Life was funny. It always started with something small, like a puddle of ooze on a random rock. In time it would spread and invent nuisances like guns, rockets, and civilization. Sovan stared at the end product and wasn’t particularly impressed. The space station groaned from being overcrowded. A minor celebrity had announced her visit and every fan three stars over just had to be there. Currently, all of them seemed to be hellbent on ruining his day.

It started with their scent. One human could smell nice. A group might be a bit difficult on the nose. That lot over there? Sweat and all manner of perfume abominations had created a tangible wall of oh have mercy, why? He didn't like the noise any better. At least ten songs played simultaneously, riffs, drums and synths had a battle royale for supremacy. Sovan massaged his forehead and mumbled.

“They are not human. Think of them as water. A river that you can guide and control like in a computer simulation”

His voice now louder, he began shouting over the music.

“Welcome to the City of Citadels. The Star of Ashina will arrive within the hour. Those of you with an ocular circuit, please step to the right and let our central system Heart guide your way. Everyone else, please follow the guidance instructions handed to you at the terminal. It has pretty pictures”

Ocular circuits were neat little implants that went straight into the brain and allowed all manner of technology to interface directly with what someone saw and heard. Most people had one and those that didn't at least tended to have the ability to read. He looked around. Had anyone killed him yet? No? Maybe? Good start then, he congratulated himself. He pressed two fingers against his temple and gestured down the corridor. The crowd began to flow until one woman walked up to him. Suddenly he found himself the attention of every pair of eyes in the corridor.

“Excuse me? Sir?” she began.

“Yes? What can I do for you madam?”

“Do you know if the Star of Ashina will be here soon?”

His smile cracked.

“Yes?” he tried hard to hide the irritated question mark.

“Are you sure? Can I talk to your supervisor?”

Sovan flinched. Be calm, be confident. He ran a hand through his hair and inhaled in a way that showed off his toned chest. Some liked it. Her blank stare was an obvious denial.

“I’ll check the time of arrival for you”, he said and raised his voice, “Heart. Estimate arrival of the ship with the designation YZ-0451, owned by one Star of Ashina. Display on atmospheric screens, create video from context”

He thanked the grey gods for procedural content creation. The technology had been a unicorn for thousands of years. Could machines be creative? Yes, if you gave them the proper attributes and data. It had started with music many centuries ago, expanded onto short videos and now a simple command was enough to create entire movies from just a few words and parameters.

The soothing voice of the system echoed through his implant.

.: Confirmed. Generating content from tags Crowd Management, Pacification and Star of Ashina promotional material. :.

The corridor walls dimmed and the murmurs stopped. There was silence, followed by anticipation. Then: Awe. The walls erupted in a bright festival of colours. A stunning woman smiled down from the screens, her rainbow robe with fitting bottom-long hair flowed on some imaginative wind. Sovan had to admit, the Star was intense. This was a creature so beautiful that it bordered on frank brutality.

He shook off his stupor while the crowd seemed rapt. The ethereal creature danced down the corridor and the crowd followed with open mouths. When the last fan had evacuated the premises, he inhaled sharply.

“Emperor alive”

.: That is not correct, Nano-Technician Sovan Terastris. The Emperor has been dead for 2091 years. It is expected a follower will be announced within fifteen years of death. :.

He slapped his forehead and grinned, “Guess I walked into that one. Hey Heart? Do me a solid and give me a status screen of the Citadel”

His ocular implant superimposed the blueprint in his mind. The City of Citadels looked the part of a repurposed border station. He saw the original spire in the middle, but added modules had grown out of it like fungi. With the two habitation domes flanged to either end, the station looked like a dumbbell. A flashing red number caught his attention.

“Far beyond capacity”, he rasped, “Insanity. Eh, Heart give me someone higher up. I’ve done my job, the crowd is dispersed”

The golem’s answer came with a noticeable delay. Weird numerical glitches ran over his ocular implant as Heart fed nonsense information to his cortex. He narrowed his eyebrows. That wasn’t normal. However with a bit of delay, the connection went through. It was just that upon seeing who he had been connected to, he'd rather it hadn't.

“No, halt, stop! Everyone but her”

Too late.

.: Connection established to Administrator Strehin. :.

He looked at the face of a woman roughly in her forties with rectangular wire rim glasses. Like the Star, she too had the tell-tale signs of a Stellar Mage but none of the charm. To Sovan, the Star represented light and joy in life and if that were true, then Strehin was a black hole that sucked it right out of his soul. She looked at him over the rim of her glasses. One day he was going to ask her about it. A smoky voice suddenly filled his mind.

“Thank you for wasting my time.”

What?

.: Call time: 0:41 seconds :.

The golem at the heart of every computer system on the station added with a cheerful glee. Sovan blinked and put on his best smile.

“Uh, sorry – didn’t mean to gawk. Heart must have misconnected me. Ahem, the corridor is clear – this one here I mean. Tell you what, I’ll go right back to work, check out why Heart is acting up...uh, she is acting up by the way... unless you don’t want me to, that’s totally your prerogative as an administrator of my station... uh, your station, definitely yours, it’s just my home and...”

Shut up already. That was his subconscious with a helpful input from the sidelines. He pressed his lips together and waited. A frown crept on her face. The sharp-jawline and the short blonde hair accented just how annoyed she could look.

“Do it”

.: Connection terminated. :.

With a grunt, Sovan pushed away from the wall and allowed himself to be swallowed up by the crowd. He quickly vanished down the corridor. Part of him considered taking the airlock instead.

Administrator Strehin glowered. Had she killed his family at some point? Stepped on his cat – if he had any? She tried to recall this man. A young nano technician, one of the rare breed that programmed tiny swarms of robots to conduct all manner of repairs. Useful, often a bit strange. The fit young nano-technician didn’t linger in her mind for much longer. She leaned on her desk and felt her bones creak. Ambient light reflected from the polygonal walls of her office. A crown of flying drones buzzed around her and the blinking display in front invited her to a dangerous game.

Politics. Strehin inhaled sharply. Someone had played dirty. Exhibit A. Her hand traced along the three-dimensional screen and touched the symbol for the Sons of Virgo faction.

“Confirm statement, Heart. The Sons of Virgo claim they send a note about the Star ten days ago?”

The golem answered painfully slow and via a speaker. While most had an ocular implant, she did not. No mage had.

