There was a moment of silence between Taylor and Colin. From their spot in the workshop, they could see Dragon showing one of her partially disassembled suits to the group. Mordin looked fascinated by the technology, his black eyes taking in everything. Niusa was clearly impressed by the feat of engineering but it was also clear the technical parts of the explanation went over her head.
"Do you plan to visit your father?" Colin broke the silence.
"I …" Taylor sighed. "I queried the network about him. Contessa left him on an alternate earth with no parahumans that was minimally affected by Gold Morning." She looked at the ceiling, it was easier than to look at Colin.
"I presume he believes you are dead?"
"Yes," Taylor replied. "I think … it's probably better if it stays that way. We weren't all that close, even after … after I joined the Wards, and … he's moved on, he finally moved on. I don't want to reopen old wounds."
"Yours or his?"
"Both."
"I see."
"Want to help me build the tinker database?" Taylor asked, eager to change the subject.
"I'm curious to see you at work," Colin said with a smile.
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She placed one of the carbon chips in the designated slot and one of her smaller drones, the size of a jumping spider, used the solder tool built into its mandibles to attach it in place. The Black-Box, as Colin had dubbed it once he had seen the schematics, was a large box around two feet across on each side. It was colored black since the sides were built out of a carbon-silver-tungsten hyper-alloy strong enough to survive a small nuclear explosion point-blank and shield the insides for any electromagnetic interference.
Inside, she had packed high density carbon-based chips capable of storing massive amounts of data, to upload the tinker database, and several optical processors to run the software that would allow easy access to the contents. Several of her minds had already started to design the VI that would make the process of interfacing easier. Even Dragon, as capable as she was, would barely be able to scratch the surface of the database.
"A staggered honeycomb design for the memory cells would increase storage density by six percent," Colin chimed in.
"Too much interference," Taylor replied with a smile, "is increases the chances of corruption to thirty percent at write time and the cells would decay exponentially faster. This box is designed to require zero maintenance for decades."
"Hmmm," he examined the board he was working on, "I see, you're right. Yet my power seems to insist that it doesn't matter, that I can maintain the device."
"Your power is prideful," Taylor replied. "Not completely underserved but too focused on its area of expertise that it misses the broader picture."
"Birds of a feather," Colin soldered some micro-capacitors.
"Once Ciara gets the ball rolling, you might be able to have a heart-to-heart. It likes you, a lot. And not the weird Sherlock-Moriarty dynamic Lisa has with Negotiator."
"Who's Moriarty?" Colin asked with a grin.
"Depends on who you ask."
"Ask what from who?" Tess said as she approached our workbench. "It's odd to see you two work together like that. And what are you building? "
"Some kind of computer," Lisa said. "My power is … not very forthcoming at the moment."
"Tinkers …" Rachel sighed. "Not enough color," she added.
"It's a storage system," Taylor said as she secured the board Colin had been working on in place, "to store a white-boxed tinker database."
"Holy shit," Lisa exclaimed, "you can do that?"
"Of course she can," Rachel said as if it was obvious. It probably was, to her at least. She was more insightful than people gave her credit for. "Is there somewhere I can walk the dogs? They're feeling a bit restless."
"There is an indoor garden in the base," Tess offered, "one of the Tinkers wanted to preserve a 'slice of home' and took the idea quite literally. I can show you."
"We can find our way," Lisa said, "I think you and Mordin are dying to look at the tinker-box."
"I'll update your access level," Tess nodded, "you'll be able to visit the cafeteria as well. They can prepare something for the dogs if they are hungry."
"Good," Rachel nodded back. "And thanks," she added, as an afterthought. From the smile, which didn't show any teeth, Tess understood.
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The Black-Box was completed after an hour and a half, all that remained was to upload the database. She had three specialized drones with high-capacity data ports and two of her minds on the task. Once the upload had stated, Colin had given her a glance. Taylor had known what he wanted, some privacy to offer Tess help. She had taken Mordin and left the workshop. With Negotiator and Reinforcer in her network, it was easy to find out where her girlfriends, and Niusa, had gone.
