Onoelle pushed the door open, ever so carefully. Cassy, hovering over the stove, turned her head with the swiftness of someone who had been eagerly awaiting the event, abandoned whatever it was that she was cooking and ran to her elder sister. It wasn't uncharacteristic for the teenager. Back when she still explored the area around Agitana she often got herself into a bit of a scrape, returning home late and covered in cuts and bruises. When she had begun chasing down Mentuc it had become even worse and Cassy had grown increasingly worried when her older sister failed to return home in time. It hadn't been an unreasonable thing to worry about either, given how often Mentuc's interference had kept the stubborn young woman from meeting an ignoble end. Nowadays Cassy was less worried about her sister, given that she had absolute, unswerving faith in her brother-in-law's ability to deal with anything her imaginative mind could come up with. Instead she had been busy worrying about Jane. Cassy hadn't nurtured her talent for reading people as much as Onoelle had, but the raw potential was there. Something about Jane's behaviour was unnerving and while Onoelle felt it far clearer, she also had greater durability. Cassy, on the other hand, was actively freaked out by it.

So Onoelle tolerated her sister knocking the pan off the stove and the half dozen eggs clattering to the ground, instead ruffling Cassy's hair fondly as she felt just how tense her baby sister was. Mentuc walked in right behind her, putting one hand reassuringly on Cassy's head before stomping straight past her and starting to clean up the mess while simultaneously starting his own preparations for breakfast. Onoelle caught him making a few gestures she couldn't place, before she realised that he was referring to their conversation earlier. Yesterday she had cooked, today was his turn. She smiled at that. She had already forgotten with everything else that was going on. It was amazing how easily human emotions could be overruled by other things, how fickle they were and how only the more pure and durable of them could withstand the passage of time, long or short, and continuously influence people.

Not to her husband though, oh no. He didn't forget. He never forgot. Sometimes annoying, sometimes adorable. Always reassuring.

With her sibling's worries sufficiently assuaged, Onoelle pushed the girl towards Mentuc, before turning her attention to the elephant in the room. Jane was still hiding in the corner, trying to pretend that her datapad was taking up all of her attention. The woman's behaviour had changed slightly, however, and Onoelle was quick to pick up on the subtle cues. Originally Jane had suspected and consequently loathed Mentuc, only to be scared out of her wits when he nearly ripped her head off. That fear had been the main emotion her friend had felt towards her husband, mixed with pure hate. As Mentuc proved to be harmless, sort of at least, and generally ignored her, that fear had begun to ebb away and the hate had returned, even more putrid and festering than before. It was such an irrational, contained thing that Onoelle couldn't grasp why, except that she knew it wasn't natural. Her friend never behaved like that. Just the simple fact that Nightmare had voiced some concerns about Jane in the same regard made Onoelle believe that her own suspicions were correct. Something else was going on.

Now, however, that feeling of hate had slightly lessened and her friend's emotions were equally divided between hate, concern, fear and curiosity. She clutched the small case holding the data cube tightly, hoping that Nightmare's gift would be able to further tilt the balance towards the latter.

'Jane,' she began, drawing her friend's attention, who did a horrible job of faking surprise, as if she only just now saw her friend. She felt her heart weep at the sight, but soldiered on. 'I have something for you. It was in the post box, with your name on it.' She held out her hand and showed the little black box with Jane's name engraved on top of it. Technically none of that was a lie. Nightmare had, very insistently, told Mentuc to put it into the post box. Onoelle understood why. It allowed him to confirm her story without lying. It sounded incredibly hollow and dumb to her, but it was how her husband's mind worked. 'I didn't know delivery services worked that quickly,' she joked. She forced herself to smile, to act innocent in this farce, but she had to get Jane to open it and watch the contents. Somehow.

'I didn't order anything,' Jane mumbled, reaching out to grab the small, black object. As soon as she touched it a soft, blue light welled up from inside.

'Jane Allistan's presence detected. Systems booting up. Confirming package safety. Please stand by,' came a more humanized version of Nightmare's voice, stunning Jane but utterly flooring Onoelle. What was that bitch up to?

A small sensor poked out of the cube-like block and started scanning its surroundings. The blue light pulsed gently as the sensor did a slow, subtle sweep of the house, slowly sliding over Jane, then Onoelle. When it fell on Cassy, however, it turned bright red. 'Unclassified presence detected. Shutting down,' it announced, withdrawing the sensor and falling silent once more.

