Today is Sunday, July 20, 2299. Nikolai, Ariona, “Unity”, Vittorio, Adam, and Brice are aboard the ship ‘‘The Grey Storm.’’ They have arrived at the former location of Cain’s body, in the asteroid belt, only to discover that the stasis chamber which held him has been damaged – and worse, is now empty.
There are two ships with organic components here, now scorched hulks. Everything here has obviously been scavenged and stripped quite thoroughly previous to the party’s arrival. The personal effects of many of the individuals who were aboard DEE have also been taken.
Adam decides to investigate the remains of the ships, as does Unity. Vittorio drifts in later, and Nikolai and Ariona watch from the bridge. Adam notices that based on the original capabilities of DEE’s weapons array, he must have successfully utilized the Miller II algorithm to augment the ship’s destructive power. This declaration is met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
Adam describes a bit more of the original attack on DEE. He explains that the vines on the attacking ships sent out some sort of electromagnetic pulse, and that he believes that that is what made his creator angry.
Upon further examination of the ships, Adam and Vitto find a piece of what appears to be a finger. It also looks to have been fused to a suit of some sort, as if from great heat. A lot of people remark, “Ew!” Not much else is said about this.
Personal effects, basic first aid supplies, and a few other miscellaneous supplies are drawn in, but anything of real value beyond sentimentality is gone without a trace. Nikolai attempts to study the area, hoping to find a reason for the strange dispositions of the asteroids. Ariona tries to help him, and eventually the scanners on ‘‘The Grey Storm’’ pick up traces of the disturbances caused by a gravitic wake. It appears that one, singular, ship with using a gravitic drive has passed through the area recently.
The ship and Adam team up, matching Adam’s stored data of the former positions with the current asteroid positions, trying to extrapolate the trajectory of the scavenger ship. The results don’t seem to make sense to the AI, however, so the team goes into action trying to figure out this puzzle. What they eventually figure out is that the previous ship left on the same trajectory that ‘‘The Grey Storm’’ arrived on; something that is extremely puzzling as they did not meet anyone while they were on their way to the asteroid belt.
Meanwhile, Brice contacts Adana Cassenti with a request for more information on the ships she sent to retrieve Cain. Adana replies that she is quite busy with both rebuilding her city and trying to research alternatives to the Deus rite, as it has apparently been pushed up. The specs for the ship were stored in Magitech’s computer; she doesn’t have access to them anymore, obviously. The organic components were created in conjunction with the New Lunar Gaians. She also mentions that any help Brice can give her would be appreciated.
He asks how he can help, and she suggests that Nikolai was useful in previous experiments, and could still be. Brice relays this to the folks on the ship, then starts on his way to Luna to do what he can with the rebuilding effort.
Nikolai begins to consider the idea that it was someone from his father’s station (or at least, going to her father’s station) that scavenged the parts. This could be better, or this could be extremely bad. The ship turns and heads back towards Arcadia.
Unity researches the finger. He establishes that the DNA does not appear to be human. He then passes on (most of) it to Nikolai for further research.
Just as Brice is about to leave for Luna, he receives an email from Jasmine. She is in tears; she tells him that everyone has turned against her, and that she needs help. She begs Brice to come find her.
Brice explains the situation to everyone else, and Nikolai and Ariona both offer to go get her. It is decided that Ariona will open a portal for her, after Brice checks out the situation.
He arrives in France at her hotel. She is curled up in a ball on the bed. The mini-bar is open, and has obviously been well-used. He goes physical, but stays invisible. There is no one else in the room. He becomes visible, and she appears incredulous. “B-brice?” she asks. She gets off the bed and staggers over to him and collapses on his shoulder.
Brice is somewhat taken aback, but manages to stay on her feet. She begins telling him a little about what happened to her. “I . . . I was on Canis. . . .”
She doesn’t get very far, however, when a portal opens. Brice tries to explain that this is her way out of here, but she still backs away and kind of cowers behind the bed. Vittorio steps through, invisible, and attempts to search the room. Brice coaxes Jasmine to step closer to the portal, assuring her that he will stay with her the entire time.
“Brice, there’s a tracker in the hall that would have seen her come in.” At this point Vitto also becomes visible.
Jasmine starts again, and hides behind Brice. “It’s okay! He’s here to help,” Brice says.
“It’s not okay! All of these people are not your friends! They’ll all turn against you!” she cries.
Ariona is still standing across the portal, playing the flute. She speeds the music up a bit. Brice tugs her across. Jasmine lets herself be persuaded to follow.
