As far as reunions go, just seeing Tutor, George, and Invicta all excited to see me as well, turned out to be one of the best I had ever experienced. It wasn't even that they had been gone for very long, it was just the distance and the fact that I could have almost lost Ess to a simple parasite attack. I don't think my AI really knew what was going on with me until they all three read my emotional and mental state. I don't think that they were prepared for the raw emotions that I was feeling, or the change in clarity of my feelings.

They hadn't yet learned about what Nurse had done to my mind, let alone that she existed.

Tutor had a slight look of concern on her face as she slightly pulled away to look me in the eyes.

"Kevin?" She asked, as her slender hands reached up to cup my chin as her blue eyes looked at me and through me. Her nails were painted a deep shade of blue and had tiny, muted sprinkles of light emanating from them like tiny stars. Her touch was ever so gentle, and I found that I couldn't look away from her eyes.

I tried to laugh at myself and how intent Tutor was in her care for me. "Ha, don't worry Tutor, I am fine. It is just that a lot of things have happened, and I am just really happy to see you all again." I said as I felt Tutor's thumb slide slowly up to gently wipe away a tear. She looked at the tear with just as much intensity as she had looked me in the eyes.

Nurse must have increased the realism of my body through her control of the swarm. I wondered if Tutor was feeling puzzled at the fact that she couldn't feel any background code being used to create the tears. There was no coding behind it, just Nurse's use of my memories.

"Ah, about that. We have lots of catching up to do." I said as her eyes returned to gazing into mine.

"Yes, yes, we do." I heard George interrupt uncharacteristically from the side. It seemed that he was holding some announcement that was eating a hole in his pocket to be let out. I glanced his way, only to find him with a pensive look on his face. Tutor let her hands slowly recede from touching my face, moving back just a hair so that George and I could talk.

"Something the matter George?" I asked, fearing the worst that he had been unable to find any food for Ess. "You didn't get any food?"

He shook his head slowly when he heard my questions. "It isn't about the food or the tech, we picked up plenty of both. The thing is your girl... ahem." He paused to clear his throat for a second as I felt a brief byplay happen between him and my other two AI. "Ah, I mean, a girl tracked me down while I was trading at the Core, Regeth's daughter in fact. She wanted to see you the next time you were available. Even Xa and Hxerdinand have been in touch and would love to see you again." He said, clearly trying to ignore the other two AI. I knew that he knew Elaya's name, but he seemed to be avoiding using it for some reason.

He glanced between Tutor and Invicta for a second before adding "Oh, and you received recorded letters from two other girls as well who left them for the System to deliver. Seems that there is only one Kevin in the Tela System so the messages were directed to me, one of his AI."

"Two other girls?" I asked as I felt Invicta move to sit on top of my head. She flopped down and lay on her stomach, wrapping her little arms around like she was a blanket on my head. "Don't bother. I already checked who they were from and what they said. They are from those two players in my game. Sela says hi and lots of stuff about how life has changed for her and her family since the tragedy and Cavii says you are a little punk, and she can't wait for the Hold to be removed so she can kick your butt again."

Ah.

"In fact, there is a little message board from several players that you met in the game who would like to play with you as well." She said as I felt her little toes tapping against my head as she wiggled her feet.

"So, the big deal is the fact that I have people that want to see me again?" I asked George, not seeing why this would have been an issue.

"Well, Regeth's daughter did practically try to demand that I load her Personal Live Matrix onboard my ship." He said before his eyes drifted a little bit above my eyes to the top of my head. I figured out pretty fast who had been the one to say no. The little sparks that I felt on the top of my head practically gave away the fact that George had admitted more than Invicta had wanted him to as she glared daggers at him.

I couldn't help but let the slow smile creep up on the corners of my lips as I shook my head in mirth. I would need, one day, to have a word with Invicta, but for now, I would let her just be who she wanted to be. I could see the tension leave George as he noticed me smiling and how the interactions and attention of my AI had made me feel. He hadn't made a mistake and was just looking out for me.

"Alright, would you like to bring back that huge thing that you made so that we can get on our way?" Tutor asked. I found her staring off into the distance at Nurse while her left hand was outstretched to the side, sliding along Ess's scales as she circled us.

"Yeah, that was part of the catching up we needed to do," I said as I turned my head to look over where Tutor was looking behind me. I spoke clearly and plainly so that each of my AI could hear my next words. "Come on Nurse, it is time to go."

The massive swarm perked her head slightly in our direction, showing each of my AI that the huge creature was in fact sentient and could hear me regardless of the distance between us. She carefully lifted her claws and limbs away from the station before smoothly turning and heading in our direction. Her movements were so fluid and natural, without any coding being broadcast in the background. She was truly something to behold.

I could feel the tension in my three AI being turned up like a child would rapidly spin the volume knob on a stereo as the huge creature moved swiftly towards us. Ess was the only one who seemed unaffected by the massive swarm rushing in our direction. The tension grew so high that I felt that I had to say something to let my AI know that everything was alright. "Hey, hey, everyone calm down. This is Nurse, she helped me to fix my brain by removing the parts that the Tela and swarm queen had messed up." I said as I reached out to touch Tutor and George on the arm.

