Ronin’s eyes opened slowly, and he stared up at his hotel room ceiling for long moments, just getting his bearings. He’d had the strangest dream, but it only took a moment for him to run his fingers through his hair, to prove nothing had actually happened. He hadn’t been brain jacked by Owl Two, and Doctor Mycroft hadn’t buried a thumbnail sized piece of crystal in his brain to…
“It should be healed by now,” Elyria, who’d been sitting on the edge of his bed unnoticed said, dashing his delusions on the rocks of reality. “How are you feeling?” He shifted around on the bed, until he was looking at her, but he didn’t bother getting up.
“Like I got brain jacked by an artificial intelligence, then had said brain drilled by an ancient doctor who added half her body weight in breasts to compensate for old age.” Ronin said, not mincing words as he told her straight. She winced but didn’t look as apologetic as she had in the operating room, however long ago that had been.
“I asked how you were feeling, not for a summery of events as they happened.” She said, a trace of her old smirk touching her lips. “And…Doctor Mycroft saved your life, try to be a little nicer to her face, will you?” Ronin felt bad for his words instantly, after seeing the pain they caused Elyria. On reflex, he pushed the feelings down, turning the emotion off in his head, a second later, he no longer felt guilty. Proving he wasn’t completely free of the program. Not wanting to cheat himself where he didn’t have too, Ronin stopped pressing down in his emotions, allowing himself to feel the embarrassment full force.
“Sorry about that,” he said after a minute. “No disrespect intended, it’s just…” he trailed off, thinking about the last few months of his life.
“I understand, so would the Doc, but still, never a good idea to get on the wrong side of the one who’s job it is to save your life, right?” To which Ronin could only nod in agreement. “How much do you remember?”
“I’m… not sure,” Ronin admitted, scratching his head where he assumed a scar would have been if he didn’t heal so fast. “I’ll tell you what I remember, and you tell me what I missed, ok?”
“Deal,” she said, moving closer to him on the bed to make herself comfortable, as Ronin tried to organize his thoughts, while ignoring the moon elf now leaning her shoulder against his.
“The day we got the new bodies, I remember feeling like I was on top of the world. The regret was gone. The feeling of betrayal over what Undercity did, and…” Ronin talked about what he remembered for hours. Elyria was a good listener, never interrupting and always nodding and making encouraging noises whenever he slowed down. It was only after he finished that she sat up and looked at him directly again.
“That’s pretty close actually.” She said, almost seeming surprised by the admission. “It seems like it first started to affect your judgment about the refugees and slowly escalated from there. The main points you didn’t cover are…” now it was Ronin’s turn to listen to her explaining things he should already know. Conversations they’d had where he seemed to forget half the things she said almost as soon as she said it. Times when he’d misrepresent something, like the math on the amount of food they had. It was true they’d run out if they went all the way to colony 12, but that world was on the far side of lizard-controlled space. If they changed course to a closer planet, they’d be able to stay on board for years without concern, especially if they’d cycled through the stasis stones to conserve food. Yet, whenever she raised any counter arguments, he didn’t seem to even hear them. While he grew more irritable and paranoid by the day.
She explained how she’d asked the Doc to look into K3’s head, to see what she found. It hadn’t taken her long to find the program, nestled deep inside the kaldarr’s brain. Thankfully, she’d been able to cut it out easily enough. When it came to Elyria’s turn, things got a little more complicated. The program had buried itself into her long-term memory and she hadn’t been willing to lose any of her memories in order to get it out. They’d managed it in the end, but it had taken days of slow, methodical cutting to get the entire program. That’s why she’d disappeared on him for so long, Ronin realized as he listened, because she’d been going through the operation, then recovering afterwards.
“Any idea why the program went crazy on me, but left the two of you alone?”