.: That is correct. :.

“So why did I only learn about it when her first fans swarmed my station?”

.: Unknown. Not enough information for a conclusive statement. :.

Strehin pulled off her glasses and began cleaning them. The ache in her joints reminded her why she had to wear something that archaic. Mages didn’t blend well with implants – even broken ones like her. When she put her glasses on her nose, she was back in business.

A grin flickered on her face. The Sons of Virgo would get to enjoy lodging in the cargo-hold. She pushed their symbol down and reached for the next. This one wouldn’t be that easy to deal with. Her left hand touched the Sigil for the Council of Original Kin, while her right covered the Grey Ascendants. Both cults believed magic to be divine, but one side claimed mankind hat invented it and the others were convinced the magic particles were part of the grey god.

“Maybe I’ll put them in a room together and sell the broadcasting rights to the surveillance footage”, she mused. A shocked gasp drew her attention towards a wiry young woman with a braided ponytail that stood at the edge of her desk. The uniform marked her as an assistant but her face was unfamiliar. Her icy-grey eyes sized up the girl while her hands never stopped moving.

“The council we’ll send here”, she narrated her actions while pulling one symbol next to the cargo hold and then pushing the other into one of two biospheres.

“Now, foal. Who are you?” Strehin raised her head and focussed entirely on the girl. For a normal human, the girl was of average height, which meant Strehin had to look down on the poor thing - even from her slumped posture.

The young woman saluted with a thumb to her heart and outstretched fingers. The administrator answered with a fake smile and made a mental note to check on the girl’s origin. What was a young thing like her doing the old imperial salute for?

“You haven’t answered”, Strehin said with a smile that could cut through bulkheads.

“S-sorry Madam Administrator. I’m still learning. T-they send me here b-b-ecause they...”

Someone had played a prank on the poor foal. Strehin sighed.

“Fair enough. What I’m doing is called old terran diplomacy. It’s based around the idea that every faction will be equally unhappy. Heart, estimate time of arrival.”

.: Fifty-one minutes from now. :.

“Long enough. First lesson. You might consider it prudent to announce your arrival, young one. Never give someone the impression you’re sneaking up on them”, Strehin said with a look that made the girl flinch, “Now, let me show you something. Heart route all data through my terminal for manual sorting.”

The woman paled. Sudden nervousness manifested in a constant shifting from leg to leg and erratic tugs on the braided hair. Strehin noted each of these details. The screen lit up with an absurd amount of data. Hundreds of interdependent files all begged for attention in a three-dimensional arrangement. Strehin felt a twinge in her chest. This was her realm.

“If you are to navigate the political landscapes of roughly two hundred factions multiplied by at least a couple of hundred thousand planets, you’re going to need the ability to bring order into chaos. Look at this data. Each batch represents something begging for your attention, what do you do?”

She watched the young thing grow tense. While the lips quivered, the hand was surprisingly calm and with a slight bit of cheeky, the girl actually reached into the three-dimensional screen to sort the data. Her voice was quiet.

“I will prioritize and sort out the important from the mundane”

Strehin nodded. For all her nervousness, the foal had actual promise. While the young one worked, the older woman was focussed on a certain part of the data. It included everything from response times, workload, life support to fabrication and back. Her hand suddenly shot forward and pulled it to the front.

There, her instinct whispered. It was part of her heritage. Of the four Gates of Magic that governed all special abilities, her Struct magic was superior to all. IMBUE and FLOW, the addicts of energy formed one axis. FRAY and STRUCT, the scholars of matter marked the other. Strehin used her knowledge of Structure to bring order to chaos.

Her hands accelerated into a blur. She filtered out error values and transformed data into intervals. Order. Tests followed and when the display showed various diagrams, Strehin’s eyes flicked across the screen. Suspicious normality. She grunted and began anew. Different filters, new scale. Structure. The woman arranged variables and witnessed the results. Again.

Her world vanished into a blur of data. Again. Ever faster, she tore into the information. Again. Everything else was forgotten, the world ceased to exist around her. Suddenly, she pulled up a list of logs and inhaled sharply. It was just a tiny irregularity. Strehin looked up and caught her own haunted look in a reflection. The young girl had stepped back, pale as ash.

“My dear foal, we’re being infiltrated”, Strehin stated with a flat tone, “Each file has a random response delay time – just enough for someone to check and modify what reaches my desk. Heart inform security that something is afoot. Have them put a drone operator on each faction representative and put guards in the dock. Priority on the latter, wouldn’t want harm to come to our guest”

She felt it in her bones. Someone had invited the old iron dragon to dance and as was custom, that someone would be dead by the end of the day. Strehin focussed her attention on the girl that had pressed herself against the wall.

“What’s your name again?” she asked. A furiously blinking sigil distracted her. A shimmering Twin Star symbol had moved onto the docking section. Strehin lifted one finger.

“One second. I swear if they’re already murdering each other...”, she grunted and opened the line. Before the man on screen had any time to act, Strehin cut him short.

“You’ll be on deck sixteen. The Sons of Virgo and the Council will be your neighbors. You know how they get when someone starts shooting next to them. Remove everything that can be used as a weapon. Yes, that includes toy animals. No one wants another bloody stuffing”

She flicked the communication line closed and shot a glance at the clock. Forty minutes left. Great day. There was at least one ploy underway, some borderworld celebrity was going to arrive, her hive of lunatics was already here and several factions were about to murder each other. That and an unknown young woman stood in her office, trying her hardest to look the part.

“Come on, young one. Get closer”, she commanded. The nervous young woman inched closer to the table. She merely raised her head but it was enough to dwarf the shivering mess of a human.

“What’s the matter, foal? Let’s talk. You haven’t shot me yet, which I quite appreciate”, Strehin said and saw the sudden panic. Amateur.

“So who exactly are you? Why do you know the old imperial salute and how come my desk starts bugging out the second you walk in?” she asked while keeping her profile small. There was no need for physical intimidation. Yet.

“Relax young one, I’m not going to kill you”

Sovan headed for the service elevators in the central spire. Just as he took a left turn, weird sounds rang out of the wall. He unlocked the wall panel and put it down on the ground. When he rose up, the face of an old man was inches away from him.

“Is this the arrival hall?” the old man asked.

