Kaden made his way back through the blood garden to the shuttle pad and let the pilot know that they would be making a stop to pick up his son Brian from the scientist residential sector. Kaden hoped to pick up his wife; however, she had gone to a meeting for the Imperial Neighborhood Improvement Society and ignored her link when he dialed it. Kaden thought about what would happen to his wife if his plan succeeded and shuddered. However, there was no time. He had to act now. He couldn't be selfish when the fate of everything was at stake, and he had just gotten the free pass he needed. He got a taxi to take Brian to the shuttle and politely asked the pilot to jump to the Future Ubiquitous Control Kinematics Base as soon as possible.

Upon arrival at the space station, Kaden quickly ushered his son past the security checkpoints and into the inner core. He took him to the mind infusement laboratory after showing the guards the Emperor's orders to allow his son to be upgraded with the super nanites. "But Sir! I thought the nanites wouldn't be ready for another week," one guard said. Kaden shifted his control tablet nervously in his hands and lied, "The process won't be ready for the uplift package till next week. However, basic control nanites are ready to create the mental programming the Emperor requires of his subjects. It is, of course, a new technology, and it will be given to my son to ensure it is safe before the Emperor will touch it." The guard nodded solemnly. "I wish you the best of luck, Sir. I am glad I'm not in your position. It must greatly trouble you to risk your son's life in such a manner." Kaden saw the trap immediately and replied, "Not at all. I serve the Emperor with all I am and all I have. If my son can further the Emperors' cause even by death, it will be a blessing."

The guard smiled twistedly. "I see your mental conditioning is working. Sorry, but I had to check. After all, Jason managed to circumvent it somehow. Good answer!" Kaden continued pushing Brian forward. Brian, who had been silent and observant so far, suddenly started shifting nervously. "What is going on, dad? What are you doing? Why am I here?" Kaden smiled and slammed down the lab's door's bolting mechanism, effectively sealing them from the inside. "Son, you need to trust me. There is no time for me to explain. I have downloaded a copy of my current consciousness into the artificial intelligence, and it will be available for you to ask limited questions to after we are done here."

Brians's face grew white as he laid down on the table his dad was gesturing for him to get on. He realized something was very wrong, and his dad was very mysterious and secretive. What was going on? Brian saw the diagram for the nanite implementation process pop up on the holoprojector. However, it was not the diagram for the super nanite loyalty conditioning. It was something else. A full skeleton configuration was outlined on the holoprojector, not just some control chip for his brain. His eyes widened, and he stuttered, "Dad, that's not a control chip." "Crap," Kaden said as alarms started wailing through the station's speaker system. "What you just said triggered the passive trigger word response system. We only have minutes now, but this will still work!" "Arghh" Brian yelled as powerful metal vices suddenly pinned down his body, and the metal on the table suddenly started to flow over him like a liquid. "Dad, what's happening?" Loud banging sounded from the door to the lab, and then a glowing hole started to appear in the titanium door as the guard from earlier started cutting through it.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Son listen to me!" said Kaden. "The Emperor is an evil man. He will destroy everything in existence with the device he has had me build. I am sacrificing myself and your mother to ensure that this device exists in the hands of a peace-loving, kindhearted good person. This is you; I charge you to be ethical in every decision you make, and always try to do what is just, true, and right, and never lie. I love you." By now, the encroaching liquid metal had fully encased Brian, leaving a transparent nanometal film above his eyes; he could not move or speak. He screamed, but no sound came out as he watched the glowing hole in the lab's door widen as the metal finally started to drip away. He saw his dad turned towards the door and make a face, and then he stepped back and slapped a button that had popped up on the edge of the table. Loud explosions suddenly erupted, and the station shook like it was coming apart. Brian saw the glowing hole in the door widen, and security forces stormed through. His dad mouthed, "I love you," and then a massive flash of light blinded Brian, and he felt a considerable amount of G-forces.

When Brian could see again, he could tell that his metal pod was spinning; drifting in space outside the station. He caught glimpses of the station breaking to pieces as multiple orange and yellow explosions tore it apart. Suddenly, a red warning alert flashed on the inside of his transparent face covering. "ALERT! ALERT! Detection of stellar nova! ALERT!" A shadow enveloped Brain's cocoon just as the local star exploded. The broken parts of the station and all the years of research were vaporized, but Brian didn't see it. All he saw was darkness as the new super ship established a link with his newly-installed nanites and then attempted to use its new stardrive to teleport to a random universe.