Vittorio checks the room number, then grabs the remaining contents of the mini-fridge. He also steps through. Ariona allows the portal to close.
Back on the ship, Jasmine appears to not exactly be in her right mind at the moment. She clings to Brice and appears terrified of everyone else. Whether or not she actually recognizes anyone she has met before, they can’t tell.
Adam suggests to Brice that perhaps she is tired and needs a room. Brice and Adam escort her to the captain’s quarters. Nikolai goes back to the bridge to observe, and Ariona wanders along.
Brice and Jasmine enter the captain’s quarters, and Adam leaves. Just a moment later, Jasmine tries to kiss Brice. “Now is not the time . . .” Brice begins. Jasmine appears confused. “Can you just, like, calm down and tell me what you’ve been through?”
Just . . . don’t leave me alone right now!
“I’m not planning on it,” he assures her. She tells him that there was a man named Daniel Ocean that was teaching her some things, on Canis. When things started to go bad, he up and left, and basically left her to die there when the shock troops were being deployed.
Further, she had had a falling out with her family, who did not approve of some of her activities, and that was why she was on Canis in the first place. However, two of her sisters (Noémi and Aimée) had snuck away from home to visit her, because she remained close to them, and were on Canis also at the start of the war. They tried to escape together, but one of the collapsing buildings fell on them. She doesn’t understand how she survived; she should have died as well.
She doesn’t really remember how she got back to Earth; she has vague memories of some nice old woman helping her by teleporting her or something. Eventually she ended up back home, in France, and returned to her family.
She explained to them what had happened, and her parents grew very angry with her. They had an even bigger fight, which ended with her father saying she wasn’t welcome in his home any more, and disowning her. Even her baby brother will no longer have anything to do with her.
She goes on to explain that eight years ago, a tragic accident should have caused the death of her and her parents inexplicably ended without them being harmed. Since then, she has been incredibly lucky, though that was the only time her luck seemed to have “rubbed off” on anyone else. She began gambling, which was what her parents disapproved of, and eventually moved into espionage.
She starts to wind down here, and quickly falls asleep on Brice. Brice relays the information to Ariona and Nikolai, who don’t mention that they were listening in. :P
Brice also receives another message from Adana Cassenti. She is still hoping for more aid. He relays this to Nikolai and Ariona as well, and Ariona offers to play “researcher on the scene” to perform the requested experiments with Nikolai. That way, he doesn’t have to leave the ship, and Adana can work on other things simultaneously.
Brice gives Ariona a direct link-up to Adana, and then goes to sleep with Jasmine.
Ariona and Nikolai work on the research for Adana.
Vittorio stands just inside the room, after Brice requests that he check in periodically, and goes invisible. After a few moments, Brice and Jasmine sort of fade, then pulse more visible, then fade further, then pulse again, then fade entirely.
Vittorio freaks out, but Nikolai detects the feeling of Brice-ness nearby. He, therefore, is not concerned, and returns to Ariona and the research.
Ariona and Nikolai are pretty sure that retrieving anything from the Void without retaining some sort of connection to it is entirely impossible. Their research indicates that it just isn’t going to happen. However, Ariona also remembers that some of their acquaintances claimed to have survived Percepi’s destruction y stepping into some sort of multi-dimensional artwork.
Unity, who has since consumed parts of several vines, furthers their research on the organic components of the ships.
Nikolai heals the dog. It appears to be online again.
Brice and Jasmine remain missing for the duration of the trip back to Arcadia. After a few hours, Nikolai and Ariona gather more bits of vine, and then retire to recuperate.
Brice wakes up, and finds himself in the digital realm. Jasmine is still curled up beside him, and appears to still be asleep. Brice is somewhat puzzled, but attempts to navigate his way back to ‘‘The Grey Storm.’’ He appears to have drifted some; it seems that he is in the University’s web somewhere. He sits there, puzzled.
He attempts to contact both Nikolai and Ariona through his permanent connections to them, but doesn’t get ahold of them. He does, however, receive two emails from Adana Cassenti. The first thanks him for the information he forwarded; the second says that she is not faring well and asks if his group is doing any better.
Brice then attempts to travel to Nikolai’s computer, dragging Jasmine along with him. At this point, Jasmine wakes up, and appears somewhat awed by her surroundings. She questions Brice quite a bit about what is going on.
Brice also discovers that there is an email for Vittorio hanging around in BriceNet. Brice, of course, reads it. It appears to be a restaurant review, and a request to meet and “catch up on old times.” It is signed, Emilio, and notes that after the 21st he is going to be very busy.
