Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Two days ago, during a bit of downtime where I needed to shoot something on the surface but the station hadnt gotten into the right orbital position yet, I ended up lounging in the gunnery crche and talking to Ennos while I waited. Which led to a conversation that I mostly forgot.

There, see? Ennos highlights a file pointer on my AR. It moved!

Huh. I reach a paw out and swipe awkwardly at the rewind command I once took a painstakingly long time to make standard on all my displays. Then I watch very closely as the tiny bit of data goes through a flicker of self-alteration. Weird. I say.

Weird? Ennos sounds a little enthusiastic. Weird?! Okay, no, Ennos sounds a little overdramatic. Do you know what this means?!

I provably do not. I tell them. Its not that I dont want to encourage Ennos hobbies, its just that my organic brain cannot keep up with the thousands or millions of interactions per second that this kind of backwards understanding of code ends up being.

Its different when Im making a program to do something specific. There, even if Im using that bizarre digital incubator to half-code-half-evolve a program, I *know what the output should be*. I may miss a lot of intricacies, and if Im doing it by paw and voice input Im probably gonna leave a trail of bugs an orbit wide, but I already have the answer of what does this do.

Ennos is asking me to focus on deriving the purpose of a thing just by looking at tiny changes that may as well be random noise to me.

Not for the first time, I wish that I could make use of the stockpile of cybernetics I have on hand.

Its a little grim, I admit, that every one of them is secondhand. But Ive built up a hell of a collection with all the salvaging Ive done, and its not like anyone needed them. Letting them just sit and try their best to rust seems mean to the spirit of the interface.

But alas. I reject pretty much every foreign object, whether I want to or not. Sometimes thats great. But when all I want is to spin up my brain to speeds that can interact with the grid on something at least close to one-to-one, its a headache.

Ennos shows me more code bits. I really do try to pay attention, because my friend is obviously having fun with this. But after they start talking about tracking pseudo-random storage states, and forming a foundational vocabulary for sharing information, Im out.

Im an uplift, Ive had four hundred years of taking in a lot of math lessons, I can plot an orbital intercept course in my head and I can do it faster with a screen that wont reject my physical limitations. But when Ennos starts getting into the weeds of this, I feel like Im back to being stuck with a baseline brain, screaming pointless meows at doors without knowing what doors even are.

Thank Sol were coming into range of the target. Sorry, I have to take out this flesh hive before it converts anyone else is, as far as excuses to end a conversation go, *pretty good*.

And then, I did a really impressive trick with bouncing a low speed class one groundstriker off of a burst of surface-to-atmosphere intercept fire, so I could make a weird angle shot. Which is basically impossible with hands, much less with paws, so you can all be suitably impressed.New novel chapters are published on

And then I put Ennos project out of my mind, and we got sidetracked by some other stuff.

Two days later, though, it came back to mind under weird circumstances.

Hey, Ennos, can you check your map against my AR readout? I asked into the open air, standing in an upper deck corridor with my trademark aura of utter confusion and a lack of time to cover it up.

The AI replies almost instantly. Of course. Where are you going?

Well Im *going* to the vacuum-state processor core, because I need to check what the connector numbers are so I can hook up the power source to the this is less important. Vacuum-state processor core. I lay my ears on my head as I realize Im rambling again. And despite the fact that AIs can simulate infinite patience, I still feel *judged* when I ramble. Which I may be doing now.

You are, and you also arent. Ennos says out loud.

I am rambling? Oh no! I *am* being judged!

You are rambling, and you are not going to the vacuum-state processor core. Mostly because that is not a thing. Ennos says.

What? Yes it is! You helped me wire it up! I insist. I launch myself up onto the bulkhead, which is currently looking at me mockingly, and drag my claws down the metal where the door is supposed to be. Its right here! I insist, trying to dispel the illusion.

But its still metal, and my claws hurt now.

And after Ennos double checks their own memory, and their grid connections, it starts to look like there was never a core here at *all*. The station map even lines up geographically, theres just never been a door here.

Except.

That cant be.

What about Glitter, or Jom? I say. Maybe they have different memories?

Neither of them have full maps, and they arent wired into the stations grid. Ennos says, their own wariness and anxiety seeping in.

I meow at her, forgoing actual words for a minute. She finishes what she was saying without looking at me, and then drops her hand, before turning. Yhave it plus. The woman says by way of greeting. Her words are rough, hundreds of years of mutated slang and isolationist culture leaving it tricky to decipher her speech with Ennos not listening and translating automatically. But Ive been more or less learning it, and shes been learning mine, even if she pretends otherwise.

