Kevin was dumbfounded. What could he possibly do for Ebonheart? There was nothing he had that one of the founders of Archangel couldn’t get just about anywhere. “Alright.” He said hesitantly, worried about what Ebonheart might think of the horrible state of his tiny apartment, but unwilling to refuse him after everything he had done for him, albeit unknowingly. It seemed more than a little bizarre to have a rich man in an expensive suit casually stroll into his place and sit on his couch, just flat out ignoring the mess.

“So, Kevin, I would ask how you are doing and all that, start with the pleasantries the way a normal person would, but I’m willing to bet that the answer is ‘bad,’ since you are locked out of the game for the next sixteen hours.” He took out a small silver ball and set it onto the coffee table, casually pushing aside an old pizza box and a stack of dirty plates and bowls to make room. Seeing Kevin’s shocked expression he continued. “Yes, I’m aware that you were just timed out. Our AI keeps track of these things, as I mentioned, and as I wanted to meet with you under relatively favorable conditions I found out how long you had been on so that I might time my visit to coincide with your logout. I would never dream of interfering with the game time of a man playing for the reasons you play for.”

Kevin was staring at the little metal sphere. “Ah, don’t mind that, just a little device that will ensure our conversation stays private. So, first things first, you are no doubt wondering why I am here. I have found myself in need of people I can trust, people who, when presented with an important enough cause, are willing to lay down their very lives if necessary to see that cause succeed. I’ve done my research on you, Mr. Jackson. You volunteered for the military directly out of high school, was accepted into the Navy, and served honorably and with distinction all the way up to that fateful day an arresting cable snapped, striking you with enough force to damage your legs beyond repair.

“They chose to remove them, and give you a medical discharge and disability pay, then promptly forgot about you and your service. Am I correct so far?”

Kevin grit his teeth. “Yes, sir. Do you have a point?” He hated, hated, it when people came to him and began talking as though they knew and understood what he had been through.

“I understand, it’s a hard thing to deal with. Shard’s unique interface method has allowed you to once again taste the joy of standing on your own two feet, and now everything outside the game is painful. Which brings me to the opportunity portion of why I came here today. To start with, I would like to give you a gift. We have more than a few secrets at Archangel, but the one you might find the most important in your current state, is that the interface you received with your bolt can be upgraded, primarily software modifications and nothing intrusive, to work not only with the game, but also with artificial limbs we can provide.”

Kevin stiffened in his wheelchair. “You, you’re offering me my legs back?” He asked, with more than a little suspicion. “What’s in it for you?”

“For that? Absolutely nothing. The opportunity I am here to offer you is to come and work with us to try and save the world, from threats both internal and external. The gift I offer is my way of thanking you for voluntarily putting your life at risk in service to our country. Should you choose to refuse and send me away, that gift would remain yours for the taking. You would simply have to arrange a visit to our corporate headquarters and speak with Lisa.”

This was all sounding far too good to be true. “What about the favor?” There just had to be a catch somewhere.

Evan smiled at him. “I would ask that you not tell anyone about anything that happened here today, and that if you take me up on the opportunity I offer, that you would endeavor to keep the secrets you would inevitably learn there from getting out. Everything we do will see the light of day when the time is right, but until that time we must keep some things private.”

Kevin was doubly suspicious now. “You want to give me my legs and a job? And all you want in return is for me to keep some secrets? Those must be some incredible secrets.”

Evan shrugged. “Some of them are more than incredible. Some of them are virtually unbelievable, and while nothing we are doing is malicious in nature, some of the secrets we hold will doubtlessly affect every single person on the planet.”

Kevin couldn’t help but ask the cliche question people always seemed to ask in these situations on television and the movies. “What’s stopping me from telling everyone everything the moment I figure out what you’re up to?”

Evan laughed. “Ah, yes, I really should have expected that, shouldn’t I? Simply put, Mr. Jackson, your own integrity and conscience. I came here today offering you everything you ever wanted, your legs back, and a cause to fight for, a noble cause. We aim to better ourselves and humanity as a whole, and I’m offering you the chance to join us. Should you refuse and decide to tell everyone you can find everything you heard today, I doubt anyone will believe you, and should you accept only to renege on your promise to keep our secrets, I know for a fact that nobody will believe you.”

“They might when they see me with new artificial legs!” Kevin retorted, arguing out of habit.

