Gentle wind caressed her face, nudging her awake. She sat up and surveyed the surroundings. I’m back in my soul room?

Silvery moonlight bounced off the ever familiar lake on her right. She sat in a meditative pose and closed her eyes, letting the memories slowly trickling into her still fuzzy mind.

A part of her was bewildered that she had stood her own against a group of well trained terrorist, while the other terrified for she had almost lost her life to a storm of bullets. Shaking her head, she decided focus on her current situation.

Body status.

Blood Pressure: 90/60 - normal/low

Sugar Levels: 70 mg/dL - mid/low

Body Temperature: 36.7 C

Heart Rate: 30 bpm - sleeping

Injuries:

4 surface wounds, low priority

Mild Circulatory Shock and slight loss of blood, medium recovery priority.

Note: your current body is still in sleep mode for faster natural recovery

So thats why it woke me in the soul room and not my body. She nodded and lay down on the soft grass, staring into the sparkling blanket of stars. She knew well that she could operate the system menu with only her mind, but it felt more natural when she used her fingers to flick the options. Scrolling through the module list, she once again reviewed the system commands to pass the time.

Error, code 102 - module missing or corrupted

She sighed, most of the commands besides basic force manipulation and health maintenance were broken. Even the act of displaying their names would cause the system to fill her vision with error messages. She briefly wondered how lucky she was to have just the right working modules left to survive past events.

Clairvoyance Module

Find and display information about future events calculated using prediction algorithms with inputs from world stream data

She held her breath. I can see the future? Her fingers seemed to have a mind of their own, typing out the module’s run command without her consent.

No time parameters set, default to max time distance

Ops, should I have set it to something shorter?

Connecting to world stream ... done

Gathering environment input ... failed, access denied

Retrying using backup admin key ... access granted

Gathering environment input ... done

Checking data integrity ... done

Initializing node clusters for intensive calculations ... done

Starting simulation ...

She felt nauseated as her consciousness was pulled away into a black abyss.

Time simulation started, using max time parameters

##

What greeted her eyes was a large room with silver metallic walls. A huge, imposing pair of metal doors at least 20 meters high sat across from her with various electronic equipment laying to the sides. A girl with rabbit ears knelt before it, she cried while banging at the door.

“Open the door! Let her in! Let her in! I know she's still alive. Ellowyn!” Alice’s desperate wails reverberated throughout the cold, vast room.

What distressed Ellowyn was not about her future self’s safety, but that there were two guards behind Alice trying to pull her away from the door.

“Miss Alice, it is too dangerous for you to be here, I beg of you to calm down and come with us now!” They both tried to console her and move her away from the door but Alice held her ground.

She stared gaping at the surreal scene of two burly men exerting their uttermost strength, only to fail at moving the petite figure of Alice. Has Alice ever been that strong?

She wanted to yell out, to let Alice know that she was there. But she knew doing so was useless for she only watching the predicted projection of a future event.

Looking down, she saw a partially transparent outline of her own body and realized she could move around the scene. She walked towards Alice and tried to hug her, but her arms went through Alice’s body like that of a ghost. She could only stand there and watch as two wet streams flowed down Alice’s face.

I have to check out the situation, shaking her head, she went straight through the doors. Her future self’s bloody figure laid on the floor with its back against the wall. She was wearing some kind of black combat suit, but it was impossible to make out the outfit’s details for numerous wounds covered her body, some only scratching away the suit, revealing her pale white skin while others at least inches deep with blood flowing out and forming a large pool on the ground.

What surprised her the most however, was the expression on her face. Her eyes were closed and her lips formed a faint smile, she knew it very well. It was the very same serene, satisfied smile she made before her death back on Earth. Just by looking at it, the sense of unease within her vanished. At least I died without worry, or will have died I guess.

She turned around, staring into the unknown darkness surrounding her. A humming sound brushed pass her ears. She could pick up the distant beating of insect wings, very large ones. It grew louder until she saw various bee-like silhouettes within the blackness. And then everything disappeared.

