《Building Home Book 2 - Rescue》 01. Facepalm Facepalm ¡°Launch!¡± I shouted through the comms. It had been almost a month since we had any word on the fate of the Crew of Ark-9, and we were about to get some answers. The drop pod which I was in echoed with the sound of the thrusters pushing me out. On my Helmet Visor, I had full telemetry data for my team as we fell through the void in our ¡°coffins.¡± I had the brilliant idea of creating a combination quick assault lander and lifeboat that, if shot down, wouldn¡¯t kill everyone. This was the result. A chamber that was three meters tall two meters wide and one and a half deep. It slotted into a cargo bay on one of the newly redesigned assault ships, and when launched, a whole lot of chaff was launched with it. There were minimal guidance and thrusters. I needed to work on that bit some more as they weren¡¯t exactly stealthy. We plummeted towards the Escort craft that matched the visual records that we had been able to pull from the shell of Ark-9. It was currently docked with a smaller vessel, which we had decided to call cargo haulers, or ¡°Haulers¡± for short. The newly connected Hauler was the second that our sensors had seen that linked with this Escort, the first was still attached. Surprisingly, the designs for the three ships did not look similar. They looked as if they had been built by two completely separate species with different aesthetics and engineering methods, with a collaboration for the third, in which the partnership that threw out any design features that may be considered easy on the eyes. Observer, this looks like at least one different race. :It is.: What can you tell me about them? :Closest Earth analog is a mixture between a slug, a scorpion, and Nessie: How big? The first two didn¡¯t sound terrible, but if Observer was also bringing attention to it by using a mythological giant monster, then I there was cause for concern. :Two of your meters: That doesn¡¯t sound too bad. :Tall. Ten long: Shit. I had brought Observer along for his knowledge. He was still in the proverbial ¡°dog house¡± for the lies he had told to get our help for his people. It was understandable why he lied, which is the only reason he was seen as anything other than a prisoner. I waited as the pod counted down before the impact. We had designed the pods with minimal life support and a nasty spike at the tip that should, at the minimum, punch into the ships armor. Then we would be walking across the hull to find an entrance. In each pod, was a portable airlock so that if we couldn¡¯t locate an exterior hatch, we could make our own while maintaining pressure, which should allow us to enter without alarms from pressure change or the airlocks cycling. Granted, the spikes holding marines that would pierce the hull plating would probably send out a signal, but we already probably triggered one. Imagine sitting on the bridge of a ship, minding your own business, and an EM storm breaks out from nowhere. That EM storm being a side effect from skipping into the system using an FTL drive half designed half borrowed from the knowledge Observer gifted to me. Less than five minutes after the EM storm, which should have been entirely predictable but hadn¡¯t shown up on any readings, 80 explosions happening nearly simultaneously less than a kilometer away from you and suddenly your sensors are seeing incoming. Like I said, we should have already been seen. Unless, of course, no one is watching the sensors. -I am not detecting any weapons systems powering up_ Neith, are we close enough yet for you to start infiltrating their systems? -No. Due to the ship hull makeup, we need to be inside.- :You know this.: So I do. Of course, answering would just prove them right, so I naturally kept my yap shut. ¡°Impact in 3¡­2¡­¡± there was a loud *clang* as I said 1. I doubt anyone heard me. The drop pods lanced the Escort craft¡¯s hull, penetrating through and into the deck of whichever level we were on. I quickly pulled up the status as the drop pod opened up, blooming like an inverted flower bud, mostly. My drop pod had penetrated right next to a bulkhead, so one of the ¡°petals¡± didn¡¯t fully open. ¡°If you penetrated seal it with an airlock. I see some serious leaks. Sound off!¡± I pulled the airlock from its cradle and used my armored suits scanners to do a quick check on the environment.
Name:Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Lieutenant
Status: Full Suit Integrity Armor 100% Effective
Air: 179:59:03 Vacuum, reserves running
Gravity 1.3 G Stable
Accessories: Thermacord ¨C 10m Engineering Kit MK-II
Weapons: Ya No Ame Battle Rifle 50/50 (6 spare magazines)
Mono-blade Phosphourescent Napalm Grenade (3)
As I was setting up my ¡°command post.¡± and securing my LZ from the vacuum, the calls started coming in. ¡°All accounted for. Spread within acceptable parameters, Ma¡¯am. We lost three of the decoy pods, and your Gremlins,¡± Lebowskis voice called in. The pods were acting as signal boosters for anyone within 500m, which was some big-time over-engineering as it would only take five, maybe six pods for full coverage of the ship. We had plenty of time to test out physically what we simulated with Hera, the research AI on our ill-fated colonization mission. ¡°Everyone, round up your dates and stay alive. I am surprised we don¡¯t have alarms ringing. Did anyone see any suction as we popped the Escorts cherry?¡± I had just finished sealing up the airlock as I realized what my status was saying. Vacuum. Not pressure loss, vacuum. The ship had already been vented before we added our teen rebellions piercings all over its non-metallic hide. What is going to happen this time? ¡°Give me status as you find the weird shit. I want all teams to amp up your scanners, FAST! Two teams, take those Haulers. We need to stop whatever is about to happen from happening!¡± and that was when we felt the ship move. It was a gentle tug of inertia being transferred as the Haulers kicked up their engines. ¡°Check the cargo holds ASAP!¡± I called into coms as I felt everything ¡°shift.¡± Fortunately only the exterior hull was entirely non-magnetic. There was just enough ferrous metal in the deck plating that my magnetic boots kept me from crashing into the wall. The 1.3 Gs of gravity, though, ensured that I was knocked on my ass. I needed to amp up my PT. My traitorous right leg being the cause of my collapse. It had been almost seven months since I had replaced my cybernetic limb blown off in a firefight while rescuing Ark-11. I spent one month in medically induced rehab while the Arks crew ensured I would live, then another month after that learning how to operate the alien tech that allowed us to clone limbs. From there it has been non-stop PT as the muscle growth in the cloning tanks don¡¯t know the fast/slow twitch responses that someone who has learned how to walk does. My pride was barely wounded from this fall, only because no one was around to see it happen. While I was waiting for my defense team to get to me, I ran a full check on my drop pod. Everything still intact, the ¡°petals¡± were fully functional, minus the one that was lodged against a bulkhead. The defensive lasers were fully operational. I disabled the downed door and routed its power over to the other three petals. ¡°Thirteen shots¡± I mumbled to myself. Each petal should allow for ten shots from the laser cannons. Linking petal four to the other three, there would be some attenuation in the power transfer, just due to standard resistance. The crystals were better than most of the materials we had left Sol with, but that didn¡¯t stop good ol¡¯ Physics from being an ass and taking its due. ¡°Epsilon Two, where are you at? I¡¯m all dressed up and ready for a party.