“If I’m not back in a full cycle…”

“We’ll move on. You can count on me.”

“Go ship yourself Jonah, I was going to say ‘come get me!’”

“Ah right, you do have my goggles. Yes we will do that. I am able to track my goggles through my portable.”

Leanne took off and Jonah struggled to flip Jack onto his back. The rat scampered out of the way of the turning wall of flesh. It squeaked indignantly at Jonah.

“Don’t look at me like that rat, it’s a dangerous ship you should keep your eyes open.”

Jonah held his electric pinky in front of his face. His eyes screwed up. You ship-damned punk you better not burn it out again.

Jonah reinforced the current breakers he had installed at each joint. If Jack pulled too much electricity at once the breakers should flip which would manually cut off the flow.

He slowly, carefully brought his finger to Jack’s chest. He carefully monitored the electricity he was trickling into Jack.

‘POPOPOP’ It ripped faster than the breakers could trip as each segment of his pinky finger blew apart nearly as one.

“Dammit Jack!”

Booms echoed into the hall from the room behind him. He peeked back and saw that a trail of the machines were either dead or had turned into shrapnel bombs.

Jack sat up.

“I feel like shit, what happened?”

“You blew off my finger! Again! Again again! How many times has it been now?”

He stopped as he turned away from the shatter machines toward Jack. His skin was… swollen was the only way to describe it. He looked like a red water balloon. Jack coughed up blood onto his chest and the floor. It smoked as Jack slammed back down to the floor.

“Jack?”

It was a long pause before a tired voice, “Yeah Jonah?”

“Are you alright?”

“Probably not. Where’s Leanne?”

“She’s tracking the crabs.”

A pained grin spread up the left side of Jack’s face, she just earned major chits with her Squad Leader.

“What’s going on with your condition?” Jonah’s eyes gleamed, finally a proper moment to inquire.

Jack took a deep breath before it turned into a hacking cough. He turned his head to the side and spit out a thick wad of yellow phlegm.

“What do you know about Soul Cores?”

______________________________________________________________________

Leanne had gotten used to her missing toes. She’d take them back in a heartbeat but at least they didn’t slow her down, much.

She darted to the wall and hugged it as a trio of crabs turned the corner. She unloaded one pistol into one then shut the other one about to scream with a ball of plasma directly into her mouth. She dropped her water pistol and drew her long-knife stabbing through the base of an eye-stalk driving her blade through its soft insides and planting it into the floor. She paused to listen, no response, and let out a breath.

She continued following the trail, the chitin of the smaller crabs prevented their faint heat signatures from degrading Tule’s larger mass of heat. Tule wasn’t alone though, it was hard to tell but she thought there might have been at least 2 other hybrids that had traveled the same path. She thought back to the carvings of the crabmen. Her lip curled. She hated crabs. That stopped her for a hitch. She did? She had always disliked them but where had this hate for crabs come from? As she stored the crab bodies she thought about harvesting some of their meat. Her lip curled in disgust so she left them and continued padding her way through the ship’s sewers.

______________________________________________________________________

“Well, what do you want to know about them?”

Jack laughed until he was coughing again, “You don’t have anymore charge by chance do you?”

Jonah’s nostrils flared as his glare bored a hole directly through Jack’s body and cut a narrow furrow into the floor.

“You… you are seriously asking me that. After blowing up my THIRD FINGER?”

"I thought it was your pinky, not your ring finger."

"Third time third time!"

Jack picked up his head to look at Jonah’s indignantly displayed finger, “fair enough.” His head knocked back onto the floor and he continued to chuckle.

“What’s so funny now?”

“You Jonah, you talk for ages about anything and everything but I ask you about a Soul Core and you want a proper starting point.” Jack shrugged, the effect somewhat diminished laying flat on the ground, “It’s funny.”

Jonah shot Jack another glare that split him into little chunks of fleshy meat then sighed, “What is there to tell you? Just because we can measure and quantify it, somewhat, doesn’t mean we can explain it.”

Jack’s head swept side to side, “What does that mean?”

“Well… from what I’ve seen from early-Earth records, the brain used to be an enigma to even the foremost scientists of that era. Their knowledge was so basic that they could scarcely tell which part of the brain was responsible for what part of the body and decision-making process. They could observe it, measure aspects of it, but as it what and how it worked? Clueless.”

“So you’re saying we’re like that now, but with Souls.”

Jonah let go of a deep sigh, “Essentially. Yes.”