Stopping simulation - Time limit reached, no more data can be gathered at this point.

##

She groaned as her consciousness was forcefully pushed back into her body, waking it..

Module Clairvoyance triggered a fatal exception. Rebooting system

Great. She braced herself as the system went offline once again.

The phone next to her bed rang.

“Hi Ellowyn, its Tom.-”

“Is Alice alright?” She interrupted him, her voice coarse and filled with worry. She coughed and grabbed the nearest water bottle.

“She is fine. What I’m worried more right now is you, Ellowyn. Is it alright if I and Alice come to visit? We’ll let you rest more if you’re tired.”

“I’m well, I would like to talk to you both too.”

“Okay, we’ll meet you there.”

The system finished its reboot sequence sometime after the phone call ended.

Module Clairvoyance is corrupted. Sending error report.

Wait, where are you sending that to? She hurriedly tried to cancel it but was interrupted as someone ran towards her and threw her into a tight embrace.

“Ellowyn!” Alice hugged her frantically.

“You’re hurting me...” Pain flared across her injuries as she endured Alice’s fierce hug. It was comparably stronger than when she was held in place by one of the burly terrorist.

Suppressing pain receptors

“Alice, Stop!” It was only thanks to Tom’s yell that she came to herself and released Ellowyn.

“I’m so sorry Ellowyn. I didn’t mean to hurt you so.” Alice bowed her head and apologized non stop.

“Its alright, Alice. I’m fine, see.” Ellowyn gave her a strained smile.

“May I check on your wounds?” Alice sat on the bed and lifted Ellowyn’s shirt up, showing two blue medical patches covering the bullet wounds.

“I’m sorry.” Tom’s voice was sober and to Ellowyn, a little cold. As if he was blaming himself for the wounds on her body.

“I know you are.” She couldn’t say more for she was shocked at what she was feeling. One part of her respected and forgave Tom for making the decision to prioritize Alice first, knowing it was inevitable for him to do otherwise. But a small part of her couldn’t accept that he had left her completely alone when she was vulnerable in a dangerous raid.

“Dad, please leave the long apology for another time. Ellowyn should rest much more.” Alice stared back into her eyes. “I’m sorry... it was because of me that-”

It was her turn to give Alice a fiery hug. “You don’t have to apologize anymore. I know well that you feel guilty for leaving me in danger. But it would hurt me a thousand times more to have you harmed. You are my new family now, remember?”

“Yes.” Alice put her head on Ellowyn’s shoulders and sobbed.

No one moved, only the sound of Alice’s sobbing was heard. Ellowyn frowned, it reminded her of the future prediction she had seen. She needed to do something change it, for Alice’s sake.

“Dad, I know you’re quite busy with whats been happening. But I really want to ask for something.”

“Please, just ask me anything.”

“I want to be able to defend myself. Its quite ridiculous a quest, I know. But you can’t always protect us both. In times of need, you’d eventually have to focus on protecting Alice more and I understand that. I am not angry, I simply want to have some means of protecting myself, to increase my winning chance if only by a tiny bit.” She pleaded.

“Then you can train with me.” Alice said, her smile was beaming. “When you are better, I’ll take you to the shooting range and have you become a professional marksman in no time.”

Ellowyn nodded in a daze, her mind busy imagining the surreal figure of Alice holding a gun like a real soldier.“I’ll be in your care then.”

Watching the two leaving, Ellowyn sighed in relief. Her body was still very sore from Alice’s inhuman hug. Take me to my soul room. Before she could start reviewing the modules, a message window appeared.

This is Carl, I’d like to have a little chat if you’re free right now.

She stiffened. Does he know of what had happened?

A chat client window opened.

I’ve read through the logs files of your system. First of all, I’d like to apologize for the ... inconveniences you’ve experienced in your past few weeks.

You are one of programmer to the system right? Your name popped up in a lot of places.

Yes, as one of the chief developers, I manage a third of the core modules.

I see.

For the record, this conversation is unofficial, and it will need to stay that way.

