4 comments/  10719 views/  8 favorites

Ghosts of Voltariis 6 Pt. 01

By: James Cody



I

"Professor Brecht," the L.D.A.R.A.A. announced as it scanned a series of pop-up displays. "Telemetry coming in from the orbital hyper-gate: increasing tidal compressions indicate an imminent activation."

Landers Brecht sighed as he nodded to the android – it stood about 1.60 metres and was wholly feminine in design – a gift from the Starcane Foundation. Brecht tapped a sequence of codes in the holo-active interface and two stealth satellites shifted position while their cameras refocused -- the image of the orbital hyper-gate appeared. Four immense arches of exotic alloys formed a kilometre wide circle that held a stationary position between the planet below and one of the three moons that circled it.

Brecht watched intently as the arches of the hyper-gate began to generate pulses of energy that distorted ambient space until a blinding flash of light lit up the darkness and a large, rectangular object emerged from the centre of the gate. The object approached at an angle towards the lowly science station Brecht occupied with the Low Density Autonomous Research Assistant Advanced – Brecht referred to it as Araa for short. Araa entered a coded sequence into an interface and the 12.5 meter long object ignited two chemical rockets at 15 second intervals.

"Deceleration will be complete in six hours, professor," the android said with its simulated voice – it was also exquisitely feminine. "Retainer nets are primed and waiting. Signal manifest confirms supplies and equipment from the Starcane Foundation."

"Thank you, Araa," Brecht said, stretching to his full 1.80 metre height. The android turned its featureless face towards the professor and processed his speech, attempting to qualify the inflection. Melancholy was the word it retrieved after comparing it and finally matching it to Celtic songs known for their sadness. 

"I'll be in my study. Please advise me once the drones have retrieved the package."

"Very well, professor," Araa said, observing Brecht as he retreated to his chambers located near the O2 gardens. The android's head was tilted to the left. As it watched him walk, it projected a layered image of male anatomy. 

@@@@@@

For the past six months, the deliveries from the Foundation had been growing rarer and rarer – Brecht pondered whether it meant leasing time on the Jupiter rail track system was getting more expensive, or whether the tug of war between the Earth Commonwealth and the Gate Keeper Alliance was rendering deep interstellar travel more perilous and complex. 

Brecht had been in the employ of the Starcane Foundation for nearly 10 years and this was his first deep star mission – and he sometimes believed it was to be his last. Sedna Voltariis was a star located over 900 light years from Earth and lied of the edge of known space as mapped by the Gate Keeper Alliance. It had a system of 12 planets and 3 located within the red giant's habitable zone. 

Brecht passed his hand over his desk and the local a.i. displayed a holo-window showing the planet Sedna Voltariis 6 and its 3 moons and the 1500 metre long research station he occupied. The station itself was a cylinder with a 50 metre diameter. He summoned information on the planet – it was an e.l.i classified planet: earth like, inhabited. It had captured the Starcane Foundation's attention when a Gate Keeper ship reported stories of paranormal activity – the reason for the Foundation's existence.

That was why Starcane had a small hyper-gate built by the Alliance and Brecht was assigned to observe and record what he could about the planet and its inhabitants – all while not establishing any direct contact. The Foundation believed the human perspective was the best way to measure and observe phenomenon that existed on the edge of human experience.

Brecht stood and went to the centre of his office – he pondered a moment and then stripped down to his underwear. Glancing at the wristband on his left arm, he tapped a green bar graph and pushed it forward – the presser fields the surrounded him and maintained a simulacrum of gravity slowly increased and he felt 3 times earth's gravity push against him. Controlling his breathing, Brecht embarked on the 108 forms from Beijing – an ancient form of the art called Tai-Chi Ch'uan. As Brecht fought to complete the forms, his lean muscles contracted against the oppressive energy field and sweat flowed down his back and beaded along the edge of his long, black hair. 

Panting and drenched in sweat, Brecht sensed he was being observed and he turned to the entrance of his office – Araa stood in the doorway, observing him acutely. The android's arms were at its side as the single, scintillating red dot in the middle of its forehead glowed – they stood in silence like that for a few minutes. Brecht felt an odd shift in his boxers – he admitted to himself Araa's designers had succeeded in endowing the android with a winning combination of curves and femininity in a featureless, silver/grey shell of artiflesh. 

"The drones have retrieved the package, Professor," Araa's voice chimed. Brecht was always struck by the musical quality of the android's inflection. The presser fields returned to normal and he walked to the wall opposite his desk and touched it. A panel slid silently aside and exposed his toiletries and shower.

"Was there a com buoy from the Foundation?" Brecht asked – he had removed his underwear and had 

entered a code on the virtual panel on the shower door. Steaming water showered from the ceiling and he stepped under the pressurized stream.

Araa has moved in front of the shower door and watched Brecht, its head tilted to the left. "There were no messages, professor. However, some of the supplies are unusual." The android projected a diagram of male anatomy over Brecht and was comparing his measurements with recorded averages for his gender.

"How unusual?" Brecht asked, raising his eyebrow while the shower stopped. The stall door opened and he stepped out – Araa handed him a towel.

"Survival gear, professor. Rations, tents ... even battle grade body armour and extra power cells for the particle beam rifle in the amoury."

"Damn," Brecht muttered under his breath as he towelled himself dry. "It'll take 5 days for a com buoy to reach the Foundation." Brecht knew some hyper-gates were equipped with hyperbolic transmitters that allowed faster than light communication through nano-sized permanent openings to hyperspace – the gate orbiting Sedna Voltariis was not one of them.

"Professor?" Araa asked, pulling Brecht away from his musings. 

"Yes?"

"You appear to be exhibiting unconscious sexual arousal – more specifically, an erection. Do you require assistance?"

Brecht slowly looked down at his crotch and realized his cock was fully erect – the shock pushed aside any preoccupation he had about their predicament. 

"N-No," he stammered, aware that he was self-conscious in front of an android but unable to shake the shyness he felt, nor the nagging feeling that Araa was somehow enjoying his embarrassment. "Thank you. I got this covered. Please catalogue everything in the package. I'll be on the main deck."

Araa nodded, waited a full ten seconds and then left the study. Brecht just shook his head.

@@@@@ 

On the top of a hill covered in green and red grasses, beneath two of the world's night guardians, an elder Vik'sh watched as a strange sliver glowed against the night with her deep, orange coloured eyes. She was late into her maturity and knew soon the time of the Passing was coming. When the third night guardian stood with its brethren – as it did one night every 22 cycles -- the breach would open and all the elders would pass. 

The elder saw a member of the next generation climb up to join her. The youth's name was Z'eth'I – that one had a great future whether the maturation was male or female.

Together, they looked up at the strange, flat star.

II

On the main deck, Brecht called up a series of satellite images of the surface of Sedna Voltariis 6 -- beneath each picture was a three dimensional map showing the areas topography. The world was similar in size and composition to Earth, although it had only 0.87 Earth's mass. It also had more oceans – all the continents were insular and tectonic activity was abundant but minor. 

Using his hands with experienced dexterity, Brecht highlighted and augmented areas with native activity. The Vik'sh were a unique species – his photo analysis showed males and females, and apparently androgynous members of the communities. They appeared as big as the adults and they all shared a deeply red colouring to their skin as their haemoglobin was overly saturated with oxygen and their pupil-less ranged in colour from green to orange. However, Brecht reminded himself that the perception of adulthood was subjective; the life cycle of the Vik'sh remained a mystery. What was apparent was their technological standpoint – they appeared to be hunter /gatherers although their was no sign that they forged any weapons or tools. But there were records of them eating cooked meat. Brecht pointed at another small window that floated to his left – he dragged it across the holographic display and tapped it twice. A video queued up and replayed a series of clips showing the Vik'sh participating in orgiastic ceremonies, as well as more intimate one-on-one coupling. Sexually themed ceremonies were not uncommon in pre-civilized worlds, but Brecht noted that few – if any – held such long ceremonies. Two other peculiarities struck him: there: there was no evidence of any deities during the ceremonies; and for such a sexualized species, there were no children. 

Brecht shook his head, struggling to push aside the impulse to associate human behaviour to an alien species. And yet, he remembered the words of and ancient cosmologist of the 20th century named Hubert Reeves – "we are all made from the stuff of stars." 

@@@@@

Araa was cataloguing a series of filtered images of the star Sedna Voltariis when it noticed a strange silhouette in the star's corona. It was invisible in the human visual spectrum but glowed in the ultraviolet and appeared to be emitting bursts of gamma rays at regular intervals. Araa added the image to a file for further reference, to be accessed when her mission parameters permitted. 

Brecht left his study and joined the android on the main observation deck of their planetary outpost – it was a large area, measuring 20 meters across and covered by a dome of thick, polarized material. The floors were slate grey and two flat workstations occupied the centre of the floor. When Brecht arrived at his, he touched the white, glowing surface and holographic computer rendering of the planet and its system were summoned. A third hologram showed the hyper-gate. 

Brecht sipped his coffee and nibbled at a mashed protein/carbohydrate bar when an odd flicker of the hyper-gate caught his attention.

"Araa," Brecht said. "Can you confirm if any telemetry from the hyper-gate is being registered?"

The android shifted attention to the hyper-gate. "There appears to be erratic tidal compressions. This would usually indicate either a malfunction or an imminent activation."

Brecht put his coffee on the workstation. "Something is about to come through, isn't it?" 

"That is possible," the android answered. "The erratic modulations have been stabilizing – the logical conclusion would be an activation."

"Please activate all stealth systems and initiate countermeasures."

