There were many things in the galaxy that could be considered miracles. Of course, such miracles were not the result of divine intervention or the will of some unseen great deity which required unwavering worship. For the most part, they were the result of poorly understood – if not outright ignored – minor factors interlinked in a complex web of cause and effect, leading to an unexpectedly beneficial outcome. And in some rare occasions, they were directly linked to laws of physics or biology, which wouldn’t be properly discovered for decades or even centuries. However, despite that, the end result was the same – there was no such thing as a miracle. The same could be applied to luck to an extent because of the inherited randomness of complex systems. Helix had enough knowledge and understanding of Chaos Theory to know that the operation he performed on Alexandra von Eisstahl should have ended in failure, or at least there should have been major complications to keep him and Dr Saiko busy for days. Instead, he was looking at stable vitals, reduced activity in the mutated portions of the brain and a very normal and predictable rate of recovery. It wasn’t normal. He made too many mistakes taken too many risks for things to end so smoothly. Despite how confident he was in his skills as a medic, he wasn’t a Biotic Cardinal, nor was he a moderately skilled physician. No, Helix’s field of expertise was treating combat injuries and repairing the far more resilient bodies of the Demons so that they could make it to a proper medical facility. Sure, he would assist the ordained scientists and mimic their work, but only to a point.
“Perfect… hmm,” Lucas dropped the remote vitals monitor on the bed before picking it up again. “It can’t be. It shouldn’t. I must be missing something.”
“I do not understand your frustration, Demon 08.” Zeti’s indifferent artificial voice filled the dimly lit room he had taken as sleeping quarters. “The operation you performed is a success and brings us one step closer to resuming Project Ascension. Instead of sulking, you should be celebrating this success.”
“This should have been an abysmal failure. All I did was cut blindly inside the psi-witch’s skull. By all accounts, she should be a vegetable and nowhere near recovery.” This time, he turned off the vitals monitor before dropping it to the bed and focused on the damaged Predator suit carefully aligned on the single other piece of furniture inside the room – the worktable. “I failed to achieve any of the procedure marks.”
“You are vastly underestimating what you achieved, Helix. The test subject is alive, which is a remarkable achievement. I am already analysing all the steps you took and incorporating them into a new protocol for shackling active psi-witches. The next step should be…”
“… the removal of the Thymen Stems connecting the somatosensory cortex and preparing the area for installation of SZ cortex implant.” Lucas finished for the AI. “Yes, I’ve observed each of the initial phases of Project Ascensions.”
“Then I fail to understand your emotional response.”
“Because she shouldn’t be recovering from what I did!” He snapped and slapped the helmet of his Predator suit off the table. “Because the mortality rate for phase one is seventy percent, ninety percent for phase two and because not a single bloody awakened psi-witch has survived phase three! And Alexandra von Eisstahl is recovering from phase three in medical as if all I did was remove a cyst.”
“Yes,” Zeti stated flatly, although he could swear there was annoyance underlining its voice, “that is an undeniable fact, and you should be celebrating. Not even the greatest minds of the Empire considered using the Annabel Cage in such a manner. Thanks to your unorthodox approach, you have managed to combine all three initial phases of Project Ascension into a single medical intervention. That is also an undeniable fact.”
“I was aiming to deafen her ability to use her psionic mutation!” Lucas shouted back, looking directly at the camera in the corner of his room.
“Even the uneducated can make a fundamental discovery that changes our understanding of the sciences. They should not be shunned or condemned but nurtured and expanded upon, for the spark of brilliance has been granted to all of the Blessed Saint’s faithful.”
He recognised the quote immediately as it was present at the beginning of each practical and theoretical Scripture. However, Durmua's words were meant to prevent the exclusion of potentially brilliant individuals from the inner ranks of the Church of the Third Hell. Not to mention that as a Demon, Lucas wasn’t one of the faithful. He was about to point that out, but the AI continued before he could open his mouth.
“I can predict seventy-six different arguments you can use against this statement, and some of them have limited validity. However, the core sentiment remains unchanged. Thus, Cardinal Durmua’s words hold true. Regardless of your personal feelings on the subject, you, Helix, are the uneducated, who has by accident fundamentally changed the field of psionic manipulation.”
