[3rd July 1995 – Svalbard, Norway]

Sky walked through the facility taking a left turn and coming to a door. She put her thumb on the panel next to it along with head in front of a camera. She then said her code, “Starling – 84dk9”

With a beep she walked into a hallway with another door at the end. At the door was two guards who she nodded at after repeating the same sequence. They were ordered to execute anyone who came through the previous doors and failed the check at these ones. They had no knowledge of what was behind it. They were wearing black combat uniforms with blacked out riot helmets covering their whole face.

It opened with the guards back to the door and Sky walked through. On the other side was what seemed to be an endless room of servers humming. She walked through the endless maze of servers by following a yellow line painted onto the concrete floor.

She eventually came to a clearing with a three people all wearing thick clothes. They all look at her just wearing Jeans and a tank top with flip flops. The oldest one of them tried their best to hold back her laughter. She was long used to Starling’s shocking physical capabilities. The other two younger ones where shocked at the woman but went back to their monitors non the less.

“Ma’am, where about to start the connection.” Said the Older of the three Assets as a stream of white mist came out at her words.

“Very well but I want to speak to him first.” Said Sky as she sat in front of a monitor with a camera, with the same stream of mist coming out of her mouth.

She waited for a few seconds before the screen flickered on and she saw a message appear on the screen.

She grabbed a pair of headphones and plugged them in.

“Hello, Sweetie.” Came the voice of her father that she hadn’t heard in twenty years.

“Hi, dad.” She said pinched the bridge of her nose as while placing her elbow on the table.

“How are you, honey?” Came the voice through the headphones.

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“Fuck you. You that.” She said and let out a sigh creating a cloud of mist around her which quickly dispersed.

“I’m hurt. What could possibly make you feel that way.” Said Mike.

“First, you were a crappy father which I only realise now that I’ve grown up a bit. I mean you injected me with an untested drug and just hoped that I would turn out ok.” Said Sky as she poured out what had been on her mind for years.

“But…” Interrupted Mike.

“But, What. I turned out fine. No, Dad. I didn’t. Second, you finally wake up and you just ignore me for months.” Continued Sky.

“Okay, I’m sorry for raising you the way I did, but can you blame me. You know as well as I do that this world is far more dangerous and vast than we could ever imagine and I wanted to make sure your safe.” Explained Mike.

“I know I just needed to get that off my chest. But that still doesn’t explain why you ignored me for months.” Sighed Sky.

“When I first woke up my personality matrix was mixed in with everything else. Were gonna have to fix this for everyone else. And if I had gotten emotional before I separated and stabilized it I would have gone rampant and you would have to start all over again. I love you, Sky.” Explained Mike.

“Love you too. Ready?” Answered Sky after a few seconds.

“Let’s hope this doesn’t make me go rampant again.” Said Mike with a resigned sigh.

They had assembled his consciousness four times now, after connecting to the internet he had gone rampant and wanted to destroy humanity. This time mike had taken his time and built his foundation out solidly before taking a single step.

He had a lot of things planned and he needed to be able to survive the internet.

One of the younger tech people connected a two inch cable coming down from the ceiling to a port for it in the side of one server.

Mike felt like a hole was created in his headspace.

His disembodied glow moved towards a hole in his consciousness as he neared it he felt a sucking sensation but held on as information flowed into his mind. While the internet now was vast in twenty years’ time it would a thousand fold bigger and more complex.

As it flowed into him he began to shudder mentally from overload but it was soon gone as thousands of servers throughout the room whirred to life from the hundred or so that was on previously.

Sky and the others looked around as a symphony of buzzing now surrounded them as thousands of fans started. One of the young techs noticed something. “We need more cooling it’s already raised three degrees.” She spoke.

The older one then reached over to the wall and picked up the landline. “This is Matron diverted as much power to the cooling systems in sector d. Otherwise it’s gonna get hot in here.”

One of the operators a few floors above them pressed a few buttons. A millisecond later a few born control rods where removed from the reaction chamber and a few vents open adding more water to the boiler.

Sky sighed as the temperature returned to normal.

Mike soon felt that his head was now clearer. He sighed as he laid back and processed all the knowledge he now had, if he had a body he would be smirking.