Araa nodded and began reconfiguring the station's sensors while Brecht summoned the control holo-panel for the satellites and refocused their sensory apparatus away from the planet and upon the local space around Voltariis 6. He also tapped the work station and a window mirroring the telemetry from the hyper-gate popped up next to the satellite imagery.

Endless minutes passed as the telemetry feed from the hyper-gate indicated massive tidal forces were ravaging the local area of hyperspace just beyond its opening – the stationary arches were quivering as the exotic alloy composite that formed the gate's architecture echoed the maelstrom. And then the familiar energy pulses began – but Brecht watched in horror as the energy pulses exponentially increased and as the hyper-gate finally opened, the arches shattered and the shards collapsed into a point that simply blinked out of existence. 

A shock wave struck the station while its parallel a.i.'s worked in harrowed conjunction to maintain orbit and stability – Brecht hissed as his coffee spilled onto his pants. His mind, however, replayed the image of the hyper-gate shattering and disappearing from existence. 

Ignoring the sting of the hot coffee, Brecht grabbed a light pen and tapped the work station and a large, blank holographic window appeared. Using the light pen like a pointer, he pulled the telemetry from the hyper-gate and began to write down a number of calculations and equations about force and mass and energy output

"Impossible," he muttered after a few minutes of work. The equation pointed to an event of such magnitude that it would have had to obliterate at least half the entire hyper-gate network. 

Before he could review his calculations, Araa said: "Professor, something came through the hyper-gate before it collapsed."

Brecht looked to the satellite imaging and saw a small object headed towards them. He touched the image and the object was highlighted and a column of telemetry appeared next to it. It advanced at a steady speed of 200 metres/second but mass and composition and shape were unknown. The object was emitting massive amount of x-rays and gravitons. The sensors scans were being warped by a local gravitational and containment field.

"That reads like a black hole," Brecht whispered.

"The effects are consistent with a nano-sized anomaly, professor," Araa commented. "However, our sensor apparatus are not calibrated to confirm it."

'Shit," Brecht hissed.

@@@@@

Brecht's calculations showed the object would crash through the station and hit Sedna Voltariis 6 – it would likely perforate the planet's crust and mantle till it hit the core where its containment field would finally dissipate and the anomaly will feed on the planet's iron core and make the world collapse. With any means of escape lost with the collapsed hyper-gate, and no means of communication, Brecht saw Sedna 6 as the only possible haven. The station was powered by a combination of solarized panels and a fusion reactor. Brecht reviewed the output of the reactor and the status of the object's containment field. 

With Araa's assistance, Brecht readied the station's navigational thrusters as well as the fusion reactor for an overload. His gamble was that the reactor overload would destroy the containment field and the virtual mass of the reactor would cause the anomaly to accelerated entropy by way of a cascading meltdown. The rendez-vous between the object and the station would take about 4 hours – the preparation for the reactor overload would take 3. The time it would take Brecht and Araa aboard the Starcane life pod to reach the planet was uncertain. The life pod was actually the transport module that had delivered the last supplies before the destruction of the hyper-gate – its hyperspace shielding would hopefully protect them from the shock waves.

After the thrusters fired, Brecht and Araa had salvaged what they could from the station, focusing on the food and water and oxygen supplies as well as embedded DNA files containing all their observations, crystallized in amber.

While Brecht was recalibrating the reactor feed system, Araa installed surge buffers in the life pod till the android noticed an open box -- inside was a headband. It was green in colour and had red and blue indicators. Araa seized the device and speedily joined Brecht in the reactor control room – they were nearing the rendez-vous with the object and the station's outer hull was beginning to flex and be deformed as it approached the object's gravity well. 

"Professor," Araa said as she stood behind Brecht in the reactor room at the centre of the station. 

The reactor was a sphere suspended between a series of rotating, circular magnets – the reactor pulsed bursts of plasma that were distributed by a dozen transparent conduits that fed the energy to the station's power grid. Brecht finished bypassing the security protocols and began to dial in the timeout for the various systems.

"What is it Araa?" Brecht asked, somewhat irritated and exhausted -- the sweat on his brow glistened beneath the flickering light of the reactor.

The android extended its slender arms and handed him the headband. Brecht looked at it and said: "Its and engram upgrade module."

The android nodded, "Professor, we are about to embark on a series of events far beyond simply recording and cataloguing and correlating data. My mission parameters are not set to face what is coming."

Brecht looked grimly upon the android's face, wondering what its quantum computer brain was making of his decision of ramming the roving black hole that was about to become the station's cosmic dance partner. And did he perceive desperation in the android's synthesized voice? He took the headband and he placed it upon Araa's brow. A series of clicks and whirrs were heard as the device introduced connectors into the android's cranium. When that was completed, two holographic windows appeared in front of the android's face – the left window contained the parameters as well as the algorithms that guided the android; the right window showed a significantly more complex series of algorithms, based on obscure uncertainty elements, which would allow the android extremely nuanced decision making. There were also genetic declension equations designed to affect the artificial DNA that made up the android's internal blueprint. 

Brecht touched each window and moved them before Araa's face – the new parameters overlapped the old ones – they coloured the android's featureless face as sparks and eruption of plasma flashed around them. The hull of the station creaked and the inner walls began to warp.

"This might be ... unpleasant," Brecht said. Araa nodded – he pushed the overlapping windows towards the android's face and once he touched it the android began to convulse. Brecht backed away as Araa fell to the floor – its voice became howl mixed with static and multiple words in different languages. 

Araa lapsed into a comatose frenzy -- sensory perceptions were expanding at an exponential rate. Her sense of self-awareness blossomed and notions of worth and self-importance became manifest – she mattered to the professor. As her quantum mind expanded, new layers of memory and experience overwrote the previous versions and cross-links between the various events built new neural pathways; the patterns of a distinct personality were crystallizing. She also experienced new memories.

Brecht was watching Araa's upgrade until a piece of inner hull flew over his head and crashed into a recirculating unit, releasing a cloud of noxious ammonia gas. Brecht turned to the direction from where the piece had flown and saw that the hull was expanding and contracting like a lung. Brecht realized the hull was seconds from tearing itself apart. The presser fields began to falter and the gravity effect was inconsistent. Brecht slipped a re-breather he kept in his tunic over his head and grabbed a still convulsing Araa by the waist and hoisted her easily over his shoulder – he was momentarily shocked by her lightness. It lasted only a second when a micro-fissure formed in the wall and the vacuum of space began to suck the inner atmosphere into the void.

Brecht recalled his zero g training and began to make his way to the makeshift life pod with the best possible speed. The presser fields had failed completely and the effects of zero g were rampant – Brecht used them to his advantage. Whenever he could, he pushed Araa now still body ahead of him and used piping and other natural launch points to propel himself forward. As they progressed, the station behind them was ravaged by the immense tidal forces as the hull suffered micro-fissures and macro-fissures. Brecht's eyes watered as the station began to empty itself of its atmosphere. But through the tears, Brecht saw that Araa was changing. When he touched her, Araa's artiflesh skin had softened and taken a more human feel. Her forms had blossomed into those of a voluptuous woman – her breasts were round and bountiful, topped with hard nipples surrounded by bumpy aureola. Her hips had flared and they were sensual when he grabbed her waist to prevent her from being sucked out in to space. 


Ghosts of Voltariis 6 Pt. 01



When they finally arrived at the life pod, Araa's face was close to his – as he typed access codes into a solid state control panel, he observed her newly developed features: full lips beneath and aquiline nose; high cheekbones and delicately shaped eyes; long black hair cascading down past her silver grey shoulders. When the hatch of the life pod opened and he shoved her inside, he concluded she was beautiful. But his admiration was short lived when an explosion propelled him forward and he crashed into the opposing bulkhead. His entrance activated a limited scope A.I. that sealed the hatch and fired special boosters that carried the life pod away from the slowly deteriorating station. 

Winded and bruised, Brecht made his way to a view port – he saw the station crush around the errant singularity. As it did so, the station's fusion reactor went critical and a cascade of ever increasing mass particles overwhelmed the event horizon and crashed into the singularity, triggering an eruption of x-rays and jets of superheated matter. Interaction with the reactor had the effect desired – the singularity suffered an accelerated entropic deterioration. In a blinding flash of light, the station and the singularity blinked out of existence. 

To Brecht, it was a beautiful sight – the light expanded across the void between Sedna Voltariis 6 and its moons, illuminating the atmosphere as the higher layers of gas were struck with highly energized particles ejected from the singularity. Looking at the atmosphere, Brecht wondered if the Vik'sh had ever seen such a display. But Brecht's admiration of the atmospheric phenomenon was short lived as a dissipating gravitational wave front struck the life pod, carrying Brecht to the opposite end of the pod – but before he could crash into the inner hall, a delicate looking, but powerful, arm snagged him and swung him to the floor with sufficient force to wind him.

"Landers? Landers!" was all Brecht could hear as he reluctantly lapsed into unconsciousness – the voice he heard was soothing and familiar.

@@@@@

The life pod was steadily tumbling towards Sedna Voltariis 6 – behind it, the remaining fragments of the station not consumed by the singularity had been crushed to a granular powder that would someday spread to form a thinly layered ring around the planet. Inside the pod, what wasn't tied down floated about, bouncing off the hull and each other. 

Brecht slowly regained consciousness – his vision was blurred as he felt heavy and disoriented. As his vision cleared, he saw an odd shimmer just a few arm lengths away. It was the lensing effect of a portable grav field. The generator would amplify a local area of mass by using virtual matter, which in turn would create a lensing event horizon. Brecht suddenly rolled his eyes back into his head when he was overcome with a stinging sensation of heat that drilled into the core of his being while a simultaneous wave of cool covered his skin. 

