Novels2Search

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Mark stepped off of the stairs, into a hallway at the back of the ship. It was one of the normal hallways; just steel and screens to show the exterior, if people wanted to look. It held the temporary ‘offices’ of the Hero/Villain Program, if you wanted to call them that. Mark wasn’t sure that he would call a servitor standing in an alcove with a sign over its head that read ‘Hero Program!’ as an ‘office’.

Mark would get to that in a moment, though, because his world turned wonky as he saw two people together whom should not be together.

Kardi, the Luck girl from Slayer HQ, with her spellguns strapped to her hips, and with a grin on her face. Her vector had been here and there, and toward the HVP servitor in the alcove, but now she was fully focused on Mark.

And then there was Tartu Solari, wearing his white, with his close-cropped blue and white hair, and a scowl on his face. He had been focused here and there, but now he was focused on getting around Mark, and leaving Mark behind. To a much lesser extent, he had some sort of interest in Kardi, but Mark couldn’t understand that interest at a simple glance.

What Mark could understand was what they said to him.

“Mark!” Kardi exclaimed, thrilled to be here.

“Mark,” Tartu muttered, wanting to be gone.

Mark went, “What the fuck?”

Kardi giggled and happily thumbed at the servitor floating to the side, as she said, “The HVP rep is a bot! Can you believe it?! I thought they’d send a real person, but all they sent was a basic AI!”

Mark glanced at the servitor. It was a floating ball with a cone for a base and another floating ball for a head. Eye-lights faked an expression of calm on the servitor’s face, while its insides were empty; no vector at all. It was just a plain AI. Before Mark had walked into the hallway, he had thought that the two people in the alcove down here were one guest and one agent of the Program, but nope. It was Kardi and Tartu.

Mark tried to make small talk, “That would explain why I got such a quick response from the request for a meeting... No one else responded… Aside from your father’s AI, Tartu. He told me meetings wouldn’t happen until after the crossing, if then. Sorry I didn’t recognize your name yesterday.”

Tartu looked vindicated, but also smug. “There were many things you didn’t recognize.”

And then Tartu pushed past Mark and out the door, colliding shoulders with Mark on the way past.

Mark just… let it go? What was happening here?

Mark did not let it go. He followed the guy for a few steps, saying, “Sorry! Sorry. We got off on the wrong foot, and—”

Mark slapped face first into an invisible wall, bouncing off of something semi-solid. He maintained his footing, so he hadn’t fallen, but… what the fuck?

Tartu glanced backward, chuckling, and then he walked forward.

… Had he… had he put up one of those ‘domainer’ things? To block Mark following him?

He had!

Mark was too stunned to do anything but just watch as Tartu grinned and walked away—

Kardi touched his shoulder a bit too much as she passed, squeezing his bicep, maybe, saying, “He’s a bit grumpy!” She let go and skipped forward, twirling in the air, smiling brightly, saying, “You got nice arms, Mark!” And then she kept going.

She passed through whatever invisible wall had been there.

… Mark touched the air in front of him. There was nothing there.

Mark was alone in the hallway so he had no problem muttering, “The fuck,” and then he walked toward the alcove of the Hero/Villain Program.

Mark shivered, and he wasn’t sure what part of that whole exchange was more weird.

There was just something about Kardi that Mark did not like. That casual squeeze as she walked by, and how she talked to him like they had been friends forever; that is what freaked him out. It was fucking weird.

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And now she was working with Tartu?

Mark asked the servitor, “Are Tartu and Kardi a hero team?”

“Greetings, Mark Careed, designation ‘Blackvein’!” said the servitor, its animated eyes blinking, focusing on him. “Kardi Smith, hero designation ‘Luckygun’, and Tartu Solari, hero designation ‘Spherix’, have become a hero team! We welcome them into the brawl as new heroes and wish them well on their ascent to superhero status!”

“… Fuck.”

The servitor waited, just floating there, mag-locked to itself and to some sort of metal briefcase on the floor. It looked like one of those traveling servitor models that you set down and let work autonomously. It was not something that you left completely alone, though.

Mark looked at the briefcase, and then at the servitor. “Is there a person here I can speak with?”

“Noel Oliphant, my owner, is the representative for the Hero/Villain Program for the settlement project, and he is currently busy in meetings. He maintains a link to myself, if I should come under attack. Do you need to speak to a person?”

“Not really,” Mark said, feeling a complete disinterest in remaining here to talk with an AI. He flicked out Quark and checked the time. It was almost 11 AM. “Are we close enough to see the Southern Crossing yet?”

Quark flickered a map onto his screen—

The servitor in the room projected a map into the air, and said, “We are 10 minutes from being able to view the Southern Crossing for ourselves.”

The map showed that the hovership was barely south of the most southern tip of South America, Cape Horn. They were somewhere above the Drake Passage. Antarctica waited ahead, a land that had once been frozen solid and which was now warm and flourishing, though the oceans around it were still partially frozen in places.

The Southern Crossing was a permanent fixture in the air beyond the green coasts, rising up from the center of the continent like a rush of rainbows. It was supposed to be one of the most impressive sights of the Two Worlds. Both Crossings were magical things, really, but the Southern Crossing had cities on the coasts. The Northern Crossing was pretty much just water.

Mark’s heart beat hard as he realized he wanted to see the Southern Crossing right now.

Mark told the servitor, “I’ll book an appointment with Noel to ask him about the HVP at the Settlement… Er.” Mark thumbed toward the empty hallway, asking, “Tartu and Kardi? What were they here for? Exactly?” Mark had already asked that question, but he hadn’t asked the important one, which he had never expected to need to ask. “Were they… talking about me?”

Mark wasn’t sure if the servitor was even capable of answering such an impolite question. Divulging information about other people was something basic AIs were specifically trained not to do.

But then something weird happened.

The servitor, which had been completely empty, with no vector to speak of, gained a vector. Like a thread unraveling, Mark Unionsensed as a lack of life became someone poking their head into the room, to see what was going on.

The servitor blinked, and then said, “I cannot answer questions about the nature of other people in the Hero/Villain Program without their express consent.”

Mark raised an eyebrow. “Hello, Noel.”

The thread inside the servitor thickened, becoming a cable.

The servitor, which had been floaty and distinctly non-human, seemed to almost sigh, its little floating bits flexing up and down, its body adopting a little bit of a tilt, its animated eyes becoming focused. If Mark wasn’t mistaken, Noel was inhabiting the body of his servitor, and he was a bit miffed.

Noel said, “Hello, Blackvein. What brings you here today?”

“I came here to get a feel for the HVP in the settlement. What’s gonna happen and all that.”

“Nothing for a while, but maybe something will happen and Aurora will slap me around some,” Noel said. “I hope not!”

Mark paused. “Uh… Okay?”

“Luckygun and Spherix are both aiming to swindle you out of adamantium through the program, relegating you to healer duty. That’s the angle they’re going to play. I told them ten times that they’re not going to be allowed to do that… We should have this conversation in person. I’m at the main viewing balcony with a bunch of nobles and shit to see the Southern Crossing in person. Want to come over here?”

Mark had no trouble at all saying, “See you there.”