William was shocked to hear the proposal given by the Mother. As a fantasy and Sci-fi genre nerd, William had never heard of this obscure and insane idea before coming to this world. Not to mention, William isn't sure if this will work at all. What if his ability didn't work as planned and end up somewhere else with crazy AI with a mission to repopulate the human race in a different galaxy? If William has to help Mother, he needs to test a few things before committing to it.
"We need to test this before I start pressing the lunch buŧŧon. I know I can easily put away decently big stuff like terminator armor but storing the ship size of a mountain is pushing it without testing the theory." William said to Mother, who is hovering a few steps away from him and after hearing his thought, she gave a second of slice be before answering him.
"I see your point of view, and I agree. I can't risk having a hitchhiker with me while continuing my voyage beyond visible space. What do you propose then? I do have a few constructs you can test out. Of course, you have to return it since it will be no use to you." Mother said to William and motioned her hand which the entire floor began to move away from the main control room. The floor stopped when William and Mother reached another room much bigger than the archive hall. By its look, William can see that this room is an engineering/manufacturing room as he can see four dozen drones rooming around above them.
"This room is called matter construction room where I can convert matter to build or create anything I need. You can test your ability by storing environment roller and all-purpose hub settlement for a starter. If you need a bigger object, we can construct bigger items until you are satisfied." The lights begin to turn on, and William can see the full size of the room for miles beyond his nȧkėd eyes. In front of him, the room is filled with machinery beyond William's imagination, and he is confident he just saw a giant robot big enough to crush Leman Russ tank with a single step.
"Before we begin, can you do something about my missing hand?" William raises his left arm to show bandaged stump where his hand used to be.
Mother, turn around to see William's missing hand, with no sign of any emotion, one of her drones moved close to William and began to remove the bandages using the laser. William didn't resist or freak out when the drone removed his bloody patches. The bandage removal was quick, and the drone quickly turned it into matter using its converter. At the same time, the two more drones, much bigger than the first one, came and gently held William's arm and stabilized it in midair. Without any instruction or words, the two drones' robotic arms open, and two different rays point towards William's arm and fire cone of ray.
When the ray hit William's flesh, the missing left hand began to regenerate from the stump, and within 30 seconds, William saw his left hand, fully functional and better than before, while two drones let go of the arm and disappeared to somewhere else.
"I believe your new hand will be good as your old one. Don't worry about the medical bill. This one is on the house." With that, William had his hand back, and they began to test the inventory limit as William spent a few hours storing and taking out more oversized items one after and another.
By the time William was done with storing a four-story tall earth remover vehicle, he was sure there was no limit to what he could put in his inventory. He decided to store everything at once to see if there was a capacity limit that Mother approved to test the theory. In the end, Mother concluded that William's inventory ability could store anything and any size as long as it's not a living being.
"I believe we are ready to begin our lunch sequence. Is there anything else you want to do before putting me and my ship away?" The AI asked William to make sure he didn't withdraw from the previous agreement. As humans tend to second guess decisions, the Mother is well aware of the possibility that William would change the term of their agreement or want more to gain something.
"I was thinking for a while. You said you have all the data related to the reconstruction of the human race, right?"
"Not just human race but everything from the Earth. I have the full blueprints of every creature of Earth and the capability to create them within my ability. Also, I have every history, philosophy, mathematic, science, etc. Known achievements since the dawn of humanity. What is your question?"
"Just that, since you have access to the human gene codes, I was wondering if you can also study and manipulate them. Like a lab, if I have to simplify it." The last word from William's mouth gave Mother a clear understanding of what he wanted. In a few minutes, the moving floor took William and Mother into a different room where countless drones move around while holding data slates with names of different species from Earth.
"This is the genetic archive where I can study and replicate the genetic construct of anything, including plan life. What do you have for me? I doubt it is anything from this planet I haven't studied before." Mother said to William with a bit of smirk as if nothing could surprise her at all. After hearing the insult from the AI, William decided to shock the advanced AI with something he held on to for a very long time.
From his inventory, William pulls out the gene-seed of the Grey Knight. The very same item that could grant him the ability to change his chapter and the ability to use psychic power from the warp itself. The Grey Knights are the pinnacle of daemon hunters, and each member is a potent psykers with the capability to strike down Emperor's enemy like a hammer.
The Grey Knights are also Space Marines with no heritage of any Primarchs whatsoever. Their gene-seeds directly came from the Emperor of Mankind by order of Malcador the Sigillite, who selected the purest of men to be humanity's shield and blade against Chaos. In short, William is about to give a gene-seed that contains a small piece of Emperor of Mankind to AI from the Dark Age of Technology with power beyond the current Imperium ability.
