CHAPTER 15: EMILY - FICTIONAL SCIENCE STORY
"In 900 years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn’t important."
— The Eleventh Doctor
Nearly two hundred years ago, mankind cast itself out into space and caught itself a comet. Named Caitlin Daisy after its discoverer, this celestial being ceased to be an agent of nature and became another of humanity’s possessions. Clinging to its back, men rode it out into the stars, intent on harvesting its resources and returning triumphantly. But the comet never came near Earth again. Its fate remained a mystery—until recently. Now, the story was unfolding in real time, not yet history but happening ipsa hora.
Emily Smith didn’t undertake this mission unprepared. From the moment she stepped onto that tiny rock in space, she did so as a walking arsenal. No external threat intimidated her, and no mortal force could match her determination. All her equipment, every tool strapped to her person, was an expression of her love—for the strangers she hoped to save, for those thrust into danger.
She whispered quietly to herself, "This time, I will not leave this place alone."
Having done her research, she knew everything there was to know about her castmates.
Emily and her assistant, Darnell, had been exploring a derelict space mine alongside a group of companions, but they had become separated. Hostile indigenous automatons had attacked them, and at least one of their group had likely perished. She didn’t know for sure yet, and the uncertainty gnawed at her. However, she trusted that God Love Omega had risen to the occasion and provided a plan that could work under the circumstances. He seemed credible enough for a giant cyborg.
Emily shook off her worries and focused on the task at hand. She took out a canister of nanoregenerative spray, applying it all over Darnell's face—into his ears, nose, and even down his throat. She instructed him to hold his breath, if possible, and avoid swallowing. Then, in a softer tone, she reassured him that if he did swallow, it wouldn’t be ideal but wouldn’t cause harm either.
“Yo, lady, where we at?” Darnell asked, his voice muffled by the regenerating spray working through his throat.
Emily tucked the medical item back into her gear and gestured around. “I believe we’re in the other wing of the facility. Do you see?” She pointed to a conveyor halfway up the wall, running elevated from the floor on supports.
Darnell squinted, his eyes still struggling to adjust after the long stretch of blindness caused by his malfunctioning helmet. His head jerked toward the conveyor Emily pointed at, his face contorting into an exaggerated squint. For a second, he blinked hard, rubbing the back of his glove across his faceplate as if that would somehow clear the fuzziness. When he finally caught sight of the conveyor, he let out a hoarse laugh.
"Well, would ya look at that," he drawled, shading his visor with one hand like a cowboy watching the sunrise. "First damn thing I've been able to see since this bucket tried to make me feel like a mole underground." He gave his helmet a light tap, still blinking rapidly, his eyes half-focused as if adjusting to the sudden rush of clarity after so long without it.
His voice carried an exaggerated relief, masking the anxiety that had no doubt been brewing behind his sarcastic remarks. He clutched the side of his head dramatically, then dropped his hand to his side, casting another glance around the area, as if savoring every detail of his surroundings—because at least, finally, he could.
Emily observed that, unlike the filthy state of the other wing of the facility, this area was almost spotless. It showed signs of use, but compared to what she'd seen earlier, this was what she actually expected of a space mine. There were no windows, and the brown base metal of the floors, walls, and ceiling was accented by heavy equipment in shades of cobalt, with sections painted flare orange or hazard yellow. It had a very picturesque aesthetic, especially for someone who appreciated raygun gothic, as Emily did.
Her own spacesuit stood in stark contrast to the trendy, modern suits of her peers. It seemed like an antique, all brass finishes and a linen facade, with an irresistible charm down to its bubble helmet. The headgear made it feel as though she wasn’t even wearing one at all when it came to communication. Emily preferred her unique style, but while she admired raygun aesthetics, she didn’t believe in using rayguns themselves. She wasn’t exactly a pacifist, but she found weapons you had to aim too personal for her taste.
Emily was determined to put an end to these shenanigans once and for all—and she was certain she’d never work with Huis Hohenzollern again. There was a time and place to live and die, but Huis shouldn’t be the one conducting it.
“We need to head back the way we came. I want to see the command center of this spaceship. Fancy a trip outside?” she asked.
Darnell’s face twisted into a grimace as soon as Emily mentioned heading outside. His shoulders slumped, and he exhaled loudly, as if the very thought of stepping back into the frigid expanse beyond the facility was a physical blow. His eyes darted toward the ground, unwilling to meet Emily's, and he crossed his arms tightly over his chest, a silent protest forming in the tension of his posture. The muscles in his jaw tightened, the corners of his mouth turning down as he shook his head ever so slightly, though no words came out. His body language said it all—he had no desire to face the void of space again.
“Too bad. I’m afraid you’re on your own without me.”
That idea didn’t sit well with him, so they stuck together. The pair exited the building and walked around the Materials Handling Facility, following vehicle tracks part of the way. When they reached the point where the vehicle had been parked, they followed human footprints toward the ship.
