A couple hours later the shock finally wore off and Horizon and Shawn started cleaning up the ruined computer room. As they gathered up pieces of shattered servers the raccoon reluctantly started to give details of what had happened.

“So,” Shawn commented. “That was one of your friends from the scrap ship you served on?”

“I’m not sure,” Horizon replied. “It was a copy of him at least. I don’t think that would make him the same person as my old friend. But I…” she trailed off, unable to find the words for what she had been forced to do.

“It was necessary,” Samantha cut in, uninvited. “An artificial intelligence with access to the fuzzy logic of quantum computing would be completely unpredictable. You saw how he completely disregarded your orders!”

Horizon was trying to ignore the AI, but that information gave her pause. How did he manage to do that anyways?

“Normally an AI cannot even try to look for ways around its built-in safeguards. They’re that thorough,” Samantha explained. “But quantum effects are unpredictable by definition, quantum computing allows some unexpected leaps in logic. Not only can they crack the strongest digital cryptography in a short amount of time, they are capable of coming to surprising conclusions that one would normally only expect of an organic being.”

I had heard that organic brains had some quantum effects. Is that true?

“To an extent,” Sam seemed to be downplaying whatever quantum mechanics had to do with brains. “There are some natural entangled particles present in neurons, but they’re nowhere near as central to the computation process as in quantum computers. The procedures employed on your brain preserved a fraction of the particles, but there was some loss of particles and you don’t seem to have lost any cognitive capacity.”

That is not particularly reassuring, Horizon retorted. But what about MechRat? You said he was a simulation or something?

“Luke Didelph’s simulation would not have retained any entangled particles from the original parahuman’s brain.”

No, Horizon corrected. What did you mean by a simulation? The only context I have is folk tales and myths.

The AI paused, then her expression changed abruptly, shifting mental gears with nothing in between. “Persona simulations are a specific category of artificial intelligence modeled after specific living or formerly living parahumans. Their neural networks are configured to emulate the subject at the time of creation as much as possible. Their one priority is acting in the ways that their subject would act at all times.”

Horizon remembered MechRat’s paranoia and resistance to authority, the simulation of him had emulated those traits quite well now that she thought about it. Very well in fact, she had been almost certain she was talking to the opossum himself. Are persona simulations sentient?

“No more than myself,” Sam stated.

That’s a “no” then? Horizon sighed and picked up a large piece of the quantum core they’d stolen, that seemingly had cost her two dear friends now. She chucked the piece of scrap into the bin they’d appropriated for the purpose.

Horizon’s ears perked up as she heard somebody trying to sneak into the building, they were probably quiet enough to avoid notice by most unaugmented parahumans, but not the cyborg raccoon. “Someone’s coming,” she stated, then dropped the bits of scrap she was carrying and started off towards the source of the sound. Her suit’s camouflage activated almost as if by reflex and she slid along the wall. Horizon slipped quickly through the rooms she had trashed on her way to the core, breezing past busted doors and wrecked machinery.

When she finally found the intruder she let out an unimpressed sigh. A canid of indeterminate phenotype wearing a gray hoodie and a balaclava that barely fit over their muzzle, anxiously holding out a coil pistol in both hands. As soon as they came just within reach Horizon’s arm snapped out in a holographic blur and yanked the gun out of their hands, flinging the battery and clip away in different directions.

The intruder stared blankly at the blur in shock, giving Horizon an opening to grab their mask and peel it away from their muzzle. “Would you mind telling me who sent you?”

The canid gulped in terror, “the… the Friendly Society.”

Horizon turned off her camouflage, shifting from a blurry outline to a slightly confused-looking raccoon. “Why wouldn’t they just call?” she asked.

“We picked up data transmissions that indicated a cyber-attack on this site!” They explained rapidly. “Quarantine measures were instituted!”

Horizon conceded that explanation made sense. “I already took care of it,” she explained. “Do you have a way to communicate with headquarters?” The canid nodded. “Show me,” the raccoon ordered. “There’s some things I’ll need to explain.”

Horizon followed the canid out of the building to the field outside. She heard the whine of turbines as she left the heavily insulated dwelling for the frigid outdoors. A VTOL shuttle stood on the snow, engines idling but ready to take off at a moment’s notice. The door slid open, revealing a caribou that Horizon recognized instantly.

“I should have known that you were involved here!” Coordinator Taranda shouted over the engines. “Are we in danger at the moment?!”

“No!” Horizon answered. “Can we talk inside?”