Brecht raised his head and saw a swath of black hair swaying before his eyes as a slim pair of shoulders bobbed up and down. His pants had been opened and his cock was long and hard – she had moved her fine dark hair out of the way and Brecht could see the unbelievably soft silver lips of an upgraded Araa. Her grey eyes met his and he was struck by the uncommon beauty of her newly developed features. His ponderings were short lived as a he was bathed by the sweeping motions of her rough tongue as it embraced his shaft and coated it with her warm equivalent to saliva. He closed his eyes and moaned.

Araa was surprised by the velvety sensation that Brecht's flesh had in her mouth. She had always thought that organic flesh was rough. That she had a mouth was also a surprising element. Yet continued to suck his cock – she enjoyed how he responded to her actions. The engrams that imprinted upon her when she upgraded her cerebral matrix held more than just survival and combat experience. A knowledge and a rampant desire for sexuality inhabited her since the first time she saw Brecht witnessing the destruction of their outpost. She was also satisfying a curiosity she had felt for his anatomy since the first time she saw him naked while in her previous version. Behind the curiosity crawled an odd sense of familiarity – she remembered having done this before. Her body responded to the allusion by releasing a somewhat viscous between her thighs. While she worked the tip of Brecht's cock, holding it with her lips and flicking her tongue across his warm glans, Araa reached between her thighs and felt a tight opening surrounded by small flap-like bits of artiflesh. She was shaken by the intense sensation that overwhelmed the sensory hubs in her quantum core. When Brecht thrust his cock deeper into her newly constructed mouth, she was invaded with the unfamiliar drive to have his cock dive deeply the new crevice between her thighs.

Brecht was confused and aroused as this Araa version 2.0 pumped his shaft with her delicate, silver hand. Her other had reached between her legs and was rubbing her pussy. Through the bliss of the wanton interior of her mouth, his trained mind struggled to work out why the Starcane Foundation would have delivered an engram upgrade that changed his lab assistant into a sex-droid. His ruminations faltered as he followed his instinct and slid his hand over Araa's smooth ass till he joined hers over her pussy. She came still when his fingers caressed hers – she allowed him to push her fingers aside and take over the caressing of her pussy. As he played with her moist slit, she moved her hands across her stomach and touched her breasts – they were firm and round. Araa pinched her nipples and her artiflesh envelope erupted with smallish bumps as she was assaulted with extreme sensations from between her thighs and from her chest. Two words filled her mind: more and bliss.

Brecht noticed the goosebumps that covered her flesh and was fascinated at the idea that she was feeling pleasure – dedicated sex-droids could simulate such reactions but he felt Araa's were authentic. The goosebumps were reminiscent of something that he could not place; he disregarded the sensation when Araa pressed her ass against his hand when he inserted a finger in her pussy and made circular motions. She released his cock from her mouth and lied her head on his crotch and licked his shaft as he worked his finger in and out of her cunt. The sensation she felt was similar to being licked by fire – it occurred to her that the comparison was not hers – but it was fitting for the sensual heat that crawled from where he touched her and lapped across her insides. 

Brecht pulled his finger from Araa's pussy and reached down and grabbed a handful of her ebony hair and pulled her face to his. She manoeuvred her body on his so that they could share the sensation of his organic body touching her artificial one. As he looked upon Araa's face – the cheek bones, the shape of her eyes, the fulness of her lips – Araa's new face was known to him. The entire encounter was bathed in recognition: long ago, barely a year into his executive studies, he had been awakened by a soft pair of lips. Her name had been Deirdre – she had been recruited by the Starcane Foundation at the same time he had. She had been a skilled mathematician and pilot. She also became a successful field operative ... until a mission cost her life in its success.

But it was their first shared kiss that confirmed it. Araa tilted her head to the left like she usually did but when their lips met, Araa's moved from right to left, caressing his with their silky smoothness before they parted and her tongue entered his mouth, probing for his. It was a signature Deirdre had when she kissed. As her tongue danced with his, Araa saw recognition wash across his eyes. This triggered a series of synaptic cascades that erupted in her frontal lobes and her mind was filled with images of herself and Brecht sharing breakfast; watching a sunrise on a station orbiting Saturn; she felt life escaping her as a blade stood from her chest – putting the crown upon her head and allowing it to record her last breath.

The life pod had begun to spin out of control – a mirror image of the confusion that inhabited their minds. But years of shared muscular memory and intimate physical knowledge superseded any confusion and like experienced lovers her pussy found his cock and she slid down his shaft. Brecht sighed and reached up and cupped Araa's beautiful, artificial breasts and fondled them as she supported herself by placing her delicate hands on his shoulders and she slid sensuously down his cock. Araa moaned loudly as his flesh touched the sweet spot in her pussy – after just a few strokes, Araa came, sprinkling Brecht with a flotsam of come. Her face fell close to his and she whispered into his ear – Brecht responded by slapping her ass with a harsh smack and thrusting upwards with all his might. Each time Brecht slid in and out of Araa's cunt, she moaned and he felt a tingling sensation trickle from her moist insides and spread from his cock and across his body. He cock twitched as it bathed in Araa's juices.

Chaotic shadows cast an eclectic dance across the walls of the life pod as an eerie glow seeped through the various view ports. The objects that had been floating were now pressed to the ends of the pod as centrifugal force pinned them. If it were seen from the outside, the life pod would look like a blazing, spinning column of flame streaking across the sky of Sedna Voltariis 6. The pod rattled and pieces began to bend when a series of powerful chemical rockets fired counter to the pod's spin. The jolt of stabilization fractured the artificial G field that protected the lovers and Brecht had to grab hold of scorching piping while Araa wrapped her legs around his thighs – they shared a battle to survive with a drive to fuck, and the effort Brecht dedicated to keeping them together lead him to experience a massive orgasm, discharging a geyser of hot come deep up into Araa's artiflesh womb. She felt the walls of her pussy pulsate against his cock, stimulating it to shoot more come in to her – their combined orgasm almost overshadowed the thunderous moan of the life pod contracting as it entered the upper atmosphere of the planet and ceased to burn up. 

But the parachute that was to slow their descent faltered.

@@@@@

Every night, when two of the night guardians awaken, the elder Vik'sh enjoy the Jubilation – passion and experiences are shared and permuted, allowing new elders to arise with the Day Mother. All of this is watched over by the youth so their maturation during the Passing is eased. But although 2 guardians were in the night sky, the Vik'sh stopped jubilating when the sky erupted and thunder echoed – but it came with a lightning they had never witnessed. Fire streaked across the sky instead of falling straight down and joining with the ground. 

Z'eth'I left the watching circle and chased the the streaking fireball, legs pumping with youthful determination.

Z'eth'I had always been the fastest of the youths – but upon reaching the spot with the fire finally touched the ground, the surface seemed to rupture as though the great dragon at the core of the world was reaching up for the stars. 

The great song of fire embraced everything in the area – Z'eth'I was first to feel the warm kiss.



Ghosts of Voltariis 6 Pt. 02



III

Landers Brecht never had what would be considered an adventurous existence: his parents loved him; his social skills had developed beyond the virtual interactions of the psynet; when he entered university, his innate skill with languages -- both organic and technical -- drew accolades and he was on the path to a flourishing career as a teacher and researcher. 

But the Starcane Foundation came knocking and along with it came Deirdre. Then, Deirdre died at the hands of an unknown assailant during a secret assignment for the Foundation. She had come into his life shining like a bright star and their love had been the kind fuelled by a mutual respect, admiration and devouring lust. Her death lead him to seek out the most isolating affectation the Foundation could provide. But she had come back to him as a ghost in a machine. A pity the reunion was doomed to end in fire. 

Araa had survived the impact of the life pod with little damage – and what damage there was, her nanotech structure could repair easily. Brecht had not shared that same fortune. Under the light of some flares Araa had found, Brecht's moans of agony signalled he was fully aware of the pain he felt: his right arm was crushed and right leg was a jagged stump. His femur bone was exposed, surrounded by the meat of his shredded, dripping, thigh muscle. Blood left crimson stains all around the debris of the life pod. The pale, greyish, bone of the right side of his skull was exposed as part of his scalp was torn to a bloody piece of meat. Araa hovered her hands over him while a diagnostic glove cast a holographic cross section of his innards.

"Breathe slowly," Araa whispered as sections of the hologram were magnified and a detailed list of the damage appeared along with possible treatments. She furrowed her brow and her concern deepened. "Breathe slowly or the oxygen saturation in your blood with make you delirious. It might even drown you."

"Noo ..." Brecht moaned. "I mourned you. Deirdre. How can you be here? Space isn't supposed to be full of ghosts ..."

"I'm Araa, Lan ... Professor. Just Araa."

Brecht lapsed into a moaning unconsciousness. Araa foraged for a med kit and found some pain killers – she quickly loaded a hypo-syringe and injected Brecht in the neck. His moans subsided but his body shook as a seizure overcame him. Araa stifled a gasp and held him down in a attempt to prevent him from harming himself. Her artificial muscles modulated to compensate for the lesser gravity and not add to his injuries.

"I wont mourn you again," Araa said. The sentiment was not hers though. A memory from the woman Deirdre surfaced as she looked upon the professor. He had once been studying to be a teacher of xeno-linguistics – he was referred to as the professor because he was already and associate in a few virtual universities. Deidre had met him in a preparatory class where he was teaching them the importance of cross cultural symbolism in linguistic referencing when dealing with proto hominid cultures. Deirdre fell in lust at first sight. It had been mutual.