“No sir, this is a maintenance shaft”

How? Why? He pulled the old man out of the shaft and heard another sound. It was a woman this time – one with a baby tugged to her chest. Then came a group of kids, followed by a priest of entertainment. Of course someone at some point had declared entertainment holy.

“Anyone else?”

No reply.

“Because you lot got human all over our neat tech, we're going to purge the vents in two minutes”, he promised and waited a few more seconds. Two scared men practically flew out of the shaft and bolted down the corridor.

“Yeah, I don’t get it and I don’t think I want to”, he said with a sigh.

“What’s that, Sovan?” came a voice from behind. His mood brightened instantly.

“Adam!” the young man shouted gleefully and then added with a bit of playful sting, “Hey ‘dad’”

The large man grinned from ear to ear, “Don’t call me family. You’re something better. A friend”

Sovan looked at his old friend and grinned. The large man really wasn’t family but he sure rocked the dad body, including a thick beard and arms like a bear. With the good-natured smile, it was hard to not tease him a bit. Sovan braced for impact as the man pulled him into a hug.

“Hrnngnnppfffllll!”

Adam laughed and put him back on the ground.

“Sure thing, my little drama queen”, he said and gently elbowed Sovan, “Where’d the crowd come from?”

Sovan simply pointed at the still open wall-panel.

“Seriously?” Adam answered with raised eyebrows.

The technician nodded and put the panel back in place. The latch locked in place and with that job done, he turned to look at Adam. Something was off about his friend. The large man looked pale with spotty skin and thick strands of sweat on him.

“You look awful”

“You too, buddy”

“No, I mean it. You’re sick. Come on, head on over to medical and get a check-up. Don’t be stubborn.”

Adam rolled his eyes but let out a mirthful laugh, “Fair enough ‘son’. Right after I disown you. Don’t think you’ll get your money back either.”

The large man’s mood suddenly turned, “Stay safe and do know... you’re a good bloke. Best friend I could wish for. I want you to know that”

“What? Where’s that coming from? Now you’re scaring me!”

The large man waved one of his oversized hands and turned around with a grin, “Good, because kids should always fear their ‘parents’”

They both chuckled, hugged once more and then both went their separate ways. Sovan stuffed his hands in his pocket. Adam would be fine, he told himself, they were all just stressed out. Loud electric humming soon distracted him. He was fast approaching the spire and with that, the semi-living creature at the core of it all, aptly labelled Heart. The hallway opened up into a massive diamond shaped room with a smaller compartment in the middle.

The golem had the stylized shape of a woman that was chained to the central spire. Cables were attached to the neck while armorplates looked like pale skin from afar. The group of technicians that climbed over the shell looked tiny in comparison. If the golem didn’t have those creepy eye sockets, it’d probably be someone’s fetish.

Heck, even with the eye sockets. People were weird. Sovan fast approached with a smile on his face. The technicians suddenly stopped, looked at him and scurried off.

“Man, do I stink or something?”

The large head of the golem swiveled around and the dead eyes locked on him. He didn’t see the jaw move but a soft voice resonated within his mind either way.

.: Greetings Nano-Technician Sovan Terastris. This limited body has no functions for the analysis of scent. Based on your daily hygiene, it is my belief that you, in fact, do not stink. Three female crew members have further commented on appreciating your smell. :.

Sovan shuddered. That was totally not creepy or anything. He cleared his throat before this got any worse.

“Hey. Uh, Heart? Who were they?”

.: Error. Statement not clear from context. :.

“The technicians that just left. You must have seen them? Blue uniform? About seven or eight of them? They were crawling all over you?”

.: Updating active memory from database. :.

His expression grew increasingly tense as the golem delayed the answer longer and longer until it suddenly spoke again.

.: Greetings Nano-Technician Sovan Terastris. Please be advised that one thought process had to be terminated since your last visit 17.2 seconds ago. :.

“You did what? Alright, kindly inform the Administrator that your functions might experience some further delay and that someone tried to tamper with you. Activate maintenance level one, the external mode will be sufficient. Run a diagnostic on response time”

The feminine doll groaned and metal plates opened up to emit a cloud of steam before snapping back in place. It turned and slid down the spire until the large head was at the same height as Sovan. In a staring match between the golem and Administrator Strehin, he would put his money on the Administrator. Everyone else? Clear loss.

“Maintenance mode active. All systems nominal”, the golem’s voice came directly from the skull in front of him.

Sovan shook his head, “No. They’re not. You were much faster yesterday. Compare the logs”

He placed a hand against the nose of the doll and waited. Subtle vibrations ran through the machine, along with heat radiating out from the shell. A minute passed and then another.

“Heart?”

“Please be advised that one thought process had to be terminated since your last inquiry 1.2 seconds ago.”

Sovan furrowed his eyebrows and began pacing up and down. His hand brushed from the nose to the cheek and back, before he realized what he was doing. He let go and stepped back just in time as the doll suddenly shuddered. That was the thing about the central golem. It boosted every single computer to almost sentient levels but if something went wrong, it crashed hard. With the fan horde on board, they needed it in peak condition. If everything else failed, he'd spool up the backup system.

While Sovan was lost in thoughts, Heart suddenly unlocked the armor plates and the golem doubled in size. He gazed at a writhing mess of prehensile cables underneath with blue light pulsing through the thick steam. Sovan inched closer until the heat got too uncomfortable. Soon, the room was filled with dense fog and as the outside heated up, so did the inside cool down. Pieces of machinery shifted out of the way like organs tossed aside until Sovan finally saw the core. A crown of blue crystals nested around a spherical nano-basin. A swarm of silver liquid swirled inside. He inhaled sharply.

“Nanofluid. Millions of tiny robots”, he said to himself, “Top tier stuff. The kind that babies bath in to become Stellar Mages”

That and more, he thought. Fine sweat ran down his forehead. His steps carried him into the head of the golem and down a small ladder until he stood inside her chest – or rather the doll’s chest. Especially now he didn’t want to think of the machine as a woman. He pressed a hand against the basin with the nano-liquid and shuddered.

“The pinnacle of technology and magic”, he sighed. The nano-fluid rippled in response to any stimuli. Sovan picked a metal cube from his toolbelt and pressed it against the sphere. A three-dimensional display sprung up while a transparent mechanism locked in place to prevent any leakage as a very similar silvery liquid poured out of the cube. Time to give her a nonsense command.

