crux_fleet | 0001: A New Beginning

Whatever your activities before, they're interrupted by a sudden lurching feeling, like someone's put a hook into the pit of your very being and yanked. There's a brief burst, a brilliantly twisting tunnel? And then silence. Stars fill your vision, along with bodies, machines, and not much else before everything mercifully goes black. The shock of it, more than the lack of air.

And then, there's sound. There's not much at first. Beeping. Lots of beeping. Some of it is irritatingly loud, and apparently it's the cause of a lot of excitement. When vision returns, the first thing to note would be alien writing blinking in your field of vision, displayed on a monitor or a clear bubble somewhere. Alien, but familiar enough for you to read "Awakening". Whatever that means, you're apparently not alone, as people in black and white uniforms are rushing through the large room you're in, the room filled with people hooked up to all kinds of machines. Of course, some of them don't look entirely like people.

All of a sudden, a haggered face fills your field of vision. "Great Shades of Elvis! Another one! Look, please remain calm." The poor nurse turns and starts to fiddle with some of the machines surrounding you. "There's been an accident, but you're okay. Try to stay quiet and don't disturb the other patients. Someone will be with you in a moment." They turn away to shout across the room, as if that wouldn't disturb anyone. "Hoi, Oglaf! Mark this one as alive so Security can take them for the briefing!" He gestures at some official looking people in red and black uniforms assisting other patients into wheelchairs. "Just flag one of them down, they'll take you to the briefing. We'll explain everything. Just don't panic, you're in good hands." He grins and pats your shin. "Welcome to the Fleet, eh? 'scume, someone else is starting to budge and I gotta make sure it's not some poor sot swallowed his tongue again." With that, he leaves you alone with your thoughts and the bright lights.

[Medical Arrival | Hangar Arrival | Briefing | Post-Briefing 1 | Post-Briefing 2]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He'd just come from fleeing this very thing. From having his AI chip forcibly ripped away from him. From losing everything. This is worse than he could have imagined, the silence, the darkness -- it's more cloying and terrifying than quiet shadows ever were, back home. He can only assume the worst has happened. That despite Shadowmaru's help, despite the words exchanged over rubble and wreckage, he's been caught at last.

I don't want to die!

He wants to struggle. He wants to fight this, to flee as he did through the streets, the Brave Police hot on his heels. But there's no body. There's nothing for him to fight with. So his mind roils. Twists. It devolves straight into outright panic.

No, no, no, please no--

Those few minutes may as well have been a lifetime, for the scared young AI trapped bodiless in them.

He latches onto the voice with a child's desperation, forgetting this may very well be the one to trap him here. The same panic colors his response, the words strained and terrified.

"Please! I just want to leave! I promised I'd go! I promised him!"

Dimly, the fact he's only been asked a yes-or-no question dawns, the more rational portions of his AI noting it, and doing their best to inform the panicked parts they need to say those words.

"Yes! Please. Please, don't -- I want to live!"

Oh, this is a bit of a concern. They hadn't expected a reaction quite like that. The response is very swift. "Calm down, we're not going to hurt you. We only want to ask you some questions. If we're satisfied with the answer, we'll settle you into your rightful body, okay?"

Most of the Rogue AIs didn't show that kind of emotion, but perhaps this was a trick? Hopefully he'd pull himself together before they asked their questions, otherwise they'd have to leave him until he calmed down. Which, it seemed, would be bad for his emotional state.

Questions. Only questions. He can answer questions. As long as they won't be deleting him...

He tries his best to muster calm. To focus on the memories that always made him relax. Thinking of Shadowmaru. Of how he would react to this -- his usual composed self-assurance. He has to focus on that.

After all... he'd taught it to him. Hadn't he?

"All right," he says, finally. He would have nodded, if he could. "What is it you want to know?"

Well, that's better. Nothing like a panicky AI to make people nervous.

"Just a few simple things. Once you answer them, we can reinstall you pretty quickly." There's a bit of a pause. In the outside world, he's grabbing the datapad with the forms they need to fill out and copying them.

"First: Are you aware of, or have you had contact with, the Rogue AIs of Bama? Second: What is your current legal status among your people? Third: Will you harm any humans upon being reinstalled into your proper body? Fourth: If reinstalled, will you comply with Fleet orders until you have completed the briefing?"

"Right..."

There's a hesitance to the words. It's his only chance. Even he, young and naive as he is, can see that. He has to play along if he wants any hope of living. Of keeping his promise.

But the questions...? The voice may as well be speaking gibberish. The last two make perfect sense, but the others leave him speechless, trying to puzzle through them.

"I don't know what a Bama is," he said, the confusion clear in his voice. "The only other AIs I have ever met are Brave Police units..." Which was true. Shadowmaru himself was one of the BPs, after all. "Legal -- what does that mean? Legal status?"

Did they mean whether or not he was a criminal? Or wanted? Because the answer to that likely wouldn't get him his chance to live.

"I have no reason to harm human beings." Not anymore, he added, silently. He trusted Shadowmaru to keep his promise, trusted him to keep pursuit away. "And... all right. If it means I won't be deleted, yes."

Anything. To stay alive.

There's a few more minutes of silence, and then a rush of data. Readouts on his body, down to every last dent and scratch, as well as the material make-up of it. "Can you confirm that this is your correct body? And that everything is as you remember it?"

If he possessed the ability to suck in a breath, he would have. Yes, it was familiar. Yes, it was perfect in his memories.

Memories -- they all seemed intact as well. Some of the tension eases out of his AI, and he tries to nod before he remembers he can't.

"Yes. Yes, it's fine."

"All right. Give us a bit and we'll have you installed in a jiffy."

True to their word, within twenty minutes, he's back where he belongs. There are three or four mobile armors standing around, hands on their weapons, but they aren't aiming them at him. It's more of a precaution.

Standing on a platform in front of him, there's a team of engineers reading some monitors apparently hooked up to him. One of them flickers a light in his direction. "Can you see and hear me? Did the data transfer go successfully?"

Strangely enough, out of everything, it was being strapped into monitors, standing before platform, that began to put him more at ease. This was familiar, in a way. He was used to this. This was how they'd always performed maintenance on him, after all.

The armed suits are new, though, and he watches them warily, his scanner starting to flash as he tries to get readings off of them.

He blinks, pulling his head back from the light out of surprise. "Yes -- I see you," he says. "My data is intact."

He'd be far less calm, if there were a problem with that part.

0001: A New Beginning

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