Lucas had to admit that Zeti had a point there. In all honesty, he was somewhat proud of himself for coming up with a solution that would have Cardinal Zhu pull out his nonexistent hair for days. Under different circumstances, he would be gloating to Virgil and the other Demons until Hornet or Rage – or both – were fed up and decided to knock some humility back into him on the training range. But that was not the reason for his frustration, and although the current state of Alexandra von Eisstahl contributed significantly, it wasn’t his main worry. No, the reason for Lucas’ outburst was that he knew he could break the mnemonic blockers, which secured his absolute loyalty to the Holy Empire. However, that wasn’t something he could openly discuss with Zeti. Actually, there was no one on the mining complex whom he could confide in regarding this issue. The only person the medic could talk to was Athena, but she was long dead. Still, he had to do something before he drove himself insane.
“You understand I’m operating well outside normal mission parameters, right? I’m pushing the limits of my freedom to act independently. I can feel the self-adjusting coding of the Annabel Cage can no longer compensate for the dramatic change of my surroundings.”
“Yes, Helix, I am aware of this. I fail to see the point you are trying to make.”
“In theory, you should be able to provide assistance in the case I trigger one of the failsaves placed in my cortex implant. And should the worst happen, stop me by force. In practice, however, you are incapable of doing anything. You don’t have access to any combat drones, and the internal defences are depleted of ammunition. What happens then?”
He asked, picking the helmet up from the ground while waiting for Zeti to respond to the sudden change of topic. He gave the item a rudimentary examination to check for any damage he might have caused. As expected, save for a single negligible scratch in the paint, there was nothing worth noting. However, just to be sure, he placed the armour piece on his head and powered it up. Ignoring the dozen warnings regarding the lack of power supply and connection issues to the rest of the Predator suit, Lucas initiated a detailed system AI-diagnostic.
“The basis for your theoretical argument is partially incorrect, and I do not appreciate being misled as if I am a human.” Listening to the cold, calculated response, the Demon could swear he had touched a nerve if he didn't know better. “Regarding the provision of physical assistance, that is a problem I am in the process of resolving. Through careful indoctrination, the local pseudo-scientific personnel are on the path to becoming properly ordained scientists. Their individual skills will be insufficient, of course; however, through my guidance, they will be able to serve you until proper replacements are found. So, you do not need to worry and focus your attention on Project Ascension.”
“And what about restraining me? You cannot seriously believe that a bunch of civilian heretics would be able to do it?” Lucas insisted while waiting for the integrated AI in his helmet to finish the self-diagnostic.
“I will not dignify such a silly question with a response.” This time, there was no mistake that Zeti was angry. “Honesty is not in the Demons’ nature. What is this all about, Helix? If you are worried that the cage you placed around the psi-witch’s psyche will not hold, I can assure you that it will.”
“Well, aren’t you the perspective one,” Lucas responded mockingly, somewhat irked that the AI had failed to understand the reasoning behind his question. Either that or Zeti was very good at hiding information from him – a rather worrying possibility.
“Helix, you cannot break the chains His Holiness used to bind your kind. Your mental fortitude is far superior to some unaware, inexperienced and mentally unstable rogue psionic. Test subject, Alexandra von Eisstahl, cannot break the Annabel Cage algorithms. To consider such a possibility is nothing more than your innate paranoia at work.”
The threat in Zeti’s artificial voice was as plain as day. It was possible that the AI was never informed that the Demon squads had found ways to intentionally circumvent the protective measure almost immediately. Each one of them knew how to slip out of their bonds but chose not to because they didn’t know what to do with their freedom. Well, there were rumours that members of some squads had broken the Cage and gone rogue, but according to Virgil, in each case, the troublemakers were caught and disposed of quickly and quietly. Thankfully, after the incidents at the Imperial Palace on Hell, there were enough practical minds in Command to prepare proper countermeasures. The Shayatin would deal with the Demons, the Demons would hunt down the Daeva, and the Deava would overwhelm the Shayatin. Overall, it was a giant version of rock paper scissors, which really infuriated Virgil because it bloody worked. But all of that was irrelevant as Lucas’ attention was fixed on the flashing bright yellow lines of text on his helmet's display.