“Core! Comply with order” he called out to the nano-basin directly. A single drop of silver grew out of the tiny puddle and fell back down again. The voice vibrated from all around him.

“Error, no command received”

The nano-technician checked the display and nodded. No delayed response from the core itself. That meant the fault was somewhere between the basin and the outer shell. If all else failed, he would put the golem into the storage tank and switch on the redundancy system until the horde of civvies had left the station. The sound of heavy steps approaching ended all plans.

“Did you guys leave your wrench or something?”, he called out to the unknown person.

A large shadow fell over him and a familiar voice replied.

“Please step out of the golem”

Sovan jolted around and stared into the barrel of a large plasma cannon. The prefire chamber was cooking liquid death and the grim face of Adam promised it to him if he didn’t comply. Plasma cannons were old tech, reaching back to the days when humanity had owned but one space system. They were also cheap to manufacture and quite deadly.

“Adam? What’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, friend. This isn’t about you. The Star of Ashina is here and forces our hand. She must die”, the large man said and pointed with the cannon. Cracked skin with silver lines and beady red eyes had changed his friend significantly. Sovan signaled his compliance and then took his time climbing up the ladder while his mind raced. The visible symptoms kicked up a memory in his mind. All Stellar Mages were born from exposure shortly after birth. One in a million survived with an unusual growth of nano-machines on their bones. Those lattices formed the basis for magic. Adults that were exposed to the stuff on the other hand got a boost for an hour and then left an ugly smudge that sent people into therapy.

“Don’t think any less of me, ‘son’. Know that when I came here, you were the only thing that kept me alive. You’re a good soul and I appreciate that you never once laughed at my misery”, Adam said and lowered his head, “Please exit the golem. I’m here to make sure my friends don’t accidently hurt you.”

"Friends? Those techs, I take it?"

Sovan had reached the top of the doll and inched towards the edge while Adam stepped back. His mind was numb. He could not - did not want to – but he had to do it. The young technician held out a hand and smiled at his old friend.

“Help me down, will you?”

Pearly smoke rose from the giant’s body. His former friend was jacked up on nano-fluid. It would soon take bloom and turn Adam into a one hour mage. Sovan banked on the fact it hadn’t yet reached that point.

“Sure thing. Thank you for not making this hard”, Adam said.

About that. Their hands met. Both smiled. Without warning, Sovan crushed his fist into Adam’s Solar Plexus. The large man keeled and Sovan immediately followed up with a second strike against Adam’s throat. His fingers crunched from the impact and his other hand broke free. The giant grunted in pain and Sovan used the chance to shout.

“Heart signal an intruder alert!”

A sudden impact decked him. Adam stood over him with a downturned mouth. Sovan’s eyes went wide from pain and shock. The large man on the other hand looked unfazed. No damage. None at all. Where Sovan’s hands had struck, pillars of smoke rose upwards.

“Symptoms of FLOW manifestation. All energy can be dispersed on impact. Energy is converted into heat”, Sovan cited an old instruction from memory. FLOW was one of the four manifestations of magic. The effect had obviously already kicked in.

“You just had to make a mess, didn’t you? I don’t enjoy doing this but the death of her is more important than anything, even our friendship”

The young technician could not argue with that. He tried to get up but Adam pushed him back down. Adam put one finger on the trigger. Sovan croaked in empty defiance.

“Go hug the king of Orion”

Plasma had a particular smell that the technician would recognize anytime. Adam’s finger squeezed and a superheated bolt spewed forth from the cannon. Every detail of the fast approaching plasma bolt was burned into his mind – but strangely not his body.

The world suddenly erupted into motion. Something snatched his legs and pulled him out of the fire. Metal sizzled from the impact of plasma while his body had become a mere plaything to the mechanical power of the golem itself. Massive cables held an iron grip on his lower body! He saw the stairs coming and then felt it with every bump down the way. Adam’s angry voice shouted after him but the golem quickly shifted armor plates to shield him from a second shot. Then, with a metallic thud, the doll locked the shell and sealed the nano-technician inside.

Strehin’s eyes held the young woman captive. The girl looked deathly pale, her mouth moved but no sound came out. The older woman noticed a shiver and that seemed to kick the foal into gear. Her so-called assistant reached a hand behind her back and pulled out a small rifle.

“We really don’t want any trouble with you”, the girl said, “It’s the Star of Ashina we’re after. Please continue working. Casualties will be limited”

“Suits me. Lots on my plate today. Sit down, will you? Some tea, perhaps, young lady?”

Strehin chuckled and then focussed her attention on the desk. Nothing in her posture indicated that a deadly weapon was trained on her body. Her hands flew over the screen and once more, she pulled up the list of ships and their docking procedures.

“Assemblage of Thrune”, she said with a groan, “Three hundred armed soldiers, ten war-golems, a full assortment of tanks?!”

She stopped the list and scrolled back up. Indeed. They had somehow found enough space to fit in hover-tanks. Strehin smiled towards her shivering Assailant.

“I’m sorry, who brings tanks to a concert?”

The attempt at humor didn’t reach the panicked girl. With a quick gesture, Strehin sent a simple message under the watchful eyes of the girl: Jettison the tanks or undock the ship. She flicked through a couple more factions until a flickering light whined for attention.

“Oh. Well, this should expedite matters”, Strehin said and brought up the symbol to full screen. It was the pudgy Dockmaster. He was a backwater station original.

“Administrator Strehin, our guest has arrived”

She raised her eyebrows. Did he seriously not see the rifle?

“W-we don’t know why s-she’s so early, all projections pegged her at a later time”

He obviously did not. The older woman folded her arms and took a deep breath. Could she afford to leave a Stellar Mage stewing in her ship? That would buy her time to untangle this mess. Strehin looked at her messed up hands and sighed. Back in her days, if some low-flow admin had told her to park in orbit, she would have torn a hole through the hull and parked her ship on the carcass.

“Very well, the Star will land but keep a lid on it”, she said and closed the connection.

“Thank you”, the little foal whimpered.

The Administrator looked at her over the rim of her glasses, “Let’s get talking, you and me. Your friends don’t much like you, do they? Why else would they send you to pacify me?”

That girl even lowered her head and bit her lips! Bloody amateur hour!

