"How long does the Watcher want to stay there?" Neltori asked in annoyance. "It's been three days already. Three days!"

"Maybe there was something in the cryo bay and it has to remove it," Kelto chuckled. "Or it wasn't pleased with some of our colleagues' conduct. Trying to shut down the generator always causes them to stay longer."

His colleague waved him off. "I know, I know. It's just another of their quirks. Almost like they are grumpy we messed with the reactor."

Kelto gave another chuckle in reply before his ears twitched slightly at the chime of his wristband. He looked at the small display, nodding at its contents with a smile. "The analysis is done; you want to come and look at the map we got?"

"Nah," Neltori said, waving him off. "I'll stay here and stare at the Watcher until it leaves." True to her words, she folded her arms on the counter, resting her chin on them and staring at the display depicting the ship.

"As you wish," Kelto replied, rising from his chair and moving to leave the room. He paused at the door, looking at his colleague once more before shaking his head and stepping into the corridor beyond.

Neltori shared his fascination for the Precursors that made the Watchers, but she disliked the machines themselves. He understood why — she had lost friends to them. Many of the people here had, Kelto included.

Unlike his colleague, however, he did not blame the machines. They merely followed their programming, unthinking and uncaring in their actions. That was only a belief of his own, of course. Nobody actually knew if the Watchers were intelligent or not.

Neltori was of the opinion that the machines were sentient, that they were toying with the people of the galaxy. It was an opinion that put her at odds with the Eyes of Ascension, one of the larger religious institutions. The Eyes were as omnipresent in the galactic community as the Watchers they revered.

Kelto let out a sigh as he stepped past a few other expedition members and into the laboratory that held his station. The door closed behind him with a soft hiss, and the occupant of the room mumbled an almost inaudible greeting, not looking up from his work.

"Good day to you as well, Tilo," Kelto said, knowing full well that the Keleran man would not reply. Much like himself, Tilo tuned out the world once focused on a task — a trait particular to their species, according to some.

A gesture of his hand brought up the projection of his workplace, and a quick flash of light validated that he was indeed authorised to use it before it actually showed anything of note.

The map he had tasked the computer with deciphering floated lazily above his desk, a small readout scrolling along next to it.

Kelto squinted at the projection, bringing the generated report to the front with a wave of his hand. What he was seeing should not have been possible with just the picture he had provided. The simple AI that powered the reconstruction efforts for this map had undoubtedly requested more fragments from other members of the expedition on his behest, something he had given it permission to do ages ago.

"I should've read the findings report yesterday," Kelto mumbled to himself as he dismissed the AI-made text and focused on the map. Now it not only depicted the route to the habitation section of the downed ship, but also displayed the engineering section, the command center, and — perhaps most importantly — the cryo bay. What immediately caught his attention was the small annotation next to the cryo bay section that informed him there was an unparsable section in the data provided to the AI.

His ears pressed against his head, quieting the slight hum of the ship as he brought up the input data the AI had used to compile the map. It did not take long for him to find the bit that had provided the information on the cryo bay.

It had been submitted by none other than Tilo. According to the notes attached to the file, he had gotten it from a tablet that had lain abandoned in a partially-collapsed hallway.

Kelto pushed himself closer to his colleague, the wheels on his chair squealing slightly as he did. "Hey, Tilo," he said, tapping the man's arm.

"What?" Tilo asked, not looking up from the tablet on his desk that depicted some form of blueprint that Kelto did not understand.

"Did you submit the tablet you found in the ruins, or did you leave it there?" Kelto asked. "I need it."

The Keleran looked up from his work at the words. "Why do you need it? Did something go wrong with the data extraction again?"

"Maybe," Kelto said, his ears twitching slightly to express his indecision. "I had a map made with all the data we found, and the AI found some unparsable parts in the data from that tablet. I would like to look through it and see if I can figure out what it was meant to do."

"Sure," Tilo huffed, tapping at the keyboard that had appeared beneath his fingers. "I'll let Dinka know you want it. She'll probably have it ready in a minute or two, but you can be the one to listen to her talk."

The older Keleran merely chuckled in reply. "Not everyone is as asocial as you, Tilo."

Another huff was all he got in reply, but Kelto knew Tilo well enough that he wasn't annoyed. Not more than usual, at least.

Just as his colleague had said, it only took a minute for the door to the laboratory to open and the large form of Dinka to enter. Some people might have laughed as she ducked through the door, but those notions were usually squashed when they saw the large tusks — one of them broken off just below her lip — jutting outwards from her jaw, and the clothes trying to contain her bulk.

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"Hello!" she exclaimed, a frightening smile on her face. Dinka waved the ancient piece of technology around as she talked. "I have the tablet you want. Also ran some diagnostics, but couldn't find anything wrong." With a flip of the wrist she offered it to Kelto. "Maybe I need to look at the AI," she added.

Kelto took the offered piece of technology, still a little shocked at the carelessness the Inckorian woman displayed for it. He knew that he should not be concerned — Dinka had shown him that the tablets could withstand small calibre fire — but something within him still equated age with fragility.

"Thank you," he said, tapping against the piece of glass that made up much of the tablet. "I doubt you need to look at the AI, though. I have a feeling that this is something else."

