Definitely has its perks, Garrick thought as he grabbed a handhold, trying to ignore the constant muscle ache from his back.

He scanned the hallway for the next, which made a lot easier now that his H.U.D. had added lines that overlaid his view. They highlighted objects and debris barely visible to him, a trick of Y implants he'd heard about but never experienced before. It wasn't like he could now see in the dark, but Crux used every tiny bit he could see to create a crisper digital overlay.

One of the great benefits was that he could move much faster and was already halfway to the shuttle bay. By now, his headache was nearly gone, and his breathing was much better.

It's not like it would hurt, Garrick thought as he made a diction.

He'd been pondering what was happening to his body ever since leaving the mainframe room, and as much as he might wish everything was normal, it wasn't.

"Add a status for my heart, brain, and the rest of the damage to my body," he said as he pulled himself further through the hallway.

"Does this work, Captain?" Crux asked as a small humanoid figure appeared in the corner of Garrick's vision.

It showed his heart, brain, and the areas around his chest and back in a dark red while the rest of his body was orange. Focusing on it for a few moments increased the size of the humanoid figure.

I guess I'm still pretty banged up, Garrick thought before he had an idea.

"Is this based on my previous physical condition, or based on what after the implant fixes things?"

"This is based on your body's optimal potential functions, Captain," Crux.

"Show me an image beside that of before and after the damage," Garrick said as he pulled himself forward hard enough for his shoulder muscles to pull painfully.

Another image appeared beside the humanoid figure, showing most of his body as green and his brain and heart as red.

"What exactly are you proposing to do to fix me?" Garrick asked.

"Repair the damaged tendons and muscles and remove old scar tissue from within your body," Crux said. "Also, we should fix some of the damage that has accumulated within your organs."

"I thought we agreed that you wouldn't be doing any unsanctioned changes to my body with those… tendrils?" Garrick said, his focus drifting to the highly damaged figure.

Part of him wanted to be upset, the part that was telling him that no contact with LLM or AI was ever good. The other, older part of him, who had to get out of bed twice each night and whose hips hurt when lowering into a chair, didn't agree. It told him that if he was going to get what remained of his crew and the rest of the fleet's crew into some stable situation where they might survive the year, he would need every bit of help he could.

"Captain, none of this would change you," Crux said calmly. "It would just return your body to its most optimal state and require little to no invasive-"

"Crux. From now on, you are not to do anything that deals with my body without my express permission," Garrick said before hesitating. "That said. You may try and repair me as long as it doesn't mean tendrils throughout my body. Or any other cyborg stuff."

"Yes, Captain."

A few minutes later, Garrick pulled himself into the shuttle bay, not surprised that the shuttle he and Hilbert had used was gone. He looked around, frowning. The most likely candidates had been checked, but that didn't mean there wasn't another shuttle he could use to get back.

"Let's go and see which of these shuttles is still operational enough," he said.

--

"Dammit!"

Macdewil slammed his fist into the hull of the shuttle as he stared at Hilbert's body.

Garrick why… why didn't you just come back and check later?

He shook his head, holding back a growl. The Captain would have never done that; he'd always been prone to these things- atleast when he was younger. Apparently, he was still capable of the risky behavior if he deemed it necessary.

"Lead Engineer Macdewil, I have a personal message for you from Captain Dasbartin."

Macdewil held back his desire to hit the hull again.

"Send it over," he said, feeling a sinking suspicion in his stomach.

An archaic icon of a tiny envelope turned from empty into filled with a tiny blue letter. Usually, he enjoyed it, the sense of ancientness it gave, from a bygone time when the paper was still used. Now, all he could do was click on the 'read aloud' option, something he rarely did.

"Jack, if you get this message, it means I didn't get back to the shuttle. Obviously."

Macdewil shook his head at Garrick's gallows humor.

"The LLM should have told you what has happened, but… Jack. The feeling I got? It was horrendous as if all my worst fears were somewhere toward engineering. I don't know exactly what I will find, but if it's causing the Precursor AI such worry, it has to be something useful. That said, apparently, whatever it was kept me from returning in a timely manner."

Macdewil sighed, knowing that what was left unsaid was that it meant the Captain might well be dead by now.

"Now. You are not to return to that ship for a week! If I'm not back by then, rig up another rocket and blow it up. We can't have whatever it is out there. Also, if this happened on one ship, it could have happened on others. Start creating precautions. Lastly, if I don't return within a week, you're in command. Good luck."

