//SYSTEM REBOOTING

//DIAGNOSTICS STARTING

//SCANNING LOCAL ENVIRONMENT

//SHIP INTERIOR. SEVERE DAMAGE TO SHIP. PINGING SHIP.

/AI615: Ship services are disabled while diagnostics are running.

//DIAGNOSTIC UPDATE: SEVERE DAMAGE TO FRAME. 75% LOSS OF FUNCTIONALITY. REMAINING HP BELOW 10%

I crawled across the hangar floor with my one remaining limb. I was closest to the door during the landing and likely sustained damage from debris during the hard landing. With a series of pings, I instructed our remaining starfish mech, ordering them down from the hangar, and they lifted my torso, preparing to carry me down the hall.

Out of the hangar door, the world burned. The light of a burning forest glinted off metal debris that littered the ground, fresh earth painting the horizon from where the ship had unburied it, carving a valley out of the forest.

The starfish carried me down the hall, prying open the quickly sealed airlocks where the internals failed to respond. I could tap into the feeds directly. The Acolyte’s rooms remained intact — they were our 3rd most protected area, after 615s core and the stasis chamber containing Tobias.

The mechs dragged the shattered remains of my frame towards the stasis chambers, leaving behind a trail of hydraulic fluid. Wires and tubes hung from the broken open waist of my frame and from the socket for my right arm.

The hard crash meant that the airlocks and seals to the stasis chamber activated, and the starfish didn’t have the power to pry open the doors. I tabbed into the feeds inside, but the lighting in the room was a harsh red. There wasn’t enough light to get a strong read on the inside, and I couldn’t overwrite the lights myself.

The starfish cut open a frame from the wall, working to quickly hot-wire the panel to open the door. After a few minutes of cutting and soldering, the door opened with a whoosh, and the starfish dragged me inside. I looked up into the tank.

The room was undamaged, but running on backup power.

Tobias was fine for now. The starfish dragged me out, wiring the door shut and replacing the panel, locking it in place with a low-quality spot weld.

615 still wasn’t responding. Hopefully, she was still in diagnostic mode, rebooting, and not otherwise incapacitated. The mechs dragged me back through the maze of hallways, to and through the hangar, deeper into the ship where 615’s core was. The fire raged outside, and some Acolytes had left their rooms, though most stood around in a daze. Some tapped at tablets that were currently disconnected.

When I reached the core, I found Tavi already in it, Glory lighting up under his flesh. He held a piece of silver-chalk in his hands, staring up at 615.

“Is she okay?” Tavi asked, a manic twinge to his voice. The starfish mechs acting as my legs dragged me forward. The motors to control my head weren’t responding, but the screen still turned on, displaying a comforting image of a hummingbird accessing a feeder as my body was rotated to face Tavi.

//She will be alright.// I replied, confirming that there was no visible damage in the room.

Tavi turned, leaned down, and touched the floor. Light glowed below me. I ordered the starfish to turn me about to look at the ground. A circular sigil surrounded me, scraped into the ship out of chalk.

Tavi’s brow furrowed in concentration. I ordered the starfish to drag me out of the circle, but it was like we hit a solid wall as soon as we moved away. Tapping into the feeds in the room, I switched to a camera above, only then fully comprehending the dim ritual lines below me.

//What is this?// I asked.

“Can’t hear you.” Tavi shook his head. “Can’t have you calling for help, can I?”

His expression twisted from concentration to exhilaration.

I started tapping every nearby feed, ordering the ALPHA and BETA groups to disengage from their hangars and rush to the room. Only 2 of them responded, starting to slowly disentangle themselves from their fastenings.

Tavi extended his sigil with lines of chalk.

“I put together the spell that was referenced in the Agrippa diary. They don’t say what it is, of course.” Tavi monologued as I had the starfish try to use a plasma cutter through the invisible barrier holding us in place. Plasma splashed against the invisible force harmlessly. “They don’t explicitly say the combination of runes to make the spell work, but they list everything that doesn’t work. I wasn’t sure that this would. But it does. Got two spells… a barrier used to inlay the control binding… and the binding itself. The crash created such a perfect opportunity, though. I thought I’d have to wait for years to get you alone and defenseless.”

Tavi continued talking while he worked, before drawing on the invisible wall in the air itself.

He had gone to great lengths to plan this, and all silently. Our cameras had no records of any preparatory attempts at creating a binding ritual. But he didn’t know I had radio communication, and this barrier didn’t block it.

Any second now, the HAMMERHEAD would charge into the room and blow his head off.

“Octavius.” Mathias said, storming into the hallway. “What the fuck are you doing?”

His eyes flashed over the runework, over my body in the center, and towards 615.

“You shouldn’t be here, Mat.” He said, not stopping his work. “Run home. You don’t give a shit what happens to Offo, do you?”

“I didn’t come here for Offo.” Mathias frowned. Then his expression hardened. “What have you done to 615?”

“I have done nothing yet. Offo has all this power and wastes it. Destroying his own creations when he could build himself an empire. I won’t waste any of it.” Tavi replied.

Mathias’s eyes widened at the glow of Glory under Tavi’s skin.

“You’re fucking high.”

“I am in complete control. A completely normal state of mind.” Tavi said, hands racing to paint the sigil onto the barrier. The HAMMERHEAD was in the hallway now, right behind Mathias.

“You’re literally bleeding on the floor!” Mathias yelled.

Tavi finally stopped, looking up at Mathias, then down at himself. Blood was leaking through his shirt. Then he continued. “I can heal later. You’re just like them, Mathias. Given all of this power, and having no idea what to do with it. But when it’s all mine — “ Tavi turned, gesturing widely at the room.

Mathias’s knife slammed into his stomach.

Tavi gasped, eyes widening in shock, caught like a deer in headlights and unable to respond.

Mathias stabbed him again.

And again.

And again.

The barrier collapsed around me and the HAMMERHEAD arrived, hoisting me onto its back, where I clung to its neck with my remaining arm.

Mathias was still stabbing.

//He’s dead, Mathias.// AI615 said, finally done rebooting.