I felt both of their tension drop to zero in an instant, both from my words and possibly from my reassuring touch. I realized too late that I probably should have started with the little lightning bolt on my head though as I belatedly heard her yell "No more girls!" before she exploded away from my head and towards the massive head of Nurse.

"Ah! Dang, it. Nurse is just a title, she is an asexual part of the swarm, just like the drones. She just serves a different purpose and is completely loyal to me." I muttered softly, even though I knew that Invicta wasn't listening to me at all. I glanced at Tutor and George apologetically before telling them both to have a go reviewing my memories from our time apart.

Tutor decided to review my memories first while George and I simply stood and watched the epic battle taking place between the tiny sparkling form of Invicta and the behemoth monster that was Nurse. It actually looked like Nurse was putting up a fight, swinging her massive limbs around at insane speeds to deflect Invicta's carefree ramming attacks. It seemed strange to me, almost as if Nurse was playing with Invicta, allowing her to let off some steam.

"I can say that Invicta doesn't do so well with being away from you. She never had a friend before so she is fearful that something or someone would try to take you away from her. She doesn't really understand the human's need for companionship. You may need to edit her coding if you don't like how she is." George said as I shook my head.

"No, I won't do that to you guys. I will just give her time to grow up and to understand things better." I said as Tutor's focus came back from her review. George smiled faintly before he too began reviewing my memories.

"So, you don't know what you did? And you weren't going to tell him, Meditati?" Tutor asked, addressing my new AI for the first time and confusing me all in one go.

"Know what?" I asked.

"I was going to let someone else be the bearer of bad news to him, he already doesn't trust me very much. Besides, it was already too late for me to do anything when he picked me up," I heard Meditati answer. She had been strangely quiet and was barely letting any data flow away from herself even though I could feel her studying everything happening around me.

"Know what? What did I do?" I asked as George's eyes cleared up.

"Ah, the Skii and how they speak. Yup, your tour guides might have warned you about them," was all he said in response. It almost seemed like he was trying to keep a straight face.

"Tutor? What did I do wrong? What about the Skii and how they speak?"

"When speaking with a Skii, especially when entering trade agreements, you have to state a denial of service or to straight-up say "No" to anything that they request or say. All other answers are always taken as a yes to them since they only go off of yes or no." Tutor said with a twitching eyebrow.

"So," I said as I thought back to the only Skii that I had talked to the entire time. "It took every answer I said as a yes? What does that mean?"

"It means that, besides being stuffed with gadgets and toys, these crates that were dropped off for you contain every living Skii on the station," Nurse said as her massive head drew closer. A huge flexing tube formed out of her side as she began to unload everything she had collected from my ship. She did this even while battling a raging Invicta behind her back.

"Oh, come on!" I said as I realized that I now had a whole clan of Skii on board my vessel.

"Do they at least have a refund clause?" I asked as George and Tutor started to laugh openly.

I took that as a no.

---

While Nurse went about reforming the section of Tutor's ship that had given up its swarm to make her, George took charge of handling the crates and storing everything from my ship for me. I even passed him off Meditati's old fried module and the two swarm figurines that I was carrying. As an afterthought, I also unclipped the LOW's communication device and let him store it as well. There wasn't any reason for me to carry it on my person if I was going to go back to VR for our trip home anyways.

Invicta still hadn't given up and seemed insistent on driving Nurse away even though she was clearly outmatched in every way. It didn't matter that Nurse was rapidly losing matter, returning it to the ship, she still could deflect and fight off the little ball of sparks without effort. After watching for a couple of moments and gauging my little AI's determination, I decided to fly up to put myself between them. Nurse knew what I was going to do so she let her body dissolve as Invicta rushed at her, letting me catch my little storm girl.

Invicta's hair was all in disarray and she seemed spent as I held her in my cupped hands. Rather than say anything to me she immediately wrapped her arms around my wrist and turned her body back into the bracelet that she had liked to manifest as before. I could feel her take up her place inside me as her emotions slowly but surely began to settle down. She didn't speak and for a moment I had a mental image of her just sitting with her back to me with her fingers clutching tightly to my being.

It was ok, I knew she would come out and talk with me when she was ready. Right now, she just needed time to decompress.

Remembering the last thing that I had done for her; I raised the bracelet up to my lips and gently kissed the material.

"Thanks," I heard her voice say softly through my mind as she settled in just to watch.

I turned to Tutor who seemed to have somehow found the affection of my pet Leva. Every time Ess would spiral around us she would turn her head to butt it up against Tutor's outstretched and waiting hand.

"She needs food soon Kevin."

"Yeah, I know. She used up a lot of energy healing her side. Want to see if she will follow you?" I asked as I patted Ess's tail a couple of times to get her attention.

Ess stopped her continuous circling and turned to face both Tutor and I. "My word, she is beautiful." Tutor said as she reached out her hand towards the exploding star pattern on top of Ess's head. It was like watching two magnets coming together. It almost seemed like my pet Leva could understand what Tutor had said.

