Chapter 01

[Coffee?]

[Yup. Coffee.]

When it was ready I took a stroll through Mighty Edda, sipping along the way. She was a beautiful battleship of stacked orbs that gleamed metallic blue. My only destination since coming aboard last week had been the Spectacle. It was a massive area, purely for viewing space. Massively tall that is. It seemed as though an entire orb of the ship had been set aside just as an observatory.

It was called the Spectacle due to the massive window that offered a brilliant view of space. Seating was tiered amphitheatre style. My favorite place was in the middle at the front.

Others would float in and out of the Spectacle, but I paid no one any mind. I was entranced by the stars. Delighted by them. By space. By the multitude of universes that suspended in the bright and dark nether of endless space.

The colors of the stars were astounding. I saw thousands of marbled planets, thousands more moons, and millions of other mysterious points of light.

[Blues,] Orion said in my mind. [Reds, yellows, oranges… all matter of colors. These are stars.]

[These are stars,] I thought back to him.

Orion was often quiet, but always present. I titled my head just a bit and saw the reflection of my eye move in the massive window. My Cyborg eye. It glowed a garnet red. It was composed of encircling metal bands of gun-metal grey. Within the circling bands of metal was a suspension of powdered red crystals. The red shimmering essence tumbled in on itself eternally. Compared to my Mech Core, it looked almost identical. When I held still, the reflection was lost in a dazzling array of stars and planets.

I was a Level 10 Cymech, and 1% Cyborg. I leaned into my hands and rubbed my face in extreme weariness.

My consciousness had been uploaded into the sacrifice named Jack, on planet 04.C12. The planet Aventine. Fourth variant of earth. Twelfth clone.

In my new body, I had been given the Cymech class along with Orion, my Mech Core. I’d received a C grade in my mission to liberate the city of Mahns-a-Lore from the clutches of Doppelgam activity.

There was no going back to my own body. I was stuck in Jack’s body.

[But you’re still Gnath Fist,] Orion thought.

[Yup. By name and consciousness. Not by body, and it cost Jack his life.]

Footsteps caught my attention. Small and light footsteps. I turned my attention away from the view and smiled at Frye as he came to sit next to me.

“Hey buddy,” I said. “Listen Frye, I wanted to thank you again for engineering my Mech Core, and everything you’ve helped out with in our mission on Mahns-a-Lore.”

“No problem, I’m happy I could help. I love what I do. Frankie’s taking me under her wing.”

“You miss your mom?”

Abby and Jack—Yes, the very Jack that I was uploaded into—were Frye’s parents. Since I survived the Cyborg effect from over-stabilizing my Mech Core, I earned myself a new Cyborg eye, and new Cyborg machinery and essence in my hip. I’d been grazed by a bullet and the Cyborg effect had healed the wound replacing missing flesh and blood vessels with garnet essence and mechanics.

“A littler bit here and there,” the kid said. “You know the medic Nikola right?”

“Yea.”

“He’s the one that told me I should come along. That since I made Orion, having me aboard could mean life or death for you.”

Nikola had told me the same thing. A Mech Core was with you for life. Since Frye was Orion’s maker, he’d been asked to be recruited.

“I’m sorry about your father,” I said, breaching the topic for the first time since I’d known Frye. He relaxed back into his seat and we gazed out at space for some time.

“Yea,” he said at last. “Me too.”

“Is it hard?”

“What?”

“Looking at me, talking to me, but seeing your dad every time?”

“Honestly, no. His character was different. He was happier than you—no offense—and he had a better smile. Plus since your left eye is all Cyborg now, It’s easier to see you differently. You shave. My dad didn’t.”

“That’s good,” I said.

Frye was quite mature for his age, I thought. Perhaps it was due to the hard life he’d lived. He’d been engineering since he was just a little boy.

“So,” Frye said, “I heard you’re gonna get a new mission soon.”

I nodded.

“Means we gotta catch you up on Orion. Frankie says you’ve been avoiding her.”

“I’m just taking my time off for myself, that’s all.”

“Yea, I understand. Everything ok?”

“Just getting used to this body, and reeling from the trauma of my last mission. I’m also on Nikola’s orders to take it easy until tomorrow. He wanted me to have a full week off from anything and everything to monitor my health.”

“That’s right,” Frye drawled. “First Cymech Cyborg ever.”

“Yup.”

“I almost forgot! I got my Vox today!”

I perked up and raised my brows at that good news. Frye showed me the metallic implant near his hairline above his eye. I had one just like it, but it was a bit larger, meant to fit a Tetcon-Lifelink—the receiver that uploaded me into Jack.

My case was unusual when it came to Voxes. Cyndra was my first Vox when I was a simple Recruit Trainee. When I was uploaded to Jack, I had a new Vox. Pipper. They definitely had different characteristics and I wondered about Frye’s.

“What’s your Vox’s name?”

“Deks.”

“How’s that coming along for you?”

Frye chuckled a bit to himself before answering. “It’s weird having someone else talk in your brain. I got new stats and everything. They kinda just show up as an image in your mind. It’s far weird.”

I gave half a smile and nodded, watching my Cyborg eye bob in the reflection of glass between us and the rest of space. “You get a class too? Frankie and my squad commander mentioned you might be getting a class.”

