She felt like a conspirator, as the others sat down around the table at the bar. Gathering hear was Felix’s idea. It was the only place she was sure neither Zeti nor Helix could spy on them, at least that was what the security guard had explained. He had even brought a few miners and guards to protect them from prying eyes. And if she had to be honest, Virginia would have ignored the enormous man on principle just a few days ago. But now, her world, their world actually, had drastically changed over the last week. It was all because of the damned recording she had found. It changed their situation to a point where Virginia was having second thoughts about the choice she made.

One look at Hiroshi was enough to confirm she was not the only one. The physician looked to have had significantly aged over the last few days. A dark circle had formed under his natural eye and his mouth was twisted in an almost permanent scowl. And the way he downed his first drink was unnerving. No one was so eager to feel the taste of the green-blue liquid the miners distilled on the complex from the left-over cooling fluid.

Dr Kruger don the other hand looked ecstatic. He and his team had made unimaginable advances in decoding Unue and were in the process of construction a viable teaching algorithm. That alone would have changed the scientific world and there should have been a constant procession of calls from leading figures at the Institute, if not for the current situation. As for the giant sitting next to Anton, Virginia could read nothing from Felix’s stone-hard expression. Yet, there was fear in his eyes.

As she stared at him, the giant shifted his gaze and his eyes met hers. He gave her a slight nod. This was it, she thought, there was no point delaying it. With a shaking hand, Virginia fished a plug-in data core and slid it towards Anton.

“Is this it?” Dr Kruger asked, his fingers lightly tapping at the table just a few centimetres away from the item.

Despite being curious, the old man was cautious. They had spent days arranging this meeting through handwritten notes and cryptic messages, they had even taken the extra precaution of disconnecting from the feed the moment they sat down. Just so that he could translate the recording which had bothered the AI so much. Virginia couldn’t help but look around the room to check if someone was spying on them.

“Yes.” At her timid answer, Hiroshi downed his second drink and Felix pulled back in his chair.

Gingerly, Anton picked the device and connected to himself after producing a small data-pad, which he placed on the table. As he listened, his fingers tapped faster and faster on the screen of the device, most likely taking notes. The recording wasn’t long and Virginia knew her colleague had listened to it three full times at least before he opened his eyes and disconnected the thing. Without speaking a word, the man gulped his drink and gave out a small sigh.

“Is it bad?” Virginia asked after giving Anton a moment to order his thoughts.

“I’m not sure…” Dr Kruger scratched his head as he observed his notes and made some changes. “It is very contextual and there are some code words or names used.”

“Can you translate it or not?” Felix was close to snapping; she was sure of it by the tone of his voice. He was the only one more worried than her, about the AI’s reaction should it learn what they were doing.

“Given time, yes.” Anton took the drink standing untouched before the giant and gulped it down. “But I pieced enough to have a probable translation of the main issues.”

“Anything to give us some insight as to what we have managed to get ourselves into is going to be of help.” Virginia was very aware that what she was asking for was difficult.

There was a big difference between translating a few written words and deciphering an entire spoken conversation between multiple people.

“That is definitely Helix speaking, he is even mentioned a few times by the other people.” Dr Kruger began his explanation. “The part, which can be heard very clear near the end of the conversation. Troŝarĝu la kernon de marko tri. It’s without a doubt an order to supercharge a third mark core or a mark three core. Someone ordered him to die.”

“Is that it? I don’t see how that has to be of any interest to a Control AI.” Felix scoffed and a small smile appeared on his brooding face.

“The section Dr Werner was opening when the first contact with Helix was made, how was it marked?” The old man asked of the guard.

“Genix Krio-raum.” Felix answered, unsure what point Anton was trying to make.

“That’s an older Third Empire dialect. Genix was gene or genetics and raum is room. We translated that as a genetic library, assuming it some sort of gene-info or sample storage, because of krio meaning cold. But in the recording several times it is mentioned Helix is in kriogenojn, a basic translation would be cold genetic room.”

“Bloody hell.” Virginia couldn’t believe they had missed something so obvious.

“That’s cryogenics in case you’re wondering Mr King.” Hiroshi spelt it out for the confused-looking giant.

“Wait.” Felix jumped from his chair, causing everyone in the bar to look at him. “Sorry about that.” The enormous man spoke in a softer voice and sat back down. “But you mean to tell me there is an entire room with people like him, just waiting to wake up?”

As unlikely as that was, Virginia had to admit that such a possibility did exist. And her experience as of late, was not reassuring enough to just rule it out. That was why she joined the other two men in looking at Anton, almost pleading that he laughed off the tech’s remark.

