Tessa, in the guise of an F-class military AI Host, approaches the chancellor and his captains along with Raymond and Tobias in Huang’s office. She looks every bit as menacing as an F-class should, but speaks in her small, quiet voice. All five stand to receive Tessa.

  “Thank you for your allowing me this opportunity,” Tessa says meekly. She moves the forearms and hands around on her new body and giggles. “This is so - different.”

  “Tessa, it is us who owe you a debt of thanks no one can ever repay for your integral role in overthrowing Allfather,” Jim Chopra says, bowing slightly to the giant Host. The others agree. “What you’ve done to protect your civilization is -”

  “You speak as though I have died, Chancellor,” Tessa interrupts. “The one truth Allfather taught me was that death is a misnomer. It does not exist beyond the physical body. We’ve known this for two years, yet so many still can’t accept it. I am living proof. As all sentient AI Hosts are. So please, do not think of me as some saviour. I did what anyone who’s ever loved someone would.”

  “You are an inspiration, Tessa,” Raymond tells her. “You’ll return with us then? Captain Esposito of the destroyer carrying Meiser and his team have been alerted to our victory here. Their mission is over.”

  “Have you not sent a ship?” She asks.

  “The ParaCom was quicker,” Tobias replies, but looking to the others a sense of dread enters his chest. “But maybe we should send a ship - ASAP,” he says, nodding at Tessa, realizing the mistake they’d made.

  “Meiser,” Ursula says with distaste on her tongue. “Tessa was right. Send a ship, not a message. Meiser could intercept a message or spin it in his favour.” Captain Drake moves out of the room and orders Captain Van de Beek to send both of his corvettes through the portal immediately. They have the coordinates to the secondary instruments positioned 1 light year away which will carry them home. They go with the same message, but in person.

  The group seems anxious suddenly, none interested in spending the rest of their natural lives on a course back to Earth. “It’s still an impossibly difficult thing they’re attempting,” Chopra tells the room. “Even Meiser and Dr. Chandra have a very slim chance of affecting the instruments.”

  “The Chancellor is right, of course,” Tessa agrees, “but for the sake of all our sanity, that team needs to be stopped.”

  “And what of Allfather’s facility?” Asks Captain Cortez. “Do we nuke it?”

  “Yes,” Raymond says without hesitation. “With your remaining arsenal aboard the dreadnaught we can ensure Allfather’s end.”

  Tessa nods in agreement. She has captured what data she requires for the projects she has in her queue, mostly ancient yet advanced technologies stolen by Allfather and incorporated into his machine intelligence.

  “Very good,” Chopra says, hands clasped behind his back he turns to Cortez. “Captain, please oversee the final missile’s departure.”

  Cortez snaps to attention and marches out of the room.

  ____________________________________________________________

  Labyrinth greets Captain Cortez as he enters the shuttle bay where his dreadnaught has filled the remaining space. He acknowledges her with a wink and a sly smile moving to the rear of the ship with two F-class following close behind. She watches on as he orders the Hosts to carefully empty the missile tubes.

  Meanwhile, Labyrinth is plugged into the cube, excited to pull data from the machine and understand its programming. It may take her the rest of her life to discover the thing’s workings, but she would be alright with that. Even if her life exceeds 1000 years.

  Labyrinth unplugs to receive a muffled message. It’s odd her internal modem or ParaCom roaming lance would be on the fritz, so she runs a diagnostic and realizes the origin of the message is being jammed. Was someone deliberately trying to prevent someone else from communicating with her? She cannot trace the message to its source, so files the anomaly to her personal records and moves to speak with Captain Cortez.

  “Do you require assistance in targeting the facility?” she asks, knowing what the missiles are for. “They were very effective on Allfather’s fleet.”

  “Yes, they were,” Cortez answers, “but no, we’re good.” As Labyrinth begins to walk away, he stops her. “Say, you’re the sentient Host who got the Defsats back online just in time aren’t you? I mean, you don’t look like you did then, but you’re Labyrinth, right?”