Araa held Brecht's head gently on her lap after his seizure had subsided and applied an organic regenerative adhesive to his torn scalp – while his skin began to rebuild, the new cells forming from the stem structure in the adhesive,  Araa recalled the sensations she felt as they copulated while the life pod tumbled towards Voltariis 6. From Deirdre's memories the word fuck emerged. Araa understood that she and the Professor had fucked, like humans do. 

Araa closed her eyes as she was awash with her own singular memory of the pleasure she felt as he fucked her – it was clearly connected to the sensations Deirdre had felt, but the core reaction was her own. Araa proceeded to set Brecht's crushed arm – she used a nano structure to reconnect the bones and she formed a protective barrier over the stump of his right leg. She pondered Brecht's comment about mourning Deirdre – the word conjured a memory where Deirdre had received word from the Starcane Foundation that Brecht had died in an accident. Grief had deadened her skills and in her insouciance, she fell. When the stranger's blade had pierced her, he had apologized – he also used the engram decoder that served as Araa's upgrade module. The Foundation, Araa though, worked in mysterious ways.

@@@@@ 

Z'eth'I's skin was a scabbed, oozing wound that dragged as the young Vik'sh crawled to what could only be the skeleton of the great blazing beast that had fallen to the ground and had stirred the ire of the core dragon. Z'eth'I hoped that if the heart of the beast could be found and offered to the core, a blessing would be apposed and the Passing would be achieved.

But Z'eth'I was the anointed heart.

@@@@@

Araa found a water container and poured some on Brecht's chapped lips – her med analysis showed that his internal injuries were more extensive than she had initially believed. She did not have the skill or the equipment to treat him. She looked around and began to rummage through the debris with deliberate speed as the planet's lesser gravity was hampering her search. A few moments later, she found her objective: it looked like a discarded spinal column comprised of 24 black interlocking segments. When she picked it up, her mind became aware of the a.i. that resided in the apparatus and knew it was called a sub-spine. They scanned each other and when the challenge codes were authenticated, Araa knew she held the key to saving Brecht's life. It was a logical decision, but she felt a conflict she had never endured before – a moral conflict. Was it right to use it to save him when, through Deirdre's memories, she knew he had always sworn never to use any kind of enhancements? She understood it could be argued she had suffered the same fate – yet she had not chosen the engram enhancements. It had seemed logical considering the limited parameters of her previous version; she had no concept of choice. Brecht was also currently without the power of choice and his life was now in the hands of someone for whom choice was newly acquired. So, she chose and she was now ready to accept his hate if her decision allowed for him to live.

Araa deposited the apparatus, gently lifted Brecht off the scorched earth and lowered him onto the sub-spine. At first, nothing happened, although Araa was monitoring the progress of the symbiotic a.i. Brecht moaned when a series of neurogenic tendrils grew from the modules newly grafted to his back and pierced his skin and laced with the nerves extending from his natural spine. It was the battle armour the Foundation had sent – an experimental armour designed by the Gate Keeper alliance, said to have been reverse engineered from ancient alien technology. The tendrils spread across Brecht's entire nervous system, including creating a weave within the frontal lobes of his brain. His mouth snapped open in a silent scream his eyes rolled back into his head as the tendrils burst from the cap that covered his right leg stump. Blood dripped from the eerie strings as they fanned out from his wound, causing Araa to reflexively jump back – they had found his severed leg and were dragging it back to where he laid. His leg was reattached, torn and missing flesh replaced by layers of nano tubes. An ebony web of nano particles spread from the sub-spine and covered Brecht's limbs before sinking into his skin.

The armour had been designed as a weapon --  its battle systems synced with Brecht's senses and installed wet drive networks in his frontal lobes to allow Brecht control of the armour's advanced infiltration and defensive grids. After the drivers were installed, the sub-spine extended overlapping layers of nano tubes that covered his body from head to toe. The final touch was single molecule thick layer of exotic alloy – the same that created the the hyper-gates. While the armour's external structured was finalized, the nano web had spread in Brecht's body, repairing his extensive internal injuries while augmenting his natural systems to better cope with the demands of the armour.

Araa watched as the mono-molecular armour changed Brecht, the symbiotic a.i orchestrating his rebirth as a melding of organic and tech. She projected the anatomical renderings she had coveted in her previous version of the man and was saddened. The armour sealed itself across his face and a single green, illuminated slit occupied the faceplate the armour had created – the armour itself seemed to glistened as its dark, sinewy appearance completed its reptilian design. 

Before she could reflect on her decision and his condition any longer, the armour retracted from his body and Brecht was exposed and whole before her. He was naked and his skin glowed in the firelight  as though he was a newborn. Araa rushed to his side and brought the flares with her, hoping their greenish flames would be enough to warm him. 

Minutes passed until Brecht opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Light flickered in his dark eyes and he slowly ran his hands over his body. He touched his head, his arm, and finally his right leg – he felt the ban of nano tubes that held the limb in place. He jaw muscle tightened as he sat up and reached behind his back – he found the sub-spine and his mind was given access to the data the symbiont a.i. had recorded during his reassembly. Araa observed as Brecht stood and took a few hesitant steps. He clenched his fists and hung his head. She joined him but hesitated to touch him. He turned and faced her.

"Is space haunted?" Brecht asked. 

"Lands – only by our memories."

"Does that make us ghosts,  Araa?" 

Araa regarded him solemnly. "We are alive, Lands." She noted his ironic smile. "Some more so than others. But we have the means to survive. The Foundation saw to that."

Brecht rummaged through the debris of the life pod and found a grey utility tunic and slipped it on and then located the matching boots. Brecht paused for a moment and shook his head – everything around him was suddenly brighter than it had been only seconds before. He understood that the symbiont a.i. was augmenting ambient light. As he scanned the debris with new vision, he quickly identified the slender stalk of the particle beam rifle. With swift motions, he inspected the weapon and slipped a cylindrical  power cell into the rifle's top mounted retaining clasp and the weapon whirred to life and a green bar illuminated the area above the standard trigger. The a.i. linked to the weapon and  a  targeting grid appeared before Brecht's eyes. 

"They did indeed," Brecht hissed as he struggled and concentrated, forcing the symbiont a.i. to switch to safe mode, allowing him to be mostly human. "Odd that they should equip us to fight a war and yet take the time to have an engram module planted in the supplies."

Araa ran her fingers through her hair. "Do you believe you'll ever answer those questions?" 

"That'll depend if we survive and make it off this rock." Brecht put the rifle by the heat flare and began to assemble a pack sac with food and water. "Araa, may I ask you a question?" 

"Of course, professor," Araa said, reverting to her original appellation for him as she tore at some scarlet fabric and fashioned a bikini like apparel for herself.

"All those times you would walk into my quarters while I was exercising or showering – were you trying to see me naked?"

Araa was slipping the extra power cells for the rifle into a pack with heat and light flares when she turned and looked at him. "I was."

They were silent for a moment – suddenly, a sphere popped up in Brecht's line of vision. It contained two green dots in close proximity and a yellow dot with a vector line and the header 51 m over the line.

"Something's out there," Brecht whispered.

IV

Beyond the unsealed hatch of the life pod, Brecht and Araa were met with a deeply red sliver of  light as Sedna Voltariis broke above the horizon in the east and flooded the area around the life pod – charred and blackened grasses glowed with an amber hue while the sky drifted from green to blue as the star rose in the sky. Sedna Voltariis steadily turned orange as the oxygen in the atmosphere refracted the blue wavelengths of light. The beauty of Voltariis 6 was unlike anything the images Brecht had studied had prepared him for.

Hoisting the particle beam rifle over his shoulder, Brecht took Araa's hand in his and they ventured under the this strange sun.

"This reminds me of the time we ran around the habitation ring at the Capsys station," Araa said, reminiscing about a vacation Deirdre had shared with Brecht before she left for her fatal assignment.

Brecht disregarded the fact that the memory was not Araa's – instead he squeezed her hand gently before letting her go and moved ahead of her. The proximity sphere the symbiont a.i. was projecting swirled as Brecht advanced amidst the crash site until a bearing to the unknown contact was established. A window popped up in front of him, asking is he wanted to change his status from safe to defensive mode – Brecht declined and walked towards the unknown contact.  

Araa joined him and cast a vigilant eye across the edge of the red coloured treeline that formed the boundary of the clearing where the life pod had crashed. She kept a relaxed finger in the trigger guard of the old fashioned sub machine gun she had discovered before the life pod had launched – she had great confidence in her skills with the .45 calibre gun. More precisely, she had confidence in the skills she had inherited from Deirdre.

Brecht rounded the edge of a wind swept mound, the grasses flattened and the air filled with exotic scents of unknown flowers – but where he expected to find a single contact, three Adult Vik'sh stood around the scabbed and charred form of one of the androgynous members of the local community. Brecht stopped in his tracks and placed a hand on Araa's belly when she joined him -- borrowed instincts made her cock the weapon and assume a firing position and aim at the natives. 

The male and two females looked at the alien newcomers and appraised Brecht and Araa. One of the females had a small leather-like pouch tied to her slender waist that she loosened and tossed to Brecht's feet. Brecht was struck by the commanding beauty of both the female Vik'sh – he looked over his shoulder and noticed Araa was studying the male with similar lust. His dark red skin covered ripped muscles while the females were graceful, with long legs, flared hips and smallish, firm breasts. They all had long, yellow and green hair that was either braided or simply pulled back and tied with some manner of string. 

The male lifted the wounded Vik'sh and carried the body to Brecht.

