Ronin sat in his hotel room chair, staring at the projection in front of him. They’d been in space for over a month now, and he was finally able to breathe. Not that it was exactly how he’d expected it to be. There were several problems on Ronin’s mind, including the revolving image before him. Although it wasn’t the most immediate threat, it was the deadliest. He remembered back to when Doctor Mycroft had called him to the bridge, the day they’d launched.
He’d run at full tilt, getting lost only once and having to be corrected by an equally worried Elyria. They’d reached the bridge to find Sam had been moved, and over one hundred yokai had come into the bridge to watch the prisoners after they’d left. It was most of the yokai on the ship, and Ronin worried about the other thousand refugees who were somewhere else, now largely unsupervised. That is, until he looked at the image now displayed on the screens, and he stopped worrying about the prisoners.
“I thought we’d gotten away,” Elyria said beside him, echoing Ronin’s thoughts exactly. For, far behind them, and just now leaving earth, were the remaining pair of lizard cube ships. The ones that hadn’t been damaged by Sam’s dropship attacks. They must have been on the moon, or on the other side of the planet or something, because it had taken them hours to get on their trail, not that it mattered, since they hadn’t gotten away after all.
“How long until they catch us?” Ronin heard himself asking, as he stared at the two cubes, even now hooking themselves together into a large rectangle shape, as they chased after the fleeing ship.
“That depends,” Mycroft said, coming over to stand beside the pair. “Our engines aren’t as good as theirs, since we had to cobble them together from left over parts, and components Xerox brought from the colony ship. The engines don’t run full time though, once they get us up to speed, they’ll shut off and only activate again if we need to maneuver. So, if we can work on the engines, get a little more thrust out of them, then theoretically they might never catch us. Assuming we never have to slow to maneuver or want to land, that is. I’ll need more time to run the numbers, but best guess, we can avoid them until we have to restock the food supply and refuel the engines.”
They’d talked through several scenarios over the next few minutes, before Mycroft excused herself, and took K3 with her as she went to check on Samantha. Ronin, realizing he had responsibilities too, took one last look at the ships and got to work organizing the prisoners into groups, to be sent back into their personal worlds.
Ronin took a sip from a concentrated sap concoction that Doctor Mycroft came up with. It was technically poison, but simulated the effects of alcohol nicely, and didn’t take the body too long to purge. After that, Elyria left him to look after the prisoners as she went about, whatever it was she wanted to do. It had been close to a month now, and Ronin hadn’t talked with her much in all that time. Not only her, But K3 was avoiding him too. Ronin sat in his chair, watching the ship rotate around the desk, all the while, the two threats creeped closer, and sipped his drink.
He’d kept himself busy, learning what he could, and helping Xerox put the traitors back into their stasis stones, where they effectively ceased to be once power was cut. During that period, he learned of another problem they faced, food. They’d taken on way more refugees than the ship’s stores could comfortably support. At least, the stores Owl Two had set aside for them, and they’d gathered on earth before they left.
There were just too many people, each requiring a glass of nutrient fluid every couple of days. That didn’t seem like much, until he added up the thousand or so refugees, the sixty beetles, the yokai who numbered over a hundred, the technologists and the twilight court, along with the others Ronin had fought alongside. A cup of fluid a day, divided between one thousand people was something like sixty gallons every day or two, despite the barrels of sap they’d gathered, and the crates of crystal cores they’d harvested, it was unsustainable.
So, after talking with Xerox, Ronin made the obvious choice, and sent everyone back into the stasis stones who wasn’t absolutely vital to the repair of the ship. Elyria hadn’t seemed happy about that decision, but the one he’d made after, was the one that caused the separation between them. He’d done the math with Xerox and discovered, even void of movement, every living body required nutrients to maintain. In the grand scheme of things, it was a miniscule amount, but at their best speed, they were hundreds of millions of years away from the destination Sam had set for them. So, he’d gone through the list, and recycled all the bodies that wouldn’t serve a purpose to them in the long run.
