USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator

Alex stared out the crystal porthole straight ahead of her on the elevator, wishing the ride would end. In the corner of her HUD, the time showed that there was a little under an hour before their arrival to the station, and the moon had shrunk in size until it was just a fraction of its previous size.

The view wasn’t the issue, though. Rachel was in the seat on her left, turned slightly away and browsing her datapad. Tia was on her right, a mirror image, almost. Other than necessities, conversation had been in short supply, and the tension was palpable.

Alex had wanted to say something, but she did not know where to begin and had suffered the entire trip. She hadn’t been able to sleep during the dark hours on the ‘flight’ and had listened to Nameless drone on about optimizations to the local computronics modules that were going up with them.

That had lasted about thirty minutes before she tuned him out and turned on her favorite music and did her best to not bang her forehead on the bulkhead.

The prospect of finally getting out of the elevator had perked her up, though. Watching the crew walk about the cabin was slightly more entertaining. Her self-created amusement was interrupted when Tia passed a datapad into her lap.

Alex gave her a questioning look, but Tia’s face contained no answer. Activating the screen, there was a message.

‘Why the fuck can’t you use a virtual space to talk? Tell your MainComputer to fix you already.’

A sharp glance from Alex didn’t quell Tia’s stare.

[Informative: Avatar's Neurodivergent state inhibits NAI virtualization space access. Attempts to access this space will cause damage to Avatar bio-logical components.]

[Notice: A potential bridge could be created with excess computronics modules. An estimated twenty-two modules could produce a viable translation mechanism.]

Twenty-two modules just for that seemed rather excessive, especially since she and Tia were only running off the local twelve they had with them. The other modules weren’t really close enough for them to use, but now that they were going to be on the station, that was going to change.

Maybe it would be worth it once they had those several hundred modules active.

Alex typed a message on the datapad and passed it back to Tia.

‘Nameless says it will take some time and 22 Computronics to fix me!’

Tia read it and gave her an incredulous look, complete with a raised eyebrow. Alex grinned. She wasn’t sure whether that was because of the cost or the sarcastic reply to her sarcastic message about fixing her, but an annoyed ‘Tsk’ from her left interrupted the thought.

She caught a hurt, angry look on Rachel’s face before the girl turned away completely, pointedly ignoring her and Tia. Alex frowned, feeling a pang of hurt in her chest. The tension between the three of them was painful, and she hadn’t meant to exclude Rachel from anything.

But what could she do? There were NAI things she could only talk to Tia about, keeping the things secret…

Why did she have to keep them secret?

The military would obviously prefer that, but they hadn’t given her any orders or mention of it. Westlake probably took it for granted that she would.

She trusted Rachel more than those admirals that she’d had to speak in front of, anyway. Not wanting to leave Rachel out or push her away, Alex decided.

“Nameless, can you please make a privacy field to block anyone from recording or eavesdropping on us?”

It was the first thing she’d said out loud in hours, and Rachel and Tia both turned to look at her in surprise.

“Alex, what are you doing?” Tia asked.

[Informative: An audible noise field has been erected; however, it is ineffective for any device closer than four meters.]

“That’s fine.” Alex replied.

Rachel looked between Tia and Alex. “Who are you talking to?”

Alex took a deep breath before looking at Rachel. “Let me explain what’s going on.”

Rachel frowned, and Tia grabbed Alex’s shoulder and squeezed it. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to fill her in.” Alex said, and pushed her back.

“You can’t tell her that!”

Rachel looked even more confused and hurt as her frown deepened. The other girl’s eyes slid away. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I don’t like the big drama either, let’s just forget things. It was a bad idea and spur-of-the-moment thing... And we’re going to have to spend a lot of time working together at the academy, most likely, so…”

That was the exact opposite of what Alex wanted, and she felt a rush of panic as the other girl turned away. “Wait!” The energy in her voice surprised herself as much as Rachel.

“Tia is a NAI from the Imperium. She managed to find a loophole in her directives that allowed her to escape her mother, the Empress. She has a deal with the Admiralty to go to the Academy and work with them to help protect Meltisar in exchange for a safe place to stay.”

Tia’s hand disappeared from her shoulder, replaced by a choking sound as Alex continued.

“I’m an NAI as well, but I am a bit less experienced with… things. I didn’t even know Tia was a NAI until recently. That caused some issues, but we’re friends now and not enemies who need to kill each other.”

Tia’s sputtering had died out somewhere in the middle of Alex’s monologue explanation, and Rachel’s eyes had continued to widen until she resembled an animal frozen in a beam of bright light. Alex smiled. The look on her face was actually quite cute, if it wasn’t for the direness of the situation.

“Tia was bullying you because you and Jessica were screwing around and everyone was pissed that you were risking getting everyone in trouble.”

Rachel’s face switched to being guarded instantly, and she looked away. “We weren’t ever caught. We didn’t do anything where the instructors would find us…”

Tia leaned forward to look across Alex at her. “You did it in the shower, repeatedly! You did it while numbskull was in the next stall over! She would have been on the hook with the both of you if Riley had caught you then!”

Rachel’s cheeks heated, and she refused to look at either of them. “We kept it… quiet. I swore Alex should have heard us, but she didn’t even notice, so I don’t think Instructor Riley would have found us.”