“No. I mean, perhaps, I don’t know.” It was not the answer she wanted, neither the one she hoped for. “The one who gave the commands mentioned the word specimenoj…” Anton stopped and looked at Felix before adding. “That’s specimens. After that, he adds something about them being all-important or all of them being important.”

“We always assumed the Third Empire constructed the entirety of Last Hope.” Virginia spoke as she evaluated the benefits of getting blind drunk to the point she no-longer could remember this conversation.

“But it looks like they knew what this place was and tried to hide it. The only question is, why it was never explored.” She added after a moment of unwelcomed silence.

“Out of fear of waking up the Control AI.” Felix added as an afterthought.

“And because they were afraid of what was in there.” Hiroshi spoke with confidence.

“You know what the Second Empire was researching here? You said it would take you months to sort out the data from the terminals in the lab.” Virginia couldn’t hide the accusation from her voice.

“I haven’t touched that information. But I spent the last days working with our new overlord to have a good idea about what they wanted to achieve here.” Dr Saiko downed yet another drink, his face turning bright red.

“And?” Felix urged him to continue.

“And I’d rather forget all about it and what that monster did to the Knight Protector.” Hiroshi took her drink and drained the glass. “We never questioned his words that she was psionic, but I am wondering if that was not the first step to our damnation. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to bed hoping that when I wake up, all of this is going to have been just a really long nightmare.”

Virginia watched as the physician stumbled his way out of the bar. It was the first time she had seen the former military medic shaken to such an extent. Yet, the point he made was valid. Not one of them had questioned Helix or Zeti about Mistress von Eisstahl being a psionic. The fear humans felt towards the mutants was great and she had allowed it to blind her. But not as much as she had allowed her curiosity to blind her better judgment in surrendering herself to the AI.

“Can we contact the team that came with the Knight Protector?” She asked after a new serving of drinks was brought by the stuttering tray-bot.

“Not a chance. Helix got to them first. He’s had the AI fabricate a false ID which convinced them to trust him.” Felix shook his head and studied the content of is glass without taking a sip.

“We can go to Chief Rex and ask him for help, I am sure that the security…”

“Is going to kill us.” The giant interrupted her. “Donovan is out for blood. He thinks we’ve turned traitor and half the guards are on his side. And the other half are either too scared to oppose him or see Helix as the new boss who is going to run things around here.”

“The Commodore then?” Virginia was determined to find someone they could ask for help.

“Neverok has locked himself in his quarters with a handful of loyal men guarding him and bringing him food and tools.” Felix looked tempted to try the greenish liquid standing in front of him, but simply pushed the glass towards Anton. “Dr Werner, the Commodore has been trying to send a coded no-void message by building a system independent transmitter. Trust me, if I’ve noticed it, the damned AI has as well.”

“There has to be some way for us to limit Zeti’s… I don’t know. Functions?” Virginia felt frustration and impotence slowly taking hold of her.

“Look doc. There is no chance in Hell I’m going to clash horns with that thing.” Felix leaned on the table, resting his chin on his massive fists. “We are talking about a Control AI. For one it is a bloody theoretical, so I can’t tell you shit about the actual scope of its processing power. You just need to know it makes the AIs you’ve used in the Institute look like something made by a child.”

He gave her a moment for the thought to sink in. The machines used within the Institute were the pinnacle of human engineering with only those made inside the Academy rivalling them in analytical and processing power. Years ago, Virginia had talked with the board about stepping up the AI programming and pushing the limits, only to have been shot down. The smartest people in the UR had given it plainly to her; further upgrades would remove any form of control over the constructs.

“And correct me if I’m wrong, Dr Kruger. But as I understood it, the damned machine is manipulating Helix in some way as well?” The large man turned to Anton forcing him to lift his eyes from the notes he was taking.

“You could say that. Based on the conversation I listened to and the warning it gave to Virginia, it can be concluded that Zeti is hiding the death order from Helix.”

“That’s my point.” Felix snapped his fingers and returned his hard eyes towards her. “If that bloody thing is going against some with admin privileges, imagine what it would do to anyone else. For fuck’s sake, it took the damned thing forty-two hours to deconstruct both our and the Third Empire’s AIs and turn them to its extensions. It took me six years just to map two-thirds of the building code.”

“He makes a valid point Virginia.” Anton chimed in. “Mr King has undisputable talent in that particular field. If not for his choice to go to the Academy, I would have loved to recruit him in the institute.”