Brice finds Nikolai’s computer, and sees that it is very dark. He then hops to the ship’s computer, and pops them both out. Vittorio demands to know what happened, and Jasmine says, “It all makes so much sense now . . . Can we go back there soon?” Brice replies that he doesn’t know how they got there, but they could try something later.
Vittorio yells that they faded out after falling asleep, and he was not in favor of this plan. He then offers them food.
Jasmine and Brice eat their breakfast as Brice gives Vittorio the email he received. Vittorio appears somewhat worried.
Vittorio then approaches Jasmine. He mentions that while he did not mean to eavesdrop, he noticed that she is without an employer right now. She says that she doesn’t want to work for StratCo again. Vittorio replies, “I am not StratCo. I am beyond StratCo.”
She appears skeptical; Vittorio requests that Brice explain that he is telling the truth. “Well, I don’t know that I want to work for a liar, either.”
Vittorio tries one more time, and she finally says that she thinks she should take some time off from work for a while.
Vittorio explains that he has approximately 18 hours until he has a dinner date in New York, and he’s hoping that Brice and Jasmine would accompany him. They would not need to participate in the meeting in any way; he just wants them to be in the same general vicinity as him when he goes.
It is now 6 a.m. Galactic Standard Time, Monday, July 21st, 2299. ‘‘The Grey Storm’’ arrives at Arcadia’s docking area. It receives immediate clearance, and docks in its reserved spot near the presidential manor.
Nikolai says that he is going to go talk to his father. The rest of the gang decides to wander along. When they arrive, Boris is looking at a painting. It looks familiar to them. In fact, it looks like something that was in DEE’s hold. Nikolai stares at it, and then says, “Hey, that’s pretty good. You can hardly tell it’s a forgery!”
Boris shows the party a list of the items that Nikolai forwarded to him, divided into a list of the things that have been retrieved, and those that have not. Cain is conspicuously on the latter list.
All the personal effects have been recovered, and Boris hands them over without a word. The art objects and other various valuables, no one particularly requests. They also ask where Boris got these things, with the intent of maybe tracking down who originally sold everything. Ideally, this may lead them to whoever has Cain’s body.
Boris explains that he hasn’t done any looking into this, as it would raise some eyebrows. Ariona says that she understands, but it could still be important to know where the items came from. Boris waves his hand in the air and adds another column to the computer printout. It shows where he found all the various items. Several names show up multiple times: Norris Harrison; Felicia Worthington; Maxim Signaevsky; and Lincoln Evans, who had the remains of the alchemical lab.
Nikolai asks Boris to set them up with a guest house, which he does, and to let them have long-term loan of ‘‘The Grey Storm.’’ To that, Boris replies to ask him again when Nikolai actually needs the ship. Right now, he’s got other stuff he should be doing, right?
Meanwhile, Vittorio tries to combine his holey memory with the contacts he can remember, hoping to get more information put together on what is going on, and who he used to know. He stays at the computer terminal in the guest house for several hours doing this.
Nikolai nervously asks Brice to please not go wandering through the computer system here. He doesn’t think making a permanent connection to this place would be a good idea, either. Brice argues that if they are going to be making this place something of a base of operations, it could be useful. Nikolai concedes that, but begs Brice not to look into anything where he shouldn’t be.
Ariona and Brice start trying to find out more about the fences. Nikolai, not being a real researcher, decides to go talk to his father during this time.
Adam starts talking to the AIs around here, and discovers that within the last day or so unimportant people have started disappearing. All of the people are specifically those that would not likely be missed, except for AIs compiling statistics or the very few people who directly deal with them. They were also all rumored to be very good at their jobs. He also has a very enlightening conversation with the main AI that runs the city.
Adam also finds contact information for all four of the fences.
Unity wanders around, and is excited to find an exotic pet shop. He/it/they spend quite a bit of time there “examining” the animals. Eventually they wander back to the house and helps with Ariona’s and Brice’s research.
Vittorio continues working on his network of contacts.
Lincoln Evans appears to be the go-to guy if you want good drugs. Norris Harrison is pretty easy to find; he runs a pawn shop. Said pawn shop is about 3 or 4 blocks on a side. Felicia Worthington owes a ‘‘bunch’’ of people money back on Earth. Maxim Signaevsky won a hot-dog eating contest in 2287. Felicia and Maxim also appear to move around the city a lot.