Elyria hadn’t been happy. She’d seen him putting hundreds of good bodies into the woodchipper and freaked out at him. Saying they didn’t know what they’d find at their destination. They didn’t know which one of those people might hold the skills or Knowledge they’d need to get through a difficult situation, and several other arguments he had a hard time refuting. Except for the math. He’d shown her the math, and it had seemed to help. Shown her, without sacrificing those bodies now, reclaiming their resources and saving what it would cost to keep them running, they would be able to make it to the planet, if only barely. To which, she’d walked away from him and not return. That had been nearly two weeks ago, and Ronin was getting anxious.
Taking another sip from his drink, Ronin pulled up the menu on his tablet, and changed the image in the projection. Now instead of the bedraggled, old cube ship, cobbled together with spare plates and glue, a green planet rotated around the desk. It was huge, more than twice the size of earth, and looked larger still, thanks to the trees that extended out into space so far, they’d forced the atmosphere to extend around them. Ronin had no idea how that worked, having believed it wasn’t possible to extend the atmosphere around a planet, but it had happened here, where the trees pushed out into space so far that if one were to break off, it would have the mass needed to form a new, tree-shaped moon.
The planet was listed in his tablet as colony 12 and was the destination Sam had set for them. One of the oldest planets in the elder race’s empire, deep inside their territory. Ronin had all but panicked when he realized where they were heading. How could Sam and Owl Two set them up to die like that? Until Xerox explained to him the lizards were focused on conquering new planets. They rarely ever went back to planets they’d already wiped of sentient life. So, as long as they could get there unobserved, they’d be safe, for a while anyway, and in such an old world they wouldn’t have any trouble at all securing every resource they could dream of, to fix and improve their ship. Ronin wasn’t sure how he felt about that, remembering what Leo had once told him about wasps the size of dragons.
The problem was, even if they wanted to, they couldn’t change course. Not until they’d merged Owl Two’s core with the original AI core from this ship at any rate. The android had done it again, gotten them stuck on a collision course with disaster, with pursuers just behind them, ready to pounce whenever they stopped. They didn’t have a choice but to do as he wanted and help him take over the core. No. It wasn’t the android’s fault. He was just doing what was necessary in order to save the most people in his core.
The thought wiggled its way into his mind as he sipped his poison drink. Ronin wondered about that, was it true though? Xerox had said there were thousands upon thousands of stasis stones they’d had to dig through to find the ones from the people on the ground. Why didn’t he just grab them all if the point was to save as many people as possible?... Then again, it was possible he had. This ship was huge after all, he hadn’t been to every compartment yet. It was just as likely Xerox had only pulled out the ones that would serve Ronin’s purposes and left the rest in storage. Either way, it wasn’t something he should worry about right now. It was Elyria and K3 who needed to be worried about.
Nodding along as he thought, Ronin took another sip and forgot about the stasis stones, focusing instead on his companions. Why were they avoiding him like this? What had he done? Sure, he’d recycled a few hundred bodies, but he hadn’t touched any of those used by his closest allies. True, he had pushed the Twilight Court, the clockwork couple, Red and Blue and a few others back into their personal realms. It had been done to save on resources though, and he hadn’t unplugged them afterwards. No, he’d left them powered so they could enjoy a nice vacation while the ship floated through the void, so what was her problem with it.
“Hey kid, it’s Doctor Mycroft, you got a minute?” The Doc’s voice crackled through the speaker on his tablet since he’d stopped wearing the earpiece all the time. Ronin looked down at the tablet, which now showed the busty woman’s face, framed by a curtain of red hair, which extended out of sight over her snow-white lab coat. As he stared, one of her tentacle arms moved in to brush a strand of hair from her face, while she waited for an answer.
“I guess so,” Ronin said, downing the last of his glass and looking at the decanter on his desk. He decided against pouring another glass. If only because their stores were so limited. “What do you need Doc?” He asked, letting out a sigh that conveyed his lack of interest more than his words ever could. Resting the empty glass on the table, Ronin looked beyond the desk to where the window would have been if this was his shipboard hotel room. The pair of terracotta soldiers standing there failing to even bring a grin to his face. Regardless of how thrilled he’d been when he realized K3 had procured several of the originals from the Chinees Museum for him after their visit.