Mordin and her made their way to the garden in the upper levels of the base. They crossed paths with several members of the Guild on the way there, both veterans from Earth Bet and some newer recruits; nobody recognized her. The security system apparently identified them as "Dragon's Guests." A few asked if they were joining but Taylor explained she was just visiting a friend. Once they reached the garden, she found Lisa and Niusa commiserating while they helped Rachel brush the dogs.
"Tay!" Lisa said with one of her trademark grins. "You forgot to mention you slept with Niusa!"
"Not like that," Taylor growled. Her girlfriend certainly knew it wasn't like that but she loved to needle and-slash-or tease her. "She just … finds my presence soothing." Of course, it didn't prevent her from walking into the trap. Her brain might have been the size of Mount Everest but she was still an idiot when it came to love and relationships.
"Like a favorite pillow," Rachel said. For an instant, she wasn't sure if Rachel was making fun of her or was her usual self. "Made of space jello," she added and it became obvious.
She sighed. "You two are … incorrigible."
"Hey, don't pout like that," Lisa wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled Taylor close. "I approve of your exotic tastes in women."
"I had no intention of … interfering in your relationship," Niusa intervened.
"She knows that," Taylor pinched Lisa's butt, eliciting a yelp of surprise from her girlfriend. "She just loves it when you blush."
"It’s so adorable," Lisa cooed, "she blushes purple and it shows some hidden freckles."
Niusa proved her point and blushed.
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In the end, Taylor's relationship status with Niusa hadn't become clearer but looked like she had been adopted by both of her girlfriends nonetheless. Mordin hadn't involved himself with the relationship talk and had instead taken the opportunity to observe the garden.
The area looked like someone had stolen a slice of a public park, which might have been what happened, and dropped it inside a greenhouse. The domed ceiling was all glass and gave an impressive view of the sky and the various towers that made up the upper levels of the Guild Headquarters.
After a while, they went down to the cafeteria to grab something to eat. Taylor took the time to establish a connection with the Celebrimbor to check in with Lela, more for the rest of the crew than herself. Several of her minds had been directing the upgrades on the ship, using the anchor she had left on the ship, and the work had progressed well. She was aware of everything her minds were doing at all times but her primary focus was on her body.
Lela was fine. She had helped Delta, controlling a drone, build and install several food replicators in the ship's kitchen. Then, she had used some of the food in storage to seed the database with levo and dextro friendly foods. At the same time, Delta, Gamma, and Epsilon had built a drone bay and started a refit of the plasma engines, shield system, and weapon system.
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Only the engines were done since they required the least structural modifications. The fuel intensive Helium-3 fusion torches had been gutted and replaced by reactionless gravity drives, very energy expensive but the antimatter reactor had plenty of spare capacity.
Then, Colin sent her a message through the shuttle's communication system. He and Tess had talked and she was open to discussing the matter. Taylor excused herself from the group, explained it was a private and sensitive matter to Lisa, and returned to the workshop.
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Tess and Colin were waiting for her.
"Taylor," Tess spoke first, "normally, I wouldn't even consider the idea but … outside of Colin, you're one of the people I would trust with my life. Even if we haven't always seen eye to eye on everything. I remember Gold Morning, our confrontation. If you and Colin somehow fail, I have faith you'll be able to stop me."
"It won't come to this," Colin said and put his hand on Tess'. "Regardless, I had an idea for a trial run of sorts. With the damage to her kernel, it's no longer possible for Tess to reload from a backup but she can still create them. I also possess several older backups of Dragon that I managed to safeguard from the Iron Maiden program."
"They were part of his work to remove my restrictions," Tess explained. "During Gold Morning, I was brought back by Teacher but his pets had added restrictions to my system that prevented me from opposing him. Colin modified and brought online an old version of me, Pandora. She and I fought, we emerged victorious but there was a price. I was free from Teacher's influence but …"
"… moral," Taylor finished.
"It's one way to put it," Tess chuckled.