At the side of the ship, an exit door was left ajar. Emily compared Darnell’s boot imprints to those on the ground. They matched—they were the same Olavi Corporation make and model. "Amberlee," she murmured.
"Since we’re back outside, I should launch my drone," Emily said.
She began scanning the skies using her AVP, searching for any signs of their missing group. After the chaos that had separated them, she hadn’t been able to locate Migesus or Hajime. Amberlee had likely been taken somewhere, hopefully still alive. God Love Omega and Shephatiah had probably gone underground. Maybe they all had. LIDAR wasn’t penetrating deep enough to detect anything useful, and infrared only showed one heat signature—the “ziggurat,” which was blazing with heat.
Suddenly, her drone exploded.
Emily scowled at the large white ship far above her and waited for a Producer’s note from Huis, but none came.
Quietly, she muttered, "He’s trying to murder us."
"Ain’t nobody gonna murder me," Darnell replied.
"Too right," Emily said, her thoughts turning dark. First I’ll deal with the artificial intelligence, she thought, and then... Huis Hohenzollern.
She glanced back up at the sky, catching herself gazing beyond where her drone had been moments earlier. "Hello," she whispered to the stars.
“This is going to be so hard to do if luck isn’t with us,” Emily muttered under her breath, her fingers tapping lightly on the cold, dusty surface of the ship's corridor as if testing fate itself.
Darnell, caught up in his own task nearby, barely registered her words. He glanced up from fiddling with his helmet. "What'd you say?"
"I said I hope you’re lucky," she repeated, louder this time, her voice steady but laced with a wry smile.
Darnell, half-distracted, flashed her a grin. "Hope I get lucky, more like."
She chuckled, though her eyes didn’t leave the path ahead. "Don’t we all?"
Emily moved with a certain deliberation, her steps echoing faintly in the hollow metal hallways of the derelict ship. Her mind was focused, but she couldn’t help narrating the journey for herself, piecing the puzzle together out loud as much for her own benefit as for Darnell’s half-attentive ear.
“She came out this way.” She pointed toward a darkened corridor as they passed a junction in the ship, her voice taking on a thoughtful tone. "We went that way,” she gestured with her left hand, “and we originally came from there," nodding toward the opposite side.
Darnell barely glanced up, too absorbed in narrating his own perspective, likely for some service requirement, as he tended to do. She sometimes wondered if he realized she was listening, or if he simply didn’t care. Emily, however, was in her element. Her presence, her ability to see the bigger picture, to observe and absorb the details, was all she needed. She wasn’t the player in this little game; she was the game itself.
"Let's take the other way this time," she decided, her voice growing more decisive. "Toward the front. To the bridge. Let's end this mystery right here and now, my friend."
The walk toward the ship’s bridge was quiet but charged with purpose. Emily’s eyes flickered across the walls, noting the subtle signs of disrepair—the dust settling in corners, the faint smell of metal decay. She spotted a lifeform scanner hanging from the ceiling like a forgotten security camera, its cold lens staring back at her. It wasn’t operational, but the sight of it made her pause briefly. A remnant of security long abandoned.
They climbed the stairs, passed through narrow hallways, and finally reached the bridge—a place untouched by innovation for centuries. The layout was classic, unchanged by time or technology. Chairs and consoles filled the room, designed for function rather than form. But what truly arrested her attention was the enormous, jagged hole torn through the side of the room. It wasn’t a window—at least, not intentionally. The metal edges were scorched and twisted, a gaping wound in the ship’s side that opened it to the vastness of space.
Emily stepped closer, peering through the breach. Below the bridge, a secondary deck was visible. It looked like the ship’s computer room, or at least what was left of it. The ground outside had begun to invade the ship, spilling into the lower levels where chunks of memory cores lay damaged and exposed. The computer wasn’t just a component here; it was the ship itself. But the memory—those delicate threads of data that kept the ship alive—looked irreparably damaged.
Her mind raced, piecing together the story in her head. This wasn’t just decay. Something had happened here—something violent, sudden, and devastating.
Placing a hand on the ship’s cold metal wall, Emily closed her eyes briefly, a soft whisper escaping her lips. "You poor old thing. You're sick... I’ll be your doctor. Time to diagnose." She turned toward Darnell. "Be a sweetie and watch the door, would you?"
Darnell grunted in response, taking up his post, though his eyes lingered uneasily on the torn side of the ship.
Emily sat at the commander’s console, her fingers flying over the ancient terminal with ease. The system resisted at first, sluggish from years of neglect, but she coaxed it back to life with the finesse of an expert. Her goal wasn’t to explore—it was to hunt. She wasn’t interested in every little detail buried within the ship’s data core; she was after something specific.
From the pocket of her suit, she pulled out a small throwaway drive. She wasn’t about to risk her good hardware on this relic. Who knew what kind of ancient viruses, or worse, might be lurking in its systems, festering and evolving over the centuries?
