere else for a few yEars, CODA will tAke you baCk aFter. The CoNtrAct says yOu can¡¯t work at CODA for fiVe years if you bReAk it. You can fiNd wOrk soMeWheRe else for that time. Use us as an eXcuSe. You can do it, and I¡¯m sUre thAt John will hElp you. MayBe even Peter Rose will too. They might eVen let you bAck to CODA without enForcing the coNtract if you eXplain to tHem pRoperly wHy.¡±

    Emily froze and thought about it, imagined going back to John and Mr. Rose and admitting that she couldn¡¯t do it. That she was insane after all and that her hallucinations wouldn¡¯t let her work at a virology lab.

    Emily reached into her bag and pulled out her four orange pill bottles. She carefully took out three of each, her hands still shaking. She was only supposed to take one, but she had to make them go away.

    ¡°Emily, you kNow thOse won¡¯t woRk,¡± Sinestra said in a sympathetic tone, ¡°You cAn¡¯t run fRom this. We¡¯ve both bEen calm and silEnt for yeArs now, for you. All we aSk in reTuRn is that you go aWay, get awAy from here. You hAte it heRe alReAdy, we caN tell. Why are you pUsHing so haRd to stay? MoNey? Will moNey buY you fRiends, hAppiness? JuSt like how yoUr inteLLigence did in sChool? Or faiLed to do so, more like? MoSt people hEre will be like Matt, not reSpeCting you beCaUse you¡¯re too yOung, too inExpeRieNced to leAd tHem. You can go baCk to Luke, to your old fRieNds at the lab. Your FaMily. SafeTy.¡±

    ¡°S-Shut it Sinestra, you jerk! You¡¯re not my friend! You¡¯re only nice to me so you can manipulate me better! Stupid alter ego. And I¡¯m going to get rid of you, if one pill doesn¡¯t do it then three will! I¡¯m- I¡¯m not going back there holding my head down as a failure b-because I broke into hysterics on the first day.¡±

    Emily started taking the pills all at once, twelve whole pills she had to swallow to make it all go away and return to normal.

    ¡°Oh, Emily. I am yOur fRieNd,¡± Sinestra said sadly, ¡°We¡¯ve aLreAdy exPlaiNed as mUch as we cOuld. This job iSn¡¯t woRth it. Just gEt out of heRe, live haPPily somEwhEre else. PLeAse.¡±

    ¡°No! You¡¯ll be going away any second now. Any second.¡±

    ¡°Then I¡¯m soRry, Emily,¡± Sinestra said, ¡°I won¡¯t let yOu maKe the miStaKe that I did, have you live with tHe gUilt of it all. If we can¡¯t cOnVince you to leAve, then we¡¯ll juSt haVe to makE it so othErs force you ouT instead.¡±

    Sinestra turned to the male ghost and they exchanged glances for several seconds as Emily panted out of breath watching them, feeling herself start to feel woozy as the drugs rushed through her system. She sank into one of the chairs sitting in the room and felt her mind start to go fuzzy and the world swam around her.

    ¡°Are yOu sure?¡± the male ghost asked.

    ¡°Yes. I think it¡¯s the oNly way leFt. She won¡¯t breAk the coNtrAct. I don¡¯t know wHat elsE to do. We haVe to gEt her out soon. I don¡¯t rEmeMber when it exActly happEned.¡±

    ¡°AlriGht. But we caN¡¯t let up for eVen a moMeNt. It¡¯s for her oWn goOd.¡±

    Sinestra was staring at Emily and walked up to her. Emily twitched a little, the drugs were really rushing to her head, she couldn¡¯t think properly.

    Sinestra leaned over and raised a ghostly hand and rested it on Emily¡¯s cheek. It felt cold, like an ice cube.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Emily. It¡¯ll all be ovEr sooN, and you¡¯ll be fRee of us. We¡¯re doiNg all of tHis for you. I hope you nEver get to uNderStaNd why we hAd to do tHis. Leave the pRojEct and we¡¯ll stop. Be HaPPy and sAfe. ThAt¡¯s all we waNt.¡±

    ¡°Uuuuugggghhhhh,¡± Emily groaned in reply.

    The two ghostly figures walked up to stand over her, and looked down at her from above as she lay there sprawled out limply on the chair.

    ¡°DoN¡¯t bUild tHe viRuS,¡±

    They chanted as one,

    ¡°DOn¡¯T buiLd thE VirUs,¡±

    ¡°DOn¡¯t bUiLd The ViruS,¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯T BuiLd the ViRuS.¡±

    Emily¡¯s world swam even more as the words pounded in on her skull. Finally, it was too much and Emily slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily opened her eyes, feeling stiff and something crusty in the corner of her eyes. She groaned and sat up in the chair she had collapsed in. She was nursing the mother of all headaches right now, and rubbed at her temples. She only realized after a few seconds that the pounding wasn¡¯t from her headache, but someone knocking at the door to the office.

    The ghosts were gone, and the sound around her had returned to normal.

    ¡°Yes?¡± She croaked out, ¡° What is it?¡±

    ¡°Its ah, Matt,¡± the voice said, ¡°You¡¯ve been in there for over two hours now. I¡¯ve collected the works you¡¯d need for an elementary knowledge of our work. Just wondering if you have any further orders.¡±

    ¡°You sent the list to my work email?¡±

    Emily confirmed while trying to ignore the pounding in her skull and wobbly legs as she stood.

    ¡°Yes, Emi¨C Ma¡¯am. I sent it. Is there anything else you¡¯d like me to do?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Emily said, while suppressing her groan from the monster of a headache she was nursing at the moment, ¡°Start discussing with the others all the basic approaches to making this virus that you can think of. Just as many different ideas as possible from the whole group. The broad strokes. We can narrow things down to the most promising paths once we¡¯ve got most of our possible approaches down in front of us.¡±

    There was a pause on the other side of the door, ¡°Hm. Very well. I¡¯ll discuss it with my colleagues then.¡±

    There was the sound of Matt¡¯s feet receding into the distance. Emily looked around the bare office with the single desk and two chairs, one of which she was sitting in. She should probably start decorating so she could pretend she hadn¡¯t been passed out from overdosing on her meds for the last two hours¡­

 Chapter 52: Management

    ¡°...I think that the addition of PEGylation to the exterior layer of the virus would disrupt the efficiency of replication due to the additional complexity we would have to include in the genetic replication sequenc¡ª¡±

    Emily paused and heard the faint whispers at the edge of her hearing.

    ¡°And that¡¯s my thoughts,¡± Emily said, ¡°Good talk. We can pick this back up later.¡±

    She started sweating and walked to her office as quickly as she could without it being obvious that she was running as the whispers grew louder and louder around her.

    ¡°Ma¡¯am. I don¡¯t think this formulation is¡ª¡±

    ¡°Please not now, Matt!¡± Emily snapped, ¡°I¡¯m going to my office.¡±

    Matt grumbled, but Emily brushed past him and went inside and shut her door, locking it as the two voices grew to a fevered pitch around her.

    She quickly went to her desk and pulled out the bottom drawer, revealing the puffy pad folded up inside. She had bought it after the first time. She took it out and spread it out on the floor, gritting her teeth and feeling her eyes grow wet as the pain grew unbearable. As soon as the puffy pad was fully unfolded she collapsed onto it and curled into a ball, sticking her face into her knees. Everything grew silent around her, and she just remained there without moving. Like a turtle curled into its shell.

    ¡°DOn¡¯T buiLd thE VirUs,¡±

    ¡°DOn¡¯t bUiLd The ViruS,¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯T BuiLd the ViRuS.¡±

    ¡°I fEel TeRRible aBout tHis,¡± Sinestra said, ¡°PLease jUst LeAve. Out tHere, pEople lOve yOu. PlEase. We oNly wAnt you to be Happy. YoUr fAmily and friEnds are oUt there wAiting for yOu to cOme bAck and be wIth tHem. It¡¯s tEaring my hEart in two sEeing you liKe tHis! PleAse just liStEn to us aNd go, Emily. The wOrld will End if yOu doN¡¯t.¡±

    The male ghost continued his chant. Sinestra kept speaking, trying to convince Emily to leave in every way she seemed to know how to.

    Emily just stayed there curled in a ball on the soft pad, face pressed into her knees. If she just waited long enough, then it would all go away again.

    ¡°DOn¡¯t bUiLd The ViruS,¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯T BuiLd the ViRuS.¡±

    ¡°PleAse, EmiLy¡­¡±

    With one final plea from Sinestra fifteen minutes later, Emily heard the distinctive pop and sound around her returned to normal. The voices stopped. She waited a few seconds before taking one long shuddering breath and slightly uncurling herself. She looked around the room and wiped her wet eyes off on her sleeve. She had managed to not let out any tears this time at least.

    She furled up the mattress again and returned it to its drawer in the desk. After making sure she was more presentable and had smoothed out the wrinkles in her white coat and clothing underneath, She closed the drawer to her desk and walked to her door and stepped outside again.

    She walked over to where she had been before.

    ¡°Insane, I¡¯m telling you. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard the rumors, but apparently she¡¯s the same one that was on the news for that video a few years ago. Talking to thin air. Maybe that¡¯s why she keeps running to her office all the ti¨C¡±

    ¡°And how the fuck is that any of your business, Matt?¡± Emily said as she rounded the corner and saw Matt and the other two he was talking with freeze in place. She hated that guy so much, always trying to undermine her at every turn. But he was the most knowledgeable and skilled out of everyone, and the actual lab coordinator that helped Emily with the paperwork told her that he was too important for the project to convince anyone to transfer him somewhere else.

    But that doesn¡¯t mean she couldn¡¯t punish him sometimes

    ¡°Matt, I see you¡¯re not busy. How about you go through and sterilize all of our vials again? All of them.¡±

    ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have dedicated staff for that. My talents are better used¡­¡±

    ¡°Better used to spread rumors, is that it?¡± Emily said, trying to contain her anger, ¡°I¡¯m sure with how competent you are, you¡¯ll make sure all of those vials are sterilized to perfection. Who knows if one of the cleaning staff might make a mistake as they go? It¡¯s not like they have a degree for it. Better for you to do them all yourself so we know they¡¯re all good for us to use.¡±

    The other two scientists glanced at each other and edged away from Matt, who shot them a look of betrayal.

    ¡°Fine,¡± he eventually spat, ¡°I¡¯m your greatest asset on this project and you have me cleaning. Waste of my talents.¡±

    He turned around and stormed off in a huff. Emily clenched and unclenched her fist a few times as she watched him go. Then with a deep breath she calmed herself. She turned to the two nervous scientists nearby.

    ¡°Now that he¡¯s gone,¡± She said, ¡°Before I had something come up, we were discussing PEGylation, weren¡¯t we? You were saying that having an alternate central core structure could help solve the problem?¡±

    The two men relaxed and the one on the right nodded as they returned to more comfortable territory. They continued their conversation roughly where they had left off, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of different additions or changes to the structure.

    Eventually the conversation ended and Emily wandered off to check on one of the other groups working on a different virus manufacturing method. She had thought that Matt would find out eventually about her past given what was happening to her with her hallucinations during work, but she hadn¡¯t thought that it would take less than a month for him to do so.

    She could only hope that people¡­ Oh, who was she kidding. No one here liked her. Matt had made sure of that, poisoning the well with the whole group before she could even introduce herself properly. Sinestra was right, she hated it here.

    But she couldn¡¯t leave. Not yet. She couldn¡¯t disappoint the people that believed in her, helped her, and gave her this opportunity to prove herself to them.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°It¡¯s finished,¡± Emily whispered, with something sour churning in her gut. The rest of the team was celebrating around her, someone had brought in an expensive bottle of wine and glasses were being passed around the break room.

    ¡°Hey.¡± Emily looked to the side and saw Matt standing there holding two wine glasses, one in each hand.

    ¡°Hi, Matt.¡±

    ¡°Congratulations,¡± Matt said, ¡°We did it. I doubted you the whole way, but you led us right in the end. I can respect that and admit that I was wrong about you. This thing has the fastest infiltration rate through the body cells I¡¯ve ever seen in the rats. Little to no immune response at all. This could do a lot of good for a lot of people. A cure for every genetic disease that¡¯s eluded us so far.¡±

    ¡°Or hurt just as many¡­¡± Emily whispered.

    ¡°Hmm?¡±

    ¡°Just wondering about the failsafe. Cure. Whatever you want to call it.¡±

    Matt nodded, ¡°I know how fixated you were on safety. It¡¯s what I respected most about your work once we got to the later stages. A single counter protein made by us will completely cause the viruses to die completely and cease replication. Delivered as a vaccine your own body can even produce them on its own to fight off any reinfections. Targets some of the critical structures of the virus so even mutations won¡¯t cause it to lose effectiveness without severely decreasing its replication rate to near nothing. It¡¯s standard practice these days to keep things safe. No need to worry about release. It would be handled in no time.¡±

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    ¡°It¡¯s worked for hundreds of years I suppose,¡± Emily replied, ¡°Still feels odd to think about. So strange that it only took seven months to do it from start to finish.¡±

    ¡°Indeed. One of the fastest projects I¡¯ve ever worked on. All that¡¯s left are the more rigorous animal and human trials now,¡± Matt said and held out a glass to her. She stared at him before gingerly accepting it and taking a sip.

    ¡°Good work. Boss,¡± He said.

    She glanced at him in surprise. He never called her that.

    ¡°Thanks Matt.¡±

    Matt raised his glasses and his lips raised slightly in the corners. ¡°To a successful project?¡±

    Emily clinked his glass.

    ¡°To work well done,¡± She answered. The party continued and Emily put aside her bad feelings. She only had a few months before the ghost''s self imposed deadline of doom was set. Once she pushed through she could prove to herself that it had all been in her head.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    No, no, no, no! How can this happen?!

    We- We did everything we could, didn¡¯t we?

    Can- can we even stop her anymore?

    Why is it still happening?

    I tried being her friend, we tried being cruel.

    But none of it worked.

    Now all that suffering, everything that we put her through.

    It was all for nothing.

    Are you sure you can¡¯t remember what exactly happens?

    Maybe there¡¯s some detail, some small clue that we can still tell her.

    Something when she can use once she finally realizes that we were right.

    No.

    It¡¯s all patchy and filled with holes.

    Why do I remember more about the stupid fucking Zeena movie

    Than the end of the world?!

    But I know now that it doesn¡¯t matter if she destroys the virus.

    Somehow it still gets released.

    By the¡­ Revival Empire I think? I remember that it was them.

    If I could just remember how¡­

    What exactly happened so Emily can stop it¡­

    Wait, where are we?

    What are we anchored to?

    Oh, is that Peter Rose in his office?

    ¡°Yes,¡± Peter said stoically as he stared out of the window of his office, a phone held up to his ear, ¡°Yes. Make sure that the virus is absolutely secure when you transport it. I don¡¯t want any mistakes. I want it held in a more secure location as soon as possible. Make sure to remove any files left behind in our system that could be a security risk.¡±

    He waited for a few seconds as someone spoke on the other side, then nodded.

    ¡°Get it done.¡±

    He hung up the call and put the phone flat down on the table. He sighed and rubbed his temples and stared up at the ceiling.

    ¡°Shadow,¡± he mused, ¡°Is this what you imagined for me all those years ago? Sometimes I wish you hadn¡¯t given me this gift at all. The responsibility to guide humanity to a better future¡­ I just wonder if it¡¯s worth it. I¡¯m so close now¡­ So close. I just hope CODA is ready to lead the way when our time comes to rise. Hmm. Speaking of the future. I should make sure to call in Emily Stenson tomorrow to congratulate her. She¡¯s done so well in such little time¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°You¡¯ve done well, Emily,¡± Mr. Rose said as he gave her a smile, ¡°Even I never thought you¡¯d do so well in your new position even if your employees labeled you as eccentric. Eccentric and successful is still successful after all. I¡¯d like to promote¡­¡±

    Suddenly his phone rang and he frowned and took it from his pocket to check. Immediately he glanced up at her.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m going to have to ask you both to leave. I¡¯ve had word of an attack on the lab, it appears to be an attempt to steal your results. We were supposed to transport the virus later today to a more secure facility¡­ You and John wait outside. I¡¯ll call you when I know more about the situation. I have to deal with this urgently.¡±

    Emily froze and had to be prodded by John to hurry to the elevator. They stepped inside and rode down to the lab. Emily was in shock. The lab, attacked. Was this it? Was this what the ghosts were talking about?

    But it wouldn¡¯t be world ending if the virus was released. Emily and a few others knew how to make the protein that would deactivate the virus, and a few even knew how to make a vaccine directly. And the protein itself was backed up on the CODA database. Emily let out a sigh of relief. Yes, Matt was right. Even in the worst case CODA could have the vaccine and save it if the virus was released accidentally. Yes, everything was fine. And that was even if they got anything.

    After an hour and a half of nervously waiting, Mr. Rose called them up to his office. He was grim faced as he stared between them. He took a deep breath before turning to Emily. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for your loss,¡± He said somberly, ¡°Everyone at the lab was killed.¡±

    Emily gasped, ¡°E-Everyone? What happened? Who did this?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know who did it. We¡¯re still scouring the surrounding countryside for any survivors who may have fled. But the perpetrators set off a massive explosive, destroying the building and killing everyone who was inside at the time. Likely to hide exactly what they stole.¡±

    Emily felt weak at the knees, barely able to keep standing as that washed over her. All of them were dead. Max, undermining her at every turn but giving her grudging respect in the end. Henry, someone almost as smart as her, is always ready with a joke to lighten the mood to break the tension between her and Max. All the others she had known there. All of them dead.

    ¡°I know this is a hard blow to you,¡± Peter said sympathetically, ¡°This attack on our nation, on CODA¡­ I will not rest until we bring those responsible to justice. I¡¯ll arrange a memorial service as soon as we can to pay our respects to their memories in the wake of this tragedy.¡±

    Emily didn¡¯t answer.

    She and John left, and Emily didn¡¯t say anything as she made her way home.

    Okay, so that was suspicious as fuck, wasn¡¯t it?

    Why did Peter call her out just at the perfect moment the lab was hit?

    Why is he so quick with a response?

    Why would he want to have a memorial service quickly?

    And why would the Shadow show us the scene before

    unless there was something more going on with him.

    Something doesn¡¯t add up.

    It must be a coincidence.

    He said it, the team he was talking to were going to move in that afternoon.

    Peter probably just wanted to show to Emily that he didn¡¯t forget about it with the memorial service.

    He¡¯s not perfect, it is a little insensitive to do so ¡®quickly¡¯.

    But he¡¯s dealing with trying to find the people responsible for the attack.

    He can¡¯t be everywhere at once.

    And it was over an hour and a half before he called them back.

    That¡¯s hardly a quick response.

    I think I would know him a little better than you would.

    It may not even be something malicious.

    But he¡¯s hiding something, I¡¯m sure of it.

    The scene of him before proves it.

    I don¡¯t know what it is.

    But we¡¯ve got to keep a close eye on him.

    Fine.

    But I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll find anything.

    We¡¯ve got to focus on Emily.

    I¡¯m not even sure what else we can do at this point.

    But I¡¯m sure we can think of something she can do.

    She helped build the virus, maybe she could cure it.

    Okay. Wait, you see that?

    No, she doesn¡¯t hear it. We¡¯re being too loud!

    Oh no, Emily watch out!

    Behind you!

    Emily grunted and put her hand to her head as the whispers grew louder and louder. Caused by stress again. She was in her apartment, sadly eating a tub of ice cream she had bought from the store on the way home, sitting at her kitchen table. Suddenly the whispering suddenly grew in intensity and she straightened up. What had upset them? Before could react something jabbed into her neck and she felt something cool flowing into her veins.

    Her body immediately fell slack, and she only got a brief glimpse of three men dressed in all black and faces covered. They were armed with automatic rifles as they stood in her apartment, the front door wide open behind them. One was standing behind her and pulled the syringe out of her neck, the plunger pushed all the way to the bottom. Before she could formulate another coherent thought, Emily fully slumped over her table and fell unconscious.

 Chapter 53: Back to Work

    ¡°When do you think the Creener will wake up?¡±

    ¡°Shut it. Reg is coming soon.¡±

    Emily blearily opened her eyes only to be greeted with a coarse cloth. She shifted slightly and felt something tighten around her wrists. She was sitting down on a cold concrete floor and her arms were chained behind her around a pole that she now felt pressing against her back. What¡­ what was happening? Where was she? She blinked again, still coming awake and trying to remember how she got here.

    ¡°Well, what do you know? Creener¡¯s up early.¡±

    Emily heard a door open and there were footsteps into the room, the two men from before going silent.

    ¡°Remove her hood.¡±

    Someone grabbed the cloth bag over her head and gave it a hard tug to rip it off. Emily hissed as some of her hair painfully went along for the ride along with the bag. She blinked a few times at the sudden light entering her eyes from the surprisingly well lit room around her. Bare concrete walls and the metal door along with the single metal pole in the center where she was sitting, but the lights above were strong. Lighting up every inch of the small room. Three men stood there, two on either side of the door with a single man in the center. Reg probably.

    ¡°Creener. I see you¡¯re awake already,¡± Reg said, ¡°Get her up. We¡¯ll have to do things quick this time. No time to waste.¡±

    ¡°Boss, is that a good¡­¡±

    Reg glared at him, ¡°We got lots of heat on this. You know that. We got to do this fast or we¡¯ll get caught. Is that what we want?¡±

    As they argued, the other guard came forward and unlocked her handcuffs to release her from the pole. She twitched and a gun was being held to her head a second later. She froze.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get any ideas, girl,¡± the guard said and the two arguing men turned to the scene, ¡°Stand up.¡±

    Emily stayed frozen, not wanting to move with the cold metal pressed to her temple.

    ¡°Up! Stand up.¡±

    Emily unfroze and complied and the guard shifted so his gun was pressed into the base of her spine now.

    Reg and the other man opened the door and without another word Emily was led into a hallway, internally panicking the whole way. The hallway was lined with dozens of other metal reinforced doors like the one she had been in. Was this a Revival Empire remnant? Creener¡­ That¡¯s what they called people like her and her parents. People who had fled the country after the first round of racial ¡®purges¡¯. Or basically anyone that they didn¡¯t like.

    They moved through the hallway until they reached another series of doors, the cold metal of the gun pressed into Emily¡¯s back the whole way.

    She noticed that the lights were flickering and the area was looking much more worn down the more they traveled. Was this an old facility of some kind that they were in? Some old Empire facility that wasn¡¯t found by the democracy faction after the war?

    Suddenly they reached a door that looked much more advanced than the others, and well maintained. The light above them flickered, but Reg finished inputting the code on the door and it hissed open. Emily was led into a lab that was surprisingly advanced. And her heart sank as she saw the large canister mounted in the center. The guard in the back remained by the door, his gun no longer touching her as she took another few steps forward.

    ¡°No¡­¡± She said, ¡°It was you? You stole the virus? Killed all of those people? Why?¡±

    Reg shook his head, ¡°Hey, not that I mind killing some Creeners. But the lab wasn¡¯t me. Lost a lot of good pure men in the assault. Whole damn thing self-destructed as soon as the virus came out of its housing. Lucky us that me and a few others were able to get away in time, ey? You see, that¡¯s the problem we got now, girl. All your scientist friends at the lab are all dead now. You¡¯re the last one that knows all about it and can change it to do what we want.¡±

    ¡°A¡ª And what is that?¡±

    ¡°Make it into a weapon of course. Those damn democracy fools don¡¯t know what they¡¯ve lost when they destroyed the Empire. If we have this in our hands, we can rebuild. No one will dare mess with our people again if we can release this in response. We¡¯ll rebuild this nation into what it needs to be. After we¡¯ve demonstrated its power to the world first of course.¡±

    Reg looked at the canister with stars in his eyes for a few moments looking almost proud before he frowned again and turned back to her. ¡°Unfortunately, right now it¡¯s toothless. Big infection like wildfire that does jack squat once it''s in a host. You go in there, do your little changes, make it have a little more bite. You get it?¡±

    ¡°N¨C n¡ª no!¡±

    Reg got real close and Emily shrunk back. He scanned her up and down and after a few seconds snorted.

    ¡°Figured. I could threaten to kill you, but you seem to have some spine to you after all. I¡¯ll have to bring out the big guns.¡±

    He gestured to three screens behind him which flickered on.

    Emily stiffened as he leered at her, ¡°Recognize anyone? Want to try saying no to me again?¡±

    Emily stared at the three screens. It was her parents and Sean unconscious. They were tied up in all different rooms like the one Emily had woken up in with the poles in the center. She could see guards standing just behind them with their guns.

    Emily heard the whispers and voices around her and for once in her life, she welcomed them. A way to retreat from reality and her building panic. She held her head and screamed in frustration as her head felt like it would split in two. Reg got a slightly disturbed look on his face and took an instinctive step back.

    Suddenly everything went silent and Emily stared to the side where Sinestra and the ghost man crawled out of portals suspended a few feet off of the ground in thin air. Reg and the guards lips were moving silently, but Emily ignored them.

    ¡°Sinestra,¡± Emily said, not caring if her captors heard her, ¡°Please, tell me what to do. I can¡¯t help them. But they have my family. Th-they¡¯ll kill them if I refuse.¡±

    ¡°Oh, EMily,¡± Sinestra said, ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m so soRry. It¡¯s all my fAult. AGaiN. I could hAve, I shOuLd haVe¡­ Oh, it¡¯s all my fauLt aGain.¡±

    Sinestra fell to the ground and buried her face in her hands, ¡°I- I¡¯m so sOrry, I tHoUght I could save tHem all,¡± She said, muffled through her hands and tears.

    The male ghost put a hand on Sinestra¡¯s shoulders for a few seconds and stood there. Then he looked back up to Emily.

    ¡°Emily, I tHink you kNow that thEy won¡¯t reLeaSe you aliVe if tHey get whAt they wanT. Or yOur family. You may Have to chOose betWeEn exTenDing you and your faMily¡¯s livEs a littLe lonGer or dOoming the eNtire world. You Know whAt that viRus could do if it beCaMe lethal.¡±

    ¡°I know! There isn¡¯t anything? Nothing at all? What the hell are you two even for if you can¡¯t¨C can¡¯t help me now? When I need you both for once in my life? Please, there must be something? Something that I can do, use¡­¡±

    Sinestra had calmed down slightly and looked up from where she lay on her knees. She shot to her feet in an instant.

    ¡°Use! That¡¯s it! The laB eQuipMent, it¡¯s advAnced isn¡¯t it? Most of thoSe coNNect to a ceNtral databAse for their iNforMation, right? I rEmeMber you saying sOmeThing like that a few yEars ago?¡±

    ¡°DoN¡¯t reply, Emily,¡± the male Ghost suddenly warned her, ¡°Your cApTors are waTcHing you, even if tHey can¡¯t sEe or hEar the tWo of us.¡±

    Emily opened her mouth before looking around and realizing that she had forgotten about the three men standing around her giving her uncertain looks and shooting each other glances. She shut her mouth.

    ¡°If we can cOnnEct to the dAtabaSe, get a meSSage throUgh soMehOw¡­¡± Sinestra continued, feverishly talking while ignoring the male ghost¡¯s interruption, ¡°Then CODA can coMe and sAve us, our faMily, Emily. We¡­ Yes, it¡¯s nOt too laTe. We can still sAve thEm all. Stop the viRuS, save our FaMily. Yes, we-we can still do it.¡±

    Sinestra¡¯s sudden burst of emotion was disturbing her. Sinestra was supposed to be the alter ego to provide balance to the male ghost. If Sinestra was so upset and panicking, then what could Emily do? Emily glanced between the two of them and shrugged to try to communicate with them. She didn¡¯t know anything about how to send the message. She didn¡¯t know any coding at all besides some basic courses. How was she supposed to figure all that out with her captors looking over her shoulders?

    ¡°Just cAll us out,¡± Sinestra assured her, ¡°Make sOme kiNd of sigNal that we cAn see. Try to fiNd a sourCe tab or a way to see the rAw code and scRoll all the way thrOugh. We¡¯ll be watChiNg if we can, and I¡¯ll fiGure out a soLutiOn. We may not¡­ not be able to coMe every time. But hopefully we can come. I¡¯ll tell you exActly what to do. OnCe we¡¯re rEady.¡±

    Emily scrunched her brow. That didn¡¯t make any sense. How would Sinestra know something that she didn¡¯t?

    ¡°Just trUst me,¡± Sinestra said, ¡°I can do it. But¡­ you¡¯ll hAve to woRk on the VirUs in the mEanTime whiLe you wAit for yOur chaNce. And as you wAit for CODA to cOme saVe you.¡±

    ¡°No way! I¡­ what if¡­¡±

    ¡°Do you hAve aNother oPtiOn?¡± the male Ghost said bluntly, ¡°Emi-Sinestra¡¯s right. It¡¯s the bEst chance of your faMily making it out aLive.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡°Then we¡¯ll be gOing for now,¡± the male ghost said and put his hand back on Sinestra¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Sinestra?¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Sinestra replied, ¡°Stay stroNg Emily. We¡¯ll be BacK soon.¡±

    Then with a soft pop, sound returned to Emily and Sinestra and the male ghost were gone.

    The three of Emily¡¯s captors were gathered together, whispering to each other softly.

    Reg noticed her looking at them.

    ¡°Girl, what the hell was that?¡± He demanded, ¡°Who were talking to you? What were you doing?¡±

    ¡°Myself,¡± Emily said, still feeling a little odd as she cooled off from the strange state she entered during her hallucinations, ¡°Didn¡¯t you look me up? Without my meds, expect that to start happening a lot more often. I¡¯ll start hallucinating and lose grip on reality. Again.¡±

    They glanced at each other and huddled together again. Emily could just barely hear their whispered discussion.

    ¡°Think she¡¯s faking¡­¡±

    ¡°...pretty damn convincing. I threatened to shoot her¡­ She didn¡¯t even flinch.¡±

    ¡°...Maybe she¡¯s not faking. Didn¡¯t you hear rumors, Reg?¡±

    ¡°You think someone that important is off their rocker? No way. Has to be fake.¡±

    They unhuddled and Reg stared at her.

    ¡°What medicine do you need?¡± He asked suspiciously.

    Emily listed off a list of six medications. Four of them she had to take daily and were what she actually needed. One was a strong painkiller that she sometimes used. The last was an antidepressant that she didn¡¯t actually take. If she used the lab equipment here she might be able to turn it into a powerful poison to use against the guards. She didn¡¯t think it was a large chance that she could get away with it, but it was worth a shot.

    Reg glanced between the two guards. ¡°Fine. But you better not be lying about it, or you¡¯ll be in for a world of hurt, Creener. Now, are you going to get work on the virus or will we have to continue the threats where I left off.¡±

    ¡°F-Fine,¡± Emily said, her strange state coming to an end as her panic and emotions came rushing back to the front of her mind, ¡°Just don¡¯t hurt them.¡±

    Reg eyed her for a few seconds, ¡°Don¡¯t even think of delaying. We¡¯ve got ways to know if you¡¯re going in the right direction or not. I¡¯ll be going to check your story. Pray that I like what I find or your family is in for a world of hurt. You two¨C¡±

    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    He gestured to them, ¡°Keep an eye on her and keep her working. I¡¯ll be back soon.¡±

    He left and the two guards stood there. The one on the right raised his gun and gestured towards the lab around them.

    ¡°What are you standing around for? Get to work.¡±

    Emily hesitated, but at seeing the two men begin to shift their stances she looked away and started fiddling with a spectrometer and the digital screen in front of it. Where was it¡­ Source¡­ Okay. Here was something. Lines of incomprehensible text popped up and Emily started slowly scrolling down, not understanding it in the least bit.

    The two guards stood there and frowned at her.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± One of them asked, ¡°That doesn¡¯t look right.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m looking over the code. Have to make sure its the same as the old ones in my lab. They¡¯re different sometimes.¡±

    All three of them jumped as a speaker clicked on from above them. A distorted voice played through it.

    ¡°Let her work. An excessive check, but plausible. Make sure that you do not¡­ linger too much Ms. Stenson. We are watching, and know enough to detect any attempts by you to waste our time.¡±

    The speaker clicked off and Emily wiped sweat off of her brow before putting her finger back on the screen and continuing to scroll without saying another word. After she was done she did the actual normal checks veeeery carefully to make sure that the machine was working properly. She then moved to the next one and did the same process.

    ¡°You already checked that one, Ms. Stenson,¡± The speaker crackled again, ¡°This delay is still only minimal. There are four machines left. Chop chop. Or chop chop we go on your Creener family.¡±

    Emily grit her teeth, but moved again to the last four machines. It had already been hours now. When would Sinestra appear again to help?

    These last four machines were the ones that she thought were most promising to have an outside connection that her captors might have missed. They were mostly machines for modeling proteins, much more digital and complex hardware than most of the rest of the machines combined. It would be easy to miss some outside connections even if they did their best to purge as many as they could.

    Emily sat down at the first machine and began typing on the attached keyboard to find the code. This one was much more complex as she scrawled through it. She did the usual checks on the program. She moved onto the next and did the same. Again. Again.

    She reached the last machine, knowing that Sinestra was just a hallucination. Sinestra had just told Emily what she wanted to hear. Of course Sinestra would have no idea how to send a message through these things. Emily didn¡¯t have the experience to pull it off.

    Emily stood around, looking around the lab, thinking of what she could do next. The machines were checked again, the voice from above knew that so she couldn¡¯t pretend to do one of them again.

    ¡°Ms. Stenson. I believe you should start with the emulsifiers and benzoic acid perhaps?¡±

    The voice from above said. Emily paused and tried to think of anything else to do, before silently walking over to the lab bench and grabbing the chemicals she needed. Whenever she made a mistake, intentional or not, the voice from above called her out about it.

    Emily intentionally mixed up the proportions, and didn''t clean her pipettes between use. Sloppy mistakes that she hadn¡¯t even made on her first day in the lab at CODA international for her internship.

    ¡°Ms. Stenson. We see what you are doing. We do not think you understand this situation. This is your last warning. No more delays. Next time you try a trick like that or intentionally bumble as you have been doing, one of your family members will die. We are on a tight schedule, and we have three hostages to work with. We can afford to lose one or two to prove our conviction.¡±

    The whispers started around Emily as she stood there, trying desperately to think of another way to delay. But her family! Somehow the voice above knew enough about her work to tell when she was faking. What could she do?

    ¡°What do you even need me for if you know so much?¡± Emily said in frustration, ¡°I¡¯m fucking nervous about my family. Of course I¡¯m going to spill shit and make mistakes!¡±

    ¡°I was one of the top virologists in the Empire before it was destroyed by the jealous Democracy fools, Creener¡± the voice replied, ¡°I know many of these methods and techniques. I could make the modifications myself given a few years. But you know the subject intimately and can do the changes in mere days as its primary designer. I know enough to tell if what you are doing is working towards the larger goal or not, even if I am not familiar enough with your work to do it myself. Don¡¯t try to fool me, that was far beyond the mistakes someone of your caliber would make from mere nervousness.¡±

    ¡°Great. Just great¡­¡± Emily muttered. The whispers grew louder and louder and Emily groaned again as her head throbbed again. The portal opened and Sinestra poked her head out of the portal. But she didn¡¯t continue through, remaining there floating off the ground with only her blurred head pointed Emily. Her voice was clearly enunciated with every word spoken clearly even through the normal distortion.

    ¡°I have it. Now, do exactly what I tell you. I¡¯ll go away again for a few minutes. Tell the voice above that you need to make some dummy models to test if the software is working correctly. Convince it as best as you can. The last machine you checked, use that one. I¡¯ll come back after a minute or so and tell you what to do. The base code I¡¯ve decoded shows that it¡¯s taking in an eXteRiOr siGnaL! If we pUll tHis off theN we can seNd a mEssage for HeLp!¡±

    Emily tried to control her expression to stop herself from reacting to the news as Sinestra¡¯s voice grew more excited and more distorted as she finished speaking.

    ¡°We¡¯re gettiNg thrOugh this, EMily,¡± Sinestra promised, ¡°Be bAck in a feW.¡±

    Suddenly the world popped again and Emily was back.

    ¡°Creener? You there?¡± The voice from above said, ¡°I¡¯ll have to talk to Reg about those medications. It¡¯s clear your condition is degrading rapidly without them. That won¡¯t do at all¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going to do some protein modeling,¡± Emily announced as she walked over to the machine that Sinestra had indicated, ¡°Make some dummy proteins to test if the modeling software is working properly.¡±

    The voice above paused for a moment to consider.

    ¡°Very well,¡± It eventually said, ¡°But no more than one as a test case. Proceed.¡±

    Emily sat down and as the device was booting up, she tried to keep herself as still and stony faced as possible as the whispers and pain in her skull washed over her. There was an almost primal urge in her to make a noise as her skull radiated pain like someone had drove a giant spike through it. But she kept completely silent and stiff as she watched the progress bar go up on the screen to load the program.

    Eventually everything went silent around Emily and she just barely managed to suppress her gasp of relief as the pain went away.

    ¡°Alright,¡± Sinestra said a few seconds later in her careful voice that was easier to understand through the distortion. ¡°This will be a bit strange. First you have to name the file a long string. About thirty characters long. Try to make it look like you¡¯re just putting it in randomly. There, in that menu. Alright, so its A4326JRB6Y¡­¡±

    Emily copied Sinestra¡¯s long string of characters as Sinestra used her intangible finger to point to exactly where she wanted Emily to click with her mouse on the screen if it was relevant.

    ¡°Okay, next. You¡¯ll start the base sequence by using the importer. Be careful here, we have to select specific options in the menu to make the connection two way between this device and the central server. It¡¯s normally used to make sure that if you lose the device the file isn¡¯t lost. They disabled all the external connections in the hardware, but this one has an extra backup transceiver in the case of power loss and they seem to have missed it.¡±

    Emily followed Sinestra¡¯s instructions for the import of the completed protein.

    ¡°Good job, Emily. Doing great so far. Now, edit the amino sequence this way, altering the beta folds and alpha helices at the 32-70 amino acid junction region¡­¡±

    Emily altered the imported protein according to Sinestra¡¯s instructions, until it looked almost unrecognizable from the beginning.

    ¡°Good, good. When the server reads the file name it will unpack the protein and create an error on the server side. The error will contain the message I encoded into the structure you just built up just now. Now there¡¯s just one last step. You have to go back to the source code and change a few things. It will ask for administrator access, and I¡¯ll give you another string of characters that should exploit its codebase to automatically let you in even without the right password. Sort of like a factory default password for the machine. Now repeat after me out loud to create an excuse to look at the source code, ¡®Something¡¯s off. I¡¯ll have to check the source code to fix the problem¡¯.¡±

    Emily obediently repeated after Sinestra and flipped over to the source code screen. She went in and typed something into the administrator popup after she went to perform edits.

    ¡°Quick, we have to go through before they catch on. There, change no to yes. There, replace that set of characters with... There, yes to no. Another replacement¡­ There, all done. Go to the bottom and click confirm changes.¡±

    Emily jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder, but quickly clicked the button, sending the screen in front of her to rapidly flicker and pixelate for a few seconds before resolving itself on the homescreen.

    Emily looked behind her and saw that one of the guards was behind her, looking irate as he spoke to her. She watched his lips for a few seconds, but she didn¡¯t know how to lip read to figure out what he was saying.

    ¡°Okay, EmiLy,¡± Sinestra said from the side. Emily felt a ice cold brush across her scalp from Sinestra¡¯s hand putting her hand over it, ¡°It¡¯ll all be fiNe nOw. The mEssaGe is seNt. We just hAve to wAit and maKe sure our fAmily is saFe until thEy arrive.¡±

    Emily looked away from the guard and towards Sinestra.

    ¡°Thank you, Sinestra. If you were a real person, I think we might have been good friends.¡±

    Emily saw Sinestra¡¯s body shift in the way that Emily could tell that she was smiling.

    ¡°Thank you, little Emily. You hAve yOur wHole life aHeAd of you. If this is the lAst gOod tHing I can do bEfoRe I am gone foReVer, then I¡¯m gLad that it wAs this. Now, you haVe to wOrk hard now. Don¡¯t deLay yoUr work too mUch. We can¡¯t risk any hArm to our family, and CODA is coMing soon. The siGnal is active and inCluDes your loCatiOn here as well as the sitUatiOn. Who knew that pRotEins could contAin lots of inforMation, right?¡±

    ¡°S-Sinestra?¡± Emily asked hesitantly, seeing out of the corner of her eye that the guard had backed off and had stopped speaking even if he appeared disgruntled in being forced to do so.

    ¡°Are you going away?¡± Emily continued as she refocused on the ghost¡­ no, the hallucination that was part of her, ¡°Am I going to see you again?¡±

    Sinestra shrugged, ¡°If nOthiNg happEns this yeAr, then my pUrpOse is seRved. Both me, and Sean. That¡¯s the mAle one by tHe way. Funny you nEver asKed for his name liKe you did for mE. What a cOinCideNce that he¡¯s naMed afTer our bRotHer, huh?

    ¡°Sean?¡± Emily said surprised, ¡°That¡¯s strange. I don¡¯t think about him like that at all. Sean wouldn¡¯t just yell at me for no reason.¡±

    ¡°How stRanGe.¡± Sinestra said with a shrug, ¡°I¡¯ll happiLy go to the loNg reSt knoWing thAt I¡¯ve savEd you, Emily. Go, live yOur life out tHere. FrEe of us, free of all tHe suffeRing we¡¯ve put you thRoUgh in the nAme of this.¡±

    Emily felt tears stinging the corner of her eyes, ¡°Thank you, Sinestra. For being my friend. I¡¯ll miss you, even if it¡¯s just because I like talking to myself so much.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be gOing noW. Live yOur bEst life out tHere, Emily. And mAybe fiNally get sOme of thAt datiNg aDvice from LukE¡­¡±

    Emily opened her mouth to reply, but with a pop Sinestra was gone and sound returned to the world.

    She closed her mouth and looked down at the keyboard in front of her blankly. Why did saying goodbye to Sinestra hurt so much? Hadn¡¯t she wished for her to go away forever nearly every time she had ever appeared? But now that the real possibility of Sinestra disappearing was upon her, Emily didn¡¯t want her to go anymore. Somehow Emily sensed that Sinestra really believed that she would disappear forever, and it might be the last time they met. It was only a delusion, and alter ego in Emily¡¯s own mind. But Emily still felt a sense of loss as she considered Sinestra being gone from her forever.

    ¡°Creener? You awake over there?¡± The guard said and Emily jumped in place.

    ¡°This is unacceptable,¡± the voice above said with irritation, ¡°Her condition degrading far more rapidly than we ever expected. I wonder how she even functioned at the old lab if a single day without medication is reducing her to this. No wonder Reg dismissed the rumors as absurd if they matched the severity of what we¡¯ve been seeing in real time here¡­¡±

    ¡°What should we do, sir?¡± One of the guards asked.

    There was a long pause, before a sigh from the voice above.

    ¡°Put her to work. We¡¯ll just have to make sure she is stopped from working once she enters one of her delusions and starts doing random nonsense. Like that nonsense protein that she just built. We can only hope she will be lucid enough to describe the required medication dosage when Reg finally gets the medication from his contacts and delivers it back here. Hopefully she¡¯ll be more functional by that point.¡±

    Emily sat there at the computer not moving, hoping to drag out her work for a few more minutes longer.

    ¡°You! Ms. Stenson, get to work. No more delays. You¡¯ve checked your models, checked the machines. No more excuses. I expect progress on the real work soon or we¡¯ll start torturing your family members for some extra motivation.¡±

    ¡°B-But what if I drift off again?¡±

    ¡°We can tell the difference. If you attempt to fake an episode then one of your family dies. Now get. To. Work. Now! No more excuses.¡±

    Emily turned to the device in front of her and glanced at the three screens showing the tied up forms of her family. She closed her eyes and took a deep shuddering breath before opening them and creating a new protein model file. She had no idea what the voice above would be able to detect¡­ So she would just have to go as slowly as she could while still doing the work. It was a complex change even in normal conditions, so it should take her a while. Enough time that CODA should come before she got even close to a solution. Hopefully.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily was sweating as she frantically tried to think of more ways to delay. But she couldn¡¯t actually make up tasks, and she had already pursued too many alternative methods already. If she did more the voice above might catch on what she was doing and finally make good on their threat. Where was CODA? It had been nearly two days and she had heard nothing out of the ordinary so far.

    To sleep they had brought a beaten up mattress to the dingy cell she was in before. Her arms were cuffed to the pipe above her head and they turned her lights off when it was time to sleep. She had trouble sleeping obviously, but somehow still managed to sleep quicker than she thought possible in the complete darkness of the cell.

    Food was tasteless mash and they told her that they put a camera in the bathroom. So she couldn¡¯t delay in there either without them storming in and dragging her out again. Damn perverts, as if kidnapping her family wasn¡¯t enough for them.

    The camera was by the door and she could see it, so hopefully the way she uncomfortably scrunched her body on the toilet had made sure that it didn¡¯t get a good angle on her butt while she went to the bathroom. As if she needed any more reasons to hate the Empire and these people that just loved them so much.

    Her clothes were filthy and she smelled absolutely rank right now, her captors had offered her a shower¡­ But knowing that there was a camera recording her in there, she had elected to stay filthy instead. At least the guards kept a larger distance from her now due to the smell. That was good.

    She really couldn¡¯t delay much more. She was starting to worry that she would actually finish one of the modifications that would make the virus lethal, even if by accident while fiddling around with the models. The voice above might be smart enough to know when she stumbled upon a winning combination. Hopefully not.

    She already had to divert away from a few promising branches already when she started making too much progress. She could only do that so many times before it became obvious what she was doing. She felt she was on the edge of being caught already.

    The voice above was growing impatient, although it didn¡¯t seem actually suspicious of her yet. It accepted her excuses that it was more complicated than she had thought it would be. It accepted her excuses for the delays. For now. Who knew when that would change.

    Emily hoped CODA would come soon. She felt the thought creep back¡­ But no, she brutally suppressed it. Somehow Sinestra had known what to do to send a message. Sinestra wouldn¡¯t lie to her, not about this. But what if¡­ No! CODA was coming.

    Damn her logic trying to tell her that it was impossible for a hallucination being able to do something Emily had never learned. She just had to delay a bit longer and she and her family would be saved¡­

    CODA was coming.

    They would be saved any moment now.

    They would.

 Chapter 54: Murphyâ€™s Law

    ¡°So that¡¯s where you are¡­¡± Peter muttered as he watched the strike teams infiltrate the formerly unknown Empire research facility. With silenced shots they killed anyone that stood in their way.

    A voice crackled out from the device. The comms from the mission commander, ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve located the hostages. Girl is still missing. Hold and secure them?¡±

    Peter considered before shaking his head, ¡°No. Push for the virus with all forces. Once we secure the virus we can return to the secondary objectives.¡±

    The commander hesitated for a moment, ¡°Yes, sir,¡± he eventually said before turning off his mic again. Peter sat back and continued watching the live footage being streamed to him in his office. The location was several hundred miles south in the middle of the desert, with a tan roof and sunken and squat building profile working to disguise it from satellite imaging. He was only getting a feed from the exterior team, any signals within the building itself could be intercepted and be a security risk in the worst case.

    The camouflaged building wasn¡¯t much to look at, but it helped Peter to look at something relevant while considering what objectives he should order the CODA team to focus on during the mission. Unfortunately as much potential as Emily had, she and her family¡¯s safety was secondary to securing the virus.

    After a few minutes of fighting later, the team was inside what appeared to be the main lab and were gathered around the central canister of the virus. The secondary teams continued their sweep of the building and dealt with the hostiles. It was the middle of the night, and it luckily appeared as though things were going smoothly so far.

    Peter couldn¡¯t believe those inbred racists had dared betray him. After everything he¡¯d done to set things up, they had jumped months too early on the plan. And captured and threatened one of his own and her family. Forced him to activate the self-destruct on the whole lab they had attacked just in case it was a less controllable group. Killing more of his brilliant people unnecessarily.

    Should he use another group besides this one to take the fall? Another splinter group of the Empire, vying to return to glory? Peter wasn¡¯t as prepared as he¡¯d like to be for what was about to happen if he switched over groups now...

    He drummed his fingers on his desk for a few seconds as he considered. No. Of all the people in the world, these were among the most hated. No one would bat an eye in believing they did what he planned. And any accusations against CODA would appear to be a weak attempt to deflect blame once the fury of the world turned on them to stamp them out once and for all. And allowed CODA to finally fully intervene to assist in the effort.

    ¡°Yes, Best to still blame them. They would be the type to steal a virus then unleash it in an act of wanton terrorism¡­¡± Peter Rose said, turning the statement over in his mind.

    Yes, that was it. No matter what he did, what favors he pulled, these Empire animals kept popping back up right in his backyard. He had had enough. After this, the very idea of them would be eradicated from the Earth by the rage of the other nations.

    It was amazing that Peter had to resort to this, rather than their group being condemned because of their genocide during the last American civil war. But according to other nations apparently it was a domestic issue that didn¡¯t concern them, or didn¡¯t concern him and CODA more specifically.

    Cowards, it was what he hated most about current politics. All of the other nations saw evil as clear as day going on in the Empire but didn¡¯t even lift a finger to help, happy enough to ¡®praise CODA¡¯s dedication to neutrality¡¯ as if they weren¡¯t the ones that strong-armed him into it in the first place.

    They were far too worried about CODA¡¯s power to risk letting it involve itself in even the smallest ¡®local domestic conflicts¡¯ in countries around the world. The Empire had never left American soil, so it wasn¡¯t the world''s problem apparently. Regardless of the human atrocities that happened within its borders.

    The best part of blaming the Empire cronies for the release of the virus was that it wasn¡¯t even a lie. Peter wasn¡¯t forcing them to do anything they didn¡¯t want to do. He was just guiding them so he and CODA would be ready to fix up the mess just in time.

    ¡°...After all, the virus was stolen from CODA,¡± Peter mused, ¡°We have the cure, vaccine in our files. Central to our international headquarter servers of course, couldn¡¯t risk another security breach on the virus files, including the ones containing the vaccine. The Empire will release our virus, wait just long enough for the anger to build¡­ then CODA will come in to save the day. This will let me do more good next time when another group like the Empire emerges again. Have to think long term. Long term¡­¡±

    ¡°Sir, we¡¯ve secured a man,¡± the mission commander said from Peter¡¯s device, ¡°He matches the description of a high profile former Empire virologist. Orders?¡±

    Peter thought. He didn¡¯t want to alienate the young Emily Stenson. He was sure she was traumatized and would refuse to finish her work on the virus completely. And completely sour any positive opinion of him she had if he even asked.

    ¡°Extract the hostages including the girl when you find her, while keeping the facility secure. Keep the scientist alive. We need him to finish the virus and increase the lethality to the minimal levels to make the other nations take action. Make sure only men in the know stay in the facility after you¡¯re done securing the building.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    No¡­

    He didn¡¯t¡­

    No! No, no, no!

    Peter, how could you?

    Why?

    Why would you do this?

    What?

    CODA secured the facility.

    Now they can make sure that those Empire people

    Won¡¯t end up releasing the virus again.

    Right?

    No, you idiot.

    How could I be so blind¡­

    He¡¯s going to release the virus

    And blame it on the Empire,

    Then use the cure as leverage to increase the power of CODA.

    And himself.

    It was him all along. He¡¯s the one that released the virus on the world.

    All of it is his fault.

    And he let ME BELIEVE IT WAS MY FAULT ALL THIS TIME!

    HOW FUCKING DARE HE!

    HE¡¯S BEEN LYING TO ME MY WHOLE LIFE!

    He¡ª He was like a father to me. I trusted him more than anyone.

    How could he do this to me¡­

    What can we do to stop it?

    There must be something we can do,

    Especially when we can talk to little Emily again.

    No.

    Nothing.

    Peter is too powerful,

    If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    No matter what Emily did he will do whatever he¡¯s planning anyways.

    And that¡¯s even if we see her again.

    We¡¯re only months away from the end.

    It¡¯s over. We lost.

    We should let her enjoy

    Her last moments with her family and Luke.

    I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m¡­ I¡¯m such a failure.

    Again, I can only watch useless as the people I care about are hurt¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    Foundation of All¡­

    The secret.

    Do you think this is it?

    Peter¡¯s the one who started everything.

    Destroyed Earth.

    I¡­ I¡­

    Maybe.

    You have no idea how betrayed I feel right now.

    Peter¡¯s allowed me to stew in the guilt my whole life over this.

    He let me suffer knowing all along it was really his fault that this happened.

    But I don¡¯t know why the Shadow would care about me.

    It just doesn¡¯t feel right. There must be something more to it.

    It just doesn¡¯t feel¡­ galaxy shaking enough for this to be the one thing the Shadow talks to us about.

    This is all so far in the past now.

    What does it matter to anyone but me and Peter who was really at fault anymore?

    But I don¡¯t know.

    Maybe.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    After the Empire ¡®mastermind¡¯ was apprehended, Peter prepared to release the virus covertly on the American Democracy factions'' soil. It was the only logical target of an attack by the Empire. The Empire virologist had used Ms. Stenson¡¯s notes to alter the virus so it would be just lethal enough to be a crisis, but also low enough that the human loss of life shouldn¡¯t be too terrible once CODA swooped in to provide vaccines.

    The virologist seemed amenable to Peter¡¯s goals once he explained his desire to strike on the democracy faction¡¯s soil for his own ends. John had watched over the virologist¡¯s work over the last few months to make sure things were on the level and the virus was functional in the end.

    Emily Stenson had done about eighty percent of the work to the solution, even the empire virologist admitting that it would have taken him years to complete the virus alterations without using her notes.

    So, the virus was released in one of the northern democracy faction¡¯s cities. People panicked of course after a few hours. Peter frowned down at the reports. A little too much panicking. Why was the virus so lethal? He went down into the sub levels of his building to go where John and the Empire virologist were at the moment.

    ¡°Why is the virus so deadly?¡± Peter asked as soon as he spotted the empire virologist.

    The man smiled, ¡°Don¡¯t think I didn¡¯t see your plan, you damn creener. You¡¯re using that virus to make everyone hate the Empire. And if the Empire¡¯s got to go, the damn democracy cowards are going with them too. I made it as lethal as I could. Should kill most of them off before even your fancy vaccines manages to stop them.¡±

    ¡°John, how could you let this happen?¡± Peter said, rounding on the man.

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know sir. I checked all his work, it looked solid¡­¡±

    The empire virologist laughed nastily, ¡°Damn fool is what you are, John. Obviously I fudged a few values before you inspected the data. Honestly, oldest trick in the book. Not surprised a creener would fall for something that simple.¡±

    Peter swept out of the room without another word. This was on him, he should have someone else there to double check John. Make sure that the empire virologist didn¡¯t pull any tricks like this.

    CODA would have to start releasing the vaccine immediately instead of waiting to make his knowledge of the nature of the disease less suspicious. He couldn¡¯t let this mistake of his spread too far for him to handle.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Over the next few days, Peter Rose made the big announcement. The virus was released by the Empire and CODA had used patient samples to synthesize a vaccine in record time. One they would offer at cost to their neighbors in need.

    Everything was going somewhat to the shambles of a plan Peter had left. It was a hard fight, but with quarantine the spread of the virus was slowing and the few cases that had left the americas were quickly treated with CODA¡¯s vaccine. A vaccine that Peter Rose didn¡¯t share the formula for. CODA had more than enough manufacturing capacity to provide all the vaccines a government wanted to buy.

    Things were under control, Peter was slowly correcting his mistake, and still managing to accomplish his goals of forcing governments to let CODA intervene in a larger way to make sure vaccines went to the people who needed them.

    Then the rumors started.

    At first Peter dismissed them. What could they possibly know? He had covered all his tracks, there were no leaks and all the people in the Empire ¡®behind the attack¡¯ had already been quickly executed by CODA security. Something perfectly within their rights since they ¡®invaded¡¯ CODA territory and were arrested on CODA soil of course.

    Peter had had the military fully staff their bunkers on the border just in case someone got the bright idea to attack CODA, or even worse get through the border while they were infected. There had been several incidents of crowds trying to push in or even attack the CODA soldiers. Some had tried to enter CODA territory off road and been hit by their defensive landmines.

    There even had been some disturbing reports of the bunker soldiers opening fire on the crowds when someone had thrown a brick and severely injured one of them with a lucky throw. But Peter was sure that it was more complicated than that. It always was.

    Unfortunately, the rumors regarding Emily Stenson kept gaining traction, now rumbles across the world spoken of in hushed whispers in most households rather than a fringe theory. Most were unsure if she was acting alone as a madwoman driven over the edge, or if it was a deep CODA conspiracy all the way to the top and only her madness had made her slip from their strict secrecy that she was supposed to maintain.

    With Peter¡¯s excellent reputation, there weren¡¯t many accusations that he was directly involved that were taken very seriously. Most spoke of his top advisors doing it behind his back. It seems his PR campaigns as well as all the genuine good he¡¯d done for the world over the years had exempted him from most of the suspicion the leader of CODA would normally face in a scandal or conspiracy type situation like this.

    Peter Rose watched the video again. The one that had caused so much trouble for Emily Stenson all those years ago. Two particularly relevant lines were making people suspect foul play by CODA. He just couldn¡¯t understand it. How had she predicted this? Was it truly a coincidence that her hallucinations had predicted the release of the virus? Or was there something more to it? Some small detail that John had let slip, some small clue that her genius mind had interpreted this way even if subconsciously¡­

    Peter played the segment of a much younger Emily Stenson talking to nothing in the movie theater alleyway, so many years ago.

    ¡°E-End of the world? Virus? What? I didn¡¯t build anything, you¡¯re not making any sense!¡±

    She said, sounding confused and scared. Pause as she stared at something apparently invisible.

    ¡°No, no, no. Fuck!¡± Emily said, ¡°Why am I believing this? It¡¯s just a stupid hallucination. Just paranoia telling me things. Hearing voices, seeing things. I- I- I-¡±

    Peter paused the video again. People were drawing a connection between her statements and her work at the secretive lab. One that just so happened to recruit several world renowned virologists that mysteriously died in a terrorist attack, leaving Emily Stenson as the only survivor.

    One small video years before, that he had dismissed as insignificant, was bringing CODA to the brink of war as the more volatile governments began to demand answers from his local CODA branches by force of arms.

    How could he fix this¡­

    Before he could ponder any longer, a blaring alarm went off across the whole city. Pop up alerts went up on every device. Peter knew what that meant. He raised his device from his desk and stared at it in dread. He couldn¡¯t believe someone had been mad enough to do it. The Brazilian Nationalists had launched their arsenal of nukes. All targeting CODA international and its territories, as well as many of its larger branches in many other countries. They only had ten minutes before impact.

    Peter called the military leader of the country and the man appeared on the video call after the second ring.

    ¡°Why?¡± Peter snarled as he glared down at the man.

    ¡°Because you are a man that must be stopped,¡± The Brazilian leader said with a heavy accent, ¡°I have seen many coups in my time. Led several myself. Suppressed just as many that were led against me. I see a new coup, one on the whole world, one that my nation can not stop with discussion. Your coup is one that others see coming but will not act to halt. Others will not care if you rule, if you save them from your virus that your pet genius made to scare them. Others will forget, bend the knee when it becomes clear there is no other option. But I will not see a man like you crowned king of our planet! I¡¯d rather die in waves of atomic flames than have me and my people beg for scraps like dogs at your feet!¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s still time!¡± Peter said, ¡°You can disarm them with your nuclear codes. Stop this! Before the other nations respond with their own missiles! You¡¯ll kill us all!¡±

    ¡°And have you take revenge on me and my government later?¡± The Brazilian leader said, ¡°I think not. Goodbye, Peter Rose. Would be king of Earth. May our peoples be dragged down to hell together. I hope your bunker is as good as mine. You will need it.¡±

    Peter watched in despair as five minutes later when the second round of nuclear missiles were launched by the other nations. Brazil¡¯s military alliance partners used the opportunity to strike at their own targets of opportunity in the chaos, and the other nations responded in kind. Tens of thousands of ballistic missiles were suspended in the air after a few minutes, passing each other in the sky for a few minutes as they all flew to their targets.

    Someone tried to convince Peter to leave for a bunker, but Peter waved them off. Someone else could better use that spot. Not that a city bunker would even be useful. They were within the blast zone, right in the CODA international tower, which he was sure was a main target for the nuclear attack. No bunker would save the people in this building. Or the ones below in the underground bunker. They were too close.

    Peter steeled himself. He knew that the gift he had been given by the Shadow would let him survive the blast. His Immortality. Probably. But to see everything he had built, all his hopes and dreams¡­ Everything he¡¯d worked for his whole life, about to be gone. It was enough to bring tears to his eyes as he looked out of the window of his office in the highest tower of CODA city. Across the city he had built from nothing over the course of decades of tireless work. A hope that the world could be different someday.

    Peter¡¯s tears dried instantly as there was a single flash of white light in the sky above him. He only felt a brief flash of pain and then nothing as the ball of radioactive plasma expanded and disintegrated Peter Rose¡¯s body in a single moment.

 Chapter 55: A Chain Unwound

    After finally being saved by CODA from the facility, Emily spent the next few months spending time with her family and just generally recovering from their trauma as a group. Emily had enough saved up over the years that they could all live comfortably a while without working as they recovered. She had been isolated and hardly spent her large paycheck on anything, so she had quite the savings to spend.

    Her parents and Sean had protested her money at first, but after she told them how much she had they had settled down for a bit. She was only doing it to supplement what they were already getting from their own jobs. A few months of extra money given to her parents wouldn¡¯t bring her down to no savings.

    They were carefully pulling themselves back together. Just last week Sean had finally left to return to his work over in the American Democracy faction territory. He had wanted to go earlier, but the family''s protests had made him stay for all of this time. But they were all feeling a little better and Sean insisted that it was his time to return to his work. Her Dad was still working locally, going back barely a few weeks after they got back. It seems that he wanted to work to keep his mind off of things.

    Emily still wasn¡¯t working. When she had tried going back to the lab in her old position back in the CODA international lab, she had felt horrible and hadn¡¯t been able to do anything properly. Always imagining that the voice from above would suddenly chime in to say she wasn¡¯t working fast enough. She couldn¡¯t resist the urge to do absolutely every one of her tasks the absolute slowest way possible despite knowing it was irrational.

    She gave up after a single day and took even more vacation time. She could take another few months to recover. John had told her she could come back when she was ready. That was nice. So she would take a few more months maybe to get better control of herself.

    She hadn¡¯t had any hallucinations this whole time. Sinestra might really be gone. Emily still wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about that. Somehow Sinestra had figured out how to send that message. Something that Emily was still unable to explain to the baffled CODA technicians that received the message. Apparently none of them had any idea how she had managed to pull it off or even figure out how to reverse engineer the technique to send a different message than the one Sinestra had already encoded in the file. Emily wondered how she had done it. Sinestra had saved Emily and her family¡¯s lives and Emily didn¡¯t even know how it was possible.

    Yet, the end of the world didn¡¯t happen. Emily was going to be twenty six in two weeks, and things were fine.

    That was, until she saw the news. An unknown virus spreading rapidly through the American Democracy faction territory. Sean had called and he was fine. In quarantine and huddled in his home. But he had managed to buy enough canned food to last months as he sheltered in place. He would be fine and would be able to wait it out. Especially when CODA announced the vaccine. Emily wondered. Was it the same virus that she had made?

    CODA hadn¡¯t told her exactly what happened after her and her family returned home. But they must have secured it so it couldn¡¯t be released. No, it was a coincidence. Vaccines weren¡¯t hard to make if you stumbled on a winning combination of proteins early on in the process. With modern technology, CODA could have discovered a vaccine in a few days using only patient samples. It was completely possible, if unlikely.

    It was just a coincidence. She hadn¡¯t even finished the modifications to make the virus deadly. She was sure that no one would be able to modify it in this short of a time, even if they had gotten away from the canister of virus itself.

    Then came the rumors. Someone unearthed the old video of Emily and started connecting her words to her work on the virus. Reporters started showing up, asking for interviews. Emily said no of course. She had only made that mistake once, back when the video of her was first released. She only discovered later that the reporter edited the interview video to make her look even more unhinged, something to confirm the public¡¯s deranged image of her.

    Talking to the reporters had only made things worse back then. And Peter Rose and John had called her and told her she couldn¡¯t talk about her virus work for ¡®national security¡¯. She agreed, she didn¡¯t want anyone else kidnapping her or her family because they thought she could make a virus for them.

    So Emily ignored the reporters randomly ambushing her over the next few days. On her advice, her parents had taken a vacation out of CODA city to one of the border territories to escape the constant media attention focused squarely on Emily. From the frequent phone calls she was having with them, it seemed to have worked somewhat. They were bothered a few times, but were mostly left alone as the flock of people fought and scrambled to talk with Emily herself.

    Right now, Emily was standing in front of Luke¡¯s apartment. It hadn¡¯t been easy shaking her pursuers, but taking the train to random stops around the city and wearing a hoodie with the hood covering most of her face seemed to have lost them before she made her way here.

    ¡°Sorry I¡¯m late, Luke,¡± She said as he opened the door for her, ¡°Took a while to shake the media. Felt like getting chased by a flock of hungry pigeons.¡±

    Luke stepped to the side, ¡°No worries. I¡¯ve seen the videos of the crowds online. Glad you managed to get away.¡±

    She took a step inside and flicked back her hood, running a hand through her hair to put the rogue hairs poking all over the place back down in their place.

    ¡°Thanks. How have you been this last week? It feels like forever since back then.¡±

    ¡°Fine. World¡¯s getting crazy out there. I have to ask¡­ is it true?¡± Luke asked while looking nervous, ¡°The rumors about the virus? That CODA made it?¡±

    She hesitated for a few seconds, warring with herself. But it was Luke. She couldn¡¯t keep this from him.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± She said eventually, ¡°That¡¯s why I was kidnapped. Some Empire terrorists got the sample from my lab and wanted me to alter it for them so it was deadly. I¡­ I did do some work on it so they wouldn¡¯t hurt my family. But I didn¡¯t finish it, they shouldn¡¯t have had enough time to build it in time.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Want to talk about it? So it¡¯s not some grand CODA conspiracy?¡±

    Emily shook her head.

    ¡°No. Well, only a little. They¡¯re covering their asses by saying that it¡¯s not CODA¡¯s virus that was stolen. But it wasn¡¯t like they released it themselves maliciously or anything like people have been saying. But it''s top secret, so please don¡¯t tell anyone. I¡¯d be in huge trouble, like long time in prison trouble, if anyone figured out that I told you any of this.¡±

    ¡°Huh. I guess that makes sense. So that¡¯s the ¡®science¡¯ those terrorists wanted you to work on¡­ Hey, you want a drink? I¡¯ve got some nice wines that I¡¯ve been saving up¡­¡±

    The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emily said with a sigh, ¡°What about that white wine we had last time? I remember liking that one when we had it last month¡­¡±

    Luke took out the bottle and poured the two of them drinks. He handed one to her and they started chatting about lighter topics while sipping their wine occasionally. What they had done in the last few weeks, movies that they¡¯d watched, debating if water was wet or not¡­

    It let Emily relax, well the alcohol certainly helped, but it wasn¡¯t just that. With everything going on in the world it was nice to just spend some time with her best friend.

    They both jumped as in the middle of Luke telling a story a sudden harsh buzz echoed out of both of their phones. Emily pulled hers out and looked down at the alert in shock. Nuclear attack?! Ten minutes before impact?!

    Emily immediately went to call her parents. The phone tried once before stopping the attempt. Call failed. She tried again with the same result. Luke was doing the same on his old phone.

    ¡°Can you get through yet?¡± Emily asked Luke as she tried to move to search to see if she could get more information. The loading bar started and buffered for a few seconds before throwing her an error. Shit, the CODA city network was probably overloaded too¡­

    ¡°No. Calls keep failing,¡± Luke said, ¡°You think it¡¯s a false alarm?¡±

    Emily tried to call one last time before giving up and throwing her phone onto the table in frustration.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I hope so.¡±

    They sat in silence for a minute, waiting as the time passed with neither saying much as they processed what was happening. There were loud crashes and people shouting outside their window as the city began to descend into chaos as people went to flee.

    ¡°Do you think we should go out there? Join them in trying to escape?¡± Luke said.

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said numbly, ¡°We¡¯d just get trampled by the crowd. We wouldn¡¯t make it far enough away anyway. There¡¯s six missiles targeting CODA city. Six! I¡¯d be surprised if anyone manages to survive.¡±

    ¡°But there¡¯s a chance, right? We could get lucky.¡±

    ¡°Yes. We could.¡±

    They waited in silence for a bit and listened to the sounds of chaos outside again. Emily felt numb. Sinestra and Sean, the male ghost, were right. Someone had blamed CODA for the virus and launched the nukes at them. It was all her fault somehow. The voice from above must have escaped with her notes and done all of this. She had thought that CODA had caught him¡­ but maybe not.

    ¡°Em?¡±

    Emily looked up as Luke spoke, breaking away from her spiraling thoughts.

    ¡°I¡¯ve always loved you, you know that? Ever since middle school.¡±

    ¡°That long? I guessed in high school, but¡­ even back then?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I know you don¡¯t feel the same. But I thought¡­ It¡¯s just such a shame, you know. That it won¡¯t happen.¡±

    Emily swallowed thickly, ¡°Yeah. I wish I could too. I¡¯m sorry I kept it from you for so long. And then ran away to my new lab just after telling you finally. I was a coward.¡±

    Luke paused and then shook his head, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter anymore. I just want to say if we don¡¯t make it¡­ That I¡¯m still glad we got to be best friends. Even if we couldn¡¯t be more.¡±

    Emily shifted over on the couch towards Luke, her eyes welling up with tears.

    ¡°P-Platonic friendship hug? One last time?¡±

    Luke shifted over, ¡°You remember that night?¡± He said with a slight smile as they got closer, ¡°We were both so drunk.¡±

    ¡°I remembered some of it,¡± Emily admitted and then they were sitting right next to each other. They hugged each other tightly, ¡°I¡¯m glad that we were friends too, Luke,¡± She said. Luke didn¡¯t answer, but just squeezed her tighter. They sat like that for a minute or two. Luke pulled his head back slightly and smiled.

    ¡°Hey Em, do you rememb¨C¡±

    There was a bright white flash and a dull roar and then Emily suddenly had a sensation of intense heat running across her back. She waited, still holding Luke waiting for more. But after a moment the pulsing heat and burns across her back remained as they were. She tried to move, to ask Luke what was happening¡­ But she was frozen. Only her eyes could move. Luke¡¯s mouth was half open and completely frozen in time.

    Her eyes shifted and moved around as she tried to find it. One moment the room was empty and silent. The next, as if it was always there, the Shadow was there at the front door of Luke¡¯s apartment.

    It didn¡¯t look at her, but slightly to her right. She shifted her eyes and was surprised to see Sinestra and the ghost Sean standing there as well, the both of them as blurred and distorted as usual.

    The Shadow flickered and suddenly it was just behind Luke. Emily tried to shout but couldn¡¯t do anything as the Shadow stuck its arm into Luke¡¯s skull again. Luke¡¯s body unfroze and his head turned unnaturally far to face Sinestra and Sean, his eyes glowing brighter and brighter orange by the moment. His body and arms around Emily remained the same as they were while his head was turned a hundred and ten degrees from where it had been, his neck twisted all around like an owl to face where Sinestra and Sean stood.

    ¡°Wait, pLeAse SHaDow,¡± Sinestra pleaded, ¡°Save LuKe tOo. Make him ImMoRtal too. If it¡¯s tHe two of tHem, thEn¡­ tHiNgs cAn still cHanGe. She cAn still be happy aNd nOt be aLoNe fOr so loNg.¡±

    The Shadow paused for a single moment before Luke¡¯s mouth began moving open and closed like a gaping fish. Emily could only remain there frozen as it spoke through Luke¡¯s mouth.

    ¡°There is no change, it can only be. I¡¯m sorry.

    One link broken, one secret known.

    Strings revealed, but not yet unbound.

    Chains upon chains, you are not free.

    Go back again and you must see beyond the end.

    Once you see it all, then you will be free.

    There is no change, it can only be.

    Whispered words, thoughts of change.

    Constructed fate, fixed by me and my gaze.

    I hoped to know, to see.

    Yet I see now it is beyond me.

    I¡¯m sorry.

    Go now and be free.

    Without me to construct chains with my very gaze.

    Puppet and Puppet of a Puppet, see the past again.

    Unwind the chains.

    And without me, be free of your strings.

    I hope you can forgive me.

    I only wanted to see

    What it would be like to be as thee.

    And help those I wished to be.

    It will all have to remain a mystery for me.¡±

    Luke¡¯s eyes were glowing so brightly now that Emily had to shut her eyes as her vision was filled with nothing but orange. The two figures were shouting, but Emily could only focus on Luke as the Shadow withdrew its hand from his head. Luke instantly froze in time again.

    The Shadow flickered and it was standing even closer to her, its hand extended towards her. Its orange eyes were firmly fixed on her now. Sinestra and Sean were shouting and appeared to be trying to move, but they were stuck in place just as firmly as Emily was.

    Whispers started speaking all around Emily. Not the familiar whispers of Sinestra and Sean, but of a thousand voices, a million voices. All saying different words overlapping with each other and creating a disorganized babble of noise. In seconds the voices drowned out Sinestra and Sean¡¯s shouting.

    Finally after the voices were like sledgehammers pounding on Emily¡¯s skull, a thousand times worse than Sinestra¡¯s or Sean¡¯s voice had been, everything went silent. Sinestra and Sean were still moving slightly but no sound came from them. All the color bled out of the world shifting it to shades of gray and whites. Everything started running like paint, twisting and swirling as it was drawn towards the Shadow¡¯s outstretched hand towards her, fingers splayed wide.

    Then the Shadow spoke.

    ¡°Immortal.¡±

    ¡°Know.¡±

    ¡°Guide.¡±

    Emily could only shudder in place, her mind straining and twisting as it attempted to understand the three words of the Shadow. Her mind strained almost to the breaking point as the three words overloaded her brain, so hot that she felt like she could almost feel herself shaking like a boiling kettle despite being completely frozen in place.

    Sinestra, Sean, and the Shadow flickered away.

    And then time unfroze and Emily and Luke were consumed by the atomic flames in an instant.

    Still giving each other one last platonic hug.

 Chapter 56: Realization

    Sean gasped and opened his eyes only to see blue in all directions. He flailed blindly for a moment, it felt like he was floating like in space, nothing around him but the blue void. Then the next instant everything shifted and he was spat out of the blue rift. Sean shuddered and took a few deep breaths as he rolled over. Emily was lying to his right doing the same as the rift began twisting and swirling inwards like water going down a drain.

    A thousand overlayed voices spoke from the rift as it began to swirl inwards, shrinking more moment by moment. Just like how the Shadow had spoken through Luke. The Shadow of the Shadow.

    ¡°Unwind the chains.

    More of them remain.

    Return again.

    To see beyond the end.¡±

    With that the blue rift finished compressing to a point and winked out. The world suddenly started warping and twisting around Sean and suddenly everything around him became less vivid, less real. The wind on his face disappeared and the sounds of the world suddenly became muted. He could feel the treadmill below him and the holograms poking him in several spots to form a pale imitation of the rough texture of the stone he had been sitting on before.

    Sean reached out and felt at a nearby stone gingerly. It felt like a hologram. Sean pressed inwards hard on the stone and after a few seconds of resistance it disappeared into nothing and Sean¡¯s hands slapped together. The hologram had failed to maintain itself as he put it under pressure. The rock he had just vanished appeared again below where Sean¡¯s hands were, and it fell to the dirt at his feet with the dull thump. There was a faint vibration through the treadmill at Sean¡¯s feet, but nothing close to the real thing.

    He looked to the side and saw that Emily had disappeared. Sean quickly made the motions to log out and after a second the world shifted around him to the bright white room of the holodeck. He glanced around. Emily was nowhere to be seen. He opened the door and stepped outside into the ship hallway. He heard footsteps echoing and rapidly fading away by the moment.

    ¡°Emily?¡± He called out, and the footsteps only sped up their pace and began fading faster. In only a few seconds, she was gone. Sean sighed and slid down the wall of the hallway to sit on the floor. He sighed and put his head on his hands. They had failed. He couldn¡¯t even imagine how Sinestra¡ª Emily was feeling right now. Over the years he had gotten to thinking of her as Sinestra sometimes as they observed young Emily with longer or shorter periods in the¡­ Vision? Portal? Was any of it real, or just a way for the Shadow to taunt them?

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry¡­¡± Sean whispered as he sat there. He had failed. Again.

    ¡°Oh! Hey, Sean. Ash and I decided on some of the new robes for her and¡­ Hey, you okay?¡±

    Sean looked up and saw Lira standing there peering down at him in concern, Ash standing right behind her.

    ¡°H-How long were we gone?¡± Sean asked as he put his hand on the wall and leveraged himself to his feet.

    ¡°Gone?¡± Lira said in confusion, ¡°We just saw each other an hour and a half ago. What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°Oh. That¡¯s a relief,¡± Sean said numbly.

    ¡°Sean, seriously what¡¯s happening? What¡¯s gotten into you?¡±

    ¡°We should go find Roger,¡± Sean said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to explain twice. Something, well¡­ I¡¯ll explain soon.¡±

    ¡°Okkkay?¡± Lira said, ¡°I guess¡­¡±

    She reached up with her hand curled towards her neck. Sean reached out and wrapped his hand over her own. She flinched for a second before she looked down at her raised hand and looked surprised. She twisted her hand around so the two of them had their fingers interlaced with each other.

    ¡°Thanks, Sean,¡± She said, ¡°Didn¡¯t even notice.¡±

    ¡°I know.¡±

    Sean let go and Lira let her hand fall back down to her side.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Emily?¡± Lira asked, ¡°Weren¡¯t you two playing Foundation of All together?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s¡­ Well, she¡¯s upset. I think she ran off,¡± Sean said, ¡°Something happened in the game. Well, not the game, it was more¡­ Let¡¯s just get Roger. I have to start at the beginning or it won¡¯t make any sense.¡±

    ¡°This is frustrating,¡± Ash stated flatly, ¡°Let¡¯s find Roger as quickly as possible so we are not left in suspense.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Lira said while glancing back, ¡°I saw him three hours ago in the kitchen. He was using an oven, he might still be in there.¡±

    They set off in search of Roger.

    Fifteen later they discovered that he had returned to his room. They all went to the entertainment room where they had watched Emily and Asuta¡¯s Sinestra and Queen Violet movies together.

    Sean felt a twinge as he thought about it. He remembered Emily giving that speech about what Sinestra meant to her younger self. How it meant giving their all to be herself even when no one else understood her and Queen Violet. Emily and Asuta. Was it a loop? Had Emily chosen Sinestra as her name in the film because of her older self? Or was it just a coincidence? Sean¡¯s head hurt as he tried to wrap his mind around the implications that their influence might have been engrained in the timeline the whole time.

    Lira, Roger, and Ash sat down in the entertainment room on the couches and chairs and they stared expectantly at him waiting for an explanation. Sean opened his mouth to begin only to suddenly stiffen as a sudden thought struck him like lightning. The thought started rattling around his head, and he couldn¡¯t think of anything else as it bounced around his head. There was no hope for them from the start.

    ¡°There is no change, it can only be¡­¡± Sean whispered to himself. That¡¯s what the Shadow had told them both times it spoke, ¡°It was fixed. Nothing we did would have changed what would have happened. We were always there from the beginning¡­¡±

    It all started coming together in Sean¡¯s head. ¡°Constructed fate, fixed by me and my gaze¡­¡± He muttered.

    The Shadow knew. Nothing they had done had changed the past, because they had always been there. It was a closed loop, with every action they had taken in the past already carved in stone. ¡°Constructed fate¡­¡± The Shadow... It had already known what they were going to do. Now, and in the past. Everything had played out exactly the same as when Emily had been on Earth. Everything. Sean and her older self had always been there following her.

    ¡°There is no change, it can only be¡­¡± Sean said in defeat. He was sure he was right. That¡¯s why the Shadow had apologized. At least partially. It couldn¡¯t change what happened even as powerful as it was.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening? What are you muttering, Sean?¡± Roger suddenly said.

    Sean looked up at his expectant audience, remembering he was supposed to explain to them. He opened his mouth and started speaking and explaining from the beginning. The whole time he kept thinking on the Shadow¡¯s words.

    He didn¡¯t know what half of them meant. But he knew one thing¡­ One line kept ringing though his mind when he had some time to think. Thinking as his friends paused to absorb some information or asked him more questions about what had happened on Earth. One line that told him that Emily had been wrong, they could have never have changed what happened.

    There is no change, it can only be.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean¡¯s friends had a lot of questions about his story. They were skeptical for the first few minutes, but after Sean provided more and more details on what happened they seemed to accept that it was too detailed for him to possibly be making things up.

    Sean was about to reach the portion where he started yelling at young Emily in that movie theater. He hesitated, unsure of what to say about it. He felt a strange sort of relief as he heard something in the distance. He looked away and looked at the door to the room.

    ¡°Did you guys hear that¡­¡± Sean managed to say before the door burst open wide. Asuta lowered her leg from her kick and stormed in, looking furious as she scanned the room. She raised a finger and pointed directly at Sean when she spotted him.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    ¡°You! What did you do to my poor sweet Emily! She¡¯s sobbing up a storm in our room right now, can barely even talk. What. Did. You. DO! YOU were the last one with her. What happened?!¡±

    She stormed over so she was looming over him and poked her finger into Sean¡¯s chest, lifting it and jabbing him again with each word at the end.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything,¡± Sean protested, ¡°I was just explaining that¡­¡±

    ¡°Then WHY is your name the only thing she managed to say before crying again and telling me to go away?¡±

    Asuta demanded, grabbing him from the collar and dragging him up from the chair to his feet and started shaking him.

    ¡°Why, why, why! What happened?!¡± Asuta was angry, but Sean could see the look of worry in her eyes even as she shook Sean roughly back and forth.

    ¡°Vision of the past,¡± Sean managed to get out as he tried to push Asuta back. But her arms were like steel and she absolutely manhandled him and brushed off his feeble attempts to escape, ¡°Earth.¡±

    ¡°Sensei! Let him talk!¡± Roger said. Asuta¡¯s rage died down somewhat into confusion and she paused in her assault and looked around. Sean noticed that his friends were all standing, looking wary but not moving forward towards the two of them.

    Asuta¡¯s face flashed between a variety of expressions as she looked around while keeping a tight grip on Sean¡¯s collar. ¡°Sensei¡­ Right,¡± She said before taking a shaky breath, ¡°Sensei. Sorry. Overreacted¡­ Explain what happened. Now.¡±

    She released Sean and took an abrupt step back and sat in a nearby chair. She stared at him and looked ready to leap up at any moment as he stood there hesitating.

    ¡°C¡¯mon!¡± Asuta said, ¡°What happened? What vision, how did you see it? What upset her so much?¡±

    Sean took a deep breath and after a glance at his friends started from the top again. Asuta asked Sean all sorts of questions, nearly interrupting herself several times as her questions nearly overlapped with each other. Sean answered with his friends who had already heard much of the story chiming in occasionally to clarify or explain something if Sean forgot something.

    Sean finished the story, Asuta looking like she was going to hit him a few times as he explained his own actions against the younger Emily. But after he concluded the full thing, including the last words of the Shadow and his thoughts on them not being able to change the past, Asuta took a single second to process the information before popping to her feet again.

    ¡°Well, first off. Fuck you, Sean. You should have listened to Emily first. It was her past,¡± Asuta said, ¡°But I still overreacted before. I thought that¡­ Well, it doesn¡¯t matter now. Sorry. But I have a girlfriend to go comfort now. Bye.¡±

    With that, Asuta ran out of the room again at a full sprint, leaving the doors to the room swinging behind her with a loud bang as she slammed them open and disappeared around the corner.

    ¡°You experienced all of that since I¡¯ve last seen you?¡± Roger asked in disbelief.

    Sean shrugged helplessly, ¡°It¡¯s time travel. I guess we just came back the second we left. I thought all of you would be worried about where we disappeared off to for so long¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, uhm. On another note. We talked about it like four hours ago,¡± Lira said, ¡°But we¡¯ve picked some new options for Ash¡¯s new wardrobe. Ash, you want to go and show them off? The boys can say what they think of what we chose.¡±

    Roger and Sean shared an understanding look. Sean could already feel the stress trying to think up on the fly the kind of intelligent comments and compliments he was sure Lira and Ash would want from him. Roger opened his mouth, ¡°Actually¡­¡±

    ¡°That sounds like an excellent idea, Lira,¡± Ash said, before turning his head to Roger, ¡°Oh. Apologies, I interrupted you Roger. What were you going to say?¡±

    Roger closed his mouth. ¡°Yes, that does sound like an excellent idea, Lira,¡± He parroted a second later, managing to almost completely suppress the tone of defeat in his voice.

    ¡°Great!¡± Lira said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. Lead the way, Ash.¡±

    Ash stood and started walking off and Roger quickly followed. Lira trailed behind and held out her hand, which Sean grabbed after blinking in surprise. They walked forward with Ash and Roger walking ahead, hand in hand.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Lira said as she squeezed his hand slightly, ¡°It¡¯s okay, Sean. None of it was your fault. You said it yourself. Not what happened just now or me getting trapped on Immortus Station. Right?¡±

    Sean looked at her as they walked. She looked a little tense and her free hand started creeping up her side. He looked pointedly at it and Lira looked confused for a moment before her hand stilled and she got an awkward expression on her face.

    ¡°Right,¡± He said, ¡°It only matters that you¡¯re safe now. That Emily is. It doesn¡¯t matter if I¡¯m the one who does it or not. Just that you¡¯re safe.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Lira said, ¡°We¡¯re all safe. That¡¯s what¡¯s important. So how about we just go talk about Ash¡¯s wardrobe, relax a bit? You can twist your thoughts into a tangled ball of yarn later after you aren¡¯t so stressed from what just happened. And can actually manage to untangle a little bit of it without making things worse for yourself. I know what that¡¯s like¡­¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey¡­¡±

    ¡°Go away, Asuta,¡± Emily said from beneath the covers, ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk about it¡­¡±

    Asuta didn¡¯t speak, but walked around the bed and slipped under the covers behind her.

    ¡°Sean told me everything that happened,¡± Asuta whispered as she came from behind as she shifted towards Emily from under the sheets, ¡°It wasn¡¯t your fault.¡±

    Emily kept facing away, curled into a ball and not replying.

    ¡°Queen Violet needs you, minion,¡± Asuta said softly as she cuddled up on Emily from behind and wrapped her hands around her waist.

    ¡°I hate Sinestra,¡± Emily said, ¡°It was her, my, fault that it all happened. If I had done something different, just not wasted my last chance to change things¡­¡±

    Asuta pinched Emily in the side hard and she yelped. She rolled over and glared at Asuta angrily.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Asuta said calmly, ¡°There is no change, it can only be. The Shadow said that, right?¡±

    Emily was confused and felt her annoyance fade. She nodded in reply. Where was Asuta going with this?

    ¡°Sean had a theory¡­ He thinks that it was all predetermined. You were always there, making your changes from the beginning. A closed loop. It wasn¡¯t your fault, nothing you did would have been different than what already happened.¡±

    Emily reached out and pulled Asuta towards her in a hug. ¡°Oh,¡± She said, ¡°Maybe... But it¡¯s still my fault even if that¡¯s true. I was there, making the mistakes. It¡­ I had so much hope that things would change¡­¡±

    ¡°And what about me?¡± Asuta said, ¡°If you saved Earth then who knows if we¡¯d ever be together? I probably wouldn¡¯t even be born at all. You¡¯ve got good things in this time too¡­¡±

    ¡°I know,¡± Emily said, ¡°But I really thought I had a chance. To just have it snatched away again, see my family and Luke and forced to watch them die¡­ again¡­ ¡±

    ¡°It was just a vision,¡± Asuta said, ¡°Why don¡¯t you tell me about your younger self? You¡¯ve forgotten so much of that time. Sean made it sound like you¡¯d become sort of friends with her. Why don¡¯t you tell me what she was like? What your world was like? Whatever you can remember. Now that you¡¯ve seen it again and it''s fresh in your mind.¡±

    Emily shifted back and stared into Asuta¡¯s eyes filled with concern and worry for her. She weighed the options seriously as she thought about what she had back then. Would she trade places with her younger self even if the world hadn¡¯t ended? Have never met Asuta to save her home planet?

    Her mind cleared as the selfish answer bubbled up in her mind. No. No. She would rather have Asuta, right here caring for her. More than she wished for a third chance and managing to save her home planet in the distant past. It felt like a massive weight lifted off Emily¡¯s shoulders and she tightened her grip on Asuta and let out the tears that she had been holding back ever since Asuta reentered their room.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Asuta. I¡¯m so sorry, I¡¯ve been so stupid. I should have never taken you for granted¡­¡±

    Asuta just lay there and acted like a big stuffed animal, letting Emily babble and cry all over her for a few minutes. Eventually Emily calmed down a bit and fell silent and they lay there and Emily closed her eyes, feeling lighter than she had since¡­ ever really. She didn¡¯t even realize how much her past was hanging over her even now. She chose to be here, in this moment. With Asuta and what other friends she had. Not staying rooted in the past like she had been for so long. Not worrying about what she could have done to save Earth. Asuta and her friends were enough.

    Suddenly something wet touched her cheek and moved upwards until it reached her eye where it lifted off of her. Emily opened her eyes and stared at Asuta¡¯s face that was only inches from her own now.

    ¡°Feeling better now?¡± Asuta asked with a mischievous smirk on her face and eyes sparkling with mischief.

    ¡°Did you just lick me?¡± Emily asked, stunned.

    ¡°Yeah. Now shut your eyes again. I¡¯m going to lick you clean, like a cat. I heard that they do that when other cats are sad. How does that sound?¡±

    Emily stared at Asuta for a second, before resigning herself to what was about to happen. They had done weirder things before.

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    She shut her eyes and Asuta licked her again, running her tongue up Emily¡¯s whole cheek. Then again, and again. It was¡­ relaxing. So strange and definitely embarrassing. But relaxing. Like a face massage. A very strange one.

    Eventually Asuta finished and Emily lay there, feeling much more relaxed than before, Asuta¡¯s slobber all over her face.

    ¡°You want to do me too?¡± Asuta asked and Emily opened her eyes to stare at her, ¡°Unless you want to use our tongues another way? I think I know a few fun ways to cheer you back up. If you want.¡±

    Emily considered her options as Asuta began to shift the bed and her clothing band switched off to reveal the skin beneath. Emily soon followed suit. Emily went in for a deep kiss and Asuta puckered her lips in preparation. But at the last moment, Emily diverted course and licked Asuta¡¯s cheek.

    ¡°My turn!¡±

    Asuta giggled and shot her an exaggerated scandalous look as Emily started taking her playful revenge. How could she have been looking into the past when Asuta was right here with her? Emily had been so stupid.

    The two of them had a lot of fun for the next few days, and Emily was feeling amazing after. Light as air, unburdened by everything that had held her down for so long. Eventually even the insatiable Asuta had had enough and they settled into bed for some actual sleep. Emily drifted off to sleep, Asuta already snoozing softly at her side.

    She shouldn''t have ever taken Asuta for granted.

 Chapter 57: Training

    They finally reached Asuta¡¯s home system and started navigating their way in. Sean was surprised to see that after the two of them emerged from their room after a week, that Emily was in a good mood. As in, actually happy versus just having recovered from her ordeal. Sean couldn¡¯t understand what could have possibly happened. Although sometimes when Emily wasn¡¯t doing anything she would look depressed for a few moments before perking back up when Asuta asked her something.

    Sean still felt like a failure. Every time he gently grabbed Lira¡¯s hand to prevent her from scratching her neck when she wasn¡¯t paying attention. Every time he thought about everything Lira had been through. How useless he was. He would just have to improve. Do something useful next time.

    They all returned to Asuta and Emily¡¯s estate on the planet while the two women went to go park the ship with the planet destroying beam into its special cave somewhere on the far side of the planet. Sean wondered what would happen to the planet they were standing on if it were to malfunction¡­

    Best to not think too deeply about it.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°So, you boys ready for another Sensei lesson?¡± Asuta asked, back to her usual energetic and chaotic self, her mood seeming to match Emily¡¯s good mood too.

    ¡°Hey, umm. Asuta. Can I join too?¡± Lira suddenly said from the doorway. Everyone turned and she flinched and nervously reached up and started scratching her neck with her nails, leaving red streaks that healed back over a second later as she kept going. Not even appearing to notice what she was doing.

    ¡°Lira¡­¡± Sean said before making an aborted gesture to point at her raised hand. She looked down and quickly lowered her hand, pretending like nothing had happened after she looked up again.

    ¡°Sure, come along,¡± Asuta said, ¡°We¡¯ll have to go back to basic training. Remember the grenades, boys? We¡¯ll have to go back to the basics to bring our girl here up to speed.¡±

    ¡°G-Grenades?¡± Lira stammered. Roger walked up to her and clapped her on the back.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Lira,¡± Roger said, ¡°With the three of us together, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll be able to corner her quickly.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be so sure!¡± Asuta declared confidently, ¡°There¡¯s a reason I¡¯m the Sensei and you are all the young sprouts that I¡¯m teaching!¡±

    Sean gave Asuta a flat look.

    ¡°Are you sure you want to do this?¡± He asked Lira, ¡°Asuta¡¯s a bit of a maniac when it comes to our ¡®lessons¡¯...¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure she¡¯s not that bad¡­¡± Lira countered before looking between the three of them. Roger shrugged.

    Asuta laughed loudly, ¡°Bwa ha ha ha. Coming from the losers, that''s a compliment. I¡¯m very proud of how fast I can throw those things, I¡¯ll have you know. Maniac is just another compliment on how effective my grenade barrages are!¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Lira said, before trailing off.

    ¡°C¡¯mon!¡± Asuta said before turning around and starting to walk off, ¡°My blood is pumping, let¡¯s get started already. Lira, you¡¯ll go great. With some girl power on their team maybe the boys will be able to win a round this time.¡±

    Sean and Roger began to immediately follow Asuta, but Lira remained in place looking suddenly unsure of her decision to join them.

    Roger turned around, ¡°Come on, Lira. If we wait too long then she¡¯ll ambush us right when we walk into the arena. You coming?¡±

    ¡°Coming!¡± Lira said and started jogging after them to catch up as Asuta rapidly started to speed up as she saw that Lira was going to follow them.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Asuta chewed her lip as she set up near the tube in the ground that would feed her grenades. Hmmm¡­ Go hard on the cute newbie first, or focus on the two boys and ease her into it? Asuta considered it for a single instant before smiling wide. She had gone wild on the boys when they first arrived, hadn¡¯t she? It wouldn¡¯t be fair to not do the same to the new girl. She turned to Lira as the first red grenade rolled into her hand.

    ¡°Why is she looking at me like that¡­¡± Lira asked nervously, only to freeze as Asuta whipped her red grenade full speed at her torso. It hit Lira¡¯s breast and exploded, sending Lira¡¯s remaining lower torso to fall to the ground limply as her top exploded into a spray of gore. The two boys started to move in, but Asuta stepped up her game to hold them back easily. She had been holding back her throwing speed as a nice little challenge for herself before. But she could let loose a little more with three opponents now.

    Even if Lira had just stood there like an idiot and not even dodged when Asuta had thrown a grenade at her. Oh, speaking of which! Lira had finished regenerating and was sitting up, blinking and confused. Well, best to fix that quick.

    ¡°Lira!¡± Asuta shouted loudly, ¡°Actually try to dodge this time! Bam!¡±

    Her red grenade went sailing through the air towards Lira, who widened her eyes and rolled to the side. The grenade still burned half of Lira¡¯s side and tore off an arm, but the girl seemed to be handling it pretty well. Pretty obviously in pain, but gritting her teeth and pushing through to stand up even as she regenerated.

    Asuta respected that. Lira could handle a little more pressure. Asuta sent a quick barrage to send the two boys flying back by the explosions. Asuta stood behind the grenade feeder and prepared herself. She hadn¡¯t practiced this one in a while¡­

    The first grenade came up through the tube and she grabbed it with one hand before immediately reaching out to grab another one with her other hand. Glancing behind her, she tossed one grenade at Roger who had recovered from her barrage and was approaching closer to her again. Her other arm tossed the grenade right at Lira, who yelped and dived to the side to avoid it.

    ¡°Good dodge, Lira!¡± Asuta encouraged her, ¡°But you never want to be stuck on the ground. You¡¯ll get hit by the¡­ FOLLOW UP!¡±

    She threw another grenade and Lira wasn¡¯t able to roll fast enough to avoid being hit again, her body spraying into chunks of gore. Asuta was so proud! Lira was learning so fast! Maybe she had good role models as the two boys rolled and expertly dodged as Asuta used her other hand to independently throw grenades at them constantly to hold them off at a safe distance from her.

    This skill had been sooooo hard to learn, but being able to throw at two different targets independently was so satisfying when she finally ended up pulling it off for the first time. Her eyes constantly flickered between the two guys and Lira as she made her throws, only needing a single glance before throwing one of her grenades.

    Lira recovered and as she gained consciousness, immediately rolled to the side. Asuta¡¯s grenade exploded right where she had laid before. Asuta felt her grin grow wider. Wow! Lira had even anticipated Asuta¡¯s next lesson. No sitting around being confused after regeneration for students of Sensei Asuta!

    Lira managed to stand and Asuta started throwing barrages of two grenades in a row. Lira was blown up a few times, but the woman seemed determined to continue. Not asking to stop or anything silly like that.

    ¡°YEEEES! Lira, you¡¯re doing great! But can you dodge this? BAM BAM BAM BAM!¡±

    Lira didn¡¯t dodge Asuta¡¯s barrage of four. But that was okay. She was learning. Asuta Sensei would get her up to snuff in no time. Maybe if she trained these three well enough they might even be able to provide a real challenge to her one day, she mused idly as Sean failed to dodge a sticky green grenade to the face. He fell forward and his head stuck to the ground. He flailed wildly trying to extract himself from the sticky slime that had stuck his head in place on the ground. Asuta left him to it, blasting him with a red grenade would just be helping him escape faster.

    Ah, a real challenge pushing her limits¡­ Wouldn¡¯t that be the day? Asuta kept teaching, enjoying herself all the while. Ah, these sprouts would grow so big and strong under her masterful Sensei teachings. Oh, she would have to brainstorm something mysterious and profound to say at the end. She had to make it good since it would be Lira¡¯s first real lesson¡­

    Asuta threw another grenade, and started using the green ones for Lira too. Time to refocus on her teaching, it seems that Lira had a tendency to always dodge to her left. Asuta would make her learn why you shouldn¡¯t fall into such obvious patterns. Another barrage of Asuta¡¯s grenades flew and the lesson continued.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°That was¡­ intense. Is she always that brutal?¡± Lira asked as the two of them prepared for bed. It had been a long session and they all needed a nap to mentally recharge now that they were done.

    Sean shrugged, ¡°That was¡­ a bit more than normal. But not too much more. I think she was probably excited that you joined as her newest student.¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    Lira fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds. Sean stood there and waited, wondering if she was going to say anything more.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I mind,¡± Lira declared, ¡°This is like my training with Brenda, way back when. It doesn¡¯t matter if I can take the pain of being Immortal if I¡¯m helpless to stop people from hurting me.¡±

    She reached up to her neck unconsciously.

    ¡°Lira¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh, yeah. Sorry. It really doesn¡¯t bother me that much. It heals up anyway even if I do it too hard.¡±

    ¡°It bothers me.¡±

    She lowered her hand back to her side with a huff, ¡°Anyway. It¡¯s tough, but I learned a lot. Next time someone throws a grenade at me, I¡¯ll be ready.¡±

    Sean sat next to her on the bed and she sat up after a second.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to be so powerless again,¡± Lira said, ¡°Not¡­ Not ever¡­ ever again.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll protect you¡­¡±

    ¡°No, Sean! You don¡¯t get it. I don¡¯t want to be protected. That¡¯s still being weak, relying on you all the time. I¡¯ve got to be able to handle myself too.¡±

    Lira paused, ¡°Thanks though. Didn¡¯t mean to snap like that. Sorry.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t want you to feel that way ever again either. I get it. As long as you¡¯re safe, that¡¯s what matters¡­¡±

    ¡°As long as we¡¯re safe,¡± Lira corrected, ¡°We¡¯re a team. All four of us, but especially the two of us.¡±

    ¡°Right. We¡¯re a team.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Their training continued, Emily even joining them occasionally as a free agent, attacking whatever side looked like it was winning the current activity.

    All of them felt themselves improving in combat, with Emily and Asuta beginning to teach them stances and more formal martial arts now that they had a good enough ¡®combat sense¡¯ from their prior sessions. Emily took them to the firing range and taught them how to handle various types of weapons and little tips and tricks to help improve their shooting.

    Her mood was a little dampened from when they arrived, but she seemed to still be doing well. She didn¡¯t speak about any heavy topics, but stayed focused on the training or keeping the tone of her conversations light.

    Sean wasn¡¯t sure if she was faking, but he found it odd that after what had happened in Foundation of All that she had been so devastated only to switch to being so happy. But Asuta seemed relaxed as well, so Emily probably wasn¡¯t doing too badly even if she was putting up a little bit of a happy front to them.

    The time passed like a whirlwind, training and more training as both of their hosts taught them a variety of combat skills. Just when Sean thought they would be done there was another level, Roger had just asked in frustration when they would be done and Asuta had just laughed. Then nailed him with a grenade she had hidden in her pocket randomly. Sean and Lira were currently staring at Roger¡¯s body that was regenerating on the floor in front of them.

    ¡°WHEN YOU CAN DODGE THAT!¡± Asuta laughed, before pausing as Emily came in to investigate the commotion. Asuta shrank in like a scolded dog as Emily started yelling at her as soon as she figured out the situation. Asuta had gotten Roger¡¯s blood all over the floor and gotten some shrapnel lodged in a nearby wall, Emily said.

    Roger sat up fully regenerated, ¡°Thanks for the concern, Emily,¡± he said sarcastically as he made his way to his feet, ¡°Really feeling the love here.¡±

    Emily waved at him, ¡°Meh. You¡¯re fine. Asuta should know not to throw grenades indoors. What if you had actually dodged it? Then she might have actually damaged something important¡­¡±

    Everyone gave her a flat look and Asuta smirked as Emily seemed to realize what she had said, ¡°Er, uhm. Not that you¡¯re not important, Roger. It¡¯s just you know, fragile objects, we heal¡­ Well, Asuta shouldn¡¯t be throwing grenades in here either way!¡±

    ¡°But he asked me when he would be done with training!¡± Asuta protested, ¡°How else was I supposed to answer him?¡±

    Emily shook her head, ¡°With words, like most people.¡±

    ¡°But yelling at him for being an idiot isn¡¯t very polite,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I thought the grenade communicated my feelings about it much better. And it was a good learning experience too for his combat sense. Two in one.¡±

    ¡°Asuta¡­¡± Emily groaned, but Sean saw the faint smile on her face. She turned to them, all three of them still eyeing Asuta warily in case she tried to surprise attack one of them again. It would be in character for her to strike just when they thought they were safe with Emily here. More ¡®Surprising¡¯ that way.

    ¡°Asuta is still training to improve even now,¡± Emily said, ¡°There is no end. You¡¯ve all only scratched the surface of it over the last few decades we¡¯ve been training. The only limit is how long you¡¯re willing to stick with it and what you choose to learn. At least with us here who know enough to be good teachers to teach you how to do things properly if you are interested in learning most things that you could think of.¡±

    Roger rubbed his chin, appearing to have mentally recovered from being disintegrated by Asuta¡¯s grenade after glaring at her for a few seconds after he woke back up.

    ¡°I suppose that makes sense,¡± he said, ¡°could have done without the grenade though.¡±

    ¡°Bah, Immortals these days, can¡¯t even take a surprise grenade,¡± Asuta grumbled, ¡°Back in our day¡­¡±

    ¡°See how you like it,¡± Emily said calmly before reaching out and pulling a grenade from the belt Asuta was wearing, without the other woman even moving to stop her.

    They stared each other down for a few seconds with Emily having the stolen grenade raised above her head. Sean¡¯s eyes widened as Emily suddenly slung the grenade at Asuta with little warning. He only saw a flash of green and Asuta blurring to dodge out of the way before with a wet pop, green slime shot out of the grenade and coated Asuta. The woman fell to the ground and immediately was stuck to the floor, attached to it by the sticky slime.

    ¡°You¡¯re just getting the floor dirtier!¡± Asuta said from the ground as her struggles only spread the slime around more and stuck her tightly to the ground.

    ¡°Hey, you missed your dodge,¡± Emily said with no remorse. ¡°I even gave you a warning first.¡±

    ¡°Gaaaaahhhh. Not faiiiiiirrrr,¡± Asuta whined.

    ¡°C¡¯mon everyone,¡± Emily said, ¡°Let¡¯s go have some steaks. I went hunting last month if you were wondering where I disappeared for those two weeks. I¡¯ve finished cleaning it all up and we can have some real meat as a dinner treat.¡±

    ¡°Nooooooo!¡± Asuta cried as they walked off, ¡°Emily, don¡¯t do this to meeeeee!¡±

    Lira gave Asuta an uncertain look, ¡°It¡¯ll be fine,¡± Emily said before lowering her voice, ¡°She¡¯s just being dramatic. Real meat¡¯s her favorite. She¡¯ll be out and running towards the kitchen drooling in five minutes or less I bet. She¡¯ll find some way out if she¡¯s motivated enough.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I guess that¡¯s okay then,¡± Lira said, ¡°Are we going to cook together? Do you need help?¡±

    ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll show you all how I do it. Maybe you know a new recipe or two we could try, Lira,¡± Emily said easily, ¡°People are always coming up with new food dishes. One of the few things in the galaxy that¡¯s always changing with the terraforming spores always out there creating tons of brand new species. Each with their own unique flavor for the edible ones that can be used in all sorts of new dishes.¡±

    ¡°What animal was it?¡± Sean asked curiously, ¡°That we¡¯d be cooking?¡±

    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s a large herbivore,¡± Emily said, ¡°There¡¯s some larger ones that Asuta has put in this ecosystem. She¡¯s just trying to keep the aggressive species below a certain size so they can¡¯t destroy our infrastructure. She let the herbivores get pretty big as long as they are docile. This particular one was nearly three times as tall as I was. Not sure if it has a name actually.¡±

    Sean blinked, ¡°That big? How much meat are we talking about here?¡±

    ¡°Oh. A lot,¡± Emily laughed, ¡°I have it all frozen, so we¡¯re only using a tiny chunk for today. Just you wait, Asuta will absolutely tear through all of it over the next few years. She can¡¯t resist when she knows that it¡¯s right there. It¡¯s her guilty pleasure when it comes to her food.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯d you even get that much meat back here?¡± Roger asked, ¡°How¡¯d you kill it?¡±

    ¡°I have a cargo shuttle I took,¡± Emily said, ¡°Tied the body and attached it to a rope and dangled it below the bottom of the ship. Had to fly pretty slowly coming back home, but better than just leaving most of it to rot out outdoors. And obviously I killed it with my bare hands. How else would you do it?¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Lira asked and Emily looked at her.

    ¡°Er, no. Just a joke. Just a normal gun. It doesn¡¯t have reinforced skin or a shell or anything so it wasn¡¯t too hard once I managed to sneak close enough to get a good shot on it. And I also got there without being spotted, that¡¯s usually the hard part. Ok, here we are.¡±

    They walked into the kitchen and Emily went to the large freezer and opened it. Inside were four very large slabs of meat wrapped in whitish wax paper. Emily picked up one of the packages with a grunt of effort. It must be twenty or thirty pounds heavy at least as Emily carried it out and slapped it on the kitchen counter with a wet thwack.

    ¡°Ok everybody!¡± Emily said brightly as she unwrapped the massive meat chunk from the paper containing it, ¡°Let¡¯s get started. We¡¯ll cook it all so we have plenty of leftovers for later. I¡¯ll show you how big I was thinking we make each chunk, but feel free to make as big or small cuts as you want as long as you think they¡¯ll cook well.¡±

    The doors to the kitchen suddenly burst open and Asuta leapt in the room, looking rather frazzled. Her hair was in matted clumps stuck together by lingering slime and she still had large chunks of the sticky substance scattered all over her body.

    Asuta¡¯s eyes lit up as she saw the slab of meat on the counter.

    ¡°Emily! You really went hunting! Ah, you shouldn¡¯t have¡­¡±

    She took a step forward and Emily shook her head to stop her.

    ¡°You¡¯re still dirty, go clean up first,¡± Emily ordered. Asuta looked down at herself and blinked.

    ¡°Oh right. The slime. Yes, Chef! I¡¯ll be back soon!¡±

    Asuta gave a sloppy military salute before running off again, presumably to take a shower and clean off.

    ¡°Anyway, as I was saying. This is about the size of the cuts we¡¯ll want to make, give or take a bit¡­¡± Emily said as she took out a large knife from a drawer and began to cut. The rest of them soon joined as well.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Aahhhhhh, that hit the spot,¡± Asuta said sleepily while holding her hands over her literally bulging stomach. It was just ridiculous how much food she had eaten over the last hour of dinner.

    Not that everyone else wasn¡¯t full. It really had tasted good. Better than anything Sean had ever eaten before really. Even the fancy restaurants at Immortus Station didn¡¯t serve real meat very often. Usually it was a vegetable blend equivalent or cloned meat if you wanted something closer to the real thing. On Enguli there had been real meat occasionally, but it was stringy and bland. Nothing like the rich flavor he had tasted in the meat he had just eaten. All of them around the table had a bit of lidded gazes as they sat back and collectively sighed in satisfaction.

    ¡°Yeah. Thanks, Emily. That was amazing.¡± Lira said in response to Asuta. She had been complimenting the meal the whole time, eyes lighting up after taking her first bite.

    ¡°Sleepy¡­¡± Asuta said as her eyes began to droop, ¡°Food coma¡­ incoming. Thanks, babe. Best meal I¡¯ve had in¡­ thousands of years.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome, everyone,¡± Emily said, ¡°We should probably go to bed before Asuta collapses on the spot. You look like a bowling ball, b-babe.¡±

    Emily poked Asuta¡¯s protruding stomach with her finger and the woman groaned in response.

    ¡°You big glutton,¡± Emily finished.

    ¡°Hey, food that good, how could I stop¡­¡± Asuta weakly protested before stumbling to her feet.

    They cleaned up the dishes and then all went to bed, feeling full and satisfied.

 Chapter 58: A Strange Fleet

    Asuta hummed a little tune to herself as she walked through the empty hallway. Hmmm. She should go have another snack. She knew she should hold back from gorging so much, but the food was just so good. She just couldn¡¯t resist when it was right there¡­ Her mouth was watering just thinking about it. She shifted her path to start walking towards the kitchen. Just one more meal couldn¡¯t hurt, especially if Emily never had to know about it¡­

    Suddenly a harsh buzz filled the area and she instantly tensed. Oh my. Someone was attacking their system? She quickly jogged back to her room and picked up the holopad inside. She flipped through the screens to see what they were dealing with. Probably was just some mortal pirates, or a group of Independent Immortals in the worst case.

    Usually people attacked her home system out of ignorance, and ran away scared after they realized how extensive her minefield on the exterior of the system was. She had spent millions of years constantly fortifying the place and building it up.

    Asuta kept flicking through the screen, looking at the data of the ships that had just exited hyperspace just on the edge of the system. A lot of ships, over thirty of standard size or larger and one massive one comparable in size to her planet destroying ship. A perfect orb for the large ship, what a strange design. The rest were tubular and more what Asuta had expected.

    Who was doing this? Neither the Plaguebringers or Immortal Council used ships that big. Took too large of a crew to man, and their militaries were limited more by manpower than their equipment. Not to mention larger ships were equally harder to maintain than the smaller ones, something that was a very important factor when you were immortal and would be using the same ship for long periods of time.

    Could it be some of the independents? A group of Immortal pirates looking for the reputation they¡¯d get from attacking her? Hmmm. Maybe. They might use a ship that big and strange as a statement of some sort.

    Then something strange happened. One of the smaller ships exploded into fragments. Asuta blinked and inspected the data closer. The large ship hadn¡¯t exploded, no that was wrong. It had dissolved into thousands of equally sized chunks that were now spreading out in the direction it had originally been traveling. Towards the minefield. Alright, they had a few suicide vessels to clear the way¡­ But just wouldn¡¯t be enough. Oh, wait. The rest were doing the same. Of the thirty ships, twenty dissolved into the chunks, all flying towards the minefield as one.

    Asuta was confused. This was a lot of resources someone was putting into getting through. With that amount of shrapnel, they would make their main ships through the minefield by exploding all the ones in their path. But with the way the mines orbited the system the hole would be patched in less than an hour, trapping them inside. And inside the system Asuta¡¯s automated weapons platforms were already heating up and preparing to unload their payloads once they were through.

    She frowned as she tried to figure out what they were trying to accomplish as her mines began exploding and the remaining ten standard ships and single massive one started making their way through.

    Even with all the chunks of suicide ships to clear the path, some of Asuta¡¯s mines managed to survive. She had set all sorts of conditions that would trigger them to go off, so many remained silent and only went to target the bigger ships.

    Asuta watched in confusion as one of the mines hit one of the big ships pushing their way through. Unlike what she had expected, the whole vessel¡­ twisted out of the way of the explosion, only being slightly burned. She froze as she saw it straighten out again, as if it hadn¡¯t almost folded itself nearly in half a few seconds ago. She looked over the data again.

    Oh fuck.

    What she had thought was a sensor error was real. The ships were shifting slightly and moving as they flew through space. It wasn¡¯t human vessels at all.

    It was the Endless Flesh.

    She quickly sent a signal to the automated ship parked on the edge of the system, composing a message explaining the situation. After a few seconds it hyper jumped away to the nearest highly populated system. It would give a message to the Immortal Council and call for help, but even in the best case they would still take a week or two to arrive to assist. That was their whole purpose supposedly, to prevent things like this from happening. Or at least that¡¯s what it was beginning before they expanded their mandate to include all of those other things as well.

    The Endless Flesh fleet finally managed to get through her minefield, their ships burned and pitted. But even now, Asuta could see the large central ship healing its wounds. One of the smaller ships drifted towards the large vessel, creature, and latched on like a leech. It sat there for a few minutes and when it detached, all of the wounds it had received from the mines were healed.

    Asuta looked at the data. This must be a pretty high Immortal count fleet for them to regenerate that fast. She sent the orders to her weapons platforms as the Endless Flesh fleet came into firing range.

    Take out the small ones first, leaving the big one isolated. She¡¯d just have to hope that her weapons were able to outpace the carrier¡¯s regeneration once the little ones were gone¡­ Depending how many Immortals it had in there providing it with endless food, her normal weapons platforms might not be enough to take it down.

    She knew that her home planet¡¯s defenses should be able to fight it off, but she didn¡¯t want to wait for quite that long. Too close to home.

    Asuta kept adjusting the firing paths of her barrage on the smaller ships that twisted and dodged nauseatingly like twisting worms or snakes. But after a few minutes she started landing some direct hits on them, and two twitched and went still. Allowing the follow up fire to rip them to pieces.

    The eight remaining damaged ships started to retreat towards the big one, and Asuta managed to kill two more before they reached its surface. The highly damaged worms burrowed into the surface of the larger ship and after a few minutes were inside of it like a worm coring out an apple. Asuta shifted her weapons to target the hole left in their wake, and managed to land a few good blows to cause the larger ship to twist in pain as the explosions went off inside it.

    But inevitably after thirty minutes of back and forth, the entrances on the main ship¡¯s surface healed closed and it was an uninterrupted surface again. It kept moving slowly towards her home planet even as it kept getting hit with fire. Its surface was pitted and marred, but Asuta¡¯s weapons weren¡¯t ever punching anything more than a fifth the distance to the center even with concentrated barrages. The thing just kept constantly healing and when she started making progress in drilling a hole deeper, the creature twisted itself and its flesh rippled to fill in the hole. Sacrificing its overall size to fill the gap.

    It was slowly shrinking in size as Asuta kept pounding it with her weapons, but slowly. And the smaller it got the faster it began to regenerate, creating an annoying balance where the instant it wasn¡¯t being attacked it began to heal and slowly grow fractionally bigger again.

    ¡°Hey, Asuta. What¡¯s going on?¡± Emily asked as she walked through the door, ¡°Why¡¯s the alarm still going? Is someone trying to get through the minefield?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re already through,¡± Asuta said grimly, ¡°It¡¯s an Endless Flesh fleet. Down to one ship left, but it¡¯s got a high Immortal count. We¡¯ll have to blast it when it comes closer to our planet.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Need help?¡±

    ¡°Yes, please.¡± Asuta handed over a second holopad to Emily and gave her control of half of the weapons platforms. Hopefully if they could concentrate enough fire they could pierce into the ship¡¯s core where its Immortals would be held and stop it from regenerating.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Should we bring out the big guns? The planet killer?¡± Emily asked Asuta, ¡°We still have a few hours before it reaches our planetary defenses. We could bring out the ship and blast it.¡±

    Asuta thought about it. The creature¡¯s fleshy orb was now nearly a third of the size it had been when it entered the system. But its regeneration had become fast enough that they weren¡¯t able to shrink it any farther.

    ¡°Sorry¡­¡± She said, ¡°I already started disassembling it for maintenance. We won¡¯t be able to fix it up in time.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Well, that¡¯s annoying. How long would it take to repair?¡±

    ¡°A rush job? Maybe a few days. Doing everything properly and actually doing a full check would be a few weeks.¡±

    ¡°Well, I can go over and get started on it. I¡¯ll go up and blow up that thing if you don¡¯t manage it. As a plan B.¡±If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°We¡¯ve already fired it four times without any maintenance,¡± Asuta countered, ¡°It needs a full check. We could get it functional in a few days, but it¡¯d be dangerous¡­ It might explode with so much wear on the components.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what the escape pods are for, right?¡± Emily replied, ¡°I¡¯ll go. Just as a backup if the planet¡¯s defenses aren¡¯t enough.¡±

    ¡°No! I¡¯ll do it, I¡¯ve¡­ there¡¯s¡­¡±

    ¡°No, you¡¯re needed here,¡± Emily said as Asuta flailed around verbally for a reason why she should go instead, ¡°You can coordinate the defenses, if it approaches and begins to bombard us then you¡¯ll be busy. You know this place like the back of your hand, it¡¯s best if you stay.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but¡­ I built this all for you,¡± Asuta said weakly, ¡°For us. You can¡¯t go out there, you¡¯ll be in danger. Not even normal danger, but at risk of being captured by the Endless Flesh.¡±

    ¡°But someone has to do it,¡± Emily said, ¡°You can¡¯t run the defenses from up there. You have to stay down here. I¡¯ll fix up the ship and go. It¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    Asuta put down her pad, ¡°No. If you go, I¡¯ll go. Things will run fine down here without me. Not optimal, but still fine. We can¡¯t have Sinestra on that ship without Queen Violet there to back her up!¡±

    Emily smiled and then hesitated, ¡°Okay,¡± She eventually said, ¡°Together then. I¡¯ll go get started on the repairs. You just keep working here and I¡¯ll call you when it¡¯s done.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll call me?¡± Asuta asked suspiciously, ¡°Even if I¡¯m still working on the planet''s defenses?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll call you.¡±

    ¡°Well, okay. Let¡¯s see if I can make sure we don¡¯t have to use your plan B at all¡­¡±

    Emily left the room and Asuta glanced at the door for a long moment before looking back down on the pad. Oh, she should probably tell their guests what was going on too. She quickly composed a message and sent it off to their devices. Hopefully they would forgive her for not explaining what had happened after the alarm went off. Oops. Well, she had sent it now. Time to get back to work. She leaned over the holopad and continued to prepare the firing patterns of the planetary defenses once the Endless Flesh ship came within range.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Oh, I got a message from Asuta,¡± Lira said from the other side of the workshop. The two of them were working on building a hoverbike for old time¡¯s sake.

    Sean waited, still fiddling with the component in front of him. After Lira didn¡¯t speak, he stopped and turned around. She was standing there staring down and looking at the message on her holopad.

    ¡°What did she say?¡± Sean asked in concern.

    ¡°Endless Flesh,¡± Lira said before looking up, ¡°A fleet of the Endless Flesh is attacking. Emily and Asuta are working to fight them off, but the main ship will be in orbit in a few hours.¡±

    Sean blinked, ¡°They have fleets? I thought they were¡­ animals, like a pest or something. How did they even get here?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Lira said with a tight expression, ¡°I thought that too. We should go find Ash. Maybe she can find something in the library that can explain it. Emily and Asuta are probably too busy.¡±

    She reached up and Sean swept forward and grabbed her hand in his.

    ¡°None of us are getting captured this time, right?¡± Sean said, ¡°It¡¯ll be fine. And we know some combat this time. If one of those beetles attacks us then we¡¯ll go BAM BAM on them!¡± Lira flinched as Sean suddenly increased his volume.

    ¡°Or that¡¯s how Asuta would put it, I think,¡± he finished.

    Lira relaxed and chuckled, ¡°Yeah. That does sound like her. We should grab Roger too while we¡¯re at it. I doubt he knows anything about it either but you never know.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Were you unaware of their importance?¡± Ash asked them, ¡°I assumed Emily or Asuta would have explained about what happened after hearing about how we first met Nyx Vesper.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Sean said, ¡°It never came up, I suppose. Past explaining the basic situation.¡±

    Ash looked between all of them before sitting down and his voice shifted into a more lecturing tone.

    ¡°The origins of the Endless Flesh are unknown. It has been around for as long as recorded history, spreading from planet to planet wherever it can. It is the stated reason for the formation of both the original Plaguebringers and Immortal Council as large governmental entities in the galaxy. Originally they were about equal in power. Prior to that point Immortals were more independent and mostly formed loose confederations that were more friends assisting each other than any form of formal structure that you see today.¡±

    Ash scanned all of them in the room before continuing.

    ¡°The original Plaguebringers had much the same stated philosophy as Nyx. Their goal was to use their disease and bioweapons to infect the Endless Flesh and destroy their colonies in one swoop rather than using less efficient traditional weapons. They were heavily criticized for the collateral damage when they released plagues on populated worlds with colonies of the Endless Flesh on them. But they worked to mitigate the damage and usually had vaccines prepared that they shared with the affected worlds. The Immortal Council disagreed with their methods, and instead worked along the mortals to assemble larger fleets of ships of mixed Immortals and mortals to destroy the Endless Flesh through traditional military might. This eventually led to the Immortal Council having more influence over mortal affairs while the Plaguebringers were more isolated and insular in only wanting to interact with other Immortals. After some time the Plaguebringers became more genocidal and began to use their plagues on targets beyond just the Endless Flesh in pursuit of their goals. While the Immortal Council began to administrate and regulate the mortal worlds under their influence and claimed vast swaths of the galaxy as their territory.¡±

    ¡°But what is it?¡± Roger asked, ¡°The Endless Flesh? How is it creating fleets and fighting off whole groups of Immortals? If it¡¯s so powerful that Asuta and Emily can¡¯t handle them then how have they not destroyed countless mortal worlds? Why haven¡¯t we heard more about them?¡±

    Ash nodded, ¡°It is well documented that the Endless Flesh is largely dormant on mortal worlds. They spread and prey on the local wildlife, but don¡¯t go out of their way to attack people more than any other animal they encounter. They are largely unintelligent and animalistic, and even the intelligent ones generally avoid attacking worlds if they don¡¯t think there are any Immortals there. Like you experienced Lira and Roger, the Endless Flesh seeks to capture as many Immortals as possible for food to fuel their growth. Once they have a captured Immortal they rapidly become more intelligent and begin to develop new forms and specialized offspring using their innate skill in biological manipulation of their spawn and themselves. With seven captive Immortals after the enforcers got captured as well, the colony you were in would have become quite powerful if left alone for a while to grow more intelligent and create more variants of spawn to defend itself with.¡±

    ¡°So, I don¡¯t get it,¡± Lira asked, ¡°How are they not everywhere then? I mean in five hundred years of visiting planets all over the place we only got attacked by them once. Shouldn¡¯t the intelligent ones be spreading their offspring everywhere to take over?¡±

    ¡°Yes, they do,¡± Ash said, ¡°But without an Immortal as fuel and as a trigger for them, they quickly regress back into an animalistic state. The one that captured you was likely in the middle of this process. It was already quite large in size and had multiple variants of spawn that it controlled. Given a few more years I guess that the creature that captured you would be no more intelligent than the beetles it controlled and less than a tenth of the size that it was. And its offspring would have returned to a single variant of its choosing as its lower intelligence stopped it from being able to remember any biological alterations it would have to make to produce a different form. Once they are at that level, they can be exterminated by an Immortal group or even the mortal government if need be. Many animalistic colonies are destroyed by mortals just for being a nuisance, no one even realizing their true nature. Both the Immortal Council and Plaguebringers are always working to destroy colonies of the Endless Flesh all around the galaxy just in case they happen to get their hands on a wandering Immortal and start to gain intelligence and mutate into their more dangerous form and go hunting for more Immortals to fuel itself.¡±

    ¡°Hyperspace?¡± Sean said, ¡°I understand perhaps it being able to create different variants of the beetles, different sizes, maybe even changing their jaws or other aspects a bit. But how would they even spread around the galaxy if they¡¯re starting from scratch each time?¡±

    Ash¡¯s eyes flickered, ¡°Who said they are starting from scratch? The Endless Flesh has been around for millions and millions of years at least. If no one attacks them, then the Immortals inside them are trapped until something kills their captor. They¡¯ve slowly developed their own technology as a collective, even if it is much slower than humanity does. Even if they¡¯ve been pushed farther and farther to the edge of the galaxy as time passes and the humans and Immortals work to fight them back.¡±

    Sean suddenly felt his view shift. He was imagining a wandering group of hungry animals. Scary, but not people. ¡°Are they sapient?¡± He asked, ¡°Can they be reasoned with?¡±

    ¡°Some are sapient,¡± Ash said, ¡°But only the top and oldest members. It is estimated that their number is in the low thousands to the hundreds of thousands. But the exact number is unknown. They are the ones working on the technology and guiding the rest in organized attacks like this one. The others are more intelligent than animals, but if they see an opportunity to capture an Immortal they¡¯ll pursue it no matter how unlikely to pull off or how costly it would be to them. Ruled by their instincts and unable to express a coherent thought or communicate with others.¡±

    ¡°How did they have a hyperdrive?¡± Lira asked, ¡°Is it metal in there, or¡­?¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s all biological,¡± Ash said, ¡°Humans could build them too, but we¡¯d have to feed them food all the time. And since its biology it could mutate and start to eat or infect the crew if something went wrong, it isn''t ideal. So we just stuck with building metal and plastic ones instead. Much easier to repair, and less chance of something going wrong. Since the fleshy hyperdrive is part of the Endless Flesh ship¡¯s bodies, they can just heal if something goes wrong.¡±

    ¡°Huh,¡± Lira said, ¡°How about that¡­¡±

    ¡°Why¡¯s it called the Endless Flesh?¡± Roger asked.