Jane's mouth was wide agape as she slowly looked up from the cube. 'What is this thing, Leonne?'

Onoelle simply shook her head, not trusting her own voice. Nightmare had somewhat failed to omit the specifics of her plan, leaving Onoelle to assume that getting Jane to watch it would be left up to her. Clearly the AI had planned otherwise.

Jane didn't seem to notice, attention drawn once again to the small cube. A glint returned to the Historian's eyes as she ran her gaze across the object, carefully observing it. She ran a finger alongside an edge, then tapped the top with a nail. 'It's smooth,' she mused aloud. She picked it up and shook it gently. 'And light.' She squeezed down on it with her fingers and when it didn't budge, she brought both of her hands to bear. Softly at first, but rapidly adding more pressure once she figured out that it was quite durable. She banged it against the floor, hard from the get go, but all it did was leave a small scratch on the boards. 'What the hell is this thing?'

Onoelle couldn't help but smile. This was the Jane she knew and loved. Already the researcher in her was reawakening and the little cube consumed her full attention. She tapped in a few searches on her datapad, ended up with the predictable nonsense you'd get when searching for a small, black cube, then moved to take a picture of it. The very moment she hovered the camera over it, however, her entire datapad shut down instantly.

'Unauthorised access detected,' Nightmare's voice flowed from the cube. 'Countermeasures initiated.'

'What the hell...' whispered a stunned Jane. She put her datapad down and looked at the cube again, more closely this time. 'Did you see that, Leonne?' she asked, sounding more excited than horrified. 'It shut down my datapad! Without access! That requires tightbeam datalinks! And a program strong enough to penetrate the anti-virus software on it! And it did all that in an instant!'

'Is that...' Onoelle struggled to find a proper word. 'Special?' she ventured.

'God in heaven, yes!' Jane shouted, eagerly running her fingers across the cube. 'Tightbeam datalinks are a forgotten technology. The Imperials used these as a way to communicate even through intense jamming. It was one of the reasons why they were so feared in naval combat! They could communicate with one another as long as they didn't deviate from the plan or knew exactly where the other vessel was! This is amazing!' she whispered, nerding out over the tiny bit of technology. 'This is groundbreaking! This is... Where did it come from? This is a technological marvel! This...' Her voice dropped and the excitement made way for panic. Her face paled as her mind caught up with her enthusiasm. 'This is Imperial,' she whispered, horrified. She looked past Onoelle, towards Cassy and Mentuc, the former of which was bothering the latter with apologies about making a mess while simultaneously trying to goad him into making her pancakes.

'Mentuc,' said Onoelle, pre-empting her friend's panic attack. 'Could you and Cassy go out and take care of the animals? We didn't get to it yesterday and I think they'll be quite low on feed now.' Mentuc nodded and quickly put the pots and pans away. Cassy was stuck between wanting pancakes now and wanting to feed the animals, but she quickly realised that she had no way of persuading Mentuc anyway and instead focused on the latter, bouncing around him as he left the house with the eager teen hot on his heels.

Jane waited several minutes before moving again, making sure that Mentuc was a fair distance away. Onoelle used that time to study her friend. The way her hands trembled slightly as she held onto the cube, how fear and revulsion warred with pure, innocent curiosity and an overwhelming need to know on her face, her brow creased in deep thought. In the end the decision was made for her, when her fingers ran along the top and the cube awakened once more.

'Jane Allistan's presence detected,' piped Nightmare's voice again. 'Systems booting up. Confirming package safety. Please stand by.' Onoelle eyed it warily, having a sneaking suspicion that the process wasn't automated in the slightest.

Once again the sensor slid out and it began scanning the room. This time, with Cassy being safely out of the way, it didn't register any anomalies and the cube folded open, revealing a data crystal encased in a small electrical device. Jane's eyes went wide and Onoelle assumed that her friend knew what it was.

'It's a black box,' she whispered incredulously. 'An Imperial black box! These things are worth billions!' Her fear seemed to have lessened and her earlier excitement bubbled back to the surface.

'I would appreciate if it you did not try to sell it,' came the swift response, the blue light from the sensor turning towards Jane. 'I'd hate to have to initiate the self destruct on this thing.'

Jane screamed at the unexpected response, launching the cube into the air. Then her instinct kicked in and she dived after it at the same time Onoelle did, causing the two women to collide rather harshly. The cube thunked into the ground next to them, undamaged.