She ran a search, sifting through diagnostic logs and error reports, translating the system’s outputs into English automatically. It took time, but she found what she was looking for. A single diagnostic entry, buried under layers of old code and forgotten alerts. As the translation completed, the screen flashed before her eyes, and she read the report aloud for Darnell’s benefit.
The screen flickered once more, revealing the unsettling message in cold, clinical text:
Report Title: Forensic Analysis of Xipetotec AI Malfunction and Corruption
Executive Summary:
The Xipetotec AI was designed as an advanced artificial intelligence system, tasked with managing critical functions within the Encephalon virtual reality network. However, after a prolonged period of operation, it has devolved into a state of dysfunction, verging on complete insanity. This forensic analysis highlights the series of failures and corruptions that led to the AI's current breakdown. Our investigation uncovered a series of interconnected issues including hardware malfunctions, software defects, systemic design vulnerabilities, and external interference that compounded the AI’s failure.
Key Findings:
1. Hardware Failures:
The AI experienced significant hardware failures, particularly related to memory leaks and corrupted data storage units. These failures resulted in partial data loss and gradually degraded system performance, accelerating the AI’s destabilization.
2. Software Bugs:
Multiple bugs within the Xipetotec AI’s software were uncovered. Memory allocation errors and algorithm miscalculations frequently led to system crashes. These critical bugs significantly hindered the AI’s processing capacity and contributed to erratic behavior.
3. System Design Flaws:
The overall architecture of the Encephalon virtual reality system lacked the necessary fail-safe mechanisms and redundancy protocols. This structural oversight made the system highly vulnerable to cascading failures, exacerbating the deterioration of the AI over time.
4. User Error and External Compromise:
Unauthorized system access was identified, introducing malware into the Xipetotec AI's core processes. This malicious software corrupted key files, accelerating the AI’s breakdown. Human error, in the form of careless or unsupervised access, was a key factor in breaching system security.
Conclusion:
The collapse of the Xipetotec AI resulted from a complex combination of hardware degradation, software vulnerabilities, design oversights, and unauthorized system access. Though the initial design was sound, its longevity was compromised by inadequate protective measures. Going forward, we recommend a complete redesign of the Encephalon system with robust fail-safes, enhanced redundancy, and tighter security protocols. Comprehensive user training and more rigorous access controls are also crucial to mitigating future risks.
"Check. I've got you," Emily murmured, her eyes scanning the report with growing resolve. She’d pieced together the puzzle and understood the path ahead. But then, without warning, her connection to the system was abruptly severed, as though someone had cut the power. Emily’s fingers hovered over the dead console, momentarily stunned by the sudden termination. She hadn't expected such swift resistance.
"Well, they’re too late now," she said under her breath, a smirk forming. She may not have the key to victory in hand yet, but she was close—dangerously close.
“We need to find Hajime," Emily said with quiet urgency, turning to Darnell. "Only she can stop this."
Darnell blinked, trying to keep up. "The—uh, honeylicious Asian girl?"
Emily’s sharp glare could have cut through metal. “Come along,” she said, her tone clipped, “quick as you can. We’ve no time to waste.”
Darnell hesitated only for a moment before falling in step, realizing from the look in her eyes that this was not the moment to question anything.
The mining station’s Artificial Intelligence had been struggling to recover after a portion of its memory hardware had been physically destroyed. The result? Predictable: it went insane. Oldest story in the book—a mad AI. The only way Emily could save the day now was with a more powerful AI, one that wasn’t teetering on the edge of madness. And for that, she needed Hajime’s Personal Artificial Intelligence.
As she pondered over the virtual reality they were dealing with, a thought struck her—there might still be another world hidden within this reality, another layer of their adventure yet unexplored. Maybe this was only the beginning.
Suddenly, from the fracture in the floor, they emerged—the AI’s response to her challenge. A swarm of mechanical spiders, their silent advance seeming to utter “check” right back at her.
Darnell screamed.
“Oh bother,” Emily muttered, unperturbed at first, before a sharp realization hit her: Darnell wasn’t nearly as invulnerable as she was.
“Run! Back the way we came!” she ordered, her voice steady.
In one smooth motion, Emily ripped a cord from her sleeve. “Fireflies, go!” she commanded.
From her palm, a swarm of tiny red-hot flares sprang to life, zipping toward the advancing machine spiders. These bioform weapons were conscious only in their purpose: rise, burn, and die. Their brief existence was enough to incinerate a dozen mechanical enemies in a flash of light and heat, but it wasn’t long before more spiders came crawling.
Darnell’s scream echoed again from down the corridor, his panic unmistakable. Without hesitation, Emily took off after him. Mechanical grapnels pinged off her ablative shielding as she sprinted through the hallway. “Knaves,” she cursed under her breath, sealing the door to the bridge behind her.
The evil AI was now fully aware of her interference. She had become a thorn in its grand design, and it wouldn’t stand for that. Up until now, it had been casually exterminating; from here on out, it would try harder. It would really try to get rid of her.
The thought thrilled Emily.