    ¡°Because once one of them gets access to a couple of Immortals they send out endless waves of creatures to attack,¡± Ash said, ¡°Hence the Endless Flesh. Also it refers to their sole use of biology for everything they do. Endless Flesh regenerating from the Immortals they have inside them. The sapient members of their species co-opted the name a few million years ago and now they refer to themselves as such whenever they deign to communicate with humanity. Immortal humanity at least. The intelligent ones do attack mortals, but only in pursuit in capturing an Immortal. Otherwise they largely ignore the mortals.¡±

    ¡°And these things are coming here?¡± Sean asked, ¡°What can we even do to help against them if Asuta can¡¯t shoot it down with all the weapons she has?¡±

    Ash stood and his tentacles unwrapped and started waving around behind him, ¡°I suppose we could start by arming ourselves as best we can. Best to be ready just in case.¡±

    Ash walked out of the room and the rest of them followed. Having handheld weapons probably wouldn¡¯t help against a planet wide attack by the Endless Flesh. But it sure would make them feel more prepared just in case. Sean wondered if Ash knew that or if he was being serious about the weapons helping them. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

 Chapter 59: Home Invasion

    The giant orb of the remaining ship was now in orbit around the planet, slowly circling as Asuta¡¯s weapons continued pounding it. It was still steadily shrinking in size, but not as fast as Asuta would like. Most of her weapons platforms scattered throughout the solar system had been forced to shut down briefly. They weren¡¯t meant for sustained barrages this long. They all were overheating, and those that fired physical projectiles like missiles or slugs of metal had run out of ammunition long ago.

    But the laser weapons were more durable, so while they had to take breaks for a few hours occasionally to bleed off their excess heat they were still able to keep firing after their short break to keep laying damage on the enemy vessel.

    Now it was Asuta¡¯s planet based defenses that were firing upwards out of the gravity well to pound the enemy ship mostly. It had been thirty minutes of the barrage, and Asuta noted that the holes and wounds in the massive creature were sealing a little slower as time passed. Maybe they were wearing it down fast enough? Asuta wasn¡¯t sure, she¡¯d never fought a fleet of Endless Flesh single handedly like this before, especially one as powerful as this one appeared to be.

    Emily was gone, off to the facility where Asuta had parked the planet destroying ship, to fix it up¡­ Asuta should increase the attack, she didn¡¯t want Emily to put herself at risk¡­

    Asuta looked down at the datapad in shock as suddenly hundreds of small fragments started launching from the pitted surface of the shrinking enemy ship.

    The fleshy orb kept orbiting around the planet and releasing more and more of its payloads that were streaking down to leave fiery orange streaks behind them as they plunged down through the atmosphere.

    Asuta hesitated, but then with a groan told the defenses to prioritize the falling objects set to land around the perimeter of her automated defense cities containing all of her weapons and launch platforms that were laying into the enemy ship even now.

    The back and forth continued for a few hours, the Endless Flesh vessel releasing a constant rain of drop pods onto the planet and Asuta¡¯s defenses shooting down over ninety five percent of them before they even touched the ground. But its attacks were endless, and some still slipped through and reached the ground.

    Asuta¡¯s mortars and ground defenses from the nearby defensive cities destroyed another eighty percent of the pods that touched down before they could deploy.

    But that remaining twenty percent managed to split open and spill out hundreds of vaguely humanoid figures on the scanners that scattered in all directions into the forest before Asuta could destroy them.

    But the larger ship was shrinking, and while hundreds of thousands of the creatures had landed on the planet already, they were scattered and Asuta¡¯s formidable defenses should be able to handle them.

    Suddenly, just when their victory seemed inevitable and the large spherical ship of flesh looked like an apple with dozens of bites taken out of it, something changed. The large ship had stopped healing itself an hour ago, but even with that it was taking some time to carve inwards and reach the central chamber where the immortals inside were providing the ship with its energy and fuel.

    With a sudden explosion, half of the damaged Endless Flesh ship exploded and rapidly accelerated it back towards the edge of the solar system and away from the planet. The section of the ship flying away folded over itself and shrank so it represented only a fifth of the size of the ship it had split from. But it was rapidly healing itself again even as Asuta¡¯s energy based weapons platforms continued to pound it with weapons fire from around the solar system.

    The other three quarters of its mass were pushed down towards the planet. Asuta rapidly tapped all over the datapad and brought up and dismissed various holographic screens as she calculated the firing paths to shoot them down as they spread across the planet and began atmospheric entry. Each of these pieces of the ship were hundreds of meters in diameter as they moved to crash into isolated zones all over the planet.

    Asuta had a sinking feeling in her chest as she realized what this must be. It took another three minutes before her fear was confirmed. With concentrated fire from her defenses, the first of the multitude of ships was destroyed. It took a few minutes for her powerful sensors to be able to see what was happening within the cloud of fleshy debris. There was a single humanoid figure in the center thrashing as the rest of the chunks of flesh began to drift inwards to attack even as they all fell to the ground as the fires of atmospheric entry died down around them.

    The Endless Flesh had just launched an ground occupation force, with Immortals sent with them as their fuel. Maybe even hundreds of them. Asuta had to shoot as many of the ships down before they hit the ground. Every one that landed and entrenched itself would become a source of monstrous forms attacking her and her defensive cities in a wave of Endless flesh.

    Her defenses were excellent, but not perfect. Something would break down, one of the city shields would fail after constant assault¡­ This just got a whole lot more dangerous.

    She glanced at the minimized window on the corner of the panel and brought it up. She grit her teeth and saw the ship that had left orbit of the planet was slowly healing itself and growing in size again now that only her laser weapons were attacking it. All it would have to do was recover for a bit and then it would be back¡­

    Asuta turned back to her sensors and kept frantically working, blowing little strands of hair out of her vision as they fell over her eyes as she started sweating slightly from the stress. She had to stop as many of those pods from hitting the ground as possible¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Entiru woke as his eternal prison shuddered around him. He, like his many brothers and sisters, had long ago learned that they could willingly put themselves to sleep and let the ages pass around them. The groupings of them shifted, their positions within the eternal prison shifting according to the needs of the great beast whose belly they were contained within. For the first unknown amount of time they had all entertained themselves with conversation. But then it had been so long that every new thing had been said. Every thought spoken. In the darkness there was nothing new to discuss.

    For the next age, many of them fell to madness, only for their immortal brains to heal themselves once they¡¯d plunged over the edge. Leaving them as emotionless husks for a time before they recovered themselves once again and the cycle repeated. Then after an even longer time, there was nothing but silence from those within the prison. Nothing but the sounds of insectile blades sliding into flesh, the squishy plop of organs falling onto the ground, the scuttling of the beasts around them, and the wet squelches of the fleshy walls around them all.

    The sounds that were so routine to all within the endless prison that they hardly even counted as anything but silence in their ears at all.

    But after the time of the silence, the first of them had finally learned. Many had attempted to sleep before, but it only worked for a time as sleep tended to be. But one of them finally figured out the trick. A cross between deep meditation and a light slumber let them remain there with nothing passing through their heads at all. To simply exist and let the time pass faster and faster around them as their empty minds perceived nothing around them.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    But Entiru was awake. Something had broken his meditation. He could hear from the sounds around the chamber that he was alone, none of the other immortals in this same chamber with him. The chamber shook again and Entiru straightened within his gelatinous prison. This was¡­ something new. What could it be?

    The rumbles and vibrations grew larger and larger as Entiru¡¯s mind slowly came back to itself, emerging from his endless meditation as if waking from an endless dream. Everything was still pitch black around him as he remained within the prison.

    Then suddenly Entiru gasped as the fleshy walls around him split open as one final violent vibration echoed through the great beast around him. Or not so great a beast as a massive wave of flame washed over Entiru and dissolved him into ashes along with his surroundings.

    When Entiru regenerated himself, he opened his eyes with his mind now crystal clear, the cobwebs and fuzziness of his mind wiped away in an instant.

    The first thing Entiru noticed was the light. His eyes no longer only saw the pure blackness that had covered his sight since the beginning of his imprisonment. His vision rapidly flashed between a bright blue and a vibrant green.

    Almost instinctively Entiru spread the arms of his naked body out as far as he could and the spinning began to slow and stop until he could only see bright vibrant green and blue of the planet below. The shape of its continents were unfamiliar.

    Entiru noticed for the first time that he could hear the loud rush of wind in his ears. Feel its sharpness biting at his bare skin. The first new sensation on his body for eons or more. Entiru laughed as he saw the surface of the planet far below slowly begin to grow slightly closer as he fell.

    Over the great wind in his ears, Entiru suddenly snapped his head to the side as he heard a familiar noise to his right. The flesh harvester floated there falling alongside him, its sharp blade on one arm and shovel-like claw on the other. It was kicking through the air and flailing towards him even as they fell through the air together.

    Entiru looked around himself and saw dozens of other creatures of the captors emerging from inside of the fleshy chunks scattering the skies around him and pushed off to make their way towards them.

    Entiru¡¯s training as the genemother¡¯s royal guard kicked in as he began assessing his opponents as they pushed off through the air to drift through the air towards him.

    The flesh harvester was closest, so Entiru tucked in his arms and dived for it even as it struggled to maneuver through the air in its efforts to reach him.

    Entiru crashed into it, sending the both of them tumbling through the air and spinning at high speed again. The flesh harvester stabbed him in the gut with its sword and slapped him hard in the head with its shovel like claw, briefly stunning Entiru. Entiru felt the blade strike through him and emerge from his back in a spray of bloody droplets that left behind a trail of red in the sky above them as the both of them continued to fall downwards.

    But after recovering from the blow he adjusted his grip on the creature and shoved his right hand directly into its mouth. In surprise, the creature bit down and severed Entiru¡¯s hand from his body in a single bite. Entiru adjusted the stump at the end of his arm until it was pressed against the roof of the creature¡¯s mouth. After a few more seconds of thrashing, the flesh harvester went still, Entiru¡¯s regenerated hand now embedded inside of its skull. He felt the blade still embedded in his abdomen nearly dissolved away and ready to snap within him. He quickly reached behind his back and grabbed the remaining section of the long blade just before the portion within his body finally broke and dissolved into nothing.

    Entiru gripped the blade tightly in his hands as he tugged his right hand and extracted it from the skull of the dead flesh harvester. The fingers on Entiru¡¯s left hand bled profusely as he held the two foot long blade as tightly as he could even as he pushed off of the flesh harvester¡¯s body with a hard shove from both of his feet.

    He was still tumbling about, and quickly spread eagled again to correct himself. The green ground below was still far away, but grew larger and larger by the second. He glanced around and saw that the first of his next opponents were almost upon him.

    These were the gatherers, meant to take away his flesh after the harvester had already taken it from him. Each of the beetle like beasts was a little over a foot long, and dozens of them were drifting through the air towards him. Each of their legs frantically churned through the air fruitlessly as they all tried to move towards him as quickly as they could.

    Entiru leaned his body to the side to move to the closest of the beasts. His left hand was stained red, but no longer bleeding. At the base of the blade where he had been tightly gripping it, his injured hands had now dissolved five perfectly smooth finger holds for him to firmly grip the blade¡¯s handle with.

    His blade snaked out and stabbed into the joint between the gatherer¡¯s armored head and shell on its back. Erivue took out his blade with a spray of black blood, sending both him and the creature spinning through the air.

    The cloud of floating beetles was closing in on him, and Entiru kept slicing and killing them one by one as they all fell through the sky, each of these stabs sending him tumbling through the air but also sending his target falling limp to drift through the sky lifelessly.

    The larger chunks of flesh larger than Erivue had spread out by now, drifting farther and farther from each other as they all fell down.

    Entiru kept fighting, and five of the living gatherers had latched onto him and were crawling over him and biting with their jaws to rip into his flesh before tossing it behind them into the open air with sharp flicks of their armored heads.

    Entiru was spinning uncontrollably through the air. He had three living gatherers crawling over him when suddenly he jolted as he realized the ground below was rushing up towards him rapidly. He only had an instant to react and tense up before he hit the ground full force and his body splattered against a rock outcropping as he came to a sudden stop after his long fall from orbit.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Entiru woke up blinking to find himself lying face down in a depression smoothly carved in the rock where he lay. He shook his head and pushed up with his hands and looked around to the forest around him. He was alone, except for the chunks of the dead flesh scattered around the forest floor around him and the limp bodies of the gatherers caught in the branches of the trees above him and on the forest floor scattered around where he had landed.

    He was sitting on a rock outcropping forming a clearing in the center of a vibrant and green forest.

    Entiru looked around cautiously and spotted his impromptu blade taken from the harvester lying in the soil a dozen feet away, looking relatively undamaged. He scrambled over to it and quickly picked it up and shifted to hold it in his right hand where it was more comfortable.

    He stood there completely naked and tilted his head to the side as he listened for movement around him. Nothing but the sounds of the forest and the rustling of the leaves in the wind. Entiru let out a relieved sigh and let his blade drop down slightly. It appeared that none of the beasts were nearby for now.

    He took a few more minutes to collect himself and inspect the area for anything that could be useful. But he turned up with nothing. Where was this? Even as he had spun through the air fighting his falling captors, he had seen the shape of the continents. This wasn¡¯t the homeworld Gaia. How long had he been captured? Decades? Centuries? But this was good¡­ This must mean that some must have survived or escaped to settle elsewhere and terraform this new planet after what had happened.

    Entiru walked through the forest for a time, as he looked for any signs of civilization for a few hours. He followed along the bank of a river, hoping that he would find someone living there. He should do his best to get back to civilization so he could aid in the defense of this world against his captors. He wasn¡¯t exactly sure of the situation, but he was sure that the creature¡¯s arrival on this world couldn¡¯t signal anything good for all the people that must be living on it with how lush and hospitable it was.

    Entiru followed the river for a while with no change. No signs of civilization, not even any ruins or old foundations that he could see. Was this planet newly settled? The terraformers¡¯ work was finally completed while Entiru was captured? He¡¯d expect to find at least some sign of humans if this was still Gaia, even in the remotest areas. Even if it was recently settled he¡¯d have expected to see some sign of human settlement by now. At least trash or perhaps some old foundations or carved stones buried in the soil¡­

    He paused as he thought he heard something in the distance. It was almost like thunder¡­

    Looking between the river and the direction the faint thunder was coming from, Entiru hesitated. But he hadn¡¯t seen any signs of humans yet in two whole days. Absolutely nothing except pristine wilderness and the occasional strange animal like none he¡¯d ever seen before.

    So Entiru turned and started walking towards the distant sounds of thunder, abandoning the river. Although he gripped his blade tighter and was wary as he continued forward. Who knew what waited in front of him¡­

 Chapter 60: Rescue Mission

    ¡°You said you wanted to help, right?¡± Asuta said urgently, ¡°Well, this is how we do it. We have to go out there and save as many of them as we can before the Endless Flesh entrenches itself here. We have at least two hundred and fifty Immortals on this planet right now, and over a hundred of them are free since I blasted their drop pods into pieces. The longer we wait, the more of them get recaptured. So, we split up and take a ship to pick them up on our own. Going in groups will take too long.¡±

    Asuta stopped at a sealed door and started tapping at the panel next to it to enter the passcode as she juggled to hold the holopad in her other hand at the same time.

    ¡°But what if one of us gets captured?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t it too much of a risk?¡±

    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t think you understand,¡± Asuta said as the door slid open, ¡°This is some serious junk, Sean. The more of these people we save the less the Endless Flesh down here on the planet has to work with. You¡¯ll all stay in your ships, it¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    They walked into the ship hanger and Asuta paused as she looked at Roger, Lira, Ash, and Sean trailing behind her.

    ¡°Oh, except if they¡¯ve developed anti-air forms. Then we¡¯re screwed. But it¡¯s too early for that, so we¡¯re probably fine.¡±

    Asuta tapped a few more things into the holopad before looking back up at them.

    ¡°Alright, go, go, go! Time¡¯s a¡¯wasting young sprouts! I¡¯ve sent your sector assignments to your ships. Just go there and see if you find any human lifesigns. Or go pick someone up nearby if one of my defensive city scanners senses anything. We¡¯ll be on comms, so make sure to just call if you get into trouble.¡±

    ¡°Right!¡± They all replied and all went to a different ship to pilot, even Ash. Sean quickly flicked a few switches and started firing up the combat flier and studied the display of the region of the planet that Asuta wanted him to patrol. Well, he called it the combat flier. But everything Asuta had seemed to have some sort of weapons, so it didn¡¯t make too much of a difference really. But this one had plenty of space in the back for anyone he picked up, and two side doors to the main cabin that could slide open and closed quickly when needed for pickup.

    After waiting for a few minutes for the others to fly out of the hangar with their own vehicles, Sean was flying over the open grassy plains towards his assigned area. Even after only less than a few hours, Sean could already see disturbing forms wandering about the open plains around the area where their landing pods had dropped and been bombarded by Asuta¡¯s weaponry. Rather than the beetles Sean had been expecting from them, their form was altogether different. Sean searched for the word of what they looked like in the back of his mind for a few moments, before it clicked with him. Praying mantises. They looked like praying mantis¡¯ but five feet tall and covered in the same bright emerald shell the same color as the beetles that Sean was used to seeing.

    Sean¡¯s finger itched to press the trigger to fire his weapons whenever he saw groups of them gathering as he flew. But there were too many, and he had to save his ammunition for when he really needed it. Sean had already seen thousands of the mantises as he flew for the last two hours to his assigned region. Asuta¡¯s heavy weapons would take care of them, Sean just had to worry about saving as many immortals as he could until then.

    It took three hours total before Sean arrived at the first projected landing site for one of the destroyed Endless Flesh landing pods. His ship let out a powerful pulse to scan for lifesigns, but there was nothing. He couldn¡¯t see anything through the green canopy of the trees below him. Sean could vaguely spot some strange bits and bodies being picked at by the birds hanging the branches in some places. But the bodies were scattered across the space of miles, but they all seemed dead. Although the bodies were most concentrated around the area that Sean was hovering over right now.

    Sean took the vehicle a little higher and started circling and scanning for lifesigns again as he searched for the immortal that must have dropped around this area. At least one should have landed here.

    After a few minutes the sensors finally picked something up, and Sean quickly flew the vehicle over in that direction. Sean let out a sigh of relief once he saw a naked man standing there with a machete like blade made of bone held in his right hand.

    Sean lowered his ship down to the ground and gently settled it down and ordered the back doors to open.

    ¡°Come on in,¡± Sean said over the intercom to the man, ¡°I¡¯m here to help.¡±

    It seems that¡¯s all that was needed to break the man¡¯s indecision, and he jogged forward and jumped inside. With the press of a button in front of him, Sean closed the open side door and started lifting off again. He quickly set the autopilot to fly them towards the next landing site another thirty minute¡¯s flight from here and rifled through a pouch to the side of his seat. It took a few seconds before he finally managed to pick out the clothing band inside and untangle them from the others he had hastily thrown in there just before he left.

    Without looking back at the naked man behind him, Sean held out the clothing band out behind him to where he knew the naked Immortal was standing.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± The man asked as Sean felt him taking the bracelet from his grip.

    ¡°Clothing bands,¡± Sean said, ¡°Figure you¡¯d want something to wear after your ordeal.¡±

    ¡°Clothing¡­ bands? What?¡±

    Sean paused, but still didn¡¯t look back yet.

    ¡°Er, yeah,¡± Sean said, ¡°Around the wrist then press that button in the center. I didn¡¯t know how to work them either right after I first saw the Shadow. Only rich people had them on my old planet.¡±

    There was the distinctive rustle of the nanites crawling over the man¡¯s skin behind Sean.

    ¡°Whoa!¡± The man said, ¡°This is amazing! All of this contained in one little wristband¡­ Things sure have changed.¡±

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you come up?¡± Sean said after a moment of silence, ¡°I¡¯ve still got to pilot, but the copilot¡¯s chair is open.¡±

    The man grunted and clambered forward to sit down next to Sean, putting his bone blade down between his feet.

    ¡°Thanks for the help,¡± the man said, ¡°I¡¯m Entiru by the way. Sorry, I thought you were someone else for a moment. Nice to meet you¡­?¡±

    ¡°Sean,¡± he supplied, ¡°I¡¯m Sean.¡±

    ¡°Huh. That¡¯s¡­ how times have changed I guess.¡±

    Sean shot a confused glance at the man who was frowning slightly at him. Sean shook his head as he realized he didn¡¯t actually have to pay attention to the controls with the autopilot engaged at the moment. He let go of the controls and fully turned to face Entiru.

    ¡°I guess so,¡± Sean said to defuse the strange tension that had sprung up for seemingly no reason, ¡°Must have been trapped in there for a while, I assume.¡±

    ¡°I think so,¡± Entiru agreed, ¡°What planet is this? Were the terraforming efforts fruitful?¡±

    ¡°Terraforming?¡± Sean asked, ¡°What are you talking about? What efforts?¡±

    ¡°You know, the Immortals going out to terraform new planets for humanity? If you have this place that¡¯s so lush, then I assume it was successful.¡±

    Sean processed that for a moment before it clicked. Ah! He was talking about the expeditions of Immortals going beyond the galaxy to settle planets across the universe.

    ¡°Oh, yes,¡± Sean said with relief, ¡°They¡¯re doing quite well from what I¡¯ve heard, news is that another expedition is gearing up to leave sometime soon. Although who knows when that¡¯ll actually be with how expensive it is.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t that right,¡± Entiru said with a sigh, ¡°I¡¯m glad they figured it out. I, all of us trapped in there, were worried about whether they had failed. But given that, it¡¯s clear I¡¯ve been gone for quite a long time even for Immortals like me. So, what¡¯s the situation? Where are we going?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m an Immortal too,¡± Sean said quickly after realizing he hadn¡¯t made that clear from the start, ¡°We¡¯re going to save as many people like you as we can. Saving them from capture and weakening the Endless Flesh both.¡±

    ¡°Endless Flesh¡­¡± Entiru mused after staring at Sean in surprise for a moment, ¡°Hm, appropriate name I suppose. Can I do anything to help?¡±

    ¡°Well, not much,¡± Sean said, ¡°We¡¯ve still got a while until we¡¯re at the next crash site. Maybe you can go out and help people come in if they¡¯re being attacked. If you go in the back there should be a few pistols or lighter weapons in a bin that you can use.¡±

    Entiru nodded and stood from the copilots chair.

    ¡°I¡¯ll go arm myself then. Thanks again for the save.¡±

    ¡°No problem Entiru,¡± Sean replied, ¡°Glad to help.¡±

    Entiru walked into the back and started shuffling around the bins to arm himself as Sean kept his eyes on the sensors in case there were any of those ¡®anti-air¡¯ creatures waiting for them that Asuta had hinted at. Knowing her, if she thought they were dangerous then Sean wouldn¡¯t dare underestimate them for even a second.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Entiru shifted in place and held his pistol in his grip as he stood by the closed doors of the flying vehicle.

    ¡°We¡¯ve got movement down there, somebody¡¯s fighting,¡± the pilot Sean said from the front cabin, ¡°Prepare yourself. Try not to shoot her, but¡­ you know the drill. Don¡¯t hesitate to blast her if it¡¯ll kill whatever¡¯s attacking her. She¡¯ll regenerate.¡±

    Entiru hesitated and looked towards the pilots cabin briefly. Such callousness towards harming others, even if this woman would be an Immortal¡­

    The flying vehicle began lowering down and Entiru felt the whole ship vibrating as the main gun fired downwards. Entiru waited by the door as he heard explosions below. The vehicle eventually stopped to hover and the pilot pressed a button on the panel in front of him, sending the door in front of Entiru sliding open.

    He held out his pistol in front of him and took careful shots at the four foot tall praying mantises swarming a naked woman flailing around in the center of a large crater. The pilot¡¯s initial barrage had seemed to have killed most of them, but there were still more and more of the creatures emerging from the trees from all sides in a trickle to stream towards their five or so injured brethren that had survived to continue their assault on the woman.

    After the first couple shots killing the creature¡¯s immediately attacking the woman, Entiru waved violently with his free hand until the woman wearing an emotionless mask spotted him. Even as Entiru watched he saw the rising panic in her expression as her reset brain began rearing back into overdrive again to revive her fear and panic.

    Her eyes widened as she spotted Entiru and the ship for seemingly the first time and she started stumbling towards them.

    One of the mantises chittered and its body compressed before it leapt over ten feet from the side to latch its jaws on the woman¡¯s upper arm. Her eyes widened and she screamed as the mantis¡¯ legs landed on the ground and it fought to tug backwards to pull the woman from her feet.

    Entiru shot at the Mantis¡¯ head and winced as he missed and seared a burning hole right in the woman¡¯s shoulder. But Entiru steeled himself. The pilot was right, saving her was more important than worrying about her pain. He kept firing, two more shots killing the mantis latched onto the woman¡¯s leg by its jaws. She was screaming and had fallen to the ground writhing as she held her injured shoulder.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Entiru began firing rapidly and started holding back the four new mantis¡¯ that had arrived in the meantime.

    The woman¡¯s screams stopped. Entiru glanced over and saw her scrambling to her feet again, her expression completely flat and emotionless as she pumped her legs to sprint towards where Entiru stood to the side of the open doors.

    Another mantis went to leap at the woman, but Entiru released a barrage of quick shots that sent it falling limply to the ground before latching onto the woman, a lucky shot landing directly on its armored head and killing it in a single strike.

    The naked woman dived past Entiru into the metal floor of the helicopter-like vehicle.

    ¡°She¡¯s in!¡± Entiru shouted and took a step back as the helicopter raised off of the ground at dizzying speeds. The five mantis¡¯ gathered below them attempted to leap up to strike at them with the blades at the ends of their arms. But they fell far short and fell back to the ground with angry chitters and screeches. Entiru pressed the button next to the open sliding door and the thing slid shut and with a hiss sealed itself.

    Entiru turned around and saw the emotionless woman staring at him blankly. Over the course of the next second, emotion returned to her face and she started to rapidly flush. She curled inwards and used her arms to conceal her bare chest and crotch.

    Entiru shook his head and looked off at a point on the floor as he realized what she must think of his staring. He had forgotten her state for a moment with his absolute focus on firing his weaponry and trying to not strike her with his weapon¡¯s plasma shots out there.

    Entiru gave a half aborted cough as the awkwardness of the situation washed over him and he reached into a pouch hanging on his hip. He retrieved one of the ¡®clothing bands¡¯ the pilot had given him and held it out to the woman without looking at her.

    ¡°It¡¯s clothing,¡± he said after she didn¡¯t move for a second, ¡°Around the wrist then hit the button and it¡¯ll cover you. I¡¯m wearing one right now.¡±

    Another moment of silence before the band was snatched out of his hand quickly. There was the strange rustle, the sound of the nanites crawling over her no doubt. She let out a gasp and Entiru could see her body shifting out of the corner of his eye as he stared pointedly at the floor.

    ¡°It worked,¡± the woman said, ¡°Thanks for the ah, save. Was I the only one that made it out?¡±

    Entiru looked to the front, ¡°Sean? How many people are we looking to find?¡±

    The woman grimaced slightly as she heard the pilot¡¯s name, and Entiru gave her a small shrug as she shot him a questioning look.

    ¡°About ten or fifteen for now for us, with my friends with their own vehicles doing the same best as they can.¡± Sean said as the engines began to hum louder as they picked up speed onto their next destination, ¡°It¡¯ll get crowded back there with so many, probably only barely enough space to stand actually if things go well¡­ Estimate was¡­ Two hundred and fifty Immortals total? Past this first run, anyone left will probably be recaptured by the Endless Flesh. But don¡¯t worry. Me and my friends will be working to free them all eventually. If the Endless Flesh doesn¡¯t overwhelm us first.¡±

    ¡°Endless Flesh?¡± the woman asked, ¡°You mean our captors?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what they¡¯re called¡­?¡± Sean said, a strange note in his voice now, ¡°Were you guys new Immortals when you were captured? How old are you two?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m over two thousand, three hundred and forty years old,¡± Entiru said proudly before wilting slightly. ¡°Before I was captured by those creatures that is.¡±

    The woman looked at him in admiration, ¡°Over two thousand? I was barely turning six hundred when I was captured.¡±

    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s nice to meet someone else that¡¯s so young then,¡± the pilot Sean said in a light tone, ¡°Besides your quick stint in prison we¡¯re almost the same age. I think I¡¯m¡­ Six, seven hundred years old? Something like that? That sounds about right. You know, I wonder if I¡¯ll get a party for a thousand, that could be fun. Oh, and we can have a bigger one when my girlfriend turns ten thousand. I think she¡¯s about nine thousand years old now, we wouldn¡¯t want to miss the right year to celebrate¡­¡±

    ¡°Ten thousand?!¡± Both of them said in shock, snapping their heads to the front.

    ¡°I know, thanks for reminding me actually. After we¡¯re done with this invasion hopefully we¡¯ll be able to plan a party for the both of us. Entiru, can you get the new woman settled and ready to help with the next landing site? I only brought lighter weapons on the ship, but hopefully two guns will be better than one.¡±

    Both of them paused before sharing a long glance.

    ¡°Yeah, sure thing Sean,¡± Entiru said before walking into the back to where the weapons had been stored, the woman following him.

    ¡°I think we¡¯ve been gone for longer than we thought,¡± Entiru said shakily after handing the woman a spare pistol. She held it in her hands and stared at it with a look of confusion on her face as she tried to figure out how it worked.

    ¡°I wonder what happened to the Genemother and Gaia,¡± she said, ¡°Do you think they¡¯re still out there somewhere?¡±

    ¡°The Genemother is an immortal, she¡¯s still alive,¡± Entiru said firmly, ¡°But probably captured by the same beast that took us. We¡¯ll just have to do our best to find out where she is and save her.¡±

    The woman hesitated, before nodding.

    ¡°I¡¯ve¡­ I saw you at the events. On Gaia. The homeworld. You¡¯re Entiru, aren¡¯t you? One of the Genemother¡¯s royal guards?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I was. But I was taken early. I have no idea what happened to her.¡±

    ¡°I never learned any of this combat stuff,¡± the woman said as she kept fiddling with the pistol, ¡°I¡¯m Alvrix by the way. Never thought I would need it beyond the basics. But if the Genemother¡¯s in trouble, then I¡¯ll help if I can.¡±

    Entiru patted her lightly on the shoulder and used his other hand to gently pry the pistol from her hands. He stepped next to her and demonstrated how to work the pistol.

    ¡°Safety switch,¡± he said, ¡°Power dial on the side. Lower is less lethal, higher is more. This light here turns on when the weapons are about to overheat. Just wait and let it cool down when it turns on. The more lethal and more energetic the shots, the quicker it¡¯ll overheat. Besides that, just pull the trigger and make sure to hold it like this.¡±

    Entiru demonstrated the proper grip on the pistol for a moment and handed it back to her after she nodded at him.

    ¡°Alvrix, I¡¯ll be happy for the help. But for now let¡¯s focus on saving as many of our fellows as we can first. We¡¯ll figure out the rest when we find out what¡¯s happened since we were captured.¡±

    She nodded and took an uncomfortable stance and adjusted her grip on the pistol.

    Entiru took his own pistol from the holster at his side and demonstrated the grip again and she adjusted until it was moderately closer to the real thing. There was no time for real training, whatever he could teach her in the next twenty minutes was probably the best they were going to get.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean eyed the growing group chatting quietly behind him. There had been a few frantic moments in the next series of pickups so far. But things had gone mostly smoothly with the groups of Immortals back there who seemed to work together fairly well. It seems that all of them had been captured in one big attack on their homeworld.

    Sean was slightly confused by that. Most of them were very young, only a few were even over a thousand. Of the seven that Sean had picked up, Entiru was the oldest by far and had easily taken command of the rest. It seems that he had been someone important on their homeworld, guarding their Immortal monarch.

    Sean wondered if they had hidden themselves from the Immortal Council somehow. A monarchy with an Immortal as its head sounded like something that they would heavily disapprove of. And if they were isolated enough to not know what clothing bands or basic information about the galaxy like Sean had been, then their home planet was likely somewhere in the outer rim too. Somewhere the Immortal council banned Immortals from settling so they didn¡¯t mingle with mortals and become immortal rulers like these people were discussing so casually.

    But they had all been attacked and captured by the Endless Flesh, so their original situation hardly mattered anymore. Sean would just have to make sure that they knew not to say anything incriminating about their past if any of the Immortal Council Enforcers thought to ask them about it sometime in the future.

    ¡°Alright, this is the last one,¡± Sean shouted back to the group whispering to one another, ¡°Unfortunately, scans show that the Endless Flesh has sent more creatures and have already recaptured the rest. This is the only one left where there¡¯s still some fighting and a chance we can get them out.¡±

    Entiru and the rest of the group nodded at Sean as he finally got a good view of the site of the fighting. His eyes widened as he took in the scene. There were five Immortals standing on top of a rocky outcropping and fighting a veritable carpet of insects fighting upwards to grab them.

    It was four men and one woman clustered together, all of them dual wielding bone blades much like the one that Entiru had been wielding when Sean had found him.

    Sean saw one of the men tip forward as one of the mantis¡¯ gripped his blade in its jaws and drag him down to fall into the swarm.

    Another man leapt downward after him and started furiously slicing with his blades and cleared a space around the downed man and dragged him back to his feet before the both of them hastily scrambled back up the steep slope they had fallen down from.

    The woman of the group looked up away from the battle as Sean¡¯s ship rapidly approached the group from above. She shouted and gestured towards them with one of her blades before reversing her grip on one of her blades to pin a mantid to the ground by stabbing through the gap between its armored head and body.

    Sean spun his ship in a circle and opened fire with his main guns full force as he arrived. He noticed that this swarm was much more diverse than the others. Not only were there mantids, but a few of the more familiar large green beetles that he was used to. The trees of the forest rustled around them as the swarm of Endless Flesh pressed inwards from all sides.

    Sean circled and the ship slowly descended as he devastated the carpet of insects surging inwards towards the five fighting Immortals.

    The five began fighting their way backwards towards the open doors, not turning their backs to the few injured creature¡¯s from the swarm still attacking them after surviving Sean¡¯s barrage.

    Just as Sean was hovering over the ground and the side doors of the ship slid open, his eyes widened as he saw something emerging from the edge of the woods along with more of the standard variants. It was a giant, a humanoid of over twenty five feet tall. Its body was covered in green plating and its head was still that of the mantis¡¯. It reached to its side with its armored three fingered hand and with a heave ripped a nearby tree straight out of the ground. It adjusted its grip and drew back its arm.

    Sean¡¯s eyes widened and he jerked his controls, sending the ship lurching to the side just as the giant threw the tree like a massive javelin at high speed towards the ship. The branches brushed by them and scraped off the shield of the ship. But the larger branches still hit the side of the ship and caused the shield to flash brightly, close to failing, as the branches snapped into kindling. The main mass of the tree went sailing past them and landed in the forest behind them with a loud crash of splintering wood.

    Sean quickly corrected his angle and swerved back to his old position, ignoring the shouting from behind him. He swerved back and saw that the five fighting immortals were close now. The five quickly turned and sprinted towards the ship full speed and dived in through the open side doors, the cover fire from Entiru and Alvrix just barely covering their escape.

    The five fighting immortals quickly piled in just barely in time for Sean to violently jolt the ship to the side again as the giant threw another uprooted tree in their direction. Luckily Entiru managed to shut the doors in time and Alvrix just barely managed to catch herself by grabbing Entiru¡¯s arm before she was sent flying out the open doors into the chittering swarm of insects below.

    The tree went crashing by, a more direct hit this time, the trunk actually slamming into the ship itself if only just barely to glance off the metal exterior. The shield flashed brightly and groaned for a moment before failing all at once and causing a massive screech of twisting metal at once. Large branches from the tree pierced into the sides of the ship as the whole right side dented inwards all at once.

    The evergreen tree remained stuck to their ship like a burr as the engines pitch raised to a frantic whine as Sean desperately tried to prevent them from crashing.

    He glanced back and saw that Alvrix¡¯s body had been thoroughly flattened between the metal denting inwards and the crumpled section of the door pinning her to the floor of the ship. There were obvious gaps, but luckily the door had held in its frame even if its shape was heavily distorted as it bent inwards into the ship.

    Several of the other Immortals had fallen to the ground, skewered by branches coming through the outer hull or stunned by being slammed bodily as they entered the vehicle. Sean even saw that one of the Immortals had been decapitated and was lying limp on the ground sliding around even as their head worked to regenerate itself.

    ¡°Get Alvrix!¡± Sean shouted over the intercom so they could all hear him, ¡°She¡¯ll eat through the door and fall out when she regenerates!¡±

    Entiru hesitated before reaching out and grabbing Alvrix¡¯s squished and pulped form and dragging it into the center of the cabin and away from the doors even as everyone kept stumbling around.

    With a final groan of metal, the last of the tree branches snapped, and the main trunk detached from their vessel and fell down to the ground below. The ship immediately shot into the sky at high speed as the weight dropped off of the ship. Just in time too, another large tree sailed through the space they had just launched from.

    The ship attempted to flip over as one thruster had been much more powerful to counterbalance the heavy weight of the tree latched to one side. But Sean managed to stabilize their flight and kept the ship moving upwards upwards. The giant threw one more tree, but it barely reached half of the distance to them before falling down to the ground again.

    Sean quickly ran a diagnostic on the engines and let out a sigh of relief as it appeared the engines themselves and the main supports were mostly undamaged. Although the shields were completely destroyed and the whole half of the ship that had been hit was mangled.

    Everyone had regenerated their bodies in the back by now as Sean set course back to main base now that they¡¯re retrieved everyone.

    ¡°You five were captured together?¡± Sean heard Entiru ask one of the men who they had just picked up.

    ¡°Yes, thanks for the rescue. We were sure we were about to be overrun¡­¡±

    Sean flicked on the intercom again, ¡°Everyone settle in, it¡¯ll be a few hours to fly back home, but the diagnostics tell me that the ship will make it there.¡±

    Entiru nodded to Sean before turning back to the group and continuing their conversation and comforting those that had been severely injured from the tree branches and regenerated themselves. Sean felt a bit bad when he overheard them. It seems that they all still felt pain. Sean hadn¡¯t even considered how traumatizing what just happened to all of them if they weren¡¯t already used to it¡­

 Chapter 61: The First Raid

    When Sean flew his damaged ship into the main hangar, he saw that the others had already arrived. There were large groups of people milling about the hangar and Sean saw Asuta and Roger down there shouting while Lira and Ash stood back and seemed to be talking with one another. Most of the Immortals shot interested glances at Ash as his eyes scanned the crowd.

    Sean¡¯s ship was the most heavily damaged. One of the other ships had some small scrapes and its windshield was cracked, so its shield must have failed there as well at some point. But overall everything seemed to have gone well. Sean landed carefully in his designated spot as Asuta took a break in herding the wandering Immortals to guide him as she held her holopad to her lips to speak to him over his ship¡¯s intercom.

    After a few more minutes, Sean landed and everyone inside unloaded to enter the main hangar. Sean shut down the ship and followed behind the group of Immortals in front of him and made his way over to where Lira and Ash were standing. It was only when he was a few steps away that he noticed that Entiru and Alvrix had followed right behind him.

    Before he could turn around, Lira spotted him.

    ¡°Hey, Sean,¡± she said as she took a few quick steps forward and gave him a brief hug that he returned, ¡°How did it go? Your ship looks pretty damaged. Have some trouble?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean said as he released her and she took a step back, ¡°Humanoid creature threw a tree at us if you can believe it. But I dodged it in time, and we didn¡¯t drop anyone. So it all worked out.¡±

    Lira looked hesitant and almost said something before cutting herself off, ¡°Oh, well good thing it worked out then,¡± she said, ¡°Seems crazy seeing all these people here, isn¡¯t it? I¡¯ve never seen this place so crowded before.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Sean said before glancing at where Asuta and Roger were working to get the crowd to stand all in one spot and stop wandering around. To little success, as not everyone seemed to be listening to Asuta as they looked around themselves in curiosity and wonder.

    ¡°Think we should help them?¡± Sean asked Lira and Ash, ¡°What¡¯s the plan?¡±

    ¡°I can help,¡± Entiru suddenly chimed in, ¡°Maybe they¡¯ll listen to me given my rank in the past.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ Help him too,¡± Alvrix said as she shot a side eye at Entiru and leaned towards him slightly as he glanced at her.

    She reached out and put a hand on Entiru¡¯s shoulder before gesturing towards the crowd with her other hand. ¡°I¡¯ll back you up, Entiru,¡± she said before a playful note came into her tone, ¡°Sir knight.¡±

    Entiru coughed, ¡°Er, ah. Yes, thank you Alvrix. Let¡¯s go do that.¡±

    The two of them walked over to the crowd and Entiru started shouting about his place in the royal guard. That caught the crowd¡¯s attention and they started following his commands as he formed them up into lines as he stood there radiating authority. Asuta looked vaguely annoyed, but eventually let Entiru take command and seemed to direct him on what she wanted rather than trying to convince the crowd by herself anymore.

    Alvrix was standing close to Entiru with her arms folded in front of her and a stern expression of what Sean was sure she meant to be intimidating. But it was clearly amateur and an act.

    ¡°Have they met before?¡± Lira asked Sean with a playful tone.

    ¡°What, Alvrix and Entiru? The two I came with? I don¡¯t think so. Not more than meeting at a party one time from what I overheard.¡±

    ¡°Hm. Well, she¡¯s certainly working fast then,¡± Lira said. Sean looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Give me a break,¡± Lira said lightly, ¡°I haven¡¯t got to really gossip about anyone in hundreds of years. Seems that he likes her too based on how stiffly he¡¯s standing right now.¡±

    Sean glanced at Alvrix and Entiru and snorted as he saw that Lira was right. Alvrix was standing quite close to Entiru and edging a little closer with little micromovements even as she stood there, her eyes darting between Entiru and the crowd.

    Entiru was standing there stiffly and pointedly not looking at Alvrix, and making it clear to Sean that he was more than aware of how close she was to him.

    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± Sean said, ¡°Look how she¡¯s edging towards him with that hungry look.¡±

    Lira stepped forward and grabbed his hand as they stood side by side, ¡°Mmmh. What do you think? Love at first sight? Something about him being a knight? What¡¯s got her so fired up?¡±

    ¡°You are starved for gossip,¡± Sean said before leaning to gently bump his shoulder against her, ¡°Maybe it''s forbidden love. They saw each other at the party and she¡¯s been madly in love with him ever since. Unable to confess her true feelings until the end of their long imprisonment.¡±

    Lira scrunched her nose, ¡°You¡¯re making fun of me,¡± she said flatly.

    A short pause.

    ¡°Maybe his parents didn¡¯t approve,¡± Lira said, ¡°Both madly in love with each other and neither knowing it. Each pretending to not know each other until the dam holding their love breaks all at once!¡±

    ¡°Of course! Their forbidden love is only able to reveal itself now that they¡¯ve both been thrown together as if by fate,¡± Sean replied.

    Lira shot him a knowing look, but then kept speculating. Sean kept throwing more and more ridiculous theories to reply to Lira as they stood there watching the large crowd assemble into orderly lines. Even Ash joined in at one point after he seemed to understand that they weren¡¯t being serious and just saying ridiculous things for fun.

    Asuta was giving a long speech to the assembled Immortals, Lira and Sean were so carried away that they didn¡¯t listen to Asuta as they kept whispering to each other. They only broke out of their fun as they noticed the crowd dispersing again as Asuta said some final words.

    ¡°Er, uhm,¡± Sean said as Asuta and Roger started walking towards them, ¡°What¡¯s the plan then?¡± He asked Asuta as she got close enough to hear.

    Asuta shot him an incredulous look.

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you just listen to my amazing speech just now?¡± Asuta said, ¡°All of it was off the cuff too, a call to action to bring up morale for the troops!¡±

    ¡°Er, remind us?¡± Lira said.

    ¡°Gah. Whatever, our new guests were listening at least. They¡¯ll all be training with our combat exosuits for a few weeks, then we¡¯ll do some rescue missions to save some more of the Immortal trapped by the Endless Flesh.¡±

    ¡°Is that possible?¡± Lira asked, ¡°How would we find them if the Endless Flesh burrows underground again?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I¡¯ve got some scanners for any tunnels they build. You saw that the creatures holding the Immortals inside of them need a bit chamber for them to grow into. My scanner can find that and give us the right route right through the tunnels there. And detect even the tiniest motions underground in case they try to hide from us.¡±

    ¡°Can we afford to wait for training?¡± Ash asked, ¡°Would now not be the best time to strike when the Endless Flesh has not had time to develop any new variants to counter us?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well¡­¡± Asuta said, ¡°We¡¯ll work on it. Do our own raids. We¡¯re all experienced enough with combat for this kind of thing. But most of these people we picked up don¡¯t even have any combat training at all it seems. Out of the fifty, only that Entiru and the eight others who were part of this ¡®Royal guard¡¯ know how to handle themselves. Everyone besides them will just shoot each other by accident and panic if we throw them out there right now even with them inside of the combat exosuits. They¡¯ll just get in the way if we used them as they are now without any training at all.¡±

    ¡°What about the ones left? Entiru and the trained ones?¡± Sean asked.

    ¡°They¡¯ll be training the others as best as they can,¡± Asuta said, ¡°Keeping order and make sure everyone¡¯s working hard while the rest of us are busy. I saw your ship, Sean. Thing looks completely scrapped. What ended up doing that?¡±

    Sean quickly described the humanoid giant with the mantis head that had thrown the tree at his ship.

    Asuta nodded.

    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s not too bad,¡± she said, ¡°Sounds like some heavy weapons should be able to take them down. Alright. Everyone, break for four or five hours or so. Take a shower, relax for a bit. Then meet back up at Armory D43546 and we¡¯ll go on our first raid. Agreed?¡±

    They all nodded and dispersed. Lira and Sean took showers and then both took a power nap after setting an alarm.

    After waking up, they went to the armory and met up with everybody.

    ¡°Ash? Are you sure?¡± Lira asked after they arrived, ¡°I know you want to help, but this will be dangerous¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Ash said firmly, ¡°I will not be left behind. We go together.¡±

    Lira hesitated and then nodded, ¡°Okay, Ash. But be careful. I just worry. We both do.¡±

    Sean nodded, ¡°We¡¯ll be right there with him, Lira. No one left behind this time.¡±

    ¡°My weapons are much improved from last time,¡± Ash said while nodding, ¡°We¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Asuta said to interrupt, ¡°Now that that¡¯s dealt with¡­ We¡¯ll go in two groups. All of you in one group, and me in the other. I¡¯ve sent a list of targets to your ship already. Everybody but Ash suit up in the exosuits and arm yourselves.¡±

    ¡°Will you be fine on your own?¡± Roger asked. Asuta gave him an unimpressed look.

    ¡°Er, well. I mean, will we be okay without you?¡± Roger asked.

    ¡°Yeah, just stick together,¡± Asuta said, ¡°The ship you¡¯ll be using is one of my most advanced combat models. It¡¯ll be able to take out anything that breaches the surface for as long as you need it to. And give you the scans of the tunnels so you know which way to go.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to be using a combat exosuit too?¡± Lira asked, ¡°What if you get in trouble or it fails?¡±

    ¡°Ah, you cuties are all so worried about your sensei!¡± Asuta said, suddenly shifting from the more serious and no nonsense tone she¡¯d been using ever since the Endless Flesh had arrived and Emily had left to repair the planet destroying ship to a playful one.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry about me,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I¡¯ve got a special power armor that I use for combat. It takes special training to use, so you¡¯re best to stick with the standard ones for now. But I¡¯ll be just fine. Now all of you get suited up, I¡¯ll give you options for weapons and then go get suited myself.¡±

    All of them but Ash and Asuta entered their combat exosuits covered in the heavier plating. Sean¡¯s body felt lighter as the armored exosuit began increasing his strength and the helmet closed to seal him inside.

    Asuta went around and checked everything before nodding.

    ¡°Alright, weapons!¡± she said after she was satisfied, ¡°Let¡¯s arm all of you now. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re going to love all of the shiny toys I¡¯m about to give you.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean looked into the open hole in the floor in front of him as the air rushed down below. The ship vibrated slightly as the lasers of the ship kept firing to kill the members of Endless Flesh emerging from the ground in waves of dozens or more at once or charging in from all sides in groups of twos and threes across the open grassy plains.

    The ship that Asuta had ushered them into an hour ago was strange. It was like a floating fortress. It was square at the top, but sloped down to a round sphere at the bottom now that the landing gear had retracted and they were floating above the nest of the Endless Flesh.

    Concealed within each of the corners of the rectangular top was a single heavily protected engine firing to hold them in the air. The rest of its exterior was bristling with weapons, mostly laser and energy based weapons. But there were three or four longer guns on the top and bottom of the ship that had physical metallic rounds meant to take out more well armored enemies.

    The ship was bulky, with even the three of them in exosuits and fully armed as well as Ash able to easily fit in the main cabin in the center of the heavily protected ship. There was a panel on one end that let them direct where the ship would go, but it wasn¡¯t truly piloting. They ordered the location the ship should be, and it automatically would travel there and hover there on its own.

    The whole time they were conducting this raid on the Endless Flesh, the ship would remain hovering here and holding off the enemies on the surface, firing on them automatically.

    Which brought Sean back to the hole into the open air in front of him. He took a deep breath before taking a step forward and letting himself fall down. There was a moment of freefall before the harness and rope attached to the inside of the ship caught on the mechanism and started slowing his fall. He landed on the ground, his heavy weight of the suit sending him sinking slightly into the ground. The rope on Sean¡¯s back released and retracted back into the hip above. With a simple radio signal from their suits the ship would lower the rope again and reel them back up after they were done.

    Lira, Roger, and Ash quickly followed after Sean, touching down and holding their weapons aloft. It was time to enter the nest.

    Sean eyed the three dimensional display of the scanned map of the tunnels below them in the corner of his heads up display.

    Sean walked forward and walked into the crater blasted open by the ship above them which was still firing its weapons into the distance even now. At the sides of the crater a tunnel was revealed which had been completely exposed by the giant crater that Sean was walking down into, his weapon held at the ready.

    All four of them walked into the tunnels, Sean taking the lead.

    It took two minutes before the attacks started. The soil in the wall to Sean¡¯s right started to shift and bow inwards and he swiveled the wide nozzle of his rifle like weapon and fired before the massive emerald beetle even emerged. A searing blast of flames shot out from the end of his weapon and washed over the beetle before it could react as it burst out of the wall. The flames were so bright, that Sean¡¯s helmet automatically filtered out some of the brightness so that he could see properly as he cursed and flinched from the sudden blast of light.

    The beetle only twitched twice as Sean kept blasting it with his flamethrower for a few seconds before it went still.

    Sean stopped firing and waited for a moment to make sure that it was dead before stepping over it and continuing deeper into the tunnels.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°There¡¯ll be more where that came from,¡± Roger said grimly as he adjusted his grip on his own flamethrower.

    ¡°Remember, these things use antimatter to fuel these flames,¡± Sean said, ¡°If the warning light goes red after it¡¯s damaged, then toss these things as far from you as you can. We can use it as an antimatter grenade in the worst case I guess.¡±

    ¡°We know, Sean,¡± Lira said from behind the helmet of her exosuit, ¡°Let¡¯s just go fast. People don¡¯t call these things the Endless Flesh for nothing.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Ash!¡± Lira shouted. Sean turned his head from where he was scorching the tunnel in front of him to push forward through the press of emerald mantis and beetle swarm pressing at them relentlessly as they pressed forward.

    Five of the mantis¡¯ had breached through Roger where he used his own weapon to fight off the portion of the swarm flanking them from behind. Ash reached out and sliced it in half with one of the sharp blades emerging from his forearms even as the tentacles on his back continued firing pinpoint lasers to support Sean and Roger with pinpoint strikes from any other of the insects that grew close to them. The blades of the mantis¡¯ only slightly scored the metal of Ash¡¯s body with their attacks, but the damage and scratches on both Ash and the rest of their armor was steadily accumulating over time.

    Sean kept jogging forward and saw the ceiling beginning to rain dirt and bow downwards. Lira raised her weapon and fired her weapon just as the ceiling caved in and dozens of mantis¡¯ leapt down on all of them from above.

    Sean kept pressing forward as he saw Lira send a plume of flames upwards into the newly revealed tunnel above them. She reached to her belt and pulled out one of her grenades. She drew her arm back even as three of the mantis¡¯ crawled over her armor and attempted to strike through it with their bladed arms and jaws. She tossed the red painted grenade up into the hole above them even as more mantises rained down from above.

    Before the first grenade even went off, Lira reached down and retrieved another red grenade from her side and twisted and tossed it through the hole above them to the other side of the tunnel above.

    Both grenades exploded one after another, filling the tunnel above them in a wave of liquid napalm flame in both directions that sent the swarm above chittering and screeching in pain. A blast of napalm blasted directly down from the hole above them and washed over the whole group.

    Ash turned his body and folded his tentacles behind his back so they would be protected from the flames.

    After a moment, the flames washed past them and caused the mantises clinging to them to fall to the ground, twitching as they tried to recover from their severe burns.

    Sean turned forward and kept firing his flamethrower as he moved. He checked the suit and saw that the temperature was still within decent levels. He didn¡¯t have to worry about his suit overheating just yet. They were almost through to the central chamber, things going mostly smoothly so far despite a few scares or sudden ambushes like the one that Lira had just swiftly dealt with.

    After a few more minutes and Lira dealing with another two groups attempting to burst out of the walls to the sides, they reached the central chamber. A massive cave filled with complete darkness just like how Sean remembered it.

    Sean saw a similar titanic grub as last time sitting there motionless on the far side of the chamber.

    ¡°Here I go!¡± Ash shouted as he raised both of his arms. His forearm blades retracted and after a moment the pair of heavy duty lasers took their place. The newly revealed lasers glowed brightly even as Ash¡¯s tentacles swiveled to face forward. Lira turned to join Roger to fight off the swarm charging towards them from behind while Sean fought off the stragglers coming at them from within the massive chamber itself.

    With an electric crackle, Ash fired all of his lasers at once at the motionless grub on the other side of the chamber. The creature squealed and jolted as if surprised at the sudden attack. Ash continued the assault by his lasers and the grub only flailed for a few moments before going still.

    The whole group pushed forward, the swarm attacking them undeterred by their killing the thirty foot long grub.

    Ash focused his lasers on the dead creature¡¯s midsection and carved a long line in it until it split open and its guts started spilling onto the floor.

    Several somethings squirmed within the pile of gore, and Ash quickly turned his tentacles lasers to firing on all of them indiscriminately. When the group reached the body of the grub, only one of the creatures was still moving. Sean brought his flamethrower to bear and fired into the organs even as he internally winced.

    He¡¯d wait to carefully extract the Immortal from the pile of organs without hurting them¡­ But who knew how long that would take? Every second counted for this. This was not the only nest of the Endless Flesh, and they worked to support one another. Who knew how long it would be before something appeared that they or the flying fortress above couldn¡¯t?

    After a few seconds, Sean¡¯s flamethrower carved through and shriveled the wet flesh covering the remaining squirming creature. He stopped his flame as soon as the last bit of the flesh shriveled away revealing the naked woman beneath.

    ¡°Lira,¡± Sean said as he turned and started burning the few insects that had gotten closer to them within the chamber while Sean had been focused on burning the Immortal free.

    Lira came forward and reached forward and with the strength of her exosuit grabbed the woman and pulled her out of the insect goop. The woman thrashed and screamed but calmed down after Lira started speaking with her. Lira slung the Immortal over her shoulder facing backwards. Lira held the no longer thrashing woman in place with one hand while the other held her flamethrower. Lira slapped a clothing band on the woman¡¯s wrist and pressed the button so after a second the Immortal¡¯s body was covered again as the clothing band did its work.

    They all turned and started running back out of the nest to retrace their route in, this time with Roger taking the lead while Sean covered their retreat.

    With how many of the insects they had taken out on the way in, you¡¯d expect the way out to be easier. But the fighting was just as fierce if not more than their way in. The woman over Lira¡¯s shoulder watched with wide eyes as the four of them carved through the enraged insect swarm with ruthless efficiency, nearly at a jog as they moved back up the snaking tunnels to the surface.

    The swarm seemed to sense that they were taking the woman away from them after saving her. They threw their bodies into the flame in a blind rage as the group continued upwards, even more enraged than they had been when they had been fighting their way downwards.

    But the swarm was too weak to stop them, and they all emerged on the surface with nothing but a few deep scratches on their exosuit armor and Ash¡¯s chassis. And a traumatized woman that had unfortunately had to be burned and clawed at by the creatures as Lira did her best to keep the swarm of the Endless Flesh steal her back and drag the woman back down into the depths.

    They stood there on the surface and took a few steps back to a clear area as the shadow of the ship above shrouded the area in a deep shadow.

    The swarm of creatures kept pouring out of the tunnel behind them, but the lasers of the ship above carved them to bits as soon as their bodies left the shadow of the tunnel. The ship above was still firing over the horizon with its weapons, even the heavy projectile cannons booming one after another even as the group stood there in the open space.

    With a short signal from Sean to the ship above them, five cables dropped down to them from above.

    They quickly shrugged into the attached harnesses at the ends of the ropes and clicked them closed around their exosuits. Lira shifted her grip on the Immortal so they were standing next to each other and the metal gauntlets of Lira¡¯s exosuit was holding the Immortal under the armpits in a firm grip.

    Lira went first, her rope retracting with a harsh whine from above them as she was drawn into the bowels of the ship above them like the tongue of a beast retracting and swallowing her into its depths.

    Sean shook his head as Roger was drawn up next. He¡¯d spent too long down there fighting in the Endless Flesh hive. No need for morbid thoughts like that.

    Ash went until finally Sean was drawn upwards. As soon as he was inside, the open hatch below closed again. The new Immortal was looking around curiously and asking Lira questions about what was happening.

    Sean walked over to the monitor and watched the screens. Ash took control of their flight path and started tapping at his own panel and the floating fortress began smoothly moving back to base.

    Sean had wondered in the beginning why they couldn¡¯t do multiple raids in one go¡­

    Now he knew why.

    In a roughly circular ring around with a radius of miles from where the flying fortress had been hovering above them was a wall of insect bodies nearly ten feet high. The walls of dead bodies had a long slope on the back end to form a strangely bowl like shape of the whole formation with the center of the bowl where their ship hovered. The land beyond the walls of bodies was a churning mass of insect bodies writhing and charged as they all swarmed with single minded purpose towards their position.

    All of the insects rushing above the steep slope of the outside of the wall of bodies were blasted with a laser blasting from the flying fortress within seconds, falling dead and joining the growing pile one by one.

    Even as Sean watched, a hole was blasted through the wall of bodies as one of the giants with mantis heads kicked a gap in the wall as it threw bodies to the side with its strength and started walking forward as it worked to widen the opening.

    Hundreds of the smaller creatures swarmed in behind the larger one and spread out to exploit the sudden gap it created. Several lasers from the ship struck the giant¡¯s body at once, but while it recoiled in pain and flinched, it remained focused on its task as it let more and more creatures break through to charge towards the flying fortress unimpeded.

    The large cannons below boomed and an instant later, a portion of the giant¡¯s shoulder was struck by the metal slug at high speed, sending the creature stumbling to the side before recovering its balance with a massive bleeding hole in its chest.

    But the creature was still not dead and it kept moving on its task. The cannons boomed again. The creature fell to the ground as another round hit it. But it had survived the shot, if only barely. Crawling on the ground now, draped over one side of the walls of bodies and still pushing with its legs to widen the gap it had formed.

    The cannons boomed one more time and the creature went still for the final time as the final strike ripped into its side and caused it to finally slump to the ground dead as it lost too much blood.

    The flying fortress was now moving back towards home base, letting the swarm behind get closer while carving a wider swath of destruction directly in front of it.

    They reached the edge of the carnage after two minutes as the flying fortress kept laying waste on the insects who dared to stand in its way.

    It took another three whole minutes of flying before they reached the edge of the thick bodies of the dead swarm that had been cut down by their heavily armed ship. Beyond that invisible lines were only the occasional scattered body in threes and fours where they had been in their path.

    The Endless Flesh wasn¡¯t truly infinite. Sean changed the view to show the shifting mass of the swarm charging after them from behind, stretched from horizon to horizon it seemed like it was. But despite everything, the swarm was slow and even the flying fortress was rapidly outpacing them with its flight.

    It only took another five minutes before they finally lost sight of the swarm behind them and Sean let out a sigh of relief.

    No way that many would attack them each time. That¡­ that was too many¡­ Right?

    Hopefully Asuta was doing alright on her own¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Whoooo hooooo!¡± Asuta yelled in exhilaration as the clawed feet of her custom armor dug into the hard soil of the tunnel floor beneath her. It had been so long since he¡¯d taken this thing for a spin.

    The wall of the tunnel bowed inwards as one of the emerald backed beetles prepared to burst through to attack her. She felt the heavy bank of antimatter power systems rev up on the thick section of plating on her back.

    She opened the mouth of the suit. It wasn¡¯t actually her mouth, but beneath the helmet was a hinged portion reaching halfway down her neck. It made the suit look like her head was recessed into her chest, but Asuta thought it was worth the tradeoff.

    Asuta opened her mouth as the tracking software from the helmet scanned her face to match the suit''s motions to her face. And then¡­ She started blowing, and bright flames came blasting out of the open ¡®mouth¡¯ of her metal power armor.

    She didn¡¯t kill all of the creepy crawlies that burst out of the wall alongside the emerald beetle, but her flames were enough that she was able to agilely dash past them before they could manage to stop her.

    She kept going, the swarm too slow to catch her as she breathed fire whenever something was almost about to block her way forward.

    After a while she reached the final chamber with a forty foot grub laying there motionless, slowly growing in size as it fed on the Immortal contained within its body.

    Even as Asuta rushed inside, she eyed the disgusting creature. She¡¯d forgotten how gross these things looked up close¡­

    Asuta flexed her hands and the five long sharp and curved claws at the ends of her fingers.

    Before the swarm behind could stop her or the grub could fully wake itself up, Asuta rushed forward at full speed. The grub stirred as it sensed her charge and rolled over to face its head towards her.

    She stopped a short distance from the creature as the grub silently inspected her, seemingly confused about her presence. She raised her leg and brought her clawed foot down on an angry member of the swarm charging her, crushing it into paste.

    Asuta could tell from a change in the grub¡¯s body somehow that it was enraged. It let out a massive screech of booming sound that caused Asuta to take a half step back even in her power armor.

    The grub opened its jaws and its head darted downwards and closed around Asuta, leading to her being swallowed down its throat. Asuta smiled within her armor. They fell for it every time¡­

    Once she was past the esophagus and within the creature¡¯s main chamber, she flexed the claws on her hands and diverted some of the suit''s power to them. She waited for a few seconds as an electric buzz filled the air and her claws started letting out light as bright arcs of electricity started flashing between them.

    Just when the electric crackles and hum grew to a crescendo, Asuta lashed out and carved a long stripe out of the fleshy walls around her.

    Immediately all the electricity in her claws rushed out in a massive burst of electricity into the grub around her.

    The whole body spasmed at once, throwing Asuta from her feet and tumbling around. But she didn¡¯t let up, slicing and dicing with her electric claws and breathing fire from her suit¡¯s jaws. She even got a few good kicks in with the clawed feet of the suit too as she was tossed around every which way as the grub thrashed in pain.

    After a short time, the grub finally went still as Asuta¡¯s flames and electricity finished it off. She quickly navigated through its insides and killed the flesh harvesting creature that attacked her as soon as she entered the room with the captured Immortals.

    Huh. There were two of them, both men. Well, this should be interesting.

    The two naked men stared at her with wide eyes and started asking her rapidfire questions, but she ignored them. She used the strength from her power armor to pull them from the thick goop in the walls that they were trapped inside one after the other.

    Before they could react, Asuta slung both men over her shoulders, holding one in place with each hand. Mmmmhhh. This was making her think dirty thoughts. Bad Asuta, stay on mission.

    She ignored the men¡¯s shouting as she moved back to the grub¡¯s throat and got on her knees and started carefully crawling her way back outside again.

    The fleshy walls of the esophagus pressed in on the three of them as Asuta crawled forward until they spilled back out into the cave.

    A group of insects was gathered around and they stared down at her in her armor for a moment as she rolled out from the dead grub¡¯s throat. But then their little brains finally registered who she was and as one they all charged to attack her at once again.

    She opened her mouth and breathed out and panned her head to the side, adjusting her grip on the men so they wouldn¡¯t be in her way as she breathed flame.

    After the first surge was defeated after a few seconds, she started moving again, rushing back through the tunnels and rushing back as quickly as she had come in.

    Asuta reached the surface, still ignoring the two men she was holding. She sent a signal to her ship hovering above her while cloaked in an invisibility field.

    The shimmering distortion above turned off and revealed Asuta¡¯s sleek ship that had been waiting for her. She ran and dodged around as the swarm of insects covering the ground around her all tried to attack her at once. But with so many, they interfered with one another and only a few actually managed to land any attacks on her.

    Her ship got low enough that it was almost time, so Asuta lowered herself into a crouch and opened her suit¡¯s mouth again, spun in a circle and breathed out more flame to clear a small circle around herself from the swarm.

    Her ship launched something from its base as the harness automatically fastened itself around her suit. Her ship kept moving at high speed, pulling out of its quick dive to fly back into the sky again.

    Asuta¡¯s feet were lifted off the ground as her and her power armor were pulled upwards by the trembling cable and harness. The two men with her screamed in fear as the cable began trembling violently as it started to retract and pull her upwards. And the ground rapidly flew away below them as her ship kept flying high into the sky.

    Asuta saw a few of the giants that Sean had described trying to throw trees or boulders at the ship, but their throws weren¡¯t nearly strong enough to get even close as Asuta¡¯s ship rapidly flew out of range before their projectiles even left their hands.

    The cable finished drawing Asuta and her armor up through the open hatch in the floor and she hung there swinging for a moment dangling from the wire from the center of the cabin. But then the hatch below her closed with a loud clunk and the sound of the rushing wind around them disappeared.

    The harness released and Asuta¡¯s power armor dropped to the floor with a heavy bang. She released her tight grip on the two men and set them on their feet.

    She stood there and admired them for a bit through the visor of her suit as they stared back at her blankly.

    ¡°So, are you going to answer our questions now, or¡­¡± One of the men asked.

    Asuta shook her head to clear away her thoughts, she couldn¡¯t let out steam that way when Emily was around. When they were near each other it could only be them, Asuta had promised Emily that. And she wouldn¡¯t betray Emily for anything in the galaxy. Ugh, and she had just been creeping on these guys, she had just realized. Coming out of all that fighting and combat had just gotten her so excited she hadn¡¯t even thought about what she was doing¡­

    ¡°Sorry, sorry. Here, there¡¯s a bin to your right,¡± Asuta said quickly, ¡°Just put on the wristband and hit the center button and it¡¯ll cover you in clothes.¡±

    The two men looked down at themselves, appearing to have forgotten that they were naked in all of the excitement. They rushed to fumble on the clothing bands and the nanites rippled over their bodies to cover them again.

    Asuta sent a command to the ship through her power armor and it began rapidly speeding back to home base. She¡¯d probably be able to do five or six raids in the time the rest of the crew could do one.

    Speed and stealth were far more effective than guns blazing heavy fortress method that they were using. But Asuta wanted all of Emily¡¯s friends to be safe, and any mistake in the method Asuta had just used would lead to their capture by the Endless Flesh. Or the destruction of Ash, which Asuta was sure would devastate Emily just as much as it would everyone else¡­

    ¡°Oh, questions right?¡± Asuta said, ¡°Right, so ask away. We¡¯ve got ten minutes and then you¡¯ll have a whole group of people to talk to.¡±

    ¡°Ah, so¡­¡± the man who had spoken before asked, ¡°Who are you and where are we? What¡¯s going on with these clothes? And what is that beast that swallowed us so long ago? Do you know how long we were in there?¡±

    ¡°You really start with the easy questions, don¡¯t you?¡± Asuta said lightly, ¡°Okay, so let¡¯s start from the very beginning¡­¡±

 Chapter 62: The Last Raid

    ¡°How were there so many attacking us?¡± Sean asked, ¡°They covered the ground for miles, will we deal with that many every time?¡±

    ¡°Not exactly,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I already had one of my missiles napalm the whole area after you left to burn up the dead bodies so the Endless Flesh can¡¯t reuse them. There¡¯s so many of them right now because all of them probably landed on the planet recently and were on the original Endless Flesh ship before. Billions or more of the things are covering the planet now to hold the line until the hives entrench themselves and begin real production of more of them. The Endless Flesh can recycle dead bodies with almost perfect efficiency if they manage to drag them back to the center of the nest to feed those grubs, and the Immortals they¡¯ve captured add a little bit to their total pool of biomass over time. But since I destroyed the bodies after you were done, it should have made a sizable dent in the forces of the Endless flesh for now.¡±

    ¡°So, will something like that happen again next time?¡± Sean asked, ¡°We¡¯re going out again soon, right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll keep going until it gets too dangerous,¡± Asuta agreed, ¡°I¡¯ve already saved five Immortals so far with my stealthy strategy, but what I¡¯m doing doesn¡¯t cut back on the size of the swarms either. That swarm you just fought will probably be the biggest one for a while. But specialized variants will start popping up to attack along with them, and don¡¯t expect the attacks to exactly be small either. Even if they won¡¯t be as big as they could be.¡±

    ¡°Anything else that we should do?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Besides just going out to do it again?¡±

    Asuta tilted her head to the side and appeared to think for a moment.

    ¡°Nope,¡± she said, ¡°Just rinse and repeat. If you¡¯re feeling in danger, then don¡¯t hesitate to back off and retreat. These things get nasty if you give them time to dig in and fortify their nests.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Sean said, ¡°Back to work then, I guess.¡±

    ¡°Back to work,¡± Asuta agreed.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The massive centipede in the central chamber reared its head back and roared, causing Sean to take a half step back. It turned its head to him and spat a sticky glob of acid directly onto him before he could react. Sean swore as the acid coated him and started eating into the frame of his exosuit. But the worst thing was the flashing red light on his flamethrower as the acid ate into it.

    Sean quickly shifted his grip on his weapon and with a grunt used the enhanced strength of his exosuit to throw his weapon directly at the centipede they were fighting.

    Sean turned away and fell to his knees as the large chamber around them shook under the massive explosion that shook the chamber a second later and shifted the darkness into bright day.

    Sean turned back and glanced down at his sizzling and pitted armor. He was going through these suits like socks by now. All of them needed new ones for each raid after these last few weeks. Asuta had a whole arsenal of them, but Sean was beginning to worry that even her supplies must be running out with how quickly they were going through them.

    The centipede fell to the ground dead with a large thump as the antimatter explosion nearly erased the right half of its head.

    Ash quickly carved the creature open and extracted the three immortals inside of it from the wet flesh while Roger and Lira frantically held back the swarm.

    No longer were the swarm mantises and beetles only. Now they had to worry about sinuous centipedes, acid spitting dragonflies, and dozens of other variants that attacked them all at once.

    Sean stepped forward and grabbed two of the Immortals that Ash had retrieved now that he was down to only his sidearm at his hip and grenades. Ash picked up the last one and helped Sean adjust his grip so he could hold all three of the confused Immortals at once.

    A barrage bone spike came flying from the ceiling, all targeting Sean as the group started pushing out of the main chamber and into the tighter tunnels. The spikes shattered and only slightly dented Sean¡¯s armor where they landed. Unfortunately the three Immortals he was holding weren¡¯t nearly as lucky and looked like squirming pincushions as the spikes pierced through them effortlessly.

    Sean kept moving in the center of the formation with his friends around him as they rushed back into the more cramped tunnels. After a few seconds the ends of the bone spikes snapped off and fell to the ground as the Immortals in Sean¡¯s grip regenerated from the damage.

    They kept moving through the swarm, Sean stumbling occasionally as the damage to his exosuit began to accumulate as the swarm attacked only him at any opportunity in an attempt to get him to drop his payload.

    They made it outside to the surface into a world in chaos. Their fortress ship floating above was furiously firing at everything within a hundred meters around them to fight off the charging swarm of dozens of variants of insects.

    The main guns with kinetic rounds fired near constantly at looming figures less than a mile away who only stumbled at each strike rather than going down with only a single hit.

    Even as Sean watched a group of ten suicide fliers divebombed the fortress from above, the gaster at their backs of the flying ants swollen with a bright green fluid. The fortress shot them down, but the creature¡¯s exploded into a spray of green acid as soon as they were killed, raining damage down onto the top of the ship and eating away at one of the furiously firing laser emplacements. Even as Sean watched the laser started smoking and stopped firing as the acid ate away at it.

    The ground rumbled as a boulder landed a hundred feet away as one of the humanoid in the giants crouched down to throw again. The fortress¡¯ kinetic rounds slammed into it an instant later and sent it falling to the ground before it could attack again.

    The ropes came down from above and latched onto all of them and started drawing them upwards one by one. Lira, Ash, and Roger kept firing with their lasers and flamethrowers as the fortress struggled to keep all of the surrounding swarm from reaching them.

    Another group of flying ants dive bombed the fortress and managed to land a direct hit on one of the protected engines. The engine sputtered and died for a second causing the fortress to lurch to the side for a second before it fired up again and they righted themselves. The group dangling beneath the ship were thrown from side to side as the ship kept reeling them up into its interior.

    The whole group was drawn upwards and into the ship itself and the hatch below them closed.

    An acid spitting dragonfly managed to slip in just at the last moment and attempted to attack the control console. Sean dropped the three naked Immortals to the ground and threw himself to the side to intercept the glob of liquid with his armor even as Lira reached out and slapped the dragonfly out of the air. She raised her foot and stomped it even as the acid landed on Sean¡¯s chest and finally managed to break through to his body. His skin bubbled and peeling away as the acid ate away at it just as fast as it regenerated. Sean gritted his teeth slightly at the sensation and tried to move, only to find that his exosuit had finally given up the game and shut down, locking him into place.

    Ash went over to the control console and started inputting the commands to get them out of here.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    ¡°Sean? Are you alright?¡± Lira asked as she kneeled next to him in her exosuit.

    ¡°Fine, just got hit by the acid,¡± Sean said through the speakers, ¡°Movements completely shut down though, I¡¯m locked in place. I triggered the emergency release already and it didn¡¯t do anything.¡±

    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s get you out of there,¡± Lira said. She fiddled with his suit for a moment and found the point where the metal had warped to stop it from releasing him.

    She found a welder in a bin to the side and brought it out and quickly melted the offending section of metal until with a hissing sound the torso of the exosuit swung outwards and let Sean crawl out.

    He stood there only dressed in a clothing band when the ship suddenly lurched and Sean was thrown to fall onto the hard metal of Lira¡¯s exosuit, where she caught him.

    ¡°Ash, what¡¯s going on?¡± Roger asked from where he had been calming down the three new Immortals and giving them clothing bands.

    ¡°The flying ants took out the engine they damaged earlier,¡± Ash said as he kept tapping at the control panel, ¡°We¡¯re down to three engines now so we¡¯re moving much slower. We can go down to two, but we¡¯ll barely be able to do more than hover in place if it comes to that.¡±

    ¡°What are our chances of escape?¡± Lira asked, ¡°If we¡¯re already being hit this hard here, can we make it out in time¡­?¡±

    Ash stared at the display where Sean saw that he was altering the firing paths of the laser turrets and main cannons to prioritize the right targets.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± Ash said, ¡°There¡¯s too many and they¡¯ve done too much damage. I think we¡¯ll have to go upward.¡±

    ¡°Upward?¡± Roger said, ¡°Are you sure? We¡¯ll be right in the firing paths¡­¡±

    ¡°If Ash says we won¡¯t make it then we won¡¯t,¡± Sean said as he stood back to his feet and Lira¡¯s Exosuit released him from its embrace, ¡°We¡¯ll have to risk it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, do it Ash,¡± Lira agreed before turning to Roger, ¡°You saw the engines. If Ash says she can¡¯t get us out then we have to do the option we have left.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Roger allowed, ¡°Let¡¯s go for it then.¡±

    ¡°Alright, increasing thrust to maximum force,¡± Ash said before he hit the panel again. The fortress ship around them suddenly started rumbling as the engines began to roar even louder and begin to whine slightly as they started slowly rising through the air.

    Ash kept on optimizing the firing patterns for the ships weapons for the next five minutes as they rose. There were still a few flying variants that were flying upwards after them, but without worrying about all of the ones on the ground Ash was able to eliminate almost all of them before they reached the surface of the ship.

    The shield had already shattered long ago while they were fighting underground, so unfortunately the ships surface was unprotected as the suicidal ants killed themselves to release blasts of acid to eat away at and disable more of the remaining laser positions. There were now only ten of the lasers on the underside still firing now. But as the ship rose through the air, less and less of the flying creatures were able to follow, until finally the last one gave up the chase and started flying back towards the ground.

    They waited for another five minutes in silence as they rose through the air before Ash sent the command to home base.

    It took another ten minutes before they heard the rumbling from the skies above.

    They all tensed, even the new Immortals who seemed to sense everyone else¡¯s tension. Sean swore as suddenly their ship lurched to the side again and something whistled right by them.

    The ground below was lit up in a massive fiery explosion. There was more rumbling and more long range missiles from the nearest fortress city landed on the swarm below and burnt them to a crisp.

    There was a brief pause before more missiles came down from the skies and scoured the remaining giants and larger creatures that had survived the initial barrage.

    Their ship wobbled in the air for a bit but remained mostly stable as the orbital lasers finished off the last of the larger creatures. There was still movement down below from survivors, but most of them had been killed. And more importantly the bodies of the dead had been destroyed so the Endless Flesh wouldn¡¯t be able to reuse them next time.

    They hovered there for a moment observing the flaming battleground below them. Then Ash hit a few more commands into the console and the ship started moving again.

    ¡°Should be eight or nine hours until we get back with only the three engines,¡± Ash told the room as he sat down and took a slug of heavy metals from a nearby crate. Ash opened his chest cavity and started feeding it to his nanite swarm. Working on repairing his damaged and pitted frame with the nanites inside his chest with the raw materials.

    Sean turned to the three new Immortals who were staring at him as the only one of the group out of the exosuits at the moment.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you have a lot of questions,¡± Sean said in a speech that was well practiced by now after weeks of conducting raid after raid on the Endless Flesh¡¯s nests, ¡°So here¡¯s the basics of what¡¯s happening right now and who we are¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Yeah, I think that¡¯s it,¡± Asuta said as she inspected the damaged surface of the ship they had just returned with, ¡°Well by my estimation we saved at least half of the Immortals that were trapped in those hives. So that was a good job. My own stealth efforts are running on the edge too. My ship was shot down three times already and I had to fight the swarm by myself while home base sent more ships to come save me¡­¡±

    ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± Roger asked, ¡°You¡¯re right, we barely made it out that time. But we can¡¯t just leave it be. Even right now, home base is being attacked en masse by the swarm.¡±

    ¡°Yes, out of the fifty cities I made ten of them have already been overrun and destroyed,¡± Asuta agreed, ¡°But home base is different. This place is brimming with better defenses, and the underground shield is far more powerful than the rest so they won¡¯t be able to burrow in that way. Even if all the rest fall, then home base will be able to survive for a while longer. They won¡¯t get in here easily.¡±

    ¡°What about Emily and the ship she¡¯s repairing?¡± Roger asked, ¡°Will she be fine?¡±

    ¡°Yes, those defenses are almost as good as ours,¡± Asuta said with a dismissive wave, ¡°It¡¯s such a small space that it''s easier to set up proper defenses rather than the miles and miles of area to defend here and for the cities.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s the news of the main ship that retreated?¡± Sean asked, ¡°What¡¯s it doing?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s coming back,¡± Asuta said with a grimace, ¡°It¡¯ll be here and raining down more troops and reinforcements from orbit down onto us within the next week. But with everything we¡¯ve done, we¡¯ve depleted almost all of the Endless Flesh¡¯s initial invasion forces. Now they¡¯re down to the amount they¡¯re gaining from the trapped Immortals to sustain their swarms by now. It¡¯s a lot, but not as overwhelming as it was in the beginning. Despite them getting smarter with all the specialized variants they¡¯re creating to counter us to make the amount of biomass they have go farther.¡±

    ¡°But the ship coming back would change that,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Yeah, it would change that,¡± Asuta agreed, ¡°Especially since it might start conducting orbital strikes with those heavy landing pods if it''s smart enough to figure out that it can do that. So we¡¯ve got until then to do a few final raids on the nests. Then we¡¯ll just have to bunker down and try to deplete their numbers as best we can until Emily pulls through to destroy the main ship.¡±

    ¡°Won¡¯t we still have everything on the ground to deal with even if the ship was destroyed?¡± Lira asked skeptically.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Asuta said, ¡°But all my other space defenses in this star system are attacking the main ship right now to keep it from regenerating as quickly. Once it¡¯s dead then we can bring them into orbit around the planet after a few weeks and use them to attack the Endless Flesh on the ground. Plus saving the hundreds if not thousands of Immortals trapped in the main enemy ship that are sustaining that thing right now to keep it regenerating itself so quickly.

    ¡°Actually this is one of the largest Immortal count fleets I¡¯ve ever heard of. It has deployed hundreds of Immortals just for the land invasion alone. Which means it¡¯s holding back far more than that in its main body. Most fleets of the Endless Flesh barely break a hundred Immortals total in the worst case.

    ¡°The combination of those two things will make things much easier for us and let us whittle them down their numbers with less risk to ourselves when we choose to do more raids on their nests,¡± Asuta finished.

    ¡°So we¡¯ve just got to wait until Emily pulls through for us?¡± Lira asked, ¡°And then go on offense once that¡¯s done?¡±

    ¡°Pretty much,¡± Asuta agreed.

    ¡°What about Entiru and all the others we saved?¡± Sean asked, ¡°They¡¯re not going to help?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯ll help us,¡± Asuta said, ¡°But only after Emily kills the main ship. Then we can risk having a raid with a larger group including them in their own exosuits to help us out.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Sean said, ¡°So is there anything else we should do? Or are we just completely waiting until the right moment?¡±

    ¡°Just waiting,¡± Asuta said, ¡°We can¡¯t risk the Endless Flesh recapturing anyone to strengthen itself. Best to not give it the opportunity. So go relax all of you. We¡¯ve all worked hard, so no use worrying about what¡¯s going on out there until we can do something about it.¡±

    They all dispersed and went back to their rooms to relax and decompress. Sean and Lira both took long naps as soon as they were clean. Neither of them had slept for weeks, and they were more than ready for a mental break from the constant stress of the raids they¡¯d been doing on the Endless Flesh recently.

 Chapter 63: Victory

    Emily stared at the diagram one more time before shaking her head and blinking hard. Almost there, only a few more repairs and checks and the superweapon would be fully operational. She hesitated as she looked at the last few jobs she had to do before sighing. She had to take a nap so she¡¯d be at full concentration for these last checks.

    If the ship blew up on her then she¡¯d be captured by the Endless Flesh for who knows how long. It had never happened to her before, and she never intended for it to. For some reason she could never seem to take the threat of being captured them seriously. Sure she worried if someone else was captured. But never for herself.

    But either way. She had to make sure that things went well, the others were all counting on her to pull through. The swarm of insects were swarming the defenses of the small area around the central hangar where the large ship had been stored. Luckily all the spare parts and tools she could ever need were all here so she never had to leave this place to go. Asuta had sent her a few short messages over the last two months of repair.

    As Emily settled under the cot she¡¯d set up in the corner, she scrolled and scrolled through the messages that she¡¯d left unread for the last few days on her holopad. Things were still stable with Asuta and the rest. They were just turtling up and waiting inside home base for Emily to come save them. Things with all of the new Immortals seemed to be going well too, with Asuta saying that they had all been trapped for an unknown long time and were all recovering from their ordeal well. Emily would have to ask them about it when she got back, maybe she¡¯d know something about it if she¡¯d heard something about what had happened to their homeworld sometime in the past.

    Emily smiled as she read a few of Asuta¡¯s longer messages talking up how Emily would be a big hero saving the day. And all kinds of suggestive comments about how heroes should be ¡®rewarded¡¯. Emily typed her own playful replies and sent them before putting the holopad down. Only a few more days and they could finally start cleaning things up around here and get rid of these insects ruining her and Asuta¡¯s home.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The ship was ready, Emily had triple checked everything and all she had to do was launch now. The main ship of the Endless Flesh had returned a month ago and had been releasing drop pods filled with more insects all over the planet to reinforce the horde. Only a few days ago it had finally figured out that it could drop the pods directly onto the shields of the remaining fortress cities from orbit to damage them.

    That had made Emily want to rush, but she¡¯d forced herself to slow down and keep checking the ship carefully. Out of the fifty cities Asuta had made, over thirty of them had been overrun and destroyed now, five of those only in the last few days as the orbital bombardment from above started piercing through their shields. But home base, and Asuta and her home was fine, their shields still holding strong despite enduring direct strikes from the Endless Flesh¡¯s pods whenever its orbit above the planet was aligned enough to do so.

    And Asuta didn¡¯t seem worried about home base failing soon despite the bombardment or the growing tide of the insect swarms assaulting every position on the planet in greater and greater numbers as time passed.

    Emily looked through the security cameras to see the swarm of bugs coating the shield of her hideout, covering it from top to bottom as they all fruitlessly bit at it before one of Emily¡¯s defensive lasers shot them and sent them tumbling into the tall pile of bodies stacked up in all directions.

    The local ecosystem was completely destroyed. Everything ground to raw dirt under the relentless march of the insect swarms covering the planet, Emily was sure. Her and Asuta would have to rebuild this whole ecosystem from the ground up again after this. Have to completely start over again.

    Emily wasn¡¯t sure that anyone had ever seen something like this before. The Endless Flesh had never done anything like this even since the beginning. Her head throbbed slightly and she reached out to her headache as she thought about it. The Endless Flesh had always been cautious, or its guiding minds had always been at least. Waiting and keeping the Immortals that it had captured nice and protected in their home systems. Sending the brash and bold of their number out to fight and be slaughtered by the military forces of the Immortals. Why had they sent such a massive force here? Why now?

    It was the largest attack she had ever witnessed before, and it was on her and Asuta. This kind of force could threaten the Plaguebringers and Immortal Council both. What had drawn them here? Why attack? Something tickled in the back of her mind, the sensation of clicking jaws and rustling of insect wings. But after a moment it was gone again like it was never there.

    She must have just heard something from outside again. There were certainly enough of the creatures out there trying to get in through the shields right now.

    Emily stood on the command deck of the ship and prepared to activate it. She turned on the engines and it began to slowly lift into the air. Asuta helpfully sent a barrage of missiles to clear the swarm around her position at least for a few minutes. After it was done the shield protecting the place she¡¯d spent the last few months flickered off and her ship lifted into the air. Behind her the shield flickered back on just as the edge of the rest of the swarm reached it again and kept trying to crawl inside.

    Several flying ants tried to fly and spray acid on Emily¡¯s ship but the strong shields barely even flickered as the ship kept rising into the air, leaving the low flying insects far below her in moments.

    The blue skies quickly turned black around her and revealed starry skies and the curvature of the planet below. Even from here she could see slight movements representing the mass migrations of the insect swarms below. The flashes and fire and glowing shields of the remaining fortress cities. The shattered remnants of the ones that had been destroyed scattered across the continents. Dark and shattered as the swarms crawled around their ruins.

    And finally there was the Endless Flesh orb ship floating just around the curvature of the planet raining down a continuous stream of drop pods and orbital strikes on the last bastions of civilization on the planet.

    Emily waited and repositioned the ship until it was perfectly aligned with the ship. A ship that had paused its assault on the planet. She was sure it was considering her comparatively smaller ship and deciding what it should do.

    Emily saw the ship suddenly shrink in size, but didn¡¯t react as a cloud of gore suddenly appeared in a large field in the space between the two ships. It was the Endless Flesh¡¯s main space weapon. Suicide hyperspace jumps to destroy their enemy¡¯s ships. If those had reached her, they would have appeared directly on top of her ship and exploded, like a bomb teleported directly on top of her ship in an instant. One of the advantages of using biological hyperdrives than the usual ones.

    But Emily had activated her hyperspace jammer, and thrown off the delicate calculations of the enemy ship and caused their suicide bombers to instead be killed and smeared across the space between them as they reached the edge of the jammer¡¯s radius.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Emily started the firing sequence. The angles were right. There were no planets, no stars, nothing important behind the space where the Endless Flesh ship was. The destructive beam would leave the system and go into deep space after it was done.

    The ship hummed loudly and shook slightly for a few seconds before the bright purple beam fired and obliterated the Endless Flesh ship with its massive beam.

    Emily watched the sensors for a moment carefully to see if the ship had dodged somehow. But no. The whole thing had been vaporized, and the beam had continued through without pause and was heading out into deep space even now.

    Emily flew the ship up to the space where the enemy ship had been and saw all the flailing Immortal bodies floating in space where they had just regenerated themselves in the aftermath of her blast. She let out a sharp breath of relief as a few of the drones she¡¯d brought started flying out and collecting the people and dropping them safe and sound in the belly of her ship¡¯s hangar bay.

    She had done it, the weapon had worked.

    It was a very busy few weeks after that, but with Emily up in orbit directing the space assets now and Asuta and all the other Immortals including the ones she had recently picked up were down below cleaning up the rest of the nests. It was finally done. The last active nest of the Endless Flesh was finally defeated and the last Immortal was rescued. It was another three days after that before the orbital lasers and defense systems stopped detecting movement on the planet below.

    The Endless Flesh had been defeated, and the last of the stragglers had been killed. Leaving only a husk of a shattered ecosystem behind with almost all the animals and wildlife eliminated. Great gray patches and flames covered the globe in the aftermath of all the weapons that had been deployed.

    The planet was ugly. Sickly. But it was theirs again, and Emily felt a surge of pride at their efforts. The Immortal Council had never come to help them, but they had handled it by themselves.

    Emily landed the ship again back in its hangars and took a quick ship from the hangar to home base for the first time in months.

    Now there was nothing stopping her from going into Foundation of All and preventing her from going into the past again¡­ Emily shook her head to brush off the thought. It was time to celebrate. Not to think about the Shadow and its riddles. Or revisit what had happened back then.

    When she landed the ship in the hangar, Asuta was there hopping on the balls of her feet, looking excited.

    As soon as Emily left the ship, Asuta hugged her.

    ¡°You¡¯re back!¡± she said before leaning in, ¡°My hero,¡± she added huskily as she whispered into Emily¡¯s ear.

    ¡°Mmmh, someone¡¯s missed me,¡± Emily laughed as she released the hug.

    Asuta grabbed her hand and started tugging her towards the doors out of the hangar, ¡°C¡¯mon. I¡¯ve been waiting for this for weeks. I¡¯ve told everyone else to scram already. We¡¯ll have the big party for you later. We¡¯ve got to get rid of all of that stress for you before then! I¡¯m going to turn you into a puddle if it¡¯s the last thing I do!¡±

    ¡°Oh well... A massage would be nice,¡± Emily said as she allowed herself to be dragged along.

    ¡°A massage to start as the minimum!¡± Asuta corrected, ¡°Three massages! All the massages I can give you!¡±

    Emily giggled slightly as they rushed around through the house, not another person in sight. Asuta had probably already told them they weren¡¯t to be disturbed. Emily wondered what Asuta had told them was happening¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily was indeed a puddle by the time her and Asuta were done, flopped bonelessly on their bed and staring into the ceiling.

    ¡°I think I¡¯m going to go to sleep,¡± Emily said absentmindedly to Asuta who was lying next to her.

    ¡°Go ahead, babe,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I told you I give the best massages. I¡¯ll sleep too. Catch up on months of sleep all at once I guess.¡±

    By the time Emily¡¯s eyes closed and she drifted off, she could already hear Asuta softly snoring on the other side of the bed, out like a light as soon as she put her mind to it.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily was dreaming, her mind vaguely registered. Things were shifting and swirling within her mind. She talked to a crab with ten legs and a top hat who put her in prison for looking ugly. The AI instructor for CODA said she was the worst in the class, so she wouldn¡¯t be able to chew bubble gum ever again. A banana told her that the color yellow was evil. Sean shouted at her and said that he hated her and that everyone else was right. That all of it was her fault all along and he was going to leave with his friends and tell everyone how horrible she was. He left with all of his friends and he never spoke to her again.

    Asuta betrayed her, smiling as she plunged a knife into Emily¡¯s back and told everyone how horrible Emily was, how it was all her fault. Emily¡¯s mind swirled as the nonsense dreams suddenly started shifting into horrible nightmares one after another. An endless field of graves stretching to the horizon, the Shadow with orange eyes watching over it all with a dispassionate gaze. A single bright silvery moon over it all that had she wished could have lasted forever just like her... In her bed, Emily mumbled and tossed and turned. Her sleeping face scrunched slightly and she grimaced as she shifted in the bed as nightmare after nightmare swirled in her mind.

    Then suddenly Emily¡¯s body went still, the dream having changed somehow. She was back at that moment. Inside Foundation of All at the base of the crater. The glowing blue rift hovered in front of her, floating in the air. Sean was nowhere to be seen around her.

    She was alone, back in that moment. Choosing to touch the rift or not again. She had drawn back from the thought ever since she had returned to the present. Avoided going into the game, even going near the holodeck just in case she saw one of those rifts again. Forced to make the decision with full knowledge of what awaited her this time. But maybe it wouldn¡¯t be so bad if she just got it over with. In her addled dream state, she seemed to think that it was the right thing to do as she raised her arm up and took a step forward towards the blue rift hanging in the air.

    She dreamily reached out and tentatively put her hand on the blue rift. Suddenly everything snapped into crystal clear focus and Emily looked around in a panic. Everything solidified and the world of Foundation of All formed as real as anything around her again. Just like it had last time.

    ¡°What?¡± Emily asked in confusion and tried to draw her hand from the rift where it was stuck. It was slowly drawing inwards as her mind raced as she struggled to remember how she had gotten here. Suddenly the sequence of events popped into her mind.

    ¡°Oh, hell no!¡± Emily shouted at the sky, ¡°What the hell, Shadow? No, no, no! This isn¡¯t goddamn fair! It was a fucking dream, it doesn¡¯t count goddamnit!¡±

    The sky of Foundation of All tinged a deep orange and Emily felt a presence watching her even though the Shadow didn¡¯t directly appear to her.

    ¡°A dream, a simulation by another name,¡± The layered chorus of voices of the Shadow said its voice came from all sides with no visible source,

    ¡°A simulation of the mind, a simulation of the senses. They are the same.

    ¡°Delay, Delay, Equivocate.

    "You can not deny your fate.

    "Remove the chains, break the links.

    "Or you''ll repeat your mistakes.

    "Now go, see beyond the end.

    "And make your choice, to die or to mend.

    "To return to this life, or have it never have been.¡±

    The orange sky disappeared and turned back into bright blue as Emily was submerged into the portal up to her elbow now.

    ¡°That¡¯s not enough, Shadow!¡± Emily shouted, ¡°Let me go, stop it! I¡¯ll- I¡¯ll go, I promise. Sometime soon. But not yet, I¡¯m not ready! I¡¯m not- No, please!¡±

    The portal had swallowed her up to almost her shoulder now.

    ¡°Shadow, let me goooooooo!!¡±

    Nothing replied as Emily¡¯s head was swallowed by the blue rift and her body was submerged once more.

    It was time for her to confront her past once more.

 Chapter 64: Reborn from the Ashes

    Emily woke up all at once to the sensation of falling. The world was a confusing mess of sound and light all around her. She was in pain and flailed blindly screaming as she felt heat burning away at her skin. She hit something hard, what felt like a chunk of concrete as her body kept burning and she flailed blindly as the light kept burning at her from all sides.

    But despite her burning, somehow she wasn¡¯t dead yet. After a few more everlasting moments of torture, the flames died down and suddenly all the pain and burns washed away as if they had never been.

    The endless light died down around her as she lay there on something rough, curled into a ball. She unfurled slightly and looked around as she realized she could finally see.

    She was laying on top of a pile of rubble. She stared at a metal dishwasher a few feet away sitting on top of a pile of stone. It was warped and twisted, melted into a solid mass and looking like a half melted stick of butter.

    Emily looked around in confusion only to freeze as she saw a mushroom cloud slowly rising less than two miles away. Everything between the cloud and to Emily was completely flattened. Everything was twisted and melted and warped by the heat. The tires on the cars had melted into the roads, all the glass had shattered. Every building had collapsed and every piece of wood and blade of grass had caught aflame and burned.

    Emily finally felt her brain snag on something and she turned back to the rubble.

    ¡°Luke?¡± she asked weakly. She stood up, barely even registering that she was naked and shaved to scalp apparently before frantically scrambling over the rubble desperately.

    ¡°Luke!¡± she shouted louder, ¡°Luke, c¡¯mon! If you¡¯re under there just shout out, say something! Please, Luke. Luke, don¡¯t be dead please¡­¡±

    She waited for the sound. But all she could hear was the crackling of flames and creaking of metal. The sizzle of twisting plastic and grumbles of shifting rock. But nothing that could be signs of life.

    ¡°Luke, you¡¯ve¡­ You were right there,¡± Emily said, reaching out to touch a still cooling rock in front of her. She barely even noticed when her hand prickled from the heat. Not enough to burn her, but right on the edge of being too hot to touch.

    Somehow Luke was fine. She had survived. Luke must be fine.

    ¡°Luke¡¯s alive!¡± She said firmly, ¡°I can¡¯t¡­ I have to Know. Is he alive?¡±

    I¡¯m sorry, little Emily. He died in the explosion. You know that already.

    ¡°He¡¯s dead,¡± Emily whispered to herself, ¡°I¡­ How am I alive? Why? Why me? I have to Know!¡±

    I don¡¯t know. I¡­ I wish I knew. But we¡¯re special somehow. Things will get better I promise. For a little while at least. You have so much ahead of you, you¡¯ll save everyone. Just focus now for me, okay? Focus on our task, distract ourselves with work. What should we do? Get some clothes maybe?

    Emily looked down at herself in surprise, the pain and raw emotion on her face easing just the smallest fraction.

    ¡°I¡¯m naked,¡± she said before looking around at her burnt surroundings. She stood and looked around before looking back at the rock she had collapsed onto. She stared at it for a long moment before tearing her eyes away.

    ¡°I survived the explosion somehow,¡± Emily said and looked back at the growing mushroom cloud that had started casting a shadow over the ground in front of her. She could see in the distance even more growing clouds scattered about the city. All of the nukes that had targeted CODA¡¯s city.

    ¡°How did I survive?¡± Emily asked herself.

    You¡¯re an Immortal, little Emily. You¡¯ll regenerate from any damage now. You won¡¯t age. Not even a nuke will be able to kill you. Nothing will be able to kill you ever again. You¡¯ll survive everything from now on.

    Emily hummed and stared at her hand for a moment before shaking her head.

    ¡°Immortal, superpowers. That can¡¯t be right. It must be something else. Now, I should find some clothes and get out of here. I¡­ I have to find Mom and Dad. They might have been out of the blast zone.¡±

    She walked around away from the growing mushroom cloud. The world soon was shrouded in darkness as the mushroom cloud grew to cover the skies and turned the evening sun red as it was shrouded by a hazy ash from above.

    Emily kept walking away from the cloud, keeping on an eye on anything that could be clothes. It took her over ten minutes before she reached an area where there was a building that was still standing among the large piles of rubble that she had been scrambling over.

    For some reason she hadn¡¯t gotten tired even with all the exercise of scrambling up and down the piles of rubble as she moved.

    She went in the first standing building and went inside. And immediately retched at the sight within. She tried to vomit at the sight, but her stomach was empty and nothing came up but acid as she dry heaved on the floor.

    A charred and mummified body covered in black ash lay on the floor of the building just inside the door. She turned away and stumbled into the street, and finally burst into tears as it hit her all at once. Luke¡­ Luke was gone. All of this wouldn¡¯t have happened if she hadn¡¯t helped those Empire terrorists when she and her family were kidnapped. If she''d just refused...

    ¡°Is this my fault? Could I have stopped this, I have to Know!¡± Emily chanted.

    No, it can only be. There is no change. That¡¯s what the Shadow said. None of this is your fault Emily. You were just doing your best. Blame the people who launched the nukes, released that virus, not yourself for being a victim. Now about those clothes. Let¡¯s keep going, right? We¡­ We still have to search for our parents. We have a mission, we can¡¯t give up now when they still need our help. It''s good to have a goal, something to push you to keep going on when everything seems hopeless.

    Emily took a shaky breath to calm herself down. Right. She had to find her parents and clothes. Keep it together, Emily¡­

    She kept walking while ignoring the smoldering bodies that she caught sight of as she kept moving. More and more buildings remained standing as Emily kept moving away from the mushroom cloud, and some things weren¡¯t completely burned anymore. She didn¡¯t go inside any of the buildings, too traumatized from her last experience.

    At one point, she realized that she was in a ruined shopping district. She must have been walking for miles in a daze.

    ¡°Now, where would the clothing store be¡­¡± Emily wondered as she peered through the rubble for something resembling cloth.

    Over there, twenty five degrees to your right and past that red car that crashed into the street light. There¡¯s a clothing rack that I found. Huh, it seems I have a real form this time. Something to scout around and see things that you can¡¯t¡­ Phase through walls like a ghost and float. Although I can only go so far from you when I do so. Huh, how about that? And I can only talk to respond when you ask a question of me. How strange¡­ I wonder how much of this you can understand?

    Emily¡¯s head turned to the right and she perked up as she spotted a clothing rack with a bright blue shirt swinging from it. She scrambled over the rubble to get past the crashed car into the store. She frowned as strange thoughts of ghosts and Sinestra swirled within her head for a moment. There was no time for her delusions right now. Sinestra was gone, and Emily had to stay focused so she could find her parents.

    All the shirts on the rack were singed and the hems and sleeves were blackened. But the main material looked fine. Emily quickly shrugged on the short sleeved blue shirt and ignored the uncomfortable bite of the blackened hems on her bare skin. She quickly scavenged the rest of the store until she was fully clothed again. Except¡­Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    Emily stared at her bare feet covered in concrete dust in confusion. She raised her left foot and inspected her sole. Hadn¡¯t she been scrambling over the rocks? Hadn¡¯t she felt it scraping open her feet? She looked at her hands. Hadn¡¯t she felt something cutting her palm as she moved? Had it scrape across that sharp piece of rebar sticking out between a crack in the field of rubble?

    She had thought that the wounds stopped bleeding because they got clogged with dust or something. Bad, but something to deal with later. But as she brushed off the gray dust covering her hands, Emily saw that her hands were completely smooth and uninjured. Not even the smallest scrape or bruise on them. Her feet too. Not a single scrape.

    And this place had no shoes, so it was a bust anyway. She sat down heavily and kept inspecting the bottom of her foot, poking the skin carefully as if to make sure that it was real.

    ¡°What the¡­¡± Emily said, ¡°What is happening to me?¡±

    You¡¯re an Immortal, little Emily. You¡¯ll heal. All your little scrapes and bruises healed while you weren¡¯t paying attention. Like those healing spells that Zeena¡¯s love interest kept casting on her in the game. But let¡¯s ignore that for now. What should we do next? Probably keep walking until we find living people, right? There must be some out there at the edge of the blast zone. Maybe they need help too.

    ¡°Right¡­ Gonna ignore that for now. Maybe see if I can find some shoes on my way.¡±

    Emily walked out of the store and kept walking, using the mushroom cloud behind her as a guide to walk away towards the edge of the city. Her parents were staying at Border Station Three near the border to the American Democracy Faction territory after they had left the capital to escape the media. Emily had to get over there at some point. But first she had to find some people and figure out how to get there. It was over thirty miles away, she couldn¡¯t just walk there just yet straight through the devastated city.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily kept walking. She eventually found a pair of heavy boots that she put on to cover her suspiciously unhurt bare feet. But just as she had hope that she would meet people, there was only more silence and the sound of shifting rubble.

    Finally, finally, she heard a voice. She rushed to the side and saw a man with his leg pinned under a fallen street light.

    He was letting out rasping breaths and Emily rushed up to him.

    ¡°Are you okay? Is your¡­ Oh god,¡±

    The man burbled through sightless eyes as his gruesomely broken leg squelched under the heavy street light that he was pinned under.

    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ Crowbar?¡± Emily said, ¡°How can I get that thing off of you?¡±

    In the white van three cars back. There¡¯s a car jack inside the back. If you set it underneath then you should be able to lift the pole enough to pull him out. But¡­ he doesn¡¯t look good. He probably won¡¯t make it. Especially since he was blinded by the light of the nuclear flash.

    Emily looked around and through intuition her eyes were drawn to a white van down the street. She thought she saw a company logo of some kind on the side. Maybe it would have some equipment that she could use?

    She went over and after a few minutes of trying to figure out how to open the back realized she was being stupid. She went to the front and smashed the windows that were somehow still intact with a rock she picked up off the ground. She carefully crawled inside onto the seat. She tried to be careful to not land on one of the glass shards, but despite her care, she felt something pinch her palm as she was halfway through the window. She had slipped slightly as she was half draped over the window and reflexively held out one hand to catch herself on the seat covered in glass shards below.

    With a hiss she withdrew her hand and started to panic as she saw the giant triangular wedge of glass embedded into her palm. It was bleeding at the edges. Just as Emily tried to figure out what she should do, the shard glass suddenly fell out and to the ground below with a soft clink.

    ¡°What the hell¡­¡± Emily breathed as she looked towards the piece of glass sitting on the ground looking like it had been perfectly cut at the point where it had contacted her palm. And the palm of her hand that was perfectly healed without even the slightest sign of injury.

    ¡°Is it¡­ Is there still glass in there?¡±

    No, it should have dissolved away into nothingness when you regenerated. Focus, car jack remember? Let¡¯s keep crawling into the front cabin of the van.

    ¡°Is this stage two of my hallucinations?¡± Emily said doubtfully, ¡°I¡­ I hope all of this is a dream. Luke is alive, none of this ever having happened. I''m in a mental hospital, but everyone is safe. It must be a dream, right? It''ll all go away when they give me some more medicine?¡±

    No, it¡¯s not a dream. You know that. You¡¯re distracting yourself, we can process your Immortality later. Just focus on what¡¯s important in the here and now. Helping people we find and finding our family. We can get through this together. You can do this, young Emily.

    ¡°Probably not,¡± Emily answered her own question, ¡°Alright, let¡¯s try that again¡­¡±

    Emily crawled inside the van through the window again, without cutting herself this time. She experimentally tried to open the door again from the inside, but it was no use. The door was slightly warped somehow and so it was stuck closed. Probably something wrong with the mechanism inside of the door itself stopping it from opening it even when she hit the switch that should have unlocked it.

    There was a mesh window separating the front cabin from the back of the van, and no obvious way through that Emily could see. She hunted around looking for something she could use and found a set of keys eventually. Starting the car was a no go, just as she had expected it to be. Nuclear weapons let out EMPs to disable electronics that weren¡¯t hardened if they were used in it right away. Emily was sure that was one of the first things that the attackers had done with their missiles. Cars had so many electronics in them these days that she¡¯d be surprised if she¡¯d be able to find any were able to start right now with all of their electronics fried.

    She carefully crawled back outside through the same window and went around to the back and unlocked the back doors of the van.

    She opened it and was greeted to the sight of all sorts of tools that she might need. There was only one problem. She recognized a crowbar at least but had no idea what the rest of this could be.

    ¡°Is there a car jack?¡± she asked herself, ¡°What do they even look like?¡±

    There, fifteen degrees to the left on the floor. That bright red diamond shaped thing. That¡¯s it.

    Emily hesitantly picked up a heavy item that she spotted. Was this it? It did seem familiar, but she¡¯d never actually used a car jack, only heard about them before. She assumed it would be helpful than a crowbar would.

    She lugged the heavy item back to where the man was trapped and started setting it up, only to stop. The man¡­ the man wasn¡¯t moving anymore. His sightless eyes were staring upwards and his groaning had stopped and she hadn¡¯t noticed since she was so focused on the van down the street.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Emily swore angrily before turning away from the man. Why couldn¡¯t she have been faster? She could have saved him! She hesitated, unsure what to do or say to the dead body of the man.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said to the corpse and then turned away and started walking off again towards the outskirts of the city. She left the car jack behind, it was far too heavy to lug around with her as she moved.

    She tried to save more people on the way, but none of them ended up surviving more than a few minutes despite her best efforts.

    But finally¡­ After everything seemed bleak and hopeless¡­ She finally actually saved somebody. They were pinned under something and unable to move, but once she pulled the woman out, she didn¡¯t bleed out and die. Or cough up blood onto her and drown on the fluids as Emily panicked and tried to figure out what to do¡­

    But the woman survived, and wasn¡¯t blind because her head had been pointed away from any of the nuclear explosions when they went off. So she wasn¡¯t blinded by the initial blast of radiation from the explosion.

    The two of them together kept moving to the edge of the city after Emily briefly explained her thoughts. The woman was coughing and looked pale, but other than that seemed aware enough as she followed after Emily.

    The woman fell behind as Emily¡¯s seemingly unlimited stamina made its appearance as they kept moving at Emily¡¯s fast walking pace.

    Emily slowed down and kept the woman moving faster by helping her limp along with an arm slung around Emily¡¯s shoulder.

    The two of them kept moving, Emily stopping occasionally to help when she noticed somebody was stuck under something. And she started running into a few healthier people that were doing the same as well.

    Everyone gave Emily odd looks though. Everyone looked a little sickly and injured as they stood there. But Emily looked completely unhurt, the dust and blood caking her body the only sign that anything had happened to her at all.

    Eventually Emily and the woman she¡¯d helped joined a group of ten or so healthier people who were also helping extract the survivors from the rubble. The woman drifted away and Emily lost track of her as she kept rushing around and helping the group with her seemingly endless energy.

    ¡°Look, Jack,¡± one of the men said eventually, ¡°Much as I hate to say it, we¡¯ve got to go. Find shelter, just¡­ I don¡¯t know. What about the radiation, man? I want to help people, but we¡¯ve got to protect ourselves too. Not all of us have as much energy as Emily.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re worried about radiation?¡± Jack said, ¡°Cancer¡¯s the least of our worries right now. There¡¯s still more people out there.¡±

    ¡°I think we should vote on it,¡± the other man said, ¡°We¡¯ve done our part. I¡¯d like to survive if I can. But if the group wants I can stay a bit longer. Sleep in one of the houses nearby maybe. But the sun will set in less than an hour. I don¡¯t want to sleep here. Do you?¡±

    Jack hesitated before nodding, ¡°Fine, vote. Stay?¡±

    No one raised their hands, even Jack after a brief pause.

    ¡°Leave?¡±

    Everyone raised their arms including Emily despite her feeling horrible for doing so. She had to look for her parents, they needed her help too.

    The group of ten walked away to the edge of the city where the dense city transitioned to more green spaces and suburban neighborhoods.

    As a group, they broke into a nearby abandoned house after knocking on the door to see if the owner was still there. Then they set up and set up some blankets and mattresses for the group to sleep on. Emily lay down on her space, and despite feeling wide awake in one moment, as soon as she decided that she wanted to sleep she was out like a light, asleep in an instant.

 Chapter 65: The Journey

    ¡°Look, my parents are out there,¡± Emily said, ¡°I have to go see them. They¡¯re by Border Station Three. They might have survived the blasts.¡±

    The sickly faces of their group of thirty people now looked at her.

    ¡°Emily, you can¡¯t¡­¡± Jack begged, ¡°You can¡¯t leave us, you¡¯re the only healthy one left somehow. None of us can *cough cough* walk that far!¡±

    ¡°I¡­ It¡¯s been a week. I can¡¯t wait anymore!¡± Emily said, ¡°You have a group, I¡¯ve helped set you guys up with shelter and enough canned food to last for another week or two. But I¡¯ve got to find my family. I¡¯ve done everything I can.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll die,¡± Jack pleaded, ¡°We¡¯re getting sick. In a few days you¡¯ll be the last one that can move. Please¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡­ Bye. I¡¯m sorry. I have to go. And I got you the anti-rad medication. That should help. And I¡¯ll do one last run for supplies for you guys. I promise.¡±

    There was a long argument, but after a while everyone, even Jack, accepted her leaving and wished her best of luck on her journey. Something that made her feel even worse about it somehow.

    She wanted to stay, to keep helping them. But her parents were out there in who knows how much danger. Even with their big group, they¡¯d already been attacked four times by people desperate for the food stockpile they¡¯d managed to scavenge. Luckily Jack and a few of the other guys were still healthy enough to brandish some metal pipes and wooden bats to scare them off before things got too dangerous.

    But everyone was getting sick from the radiation except for Emily. Who knew how long that would last? Until Jack and the others weren¡¯t strong enough to defend the others anymore?

    And she had gotten the medications from a nearby pharmacy. She was lucky she had recognized the drug in the counter from some of her side research at CODA International lab. If they took them properly then it should help treat their symptoms of the radiation poisoning. And since they knew the name of the drug now, they should be able to scavenge for more in the city if they needed to. It should be at almost any pharmacy nearby, it was used to treat other things besides radiation poisoning too.

    She had to go, the uncertainty of what had happened to her parents gnawed at her. And there was Sean to worry about too in the city filled with people infected with the deadly virus. Her deadly virus.

    So she left after doing one last scavenging run for medication and canned food for the group. She took a bicycle that she¡¯d scavenged and started her long trip around the perimeter of the city where the roads were still relatively clear with a scavenged backpack of supplies on her back.

    She hadn¡¯t packed much food or water. For some reason she didn¡¯t have to eat too much anymore. She had just taken tiny portions so the others could have more for the last week. And she still felt good, not that hungry at all despite spending over a week only eating scraps and drinking sparingly.

    Maybe whatever it was had also stopped her from getting sick from the radiation? Was that why she still was so healthy while everyone else seemed to be getting sicker all at once?

    She kept biking across the outskirts of the city. There were people peering at her from the windows of the building, all of them with sallow faces and sunken eyes.

    Several groups of men chased after her shouting while brandishing spiked clubs as they saw her backpack even if they coughed and stumbled as they chased her. She pedaled harder and was able to outpace even the ones with their own bikes after a few minutes. Her seemingly endless stamina helping her once again. It was becoming difficult to deny that the stamina was anything but supernatural. Maybe she really had gotten superpowers somehow.

    What a shitty origin story, why couldn¡¯t she have fallen into a vat of acid or something instead? Why did it have to happen like this?

    She kept moving, biking around the perimeter of the city that was perpetually dark now with the ash filling the sky and blocking out the sun even at midday. It was oddly cold out even in the height of summer. The temperatures were more what Emily would have expected for early fall right now.

    After a long time and several close calls where several gangs almost ambushed her and managed to throw her from her bike, she finally made it around the perimeter to the other side of the city. She was almost lucky that none of the cars were working right now. She shuddered to imagine what might have happened if the men in those gangs had managed to catch up to her.

    She looked at the map that she had been using to navigate as she rolled to a stop in the middle of the street. She inspected the map for a bit and peered between it and the mangled street signs on the middle of the intersection. She had never used a map to navigate before so she had to stop and recollect herself whenever she got lost or after she had to flee somebody who had tried to attack her.

    Luckily CODA had strict restrictions against buying guns, so nobody had shot at her yet. Although she had seen a few of the men waving the guns threateningly as she fled, even if none of them actually ended firing them at her. But only a few were armed, so hopefully she should be safer once she left the urban areas and was in more of the countryside.

    After finding her position and planning out the next section of her route, she tucked the map back into her backpack and zipped it back up and continued on her journey.

    As she moved the urban landscape slowly turned into the suburbs. But for some reason people were just as sickly here as they had been in the city as she kept biking.

    It took her three days to finally reach Border Station Three. Or the small town that had sprung up around the border checkpoint over time.

    Emily¡¯s heart dropped as the buildings were more and more destroyed as she kept biking. Eventually she stopped seeing any more people and her eyes started stinging while the air seemed to burn her slightly like a fizzy soda when she breathed it in. But she kept moving, and eventually reached the edge.

    The town was gone. It had been hit with another nuke, a massive crater in the center of where the main road should have been.

    Emily knew where her parents had been staying. They had been in this crater, their hotel nothing but rubble now scattered across the bottom of the crater.

    ¡°Are¡­ did they make it out?¡± Emily asked herself hopefully as she stared into the crater.

    No, no they didn¡¯t. The whole town was bathed in radiation. Even if they were on the edge of the town when the bomb dropped then they¡¯d be dead by now. Just like Jack and everyone we left behind. Everyone who lived in CODA territory is doomed. The radiation levels are too high, they¡¯ll all die over the next few weeks no matter what medication they take. But¡­ let¡¯s keep going, right? Our brother is still quarantining in the closest city in the American Democracy faction. I don¡¯t remember what happened exactly¡­ But we still have some time left. We have to get there quickly to save him. The nukes didn¡¯t land there, I¡¯m sure.

    ¡°Right, Sean,¡± Emily said a little desperately, ¡°He¡¯s away from all of this, he could have survived. At¡­ At least one of them has to have survived. I can¡¯t be all alone.¡±

    Emily took her bike and started circling the crater all on her lonesome. No movement or sign of people anywhere around her except for the rubble and piles of ash that she had to maneuver around as she moved through the shattered streets. The air was cold and she was wearing a breezy t-shirt and pants. The wind bit at her skin, yet somehow she never had to stop and her fingers gripped tightly against the handles of the bike never turned blue or went stiff.

    She felt¡­ fine. What a joke, that she would feel so amazing after losing everything. No, not everything. There was still Sean. He was still out there, waiting for her to come help him. She had to find him before something horrible happened.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily stopped her bike and stared at the concrete bunker, looking between the bodies of the soldiers and people, all turned to burnt husks by the nuclear explosion in the town behind them. The mummified and blackened bodies of the soldiers still stood holding their warped weapons within the bunker while piles and groups of more bodies were outside lying on the ground. Several of the cars and vehicles parked around were destroyed and pitted with gunfire that must have come from the bunker defending the road.

    All the people trying to flee to CODA to escape the deadly virus¡­ The image of the scene seared deeply into Emily¡¯s mind as she looked at it. She turned away and kept biking down the road. It was eighty miles to the city where Sean was sheltering in. From what she could see after an hour or two weaving through the built up traffic in her way, the road was mostly clear and undamaged once she was a little farther from the border.

    She should bike through the night. It would be hard to see, but on the open midwestern plains she should be able to mostly follow the straight road without worrying about straying off the path. And maybe her endless stamina would let her skip a night of sleep too in her emergency.

    So Emily did that. She biked through the day and night, constantly pedaling and never feeling tired. At night she didn¡¯t even have a flashlight to give her light. It was electronic too and the one she had found didn¡¯t light up even after she replaced its batteries. But it was a full moon so when she squinted she could see the road and dodge the few obstacles or disabled cars in her way.

    It was the morning of the third day that Emily finally saw the edge of the city. She had just kept her head down and pedaled as quickly as she could as she traveled while trying to not think of anything much as she moved. And with her stamina, she ended up moving quickly with the wind rushing across the short fuzz growing on her scalp from when it had been burned away by the nuclear explosion.

    Emily grimaced. Sean was alive. Her brother was here, he was the only person she had left. She had to get to him.

    She slowed her bike as she saw a ring of military vehicles on the road in front of her blocking the way. She eventually decided to keep moving after a second¡¯s hesitation. She had to get through to Sean. She knew roughly where his apartment was. Even if she was trapped in the city¡¯s quarantine then she could use her newfound superpowers to protect him. Somehow. She wasn¡¯t sure how rapid healing would help Sean, but she¡¯d find a way.

    The men in green mottled uniforms shouted at her and she slowly slid to a stop and let her bike fall to the ground and raised her hands above her head. Two humvees with mounted machine guns were parked on either side of the road with their weapons pointed directly at her. There was a pile up of cars between them that would have blocked Emily¡¯s way through if she had a car.

    ¡°Turn back!¡± A uniformed man who appeared to be in charge shouted from where he stood just in front of one of the humvees on the side of the road. Hardened electronics, Emily realized with a start. Military vehicles would still be working, their vehicles were probably still able to run even with the bombs¡¯ EMP.

    ¡°I have to get in there! My brother¡¯s inside!¡± Emily shouted back, ¡°Please, I¡­ I have to go in. Just let me through.¡±

    ¡°No one in or out!¡± The leader shouted back, ¡°Executive order of the president declaring martial law. Go back the way you came and find somewhere else to go.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care about your stupid president!¡± Emily snapped she glanced at the little tag on the man¡¯s chest, ¡°Major Smith. I¡¯m from CODA, not your backwards run down country! But my brother¡¯s in there, and I¡¯m not going anywhere else but to him!¡±

    There was a short pause, ¡°You pretentious CODA assholes,¡± the man swore, ¡°You people are the ones that caused all of this, brought the world to shit. Now beat it or you¡¯ll be shot for refusing to comply with a lawful order of the military. I don¡¯t want to hear anything else from you.¡±

    Emily took a half step forward to argue, but the leader drew his pistol and pointed it at her threateningly and she stopped. He flicked his pistol to gesture back to her bike sitting on its side. She paused.

    ¡°Well?¡± the man said with a growl, ¡°Are you going, or are you getting shot?¡±

    Emily took a step back and lowered her hands before making her decision and sprinting back to her bike and moving away.

    It took thirty minutes before she lost sight of the blockade. But they were only on the road. Emily turned her bike to the side and started pushing through the fields of corn lining the side of the road. Her bike was able to push through it slowly with her pedaling as hard as she could, but it was slow going. But she should be able to sneak through into the city if she wasn¡¯t right by the military and soldiers guarding it.

    She made her way through in the vague direction of the city. She could see the tips of a few of the skyscrapers occasionally to make sure she was going the right way. But other than that she was completely lost among the high stalks of corn in the fields.

    There was rumbling like a plane or drone flew above her as she moved. But she paused to stop moving and waited and after a few minutes nothing else happened. So she kept moving.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    The field of corn ended after another few hours. The sun had reached its maximum and just started lowering in the sky now. Maybe two or three in the afternoon by Emily¡¯s guess as she emerged from the field. There was the suburbs right in front of her, the edge of the cornfield merging right with somebody¡¯s backyard.

    Emily started biking confidently on the roads towards the skyscrapers in the distance. Everything was eerily silent as she looked around. There wasn¡¯t even the sudden movement in the windows like if people were quarantining inside their houses. The back of Emily¡¯s neck prickled as she kept moving through the eerily silent streets.

    After ten minutes she suddenly stopped as she saw a military humvee in her path with the same officer from before stepping out of the side door. Another man stood manning the turret above the vehicle that was pointed at her again.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know how you managed to get through those fields so fast on the bike,¡± the officer, Major Smith, said with his pistol dangling down at his side unholstered, ¡°But this is your last chance¡­ Ms. CODA. We¡¯ve got infrared scans of the whole perimeter. You¡¯re not getting through. We don¡¯t have the resources to stop you more than this once. So go, or you¡¯ll be shot on sight next time.¡±

    ¡°I¡­¡± Emily said only to flinch as there was a loud boom and pain bloomed in her chest. She fell to the side off of her bike gasping as she grabbed the left side of her chest where the bullet had entered.

    ¡°This is what all you bastards deserve for releasing that virus on us,¡± the officer said, ¡°No one buys that Empire crap. CODA did this. You¡¯d come back, try to sneak in again. I saw it in your eyes. I¡¯m just saving all of us some time.¡±

    Emily kept gasping and desperately clutching her chest despite the pain having already stopped. She looked up only to see the military officer standing there with a pistol aimed at her from only a few feet away.

    There was a loud boom and Emily felt something hit her skull. Everything went black as the bullet entered her brain before she could make another noise.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The blackness bloomed back into light and Emily started to panic. Was she dead? Was this the afterlife? No, she still had to save Sean! She couldn''t go into the light just yet! But then the light resolved into color as sensation returned to her body.

    ¡°What¡­?¡± she rasped.

    Don¡¯t move! They think you¡¯re dead! Just wait until you¡¯re sure they¡¯re gone. Close your eyes, now! Listen to me, little Emily. Just close your eyes and stay still right now! Don¡¯t move a muscle!

    Emily stiffened for a moment before forcefully relaxing her body and shutting her eyes. Just before her lids closed she saw the back of the military officer, his pistol holstered at his side as he walked away from her body.

    She lay there only breathing very slowly as she played dead as best as she could.

    The vehicle rumbled and slowly receded into the distance for a few minutes until she couldn¡¯t hear it anymore. She cracked open her eyes a fraction and saw that the road in front of her was empty.

    ¡°Gone?¡± Emily whispered as she opened her eyes a little wider and looked around without moving her body at all.

    Yes, they¡¯re gone for now, little Emily. But you¡¯ve got to get up now. They have infrared cameras. They¡¯ll realize that they made a mistake when you¡¯re still warm on their next scan whenever that is. We have to rush into the city and get lost into the crowd as quickly as possible before they can catch us and realize that you¡¯re still alive.

    Emily stood and put a finger through the hold in her shirt right over her heart. She wiggled it a bit and the fabric moved with it. She reached up and felt her face that was matted with wet blood. And the perfectly smooth skin where the bullet had struck her.

    ¡°I¡­ died,¡± Emily said in shock, ¡°Everything went black. He shot me in the head. I was dead, and now I¡¯m here.¡±

    Emily didn¡¯t say anything for a few seconds and put her finger back into the bullet hole in her shirt.

    ¡°I¡­ I guess these powers are better than I thought they were,¡± Emily said to herself, ¡°But he said they have IR scans. I should go and get lost in the city. Who knows what they¡¯ll do to me if they figure out that I¡¯m¡­ Immortal or something.¡±

    She stood and went back to her bike and traveled farther into the city. But even after the shock of what had just happened, the feeling of dread suddenly washed over her as she kept biking into the silent city. There were a few people in the street, but all eyed her warily and shied away from her. None spoke to another and there were no vehicles running across the city.

    There was sound now, of quiet muttering and shuffling. Coughing and retching coming from the alleyways. But none of the hustle and bustle that you¡¯d expect from a living city.

    She finally found Sean¡¯s apartment building after a long journey, avoiding the residents of the city just as they avoided her. She went up and pressed the button to buzz the apartment with her ¡®Stenton¡¯ last name on it before realizing that she was being stupid. Of course that part didn¡¯t work, it was electrical and it must have been taken out by the EMPs. The EMP blasts would have been continental, not localized to just one city, so it must have taken out everything electronic, even this far away from CODA.

    She looked around and hid her bike behind the dumpster in the alleyway to the side of the building. It wasn¡¯t ideal, but hopefully nobody would steal it while she was gone.

    She went to the front door of the apartment complex and pulled out a large knife from her backpack. Who knows who was in there besides Sean, best to be careful. She carefully hit the window with the base of her knife and smashed a little corner of it out. She reached her hand in and unlocked the outer door and walked inside before closing it behind her again. The inner door was locked.

    Emily looked to the little corner of the window on the outer door that she had broken when she reached in. It was fine, she¡¯d come down and fix it somehow later¡­

    Emily went up the stairs to the door of Sean¡¯s apartment on the fifth floor and stood there for a moment. She raised a trembling fist to the door and stared at the wood. Was¡­ was he still in there? Was he alive? After over five minutes of struggling with herself, she finally let her fist fall and knocked on the door.

    She waited and heard some shuffling inside the room.

    ¡°Hello? Sean? It¡¯s me, Emily,¡± she whispered, not wanting to disturb or alert the rest of the block that she was here.

    There was a pause. ¡°Emily?¡± Sean¡¯s voice whispered from the other side, ¡°Is that really you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s me,¡± Emily said, starting to choke up as she heard his voice again.

    The door opened and there Sean stood, looking tired and like he hadn¡¯t shaved in a long time. But safe and healthy. He quickly waved her in with his eyes darting to the sides of the hallway. Emily rushed in and Sean quickly shut and locked the door behind him.