Jack nodded and brought a finger up to tap on his chin, “What can you tell me then?”

“Well Souls seem to be immortal as far as any research I’ve seen on them. Your Soul Core can best be described as a cradle for your Soul, it’s where it resides in your body. The Core is a fairly measurable thing. Much more than the Soul itself.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“It's like a Soul House then.”

“A Soul House?! What was wrong with ‘cradle’…Yes sure, close enough. A Soul House.” Jonah continued mumbling about ‘soul houses’ too quietly for Jack to bother attempting to listen to.

“So it protects your Soul? What happens if your Soul Core is… cracked? Or being invaded I guess?”

“Yes it does- What do you mean invaded? Is your Soul Core cracked? What does the Terminal tell you on your Personnel Stat Page?”

Jack stretched his memory, recall on important things like that wasn’t too tough since he had hit 20 IQ.

“It said Soul Core: Shattered.”

“Sh…Shattered?”

“Uh yeah. So, uh, that’s a bad thing. I get that now.”

Jonah prepped his portable to take notes but, for the life of him, he didn’t know where to even start.

“You still there Jonah?”

“Yea…Yes I am.”

“You want me to just describe what it feels like?”

“Feels like…” He didn’t have a better solution though, “Yes that will work, for now.”

“Alright so…”

Jack described the battle between the infinitely-regenerating defense of the green energy and the voracious-appetite of the red energy. He hesitated but pushed through his insecurity and told Jonah about the smallest flicker that was his Soul and the electric cocoon that was his electricity reinforcing his shattered mess of a Soul Core.

“Jonah what’s it say for your Soul Core?”

“Huh? Oh, just ‘Standard’.”

“Any idea what I should do?”

Jonah picked up a wounded warble to the question so took an extra few moments to think about it, “What’s your Personnel Level?”

“19.5”

“19.5??”

“Is that high?”

“No… I’m at 25. How is your Personnel Level so low? What are your Stats?”

Jack looked up at that and gave Jonah a severe eyeing.

“Well never mind then, the ‘.5’ is quite odd. Do you have any Catalysts?”

“Yeah a bunch. A crab one, another from the mushrooms, and the Terminal said the Shard was another.”

“Who carries THREE Catalysts inside of themselves? Insanity. You should be a pile of goo. Wait. Could that be it…”

Jack wanted to lift his head and prod Jonah to finish his sentence but he couldn’t summon the energy. After long, long seconds he prodded the scientist.

“Jonah.”

“I wonder… perhaps… it’s possible.”

“Jonah!” Jack hacked another wad of mucous up, it didn’t manage to fully clear his mouth on the way out. Whatever.

“Yes I have a theory. Perhaps there is a relationship between a Soul Core's, or even the Soul's strength and one's capacity to hold Catalysts."

“So how am I able to hold so many with a… weak Soul?”

“That’s the missing part, it could be that your Electric Affinity provides support to it or there is some sort of balance reached by their presence. Although that wouldn't explain your decaying condition. There is a big piece of information missing, we need more data! Perhaps it has something to do with your Base Constitution even or…”

Jonah’s head was off in the clouds again.

“So why are Catalysts so dangerous?”

“That's something that the Terminal's keep quite close to their chest. As best I can figure with the research I've gathered is that they are essentially a foreign 'life-force' that your body adapts to and which the Terminals use to change your Body’s composition on a genetic, fundamental level. That’s simplified of course, I know how much you enjoy my in-depth explanations.”

Jack laughed and ended in a cough, when he recovered he rasped out, “I didn’t know you had a funny bone. Help me up.”

How is he so ship-damned heavy?!

______________________________________________________________________

The Clan held the Tetsudo for a portion of the distance before switching to a looser, and faster, scouting formation. The Monitors stayed glued to their portables.

Yuma finished charging another battery for a grateful Clan Member. She tried to reconnect to Jack so she could monitor him while being able to dump the excess electricity but the tether had disappeared by the time she had checked again.

“We’re here.” The Clan Head walked up to the Door Terminal, Yuma in tow.

She didn’t hesitate as she placed her hand against the Pad. They were well past that point.

Authorization Token Detected…

Welcome, Security Personnel Yumata.

Checking Authority Token… Contested.

View Authority Dispute?

Yuma clenched her teeth as she tapped, ‘Yes>’. Always, always something.

Positive Sum Required for Door Operation

Emergent Security Personnel Secondary Authority +5

Cargo-Bay SI Local Authority -2

Risk Assessment of Primary Threat in Local Area -2

Emergent Request from Cargo-Bay SI: Assistance Required -1

Please Apply Additional Source of Authority…

Yuma removed her hand, “We need more Authority.”