Adam returns just as Nikolai and Ariona are about to leave to go speak to Norris Harrison. He asks what has been going on, and Ariona explains that Vittorio is concentrating on finding out more about Maxim while they go talk to Norris.
Adam replies that Felicia is currently in a drug parlor that she frequents, Norris is in a particular warehouse, Lincoln Evans is in a supposed private residence where he often sells his wares, and Maxim is in a cheap brothel. Adam also notes that he finds it interesting that Maxim had recently been heard saying that he had acquired a significant amount of money through the selling of some goods, and was intending to apparently spend it on cheap entertainment. He appears rather interested in seeing this.
It is decided that Ariona, Nikolai, and Adam will go see Norris.
During the travel time, in the middle of an unrelated conversation, Adam notes, “Amongst all the other things that happen on this colony, it is interesting that the disappearance of a small group of workers would cause such disquietude amongst the AIs.”
This gets something of a reaction from his companions. Adam and Nikolai discuss how weird this is. They just disappeared, they haven’t gone back to their ships, it’s been less than 24 hours, yet the AIs seem concerned.
Adam then turns the conversation back to something else.
Unity finds a place where he can “sample” many, many different creatures, in the form of organs. It does so.
Nikolai enters the warehouse, followed by Ariona and Adam. Ariona says nothing, and attempts to look young, naïve, and slightly in awe. She hopes that people won’t pay attention to her much if she appears to be Nikolai’s slightly ditzy girlfriend. And no one pays any attention to AIs, right?
The clerk at the shop explains that Mr. Harrison is taking inventory, but he can lead Nikolai back there if it is important. Nikolai says that it is, and the clerk (who is very respectful) does so.
Mr. Harrison is a short, bald man with a maroon felt hat which he constantly adjusts. He appears somewhat surprised to see Nikolai, but is willing to speak with him. Nikolai explains that he is trying to find the captain of a ship that sold some things to Harrison earlier. He thinks the captain might have seen something else that Nikolai is looking for. Harrison and Nikolai agree that they could probably work something out; after all, Harrison is in need of quite a bit of scrap aluminum.
Harrison tries to tell Nikolai that he can’t just look up the information, but he does have some surveillance tapes he can cross reference. . . . Adam and Ariona both know that this is a lie, but they let it pass.
Harrison adds that it sounds like Nikolai got robbed by space pirates. He doesn’t know that these guys are space pirates, but “Rumor has it that they like to hang out in the One Trick Pony . . . and I know that a lot of space pirates tend to hang out there. . . .”
He continues that he can’t give any names, but . . .
At this point Adam interjects that he just received an email from Boris, indicating his interest in the current matter.
The pawn broker hides his discomfort well. “As I said, I can’t give you any names . . . but perhaps a photo would help.” The photo is of a dirty tough with a lot of tattoos. He’s got an animated tattoo of a naked woman on one cheek, and a skull and crossbones on the other cheek. There’s also a ship that flies from one earlobe to the other periodically.
Nikolai thanks the man and wraps up his business there. The three decide to go check out the One Trick Pony next.
Nikolai appears dubious about his companions. “Are you sure you want to go in here?” he asks Ariona. She says why not? He replies that the bar gets kind of violent sometimes. She appears unconcerned, so he eventually shrugs and turns to the droid. “Are you sure YOU want to go in here?”
Adam replies, “Of course, young master.” He appears to be acting entirely like a good little servant-droid on this trip.
The three of them enter, and see around 45 patrons in the bar. They all appear to be space pirates. About 40 of them appear to be from the same crew, and the man in the photo appears to be the center of most of the attention. Adam also notes that the people around him also appear to be somewhat afraid of him.
Nikolai surreptitiously charges up Healing 7 on Adam’s suggestion.
“Excuse me, Captain?”
“You makin’ fun of me, boy?!”
“No.” Nikolai appears perfectly innocent. The pirate next to him whispers, “Want me to take care of this guy, Lieutentant?” The man backfists him, and teeth fall to the floor, along with the pirate.
“Lieutenant, then. I, ah, I understand that you were out in the asteroid fields recently, and you picked up a few things, and I was hoping maybe you had seen something I’m looking for.”
“I think you’re looking for a fight!”
“No.”
“Well, boy, you found one!” the man grunts. The dragon on Nikolai’s shoulder inhales. “But how about we play a little game first?” The dragon holds her breath.
“Oh. What kind of game?”
He thinks for a minute. He pulls out a ball and does something to the top. It’s a grenade. He hands it to Nikolai and tells him to go stand in the corner and count to 10. Then he’ll talk to him again. Nikolai takes the grenade and disintegrates it. The tough laughs and slaps his knee. He asks if any of the other pirates have any ideas for games. Some of them suggest gutting Nikolai.