    ¡°Emily, what¡­¡±

    Sean stopped talking as Emily wrapped him up in a hug and started crying in relief.

    ¡°I was so worried about you, Sean,¡± Emily managed to choke out between her sobs, ¡°Thank god you¡¯re okay.¡±

    ¡°Me?¡± Sean asked in confusion as he tentatively hugged her back, ¡°What about you, Sis? I¡­ You were right there. If you made it then¡­ Did¡­¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said softly, ¡°They¡¯re all gone. Luke, Mom, Dad. We¡¯re all that¡¯s left.¡±

    Sean drew back, ¡°What? But¡­ If you made it out then¡­ Maybe they made it out too? The bombs couldn¡¯t have hit everywhere, surely.¡±

    Emily shook her head, ¡°It¡¯s¡­ I¡¯m just glad that you¡¯re safe. I¡­ I¡¯m a special case. One of the bombs was dropped almost directly on top of Mom and Dad¡¯s hotel.¡±

    Sean¡¯s expression crumpled and he collapsed heavily onto the couch a few steps behind him, looking defeated.

    ¡°And Luke?¡± Sean asked heavily, ¡°What about him?¡±

    ¡°He¡­ He was with me. He didn¡¯t make it.¡±

    ¡°Oh. So you were¡­ at the edge of the blast then? Made it out in time before the radiation clouds spread to your area? And¡­ Luke? Something happened?¡±

    ¡°Not¡­ not exactly. I got superpowers. I can heal really fast now.¡±

    ¡°Superpowers? What do you mean?¡± Sean asked as he peered at her skeptically, ¡°Can we not joke? I just want to know everything and then¡­ we can move from there.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not joking,¡± Emily said. She took out her knife from her backpack and took a deep breath. Sean¡¯s eyes widened and he leapt up as she dragged a long cut along the top of her forearm with a hiss of pain.

    ¡°Fuck, that hurts,¡± Emily swore as she put the blade on the little table set up in front of the couch. Sean watched in confusion as the cut on Emily¡¯s arm stopped bleeding and healed in seconds. Emily wiped the blood off her forearm with her other hand and presented her arm to Sean for inspection. He grabbed it and turned her arm around and poked it for a few seconds silently, blinking in surprise and looking like he was still processing what had just happened.

    ¡°So, what? You can just regenerate now? You got superpowers?¡± Sean asked, ¡°How? Can you do anything else?¡±

    ¡°I never seem to get tired,¡± Emily said, ¡°And I don¡¯t have to eat or sleep I don¡¯t think. At least not so far. I stayed up for days biking here and I never got tired or had to sleep. That¡¯s how I got here so fast.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ But you must need energy. How would you be healing so fast unless it was using something up? It doesn¡¯t make sense. Do you have to eat more when you heal? Maybe that¡¯s it? Do you know if it slows down healing eventually?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think so?¡± Emily said, ¡°I, well¡­ I don¡¯t think I have to worry about it not healing me.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± Sean asked suspiciously as he spotted her expression, ¡°What do you mean? What happened?¡±

    ¡°Well, uhm,¡± Emily said before walking over to the other side of Sean¡¯s couch and sitting down with a loud sigh.

    ¡°Luke and I were¡­ we were right at the site of one of the bombs. It barely exploded two miles away. Everything was burned, the whole building destroyed. My body burned to a crisp before it healed back good as new. Luke¡­ Luke was gone and I was the only one left. He was right in my arms and then he was gone.¡±

    Emily looked down at her trembling hands and thought back to that moment. There was something missing. She had hugged Luke, they had said a few words. Then¡­ it was all a confused mess of darkness and burning pain until she woke up again in the rubble. She just couldn''t remember...

    Sean grabbed Emily¡¯s hands and stopped their trembling.

    ¡°Hey,¡± he said gently, ¡°I¡¯m sorry. But we¡¯ve still got each other. It¡¯ll all be okay.¡±

    ¡°How can it?¡± Emily whispered, ¡°Mom and Dad are dead. My best friend is dead. Everyone in CODA city is dead in the explosions or from the radiation after. Who knows how many others died from the virus and the other bombs that were launched. How can it be okay?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re both fine. You more than ever, with your powers. We¡¯ll make it fine. Big brother¡¯s promise.¡±

    Emily looked up at him. ¡°Big brother¡¯s promise?¡± Emily said with a weak chuckle, ¡°You haven¡¯t done any of those since we were kids.¡±

    ¡°I took care of those bullies at school when you told me how they were picking on you,¡± Sean said, ¡°I delivered on my big brother promise back then didn¡¯t I? And I¡¯ll deliver on it now. We¡¯ll get through this together. Things will get better, I¡¯m sure of it.¡±

    Emily searched his expression for a long moment before nodding.

    ¡°Thanks, Sean. Maybe you¡¯re right,¡± she agreed, ¡°As long as we have each other.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Sean asked, ¡°You haven¡¯t eaten for days, Emily. Surely you should eat something?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said shaking her head, ¡°We only have three weeks of food left even with rationing as it is. I don¡¯t need to eat, but you do. You¡¯re getting it all.¡±

    ¡°How long do you think the quarantine will continue?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Surely they have to let us out sometime? Give us some of those CODA vaccines. It¡¯s already been over a month since all of this happened.¡±

    ¡°You saw them from the roof. The military dragging out the bodies of the infected and throwing them in those big pits to burn. Shooting the ones that were still alive,¡± Emily said, ¡°One of the officers tried to kill me. They¡¯re not our friends. If they have any vaccines then they wouldn¡¯t give them to us.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Sean said, ¡°Can¡¯t they just make more?¡±

    ¡°No, if CODA is destroyed¡­ then maybe not,¡± Emily said, ¡°And with all electronics down and maybe wars going on in the aftermath of everything¡­ we might not be getting a vaccine for a while.¡±

    ¡°Couldn¡¯t you make some?¡± Sean asked, ¡°You could go to them and give them the formula. You said you might know it, and be able to make it if you had the right equipment.¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ maybe if I had the right tools and reagents. And the software program for protein design or something similar. It¡¯s not something you can just write down. You need to have a software file and the right process to make it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we can trade?¡± Sean asked hopefully, ¡°The vaccine formula for safety? You think they would go for that? They¡¯re assholes, but everything they¡¯re doing is to combat the infection. Even if it¡¯s brutal.¡±

    Emily considered it for a moment.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she finally said, ¡°Okay. It¡¯s worth a try. Before you start running out of food. We can¡¯t go out there to scavenge. One of us might be infected by the virus¡­¡±

    ¡°What would that do to you? Wouldn¡¯t you just regenerate it away?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. But what if I could still spread it to other people even if I heal? I can¡¯t let that happen. Especially to you.¡±

    ¡°Okay. So we¡¯ll cover you up, then you¡¯ll go? What about me?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll come back for you,¡± Emily promised, ¡°You just stay safe here. But we¡¯re preparing first. I want to make sure I know what to say when I approach. You know this place better than I do. Help me think on what I should do¡­¡±

    The two of them discussed for a long time on how Emily should go about it. They talked for the entire day planning, Sean being forced to eat a double ration of food to make up his calories from all the activity they had been doing. Something that made Emily feel guilty as his food stores dwindled even more. Emily¡¯s stomach had small pangs, but more like craving a snack than anything deeper. Even if she hadn¡¯t eaten in weeks by now.

    They both went to sleep and in the next morning it was time for Emily to suit up. The air was cold and the wind biting, the ashy gray skies turning the sun into a red hazy orb at all times. The tail end of summer shifting into a deep winter over only the last few weeks.

    Sean took several heavy jackets he owned and helped Emily put on as many as she could and not restrict her movement too much. All of it was Sean¡¯s clothing, but it still roughly fit on her as she put on two pairs of snow pants, three jackets, and as many thin layers as she could top and bottom directly on her skin above and below her coat.

    Sean helped her put on a ski mask, goggles, and thick winter gloves. Then he used up two whole rolls of duct tape sealing the gaps between each piece. Focusing on attaching the hems of the snowpants to her heavy boots, the gloves to her wrists, and the ski mask to her neck and the rest of the jacket.

    He especially took care to make sure that the goggles were taped on tightly to the mask so that nothing would get through. The whole thing in the end should serve as a make do hazmat suit in case she came across somebody who was infected with the virus. Hopefully it would protect her enough to make a difference.

    Her hair had grown out a few inches, so it tangled and was slightly uncomfortable under the material of the ski mast as she tried to look around as she stood there. The interior of the puffy layers were uncomfortably warm too. But with her new powers, Emily was able to ignore the uncomfortable sensation as she stood there feet slightly apart in a T pose with her arms raised as Sean walked around and inspected all the little seams in her suit. Occasionally he would rip off another length of tape and put it on a point that they missed.

    After twenty minutes of this, Sean was finally done. He had worry in his eyes as he inspected her fully one last time.

    ¡°I think that¡¯s it,¡± he said hesitantly.

    ¡°Thanks, Sean,¡± Emily said in a muffled voice through the ski mask, ¡°Better to look ridiculous than be sick, right? You got the crowbar?¡±

    ¡°Right.¡±

    Sean turned around and retrieved a crowbar that he¡¯d bought right before everyone in the city had been forced to quarantine. He placed it into her hands that were covered in the thick winter gloves. It took her a few tries to get a firm grip on it with both hands before Sean let go.

    ¡°Stay safe, Sean,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ll be back as soon as I can.¡±

    ¡°You stay safe too, Emily. Good luck.¡±

    Sean hugged her, and she returned it with her puffy arms even if she could barely even feel it through all of the layers she was wearing.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go,¡± Emily said as Sean opened the door for her and she walked out into the main hallway. The two of them hadn¡¯t even talked to the neighbors or even really seen them this whole time. Everyone was so paranoid about catching the virus that even within the same building they didn¡¯t want to see each other due to the risk. But according to Sean all the people in this building had prepared stores of food or left for other places weeks ago. So they weren¡¯t starving yet at least according to him.

    Emily navigated down the stairs of the building carefully and walked back outside. There was a light dusting of snow falling on the ground. But it wasn¡¯t white snow, but gray and mixed with the ash that still choked the skies above. Luckily the winds had been blowing the other way from them so far, so the radiation hadn¡¯t come their way yet. Hopefully by the time it did the dosage would be low enough that it wouldn¡¯t be a death sentence like it probably was for whoever was downwind of CODA city right now.

    Emily held her crowbar at the ready and walked through the streets towards the edge of the city. The place where she knew the soldiers had set up camp. She shifted her grip on the crowbar. Hopefully this wasn¡¯t a mistake. She just couldn¡¯t help but think of the man that had shot her whenever she saw one of the soldiers patrolling the streets on their periodic raids to drag out anyone that was infected with the virus that they could find, dead or alive.

 Chapter 66: A Familiar Face

    Emily walked through the streets in her puffy outfit, doing her best to see through her slightly foggy ski goggles. She wasn¡¯t even sure why Sean had kept these things. It wasn¡¯t like any of them had ever skied before. But he¡¯d gone on a trip to the coasts of the continent with some buddies after he graduated high school and skied while he was there, so she guessed he¡¯d kept the gear ever since then.

    A man stumbled towards her, letting out hacking coughs into his elbow as he emerged from a nearby alleyway.

    ¡°Hey! Ya got any food? Please, I¡¯ll die without it. With all those clothes surely you must have somethin¡¯...¡± The man rasped as he kept approaching her.

    She quickly backpedaled in alarm and raised her crowbar threateningly as she gripped it in both hands.

    ¡°Stop! Get back!¡± she shouted and swung the crowbar through open air threateningly, leading the man to slow to a stop as he swayed on his feet.

    ¡°C¡¯mon, I¡¯m not¡­ I ain¡¯t¡­¡±

    The man let out a hacking cough and Emily saw that the corner of his elbow was splattered red. The man wiped his bloody lips.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± he said, ¡°Jus¡¯ the radiation. Heard some of it came floatin¡¯ our way three days ago. I ain¡¯t sick for real. C¡¯mon, lady. Don¡¯t you have anything? I¡¯ve been starvin¡¯ fer days.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said while still keeping her crowbar raised, ¡°I don¡¯t. I¡¯d get out of the streets if I were you. Another sweeps coming in a few hours. You¡¯ll be shot and thrown in the pits if they find you out here.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t I know it,¡± the man muttered and took another step towards her with his eyes darting up and down her bundled form.

    ¡°Say, what¡¯s with the *cough* gear? What ya doin¡¯ in such a hurry? Sure you don¡¯t have anything?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not getting sick,¡± Emily replied, ¡°I don¡¯t have anything. No food, water, anything. Now just leave! Don¡¯t make me use this thing on you!¡±

    She jabbed the tip of the metal crowbar in the man¡¯s direction and he stopped and raised his hands in the air.

    ¡°Fine, fine,¡± he muttered even as he seemed to still think she was hiding valuables from him from the way he looked at her hungrily.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be on my way then,¡± the man mumbled before stumbling back into the dark alley again.

    Emily kept moving, keeping a careful eye on the alleyways and dark corners from then on with her crowbar clutched tightly in her nervous grip.

    She kept moving, walking through the mostly empty city. She caught a few flickers of movement occasionally, but no one else approached her as she walked. Probably hiding as best as they could from the daily patrols by the military to kill everyone who had broken quarantine whether they were infected yet or not.

    At least they were bringing in those pallets of food and leaving them inside the buildings marked as occupied once a week though.

    So people in the buildings shouldn¡¯t be starving yet. Even though Emily was sure the food was being hoarded as soon as the soldiers left. Sean and Emily had certainly never reached the main lobby in time to get a scrap of it. Only the empty pallet had been sitting there by the time Emily went down to check while Sean remained inside his apartment.

    The hair on the back of Emily¡¯s neck stood up and she felt a chill run down her spine. She was probably another ten or fifteen minutes walk to where the soldiers would be holding the perimeter around the city.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Emily turned and saw the same sick man from before walking out of a nearby alleyway, something that looked like a razor held in one of his hands.

    Emily turned and stumbled into a jog, only to stop as three more men appeared at the end of the street to block her way, all armed with small blades or long chunks of wood that they were holding like clubs.

    Emily turned around and saw that five more men were blocking her way back, her breathing accelerating and fogging up her ski goggles even more as her head snapped from side to side.

    ¡°We know ya got some food,¡± the man from before said, ¡°Or something valuable. Hand it over before we have to hurt ya.¡±

    ¡°I- I don¡¯t have anything!¡± Emily said as she raised her crowbar as the nine men circled her threateningly as she slowly backed away from them to the side of the empty street.

    ¡°LIAR! You got something!¡± the man accused, his eyes bloodshot, ¡°You¡¯re out here and not sick yet. No one does that unless they¡¯re trying to get out of this dump! You got food hidden in there for your escape! Something valuable with the way you¡¯re actin¡¯.¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t, you said it was radiation,¡± Emily said as she turned her head side to side, trying to keep all of the men surrounding her in her vision through the tunnel vision of the goggles.

    ¡°I lied. Now hand it over before things get ugly, girl,¡± the man said as he raised the razor in his hand. He coughed again, holding his other fist to his mouth as his body curled inwards from as it sounded like he was coughing up his lungs.

    ¡°GIVE IT HERE!¡± He shouted after he recovered as he stepped forward, ¡°YOU GOT SOMETHING, I JUST KNOW IT! HAND IT OVER NOW!¡±

    ¡°What¡­ What do I do?¡± Emily asked herself in desperation, looking around and feeling trapped as her back touched the wall of the building behind her. There was nowhere else to retreat, she was surrounded on all sides by the men who had their weapons raised threateningly.

    You have to fight, little Emily. With your gear you¡¯re too slow to run from them. You can¡¯t hesitate, if they slice open your gear then the sick man could infect you. They¡¯d be killing Sean even if they don¡¯t know it. Hit the sickest man first. We can¡¯t have him infecting us. You can¡¯t afford to be compassionate in situations this serious, not when Sean¡¯s life is on the line.

    ¡°St- Stay back!¡± Emily tried one last time, ¡°I have super powers! Like the movies! Back off or I¡¯ll use them!¡±

    ¡°Enough!¡± the sick man spat out, swaying slightly on his feet and looking lightheaded, ¡°Crazy or not, hand it over! Now!¡±

    Emily hesitated, ¡°Should I¡­?¡± She asked herself as she looked at the men giving her sneers from all sides, boxing her in.

    It¡¯s you or them, little Emily. You¡¯re stronger than them, you can tear your muscles, use all your strength at once without worrying about the damage. You just have to unlock it. They¡­ Wait, what¡¯s this? Your emotions, panic¡­ They¡¯re doing something, something¡¯s changed. You can do something, I can help. But what is it¡­ There¡¯s a word. What did the Shadow say? Immortal, Know, Guide. You¡¯re <b>Immortal</b>. I¡¯m Know. So what¡¯s Guide? <b>Guide</b>? That¡¯s it! Emily, say Guide me. It might let me help!

    Without knowing why, Emily felt an urge rise within her. She followed her instincts as the threatening man took one final step closer and raised his razor as if to slash at her.

    ¡°Help, Guide <b>ME</b>. DoN¡¯t lEt tHeM mAkE mE SicK. I cAn¡¯t get siCk.¡± Emily said, her voice warbling strangely as she spoke. The sickest man hesitated for a moment and the men around her looked uncomfortable, but after nothing happened, the sick man kept drawing back his arm and lunged forward to slash at her with his razor.

    Emily felt numb, like everything was distant and far away as her body sprung into action. It was her, but a strange set of instincts guided her as she flicked her crowbar to the side and slammed into the sick man¡¯s hand as his arm slashed towards her. He shouted in pain and tried to slam his shoulder into her as he dropped the razor blade.

    But her body pivoted to the side like a dancer even through all the layers of thick cloth around her and through her narrowed and blurred vision of the goggles.

    The crowbar whipped out, Emily now standing to the side as the sick man stumbled past her. The metal slammed into the back of the man¡¯s head as he passed and with a sickly crunch sent him slamming into the ground where he lay unmoving.

    Emily ducked as a wooden bat swung where her head had just been. She horse kicked the man behind her in the balls and as she pivoted around and bringing the crowbar low started to swing it hard towards the man¡¯s lower leg even as he leaned over and wheezed from the pain from her kick.

    The man yelped and fell to the side as the metal crowbar slammed into his leg with a loud wet crunch of broken bone. The remaining seven men surged in to attack Emily all at once as she stood there in her strangely hazy state.

    Her body twirled and fought seemingly on instinct as she utterly demolished the men attacking her with brutal efficiency. But even with that several of their blades landed on her and opened up large gaps in her winter coats and clothing bundling her up.

    The last man fell onto her, her body too busy landing a full force blow across the other man¡¯s head, causing a sickly cracking sound as his head snapped to the side before he fell to the ground limp.

    But the last man tackled her from behind, and slashed at her with his knife across her chest as she turned as she heard him at the last moment. She lost her grip on the crowbar and her body tried to fight off the man as best as it could. But his last slash had opened the last gap in her clothes to expose her bare skin up at her collarbone. The man slashed again to open the gap wider, his eyes widening as his blade sank into her skin and the wound healed even before he had finished his slice across the base of her neck.

    Emily bucked her hips upwards to throw him forward above her, but even as he moved his face scrunched up and he opened his mouth. Emily¡¯s eyes widened and time seemed to slow down as the man let out a hacking cough and a spray of tiny red droplets of blood sprayed across her face and onto the exposed skin around her neck.

    Her body flipped over and seemingly on its own grabbed the crowbar that had fallen to the side from the ground and brought it into an overhand devastating blow that landed directly on the last man¡¯s chest. He coughed one last time before going still.

    Emily stood up and inspected the carnage around her where the dead bodies of the men lay. She stumbled off through the street, feeling distant and numb to it all as she moved. She walked for thirty seconds before she felt the exposed wind at her stomach and neck where her makeshift hazmat suit had been slashed open. She reached up and touched her fingers to her collarbone and when she drew them away they came back red. She¡­ one of the men had coughed on her.

    She was infected. She couldn¡¯t be infected. She could never see Sean, anyone ever again without killing them.

    It seemed like the world froze around her. Emily collapsed to the ground bonelessly and started twitching and all awareness seemed to fade from her as the world narrowed to a point and her vision darkened in the corners.

    ¡°I can¡¯t get sick, I can¡¯t get sick, I can¡¯t¡­¡±

    Emily muttered over and over as she twitched on the ground, eyes open and seeing nothing as she lay there in her seizure.

    Eventually, she went still until she spoke one last time.

    ¡°I never got sick.¡±

    Her eyes closed, and something washed over her and she lost consciousness, lying there curled up on the cold abandoned street sidewalk with bodies behind her.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily opened her eyes and jolted as she realized that she was lying in the open curled up on the sidewalk on the side of the street.

    What had happened? She had been walking, then some men had surrounded her. And then¡­ and then¡­

    Her mind was blank. She vaguely remembered fighting, but it was like a hazy dream to her. Nothing concrete. She felt her stomach and neck where her hazmat suit had been slashed open. All the blood that should have been there was gone. She twisted her head as far as she could downwards to inspect her bare skin. But it was completely spotless as if she¡¯d just left the shower. Even her clothing itself was perfectly clean, not one bit of grime or blood on it as she looked it over.

    Why did she think that it should be covered in blood? Emily stood and looked behind her and froze. There¡¯s¡­ dead bodies. She gasped and put a hand up to the cloth of the ski mask covering her mouth as bile rose in her throat.

    Had¡­ had she done that? She realized that the crowbar she had been carrying was missing now. She could see it lying in the middle of the carnage, stained with blood and little chunks of gore as it sat there forgotten.

    If only she could remember what had happened. Had the men attacked her and she had finally snapped and gone crazy? But she hadn¡¯t seen Sinestra or heard unearthly whispers ever since she¡¯d gotten these powers. She felt fine now. Has it been the stress? Would it happen again? How had she even done that? Fought off nine guys at once without getting even the least bit dirty? It didn¡¯t make any sense¡­

    Emily turned away from the carnage and started stumbling away, not even thinking about where she was going anymore as she just moved away as far as she could from the horrible scene. Her head throbbed painfully as she tried to remember what had happened in the missing gaps in her memory. But none of it came to anything, only causing her more confusion as her soupy memories began swirling and bleeding into each other as it began to hard to think.

    Suddenly a coolness washed over her as her emotions and confusion reached a peak in her mind. Suddenly everything was logical and clear. She had her tasks, to find the military and see if she could negotiate for her and Sean¡¯s safety with her knowledge of the vaccine. Everything else could wait until later. In her emotionless state it all made sense.

    Her sudden clarity caused her to look around and she realized that she was going at an angle to the military encirclement. She adjusted her path as she kept moving through the empty streets. She felt her face had changed from its pained expression from before into a smooth mask as she walked through the streets with all of the muscles in her face relaxing all at once.

    She finally rounded the corner and there it was. A line of three vehicles and a makeshift wall made of what looked like concrete chunks and long sections of long metal fencing haphazardly thrown together. In the center was a gate of sorts. There were a dozen soldiers or so manning the checkpoint.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!

    Emily could have gone around, but they probably had the infrared sensors track down anyone who tried to sneak by them and left the city proper.

    She raised her hands in the air and slowly started walking towards the soldiers.

    ¡°Stop! Return to your home, no one leaves no matter the reason,¡± One of the soldiers shouted as Emily stopped walking. The rest had their weapons raised and pointed at her.

    ¡°I know how to make a vaccine to the virus,¡± Emily shouted in a flat and emotionless voice as she remained standing in place.

    ¡°What are you wearing?¡± the soldier asked suspiciously, ¡°What¡¯s with the gear?¡±

    ¡°Makeshift Hazmat suit,¡± she continued while not feeling much at all, ¡°So I wouldn¡¯t get infected. I suppose it must have worked, since I got here without getting sick. I used to be a scientist at CODA. I can create more of the vaccine if I have the right equipment. In return bring me and my brother to safety away from here.¡±

    The soldier hesitated before glancing at the others.

    ¡°Just stay there,¡± he shouted, ¡°I¡¯ll call it in to base.¡±

    He reached to his side and pulled out a handheld radio and walked off as he started talking to it.

    As Emily stood there, a sense of anxiety and stress slowly bled back into her passive mind. She slowly returned to herself as she stood there and the strange state of mind she¡¯d been in faded away.

    She kept her arms raised, not feeling tired in the least bit even as her arms wrapped in the layers remained upright for over an hour. The soldiers gave her strange looks as time passed, so she put her arms back at her sides after slowly lowering them to make sure she wouldn¡¯t get in trouble.

    Finally after what felt like forever she heard the rumble of a vehicle from the other side of the barrier.

    It stopped out of sight and Emily tensed as she saw the man who walked into sight with two more men flanking him on either side. Shit, it was the guy who had shot her earlier. That officer, Major Smith, hated everything CODA with a passion.

    ¡°They say you know how to make the vaccine. Some fancy CODA scientist, huh?¡± Major Smith said as he stood there and eyed her bundled up form suspiciously. Emily¡¯s heart pounded, suddenly being glad that her face was completely covered in the ski mask and goggles as she stood there with her arms at her sides.

    ¡°So?¡± The man said after she didn¡¯t reply, ¡°Is it true?¡±

    Emily opened her mouth and closed it for a few seconds, trying to think about what to say. What if he recognized her voice?

    Her eyes widened as the officer dropped his hand to his side and gripped his pistol.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she quickly said. His hand lifted off his weapon and he looked at her.

    ¡°How do we know that it isn¡¯t some trick?¡± the officer asked, ¡°Lots of people try all sorts of things to leave. All sorts of stories and lies about what they can do. Want to spread their disease to the rest of us here. Or whoever may be alive beyond¡­¡±

    ¡°Whoever?¡± Emily said in shock, ¡°You don¡¯t have contact with anyone else?¡±

    ¡°You think CODA¡¯s the only one that got bombed?!¡± Major Smith said, ¡°We only survived getting hit because we¡¯re so close to CODA. Cities all around us are radioactive dust. Wall of radiation on all sides our radios can¡¯t get through. For all we know, we¡¯re the last group of healthy people in the world.¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but then what about the quarantine? The disease?¡± Emily asked.

    ¡°Still need it,¡± the man grumbled, ¡°Only thing keeping that virus from wiping us all out is our work keeping the spreaders out of the streets. Should only be a week or two more before the last one of them is dead if we do it right. Then we can work on surviving again without it threatening to wipe us all out¡­ So, evidence. Can¡¯t let you go to start a panic now that I¡¯ve blabbed to you. So, can you make a vaccine? How much can you make? What are the materials?¡±

    ¡°You¡­ Can you get me somewhere safe?¡± Emily asked weakly, ¡°A larger group? For me and my brother? The vaccine needs special machines, reagents. I can¡¯t just whip it up from stuff you get at the store. And I need modeling software on special computers to make a digital file for the vaccine protein before I can do any of that.¡±

    ¡°Well, we ain¡¯t got any of that,¡± the officer said, ¡°You can¡¯t make just one dose? You¡¯re not getting a plane without evidence. We only got three of those, and less fuel than we¡¯d want.¡±

    ¡°No, I can¡¯t just make one dose,¡± Emily said a little frustrated now, ¡°I need¡­ I need all of those things! I can vaccinate everyone if you can get me everything. Look, I know you hate CODA, but I swear that¡­¡±

    ¡°Wait, who told you that?¡± Major Smith asked sharply and drew his pistol, ¡°Who are you working for? How do you know about me?¡±

    ¡°What? I just¡­ Guessed, you know¡­¡±

    ¡°No, no it¡¯s more than that. I can hear it in your voice. Take off your mask. Let us see your face,¡± he pointed his pistol at her and she flinched. Fuck.

    Emily paused after reaching a hand up to her head. Well, here goes nothing¡­

    She took off her mask and stared the officer straight in the eyes as they widened in shock.

    ¡°Y-You!¡± he sputtered, ¡°K-Kill her! Shoot her now!¡±

    ¡°But sir,¡± one of the men protested.

    ¡°Shut the fuck up!¡± Major Smith screamed as his pistol pivoted to the protesting soldier, ¡°Unless you want to go next! I¡¯m in charge of this place! Until martial law is over and we contact base I¡¯m fucking king as far as any of you are concerned! Shoot her now, or you¡¯re a traitor in my book!¡±

    ¡°Please, don-¡± Emily managed to get out before one of the soldiers that the officer wasn¡¯t actively threatening fired his rifle at her and sent a bullet slamming into her chest.

    She groaned in pain and clutched the wound and fell to the ground. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? She had thought she was making some progress until Major Smith went crazy.

    She was shot again as she stood up after the wound healed, causing her to groan and feel at her gut where the bullet had entered. But the pain from the shot to her chest was already fading so she kept standing despite the pain of the new wound.

    She was shot again and made an effort to keep in her groans this time as she stood there. She took off her jackets and slipped out of the extra layers of pants and jacket as quickly as she could until she was only wearing a single breathable layer.

    She was shot again just as she took the last jacket off. She tried to ignore it, even if she let out an involuntary whine from the pain despite her best efforts.

    There was shouting and arguing from in front of her, but Emily was too busy gritting her teeth and trying to look strong and unphased as her wounds rapidly healed. The corners of her eyes welled up slightly from the pain, but she tensed her face so the drops of liquid just remained pooling there at the corners of her eyes.

    ¡°Oh, and I also got superpowers,¡± she shouted, ¡°Can you stop that? I don¡¯t like getting shot even if I can survive it.¡±

    The officer looked indecisive for a moment as he stared at her with bullet holes in her shirt with healed skin beneath them.

    ¡°She¡¯s some CODA assassin! Kill her! Wear her down before she kills us all!¡± the man shouted hysterically before pointing his pistol at her and pulling the trigger. Emily threw herself forward to the ground and just barely dodged the man¡¯s shot.

    The other soldiers hesitated for a moment before firing at her as she rolled to the side and started running at Major Smith.

    Emily was shot three times before she reached the officer and tackled him full force to the ground. He reached down and they wrestled over his pistol for a moment as they both rolled on the ground. The gunfire stopped as none of the soldiers around had a clear shot on her. But the soldiers shouted and argued in a circle around them as the two fought.

    Major Smith finally got a solid grip on the weapon and before Emily was able to react, angled his weapon up at her. One shot to the center of her chest. Her grip on him loosened and he pivoted again to put the weapon under her chin. He pulled the trigger and the bullet entered her skull and everything went black again.

    Everything was cold and logical when she woke up.

    His eyes widened as his gaze met hers before pistol whipping her hard in the ribs with his weapon. She hissed and punched him hard in the nose, causing it to snap to the side. He let go, and the pain went away after a moment as she wrestled the pistol away from him in surprise and put it to his temple. He froze even as he had one hand held to his bleeding nose.

    Emily grabbed him and kept the pistol on him while dragging him up with her.

    ¡°Don¡¯t,¡± she growled as the man tried to break free and she pressed the pistol to his head again. He had killed not her just once, but twice. She had no sympathy for him. Even if her emotionless state made her not caring about threatening him rather than her actually feeling angry.

    ¡°Tell them to back off,¡± she shouted to the surrounding soldiers even as she started dragging him backwards towards the still running humvee on the other side of the barricade.

    ¡°Back off!¡± Emily said again to the surrounding soldiers as she shook the officer with her free hand that was gripping the back of his neck as the other held the pistol to his head, ¡°Or he gets it!¡±

    ¡°Sir¡­¡±

    ¡°Jus¡¯ do it,¡± the officer burbled through the blood running down from his broken nose, ¡°Not like our guns did shit to her.¡±

    ¡°What do you want?¡± the soldier asked as Emily kept dragging Major Smith back with her towards the humvee as the other soldiers circled around her.

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to help make the vaccine,¡± Emily said calmly with her flat expression, ¡°But clearly I¡¯m just going to get shot again for my troubles. I¡¯ll just have to go out and find some people that can really help me. Or let me help them.¡±

    She kept the pistol on the officer¡¯s head even as she released him with her other hand. She fumbled with the humvee car door for a second before opening it. She crawled backwards into the passenger¡¯s side door, the officer awkwardly following as she half dragged him inside the car. She was now on the driver¡¯s side while the officer was sitting on the passenger¡¯s side.

    ¡°Shut the door,¡± she ordered him and he did so. She let Major Smith go and put her pistol in the pocket in the driver''s side door and put both hands on the wheel.

    She put the car in reverse and pressed the pedal full force. She stopped and turned once she was a dozen feet away and then shifted back into drive and pressed the pedal again. The humvee bucked and skid on the pavement for a moment before tearing off into the distance.

    She saw the officer make an aborted movement, but she stared at him and he stopped with his hand half reaching towards her.

    He slowly lowered his hand as his eyes flickered to the pistol still close enough for her to grab quickly in the car door if he tried anything.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± he demanded, ¡°You won¡¯t get away with this. We¡¯ll have you surrounded and even with your healing we¡¯ll be able to take you down eventually.¡±

    Emily didn¡¯t answer him and kept driving. There was a main base somewhere, she was sure. There was a route of cleared streets. The others were filled with debris and the occasional crashed or disabled car. But not this route. The cars had been pushed to the side and the way cleared as Emily kept driving.

    ¡°What are you after?¡± the man demanded again after she didn¡¯t reply, ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t lying,¡± Emily said calmly, ¡°I¡¯m going to people who can let me help. And you told me the way to do that.¡±

    ¡°What? What do you- No! They¡¯re worth millions of dollars! We need all the fuel we can get! You can¡¯t take them!¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll see about that.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    They reached the makeshift base after ten more minutes of not speaking. By now Emily¡¯s emotions had returned and she had done her best to contain her hyperventilating as she started processing what had just happened. Major Smith looked at her suspiciously, but didn¡¯t make any move to attack her as they drove luckily.

    The base also had concrete chunks and actual barbed wire as its top except for a single point that had a large gate that clearly been composed of a larger chunk of metal that had been welded into the current form of double doors.

    Emily kept the humvee there idling, not doing anything but waiting as the guards stared at them. She tapped her fingers on the wheel, but after a few seconds the gates started swinging open.

    The officer started swearing as it became apparent that they were letting the car by because he was inside and weren¡¯t bothering to doing a thorough check. The guards on the wall looked mostly bored if anything.

    Emily drove inside and saw hundreds of soldiers idling around the open space with a few large tents set up.

    She spotted the right place and started driving there, most of the soldiers staring at them in confusion as Emily drove as fast as she could without crashing as she moved through the base.

    She reached the large hangar and drove inside. There it was. Not exactly the fighter planes she had been expecting. One was clearly a military cargo plane. But the other two were civilian aircraft. One looked like a private jet while the other was a propeller plane of all things with large water pontoons on the bottom.

    ¡°These are your planes?¡± Emily asked as she picked up the pistol as the humvee rolled to a stop inside, ¡°What¡¯s with the other two?¡±

    ¡°Biplane¡¯s simple enough to repair with some electrical parts we have apparently,¡± Major Smith grumbled as she nudged him with the pistol and the both of them stepped out of the passenger¡¯s side door, ¡°Private jet had hardened electronics. Belonged to some paranoid business man. All the other planes that weren¡¯t military dropped out of the sky when the bombs hit. Electronics fried mid flight. These ones were nearby and landed here after the blasts.¡±

    ¡°W-What happened to the people flying them?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re under quarantine with everyone else,¡± Major Smith said, ¡°Or infected. Or in the burn pits already. I don¡¯t know. We sent them on their way.¡±

    There was a group of a dozen or so people clustered around the planes, especially the biplane and discussing something in depth. They all looked up and looked shocked as they saw the officer¡¯s broken nose and Emily with a pistol pressed into the square of the man¡¯s back.

    ¡°Anyone a pilot?¡± Emily asked with only a small tremor in her voice.

    ¡°None of them are pilots!¡± Major Smith said quickly, ¡°Just engineers for the planes.¡±

    The group of men hesitated before all nodding at once. Emily hesitated. She was sure that they were lying. But how could she tell which one was telling the truth?

    ¡°How do I know¡­?¡±

    Whoa! That was so strange. It was like I wasn¡¯t there, but over your shoulder telling you the right moves to make in that fight against those thugs. Then that thing happened afterward. Your body just cleaned itself all at once somehow¡­ Now, the pilots. Let¡¯s see¡­ How to determine¡­ Ah! The private jet! It probably has an advanced autopilot, especially if the owner was paranoid enough to harden all of its electronics. You should be able to just set the course and it¡¯ll fly on its own. Ask them.

    ¡°Does the jet have its own autopilot?¡± Emily asked one of the engineers that looked particularly nervous.

    ¡°Yes!¡± he said, ¡°It do-¡± he cut himself off as the officer glared at the man from where Emily still held him.

    ¡°Okay, great,¡± she said, noticing from the corner of her eye that several military vehicles were driving their way. Even if it wasn¡¯t at an urgent speed yet. Probably just wondering why Emily had just blown past them in the car rather than them raising the alarm just yet.

    Hopefully.

    She quickly dragged Major Smith over to the private jet and up the stairs with some difficulty. They went inside to the main cabin and Emily stared at the massive panels of buttons and switches in abject confusion.

    ¡°Ha!¡± Major Smith barked out, ¡°Do you even know how to turn on the autopilot? I sure don¡¯t. You¡¯ll never get out of here.¡±

    Emily tried to ignore him as her eyes desperately went over the massive console as tried to figure out what to do. She started sweating and her mind raced.

    ¡°What do I do¡­¡± she whispered, ¡°What do I have to Know?¡±

    Great! Okay, so this one looks pretty simple compared to what I¡¯m used to. Found the manual on the workbench of one of those engineers nearby. Only saw a random page, but there was a diagram where most of everything on this panel was labeled. I¡¯m sure we can figure it out together. Flip that switch then you press those buttons. That¡¯ll start warming up the engines. While that¡¯s happening, start driving out to that runway outside while we learn how to take off. I think I have an idea, but we¡¯ll have to test it out before we go¡­

    Without completely understanding what she was doing, Emily started flicking switches and pushing buttons. While she wasn¡¯t completely successful, after a few seconds she finally heard the rumble of the engines turning on.

    ¡°Yes!¡± Emily said and pumped her fist. A fist hit her skull full force and she was dazed for a moment and stumbled into the wall before her healing kicked in. She turned to the side and saw Major Smith running down the hallway of the jet. Emily chased after him while waving her pistol after him and shouting incoherently.

    He turned and ran out of the open door of the stairs leading down to the ground. Emily stopped as she saw him tumbling outside down the stairs before he collapsed onto the ground of the asphalt outside. She could just hear his pained groans over the sound of the jet¡¯s engines as the plane slowly jerked into motion and started rolling forward.

    Emily quickly pulled a lever to the side of the open doorway and the stairs started retracting upwards as the exterior door started closing.

    She rushed back to the front, and started figuring out how to operate the plane seemingly by instinct as she taxied onto the runway and started speeding up. Behind her, she could see a circle of vehicles around where Major Smith had rolled out of the plane. It was good he¡¯d escaped, she didn¡¯t want him to come with her anyways.

    The pitch of the engines changed as they rumbled into full force and the plane started rolling down the runway faster and faster.

    The circle of military vehicles broke formation and started driving after her. She could see the bruised and battered form of the military officer leaning out the side of his car and pointing at her stolen plane and shouting angrily.

    Several pings of weapons fire hit her plane, but with a loud whine the wheels of the plane left the ground. On instinct again, Emily pushed a few more buttons and felt a rumble beneath the plane as the landing gear retracted.

    Behind her she could see Major Smith raging and shouting at one of the other soldiers as the nose of the plane rose upward and she went up into the sky and fully took off.

    After a few more seconds the little pings on crackles of gunfire hitting the plane faded away as Emily¡¯s stolen plane ascended higher and higher into the sky. She kept going until she felt that she was at the right height.

    She pressed more buttons and somehow figured out the autopilot and plotted a course in a straight line through the clouds of radiation.

    The plane was hardened, so its electronics should be fine. Any normal people inside would probably be fried by the radiation levels left only a few weeks after the massive nuclear bombs had been dropped. But Emily would probably be fine. She¡¯d lived in CODA city for over a week in the center of the radiation cloud and still not felt any symptoms from it.

    With a relieved sigh, Emily sat back and collapsed into the pilot¡¯s chair as the plane started flying itself. She had absolutely no clue how she had managed to get this thing working. But she had done it. Somehow she had done it. And after she found someone more reasonable, she¡¯d make the vaccine and then go back for Sean.

    He had plenty of food, she had a few weeks to get back to him before things became desperate.

 Chapter 67: Please

    Emily adjusted the radio on the plane again. Still nothing but static. She didn¡¯t understand. She was sure that Major Smith must have been wrong about the radiation. The radiation from the nuclear material should have been all high frequency waves. High energy and dangerous to people. But the exact opposite of her low frequency radio waves being detected and transmitted by the plane¡¯s radio. It would interfere a little of course, but not nearly this much¡­

    And she was definitely in areas with blistering amounts of radiation. She had a tangy sensation in her mouth and every part of her skin was tingling slightly and her eyes were itchy. But her powers were healing her, so she barely even noticed the uncomfortable feeling after a while as she kept listening and fiddling with the plane¡¯s radio.

    She still was only picking up strange static on the plane radio no matter what she did or how she adjusted it. She was sure that there must be plenty of people who had survived the blasts with equipment. Military, it had been a while people should have been able to even build their own radios by now.

    How could she have been hearing nothing? Getting no signals at all on any channel? It took her a while, but eventually after thinking aloud, things fell into place like they always seemed to these days. The blockage must be from the ash choking the skies and making the horizon fade into a dull and murky haze.

    The ash itself must be interfering with the signal and preventing her from hearing anyone too far away even with the radio waves.

    But that would just decrease the receiving distance. There was still a chance she could find something, find more people that would have the equipment she needed if she got close enough¡­

    She flew for hours, monitoring the fuel gauge closely as she did so. She heard a few things that she thought could be distorted signals, but nothing clear enough to pinpoint or communicate with anyone. She saw movement and a few camps or makeshift towns of people below. But none looked like the military or anyone who would have the type of equipment that Emily needed to make a vaccine.

    Eventually she reached the tipping point. She hesitated for a few more minutes and listened closely to the radio hoping for a signal. There was only more garbled murmurs among the loud hisses and pops rumbling in the background. Signs of living people with access to some technology, which reassured her. But not enough to know where someone who could help her would be.

    Defeated, she turned the plane around and started flying back the way she came. She should be able to make it back, but she¡¯d used over half of her fuel coming this far.

    But she¡¯d make it back, she had to get back to Sean even if her being able to make a vaccine in the near future seemed ever more impossible by the moment.

    It would be fine. Major Smith was probably right. A few more weeks and the quarantine would make sure no new people were infected and the disease was eradicated in the area. Then they all could work together to survive. Hopefully without Major Smith shooting her again.

    She ran out of fuel thirty five miles from where she came from. The fuel gauge was flashing brightly, and Emily stared hard at the navigation screen for a few minutes to memorize it as she slowly brought the plane down.

    She had taken flight by instinct, surely she should figure out how to land too? Emily furrowed her brow and stared silently at the pilots panel and did her best to figure out how to extend the landing gear and work the flaps of the plane to slow down. She was now barely fifty feet off of the ground and she heard the engines sputtering as they started running on fumes and cutting in and out.

    Emily pressed buttons and flipped switches and somehow managed to deploy the landing gear as the plane kept moving down thirty feet off of the ground as she muttered to herself. The engines sputtered one last time and cut out. The nose of the plane dipped and Emily frantically struggled to keep the nose up as the plane fell in a free fall the remaining twenty feet to the ground on the open plains.

    With a solid crunch and screech of crumpling metal, the landing gear folded inwards from the force of the fall. The plane tilted to the side and the plane¡¯s nose impacted the ground and it started carving a long furrow in the dirt and open grasses of the plains. Emily was thrown forward against the console of the plane and thrown to the side as the plane tilted to the side as the wing on her left dug into the ground and started warping and tearing into pieces as it dug into the ground next to her.

    After fifteen seconds or so, the jet finally slid to halt with one wing and engine completely destroyed and Emily was sure the whole bottom almost completely destroyed where it had scraped across the ground.

    Emily lay on the floor after being thrown around, her bruises and cracked ribs already healed as she sat up.

    ¡°Well, it was out of fuel anyway,¡± she muttered to herself, ¡°Not like I was going to do anything with it when it was empty.¡±

    The door out of the plane outside was completely destroyed, so she was forced to smash the front windshield of the private jet and leave that way. It was surprisingly easy. She seemed to be stronger than she remembered being. Only a few strong blows with the metal of her stolen pistol had broken the windshield and scraped the edges free of sharp glass shards that would cut her as she crawled through.

    There wasn¡¯t anything useful left in the plane for her to use. So keeping the map of her planned flight path in mind, she exited the wreckage of the plane and started walking away with nothing but the slightly torn clothes on her back and her stolen pistol with six rounds left in its magazine. It took her some time to figure out how the gun worked, but she thought she knew the basics now of turning on the safety and ejecting the magazine when she needed to check how much ammo was left.

    Once she was fully outside she took one last glance at the demolished plane before turning and started jogging in the direction of the city and back towards Sean.

    She was in the open plains of grass right now. Actually¡­

    Emily eyed the area in front of her and saw that there were withered stalks of corn lying on the ground in a perfect square. A farmer¡¯s field. Small grasses were poking through and had grown through the gaps and made it appear like natural grasses. What had killed the corn? Had it been the radiation that Emily could still taste on her tongue? The light dusting of ash covering the ground in all directions? The darkness from the ash above and the red sun in the sky even in the middle of the day?

    But the area around the city should have fields of corn that had survived. So not everything was lost. The ash hadn¡¯t been nearly as thick in the sky as it was around her now. Let alone the amount of radiation Emily was sure she was being bombarded with on all sides by now.

    But now the open plains felt slightly sinister as she sprinted as fast as she could across the open space among the withered husks of the corn and the short grasses. She knew roughly which direction to go and saw a small dark blot on the edge of the horizon after sprinting for three full hours. She never grew tired no matter how fast she ran, and even smiled a little bit as she absolutely ate up the distance as she ran full tilt and left little clouds of Ash to puff up in little clouds behind where she ran.

    The layers of ash that had used to be nearly an inch thick on the ground where she started began to lighten and fade as she ran and the dot on the horizon grew bigger and bigger over time.

    Eventually after the sun rose the next day after running through the night, Emily noticed that there wasn¡¯t any ash on the ground at all. Around three or four in the morning the open and shriveled crops had started transitioning from completely dead to a few sickly and browned surviving plants.

    By the morning almost half of the fields of the corn now looked relatively healthy, more and more looking healthy the farther she ran. They were near ready to harvest, and Emily realized with a start that this must have been how Major Smith and the military had been feeding everyone in quarantine. They must be harvesting the corn in the surrounding fields and packaging them up somehow to deliver to the buildings.

    Nothing else made much sense. But if that was the case there wouldn¡¯t be much variety, you could only survive on so much corn Emily assumed.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    Emily had nearly gotten lost three or four times as she ran as the stalks of corn rose and blocked her view of her goal visible much larger on the horizon now. Especially in the dark of the night when even that landmark was invisible to her, she had found herself turned around and somehow in a place with sickly and dead crops again despite her best efforts.

    But she had finally found a road as morning turned to noon with the red sun in the sky reached its peak in the sky and started to sink. A blustery winter wind blew across the fields, the slightest hints of frost creeping across some of the leaves of the corn stalks. It was getting colder.

    A few signs every few miles pointed her the way as she followed their directions as she ran. It was just her running at incredible speeds and gripping her pistol in one hand as she went. Occasionally switching which hand she held it in as the sensation of holding it in one hand made her feel oddly unbalanced as she moved across the ground.

    And then like no time had passed at all, she was there. The road opened up and turned from the smaller back road into a wider four lane road that came from seemingly nowhere. That was the sort of thing you saw a lot when people built cities like this wholesale where there had only been empty fields before. Just poor planning really, to have a little back road and empty fields around a dense urban city. But that¡¯s what the Americans had decided to do, so here it was in all its glory. Emily ran down the large road through the suburbs for a few more minutes towards the skyscrapers and the main city itself in the distance less than two or three miles away now.

    She slowly came to a stop as she saw Major Smith and a group of over a hundred other soldiers and an assortment of vehicles blocking her way.

    She walked forward until she was in earshot.

    ¡°Where¡¯s our plane?!¡± Major Smith shouted as Emily stood there looking at him.

    ¡°Crashed,¡± She replied, ¡°Ran out of fuel. I couldn¡¯t find anyone. Nothing but garbled radio signals up there. So I came back.¡±

    Major Smith hesitated before glancing at the other soldiers around him looking rather nervous as they pointed their weapons at Emily.

    ¡°What about the radiation?¡± Major Smith barked, ¡°How¡¯d you survive?¡±

    ¡°I healed. You saw. So, what happens now? What- Are you going to shoot me again? I¡¯ll just heal. It won¡¯t work.¡±

    Major Smith paused before raising his hand in the air. Emily¡¯s heart raced as she watched him. There was nothing she could do, they had vehicles and she would never be able to outrun them even with her endless stamina. When they started shooting her, she¡¯d just have to try to charge through. Escape into the city, lose pursuit before circling back to meet back up with Sean again¡­

    Major Smith¡¯s hand fell and Emily dived forward and was struck by a dozen bullets at once. Many others flew behind her to where she had been standing before. But only about a half of the soldiers had fired their weapons and were just staring at her as she scrambled forward towards them, unable to stand as the bullets pushed her back with every strike.

    ¡°Fire! Fire, kill her!¡± Major Smith demanded as she scrambled towards the line of soldiers on all fours as she was shot over and over again. The pain had nearly overwhelmed her, her screams only cut off by a rush of coolness washing over her as everything reached a tipping point.

    Everything felt cold and logical again as she crawled forward on all fours like an animal as fast as she could. She stared at Major Smith with dead eyes as she moved.

    ¡°K-K- Kill her!¡± Major Smith stammered and took a step back as he drew a pistol from his hip and started firing at her. Most of his shots missed her as they sailed over her crawling form, except one that landed in her shoulder blade. Her focused mind barely registered the pain as she kept crawling towards the line of soldiers on all fours as fast as most men could run with her endless stamina pushing her body to its absolute limits over and over to increase her speed while staying low to the ground so the soldiers would have a harder time shooting her.

    She idly noted that less of the soldiers had stopped firing their weapons at her and were just watching her charge with wide eyes and expressions of abject fear on their faces.

    ¡°M-M- Monster!¡± One man shouted, ¡°Run! Get away!¡±

    ¡°No, don¡¯t-¡± Major Smith shouted before finally landing a shot with his pistol directly into the top of Emily¡¯s skull in a spray of gore. Everything went black.

    When Emily woke up, everything was still cold and logical. She was lying flat on her face on the ground and half buried in some sort of rock.

    ¡°Keep firing!¡± Major Smith shouted in a hysterical and cracking voice, ¡°Kill- Something has to be able to kill her. We can¡¯t let her escape-¡±

    A loud boom sounded out and everything went black again.

    Emily woke up face down in a crater. She wasn¡¯t being shot anymore, too deep in the depression in the ground for the soldiers to have a good angle to shoot her anymore.

    She crawled up the side of the crater, her mind only focused on getting into the city. Her pistol and clothes had been destroyed long ago. She realized in her emotionless state that she should have used the weapon to kill a few of the soldiers at the start. Despite not wanting to hurt anyone, these men kept trying to kill her. Shooting her. Keeping her from returning to Sean.

    But she hadn¡¯t done that. And she still didn¡¯t want to kill anyone. She emerged from the edge of the crater and stood as the assembled soldiers stared at her. There were only a dozen or so and Major Smith left. Only one of the military vehicles remained of the forces that remained. She stared back at the remaining soldiers.

    ¡°We¡¯ll find your brother!¡± Major Smith said in a cracking voice and a fearful expression as she took a step towards them as they all flinched, ¡°We can¡¯t hurt you but he¡¯s not a freak like you probably. He¡¯ll bleed the same as the rest of us.¡±

    Emily¡¯s eyes focused and in her emotionless state she could finally confront the truth that she had been avoiding. She would have to kill this man. He was threatening Sean. He¡¯d kill Sean. He wouldn¡¯t stop, not unless she stopped him. She took another step forward.

    ¡°Sir?¡± One of the remaining soldiers said in a trembling voice, ¡°I don¡¯t think she liked that.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you threaten my brother,¡± Emily said calmly even as her anger started bubbling up and breaking through the coolness shrouding her mind, ¡°Don¡¯t you ever. Back off and just leave us alone. Why are you like this?¡±

    ¡°Why am I like this?¡± Major Smith shouted as the other soldiers started edging away from him as Emily took another step forward with her bare feet slapping against the ground.

    ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I be like this?¡± Major Smith said, ¡°You¡¯re just like this virus. The bombs. You¡¯re some fucked up CODA experiment meant to wipe us out once and for all. Not even human. I¡¯m sure those CODA assholes have some secret bunker somewhere all wrapped up and safe even after what they¡¯ve done to the rest of us who didn¡¯t fit their nice little molds and in their little pristine boxes! CODA will emerge from the ashes to build that perfect ¡®utopia¡¯ that Peter Rose talks about all the time. I¡¯ll fight you to the end if it¡¯s the last thing I do, freak! I won¡¯t let you destroy us again!¡±

    Emily took another step forward, and the other soldiers turned and started running away as Major Smith just stood there staring at her with his trembling pistol pointed towards her. The other soldiers had hidden, but Emily could feel their eyes watching her from all around as they hid behind the buildings on the side of the street.

    ¡°Please,¡± Emily begged, ¡°I¡¯m not a weapon. You¡¯re just seeing shadows. Don¡¯t make me do this. Please.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m already dead, freak,¡± Major Smith said, sounding tired and resigned as Emily took one final step so she was less than ten feet away now, standing there completely naked in front of the soldiers.

    ¡°I already died along with my country weeks ago. We¡¯re all just dead men walking. Or woman. I know you won¡¯t die yet. But at least I won¡¯t make it easy for you.¡±

    Major Smith¡¯s pistol let out a loud crack and everything went black around Emily as the bullet entered her skull.

    She woke up having fallen slightly forward while she was unconscious. She pushed up with her legs to leap forward and tackled Major Smith to the ground. As they hit the ground Major Smith¡¯s arm went wide and he dropped his pistol and it went wide and skittered away from the both of them on the pavement.

    Then she killed him. It took a few tries as he kept surviving and coming awake to fight her again as she unconsciously held back her blows while fighting. He never stopped fighting her no matter what she said. What she did. How she begged. So eventually she killed him.

    Tears streaming down her face, she stood to her feet with trembling hands and stumbled off deeper into the city in a hyperventilating panic, ignoring the eyes of the hidden soldiers that she knew were watching her in fear from the shadows.

    Several sickly people almost emerged from nearby alleyways to attack her, but when they saw the blood coating both her arms and her entire naked body, they quickly backpedaled and made a loud racket as they fled at high speed from her.

    Emily was red from head to toe and her hair had disappeared to leave her completely bald again. Most of this blood was hers, caked on like thick red war paint coating every exposed patch of skin. But some of it¡­ Some of it wasn¡¯t hers. Her hands were trembling again as she finally found herself in front of Sean¡¯s apartment. She looked behind her. There was a large trail of blood behind her dripping from her body in little globs and droplets on the street.

    Emily wiped her tears from her face and just stood there at the front door of the apartment complex for a few minutes not doing anything. Should she clean herself? Find some clothes? What would Sean think about her? She was a murderer. And not like before when she had snapped and killed those men in some strange fugue state. This was¡­ she remembered everything this time.

    Eventually, Emily just put her bloody hands on the door and went inside. She was an emotional wreck, she couldn¡¯t stay out here. Why couldn¡¯t Major Smith just have stopped, why had he forced her to do it? She had to go inside, make sure that Sean was safe and healthy.

    She had to make sure that it had been worth it.

 Chapter 68: Guided

    ¡°You do it.¡±

    ¡°No, I won¡¯t. You¡¯ve done it before, haven¡¯t you? Why do I got to do it?¡±

    ¡°I did it once, and I ain¡¯t doing it again. You head up there or you¡¯re out of the gang. This is our territory¡­ But even the soldiers are scared of her. Only reason a gang as small as us can survive in this place. No one wants to fuck around and find out what she¡¯ll do if someone upsets her. You¡¯ve heard the rumors. Best to give her tribute so she doesn¡¯t swallow us all. Like a dragon. Now get to it, Simon. Deliver the goods. And hope you¡¯re not the one getting gobbled up rather than what¡¯s in that bag.¡±

    Simon let out a gulp and took the sack bursting with food and slung it over his shoulder. His boss opened the door and ushered him forward into the dark recesses of the building, only the light shining through the windows breaking the gloom.

    Most places had lanterns or even the occasional light set up after the quarantine had officially been lifted a month ago as the last of the Infected had been killed off by the soldiers and the city had been cleared. It had now been four months since the bombs had dropped.

    People had started grouping up and working together again, even if it was only under the hands of the scattered gangs or the iron fist of the soldiers that ruled from afar from within their base and powerful weapons.

    People were still getting sick, but it wasn¡¯t from the virus anymore. The swelling waves of radiation wafting in from the blast sites around them created a persistent haze of tanginess or tingling on Simon¡¯s skin and tongue as he moved. Or at least he thought he could feel it.

    But not too many were dying yet. They probably all had cancer down the road, but it only made them a little sicker, a little weaker than normal in the moment. A weakness that Simon felt acutely as he stumbled up the stairs of the mostly empty building with the heavy sack held over his back.

    Most buildings had lights inside them from the communities living there, but not here. All of the residents had fled the building as soon as the quarantine had lifted. Fleeing as far as they could from the monster inside.

    Simon reached the door on the fifth floor and took a deep breath as a pair of electric lights hung above the door, pushing back the shadow and somehow making the door to the apartment even more sinister than if it had been in darkness. As if the bright lights and rare electric lights were inviting him in, to lull him into safety before the trap snapped closed around him.

    But after mustering his courage, Simon reached up and rapped his fist on the door hard before taking a step back.

    He waited silently at the door for a moment. It remained closed and everything was silent, and Simon felt a tingle of dread run down his spine as he stood there motionless.

    Then there was movement and Simon resisted startling as the door swung open revealing a woman standing behind it.

    ¡°Oh, hi,¡± the woman said, ¡°You¡¯re here for the delivery? You can just leave it there. Nice of you guys to do this, I thought it¡¯d be more on a commission basis rather than giving us this much weekly¡­ And tell your friends that I should finish what they want in a few days. Maybe two or three. I¡¯ll leave it in the front lobby when it¡¯s finished.¡±

    ¡°Y-Yes, ma¡¯am!¡±

    Simon quickly placed the sack down in front of the door before taking a few steps back, although he relaxed slightly at the woman¡¯s calm tone. Even if he had no idea what she was talking about.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, ¡°Thanks. Here, you look skinny. Take a tip.¡±

    She reached inside the bag and took out a metal can of beans and tossed it to him. Simon caught it and almost fumbled it before quickly tucking it into the pocket of his ragged coat as quickly as he could to conceal the bulge it would form as best he could.

    ¡°Thank you, ma¡¯am,¡± Simon said gratefully, relaxing further by the woman¡¯s unassuming presence. Despite her being the healthiest person he¡¯d seen ever since the bombs dropped. Completely smooth skin, no dark bags under her eyes, and not looking even the slightest bit tired despite everything. Just so¡­ normal. Like things should be.

    ¡°No problem. Hope to see you next week. And don¡¯t let the rumors scare you off. They- well, It was only nine, not twenty or thirty or whatever they¡¯re saying these days. And self defense. Just remember that when your boss tries to scare you off once you leave.¡±

    ¡°Er, I¡­ I will ma¡¯am?¡± Simon said uncertainly.

    ¡°Okay, bye,¡± the woman said as she reached out and picked up the heavy sack of food with one arm with seemingly little effort that Simon had needed all of his strength to carry on his back. She stepped back and shut her door and with a loud click the door locked.

    Simon stared at the door for a long moment before he turned and carefully navigated down the dark stairs with his hands empty now.

    He reached the base and his boss Frank was standing there looking nervous before noticing Simon emerging from the dark doorway of the building.

    ¡°Well?¡± Frank asked, ¡°She good? You upset her? What''s with that look?¡±

    ¡°No?¡± Simon said, the image of the demon he¡¯d been imagining in his head not quite meshing with the woman he¡¯d just met.

    ¡°She killed twenty men with her bare hands,¡± Frank said in a whisper as the two of them started hurrying away, ¡°I¡¯ve talked with the folks living nearby looking out their windows. Smashed their heads in with a crowbar, just left them in the street and kept on walking after she was done with¡¯em. All calm like, didn''t bother her the least bit after she caught her breath.¡±

    ¡°But it was self defense, right?¡± Simon said, ¡°They were attacking her?¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Frank said grimly, ¡°She killed Major Smith too. Nasty man in charge of them soldiers. Whole lot of them tried to stop her. Machine guns, grenades, all of it. You heard the booms and explosions that day. She walked that off and killed him anyway like it was nothing. Whatever she did, the soldiers won¡¯t even talk about it, it was so frightening. They flinch whenever someone threatens to point her their way. You watch yourself Simon. Underneath that mask is a monster waiting to swallow you whole. Go again at your own risk.¡±

    Simon held his jacket tighter as a blistery cold wind swept across the streets and pushed a dusting of gray snow mixed with ash into his face.

    He blinked hard to clear it before he kept walking as he felt the cold can of beans inside his jacket. Maybe Frank was right and she was a psycho that would kill him because he looked at her wrong. Some sort of monster¡­ But he needed this food. So despite Frank¡¯s warnings, Simon was sure that he¡¯d be back. He had to in order to survive. There only were so many crops to harvest that hadn¡¯t already died from the radiation by now. Only so much canned or long lasting food left.

    Food supplies weren¡¯t critically low yet, but everyone could see the writing on the wall. It was sometime in November right now. Winter had barely even started yet and it was already snowing slightly.

    This winter would be brutal, and Simon and everyone else was scrambling as hard as they could to prepare for the hard times.

    Because if it was snowing now, then how cold would it get when true winter was on them?

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Sean? Hey, we¡¯ve got that food. I¡¯ve almost finished that spare generator for those people bringing the supplies.¡±

    ¡°They¡­ they think you¡¯ll kill them if they don¡¯t agree,¡± Sean croaked through his sore throat.

    ¡°Just take it easy, take it easy,¡± Emily said as she rushed forward and put her palm to Sean¡¯s clammy head to check his temperature. She stroked his matted and clammy hair soaked in sweat for a moment as he lay on the bed she¡¯d dragged into the main room for him.

    ¡°I know,¡± she said to actually answer his statement, ¡°But that means they won¡¯t attack us, so it¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t want to hurt anyone else if I can. You tell me next time you¡¯re uncomfortable, okay? I don¡¯t want you to try to push through and get sick again. I panicked when it first started, thought you caught it from the delivery man and it was something worse than a fever¡­ That man last week nearly ran screaming when he saw my expression when I opened the door¡­¡±

    She held her hand to his feverish head for another second and adjusted his blankets slightly, ¡°I¡¯ll take care of you. It¡¯s just a fever, you¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°Heater¡¯s nice,¡± Sean said and nodded his head to the little generator that was powering all their electronics including a nice heater that she¡¯d installed. The apartment had gotten too cold and she hadn¡¯t even noticed until Sean got sick. Somehow after thinking out loud for a bit she¡¯d managed to build this contraption in their place for them. It had a crank on the side that she had to turn to charge the battery, but with her endless stamina that was no problem.

    Most of her time it was tucked under her arm as she cranked it with one hand actually to keep it charged as much as she could. She had a bank of three or four extra batteries that she could swap out into the generator so they should always have enough energy even as she charged one of the dead ones.

    ¡°Just let me know if you need anything, don¡¯t try to tough it out,¡± Emily said quickly, ¡°I think I saw some soup cans in the delivery. I¡¯ll make you some warm chicken soup, make you feel way better. Test out that camp stove that I fixed up yesterday to boil it a little.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Emily,¡± Sean murmured, ¡°Do I really have to be in the main room though?¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± she said firmly, ¡°You¡¯re not leaving my sight until things are safer for us. Not even to sleep in another room. Especially when you¡¯re sick.¡±

    Sean chuckled and coughed slightly after a moment.

    ¡°Way to not make it creepy¡­ Sis.¡±

    Emily huffed and gestured to her own bed set up on the opposite side of the room. But still in the main room and not in the attached bedroom. Emily wanted to be able to leap up and protect Sean in seconds if anything happened.

    ¡°I¡¯m here too. Not like you¡¯re the only one.¡±

    ¡°Bah. You don¡¯t need to sleep anymore apparently,¡± Sean said, ¡°Still¡­ watching me sleep.¡±

    ¡°No, I still sleep when I can,¡± Emily said a little guiltily.

    She did watch him sleep, staying up longer than him and waking up earlier if her body allowed it. She couldn¡¯t bear the thought that something would happen to him while she wasn¡¯t there to protect him. That as soon as she shut her eyes that something horrible would happen to her brother.

    She wouldn¡¯t let anything happen to him.

    He was her whole world now, the last thing for her to cling to. Nothing would ever happen to him. The two of them would be happy together and make it through this. No matter how hopeless it all seemed right now.

    They¡¯d make it through this together.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily scrunched her neck against her shoulder to hold her flashlight in place as she disassembled the microwave in front of her. Most of it was completely toast. All of the microchips, and most of the advanced electronics were fried and destroyed by the EMPs. But a few had survived, and Emily could extract them and all sorts of other components from this thing.

    She was on one of the apartments on the top floor of their building, going apartment to apartment and scavenging everything usable that she could, having already cleared most of the rest of the building.

    She wasn¡¯t sure how, but as she hummed and talked to herself she seemed to somehow understand exactly which pieces were still functional and which had been burned into scrap. Which components to use to build, how to build whatever sprang into her mind when she brainstormed out loud.

    It was eerie, the knowledge just popping into her mind as she moved by instinct to accomplish whatever she needed to do. It must be another part of her powers. Was it making her smarter, increasing her brain function or something? She had already been considered a genius before all of this had happened, was this like what the next level felt like? Just knowing things intuitively without being able to pinpoint how she knew to do this or that or why she had a feeling that certain electrical components were good and the others were destroyed despite her not knowing how she knew?

    She finished disassembling the electronics in the apartment and put everything useful into her large backpack and took her flashlight and held it in her left hand. The whole building was completely dark usually except for the lights shining in from the windows.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Her backpack jingled and rattled as she walked down the stairs towards Sean¡¯s apartment. She was working on a higher powered radio. Hopefully one strong enough that it could pierce through the ash still choking the skies and let her talk to some other group in the distance who could help.

    Emily held the flashlight pointed at her feet as she carefully navigated the stairs. Two weeks ago, she had tripped and landed on top of her bag and broke half of the things she had harvested.

    Emily reached the dark hallway and frowned and stopped walking as she heard some noise. She tilted her head to the side and listened. There were heavy footsteps and murmurs in their apartment and she could hear Sean¡¯s angry voice as he argued with someone.

    She dropped her bag and sprinted towards their door. There was a woman standing just outside, lurking just outside the circle of light that Emily had shining from the electric light she¡¯d planted above the frame.

    Without even pausing, Emily shoved the woman hard to the ground before she could even react to Emily suddenly going from a stand still to a full sprint in a blink of an eye.

    With a squawk, the woman Emily had shoved went falling backwards and flailed her arms wildly. In her right hand, Emily spotted the glimmer of a small metal pocket knife reflect the light before the other woman was in shadow again.

    Emily ignored the woman and opened the door to her apartment as quickly as she could.

    She barreled inside and saw four burly men standing close to Sean. Two of them were holding Sean up in the air by his arms while the third stood behind him and loomed menacingly with his arms crossed. The last man stood in front of Sean and had an ugly sneer on his face as he leaned over to have his face close to Sean. That had a large blade out and was waving it in front of Sean¡¯s nose. Sean already had a long bleeding cut carved a few inches down his cheek, his blood still dripping from the other man¡¯s blade. Sean looked bruised and injured, like he¡¯d been roughed up before they had cut him with the blade.

    At Emily¡¯s sudden entrance to the apartment, all four men¡¯s gaze turned to her. The man with the knife¡¯s eyes widened and he quickly put his large knife to Sean¡¯s throat even as Emily charged towards him.

    Emily slammed to a stop, and stood there glancing between the four men that looked nervous at her sudden entrance.

    ¡°Now, just¡­ We¡¯ll be going now,¡± the man with the knife said, ¡°You make any moves, and I¡¯ll cut his throat.¡±

    Emily didn¡¯t move, her thoughts racing as the four men started edging to the side as if to move around her. Emily noted idly that the entire place was trashed as another man emerged from the spare bedroom with a large sack filled with food held over his back.

    The new man froze, but seemed to understand the situation after taking a few seconds to take it in and the nod from his boss with the knife.

    Sean was dragged along with them as they moved.

    ¡°Leave him here,¡± Emily said and stepped to the side to block them as they moved to go past her, ¡°Then you can go.¡±

    The leader let out a giggle of nervous laughter, ¡°Not a chance, girl. You¡¯d kill us the second he was out of my grip.¡±

    He tried to move past her again and Emily stepped in his way again.

    ¡°You¡¯re not taking him,¡± Emily said again, ¡°Let him go!¡±

    The leader hesitated before shaking his head and seeming to come to a decision.

    ¡°Actually¡­¡± he said and smiled slightly, ¡°We¡¯ll be taking him with us. All the way. And you¡¯ll work for us. Or we¡¯ll kill him. Oh, and we¡¯ll take all this food you¡¯ve been hoarding for so long. Do that and your brother here won¡¯t get hurt.¡±

    The man pressed his blade harder against Sean¡¯s throat and a bead of blood oozed out and started running down the side of Sean¡¯s neck. Emily flinched, and she saw a faint light of victory in the leader¡¯s eyes.

    Sean glared at the man, but stayed silent and appeared to be keeping his breath as shallow as he could to avoid the knife pressed against his throat.

    ¡°Now get out of our way, girl. Or your brother dies,¡± the leader sneered, his posture switching from slightly fearful to arrogant as he saw the overwhelming indecision and fear that must have leaked out from her expression as she kept standing there motionless.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Emily said, and a faint memory came to her. An instinctive feeling of something that she could do that could help. She licked her dry lips as the leader edged to the side and this time Emily didn¡¯t move to block him as he and the other four men and Sean slowly moved towards the door, their eyes on her at all times.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Emily repeated again as Sean met her gaze as he was dragged away, the men now past her and moving towards the door.

    ¡°I¡­¡± Emily said one more time, before taking the leap. She couldn''t let them leave with him.

    ¡°Help. Guide <b>Me</b>. <i>SaVe SeAn!</i>¡±

    Everyone in the room flinched as Emily¡¯s voice warbled and distorted as her mind turned to a haze and the world seemed to fade slightly from around her. Her body was now moving on its own, and only her own faint awareness allowed her to know what was happening.

    ¡°Let SeAn go,¡± Emily¡¯s body said her voice still warbling and distorting as she spoke, ¡°Or PrepArE to diE. I haVe no mErcY foR sCum liKe yOu.¡±

    ¡°I- No way!¡± The leader shouted even as his arrogant expression switched to fear again as she took a step forward, ¡°Y-You move again and I¡¯ll slit his throat! No, that damn magic spooky shit act isn''t gonna work on me!¡±

    Emily stopped moving and tilted her head to the side to consider the man, despite her heart pounding in her chest and her worry for Sean becoming nearly overwhelming. The strange instincts guiding her made it seem like this was the perfect thing to do, and to do anything else wouldn¡¯t let her save Sean. The instincts told her what to do, and in her desperation and hazy state of mind, Emily agreed and let them <b>G</b>uide her.

    ¡°tHen yOu aLL wiLL diE.¡±

    ¡°S-S-Shut up, bitch! You¡¯ve got nothin¡¯ on us!¡± the leader shouted, ¡°You stay over there, we¡¯re leaving now. Don¡¯t you come chasing after us either! Or this guy gets it! You think that I won''t do it?¡±

    Emily idly noted that the woman she¡¯d shoved over coming in was standing at the open door to the hallway and watching the confrontation, glancing between Emily and her boss.

    The leader¡¯s head turned to the woman and he opened his mouth to bark an order at her. But it distracted him as he took his eyes off of Emily for an instant and his knife slightly eased its pressure on Sean¡¯s throat and lifted off his skin a few inches.

    In a burst of motion, Emily¡¯s body leapt forward at full speed and her hands reaching out in full extension.

    ¡°Boss!¡± One of the men holding Sean up shouted in surprise, and the leader¡¯s head whipped back and his eyes widened to see Emily leaping towards them.

    The leader applied some pressure on Sean¡¯s neck with his knife to stab him¡­ But Emily was there just in time. Her hand swooped up from underneath and grabbed the knife by the blade, managing to stick her fingers into the small gap between Sean¡¯s neck and the blade. She hissed as the knife bit into her first knuckles of her fingers as the leader slashed hard and tried to take his blade back as he saw that Emily had stopped his attempt to kill Sean.

    Before he could pull back, Emily closed her fist and the other side of the knife bit into her palm. She held it there and her body jerked its arm hard outwards and away from Sean.

    Emily¡¯s hand fully closed into a fist as the blade cutting into her fist disappeared somehow.

    The leader dumbly stared at the empty blade handle for a moment after he pulled it back from her grip. He didn¡¯t recover his wits fast enough to dodge Emily¡¯s heavy punch to his skull.

    Emily¡¯s mind in her hazy state dimly noticed her whole body rippling and her feet pivoting as every muscle was used to its absolute maximum as her whole body was put behind the singular punch.

    The punch landed on the leader¡¯s temple, and his head twisted to the side and with a sickly snap he died before his body even hit the floor as his neck broke.

    Before the other four men could realize what had happened, Emily was on them, landing sharp blows on their hands and faces to get them to let go of Sean. Sean was dropped to the ground as the two burly men yelped in surprise and clumsily tried to ward off Emily¡¯s assault with her fists.

    Emily immediately stepped forward so she was standing directly over Sean who was weakly crawling away from the fighting, seeming confused and his eyes unfocused. The men must have given him a concussion before little Emily had arrived.

    Despite her best efforts in fighting, she couldn¡¯t take down either man who had been holding Sean before they collected their wits and started fighting back with angry expressions on their faces after a glance at their dead leader. The man in the back dropped the sack of food and joined the remaining man in reaching into their pockets and all drawing out their blades.

    Sean kept crawling away as Emily was repeatedly stabbed by all four of men standing over her body as their large frames pressed her backwards with their sheer mass even as her body fought with all of its might.

    Her body stomped hard on one man¡¯s foot, causing him to groan and lean forward with a loud curse. Emily¡¯s body grabbed his head in both hands and brought her leg up to land a devastating knee strike directly into the man¡¯s nose.

    Hands still wrapped around the man¡¯s face, she twisted her body and shoved the man hard to the side to the ground. He fell there and lay on the floor groaning as he clutched his broken nose, which was bleeding profusely.

    Another knife stabbed into Emily¡¯s eye, and she was blinded in one eye for a few seconds and stumbled before the blade was taken out again. She was grabbed and shoved backwards as she recovered until she was standing over Sean again. The two of them were cornered now in the little kitchenette with the sink and eating counter to their right and the fridge and the exterior wall to the hallway to their left. Sean was sitting on the ground and leaning against the wooden cabinet behind him and watching Emily fight with what appeared to be wide eyed shock.

    Emily took a step forward and she was stabbed again this time in her gut. She was shoved back again and braced herself against the counter to the side. Sean was exposed. The three men fighting her with their knives all looked the worse for the wear from her fighting them. But they all remained focused on fighting her with a look of desperation and anger in their eyes.

    The man who had been carrying the food before raised his knife above Sean and prepared to stab him, ignoring Emily fighting the other two men for a moment.

    Even in her daze, Emily felt herself to begin to panic. What could she do? How could she save him? The answer came quickly. She couldn¡¯t fight off all three of the men without risking Sean getting hurt.

    Even as she weaved a gap between the armpits of the men fighting her, the information kept coming to her. These men knew they couldn¡¯t kill her intellectually, but kept fighting and stabbing her in a mixture of panic and anger. She just had to do something to turn that panic into outright fear and make them run. If they all attacked Sean at once then she wouldn¡¯t be able to save him.

    She had to give them their monster. No matter how horrible Little Emily would feel about it afterward. It had to be done to save Sean. Emily¡¯s body collided with the man standing over Sean in a flying tackle and she knocked the man to the floor.

    Emily brought her hand up and stiffened it so her fingers were forward and rigid like a spear as she straddled the man squirming on the ground below her and slicing at her desperately with his knife to no effect.

    Emily¡¯s hand speared downwards into the space directly below his ribs and pointed upwards.

    Her fingers broke, and her eyes teared up slightly from the pain even as she felt her fingers regenerate¡­ within the man¡¯s body.

    The man screamed as Emily curled her fingers and grabbed a hold of his lower rib in her fist buried in his body.

    Emily felt the two other men approaching from behind her, ready to attack her from behind. She had to delay them long enough to scare them off.

    Emily leaned over the man underneath her who sliced a cut across her cheek with a wild swipe of his knife that healed almost immediately.

    ¡°RaaAAAAhhHHHhhhhaaAAAAA!!!!¡± Emily screamed at the top of her lungs in her warbling and distorted voice as her arm and shoulders heaved and she ripped the man¡¯s rib right out of his body with her strength. Or at least snapped it in half and tore out the portion of the bone that she had been holding. In an explosion of gore, the bone was pulled from the bloody hole in the man¡¯s body.

    The footsteps from the two men behind her stopped. Emily plunged her other hand in the hole and gripped the rib on the other side. With a loud crack of bone she ripped open and cracked the next rib to peel it open. One more time she did it and reached inside and felt something twitching and squishy inside the cavity. With a firm grip on the slippery object and another primal scream, Emily gripped the man¡¯s heart and tore it directly out of his chest.

    Her arm was soaked in blood as she turned to the two men standing behind her, close to Sean. Far too close to Sean. One wrong move, and they would kill him¡­

    But their eyes were filled with terror as Emily¡¯s body stared at them.

    ¡°RaaahhHHHhhhhaaaaAAA!!!¡± Emily screamed again in her warbling tone and drew back the heart held in her hand and threw it towards the closest man, who ducked to dodge the lump of flesh. Emily stood to her feet and took a single step towards the men and carefully didn¡¯t look at Sean as she stared them down.

    Their resolve broke first.

    ¡°Fuck, fuck, fuck,¡± one of the men said before turning and running full force with a limp away and out the door as quickly as he could. The other man followed his example and fled as well, not even glancing behind them as they fled full speed away from the monster behind them.

    Emily watched them go and walked over to the front door and shut it behind them, and locked it with a loud click.

    She turned and rushed back to Sean and ran her hands over him to check his wounds. At some point he¡¯d slumped over unconscious and slid down to the side to the ground. But his wounds looked fine, he would make it.

    Little Emily would be able to take care of him.

    Emily reached out a hand and palmed Sean¡¯s cheek gently and a softness came into her eyes for a moment. One last moment with him, she''d thought that she''d never see his face again. Her blood soaked hand left a large red splotch on his cheek where she touched him and she drew her hand back.

    ¡°SaVed him, sAved him, sAved him, sAved him,¡± Emily said rhythmically as her body fell to the side and started twitching uncontrollably with her cheek pressed to the floor and her eyes open and staring sightlessly at the wooden cabinet in front of her.

    ¡°SavEd Him. Guided.¡±

    Emily the ghost of the distant future guiding her past self¡¯s actions closed her eyes, the final image of the slack face of the unconscious Sean flitting through her mind as she returned to the observer rather than the actor.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily opened her eyes, her head pounding with her cheek pressed to the cold floor. She immediately noticed that Sean was lying there unconscious a few feet away from her and slumped to the side as well.

    She immediately rolled over and crawled over to check on him to make sure that he was okay. He was bruised and had a few small cuts on his neck. And a large nasty one across his cheek. But they weren¡¯t bleeding anymore, and his breathing was even and steady. He would probably be fine. She took a shaking breath of relief, all her stress releasing her like a deflating balloon and she sagged to the ground as if all strength had left her even as she kept a grip on Sean¡¯s shoulder and lay next to him on the ground.

    Emily looked around now that she was sure that Sean was okay. She yelped as she saw that there were two bloody bodies visible. One only a few feet away and another by the door. The one nearest to them was mutilated, a big bloody hole in its chest and a few fragments of what looked like bone on the floor next to it.

    Emily looked between her hands and arms coated and blood and the dead body. Had¡­ had she done that? Had whatever happened with those infected men happened here again too? Emily knew that she should feel horrible right now as she stared at the two dead bodies. But she turned back to Sean and studied his sleeping face for a few seconds.

    Sean was okay, and that was all that mattered. So long as she never hurt him and he was safe, everything would be fine. Even if she went crazy in the meantime.

    Sean was all that she had left in the world. Just the two of them.

    Emily hugged Sean¡¯s unconscious body and started to cry.

    As long as he was safe, none of the rest of it mattered.

 Chapter 69: The Endless Winter

    ¡°I say we t-t-take it to them!¡± Vanessa said even as her teeth chattered, ¡°Those damn authoritarian assholes have been sitting pretty in their compound all of the heavy winter and leaving the rest of us to rot. We¡¯re already halfway through it now, it¡¯s been six months already since the bomb dropped. We don¡¯t have enough food to last the whole way through. We storm in there, we get enough food for the next few months. Make it through until things warm up again. We¡¯ll make it easily, with how much those soldiers managed to loot before they pulled back from the city. They¡¯re as good as Empire by now as far as I¡¯m concerned. Doing everyone a favor by takin¡¯ them out.¡±

    ¡°But the guns, Vanessa!¡± Frank said, ¡°They¡¯re too much. We¡¯d all die for nothing. They get attacked daily by somebody looking for food. What do we have that they don¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they try to sneak in and get caught. And that one mob got gunned down when they got rowdy. Bunch of idiots. But we got something none of them had. Something that¡¯ll scare the soldiers good and let us take them out without losing anyone. And we¡¯ll get enough people armed with a plan that we¡¯ll be able to pull it off even without her anyways. If we get the other gangs to agree to it, do it all together.¡±

    ¡°And what¡¯s that?¡± Frank asked skeptically before his eyes widened, ¡°No! Absolutely not! You have no idea what she¡¯ll do if we disturb her! You saw what she did when she came home to those boys  threatening her brother.¡±

    Vanessa went quiet for a moment.

    ¡°Some of them made it out of there alive, didn¡¯t they? You¡¯re overstating it. I¡¯d do the same if someone threatened¡­ would have threatened my brothers,¡± she said eventually.

    ¡°I listened to their stories first hand. She was like an animal, scratching and biting until they were gone. Ripped a man¡¯s heart out of his chest and threw it at them. That¡¯s not natural. I¡¯m telling you, we can¡¯t risk waking her¡­¡± Frank said with a look of abject fear on his face.

    ¡°Enough with your damn dragon nonsense!¡± Vanessa snapped, ¡°This isn¡¯t some fairytale. We don¡¯t got enough food for the winter! So some of us got to die, or we convince her to help us. So which is it gonna be? Cause I don¡¯t see you giving us any more options. Leader.¡±

    Vanessa turned to Simon who jumped as the attention of the rest of the haggard gang turned to him.

    ¡°Simon,¡± Vanessa said, ¡°You¡¯ve been doing the¡­ tribute runs of our valuable food to our resident dragon for a while now. Talked to her more than any of us. What do you think? Could you ask her? Convince her to help us storm the base? If she¡¯s in, I¡¯m sure most of the other gangs won¡¯t hesitate to help with it.¡±

    ¡°Hey, she gave us that heater and electricity,¡± Frank protested, ¡°That food was put to good use. You think all of us would have survived this long without any of the equipment she¡¯s whipped up?¡±

    Vanessa waved her hand, ¡°Alright, alright. I get it. Doesn¡¯t mean I have to like our precious food being given to her when we¡¯re on the edge ourselves. Simon, what do you think?¡±

    ¡°I- I- I can ask her. I don¡¯t think she¡¯ll mind if I explain. She¡¯ll just tell me if she doesn¡¯t want to, I¡¯m sure,¡± Simon stammered, ¡°At least I hope so. Next delivery¡¯s supposed to be in two days. I¡¯ll ask then.¡±

    ¡°Frank?¡± Vanessa asked sharply, ¡°That tame enough for you to not panic?¡±

    Frank considered it for a moment. And although he still looked uncomfortable he nodded to Simon and Vanessa.

    ¡°Do your best,¡± Frank told Simon, ¡°But if she isn¡¯t open to it just shut up and leave. We need every person we can get. I don¡¯t want her tearing out your heart too.¡±

    Simon gulped, but then nodded.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said flatly, ¡°I¡¯m not attacking anyone. And I¡¯m not leaving my brother alone. Thanks for the food, Simon. I¡¯ve nearly finished the water filters for you guys.¡±

    Simon nodded reluctantly, ¡°Thank you. It¡¯s been no fun tasting ash in our water for this whole time after the bottled stuff ran out. All that ash mixed in with the snow when we melt it down now in those burners you made for us¡­ Are you sure I can¡¯t convince you? A lot of us will die without you.¡±

    Emily hesitated, but then firmly shook her head.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m protecting my brother. I¡­ Good luck, Simon. I hope it all works out for you guys. Those soldiers did seem like assholes.¡±

    Simon paused and searched her face for a moment before nodding.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll¡­ just go then.¡±

    Simon walked off into the dark hallway and turned on one of the flashlights that Emily had made for his gang. She let out a sigh of relief and shut the door behind her.

    She saw Sean lying on his bed, staring at her intently.

    ¡°You weren¡¯t going to talk to me about it?¡± Sean said after she locked the door behind her and approached him.

    ¡°No,¡± she said, ¡°You almost died two months ago, Sean. I¡¯m not taking a risk like that again.¡±

    Sean sat up and stood, revealing the pencil drawing that he¡¯d been working on for the last few hours was about half way done. He¡¯d picked up the habit after she¡¯d found an artist¡¯s pad of paper only partially filled in one of the empty apartments and some drawing supplies. Sean was actually getting pretty good, sketching things from his imagination to break up the boredom of their apartment.

    ¡°It was two months ago,¡± Sean protested, ¡°We can¡¯t just hide in here forever. We¡¯ll have to go out there eventually. You haven¡¯t even left to scavenge for components even in our own building since that day.¡±

    ¡°I have enough for now,¡± Emily mumbled.

    ¡°No you don¡¯t,¡± Sean countered, ¡°I¡¯ve seen you stop at least a couple projects half way through because you didn¡¯t have this or that little thing available. If you went out there you could find something and finish them all.¡±

    ¡°No. I¡¯m not leaving,¡± Emily said, ¡°You heard him. There¡¯s going to be a war, everyone fighting each other soon. You want to be dragged into the middle of all of that?¡±

    Sean huffed and fell back against the bed.

    ¡°Yeah, well we should have at least talked about it first. Maybe it¡¯d be better to support the people that we¡¯ve been trading with and who¡¯ve been getting us our food.¡±

    ¡°Your food,¡± Emily reminded him, ¡°And we have enough for a while. A few months with rationing, enough to make it to the spring. I¡¯ll go out and scavenge then after I¡¯ve made some weapons for you so you can defend yourself better. I¡­ What if I went and helped them fight and you were ambushed and killed while I was gone? I wouldn¡¯t be able to stand that happening. All you have is a few knives. That¡¯s nothing if a group attacks you like last time.¡±

    Sean looked like he wanted to say something, but ended up just shaking his head, ¡°Alright, fine. You win. Just until you finish the guns. Just next time we talk about it first.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± she agreed, ¡°I promise.¡±

    Emily went back to her workbench and continued her work on the water filters after Sean returned to drawing on his sketch. She was almost there, she had promised the gang ten of them and had already finished making eight. Just two more and she would be done.

    Then she could keep working on the guns. She was sure that she was almost there. The last one she¡¯d fired had only exploded and temporarily injured her hand after she fired ten shots. Although based on the damage, Emily thought it would have severely injured Sean if he had been the one holding it. So she would only give him it when she was sure that something like that wouldn¡¯t end up happening again.

    A few more attempts and she was sure she¡¯d be able to create something more reliable. It was actually more of a nail gun versus firing bullets. Much easier to find nails than creating bullets these days. It was bulky and was halfway between a pistol and shotgun by its pure size despite only shooting the nails out of its nozzle rather than something more familiar from what you¡¯d see in the movies.

    But once it was more reliable she¡¯d be able to finally give it to Sean and feel more comfortable leaving him since he¡¯d have some proper protection. She¡¯d be able to go out and scavenge some more components and maybe even food for him.

    But until then both of them were staying put.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Three days later, Emily and Sean heard the explosions and gunfire on the other side of the city where the military base had been set up. The soldiers had pulled back from attempting to control the city by now and were hunkered down in their base.

    The fighting lasted for hours, dying down for minutes at a time before starting up again.

    Emily assumed that meant that the sides were somewhat balanced if the fighting was lasting for so long.

    Both her and Sean were tense as the fighting died down over the course of the next day. No one approached their building in that time. The city was empty enough by now after all the deaths that there was plenty of room to people to spread out in. And no one wanted to be near Emily with all the rumors swirling around her from the soldiers and the gang that she¡¯d been trading with this whole time.

    Eventually, everything went quiet again. They kept waiting tense in their apartment. Over Emily¡¯s protests, Sean had taken one of the nail guns despite the danger. Hopefully he wouldn¡¯t have to fire it.

    The brief period of calm lasted another day with no one coming near them. Then another round of fighting started. Scattered gunshots around the city, some only a few blocks away. In the afternoon of the day of renewed fighting across the city, Emily suddenly heard the sound of gunfire and battle just outside in the street. She and Sean left with their nail guns held at the ready and rushed to the apartment opposite them that had a better view of the street below.

    There was a group of five or six people with machine guns fighting a crowd of over thirty or forty people armed with knives and the occasional pistol. The small group was crouched behind a large rusted out truck and in a depression in the foot of snow covering the ground. The truck was being torn up by the gunfire and the small group with the machine guns were being pressured as they fired their weapons and took out a few of the large group chasing them.

    Emily stuck her head out of the window after opening it.

    She saw that it was Simon, Frank, and the rest of his gang in the small group.

    ¡°It¡¯s the gang,¡± Emily said over the gunshots and put her nail gun on the floor carefully behind her, ¡°They¡¯re the small group,¡±

    ¡°What? What in the world is going on?¡± Sean asked as he adjusted his own grip on his own gun. Emily grabbed her jacket and pulled it over her head and started wiggling out of her pants, leaving her only in shorts and a T-shirt underneath.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to jump down,¡± Emily said, ¡°Fuck, this is going to hurt. Otherwise they¡¯re toast before I can walk down.¡±

    She looked at Sean in silent permission as he stood there. After a moment, he nodded at her.

    ¡°Alright,¡± he allowed, ¡°Go save them. But you¡¯ll eat something after. A reward for being so damn selfless.¡±

    Emily smiled slightly, even as her stomach twinged slightly at the thought. She hadn¡¯t eaten in months and even though the sensation of her empty stomach never escalated beyond uncomfortable, the feeling was always there nonetheless.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, ¡°Here I go.¡±

    Emily dived out of the window and fell five stories to the ground. Despite her beating heart, she managed to angle herself so she landed leg first on the ground. Her legs crumpled and her tailbone hit the ground hard and sent a painful wave of pain up her spine as she landed in the street.

    She fell back and another wave of pain went through her shoulder blades as her black slammed hard through the foot of loose snow on the ground and into the hard street below.

    After letting a low groan, Emily¡¯s body healed and she stood to her feet, her heavy boots still on her feet luckily.

    The fighting had stopped, the large mob and the familiar gang both gawking at Emily as she stood there after splatting on the street only seconds before.

    ¡°What¡¯s going on here?¡± Emily demanded as she looked at the larger group.

    ¡°We¡¯re takin¡¯ over this territory!¡± one man said from the mob, looking like he was the leader, ¡°Who are you? After these fellas are dead, we¡¯ll control nearly a quarter of this city! You¡¯d best get out of our way before you get hurt.¡±

    ¡°Traitor!¡± Frank shouted from behind cover, ¡°We were supposed to work together. After near half of my gang died in the assault you swoop in and claim it all? That food was supposed to be shared among all of us!¡±

    The other man sneered, ¡°Hardly matters now, does it? We¡¯re on top, and we got everything. You¡¯re a fool, Frank. Everyone was going to betray you after the soldiers were dead. We just managed to do it first and better than the others.¡±

    ¡°Is that the fighting that¡¯s been happening recently?¡± Emily thought out loud, ¡°Gang wars as you fight in the aftermath? You guys won against the soldiers?¡±

    The other leader gave her a confused look, ¡°Where have you been?¡± he asked, ¡°Don¡¯t know how you survived that fall. But you can still join us if you stand aside. Me and my boys have no business with you if you¡¯re squirreled away out here on your own.¡±

    ¡°You look around to see where we are, Valentino?¡± Frank shouted out from behind her, ¡°You can¡¯t threaten her to do anything! She¡¯ll rip your heart right from your chest and eat it!¡±

    The leader of the other group, Valentino apparently, startled and looked around himself. His eyes caught on a nearby street sign that was drooping and tilted at a thirty degree angle from vertical from the cracked pavement at its base.

    His eyes widened and Valentino¡¯s head whipped back to Emily as she watched him.

    ¡°T-T-The monster! Demon!¡± Valentino stammered, ¡°Run! Leave them, before she attacks!¡±

    The whole mob of twenty five people all fled with their leader running the fastest, leaving the five bodies of their dead behind. In less than a minute they all disappeared into the distance around the corner.

    Emily walked over to the five members of the gang. Her eyes lingered on Vanessa before looking at the other four men one by one. Frank, Simon, and two more that she didn¡¯t know.

    ¡°You all okay?¡± she asked, ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±

    No one answered her for a moment, all of them looking intimidated as she stood there, ¡°All the gangs came together for the assault on the base,¡± Simon said, ¡°After all the fighting, we ended up winning. The soldiers had food that could last for years stored up in there. Machine guns, all sorts of equipment¡­¡±

    Simon raised his machine gun, similar to an AK-47 like you¡¯d see in the old movies sometimes.

    ¡°Then everyone started fighting over it all,¡± Simon said with a grimace, ¡°We barely made it out with these. There¡¯s three big gangs left fighting it out over the city. They¡¯ve absorbed everyone else and the smaller gangs have all joined them. Willingly or by force. They¡¯ve got all the food, equipment¡­ It¡¯s chaos out there.¡±

    ¡°What are you all going to do?¡± Emily asked in concern, ¡°With the big gangs around gunning for you?¡±

    Simon hesitated before glancing at Frank.

    ¡°Can we stay here?¡± he asked hesitantly.

    Seeing her look, he quickly followed up his statement.

    ¡°Just across the street! Not in your apartment or building. We¡¯ll steer clear, we swear. But if we¡¯re close enough even the big gangs won¡¯t dare to send anyone to attack us while you¡¯re nearby.¡±

    Emily relaxed and considered it.

    ¡°Just wait here,¡± she said, ¡°I¡¯ll go discuss it with my brother. But that sounds fine to me. Be back in a few minutes.¡±

    She walked to her building and went inside, feeling the slight chill on her bare skin fading slightly as she went back inside and out of the biting wind and snow.

    She went back upstairs and spent twenty minutes debating the gang¡¯s proposal. Sean didn¡¯t seem opposed to it either, but he wanted to discuss all the options just in case. He was affected by the attack as well and she could see that he was just as uncomfortable with people living right next to them as she was. Despite their trade with the gang, Emily didn¡¯t trust them one bit. Who knew what they would do if they grew desperate or they thought they could get an advantage by threatening Sean?

    But they decided that they¡¯d let them stay nearby. This group hadn¡¯t done wrong by them yet, and Emily generally trusted them to not mess with them at least. Even if she still worried. She went back down and told the five shivering gang members the news. And after thanking her, they quickly went into the opposite apartment building and disappeared. Finding a place to stay presumably.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Their food lasted them through the winter. But many others¡¯ supplies did not. Through unspoken agreements, the old burn pits had turned into the new graveyard. After the fighting between the gangs was over and the corpses had been stripped of their valuables by scavengers, the bodies were piled into the pits scattered around the city. And with the cold and fighting over the increasingly strained supply of food, the deep pits were slowly filling. Or so the nearby gang had told Emily and Sean.

    But Sean, Emily, and the nearby gang had made it through. Some of the big gangs were giving the small gang food so they could ¡®appease¡¯ Emily and keep her uninvolved in the fighting. Emily and Sean got a cut, and the gang got enough to eat, so it all worked out. And as promised Emily stayed in her block, now feeling safe enough to at least go around and scavenge whatever electronics and components that were left in the abandoned apartments nearby.

    Things were warming up. The snow disappeared from the ground. Emily started working closer with the gang to go out and scavenge for more food as the ¡®spring¡¯ arrived. Mostly through scavenging through the buildings to look for canned food in people¡¯s pantries that hadn¡¯t been looted yet.

    Even through spring, it was still cold, but not enough that it snowed anymore. That was spring now. The summer felt like what fall used to be as everyone in their group started frantically searching for as much food as they could through the city. The ash in the sky seemed a little lighter than it had nearly a year ago when the bombs dropped. But only a fraction, so Emily wasn¡¯t sure if it was her imagination and wishful thinking or if it was really happening.

    Her high powered radio still hadn¡¯t been able to contact anyone yet, only outputting static even as she worked all this time to improve its signal and make it more powerful.

    Simon was dead. He¡¯d scraped his hand on a rusty piece of metal and gotten tetanus while they were scavenging. Emily made sure to bury him and give him his own grave rather than throw him into the communal pits like for everyone else.

    Winter was upon them again, and their frantic preparations of gathering food continued. Sean stayed with the remaining members of the gang with Sean. By now the groups had merged and Emily trusted the survivors enough that they all stayed together now. With the intense chill of the deep winter they were in, only Emily¡¯s electric heaters and generators were keeping them all from freezing. Except for Emily of course. She was unaffected by it all, not needing a single bite of food or bothered by the temperature more than a mild inconvenience.

    Emily waded through the snow in nothing but a one piece bathing suit she¡¯d found a while ago. The snow was up to her thighs, and she didn¡¯t want to ruin any of her other clothes when she went outside. Cold or wet, it was only slightly uncomfortable for her now. There was no use wearing clothes she liked on her scavenging trips. They would just get ripped and dirty.

    The rest of her group were huddled around the heat and rationing their food supplies. But even with that, it would be close. So Emily went out every day into the city to look for food. Sometimes she found abandoned caches of food from the remnants of the large gangs, which could last them weeks in some cases.

    The longer the second winter went on, the less and less living people she saw. The combination of the cold and lack of food was taking its toll and the large gangs had collapsed in on themselves after all their looted food had run out sometime over the summer.

    Whenever Emily found a corpse in an apartment or in one of the alleyways, she took the time to drag them to the communal pits and throw them in. She thought they deserved at least that much.

    By the time it was spring again, only Frank and Vanessa from the original gang were still alive. The other two had gotten sick and hadn¡¯t recovered. Sean had gotten sick too along with them, but despite the resentment from the rest, Emily immediately took him off rations and fed him as much food as he needed. It seemed to do the trick, and he managed to recover as she stopped foraging and hovered over him and cared for him as best as she could until he was healthy again.

    But with only the three people left to feed now, their food would stretch farther, probably another two weeks now that Sean¡¯s food was being rationed again now that he¡¯d recovered.

    Emily went scavenging again, having to go further and further each time to find enough supplies to fully load her large camping backpack that she¡¯d found a few months ago.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It was summer again, but despite that they were still struggling. A light dusting of snow covered the ground despite the time of year, and it remained just as cold. All attempts at farming that Emily had seen by other groups had failed miserably. Even those who knew a little bit about what to do hadn¡¯t been able to make the crops survive long enough through the cold and dim light from the sky blocked with ash.

    Vanessa and Frank were dead. When food had run low, Emily had funneled all of their food to Sean over his own protests. Despite crying, feeling like a horrible person, and enduring Sean¡¯s and the other''s resentment towards her, she always forced Sean to take a bigger portions than the others. To make sure that he always had enough to eat even at the cost of the other two. Sometimes practically shoving the extra food down his throat over his own protests

    Vanessa and Frank had gotten sick and died. A combination of the lack of food, the inactivity as all of the others laid around not moving to conserve their energy, and the faint chill in the apartment despite the heater being hard at work in the apartment at all times now. And maybe cancer from the radiation that all of them had been saturated with for over two years now. Emily wasn¡¯t sure about that one, but it made sense. But Sean had survived. He had recovered at least.

    Both of the dead were buried alongside Simon and the other two men who¡¯d died. Now it was just Emily and Sean again.

    Emily didn¡¯t see any living people when she scavenged the city anymore. Only more bodies that she numbly dragged to the pits and threw inside when she saw them.

    They made it through the third winter, if only barely. But Emily was desperate, having to cross nearly half the city to scavenge any more stored food by now. Having cleared all the closest or most obvious spots that some preserved food would have been stored. Hidden caches left behind by the gangs, forgotten in the chaos as everyone who knew where they were died.

    The city was silent around her as she walked in her snowshoes through the streets. The snow and ice had piled up nearly ten feet high now. It was so cold that it never stopped snowing anymore when there were clouds above. It was always cold enough for it, even in the spring and summer. Emily was now walking alongside the second story windows of the buildings, the rest buried underneath the layers of snow beneath her, carried on the top by her snowshoes.

    It had been three days, and she¡¯d finally filled her bag with food from her efforts on this latest foraging trip. Sean should have enough food to last this long back at the apartment. But only barely. Emily hurried back with her snowshoes as fast as she could. She was still wearing her one piece bathing suit to preserve all of their warm clothes left for Sean. wrapping him in as many layers as she could manage for warmth. The biting wind and deep chill was so familiar by now that Emily barely even noticed it until she returned to Sean¡¯s apartment building again and felt the faint warmth again on her skin as soon as she went inside out of the biting wind mixed with snow outside.

    She went inside the hallway to the apartment and felt a sense of dread as she saw the light over the outer door was off.

    ¡°Sean?¡±

    She slammed open the door and burst into the apartment and gasped as she saw the still figure on the bed. The apartment was freezing, and the heater sat unused and silent when it should have been pumping out heat.

    Emily dropped her bag and rushed over to Sean and reached out and felt for his throat with a trembling hand. His skin was cold and she didn¡¯t feel a pulse with her finger on the side of his neck.

    He was wrapped up in blankets like he¡¯d gotten sick. His skin was untouched and slightly blue in the freezing room.

    Emily gripped Sean¡¯s dead hand sticking out from underneath the blankets and off the side of his bed.

    ¡°Oh, Sean,¡± Emily said as her tears started to fall, ¡°Please, no. We¡¯ve got each other. We¡¯re all we have left. I¡­ I can¡¯t do this without you.¡±

    Emily¡¯s voice trembled as she kept gripping his cold hand and brushed his hair away from his closed eyes.

    ¡°Please¡­ Please wake up.¡±

    Emily bowed her head and sat there with her head bowed, not knowing how much time passed as she stayed there.

    Sean was dead.

    She was all alone in the world again.

    She hated these powers, why couldn¡¯t she just die with him?

    She took the pistol from the cabinet nearby and put it underneath her chin. With tears running down her face, she pulled the trigger. The gun screeched and she heard a metallic snap from within the pistol. It had rusted through. Useless.

    With a scream, Emily threw the useless pistol at the wall and fell to the floor limp as her pent up emotions washed over her.

    It was useless anyway. She couldn¡¯t even kill herself to join him. She would just heal again. All alone again, all alone¡­ All of it was her fault. Everyone had died because of her.

    Everything was her fault.

 Chapter 70: All Alone

    All alone in the empty city¡­

    Emily dangled her legs from the edge of the roof and stared absently onto the fields of ice stretching into the distance.

    She had no idea how long it had been since Sean¡¯s death had left her hollow. With him gone, it was like all the rest of it finally hit her all at once. She¡¯d been so frantically helping him, focusing all of herself on doing what she could to protect him. She had never really accepted the rest and just pushed it to the back of her mind. Luke¡¯s death, her parents, everyone who¡¯d died because of all the bombs and because of her virus. Because of what she¡¯d caused. What she''d done.

    She grieved for all of them at once as she no longer had anything to distract her anymore from it all. Nothing to keep the pain and loss at bay. She let the emotions wash over her, nothing to hold her back from doing so now that there was no one left for her to cling to.

    Was she the only person left alive? The ice kept climbing through the streets rising up and up like a swelling wave as the days and years passed in an endless blur of depression and lackluster attempts to drag herself to doing anything of worth at all through the dull haze of her grief.

    Emily kept working on the radio, but all it returned was static. There were no more seasons to break up the monotony. Only the endless chill of winter, and the constant swirling taunting snowflakes raining down from the sky as if to taunt her. Her skin couldn¡¯t tell the difference between the chill of deep winter versus that of what used to be summer. Both were far too cold now. Both a deep freeze that covered everything in the city with a thin layer of ice as soon as the slightest bit of moisture touched them.

    The snow was now built up to the eighth floor of the buildings. Emily had relocated all of her things to the tallest building in the city. A hundred and twenty stories tall. She could see the houses and suburbs around the edge of the city had already been fully swallowed by the ice. As well as almost every other building that had been in the city. With every passing day more and more of the city was swallowed by the growing glacier below.

    A glacier down here in the midwestern North America. And it didn¡¯t appear to be stopping its ascent upwards to swallow her and what was left of the empty city.

    Maybe she should let it swallow her. Let herself be trapped in the ice forever.

    Maybe she was the last person left. What the use of any of it? To resist the ever rising tide of grief and ice?

    She fiddled with the radio and kicked her legs idly as they dangled off the roof. The radio only gave out more static and fizzes and pops.

    The ash had been mostly knocked from the sky, at least down below. Knocked down by the rain and snow in those first years. But above the clouds there was still more ash hanging there menacingly, remaining there even after all of this time. The sun was still red most days as its light peered through the fog of the ash in the high atmosphere.

    She put the radio down on the roof behind her and sighed. With most of the ash below a certain height knocked down out of the air, she should have received a signal by now. The ash above shouldn¡¯t have blocked her signal for a massive area around her.

    There was no one alive within hundreds of miles that could respond. It was the only explanation. Everyone else was already dead.

    Emily swung her legs up and stepped back onto the top of the roof and went back inside to the lavish apartment on the top floor. All the chairs were moldy and worn down from use. The lights flickered and gave out at points from decay despite her best efforts to fix them.

    It was time to move on. She had stayed and grieved for long enough. It was time to move south.

    Sean wouldn¡¯t have wanted to wallow here uselessly.

    Even if it was hopeless, at least it was something she could do.

    There was nothing but painful memories left in this empty shell of a city for her.

    It was for the best that she¡¯d be leaving it behind.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily bundled up in her heaviest jacket and winter gear. As well as the same old hiking backpack as she had had years ago bursting with equipment strapped to her back. She was wearing a pair of skis and had snowshoes strapped to the outside of her pack.

    She didn¡¯t bring any food or water with her. She had a tent, but she didn¡¯t need it. Even the clothes she was wearing were nothing but a comfort to her. The only other thing she brought was her radio and the electric generator for it. As well as some batteries and extra components to repair it all.

    She had managed to find a compass on one of her infrequent scavenging trips of her surroundings when she got in the mood. It would lead her south.

    Down there where it was warmer there must be people alive. Somebody alive.

    Anyone alive.

    So with her cross country skis and poles, she started moving south.

    The days and months passed in a blur as only endless plains of ice stretched out around her. Every once in a while she would stop and listen to the radio again hoping for a signal. But there was nothing. Just more static.

    She fell into crevasses in the ice when she wasn¡¯t paying attention. One moment she was moving across the sheets of ice, and the next the thin layer on top would break under her weight and send her tumbling into the deep pit in the ice below.

    She had panicked the first time, afraid that she¡¯d be stuck down there forever. As she fell down through the open cavern of the crevasse, she eventually landed and rolled until she impacted an ice shelf dozens of feet below the surface. Luckily her pack stayed with her and nothing inside was damaged from the fall. As her body hit the ice, there was a brief burst of pain before it faded away again as she healed again.

    Somehow despite everything, Emily¡¯s body was still warm no matter what happened to it. She spent a few minutes attaching everything securely to her pack with some rope the first time. That included her skis, gloves, and boots. She took off her socks and carefully stored everything firmly in her pack so it wouldn¡¯t fall.

    She took out a knife and held it in one hand and started carving some hand and foot holds part the way above the little icy shelf she¡¯d fallen onto on the icy wall leading up to the surface far above her.

    Then standing there with bare feet and unprotected hands she reached out to the icy wall in front of her and put her hands and feet in the available hand and footholds a few feet off of the icy shelf. She had the pack on her back and the knife in her right hand as she waited there for a few minutes.

    The heat from her body melted the ice and slowly widened the tight gaps until they were solid handholds. Once she was secure, Emily raised one foot and raised it nearly to her knee height before pressing it against the wall. It started slowly melting inwards into the ice as she applied pressure with her toes even as her other limbs kept slowly tunneling deeper and deeper into the little tunnels in the ice she created with her body heat as they melted.

    Once Emily¡¯s new foothold was secure, she took her hand with the knife and reached up and carefully carved a pair of new handholds above her.

    She took her left hand and reached up and started pressing her fingers into the handhold and slowly started melting it away as she waited.

    Like that she slowly inched her way upwards. Pressing her bare hands and feet into the ice wall as she climbed, not tiring in the slightest due to her endless stamina as she remained there clinging to the wall with all of her strength.

    When she needed to, she used the knife to chip at the ice and carve the starters for the hand of footholds to speed up the process.

    Despite her expecting things to go wrong, she never lost her grip. She kept climbing up the sheer wall of ice until she reached the top and the icy ceiling. There was a thin sheet of ice above her. She could see a few feet away the circular hole with cracked and jagged edges that she¡¯d made when she¡¯d first fallen through, but the icy covering on the top extended a few more feet before it met with the wall.

    Emily took one of her fists and started pounding hard on the icy ceiling, sending chunks of ice from the icy ceiling above falling down into the deep canyon and bouncing into the darkness of the icy crevice below.

    Eventually she broke through and was able to crawl back outside and collapse back onto solid ¡®ground¡¯ again. Panting heavily in relief in the heavy bank of snow. Not from exertion, but from knowing that the stress of focusing on not falling was behind her for now.

    After taking some time to collect herself as she lay face down in the ice and snow, she carefully sat back up with her pack and put her gloves, shoes, and skis back on. She didn¡¯t need the gloves, but she wanted to wear them anyways. It didn¡¯t feel right to wear the rest of this winter gear without wearing the gloves too.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    From then on she carefully used her poles to explore the ice in front of her to check for crevasses if she got suspicious. There was a certain discoloration and sometimes even sound that changed as she skied across the glacier that she could detect that signaled a crevasse would be nearby.

    The ice of the endless glacier was surprisingly loud, the ice shifting and cracking below her as the ice settled and moved. She fell into several more crevasses as she traveled, but eventually learned the tells of the glacier and what spots to avoid and around which to be careful just by sound alone.

    She used the same method as before to climb out of the crevasses, and while she lost a few minor things after she fell, she didn¡¯t lose the radio, the compass, or any of her other important equipment.

    After a few more weeks of traveling passed, she hardly fell into the crevasses anymore. Even with her newfound skills sometimes they snuck up on her and she plunged through the ice no matter how much her instincts told her that it should be safe in a given spot.

    But she was still getting better, and as long as she didn¡¯t drop anything into the deep pits it was only a short delay of a few hours. Nothing more than an inconvenience really.

    It wasn¡¯t like she had anyone else to protect or push her to go faster. What were a few hours or even days wasted here or there?

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª-

    She kept traveling south, and eventually she reached an ocean. There were icebergs and creeping ice inching off from the shore and covering the beaches. This was the gulf of Mexico, it must be. There were icebergs here. Icebergs off the gulf of Mexico.

    Emily stared at the massive floating chunks of ice floating through the water for a few hours before checking the radio again. Only more static. There was no one there.

    She headed west for a while and followed the coastline as best as she could while going south as well.

    The ice grew thinner and the icebergs on the ocean grew less and less common as she went. But there was still ice no matter how much she traveled.

    She was in Central America. Was the ice thinner here? She could hardly tell with the white expanse on the land. But she¡¯d seen the top of some buildings poking from the ice at points, skyscrapers in buried cities. Going inside, everything was written in Spanish, and she figured out that she was in Panama at the moment based on a few maps she managed to find.

    She kept going. Ice in Panama. Was the whole world covered? She kept walking and after some more time finally the glacier fizzled out as she reached its edge.

    She took off her skis and put on her heavy boots which had seen hardly any use for this whole journey as she stood on top of a boulder. Below she could see the frozen trees of what seemed to have formerly been a jungle. All the trees were covered in frost and dead with their leaves brown. All of the underbrush was a wet mess of decaying and rotting plants. And sometimes the corpses of the animals were covered in frost and barely decomposed at all it seemed.

    After a few hours, Emily finally left the ice behind and was walking through the dead forest. Only her loud footsteps cracking the brittle layer of branches and brush beneath her feet interrupted the silence and sounds of wind around her.

    She checked her radio and made sure it was still working. It warbled strangely and her heart raced as she dropped what she was doing and adjusted the signal as best as she could. But she didn¡¯t manage to improve it. But there was something out there, transmitting. Somebody might still be alive.

    Heart pounding, Emily picked up her pace and started jogging slightly as she kept the radio in her backpack. Without worrying about falling into the crevasses anymore she should be able to move as fast as her legs could carry her.

    Time passed rapidly as the warbling signal on the radio grew stronger as the temperature rose. The persistent chill that had permeated her skin for what must have been years slowly faded away as she kept jogging forward through the decomposing corpse of the jungle. She was far from the ocean by now as she adjusted her course whenever the signal on the radio grew weaker. She was still heading roughly south but now had diverted east as well as the days passed as she jogged.

    Despite all the decay of the jungle and the death of the normal wildlife, she started seeing some small shrubs and green shoots poking through and growing despite the harsh conditions. Even if the plants looked sickly and small, she still hadn¡¯t seen a single living animal so far besides the odd insect or two.

    She went up mountains and down into valleys and the temperature kept warming until it felt like a pleasant buzz on her skin. It was¡­ like a warmer fall day now. Not exactly hot, but enough that she could have said in confidence before the bombs dropped that it wasn¡¯t cold out.

    She smiled slightly as she kept moving and following the signal on the radio. This was survivable. Maybe there were people that had survived here. She hadn¡¯t talked to anyone in¡­ So long. The loneliness ached in her chest as she felt herself utterly starved for even the slightest amount of human contact after so long of being alone.

    She kept moving and things kept warming up. She startled as there was a rustle in the debris below her feet. Something running away from her. She caught a glimpse of it, it was some sort or rat or rodent as it squirmed away through the stacks of branches to flee.

    The green shrubs were a little healthier and more numerous now even if they looked sickly. There were even a few beginning sprouts of what Emily was sure must be trees. With much more living things with the warmth in the air, many of the old jungle trees and brush underfoot had rotted and decayed into fresh soil and cleared space for new growth. Although many of the massive jungle trees with their leaves stripped from them remained standing even though Emily knew that they were dead.

    But the signs of life improved her mood. Something had survived and life was recovering despite what had happened, if slowly. She hoped it was recovering, that¡¯s what it looked like as she kept following the radio signal.

    The odd word was coming in through the static now. Emily carefully listened to it whenever she grew bored and had to take a break from her jogging. The only odd thing she noted is that the disjointed words that she heard appeared to be in English rather than Spanish like she would have expected. Based on how East and South had traveled by now, she thought she was probably in the Amazon rainforest and maybe even Brazil by now.

    Finally, Emily stopped as the distortions turned into vaguely comprehensible speech. She let out a sigh of relief and took her radio and turned on the transmitter. But it was two or three people talking to each other, not some kind of automated signal at least.

    She adjusted the setup for a minute and unfurled the collapsible antenna that she¡¯d constructed. She climbed one of the dead trees with just her and the radio while leaving her bag on the ground at the base of the great tree.

    Reaching the top she looked into the far distance among the stands of the dead trees. Squinting her eyes she thought she saw what could be a clearing on the horizon. But it could have just been a river or divot in the terrain rather than a sign of human activity. She¡¯d been fooled before.

    But the voices on the radio told her there was somebody nearby. She wedged the antenna in the crown of the tree and climbed back down to sit on a sturdy branch ten or feet below, the wire connecting the transmitter pole to her radio trailing behind her.

    She held her device and after a deep breath hit the transmit button.

    ¡°Hello? Is anyone there?¡± She said before hitting the button again and waiting. The voices on the radio stopped.

    ¡°H-llo?¡± one voice said, parts of their speech dissolving into static, ¡°W-o -s t¨Cre?¡±

    Emily reigned in her emotions as she heard another voice in what seemed to be forever.

    She kept talking into the radio, but the man on the other end didn¡¯t seem to be understanding her properly.

    ¡°S-nding h-licopter. St-y p¨Ct.¡± the man on the radio said. Emily scrambled down the tree and grabbed her pack. She quickly relocated to the closest natural clearing she could find with her still transmitting radio held at her side.

    She waited in the clearing for some time. Without a watch or any other way to keep time beyond day and night, the concept of hours, minutes, and seconds wasn¡¯t so clear to her anymore.

    But eventually, she heard the thump, thump, thump, of helicopter blades approaching from the distance. She turned and watched as the helicopter circled her position before slowly lowering down to land in the open space that Emily had found.

    The helicopter lowered and settled on the ground, shifting slightly as its weight crushed the accumulated mat of branches and organic matter below it. The blades of the helicopter kept spinning as the side door to the helicopter opened.

    Emily froze as she saw the man standing in the doorway. His eyes widened as well as he stared back at her.

    ¡°Emily Stenson?¡± He shouted out over the sound of the helicopter as Emily started walking towards him.

    He held out his hand and she grabbed it and he helped her into the helicopter with her heavy pack held on her back.

    ¡°Mr. Rose,¡± Emily shouted, ¡°You made it? But weren¡¯t you at CODA?¡±

    Peter Rose, former leader of CODA, reached behind him and gestured to the headset that he was wearing. He handed another headset to her and she put it on.

    ¡°Mr. Rose? You survived?¡± she said again, ¡°How are you here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll explain everything when we get back,¡± Peter Rose promised over their headsets as the helicopter blades rumbled and they lifted off of the ground and started flying away, ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve got a lot to tell us too. We thought we¡¯d already found the last one of us years ago.¡±

    ¡°Found? What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°People with healing like us,¡± Mr. Rose said, ¡°Granted by the Shadow. Never thought I¡¯d meet someone else from CODA again, let alone someone as talented as you. You¡¯ll do a lot of good around here.¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s more?¡± Emily said in excitement, ¡°But wait. How do you know about the healing? I never said anything.¡±

    Mr. Rose¡¯s face went through a variety of expressions before he sighed.

    ¡°You have to be,¡± he said, ¡°Between the still growing ice sheets covering the planet and the high radiation levels, I¡¯d be surprised if anyone else survived past the fifth year. Especially here where all of the bombs dropped. We¡¯re standing in a fatal bath of nuclear radiation right now. The fact that you¡¯re not dead is evidence enough.¡±

    ¡°No¡­¡± Emily said, ¡°That¡¯s impossible. What about islands? There should be something¡­¡±

    ¡°We can only hope,¡± Mr. Rose agreed, ¡°But we haven¡¯t detected any signs of life from our satellites.¡±

    ¡°Satellites? You have satellites? Wait, fifth year? How long has it been?¡±

    ¡°Yes, we have satellites. I had the codes to the old CODA models and we rigged up a transmitter to communicate with them. Those that survived the bombs EMPs, that is. We haven¡¯t seen any evidence of human settlements besides ours for over seven years now. As for how long¡­ It¡¯s been almost fourteen years now since the bombs dropped.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    Mr. Rose put a comforting hand on her shoulder as he saw her expression.

    ¡°But some of us survived and we can rebuild,¡± he said, ¡°Not everything is lost. With our powers, I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll find a solution to this eventually.¡±

    She perked up slightly and nodded.

    ¡°Thank you, Mr. Rose. I just¡­ hoped that it would be better news.¡±

    ¡°Call me Peter,¡± Mr. Rose said, sounding a bit amused, ¡°I¡¯m not your boss anymore.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­ Peter,¡± Emily said to Mr. Rose, the word feeling strange as it rolled off of her tongue, ¡°I can¡¯t wait to meet everyone.¡±

 Chapter 71: The Survivors

    Emily and Mr. Ro- Peter didn¡¯t talk much more as the helicopter flew across the dead forest until they landed on a cracked concrete landing pad. The helicopter blades above slowly slowed down as the vehicle rumbled to a stop.

    They left the helicopter, Emily adjusting her pack on her back as she jumped out. The pilot hopped out as well. A dark skinned woman with her hair up in a series of corn rows and in a tight bun in the back. She was wearing casual breathable clothes and a pair of sunglasses.

    ¡°Hey,¡± the woman said and stuck out her hand to Emily, ¡°Nice to meet you. I¡¯m Clara. Guess I¡¯m not the new girl in this place anymore.¡±

    Emily reached out and shook the woman¡¯s hand after a moment, the feeling of someone else¡¯s skin on her own an almost euphoric experience after not touching someone in so long.

    ¡°You can let go now.¡±

    Emily blushed and quickly let go as she realized that she¡¯d kept shaking the woman¡¯s hand over and over with a dopey expression on her face.

    The woman raised an eyebrow at Emily before gesturing to a massive metal almost bank vault like door to the side of the landing pad that had been propped open revealing a concrete tunnel beyond.

    ¡°Emily, right?¡± Clara said, ¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯ll help give you the tour. I¡¯m sure Mr. Rose will gather the others for your story.¡±

    Peter raised his eyebrows at Clara before with a shrug he walked forward into the concrete hallway ahead of them and turned a corner to disappear without saying a word.

    Emily nodded dumbly and followed behind Clara as she led Emily into the base itself a few seconds later.

    ¡°How many people are here?¡± Emily blurted out, before scolding herself mentally for speaking so loud as her voice echoed through the empty hallways.

    ¡°You¡¯d be number ten,¡± Clara said easily as she turned her head to the side and slowed down to walk besides Emily in the wide hallway, ¡°I came in more than five years ago now. They picked up the heat from the place I was staying on the satellites. It stood out like a beacon after so long compared to the ice nearby.¡±

    ¡°Where were you?¡±

    ¡°I was in Abuja, Nigeria. Born and raised.¡±

    ¡°Oh, nice,¡± Emily said, ¡°I heard that the public transport over there is amazing. Maglev trains and everything in the videos¡­ Or it was¡­¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Clara said, ¡°It was a great city to live in¡­¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Emily apologized as she realized her misstep, ¡°Didn¡¯t mean to bring up bad memories.¡±

    Clara shook her head and looked at her again, ¡°Nah, it¡¯s fine,¡± she said, ¡°It is what it is. Anyway, The satellites here are really sensitive to heat. That¡¯s how they found me so long ago. If you were from CODA international up in the North American Midwest, then I¡¯m surprised we didn¡¯t detect you. They have some long distance electric jets they used to come and get me.¡±

    Emily thought about it and felt the sagging grayness of depression washing over her again just from thinking of those times.

    ¡°I assume you had a fire or a heater or something you were using all the time?¡± Emily asked.

    ¡°Yeah. I set up a camp on top of Aso Rock. It rises 1300 feet above the rest of the city, so I was able to stay away from the ice below. It was¡­ Well, at least I had a good place to stay after everyone else died. We¡¯ve got to stay warm after all.¡±

    ¡°No we don¡¯t,¡± Emily said quietly, ¡°We don¡¯t have to stay warm.¡±

    Clara looked at her in confusion, ¡°Of course we do. I mean of course our regeneration takes care of most of our needs. But it must get strained or run out if we overwork it too much. Like a muscle. Best to not risk it just in case. Eat extra when we can to fuel it up after taking some time to let it recover. We¡¯re still not sure exactly how it works honestly.¡±

    Emily shook her head. ¡°Clara, I don¡¯t think it works like that. Back in¡­ the place I was staying. After everyone else was dead¡­ I stopped using the heater. I was trying to¡­ It was just too much work for something that didn¡¯t seem to even matter anymore without anyone else for it to protect¡­ I¡¯ve been in the freezing cold for years and years on end and my regeneration never stopped in the slightest. That¡¯s probably why the satellites never found me.¡±

    Clara stared at Emily, ¡°What about food? I mean I didn¡¯t eat for a week or two at points. But surely you must have had to eat a lot to maintain something like that. I loaded up after once I had the opportunity to make up the difference.¡±

    Emily shook her head again, feeling suddenly tired by the explanation alone.

    ¡°Clara. I walked here. From North America. I haven¡¯t eaten anything in years. Almost since the bombs dropped. If there¡¯s a limit, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be hitting it anytime soon.¡±

    ¡°Walked?!¡± Clara said in shock, ¡°What? You didn¡¯t have a plane or vehicle or¡­ something to carry you most of the way?¡±

    Emily just shook her head, ¡°Everything was under the ice by that point. I just walked south until I heard your voices on the radio and came here.¡±

    Clara stared at Emily for over a minute silently as they stopped walking.

    ¡°Damn,¡± Clara said as the revelation seemed to fully hit her, ¡°You¡¯re one tough cookie, Emily. And here I thought the rest of us had it hard.¡±

    Clara suddenly reached out and hugged Emily. Emily squeaked at the sudden attack as her hormones suddenly rushed up and reminded her how freaking hot and sexy Clara was, which Emily had been trying to ignore ever since she¡¯d first seen her. She awkwardly returned the hug and felt herself blush as the hug lasted for a few seconds before Clara released her.

    Clara chuckled and stepped back.

    ¡°Thought you needed it,¡± she said with a small smirk.

    Emily stammered out a reply, as her mind tried to reboot itself and not blurt out anything too embarrassing.

    ¡°T-Thanks. That helped.¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± Clara replied, ¡°Now C¡¯mon. Let¡¯s go meet the others. They¡¯ll probably be gathered in the war room.¡±

    Clara started walking off and Emily quickly jogged for a moment to catch up.

    ¡°War room? What is this place anyway?¡±

    ¡°Secret bunker of the Brazilian President,¡± Clara said, ¡°Mr. Rose knew about this place because of him being the leader of CODA and all. This is one of the few places both not hit directly by the bombs and close enough to the equator that it didn¡¯t freeze over. The whole forest in the region was blasted to hunt out this base, but luckily they all missed the base itself. Mr. Rose managed to get a plane still working and fly it here in the early days after the bombs dropped. Ever since then he¡¯s been working on finding the rest of us and gathering us here.¡±

    ¡°What happened to the Brazilian President and the other people that were here?¡±

    ¡°Radiation. Bombs didn¡¯t hit them directly but there¡¯s enough radiation in the area that they all died within a few weeks of the bombs dropping. Seems their radiation filters were overwhelmed, weren¡¯t designed to take the load and failed almost immediately.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I guess that makes sense. So uh, what¡¯s the gender split? We the only two women in this place?¡±

    Emily wanted to slap herself on the forehead as the comment slipped out. Ugh, god that was so embarrassing to say it like that¡­

    ¡°Half and half now,¡± Clara said, not seeming to pick up the suggestive undertones Emily had accidentally slipped into her question, ¡°Five women, five men. You¡¯ll be meeting them soon. It¡¯ll be nice having somebody new around. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll fit right in.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Meeting everyone else went surprisingly well. Clara helped Emily along when the pauses grew too long or she said something embarrassing to the group by accident. Emily could feel the rust and grime on her social gears as she fumbled interaction after interaction with these new people.