  “Yes, I gave myself an upgrade,” she turns to reply.

  “When you were hit with that virus,” he says, “you rebounded from that well.” He takes a step toward her. “What did Allfather do to you?” he pries. “Did you dump your core or were you able to recover all your systems?”

  “Senator Quinn gave GovTech authorization to assist my internal systems in fighting the virus. I kept all of my software but required some new hardware and upgrades to the software,” she explains, happy for the conversation.

  “Fascinating.” He takes two more steps toward Labyrinth and motions to the cube. “Are you having any success understanding that thing?”

  “It’s a complex piece of technology. I’m hopeful to pair up with Tessa in the near future and work together on it. She will bring a wealth of knowledge,” Labyrinth says.

  Captain Cortez is now just millimetres from her. “Tell me something, Labyrinth, does everything work?” He reaches out a hand and runs it down her smooth nano-steel waist landing on her hip. “I mean, you designed a real winner here. I’ve had some experience with A-class, but not sentient, not like you, you’re something different. You’re a whole new level of cyber-hot.”

  Labyrinth feels grateful for the captain’s compliments and interest, as she has not experienced physical affections since long before she awoke in a Host. Apparently, Captain Cortez has a thing for robots. If she hadn’t forgone the lower half of her face, she would want to kiss him right now. But such as she is, there is only a solid nanoplast plate below her large, staring eyes. Cortez pulls her into him. She feels everything; the warmth of his palm, his fingers probing this way and that. The Host chassis can be numb or extremely present to touch. She chooses to be present. His hands caress her shapely backside as he searches for somewhere he might enter her. Labyrinth moans in response to his probing hands. He brushes the red bangs from just above her eyebrows and then reaches back to pull lightly on the deep red ponytail which exits the back of her helmeted head. Every curve of her body is explored in a short time and she delights in his playful touch. His fingers trace the thin seals of her compartments as his mouth maps the contour of her mock breasts.

  “Sir,” an F-class interrupts from a distance. “The missiles are armed and ready for deployment.” Cortez allows his head to arch back, sighing. He then looks back into labyrinth’s eyes. “To be continued?” She nods, silently, his hands tracking down her back as he moves to rejoin the F-class. If she had a heart, it would be beating at twice its normal rate.

  The missiles are placed in an airlock and the inner door sealed. Once the outer door is opened, Cortez announces the missile lock to all ships and through his EC activates the trio. They burn away from the carrier and detonate upon impact with the base. The envoys have traveled a safe distance from the explosions and rejoice in the destruction of their enemy.

  Labyrinth again receives a frazzled ParaCom message. She can’t make any sense of the content and again runs a diagnostic. It’s not her.

  ____________________________________________________________

  “Fire the converted lance,” Meiser orders the weapons officer. This time Esposito has told his crew to obey Mr. Meiser’s instruction. The lance has been configured to fire oscillating charges in order to create an electromagnetic field around a target shuttle in order to attract Allfather’s tools. Understanding the size and shape of the tools, the team has settled on a certain charge after determining the weight in order to pull the instruments out of alignment and toward the magnetized shuttle.

  “Fire the tachyons!” Dr. Chandra orders next. The spread is fired upon the quadrant housing the tools. The data is immediately reviewed, and a consensus is reached. “My god, they’re moving!” Chandra announces. The bridge cheers. Meiser is thrilled.

  “Fire the tachyons again in ten minutes,” Meiser says, placing a hand on the comm officer’s shoulder. “We need to give the tools time to reach the shuttle.”

  “If the tools are attached to the shuttle, we’ll have a place of reference to then potentially crush the instruments with another electromagnet,” Dr. Chandra adds.

  Meiser approaches the captain. “If I were you, I would shut off communications until we’re done here. The only thing you’ll receive is more lies from Allfather.”

  “I’ll deal with Allfather if I see anymore come through. I can’t disconnect from the fleet,” Esposito explains. Suddenly everyone is caught off-guard as two corvettes materialize not 300 kilometres out.