“T-t-hey didn’t. W-we... I... we’re only after the butcher. She must pay for what she did”

“Oh dear. I’m sure you’ve all got your reasons – but why you personally, little one? You fear me, yet you threaten me.”

The girl looked at her rifle and then lowered it. Strehin nearly wanted to slap her enemy silly.

“Our cause is greater than us. We came to respect you in our time here. You’ll be reasonable, you won’t hurt me and as a sign of mutual respect”, the assurance in her voice betrayed another indoctrinated speech, “we’ll limit casualties, no one has to die but her, the Star of Ashina. That we promise”

It was a good sell. Why would a backwater administrator like her care about some political ploy under her thumb? Most would take the chance to get out of the mess with minimal losses.

“A noble sentiment, my dear”

Strehin’s voice took on a calm and unnerving quality.

“I’m afraid you haven’t done your homework though”

Strehin stretched her back and unfolded to her full length. Shivering hands betrayed just how nervous her enemy was. She knew people like her. Panic always gave way to impulse. When a series of shots suddenly seared right past her body and burned holes into the wall behind her, Strehin didn’t even flinch. It felt like she had seen it coming.

“You never told me why the iron dragon should fear your puny fire”

Her words and the complete lack of visual reaction caused her enemy to whimper. The girl mouthed the words iron dragon and somehow managed to become even paler.

“Someone told you stories about me, didn’t they? Was it the Sons of Virgo? Beautiful legends about a mage with broken bones. Everybody knows they can’t cast spells anymore with their circuits in tatters. Good stories, it’s just... they all end the same way”

“H-H-ow?”

Strehin’s voice was cold as ice. She pointed at the girl with one finger.

“Death for those that believe them”

Epitaph: Confusion. That’s the look the girl died with. A pencil-thin carbon-lance stuck out of her forehead. Soft clouds of grey particles whirled all the way from the impact to the finger it came from. Strehin stood calm. The death didn’t faze her. What came next, did. Power surged through her body and followed the circuits on her bones. She knew it was coming. Electricity, pain, loss of control.

It still hit like the fist of a titan. The stored energy coursed from the intact lattices onto the frayed bones. No longer locked within the Gates of Magic, it surged out and electrocuted her body from within. Muscle convulsions rocked her forward. She had no conscious control over her motor functions. It all ended abruptly when her hand touched the screen.

A large spark grounded her power and simultaneously destroyed every piece of electronic equipment in the close vicinity. Strehin gasped for air. Even broken mages could cast spells, it’s just not many were crazy enough to do it. Sheer tenacity kept the older woman standing. She walked over and wrested the gun from the still standing corpse.

The administrator held up the weapon and turned it from side to side. Imitation of a Greifenharn Plasma Classic she judged. Her fingers ran along the weapon and noticed the cheap seams.

“Improvised weaponry. Premeditated or opportunistic panic?”

Strehin unlatched the magazine. Custom made, signs of minor deterioration after only a short burst. Primitive technology. Definitely a minor faction, she thought, probably washed-up rebels. She considered insurrections ugly business -you never knew who was out to shoot you! Exhibit A: The corpse in her office.

She walked over to the door and then banged a hand against it. At the same time, her voice rose in pitch until it resembled the young woman.

“Help, she just jumped me... I think she’s dead!”

The door flew open and a young man stumbled into the office. Concern was on his face while his hands held the same type of make-shift rifle.

“Ellie? Are you okay?”

Famous last words. Exhibit B was created from a bright flash and a burst of plasma-bolts from the stolen rifle. The now headless man collapsed on the floor. By sheer instinct alone, Strehin held her weapon to her side and fired a blind-side into the hallway.

Exhibit C slumped to the ground. His eyes fluttered while his body struggled to stay alive. The administrator stepped out of her office and glanced a look to both sides of the corridor, before kneeling down in front of the dying man. She pointed at the gun and smirked.

“Decent recoil. It’s of primitive make – but made with expert craftsmanship”

The man rasped in his dying breaths, “You are a monster”

Strehin clapped her hands, “So you lot did do your homework after all! You just hated... uh... Ellie?”

Adrenaline surged in her veins. The man died without another answer – she hadn’t really expected one either. Strehin put a hand to her lips. Choices.

“Option A. Go left. Get to the docks and get personal. Their target is the Star of Ashina”

Her knuckles cracked and her heart thumped in anticipation, “Option B. Go right. Regain control of the station first and be a responsible boring desk-jockey”

She knew the feeling within her well. Bloodlust. The stench of plasma, struggle and death filled her noses and it made her feel alive. Her chest twinged from minuscule spikes of energy – even her Gates of Magic expected action. She turned her head to the left when someone dressed in bright colors stepped into the corridor and stared at her with wide eyes.

“Wow, the pre-show is killer... uh, where’s the concert hall?”

Strehin grunted and turned right without an answer. She was getting old.

Sovan rubbed his bum. He would have trouble sitting and he was pretty grateful about it – because it meant he was still alive. There was loud screaming outside. Adam shouted at a bunch of other people that had come in the meantime. Loud thuds hammered against the living machine.

.: They’ve severed my main connection. :.

Heart didn’t have to spell it out for him. Without the central cables, the golem would be unable to regulate the heat. A couple of minutes and there’d be one slow-cooked Sovan on the menu. It also meant the golem was cut off from the outside world.

“Can you open up then?”

.: Protocols won’t allow me to until the threat outside has passed. :.

So, a slow and painful death it was then. He closed his eyes and allowed panic to wash over him. His heart raced, the man wanted to scream and beg, plead to the grey god and bargain for his survival. Sovan suddenly put up a half-cocked grin.

“Yeah, that’s not how I’m going out. Hey, Heart do you know what’s good about being out of options?”

.: Error. No sufficient answer can be derived from context. :.

“You start to get weird ideas, the kind of stuff that’s too risky and stupid. Like exposing myself to potential contamination with nanites.”

Sovan crawled to the basin and picked up his cube. One hand put it down on the floor while the other grabbed a long and spindly tool from his belt.

“Yes, yes do not point at humans”, he mumbled as his thumb flicked away the holographic warning labels. Just to be sure, Sovan stabilized his grip by holding onto his wrist and the got to work. There wasn’t any special effect, just a tiny dot that moved around the lower end of the cube, followed by thin lines of smoke. If he cut too deep, the fluid would leak and self-destruct but not without killing him first.

