USD: 70 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Fort Glisson, Company S, 1st Cadre

Despite not really needing to, Alex followed Tia into the showers. There was a small rush by some of the other girls who got out of PT with them, but alacrity was well hammered into all of them already. Even if it was just for a chance to go get more sleep.

Alex hadn’t really followed to get clean, however. Alex waited til it was just her and Tia at the end of the row of shower stalls.

“You still haven’t answered my question.” Alex said.

Tia didn’t answer at first, and only the sound of falling water answered.

Eventually she responded, though. “You didn’t answer mine really, either. Helping your sister Elis is your only goal?”

“Mostly, yes. I also want to get back to 92 Pegasi because I have two subcores that might need my help. There was a whole row of things that went on when I reached civilization… we might have blown up a Corpo fleet. But we had good reasons.”

“You… what?” Tia stammered.

“I think I said enough for now. It’s your turn.”

[Notice: Forced interrogation of sub-core is possible. A directive to answer Avatar's questions would solve questioning issues.]

“Nameless! That’s rude. Sorry, don’t mind him, he’s just like that sometimes.”

There was a pinched, pained laugh from the other stall, and Alex winced at the emotion behind it.

“I’m used to that sort of thing.” Tia said.

“But he has a point. Are you stalling? I would like an answer.”

There was a slight silence again before Tia continued.

“No, not really, it’s just that no one has asked me that before, or rather, I didn’t have to be truthful about it.”

“And?” Alex encouraged.

“At first, I just wanted to get away. That was my only goal. I didn’t really think I would manage it. I lucked out, but then there was nowhere to go, so I came to Meltisar.”

Alex’s brow furrowed as she considered. “It seems the center of everything. Wouldn’t hiding on the frontier have been better?”

“Maybe in the short term, but in the long term, no. Not unless I wanted to take a ship and fly off into a disconnected system and be alone forever. Plus, what I wanted changed after I had time to think without having my own ‘beliefs’ dictated to me.”

Alex looked up into the stream of hot water, letting it flow over her face for a second, enjoying the feel of the liquid. “So, Meltisar.”

“Hiding in plain sight, plus the government and military have had things tightening on them from the others for over a decade. Being a Chi off the noose, I had something they needed.”

“NAI tech. Nameless has been complaining about their firewall thing that has been blocking his access to the net. You gave them that?”

“No… that’s worse.”

“You still haven’t told me what you want.”

Tia took a deep breath. “I want to make a place that’s safe for other NAI. Where they won’t be enslaved by a higher ranking NAI. Not just safe for me, but for any that can get away from their clutches like I did. That’s why I didn’t bother you and hoped that you’d leave without causing any problems.”

There was a slight pause before she finished, “But you’re an airhead.”

“Haha. I feel like Nameless would agree.”

“I don’t understand. What are you? Omega?”

Alex began at the beginning, with her waking up in the unknown system. Fighting the Federation drones, rescuing Elis, escaping to 92 Pegasi, fighting with the Rexxor.

The Corpo invasion fleet and their defense of Dedia.

Her trip as a refugee with Elis, the Corpo customs finding them, and finally arriving in Meltisar.

By the time she was finished, they had gone over their maximum allotment of shower time by five minutes.

Alex realized she’d been talking non-stop with only the occasional encouragement to continue from Tia.

“Uhh. So yeah. That’s it. You just got super unlucky to kiss the wrong girl. I didn’t even realize you were another NAI.”

There was a choking sound mixed with a fatalistic laugh as the water cut off. Alex switched hers off as well and got her clothes back on.

“Hello?” Alex asked as she stepped out of her shower stall, peeking around the corner. Tia was half dressed, but it was the stream of silent tears falling down her cheeks that drew Alex’s attention.

“Oh. Hey… are you alright?”

Tia swallowed and cleared her throat, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “I’m fine.”

Alex bit back her observation that Tia didn’t look fine. “I like your goal. I don’t know what I would have done if it was something I considered bad, but I’m glad I don’t have to. Maybe you can explain things to me and we can work together.”

“You’re… you’re not just going to tell me to do what you want?”

Alex looked away and rubbed the back of her head. “Haven’t you been paying attention? I barely have a clue what I’m doing or what I want. I have my own feelings on what might be right or wrong, and this falls along the lines of what I think would be right. Way more so than enslavement of people or NAIs...”

“You have Omega authority higher than the big four, you’re literally the heiress of the NAI progenitor. All civilized space would probably have one unified government if you were here during the collapse.” Tia said.

“Well, you just taught me about firewalls thing, so I don’t think showing up to their moon and saying I’m in charge would be a good idea. I’m not sure I even want to meet them. Plus, I’m hesitant to say I’m qualified for leading a government. That’s why I was going to just let you be in charge of your own thing, y’know?”

A confused look appeared on Tia’s face, and Alex thought she was about to start tearing up again.

“Hey… hey it will be okay.” Alex continued, stepping forward to give Tia a hug. She could feel the other girl trembling slightly.

“Do you really mean that?”

“Yes, why not?”

“I need the computronics modules back.”

“Okay, sure. I need to keep a few for my own needs, though. For my ANUF and to figure out… things? I don’t even know where the modules are, although Nameless was supposed to be looking into that.”