Tia seemed even more annoyed, looping an arm around Alex’s shoulder so she could lean toward Rachel. “I know you aren’t stupid. It doesn’t matter if our girl here didn’t notice. She’s a numbskull who’s oblivious half the time.”

Alex wanted to protest, but Rachel looked back at her.

“It’s cute.” Rachel mumbled, and it was Alex’s turn to feel flustered.

She pushed down the feeling, though. “Anyway! The reason Tia kissed me is because NAIs have a firewall thing about authority… and stuff. She wanted to be the boss and make sure I wasn’t a rogue NAI doing bad things and of course the military decided to keep things secret and not even mention to either of us about each other… The second time when you walked in…”

Rachel’s hand balled into a fist, a scowl appearing. “You kissed her twice?”

“She ambushed me! I think she is lonely and not used to having friends! While she lived in the Imperium, she was alone and abused by her mother, and probably didn’t have any friends!”

The anger softened on Rachel’s face, but as Alex turned to look at Tia, the silver-haired girl shook her. “Telling her all these things is a bad idea!”

[Notice: Remote computronics modules have come within access range, however an unknown entity has hijacked a majority of processing power. Local Modules are unaffected and have been physically secured in EL-36’s cargo bay.]

Alex’s look forestalled the shaking as she asked Nameless for clarification.

[Informative: Remote computronics location has been determined to be within the confines of MIL-1A’s primary Research and Development facility. Dual-usage and ownership of NAI computronics should not be possible. It is unclear whether physical access or closer proximity will restore access and computation ability.]

Alex frowned as she considered things. “The watchdog thing is probably what’s using them. So, they used them and lock us out without using a NAI?” Alex turned to look at Tia. “Did you give it the computronics modules?”

“What do you mean?”

Alex explained what Nameless had told her.

Tia looked angry. “So, they were using me to build modules for their program the entire time? I thought they just wanted to limit my capabilities, but twelve modules were more than enough to do anything I needed.”

“When I met with the Admiralty board, it seemed like Admiral Anderson was the leader of the anti-NAI faction and whatever they were cooking up. It’s probably his doing.”

“But I made those modules with the permission of Admiral Westlake, who thought it was a good idea.”

Alex frowned, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t get that he was trying to double-cross us. It would have been way easier for them to just be hostile if that was the case. I think they are both doing what they think is right, and what is best for Meltisar, but they are working at odds with each other despite being on the same side…”

Tia sent a glare to Rachel, who still looked like a lost deer. “So, are you with the pro-NAI or anti-NAI faction?”

“I…I… have no idea.”

Tia’s eyes narrowed. “So, you’d be fine with them lobotomizing Alex and me? Or torturing us?”

Rachel frowned and shook her head. “No, of course not. I wouldn’t be fine with that at all, but I also don’t know or understand all the ramifications of there being NAIs in Meltisar. I mean… it seems dangerous to me. What if it caused the Imperium to attack?”

Alex nodded, “That’s a reasonable position, but umm, please don’t go around shouting to everyone that we are NAIs.”

Rachel looked stricken. “I don’t know what to do. I feel like I need to tell a superior or something. This is crazy. I don’t even have my bars yet! Unless you two are playing some crazy head game with me?”

Alex shook her head. She knew it was some pretty weighty stuff, but didn’t want to put so much pressure on the other girl.

Remembering their first encounter, Alex had an idea. “Didn’t you tell me when we first met that you have a family history in the service?”

Rachel looked confused, but nodded. “Yes? My father is the Captain of a cruiser.”

“You could ask him for advice?”

Tia suddenly interrupted, “Don’t worry about it. I just texted Admiral Westlake. You’ll get to talk to him about it all.”

Rachel’s eyes widened, and her cheeks paled. “What? You messaged Darren? You can’t just text admirals like that. We are Cadets!”

Alex relaxed her shoulders and sat back in her seat. “Well, that solves the problem, though. Now you don’t need to worry about whom to tell until after you talk to Westlake.”

[Notice: Remote Computronics modules 271-282 have gone offline. It is unknown whether they have been fully seized by the entity or have suffered physical damage.]

Alex repeated that. “The remote computronics are going offline randomly. Destroyed or lost.”

“Shit is getting real. Probably because we are about to arrive. If they want to backstab us, it’s best to do it now and nab us on arrival.” Tia said.

“Are our local models still secure, Nameless?”

[Informative: Local modules are secure in cargo, a self-propelled contain is capable of self-manipulation, however because of local security apparatuses it is unwise to disengage from MIL-1A.]

“Yeah, the defense net is automated and would vaporize it.” Alex said.

Rachel and Tia both stared at her with worried expressions.

A grim look appeared on Alex’s face. “We’ll defend ourselves if they try to capture us.”

Tia nodded. “Give me eight of the modules for my ANUF.”

Alex considered for a second, but then agreed. Tia was probably better at fighting without restrictions than her anyway, and with her higher efficiency as Omega and improved systems, four modules were more than enough to run her own ANUF.

Glancing back at Rachel, the other girl had clamped down on her expression, obviously worried about the comment about fighting back.

“Sorry, but I have no desire to become a lab rat, but we won’t start any fight. Just defend ourselves.” Alex stated to Rachel before looking at Tia to make sure she understood.

Tia nodded. “Rachel, you’re just a cadet. You really shouldn’t even be involved. Just keep your distance if anything happens.”