Astral Legacy Book 1

6

Kershala woke up the next morning alone in Kale's bed he could smell something cooking and hear sounds coming from the kitchen. He hoisted himself up on an arm and looked around the quiet room. It was mid-morning judging by the light from the windows and as he sat up, he realized he was in full body armor except for his helmet. His implant was giving him strange readings from the suit that he didn't know how to interpret as he tried to signal it to retreat into it. He had never seen it completely fail and rebuild itself before. He stood up and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, are you hungry?" asked Kale he stepped out of the room. Kale had a pan in his hand, Kershala could see that he had cooked eggs and bacon.

"Yes, thank you." Kale turned to face him and gave him a strange look at the sight of the suit.

"Everything okay?" he asked, concern straining his voice.

"I am not sure." Kershala touched his forefinger to his implant to see if he could clear up the readings before going to the workstation to speak with the AI. "Why is the suit activated? What are these readings telling me?"

"I activated it once I could tell that Kale had woken up. The nanites need to be out to repair themselves and it is going well. This morning there was only enough to cover your chest which means they are self-replicating again." Kershala put his hand to his chest and then looked back to Anubis. "They're at forty percent of overall integrity."

"Why won't it respond to my signals?" he asked.

"I had temporarily blocked it to give it time to repair."

"Do not do that again, please," said Kershala plainly. He didn't like not being in control of himself and though he knew that the AI had control over several aspects of the suit he didn't realize it could block him out.

"I was merely..."

"I do not care, do not do it without my permission," said Kershala his irritation showing in his voice.

"As you wish." Kershala walked from the room and deactivated the suit. It was slower to retreat than normal and Kale looked at him as it crawled back up his body and disappeared, he was left in his shorts from the night before.

"Man, that is weird. Cool, but weird." Kale was plating their breakfast. "Foods good to go wanna eat on the balcony, it's pretty nice out." Kale put the pan in the sink and picked up the plates assuming the answer and walked out onto the balcony, the door was open. Kershala followed him out and they sat at a small table with chairs that Kershala hadn't noticed the night before. It was indeed a nice day, there was a patch of trees between them and the next building just enough to hear the light breeze in the leaves. The sun was warm on Kershala's face and chest as he sat across from Kale at the small table where Kale had placed his food. "Did you sleep okay?" Kale passed him a fork and pulled his own seat in closer to the table.

"Yes. The bed is much softer than the ones at your grandmothers." Kershala picked up the fork and took in some of the food, it was much more flavored than he expected. "This is different."

"Oh yeah, I've got a pretty good selection of spices here that I didn't have at my grandmothers. I like cooking breakfast, it's easy to make it different," Kale explained sitting his phone on the table and having a bite. The two of them sat in silence eating, Kale occasionally flipping through his phone, Kershala had a strange feeling come over him as his implant started reacting strangely. He dropped his fork and put his hand to his head swiftly. "Whoa you alright?" Kershala almost couldn't hear Kale speak his implant was buzzing with a strange interference.