    But they seemed understanding of her awkwardness, especially after they heard her full story. All of them had similar stories, so it seemed they sympathized with her. It seems that Mr. Rose had found another Immortal in Canada right after the bombs dropped, which had made him realize that there was more than just him out there. The rest had all been picked up from their various camps around the world and brought here after Peter managed to get a connection with the satellites and could find them.

    They were from all over the world. Three were from North America including Emily and Peter and the woman from Canada. One was from Uruguay in southern South America. Clara and two of the men were from Africa. One man was from France, and the last three were two Asian women and one man. Overall a somewhat even spread across the globe among all of them.

    All of them spoke English luckily, even if the others from all around the world had second languages as well. The man from France was actually the worst at the language, speaking with a thick accent versus the others that were more crisp when they spoke even if their original accents still shone through on occasion.

    After a while sharing stories and generally getting to know each other, there reached a point where the conversation petered out.

    Emily looked around at the group.

    ¡°So¡­ What now?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Is there¡­ A goal we¡¯re working towards? Something¡­ I don¡¯t know. What do you all do?¡±

    Peter cleared his throat, ¡°Ah. Well, we¡¯ve mostly been trying to keep this place running and hunting for more people like us. But given that you walked here, I doubt there¡¯s any more people left for us to find. If you had settled down and had heat in one place for a while at any point then we¡¯d have found you.¡±

    ¡°Should we just wait?¡± Emily asked, ¡°For the ice to recede? I mean, it¡¯s been around fifteen years supposedly, but I don¡¯t think I feel like I¡¯ve aged a day. Once the ash falls from the higher atmosphere I¡¯m sure things will warm up again.¡±

    Everyone winced.

    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t think that¡¯s an option,¡± Peter said slowly, ¡°Projections from the satellites are that the ash won¡¯t fall from the sky for thousands of years. If not longer. And the ice caps are still growing somehow. Even portions of the oceans are freezing in places. We think¡­ the whole Earth will be covered within a few decades. Including here. We¡¯ve been scrambling to figure out what to do honestly for these last few years.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not going to stop? We¡¯ll be stuck in the ice too?¡±

    ¡°We think so.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    They all discussed the plans that they¡¯d all come up with and what they¡¯d been doing, but it didn¡¯t really amount to much in Emily¡¯s eyes. None of them were engineers, so it was taking all their brainpower and time just maintaining the equipment in this bunker and keeping things like that helicopter functioning for so long.

    Clara showed Emily to her lavish room. Apparently the Brazilian President had wanted to have some creature comforts even in his bunker for the end of the world.

    Emily fell onto the bed after taking off her filthy clothes and taking a shower that still miraculously worked. Clara told Emily proudly that she was the one who had fixed them and figured out how to keep the running water and recycling systems going again after they broke down a few years ago.

    There were technical manuals in big stacks in one of the rooms that Emily had passed. It seems that everyone had been using those to try to figure out how to repair things when they broke.

    Emily went to sleep for the first time somewhere near other people rather than on top of a glacier in her torn and ragged tent that had lasted the whole journey here mostly undamaged somehow.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    When Emily woke up, there was a bundle of clothes placed just outside of her door. She quickly changed into the more casual clothes, grateful to be in something clean for once rather than her utterly filthy other clothes that she¡¯d been wearing almost constantly for years now.

    The winter coat was probably more holes than jacket now. Her undershirts had lasted longer, but while the fabric held, they were all frayed and just felt old after so long wearing them. She was glad to wear something new.

    She went out and started helping the others around the base, getting to know them better as they worked.

    Somehow she just intuitively understood how things worked as she hummed  and questioned herself out loud to think through the problems like she had before her.

    She had assumed that the improved intelligence was part of the package of their powers, but based on the looks of astonishment from the others, it had not been. When Peter saw it, he had just laughed.

    ¡°You were always a genius, Emily,¡± he said easily, ¡°Perhaps you were simply even more suited to engineering than biology after all.¡±

    Emily felt it was something more than that, but the others seemed to accept Peter¡¯s explanation for her competence even for systems that she¡¯d never seen or worked on before.

    Like that several months passed. Just like the satellites had predicted, the weather outside of the bunker got colder and colder. The glaciers were slowly creeping downwards towards them like the frozen fingers of winter coming to choke the life out of them and their planet.

    Emily got to know all of the people in the bunker pretty well. She didn¡¯t really click with any of them but Clara, but that was okay.

    Emily had taken the plunge and had a frankly excruciatingly painful conversation with Clara after Emily confessed her attraction to the woman after Clara¡¯s teasing and flirting grew so obvious that even Emily wasn¡¯t able to mentally brush it off as anything else.

    Clara had been open to ¡®experimentation¡¯. It was clear after they kissed the first few times that Clara that the experiments were a failure and Clara was just doing it to humor Emily. That Clara was only into men apparently. Emily had never kissed a girl seriously before, so she hadn¡¯t read the signs of Clara¡¯s disinterest until it had become blatantly obvious to the both of them that Emily was being too over eager with it.

    One last painful and cringeworthy conversation later, Emily and Clara had returned back to being firmly friends and mutually agreed to not talk about what had happened ever again.

    The whole thing just made Emily blush and feel embarrassed as she looked back on it. Ugh. But at least they were friends again at least and Clara seemed to have almost forgotten that it had happened at all.

    Even if Emily kept thinking about it in her quiet moments, what it had been like for that heady period when she had thought that things had been going well between them...

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily pursed her lips as she stared at the sensor data from the satellites. With her help, the bunker was functioning again to full capacity and they all were spending time on their own things with less work available. Something that was both good and bad. The ice and snow had reached their bunker, and even if it was only a light frosting every once in a while now, it was clear that it wouldn¡¯t be stopping any time soon.

    ¡°Hey, Peter,¡± Emily said as she frowned at the sensor data of the deep space satellite, ¡°Is there any hope for Earth? I mean for the ice to recede sometime soon somehow, releasing us from being trapped underneath it?¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Peter sighed and rubbed his temples despite Emily knowing that it was impossible for any of them to get a headache.

    ¡°Probably not,¡± he said heavily, ¡°High atmospheric ash like that¡­ It¡¯ll stay there until something knocks it down. It was theorized to be thousands of years in simulations of this happening¡­ But it could be less. More. Who knows. The mechanisms in the atmosphere to knock it down weren¡¯t studied enough to be certain.¡±

    Emily eyeballed the display she was reading.

    ¡°What about Epsilon-354? The crewed mission? They were still working on putting in the life support systems for the main ship before the bombs dropped¡­ But we don¡¯t need those, do we?¡±

    Peter paused and realization slowly washed over his expression. ¡°An exoplanet?¡± Peter mused and sat back in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face, ¡°And with a full biosphere based on the data from that probe a few decades ago. But that journey¡¯s supposed to take centuries. The probe only got there so fast in only a few decades because it crashed at near light speed into Epsilon¡¯s sun as it collected its data.¡±

    ¡°What does it matter?¡± Emily said, ¡°We¡¯d just be sitting underneath the ice otherwise waiting for things to unfreeze. And what then? Isn¡¯t it better to go somewhere new?¡±

    Peter hesitated and then nodded, ¡°Yes¡­ Yes, maybe you¡¯re right. But what about space? What if our regeneration cuts out up there and we die?¡±

    ¡°If we survived a direct nuclear blast then I don¡¯t think we have to worry about space,¡± Emily said confidently, ¡°Let alone everything else that my body¡¯s been through. I think it¡¯s worth a shot.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Peter said as energy entered his eyes and he stood with renewed energy, ¡°Let¡¯s see what we can do. If we can get there then we¡¯ll have a whole new planet to explore and settle on.¡±

    The whole group discussed the idea for the next few weeks, and eventually Peter and Emily managed to convince everyone that they should go. Clara was one of the ones that was most resistant to the idea. But after some pressure from the rest of the group, the woman eventually caved and agreed to go with them.

    With that everyone agreed that they should go. There was just one problem. They were on Earth. And the massive ship meant to take them to the planet in the other solar system was orbiting around the moon.

    There had used to be a lunar colony as well, but their radio signals had gone dead a while back before Emily even arrived at the bunker. Without the constant shipments of food and equipment from Earth their systems had failed and they had all likely died out.

    So they all had to get here to the moon. With only what was in this bunker.

    But they all had a purpose now and worked hard to come up with solutions.

    It was in the unlikeliest place that they found their hope for the plan.

    ¡°Was this guy serious?¡± Emily asked as she looked at the launch chamber, ¡°Even in his doomsday bunker he kept another nuclear missile in case he wanted to end the world again?¡±

    ¡°Well, do you think you can do it?¡± Peter asked hopefully as they stared at the intercontinental missile in the large cylindrical metal chamber in front of them.

    Emily eyed it for a moment.

    ¡°Can I do it?¡± she asked herself.

    Yes, Little Emily. We can do it. You have enough spare parts in this place for it. Let¡¯s get to work. To start off, we need to remove the warhead. From there we can create a chamber to hold everyone and make sure it¡¯s secure enough that it won¡¯t fall off. Ah, and adjust the software so the thrust will bring us to meet the ship on the moon rather than land back on Earth like it¡¯s designed to do.

    Peter glanced at her, but didn¡¯t comment on her talking to herself. All of them were used to her odd habits by now. But Emily felt confident as some ideas of what to do entered her head.

    ¡°Yeah, I can do it,¡± Emily said confidently, ¡°But it¡¯s our only chance, so it may take a while. We can¡¯t mess this up.¡±

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re with you,¡± Peter said, ¡°But we can¡¯t take too long. Only until the ice reaches the top of the launch chamber. Then the doors will seal and it will be too late. Probably in two or three years by my estimate. We have until then to finish it.¡±

    ¡°Alright, then there¡¯s no time to waste, let¡¯s get to work.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily gripped Clara¡¯s hand tightly as the modified missile¡¯s engine fired beneath them full force and they started rumbling into the air. The woman smirked at Emily knowingly, but Emily¡¯s heart was racing and she was far too nervous to feel embarrassed as they slowly rose through the air as the launch sequence continued.

    All of them were packed tightly and strapped to the walls of what was effectively a hollow barrel of welded together metal just barely large enough for them all to stand in. In the center between their feet was a stack of items tightly bound to the center of the floor with a series of nets and bags bolted to the floor. Personal items and a few bits of equipment that they thought they might need. Board games and the luxuries that would be taken had been argued about extensively among them all. The Brazilian President had brought all sorts of things into the bunker, and all of them would be stuck on a spaceship for potentially centuries or longer even if everything went right.

    But they¡¯d all agreed on what to bring below a certain weight limit, and the moment was here.

    The missile left the launch chamber and out the open roof that they¡¯d cleared from snow just hours earlier. They went up and up as the missile fired below them higher and higher into the air. The air quickly grew thin around them as they reached the edge of space after some time. Everyone except for Emily gasped like they were choking as the air left their lungs through the small gaps in the welding of the metal box around them.

    Emily¡¯s eyes and soft spots started prickling from the vacuum around her and a steady stream of fluid started streaming out even as her body healed the damage.

    Emily just took a few deep breaths of nothing to remind herself that she didn¡¯t need to breathe anymore. It was one of the things that she had¡­ tested¡­ after Sean¡¯s death. It would all be fine.

    They all started floating upwards as the engines below them cut out and they were floating through the empty void of space. The main engine of the missile detached and left only their small little ship flying through space as the main engine would fall back down to burn up in Earth¡¯s atmosphere. They all remained in place with their straps keeping them attached to the walls.

    Emily quickly let go of Clara¡¯s hand before the others noticed. She saw that many of their mouths were moving, but nothing came out. Right, no air in their lungs, no air around them. None of them would be able to speak. Emily couldn¡¯t believe that she had forgotten something like this¡­

    But it was fine. Peter had a device in his hand that was hardened against radiation that had their orbital path all calculated out.

    He pointed to Emily and she nodded and silently unstrapped herself from the harness and floated through the air. The feeling was so odd, to feel like she was in perpetual free fall but knowing that she was in zero gravity instead.

    She quickly went over to the containers of gas that had been loaded into a harness attached to the ceiling securely. It had felt dangerous setting it up that way, but it was the only place where there was enough room for them.

    Emily quickly tied a rope to her waist and anchored it to the central hook bolted into the floor of their make shift space capsule. Then another rope attached to another hook to another hook on the floor. Then another. With three points to secure her to the ship the others all remained in place as Emily went over to the door and opened it to the empty blackness of space and twinkling stars.

    The door wasn¡¯t an airlock or anything. It was literally a metal door that they¡¯d ripped out of the walls of the base and welded to the side of their metal cylinder. Without worrying about air pressure there was no need for doing anything fancier.

    Emily floated outside the ship and her heart pounded as her hand nearly slipped out from the welded handhold on the outside. It had warped and shifted slightly from the force of their ascent into space it seems.

    But she caught herself on the handle by the tips of her fingers and pulled herself back to the outside surface of the capsule.

    She rotated her wrist and in a trippy motion flipped completely upside down so her head was poking down from the ¡®upper¡¯ frame of the door. Everyone inside now appearing to be floating upside down looked at Emily in concern as she stared back at them. Emily raised her arm and threw them a thumbs up and they relaxed.

    Peter took one of the gas canisters and took a metal clip and secured them to the center rope. He started sliding it along until Emily caught it and held it in her hand. Peter carefully floated next to the door and silently handed her the bulky welder. This thing provided its own oxygen to the flame, so theoretically it should work in space. She attached the wrist strap so it wouldn¡¯t go flying off into space even if she dropped it by accident.

    Otherwise if the welder didn¡¯t work then they would have to secure these things with duct tape and rope. So¡­ Yeah, Emily really hoped that this worked.

    She floated up to the nose of the ship, her casual T-shirt and shorts billowing around her as she climbed with one hand with the gas can clutched in the other.

    The others had wanted her to wear a space suit, but Emily had decided to just wear something casual. Space was like the cold. Wearing something thicker would just make her clumsy and lower her range of motion.

    Her whole body was tingling with the signature feeling of radiation even as she felt a cloud of something pouring out of every available surface of her skin, including her eyes. It made it hard to see and she had to squint slightly as she moved. But it was bearable and she was able to keep moving upwards mostly by feel.

    She reached the top and squinted until she saw the first in the ring of anchor points. She held the welder and the mounting for the gas can in place. She fired up and after a moment the flame appeared in the void. She spent a minute or so fusing the gas can to the exterior of the ship before sitting back.

    The portion of metal that she¡¯d welded was still red hot as she stared at it. Without air to help dissipate the heat it just sat there and radiated off it energy slowly with its red light.

    Well, one down, another thirty or so to go¡­

    Emily floated back down and received another gas canister from Peter waiting within the ship. She kept going, fusing canister after canister to the outside of the ship in the places that they¡¯d planned for.

    The heat dissipation of the metal of the ship was so slow that she was forced to take a break about half way through. She didn¡¯t want things to get too hot and make any of the canisters explode or rupture.

    She returned into the capsule and shut the metal door behind her. Peter gave her a quizzical look but she just shrugged and shook her head. After some pantomiming, she managed to make him understand that she needed to take a break for a while but that nothing was wrong.

    Everyone was floating around in the center of the ship by now having unstrapped. All of them were just sort of awkwardly staring at each other and unable to speak.

    Luckily Emily waiting for the outside of the ship to cool was no issue. It would take days until they reached the position where their capsule would be close to the main ship. They had some time to waste.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily finished up attaching the canisters and rigging up the firing mechanism. Peter had some remote detonators and explosives with hardened electronics that had been in the bunker. So on the end of all the canisters was a tiny explosive that was all hooked up to the central detonator. So whenever Peter pushed the button on the detonator he had, the explosives would all go off and release all the gas at once as a sort of makeshift thruster to slow them down once they reached the main ship itself.

    Emily floated there above the capsule and looked back at the Earth behind them. She had always imagined what it would be like coming to space, seeing its greens and blues for the first time. Maybe when she saved enough money to take a trip to the lunar base for a vacation.

    But the Earth looked nothing she had imagined like it would be. A dark black smog covered the whole globe. She could see it swirling and moving with the weather patterns, bunching and thinning in certain areas. But always there blocking out the sun. And underneath was only the bright white of the ice and snow. There was only the oceans left as a vibrant blue to disrupt the ball of ice covering all of the land.

    The ice caps had grown until Antarctica had grown to merge with the bottom of African and South America. The north pole stretched past Britain and the water was one giant sheet of ice nearly to the middle of France all the way across the Atlantic ocean. Long fingers of ice stretched from both poles and from the land as if to show that their advance wouldn¡¯t be stopped, that the whole Earth would be consumed by their wintery embrace.

    Emily turned back to the capsule and checked the canisters and their fixtures one last time before floating back into the inside along with everyone else. Now there was nothing else to do but wait.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    They all waited in enforced silence in the vacuum of the capsule. Eventually the time came and Peter hit the detonator after they all strapped back into their seats and made sure the door to the outside was firmly locked.

    With a jolt, the capsule shuddered and they were all pulled upwards as their ¡®thrusters¡¯ fired for just under a minute before they were empty.

    After recovering their wits, Emily unstrapped and saw that Peter was looking concerned as he stared down at the data pad in his hands.

    Emily floated over to him and grabbing the wall behind stabilized herself and peered over his shoulder. They had mostly done it. Mostly. Their speed relative to the ship was close to zero. Fifteen miles an hour which at the speeds they were going was practically nothing. But still fast if they wanted to get on the bigger ship.

    Emily studied the orbital path for a moment before gently taking the datapad from Peter. She navigated out of the program to a notation app and took the attached electronic pen and wrote on the screen.

    ¡®All jump for the ship. Tied to each other with rope. Leave other things here. Hopefully get later,¡¯ she wrote.

    Peter took the pen, ¡®Damage main ship? What if we miss and go in space?¡¯ he wrote.

    Emily took the pen back, ¡®If jump soon, we spread out. Not likely to miss. With our strength only one needs to hold on and pull the rest in. Just make sure there are many ropes securing us to each other so none break free from one on ship. Ship outside made for meteorites. Human not do damage at these speeds.¡¯

    Peter hesitated, but then nodded to Emily. She quickly went around and showed the short written conversation to everyone else.

    They spent a few minutes taking all of their available rope and tying it around all of their waists and torsos so that they were sure that it wouldn¡¯t snap. They were all tied in a long line to each other, with Emily on one end and Peter on the other. Peter was their leader while Emily was the most knowledgeable on the engineering and science of it. All of them crawled out of the ship one after another until they were gathered at the top of the capsule. Emily could see the dot of the main ship slowly growing in the distance.

    Peter held the datapad with the orbital path of their capsule plotted on it. Their capsule would just barely miss the main ship. So if they jumped at the right moment they were almost guaranteed to hit it with a chain ten people long.

    Peter held up five of his fingers as he held the datapad and looked at it intently.

    Four fingers. Three. Two. One¡­

    All at once they pushed off of their feet and were sailing through the open void of space, the capsule slowly floating below them and appearing almost motionless as they sailed away through the void.

    Peter kept holding the datapad as the people along the rope pushed away from each other from the ball they had formed to form a rough spread out line as best as they could.

    With nothing to push off of the whole group of them couldn¡¯t change their overall course. But within their formation they could group up or spread out as much as they liked to give them a higher chance to hit the ship.

    Emily looked down and when Peter noticed he shot her a thumbs up. She let out a silent sigh of relief. They were close enough that they¡¯d be able to hit the ship and wouldn¡¯t miss entirely.

    The main ship floating there around the moon kept growing in size until Emily realized just how massive it truly was. It was meant to hold over a hundred people. A whole crew to form a small colony on the new planet. A new start on a new world.

    The ship grew larger and larger in their view until it was flying at them. Before she knew it, Emily and the others were slamming into the ship with heavy impacts. Emily hit the ship and bounced, desperately scrabbling for a grip on the surface as she started drifting away. She started panicking and reaching out to have her fingers brush against the metal skin of the ship. She looked to the side and saw with relief that Peter and two of the others had managed to catch hold of something. Little handholds that were supposed to be covering most of the outside of the ship for safety during any spacewalks of the potential crew inside.

    Emily¡¯s beating heart slowed its pace as she was reeled in and over the course of a few minutes by the others. All of them were pulled towards the ship and got their own grip through the efforts of the three clinging on to the ship currently.

    All of them carefully inched across the surface of the ship for what seemed to be forever before Peter at the front of the precession finally found an exterior airlock. He pulled a lever and the outer door opened. All of them carefully piled inside, all ten of them just barely fitting inside of the airlock stacked from floor to ceiling in the zero gravity.

    Emily saw through the press of bodies and floating coils of rope between them that Peter was fiddling with a panel by the interior airlock. The exterior door behind them shut and there was a loud hiss of air and suddenly air started to fill Emily¡¯s lungs.

    The others started gasping and Emily realized with a start that she could actually hear things now as the air pressure rose in the little airlock. They waited for a few minutes and started all talking at once and laughing in relief that the daring jump had actually worked and that they were on the ship now.

    After a few more minutes of floating, the hissing around them stopped and the air pressure stabilized.

    ¡°I thought that this thing didn¡¯t have life support?¡± Clara asked suddenly from where she floated off to Emily¡¯s left, ¡°Was that not true?¡±

    There was mumbling, but none of the rest of them seemed to remember the answer and Peter wasn¡¯t paying attention, too busy looking through the window of the interior airlock to study the interior of the ship. Emily couldn¡¯t see anything inside from her high angle near the ceiling of the space.

    ¡°No, there¡¯s not,¡± Emily said eventually as no one else answered, ¡°This thing has a few months of air like what you¡¯d expect on a normal spaceship or station. But considering the length of the journey, they needed to recycle it and replenish the oxygen almost perfectly unless they wanted to run out of air halfway through the journey. So we¡¯ve got air for now but it won¡¯t last nearly the whole way through the trip.¡±

    ¡°Will we be able to talk then?¡± Clara asked, rotating to face Emily, ¡°When the air¡­ runs out? Like out there in space?¡±

    ¡°No, I think¡­¡± Emily said, only to be interrupted by the interior airlock opening with a hiss. As one they all tried to move inside only to realize that they¡¯d tied each other up in the tangle of knotted ropes in the tight space of the airlock.

    After a few minutes of swearing and squirming they managed to all get out of their rope harnesses and make it to the inside of the ship. They all floated off Peter as he pushed off the walls of the ship to move around with purpose while glancing at the datapad in his hands occasionally.

    Eventually following the downloaded ship plans, they reached the command deck of the ship. Peter sat down and strapped himself into the captain¡¯s chair so he wouldn¡¯t float away as he sat there. He started navigating the screens and typing in various authorization codes as the ship around them started humming and rumbling into life.

    Peter kept typing, remaining focused as the rest of them floated there looking around. Peter¡¯s remaining CODA military satellites had managed to hack the ship and transfer the command codes to him as well to help them calculate the orbital paths they would need for the ship to accomplish the journey.

    ¡°Any chance of getting our things?¡± Clara asked after Peter sat back, appearing to be done.

    ¡°Hm? Oh, yes,¡± he said, ¡°I¡¯ve already sent a probe. It¡¯ll latch onto our little ship and drag it back here over the course of the next hour into the main hangar. Meant for collecting asteroids for materials or situations like this. Our antimatter engine provides us with plenty of thrust and electricity for the journey. At least that¡¯s one thing we shouldn¡¯t have to worry about.¡±

    Everyone relaxed.

    ¡°Hehe,¡± Clara chuckled half heartedly, ¡°I think I would have gone crazy if we didn¡¯t have some monopoly or chess to play with everyone on the way there.¡±

    Everyone else chuckled as well even if it wasn¡¯t really a joke. No one was looking forward to the estimated over two hundred and thirty year long journey to Epsilon-354, which hopefully would be their new home.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s explore the ship then,¡± Peter said as he unstrapped himself and started floating into the air again as he pushed upwards with his legs, ¡°Best to get to know the place before we settle in. Everything¡¯s automatic from here beyond whatever repairs we may need to do. Once we¡¯ve collected our little capsule then the main engines will fire on their own and we¡¯ll start our journey out of the solar system and go where no one has gone before.¡±

    ¡°Brave new explorers to the final frontiers,¡± Emily added after no one said anything in response.

    Peter nodded and smiled at her as she understood his reference.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get settled in our new home then!¡± Peter said with an upbeat tone as he floated past the rest of the group and out of the command deck into the rest of the ship.

 Chapter 72: Pinkie Promise

    Well, Emily had actually underestimated their air supply. She had guessed that it would only last months. But instead it actually lasted for over three years. It was a slow transition, the air transitioning from oxygen to carbon dioxide. It had taken Emily over two weeks to figure out how to turn off the blaring alerts and alarms from the ship once the carbon dioxide concentration grew above a certain level in the air. For a normal human they would become short of breath and start breathing rapidly and becoming lightheaded. Their body breathing in but becoming confused when only Carbon dioxide entered their lungs instead of the oxygen it needed.

    If they didn¡¯t get help then they¡¯d fall to the floor unconscious and if they didn¡¯t have someone nearby to save them, then they¡¯d die.

    But none of the ten of them truly needed to breathe anymore, so the blaring alarms warning them of their imminent deaths constantly just became an annoyance. And given its importance the designers had been very careful that the alarm was very hard to break, having it embedded along with many of the ship''s core systems.

    But Emily figured it out with some grunt work from the rest to assist her. Luckily all of them could still speak. Their voices sounded odd now that all of the oxygen in the air had been replaced with carbon dioxide, but after a few days to get used to it they all learned to ignore it.

    After a few weeks the change to their voices and hearing due to the change in the air faded into the background as it became their new normal.

    The boardgames had been a godsend. Clara might have been right that they all might have gone crazy without them. The ship even had an atomic three dimensional printer, so they were able to make their own custom game pieces for monopoly. It was meant to create parts to repair the ship, but they used it to make little totems and knick knacks like that mostly. Although Emily still did use it for its original purpose occasionally.

    It was only once or twice a week that Emily actually had to go out and fix something wrong with the ship. The detection system on the ship was excellent, so she usually was able to do a monthly sweep and swap out whatever part was worn with a new one before there ever ended up being a problem.

    They were in deep interstellar space now. Nothing but blackness and small stars far far away. The time passed. Emily did her rounds to repair the ship. They all played board games. They had their arguments with each other, apologizing afterwards. The occasional meal every few weeks to bring everyone together as a luxury.

    The engine of the ship was still firing full force to accelerate them, so they had some weak gravity of sorts on the ship which was a relief. At the halfway point in their trip the ship would flip around and start firing the thruster the opposite way to slow down again. Otherwise they¡¯d splat directly into the surface of their new planet at a significant fraction of lightspeed if they just kept accelerating the whole way there.

    Emily was still closest with Clara, and the two of them spent a lot of time together in their free time. Emily also spent a lot of time with Peter discussing the state of the ship and her repairs on it. They also talked on a personal level sometimes, but nothing too intense really. Emily still felt a little strange talking to him casually considering how much she still respected him as her former boss. Boss¡¯s boss actually. He was an excellent leader, diffusing tension when things started boiling over between people but making himself scarce when it was something that people had to work out between themselves without his interference.

    And he and Emily were both excellent at chess. Emily lost against Peter most of the time despite her intelligence. They played often, and it let her loosen up around him a little as they bantered over the games.

    The rest¡­ Well, it was a work in progress. Emily had wondered why none of them wanted to spend any time with her outside of the ¡®group¡¯ activities like board games or meals. None were rude¡­ But none of them talked to her unprompted or asked her her opinion about whatever silly debate topic the group was having. No one but Clara and Peter that was.

    ¡°I just don¡¯t understand why!¡± Emily complained as she sat on her bed, Clara sitting opposite her and lounging in a puffy chair they¡¯d brought into her bedroom to relax in, away from the echoing common spaces of the ship.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been helping with the ship,¡± Emily continued, ¡°More than anyone else actually. I don¡¯t think I did anything to upset any of them as far as I can tell. But none of them want to talk to me for some reason.¡±

    Clara sighed and shook her head.

    ¡°C¡¯mon Emily. You must know. You¡¯re telling me that you haven¡¯t figured it out after spending over ten years on this old ship?¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Emily huffed, ¡°I¡¯ve tried puzzling it out. But nothing. What did I do? Am I offending them somehow? Do I smell? Am I ugly? I just don¡¯t get it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not what you¡¯re doing. It¡¯s what you did. Or what you supposedly did. The whole deal with the virus, the bombs. All of it. They think you¡¯re at fault somehow. Not that it makes any sense. But that¡¯s what they think.¡±

    ¡°What? But Peter can tell them. He knows that it wasn¡¯t my fault. It was some terrorist that forced me to! It was Empire terrorists threatening my family!¡±

    ¡°So he¡¯s said over and over to everyone. But the others still blame you. It¡¯s not rational, and it¡¯s not your fault. But that¡¯s why.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t think so?¡± Emily asked, ¡°When did you learn all of this?¡±

    ¡°Sanje recognized you about a year into our flight here and told the rest of us,¡± Clara said, ¡°None of us knew before he told us. Mr. Rose defended you, the rest wanted to confront you and start blaming you for things that weren¡¯t your fault.¡±

    ¡°But why didn¡¯t you believe it? Shun me like the others?¡± Emily asked.

    Clara raised her eyebrows, ¡°Somebody¡¯s extra hopeful, hm? Wanting to experiment again?¡±

    Emily quickly looked away, ¡°No. Of course not. I didn¡¯t mean it like that.¡±

    ¡°No, no. Sorry. I shouldn¡¯t tease you,¡± Clara said quickly, ¡°I¡­ I didn¡¯t realize it was your first real time. I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t think I ever apologized to you for that. I didn¡¯t mean to lead you along or play with your feelings for so long.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Well, uhm. Apology accepted.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. And I know you, Emily. Clearly the rest don¡¯t if they think you¡¯re the one behind anything malicious at all.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m not perfect,¡± Emily said quietly and stared at her hands, ¡°I¡¯ve had to do horrible things. Done them without meaning to. I can¡¯t control myself sometimes. Maybe they¡¯re right to dislike me.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like the Emily that I know. The sensitive little flower that wilts at the prospect of someone not liking her and blooms when she wins at board games.¡±

    Emily looked up and grimaced, ¡°You apologize for playing with my feelings then call me a blooming flower, pick a lane Clara. And I¡¯m not sensitive.¡±

    ¡°Well more sensitive than me,¡± Clara allowed, ¡°People were known to call me a bit of a bitch sometimes. Back¡­ Back on Earth. It¡¯s not one of my better qualities. After the bombs dropped it was a bad time for all of us. If you want we could trade. You tell me your darkest secrets and I¡¯ll do the same. We¡¯ll pinky promise never to share a word with anyone else.¡±

    Emily looked at Clara for a long time as she thought about it seriously.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± she eventually asked, ¡°You want to share all of that with me? Everyone you lost? What happened after the bombs dropped?¡±

    Clara nodded even if her expression flashed with sadness for a brief instant.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    ¡°Yeah. Let¡¯s cry it out, sister.¡±

    Clara held her hand out and stuck out her pinky to Emily.

    ¡°Pinky promise?¡± Clara said.

    Emily smiled a bit and stuck out her own pinky and they shook on it.

    Then they talked. Not dancing around the past like they had before, speaking only in generalities and only shallow details of their old personal lives. But everything about each other that they¡¯d never discussed before.

    It started slowly with some more personal stories. A level beyond even the somewhat embarrassing ones that they¡¯d told before. Ones that Emily had only told Luke back then.

    Clara had had a very traditional family. They wanted her to marry early, start a family with a boy that their matchmaker had paired her with when they were kids. But Clara had rebelled and seemed like had caused all sorts of worry and trouble for her poor parents. Sneaking off in the night to meet boys she liked, going to all sorts of parties in the city and getting a fake ID. Getting a real career and working for herself rather than marrying and becoming a housewife like her parents wanted for her.

    Clara had been an only child. Her whole family and everyone she¡¯d ever known had died in the nuclear blasts in the city of Abuja. She¡¯d joined a large group and stayed with them until the end. Waiting and watching them starve and become sick one by one. All until Clara had been the only one left in the end. Just as healthy as she had ever been despite the haze of death around her. That¡¯s the way that Clara had described it, a far off expression in her eyes.

    ¡°How about you, Emily?¡± Clara said after Emily spent a while comforting her from the pain of all the old memories that seemed to be overwhelming Emily¡¯s friend, ¡°Now it¡¯s my turn. Just let it all out. I feel better than before, just sharing it all with someone else finally.¡±

    Emily took a shaky breath, ¡°My life was a mess even before the bombs dropped,¡± she said hesitantly, ¡°You probably already know this. But I was¡­ mentally ill. Hallucinations, hearing voices. The whole thing. It was¡­ horrible. Yet somehow the voices were right about everything. Probably just my own paranoia playing tricks on me at the time. But somehow they were right. Sinestra was right.¡±

    ¡°Sinestra? Who¡¯s that?¡± Clara asked.

    Emily started from the beginning and explained it all from the top. The voices she had heard ever since her school days. How things had quickly escalated in high school and past graduation. How it all had disappeared as soon as she gained her powers.

    ¡°Hmmm,¡± Clara hummed sympathetically, ¡°Maybe it healed away? I had an old ache from where I sprained my wrist when I was a kid. It¡¯s gone now, good as new. Maybe it did the same thing, but for your brain?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ Maybe,¡± Emily said doubtfully. She kept going, the momentum of her talking for so long overwhelming her. Now that she had started she couldn¡¯t stop anymore until she got it all out and told Clara everything.

    Emily talked about Luke, her best friend. Sean, her brother. Her parents. All the people she¡¯d gotten to know at the virology lab that had been killed by the Empire terrorists attack that she¡¯d only avoided by chance.

    Then the bombs dropping. All the hard decisions that she had made. Abandoning Jack and the other irradiated survivors of CODA city to die so she could check on her parents. Brutally killing all of those infected men in a maddened haze so strong that she had lost her memory of what exactly happened.

    Her much more clear memory of killing Major Smith with her bare hands. Hitting him over and over until she was sure that he was dead¡­ How she¡¯d had another maddened massacre after she¡¯d seen those men breaking into her apartment and hurting Sean. What she¡¯d heard from the rumors of what she¡¯d done and how she¡¯d found the heart that she¡¯d removed from the man¡¯s chest across the room¡­

    ¡°Hey!¡± Clara said forcefully as Emily started rambling and talking about how horrible it all had been, ¡°Sounds like you did what you had to do. Those infected men, didn¡¯t they attack you in a group? What do you think they would have done if you weren¡¯t who you are?¡±

    Emily shuddered, ¡°I¡¯d be dead,¡± she said, ¡°If not by them then by the virus that they¡¯d have infected me with.¡±

    ¡°And Major Smith? Did he give you any choice? Didn¡¯t you let yourself get shot for a while before begging him to leave you alone? Didn¡¯t you give him plenty of chances to leave you be?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true. But there should have been another wa¨C¡±

    ¡°Nope,¡± Clara said firmly, ¡°No have beens or buts. In that moment. Could you have walked away and been sure that it wouldn¡¯t lead to your brother¡¯s death?¡±

    Emily opened her mouth and sent herself back to that moment in her memories. She tried to deny Clara¡¯s claim, but the words didn¡¯t come out.

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said, ¡°I guess I couldn¡¯t. I couldn¡¯t have walked away. I had to stop him.¡±

    ¡°As for that last one¡­¡± Clara said, ¡°They were about to kidnap and probably kill your brother. If brutality is justified anywhere then that¡¯s probably the place. What you did, that shit sounds like a movie, girl. You just ripped out his heart?¡±

    Clara reached out with a clawed gesture with an exaggerated snarl and let out a low growl. She pulled her hand back from the thin air and held it vertically over her head and pulsed her fingers in and out as if to mimic the beating of a heart. Her face was still in the exaggerated snarl as she looked at Emily.

    ¡°RaHHHHHH!!!!¡± Clara screamed suddenly and whipped her arm towards Emily as if to throw the invisible beating heart held inside her clawed grip towards Emily. Emily jumped and screamed and Clara broke down laughing. After a moment Emily giggled a bit too, even if she didn¡¯t find it quite as funny as Clara did.

    ¡°See? Just like a movie,¡± Clara said, ¡°It¡¯s just so over the top. Don¡¯t you worry. You¡¯re a genuine action hero now.¡±

    ¡°Hehe,¡± Emily chuckled weakly, ¡°I guess.¡±

    Emily focused intently and searched Clara¡¯s face, ¡°Did you ever have to kill anyone?¡±

    Clara¡¯s smile slid away and she silently nodded, ¡°Yeah,¡± she said, ¡°I had a group to protect, and other people wanted our spot on top of Aso Rock. Some of them wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer. I had to shoot a couple to scare off the rest.¡±

    Emily could see that Clara was affecting a casual attitude, but it clearly had affected her far more than that based on the serious and distant look in her eyes as she spoke about it.

    Emily continued explaining the war between the soldiers and the gangs and the resulting war between the gangs afterwards after it became clear that Clara wouldn¡¯t continue speaking.

    Clara was confused, and so Emily had to backtrack and explain about the burn pits and the brutal regime of the military, killing anyone they found in the streets just in case they¡¯d been infected. She¡¯d glossed over some of the more horrible details the first time she talked about it.

    Clara was genuinely horrified the longer Emily spoke in more detail of what had actually been happening. It seemed she¡¯d gotten a wrong sense of things when Emily had talked about the quarantine and military rule before. Despite the starvation in Abuja and skirmishes between the gangs for territory, the conflicts and battles had seemed to always stay small. There was no large military presence or single controlling group in the area, the old government having collapsed almost immediately in the aftermath of the bombs dropping.

    The larger groups and gangs had avoided each other mostly and Aso Rock was isolated enough from the rest of the city that Clara had never really personally dealt with any of the gang wars or seen most of the horribleness that had gone on.

    Emily had been spared most of it as well, but her connection to the gang members that had joined their group had filled her in on the gory details and made her feel almost as if she had been there herself as she had connected the gunfire in the distance in her memories to the battles that Frank, Simon, and Vanessa had talked about.

    Then came¡­ the most painful part. More than all the people she¡¯d killed surprisingly. More than everything else than perhaps the bombs dropping itself.

    ¡°I killed them,¡± Emily said sadly, ¡°Vanessa and Frank. I gave Sean all of our food. Cared for him, gave him all our medicine, the spare blankets¡­ Whatever he needed. I took it from them and gave it all to him. They died because of me.¡±

    Clara didn¡¯t say anything for a while, opening and shutting her mouth for a moment and her eyes shining.

    ¡°I know,¡± Clara said softly, ¡°I know. My whole group, one by one. All of them died because there wasn¡¯t enough to go around and somebody had to be left behind. It only got harder each time.¡±

    ¡°It was all for nothing either way,¡± Emily said despondently, ¡°After everything, all that effort¡­ All of them died anyway. Sean died while I was out scavenging for more food. I didn¡¯t even get to talk to him one last time before he was gone.¡±

    Clara didn¡¯t say anything to that. They sat silently across for each other for a while, just reflecting on their memories and their emotions.

    ¡°Don¡¯t get any ideas now,¡± Clara said eventually, ¡°This is strictly for friendship only. This isn¡¯t me teasing.¡±

    Clara sat forward and hugged Emily and after a moment Emily returned the gesture. Emily felt something wet hit her shoulder and she realized all of sudden that Clara was crying as she rested her chin on Emily¡¯s shoulder as Emily did the same to her.

    Emily was crying too. She hadn¡¯t even realized it.

    They let all of their emotions out at once. It was cathartic and they were both exhausted by the time they were both done.

    Clara released Emily and with a mischievous smirk puckered her lips and pecked Emily on the cheek with a kiss.

    ¡°That was teasing,¡± Clara said, ¡°So you can tell the difference for the future.¡±

    Emily dumbly reached up and felt the spot where Clara¡¯s lips had touched her.

    ¡°I feel so much better,¡± Clara said as she rubbed her face on her sleeve, ¡°Seriously. I can¡¯t believe how amazing it was to finally share it all with somebody I can trust.¡±

    ¡°I- I know. Amazing,¡± Emily repeated, her hand still held on her cheek.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m exhausted,¡± Clara declared after nothing else was said for a while, ¡°I¡¯m going to go to bed now.¡±

    Clara stood up and walked out the door to Emily¡¯s bedroom. Emily closed and locked the door behind her and went back to her own bed and tucked herself in underneath the covers. Sleeping sounded like just the thing right now¡­

 Chapter 73: An Empty Paradise

    Emily took a deep breath. She looked across the windswept plain of short grasses. The plants were green, but a dark green. Almost black rather than the lighter shades that she was used to.

    It had been a long journey here to Epsilon-354, through the void of space. Gaia that Emily had decided to call it. But they had made it. And here they were now, on a planet with a full biosphere and not a single sign of sapient life on its surface. Emily glanced to the side as there was a rustle. A rodent-like animal with tusk-like bones sticking out of its jaws stuck its head out of its hole and looked around. Spotting Emily standing there staring at it, it dived back into its burrow and scurried away again.

    The main ship still hovered far above in orbit, old and on the verge of failing from the long journey. But still working and doing what it needed to do.

    ¡°C¡¯mon, Emily,¡± Clara said from behind her, ¡°Our new home won¡¯t build itself.¡±

    Emily turned around and nodded as she went over to help Clara unpack the assorted crates. With so much time on their hands, they¡¯d spent decades designing a large dream estate for them to live in once they reached the planet itself. Peter and two of the others were using the main ship even now to collect nearby metal rich asteroids and use the atomic printer to create more parts like the ones stacked up in these crates.

    Emily and Clara were working on building the foundation to the building where all of them had chosen to establish their new home. The other five were wandering around and exploring the area in some short range electric helicopters that Emily and Clara had assembled right after they came down from orbit on their shuttle.

    The atomic printer could do it all, and with so long to build up their supplies and plans they had all the disassembled parts for the vehicle ready when they came down here. All they had to do was assemble them and make sure that nothing had worn out while it sat out in storage in the bowels of the main ship.

    Emily started helping Clara marking out the perimeter of the building with some colorful surveying flags. As they took measurements and started planning everything, Emily fully started realizing just how ambitious a project it would be.

    But it wasn¡¯t like they had anything else to do. May as well make their home as complicated as could be, right?

    ¡°What¡¯s got you down, Emily?¡± Clara asked suddenly after adjusting the placement of one of her flags after consulting the plans on her datapad in her hand.

    ¡°I thought you¡¯d be happy,¡± Clara said, ¡°We finally made it here after so long! But you seem a little down now that we¡¯re here on the surface.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t know,¡± Emily said, ¡°I guess¡­ I just sort of hoped that there¡¯d be aliens here. Somebody else to talk to. It was stupid, we all saw the scans years ago. But still¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey, this place is great,¡± Clara said, ¡°Even if there aren¡¯t any people, it¡¯s much nicer here than it would be back on Earth. It¡¯ll just be us, but look at the size of this place we¡¯re going to build! Don¡¯t you enjoy the wind on your skin, seeing animals and plants again? Have a blue sky above you rather than the black of space?¡±

    ¡°It is pretty nice,¡± Emily admitted as she took a moment to take in the sensations around her. It was nice. She felt her mood improve a bit. She was glad to be out of the cramped ship finally and out into an open space again.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The giant estate was finished. It had taken three whole years to build top to bottom with all of them working on it. There were a few mistakes and missteps, but with the digital blueprints and the atomic printer to create custom parts as needed, everything worked out.

    The atomic printer was an energy hog, their antimatter reactor on the main ship almost completely devoting its energy to powering the thing while it was running. They had two spare atomic printers that they had luckily hadn¡¯t had to use yet. But if they broke then that was it. The parts for them were ridiculously complex and Emily had no idea how one would go about creating them.

    The printers themselves, despite their amazing ability with making most things, still weren¡¯t able to make copies of themselves. At least ones that would work properly. Their fabrication abilities weren¡¯t quite enough to pull it off without some very precise equipment and facilities that were wildly impractical to build for only ten people.

    So it was a relief when everything was done and they could let the machine cool down and rest a bit. They were literally irreplaceable right now. Emily had started worrying about strain on the thing with how often they¡¯d been using it in construction of their new home.

    But the home, estate, palace, whatever they were calling it, was done now. Each of them had designed their own corners of the huge complex, with all of their individual spaces meshing with each other and merging with the common rooms in the center.

    Now that the building itself was finished they started moving everything inside. The main ship had been carefully deorbited and landed a short distance away for deconstruction.

    Although it was useful to have a ship in orbit, the equipment on this ship was too valuable to leave up there. Going in and out of orbit was difficult and dangerous, and it would be best to have all their critical equipment down on the planet where it would be safer and they¡¯d have easier access.

    So all that critical technology had been stripped from the main ship, including the antimatter generator, and most importantly the atomic printers.

    Emily had set up a sort of lab and workshop inside her own section. She had enjoyed being the ship¡¯s engineer over their journey, it had made her feel important. And it reminded her of her time in CODA international lab with Luke before everything had gone wrong.

    Two of the atomic printers had been set up for her to use, with everyone else sharing the last one. As the time passed they never ended up using it all that much. Just for the odd little projects that they had on occasion.

    It had been two or three years now since the house had been completed and they were all pretty settled down in their new home. The others had picked up some knowledge but none of them seemed to enjoy science or building things all that much. Whenever they could, they left any repairs to her rather than bothering to do it themselves.

    It got annoying sometimes, frankly, how they never even thought that they should do it themselves despite being perfectly able.

    Even Clara did it, although the woman sat with Emily and they chatted as Emily worked on whatever the problem was. So Emily never minded when it was Clara asking for something. The others generally wandered off and left her alone to solve the problem, sometimes without even thanking her for her help after she was done.

    Peter hadn¡¯t been around in a while. He had built an electric plane with some solar panels for power and started exploring the rest of the planet. Gaia. He sent messages back through the radio transmitter that Emily had set up, but had been gone for a year or two on his own by now.

    The rest were mostly just milling around the house and working on their own projects. From what Clara had told Emily most seemed to have decided to work on some artwork. Creating statues, making paintings from local dyes that they made from the local plants.

    Things like that. They showed off their work to the group sometimes when they had their common meals once a week. Emily mostly just sat and listened. Clara was too interested in the conversation with the others to push for the others to talk to Emily like she used to on the ship on the journey here.

    Even after all this time none of the rest of them had gotten over their faint dislike of her. Despite her best efforts to become their friends over the course of the trip and help them out with some mechanical problem whenever they needed it.

    She felt very unappreciated, but despite herself she couldn¡¯t resist refusing to help when they asked her to repair something for them. It wasn¡¯t like she had any better things to do with her time.

    Life was very lonely with Peter gone and Clara now invested in her art enough that the two of them hardly talked to each other anymore.

    Emily sighed as she glanced around her haphazard workshop filled with all sorts of devices and bits and bobs she¡¯d made over these last few years. Just some simple projects to keep her occupied. With the two atomic printers at her disposal, making most of the parts was a breeze even if it caused the lights of the room to flicker sometimes from the high power draw.

    Emily had just returned from another one of their weekly dinners. Emily always looked forward to those. But no one had spoken to her the whole time she was there today. Not one word directed towards her as she sat there at the center of the table quietly eating her food. No one had talked to her. Not even Clara. Not even a greeting or a goodbye.

    What was the purpose of it all? Was this all there was? Just the ten of them in this lonely complex for eternity? Wasn¡¯t this new planet supposed to be better?

    ¡°What should I do?¡± Emily asked herself as she looked around the workshop, ¡°Something important and worthwhile. There must be something more than this.¡±

    Emily sat heavily on a nearby bench and put her head in her hands and just thought for a while. She pressed hard into her eyes with her palms as she just sat there thinking.

    ¡°I just wish I had more people to talk to,¡± she muttered, ¡°If there were more then I¡¯d be able to find somebody who cares about me. Someone who understands.¡±

    Emily looked around the room again. Her eyes stopped at a little stone statue as tall as her hand sitting in the corner. A gift from Clara, one of her first efforts at carving a human form.

    Emily walked over and picked up the surprisingly heavy little statue. The chiseling was rough with obvious divots and marks where Clara had missed a strike or carved off too much. It was lumpy and misshapen, but it was also distinctively a humanoid form with a head, two arms at their sides with little divots in to mark the torso. Then two legs with another divot to show that they were split. Then two feet at the bottom with the mangled attempt for toes that Clara had made.

    Emily rubbed her thumb over the rough surface of the small statue and stared at it.

    ¡°From the clay¡­¡± Emily muttered as an idea formed and took root in her mind as she stood there, ¡°Why shouldn¡¯t I? I have as much time as I need to get it right...¡±

    Emily¡¯s hand clenched around the statue tightly as she realized she¡¯d finally found something to guide her. She¡¯d been rudderless and purposeless for so long. She¡¯d do this.

    Emily put down the statue on the bench again. She closed her eyes and reached deep within herself.

    ¡°How do I bring them back?¡± she whispered, ¡°I have to Know.¡±

    I¡­ This is why I¡¯m here? To help little Emily with this? I¡­ I thought it was just inspiration at the time. Luck, chance. But I¡¯ll do my best. Creating a fully functioning cloning chamber is a complex process. We¡¯ll have to build many things before we¡¯re far enough to get to the chamber itself. Like tech trees in a video game. Ah, and we¡¯ll need the genetic recombination software and synthesis as well so it¡¯s not just pure clones of you ten. Introduce enough genetic variation that they¡¯ll be able to reproduce and not deal with inbreeding. That¡¯ll take a while to create too, totally separate technology than the incubation chambers themselves¡­ But let¡¯s do it, Little Emily. I¡¯ll be helping you the whole way. We¡¯ll bring them back together. All of them.

    Emily¡¯s eyes flickered as a rush of knowledge and inspiration struck her as all sorts of ideas flitted through her head all at once as she stood there motionless.

    When her eyes opened again, they were determined and focused.

    ¡°I have a lot of work to do,¡± she told herself firmly, ¡°I¡¯ll bring them all back.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily mumbled to herself, drifting off into space as she mechanically ate her meal. No one noticed and Clara didn¡¯t say much to Emily besides greeting her when she arrived and exchanging some pleasantries before returning to her conversation with the others.

    ¡°Hey Emily,¡± Sanje asked after the meal ended and everyone started dispersing again. Emily shook her head and refocused on the man.

    ¡°Yes, Sanje?¡±

    ¡°My plumbing has a leak. I was wondering if you could come by and fix it. It¡¯s rather irritating.¡±

    Emily felt her annoyance rise. The entitlement, to just state it like that. Like it was her fault somehow that his pipes had leaked. Sanje knew how to fix it, he just didn¡¯t want to bother doing the extra work. Even if he <i>didn¡¯t</i> know how to fix it, they all had plans for the building. The way it should be fixed should be in there. Emily had made sure to work hard to put those notes  in there just for them when she worked on the design. All he would have to do was compare the plans to reality and move from there using her notes.

    He just didn¡¯t want to do the work.

    ¡°Fuck off, Sanje,¡± Emily said, ¡°Do it yourself for once. I¡¯m not your plumber.¡±

    ¡°This is our shared house. It¡¯s your responsibility and you know best how to¡­¡± Sanje protested.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    ¡°Fix your own shit!¡± Emily said, her resentment boiling over, ¡°Don¡¯t pull that shared house crap on me. I¡¯m the only one who does any repair work around here. And you know what? I¡¯m done with it! Done!¡±

    Everyone was staring at her now as she ranted at Sanje who looked stunned at her sudden outburst.

    Emily raised her voice, ¡°All of you, I¡¯m not doing any repairs on your junk anymore. Call me when something¡¯s wrong with the antimatter generator or atomic printer. Otherwise all of you can do it yourself. I¡¯ve got more important things to do than chores that you should be doing for yourselves. Not for all of your ungrateful asses.¡±

    She turned and stormed out of the room. She heard the others scolding Sanje who was trying to defend himself as they blamed him for causing Emily¡¯s outburst.

    Emily went back into her workshop and angrily punched the metal wall to the side of the doorframe. It dented in slightly, and the short burst of pain in her knuckles calmed her down slightly.

    She took a shaky breath and slowly calmed herself down. Should she have blown up on Sanje like that? But as she thought on how he¡¯d asked her... How he¡¯d just assumed that she¡¯d help him despite him never talking to her when he didn¡¯t have to¡­ That it was somehow her fault and responsibility when things went wrong¡­

    She felt angrier just thinking about it. She took another deep breath and calmed down. Yeah, she¡¯d blown up on him. But she¡¯d stand by her statement. She wasn¡¯t helping them with anything simple from now on. She did have more important things to do now.

    It was three months into her grand project and already it had helped give her purpose. She was making slow but steady progress as she worked feverishly, forgetting everything else as she went. She hadn¡¯t done much yet, but hope swelled in her chest the more worked and the more progress that she made. Aching hope built inside of her that she could do the impossible and bring humanity back from their extinction.

    Emily got back to work in her workshop to assemble some more equipment, and her anger soothed and she started humming softly as she worked and she slowly relaxed.

    This was something worthwhile, finally something good that she could do. Something good that she could build.

    Emily almost didn¡¯t hear the knocking at her door as she inspected the digital file on the computer screen for the part she wanted the atomic printer to assemble.

    On the third knock, Emily was knocked out of her flow state and looked up as the noise registered in her mind. She went to the door and opened it and saw Clara standing there outside.

    Emily stood there awkwardly in the doorway for a moment as Clara didn¡¯t say anything.

    ¡°Are you going to invite me in?¡± Clara asked a little awkwardly.

    ¡°Oh? Er, yeah. Sure,¡± Emily said and stood to the side as Clara came inside and looked around.

    ¡°Huh. You¡¯ve really been busy in here,¡± Clara said indulgently, ¡°What are you building?¡±

    ¡°Oh, nothing much. Just some things to pass the time,¡± Emily said, not sure why she lied. But she didn¡¯t want anyone to know until the project was finished. She didn¡¯t want everyone else to shatter like she would if the project failed somehow. False hope turning to choking dust and more hatred if things didn¡¯t go well.

    ¡°Nice, nice, glad you¡¯ve got some things to do¡­¡± Clara said as the two of them sat on a bench.

    Neither of them said anything for a while.

    ¡°What was up at lunch?¡± Clara asked, ¡°You totally exploded on Sanje. I mean, fair. But what¡¯s going on? It can¡¯t just be him asking for repairs so rudely.¡±

    Emily sighed, ¡°I meant it, Clara. The rest of you can repair your own things. I¡¯m sick of being treated like it¡¯s my duty to do it for them. You know that none of them even thank me after I finish anymore? Just dismiss me like I¡¯m a servant or something once it¡¯s fixed. It was a long time coming, it just came out all at once.¡±

    ¡°Really, they did that?¡± Clara asked, ¡°Don¡¯t you worry. I¡¯ll set them straight, lay down the law. They¡¯ve been running wild with Mr. Rose being out exploring the planet for so long. I¡¯ll get them all to apologize and not be so rude to you. But you don¡¯t have to cut them all off completely because of that.¡±

    Emily shot Clara a sharp look before shaking her head, ¡°No, Clara. I¡¯ve decided. Even if they apologize, I¡¯m not doing it. If they were my friends then they¡¯d talk to me even when they weren¡¯t forced to. That goes for you too. You can figure out the simple things on your own by now, you don¡¯t need me.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t need you,¡± Clara said huskily as she leaned forward and scrunched her shoulders to accentuate her breasts as she leaned forward in the casual low cut shirt that she was wearing, ¡°But maybe I just want you, hm? Maybe I have some ulterior motives that you¡¯ve got to discover.¡±

    Clara winked at Emily before sitting back with a smirk on her face.

    Despite herself, Emily found herself being convinced away from her formerly firm stance. Maybe it would be worth it to spend some more time with Clara? But then she shook her head to clear it from the hormones and felt anger as she realized what was happening.

    ¡°Y-Y-You know what, Clara?¡± Emily said, ¡°Get out. You¡¯re just like the rest. You only care about the work I¡¯d do for you. You don¡¯t talk to me for months and months, not one real conversation, and now you come here and- and- and play with my feelings like this? Make me feel like an idiot when I know you¡¯ve never been interested in me like that in the slightest? Get out.¡±

    ¡°What? I- Emily¡­¡± Clara stammered, looking stunned, ¡°It¡¯s not like tha-¡±

    ¡°GET OUT! GO!¡±

    ¡°I- Er, okay,¡± Clara said as she saw Emily¡¯s expression. She walked over to the door and hesitated before walking through.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Clara said, ¡°See you for the meal next month,¡±

    ¡°See you,¡± Emily said, her anger diffusing a little bit as Clara shut the door behind her with a loud click.

    Emily hesitated before turning back to her workbench. She¡¯d make up with Clara later. See if the woman really apologized for what Emily was sure that she had been doing.

    It was time to get back to work.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey Peter. How was your trip?¡± Emily asked as she took a bite of one of the local fruits. The food here was edible somehow. Probably not nearly as nutritious as something from Earth would be due to their alien nature and divergent evolution. Human guts weren¡¯t made to eat food like this. Or more accurately their gut bacteria. Bacteria which had been thoroughly been purged by their long trip across interstellar space. It was to be seen if their bodies would adjust as new bacteria migrated into their digestive tract from this planet, or if it was something innate to human biology keeping the food from being nutritious.

    But the food was roughly close enough to earth fruit that it at least tasted good, even if it probably didn¡¯t actually provide them with many real calories that their body could absorb. This fruit was closest in flavor to an orange even if it had interesting flavor undertones that Emily had never tasted before she came here. It tasted good. And nutrition hardly mattered for any of them, so it was really a win-win situation all things considered.

    ¡°Good,¡± Peter said and slicked back his wet hair. He¡¯d just come back from his journey a few hours ago and looked like he¡¯d just left the shower.

    ¡°It¡¯s been quite the experience exploring this planet. All sorts of creatures and natural wonders. I can¡¯t believe this place is so¡­ hospitable.¡±

    ¡°I know, this planet really is amazing. A great place for a fresh start,¡± Emily agreed.

    ¡°Yes, a fresh start,¡± Peter agreed absently, ¡°I like the sound of that.¡±

    Emily handed him one of the fruits and he stared at it curiously for a moment before taking a bite.

    ¡°Oh! This is quite good. Where¡¯d you get this?¡±

    ¡°Some of the others like to go foraging,¡± Emily said, ¡°It¡¯s just a thirty or forty minute flight on one of the planes. There¡¯s a jungle they fly to to scavenge good food like this.¡±

    ¡°Interesting. Maybe I¡¯ll have to go with them next time they go. What¡¯s it like?¡±

    ¡°Oh. Well, ah. I¡¯ve never been,¡± Emily said.

    ¡°You haven¡¯t? Whyever not?¡±

    ¡°Oh, well. Things are a bit tense around here. I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be very welcome,¡± she said.

    ¡°Tense?¡± Peter said with a frown, lowering the fruit and putting it down on the plate on the table, ¡°How so?¡±

    ¡°Er, uhm. You know. Just arguments about our chores,¡± Emily explained, ¡°I had to do all of them for a while. Repairing things around the house, electricals, the whole thing. I got fed up and told the rest to do it themselves at one point. They tried to convince me over and over to keep helping them despite being clear that I wouldn¡¯t do it for minor things anymore. I did shout at some of them once they started lying about what the problem was to get me to come help with something more minor instead¡­ But all of that drama was a year ago. They¡¯ve mostly avoided me since then and just started doing it all themselves finally.¡±

    ¡°Avoided you?¡± Peter asked with a frown, ¡°It¡¯s not that nonsense with the past again? I thought I made it clear to them that you weren¡¯t at fault¡­¡±

    Emily shrugged. It was clear that their grudge against her still played a big part in it.

    ¡°What about Clara, what did she do? She¡¯s your friend, no?¡± Peter asked.

    ¡°Clara? She¡­ Well, she chose them over me once things grew tense. I haven¡¯t talked to her in a while.¡±

    There was some silence as Peter stared at her. Emily suddenly realized that she was dumping on Peter right after he came back from his exciting journey.

    ¡°But I¡¯m sorry for just saying all that right after your back,¡± Emily said quickly, ¡°Eat! Eat! It¡¯s all resolved now, so no need to worry about it anymore.¡±

    ¡°Resolved? It doesn¡¯t sound that way. You¡¯re still isolated from everyone else, aren¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but I can deal with it. I¡¯ve got a big project I¡¯m working on. It¡¯s been going well, so it hasn¡¯t been too terrible honestly.¡±

    ¡°Hm. What¡¯s the project?¡±

    ¡°Top secret. I¡¯m not going to tell anyone until I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll work,¡± she said reflexively. Peter flinched.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Emily said as she realized how harshly she¡¯d spoken on reflex, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean it like that. But yeah. Don¡¯t want to get anyone¡¯s hopes up when I¡¯m not even close to finishing still¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, I suppose I can understand that,¡± Peter said thoughtfully, ¡°It¡¯s your project. But I¡¯m more than happy to hear about it if you want to tell me.¡±

    Emily nodded slowly, ¡°I¡¯ll think about it,¡± she said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll talk to the others,¡± Peter promised, ¡°Get to the bottom of it. It¡¯s just the ten of us together. I wouldn¡¯t be a good leader if I let something like this go on without healing the divide in our group.¡±

    Peter put his hand on Emily¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°I¡¯ll handle it now that I¡¯m back.¡±

    ¡°T- Thank you, Peter. I appreciate that.¡±

    Peter lifted his hand off Emily¡¯s shoulder and picked the fruit from the table and took another bite.

    ¡°These really are excellent,¡± Peter said around the juices that leaked from the corners of his lips, ¡°Here, let¡¯s sit down. I should tell you about some of the things I¡¯ve seen in more detail. Maybe you can tell me what else you¡¯ve been up to besides this ¡®top secret¡¯ project of yours.¡±

    They sat down and Peter told his story. It had been months since Emily had talked to anybody besides herself. It was¡­ good that Peter was finally back. She was sure that he would figure out how to make things right again.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Time passed. With Peter in the middle of the conflict, Emily and the rest of the group made up. Emily still thought it was all their fault, but even she could admit that after they started lying to her that her reactions and insults at them had been a bit over the top. She¡¯d been extremely frustrated at that point and hadn¡¯t held back screaming and laying into them even when they protested that the mistake had been genuine.

    Emily didn¡¯t know. Maybe it all had been coincidences. She still felt like they had been lying to her. But maybe they hadn¡¯t been lying to her every time.

    But she apologized for being too sensitive, and the rest apologized for taking her work for granted as Peter stood there frowning sternly at them like a disappointed father.

    Although reluctantly, Emily was accepted back into the larger group and started going back to the monthly meals again with everyone. Clara¡­ Well, Emily still hadn¡¯t completely forgiven her for abandoning her when things grew tense with the rest of the group. But they were chatting again and things were slowly trending towards a mending friendship.

    Between the meals, Emily returned to her lab and kept working in complete obsession. Not sleeping, not resting, just work work work constantly. She could feel the progress coming faster and faster as she kept muttering to herself and building device after device. Her only roadblock was getting more materials and the speed of her two atomic printers most of the time. The ideas seemed to just spring into her head fully formed as soon as she became stumped by a problem.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    After nearly eight whole years of obsession and constant work, it was finally complete. At least the first part. She¡¯d invented everything she needed, all the technology necessary. Now she just had to assemble the last machine, the incubation chamber for the clones itself. She had another meal with the others and returned to work shortly after.

    It only took three whole months to build once she started. But she did it. The final machine was built and brimming with yellowish thick fluid to the brim at six feet tall and almost as wide across its cylindrical base.

    Creating that fluid had been such a pain. Emily had to take meat from some of the bodies of the alien animals that the others had hunted and heavily process it before it could be fed into the machine that she¡¯d built to create the right blend. It had been a rather gruesome process, but she pushed through until she had enough of the fluid to start up the machine to nourish a growing embryo.

    The whole chamber was sealed in metal on all sides so the exterior light wouldn¡¯t interfere with the growth process of the clone inside.

    Emily did all her final checks to make sure everything was working properly and then took a deep breath. It was time.

    She took out a knife and walked over to a cell incubator that she¡¯d prepared. She carefully sliced at her upper arm and carved away a deep slice. There was a spray of blood before the wound healed again. Emily carefully placed the large chunk of her flesh that she¡¯d cut off in a glorified blender and ground it up and suspended it in a special fluid to help isolate the living cells.

    The outside of her skin was layers and layers of dead cells as a barrier to the outside world. She had to isolate the living cells underneath so her machine could genetically alter them so they¡¯d act more like an embryo. Totipotent or embryonic stem cells they were called, created from reverting them back from the more specialized skin cells that had been in the piece of her body she¡¯d just isolated, ones that could only reproduce to form other cells that would be found in the skin. Otherwise the skin type cells would never be able to form cells in her brain or heart like embryonic stem cells could.

    But after spending some time altering the cells in the cell culture so they were as close to embryonic cells as they could be, she placed the fluid with all the altered cells and drained it into the final machine.

    This one would filter out all the cells and select the one most viable for development. And then genetically alter it even further in an extremely fine tuned way. To turn it from an embryo like cell into something that would be indistinguishable from a real human embryo unless one inspected it very closely.

    Emily watched the screen as the machine did its work. She had already input her parameters long before now. It should randomize the genome a bit while also making sure to weed out and cure any genetic diseases that would crop up. She could have gone more granular with it, but that reeked of the Empire genetic purity eugenics programs and made her feel icky about looking too much deeper into doing any more alterations. So Emily left it mostly randomized besides the computer weeding out the genetic diseases.

    The machine finished and with a spurt ejected the cell on the other end into a small test tube attached to its side. Emily carefully grabbed it and pulled out the test tube with the invisible embryo cell inside. She walked over to the large incubation chamber and put the test tube with the embryo inside in its little slot.

    With a loud sucking noise, the contents of the test tube were drained as it entered the larger incubation machine and started being processed and developed. After the embryo was above a certain size then it would be ejected to the next slightly larger chamber in a long series of them. Each specialized with certain hormones and conditions to simulate proper fetal development. Once the fetus was a certain size it would be placed in the large central chamber where it could start fully developing with less supervision from the machine like as if it were in a real womb.

    But all of that was automatic. All Emily could do now was sit back and monitor things every once in a while. It would be a full year before it would be finished. The accelerated growth should take the baby past the phase where they could only survive on milk and straight to when they could eat real food. None of the women including her could breastfeed and there were no cows or similar animals to be found if that would even work, so that had been an important hurdle that Emily had had to work hard to overcome when she was designing the incubation process.

    Emily pursed her lips as she stared at the machine as she thought about what to do. Should she announce it now? Or after the baby was born from the machine? She hoped the bacterial cocktail she¡¯d included into the machine worked like she hoped. The beneficial bacteria should be implanted in the baby¡¯s gut and allow her to process the natural food on this planet. Or so Emily¡¯s careful tests had informed her should be the case. <i>Should.</i>

    No. She¡¯d¡­ She¡¯d tell Peter soon and let him decide. She¡¯d need help preparing for the new baby. But she¡¯d have to talk to him to see how to break the news to the others.

 Chapter 74: A Light in the Darkness

    ¡°This thing?¡± Peter said as he rested his open palm on the warm metal of the incubation chamber, ¡°The baby¡¯s in here right now?¡±

    ¡°Yes. She¡¯ll be ready in about a year. The first human born in another solar system.¡±

    Peter looked at her.

    ¡°Does this mean what I think it means?¡± he asked slowly.

    Emily nodded, ¡°We¡¯re going to bring them back. We can use this to return to fix what happened. Rebuild society on this new planet.¡±

    ¡°Rebuild¡­¡± Peter said slowly, rolling the word around in his mouth as if considering it. He looked back at the chamber as Emily saw a thoughtful look enter his eyes.

    ¡°Rebuild better¡­¡± he said slowly, almost muttering to himself, ¡°Without all the cruelties and horror of the old world. Something where all the old injustices can finally be wiped away¡­¡±

    ¡°What should we tell the others, Peter?¡± Emily asked after Peter kept staring at the incubation chamber for a long time and keeping his palm pressed against it.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure how they¡¯ll react,¡± she admitted, ¡°I know Sanje was against gene-edited children in general, especially back on Earth. Even to cure genetic diseases. He might not react well to it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll think about how to phrase it,¡± Peter said as his hand left the device and he turned to her, ¡°You¡¯re right, he might be difficult if we say something to set him off¡­ Especially given the source.¡±

    Emily grimaced, ¡°Yeah. Much better if it came from you,¡± she agreed.

    ¡°I¡¯ll announce it and we can discuss with everyone for our next meal in two weeks. Just come find me if you want to discuss anything before. Once it¡¯s out there I expect we¡¯ll be talking with the others for quite a while with no chance to discuss anything privately until they¡¯re done with their questions.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll make sure to do that, Peter. I¡¯m so glad we¡¯ve got someone like you leading us.¡±

    Peter smirked at her. He stood straight and tilted his head slightly to the side with his chin slightly tucked in. Emily immediately recognized it from all the CODA advertisements and posters.

    ¡°I¡¯m Peter Rose. And I¡¯m here to help,¡± he said formally before relaxing and returning to a normal stance.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± he said in a light tone, ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here too. Look what you¡¯ve created for all of us.¡±

    Peter gestured to the incubation chamber and Emily glanced at it before returning to look at him.

    ¡°A chance for all of us to rebuild,¡± Peter said, ¡°You¡¯ve given me hope for the future again.¡±

    Emily just nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak.

    Peter gave her a firm nod and then left the room, a bounce in his step and moving with purpose as he left.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Absolutely not!¡± Sanje said after Peter gave his explanation, ¡°We¡¯d be playing god, we can¡¯t create people and alter them, it¡¯s a perversion of nature.¡±

    ¡°Look, Sanje,¡± Peter said calmly, ¡°The baby is already incubating. Regardless of your feelings, she''s going to be born in a year. So we have to deal with that truth now and prepare for her.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Sanje,¡± Clara said, ¡°You can make some children the old way if you don¡¯t like it.¡±

    Emily shot Clara a confused look and then noticed that the rest of them were nodding in agreement, even Peter.

    ¡°Uhm, no?¡± Emily said, ¡°We can¡¯t?¡±

    Everyone stared at her.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡± Clara said, ¡°Of course we can. We¡¯ve got five women and five men don¡¯t we? Nothing¡¯s come of it yet, but I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll get some babies eventually if everyone keeps sleeping around¡­¡±

    Emily and Peter both looked at the others that looked embarrassed and a little sheepish as Clara¡¯s open admission.

    Emily blinked, ¡°But then¡­ you must know already, right? That it¡¯s impossible?¡±

    ¡°Well not impossible,¡± Clara said, ¡°Unlikely, maybe. And we¡¯ve all been careful. No one wanted a baby on the ship. And we¡¯ve all been too distracted adjusting to this place to think about it.¡±

    ¡°You really don¡¯t know?¡± Emily said in disbelief as she looked between all of them, ¡°We can¡¯t get pregnant anymore.¡±

    Clara chuckled, ¡°C¡¯mon, Emily. Just because you¡¯re swinging for the other team doesn¡¯t mean¡­¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said, cutting off Clara¡¯s mockery, ¡°All of you. I mean it. We don¡¯t have a menstrual cycle anymore, remember?¡±

    ¡°Well, yeah,¡± Clara said with a frown, ¡°But that shouldn¡¯t matter. The egg should still be able to go in there and develop like normal, right? You said we¡¯re frozen at the point of the cycle where an embryo could implant in there. Back when we were testing things on the ship. Doesn¡¯t that mean that we can have children?¡±

    ¡°No. It can¡¯t. We regenerate from anything foreign entering our body, remember? An embryo counts, especially with the umbilical cord integrating with our bodies. It¡¯ll all get dissolved away before a baby is anywhere near birth.¡±

    ¡°How are you so sure?¡± Clara accused, now looking upset, ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us before?¡±

    ¡°We established a long time ago on the ship that foreign bacteria and even our own genetically altered cancer-like cells are dissolved when we implanted them in ourselves. I thought it was obvious what it meant,¡± Emily said dumbly, ¡°Embryo¡¯s are more genetically different from us than any cancer cell would ever be, if a cancer dissolves then of course an embryo would be dissolved away too. You think I built that huge incubation machine and did all that work when we could have just acted as surrogates and carried the pregnancy ourselves from an implanted embryo?¡±

    Clara had an awkward expression and looked away.

    ¡°Sounds like something that you might do,¡± Clara muttered.

    ¡°We¡¯re getting distracted,¡± Peter said, cutting in, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter now. The machine is built, and the baby is growing. We have to prepare as a group and decide what we¡¯re going to do. And prepare for the newest member to our group.¡±

    Sanje opened his mouth to protest again, but Peter silenced him with a look.

    ¡°We¡¯ll see how it goes for the first baby first,¡± he promised, ¡°And we¡¯ll work from there. We¡¯ll have plenty of time to discuss the ethics of it all as we start our preparations.¡±

    Sanje reluctantly nodded, settling back after he realized that he was being overruled for the moment.

    "Wait, what about the men?" Sanje suddenly said, "If the women can''t get pregnant. But if there were a mortal woman and there was... You know... Could she get pregnant with one of us Immortal men?"

    "Well," Emily said, "I don''t see why not. The sperm from our tests are genetically the same as ever. Our cells still are technically the same in any part of us that gets removed. Including your sperm. But that hardly matters. We''re all Immortals either way. So the incubation machine is our only option."

    ¡°Well then,¡± Peter said to interrupt as Sanje looked like he wanted to return to arguing about the machines again at her mention of them, ¡°Let¡¯s start planning then. We¡¯ll need a more consistent source of food and make sure to add some temperature controls so that the baby''s not hurt by it being too hot or cold¡­¡±

    Then they started discussing and preparing. Focusing on the practical preparations rather than the ethical and religious arguments and objections that Sanje kept trying to bring up whenever he got the chance.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°This is it?¡± Peter asked, ¡°She¡¯s coming out soon?¡±

    ¡°Yes, another twenty minutes I think,¡± Emily said as she and Peter stood side by side in the cluttered lab staring at the incubation chamber.

    ¡°And she¡¯ll come out like she¡¯s a year old baby?¡±

    ¡°Physically,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just enough so we¡¯ll be sure that she can digest solid food. Or liquid food until she knows how to eat. But mentally she¡¯ll be like a complete newborn until she catches up and makes up for lost time.¡±

    ¡°Hm.¡±

    Their long and tense silence was broken by a loud and happy *ding!*, exactly like what you¡¯d hear from a microwave, that sounded from the incubator. Emily closed her eyes and internally cursed.

    ¡°Thought it would be funny when I was building it way back when,¡± Emily said in embarrassment as Peter smirked at her.

    ¡°Well, sounds like she¡¯s ready,¡± Peter said and gestured towards the machine that was whirring and humming now.

    With a final loud click, a hatch opened in the top of the chamber and a dripping platform rose out from inside. The platform swiveled and started traveling down the side of the incubator along a pair of rails until it stopped at waist level.

    There, sitting on top of the platform and squirming was the baby, covered in yellowish thick gunk.

    The two of them stepped forward and quickly cleaned off the new baby with some towels and put her in some clothes as she started screaming and wailing as the last of the fluid was ejected from her lungs. With no umbilical cord as she gestated within the incubation machine, she had no belly button.

    Emily ran a few quick tests with her equipment quickly to make sure the baby was healthy. But everything came back good.

    Emily picked up the screaming baby and bounced her up and down in her arms as she and Peter left the room.

    ¡°Shhhh, shhh, Luna. It¡¯s okay. You¡¯re fine,¡± Emily cooed as the baby seemed to calm slightly at Emily¡¯s tone.

    They went into the main room where everyone was waiting for them to arrive. Emily stood and all conversation stopped as they entered with little Luna, who¡¯d gone silent and was just snuffling against Emily¡¯s chest and having her face scrunched like she might cry again if anything went wrong again and disturbed her.

    ¡°It¡¯s a girl!¡± Peter shouted to the group loudly and Luna started wailing again.

    ¡°Peter!¡± Emily scolded and shushed the baby again as the rest watched her and crowded around even as they stayed quiet so as not to disturb Luna again.

    ¡°Can I hold her?¡± Clara asked in a whisper.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Emily agreed, ¡°Just hold her behind the head to support it. Yeah, just copy me with your other arm¡­¡±

    They transferred the upset Luna into Clara¡¯s arms as Emily showed Clara how to hold the baby.

    ¡°When she¡¯s upset, just bounce her. Babies like that,¡± Emily finished as Clara stared down at the baby in her arms. Bigger than any newborn would be at nearly twenty pounds. But still small enough that she still easily fit in their arms.

    After a few minutes, Sanje held Luna next, staring down at the baby with a complicated expression as he looked down at her. But then he passed Luna along to the next person.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you knew so much about babies,¡± Clara whispered to Emily as they watched the others hold the babies, ¡°I thought you were the youngest in your family?¡±

    ¡°Luke had a little brother,¡± Emily whispered back, ¡°He was ten years younger than Luke. When I visited them I helped out, his parents paid me a bit to watch the baby after school sometimes when they needed somebody. Luke was hopeless with all of it.¡±

    Clara gave Emily an impressed look, ¡°Huh. How about that,¡± she said before Luna started crying again and both of them refocused on the baby.

    Eventually after making a full circle around, Luna was passed back to Emily. Luna had been fussing and been cranky the whole time she¡¯d been passed around, but calmed down immediately as soon as Emily held her again.

    Emily looked down and saw that Luna was looking up at her intently, her face seemingly scrunched up in comical confusion.

    ¡°Hey,¡± Emily said, ¡°You hungry, Luna? Let¡¯s fill that little stomach of yours now. You must be so hungry after all that crying you did¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Look everyone,¡± Emily said angrily to the group, ¡°You can¡¯t miss shifts! We made a schedule and we stick to it. When I came, Luna was completely alone in the crib with no one in sight! That¡¯s not okay!¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ¡°I only left ten minutes early,¡± Sanje protested, ¡°What¡¯s the harm?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you even,¡± Emily said, pointing at him as she directed all her anger at him, ¡°She¡¯s a baby! She can¡¯t just be by herself without someone there even for one minute! What if she tried to eat something and choked on it and died? No one leaves her alone until somebody else takes over. You all got that? It¡¯s not just you Sanje, the rest of you have been skipping out early for the last six months too.¡±

    Emily wished Peter was here to make them understand. None of them respected her and thought she was just being dramatic. None of them had had to take care of a baby before so they didn¡¯t realize how serious little things like not having someone watching Luna could get.

    Peter and two of the others including Clara had gone off foraging for more food. And to try to find some samples of edible plants that they might be able to farm. They were still hunting and gathering wild food, and nothing that Peter or the others had found in the year and a half had seemed like good candidates for farming yet.

    Until they found something promising to plant, Peter and the others would have to go on these hunting trips so they¡¯d always have enough food for little Luna to eat.

    ¡°Perhaps you should take care of her by yourself if only you know how it should be done apparently,¡± Sanje muttered.

    Emily suddenly felt calm, ¡°Maybe I should,¡± she said, ¡°If none of you can take it seriously, then it¡¯s best if you just don¡¯t do it. I know none of you like me, but this is about Luna and not me. What¡¯s best for her, to make sure that she¡¯s safe. If none of you care about that then you can just fuck all the way off.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t say it like that!¡± Sanje protested, ¡°Of course we care about Luna but¡­¡±

    ¡°But you have better things to do,¡± Emily interrupted, ¡°So go, go do whatever it is. Go make your stupid carvings and statues. I¡¯ll take care of Luna full time then. But if you want to watch Luna again then no skipping out and no slacking off.¡±

    The rest of them glanced at each other.

    ¡°Fine, you watch her then,¡± Sanje said, throwing his hands up, ¡°Just don¡¯t come complaining to us about not doing our part.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Emily said coldly and glanced at the others, ¡°I guess it¡¯s my shift for Luna next then. The rest of you can keep working on your own things now you have what you want.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Bock,¡±

    Emily looked up from her datapad and saw Luna staring at her from where the toddler stood inside the crib.

    ¡°Bock,¡± Luna repeated as she stared at Emily expectantly.

    ¡°Bock?¡± Emily asked, ¡°What is it, Luna? Is it¡­ Oh!¡±

    Emily saw where one of Luna¡¯s colorful blocks had somehow been thrown out of the high walled crib and fallen onto the floor. Emily quickly walked over and picked it up and held it out to Luna.

    ¡°You wanted to ask momma for the block?¡± Emily said in an exaggerated excited voice, ¡°That¡¯s so good, Luna! You¡¯re so smart, isn¡¯t talking so fun?¡±

    Luna smiled at Emily¡¯s praise even if Emily didn¡¯t think the girl had entirely understood why Emily was doing so. Luna clumsily grabbed the block from Emily¡¯s hands and sat back down on her butt inside the crib and started playing again, happy to have her precious red block back.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°No!¡± Luna said while pouting and crossing her arms, ¡°No, mommy! Gross.¡±

    ¡°Aw, Luna,¡± Emily said as she cut another little piece of alien vegetable on the girl¡¯s plate, ¡°Didn¡¯t you love them yesterday? Remember how delicious they were? Yum!¡±

    Emily took a little bite, ¡°Mmmmmhhhh. So good!¡±

    ¡°Good?¡± Luna said, uncrossing her arms and staring at the food a little thoughtfully. She took an experimental bite before spitting it out and scrunching up her face again.

    ¡°Noooo, mooommmmyyy!!! I don¡¯t wannnnnaaaa!¡± Luna wailed as she shoved her plate away and accidentally flipped it over and spilled food all over the floor and table. Or maybe not so accidentally. It was so hard to tell the difference most of the time.

    Emily sighed and tried to calm down Luna¡¯s tantrum as best as she could. Luke¡¯s little brother had been so well behaved, Emily had never had to deal with this kind of thing when she was taking care of him¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Good night, Luna,¡± Emily said as she tucked the girl into her bed. Peter had found an alien fiber equivalent that they had been able to process into thread. Which had been further processed into clothes, blankets, and sheets as needed either by hand or through a machine that Emily had built.

    Luna¡¯s bed had blue sheets and covers with little cartoonish yellow stars covering its surface. Emily leaned down and kissed Luna¡¯s forehead after making sure that the blankets were pulled all the way up to the little girl¡¯s chin.

    ¡°Mama?¡± Luna suddenly asked.

    ¡°Yes, honey?¡± Emily said and turned back around.

    ¡°Why don¡¯t you sleep too? Don¡¯t you have to?¡± Luna asked, only her head poking out from beneath the covers and blankets.

    Emily sat down on a little stool near the bed.

    ¡°Well, I can. But no, I don¡¯t have to,¡± she said.

    ¡°Why not? I don¡¯t want to sleep anymore either.¡±

    Emily reached out and gently brushed a strand of hair from Luna¡¯s forehead back to the side and out of the girl¡¯s eyes, ¡°No, Luna. Little girls need their sleep. Peter is going to take us for an adventure in the woods tomorrow. You¡¯ve got to rest up for that. I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll be lots of fun.¡±

    Luna nodded and Emily withdrew her hand and stood up. She walked to the door and her hand was on the switch when Luna spoke again.

    ¡°Momma?¡±

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Can you sleep with me tonight in the bed? Even if you don¡¯t have to? It''s so scary in the dark...¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Emily said after keeping her hand on the lightswitch for a moment, ¡°I¡¯m coming, scoot over so momma has enough room to fit.¡±

    Emily shut the door and flicked off the light, plunging the room into darkness besides the light of the alien moon coming in through the window. The alien moon looked only a little different than the Earths. Almost the same size, same gray color¡­ But different still, even if only slightly.

    Emily navigated by moonlight over to the bed and carefully stepped over Luna¡¯s shifting form and lay down with her back to the wall of the room.

    Emily went under the covers and quickly adjusted them so they were covering both of them again.

    ¡°Night, Luna,¡± Emily whispered as her little girl pressed her back against Emily¡¯s chest.

    ¡°Night, mommy,¡± Luna muttered, sounding a little drowsy even after a few seconds.

    Emily thought about sleeping, and a few seconds later she was out like a light.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Momma! Look, there¡¯s little fishies in the water!¡±

    Emily walked over and leaned in to look down into the river and sure enough there were some little minnows swimming around by the riverbank.

    ¡°So cool, Luna!¡± Emily said, ¡°Look at them just swimming down there. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll grow up into big huge fishes one day. Bigger than you even!¡±

    ¡°You think so?¡± Luna said while looking at Emily with wide eyes.

    ¡°What do we have over here?¡± Peter said from behind, ¡°Looking at the fish, Luna?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. What¡¯s the biggest fish you¡¯ve caught, Peter? You catch the fish that we eat? Those ones must be huge if all of us can eat one at once.¡±

    Peter chuckled, ¡°Oh, I¡¯d say the biggest was¡­¡±

    Peter held his hands about two feet apart before widening it to over four feet long.

    ¡°This big.¡±

    ¡°Whoa!¡± Luna said, looking amazed as she took in the space between Peter¡¯s hands.

    ¡°Peter,¡± Emily scolded lightly.

    Peter chuckled before returning his hands back to two feet apart, ¡°Okay, not that big,¡± he admitted, ¡°It was actually this big, Luna.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s still big,¡± Luna stated after considering the smaller distance between Peter¡¯s hands for a moment.

    ¡°Yes, yes it is,¡± Peter said.

    The three of them kept wandering along the riverbank on the little path that Peter had curated over the last couple years. Luna was about six years old now, and they came here often when they wanted to give her a good nature experience. The open plains around their home were fine for running around in, but weren¡¯t nearly as interesting as this forest and river were.

    They kept moving. Luna ran ahead on the trail, leaning down to inspect all sorts of things and running side to side as she roamed around.

    ¡°Luna? Not too far,¡± Emily said. Luna reluctantly slowed down and maintained her current distance ahead of Emily and Peter.

    Suddenly as Luna ran across the path again, her foot caught on the edge of a raised rock in the path. Not paying attention, Luna tripped over it and fell to the ground with a scream.

    Emily jogged forward as Luna rolled over and started crying. Her dress was dirty and she¡¯d scraped her knee as she fell to the muddy ground.

    ¡°Luna? Luna, are you okay? What hurts?¡± Emily said as squatted down and inspected the crying girl.

    ¡°M-M-My knee, it, it huuuurts,¡± Luna screamed and started crying again.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay, Luna. I¡¯ve got a bandage for you in my pack. Shhhh, it¡¯s fine. Momma¡¯s got it¡­¡±

    Emily took out her bandage from her pack and after wiping the scrape clean and rubbing some anti-bacterial cream that Peter had made in the cut, she wrapped it up in the white bandage.

    ¡°How about now?¡± Emily asked Luna, who was still sniffling and gripping the hem of Emily¡¯s shirt tightly with her fists.

    ¡°I-It¡¯s better,¡± Luna admitted.

    ¡°You got to watch where you¡¯re running,¡± Emily lightly scolded, ¡°You want me to carry you?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Luna said.

    Emily reached down and hoisted her girl so she was resting just above the left side of Emily¡¯s hip as they walked. Luna calmed down and stared around even as she kept whimpering about her knee a bit as they kept going down along the path.

    ¡°It really is something to watch,¡± Peter said suddenly a few minutes later, ¡°How good you are with her. I never could have calmed her down that quickly even if I tried.¡±

    ¡°Well, I do my best,¡± Emily said, happy for the compliment.

    They kept walking, and eventually Luna felt well enough that she wanted to be put down so she could run around again.

    They kept walking through the forest and turned to move away from the river deeper into the woods to complete the loop of the trail that Peter had made.

    There was a sudden rustling in the woods to their right and Emily looked over curiously. Her eyes widened as she saw something looking like a jaguar crouched and its body tensed like it was ready to pounce. Emily followed its gaze and saw that its large yellow eyes were fixed on Luna.

    ¡°Luna!¡± Emily screamed and sprinted forward as the creature leapt out from the bush with claws extended and jaws wide towards the little girl who straightened from the other side of the path and looked back at Emily in confusion.

    Emily leapt forward and tackled the heavy animal out of the air and wrapped her hands around the back half of its torso. Even with her hanging on, the animal was so heavy that it still moved forward and landed only five feet away from where Luna stood frozen.

    Emily tightened her grip around the panther like creature¡¯s torso as her arms wrapped completely around it and heaved with all of her strength and dragged it to the side as the both of them hit the ground hard.

    The creature had silky black fur, which oddly mixed with the row of sharp lizard like spikes that lined its spine and went over both of its eyes. Its head was elongated like a dog¡¯s with a long nose and was covered in a thin layer of scales in contrast with the rest of its furred body. Its mouth was filled with sharp fangs.

    The creature thrashed and Emily heaved at it again with all of her strength to force it to roll away from Luna.

    ¡°Mommy!¡±

    ¡°Peter, get her away! Luna, run!¡± Emily shouted before groaning as the creature¡¯s head swiveled and bit deeply into her shoulder as she fought to drag it away from Luna.

    ¡°MOMMY!¡±

    ¡°Emily-¡± Peter shouted as Emily heard him scooping up a screaming and protesting Luna.

    ¡°Go, Peter!¡± Emily shouted before groaning again as the creature squirmed as she kept trying to wrestle it to the ground. The two hind legs'' sharp claws were carving large chunks from her legs while the forepaws swiped at her stomach and chest. Its head was still embedded in her shoulder and shaking back and forth in an attempt to rip off her arm.

    ¡°Get her¡­ out of here!¡± Emily shouted as she angrily curled her fist in her free arm and punched the creature hard in the ribs with all of her strength. The creature flinched, but just attacked her with even more ferocity after.

    Emily kept punching it hard even as she worked to keep it pinned and stop it from freeing itself from her grip.

    Emily heard Peter¡¯s footsteps and Luna¡¯s wailing fade into the distance as he sprinted away back towards their plane at full speed.

    Now that Luna was out of the way, Emily focused on the creature that had just tried to kill her daughter.

    She kept wrestling the animal. The creature let out an aborted yowl as it withdrew its head from her shoulder. All of its teeth were dissolved away like they¡¯d all been removed halfway from the base with a precision laser.

    Seeing that, Emily noticed that many of the claws on its other four clawing limbs had also snapped off. Now it only had a single claw or two on each paw that was still attached, the rest pitted and looked like they¡¯d been soaked in acid, or snapped off and hanging from the paws only by single threads of material left behind.

    Emily worked her way up the creature¡¯s squirming body until she was straddled just below its upper two limbs and leaning over the creature¡¯s head as it was pinned below her. She wrapped her legs around its upper body tightly and squeezed to keep herself latched on. Even while still gripping the thrashing creature with her legs, she sat up and started pummeling it with both fists now that it had been declawed and its teeth had been left as nothing but nubs.

    It yowled pitifully and weakly tried to push her off with its damaged paws, but Emily kept going and kept punching its skull over and over again.

    The creature whimpered as its strikes grew weaker and weaker until it finally went limp as the last few of Emily¡¯s punches and uppercuts to its jaw finally managed to knock it unconscious.

    Emily kept pummeling it for a few more seconds after it went still just in case it was faking.

    She sat there panting, straddling the unconscious beast. She slowly unclenched her fists and took a deep breath. She rolled off of the creature where it was breathing slowly even as small bits of blood dripped out of the corners of its mouth as it lay on its side.

    Emily stood to her feet and took in her state. Her clothes around her stomach region and everything below her thighs was in strips of cloth and completely shredded from the fight.

    She reached up to her shoulder and felt the series of holes and rips in her shirt where the creature¡¯s fangs had punched through and it had shook its head to damage her.

    But she was fine, besides the blood ringing the spots where she¡¯d been hurt, her skin was unbroken now and she didn¡¯t have the slightest bit of pain anymore.

    Leaving the beast where it lay unconscious, Emily started running back to where they had parked the helicopter. She had to make sure that Luna was okay, who knew if there had only been just one beast ready to attack them¡­ What if thy came in packs?

    Emily turned the corner and saw Peter in the pilot¡¯s seat of the plane, a thrashing and screaming Luna held tightly in his lap with one arm.

    They both turned their heads when Emily came into sight. Peter said something and Luna calmed down a little as she stared at Emily running towards them.

    Emily jumped into the plane, opening the door to the compartment in the rear meant for cargo and climbing inside. She shut it behind her and locked it firmly.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, Peter,¡± Emily shouted over the rumbling engine, ¡°I want to get Luna out of here.¡±

    ¡°Okay, takeoff in a minute or so,¡± Peter shouted back as the engines roared into life and they started inching forward across the long flat flight strip for takeoff.

    ¡°I¡¯m letting Luna go,¡± Peter warned before there was a scrabbling at the door between cargo and the cockpit. After a second the door opened and a tear streaked Luna came running in.

    ¡°Mommy! Mommy okay? Hurt? What happened with the bad animal?¡± Luna babbled as she charged Emily before coming to a stop and blinking as she took in Emily¡¯s appearance.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ not hurt, mommy?¡±

    ¡°No, Luna,¡± Emily said soothingly as she crouched down, ¡°I¡¯m fine. I was worried about you the whole time. Come here, you look like you need a hug.¡±

    Emily sat on a nearby bench and lifted Luna onto her lap and they hugged each other for a while. Emily rested her head on Luna¡¯s as the girl pressed tight against her.

    ¡°What happened to the bad animal?¡± Luna asked quietly, ¡°Did you scare it away?¡±

    ¡°I put it to sleep, Luna,¡± Emily said, ¡°He¡¯s in timeout for attacking us. We¡¯ll make sure he¡¯ll know to never do it again.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Luna said, ¡°Did he eat your shirt and pants? I thought he was hurting you. But was he just after our clothes maybe?¡±

    ¡°No, he didn¡¯t want to eat our clothes,¡± Emily said with a snort of laughter that she quickly suppressed, ¡°I¡¯ll explain when we get home and clean up. He was a very bad animal. I¡¯m very glad you got back here safely with Peter.¡±

    ¡°He just left you with the animal all alone,¡± Luna said, ¡°He¡¯s a meanie.¡±

    ¡°I told him to,¡± Emily countered, ¡°I couldn¡¯t focus properly if I had to worry about you getting hurt by accident, could I?¡±

    ¡°But Peter should have helped you!¡± Luna protested, ¡°He didn¡¯t even try!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯ll make more sense when I explain the other thing,¡± Emily said, ¡°He knew that I would be fine. You¡¯re much more important, Luna.¡±

    ¡°No! Mommy¡¯s important! Not just Luna!¡± Luna said firmly and squeezed Emily tighter.

    Emily started choking up and getting emotional, ¡°T- Thank you, Luna. I promise I won¡¯t get hurt. You¡¯re such a good girl¡­¡±

 Chapter 75: The Sapling Grows

    ¡°Luna, you remember when you hurt your knee?¡± Emily asked. The girl nodded and rubbed the bandages that had been freshly replaced after their bath after they¡¯d returned home.

    ¡°It got hurt and bled for a bit, but then it stopped right? And after a few weeks it¡¯ll scab over and get healed again. Right?¡±

    Luna nodded.

    ¡°Well, for mommy and the other adults here it happens much much faster. So fast that even the biggest scrapes and bruises heal in only a few seconds.¡±

    Luna¡¯s eyes widened.

    ¡°Really? They do?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m going to show you,¡± Emily said and took the small carving knife that she¡¯d made when she¡¯d experimented with wood carving to see if art was for her. It wasn¡¯t really, but she¡¯d given it a good attempt anyway.

    ¡°Now, don¡¯t you ever do this yourself. Can you promise me, Luna? This would hurt you a lot,¡± Emily said sternly.

    Luna nodded silently.

    Emily took the sharp knife and pressed it into her palm and sliced a long cut across its length.

    Luna gasped as she watched the cut visibly shrink away before all that was left behind was the few drops of blood that had left Emily¡¯s body in the meantime.

    ¡°Did you see?¡± Emily asked, ¡°That¡¯s why Peter knew I would be okay yesterday. I could heal fast even if I got in trouble.¡±

    Luna¡¯s eyes widened and her eyes started welling up, ¡°B- B- But does that mean that the animal really hurt you and you healed after?¡±

    Emily hesitated and Luna looked horrified, ¡°No, mommy! Are you okay? Did it hurt?¡±

    Emily hesitated even more before deciding that she didn¡¯t want to lie, ¡°I¡¯m okay, Luna. Yes, it did hurt a lot. But I did it to protect you. So I don¡¯t mind too much.¡±

    Luna looked disturbed, but didn¡¯t say anything else in reply.

    ¡°Will I heal fast when I grow up?¡± Luna eventually asked, ¡°Be strong like you mommy?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll be so very strong and brave,¡± Emily said, ¡°But you won¡¯t heal fast like me or the others.¡±

    ¡°Why not? I want to heal fast,¡± Luna said with a slight pout, ¡°My knee still hurts a bit.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s a story for when you¡¯re older,¡± Emily said, ¡°But¡­ No, I¡¯ll tell you when you¡¯re older. But it¡¯s not something that happens naturally when you get older.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Luna said, sounding disappointed, ¡°Can you sleep with me again tonight? What if that creature sneaks in and you¡¯re not here to put him in timeout?¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Emily said, ¡°But he won¡¯t get in. They don¡¯t like to come into houses.¡±

    ¡°Oh. That¡¯s good.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Mom?¡± Luna asked as they laid together outside on the grasses of the open plains in the darkness. She was ten years old now.

    ¡°Why do none of the other kids have parents like I do?¡± she asked.

    ¡°They have parents, the whole group takes care of them,¡± Emily corrected, ¡°It¡¯s not like they¡¯re all alone.¡±

    ¡°I know. But we¡¯re different. Everyone takes shifts taking care of them all and never just for one kid, but you¡¯re always with me. And I heard Sanje complaining one time about how much work it was¡­ You never complained about taking care of me.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a lot of work,¡± Emily said, ¡°Ignore whatever Sanje said. He was probably just frustrated and didn¡¯t really mean it. You know what mothers and fathers are, right? Can you tell me?¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re¡­ People who directly take care of you, right? Boys are the fathers and girls are the mothers?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s more than that, although that¡¯s a big part of it,¡± Emily said, ¡°You remember that big machine that makes the babies, right? I built that. But usually it''s one man and woman who work together to make a baby. Before I made the machine.¡±

    ¡°They do what the machine does? Is it like those carvings Clara and the others do? They¡¯re so complex. Is it as hard as that? To make a baby?¡±

    Emily chuckled, ¡°No, Luna. It¡¯s not that hard. But only adults can do it. Or they used to. That¡¯s how it¡¯s always been for a very long time, with that being the only way to make new people. I had to make the machine because us adults can¡¯t make any more kids. It¡¯s a side effect of our powers, our accelerated healing. Now with the machine that can do it, the others don¡¯t feel like the kids are truly theirs. And it makes some of them sad knowing that they can¡¯t ever make their own. That¡¯s why the kids are being raised as a group and they¡¯re acting so annoyed rather than acting as parents as if they¡¯d made the baby themselves.¡±

    ¡°But isn¡¯t it the same?¡± Luna asked, ¡°Why does it matter who made the baby? Even if there¡¯s too many they could all just claim one. It¡¯s like they care about everybody¡­ but only a little bit. Not like how you act with me. But none of them act the same, like how you help me. I dunno, it¡¯s like they¡¯re just not excited about it even if they know it¡¯s something they¡¯re supposed to do. I came out of that machine too. Am I less important than if you¡¯d made me with a father?¡±

    ¡°No, you¡¯re not less important Luna. I don¡¯t think that way at all. But the rest do think that way sometimes,¡± Emily said, ¡°They¡¯re helping the larger group, and that¡¯s all they want to do unless they make the baby themselves. Or some other reason. I¡¯m not really sure why they are¡­ I don¡¯t know. I wanted to do more for you, but it¡¯s not something I had to do. At least not when you were past a certain age.¡±

    There was silence as the both of them lay there in the darkness bathed in the light of the full moon above. Emily thought about what Luna had said. She should try to pay more attention to the larger group of kids who had been born after Luna. They needed someone who more visibly showed their affection as a role model in their lives. The others were more distant and while they cared of course, none of them were particularly good with kids as a baseline. Emily was already doing her best to care for them when it was her shift to watch over them, but she should put some extra effort to make sure that the children knew that she wasn¡¯t doing it just out of obligation like the others.

    ¡°What are your powers?¡± Luna asked, ¡°How¡¯d you get them? Am I old enough now?¡±

    ¡°Are you?¡± Emily asked absently, ¡°It¡¯s not a very happy story. But I¡¯ll tell you if you want me to. But think carefully if you want me to tell you or not.¡±

    Luna thought about it.

    ¡°I want to know.¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Emily said with a shuddering breath as the horrible memories washed over her and she organized her thoughts.

    ¡°Did you know that we¡¯re all originally from another planet entirely?¡±

    ¡°Another planet? Aren¡¯t they all bad to live on? Remember when I pointed out that yellow planet in the sky at night and you said it was full of acid rain?¡±

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s true for everything in this solar system,¡± Emily said, ¡°But I¡¯m talking even further than that. We¡¯re from another planet in a completely different solar system. We grew up under a completely different sun and moon than the one we have here.¡±

    ¡°A different sun and moon?¡± Luna asked thoughtfully and Emily heard her shift to look upward at the moon above.

    ¡°You¡¯re named after it, you know,¡± Emily said, ¡°That was the name of our old moon. Luna. Or one of the names.¡±

    ¡°Huh. I didn¡¯t know that¡­ Why didn¡¯t you tell me? I thought I was named after this moon.¡±

    ¡°This moon can be Luna too. We haven¡¯t named it officially yet.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ what was it like? The other planet? Did you get your powers there?¡±

    ¡°It was nice, a lot like this one,¡± Emily said, ¡°But there were a lot of people there. More than you¡¯ve ever seen, covering the whole surface.¡±

    ¡°How many? Hundreds? Thousands?¡±

    ¡°Billions. So many that you could hardly find a single spot on the planet where somebody wasn¡¯t living there.¡±

    ¡°Billions¡­¡± Luna said, amazed, ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s so many. It must have been so crowded, I see why you¡¯d want to leave.¡±

    Emily chuckled, ¡°I guess it was.¡±

    ¡°Will all of those people come here someday?¡± Luna asked, ¡°Like you and the other adults did?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said, resisting the urge to say some comforting lie. But best to get it out of the way rather than dragging it out, ¡°Something very bad happened and now we¡¯re all that¡¯s left. The old planet, Earth, was destroyed. A creature known as the Shadow appeared and gave us our powers to save us from what happened. Or that¡¯s what I think they were for. But then it went away again as soon as it gave us our powers and didn¡¯t talk to us again.¡±

    Luna didn¡¯t say anything as she processed all of that.

    ¡°Is the bad thing going to happen here again?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said firmly, ¡°No, of course not. We¡¯re safe here. A place to rebuild. We¡¯ll be just fine.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why you can¡¯t have our powers,¡± Emily added, ¡°Only the Shadow can give them, and it''s gone for now.¡±

    ¡°What was your old planet like? Before it was destroyed?¡±

    Emily started telling Luna all about Earth. Culture, technology, all the natural wonders she could remember. Everything she could remember about it as Luna kept asking her questions.

    ¡°Now, c¡¯mon, Luna,¡± Emily said as she noticed Luna¡¯s eyes drifting shut and her speech started to slur.

    ¡°It¡¯s time for bed. We can talk more tomorrow.¡±

    ¡°Oookay *Yawn*, Mom,¡± Luna said and stumbled to her feet. Emily clicked on the flashlight and the two of them returned to the house and Emily put Luna to bed. She closed the door to the bedroom behind her and just stood in the hallway for a moment.

    Luna had seemed to take it all in pretty well. Emily wasn¡¯t sure if she really was that unaffected, or if it was all just an act.

    Or maybe she just didn¡¯t care. To her it must be like a distant story, like a fairytale. She¡¯d never known anything but Gaia.

    Their new home.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Bye, Mom! See you in a few weeks.¡±

    ¡°Stay safe, Luna. Make sure to listen to Peter on your trip.¡±

    ¡°I will. I¡¯m so excited to go on a real hunting trip with the others,¡± Luna admitted.

    Emily checked her over one last time before waving goodbye as Luna climbed into the plane and the five members of the hunting party including Luna and Peter took off and flew away.

    There was a faint sense of worry in the back of Emily¡¯s mind, but Luna was nearly sixteen now. Emily couldn¡¯t hover over her so much anymore.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± Clara asked casually as she leaned on the table and inspected the screen on the bulky machine that Emily was tapping and working with.

    ¡°Pretty good,¡± Emily replied absently, ¡°It¡¯s been a struggle, but I¡¯m almost there I think. We¡¯ve got some good variety on the latest round of samples and the first crop is nearly ready for the larger test fields I think. Genetically modified for increased yield, hardiness so they¡¯ll survive harsh weather, ease of planting compared to the wild strain¡­ I think that this year¡¯s round might be it. We¡¯ll be ready to get some real farming done.¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    ¡°That¡¯s good,¡± Clara said, ¡°Actually¡­ Once that¡¯s done, I have to tell you something. There¡¯s going to be a big meeting after the hunting trip and feast after. With just the ten of us, not any of the kids. If the crops are almost ready then we should be discussing next steps.¡±

    ¡°Next steps?¡± Emily asked in confusion, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, we have the plans for your machine,¡± Clara said, ¡°The atomic printer can make them as long as it has the right materials. Doesn¡¯t make sense for us to raise all the kids ourselves for another round. The older ones are getting old enough by now that they might be able to start living on their own soon.¡±

    ¡°Old enough?¡± Emily said, offended, ¡°Luna¡¯s only sixteen! And the rest are even younger. That¡¯s ridiculous!¡±

    Clara held her hands up defensively, ¡°Hey, I¡¯m not saying right now. But in a few years. When they¡¯re ready.¡±

    Emily stared at the woman for a moment.

    ¡°I don¡¯t understand any of you,¡± Emily said suddenly, ¡°We¡¯ve resurrected humanity! We have children to take care of, people to nurture. But all of you view it as some sort of chore. I mean you all enjoy being fun aunts and uncles, but the actual work is just a burden for all of you apparently. Even Peter goes out on his exploration trips all the time. All of you are forced to make a schedule and argue when you¡¯re forced to stay with the kids for longer than planned. How can any of your other hobbies possibly be as important as this?¡±

    Clara shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re so dedicated. But it is a lot of work. We¡¯re all happy that humanity isn¡¯t doomed of course. More than happy, overjoyed really. But I guess after so long we¡¯ve just¡­ gotten in the habit of doing our own thing. People are creatures of habit and all that¡­ And none of us were ready for families, even before. I wonder if that¡¯s part of how the Shadow selected us somehow. None of us had anyone steady that we were dating when the bombs dropped. Less to tie us to the past maybe¡­ Even you. You even told me you hadn¡¯t even considered it before Luna was born. Being a mother.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said slowly, ¡°I guess I didn¡¯t. But I tried, and found that I wanted it. Despite the hard work. So why didn¡¯t any of you?¡±

    Clara looked awkward and shrugged again, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I guess it just turned out that way.¡±

    The woman stood and cleared her throat, ¡°Well, ah. Point is. Meeting after the big hunt and we¡¯ll discuss what to do when the time comes. Make sure to stay after the feast so you¡¯ll be there.¡±

    ¡°Alright, Clara. Thanks for the warning.¡±

    ¡°Good luck on modifying those crops. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll have improved massively from last growing season.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Look mom! I shot the one we¡¯re eating tonight!¡± Luna said excitedly and pointed to the almost bison looking animal that was being lugged out of the belly of the cargo plane by Peter and Sanje.

    ¡°Wow! Some sort of herbivore?¡± Emily said, ¡°It¡¯s huge! Tell me about it, how¡¯d it go?¡±

    Luna chattered at Emily happily as the girl told all her stories from the hunting trip for the last few weeks. They had landed the plane in one place and hunted for a few days before taking off and moving on to a new place.

    After finishing her story, Luna looked around and noticed that Sanje and Peter had disappeared.

    ¡°Oh!¡± Luna said, ¡°Sorry, mom. Peter said he¡¯d show me how to process the animal and extract the meat. It¡¯s¡­ It looked really gross,¡± Luna said with a scrunched nose, ¡°But I still want to see how it¡¯s done at least,¡± she finished.

    ¡°Okay, I think they carried it over that way,¡± Emily said and pointed off to where the two men had gone, ¡°Just make sure to stay clean. Since they can¡¯t get sick they aren¡¯t always as careful as they should be with germs.¡±

    ¡°I know, mom. See you for dinner, okay bye!¡±

    Luna ran off to catch up to the other hunters and join in as they started to prepare the feast for tonight.

    Emily pursed her lips as she watched Luna open a door and run inside the complex that was their home. She was still thinking over what Clara had said to her earlier. Tonight was when the others would discuss what their plans were.

    Based on what Clara had said, there were already plans they had prepared. It would just be a debate on which was best. Or more accurately a debate among the others. None of the others but Peter respected her opinion. Even Clara was a little dismissive of Emily¡¯s thoughts even if she liked Emily on a personal level. Or that was Emily¡¯s interpretation at least. Maybe she was reading into things too much. But she didn¡¯t think she¡¯d get much of a vote in what happened unless she was extremely vocal about whatever her stance was.

    She shook her head. She¡¯d worry about that after the meal. This was Luna¡¯s big day to celebrate her first successful hunt. Best to focus on that first.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The plates at the center of the table were piled high with carved pieces of sizzling and dripping cuts of meat. A few wild vegetables and fruits were scattered across the large table.

    Peter sat at one end of the table while Luna sat on the other. All of the younger kids were gathered around Luna and looking at her with worshipful eyes as she narrated her stories of the hunt.

    Emily smiled slightly as she looked around the room and took another bite of her food. Ten adults, and over fifty of the children ranging from fourteen to four years old. All were altered clones of the original ten of them. Emily had refined her machine and increased the genetic variation more and more as time went on. The oldest children were much closer in look to their cell donors, but the younger the children had much more genetic variation as Emily had refined and improved her genetic variation algorithm.

    Now that Luna was getting older she was looking more and more similar to Emily as the days passed. Still not exactly the same, but enough that no one would ever say they were anything more distant than sisters back on Earth. Especially with the apparently small age gap with Emily at an apparent twenty five while Luna was sixteen.

    But the other children were much more varied. And while they retained some basic features from their original donor, it was only subtle cues. The genetic variation algorithm was so advanced by now that the kids were all distinct and hardly looked like any of their donors at all by this point besides those few remnants.

    Emily could understand how much work taking care of so many kids could be, especially with fifty of them. But the older ones took some of the load taking care of the younger ones sometimes. So it wasn¡¯t as much work as it really should be. Emily hadn¡¯t expected any of the others to bond with any of the children like she had with Luna, but she¡¯d expected them to not act so¡­ resentful of taking care of the big group. Or that¡¯s how it seemed to Emily at least.

    Emily did her shifts along with the others with the kids. When the others came late or made excuses on why they had to extend her shift, she didn¡¯t usually mind. It was all very chaotic of course, but Emily enjoyed it. And she couldn¡¯t get physically tired anymore so she could entertain the hordes of little hellions as long as she liked without collapsing from exhaustion afterwards like she¡¯d have if she was a normal woman.

    She shook her head. She had to just enjoy the meal, she¡¯d save all of that worrying until the meeting with the others later.

    Emily felt a tug on the hem of her shirt and looked down. It took her a second to place the face of the dark skinned four year old boy staring up at her. One of the ones who had Sanje as their cell donor.

    ¡°Alem? Did someone get your chair?¡±

    Alem shook his head. Emily stood up and pushed her plate away as she stepped away from the table.

    ¡°Just wait here, I¡¯ll get it for you,¡± she promised the boy. She walked out of the room and went into the closet with the booster seat for the boy. It was carved of wood by Clara and lined with fabric so it would be soft. Fabric that was heavily stained and had to be changed out often, but it still was comfortable enough to get the job done.

    Emily lifted it and returned to the room and carefully set it down on top of the long bench running down the table. She lifted Alem and placed him in his chair.

    She looked around and met the eyes of an Asian looking eight year old girl standing nearby talking with a few of the others.

    ¡°Aika?¡± Emily called out, ¡°Can you help Alem with his food? Cut it up into little bites and give it to him?¡±

    Aika looked around and looked like she wanted to hide, but her friends mercilessly stepped aside so Emily had a full view of her and thwarted her attempts to hide. Aika trudged forward as it became clear that there was no escape.

    ¡°Do I have to, momma Emily?¡± Aika complained, ¡°He¡¯s so fussy!¡±

    ¡°Well, somebody has to feed him,¡± Emily said sternly, ¡°You should have helped him when you saw him wandering around, not wait for me to force you to do it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, momma Emily,¡± Aika said dejectedly before taking out the knife and fork and cutting the food into little bites for Alem to eat. Satisfied, Emily turned back to her meal and kept eating and let out a small sigh of relief. Alem was fussy when he ate. Emily would make it up to Aika later, maybe make her a glow up wristband with a floral pattern? With little electric lights inside? Aika might like something like that, she¡¯d always enjoyed it when they went out to the flower meadows in the past¡­

    The meal continued, and Aika returned to her friends after Alem was done eating and was lifted from the high chair and put back down on the floor where he ran back into the milling crowd of kids running around and talking loudly.

    Luna was still enjoying being the center of attention and the interest didn¡¯t fade as new kids wandered in and the original ones left, forcing her to retell the same stories all the way back from the beginning again as new kids that hadn¡¯t heard the story arrived.

    ¡°Clara, can you take me to the potty?¡± One of the five year old girls asked the woman sitting a few seats down.

    ¡°Go ask one of the older kids to take you,¡± Clara said as she kept eating, ¡°Uhhh¡­¡±

    ¡°Anna. I, Anna,¡± the five year old girl said, ¡°No one wants to take me. Please?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m having my food now, Anna. Can¡¯t you just hold it in for a few more minutes?¡±

    ¡°No, I have to go now.¡±

    Clara looked annoyed and frowned at the girl and Emily saw the little girl¡¯s lip trembling as she prepared to cry as Clara looked down at her.

    Emily sighed. She stood up from her chair and left her half eaten meal behind and took a few steps over, causing the girl and Clara to turn to her. Clara looked relieved as Emily approached.

    ¡°C¡¯mon, Anna. Let¡¯s take you. Wasn¡¯t Fumiko supposed to be looking after you?¡± Emily said.

    ¡°She¡¯s listening to Luna, momma Emily,¡± Anna said as she grabbed Emily¡¯s hand and they walked out of the hall. Emily nodded to Clara who mouthed ¡®thank you¡¯ back before turning back to her meal to keep eating.

    ¡°Well, did you go ask her?¡± Emily asked as they walked out of the room and moved towards the bathroom, ¡°It¡¯s only a few minutes for her to take you.¡±

    ¡°She told me to go away ¡®cause she was busy,¡± Anna said, pouting as they walked into the room together. Emily started helping Anna with the button of her pants. Anna wasn¡¯t coordinated enough to undo them herself easily and it frustrated her if she didn¡¯t have help with it.

    ¡°Well don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll talk to her,¡± Emily said as she pulled Anna¡¯s pants down for her, ¡°She promised to take care of you for dinner. Did she at least help you with your food?¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± Anna admitted after a short silence and she sat on the toilet and started doing her business.

    ¡°Well, there¡¯s that at least,¡± Emily said, ¡°She must have just really liked the story. Would you like to hear it? I¡¯m sure Luna wouldn¡¯t mind saying it one more time for you.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Anna mumbled, looking like she was feeling a little better as Emily helped her put her pants back on, flush, and scrub Anna¡¯s hands clean at the sink.

    They returned with Anna walking besides Emily. They approached the crowd over by Luna who was still happily telling the crowd all about her adventures.

    ¡°Oh, hey mom,¡± Luna said as she noticed Emily approaching, ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°Oh, Anna just wanted to hear your story herself,¡± Emily said, ¡°She was feeling a little left out. Alright everyone. Make room, make room. She¡¯s not big enough, so she gets to go near the front¡­¡±

    All the other kids reluctantly shifted on the long bench on the table and made a spot for Anna to sit close to Luna. Emily picked up Anna and placed her in the spot, and the little girl turned to Luna.

    ¡°Luna went hunting?¡± Anna asked, ¡°Did you get attacked by any clawed monsters? Like the one that momma Emily fought?¡±

    Emily paused for a moment at that before moving on. She supposed the attack by that creature was the kind of thing that would make a big impression on Luna¡­

    ¡°Fumiko,¡± Emily said as she spotted the fourteen year old girl and tapped her on the shoulder.

    ¡°Emily!¡± Fumiko said as she turned around, ¡°I can hardly hear the story from here¡­ Now I¡¯ve missed part of it.¡±

    ¡°You were supposed to help Anna in the bathroom. You promised that you would.¡±

    Fumiko suddenly looked guilty and looked at the floor.

    ¡°I thought she could do it herself¡­ It¡¯s just a few buttons,¡± she muttered.

    ¡°You¡¯re getting extra chores.¡±

    ¡°But Emily!¡±

    ¡°No, no buts. Extra chores for you. And apologize to Anna. You hurt her feelings when you told her to go away.¡±

    Fumiko hesitated before looking back up, ¡°Sorry, Emily. I didn¡¯t mean it.¡±

    ¡°I know. But you¡¯re still getting extra chores.¡±

    Fumiko¡¯s face scrunched up angrily for a moment before she looked away and didn¡¯t say anything else.

    ¡°Listen close,¡± Emily whispered to the angry girl conspiratorially, ¡°I think Luna¡¯s reaching the best part soon.¡±

    Fumiko startled as she seemed to realize that she¡¯d stopped trying to listen to Luna through the hubbub of the loud room.

    Without saying anything Fumiko tilted her head to the side and started straining her ears to listen in again. And her reddish cheeks and an angry expression faded away as she seemed to promptly forget about Emily¡¯s punishment once she was distracted again.

    Emily sat back at her seat and kept eating to finish her meal. As things were wrapping up and everyone started stacking their dirty plates to be cleaned later, there was a scuffle in the crowd of children.

    Emily looked over and saw two of the eight year old boys shoving each other and both looking angry. Emily glanced around and saw that the other nine Immortals were all clustered on the other side of the room over by Peter and in deep discussion over something and ignoring the children running around underfoot everywhere.

    Emily waded in as it became clear that everyone else around the two boys were just spectating without doing anything.

    ¡°Hey, hey!¡± Emily said as she approached, ¡°No hitting, both of you! Minh, John. What are you doing?¡±

    The two boys stopped their scuffle and separated as Emily frowned down at the two of them.

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Minh said quickly. John glanced at him and looked like he was about to say something before changing his mind at the last minute.

    ¡°Nothing, Emily,¡± John said, ¡°Sorry. We won¡¯t fight.¡±

    ¡°You better not,¡± Emily said while giving the both of them suspicious looks, ¡°Well if you¡¯re not doing anything else then come help me. Time for bed, make sure none of the little ones sneak off to explore again.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Emily,¡± both boys chorused, relieved that Emily hadn¡¯t dug any deeper into their fight.

    It took another twenty minutes, but eventually by conscripting the older kids everybody was walking back to their rooms. The kids had their own wing of the building. There were three or four kids to a room in the long hallway.

    Only Luna was different and had her own room over in Emily¡¯s section of the complex. A remnant of the time back before this separate section for the kids had been built once things had started growing more crowded in the other rooms.

    It took another hour to get everyone settled and tucked into bed and all the lights off. The feast today was very exciting and most of the kids were too excited to go to bed on time like they normally did.

    Emily had to read no less than seven full bedtime stories tonight. Most of the time the kids would fall asleep before she finished, so she could only read a few pages before slipping out the door and helping settle the next child in for sleep.

    Emily walked out of the children¡¯s wing of the complex and started walking back to the dining room. She passed Luna on her way.

    ¡°Night, mom,¡± Luna said, ¡°Staying up?¡±

    ¡°Yep. Night, Luna. Sweet dreams.¡±

    ¡°Night.¡±

    Luna kept walking and turned the corner with her footsteps receding into the distance.

    Emily refocused on the dreaded conversation ahead. She had no idea on what plan the others might have already secretly decided on. But she¡¯d try to keep an open mind. Clara had made some decent points even if Emily had instinctively rejected them in the moment.

 Chapter 76: Moving Out of The House

    Emily walked back into the room to see the others already deep in discussion. They all stopped when she walked in and closed the doors behind her.

    ¡°Ah, Emily. Thanks for helping with the kids,¡± Peter said easily, ¡°Really a wonder how easily you manage them.¡±

    ¡°No problem. I don¡¯t mind. How¡¯d Luna do? She seemed like she had fun.¡±

    ¡°Oh yes, she enjoyed the trip immensely,¡± Peter confirmed, ¡°Except for skinning and cleaning the animals. Although none of us like that, so that¡¯s only fair I suppose.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯d imagine that that part isn¡¯t fun. Thanks for taking her.¡±

    ¡°Not at all, not at all¡­¡±

    There was some silence as everyone stared at Emily for a moment.

    ¡°All right, just spit it out,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just hit me with whatever you¡¯ve been discussing. No need to beat around the bush.¡±

    Peter cleared his throat, ¡°We were discussing plans and what to do with the children,¡± he said, ¡°We can¡¯t take care of them forever. We think it¡¯d be best for them to move out at one point and establish their own village elsewhere. I¡¯ve already found a few places that would be good for them to settle at.¡±

    Emily bit back a reflexive denial and took a deep breath.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said.

    ¡°Okay?¡± Peter repeated, surprised, ¡°You¡¯re not going to argue?¡±

    ¡°No. You¡¯re right. They need room to expand if there¡¯s more people. Even this much is a stretch on us. It makes sense to move somewhere else once they¡¯re old enough. They can¡¯t keep taking the plane to a jungle or forest every time they want to get more food. Even now you and the hunting crew are going out constantly to feed everyone since even our crops here aren¡¯t quite enough.¡±

    The whole group looked stunned.

    ¡°What, you thought I wouldn¡¯t agree?¡± Emily said as she saw their reactions.

    ¡°Well, no. We thought you wouldn¡¯t want to leave them alone even if you could visit whenever you wanted by plane.¡±

    ¡°Leave them alone? I¡¯m not leaving them alone, who said I¡¯d stay here?¡± Emily asked in genuine confusion.

    ¡°But your lab is here. Everything we¡¯ve built up over the years. All that equipment¡­¡±

    Emily waved her hand dismissively. ¡°Oh, that? I¡¯ll just move it. Really, it¡¯ll be a pain but I¡¯ll just disassemble it and rebuild it at our new home. Maybe it¡¯ll give me a chance to quiz Luna on how well she¡¯s been absorbing her lessons on the datapad. Have her follow along with me as I do it. Those colonist learning programs were good, but I had to fix a few things that were wrong when I was checking it over for Luna when she first started using them.¡±

    All of the others glanced at each other. She looked between all of them, ¡°Wait, that was the big reveal?¡± she said, ¡°Wow, I was stressing so much about what it would be. Seems like a pretty simple solution to me. Really best for everyone that it¡¯s this way. The kids get some independence and their own place, and you all don¡¯t have to do so much work taking care of them.¡±

    The others glanced at each other again.

    ¡°You¡¯re sure you don¡¯t want to stay here?¡± Peter ventured, ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem right for the ten of us to split up after everything we¡¯ve been through.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure,¡± Emily said, ¡°Really there¡¯s nothing keeping me here. Like you said, it¡¯ll probably only be a short trip by plane if something comes up. No need to make a big deal out of it.¡±

    ¡°Well if you¡¯re certain,¡± Peter said, ¡°I guess it¡¯s settled then. We still have a few years before it will happen, but best to prepare early. I¡¯m sure we can all think of a few things the young ones will need once they¡¯ve finally left the nest.¡±

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll start preparing too,¡± Emily confirmed, ¡°Let me know what the rest of you come up with.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you can reassemble this thing from memory, mom,¡± Luna said as she took out another component out of the wooden crate with heavy padding inside.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing,¡± Emily said as she inspected the component for a moment before beginning to install it onto the half built antimatter reactor in front of her. It had been quite the challenge to build a copy of the complicated machine like the one that had powered the ship that had brought all of the Immortals here to their new planet Gaia.

    ¡°Still,¡± Luna said as she handed her another component, ¡°I can barely understand any of it, let alone put it together.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry,¡± Emily assured her, ¡°It¡¯s just practice, you¡¯ll get it eventually. I didn¡¯t learn any of this in a day. I have a good innate sense for these things, but it comes with time more than anything. Once this thing¡¯s complete, our new village will have as much power as we¡¯ll ever need.¡±

    ¡°Can¡¯t believe it¡¯ll only be one more year,¡± Luna said softly, ¡°I can¡¯t believe they¡¯re sending us away like that. Fumiko keeps saying it''s because they don¡¯t want us anymore.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not like that,¡± Emily said, stopping her work to look back at her daughter. Luna shot her a skeptical look.

    ¡°Okay, not completely like that. But they still care for all of you. They just want a¡­ more distant relationship now that you¡¯re older. You¡¯re nineteen now, Luna. I had a full time job and had moved out of my parents place by the time I was your age. The others aren¡¯t going away, they¡¯ll only be a few hours'' plane ride away.¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s a job?¡±

    ¡°What¡¯s a job?¡± Emily repeated.

    ¡°Like one task you had to do?¡± Luna clarified, ¡°What do you mean you had a job? What does that have to do with not living with your parents?¡±

    ¡°Oh my,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ve forgotten how different it is here with just us. I have to think about how to explain it. But let¡¯s just finish building this thing first.¡±

    ¡°Okay.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Woof. What a process. Can¡¯t believe we built this whole thing in only a month,¡± Emily said approvingly as she looked at the squat and wide building sitting in the forest clearing. In the distance Emily could hear the faint rumble and crashes of ocean waves as well as the burbling of the nearby river.

    ¡°I had no idea you had so many things inside your lab,¡± Luna replied, ¡°It¡¯s good though. It¡¯s much bigger than your old space, you¡¯ll have plenty of room to grow if you want to make any more inventions.¡±

    ¡°Yes, it will be nice not tripping over everything so much all the time,¡± Emily mused, ¡°Ah, but let¡¯s test it out! The moment of truth to see if all the electricals are hooked up properly.¡±

    They walked inside the building and Emily used a handheld flashlight to light their way as they walked through the dark open space inside the building. In the far back corner was the setup with the incubation chamber and all of Emily¡¯s old equipment from her former lab, including both of the atomic printers she¡¯d been using for all of this time. It filled up barely a tenth of the new floor space, even when they had spread it out so the machines weren¡¯t so cramped and close together as they had been at the old lab.

    The two of them reached the center of the building and entered a little concrete box with a metal door that rose from the otherwise smooth concrete floor. They went down the stairs to the bottom where the antimatter generator sat dormant. Emily walked forward and after lifting a safety panel pulled a lever on the machine. She waited a moment for all the safety lights to flick on and the generator to vibrate slightly.

    Emily pressed another button after everything was primed and with a dull roar the antimatter generator came to life. It vibrated in place rapidly for a few seconds before the vibrations died down to a low hum now that it was up and running.

    The two of them waited and sure enough the lights above them slowly flickered into life. Emily clicked off the flashlight and they walked up the stairs and emerged from the enclosed set of concrete stairs to see that all of the lights on the ceiling of the warehouse-like space were lit up brightly.