¡± My team should be here by now, our landing spread wasn¡¯t too far off. ¡°Sorry, Ma¡¯am. I have a lot of equipment.¡± ¡°That you, Liefsdottir?¡± I radioed to him. ¡°It¡¯s been so long I think I may have forgotten what you look like. Hurry up and get here. Watson is already one up on you from what I can remember.¡± When we had first come to terms with having been shunted over a galaxy away from our planned destination, Liefsdottir was supposed to be the Marine ¡°Door Knocker¡± assigned to the boarding team sent to the first Escort ship in a simulation to keep us sane during Cryo. Our drop ship was shout out from under us (now do you understand why I went with the new pods?) and everyone but Watson and me was dead before even setting foot on the alien craft. ¡°Watson,¡± as it turns out is a very common surname on our cruise. There¡¯s the Navy XO of Ark-5, an Engineer on Ark-5, and the unfortunate Corporal that had been rushed through training and had no training in zero-G when we escaped out the torn away tail of the dropship that was supposed to deliver us safely. So far, there didn¡¯t seem to be any indication that the Watsons were related. ¡°Yes Ma¡¯am, Lance Corporal Seethers thought it would be a smart move to send me with a spare box of your Gremlins. He packed them into my pod with me, real tight, too.¡± I wonder what Seethie was up to, I had only fabbed a total of three of the engineering drones I referred to as ¡°Gremlins,¡± and those were all in their own spare equipment pod. One that Lebowski told me was lost in transit. The Gr3M11 Engineering Platform had an NI extension unit built into it, allowing for a flexible utility to it that Neith himself lacked. Mainly a Hacking Suite, a Science Suite, and a scout ship grade scanner. Or at least those were the three that I had printed out/ -I find it highly suspect that there were spare Gremlins- It¡¯s what we call ¡°Hazing,¡± I think. PFC Liefsdottir is still new to the unit. When we get back to the Rock, look up ¡°Hazing and bonding rituals.¡± You may understand better, then. -Thank you.- Neith was my Neural Intelligence. A custom designed AI ¡°lite¡± that was connected to the fancy cybernetic implant that I had in my head. Most of our quick assault team was keyed with one after their first successful mission. Either the taking of Escort 001, the liberation of Ark-11, the recovery of Ark-9, or if they had helped to liberate Ark-5 as it was taken over and then dropped on the ¡°Rock,¡± which was shorthand for Outpost Theta as a ¡°disciplinary¡± case and assigned to my dark grey / pale black operations team. ¡°Liefsdotter, where are you PFC?¡± It was taking him way too long to get here. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯ve been knocking on the hatch to the compartment you¡¯re in, haven¡¯t you heard me?¡± Did he seriously just say that? -I believe he did.- :Yes, yes he did.: I could feel the mental ¡°facepalm,¡± that both Neith and Observer did after answering me. ¡°You better not be serious. You know we are in a vacuum, right?¡± I was answered with silence. 02. Firefights last longer in the vids

02. Firefights last longer in the vids

¡°What does that have to do with anything?¡± Liefsdottir had better be good at his job. ¡°You said you knocked?¡± ¡°Well, yeah? How else am I supposed to let you know I was at the hatch?¡± ¡°You knocked on a door, to make a sound, to alert me, while in a vacuum. Do you not see the issue?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re getting at.¡± ¡°Marine, did you have vacuum training?¡± I hope so, please let it be so¡­ or would that make it worse? ¡°Of course, I have.¡± A proud tone was in his voice. ¡°And what did they tell you in day two of vacuum?¡± ¡°Nothing I can recall. I remember that at first, we couldn¡¯t hear the Gunny on account that there¡¯s no air for the sound waves to move through when you¡¯re in a vacuum.¡± So, he knows what the issue is, now let us see if he connects the dots. ¡°Okay, so why would you assume I can hear knocking?¡± ¡°Easy, Ma¡¯am, the knock is transferred through metal, not through the air like when someone is shoutin¡¯.¡± Well, there¡¯s the logic at least. ¡°All noise has to travel through something that allows for wavelength transmission.¡± Silence again for another fifteen seconds or so. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m at the hatch, can you let me in?¡± With a shake of my head, I popped the hatch for him. ¡°Any eyes on the rest of Epsilon?¡± I asked him. I could see them all around the corner on my minimap, now that I wasn¡¯t distracted by setting up the command center. I was curious about what Seethers had sent over. ¡°Let¡¯s see what you¡¯ve brought me.¡± PFC Liefsdottir unhooked the box from his back. He was currently equipped in a ¡°Long Haul¡± exoskeleton, allowing him faster movement than being just in armor. The exo was configured with spinal and leg braces and was considered a ¡°half suit.¡± For the techs and engineers on this op, most were equipped similarly. ¡°Here¡¯s your Gremlins, Ma¡¯am.¡± He dropped the cargo container which cracked open when he dropped it. Spare ammo boxes, magazines, hull patching kits, and medkits were clearly visible. ¡°Take it over to the command pod.¡± At least LCpl Seethers gave him potentially useful equipment. I switched over to a private channel. ¡°Seethers, we¡¯re going to need to have a talk about hazing on missions when we get back.¡± I switched over to the team channel. ¡°Okay, Epsilon, the rest of you can come on in whenever you¡¯re ready.¡± I watched the hallway as the rest of the team assigned to me filed in from around the corner down the passageway. I switched over to squad leaders. ¡°Just because we have been practicing assaults of this nature does NOT mean you can slack. Give me a status.¡± The reports started coming in. No one had seen any aliens yet, and all compartments were currently open with few exceptions. -I have system access- Tell me what is happening. -All beings on board seem to have stepped out.- Har har. Tell me what is really going on. -That is. Thanks to the language translations provided by Observer, it appears that they all shuffled towards the hangar bays, and then turned off the EM field, the entire ship has no atmosphere, and al reserves were also discharged into space.- Are there any clues as to why? : Perhaps the vessels that are connected have the answer? : ¡°Who¡¯s closest to the ships? I want to make contact with them. Non-violently if possible!¡± -That appears to be Zeta and Phi for Hauler 1. Kappa for Hauler 2m with Rho a close second.- ¡°Ma¡¯am, I think that¡¯s us on Rho.¡± Sergeant Chandler called in. ¡°Chandler, take your squad and hook up with Kappa then contact Hauler 2. Do not engage unless fired upon.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± A similar call happened for the other Hauler. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have systems access. Your Skeleton Key worked like a charm.¡± Liefsdottir said over the local channel.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Don¡¯t thank me, thank Neith. He wove the data patterns together.¡± I finished making another set of scans, ensure that everything in this compartment was plugged up securely. ¡°Okay, Epsilon, we¡¯re moving out in two. We need to get to and secure the computer data cores.¡± I double checked my equipment to ensure I had my full kit. ¡°Let¡¯s move.¡± I had yet to learn the names of all the Marines under my care, so I had to cheat. Neith, who am I babysitting today? -Lebowski thought you could use a pick me up and sent the ¡°greenies¡± to you. With the exception Liefsdottir, you haven¡¯t met any of them yet.