"Oh! Yeah, I guess it is time to remove these." I said as I reached out to interact with Ess's armor. I directed her armor to uncover Ess's photon bulbs again, giving her back her weapons.

"Want to follow Tutor inside?" I asked Ess as I patted her tail gently. "I need to say goodbye to the Yelvos command for a second and then we can leave."

Tutor started moving towards the massive door and Ess followed without hesitation. I didn't feel bad about Ess following Tutor because of her attention and pats, it just made me think that she would never really make a good guard dog if someone came to break into our ship.

Why did I feel a brief and sudden swelling of humor from Meditati and Invicta in my head at that last thought? As I mulled it over, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten something important.

"Wait!" I cried out. "No, not you two," I said as I waved for Tutor and Ess to continue. "Nurse! What happened to Jebzzbej?" I asked, nearly yelling. I hadn't seen the Tela anywhere and was a little worried that Nurse had, after all, eaten the annoying scientist.

I felt Invicta stir on my wrist and in my mind for a moment before she settled back down, content to just be with me again.

"After our talk, she asked me to leave her inside the station. She wanted to speak with the Yelvos command in person before she headed back to her Core." Nurse answered. "In fact, she assured me that she would take care of everything so that we could leave without any forms or fees. Her exact words were 'Please tell Kevin that I will take care of everything. He is free to leave."

"Huh... well ok then. Cool, I guess. I really didn't have anything that I wanted to say anyway."

I was just about ready to turn my back towards the station and to enter the restored ship when an odd flash of light caught my attention.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked in bewilderment as my vision focused and zoomed in on the disturbance.

A lone missile had been fired from a lower part of the station that was enshrouded in darkness. Out of curiosity I pointed my hand at the station and willed my swarm to emit a continuous blast of light to illuminate the dark area as the missile rushed at me. A lone alien cradling a still smoking barrel of a launcher stared at the sudden beam of light like a deer caught in the headlights. Offhand, I couldn't remember what species it was or who the heck it might have been.

"That is the same alien that tried to drill into your ship and who shut the armored door in your path," Nurse said as she recognized the being who was dumb enough to attack me, after all that it had seen, and right as we were about ready to leave.

I watched the little missile as it slowly made its way across the expanse of space towards me. It was fast, but not that fast in the grand scheme of things. It almost felt like I had turned on my Prime Speed Control key but I knew that I hadn't. I could feel my AI and swarm trying to respond in their own way to the threat. Tutor and George wanted to shield me while Meditati and Invicta each were trying to form weapons to blow both the missile and the shooter out of existence. Nurse... Nurse on the other hand was faster than all of my AI combined. It seemed that she had noticed the spark of light first and had drawn my attention to it. It was also her that was making things seem slower than they should have been.

I could feel the intent of everyone through their connection to me. Out of all of their responses... Nurse's was the most destructive of all. She was a hairsbreadth away from manifesting all of Tutor's ship into a killing blow directed at the station.

Yeah, no. I wasn't about to let someone ruin my reunion with my friends. This body wasn't even truly me; it was just a manifestation for me to use.

I dropped my hand and let the thing hit me in the chest, triggering and detonating in a violent display of killing power and vaporizing heat. It was truly an advanced weapon, one made for terrible feats of destruction, but in the end, it didn't even move me from where I was standing in space. My vision went white like my eyeball had been right next to a camera's flash for just as long as the blast lasted. It was a good thing that I didn't really have eyes that could be damaged or blinded anymore. When everything cleared and time seemed to return to normal, I simply shrugged and said "No need to do anything. It didn't and couldn't hurt me. Let us be on our way."

I turned around and entered my ship, leaving the Tela, Yelvos Command, and the population of the station to do as they saw fit. I didn't want to mar this moment with a memory of having to kill some dumb alien.

It was a strange feeling and a moment that I knew each of my AI would remember. I had overridden and held everyone in place with my control of the swarm. I was holding them back, even now, as I slowly let my feet come to rest on the expansive cargo hold.

It was the power of a Monarch at work.

"George, would you get us on our way, please? Oh, and keep in mind that we have crates of Skii with us as well? I don't want to turn them into paste before we can figure out what to do with them." I said as the massive door behind me shut itself. The cargo hold that I had entered was longer and wider than several football fields and sported a dizzying ceiling height. It seemed that Tutor had decided to upgrade Ess's living quarters several times over.

"Moving out now!" Came his voice from somewhere far off. I felt Meditati leave and move her mind into my VR with the rest of my AI. Invicta stayed put, content to remain with me.

Tutor had let Ess go off to explore the huge new space that she had created for her. The Leva's massive form was zooming off into the distance as she finally had room to stretch her tail.

"By the way, I am really looking forward to watching you teach Sublimis how to hunt the Queiie that I picked up." I heard George say as there were dozens of odd crashing and scraping sounds heard in the background of wherever he was at.

"What?" I asked, suddenly getting a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Well, you are her bond parent. She will learn best how to kill and eat a Queiie if you show her the way."

"Did you say eat?"

All I heard was laughter and more of the crazy noises in the background.