The Clan Head depressed his hand on the Pad.

No Authority Detected on User. Authority Augmentation Failures Remaining: 1.

“Hmmmm,” he stroked his facial whiskers in long, pensive strokes.

“Uhh, maybe I have some Authority? From the Admin SI?”

Yuma and the Clan Head turned toward Korl.

The Clan Head nodded as Yuma stepped aside and motioned with an outstretched hand and a shrug, “makes sense.”

Korl slapped his hand on the Pad.

Administrative Personnel Authority not recognized in Cargo-Bay Door Control Not Connected to Administrative Section.

Improper Authority Detected on User. Authority Augmentation Failures Remaining: 0

Korl heard a high pitched whine emit from the Door as the Clan scrambled to ready themselves. His hand released but the whine continued.

Everyone stepped slowly away from the Door. It looked like it wasn’t going to attack, but it was certainly getting ready for it. Yuma stepped back toward the Door and weaved around a Shield Guard’s grasping hands looking to stop her from approaching the activated Door.

She placed her hand back on the Pad.

Emergent Security Personnel Yumata.

“What do we need to do to move through this Door?”

Complete Cargo-SI’s Emergent Request

Acquire Cargo-SI’s Authority Token

Eliminate Primary Threat in Cargo-Bay

The Clan Head turned toward the stacked storage containers in the distance, “Anything new?”

She nodded, “It gave us three ways. We can complete the Cargo-SI’s request, get its token, or eliminate the Primary Threats, I'm assuming whatever those creatures were.”

“Assuming those things are the Primary Threats…” A Clan Head did not make assumptions unless necessary.

“None of that will happen if we’re caught in the dark. Clan, we’re heading out to the container stacks, double time!”

Even though they were only traveling in a steady jog, they were all Nano-Augmented Humans and their pace quickly ate the vast distance separating them from their target. The mountain of containers quickly grew in size before Yuma’s eyes. Still, they must have been further than they first assumed considering the lake, the Door, and the containers were the only points of reference it made gauging distance difficult. The Monitors were noticeably lacking in that capacity as well, in the Labs, distances beyond 30 meters were almost never necessary.

She could tell something about the containers though... They weren’t just piled on top of one another, there was organization, there was a logic used in their arrangement. She told the Clan Head and he responded with a grim nod.

______________________________________________________________________

Jonah was struggling to keep Jack walking.

“Why are you so ship-damned heavy, Jack?”

“Gotta keep it all somewhere.”

“Keep wha-”

Jack interrupted him, “Weren’t there a bunch of machines here?”

Jonah, putting aside his physical struggles finally looked around, the room they had just been fighting in had been stripped.

“How, there’s…” Jonah’s hand swept to his face, “Agh, Leanne!”

“Oh yeah, where’d she go? Is she dead?”

Jonah’s hand dropped from his hand from his face then looked at Jack, “What? No- What’s wrong with you? No she’s not dead! She better not be! She has my goggles!”

"Well don't yell her name like that and I won't assume she's dead!"

Jack couldn’t help but crack a grin, he had been starting to feel bad for saying that until the last part of what Jonah said, maybe him and Jonah were broken in some similar ways.

“Why’d you give her your goggles? Seems unlike you.”

“It was a stupid mistake, I never should have,” he pulled out his portable and tapped a flurry of commands on it. Jack took the opportunity to start to pitch over, “Just lean on me you - you dense oaf!”

Jonah continued typing as Jack’s weight settled heavily onto one of his shoulders, “I can’t even track her right now, the signal is a mess…” He continued typing as Jack focused on keeping his feet under him.

“Of course the variance in tunnel shapes down here would have thrown it off, I’d calculated the signal refraction based off of the Labs characteristics…”

Jonah’s rambling continued as Jack noticed the small rat sitting in front of them, maybe 10 feet away. It squeaked. Correction: it squeaked at him.

“Hey Rat, you know somewhere I can get some electricity?”

It turned its head to a point beyond it.

“Electricity is that way?”

It squeaked then they stared at each other. The lack of comprehension of RatSpeak became clear so it followed up its squeak with a nod.

“Did that little rat just nod at you?”

“Yup, pretty sure, we’re going to follow it.”

Jonah grumbled but Jack was well familiar with Jonah’s grumbling by now, he could tell it was little more than an obligatory grumble.