Instead of the BAH on the bridge’s tower, the shuttle had taken them to the underside of the Brigantine. Eyeballing the massive structures, Josh realized he hadn't seen it before. Positioned approximately one-third of the way in from the outside diameter of the Brigantine’s disk—five gigantic, round, evenly spaced ion fields glowed a cool cyan. Josh suspected they served as the ship's main propulsion.

Massive tracks traced around the blue-green lakes that he assumed allowed the deployment of EM director fields to adjust the ion vectors and control directional movement. Right now, in orbit around Noha-3, the shields were retracted, and ion conversion and release were neutral, allowing the ship to stay stationary. But that was about all he could figure out, what any kid would know from looking at a spaceship drawn on a cereal box. This level of technology was way beyond anything his 21st-century science mind had access to from Earth's knowledge base. Leaning back and taking it in, Josh was glad he could just look in wonder at the Brigantine's alien and symmetric beauty.

The shuttle docked in a hanger bay at the center of the Brigantine's disk. Their group was met by two soldiers dressed in Kaizuko elite armor. They must have already received their orders because they took over leading, and the four from the surface snapped tight 180s back to the shuttle.

The new escorts walked to a lift, and the leader pressed the service button. Both doors immediately snapped open to either side. The shorter and stockier guard ran his eyes along the full ten-foot height of the black mech as he indicated the available lift. He spoke to Josh without taking his eyes off what he obviously considered a significant threat.

"Eminence. Our orders are to escort you to this lift and wait here... But if you feel the need for extra security, we can request clarification."

Intelligence's hologram appeared directly in front of the open lift door. "Thank you, sergeant. Your diligence is noted and appreciated. But the measures I am taking will be adequate." The hologram looked directly at the towering hybrid entity.

"You will have no need for concern from my actions." The mechanical's deep voice emitting from around its dome, seemed out of place given its subdued context.

The holo nodded and disappeared. Sen also seemed to take the towering destroyer at its word and proceeded them all into the lift. Josh made an after-you gesture, and the AI mechanical stepped quietly in and stood in the far corner before he followed.

Much like the lifts on the Hegemon-4, the car's vectors were not limited to simply up and down. Josh's proprioceptive centers picked up sideways and diagonally up. Even one place where there seemed to go along a wide cork-screw motion for several dozen seconds. It eventually stopped, and the rear doors opened. Intelligence greeted them in the flesh... err... really strong looking polymer compounds, Josh guessed.

Intelligence's countenance seemed unusually restrained as it curtly ordered, "Follow me."

The holo proceeded to lead them down several increasingly narrow hallways guarded by an increasingly larger number of guards watching over doors with a thickness that was... increasing. Finally, they passed through a door that looked like teenage Mathew Broderick and Ally Sheedy should be running through it on their way to stop a bored computer from starting WWIII.

The room they entered was small. Josh guessed twenty by twenty feet with a single table in its center. Only three chairs were present. Intelligence gestured for them to sit as the door went through its ponderous closing cycle.

He and Sen sat in the two chairs opposite the single third chair. The large black AI mechanical slipped into the space the fourth chair would have occupied, and its legs slid up as it rested on its base. It still towered over them at the height a 10-foot person would in a regular chair.

With a resounding "clong" that must have echoed throughout the Brigantine, the door sealed itself, and a wall panel lit up. Intelligence pressed dozens of buttons in long sequential codes, and Josh felt his sinuses and eardrums get squeezed with increasing pressurization as if he were in a submarine that had just gone to the bottom of the ocean. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sen was shaking his head and trying to adjust his cranial pressures as well. Intelligence turned back to them, took the last chair next to the AI mech, and spoke.

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"This is the most secure location from electronic and psychic surveillance the Brigantine has to offer. Which is good... Because now, young ones, you can tell me what in the name of the Rechner's cylonic functions you think you are doing by exposing yourselves like this?"

Josh cringed as he looked up at Intelligence's rigid frame. The avatar's fists were clenched, its head leaned forward, and its eyes blazed at almost the same intensity as the Clone.

What did we do this time?