"What am I supposed to do?" Brecht asked as he clutched the ravaged body to his chest. He was shocked by how light the body was. He was more shocked by the slight tug he felt at his finger as the wounded Vik'sh touched him. The touch sent a shiver up his spine and sub-spine. A female looked down at the pouch with her opaque orange eyes. 

"We really don't know a lot about them, do we, Lands?" Araa said even before realizing she reverted to addressing him by the nickname Deirdre had used – she kept the Vik'sh in her sights as they disappeared into the forest.

"No we don't, Araa," Brecht answered, regarding his new charge curiously.

"It should have been vaporized in the crash," Araa said as she examined the wounds with the diagnostic glove from Brecht's pack  – the med a.i. showed conflicting signs of cellular damage and regeneration on the Vik'sh's flesh. 

"The Vik'sh are tougher than they appear," Brecht said as he started back to the crashed life  pod.

Araa gazed one more time onto the forest where the Vik'sh returned to before putting the safety back on her weapon.

@@@@@

The Foundation had included many xeno-biological files when it had set up the station that had become Brecht's last rest stop before his rather unfortunate planet fall. Few had survived and those they had were sealed in amber as coded DNA files by Araa, ready to be opened when they were back in core space. Araa was pouring over what she had saved in her memory's synaptic coding and little of it had to do with the Vik'sh. 

Brecht had laid down layers of blankets on the ground of the life pod and had set up an inflatable threshold at the hatch. Smart lights floated about the wreckage and illuminated the nest Araa had set up for the Vik'sh – a cube rested on the floor and projected a magnified version of the info the med a.i. had collected. Brecht observed the images, highlighting areas he thought to recognize. He was happy for the distraction – Araa was moving with the same kind of easy elegance that had characterized Deirdre. He remembered telling her that watching her move was like a free recital from a seasoned dance troupe.

His scientific mind was puzzled and elated by the presence of a wounded Vik'sh. The internal organs were not readily identifiable beyond the muscles and the skeleton. But the unresolved sex organs were clearly identifiable. Brecht opened the pouch a female Vik'sh had laid at his feet and he examined its contents: it was a biological based ointment with multiple layers of cellular surfactants. He scooped some of the ointment and spread it across the skin of the Vik'sh – Brecht's hand tingled as he worked the balm into the damaged skin of the native. As he did so, he watched the images being rendered by the diagnostic glove – the undefined nature of the organs was familiar to him.

"Araa!" Brecht shouted as he continued to use both hands to massage the Vik'sh -- his hands appeared to be working of their own accord. "The med scans? Were there any definite genetic markers?"

Araa looked up from a file she was holding and gazed at the frantic pace with which Brecht was massaging the Vik'sh – she rushed to her feet and tried to pull Brecht away from the native.

"Its all right." he reassured her. "The ointment is overriding my neural pathways and jamming the symbiont – just check for genetic markers."

Araa eyes flashed with an anger he recognized all too well – she was taking on more and more of Deirdre's traits. Nonetheless, she slipped on the diagnostic glove and summoned a virtual control panel that appeared in her palm and recalibrated the sensors for DNA analysis. 

"There aren't any telomeres," Araa said. Brecht looked at her while he was massaging the Vik'sh chest. Flecks of scabbed skin fell off the body. 

"What does that tell you?"

"No telomeres imply that DNA replication would not degrade the sequences." Araa said. Brecht knew Deirdre's experience was guiding Araa's reasoning. "Naturally evolved DNA would also show signs of past mutations. There should be introns and dormant genes."

"Right ..."

"The Vik'sh aren't native to Voltariis 6, are they?" Araa asked, understanding blooming behind her artificial, grey eyes.

Brecht wanted to speak, but he was still massaging the Vik'sh – he understood that the ointment had somehow extracted DNA from his skin and was spreading it across the wounded being. His eyes grew wide when he realized he was not actually massaging the Vik'sh, he was molding the young being's form. The DNA rich ointment had made the Vik'sh flesh as malleable as clay and Brecht had been instinctively reforming it. During his last exchange with Araa, he had just finished forming breasts on the Vik'sh chest. His hands had shaped lovely firm breasts and worked meticulously to create perfect nipples for the breasts. He felt Araa's glare pierce him when his hand slipped between the beings legs and began to carve a vulva.

"It's been bothering me since we were stationed here but I never took the time to work it out," Brecht mentioned as he pushed a finger into the centre of the newly created vulva. "Voltariis 6 shouldn't exist."




Ghosts of Voltariis 6 Pt. 02



Araa crossed her arms across her ample breasts and began tapping her finger on her arm. "I don't follow."

"Sedna Voltariis is a red giant – that means its been like this only for a few million years. That also implies that the star expanded from its original diameter. It would have engulfed any life bearing planets."

"Now, Voltariis 6 is a temperate planet with a mostly oceanic surface. To have reached that state the planet has to be a couple of billions of years old. Considering Sedna's been a red giant for a few million years, this planet would have been too far from the star's original life belt to have evolved naturally into this state, and it would not have had the time to evolve naturally to this state while orbiting a red giant."

"So your conclusion is that the planet was either terraformed ... or placed here," Araa gasped.

"Yes," Brecht whispered while the ointment on his hands allowed him to make hair on the Vik'sh scalp. "I think that's the real reason we were stationed here. The Starcane Foundation wanted to find out who made this planet. And by extension, who made the Vik'sh."

"You made me," Araa said as she walked up to the motionless being.

"What?"

Araa pointed at the Vik'sh – Brecht's eyes followed her fingers and he fully contemplated what she was examining: a mirror image of herself, carved by Brecht from his memory of Deirdre and imposed upon the body of an unknown being from a mysterious race.

Brecht took a step back and trembled.

"I did this."

V

Araa pulled Brecht away from the young female he had just made and led him outside the life pod – Sedna Voltariis was approaching the horizon and shadows deepened. The inky black of the forest at the outskirts of the crash site seemed to bubble with patches of movement. 

Brecht stared at the forest and was conflicted as his scientific mind reminded him that there were no large predators on Voltariis 6 and his survival instinct demanded he fear the dark. The symbiont a.i. read the neurochemical disturbance and projected the proximity sphere – it also sent a scan signal and found that the satellites that accompanied the devastated station were still operational. 

"Why did you make it into me?" Araa demanded. Brecht looked at her and just shook his head.

"There was something in the ointment – the Vik'sh use an organic technology. Because she was injured by our crash, I think the elders hold me responsible for her life. The ointment it to facilitate communication."

Brecht leaned against the life pod and rested his head against the hull – Araa still held her Kriss super V with the muzzle towards the ground. She said, "The ointment told you that and then told you to play with her body and make it into me?"

"No," Landers sighed and pushed away from the pod. He looked down at his hands and cracked his knuckles. "But somehow it swapped a bit of genetic material between us. I've had ... images in my head of what this Vik'sh has been living. It hasn't matured – she's been here about 20 of our years. But she hasn't matured the way the rest of the Vik'sh have."

"You exchanged genetic memories," she noted and clicked the safety on her weapon. "I've been your only contact so you instinctively shaped her to who you want to speak to ..."

Araa took a hesitant step back and looked at Brecht. "Not me. Her."

"You have Deirdre's engrams but you're not her. That Vik'sh in there isn't her either. The image is clearer but its all echoes."

"Please, no more echoes."

Both Brecht and Araa snapped around and saw the Vik'sh take a few tentative steps out of the life pod and turn to face the setting star. It was flanked on each side by one of Voltariis 6's moons. Her hair was long and blond and her eyes were of a rich green -- Deirdre was as present in her as she was in Araa. 

Brecht saw the world go dark before the Vik'sh came back into focus – he understood that the symbiont a.i. had activated a multi-spectral filter over his eyes so that it could fully analyze the Vik'sh as it was the second time its passive sensors did not register the entity. 

"You only need eyes to see them," Brecht said as the filter retracted. 

"Why are you here?" Araa asked as her eyes roamed over the bosom of the Vik'sh and compared it to her own. They were identical.

The Vik'sh turned to Brecht and walked up to him and pointed to Araa and the to the setting suns. "The guardians proclaim the Jubilation must continue and the heart is to be offered to the sky dragon," she said in clear Standard. The gravity in her voice was unmistakeable – as was the inflection from Deirdre that Brecht tenderly remembered.

Araa recognized it as well. She gazed at Brecht, appalled at how he was mesmerized by the newcomer. "What do you mean 'Jubilation?' Lands?"

Brecht slowly shook his head and glanced back in forth between the Vik'sh and the android – both were incarnations of the woman he had loved and he wondered if his sanity slipped away, would the symbiont a.i. speak in his voice? As his mind lingered on the word voice, the symbiont a.i. projected an oscilloscope graph before him  and was analyzing a sound his enhanced ears were receiving, creeping up from beyond the forest.

Brecht turned towards the sound and Araa and the Vik'sh did the same.

"Jubilation!" the Vik'sh squealed.

Brecht nodded. "Their nightly rituals."

Araa felt and involuntary shiver as well as an almost shameful pang of excitement at the thought of an entire population engage in a planet wide sexual frenzy. 

"Do you have a name?" Brecht asked the Vik'sh, placing a hand delicately on her shoulder.

The lady Vik'sh smiled and pointed at them in turn and said, "Landers Brecht. Araa."

They nodded.

She put her hand over where her heart would be if she was human. "Z'eth'I."

@@@@@

The Jubilation had always washed over the Vik'sh like a wave, pulling them away from their chores to seek out others and engage in permutations of limbs. Although Z'eth'I was no longer fully Vik'sh – her body had been enriched by the essence of the skyfallen -- she felt the tug as strongly as any other of the elders she had watched over many a night. Now she stood, matured outside of the Passing, looking at the skyfallen man and she wanted him. But the nature of the desire was odd – it was a specific desire, not like the holistic desire the elders felt.

