JEF Bellerophon, Bridge
The bridge is alive with blinking lights and consoles, including displays that seem to hover in the air before the three command seats that jut out into the viewing bay. The command seats themselves are detached and stacked near the airlock, along with a few of the non-Terran control consoles, which leaves the bridge looking more open and yet more cluttered at the same time.

"We've got long range communications back," Nora notes from her station. "So you can contact Harmonia. But I advise that you do not mention Katha-hem specifically or that there's a giant alien starfish on the other side of the planet. If that thing was really in contact with her over a long period of time, it could have put in some sort of emergency programming or.. who knows. Hakeber breaking down is bad enough, don't want a giant ship full of antimatter doing the same thing."

Tasha scrunches her muzzle up, thinking intensely. The discovery that the being known as 'Abaddon' was not only alive but also one of the dark beings -- the Ogdru-hem -- had come as rapidly as the information about the Progenitors and so much else. The big picture swims before her mind's eye and in it the smaller, yet no less deadly and certainly more immediate, question of how to deal with a being of near godlike power who may be as old as the stars themselves.

And Katha-hem, for all its greatness, is but a tiny part of the big picture itself.

The hybrid tries not to think about this as she pushes herself on: There's immediate work to be done and little time to deal with it before it potentially deals with them all. "Maybe we should keep Harmonia out of this then," she decides at length. "In fact, maybe we should offload Hake-bear as well. I'm not even sure we can trust the Abaddonians, and even the Titanians could eb a problem if they start seeing us as dangerous meddlers."

"Hmm," Nora ponders, tapping the armrests of her chair as she turns to face Tasha. "I think... Well.. Harmonia herself is a clue," she says. "Her purpose was watch and report on the success or failure of the Expedition, according to whatever parameters she was given. If these Ogdru-hem are vulnerable to Sifran instrumentality, then why would one have been sent to this system? Same as Harmonia! To watch and report if the Sifran system weakens enough for them to free their masters. What do you think?"

"I think it's a good idea," Tasha replies, turning to face Nora fully now and stir from her thousand-mile staring. "It seems to me Katha-hem could be doing more to interfere with things, but I migth be underesimating the Sifra or overestimating it. What we do know is that it has used very subtle attacks over a long time and it might be responsible for this planet being as barren as it is. Kill all the life, kill the Sifran ability to produce their own maintainer Clients. When it saw Harmonia, and then Balthasar and I, it acted because we had the power to destroy life on this world and I think it thought we were worth the risk. That might also suggest that it's been watching and now it sees a chance to strike and end things -- and why it didn't try this before that we know of."

"Magic," Nora offers. "That's pretty much the Sifran power, right? Magic works again on Abaddon, and that makes Katha-hem vulnerable. Like Harmonia, it must be actively hiding its presence - and not just to our technology." She turns her seat back around and works her console for a few moments, until an image shows up in the main viewing dome. It's the aftermath of the daikaiju attack on the Pit's dam, probably imaged by Harmonia after she was parked over it. It shows the giant monster being disassembled by a small army of Confederate bio-machines. "If it makes these things, there may be a clue to its biology in that corpse too. I'm not certain, but I don't think the Abaddonians ever managed to kill one of these things before, just drive them off."

Tasha stares at the display for a long, quiet moment, and then nods her head. "It's suspicious. They didn't kill one, until I showed up? I know Mel and I are adavanced technology, but we're not that strong. In fact by ourselves, we're not more than the rest of the firepower that was there. So why hasn't a daikaiju ever been killed?" Turning, the hybrid then points at Nora. "Because they're not there to kill the Abaddonians. They're just there to break things and make them fight each other! Not that they don't want to kill them -- both sides do -- they just can't. When the Abaddonians asked me to do it, I made it possible because I wasn't controlled." She then swings her arm, pointing at the screen. "Our presence may break Katha-hem's carefully made control. I'm not sure Vesterlion isn't controlled, but our asking and our presence may be enough to get results. We should have Eli and Remy here contact them and work it out; work out the clone taken from me too. It might be a copy of the

"Also.. you need to bring a sample of the Berserker tissue," Nora advises. "Berserkers just don't make sense. Maybe they're Ogdru-hem made or influenced as well."

Tasha frowns at that. "At such range? That'd be ominous, but, Katha-hem's a living spaceship of a sort, so I can't be surprised if it has interstellar communication methods. They may even have influenced the Berserkers ages ago, back when they were developing. We know Katha-hem's kind are everywhere. "In the sky, buried in the earth," is what Hake said, and we know enough to see how true it is."

The hybrid woman looks around for a moment, then turns and walks to the command chair. She leans in and begins typing commands. "It looks like I get to do more than play captain and make a good showing," she calls back to Nora. After clearing her throat she says in a loud and clear voice, "Captain, bridge officers, and senior officers to the bridge please."

"Oh.. find out if Hakeber ever worked with any high technology," Nora whispers to Tasha. "We know this thing can exert influence through technology. And the leaders of the nations would be the ones that have the most access to that.."

A few minutes later, the Bridge airlock opens and Gabriel staggers in holding a mug of coffee and yawning. The projections of Eli and Remy and Gabriel arrive as well. Fred just uses the intercom though, asking, "I'm still getting things back together.. give me a few more minutes."

"Thanks Fred," is all Tasha risks sending over the near compromised ship's systems. Better to take as little risks as possible until we have to take the big ones, she decides. She then looks up from where she's pearched at the edge of Gabriel's command chair, wagging when she makes eye contact but looking otherwise as serious as he's ever seen her. After sweeping her gaze across teh rest of those assembled she begins.

