“I see.” Aisling nodded to me, a deeply serious expression on her face. We sat across from one another in the mess hall, both of the doors closed so that we could have some privacy as we discussed the particulars of my past. “I’m normally happy to let the past rest, but I don’t think your situation is exactly past yet. You realize that you’re potentially going to bring a lot of danger down on us just by being near you, right? More than I ever expected you would when I took you on.”

I gulped. I didn’t want to believe that Aisling would abandon me after everything we’d already been through, but this was it. It felt like she was about to tell me to get off of her ship and take the massive target on my back somewhere else. “I know.” I said quietly, looking down at the table.

She took in a deep breath “The others deserve to know as well, since it’s a matter of what we’re facing with the Foundation fleet. You said that Doc was in the room for the entire discussion?” I nodded, uncertain if she was going to let the matter go or not, but it didn’t sound like she intended to abandon my problems solely on me. “I’ll write up a brief on the situation for the others to read as well. And I’ve got some changes to make to our planned route if we’re going to avoid Foundation. You best keep practicing your piloting if there’s any possibility that your sisters might be as competent of pilots as you are.”

I let out a relieved deep breath “Thank you.” I nodded slowly to her, feeling that I would be on the verge of tears if I hadn’t already cried so much earlier. “I-I was really afraid that you were about to fire me.”

Aisling looked taken aback “Huh? Fire you?” she looked deeply concerned at me from across the table and leaned forward. “Like, what, just abandon you here or something? Why would I do that?”

“You said it yourself. You’re taking on a lot of danger keeping me around. I mean, if you just left me here, let the scientists have me, got a normal core, you could just… get away. Foundation would have no reason to keep chasing you, at least not as desperately as they have been.” I couldn’t look her in the eyes as I explained my thoughts. I felt like I was trying to convince her against my better interest.

She stared at me like I was crazy “Meryll, if I did that, I would be no better than them, just using people until they’re not useful anymore and throwing them away. You’re part of my crew. I care for my crew, through thick and thin. You either leave this ship behind of your own volition or you leave it in a box.” She almost sounded offended that I had even suggested that she could leave me behind. She really believed all of this. She almost sounded like she was scolding me as she continued. “Don’t you ever think that I’m going to abandon you ever again, got it? Cause I’m not. Long as your breathing, I’m treading through hell for you and I expect the same back, got it?”

I felt a smile creeping onto my face as I heard her confirm she was all in on keeping me aboard, no matter what. “G-Got it.” I said with cautious enthusiasm as I felt myself perk up.

“Good. Now that that’s settled, you got a cyberneticist to go meet.” She stood up herself as she motioned toward the door behind her, trying to give an encouraging smile to me. “So get out there and earn us a new cargo bay.”

I nodded, even though I was groaning internally. A cyberneticist. That meant he was going to be poking around at my implants. As far as I knew, they were standard equipment, though. Even if I was unusual as far as ship cores go, I wondered what he could possibly learn by looking at the otherwise ordinary electronics inside of me?

I stood and with a much lighter heart than when I entered the room; I opened the door to the cargo bay, seeing Mouse standing at attention with his rifle at rest in his hand as I stepped through the door. “Ready?” I asked, still beaming at what felt like a new level of security despite the dire news of my origin. It was time to move on with my day, though. “I know you don’t like these kinds of people, but don’t go off on them if they don’t do anything wrong, okay?”

Mouse nodded silently, finally leading the way through the ruined opening in the cargo bay and onto the hangar bay floor. It felt clean. Too clean. The Venusians clearly didn’t get many visitors, and it didn’t look as well-used and filthy with grease and detritus like the lunar colony had been. “Don’t like places like this.” Mouse muttered “It feels fake. Like they set it up for us.”

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“If that were the case, they would have just seized us by now. It’s not like we’re in any state to lift off again.” I tried to reassure him. These people were too smart to think they didn’t have the complete upper hand here if they intended to turn on us. “If this is a trap, it’s a really poorly thought out one.”