“It’s about Elyria and K3,” Mycroft said, undaunted by his attitude. “I’ve been looking over their medical files, and I think something is wrong with them. It’s about the new bodies, I need you to come to the med bay and take a look at this.” Ronin sat up; his interest peaked at the news. Was this what was going on with them, the reason they were avoiding him? He set the empty glass down beside the ancient book on the path he hadn’t read yet and moved immediately towards the door.
“I’m on my way,” he called over his shoulder as he left the room. Ronin felt relief and fear in equal measure as he ran through the cube shaped corridors. On the one hand, he was glad the Doc had also noticed their strange behavior and looked into it, on the other, he was worried something was really wrong with them. Ronin cursed as he ran, wondering what had happened. All three of them had gotten new bodies at the same time. Ronin’s seemed to be working just fine, although the carefree feeling he’d experienced the first few days had long left him behind. He was consumed with worry lately, and although he could push the feelings down, he just couldn’t seem to silence the voice in the back of his mind that kept warning him against doing that. Somehow, he just knew, he needed to experience the worry. That didn’t make it any more enjoyable though.
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Darting through the open hatch into the med bay, Ronin looked around wildly for the doctor. Before he managed to spot anything, however, he felt a hand go around his neck from behind. He reacted instantly, swiveling away, and bringing his arms up to block an incoming fist. He didn’t know who would attack him on the ship like this, but they were going to be in for a shock. Ronin’s body moved on near instinct; muscle memory beaten into him relentlessly for months.
He’d continued his sparring sessions in space. Only, after the first round of combat, Jackson had proven to be no match for his improved body. It was a memory he would cherish for a lifetime, and he grinned as he remembered breaking her slowly, as she begged him to stop. He hadn’t gone too far, only breaking one bone in every limb, before healing her up and tossing her back into the stasis stone she came from. Knuckles had died in the attack on Temple city, leaving her alone. He’d felt it was a mercy when he sent her back and disconnected the stone from power, essentially shutting her off.
That hadn’t been the end of his training, however. After Jackson was gone, he sparred with Jaya, who also proved to be too weak for him now. That had left him with limited options, and he’d finally settled on O54, the leader of yokai team 03. She was a brawler, and with her advanced body she could keep up with him without trouble, pressuring him the way Jackson had when they’d first started their sparring matches. He’d reduced his training sessions to only two per day, but he’d been dedicated to them for over a month now. So, when the fool attacked him from behind, Ronin had full confidence in his victory.
That was until he caught sight of his attacker, and he froze in place, completely caught off guard. It was K3, the most loyal follower he had. The only follower he had brought with nanite ensured loyalty. Although, the way he was swinging his fists in short, controlled jabs as he backed Ronin into a corner would suggest otherwise. How had this happened, was it because he didn’t give him direct orders enough? Benjamin managed to slip his control after he’d left, although he still had to follow direct commands… wait, that was it. The voice in the back of his mind told him how to stop this attack without damaging either of them.
“Stop attacking me. Now.” Ronin ordered, the first time he’d ever had to give the kaldarr a direct order in regard to his loyalty. He felt dirty even saying it, like he’d broken some unspoken covenant between the two of them. Yet, it was K3 who was attacking him, not the other way around, so it was fine right? Yes, of course it was… Just like he expected, the kaldarr stopped moving instantly, looking as if he were struggling against some unseen bonds as he quivered in place. Before Ronin had a chance to get comfortable, he was attacked from behind, again. An electric jolt of pain ran through his body like thousands of electrified ants, biting him all at once.
“GAAHHH,” he yelled, dropping to his knees as the pain lanced through his body, feeling like knives were pealing the carapace from the soft flesh beneath. Blinking his eyes to clear the stars from his vision, Ronin looked up to see Elyria, looking down on him with pity, a powerful taser held in her trembling fist before darkness claimed him.