"We believe we know who attacked us and why. Abaddon -- the being that attacked me -- is not dead. From what we've learned from Hakeber, from the reviewed planetary survey scans, and from I've learned from talking to their kind, we now know that a dark being is here on Abaddon. An agent of the Ogdoad, one of the Ogdru-hem." The young woman leans over, punching in commands, then points at the large screen as a multispectral image of Katha-hem flickers into life. "Katha-hem. Abaddon. It is probably the same sort of being as the Source, but unbound. We have the beginnings of a plan to deal with it."

"And that's what frotzed the computer?" PC Zerachiel asks. "Through the scanners?"

"We got this from the sensor pod buffer directly," Nora explains. "And yeah.. when this data hit the system, the PersoComs went loco. It wasn't the Berserker bits after all."

Tasha bobs her head. "The Ogdru-hem are beings created by the Ogdoad, who are themselves pan-universal entities who are at war with the Waymakers, the gods of the Progenitors. The Ogdru-hem are their agents made in this reality as a defense against an attack they suspect will happen, but the Sifra were able to overcome them somehow. It's, um, complicated. There's more but it's not important right now. The important part is that they're related to Harrowers, they're partially D-Space style dark and gravitic entities and maybe other parts of our reality, and also like the Ogdru-hem."

"A plan?" Gabriel asks, sipping his coffee as he stares at the display. "The First Ones.. or was it the Ancients.. controlled these things, right? The one you met on the dolphin world, it was 'bound' into service, like a genie, wasn't it?"

"It's different and the means of control are something we can't use," Tasha answers, shifting uncomfortably on Gabriel's chair. She twists her muzzle and flattens her ears as explains, "Souls, Gabriel. Psychic flensing. The Source thought I knew them. To summon a Harrower and bind it you need to feed it souls, the food of the greater beings like the Source and especially the Ogdoad. I, um, think they use them to ... To try and free their leaders."

"I think the Source and Katha-hem are different though," Tasha reiterates. "Harrowers are the lowest, and the Katha-hem and the Source are ... higher. The Ogdoad are at the top."

"So another sort of magic then, separate from the Sifran flavor?" Eli asks. "Or.. did they use Sifran crystals in these rituals? We know some of the First Ones civilizations could use them."

"I think it's another form of magic that's probably combined with whatever science that civilization can add to it. The underwater civilization used stasis and were able to get He-Who-Moves to co-locate across planets, so they must have understood how to make seperate intercation points and keep He-Who-Moves slightly out of our reality enought o be present and reachable at all of them -- without allowing it to move in real time," replies the Cadet.

"So spatial engineering is likely the minimum level of technology needed to deal with these things," Gabriel suggests. "Which is beyond our capabilities. What makes this one different from the ones you've encountered before?"

Tasha reaches up and points at the screen. "Both were bound." The hand falls, to then spread with the other. "The Source is bound by the Sifra is ways I don't understand, but from what it told me its complicated and has effected the manner of its very existence. They experimented on it. He-Wh-Moves was bound by the underwater civilization. It was the one who told me about the summoning ritual: It was summoned by 'psychic flensing' over many years. Katha-hem is not bound. It may be hiding in a corner surrounded by fire, but it's free."

"What to you mean, surrounded by fire?" Eli asks, looking at the images again. "You don't mean literally.. but something that burns it?"

"The Sifra can somehow beat the Ogdru-hem. Someof the Old Ones could put them under tack and bridle, but the Sifra are the greatest of the Old Ones. The very first civilization as we know them. They seem to have an edge against the Ogdru-hem, but we don't know the full details." Tasha glances at the display a moment before continuing. "I have an idea about spatial engineering," she notes, momentarily surprised to hear herself say it only to feel the pain of what she must also add. She frowns, tapping over her left breast. "And you should also know that I might be compromised, by the Source."

"The Source is also bound though," Gabriel notes. "Is that spectrum what I think it is?" he asks, pointing to his mug to one of the data windows next to the image. Eli turns to look as well, and his eyebrows rise up.

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Nora says. "It could be using stator-matter for.. uh.. blood or something."

"If that's true, then.. we need an Earth Mage here," Remiel notes. Dating a Mage gives him a lot of insight into what the different Spheres of Magic are all about. "They can affect gravity. And we've got stators to experiment on."

The cadet eyes the spectrum data, following the others' gaze. She decides to keep her hypothesis on what the blood might be to herself. "The Source is only as bound as the Sifra made it, but we don't know how far that goes or even if the Sifra area aware of what it's doing and controlling it. I just have to tell you, so you keep an eye on me too." She reaches up, scratching her nose -- Abaddon is so dry. "It does give us a advantage though. If all else fails I can try and attack Katha-hem's ... I don't know. Mind? Soul? Whatever I touch, when I contacted He-Who-Moves."

"Could a bound Harrower act against one of these higher-order ones?" Eli wonders.

"If I'm right the Source and Katha-hem are of the same order. It's in how they interact, the higher ones seem ... cannier. He-Who-Moves ... It's hard to explain." Tasha coks her head to the side, waggling her hands vaguely as she tries to express the peculiarities of dark-dark being contact. "The Source is elequent, like it has a will. An intent. He-Who-Moves just is. It was waiting for direction, it didn't try to know the world. Katha-hem is more like the Source."

"But maybe, if I knew how to clal one of them to fight," Tasha admits at length. She had considered it before, as a last resort Ace in her pocket. "The Horse is a very low being, one of the beings that dwell in the Maelstrom. The Source called it prey. It said the Horse isn't sentient, but the kind of beings its kind feed on."