I want an explanation of whatever that has happened to me

I only know as much as the system logs that you’ve probably read. Your health went into critical condition during the transfer and the system had to return you to Earth. Then you activated my experimental module to transport your soul into this world and into the rebirth cycle, with your memories intact.

Why did it take 18 years for the system to return my memories?

I’m not sure either, my guess is that the system had to wait until your body is in a similar state to the one you had in the past before your death. That explained why it only went online after your heart stopped beating, as your body at that time represented the same conditions.

So, even though I was “reincarnated” into this world, my DNA stayed the same. But if the system can maintain my health now, why couldn’t it have done so back on Earth?

The system needed to bring you completely into this world before selecting you as the host. But your body died before the transfer process was completed and it was against our policy to transfer non living entities.

So transferring dead bodies is illegal but souls are?

They are not, hence why our discussion is not official. The module you used - my module, was meant to be experimental and should only have worked when our new policies take into effect, they never did though. Anyway, what this means is that if you were to die now, we both would be in trouble for illegally crossing worlds.

...

Try not to worry much, I’m taking care of it right now. The bigger problem is your heart. Right now, I have absolutely no clue to why the system overlooked your condition. I don’t even know why you’re sick!

Maybe because you’re not a doctor?

Ha ha, its a little more complicated than that. You see, I have access to the entire database of known human medical conditions and yours isn’t showing up. What this means is that there is no known cure, in your world or here. Thats why I suggest you always keep your heart maintenance running until I figure this out.

Isn’t it just a heart disease? What if I get a heart transplant?

Your heart isn’t the problem, Ellowyn. Its because something is wrong inside your body as a whole. Thats why even if you get a new heart, it’ll fail just as fast as the first.

What will you have me do?

Stay alive. I know I can’t ask you to leave your new family, but you need to keep yourself safe, please. For the sake of both of us.

Its not like I plan to die. But can’t you give me some combat modules or upgrade my system?

I’m sorry, it took all I had to set up this simple text chat without triggering some type of alarm. While I can receive the logs you sent, me sending any kind of data back to you is against the Terms of Service. All I can do right now is help you clear up the corrupted mess of modules.

What am I supposed to do then? The self defense module I got is great but when it comes to actual, non hostage battles, my weak body won’t be able to handle it.

You'll be fine. I’ve to give you credit for brute forcing your way and get admin access, that was ingenious! Anyway, you do have some experience building electronics right?

Yes I have, but they were all back on Earth.

Doesn’t matter. I can give you a feel pointers that’ll get you started on building some self defense tools compatible to your system.

Thanks.

Wait, how did you know what I’ve been through, did you get access to video logs too? What about my privacy?

Yes I have access to your sensory logs. Don’t worry though there is little I can do with the information. If you’re worried I’m some kind pervert then stop, I’m not even human to begin with. Sigh. Just do whatever you want, you have full authority over your system anyway. I have to go. We’ll continue this chat later, remember to stay alive and safe!

Bye

Ah, before i forget, whatever you saw in the Clairvoyance Module, try not to take it too seriously. It isn’t known to be accurate. Expect the actual event to be different from the one you saw because the future isn’t set in stone, not when the function only calculate using present data anyways. Bye

That doesn’t make me feel better at all! If the things she saw wasn’t accurate, then it could be Alice that lay on the bloody pool behind those doors. I have to get stronger. She clutched her fist. Dismissing the chat, she reviewed the modules list and was glad to find the corrupted modules removed.

First things first, have to stop my sensory logs from being sent to Carl. She knew he wouldn’t do anything despicable, but she couldn't stand the fact that her every sense is being recorded and watched by someone else. The virtual keyboard sprung to life as her fingers glided across the glowing keys.

The chat dialog is a bit stiff. I'll fix them later.

Also, I've declared Rabbit Knight to be in a state of Rapid Deployment, it means I'll release at least a minimum of 1k words a day. Why, you ask? Its not because a fellow RRL writer asked me to race with his fiction to the top of the popular weekly list, totally not!

Gdoc link feel free to comment mistakes or suggestions