“I guess.” Mouse relaxed his arm a little as we passed through the hangar bay doors, through a hall of bulwark doors, and into what looked like some sort of sterile lobby leading into grand hallways running in both directions. I’d almost forgotten that this was once a corporate colony, and had the grandiosity to show for it. But the multi-story halls were fairly quiet compared to the surface of the lunar colony. There were people scattered about, discussing things amongst each other, taking care of simple daily chores, and eating out, like there would be in any public space, but there were so few people compared to the enormous architecture that it felt eerily empty. Most of the people were well-dressed or still wearing lab wear from their workspaces, which meant that Mouse and I stuck out like a sore thumb in our offensively casual outfits.

It didn’t take long for eyes to be drawn our way, but thanks to Mouse’s diligent application of intimidating glances and a tight grip on his gun, nobody approached very close. “This way, Mouse.” I signaled to him to follow me as I followed the directions we’d been given.

I couldn’t get over just how quiet it was and how much space we had to wander. There were few storefronts, most had been converted to workspaces and labs for the scientist’s uses, labeled with fairly simple typed up signs demarcating who currently claimed the space and sometimes for what purpose, rather than the flashy, eye-catching marketing that I expected in the other colonies. I noticed a sign for a residential area and smiled at the reminder that there should be no experimental or dangerous materials past a certain point.

The entire colony had an air of practicality over aesthetic, and it gave me a sense of safety. These weren’t people that cared much for societal embellishment. They didn’t care how people perceived them, only that they could do what they set out to do. It had an air of brutal honesty that made me feel like they wouldn’t try to perform any kind of subtle trickery to get what they wanted, they would just do what they intended to do. Maybe I wouldn’t have to worry as much as I thought about these people.

And before long, we arrived at Dr. Reese’s lab, which like many other workspaces, just had his name printed in plain text on a poster next to the door with the words ‘Cybernetics Specialist’ beneath. I was glad I didn’t have to get much further because I could still feel Theseus from here, and that helped me feel safe. I was out of range to command it electronically, but there was a certain comfort to the psychic link, even if I couldn’t actually do anything with it.

Opening the door, I was immediately struck with the alarming scent of blood mixed with harsh chemicals. My surprise passed when I realized that this was likely a man who regularly cut into people to put electronics in them. Of course there would be blood. I took a breath to acclimate myself to it and stepped inside “Hello? Dr. Reese?” I called.

“In here.” Came a man’s pleasant voice from the far end of the room. A middle-aged man was sitting over a table of delicate tools and electrical components, face down toward a tiny circuit board under a series of magnifying lenses arranged in front of him. As he reached up to brush a lock of his shoulder-length black hair from his eyes, he carefully set down the device in his other hand and looked up toward me, his eyes growing wide as he looked me over from a distance. I started walking toward him and he got up as well “Meryll… is it?” he asked, cautiously “Remarkable, you actually can move and speak on your own.” He sounded excited as he approached.

As he was about to get near, though, Mouse cleared his throat loudly and glared at the man, making him stop as he saw Mouse’s gun “Right. I’m sure we should discuss this before we do anything.” He said slowly, becoming nervous at Mouse’s presence.

“Yeah, this is all a little awkward for me.” I started, hoping that Mouse’s clear hostility wouldn’t put people on the wrong foot either. “Look, I don’t mind you looking over my electronic parts if that’s what you want, but this stuff’s all standard as far as I know. I had a ripper on Luna put it in.”

“Well, yes, I expected it to be ordinary hardware.” Dr. Reese nodded enthusiastically, still holding his ground a good distance in front of me. “I’m interested in the software. It’s well-documented what attempting to graft a starship does to an ordinary human mind, and it’s not something pretty, I’ll tell you that much.” He gave a nervous chuckle that told me that perhaps he had actually seen it happen in person. “What I want to know is, when a human being CAN do such a feat, what exactly does that do to the electronic components? I don’t want to perform anything invasive if I don’t have to, I just need your data port.” He pointed toward my neck “You wouldn’t mind if I downloaded your internal system logs, would you?”

That was a surprisingly reasonable request, and I was instantly intrigued at the concept myself. Could there be consequences to me using hardware that wasn’t intended for a fully functional human mind? “Uh, yeah, of course, go ahead.” I nodded eagerly.

He motioned toward an empty seat as he stepped over to the nearby table and picked up a small terminal with cables sticking out of it. This assignment might be easier than I had expected.