Dinka pulled over one of the extra chairs, sitting herself down as she looked at the tablet in Kelto's hands. "Oh? And what might that be?"

"I am not sure yet," he replied, slowly going through all the different documents on the tablet. "But as soon as I saw the Watcher, I felt like something was… off. And now I find some anomaly in the data concerning the cryo bay? Something’s not right."

Just as Dinka was about to reply, the light in the laboratory changed to a dark blue and a quiet chime rang throughout the ship. They did not have to wait long for the voice of the captain to sound over the PA, informing them as to why he had ordered the ship into a battle-ready state.

"A Deluge has entered the system. Brace for impact."

----------------------------------------

Kaylin awoke with a start, bolting upright and erecting a barrier of Psionic energy around herself. It took her moment to shake off the last vestiges of sleep and remember what had happened.

"Are you feeling unwell?" Aphera asked, its voice coming from a sleek android body near the door. "I am equipped with a full medical suite if you wish to run diagnostics on yourself."

"No," Kaylin croaked in reply. "Water."

A glass filled with water appeared on the small table next to her bed, small cubes of ice floating inside and clacking against the sides of their container. She picked it up with a shaking hand, spilling some of the contents on the floor. A few cracks raced along the glass as she brought it to her mouth and took a few, hesitant sips.

She let out a content sigh, letting go of the empty glass and letting it float back down to the table. "Why?" Kaylin asked, her voice still a little rough from her prolonged stay in suspended animation.

"Preliminary analysis suggests that no waking conditions besides harm to a Creator were set," the ship replied. "The data is inconclusive, however. Most of the Virto's computational equipment has been damaged beyond repair."

"Figures," Kaylin mumbled. Getting an explanation as to why she had not been woken up at the right time would have been too easy.

A mental command caused a projection to appear in front of her. It was the list of tasks that she should have worked through fifteen millennia ago. Most of them were rather mundane — and moot now — but her eyes lingered on the last one.

"Can I still ascend?" Her voice shook slightly as she asked, dreading the answer.

"Unknown," Alphera replied, the android body lowering its head a little. "Sagittarius Station is outside the reach of the Custodian program."

Kaylin took a deep, shaking breath, trying to hold back the tears that wanted to flow from her eyes. "Do you at least know if it's still there?"

She could have gotten that information itself; a small mental command was all she would have needed for the ship to feed her the information. Asking felt better, however. Talking to Alphera instead of thinking at it was a comfort she had not known she needed.

"Sagittarius Station has not reported any issues since Ascension Day," the ship replied, its android body looking hesitant to continue.

"But that means nothing because it was never supposed to talk to any of the Custodian AIs," Kaylin finished for the machine. The AIs that powered the Custodian program were not sentient, and most definitely not sapient, but she had often felt like they were. Maybe they are now?

She fixed her eyes on the body Alphera-4 had chosen to bring into the room, a mental command causing the display in front of her to shift and display the diagnostics of the AI that ran the ship. Humanity had had sapient AI, but neither the machines nor the Humans of flesh and blood had wanted to subject an actual intelligence to a ceaseless duty of watching.

The possibility that they had evolved was still there, however, especially so after running for way longer than they should have. For Kaylin it was a good distraction — at least, she thought so at first. The idea that she might be condemned to live for eternity as the only Human had brought her mind right back to the question of Ascension.

She could, but that was never in question. The problem was that she would have to go to Sagittarius to do it, and she was not sure if she should before finding out why she had not been woken up on time.

Her mission no longer existed. Ensuring that the species Humanity had seeded around the galaxy were developing fine was a moot point now. However, there was a small part of her mission she would gladly still follow. Getting to see Earth was one of the reasons she had signed up to be part of the Custodian program in the first place.

Kaylin was about to ask Alphera to take her home when she felt a presence enter the system they were in. The Wave still exists? she asked herself, taking a deep breath as the Psionic energy waved over her.

Tiny purple wisps only she could see clouded Kaylin's vision for a moment before the Wave passed and took them with it. "It's stronger?" she mumbled to herself as she followed the Psionic energy with her mind's eye.

"The Wave has gained strength every day after Humanity's Ascension," Alphera reported. "Cause: Unknown."

"How do the new races deal with it?" she asked in an effort to keep her mind from wondering why she had been left behind. She also hoped that they handled it better than Humanity had when they had first made it.

The Wave was born of a mistake — the consequences of Humanity's failed experiments. That mistake, however, had brought forth the first Psionics and had later allowed Humanity to travel faster than light.

"Their home systems are still shielded by the Custodians," Alphera replied. "Outside of that protection, they fare well enough. Psionic shielding is still in its infancy for this Cycle."

"This Cycle?" Kaylin asked, scrunching her brows. Another thought entered her mind as she thought about the new races. What had happened to the intruders that had woken her up?

The android hesitated again, only starting to speak after Kaylin gave it a confused look. "Civilization has risen and fallen a few times since Ascension Day. Ruins of the First Risen have come under the umbrella of Humanity's deeds as well."

The newly-returned Human could only heave a sigh as she swung her legs off of the bed. "I need information, Alphera. Give me everything you have."