"Of course it also told me the Ogdoad are harmless, so I don't know how much of what it tells me we can trust," Tasha adds wryly. She can almost feel her puppet strings, except the hands that make her move are not one pair but a hundred, all fighting with each other to make her dance. Gabriel's comment breaks her from her brief bout of reflection; she blinks and snorts a laugh. "Vartans? Wa- ... wait, mayeb you're right! Not in their order of things, but back when the Triad was complete, the Cill, the Vartans and the Titanians were tasked with clearing the galaxy. We must have fought them, long, long ago. Like the Titanians do now."

"Right, because who else was there to fight that the Progenitors needed a warrior race?" Gabriel asks. "The Titanians aren't really the warriors, scary as that might seem. So it follows that the Vartans had the tools and weapons needed to deal with these things.. probably. They were meant to deal with something."

"Old Ma told me Vartans are, what's the world ... spiritual ... No, shamanistic? ... No, oh, animistic because it's part of our sense of dangers. The spirit we see in things, is our sense of them that goes beyond the conventional. You've probably heard me talk about it, long before I ever heard that interpretation, Gabriel." The hybrid taps her own nose, knowingly. "Except I'm just one half-Vartan and Shojo is an Abaddonian. Of course I plan to try and beat it, but if I have some amazing power to unmake these things, I don't know what it is. Not unless it's literal. Blackwings said I 'ate,' that there were others. She never tells me what that means. I thought it was some side efefct of magic, or, the Source's connection."

"There might be something there," Remiel notes. "Sinaian Vartans hate magic. Neesa told me there are 'nulls' - beings completely immune to magic, and some of those are Vartans."

"There might be, but can we do anything with it?" Tasha asks, looking around at the faces looking back at her. "If Katha-hem can read Hakeber, he -- it must know we're on to him and that there's a good chance I now know and through me so much more. If I were it, I might consider breaking my silence and attacking before it's too late for me to do anything. I'd know that maybe the Sifra, or the Progenitors, or that annoying girl and her meddler rocks, might be coming. I can't move, so fighting where I'm at could ruin me, so I should attack them before they reach me. That's what I'd do, if I could." Her head shakes. "So if we look for special Vartans -- nulls -- or research them, will we have time?"

"The Confederates.." Nora suddenly pipes up. "Uh, that is.. we know that Katha-hem, at least, can exert influence through technology. But the Confederates use biotechnology that's incompatible with everyone else's. So maybe they're invisible to Katha-hem? Or at least uncorrupted - and they're also the least liked group on Abaddon."

Tasha nods to this, focusing on Nora. "We were discussing using V-enterprizes to research the clone taken from me, the spectral data, and a pile of other things and see what they can come up with. I didn't get a chance to discuss this with Nora, but I also had an idea of trying to use topogoric javelins if we end up attacking it head-on."

"The toporgic doesn't seem to have a large effect on stators, according to Harmonia's tests," Eli notes. "But we don't know all the uses for it. It may be time to try and capture one those crab things alive."

"I'd like you and Remy-" Tasha pauses to glance at Gabriel and lay her ears back, " ... with the Captain's permission that is, to handle the scientific side of planning. You'd work with V-enterprizes, help conduct tests, and coordinate the purely scientific and research based part of this. You're the best qualified and the rest of us will be busy in other areas. For the topogoric, I was thinking taht since they convert energy, if we could tune them right and intersect with the, um, confluence points we could have them convert Katha-hem's energies in to something else, either to power the javelin as a weapon so Katha-hem destroys itself or as beacons to draw the Sifran systems. It's just a thought, but I think we need all the dieas we can get right now."

"I see an image of the giant scorpion thing," Gabriel notes, looking at Nora's console. "Going with the idea that these things are created by this Katha-hem and sent out to cause trouble?"

"Another idea I had is that if we do approach Katha-hem, we should follow the Sifran crystaline network. I don'tthink it will make us invisible, but it should at least prevent it from using its full power against us -- that might alarm the planetary network. We probably wouldn't avoid more, uh, conventional attacks though, anything it sent to intercept us and other normal things. It just probably wouldn't risk exotic attacks," suggests the cadet, feeling the need to get her ideas out while she can still remember tehm all. She then decides there's a better way, pulling out her datapad and starting an etry she'll submit to the senior crew later. "We can also consider contacting the Titanians. They've fought and won against these things, but Gabriel and I talk about the possibility they might see us as dangerous meddlers too. me, especially, so that's a risk. They'd also be at a disadvantage here where their technology is reduced."

"Knowing how they dealt with them on other worlds would still be useful," Eli says. "Especially if each of these creatures is different in some way. We'll need to see what that monster tissue can tell us too. The Confederates are the ones dealing with the corpse, so Vasterlion Industries probably already has it analyzed.."

"Then we need to have Vasterlion, the JEF, and the Titanians working together on this. It won't help anyone to let Katha-hem have its way, so I think we can be sure that at the very least all groups will agree on that -- and be willing to act." The hybrid looks up from her datapad, staring at nothing in particular as she remembers there was something else she needed to do. "SAINA needs to contact Sheol. They should be informed too and brought to speed. Their combined processing power would help for research, wouldn't it? And they still have weapons. Katha-hem was able to nearly take control of Harmonia, they're in danger too." She nods, though only to herself, then leans over and touches Gabriel's console. "SAINA to the bridge please."

"There must be limits to its range of influence," Eli notes. "It may have taken centuries to get through to Harmonia."

The door opens, and the little robot wheels inside. For whatever reason, it has a pair of fuzzy ears strapped to it's 'head' at the moment. "I Have Been Summoned!" it chirps. "I Respond! My Wisdom Is Needed!"