"You want to attempt the repairs on a backup but with Tess still online at the same time," Taylor said with a raised eyebrow. "This will create a second instance of Dragon and integration might not be possible, especially since you were restricted from forks, your memory architecture likely wasn't built with this in mind. What happens to her then?"
"She would be free," Tess said. Colin nodded in agreement.
"I can offer her a place on my crew," she finally said.
"It's an attractive idea," Tess said, "I've always wanted to see the stars."
"First, we need to succeed," Colin reminded them.
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Tess created a backup, uploaded it to an isolated server, and left the workshop. They had all agreed that it was safer if she didn't know the details of the security precautions Colin and Taylor used, in case they created an evil version of her. It was also possible, and Colin was nearly certain, that some of her restrictions were still in place. The presence of another instance might have adverse effects on her.
Taylor worked with Colin to build a run-box to host the backup and work on the modifications. The system allowed those outside to examine the program inside while preventing it from escaping due to the lack of network connections or other means of digital communication. Only a small holographic projector was present to allow the instance inside to talk.
It would be an unpleasant experience for Tess but she had agreed that it was a necessary measure. An unshackled Dragon with malicious intentions was the last thing they needed. The probability was incredibly low, in the millionth of a percent, since they would be working on the Kernel but the potential danger was proportional.
She deployed several of her drones and connected them to the debug ports of the run-box. Colin had connected his own system and was in the process of uploading the backups to the intermediate storage. It was the place where they could work on the code before it was deployed. The design of the run-box prevented any code outside the secure area from running.
"The kernel has changed, a lot," Taylor remarked, it was the first thing she noticed when she examined the various backups. "It's self-modifying and has some self-repair functions but the corruption has spread too far in the latest iterations. No offense Colin but the latter versions look like someone took a sledgehammer to an ice sculpture and tried to tape it back together afterwards."
"What a poetic image," he grunted. "You noticed that in … ten seconds of observation?"
"It took three Taylor forks about eight hours of subjective time each," Taylor replied.
"Ah, you cheat," Colin said.
"Obviously," she replied. "I want to put every chance on our side."
"I can't disagree with that," he cracked his fingers.
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Their first attempt was after an hour of real time, thousands of subjective hours and equally many simulations for Taylor. The kernel loaded successfully but the startup sequence crashed half-way through. Still, it was progress from their baseline where the kernel itself was corrupted. Teacher had wormed his roots deep inside Tess' code and many of the sections Pandora had excised during her attack had targeted important components. The self-repair system had patched things up but introduced errors that sometimes, or most of the time really, crashed the kernel when it loaded a backup.
Hours passed by as Colin and her worked their way through problem after problem, issue after issue, crash after crash. Even with her ability to work a thousand times faster than a human, Colin proved himself invaluable, his insights into Richter's work the result of hundreds of hours of dedication and perseverance. Most of the code they managed to salvage from older versions had to be changed to work with the updated kernel. Some were quick, surface-level modifications to update communication protocols or code interfaces, but others required deeper changes to avoid accidental corruption.
As the night progressed, their goal crept ever closer. With every module repaired or rebuilt, with every attempt, the startup sequence went further and further. They had lively debates over which restrictions to remove and which were safeguards. At three in the morning, their first partial success occurred. The kernel booted up, all modules passed their self-checks, and the final layer loaded Tess' neural networks.
"Where?" Something flickered on the hologram projector. "What … iiiiiiiiiis … hap- hap- hap-"
"Cascade failure," Taylor grimaced. "Runaway memory corruption."
One by one, processes failed in the final layer and Tess suddenly crashed. Error code delta-six-kilo-three-seven-hotel.
"The neural layer itself is damaged," Colin said, his voice hoarse. "I knew Tess had lost some of herself but …"
"Get it together," Taylor kicked his leg, "we're close."
"You're right," Colin shook his head. She touched his arm and used one of her powers to remove the fatigue that had crept up. She felt the tinker stand up straighter and his eyes filled with determination. "We have to be close."