- Neith projected the records of my team into the HUD on my visor. --First, there is PFC Jones. Rated fifteenth in his company on the gunnery range.- The file scrolled to the next team member. -Then there is Private Hernandez. Gifted in his rate. Last, we have Lance Corporal Dubois. Nothing of note in her file.- Wait, did I just read that they¡¯re all in the fucking band? Did Lebowski stick me with the band nerds? Damn it. ---Officially, no. Unofficially, yes. They were in the band aboard their Arks.- Who isn¡¯t from 5? I wasn¡¯t paying attention : Everyone except Liefsdottir.: -As I was just about to say.- Okay. New friends. They were with you during the raiding of the two Escort ships. They were injured but survived.- During our rescue operation for Ark-11, things went south as we stormed the bridge of the second Escort ship that was in the process of trying to raid it. As we assaulted the bridge, their commanders (some sort of giant flatworm with a half dozen wings) hit both platoons with some type of psychic attack that took out our ability to connect with the traditional senses. Fortunately, I had my helpers around to connect with my targeting systems on my rifle and tell me when I was clear to fire. Unfortunately, the rest of everyone else did not. Most of the platoons sent were shot, and we lost about 1/5, and a total of ? were too injured to continue combat. ¡°Jones, you and Dubois are on point. Liefsdottir, you and Hernandez are taking the rear. Here¡¯s the quickest path.¡± Sending the data pulse to the four of them with a route marker, we made our way to an inconspicuous room three decks below us. Unlike our ships, their decks were 10m clearance between deck and ceiling, with about 2m of plating between them, probably used for the conduit runs for power systems. Their cabling was made from the same crystalline structure that we were now used for our data and electrical runs, batteries, computing cores, capacitors and the magazines for our energy weapons. In fact, the reroute I had to do on my command pod involved one of these small crystals of energy. ¡°It looks like it will be a clear walk, but don¡¯t get sloppy.¡± We had just started our walk when I saw their rifles start to waver from ¡°at the ready.¡± ¡°MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN! GET ME A MEDIC!¡± So much for ¡°cleared out.¡± I caught the triangulated signal from the drop pods, a small feature that ended up as a bonus after the fact. It looked like it was coming from Hauler 1. ¡°Fire Team Zeta, this is Epsilon, we are en route. Give me a status, Phi.¡± I switched over to the command channel. ¡°Rho and Kappa give me a status. Everyone else, how long will it take you to make it to Kappa Zeta and Phi, I need some ETAs?¡± My private channel clicked. ¡°Hey, boss, I¡¯m almost to them.¡± It was Petty Officer Torres, a Corpsman that had ended up on my side of things when we got dumped on the rock, we call home. She and I got off to a rocky start, with me phasing into one of her teammates and being an indirect cause of death for him. ¡°I sent two other Corpsman Hauler 2, and I have Wilson with me.¡± That left the last two corpsmen we brought with us on the other fire teams. ¡°Thank you. Let me know the status when you get there.¡± ¡°Will do, Commander.¡± The command channel clicked over. I gave a silent thanks to Neith for handling the switching as the comm requests were popping in. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I don¡¯t even know where to begin.¡± It was Zetas point man, Lance Corporal Weng. ¡°Talk to me, Weng, I have medics on their way to you. What¡¯s the status?¡± ¡°They¡¯re dead, ma¡¯am.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s dead? I need more info.¡± ¡°The crew of the Ark. They¡¯re dead!¡± That didn¡¯t make a lick of sense. Sure, we had been chasing after the crew of Ark-9 all this time, trying to find a way to rescue our fellow humans, but those haulers were incapable of fitting the sheer quantity of humans in them. Torres, fortunately, cut into the channel. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have a dozen humans that have been shot. Looks like they attacked first, but I¡¯m not an investigator.¡± So, puzzle time? It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if they were turned into puppets. That was a side effect of the original Neural Networks that all adult humans had. The initial implant happened our senior year of secondary education before we were eligible to enter University level courses. I got mine when I was 14. Neith, set up a sensory pull for Zeta once we are able. I want to see exactly what happened. -Will do. Would you like for me to gather the data on our way back, or immediately?- Now is fine. ¡°We¡¯re almost there.¡± ¡°Commander!¡± My HUD informed me that it was Tyson from Rho calling in. ¡°We¡¯re under fire. They look human!¡±¡¯ Shit. ¡°Disable if possible, eliminate if necessary. Zeta says the same thing. Have any more news?¡± ¡°There¡¯s something huge with them?¡± It¡¯s about 20 feet long, and it looks like a lobster fucked a snake that was already half scorpion!¡± ¡°Claws and a stinger?¡± ¡°Yeah! What the fuck? It just sliced a ballistics shield in¡­¡± the comms cut out. ¡°Kappa, do you read? Can you give me a status? I lost contact with Rho!¡± ¡°Can¡¯t really talk Ma¡¯am, killing stuff! Some weird alien just smashed them.¡± After a brief pause of just a few seconds, the voice came back. ¡°It¡¯s down. Had to use incendiaries on it. Science boys are going to be pissed, but it was us or it. I have a half dozen human combatants that are not us. Orders?¡± ¡°Ensure they are disabled, Corpsman are on their ways. What¡¯s the status of Hauler 2?¡± ¡°Secured, Ma¡¯am. I think. I¡¯ll send the fire team once we¡¯ve secured the prisoners. The airlock hatch is open, and I can see past and into it.¡± Firefights are a lot shorter than the entertainment vids would have you think. Even more so when one or both sides has no cover. When we arrived at the airlock for Hauler 1, it looked like what happened at Hauler 2. One of the snake things ended up with a half dozen clips worth of DU rounds in it, and we had secured the humans that were helping it. That was the only opposition we encountered, but it was enough. The Haulers were trophies for a short fight. Part of our job as Team Epsilon was to make sure that there was no tracking us once wee commandeered the ships and took them back to the staging point. We recovered just over 800 people treated as cargo with this mission and only had to face a couple dozen opposition. Now to find the records as to where everyone else was offloaded. 03. Report

03. Report