< MEDICAL EMERGENCY SIGNAL LOGGED >
< ONI_03/ELIOT – H: 0!; BP: 0/0!; BC: 0%! >
< ONI_03 LOCATED AT: 678M NE; EL: -45M>
< ONI_03: SIGNAL LOST 14 HOURS AGO >
< MEDICAL EMERGENCY SIGNAL LOGGED >
< ONI_04/ALBRECHT – H: 0!; BP: 0/0!; BC: 0%! >
< ONI_04 EMERGENCY SIGNAL: 677M NE; EL: -45M >
< ONI_04: SIGNAL LOST 14 HOURS AGO >
< MEDICAL EMERGENCY SIGNAL LOGGED >
< ONI_06/VEY – H: 0!; BP: 0/0!; BC: 0%! >
< ONI_06 EMERGENCY SIGNAL: 678M NE; EL: -44M >
< MEDICAL EMERGENCY SIGNAL LOGGED >
< ONI_01/MORGANA – H: 0!; BP: 0/0!; BC: 0%! >
< ONI_01 EMERGENCY SIGNAL: 3,678M SW; EL: 106M >
< ONI_01: SIGNAL ACTIVE >
It was impossible. They died in the void, fighting off the Xith fleet. He was sure of it. So, how were the cortex implants of half of the Oni active? Why now? Why didn’t he pick up the signal earlier? It didn’t make any sense. But the signal couldn’t be faked. Even if the Oni were a pale imitation of the Demons, the tech installed in them was far beyond what was available to the Holy Empire’s armies. From what Lucas had seen from the current tech level, no one on this station could recreate the complex implants created by the ordained scientist at Osiris. There was no issue with the software in his helmet either since the diagnostic confirmed that the reactive AI was at a hundred percent integrity. The medic strained his brain to find a reasonable explanation for what he was seeing but couldn’t come up with anything. Well, if a system fault didn’t cause this, perhaps the problem was in his head. It was possible that this was a hallucination or a delayed side effect of prolonged cryosleep. But if that was the case, he wouldn’t be seeing signals from the Oni implants, and he most definitely wouldn’t be seeing dead vitals from them. No, hallucinations weren’t random visions conjured by a damaged mind; they were based on very strict subconscious processes.
“Helix, you are not even listening to me. Then why did you bring this topic?”
“Zeti, have you detected any feed abnormalities?” He asked, ignoring the AI’s comment.
“No. Everything is in order. I—”
“Do your sensors cover other communications channels?” Lucas interrupted, regretting his initial choice of words. Of course, nothing was going to show on the general feed. The last thing the Oni wanted was to shout their location for everyone to see. Hell, most of the time, even the Demons were excluded from their private feed. The only people who had permanent access to it were Preacher, who filtered all communication, and Lucas himself as the squad’s medic. “Infrared, UV, RDF1 or 2?”
“Yes, my sensors cover all civilian and most military frequencies.” Zeti’s voice betrayed a hint of annoyance as it answered his question. “Decoding them is a different matter. I can gain complete access if a feed operates outside radio waves between one Hertz and nine point eight gigahertz. Helix, if you are worried about privacy, the Demon feed operates on a restricted EMCB-3 frequency channel. Yes, I can detect when it is used; however, with my current hardware, I cannot know what data is being transferred through it.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hmm,” Lucas removed the helmet and examined it in his hands as he processed the construct’s response. “Probably a glitch or a ghost signal.”
“Based on your comment, I assume that you have picked something. This station is bombarded by decaying feed messages from neighbouring systems and ancient radio waves numbering in the thousands every twenty-four hours. Considering your suit’s system has been compromised, the likelihood of it picking up a ghost signal is ninety-eight percent. I would suggest restarting the comms filters, and if the problem persists, I can connect to your hardware and fix them.” Zeti paused for a second before continuing. “If you provide more detailed information about the signal you have picked up, I can provide a custom software patch.”
He was certain that Zeti was lying. By its own admission, it should have picked up the emergency signals and quickly deduced what they were since, to an AI, the data bursts should look like solar flares. Especially to an AI like Zeti. The question was why. There were only two possibilities Lucas could think of that would explain its behaviour. Either Zeti had gone rogue, or it was afraid of his reaction once he found the source of the signal. Nevertheless, both options meant that he could no longer trust the AI. He had to significantly readjust his plans because almost everything he was preparing for his future survival relied on the bloody artificial construct. But before that, Lucas had to find the origin of the signal.
“Perhaps later,” he spoke quietly in order to keep any emotion from his voice. “Anyway, I have nothing to do at the moment, so I’ll just go check it out.”
“You are going to waste your time on a ghost signal?”
“Yes. It’ll help me clear my head.” With that, Lucas placed the holo-map display he had requisitioned from Felix around his wrist.