Macdewil took a deep breath, then reread the message quickly before turning to Rikkert. The younger engineer was staring at the remains of Hilbert with a mixture of fear and sadness.

"Go and warn Yuri of what has happened; leave Hiblert's body here."

Rikker nodded and left, seeming more than happy to leave Macdewil alone with Hilbert's body.

Dammit, Macdewil thought as he glared at Hilbert, picturing some alien AI juiced implant within him. I hope it's because they went to that ship and it's not something that is happening to all of us.

--

"-and now attach the cable to the fourth coupling."

Garrick did as Crux instructed, following the example that was playing out in his H.U.D.

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As he finished attaching the finger-thick cable, he pulled his hands back.

"That's it?" he asked, staring at the wire-filled area.

"Yes, Captain. You can try the jumpstart again," Crux said calmly.

Jumpstart, Garrick thought, unable to keep the smile from his face.

He pulled himself through the shuttle toward the other open area. An old button was visible amongst the wiring. So far, they'd failed to get two shuttles up and running, and he'd been pushing this button for half an hour. If it failed to, he'd have to return to The Tealclaw. Again.

Half a day had passed already, and he'd peddled back and forth to The Tealclaw multiple times to extend the timer he'd given it.

He pushed the button, expecting nothing, so he was stunned as a round of lights began lighting up everywhere around him. He looked around, feeling a sense of accomplishment he'd not felt in a while. Although it was mostly the assistance of Crux, he still had done more mechanical things than he had since he'd finished graduation.

After a few moments, he pulled himself out of the tiny engine room. The rest of the ship looked horrible, with a long gaping hole in one side of the hull, which was the only way he'd been able to enter as the docking port had been totaled.

"Shuttle three is booting up, and its LLM seems to be operating as it should," Crux said. "Your disconnection of the external communications systems was also successful. The Precursor AI's attempts to connect to it are not working."

"Good, that's half of what we need taken care of," Garrick said as he pulled himself into the cockpit. "Now, figure out if this piece of scrap metal is going to be able to carry us back."

He sat down in the pilot chair, which was the least damaged part of the shuttle, and he thrummed his fingers on the armrest. The pilot's control in front of him was nearly entirely ripped to shreds by the beam that had been slammed through the side of the cockpit.

A minute later, a dull thrum ran through the chair, and the outside lit up slightly.

"The engines are still functional, though it is hard to say how long they will last," Crux said. "They should be enough to get us back to The Sibilis."

"Finally, some good news," Garrick said, closing his eyes, glad the headache from dehydration was slowly fading.

"Let's head back to The Tealclaw and extend the time again. Then we will check on the cryopods."

Crux didn't answer as he pulled himself out of the shuttle and back into the shuttle bay.

When he was some distance away, he turned and looked around the shadowy area. Light leaked in from the outside, giving him much better visibility than further inside the ship. Shuttle Three was still partially hidden behind a bit of debris, but none seemed attached to anything, so it should be fine to just force it away from it.

Garrick looked at it for a while, then steeled himself for what was likely to come.

He pulled himself back into the hallway that would lead to a section he hadn't been in yet, the underbelly of the ship - the extra plated side that held the cryo bay.

The hallways got more and more damaged as he continued until it was a hodgepodge of slowly spinning debris and shadows. The usually closed, plated doors were changed into a crumpled mess, shoved sideways by whatever had slammed away the hull and dozens of meters of the ship between the hull and where he was.

Not a good sign, Garrick thought as he saw one of the cryopods, azure-glass cover cracked, lodged partially into the side of the wall. The figure inside was barely visible among the debris.

He pulled himself toward the pod and saw that even the metal identity plate had been scraped clear of, meaning he had no way of finding out who it had been.

I guess it doesn't matter much, he thought sadly.

After a weary sigh, he pulled himself through the cracked entrance into what was normally a pale-lit, neat room with dozens of stacked crypods along the walls. Now it looked like a bomb had gone off, and the ceiling, roof, and walls were unrecognizable messes of sharp, half-molten metal, glass, and wire, all tangled through each other.

"Captain, moving in there could potentially puncture your suit," Crux said, sounding as calm as if he was suggesting to get another cup of coffee.

Garrick didn't react but pulled himself to the nearest cryopod that was outside of the danger zone. Like the other one, the sapphire glass was broken, and the person inside looked like a pale, plastic doll with fake wounds covering its face and chest. It was hard to say if the body had been a man or a woman, and Garrick felt his weariness grow.