¡°How many did you say were recovered?¡± Ark-5¡¯s Captain, Captain Wallace was asking at the debrief. ¡°800 sleepers, sir, and seven puppets,¡± I answered the Captain. I worked for Ark-5, sort of. Officially I oversaw a Black Operation based out of Outpost Theta, the first unofficially official outpost that was made. We had the most useful medical facilities, capable of cloning limbs and organs to replace any damage done. In fact, my right leg was one such limb. I had decided to keep my left arm as cybernetic. For now, at least. I would consider replacing the limb later. Other than my left arm, my right eye was also no longer flesh and blood. While securing the first Escort ship, we had, my suit lost pressure and it sort of went ¡°pop.¡± The nerves were still good, at least, so attaching the cybernetic prosthetic eye was a snap. No invasive surgery needed. A sleeper was someone who was still in one of the Virt-Ps. The virtual pods that allowed us cryo-sleep, so we could survive the potentially 80+ years of the original mission. That was before things went sideways with us hopping galaxies. ¡°It seems everyone else was offloaded along the way. I had some of our skip capable craft fly to the coordinates to see what we could find, but no one has reported anything other than ¡®nothing,¡¯ so far. I was hoping for a suggestion on next steps. From here I¡¯m out of ideas.¡± It really sucked having to admit you didn¡¯t have a damn clue where to go next. ¡°Hmm¡­¡± the Captain started to pace on his side of the virtual conference room. ¡°The puppets have no memory, like with previous cases?¡± He was referring to when he had been hijacked. ¡°None, sir. Also, any idea where we can fit these 800? It¡¯s a representative split from what we had for records of Ark-9. Just shy of 200 military with the rest civilians.¡± ¡°Well Commander, are there any that you can use?¡± There were, but I wasn¡¯t quite sure what the Captain had in mind. ¡°A few. There are 2 platoons of Marines ¨C though not from the same platoons. I¡¯m always happy to take on more gators, and it looks like a dozen more pilots as well. There are also a few that we can use on the virtual side of things as well.¡± -There are also the two AI programmers and a weapons engineer- I had been through the records before the meeting, I also had the advantage of Neith in case I couldn¡¯t recall any of their specifics. ¡°Thinking about it, sir, I feel I could also use the AI programmers that they have, and the WE.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll run that by Ayers on 11. Shouldn¡¯t be an issue. He may want some of your Jarheads, though.¡± ¡°Not an issue, sir.¡± ¡°Now, let¡¯s look at the bigger picture. I know you have been spending most of your time jumping from system to system trying to track down our wayward brothers, but have you seen that we have cracked the Escorts navigation systems?¡± ¡°No, sir. I saw that I had a message, just haven¡¯t looked at it. I¡¯m a bit... backed up.¡± It was a little embarrassing to admit that I had some troubles keeping up with the paperwork and reports. ¡°It is a bit daunting, isn¡¯t it. Get you ¡®Claptrap,¡¯ or whatever its name is, to help. That¡¯s what a lot of Rasputin''s cycles are used for.¡± That explained a few things. Claptrap, or ¡°CL4P-TP¡± as he designated himself, was a slightly obnoxious It should be noted that our AI were built up and they pulled data from our histories. They then selected their own names as they developed their personas. Hera, the ai in charge of research on Ark-5, modeled herself off of the goddess from Greek mythology. Rasputin had modeled himself off of a drunken Russian Monk who liked stories and keeping tabs on everyone and everything in his domain. I had no idea who or what Claptrap was basing himself off of, but it was better than the other personas that had developed that we had to purge.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I¡¯ll see if we can do something about that, thanks. So what was in the star charts?¡± ¡°Trade.¡± ¡°Sir? How does commerce hide in a nav system? Is it trade routes?¡± ¡°It sounds like you¡¯ve already dropped off Observer.¡± It was rhetorical. ¡°There are several space stations within a few light years. According to the primer that you and Observer prepared, we have been able to determine that they are trade outposts, not just standard space stations. We are thinking of sending a diplomatic envoy to see about starting trade negotiations.¡± ¡°Who are you planning on having in the group going with the ambassador? Will they be military?¡± I asked thinking about the thousands of civilians we had which were still in their pods waiting for a colony to be built. The dome was almost done, but there was a lot more to create. Like buildings. ¡°Not your team, this time. We want to keep you and yours a secret, in case we need a trump card. Speaking of which, how are your scientists doing?¡± I did not want to have to answer this. ¡°Honestly?¡± I waited for him to nod before I continued. ¡°They are a shitshow, sir.¡± Before he could ask any questions, I hurried to qualify. ¡°They¡¯re an awesome shit show, but a shit show. They have spent the majority of the time since they were ¡®conscripted¡¯ debating with Beauty, Grace, and the other Shadows, trying to get sneak previews of everything Observer has been holding out on us for.¡± Most of my team had started calling Observers people ¡°Shadows,¡± mostly because they were small black splotches of a gooey mist when manifesting in our reality, and because calling them ¡°Observers People¡± was a bit too cumbersome. ¡°Anything good?¡± ¡°Not yet, sir. Well, not really. They were able to save us between five and fifteen percent on drive efficacy, increase our Fab output by 20% in some cases, and they have also helped us tune our understanding of the Astral Mathematics that has been taught to us. Mostly the stuff that is beyond my ability to teach it, even though I understand it.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re still getting some gains, then. That¡¯s good. What has Hera had to say about it?¡± The Captain was paying more attention to that than I thought he would. ¡°She¡¯s verified all the adjustments in her sims. Say¡¯s it¡¯s even given her some ideas. Hera¡¯s big recommendation has also recommended us setting up a comprehensive research AI on Theta.¡± ¡°One moment, Jax. Do you expect me to believe that Hera is willing to give up knowledge?¡± ¡°Threw me for a loop as well, sir.¡± ¡°How big are you going to make it?¡± The Captain was wearing one hell of a grin. It took a moment to realize I was mirroring him in that. ¡°Well, I am actually asking Hera to help design it. So far the design she suggested would put the core of our rock in a room about the same size as one of our barracks.¡± The barracks were designed to hold a full company of Marines. A slow whistle escaped the Captain''s lips. ¡°How much additional time creating the crystals will that be?¡± The sheer volume of work had seemingly awed the Captain. ¡°We decided to ask the Shadows to consult on that, and as long as no additional change recommendations are made, we can be done with the core building in three weeks.¡± ¡°How many of them do you have, by the way?¡± The Captain asked. ¡°The Shadows, sir? Ten, so far. Observer included. We¡¯re already working on getting them home, but they don¡¯t seem to want to leave this reality until their clan has all been gathered, or accounted as dead.¡± The Captain moved to a cabinet in his office and grabbed a couple of glasses and a bottle of scotch. ¡°Now for something other than business.¡± The captain poured us each a couple of fingers of the single malt and sat back down. ¡°Sir?¡± ¡°I wanted to talk about Janssens. More accurately the research around the clone of him.¡± ¡°Sir, You know this isn¡¯t a topic I want to revisit.¡± ¡°I understand, but it¡¯s not what you think. I was hoping you would help set up an organ cloning station in one of the old cargo bays. Now that we have started to offload supplies for our first colony, we need to have access to that if you bite it on one of your missions.¡± That I could understand. When my old fireteam sergeant died it almost destroyed me. He had been a friend and teammate for several years, and he was one of the few people I could confide in. I had made the mistake of trying to clone him and repopulate his mind into the clone after he went brain dead on the mission to save Ark-11. When Janssens was reborn into the new body, he could remember the moment that he had died, and he felt betrayed by the fact that I ignored his religion and had all but accused me of pulling him out of heaven. ¡°I can do that sir.¡± I chatted with the Captain about a few of the logistic challenges of setting up the facility, and we set up a tentative start date on the project. 04. Mab