Which is also weird. Shes never spoken to me without prompting.

Have what? I let my curiosity take over, scratching behind my ear with a paw as the cleaner nanos strike up an itch from where theyve taken to clinging to my fur.

Yis. She says, running fingers reverently over the display screen on the wall. The Oath. Null expetin. But here ya go, yeh?

The stations makers are where it comes from. I tell her quietly. They wrote it, and it seems to have stuck around. Im pretty surprised, really, that its kept up even among her own people. The old words, written here and there around the station in a casual way, and in a few spots painted in a much more fervent and passionate splash of chempaint. At the end of all things, all of us, together, against the darkness. They didnt seem the type. Maybe its a translation error. I need your help. I say finally, sitting and trying to keep my tail from flicking too much.

Dyn looks down at me. Shes short by modern human standards, but still towers overhead, a giant of a person compared to my own frame. But somehow, it doesnt feel threatening. Maybe its because I know she cant really hurt me. Maybe its because of what she says. Kay. The woman shrugs. Null shake elsewise, eh?

You absolutely could find something else to do, dont give me that. I give a tiny feline snort, running my paw over my ear again where the nanoswarm is still giving me an itch. Get your suit on. Were going salvaging.

Wha lootin?

An old hypercorp-era frigate. I need something on it that Im not gonna say out loud. I tell her. Joms ready to launch, and were on the clock. Meet me in bay twelve an hour ago. I say, standing and starting to bound off, the nanoswarm swirling around my limbs, mimicking my movements more than normal.

Behind me, I hear Dyn snort, then yell in an awkward attempt at my own language. Follow the oath too, you dont you?! She calls.

I *am* the voiding oath! I shout back, before I curl my legs up and slide into an open ventilation port, taking a controlled - really - tumble down the forty feet before it curves and brings me to an intersection from which I can make my way to where Jom has the engines running. Shortcut successful!

Its been too long since the last alarm about something horrible on the surface, so Im on edge. But theres a much more personal problem, and Im hoping I can at least start to bring a solution online.

The station is fucking with my friend. And oath or not, I still dont trust Dyn enough to risk asking her to form a consensus and start changing directives. So heres a halfway point. Theres a frigate a couple hundred kilometers away that Jom spotted last time he was out. These kind of old corp ships almost always have backup databases on them for record keeping.

They never have any good secrets. Ive checked. A lot.

But they do have space, and processing power. And thats all I need. Especially if we can get it running *far away from the station*.

Because what I need is to keep Ennos safe. And if the station wont allow for that, were going to have to build a life raft of sorts. Id ask Glitter, but shes been too linked to the station this whole time, and is almost certainly infected with its protocols. So this is going to need a dramatic approach

I dont technically need Dyn. But Dyn has thumbs.

As I suit up, letting the drone constructor seal me inside my engineering armor, I grimly realize that if this goes wrong, the station might just finally decide to get rid of me, too. If it even can do that, I suppose. Its never been clear how far its reach stretches.

The suit clips into place, a hiss of air and a hiss of anxiety from me accompanying the total blackout of light and communications.

And then my ear itches. Dammit.

But then, to my wide eyed shock, I feel a tingling as large portions of the nanoswarm on my fur coils away. And before my internal helmet display kicks to life, a single word etches itself in my vision in thinly luminous nanites.

Ready. It says.

What. I hiss out. The word echoing in the dark suit interior. The nanites dont move. What *are* you? I ask. Because theres no way these are the same cleaner nanos that have been following me around for

Wait, the cleaner nanos only started following me around a month ago. And then more recently. I just thought Id been spending more time in the dirt, but is that it? Is that all?

Youre here to help? I ask tentatively, and the nanites blink once at me with their dim luminosity, the word unchanging. Why?

The letters rearrange themselves into words. Our friend too. They say.

What are you? I ask again with a quiet meow, coming to the maddening conclusion that the station isnt the only thing I dont know the whole story on.

Words form, one by one, as the nanites arrange themselves. Silly. Old. Cat. They spell out for me. And then, they pull away, and I feel a tiny rustling in my fur as they latch onto me again. And then, before I can say anything else, or question why theyre mocking me, the electrics in my suit engage, systems kick in, the connection establishes itself, and Im ready to move once more. And the nanoswarm goes silent and still.

Theres a lot to unpack here. But later. For now, theres work to do.

Not that there ever isnt work to do.