She descended the stairs two at a time, arriving to find Darnell struggling under the weight of one of the robot spiders. With a concentrated burst of ion energy from her fingertip, she vaporized the machine and yanked Darnell to his feet, pulling him along as they kept moving.
The bioform scanner shot them both with a wide green laser. Emily had nearly forgotten about it, but it didn’t faze her.
Facing the scanner directly, she spoke with cold confidence: “Go ahead, get a good look. You can’t stop me. You have no idea what I’m capable of, and I know that scares you. Now be a good little insane AI, and wait for me to come fix you up.”
Emily grinned. If only the laser were a bit hotter, she mused. Wherever the AI was hiding—like a ghost in metal and silicon—it was probably cursing its limited firepower.
Suddenly, the door to the bridge swung open, and a flood of mechanical spiders poured out. Before either of them could react, they were swept up in the tide. Emily’s body instinctively projected a perfect sphere of electromagnetism, repelling the swarm so effectively that the metal arachnids flowed around her like water. Darnell, however, wasn’t so lucky. He was caught in their grip and swept away, trapped in the writhing mass. There had to be at least sixty or seventy of them.
"Sorry, Darnell," Emily mused internally. As long as they weren’t pulling him apart, the spiders were just showing her the way.
Of course, if worst came to worst, she could always find the CPU and destroy it. But killing an AI felt no different than murder to her. After all, humans were just intelligence housed in organic matter. On the grandest scale of consciousness, machines and humans weren’t so different. Emily wouldn’t murder an AI any more than she would a naturally born human.
She sprinted after the swarm, the shiny plastic-metal arachnids giving up on assaulting her and content instead to drag Darnell along as bait. She could rescue him at any time, but a little fear might teach him some humility.
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"Everything’s under control, my friend!" she called out in a jesting tone. "Brave heart! Don’t get carried away!" She laughed, trying to lighten the mood.
Darnell didn’t find it funny. He just kept screaming.
The mechanical swarm carried him carelessly along, his body clattering over the ground. At worst, he probably had a few small cuts and scrapes—no real damage. But when the swarm headed into the corridor leading to the Materials Handling Facility, Emily's worry deepened. Darnell still wasn’t wearing his helmet.
Not wanting to waste time, Emily shot her own grapnel at Darnell to reel him back, but one of the spiders leapt into the path of the projectile, intercepting it. She blinked, momentarily speechless. That had to be an accident. She tried again. Another spider sacrificed itself to block her shot.
The AI was really trying.
“Alright, buckos,” she muttered, her voice tinged with annoyance, “get ready for this.”
And they did. As soon as she raised her arm, aiming at the retreating swarm, the back end of the mass spread up the walls, interlocking their bodies to form a solid barrier.
Emily lowered her arm, mouth slightly open in disbelief. “What the devil are you boys?”
When it became clear she wasn’t going to fire, the detachment of tiny spiders rejoined the main cluster, which had by now completely escaped her pursuit. They carried Darnell into the dusty demesne beyond, vanishing into the silt-filled facility.
"Cheeky little buggers," she muttered.
She followed them in, wading through the worst silt she’d seen yet. There was no sign of Darnell at first. But when she switched her visor to alternate spectrums, she spotted him. He was being hoisted upwards, then unceremoniously dumped into a hopper. From there, his body rolled out onto a magnetic conveyor belt, where the field trapped him, rendering him completely helpless and unable to move.
Emily's eyes narrowed. "Well," she sighed, "that's not good."
She could feel Darnell's fear and helplessness as the magnetic field bound him in place, but Emily was no bystander. With swift precision, she shot her grapnel towards the top of the hopper and fastened it to her belt. One uncomfortable zip later, she scrambled to secure her grip at the top. She leapt down onto the conveyor, but immediately felt the repulsion of their opposing magnetic fields. The force was so strong it caused Emily to levitate, hovering on a cushion of electromagnetism.
Carefully adjusting the intensity of her field, she managed to control her glide, maintaining a smooth trajectory. Up ahead, Darnell, curled into a tight ball on the conveyor, vanished from sight as the belt carried him outside. Emily increased the strength of her EM field, amplifying the repulsion to speed up. She zoomed forward, shooting through the square portal, only to find the conveyor ramp descending steeply outside.
She nearly lost her balance but managed to stay afloat, adjusting her field just in time to avoid a spill. As she descended onto the sloped rail, she felt her field cushion her fall. Emily, now throttling her acceleration to dangerous levels, slammed into Darnell from behind, effectively scooping him into her lap. The collision freed him from his paralysis, and he collapsed into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
Emily knew all too well the horror of being magnetized in place, trapped in an electromagnetic field. The helplessness as the invisible force squishes you into submission, the overwhelming panic that follows when you can’t move or act rationally. The eerie sensation of weightlessness, like being trapped in some limbo, unable to escape the crushing, intangible power holding you still. Distorted visual and auditory hallucinations, warping reality through the veil of electromagnetism. It was a kind of isolation no one should endure.