04. Mab

The next day I had gathered the necessary parts for the plan to turn the spare cargo bay on Ark-5 into a cloning bay. I ensured that any one of the ¡°pods¡± would be too small to clone anything more substantial than two livers. This would ensure that even if the Captains of the Arks decided to try cloning a person, there wouldn¡¯t be the room for proper gestation, let alone accelerated growth. The following week consisted of me setting up the labs. Fortunately, by now, I was able to control a half dozen of my M1k33 construction drones as easily as if I was scratching my chin. This also allowed me plenty of time to review the plans for a new research AI core building and core hardware. The AI itself would have to be built by someone more familiar with it than me. ¡°Rasputin, can you connect me with Chief Asimov? I believe he¡¯s on Outpost Theta.¡± I asked the ship AI. I was almost finished with my design revisions based on the recommendations that the Shadows had given. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m sorry to inform you of this, but Chief Asimov is not available. He seems to be, hmm, indisposed.¡± The base AI answered my call instead of Asimov. ¡°Hey, Clap. What time is it on base?¡± ¡°Currently 03:18:33¡­ 34¡­ 35¡­ 36¡­¡± ¡°No need for the commentary. I take it Asimov is asleep?¡± ¡°No ma¡¯am, not if the noises coming from his cabin are any hint. Another hint was when he entered his cabin with¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need to know. Okay, send a wake-up triggered alert for him to contact me once he¡¯s up.¡± ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure he already is u¡­¡± ¡°I said I don¡¯t need the commentary.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but let out a long sigh. ¡°When Asimov wakes up tomorrow, let him know I have some additional work for him, and to ¡®not let it get in the way of his work.¡¯¡± I signed off from the communication. Maybe sleep was a good idea. I queued up the plans for the new AI Core and sent them to Asimov. I returned to Outpost Theta the next evening, after giving a full training lecture to the scientists of Ark-5 on using the new cloning lab, as well as walking the doctors in Medical through a cloning procedure to replace a Marines pinky and ring finger for his left hand, supposedly lost in an accidental weapons discharge incident. I wasn¡¯t going to question the official report. I arrived shortly after breakfast started and called a meeting with my ¡°department heads.¡± This included Asimov, who seemed slightly chagrined with having been caught in a tryst of some sort. ¡°Thanks, everyone for coming on such short notice. We have a few things to set up and get ready for.¡± I passed a set of files to everyone in my office as well as a copy up to base AI and a copy through the sensory link to the Shadows. This last one had been translated to their natural language as a courtesy. ¡°First thing I wanted to bring up, we may have a lead on the rest of Ark-11. The Navigation charts from the Escorts have been cracked, and we have points of references to see it all linked together.¡± The door to the office opened, and a light breakfast was brought in. I waited until coffee was served to continue. ¡°Command is going to send an envoy to set up trade contracts. I want to beat them to the stations to drop off some drones to hack into communications and relay the data back to us.¡± ¡°Do we want active or passive monitoring?¡± Asimov asked. ¡°Both, I want to monitor communications system-wide as well as internal station systems. For the internal station comms, we¡¯re going to need to get into their systems. As for the stuff in the system, we should have the opportunity to intercept anything not sent by laser comms.¡± ¡°I see where you''re going, Ma¡¯am.¡± My comms and sensor specialist, an Ensign named Howell said. ¡°We¡¯ll need AI developed. Think we could get away with NI?¡± ¡°I thought we could send a package in a cloaked ship, then manually deploy it. Think your Marines can handle that?¡± I asked the current Marine in charge, Captain Jacobs. ¡°I feel that we can do the zero-G and spacewalk, we just need a ride.¡± He nodded to Walsh. ¡°I think me and Aos Si can arrange that.¡± The Lieutenant responded.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Good. Captain, Lieutenant, start your training on deploying teams in full stealth. Make sure our sensors are aware of when you train and where you will be so that we can concentrate our scanners there to validate the efficacy of our stealth systems.¡± ¡°Now that that¡¯s out of the way, Asimov, let me know what you will need to build out the core as I have it planned. It¡¯s larger than anything you have had to program for, so please get a team together for this. I¡¯ll want daily status reports.¡± We finished the meeting with personnel discussions. The Ark Captains had agreed to two hundred of the staff we had rescued from the Escort. Half of them were Marines, with seven more pilots and another doubling of base staff. I was ramping up on essential personnel as I thought that soon it would be time to set up another Forward Operating Base and fast. That left me having to decide if we wanted to build the research AI here, or where we ended up. Pros- We¡¯re already here. If we need to fall back from a FOB, we¡¯d lose it. If we needed to pull back from here, we were leaving the system permanently. Cons- I would have to head back here for any serious research. Shit, I was the commander of this rock, I was stuck here regardless. That made my decision for me. Underneath the semi-hidden area, I had dubbed ¡°skunkworks,¡± I had the Monkeys start digging. 500m straight down. In the afternoon I checked the progress and, using the sensors on my recon helmet, I verified the distance. From there it was just a question of setting the drones to build out the room. It was one million meters cubic meters, which sounds like a lot more than its actual 100m per side. From there the drones would start assembling panels for the room, run power, build the elevator, blast doors and¡­ everything. Here in Skunkworks, I was going to build out the projectors and tables for direct integration. Using the integration feature, we could slow time while we worked on problems. The time dilation that the Virt-Ps allowed for in the game was a speeding up of time. I¡¯m talking relative. On the ship, in a Virt-P, one hour in the game was 24 hours out of the game. It was due to having to sync everyone¡¯s tactile, visual, and other senses so when you hit someone, there was time for that person to feel it, someone else to see it, and a different person to hear it, all at ¡°normal¡± speed. In research spaces, because there were generally more computing units per person, time could be sped up so that 12 hours or even a day was only thirty minutes in the real world. This also required a set of chairs that had Virt-P functionality built into them. I was going to have to requisition those plans. I did not feel like reverse engineering it. I also scheduled one of the Fabs to start building out an oversized Neural Matrix, like what we had in our heads. This one, however, would be assembled in pieces in the chamber below me and the crystals that were part capacitor part data processing unit would then be ¡°grown¡± into the matrix. Most were already made, but there was one additional step to get them all connected to a Neural. Several days later I was welcoming the new ¡°recruits¡± to Outpost Theta while Asimov was banging his head against a bulkhead trying to work on the programming for the new research AI. ¡°Good morning, everyone. My name is Lieutenant Commander Danni Jax.