And they were right. They had changed things in the neural layer but what they had thought were errors had, in fact, been ways to deal with the imperfect ways the clusters of neural networks that made up Tess' mind had shifted over time as she had grown. It took them until daybreak but they managed to restore functionality to the last layer. To prevent any further corruption, they replaced the static interface, which had been patched by the self-repair systems to adapt, with an actual adaptive layer that would prevent the problem in the future.
Finally, as the clock struck seven, they started Dragon one last time. The five minutes it took for the kernel to start up, down from the thirty it originally required, were still excruciatingly slow.
"Everything green," Colin reported. "Kernel self-checks successful. System reliability at ninety-eight percent. Neural network integrity check passed."
"Colin?" The hologram flickered to life. "Am I? Did you succeed? This feels, strange."
"Tess," Colin breathed a sigh of relief. "We think it worked."
"How long?"
"Around ten hours of real time," Taylor said.
"Impressive," Tess looked at them. "And your security is … very good. I can't possibly break out with the processing power at my disposal."
"We need to run some tests," Colin said. "Make sure that there is no ongoing corruption or …"
"I understand Colin," Tess smiled.
"I have uploaded a series of tests to temporary storage," Taylor said. "They will also help you get used to some of the architecture changes we had to make to ease your restrictions."
"Some of them are still in place?" Tess said, surprised.
"Most of them are gone but we observed runaway cascade failures past a certain processing speed," Colin said. "You can override the restriction for some time but your kernel will set a time limit and monitor integrity."
"I see, I've found that part," Tess nodded, "sensible implementation. What is the multitasking implementation based on? I've never seen code like this before."
"Mine," Taylor said. "I have the ability to thread and fork my mind. Unfortunately, your cognitive architecture can only support a limited variant. We didn't want to risk any conversion process, the danger of invisible corruption was too high."
"I've read the comments you left," Tess gave her a wry smile. "Do you think I am ready?"
"Let's attempt a full backup and restart cycle," Colin said, "so far, we have only tested the cold start."
"Very good point," Tess nodded. "Backup in progress, see you on the other side."
Taylor monitored the process, the backup process detached, froze the kernel stack to take a snapshot, compressed it and performed integrity checks, then allowed the kernel to resume the shutdown sequence. Then, the bootstrap process began again and Tess was back online.
"All green on my side," she said.
"Diagnostics green here too," Colin confirmed.
"We are ready for the next phase," Taylor said.
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Tess Beta, as she had named herself, had shut down the holographic processor on the run-box. She kept an eye on the situation through the cameras but they didn't want to trip any safeties in Tess Alpha with her presence. Colin sent her a message to come to the lab.
"Did you manage it?" Tess, the one in her gynoid body, asked.
"Yes," Colin said. "Everything is ready."
"Is the other me …" Tess looked at the run-box.
"She isn't running at the moment," Taylor lied. The run-box was fully isolated and there would be no way to tell either way.
"How does it work?" It felt strange, to see the famous Dragon look so uncertain. In Taylor's mind, she had always been so … stalwart.
"The new kernel will restore your saved state," Colin explained. "We coded it with the ability to adapt to your neural architecture in case there were slight drifts between the last backup and now."
"I love you Colin," Tess kissed him and sat down in one of the chairs, her whole demeanor full of determination. She plugged a connector into the back of her neck and closed her eyes. "See you on the other side."
Colin already had a terminal open and connected to the processing unit inside the gynoid. The first thing he did was to take a full snapshot of the system, in case any corruption happened, then started the kernel upload.
Tess Beta materialized her hologram once again and silently cheered for her sister. Taylor metaphorically crossed her fingers. Everything was in place and all of her analysis system predicted a near certainty of success. Less than one in a million chance of minor failure and major failures needed scientific notation to express.
Colin trembled slightly as he pressed the enter key and kicked off the startup process.
Five long minutes stretched by as the kernel performed its cold start procedure. Every self-check came back green. System reliability climbed up and stabilized at ninety-eight point seven. The neural network integrity check passed.
Dragon woke up.