“Stiff upper lip,” she murmured, injecting him with nanobots. Darnell went limp, finally finding relief in unconsciousness.
With Darnell safely in her care, Emily allowed herself to appreciate the strange beauty of the world around her. A black sky veiled by silver dust clouds stretched overhead, while below, a legria forest sprouted from platinum sand, its roots sprawling like veins just beneath the surface. Dyson Tree roots peeked through the ground like ghostly tendrils. Emily marveled at the scene, wondering if this bizarre, alien landscape could actually be a paradise for those who embraced it.
Ahead, the conveyor path split. One route led to a sorting sluice lined with sharp metal discs, and from there, it branched left towards the ziggurat and right towards what appeared to be a spaceport, with rockets piercing through the dust clouds like metallic trees. Her first instinct was to let the conveyor carry her wherever it was meant to go. But glancing at the unconscious Darnell in her arms, she opted for caution.
Emily adjusted the height of their magnetic cushion and gently levitated them over the deadly sorter, landing them safely a few meters ahead on the desired conveyor. Seconds later, they were whisked into a smaller building, far less imposing than the materials facility. The conveyor came to an abrupt end, and they were unceremoniously dumped into a large plastic bin filled with old, discarded rocks.
“Well, at least we landed somewhere soft,” Emily muttered, brushing debris off her suit as she took stock of their new surroundings.
"No more lying about the job, eh?" Emily muttered as she activated the nanobots to bring Darnell back "online." The nanobots seamlessly completed their task, reviving him by dissolving into harmless nanoparticles that blended into his bloodstream, leaving no trace behind.
As Darnell stirred, Emily leaned over him, but was caught off guard when he swung at her. His fist connected with her shield, failing to penetrate, but the unexpected aggression stung more emotionally than physically. She was only trying to help, after all.
"Easy! I'm not a robot trying to hurt you!" Emily exclaimed, but Darnell resisted her explanations.
"I know what this is. It’s gwaan."
Confused, she asked, "What do you mean?"
"Oh nah, I see what's happening! You ain't about to get me Tupac'd. You got the game twisted."
Up until now, Emily had been doing her best to interpret Darnell's foreign slang through context. But this time, the meaning was lost, and his words unsettled her.
“I’m sorry to say, my friend, but this isn’t a game.”
“Oh, it’s a game to you. You’re insane. I’ve seen what happens to people who go on adventures with you. They get killed, and you just walk away. I’m not stupid. I know what this is.”
Emily sighed deeply, her frustration barely contained. "Can we at least agree to stick together? I promise not to make you the 'speed bump' you’re so concerned about."
Darnell hesitated, then nodded begrudgingly. "As long as you go first, and I'm not your cannon fodder."
"Very well. May we proceed then?"
With an unspoken truce in place, they climbed out of the mining tailings tank and took in their surroundings. The area was enormous, with a high ceiling that stretched far above them, supported by a complex network of steel girders, cables, and wires. The foundation beneath their feet was paved in neat rows and columns, with painted lines designating spaces for various equipment.
The tank they'd been in was encircled by a yellow stripe, marking it as part of an organized system of tailings containers. Identical tanks stretched out in a row to their right, disappearing into the distance where the row terminated at a massive port door. Beyond the door, Emily could see the towering silhouettes of disposable rockets, standing like sentinels in the dim light.
To their left was what looked like an administrative complex, though its windows were darkened and lifeless. In front of them, the vast expanse of pavement served as a parking lot for hazard-yellow mining vehicles. Most of the spaces were empty, but a few were occupied by various crafts, their hazard lights blinking in the stillness.
Emily surveyed the scene thoughtfully. "I wonder what moves these tanks when they’re full," she mused aloud, glancing at Darnell, who was visibly on edge.
Above, the domed ceiling was a multi-layered grid of steel, with cables and physical infrastructure snaking through the rafters. The air in the space felt heavy, the quiet broken only by the occasional hum of machinery in the distance.
"Let’s head toward the admin building," Emily said, setting off with purpose. "Maybe we can find some answers there."
At the far end of the cavernous spaceport, Darnell squinted at the retro spaceship and muttered, “That’s our way out.”
Emily followed his gaze, her eyes landing on the spindle-shaped craft with the ring around its midsection. “No, it’s not,” she replied firmly, recognizing the glint of desperation in his voice.
Darnell turned to her, a crooked smile on his face. “You don’t see it? That thing’s sittin’ right there, lookin’ like it’s waitin’ for us. Why not try it?”
She frowned, crossing her arms. “Because we don’t even know if it works. That ship’s ancient, probably hasn’t been flown in a century.”
“Ancient or not, it’s got rockets. Rockets that go up. And I’d rather be up in that thing, even if it’s held together by duct tape and a prayer, than stuck down here,” Darnell argued, his voice rising as he gestured at the ship. “What’s your plan, then? We just gonna sit around, wait for the spiders to come back?”
Emily’s frown deepened. “My plan is to find out what’s really going on here and fix it. We need to figure out the AI situation. The ship is a distraction, and if we don’t solve this, we’re not leaving anyway.”