To his surprise, Morgana’s signal was coming from Rust Town, which made as much sense as picking up the signal in the first place. It didn’t matter that it was the only one still active, which was yet another anomaly that bothered him. Searching through a densely populated area would be a problem, even if he wanted to check it out immediately. No, secrecy was paramount, and Lucas couldn’t afford to let anyone know about this. At least, not until he understood the situation better. However, the other three were located in an area that was clearly outside the station. Going on a void walk was going to attract as much, if not more, attention to what he was doing. Worst of all, it would definitely catch the attention of Major Khalid. Still, it was the safer option to check out. If the origin point was really outside the confinements of the mining complex, he could divert his focus on Morgana’s signal. And if it wasn’t, there was a good chance that there would be no one to bother him while he searched.
“Where is Miss Kurtz?” Lucas asked as a thought occurred to him.
“She is currently enjoying the free time you gave her,” Zeti answered, clearly annoyed that he had changed the topic yet again. “Miss Kurtz is indulging in alcohol intake with technician King, Dr Werner and Professor Kruger at a questionable establishment in the civilian portion of the station. I understand your fondness for her, but such behaviour needs to be corrected.”
“So… She is drinking in Rust Town with your new toys.” Lucas chuckled at how disappointed the AI sounded.
“They are not my toys but prospective future ordained scientists. And they should be focusing on their work instead of ignoring the carefully planned schedule I have prepared for them.”
The Demon couldn’t care less about Zeti’s plans for the civilian scientists. Regardless of what it desired, they lacked the skills required to properly repair the equipment for Project Ascension. Sure, the AI was welcomed to believe that they could learn and embrace the ideals of the Holy Empire, but in this case, it was oblivious to the human factor. Without a real person to guide them, their interest would quickly disappear, and they would revert to their inefficient and rather backwards practices.
“Miss Kurtz,” he opened the private feed channel to the girl only to receive an error message.
Lucas could feel the muscles in his face twitch. She was using the jammer he gave her. It was meant to be a precaution in case she ran into trouble with the Innari and not a toy for her to use when she felt like it. The medic had trusted her with Balthazar’s creation, a rather generous gesture on his part after their little chat in the training area. He didn’t have any expectations to begin with, but Zoë’s treatment of such a valuable object disappointed him. It was a strange feeling, and he didn’t like it.
“Before you ask – no. I cannot reach Miss Kurtz or any of the other people with her. Unfortunately, that part of the station is plagued by constant feed issues and a sinful lack of observation points.” Zeti’s voice reminded him that the AI was constantly observing him. Well, not only him, it was monitoring everyone and everything it could. “Perhaps, instead of wasting your time chasing ghost signals, Demon, you could remind her of how one of the Blessed Saint’s servants should behave.”
“You need to broaden your understanding of humans,” Lucas scoffed, feeling tired of this conversation. “They need to vent, or they will break—”
“I am well aware of this, Helix,” Zeti protested, making it clear that it was trying all it could to make him change his mind about investigating the emergency signals. “Just as I am aware, they chose that place deliberately so that they could not be monitored. Such behaviour indicates possible sedition or betrayal, if you will. And you should be more concerned about this because all your plans are linked to that particular group of people.”
“Of course, they will try to betray me. That is only natural.” The medic spoke as he stood up from the bed. “The reason I’m not interested is because the more they talk about it, the more they realise it is not in their interest to act on such feelings.”
“You underestimate the destructive potential of intelligent people,” Zeti said in a stern voice.
“And you are overestimating them.” Gently, Lucas placed the helmet on the rest of the Predator suit. “Mr King is dangerous, but he is a coward and feels more comfortable in a position of servitude than being Command. Dr Werner is smart but painfully predictable. As for Professor Kruger – he is a tired old man. He might bark, but he’ll not bite.”
“What about Second Officer Zoë Kurtz?”
“She has made her choice. All she needs is some time to come to terms with it. That is what I’m giving her, and that’s why I’ll not go to her right now.”
“I will concede that your analysis is accurate. It is reassuring to hear that your doubts have not clouded your judgment.” Zeti’s words were very close to mockery, and without a doubt, the AI was evaluating him again. Most likely searching for a weakness it could exploit if it determined that he was becoming a danger to its existence. A suspicion that was confirmed by its next question. “Enlighten me then, Demon. Why are you then not concerned about Major Khalid and his Innari?”
Before leaving the room, Lucas stopped and looked directly into the camera's lens, which was observing him. “Because, unlike the rest, he understands that we are trapped on this floating pile of junk they call an orbital mining complex. We either coexist, or we all die.”