“Yup, Mech engineer. Level 1.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the way Frye puffed out his chest with 110% pride. It was cool to see things from a 12 year old kid's perspective. Kinda refreshing really. Made me think back on when I was little and made the decision to bust my ass in pursuit of the Cymech class.

[It paid off,] My Vox said to me. [Didn’t it Cymech? Look at you now.]

[Yes Pipper, thank you.]

“You’re talking to your Vox too aren’t you,” Frye said. “I can tell by the way you look.”

“Yup, I was. Although sometimes I talk to Orion. Sometimes to both at once!”

“Does Orion talk with your Vox sometimes?”

“All the time actually. They’ve formed quite a bond.

Frye scrunched his face in thought for a moment. “Is it true you’re the only one who can talk to your Mech Core? To Orion?”

“Yup. That’s why Nikola is always on my ass, asking questions, running tests, and never giving me a moment's peace.”

Heavy footsteps sounded from the same entrance Frye had come in. It was Nikola, dressed in all white, with a gold belt from which were suspended two white banners. Three red stripes ran vertically down the banners. Beneath an arm was his white helmet, with cheeks that winged back. The front was sculpted flat. Three red stripes ran along the top of the helmet on one side.

“Speaking of,” I said.

I stood to shake hands with Nikola who asked if I had a moment's time to run some scans and tests. I told Frye I’d catch him later, maybe for something to eat in the commons.

Nikola walked with me throughout the halls of Mighty Edda. He asked me, “How are you today, any developments of note, disturbances between Vox, Mech Core, any of your Intelligences?”

“Everything’s normal. I haven’t used Signals Intelligence or Image Intelligence since this morning.”

The medic paused and took a moment to scan me from head to toe. He used his mana to power his Mech helmet. The mana circuits within his helmet gave off a sky blue glow as they activated. Then it opened in three parts and floated onto his head. The helmet closed without a sound. I could see the brackets of IMINT form in his visor. Dozens of light blue brackets formed in his vision. Above each bracket appeared an identifying word. They were backwards to me and smaller than I could discern.

A gold grid of lasers scanned me and his visor lit with a scrolling list of data. I patiently waited for Nikola’s one hundredth or five hundredth scan—I don’t know, I’d gone through so many so far.

While the data was collected, he asked me about SIGINT once more.

“Still my only specification that’s fully leveled at 5/5,” I said.

“Thank you Gnath. Please tell me about your other specs again, and which one is fully leveled.”

I had three other specifications: IMINT 2/5, Clone 2/5, and Self Improve 0/5. I hadn’t leveled up in about a week, so I didn’t have any spec points to allocate towards any of them. Since SIGINT—Signals Intelligence—was at 5/5, it had leveled into the Third Intelligence. Orion’s Signals Intelligence bonded with my own. But it didn’t bond in my mind, or in Orion’s mind. It existed in a space between our minds. A space that Cymechs called the Third Intelligence. This meant that SIGINT was managed on its own in that space of Intelligence. All communications signals had: 100% clearer reception, and were compartmentalized to the Third Intelligence.

By contrast, IMINT—Image Intelligence— was only leveled at 2/5. This meant that I had to actively filter through all the data that appeared in brackets before my vision. It had saved my life more than once already. The next time I leveled up IMINT, it would merge with Orion’s intelligence. At that point, we would both actively filter data together.

I repeated this information to Nikola for the umpteenth time. He’d warned me that he would ask repetitive questions which would require repetitive answers. “To test your memory,” he’d said.

“Sounds good, Last thing is blood work,” the medic said.

I pulled back a sleeve and held my arm out for him.

White metallic gloves with red stripes floated out from a pocket beneath a banner at his side. They unfolded and inflated to a much larger form. One floated onto his hand and he wrapped his grip around my upper arm. When he squeezed, I heard a whirring mechanic, then felt a small prick. After a moment of drawing blood in some compartment of his glove, he withdrew his grasp on my arm, leaving a small patch where he'd drawn blood.

“Excellent,” he said. “Thank you for your patience Gnath. Let’s continue, shall we? I’d like to sit with you and learn more about Orion, if you don’t mind being a conduit.”

“Yea, I’d be happy to help.”

I could tell Nikola was fascinated by me. All his energy and attention was put on figuring me out. Figuring out the Cyborg class. What interested him the most was that I could communicate with my Mech Core—with Orion. Orion’s language was abstract, but each of our thought’s intentions was translated to each other in the Third Intelligence that the Cyborg class had developed. I don’t know what I would do without Orion. He felt like a brother to me.

[We are brothers,] he conveyed to me. [I’ll do my best to answer all of Nikola’s questions.]

[Yea, me too,] I thought back.

I felt Pipper’s presence enter my mind and I rolled my eyes just before she said, [Well if anyone needs me, I’m right here too.]

“Have you heard?” Nikola said.

I shook my head and we continued, following his lead.

“I’m assigned as your squad’s personal medic. Looks like it will be Uzik, Siam, Dani, Frankie, Frye, and you and me.”

“Since my time for recovery is coming to an end, I guess we’ll be getting a new mission soon?”

“We already have a mission. We leave tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? I haven’t gotten a chance to explore my new Mech suit.”

“Orders are orders,” Nikola said.