The next day...

The Surface of Steinhull, The Steinhull ruins

Sinn'Are'Sen Wall Walks down the side of the lift shaft towards the altar compartment with the Empire laser pistol holstered at his wait in addition to his usual compliment of equipment. Dara Tonn had come through with the deck map of the Steinhull ruins, and it had shown Sinn exactly what he was looking for. He knew that the cryosleep bay where his adoptive mother had found him was somewhere beyond that chamber. It was in fact the only cryosleep bay on the station, nestled away next to an extensive medical clinic with full surgical capability. It was in fact the only surgical facility withing the Steinhull ruins capable of performing intracranial surgery, and thus the only place that Sinn could have received his implant.

“Are you sure about this Sinn?”

“I am Dara Tonn. I'll need to check on the remains of the false man soon er or later anyways, even if I can't carry a hundred and eighty odd kilograms of metal back out by Wall Walking up this shaft. I'm not sure I'd want to bring that out anyway given how psionically corrupt it is. I just know someone in the RMSC, probably a nutcase in the Science Division, would try to stick a nascent AI in that body just to see what would happen. It would be ban enough with you in there, a 'child' would go completely off the rails from day zero. Combine that with reality warping potential and / or psionic potential...”

“Yeah, that would be a Bad Thing. Imaging the complications of living with the fact that any improper communication could change reality.”

“Worse. Even in my creche I saw kids be utter manipulative bastards for a single extra sweet. Imagine an AI with about as much development with the ability to make reality in its vicinity into whatever it desires. Or worse, if it got into a planetary data net instead of being combines to a single mobile frame...”

“Oh. Oh dear. I never really considered how much reach I might have. If I was able to become a full dataform instead of being locked to hardware, and I got into the Hyperpulse communications network.”

“Combine that with malicious intent, and you'd be an utter night terror for the Republic to deal with. A child AI probably wouldn't be outright murderous, but the impulse of 'what does this button do?' could still have quite fatal consequences.”

“That does beg the question if the depths of the Steinhull ruins contains something like that.”

“Another reason to leave the reactors offline. There is the entrance to the Altar chamber. Something feels off...”

“Audio and visual feeds are clear.”

“I'd attempt to Psyniscience but I can already feel the Astral Veil is thin here. A single errant twitch of psionic force would likely create a discharge. I am pressing forwards to the Altar chamber.”

Sinn drops to the deck plates of the passageway and stalks forwards past the disabled floor turret and the remains of the two security automata. Goosebumps ripple along his skin and static discharge arcs form Sinn's fingers and the corners of his eyes. Sinn enters the Altar compartment and stops in his tracks.

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“Fuck.”

“Sinn?”

“It's not here.”

“What is not there?”

“The remains of the false man.”

“What?”

“I can see the spent casings I left behind, the fresh scorch marks form where it's laser pistol hit the benches and the deck, but no remains.”

“That is not possible...”

“Neither is a reality erosion, and yet it exists within the confines of the Steinhull ruins. Most likely conclusion is that there are more of these false men walking the corridors and one or more of them retrieved their fallen companion.”

“Need to report this?”

“Of course. Ready?”

“Ready”

“Begin exploration log entry.

“I have returned to the lower decks of the Steinhull ruins, compared to my point of entry, and in particular to the altar compartment. The remains of the 'false man' that I had encountered previously, including it's clothing and energy pistol. are no longer present. The evidence of the fight, including spent cartridge casings, bullet impacts, and scorch marks form the false man's energy pistol are all still here.

“Additionally there is now a psionic phenomena in this compartment. I have not encountered or head of any phenomena like this one. It feels as if there is a massive cloud or aura of psionic potential infused into the area just waiting for an errant thought or action to discharge it. Even 'fettered' incantations, psionic incantations cast with the least amount of psionic power behind them, are at risk of triggering a psionic discharge.

“I intend to press forwards and explore this deck.

“End exploration log entry.”

“Clean copy.”

Sinn paces the perimeter of the Altar chamber in search of drag marks or footprints that might show the way the false man had left the chamber. He finds nothing of the sort and is forced to give up. Sinn pulls out his personal communicator and callus up the deck map to plan his route forwards.

“Barring any blocked passageways or similar debris, I need to head rimward from this compartment, take a left at the next ring passageway, and it should be the hatch marked with the stacked diamond insignia. Onwards!”

“Sinn, I'm picking up something on your audio feed.”

Sin pauses to listen and hears nothing.

“I don't hear anything. Keep me informed though.”

“Can do.”

Sinn checks his equipment, loosens the Empire laser pistol in it's holster, and stalks down the rimward passageway out of the altar compartment. The passageway is the same as all of the other normal passageways Sinn has traversed within the Steinhull ruins to date, a featureless rectangular corridor of deck plates and bulkheads with inactive recessed lighting overhead. The ring passageway that Sinn turned into was the same, punctuated only by hatches at regular intervals. He moves quickly and quietly towards where the communicator indicates the medical facility in. Sinn sighs in relief upon reaching the indicated hatch before setting to work with his pickax.

The hatch comes open with surprising ease. Sinn stares in horror at the contents of the compartment. The emergency power lighting is active drenching the room in a purple haze. The internal walls that Sinn expected to see inside of the compartment are gone leaving a single open space. The center of the compartment is dominated by a operating table and its accompanying accessories. Sinn swings his head form side to side in an instinctive check for active defensive emplacements but finds none. Turning back to the center of the room he gasps in horror because the operating table is occupied. The false man form the altar compartment is laid bare upon the table, its brain case opened to reveal a mass of charred and fused circuitry. A second false man stands over the operating table. It's white sleeveless robe bears a defaced version of the vertical diamonds insignia that seems to crawl in the purple illumination. Four mechanical tendrils protrude from the tops of it's shoulders in addition to the usual arms.

“Are you getting this Dara Tonn? I think the one in white is trying to repair the one in red.”

“If all you did was cripple the central command processor then a replacement one would get the body back up and mobile.”

The false man in white turned to face Sinn. It calmly stores electronics tools and produces an energy pistol with a fanged muzzle break.

“You intrude upon the Holy Ground. You are of cursed flesh, unworthy of the Veil-blessed iron. You must be destroyed.”