Brecht felt the odd wave enter him and trigger a cascade of memories of all the times he made love to Deirdre – but while he fought to maintain a sense of reason he noticed a a faint shift in the scent the permeated the air. Pollen from the grass has been released after the sun set and it filled the atmosphere and had psychotropic effects on the Vik'sh and Brecht was falling a victim to it. The symbiont a.i. was unable to filter the pollen and it acted as an aphrodisiac in Brecht blood stream.

Araa stared at Brecht and the other female  – she was able to measure an increase in their core body temperature as well as increased blood flow to the surface of their skin. But she did not need advanced sensory systems to see they were sexually aroused. Brecht's cock pressed against his service tunic while Z'eth'I was clearly wet between her thighs where he had formed her vulva. Araa touched her own artiflesh and wondered why she was not as aroused as they were – and she chided herself for envying them their mutual desire. 

Brecht still had a hand on Z'eth'I's shoulder and he was peering deeply into her green eyes – without hesitation, she jumped into his arms and their lips crashed together in a corral of arduous kisses. Z'eth'I pulled a willing Brecht into the life pod and they feel onto the piled blankets where she had been changed.  Brecht fell on top of her and pinned her lite form with his and ran his hands across her arms while they panted and kissed, their tongues ribald as they tasted their unique flavors – to him, Z'eth'I was like and exotic fruit whose silky skin was delectable. To her, Brecht was an embodiment that life existed beyond the bounds of the Passing and the elders. To celebrate that life, she pulled at his tunic and Brecht tugged it off his shoulders and lowered it to his waist – once his chest was exposed, she marvelled that he had hair on his chest and the his muscles were firm. Z'eth'I ran her tongue over his nipple and Brecht shivered as the sensation made his nerves flare – the sensation was augmented as the symbiont a.i. tried to cope with influx of sensory information. It was unable to classify the information as Brecht body seemed afflicted by pain while his brain raged with endorphins.

Araa watched the unnatural couple from the open hatch of the life pod – behind her two of Voltariis 6's moons hovered high amongst the stars. To her artificial eyes, it was like the tapestry of a memory made real beyond the mere photons striking her optic panels and sound waves resonating with her audio plexing software. The engrams encoded in her higher synaptic layers fired to life when she saw Brecht grab Z'eth'I  and lift her off the blankets so he could lovingly suck on her nipples. Z'eth'I tossed her head back and her yellow hair fanned out and Araa relived a moment of happiness when Brecht had pushed Deirdre on a zero G swing – Deirdre's hair had fanned out in the exact same manner.

Z'eth'I was on her back and enraptured with the feeling of Brecht's tongue on her nipples – below her pleasure was a resentment that the elders kept such sensations from the youth until the time of the Passing. The feelings made it difficult for her to surrender fully to Brecht when he left her nipple and slid his tongue down the space between her breasts and across her belly till he found Z'eth'I's small tuft of pubic hair. When his tongue broached the lips of her pussy, Z'eth'I shuddered as bliss blossomed like a rapturous flower from her cunt and up across her limbs and crushed her resentment under the weight of maddening desire. 

Brecht glanced at Araa as he spread Z'eth'I's legs and put his fingers on each side of her pussy – he leaned  down and kissed Z'eth'I the way he would her mouth, swirling his lips against her cunt and plunging his tongue into her while caressing her thighs. 

Araa stared at Z'eth'I while she arched her back in pleasure and released a loud moan – a memory bubbled in Araa's cortex of Deirdre lying on her back beneath the rising Earth while she and Brecht loved in a small habit-dome while on the Moon. Araa dropped her weapon closed the hatch of the life pod behind her and took a tentative step towards the couple. Each step she took was like passing through a layer of confusion, images of Deirdre shattering and the leftover shreds clinging to Araa. She was understanding that a synaptic homologation was rewriting her existing cortex. She was happy for that.

Brecht was lying on his stomach as he lapped at Z'eth'I when Araa reached out and touched his bare back. He shuddered and looked over his shoulder and was greeted with a smile he had not seen in over a standard year. Araa was fully inhabited by Deirdre's memories and she fell to her knees and undid the binding she had made for her breasts. Z'eth'I supported herself on her elbows and watched Araa grab the tunic bunched at Brecht's waist and pull it down. Araa pressed her silver/grey body against his broad back and she reached underneath his body while her hair cascaded across his shoulders. Z'eth'I admired the way Araa's body meshed with Brecht's with a sensual familiarity even while his tongue was studying the points of pleasure that peppered her cunt. Z'eth'I cast her head back and allowed the madness to consumed her and she came, dousing Brecht's chin with her juices.

Brecht's mind teetered as his sense of reality was assaulted by twins images of Deirdre – both so different and similar to the original. Araa urged him onto his back and Z'eth'I shifted to her knees; Araa gently took Brecht's cock in her hand and kissed his tip while Z'eth'I leaned down and while her yellow  hair draped his face, she plunged her tongue past his lips and they shared bated breath as their nostrils stood even until Brecht sighed as Araa engulfed his member with a voracious knowledge where every swipe of her tongue and caress of her lips was meant to sweep him under the veil of bliss. Brecht moaned under the dual attention while Z'eth'I drank the breath from his voice – the proximity of her mind and the clarity of passion opened a bridge between her thoughts and Brecht's. Once their kiss had passed, she positioned a knee on each side of his head and she straddled his face so his tongue could once again taste her gulf. As Brecht licked and Z'eth'I moaned, her juices streamed down his throat as well as knowledge drifted into his mind. Brecht's thoughts were awash in a blur of bliss and erratic memories of beings residing in gigantic crystal constructs that expanded from a bright white star and connected the planets that orbited the star into a vast single, crystalline web. Beings and information travelled along crystalline pathways as billions moved freely from one world to a next. The symbiont a.i. woven into Brecht's mind launched algorithms to process the imagery from Z'eth'I and attempted to locate where the Vik'sh had once seen such structures. 

Araa saw how Z'eth'I moaned as Brecht pleasured her – Araa took Brecht's cock in her slender fingers and she imitated Z'eth'I, straddling his lap and lowering herself onto his hard member. It felt particularly hard as his heart had less gravity to work against. Blinded by Z'eth'I pussy, Brecht felt the familiar tightness of Deirdre's pussy as interpreted by Araa's artiflesh rendering of her engrams. Brecht grabbed Z'eth'I's hips and braced himself as he thrust selfishly upwards, burying his shaft deep into Araa's depths. 

As Brecht felt the passion of two versions of the same woman, his symbiont a.i. accessed Araa's optical software and Brecht was given Araa's point of view: she watched as Z'eth'I put her hands on Brecht's chest and gyrated her hips against his face. Seeing through her eyes, Brecht also savoured the slow way Araa rode his cock while he admired how Z'eth'I wore Deirdre's features, particularly enjoying how her lower lip trembled as pleasure inhabited her. It was then that Araa's point of view shifted slightly and he   felt her lean forward – Brecht's heart raced as Araa's eyes focused on Z'eth'I's lips and the symbiont a.i. simulated the chill that cascaded across Araa's artiflesh when she touched Z'eth'I's mouth and they shared a twisted mirror kiss, their darting tongues unfamiliar with the similarities they shared. Brecht thrust more forcefully into Araa, pulling from her a moan while her slender fingers found Z'eth'I's breasts – Z'eth'I reached out and did the same. Brecht concentrated on the sensation of Araa's cunt on his cock and Z'eth'I's juices as his tongue and member moved in tandem while he summoned the symbiont a.i. to release Araa's optic software. 

Z'eth'I slipped from Brecht's face and she carried Araa with her. Brecht manoeuvred from beneath them and stepped back as Araa laid upon her back and Z'eth'I kissed her way down Araa's artiflesh body – the Vik'sh found her doppelganger's skin to be amazing to the touch. Araa was cool, yet where Z'eth'I's lips and fingers came into sensual contact with  Araa's flesh, it burned in those areas. When she found Araa's cunt, Z'eth'I's tongue explored the recesses of her artiflesh folds – they both moaned and sighed simultaneously as the bliss seemed to pass from Araa to Z'eth'I and back. Shared form connected their sensations through a form of subliminal conditioning where their existences were quantumly entangled. 

Brecht moved behind Z'eth'I and observed how her body swayed into Araa's as she licked the android's pussy. Z'eth'I's own pussy beckoned him with the scent of lilacs and incense. Brecht remembered how Deirdre would present herself to him with lilacs in her hair and incense clinging to her flesh. Brecht positioned himself behind the Vik'sh – when he touched her hips, Z'eth'I paused and Araa raised her head and her artificial grey eyes met his. Z'eth'I sensed the connection borne of shared memories and she understood her role as a cypher between Brecht's memories and the echoes residing within Araa's core.

Z'eth'I slid up Araa's body till their lips and their nipples grazed each other and Araa reached her tongue into Z'eth'I's mouth and they moaned in unison – Brecht had moistened his fingers and let them flutter on the outskirts of their cunts. He watched their pussies grow slick and their hips writhe like some sensual beast awaiting to be fed. Sliding forward on his knees, Brecht gripped his cock and placed it at the entrance of Z'eth'I's pussy. Her ass trembled in anticipation at his penetration – when he gripped her hips, Z'eth'I led a hand to Araa's labia and gently rubbed the android's virtual clit. Brecht felt a moment of hesitation as the symbiont a.i. completed a complete pathological scan to ensure the Vik'sh was not hazardous and he finally pushed his cock past the fold of her alien cunt. The remnants of the life pod echoed with the grunts and sighs as Brecht fucked Z'eth'I with alternating rhythms while she played her fingers in Araa's pussy and they worked to achieve a communion of bliss. 

