Hilbert moved to the panel, removed it, and looked up. "Code?"

"Nine, six, three, six, eight, charly, charly, delta, and the entire word smiley," Garrick said.

Hilbert looked only slightly surprised before turning and entering the manual override code.

"Braddock is one odd Captain," he muttered.

Garrick didn't bother telling Hilbert that many of the captains of the third fleet had a list of oddities that would surprise most other fleet captains. He'd asked Admiral Stinger why that was a few years ago, but he'd only gotten a tired smile in response.

Hilbert pulled a handle down, and there was a dull thud as the door slid toward them a few inches before stopping.

Garrick floated forward, about to pull the door open, when the entire door shook as if something slammed into it. The door was shoved another few inches open while a hand appeared, fingers wrapping along the edges of the door. The hand was covered in a standard issue glove, smudged and partially torn.

"What the-" Hilbert cursed, but Garrick didn't answer. He pulled out his gun with one hand while pushing himself back, reaching for one of the handholds.

"Get ready," he snapped.

Ordered showed his training as, without any complaint, he pushed himself up and back, pulling his own gun and training it on the door.

The door shook again as if something kept repeatedly slamming into it, but something was holding it back.

Garrick almost pulled the trigger as the hand was shoved further through the crack, showing a sleeve that was partially ripped. Only the inner lining seemed to hold the suit's atmosphere. The hand was clasping around as if looking for a door handle. Then, an icon on his H.U.D. blinked to live.

"I'm getting a comm request over the general line, Captain."

"Me too. Let's see what is happening," Garrick said as he accepted the com.

A part of him was hoping to hear Hillary's familiar, smoky voice. It wasn't to be.

“*()&DSD&* door! Open *(*^$%^ door!”

A constant stream of the same message in an odd voice kept repeating, over and over, so fast it wasn't humanly possible.

"Identify yourself," Garrick snapped.

The voice instantly cut off, and the hand and arm stopped moving, slowly pulling back.

“You *creak* are *(&)^% Captain Dasbartin. Open this door," the voice of the Tealclaw said, going from calm to a snarling command.

Garrick felt his skin crawl, and a quick look at Hilbert showed the large man's eyes, which were cold and ready for anything.

"Who am I speaking to," Garrick said.

“Tealclaw, Captain Dasbartin. *(&)(*)&. Open the… (*)&^&& )(**^%#%)(*&...”

The voice continued a long, garbled, impossible-to-understand section that consisted of sounds that were a cross between an engine reffing up and someone choking.

Garrick licked his lips and waited. Ten seconds later, the voice stopped.

"You are not yet taken," the cold voice suddenly snapped. "Open the door, and I will make it painless and leave you your personality."

Taken? Garrick thought.

He looked at the door, then at Hilbert, and quickly switched to their private channel, though he kept listening to the general one.

"Block that door whatever way you can," he said.

"Captain Braddock?" Hilbert asked though he was already holstering his gun and moving forward.

"You heard that… thing," Garrick said. "She is either taken or dead."

He switched back to the general channel.

"You are not Tealclaw," he said. "Who are you, and what has happened to the Tealclaw LLM."

A short line of nonsensical gibberish came, and Garrick frowned. Why did it keep doing that? Was whatever it was malfunctioning? Or was it trying something? He scanned his H.U.D., but nothing seemed odd about it.

"If you want information, you will open this door," the voice said.

"So you can do what?" Garrick asked, starting to get annoyed by the constant repeat of the same request.

There was a moment of silence.

"I need to get to the mainframe."

It's like talking with a politician, Garrick thought.

"To do what?"

Another silence.

"Open the door."

"Answer the question."

There was another string of garbled nonsense, and Garrick switched to the other line.

"There's something seriously wrong with whatever that is," he said.

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"Captain… it reminds me of some of those broken LLMs," Hilbert said, his upper body inside the panel beside the door.

Garrick tried to recall what he knew about the broken LLMs, and he frowned. There was some overlap, but those usually spoke normal.

Is it some Precursor LLM?

Deciding it didn't matter, he switched back to the now silent general channel.

"Are you a precursor LLM?"

The arm thrust back out of the door, the hound slamming into the wall a few inches from the open panel. Hillock didn't react, but Garrick trained his gun on the arm.

"Open the door, or I will end the life of Captain Braddock," the voice that pretended to be the Tealclaw said.

"She is already dead," Garrick said.

It was a guess, but even if it wasn't, there was nothing that could be in that room that would make him open it.

"She is alive, just… sleeping."

The voice was slightly smoother than it had been moments before as if it was learning or becoming better.

"Why should I open this door?" Garrick asked, deciding to try something else. At a minimum, he wanted to keep it talking till Hilbert had relocked the door. He was starting to wish he'd never opened it.

"Go it, Captain," Hilbert said as he pushed himself out of the paneled wall.

He looked to the side, at where the arm came from, and stopped moving. Garrick saw his eyes widen while his face went slack.

"Hilbert?"

There was no reaction, but Hilbert began shuddering, his helmet making odd, jerky motions. The hand began reaching for him, and Garrick felt his skin crawl as he saw Hillick start to move jerkily toward it.

Garrick pushed himself off, shooting forward as fast as he dared, fumbling and barely managing to holster the gun. He knocked into Hilbert a moment before the hand would grab him. Squeezing Hilbert against the edge of the open panel, Garrick used his foot to kick himself sideways, away, pulling Hilbert along. As he did, he got a glimpse of what was looking back at him through the crack.

