Tom looked around curiously, everyone gathered in the entry hallway. Dr Elune bowed slightly, smiling slightly, "Hello, Tom. We have a bit of a surprise for you, this time."

Grinning, he walked forwards, led by his curiosity, "Ohoh? And what will this little surprise be, or am I not allowed to ask?"

Laughing, the doctor took the lead, heading through the house, "It's... An interesting one, actually. One that we have been considering for a while. You know how we have mentioned our little supercomputer, that runs this whole show?"

"Hmm, yes... I will admit I am curious as to why you have kept it so secret. It should be just another computer system, after all."

Dr Elune simply smiled, wandering out through theback door, in the direction of the looming shuttle. Everyone else shuffled along behind Tom, glancing at each other nervously, Greg bringing up the rear. he had managed to get some time away from the office, to help with the little gathering.

Slightly disquieted by the silence as they marched along, Tom still kept on a broad grin, "Perhaps... That is why your shuttle is so large? At first, I had assumed it was intended for planetary jumps, but maybe you needed the space for all the hardware."

Alex giggled, "Great minds do think alike... Our old station, before we built this shuttle, initially had most of it's layout converted to a giant supercomputer. Just... We don't need to do that, anymore."

Bristling with anticipation, Tom quietly nodded, patiently walking up to the shuttle as Dr Elune opened the entryway, "The path to our computer is fairly obvious... But, try not to wander off." Ducking inside, the doctor slipped ahead through the narrow passageways.

Peeking his head inside, Tom blinked in surprise at the blue tubing running along each wall, a pulse faintly eminating from deeper inside. "Follow the pretty lights, I assume?"

"Yup! The fillaments act as a transmission method for the data... And, a cool way of lighting the shuttle." Tom hummed thoughtfully as he admired the walls again, having assumed that the lights were only decorative... Not a functional part of the ship.

The group soon reached the segment leading into the heart of the shuttle, where the light grew more intense, fillament lining every bit of wall leading further in. Dr Elune silently handed a pair of the light protective goggles to Tom, who nodded in understanding... The hall was obviously brighter further in, and there were some turns and ramps blcoking his view.

As they marched in through the serene glow of the passage, Tom piped up, "One thing that just occured to me... Those goggles sitting at the entrance. Are they at every passageway leading into here?"

"Hmm? Oh, that is a fair question. There are only four entrances to this part of this shuttle, in each direction from core. Both have trays of goggles, and if they get mixed up too much, we have a drone collect and redistibute them."

"Ahh, that makes sense." Trailing a hand over the sheet of glass protecting the main hallway, Tom glanced around, curiousity rising once more... Why was he being brought here? And this design was not like any other he had seen...

Turning the last corner to the stairs leading up and down, the doctor pointed at the door up the top set of stairs, "Up there is a 'light-lock', as we have come to call it. We won't all fit, so please wait here as we take turns." Tom nodded, waiting patiently as Jolana, Greg, Hope and Ren all walked forwards, leaving just Alex and the doctor with Tom.

It wasn't long before a tone sounded, and Dr Elune strode forwards to open the door, making way for the others as Alex sealed them in. A dull light up above flickered, the doctor peeling off their goggles to rest on their chest as they waited for their eyes to adjust. Tom followed suit, itching to hop inside.

Filing into the room ahead, Everyone else was seated, murmuring quietly amongst themselves. The doctor groaned as they eased down onto one of the chairs, lookign up at Alex, "So, uh... Any chance we can lower the system's output, and give a clearer view?"

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"Hmm... The polarised glass will obsure too much, I suppose. I can lower the... Proccessing to a standby state, then come back online in ten minutes. It will be on a timer though, so don't dawdle."

The doctor nodded, "That will take a moment, I assume... So, I shall do a little intro." Alex stretched as they wandered over to a chair next to Jolana, who nodded and leaned against them as they closed their eyes. Tom glanced back and forth, slightly confused as the doctor glanced at Ren, who sighed, moving up to the dashboard.

"So, Tom... As we said earlier, we are here to talk about our proprietry proccessing center. We will show you the hardware first... Then, tell you how it was built. You will figure out the reason for the secrecy pretty easily." Glancing around the room, Ren nodded, and pressed the button to begin lowering the light shielding.

Tom leant forwards to look, and gapsed when the main unit came into view. Pulsing with a gentle glow, the massive dome of synthetic nerves was almost inactive now, only an ember of light glowing from the center. Tom stared up at the doctor, "That is... Certainly a unique look. What is it made of...?"

"Just your standard plastic fibers... Albiet with very precise manufacturing. We recently had to do some maintenance, which was a pain..." The doctor giggled, and nodded at Ren to raise the shielding up to an acceptable level again, in case they lost track of time, "It was making effictive use of that system which became the real issue. Light transmission is one thing... Proccessing is a whole different story."

"I can imagine so." Leaning back in his chair, Tom grinned, "Had to design a new operating system, did you?"

"... No." The doctor grinned smugly, "We already had one... Unique enough that the transition was easy. It is that same OS that runs our little sims."

Blinking in surprise, Tom quietened down slightly, "Really now? Programmign capable of running on never before seen hardware... And creating the most accurate depictions of virtual cityscapes and past events. Almost sounds too good to be true!"

Dr Elune glanced around the room, and Greg coughed slightly, "In a way... It is. When Ren first approached me about this little venture, he was very cautious about it, as one would expect. The idea intruiged me, though... So I agreed to hlp them out."

Tom grew slightly uneasy, "With a system...? But, your field wouldn't help much with that..."

Dr Elune smiled softly, "I'll be blunt... Our software is actually too powerful. We... Are breaking a few laws in that regard."

Tom took a deep breath, "Ahhh... Thus those little remarks about how I viewed AI." Glancing back at the darkened window, he thought about it, "Well, it can't be that bad... You have actually been rather helpful with everything, after all. And an event on the scale of mars would be astranomically rare."

Everyone simply glanced at each other, when the light started seeping through the glass, systems rebooting, "Ah, that must be ten minutes." Dr Elune glanced over at Alex, who sat up with a groan.

Looking around the room, Alex blinked, "So, how much have I missed?"

Tom looked back and forth, utterly at a loss, "Asleep? Now? And specifically for..." Tom trailed off, eyes widening as he slowly turned back to Alex, who smiled sheepishly with a wave.

Walking over to rest a hand on Alex shoulder, Ren smiled at Tom reasuringly, "Tom... Let me reintroduce Alex. The designer of this shuttle, of the sims you have enjoyed... And the main prototype of a full AHOR unit."

The doctor shuffled over to stand over on Alex's other side, "And... A dear friend to me, who needs your help if we are ever to leave the outer reaches of the fourth haven."