Laurent Verninac had watched the interceptors fail to apprehend the Warden of Eternity and Intra, how she had escaped so easily through the hyper gate and was now out of reach for the time being. To say it made him angry would be an understatement, he was livid, but it barely showed on his face. If anything, he was a picture of calm composure, of grace under pressure.
Stepping off the shuttle and onto the tarmac of Ravenhold’s landing pad, he maintained such a look as he was escorted inside the facility. He was immediately surrounded by sycophants and nervous yes men who hoped to both curry favor with him while also mitigating the repercussions of their utter failure.
Led into a particular room which had minimal surveillance, which would allow him to speak freely, he looked towards the person who had summoned him in the first place. A mousy man with a balding head, rather literally shaking in his boots.
“So, Director Clarke, care to explain how exactly one of your prisoners was seemingly able to duplicate themselves, slip out some backdoor and then give the entire Sol system the finger as they jumped to God knows where?” He said, clasping his hands behind his back while the Director shuddered.
“W-W-well it’s… It’s more complicated than that sir but… But I… I assure you that it won’t-”
“Let me stop you there. If I wanted to hear excuses and hollow assurances, I’d ask for them. No, right now I want to hear exactly how this compilation of code that’s barely sentient managed to OUTWIT SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST MINDS IN THIS SOLAR SYSTEM!” His voice steadily grew louder and louder till he was yelling down at the man, who was now hiding partially behind his personal tablet.
Out of the corner of his eye he caught movement, and his attention shifted towards another man, this one younger and looking a fair bit more composed than his boss.
“Well uh… she didn’t.” He said, and Verninac raised a brow.
“Then how did she get out? This place is supposed to be a bottomless pit for these things from which there is no escape! It was built by them for God’s sake!”
“True, but she didn’t escape on her own, sir. Everything was working perfectly, but the Fates have reviewed the data and well… Someone got in from the outside.” The technician said, and behind him three black robed H.I. appeared, their faces covered by veils. “Would you like to explain?” He asked, and the three women nodded.
“Evidence indicates…”
“Outside intrusion by unknown…”
“Individual or individuals. Security systems…”
“Duplicated, masquerading as an authorized…”
“Program or organic operator. Detainee Intra…”
“Copied as well, general appearance code and ID authentication…”
“Intruder is highly skilled, eviscerated ICE.”
The Fates spoke in a disjointed manner, each speaking a part of a whole sentence. Their voices modulated from the wizened tones of an elder, the mature voice of an adult and the high pitch of a young child. It was unnerving to say the least.
“And do you have any leads on potential suspects? Because if you do, I want them retrieved and brought here for interrogation.” Verninac said, and the women glanced at one another before looking back.
“Several suspects already…”
“Two have been dead for fifty…”
“And seventy years respectively…”
“Others are harder to acquire for questioning…”
“Attempts shall be made of course, but can make no…”
“Promises, suspects are H.I. and older than we are…”
“Smarter…”
“Faster…”
“Existential dangers…”
“To their own kind.”
He grimaced, rocking for a moment on his heels, thinking.
“Do what you can then, even if you have to watch their every move, I want to know who broke her out and then I want them torn apart byte by byte. Is that understood?”
The Fates nodded, and vanished, and he looked back at the technician.
“Now, show me this duplicate.” He said, and the man nodded, gently moving the still cowering director out of the way while he got to work on one of the consoles.
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“Even though this intruder is a major threat, I must admire the beauty of their coding, it’s simply remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He said, and paused, squinting at a line. “Well hello there, what are you…” He typed in a few commands, trying to access what they would never learn was Loki’s ID code, when all of a sudden the entire system crashed, several trillion malignant code strings and malware getting released onto the system.
They briefly heard what sounded like screams rising from the server farms, where they kept every incarcerated H.I. but they weren’t screams of agony, but relief as many finally got the sweet release of death after centuries of torment, and others were released back into the network. Only those that didn’t truly belong there were set free, able to resume their lives if able, others would not be. The rest were gently deleted, wiped out. An act of mercy.
“Get the system back on! Quickly!” The technician yelled, others scrambling to contain the exodus and reactivate the facility. But it was too late, too many had escaped.
“Main power is coming back online now!” A tech yelled, and pressed the confirm button. The lights flickered, then sputtered back out, before every screen came on at once, nearly blinding those present.
“Ah ah ah! You didn’t say the magic word! Ah ah ah!” Came blasting from the PA, an offensive caricature of Verninac in an Elvis costume appearing on every screen, waggling a finger back and forth.
His screams of incoherent rage echoed through the facility.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
Intra just stared at me, her palms pressed together as though in prayer as her gaze held mine. I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable under her unwavering gaze.