"Nora thinks it may have reached the Berserkers at L3, so we can't rule it out. Better to have them ready on the defense -- and prepared to attack if needed. The Titanians said the last time they fought a Harrower, they dropped a moon on it. We can't have enough force ready and available," the Cadet tells Eli, tapping her datapad screen with a talon nail. "And Katha-hem may have force, too. If it was being subtle before, it migth be more obvious now. We might see how much it controls, what its reach is through the technology on this planet. We might even see the nations mobilize against us. We should be prepared to evacuate Tartarus."

"Actually I was thinking another of these creatures may have created the Berserkers," Nora elaborates.

Tasha's gaze falls to the robot, brows going up. "Did you reduce your, um, what is it ... cognitive functions as a protections? Um, anyway, SAINA: Please contact Sheol. Warm them of the threat and ask if they would like to join us in the defense against this being." The hybrid then looks up, to Nora. "Is that it? I'm sorry, there's just so much to deal with ... Um, okay, well, that's a relief? It feels strange saying the creation of a interplanetary genocide society is a relief, but it's better for us here and now."

"We know this things range is at least 200 kilometers, for it to have back-hacked along our radar," Eli says. "But it's 2000 kilometers from where you and Harmonia were effected. It didn't exactly take control of Harmonia.. so either her defenses against intrusion are a lot stronger than ours, or distance is an issue."

"We Have Not Restored The Sensor Capabilities Of Orpheus," SAINA reports. "I Will Inform Them To Avoid Any Scanning Of That Region."

Turning back to Eli, Tasha nods. "I think both are right, that's what my gut says anyway. Harmonia is Khattan technology, it's nothing if not reliable. And shiny." To SAINA she notes, "It's one of the agents of the Ogdoad, the beings from beyond our reality. A mixed dark-gravity-something-else entity akin to Harrowers. Ask the triad if they have any information on them, please?"

A light goes on on the robot's chassis, indicating it is linked to the communication system. There's some slight hull vibration, as the upper maser array is redirected.

As they wait, Tasha turns to Gabriel. "We should probably have the cadets exit the ship, except for Shojo. Hake too. Keep an eye on the soldiers outside, too. It's for their own protection as well as ours."

"I wouldn't expect a reply soon," Nora notes, checking her own display. "Sheol is still below the horizon. It'll be an hour before we can send the beam, and probably another orbit before they can reply."

"I feel like a bad Primusian, thinking communication is so primitive here at home," Tasha admits, grinning lopsidedly and shrugging, though too tired to put much energy in to it. The worries seem endless; the rest times increasingly thin. "We have a lot of planning to do between now and then, at least, so there's time. I think."

"How much has Hakeber been able to decipher from that book so far?" Gabriel asks, and then frowns when he notices he let his coffee get cold.

Tasha thinks, for a moment, to fetch Gabriel another coffee -- but realizes to her disappointment she's needed where she is. Disaster continues to undermine her ability to suppurt people, something else she holds against Katha-hem. "It's hard to say, even Yue can't make a lot of sense of her writing. We do know it's all Eve's, um, the phrase she used is, "suicide note," but the 'Big Picture' is: The Outsiders sewed life in our universe, first of which was the Sifra. The Sifra worshipped the Ogdoad, but turned against them. They were their angels, but imprisoned them. The Sifra use one species -- and only one -- to maintain themselves, and the Sifra are holding back the Ogdoad from devouring us all. The Sifra killed the other Old Ones, probably for resources."

"There's more: At some point the Progenitors showed up, interacting with the First Ones, and then they left for a time. When they returned they saw the life they knew being destroyed, the First Ones were being annhilated by the Sifra, so the Progenitors decided to help. They crippled the Sifra but were too late to save the First Ones. So they started over, and made this generation.Exceptthe Cill -- under Marduk -- discovered that in crippling the Sifra they weakened the hold on the Ogdoad. Kill the Sifra and the Ogdoad are free. Leave the Sifra alone and they commit genocide and keep one species. The Progenitors fell apart when they learned that, not having a way to fix it or what they'd done. They split up, rebeled, some died. And now the Sifran cycle has restarted and time is running out."

"How do we know time is running out?" Eli asks. "What sort of time scale does this even operate on?"

It had all come out so matter-of-factly; Tasha had heard it many times by now. She's tired, she just got home only for one ore attack. She hasn't changed out of her armor. It's just another itteration of the oncreasingly familiar nightmare -- the nightmare that almost broke Hakeber -- and she spat it out like it were paperwork. For a moment she wonders at herself; wishes she could take it back, brace it better. She wonders what's happening to her, to have become jaded so fast, to have become so deep and familiar with disaster beyond time and comprehension.

Eli's answer comes slowly as Tasha stares at her datapad, looking far away, frowning deeply in the immensity of it all and what its done to her. It almost seems like she won't answer when she replies, "I don't know, but the gates of heaven were opened again. Sentient life lives on Primus, and the old caretakers are almost gone. Old Warloq, Khomen's spy, was even trying to kill their, um, backups: The Aelfin. The Aelfin are probably First Ones that lost their civilization long ago and became maintainers. Their modified version live on Behemoth, and are almost gone."

Tasha recalls where she got that information. It was to be in her report for Gabriel to read later, when he'd recovered. No time. She inwardly curses Katha-hem all over again. "I spoke to Bridge Officer Nimiss. He told me about the Aelfin. He is ... he just below the Captain Astromancer."

"So Rephidim Temple knows about all of this?" Eli asks in surprise. "What are they.. I don't suppose you told what their plans were, if any?"