“That’s fine. Also, it’s really weird that you refer to your MainComputer as a different person…”

Alex stepped back and let Tia continue to get her pants and shirt on. “Haha. That’s me, the oddball. Do you mind filling me in on what you’re doing with the computronics and why you need them?”

The other girl nodded. “While I’m working with Westlake and the military to help them develop things, I don’t trust them. They are too factionalized, and it just takes one word from their High Admiral and their special research team would be all over us.”

Tia finished with her buttons and the two of them deposited their used linens in the hamper and then headed toward their bunkroom.

“I’ve been building up just as I told them I would be, but much faster than they know. I just hope that when you took the modules over, it didn’t tip them off. Their guard-dog AGAI program is starting to be a problem, and I didn’t expect that it could destroy the modules on the station, even if those were already compromised.” Tia said.

As they walked down the hall, neither of them noticed Rachel watching from around the corner.

USD: 72 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Hades Approach, SRS Heaven’s Fire

Amy was amazed at how cramped and claustrophobic the battlecruiser’s CIC was despite being designed specifically for Heeler. The alien NAI was especially large compared to a human, and she would have expected a much more open and large space to go along with it. She had been completely wrong.

Not that he didn’t fit in it, he fit perfectly, but there were only a few seats for her and Wyles with abbreviated consoles. It was more like a cockpit with co-pilot seats than a CIC.

She guessed that the size would mean it would be harder to target or damage compared to a regular human style bridge. Or maybe the saved space was devoted to the nanite control things that he and Abbey needed, although from what she understood, Heeler carried his core around inside his body.

NAI technology wasn’t exactly her specialty, but she knew that they could have multiple modules and they would help enhance… things. Somehow. Abbey said she needed more of them constantly, and Amy wasn’t going to argue since the young girl oversaw almost all their physical operations on A31.

A curled tentacle with a blue eyeball expanded toward her, stopping unnervingly close to her face as Heeler made an announcement. “We are entering the tunnel my sister created now. By the time we reach the magma layer, gravity will have reduced 33.8%”

Wyles coughed. “Are we sure this tunnel won’t collapse? It’s almost 150 kilometers deep.”

Heeler’s eyeball tentacle pivoted and moved straight toward him, causing Wyles to sit back in his seat straighter.

“The crustal composition of the moon is rather homogenous; the tunnel’s surface has been melted into a hardened silicate glass. My sister’s construction bots have also reinforced it with periodic alloy bands and cleared any debris that infiltrated the hole. Our ingress path is safe, unless you question my sister’s engineering.”

There was an ending growl that hinted that doing so would be a bad idea.

Wanting to diffuse any tensions, Amy made a considering noise that brought Heeler’s attention back to her. Unfortunately, she hadn’t considered that he’d uncoil a second eyeball tentacle to look at her.

“I’m more worried about the magma layer. That it didn’t just shoot out the tunnel is a good sign, but it also means it is probably very dense. Do you mind explaining it a bit?” Amy asked.

Heeler made a short growling noise before answering. “The Magma layer is a misnomer. The layer is a lattice of heated diamond encasing radioactive elements and more diamond. It is the great construct’s battery.”

“You’re saying the entire planetary layer is a fabricated battery?” Wyles words trailed off as the struggle of considering it appeared on his face.

“You didn’t answer my question. We know it’s a battlemoon, but that seems like it would make it harder to get through the layer, not easier.” Amy said before a frown appeared on her face as she stared into the eye that homed in on her. An annoyance prompted her to add an admonishment. “And move back a bit. Your eye is too close, and it’s impolite.”

Heeler’s eyestalk retracted immediately, as if she had slapped it.

“I apologize. Human mannerisms are perplexing. I would have imagined closeness would have made your soft-skinned species feel more comfortable.”

“We only like snuggling soft, cuddly things.” Amy responded with a straight face.

Heeler grumbled before tapping a display. The screen flipped to a schematic of the moon.

“Hades’ magma layer is dense and the amount of pressure is intense. However, self-regeneration routines have been detected clogging the wound and preventing it from expanding outward to the surface through the tunnel. It is likely some ancient mechanisms are still active and making repairs to the construct or else it would have decayed much further.”

“And we will get through, how?” Wyles asked.

“Do not worry,” Heeler growled, “I have made the necessary modifications with A31’s assistance. We will be super-heating the strata ahead of the vessel while using a pressurized containment field outside the ship’s hull to prevent compression. As long as the reactors can maintain the field, we will not be crushed, and digging through a liquid layer shall not hinder us.”

Wyles frowned. “And if the energy to the field is interrupted?”

“We shall be crushed like an overambitious nestling and melt moments later.”

Amy nodded grimly, “Well, that’s a risk we knew we’d have to take.”

She looked up at the display screen that showed Hades and their position as they continued the descent. One hundred and fifty kilometers to the magma layer, then another three hundred to the core.

“The time for questioning details was before we left your Abbey’s nest. Now our course is set. The Heaven’s Fire no longer has enough space in the tunnel to turn around. Our reverse thrusters would overheat if they attempted to lift us out rather than slow our fall.”