USD: 35 days after the battle of Dedia IV

Location: 90 Pegasi, IND Iron Horse, collecting life pods

Alex spent her time waiting on the bridge observing the interaction between the crewmen and the officers, doing her best to follow along on what they were doing. It hadn’t taken that long before Thraker seemed satisfied with the action he had set in motion and waved for her to follow him.

She fell in behind him with a pensive feeling that echoed the worst of what she had been feeling. She pushed it down as they turned several corners and passed by several sailors, who saluted Thraker as they stood aside for him.

A few gave her an odd look, but most were much too busy with whatever tasks the general quarters had heaped on them.

Reaching their destination, Alex shut the door behind her. The space wasn’t that large; it was smaller than a berthing quarters on the Tears. A door on the left side of the wall led to another space, while the single desk was built into the wall on the right with just enough space behind it for Thraker to slide around the side and sit in a chair.

There were two small seats in front of the desk and Alex sat down on one as he gestured for her to sit.

There was a momentary silence as he settled behind the desk, then he looked at her intensely.

“How are you feeling, Ms. Myers?”

Alex shifted uneasily in her seat, “I’m alright.”

Thraker raised an eyebrow. “Really? Because from the reports I’ve had, you have been struggling to leave the Medbay for weeks now. The doctor is unsure whether you are suffering from a severe form of bereavement or clinical depression.”

He leaned back in his seat, his gaze still focused directly on her. “You have refused to speak to them, or anyone, about anything other than what was required to minimally function and take care of your sister. You’ve ignored my requests for you to come speak with me multiple times.”

“When we speak, I expect you to consider your words and be truthful, young lady. I do not enjoy the presence of liars.”

Alex winced at the harsh tone in his voice. She felt like he had gut punched her, but she couldn’t blame him. He was right, trying to pretend she was ok when she knew she was not was denial. Looking down at her hands, which were twisting against each other nervously, she took a deep breath and tried to settle her thoughts.

It took a moment, but Thraker didn’t rush her, content to let her speak next. “I’m sorry. You are right that I have been avoiding everything. I..”

Before she could fall into another downward spiral, Thraker interrupted with a question, “You had something to say to me about our destination on the bridge?”

Alex’s eyes widened, and she almost stood up off of her seat.

“We need to go back to Nu Crateris or… take me back to 92 Pegasi!”

“Why?”

“I don’t know what happened to H32 or A31. They might need help!”

“In Nu Crateris, everything was essentially wiped out. There were no remaining effective ships after the battle, and the colonists were still in the process of trying to pull themselves out of their bunkers.”

Alex swallowed. She knew that H32 and its Avatar had intended to board the battlecruiser. “What about the Tremissis and Grazhdanin?”

“The Tremissis crashed into the atmosphere, and the Grazhdanin did the same, but in considerably more pieces.”

“There were no survivors?”

“There were many escape pods from the Grazhdanin, but the Tremissis did not seem to launch any.”

Alex swallowed down another pang of guilt. “What about 92 Pegasi? Did you contact my station? What about the freighters?”

“We passed through the system giving the admin there an update on the events in Nu Crateris, but we did not linger. Your station had been attacked and was undergoing repairs. Both the freighters delivered the refugees to Ackman Station and had moved to the station.”

“Please, I need to go back.”

“Ms. Myers, that is impossible.”

“Give me one ship, take me back to Theta Corvi at least.”

“Ms. Myers.”

The slight rise in Thraker’s voice silenced her, and he shook his head sadly.

“I attempted to discuss this with you when we were in 92 Pegasi, and again in Theta Corvi. It is impossible to turn the convoy around at this point. I fully intend for this convoy to reach Meltisar safely. There are over ten thousand refugees counting on us for their passage there, and we are in a very dangerous war zone.”

“But 93 Hydrae is in Corpo space. We destroyed their ships. They’ll capture us if we go through their territory.”

Thraker raised an eyebrow. “I seriously doubt any news of that will reach them before we traverse into Meltisar space. In addition, they now have their hands full in a bona fide shooting war with the Solarians. We are flying a legal Meltisari flag, and the convoy is a humanitarian mission. They might inspect us, but they will not harass us more than that.”

Alex’s brow furrowed. “They tried to kill us in Nu Crateris. Did you forget the battle at the jump point?”

Thraker shook his head. “I have concluded that it was very unfortunate timing, and your ship’s presence that elicited such a response. Your station destroyed several of their warships, and when that news reached them, we were quite near to leaving the system. I believe if the Tears had not been with the convoy, they would have likely ignored it altogether, at least until they destroyed Nucrateri Station.”

Out of things to throw, she addressed one major issue she had been avoiding any real mention of to anyone, “I... I’m a NAI Avatar. I’m illegal.”