“Unfortunately, no,” she replied, snuggling closer to him. “We captured Xerox after you went under. We did a few scans of his brain too and found he is a lot more human than he likes to pretend. I mean his brain is bigger than ours, it looks like he used the extra material left over from you only bringing eighteen people across to give himself a boost. But he isn’t a computer. He’s a living, breathing person just like us, the main difference is he had a bunch of memories implanted during his creation. A guide he was supposed to follow from Owl Two. It was actually the AI itself doing most of the work on the colony ship, Xerox was just the hands it used to get the physical work done.”
“Is he still being contained?” Ronin asked, doing his best to ignore the fact Elyria had worked her way under the covers, and was now snuggling up to him.
“No, after we realized he didn’t know as much as we thought, we let him go. Got Mei and Rem watching him though, he isn’t allowed to use a computer of any type without Mycroft watching. He’s spent the last week down in the engine rooms, helping out the beetles.”
“The last week?” Ronin asked, voice going a little higher as shock, and Elyria’s hands hit him at the same time.
“Yea, you’ve been out for a week or so… now, are you going to keep talking, or can we move onto… other things already?” Ronin tilted his head back, looking at her face for a long moment before he said anything.
“I, don’t want to sound insensitive, but about your hus…”
“Listen, White Flame,” Elyria said putting a finger to his lips and glaring into his face. “Moon elves have strong customs when it comes to marriage and what a widow or widower does after a marriage ends. Because the death of a spouse is the only honorable way for a marriage to end. I’m considered young by my kind’s standards, and I took it really hard. But I’ve followed you since just days after his death, and I’ve largely gotten passed it now. But to answer your immediate question, I’m fine. I know what I’m doing, and I’ve had a lot more free time than you the last few months to do some major soul searching… Now, shut up and kiss me already.”
What more could he say? He’d been holding himself back in regard to her for long enough. Thanks to the feeling of obligation, he had towards Lily and Vasylia, and the lingering feelings he had towards Owl Five. Now, after so many months in her company, he didn’t want to hold back anymore. He still took it slow, wanting to let her set the pace, just in case it proved more than she was ready to handle, but Ronin was done denying himself what he wanted in life.
* * *
Several hours later, Ronin and Elyria moved from his bed to the shower, then to the bridge where they met with Leo, Mycroft, Xerox and K3. Ronin felt a little sheepish, when he saw the giant, but he forced himself not to suppress the emotions. Instead, walking directly towards the warrior, before he even acknowledged the others.
“Listen,” he said, stopping in front of the eight-foot tall kaldarr, and straightening his shoulders. “I’m sorry about…” his words ended when K3 swooped him up in a bear hug that took him more than a foot from the ground.
“Don’t you worry about a thing boss,” K3 said a smile clear in his voice as he spoke into Ronin’s ear. “You weren’t yourself, that was obvious to all of us. Besides, you’re the boss. Telling me what to do is your right… and a…” the giant leaned in real close and whispered directly into Ronin’s ear. “Congratulations on finally getting some boss… I mean sure, the lady pretty much had to force you into it, again, but…” It was Ronin’s turn to cut the giant off, breaking his hold and dropping the foot to the ground.
“Knock it off you big lug,” Ronin said, though he couldn’t hide the relief from seeping into his voice at being on ok terms with the giant. He knew the kaldarr had to do what he ordered him to do, that the nanites engendered feelings of loyalty in those who were injected with them. Yet he also knew, having Benjamin as an example, if the kaldarr didn’t want to follow him, it would take a string of direct orders to make him. The relief Ronin felt in that moment was stronger than he’d ever admit to anyone.
“Nice to see you too kid, your welcome for saving your life.” Doctor Mycroft said, crossing her arms and stamping a foot. Ronin couldn’t believe a woman as brilliant as she was, could act so childish.
“Thank you, Doc,” Ronin said, turning away from K3 and moving to give the lab coated woman a hug as well. She accepted it, but pushed him away quickly, face going red as her hair in embarrassment.
“Ahem… it was a, don’t mention it.” She said, moving back behind a now laughing Leo as she composed herself.
“Glad to have you back kid,” Leo said, moving forward to shake Ronin’s hand in one of his massive paws. The lionid was still bigger and a more experienced fighter than Ronin, but that gap had narrowed considerably now, thanks to his newly enhanced body, training, and combat experience. The larger man could still tear him apart in a melee duel, but Ronin fancied he’d give him a run for his money if they’d have done the tree climb challenge again.