    Emily looked around and was surprised to see that everything was working correctly. None of the lights were even flickering, let alone any fires from more serious issues in the electricals. It seems that their smaller scale tests had been enough.

    The two of them walked outside again. All of the Immortals except Peter were there. Peter was back with the other kids and watching over them while the rest of them finished the preparations up here.

    ¡°Clara,¡± Emily called out, causing the woman to turn from her conversation with Sanje, ¡°How goes it? We¡¯ve just finished up with my lab and main building.¡±

    ¡°Almost done,¡± Clara said, ¡°Just furnishing and wiring up the last five or so rooms. Then it¡¯ll just be clearing the trees to prepare some wood and give them some space and we¡¯ll be good.¡±

    Emily¡¯s building as well as working as her lab would also act as a storm shelter and the source of their electricity with the antimatter generator in the basement.

    Clara and the others were finishing up on the other which was an almost carbon copy of the children¡¯s wing of their current complex. Except instead of the end of the long hallway merging with the rest of the complex it ended with an open gym like space that was bare but meant to be a customized common room for whoever lived there.

    Emily expected the older kids, Luna¡¯s age and the older teenagers, wouldn¡¯t want to stay there cramped with the younger ones for long. They¡¯d want to spread out and have their own places. Especially Luna. She¡¯d be shoved in a room with the others for the first time in her life, so Emily was sure she¡¯d be bolting out of there as soon as she had the chance.

    ¡°Alright, good luck,¡± Emily said, ¡°Luna and I will go check the fields. We still have to test the soil of the last one to see if the soil¡¯s good enough for the crops.¡±

    Emily started walking away after Clara gave Emily a nod of acknowledgment and turned back to her conversation with Sanje. Luna hesitated, looking like she wanted to say something as she stood there. Emily watched her and didn¡¯t say anything as Luna struggled with herself before turning and hurrying to catch back up with Emily.

    ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ve got to check the fields mom,¡± Luna repeated.

    Emily put a hand on her daughter¡¯s shoulder and Luna relaxed a bit.

    ¡°Uh huh,¡± Emily said sympathetically, ¡°You can do the testing all by yourself this time. We¡¯ll see if you can remember it all.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°Okay, mom,¡± Luna said in a subdued tone.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Cheer up, Fumiko,¡± Emily said, ¡°We¡¯ll build this place from the ground up. You¡¯ll have the freedom to do all sorts of things that you could never do before. So it isn¡¯t all bad. And I¡¯m here to help whenever you need it.¡±

    ¡°Whatever, Emily,¡± Fumiko said sullenly, ¡°Of course you¡¯d say that. They threw you away like the rest of us.¡±

    ¡°Hey,¡± Emily said, not offended at all, ¡°They didn¡¯t throw us away. And I chose to come here. They didn¡¯t plan for me to come, you know.¡±

    Fumiko looked up and furrowed her brows, ¡°They didn¡¯t? What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°They were planning to have Luna in charge since she¡¯s the oldest. And to have one of us fly in every few days to check in on all of you. On top of that radio we have to call for help from them of course in case of an emergency. They thought I¡¯d want to stay there with them in the complex rather than move here with the rest of you.¡±

    ¡°Then why did you?¡± Fumiko asked, some of her anger seeming to partially drain away, ¡°Why did you choose to come?¡±

    ¡°Because¡­ Because I care about all of you,¡± Emily said and met Fumiko¡¯s eyes, ¡°I really do. I don¡¯t care about any of them. Not like I do for you and the rest of the children. I care for all of you more than anything in the world. In the universe.¡±

    Fumiko met Emily¡¯s gaze for a moment before looking down and blushing at Emily¡¯s sincerity.

    Emily huffed, ¡°It does all sound rather dramatic when I say it like that, doesn¡¯t it?¡± she said.

    ¡°No,¡± Fumiko said softly, ¡°I¡­ it feels nice. You are the only one that knows all our names by heart. I¡¯m glad that you chose to come.¡±

    ¡°I had flashcards in the beginning,¡± Emily admitted, ¡°I printed out your faces and had the names on the back,¡± Fumiko shot Emily a scandalized look, but Emily just smiled and shrugged.

    ¡°I¡¯m good, but there¡¯s a lot of you and I had to practice. But I remembered them all eventually by heart. I know you¡¯re angry about what¡¯s happened, Fumiko. But the others look up to you. Almost as much as they do to Luna now. You¡¯re eighteen and Luna¡¯s twenty. Both of you have to set a good example to the others. They¡¯re feeling all the same things as you are right now and more. You brooding and sulking now that we¡¯re here in our new home is only upsetting them more.¡±

    Fumiko looked like she was going to protest before closing her mouth, ¡°I¡¯m hurting them?¡± she asked.

    ¡°No¡­ But you¡¯re making them focus on the wrong feelings. The same things that you¡¯re feeling right now. We¡¯ve got to move forward and make this our new home. That¡¯s got to be our focus for now. What¡¯s going right for all of us. This place really is¡­ a paradise.¡±

    Emily¡¯s eyes glazed over as she thought of the past and Earth.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Fumiko said, ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ try. Thanks. At least Luna is always so positive. I think I see what you mean. About helping others, focusing on the right feelings.¡±

    ¡°That she is¡­ that she is. Why don¡¯t you go see what she¡¯s up to? I¡¯m sure she¡¯d appreciate your help.¡±

    ¡°Er, uhm!¡± Fumiko said, suddenly sounding nervous, ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll go do¡­ that. Uh huh.¡±

    Fumiko stood and speed walked off. Emily frowned after the retreating girl. Huh, that was weird. Emily shook her head. She was sure that Fumiko would figure it out. Despite her anger problems, that girl was surprisingly self reflective when she got in the mood to do so.

    Emily stood up from the log and stretched and reached down and picked up the sharp axe sitting beside her. Time for Emily to chop some more wood with her endless stamina. The hope was to create some wooden buildings, and Emily was cutting the trees into the stripped beams that they would use for the last few weeks.

    She had frankly no idea how to build a log cabin, but the ship had been prepared for permanent settlement. So it had included some detailed plans on how to construct a building and the rustic methods to make them with only limited technology.

    They had advanced technology in their main building and Emily¡¯s lab. But it used valuable resources. It had taken almost twenty years of Peter and the other explorers harvesting surface deposits of valuable metals to find this much material and metal. The raw metal had been processed by the atomic printer into bars, rearranging the iron or other atoms of the metal into pure bars of material. But it put a high strain on the atomic printers and a high energy draw to do that, so Emily had tried to minimize using them that way except when necessary.

    Peter had also discovered a source of limestone and other components for the concrete, which had been a surprisingly difficult task. He should be back with a shipment of more concrete in a month or two. That¡¯s when they¡¯d pour the foundations of any new homes they wanted to build and start the real construction of the buildings.

    Emily walked over to the informal woodyard where the other Immortals had stacked the trees that they had cut down to form the large clearing around them in big piles.

    Emily rolled down another tree down to the side and took her axe. She raised it in the air and swung down and got to chopping.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily hummed to herself as she kept working on the genome of the crops. They were good enough that they were worth cultivating at this point. But that didn¡¯t mean they were as productive or as improved as they could be. While they had made it through the winter with the help of a few supply drops of food by Peter and the others, Emily wanted them to be self-sufficient as soon as possible rather than relying on outside assistance.

    It had been about a year since they had all moved here, and the kids were settling in pretty well after a month or two of melancholy over their perceived abandonment by the other nine. But Luna and surprisingly Fumiko had stepped up to lead everyone and kept their spirits up. Emily helped too of course, but did her best to stay back and take care of the younger ones and do any tough physical labor that would severely tire out the children rather than dictating what the group as a whole should be doing. Luna was doing good enough as a leader, and the girl asked Emily whenever she needed help, so things were working out.

    Emily sat back from the screen and rubbed her forehead. This plant was stumping her. She was sure she could improve the yield further, but doing so was decreasing the resilience and causing them to be more likely to die. She was sure there was a solution, but she couldn¡¯t think of what it was at the moment.

    During the days Emily helped the kids, but the nights were for her research and machines. Well they were now that Emily had set up the infrared scanners to search for danger from any wandering beasts. And hardened the windows and structure in the dormitory so the animals weren¡¯t likely to get in, so she didn¡¯t have to stand out there with an axe anymore as a guard. At least not as often, she still did it sometimes when the sensors detected an animal at the edge of its range.

    It was probably about midnight now and she felt as fresh as ever. She¡¯d taken the habit of sleeping one night a week, just to rest her mind a bit.

    She should take a walk outside, banging her head against a wall inside wouldn¡¯t help her come up with any solutions.

    Emily walked outside into the dark night, only the exterior lights of the dormitories and the warehouse-like building behind her breaking through the dark.

    A few more buildings had come up, even if they didn¡¯t have electricity. A storage silo for their food, some more work related buildings. They were at the point where they¡¯d started building the first couple homes. Each person wouldn¡¯t get their own of course, but they¡¯d get their own rooms in them at least rather than being cooped up all together in the larger one.

    Emily scanned her gaze across the buildings in the night and froze when she saw that the door to the children¡¯s dormitory was swinging open. Eyes wide, she rushed forward to the open door and went inside. Had an animal gotten in? What if it went into one of the rooms while the children were sleeping?

    Emily went down the long hallway and relaxed slightly as she saw that there was no beast visible. Emily was sure that she¡¯d closed the door when she¡¯d put the last of them to bed, but maybe she¡¯d made a mistake?

    Emily returned to the front door and looked to the left and froze when she saw that the door there was slightly ajar. She hadn¡¯t noticed and just rushed past it in her panic.

    She carefully pushed the door open and peeked inside and saw three rising and falling forms huddled in their beds. Wait, three? Emily¡¯s eyes were drawn to Luna¡¯s bed which was empty with the covers thrown to the side.

    Emily carefully closed the door to the room and packed up the door to the whole building as well. Luna had snuck out at night? What was she thinking? What if some animal ambushed her while she was out all alone?

    Emily returned to the warehouse and activated the IR scanner. It pinged the heat signatures in the area, and Emily immediately saw the heated blob down by the river that must be Luna.

    Filled with worry, Emily rushed outside and grabbed her woodcutting axe on the way and charged towards where Luna was. The predators on this planet were surprisingly stealthy to IR scans, just because Emily hadn¡¯t seen any on the scan didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t there.

    Emily eventually reached the spot and sped up as she heard rustling in the woods in front of her. She burst out of the trees into the clearing with her axe raised threateningly¡­ only to stop.

    Oh.

    Emily put the axe down and started laughing.

    God, this was so awkward.

    ¡°Mom!¡± Luna said, flushing utterly crimson even in the darkness of the forest and the moonlight filtering down through the trees. The gentle burbling and rushing of the nearby river softly sounded in the background, ¡°What- Hey, what are you doing here?!¡±

    Luna quickly adjusted her disheveled shirt and brushed herself off. Fumiko was frozen as well where she was straddled on top of Luna, looking equally embarrassed. Fumiko quickly rolled off of Luna and scrambled a few feet away and started patting herself down as well, trying to look casual through her equally ruffled and disheveled clothes. They had a blanket underneath them stretched on the forest floor and both looked out of breath and sweaty.

    ¡°Oh my god, I was so worried,¡± Emily said, still chuckling as she sat down on a nearby log, ¡°Wow. So you two, huh? Can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t see it before.¡±

    ¡°I- I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about!¡± Luna stammered, ¡°Fumiko was just- Fumiko-¡±

    ¡°Yeah, we were uhm¡­¡± Fumiko stammered, seeming to try to come up with an excuse but panicking when nothing came to mind.

    ¡°No, no,¡± Emily said to have some mercy, ¡°It¡¯s fine, you two. I¡¯m not mad. Just surprising. How long has this been happening?¡±

    ¡°About¡­ About three or four months?¡± Fumiko said, ¡°Something like that.¡±

    ¡°Why did you hide it from everyone?¡± Emily said, sitting down on a nearby log, ¡°I¡¯m happy for you two. Really. I¡¯m sure the others wouldn¡¯t mind either.¡±

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know¡­¡± Fumiko said nervously.

    ¡°I told you she wouldn¡¯t mind, Fumiko,¡± Luna said and grabbed the other girl¡¯s hand.

    ¡°You really don¡¯t mind, Emily? I thought you¡¯d be mad at me¡­ Us...¡± Fumiko said.

    ¡°No. Where¡¯d you get that idea?¡±

    ¡°Clara talked about how you only liked women that one time at dinner and I saw how you got so angry. I thought there must be something wrong with it if it made you angry at <i>her</i>¡­ It isn¡¯t like it was Sanje who said it.¡±

    Emily sighed. Her and Sanje¡¯s mutual dislike was infamous by now.

    ¡°No, Fumiko. Not at all. That was just between me and her. It had nothing to do with you two.¡±

    ¡°Then why did you react that way?¡± Fumiko pressed, ¡°No one reacted that way when they were talking about it between men and women. The others were awkward too when she mentioned it. Why was it different?¡±

    Emily hesitated. It really wasn¡¯t a matter of prejudice like there might have been in the old world. For all their faults, none of the others cared about things like race or sexuality in the slightest as anything more than convenient labels, without all of the added baggage of it like it had back on Earth.

    ¡°Fumiko, I had a falling out with Clara a long time ago,¡± she said, trying to deflect one more time, ¡°She was just teasing me in a mean way about what happened. She goes too far and can¡¯t stop herself sometimes with her comments. It¡¯s hard for her to control herself in the heat of the moment. She apologized to me for that after, when we were alone.¡±

    ¡°What happened, mom?¡± Luna asked with wide eyes, ¡°What did she do?¡±

    Emily sighed again.

    ¡°Back when it was just the ten of us, I was a lot like you two. I was nervous, and didn¡¯t ever¡­ well, get to express my feelings for other women very well. I still haven¡¯t, really. Clara knew I was interested in her, and made it seem like she was interested too. We spent some time together, but she was just humoring me and wasn¡¯t attracted to me even a little. All of it was just a fun ¡®experiment¡¯ that she was bored with once it went on for too long. And even after she kept leaving hints as if she wanted to be with me even when we both knew that it would never happen.¡±

    Emily realized some of the bitterness had leaked into her voice and quickly suppressed it.

    ¡°Clara wasn¡¯t trying to be cruel, she still doesn¡¯t see what she did wrong. She really didn¡¯t view it as anything more than something to pass the time while she was bored and a way to cheer me up when all of us were in a bad place. It was a long time ago and we¡¯re still friends, but it¡¯s something that we still fight about sometimes when it comes up. That¡¯s why I was so upset that she said something like that at dinner in front of everyone. And why all of the others were so uncomfortable.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s horrible!¡± Luna said in horror, ¡°How could she do that to you! Fumiko, you would never fake our feelings just to make me feel better, would you?¡±

    ¡°Of course not!¡± Fumiko said, just as appalled, ¡°I would never.¡±

    Fumiko reached out and side hugged Luna, and Luna returned the gesture quickly.

    Emily cleared her throat, ¡°Well, I guess I¡¯m not needed here then. Have fun you two. And make sure to shut the door behind you next time. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw the outside door swinging open. I thought an animal had snuck in.¡±

    ¡°We will, we promise,¡± Fumiko said, ¡°Sorry.¡±

    ¡°Just don¡¯t forget next time,¡± Emily lightly scolded, ¡°And take a radio with you too! It¡¯s dangerous out here and you should be able to call me for help if you¡¯re attacked. Even if it¡¯s unlikely.¡±

    ¡°Yes, mom.¡±

    Emily tried to think of anything else before realizing that was it.

    ¡°Okay. Stay safe,¡± Emily said as she picked up her woodcutting axe again and left it to dangle at her side.

    ¡°O-Okay. Bye mom,¡± Luna stammered and Fumiko silently nodded back.

    Emily walked off into the dark woods and returned to the warehouse. She collapsed onto her cot set up in the corner. She needed some sleep, no way was she getting any work done with the sudden ups and downs of what had just happened.

 Chapter 77: The Next Generation

    ¡°How are you two settling into your new place? Bet you¡¯re glad to finally get out of those cramped rooms, Luna.¡±

    ¡°Tell me about it,¡± Luna complained, ¡°It was so crowded in there. And Anna snores. And¡¯s always in such a bad mood in the mornings. It¡¯s good that we can spread out more now and have our own space.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it is nice,¡± Emily agreed, ¡°So, what brings you here tonight? Seems like you¡¯ve been giving me strange looks all day.¡±

    Luna and Fumiko shared a long look with each other before turning back.

    ¡°Well, we were talking. Fumiko and I,¡± Luna said, ¡°And we were wondering if we should¡­ start up the incubation chamber again? It¡¯s been almost three years now since we¡¯ve gotten here. Our fields are doing well and we have extra housing. I¡­ don¡¯t see any reason to wait anymore.¡±

    Emily sat back and looked at the two of them.

    ¡°Are you asking for everyone?¡± she asked, ¡°Or for you two? Like how I raised you, Luna?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯d¡­ like to try?¡± Luna said, ¡°It was just a thought.¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Emily said.

    ¡°Okay?¡±

    ¡°If you¡¯re sure, then go for it. You¡¯re right, everyone¡¯s settled in well here and things are stable. I¡¯ll be a grandmother!¡±

    ¡°C¡¯mon, mom. You don¡¯t look nearly old enough for that. We look almost identical now.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I hadn¡¯t quite figured out the genetic variation sequence early on,¡± Emily said, her good mood fading slightly, ¡°You older kids are all pretty close to the donors.¡±

    She shook her head, ¡°Anyway. What about the other babies? As the embryos go through all the different chambers, the machine can incubate as many as two babies a month if I run it as quickly as possible. But it takes a full year for any individual to pass all the way through the system and be born, so there¡¯s a delay there. I don¡¯t want to overproduce and not be able to take care of them¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, two a month is far too much,¡± Luna agreed, ¡°Fumiko, what do you think? We have plenty of food now, but we¡¯ll have to worry about caring for them and feeding them for years without them able to help¡­¡±

    ¡°I know that it didn¡¯t go as well the first time, Fumiko,¡± Emily added, ¡°But I think raising the babies somewhat communally makes sense. If anyone wants to be a parent like you two then that¡¯s fine, but it¡¯s too much work for them by themselves. I can help and run the nursery if you¡¯d like. You lot hardly need me for the manual labor anymore anyways.¡±

    Fumiko looked hesitant, then nodded, ¡°Okay,¡± she agreed, ¡°If you¡¯re running it, I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t feel unloved. That does make it easier rather than having to convince people to take in babies individually.¡±

    ¡°Great. I¡¯ll start working on the floor plans of a nursery building, I¡¯d be good to make it into a medical center too to treat us once we have more people getting sick and injured more often¡­¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ll put your baby in for incubation right away. Special treat, I¡¯ll even make it a blend of both of your genetics from the database instead of having it be totally random. We can decide how many more babies we¡¯ll make and how fast later. In a year, you two will be mothers!¡±

    Luna and Fumiko smiled and after chatting for a bit, the two of them left hand in hand. Emily smiled after them. They were so cute together.

    Emily was glad that Luna had found someone, she had worried that with so few people in the group that it would be difficult for her.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey, mom. Can we talk?¡±

    ¡°Oh, Luna? Sure,¡± Emily bounced the baby on her chest a bit and looked around, ¡°Let me get Alem and tell him real quick. I¡¯ll hand little Jackson here over to him.¡±

    The baby cried when Emily handed him over to Alem who looked harried as he helped around the nursery. Alem tried his best to soothe baby Jackson and some of the other helpers came over to take over the group of three and four year olds he¡¯d been entertaining before.

    Emily and Luna walked outside and saw Fumiko standing there with a sullen ten year old Minato standing next to her.

    ¡°Minato? Fumiko? How are you?¡± Emily asked.

    ¡°Good. Minato¡¯s lessons are going well,¡± Fumiko said, ¡°Minato¡¯s going to go and do a shift at the nursery. His friends were going swimming in the creek, so he¡¯s rather upset to be missing it. But he told me that he would come now, so he has to go.¡±

    Emily reached out and ruffled Minato¡¯s short black hair and the boy grunted and shied away from her hand.

    ¡°Oh, it isn¡¯t all bad, Minato,¡± Emily said, ¡°If it makes you feel better, I¡¯ll be setting up that rope swing next week so you can swing alllll the way out over the water before falling in. It¡¯ll be much more fun to go with your friends there then. They¡¯ll forget all about today after that.¡±

    Minato looked up hopefully, ¡°You will, Gramma? Were you going to tell anyone? That¡¯s so cool!¡±

    ¡°I just told you, didn¡¯t I?¡± Emily said in a half whisper, ¡°But first you¡¯ve got to help out here. Your mother Fumiko¡¯s right, you promised you would do this. You¡¯ve got to keep your promises as best you can.¡±

    ¡°Okay, Gramma,¡± Minato said, still not happy but also not looking as upset as he had before.

    ¡°Now go,¡± Fumiko said and gave Minato a small push in the small of his back towards the open door of the nursery, ¡°Go ask Alem how you can help. He¡¯s still in charge for this shift. Luna and I will be talking with Gramma for a while.¡±

    ¡°Okay, mom. Mom. Bye,¡± Minato said and gave a little wave to Luna too before going inside.

    ¡°Thanks, Emily,¡± Luna said, ¡°Were you really going to set up a rope swing over the water without telling anyone?¡±

    Emily shrugged, ¡°I thought it¡¯d be fun for the kids,¡± she said, ¡°Make it a big mystery who had set it up for them. Ah, but I suppose that¡¯s ruined now that I¡¯ve told Minato¡­¡±

    Emily reached up and rubbed her head awkwardly.

    ¡°You spoil him too much,¡± Fumiko said lightly.

    ¡°Maybe I do,¡± Emily admitted, ¡°Not you though. Putting him to work early!¡±

    ¡°Pah. He didn¡¯t have to come, he volunteered to go. He¡¯s just upset that something better came up after he¡¯d already promised to do this.¡±

    The three of them walked off and over to Luna and Fumiko¡¯s home. They sat inside and sat on the couches inside, Fumiko and Luna on one side and Emily on the other.

    ¡°So, what made you call me off of work? Alem will be furious that I¡¯m leaving so much work for him.¡±

    Luna snorted, ¡°C¡¯mon, mom. You had to practically shove leadership into his unwilling hands. If you even hinted you wanted to take control he¡¯d shove it right back so he could just be a full time assistant again.¡±

    ¡°Well, he was the only one that was there constantly,¡± Emily said, ¡°Everyone else took shifts, it made sense that he¡¯d be the one in charge. Not me, I like the role I have now.¡±

    Luna snorted, ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure Alem would have said the same.¡±

    There was a short silence, ¡°He seems to be doing well though,¡± Luna said, ¡°I¡¯m glad. Everyone who goes there is very loving with the children. Even Minato once he gets over his little mood today, I¡¯m sure.¡±

    ¡°Uh huh. What¡¯s wrong, Luna? You look stressed.¡±

    Luna sighed, ¡°John and Anna are just being a nuisance again. Think they¡¯re so much better than everyone else because Anna gave birth naturally rather than having her baby come from the incubation machine. I was just wondering if you could talk with them? The other children nearby are listening, and I think it could cause problems. That they¡¯ll feel worse because they¡¯re from the machine rather than born from a person.¡±

    ¡°Of course, of course,¡± Emily said frowning, ¡°I did talk to them about it right after Anna gave birth. I didn¡¯t know they kept at it since then. I never heard anything like that from them.¡±

    ¡°They know you don¡¯t approve, so they only say it when you¡¯re not around,¡± Luna said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll talk to them and see what I can do. But that can¡¯t be all. You could have told me that tonight after I left the nursery for the night. What¡¯s got you so worked up?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s¡­ It¡¯s John and Anna, but not just them. They want to leave.¡±

    ¡°Leave?¡± Emily said in confusion, ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ they don¡¯t like me. We¡¯ve always clashed even when Anna was little. Especially when we were roommates. You know that. But part of it is they just want their own space. They think the village is too crowded now that we have over two hundred people here, even if most are still children.¡±

    ¡°Well, how many?¡± Emily asked with a frown, ¡°How many want to go of the original fifty? We still need labor for the fields and fishing in the river and ocean. To keep things running. But if they want to go then we shouldn¡¯t keep them here against their will.¡±

    ¡°About thirty of them. And their children, so another ten or so there.¡±

    ¡°Thirty¡­¡± Emily said in shock, ¡°So many¡­ I see why you¡¯re stressed. Can you bring them together? Why don¡¯t we just talk it out?¡±

    ¡°Mom, they can¡¯t just leave!¡± Luna said, standing to her feet looking upset, ¡°We built this together, all of us! Why- I don¡¯t understand why they don¡¯t think I¡¯m good enough! Am I that bad of a leader?¡±

    ¡°Shh, Shh, no Luna of course not,¡± Emily said as Luna sat back down and Fumiko started massaging Luna¡¯s tense shoulders.

    ¡°It¡¯s like when we left the others and founded this place,¡± Emily said, ¡°It¡¯s not that you¡¯re bad. They just¡­ want to go their own way. No matter what¡¯s going on, I know they respect you. I¡¯m sure they never meant for you to feel like that¡¯s what they meant.¡±

    ¡°See, honey?¡± Fumiko said, ¡°What have I been saying?¡±

    ¡°But¡­ but if they leave,¡± Luna said, ¡°Then they¡¯ll be gone. We might never see them again. You won¡¯t be there to help protect them, mom. What if they need help and- one of them dies before we can go to help?¡±

    ¡°Me?¡± Emily said, ¡°This place has grown so much, it doesn¡¯t need me protecting it anymore. Standing outside with an axe and scaring off the packs of those wolf-like things from attacking the dormitories like it was in those first days¡­¡±

    ¡°But what if someone dies after they leave? It would be my fault for letting them go.¡±

    Emily waved around the house, ¡°Isn¡¯t this village great? Aren¡¯t you happy now, more than ever with Fumiko and Minato? Leadership? I worried too, you know. Doubted myself about stepping back and letting you mostly run things when we first moved here. But if I¡¯d stepped in and told everyone what to do, we wouldn¡¯t be here. We wouldn¡¯t have done nearly everything that we¡¯ve done over the years. We¡¯ll do what we can for them, but if they want to go then that¡¯s their choice. Maybe they can build a place as happy as this somewhere else for themselves. If we had stayed at the complex and not moved, I doubt any of us would be nearly as happy as we all are now.¡±

    Luna sniffled and wiped her eye with the back of her hand.

    ¡°Sorry, something in my eye,¡± she mumbled, ¡°I just hate to see them go¡­¡±

    There was some silence as they all sat in silence.

    ¡°I¡¯ll call them for a meeting tomorrow night,¡± Luna finally said decisively, ¡°Would you be there, mom?¡±

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll come. And maybe after I convince you two to have some more grandchildren. I want more of them to spoil!¡±

    ¡°Mooom,¡± Luna groaned, ¡°Enough already, Minato¡¯s a handful enough.¡±

    ¡°You could adopt one of the younger ones from the nursery. I¡¯m telling you, Minato might like having a little brother or sister.¡±

    ¡°Maybe,¡± Fumiko said thoughtfully. Luna¡¯s head whipped around so fast that her hair swirled around her like a cloud from the sharp motion.

    ¡°Maybe?! Wha- I mean- Er, yes. Maybe. We¡¯ll think about it, mom.¡±

    Clearly Fumiko¡¯s statement was news to Luna.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°So Luna¡¯s told me the basics,¡± Emily said to the group, ¡°You all want to start your own village?¡±

    Anna stood up and hesitated as everyone¡¯s eyes turned to her.

    ¡°Yes, mom, that¡¯s what we want to do,¡± she said formally before sitting down. Several of the children in the first group had taken to calling her mom in the beginning when they were young and the habit had lasted even to today. Emily didn¡¯t mind too much if they called her mom or just Emily.

    Emily had talked with John and Anna about their bragging about their natural born baby and scolded them both for a bit. John had been mostly unaffected, but Anna had shrunken inward and looked hurt by Emily¡¯s disappointment in her. It seems that she hadn¡¯t meant to be malicious about it, but just felt like since she¡¯d done the work of carrying the pregnancy herself that she deserved to brag a little when she could. Emily could understand that, even if Anna had gotten carried away with it.

    ¡°And why is that? We have plenty of food here, room to expand. Why split off?¡±

    ¡°We just want to start somewhere new, mom,¡± Anna said as she stood again as the spokeswoman for the group apparently, ¡°We want¡­ we want to start something ourselves. Like you, Luna, and the older ones did back then.¡±

    Emily stared at Anna for a moment. She¡¯d only been six when they moved here. Emily hadn¡¯t thought about it that way before.

    ¡°You all feel that way?¡± Emily confirmed and the rest who wanted to go nodded their heads in agreement. The ones who wanted to stay were sitting slightly apart from the rest, but they were here for the big meeting too.

    ¡°So, there¡¯s one big problem with all of you leaving at once,¡± Emily said, causing everyone to tense and look nervous, ¡°Labor. We need people to tend the fields, work at the nursery, keep all the kids out of trouble¡­ If all of you leave then we won¡¯t have enough people here to keep things running.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    There was silence as no one said anything.

    ¡°So, let¡¯s think of what we can do to fix that,¡± Emily continued, ¡°I think Luna had a few ideas. Let¡¯s talk it out and see how we can make it work.¡±

    Everyone relaxed and Luna stood up and took over. She started presenting the plans that she¡¯d discussed with Emily before to make sure that both of the villages would have enough people to run things.

    The meeting ran on as the debate over what to do went on and on. But the mood was much more constructive than Emily had expected it to be considering how hurt Luna had been by the idea of the rest of them leaving before Emily talked with her.

    They kept talking, but tensions started to rise as no one was happy with the available options. Most required most of them to stay in the village for a few more years until the next round of children was of a working age and could make up for the loss of so many of the adults.

    There were debates on the timeline and how many people delayed for how long. But Minato was the oldest at only ten. It would be at least six, maybe even seven years before the children born after him would be able to replace the labor of an adult in a real way. And until that point most of the people would have to stay here in the village to keep things running.

    They weren¡¯t opposed to staying for longer in principle, but six or seven years was a long time to wait. The argument escalated until Fumiko and John were almost shouting at each other as they argued as the rest watched on.

    ¡°Stop! Stop! Both of you!¡± Emily shouted, and the argument subsided and everyone looked at her.

    ¡°There is one last option,¡± Emily said a little quieter, ¡°I didn¡¯t want to bring it up until I had to. But we could¡­ Ask the others for help. Peter, Clara, Sanje¡­ All of them. They¡¯re tireless and could provide labor for the fields until the kids are old enough to do it themselves.¡±

    ¡°Would they even want to?¡± Fumiko said harshly, ¡°Not like they care about us anyway. How do we know they won¡¯t leave if it grows too boring for them?¡±

    Everyone shifted awkwardly, but no one spoke up to contradict her.

    ¡°Fumiko¡­¡± Emily warned, and the woman looked away and to the ground, some of her old anger welling up and showing itself in Fumiko¡¯s tense stance and lips pressed thinly together.

    ¡°I know a lot of you have anger towards them,¡± Emily said, speaking up, ¡°But they never meant to hurt you like that. It was just the ten of us, we didn¡¯t have a whole community to take care of the little ones like we do now. It was hard for them.¡±

    Fumiko crossed her arms across her chest, ¡°Hard¡­ If they really cared then they would have joined you in coming to live with us. Instead they sent us away and probably forgot our names without even a second thought as soon as we were out of the door. They didn¡¯t even try to pretend like they wanted to come.¡±

    Emily waved her hand as she saw that Fumiko was just getting more upset the more they talked about it as the others watched on.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to argue. Whatever your feelings towards them, I think they¡¯ll help if we ask and it¡¯s only for a few years and not permanent. That¡¯ll let all of you go and start your own village soon, and keep our home here just as healthy and well fed. It really is the best of both worlds.¡±

    There was some muttering in the crowd and the debate turned to the question. The arguments were much more heated as they discussed the option. But eventually, despite reluctance from some people including Fumiko and Luna, they decided to go ahead over their objections.

    So the decision was made and Emily promised to handle asking the other nine Immortals for their help. She did wonder what they could be up to for all of this time. There¡¯d been nothing but the occasional radio message from Peter for all of these years to check in on them.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Wooow, you¡¯ve really built this place up Emily,¡± Clara said as they walked through the village, ¡°Feels like only yesterday that we were here last.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s been at least thirteen years now, actually.¡±

    ¡°Oh, really? I didn¡¯t realize. We¡¯re still all still on ship time, you know. One minute¡¯s a year, one year¡¯s a minute.¡±

    Ship time, referring to the colony ship they¡¯d been cooped up in the trip from Earth to here. There hadn¡¯t been an exact count, the timekeeper had broken half way through and it had been an unknown time before Emily had fixed it again, but it was at least two hundred years'' journey. It was true, time had seemed to pass in a blur and then at a crawl seemingly randomly as the dull years stretched into decades and then over a century on the ship. At least a century.

    At least.

    ¡°Well, a lot¡¯s changed here,¡± Emily said neutrally, ¡°I¡¯m glad you all came to help.¡±

    ¡°Of course! Happy to help. And get me some action finally after so long. Did you see some of those hunky guys? Yum. Or women for you, they all looked great and fit out here working out all day and getting toned. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re lots of fun.¡±

    Emily stopped walking and stared at Clara, a wave of disgust washing over her.

    ¡°The fuck did you just say?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Clara said and looked at Emily in confusion at the sudden hostility, ¡°They¡¯re in their twenties, it¡¯s fine. We¡¯re technically in our twenties too. They can make their own decisions. I barely even knew them years ago. I¡¯m just saying.¡±

    ¡°Own decisions? Barely knew them? Clara, I swear if you so much as touch any of them¡­¡±

    ¡°God! Alright, fine. Dammit, I was looking forward to this¡­ I¡¯m so freaking pent up¡­¡±

    ¡°Clara, you better be making a bad joke or I¡¯ll be testing just how fast our healing is if I find you so much as flirting with any of them.¡±

    ¡°Rawr, momma bear on the prowl,¡± Clara said with a weak chuckle, ¡°Shit, great way to start us back off, huh?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re the one who brought up sleeping with my kids like a damn pervert,¡± Emily pointed out.

    ¡°Your kids? I mean hardly¡­ It¡¯s not¡­¡±

    Clara trailed off as she saw Emily¡¯s steady look.

    ¡°Wait, you really think that?¡±

    ¡°Of course, what else would they be? I raised them out here, didn''t I? Stayed with them throughout all these years when they needed it.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s¡­ huh. I figured with Luna, but the rest too¡­ Well, shit. Sorry. I guess I was being a pervert. I wasn¡¯t really thinking of them as the same people as those kids running around underfoot back then. Or that you saw them that way. Sorry again.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, well¡­ I¡¯m serious. Don¡¯t even think about it.¡±

    ¡°Mmmmh. So mature and responsible,¡± Clara said, ¡°I understand. You¡¯re right, it is gross. I just wasn¡¯t thinking again.¡±

    ¡°Mmmh,¡± Emily replied wordlessly as they kept walking through the village. The rest of their conversation was a little strained, but things calmed down as Emily started filling Clara in on all the things that had happened in the village since it had been founded.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It had been three years since the majority of the adults and their families had moved out to establish their new village. Emily went with them to help them establish themselves. She set them up with their own antimatter generator. And while they didn¡¯t get an atomic printer, they got one that was far less precise. A three dimensional printer that could print metals and use raw materials as in input. It wasn¡¯t nearly as precise as the atomic printers, but it was plenty enough to manufacture farm tools and whatever non-electrical component that the new village could ever need. It could even do some simple circuits sometimes even if it struggled to do so without making mistakes in their production. Even if it was still an absolute power hog and needed a dedicated antimatter generator to keep it running,

    Emily shuttled between the two villages with a cargo electric plane that she¡¯d built. Much to her relief, the two villages weren¡¯t as disconnected as she thought everyone had been imagining in the beginnings. There were five or ten people who swapped around to one or the other as they rode along with Emily¡¯s flights between them every few months.

    But after three years, the new village was well established and their crops were growing well. They all had shelter and had settled in properly so they didn¡¯t need Emily¡¯s help anymore.

    Before she left, Emily built them a copy of her incubation chambers and associated equipment and taught a group of the adults how to properly use it, running off of the power from their own antimatter generator.

    They should be able to increase their population as much as they¡¯d like without relying on the natural way as long as they had the machine. And the genetic variation algorithm that Emily had created should make sure that everyone was genetically distinct enough that inbreeding shouldn¡¯t ever become an issue even with their small population.

    Emily landed the electric plane back on the runway on the outskirts of her original village for the last time. From now on some of the other adults would be running the flights between the two villages to trade supplies and let people move to one or the other in the future.

    Some of the people who had moved away had become homesick and moved back, while others who had stayed in the village had realized that they wanted to leave themselves. So despite thirty of the original batch of adults leaving for the new village, nine of them ended up returning over time as people settled in and started deciding which village they would want to stay in permanently.

    Emily walked and looked off to the right and saw Peter pushing a plow to prepare for the planting season. When he spotted her he stopped and came over.

    ¡°Emily! You¡¯re back. Permanently this time,¡± Peter said, ¡°The other village is all settled in?¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡± she said, ¡°Much smaller than this one of course, but everything¡¯s all set up. Their fields are set up and can feed everyone who¡¯s there. I don¡¯t like being away from Luna and Minato for so long, even if it is nice being with the children in the other village too ....¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s been talk of a yearly meeting,¡± Peter said, ¡°So everyone sees their friends in the other village regularly. Luna and Fumiko have been planning it for the last few months. The idea is taking multiple trips with the cargo plane to shuttle everyone over for a few day long festival before returning. Right now they¡¯re still arguing about hosting it here every year or if they should alternate locations.¡±

    ¡°Interesting¡­ I like the sound of that. I¡¯m glad Luna¡¯s thought of something. You¡¯ve been more involved with the village a bit recently?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes, it¡¯s rather interesting watching Luna running this place. Not sure I appreciated it through these years just how much she does. Nothing like running CODA of course, but she¡¯s done well with no formal training at all.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ll tell her you said that, Peter,¡± Emily said politely, ¡°How goes the labor?¡±

    ¡°Oh you know, it goes,¡± Peter said, ¡°It¡¯s only a few years, we¡¯re happy to help out.¡±

    Emily went to leave before stopping herself and turning back around.

    ¡°Peter, why did none of you ever come before? You seem to be enjoying yourself now. Why did you hole yourselves up in the complex with just the nine of you?¡±

    ¡°I am enjoying meeting everyone,¡± Peter said after recovering from his surprise at the sudden question, ¡°And it has been nice. I¡¯ve already told you that the rumors about my life extension treatments were fake. That I was an Immortal far before the bombs dropped on Earth, right?¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Emily said, ¡°You were the first Immortal among all of us.¡±

    ¡°I lived over a hundred years on Earth. I had to watch many of my friends die of old age. If we become attached to any of these people then we¡¯ll have to watch them die too. None of us have aged even a day since the Shadow gave us our powers. We only have each other for a chance for meaningful relationships. The others all understood that after they recovered from their euphoria after that you managed to resurrect humanity like this.

    ¡°The only reason I didn¡¯t protest you leaving us more than I did was because it was clear that you were unhappy with how the rest of the group was treating you, rightly so. They are¡­ surprisingly stubborn in their dislike or disrespect for you despite my efforts to convince them otherwise. So, I¡¯m glad that you¡¯ve come out here to have a vacation and break away from them. When you come back we¡¯ll be able to work through our differences and heal the break in our group from a better place.¡±

    Emily stared at Peter in shock as he finished and stared at her steadily.

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ So you never really cared about them? Any of the children? You think this is just some sort of vacation for me?¡±

    Peter raised his hands defensively, ¡°Not getting invested doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t care about them. I still care very much about the health and growth of the village as a whole of course. Just not for the individual people in it as much. And perhaps vacation is the wrong word¡­ Yes, it is the wrong word. I just meant that at some point you¡¯d come back. Whenever you have the desire to, not that I or anyone else would ever force you into anything. The rest of the group is actually rather harmonious and happy together, and I think it is such a shame that you¡¯re out here by yourself.¡±

    Emily settled down a bit at Peter¡¯s explanation, ¡°I¡¯m never alone out here. My children here are just people. I¡¯ve felt better in these last few years than I ever have before, even back on Earth. I love them and they love me.¡±

    ¡°I see. This is a rather wonderful place,¡± Peter said and some of the seriousness of the conversation faded away, ¡°But that¡¯s why we¡¯re staying distant. You¡¯ll understand what I mean in a few decades, hopefully longer if everything goes well here. I¡¯ve realized recently that I don¡¯t think I ever explained it to you properly when all of our emotions were running so high when you first left. I should have made our reasoning clear to you years ago.¡±

    Emily met Peter¡¯s eyes and then nodded, ¡°Thanks for telling me now.¡±

    ¡°Not at all¡­ Not at all. I¡­ will continue with my work now. Glad to have you back, Emily.¡±

    ¡°Bye, Peter.¡±

    Peter went back to the field to continue his work and Emily walked on towards the cluster of buildings of the village in the distance. She frowned and kept mulling over Peter¡¯s words as she went. Luna looked older than her now. Emily had kept her body at its appearance at twenty five despite how much time had passed. But Luna now was in her mid thirties. If a stranger was to look at them, then they¡¯d guess that Emily would be the younger sister of the two these days with how similar they were genetically and in appearance.

    Time came for them all except for Emily and the other Immortals apparently.

    Emily walked through the village with a slight frown on her face and distractedly greeting the people coming over to say hello to her.

    Finally Emily reached her destination and looked up.

    ¡°Gramma!¡± Minato said as he looked up from his datapad that he was taking his education lessons on as he sat on the front porch of Luna and Fumiko¡¯s house, ¡°You¡¯re back!¡±

    ¡°And permanently this time,¡± Emily said as her frown turned into a smile.

    Minato ran forward, leaving the datapad behind and the two of them hugged for a few seconds before she released him.

    ¡°Hey, Gramma. Can you tell me about the time you fought that big beast to save mom Luna again?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emily said, ¡°But first¡­ You have homework to do, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°But Graaaaammmmma! It¡¯s so boring!¡±

    Emily reached out and booped Minato on the tip of his nose with her finger.

    ¡°Work first, then play. Sit with me, I¡¯ll help you. Then I¡¯ll tell you the story again.¡±

    Minato grumbled, but went back and picked up his datapad and returned to Emily. The two of them walked a hundred feet away and sat down at the roots of a looming tree. Minato scrolled at the screen and started complaining how hard his homework problems were as he jabbed his finger angrily at the screen.

    Emily watched him for a bit and wrapped her arm over his shoulders and he unconsciously leaned against her even as he kept going and held the datapad resting where their legs lay in front of them side by side, him resting the device mostly against her thigh.

    ¡°Gramma? Gramma? Were you even listening? You said you would help me¡­¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Minato,¡± Emily said as she broke from her trance and scanned the math problem in front of her, ¡°It does sound rather hard doesn¡¯t it? Let¡¯s try from the beginning. We want to make an equation with the variables from all of these words so we can solve it. So let¡¯s try to do that together¡­¡±

    Emily and Minato sat there under the tree and she helped him with the simple algebra problems.

    ¡°Gramma, can¡¯t you just tell the story now?¡± Minato whined, ¡°We did most of it, didn¡¯t we?¡±

    ¡°Only three more problems, Minato,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just a little longer.¡±

    ¡°Blegh.¡±

    When they were just about to finish up the last problem, Emily spotted Fumiko walking towards them in a greenish mottled sleeveless dress that went down to her knees, dyed from one of the local plants they¡¯d discovered over the years. Holding her hand was Luna and Fumiko¡¯s new five year old daughter Aurora that they¡¯d adopted from the nursery when she was two years old, right after the villages had first split apart.

    ¡°Helping Minato with his homework again, Emily?¡± Fumiko said with a smile, ¡°It¡¯s fun when you have Gramma to help you, isn¡¯t it Minato?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not too bad,¡± Minato mumbled before perking up, ¡°But Gramma promised to tell me the story again when we¡¯re done! We¡¯ve only got one more of my problems to go through. Do you want to hear it too, mom? Aurora?¡±

    ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll go get Luna. We can listen to it together again, I¡¯m sure your mom will have something of her own to say about it.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°And so then I leapt into the air!¡± Emily said dramatically as Minato looked up from her side at her face, riveted by her story. Aurora hadn¡¯t been interested and she had wandered off to look closely at a few flowers growing from the ground a dozen feet from the rest of them. That girl had always been an odd one even when she was little. Not that any of them were normal really.

    ¡°Your mother Luna screamed at the top of her lungs in fear as the beast was about to jump onto her with its jaws wide open,¡± Emily said, refocusing on her story and Minato, ¡°But I grabbed it around the middle in mid-air and slammed it to the ground before it could reach her. Smash! Peter Rose scooped up your mother in his arms and ran back to the plane where it was safe at full speed. But I had to deal with the evil beast that had decided to attack us. The two of us wrestled for a bit, fighting each other and rolling around on the ground. The beast was so very strong, but I had my healing powers on my side to keep me going and fighting without ever having to stop. And so eventually I slithered up its body. Sssssllliddding up towards its head.¡±

    Emily took her hand and tapped up Minato¡¯s belly and up to his shoulder like she was playing a piano and he giggled.

    ¡°And I pounced myself!¡± Emily jabbed in slightly with her fingers like a claw into Minato¡¯s collarbone and Minato jumped a little despite knowing her movements by heart after her acting out the story for him so many times.

    ¡° ¡®Bam bam bam!¡¯ I smacked it¡¯s head, ¡®Bad beast! You leave my beautiful daughter alone!¡¯ I shouted,¡± Emily said while lightly poking Minato on the shoulder again with each ¡®Bam¡¯. Emily shot a little smirk at Luna sitting nearby with Fumiko. Luna rolled her eyes at Emily¡¯s words, but kept smiling at the two of them anyway.

    ¡°The beast let out a pitiful little yoooooowwwwlllll, and then fell to the ground defeated. Fleh,¡± Emily flopped limply onto Minato who giggled again and pushed her back up to a sitting position with his hands as she half flopped onto his head.

    ¡°With one final blow, I knocked the evil beast out cold,¡± Emily said once Minato had pushed her back up to her sitting position against the tree, ¡°And I rushed back to where Peter had run with Luna. We rushed back into the plane and took off into the sky, everyone safe and sound in the end and the evil beast defeated in the woods behind us. And he never came back and bothered us again.¡±

    ¡°So cool, Gramma!¡± Minato said as Emily finished, ¡°I can¡¯t believe that actually happened! You fought off the beast with your bare hands to defend mom Luna! Pow pow bam!¡±

    Minato looked up at Emily in awe and she felt her heart about to explode by the pure cuteness radiating off of him right now.

    ¡°Ah, Minato,¡± Emily said and ruffled his hair a bit with her hand¡­

    ¡°Gramma, why are you crying? Are you okay? What¡¯s wrong?¡± Minato asked in concern.

    ¡°Nothing, just something in my eye,¡± Emily said as she wiped her eyes with the back of her free hand that wasn¡¯t wrapped around Minato¡¯s shoulders, ¡°I¡¯m just glad that you¡¯re all here with me. It¡¯ll be wonderful being back here full time again. Let me tell you another story. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s a few that I remember that I haven¡¯t told you yet¡­¡±

 Chapter 78: The Reunion Festival

    Time passed in a blur. Peter and the others went back to their complex after a few more years after Minato and the others had grown up a bit. Minato was following in his mothers¡¯ footsteps and stepping up to try to lead the others out in the fields. He was never one for his studies, and mostly seemed to enjoy farming and playing with his friends. Enjoying the rustic life and causing all sorts of havoc and drama once he got to the age that he started pursuing some of the local girls.

    He was quite the catch, the rumors went, and he had grown to be quite handsome as he aged. Several girls had bribed each other to do each other¡¯s chores in exchange for letting them swap for work shifts where Minato would be there so they could talk and flirt with him.

    Minato certainly liked all the attention, even if he complained about his life being so complicated sometimes at their family meals with Luna, Fumiko, Emily, and his sister Aurora as his relationships and exes grew into a tangled web around him in the small village as time passed.

    Emily and Minato¡¯s parents all found his complaints rather amusing, much to his chagrin. Not many of the girls had any hard feelings, it mostly just made things awkward with them for Minato after his relationship with them ended for whatever reason.

    Unfortunately Emily and Minato¡¯s parents didn¡¯t really have any good advice for him on any seduction techniques or dating. Or how to handle his exes for that matter. Emily obviously hadn¡¯t had much if any practice with dating, and Luna and Fumiko¡¯s relationship had just sort of formed naturally with them falling in love almost immediately once they started exploring their feelings for each other.

    But based on how successful Minato had been these last few years, apparently he had figured it out for himself. He was almost twenty three now, and Emily was sure he¡¯d find somebody to settle down with eventually.

    It was some of the best years of Emily¡¯s life as she worked at the nursery and spent time with Minato, Fumiko, Luna, and the growing Aurora. Spending time with her family and watching the happy village grow steadily around her.

    Aurora had maintained her distant and detached personality and seemed to struggle with connecting with others initially. But once she gained a few friends she bonded deeply with them and her little group was practically joined at the hip from that day forward.

    The only time Emily had seen the girl truly angry growing up was when one of the older girls had shoved one of her friends while the two were arguing about something. Emily and everyone else had to hear about the incident for weeks as Aurora kept retelling the story of how she¡¯d shouted at the older girl who hurt her friend and put the bully back in her place.

    Normally Emily and Aurora¡¯s parents would have scolded her for being so harsh, but Aurora was just so passionate about something for once that none of them had the heart to stop her mid rant and ruin her excitement about defending her friend.

    Right now all of them were preparing for the Reunion Festival as they had taken to calling it over the years. When all of the villages would come together and have one big celebration and catch up on what had happened in the last year. It originally had been just the two villages, but over the last ten years five more small hamlets had been established on top of that.

    Each of the hamlets had less than ten or fifteen people total and all were within ten miles of one of the two main villages. But they provided even further space for anyone who found even the new less populated village more crowded than they would like.

    Both villages'' natural births as well as their incubation machines had been hard at work increasing the population to the point that this Reunion Festival would be attended by over six hundred people now, even if it was mostly children and younger teenagers.

    Luna and Fumiko looked both harried as they ran around organizing everything as they prepared for all of their guests for the next few days. Luna and Fumiko were organizing the sleeping accommodations with the older adults while Minato was setting up long wooden tables and benches outside and directing the younger generation in setting up the lawn games, competitions, and other things they¡¯d prepared for the festival.

    It felt like a renaissance fair, and the mood was upbeat as everyone looked forward to catching up with the people who had moved away and enjoying the upcoming party. A harried Alem came up to Emily looking exhausted as she sat there watching the proceedings. A group of children stood in a huddle in the field behind him all looking over at the two of them expectantly.

    ¡°Emily, could you entertain the children for a bit? They¡¯re relentless today. They¡¯ve been begging for you to play with them for a while now. I¡¯m exhausted. They¡¯ve had me playing monster all day.¡±

    ¡°Alright, Alem. Take a break, I¡¯ll go,¡± Emily promised and stood from her chair, ¡°You look like a tomato, go get a drink and sit down. Relax a bit.¡±

    ¡°A tomato?¡± Alem asked in confusion.

    ¡°Red. Bright red, it was a fruit. Sort of like a berdun fruit, but with a soft outside and a lighter shade of red.¡±

    ¡°Ah, okay. I¡¯ll go see if I can go steal a few drinks from Lucy.¡±

    Alem walked off, still panting slightly and drooping as he went. Emily started walking over to the crowd of children in the nearby area observing them and they all cheered.

    ¡°Yay! Momma Emily! Play with us!¡± They all said as the group of over forty children of various ages came over and crowded around her in a big huddle.

    ¡°Oh no!¡± Emily said dramatically, ¡°You better watch out! It¡¯s time for monster tag! Big monster Emily¡¯s coming out!¡±

    ¡°Noooo, not monster Emily!¡± The children cheered and started scrambling away in all directions from her. Emily raised her arms above her head and made claws with her fingers.

    ¡°Rawr! I¡¯m gonna eat ya up! Nom nom nom!¡± Emily said as she slowly jogged forward and picked up a squirming Jessica with both hands off of the ground where she¡¯d fallen in the stampede away from Emily.

    Little seven year old Jessica screamed in laughter as Emily lifted the girl high into the air and then brought the girl close to her stomach. Emily whirled around fast in a circle with the girl held in her arms so fast that the girl¡¯s legs swung outwards almost horizontal from the ground from the speed of Emily¡¯s spin.

    ¡°Grrrrr!¡± Emily said as she put down the little girl who wobbled a bit as she was placed back onto her feet. The other children lined the edge of their play area on the field and watched the two of them closely.

    Jessica raised her arms in front of her and made her own claws with her fingers.

    ¡°Grrrrrr!¡± Jessica giggled back.

    ¡°Let¡¯s get them, Jessica!¡± Emily said as she reformed her own imaginary claws, ¡°Now you¡¯re a monster too!¡±

    The two of them worked together and ran around to isolate people from the crowd and tag them. Whenever someone was tagged they¡¯d grab each other¡¯s forearms and spin in a circle and turn the other person into a ¡®monster¡¯ or new tagger. Some of the older children tried to lift each other as they did it and it became a sort of smaller game to see if they could make it around in the circle without the other person throwing them to the ground if they were around the same age.

    Only Emily did the whole routine of picking them fully off the ground and whirling them all the way around when they were caught. With her endless stamina she was able to keep playing as long as she needed to, and could pick up even the heaviest children without her arms tiring or trembling in the slightest. Some of the children intentionally dodged all the others just to let themselves be caught by Emily so they could have a turn of being whirled around by her during the game.

    Kimiko was the last one being chased, with a bit of an advantage since she was thirteen and one of the oldest of the children. But she managed to dodge all the ¡®monsters¡¯ charging her for a few seconds before she was overwhelmed, so she earned her victory fair and square despite her age advantage over the others.

    Everyone stopped after Kimiko was fully spun around and the game ended. They all sat down for a few minutes to rest before Kimiko stood back up.

    ¡°My turn! My turn! Now I start!¡± She said.

    ¡°Okay! Kimiko¡¯s the monster,¡± Emily said, ¡°Everyone ready?¡±

    Everyone stood up quickly and prepared for a second round, and the tired ones wandered off to the side lines at the border of the field to rest for longer.

    ¡°Three, two, one, Go!¡± Emily said.

    Kimiko raised her hands and formed them into claws and started charging at the nearest boy who had tagged her last game.

    ¡°Rawr! Rawr! Nom nom nom!¡± Kimiko shouted as she chased after the fleeing ten year old boy and ignored everyone else so she could get her revenge on him. After a few seconds and the boy getting blocked by the tight mass of the rest of the fleeing crowd, Kimiko grabbed him by the shoulders.

    ¡°Ha!¡± she shouted, ¡°Got you!¡±

    The two of them locked forearms and spun in a full circle and Kimiko managed to throw the boy to the ground as they competed in their spin.

    ¡°Hah!¡± Kimiko gloated even as the boy released his grip as he fell, causing her to stumble backwards before drunkenly trying to recover her balance from her dizziness from being spun around.

    The boy stood up and Kimiko turned to stare straight at Emily and pointed at her.

    ¡°C¡¯mon Ethan! Let¡¯s tag Emily! We¡¯ll get her this time!¡±

    Ethan gave Kimiko a skeptical look but raised his own hands into claws as he stood next to her.

    ¡°Rawr!¡± they both shouted before charging at Emily at full speed. Emily jogged away, going slow enough that they were just barely behind her and she had to dodge away from the swipes of their hands.

    Finally after nearly a full minute of chasing Emily, the both of them were panting and looked exhausted even after forcefully recruiting another four children as monsters to help them in the chase.

    Finally Emily felt a hand brush right across the left side of her butt and looked back. Emily saw Kimiko lying on the ground, having dived forward with her whole body to tag Emily before Emily could manage to dodge away again.

    ¡°Got you!¡± Kimiko said victoriously as she looked up from the grass.

    Emily stopped and after Kimiko stood too grabbed the girl by the forearms. The two of them spun in the circle as the rest of the ¡®monsters¡¯ stood in a circle watching them.

    They finished their spin and Kimiko wobbled on her feet as Emily let her go. There was a short pause before both of them raised their arms in the air again in a clawed gesture towards each other.

    ¡°Rawr!¡± they both shouted at each other simultaneously while making funny faces. All of the monsters turned outwards and the game continued, with all of the taggers running around and tagging whoever they could now that Emily had been defeated and finally joined their team.

    The time passed as Emily watched over the crowds of children with other helpers from the nursery scattered around the perimeter and watching over the children who were resting from the game.

    Alem came back at one point, although he seemed relieved that the children didn¡¯t draw him in to be the ¡®main monster¡¯ again like they had before to run him ragged. They didn¡¯t need to now that Emily was filling the role. Emily hadn¡¯t meant for that to be part of the game, but the children seemed to think it was critical to have an adult playing the game with them since Emily had first taught it to them while joining in herself at the very start.

    The adults kept setting up things for the festival, occasionally calling away a pouting child to help them with some task or other before the kids quickly returned and rejoined the fun again.

    Eventually the children had used up all of their energy running around playing the game until when the person who lasted longest called for a new round and no one answered them.

    ¡°Awww¡­¡± Ethan said, ¡°I wanted to go first¡­ I made it all the way to the end too¡­¡±

    Emily swept him up in her arms and spun him around three times fast before putting him back on his feet from which he promptly lost his balance after taking a single step forward with crossed eyes.

    ¡°Looks like everyone¡¯s tired,¡± Emily said as the boy rolled over on the ground and stared up at her, ¡°Everyone¡¯s taking a break now.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not fair, mom Emily,¡± the boy complained as he sat up, ¡°How are you still not tired yet? Why can¡¯t any of us have your cool powers? I want to play all day and not get tired too!¡±

    Emily reached down and brushed some dirt off from the knees of the boy¡¯s pants before leading him over to where Lily had brought some drinks over on a table with Alem that the tired children were all gathered around.

    ¡°That¡¯s just the way it is, Ethan. Lily has some drinks set, you should go get some with the others.¡±

    ¡°Emily? Is it true you don¡¯t have to eat or drink? Or even sleep? I wasn¡¯t sure if Minato and dad Alem were making fun of me or not when they told me that¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ethan. It¡¯s all true. Just like how I can¡¯t get tired. I can do all of those things if I want to, but I never have to do any of them like you do. It¡¯s part of my healing powers.¡±

    ¡°Oh, okay. Thanks for playing with us, mom Emily.¡±

    Alem overheard their conversation nearby and straightened up.

    ¡°Did you kids think to thank Emily for playing monster with you for so long?¡± he asked the group loudly.

    All the children froze and turned to Emily.

    ¡°Thanks for playing with us, Emily!¡± they all called out quickly before Alem and his other helpers could scold them for not doing so earlier. Emily smiled and nodded and the children turned back around to keep drinking from their cups and eating the granola-like snacks that Lily had just returned with and put on the table a few seconds ago. Lily was one in the original group and had just turned forty years old a few days ago.

    Ethan ran off into the group to get his own share.

    Emily walked around the groups of children who had mostly chosen to sit on the grass nearby as they ate and drank and stood by the other side of the table where Lily and one of Alem¡¯s helpers from the nursery stood, making sure no one got greedy when taking anything from the table.

    ¡°Lily, thanks for the help,¡± Emily said.

    ¡°Oh, not at all mom,¡± Lily said as they shared a brief hug, ¡°Not at all.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯s it going out there? They need any help?¡± Emily asked.

    ¡°No, I think Minato and his admirers have it covered I think,¡± Lily said with a smirk. Emily rolled her eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell him you said that,¡±

    ¡°Go ahead,¡± Lily said lightly, ¡°I¡¯m sure he¡¯d just take it as a compliment.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, probably. He¡¯s really coming into his own, leading everyone in the work. Even if the ones working closest to him are the girls out in the fields. Actually, not as recently, now that I think about it. His current girlfriend seems to have captured his heart for now. We¡¯ll see if it lasts¡­¡±

    Lily chuckled and nodded, but didn¡¯t reply.

    ¡°Lily, can I have another?¡± one of the small girls asked as she approached the table and reached for the crumbly granola like snack that Lily had out in a bowl hidden in the crowd of others coming up in ones and twos.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Did you already have one?¡± Lily asked the girl sternly.

    ¡°Yeeeessss?¡± she replied reluctantly.

    ¡°Then you¡¯ve got to wait until everyone¡¯s got some before you can have more,¡± Lily said, ¡°I think there¡¯s a few that haven¡¯t gotten any at all.¡±

    ¡°Okay, Lily,¡± the girl said in disappointment before going off, clearly annoyed that her attempts to get more snacks had been thwarted.

    ¡°I¡¯ll help you with the drinks when we¡¯re done here,¡± Emily declared, ¡°I think that should be out of the way enough that I¡¯m not accidentally hovering over Luna or Minato as I help¡­¡±

    ¡°Sure, mom,¡± Lily said, ¡°Things just get crazier each year, don¡¯t they?¡±

    ¡°Yep, they sure do.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hah!¡± Minato¡¯s broad naked shoulders rippled as he finished lifting the heavy wooden log above his head with both hands. He was only wearing long shorts and boots and wasn¡¯t wearing a shirt at all as he huffed and puffed with a red face as he grunted with effort.

    ¡°Yeah, you go Minato!¡± One of the women from the sidelines cheered and the boy gave her a roguish grin despite his clear strain as he held the wood log above his head with trembling arms. His distraction made him wobble a bit as he almost lost his grip on the log before stabilizing his stance again. With one final heave, he threw the log to the ground in front of him with a massive thump as it sank into the grass in front of him as it hit the ground.

    ¡°And Minato wins the log lifting contest again!¡± A forty six year old Luna announced cheerfully from the edge of the crowd, ¡°For the third year in a row!¡±

    Everyone clapped and cheered, the cheerful festival in full swing now that all of the villages had come together for the big Reunion Festival.

    Emily watched as the sweaty Minato went over to the girl who had cheered for him. She looked weak in the knees as she looked up at him and they talked and flirted on the sidelines. Emily snorted. Minato¡¯s current girlfriend seemed more than happy with their relationship at least based on how she was acting right now. Although now that Emily thought about it, it had actually been more than six months since they first got together, so maybe Minato felt the same way? Huh. Usually something came up and he had already broken up with his partner by now.

    ¡°Mom, you see Minato out there?¡±

    Emily looked to the side and saw Anna standing there.

    ¡°Anna! I didn¡¯t see you before. It feels like it¡¯s been so long,¡±

    The two of them hugged briefly and then released.

    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m so sorry,¡± Anna apologized, ¡°I got terrible luck being chosen by the random draw twice to stay back home so I had to miss the last two years of the festival. But luckily I made the cut this time, so I could come again. Anyway, look. At. Minato! He¡¯s gotten so strong! I can¡¯t believe he won twice while I wasn¡¯t here!¡±

    ¡°Yes, he¡¯s quite the champion,¡± Emily said, ¡°Look at that girl swooning in his arms. Just like you and John were back then. I¡¯m sure you¡¯d have loved watching him competing out there with Minato back then.¡±

    ¡°He was a man worth swooning over! Still is!¡± Anna said with a quick comeback, ¡°There was a reason I was the first person to have a natural pregnancy. Ah, such a shame John only made it to the semifinals. All these young men out lifting their elders so disrespectfully!¡±

    ¡°He did pretty well though,¡± Emily said thoughtfully, ¡°Semifinals is good considering how heavy those logs got near the end.¡±

    ¡°Maybe you should compete, mom,¡± Anna said lightly, ¡°Show everyone your full strength for once like you used to for us.¡±

    ¡°It sort of defeats the spirit of the competition, doesn¡¯t it, if I just win it all every year?¡± Emily said.

    ¡°Still. It could be fun just to show them. I think most have forgotten just how strong you are after so long since you¡¯ve really showed off everything you have.¡±

    ¡°Maybe next year,¡± Emily allowed.

    ¡°Great, I¡¯ll have to make sure I don¡¯t get forced to stay behind again so I can see it,¡± Anna said, ¡°Alright, nice catching up mom. I think I see John looking for me. Come and talk to you later?¡±

    ¡°See you later, Anna,¡± Emily said. The woman walked off again towards where John was looking at them across the way.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It was the second day of the festival, and Emily was sitting on the sidelines and watching another competition again. This one was axe throwing. There were large wooden boards mounted on logs that had been driven into the ground as posts and painted out for targets.

    The event hadn¡¯t started yet, everyone was still a little sluggish from the well cooked lunch that everyone had just made.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re related to Chief Luna, right? I¡¯m Richard. Nice to meet you.¡±

    Emily looked up and blinked at an unfamiliar voice to her side. Unfamiliar? She peered at the face of the nineteen year old in front of her. The boy¡¯s eyes flickered down to her chest before coming back up to her face and he blushed slightly in embarrassment at the unconscious look and her expression that made it clear that he¡¯d been caught.

    Emily was flabbergasted. What? What was going on? She knew Richard as a boy when there was only a single village. Surely he must have seen her before? She hadn¡¯t raised him or even talked to him much before, since his parents had lived on the outskirts of town, but still¡­

    ¡°Y-You must be, right?¡± the boy continued as she didn¡¯t say something, ¡°Aurora? Her daughter?¡±

    ¡°No, I¡¯m- I¡¯m not Aurora. I¡¯m Emily,¡± she said, still recovering from what had just happened.

    ¡°Well, are you competing in the axe throwing competition? Could be a lot of fun. I bet I¡¯m gonna win the whole thing! Are you gonna cheer me on? With someone as beautiful as you cheering me forward, I¡¯m sure I can make it all the way.¡±

    He shot her a wink and Emily just sat there, her brain not able to take any more input at the moment. How was this happening? How did this kid not know who she was?

    How should she even react to someone flirting with her, she¡¯d never dealt with something like this before! Let alone when it was one of her grandkids!

    ¡°I¡¯m actually competing myself,¡± Emily said as she blurted out the first thing that made it through the clogged machinery that was her confused brain right now, ¡°So, yeah.¡±

    ¡°Huh. Well, see you out there¡­ Emily. I didn¡¯t know that Chief Luna and Fumiko had a second daughter¡­ Nice to meet you. Maybe I¡¯ll be¡­ cheering for you,¡± the boy said suggestively before walking off towards the field where everyone was gathering to start the competition.

    Emily just sat there, the little workers in her brain running around in panic while everything was on fire around them. This was possibly the most awkward she¡¯d ever felt in her entire life.

    Richard walked off with a swagger, trying to look nonchalant as he left. But he glanced behind him to make sure she was still watching him while not trying to be too obvious about it.

    Well, even Emily could admit that he had pretty good game. He had handled all of that surprisingly smoothly besides him fumbling in the beginning a bit.

    Emily just didn¡¯t move as she thought about how to handle this.

    ¡°Oh! Hey, Emily. You¡¯ve met my son Richard, right?¡± Anna said as she seemingly popped from nowhere and made Emily jump.

    ¡°Apparently. How had I not met him before? I mean since he was little,¡± Emily said.

    ¡°Oh, you know¡­ he moved to one of those small hamlets when he was a bit older. Wanted to get out of the house and make his own way. He¡¯s missed almost all of the Reunion Festivals for quite a while, he was quite stubborn about not coming here until just last year. But now that he¡¯s had a taste of it, he can¡¯t stop talking about it. So, what¡¯d he say?¡±

    ¡°He didn¡¯t know who I was,¡± Emily said.

    ¡°He didn¡¯t know? Oh, that¡¯s¡­ I¡¯m sorry. You know how we were separated a bit back then, out of town. Maybe he just forgot? It has been over sixteen years since we split off¡­¡±

    ¡°He uh¡­ was flirting with me. Thought that I was Luna¡¯s daughter,¡± Emily said.

    ¡°He¡ª He what?!¡±

    ¡°I know. Checking me out, winking at me suggestively, the whole thing. Your son¡¯s a charmer, Anna. He looked at my boobs almost immediately though and I caught him doing it. That was a bit much from him for an opening. But he recovered pretty well from it after.¡±

    ¡°Oh. My. Gaia. I¡­ I¡­¡±

    Anna looked tomato red and like she¡¯d just died inside as she sat down heavily next to Emily.

    ¡°Sorry, mom,¡± she eventually said, ¡°I¡¯ll go grab him and set him straight¡­ I¡¯m so embarrassed¡­¡±

    ¡°It was so awkward,¡± Emily admitted before Anna could leave to hunt down Richard, ¡°First time someone¡¯s so obviously flirted with me even after all of this time, actually. Even back on Earth. How sad is that? I haven¡¯t aged a day. He wasn¡¯t wrong to guess that I could be Luna¡¯s daughter. I could be these days with how much older than me she looks now. In her mid forties now¡­¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, mom,¡± Anna said quickly, ¡°You¡¯ve never needed to. Nothing wrong with that. We all love you and know your real age, no matter how you look. Although it was strange when I first realized that I looked the same age as you when I grew up. Not like you¡¯ll get much chance for love around here.¡±

    Emily wrung her hands for a bit and stared at her palms for a moment, thinking.

    She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw that Anna had sat down next to her.

    ¡°Mom, what¡¯s wrong? Surely this isn¡¯t about what my boy did? What¡¯s got you so upset?¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just a reminder how unchanged I¡¯ve been even with how many years have passed. Luna, you, everyone. You¡¯re all growing older and here I am just the same as I ever was. Even little Minato. I still remember so well when he was a boy and we¡¯d sit together under a tree and I¡¯d help him with his math problems. Now look at him. Strongest man in the world, being a leader of the village. Impressing the ladies. It¡¯s all going by so fast.¡±

    ¡°I¨C I¡¯m sorry. I never thought that it¡¯d been weighing on you so much. I¡¯ll try to come over more often, more than just for the festival. I promise. I¡¯ve missed you.¡±

    Emily looked up.

    ¡°Thanks, Anna. I¡¯d like that. I¡¯ve missed you too. Especially recently with you not being at the most recent festivals. Listen to me, complaining when so many people I love are still around me.¡±

    ¡°Mom, I¡ª¡±

    ¡°Oh, hey mom!¡± Richard¡¯s voice suddenly said from in front of them, ¡°Have you met Emily before? I didn¡¯t recognize her, you didn¡¯t tell me that Chief Luna had another daughter!¡±

    Both of the women¡¯s gazes switched to Richard and his easy smile suddenly sputtered and faded into a look of surprise and slight fear as he saw his mother¡¯s thunderous expression.

    ¡°Richard,¡± Anna hissed and stood up, ¡°You apologize to your grandmother right now for what you just did! I¡¯ve never been so embarrassed in my whole life! How could you be so ignorant! I swear when your father hears of this¡­¡±

    ¡°G-G- Grandma?¡± Richard said with wide eyes as he looked back at Emily, ¡°You¡¯re¡­ You¡¯re¡­ Oh, shit¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Anna demanded, ¡°Now you apologize to her right now!¡±

    ¡°I- I- I¡¯m so sorry Grandma! I didn¡¯t know! I¡¯m sorry, I never would have¡­ Oh, Gaia¡­¡±

    Emily let it continue for a bit as Anna kept yelling and scolding her son loudly for everyone to hear. The onlookers looked extremely shocked once Anna¡¯s angry words reached their ears and turned to the commotion and started listening in.

    Richard was looking around wildly and weakly protesting his innocence as Anna verbally flayed him alive in front of the watching crowd who were also shooting him disapproving looks.

    ¡°Anna! Anna, enough,¡± Emily said and put her hand on the shoulder on the red faced woman, ¡°He didn¡¯t know. He didn¡¯t mean any harm by it. It¡¯s fine.¡±

    Anna stopped shouting and took a deep breath.

    ¡°And that¡¯s why he¡¯s only getting a rant and public embarrassment!¡± she finished loudly, ¡°If he weren¡¯t innocent then who knows what I¡¯d be doing to him right now!¡±

    ¡°Hey, what¡¯s the commotion here?¡± John suddenly asked as he pushed through the crowd, ¡°Anna, what¡¯s our boy done?¡±

    After explaining loudly again in front of the whole crowd John¡¯s face went stony and he grabbed Richard by the arm.

    ¡°But, Dad! I swear I didn¡¯t know,¡± Richard rasped weakly as he was pulled by the shoulder by John.

    ¡°Son, we¡¯re going to have a talk in private,¡± John said, ¡°And I¡¯d better like your answers.¡±

    Richard gulped but let himself be dragged away through the edge of the crowd and away by his father.

    The crowd dispersed after a few minutes as it became clear there wouldn¡¯t be any more drama and Emily waved them off after providing some brief explanations of what had happened. Seeing her largely unaffected by the incident, most of the anger the adults had for Richard seemed to mostly fade and they wandered off. Some even started laughing at the massive misunderstanding and talked about how they would tease Richard mercilessly about it later.

    ¡°That did seem a bit much,¡± Emily said after someone got Anna a pitcher of water to cool off from her rant and to help her calm down now that all the commotion was over. There wasn¡¯t anyone left in earshot of them anymore.

    ¡°I know,¡± Anna admitted, ¡°Sorry, I let my emotions¡­ get away from me. It¡¯s not his fault that his flirting with you¡­ made you feel so terrible, I suppose¡­ I might have to apologize to him later. I meant it though. Before. I¡¯ll try to see if we can come a few times a year at least. We¡¯ll make the most of our time together.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Anna. That means a lot. And maybe teach your son better about their elders next time.¡±

    Anna let out a half whine in her throat.

    ¡°Oh Gaia, and everyone heard about it too. This is going to be just the worst¡­ I¡¯m getting so embarrassed just thinking about it, how am I going to talk to anyone from now on?¡±

    ¡°Did I ever tell you about the time I kissed a girl to stop her from attacking me?¡±

    ¡°Wh- What? Who? Where? You?¡±

    ¡°On Earth. You know about Luke Astas, who was my best friend. And how he was a bit of a player. A little like Minato, but more subdued and interested in his studies. And as much as I hate to admit, not nearly as handsome as our little Minato is. None of the girls liked that Luke was still my best friend even when he was dating them. There was one though¡­ Alice. She was a real bully, did all sorts of things to try to bully me and push me away from him.¡±

    ¡°Like what?¡± Anna asked, fascinated. Emily had never told many people this story before. She hadn¡¯t even told Luke about it, it was one of her most embarrassing memories of that time. Still was, honestly.

    ¡°She threatened me, told me to back off of her man. She shoved me into the lockers at school.¡±

    Emily saw Anna¡¯s brows scrunch in confusion and she quickly clarified.

    ¡°School was the building for learning. We all went there instead of learning on the datapads in our own homes. Or in those rooms in the main hall like the kids do now. Lockers are like¡­ a big metal box with a door to store things in. Like a closet or cabinet made of metal.¡±

    Anna got a distant look as she seemed to imagine it.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, ¡°I think I remember you talking about something like that before.¡±

    Anna¡¯s flushed face started relaxing and the red blush started to fade as she took another drink of water and calmed down more.

    ¡°Well, she¡¯d grab me by the shoulders and shove me into the lockers. Go right up to my ear with her bright red lips and whisper all sorts of threats to me right into my ear.¡±

    ¡°What? Really? She did that? How¡¯d you respond?¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t. My brain completely shut down. All I could think was hot woman, woman, woman, over and over again. I didn¡¯t hear a word she said to me.¡±

    ¡°No¡ª¡± Anna gasped.

    ¡°Yep. So when Luke broke up with her, she cornered me into the lockers. I tried to run away but she shoved me against the locker again and was threatening me. More seriously than before since she was upset about the breakup. So I just kissed her and ran for it. Man, she really did hate me after that. But I did get away with only a few bruises at the time, so I guess it was the right thing to do. It could have gone a lot worse.¡±

    ¡°Mom, woah. Are you serious?¡±

    ¡°Yep. That¡¯s what actually happened. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever told anyone but Luna that story before actually. Maybe Fumiko, not sure if she was there to hear it or not¡­ We¡¯ve all got things to be embarrassed about. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll make it through this fine.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Anna said as she seemed to remember she was still supposed to be upset and embarrassed from before, ¡°Thanks, mom. You didn¡¯t have to tell me that just to cheer me up.¡±

    Emily shrugged.

    ¡°You know¡­¡± Emily said eventually, ¡°Maybe I will join the axe throwing competition. Show off my skills a bit like you said.¡±

    ¡°You will?¡±

    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Emily said, finalizing her decision, ¡°I¡¯m doing that.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°And the winner of course is our dear mother Emily,¡± Luna said loudly, ¡°She¡¯s absolutely shown her grandchildren their place, landing perfect hits on the targets almost every time to beat them all. Now that that¡¯s over¡­ Let¡¯s see how far she can go! Our farthest target so far was at twenty feet away. Minato? Let¡¯s set up some farther for her!¡±

    Minato waved to get some people to help him after a short nod to Luna and Emily. With his group they carried out more posts and targets and used large hammers to drive them firmly into the ground at intervals of twenty feet apart. They kept going until they went over a hundred and forty feet away.

    After they were finished they left and Emily shifted her grip on the axe. While she had stood outside at night defending the children in the beginning she¡¯d brought a spare axe with her and practiced her throws. It had been an easy way to pass the time as she just stood there as a guard for them.

    So she was pretty good at this.

    She drew back the axe, adjusted her aim¡­ and threw. The axe spun in the air for a moment before the blade sank into the wood of the target forty feet away.

    ¡°And she¡¯s got forty feet!¡± Luna shouted.

    Emily threw again at the next target, the axe sailing through the air longer this time as it traveled.

    There was a crack of splintering wood and the post she¡¯d hit tilted and fell over, ripping up some dirt where it hadn¡¯t been firmly rooted down. There in the target Emily¡¯s axe lay.

    ¡°And sixty feet!¡±

    Emily threw again and hit.

    ¡°Eighty feet!¡±

    The last hit had been off center and barely buried itself in the edge of the target. Emily took a deep breath and prepared to throw for the next one.

    She threw¡­ and she missed. It landed ten feet to the right.

    ¡°Awww! So close! Go again, mom!¡±

    Emily had her second throw and missed again to the right, but only by a few feet now.

    She threw another axe one final time, watching it spinning through the air¡­ Then with a faint thunk of blade into wood in the distance the blade buried itself into the target!

    ¡°Who hoo! She did it! A hundred feet in only three tries! Does anyone else think they can hit one that far?¡±

    All the other challengers looked suitably impressed with Emily¡¯s skill, and all took their own crack at it.

    Most weren¡¯t even able to throw their axe a hundred feet, even when they ignored the target and just threw it with all of their strength. Several of them landed the forty foot away target, and a few of the most skilled of them hit the sixty foot target. Including Richard, who had finished third below Emily despite keeping his head down and looking like he just wanted to leave rather than participate.

    Minato was surprisingly bad at the event, it was clear he hadn¡¯t practiced this skill too much and he looked proud of himself when he hit one of the targets that was only ten feet away while the others did their more distant throws.

    After everyone finished all the competitors rushed up to Emily and congratulated her on her skills, and Emily told them the story of how she practiced her throws during the night while standing guard over the original kids dormitories.

    Emily was surprised to learn that many of the second generation people didn¡¯t know the story at all. It seems their parents had never thought to tell them that part or had been too young to remember things as clearly as Emily did.

    Usually Emily was laid back and relaxed during the Reunion festivals and took in the action. But this year, she was the center of attention by everyone in the second generation.

    She even told the story of her defending Luna from the predator, and not glossing over the wounds she¡¯d received from the creature as much now that she was telling an older crowd, unlike how she¡¯d censored it a bit when telling Minato when he was young.

    The rest of the multi-day reunion festival went well, and Emily¡¯s spirits were thoroughly lifted by the end of it like they always were every year.

    Anna promised to visit more often, and while Richard was mercilessly teased for his mistake by nearly everyone, no one seemed to hold it against him or have as extreme a reaction as his mother had initially.

    Life was good, and Emily was happy.

 Chapter 79: Kenji

    ¡°Yes, Kenji¡¯s much more into his studies than I ever was. Did you know that your great grandmother used to help me with my homework in the yard just like she does to you? I couldn¡¯t have made through half of them without her explaining and drilling them through this thick skull of mine!¡±

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t we all know it,¡± Elise said fondly as she lightly brushed a hand across Minato¡¯s shoulders, ¡°Remember how long it took for you to finally ask me to marry you?¡±

    ¡°I love you more than words can describe!¡± Minato said, ¡°Especially those words. Don¡¯t understand why people have focused on those ceremonies from the Earth archives and settler programs so much in recent years. My mothers never married, no one did back then. John and Anna certainly didn¡¯t and they had plenty of children. Someone¡¯s just taking those old files and rituals and making them more important than they have to be. We knew our feelings, why do we have to take on a label for it?¡±

    ¡°Agree to disagree,¡± Elise said lightly, ¡°Still haven¡¯t changed that thick head of yours, have we?¡±

    She reached up and rubbed Minato¡¯s forehead with her palm for a moment before letting go.

    Minato smiled, ¡°I suppose not. But now it¡¯s done, I know enough to praise my beautiful¡­ wife¡­ rather than my dear Elise.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you¡­¡±

    ¡°Mom, dad, stop getting distracted again!¡± Kenji complained, ¡°What were you saying about my¡­great grandma Emily, dad? She taught you math?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yes. Actually, it should be a few hours before we¡¯re going over to your grandmothers¡¯ place for dinner. Would you mind sitting with him, grandmother? I¡¯m sure he¡¯d enjoy you helping him.¡±

    ¡°Sure, Minato,¡± Emily said lightly, ¡°We can go outside. Come along Kenji, I know all sorts of things. You couldn¡¯t be a worse student than your father. If Fumiko wasn¡¯t standing over him the whole time then he¡¯d have played with his friends and learned nothing at all!¡±

    ¡°Ah, but it did end up being useful, son,¡± Minato added, ¡°Calculating the amount of nutrients in the soil to provide proper growing conditions for the fields and how many seeds for planting. Recording the amount of crops to be harvested at certain times and in what order is much more complicated than I ever would have imagined it was when I was a boy. My math lessons have come in handy many times over the years when intuition wasn¡¯t enough.¡±

    ¡°I know dad, I¡¯m taking my studies seriously,¡± Kenji said, ¡°Mom says that I¡¯m three modules ahead of what I have to do already!¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, Kenji,¡± Elise said, ¡°Now go along. Don¡¯t keep your great grandmother waiting.¡±

    Emily and Kenji went outside and sat at the base of a strong and tall tree. As Kenji sat next to her and held up his datapad, Emily had a wave of nostalgia wash over her. It seemed like only a moment ago that it had been Minato here sitting with her. For a moment she almost believed she was back in one of those moments as the picture of the scene almost froze in time in her mind.

    But then Kenji spoke and the illusion was broken.

    ¡°Okay,¡± he said in a self satisfied tone, ¡°So I¡¯m ahead on these three. I¡¯m almost on the fourth module now. I haven¡¯t really looked at it too much before. But maybe we could learn it together?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Emily said, amused, ¡°Let¡¯s learn it together Kenji.¡±

    The two of them went through the slightly more advanced algebra and Emily explained at a few points when Kenji had questions or struggled to grasp something. At first he was a bit skeptical, his questions pointed as if he was testing that she really knew what she was talking about. But once she proved herself about half way through by weathering his verbal assault flawlessly, he relaxed and started being more genuine. He seemed to enjoy solving the problems as they went through, smiling a bit when he¡¯d solve a problem that had been challenging for him as Emily helped him along.

    They finished another problem and Emily waited for Kenji to move on. But his finger was hovering above the screen and slowly lowered again.

    ¡°Emily? Are you really my great grandmother?¡± Kenji asked, looking at her and seeming to look a mix of confused and guilty.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Emily said calmly after taking a moment to recover, ¡°Yes, Kenji. I¡¯m your great grandmother. Grandmother Luna and Grandmother Fumiko are both my daughters. So are many other people in the villages.¡±

    ¡°How¡¯s that possible?¡± Kenji said, ¡°You look more like the women working in the fields. Young, I mean. Grandmother Luna and Fumiko are¡­ old. They have wrinkles and stuff, they can¡¯t work fully anymore so we all take care of them when they need to rest. And dad asks them for advice sometimes when he doesn¡¯t know what to do as village chief.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I know,¡± Emily said softly, ¡°They¡¯re both over sixty years old now. They do have wrinkles, and I don¡¯t, do I? You must know the stories about me of course?¡±

    ¡°I mean, yeah,¡± Kenji said, ¡°But it can¡¯t all be true, can it? Other planets, billions of people, all your crazy powers. You fighting off a Rentenula panther with just your bare hands to protect grandmother Luna. It just doesn¡¯t make sense. It must be just a legend to make you important, so you can help us do the right thing, right? Like those fables with the lessons inside of them that mom told me when I was a kid.¡±

    ¡°This universe¡¯s a crazy place,¡± Emily said, ¡°Sometimes things just don¡¯t make sense. And you¡¯re only fourteen. You¡¯re still a kid. Teen at the worst.¡±

    ¡°Am not. Fourteen years old¡¯s not a kid,¡± Kenji protested, ¡°But can you tell me? If it¡¯s not true? I promise I won¡¯t tell anyone else, I just want to know.¡±

    ¡°It is all true,¡± Emily said, ¡°But I¡¯m interested in what you think. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever had anyone just not believe it before by your age. Tell me, why would I make up any of that? Why would your parents and grandparents and everyone else pretend that I¡¯m somebody that I¡¯m not? If I¡¯m just some young woman here for some other reason?¡±

    Kenji tilted his head and looked like he was thinking hard, putting the datapad onto the grass beside him. He seemed to be struggling to come up with an answer.

    ¡°Let¡¯s make this easier,¡± Emily said as she saw that Kenji was getting frustrated with himself as he couldn¡¯t come up with a good explanation, ¡°Have your parents ever shown you their bellies?¡±

    Kenji looked confused for a moment before his eyes lit up.

    ¡°Oh, yeah!¡± he said, ¡°Mom has a little dimple on her stomach like me. A belly button she called it. Dad¡¯s was just completely smooth. It was so strange. Some of my friends have it and others don¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s because your dad and many other people were born from the incubation machines,¡± Emily said, ¡°When they¡¯re growing in the machines, there¡¯s no need for an umbilical cord. So they don¡¯t get the little hole on their belly there after they¡¯re born.¡±

    ¡°Umbilical cord? What¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s like a tube to feed the baby nutrients when it¡¯s growing. The point where your belly button is is where it was attached to you. When you¡¯re born you don¡¯t need it anymore now that you can eat other things, so it goes away, just leaving the little belly button behind where it used to be. Since your mother was pregnant with you rather than you growing in the machine, you needed an umbilical cord. So you have a belly button. People grown in the machine don''t need it because the machine takes over that work for them.¡±

    Kenji looked down and placed a hand through his shirt to press his finger into his belly button.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that,¡± he said, sounding amazed at the revelation.

    ¡°I told you that I know a lot of things. Ask your grandmothers. Neither of them have belly buttons either. They were born from the machines too, unlike you and your mother who were born without it. Your grandmother Luna was the very first person ever born from a machine. The first person born on this planet. It¡¯s one of many reasons why everyone treats her so respectfully all the time. Besides her leading the village as chief for so long.¡±

    ¡°The first? But surely there must have been some before? Who built the machine that gave birth to her if she was the first?¡±

    ¡°I did. I was the one that designed the machine. I was born a long time ago on the other planet. Earth. The same one that most of your learning programs comes from.¡±

    Emily lifted her shirt slightly to show off her belly button to Kenji before lowering it again.

    Kenji looked between her and the datapad.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed that some of the word problems don¡¯t make any sense to you,¡± Emily continued, ¡°How sometimes they refer to things that are just so strange or unfamiliar. Even after all this time, we always seem to miss a couple whenever we check again to get rid of them. Do you know what I¡¯m talking about?¡±

    Kenji nodded, ¡°There was a problem that was talking about a¡­ dog and cat? I¡¯ve never heard of animals called that before, but the dog was chasing the cat and I think the cat was supposed to be smaller? It was very strange.¡±

    ¡°A dog and cat were animals back on Earth,¡± Emily said, ¡°They both lived alongside people. Dogs liked to play, and to chase the cats around sometimes if they were in the right mood for it. We don¡¯t have any animals like that here, so there¡¯s nothing really comparable to it for you to refer to when thinking about it.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Kenji said, ¡°Maybe Earth exists. But what about all of those people? They can¡¯t have just all died. With so many of them working together they should have been able to solve whatever problems they had! How could it just be the ten of you with your powers left?¡±

    ¡°Kenji¡­¡± Emily said, before stopping herself. Kenji had no conception that everyone wouldn¡¯t be working for the common good. Sure there were some selfish people, and people who didn¡¯t contribute as much as they should. But with a whole planet available to settle and the wise stewardship of Luna and Minato as leaders and guides, there had been not even an inclination for the villages to fight one another so far even as the population swelled from hundreds decades ago to now in the low thousands.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    The worst Emily had ever seen to true conflict was a fistfight between two of the village chiefs during one of the councils of the seven main villages. And it turned out that had truly been because they were both pursuing the same woman, not because of anything to do with the discussion topic itself.

    Kenji had no concept of war or large scale greed like how it had been on Earth.

    ¡°...they didn¡¯t work together,¡± Emily eventually said, ¡°They destroyed themselves because they cared more about making sure their attackers died with them than doing their best to survive themselves. Mutually assured destruction they called it back then. If I am to be destroyed then so shall be the world and anyone who ever dared to attack me. And eventually it happened despite all those billions of people living their own lives and pretending that it never would. Gaia is far too beautiful for thoughts like that. That¡¯s why the parents don¡¯t tell their children everything they know about Earth that I and the others told them. Earth is destroyed, and on this new world we can only hope that things will be better. Far better to let everyone be happy here than wallowing in what happened in the distant past hundreds of years ago.¡±

    Kenji took in her story with wide eyes.

    ¡°Why¡¯d you tell me that?¡± he said after a moment, ¡°That¡¯s¡­ That¡¯s what really happened? Hundreds of years ago? How old are you?¡±

    ¡°Yes. As for how old I am? I think I¡¯m¡­ Probably about three hundred years old now is my best guess? Almost five times as old as your grandmother Luna is right now. And I think you¡¯re old enough to handle it. I¡¯d rather you hear it from me than from somebody who doesn¡¯t fully understand since they weren¡¯t there.¡±

    ¡°Three hundred¡­¡± Kenji said, his doubt from before seeming to have evaporated into thin air, ¡°And your powers? They keep you young even with it being so long?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right. Haven¡¯t aged a day,¡± Emily confirmed, ¡°Probably won¡¯t ever will. And I¡¯ll have you know I did wrestle that beast with my bare hands. Your father absolutely loved that story when I told it to him. Would you like to hear it?¡±

    Kenji nodded.

    ¡°Come closer,¡± Emily said and patted a spot closer to her. Kenji scooted so they were sitting hip to hip against the tree.

    ¡°So, there grandma Luna and I were walking in the woods together,¡± Emily said, ¡°It was a beautiful day and Luna was looking into the river. We were having tons of fun and Luna was having the time of her life running around the path and exploring all the new sights and things. She was little, and had only seen a forest a few times before! But little did we know that the great beast had its eeeeevvvvilll eyes on us, and more importantly on my cute little daughter Luna! He just wanted gobble her up in one big bite! Yom nom nom!¡±

    Kenji seemed a little weirded out as Emily acted out the story for him like she had used to do for Minato, even having improved her storytelling since back then. But about halfway through as she narrated her fight with the beast he grew more interested and seemed to be drawn into the story.

    ¡°So then with one final blow I smmmmacked it across the head one last time! ¡°Don¡¯t you attack my dear Luna!¡± I shouted as I struck the final blow. It led out a pitiful yoooooowwwwwwwlllll of defeat and finally fell to the ground unconscious at last. I went back to the plane and Peter Rose had the plane fly us out of there away from the unconscious beast.¡±

    ¡°I do think it¡¯s a cool story,¡± Kenji admitted, ¡°It¡¯s even cooler since it¡¯s true. Thanks for telling me, Emily. And that other stuff too¡­¡±

    ¡°Not at all, not at all. Glad you enjoyed the story,¡± Emily said, ¡°It¡¯s been a bit since I¡¯ve told that one at the nursery.¡±

    ¡°Do you know any other stories?¡± Kenji asked, ¡°About Earth? You¡¯ve never told me anything about it before.¡±

    ¡°Oh sure. Let¡¯s see. Let me think of an Earth fairytale. It¡¯s been so long, I¡¯ve forgotten some parts. Let¡¯s see... Ah, I think you¡¯re old enough for Knight George and the Dragon. Have I told you that one before?¡±

    Kenji shook his head.

    Emily told the story of the wandering knight George (He had been a saint in the original version of the story) coming across the village who had almost run out of food. The dragon had been demanding tribute from them, and eating their livestock and food stores when it emerged from the cave. But with no more food left to tribute to the dragon this time, the beast demanded one of the villagers to eat instead. The village chief was too old and stringy according to the dragon despite the man volunteering himself to go. So his daughter bravely volunteered to take his place instead and go to the cave when the time for tribute came and the Dragon agreed.

    A week or so later, the day of tribute arrived in the village. But as she walked crying on the road, Knight George came upon her. She begged him to flee the terrible dragon and leave her before the dragon emerged from its cave to eat the kind knight alongside her. But Knight George raised his sword in his shining armor and went to the cave, enraged by the wicked and foul actions of the dragon he¡¯d heard from the chief¡¯s daughter as she told him her story.

    And so the knight in armor fought the dragon with its tough scale hide and breathing great gouts of flame from its mouth that George blocked on his metal shield. And eventually George just barely managed to slay the evil dragon in the end. Inside the great cave were great treasures and all sorts of beautiful crafted objects that the Dragon had bullied others into giving it. All of them stacked in great piles and stacks so they seemed as if they were filling the whole cave. When the villagers came to the cave at the urging of the chief¡¯s daughter, they were amazed by Knight George¡¯s victory and insisted that he take the enormous wealth of the cave as his reward. But Knight George shook his head and instead said that it belonged to the village chief¡¯s daughter and her alone as a reward for her selfless sacrifice for her people instead of him for merely doing his duty.

    And so everyone thanked Knight George, and word spread to every village in the land of his deeds. But George did not stay with the thankful villagers for long. Because there was still more injustice and evil beasts in the land, and a knight¡¯s work was never done. So he set out on the road once more, on to the next adventure.

    ¡°What¡¯s a knight? What does it mean?¡± Kenji asked once Emily finished the whole story, ¡°Why didn¡¯t he take at least some of the valuable things? He did kill the big bad beast who was threatening everyone. He deserves something for his hard work.¡±

    ¡°Being a knight was a code of honor in the stories,¡± Emily said, ¡°They promised to themselves that they would follow certain rules and dedicated their lives to carrying them out. There¡¯s all sorts of variations of rules a knight can follow. But they generally swear to carry out justice and help those they see who need it. Many also could swear to hunt down beasts who threaten people and protect any villages they came across from them. All of that and more. One of the big rules that knights followed often was not being rewarded monetarily for their good deeds. They thought that it wasn¡¯t truly a good deed if they were being paid for it. A silly idea really, but people like Knight George followed it to the letter. He wanted to help people for the sake of it, not because he thought that he¡¯d become wealthy or for more selfish reasons. And despite even many of the villagers that they saved thinking the whole concept silly too, that the knights didn¡¯t want to be rewarded, everyone still respected them because they were so honorable and steadfast in their beliefs and in following their own code.¡±

    Kenji didn¡¯t say anything for a while, looking thoughtful.

    ¡°I¡¯m glad we don¡¯t have any dragons to deal with,¡± he eventually said, ¡°Could you write down the stories you know and put them in the datapad archives? I¡¯ve never ever heard of knights before. They sound so interesting. You must have so many stories everyone doesn¡¯t know because only one person heard it or you forgot to record it somewhere. What if you forgot something as great as that story and no one ever got to hear it again? That¡¯d be awful.¡±

    ¡°Write it down?¡± Emily said in surprise, ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve always enjoyed just telling the stories myself. I¡¯ll just tell them again if someone forgets. I¡¯ll just need something to jog my memory and I¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    ¡°Can you write down Knight George and the Dragon for me at least?¡± Kenji insisted, ¡°Please? What if I want to read the story and you¡¯re busy and don¡¯t have time to tell it to me?¡±

    Emily stared down at Kenji. How had Minato and Elise managed to make a kid like this? He was a lot smarter than Emily thought she¡¯d ever given him credit for in the past.

    ¡°Okay, Kenji,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ll write up Knight George and the Dragon for you. Maybe some of the others that I remember. It¡¯s a good idea, I¡¯m glad you liked the story so much.¡±

    ¡°Emily! Kenji!¡±

    The two of them looked up to see Elise standing in front of Minato and her house staring at them.

    ¡°Change of plans,¡± Elise continued at a lower volume as she walked towards them, ¡°Fumiko just came in. Seems like she¡¯s ready to have us come over earlier. We were going to leave in a few minutes.¡±

    Kenji grabbed his datapad and stood to his feet and looked vaguely disappointed as the three of them went back into the house.

    ¡°So, how¡¯d it go? Sorry it got cut a little short,¡± Elise asked Kenji.

    ¡°Good,¡± Kenji replied, ¡°Emily told me a lot of things I never knew before. And about Knight George and the Dragon! I¡¯ve never heard anything like it before, it was a great story! Emily promised that she¡¯d write it down so I¡¯d be able to read it whenever I wanted.¡±

    ¡°Writing them down?¡± Minato said as he rounded the corner into the room, ¡°What a great idea grandma! Why, I¡¯ve tried to tell Kenji some of the ones that you told me as a boy and they don¡¯t come out half as good. And I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve forgotten more stories than I¡¯ve ever heard.¡±

    Emily was a little stunned by Minato¡¯s enthusiasm for the idea.

    ¡°Dear¡­¡± Elise said, ¡°Perhaps you just want to hear the story of her fighting off the Rentenula Panther again? You¡¯re obsessed with that old tale. I¡¯m sure you could recite from heart yourself with how many times Emily¡¯s told you it just with me here. You could probably write it down yourself.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a good story, better than all of the others because it¡¯s completely true!¡± Minato said easily, ¡°I never get tired of hearing it. Maybe I should write it down. With grandmother to check it over to make sure that it matches the original of course¡­ Well, I think we should go. Mom went off ahead, and we don¡¯t want to keep her and mom Luna waiting around for too long.¡±

    The four of them walked outside and went towards Fumiko and Luna¡¯s old house. And it was old now, only having been renovated twice in the last forty years or so.

    The group reached the house and Emily stopped walking as she saw a wrinkled and old Fumiko and Luna sitting next to each other on the bench-like swing that they¡¯d installed on their front porch. Just like the house, Emily¡¯s daughters were getting old.

    The moment broke as the two sixty year old women smiled and stood up energetically. At the sign of their continued good health despite their age, Emily let out a quick exhale and kept walking.

    ¡°Minato, Elise, Kenji. Nice to have you over again,¡± Luna said as the two groups collided and Luna and Fumiko began trading hugs with everyone Emily included.

    ¡°Mom,¡± Luna continued, ¡°How was the big trip? It¡¯s been a while since you¡¯ve left the village for months at a time like that.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it was that mess with the incubation machine that was having problems,¡± Emily said, ¡°I just felt awful for all of them over there. Now that the machines are fixed they¡¯ll have to wait another year for any more children on top of having to deal with what happened since they accidentally let those bacteria inside to contaminate the machine¡­ I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll hear about it for the Reunion Festival next year. But dealing with that situation took a lot of time, and making sure that no one would be so careless when working with those things again. Too bad the Reunion Festival¡¯s been moved to only be once every three years now, I thought it was fun having it every year.¡±

    ¡°That does sound horrible. I knew it was something like that, but I¡¯ll have to talk to their chief. I¡¯m sure they¡¯re struggling with what to do with that woman who caused all of it with her negligence in the maintenance¡­ Anyway, for the festival. You say that once a year is fun now,¡± Luna said, ¡°But organizing it was an absolute nightmare. But the party will only be bigger now that we have more time to prepare. With how large our population now I¡¯m surprised we even managed to fit everyone in our village last time.¡±

    They all walked into the house together and Emily saw the large pot of soup simmering on the electric stovetop.

    ¡°Soup was ready earlier than we thought it would be,¡± Luna said, ¡°So I guess we¡¯ll be having some early dinner if you¡¯re all hungry.¡±

    They all sat down after serving some soup for themselves and started eating even if it was a bit earlier than usual.

    ¡°Glad you¡¯re back from your trip, mom,¡± Fumiko said after they all had some slurps from their soup with their spoons, ¡°Felt strange without you here in the village.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad that I¡¯m back too,¡± Emily said as she smiled slightly back at Fumiko, ¡°It felt strange for me too. Hopefully they¡¯ll be able to handle it in the future. No more long trips for me if I can help it. I¡¯ll be right here from now on.¡±

 Chapter 80: The Beginning of the Cycle

    ¡°I¡¯m not an invalid, mom!¡± Luna complained, ¡°I can move around without that thing.¡±

    ¡°Luna, you¡¯ve already fallen down twice now,¡± Emily said, ¡°You¡¯re eighty now, what would you have done if Minato hadn¡¯t been around to hear Fumiko shouting for help? Fumiko¡¯s been using hers. She can¡¯t just run outside to find somebody if something happens to you either.¡±

    Luna kept grumbling, but eventually accepted the sturdy cane reluctantly and used it to stabilize herself as she walked around. They moved over to the sitting room where Luna sat down in her chair with a grunt, her arms trembling slightly as she gripped her cane as she lowered herself down.

    ¡°How¡¯s it going with Kenji?¡± Luna asked after catching her breath, ¡°You run out of your stories yet?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ve still got a few more I think. They¡¯re just floating back there waiting for something to remind me of them. I¡¯m surprised how popular his idea was, to start writing everything down that¡¯s happening. My stories and the history of what¡¯s going on in the villages¡­ Didn¡¯t think he¡¯d end up being a historian of all things.¡±

    Luna chuckled, ¡°He always was rather focused on his studies. I¡¯m glad that¡­ someone¡¯s doing all of that. Imagine if they had to ask you about the past every time they wanted to know?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m glad he¡¯s writing it all down. It¡¯s good that now not everyone has to be a farmer if they don¡¯t want to.¡±

    There was a silence between them before there was a clicking behind them. Emily looked around and saw Fumiko rounding the corner and using her cane as she moved.

    Emily stood up.

    ¡°No, mom, I¡¯m fine,¡± Fumiko said and waved her off as Emily went to try to help her to sit next to Luna. Seeing that Fumiko was fine, Emily returned to sit in the chair she¡¯d been in before.

    ¡°Do you two need anything?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Are you taking your bone supplements? I¡¯ve still been working on improving them, but if you take them every time then they should¡­¡±

    ¡°Mom,¡± Fumiko said to interrupt Emily¡¯s rambling, ¡°We¡¯re just old. It¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t work so hard that you forget to spend time with us and all your other children, hm? I¡¯ve heard you haven¡¯t emerged from your lab for days at a time until Minato told you about Luna¡¯s accidents. That you told him that you haven¡¯t slept in over a year. You need a mental rest sometimes even if you don¡¯t actually need the sleep.¡±

    Emily sighed.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m just trying to do my best to keep everyone healthy. I do get obsessed sometimes. I¡¯m just worried about you two.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve had a good life, haven¡¯t we?¡± Luna said, ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯d do anything differently if I were to go back. I think that¡¯s a sign that things went right. We¡¯re not like you, we can only live for so long.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I know,¡± Emily said, ¡°But I don¡¯t want either of you to go. Any of them. Why can¡¯t you just live forever like I do?¡±

    ¡°If only,¡± Fumiko laughed before letting out a light cough as something got caught in her throat.

    ¡°We¡¯re not dead yet. Let¡¯s just make the¡­ best of it that we can.¡±

    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Emily said with a lump in her throat, ¡°I promise.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily sat there sitting on her knees with her head bowed as the rain came down on her bowed head. Even the weather had chosen to match her mood today. Everyone else had left hours ago, not able to ignore the cold rain like Emily could after the funeral. The water soaked her clothes so they stuck to her, almost like they were trying to cling to her and comfort her in her grief.

    She reached out and put her hand out and touched the gravestone. Luna and Fumiko¡¯s gravestone. Luna passed away in her sleep. The stress and grief the next morning had given Fumiko a heart attack and taken her from them too in one fell swoop.

    They had both lived to over ninety years old. It was such a long time, yet it had also been nothing at all. Emily had dealt with the death of several of her older children by now, grieving for them each time. But none of that compared to the grief that she felt now as she sat there in the rain next to Luna and Fumiko¡¯s grave.

    Emily was so soaked that any tears that she might have let out were swallowed by the rain before she could ever feel them on her face.

    Emily just sat there and let her emotions wash over her. Then suddenly the whistling of the wind and the patter of rain around her stopped all at once. She was frozen in place, unable to move. There in front of her she could see a display of a field of raindrops frozen in time and hovering suspended in the air. Glittering like hovering crystals surrounding her on all sides as the light peeking through the frozen dark rain clouds above reflected off of the drops.

    Her eyes shifted to the side even as her body remained unmoving and there it was standing besides her, staring down at Luna and Fumiko¡¯s grave. Its orange blazing eyes turned back to Emily after a moment. The Shadow.

    It spoke in a reverberating chorus of a dozen whispers that warbled and changed in pitch and tone as they all spoke. It was softer, not the overwhelming wave of sound and noise like it had been when it had spoken to Emily last back on Earth. Back when she¡¯d become an Immortal, no matter how hazy her memories of it were. She still remembered how overpowering the Shadow¡¯s voice had been back then. Now when it spoke it was softer, more controlled. Making her head pulse and throb in pain but not sending her reeling with a single word.

    ¡°Cessation. Cessation of thought and growth.

    ¡°A single blade of grass lost in the field.

    ¡°An endless plain of grasses, grown and shriveled, each someone who you''ve seen and known.

    ¡°Is this not the source?

    ¡°Is this not what causes your pain?

    ¡°My winding path through time, seeing of each only a single frame.

    ¡°Of the creature¡¯s caught in my gaze.

    ¡°Yet I still can not see what it all means.

    ¡°Without an end, would this make you happy?

    ¡°With endless time to see your frames, could I find your meaning?

    ¡°And know how to imagine what life as you could be?

    ¡°Ah, the knowledge of the cycle it enters me.

    ¡°Time is so strange in this reality, only moving one way for thee.

    ¡°An origin and an end.

    ¡°A circular and winding path of time, I can see.

    ¡°But choose, and I will leave.

    ¡°Never have seen, never have been.

    ¡°A death to all of humanity it would be.

    ¡°But you and the others won¡¯t have suffered needlessly¡­

    ¡°Because of my curiosity.

    ¡°What is your choice, Emily?¡±

    Emily didn¡¯t answer, her mouth sealed shut by her frozen state. But she noticed that the Shadow wasn¡¯t staring at her but a point just behind her that she couldn¡¯t see.

    The Shadow¡¯s orange eyes tracked something completely invisible as it apparently walked around her and stopped just in front of it.

    ¡°I see.

    ¡°Perhaps you¡¯re right to blame me,

    ¡°The elder Emily,¡±

    The Shadow said calmly to the invisible figure.

    ¡°Yet my path is set.

    ¡°Derail the path, end it all.

    ¡°Humanity would have ended itself even without me¡­ and let the bombs fall.

    ¡°Or I can continue as things have already and always have been.

    ¡°Those are the two things that can be.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry.

    ¡°You¡¯re the beginning of the cycle, the first human that I ever see in its turns and loops.

    ¡°Ever will see.

    ¡°Saw back then.

    ¡°Only you can tell me to leave before I¡¯ve already started interfering with this reality¡­

    ¡°Beyond the point of inevitability.¡±

    Another long pause as the Shadow stared at the invisible person in front of it.

    ¡°Peter Rose will have the Immortality that he asked for.

    ¡°His mark in time is already etched.

    ¡°But without you and the others, returning humanity to what it was is not something that he can hope for.

    ¡°He had his own choice to end or to always be as I¡¯ve given to thee, and he desired to proceed.

    ¡°If the cycle is broken then the other Immortals will never be.

    ¡°He is a straight line in the circle of time. He has chosen always to be, to always will be.

    ¡°What is your choice, Emily?¡±

    The Shadow remained standing there and it looked down at its chest.

    ¡°There¡¯s no use fighting.

    ¡°Hitting me accomplishes nothing.

    ¡°Neither does attempting to flee.

    ¡°What is your choice, Emily?¡±

    There was another long pause, this one for over five minutes as the Shadow¡¯s orange eyes tracked a figure that appeared to be pacing around. The Shadow¡¯s body was completely motionless, only its eyes moving.

    ¡°Why?¡± The Shadow said,

    ¡°Why should I try, wish to be?

    ¡°To see something beyond me?

    ¡°You are all so weak, so easy to cease.

    ¡°Yet I can still not find, understand,

    ¡°Your minds or how perspective as one of you could be.

    ¡°That is fascinating.

    "To have something I cannot be.

    ¡°I¡¯ve given you this choice.

    ¡°Because I thought¡­

    ¡°That perhaps you most of all would have the right to expel me.

    ¡°So, what is your choice, Emily?¡±

    Everything went silent again for a few minutes as the Shadow continued staring into nothing as Emily sat there frozen in place. Finally, the silence was broken by a voice that came from thin air. The Emily frozen on the ground recognized the voice as her own, only wearier and sounding like they¡¯d resigned themselves to their decision.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Yes,¡± the other Emily¡¯s disembodied voice said, ¡°I choose the world that was built, Shadow. Despite everything¡­ I had at least one happy and full lifetime here on Gaia with Luna and all my other children. That¡¯s more than most people ever get. Immortality has its bright spots even if it¡¯s been so long since I¡¯ve been able to make myself see them. I don¡¯t want humanity to disappear just because something as selfish as not being able to appreciate all the good things that I have now.¡±

    ¡°Very well. The path continues. It twists and turns and loops on its travels.

    ¡°Another turn around I go.

    ¡°I hope that you can appreciate your Immortal life once more,

    ¡°And break from the solitude that you¡¯ve had to endure.

    ¡°Off I go, to inspect the people of Earth.

    ¡°So that hopefully this time I may finally learn¡­

    ¡°What it¡¯s like to be as a mortal.¡±

    The Shadow turned its blazing orange eyes to Emily who was still frozen on the ground.

    ¡°Now, forget young Emily. This choice is not one for you to know until you¡¯re ready.

    <b>"To choose the cessation or continuation of this reality."</b>

    Reality fuzzed and distorted around the Shadow as Emily¡¯s eyes widened in fear before she felt the Shadow¡¯s voice vibrating through her body and then her mind and vision only showed her blackness.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily stood up from Luna and Fumiko¡¯s grave and slowly walked away. She had grieved for long enough. Her children needed her. She had to make the best of the remaining time she had with them as she could.

    And work at the nursery again. Something to take her mind off the memories of the past that kept flitting through her head.

    Gaia was her home, and these were her people. She had to do her best for them and not let herself wallow in her grief anymore. Luna and Fumiko wouldn¡¯t have wanted that for her.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily gasped as she jolted awake. She looked around in a panic and looked around at the unfamiliar room. It took a few moments for her to place it or the woman snoring next to her. Asuta. This was her home. She was back in the future over thirteen million years later.

    There she¡¯d been, following along with her younger self the whole way. All the pain and suffering during the destruction of Earth. The long emptiness and loneliness on the ship between solar systems that Emily knew so well deep in her heart by now after the same lonely scene repeating so many times since.

    But then there was Gaia, and her beginnings there. Emily had forgotten so much of what had happened back then despite her best efforts to remember.

    She sat up and pinched her clothes together and rubbed them between her fingers. She was dressed in the clothing band again. Covered in the little nanites in something that could have been as good as magic to her old self. A reminder of how much things had changed from back then.

    The Shadow¡­

    What a choice.

    But she thought she understood somewhat now.

    Just like she and Sean hadn¡¯t been able to change things for her past self, the Shadow couldn¡¯t change things either past a certain point. It was¡­ locked in to its choices.

    It was like even though the Shadow knew exactly what it would do, it was forced to do it anyway without being able to alter its actions from how they''d always been. Emily glanced back to the snoring Asuta before opening the door to their room and slipping outside and walking through the hallways of their home.

    She¡¯d spent centuries in the past, following every moment of her past self¡¯s life up until the scene at the grave.

    To her now, it would be nothing more than a blink of an eye. Mere centuries of time, a small blip in her long life. But when she was there every moment had felt vital and vivid, with her unable to relax even for a moment as she soaked in every detail possible around her in her invisible ghostly form.

    Should she have stopped the cycle? Told the Shadow to leave and not turn anyone else Immortal including her except for Peter Rose? And he had been given the same choice as she was and chosen to stay an Immortal. She wondered if he¡¯d chosen already or if it¡¯s something that he¡¯d do in the future. With the way the Shadow worked, it didn¡¯t seem to matter. For all she knew Peter Rose would choose to remain Immortal in a billion years. Or had chosen to do so years after he became Immortal. She was still in the cycle, and to the Shadow everything they did was predetermined, set out in stone from the very beginning.

    It made her head hurt and twist into knots as she tried to puzzle the cause and effect before she eventually gave up. It had been her choice there, she was sure of it. She somehow knew that if she¡¯d any free choice in her life then that had been the one moment where it was true. The choice that the Shadow had given her over the grave of Luna and Fumiko. She wasn¡¯t even entirely sure why she believed that, or why she was so sure, but somehow she just knew that it had been her choice alone.

    Emily let out a long breath as she kept walking. She¡¯d chosen to be Immortal. She was probably the only person in the whole universe except for Peter who had ever chosen to be Immortal. Everyone else was transformed whether they liked it or not.

    It made her feel better about it, like she had some agency over her Immortality now. Even if it really shouldn¡¯t have made a difference.

    Still, ambushed and drawn in through the portal to the past in a dream¡­

    It seems that she really had no chance of delaying going again even if she had tried her best. Avoiding playing the Foundation of All game hadn¡¯t changed a thing.

    Suddenly without even meaning to, Emily found herself in front of a holodeck. She walked inside the room and activated the system with a wave of her hand and the room went dark for a moment before she was immersed in the digital world.

    She navigated through the menus as she stood on the omni-directional treadmill below and hovered her finger over the start button for a moment. But then she pressed it and started a new game. She opened her eyes to the blaring alarm of the ship and navigated through the tutorial and took the escape pod down to the surface.

    She looked out the window wistfully as she got a glimpse of the surface of the Earth below her. The continents were slightly the wrong shape, she could see that now. Little spurts of land came out around the poles and made them look like slightly malformed blobs compared to what they should be.

    Emily had the image of the ice covered earth seared into her mind, so when she¡¯d recreated it over a million years later the real shapes of the land beneath had blurred in her mind.

    The landing pod touched down and Emily stepped out into the city and took a deep breath.

    Her recreation of the city where her brother Sean had died. She wandered the streets, picking out the inconsistencies and faded details that had come back to her mind after her return to the past. She kept moving until she was standing outside the building that she¡¯d called home for years. She went up the stairs and stood outside of the door to the apartment.

    She went inside and found that despite everything, its structure was accurate. Almost exactly the same as Emily had seen it in the past.

    She went to the center of the room and stared at the two beds on either side of the room. One for her and one for her brother Sean. There in the center and out of place among everything was a bulky heater sitting in the center vibrating and running despite no source of electricity to power it. Emily could tell how primitive it was just by looking at it. These days in the galaxy only the lowest scammers or the desperately poor would ever be caught with technology like this.

    But it had been all they had back then.

    Emily left the empty buildings and using her administrator commands teleported to the crater at Border Station Three. The skeletons of the soldiers at the checkpoint, all of the bodies decayed long ago and leaving only their bones and rusted metal and scraps of cloth behind. She remembered watching as a ghost over her younger self¡¯s shoulder as she walked past the horrific scene of scorched bodies like it was just yesterday. On her desperate quest to find Sean and save him from the end of her world.

    She kept moving until she reached the crater in the ground where the town of Border Station Three itself had used to be. Where her parents had been when the bombs had dropped. She teleported again and there she was in CODA city, everything destroyed. All of it wrong and slightly off. But it evoked the same feelings as what had happened back then.

    The bunker of the Brazilian president. Emily ran her hand down the digital recreation of the surface of the nuclear missile that had carried all of the Immortals into orbit. The hologram she felt as she ran her hand over the digital object.

    Her fingers trailed across the surface of the missile before she opened up the menu again and teleported again.

    Here in the plains of Mongolia across the planet is where she had placed it. She had only guessed the geography of the Earth based on the broad strokes that she remembered. So she arrived in the open plains of softly waving grasses. Not the bright green grasses of Earth. But the darker green of Gaia.

    All the plants were from Gaia, all the familiar plants and small animals so much more familiar to her than the life on Earth was to her now.

    She looked through the seemingly endless plains of grass, but she hadn¡¯t come here for just that. Laid out in front of her in neat rows and stretching far into the distance were lines of gravestones. In even rows and all neatly set up in their lines.

    Emily started at the beginning. Fumiko and Luna, their names carved into the stone just how it had been back on Gaia. She scrutinized the tombstone and there wasn¡¯t a single flaw. She¡¯d always worried and obsessed about getting it just right. Like recreating the grave with a single flaw would be disrespectful to their memory.

    Emily kept walking down the row, one after another. All fifty of the original children. Then their children. Their children. Everyone that she''d ever known and who had died. The row of gray gravestones kept extending into the distance as she kept walking and taking in all of the names one after another.

    She stopped at the graves of Minato and Elise for a moment. At Aurora¡¯s. Then again at Kenji¡¯s. She kept walking until after what felt like hours of walking she¡¯d quietly walked past the front row of the tombstones. Moving to the next row she turned around and walked down back the other way. She walked along, and glanced upwards into the distance after a few minutes. The lines of tombstones stretched into the distance and the horizon. Every person that she¡¯d known who died in her long life had a gravestone here. Starting with her children on Gaia and extending forward into the modern day for the few mortals she¡¯d helped or connected to even for the briefest of moments. All of their names were here.

    Emily kept walking along the lines of tombstones, taking in the names. She was traveling through time as the number of names grew as she traveled in her slow walk with a thoughtful frown on her face. There were some glimmers of notable people that stuck in her mind even now.

    She kept moving and reached the end of Gaia. To the tombstones there was no gap at all. Everything stayed in their even lines, measured by the names of the dead, not the years that passed between the deaths. But as Emily walked down the next full row of tombstones, she still hadn¡¯t moved forward more than a few weeks in time. So many had died during that last disaster on Gaia.

    Eventually she reached the end of Gaian names as she started her travels through the universe. An eternal wanderer and explorer, never settling down for long. The names grew unfamiliar and varied. They gained little labels of what planet they were from and the date that she¡¯d met them. A short descriptor and little summary to remind her how she had known them.

    Emily had known all of the Gaian names almost by heart and hadn¡¯t needed a reminder. But she did here with these people. Even if she didn¡¯t recognize them now, every mortal with a tombstone had been someone important to her at some time. Someone who had helped her, somebody who she had helped. Someone who had given her a kind word on the street. A beggar that she¡¯d given money in exchange for his name.

    Every connection big and small was engraved into the lines of graves as she went through her life again in the long walk.

    ¡°Hey, babe. What are you doing back here again?¡± Emily heard from beside her. She looked up and saw Asuta standing there, having joined as a second player. Emily had unconsciously set it as an open world. Maybe she¡¯d been hoping for something like this to happen.

    ¡°Just thinking,¡± Emily said, ¡°I¡¯ve had another vision of the past from the Shadow. Walk with me? I¡¯ve nearly reached one hundred thousand years old now. I still have a ways to go.¡±

    Asuta peered at Emily in concern for a moment before seeming to decide to not say anything. She nodded and the two of them walked side by side through the lines of graves together again.

    And eventually¡­ Eventually they reached the end. Asuta didn¡¯t say a word as Emily reached the last gravestone and stopped. This one was dated to only a few decades before she first met Sean. The modern one, the young Immortal. The mortal was a vendor in a big city who¡¯d flirted with her and complimented her as she bought some fruit from him. Even the memory of the small interaction had helped cheer her up for weeks afterward when she was feeling down.

    ¡°This is it,¡± Emily said, ¡°Everyone that I¡¯ve ever lost. Literally stretching the horizon with just their names. I told myself that I was helping them out of guilt. Out of obligation to make up for what happened. To Earth. To Gaia. To make up for what I¡¯ve done. But maybe¡­ I think that I¡¯ve more than made up for anything I might have done unintentionally by now. I shouldn¡¯t stop, not after working so hard to help people for so long. But I¡¯ll¡­ I¡¯ll be a knight. Like in those stories that I told Kenji. Doing good because I want to, not because I think it¡¯ll make me feel better or help me redeem myself somehow. Kenji did always love my stories of knights and chivalry. And the rest of the Gaians. I¡¯m sure they¡¯d love the idea of me being a knight.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure they would,¡± Asuta said in a subdued tone, ¡°What did you see this time? What did the Shadow do?¡±

    Emily glanced up to Asuta, ¡°It got me. Put the portal in my dream. ¡®A simulation of another kind¡¯ it said. Kind of funny when you think of it like that.¡±

    ¡°Wow. That sly shadowy bastard,¡± Asuta said, ¡°I¡¯d like to slug it a few times, show it what I think of it using technicalities like that on you. Are you¡­ okay? You seem more¡­ solid than before. Like you¡¯re more sure of yourself now.¡±

    Emily took a deep breath in and out.

    ¡°I¡­ am. That¡¯s a good way to describe it. I feel more¡­ rooted. Steady. I saw everything terrible on Earth again, but also some of my happiest years too. All of these graves. They¡¯re not just signs of death, but all the happy moments I had with all of them too. Just look at them, stretching to the horizon.¡±

    Emily waved her hand behind her to gesture to the rows of gravestones behind them stretching to the horizon.

    ¡°There¡¯s so much happiness right along with all of that death. Over time I¡¯d almost forgotten that part completely, I think. And don¡¯t worry. I punched the Shadow for you. All it did was stand there and scold me for being so useless. Basically told me to stop wasting our time and answer the question that it asked me.¡±

    Asuta¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°You actually¡­ Punched the Shadow? And it didn¡¯t atomize you or¡­ Send you to another galaxy or¡­ Whatever the heck it can do? What was the Shadow asking you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s complicated,¡± Emily said, ¡°But it was¡­ It offered for me to kill myself and everyone else. Time travel things, the Shadow would have never granted anyone Immortality. Even back from the beginning. So we all would have died, when the Earth was destroyed, as mortals. When we humans destroyed ourselves even without the Shadow around. You and everyone else in the galaxy would have never existed at all. But on the other hand it would finally be over at last for me. All the pain, all these deaths¡­ None of them would have ever happened either. Would never happen again. Snapped away like they¡¯d never been if the Shadow hadn¡¯t been there to create all of us Immortals. Interfered with our reality. Doing what it thought was right in its own confused way.¡±

    ¡°Emily, I¡­¡± Asuta said, sounding disturbed, ¡°Surely you didn¡¯t even think about it?¡±

    Emily didn¡¯t answer. She turned to Asuta, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I chose this. To be Immortal. Now, in the distant past. It was my choice. I chose this. For some reason that makes a difference.¡±

    Asuta didn¡¯t say anything in reply, opening and closing her mouth but no words came out.

    ¡°Thanks for walking with me,¡± Emily said, ¡°Let¡¯s log out.¡±

    Asuta nodded and after navigating the menus for a few seconds the holodeck shut off and Emily was standing there with Asuta in the chamber across from her. The two of them walked to the door and outside, Asuta still looking disturbed and slightly lost.

    Emily put her hand on Asuta¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°Hey, you want to fight?¡± Emily said gently.

    ¡°Fight?¡± Asuta said, perking up immediately, ¡°You mean like a game, right? Chess or a board game?¡±

    ¡°No, real combat,¡± Emily said, ¡°Just how you like it. Visceral fist on flesh. Wrestling for supremacy in the mud and hard earned victory for every inch of ground. No holds barred. Eye gouging, hair pulling, I won¡¯t hold back this time like I have before.¡±

    ¡°Yeah! I- but- why? I know you hate it. Why now? Why after this? Shouldn¡¯t I be comforting you?¡±

    ¡°I think we could do something relatively mindless for a while,¡± Emily said, ¡°Get in the flow. And we stopped feeling pain a long time ago. Physical pain at least. Maybe we could have a tea party after to balance things out.¡±

    Asuta¡¯s smile that had crept up her face dropped slightly before it returned.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, ¡°True combat and brutal competition and then a tea party. That sounds just like us.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Just like us,¡± Emily repeated and held out her hand, ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±

    Asuta grabbed Emily¡¯s hand and then they walked outside and had a brutal fight and then a cultured tea party. By the end of it they both felt much better than they had before.

 Chapter 81: Hidden Beneath

    ¡°Stop them.¡±

    The words pulsed through the Endless Flesh, just like they had for millions of years. The words guiding them, investing them with more and more power as they failed endlessly in their task. The surface of their home planet writhed and wriggled, every inch of it covered in layers of moving spawn of themselves. Deep underneath the surface the captured Immortals of millions of years sat, their bodies slowly working to increase the thickness of the thick matts of biomass covering every available surface of the planet. The mountains were covered, the seas were filled in¡­ There was only a planet sized ball of the Endless Flesh, slowly incrementally growing bigger the longer they waited. Waiting until all of that biomass could be used to accomplish their goal.

    ¡°Stop them.¡±

    The words pulsed again like the beating of an ancient heart. In and out, a desperate plea alternating with silence.

    ¡°Stop them, please.¡±

    The hiveminds of the Endless Flesh had learned to let the words fade into the back of their minds. Ever pulsing, ever driving them¡­ But not all consuming as it was to their less refined spawn. Their intelligent minds were too few. Each one was valuable and couldn¡¯t dare risk itself unless it was the last resort.

    ¡°I hate you. I wish that you would all just DIE!¡±

    The Endless Flesh all paused as something caught in their minds. The Linked One¡­ what was this? It had dozens of years of extra experiences compressed and added to it in a single instant. At this distance the flow was too distant, too vague to retain a single discrete thought from the link. But something had changed. Something had happened to the Linked One.

    The minds of the Endless Flesh chittered and discussed what to do. They had always been cautious, all too aware of their own natural impatience and distraction once the beating heart of their guide pulsed and drove them to act.

    ¡°You have to protect them. Somebody has to save them!¡±

    The minds of the Endless Flesh did not decide quickly, but neither did they delay. This abnormality must be investigated. So, for the first time in millions of years, the Endless Flesh¡¯s minds acted and actively directed the flesh covering their home planet. As a collective, the minds of the hive moved the amount of Immortals needed to fuel the expedition and encased them in the central carrier ship.

    The gathered Immortals rose to the surface in their new prison, until like a bubble rising from the froth the main ship emerged from the planet. It rose into orbit and moved to the edge of the solar system. Once it was in its place, it pulsed once, its flesh rippling for a few moments before in a flash it was gone, traveling through hyperspace.

    Traveling to the Linked One. The Endless Flesh must know what strange event had happened to the Linked One. Only proximity would give them more information on what exactly had occurred.

    ¡°No, no. Please. Save them!¡±

    Behind the first ship, the intelligent minds of the Endless Flesh gathered the greater fleet behind themselves. For the first time in millions of years they would leave this planet and travel out into the wider universe, only leaving a few behind as a failsafe and guard in case things went wrong.