Thraker raised an eyebrow, “Yes, I’m aware.”

She realized that had been obvious. She hadn’t been hiding it. It had been obvious since they’d been rescued that they would all know, but she didn’t understand their reaction. She had expected them to throw the life pod out of the ship and blow them up.

Alex felt lost. “I don’t understand. Why did you help us? I can’t think of any reason other than bad ones.”

Thraker raised an eyebrow. “I admit it was a rash decision to send the convoy ahead while we snuck back into the system after you. There was a sense of abandonment of the situation by not just myself, but the entire crew. I assure you we had no desire to leave the colony to genocide by the Corpos. I still don’t believe we could have done much other than get killed. We were able to pick up your pod, after which we left.”

Alex hesitated, not exactly sure what to say, “But when you found out I was an NAI…”

Thraker interrupted her, “I have to ask, are you Empress Psi’s missing daughter?”

Alex shook her head and let out a pained laugh, “Hah.. I’ve heard about the missing princess, but no. I’m not.”

“Then you’re not a Chi. A wild Phi then? Was the princess in the sector and left you to fend for yourself? It would explain much, especially the misconceptions that you have that show you’ve never been to a core or inner system.”

Alex paused, unsure of how much to reveal. She didn’t entirely trust him with everything, even though she had essentially done exactly that by being rescued and falling into a broken mess. “I... I’m neither,” she finally said.

Thraker frowned, “An Upsilon or Tau then?”

Alex shook her head, “No.”

Thraker sighed and looked at Alex with frustration, “Are you going to make me recite the entire ancient alphabet, Ms. Myers?”

Alex crossed her arms and looked away, not wanting to reveal her true authority level. “I’m higher than Chi,” she hedged.

Thraker’s eyes widened in disbelief. “What? That’s impossible.”

“It’s the truth,” Alex insisted, “I have never met any of the Psi, or any other NAIs other than my sub-cores. I wasn’t born or anything. I just woke up on a wreck with full authority. My NAI was confused when I was in charge.”

Thraker leaned back in his chair as he tried to piece what he knew together. “You woke up on the FedTech ship.”

Alex nodded, “Yeah, the escape pod was embedded in it. We repaired the Shrike.”

Thraker’s brow furrowed, “In 92 Pegasi.”

Alex shook her head, “No... we went through a wormhole and ended up in 92. I am not sure where we were before. My NAI would know.”

Thraker’s next question threw her off balance, “Do you know how old you are, Alex?”

Alex took a moment to try to add up her entire life. Not for the first time in recent memory, she wished Nameless was not incapacitated. “I’m not sure exactly. Almost a Terran year, I think.”

The revelation seemed to throw Thraker completely off balance, and he reached into his desk and pulled out a case of cigars. “Do you mind if I smoke?”

She shrugged, “It’s fine.”

He held one out to her. “Would you like to try one?”

She shook her head. “No thank you.”

“This changes things. It’s more important than ever that we go to Meltisar.”

“I still don’t understand. I don’t want to be arrested or put into a prison or terminated. I need to go back to 92 Pegasi. A31 will likely have spare computronics modules and I can repair myself, then try to heal Elis once Nameless is awake.”

Thraker raised an eyebrow. “Nameless?”

Alex smiled weakly, “My NAI, I named him that.”

“Interesting. I am not an expert on NAI by any means, but that sounds neuro-divergent from the norm. I would have expected a much closer relationship between yourself and your ‘NAI’, but it explains a few questions I had, such as why you are still conscious with your Core lacking any sort of computronics systems. It must be operating in some low-power mode while maintaining you, the Avatar.”

Alex felt worry fill her. “That’s… accurate. If I try to do anything normal, I get warnings and… well, I start to bleed nanites.”

“Please don’t turn into goo, Ms. Myers. You’re much more important than I realized.”

A different worry clawed at her. Had she divulged too much? As the silence stretched and Thraker took a puff on his cigar, she pushed.

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you planning to hand me over to the government and be imprisoned or… terminated? Aren’t we illegal?”

Thraker squeezed the bridge of his nose and rubbed it while a trail of smoke flowed off the end of his cigar in his other hand. “My apologizes, I’m simply mulling over our first encounter. The company was nearly wiped out by an infant.”

Alex’s frown tightened, feeling a bit miffed at the comparison.

Thraker shook his head, “To answer your question, No. To explain things clearly, you need to understand the balance of power between the four largest star nations. Each is controlled by a Psi level NAI, although each has their own modus operandi. They keep each other in check, while preventing any rampant expansion of lower-level NAI entities.”

That much Alex knew already from her and Elis’s reading on Star-Wiki.