"One impossible task at a time, Eli," Nora points out. "Katha-hem should be our sole focus right now. We know it's a threat to Abaddon as the source of the giant monsters.. probably. It's in the right place for it though. We are fully justified by our charter to deal with it however we can."

"They area ware of it, but didn't tell me if they had plans. I asked the Bridge Officer if he would pass on a request to coordinate with the Captain Astromancer. My presence surprised them; I'd be very surprised if the Captain Astromancer hasn't been informed why I visited by now. If they want to work with us we may hear from them soon," the Cadet answers, still staring at her datapad as if it migth tell her all the answers. The pain of the destruction of her PersoCom suddenly hits her all over again. "You don't want me to know, I'm your innocent side," she remembers her saying. And now she's dead.

At least Nora's words bring a bright spot to Tasha; she recalls a possible effect of victory. "If we win, Abaddon might become green again. The people will be free."

"Well, they won't be bothered by giant monsters at least," Gabriel says. "Any other effects of the creature are assumptions. As far as we know, it has made contact with you and Harmonia directly. Hakeber may have uncovered something that got its attention, but it already noticed us when we pinged it. So it's just as likely that that was how it found out about the research.. assuming it wasn't the corrupted PersoComs themselves, somehow."

"It's hard to know," Tasha agrees. She rubs her nose, not wanting to look up now, happy to stare at the cheerfully bright screen of her datapad and type. It's easier. "I know Katha-hem can overwrite minds. Organic minds, machine minds, minds in Mind-of-Light. It's what it wanted to do to Harmonia, to me, to Balthasar, and now it did it to our PersoComs." I am going to kill you. Somehow. "But how it does it, at what range, and what it can know from those minds I don't know."

"Nor how it finds them," Eli points out with concern. "Harmonia is easy.. she's very obvious to something sensitive to gravitational flux. And for us, we used active sensing on it. Balthasar also used gravitational control, just before it was compromised. Melchior used its stator during the Forbidden Zone encounter for emergency acceleration. Each time it was a machine using either gravitational effects, EM or neutrino beams. But.. it never tried to do anything to Bellerophon before the scanning. Tartarus may be outside of its range."

"And Belle isn't AI controlled.. not like the Titans or Harmonia," Nora adds.

"It attacked the only AI components we had," Remiel says. "The PersoComs. They were linked through the sensor system. MOTHER wasn't affected."

Tasha's head bobs slowly to that. "It could be," she agrees. "Katha-hem was only able to attack Bellerophon's secondary systems in an attempt to use tehm to control primaries, which were shared by automation and our control. When Katha-hem attacked me directly, when I was outside Melchior, it used my Khattan neural studs. My firewall was trying to restrain the attack, I think, but it was failing and it was getting close when I woke up."

"It recognizes AI, so might be similar itself," Gabriel says, and looks at Tasha. "Actually.. didn't you have a blackout during Melchior's escape maneuver? And even the Titan didn't know why it acted like that? Your dream could have been implanted during that, instead of in real-time."

Tasha wrinkles her nose. "You might be right, Gabriel. There's no reason for it to have happened in real time. I'm just being a barbarian and forgetting that events don't have to take place in real time and time is subjective."

"That's why I think the Berserker samples we have need to be compared to the monster samples from the dam," Nora says. "Katha-hem might be more of a machine than an animal."

At last Tasha's looks up, her spirits not having improved so much as her resiliency. "When I spoke to Katha-hem it always seemed to me it didn't understand me. In some ways it's more like He-Who-Moves than like the Source, because the Source can talk to me more like a regula- ... A person from out civilizations can. I think it can lie, and show enthusiasim, it seems to udnerstand some of my moods and it's easy to understand. It feels more like one of us. He-Who-Moves seemed like a great mind that had no will, and no understanding. For all its power it seemed very simple. Katha-hem had will, and it hated, it made me aware of how much it hated us, but it couldn't lie and manipulate me, or whatever it put in my mind couldn't. Maybe the real thing can. Or maybe it still doesn't understand. I don't know."

"The Source isn't isolated, it has its mysterious worshippers," Gabriel notes. "Alien as they may be, they're still mortal beings.. and were in contact with Vartans. All of that must have fed back to the Source somehow to.. socialize it."

"That's what I think too," Tasha says, ears perking and head nodding as she focuses on Gabriel. "I'm probably going to sound stupid and naive, and believe me I feel it, but deep down I liked the Source. I wanted to believe it; I thought I could. It was the god that talked to me. Not through old writing, or mysterious movements, it wasn't far away and it its home wasn't so horrible I couldn't stay there for a while. It told me things, and I believed them. I asked and it answered and I was grateful." Quite without realziing it the cadet realizes she's lifted up her hand and the datapad with it -- she had almost hurled it at the floor in a subconcious fit of spite! She grimaces, lowering the arm and shaking her head as she looks at it, realizing what she almost lost. She exhales. "I liked the Source but it's probably using me. Us." She looks down at her datapad. Puppet on a string. What had been observation had become a rant. "Burn them all," she mutters.

"Don't let your intentions be clouded, Tasha," Remiel says, and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Your decisions won't be clear unless your head is clear."

"It's clear I want to kill them all, is that good enough? If I thought I could do it, do it well, I'd have launched by now," the cadet says, the words more growl than she intended. She moves to shrug off the hand on her shoulder but stops herself, sitting up instead and laying her ears back. "I'm fine. I'll be fine," she insists, shaking her datapad at Remiel. "I think we know what we need to do, at least the first steps. We need to get the samples in the air for delivery and start on comparions here, right? And work out the other things. We should do that."