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience posed to you by a faulty program.” Xerox said, coming over and giving Ronin a deep bow. “I assure you my original would never have sanctioned something like…”
“It’s fine, Xerox.” Ronin said, having already heard from Elyria the copy was denying all knowledge of the program or that his original would have done it knowingly. For all Ronin knew, he was right. Perhaps it really was a big misunderstanding, but it didn’t matter. Owl Two, or what was left of him anyway, had burned the last of Ronin’s good will. He’d already had a face to face with Mycroft over tablet earlier, and she’d assured him what he had in mind would work. “Let’s just get started, ok? There isn’t anything else for us to do on the ship, since the beetles and the technologists seem more than happy to do the work. Since they’re doing their job, it only seems right that we do ours too.”
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“Of course, my lord, but are you ready to go already? You only just recovered from your ordeal. Wouldn’t you prefer taking a little time to get back on your feet before you leave for the AI core? Once you enter that world, you won’t be able to leave again until you either succeed or die.” Ronin looked at the copy and debated what to say. They’d discussed this already, over comms and outside Xerox ability to overhear, but they were going to take him with them. Not only that, but they were going to check the brains of everyone still awake before they left, to check for hidden programming that could come back to bite them.
“Thank you for your concern, Xerox.” He said at last, deciding to wait until the last minute to explain his plans. “It means a lot to me, and I think I agree with you. It’s been a crazy couple of months. Maybe I’ll take a few more weeks to recover. I need to train some more and get a better understanding of what’s expected of me there. Perhaps, you can spend a few hours with me every day to instruct me on my role?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Xerox said, genuine happiness coming across in his tone. That gave Ronin pause, but only for a moment. There was too much riding on this for him to let sentiment cloud his judgment.
“Thank you,” he said instead, turning to the group as a whole. “Then, I guess we should get to the reason I asked you all to meet with me today.” He gestured towards a table that had been set up to accommodate all of them. “Please, sit down.” He didn’t say anything else, until everyone had been seated, and, just when Leo in particular looked like he was about to say something, he raised a hand.
“I have your drinks, meowster.” Mei said, appearing out of thin air, or at least seeming to, at his gesture. She carried a tray loaded down with cups and the decanter from Ronin’s room containing the poisoned nutrient fluid. Rem, who’d also appeared at the gesture, swiftly passed out the cups and took the tray from Mei, who was even now pouring everyone a glass of the liquor substitute.
“What’s this?” Leo asked, taking a sniff of the glass, and lapping his tongue into it, looking like an oversized house cat. “Hey, this is…”
“It’s something the good Doctor prepared, perhaps on accident, but fitting nonetheless.” Ronin said, taking his glass and standing up to look each of his companions in the eye. “I want to thank each of you, for everything you’ve done to help me up to this point. I know, you would have done it regardless just to get off the planet,” he added, before Leo could interject. “But still, I couldn’t have made it this far without all of you, pushing me along, and helping me overcome my lack of knowledge. And look around…” this time, he gestured to the walls of the bridge.
As he spoke, they turned opaque, before lighting up with the pallet of space. They’d left the Sol system behind, but the sun could still be seen as a larger than average star far behind them, as the ship headed deeper into the center of the galaxy.
“We made it to space guys.” He continued excitedly, waving his glass around at the view. “It was only a small chance, a hope more than anything. But we worked at it, gave it our all. Now look at us. I know, there’s a long way to go, and we aren’t out of the woods yet. Hell, we only have to look back to see that.” Here he gestured at the pair of lizard ships, still doggedly pursuing them through the void.
“But we’ve come a long way. Further than I ever would have imagined, when Alexander beat me to death, and a lazy guard sent me through to take his place, just because he didn’t feel like doing the paperwork.” Ronin tried to ignore the wince Leo made at the mention of his son. He didn’t want to rub it in, but it was a part of his path that he wouldn’t ignore just because it made the older man uncomfortable. His mind wandered to the lazy guard as he talked, wondering if he’d left on the human ship, or if he’d died on earth, since, Ronin hadn’t seen him among the refugees in Temple city.