The isolation chamber at the bottom fell away and only now did Sovan dare to breathe again. Two gasps to fill his lungs. Then he flipped the cube on the ground and quickly shuffled away from it. Without the isolation chamber, the silver liquid was free to leak out of the cube.

“Activate verbal programming interface”, he called out to the cube and the three-dimensional screen turned green. Procedural content creation. Like with the screens and the video in the hallway before, the machine was now ready to create something - here it was code - from simple instructions and context. Sovan leaned forward and began listing commands. He ran through an entire program in a matter of minutes and then signed it off with nod.

It all came back to ooze on rocks. The small puddle of silver was once theorized to be of catastrophic potential – tiny endlessly replicating machines would devour all. An event that had been dubbed with the silly grey god moniker. Luckily reality had a buffer to prevent that. Any sufficiently greedy or combative nanomachine would soon find itself destroyed by the ever-present grey particles. It’s just that there was a nasty timespan between activation and containment.

Sovan formed a fist and thanks to the new program, the nano-liquid turned into a sphere while the screen showed him a fisheye view of what his swarm was seeing. He spread one finger and the swarm lunged towards the wall. From his vantage point, it looked flat but the screen showed a rocky crater with bumps and long ridges between.

“Time to cheat”

He opened his hand wide. The sphere dispersed into a silvery smudge. Then, he pressed his hand forward and watched the nanomachines permeate through the wall. Each individual nanite was small enough to fit through the tinyiest of cracks. Seven armed people stood around the golem, none had the insignia of security which made it pretty obvious which side they were on. Adam had left at some point. Sovan nodded. Now he only needed to get further up without them seeing anything.

He tilted the viewport with his left hand until it fixed on the crowd while his right kept guiding the liquid upwards. One of the strangers suddenly stared directly at his screen. Sovan stopped all motion. His skin tingled from the heat and breathing had become a difficult and conscious effort. Breathe in. Relax, don’t panic. Breathe out. Again.

The man was still staring up. Inhale. One of his fingers twitched and the sliver reacted to the tiny movement by inching just a bit further. Sovan cursed when the stranger raised a hand. Instead of pointing though, he smacked one of his compatriots over the head. Their screaming got loud enough to make out individual words here and there.

“... forget peaceful... no time you blasted... kill... Ashina...”

Sovan exhaled and guided the liquid past a small mound. Scorch marks littered the area ahead where the cables had been. All but the largest were burned off.

“Would you look at that Heart, they left up on-board entertainment”

His hands guided the liquid through the craters and all the way up to the top where he found a small indent in the surface. Of course, from the point of view of the machine swarm, he was looking at a vast mountain.

“Bless the grey god for redundancies”, he said and then formed a fist. The swarm formed into a sphere and then pressed down on the switch. A heavy thump followed. Sovan immediately bent forward over his thighs and tucked his arms close. With his head pressed to his body, he waited while eyeing the screen. Seven people stood on the walkway while tremors ran through it.

“Sorry folks but it’s either you or me”

A dramatic hiss marked the end. The walkway snapped back and his stomach suddenly lurched, as a bump ran through the golem. That would be the final cable. Then: Freefall. Seven piercing screams accompanied him for five long seconds until his prison crashed into something that feathered the fall. Sovan still smacked on the ground with enough force to push the air out of his lungs. His vision blurred but a sudden cold breeze brought it right back.

He quickly gasped for air and just in time too. Icy water poured into the golem and the rapid onslaught from scalding steam to ice water left him dazed. Sovan vaguely heard a voice. His body worked on autopilot. Get up. Climb up. Leave. He was barely conscious by the time he had reached the head of the command golem.

.: Threat neutralized. Opening shell. Good luck Sovan Terastris. :.

With a pop he barely heard, a bright light flashed through the cracks. The compartment flooded with water until he stood knee deep in it.

“I’m alive”, he murmured and lumbered towards the edge of the storage tank. That statement could not be made for the others, his mind gratefully deleted the details before he could dwell on them. Not yet. Trauma was always free to come later, he thought with grim determination. Then, without warning, his senses sharpened. Sudden energy washed over him and the heart hammered in overdrive.

“Adrenaline, must be more hurt than I thought”, Sovan felt the need to commentate. He used most of this final burst of energy to stumble over towards an archaic looking console. His pulse had already slowed again but he could not fall. Not yet. He had to fix the mess he made.

His fingers grabbed the edge of the console and he stared down on blurring lines. This really was a piece of old-tech. It even used a primitive 2d screen based entirely on text. What millennia did this tech come from again?

“I’ll need to route systems through... yes and then... internal data corruption?”

Line after line manifested on the screen. Everything else had vanished from his senses.

“Corrupted all the way? How? I guess no one ever bothered to check”

Sovan sighed and finally jabbed his finger at a red line. He heard life support kick back in and that was good enough. A distorted voice rattled off systems now running on their backup components.

“Adjusting system for a hard reset. Initializing base functions. Edenleap protocol re-engaged. Spooling up auxiliary systems”

What was edenleap? Weariness soon washed the thought away. Sovan rested his body against the console, the words passed him by and he blacked out a moment later.

Strehin used the full length of her legs to fly down the corridor with large leaps. Her system for identifying friends or foes was remarkably easy and efficient. Those that jumped out of the way were friends. Everyone else was an enemy she punished in varying degrees. When a woman popped out at a junction and pointed a gun at her, Strehin whirled mid-leap and landed feet first in her stomach. The stranger woman yelped and flew back, while the administrator used the impact to push herself further.

Shots whirred past her but she had already turned towards another corridor and crashed into an entire crowd of fans. They complained and protested. Their hindrance made them enemies and yet... she grunted in frustration and held down her makeshift weapon. She had to push her way through and was paid in kind by elbows and angry shoves.

Strehin was ready to pick a fight, her hands itched for blood but it was the dull ache of her badly healed bones that carried her forward instead. She broke free of the crowd and continued on until she reached the secondary command station. A massive door blocked off the compartment and someone had shot the mechanism.