* * *
“Are you sure this is the only way?” A hazy voice drifted into Ronin’s ears, sometime later, as he slowly came back to himself.
“Yes. If I wasn’t I would never have suggested it. I know as well as you do the kid is the only reason that damned computer program… otherwise it wouldn’t have let any of us on this ship at all. Trust me, this is the only way.” He recognized this voice; it was Doctor Mycroft. Why was she being so disrespectful towards Owl Two though? He was the only reason any of them were even here at all.
“I don’t feel comfortable with this,” another voice said, it was deep as a still pond, and Ronin knew it was K3. “I shouldn’t be here, he commanded me to stop earlier, what if he does it again? What if Xerox…? I might interfere with the procedure if he wakes up too soon.”
“Don’t worry about that, big guy,” Mycroft again, “he’s already awake. Besides, I gave him a local paralytic to his jaw. He won’t be able to speak, at least, not until we’ve finished with...” Forcing his eyes open, Ronin looked around. At least he tried to. His body was strapped to an operating table in the med bay, muscles completely outside his ability to control, he couldn’t move more than his eyes.
“Hey, White Flame,” Elyria said, coming over to look down on him with sympathy shining in her blue eyes. “I’m sorry about this, it had to be done though. You’ve been…” Ronin glared up at her, feeling the betrayal deep in his core. How could she? He’d thought she’d started to like him. Was that just a ploy to lower his guard, so when she finally stuck the knife in, he’d feel it that much more?
“Don’t glare like that kid,” Leo said, coming into his view for the first time. Ronin shifted his glare to the older, lion faced man. “It’s not like any of us wanted to do this to you, but you’re different than you were before. Red looked into it, it was the new brain material, it… that did it.” No, that couldn’t be right. Ronin had been there when Elyria asked the chief about it, both he and Mycroft had told him that his behavior had nothing to do with the upgrades, and everything to do with his hormones. So, how did they expect him to buy that, and why were they all speaking so erratically, he could hardly follow their conversation at all. It was maddening.
“He won’t listen, and he can’t understand us anyway. I’ve got his brain hooked up to a reader, whenever we say… something in his head… so, save your breath. You can tell him afterwards.” Doctor Mycroft told the others, and Ronin looked at her, to see her messing around with a small chunk of crystal.
He frowned at the woman, wondering what she was doing. He let the voices of the others fade into the background as he focused his eyes on the crystal, as the Doc placed it on a reader. The viewer lit up, displaying a small mountain range. With a frown, Mycroft picked the crystal up and sliced into it, using all six of her hands. They either held the crystal, a blade, a light, or magnification, while another collected the flakes of crystal into a separate container as she worked. It took Ronin’s muddled brain longer than he thought it should to realize the Doc was pairing down a stasis stone.
Several minutes passed, while Elyria apologized, and K3 and Leo talked about things Ronin couldn’t quite hear, as the doctor worked. Every once in a while, she’d place the stone back on the reader, and Ronin would be surprised to see the mountain range had been reduced each time. Eventually, there was nothing left, but one small mountain. There was a temple at the top, with a dirt and stone path that wound its way around the mountain, from the temple, down towards a little valley in the foothills that nestled a big town.
The cuts were smaller now, and the time it took Mycroft to cut took longer. She was checking the crystal on the reader after every small sliver she shaved from it, and Ronin felt a tingling in his jaw. Good, if she just took a little more time, he could order K3 to get him out of here, or to call for Xerox. That would be the best thing to do, the copy could save him, he just knew it… an alarm going off on a nearby table, caused all hope Ronin had of being rescued to dissipate, as Elyria moved towards the sound. Turning it off, she returned with a salve she rubbed along his jaw, causing the tingling he’d started to feel to vanish once more. Leaving him completely at their mercy.
“There, that ought to do it.” Mycroft said, an eternity later, as she checked the stasis stone on the reader one final time. She zoomed in, and Ronin was surprised to see individual people walking around the town, and monsters roaming through the mountain. Had she really taken an entire world, and carved it down until only this small, mountain remained, if so, then why? He felt like he was about to find out, as she slid her chair over behind Ronin’s head, just outside his line of sight. That is, until she leaned over him, with a scalpel in one hand and a drill in another.