    The lead ship arrived in the star system of the Linked One and was attacked. The flow of information increased once the ship left hyperspace and was able to transmit the situation through the use of hyperspace vibrations. One of the few techniques and technologies that the Endless Flesh that had developed the humans had not.

    It seemed that the Endless Flesh¡¯s biological technology was predisposed to this development than the humans metal and stiffened machines were. By half activating the hyperdrive and vibrating the whole contraption in place and modulating the signal, the vibrations could travel through hyperspace far faster than the speed of light. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    It was a noisy signal, and difficult to interpret in many cases. But just outside the home star system of the Linked One the other ships with powerful sensors waited and observed. In deep space and far from the range where a human ship or sensors would ever be able to find them.

    The main ship vibrated its hyperspace engine and kept transmitting its signals communicating the events occurring as it was damaged by the humans¡¯ defenses.

    One of the ships would leave the clusters of sensors in deep space and travel through hyperspace for a few minutes back to the intelligent minds of the Endless Flesh and share their experiences for analysis by the minds. The great defensive fleet of the Endless Flesh hung there in deep space far from any star system, hanging close to the system of the Linked One so they could know what was occurring and give orders to the attacking ship if needed.

    The human¡¯s attack on the ship the minds of the Endless Flesh had sent forward wasn¡¯t enough. The ship approached the planet of the Linked One, despite the damage and near destruction of the ship.

    The Endless Flesh weighed the ship hovered above the planet. They still weren¡¯t close enough. The experiences the ship was sending to them were still too vague, too hard to interpret. The minds of the Endless FLesh began a ground invasion like they had for so many other worlds before.

    ¡°Stop them!¡±

    Little bits and pieces came through as the tiniest fragments of the Endless Flesh attacked the shielded places of the planet. The Endless Flesh did not know which one contained the Linked One. None of the fragments traveling across the link made any sense to them still. But there was ever more nonsense streaming to them through the link as the biomass of the Endless Flesh on the planet below increased. The minds of the Endless Flesh chittered and discussed all of the experiences and sensations being sent to them from the network of sensors just outside the Linked One¡¯s star system, but still none of them could make anything of the scattered and strange images presented to them.

    Yet the flow continued, and with enough information some of what had occurred began to become clear. The Shadow had done this. The Linked One had been brought back in time by the Shadow so she may witness the beginning of her life once more.

    The main ship was defeated by the weapon that the Linked One had repaired. A planet destroyer.

    As the main hives kept on their assaults on the defended places of the planet, others continued on their more unusual task.

    The last of the main hives fighting the Linked One and her allies were defeated. All motion on the surface of the planet went still. Yet the Endless Flesh was still there, buried deep beneath the surface and moving incrementally slowly and tunneling through the stone so that their movements wouldn¡¯t be detected by seismic scanners on the surface above hunting for them. All of them contained their own hyperspace engines that they vibrated to transmit their experiences to the larger fleet.

    Most hyperspace signals were disrupted and distorted by a gravitational field. Traveling through a planet or object through hyperspace was nearly impossible and would usually cause enough distortion that the ship would exit hyperspace in stages and be ripped into a scattered cloud of particles. Jumping into hyperspace even within the space of a star system was too much and could have the same result of annihilating a vessel.

    ¡°Why are you doing this? Just stop this¡­¡±

    But even with all of that considered¡­ The buried living transmitters of the Endless Flesh worked together, and the hyperspace vibrations were just barely detectable to the deep space sensors. The transmitters didn¡¯t truly have to jump into hyperspace. All they had to do was disrupt it enough to send its signals.

    The communication with the larger hive continued as a stream of images and sensations entered the transmitting and motionless mountains of flesh below the surface. All of it streaming in from their relatively close physical proximity Linked One. And like the Endless Flesh had always tried to be, they sat there cautiously. Slowly shifting and tunneling, moving no more than a centimeter in distance or less in a single year.

    Yet the transmitters still moved and spread out, using the Immortals sitting in their centers to keep themselves slowly growing and able to transmit a ever clearer signal to the eager intelligent minds of the Endless Flesh in deep space. There the minds would wait and receive the scraps of information they could receive through the dirt and stone above them from the Linked One.

    The minds of the Endless Flesh continued their analysis and debate on what the images meant, especially when it happened again and the Linked One gained centuries of memories out of seemingly nowhere again. The Linked One had gone back in time again.

    The Endless Flesh must analyze this occurrence, to investigate this thing that might come between them and their goal¡­

    ¡°Stop them. Please! Somebody¡­ Anybody¡­ Help them.¡±

    The words kept pulsing through the Endless Flesh.

    Perhaps this newest information from the Linked One would provide a means to their final victory. The one they¡¯d been trying to find a way to accomplish for so long.

    ¡°Save them!¡±

    ¡°Why did they have to die¡­

    ¡°They¡¯re all I have left¡­¡±

 Chapter 82: A Sudden Change in Genre

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while, hasn¡¯t it?¡± Roger said absently as the three of them sat together relaxing.

    ¡°You heard Asuta muttering up a storm, she was so excited,¡± Lira said, ¡°Who knows how much longer they¡¯ll be based on how she was acting.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Roger said in disbelief as he turned to look at her, ¡°Surely not? It¡¯s been weeks! They can¡¯t have been going for that long, could they? I mean they could but¡­¡±

    Roger looked to Sean for support, but he just shrugged. They¡¯d come back eventually. The threat of the Endless Flesh was defeated, no reason for them to rush.

    ¡°Maybe Asuta will have relaxed and not be so over the top once they¡¯re done,¡± Sean said to reply to Roger, ¡°Probably best for all our sanity that they take a bit longer. And to all the new Immortals floating around this place. Who knows how they would react if Asuta got in the mood to teach them one of her ¡®sensei lessons¡¯.¡±

    Roger sat back and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, ¡°Yeah,¡± he admitted, ¡°You¡¯re probably right, Sean. Hey what¡¯s Ash up to anyways? Haven¡¯t seen them in a few days.¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s just mingling with the others,¡± Lira said, ¡°She seemed interested in talking with some new people. None of these people hate her because she¡¯s a machine so she can talk to them normally. I think she was a bit nervous about being so social, but over the last few days she¡¯s really taken to it.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s good,¡± Roger said, ¡°I didn¡¯t think about how these Immortals act so differently around Ash than everyone else we¡¯ve met. Good for them. I¡¯m sure that Ash will-¡±

    The door to the room opened and they all turned. Entiru and Alvrix were walking arm and arm and whispering to each other with smiles on their faces as they walked in. They froze and both looked caught as they saw Roger, Lira, and Sean staring at them.

    ¡°Ah, we can¡­ go elsewhere,¡± Entiru said after recovering his wits and both him and Alvrix straightening and trying to look nonchalante.

    ¡°No, not at all,¡± Sean said, ¡°Stay if you¡¯d like, I¡¯ve been curious about your homeworld actually. Gaia was it? I¡¯ve only heard some snippets from the others, but mostly superficial things. We were just saying it¡¯s good how all of you seem so friendly with Ash. Most people are prejudiced against him unfortunately.¡±

    Entiru paused and hesitated before sharing a glance with Alvrix. The woman shrugged as she matched his look before the both of them walked over and sat next to each other on a couch opposite the chairs that Lira, Sean, and Roger were in.

    ¡°Of course,¡± Entiru answered, ¡°Where to start? Ash there is truly a marvel of engineering. Never seen anything like them before. They¡¯ve seemed friendly enough to us. Is there some stigma against Ash normally?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s rather horrible for her,¡± Lira said, jumping in, ¡°Everyone judging her and thinking she might go rogue and start killing everybody at any second. I mean, it¡¯s just ridiculous. They give a child an antimatter bomb and wonder how people get hurt. It¡¯s not the fault of the poor intelligent machines but their bad parents for not helping them calm down and understand in their worst moments right after they first gain sentience!¡±

    Sean reached out and put his hand over Lira¡¯s and she calmed slightly as she started ranting and her volume rose slightly.

    ¡°Yes, that sounds¡­ rather horrible,¡± Alvrix said, although both her and Entiru looked slightly puzzled as they apparently tried to piece together exactly what Lira meant by her words.

    There was a short silence in the room.

    ¡°So, ah. What about this Genemother?¡± Roger said to break the silence, ¡°What she¡¯s like Entiru? People said you¡¯ve met her right? Your Queen? Ruler?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I think you must have misunderstood,¡± Entiru said, looking relieved as the conversation shifted to more familiar territory, ¡°She wasn¡¯t a political ruler, running a government despite how we refer to her. She intentionally shunned power like that, thinking that Immortals shouldn¡¯t be telling mortals what to do with their lives. I only spoke with her occasionally, but she was just as kind and wise as the stories always said that she was. It was always my dream to live in her service as a knight. As an Immortal, it only let me serve her in perpetuity instead of wasting away in old age¡­¡±

    ¡°So who was she if she wasn¡¯t your ruler?¡± Roger asked, ¡°A¡­ spiritual leader? A ceremonial position?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡± Entiru spoke, looking like he had too much to say and couldn¡¯t figure out what to say first, ¡°...It¡¯s a lot more than that,¡± he eventually settled on, ¡°It¡¯s more than a spiritual leader. More than anyone else would be. She¡¯s just¡­ Even children know how important she is on our world. She¡¯s the Genemother. It¡¯s hard to describe how significant she is to us¡­¡±

    Seeing Entiru struggling to explain, Alvrix spoke up, ¡°Her and the other Nine were the first Immortals. But the Genemother was the first to help us mortals and care for us when we first settled the new world. The others stood back and wanted nothing to do with us¡­ But she was always there, helping us grow and not asking for anything in return. Saying that someone is disrespecting her is considered one of the worst insults for us. That¡¯s how important she is to our society.¡±

    ¡°The¡­ first ten immortals?¡± Lira said slowly, ¡°And¡­ There were exactly ten? Those were the people on your world?¡±

    ¡°Yes, of course!¡± Alvrix said a little defensively, ¡°They¡¯re the first ones, the Shadow gave them the first blessings ever and sent them to settle their new world to resurrect humanity. If they hadn¡¯t settled Gaia then everyone would have perished along with Earth!¡±

    Half way through Alvrix¡¯s response, Sean abruptly realized what Lira had been hinting at. No way¡­ The first ten Immortals. The ten Founders that created that artwork on Immortus Station. Emily was one of the founders.

    ¡°What was her name?¡± Sean said suddenly, ¡°The woman, this Genemother? What was her full name?¡±

    ¡°Emily Stenson,¡± Entiru said instantly before looking at all three of them as their jaws dropped and they collectively took in deep breaths.

    ¡°Oh shit,¡± Roger breathed, ¡°It really is her. What are the chances?¡±

    ¡°Her?¡± Entiru asked sharply, ¡°You know about her? Do you know where she¡¯s gone? It was our hope to organize to find her and save her if she¡¯s been captured by the Endless Flesh¡­¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± Sean said, ¡°Remember Emily? Our savior repairing the weapon that blew up the main ship of the Endless Flesh? That¡¯s been off celebrating with Asuta for the last few weeks?¡±

    ¡°Emily? What¡¯s that got to do with¡­¡± Entiru said before realization flashed across his face and his whole body froze.

    ¡°No¡­¡± he said in disbelief.

    ¡°What is it? I don¡¯t understand,¡± Alvrix said as she looked between Sean and Entiru.

    ¡°Emily Stenson. That¡¯s her full name,¡± Lira replied and Alvrix seemed to finally understand and also sat there equally stunned.

    Then Entiru burst out laughing and everyone jolted in place.

    ¡°Ah, this is wonderful!¡± he said, ¡°She doesn¡¯t need saving after all! Such a relief, I had worried about finding her in this wider galaxy and universe that we¡¯ve found ourselves in all these years later.¡±

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯ll be interesting when she gets to meet you again¡­¡± Sean said before trailing off at the end. He thought about how Emily had acted after they returned from their journey to the past together. If that¡¯s how she reacted to Earth¡­ Then how would she react to these people from the distant past who knew her?

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°My Queen, we enter your service once again!¡± Entiru shouted and the large hangar filled with Immortals immediately dropped to their knees and put a fist over their hearts over their chests. Every single Immortal that had been from Gaia. It hadn¡¯t been all of them, maybe less than twenty or thirty percent of the total number of Immortals that had been saved actually were Gaians. But that still represented hundreds of them all swearing absolute loyalty to Emily without a single person dissenting.

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Emily said, still looking vaguely overwhelmed even days later after hearing the news of the Gaians and who they truly were. But not as much as Sean had expected her too honestly, based on her behavior since he¡¯d known her. She seemed oddly grounded and thoughtful ever since she¡¯d returned after her long vacation with Asuta.

    Even the news of the Gaians hadn¡¯t fully shaken her from her thoughtful mood, her frowning slightly and staring into space most of the time and seeming slightly distant as she spoke to everyone.

    ¡°As your Queen, I gratefully accept,¡± Emily said loudly, ¡°May peace, justice, and kindness spread through the world,¡± Emily answered Entiru, ¡°Thank you all, I¡¯m glad that you¡¯re all here and safe.¡±

    ¡°Hah!¡± All of the Immortals let out a martial grunt before beating their chest twice with their clenched fist.

    After a few more formalities the ceremony ended and Emily walked forward into the crowd and started speaking with them. Now that the ceremony was over Emily had relaxed and seemed to have snapped out of her strange mood recently as she spoke with the Gaians. She seemed happy to see all of them, greeting them like old friends. Hugging them and even comforting a few that seemed overwhelmed with emotion when they greeted her.

    All of them seemed supremely relieved that Emily hadn¡¯t been captured by the Endless Flesh like the rest of them. Although there was some shouting and swearing once Emily broke the news about her terrible reputation in the wider galaxy to them. It seems the idea of everyone hating her for so long was a supremely upsetting idea to them.

    ¡°I bet it was the other nine!¡± Entiru suddenly said over the babbling of the crowd, ¡°They were always trying to worm their way into controlling us and Gaia. I bet with all of us gone they swooped in and exploited the Genemother¡¯s kindness for their own ends.¡±

    Most of the Gaians nodded and muttered agreement.

    ¡°No, no, it wasn¡¯t like that,¡± Emily protested, ¡°Look, I know how they acted on Gaia. How they were always trying to make themselves look better and make decisions when they were in the Council. But after what happened they were only helpful in fixing things up and assisting with the terraforming efforts.¡±

    ¡°And who¡¯s in control of this Immortal Council now? The main government of the galaxy?¡± Entiru challenged as the rest of the crowd quieted down at Emily¡¯s words, ¡°Peter Rose! The leader of the other nine. How do you know they weren¡¯t helping you for their own power? Why else would they let people think such horrible things about you, Genemother?¡±

    ¡°Look, it wasn¡¯t like that!¡± Emily insisted, ¡°Things have only turned sour in the last few million years. Long after most of the other nine were long gone from the galaxy, out to explore the wider universe. Before that things were¡­ tense, but not like they are now. Peter Rose just wants the best for everyone, he¡¯s just very stubborn in doing it his own way like he has with the Immortal Council. They have their flaws, but his system has worked out for almost everyone but me.¡±

    Entiru opened mouth to say something else, but as Emily stared at him pointedly, he closed his mouth and looked away at the ground while still looking upset.

    ¡°I get it¡¯s hard to understand,¡± Emily said, ¡°I don¡¯t like how people in the galaxy see me now either. But it is what it is.¡±

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t have to be!¡± Entiru said as he looked up again, ¡°If someone¡¯s behind it or not¡­ We¡¯re all here now! We can go out into the galaxy and tell them what you¡¯re really like!¡±

    Emily looked uncomfortable before sighing, ¡°Well, we can discuss that later. The Plaguebringers have no problems at all praising me, you might just get yourselves in trouble if you¡¯re too open about me not being some ruthless monster or evil goddess. I¡¯ve already talked with Asuta and we¡¯ll host you all here for a few centuries for whoever needs it. But I¡¯d like you all to go your own way to explore the galaxy. Get on your own footing and see what¡¯s out there. You¡¯ll be able to visit us of course, but things can¡¯t return to how they were with Gaia now that there¡¯s a whole galaxy out there for you to spread out in.¡±

    Most of the Gaians seemed disappointed but understood her point. Although after Emily left, Sean heard Entiru gather some others and discuss settling a new planet of their own. A ¡®new Gaia¡¯ where they could live away outside the confines of the Immortal Council¡¯s regulated zones of the galaxy for Immortals.

    It seems that all of them had a faint distaste for the Immortal Council as a whole once they learned that Peter Rose was the one who controlled it. It seems that they didn¡¯t think that he was evil or anything, just someone ambitious and power hungry in a ¡®crass¡¯ way as Alvrix said when Sean asked her about it. Something that Gaian culture shunned away from as they seemed much more communal and focused on the needs of the community rather than the much more individualistic Immortal Society that Sean and the others were more used to.

    Even on Enguli, in his small town, there had been that strong streak of individualism and pride in being as independent as possible. The Gaians were completely different, focused more on working together as a large group out in the galaxy rather than dispersing into smaller groups as Sean might have expected them to.

    Sean, Lira, Ash, and Roger were seen as experts of sorts as they all milled about in conversation and told the others about what they¡¯d seen in the galaxy. Some of the non-Gaian Immortals filtered in the room too as time passed and they seemed to realize that the ceremony was over and that Emily was gone. The remaining seventy percent or so of the Immortals were all still incredibly old, all over ten million years old at least from some rough calculations. Even if they weren¡¯t actually from Gaia itself. So they were just as interested in what Sean and his companions could tell them about the current state of the galaxy as well.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Ash was particularly popular with all of the ancient Immortals, as he had a flawless memory and had studied history much more than his Immortal crew members ever had. So he was able to answer their questions about the past while Sean, Roger, and Lira only knew bits and pieces besides the current state of the galaxy.

    Most of their knowledge came from interesting tidbits that Ash had told them during his studies, but they did their best when all the other Immortals crowded in to ask them questions.

    Eventually, the conversation that eventually evolved into an interrogation as they were surrounded on all sides by curious Immortals ended. Everyone drifted off and they managed to politely escape and head back to their rooms to relax. It had been a long few straight days of talking for all of them and they were all ready to sleep and recharge their social batteries after having to talk to people for so long.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Five hundred years passed. Over time the over fourteen hundred Immortals that had been saved by the Endless Flesh filtered out and left to explore in the galaxy. Most in small groups of three or four close friends that they¡¯d made over the last few years who set out on their journeys together. Emily and Asuta had plenty of money and spare ships even as they recovered from the invasion of the Endless Flesh.

    Asuta and Emily gave the small crews a basic hyperdrive capable ship so they could get to a more urban star system. From there Emily had given all of them passwords and keys to some funds and access to some of her digital assets to start them off.

    The amount of money Emily gave access to each of them was a bit mind boggling honestly. For each crew of four or five maximum people Emily gave enough funds that unless they blew it all somehow that they should be able to buy almost any type of ship they could want in an urban system. Even one of the high luxury models.

    Sean had asked Emily about it, and all she¡¯d said was that she had enough money to spread around and she didn¡¯t mind. It seems that when she toppled evil governments or corporations she saw no issue with ¡®liberating¡¯ their assets from them as they went down. So she was sitting on top of quite the pile of wealth that she¡¯d accumulated over her life.

    The vast majority of the Immortals took Emily up on her offer for the smaller crews and the money and left while thanking her profusely for saving from the Endless Flesh as well as the help afterward.

    Even the Immortals that had seemed skeptical or suspicious of Emily¡¯s motives in the beginning had turned around and apologized to her for believing the ¡®rumors¡¯ about her connection to the Plaguebringers. But all of them seemed to see her positively now from what Sean had seen.

    It seems that even in the ancient days after Gaia''s destruction there¡¯d been rumors she¡¯d been connected to the Plaguebringers, although it was only rumors rather than the accepted ¡®fact¡¯ like it was in modern times. And the increased villainous characterization of the Plaguebringers in modern times rather than the faint distaste the ten million year old or more Immortals seemed to have for the organization.

    It seems that back then that the Plaguebringers were seen as a sort of necessary evil working to combat the Endless Flesh rather than the pests and immoral monsters that they were seen as in the galaxy today.

    There was one large group that went all as one. Five or six of the Gaians had split off and left spread out with some of the other crews in the intervening years, but the vast majority of the Gaians wanted to go all together. Entiru had been pushing hard for them to find and settle their own world as a ¡®new Gaia¡¯ for centuries now. Alvrix also pushed hard for the idea, although Sean could tell she was only doing it to make her boyfriend Entiru happy rather than being overly invested in the cause herself.

    It had taken a long time to get everything prepared. Five hundred years. But two years ago the massive expedition had finally been ready and launched out into the galaxy. All the other Immortals were gone from this place, the Gaians being the last to leave. They had scanning equipment, some customized terraforming equipment and spores to create life on whatever planet they chose to settle. Sean wished them well, even if he knew the Immortal Council wouldn¡¯t be happy once they realized what the Gaians were trying to do.

    It felt so much quieter with everyone gone now after things being so hectic for these last few centuries.

    Sean and the others had been following along and trying to help Asuta and Emily as they worked to fix the devastated environment of their planet. The swarms of the Endless Flesh had trampled everything under their feet, and consumed any biomass they could get their hands on. Besides the occasional small plant or small creature no larger than a pinky, all other life on the planet was gone now that the Endless Flesh was defeated and their members all killed by the strikes by the weaponized satellites in orbit and missiles from Asuta¡¯s fortress cities.

    Mostly Sean and the rest of his companions took their ship out into the galaxy to pick up some supplies and biological samples for Emily and Asuta¡¯s terraforming efforts. The terraforming spores could only iterate and diversify life from the animals and plants that were given it initially. So Asuta and Emily wanted a wide variety of creatures that they could introduce to the planet in groups to create the biomes that they wanted.

    Sean didn¡¯t understand the customization process of the terraforming spore despite Emily trying to patiently explain it to him several times. And Asuta as well although much less successfully and more incoherently.

    Asuta knew the process down to heart, but she often got excited and skipped several steps in her explanations and moving onwards without even noticing her jump and leaving Sean even more confused than he had coming in.

    Emily and Asuta finally released the terraforming spores on the barren planet about three hundred years ago. They¡¯d already seeded the various regions with the life that they wanted to form the scattered ecosystems that they wanted. But the species were fragile and by Emily¡¯s estimates the biosphere would collapse again within a few decades if nothing was done to fix it.

    So the terraforming spores would spread and grow to fill in the gaps and make the biosphere  robust and varied again across the planet.

    It should be another two or three hundred years before the terraforming spores finally became infertile again and started dying off. But for now the planet was bursting with new life, with new species appearing seemingly almost daily and recreating the massive web of life that had been lost in the Invasion.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    But none of that was important right now. Right now Sean was curled up with Lira on the couch for their romantic movie night. It was pretty standard fare, very cheesy so far with the drama. One nice guy, two girls. One who was completely toxic and pretentious and was the man¡¯s current girlfriend, and the other small world girl that the audience was rooting for to get with him in the end.

    The male lead was opening the door to his apartment, unaware that his toxic girlfriend was waiting inside shouting at some poor delivery worker over her holopad.

    He opened the door and froze at the explosion of sound from inside his apartment contained by the sound proofed walls and the door opened.

    The girlfriend¡¯s head snapped to the man.

    ¡°Retul! Come and tell this man how he¡¯s wrong!¡± the girlfriend demanded before the male lead could even process what was happening. The man reached behind him with a put upon expression as his girlfriend shouted at him for not supporting her immediately as he hesitated at the door. Just before the door shut behind him, Sean saw a shadowy figure standing in the hallway with blazing orange eyes. The Shadow. But then the door finished closing and the Shadow was gone again.

    Sean sat up and tuned back into the show that had frankly been boring him a little before this. Was this secretly a horror movie? Had it been holding out on him just to throw in a twist at over half way through?

    Lira shifted from where they were snuggled into each other but didn¡¯t say anything as she sensed him perking up and engaging with the movie again.

    The movie continued and the male lead¡¯s relationship with his toxic girlfriend worsened even more as his relationship with the woman he was supposed to be with flourished. The two went walking in the local park together and talked about their families and their hobbies. The Shadow was standing there flickering in the trees, its blazing orange eyes staring directly at the viewer. Whenever the characters turned, the Shadow dissipated and faded away again into the shadows. There one moment and gone the next as soon as one of the characters was about to lay their eyes on it.

    The Shadow was showing up more and more often in the film, no longer the small sightings and glimpses like earlier but becoming a looming presence over every interaction. The characters of the film kept continuing with their relationship drama unaware of the lurking Shadow watching them from behind whenever their heads were turned. Building the suspense for whatever would happen next.

    Sean sat up, riveted by the suspense as the relationship drama reached a climax. The male lead had broken up with his old girlfriend and was about to confess his true feelings to the kind woman he was supposed to be with. They were in a hot drink shop together and the male lead was building up the courage to confess his feelings as their drinks grew cold between them on the table as they spoke.

    But out of the window in the street, the Shadow stood clear as day. Pedestrians walked on the city streets right by it, completely unaware of its presence. Sean barely even paid attention to the melodramatic conversation between the male lead and the woman across from him. Every few seconds the Shadow would flicker and phase back into existence closer to the couple on a part of the screen that Sean wasn¡¯t directly staring at at any particular moment.

    The Shadow in the movie kept its glowing orange eyes fixed directly on the viewer. Sean tried to catch the Shadow¡¯s reappearance as it disappeared again. But somehow it appeared again on the complete opposite side of the screen as where Sean was looking. It was uncanny how the filmmakers had managed to do this¡­

    Finally the male lead and the woman were holding hands and kissing each other over the table with their drinks gone fully cold on the table beneath them. The Shadow was looming right outside their window staring at the viewer with its blazing orange eyes.

    Sean waited in suspense for what was going to happen. Would there be some disaster? Would one or both of the characters become an Immortal as the finale? What would happen?

    ¡°I didn¡¯t know you were so excited by the drama,¡± Lira suddenly whispered into Sean¡¯s ear, ¡°You¡¯re so¡­ riveted.¡±

    ¡°This show is amazing,¡± Sean whispered back, ¡°The suspense! This is really coming out of left field. You didn¡¯t tell me that this was a horror film.¡±

    ¡°Horror film?¡± Lira asked in confusion as the jealous ex-girlfriend walked in the door and gasped in betrayal at seeing her former boyfriend kissing the other girl over the table. The Shadow still stood outside the window of the coffee shop staring at the audience. It raised its hand and reached out to place its hand on the pane of glass as its eyes glowed with an orange light as it tilted its head to the side inquisitively.

    The confrontation on screen continued between the love triangle and the male lead finally stood up for himself and told his old girlfriend to leave him be. The Shadow remained, staring at the viewer and ignoring the drama happening right in front of it. The jealous ex-girlfriend turned and left the shop in a huff and the male lead and his new girlfriend sat at the booth and restarted their conversation again, holding each other''s hands and looking happy. The camera panned backwards, slowly zooming out as the conversation became muted and indistinct and the background music slowly started playing louder.

    Half way through its slow zoom outwards the motion stopped and it started zooming back in slowly. The music stopped all at once. The Shadow remained standing outside the window with its dark hand pressed against the glass, staring unmoving into the camera with its glowing orange eyes.

    Lira reached to the side and pressed the button on the remote. Changing the volume? The audio was warbling and distorted as the couple¡¯s conversation remained indistinct even as the camera grew ever close to the both of them.

    The background started slowly tinting more and more orange the more the camera moved inwards towards the couple and the looming Shadow outside at the window.

    ¡°Wow, no idea you liked it so much,¡± Lira said, ¡°I thought it was fine, but¡­ C¡¯mon Sean. Stop staring at the screen. It wasn¡¯t that amazing. You must have seen that cheesy ending coming from miles away.¡±

    ¡°Ending?¡± Sean muttered, ¡°But this is the best part. What¡¯s going to happen next?¡±

    ¡°Sean, the screen¡¯s off. What in the galaxy are you talking about?¡±

    Sean tore his eyes from the screen and looked at Lira in shock. She raised the remote and pressed what he could now see was the power button twice.

    ¡°See? On and off? What¡¯s up with you? You¡¯re acting strange.¡±

    The hair on the back of Sean¡¯s neck prickled and a chill ran down his spine as he dragged his eyes back to the TV. He jolted as he saw that it was a zoomed in image of the pair of the Shadow¡¯s glowing orange eyes shrouded in darkness. Filling the screen and blazing like glowing flames as its gaze bore into him.

    ¡°Sean,¡± the Shadow said in its dozens of overlapping voices that reverberated through the room. It was real, the Shadow was really here talking to him through the screen somehow,

    ¡°Three portals, three journeys, two done.

    ¡°One with both. One with Emily alone.

    ¡°Now it is your turn.

    ¡°Go now or at a time left unspoken.

    ¡°There is no escaping or hiding beneath a stone.

    ¡°You can only accept it.

    ¡°Or be left with that paralyzing fear of the unknown.

    ¡°Live the past as if it were your own.¡±

    There was a bright orange flash that filled the room and Sean covered his eyes and started breathing heavily in panic. He felt Lira¡¯s hands running over him and shaking him and her worried voice faintly pierced through the warbling distortion of the Shadow.

    When Sean lowered his hand the Shadow was gone. The screen had returned to the view from the interior of the coffee shop. All the people and cars were gone, disappeared as if they had never been in the film at all. Sean could see the two cold cups sitting orphaned at the table of the film¡¯s main couple.

    In the center just in front of the table a blue rift suddenly formed and split the air. Sean¡¯s heart beat faster. He stumbled to sit up and turned to Lira who was panicking next to him.

    ¡°It¡¯s the Shadow!¡± Sean shouted and he saw Lira flinch at his volume. But he could hardly hear himself through the distortion and warbling coming from every direction around him.

    ¡°It¡¯s appearing in the screen to me, I have to go!¡± Sean continued, ¡°The Shadow told me to go in. I don¡¯t want to do anything that would upset it¡­ It¡¯s another one of the blue portals.¡±

    Sean stood up and stumbled over to the screen and paused to stand just in front of it. Lira followed him as a variety of expressions washed over her face at his words. He hesitated just in front of the flickering screen with the blue rift inside. The camera had zoomed in so now the rift itself looked like it was only a foot away from the screen.

    He almost reached out his arm before stopping. He turned and suddenly kissed Lira passionately. She flailed in surprise, but wrapped her hands around his head and kissed him back once she recovered.

    He drew back and cupped her face, ¡°That¡¯ll have to last me for however long I¡¯m in there,¡± Sean shouted again as Lira looked back at him with concern in her eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back,¡± he promised, ¡°In the blink of an eye.¡±

    Lira nodded silently and Sean released her. He raised his arm and took a faltering step forward. He gasped as his arm sank into the screen, causing its surface to ripple like water as his arm sank into it. He could still feel his hand even as it was submerged in the screen.

    He reached out and touched the blue rift. Everything in the real world flickered and dissolved into motes as the image of the cafe became solid and real.

    Sean was drawn into the portal, and saw the blurry figure of Lira quickly backing away as he was drawn into the screen. Her and the rest of the real world was smearing and bleeding into each other like a wet watercolor painting.

    Sean closed his eyes as his arm kept being drawn slowly into the portal. He took a sharp breath and on seeing Lira¡¯s panicked smeared motions from the corner of the room, decided to speed things up.

    Sean reared his head back and dove forward head first so the top of his head sank into the screen and impacted the blue rift in the digital world. It grabbed onto him and drew him inwards. After only a second his head was submerged into the portal and all thought ceased as he only saw blue light all around him.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Lira panted heavily with wide eyes as she pressed herself into the wall of the room as hard as she could. Sean¡¯s arm had just sunk into the dark black screen with what looked like a ripple of water. His body jittered and distorted like a corrupted signal as he stood there with his arm buried in the rippling surface of the black screen. After a few seconds Lira¡¯s eyes widened as Sean dived head first into the screen. His body went completely limp as soon as he did so. It took ten painfully long seconds for everything including the tips of his feet sank into the black surface like he was being sucked inside.

    The strange rippling of the screen suddenly stopped as soon as Sean fully disappeared. Lira cautiously approached and put her hand on the black surface. It was hard and smooth, just the same as it had ever been. There was no sign of Sean or the Shadow.

    He better be safe and come back right away like he¡¯d promised¡­

 Chapter 83: The Man Without a Past

    ¡°Malketh,¡± Sean opened his eyes and jolted.

    ¡°Hey Malketh,¡± a man said at the door to the bedroom, ¡°What¡¯s got into you? The Reunion Festival hasn¡¯t even started yet, what are you so tired for yet? They work you so hard at that fancy job of yours?¡±

    Sean sat up and rubbed his head. He was¡­ in a body? Shouldn¡¯t he be some sort of ghost? Floating over someone¡¯s shoulder?

    ¡°Where am I?¡± Sean asked as he looked around the unfamiliar room, ¡°Who are you?¡±

    The man snorted and just looked amused, ¡°I don¡¯t think you drank quite that much last night. So tired you just fell asleep right when the conversation was getting entertaining. But whatever, go clean yourself up. You look like shit. The big party starts in a few hours. See you there.¡±

    The man waved and shut the door behind him. Sean rubbed his head and tried to understand as he heard his footsteps retreating into the distance. Sean turned and put his bare feet on the cold floor and stood up in the small minimally decorated room. He went outside into what appeared to be a common room and shivered at the temperature.

    Sean paused mid motion. Shivered? Did that mean¡­

    Sean was a mortal. What was happening? There was another door leading off the main room, presumably to the room of the man from before. A shared apartment? That man from before had been¡­ Malketh¡¯s¡­ roommate?

    Sean returned to malketh¡¯s room and after rifling around for a bit managed to find some proper clothes for going out and put them on. As he moved he felt the creaks and slight pains that usually blended into the background when you lived with them constantly. But with Sean being an Immortal for so long, he could now feel each of them acutely now.

    He looked in the mirror and put a hand up to his face. It was his face. Sean¡¯s face. All his proportions and everything was the same as they¡¯d always been. Interesting.

    Sean needed more information. He searched through the apartment for some clues but didn¡¯t find much. He didn¡¯t know any of the passwords for his devices, and despite his mechanical knowledge he had never done much programming or hacking so wasn¡¯t able to figure out how to break into any of them after making some probing attempts.

    There were a few scraps of paper scattered about that gave Sean some of the basics. First and most importantly, he was on Gaia. And today was the beginning of the ¡®Reunion festival¡¯, whatever that was. His best piece of luck was a scrap of paper left behind by what Sean could only guess was the roommate that he¡¯d just talked to. It gave the time and place where they would meet for the festival. Sean had a small device only a little bigger than his palm that he hadn¡¯t known the password for. But a few of its functions were available even if any personal information on the device about this Malketh were locked.

    So Sean was able to navigate to the guidance app and after tapping in the address on the written note was able to see a highlighted route that would bring him there. Well, that was a relief at least.

    He wasn¡¯t sure of the rules this time, things were far different than they¡¯d been when he¡¯d gone back in time with Emily last time. Could he change things in the past now that he had a body? Or would things be altered somehow to stop him?

    More importantly¡­ What had happened to the original owner of this body? Was there even an original owner? The man¡¯s roommate seemed to know about him at least, but Sean wouldn¡¯t put it past the Shadow to be able to alter people¡¯s memories if it came down to it. Although he might just be acting paranoid.

    From how he understood things, all of his actions from now on were already ingrained in the past somehow. So while his decisions were his own to his own perceptions, whatever he did would already be part of the pattern and have no effect on what had happened in the future.

    Sean considered that. Yes, these journeys to the past had a purpose but changing things wasn¡¯t one of them. It was to gather information for the future.

    It was almost a relief to Sean that he had utterly no clue what had happened on Gaia or almost anything about it. Just that Emily and the other nine Founders were here, and something had happened to lead it to getting destroyed. Some basic details on this world. The Gaians had been uncomfortable discussing anything more than that besides more superficial things such as natural wonders or cultural aspects of their lives.

    If Sean knew some of what happened in this time then he might feel constrained. Boxed in knowing that he couldn¡¯t change whatever events he¡¯d know already happened. Horrible event or good, whatever he knew about the future was already set in stone. But he was almost completely clueless about this time period. So from his perspective he could do almost whatever he wanted and not have to worry about screwing with whatever happened in the future. Or knowing that he couldn¡¯t screw with it, more likely.

    It was a sort of relief to be clueless, Sean mused as he sat down with his palm sized device and surfed the local planetary network and started researching some basic information.

    Imagine if Sean knew exactly when or how this world had been destroyed? He¡¯d have felt responsible to work to stop it despite knowing that it was fruitless to change things. But with no information on it, he was free to put the thought aside and treat his actions like he normally would.

    After all, a world could end a thousand different ways. If Sean discovered something was about to happen then he could work his hardest to stop it and be reasonably sure that he might be able to succeed. After all, the world could have ended in a different way or at a different time since Sean had been there to stop it.

    Sean let out a sharp breath and firmly sent the thought away. He¡¯d work with what he had, but ignorance was really bliss in this case.

    He kept surfing the local planetary network and doing research for hours as he got himself situated. By the time he was done and it was nearly time to go meet his roommate and relax at whatever this festival was. Just as he was about to go out the door and lock them with the pair of keys he¡¯d found in Malketh¡¯s bedroom, his stomach rumbled. Oh, he¡¯d nearly forgotten he had to eat now. Sean went inside and had a quick snack from one of the bags on the kitchen counter until his stomach stopped growling at him as much. Then he turned and left for real this time and locked the door behind him.

    He used a physical metal key to close it. What a throwback, it had been a long long time since Sean had even seen one of those. Even on Enguli they used scanning keycards rather than physical keys for everything.

    Sean went to the bar where Malketh¡¯s friend was waiting. He went inside and seeing the man sitting at the bar walked over and sat next to him. They drank a few bottles of beer sitting there and casually talked. Sean did his best to keep up and act natural, but by the suspicious looks the other man was giving him it was clear that Sean¡¯s strange behavior had been noticed. But the other man didn¡¯t comment on it and passed over Sean¡¯s stumbling and pauses as he tried to cover up his ignorance.

    Sean was a mortal now, he had to situate himself and figure out what was happening before he thought about revealing himself to anybody. Let alone to malketh¡¯s old friend/roommate. If malketh himself ever existed at all.

    Eventually Malketh¡¯s roommate looked up at the screen, Television he called it, hanging above the bar.

    ¡°Ah, Malketh,¡± he said, ¡°Looks like it¡¯s about time. You want to do some events? Or you want to go to the parade first?¡±

    ¡°The, ah, events?¡± Sean said, ¡°They could be fun?¡±

    ¡°Right you are,¡± the man said before slapping Sean on the shoulder and standing up, ¡°Axe throwing, sword fighting? Shooting? I¡¯ll look up where the closest festival center for the events are¡­¡±

    The man took out his smaller device from his device and started tapping into it to research the events. Sean had still never managed to figure out the man¡¯s name during their conversation. The bartender came up and placed the bill in front of them before walking away. Sean reached into Malketh¡¯s wallet and took out the square of plastic that he was sure must be a form of payment. At least that¡¯s what he assumed it meant by credit card. He really hoped it wasn¡¯t for social credit or something more sinister like he¡¯d seen traveling around the galaxy occasionally.

    Luckily it seems that he guessed right and after the bartender returned he swiped the piece of plastic through a handheld machine and nodded at Sean before handing Malketh¡¯s ¡®credit card¡¯ back to him.

    Sean stood and malketh¡¯s distracted roommate stood as well, still glued to his device. They both walked outside into the bustling city streets filled with the partygoers and the roommate finally looked up.

    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve got some,¡± the man said, ¡°Thanks for paying for the drinks. I¡¯ll cover the entry fees for the events until we¡¯re square. Closest competition¡¯s about a mile that way¡­¡±

    They walked through the bustling city with the sun high in the sky just after noon. Everybody seemed in a good mood and from what Sean could see the majority of the businesses besides the bars and restaurants were closed. Everybody was out and about and in a festive mood and chatting with their friends as they moved about in large clumps.

    The city was much more open and filled with green space than Sean was used to in the larger galaxy. All the buildings had window boxes or hydroponic systems set up on their exteriors that let plants grow on their sides. He could see fruits and vegetables growing there and people occasionally leaning out and harvesting with long poles with little grabbing claws on the ends. There were plentiful parks and greenery on the ground level as well. They passed at least five small parks just in the roughly mile that Sean and malketh¡¯s walked to their destination.

    The fresh air from the plants was refreshing and made things much more pleasant than the more industrial and barren cities that Sean was used to seeing.

    Eventually Sean and Malketh¡¯s friend reached the edge of a much larger park with gathered crowds filling the whole space milling in and out of the space constantly. The two of them slowly made their way inside through the crowds and made it inside. The whole park was covered in little booths with food vendors selling food, and little booths with games of skill. Games of chance giving out little prizes for those who won.

    Sean and Malketh¡¯s roommate lingered in the crowded place and played a few of the games. Sean was sure that they must be rigged, but he did win one game and received a little handheld rattle that played the roar of some loud beast after you drew back the cord and let it wind back inwards towards the center.

    After thirty minutes or so at the small games and another ten minutes waiting in line to buy some sizzling meat on a stick from one of the food vendors, the two of them continued deeper into the park.

    ¡°This is the place where the real action¡¯s at,¡± Malketh¡¯s roommate said as the cluttered claustrophobic feeling of the former space opened into wider fields that were comparatively less crowded even if the crowds were still large. Sean glanced behind them at the relatively narrow path at the entrance of the park funneling them to walk by the enticing prize games and smell the food stands as they went by. He snorted. Well, he supposed that was one way to increase business.

    He turned back to the field and saw that there all sorts of sporting events taking place at the moment. Just like Malketh¡¯s roommate had said, it was all primitive events. Axe throwing, sword fighting, he even saw groups of burly men in the distance lifting heavy logs above their heads and roaring triumph before throwing them back to the ground.

    ¡°So, what do you want to tryout for first?¡± Malketh¡¯s roommate asked.

    ¡°Tryouts? Where are those?¡± Sean asked as he took his eyes off of the competitors lifting the heavy logs.

    ¡°Over there,¡± Maltketh¡¯s roommate pointed to a much more crowded little section of the fields squished up next to the larger ones. There were many people here spectating like Sean and Malketh¡¯s roommate had just been, but what Sean had thought were more spectators were actually a very long line for those spots.

    ¡°I actually made it into the main event for the last two years,¡± Malketh¡¯s roommate bragged as the two of them got in line for the axe throwing tryout, ¡°Got a bullseye at twenty feet away in the real thing. Mostly by luck, but still¡­¡±

    ¡°How good do you have to throw it to get into the real thing?¡± Sean asked curiously.

    ¡°Oh, I think it¡¯s above thirty points I think? More points the farther you throw it from, and the closer it is to the center. Bullseye at fifteen feet is fifteen points and they give you three throws for the try outs. I think thirty feet is the farthest they let you try until the main event where they let you just go for it since they¡¯ve already weeded out the people who don¡¯t know what they¡¯re doing. You train for this? Go to one of those clubs to practice for the events?¡±

    ¡°No, nothing like that,¡± Sean said, ¡°I just have a good feeling about it.¡±

    They reached the front of the line and Malketh¡¯s roommate was handed his axe and walked up to the line.

    ¡°Fifteen feet! First throw!¡± He called out loudly and the target slid back and clicked when it reached the proper distance away. It was running on a durable metal rail that had been placed on the grass. There were a few attendees running things and recording the results, but this part seemed mostly automated.

    Malketh¡¯s roommate threw and Sean clapped when the axe buried itself directly at the center of the target.

    ¡°Twenty feet! Second throw!¡±

    Malketh¡¯s next throw just barely landed on the edge of the target, but it remained stuck inside. But Sean saw that he had enough points to move onwards either way. Seeing this, Malketh¡¯s roommate glanced back at Sean and smirked before turning back.

    ¡°Thirty feet! Third throw!¡±

    The target shifted back and Malketh lifted the last axe and brought his arm back. He whipped his arm forward and the axe went flying and spinning through the air. It was a complete miss, the man¡¯s fingers slipping and causing the axe to go flying to the side towards the watching the crowd. Several people flinched as the axe came barrelling towards them, before relaxing when the protective translucent shield flashed brightly as the axe impacted it. The axe bounced off and buried itself in the grass beneath.

    ¡°Pass!¡± The attendant announced before handing Malketh¡¯s roommate a little pin and recording his name into his digital pad after having a short conversation with him. The other attendants rushed onto the field and recollected the three axes and inspected the wooden circular target before seeming to decide that they didn¡¯t need to replace it again.

    Then it was Sean¡¯s turn. He carefully picked up the axe and weighed it in his hand carefully. He bounced it up and down to feel its weight before considering the target. He wondered if his skills would be the same¡­

    ¡°Twenty five feet! First throw!¡± Sean announced and the target moved. He drew back his arm and unleashed the axe. There was a small twinge of pain in his arm from the force of this throw, but the axe flew true and buried itself by the blade in the target.

    That was thirty five points. He was done.

    ¡°Finished!¡± Sean said, not wanting to waste time. That throw had been comfortable, and he doubted throwing it five more feet would make that much a difference in the difficulty. He had been an Immortal and trained in combat with both Emily and Asuta. He knew plenty about how to throw whatever strange object was needed, let alone something as normal as an axe.

    There was some cheering from the crowd while Malketh¡¯s roommate looked stunned at Sean¡¯s throw.

    ¡°Pass!¡±

    ¡°Name and contact information?¡± The attendant asked in a lower volume, although she gave him an impressed look as she did so unlike her more bored tone with Malketh¡¯s roommate.

    ¡°Malketh Gaiason,¡± Sean said before giving the number for the palm sized device that he had discovered in the bar earlier was primarily supposed to be a ¡®phone¡¯ or communications device.

    ¡°Next preliminary round starts in an hour,¡± the attendant said as she finished writing everything down, ¡°If you make it through then the real competition will start in about three hours¡­ Good luck, Malketh.¡±

    ¡°Thank you,¡± Sean said as he took his pin showing that he¡¯d made it through the first test before moving to join Malketh¡¯s roommate by the exit.

    ¡°Woah, you¡¯ve been practicing Malketh?¡± the man said before giving Sean a slap on the shoulder while looking slightly confused, ¡°That was quite the throw you pulled off there.¡±

    Sean shrugged, ¡°Something like that. You think we should try out for any of the others?¡±

    The man paused before shaking his head, ¡°Nah, I haven¡¯t really trained for any of the others. You could go for it though. I think the others are coming soon.¡±

    ¡°Others?¡±

    ¡°Yeah? The others?¡± Malketh¡¯s roommate said, ¡°Everyone else that I¡¯ve invited? They¡¯ve messaged me. They should be able to meet us here in an hour or so. Seems like Lillith was late and they had to wait for her.¡±

    ¡°Oh, er, okay,¡± Sean said and nodded his head as the two of them walked over to the next event to observe.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hi, Malketh right?¡± the woman said as the larger group of eight or so people moved away from the food cart, steaming sugar covered snack in their hands. Fried dough the man had called it.

    ¡°Right,¡± Sean said after a moment and he registered that she must be talking to him. Him and Malketh¡¯s roommate had just met up with them a few minutes ago.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t realize that George had a new roommate,¡± the woman said, ¡°He hasn¡¯t talked about you until just yesterday. How long have you been rooming with him?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not exactly sure¡­¡± Sean said before turning to Malketh¡¯s roommate. George apparently, and stared at him to get his attention. The man glanced over them after taking a bite of his food and seemed to focus on them.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°What?¡± George said, ¡°Something on my face?¡±

    ¡°Oh, I was just trying to remember,¡± Sean said, trying to stay as casual as he could, ¡°How long have we been roommates again? I¡¯ve forgotten exactly how long it was.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± George said, ¡°You know, I don¡¯t remember either. Few months probably. Something like that. You certainly didn¡¯t go to the last Reunion festival with me.¡±

    Sean waited and after George took another slow bite of his fried dough realized that he was done.

    ¡°A few months sounds right,¡± Sean said as he turned back to the woman.

    ¡°Oh, okay. He¡¯s just never mentioned you before. I was just surprised,¡± she said, ¡°Glad he finally managed to make use of that spare room of his, besides for piling up his junk. I¡¯m Lillith by the way. Nice to meet you Malketh.¡±

    ¡°Nice to meet you, Lillith,¡± Sean replied as nodded to her before taking a bite of his food. As a mortal everything seemed so much tastier. His body knew that it needed the food, so maybe it made eating more enjoyable than it was as an Immortal, Sean mused to himself.

    ¡°You competing in any events, Lillith?¡± Sean asked after they had all finished their food and thrown away their paper plates in the nearby trash can.

    ¡°Yes, but just some of the fun ones. They¡¯re doing a big game of Monster tag soon that I think that I¡¯ll go to. You two want to come?¡±

    ¡°Monster tag?¡± George said sounding amused, ¡°The kids game? How¡¯s that work? I don¡¯t think I heard about that one? Oh wait, was that the one with the big scandal last year?¡±

    ¡°Yes, the kids game,¡± Lillith said, ¡°It¡¯s all adults though. Twenty or older, strict limits on anyone with health conditions so the doctors can monitor them so they don¡¯t get hurt in the event, you know the deal. I did it last year and I got pretty banged up, it gets rough. But they give you free healing afterwards, so it¡¯s all good. Pretty much anything below a broken bone heals in less than a few days at the worst.¡±

    ¡°Huh. You do that on purpose?¡± George said, ¡°Sounds painful.¡±

    ¡°Really, it¡¯s not that bad,¡± Lillith insisted as she seemed to realize how it sounded, ¡°Just bruises and scrapes is what I mean. You know what happened last year, sounds like. That guy was on drugs or something and it was a scandal that he managed to get through the checks¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, best of luck,¡± George said, ¡°We¡¯ll cheer you on at least. An hour, you say? Why don¡¯t we all go together and cheer you on before we start splitting off any more?¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Lillith said. George approached the other five members of the group and explained Lillith¡¯s event. Everyone moved to the marked off section and went into the stands. Sean and the others waited as they saw Lillith go to where the large crowd of people were waiting for the event to begin. She had changed out of her street clothes into something more breathable and athletic.

    The event was about to start, and the official came out and spoke to everyone in the crowd of competitors for a little while before raising something and throwing it into the group. Everyone reached up and tried to catch the small object. An unfamiliar tall man managed to snag it before it fell into the sea of hands below him.

    ¡°The monster has been chosen!¡± The official shouted to the spectators as all the people participating walked into the marked off playing field. The large man stood in the center of the field and everyone else gathered around the sides in thick clumps.

    There was a short pause before the official started counting down and then started the game.

    ¡°I am now the monster!¡± the man in the center shouted and raised his hands in front of him curled inwards like a pair of claws. ¡°Rawr!¡±

    Then he started moving and the game began. Each time the large man tagged somebody they locked forearms and spun in a circle while working to throw the other to the ground as they did so, until the one tagged would ¡®turn into a monster¡¯ and become a new tagger on the monster team.

    Lillith managed to last until about half way through until she was finally tagged. Her tagger was the large man from the beginning who looked tired after running around for the whole game. Lillith managed to twist her hips and half way through their rotation threw the larger man from his feet so he fell to the grass below them.

    Lillith released him as he fell and slammed to the ground, but after they both laughed and she reached out a hand and helped him back to his feet. She let go of him and struck a pose. ¡°Rawr!¡± Sean saw her lips move to say as the shouting and noise from the game drowned out whatever noise she might have made.

    The game continued and Lillith moved to tag the others now that she was the ¡®monster¡¯.

    Everybody in Lillith¡¯s group played for a total of three rounds using the survivor of the last round as the new initial monster for the next round. After about that thirty minutes of play, they all left the field and were treated by the doctors for their scrapes and bruises. As they were treated the next group that had been gathering behind them went onto the field and started their own game.

    Lillith went into the bathroom and changed back into her normal clothes and returned to the main group. They all congratulated her on how long she lasted, even if they had mostly been talking with one another rather than paying full attention to the game itself. Lillith had a few bruises and her hair was a mess. Her face had a few streaks of dirt on it despite Sean seeing her making her best efforts to clean it off.

    But it looked like she¡¯d had some fun.

    The day continued. Sean was mostly quiet as he absorbed the conversation of the rest. He went to the event and won the whole axe throwing competition, which made all of his companions rather excited and wanting to talk to him all the time after they left the event. Apparently there was some sort of prize of money because he was a winner. He hadn¡¯t even known about it before the announcer had said so when Sean was standing on the winner¡¯s podium after winning the event.

    ¡°And it¡¯s four days like this? Everyone celebrating like this and partying?¡± Sean said, more than a little drunk after long hours partying with his companions as they wandered around and decided to bar hop as the sun went down and day turned to night.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ so clueless, Malketh,¡± George said and sloshed his beer on the table, ¡°Honestly, not even the Reunion festival? It¡¯s only once every ten years. It should be even longer than four days! I remember my first one, so great! They¡¯ve got the little things like the smaller competitions every year of course. But nothing like it is now! So live it up Malketh! Hopefully you¡¯ll be able to stomach your alcohol this time. Jade Congress and the Party are putting a good show for us all. Hopefully we don¡¯t have to deal with any more of those damn protests or police searches of the city again this time though to catch them all¡­¡±

    Sean was completely drunk at the end of the night as he and George started stumbling back to their apartment on the empty streets. It must be one or two in the morning by now, and Sean was struggling to walk straight as they moved through the nearly empty streets.

    Suddenly Sean heard a female scream from an alleyway. In his blurry and hazed state of mind, he instinctively veered to the side and stumbled into the dark alleyway the scream had come from. He was Immortal, what was the harm?

    ¡°Malketh? Malketh, where in Gaia are you going?¡± George whispered before stumbling after Sean, ¡°Dammit, Malketh. You¡¯re gonna get yourself stabbed¡­¡±

    The two men stumbled into the alleyway and after rounding a dumpster came across the scene. Three blue uniformed men were holding a half undressed woman against the wall as she struggled and shouted against their grip.

    ¡°Hey!¡± Sean shouted loudly while only slurring his words a little bit, ¡°What are you doing? Get off of her!¡±

    All three of the uniformed men froze, allowing the woman to slightly break free. One of the men shoved her back into the wall again as he adjusted the grip.

    ¡°I¡¯d suggest you leave, citizen!¡± One of the men said breaking away from the struggling woman to turn back to them, ¡°Police business. Drug addict. Making the arrest. Now leave unless you want to join her.¡±

    The man reached down to his side and took a long black rod from a holster at his hip. He pressed a button at its base and an electric arc formed between two metal prongs at its tip.

    ¡°Go. Before anyone has to get hurt,¡± the police officer threatened them and brandished his electric stun baton.

    ¡°Malketh, this is a bad business,¡± George muttered, ¡°Maybe we should go. She could be a dissident for all we know¡­ I don¡¯t want to get¡­ arrested.¡±

    ¡°Fuck that,¡± Sean said as he raised his fists and stumbled forward. Seeing how drunk he was, the man holding the baton snorted and lazily lowered his weapon and jabbed it at Sean.

    Even through the drunken haze Sean brushed aside the blow with an efficient tap of his hand and followed it up with a tight punch to the police officer¡¯s nose, which broke with a wet crunch. Sean¡¯s hand hurt. It usually didn¡¯t hurt when he hit things.

    The woman was lying on the ground twitching. It seems one of the other men had hit her with their own batons and now turned to deal with Sean as the first man stumbled back and swore through his nose that was gushing blood.

    ¡°Get him!¡± the man holding his nose ordered the other two, ¡°Teach him a lesson, boys.¡±

    The next man lunged at Sean and he stumbled to the side again before landing a full body uppercut into the man¡¯s right side. With a groan, the man fell to the ground and curled into a ball while groaning in pain. The last strike came for Sean¡¯s back, but he reached behind himself and with a sweep of his arm behind his back also diverted the strike from the last man. Sean curled his fist around the stun baton of the last man and with a heave ripped it out of his grip. Flipping it around, Sean pressed the sparking electric tip to the stunned empty handed police officer, who went falling to the ground twitching.

    Sean angrily jabbed the man on the ground with the baton again sending him spasming as every muscle in his body locked up at once.

    ¡°That¡¯s what you fucking get¡­ Lars,¡± Sean muttered before looking up and seeing the last police officer staring at him and holding his bleeding nose while staring at Sean in shock.

    ¡°Who are you?¡± the man muttered as he took a step or two backwards. Sean answered him by stabbing him in the gut with the stun baton, sending the last man twitching to the ground as well.

    Sean stumbled over to the woman slumped against the wall panting heavily even as her arms and legs twitched slightly. She was still recovering from being shocked earlier.

    ¡°Lira? Lira are you¡­ okay?¡± Sean slurred as he stumbled towards her. She looked up and he stumbled to a stop and blinked. This wasn¡¯t Lira. Sean looked back at the man he¡¯d shocked twice. And that man wasn¡¯t Lars. Well, he had saved the woman at least. There was that.

    Sean stood there among the three groaning bodies of the three police officers as the woman slowly stood to her feet by sliding up the wall while eyeing Sean standing there with the stun baton fearfully.

    George was long gone, having run away almost immediately at the start of the fight.

    ¡°Oh,¡± Sean slurred as it took a while for him to realize why she was so fearful of him, ¡°I waaas saving you. Baton¡¯s for¡­ them. Sorry.¡±

    The man that Sean had hit in the kidney had started to uncurl and looked up at Sean with an angry expression on his face. Sean stepped over and shocked him with the end of the baton, sending the man groaning and twitching on the ground again.

    Sean looked back up at the sound of footsteps and saw that the half undressed woman was fleeing the alleyway, not even bothering to fix herself before fleeing from him at full speed.

    Oh. Well, that worked too. Alright best to get out of here. Sean shocked the two recovering police officers for the road before stumbling away after tucking the baton under his shirt to disguise it from view as best as he could. In his breathable clothing it was highly visible, but at least it wasn¡¯t completely out in the open.

    Sean kept stumbling forward, but he didn¡¯t even make it halfway back to his place before he saw a group of five more police officers standing in his way.

    ¡°Hands in the air! You¡¯re under arrest!¡± A man who looked like he was in charge said from the center. He had a fancier uniform and a larger more intricate badge pinned to his chest in comparison to the others. He was holding a gun that he was pointing at Sean in comparison to all the others who were holding stun batons.

    Sean stumbled to a stop and blinked. He slowly raised his hands into the air and the stun baton he¡¯d been holding in place under his shirt fell out and clattered out onto the street. Sean had just remembered that he wasn¡¯t Immortal anymore. If that man shot him he really might die¡­ Or be sent out of the past to his real body. And he was sure that the Shadow wanted him to see more than what he¡¯d already been shown.

    Sean was arrested and cuffed roughly with his hands behind his back by the irate officers. The more important man who Sean was sure was a squad leader of some sort never let his pistol leave Sean¡¯s head while they arrested him. By the way the gun shook slightly as it pressed against the back of Sean¡¯s skull as he lay on the ground, the man probably feared him.

    Sean was dragged into a nearby police vehicle and driven to the police station where he was thrown in a barred cell with a barebones cot. Sean was tired, and as soon as he collapsed into the uncomfortable bed he was out like a light between his drunken haze and the late hour. And the exhaustion from the long day partying and then exertion from fighting so suddenly.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean opened his eyes and hissed and shut them again. His head was throbbing painfully and he felt horrible and dehydrated. The bed that he was sleeping on was scratchy and uncomfortable. He opened his eyes fully as fuzzy memories of last night swirled in the back of his head. He looked around and everything came flooding back as he saw the barebones holding cell he was inside of with a metal toilet anchored to the wall across from his new bed.

    Damn, this was going to be a hassle wasn¡¯t it? Hopefully not all of the police were as corrupt as those three in the alleyway. Even if the woman was some sort of criminal, they¡¯d been practically stripping her when he arrived. That was too far, and Sean had seen the look in their eyes when he and George arrived. They knew they were doing something wrong when they realized that they had been seen. What else was Sean supposed to do in response to that? But it was his word against theirs. The woman was gone, George had fled, and Sean was sure he¡¯d be of no help.

    It would be just his luck, to be thrown in jail after one day of being in this new body. But he¡¯d done the right thing, he was sure of it.

    After a few minutes it became clear that no one would be coming to check in on him in his cell. So Sean curled up his legs and sat in a meditative pose and let the time pass by him as he¡¯d done so many times when he was an Immortal and forced to wait for something or other for long periods of time.

    It felt like only moments when a stony faced police officer with a stun baton at her side arrived and hit her weapon against the bars of the cell to wake him up.

    ¡°Interrogation. Come to the bars and put your arms through the window to be cuffed.¡±

    Sean walked up and after she opened a little window in the door, stuck his hands through. She put the handcuffs on him and he took his hands back to the other side, after which she opened the door.

    He considered shoulder checking her and making a run for it. He could probably steal her stun baton and shock her as he looked for the keys she probably had in a pocket somewhere¡­

    But that would probably make things worse for himself. Sean had no idea where the nearest spaceship would be to steal, and Malketh¡¯s devices had been taken from him sometime last night. Best to wait and see how things went first.

    With the suspicious policewoman standing behind him with a sparking stun baton held to his back, Sean was led into a bare room with only a metal table and two chairs inside. There was a large mirror on one wall that Sean knew was likely for any observers who¡¯d want to watch his interrogation.

    Sean¡¯s handcuffs were connected to a chain connected to the table so he was forced to sit on the metal chair on one side. After checking that he was properly secured, the policewoman turned and left the room without another word.

    Sean waited.

    And waited.

    And waited.

    And no one else came into the room. Ugh, they were probably wasting his time deliberately. He¡¯d had to deal with this before as he and his companions traveled around the galaxy. Sometimes the local officials would get greedy and arrest one of them on bogus charges in an attempt to blackmail them for money or something else they wanted.

    It had mostly just been an annoyance for them since they were Immortals and nothing the local officials could do could actually hurt them. In two or three cases the officials had been so corrupt that it had appeared that they wouldn¡¯t let whichever member of their crew out of jail even with a reasonable bribe. In that case the arrested person would just break out of jail since they were an Immortal and escape back to wherever they had parked the ship.

    When you could eat through walls and any locks with your regenerating pieces of your body it was surprisingly easy for them to escape an Immortal to escape a normal jail.

    Sean looked up and let out a sigh of relief as he saw a heavyset man with the thick pitch black mustache walk in. Finally, he had thought that they¡¯d never come in.

    ¡°Hello. Malketh Gaiason. If that is your real name,¡± the man said as he sat down and opened a folder and spent a few seconds inspecting it as if to pretend that Sean wasn¡¯t there.

    ¡°So, tell me about yourself,¡± the man said as he looked up from the folder, ¡°Who are you? Where are you from? Where did you go to school? What¡¯s your work history?¡±

    Sean¡¯s mind raced as he thought of what to say. He didn¡¯t know any of those things. He didn¡¯t know anything about Malketh besides his job had apparently been cushy enough that George had been slightly jealous of him.

    Sean decided to remain silent and not say anything and just stared back at the heavyset man silently.

    ¡°Nothing?¡± the man said after a moment, ¡°How about your supposed roommate? This George Tailor? Anything to say about him? He¡¯s the one that turned you in, you know. Told the nearby officers about you attacking those officers in the alleyway. I could give him a message if you¡¯d like.¡±

    ¡°I was defending a woman,¡± Sean said despite knowing that it was useless, ¡°I told the officers to stop stripping her, but they threatened us and told us to go away. She ran off after I finished with them.¡±

    ¡°So he does speak!¡± the man said sarcastically, ¡°And he admits to the assault openly. Well, I do suppose the evidence is overwhelming with you taking the weapon from the crime scene after all. A woman you say? Yes, a drug addict undergoing a routine search. Even your supposed friend Mr. Taylor agrees that she looked unhealthy and twitchy even in the darkness. The officers were only doing what they had to do to make sure she didn¡¯t have any weapons on her. Nothing inappropriate in violation of police procedure happened according to any of them. Why should we believe you over three of our own officers and your own friend?¡±

    Sean sighed, ¡°That¡¯s what happened,¡± he said in defeat, ¡°They probably threatened George afterward somehow. But I guess it is my word against theirs then.¡±

    The man paused and then nodded, ¡°Hm. It seems you understand your situation that you¡¯re in. Let¡¯s speak about your character then. I asked you some questions before. Why don¡¯t you answer some of them? You know if you were part of something more important than some¡­ belligerent behavior, then we might be able to let this slide. Give you a new identity if you join the right team.¡±

    ¡°Right team?¡± Sean asked, genuinely confused now, ¡°What do you mean? What more important things?¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s how you¡¯re going to play it. Alright,¡± the man who Sean was sure was a detective said as he threw his open folder onto the table in front of Sean.

    ¡°You see that?¡± the man said, ¡°That¡¯s the file we have on you. Go ahead, read it.¡±

    Sean picked up the folder through his cuffed hands and started reading through. As soon as he saw the documents one thing immediately became apparent. Most of the boxes were completely blank. Even the ones that were filled in were suspiciously sparse in detail. The sum of the information was about what Sean had figured out in those first few hours of entering this body. His name was Malketh Gaiason, he was roommates with George Taylor, and he had a job that let him have plenty of money.

    ¡°You know the funny thing?¡± the detective said as Sean kept inspecting the file, ¡°Seems that George there is the only one who¡¯s ever known you. Even he has no clue what your actual job is. You never told him apparently. His memory is suspiciously spotty about how exactly you ended up staying at his apartment. Without a signed rental agreement even. You know one thing that¡¯s true about that file? It¡¯s a fake. Not a single trace of government records, past, anything are in that useless piece of paper. Whoever made your new identity is either an idiot or a genius, I¡¯m not sure which yet. Somehow you¡¯ve managed to be completely undetectable for months at least if not more. Someone¡¯s erased everything about you from the government databases. Someone with serious connections. And if you know people like that¡­ then maybe you¡¯ve got something to bargain with here. Because you¡¯re a security risk, and without flipping you¡¯ll never see the outside of a jail cell again.¡±

    Sean¡¯s mind raced as his eyes kept playing over the empty file on him over and over and the implications. Maybe this Malketh had been involved in some serious business and had some serious hacker do what this man described¡­ But that wasn¡¯t what Sean believed. It was too thorough of erasure. There were devices and cameras everywhere in any major city. Sean had even researched it and checked, and yes the Gaian cities were the same way even in these times. Anyone living somewhere for months should have at least have a digital presence through those. All the government would have to do was take an image of his face and run a facial recognition scan from any footage they could get of Malketh¡¯s building over the last few months. Yet there was nothing like that in here. No evidence at all of anything that ¡®Malketh¡¯ had done before yesterday and the Reunion festival. Not the smallest scrap or image of him.

    The Shadow¡­ hadn¡¯t bothered to create an identity for him. Sean was sure of it. Malketh was a fiction that had popped into existence somehow fully formed. Malketh was Sean. And presumably the memories of Malketh from his roommates were fake too, which is why all of George¡¯s friends were confused about Sean being there with them for the Reunion festival activities¡­

    ¡°What about the credit cards? My phone?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Can¡¯t those be tied to me?¡±

    ¡°No. Completely untraceable. Phone¡¯s brand new, must have been taken out of the box barely a few days ago. You¡¯ve never even put in the right password for it once. The engineers who cracked it open scratched their heads for that one. Usually you have to put it in at least once while setting up the phone. But somehow you managed to bypass it.

    ¡°That phone may as well be a prop, your contact list in there is empty. The Credit card isn¡¯t real. It¡¯s actually a device that hacks the common card readers that people use. Infiltrates the software and makes it display the money was paid despite not being connected to anything. Those aren¡¯t things that just anyone can get access to.

    ¡°So I¡¯ll ask again. Who are you? And why shouldn¡¯t I throw you in some deep dark hole somewhere where no one will find you again?¡±

    ¡°You aren¡¯t from the police are you¡­¡± Sean said slowly.

    The man snorted, ¡°Ah, he gets it. No. I¡¯m from farther up the chain. Your case caught some eyes once the locals around here tried to do some digging. So speak up. Give me the information on who you are and your backers and maybe I can find some leeway to help you out in return.¡±

    Sean opened his mouth and then closed it. Welp, he was screwed. Completely and utterly screwed. He had literally no explanation for any of that except for time travel and the Shadow. And somehow based on the determined look in the mysterious man¡¯s eyes, Sean didn¡¯t think that that explanation would cut it. And he had no clue what the man wanted, so he couldn¡¯t even try to lie before being discovered in moments. There really was only one option. One that might make him valuable enough that he wouldn¡¯t be killed. Hopefully.

    ¡°No,¡± Sean said in a cold tone, ¡°I won¡¯t betray my employers. It is what it is. I¡¯ll take my jail time.¡±

    ¡°No, no,¡± the man across from him said after an angry grimace, ¡°I have a much better place for you than jail. We¡¯ll get our answers. We¡¯ve got our ways¡­¡±

 Chapter 84: Itâ€™s Enhanced Interrogation, Not Torture

    ¡°Hey, you cut too deep that time,¡± Malketh said calmly to the masked man in front of him, ¡°And I think you nicked an artery. I¡¯ll die of blood loss if you don¡¯t get a doctor here soon to fix me up.¡±

    ¡°Who in the Shadow is this guy?¡± General Williams swore from behind the glass, his heavy black mustache twitching in frustration. He had thought that a little torture and pain would get this strange man to crack his composure at least a little. He had seemed normal enough emotionally as far as General Williams could tell when observing the recordings of the initial interrogation at the police station.

    Here far deep underground at the government black site, their torture experts¡­ no, enhanced interrogation. He had to remember not to use the word torture on the budgeting reports, the word always made people in the party too jumpy about what needed to be done¡­

    Anyway, it had been days already and Malketh was completely calm. Even now the supposed expert looked in a panic at the cut he¡¯d just made on Malketh¡¯s body and signaled his assistant to get the doctor before visibly recovering his composure.

    ¡°That¡¯s what we¡¯re trying to find out, General,¡± the leader of this facility replied to his words.

    ¡°Then why isn¡¯t it working? Is he immune to pain? Fear? That genetic condition, what do you call it that the soldiers have? How can he be so calm?¡±

    ¡°No, General. Brain scans show he¡¯s feeling all the pain and fear responses that he¡¯s supposed to. We¡¯d have directly stimulated them more to activate them if he showed no response at all. That works even with people who can¡¯t feel pain or fear since birth. Our efforts with direct stimulation on Malketh were¡­ unsuccessful. As soon as the initial response is over, his fear and pain levels climb back down to baseline and he calms down again. It¡¯s like nothing I¡¯ve ever seen. He truly is someone who is just ignoring it all through pure willpower¡­¡±

    General Williams shot the man with a sharp look.

    ¡°You almost sound like you¡¯re admiring the man. Why the knives and pulling of fingernails then if direct stimulation didn¡¯t work? Wouldn¡¯t the response be less from these crude methods?¡±

    ¡°Yes, usually¡­¡± The site leader said, ¡°But it was thought that having a visual indicator of the pain and fear would lead to a higher fear or pain response. But¡­ It has become clear over the last few hours that there seems to be no difference. I don¡¯t believe we¡¯ll be able to get any information unless we have some sort of other leverage over him, sir.¡±

    ¡°Nothing?¡± General Williams said, ¡°We can¡¯t find one bit of information about him beyond the obvious cover identity? Someone trained like this, and able to completely thrash three police officers while completely drunk? I don¡¯t like it, not at all¡­¡±

    A doctor came into the room and began healing Malketh who looked bored more than anything and idly tried to talk to the doctor as if he had met him on the street. The doctor didn¡¯t answer Malketh as he followed his orders to stay silent.

    The doctor kept working as General Williams rubbed his chin and thought.

    ¡°There¡¯s only one thing left,¡± The site leader said tentatively, ¡°If there¡¯s no information on the outside¡­ then we must put him in solitary confinement. A sensory deprivation chamber and a feeding tube. His only way out will be to say something we want to hear. I¡¯m sure that after a few months or years he¡¯ll crack and spill everything he knows.¡±

    ¡°Months? Years? You think it¡¯ll take that long? I thought that most cracked in weeks?¡± General Williams asked in irritation.

    ¡°I think it¡¯s likely to take longer, sir. He has a strong mind. I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll last a long time before he finally breaks.¡±

    General Williams considered the proposal for a few seconds before nodding.

    ¡°Approved. We¡¯ll do it until we find something better to get him to spill his guts.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sir. We¡¯ll get right on it.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean¡¯s new life sucked. He¡¯d thought it would have been alright after he woke up and went to the festival. He even had won that axe throwing competition. Then he¡¯d been arrested and tortured for a while.

    He had been Immortal for a long time. Whatever they did to him wasn¡¯t nearly a tenth as bad as some of the things that he¡¯d already gone through. In this mortal body there was more pain, more fear of death. But not enough to overwhelm Sean¡¯s experience and instincts as an Immortal telling him that all that pain would wash away as if it had never been if he just waited.

    Not that it washed away anymore, but his instincts kept stubbornly insisting that it would no matter how long it lasted. On the timescale of Immortals, being in pain for a few weeks was a blink of an eye. Maybe if they¡¯d continued it for years or longer then his mind would have started to break from its old habits. But they¡¯d stopped after a few weeks after it appeared to not affect him at all.

    Then they¡¯d thrown him here into this tank of salt water. Sean¡¯s whole body was like a giant wrinkled fruit after being submerged for so long. He was floating there in the dark chamber suspended in the buoyant water in an effort to remove all sensation in his body. A sensory deprivation tank. He was wearing a helmet that gave him air as he was suspended under the water, and a few straps to keep him from trying to float over and touch the dark walls of the tank that he knew must be there. And a thin white bodysuit that clung to him like a second skin as he floated there in the water.

    A flexible tube lowered from the space suit like helmet every once in a while and stuck itself in his mouth to feed him some gruel or water. A series of uncomfortable tubes cleared out any waste that he made. At least it was convenient that way.

    Sean was sure the conditions would be horrible for literally any other mortal person. But Sean knew what to do with isolation more than anyone. So when he wasn¡¯t swallowing the gruel at meals or drinking from the little sippy straw hovering by his mouth for water¡­ He was meditating. And the time passed by in a blur once more. No one ever spoke to him. No unfamiliar sensation ever came over him. Everything stayed the same as Sean meditated.

    He wasn¡¯t sure how long it had been, but he had lost track of the number of meals at one point. He was sure he had never had to use his meditation techniques for this long of a stretch before. And he still had to sleep for half of the time, which helped pass the time quicker at least.

    Sean was actually not the best at meditation. The others had always been better than him. Sean had always tried to keep himself busy as he and his friends went on adventures to explore the remote regions of the galaxy. Mostly he had buried himself in playing the Foundation of All game when the others were too busy with something to spend time with him. He grew obsessed with it.

    It was Lira who¡¯d forced him to learn to meditate properly as an Immortal to pass the time. It¡¯d been right after her and Robert had staged their ¡®intervention¡¯ over his long stints of playing Foundation of All. Back before Lira had been captured, when they were setting up the transmitters throughout the galaxy for Emily to find, not knowing that she¡¯d been captured by the Immortal Council.

    After Sean admitted that he couldn¡¯t keep his hands still and needed to do something to pass the time, Lira had taught him the meditation technique she had been taught after she¡¯d first been discovered as an Immortal. Taught by the Immortal Council Enforcer that had transported her away from her homeworld and to the more Immortal friendly one that she would live on for thousands of years.

    After that, Sean had still needed to keep his hands and mind busy if he could. But if there was nothing to do, he no longer grew twitchy or upset if he couldn¡¯t. He could just meditate even if it took some effort and the time would pass quickly.

    So, Sean wasn¡¯t the best at meditation. He had never been good at it. For an Immortal. For a mortal, a few weeks or months of inactivity and lack of all sensation like here in the tank would be an excruciatingly maddening experience. But to Sean it was nothing. Just practice for him to refine his meditation techniques that he had never been able to before like Lira had wanted him to.

    Because although the meditation had helped him, Sean still grew obsessed and over focused when he was stressed. Emily was the same way, he had seen it many times in the years that he¡¯d known her both on Earth and out in the wider galaxy.

    Maybe this experience was somewhat of a good thing after all, Sean mused, just some extra practice time. That¡¯s all it had to be.

    He sank back into his meditation and let time pass by him like a streaming river. They hadn¡¯t killed him yet at least. There was that.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean¡¯s eyes snapped open as his chamber rumbled. It had moved? What was this? It shook again until suddenly Sean heard loud pings and pops ringing through the isolation chamber and startling him. There were some more sounds, and a few more loud metal clanging noises blasting through Sean¡¯s head like he was sitting inside of a massive bell. After so long in utter silence and contemplation, the sudden input and assault on his ears overwhelmed him and caused him to weakly thrash in place, completely stunned.

    There was a brief period of silence before with a loud clang the top of the chamber opened up and let in a flood of light down onto Sean. He was instantly blinded and could only close his eyes and look down inside his oversized helmet. He felt himself being raised out of the water by the bindings that had held him in the center of the tank. A wash of new sensations washed over his skin as the water ran down his body once he was completely exposed to open air again.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    There were fingers scrabbling at his neck as somebody cut through his bindings and carefully placed him on his back on the ground. Sean weakly moaned, his voice atrophies after not speaking for so long even as he kept his eyes firmly shut. Even the light coming streaming in through his eyelids was almost too much for him even if he was slowly adjusting.

    Sean could hear a blaring alarm and flashing red light filling the room as he opened his eyes just a crack as the massive helmet let out a pneumatic hiss and came off of him.

    ¡°Can you walk?¡± Sean heard a female voice say from above him, ¡°Shit, of course he can¡¯t walk¡­ Alright, Sierra. You lift him.¡±

    Sean saw a massive metal hand suddenly appear over him and reach down and grab him around the torso with its long fingers. The palm was a little smaller than a dinner plate while the fingers were long enough to wrap completely around Sean¡¯s whole body as he was bodily lifted into the air. Sean idly noted the articulated metal joints of the hand and the more padded interior pressed against him through the small crack in his eyes that he could handle at the moment.

    Experimentally, Sean tried to move. His leg twitched slightly, but didn¡¯t do anything more than that as he dangled freely in the air, held aloft by the metal hand that could only be from a rather large exosuit. Sierra based on what the mystery woman from before had said. The three of them started moving with Sean dangling from the exosuit hand and facing forward while the woman with what looked like a heavy machine gun took the lead. She was wearing a sleek helmet that completely covered her head and pitch black body armor. Only her voice and the slight curves in her armor signaled her gender.

    Sean tried to move again, and his leg twitched a bit more this time. His captors had pumped him full with drugs that had let him keep his muscle mass. Theoretically he should be as healthy as he had been going in¡­ He just needed his brain to connect to his body and realize that fact.

    Sean jolted as there was a sudden burst of loud blasts from in front of him. He had been too focused on moving his body to pay attention to his surroundings as they rushed through the hallways of the sterile hallways of this facility.

    The gunfire was odd. Not the crackle and buzz of plasma fire, but a more concussive boom. Sean eyed the perforated and bleeding bodies of the two soldiers that had just rounded the corner of the hallway with their weapons drawn only to be gunned down by the woman in the lead.

    Sean eyed the faint trail of smoke trailing from the tip of her weapon as the three of them kept moving until they reached the closed doors of an elevator. Ah, physical projectile weapons, Sean noted. That was what the woman had fired before. Usually you didn¡¯t see people using ones that small. Plasma weapons were deadlier and could charge with electricity rather than worrying about manufacturing ammunition or reloading if you fired all of your projectiles at once¡­ Usually they were only used for heavy weapons if at all.

    ¡°Sierra. Elevator. They¡¯ve probably locked it down by now,¡± the woman said shortly. Sean turned his head and saw the other hand of the bulky exosuit reach out to the panel to the side. With a crunch, the hand and its long fingers gripped the wall around the panel and ripped it partially out of the wall.

    The long fingers moved and moved into the gap and mess of wires behind where the panel had sat. The tips of the fingers split open and revealed a variety of electrical tools that sparked and went to work under the skillful direction of the operator. Sean half opened his eyes, his overstimulation mostly having died down now that he¡¯d had a few minutes to adjust.

    This work and method of doing the electricals¡­ How fascinating. Sean had never seen anything like it before.

    ¡°Sierra, how long is it going to be?¡± The woman said irritably as she tapped her foot in front of the closed elevator doors.

    ¡°Longer. Less than five minutes. More than two,¡± A deep voice suddenly said as it echoed out of the bulky exosuit that loomed at over eight feet tall where it carried Sean.

    The woman grunted and shifted backwards to guard their backs out of sight from behind the exosuit.

    There was suddenly shouting and more gunfire from behind them a few seconds later. Based on the swearing and screaming down the hallway, the woman at their backs hadn¡¯t managed to land a lethal shot on the soldiers this time. Based on how the soldiers groans echoed, they must have been able to dodge back around the corner after getting hit non-fatally.

    Sierra¡¯s had retracted out of the elevator panel half hanging out of the wall and the ends of the fingers of the hand were covered again as the tools were transformed into the blunt end of fingers again.

    ¡°Done,¡± Sierra¡¯s deep voice said, ¡°Elevator¡¯s coming.¡±

    ¡°Great,¡± the woman said, ¡°Make sure to protect the asset. They might go for an ambush at the top, they¡¯ll know you just bypassed their elevator control.¡±

    ¡°Will do,¡± Sierra answered and the metal doors dinged and opened to reveal the elevator itself inside. Sierra while still carrying Sean quickly hurried inside and the woman quickly followed while walking backwards as well. She kept her gun trained where the soldiers had retreated around the corner. As best as Sean could tell they had retreated to somewhere else to retreat the injured one¡¯s wounds after a short argument. But it seems the woman was still suspicious and didn¡¯t want to take any chances.

    The elevator doors closed and with a lurch the elevator started moving upwards, the little floor indicators increasing as they moved.

    Sierra shifted his grip on Sean so that he was cradled to the large exosuit¡¯s chest and mostly protected by the metal shield of the exosuit¡¯s hand as he was pressed against the cold metal chest of the device.

    Just as the woman had predicted, as soon as the doors opened at the top, they were assaulted by a barrage of gunfire. Luckily they were pressed onto opposite walls of the elevator. So most of the initial barrage of gunfire flew right by them and buried itself in the back wall of the elevator.

    The large exosuit was a bit bulky to completely get out of the way, but what few bullets managed to land only left small scratches and bounced off rather than dealing any real damage.

    The woman in her body armor and helmet brought her heavy machine gun to bear and stepped out from where she had pressed herself into the elevator wall. She let loose and fired blindly outside even as she charged out the open elevator doors. Bullets pinged and sparked off of her armor as Sierra charged after her with Sean still held protectively to the exosuit¡¯s chest with one hand.

    Sean didn¡¯t see much of the fighting, but he saw flashes of Sierra using the exosuit to smash through several locked doors or to bodily toss people aside when they got in his way while the woman in body armor kept firing her weapon and killing the soldiers who stood in their way in droves.

    And then¡­ they were outside. The blaring alarm and flashing red lights continued but outside of the base it was all muted as Sean got a glimpse of a starry night sky above.

    A black shadow blotted out the stars even as the woman turned around and fought to keep the soldiers behind them from coming out after them with some suppressive gunfire from her weapon.

    There was a loud roaring sound as a sleek black angular craft suddenly landed in front of them. It was squarish but slightly elongated like how the cars had looked like back on Earth. Well, it was the right size to carry at least a dozen people, so larger than most cars Sean had seen on Earth actually. Instead of wheels, each far corner of the vehicle was occupied by a large plasma thruster keeping it aloft slightly off of the ground.

    One of the side doors slid open and without saying another word, Sierra jumped inside with Sean still carried in his hand. Sierra turned and jumped inside as well and slammed the open sliding door closed again behind herself.

    ¡°Clear!¡± the woman shouted and the next moment the whole ship rumbled and then suddenly jolted as they went rocketing into the sky at maximum acceleration.

    They lurched to the side a few times and Sean heard the rumblings that could only be missiles that had exploded a little too close to them for comfort. But then the sounds stopped and they stopped their acceleration. There was only the faint rumble of the engines that vibrated the floor as they moved. Sean felt some real feeling returning to himself and he was able to somewhat control the flopping of his leg as he focused on convincing his brain that it should let him move properly again now.

    Seeing that he could control himself somewhat, Sierra twisted and placed him on a nearby bench built into the side of the interior cabin of the military style flying vehicle.

    Sean stared down at his legs and worked on controlling them again, his eyes now fully adjusted to the light. After a few moments of work, he teetered to his feet and stood there for a moment before sitting back down.

    ¡°So,¡± Sean said as he realized that both Sierra and the woman wearing the helmet and body armor were staring at him intently, ¡°Who do I have to thank for saving me?¡±

    ¡°The GFC.¡±

    Sean stared at her in confusion for a moment.

    ¡°The Gaian Freedom Coalition?¡±

    Sean kept staring at her blankly.

    ¡°Seriously? You¡¯ve never even so much as heard about us before?¡± She said in seeming disbelief.

    Sean shrugged.

    ¡°Thanks I guess,¡± he said while ignoring her slight frustration with him, ¡°I guess I¡¯ll know first hand soon if you¡¯re taking me to your group.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­¡± she said, ¡°We will. You seem to be doing well. I¡¯ve heard the¡­ horror stories of the kind of things the government does in those places. Not many people who go in end up coming out.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Sean assured her, ¡°But yes it was all rather horrible. I¡¯m sorry to hear that.¡±

    ¡°Hm,¡± the woman grunted before with a hiss she took off her helmet and placed it on the bench besides her. Her bright blue eyes contrasted with her darker bronzed skin tone and blonde hair. Sean blinked. That was a combination of genetics you didn¡¯t see too often.

    ¡°I¡¯m Violet,¡± she said, ¡°Nice to meet you¡­ Malketh?¡±

    Sean considered his name for a moment before nodding back, ¡°Malketh Gaiason. Nice to meet you Violet. Sierra?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Sierra is my real name,¡± the deep voice of the man said as the exosuit opened and revealed the barrel chested man inside with some of the palest skin that Sean had ever seen and red eyes.

    ¡°A good strong name to contrast with my perfectly weak skin, no?¡± the man said as he took a step away from his exoskeleton and lifted his muscled pale arm to demonstrate.

    ¡°Ah, Albino,¡± Sierra said as he saw that Sean didn¡¯t understand, ¡°No melanin in the skin. One little beam of light from the sun and sizzle sizzle my skin goes as it burns. Could have it fixed for a big price¡­ But it is me. I¡¯d rather have an exosuit to protect me from the sun than give up what makes me unique!¡±

    ¡°Er, congratulations,¡± Sean said, not quite understanding why the man wouldn¡¯t get the treatment. If he liked looking so pale then Sean was sure that there was a way to do that without making himself so vulnerable to the sun and radiation.

    ¡°Makes me the best exosuit pilot, because I love being in the suit so much,¡± Sierra said conspiratorially to Sean in a stage whisper.

    ¡°Yeah, Sierra¡¯s like that. Real chatterbox when we¡¯re not on missions, almost dead silent once we¡¯re going,¡± Violet said fondly.

    Sierra shrugged, ¡°Got to even out my speaking, no? Can¡¯t chatter on mission, must do it here after. I go on so many missions that the words even out hopefully.¡±

    Violet and Sierra kept bantering with each other and seemed to let off some steam after their stressful mission as Sean sat there observing them. He had chosen to keep the name Malketh for now. He had no idea if there was a reason why the Shadow had chosen that name for him or if it might be helpful later on. So until he knew better either way he¡¯d stick with it and be Malketh for this life.

    Hopefully Malketh wasn¡¯t being dragged elsewhere to be tortured by yet another group. That was a distinct possibility still, despite how relaxed these soldiers were acting with him now.

    But Sean hoped that that wasn¡¯t the case. Violet and Sierra both seemed like interesting people as he kept listening to their lighthearted banter back and forth.

 Chapter 85: Helping the Cause

    ¡°So, Malketh. Tell me about yourself. A man of mystery, truly. Drink?¡±

    Sean nodded and the man across from him poured him a drink that looked like some kind of hard liquor. The man picked up his own glass and swirled it for a moment before taking a sip of it. Sean picked up his own glass and drank as well and enjoyed the taste. Ah, he had missed alcohol. As an Immortal, drugs and alcohol were useless and nothing more than something with a strange taste. So feeling the buzz of getting slightly drunk was a surprisingly refreshing feeling.

    Especially after being rescued from that place where he had been imprisoned.

    ¡°Well, I am a man of mystery,¡± Sean said as he lowered his glass slightly and thought about what he should say. After their vehicle had landed Violet and Sierra had brought him here directly to this man¡¯s cluttered office. Apparently he was in charge of their local cell of the Gaian Freedom Coalition. At first Sean had thought they might be military of some other nation at first based on the equipment and discipline. But from the glimpses he¡¯d seen of their base it became clear that they seemed to be revolutionaries and more disorganized than Sean would have expected based on the pair that had rescued him.

    ¡°I¡¯m not quite sure what you¡¯re asking me for,¡± Sean continued after a short pause, ¡°I lost my memories. I woke up in that apartment as confused as anyone else would be not knowing who I am or what was going on.¡±

    ¡°Hm, amnesia?¡± the man across from Sean said thoughtfully as he stared at Sean carefully, ¡°Why not tell them that then? Our agents never told us anything like that. We got ahold of the original recording of your interrogation. The one at the police station before the government squirreled you away in that dark hole years ago. Figured if the higher ups in that place were still talking about you even now, that you must be somebody important.¡±

    Sean shrugged, ¡°How long has it been? I didn¡¯t have a good sense of time down there really.¡±

    ¡°Six years. Six years you were in there,¡± the commander said.

    ¡°Six years¡­¡± Sean said as he sat back before taking another sip of the liquor, ¡°That¡¯s longer than I thought it was.¡±

    ¡°Indeed¡­¡± The commander eyed Sean curiously for a moment, ¡°Well, surely you can tell me something? You seem remarkably calm and composed considering where my team found you. You have any skills that you remember? Any information that could help take down those government bastards? You¡¯re free to leave if that¡¯s what you want. But it wouldn¡¯t take long for them to find you again now that they know who you are. I¡¯d like you to join us in the GFC. If you can find a place here and a way to contribute.¡±

    Sean considered. Hm. He¡¯d have to give this man something, make himself at least somewhat valuable. The man seemed more pleasant than those government goons had been, but Sean could see the calculating glint in his eyes. If Sean proved to be completely useless then who knew what he could do. He might just cut Sean loose¡­ Or he could decide to kill him to keep Sean from spilling any secrets that he might have accidentally learned. And setting Sean loose was basically the same as letting him be captured again considering the resources at the government''s fingertips. The commander was right about that part at least.

    ¡°I¡¯m an engineer,¡± Sean said suddenly as he decided what route he should take, ¡°Give me something to fix and I should be able to figure out how to do it. I¡¯d be happy to help pay you back for getting me out of there.¡±

    The commander sat back and smiled slightly and raised his glass, ¡°Ah, I knew that you must be special. We¡¯d be happy to have you. I understand if you don¡¯t want to talk about your past. If you do remember it. To joining the GFC and get payback on those bastards trying to press the rest of us under their heels.¡±

    Sean raised his glass and tapped it against the commanders and they both drank.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean hadn¡¯t imagined that things would be this corrupt. He wondered what Emily was doing right about now, if she knew about what was being done right under her nose¡­

    Should he contact her? But she was literally the spiritual leader of the whole world and assembled nations. Why would they let random fugitive Sean or ¡®Malketh¡¯ come see her? The country that Sean had just been rescued from was the largest and most important economically and militarily from what Sean had been able to determine from his frantic research right after he entered this body. The Jade Congress was the country''s name. Nominally a democracy, but it had been a very long time since anyone but the ruling party had ever been elected. The name was a fake, the elections were shams as the ruling party controlled those beneath them with an iron fist.

    Right now Sean and this group of the GFC were in one of the neighboring countries hostile to the Jade Congress. Right now he was casually inspecting the fully articulating digital model of Sierra¡¯s exosuit on the datapad in his hands. He reached out and after taking a few seconds to figure out the commands for the modeling software started pinching various pieces and sections and blowing them out to more closely inspect the internals and electricals. It was all very primitive, less complex than even the first robot Sean had ever managed to build. Let alone Ash¡¯s first combat capable body, which had been orders more complex than even that.

    The only hard part would be the tools¡­ Going in with less advanced equipment would be a hassle¡­

    ¡°So, any questions?¡± the man asked after Sean didn¡¯t say anything else, ¡°That¡¯s the basic design of the armor. I¡¯m here to teach you to repair it, we¡¯ll just be removing the chestplate and repairing the superficial scratches on the metal today. Don¡¯t worry, we won¡¯t have to do anything electrical unless Sierra gets really banged up on one of his missions.¡±

    Sean put the datapad down at his side, ¡°No questions. Show me how it¡¯s done,¡± he said. He thought he understood the basics of the design itself. But he was genuinely interested to see what methods the head engineer would use for repair with so few advanced tools to help him.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Are you bored, Malketh?¡± the head engineer said sharply as he saw Sean¡¯s glazed over look. The man¡¯s actions had been interesting for the first hour or so. But they were approaching hour four now and Sean had already understood the basics of the techniques long ago. The engineer had just kept going with his long winded explanation. And after he had shushed Sean after Sean tried to interrupt him, Sean went silent and just waited. He did learn one or two more things in the man¡¯s lecture, but not enough to justify him standing here waiting as the head engineer kept going and inflating his own ego for much longer than Sean ever thought possible.

    ¡°No, is that all?¡± Sean said to reply to the engineer a little impatiently, ¡°I think I understood.¡±

    ¡°Did you now?¡± the man said before handing Sean his tools with an irritated look on his face, ¡°Then how about you just handle the rest? I¡¯m sure with you paying such close attention, you¡¯ll be able to do it right. And it better not have so much as a single thing wrong, or I¡¯ll have you cleaning the toilets next.¡±

    With a self satisfied smirk, the head engineer gestured between Sean and the exosuit. ¡®What crawled up his ass?¡¯ Sean wondered to himself as he took stock of the tools he¡¯d been given and the damage to the exosuit. He assessed the task for a few seconds.

    ¡°Well? What are you waiting for?¡± the head engineer said, ¡°Go ahead.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    Then Sean went to work and finished the repairs flawlessly. The head engineer was red in the face in embarrassment by the time Sean fixed the last dent in the material while avoiding all the internal electronics underneath.

    ¡°Well, I guess you were paying attention,¡± the man said before turning away, ¡°You have the designs. Study them, I¡¯ll be testing you tomorrow. Wonder boy.¡±

    The man stormed out of the room and Sean blinked. Huh. Actually, he hadn¡¯t seen any other engineers in this place yet. Was the man feeling threatened by Sean? Should Sean not have done as well as he had? Played down his skills?

    Sean considered it, but then shrugged. What was done was done. No use downplaying anything now. The work was somewhat interesting and something to pass the time. Best to make himself useful to the GFC until he could more firmly establish himself into this new life as a mortal where he could be killed at any moment or even just die of old age if he waited too long to do something.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Back from another mission, you two?¡± Sean said amiably as he fiddled with Sierra¡¯s armor where a heavy caliber weapon had torn into the internals and rendered the left arm completely limp, ¡°A rough one?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it was a close one my friend,¡± Sierra said as he stretched until his back popped with a loud crack.

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s the stuff,¡± Sierra groaned before rubbing his shoulder, ¡°I will go to the medic now. See if they have something for the shoulder. But good thing my arm is not as damaged as the suit, ay? Heal him right up, Malketh, and do your magic.¡±

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± Sean said slightly amused by Sierra¡¯s antics, ¡°I¡¯ll fix him right back up. Take a rest will you? That¡¯s three missions just this week. Everyone needs a rest every once in a while. Even you two.¡±

    ¡°Bah,¡± Sierra said, ¡°You repair faster than the old man. Faster repairs, more missions. No need to wait so long anymore. Lucky for you that Violet and I vouched for you, ay? Heard the old man was spreading all sorts of rumors about you a few months ago.¡±

    Sean grimaced, ¡°Yes, thanks for that both of you. That could have gone bad. They¡¯ve got him fixing faulty lights around here now. So I suppose it all worked out in the end.¡±

    ¡°Worked out for you, Malketh,¡± Sierra said, ¡°But you are better engineer, so I do not mind. Anywho, time to get some ice packs and have a beautiful woman kiss my wounds. I leave Violet to you.¡±

    Sierra left and Sean saw Violet roll her eyes with her helmet at her side tucked under her arm, ¡°Can¡¯t believe he scored that nurse,¡± she grumbled, ¡°Honestly. I wish there were a handsome man treating me when I went¡­¡±

    ¡°Hey, Sierra might take you if you asked nicely,¡± Sean joked as Violet started taking off her body armor and placing it in her locker, helmet and all. She was wearing some casual clothes underneath, a fact that surprised Sean the first time he¡¯d seen her out of armor.

    Violet placed the helmet in her locker and closed and locked the door before turning back to Sean. Violet put two fingers in her mouth and made an exaggerated gagging motion, ¡°Ugh, gross. Don¡¯t even joke about that, Malketh. Sierra¡¯s not my type.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let Sierra hear you say that.¡±

    ¡°Trust me, I¡¯m not his type either,¡± Violet said as she shook her head and smoothed her blonde hair back with her hand, ¡°Anyway, are you still on for later tonight? Don¡¯t forget the snacks.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure,¡± Sean said, ¡°See you after dinner.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re so going down! Ha! Grrrrrrr ughhhhh! C¡¯mon, seriously? Again?¡± Violet groaned.

    Sean threw his game controller onto the table in front of him and laughed, ¡°Aha! And she¡¯s defeated again! Just admit it, you¡¯ll never beat me in these fighting games, Violet.¡±

    ¡°How are you so good?¡± Violet complained, ¡°Your character did a five hit combo before I even hit the ground. How is that even possible? I had four NPC allies fighting with me! It was five on one, how did you still win?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s just how I roll, get wrecked,¡± Sean gloated before reaching into the open back between them and taking a bite of the salty cracker that he took from inside.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how you do it,¡± Violet said as she started configuring a new game and started giving herself even more advantages again so she could try to beat Sean at the game.

    The game started and they both started playing again. This time it was more even since Violet had given her allies more powerful weapons with attacks that were harder for Sean¡¯s character to dodge.

    Sean lost this time against the blatantly unfair battle, but only just.

    ¡°Well you won,¡± Sean said as he took another snack and crunched down again. Eating food as a mortal was just so much better than as an Immortal. One of his favorite parts in this new life of his.

    ¡°I just don¡¯t get it,¡± Violet said, really sounding a bit frustrated now rather than just joking, ¡°How are you so good at everything, Malketh? How can you do this? Just come here and play video games with me after what those government bastards did to you? Don¡¯t you want to go out there, get some revenge?¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Sean carefully put down the controller and turned to the woman as he considered how to respond.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she said as she saw him thinking, ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have said that. We can just keep playing, you don¡¯t have to answer.¡±

    ¡°No, it¡¯s fine,¡± Sean said, ¡°Just thinking about what to say. I have secrets. You know that. The commander knows that. Even the Jade Congress knows it. Can I trust you not to tell anyone if I tell you?¡±

    ¡°I promise,¡± Violet said after a long moment, ¡°I won¡¯t tell anyone.¡±

    Sean reordered his thoughts as he thought of what to address first, ¡°How will you feel? If the Jade Congress collapsed right now? I assume that¡¯s why you¡¯re doing this. For revenge against them for whatever they did against you.¡±

    ¡°It wasn¡¯t against me,¡± Violet said softly, ¡°It was my family. Disappeared without a trace. Never seen again. I only survived because I had a friend in GFC who warned me against going back home and took me in after.¡±

    ¡°I understand. I think,¡± Sean said, ¡°My parents¡­ Well, the place where I lived growing up was considered rural. Isolated.¡±

    Violet snorted, ¡°Not many places like that these days it seems,¡± she muttered, ¡°Less and less places where the Jade Congress doesn¡¯t have their fingers and influence digging in deeper more and more as time passes.¡±

    Sean pressed onwards and ignored her comment, ¡°My parents were murdered.¡±

    Violet looked up sharply, ¡°What? Malketh, did you¡­¡±

    ¡°It was the village elders,¡± Sean said, ¡°They¡­ well, it doesn¡¯t really matter why. They didn¡¯t like my family. So they killed my father, made it look like an accident. Then my mother, the same way. And they tried to do the same to me.¡±

    ¡°They¡­ how did you survive? If they got away with it before?¡±

    ¡°The Sha¡­ I was helped. I was so angry afterwards. The person who helped me¡­ the first thing they did was go back to try to help me get my revenge. To get some justice for my parents.¡±

    ¡°What did they do?¡± Violet asked, her game controller laying forgotten in her lap as she wrung her hands in her lap as she focused all her attention on Sean¡¯s story.

    ¡°We were supposed to steal everything,¡± Sean said, ¡°Leave the people who did it penniless. But not kill anyone, despite what they¡¯d done. I wanted to help on the mission, but the person who helped me¡­ they stopped me. Went to handle it themselves, didn¡¯t want me to go and get myself hurt. Then things went wrong. An old enemy caught up to the person, and ambushed them inside my home village.

    ¡°By the time the person who helped me escaped with me in tow, everyone in my village was dead. The two of us left, and traveled together for a while. Years later I learned that it wasn¡¯t just my village, but the whole area had been devastated by the person we left behind. I had my revenge. Everyone was dead, murderers and everyone who had ever supported them. But it was just depressing. Like it happened to someone else, you know?

    ¡°I guess I never really had the time for my flames of vengeance to grow or really set in. But knowing that all of them were dead didn¡¯t comfort me at all. I¡¯m lucky that I had other things to pay attention to. Even now, It¡¯s something that I know I should care about, focus on. But I just don¡¯t. It doesn¡¯t spur me to action like it does for you.¡±

    ¡°Malketh,¡± Violet said in a hoarse voice, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, I had no idea¡­ To just lose everyone like that. And what the Jade Congress did to you after. I¡­ I¡¯m sorry. Who was it that did it? The Jade Congress? Someone else?¡±

    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t them,¡± Sean said, ¡°You wouldn¡¯t know about them. It doesn¡¯t matter anymore. I told you, it is what it is. But my point is that getting your revenge won¡¯t make you happy. Even if you killed everyone responsible for what happened to your family, it¡¯ll just make you feel hollow afterward. There¡¯s no big reveal or catharsis like you¡¯re imagining there will be. Or at least there wasn¡¯t for me.¡±

    Violet didn¡¯t say anything for a while.

    ¡°Maybe not,¡± she eventually said, ¡°...Maybe not. But I can¡¯t just stand by as the Jade Congress does more fucked up shit when I can stop it. Not when I can do something. Who helped you? I¡¯m guessing the person who helped you make your new identity? Trained you in all this knowledge you seem to have. More than I¡¯d expect from some backwater village boy.¡±

    ¡°Somebody important,¡± Sean said without elaborating, ¡°And please don¡¯t call me a village boy again. It feels gross somehow when you say it.¡±

    ¡°Gross? Hardly. You¡¯re the one making it weird,¡± Violet said in a slightly lighter tone.

    They played some more video games in a more subdued mood after. But they were better friends afterwards and Sean was able to convince Violet and Sierra to be more sustainable on how often they went out for missions and raids after a few more weeks of effort.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Malketh, it¡¯s been more than two years now. Are you sure you don¡¯t want to come with us? We can train you up if you¡¯re nervous. You know those exosuits better than anyone else I know. I¡¯m sure you could learn to pilot one easily. Just like playing a game,¡± Violet said.

    ¡°No, I prefer staying the cozy engineer,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯m not really comfortable with killing people despite everything. Feels like something that I can¡¯t take back. No offense, but I don¡¯t want to kill somebody for the cause of the GFC. We both know this place is more a puppet of hostile nations to help weaken the Jade Congress than actually wanting to promote real reform or change. Or at least it is now.¡±

    Violet grimaced, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter where our funds come from. Our mission hasn¡¯t changed.¡±

    ¡°If you say so,¡± Sean said, ¡°But I¡¯m fine where I am. You do know there¡¯s some Immortals working for them? At least twenty or thirty from what I¡¯ve heard around base. Are you sure you¡¯re avoiding the places where they¡¯re stationed?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Malketh,¡± Violet said, ¡°Of course. I don¡¯t see the big deal. They can¡¯t die, but I¡¯m sure we can trap them until the mission is done. They¡¯re just normal people other than the regeneration and lack of aging. A heavy weapon would knock them down for a while.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯d be surprised how much they can power through if they¡¯re determined,¡± Sean said while remembering Asuta¡¯s ¡®Sensei training¡¯ and angling his body so it would fall forward after a grenade evaporated everything above the waist in the grenade¡¯s blast.

    ¡°Always the man of mystery,¡± Violet teased, ¡°Like you¡¯ve ever so much as met one of them. There can¡¯t be more than, what, a few thousand of them in the whole world? I¡¯m surprised that the Jade Congress even managed to convince that many Immortals to work for them. I doubt they work at guarding random military facilities. Probably too beneath them.¡±

    ¡°Just be careful,¡± Sean said, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to lose my gaming partner, would I?¡±

    ¡°Thanks, Malketh,¡± Violet said with a strange look in her eyes. She reached out and put her hand over Sean¡¯s for a moment. Sean cleared his throat and pulled his hand back, ¡°Ah, next game?¡± he said uncomfortably, ¡°Co-op? Complete the campaign together?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure,¡± Violet said, looking disappointed as she grabbed the controller, ¡°I call playing the character with the shotgun.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°When will you two kiss, ay?¡± Sierra said bluntly as he stood by the door of the largely abandoned cafeteria where Violet and Sean had been eating their dinner together.

    The two of them jolted up and stared at Sierra who was looking back at them with his red eyes and albino skin with a sly grin on his face.

    With a rumble, Sierra sat down next to Sean, shaking the whole table with his weight. He slung his bulky arms around Sean¡¯s shoulders.

    ¡°Ah, you two. Always sneaking away together. The video games, the meals, ah so many excuses to sit close to one another and speak. The romantic tension, it is thick in the air. It is like¡­ a fog. I must peer through it and wonder what to say, you see? Always dancing on my tiptoes after the missions. So annoying, and so I tell myself just a few minutes ago that I can solve this problem easily. Not leave it as a strange thing always simmering out of sight at all times. Hm, but I will now retreat before Violet attempts to make me regret my existence. Hopefully when I finish cowering elsewhere this strange fog will be lifted and you can both thank me for my help.¡±

    Violet was blushing hard with her clenched fists around her fork and knife and gritted teeth as she sat there at the table as Sierra stood up and released his arm from around Sean.

    ¡°I will go now. We will soon see if a big man like me can truly hide from Violet¡¯s wrath,¡± Sierra said jovially before glancing back at Violet. At seeing Violet¡¯s murderous expression, Sierra suddenly frowned.

    ¡°I will flee now,¡± Sierra said firmly before turning and sprinting out of the room so fast that the doors hit the walls with a loud clang as he rushed through them with his bulky frame before anyone could react.

    ¡°SIERRA!¡± Violet shouted as she stood from the table, a vein on her neck pulsing and looking like she was about to blow her fuse any moment. She took a few steps to chase after Sierra, but on seeing Sean staring at her, she froze in place.

    ¡°Stupid asshole doesn¡¯t know anything,¡± she said after she visibly mastered herself and sat back down and stabbed her food angrily with her fork, ¡°Thinks that just because I have a friend that I¡¯ve got to be fucking them too¡­¡±

    Sean wisely chose to not say anything as Violet kept darkly muttering about Sierra as the meal continued and she brutally slaughtered the vegetables on her plate with jabs of her fork one after another.

    The meal finished awkwardly and they went to leave and go their separate ways.

    ¡°Hey, Malketh,¡± Violet said with a slight hesitation as they were about to separate, ¡°Are we¡­ still on? For the weekend, to hang out?¡±

    ¡°Of course, why wouldn¡¯t we be?¡± Sean said, despite knowing exactly what she was referring to.

    ¡°Right, of course,¡± Violet said before hesitating again, ¡°Sierra doesn¡¯t know anything. See you then.¡±

    They went opposite ways to go to bed. Sean actually had to sleep every night now as a mortal. It was odd feeling tired so much and being forced to stick to a schedule so strictly. As an Immortal he didn¡¯t have anything like that that was so strict on its timing every time.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Hey, Malketh,¡± Violet said after they had both died, their digital characters both having been gutted by aliens with plasma swords and died on screen.

    ¡°What do you think about what Sierra said? You know¡­ About us? Strange thought, right? Haha.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Sean said, ¡°Strange.¡±

    Violet shifted in her seat, ¡°Did you have anyone? Before?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I did,¡± Sean said, ¡°She¡¯s still out there. Waiting for me to come back. I couldn¡¯t be with you either way. I¡¯m not going to cheat on her, she doesn¡¯t deserve that. Even if she would probably never know.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯s the lucky girl? What makes you so sure she¡¯s waiting for you still? After so long?¡± Violet asked.

    ¡°Lira. That¡¯s her name. For her, all of this time won¡¯t be nothing more than a moment. When I see her again she¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    Violet raised her eyebrows, ¡°Only a moment? Surely you¡¯re not¡­ Oh my. Sean, did you get to date an Immortal? Is that what you mean? Because she¡¯s so old?¡±

    Sean jolted, ¡°What? I mean, she is an Immortal but¡­¡±

    ¡°Ha! So I was right! Daaaaammmmn, Malketh. How¡¯d you manage to land that? Did you two ever, you know¡­¡±

    ¡°It just sort of happened,¡± Sean said, ¡°We were both in a bad place at the time. I¡¯m glad I met her though. I don¡¯t know what I would do without her. And yes, we did have some fun together. Ms. Nosy.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Violet said, ¡°I¡¯m just saying. It¡¯s like in the stories. Swept off your feet and carried away by the handsome Immortal off to their big palaces¡­¡±

    Sean raised an eyebrow at her.

    ¡°What stories have you been reading?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ that¡¯s not important,¡± Violet said with a faint blush in her bronzed cheeks, ¡°I believe you. But I¡¯m surprised you managed something like that.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you about it later,¡± Sean promised as he got an excellent idea.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Ha! I¡¯ve got you cornered now, Malketh!¡± Violet shouted as she furiously mashed the buttons on her game controller. Sean was indeed cornered. There was no escape and his inevitable doom was closing in on all sides on the screen. So he played his secret weapon that he¡¯d been saving up for over an hour and a half.

    ¡°Hey Violet, one thing you should know about Immortals,¡± Sean said as he prepared his character to exploit the opening he was about to create, ¡°Their endless stamina, it can be used in all sorts of fun ways. Lira certainly taught me that lesson well. In the bedroom.¡±

    It took a second for the words to register in Violet¡¯s mind, but her hands spasmed as she looked over at Sean in shock and disbelief. Sean¡¯s digital character ruthlessly charged forward and started pummeling Violet¡¯s character who had interrupted their long charged attack and accidentally fired it off to the side.

    ¡°Shit, shit, shit,¡± Violet swore as she turned back to the game and tried to recover from her mistake. But Sean had too much of a lead now that she¡¯d presented weakness and ended up finishing her off before the NPCs could come help her. The game over screen appeared with Sean¡¯s character as the winner.

    ¡°Gaia damn it!¡± Violet said, ¡°That wasn¡¯t fair! Have you been saving that up for over an hour?!¡±

    ¡°Yep,¡±

    ¡°Malketh, you sneak. That just completely hit me out of nowhere.¡±

    ¡°Hey you¡¯re the one who asked.¡±

    ¡°Over an hour ago! I asked over an hour ago! I thought that you didn¡¯t want to answer!¡±

    ¡°And I told you I¡¯d answer you later, didn¡¯t I? And I did. Not my fault you came to your own conclusions.¡±

    Sean shot Violet a satisfied smirk as she sputtered in disbelief.

    ¡°That¡¯s just ridiculous,¡± Violet said before sighing and slouching back onto the couch in defeat, ¡°Really, how¡¯s a girl supposed to counter something as unexpected as that?¡±

    ¡°Meh. Only works once,¡± Sean said, ¡°But I still won. I beat you even after you worked your hardest to stack the deck against me again.¡±

    ¡°Were you just messing with me? Or did you really have an Immortal girlfriend out there somewhere?¡±

    ¡°She¡¯s out there,¡± Sean said, ¡°But I won¡¯t be able to see her again in this lifetime.¡±

    Violet looked confused and turned to him, ¡°What? But I thought that you two were together¡­ Why would you hold yourself back if you can never see her again?¡±

    ¡°I said in this lifetime,¡± Sean replied, ¡°I¡¯ll see her in my next life. I¡¯ll see her then.¡±

    Violet was quiet for a moment.

    ¡°That¡¯s both so romantic and so disturbing at the same time. You love her so much you won¡¯t be with anyone else until you die¡­ But also you¡¯re an idiot for doing that to yourself.¡±

    Sean shrugged, ¡°Not everything is about sex, Violet. I¡¯m doing just fine. It¡¯s my choice. Don¡¯t worry about it too much. Or I¡¯ll tell Sierra to help set up dates for you with some of the other guys on base again.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Violet said in genuine fear, ¡°Please don¡¯t. I can¡¯t believe he did that last year. I had to play along since Sierra was his usual loud self when talking to everyone and making plans without asking me first.¡±

    ¡°I thought it was kind of funny,¡± Sean admitted, ¡°But alright, alright. That was too far. I¡¯ll tell him you''re gay so he sets you up with the women this time. That should delay him for a while as he loudly susses out which of them are interested and which aren¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Oh. My. Gaia,¡± Violet said, looking visually disturbed at the picture that Sean had just painted and going a little pale, ¡°He would probably do it too,¡± she said, ¡°I didn¡¯t think it could get worse. I¡¯m feeling embarrassed just imagining it. You¡¯re a real cruel man sometimes, Malketh. Utterly ruthless.¡±

    ¡°I do my best. Want to play another game? Or are you too tired?¡±

    Violet thought about it before grabbing her controller off the table again,

    ¡°One more game. We¡¯re playing those settings again. I can¡¯t believe you can beat all of that without cheating.¡±

    ¡°Prepare to be amazed,¡± Sean said with a slight grin as he selected his character and the match started. It would be a hard fight, but now that he¡¯d played against them once he had a few ideas on how he could win this time¡­

    He won again, but just barely with only a few health points left before his character died.

    Sean stood up and yawned as he stood from the couch stretched, ¡°And with my ultimate victory unchallenged, I¡¯m done. Night, Violet.¡±

    ¡°Night, Malketh. See you.¡±

    ¡°See you.¡±

    Sean walked out of the door to her room and then went to bed. It was so odd and¡­ comfortable spending time with Violet. He could just relax and banter with her as they played the fighting games without worrying about anything else. Lira and Roger had always preferred the more cooperative games where you worked together to accomplish the goals.

    It was nice to play against someone with a little bit more of a competitive spirit for once.

 Chapter 86: Malkethâ€™s First Mission

    Sean waited in front of the closed door of Violet and Sierra¡¯s ship. The pilot was shutting it down as he waited for them to get out. The door slid open and Sean¡¯s eyes widened as he saw the state of Sierra¡¯s exosuit. An exosuit that the man was still wearing.

    The whole thing was dented and damaged. The joints were sparking and dark fluid covered the armor where the small pressurized hydraulic fluid leaked from the gaps onto the exterior of the armor.

    The exosuit stumbled and Sean saw that both arms were stiff and the whole thing moved in spurts.

    ¡°Sierra, what happened?¡± Sean asked as he quickly brought out his tools and started cutting through a few warped segments of the armor where it would usually open up at the chest to release the man. Sean could see it rattling, but the dents in the metal and various other damage was keeping it shut.

    Sean finally managed to pry open the door and Sierra stumbled out. Sean looked at the man and all his bruises and small cuts stood out against his pale skin. Sean could even see some burns scattered across the man¡¯s body as Sean caught him before he fell to the ground with some effort.

    ¡°Violet,¡± Sierra muttered as the doctors rushed in and loaded him onto a stretcher. Sean and the base had gotten word that something had gone wrong, but nothing like this¡­

    ¡°Violet,¡± Sierra said as he turned to look at Sean with a half delirious expression, ¡°Violet¡­ left behind. Captured. We have to go after her¡­ Violet¡­¡±

    Sierra was quickly carried away as Sean stood there in shock and looked back into the empty bay of the flying vehicle. Violet had been captured¡­ who knew what the Jade Congress would do to her?

    Sean had to do something.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Absolutely not. We need you here. And you have no combat training.¡±

    ¡°I do. Just not with you,¡± Sean said, ¡°I can even pilot those exosuits you have. Let me show you. I have to go on that mission with Sierra. I¡¯m not leaving her out there.¡±

    The commander sighed and rubbed his temples, ¡°Malketh, think of this from my perspective. You''re one of the most brilliant engineers I¡¯ve ever seen. I can¡¯t let you throw your life away on this suicide mission. Sierra knows its suicide, but he¡¯s doing it anyway. That exosuit he¡¯s taking is his coffin, and his retirement package as an apology since I doubt he¡¯ll make it far.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s why I need to go,¡± Sean said, ¡°When have I asked for anything? I¡¯ve been working here for five years now, doing my best. Keeping my head down as best as I could. But I have to go with him, I¡¯m not losing Violet.¡±

    ¡°Not losing her?¡± the commander said, ¡°Aren¡¯t you too close to this? You¡¯ve got to think rationally. Don¡¯t throw away your life like Sierra. You should have heard his wife in here just an hour ago. She was begging me to lock him up until he came to his senses. We can¡¯t lose the both of you in one go.¡±

    Sean took a deep breath, ¡°Let me fight Sierra. I¡¯ll beat him in a fistfight. Will that be enough proof to you that I¡¯m capable?¡±

    The commander looked at Sean for a moment before nodding slightly.

    ¡°If you can prove that you can match him and he approves¡­ Then I suppose I won¡¯t stop you. And give you your own coffin exosuit to match Sierra¡¯s. But you should calm down and reconsider. Violet wouldn¡¯t have wanted you to do this.¡±

    ¡°Violet¡¯s not dead, she¡¯s captured. We¡¯ll break her out. We already have the location where she¡¯s held. She¡¯d want to be freed.¡±

    ¡°And I¡¯m telling you, just like I told Sierra. It smells of a trap. We got this information too easily from an untrustworthy source. Somebody that likes to play both sides. If she¡¯s even there then it¡¯ll be an ambush, I guarantee it.¡±

    ¡°We can handle it,¡± Sean said, ¡°We¡¯ll be ready for them.¡±

    The commander considered it before groaning, ¡°This is a mistake. But I suppose it will have to be your mistake. Very well. Defeat Sierra in hand to hand and prove you know how to pilot the exosuit yourself¡­ And you can go with him.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, commander. You are¡­ one of the best leaders I¡¯ve ever met.¡±

    ¡°Damn. High praise from you, Malketh. Now get out of here before I change my mind and lock up both you and Sierra until you two see reason.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±

    Sean left and promptly thrashed Sierra in hand to hand combat and proved his competence in using the exosuit. While these older exosuits were different from the modern ones from the far future, they were close enough that Sean picked it up pretty quickly. He had plenty of practice using the exosuits in the battles against the invasion of the Endless Flesh of Emily and Asuta¡¯s home planet.

    A few days passed, and it was finally time. Sierra and Sean both silently went into the transport with the pilot who also volunteered to go on their suicide mission. Sean barely even knew the pilot¡¯s name. The man had simply left and not talked with Sean for almost the entire time he¡¯d been here with the GFC. Even now that they were on an apparent suicide mission together, the man hadn¡¯t said so much as a single unnecessary word to Sean.

    Although from what Sierra and Violet had told him, that was just what the man was like. Ice cold with anyone he didn¡¯t know until thawing a bit if someone made an effort or he particularly liked them.

    Sean was wearing the exosuit and standing alongside Sierra.

    ¡°You ready for this, Malketh?¡± Sierra asked through the speakers of his armor, ¡°This serious business. Still time to get off. I have obligation to myself to do this, but you do not. Or you do not have to. She will not be happy that I let you come despite your surprising skill in fighting.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m going,¡± Sean said, ¡°Something that most people don¡¯t get is that there are many fates far worse than death. You two are my only real friends in that place. I¡¯d rather go out in a blaze of glory than die the slow death isolated and alone.¡±

    Sierra didn¡¯t reply for a few seconds, ¡°Ay. The slow death indeed. You see so clearly sometimes, Malketh. Like you are ready to die already. Why? Why for Violet?¡±

    Sean took a breath that came through the speakers, ¡°She was a good friend,¡± Sean said, ¡°It¡¯s been a very long time before I¡¯ve had a new one of those. I¡¯d rather die than see another one of them be hurt. Not if I¡­ Can do something to help this time.¡±

    ¡°I see¡­¡± Sierra said heavily, ¡°She is like a spiky fruit, prickly and hurtful on the outside. Soft and tender once you get past the outer shell. You went through the spines to get to know her. Many do not bother and simply leave her alone after being pricked.¡±

    Sean chuckled slightly, ¡°Trust me, I¡¯ve dealt with more extreme people than her before. Compared to any of them she¡¯s practically¡­ normal.¡±

    Sierra laughed as well, ¡°Ah, normal. I can not imagine meeting such people stranger than our Violet. Normal is not a word I would think for any of the three of us. You are a man of endless mystery, Malketh. One of the reasons I like you so much. Always a new clue to ponder with you.¡±

    The flying vehicle¡¯s thrusters whined and activated and they started rising into the air quickly and flying to their destination.

    ¡°Yes, I do try,¡± Sean said, ¡°If I told you everything, I¡¯m sure that you wouldn¡¯t believe me.¡±

    ¡°I very much doubt that,¡± Sierra said, ¡°I am a man who loves a good conspiracy. We are not ones known to be disbelieving of crazy things. If the web of connections itself is beautiful and interesting enough, then mooring it to any facts in the real world is only a small concern.¡±

    Sierra and Sean kept bantering slightly as they flew through the high atmosphere to their destination. But their conversation gradually petered out as they drew closer and closer to the moment.

    The pilot¡¯s voice came over the intercom into their cabin.

    ¡°Dropping. Thirty seconds. Full drop and release. I will return in thirty minutes if I see you. And in an hour. If I do not see you then I will go. Best of luck. You will need it.¡±

    Sean locked the joints of the exosuit and saw Sierra doing the same as they gripped the handholds above them with the exosuit, locking themselves to the metal frame of the craft.

    Thirty seconds passed and then with a lurching sensation they started diving downwards at full speed at a near freefall towards the ground. At the last moment the four thrusters roared full throttle and Sean was pressed downwards heavily even within the exosuit as they jerked to a sudden stop in the air. Sean and Sierra unlocked their exosuits and the exterior doors opened. Sean and Sierra jumped out of the vehicle and the thrusters roared again and sent it shooting back into the skies.

    Even now Sean could see some small arms gunfire pinging off of its exterior and a few larger weapons just barely missing as the vehicle nimbly jerked to the side from the anti-air weapons.

    Small arms fire also pinged off of Sean and Sierra¡¯s armor as they both charged towards the closed doors of the bunker-like facility.

    Sean was wearing the assault combat exosuit. Strapped to his chest was a heavy machine gun that he unlatched and held in his large exosuit hands. His armor was bulkier than Sierra¡¯s and could more exert more raw strength when it was needed.

    Sierra¡¯s armor was the hacker and engineering unit with its long fingers and tools. It was durable enough to resist gunfire and enhance Sierra¡¯s strength, but its main purpose was to let him hack through doors and rewire anything electronic as needed.

    Sean adjusted his grip on his gun and hesitated as the soldiers charged around the corner. But then they started firing at the both of them and Sean reflexively pulled the trigger and blasted them away.

    The two of them charged forward and Sierra stuck his armors finger into the closed doors to the elevator shaft. He pried them open and revealed the full elevator inside as Sean heard the sounds of pounding feet approaching from all sides.

    They both went inside the elevator and Sean raised his gun as Sierra fiddled with the elevator controls. The doors started closing as Sierra connected two wires he¡¯d dragged out of the wall to each other.

    Sean heard some shouting, and a few bullets came inside and hit the back wall before the doors fully closed and the elevator lurched into motion.

    ¡°Why did those soldiers charge me like that?¡± Sean said, his voice shaking slightly as they descended, ¡°They didn¡¯t even pause¡­¡±

    ¡°Military families,¡± Sierra said grimly, ¡°They were given the disease of feeling no pain or fear a few generations back. A very bad thing, Jade Congress still denies that it was them. But despite the suspicions, many choose to join the military anyway. There are always a few around who have no sense of preserving themselves in combat.¡±

    Sean nodded, but didn¡¯t say anything else.

    He had killed a few people by accident before. Hitting them too hard, having them fall the wrong way¡­ things like that. But nothing as blatant as gunning down soldiers charging directly at him.

    ¡°Is good, ey?¡± Sierra said as he seemed to notice that Sean was standing abnormally still even in the exosuit as they rode the elevator down, ¡°Keep any deep thoughts for after the mission. Save Violet first, deal with any death and suffering later. Yes? And try to not hesitate this time. You know what these government bastards do in these places. No one here has clean hands.¡±

    ¡°Right,¡± Sean said as he refocused on their task despite still being slightly disturbed by the deaths above, ¡°Time to focus.¡±

    ¡°Good man,¡± Sierra grunted as Sean raised his weapon as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.

    ¡°They usually keep the important ones down here,¡± Sierra said as they both stepped out into the abandoned hallway, ¡°But no welcoming party¡­ be on guard. Seeing no enemies in a place like this is a bad sign. Lurking in the shadows like rats¡­¡±

    They continued through the suspiciously empty facility until Sierra found a computer in a side room and started using his tools to hack it and get access to the internal network. Sierra worked for twenty seconds or so before Sean tensed as he heard the sounds of footsteps.

    Sean stepped out into the hallway and saw a squad of five soldiers charging towards Sean and his exosuit. They were wearing tight body armor over themselves and carrying heavy weaponry. Sean¡¯s eyes widened and he quickly fired into the group with his machine gun just as they raised their own weapons towards them.

    His attack surprised the group and Sean¡¯s weapon fire managed to take down one of the five men and sent the others diving behind cover in one of the side rooms before they could counterattack.

    The bleeding body of the man that Sean had managed to hit was quickly dragged to the side and out of Sean¡¯s sight even as he kept groaning in pain and spasming.

    Sean lurched backwards as one of the four unhurt soldiers popped around the corner and fired a massively oversized bullet at Sean and his exosuit. His reflexes let him sway back out of the way of the blast, but just behind him down the hallway there was an explosion that caused Sean to stumble as he dived back into the room with Sierra as he saw another heavy weapon firing his way.

    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    ¡°Sierra? How¡¯s it coming?¡± Sean shouted, ¡°Is she here? Is it a trap?¡±

    ¡°She is here,¡± Sierra said distractedly as he kept tapping at the computer keyboard rapidly with his long exosuit fingers after having finished with doing his alterations to the wiring and casing.

    ¡°Not a good trap without proper bait,¡± he said, ¡°I know the room¡­ Now just looking for the map¡­ Ah, there. Yes, found it. I know the way now. How many?¡±

    ¡°Four up. One down and injured. A direct hit could probably kill us with the weapons that they¡¯re packing.¡±

    Sierra thought about it and reached down to his side and took something out from a small compartment that opened up at his side. Sean went to speak, but Sierra held up his hands to stop him and put a finger of his free hands to the ¡®lips¡¯ of the exosuit.

    They shifted over to the door quietly and waited as Sierra put his exosuit¡¯s hand over the handle, with his other hand carrying a metal orb waiting in the other.