----------------------------------------
Finding an entrance to the supposedly empty area between Section 01 and Section 03 was surprisingly easy. All Helix had to do was follow the thick extension cables connected to the main power grid. To anyone without rudimentary technical knowledge, they might appear as being yet another part of the decrepit corridors, but he could tell from a passing glance that the fist-sized bundle of rubber-coated wires was brand new. Plus, there was an emergency glow strip glued on them every five or so metres. He didn’t need to guess that this was the work of Dr Werner and her people. What he had to guess, though, was why she thought it a good idea to hide her findings from him. No, the bigger problem was why Zeti didn’t inform him about what the scientists had found inside what he quickly realised were the private labs of the bishops and cardinals working at Station 37-H.
Lucas found it hard to believe that Dr Werner and her people had stumbled on this place accident, considering that a perfectly intact maintenance corridor hid the entrance point from Section 01. They had to literally cut a hole through the half-a-metre-thick wall to gain access. Yes, there was no doubt in his mind that this was Zeti’s doing. The damned AI had guided them to this place for a reason. Whether they found what it was looking for or not was another question. But Lucas could safely guess that their improvised expedition was a failure since both Professor Kruger and Dr Werner were detained by the Innari and their teams placed under house arrest. Another clue to his reasoning was the fact that a field camp with most of the heavy equipment, portable generators, and lighting supplies was set up not far from the junction separating the bishop from the cardinal zone. Stopping in the middle of the junction, Lucas consulted the holo-map installed on the device wrapped around his left wrist. He exhaled slowly as he realised his final destination – Room 359, Cardinal Zhu’s lab. It didn’t make any sense what the Oni implants would be doing there. Even if the no-void collision swept them, their remains should be merged along with the husks of their crafts somewhere along the outer perimeter of what used to be Station 37-H.
Well, Lucas was about to learn the answer to this question soon enough. Stilling himself, he moved forward, and not long after, he was standing in front of the very familiar reinforced bulkhead door separating Room 359 from the rest of the research facility. As he placed his hand on the controls of the door, the medic realised that a part of him didn’t want to enter this sacred place. It didn’t matter that he had done so numerous times in the past while assisting the Cardinal. The thought of seeing the lab of such a great man in ruin was enough to make his fingers numb as he slowly input the door’s override code. It took just a few seconds for the pressurised lock to disengage with its distinct audible hiss, but it felt like ages to Lucas. Anxiously, he grabbed the edge of the door and forced it open. Such disregard for procedure would have landed him in trouble with Virgil, and the medic would be forced to replace each of the four pneumatic hinges as punishment. Alas, that was in the past. There was no one left to care about such things besides him.
As the darkness of the antechamber greeted him, the Demon understood that he didn’t care about the lab or about potentially finding the long-dead corpses of the Oni. No, he was afraid that he would find the torn and scattered remains of Alpus Zhu inside. Despite all the indoctrination and conditioning, the old man was equally important to Lucas – to all of the Demons – as Emperor Constantine himself. Human or not, the Cardinal had earned their respect and, most of all, their trust.
With a heavy step, the medic crossed the threshold leading to the lab proper and heard the independent generator stir to life. A moment later, the fluorescent sterile lights dotted on the ceiling exploded in an almost blinding white light., followed by the large assortment of gene manipulation tools and machines. As he feared, the place was a mess. Most of the equipment was beyond repair, and a handful of apparatuses, which still functioned, were lit by every possible malfunction indicator. But nowhere was the passage of time more evident than in the broken bio-pod on his left. However, except for the bone fragments of the Karmanij specimen, which used to inhabit the plastic-glass pod, there were no other visible human or non-human remains.
Frantically, Lucas looked around the claustrophobic interior of the lab, but there was really nothing inside. No corpses, no skeletons and no bloody Oni implants. For a split second, he was tempted to open the feed channel to Zeti but stopped himself. The last thing he needed was for the AI to sow further doubt in his head.
“It can’t have been a ghost signal,” the Demon muttered to himself as he picked up a thin, long piece of plastic-glass from the puddle of biotic liquid at his feet. “A miss-logged file? If it was only Morgana or Eliot – perhaps. But Albrecht – impossible.”
Oni 04 was the youngest in their squad, joining them just three weeks before everything went to shit. He was never deployed outside of Sigma 37-H and, as a result, never had the chance to use the emergency signal. Thus, there wouldn’t be a log with his signature in the medic’s files. Lucas shook his head as his thoughts raced inside his head in an attempt to come up with any explanation different from insanity.