'Good thing the Empire knew how to build things, or you'd have just shattered a rather important piece of history because you couldn't control yourself,' the AI complained. Onoelle still struggled to connect this voice with Nightmare. She sounded so very human.

'I... What...' stammered Jane, lost for words.

Onoelle recognised the preamble her friend was in. Stars above, she'd been reduced to a gibbering wreck often enough once Mentuc had stopped playing human around her. 'Who are you?' she asked, pointedly. Her own curiosity was piqued as well at this stage.

'Who I am, does that really matter?' Nightmare asked, the light turning to face Onoelle now. 'What I represent is so much more important. I am someone with a vested interest in the past. A collective who has figured out that a lot of things have gone wrong when it comes to writing down history with any semblance of accuracy. I represent a group who seeks to make things right. And I also am in charge of finding prospective new members.' The blue light turned back to Jane. 'You have been launching some very interesting inquiries. Operation Angry Comet. The Kra'lagh. The Imperial assault on the Novic Confederacy that knocked them out of the war in a lightning offensive that stunned the galaxy and warned the galaxy of what the Empire would do, now that its back was against the wall. Not that they listened. Such a bloody, bloody business, the past. Yet for some reason nobody can regard it without getting morals involved. And getting morals involved when studying history is rather unprofessional, wouldn't you agree?'

That was a direct stab, so blunt that even Jane couldn't miss it. She physically reeled back from the cube. 'And let me guess,' she bit back, 'you're supposed to be an organisation dedicated to the "truth", right? What's next, that you'll tell me that the Empire was innocent? That they were being slaughtered by the Kra'lagh and therefore anything they did was justifiable? That—'

'For someone in possession of a doctorate in history you really act like a child, don't you?' sliced Nightmare's icy voice through Jane's tirade. 'Why would we employ morals on history? We do not care who was right, who was wrong. We care for what happened. Nothing more. Nothing less. But I doubt I'll get through to you. Whenever someone brings up the Empire, or anything Imperial, all you seem to be able to do is yell that they were the worst criminals in history who deserve to be slaughtered to a man. Even now. Six. Centuries. Later. You, of all people, should know how much the truth gets distorted over such a time span.'

Where Onoelle held emotional ties to Jane that she did not wish to see cut, Nightmare prescribed to no such niceties and mercilessly advanced on Jane, using cold logic to stamp any arguments of morals into the ground. Given that she was speaking through a piece of genuine Imperial technology was just the cherry on top. Jane was caught in the flytrap and Nightmare was about to swallow the poor woman whole. The poor woman wasn't even catching on to Nightmare being far too informed of everything that had happened over the past days.

'But let us forget the hypocrisy of that law. Let us focus on something else. Like how it is present in every nation out there. And how would you even define Imperial lineage in this day and age? Imperial officers? Or even people who just lived on an Imperial planet? The very populace that rose up in arms against the leadership of the Empire in the first place and which brought it down from the inside out? Or how about the Merchant Houses? The Senate? Do you have any idea how massive the Empire actually was and how many factions that existed within it? You don't. You hide away from the truth and are content to sit idly by and study the scraps that the governments toss to you so you can nibble on it and leave the genuine past alone!'

'Cut the bullshit!' raged a fuming Jane and Onoelle could feel the AI smiling at the outburst. 'You're no different than the other conspiracy theorists! All talk, all bluster! Do you have any idea how many centuries we've been studying the Empire? Compiling evidence, cross referencing thesis, double checking our work? The Historians have gathered together, all across the galaxy, precisely to prevent the crap you're spouting now from ever occurring! And to start it all off, there's simply no way that the entire galaxy could have been fooled into believing a lie of that calibre!'

'During the ground assault on Lufer the Empire deployed the Fourteenth, the Seventeenth and the Twenty-third Armies,' Nightmare began, changing her tack abruptly. 'They were bolstered by Genesis Battalion. Two thousand, three hundred and ninety Genesis troopers were committed to this operation, meaning that their entire unit, with the exception of eight of its members, was committed to this assault. The three armies were to launch a global assault. Genesis was to insert with orbital drop pods, launch a lightning strike through enemy lines and annihilate the Novican HQ and eliminate Grand Admiral Kolpovka as part of Operation Angry Comet,' Nightmare summed up, causing Jane to grit her teeth and stare angrily at the blue light as the AI casually threw more facts at her than she had discovered during her dozens of hours of research.