“I just wanted to say thank you, and remind you all how far we’ve come, before we get bogged down in how far we still have to go.” Ronin raised his glass high overhead, smiling at his people as he said, “to each of you, with my thanks.” Before taking a long drink, followed by everyone at the table, including Xerox, whom Ronin half-expected to refrain.
The night passed quickly, each of them drinking far more than was safe, with Xerox actually throwing up after imbibing too much. It wasn’t a pleasant sight, thanks to his lack of a proper mouth. Still, the copy seemed to have a good time, and opened up more to Ronin during the training sessions that followed. As for Ronin, he drank almost as much as the copy, and was forced to lean on Elyria as they made their way back to his room. Leo and Red had already left, and if the noise coming from their cargo container room was any indication, Ronin knew where they’d gone. He felt bad for K3 for a moment, since the kaldarr didn’t have anyone to spend his night with, but the thought fled his mind as soon as Elyria pushed him through his door.
* * *
“My lord, I really think you should reconsider.” Xerox said, from his position at the table Ronin had set up inside the core room beneath the bridge. “I am far more valuable to you out here, where I can help direct the path you take upon entering the joined…” Ronin tuned him out as he turned away from the bound copy.
It had been a month since they had their victory party. A month where Ronin used every bit of time, he’d been given sparring with K3 and O54, whom he’d nicknamed Grapple, much to her delight. Learned everything Xerox could teach him about the world they were going into, it wasn’t as much as he’d hoped, the Doc was right about the copy not knowing what he pretended too. As well as spending a fair number of nights in the company of a certain moon elf. They’d delighted in getting to know each other better now the wall between them had been breached at last.
Doctor Mycroft had finished doing a deep scan of everyone who they intended to leave awake, determining many of them had been unmodified, but that several of them, O54 and a few of the other team leaders included, had small, inactive programs placed inside their brains. She’d removed them all and made dang sure the stasis stones and spare bodies weren’t easily accessible. Just in case something went wrong. Now, they were all inside the core room ready to go fight for control of the core.
Except, Ronin had no intention of giving control of the core to Owl Two. No, that ship had sailed the moment he realized the AI messed with so many of their brains. He’d spent hours of his free time with Doctor Mycroft, Elyria and K3, theory crafting different ways they could take, and keep control of the core. Sadly, they hadn’t come up with anything concrete, but that was ok. They had time. In fact, they had nothing but time, since unless they stopped to be killed by lizards, it would be a few hundred million years before they reached colony 12, where they would probably be killed by lizards anyway. They did all have a basic understanding of what they would find when they entered the core. A world contested by the two AI, broken up into a grid, each section of the grid with a control node. They had to conquer more than half those sections in order to win. Apart from that, no one was sure what they’d find inside, since the battle would be between two artificial intelligences, each with more processing power than the entire pre fall population of earth could have produced combined.
“Everyone ready?” Mycroft asked. The doctor and her nephew were making the rounds, checking the connections between Ronin, Elyria, K3 and Xerox to the cores. Both of which had been shoved together, with only the barest of inches separating them. Jaya, who was present with an Exo-suit, would push the cores into contact with one another at the same time as Ronin and the others were sent in. She wasn’t coming, neither was Karr, or any of the others. Mycroft and Leo were staying behind too, to keep an eye on everything and continue the research into ship-built bodies, and ways to take control of the cores. At least, Mycroft would be researching, Leo was only going to keep her company.
“I’m good,” Ronin said, mirrored by both Elyria and K3 a moment later.