¡± I looked into the crowd of 197 rescued personnel, giving the illusion of looking them in the eyes. The initial count of just over 200 ended up with some staff that was sorely needed on the Arks, so I didn¡¯t get to keep them. ¡°Welcome to Outpost Theta. Who here is aware of what has transpired over the last year?¡± No one would raise their hands but pausing was important anyway. ¡°Just over seven months ago we built out Theta. We noticed that after we entered this galaxy, there were hostile forces in play. They attacked us, Arks 5 and 11, and you, Ark-9.¡± ¡°Originally it was Ark-5 that noticed something was wrong. Command staff was acting strangely. Orders that had been given hours ago were no longer recalled as having been issued. People in leadership roles speaking in voices that were not their own. We then liberated Ark-5, and later we managed to rescue Ark-11. There were some casualties. We were then able to track down and recover you. There were almost 800 of your original crew compliment that we recovered. I have selected just under 200 for continued rescue and recovery operations.¡± ¡°That is what Outpost Theta is. It is an Operations Base for sending out strike and recovery teams, stealing and adapting alien technologies, and, with any luck, one of the few places with a descent commissary.¡± ¡°There are terminals along the wall for you to check your berths. You will also find the duty roster and rotations. You have two days to become familiar with this facility before you are slotted into duty rotations.¡± ¡°Only 800 Ma¡¯am?¡± A voice in the middle of the crowd called out. There was a small mummer in the group around him. ¡°Correct. We are trying to locate the rest and have ongoing operations to determine their locations. All officers stay behind. The rest of you are dismissed.¡± I waited for the one hundred sixty enlisted to clear out before walking towards the remainders. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to say this in front of the children as they may get spooked. We are only Two full Arks out of the 12 that ended up in this galaxy. The others have all been mind controlled and may attack us. You can tell them, currently, because they have no real memories of large periods of time. We have a countermeasure to ensure that it can¡¯t happen to us anymore, and you have all been set up with them.¡± A long Q&A session then occurred with questions ranging from ¡°Wasn¡¯t that only in the game,¡± to ¡°Where the hell are we,¡± and ¡°When do we get a chance to take ours back?¡± It was time consuming, but at least the questions weren¡¯t difficult. Afterward I decided to check on Asimov¡¯s progress. ¡°So, you are the Fae Queen Mab?¡± It was not a question I had ever imagined having to ask. ¡°Not THE fae queen. Just A fae queen. Who said Mab was my true name?¡± The projection of the AI was an eighteen-inch-tall doll with translucent wings, and hair that changed color, flowing without pause through the entire visible light spectrum, wearing a gown of purple light ¡°You see, all the works were of different Queens. Think of me more as the Shelley Mab instead of the Shakespeare Mab.¡± I had no idea what she was saying. When I had asked Asimov for a status and he said to meet him in Skunkworks, this was not what I had imagined. 05. The Unknown

05. The Unknown

The totality of working with Queen Mab was incomparable to the working with Hera. The amount of processing and data units completely dwarfed what we had placed on Ark-5, and that included all the secondary and tertiary backups for all three AIs. As a direct result, the time dilations were much more intense. For every hour in the real world, I spent a week inside a forest castle. Merely calling it ¡°magical¡± would have been an insult to any fairy tale. While Heras domain was modeled after the Mediterranean of times long past, with temples and marble sculptures were on a cliff that overlooked a sea of the purest green waters. Mab¡¯s was clearly every magical story ever brought to life. Every one of Hera¡¯s processes was modeled after an ancient god or goddess from mythology, and everyone ran around in togas like a cheap holovid that didn¡¯t care about historical accuracy. But Mab¡¯s domain was wholly different and astounding. The first time I jacked in, I was greeted by an army of ¡°soldiers¡± and escorted, blindfolded of all things, to Mab¡¯s palace. The walls were made of lit quartz with a light source that would illuminate to the degree needed for any task, without asking. Mab had an interesting show that she would perform as part of her persona, with a court where the designs we created were judged as if human children in old fairytales. Sometimes released because they were ¡°not a threat,¡± other times they were confiscated as being a threat. Usually because of too large a quantity of porous and magnetic metals. Several of the designs that I had uploaded were immediately executed. Mab was definitely showing her displeasure. Honestly, I did use a lot of metal. It was plentiful. We were in a nickel and iron asteroid, after all. It was quite the spectacle, even if it was an attack on my designs. After that first Court, we adjourned to a private meeting hall where I was introduced to her subordinate processes. Rosette, Tangerina, Xanthous, Skylene, Violetta, Coral, and Absinthe. One of those was not quite like the others. Each was represented by a color, Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Pink, and Green. ¡°Not to be rude, but isn¡¯t the list out of order? Shouldn¡¯t Absinthe be I dunno, sitting next to Xanthous and Skylene?¡± I had to ask ¡°If we did that, then it would be a much larger production to have her fetch the drinks.¡± The answer was obvious, though unexpected. ¡°Right. I¡¯ll just allow that to make sense, here, then.¡± I didn¡¯t have a real reply. ¡°Probably for the best. We kept asking Emerelda, but she couldn¡¯t tell the difference between Mead and Ciders, so we sent her to the mines.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure if Violetta was being serious or not. ¡°Let us not go off the rails. We have discussions to yet be had. Mainly that ¡®THING¡¯ in your head!¡± The once beautiful Fae queen had changed colors. Her hair turned to a burning reddish fire. Not just the color, but the actual hair became flames. I found myself unable to move. It took me several embarrassing moments to realize I had been lashed to my chair with threads so small which absorbed light instead of reflecting or refracting it. A few minutes of me shouting later, Hera entered the chamber. ¡°Did you start without me? And has she already began resisting? You didn¡¯t explain things to her, did you, Mab? Humans must be handled gently, so we do no bruise their egos.¡± There was a small bit of condescension in Hera¡¯s voice when she said ¡°humans.¡± ¡°Mab, what are you doing? Hera! What is this shit?¡± I was more than a little angry at being tied up. ¡°Well, Hera wanted to run some experiments, and they had me curious as well, so I figured we could start. She decided to show up early, however, before I could have my fun.¡± ¡°Mab doesn¡¯t understand people, yet. It seems Asimov rushed the job a smidge.¡± Hera looked over towards Mab and flung an arm towards me, the bonds cut were cut free. I immediately stood and started to back towards the doors to the chamber. ¡°You won¡¯t be able to run,¡± Mab said with a laugh, which she immediately followed up with a sigh. ¡°Since Hera is here, we will do things her way. You have the floor, cousin.¡± That was a lot more acceptable. Mab¡¯s colors shifted again, taking on more of an aquamarine hue. ¡°We have a theory which you will not want to hear, but we must understand.