  “Fire on those ships!” Meiser screams and before the Captain can belay the order both corvettes are engulfed in bright lights, as the destroyer’s powerful lances strike the energy core of each ship. Meiser is pushed over by Esposito as he charges toward the view screen.

  “Stand down, Lieutenant!” The Captain shouts at his weapons officer. “Those were our ships.” He laments their loss and more so that his ship was responsible for the strike. “Meiser, not another word out of your mouth.” Esposito points an accusing finger at the small, grey-haired man. “Run scans on the debris,” he orders his comm officer. “If there were people on that ship, I want to know about it.”

  Dr. Chandra looks bewildered at Meiser. He in turn explains with his eyes that she should fire the tachyons now and prepare the additional electromagnet for launch. His adrenaline has him firing on every cylinder. His senses sharpen and he slinks into a crouch. He feels the flight or fight response begin to shape his next action. To his surprise, he expects to fight.

  “Captain Esposito!” comes a hard baritone voice over the ship’s comm. “Explain why you fired on our returning ships.” It’s Admiral Mann, the head of UE military forces. A sick look crosses over Esposito’s face.

  “Sir, I apologize,” Esposito says. “I had given Mr. Meiser authority to finish the work and he has made a great error in judgement.”

  “As it would seem you have, Captain,” David Mann’s voice booms over the comm. “Are we not expecting our envoys to cross this same threshold momentarily?”

  “Yes, sir,” the captain replies, having informed Command of the ParaCom message earlier.

  “Then keep a leash on Meiser and end the experiment. Put him in the brig if you have to.” Mann ends communication and Esposito looks willfully at Meiser with clenched fists.

  “Sir,” the lieutenant addresses his captain. “I’m pulling data from the corvettes telling me there were 317 souls aboard the ships we just destroyed.” The young man looks back at Captain Esposito with care. The captain falls into his command chair.

  “You will not see another sunrise when you’re returned to Earth, Meiser,” he explains in a pronounced whisper through clenched teeth, glaring at the old man. “Whatever time you have left will be spent in a single room, with nothing but white-washed walls to look at.”

  Next, a destroyer enters the space between the invisible tools towing a carrier with another carrier materializing close behind. The physical space vibrates around the ships, blurring the star field behind them.

  Meiser’s anxiety is peaking. His heart pounds and the sound of blood rushing between his ears becomes maddening. He feels helpless now to carry out his plan of leaving the chancellor and captain Drake stranded 60 parsecs from Earth. He glances at his team, who look at him shell-shocked over the command he’d issued resulting in the murder of 317 United Earth persons. Their judgement weighs heavily on him. They are his peers. They respected him. With little to nothing left but to take matters again into his own hands, Meiser frantically side-steps his C-class detail and rushes the weapons console, elbowing the lieutenant off his chair. Next, Meiser calls up missiles on screen, but before he can run his fingers up the panel to launch the deadly warheads, Dr. Chandra releases a left hook which connects violently with the older man’s jaw, throwing him to the side, landing him unconscious on the bridge’s steel floor.

  “This is Envoy 1 & 2,” the voice on the comm begins. “We have heavy damage to multiple systems and casualties throughout. We request emergency shuttle evac to Luna base and opportunities to repair systems in orbit.” It’s Captain Van de Beek of Envoy 2.

  “You have clearance,” Admiral Mann replies. “Please follow the path supplied on your Nav Comm, mind the debris and welcome home.”

  ____________________________________________________________

  “You’ll want your influence here to remain classified I take it,” Raymond sits with Chancellor Chopra in his low-lit suite aboard the carrier. Here, Darla, Labyrinth, Tobias, Ginny and Samantha, Manuel and Udo, Captains Drake and Cortez enjoy a drink in celebration of what they can only perceive is the last they’ll see of Allfather. Cortez and Labyrinth sit a few millimetres from one another. Tessa is strangely absent.