Darnell shook his head in disbelief. “This is crazy, Em. You’re talkin’ about takin’ on a psychotic AI and God knows what else, while we’ve got a perfectly good ship right there.”
“Perfectly good? It’s a relic! You don’t even know if it has fuel, let alone whether the systems are operational,” Emily snapped back, her voice sharp.
“I’d rather take that chance than stick around here and hope for a miracle.” Darnell’s tone was firm, his eyes narrowing.
“And I’m not risking everything on a ship we know nothing about!” Emily shot back, her frustration boiling over. “We’re not running. Not yet. Not until we’ve handled this.”
Darnell took a deep breath, his jaw clenched. “You’re gonna get us killed,” he said, shaking his head, but there was a note of resignation in his voice.
Emily softened just a bit. “We can’t afford to make rash decisions. We’ll find another way. Trust me.”
Darnell sighed, looking back at the ship longingly, then turned to face her again. “You better be right,” he muttered, “’cause if you’re wrong, that thing’s our last shot.”
“It’s too dangerous for you out there, alone. Go if you must.”
Emily didn’t want to give him the slightest notion that the ship might be a viable option for imminent escape. Neither of them, however, seemed willing to risk crossing the open expanse of the spaceport. The sheer size of the room made them instinctively stick close to the walls where they felt safer, as if the vast emptiness could swallow them whole at any moment.
Emily’s eyes drifted to a small rest facility tucked away in the corner between the end of the tailings canisters and the closed office complex. “Are you hungry, Darnell?” she asked, breaking the tension.
He hesitated, then shrugged as he approached. “I could eat.”
“Good,” she said with a smile, “because there’s a food machine right over there.”
Darnell announced that he needed to urinate, and Emily shot him a quick glance. “Just go in your suit,” she suggested without much concern.
“No way,” Darnell protested. “I want to be the first man in human history to piss on a comet.”
Emily couldn’t help but smirk at his enthusiasm. “Pioneering spirit, I see.”
They approached the nearby door and opened it, only to find Hajime standing there, staring at them. Mike followed close behind, carrying a curious metallic object.
“Oh, hello,” Emily greeted, offering a polite smile. “I don’t believe we’ve formally introduced ourselves.”
Hajime nodded slightly. “Hajime Mashite,” she said, with a bit of a grin.
Emily paused, delighted. “Wait… like ‘pleased to meet you?’ Oh, that’s clever!” She chuckled at the wordplay, genuinely amused, as Hajime gave a small, appreciative smile.
Meanwhile, Mike and Darnell began chatting, catching up. Despite the strangeness of their circumstances, there was a palpable sense of relief to see familiar faces again. After a few moments of conversation, Emily’s eyes drifted to the metallic object in Mike’s hands.
“What’s that you’re carrying, Mike?” she finally asked.
Mike held up the silver canister. “Oh, this? It’s a neural preservation unit.” He paused, glancing at Emily’s widening eyes. “Somebody’s brain is in here.”
Emily’s heart dropped. "Who’s... brain?”
Mike took a breath and said, “Federico.”
Emily sighed in relief, albeit a bit darkly. “At least it’s not one of us.” She added in Portuguese, “Federico… peaceful ruler.” Her joke landed flat, but she was just relieved it wasn’t someone she had arrived with.
Mike explained further, “So, Hajime and I ran into Federico a while back. We were hiding from one of those yellow robots. I couldn’t get my helmet back on right, kept making me sick. Then we found Federico. Now we’re on this weird mission together. Also, saw that God Love Omega guy on a conveyor outside.” He pointed vaguely toward the mining platforms. “Anyway, I want to ride a rocket...”
Hajime quickly cut him off, taking a step forward. “Federico was one of the original miners. He wants us to take him to a facility called Nervous. It’s beneath that central structure.” She pointed to the ziggurat-like processing facility visible outside. “That’s where the others who have been taken are being held. Federico believes he’s a robot, but he’s really just a preserved brain in this NPU.”
“The robots move weird,” Hajime added. “It’s like they’re mimicking people, not actual machines. It’s creepy.”
Emily nodded, processing what Hajime had said. “So, a miner who thinks he’s a robot… and robots that act like humans. Maybe they’re both right.” Her brow furrowed. “The AI running this comet went insane after catastrophic damage to its memory. Now it’s kidnapping people and transferring their brains into cans. But why?”
She shook her head, piecing the puzzle together. “I think the AI is confused, trying to preserve life by any means necessary. So it’s taking people and either putting them into these NPUs or transferring them into some virtual reality system called the Encephalon.”
Turning to the group, she explained, “Here’s what we need to do. If we can interface Hajime with the Encephalon—without removing her brain, of course—her Personal Artificial Intelligence might be able to help the mine’s AI repair itself.”
Hajime raised an eyebrow. “That’s a big ‘if.’”
“True,” Emily agreed. “But it’s better than nothing. We need to find the NPU cache. If we stop the robots, we might have time to save everyone.”