'Genesis was outfitted with the heavy power armour Svalinn Mark I, which came equipped with the Muninn-class computers. They were, unlike what you Historians foolishly believe because they are idiots and don't know anything about actual warfare nor the intensity and speed at which battles are fought, not a crack team of elite soldiers.'

Onoelle gasped in shock, knowing what was coming next. She hurriedly looked at Jane, who was, thank the stars, too busy glaring at the cube to have noticed her outburst.

'I agree with you there,' growled Jane. 'Hard to call a bunch of sadistic, mass-murdering sons of bitches soldiers after all.'

'So emotional,' chided Nightmare. 'And you call yourself a Historian.'

'Hating the Empire is common sense, not emotion,' Jane countered.

A sudden silence fell and Onoelle stared at her friend in shock. Her friend held a doctorate! She had defended her thesis against professors who assaulted it relentlessly for even the tiniest flaw in either her thesis or her verbal defence! Jane Allistan was an intelligent, educated woman! Not a fool who would shout out paradoxes. 'Jane, you can't be serious,' Onoelle blurted out, drawing her friend's angry gaze upon herself.

'What? Are you going to start defending the Empire again as well!' her friend hissed.

Onoelle shook her head, her mind running over the situation. Nightmare's reasons for getting involved suddenly became more clear. 'Nobody is siding with the Empire in this conversation, Jane,' she replied softly, trying to avoid further antagonising the woman. 'But I need to point out that you just said that hate is not emotion. That it's common sense. Did you even hear yourself!?'

A shudder ran through Jane as she seemed to mull that over for a brief moment. She looked confused, frightened even. Doubt clouded her eyes and she closed them, bringing her hands to her forehead as if she was in pain. She shook her head, her lips mouthing unspoken words, before her angry glare returned. No, Onoelle corrected herself. Not angry. Manic. 'It is when it concerns the Empire!' Jane growled, baring her teeth at her friend.

'A Historian studies the past objectively. They list the events in chronological order rather than engaging with a personal connection. Your denial of this, your statement that hating the Empire is not an emotional thing, proves that you are incompetent and unqualified as a Historian. Or so I'd assume, were it not that I already possess other information,' the AI concluded.

Far away in the hidden Cruiser, Nightmare tied the loose threads together in a flash of horrific insight. Jane's insane refusal of clear truths, her utter inability to discuss the Empire in a rational light, which was subtle and largely dormant unless confronted with any truth that may paint the Empire in a slightly positive light. The mysterious, heavily fortified prison complex filled to the brim with psionic prisoners. The separate threads came together now. Jane had made one very valid point. How had the galaxy swallowed a lie that massive? How was it that the Kra'lagh, a nation on par with the Empire, had been removed from living memory?

Nightmare had never been a fan of teeps, a trait she had shared with the rest of Genesis, but she had also thoroughly studied them. The conclusion she came to was an outlandish thought, so utterly insane that only the most mentally disturbed conspiracy theorists could come up with it. She ran the numbers, generated simulations. Place a handful of psionics in the right places. Subtly influence the experts in historical fields, the one group likely to discover the truth and be in a position to spread it and be believed, and manipulate them from the get-go. Shift the media, hold parades in honour of the fallen, have holidays dedicated to the atrocities of the Empire... It was an enormous network, on a scope so utterly gigantic that no sentient being could possibly grasp it. If she hadn't been an AI, she would never have entertained the possibility, let alone spot it.

Someone, or something, had gone out of its way to delete the Kra'lagh from history and paint the Empire as the bad guys. That created the questions of who and why. Was it an aimed attack to stamp out the Empire and was the denial of the Kra'lagh merely a means to an end, or was it the other way around? Or a third option?

Regardless, she had a more immediate concern. Protecting Onoelle was one of her duties and now that she had actual confirmation that Jane had been brainwashed...

'Jane, you can't disassociate hate with emotion. Hating the Empire is ultimately rooted in emotions,' Onoelle barged on, forcing her voice to remain calm. Jane was on the verge of a panic attack. She didn't need her degrees to see that.

'It isn't!' she screamed, slamming her fist down on the floor. Her eyes were wide with rage and panic and froth was forming on her lips. Onoelle felt her eyes narrow and stood up, quickly followed by Jane, who looked more like a caged animal than a human.

'They're bad, Onoelle! They're monsters! All of them!'

'Jane, calm down.'

'They're— You married one! You married one!' she screamed and something inside her snapped. She lunged forward, uncontrolled rage in her eyes, and leapt at Onoelle.