Taranda shoved the door open the rest of the way and gestured for the raccoon to enter. Horizon leapt inside in a second. Before the canid scout could follow Taranda held up a hand to halt them. “Wait outside for a minute!” she said. “We need to talk in private!” The canid nodded and began to head back into the building as the caribou shut the shuttle door. Taranda turned back towards Horizon and took a seat, but didn’t touch the restraints. “Now,” she started, “exactly what has been going on here?”

Horizon thought hard about how much to tell the Coordinator. She supposed that she might as well start from the beginning. “I escaped the destruction of my ship with a data drive containing a massive amount of encrypted data.” Taranda raised an eyebrow but said nothing, which Horizon took as an invitation to continue. “To attempt to crack the encryption, myself, Dr. Ratufa, and Shawnathan attempted to purchase a quantum core from some… less than savory characters.”

“Was this when you fought a Company SWAT team?” Taranda inquired.

Horizon let her surprise show on her face. “How much do you know about that?” She asked.

Taranda sighed, “the Friendly Society has enough connections in the Company that we’d hear about something like two armored officers getting killed on an undisclosed mission. And Ryder out there saw your ‘souvenir’ in the garage.”

Horizon pressed her palm into her forehead. “I only kept that thing so I could carry the core over to the van,” she explained. “They attacked us during the deal, killed the suppliers, almost killed me and Shawn,” Horizon took in and exhaled a deep breath to try and settle her nerves. “And they captured Jenny.”

“Dr. Ratufa?” Taranda asked to confirm. When Horizon nodded she inquired further, “do you have any idea what they did to her?”

Horizon shook her head, whiskers drooping. “No, the best I have are vague rumors of a secret asteroid prison or something.”

“I see,” Taranda stated simply. “What about the cyber-attack, what do you know about that?”

“I’m sorry,” Horizon sighed. “There was an AI stored on the drive. I should have been more cautious.”

“Are you serious?” Taranda’s eyes shot open in surprise and concern. “Is it still running?”

“No, I…” Horizon’s voice trembled. “...Trashed it. The computers have all been destroyed, including the quantum core. It tried to upload itself somewhere, but it was a lot of data, I doubt that it was able to finish.”

“That’s fortunate,” the Coordinator leveled her gaze at the cyborg meaningfully. “I’ll be honest with you, the council wanted to bomb this place flat.” At Horizon’s slack-jawed expression she elaborated, “but I convinced them to wait until we had more information.”

“But they didn’t call it off?” Horizon inquired.

Taranda glanced at a screen set in the sleeve of her parka. “Bomber drones will launch in eighteen minutes. After what you told me I doubt we can convince them to abort. I suggest you leave well before then.”

Horizon looked outside the window at the warehouse the Friendlies had allowed them to use for their little project. Now she started to have suspicions as to why they’d been given such an isolated location. “Are you firing me?”

Taranda nodded slowly. “I’m sorry, I appreciate all you’ve done for us, but there’s just too much danger around you. Feel free to salvage whatever you can as your severance package.”

Horizon rose unsteadily to her feet. She was losing everything again, all thanks to the Federation technology flowing through her veins. “Well,” she said, trying and failing to sound unperturbed. “I should go and pack.”

As Horizon flung the door open and stepped back outside Coordinator Taranda shouted after her. “One more thing! Niflheim is real!” The raccoon stopped in her tracks and turned halfway. “The prison is in Surt’s trailing Trojans, I don’t know more than that!”

A mixture of feelings rose in Horizon’s chest. Relief that she had a clue where Jenny might be, tinged by despair that she had no way to reach her girlfriend, and a glimmer of hope that it just might be possible to rescue her. “Thank you,” she said simply, and ran into the warehouse.

---

Sixteen minutes later Horizon and Shawn were rolling down the snow-encrusted road into town when the first explosive-laden drone dropped its cargo on the warehouse. They saw a fireball expand out from the roof of the building in the rearview mirrors, followed shortly after by a deafening *boom* and a rush of wind. The two had time to breathe a sigh of relief before the second drone dropped its’ load. The second blast was more muted, contained by the warehouse’s walls, but was followed by a series of collapses. When the crashing had finally ceased Horizon spoke up. “You know, you didn’t have to come with me, Shawn.”

“You’ve saved my life how many times now?” the vole retorted. “I owe you, and besides now we’re posthuman super soldiers fighting the Company. How cool is that?”

“I’d say you’re barely transhuman at this point,” Horizon corrected.

“Whatever,” Shawn continued. “What do we do next?”

“First, we go into town and buy supplies,” Horizon began to outline a plan. “Then we go camping for a while until the heat dies down. Once it’s safe we start looking for a way to get off this moon.” The posthuman glanced up at the emerging night sky, the first stars just coming into view. “And then, we go to Niflheim.”