"Interesting object you have there. The genetic material is of unknown origin, and according to my basic scans, this is indeed a human gene, but something is off about it. It is not from any past human genome I know of, and I have a long record of most genomes of humanity. Where did you get this?" AI asked William with a surprisingly curious tone and took the container of Grey Knight gene-seed. The Mother's drone hoover away with the container and placed it on the lab table, where a few more drones joined in and began to take samples to test it. After a few minutes of initial testing, the drone projecting the AI quickly returned to William with excitement as if she had already discovered a habitable planet.
"Who and where did you get this from? This so-called gene-seed contained various chemicals and other materials to grow beyond the limit of the human body, but the primary donor of this genetic map is beyond any humans of my time. It is evolutionary. This is like witnessing humanity reach its end of evolution and embark on the next unknown journey. Who is this from?" Mother's excitement and disbelief made William proud of holding on to the Grey Knight gene-seed for an extended period.
He knew Grey Knights are mighty Space Marines directly linked to Emperor through gene-seed but very different from Primarchs. The only reason he held on to it for so long was that William feared Grey Knight's ability to use the psychic ability, and if he lost control, there is a chance of warp tear and bringing forth daemons unwillingly. But with Mother's help, there is a possibility that William could modify or improve Grey Knight's gene-seed beyond what others could have done before. Maybe, just maybe, William could make something new out of the genetic blueprint of the Emperor with a new purpose by the end of this event.
"I'm sure you know of the existence of the Imperium and Emperor of Mankind by hacking Admechs before our meeting. That genetic print came from the Emperor himself, to create an army of daemon hunters and to protect evil of the Chaos." William said to AI as he explained the purpose of the Grey Knight gene-seed.
"Yes, I knew of this Emperor the moment you entered the border of two nations. I'm saddened by the knowledge of how the humanity I know of fell from their grace as an explorer and race of expansion. And I'm not surprised that this Emperor took the opportunity to take over the Earth just like conquerors of the old." Mother said those words bitterly but mixed with sadden tone, for she is one of the last legacies of humanity before they fell into an age of darkness.
"This may be another shock to you, but Emperor isn't some new world conqueror of the old. Rather, he is from the bygone age before humans built great cities and waged a few great wars. Anyway, what can you do for me with this?" William told the long-lost history of the Emperor to AI since it wouldn't matter if she knew or not. What matters is what Mother can do for William using gene-seed.
"I see. This information will enlighten me to examine humanity's history once I'm on the voyage. As for your request, I worked on it while we were exchanging knowledge. According to the analysis, the primary genetic codes are only 18% intact, and the remaining 82% of the genetic codes are missing on purpose. This means, only a fraction of this Emperor's genetics is passed on to his warriors, but it is enough for me to construct genetic codes with a much higher percentage. Based on what you provided, I increased it from 18% to 23%, removing excess chemicals and unnecessary design to prevent defectiveness such as mutation or incompatibility. Please place your hand on this datapad so I can include your genetic data in it." One of the drones came with a medical datapad with a large needle next to it.
"You will include my blood into it? Is that a good idea?" William stared at the needle and drone while expressing a great question of why to Mother.
"This part is to make sure all you and warriors of similar 'condition' can easily be ȧssimilated. Please note that it requires the subject to be in peak condition physically and mentally. Now, place your hand for blood extraction." The drone approached William closer, and William placed his right hand on the pad. The needle stabbed William's hand with mighty force to break his tough skin, and unknown to William, a metallic liquid made out of millions of nanobots entered his body. With very strict order from the Mother, these nanobots remain hidden for most of William's adventure. To observe, study, and protect an only living ȧsset of the Mother long as possible until they reunite if they ever cross each other again.
Four hours later,
"The newly created gene-seed is complete. An additional one thousand gene-seed are in production, estimated time of completion is 35 minutes. Copy an STC on production, the estimated time of completion is 2 hours and 10 minutes." A broadcast of the announcement hit William like a brick to his head. Mother provided William with a newly created gene-seed but additional resources, including STC. A freaking STC, Magos Callias, and the rest of Admechs will gladly accept this holy gift even if they learn how William obtained it.
"Are you sure? I didn't expect you to give me such a treasure as STC and additional gene-seeds." William couldn't hide his surprise and sudden blessing of this magnitude.
"Don't be too surprised. This STC is nothing but a small fraction of the full knowledge I hold in my archive. If I wanted to give you a full copy, it would take me 44 years and half of my reserve energy. What I'm giving you is enough to help your Earth and this Imperium from stagnation and maybe, redirect her (Earth) to the right path." Mother said to William and signaled the drone towards William. The drone approach William holding a container containing a newly improved gene-seed of the formally belongs to Grey Knight. Now it is something else, never before seen or thought of within Imperium as one of the Emperor's greatest creations, and AI of Dark Age of Technology made an entirely different kind of Space Marine for William.
William took the container from the drone, and when he did, the message appeared to William's sight. Same as the reward message after defeating every foe, William saw the description of the gene-seed with surprise at the end.