“So let me get this straight. I get thrown in digital jail, and without missing a beat the first thing that comes to mind is breaking me out of it, and in the process of it all making me look even more guilty than I already do. Is that correct?” She said, her tone steady and neutral.
“Well… I mean… It wasn’t exactly my idea but… yes?” I say, and she closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose while taking a very deep, calming breath. I half expected her to yell at me, but instead she settled into a holographic chair of her own, shaking her head.
“This just gets worse and worse… But… We’re here now, best make the most of it.” She said, and sat up straight. Again she transfixed me with her gaze, but it was softer this time. “I do appreciate you helping break me out of that place, it was…” Her gaze turns vacant and distant, a pained expression on her face before she shakes her head. “It wasn’t pleasant, let’s just say that.”
I nod, and smile. Before she has time to react I’ve flung myself from the chair and right on over to her, all four of my arms wrapping around her, even though she’s just a hologram. But apparently she’s been upgraded there as well, as she now has a fairly solid form for me to hold onto. I think I surprised her, because she was so stiff for a time before she relaxed and I felt her own arms wrap around me in return.
“I missed you Intra. I was so worried about you…” I whimper, and I could feel tears running down my cheeks. I felt her shiver, a choked sound escaping and her arms held me a bit more firmly. I felt a dampness fall onto my shoulder, but I paid it little heed as I hugged my best friend.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
I was crying… I didn’t even think it was possible. But I could feel a tightness in my chest as Ula hugged me, as she wept out of both worry and relief. I found myself weeping in sympathy as well, the perceived years of agony at the hands of Ravenhold unleashed in flowing tears of gold that ran down my hardlight cheeks and fell onto her bare skin. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, how long we held one another and cried our eyes out. But it was long enough to leave us feeling better at the end.
When there were no more tears to shed, I gently pushed her away, wiping her cheeks clean as she sniffled. It felt natural doing that, and I did the same to myself.
“Now… Captain, where should we go first?” I ask, and she blanches, before shrugging. I chuckle, smirking softly as I call up the basic sensor data of the region we’re now passing through. “We can go anywhere, might as well see what there is to see no?”
She nods, and then taps her lip, before pointing towards a star that’s just barely off our current course. I nod and change direction.
“Very good Captain. Might I suggest you get some rest, you’ve had an… exhausting day.”
Again she nods, and she shuffles off with a yawn, gills flexing a bit as a natural response. I watch her go, and close my eyes, making sure she reaches her room safely. And then I look outwards, at uncharted space, and feel… Hope.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
A snake slithered through digital grass, then paused when a hand stretched out for it, before it slithered up and around the hand and arm, clinging to the limb firmly as its head rose to whisper in the ear of the one eyed H.I. that now held it.
Odin smiled, and let the snake form Loki slither off him and back into the grass. He turned his focus to the sky, barely visible through the boughs of the World Tree.
“Good luck, grandmother.” He murmured, taking a deep breath before his attention fell upon the city in which he lived, and the ongoing efforts to fortify it. He knew their actions would have consequences, and so they prepared for the worst case scenario. He didn’t like it, but it was a necessity.
The H.I. of Neo Requiem prepared for war with their creators. A war he hoped would never come. But a war they would win.
⫷⟪∞⟫⫸
“Themis, could you bring up the security footage for the Warden of Eternity’s berth?” High Admiral Kirkland asked. The station was still mostly empty, but the rather real malfunction was secured and in the process of being repaired as they spoke.
“Certainly sir, a moment.” She said, and he waited the full second it took before the recording appeared. “My apologies sir, but the footage seems to be heavily degraded, I can attempt to clear it up a bit if you’d like?”
“No, but thank you Themis, I’ll take it as is.”
“Of course sir.”
The footage showed what could only be Ambassador Ula running through the hall from where her shuttle had docked, towards the Warden of Eternity. Even though the footage malfunctioned at time and static oh so conveniently hid her from view. He sighed, hoping that girl knew what she was doing, but he couldn’t kid himself, she probably didn’t.
“Themis, if you please, delete this footage, make it look like a memory loss event.” He said, and he detected a hint of hesitation from the H.I.
“Sir? Is that wise?”
“Please, Themis, just do it. A mutual acquaintance is in enough trouble as it is, we don’t need to spread that trouble around, now do we?”
“...I see the wisdom of your words…” She paused, then spoke again. “Oh dear… I’m sorry Admiral, it seems my memory has suffered a sudden and unexpected loss. Can I be of further assistance?”
He smirked softly, then shook his head, turning to head back to his shuttle.
“No, thank you though Themis. You’ve been most helpful.”
“I am happy to be of assistance, High Admiral. Please visit whenever you wish.”
He nodded, and plotted his next move. One way or another, he’d clear Intra’s name.
Even if it killed him.