“The core systems are the systems that have been designated by their ‘council’ to be allowed to have independent NAI entities operate. Sol, Gamma Telescopii, 125 Piscium, Xi Bootis are the havens of the Psi Queens. The inner systems are those with a managing Chi level NAI permitted to operate them, with FedTech defenses and technology widely available to their populations.”

Alex bit her lip as he continued the explanation.

“The four powers will put their squabbles aside and focus their resources on any attempt to spread FedTech or NAIs to systems outside of their agreed limits. From what I understand, all four have veto powers over any new additions to the list.”

Alex frowned. “I don’t understand why that makes it more important for me to go to Meltisar. I don’t care about any of that. I just want to fix Nameless and heal Elis and I don’t want to abandon A31.”

Thraker sighed and took a puff of his cigar. “I understand your concern, Alex. But your existence has massive implications on the balance of power across all of civilized space. With Psi level authority, you might become the leader of a new star nation with equal power to the current rulers.”

Alex felt like the entire world was spinning, and she had to fight back a wave of nausea. The last thing she wanted was to become some ruler of a place she didn’t know, when it was so obvious that she made a terrible leader. A list of all her failings collected into a ball in her mind, ending with her horrific results of leading H32, Beeper, and Booper to their deaths.

She’d put Nameless and Elis into Comas and she wasn’t sure Elis would ever wake up, even with the possibility of NAI medicine or other help.

“I don’t… I don’t think I can handle that... I won’t be used and manipulated, either.”

“We are all using each other in some way, Alex. Whether an infant relies on its parents to take care of it, or an elderly parent relies on their younger children in later years. I believe it’s possible to help Elis when we reach Meltisar. There are very advanced FedTech hospitals there.”

“Why do you care so much about it? Is there some kind of bounty for turning me in to the government there or something? Plug me in and suddenly they are equal to the other powers?”

Thraker frowned and gave her a serious look. “That’s uncalled for, Ms. Myers. To answer your question, I am a Meltisari citizen as are most of the crew. We have fought for the various powers at different times, but at heart none of us agree with the policies and corrupt institutions that govern most of them.”

Thraker pointed to a flag on the wall that Alex hadn’t realized was a flag until he pointed at it.

A bit of skepticism and derision entered Alex’s voice that surprised her. “Are you telling me Meltisar is an amazing place that has no corruption and is a perfect place to live? Why are you and your company on the edge of the frontier instead of enjoying life there?”

Thraker shook his head. “It has its own problems, but Meltisar is the nearest thing you will find to a free state. It is not perfect, but it avoids most of the extremes that the Imperials, Ertans, Solarians, and Corpos embody. A fact that would not be possible except for many sacrifices by many people and a delicate balancing act to prevent any of the NAI factions from gobbling up the system.”

Alex bit her lip, still wary, “I still don’t understand what you want from me.”

Thraker answered immediately, “I don’t know either.”

Alex furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m just the leader of a mercenary company, Alex. I don’t understand all the ramifications of this myself. It might be that it would be best to keep your existence quiet. I have contacts and friends in the system that will know more and be able to help, especially in the admiralty. I can also ensure that Elis gets the best professional care in the system that is possible.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know your friends, so how can I trust them? Frankly, I don’t know how much I can trust you.”

Thraker nodded, “Fair enough. I will make you this promise: If you choose not to reveal yourself on our arrival, you will be free to make your own path without interference from the IHMC and myself. Meltisar will have ships for sale, and you might find your way back to 92 Pegasi, although with the conflict, I can’t imagine it would be safe or easy.”

Thraker pulled out a credit chip and slid it across his desk to her. Picking it up she realized it was the main chip for Starlight Revolution’s accounts.

|Main Account: 212,565,433 SE|

Alex slipped the chip into a pocket. “I wasn’t sure if Nameless had saved this in the life pod.”

Thraker sat back in his seat. “It was the only major item of value although we put the other articles in your locker.”

Alex felt a bit of surprise. “I have a locker?”

Thraker nodded, “Ask the medbay staff and they’ll point you to it.”

Alex’s gaze shifted away, realizing she hadn’t even bothered to ask about anything that might have been left in the pod. “I didn’t know.”

Thraker gave her an encouraging smile. “I hope you remain like this, Alex. I much prefer to see you considering your future than walking around in a depressed haze.”

Alex swallowed. “I need to think about things.”

Thraker nodded, “That’s only natural. I will be available if you would like to talk over things more later. In the meantime, I understand you have been helping Lieutenant Ferguson?”

Alex felt confused. “Yes?”

Linking his fingers together, he smiled, “How would you feel working as a junior sailor in the engineering department while we are underway?”

“I… don’t really need the money?”

Thraker chuckled, “No, but you might learn a thing or two, and it will let you have something to work on during the trip. Think on it.”