Paradigm Mine

Murky alliances

As the Enigma exited the atmosphere, an ominous shadow formed somehow in front of her. The black shadow suddenly illuminated as deck lighting began to glow.

They gulped as they exchanged looks in amazement of their build and design.

Mia smiled and looked to her colleagues. "Turns out some of canine friends were bored. Their abilities have helped them build and generate what I thought was impossible; they built a ship."

A massive starship; roughly 20 times the size of The Enigma waited for their approach.  Rolling and diving, Mia made sure they could see all the angles that she loved about this new ship.

"Hand of the emperor; I give to you the first ship of its kind; Terminus."

Two planetary cannons had been placed parallel to the vessels beam. This was odd, as for centuries all Nevick vessels had modestly armed weapons and shields. This was the first of its kind to be built with war in mind.

"The Terminus has 20 dedicated defensive point defence phaser arrays. 8 proton torpedoes on each side. With additional 4 quantum torpedo launchers per side. It is defended by 10 shield generators, a rare Kortrat like alloy the berserkers invented covers the entire hull, which in turn makes this very large vessel hard to detect by traditional sensors."  Mia smiled as she landed the Enigma in the spacious launch bay.

"Most of the ship was build by hand and skill by the Berserkers. Each atom collected and reassembled." She seemed impressed with them as the humans had yet said a word.

"Mia this ship..." Cred said with a serious tone. As a second passed he removed his helmet. He smiled briefly in a 'rather impressed' way.
"It's a battleship sir. Its seemingly more important to be slightly larger and durable and well; then there's the need for a crew has arisen too."

She escorted them to the bridge. Arriving at the barn like dual door system. She waited for them to cross its threshold.

Zephyr crossed over and entered the vessel.  She could sense a connection forming between her and the ship.  Much like the same way she was able to interact with the Enigma, she reached out with her abilities. Cred had crossed the threshold too by this time.

Rather than reaching out; he ignored the sensation. He told himself he didn't want to risk "blowing up." While the others were swooning over the upgrades and improvements. Cred resumed his duties.

The din of the group chattering over the neural link faded as he noticed there had been an Ember sighting. Digging into the files he got an approximate location of where she might be.

The Hand gave the order and they resumed course to Thorium. They would arrive within the hour.  Clearing his work from the screen he stood up and left the bridge.

He moved quickly down the hallway towards the shuttle bay. He had noticed a small squadron of Sparrow Star fighters earlier.

He didn't really know what he was going to do. But this was the first time in so long he could finally see her again. He told himself he wanted to talk strictly; in the purest interests. But even he knew his pulse would jump at the mere mention of her name.

Few things motivated him the way he wanted to 'save' her. He felt responsible for how drastically their lives had been affected by simply meeting her.

Now he found himself in some-kind of honour bound situation that he couldn't fight his way out of. He didn't want to be chasing after her; but if he didn't, who could?

Now standing at a sparrow's cockpit; just his proximity released the ramp to enter. A beckoning sliding door opened in unison. He could hear and even feel the quantum drive spiking in power usage.

His decisions rolling in his mind seemed to lock his feet up. He wanted to move but he knew his place wasn't out there anymore.

He kept lying and reasoning why hunting down Ember was more important. Truthfully tho; he owed Zypher a dad. Whatever that might look like now.

His reasoning slightly changed; he shook as he didn't know what he would be if he wasn't chasing Ember. Uncertain he started at his 'way out.'

The ramp and doors reseted to their locked positions. Paralyzed he stared at what could so easily help him escape. Part of him mostly wanted to know what was wrong with him. Maybe Ember could help him? He eased his mind away from truly giving up on her. However; he really should have. He felt the quantum core resume hibernation mode as a high pitch hum diminished.

The shuttle bay doors opened. While Cred exited he noticed Mia standing nearby. She smiled knowingly;

"You weren't going anywhere were you?" Her singsong tone floated just above a whisper.

Cred paused in his steps. His helmet was engaged, but Mia knew. Something had changed in him. She raised a smirk. "Hello."

A second or so passed as he stood there trying to decide how to respond. She smiled and raised an eyebrow; "Cred?"

His digitally rendered voice sounded; "Thank you Mia. For being more human than most humans I know." He left her in the hallway.

Most AI interfaces wanted to know and understand humans more. Oftentimes the AI would solicit humanoids with this in mind...literally. Most of the time they would steal information or be a viral bio tracking virus. To Cred; he felt Mia was worth the invasion.

As Cred rounded the hallway, Mia received full access to Creds biometric information. To humans; this was raw data. To an Ai; it was trillions of calculations with varying outcomes. 'It was a gold mine.'

Deep within A code that made Mia who she is and aware of herself. The following truth became known to herself;

"Humans and Ai programs like me feel the same way when they are treated with love and trust." Putting binary code to words never won any awards. However the sentiment was heard.

Over her neural link she told Zephyr;  "no... he didn't leave. He'll be right there."

She smiled and reformed herself on the bridge. About the same time as Cred entered the room.

"Thorium ahead." Mia chimed. Glancing at her; Cred approached Zephyr.
"Thorium is a series of ring worlds. They use to have millions of inhabitants." He told her freely.

"Why don't I know this? I have higher clearance than you." She snickered softly.

He smiled and pointed to a specific spot- "Alterium Green." He said randomly as if they would know.

"I grew up here."