This time, the metal plate was there, and Garrick quickly removed the removable nametag, stuffing it in one of the pockets of his suit. He looked around and quickly located a six-foot-long curved piece of metal a hand wide. Grabbing it, he began clearing out the small and sharp cloud of debris so he could reach the next cryopod.

It, too, held nothing but a corpse.

Garrick felt his mood darken as he continued. Finally, the fifteenth cryopod he found showed an intact sapphire-glass faceshield. It was darkened to hide the face behind it.

"Crux… prepare to hold back a larger attack," he said.

"Ready, Captain."

Garrick hesitated for only a second, then put his hand on the glass.

It cleared up while the edges glowed with a pale blue light, and he almost pushed himself back as a horrifying mix of flesh and metallic wires and plating soundlessly screamed at him. The skin of the forehead and cheeks was cut apart, tiny pieces of metal protruding out of it. The mouth had widened, and the eyes were whirling pools of tiny glowing lights.

"What…" Garrick grunted as he felt his stomach heave and roil.

"The cryopods' mechanisms have been overridden, and they are burning through their power source. At this speed, it will likely last no more than a week. Also, Captain, we are experiencing a large increase in the signal attack. It is, however, uncoordinated. From what I can determine, the crewmember's LLM has no LLM or AI, but an automated process is in place. Would you like me to try and destroy it?"

Garrick licked his lips.

"Is…" he hesitated and glanced at the name tag. "Sally still alive?" he asked.

"Crewmen Sally Obriar is physically still alive. However, it is unlikely that her mind has survived the process that has been inflicted upon her," Flux said.

"And you can destroy. This?"

"I can destroy the automated process, which will likely stop whatever is happening. I can also attempt to upload a regular LLM into the remnants of the implant."

Garrick stared at Sally Obriar, barely resembling a human, and his hands clenched around the edges of the cryopod lid.

"Do it."

"Yes, Captain. It will take a few minutes."

Garrick didn't respond but waited as he watched the face snarl and bite at him. He knew that even though the eyes had no more pupils that he could detect, the thing was staring at him.

In the end, it took seven minutes before the snarling stopped, and the eyes dulled.

"Captain, Sally Obriar's implant has been changed beyond anything that can be used, and her entire body has been changed into what appears to be a battery. Her fat percentage is down to four percent, while all her organs have shrunk to lethal sizes. The energy was being used to boost the signal used by the Precursor LLM."

Garrick knew it was hopeless, but he wanted to know.

"Can you change what happened to her?"

"No, Captain. I can keep her alive for another few days, then she will die."

Garrick ground his teeth.

This is what you get from unsanctioned LLM and AI, he thought.

It took a few seconds to calm himself and then he sighed.

"If you return the crypod to its regular functions, how long can we keep her frozen?"

"The crypod has been changed too much, Captain. It isn't able to return Sally Obriar to cryosleep."

Garrick felt his anger fade as he stared at the face of what had been a human only days before.

"Can you end it?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, Captain. I am unable to harm any human."

Garrick looked at the figure in the crypod before sighing.

"Show me all the information about the cryopod," he said.

A stream of images, movies, and text flowed into a portion of his H.U.D.

It took Garrick half an hour to locate what he needed, after which he opened a panel on the bottom of the crypod and removed the power cables.

"Sally Obriar has passed away, Captain," Crux said, his voice oddly soft.

"Note it in my personal log and include all the information you have garnered," Garrick whispered.

He retrieved his metal pole and continued clearing out the debris.

It took a long time, as he had to return to The Greenclaw and continue extending the timer, but in the end, he finished with the cryopods. Most had been blissfully destroyed during the explosions, but he found dozens of crypods that had been infected.

All of the inhabitants were beyond saving.

Garrick held the back of nameplates as he glided back through the dead and empty Greenclaw.

"Captain, your mental readings show you are experiencing highly elevated levels of stress," Crux said calmly.

"Yes," Garrick just said as he reached the shuttle bay.

As he entered the Shuttle Three, and made his way to what remained of the cockpit. Sitting down in the pilot's chair, he closed his eyes.

"Take us to The Sibilis along the course I showed you," he said groggily. "Wake me when we are almost there."

"Yes, Captain."

Garrick didn't hear his response, as he was already asleep.