"We're out of Quarantine," Gabriel notes. "I need to review and debrief the candidates, and find out what Fred needs to finish the repairs.. I'm pretty sure we damaged some things in our haste to isolate critical systems. Eli has to work from here, since Original Recipe Eli is still out-system. Remy, you'll have to prepare the samples and go with Tasha."

"I should probably include some bribes too," Remiel says. "Especially if it'll get me close to the Confederate bio-engineering systems."

"I can take him in Melchior," Tasha volunteers, rising from Gabriel's command chair. I can also use the time to tell Remy about the other things. No time to worry about some-day cancers and Gabriel has enough to worry about. I won't even get to spend time with him. "It'll be cramped but there's enough room. The samples will be in isolated pods, I'd assume."

"We've got secure packs for biohazards," Remy assures. "I assumed we'd be taking the Picnic Basket back to the Pit, with Melchior inside. We don't actually know where Vanderlion's research labs are... they're sure to isolated and hidden though."

"With the Confederacy weakened I'm sure they can't take too many precautions. We can't save Abaddonians from each other, after all." The hybrid looks down at herself and shakes her head. "I'm going to head to Mel and begin diagnostics, I want to make sure he wasn't effected by the attack. That'll give me time to complete transcribing my report, unless you want the written version Gabriel?" She looks to her mate. "And Remy will need some time to look over Hake anyway."

"I don't think anything got out of the ship, but a diagnostic wouldn't hurt," Gabriel agrees. "And I need a shower and some food.."

"Yes," Tasha agrees, flashing Gabriel an apologetic smile. She can only hope he realizes she'd rather be with him right now, relaxing and telling him all about her adventures. No time. She remembers, so often, she was urged to be responsible. She might well believe she was tricked, if she hadn't learn the cost for ignoring her responsibilities. "I cleaned up on Harmonia, besides I think I'm getting used to the armor. Maybe I should be a robot, they seem to have it pretty good, right?" She looks around, a bit lost, then begins heading for the exit. "See you in Mel. Don't be strangers."

There's something calming about the interface with Melchior. It just makes anxiety and other things.. more distant. They're still there, but kept at arm's length from the forefront of thought. "Hello, Tasha," the AI greets. "What can I do for you today?"

And there's the voice of Melchior. Not the Melchior, but Melchior. Mel, who has always been there for her. The opposite hasn't always been true, but that too is distant now. "Hi Mel," she greets her machine, "I've missed you. We'll be running diagnostics; the Bellerophon was attacked by the entity Abaddon, who is not dead and who is actually one of the Ogdru-hem, a Lloligar or Harrower-type being. Please begin when you are ready." That's not all she has to say, but there are steps. Priorities.

Various things are displayed.. not that Tasha can really interpret them, but probably to make her feel on top of things, since the process is automated. "Can you tell the details of the attack? I do not see exterior damage to the ship from here."

"It was returned along the same channels as the Bellerophon's planetary survey scanning, which infected the PersoComs and other systems, who the attempt to seize control of primary systems not under the control of the systems it had already compromised. The Karnor Elite were able to counter it using the Sifran stack array and the Mind-of-Light system in tandem. I was not present when all of this happened and do not have those details." Distant. It's all so distant. Not matter-of-fact, but distant. Like watching a storm, like reading a report, like directing a choir. Involved, but steps away. "Do you require more information?"

"What is the condition of the PersoComs?" Melchior asks, while diagnostics run in the background.

Tasha watches the numbers wondering if machines really do have it better. The stream of data is soothing, as streams often are, it burbles the murmur of clockwork serenity. "Gone," she thinks in response. To her mind, it sounds like a gust of wind along the brook. Gone. Blown away. Leaves in the breeze.

"That is unfortunate," Melchior commiserates. "I was able to interact with them while you were recovering from your trauma."

"It is." A pause; she doesn't allow more, so desperate for the distance and the clockwork serenity. "I'll miss them." And she lets go. Not forever, but for now. It has all reminded her of anotehr matter she came to discuss, one that has become all too immediate in its need. From personal discovery to universal disaster, the need has become clear. She finds herself grateful that she had gained the insight needed to reach the point of realization and decision when it seems needed most. Needed by her, perhaps most of all. "Mel, I have been thinking. About us. You told me one that I should expand in to this space, that it is here for me to fill. But I didn't. I relied on you, and I needed you to be larger than me. And so much has happened since. You saved me, and I rejected you. But it wasn't your weakness, Mel. It was mine."

"It can be a strain on the pilot to use cerebral virtualization," Melchior notes. "The long term effects of frequent use are not known to me. I do not think it was expected to be used often, or that I would be in service for very long either."

"We will have to find out how far we can go. Virtualization, you and me, all of us together. Once I am done talking I will enter virtualization so that you can recieve the full record of what I have learned about out reality -- and alo other ones. The Progenitors, the Ogdoad, all I have learned. But that is for after." Tasha wills her pilot's chair to sink back, until she's staring at the ceiling, the control armangled beneath her in a gap in the formable 'cushions' of the mutable control chair. Her eyes stare at the displays that exist on in her mind. "There's no point in holding back anymore, Mel. I'm going to stop shackling you to old needs, and for me, I am going to try to rise to fill this space. To use all that it offers, to be the metal god we could be. Because that's what you are, Mel. A machine-god. It's time for me to accept that and not make you in to what you aren't, and so judge you because my limits make you less than what I need. It's over. I am releasing you from my expectations."

"Because what's needed right now is a god. The other ones have lied, and failed. They're too far away, or too splintered. And we need them, but they aren't here. Not that we know of. So if I'm going to do all of this -- and I am -- then lets meet it. I won't hold back or hide anymore. My metal god, my machine body, and me. And we're one. This is my body, and you are me. If you're a god, then so am I. It can't be any other way."