“I’m starting to be mildly impressed”, the large woman said with a smirk. With one hand against the massive door, she took a deep breath. These things could withstand railcannon impacts but they were not built to deal with a STRUCT mage like her. Strehin pressed a hand against the metal and then closed her eyes. The Gate of Magic flared up inside her chest and coursed power through her body. She hadn’t yet manifested her spell but fringe shocks already ran through her limbs.

Right in front of her eyes, the floor suddenly started shimmering. A carbon plate had manifested out of thin air. Strehin grit her teeth and finally unleashed the full extent of her powers – consequences be damned. The plate rapidly grew in size. It wasn’t elegant – just a massive block of metal that forced its way underneath the door. She heard powerful machines push back and then snap with a loud whine.

Without anything to push back anymore, the massive door was jammed all the way to the top by a rapidly expanding black block of metal. Strehin rolled to the side and then collapsed on the ground with tiny bolts of lightning oozing out from her broken lattices. There was nothing she could do but to allow the energy to run its course as it grounded itself out of her.

The shock lasted less than a second before she scrambled back on her legs. That had been entirely too risky and professionals would have used the momentary laps in judgement to kill her. These bottom tier brain professionalls were too slow. Bolts of plasma scorched the walls opposite to the entrance but none had hit her.

“Guys, stop shooting, it’s me – Ellie!”, she said while imitating the voice of the girl.

“Ellie? Why are you here?!” one woman shouted back.

Strehin memorized the position of the voice. She remembered that the girl had given the imperial salute. For this to work, she would need to improvise on mannerisms too.

“That crazed stint-blood went insane”, her voice echoed with a faked tone of panic, “The others are barely holding her back but we need backup. Is everyone there? How many can you spare?”

She listened in on their murmur. They weren’t buying her story. That was entirely besides the point. Strehin memorized the position of each speaker. Five, make that six enemy combatants were debating their approach with hushed voices. They had huddled on the spot, which made her job that much easier.

She suddenly reached her weapon around the corner. It was neither blind fire nor magic but something inbetween. Based on her knowledge of the room and the aural memory she had imprinted earlier, six shots burst forth. Four people died without the chance to scream, one fell to the ground, wailing in agony. Strehin popped out of cover, weapon at the ready. A final enemy was still standing: a bald woman that looked like an animal about to kiss the bow of a dreadnought.

The administrator made an abrupt sideways movement as the enemy aimed and fired. Pain burned through her arm but she paid it no mind. Before the enemy had any chance to fire again, Strehin killed her with a controlled shot to the head. She noticed eyes on her and spun around on the spot, weapon in hand. A row of security guards sat on the ground, tied up and battered.

“Good job you lot did”, Strehin remarked.

“You really are the iron dragon”, one of them stammered with a gulp.

“Only if my enemies wake me from slumber”, she answered and knelt down next to them. Her expert eyes gave them a quick glance over before she untied one of them and then headed over to the secondary console

“Seven hundred twenty-two log entries”, she said out loud, “an amazing three hundred of them are from the Council of Original Kin. Hmm, Heart is offline – that was to be expected. Some technician got the backup running, good person”

Strehin keyed in a series of rudimentary commands that assured the base operations and then turned around to the guards.

“You were just promoted to temporary leader of security until we can find out where the real one went. Two orders. One. Regroup, find out what happened, keep me posted. Two. Get the civilians out of the firing line”

She then turned around and pointed at four guards that were still rubbing their wrists, “You’ll be my escort. Get on your feet. Follow me. Oh and someone fetch me an actual weapon!”

Strehin dropped the glowing weapon to the ground. It really was a primitive toy. The barrel had already melted away.

She smelled the fight before her eyes could see it. The tram doors swung open and revealed the hangar. All manner of ships were lined up but only one docking arm saw live fire. Strehin jumped out of the still slowing vehicle. Her momentum carried her forward and into a roll which she used to slide into cover. And not a moment too soon! Bolts of plasma whined past her head.

The woman grinned from ear to ear. Her entourage reached its target and jumped out guns blazing. Strehin gave them a second to draw all attention and then popped out of cover. She fired three shots with neither recoil nor muzzle-flash – just a bloody mess at the end. Her body leapt two steps and took refuge behind another crate. The railgun in her hands whined from charging up the next solid state slugs.

A sudden impulse of instinct made her jump back. An entire barrage of plasma bolts pelted the area she had been in. Strehin took aim while falling and watched her muzzle automatically adjust for minor inaccuracies. She pulled the trigger twice and two more people retired from existence. Her entourage was likewise making head way on the group of rebels and so was the original source of the firefight, her chief of security with his detachment of grunts.

An odd sound reached her ears. Strehin craned her neck and saw that some genius had wedged a Class III Phoenix Destroyer into an Orphan-Haligan Transport.

“Great timing you lot”, she spit out. Their act of genius had been a coincidence but it was one that saved her life. She noticed movement, something fell out of the ceiling with a loud screech and pillars of flames in tow. Strehin scrambled away as far as she could and threw herself on the ground just before impact. Thunder and flames billowed out from the crater and Strehin crawled back into cover. Her entourage hadn’t been smart enough. They took aim and let lose on the plume of dust.

Something invisible punched into the plume and found itself answered with a sharp spike of fire biting back. When the dust finally settled, a lone giant stood in the middle of the walkway. His massive cannon roared with deadly staccato, spewing death while a continuous eruption of flames ate away all recoil.

“Stop firing and start dodging”, she shouted over the crates but the noise drowned out her voice and without an ocular circuit, she was cut off from other means. The giant swiveled around and unloaded his weapon on her escort. Strehin could only grit her teeth as the projectiles didn’t just burn holes into but rather tore out several chunks until nothing was left but a bloody cloud.

There was no doubt about it. The rebels had found a FLOW mage to do their bidding. Her security chief demonstrated why that was a bad match for anyone. He shouted a command and his entire remaining crew opened fire on the large man. Uncounted projectiles smashed against the unmoving figure – and simply evaporated in several pillars of heat. The FLOW mage didn’t even flinch; he swung around his cannon and deleted them from existence. She remained unseen and held her breath.

Could she take him? FLOW mages took any and all forms of energy and dispersed them into heat if needed. Her beautiful railgun was worthless. Tricks like the carbon lance wouldn’t even dent him, plus she’d be a writhing wreck on the floor from the backfire. Strehin considered herself a one spell pony and she’d rather be in the saddle than ride the lightning. She glanced around the crate and watched the man lumber down the dock.