“Maybe I have gone insane!” He flung the plastic-glass shard with all his strength against the far wall in a fit of anger.
However, instead of bouncing off of the sterile poly-alloy wall, it burst into a cloud of fine particles. Lucas blinked several times, unsure if he was seeing things. Without hesitation, he picked a second rectangular piece from the ground and tested it in his hand. It sure felt plastic-glass. Still, he flung it against the far wall, and this time, it bounced off as it should have in the first place.
“No… I’m not imagining things,” Lucas spoke to himself as he moved closer to the wall.
He could clearly see the faint scratch mark where the second piece of plastic-glass hit, and just above it was a smudge of different material left behind where the first impacted with alloy. The medic turned around and looked at the broken pod. It was most definitely broken, with pieces of it scattered all over the interior of the lab… How could he have been so blind to the obvious? The amount of debris didn’t add up for a single bio-pod. Lucas groaned at his own stupidity and carefully rubbed his eyes, disconnecting the the temporary cornea implants he used whenever his combat suit was in need of repairs.
“Alpus, you sly old bastard. You’re the only person who would dare lie to Puppeteer’s face and get away with it.” He spoke with a chuckle as he opened his eyes again. “Hell, I wish you were here so that I could yell at you for making me question my own sanity.”
Lucas clearly remembered how angry Virgil was when he learned that the upper ranks of the ordained scientists were using undeclared sight distortion veils. Sure, they were worried about their privacy and the risks of someone else stealing their research ideas, but the damned things only made the Demons’ job all that harder. Rage, Discharge and Hornet spent an entire week doing surprise inspections and tearing down any undeclared veil they found. Cardinals, Bishops, Deacons, hell, not even the bloody janitors were safe from a visit by one of those three. Except for Cardinal Zhu, who shamelessly stated that he abhorred the use of the obscuring tech, and the Demons believed him. The medic wondered how many times he had walked into the lab, ignorant that the truth was hidden from his eyes. Not it really mattered that the elderly scientist was keeping secrets from him. No, that was quite understandable; after all, the man was the one responsible for their creation when he used to be the head of Osiris. Declaring the use of the sight distortion veil was just a formality. Lucas could say with absolute certainty that he would have never looked at anything the Cardinal wished to keep secret. That’s what it meant to have the trust of the Demons.
A trust that Alpus posthumously broke, Helix thought to himself as he stood in front of the pile of bones decorating the lab’s floor. From the broken-down drone, it was clear the machine had gathered the bodies of all the Oni it could find and brought them here. But without proper instruction on what to do with them, the machine just left them to rot while it stood as a sentinel until its internal battery drained.
“When did the drone find you? Where?” Lucas asked the skull he picked before turning it around and examining the markings of the cortex implant lodged inside it. “Eliot… How did you make it back here? Why is it that you are here and not Lucifer or Rage? If you were here, why didn’t that clone-abomination Neverok take you as well?”
Still holding the skull in hand, the medic examined the room. It was clear that someone had been inside, although he couldn’t tell how long ago. Well, he could firmly state that Dr Werner had been here, probably accompanied by a tech or two or by Anton Kruger. However, there were signs that someone had visited the lab before them. The dark marks left on the bones where they pressed against one another were all the evidence he needed. In addition, there weren’t enough remains and implants for four people. Whoever had intruded into this tomb had clearly taken trophies or samples. One possible culprit Lucas could clearly rule out, and that were the Xith. Their kind saw humanity as inferior and unworthy to add to their carefully tailored genetic pool. On the other hand, tech was a different thing, but then the beasts would have stripped the entire lab clean. Then, there was the reinforced door, which was locked. This left only the current age’s heretics as a possibility, which in turn would shed some light on the anomaly that was Zoë Kurtz.
Regardless, one thing was as clear as day. Zeti knew far more than it was sharing with him. The only problem was that Lucas couldn’t torture the AI to extract the information by force. For the time being, he had to recover all remaining memory fragments from the Oni’s cortex implants and hope that they would provide at least some answers to the flood of questions in his mind. However, he would need help. It was time for Lucas to stop worrying about the small details and expand his circle of allies as he should have done from the start.
“Dr Saiko, I would very much appreciate it if you could do me a small favour. Please come to my location. Alone. Oh, and bring a carrier drone with you.”
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