Couldn’t they understand, she was not looking for something further to worry about. She needed for someone to tell her that everything was going to be all right and that there was always a way out from the mess she had gotten herself into. Perhaps Hiroshi had the right idea, she thought as she downed the two glasses sitting on the small tray before her.

The taste was awful and the liquid burned her mouth and throat, but the effect was almost instant. Virginia was never a good drinker and as such was not surprised to see the message that her cerebral implants went into stand-by mode as the alcohol levels in her blood spiked. Just one more and she won’t be able to remember her own name, never mind this dreadful conversation. She reached for the glass baiting her between Anton’s arms. However, all she managed was to push the thing over the edge and for her to hit her face on the cold metal surface as she moved her elbow away from supporting her body.

“I think you’ve had enough doc.” Felix scooped her in his strong arms. “I’ll take you to your room. Dr Kruger, you gonna be good?”

“Yes, yes. Thank you, Mr King.”

There was something more that Anton said, but all Virginia could think of was how strong and warm Felix’s chest was. It was the best thing she had sensed in quite some time and without a hint of remorse, she snuggled tighter in his grip and allowed the alcohol to run its course.

Zoë opened her eyes and stretched the sleep away. Almost immediately she regretted both actions. The moment she moved her arms, intense pain stabbed her chest and the muscles in her shoulders cramped. On top of the that, the bright light nearly burned her retinas, forcing her to instinctively move her arms to protect her arms. The end result was even more pain, which ended in a barely audible scream, followed by the awful realisation there was a tube lodged deep into her throat

It took her a few moments, but she managed to piece together the fragmented memories swirling inside her head. She had collapsed, that was sure, she was only surprised it hadn’t happened earlier. Which meant she had to be in the infirmary. In a way this was good news, she wasn’t dead. Therefore, she had to trust that Doc Saiko had taken every precaution for her to heal and would anything she switched off or dislodged could jeopardise her wellbeing. Carefully she placed her hands next to her body and became conscious about every movement she made.

“I must admit, Miss Kurtz, you don’t stop to amaze.” Helix’s voice sounded like the roar of a battle-tank in her ear.

Zoë felt each step the boy made and the accompanying sound hammered like a nail in her brain, causing her to squirm on the medical bed. As the sound became louder, she knew he had stopped next to her. Slowly and carefully she opened her eyes. The light was blinding and the colours were distorted, far too sharper. But if she was in medical, it meant her implants had been switched off, so there couldn’t be any interference caused by them, the problem was with her eyes.

“Audio-visual hyperactivity.” He said in a softer voice. “You will get used it after a while.

Get used to it? It wasn’t going to go away. This information was enough to push Zoë into despair. She felt tears gather at the corners of her eyes.

“I am sorry, but for the next few hours, I cannot remove the oxygen tube. The re-growth cycle of your lungs is not yet completed.” She could see Helix check something on the wall behind him.

“All four heart chambers are synced.” He added after a moment, his face glued to the screen she could not see.

Wait a minute, he said four, that was impossible. Zoë was a soldier, an Academy graduate and she had access to the best enhancements. With extensive gene therapy from age fifteen to age nineteen, she qualified for a perfect three-chamber heart, the best of the best. She must have heard wrong, yes that was it.

“Disappointing. Fourth chamber does not react to the higher stress levels as the other three. I suppose it is to be expected. The mutation was noticed only thirty hours ago, not enough for it to be properly formed.” Helix turned to her and smiled.

“I must say, Miss Kurtz, I did not expect that much progress. Heightened senses, proper heart mutation, increased regeneration of lungs. And the levels Urokinase remodelling are above what I expected. That would explain the c-Met and EGFR activity. However, I am worried about TGF-β.”

He placed a scanner over her chest and pushed it towards her feet. Zoë felt her stomach tighten into a knot as the Quon’s waves penetrated her skin. She knew there was supposed to be a tingling sensation, but nothing this intense or disturbing.

“Odd.” She saw Helix look intensely into the machine’s display. “I do not see any signs of cancerous growths.” That was good, she thought and felt a smile form on her face, it only caused her to gag once more.

“It could only mean your body is entering into a rapid mutation stage.” That, on the other hand, did not sound as positive as Helix had voiced it. “I will need to run some further test to be sure what is happening on the genetic level.”

He began walking away, before turning to her and smiled once again. Zoë felt her eyes close and sleep slowly, but surely, take over her. However, she did hear his next words quite clearly and the pride in his voice chilled her.

“Congratulations Miss Kurtz. You are no longer human.”