Depth Of Sacrifice

Part 8

He is adjusting to his new body now, the carrier ship. His mind expands as his Others become him again, hexagonal fracture integration and memory integration complete, his many become whole again. He feels the ship as his body, warm hull where the sunlight strikes, he sees through ships sensors into the full spectrum and it is not foreign to him.

Fighters all docked, passengers unloaded, he thrusts with his engines, and scans for hazards along his course as he leaves orbit and angles away from the oncoming storm of antimatter. Although his body no longer functions, the nanos still maintain his synaptic functions for a little more time yet, and he finds himself desiring to look upon Earth as he breaks orbit. Setting ship cameras to record rearward, he looks out to the stars, and applies still more thrust to the engines. This is his new home now...

Inside, he feels the computers on the fighter ship Rachael is in. They are requesting assistance running computations. He grants the request as the energy demands of the computers climb, then he focuses on Rachael herself. Sitting at the console, her hands fly across one screen to another, dragging subroutines like they were playing cards. Tears silently roll down her cheeks, but her face is one of determined focus.

She is running a program that is growing, integrating both her nanos and the military's. He feels his own computational systems needs rise as algorithms are created, sent back to the fighter. Watching carefully, he is struck thoughtless for a full millisecond.

The monitors registered a heartbeat.

— THE END —