How good of a mage was he? She had seen high tier FLOW mages take an actual impact from a spaceship. This one didn’t move with the grace and arrogance of a virtually indestructible walking man-tank. Strehin sighed. He too was an amateur but the iron dragon had her fangs pulled. One spell plus decades of experience versus someone invincible to damage.

Plan. Get close and then tomb him, cut him off from oxygen. She took measure of the lumbering man. He was breathing and his steps were clumsy. Unusual. This much punishment was nothing for a FLOW mage. Strehin quietly sneaked after him.

The figure looked like a bear had a run-in with a stellar drive somewhere and the result crawled out of the reactor. With a cup of coffee. She frowned as pieces started to fall together into one concept. Forced adaptation. The one hour death salute. That opened new options. It would be faster to cut the ground beneath him and let him plummet down. He wouldn’t die from the fall but time would run out on his borrowed power.

She continued her approach when something popped in her ears. The air pressure had just changed! Part of the wall opened up and revealed an exotic looking space ship. This thing was a flying statement of power in comparison to the usual bulky hunks of metal. It was a disk roughly fifty meters in size that floated into the docking area. Light glistened on the reflexive hull and made it hard to discern any details. Not that there were any. The Disk was entirely seamless.

“You have finally come”, the large man suddenly shouted at the spaceship, “Show your face, stealer of tongues, beguiler of souls – accursed butcher!”

Strehin raised her eyebrows and kept her head low. She had to be patient and wait for the right moment. The spaceship suddenly let out a beam of light as part of the hull simply disappeared and revealed a stunning young woman. The Star of Ashina casually stepped out of the still flying spaceship. Her descent was gentle like leaves on the wind while her gaudy rainbow hair and robe made a spectacle all on their own. Strehin suppressed a snort.

“Balayuna”, the man said and sighed, “You were adopted family once. What you did has become my duty to repent”

Strehin needed to be near him for her magic to work. She observed both figures as she inched closer. They weren’t talking anymore, just staring at each other. If memory served, the Star of Ashina – Balayuna – would be an IMBUE mage. Someone that could manifest energy for various purposes. A sudden burst of lightning confirmed her thoughts. The Star had kicked off the ground, her shape was illuminated by sparkling light as her lithe frame crashed into the man. Lightning and instant thunder sent tremors through the dock. Part of the lightning evaporated into harmless flames and the rest flowed past the man and revealed the shape of the young woman. Strehin watched her dance away on effortless leaps. Her limbs described a beautiful flower shape with glimmering light to accentuate her path. Then! Jagged edges as she clashed back into the giant.

There was something very wrong about a tall but slim girl playing meteor with an unmoving rock of a man. The Star struck her target with searing blue flames and feathered around in a graceful twist. She arched her back in a way that accentuated her form, a thin smile showing on her lips. The IMBUE mage was all theatre and spectacle. Strehin grunted and used the distraction to finally close the gap. Now in range, she reached for the gate of magic but a random burst of lightning licking up from the ground broke her concentration.

The Star of Ashina only gave her a moment’s look before resuming her relentless assault. All that time, the man didn’t react. He just stood there, taking hit after hit.

“I see what you are doing”, Strehin suddenly mumbled. The man had started glowing from the inside. FLOW mages dictated the flow of energy towards entropy. They could disperse it - or store it to excite stellar drives with. Excited stellar drives made for great explosives and enough of them could crack a planet. Such as an entire dock filled with a hundred spaceships ranging from small to self-esteem replacement.

Strehin scrambled forward and gave up all attempts at stealth. The man had to go. Now! Time slowed down for her. The Star of Ashina unloaded another powerful fist into the chest of the man. Strehin saw the particles flow away from those long hands. She saw that the giant made no attempts to defend himself. Instead, he put down his cannon and jammed his foot on the trigger. His weapon began roaring as he emptied his massive cannon with himself as the target. As if someone had flicked a switch, energy suddenly broke out of his skin. No more flames roared up.

Too late. They would all die. Unless she played a forbidden card. A taboo, an experiment forbidden by the universe itself. Could she? Should she? No choice. Time suddenly sped up again.

“AUTHORITY STREHIN. PROJECT EDENLEAP. STASIS LOCKDOWN”

The large man – she noticed the nametag Adam on his chest – erupted in an explosion of light. Everything in several astronomic units ceased to exist in a cascade of reactor and magic fire. Or so it should have been. A veil of grey descended on the City of Citadels and insulated it from the explosion that wiped out an entire planet. It did more than that. So much more.

.: SYSTEM_CRITICAL event received. Begin emergency interruption. :.

Strehin found herself flat on the ground while a voice echoed in her ears. She felt the rapid onslaught of a migraine coming and rubbed her temple. Pain. That was good because it meant she was still alive. Nothing else made sense though. Her fingers touched a slightly wet and soft surface underneath her. By sheer force of will, she opened her eyes and saw nothing but a green blur with blue lights here and there.

.: Good morning Administrator Strehin. I apologize for waking you early. :.

Something itched her nose and when she sneezed, swirls of grey fell off her like a cocoon. The older woman checked each of her limbs. Her memory had started to fill in the blanks. Edenleap. Experimental stasis technology said to be incompatible with the universe.

“Guess they were wrong about that”, she grunted and raised her voice, “Give my brain some food. Status.”

.: Confirmed. Prioritizing information, filtering for psychological damage. Done. The City of Citadels is currently running at 07% capacity. Critical damage has been sustained in all systems. :.

“Hefty explosion, I reckon”

.: Negative. The damage of the explosion has been mitigated. All further damage comes from lack of manual maintenance. :.

She frowned, “Unlikely, self-healing protocols should keep you running for a couple of thousand years – forever in theory.”

Her vision began to return to her. The blur vanished and her glasses turned everything else sharp again. On some level, she still recognized the surroundings as the docks, except the green smudges from earlier turned out to be massive trees. Strange sinewy nets spanned from them to the occasional Spacewreck between. Actual fields of green were growing on the walls. Vertically. Strehin rubbed her nose.

“How long was I asleep? Stop filtering the output. Hit me with the data”

.: Confirmed. Administrator Strehin has waived her rights to sue for psychological damages in the future. You’ve been asleep for 319.081 years since the beginning of my data corruption. :.