“My lord please, I must insist.” Xerox said, still trying to wheedle his way out of going. “I’ve done some research into the methodology Doctor Mycroft used to contain the malware that afflicted you. She used a stasis stone as a base to contain it. As a cage it worked perfectly well, but I’m afraid it will have a negative reaction to the…”
“Thank you, Xerox but I’ll take my chances.” Ronin said, interrupting the copy before he could really get going again. He’d heard this before and talked to Mycroft about it. She’d agreed it was theoretically possible for the chip of stasis stone in his head to have a negative reaction when his brain was connected to the AI core. The chances were just so low everyone felt it the safer risk, vs taking it out, and letting the program Owl Two put in his head have its way with his mind.
“Then I wish you the best of luck.” Mycroft said, nodding to Jaya, who gave Ronin a silent salute, before shoving the AI cores the final few inches into contact with one another. At the same time, Doctor Mycroft pressed a button on her tablet. Ronin, who sat between Elyria and K3, held both of their hands tightly in his. He looked across the table at Xerox, who was still protesting the safety of going across with a stasis stone in contact with his brain and smiled. Each of them was hooked up to an IV bag, with enough nutrient fluid to keep them going for a decade. Mei and Rem were stationed nearby with a decade’s worth of fluid for themselves as well. They’d stay in this room, watching over their bodies, for as long as it took for Ronin to either come out, or for them all to die of starvation.
“See you on the other side,” he said, squeezing his friend’s and his lover’s hands tightly in his own, as the world faded away around him.
* * *
When Ronin next came to himself, he was standing on a dirt path, partially covered in snow, halfway up a mountain. The area to either side of the trail was cleared away a good hundred yards to either side of the path, but after that, a blend of coniferous and deciduous trees dominated the landscape. He must have been fairly high up, because it was cold, and snow fell lazily around him from further up the path. Looking himself over, he found he was back in his cyborg body, but he was empty handed. He didn’t have so much as a dagger on him, let alone a mark V or a kanabo. Hell, he didn’t even have his White Flame armor on. He was dressed in an outfit that looked to be made entirely from mountain goat hide, from boots to the horned hat on his head and the cloak on his shoulders. Looking around, he tried to spot his friends. It didn’t take long for him to realize he was alone. Cursing, he called out for Elyria and K3. No one answered, then he tried his comm unit, he wasn’t wearing one, then he began to panic. Where were they, why didn’t they answer him? After a moment, he forced the panic away, thankful that his ability to suppress his emotions was still working. Opening his interface, he pulled up his map.
He was on a mountainside, with what looked like a temple at the mountain’s peak and a large town in the valley in the mountain’s foothills, and the map shape was a perfect hexagon. It looked somewhat familiar, but Ronin couldn’t place where he’d seen it before. He was actually surprised his mini map showed so much detail, normally when he entered a new area it would be covered by the fog of war, only becoming visible as he personally explored. How filled in this map was indicated he’d either seen this place before, or had been here already, though he was sure that wasn’t the case. Shaking his head, he scanned the hex map, looking for the most likely place for the node to be placed.
He assumed it had to be either in the village, or the temple, because they were the only real standout locations. There was also a mine near the village, but he would save that for last considering it unlikely that the section node would be in a mine. Glancing up and down the trail, Ronin decided to check out the temple first, since the top of the mountain was completely wreathed in wicked looking storm clouds. Shrinking the map back into the corner of his vision, Ronin squared his shoulders and trudged up the path, into the thickening snowfall.
“Help me.” He hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards when he heard someone shouting for help. Looking around, it didn’t take long to spot a young man, dashing for all he was worth down the trail. Ronin focused his eyes, and grinned happily when the telescoping function worked perfectly, as his eyes zoomed in on the kid. “Help me,” he shouted again, and Ronin shifted his gaze behind the kid, to find a giant wolf nipping at his heels.
Focusing on the wolf, Ronin took in the creature’s appearance. It was nearly the same size as the young man, perhaps the size of one of earth’s mastiff dog breeds. With long, shaggy white fur highlighted with various shades of blue, that looked like ice clinging to its body. Some kind of ice wolf then, he wondered as the chase continued towards him. A moment later, that guess was confirmed, when the wolf opened its jaws wide, and a beam of freezing air shot from its mouth and headed right for the young man.