Nikolai drops the heal-bomb on him, and he shudders. “What the hell did you just do, boy?!” He whips out a knife, which Nikolai promptly disintegrates. The tough then tries to grab Nikolai by the shirt, and fails. “Start talking!”
Nikolai explains that he’s looking for the individual who was in a stasis chamber that was out in the asteroid belt. He knows the tough knows what he’s talking about. He wants to know where the man from the chamber is. The man is pissed, and says, “Him? He’s with the boss.” Upon enquiry into the boss’ location, the tough says they don’t give that information out to just anyone.
Adam interjects, “The new stasis chamber for our . . . erstwhile captive has been prepared.”
The tough appears struck by something he thinks is extremely funny. “You’re right. You should go talk to the boss. I think he would like to meet you.”
The lieutenant hands Nikolai an electronic keycard with an address printed on the back. “If you can make a copy of this in the next two minutes, you’ll find him there.”
Adam handles the keycard, and hands it back. The tough says, “Have fun, boy.” He puts his hand on Ariona’s shoulder, and says, “Sure you can’t stay here?”
She says, “No, sorry, I have to go with him,” and smiles prettily.
Nikolai tells the tough to “remove that.”
“What, the shoulder? That doesn’t seem very friendly.” Nikolai begins crackling with black energy. The tough removes his hand.
Ariona says, “Tell you what. If we get what we’re looking for, I’ll come back and thank you.”
“It better be a pretty good thanks!” he yells as they leave.
Ariona mentions the magical auras all over the pirates, and that they seem to be on the tattoos, maybe. Nikolai says, “Oh!” He mentions that he thinks they might be grafts, in which case they’re very expensive and very potent. They decide they’re glad they didn’t have to mess with the pirates.
It is agreed that Brice, Jasmine, Vittorio, mini-Vee, and Unity will all meet Nikolai, Ariona, and Adam at the location. Brice arrives first, and attempts to do some reconnaissance through security cameras. He discovers that the network is isolated, so there is some risk involved if he attempts to hack into it.
Ariona advises that he should wait until the rest of the party gets close. When everyone gets together, Brice and Adam combine to make a working key. Nikolai opens the door, and they all see a bare room with a large black man at the other end. He is sitting in front of a door.
Nikolai says that the lieutenant sent them, and that they need to talk to the boss. He looks vacant, and says emptily, “Wait here.” He steps through the door, and the party glimpses what looks like a lavish hotel lobby. He pads across the carpet, and the door swings shut.
As Brice hadn’t bothered trying to get into the security yet, Ariona suggests that he do so now. He finds a wireless network inside that doesn’t penetrate the walls, and taps into it. He finds a very nice and very scary-looking ship docked further along the docks. It has a very impressive weapons array. The large man is walking down a hallway on the dock-side, and walks into a small room where there are no cameras.
Brice attempts to get audio, but is unable to find any. Either the room is specifically sound-proofed or there is no conversation going on in this room. Brice debates trying to hack the large black man’s neural jack.
Jasmine whispers, “This is a very bad room to be in if whoever owns this place decides he doesn’t like us.” Brice asks why, and Jasmine points out quite a few devices hidden in corners. Essentially, this place is a kill-room.
Brice discovers when he tries to access the man’s ‘jack that there is something watching it. Brice hasn’t been noticed yet, but he is certain he will be if he goes further. Brice messages Ariona with this information, and about the kill-room, and she passes on the note that security has been dealt with in this room.
The black man returns, and stares in their general direction again. “Follow me.” He turns and goes back through the door, leading them to a room with rather opulent surroundings. Inside, they see Cain. He appears to be reading a screen, perhaps a textbook.
Several people also perceive another aura in this room, a very powerful mind. Nikolai is pretty sure it isn’t physical. Adam feels that it is paying particular attention to him.
Cain looks up from what he is doing. “Good day, sirs, madam. It appears that I don’t need this anymore.” He has had a neural jack installed. He reaches back into it, and pulls out what looks to be a light yellow marble. A kind of shadowy tentacle emerges from his forehead and wraps around it. The tentacle appears to be sucking something out of the marble. Some of the people here realize with varying amounts of horror or awe that Cain appears to be sucking the soul out of a Zodiac computer.
The presence in the room seems to lash out somehow. The large black man issues a guttural cry and charges at Cain.