While their bodies writhed, Brecht thrusting into Z'eth'I a few strokes before doing the same to Araa moist pussy, the symbiont a.i. reached out and touched the cortex uncertainty processor where Araa's deep random thought algorithms were organized. Qbits of information merged and a virtual presentation of the lives of the three beings entwined was created along a looped private network established between the human and the android. Brecht's mind expanded as his every thrust was answered by a feedback track that reverberated across his flesh – the track emanated from deep within Araa and swayed back and forth as he fucked her and then Z'eth'I. In their passion, Z'eth'I's thalamus flooded her frontal lobes with neuro-transmitters  – where the thoughts of the Vik'sh would merge like clouds carried aloft by the winds, Z'eth'I's mind remained unique as she encountered the strange space beyond space where Brecht and Araa were connected. She saw how his memories and those that Araa carried were mirrored in the strange discordance of their individual perceptions. Z'eth'I Found herself carried towards the images of their memories on her own swell of reminiscence she did not realize she possessed. 

Z'eth'I and Araa laid side by side while Brecht mounted the Vik'sh – his buttocks heave powerfully as he drove his engorged cock deep into the recesses of the cunt he had formed from his memory of Deirdre. Yet, the juices from Z'eth'I's cunt found his mind and filled it with fogged memories of a crystalline web shattering, the billions of lives woven in the glassy matrix surrendered to a quick and dramatic end. Silvery spheres shivered as they crashed into the orbiting crystal web – some inhabitants had travelled beyond the branes between realities, using portals located at the core of stars orbited by sentient life. 

Araa turned and kissed Z'eth'I, tongues lustful serpents accorded to a tune of bliss. The android slid her hand down Z'eth'I's body till she found the Vik'sh's clit as created by Brecht's remembrance of the details of Deirdre's flesh. Araa was informed of the memories shared by Brecht and Z'eth'I as the symbiont a.i. projected images within the virtual network it had created with Araa's uncertainty cortex. Araa witnessed the destruction of a planet at the hands of an unknown species. Her processing attempted to map the stars but was unable to fathom any constellations from the images. Araa soon disregarded the processing of the images when Brecht turned his attentions to her and he filled her pulsing cunt with his stiff member.




Ghosts of Voltariis 6 Pt. 02



Araa brought her knees to her shoulders and allowed Brecht a steeper angle – he was delirious and sweat ran down his back as he drove his cock deep into Araa's artificial pussy. He felt desperation as though each thrust into his android lover was his last opportunity of connecting with Deirdre. Z'eth'I caressed Araa's hair and pressed her forehead to the android's and they watched together Brecht as his muscles flexed and his skin glistened. Araa moaned and felt every particle of her being shudder as waves of pleasure sprang from her pussy and she came, the walls of her sex pulsating against Brecht's ever thrusting cock.

Araa released him but his cock, coated in her pussy juices, was still rigid and Brecht's eyes were frantic – Z'eth'I rested on her side and raised her curvaceous thigh, exposing her pussy to the fuck drunk man. As she faced Araa, Brecht straddled her thigh and he entered the Vik'sh. Brecht held Z'eth'I leg against his chest and let this thighs move of their own accord and his cock filled every inch of her cunt. Z'eth'I was rocked as much by Brecht's relentless rhythm as by the pleasure he procured her. Brecht was in a trance, his only thought achieving the freedom from the mounting pressure in his loins. His thoughts lingered on a carousel of images of Deirdre, Araa, and Z'eth'I as they replaced one another in the fog of his memories of cherished moments of lust and love. It was then that Brecht exploded – a gusher of come filled Z'eth'I's pussy and the Vik'sh felt her sense of self become a blank slate as her pleasure became hers alone. Brecht embraced the emptiness his orgasm brought him, the bliss temporarily washing away any memory he might have of being trapped 900 light years from Earth on a strange world with the universe's irony, reminding him of his loss.             

Unknown to them, the Jubilation of the Vik'sh had ceased and all re-tuned individuals turned towards the crash site and closed their eyes and mourned the curse of individuality.

VI

A week had passed since the first Jubilation shared by Brecht, Araa and Z'eth'I. Brecht ate from the supplies scavenged from the life pod – sometimes he would join Araa as she stood watch and cleaned her weapon. Brecht was surprised to see Z'eth'I walk into the forest beyond the edge of the crash site one morning as one of the three moons rose opposite Sedna Voltariis to illuminate the morning. He decided to pursue her into the forest when he noticed the edge of the other moons graze the limits of the horizon – Brecht began to think about the orbits of the moons when the symbiont a.i., his constant companion, projected the proximity sphere to its maximum range of 500 metres. He quickly located Z'eth'I and without even thinking it, the enhanced muscles in his legs calibrated their impulse and he launched himself into the canopy of the tropical like forest and within seconds, bounding stealthily from one branch to the next, he was observing Z'eth'I from a perch high in the trees. 

Z'eth'I was kneeling by a pool of water – as confirmed by a spectral analysis by the symbiont a.i. -- and reached into the pool and gingerly pulled a creature from the shallow depth. The animal offered no resistance when Z'eth'I opened her mouth and swallowed it whole and alive. Her throat bulged slightly as it accommodated the creature's descent into digestion. Brecht continued to observe her as she reached up and a branch from a nearby tree bent and she picked a bulbous growth that released a sweet scent. 

Brecht sat back against his perch and pondered how the world was apparently bending to Z'eth'I's wishes. It also cemented his belief that this world should not be. When Z'eth'I finished eating the bulbous growth, the tree Brecht was perched in vibrated at a low frequency and was soon joined by the other trees. Brecht stood and looked to the sky – another moon was halfway over the horizon as Sedna Voltariis was beginning to drop in the sky. The implication was that the planet's revolution had increased. He looked down and saw that Z'eth'I was also looking towards the sky and her face was awash in concern, her lips turning downward the way Deirdre's did when she was worried that Brecht worked too much. As Z'eth'I turned from the pool and bolted from the forest, Brecht felt his enhanced muscles spool just before he lept from one tree to the next, easily passing the running Vik'sh and bursting from the forest.

Araa was standing on an outcropping of rock and watched as Brecht burst from the forest canopy and sprinted to join her on the rock. She was momentarily taken aback by the speed and ease with which he navigated the rough terrain between the forest and her position. Araa understood that the monomolecular machine she had delivered him to was working at his behest. Z'eth'I emerged from the forest a few seconds later but lagged behind Brecht. 

When Brecht had reached her, he noticed her Kriss super V was loaded and a round was chambered and the safety was off. Araa was looking to the horizon where Sedna Voltariis was setting. Brecht cast a glance in the opposite direction and saw that the three moons were visible. Z'eth'I finally joined him and they looked on the horizon. Brecht's eyes magnified the image he was seeing: thousands of Vik'sh, youth and elder alike, were steadily marching towards Sedna Voltariis 6's equator. 

"Sedna's stopped setting, Lands," Araa said as she touched his shoulder.

"The planet's rotation's ceased," Brecht explained. "The moons are opposite the star – gravitational forces are in a fragile balance."

"The tidal forces ..." Araa whispered.

"Yeah. You might see half the ocean pulled towards the moons while the other half towards the sun."

Z'eth'I was pensive as her strange bedfellows discussed in terms she did not comprehend. 

"The sister guardians of the night face the mother of the day," Z'eth'I explained as she traced on the rock a diagram representing the members of this cosmic choreography. She placed Sedna Voltariis on one side and the moons on the other – she then drew a line down the meridian direction, intersecting the poles.

"The time of the Passing has come," Z'eth'I said, a tear running down her scarlet cheek. 

@@@@@     

It was as Z'eth'I had foretold --  a vast chasm over 2 kilometres wide was carved down the middle of the great planetary sea, pools of water gathering in the exposed trenches. The awesome tidal forces of Sedna Voltariis and the moons aligned opposite the red giant had split the waters and hundreds of Vik'sh stood on the edge of newly created beaches. The sky of Sedna Voltariis six was awash in gradient shades of blue and red and green as the muted light of Sedna Voltariis was filtered by the oxygen rich atmosphere and was reflected off the opposing moons and refracted by the atmosphere

Brecht and Araa had followed Z'eth'I's lead as they surveyed files of migrating Vik'sh approaching the vast chasm. Z'eth'I brought them to a peak that oversaw the Vik'sh gathering ground. The trio had travelled lightly – Araa carried her Kriss Super V with two extra clips while Brecht carried a sling with some food and water and the three power cells for the particle beam rifle slung over his other shoulder. Brecht focused his enhanced vision on the various groups that crossed into the sea and emerged from the walls of water. Brecht was amazed that no sea creatures seemed to have been caught by the separating waters – life teemed in the seas yet did not cross into the barren chasm. The ground trembled as the planet wobbled on its axis as gravity played a tug-o-war with its mantle.

Despite the tectonic havoc, the Vik'sh continued their pilgrimage to the space between the temporary seas.  "You can't be down there, can you?" Araa asked as she flicked the safety on her gun from safe to full-auto. 

Z'eth'I began tapping her fingers against the rock and Araa mirrored her action. "I'm not like them anymore," Z'eth'I whispered.

Brecht understood the heartbreak in Z'eth'I's voice. "I don't think any one of us is going home," he answered.

The word home conjured Araa's memories – evenings spent sitting on top of a science building at the Geneva University, watching the sunset. Making love on that same roof as the moon rose. These were her memories now – 3 years of life spent with Landers Brecht and she remembered it all. Deirdre was there, but the merge with Araa was complete. She wondered if Brecht felt it.