Captain Hillary Braddock's face was warped in a rictus of anger. Her previously cloudy gray eyes were suffused with tiny orange specs of light while orange lines pulsed below her skin. Her gaze locked with Garrick's, and immediately, his H.U.D. began flickering, and he felt a horrible familiar headache building. For a fraction of a moment, he looked into her eyes, and his thoughts began turning slow and syrupy. Then his wallkick carried him and Hillick away, and slowly, the oddities in his H.U.D. vanished.

Garrick blinked, shaking his head until the teal lines that crawled across the gray wall of the corridor returned back into focus.

“C… cap… tain…”

Garrick felt two hands clamp around his shoulders, squeezing until it hurt. He looked down in shock to see Hilbert's eyes rolling around, his lips rippled up in a scowl.

"Some… thing is-"

Hilbert's eyes flickered with orange lights, and for a moment, Garrick thought the big man would attack him. Then he was shoved back while Hilbert clutched his head.

"Get… out! Out… of my… head! OUT!"

Hilbert slammed his helmet against the side of the wall.

"Garrick scrambled to get his gun out of his holster, his usual calm far to be found as he watched Hilbert shake his head, then slam his head into the wall again. A scuff mark appeared on the azure-glass, showing just how hard Hilbert was ramming.

Garrick wanted to tell him to stop, but he didn't dare. It was clear what was happening.

"Get out of my crewman's head," he snapped over the general line.

"Why?" a calm voice asked, less like the Tealclaw than it had before. "The increase in… processing power, as little as it is, is helping me."

Processing… is he talking about Hilbert's implant? Garrick thought. That couldn't be. Those didn't have that much processing power but were mostly dependent on-

"You are using his brain?" he croaked.

"Yes, but he resists. Such simple, cumbersome technology… I can barely function."

"What are you?" Garrick snapped, keeping his gun on Hilbert.

"*&&@#%#!. But you can call me Cleanser," the voice said, again changed from how The Tealclaw had sounded. "Now, will you join me willingly, or- … no!"

Garrick barely heard the shout and didn't catch the surprise of anger in it as he saw Hillock rip the gun from his holster. He almost pulled the trigger, but Hilbert put the gun to the side of his head, his face pale and sweaty, eyes gleaming with a cold light.

Hilbert's eyes locked on to Garrick's, and for a moment, he saw a glimmer of the man he knew. Then the orange pulsed, Hilbert screamed, and a bloom of red splashed across the inside of the helmet while a tiny hole appeared in the glass.

Garrick realized he was breathing raggedly as he watched Hilbert's body drift back, the gun still clasped in his hand.

"You (*&%^&^ die. Open. The. Door. Open. The. Door. Open-"

Garrick turned the volume of the general channel to barely audible as he drifted toward Hilbert. He didn't dare look at the door where what remained of Hillary Braddock was attempting to open the door. Instead, he pulled Hilbert close. The man's face was set in its final deviant scream.

"Dammit, Hilbert…" Garrick whispered.

He took a deep breath, forcing his stunned mind to cooperate. It took him a moment, and then he took the second holster from Hilbert's leg and put it on his own. Then, it took him a lot of force to remove the gun from Hilbert's hand.

Finished, he pulled Hilbert along. As he floated through the dark corridors with the body of the man he had only just shared a meal with, Garrick felt anger and hopelessness war in his mind. He let them as he moved back to the shuttle, ignoring the terrified sense he still felt at the intersection.

He had little sense of time, but eventually, he reached the shuttle, a small beacon of light in the darkness, and he pulled Hilbert inside.

"I hope Yuri or Sandra can determine something from your implant," he muttered as he looked at the body.

He turned to close the door and hesitated. His hand hovered above the button.

If some precursor AI is changing our implants and can take us over… what is the fear I felt in engineering?

Garrick stared at the hallway, recalling how the unsettling feeling had seemed to come from inside.

He looked at the shuttle, then at the path back, and finally sighed. The others needed the shuttle, but what if the thing causing him fear was due to his implant? Maybe it was something they could use…? It might not be here when he returned…

His mind spun for a few more moments, then he closed the door and headed to the shuttle's cockpit.

"Shuttle Seven, use your sensors to locate what remains of The Sibilis."

"> I am unable to locate The Sibilis from inside the shuttle bay, Captain Dasbartin"

"Alright, plot a course out of the shuttle bay," Garrick said.

Garrick watched as the screen changed to show a rough estimation of the remains of the shuttle bay. A line of dotted squares appeared, showing the course.

"Follow that course, but make sure you can return to our current location."

The line changed slightly, and Garrick nodded.

"Verry good. Head forward until you can detect the Sibilis and are able to create a course. As soon as you can, stop and return here."

“Yes, Captain Dasbartin.”

The screen shark to a corner while the forward view of the ship appeared. A soft hum passed through the seat, and a moment later, the shuttle was floating away from its temporary dock.

Garrick watched as the ship moved halfway through the shuttle bay before stopping. A rough rendition of the outside appeared, with The Sibilis highly recognizable. One side was almost ripped apart, while the rest looked like it had been slammed repeatedly into a wall. A new course appeared through the debris field, which was updated as things moved. After a short while, the shuttle began turning.

"I have created a course, captain Dasbartin."

"Good," Garrick said, remaining in the chair. After we return, I will head out to check something. If I am not back in ninety minutes after leaving, you are to head to The Sibilis and dock on the large hole on the southwest of the left engine. Touch the hull and begin using Morse code to tell Engineer Macdewil where you are. As soon as someone appears, let them board and explain what has happened here."

"Yes, Captain."

"Good. Also, tell them this-"

Garrick quickly retold what had happened, including a typed message for Macdewil. When everything was done, he floated back to the exit and looked at Hilbert's remains.

Too bad you can never tell me how you got your first promotion, he thought.

A minute later, he was floating away from the shuttle, two ancient glocks on his legs.

"Now, let's see what can scare some alien AI," he thought.