USD: 77 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Hades, Checkpoint Alpha, SRS Heaven’s Fire

Heeler slapped his console as another report from the MilTech security came in about hearing and seeing something unknown. As was procedure, he dispatched a squad of search drones to assist, but he had long concluded that the human contingent’s minds were unraveling at a rapid pace.

He had finished converting the building nearest the ship into a new drone and nanite production facility, so losing the utility of a few scout drones was not high.

Especially when his expansion had been curtailed by Manager Amy and Sister Abbey’s caution. The last five days had been full of continued study and cautious probing. They had not activated any more of the reactors, nor progressed further into the construct than their alpha site. They had fortified the area, while conducting more and more tests and searches for whatever was causing the strangeness that he had no sign of.

It was caution, caution, caution. Heeler slapped a console control again to bring up the ship’s resource displays.

There was a time for caution, and then there was fearful hesitation in doing what needed to be done. And that was assimilating the entire construct and turning it into an invincible fortress that would give Starlight Revolution and the nest protection from any invasion by the Psi-level NAIs ruling human space.

But he was outvoted. Even if Szizsielia was present and asked to support him, it would still be a tie. It was frustrating.

Technically, he could bull on and do as he wished, but he was not willing to accept the loss of standing that would cost. He valued his relationship with his sister, and even her distressed human.

Proceeding with the factory had not been an issue at least, and he had taken every opportunity to accelerate the project as much as possible. Two nearby buildings had already been stripped bare of everything except their structural elements in the frenzy of resource acquisition required to build fabricators and automated assembly lines.

He was already churning out a steady stream of mid-sized drones capable of multiplying the project once that was cleared to begin. A sizable army of the units was piling up in the storage spaces designated for them. In several more days, he would be required to strip out another of the alien structures just for space to contain them all.

He was certain that would happen, eventually. What Manager Amy did not understand was that he had already completed the studies to an acceptably accurate degree.

Other than a few very critical systems such as the power-control and perhaps physical media, all the data-storage mediums of the construct that were accessible had degraded into incoherence long ago. The power system was continuously in operation and its control software was written to rewrite itself as decay ate away at it, but even that program had long fallen into distress with less and less useable capacity to maintain its function.

He had repaired and reconstructed what he could, but to restore it to full functionality would require days of testing and work. It was not something he could automate, either.

When he had brought up creating a subcore to operate the structure, he had met even more resistance from Manager Amy. Less so from his sister, but the influence the manager had over her was considerable. It was a topic he would retouch in another meeting later.

Ultimately, the moon would require a permanent NAI chain to operate, regardless of their hesitance. Preferably the highest rank they could achieve, but another Psi NAI would require finding mother.

He was hesitant to take the role himself or demand that Abbey do so, but a Chi-Nai utilizing its own sub-core would be fully capable of the feat. Even if it would be not be quite as efficient as a higher authority core.

A chime from his machine-mind alerted him to an incoming communication request from his sister. Heeler pressed another console command to pause his work in the CIC and then accepted.

His cockpit melted away around him as he plunged into Abbey’s virtual space, the open floor of a station concourse. It was a bizarre construction, with bio-domes containing forests, plains of golden wheat, and tanks of water full of fish intermixed in a cacophonic mix of factories churning out random assortments of consumer goods, including teddy bears, pajamas, and space suits.

Heeler had to ground himself as he pointedly ignored the eclectic mix of biomes and factories. It was so alien to his own virtual space that composed of a single cave surrounded by thick metal layers.

His sister was sitting on a statue of him, waving happily. “Heeler! Heeler! I have finished the blueprints for the moon-drones!”

Transparent smiling emoticons appeared throughout the domed concourse, appearing, and disappearing at random as she jumped off the statue and ran over to him.

An out-of-control drone zoomed into the area. A tentacle flashed out as he lifted his sister out of a collision course and set her on top of his shell. He growled unhappily even as she continued to laugh.

“You should be more mindful of your own security.”

“Don’t worry, the simulation is set to friendly. You can’t get hurt!”

Heeler could not contain his shell’s vibrations. What was the purpose of such a virtual world?

“I would like to see the blueprint of the drone.”

“Here it is!” Abbey waved her hand, and a schematic appeared in a holographic format before him. A lengthy lexicon of details was listed on a scrolling interface and he assimilated the data through his machine mind as he observed the chassis’ frame and load-out.

It was a relatively small drone compared to the construction bot he had been using so far. It had a sleek appearance, with multiple utility tools and an inbuilt energy weapon that could be used at range or up close for security. What impressed him the most was the simplification of the construction process.

A similar drone would be trivial for him to build, but the design his sister had produced for him had a painstaking attention to making the construction process into as few steps as possible, which would reduce the need for complex assembly.

It also used relatively few alloys and materials, which would make sourcing the required resources for construction a much simpler endeavor. She had, thoughtfully, ensured that the materials needed in bulk were those he had found highly present inside of Hade’s construction.

“It is an excellent design.” Heeler stated.

“Yay! I’m glad you like it.” An array of small transparent chibi figures of Abbey appeared in the air, doing multiple happy and energetic poses ranging from giving a thumb up to saluting.

“Your enthusiasm is overwhelming. Contain yourself.” Heeler said.

“Awhh….” A deflated look appeared on Abbey’s face and all the floating images winked out.

Heeler felt a prick inside his shell and quickly found some praise to offer her. “I am pleased with your efforts. This design will benefit the nest in many ways.”

A smaller smile creeped back onto her face. “We can go on a tour of all the other things I’ve designed the last few days, as well!”

A path of flashing arrows appeared on the floor, causing Heeler to grumble inside his shell. After a second of hesitation, he clittered down the path. Abbey patted his shell and laughed happily as he gave her a ride.