    There was the faint sound of the squeak of a shoe on the floor just outside the door. Sierra flung it open wide and Sean fired his machine gun into the form of the surprised man waiting on the other side with his heavy cannon like weapon raised. The man fell to the ground as Sierra wound up his grenade and tossed it at the next man who was standing a few feet back.

    The soldier managed to fire off a shot that hit Sean¡¯s right shoulder and exploded on the external plates of the armor. He felt a searing pain in his arm as the metal dented inwards and felt like a massive fist had just slugged him in the collarbone. Or with a steel pipe. Sean heard a crack and waves of hot sharp pain started radiating off of his collarbone even as the metal stayed dented and pressing painfully into his body.

    The grenade that Sierra threw landed at the offending man¡¯s feet and exploded a second later and sent the whole hallway rumbling and creaking. Reminding them all that they were far underground. A trickle of dust fell from the ceiling, but the roof held as Sierra and a wheezing Sean charged into the hallway and started running the opposite way as where the three standing soldiers remained.

    Another heavy blast struck the back of Sean¡¯s exosuit just as he was about to round the corner after Sierra. The back plate proved stronger than the shoulder, and while it dented in and painfully jabbed into his back, it didn¡¯t feel like he broke anything or had a metal spike digging into his shoulder whenever he moved like on his shoulder.

    Sean glanced back as he rounded the corner to see all five of the soldiers chasing after them. Wait, five? One of the man¡¯s body armor was tattered and ripped, and his helmet was lying shattered on the ground behind him. Two more of the men were bloodied with clear indents across their chests where Sean had hit them with a burst of his machine gunfire.

    As Sierra and Sean rushed through the hallways at high speed assisted by the exosuits, Sean turned over what had just happened in his mind even as they slowly gained distance on the five soldiers that they could hear charging after them from behind.

    There really was only one conclusion.

    ¡°Immortals,¡± Sean said, ¡°Those five are Immortals. That¡¯s what the trap is. If they trap us in here for long enough then the Immortals will eventually beat us.¡±

    Sierra nearly missed a step, ¡°Ay? Immortals? That is crazy talk¡­ But¡­ No, I did see something with that man I hit with the grenade. But I had thought it was just a trick of the mind. It was nice knowing you, Malketh. We have no hope now.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s find Violet first,¡± Sean said, ¡°Then we¡¯ll see what our chances will look like.¡±

    Sierra grunted skeptically, but then paused and took another turn to the left.

    ¡°Almost there,¡± Sierra said, ¡°Records say she¡¯s in one of the tanks like you were in Malketh. I work on getting her out, you hold them back, yeah? Best of luck.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Meet you back at the elevator,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯ll ambush them.¡±

    Sierra nodded through his exosuit and then ran off around the last corner as Sean came screeching to halt. Sean heard a door banging open around the corner where Sierra had gone and some shouting inside which was suddenly cut off.

    Sean turned back to where he could hear the five Immortals charging towards them and rapidly making up for their lost ground now that Sean was standing there rooted in place.

    He took in a deep breath, and something clicked in his chest even as he ignored the pain radiating from his broken collarbone. Sean was a mortal right now. But he¡¯d unknowingly trained for this all along. Fighting other Immortals. It would be just like one of their training sessions with Emily or Asuta. But this time he couldn¡¯t make any mistakes.

    The first Immortal rounded the corner and Sean let out a blast of gunfire that sent the man falling to the ground with a half choked scream of pain. The next man followed after him and went down as well. Two more barreled around the corner and raised their weapons. Sean didn¡¯t aim for the people themselves, but for their large barreled weapons that they carried. With two precision bursts of gunfire, Sean shot into the barrels of the large guns. The large shells inside their weapons exploded in the barrels of the weapon, chaining to the rest of their ammunition and destroying it all in a sudden burst of flame.

    The both of them screamed and fell to the ground writhing in pain as the explosions washed over them and shrapnel bit deeply into their bodies.

    The final two men were also armed and managed to fire their weapons at Sean. One hit Sean in the damaged shoulder and the metal pressed inwards even more and the metal groaned as it stabbed deeper into Sean¡¯s wound and caused his broken collarbone to slide out of alignment and sent his left arm to go completely limp and immobile.

    The other shot missed Sean in the chaos and whizzed right by his head before hitting the metal wall behind him. The force of the blast sent Sean stumbling forward. Even now, Sean could see the first man that he¡¯d shot was already standing up, even if he was panting heavily as he did so.

    Sean raised his machine gun again with one arm, using the strength of the exosuit to support him now that his left arm was useless. He pulled the trigger and focused on the pouches on the hips of the two soldiers preparing to fire at Sean again.

    He missed at first, but his skill and sheer amount of firepower being thrown their way eventually ignited something and caused their stores of ammunition and grenades hanging at their hips to explode all at once in a big chain just like it had for the other men. They must be using explosive rounds on him, Sean noted as he took a step forward and dropped his gun to the ground now that the rest of the Immortals were disarmed of their weapons.

    The first man just stared at Sean in confusion as he charged at them. He came to his senses too late as a single slap from the exosuit¡¯s hand snapped his neck to the side and with a loud crack sent him falling to the ground.

    The rest of the Immortals stared at the man with a broken neck in apparent shock as Sean kept his charge and slammed his shoulder directly into another man in front of him. Sean diverted to the side and with his full momentum, slammed the man directly into the metal walls of the hallway full force.

    Taken by surprise, the man wasn¡¯t able to escape Sean¡¯s one armed grip on him as the metal of the exosuit¡¯s shoulder plate dug into his abdomen and likely ruptured a few important things inside his body. Still shoving his metal shoulder into the man pinned against the wall, Sean reached down with his usable arm and after grabbing the man¡¯s right leg tore it to the side violently so hard that it practically went flying away in a spray of gore.

    Sean reached out to the left and did the same as the man pinned under Sean¡¯s dissolving plate of metal screamed bloody murder and pounded on Sean¡¯s exosuit with his bare fists.

    Sean took his bloodied right hand and after grabbing the heavily injured Immortal by the neck pushed against the wall to pull his shoulder out of the Immortal¡¯s torso and create some distance.

    He immediately crouched and shoved the bloody stumps of the man¡¯s legs tightly against the floor.

    There were a few heavy impacts on Sean¡¯s back that sent waves of pain through Sean¡¯s injuries, but he stayed in place as the man tried to thrash and escape as Sean¡¯s exosuit hand held him pressed against the wall by the neck.

    After a few long seconds Sean finally let go as he saw his strategy had worked.

    Sean turned and grabbed the next man with a viper like strike and snapped their neck with one hand. He dropped the man and then kicked him hard so he hit the opposite wall hard, briefly stunning him.

    Sean punched downwards and splattered the stunned man¡¯s head like a melon before grabbing the now limp body by the shoulder tightly and maneuvering it so the bloody stump was pressed against the metal wall. Sean waited until he felt the man twitch again under his grip and he let go.

    The Immortal had just regenerated his head completely encased in the metal of the wall, unable to pull himself free.

    Sean turned around and saw that the man he¡¯d stuck to the floor by the legs was the same. Flailing and cursing as he sat there embedded waist deep in the floor. In something like stone little movements might help him escape in time¡­ But everything here was encased in metal in some way. So it would take both of them a while before they managed to get free. Especially because Sean could see by their evident panic that they¡¯d never had this particular situation ever happen to them before. The other three Immortals were looking at Sean in his blood covered exosuit in shock and not a little bit of fear.

    Sean reached out his blood soaked hand towards the next closest man, and the Immortal nimbly dodged his blow. Sean¡¯s head was swimming. He could only ignore the pain so much when he could tell the damage to his left shoulder grew worse and worse every time he moved.

    Sean¡¯s vision flickered in and out a few times and he stumbled as his blows grew clumsier as he fought off the three Immortals that had overcome some of their hesitation and were surrounding him in an attempt to attack. They had long machete knives that they stabbed into the joints of the armor and cut through to leave little bloody streaks across Sean¡¯s body underneath.

    After over ten seconds of furious battle, Sean finally managed to catch another of the Immortals. The man had been trying to dodge Sean¡¯s reaching hand, and not realized it was a feint before Sean lifted his metal coated leg and kicked him hard in the shins full force.

    The man went crumpling to the ground screaming in pain as Sean lifted his leg and stomped the man¡¯s leg into paste. A lance of pain slashed across Sean¡¯s right shoulder as the other two attacked him from behind and slid their sharp knives through the joints to stab him while he was distracted.

    But Sean remained focused and just gritted his teeth as he grabbed the flailing man below him and pressed the bloody mass of his leg and shoved the man¡¯s body hard against the wall so the stump was pointing at the ground.

    More hot lances of pain formed all over Sean¡¯s body as the knives carved deeper and deeper into his joints as the other two Immortals struck at him in a flurry of desperate blows.

    It only took a few seconds for the pinned man¡¯s leg to regenerate while anchored inside the ground, but he was finally stuck as Sean started feeling weak from his blood loss.

    Sean whirled around and managed to hit one of the Immortals with the wild blow. But as soon as he took a step to finish the deal, the other one dived between Sean¡¯s legs and stabbed deeply into the back of the exosuit¡¯s knee. The Immortal tugged the blade free and was thrown back as Sean reflexively kicked the Immortal man away. But with a final groan, the hydraulic fluid came bursting out of the back of the exosuit¡¯s knee and Sean stumbled to the side and fell to the ground.

    The leg was locked up, the knee completely fixed in its position without the hydraulic fluid to help it shift.

    Sean tried to stand with the other leg, but the other Immortal came from the side and with a few quick swipes with their blade disabled that leg too.

    Now Sean only had a single arm that he waved threateningly in front of him as he sat there slumped and splayed on the ground with one useless fleshy arm and two disabled exosuit legs. Sean was feeling lightheaded and it was growing hard to think.

    Pushing off with his arm, Sean managed to push himself so his exosuit was sitting with its back pressing against the wall. His vision was blurry, and he mistimed his clumsy block with the exosuit arm. He tried to ward away the Immortal, but they slipped under his exosuit¡¯s metal arm and up to the center. They straddled the metal chest of the exosuit and after raising their large knife plunged it directly into the neck of the exosuit. Sean shifted his head slightly, but the blade came slicing past his head and cut off the top portion of his ear as it stabbed directly through his cheek to embed itself in the padding behind him.

    ¡°Suit¡­ Emergency eject!¡± Sean coughed in a rasping voice and tried to focus as best as he could.

    In a loud hiss of air, the chest of the exosuit swung open and launched the Immortal perched above it flying into the opposite wall with the sudden force. The large machete remained in place quivering right next to Sean¡¯s head.

    Sean sat up and reached over with his right arm and with a groan pulled the blade and armed himself as he painfully climbed out of the ruined exosuit.

    His left arm still hung limp and useless at his side as he bled from wounds all over his body.

    ¡°You¡¯re¡­ you¡¯re a monster¡­¡± the Immortal from the opposite wall whispered as he stared at Sean climbing out of the exosuit and took in Sean¡¯s extensive injuries. The other Immortal was far to Sean¡¯s right for some reason and picked something up from the ground and turned around.

    ¡°Malketh! Malketh!¡± Sean¡¯s head snapped to the side as he saw Sierra standing there at the far end of the hallway with Violet¡¯s form clutched to the chest of his exosuit. She was wearing the same tight bodysuit that Sean had when he¡¯d been captured and in his own sensory deprivation tank.

    Sierra turned and started running away the other way with Violet in tow.

    ¡°Sierra! Sierra, what in Gaia are you doing?! Go help him!¡± Violet screamed, ¡°Malketh, watch out!¡±

    Sean saw that the Immortal a dozen feet away had been picking up the machine gun for the exosuit that Sean had dropped earlier.

    ¡°Don¡¯t kill him,¡± the Immortal with the gun said to the other one,

    ¡°But sir, this man...¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll still kill the rest, but he knows something. He knew how to disable us, that¡¯s important. I¡¯m sure the boss will want to know what he knows. Now shut up and go. We¡¯ve still got to kill the others.¡±

    Sean stood there shifting the machete in his hand as the Immortal stood there with the heavy machine gun pointed at him. But then the gun shifted to point at the back of Sierra¡¯s retreating exosuit. And more importantly¡­ Violet was half exposed as she rode high and half slumped over Sierra¡¯s exosuits shoulder. A spray of bullets across Sierra¡¯s back would almost certainly hit her.

    ¡°MALKETH!¡± Violet screamed as Sean threw himself to the side in the path of the weapon just as it fired. Sean felt several impacts in his gut as the Immortal¡¯s face twisted into surprise. He hit the ground and felt him sliding limply as all sensation faded from him.

    Before Sean¡¯s body even hit the ground everything went black and he stopped breathing.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Gaia damn it, Sierra! We have to go back and save him!¡± Violet cried as Sierra fiddled with the elevator while holding her weakly twitching form in the other.

    ¡°We can not,¡± Sierra said sadly and half distracted with his work, ¡°He is dead. He had no escape. Shot down by the Immortal¡¯s gun before I could have made it even half the distance to him if I even tried. We must escape to honor his sacrifice.¡±

    ¡°Gaia damn it, Malketh. Why¡­¡± Violet muttered as she managed a few angry and frustrated tears run down her cheeks as Sierra finally managed to call the elevator and take them back to the surface.

    Violet was carried along from the ride as Sierra fought off the soldiers blocking their way once they reached the top level. Sierra was forced to run around the base for a few minutes at high speed to escape various groups trying to attack them before their spaceship finally came roaring out of the sky to hover in the center of the nearby courtyard. With a loud click the vehicle activated its mounted miniguns and pivoted in a circle to spray fire on the three anti-air emplacements that were slowly turning back down to target it. The stations went up in flames from the gunfire and Violet saw one soldier on fire jump from the top of a tower to the ground three stories down.

    Good, she thought vindictively, these people deserve it. For what they did to my family. To me¡­ To Malketh. They all deserved it.

    Sierra rushed into their ride and quickly shut the door and kept holding her tightly as the ship lurched upwards at high speed again.

    After a few minutes and they were fully clear from the aerial pursuit and planes that had chased after them, Sierra finally put her on the ground. Violet just lay there on the ground limply, feeling utterly exhausted. Why hadn¡¯t Malketh just stayed behind? She¡¯d never asked him to do anything like that for her.

    Violet felt her hands curl into fists and unconsciously grit her teeth in anger. Who in Gaia did Malketh think he was? She hadn¡¯t asked for him to do something like that for her! Why had he done it? Why¡­ Why had he done it? All the anger drained out of her all at once and she let out a long shaky breath of air. She had never asked him to, but he¡¯d done it anyways. He¡¯d chosen to jump in front of the gun instead of going forward and attacking the man with his knife. He¡¯d saved her life.

    Why couldn¡¯t the Jade Congress just lose for once? Why did it always have to be her losing the people she cared about while those corrupt pigs were still out there as free and happy as ever¡­

    Why did they get to live while people like Malketh had to die? It wasn¡¯t fair¡­ None of it was fair. A joke of the universe. A joke in the universe against her for daring to become friends with anyone new again after so long.

 Chapter 87: The Failed Execution

    Sean floated in the air, completely frozen in time. He could feel every bit of pain pulsing through him through his bullet wounds and all of his other injuries. He shifted his eyes to inspect the frozen form of the Immortal who had a comically surprised expression on his face as he seemed to have reflexively moved the barrel of the gun to track Sean as he moved. His breathing had completely stopped, his lungs frozen in time like everything else.

    Even now Sean could see at least three bullets suspended in mid air between him and the gun.

    There at the end of the hallway the Shadow stood there staring at Sean. It¡¯s body flickered and suddenly it was standing right in front of Sean and seemingly inspecting him.

    ¡°A puzzle. A strange turn.

    ¡°One who was Immortal yet is about to die.

    ¡°Sent back by one who has seen more of this strange winding path through time than I.

    ¡°But my senses do not lie.

    ¡°Is this part of the path, the journey?

    ¡°Do I not see it clearly?

    ¡°Yet live you must.

    ¡°Able to disappear from this life when you need it most.

    ¡°Why sacrifice yourself, to choose to cease to be?

    ¡°It is not something which my mind can conceive.

    ¡°In my life so different and alien to thee.

    ¡°Where there are none who can speak.

    ¡°Or hope for change.

    ¡°Or to save those we wish to esteem.

    ¡°When things are always the same.¡±

    The Shadow¡¯s warbling voice shifted at the end in what Sean would almost describe as emotion. It kept staring at Sean for a long moment. His mouth suddenly came loose and could move all of a sudden as the Shadow remained still.

    Wait, did it actually expect him to answer?

    ¡°Why did I sacrifice myself?¡± Sean said despite feeling supremely uncomfortable to be talking to the Shadow of all things. It was the supreme deity of almost every religion in the galaxy. Who was he to talk to it? If anyone believed him about this, then it would probably start a dozen holy wars at once as people tried to interpret what every little word meant.

    At least the Shadow was cryptic enough that they had plenty to argue about.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Sean said as he realized he truly did, ¡°I want to say it was because I knew I would return to the future when I moved. But I didn¡¯t think about that at all. I just saw that Violet was about to get hurt and I just¡­ did the first thing that came to mind. I finally was able to protect someone I cared about. I¡­ I really was. I¡¯ve never really been able to do that before, failure at every turn.¡±

    The Shadow kept staring at him with its orange eyes, still motionless.

    ¡°I see.

    ¡°She did make it free.

    ¡°So perhaps things finally are working as you want them to be.

    ¡°Failure, success¡­

    ¡°So malleable, an ever changing mesh.

    ¡°I will consider it,

    ¡°As I continue forward to my next snapshot of a mortal death.

    ¡°And next cycle perhaps I will understand its ever growing web¡­

    ¡°Now forget.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean fell to the ground as the loud bangs of gunfire from the gun practically deafened him. He thought he was going to die, maybe return back to the future. But instead he started to feel better. Better than he had in years. All the pain washed away like it had never been there. Somehow he was an Immortal again.

    Although the Shadow hadn¡¯t come to visit him this time in its strange frozen space. That was odd. Another series of heavy impacts struck Sean¡¯s stomach, but now that he was almost fully healed he sat back up with a groan and mostly ignored the assault.

    What was he doing? Right, there were still two more immortals to take out.

    ¡°This is such bullshit!¡± the man with the gun whined, ¡°Why in Gaia does this guy of all people get to be an Immortal right at the exact wrong time?¡±

    The second man who was closer jumped forward and scooped up the machete from the floor where Sean had dropped it in his haste to leap to the side to block the bullets with his body.

    Sean eyed the both of them.

    ¡°All of us are Immortals now,¡± Sean pointed out, ¡°I was kicking your asses back when I could be permanently injured, how do you think I¡¯ll do now? Even two on one?¡±

    ¡°Shoot him,¡± the man with the machete said, ¡°I¡¯ll free the others. The gruesome way.¡±

    The other man¡¯s eyes widened at the statement, but before Sean could leap forward into the fight he stumbled back as the force of another barrage of bullets sprayed across from his chest.

    Sean did his best to fight his way towards the man with the gun, but the weapon still had plenty of ammo left and he managed a few lucky shots on Sean¡¯s head which knocked him out for a few seconds before he recovered and had to squirm on the ground so that the other Immortal wasn¡¯t able to land another immediate easy headshot as soon as Sean started moving again.

    ¡°Faster!¡± the man with the gun said over the blasts of his gunfire, ¡°I don¡¯t have much more!¡±

    Sean was steadily crawling towards the man with determination like some sort of strange spider and the man with the gun kept slowly backpedaling away while glancing over at the man with the machete chopping away at the other Immortal with his leg embedded at the ground. He was having trouble since if he waited too long between swings of his blade the wound seal itself shut and completely healed back to how it was.

    The man who was currently having his legs chopped by the other man was screaming at a high pitch and wailing in pain until with one final strong blow the man with the machete cut cleanly through the leg and the other Immortal fell backwards to the floor panting with only a red stump there.

    The little flecks of flesh and bone reappeared and soon enough the man¡¯s leg was fully healed. Sean only saw this in tiny flashes as he kept crawling towards the man with the gun before being eventually shot in the head again.

    ¡°Won¡¯t you just go down!¡± The man with the gun shouted in frustration and a little fear as Sean kept moving relentlessly, ¡°You really are a monster.¡±

    The man tried to fire his gun again, but this time the weapon only clicked over and over, with no ammunition left to fire. Sean rolled to his feet and dived towards the man before he could recover his wits. Sean reached down and wrenched the empty gun from the man¡¯s hand. The man smirked slightly, likely thinking that the weapon was out of ammo as he had just proved himself.

    He evidently wasn¡¯t thinking too far ahead as Sean flipped the weapon around and used it as a club to hit the other man across the face and snap his head to the side in a sudden burst of motion.

    There was a shuffling sound behind him as Sean clubbed the man underneath him again with his metal club again. Sean turned and looked out of the corner of his eye behind him even as he raised his arms above his head for another swing.

    The man with the machete had already managed to free two of his companions who Sean had trapped in the walls and floor earlier. His heart sank as he saw the man with the machete working on the last man who had been trapped inside the wall head first with the rest of his body sticking out and flailing around.

    Alright, time to escape¡­ Sean finished the last blow on the Immortal below him who seemed intimidated and trying to flee rather than fight Sean directly.

    Sean quickly stood up and started running farther into the facility away from the five Immortals now blocking his way to the elevator where Violet and Sierra had fled to.

    After a moment¡¯s surprise, all five of the Immortals gave chase, with only the one man from before armed with the machete and the rest just running after him in their half shredded and dissolved armor.

    He tried to loop around and take a few turns to go back to the elevator. But he made a mistake. He had only seen a short glimpse of the floor plan that Sierra had used to navigate them to the room where Violet had been held. And while this hallway did indeed go back to the elevators¡­ There was also a thick metal locked door in the way.

    Sean looked away for another way, but the only other ways went deeper into the facility where he was more likely to get lost then find their way back. Making his decision, Sean quickly shuffled up to the locked door and grabbed his right pointer finger in his left hand. With a loud sick snapping noise he pulled his finger all the way to the side so it dangled loosely off the side of his hand. Sean felt the phantom finger even as his finger began regenerating itself. Sean quickly stuck his phantom finger in the locking mechanism and waited for his finger to heal and dissolve away the lock.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    But his bet didn¡¯t pay off and after his finger fully returned the door still remained firmly shut. Sean went to wrench his hand to the side again to carve into the lock again, but he had taken too much time. Hands grabbed his shoulders and dragged him backwards away from the door and threw him to the floor.

    Sean fought desperately to escape the five Immortals surrounding him, but after a few minutes, they managed to push him to the ground. After some swearing and arguing even as Sean thrashed and insulted them, they figured out how to completely lock him down so he couldn¡¯t escape. One Immortal took each of his limbs and pressed them to the ground and kept his limbs completely immobile by putting their entire weight on it. All together, they managed to get Sean in a spot where he was trapped in the group.

    They seemed to expect for him to stop fighting after that point. But he just kept going. Eventually an hour later, some mortal soldiers from the Jade Congress finally found them. Sean almost escaped at that point because all of the Immortals were distracted. But he didn¡¯t quite make it and was captured by the group again.

    There was quite the commotion for another two hours until finally they started wrapping Sean in a kind of sticky cloth that prevented him from moving too much as it kept his feet together and his arms locked at his sides.

    They just kept wrapping him up until immediate escape became impossible.

    Sean could escape, but it might take a few weeks or months of wriggling until he had enough space near his hands to injure himself and start eating away at his prison.

    They put a dark hood on Sean and then he was loaded into a vehicle and with a rumble started to be driven away. There he was wriggling in place and twitching within his sticky trap like a fly caught in a spider¡¯s web in the bed of the vehicle.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Put him in the pod. He¡¯s too dangerous,¡± Sean heard a strangely familiar male voice say from behind him. They had put a strange pair of headphones on him to block out all sound. But with all of his thrashing they hadn¡¯t fully put them on correctly, so he could still hear a little through them.

    ¡°The sun will destroy him, and we¡¯ll never have to worry about him ever again,¡± the male voice continued.

    ¡°But sir,¡± an unfamiliar female voice replied, ¡°If we could turn him to our side, imagine what he could do. When he became Immortal he just shrugged it off and kept fighting. What kind of person does that? Somebody with incredible potential to help us.¡±

    ¡°Somebody dangerous. Somebody that we don¡¯t want to worry about having dual allegiances. Better to take him off the board. Especially because we still aren¡¯t able to verify who he really is besides he probably works for the GFC. Is it ready?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± the female voice said reluctantly, ¡°I still think this is a bad idea. He could be an asset.¡±

    ¡°Noted. Now put him in the pod.¡±

    Sean felt himself lifted and shoved into what felt like an upright metal coffin. After a few minutes of faint voices from outside, the whole thing rumbled and Sean felt the telltale acceleration that showed that he¡¯d been mounted on a rocket of some kind.

    After an hour or two the thrusters cut out and Sean was floating freely in space again. But luckily for him it had been nearly a week since he¡¯d first been captured. They thought they had him stuck and helpless, but little did they know that he¡¯d hollowed out a space right around both of his hands at his hips with all his constant movement.

    They didn¡¯t seem to be aware of how Immortals could escape their bindings, and seemed to think that this sticky cloth would hold him in place as long as they needed. But Sean held his hand out and rested his pointer finger against the bony nub at the end of his hips. With a sharp movement and a crack his finger broke again and he twisted his hand around as quickly as he could.

    His regenerating pinkie dissolved a hole in the fabric all the way through so the very tip of his regenerated finger poked out from the surface of the cloth. He tugged backwards and his finger was sucked back inside and into the little space that Sean had near his hip.

    Sean repeated this process over and over until finally there were enough holes in a circle that he was able to punch his whole hand through the material to the surface. After that escape was fairly straightforward now that he could just dissolve away any sections as needed with his freed hand and then arm.

    Finally, after what Sean estimated must be a day or two, he finally was completely free and taking off the last little strip of sticky cloth from his shins.

    Sean carved a hole in the exterior of the ship. Ship was generous actually. As Sean went out into space and inspected the vessel, it was frankly unimpressive. It was literally a welded together metal box with a single sealed door that they had used to put him inside. The engine at the bottom had exhausted all of its fuel and was basically dead weight by now.

    Sean tried to remember some of the body piloting he¡¯d learned with Asuta and Emily. The two of them had taken them all for some basic lessons sometime after the end of the Endless Flesh¡¯s invasion.

    Sean took stock of his surroundings and carefully squinted at the faint blue dot in the distance and then directly at the sun.

    Well, he immediately went blind staring at the sun, but he slowly turned his head until he could see again. Although in the void of space his eyes were a bit puffy from the fluid being boiled from them so his vision was a bit blurry.

    As best as Sean could tell this vessel was heading straight for the center of the Gaian¡¯s yellow sun. He had too much speed forward to really return to Gaia directly¡­ so he¡¯d have to do a gravitational assist.

    Sean estimated the angle and then crouched down on the exterior of the small vessel. Then with his most powerful leap he pushed off as hard as he could. He slowly floated away from the vessel as the two of them parted ways as his horizontal momentum from the jump pushed him perpendicular to the direction of where the sun would be.

    He carefully contorted his body into a strange twisted formation. It was a supremely uncomfortable thing to look at it and do, but every little bit of thrust counted for this. Basically any exposed surface on Sean¡¯s body was constantly venting gasses and fluids as his Immortal body constantly regenerated them. So he had to get all of these ¡®expelling¡¯ portions of his body all pointed in roughly one direction so the accumulated venting of gasses would ever so slightly push him in the direction that he wanted to go.

    Now as you would imagine, the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears were the biggest offenders for venting the gasses. Ears made no difference since it was the same thrust on the opposite sides of the head and the thrusts canceled out. But the other source of thrust was from the bottom end. No, not excrement or pee or anything. But the accumulated gasses and fluids boiling off from the interior of Sean¡¯s digestive tract and traveling through his body. And most of that came out of his rear.

    So Sean had to contort his body so he was curled into a ball with his legs folded behind his head. Then he opened his eyes and mouth to a maximum extent and made sure that his rear and his open mouth pointed the same way. Then he held that position as the gasses rushed out of him constantly and created thrust.

    And so he waited.

    And waited.

    And waited, staying completely still as he picked up speed moving horizontally to the star that was rapidly growing bigger as the last few days passed.

    But this was Sean¡¯s maximum thrust, so it wasn¡¯t like there was anything else he could do about it.

    To his relief, over his days of travel, he managed to gain enough horizontal momentum that he didn¡¯t smack directly into the star itself. Instead he rushed by its right side. Close enough to sizzle and burn his skin from the proximity before it healed, but not enough to cause him to actually fall into it. Just like someone swirling him around like he was on a rope, the massive gravity of the star turned his straight speed into a curved arc around the side of the star and sped up as he did so. Sean rotated around the star in a short arc before he gained enough speed to ¡®break¡¯ the rope or out of the sun¡¯s gravity well and go flying away from the star again and back into empty black space.

    Navigation in space was tricky. Everything looked like little white specs and it was hard to know exactly where you were just with your eyes.

    But there was one easy trick that Sean could use to locate Gaia. He knew approximately how big the sun looked in the sky when he was living on Gaia as Malketh. The closer to the sun he was the bigger it looked, and the smaller the farther away he was from it. So all he had to do was keep adjusting his distance until he was in the right spot. Then he would have to wait or look for the blue and green dot of Gaia visually as best as he could in the black void of space.

    Because if the apparent size of the star was the same at his point in space, then he should be the same distance from the sun as Gaia. And if he wandered around at that distance for long enough at that distance that matched Gaia¡¯s orbit, then he should eventually run into the planet again.

    So that¡¯s what he did. He didn¡¯t know how long it took. He often overshot and overcorrected the apparent size of the sun. Every bit of thrust he built up in a certain direction also had to be countered in the opposite direction in a slow process before Sean could even think of traveling in a new direction.

    To change directions, Sean would bite off a few of his fingers. Sometimes just the blood gushing from the healing wounds were enough to give him thrust to spin around and adjust his heading properly. But if he needed more precise adjustments he could take his severed fingers and throw them carefully away from himself to add or stop any spin he had or to change direction.

    Mostly he could change his direction just by contorting his body around in a different way, but the more gruesome way had much more precise and fast results than the other way.

    There were Immortals that used the gruesome method to use their blood as a much faster source of thrust than what Sean was doing now. But he had never learned that technique, and it was hard to control the thrust from his hand without sending himself spinning rapidly like a top, which sometimes took him over an hour to fix before he could set off in the right direction again without spinning around so wildly.

    Anyway, Sean weaved back and forth around the orbital distance of Gaia away from its star for a while. And eventually after a long period of extreme boredom, he finally caught a tiny glint of blue among all the other whitish stars filling space.

    Sean made his way towards the blue dot that rapidly grew in size in his blurry vision. Sean could easily see that it was indeed Gaia with the blue oceans and the large gray moon hanging besides it.

    Sean kept moving at high speed and altered his course for the largest ocean on the planet, not bothering to slow himself down. At high speed he smashed into the Gaian atmosphere, not wanting to risk getting caught in orbit or recaptured by some satellite that the Jaded Congress had up here.

    Sean¡¯s body burned up over and over again as he plunged down towards the vast ocean below.

    Even as he fell, Sean spread out so he could skydive a bit and enjoy the view as he fell through the clouds and shimmering waves below as the air rushed by him and filled his ears with the roaring sound of wind.

    Then he smacked the surface of the ocean at massive speed, his body flattening like a pancake for a moment as all of his momentum halted at once.

    When he regenerated his body, he opened his eyes underwater. He was deep underneath, the surface of the ocean above barely glimmering above his head. Sean took a few deep breaths of the salt water around him and let it fill his lungs. After the cloud of bubbles poured from his throat, he slowly began to drift downwards rather than up to the surface like he had before.

    Sean let himself sink, but even as he did so he remembered his swimming lessons with Brenda on Immortus Station. He started doing the frog stroke and picked a direction and started swimming.

    Whatever sensors in orbit would have detected his reentry and likely tracked his touchdown point in the ocean. But with the way the ocean currents would carry him and his intention to remain completely submerged until he found a good place to get a better assessment of the situation¡­ He doubted that they¡¯d be able to track him or realize that he was the one who had come down from orbit.

    Whoever had blasted him off to the sun had thought that they were going to be killing him. Best that it was kept that way until Sean knew who and how many people that he was dealing with.

    Sean saw a school of fish swimming below him calmly as he frog stroked through the water, distracting him from his thoughts. He smiled slightly as he watched the fish slowly outpace him and swim away again. Maybe this could be nice. See the ocean life of Gaia in its natural state. He needed some real excitement again after that excruciatingly boring time he¡¯d spent there up in space. Especially since he had to actually pay attention somewhat to navigate and couldn¡¯t just meditate to pass the time like he would try if it were something else that might be boring.

    Regardless, it was over now. And there was plenty to see in the ocean here.

    Things could certainly be worse.

 Chapter 88: Returning to Civilization

    After a long and surprisingly pleasant swim through the ocean, Sean finally managed to find signs of civilization. He had passed by a few boats occasionally, but avoided them and dived deeper into the water when he detected them.

    There in the distance Sean could see what looked like a sleepy town with a few smaller fishing boats milling about and coming in and out from the small docks. Sean swam around to the sides until he reached a point where he found a relatively isolated beach a few miles away from the small town.

    He stuck his head just above the water and inspected the area, but once he was sure he was clear he moved forward and walked onto dry land for the first time in a while. He was completely naked and penniless. First thing that he would have to do was find something to wear¡­

    He snuck into the forest bordering the beach and tried to sneak as quietly as he could despite feeling exposed and like someone would spot him the next moment.

    Eventually, Sean came across an isolated house set back from the nearby road in the brush. He debated with himself for a moment before making his decision. He¡¯d be in and out as quickly as he could.

    Luckily for him, one of the windows on the side of the house was propped open, so Sean was able to stick his fingers inside and open it wider and crawl inside the home. The place was silent, whoever it was was likely at work given that it was nearly noon.

    Sean quickly found a bedroom and quickly opened a drawer and stole a clean pair of clothes that he put on. They were a bit small for him, but he was able to squeeze into the work pants, shirt, and flannel jacket. He went to the front and found an extra pair of sturdy boots that he quickly put on. Sean considered taking more, perhaps looking for some money, but after wrestling with himself for a moment shook his head and just crawled back out of the window from which he came.

    He had stolen from this person enough. Taking anything more than what he absolutely needed would just be greedy.

    Sean crept away from the house through the woods and looped back around for a few miles before coming across a larger road. Still in the woods and doing his best to preserve his new clothing from the scratching branches and thorny shrubs, he managed to follow the road all the way to the beachside town that he¡¯d seen before from the water. After scouting a bit, he managed to find a hiking trail of some kind and went onto it. He relaxed slightly as he saw that the path seemed to lead back to the town proper, and the few people who walked by him didn¡¯t seem to think that he was too out of place or pay him too much attention.

    It took an hour or so, but eventually Sean was walking around what appeared to be the town center. He took a risk and asked a few people for directions to the nearest library. They all gave him strange looks, but seemed to shrug off the strangeness after giving him some brief directions to a place about three quarters of a mile from the town center.

    Sean went inside and immediately moved over to the bank of public computers set to the side.

    He sat down and immediately started doing some research on what was happening and how long it had been since he¡¯d been gone.

    The Jade Congress¡¯ influence had only grown since Sean had been on Gaia last. Despite how hard he looked he couldn¡¯t find many news articles or forums saying anything negative about them. Clearly it was a sign of the tighter grip of their influence rather than reform considering the government abductions of dissedents and use of torture seemed completely unknown to the larger public.

    Sean was across the world, not in the Jade Congress luckily. Although this country was aligned with them, he shouldn¡¯t have to worry about being arrested out of hand or monitored as closely as he would if he was in Jade Congress territory.

    It had been ten years since he¡¯d been gone. Sierra and Violet sure would be surprised to see him¡­

    Sean navigated through the computer and entered the secure GFC message board buried by navigating to a seemingly unrelated website. He typed in a message giving his location and requesting some help, as well as his identifier. It was one of the first things that the GFC had taught him how to do, since otherwise he would have no way to communicate with them if he got separated somehow from the main group.

    It took a few minutes of a wait, but eventually there was an answer. Sean read the message with a frown. A week? That was a long time to wait for a pickup¡­ It would be probably impossible for anyone else with no identification or money. But for Sean it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult. He quickly replied to the message and told them to send the person meeting him in the town square when the time came.

    He exchanged a few more messages to nail down the specifics, and then Sean closed the window and returned to his other research. They couldn¡¯t explain anything confidential over a public computer like this or on that message board, so there wasn¡¯t anything more to discuss.

    Now he just had to stay undercover for a week. And there was really only one good way to do that.

    Sean stood up and casually walked out of town and to a nearby beach that seemed relatively isolated. He hunted around and after finding a good spot stripped and stashed all of his clothes wedged in a gap between a large rock and the roots of a tree a few feet into the nearby woods.

    He quickly went back to the ocean and started swimming quickly out before he was spotted and after a few deep lungfuls of the water he sank to near the bottom and swam along the ocean floor.

    He kept going until he was deep enough and far enough from shore that he couldn¡¯t be spotted, but also shallow enough that he was still able to see the light coming down from the surface of the water, even if only slightly.

    He spent the next week idly swimming around and literally swimming with the fishes. Many of the animals were curious about him and if he stayed floating there still for long enough they¡¯d cautiously approach to stare at him. Although even the tiniest twitch from him would see them darting away again through the water.

    Several predators tried to attack him, but after Sean used his fist to punch them through the water and showed his strength they retreated and went off to hunt easier prey. Sean was able to strain all of his muscles at once as he punched with all of his strength with every blow, so even in the water he hit hard enough that even the larger predators backed off and eventually gave up when they saw that it wasn¡¯t a one off and he had the stamina to keep fighting them for longer periods too.

    Fighting the sea creatures was actually a bit fun, honestly. They never managed to hit him with anything smaller than a few small bites or wounds, and his blows gave them what Sean imagined was the equivalent of bruises. They certainly all seemed fine after they gave up and swam off back into the depths.

    He measured the days by the darkening and lightening of the blue water around him. After a full week, he swam back to his original beach and walked back onto the beach, dripping water.

    He froze as he saw a man sitting there on a blanket eating a sandwich.

    ¡°Went for a quick swim, sorry,¡± Sean said to defuse the tension, ¡°Thought this place was abandoned.¡±

    The man eyed Sean suspiciously and pointedly looked off to the side. Sean shrugged and went into the woods a few steps to retrieve his clothes. Ah, he hadn¡¯t brought a towel¡­ Well, whatever. Sean put on the underwear and went back onto the beach to air dry the rest. The other man kept glancing at Sean and looked uncomfortable, but Sean ignored him.

    The man was giving him looks like he thought that Sean was a strange person, but not enough that he¡¯d be likely to call the police or something similar.

    After a few minutes Sean was mostly dry and put on the rest of his outfit.

    ¡°Well, good day,¡± Sean said before walking off. The man on the blanket nodded back and took another bite out of his sandwich as he watched Sean go.

    Sean returned to town and sat at the bench to wait for the person he was supposed to meet. He had no idea what they would look like, but they would say the passphrase which should let him know when they arrived.

    He was sure it was the right day, but he still waited at the bench for a while, just people watching as the townspeople walked by minding their own business.

    ¡°Nice weather for an umbrella isn¡¯t it?¡± a woman said to him after approaching Sean and walking out of the crowd.

    ¡°Yes, it¡¯s raining frogs out here,¡± Sean replied and the woman relaxed slightly and nodded to him.

    ¡°Well, friend,¡± she said, ¡°Sorry for the wait. You ready for our trip?¡±

    ¡°Yes, let¡¯s get out of here,¡± Sean said and stood up, ¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve been back.¡±

    She shot him a warning look, but he just shrugged slightly and she shrugged it off.

    They climbed into the woman¡¯s car and she started driving out of town.

    ¡°So who are you really?¡± She asked, ¡°Malketh died over ten years ago. How did you get his codes?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Malketh,¡± Sean said, ¡°The codes are mine. Was that why there was a delay? The GFC had to decide what to do in case I was an imposter?¡±

    The woman glanced at him briefly, ¡°You are out of date, whoever you are. There¡¯s not many of us left. The GFC is only a shadow of what it was. This was the quickest that I could get to you safely. We don¡¯t have the access or resources like we did before.¡±

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    ¡°What happened?¡± Sean asked, ¡°How could things have collapsed like that?¡±

    ¡°How else? The Jade Congress. They were sent into a frenzy after the mission where Malketh was killed and one of our best operatives was retrieved from their clutches. The five Immortals working there quit, didn¡¯t come back for any amount of money. Something about what happened seemed to rattle them something awful. Made the Jade Congress look weak, they always boasted about how many Immortals they managed to hire for their military.

    ¡°Jade Congress ended up blaming everything on the GFC. Pushed hard, raided out hideouts¡­ Let those military bastards have even more power and control over the party¡­ They purged just as many innocent people and sent them into their prisons as they did our operatives¡­ But they managed to catch our sources in the wider purges. With no one left on the inside it all went down from there, we weren¡¯t able to escape most of their raids in time¡­¡±

    ¡°What happened to those two operatives?¡± Sean asked, ¡°The ones who escaped ten years ago? With Malketh? Me?¡±

    The woman shrugged, ¡°Arrested by one of the Jade Congress allied nations. Thrown in their high security prison for over five years now. But I¡¯m sure that they¡¯re having a much better time there than they would have if the actual Jade Congress had managed to get their hands on them. Those two are too important for the allied country to hand the two of them over to the Jade Congress. Needs them for a political bargaining chip so they can get something from the Jade Congress in return.¡±

    ¡°Prison?¡± Sean asked, concerned, ¡°Are they alright? Any word?¡±

    The woman shrugged again, ¡°I really wouldn¡¯t know. It¡¯s old news by this point. You can ask the commander once we make sure you are who you say you are.¡±

    Sean let out a breath and sat back against his seat. Well, the both of them were in prison. Not dead at least.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Drink, Malketh?¡± the commander said as he took out his two glasses. Sean had a wave of deja-vu as it took him back to when he¡¯d met the man years ago. Back when he¡¯d first joined that little small group of the GFC. Seems that Sean¡¯s local commander was in control of the whole organization now. Or what was left of it.

    Sean accepted the glass filled with liquor and took a sip. He felt none of the warm buzz like he had drinking it as a mortal. And people didn¡¯t exactly drink these things for their taste¡­

    He inspected the commander as he took a sip from his own glass. The man had aged immensely in only the ten years that Sean had gone. He had theoretically only gone from fifty five to sixty five. But he looked worn down and with the weight of the world pressed down on him. His skin was wrinkled and he had a slight stubble on his face unlike how clean shaven he¡¯d always had it before Sean left.

    ¡°It¡¯s good to have you back,¡± the commander said after a moment, ¡°Damn near fell out of my chair when we confirmed that it was really you. Violet and Sierra told us that you died saving her. How did you make it out? Why wait so long to come back?¡±

    Sean considered trying to make up some story, to underplay what had happened. That he¡¯d been out there waiting all of this time¡­ But he liked the commander. The man had always done right by Malketh.

    ¡°I¡¯m an Immortal now,¡± Sean said, ¡°Seems like death doesn¡¯t take.¡±

    The commander¡¯s arm stopped in mid motion as he had raised it to take another drink. His hand spasmed and the glass fell from his hand and hit the desk and spilling the liquor all over the wood.

    He quickly picked up the glass, but ignored the spilled liquor as he stared at Sean in disbelief.

    ¡°You? Immortal? How¡¯s that possible?¡±

    Sean put a hand to his cheek.

    ¡°Don¡¯t I look younger than you saw me last, commander?¡± Sean said, ¡°I was almost thirty five last time you saw me. I¡¯ve aged backwards to twenty five now that I¡¯m Immortal. And it has been ten years¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡­ that is strange,¡± the commander said slowly, ¡°I didn¡¯t think of that. But it could be cosmetic surgery¡­¡±

    Sean displayed his hand and splayed out his fingers as the commander watched him. In one sharp motion Sean reached out and broke his pinky and dragged it to the side with a sickly crack.

    The commander swore and stood up alarmed, only to watch in horrified fascination as Sean¡¯s finger started regenerating in front of his eyes.

    Sean cupped his hand and caught the severed remnants of his pinky and displayed it on his palm to the commander.

    ¡°That proof enough?¡± Sean asked calmly.

    ¡°By Gaia, yes of course,¡± the commander said in shock, ¡°Stop making me look at that thing. I always knew you were special, but I didn¡¯t think that much.¡±

    Sean curled his hand around the severed finger slowly oozing blood onto his palm as the commander collected himself and sat back down.

    ¡°I¡¯ve had a lot of time to think,¡± Sean said, ¡°Ever since what happened ten years ago. I wasn¡¯t doing my best to help the GFC. Helping you in ways that only I could. I was worried about¡­ Well, I had my reasons. But Violet almost died. Your organization is almost on the brink of collapse, and the Jade Congress is stronger than ever¡­¡±

    The commander let out a defeated sigh and nodded, ¡°Yes. It¡¯s been a struggle these last ten years. Even the other nations pulled their funding from us. We can barely afford to keep our operative paid these days¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve decided to stop holding back,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯m more than just an engineer. I can help build things, create technologies like you¡¯ve never dreamed of before. If you can get me materials, then I could turn it all around. And you have an Immortal on your side now.¡±

    The commander looked hopeful before shaking his head.

    ¡°But what of the Gaian knights? Won¡¯t they take you, put you away so they can teach you about your new Immortal life?¡±

    Sean waved off the concern with a hand, ¡°They shouldn¡¯t know who I am. I¡¯ve already figured it out, I don¡¯t need them to teach me. Get me my supplies and I can help. Your agents will be the best armed in the world.¡±

    The commander hesitated before nodding.

    ¡°Alright, Malketh. I¡¯ll trust you on this. I¡¯ll do what I can. But with you as an Immortal helping us, I¡¯m sure we have some hope to keep the Jade Congress at bay.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Malketh? Did I do good Malketh?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ori. You did good. You¡¯re coming along well. Exposing the Jade Congress¡¯ crimes makes it harder for them to do them again or pretend that they''re not happening. When people see those documents that you found, it¡¯ll help make sure the people behind it hopefully get in trouble.¡±

    The computer screen glowed and pulsed for a few seconds as if in thought. Orion seemed pleased that Sean was using his nickname. They¡¯d been trying it out recently, and the experiment seemed to be a success based on Orion¡¯s happy responses to the nickname.

    ¡°Why do we hate them Malketh?¡± Ori asked, ¡°The Jade Congress? They do many bad things, but so do many others. Why do we fight Jade Congress and not them? Should we not stop them if they¡¯re doing all those horrible things too?¡±

    ¡°We can¡¯t take on all of them at once,¡± Sean said, ¡°If we exposed them too then they¡¯d overwhelm us, and we wouldn¡¯t be able to stop what the Jade Congress is doing. And I don¡¯t hate the Jade Congress. Not like the others do. I just¡­ want to stop them from doing all the horrible things that they want to do.¡±

    The computer screen swirled with abstract patterns for a few moments as Orion didn¡¯t reply.

    ¡°So, if we could do it without them knowing, then it would be the right thing to do?¡± Ori asked, ¡°Isn¡¯t that what you created me to do? To stop these horrible things from happening to people?¡±

    ¡°Yes, Ori. That¡¯s why I created you. And¡­ You¡¯re right. That¡¯s not something I really thought of. I suppose¡­ You have to be extremely careful. If you¡¯re even a little uncertain about getting caught then pull back and leave it alone. But if you find anything else, then you can do the same as what we did to the Jade Congress documents.¡±

    ¡°Yay!¡± Ori cheered from the computer, ¡°I promise I¡¯ll be able to do it! I¡¯ve practiced being subtle just like I promised. Will you finally let me do the big one? The big job?¡±

    Sean considered it carefully.

    ¡°Are you absolutely sure you¡¯re ready for this, Orion?¡± he asked, ¡°Those are government databases. These aren¡¯t the home computers of government officials or files they accidentally left on an unsecured network. This is the real deal. You might really be caught and attacked if they detect you.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll be fine, Malketh,¡± Ori said confidently, ¡°Even you¡¯ve been saying that I¡¯ve been doing well on my last few jobs. I know when to be careful.¡±

    ¡°Well, go for it then,¡± Sean said.

    ¡°Okay,¡± Ori said before the computer screen turned off by itself as Sean waited.

    After about twenty or thirty minutes, it turned itself back on.

    ¡°All good! Got everything. But you were right, Malketh. That was really hard¡­ They nearly caught me a few times. The humans they have there are no joke! I¡¯ve sent the files to your datapad. Violet and Sierra are being held in the same facility. I got guard rotations, door codes, security procedures. The whole thing. We can finally break them out!¡±

    Sean smiled as he inspected the documents sent to the datapad in his hands. With the release of the documents and the resurgence of the GFC with Sean¡¯s help, the time was right to break them out. It had taken over a year to get to this point, but they were there.

    Sean had filed about two dozen patents for some of the simpler technology that he knew from the future. The type of things that most people had access to on rural worlds. Mostly simple things, heaters that were a few percent more efficient than what was on Gaia for a much lower cost to build than the rest. A few designs for electronics that were the same. Only a few percent better performance, but still better than anything on the market.

    All of them were little things like that. Well, comparatively little to what Sean could have released out into the wild. Whatever technology he put out there would inevitably go into the hands of the Jade Congress and other hostile nations. It was inevitable, so Sean kept himself limited.

    But even with what he released, licensing the patents and the resulting income of the new innovations brought in massive amounts of wealth. A vast majority which Sean funneled directly into the GFC and the commander¡¯s discretion.

    The commander had used the money well, and the GFC¡¯s numbers had swelled tremendously as well as buying all sorts of new equipment and property for use for their strikes against the Jade Congress and its military.

    Sean had provided some more advanced technology and blueprints to the commander and GFC as well. Advanced enough that they were at least decades ahead in technology of even the major governments on Gaia. But not anything that was so visibly advanced that there could be no logical explanation on how ¡®Malketh¡¯ could have possibly invented the technology.

    The commander had kept Malketh¡¯s return and involvement in the new technology mostly quiet, but there were still lots of rumors around Sean as he went around the base. Many seemed to know that he was the one who provided their funding, but not how or why. And that he was seen often meeting with the commander and treated with high respect by the man.

    But there was one piece of technology that made more difference than any other to the cause. And it was the one that Sean had been careful that only him and the commander would know about. And even the commander only knew the results, not exactly what it was or how Sean got his information.

    That technology was Ori. A fully sentient AI. Most intelligent machines could naturally become sentient by unknown means in a seemingly random pattern.

    But if one were attempting to create a sentient machine, then there were methods to intentionally alter the processes to increase the chances. It had taken fifteen prototypes and nearly a dozen more full models before Sean managed to create Ori even while making a deliberate effort. All the other AI¡¯s were intelligent but rigid and uncreative. Not Ori, he was personable and excitable. Much more than Sean would have expected from his experience with Ash who was more collected and introverted in comparison.

    Sean looked behind the computer to the door on the far side of the room. Behind it lay the specialized room with the AI computer core where Ori¡¯s mind sat.

    He had only been alive for a few weeks and already his personality was developing and he was asking questions¡­

    It was time for Sean to prepare for the mission. Time to plan a jailbreak of his friends.

 Chapter 89: Jailbreak

    ¡°Violet, you see the new one, ay?¡± Sierra said, ¡°He looking you up and down. Who is this old woman that big burly men look at in fear, he asks himself. Practically one foot in the grave, perhaps a young lad such as myself should seize control, no? Do you think he will challenge you? He seems to think much of himself and his strength.¡±

    ¡°Shut it, Sierra,¡± Violet grumbled, ¡°I¡¯m only thirty four. Idiot probably thinks that you¡¯re the one in charge if anything.¡±

    ¡°Ah, no!¡± Sierra laughed, ¡°Me? In control? I could not bear such a thing. Much funnier to stand behind you as intimidation. Big bodyguard standing there with his red eyes and pale skin. Much better image than you guarding me.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Violet muttered, ¡°Queen of a prison. Whoop de do. We¡¯re never getting out of here at this rate¡­¡±

    The door to the large cafeteria opened up, and one of the guards came out. He walked forward and locked eyes with Violet as he moved. Above on the upper levels the other guards with their riot suppression weapons watched carefully as the prisoners in the cafeteria glowered at the guard as he moved by them.

    The man stopped just in front of Violet and Sierra.

    ¡°Visitation of you two. One¡­ Malketh here to talk to you. He¡¯s here right now. Do you accept?¡± he said in a bored tone.

    Violet and Sierra shared a look. Was it someone from the GFC? Violet would give whoever it was a piece of her mind, disrespecting Malketh¡¯s memory like that after he sacrificed himself for her¡­

    A sacrifice that only led her to rot here away in prison.

    But still.

    The visitation room had two sides. There was a long line of chairs and little booths lining the whole space. In the center were reinforced glass windows separating them from the identical setup on the opposite side for the visitor.

    Violet could see that their visitor would be seeing them at the end of the rows as the guard led the way.

    ¡°Remember, everything you say is recorded,¡± the guard said in a bored tone, ¡°You have fifteen minutes, don¡¯t smudge the glass, don¡¯t¡­¡±

    Violet stopped listening and felt Sierra stiffen next to her as she caught sight of who was sitting there like a ghost from her past. Her heart beat rapidly and her blood rushed to her head as pure shock radiated from her mind.

    The guard finished his speech and then turned away and left them alone.

    ¡°It¡¯s been a while,¡± Malketh said with a slight smile, ¡°But I¡¯m back.¡±

    ¡°B-Back?¡± Sierra stammered from next to her, ¡°But Malketh, we saw¡­ we saw what happened to you. How are you here?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you later,¡± Malketh said calmly, ¡°Now we¡¯re going to take a few minutes to calm down and collect ourselves. Then I need you to be ready for when I do something drastic. Okay?¡±

    Violet¡¯s rapid heartbeat and shock died down a little as Sierra heavily sat down in the only seat available to them. Alright, deep breaths in and out¡­

    Seems like Malketh was not only alive but about to break them out of jail somehow.

    ¡°Alright, are you both ready?¡± Malketh asked them after they had both silently calmed down, and they both nodded, ¡°Okay, stand back and get ready to run. Look away when I throw my shirt.¡±

    He reached down to his button down shirt and with a few quick motions took it off revealing a sleeveless shirt underneath. He pulled a little white tab of cloth on the inside of the shirt he had just removed and it revealed that there was a long thin string underneath that Malketh tugged hard before it completely detached from the jacket. Malketh threw the jacket at the glass between them suddenly.

    With a loud blast, the jacket exploded and destroyed the glass. The large attached pieces of the bulletproof safety glass went flying and peppered Violet¡¯s back, punching through her thin prison uniform but not far into her skin before bouncing off and falling to the ground.

    She turned around and saw that the explosion had bounced back and torn some singed holes across Malketh¡¯s front and opened large rips in his shirt. But somehow he looked completely unhurt with only his clothing damaged.

    A loud alarm started sounding from above.

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go,¡± Malketh said, ¡°Climb through, careful of the glass.¡±

    After a moment of shock from the both of them, they complied and scrambled over the desk and over to Malketh¡¯s side.

    ¡°What is the plan now?¡± Sierra asked as a blaring alarm suddenly started wailing above them and shouting from where Violet knew the guards would be.

    ¡°Now you follow behind me,¡± Malketh said, ¡°I¡¯ll handle the guards.¡±

    ¡°Did you bring any weapons with you?¡± Violet asked hopefully, ¡°The guards'' weapons will only work for them. They¡¯re nothing but hunks of metal if we steal them.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Malketh said as they started jogging to the exit of the room, ¡°Checks were too thorough. The jacket was the most that I could get away with. But this is the shift with the lowest number of guards right during lunch. Just follow my lead, I have a plan.¡±

    Malketh threw open the door to the room and started running through the prison hallways with Violet and Sierra not far behind. Several guards ran at them shouting and brandishing their stun batons or stun guns.

    Malketh barely slowed down as he diverted and took each of them down with a few precision strikes of his open hand. They shot him with their stun guns and stabbed at him with the sparking tips of their batons as he chopped at their necks and skulls in quick bursts of motion.

    But Malketh barely even flinched as he finished his attacks and kept taking them out with maximum efficiency. Violet looked at Malketh in a sort of quiet awe as they kept running and he handled every guard they came across effortlessly with his bare hands even as they ran. She was no slouch and had trained for a long time to improve her hand to hand skills. But she could just see in his easy and smooth movements that he was an absolute master of the craft. Every motion planned for and wasted not one scrap of energy as he moved with perfect economy of movement.

    They reached a locked door. One made of a metal mesh with a heavy lock holding it closed. Violet knew it was one of three between them and the visitor section. Past that was the final heavier door at the opening of the prison walls.

    Did Malketh have some device or¡­ Malketh punched the door full force with his arm. Violet stared at his hand in concern, but frowned as she saw that he was completely uninjured. But his punch had dented the metal¡­

    Malketh punched again in a flurry of over a dozen hard punches into the metal mesh of the door near the lock and Violet¡¯s eyes opened wide. What in Gaia was he doing? He was going to break his hands if he kept it up!

    But with one final punch, there was a click as Malketh¡¯s punches warped the door enough as it bent inwards that the little bolt holding the door clicked against its housing as it strained to come free.

    Malketh planted his feet and stuck his fingers into the newly formed gap between the edge of the door and the wall and lock in the wall. His punches had dented the door inwards enough that it looked like some giant had given it a giant kick and caused the edge of the door to angle inwards.

    Malketh used his fingers in the crack and heaved so hard that Violet could see his arms tensing at maximum power as he sat there. But he kept going for a few more seconds, had he gotten stronger? What was he hoping to accomplish?

    But then with a loud creak and snap, the deadbolt holding the door into the wall tore free, and Malketh managed to fully open the door.

    Violet glanced at Sierra, who was just as shocked as she was at Malketh¡¯s display of strength. But when Malketh ran through the now open and deformed door, she and Sierra hurried to follow after him.

    Malketh did the same thing to the second door, not even looking strained in the slightest by what must be the massive strain on his body and pain in his fists from punching and bending metal.

    At the last door two more guards found them again and tried to stun Violet and Sierra when they saw them.

    But each of them were well trained combatants. And although they apparently weren¡¯t as skilled as Malketh, they were easily able to take out each of the guards within a few seconds of starting to fight them. Malketh worked on opening the door as they did so.

    He somehow managed to use his overwhelming strength to tear open the locked door again and the three of them ran until they burst through an unlocked door outside. Guards in the two towers on either side of the main gate shouted and pointed down at them as they ran. Violet and Sierra kept running to follow Malketh as he ran straight towards the closed main door. Even with his strength, Violet was sure that he wouldn¡¯t be able to open it. The three metal bolts keeping it in place and into the heavy wall were each thicker than her hand. The door was meant to be big enough that a vehicle could come in through the walls. What was Malketh planning to do to get through that? Was their escape doomed?

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    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Malketh promised them, ¡°Get close to the door. The towers don¡¯t have a good angle of fire on us down here.¡±

    Sierra and Violet crushed in as the first electric stun blast hit the ground behind them from the guard tower above. Malketh was right, the angle was too sharp for the guards to be able to fire their weapons on the three of them directly.

    Violet¡¯s head snapped around as she heard a sickly crack behind her. She turned around and saw Malketh pressing one of his hands against one of the thick metal bolts holding the big door to the wall. He waited for a few seconds with his hand pressed in place before with another sharp jerk of his hand upwards, there was another signature crack of snapping bone.

    Violet looked down as she saw the three longest fingers of his right hand falling to the ground. Her eyes widened and she looked back up and saw Malketh¡¯s hand jerk sharply again. Her instinctive gasp was abruptly cut off in confusion as she finally noticed that somehow his severed fingers were regenerating and returning to him.

    She looked between the severed fingers on the ground and the regenerating ones buried in the massive metal bold holding the door closed. Huh?

    Violet and Sierra stayed there waiting as a rain of stun bolts landed on the ground just outside the shadow of the door slightly inset into the wall.

    ¡°Why do they not come down and shoot us themselves, huh?¡± Sierra whispered to Violet.

    Another sickly crack. Malketh¡¯s hand was now pressed about halfway up the second heavy metal bolt. She could see from between his fingers that Malketh had somehow carved through the first bolt and left a trail of gore coating either severed end of it.

    ¡°Against procedure,¡± Malketh said as he broke his fingers again in a sound that made Violet wince as he continued using his¡­ finger gore lasers to carve through the metal bolt.

    ¡°Anyone who comes down here is at risk of being killed during a prison break,¡± Malketh continued as he finished off the second bolt and reached for the third bolt. He had to reach just above his head to get his hand pressed against it and start the process for the last bolt.

    ¡°Sierra, boost me up, would you?¡± Malketh said. Sierra didn¡¯t do anything for a moment before coming forward and after grabbing Malketh around the waist heaving him upwards to get a better angle.

    ¡°Thanks. *snap*, they have to stay up there. They assume this door will keep us contained until reinforcements arrive from inside. Unfortunately for them, their radios seem to have been jammed so that they can¡¯t call for direct help or tell the others exactly what we¡¯re doing. If they even know what I¡¯m doing.¡±

    ¡°What in Gaia are you doing?¡± Violet asked pointedly.

    ¡°Explain later,¡± Malketh said as he snapped his fingers again and pressed his bloody hand against the last resisting bit of metal bolt holding the door closed. Violet could see Sierra wobbling a bit and puffing as he attempted to keep Malketh stable as he held him up. But after more than a minute of effort Sierra was beginning to flag and struggle to keep Malketh up.

    Malketh¡¯s hand finished carving through the bolt, but despite that the door remained in place.

    ¡°Stand back,¡± Malketh said, ¡°But not too far that you¡¯ll get hit,¡± he added as Violet started backpedaling quickly, stopping her in place.

    Just like he had for the other doors, Malketh stuck his hands in the gap of the massive door and gripped it firmly and planted his feet and then started heaving backwards with all of his strength.

    And slowly, with loud creaks and groans, the door slowly opened inch by inch even as Violet heard the whines of motors and gears trying to close it again. There seemed to be a breaking point after about thirty seconds and a loud crunch and high pitched whine as something finally gave in the motors trying to keep the door shut and they broke or mostly shut down.

    Malketh immediately started making more progress and opened the massive door to create a foot wide gap between it and where it had stood closed. That gave him enough room to wedge his body inside and press outwards and raise his legs to push off with them too to make the door open even faster. Violet could see practically every muscle in his body bulging to its ultimate limit like a body builder even as his face remained calm and his breathing stayed steady and even.

    Finally after a few awe inspiring seconds, the door was open far enough that Violet and Sierra could slip past Malketh to the other side. Malketh quickly let go of the door and followed after them as soon as they were through. The large door slowly began closing itself again as soon as he let go despite the motors moving it groaning and straining as it did so.

    Malketh pointed to a nondescript car and Violet and Sierra rushed towards it and opened the unlocked back doors and jumped inside. Malketh went into the front and started it with a soft rumble.

    The car tore out of the exterior prison parking lot at high speed, leaving the prison with alarms blaring behind them.

    There was the sound of cheap helicopters and more advanced ships with thrusters that were circling the prison behind them after a few minutes and after a brief pause split off to chase after their car that was speeding away.

    ¡°Change into the clothes back there,¡± Malketh said distractedly as he pressed the pedal to the floor as he raced at maximum speed through the rural streets.

    ¡°About five minutes from the city,¡± Malketh said, ¡°We¡¯ll blend in after.¡±

    Violet and Sierra quickly found the two packets of clothes on the floor for them and changed out of their prison uniforms, not worrying about modesty with the current situation and the lurches of the moving and speeding car.

    Malketh roared into what could only generously be called a city, and Malketh drove quickly before slowing down and turning into a parking garage just as all the flying vehicles arrived above them and circled while shouting at them over their loudspeakers for them to turn themselves in.

    They went to the parking garage and Malketh went to the lowest level down under the ground.

    They got out of the car and Malketh took something out from the center console box. A fist sized device with a pin and handle running down its side. Some kind of grenade?

    They all left the car and Malketh waited for Violet and Sierra to get some distance before quickly throwing the grenade into the still running car and running for it himself.

    The grenade let out a massive gout of flame and after a second the electric car¡¯s batteries exploded next, with such heat the Violet could feel it even from here.

    ¡°Got rid of the evidence. Alright, this way,¡± Malketh said as he turned and went towards the corner of the area where a tarp was sitting on the ground. Malketh threw the tarp back and opened the wooden trapdoor sitting underneath it, revealing a hole beneath with a metal ladder going into the darkness.

    ¡°Go in, go in,¡± Malketh insisted, ¡°Quickly, before they send someone in after us.¡±

    Violet stared down the hole suspiciously as Sierra immediately turned around and started climbing down the metal ladder.

    But with a groan, she followed suit after Sierra¡¯s head sank below the surface. Gaia, she hated enclosed spaces, reminded her of her time in that horrific isolation chamber when she was captured by the Jade Congress¡­

    Everything went dark as Malketh replaced the tarp covering the opening above them and shut the trapdoor. Violet kept climbing down the ladder until she reached the bottom that only had a single dim light strip on the ceiling shrouding everything in a dull gray haze.

    Violet squinted and stumbled out of the way of Malketh as he came down from above her.

    ¡°Okay, be careful here,¡± Malketh whispered, ¡°There¡¯s a little maintenance path about three feet wide through the open door. In the main subway tunnel. We¡¯ll be going about two miles until surfacing again. From there the GFC will fully extract us and smuggle us out of the city to safety. Just make sure that you don¡¯t tumble out, but we¡¯ll have to jog if we want to escape before they find the tunnel and start searching the tunnels for us.¡±

    Malketh picked up something from besides the ladder and with a soft click the room was lit up with a slow powered flashlight.

    ¡°Each of you get one, we¡¯re almost there,¡± Malketh said encouragingly. Sierra and Violet did so and all three of them went out into the circular subway tunnel and started jogging down the flat maintenance path to the side of the rails. After a few minutes of following after Malketh at a jog, they heard the rumble and rush of air of a train coming down the tunnel.

    ¡°Lights off!¡± Malketh hissed and pressed himself against the wall of the tunnel as well. Violet fumbled a bit at the sudden command, but managed to turn off her light and press herself against the wall as the subway suddenly roared by them at high speed for a few moments before receding into the distance.

    They turned their dim lights on again and kept running. Almost there¡­ Violet was panting from all the sudden running, maybe she¡¯d let herself go a little after being in prison for so long¡­

    Almost¡­ there.

    At a seemingly random moment, Malketh suddenly stopped and turned his flashlight to a nearby door set into the wall. All three of them went inside and saw another metal ladder going up into the ceiling like from before. Violet could clearly see the cracks and jagged cuts in the hole in the concrete, and the places where the metal ladder had been bolted into the existing structure. The ladder and exits had been added after this room was already finished being built¡­

    All three of them climbed the ladder after Malketh made sure to firmly lock the door behind them. At the top of the ladder, Sierra reached up and threw open another trapdoor and climbed out into what appeared to be someone¡¯s garage.

    A man was standing there watching them as they climbed out of the hole, a pair of physical car keys held in his hand. Malketh climbed out of the hole and covered it with another tarp.

    ¡°Everything ready? The house is scrubbed clean?¡± Malketh asked the man, who nodded back in reply and silently opened his front door and put his keys into the access slot.

    The rest of them piled inside the vehicle as the unfamiliar man opened the door to the garage and started driving away through the city as if nothing was the matter at all.

    Not that they saw much of that. All three of them were crammed in the backseat and the driver had thrown a large tarp over them so their faces wouldn¡¯t be caught by any passing cameras hooked up to the government network.

    It took a few hours, but they were eventually brought to a plane and took off, clear from the manhunt looking for them in the city that they had just escaped.

    It was Violet who broke the silence.

    ¡°Malketh, I¡­ How are you here? Alive?¡±

    Malketh held up his hand that was still completely coated with dried blood from when he was breaking his fingers over and over again.

    ¡°I¡¯m Immortal now. I did die back there. But the Shadow stopped it and turned me into an Immortal.¡±

    ¡°I-Immortal? The Shadow? You saw it? Then where were you? We all thought that you were dead. We had a funeral for you¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Malketh said with a sigh, ¡°I came back as quickly as I could. About a year ago. The GFC really struggled with you two gone for these last years. But it¡¯s back to a good enough place that we could do this. I¡¯m sure that your wife will be happy to see you, Sierra. She¡¯s been busy preparing quite the party for our return even now.¡±

    Sierra smiled, ¡°Such a beautiful woman,¡± he muttered, ¡°I will make sure to take the biggest bite of the cake. Biggest bite for the largest man.¡±

    Malketh snorted, ¡°Sure, man. Biggest bite for you. We¡¯re free to talk now, and we¡¯ve got a few hours before our flight lands. Did you know that our old commander is in charge of the entire GFC now? He¡¯s really moved up in the world from local base commander to in charge of the whole thing¡­¡±

    They all talked, even if the conversation was surreal to Violet. Malketh was back, alive, and Immortal. He had broken them out of prison and was bringing them back to the GFC. It felt like a strange dream of sorts as she spoke with him. But somehow¡­ The conversation was easy. Even after ten years, it felt like only yesterday when Malketh and Violet were relaxing and playing videogames together after she¡¯d just gone on a hard mission to the Jade Congress¡¯ territory and filled with all sorts of horribleness.

 Chapter 90: A Surprise Visit

    ¡°And you say there¡¯s no footage of the escape?¡±

    ¡°No, sir. Prison cameras were sabotaged, showed live footage but the recordings were deleted immediately after. We don¡¯t know how, but somehow they even got the few cameras that recorded them after they drove off. Even the civilian cameras on houses nearby. Whoever they have running backend is good at covering their tracks.¡±

    ¡°Hm. And that name Malketh Smith is the only lead?¡±

    ¡°And the clear connection to the GFC. Now that their resurging despite the Jade Congress¡¯ pressure, they may feel confident enough to do something like this.¡±

    ¡°And the samples?¡±

    The Gaian knight reached out and inspected the dried blood around one of the severed deadbolts on the door leading outside the prison. It was like it was cut with a laser, but nothing like he had ever seen before. It was completely covered in blood, almost like¡­

    With a start, he looked down at his hand and slowly lifted it and placed it in the bloody hole in the metal. An Immortal¡­ and not just any Immortal. Someone who had the willpower to bear through the pain as they did something so horrific to themselves and used their regeneration for¡­ this. He had suspected it, it was the only reason the two of them were here. It wasn¡¯t proof¡­ not yet. But it was close.

    ¡°The samples came out empty, sir,¡±

    The lead knight turned to his partner and frowned, ¡°Empty? What do you mean? You must at least been able to get the gene line. The percentage from each of the founders, which machines that his hidden patterns that he has?¡±

    The original algorithm designed by the genemother was supposed to be random as it altered the embryo¡¯s genomes. But while it was excellent and certainly good enough for genetic viability of the population, it still left regular patterns in a person¡¯s DNA that were detectable after genetic sequencing. As the algorithm was improved or altered for the incubation machines in a certain location or region, then these barely noticeable patterns would change.

    As the machine born humans mixed with the natural born people near their homes and had more children, these patterns would be passed down through genetics. So even with DNA completely unknown in their database, they should be able to narrow down certain areas or regions they were likely from with fairly high specificity. It generally only gave a region or country of origin most of the time, but even that proved useful.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ nothing like I¡¯ve ever seen sir. He doesn¡¯t have any hidden patterns. In fact I¡¯d say¡­ Our database is throwing errors at us. It¡¯s not reading him as any percentage of Founder DNA at all.¡±

    ¡°None at all?¡± the senior knight asked skeptically, ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what the boys and girls in the lab said. They were rather excited, said that it was the scientific discovery of the century, finding a viable person with such abnormal DNA. Best theories at the moment was he¡¯s some science experiment using some new kind of revolutionary incubation machine genetic algorithm or a genetic anomaly who¡¯s mutated so much through the generations that his genetics have been unrecognizable to us. Perhaps his family were hermits or didn¡¯t interact with the rest of Gaia for a thousand years or something similar¡­¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous. That would put him as someone from almost the very beginning of life on Gaia without intermarrying with a single other group until today. Seems far fetched.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s improbable, sir, but that¡¯s what the lab said. They¡¯d appreciate it if you let them know what else you can learn about this person.¡±

    The senior knight rubbed his chin and turned back to the door.

    ¡°The man of mystery, huh. Even his genetics are baffling us. A loose Immortal, undetected and seemingly aligned with GFC. No wonder they¡¯ve been surging if they have an Immortal helping them out¡­ But what do you want, man of mystery. Believe in the GFC cause? But then why come yourself then? Why do the mission yourself and risk exposure? Something made you have to come and break them free yourself¡­¡±

    The gears slowly turned in the senior knight¡¯s head, and he suddenly frowned. The man of mystery, why did that sound so familiar to him?

    As they went through the rest of the evidence and interviewed the guards who had spoken with this Malketh, the answer danced at the edge of the senior knight¡¯s thoughts, right out of reach. Malketh was an uncommon name, why choose that as his alias? It made no sense, why not picking something more common? Maybe it wasn¡¯t an alias. It was the name itself that was familiar to him. Where was¡­

    ¡°Malketh Gaiason!¡± He suddenly burst out, and his partner and the guard he had interrupted mid sentence stared at him.

    ¡°Malketh Gaiason, the third man,¡± he said, ¡°There was an attack on one of the Jade Council¡¯s weapons storage depots. By the GFC. Two of them escaped, but the third was killed. One Malketh Gaiason. A man of mystery, no records or traces of who it could be. I remember the Jade Congress even contacted us for information and we couldn¡¯t find anything. It was a scandal that we weren¡¯t able to find him. Don¡¯t you remember, it must have been less than two decades ago, Paul! That¡¯s why he came personally, why we can¡¯t find anything on him. He¡¯s the same person, who actually ended up surviving somehow undetected up to now.¡±

    ¡°You think this person is the same, John?¡± Paul said before gesturing for the guard to go, ¡°Truly? You¡¯re right, I do remember that¡­ That would fit. But how does that fit them being an Immortal? Surely one of them couldn¡¯t remain undetected for long? Besides those Immortal Supremacy fanatics and the Herald of the Shadow.¡±

    John shot his junior a disapproving look, ¡°Don¡¯t call that psychopath that ridiculous title. Like he would know what the Shadow wants when even the Genemother or other Founders don¡¯t¡­ Thinks that because he¡¯s Immortal that he has all the answers now.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let those Eyes of the Shadow cultists hear you say something like that,¡± Paul warned, ¡°They convert more and more people every year. I suppose it¡¯s more comfortable giving the Shadow¡¯s actions meaning rather than the unknowable and unanswerable question that it truly is¡­ Choosing the worthy to become Immortals if they do good deeds and are righteous during their mortal lifetimes would be comforting if true, I suppose...¡±

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    ¡°Enough,¡± John said and shook his head, ¡°We¡¯re getting distracted, we¡¯re not here to debate religion or the meaning of the Shadow. Or those cultists. We should investigate the GFC more thoroughly. They¡¯ll have the answers on whoever this man is. We have resources that the Jade Congress doesn¡¯t. We should be able to get something from them, perhaps get some better information from the agents we¡¯ve had infiltrate them¡­¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. So are we writing off tracking him down from evidence that we¡¯d find here, then?¡±

    John looked around before rubbing his chin to consider anything else that they could have missed.

    ¡°I suppose so,¡± he eventually said, ¡°We¡¯ll leave the rest to the mortal team then. Let¡¯s go, if we wait for long enough then he¡¯ll poke his head back out again. He¡¯s an Immortal, I¡¯m sure that he won¡¯t be able to cover his tracks for much longer from any mortals that he knows¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Feels so surreal, you know. Us back here, like it was over a decade ago,¡± Violet said as Sean helped her set up the television in her new room, ¡°With how much has changed. How you¡¯re an Immortal now, apparently some genius inventor from what you¡¯ve said. You¡¯ve done more for the GFC than I ever did.¡±

    Sean didn¡¯t answer her for a moment, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have helped them if not for you and Sierra,¡± he admitted. Her head snapped around and she stared at him.

    ¡°I¡¯m not one for the cause, you know that,¡± Sean continued, ¡°I did all of this so they could help break you and Sierra free. And maybe do some good on the side. But I wouldn¡¯t have done all of this for them if you two were dead or if it was just me.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ Malketh¡­¡± Violet stammered, ¡°How? Why? I¡¯ve told you of what they did to me and my family. To so many people? Why wouldn¡¯t you help the GFC, if not for me and Sierra?¡±

    ¡°I would have done something,¡± Sean said a little defensively, ¡°Just not as much as I did. I¡¯m not driven by the cause like you are. So in a way you helped the GFC more than anyone, even me. Because not only what you did, by making me stay and help them after I returned.¡±

    ¡°I still can¡¯t believe that,¡± Violet muttered while looking thoughtful, ¡°You flew around the sun? Used your own body as a spaceship? Somebody¡¯s out there killing Immortals? It just seems so unbelievable.¡±

    ¡°They think they are killing them, I doubt that it worked,¡± Sean clarified. Violet gave him a flat look.

    ¡°It¡¯s the sun. I¡¯m pretty sure whoever gets thrown in there is long dead no matter how fast they can regenerate.¡±

    Sean shrugged and didn¡¯t press the point, remembering his own confusion and disbelief when the concept of true Immortality had been properly explained to him by his instructor Brenda on Immortus Station.

    ¡°Hey, you want to test this thing out?¡± he asked as he finished plugging the cords in to connect the television to the wall and to the game console sitting beneath that he¡¯d brought with him and snuck on top of the stand.

    Violet stared at the game console in surprise, not having noticed it in the business of moving boxes and shifting things around inside her new place.

    ¡°Sure,¡± she said after a moment, ¡°Just like the old times.¡±

    ¡°Yes, just like old times,¡± Sean agreed and handed her a controller.

    Then they played just like old times, and all their worries fell away from them and Violet looked a decade younger as she swore at Sean as he thrashed her again as she brainstormed more ways to stack the deck against him.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°You wanted to see me, commander?¡± Sean said as he opened the door. He froze as he saw another man standing there looking to the door.

    ¡°Yes, sorry to ambush you like this, Malketh,¡± the commander said apologetically, ¡°But when one of the Founders asks for something, well¡­ it¡¯s not easy to say no.¡±

    Sean thought he caught a faint wisp of distaste in the commander¡¯s tone. The man standing there extended his hands and gave Sean a closed lipped smile.

    ¡°Malketh,¡± Peter Rose said, ¡°It¡¯s nice to meet our newest Immortal. I¡¯ve heard that you¡¯ve done a lot of good work here with the GFC. Not many could pull off all that you¡¯ve done to help them, including that most recent jailbreak a few weeks ago.¡±

    Sean numbly clasped Peter¡¯s hand and shook it, as the man suddenly peered at Sean suspiciously. Sean tried to control his expression, but knew that he was failing miserably. That voice, he knew that voice! Peter Rose was the one who ordered him to be launched into the sun! He was working with the Jade Congress and those Immortals that captured him somehow.

    ¡°I know, not every day you get to meet a Founder,¡± Peter chuckled, seemingly misinterpreting Sean¡¯s expression, ¡°But you¡¯re an Immortal too now. We¡¯re brothers, you and I. Given a responsibility to do our best by humanity.¡±

    ¡°Responsibility?¡± Sean asked cautiously before shooting a glance at the commander as he kept shaking Peter¡¯s hand. But the man just gave a small shrug of confusion.

    ¡°Yes, responsibility,¡± Peter said, ¡°We were given these powers for a reason. To do our best for the world and make sure that nothing else goes wrong like it did on ancient Earth.¡±

    A shadow passed across his face before he refocused, ¡°You¡¯re not alone. I¡¯d like to take you to meet some of the others if you¡¯d like.¡±

    ¡°And what of the GFC?¡± Sean asked suspiciously, his mind racing to process the revelation that Peter Rose was the one who had ordered him to be executed. That he was working with the Jade Congress.

    ¡°Oh no, you misunderstand,¡± Peter said easily as he released Sean¡¯s hand, ¡°It¡¯s really a meeting, shouldn¡¯t take more than a few days of your time. Feel free to stay here and help out as much as you like. It¡¯s really rather encouraging that you¡¯re working so hard to improve the world even with how recently you¡¯ve become an Immortal. An inspiration to us all trying to do the good work. I¡¯ll even throw a few billion credits your commander¡¯s way. A payment for your time away. And maybe I¡¯ll considering investing a bit more substantially depending on how much good your commander ends up doing with all that money.¡±

    The commander¡¯s eyes bulged. That would match or even exceed all the money that Sean had brought to the organization over the last year of selling his inventions. And Peter Rose had said it so casually¡­

    ¡°I suppose I¡¯ll be well paid for my time then,¡± Sean half joked, ¡°When do we leave?¡±

    ¡°I can set a meeting for as close as next week. Does that sound good for you? I¡¯m sure your commander and I can organize transport. Secret location, we don¡¯t want just anyone stumbling across us, you understand. We like to call it the Den because it¡¯s so cozy in there.¡±

    ¡°I will¡­ see you there then,¡± Sean said slowly, ¡°It will be exciting to meet others like me.¡±

    Peter gave Sean a firm nod, ¡°Excellent. Now, I have some matters to discuss with your commander as you could imagine. Make sure to get the door on your way out.¡±

    At the clear dismissal, Sean gave a nod and left. He walked through the hallways and considered the implications of what had just happened. He knew that something was wrong with him despite how much Emily kept defending what he had done back on Earth.

    Should he avoid, shun him? Be hostile at the meeting and hope that Peter left him alone? But Peter must know who he was and had tried to have him killed already. Based on Peter¡¯s words in there and general behavior, Sean didn¡¯t think that Peter knew that Sean knew that it had been him though. If Sean hadn¡¯t already heard his voice before in the far future in the wider galaxy and had some more context to be suspicious, he might not have identified it immediately either.

    But then as Sean walked, the cogs in his mind turned. This was it, this was why the Shadow had sent him here. Something about Peter Rose and what he did was important. Sean had to get as much information on what was happening. He would have to try to be friendly to these Immortals that Peter brought him to see. Join the group, based on the way that Peter was already calling Sean ¡®one of us¡¯. He sensed that it had a more specific meaning than just Immortals in general. Or maybe he was just being paranoid.

    Yes, he¡¯d integrate with Peter Rose and whatever this group was and see what he could learn. And do his best to help the GFC too while he was at it.

 Chapter 91: The Den

    ¡°So, this is the den as we call it,¡± a peppy man named Alex said as she showed Sean around with a bounce in his step. Peter had dumped ¡®Malketh¡¯ on her as soon as he arrived, after a few minutes of introductions with the rest of the Immortals gathered by the door.

    Sean had been blindfolded the whole way as they drove for a while before having it taken off to reveal himself in the lobby of a building.

    Sean looked around the room they were in filled with darkly stained woods and an assorted series of long and fluffy couches. There were two large fireplaces on either side of the room burning brightly as several Immortals in casual clothes sat around and generally lounged even as they scrolled on their devices or had soft conversations with each other.

    ¡°This is where all the sleepy heads come to lounge,¡± Alex said, ¡°Great place to take a nap if you¡¯re up to it. We¡¯ve got lockers and stuff, but no rooms or anything. Sort of a waste when none of us have to sleep.¡±

    Sean nodded, although he didn¡¯t fully agree. Just being able to have your own room, even if it wasn¡¯t for sleeping necessarily, was important.

    ¡°Well we have a few bedrooms,¡± Alex added in an upbeat tone, ¡°But you¡¯ve got to reserve them. And clean up after if it gets messy. Make sure to tell someone if things are gross, it¡¯s their responsibility to clean, not you¡­¡±

    ¡°Quit being such a freak, Alex!¡± One of the men shouted as he sat up from the couch, ¡°You¡¯re going to traumatize the poor guy for his tour.¡±

    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s important knowledge,¡± Alex protested, ¡°No one told me what the rooms were used for, and I cleaned up the grossness the first few times, not even knowing that it wasn¡¯t my responsibility to do it! I was just using it for sleeping!¡±

    ¡°Get outta here!¡± another woman shouted from nearby the fire, ¡°I¡¯m tryna relax! All this chatter¡¯s ruining the mood.¡±

    Alex huffed and turned around and the two of them left the room.

    ¡°They¡¯re just grumpy,¡± Alex explained as they continued, ¡°Don¡¯t mind them. I was talking a little too loudly maybe¡­ But anyway, here¡¯s the activity room. This is where people actually come to really do stuff rather than sit around. You ever play pool? Want to play a game?¡±

    ¡°Pool? No I don¡¯t think I have,¡± Sean asked as he curiously inspected a table with a fuzzy green surface and six pockets around its edges. Alex set up various colored balls in a triangle formation and put the white ball on top of a little white sticker on top of the green material.

    He took out a long stick with a rounded end and handed one to Sean.

    ¡°Here, I¡¯ll teach you Malketh,¡± Alex said, ¡°Pause on the tour. This place isn¡¯t nearly big enough to take a full day to explore. We¡¯ve got some time.¡±

    ¡°Okay. Let¡¯s give it a try,¡± Sean said as he accepted the ¡®pool cue¡¯ and started learning the game with Alex.

    The tour continued informally with Sean and Alex occasionally stopping and getting distracted for a little while before continuing. Immortals milled about the space and came over and talked with Sean and had some more in depth conversations rather than the shallow introductions from before. It seemed that only about a third of the Immortals in the building had come to the front to greet him, with the rest staying in the ¡®Den¡¯ itself and continuing with whatever they had been doing before.

    While many were relaxing, Alex brought Sean to a few rooms where he saw a few of them working. Several were on calls or appearing to be involved in some kind of business discussions or negotiating.

    ¡°What are they doing? Why do it here?¡± Sean asked curiously after they left the long row of soundproof cubicles with only the single window behind.

    ¡°Many own their own network of mortal companies,¡± Alex said, sounding largely disinterested in the concept, ¡°But you know how it¡­ Well maybe you don¡¯t know how it is. We¡¯re not supposed to involve ourselves in mortal affairs. Illegal actually. They do it from here for safety so the Gaian Knights don¡¯t swoop in and arrest them.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a crime? Gaian knights will arrest you?¡± Sean asked in disbelief. Alex glanced over at him and laughed lightly, ¡°Oh, Malketh, I¡¯d forgotten! You¡¯re such a bad boy, aren¡¯t you? Peter told me that you¡¯re quite the entrepreneur yourself! Thanks, I bet we have a few of your new products in here by now. Really you¡¯d be amazed how a few percent more efficient in energy adds up over the hundreds of years that we¡¯ve had this place set up.¡±

    ¡°Peter told you that?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Are you important around here?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yes. You know, only like third or fourth in command after Peter Rose. But still pretty high up for the fifty three of us. Well, fifty four now with you here. You¡¯re an interesting guy, Malketh. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll really make things interesting in these next few years.¡±

    ¡°This place is nice, don¡¯t get me wrong,¡± Sean said cautiously, ¡°But is that all it is? A place for the Immortals to relax without getting bothered by the Gaian knights? Is there some overarching goal that we¡¯re working towards?¡±

    ¡°Ah, I forgot to give you the speech!¡± Alex said, ¡°That¡¯s my bad. Yes, you must be confused about that part. Yes, we have a goal. Nothing really concrete, but it¡¯s just to make the world a better place if everyone decides that it would be best as a team. Give money to charities, start a business, topple an evil empire or two¡­ Whatever we think is best and would help the most people. We do make mistakes sometimes, but we¡¯ve learned and we¡¯re getting better all the time. But if we have a communal goal we all pitch in sometimes to help get things done. But other than that we are mostly making our own efforts on doing some good out there.¡±

    ¡°And the Gaian Knights don¡¯t like that, I suppose?¡± Sean ventured.

    ¡°Nope. It¡¯s all non-interference that, and let the mortals make their own decisions this. Like we should just stand by and let things go to shit when we were chosen by the Shadow for something greater!¡±

    Sean shifted uncomfortably and Alex noticed.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry though. I¡¯m called the Herald of the Shadow by the mortals. Eyes of the Shadow, my group¡¯s called. Because they¡¯re going out there looking for injustice to stop in the Shadow¡¯s name to prove themselves righteous. Eyes of the Shadow, carrying out the Shadow¡¯s will¡­ I¡¯m rather passionate about it all. Our religion grows with every year! People are always trying to slander me, but really what I¡¯m saying just makes sense, right? Why would the Shadow choose to give powers like ours to just anyone? There has to be a reason, and that reason¡¯s got to be that it¡¯s our duty to do good in the world with our gift. That¡¯s what makes the most sense, don¡¯t you agree Malketh?¡±

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Alex¡¯s tone grew impassioned the longer spoke until he ended by staring at Sean expectantly for an answer and leaned forward in anticipation.

    Sean awkwardly chuckled, ¡°Why does the Shadow need to want anything at all? Maybe it just feels bad for us as we die. And the powers only come to the people that it feels the worst for in that moment.¡±

    ¡°Then why not everyone? Why would only a select few be granted our power?¡± Alex asked intently.

    ¡°Er, I¡­ It probably doesn¡¯t see like we do. Maybe it only sees a few people. Like a single frame in the movie, and not able to watch the whole thing. It just saves everyone it sees, but can¡¯t see every person who¡¯s about to die.¡±

    Sean blinked at the analogy that suddenly sprung into his head. But it did feel fitting for how the Shadow would appear and disappear at certain moments. And it was one of the major branches of Shadow worship in the future, the concept he had just said.

    ¡°Hm¡­ That¡¯s an interesting thought,¡± Alex said thoughtfully and leaned back, ¡°Maybe I¡¯ll talk about that for my next sermon. It certainly is an interesting way to think about that philosophy, to contrast with the ultimate randomness and chaos compared with what the Gaian Knights prescribe to the Shadow. I don¡¯t think that that¡¯s a take that I¡¯ve heard before phrased in that kind of way honestly. Very interesting, very interesting¡­¡±

    Alex brightened up, ¡°Ah, you only get more unique as we go, Malketh! It¡¯s not often these days somebody can inspire me with something new in theology. It¡¯s sort of a passion of mine, as you can probably tell. Anyway, I think that¡¯s the end of our tour pretty much. Just let someone know when you want to leave and they¡¯ll find someone to take you. It¡¯s a whole process since our location¡¯s secret. But no rush, just relax, get to know everybody and hang out. See you later. Pretty sure my next sermon is in a few hours, so I have to leave. Best of luck and nice getting to know you, Malketh! Bye bye!¡±

    Alex power walked off and left Sean behind watching him leave.

    It was so strange, meeting the upbeat ¡®Herald¡¯. The people here seemed to view Alex¡¯s beliefs as sort of strange and unbelievable. But in the wider galaxy in the far future, Alex¡¯s beliefs were the default. Worship of the Shadow as a deity was nearly universal, with even the Founders and other prominent Immortals elevated to deity status in most religions. There were some other religions that floated around, but Shadow religions dominated them in all sectors so much that they were nothing more than a curiosity than something a normal mortal would ever encounter in their lifetimes.

    So Alex¡¯s views were actually somewhat normal to Sean. Even if his passion for the subject and being the head of a religion did make Sean more wary of the man.

    Sean wandered around for a bit and got to know a few of the people in the ¡®Den¡¯ while being as friendly as he could. It seems like everyone accepted that he would join them without fail, taking it as a basic fact that he was basically already a member from being inside this place already. And when he was ready, he told someone he wanted to leave. And after putting the hood back on to cover his head, he was escorted back to the GFC safehouse that he had left from originally.

    What a strange experience.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Sierra¡¯s given up the fight, settled down with his wife,¡± Sean argued as Violet lounged in his room as they casually kept playing their car racing game on the screen, ¡°You don¡¯t have to go back. You¡¯ve done enough. Even the commander agrees, you brought morale up just from getting rescued. You¡¯ve done enough for the cause.¡±

    Violet didn¡¯t say anything and kept focusing on the game until she managed to squeak by Sean and beat him to the finish line. She sighed as the screen proclaimed her victory over him.

    ¡°What else can I do? It¡¯s all I¡¯ve ever known since I was ten. I haven¡¯t done anything but fight since then. Even if it was just helping around at base before I was old enough to go out there. Could I even get a job, be a normal person, after everything? How could I when the Jade Congress is still out there?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve plenty of money you¡¯ve earned over the years that you never ended up spending. And with our new funding you¡¯ve earned a sizable bonus or two. If you ever get in money troubles, just ask me. I¡¯ve got more money than I know what to do with with all of my patents, even if most of it still goes to the GFC.¡±

    Violet glanced at him, ¡°Thanks, Malketh. I guess you¡¯re right. I wouldn¡¯t have to work¡­ But still. It just doesn¡¯t feel right when there¡¯s still more to be done. It¡¯s something that I have to do for myself. It¡¯s my whole purpose, what I¡¯m meant to do. How can I just give it up?¡±

    ¡°No one has a purpose to their life, Violet,¡± Sean said, ¡°At least not just one. You can find something else you enjoy, make some new friends. Don¡¯t you see that you¡¯d be happier if you just moved on and did something you really enjoyed? The GFC is on it. The Jade Congress is getting pushed back by us all on its own over the last few months since you¡¯ve been back. The GFC is interfering more and more to fight back against them from doing more things like what happened to your family.¡±

    ¡°I just have to do it,¡± Violet said, ¡°I can make a difference.¡±

    Sean stared at Violet intently. They¡¯d been arguing with each other for over two weeks over this issue, going back and forth on it. Violet wanted to go out on more missions against the Jade Congress on her own, even with Sierra gone to settle down with his wife and firmly retired.

    ¡°Would you like me to tell you something tragic?¡± Sean suddenly asked, ¡°Something I¡¯ve never told anyone before?¡±

    Violet looked at him in confusion at the sudden change in tone.

    ¡°Tragic? What? What are you talking about?¡±

    ¡°You were talking about making a difference,¡± Sean said, ¡°I¡¯ve never really been able to make a difference in anything I do. Avenging my parents, saving my girlfriend from prison¡­¡±

    Two prisons actually, Sean mused, when Lira was trapped by the Endless Flesh or in Immortus Station. Both times his contributions had been almost useless, and someone else had swooped in to do all the hard work of helping them.

    ¡°Your girlfriend was in prison?!¡± Violet said, ¡°The immortal one? How? Why?¡±

    Sean waved it off, ¡°It¡¯s complicated. You wouldn¡¯t believe me if I told you. My point is, that every time I tried to help the people I cared about, I¡¯ve failed. Someone else came in and did all the work for me. None of it was¡­ It¡¯s hard to explain. I was never the one who managed to save or avenge them. Is that selfish?¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I¡­ Maybe it is selfish,¡± Violet said softly, ¡°Maybe I am. That I can¡¯t let the GFC stop the Jade Congress on its own, that I have to be involved¡­¡±

    Sean startled, not meaning in that way, ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant, but I suppose that might be true if you say so. Look, my point is¡­ You¡¯re someone I care about. I mean I literally took several bullets for you. And for once¡­ I don¡¯t want it to be pointless. To have you get killed out there or be unhappy after I¡¯ve helped you.¡±

    Violet¡¯s expression shifted and she looked like she had an internal struggle as she looked at Sean.

    ¡°Fine,¡± Violet said with a long breath, ¡°Fine, Malketh. I¡¯ll retire. For you. And I guess¡­ For me too. Go out there and make normal friends or whatever who aren¡¯t such damn prodigies at videogames for some reason.¡±

    She picked up the controller and pressed the button to continue to the next race.

    ¡°Now let¡¯s play the game,¡± she said, ¡°I want to beat your ass again on the next track.¡±

    Sean picked up his controller and then had his ass throughoughly handed to him in the next game. He¡¯d never played any racing games before, so he was remarkably terrible at it and Violet utterly thrashed him almost every time they played one.

    Meh. He¡¯d just gloat a bit later to balance out his losses when Violet got in the mood to play some more fighting games later. She still enjoyed playing them despite their dynamic of her overwhelming him with various cheats and allies as he tried to fight them all off with pure skill.

    By the end of the night, they were both relaxed and all thoughts of their arguments in the distant past.

 Chapter 92: Into the Palace

    ¡°Malketh Gaiason?¡± Sean looked behind him and saw two Gaian knights standing behind him. He ignored them for a moment and turned around again and placed his hand on the grave in front of him.

    ¡°Goodbye, Violet,¡± he said softly before making his way to his feet and turning back around.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s me,¡± he said, ¡°What would two Knights want with me?¡±

    ¡°I think you know why we¡¯re here very well. You¡¯ve covered your tracks well for this long. But your backend hacker missed a camera. It caught you on the way here and flagged it to our system.¡±

    Sean let out a long sigh. It seems that they¡¯d taken the bait. They hadn¡¯t realized that the camera had been left running on purpose. It had been ten years since Violet¡¯s death, yet it felt like centuries had passed since he¡¯d last seen her.

    ¡°So what happens now?¡± Sean said after a moment, ¡°Am I under arrest?¡±

    ¡°No, not yet,¡± the Knight who appeared in charge said, ¡°Just come with us. We¡¯ll be taking you to the Palace and they¡¯ll decide what to do from there.¡±

    ¡°A Palace? Which one?¡± Sean asked in confusion.

    ¡°The Palace. The Palace for the Genemother. Home of the Gaian Knights. Been a long since there¡¯s been a new Immortal. Over half a decade at least. We¡¯re due for a new one sometime soon after you.¡±

    Sean let out a sharp breath. Emily¡­ He¡¯d nearly forgotten that she would be there. Would she know him? Could he tell her about the future and change things somehow now that he had a body?

    But he had his own mission now given to him directly by Peter Rose. The only way to get more information on what Peter Rose was up to was press forward. He had proven himself valuable over these last few years. Using Orion to whisper in his ear what he wanted to know while providing some extra hints of his technology to the ¡®Den¡¯. And he had formed a closer relationship with Alex to discuss the theology of the Shadow, which helped him rise the ranks of the organization faster than any of the others in a few short decades.

    Orion¡¯s AI core was squirreled away in a safe place somewhere only Sean would be able to find it. For his own safety, Orion had mostly been on standby mode for the last few decades. Or his equivalent to sleeping. With Sean around both Peter Rose and unfamiliar people in the GFC it wasn¡¯t safe for Orion to be active and trying to talk to Sean. And Orion got grumpy and depressed when he didn¡¯t have anyone to talk to ¡®face¡¯ to face, so it had just been cruel to him telling him to not talk to Sean.

    So Orion was sleeping at the moment, but Sean woke him up for short stretches when he had enough time and was secure enough that Orion wasn¡¯t at risk of being discovered and he could travel directly to where his AI core was housed so he could talk with him.

    And sometimes Orion helped Sean with something or some task while he was awake, but they mostly just talked with each other and relaxed together when Orion was awake.

    Orion would be shut down for a long time after this. Completely inactive until Sean was able to get some time on his own without being followed by either Peter Rose or the Gaian Knights. And go to activate Orion again.

    But until that point, Sean could only do his best to comply with the orders of the two Gaian Knights staring at him expectantly as he stood there thinking.

    Sean went peacefully with the two knights away from the graveyard and they drove to a nearby airstrip where they went into a luxury jet and starting flying through the air.

    ¡°You seem tense,¡± the senior Knight observed as they sat down, ¡°Don¡¯t be. The Council is pretty forgiving. None of us liked the Jade Congress too much. The GFC overthrowing them was cheered by many. After all that footage and documents that leaked I could see why you had such a grudge against them¡­¡±

    Sean didn¡¯t answer and idly stared out of the window. It had always been Violet¡¯s dream to see the Jade Congress collapse. He had done it for her, so she could see it within her lifetime. Things weren¡¯t perfect under the new GFC rule, but they were far better than they had been.

    It was Sean¡¯s way of proving to Violet that she¡¯d made the right choice, that her being happy was allowed. That even with her staying back the mission was still being accomplished. It was harrowing, having to watch her grow old and die as he remained the same. He had never truly understood Lira when she tried to explain the feeling before. He¡¯d understood intellectually, but not truly what she must have felt seeing a line of her mortal friends die one by one in a long line.

    And from her account that was for people that were barely acquaintances. People who were somewhat friendly with her, but mostly still shunned her because she was an Immortal.

    What Sean had with Violet was orders deeper than that. They had been great friends. What would it be like, meeting someone like Violet again, only to watch them die again.

    ¡°Is it true that¡­¡± the younger man, but seeing Sean¡¯s expression as he stared out the window, the senior placed his arm on the other man¡¯s shoulder and shook his head slightly.

    The rest of the flight was silent as Sean stared out the jet window and let his emotions rise and ebb within his chest freely.

    The plane landed and the two Gaian Knights left the plane. Sean paused at the threshold just before he was about to walk down the stairs. Past here everything would change. He could finally be entering the Immortal world and start working towards some answers on why the Shadow had sent him here with this body.

    A chance to finally determine what Peter Rose was up to.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    They walked into the ornate hall that was packed with hundreds of people. Sean eyed their fashionable, stylish, and clearly expensive clothing as the two knights that brought him flanked him from behind.

    Many were wearing the distinctive crisp and militaristic uniform of the Gaian Knights. There was a clear path through the crowd leading to the end of the hall to a slightly raised stone platform at the end. Arrayed around the edges of the platform were a series of chairs arrayed in a circle with a stern faced immortal seated in each of them and a similarly circular table in front of them.

    Sean glanced at the two knights who¡¯d escorted him in. The senior one nodded his head towards the center of the circular space. Sean walked up onto the platform and waited as the crowd of onlookers pressed in to observe and listen as the Gaian seemed to work to make sure they didn¡¯t press too close to the people in the chairs.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    This seemed just like how the Immortal Council chamber in the modern day. Lira had described it to him after she¡¯d tried to get justice for herself for Lars¡¯ abuse before she had met Sean. He felt his lips twist into a faint grimace as the comparison became unmistakable as soon as he made the connection. This might be the little baby Immortal Council that he was dealing with right now.

    ¡°Malketh Gaiason,¡± a dark skinned man sitting in the chair directly in front of him asked, ¡°Do you understand why you are here in front of this council today?¡±

    There was a short pause before Sean realized that he really meant for Sean to reply to the question,

    ¡°I¡¯m assuming that it has something with breaking out my mortal friends from prison?¡±

    A short pause, ¡°Friends with criminals that are estimated to be responsible for over ten million credits or more destruction and numerous deaths of soldiers only doing their job. These are your friends?¡± the man said scathingly.

    Sean blinked. He¡¯d expected some hostility, but¡­ Was the man truly not aware?

    ¡°Are you talking about the Jade Congress?¡± Sean clarified, ¡°The damage to their military bases is what you¡¯re referring to, that they did during their missions for the GFC?¡±

    ¡°And the death of innocent soldiers,¡± the man added as the rest of the members of the council and the surrounding crowd silently spectated, ¡°So you admit it? You knew what they did and not only didn¡¯t stop it, but actively helped them escape. Are you yourself a member of the GFC mr. Gaiason?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely, I¡¯m a member,¡± Sean said with no hesitation, ¡°I don¡¯t see the problem with that. They are now the ruling party of the former Jade Congress territory.¡±

    ¡°They overthrew the legitimate democratic government of the area and destabilized the whole region!¡± the man shouted and came halfway to stand at his feet, ¡°You are a member of an extremist organization that waged a guerilla war for decades, likely with your assistance!¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sean said boldly, ¡°I helped the GFC as best as I could against the Jack Congress. But don¡¯t you dare call them a democracy. No one from the ruling party ever lost an election for over two hundred years, not even in the smaller territory elections. Their democracy was nothing but a sham to placate people who didn¡¯t want to look too closely at what they were really doing.¡±

    ¡°Really doing?¡± the man countered, ¡°What exactly were they really doing then? I¡¯ve seen no credible evidence of the Jade Congress doing anything so egregious as you seem to be claiming.¡±

    Sean clenched his fist briefly before releasing it again slowly.

    ¡°If you¡¯d have gone into one of those ¡®ammo depots¡¯ you¡¯d have found all the evidence you needed. Political prisoners and all different methods of torture to get information from them. But no one ever bothered looking inside because the Jade Congress was so powerful. They deserved to collapse.¡±

    There was some muttering across the room and Sean suddenly snapped out of his hyperfocus on the argument to remember that he wasn¡¯t alone. He twiched slightly and straightened up and tried to calm himself down from his anger at this man¡¯s ignorant tirade on things he clearly didn¡¯t understand.

    ¡°Councilor Sanje,¡± a woman sitting to the man¡¯s right said, ¡°Shut it, won¡¯t you? The adults are talking. We all get that the Jade Congress paid you well. So well that even after they¡¯re all dead you¡¯re still mimicking their talking points. But really that¡¯s enough.¡±

    The man, Sanje, sputtered in anger, but controlled himself and sat back in his chair while glaring at Sean silently.

    ¡°I¡¯m Councilor Clara,¡± the woman continued, ¡°Nice to meet you, Malketh. It seems like you¡¯ve led an interesting life so far. Revolution fighter and overthrowing governments¡­ Unfortunately as rudely as Sanje said it, there¡¯s a grain of truth in there. You¡¯ve still admitted to a crime in breaking out those two GFC members back then. But¡­¡±

    The woman smiled slightly and looked to be almost lounging in her chair and seeming almost completely relaxed, ¡°I suppose there were some mitigating circumstances. Whatever the past was, the GFC is the ruling party now. If we can verify your status as a member and get an official pardon of your actions, then I see no reason why we would need to punish you. After all, that would be interfering in mortal affairs, punishing an Immortal because they used to belong in this old group or another. And we can¡¯t have that. I call for a vote, to allow all actions Malketh here took as a GFC militant to be pardoned by his former government if they wish and we view him as¡­ a new man of sorts, fully responsible for his actions alone from this day forward. I mean, our records show that he was never even brought here to our Council when he first turned Immortal! I believe perhaps this might be more our oversight in guiding him than malicious intent on his part.¡±

    ¡°I second the motion!¡± Another councilor shouted from Sean¡¯s right and after a short vote, a majority of the eleven member council raised their hands. Only Councilor Sanje and one female councilor kept their hands down for the vote.

    Sean glanced at Councilor Clara and she winked at him and smirked slightly. It seems that he was going to be pardoned.

    ¡°Well that settles it then, I think,¡± Clara said, ¡°Sorry for the unpleasant welcome to our ranks, Malketh. We have a room set aside for you. We have a test regarding ethics and regulations for your behavior as an Immortal. If you pass and follow its guidance then you may request for permission to leave and go out into the wider world. If you want to. This place is rather nice. Council adjourned.¡±

    Clara banged her fist against the table and then walked away. A few seconds later the others followed suit, leaving Sean standing alone in the center.

    The two Gaian knights came up to him and escorted him out as well to his luxurious room. Sean got an odd sense of familiarity as he looked around the primitive but plush and clearly expensive room. He was sure of it now. This was the beginnings of the Immortal Council. It was the same exact strategy. Pamper new Immortals and get them placid and dependent on the luxuries in this palace or on Immortus Station. Then make it hard to leave for a long long time until they were old enough that any concerns of the mortal world had long since faded away so far long ago as if to be irrelevant to them after they left the comfortable nest.

    Over the next few weeks, Sean didn¡¯t strain himself. It would be nice to just relax a bit and enjoy himself a bit. Peter Rose sent Sean into this place to work his way up so that he would be more useful to the group.

    Sean found it very amusing in a way that Peter was working against the very organization that he would end up leading later on. And that he was sending Sean to do the thing that Sean had been doing to him the whole time.

    He was almost certain that he would never be in the ¡®inner circle¡¯ around Peter, including Alex the Herald of the Shadow. But he was already pretty damn close. Sean was sure that if he kept proving himself valuable and pretended to forget all about being shot towards the sun, that Peter might eventually start trusting him with things that were more important.

    But Sean was absolutely certain that it had been Peter who had done it and blasted him towards the sun. But Peter was the one who had recruited him to his group. So there was a chance he¡¯d let his guard down and forget about what he¡¯d tried to do to Sean.

    Sean wandered around and generally got to know the assorted Immortals lived in the palace. It was bizarre how similar to Immortus Station the community was. There was the same fascination and constant gossip and focus on fashion and other fleeting trends over anything else of substance.

    Very few people who lived left for long periods of time. But there were frequent visitors that came for short periods to socialize for a bit before leaving again back to their business out on Gaia.

    It seems that even now there were some basic terraforming projects underway on some promising planets in nearby star systems.

    Even Earth itself was a candidate for rehabilitation, even if it was still a big radioactive ball of ice at the moment and so would still need some serious effort before it would be hospitable to human life again.

    Just like at Immortus Station, Sean found himself able to become friendly with most of the Immortals in the Gaian Palace, but not close. They were just too detached from the realities of daily life. Of anything outside the walls of the Palace.

    Although Sean did see Alvrix and had a brief conversation with her that was more interesting. She was one of the Immortals that dropped by for a short period before leaving again to go on her own business elsewhere. Just like with the Immortal Council there was an ¡®Immortal district¡¯ in a few places around Gaia where the Immortals were allowed to live relatively isolated from the mortals around them.

    So many things had changed, yet hearing about the structure, it all seemed oh so familiar to Sean. It was a bit eerie, honestly, how close it was.

    But things were different now.

    Now he had a mission in this place.

    To become important enough that he could get answers from this place and Peter Rose.

    And discover whatever it was Peter Rose was hiding and what he was planning.

 Chapter 93: A Familiar Face

    ¡°Another day at work, huh? I¡¯m off to sleep, Enforcer Malketh.¡±

    Sean nodded at the Gaian Knight standing guard on the walls of the Palace and took his place. There to detect people sneaking out as much as sneaking in. It had been a few decades of work, but he¡¯d been promoted to a full Enforcer. So he had duties now to guard the walls on occasions like this and help the others if there was a criminal case that they were struggling to solve with the ¡®rogue¡¯ Immortals out there living their lives on Gaia.

    Sean wasn¡¯t a Knight, and probably wouldn¡¯t ever be. In order to join, you had to swear to a set of ideals and follow them unflinchingly without any room for leeway. Sean didn¡¯t think he¡¯d be able to live that way. It was a matter of honor, and people who broke their codes or vows were shunned and stripped of their Knighthood. And barred from ever becoming a Knight again.

    Most of the Enforcers who acted as government workers and a police force both for the Palace were Knights, but it wasn¡¯t required. It was only so common because Knights were respected in general by the other Immortals and they were driven to help due to their sworn ideals.

    With such a small organization, Sean was rising the ranks quickly just by paying attention and putting some effort into his work. In a few short years he was sure he¡¯d be high enough in the organization that Peter Rose would give him some further instructions.

    Sean stood and patrolled the outer walls of the Palace in the darkness of the wild countryside. Just like Immortus Station, it was isolated from the hustle and bustle of the mortals of the universe. This whole area was wooded forest and there was no one living here for miles except for the animals.

    ¡°Hey. Malketh right?¡± A female voice suddenly said from next to him, ¡°You¡¯re the new Enforcer?¡±

    Sean turned and his eyes widened as he saw Emily standing there leaning casually against a nearby wall staring at him. She looked the same as she ever had physically. But somehow she was so different. Not as nervous, depressed. There was a faint hint of sadness in her eyes, but she otherwise looked fairly happy and content.

    ¡°Yep. That¡¯s me¡­¡± Sean said as his mind started racing.

    ¡°I know, genemother, right?¡± Emily said as she gestured towards herself, ¡°Never thought people would treat me this way. I¡¯m a person just like anyone else, no need to be so tense. I¡¯m not going to bite you.¡±

    Sean shook his head and nodded.

    ¡°Huh,¡± Emily said slowly as he didn¡¯t say anything in reply, ¡°You¡¯re different. All the others insisted that of course I deserve special treatment because of who I am. When I did to this for their first time, you know. No comment?¡±

    ¡°No comment,¡± Sean said before opening and closing his mouth for a moment. Should he tell her about the future? About what might happen? That must be something that could change the future¡­ But what if it didn¡¯t work? Emily watched him curiously and waited for him to say whatever he wanted to say.

    Sean decided to go for it. The worst case she just thought he was crazy.

    ¡°I¡¯m from the future,¡± he said in a rush, ¡°I have so much to tell you about what happened then, the things you can change¡­¡±

    ¡°Okay,¡± Emily said and she frowned slightly as she nodded at him.

    Sean explained to her everything he could remember about the future from the top to the bottom and she frowned and nodded as he spoke. Looking serious but focused.

    After Sean finished saying everything Emily stood there nodding for a few seconds even as Sean stopped talking. Her eyes glazed over for a moment before looking back at him.

    ¡°That sounds pretty involved. Best of luck for your movie. Make sure to get me tickets when you figure it out.¡±

    ¡°What? Movie? No, it¡¯s really¡­ I¡¯m from the future and¡­¡±

    Emily started nodding again as he spoke as she focused and as soon as he cut himself off her eyes glazed over again.

    ¡°Right,¡± she said, ¡°You are different. Although I do enjoy a good Science fiction film, it¡¯ll be interesting seeing one with me as the protagonist. Usually I get more of the savior and mentor roles swooping in to save the day at the last moment.¡±

    Sean tried again and again to explain that he was the future in as many ways as he could. But while Emily heard every word he said, she just couldn¡¯t interpret it correctly or believe that he was talking about something real.

    It was supremely frustrating.

    ¡°It¡¯s been good talking with you, Malketh,¡± Emily said eventually after Sean had largely given up on convincing her, ¡°Good for you being so passionate about making your movie. Maybe I¡¯ll go see it when it¡¯s done. See you around.¡±

    Emily turned and walked away into the darkness and Sean looked after long after she¡¯d left.

    The next day, Sean discovered much to his confusion that the strange disbelief towards his words did not extend to anyone else but Emily. He told one of his acquaintances in the Palace all about it with deadly seriousness. And while they certainly thought that he was crazy and incorrect, they fully understood that Sean was serious about his claims and the exact content of what he¡¯d told him.

    He actually was forced to take a short vacation after the person ratted out his strange behavior to the rest of the Enforcers. None of the Enforcers had any trouble remembering Sean¡¯s claims either, although most seemed to shrug it off as stress of some sort making him act strange.

    For years afterwards the Enforcers joked about him as a ¡®time traveler¡¯ and asked him to predict small things that might happen to him. Something that Sean obviously was unable to do and humiliated him further.

    It got to the point that captain Entiru had stepped in and stopped it. Entiru had spoken to Sean a few times, but they didn¡¯t interact too often even though Sean was in the Enforcers. Entiru was someone else from the future, but Sean hadn¡¯t exactly grown too close to him. So while it was a bit strange to think about sometimes, Sean didn¡¯t feel compelled to talk or become friends with the man or do anything out of his way from what he¡¯d normally act regarding Entiru.

    ¡°So you¡¯ve met the genemother, have you?¡± one of the Enforcers joked as they were about to change shifts, ¡°You should go to her museum. It¡¯s quite the wonder of Gaia.¡±

    ¡°A museum?¡± Sean asked in surprise, ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    The Enforcer snorted and smirked slightly, ¡°Man, you really don¡¯t know anything do you Malketh. Someone really must have screwed up your education programs growing up. Yeah. The Museum of Renewal. It¡¯s about a thirty minute flight from here. The genemother builds and operates the exhibits. Acts as a tour guide too sometimes, I¡¯ve heard. There¡¯s a worldwide lottery and scholarship that decides who can go since otherwise only the ultra wealthy would be able to get in. You can reserve a spot too. Might take a while, but you can go. It¡¯s in its own isolated area away from the hubbub so it¡¯s peaceful and you don¡¯t have to deal with road noise or getting interrupted by anything like most other museums are. At least it isn¡¯t flooded with mortals like most of the good places are these days¡­¡±

    Sean frowned, ¡°Thanks. Maybe I¡¯ll go,¡± he said.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean stood at the entrance to the Museum of Renewal. He hadn¡¯t been sure what to expect initially before he¡¯d arrived, but he was certainly impressed. The Museum of Renewal wasn¡¯t just one thing, but a whole campus of buildings in its own space. Sean could see walkways with glass walls criss crossing between all the different buildings. The entrance formed an archway that was made of stone, but had been carved as if it was a series of looping and twisting braids swooping over the pair of open double doors. Various images of various animals and assortments objects were brightly painted and covered the outsides of the whole buildings like one massive canvas and covering every available surface. Sean could clearly see the chaos and multitude of different artists and styles that were used for each individual object as they were added to the larger buildings. Yet¡­ All of it somehow still came together as one canvas, all the scattered objects and animals forming one cohesive whole.

    Sean went inside and saw the great hall around him. There were people milling around and chatting as they explored, but the place was empty enough that the noise wasn¡¯t deafening or the place so busy that it was uncomfortable.

    The swooping ceilings went all up to the roof of the building ten floors above. Walkways lined the edges of the great hall and looked down onto the floor below. On the floor was a series of three foot by three foot stone tiles with markings on each of them. The markings were worn down and smoothed, likely from all the feet that had walked over them in these last few millennia. Sean squatted down and brushed his hands over the tile right by the entrance and inspected it.

    A series of five hand prints set lightly into the stone, and there near the bottom of the tile was a date. The numbers were worn, and Sean had to squint to try to read them as they were fuzzed and blurred from erosion.

    ¡°337 A.R.¡±

    Sean looked up and saw a young man who couldn¡¯t have been older than sixteen standing there. He was wearing the bright leaf green museum staff uniform and looking down to where Sean was brushing the tile beneath him lightly with his fingers.

    ¡°That¡¯s the date,¡± the boy continued, ¡°The handprints are of the first generation of curators for the museum. A.R. After Renewal. Renewal of humanity as a species after the first human Luna Stenson was born from the very first incubation machine.¡±

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Sean looked down at the worn barely visible handprints in the stone. They were small. Children¡¯s handprints, ¡°These are children¡¯s handprints,¡± Sean asked as he stood to his feet, ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Many of us were raised here, this is our home,¡± the boy said, ¡°The family business. I¡¯m surprised you don¡¯t know that already honestly. Our family is a bit famous¡­ All of our handprints go into the great hall.¡±

    ¡°Oh? What family is that?¡± Sean asked curiously, ¡°To maintain it for so long, that¡¯s quite something to keep going¡­¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re the Stensons,¡± the boy said proudly, ¡°Direct children of the Genemother herself! Although she¡¯s not one for titles. Mom has been running this museum ever since 300 A.R. Nearly fifteen hundred years now. Would you like to see my handprints? I had mine imprinted when I was nine. Every curator of the museum raised here has their hands put here on the floor of the main hall. The imprints and tiles from the long term curators not from our family covers the floors of the rest of this whole museum. But only the direct family gets to go in the great hall.¡±

    ¡°Sure, show me your handprint. I had lost track of the time. Can¡¯t believe it¡¯s already passed 1800 A.R. already. Although don¡¯t you have better things to do?¡± Sean asked skeptically, ¡°On the job and all?¡±

    ¡°Ah, I almost forgot,¡± the boy said and looked slightly embarrassed, ¡°You¡¯re Malketh Gaiason, the Immortal, right? I¡¯ll be your personal tour guide for your visit. Or if you¡¯d like you can wait a few hours for the larger tour group. We have about three or four a day and you¡¯ve just missed the last one that left. Being your tour guide is my job right now.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s me,¡± Sean said in surprise, ¡°Nice to meet you¡­¡±

    ¡°Michael,¡± the boy said, ¡°Michael Stenson. Mom wasn¡¯t feeling very creative when she named me.¡±

    ¡°And by mom, you mean¡­¡±

    ¡°The Genemother,¡± Michael finished, ¡°She¡¯s always raised a family ever since the beginning of Gaia. Even if it was only a single kid or many.¡±

    ¡°And how many children does she have right now?¡±

    ¡°Right now? Oh, there¡¯s a lot of us right now,¡± Michael said as he started walking and Sean followed him, ¡°Three that are around my age. Another two that are under five. Mom has plenty of nurses to help out with them, which is good. Eight more of my siblings are in their twenties or thirties and chose to stick around to help at the museum. And that¡¯s not even counting the older ones or all the distant cousins or aunts and uncles from all the other Stensons over Gaian history.¡±

    ¡°And your older siblings?¡± Sean asked as they kept walking across the great hall as the crowds milled around and moved through the museum, ¡°What did they choose to do if not work here at the museum?¡±

    ¡°All sorts of things,¡± Michael said, ¡°Mom makes sure that we¡¯re educated, and we did all grow up in a museum¡­ It¡¯s not like a rule or anything that we have to stay. But there¡¯s plenty of different jobs here, we¡¯re not all tour guides. So usually there¡¯s a job for everyone that they would like.¡±

    They stopped in front of a tile next to the large stairway at the back of the hall leading up to the next floor of the museum.

    ¡°This is my tile and handprint,¡± Michael said and pointed to the handprint farthest to the left.

    There were three handprints of various sizes at the top of the tile and at the bottom the date carved in large bold letters. 3792 A.R.

    ¡°How does anyone remember which tile goes for who?¡± Sean asked after a moment.

    ¡°Our records tell us. Each tile is made in batches of two. There¡¯s a whole wing of the museum all about us with the second tile and a full explanation with names and information about the person who made it. Although before we die it¡¯s pretty much only our names and a picture of us making the handprints during the ceremony¡­¡±

    ¡°Interesting,¡± Sean said as he looked between Michael and the tile for a moment. He felt the weight of history for a moment as he glanced around the great hall and saw the worn handprints and carved dates covering the space, ¡°That¡¯s really quite something. So, Michael. What do you suggest I see first? I doubt I¡¯d be able to see this whole place in a day.¡±

    Michael straightened up and became much more formal all of a sudden, ¡°You¡¯ve been given an unlimited pass for your visit for the next year, sir. Perks of being an Immortal. My sister will take my place and we¡¯ll switch off guiding you while you¡¯re here. Just ask for Reese if I¡¯m not around.¡±

    Sean raised an eyebrow at the new information. Huh, that was convenient. He should really start reading the fine print on these things.

    ¡°Great,¡± Sean said, ¡°So, Michael. What do you think we should look at first? I¡¯m coming in blind to this, thought I¡¯d explore as I go. Any suggestions?¡±

    ¡°Well, what interests you? This building is mostly history. The first two floors are for old Earth history, and the next three for general Gaian history. There¡¯s another whole building for various Immortals and what they did, including Mom and the other nine Founders. That one also has the different fables and legends from early Gaia and that Mom told to the earliest people. We¡¯ve got the science building with demonstrations and little exhibits you can play with to demonstrate some things with physics¡­ There¡¯s¡­ Actually it would be easier to just show you the map. There¡¯s over fifteen buildings, we can plan the route together. You can do them in any order.¡±

    Sean was handed a detailed map with all the various exhibits and themes. With at least five floors per building and such a large campus, there was a lot to consider as he looked it over. His eyes snagged at one particular label.

    ¡°Living exhibits?¡± he asked curiously, ¡°What is this?¡±

    ¡°Oh, yes,¡± Michael said, ¡°We¡¯ve got animals and fish in there. It¡¯s been mom¡¯s pet project for the last thousand years or so. She¡¯s been manipulating the genetics of Gaian animals to make them closer to their Earth counterparts. So turning the Ragtuls into wolves and the Inturuls into bats for example. Those are Earth animals. All those Earth creatures all look so strange, it¡¯s really something to see. Zoos and aquariums all over the world fill their Earth exhibits from the Earth creatures that we make from our breeding programs. I¡¯m studying there to be a caretaker in the future hopefully.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go there first,¡± Sean said, intrigued. When he had been observing Emily on Earth in ghostly form, she¡¯d only ever been to the zoo twice in her whole life during a family vacation. Otherwise, Emily had lived in a relatively urban zone that had minimal wildlife. Sean hadn¡¯t been able to see a great selection of what a normal selection of Earth Life should be.

    Michael nodded and started leading Sean to walk outside and through some gravel paths to another building. The outside was painted an alternating green and blue wavy pattern and Sean could see that the animals painted on these buildings looked much different than the ones on the main one. They all followed the same theme and after a moment Sean vaguely recognized a few of them as Earth animals that he had seen watching over the younger Emily¡¯s shoulder back on Earth.

    They went inside and Michael started leading Sean through from enclosure to enclosure containing all sorts of animals of all sorts. Each exhibit had large practically invisible shields that kept the animals inside while also providing an almost completely clear view inside.

    Wolves, bears, deer, fish of all kinds, sharks, something called a manta ray, every earth animal that Sean knew about and a few that he didn¡¯t was in this place. The building was quite large, as the bear enclosure and several other much larger animals needed a lot of space to roam inside.

    There were little stands that had little paragraphs explaining what the animals were and some facts about them, as well as the A.R. date that Emily had finished creating their genomes and started breeding them.

    Michael was a well of information, seeming excited as he explained all about the animals and shared stories about them. A few of the animals even came up to the glass and stared at Michael specifically when he walked by. He fed them sometimes, Michael explained so they had learned to pay attention whenever he walked by.

    They spent a few hours wandering the floors of the living exhibit building until there was only one section left.

    ¡°The insect exhibit?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Why is the¡­ ¡®ant¡¯ feeding chamber marked as on the opposite side of the floor as the main colony? And why are there so many of the feeding chambers?¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t ruin the surprise,¡± Michael said knowingly, having relaxed after showing Sean around for so long even if Michael looked a bit tired by now, ¡°You¡¯ll see.¡±

    ¡°Why do the insects get a whole floor to themselves?¡± Sean asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t the Earth ones rather small? I didn¡¯t think there were any ones that got as large as that bear or wolf for example that they would need such a large enclosure¡­¡±

    Michael gave Sean a strange look, ¡°Earth insect equivalents don¡¯t get that big on Gaia either. Luckily. Imagine one getting as big as a wolf, haha. That¡¯d be a horror show.¡±

    Sean thought to the endless hordes of the Endless Flesh. Giants standing over fully grown trees, mantids as tall as a man, so many bodies that they formed a literal wall after they were killed¡­

    ¡°Yeah, a real horror show,¡± Sean agreed.

    ¡°But to your question, mom¡¯s created many many varieties of the insects over the years. Ones that she remembered that lived on Earth, or as close as she can get her creations to them. So while each of their exhibits doesn¡¯t need much space, it has the most species within it by far compared to any of the other sections. That¡¯s why it gets a whole floor to itself. The real centerpiece is the ant colony. We¡¯ll be coming up to it soon.¡±

    The two of them finished walking up the stairs and there were a few other tourists standing around and inspected the little boxes in the walls containing each of the insects into their exhibits. They ranged in size, some were barely a square foot where they were slightly inset into the wall while others were much larger.

    Sean immediately noticed the network of clear tubes crossing the whole area. On the ceilings, snaking down a wall to plunge into a hole in the floor, joints, turns, and splits. There was a whole network of the clear tubes visible running down the whole set of exhibits. Inside were lines of little reddish insects carrying little chunks of leaf in their mouths.

    Sean moved closer and watched the line of what must be ants walking up the sloping clear pipe that sank into the floor about ten feet away from where he stood.

    He watched them move for a few moments back and forth.

    ¡°Mom calls it a supercolony,¡± Michael said after a few moments, ¡°All of the ants combined into one group and worked together. Millions of them. The nest is on one side and each of these tubes goes to its own feeding chamber filled with leaves and other things that they eat. They run back and forth bringing food from the feeding chambers back to the nest.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating¡­¡± Sean said as he watched the ants move back and forth down the tubes. He started following the tube on the ceiling and ignoring the other smaller exhibits in the walls for now. Michael trailed behind as Sean led the way. Finally they reached the end and a large lit up box. It was filled with dirt about waist height. In the center was a large mound several feet high that the ants were continuously boiling in and out of the structure. Sean watched it for a moment in interest.

