"It's not going to open itself. We have to go in." Anak's voice came quietly through RX's cockpit receivers.

The access panel on the detention portal across from the lockup he and Anak had been kept in continued to flash red. It was still locked despite being melted and warped. For what seemed like the thousandth time, RX's navigation analytics informed him that the emergency proximity signal was coming from behind it.

[Signal source five meters on forward linear vector]

"I know Anak... But now that we're here, I'm worried— I know it's my fault they were taken. All we can do is move forward from there— But what if my big brother and sister hate me now?"

With compassion and the firmness that RX needed, Anak answered. "There is only one way to find out, big guy... You know what I would give to have any chance at a reunion with my brothers and sisters..." Anak let the steel edge of reality bleed into his words. "Besides, the void's crushing death will kill all of us if we don't move soon, won't it?"

RX straightened up, remembering that he wasn't the only one here who had suffered loss and that time was a factor. "When you're right, you're right, kid." RX fortified his four upper graspers and leaned into the portal as he dug his lower digits into the deck plates. The titasteel portal flexed for a fraction of a micro before it finally buckled and popped off its hinges into the room.

With the power failing all over the ship, the lighting was out. However, a solid green and purple glow from the two inhibition nets running on their stored charge was enough for his optic sensors. RX looked at the two AI mechanicals folded into their deactivated confirmations at the room's far end. Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J. Rx's brother and sister. Screwing up his courage, RX went to the smaller of the two. He propagated his limber skill to create a thick-bladed extension from his upper right grasper. A vertical slice through the mesh while avoiding the functional inhibition nodes allowed him to drag the blinking net off his brother's frame. Absently, RX cast it to the corner. He repeated the process for Jaz'lyn. Then, he placed one of his graspers on each of their shoulders.

"Kid, neither of them has joined with a spirit being. So, their Essence absorption won't be any better than passive osmosis until they regain conscious function. Would you mind helping me funnel a bit of ours to them?"

Without words, Anak sent Essence into Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J's mecho-Essence channels and refilled their reserves. The tiny tamarin wasn't holding back, and the flow was more of a torrent. Even so, it did take Anak slightly longer than RX had expected. After several micro-gyra, RX's EM-sensor array picked up the acceleration in his siblings' activation sequences. At a long-dormant social facilitator's recommendation to respect their greater age, RX bent his lower graspers, tilted his dome, and retracted his plating.

Now repowered, Jaz'lyn and Shet-0J's frames extended to their full height. Subtle movements that confirmed full functionality showed in their grasper axes.

They both had the same coloring and adamite protective plating as RX.

Shet-0J had a similar build as RX. His dome had the same dimensions. However, his frame was only 40 percent of the RX's height and volume. He stood at 1.7 meters. Jaz'lyn was a slimmer 2.2 meters in height. Her frame was designed for increased speed and followed the dimensions of most genetic female spirit beings in the iteration. Lither than her brothers, Jaz'lyn's dome section had a smaller circumference but the same volume. It was partially internalized and sat over her back plates like a humanoid cloak to accomplish this.

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But that was where the similarities ended. While RX was designed, programmed, and specified for protection and combat, Jaz'lyn was compiled for social interaction with spirit beings, stealth, and covert operations. Shet-0J's primary designation was scientific research, knowledge accumulation, and interaction with other AI entities—

"Little brother?!" Shet-0J's strong voice came from a central emitter on his dome. RX couldn't stop from jumping up and moving closer to Shet. Even Anak was sitting on the edge of his impact chair. Their joint Essence swirled through their channels in eddies of anticipation. Still, Rx's fear of his brother's anticipated disappointment and anger drowned everything else out of his thoughts. RX's emitters broadcast a timid and meek reply. "Ya Shet... it's me." He dropped to a knee axes and dented the deck plates as the rim of his dome hit the ground. Upper graspers at his side, digits clenched into fists of pleading matched his anguished modulation. "...I'm so sorry for not being there! I know you two can never forgive me... I could never ask for it... But I swear on my activation that I will spend the rest of my existence making up for my failure to you both!"

Now also reinitialized, Jaz'lyn had silently moved to Shet's side. She placed her upper grasper on his shoulder in greeting. They both pulled their little brother up to his full height and began their traditional greeting. Adjoined palms and upper digits touched. Updating each other's memory files on their actions while apart and what substantive changes had occurred. RX's transfer took several nano's longer than theirs. They both gaped, and as was her protocol, Jaz’lyn spoke for both. "Incredible, little brother! You're the first of us to pair! What an amazing accomplishment! We're so happy for you!" RX shuffled his lower graspers in embarrassment at their compliment.

"Thanks, guys. His name is Anak, and he's as happy that you guys are here as I am..." The cheer in RX's tones was undeniable. Then it modulated somber again as he dropped back to his knee axes. "...But I need to get back to apologizing to you both—"

Shet-0J held up an upper grasper in a stalling manner. "Unnecessary. And my apologies, little brother, but we don't have time for it. My mid-range scans detect that this vessel is undergoing centrifugal-arc drift due to space-time being locally warped. Massive gravitational fluctuations are most likely heralding a rapidly expanding singularity and its event horizon."

Jaz'lyn did a double take, looking to Shet-0J as RX straightened back up and defensively wheedled. "Ahh... Ya... there is a black hole coming… sort of. At least, one of the vampires I fought told me that... Before he, um, died—"

"Well, why didn't you reactivate the ship's hyperdrive to escape the growing gravity well before you reactivated us? "Shet-0J was already moving to the wall console to interface with the ship's controlling AI.

"Ya... um... I was hoping you could ...maybe... give me a hand with that… I kind of broke the AI and its hyperdrive informatic conduits...”

Shet-0J shook his dome back and forth minutely as he put his right grasper palm on the door's interface and immediately assumed control of the stealth cruiser. EM-power instantly returned, the cruiser's vector straightened, and the ship launched into hyperspace a micro later.

Imminent, crushing destruction avoided, Jaz'lyn turned her dome back to RX and put two of her upper graspers on his shoulders in a caring manner. She then spoke in a motherly modulation that seemed to warp physics and make him feel like he was the mech who was a meter shorter than her.

"RX, there is no reason for you to blame yourself for being away when we were captured. We all agreed that you should go to Anak's world and follow up on the chance of pairing with him. And look how that turned out! We're both so very proud of you!" The battle mech felt her sincerity and the tension he had been carrying in his frame dissolved. Then, with a somewhat sharper angle to her dome, she continued. "But that doesn't mean you can forsake all the teachings we gave you to prepare you for solo activity. Tell me the details of what has happened since our parting."

RX's social interface modulated a gulp. "...All of it, big sister?"

The plating near her primary optic sensors narrowed. "Yes, young one. And right now." RX gulped again. His logic facilitators informed him that he was in for a lot of retraining before this was over.