Sen shrugged, giving a slow shake of his head. ~I am uncertain, brother... ~

With slowly growing shock, Josh realized that the avatar's words weren't meant for them. Intelligence's body language, complete attention, and very significant frustration were all directed squarely at the AI mechanical on the other side of the table. Somehow, as if wilting under the white and blue avatar's intensity, the black mech adjusted its frame to take up even less space in the room.

“...Honored Elder... Ah... Um... You see... It's hard to explain just how we got into this situation... I'm sure that our presence is yet to be known to Dod Stal...

Intelligence held up a hand to stop the stammering and dipped its head in apparent hopelessness while massaging the bridge of its nose. Then the avatar looked up and spoke with the deadpan and dejected tone of someone wondering if they were addressing a lost cause.

"I had an unreasonable optimism that there was some brilliant explanation as to why you, a unique being in the universe. The long-sought creation-child of Masamune, would be willing to risk exposure. Especially in something as attention-grabbing as a confined nuclear detonation, which has surely been reported by agents all the way to the galactic center by now. This is especially true due to the current power struggle about to take place on this planet..."

Intelligence stopped and stared directly at the large mechanical’s dome. All the plates and surfaces on the avatar’s body seemed to align as if preparing for a sudden action. Then Intelligence continued with a voice so rigidly controlled Josh thought it would scrape the paint off the walls around them.

"But I now see that unless you have suffered complete paralysis and failure of your processors, facilitators, and higher functions, the only explanation is the pure folly of a naïve neural synth!"

As if needing to gather its thoughts, the micro-avatar closed its safranine eyes and took a moment before it continued in an instructive tone. "And Dod Stal is the least of my concerns for you both. We will speak of him. I am certain that he is an unavoidable barrier you will need to crush into atomized fragments to overcome, but he is not your main concern... Whichever of you survives this outrageously mandated contest to determine the ‘fittest organism’ which Masamune has placed you on a collision course for..."

There was another pause as Intelligence's gaze looked over their heads with the serene expression of the fond remembrance of a distant event. The micro-avatar took a cleansing... breath? It tilted its head to look up at the larger AI from the side of its slitted eyes before asking in an almost pleading tone, "Do you know nothing of the history of your creation or the crisis of the Puppet Wars?"

The mech seemed to cringe and condense in on itself once again. "Very little Elder… My main comp unit has files concerning the events. However, history was never really my… thing. That was more in Jaz’lyn’s area. My specialty was mostly just smashing our way out of problems..."

For the first time that Josh could ever remember, Intelligence appeared surprised. This was amplified by the awe in the two-billion-year-old AI's voice. "A compound organism? Even with your hybrid composition?!"

A brief pause ensued as the mech apparently considered the question. Then it spoke. "I've received confirmation from my main comp unit that this is true. But the only way to realize our compound nature is to liberate Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J from Dod Stal and unite. Then we will merge our separate Attunements and continue on the Path of One toward transcendence."

Intelligence's androgenic voice raised two octaves in obvious astoundment. "A three-part combine!? Without the need for individualized Attunement… Masamune has become an utter madman! When you form your union, you'll be seen as such a threat that it will make your contest with Dod Stal seem like a mild lover’s quarrel!"

Josh was getting further lost by the second with the changing topics and overarching implications. But he was sure that everything said had a bearing on Karma's expectations for him and Sen. Both now and, perhaps, in the not-so-distant future. The Clone had said as much already. Josh also knew that if their actions were going to be altered by the results of this meeting, they needed to understand more about what Intelligence was talking about.

~Sen, do you understand... much of this?~

Sen shook his head. ~Very little brother. But I, too, feel that we are being called by Reality to act... Both with and on behalf of this AI being.~

Josh nodded thoughtfully. ~Same here. Let's see if we can get Intelligence to spell some things out.~

Hearing a gap in the conversation, Josh opened his mouth and was about to interject, but an unexpected participant beat him to it. The child's voice, they had heard before, spoke with a slightly halting hesitancy... As if he was repeating phrases he had heard many times but never actually said himself. "Honored Elder... my partner is against me speaking... But I cannot hold my tongue... Please hear my words."