“A simple press release stating that you were aiding us in testing a new series of artificial limbs being designed as a humanitarian effort aimed at providing a better life to our nation’s disabled veterans would take the wind from your sails, I’m sure,” Evan said with a smug grin. “I’m not some evil mastermind, here to con you into becoming one of my henchmen. I’m here for precisely the reasons I gave you, and now that I’ve expressed my desires and made my offer clear, I will be taking my leave. You may join me if you wish, or you may take some time to think things through.” He stood and offered Kevin a business card. “Simply call this number when you’ve made up your mind, and remember, even if you say no we will arrange for you to visit us and get you out of that chair. Farewell, and I hope to hear from you.”

Kevin stared at the card as Evan headed for the door. “Wait!” He shouted as the door opened. “I want to come with you! I’ll do it! Anything to get out of this chair!”

* * * * *

Evan stood looking at the group of people he had gathered on a holo-screen in their breakroom. Kinzie stood next to him looking apprehensive. “Are you sure we should be doing this?” She asked quietly.

He shook his head. “Not even a little bit, but we have to trust people eventually. We can’t do it all ourselves, and we can only get so much help from people that aren’t in the loop. We’ve done the research, background checks, personality profiles, Lisa even hacked into their psychiatric files. If we can trust anyone with the truth and enlist their wholehearted support it’s these ten people. We’re still running checks on others, and there will be more, but for now, I want to start small. What’s the progress looking like on your end?”

Kinzie sighed. “Rough. I mean, we’ve purchased land across the world and gotten all the construction permits and everything else we need to get everything rolling, Jason’s gotten a series of his Scarabs built and running on autopilot to stockpile fuel on the dark side of the moon for now, to prevent tons of UFO sightings, and Lisa has been constructing new printers and everything the factories will need. That part of everything is going great, but I spent hours constantly pushing her to build me a blank core to study, as well as some of the simpler ones she can pump out easily, and it’s like trying to map out every neuron in a brain, only not a human brain, an alien brain. The simpler cores helped me figure out what goes where and why, but only in a general way. It’s going to take a long time to figure this thing out.”

Evan thought about it for a minute. “What if you used a map of a human brain as a shortcut? I mean, you might just wind up finding another blindspot in Lisa’s programming, but she might be able to help you design an entirely new core from a base that is drastically different from Confederation standards. With the block against building additional cores being as subtle as it is, it’s possible they didn’t think about the AI producing an entirely new design. It would obviously have to be scaled up, since the human mind isn’t capable of the kind of multi-tasking Lisa can do, but it’s at least plausible, and we have a lot more knowledge of how the human brain works than we do about an alien AI core that is modeled after god knows what.”

Kinzie kissed him hard. “That just might work! I have to go try it! Thank you!” She dashed out of the room, headed for her workshop at breakneck speed.

“That’s fine, leave me alone to talk to a room full of ex-military cyborgs about building a space army.” Evan muttered towards the screen. The complaint wasn’t really serious though, he was definitely smiling after the kiss. He shrugged and headed to the drab looking room the men and women he had painstakingly selected were waiting in. The bland normalness of the room should make his introduction to what they would be doing all the more amazing and inspiring. Or at least that was his hope. Wow them and get them solidly on their side. When he walked in they were animatedly talking about the prosthetics they had been outfitted with, which still looked very much like artificial limbs. Lisa could do better of course, but it would have to wait until they were ready to go public and set themselves up as a global organization dedicated to the protection of the planet.

“This is incredible! I have almost the same range of motion as I had with my real arm, and I can feel it!” A woman announced happily.

“I actually feel like I never even lost my leg! If I wasn’t able to look down and see that it’s fake I wouldn’t believe it wasn’t real!” A man responded, just as happy sounding.

Evan cleared his throat and the group stopped comparing notes on their prosthetics. “When we finish up here you should head back to the lab, Sarah. They should be able to fix that ‘almost’ for you. Until then, I am glad to see you all again, for some it has been a few days, for others mere hours.” He nodded to Sarah when he said hours, as she was his latest recruit and the last for now. “Everyone here has chosen to join us, despite not knowing what our goals are. Truly, I am touched by your faith in us, by the trust you have placed in us. No doubt that trust is accompanied by a healthy amount of suspicion as well, and I fear that in a way that suspicion does have some grounding in reality.

“You see, the reason we need people like yourselves is that we face a potential war. With effort, supreme planning, and a great deal of luck, we may be able to avoid being dragged into it, or change our intended role in it, but it is already raging. Come with me. I’m going to show you what we face, and why we feel we need to proceed the way we are. These are things that, up until this moment, have only been known by five people in the entire world.”