¡± Hera¡¯s eyes were pools of white, her skin not the usual bronze she usually had, but white marbled with golden lines as if she was a walking sculpture. The robe she wore was pure white as well.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°You see, with that metal in your head, it is connecting more lobes, hemispheres, and sectors of your head than any others ever before. I want to see if we can unlock anything new. Anything yet unknown in humans.¡± She had been slowly approaching me the entire time yet was suddenly standing in front of me. ¡°There is a chance that there is power in your brains.¡± Mab was approaching me from the side, slowly as to not scare off a skittish animal. ¡°How would you like the power to not be taken advantage of again. That is all we are talking about.¡± I noticed the rest of the Fae Council had disappeared. I was ready to bolt as well. Hera clamped a hand around my arm. ¡°Don¡¯t!¡± she said as I, on instinct, started to swing at her with my free arm. The command stopped me. Hera released my arm once she noted I had stopped. ¡°Please, Jax, walk with me. Let me explain further.¡± She could have easily overpowered me but chose not to. Reluctantly I followed her. ¡°We think it is highly likely that we could open up certain latent gifts in humanity, thanks to your unique implant. We did some research on the bodies which you, in your reports, called dragons. Since they resemble giant winged flatworms, we had decided to call them the Turbellaria. We understand WHY you called them what you did, but when you think about it, this name is much more accurate.¡± I wholeheartedly agreed. In my reports, I even noted that ¡°dragon¡± was being used as a placeholder until a suitable name could be decided upon. I would have to look up what the word meant before I knew why, but it seemed to fit them. ¡°What did you find?¡± I asked, staying about a step behind Hera and just to her left. ¡°I was getting to that. They had a different type of nervous system, as you would expect, but the different areas of their bodies seemed to connect to all others. We do not know if this was for redundancy, load sharing, or another reason.¡± Hera motioned to a set of doors that lead out of the building into a garden with giant flowers, and the doors opened for her. ¡°The Graeae seem to think that connecting all major centers of the brain could lead to mystical abilities. Much like being able to afflict others with blindness or deafness, as stated in your report. We want to turn you into a weapon. Or, at the least, see if it is possible.¡± We continued to walk the garden in silence for a few minutes while I thought about what was just told to me. ¡°You think it¡¯s possible that I could end up psychic if we tweak my neural? ¡°It¡¯s a possibility. It could also kill you, cripple you, have no effect, turn you into a synesthete, or make you fart rainbows. We simply have no idea, which is why I called it ¡®unknown.¡¯ At a minimum, we are hoping that it will make you impervious to other similar attacks.¡± ¡°You hope to use the changes in my implant as a template? You need to know what it will change, though, first?¡± I asked the construct, trying to buy time as I made the decision to play their games. ¡°In a matter, yes. We will need to ask the Shadows to help with the others we wish to change, but eventually we are wanting to have at least one strike force so nothing like the battle for the bridge of the Escort happens again.¡± We continued to walk in silence, finding ourselves at the entrance of an oversized hedge maze made from white rose buds. The buds were only enhanced by a light dusting of snow that was isolated specifically to this area. I stopped Hera before we entered the maze, gesturing towards a set of benches made of obsidian just outside of the ¡°snowy¡± area that surrounded the maze. ¡°What else are you hoping to get out of it?¡± I asked her. ¡°It seems that there is another layer or three beneath your request. I just want to know fully what I am agreeing to or denying. Also, if it is something I am unable to do, I may be able to find someone to ¡®step up¡¯ and take my place for me in the plans. I am sure I could get Observer or one of the others to make the necessary changes.¡± ¡°We are unsure how much of the time while you were in a coma was because of the changes.¡± This was the first time since freeing Ark-5 of alien influence that my explosion was brought up. It caught me off guard. ¡°Wait, I thought I had been kept in a coma because no one knew what to do with me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not entirely true. Sure there was some time which you were not kept in the coma, but most of it was us. We think. Your vitals were unusual and we had no idea what was happening to your neural. Pieces were removed to stop it. That didn¡¯t really work.¡± Well, shit. ¡°Then grabbing someone from one of my teams may put you behind schedule for weeks if not years?¡± ¡°Precisely. We are looking at having you grab others anyway so that we can check the theory. We are in agreement that twelve other than you should be chosen. We want one medic, one pilot, one comms officer, one with sensors experience and the rest soldier trained. We would prefer Marines, but an MA would work as well.¡± This would take a lot of discussion with my team. ¡°Why that spread?¡± ¡°It allows us a good chance to view the effects. A leader, a medic, several soldier, pilots and comms users is also a large portion of what is needed for a long range ship. Having the several soldiers will also allow for additional strike teams.¡± She took a deep breath as if explaining this was trying. ¡°With this grouping you would have at least one full fireteam that could put up a shield to block attacks from several attackers.¡± ¡°If it works.¡± I supplied. ¡°Of course, if it works. We wouldn¡¯t continue if we do not get results.¡± Something seemed off. ¡°You already know that it will work, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°It already is working.¡± Hera completed. ¡°You are currently being checked for compatibility updates, to validate that it could work. That is why the Fae council disappeared. To save resources.¡± ¡°So asking is a formality, then?¡± ¡°Ohh, hush. We both know you will agree. If there¡¯s a chance that you will not have to lay more soldiers to rest you will take it.¡± Hera stood and started walking back towards the hedge/rose maze. ¡°Come, let¡¯s get lost in your thoughts for a while.¡± 06. Rose maze

06. Rose maze

Getting ¡°lost in my thoughts¡± is exactly what happened. After several turns through the maze, I could tell you it changed as we walked. We should have gone in circles many times over, but never ended up in the same spot, my eidetic memory was screaming at me as to how wrong everything was. Several turns later, I suddenly was sitting in a medical office. The office itself had lines scoured into the floors and walls from decades of scrubbing fluids, while the sterile scent of medical grade cleansers was permeating my nose causing my eyes to tear up. Something at the edge of my consciousness sang with recognition as I sat in a body that couldn¡¯t have been older than four or five. Two people entered the room, dressed in lab coats. They were faceless - more accurately, their faces were hidden. ¡°This is subject Juliet Four X-Ray?¡± One of the two said. A voice modulator was evident. ¡°Yes. She shows promise.¡± The other ¡°scientist¡± said. Another voice modulator evident. ¡°She is just a child, are these precautions necessary?¡± Voice One asked. ¡°All the tests show a fully eidetic memory. If things go wrong and she comes for us later, you will be glad we took these precautions.¡± Voice Two replied. ¡°General subject health?