I followed him to a building. After going through a reception office and turning left, we entered a large room. This time a long table ran down the middle of the room. 50 people could fit around the table, while only 30 sat there.

The man at the head of the table was surprisingly thin and young, but his chest full of medals proved he was strong. Beside him sat an older man that didn’t have a single medal. He examined me thoroughly.

“Sit down Miner. No, you don’t have to tell us about the Arachnids. In fact, we merely wanted an excuse to get you down here and talk to you. We have a couple of hours to spare informing you of everything you need to know.” said the thin man.

“Okay…” I sat down in the empty seat at the opposite end of the table. Harry stood obscurely in a corner of the room. The thin man introduced himself as Henry Anderson, the Admiral of the rebellion fleet. There were more people he introduced, but the only other one which stuck in my head was Kyle Writhe.

Kyle Writhe was the head of the science division of the rebellion. His massive chin stuck out at an angle. Whether it was once broken, or a birth defect I never knew. He acted as the spokesman for the rest of the group.

Kyle cracked his knuckles, then started speaking, “Alright, let me tell your story. You were created by Magnusson, but we managed to get inside Project Genesis, I assume you know what that is?” He asked.

“Wait. What?! I was created by Magnusson? How? I thought I had parents, that they died in 14085.” My mind was completely bewildered. I listened in a daze the next few words.

“I’ll get to this later, but Beta placed those memories in you. They’re fake and do not exist. You never had parents.”

I felt sick, the main reason I wanted to join the rebellion apparently was a lie. But how could I not have parents?

Seeing my expressions, Kyle said, “Oh, then let me put you wise. Project Genesis was a project created by Magnusson to create an Android. An Android, by Magnusson’s definition, is an artificial body with a conscious attached to it to control it.”

“I’m a what? An Android?” I asked, still mentally reeling.

“Yes. Your body is the most extraordinary piece of engineering that has come through my hands. I can tell you that Magnusson worked extremely hard to make you operational. Anyway, back to my story.”

He continued, “Our best operatives went into the facility and then discovered the Android project. One of our soldiers then found out how to wake Beta, as she was known at the time. Am I preceding too fast?” He interrupted himself again.

I shook my head, unable to speak, and he continued, “Beta woke up. Her eyes were red, which really startled us. She said that she wanted to escape. We didn’t trust her, and we told her so. She then told us that she would be willing to compromise. She said that we could implant an identity loyal to us into her.”

He carried on smoothly, “Beta then told us of a machine which could copy a human conscious onto a computer chip. She said that it would be possible to copy one of the operative’s conscious into Beta’s body. We found the machine and then Anna Parker, one of the soldiers present, stepped into it. She emerged two minutes later with a computer chip in her hand. Am I preceding too quickly?” He said, seeing the shock on my face.

“Go on.” I answered a little weakly.

He continued, “So, then she put the chip into the machine which held Beta. After two minutes Beta’s red eyes somehow flipped to blue. Then Anna spoke from the Android body while Anna watched. It was--unnerving. Did Anna agreed to come to the meeting?” He addressed the older man at his left.

“No, sir. She said she needed to compose herself before she met the Android.”

“The copied version of Anna had all her memories which met the two were identical. Beta said that through some of the tools at her disposal inside the body, she could reprogram the copied Anna so that it would be entirely unlike the original. We gave her the go ahead and so she went into low power mode.”

“We guarded the position for a little while until finally Beta woke up. She said she had done enough work so that Emma, Beta decided to call you that, would have no memory of this event. She said that she wanted to run away to another system. We said we risked our lives to rescue her, so why couldn’t fight for us, even if we could go to another star system.”

“Beta said she didn’t care about humanity, only about her crew. We queried her extensively until we reached the inevitable conclusion. Beta was an Alien conscious.”

“What!” I looked around in horror. “There’s……there’s an alien in my mind!”

“Yes. Let me continue.” Kyle said. “Beta came from an interstellar alien civilization in a computer-ship. It was a massive cube filled with computers where hundreds of thousands of digital minds were stored. Supposedly they lost their course and arrived here where they were captured by Magnusson. Beta was the captain of the computer-cube.”

“So, we made a deal with her. We told her the rebellion was weak. We told her truthfully that we couldn’t help her unless she could help us. We told her that we would begin to work upon an interstellar vessel which would contact her species and bring them here to rescue their comrades and defeat Magnusson. But we could only do that if Emma became the primary conscious in your body.”

“Beta scoffed at our plan, but she agreed to it. You would become the primary conscious after she was broken out. Then the Arachnids attacked, and we lost a couple good men”

“We defeated the Arachnid attack. Beta unhooked herself from the machine that was restraining her. As far as we could tell, she could have done that anytime she could have chosen. If asked if there were more Androids. Beta replied in the affirmative. She said that there were four Androids including herself. Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma.

He continued, “Beta also gave us specifics on each of these Androids. Gamma would be the weakest. Delta would be a shapeshifter. It would be bodyless emotionless. It could infiltrate anywhere. Luckily, as we are still alive, Delta hasn’t been able to sneak aboard.”

“You are Beta and Emma at once. This makes you very special and capable of defeating Delta and Gamma, which would be a boon to the rebellion certainly. Beta, or yourself, was designed to be the perfect leader. Strong willed, problem-solving spirit, emanating charisma, hyper-intelligent, and stronger than Gamma. You were the gem in the Alliance’s fleet of Gamechanger.”

I noticed his lack of confidence in me defeating Alpha. This scared me, so I asked, “Why don’t you think that I can defeat Alpha?”

“Alpha……Alpha is a strange character. We don’t know whether he is a driver-conscious, or an electronic mind which Magnusson uses for his creations, or if he completely Magnusson. As Magnusson never has contact with anyone, because he’s electronic, we don’t actually know his personality.”

“What else about Alpha?”

“Alpha is said to be the strongest of the Androids. Physically stronger, more intelligent, as hard as that seems, the toughest and most unbreakable drive. Alpha is the strongest physical being in the solar system.”

“What are some examples of these Gamechangers you keep mentioning?” I asked.

“Gamechanger is the term we use to denote anything with gamechanger applicability. The Arachnids are gamechangers, the Androids, the Shackleton is a gamechanger.”

“Has the rebellion figured out an FTL drive?”

Kyle laughed, “Ha. If FTL was possible, then all of Magnusson’s ships would be sporting it. Magnusson has practically infinite processing power. We’re not surprised if he managed to find the last digit of pie, square the circle, and discover FTL on a weekly basis as a pastime.”

“Where was Project Genesis’ base?”

“On Titan, the moon which orbits Saturn. The Alliance has expanded that base heavily and it has become their main base of operations and processing power. Magnusson is stored on Titan as well. That is going to be our destination as soon as the Shackleton will be ready.”

“When will the Shackleton be ready?” I asked.

“Probably after the Alliance attacks.” He replied.