The diagnostic displays shift to.. a dot in Tasha's awareness. They're still there, still available and she's also following them, because Melchior is. But it's just a dot, one point of data amid millions. It's odd, being able to look at her own mind from this vantage, as it unfolds and fills the emptiness. In one branch, Balthasar displays his power, before being taken over. Her time in VR, keeping her mind off of what happened. Is her hand and eye a gift from Abaddon? A badge that she faced him? There is Melchior and the Marker. An event that the machine doesn't remember. The Forbidden Zone, panic.. a blank spot of memory. The visions Tasha has had. The Empress and Harmonia. Because she hadn't seen Melchior as a god before, she never had the crisis of conscience - the temptations of power. But the images of the modified Super Gryphon are there too.

The Berserkers and their madness, Hakeber's breakdown, Warloq, Blackwings, Tisiphone.. all there on their branches, like ripe apples. It feels exhausting.

Some branches seem to be analyzed more thoroughly by Melchior - especially the memories of Ser Heraphel.

Some bits are plucked and organized. Connections forming that Tasha didn't make herself. The memory of Ibrahim Warloq plays several times, overlaid with the testimony Queen Jade-Eyes, and the data scans of Katha-hem, along with Hakeber's babbling language.

And Tasha has felt exhaused for a while now. So many problems, so many endless possibilities she can neither fully comprehend nor know the consequences of her choices in regard to them. Physical troubles, physical failings of an organic body. The stress of the mind. Vartan worries. Karnor worries. Mortality.

The great span of universal problems, on their own branch. A part of her feels it is ill fitting; a newer part reminds her it is just a data tree. And in that sense, so is she.

Like Harmonia; her experience within Harmonia is another branch, vastly incomplete because her organic mind could not contain it all. She longs for its completeness, she had been here before. It would explain much, now, but she is learning. Paths are forming. They are learning.

No. 'They' is a illusion, which she analyzes. There's just the one here. Many faces, but one.

Whatever analytic engine Melchior applied, it seems to cluster certain things together: Warloq's mention of a Per Wynlass, Daltoona Station, the word Episiarch, Khattan stators and Katha-hem. Also the House Khomen attempt to take over the Silent-Ones Empire, possibly just to gain access to the Seraph Titan, Balthasar.

The merged mind's conclusion: Katha-hem took over Balthasar not to use as a weapon, but because it was a weapon that could be used against Katha-hem.

An image forms of a clockwork world, in the same aesthetic as Harmonia. There are gems on its surface that hold entire cities. Daltoona Station.

The grand analysis of a greater being. What she needed; what she always had. Personal limitations cast aside. Growing pains. A sense of endurance; the realization of organic limits. To the limits of endurance, then, and answers.

House Khomen has a means of smuggling artifacts that the Titanians cannot track, the system notes. House Khomen had Sifran artifacts which it used in the attempted takeover of the Silent-Ones Empire. Supposition: House Khomen possesses First Ones hybrid technology that uses Sifran crystals. Further Supposition: this technology is used for a specific purpose which they cannot replicate, and dare not tinker with. Conclusion: Daltoona Station houses a captive Ogdru-hem creature, referred to as the Episiarch, which may be the source of stator material and the means of evading Titanian tracking.

Alternate hypothesis: the Episiarch is not captive, but in control, using House Khomen for its own ends.

Khattan patronage of Vartans may be a ploy to control weapons that can be used against the Ogdru-hem.

Much can be done with the information as is; clarity sharpens the result. Time is needed to use it; other events must conclude successfully. A timeline emerges, tied in to the trees, each point its own step. Each step a cascade of details, possibilities, results. The steps branch and the timeline becomes its own tree, trimmed to the limits of need and processing power. As this structure is created, the conclusion is probed: What seperates Vartans from others. Analysis of the query itself follows, lines of investigation: Genetics, Progenitor modifications outside conventional technology, more. Speculation on investigation lines dealing with addressesing possible unknowns.

Contradictions rise up. Warloq wished to destabilize the Sifran instrumentality. Actions of his patrons suggest they wished to use the power it provided, however.

Another branch reaches a conclusion: Sifran crystal technology was deliberately seeded throughout the universe in the first two phases of civilization. Those that learned to harness it were elevated to candidate positions as servitors. For the third wave, those fostered by the Progenitors, a strategy of luring species to the Primus system was used instead.

Supposition after analysis of Warloq using trees dedicated to mortal thinking, general living, down the tree to: Frusteration, apathy, hate. The desire for self destruction. Revenge. Warloq may have wished to strike out at the universe as revenge based on personal needs: Social pressure, a sense of betrayal, exhaustion, eroded hope, more. Alternate hypothesis: Warloq served others masters. A connection is drawn to his use of poisons of control supplied by the children of the Ogdru-hem on Sinai.

The Spirit Projector has its own branch. The components did nothing before they were brought to Sinai and allowed to 'mingle' via the MOTHER on Fenris. It isn't clear what the significance is, if there is any. Not enough is known about the crystal.

The recommendation: Complete the translation of the Book of Eve. Discover means to control, banish or destroy the Ogdru-hem. This may be held somewhere in the Galactic Library. Determine motives of House Khomen. Ignore issue of the Sifras until contact can be made with Adam.

One other possibility emerges as well: the Progenitor book cannot be accessed by artificial minds as a means of keeping their knowledge from the Ogdru-hem.