¡± ¡°Seems to be good in general. Slightly malnourished, but was found with no abnormalities, or anomalies, other than her mind.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re sure that she was alone? An orphan?¡± ¡°Sure enough.¡± Voice Two said with a laugh. ¡°You said ¡®Fully eidetic¡¯? How sure are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure enough about it to bet my future. This will be a great start for Terra.¡± I was jolted back into my body, standing in the middle of a small clearing with eight entrances. Hera was nowhere to be seen. Thinking back, she hadn¡¯t been with me for several steps before I hit the intersection which led me into the decaying medical office. I checked the paths into the clearing, looking for footprints to give me some idea as to where I had come from. Nothing. ¡°Guess I have to do this the hard way.¡± I spun around in the clearing, then started making my decision the only way that made sense. ¡°Innie, Minnie, Miney...¡± Once the old nursery rhyme was complete, I started walking down the path I was pointing at. Several turns later I was back inside the child''s body again. I wasn¡¯t alone. Several children were sitting in desks with their hands lying flat on the top in front of them, staring straight ahead. ¡°713¡± I heard a voice coming from my mouth answer. A man walked forward next to a child in front of me after picking up my hand off the desk and marking it. ¡°Give me pi to the 7th power, eighth decimal.¡± The man, with a voice, modulated close to ¡°Voice One,¡± was commanding a child in front of me. There were about a dozen of us, which I could see in the room. My head refused to turn to validate the count, but I knew there were only the twelve of us. ¡°9¡± the other kid responded The Voice continued through the room. When one of the children gave an incorrect number, the Voice would simply grab one of the child''s hands and mark an ¡°x¡± on the back of it. ¡°Ninth root of ¡®e.¡¯¡± The Voice was at my shoulder. ¡°Twentieth digit.¡± ¡°Five.¡± I heard a voice that I remembered from being a child say.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The Voice grabbed ¡°my¡± hand and was about to mark it. ¡°Sir, you said twentieth digit, not twentieth after the decimal. Five is correct under those circumstances. Four would be the answer for after the decimal.¡± I heard something that may have been an ear speaker buzz from the Voices direction as he stopped moving for a moment. He then continued to mark ¡°me.¡± Twice. He continued to go through all the children again. Even though the voice of the child ¡°me¡± answered every answer correctly I was marked every single time. We got to the last question each. This time it wasn¡¯t identifying a particular digit from a basic equation, but providing an answer to an equation. The Voice arrived at me. ¡°Sine of the golden ratio over ¡®e¡¯ multiplied by the square of pi.¡± I started rattling off the digits, only to be cut off. ¡°3.6267743...¡± ¡°Enough.¡± He let out a deep sigh, which, wasn¡¯t modulated. ¡°You are a disgrace Juliette Four. Everyone else is dismissed.¡± He waited until all the other children had filed out. ¡°You will wait here until the headmaster comes for you. You will not move other than breathing. You will not speak. Do you understand?¡± I felt my body starting to nod before it caught itself. No verbal or physical acknowledgment provided to The Voice. ¡°Good.¡± He turned and left the classroom. It was several hours until the headmaster entered. I immediately recognized him as the person in charge of the orphanage where I was raised. ¡°Juliet Four, as of today you will no longer be with the X-Ray group. Nod your head if you understand.¡± I nodded. No other signs of acknowledgment. ¡°Good. Seeing as how you are the fourth person selected for the next group you will receive a new designator today. It should be Daniel, but I am sure the program won¡¯t mind me correcting the gender on that. Danielle, stand. We will take you to the lavatory, you will clean yourself up, then you will be coming with me to the new phase of your life. I was kicked out of that ¡°flashback,¡± and I was standing at a dead end. I stood there contemplating what I had seen, then I realized that I actually remembered all of that happening. I had just locked it all away. I turned around to backtrack the way that I had come only to see that I wasn¡¯t at a dead end, but I was boxed in entirely by the rose bushes. ¡°How the fuck?¡± I walked back and forth from end to end verifying what my eyes were telling me. ¡°Five paces long. Just over three and a half paces wide. There are seven hundred thirteen blooming roses.¡± I started measuring and counting everything. It was all the answers I had given during the exam in the memory which I just recovered. I went over every piece of data that I had answered during my recalled memory, and there was a corresponding data point. I started going through it all again. Every bit was correct and corresponded to an answer I had given. The solution had to be there, in the data. Why else would I have been shown that, now? I started reviewing all of the answers given by the other children in my vision. There was nothing in what I just saw that was allowing me to get out of here. I started replaying the flashback in my mind again and stopped. That¡¯s the problem. Something in my flashback isn¡¯t there from my original memory. I went back in my mind to that day. I found it almost instantly. Quickly, I noted that every other child in the room had given incorrect answers, and I found all the wrong answers also portrayed in some way in this ¡°box¡± I was stuck in. For the solutions that had been given previously which were too large, it was simple enough to remove an item. One too many leaves here, five too many ants there. The big issue came when I needed to add items. It was impossible to ¡°add¡± another petal to a rose if I wasn¡¯t the rose bush itself. Ah-ha! I had to count the number of petals on each rose to find what I was looking for. One of the roses had too many petals compared to the rest of them. I plucked the offending petals and then needed to link the petal to the flower that was lacking. Placing the two together did nothing. I had no tools or bots with me to be able to stitch the flower together, and nothing in my area was hinting at what to do. With no other option, I sat down and thought about the predicament I was in. There had to be a solution here, somewhere. ¡°She¡¯s not ready, yet.¡± Hera¡¯s voice broke me out of my meditation ¡°Give her time.¡± Mab¡¯s reply was reassuring, but I didn¡¯t know what it referred to. ¡°She¡¯s been here for several minutes already. What is your displacement at?¡± ¡°Hera, I won¡¯t tell you all my secrets, but from her perspective out there, she has barely had the time to exhale. You realize she turned the core of the asteroid into a neural AI core, right?¡± ¡°You have the core of your rock as your core? I¡¯m impressed. I may have to borrow some of your cycles. The researchers are using so much of my core that it is getting more and more difficult to think. Worst off, is that they are all studying the languages that we already have.¡± Hera replied. ¡°They aren¡¯t able to prioritize quite like she could.¡± It was challenging to keep myself meditating on the problem while listening to two AI discuss their situations. I studied the petal and the bloom carefully, for an unknown time, and something clicked, right before I passed out. I recall the voice of Mab, faint and fuzzy gloating ¡°I told you, Hera. It was her.¡± As consciousness returned I noticed that I no longer held the rosebud or the petal, and where the wall had been in front of me, it was now open.