“I wish I could explain the procedure to you kid, but I already have, twice in fact, and you haven’t been able to… and there it goes again. Guess you will just have to wait until after.” She turned away from him, looking at the others present. “You all ready?” She asked, and at their affirming nods, she moved the tools towards Ronin’s head.
He tried to fight, to struggle, to order K3 to let him go. It was to no avail, he was stuck, betrayed by those closest to him and unable to escape. Ronin didn’t feel the drill, as it bored its way into his brain through the thick skull Owl Two had constructed for him. He could smell the dust though, and the sickened agony playing across Elyria’s face was enough to tell him what was happening. He felt his head being moved, from side to side, and his field of vision shifted along with it. Despite that, he was never able to see what they were doing to him.
“Ok, I’ve got it in,” Mycroft said sometime later. “Now, I’ll get it hooked up and start…” The rest of her words disappeared into a haze, and Ronin was unable to understand them. He narrowed his eyes at that. It had been happening with regularity since this whole scene had begun. Why was he only noticing it now? “… the program is resisting, but I’ve managed to get it out of the auditory and short-term memory sections of the brain. The kid should be able to understand us now, if someone wants to explain what’s happening to him. Just keep in mind, if the program slips the leash before I’ve captured it, it will likely wipe the knowledge.” That didn’t sound good. Ronin didn’t have to understand what was happening to know that his memory being messed with was a bad thing.
“White Flame,” Elyria said, moving close to him and staring him in the eyes. “Can you hear me? Owl two implanted software into your brain,” she stopped talking then and turned to Mycroft, who checked the monitor and nodded.
“He heard it without interference,” she said, making Ronin worry for an entirely new reason now. Owl Two had messed with his brain? That couldn’t be right, the Doc had said that wasn’t the case at all hadn’t she?”
“Oh, thank the moon.” Elyria said, giving him a quick peck on the lips from what looked like sheer joy before she sat back and blushed. “Sorry about that, anyway, umm… she touched a finger to her lip as she thought. Ronin, who was too distracted by the Doctor’s fingers inside his head to care about her blushing, waited impatiently for her to speak.
“Ok, long story short. When we first designed these bodies, Owl Two, in his capacity as the ship’s AI, altered them to put a program into each of our heads. An AI program with limited intelligence and limited access. It was what gave each of us the dreams when we weren’t getting to the cave fast enough, do you remember? Well, when we upgraded bodies, for me and K3, we just got smarter and faster to think. But for you, most of that extra brain matter got taken over by the AI program. Which grew to the point where it could manifest itself. We are only guessing on most of it, but we think it shut off your ability to hear things it didn’t want you to know, erased memories it didn’t want you to have, and fed you thoughts you might not normally have had.”
Ronin listened to her, in horrified disbelief as she spoke. There was no way. There was no way, was there? Now that she pointed it out, he did have several holes in his memory, and several of the thoughts and actions he’d taken weren’t things he’d normally have done. Was this real?
“Doctor Mycroft checked out me and K3 already. We aren’t sure why, but the original program never grew larger after we got the new brain matter. It might have been designed that way, or perhaps it was an accident. Either way, she was able to remove it from us. Unfortunately, the program has already seeped into too much of your brain tissue. There’s no way to cut it out. But the Doc found a way to isolate it from you, by trapping it in a prison, made from a stasis stone…”
“Got it,” Mycroft said loudly, cutting over Elyria’s explanation. “Sorry to interrupt, but I got it. The physical program is still fused to your brain, but I’ve trapped the sentient portion, the AI’s thinking mind, inside the stasis stone prison. It can no longer interact or interfere with your mind kid. And the best part, the sliver of stone I used is small enough your body can keep it on indefinitely from the innate electric charge just being alive generates… now, not to cut you two love birds chat short, but you need to rest, and I need to check my work. So, lights out for now.” She’d barely finished speaking, when Ronin’s world went black once more.