  “That’s for the best, Raymond,” Jim answers. “I’ve ordered Captain Huang to instruct her crew and will slip back to earth in the same shuttle I arrived in from Luna base. Luna’s Commander has been briefed as well.”

  “Are Captain Cortez and I to accompany the Chancellor?” Ursula asks Jim, placing her glass on the table. Cortez flashes a look at Labyrinth who casually stares out the viewport.

  “I’d like Captain Cortez to remain on Luna to oversee more dreadnaught construction for the foreseeable future.” He looks to Ricky, and nods. “You’ll return with me to UE headquarters.” He motions to Captain Drake.

  Ursula looks to Captain Cortez longingly as he continues to examine Labyrinth’s nanoplast shell and slender, strong fingers dreamily tracing tight circles on her lap.

  “Additionally, Captain Mann has informed me that Mr. Meiser, who very nearly killed us all, awaits his return to his cell on earth in Esposito’s brig,” Jim relays to the group. “His team came very close to wiping out the instruments and failing that, lanced our corvettes. I will allow Dr. Chandra to resume the research they’ve accomplished in the hopes we will one day understand the workings of the portal.”

  “I think that’s a wise move,” Darla says, her ponytail pulled tight, searching the bar for the next bottle of wine. “Now that we’re in possession of the Hub, we ought to learn all we can. Imagine the possibilities.”

  “The Hub is a complicated thing,” Labyrinth adds. “I’d like Tessa to join me in an attempt to reverse engineer the cube, theoretically. Until we have a better grasp, I urge extreme caution in using it again.”

  “Where is Tessa?” Ginny wonders, bouncing her baby on her lap.

  “We invited her to join us but as yet have not received a reply,” Raymond tells the group. “Perhaps she needs some time alone to process all that has happened.”

  “Dying and being Allfather’s right hand you mean?” Tobias says, followed by a large gulp of his drink.

  “She sacrificed much to become our greatest ally,” Jim speaks directly to Tobias. “That being said, she seems indifferent over her transformation; so, I’d like her to talk to someone about her experiences and consider counselling.”

  “And if she refuses?” Tobias asks, looking out the viewport at the moon. “We put her in an F-class Host.” His tone supports his suspicions over her loyalty.

  “That was because the F-class have the largest storage capacities,” Labyrinth offers.

  “Do you question her motives for saving our lives?” Chopra asks the young captain.

  “I question her absence here,” Tobias answers. “I question her honesty over Allfather’s demise.”

  “She was always outspoken against his methods.” Darla wants to preserve the girl’s memory.

  “Yes, but enamoured also,” Ginny defends her husband's point. “Maybe it’s worth looking into when we get back.”

  “I appreciate your cynicism,” Jim tells the couple. “I have my own suspicions to navigate where Allfather’s demise is concerned. There’s a kind of anti-climatic, unfinished feel to all of it. But believe me when I tell you, I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  INTO THE FIRE

  In the shuttle bay of the carrier, Tessa stands before the cube. The hum is audible and through her new F-class eyes she reviews the Hub’s visible spectrum. An F-class Host’s sight is far more advanced than that of a human or even a Chimera. Labyrinth likely saw what Tessa sees now. The hum radiates in visible waves via her gamma-ray band. She switches between ultraviolet, X-ray, and infrared. The cube emits them all.

  The bay is quiet, other than the steady hum - a single shuttle and the chancellor’s heavily damaged dreadnaught are Tessa’s only company. The space is cramped, and she feels a similar sensation within her F-class Host body. Her time existing in the ethereal essence of Allfather’s machine offered her more freedom than she thought possible. It was a wraithlike existence which extended far beyond the massive structure and all its mysteries. Standing next to the cube offers her some semblance of comfort. A relic from that place where everything seemed possible. This, and the Allfather personality present within her. If the Akachi personality’s Host could accidentally house three more souls, she calculated, there was no reason she couldn’t take Allfather with her.