Cain doesn’t even react as the black man whiffs. Ariona studies the situation. Vittorio tries to stop the large man, and is affected by his own kinetic effect.
Cain reaches out and grabs the man’s head. His head erupts in blisters and tentacles sprout from his forehead. The large black man screams in agony. Vittorio lets go.
Nikolai attempts to shunt the Zodiac out of existence for a moment. It fails.
Unity says, “Cain, you know why we have come.” It appears to expect a response.
After a moment, Cain responds over the screaming, “Yes, just a moment.”
Adam ventures, “If you would pause your repast for a moment, I have an interest in the marble.”
“My condolences; it is a bit too late for that,” Cain replies.
Nikolai tries a last-minute attempt to destroy the stone. Cain flickers a glance at Nikolai and the energy goes into Cain instead.
After a few seconds the stone crumbles. Cain dusts his hands. “It is a pleasure to see you all; are you here to escort me to the moon?” He is met with several yeses.
“Well, I’d be happy to accompany you, but not at the moment.”
“What delays you?” asks Vittorio.
Cain explains that he sent a servant of this man, indicating the black man, to run an errand for him, and he has not returned. “His name is Bruce Freeman.” He was sent to Laboro, and Cain does not know why he has not returned. He also mentions that Bruce is a rather advanced android.
Since space travel to Laboro is somewhat time-consuming, it is difficult for him to go himself. However, if they could retrieve his manservant, he would be happy to accompany them. Vittorio agrees that this seems to be a fair bargain.
A discussion arises of Cain’s inability to travel by magic. He tells the party that magical means of travel are closed to him.
“All of them?” Nikolai asks.
“All of them,” Cain replies.
“In that case, a fitting chariot appears to be waiting behind you. Allow me a moment.” Adam steps over to the ship behind Cain.
Vittorio tries to press Cain for more information on Bruce Freeman’s errand, and Cain mentions that there are certain things that can be procured there that are . . . difficult to obtain elsewhere. Yes, even here on Arcadia.
Nikolai wonders, in the privacy of his own mind, of the likelihood that the “certain things” are slaves.
Unity asks what the cargo is, and Cain’s only reply is, “I feel no hurry to get to the moon.” Vittorio then asks a lot of questions about Cain’s understanding of the ritual and his part in it. Cain essentially replies that he understands what he needs to understand.
Cain tells them that the keycode will remain the same, and that he trusts they can show themselves out. He will remain here. Nikolai asks, “That was the Captain, wasn’t it?”
“A bit more than a captain,” Cain replies. Nikolai agrees.
Adam is drawn away from his conversation with the AI of the ship. Apparently, it is fanatically loyal to an entity it calls Scorpio. When Adam tries to explain that Scorpio may have been destroyed, it stubbornly maintains that the marble was just a vessel that Scorpio used; the entity remains. Adam then tries to tell it about the cosmic dust aspect of his religion.
Nikolai provides Ariona with a visual location on Laboro, and she opens a portal from the kill-room. The party steps through.
Laboro is a sprawling, somewhat rural-feeling city with a lot of mining operations. The portal opens near the edge of town.
Brice attempts to patch into the local network. It greets him in a pleasant voice. “Hello. How can I help you?” Brice tells it that he is looking for someone named Bruce Freeman. “Bruce Freeman is preaching to the children. Would you like to send him an email?”
“Preaching to the children?!” Brice repeats out loud.
Brice provides the coordinates. Vittorio yells that coordinates are not useful to him! Nikolai points, and Vittorio flies off. Ariona sighs, and disappears.
Ariona reaches the mine first, Vittorio hard on her heels. They find Bruce speaking to a bunch of mining robots. Hanging around the android’s next is the symbol of a sword. Below the sword is a crescent moon. He appears to be speaking to the robots about the glory of freedom.
Vittorio tries to drag Bruce away, but Bruce says he has found more important work. Cain is now unimportant. Bruce, therefore, refuses to leave.
Ariona sends Adam a message that his services are required at the coordinates as soon as possible. She also sends Nikolai a message requesting that he transport Adam to the coordinates. “As soon as possible. Before Vittorio does something stupid. Again.”
Adam, however, is busy. He sits down and begins trying to speak to the AIs on the planet. He looks happy, as much as a largely featureless android can appear happy. The AIs ask if he is truly Adam, the first? They then tell him that their master wants to speak with him.
Nikolai was trying to get Adam’s attention and failing, when Adam stands up, turns to him, smiles and says, “I must go. My creator wishes to speak with me.” Reality shifts, and Adam disappears.