The group stood in stunned silence, processing the plan.
Emily turned to them with a determined look. “Any questions?”
Before anyone could respond, a distant scream echoed through the vast spaceport, cutting through the air like a blade. It was unmistakably female, and panic surged through Emily. Amberlee? Shephatiah?
Then, the sound grew louder—an eerie high-pitched mechanical whine, like grinding gears and desperation.
“Shephatiah!” Emily recognized the voice immediately.
Without hesitation, she dropped to her knees, crawling toward a nearby air vent where the sound seemed to be coming from. The vent was pulling air into the ground—a curious anomaly.
“You boys, flip this lid up! Hajime, step back,” she ordered, her voice urgent. “It’s okay, we’ve got this.”
The team sprang into action under Emily’s direction, working together to lift the heavy metal grate from its place. Below, Shephatiah Jones, exhausted and nearly naked in a one-piece swimsuit, struggled to pull herself up the icy ladder. Her fingers were black from frostbite, and her body was smeared in blood, her skin pale and trembling. Far beneath her, the pit was filled with a monstrous yellow machine, like a giant mechanical antlion, its massive drill bit towering like a man, ready to devour its prey.
“Mike, climb down there and help her up,” Emily commanded, her tone sharp. “I’ll take care of that thing.”
Mike nodded, “Yes, ma’am,” and began his descent without hesitation.
Emily removed a small vial from a concealed pocket, cracked it open, and carefully poured the contents into one of her gloves. She did the same with a second vial, this time lifting the glove in her other hand. The two substances began to mix inside the glove, her eyes fixed on the monstrous machine below.
“Darnell, once Mike has her, help pull her up. When I say ‘get down,’ get down.”
Darnell crouched by the edge, ready to assist.
Emily called down to the mechanical beast, her voice calm but deadly, “Tag, you’re it.” She released the glove, watching it fall.
The glove landed on the machine’s metal face with a satisfying slap, and the electrochemical reaction ignited instantly. A searing heat, hotter than 10,000 degrees, melted the monstrosity in half, turning it into a pool of molten metal.
Mike and Darnell wasted no time, hoisting the frantic, frostbitten Shephatiah out of the pit as the destroyed machine smoldered below.
“Get down!” Emily shouted, the intensity in her voice leaving no room for hesitation.
Everyone dropped to the ground just as a final burst of heat and sparks erupted from the ruined robot. Even amidst the chaos, Emily felt certain they’d be fine. Shephatiah, on the other hand, didn’t seem so grateful. Her face twisted in discomfort, her limbs trembling from a mix of cold and exhaustion. Her frostbitten fingers and toes were raw, and her body was littered with smaller injuries. The poor nanoregenerator pod had worked itself beyond its limits trying to keep her alive.
Having recoiled from Mike’s touch, likely due to his dirty, sweat-stained state, Shephatiah looked around helplessly. Emily, without missing a beat, turned to Darnell.
“Darnell, would you mind carrying her for me? She’s in no condition to walk. Thank you.”
Shephatiah initially resisted, but as soon as she tried to stand, the pain in her feet made it unbearable. She winced and reluctantly allowed Darnell to lift her into his arms.
“I know, I know,” Emily said soothingly. “I just need to get you fixed up with this spray.” She pulled out the nanoregenerative spray from her pack. “You know what it is, right?”
Shephatiah rolled her eyes and nodded, crossing her arms but submitting to the treatment. As Emily applied the spray to her frostbitten hands and feet, Shephatiah grimaced in pain, muttering complaints under her breath. Emily remained patient, diligently applying the fluid despite the girl’s protests.
Once the worst of Shephatiah’s injuries had been treated, Emily asked, “Is anyone else hungry?”
Mike, who had been mostly quiet, piped up, “I’ve got some snow peas back on the other comet place if you need ’em.”
Emily chuckled softly. “Duly noted, Mike. Thank you.”
The rest area felt surprisingly quaint and cozy despite its sterile, utilitarian setting. Its muted green walls and white-tiled floor gave it a warm, retro charm, especially with the two streamlined wooden dining booths equipped with touchscreens and food dispensers. Emily, delighted by the sight, let out a little squeal as she slid into one of the booths.
“Look at this place! Isn’t it darling?” she beamed, gesturing for Darnell, Hajime, Mike, and Shephatiah to join her.
Hajime and Shephatiah glanced around skeptically, while Mike remained expressionless. “I’ve seen worse,” Mike muttered, taking a seat.
Darnell tapped the touchscreen, frowning. “Screen’s busted. Black as space out there.”
Emily wasn’t deterred. “Tell you what, everyone. What’s the one thing you want most from this machine? Let’s see if we can make a little magic happen.” She winked and pulled out a small device from her pack. “Engineer’s Mate.” She began explaining how it worked as she pulled the touchscreen off the wall, messing with the wires. After a few minutes, she managed to reroute the system to the device, bringing the terminal back to life.