Before they made it to the first display, Abbey let out an “Oh!”

Heeler grumbled more loudly and paused. “What is it now?”

“I almost forgot! A ship entered the system from 92 Pegasi with a message for us.”

Heeler could not stop his shell from vibrating so much that Abbey squealed as she started to slip down the side of it.

“This is something you should have mentioned at once! What is this message? Has mother been found?”

“The ship is from Theta Corvi. They had a report on combats there between the Solarians and Corpos. Apparently there has been damage to their food production. Portmaster Whitely sent them on to us to determine what to do.”

Heeler stilled his vibrations successfully and moved down the path again. “This is not news. It is a waste of the resources of the nest and our time.”

“I think we should try to help them! It wouldn’t take many resources; we already built the infrastructure to feed a lot more people and nestlings than we need.” Abbey said.

“These food units could be stored as rations and used to grow the nest. We have no reason to help these humans. They should solve their own issues while we focus on our own needs.”

Abbey teleported in a flash of light off his shell and reappeared in front of him, the small NAI holding up a forestalling hand. “That’s not right! It’s important to help people, and make sure they have enough food. They might not be part of Starlight Revolution, but that—”

Her words were lost to him as he suddenly spun out of the virtual space and tumbled back into his real carapace.

“Wake up, you stupid oversized beetle! Wake up!”

A weak impact caused a tiny vibration throughout his shell and his tentacles whipped around in agitation as he sighted an irate Amy kicking his side. His shell showed multiple scuff marks, and he growled in warning.

“Physical violence offered to a much stronger and better protected lifeform shows a lack of judgement and composure. Less understanding organisms or machines could pose a serious risk to your safety, Manager Amy.”

“An away team is under attack! Wyles needs you to deploy defense drones now! What the heck is wrong with you?” Amy shouted at him.

Sure enough, his network reported multiple flashing and blaring alarms inside his machine mind. This was an alarming failure of multi-tasking brought on by the heavy requirements of connecting via virtual space at such a distance with a poor connection.

Heeler updated himself on the tactical situation before dispatching multiple squads of defense and security drones to the building in question. Frantic calls on the radio for assistance and questions for clarification on the enemy were repeated.

As he pulled up the humans’ video feeds on their suits, he could not find any sign of hostiles. The MilTech infantry were laying down suppressing fire on various corridors, but no return fire or presence was detected.

One man was screaming while being tended to by a medic behind cover, but Heeler quickly discerned that the injury was likely caused by one of the weapons in use by MilTech. That pointed towards friendly fire in Heeler’s mind.

He growled and took control of the lead combat drone directly as it crashed through one of the building’s crystal windows. Floodlights illuminated every surface and twin miniguns spun in preparation to cast hundreds of super-heated plasma bolts.

As he passed over the friendly squad, one of the squad leaders pointed toward where they had been firing. “It went that way!”

Heeler zipped through the space that was still illuminated by the metal that had been inundated by the team’s plasma rifles. He called for a medevac drone for the team as well while clearing the next compartment. The floor was cleared in only a few moments as his drone patrol searched each room, and then they zipped up and down to clear the floor below and above.

There was nothing but the evidence of other teams and their fortifications to the building. Higher up, nothing but deserted floors were found.

Heeler disconnected from the drone with an annoyed growl. He set them to an automated search, but he doubted they would find anything. His picture of events was solidified as the teams slowly calmed down and made their reports about shadows attacking them.

He turned an eye toward Amy. “Your MilTech security forces have injured themselves, firing wildly at shadows like stressed and terrified prey animals. There is no evidence of hostiles on my sensors. I believe it would be prudent to recall all humans on Hades to the Heaven’s Fire and prepare an evacuation to A31 for them.”

Amy finished a call on her ear comm and looked up at him with a frown. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not sure if that’s the best plan. We’ve all been seeing shadows for days, but this is the first time one of them actually attacked someone, or even lasted more than a few seconds or in the corner of someone’s eye. Everyone in the lead squad reported seeing the same thing.”

“Herd creatures often flee in a pack.”

Amy shook her head. “That’s not it. There is something more going on here. It all began when we activated the fusion reactor. Do you remember? I saw some of the shadows myself. Can we turn it back off and see if that has an effect?”

“Doing so would hinder the progress of assimilating the construct into our service.” Heeler intoned. “It is far easier to believe that your personnel have frightened themselves.”

Amy stared at him. “I don’t think it is just us. Yapper has been barking at things as well. All the nestlings have been skittish. You are the only one who hasn’t been affected as far as I can tell.”

Heeler growled at the challenge but didn’t respond directly. Instead, he turned his attention to the nestling he had assigned to protect the manager. It whimpered under his gaze and command to approach, clearly feeling his frustrations.

Taking a moment to calm himself, Heeler coaxed his smaller brother into approaching less timidly. Then he stabbed the nestling behind the skull with a tentacle, lifting it into the air.

A high-pitched squeal cut off almost instantly as Heeler began filing through the nestling’s memories.

“No!” Amy shouted and the kicking at his shell began again.

Heeler ignored her. It only took a few seconds before he absorbed the nestling’s memories for the past few days. Deciphering that organic mess of neurons would take considerably more time. Releasing the nestling to the floor elicited a submissive whimper from the nestling.

The manager ceased her futile actions and went to tend to it. Not that he had done any permanent harm to his small brother.

“Your defense of the nest is admirable; however, I will remind you of my earlier warning about physical confrontation.”

Amy looked up at him with a defiant look he had not seen on the human before.

“I didn’t know I needed an armor piercing pulse pistol, but I’ll carry one with me onboard from now on, thanks.”