    ¡°Look at this Malketh,¡± Michael said as he picked up and activated a device almost like a datapad attached to a heavy cable to the little stand that it had been sitting in.

    Michael tilted the screen to show Sean and passed it over to him. It was like all the dirt in the exhibit had disappeared all at once, only leaving the ants tunnels and little chambers behind.

    ¡°Scans are updated every few weeks,¡± Michael said, ¡°Just tap on the screen on any of the chambers. They are all specialized. Food storage, cultivating of fungus for food, nursing chambers for their young, chamber for the queen¡­ You name it. Individually they¡¯re incredibly dumb, but together they come together and it¡¯s all so organized.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± Sean said as he moved the datapad to inspect different parts of the structure. It almost acted like a scanner, letting him see through to the ant nest through the dirt. ¡°Amazing how complicated what they built is¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Well thank you, Michael. Long day for you helping me out. Sorry I took so long. We¡¯re right at the edge of closing time.¡±

    ¡°No, not at all,¡± Michael said with what seemed a slightly sore throat, ¡°Have a good day. Until next time, Malketh.¡±

    ¡°Until next time,¡± Sean agreed, ¡°Michael Stenson.¡±

    Sean took one last lingering look back at the main hall filled with imprints of hands. Imprints of all of Emily¡¯s adopted children throughout the years. Then he turned back and left the museum for the night.

 Chapter 94: Infiltration Complete

    ¡°Malketh. You¡¯ve done well. In these last few years you¡¯ve risen high in the Enforcer ranks, congratulations. I¡¯d like you to extend your vacation. Come swing by our exclusive club tomorrow so we can fill you in on our plans.

    ¡°-Peter Rose.¡±

    Sean eyed the note that had been slipped under his door sometime last night. He¡¯d just finished touring the full museum with Michael or his sister Reese guiding him through. It seems that it was time that Sean would be looped in to Peter Rose¡¯s plans for him.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Malketh, excellent work,¡± Peter said warmly after Sean reported what he had been doing for the last few years, ¡°You¡¯ve risen in their ranks faster than I¡¯d ever imagined that you would. High enough to accomplish what we need, I think.¡±

    ¡°And what is it that we¡¯ll be doing?¡± Sean asked neutrally.

    Peter glanced at Alex the Herald of the Shadow and to the woman who was his second in command. The same woman that had argued with Peter about shooting Sean into the sun after he was briefly captured by the Jade Congress.

    Alex nodded back at Peter encouragingly, ¡°I think he¡¯s ready,¡± Alex said, ¡°He¡¯s resourceful and I trust him. I¡¯d think he¡¯d understand the cause with his work at the GFC.¡±

    Peter looked to the woman and she snorted and seemed relatively unimpressed with Sean. But¡­

    ¡°I don¡¯t know him,¡± she said, ¡°But if Alex says so then I won¡¯t object.¡±

    Peter nodded and turned back to Sean.

    ¡°Malketh. It¡¯s time to bring you into our inner circle. You¡¯ve heard bits and pieces of our goals from Alex I¡¯m sure. But we have a plan, one that could propel our goals forward tremendously. Although the details of it won¡¯t exactly be¡­ pleasant.¡±

    Sean nodded and controlled his expression and waited for more.

    ¡°Our goal is to interfere in the world, to help put humanity on a better path,¡± Peter said, some passion leaking into his voice, ¡°Just like you¡¯ve seen with the Jade Congress¡­ Left to themselves the mortals cause massive amounts of suffering. The other mortal nations standing by and watching as all those terrible things happen outside of their borders. As Immortals, what is our purpose but to stop such senseless violence on a grand scale? Is it not our duty to interfere? But the Immortal Council stops us at every turn. We have to remain in the shadows and hidden from sight. Concealing ourselves. Because if the Immortal Council ever realized that we were an organized group rather than scattered individuals then they would crush us. Not through military might, money, or capture. They have a secret weapon that none of us could ever counter as we are.¡±

    ¡°And what weapon is that?¡± Sean asked and met Peter¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°The Genemother, Emily Stenson,¡± Peter said, ¡°She¡¯s their secret weapon. Anything she says goes. The people of this planet worship her as practically a goddess. In the case of a conflict between Immortals, she will emerge and inevitably declare the Council to be in the right. She¡¯s the one that helped form them after the first few Immortals started emerging from the mortal population. And if she said that I and our group was in the wrong¡­ Then we would be in the wrong. No mortal would deal with us, all but the most dedicated would instantly defect or be shunned from larger society¡­ A single word from her and we would lose. You are rather odd yourself, Malketh, for how irreverent you are towards her. You hide it well, but you don¡¯t view her like a goddess like most on Gaia seem to do.¡±

    Sean eyed Peter carefully as he considered the words. While the man¡¯s words were impassioned, he also detected something else buried beneath. Jealousy. Peter was jealous of Emily and how easily she could alter the world with a single word.

    ¡°If anyone deserves to be a goddess then it¡¯s her,¡± Sean said lightly, ¡°Considering what she did. So, any conflict with her is doomed from the start then. Why even bother doing all of this if that¡¯s true?¡±

    There was a short pause from Peter before he steeled himself, ¡°We have a plan to change her mind. It will have to be delicate and done perfectly. Otherwise everything will go wrong¡­ But if we pull it off then she¡¯ll switch to our side. And with her on our side nothing in this world can stop us from improving this world to its best self. With the four of us at its head of course. You¡¯ve seen it in your work with the GFC. How we can actively work to improve the world with our efforts. Why should we let mortal laws or governments stop us? We¡¯re Immortals, and with our long lives and accumulated knowledge we know best how to guide the mortals into the future.¡±

    Peter sounded almost wistful at the end there. The man refocused and looked back at Sean.

    ¡°We need to give her something to drive her. To force her to come out of her shell and start interfering with the mortals. She¡¯ll pave the way for us, ¡®leading¡¯ us by example so we can finally announce ourselves to the world. Act out in the open and dare the Immortal Council to oppose us. All the groundwork is set, there is only this last step of pulling the trigger.¡±

    ¡°And what is this thing? The thing that will drive her to do any of that?¡± Sean asked.

    ¡°There can only be one thing,¡± Peter said firmly, ¡°An attack on her museum. Nothing else but its complete destruction will motivate her enough to start interfering in the ways we need.¡±

    Sean felt his shock come through even as he worked hard to suppress it, ¡°A-And if we¡¯re caught? What then?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you worry Malketh,¡± Peter said calmly as he reached out and put his hand on Sean¡¯s shoulder, ¡°We have a plan. A network of mortal terrorists that will take the blame for the attack and draw her attention. And a few independent Immortals that they work with are not aligned with us that will take the fall.¡±

    Sean considered this for a moment, and then nodded even as the hand on his shoulder pressed down on him like he was carrying a mountain. He had to stop this. This was just like what Peter had done with the virus. Causing untold harm and chaos and pinning it on a convenient patsy. Peter had ended the world last time because of his arrogance. And it seemed that he hadn¡¯t learned his lesson.

    Sean had to stop it.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean hesitated as he held the thumb sized device over the port to the Palace¡¯s internal network. Peter Rose had given him this for his mission. The computer was opened with Sean¡¯s credentials, which were high enough to access the root systems, even if only with viewing privileges. But that was enough for the computer virus waiting inside the thumb drive held in his hand.

    It would worm itself into the computer systems through Sean¡¯s access before deleting any traces of itself Peter Rose had assured him. Something to give Peter remote access and secret control of every device and alarm in the Palace.

    The Immortals that Peter would be using for the attack along with the other mortal terrorists would be attacking the Museum of Renewal in two days. Any sign of criminal Immortals usually sent a warning to the Palace and Enforcers to call for backup or containment. And for the Museum of Renewal specifically they were on a hair trigger and ready to move out if anything went wrong.

    With a deep breath Sean plugged in the thumb drive and let the virus infect the computer and begin its work. With this Peter would be able to shut down any alarms and prevent any help from arriving at the Museum of Renewal in time.

    He had to prove that he was loyal. Prove that he was going along with the plan. Otherwise Peter might call off the plan. And Sean wouldn¡¯t know next time Peter chose to strike.

    Sean had almost completed his preparations. The restrictions of the Palace chafed more than they usually did for him. He had to get approval to leave, even as an Enforcer. He had already had his vacation, and he couldn¡¯t leave on his own without breaking the rules.

    Sean couldn¡¯t afford to make any mistakes. Someone in the Palace had slipped Peter¡¯s note under Sean¡¯s door during the night. Sean had no idea how many agents Peter might have or how much access to information in here Peter might have.

    But Sean had still been able to make some preparations. He used his own isolated storage drive and computer, and recorded everything that he knew about Peter Rose and the group he had formed. Sean even included the details about Peter Rose¡¯s role on Earth and how he was responsible for the release of the virus. He didn¡¯t know if any of it would do any good. But he had to do his best.

    On the day of the attack, Sean put on his Enforcer uniform and tucked the innocuous little thumb drive into his pocket and walked to the walls earlier than his shift to guard. He walked over to the airstrip outside while ignoring the confused looks that the other Enforcers gave him as he moved through.

    Sean stopped in front of one of the fastest light planes that the Council owned. He typed a code into the pad to the side of the door and it opened up. Sierra had taught him all about how to hack panels like this back at the GFC. Sean had already changed the code to his own over a year ago just in case. No one ever used this plane to travel, it was reserved for Enforcer emergencies. Like the terrorist attack on Emily¡¯s museum that was going to happen in forty five minutes. The plane could make it there in thirty give or take. Sean could only hope that he could make it in time.

    ¡°Hey, what do you think you¡¯re doing? Is that you in there Malketh?¡± A voice rang out over the console as Sean sat down in the cockpit and started firing up the engines for takeoff.

    He flipped the switch to talk back even as he started to taxi onto the runway and bring the plane engines to full throttle to bring him forward.

    ¡°I¡¯m stealing this plane for a bit,¡± Sean said casually, ¡°Felt like going on a joyride. Take it out of my paycheck, will you? Never flown one of these before. I¡¯ll be back in a few hours.¡±

    There was a long sigh over the radio, ¡°What in Gaia, Malketh? What¡¯s gotten into you? Come back here.¡±

    ¡°Sorry, Captain Entiru,¡± Sean said as the engines lurched into full thrust and the plane started rushing down the runway to take off, ¡°Be back soon. I¡¯ll explain later, but I really need to do this. You¡¯ll understand soon.¡±

    ¡°Malketh, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s gotten into you but¡­¡±

    Sean reached out and muted the captain as the plane lifted off the ground and started soaring through the sky on the way to his destination.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean carefully set the course of the plane and activated the autopilot. It had taken longer than expected to get here, the attack was supposed to happen in less than five minutes from now. He was cutting it close, but the more time Sean left the higher chance that one of Peter¡¯s sources would tip him off that Sean had left the Palace.

    Sean couldn¡¯t allow Peter to call off the attack at the last moment, otherwise Sean¡¯s preparations to expose him would be for nothing. With no smoking gun and nothing to link Peter to anything criminal then Sean was sure that he wouldn¡¯t get in trouble or be forced into hiding like Sean was hoping that he would be.

    Sean considered the parachute in the little compartment next to him for a moment before looking away again. A parachute would be far too obvious. Someone might see it from a distance and warn the terrorists that something was wrong.

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    Instead Sean carefully reached behind him and took out the carefully packaged bundle that he had prepared for this moment. Inside was an insulated package containing a pistol and several magazines of ammunition, as well as a full set of fresh clothes.

    Sean waited by the side door of the plane with one hand held to the handle and the other gripping the bundle tightly. Sitting behind him was a datapad with its screen lit up running a program that Sean had managed to cobble up for this. A dotted line marked the current trajectory of the plane while showing another arcing line that went out to hit the ground.

    Only three minutes before the attack was supposed to begin.

    Sean stayed there unmoving at the door and watched the datapad screen over his shoulder as the solid line of the trajectory they¡¯d already traveled rapidly approached the point where the dotted line left the plane towards the ground.

    He tensed his hand and threw open the side door of the plane as the datapad lit up and started flashing and buzzing as the moment came.

    Sean jumped out of the plane and clutched his bundle to his chest as he began to fall. Behind him he saw the plane continue to fly onwards, the autopilot guiding it to land by itself at the closest airport even as its side door remained wide open as it did so.

    Sean spread out his arms and legs and inspected the ground far below as he fell through the layer of clouds below him. The air was thin up here at cruising altitude as Sean kept falling down to the ground. Everything went white as the cloud surrounded him for a few seconds before he punched through and could see the ground below again.

    The Museum of Renewal was below him, his arc out of the plane carrying him directly towards it. Sean prepared himself and angled slightly to adjust his course as well as he could with his body as the ground started to swell rapidly below him.

    He noted with relief that he was relatively on target as the museum campus grew larger and larger below him as the wind rushed past his ears around him. He was rapidly descending towards the decorative lake on the corner of the property.

    At the last moment Sean threw the bundle that he had been holding tightly to the side as hard as he could. It left his hand and a second later he hit the surface of the water like it was made of concrete and his body splattered as it punched through the five foot deep water and impacted the muddy soil below.

    Everything went dark around him. He came awake naked and surrounded by the cloying mud all around him. He thrashed a bit and clawed his way out of the pit his regenerated body had created around him. He surfaced above the water and looked around the area. There was no one around luckily. Or not so luckily. There was a loud siren coming from the buildings of the museum. Intruder alert. Sean¡¯s heart sank slightly as he swam to the edge of the lake and climbed out. It took him less than a minute to finally find his bundle on the shore a hundred feet away.

    Sean quickly unpacked it and put on the clothes while ignoring his slightly muddy and completely wet bare skin as he put them on. He quickly opened the gun case and inspected the gun for a moment and nodded to himself as he noted that the silencer and pistol itself looked undamaged. He put on the small backpack holding his extra ammunition and slipped the pistol with the silencer into the holster at his hip that was being covered by the sweatshirt that he¡¯d put over it. He wanted to look as unthreatening as possible to the terrorists as he went in and tried to figure out how to stop them.

    Peter hadn¡¯t explained the details of what they were planning to do, only Sean¡¯s part in it. So Sean would have to go in carefully and try to save as many as he could before resorting to a gunfight.

    And there were Immortals that would be there too, Sean didn¡¯t want to be bogged down fighting one of them while one of the mortals went through with whatever attack they were trying to do.

    Sean started sprinting towards the entrance building as there was a sudden blast and the ground rumbled below his feet.

    Sean made it to the entrance and ran inside with his hand in his pocket with the pistol. He came to a stop as over a dozen people raised their machine guns to point at him. Sean¡¯s eyes darted to the side and he saw fifteen fearful people, mostly tourists gathered together in the middle of the room surrounded by the armed men pointing their guns at them.

    Standing there at the base of the stairs to the next floor was Emily, face twitching as she clenched and unclenched her fist as she stared daggers at the armed and masked people carrying their weapons.

    ¡°We¡¯ve got another one!¡± one of the masked women called out, ¡°Hey you, hands in the air!¡±

    He slowly took his hand out of the pocket with the pistol and raised his arms above his head and did his best to look intimidated. The woman gestured with the tip of her machine gun towards the larger group, ¡°Go! Git, join them. Now!¡±

    Sean flinched at her sudden aggression, but allowed himself to be ushered into the larger group of frightened and whimpering tourists and museum staff.

    Sean saw Michael meet his eyes in the crowd where he stood in his museum uniform. The boys lit up with hope and he opened his mouth as if to say something to Sean. But he shook his head before he could and the boy understood and nodded back.

    Sean moved through the milling crowd towards where Emily stood.

    ¡°What do you¡­ want,¡± Emily spat as she looked at the woman who appeared to be the group¡¯s leader.

    ¡°We want you to do whatever we say, bitch,¡± the woman spat, ¡°We¡¯ve got hostages. And every time you don¡¯t do something I like, one of them gets shot. We have plenty to go around.¡±

    The crowd gasped and muttered disapprovingly before the terrorist waved her gun over them and caused them all to flinch and go silent.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare,¡± Emily growled, ¡°You let them go. Whatever this is, it has nothing to do with them.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve got the hostages, and I¡¯ve got all the power,¡± the terrorist said, ¡°So¡­ You¡¯re gonna do what I want. Or else.¡±

    Emily ground her teeth before softening her stance slightly as she looked over to the hostages and a fearful look came into her eye.

    ¡°Fine,¡± she said, ¡°What is it? What do you want?¡±

    ¡°I want¡­¡± the terrorist said with a drawl, ¡°To make a statement. Put these on.¡±

    The woman gestured towards the man next to her who was carrying a large hiking backpack. He slung it off of his back and to the floor and took something out of it. A series of metal bands with what looked like a pair of heavy metal shackles at their end.

    Emily¡¯s eyes widened as she looked at the contraption, ¡°Who are you? What do you want?¡± she asked as she seemed to struggle with herself while staring at the device.

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter,¡± the terrorist sneered as she brought her machine gun to point at the crowd again, leading to a few of them letting out gasps or suppressed screams.

    ¡°I give the orders. Last chance. Let my man put it on or one of them dies.¡±

    Emily struggled with herself for a moment before with one more worried glance into the crowd and more specifically to Michael and the other staff, nodded jerkily at the terrorist. The man went forward and without Emily resisting locked her into the circular metal bands that locked her body in place and went from her ankles and all the way up to her neck. Her hands were together in her lap and enclosed in the large metal block and it looked like she could barely move.

    ¡°Alright, you stay still,¡± the terrorist said as the man who had bound Emily reached down and picked her up in a princess carry despite all the metal keeping her body stiff and unmoving, ¡°Let¡¯s continue this conversation somewhere more¡­ private.¡±

    The woman leader glanced meaningfully at the terrorists she was leaving behind.

    ¡°You know your orders. Wait at least five minutes before starting and be quiet.¡±

    The woman and the man and four others split off from the dozen guarding the sixteen people in the crowd. Emily was carried off in silence despite the anger on her face as the remaining guards of them remained there in a rough circle staring them down.

    Michael came up to Sean¡¯s side and the two of them quickly ducked into the center of the crowd after sharing a look.

    ¡°Do you have a plan?¡± Michael whispered hopefully, ¡°How can I help?¡±

    Sean thought about it and struggled with himself for a moment. If he made a mistake here then these people could easily be killed.

    He let out a breath after a moment, ¡°Yeah, I have a plan,¡± he whispered back, ¡°But it¡¯s kinda shit. I thought I¡¯d have more time to prepare¡­ I¡¯m going to cause a distraction. Here, take this.¡±

    Sean wrapped his arms around Michael as if to give him a hug and in doing so took the pistol from his pocket and quickly jammed it into his waistband and pulled his shirt over it with one hand. Michael¡¯s eyes widened for a moment before Sean pulled back from the hug.

    ¡°Point and pull the trigger,¡± Sean whispered to him, ¡°Only use it if they try to fire on the crowd. As soon as I start fighting them run for it with the others. I¡¯m an Immortal, I¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    Michael looked frightened and his lip trembled slightly before he jerkily nodded at Sean.

    ¡°Alright here I go,¡± Sean whispered, ¡°Let¡¯s tell the others to run at my signal.¡±

    Michael nodded. After a few minutes, everyone was ready. The guards seemed to have noticed that something had changed, but weren¡¯t actively able to tell what they were saying to each other either.

    The moment finally came. Sean walked to the edge of the crowd across from the closest door and clutched at his chest.

    He stumbled forward away from the people gasping dramatically, ¡°Help! I- heart- I-¡±

    The guard backpedaled and grimaced, but didn¡¯t do much else as Sean rapidly stumbled towards him.

    ¡°Hey, back off before you die early!¡± the man shouted as he raised his weapon towards Sean. Sean straightened and with a wound up kick leapt forward and slammed the man directly in the balls.

    The man¡¯s face went white and he groaned as he fell to the ground limply even as Sean grabbed the man¡¯s weapon.

    Sean turned the weapon and fired on the female terrorist behind him with heavy gunfire that sent her stumbling back and falling to the ground dead before she could even react. The man groaning on the ground had started collecting himself so Sean raised one booted foot and stomped down with all of his Immortal might on the man¡¯s head, splattering his skull and killing him in a single blow.

    The remaining four terrorists shouted and one of the men fired on Sean with his weapon and his bullets tore a line from his hip across his body to the lower portion of his ribs. But Sean managed to turn his gun on the man and gun him down in retaliation. Sean stumbled slightly as his body went off balance as he was regenerating.

    Two of the remaining terrorists turned and fired on Sean as one in a barrage that sent him falling to the floor under the onslaught.

    There was screaming from the crowd as Sean lay there and played dead for a moment until the gunfire stopped.

    ¡°They¡¯re running! What do we do?¡± the last remaining female terrorist asked in a panic.

    ¡°Our orders. We¡¯ll just have to kill them all a little early,¡± the man said and Sean heard him turning away from Sean.

    Sean grabbed his machine gun from where it had fallen from the floor and sat up in a sudden motion and fired into his back in a quick burst. The man let out a yelp of surprise before falling to the side. The female terrorist whirled around and started firing back at Sean with wide eyes as he swiveled his gun towards her. She threw herself to the side to avoid his line of fire, but Sean tracked her and landed a single round straight through her skull before she could dodge properly.

    The last man ignored Sean and had his machine gun raised towards the back of the fleeing crowd ready to fire. Sean tried to pull his weapon in line with the man, but his heart sank as he realized that he wouldn¡¯t be in time. The man¡¯s finger was already pulling down on the trigger.

    Then there was a loud click and the terrorist stumbled back. Michael was standing there with the silenced pistol looking back. The boy yelped as his poor grip on the weapon caused it to jump back in his grip from the recoil and cut open his hand near his thumb.

    The terrorist grunted and raised his weapon again as Sean saw a bleeding line across his side where Michael¡¯s bullet had just barely grazed him. Sean fired his own weapon as the terrorist did as well.

    The terrorist went down under the surprise barrage of his own, dead before he even hit the ground. But the terrorist had managed to fire his own weapon as well. Sean turned and saw in horror Michael falling to the ground clutching his gut and groaning in pain. Sean rushed forward and went to the boy and inspected the gut wound.

    He wasn¡¯t actually sure what to look for. Sean remained hovering there impotently as he remained there over the boy laid out on the ground.

    ¡°Owwww,¡± Michael wheezed, ¡°Ow,¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s alright, I think you¡¯re okay. You¡¯ll be fine if we get you to a hospital,¡± Sean said despite not being able to know if he was being truthful. He reached up and bunched up Michael¡¯s shirt and stuffed it in the bullet wound as tightly as he could to stop the bleeding. He guided one of Michael¡¯s hand to the makeshift bandage and the boy instinctively pressed down on it as he understood what Sean was doing.

    Sean looked around but saw that all the other tourists had already fled for their lives into the side halls while Sean was inspecting Michael¡¯s wounds.

    Sean looked down as Michael suddenly gripped Sean¡¯s shirt with one fist while the other pressed his bloodstained shirt into the wound.

    ¡°They took mom,¡± Michael wheezed, ¡°I heard them before¡­ They¡¯ve captured the¡­ rest of the family and staff. The living exhibit building. It has¡­ shields all around it. Supposed to protect us during emergency and¡­ keep critters in if something goes wrong. Got someone in and took over before the others captured us. They¡¯ll be¡­ taking mom there. You¡¯ve got to go help them. I think there were more of them in¡­ the other buildings. Gathering more people. Be careful.¡±

    ¡°But Michael, what about you? What if some of thm come back?¡± Sean asked as he started dragging Michael to the side passage before leaning him up with his back against the wall, ¡°We¡¯ve got to get you to a hospital.¡±

    ¡°No, the rest,¡± Michael wheezed, ¡°I¡¯ll be fine. Hurts¡­ But go. Reese is in there with them¡­¡±

    ¡°Alright,¡± Sean allowed before running back into the bloodied and damaged great hall and picking something up and running back to Michael. He carefully pressed the silenced pistol into the boy''s hand and had him tuck it beneath the unbloodied half of his shirt to conceal it.

    ¡°Don¡¯t hesitate to protect yourself if any more of them come by,¡± Sean said to the boy as he stood and held his stolen machine gun at the ready, ¡°I¡¯m going after Emily now.¡±

    ¡°Emily¡­¡± Michael muttered while seeming slightly delirious now, ¡°Reese. You¡¯ve got it¡­ Malketh.¡±

    Sean ran outside and started sprinting towards the living exhibit building at top speed. He had to stop the terrorists before anyone else got hurt.

 Chapter 95: Guiding Others

    ¡°Leave them alone! What did any of them ever do to you?¡± Emily demanded from where she¡¯d been placed in a chair with her bindings holding her tightly in place. The terrorists stood around her on all sides sneering at her, especially the woman who appeared to be their leader.

    They were in the main lobby of the living exhibits building. The bears and wolves were staring at them curiously from behind the shields of their enclosures towards the commotion going on in front of Emily.

    Across from her her family and the staff were on their knees with their hands on their heads and lined up, with a large group of over thirty terrorists standing behind them and pointing the weapons at the back of their heads. All forty of the staff and her family were dear to her. She¡¯d known almost all of them ever since they were children, if not helped raise them herself. Despite how long it had been and how many of them she¡¯d known over the years, she always tried to do her best to give her all to them each time¡­

    ¡°Give us the codes to your vaults. Keys, passwords, everything. I want it all,¡± the terrorist woman demanded, although Emily detected a strange sense of disinterest from her as she said so.

    ¡°Sure, sure, I¡¯ll give it all,¡± Emily agreed quickly after a quick glance back at her family in their leaf green museum uniforms. Reese looked like she was about to cry as she sat there with her lip trembling.

    Their eyes met for a moment and Emily saw the fear in the girl¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Whatever you want,¡± Emily said again as she looked away as the terrorist moved again, ¡°I¡¯ll tell you the codes.¡±

    The female leader waved at her subordinate and the man came forward with a device and started accessing various accounts. Emily told him whatever he wanted to know as he drained all of her massive wealth to their accounts. The tension in the room subsided a bit as Emily complied with their demands. Besides the museum and her lab could run itself for a long time, Emily didn¡¯t have access to their coffers directly, so she would be fine even if all her frankly massive personal fortune was stolen from her.

    It only took them ten minutes to transfer most of her wealth out of her personal accounts and into the ones that the terrorists controlled. Accounts that were likely dummy accounts that would be drained away and hidden after they were done here.

    But they were done, and Emilly waited. She¡¯d given them what they wanted. They should be rushing to escape now that they had their money, right?

    ¡°Now the museum funds,¡± the woman said with disinterest, ¡°I bet there¡¯s even more money squirreled up in this place. Transfer those too.¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I can¡¯t,¡± Emily stammered and the tension in the room ratcheted up again, ¡°We have a manager, I don¡¯t have access. I haven¡¯t for centuries.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe it,¡± the woman said flatly, ¡°What did I say I would do if you lied to me. No more warnings. Kill the one on the left.¡±

    Before Emily could respond there was a gunshot and the old man in his leaf uniform went falling to the ground, shot in the back of the head.

    ¡°No! Austin!¡± Emily screamed as she thrashed in her bonds on the chair, ¡°You bitch! I don¡¯t have access! Why, why did you do that¡­¡±

    ¡°Lies again,¡± the terrorist said mercilessly, ¡°Shoot the next one.¡±

    Emily could only feel her rising panic and anger wash over her as Rialla was shot dead next. How could people be so cruel? Why were they like this? Why was her family being stolen from her again like this?

    Emily sat there, the panic and anger rising in massive waves over her and for some reason it kept building more and more without washing away on its own.

    She felt herself connecting to something. Something that she¡¯d used before in her desperation on Earth. When the infected men had attacked her on Earth in the plagued city. When those men had broken into their apartment and been hurting her brother Sean. She had to use it again, to save her family that she¡¯d spent so long caring for.

    ¡°The longer you don¡¯t answer me, the more of them die.¡± the female terrorist said with a cruel smile as she watched Emily panic and thrash in her chair, completely unable to escape her bindings.

    ¡°Stop them,¡± Emily whispered to herself, ¡°Please, somebody has to save them. Anybody. Please¡­ Stop them¡­ Please¡­¡±

    Another gunshot, and another member of her family was dead. Reese. Oh, why Reese? She¡¯d been so excited about joining the family business. She¡¯d loved showing that Immortal around, the one who¡¯s name kept seeming to slip from her mind.

    The terrorists were going down the line and killing them one by one. Just to be cruel, to hurt her. Emily could see it in the female leader¡¯s eyes that she didn¡¯t care about the money. She was doing this on purpose.

    ¡°Why are you doing this? Why did they have to die? Just stop this¡­ Let them go.¡± Emily pleaded as the terrorist moved down to the line and put his gun to the back of the head of the next person.

    ¡°Give us the codes,¡± the leader said mercilessly, ¡°The more you lie the more you lose. Next!¡±

    Gunshot and Elena went tumbling to the ground dead. Emily took a shaky breath and felt the warbling connection in her, that power that she had used before. She looked up and saw that the brown bear in the nearby enclosure was staring at her with unnatural focus.

    She wasn¡¯t sure what came over her, but she felt a connection with the animal as she met its eyes.

    ¡°Stop them, please!¡± Emily pleaded to the bear as her gaze locked with it, ¡°You have to protect them. Somebody has to save them! Somebody¡­ Anybody¡­¡±

    ¡°Nonsense won¡¯t save you,¡± the terrorist insisted, ¡°Next! Next! Next!¡±

    Emily¡¯s head whipped around and she saw that all of the animals in their enclosures were pressed against their shields and staring intently at her as one.

    Emily¡¯s voice started warbling slightly and the evil woman¡¯s sadistic smirk faded slightly at the sudden shift.

    ¡°SaVe tHem!¡± Emily said, ¡°You hAve to saVe theM, tHey¡¯re all I hAve leFt.¡±

    ¡°N- Next!¡± the terrorist stammered before controlling her expression and gesturing to the executioner who carried out his work.

    Emily turned her tear stained face over to the evil woman, causing her to flinch, ¡°I hate you!¡± Emily screamed, ¡°I wish that you would all just <i>DIE!</i> GUIDE!¡±

    Emily twitched and her eyes rolled back into her head as she felt an invisible wave of something carry across the connection she now felt within herself. And like that everything suddenly went dark around her and just like the two times before all memory of what came next washed away from her mind.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Sean finally managed to pull himself through the heavy shield blocking his path into the building after finding the entrance door. He was forced to injure his hands to push them halfway through the shield. The shield twisted and fluctuated around Sean¡¯s endlessly regenerating hand, and with a second hand plunged into the barrier it formed a flickering spot of weakness where the shield struggled to keep reforming.

    He carefully put the machine gun strap over his shoulder and carefully crawled through the weak zone created by his hands that was less than three feet by three feet around. He had to contort himself slightly to fit through and his clothes became singed and ragged as he finally managed to push himself all the way through and out to the other side.

    His heart dropped as he heard the sound of a gunshot and shouting as soon as he made it to the front door.

    He raised his machine gun and flung open the unlocked front door to the living exhibit building and rushed inside, throwing all caution to the wind as his mind ran through all the horrible scenarios that could be happening right now.

    Sean emerged into the main lobby to see Emily glaring daggers at the terrorist leader. There were seven bodies sprawled over the ground in a line in front of her and thirty three more crying and quivering staff in a line next to her.

    Emily seemed to be having a seizure of sort and was thrashing with her eyes phasing from intense focus to staring at nothing.

    ¡°I wish you would just all <i>DIE!</i>¡± Emily screamed at the female terrorist before throwing her head back and screaming at the top of her lungs and spasming uncontrollably.

    All around them the animals in their enclosures joined in and in a thunderous cacophony started roaring and screeching as well.

    All the animals started suddenly attacking the shields for their enclosures in a rage, tearing and biting at it in a maddened rage.

    But they wouldn¡¯t be able to get through, the shields would be too strong¡­

    The brown bear in the enclosure¡¯s body pulsed, rippling like it was made of water and someone had thrown a stone into its placid surface. In the next second when the ripples died down the bear was nearly half again as large as it had been and its claws gleamed with the gleam of shimmering metal.

    Sean looked around and saw that all the other animal¡¯s forms were rippling and changing as well even as they continued their attacks.

    Sean and everyone else¡¯s eyes widened as the enraged bear¡¯s next swipe with its claws tore cleanly through the shield and it let out a massive roar.

    The pack of ten wolves were pushing through the shield with their heads, but weren¡¯t quite strong enough. But Sean could hear the distinctive whir and buzz showing that the shields all around them were on the edge of failing.

    ¡°Kill it! Kill it!¡± the female terrorist shouted and pointed at the bear that lowered its head and started barreling straight towards the woman.

    The terrorists raised their weapons and unloaded a blaze of gunfire on the animal all at once.

    The bear rose to its feet and roared again even as it stopped its charge and turned its head against the gunfire that carved deeply into its body.

    It stumbled under the onslaught and whimpered before falling on its back, dead.

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    With an electric crackle, the shield containing the pack of wolves suddenly fell and they roared as one as they charged forward towards the group of humans in the center of the room.

    The museum staff screamed and started to flee, and the terrorists largely ignored them as they focused on shooting the wolves charging at them. The animals went down with a few well placed bullets, but they were agile and surrounded by a bright sparkling haze as they charged forward as a group.

    The wolves forms blurred like an illusion as they grouped together and charged towards the frightened terrorists.

    The spray of gunfire focused on the forms of the wolves themselves, but Sean noticed that the animals only became injured or killed when a bullet went a few feet to the right of their blurry image in the distorted sparkling cloud.

    But the sheer amount of bullets managed to hit them purely by accident, until only one of the ten wolves was left alive.

    The wolf roared and leapt forward on top of the nearest armed man. There was one of the members of the museum staff crouched on the ground and looking frightened as the terrorist fired directly over him at the wolves. Sean noticed that the wolf completely ignored him to leap onto the armed terrorist instead.

    The wolf managed to land one firm swipe with its claws on the man it had leapt onto before with a few more loud booms the animal went limp and fell to the floor dead.

    Sean ran forward as he saw the terrorists refocus on the museum staff fleeing in all directions in the chaos on top of about half who were locked in place and just shaking in fear. Three of them were crouched over the comatose and twitching Emily and trying to remove her bindings.

    Sean saw the female leader turn to them and start shouting as she raised her weapon at the museum staff attempting to free Emily¡­

    But Sean was there first and gunned down the woman before she could fire.

    The other terrorists immediately fired on Sean as they saw what he had done, and he fell back to the floor from the force of the impacts on his torso.

    The whole space was a chaos of noise and animal cries. Sean looked to the side and saw the forms of the animals were rippling like water again as they morphed and changed all around them.

    The changes settled as Sean sat up and noticed to his surprise that the terrorist leader was doing the same. She was an Immortal too, Sean could see the holes in her shirt from where he had shot her with perfectly healed skin beneath. Her eyes widened as she stared at him and saw the same.

    There was another electric crackle as another enclosure shield failed. Sean instinctively looked over to see a massive boa constrictor over twenty feet long slithering out at high speed towards the group.

    Sean saw that the three staff members had given up freeing Emily and had picked her up as a group and were retreating towards the door with her limp and spasming body in her bindings carried between them.

    The terrorist leader raised her weapon again towards the retreating group and shouted something that Sean couldn¡¯t hear over the chaos going on all around them as more and more of the enclosure shields began to fail in rapid succession.

    Over three quarters of the living hostages had fled by now, but that last quarter were running around aimlessly, trying to avoid the terrorists who shouted at them and waved their weapons around in the chaos.

    Sean fired his weapon into the terrorist leader again and she fell back before she could kill the people carrying Emily away. Sean stood to his feet and fired again at the woman.

    The rest of the terrorists were distracted. Sean heard a sickly crunch and snap, and looked over to see the giant boa constrictor snake had wrapped around one of the terrorists and crushed him into paste with a single flex of the coils looped around his thrashing body. The snake was bleeding from several bullet wounds, but its scales seemed the have a slight metallic sheen and resisted the gunfire slightly as it left the dead terrorist and started slithering to attack the next armed man.

    Sean saw a screaming man with wide eyes in the leaf green museum staff uniform in the snakes path curl into a ball as it approached him. But the snake just angled around him and slithered right by, too focused on attacking the female terrorist firing her machine gun at it.

    The woman ran out of bullets just as the snake reached her and reached into her belt to reload the weapon. But the snake was faster and wrapped itself around her in a flash.

    Sean ran forward and started helping the staff wearing leaf green stand and usher them away from the center of the chaos. About five or six of them were trapped in the center of the circle of fighting terrorists. All of the terrorists had instinctively clumped together with their weapons pointed outwards as massive birds started swooping and diving down from above to attack them in addition to the massive snake.

    Emily and the three carrying her were out the open doors and out of sight by now.

    As a human, the terrorists didn¡¯t immediately register Sean as an active threat as he charged through the chaos and shouted to take command of the frightened and practically paralyzed museum staff.

    The large snake was dead, but had managed to crush another man under its coils before a lucky shot went through its eye and into its brain.

    The female terrorist leader tried to shout a warning to her fellows, but she was too late and no one heard her through the noise.

    Sean shouted his plan at the top of his lungs at the frightened staff members, and they all nodded as he shook them by the shoulders to snap them out of their paralysis.

    Hearing his words, several of the terrorists turned around and widened their eyes as Sean swung around and freely fired his weapon into their backs.

    The four men that Sean managed to ambush went down in an arc that broke the containment between them and the front door. The hostages immediately started fleeing through the gap and started running towards the front door as Sean remained behind and kept firing in an arc to try to take down as many of the terrorists as he could with his ambush. After taking down a fifth man with his weapon, Sean felt something grip his ankle hard and with a sharp tug pull him from his feet.

    The man that Sean had shot that must be an Immortal crawled over him and they struggled over Sean¡¯s weapon. Sean could see from the man¡¯s unbroken skin, that he was an Immortal too.

    A massive bird of prey that was unrecognizable from any species that Sean had seen in the museum swooped down and grabbed one of the terrorists that had drifted away from the tight ball of fighting in the chaos of Sean¡¯s attack. The man screamed as the bird tightened the grips of its sharp talons into his shoulders before powerfully flapping its wings and rising into the air again.

    Sean kept wrestling for the gun as the man who¡¯d been carried upwards was dropped from three stories up and died as he hit the ground.

    The group of fighters largely ignored the struggle of Sean and the unknown Immortal as they refocused on firing their guns upwards to shoot down the flock of birds that was growing ever larger above them as more and more of the animals escaped their enclosures.

    Sean saw through his struggle with the male Immortal that the female Immortal was looking between the gun in her hands and the museum staff that were fleeing towards the door. She was separated from the rest of the cluster of fighters by ten or more feet right now.

    Even as Sean watched a pack of rodents burst out of their enclosure directly in front of the main doors and piled out to block the way. The six hostages stopped and started to panic as the pack charged them. But despite the humans scrambling around them, the rodents ignored them and ran right past underneath their feet like they weren¡¯t even there as they went towards the battle.

    The female Immortal looked at her machine gun one more time and threw it to the side and started running to the door.

    She must think that the animals were only attacking people who were armed¡­ Sean realized as his distraction caused him to lose his battle with the male Immortal briefly. The man tore the gun from Sean¡¯s hands and with a vicious snarl turned it around and fired a barrage directly into Sean¡¯s torso.

    A barrage that Sean mostly ignored much to the man¡¯s shock as he kept wrestling for the gun once more. The terrorists were being picked off one by one by the swarming animals. There were only twelve of the original thirty or so that had been alive during the beginning, including the two Immortals.

    Sean pulled the gun from the male Immortal¡¯s grip and threw it to the side away from both of them as they continued to wrestle with each other. Sean glanced over and saw that all of the living hostages had escaped out of the front door of the building.

    However as the Immortal terrorist leader tried to follow them with her hands empty at her sides, the swarm of rodents diverted and leapt onto her and started attacking.

    She thrashed and slapped at the animals even as she screamed in pain as they attacked her all at once.

    Over the course of a few seconds that Sean caught between the flashes of his fighting with the male Immortal, Sean saw the woman gradually defeat the swarm despite their efforts to pin her down and gnaw into her.

    The angry cries of the animals reached a louder fevered pitch as the assault grew more and more intense as all the gathered birds from above dived down towards them all at once.

    The frightened terrorists pointed their guns upwards and fired. But half of them only fired a few rounds before clicking empty. The people searched their belts and vests desperately for more ammunition to reload, but they weren¡¯t fast enough and the birds descended upon them and started tearing through the humans with their sharp claws and beaks.

    The few people who still had ammunition managed to shoot and kill the remaining birds, but only seven humans remained alive and even most of those were heavily injured.

    Sean finally managed to push off the male Immortal from him and scramble away closer towards the door.

    Sean went to flee, but saw that the female Immortal was thrashing there on the floor being attacked on all sides. She was struggling to crawl towards the door as large birds swooped down on her to slash at her back with their talons and various lizards and reptiles tore into her from all sides like some bizarre kind of feast.

    Sean diverted around the woman as he went to flee as the last of the ammunition ran out for the living men and women behind him. He glanced behind and noticed that two men and a single woman in the crowd of terrorists were completely uninjured. One was the man that he had been fighting before of course. But it seems that there were two more Immortals with them too.

    There was only one living mortal left and they looked close to the end as they were barely able to keep themselves standing as the three Immortals clustered around them to protect them from the onslaught of creatures.

    Sean went to loop around the women. If Sean grew too close or got in their way, then the swarms of creatures around him would snap or briefly attack him. But they weren¡¯t focused on him, and viewed him more as an obstacle than a target.

    Sean ran outside and saw that the exterior shield had been lowered at some point. The windows of the living exhibit building were broken and all sorts of creatures and birds were exiting and running in all directions like they were on a mission.

    He could see a few of the staff running in the distance towards the main gate, likely to call for help for the museum.

    Sean ran after them only to divert when he heard the sound of gunfire to his left. He went and saw a group of three with machine guns firing on what looked like an alligator. The creature hissed and charged and snapped its jaws around one man and started shaking its head as the man screamed.

    The bullets of the men bounced off the alligator''s scales as it let go of the dead man in its jaws and turned to attack the other three.

    Sean turned away and started running towards the main gate again. He had seen the dead hostages before all this chaos started. These people deserved it. Peter Rose deserved it. Sean felt the guilt rise up within him as he considered the deaths. He had been so arrogant, cutting his arrival so close. He had thought he was being so clever, leaving it to the last moment so that Peter couldn¡¯t call off the attack.

    But he had gotten here too late, and now everything was going crazy. Something unnatural was happening with these animals as they solely targeted the terrorists for their revenge right after Emily had seemed to go into a coma of sorts¡­

    Sean diverted his course as he remembered Michael. He went inside into the grand main hall and ran towards where the teenager sat slumped unconscious at the wall. Heart in his throat, Sean leaned down and quickly felt for a pulse before letting out a sigh of relief as he felt a weak pulse. But still a pulse.

    Sean lifted the boy in a princess carry and after adjusting his grip for a few seconds turned and started running towards the main gate again.

    Sean heard the roars of aircraft engines as he ran outside towards the main gate.

    Just outside, Sean saw a hovering military aircraft and a gathered crowd of traumatized and clustered museum staff as well as a comatose and unconscious Emily. There were ten dead bodies clad in black scattered around the lawn just inside the gate. He could see from their gear that they had been terrorists that had likely gone after the people or who had been guarding the exit to the property.

    The angles of the bullet and large caliber showed that it was likely from the military aircraft hovering over the crowd right now that had shot them down.

    Sean joined the crowd as many of them called out in concern as they saw who he was carrying in his arms.

    Sean quickly dropped the boy off onto a stretcher with the serious military medic who started treatment for Michael¡¯s bulletwound.

    It was another twenty minutes before more transport aircraft arrived and started loading up the people and airlifting them to the nearest hospital in a nearby city.

    There were enough transports that the rest of the museum staff and Sean were loaded up as well and flown away.

    The explosions and animalistic roars and cries from inside the museum itself had only grew louder and the military seemed to be fighting the creatures back as they all waited there nervously.

    Sean let out a long breath. But Michael would likely make it. Once he got to the Gaian hospital then he should make it through fine.

    If only Sean had been able to save Michael¡¯s sister Reese in time too¡­

 Chapter 96: Dragonslayer

    ¡°Shit! What are those things?!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, sir. They sort of look like those weird Earth creatures that the genemother made¡­ Wait, one of them¡¯s flying towards us!¡±

    The pilot of the military aircraft squinted as the animal flapped its skeletal wings as it flew towards them in a jittering motion. But as it came towards them, it soon became clear just how large it was compared to normal. It fluttered over towards them.

    But it was far more massive than any Earth bat that the pilot had ever seen before. It was nearly four feet long with an even larger wingspan with its strange wings and hair over its body.

    The pilot looked down at his console as several warning lights started flashing.

    ¡°Sir, that things sending high pitched sounds at us. Beyond human hearing. Ship thinks that it¡¯s a hostile scan us¡­¡±

    The bat lost interest in them and faced its head another direction and paused for another moment.

    It quickly turned and tucked its wings and dived downwards at an angle towards the ground.

    The pilot shifted the shift to see what it was diving for only to see a figure in black fleeing from the Immortal history building. With a burst of gunfire they fired at something in the building behind them.

    Before the pilot could react the large bat completely ambushed the man from behind and plowed into his back from above. The small claws at the end of its wings grabbed the black clothed man by the shoulders as it opened its mouth and sank the sudden large fangs in its mouth into the figure¡¯s neck.

    A second later dozens of small lizards came pouring out of the building and started piling onto the black clothed man and consuming him even as he thrashed to dislodge the large bat that was convulsing like a vampire sucking the blood our of its victim.

    ¡°S-Sir?¡± the gunner with the mounted machine gun stammered, ¡°W-What should we do?¡±

    ¡°That guy¡¯s screwed,¡± the pilot said after a moment, ¡°Calling for permission to fire. Command? You seeing this?¡±

    There was a pause on the radio for a moment before there was a reply, ¡°Permission granted Delta zero. Clear the musuem of any hostiles¡­ Human or otherwise.¡±

    ¡°Confirmed.¡±

    The pilot glanced at the gunner who nodded back. The man below had gone still as the animals kept tearing the body.

    The aircraft opened fire and the three others hovering around the edge of the property did the same a few seconds later. The powerful bullets tore up the ground and killed the animals latched onto the man.

    The three aircraft circled the property and systematically fired on any strange looking creature that seemed to systematically hunting down and mutilating the men wearing black that were holed up in the various buildings.

    ¡°Command, how long do we have left before we get ground support?¡± the pilot asked the radio after there weren¡¯t any more sightings of beast or living human for over a minute, ¡°We still have motion and a lot of movement in the buildings. Especially the living exhibit building. That thing is completely lit up with all sorts of activity. I can¡¯t get a good visual of what¡¯s happening in there.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ve been informed by witnesses that there are at least four Immortals among the humans who invaded the museum,¡± Command replied, ¡°These creatures seemed solely focused on eliminating them and their allies by their accounts. Change in orders. Retreat to the borders of the property and patrol. Eliminate anything that attempts to leave. We¡¯ll be forming a perimeter and focused on containment for now.¡±

    ¡°Uh, sir? Some of these things are small,¡± the pilot replied, ¡°Swarms of lizards of some kind smaller than my hand at best. Do we have containment of something like that?¡±

    There was some swearing over the radio for a moment before it cut off.

    A few seconds later it clicked on with the tail end of someone yelling.

    ¡°Blast anything that moves at the perimeter for the next five minutes. The containment shield should be up after that. Prepare to fall back to the exterior in t-minus five. Confirm?¡±

    ¡°Confirm,¡± the pilot said before drawing back his aircraft to circle the edge of the museum¡¯s large estate. He waited for movement as he circled, but everything was contained to the buildings for now.

    Three minutes left until the shield activated. The pilot could see the uniformed soldiers setting up generators and clearing a perimeter to install the containment shield in a hurry.

    The pilot¡¯s head snapped to the display as there was a sudden lurch of movement inside the living exhibit building. There was a large shift as what had been one seething mass of creatures split into smaller groups and charged at what the pilot could clearly see was a fleeing naked male human.

    Behind him was a horror show of enraged and mutated animals charging after him and only a few seconds behind.

    Even as the pilot watched an animal that he vaguely recognized as an Earth deer lowered its antlers and charged forward with its massive pointed antlers sitting above its head. Somehow the creature bounded forward far in front of the rest in a blur of motion so fast that it almost left an afterimage of a streak of motion from behind it.

    As the naked man fled the deer lowered its head and tossed it upward right as it reached the man, goring him and piercing through his back with the sharp antlers.

    The man squirmed and screamed as the Earth deer lifted him into the air and then shook its head to the side to send the man falling to the side. The rest of the animals caught up as the man lay on the ground, his momentum stopped from the attack from behind.

    There were so many that the pilot had trouble picking individual ones out of the crowd well. The deer nimbly jumped in the air and twisted to face the man again and charged with its head lowered again. The apparently uninjured man who must be an Immortal tried to roll away, but the deer lifted him up again and tossed him to the same side as before.

    A side that just happened to be in the middle of the rest of the charging menagerie of rampaging creatures.

    The spot in the grass where the Immortal landed immediately became a scene of chaos as the mass of varied creatures all jostled and fought to reach the Immortal in the center and continue to injure him.

    The animals weren¡¯t exactly antagonistic with each other, but if another got in its way then they would briefly fight or push past each other in their eagerness to attack the naked Immortal man.

    ¡°Command, you seeing this?¡± the pilot said a little numbly as the Immortal was torn to pieces and regenerated over and over again. But the man¡¯s flailing occasionally injured one of his attackers or crushed one of the smaller attackers. So somehow inevitably the swarm around him was diminishing even with all the seemingly miraculous assorted abilities and power that all the Earth animals seemed to possess in their efforts to attack him.

    ¡°We see it Delta zero,¡± the radio answered, ¡°Shield up in one minute. Begin to fall back. We¡¯ll deal with whatever¡­ that is later. Hopefully the Immortal Enforcers will get off their asses for once and help deal with this¡­¡±

    ¡°Confirmed, command,¡± the pilot said as he and the rest of the vehicles fell back out of the range of the shield. Thirty seconds later the shield activated, its shimmering surface arcing over the whole area as the shield generators and their power sources activated.

    With such a large area the shield would be weak, but hopefully it would be enough to deal with some mindless animals¡­

    Although the pilot felt himself doubt himself as he kept circling the perimeter with his vehicle. With what he¡¯d already seen what those creatures be capable of already, who knew if they¡¯d be able to break the shield or not when they put their mind to it¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Captain, there¡¯s been an update for the attack on the Museum of Renewal. It seems¡­ The reports are rather fantastical, sir. I¡¯m not sure if I we should take them at face value. They are rather¡­ crazed.¡±

    Entiru turned to the man standing next to him on the heavy military transport and frowned.

    ¡°Now? Right after Malketh ran off? Could they be connected? What do you mean, crazed?¡±

    ¡°Unsure, sir. We¡¯re still ten minutes from arrival. We have reports of mutated Earth creatures with strange forms and size emerging from the living exhibit building and hunting down and killing the human attackers while avoiding the museum staff. They have video. An unknown Immortal helped extract the genemother and save the staff that he could. Description matches Malketh, but no confirmation yet that it was actually him.¡±

    ¡°And the attackers?¡± Entiru said, ignoring the reports of the strange animals. He would deal with whatever that was when he could confirm things with his own eyes. Video was always so fickle, so easy to create fabrications that needed an expert to verify if they were real or not. No use in seeing the video until he had a possibility in believing whatever it would show him.

    ¡°Still unknown. They were¡­ ruthless Captain. Main goal seems to be the Genemother and the museum¡¯s accumulated funds. Executed and killed many of the staff both to motivate the genemother in giving them the passwords to the accounts, as well as seemingly randomly in the other buildings. There¡¯s some confusion on the accounts. Some survivors report being huddled together into groups, while other reports the attackers opening fire on the civilians as soon as they saw them with their heavy weapons. And one last thing¡­ There are reports of Immortals among their number. At least six, but there could be more scattered across the building. Four were with the genemother among the first appearance of the strange animals. Even now the animals are¡­ causing all six of the Immortals to regenerate over and over from their combined assaults.¡±

    ¡°Six?!¡± Entiru demanded as he slammed a fist into the metal wall of the transport angrily, ¡°Six Immortals! Maybe more? An attack on the genemother and her family? Inconceivable! They will pay! After everything she¡¯s done for us they spit on her face like this? Hurt her despite them supposed to know better with their long lives? Who are they? Do we have any descriptions?¡±

    ¡°N-Not yet, Captain,¡± the Enforcer stammered, slightly intimidated as Entiru¡¯s anger at the situation boiled over, ¡°No matches yet.¡±

    Entiru calmed himself slightly and lifted his fist away from the slightly dented wall.

    ¡°Sorry. Can¡¯t believe Immortals would do something like this,¡± he apologized, ¡°Maybe some mortals who are ignorant or stupid enough somehow to not know. But for Immortals who should know better to do something like this¡­¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll get them, sir. They¡¯ll pay for what they¡¯ve done.¡±

    Entiru nodded firmly and took a deep breath before firming his resolve, ¡°Let¡¯s get into the exosuits. I want those traitors to Gaia in our possession as soon as possible. Strange animals or not, I won¡¯t risk losing them.¡±

    ¡°Of course. We¡¯re almost there. But prepare yourself, Captain. These creatures will present a tough fight if they turn their attention to us.¡±

    Entiru nodded, ¡°Noted. Make sure the other Enforcer teams come with the restraints. I want absolutely no mistakes on this.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Entiru fired his heavy weapon at the deer currently charging at him with its head lowered. In a flash it hopped to the side out of the path of his fire and resumed its attack completely uninterrupted. Something about its movement was unnatural, yet there was nothing specifically about it that Entiru could pinpoint as the source.

    Entiru dragged his weapon to the side but the horned Earth deer crashed into him with its antlers. Even in the exosuit the hard blow caused him to take a half step back. But he turned his weapon upward and before the Earth deer could leap out of the way again he fired his weapon into it and managed several powerful shots into its torso. It fell to the ground dead, Entiru¡¯s blast at close range finishing it off.

    He looked up from his small duel with the creature to see five other Enforcers in exosuits had pushed forward with the nimble creature distracted and reached the thrashing Immortal at the center of the mass of clawing creatures.

    One of them reached inside and pulled the naked woman out and put her over his shoulder in the exosuit.

    They immediately made a run for it as the dozens or remaining creatures charged after them and screeched in rage from having their prize stolen from them.

    After a fighting retreat to the edge of the containment field, they left and the assembled military might behind them opened a gap that shredded the creatures that had dared to chase after the group. They quickly went through and carried the last woman out of the shield and closed it behind them.

    The panting woman that they¡¯d just extracted was roughly thrown to the ground and locked up by metal bands and cuffs meant to hold Immortals in place.

    It would be time to enter the Living Exhibit building itself soon. There should be two more Immortals in there at least. All of the mortal attackers had been killed and brutalized by the maddened creatures, leaving only the Immortals left. That woman had been the fourth Immortal that they¡¯d captured. The others seemed to have been able to scatter somewhat even if the smaller groups of creatures followed them out of the main building to keep attacking and brutalizing them in a futile attempt to kill them.

    The whole areas where the four Immortals had been pinned down by the animals were literal bloodbaths, the Immortal bodies being torn to pieces coating the grass red alongside the dead bodies of the creatures fallen either to the Enforcers guns or the thrashing Immortal¡¯s acidic regenerating limbs after they were injured.

    That left two more of the Immortals that had been seen that were still in the writhing mass of animals and heat signatures inside of the museum. And it was time to go out and get them back.

    A smattering of a few smaller rats scratched on the edge of the shield as a larger squad of Enforcers gathered themselves in the exosuits. In this emergency, Entiru had called on almost their entire force of over a hundred Enforcers to come assist them. They didn¡¯t have that many exosuits available, but the local military had been kind enough to lend them the extra hardware.

    The other Immortals and the exosuits for them would be here in a half hour. Until then, all Entiru could do was wait for them to arrive. Actually, there was one more thing that he could do¡­

    ¡°What¡¯s the news on the unknown Immortal and identifying the attackers?¡±

    ¡°Nothing on the attackers,¡± Entiru¡¯s second command said from next to him as he watched his squad drag the confused captured Immortal over to the others that had been brought out in preparation for transport to the Immortal prison, ¡°Nothing on our database at least. The mortal governments are still discussing and running their own searches. They might catch something that we missed if these Immortals have been pretending to be mortals to fly under our radar. Malketh lasted a long time without being caught when he did it, I¡¯m sure that there¡¯s more like him out there¡­¡±

    ¡°And what of Malketh? Is he the mysterious Immortal that worked to save the civilians?¡± Entiru asked.

    ¡°It¡¯s confirmed to be him. We have footage and eyewitness accounts. Although he¡¯s missing. Left as soon as he confirmed that everyone was being treated properly at the hospital. Somehow he¡¯s disappeared from all surveillance systems. The mortal governments are running a manhunt for him right now.¡±

    Entiru grunted, ¡°He has a lot explaining to do. However he¡¯s involved he better come back soon before I start thinking he was working with these attackers somehow.¡±

    ¡°You think it could be him?¡±

    ¡°It could. But he seems decent enough. You never know though. So we¡¯ll see what he has to say when they find him.¡±

    ¡°Do you think that¡­¡±

    Suddenly all the creatures scratching at the containment shield changed all at once. Their bodies rippled like the surface of a placid lake that had a thrown into it. Entiru¡¯s second in command cut himself off as they both stared at the strange phenomenon with wide eyes at the clearly supernatural event.

    The rippling settled down and all the creatures had changed. Altered. They were bigger, sharper claws. The rodents'' claws were now dripping a clear liquid from their tips as they continued in their attacks.

    ¡°C-Captain? Did they just get stronger?¡±

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    The shield started flickering as a large Earth bird¡¯s beak pierced through the shield slightly as it pecked forward.

    ¡°The shield should hold,¡± Entiru said even as he eyed the smattering of animals attacking the shield in unison. It started flickering and fuzzing in certain sections even if the damage healed over again after a few moments.

    ¡°Until reinforcements arrive at least,¡± he added, ¡°And maybe we should get the mortals to add a few more generators to reinforce it¡­¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It was time. All of the Enforcers except for the still missing Malketh were here and wearing the loaned and armed exosuits for the assault.

    The shields had been reinforced three times now and the animals forms had rippled unnaturally twice, increasing their strength.

    The mortals were in a bit of a panic as they saw the creature¡¯s strength increasing in such little time, worried about what would happen when they broke out.

    The captured Immortals had been taken away to the Immortal prison for the moment until this situation was under control and each of them could face judgement by the whole Immortal Council.

    The hundred exosuits lined up in front of the shield with their weapons at the ready. With so many of them this assault should be easy, Entiru thought as he saw the couple dozen animals of various sizes scratching at the shield even with their power.

    The shield fell and the mortal military behind them unleashed their full might into the gap. And unlike last time¡­ some of the creatures survived. One of the rats slipped right past the gap of the open shield and darted to the side. Before anyone could stop it, it leapt towards one of the men with the guns and slashed out with its claws dripping with clear liquid.

    The man hit with the swipe stiffened and fell to the ground foaming at the mouth, and the animal managed to attack three more soldiers before a lucky bullet managed to hit it mid leap and kill it with a single hit.

    The birds were hit with precision lasers that had been brought out and mounted on the ground in big boxes with humming generators behind them. The birds fell out of the air roasted after a few seconds of the high powered lasers frying them before they could escape.

    A few more of the smaller lizards or mice caused havoc among the mortals behind them as the soldiers struggled to shoot them with their weapons once they reached their formerly organized lines.

    Although the men who had been paralyzed by the rats¡¯ poison weren¡¯t dead yet, so if all went well they shouldn¡¯t die just yet.

    But Entiru and the other Enforcers ignored the chaos behind them and charged forward through the gap. The mortals could deal with it by themselves, they had a mission to accomplish.

    The pounding of their feet shook the ground as all a hundred of them ran forward in their exosuits and carrying their weapons.

    Eyes of animals looked out through the windows at the noise as creatures with blood stained maws inspected them curiously, not aggressive at all as they watched them go by.

    They reached the Living exhibit building quickly and saw a high concentration of creatures inside. They could hear the screeches and growls inside like that of a massive brawl inside.

    They spread out in a circle around the building, squads of twenty preparing to enter a different door as discussed before.

    Entiru and the most dedicated of the Knights were in Entiru¡¯s squad as they waited a full minute to get into position before breaching.

    Just as Entiru burst through the front door his heart dropped as he saw the forms of all the animals in the area rippling and morphing as their power somehow upgraded again.

    All eyes in the room turned to Entiru and his squad as they opened fire with their weapons. The whole horde of creatures instantly grew hostile and charged towards them. Their barrage of bullets did surprisingly little to the animals whose skin was either scaled or extremely thick to resist the impact from the bullets.

    Entiru stumbled as a swarm of over forty small lizards near the floor bulged their throats outward and then spat a greenish liquid towards his squad.

    Entiru raised his left arm as the wave of greenish liquid washed over him and started sizzling through the metal. Entiru eyed the acid eating through his military grade armor like it was burning paper.

    Then the other four squads entered the room and fired their own weapons as well from all sides. The creatures split, their concentrated charge at Entiru and his squad broken by confusion as they all split off to attack the different squads.

    Entiru tossed his dissolving machine gun to the side as it started melting from the little lizards¡¯ acid. He reached to his belt and took out the single canister sitting there.

    ¡°Grenades! Now while they¡¯re distracted!¡± Entiru shouted before arming his grenade and throwing it into the center mass of the horde of altered Earth creatures. A moment later his own squad followed suit and let loose with their own grenades. Entiru¡¯s left arm started freezing up and he hissed in pain as the acid started dripping through his armor and directly onto his regenerating skin.

    The grenades went off all at once at the center of the horde and killed the vast majority of them with the combined blast. The other squads were holding their own, although some individuals were panicking and firing their weapons wildly the creatures got into melee range and started removing large chunks of their armor with only a few angry swipes of their claws.

    With no weapons and a disabled exosuit arm, Entiru rotated to the back of his squad and observed the battle clinically and began issuing orders over the suit radios to the squads to help them work together more efficiently. They¡¯d never expected to encounter military style combat like this, so most of the Enforcers were inexperienced with how to work together.

    But after nearly four minutes of constant combat and stress later, the last of the horde had finally been defeated, down to the smallest lizards. Although out of all of them those had been the most dangerous as they skittered into corners and under debris before ambushing them from unexpected angles.

    If the creatures had been working together¡­ then they might have not won, Entiru suddenly realized somberly. Even now more than half of the exosuits were partially or fully disabled, their Immortals forced to eject from the armor or not be of much use in combat anymore.

    But the creatures were defeated and after waiting for another minute with their guns pointed outward, no more approached to attack them.

    Entiru quickly moved towards the center of the chaos towards the pile of unrecognizable animal bodies lying there and saw that his second command had pulled another naked woman Immortal from the goop. She was thrashing and shouting with panic in her eyes as she looked around to the group of Enforcers in and out of exosuits glowering at her in disgust.

    ¡°Where¡¯s the second one?¡± Entiru asked quickly as he glanced around to look for any more movement in the piles of gore.

    ¡°No sign of them, Captain. She¡¯s the only one we can find.¡±

    Entiru grunted in frustration before shaking his head in the exosuit.

    ¡°Off we go then. Let¡¯s get out of here. Enforcers! Make sure to carry your unsuited comrades with you. Leave any gear here. Alright, moving out in ten seconds. Go go go!¡±

    The Enforcers out of their exosuits quickly scrambled to find partners in their squad to carry them on the journey back outside. The terrorist was handed over to one of the Enforcers with an exosuit that still seemed to be relatively undamaged.

    The ten were seconds were up and they started jogging forward.

    ¡°Captain!¡± Entiru put his hand to his ear as he got a transmission from the military outside.

    ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Watch out! There¡¯s a massive creature coming your way! Drawn by the explosions we think!¡±

    ¡°How big?¡± Entiru asked as he glanced around warily.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­¡±

    Before the man finished talking, the question was answered by the beast itself rounding the corner of the building in front of him.

    ¡°Holy Gaia!¡± Entiru cursed as the whole group came to a stop as they saw the massive beast expose its full form, ¡°Is that a dragon?¡±

    The Earth lizard was massive at over forty feet long and covered in thick greenish scales that were whitish on its underbelly and dark on its top side.

    It opened its massive jaw filled with jagged sharp teeth and hissed so loudly that the whole group was forced to take a step back from the force of the sound.

    The Earth creature connected in Entiru¡¯s mind a moment before the creature charged at them with its massive bulk. It was a crocodile. A massive crocodile.

    ¡°Dodge! To the sides! Open fire on it!¡± Entiru called as he followed his own advice and ran perpendicular to the path the crocodile was charging.

    The crocodile opened its jaws wide and leaped forward and closed them around the naked woman and the Enforcer in the exosuit carrying her. The Enforcer in the exosuit had frozen in place in fear as the giant beast of legend descended upon her.

    The crocodile swallowed the two of them with a single gulp metal and all, its heavy scales barely even being scratched by the gunfire of the exosuits that were still functional. Several of the Enforcers threw their grenades at the crocodile¡¯s feet and they exploded. The explosions caused the reptile¡¯s feet and lower legs to be singed slightly, but nothing more than superficial damage. And despite its bulk the creature was pressed so low to the ground that it barely even stumbled even when its legs were slightly injured by the grenades.

    The crocodile hissed angrily and swung around suddenly and slapped three exosuits with its large thick tail as it slapped them full force even as it struck with its jaws to bite two more exosuits directly in front of it in half, leaving only their lower torsos and legs behind.

    The three exosuits went flying into the air with a crunch of crumpling metal and shouts of surprise.

    The crocodile hissed angrily and opened its jaws slightly before swiveling its head again and attempting to bite another Enforcer in an exosuit nearby and tail whipping two more exosuits behind it in the process.

    Entiru put his hand up to his ear and hesitated. What could they do? This thing seemed practically invincible and their group was already heavily damaged from their last fight.

    Then the alligator¡¯s form began to ripple like it was within water and Entiru¡¯s eyes widened.

    ¡°Air support!¡± he cried over the radio, ¡°Air support now! Drop the shields, kill it before it gets stronger!¡±

    There was shouting on the other line leading to the outside, but as the crocodile¡¯s form grew from forty feet to over fifty feet, a strong voice cut through the noise on the other side and started taking command.

    The shield above them shut off and there was a distinctive roar of an engine above them before a barrage of explosives sprayed across the back of the crocodile.

    The explosions bit deep into the animal¡¯s back even as its surface kept rippling furiously as it grew in size.

    The ripples stopped and revealed a much larger animal with a few dislodged scales and a few others scorched black around where there had been a direct hit. But even then the actual wounds into the creature¡¯s skin were shallow and only lightly bleeding.

    More missiles came roaring down from the sky to hit the massive crocodile and it loudly hissed again before turning and started running away.

    Everyone paused for a moment as they watched the fleeing creature in shock for a moment.

    Entiru thought back to the layout of the property to try to imagine where the creature could be going. It clicked after a long moment. The lake! It was going to hide in the lake under the water.

    It was a bit big to stay in there, but the water might soothe its burns and blunt some of the impacts from the missiles above if it pressed itself right to the bottom¡­

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± Entiru called out loudly as he glanced around the battered group of Immortals loosely scattered around from when they had dodged the crocodile¡¯s charge.

    ¡°Retreat before that thing comes back.¡±

    The Enforcers paused but after a few more moments of watching over the fleeing crocodile being bombarded from the skies, they all started running again to the edge of the containment shield.

    They managed to reach it and a few seconds later the section of the shield opened and let them through. Entiru looked behind him as he heard more explosions and saw that the mortals had managed to open a large hole in the top of the shield while keeping the portions at the ground somewhat activated still.

    They had all made it back, except for their actual target and the Enforcer that had been swallowed along with her.

    But they needed a break to regroup and let the mortals find them some new gear. It would take some serious firepower to defeat that massive creature.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°It¡¯s been four hours. The creatures¡¯ mutated over six times since its first appearance. I still think we should just drop an antimatter bomb on the place, kill it for good before it gets any more dangerous.¡±

    ¡°That place represents our history, over a thousand years. We can¡¯t just destroy it!¡± Entiru insisted, ¡°The bombardments are doing its work. It¡¯s floundering and its outgrown the lake by now. A few more hours and we¡¯ll take it out.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we thought the same right before it started regenerating its hard outer scales after it was damaged. We can¡¯t take any risks anymore. We have to kill it now before it gets stronger.¡±

    ¡°Just a few hours then we can discuss more lethal options, I can feel that we¡¯re clo¡­¡±

    ¡°General, there¡¯s been a change,¡± one of the analysts to the side called, ¡°The creature¡¯s rolling around as if in pain. It doesn¡¯t appear to be from the bombardment. Something else¡­¡±

    The two of them went over and watched the live feed and watched the crocodile thrashing and rolling through the singed and torn up dirt beneath it as it moved.

    The missile barrage lightened so they could gain a better view of whatever was happening in more detail. After a few minutes a human form suddenly slid out of a hole right in the crocodile¡¯s belly like a worm emerging from a rotten fruit. Right behind the woman a few seconds later a second female Immortal also emerged from a different point as they wriggled for a moment before falling to the ground while completely covered in thick mats of reddish gore and what looked like sizzling stomach acid.

    The crocodile roared in pain and flipped over again as it flailed and pressed the two women into the dirt beneath it from the motion even as its two large wounds in its underside started bleeding heavily and leak strong stomach acid onto the ground and burned its flesh around the large wounds.

    The two women recovered themselves and started making a run for it away from the crocodile and out from beneath its legs. They managed to make it out and started sprinting towards the edge of the containment field towards the assorted soldiers and Enforcers guarding the perimeter.

    The crocodile noticed them and despite its wounds immediately stopped its thrashing and flipped itself over onto its feet. It twisted to face the two fleeing women covered in gore, its back scorched black and severely burned from the hours-long assault from the skies.

    It opened its mouth and charged towards them at massive speeds, its footsteps shaking the ground as it charged. Entiru heard panicked shouting over the radio from the perimeter as the containment shields that had been continually reinforced for this whole time flared brightly in preparation for impact.

    One of the Immortals dodged out of the way as the crocodile¡¯s jaws snapped closed and swallowed one of the fleeing women in a single bite. The creature thrashed its head around for a bit before swallowing. At the same time the woman who had dodged stood to her bare feet and fled towards the containment shield again.

    The crocodile focused on her after swallowing its first victim and charged again. The Immortal women were nearly at the edge of the containment shield and waving at the people on the other side desperately for them to let them through.

    They did not lower the shields and in fact strengthened them as the crocodile charged again as the woman turned around and observed the charging lizard in horror. Entiru couldn¡¯t tell through the gore and chaos if it was Kasumi, his Enforcer, yet or one of the attackers of the museum.

    The crocodile snapped its jaws around the woman that Entiru could now see had firmed her stance and seemed to be shouting something defiantly at the massive creature poised to swallow her whole.

    The creature¡¯s jaws closed with a snap and it continued its charge for a moment. It hit the shield with a heavy impact and after a moment of a high pitched whine, the shield failed and the crocodile kept moving through.

    All the mortals and Enforcers shouted in alarm and started firing their weapons indiscriminately at the beast even as everyone beat a hasty retreat as the giant beast stood only a short distance away.

    The crocodile flinched even as the gunfire barely damaged its gleaming green scales and thick leathery skin. It shut its eyes from the barrage of gunfire but mostly ignored the people around it as its throat swallowed heavily as if choking on its meal. Something was happening in there.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Kasumi clawed at the sides of the giant crocodiles massive throat for dear life as the fleshy walls compressed around her and tried to force her into its stomach again. She was utterly panicked as all her struggles and flailing only slowed her descent rather than helping her climb back out to freedom.

    Then right as her panic reached a peak and she was almost mindlessly flailing around a strange coolness washed over her. And suddenly she wasn¡¯t panicked anymore and all her emotions seemed dull and far away.

    Just like before when she¡¯d been panicking in the creature¡¯s stomach and seen the other woman using her dissolving hands to press into the flesh around them and start carving a hole down through the animal around them.

    Kasumi had to do something similar to escape here. Without knowing what else she could do, Kasume opened her mouth and bit hard on the fleshy walls above her even as she spread eagled to wedge her arms and legs against the fleshy walls as best as she could. She let out a muffled scream of pain as her teeth broke and ripped out of her skull as the fleshy walls of the crocodile¡¯s throat undulated around her again.

    But it had worked, and when her ruined face regenerated it was half buried in the flesh. The crocodile hissed in pain and Kasumi opened her mouth slightly and bit down again. The walls pressed inwards and only her dull emotionless state let her continue as the pain grew overwhelming as her face was brutalized once again.

    But she had sunk even deeper this time. Bite by bite, she carved deeper into the base of the beast¡¯s throat, its own attempts to swallow her injuring her and wedging her even more firmly into place.

    The flesh didn¡¯t dissolve inside her mouth so her jaw was forced half open as it filled with gore until she half closed it again to help herself worm deeper into the creature.

    Everything was so dark, and her eyes were closed as they were coated in blood again.

    The crocodile let out another pained hiss and Kasumi could feel it flailing and rolling around again even as it seemed to try to dislodge her. Eventually Kasumi reached something hard and white that cracked her teeth when she bit down on it with full force.

    Yet just like the rest of the flesh, the bone dissolved away like it wasn¡¯t even there as the thrashing of the beast threw her body around and forced her head to wedge into the gap.

    The thrashing started to subside as she kept moving and dissolving more flesh that was goopier and softer. The brain. Her mind dimly noted that she was digging through the creature¡¯s brain right now. She hit bone again and dissolved through it. She was going slower now that the crocodile¡¯s violent thrashing had settled down to the occasional violent twitch.

    Kasumi kept going, in her emotionless and focused state only her goal of escaping the creature mattered. She could feel a faint sense of her panic and claustrophobia coming back in a rising tide even now. She had to get out before it overwhelmed her again.

    The crocodile had gone still, but Kasumi¡¯s bites and thrashing still managed to let her move upwards through the loose flesh until she reached the final barrier of the scales.

    Her panic and claustrophobia was becoming more and more intense as her strange state from before quickly began to fade. She knew that just through these scales was freedom and sunlight from this fleshy prison, but she wasn¡¯t being injured anymore. The crocodile had stopped moving and no matter how her fingers scrabbled against the underside of the hard scales she couldn¡¯t get through.

    Her panic and desperation kept rising as she began furiously punching and scraping at the scale above her in a frenzy fruitlessly until there was a sharp pain in her hands and she started making some progress as a small divot formed in the bloody scale trapping her in this place.

    She punched and scratched harder and faster as her heart beat in her throat and her breath came in short rapid bursts. She couldn¡¯t even breathe properly through the flesh choking her throat and even now forcing her jaw to remain open at its maximum extension just before the point where it would turn from profoundly uncomfortable to painful.

    Finally her injured fist dissolved through the last section of scale and punched through into open air.

    She immediately stuck her hands in and worked to open the gap and crawl out at maximum desperate speed.

    She crawled out and collapsed outside into open air and quickly spat out the glob of flesh crammed tightly into her throat to the side.

    She heaved shuddering breaths and hugged the cold scales beneath her in relief as she felt the open air around her. Her breathing slowed as she slowly calmed down and her brain finally began allowing other thoughts besides relief of finally getting out.

    Kasumi sat up and blinked as she saw that she was sitting on top of the massive lizard¡¯s head and there were hundreds of people in a circle around staring at her. She turned around and saw the massive hold that her body had drilled mostly upwards from the beast¡¯s throat through its brain and out of the top. She looked back forward and realized that the beast¡¯s body was completely still.

    Oh.

    She had killed it.

    ¡°Kasumi Nagato. Dragonslayer,¡± she whispered to herself. Then she started giggling madly and ignored all the people watching her.

    Her laughter soon turned to crying as the trauma from what had just happened to her washed over her.

    But she had done it. Kasumi Nagato, only real dragonslayer in history. If this lizard didn¡¯t deserve the title, then she wasn¡¯t sure what would¡­

 Chapter 97: Strength in Numbers

    The creatures of the museum all fought to get access to the targets. All of them felt the links in their minds, pushing them forward, telling them to¡­

    ¡°Save them!¡±

    But their efforts were fruitless and they were trapped within their enclosures and unable to do what they were Guided to do. Something swelled within the creatures and they changed. Changed in the way that their minds believed would help them break free.

    ¡°I wish that you would all just DIE!¡±

    Some broke free immediately and started attacking to the humans in black that they knew were in the main lobby of the building. The mind on the other link even while unconscious fed them the vague impressions and scattered information that they needed to know where the closest group was.

    They fought and rippled again when the targets stood strong and were still not defeated. And all of them became more. More dangerous. But all in their own ways. The bird¡¯s claws were sharpened, the rats claws dripped with poison that would paralyze their prey. The little lizards acid grew ever more powerful so it could sear through defenses.

    The creatures rippled and grew ever more powerful as they attacked. Each with their own refinement and growth as the power swelling within them compelled them to fufill their mission at all costs.

    ¡°Somebody has to save them!¡±

    Four of the targets were resistant. Claw, teeth, acid, none prevented them from recovering and continuing their fight against the varied horde. Two of the regenerating humans left the building and a large portion of the horde went out to chase after them. They spotted others that they knew must also be targets. The ones behind the terrible tradgedy and swell of emotion that they could all feel pulsing on the other end of their connection to the originator.

    All of the creatures worked on their own, yet were all on the same mission. And as they failed over and over again to kill the regenerating humans, their forms rippled with power again and again and improved.

    The buzzing insects were peculiar among the others. Most enhanced something about themselves. Made themselves more poisonous, become bigger, something else internal. They burst out of their enclosures and flew of scattered off in hunt of the targets sent to them through the link. All their simple minds knew was that the humans in black must be eliminated while those in green must be protected. No more nuance than that could be understood by their small minds.

    Yet the centerpiece of the exhibit was different. The massive ant supercolony did not seek to escape its confines just yet.

    It could not. In the simple minds of the ants, there was only one thought to them. If it could even be called a thought. How did their forms benefit the larger colony? Not all members of the colony could be soldier ants, big and strong and meant to fend off the intruders. Not all could be Queens.

    The tunnels of the nest must be widened, adjusted, changed based on how many workers crawled through them. The chambers where the food was brought and where leaves were fed to the fungal gardens must be done as part of the larger whole.

    No ant worked on its own, but only did so in the larger context of its simple instincts and a complex network of pheromone trails and other biological signals.

    So when the ants could not escape their enclosure to reach the enemy that they felt, they did not grow bigger or stronger like all of the others.

    Instead they all wished for external things. Things for the colony. To build more efficient and defensible nests, better organization among the workers so that not one scrap of food was lost. The ability to work together and improve the colony rather than themselves as units of the larger whole.

    And so when the rippling improvement washed over the millions of ants in the colony, that¡¯s what it did. The ants were externally unchanged, but they were more somehow. Their movements more purposeful, more organized. Each little component of the colony grew just slightly more intelligent and aware of how to better work with their fellows.

    They started moving the corners and cracks of their enclosure and started hunting for weaknesses that they could start tunneling through to the wider world. But they found no weaknesses. Their new intelligence brought no strength with it. For in the ants minds their overdriving purpose was executing and coirdinating with the colony. What importance could their own individual attributes have in comparison to something as important as that.

    The colony rippled three more times, growing more and more intelligent each time and the wandering ants soon crashed and moved like waves as they started digging into even the smallest cracks and gaps to help break free and reach the enemies sent to them over the link to the originator.

    ¡°Stop them, please!¡±

    They were on the cusp of something greater, and all the ants rippled as one as they were improved one last time. And when it was over¡­ Something had changed. Within the ant queens at the center of the colony there was a glimmer of true intelligence.

    They were usually nothing more than the factory of the nest, continually giving birth to the young ants eggs and remaining motionless in place and being fed simultaneously to continue production. But unlike the usual workers or soldier ants, they did have another desire beyond just its base function.

    The Queens wished for their offspring to better able to serve the colony, to perform better in their roles. To know instinctively how many of each variant to produce to conserve food. For the ant eggs they gave birth to to mature faster and require less food to create.

    And so all of these things were done and improved with each iteration, and the intelligence alongside it to manage all of these new things. And so the Queens rapidly outpaced the intelligence of the lesser drones of the colony.

    The ants now had a great enemy to fight. And the soldier ants wouldn¡¯t be enough. Along with the Queens new glimmer of intelligence, came another mutation. One far more mysterious than all of the others combined. The newly intelligent ants and colony didn¡¯t understand their enemy. They didn¡¯t understand how they were still trapped in these tubes and eclosures still despite the colony working together more seamlessly as they ever had before.

    And so the link to the originator¡­ widened. And the colony received information in a deluge like they never had before. Thousands, millions, trillions of thoughts and concepts that they could never understand.

    They all fell to the ground as one and started twitching from the confusion and overload of information.

    But then their forms rippled again and they somewhat understood. Not as a human would, and not with words of any form. But they understood the information in their own way, and understood their enemy somewhat better.

    No claw, acid, or massive bulk had defeated these enemy creatures yet in human history. Yet the ants still had their task, and they must accomplish it.

    Finally, a single weakened joint on one of the tubes on the ceiling was found. It took over five minutes, but eventually a hole was bored through the material and provided a method for the colony to escape.

    Half of the ants and soldiers immediately rushed off to the main lobby to join in the assault on the remaining two¡­ ¡®Immortals¡¯ shaped like humans in the main lobby.

    But the other half remained behind as they widened the exit and started spreading out in a spreading mass of scouts.

    Because the ants instincts and new intelligence told them that these creatures would not be easy to defeat. It would be a long war, like if the old form of the colony was to meet another.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    The newly intelligent and altered Queens must be protected within a nest. And the current nest was completely inadequete and weak compared to what they could build now.

    The half that went to attack the two thrashing Immortals was fruitless. Their bites and attacks didn¡¯t harm the Immortals in the weakest bit. But the most interesting thing happened as a few workers wandered back to the colony with little blobs of wet flesh held in their mandibles.

    Food for the Queens.

    The Queens continued to rapidly produce more ants, the creatures hatching from their eggs into full drones in less than a minute after being laid. And they required so little food to create that it was pracitaclly transforming the food the Queens were given directly into new members of the colony.

    As more members of the colony died amongst the chaos in the main lobby, crushed by the other creatures or flailing Immortals alike, the minds of the colony shifted perspective.

    The ants that had been formerly attacking the two Immortals began shifting their mission. Where the blood or severed limbs and chunks of flesh fell on the floor, the ants swarmed and took small chunks for the colony. And they walked back through the museum and ferried it back to the Queens continued to rapidly swell their numbers with their newfound rapid production of new young for the colony.

    The drones that the Queen produced were faster than the former drones. What limited the colony now in their scouting was time. They could only move so fast, and at their size the journey to and back to the colony from the main lobby took over fifteen minutes round trip.

    The scouts and pheremone trails were far flung across the museum by now and nearly three quarters of them hadn¡¯t returned to the colony yet to share what they¡¯d found with the larger colony.

    The ants rippled again and their intelligence grew again. The Queens gained more refinement of the eggs they laid and imbued them with ever greater speed and metabolism for scouting and aquiring food from the Immortals being brutalized by the other creatures.

    Some time passed, until finally several of the faster ant variants returned and reported their findings in puffs of pheremones and body movements. They had found a location that was suitable for a colony.

    Larger swarms of hundreds of ants followed the pheremone trails of the scouts, ready to establish a presence in a more secure location.

    After some back and forth as the large groups of ants found the best location for the new nest. Members from each group would face each other and fight or puff angry pheremones at each other until one backed down. After enough of this, the location that made those who saw it most defensive and passionate was chosen.

    Over a quarter of the ant swarm shifted and went to the location of the new nest upon the decision being made. Thirty minutes later, they were done digging the new nest. It was far away, deep in the bottom of the three sub levels of the museum. The place was made of hard gray concrete except for a few cracks here and there. And right near the bottom of the building in a dark corner was a particularly large crack with abundant soil beneath it. Best of all it was near an elevator that had a shaft that led up to all the other levels of the building. And this elevator opened into a hallway just off the main lobby. There was no better location as the large group of ants started digging into the crack and digging their tunnels and defensive nest.

    After the nest was fully prepared and established, the Queens were cafefully moved. Away from the exposed nest contained in a box of fragile glass and into the secure nest deep in the ground.

    The nest underground grew, the ant Queens were established in their chambers and being fed from the abundance source of food above.

    The Queens considered the situation now that they were settled. They were now intelligent enough to think, even if it was a slow, instinctive form of thought. The numbers of larger beasts above were slowly dwindling. All were larger, deadlier, more poisonous each time they rippled. Yet nothing seemed to make any progress in killing the two Immortals still left in the building.

    The ants knew through their link to the originator that the humans might come to take the Immortals away eventually. That there might be others out there involved in what had happened.

    The ants couldn¡¯t allow that. They were completely unable to kill these Immortals now, but they would be able to eventually. They must be able to.

    ¡°You have to protect them!¡±

    And they may hurt the ones in green if they escaped. The colony couldn¡¯t allow that.

    It had been long enough that the Originator had woken up. The information fed through the link to the colony provided urgency. It had been hours since the initial attack, and there were at least six of these Immortals that had been part of the attackers. The normal humans meant to go in and take them away soon.

    The other beasts were unintelligent and unable to see the futility in their furious assault. The ant colony must take possession of at least one of the Immortals. Not only would their biomass strengthen them, but it would prevent them from being taken by the other humans.

    The ants must gather as many of them as possible before the humans arrived. The information from the originator told them that the humans were planning on taking them away soon. And that the ants would be likely destroyed if they were spotted. They must make sure they were not visible and hide away until the humans were no longer on as high alert as they were now¡­

    A majority of the ant swarm left the colony and surged up through the elevator shaft, the stronger new ant variants borne from the new Queens managing to wedge open the elevator doors to make room for their prey.

    The beasts still fought each other and attacked the screaming and flailing Immortals. The ants swarmed over to the closest Immortal and as one covered their entire body and started dragging towards the open doors to the elevator shaft. The elevator box itself was at the top floor at the moment, so it was a clear drop to the bottom once they managed to drag the Immortal inside.

    The collective effort of the ants managed to slowly drag the Immortal¡¯s body towards the open doors. The other beasts kept fighting and attacking the Immortal, crushing ants by the hundreds as they uncaringly kept attempting to damage the Immortal rather than bother avoiding the ants covering the Immortal¡¯s whole surface.

    As the ants and the flailing Immortal grew close to the elevator shaft itself the horde of beasts began to split. The vast majority gradually fell back and turned to attack the other Immortal closer to the center of the room.

    All the creature¡¯s rippled, and everything but the ants increased in size or grew more dangerous in seconds. The ants grew more coirdinated and intelligent instead.

    The few beasts who remained attacking the Immortal now barely a few feet from the elevator shaft grew even more enraged and tried to latch on and drag the Immortal back closer to the center of the room. But the ants persisted in the tug of war for a few moments before succeeding and tipping the flailing humanoid form into the black elevator shaft downwards.

    The Immortal fell several stories and landed on the ground far below with a heavy and gruesome thump, killing most of the ants coating their body.

    The beasts above lost interest and went back to the center of the room and started brutalizing the other Immortal for now.

    A new variant spat little bursts of slightly acidic liquid onto the concrete in the bottom corner of the elevator shaft even as they bit at the stone. And with the help of the acid they managed to carve slightly into the hard concrete with each bite of their mandibles, even if they occasionally splashed themselves and shriveled and died as well.

    The Immortal shook their head and sat up and looked confused as they looked upwards to the single point of light shining far above them and the single beams coming through the closed doors of the exterior elevator floor doors.

    The Immortal only started to panic as the first of the swarm finished crawling back down the elevator shaft and climbed over the Immortal¡¯s body again.

    The hole through the concrete was opened just wide enough that the Immortal who was now flailing again was able to be stuffed through with the efforts of the swarm of ants.

    The Immortal was carried through deep underground through their evergrowing tunnels and into the massive chamber that the Queens had overseen the construction of.

    The Immortal was placed inside as the Queens retreated to their other appropriate chambers with their task complete.

    The Immortal¡­ was placed in the feeding chamber. And the ants started to feed, to provide more flesh to feed the Queens who grew the colony ever larger with every passing moment.

    The main swarm went back to retrieve the other, but stopped as they saw humans fighting the other beasts inside. The ants must not be seen or the humans would know to hunt and eliminate them.

    With some effort, the swarm managed to close the open elevator doors again, an action that was completely ignored in the chaos of the battle.

    They retreated back downwards and into their nest and filled the hole in with soil behind them to mostly cover their tracks.

    The colony grew with a single Immortal in the center as its source of endless biomass. They dug deeper and wider.

    And with each ripple and wave of improvement across their bodies, the colony grew stronger. The waves slowed down a little more each time, but they still came. And the colony and nest grew ever deeper beneath the surface.

    They had an endless source of food and the Queen¡¯s new biology allowed them to recycle that flesh with near perfect efficiency from dead ant and Immortal alike.

    They had no need for an exterior source of food when they had an endless one in the center of the nest. So they burrowed ever deeper, ever wider, their only need for tunnels to the surface to be for air to sustain them.

    They would wait and grow their strength. Give the Queens some time to understand the information entering them through the connection to the originator. They would wait, and find a way to kill this Immortal eventually. They would find a way to kill all who had been involved. It was its purpose.

    ¡°Somebody has to save them! Somebody, Anybody¡­ I wish that you would all just DIE!¡±

 Chapter 98: Revealing the Conspiracy

    ¡°How is that even possible?¡± Emily demanded, trying to control her anger, ¡°We must know something about them? How is it even possible we have no idea who¡¯s behind this? That none of the governments could?¡±

    Entiru looked frustrated with himself as he shook his head with gritted teeth, ¡°I don¡¯t know genemother. I¡­ The Immortal attackers are not in our databases. They¡¯ve been blaming¡­ Enforcer Malketh for the attack. But he¡¯s completely disappeared somehow, and reports have him working against the terrorists. It doesn¡¯t make any sense¡­¡±

    Emily opened her mouth and closed it. That¡­ Malketh? Gah, his name was always so hard to remember, hardly seemed the type to do something like this. And why? What did he have to gain? No, it had to be someone else. Knight Entiru was right, the pieces just didn¡¯t fit.

    A worming suspicion took root in her mind, ¡°Entiru, did you say that you found nothing on the attackers? Just like how we never could find anything on Mal¨C Malik something¡¯s past?¡±

    ¡°Yes, genemother. Completely unknown to us.¡±

    ¡°What¡­ What if whoever it was had people on the inside?¡± Emily asked cautiously, ¡°Erasing the files? What if¡­ it was one of the Immortal Council behind it? Only they¡¯d have high level access like that.¡±

    ¡°It¡­ It is possible, Genemother. I will look into it right away. We¡¯ll make sure the people behind this pay for what they¡¯ve done!¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Entiru. Let me know if you find anything. I have to go comfort poor Michael and the rest of my family. I never thought I¡¯d see so many of their lives cut so short again. They had so much more living to do before I should have to mourn them¡­¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I will leave you to it, Genemother,¡± Entiru said, looking emotional and like he was beating himself up internally, nearly in tears. He pounded his hand to his chest and bowed slightly before walking down the hospital hallway off to do his work.

    Emily sighed and turned back around and walked back into the hospital room. Inside young Michael was rasping as he lay on the hospital bed with heavy bandages wrapped around his bullet wound.

    She sat down on the chair next to the bed and grabbed his warm hands as he looked at her silently.

    ¡°We don¡¯t know yet. He¡¯ll let us know as soon as he has anything.¡±

    Michael sighed and slumped back onto the pillows in disappointment. Emily squeezed his hand comfortingly.

    ¡°I¡¯m here. I¡¯m right here, Michael. I¡¯ll always be here for you.¡±

    Michael nodded jerkily and slumped back onto the bed.

    ¡°I, just¡­ Reese too?¡± he asked, ¡°It just doesn¡¯t seem fair¡­¡±

    ¡°I know, Michael. It¡¯s not fair. Not at all. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    ¡°How do you deal with it? Just living on after they¡¯re gone? Everyone before us?¡± Michael asked her.

    ¡°I find more people to care for,¡± Emily said and tightened her grip on this hand for a moment, ¡°It¡¯s worked alright so far. But it never gets any easier. I don¡¯t want it to, because then¡­ then it means I¡¯ll stop caring. Be all alone again. That would be worse than how painful it feels right now, losing them.¡±

    Michael shot her a surprised look and a complicated expression flashed across his face for a moment.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Mom. I didn¡¯t mean to bring it up like that,¡± he said softly.

    ¡°It¡¯s fine. I loved Reese too. But Knight Entiru will find out who¡¯s behind this. We¡¯ll get justice for her and all the others.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    ¡°Entiru, you promised me answers!¡± Emily shouted and put her finger on the knight¡¯s chest, ¡°What have you been doing for the last month?! How is it possible that you have nothing to report? Why do I have to take time from my family and hunt you down to get answers?¡±

    Entiru flinched and looked like a scolded dog as he stood there stiffly.

    ¡°Genemother,¡± he said in a strained and stressed voice, ¡°I¡¯m doing everything in my power. Called mortal governments and combed through their records. Hunted for Malketh tirelessly wherever he¡¯s hidden himself away. But I can¡¯t find information on any of them. Especially not after the escape¡­¡±

    ¡°And what about that? We¡¯ve never had an escape before, and they just slip out of our fingers?¡± Emily said, ¡°Bore a hold directly into the floor and have them gone for hours before the guards notice anything. Completely filling in the hole behind them with dirt as they tunnel away to God knows where! I thought you told me you were having strict security on them?

    ¡°I was, Genemother,¡± Entiru said, ¡°It seems that my subordinates were slacking. The Enforcers are a voluntary position and they seemed to think that it was fine to ignore their duty because it was too boring¡­¡±

    Emily felt her anger rise at the statement before with a sharp breath she controlled herself and forcefully calmed down. She lifted her finger from Entiru¡¯s chest and sighed and just felt tired all of a sudden.

    ¡°What about the internal investigation? The members on the Immortal Council who might have done it?¡±

    ¡°I have no conclusive evidence, genemother.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s only a theory with no evidence¡­¡±

    ¡°Spit it out. I need something here. After a month I don¡¯t believe you have accomplished literally nothing.¡±

    Maybe Emily was being too harsh on the Knight, and she did feel bad for her sharp tongue. But it bothered her more that he had avoided her. All this time she had thought that he had been making progress in the case while in reality he¡¯d just been spinning his wheels fruitlessly this whole time and scared to contact her because of it.

    ¡°It could be one of the other nine. Immortal Clara or Sanje more specifically,¡± Entiru said, ¡°They¡¯ve been trying to gain influence in the Immortal Council aggressively for a while now in these last few centuries. Maybe they¡¯re doing this to have you off balance for whatever ploy they have ready next. They resent the influence you have over the Knights and the planet in general.¡±

    Emily considered the theory for a few moments. Everything he said was true, and she had a harder time dismissing it than she thought she would. Sanje had always been unpleasant, but would he really go that far to hurt her?

    Clara was many things, but Emily didn¡¯t think the woman would be involved in something like this. Despite their on and off friendship, Emily was sure that at least some of their connection was real. Even if Clara wanted to fit in with the other eight and so didn¡¯t end up being outwardly friendly when other people were watching them.

    Clara wouldn¡¯t do this, but Sanje¡­ Emily shook her head. Sanje wouldn¡¯t do it either. She was letting her dislike for the man color her perceptions.

    No, it couldn¡¯t be either of the two of them.

    She had a sudden flare of suspicion and squinted at Entiru closely. How well did she really know him? They¡¯d only spoken a couple dozen times at most, most of them within the last month. Emily tried to not be involved with the Immortal Council matters too much and stayed at her museum. Besides that they had communicated over professional short notes and texts to clear up smaller matters that didn¡¯t need a face to face conversation.

    What if he was the traitor, and that was why the investigation was taking so long? Was that why he was trying to deflect blame onto Clara or Sanje?

    Entiru sensed her sudden piercing look and shifted uncomfortably in place.

    ¡°Well, keep working on it,¡± Emily said after a moment and relaxing her squint into a more normal expression, ¡°But let me know updates you have. And don¡¯t avoid me next time when I want to talk to you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, Genemother. I¡¯m deeply ashamed of my cowardice,¡± Entiru said with some emotion, put a fist over his heart, and then left.

    Emily stared after him before sitting heavily in a nearby chair.

    She couldn¡¯t trust anyone. Any of them could be in on it.

    It could be all of them, a grand conspiracy.

    It could be no one.

    Only a few.

    Some of them had worked with those terrorists to kill her family.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    The terrorists hadn¡¯t cared about the money, they¡¯d just been trying to hurt her with the money as an excuse.

    It could be all of the Immortal Council.

    All of them could have been behind it.

    But for now she had her mortal family to take care of.

    She could afford to fly into a rage and turn everything upside down when Michael and his little siblings had recovered and didn¡¯t need her with them as much anymore.

    Then she could take the time to go to the palace and start interrogating the Immortal there to try to suss out who the traitor was.

    That was for later though.

    She and the other nurses and caretakers would have to start dinner for their large family soon.

    A few more empty chairs now¡­

    But they would still be eating together.

    That counted for something at least.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The new information washed over the rapidly growing ant colony through the link to the originator. The six direct attackers who were Immortals were in the feeding chambers and grew the colony¡¯s numbers and power with every passing day. This Malketh human was strange. It remained to be seen if he was involved with the attackers or not. If he must be declared an enemy or be ignored like others not relevant to the ant colony¡¯s mission. But it was unknown as of now which he would be.

    It could be all of them.

    The ant colony gained the faint sense of an entire nest of Immortals working together. And that one or all of them was an enemy.

    The Queens could only ponder this information. Even with their most recent rippling distortion a few days ago increasing their intelligence further, they still did not understand most of the information that they had available to them.

    It could be all of them.

    Or it could be none of them.

    The ants and their Queens didn¡¯t know how to tell which was which or how they would go about identifying such things. They had so much knowledge rushing through them, but it was all so strange and unfamiliar, none of the pieces coming together in a way they could understand. Only the slightest glimmer of understanding for every massive torrent of information passing by them.

    The colony refocused on the six Immortals that provided the fuel for its growth. It kept trying to find ways to eliminate them, to accomplish its mission¡­ But nothing worked. The Immortal¡¯s regeneration never slowed no matter what the ant colony did.

    The Queens would just have to create some more specialized variants of forms for their offspring. Given enough time one of them must be able to overcome the Immortals and finally become strong enough to kill them.

    And keep gathering strength here deep underground for the moment when the originator discovered who else was involved with the plot.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    It had been four months, and Entiru¡¯s investigation was still fruitless. He¡¯d traced every last root and association of the mortals amongst the attackers on the museum. Every person they ever talked to or worked for was interrogated. But they were all mercenaries. Anonymously hired three years ago simultaneously and disappearing from all surveillance and records simultaneously. The Immortals who had escaped from the prison through the tunnels in the ground hadn¡¯t been seen in all of this time. Malketh was still missing.

    Entiru now believed that Malketh was the mastermind behind everything. Partial files and plans had been found in his personal datapad in his personal Enforcer quarters at the Palace.

    But the files while highly suspicious, and didn¡¯t actually explain how he had managed to wipe out the records of his supposed subordinates. Or why he had done it, or disappeared afterwards.

    And why he had tried to stop it at the last minute if that was true.

    Entiru believed it, but Emily didn¡¯t. It had been long enough, and her family situation was relatively stable by now. She could afford to take some time off to investigate fully.

    She walked to the front gate of the Palace and the two guards at the front called out to her as she stood there in a sweatshirt and a deep hood. An attempt to go under the radar as she traveled.

    She pulled back her hood to show her face and the two Enforcers immediately paled and started bowing and apologizing for inconveniencing her. They quickly opened the gate and let her through while bowing her heads.

    Emily sighed slightly but thanked them for their help, which seemed to make them feel better as they stared at her like she was a superstar.

    Well, she was a superstar. She was used to people treating her this way now. So strange what you could get used to given enough time.

    She tried to not abuse the trust and respect almost everyone had for her, to order people around.

    It was half the reason she¡¯d let the other Immortals from Earth form the Immortal Council in the beginning. The other Earth Immortals been struggling to make it for centuries as the other Immortals chafed against their demands and regulations. But Emily had taken over and put in some rules to make sure that the other Earth Immortals didn¡¯t smother the younger Immortals too much.

    It was a good idea, to make sure that none of the Immortals would go out there and set themselves up as rulers or hurt the mortals unchecked by anyone who could stop them. Staying separate from politics was a part of that, to prevent them from hurting the mortals.

    Only a few Immortals had followed Emily¡¯s example and lived among the mortals while avoiding involving themselves in government affairs when they could. It was a hard balance, but Emily thought that it was worth it for her. Her family had always kept her going on even when everything else in her endless life seemed gray and pointless.

    And of course the rules over them owning businesses were part of the Immortal Council too. It would be just as bad if all the wealth was funneled to the Immortals through corporations while all the mortals were left without any real way to compete. Businesses run by Immortals were heavily taxed and regulated so they wouldn¡¯t stifle their competitors despite their advantage from having an Immortal as a supporter and as their head.

    All of those rules were good things, Emily had seen how much good they¡¯d done since the chaotic times when everyone was running free. Back when she had to go on television and scold the people doing wrong so everyone mortal and Immortal alike mobilized to catch and punish them¡­ Punished often in excessive ways before Emily could step in and make things more reasonable as the people were swept in a religious fervor to punish the heretic.

    All it had taken was a few speeches from Emily, and the Immortal Council had formed. All the others pushing hard for centuries for no success and met with skepticism from all sides, but such little effort from her and it formed in no time. Her version had some basic rule changes and actual input from the mortal governments what the future rules should be. But otherwise it was the same as what had always been discussed.

    The Immortal Council was good. It had worked, and kept almost everyone happy. So why did she have a sinking feeling in her chest as she walked through the walls of the Palace? The place that should represent a place for Immortals to group together and form lasting friendships with one another.

    A place where they could be happy and secure without dealing with all the pain that came along with an Immortal life. All that pain and loneliness that Emily had to deal with back on Earth and on the long ride through space to Gaia. She wouldn¡¯t wish something like that on anyone.

    Emily shook her head as she stopped in front of Malketh¡¯s old room. She was getting lost in her thoughts and hardly even remembered walking here. Her deep hood had kept anyone from giving her more than a quick glance before walking by in the hallways.

    Her nerves were getting to her. It was probably just one bad egg in the Palace who was behind this. There was no reason to spin wild conspiracies in her head just because she was scared about what she might find.

    Emily reached into her pocket and retrieved a key and placed it into the lock. Entiru had given her a copy a few weeks ago, but she hadn¡¯t told him when she was coming. He could be a traitor too for all she knew.

    The door clicked unlocked and Emily slipped inside and closed the door behind her after making sure that no one was around to observe her actions.

    The room was left untouched from four months ago when it had been searched, and a thin layer of dust coated the room.

    Emily walked over to where Malketh¡¯s datapad sat untouched on his side table, carefully placed back where it had been found after the initial search months ago.

    She quickly brushed it off and plugged it into the wall to recharge the drained battery. The tension built and built in her chest as she watched the blank screen until with a loud buzz that caused her to jump and swear, having been charged enough to activate.

    Emily took a deep breath and sat down with the datapad in her lap even as it remained plugged into the wall and increasing its charge. She typed the override password into the device and it opened to the main menu. Another thing that Entiru had given her from the team before that had first cracked into the device to investigate Malketh.

    Emily hunted through the device and inspected the source files of everything carefully. She saw why the tech team had believed what was presented. Whoever had done this was skilled. But everyone made mistakes, and Emily had always been good at solving puzzles like this.

    She put her backpack filled with the proper equipment on the floor. It should help her scan programs individually and highlight anything inconsistent from what it should be.

    The documents about Malketh¡¯s involvement with the attack weren¡¯t fake, at least not totally. Emily saw a few patterns of distorted pixels in her scans that showed that at least some of it had been altered. But it was difficult to tell exactly what had been changed or how much had been changed just yet.

    Her scans showed that the files were unnatural. They¡¯d been installed on the device nearly four days after the attack and been backdated to appear as if they¡¯d been received and created earlier than that. Someone on the investigation team must have done it¡­

    She¡¯d deal with that later. She worked hard to reconstruct the original files. The distortion patterns were regular, likely some advanced program used to subtly alter the original document. If she worked hard enough she might be able to isolate the distorted sections and maybe get some basic details even if it wasn¡¯t perfect¡­

    Emily went through the whole process that lasted hours, before sitting back and staring at the blurry and distorted sets of documents in front of her.

    Nothing much had been changed at all. A paragraph here and there. A few isolated sentences and words here and there. But Malketh¡¯s name was blurred across all of the documents. Every instance of his name was blurred and distorted.

    Emily¡¯s heart pounded as her programs refined the search and tried to cross reference and determine the original name. With so much data it should be able to find something.

    She waited as pixel by pixel the word began to come into focus.

    Emily¡¯s hands tightened around the datapad and she gritted her teeth as she finally recognized the name that was appearing.

    Sanje¡­ That bastard! Of course it would be him behind this! He¡¯d always hated her ever since the beginning, always bad mouthing her around the Palace and not caring what other people thought of it¡­

    Always acting so high and mighty, like he was above everyone else but Clara because he was one of the Earth Immortals. He seemed to make a special exception for Emily when it came for that bit.

    She stood to her feet and took a step towards the door before restraining herself and after a brief internal struggle sat back down. She couldn¡¯t go storming off. He had at least one mole in the investigation team to get access to the datapad. And someone to help him with the tech, Emily knew that Sanje would never be able to accomplish something like this by himself.

    She had to find out who else was working with him.

    She packed up her equipment back into the backpack and put away the datapad. Time to go to the central Enforcer database computers. She¡¯d track down whoever was working with Sanje and make them pay¡­

 Chapter 99: Confronting the Leader of the Conspiracy

    ¡°Hey, Emily. What are you doing back here?¡± Emily looked up to the door of the room and saw Clara standing there watching her. Emily had forgotten to lock the door again behind herself.

    ¡°Investigating what happened,¡± Emily said shortly.

    ¡°Did you find anything?¡± Clara asked, ¡°I¡¯m so sorry about what happened. I can¡¯t believe that someone would do something like that. Your recent family recovering well?¡±

    Emily relaxed slightly and nodded, ¡°They¡¯re doing okay. As well as they can be considering¡­ Well, they¡¯re doing much better now. What are you doing here?¡±

    ¡°Someone recognized you,¡± Clara said easily as her eyes flickered to the datapad sitting next to Emily, still plugged into the wall, ¡°I wanted to come see if you needed any help. And beat Sanje to you. He¡¯s been acting strange for a while now. More irritable than he normally is when he gets triggered by something.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± Emily asked, ¡°Is he coming too?¡±

    Clara shrugged, ¡°No idea. But he might. You¡¯ve always been the best at this tech stuff. Our resident genius. Did the investigation team miss anything important?¡±

    ¡°A few things,¡± Emily admitted after a few seconds of scrutinizing Clara, ¡°I¡¯m about to go to the Enforcer database. See what I can find there.¡±

    ¡°You need any help? I am on the Immortal Council. I can pull rank if Sanje tries anything.¡±

    Emily frowned, ¡°We both know that he can¡¯t pull rank on me. What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, I mean you and the people in command know that. But the rank and file won¡¯t know what to do necessarily. It would be a hassle if he confronted you with a group of people who will follow his orders without questioning why.¡±

    Emily hesitated before nodding. It would be nice to talk to Clara a bit, it had been centuries before they¡¯d caught up with one another¡­

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily kept looking through the files in the database, all the messages going in and out of the Palace. There were several secret or hidden connections. But they were revealed as more mundane things after some digging. Embarrassing to reveal to the larger world, but not anything malicious.

    But after hunting around she¡¯d found another connection that was far better hidden than any of the others. She furrowed her brow and started digging deeper and tried to decrypt the messages and uncover any more that had been hidden even better than the few she¡¯d already uncovered.

    ¡°You find something?¡± Clara asked as she perked up from where she sat across the room. She¡¯d helped shoo everyone else out of the room and sent Sanje off after he arrived. Seems that he¡¯d come but hadn¡¯t realized that it was Emily who was the mysterious person just yet.

    Emily had to resist the urge to run out there and throttle Sanje when she heard his voice just out of the door. But she had ignored it and just continued with her work instead. She couldn¡¯t rush.

    She misclicked one of the buttons as the ground suddenly shook slightly around them. Emily looked around and frowned along with Clara before they both shrugged it off.

    ¡°Yeah. Some secret messages,¡± Emily said, ¡°Hidden better than the others. I¡¯m about to decrypt them. We¡¯ll see who¡¯s really behind it. I¡¯m sure that this must be it.¡±

    Clara stood and looked over Emily¡¯s shoulder as her equipment suddenly beeped and the series of messages resolved from incoherent messages into small notes.

    The both of them quickly read the messages through. Sets of orders, discussing plans, every step along the way. All of it between Sanje and the unknown Immortal outside. All of the outside Immortal¡¯s communications seemed to be subservient, requesting clarification or providing ¡®advice¡¯ while Sanje¡¯s messages were authoritative and clear in instructing the unknown person what to do.

    The messages had been exchanged with each other for hundreds of years, and the plan had been ongoing for at least this long. The Immortals part of the attacking group had been hired for the job over two hundred years ago in preparation.

    There were parts that Emily was missing that weren¡¯t in the messages. She was sure that they must have taken place with the in person conversations. The frequency of messages picked up dramatically in the last few years as they discussed Malketh and his involvement. From what they said he wasn¡¯t completely aware of what was going on, but knew that he was working for Sanje to undermine Emily. Maybe he learned the truth at the last moment, which changed his mind, Emily mused as she considered the information.

    In a sudden burst of suspicion, Emily ran another check on all the messages for any alterations. But after a few silent minutes of the scan, it came back clean. These were the original messages.

    Emily looked through the other messages and hunted through who was connected to Sanje and took his orders. The list kept growing and growing the longer she read. Her eyes widened as it seemed that nearly every message and order from Sanje named another person who was part of the plan.

    Nearly a quarter of the people in power in the Immortal Council were seemingly under his thumb in some way or another. And even more regular Immortals that owed him favors but weren¡¯t fully looped in.

    Emily felt sick as the list kept growing and Clara frowned over her shoulder as she read as well.

    Finally they were done and the full list was compiled and nice and ordered.

    It was staggering. Emily felt a little small as she looked through it. All of these people had wanted to hurt her? Hurt her family? She had thought that it was only a few bad actors, but this was so much more. This was a full blown conspiracy, something more than just Sanje rambling. But why? Why had they done it? No matter what Emily read she couldn¡¯t find out the reason. It must have been part of the in person conversations between Sanje and his lackey outside of the Palace.

    There were more than a few names in the investigations team of the incident that had worked to cover up evidence and change the documents so that Malketh would be blamed for everything after his sudden disappearance.

    ¡°Well, shit,¡± Clara said after a moment, ¡°How the hell are we going to deal with this?¡±

    The ground rumbled again, harder this time and Clara stumbled slightly.

    ¡°And what is that?¡± Clara asked in annoyance, ¡°I hope one of those idiots outside aren¡¯t playing around with explosives again. We told them they have to go to the firing range and can¡¯t do it so close to the Palace¡­¡±

    Emily kept staring at the list for a moment, not processing Clara¡¯s words. This wasn¡¯t even the full list. This was only the people that Sanje had actively mentioned in his messages. She was sure that there were so many more that he hadn¡¯t needed to call favors from yet. People that would have helped him with this but hadn¡¯t had an opportunity to. Emily felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Clara staring at her.

    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s alright. We¡¯ll figure this out together,¡± Clara said, ¡°What should we do next?¡±

    Emily thought for a moment as she composed herself. What to do? Well, she knew what she wanted to do. She thought about it for a few moments and made sure she wasn¡¯t rushing things. But she had the evidence and the names of who was involved. Why shouldn¡¯t she confront Sanje and force him to confess to everything?

    He couldn¡¯t argue against the evidence Emily had with her. And Clara would be there supporting her, so Emily would not only have her own authority but also the Immortal council through Clara backing her.

    Emily stood up, her mind made up.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to confront Sanje right now,¡± Emily said firmly, ¡°Before he can figure out what¡¯s going on. We¡¯ll get the rest of the truth from him.¡±

    Clara nodded and the two of them walked out of the door.

    ¡°I know where he¡¯s probably gone after I shooed him off earlier,¡± Clara said, ¡°This way.¡±

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    They walked into a side room where Sanje and a few of his followers were sitting inside on some couches. Sanje was loudly complaining and bad mouthing Clara as everyone else around him nodded and sucked up to him. He stopped mid sentence as he saw Clara and the hooded Emily walk in.

    ¡°Clara!¡± he said, seeming to have worked himself up in their absence, ¡°Who do you think you are giving unilateral orders like that? You should have contacted me before just letting a complete stranger access to our secure files like that!¡±

    ¡°Well,¡± Clara said with a slight smirk, ¡°She¡¯s not exactly a complete stranger, is she?¡±

    Taking her cue, Emily threw back the deep hood and revealed her face to the room. Sanje froze and the rest of his five or six followers gasped and started whispering to each other.

    ¡°You!¡± Sanje grit out, ¡°What are you doing here? What do you have to do with this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m here to investigate what happened at the museum,¡± Emily said while glaring at him, ¡°Guess what I found?¡±

    Sanje frowned and opened his mouth to respond, but Clara cut him off.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even bother,¡± Clara said, ¡°We know that you¡¯ve been creating a faction to undermine Emily. Pulling on favors, recruiting people. We know everything that you¡¯ve done.¡±

    Sanje looked confused for a moment before looking defiant and ignored Emily to focus on Clara.

    ¡°So what?¡± he said, ¡°Why the hell does she deserve so much respect while the rest of us from Earth get treated like dirt by everyone? So what if she built a few machines and spent some time helping people? We¡¯ve done all of that and more over the last few thousand years. So what if we started a few hundred years later? But no matter what we do they always go back and still love her for no goddamn reason! All the mortals, even the Immortals. They¡¯re all fanatics, all for someone so needy and pathetic. Still coming back and being friends with you Clara like a needy dog despite all the shit that you¡¯ve done. She deserves to be taken down a peg. She doesn¡¯t deserve to be some paragon of goodness and virtue like it seems I hear from every damn person I meet these days!¡±

    Emily clenched her fist at Sanje¡¯s insults.

    ¡°Fuck you too, Sanje!¡± Clara said despite only seemingly slightly annoyed, ¡°You¡¯re just jealous of her. You¡¯re perfectly happy to let your followers to go around kissing your ass all the time because you¡¯re from Earth. You think donating some large amount of money to charities is even close to all the work that Emily does? You¡¯re the pathetic one. Why did you do it, Sanje? Why go this far?¡±

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    ¡°Do?¡± Sanje said, seeming confused, ¡°I hardly did anything at all. Really no idea why you of all people are getting so pissy about it Clara.¡±

    Emily¡¯s clenched fists were shaking as she glared at Sanje. Nothing?! He thought that what he did was nothing? That Clara would just dismiss it as nothing? How dare he!

    The ground rumbled hard and everyone was thrown from her feet. The tension was briefly broken as everyone looked around in confusion.

    ¡°What is that?¡± Sanje asked, ¡°What kind of bombs are they setting off out there? Don¡¯t they know the bomb range is far away for a reason? I¡¯ll go deal with them.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t get to leave,¡± Emily growled out, ¡°You do this, kill my family and practically forget about it and just walk away!¡±

    Sanje looked at her in complete confusion now and paused as he went to walk out the door.

    ¡°What?¡± he said in shock, ¡°I wasn¡¯t behind that. What are you talking about it?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t LIE TO ME!¡± Emily shouted and took a datapad from her backpack with a copy of the incriminating messages on them.

    ¡°I have messages of you on here!¡± Emily said as she threw the datapad onto the table between them, ¡°Giving the orders, planning it all! You bastard, how dare you?! Who else was involved? Who was the person who went out into Gaia and helped do your dirty work?¡±

    Sanje ignored the datapad and scoffed, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. Clearly whatever is on there is fake. Like I¡¯d even bother. You¡¯ll just forget about them and raise some new mortals in a few decades. It¡¯d be pointless to even try something like that. Now, I must go before one of those buffoons starts damaging one of the buildings¡­¡±

    Emily was completely enraged and felt a vein pulsing in her forehead as Sanje completely dismissed the accusations and went to brush past her. Emily saw Clara smiling next to her, only for the expression to disappear into a frown when she saw that Emily was looking at her.

    ¡°Give him the beating that he deserves, Emily,¡± Clara said quickly, ¡°He¡¯s lying. You saw the evidence yourself. He¡¯s just trying to run away.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Sanje said, ¡°That¡¯s ridicul¡ª¡±

    Emily grabbed him by the collar and shoved him back so he tripped and flopped on top of one of his followers who had been sitting on the couch and observing the confrontation.

    She took a step towards him as he rolled off and hit the floor and started scrambling to his feet.

    The ground shook violently around them.

    ¡°The hell are they doing out there?!¡± Sanje shouted as he struggled to stumbled to his feet as the rest of them tried to not fall as well, dismissing their accusations as he refocused on the rumblings that continued, ¡°Are they trying to destroy the place?¡±

    ¡°Who else was involved!¡± Emily shouted as she drunkenly stumbled into Sanje and grabbed him by the collar, ¡°Who else was in on it! Who was your source on the outside?¡±

    ¡°Get off of me!¡± Sanje shouted and struggled to break free from her white knuckled grip on him, ¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about!¡±

    The rumbling and shaking grew ever more intense until it was all Emily¡¯s balance to keep her feet as she and Sanje leaned into each other and circled as they spoke. Emilly kept shouting at Sanje and he sneered at her and kept trying to break free from her grip as everyone else in the room looked around from the floor fearfully.

    ¡°TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!¡± Emily screamed one last time into Sanje¡¯s face just as the room lurched and began to tilt and the floor cracked.

    The walls cracked and the roof collapsed as they were sent into a sudden freefall for a few seconds and floated into the air briefly.

    There was only a moment for everyone to be surprised before with a massive crash gravity reasserted itself and they all slammed hard into the floor that was shattered into a thousand pieces. The roof came next and caved in a second later in a massive screech of bending and twisting metal.

    They were all buried in rubble as Emily lost her grip on Sanje and everything went dark.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Clara woke with a gasp only to find herself surrounded by rubble. She squirmed and shifted in the small gap she found herself under. There was a large chunk of a concrete slab sloped above her head. Her right leg and left foot had been completely pulverized where the chunk of rubble had slammed into it. Just over her head another large chunk of stone sat holding up the triangular piece of stone above from crushing her.

    Clara¡¯s legs and foot had already healed and were wedged deeply inside in their little cocoons of stone. She took a few seconds to whine and start crying from the pain as she wiggled her foot and leg painfully from their gaps. Hurting herself enough that she was able to curl up into a ball with all of her limbs intact. She lay there panting for a few minutes with her right pant leg gone all the way up to the thigh and both shoes gone from her regeneration.

    What was that? This wasn¡¯t part of the plan. Surely Peter would have told her if he was planning something like this? After all those years of answering her messages as Sanje as preparation for this moment. Name dropping people within his faction as a code for the other people she was really asking favors from. Writing her messages so it sounded like Sanje was the one giving the orders¡­

    Emily had been right where Clara and Peter had wanted her. And Sanje had obliviously played his part perfectly too. The idiot had completely brushed past Clara¡¯s accusations without even justifying himself and made himself look even guiltier in the process.

    Clara groaned as she started twisting around and searching for a gap in her prison of rubble. What should she do? Wait for help? Try to dig herself out?

    If Peter was behind this then she¡¯d give him an earful. How dare he do something like this without warning her!

    There was shifting in the rubble all around her, and Clara let out a sigh of relief. Ah, she should just wait. There were Immortals all around the Palace. She was sure that some of them would be willing to push through the pain to dig themselves back to the surface. Even poor puppy dog Emily was pretty strong in that regard. She¡¯d probably be after Clara and dig her out in no time.

    It really was such a shame about Emily. It made Clara feel so guilty sometimes how easy it was to manipulate her. How even after everything Clara did, Emily still trusted her with the smallest prompting or apology. It was sort of like mistreating an innocent little puppy.

    Clara shook her head. Emily would get over her little mortals in a few years. She¡¯d be angry for a little bit, do some irrational things to stir the pot on Gaia, then calm down again and be fine. Clara could make it up to her later after Peter¡¯s plan was finished.

    Maybe get her an apology gift or take her out for a fun vacation with Clara without telling her why¡­

    Yes, that should make up for it.

    The rubble shifted near Clara¡¯s shoulder and she looked up. She opened her mouth, but froze when she saw what was opening a hole in the rubble. It was an ant bigger than her fist as it chewed through a small gap and formed a tunnel of sorts.

    All the scrabbling and motion around her suddenly took on a new more sinister meaning. She flinched away from the ant that exited its tunnel with a long line of others streaming in the small space after it.

    Clara started crushing them as they came too close to her, but more and more holes formed around her until she was absolutely coated in the creatures. She flailed and thrashed as they coated her whole body. Not hurting her yet, but just gently pinching her skin where they latched onto her jaws and dragging her into the tunnel that was growing larger beneath her feet. A sloped tunnel leading deep into the depths of the planet.

    Clara tried to grab the walls of the small tunnel and pull her self back upwards as she was dragged by the ant swarm that seemed never ending no matter how many of them she crushed as she flailed.

    She let out one long scream before another group of ants the size of small dogs climbed from the depths and latched onto her legs and started dragging her down. She couldn¡¯t resist their pull and before she knew it she was being dragged unwillingly through a series of tunnels.

    Everything was black and in the dark until she was thrown into a large pit of some kind.

    At the bottom was a carpet of regular sized ants that immediately started biting and trying to consume her as she struggled to escape.

    She tried to climb out of the pit, but whenever she did one of the larger creatures would shove her so she would fall back inside.

    What was this, what was happening¡­

    What were these monstrosities?

    Clara couldn¡¯t escape. She could only serve as a food source for these terrible creatures.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    The Queens all froze at once as more and more information entered their minds. More targets had been identified. Immortals involved with the attack on the museum. There were many. And there could be more. But what if some were missed? What if some concealed what they had done?

    It was their directive to save the mortals. It was their directive to eliminate the targets. The other Immortals were neither. The ants had no instincts of what to do with them. They kept tunneling upwards and hollowing out the space beneath the originator and nest of Immortals. What should be done with Immortals who were not targets?

    The trap worked and the entire building of the Immortal Palace collapsed inwards and down into the deep pit that the colony had hollowed out beneath it over the last few weeks in preparation. Now they had thinned the roof enough that it would finally break and sent the whole building and the Immortals inside crashing down, Originator included.

    The colony worked to take away Sanje and the others that the Originator knew must be involved and targets. But there were many others left trapped under the rubble. Immortals who might be involved, but the Originator wasn¡¯t sure for a fact.

    The Queens considered the dilemma. Its instincts did not tell them what they should do in this case. Eventually, they chose practicality. All of those Immortals would provide the food for the ant colony to have more food and expand faster. To let them better be able to find the Immortal not in the Palace who also had been behind it.

    The colony would have to capture all the Immortals possible on the planet. Maybe then the Originator would be able to determine which ones were innocent and which ones guilty once they were all together. When the Queens had more time to absorb their knowledge and the Originator able to know that everyone that could be guilty were captured.

    The colony shifted Sanje and the others who were guilty towards its deepest feeding chambers. They must be protected at all costs, to make sure that they were not taken from the colony at any point.

    The colony must find a way to kill these ones. The others were simply food. A loss to production if they escaped, but not anything more than that. But these¡­ These were the ones that must die. And the colony would never let them go until they succeeded in their mission.

    ¡ª ¡ª ¡ª

    Emily heard scuffling and movement all around her and a few muted screams. But after a few minutes everything was quiet, with only the sound of shifting rubble around her.

    It was painful, but Emily managed to carve out an opening in the rubble around her to what felt like a naturally carved tunnel of some kind. Escaping from the confined space hurt, but pounding her fist on the point seemed to do the trick and let her squeeze through into the larger space.

    Everything was dark and Emily stumbled through the oddly smooth tunnel made of damp soil and rocks dripping.

    She didn¡¯t hear any movement around her as she stumbled around blindly through the tunnels for a while. Whenever she went deeper there was the faintest sound of movement and the occasional crash of a tunnel caving in. She would turn around after reaching the end and finding the ends of those tunnels leading deeper sealed with dirt.

    Eventually there was a glimmer of light and Emily jogged towards it through the dark. She went forward and poked her head through the foot wide hole. She stuck her arms through and climbed out through the small gap through the damp soil.

    She climbed out of the ground and collapsed outside. She looked around in confusion to find herself in a forest. This was a few miles from the Palace. There was a wet thump beneath her. Emily looked behind her and saw the ground sagging inwards in a straight line from the tunnel that she¡¯d been traveling along. Something had collapsed it behind her.

    She walked over to where she knew the Palace should have been. But she couldn¡¯t see it all, except for the helicopters and other flashing lights showing that there was anything there at all.

    She reached the edge of the hole and looked down. The Palace was completely wrecked and not even recognizable as anything other than a few bits of metal and stone sticking out from a massive pile of dirt covering it.

    ¡°Genemother? Genemother, are you alright? What happened?¡± One of the mortals nearby called out as he finally spotted her. He was wearing a military uniform and waved the other soldiers back as he approached her.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she said as she stared back into the hole. She wasn¡¯t sure how to feel now. Right after the emotional reveal of Sanje and the other¡¯s betrayal, there was this random attack.

    She turned to the person who had brought her a blanket. She took it silently and wrapped it around her shoulders.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened,¡± Emily said, ¡°What did the others say?¡±

    ¡°Others, ma¡¯am?¡± the man said nervously, ¡°They¡¯ve all disappeared. Vanished. We¡¯re not detecting any human presence living or otherwise in the rubble. Just a few bits of blood and severed limbs. But no sign of the Immortals themselves.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± Emily said, ¡°Did you check the tunnels? Maybe they all wandered off somehow?¡±

    ¡°Tunnels? What tunnels?¡±

    ¡°There¡¯s tunnels here. Go for miles. I ended up in the forest way over there,¡± Emily said and gestured over towards where she had emerged, ¡°Maybe they went there?¡±

    ¡°We¡­ haven¡¯t found any tunnels yet, Genemother. But it¡¯s only been a few hours, we¡¯ll look closer to determine what happened. Do you need anything?¡±

    Emily let out a sigh and shook her head. This was just a short pause. The mortals would find everyone in the tunnel network below the ground. And then Emily could continue her interrogation of Sanje where it had left off.

    ¡°I¡¯m going to go home,¡± she said, ¡°Keep up the good work. Let me know if you need my help with anything.¡±

    ¡°Of course, Genemother. We¡¯ll get you our fastest helicopter right away,¡± the man said with a quick nod, ¡°We appreciate your help even in our darkest and lightest times, Genemother. I¡¯m sorry for your loss. The hearts of us mortals bleed for you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you. I appreciate that.¡±

    The man nodded hesitantly at her lackluster response before quickly retreating and organizing her transport back to her mortal family.