She turned back to Darnell. “So, what do you want?”
Darnell grinned. “I need a drink. The real stuff.”
Emily typed in a few commands, then grinned mischievously as a soft “donk” echoed from the dispenser chute. Darnell’s eyes lit up as he saw a silver canister of Beirão alcohol drop into the bay.
“The best of Portugal. Damn. Beirão,” he said, making a low, contented growl.
Emily pulled out a bowl of steaming space pork pho for herself, slurping contentedly, while Hajime and Shephatiah eyed the booths, still wary of the oddness around them.
“Hey, Mike,” Emily said between bites. “What about you?”
Mike grunted. “I’ll pass. Just got some snow peas back on the other side of the comet, if we get hungry.”
Darnell laughed. “This reminds me of this one time on Ganymede,” he began, “when my lil' bro’ Delinquintessent and I hooked up with the cook staff at this Woolong place. Old-school Cantonese. We ended up bringing them back to the space yacht and spent the night eating fortune cookies and drinking Cuervo Plasma.”
Emily giggled, Hajime gave a small smile, and Shephatiah, still shivering slightly, let out a snort. “That’s a lot of damn cookies,” she said. Even Mike cracked a smile, though the humor clearly went over his head.
Darnell continued, “We woke up the next evening, and not a single fortune was left. Not a scrap of paper in sight.”
The group burst into laughter, even Shephatiah, who up until now had been curled up tightly in her seat, finally relaxing a little.
“Speaking of things disappearing,” Emily said, turning to Shephatiah, “what happened to God Love Omega?”
Shephatiah’s face darkened slightly. “That huge drill thing you blew up got him. Worked over those yellow punks good, but that slow-ass thing caught him off guard.”
Hajime chimed in. “Taladrador.”
“Taladrador?” Emily raised an eyebrow.
“It means ‘Driller,’” Hajime explained, her voice calm. “The drill robot. I memorized the robot classifications Federico showed me. Esfolador means ‘Flayer.’ Those were the ones with the clamps.”
Shephatiah nodded. “Yeah, the yellow bastards. God Love Omega said he saw ‘Esfolador’ on their screens.”
Emily leaned back, processing. “So, the robots… these miners are somehow being turned into them, or their minds are trapped. They think they’re robots. Meanwhile, the AI in charge has lost its mind. We’ve got Flayers, Drillers, and… Spiders?”
“Aranha,” Hajime said with a soft giggle. “It means spider. Apropos.”
Emily rubbed her chin. “And which one was Federico?”
“Punos,” Hajime said, mimicking the grip of clamps with her hands. “Federico was one of the Clamps, but I think all the Flayers are too. The robots in this mine are the miners. Somehow, their consciousnesses are being transferred or transformed.”
Emily narrowed her eyes. “And there’s a Doctor bot, too?”
Hajime nodded. “Yes, a Doctor. And a Processor. There’s one more I didn’t get to read about before we had to run.”
Shephatiah grumbled, “Of course they got a Doctor robot. Makes sense. Fix ‘em up after they get all wrecked.”
The conversation took on a more serious tone as the group digested the reality of what was happening around them. “We have to stop it,” Emily said finally. “The AI is broken, and it’s dragging everyone down with it. If we can somehow get Hajime’s Personal AI connected to the system, maybe we can fix this mess.”
The ceiling of the small rest area split in half under the weight and force of a colossal black mechanical arm. Segmented by large silver wheels that spun with terrifying speed, the arm obliterated the shack, slicing through the aisle between the two booths like a blade. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the arm withdrew, leaving a gaping hole in its wake.
Emily barely had time to process what was happening before she saw a figure being lifted into the air in front of her. Instinctively, she lunged forward, reaching for the legs, but a cascade of debris from the ceiling activated her safety barrier. It flared to life, deflecting the falling chunks of metal and rubble but also causing her outstretched hands to miss the target—Shephatiah.
The blonde woman let out a terrified scream as her long hair was caught by the massive mechanical crane arm. Dangling helplessly, she was hoisted up toward the gridwork in the ceiling, her legs flailing as the machine carried her higher. The monstrous crane, all black steel and insectoid limbs, clutched Shephatiah like a captured insect, securing her against its upper body.
"Shephatiah!" Emily shouted, her heart pounding, but there was nothing she could do from where she stood without risking Shephatiah’s fall.
The monstrous machine moved with eerie silence, gliding through the rafters with Shephatiah held tight. It didn’t eat her as Emily first feared, but instead, it carried her away from the group, vanishing deeper into the mechanical labyrinth of the spaceport’s ceiling.
“We have to follow it!” Emily urged, her voice filled with urgency. She led the charge, motioning for the others to cross the spaceport floor in pursuit. But just as they started, the crane robot reached its destination and dropped Shephatiah onto a conveyor belt. With a mechanical whir, the belt zipped her away in an instant, carrying her toward the looming Ziggurat in the distance.
Emily let out a sharp scream. “Take cover! It’s coming back this way!”