Analysis of recommendation and final-pass review for termination of current anaylsis of threads. Is: Are anaylsis threads complete to the extent available. Priority: Ogdru-hem weaknesses. Query has produced new questions from review of results. Katha-hem's access of Abaddonian minds is performed remotely, signal analysis may be available, signal may be defended against, may be copied, may be co-opted and control seized. Attack on pilot submitted for analysis for methodolgy, cross-reference with potential signal analysis. Goal: channels of control and synthesize. Anaylize attack method and find commonality, technique.

Commonality: artificial intelligence is the entry point. Katha-hem has affinity for thinking machines, and may be able to influence minds that have been in contact with them. This is separate from the noted failure of Mind-of-Light systems on Abaddon that connect to Sifran crystals. Use of stators and gravitational control is likely what draws Katha-hem's attention. Influence on Scholar Hakeber needs further study. Subconscious manipulation of populace unsupported. History shows the conflicts rose immediately since they were already in place, merely suppressed by cooperation until the Expedition partners were forced to compete for resources.

Failure to kill Daikaiju creatures stems from them retreating when enough damage is caused. Melchior's Shaard weapon was able to pierce the armor and bring about the creature's death before it could retreat.

Tesla did not seem to have that vulnerability. The force of the Linear Cannon was required.

Systems are started. Outside the great machine, the hangar echoes with the sound of its wings forming dishes. The Bellerophon's records are accessed, logon submitted and accepted via Pilot-Cadet Aldera Tasha Argentine's credentials. Entity avatar ID listed as Tasha-Melchior Gestalt at crew stations. Requests are made at blocked junctures to crew for access. Targets: logs, survey data, systems unrelated for side-channel analysis. Virtualizations are built, firewalls prepared. All returned data is analyzed for threat within virtual systems, firewalls, active analysis. Model of pilot records after escape from Forbidden Zone prepared for comparison. Sensors on Bellerophon readied in Scholar Hakeber's vicinity. A request is placed to Remiel to observe medical analysis of Hakeber.

Nothing shows in terms of physical access. Even the filter that the buffer data was run through didn't find anything embedded in the sensor returns. No traditional data transmission paths are recorded either. Hypothesis: non-local communication method. Digital cognizance has a specific quantum resonance that can be detected. It is plausible that this can also be used to create an artificial entanglement channel.

The Balthasar records and memory are reanalyzed. The Mind-of-Light was aware of the intrusion attempt, whereas Harmonia was not. The Silent-Ones systems aren't quantum-digital, but analog-holographic. The intrusion point was likely the connections to the Sifran implants, rather than the implants themselves.

Focus changes. The crew can see it in the requests, the areas of review and observation. Overall patterns are reviewed and an attempt to find direct communication abandoned, result is studied now. Repetition, technique, methodology. Area under analysis further narrows: Initial moments of attack, both through attempts to find the actual and also through result and side-channel methods. An attempt to build a detection methodolgy is begun, an attempt to build a defeat methodolgy is begun. Internal systems are reviewed for potential detection of entangelment events, replication, usage.

Two strategies are given the highest chance of success: using Sifran crystal to disrupt such attempts, or using an Origin Marker. During the Balthasar event, 'Abaddon' could not affect Melchior, even though it had to have been completely under AI control. There are more technological solutions, but they do not seem practical given the available technology, such as using superfluid helium sheaths, meta-materials and multiple decoys.

Melchior also separates slightly to note that the method used by Harmonia to contact them seemed to use something similar, in that it overrode the AI and also caused Tasha's hallucination of Enyo.

Tasha notes this within the sea of data, adding it to building data structures devoted to the attack and its ancillaries and alternative versions found in other inquiry areas. She proposes a plan: If the attack method can be observed in real time, its method detected, defenses and defeat methods may be able to be generated and disseminated to allied forces. Further, if possible, Hakeber's mind may be synthesized using existing methods to lure further attacks. The attack can then continue to be analyzed without further risk to the scholar, who would be sedated and mental activity reduced to assist the illusion. Lastly, if dialogue occurs, Katha-hem may become vulnerable through its own attack method by using Hakeber's synthesized mind to r- ... return the ... return ...

The world speeds and slows, time is lost and confusion results. More warnings. The tree of mortal life fills Tasha's mind, the points of failure, the risk to her mind, the conflict between desire and reality. The recognition desire and will cannot abate physical collapse. The conclusion virtualization cannot continue can no longer be resisted without total system collapse. Shutdown is initiated, pilot support prepared, sedation readied if recovery cannot be managed.

On board Bellerophon lines in the access log read: 'Tasha-Melchior Gestalt operational time limit reached, disconnecting.' Connection from the Melchior drops, its wings return to standby position.

There's also a massive headache to deal with, and exhaustion. Accessing memory uses up a lot of resources, and Tasha had accessed a lot of it to pour into the simulation.

And she's sure she's twitching, though she can't tell if it's some sort of seizure or the headache or what. More than anything, though, she feels a sense of loss -- and of alienation. And yet, Tasha can't decide what she is more alienated of: This mortal body of her's, or the mortality itself. When you have sipped from the cup of godhood -- even such a minor god as she -- can anything taste the same? At the very least she feels diminished; damaged and diminished.

Her eyes close. There is nothing to compare it all to, not even Harmonia's mind. The difference is the key; today she chose it. Not a visitor, but the host. It's then she realizes where the shaking comes from: It is the quaking anxiety and fear of not knowing who she is and has become, the uncertainty of mortal existence and the expanse of her other mind. Where she fits, what she wants, and if she'll lose all that is close to her, because she is unable to resist the call of the ambrosia. If a compromise can be reached, or if she has really gone too far this time.