But Brecht was in a fully scientific mind frame as he observed the Vik'sh. They were assembling in two long files. Brecht was noting every movement – female and male elders stood in front of androgynous youths, and they began to disrobe. The youths removed the leather bindings that wrapped around their wrists and ankles while the elders removed the loincloths and undid the leather twists that bound their hair. Every individual tossed leather accoutrements aside as the red of their flesh glowed under the light reflecting off the sides of the newborn, water walled valley. Brecht held his breath as the Vik'sh fell to their knees on the exposed, cracked sea bottom. Each individual stretched out their arms and their fingers laced – the youths then advanced, their knees scrapping against stone yet no flesh was shed from the abrasions.

Z'eth'I startled Araa by floating to her feet and spreading her arms –  Z'eth'I opened her mouth and a powerful chant grew steadily from her belly until it filled the atmosphere with a thunderous vibration that caused the walls of water bordering the chasm below their perch to ripple. The mob in the answered her chant by allowing their hands to roam and explore the confines of each other's bodies. Brecht was mesmerized by the delicate dance the Vik'sh partook in – he watched as the youth embraced their elders whit finger and lip. Couples and trios and foursomes formed as the air filled with the same fragrance that anointed the nightly Jubilation. 

Araa let her hand rest on the butt of her Super V while the other caressed the three other 30-round clips she had strapped to her curvy hips. Her memories of Deirdre's missions had taught her the importance of having enough ammunition when events spiralled out of control. Araa understood there was absolutely no control to be had since she and Brecht escaped the station and she had been infused with Deirdre's engrams. She glanced longingly at Brecht as he was immersed in his curiosity – Z'eth'I continued her chant.

The symbiont a.i. in Brecht's brain was mapping the electrical impulses triggered by his optic nerve in an effort to build and algorithm that would allow its embedded sensors to actually sense the Vik'sh beyond simply measuring Brecht's reactions to them. Brecht employed optical magnification to observe the scene of the Vik'sh engaging in a planet wide orgy – as they frolicked on the exposed, jagged, rocky sea bottom, many youths appeared to shed loose tatters of scarlet skin and gender specific identifiers emerged. Within minutes of the beginning of Z'eth'I's chant, the water crested valley was full of newly awakened Vik'sh elders engaged with their more experienced counterparts. A chorus of cocks entering mouths and filling pussies and penetrating asses harmonized with Z'eth'I's chant – Brecht felt an odd tingle and a display popped up in the lower left side edge of his vision. He turned to it and the display overlapped what he optically saw. A graph accompanied the display and he read an increase in electromagnetic fields interacting with the planet's naturally occurring magnetic field. The spike was centred where the Vik'sh were fucking. Another graph was generated and showed a spike in anti-neutron emissions some 200 meters from the edge of the file of fornicating Vik'sh.

The symbiont a.i. was still receiving a feed from 2 orbiting satellites that accompanied the destitute station Brecht and Araa once called home. The satellites detected a significant spike in gravimetric shifts in Sedna Voltariis 6's gravity well and transmitted their measurements to the symbiont a.i. 

Brecht felt a tug in his mind and tore his eyes from the spectacle of the Vik'sh and saw a proximity sphere pop up – it had a range of over 2 light seconds and displayed an incoming gravitational disturbance. 

Brecht looked to the sky. 

@@@@@ 

Within that sea of tumultuous stellar mayhem that was the corona of Sedna Voltariis, a flattened structure of dark matter orbited, its occasional gravimetric impulses holding its position steady. But the spikes in anti-neutrons had triggered the vessel's passive sensors and its core, the Intelligence, after billions of years of passivity, roared to life. The centre of the structure bulged until a flattened pyramid was formed and another was formed opposite it. The two free-floating triangles were connected  by a circular temple. Arcs of colourful energy erupted from the two halves of the ebony structure until a web of crackling plasma filled the gap within its hull. A fountain of light shot out from the centre of both sides of the vessel – the nuclear plasma that engulfed the vessel warped as the vessel accelerated towards the projected gravitational singularity the it used to follow a vector away from Sedna Voltariis. As the vessel broke from the surface of the red giant, it carried with it a plume of stellar mass over a 100,000 kilometres long.

The vessel banked a sharp turn as the Intelligence plotted a course to intercept Voltariis 6 – the projected singularity pulled the vessel on its course while the Intelligence calibrated a variant field of gravimetric waves to buffer the massive tidal forces of the red giant. Within the gravity well of the star, the vessel achieved relativistic speeds. 

Nearing Voltariis 6, the spike in anti-neutrons heralded a rift in the branes between potential universes. It was odd that the spikes happened at the surface level of the sixth planet. The Intelligence entered the atmosphere of Sedna Voltariis 6 and headed towards the newly formed canyon.

VII

The satellites Brecht had installed in orbit over Voltariis 6 had some of the most sensitive instruments ever developed and they were feeding Brecht and the symbiont a.i. with tracking information about the incoming object that had just entered the atmosphere. The a.i used the satellite feeds to populate the proximity sphere that monitored a partial portion of the planet and its local space.

Brecht focused on a dark grey cloud formation that was approaching from the east. Araa joined his gaze and as she focused her vision, she could make out a shape in the cloud.

"You see it, don't you?" Brecht asked as he unslung the PB rifle from his shoulder and he checked the charge of its power cell and he switched it on. The weapon hummed and a bar showing the charge status glowed to life.

'Yes," Araa answered.  She observed him and was struck by the stern countenance of his gaze. From Deirdre she felt Brecht had always hidden a warrior soul behind a veneer of intellectual pursuit more befitting a civilized man. Deirdre had witnessed his combativeness in debates where he would manoeuvre his adversaries like a predator. "You don't think it's one of ours?"

"We don't fly around in giant triangles," Brecht remarked. Upon those words, the cloud cover over the unknown vessel dissipated and the dark, crystalline craft slipped silently over the landscape of Sedna Voltariis 6 until it covered the gravity-forged valley with its night-like shadow. 

Brecht and Araa had already flattened against the rock and Araa grabbed an entranced Z'eth'I and she roughly yanked her down to their level. Z'eth'I choked on her chant when she hit the stone and glared angrily at Araa till she noticed the vast shadow that covered the valley where her brethren were loving. The vessel was vast, and  Brecht was awestruck as the mulch-level analysis the symbiont a.i. was completing – it was unable to definitely decipher the vessel's structure beyond the fact that it interacted with regular and quantum gravity. Brecht could only believe the vessel was forged from dark matter.

Araa was sharing the findings from symbiont a.i. while Z'eth'I looked up at the ship with awe and fear. She remembered legends gleamed from the elders about the heart of the Day Mother always watching over the children of the dreams. 

It was then that Brecht felt something push into his mind – the symbiont a.i. was attempting to open a VPN with the vessel but the encryption the vessel used was complex beyond measure. The resulting interaction gave Brecht a debilitating headache – the resulting pain had two effects: it cleared Brecht's mind and focused his attention and triggered his anger at this invasion. The emotion overrode the symbiont a.i. and the mono-molecular armour was activated. But in so doing, the VPN with the vessel was completed and Landers Brecht exploded as a conscious singularity.

The Intelligence received the link and was slightly routed when it encountered the chaotic complexity of a living mind – Landers Brecht stood before the Intelligence, his avatar a shining spectre before the pure, formless fountain of light that was the Intelligence's avatar.

Around them swirled images of the warship's history as it sought out the seed ships from its dying world; virtual murals described its creation at the centre of an artificial star where the massive gravitational pressures could mould and forge the vessel's dark matter architecture; the star that was the forge was collapsed as an influx of extra-dimensional matter was injected in it's core – the nascent singularity became the vessel's energy source, feeding power from the chaos between branes into the vessel's systems; Brecht saw experienced hands insert layers of quantum computing waves around the singularity, giving rise to the Intelligence. It had served as a warship for beings known as Providers. But after their home star had collapsed and the unfinished Reliquary ships had escaped into the vast abyss of intergalactic space to seed the universe with the memories and experiences of the Providers, the warship had found itself alone. It sought out signs and trails of where the Reliquaries were destined – it had located a herd of quantum wraiths gazing at their non-existence in hyperspace and the warship's Intelligence suspected they had been attracted by the consciousness found on a Reliquary. But the system the warship visited was devoid of any trace of the Providers. So it had decided to wait – it appreciated the ephemeral nature of the Red Super Giant so it made the star's corona its temporary mausoleum.

The vessel laid dormant until the arrival of the mysterious world that should not exist. Passive sensors noted the planet, measuring mass and composition but no danger was perceived so the Intelligence slumbered. However, the local arrival of a hyperspace singularity had revived the vessel's passive sensors while the anti-neutron signature of an inter-dimensional rift had launched the vessel to investigate the planet. 

From Brecht, the Intelligence was presented the great emotional singularities that marked the life of a human: birth, where natural light strikes the retina an truly awakens the cognitive centres of the brain; the second awakening of self when love is found for the first time; the crossroads faced after the death of a loved one – when Deirdre had died, Brecht had sought solitude and solace on the edge of known space. It also perceived his desire to understand why she was returned to him as a simulacrum and his anguish and rage at the Starcane Foundation and the hand they might have had in her death. This realization prompted Brecht to reign in the monomolecular armour and reset its safe mode. Exotic alloy and carbon nano-tubes sank back into his flesh and Brecht was a naked human once more. Exposed this way, Brecht felt the Intelligence's great eyes peer deeply beyond flesh and into the chemical bonds holding his DNA together. It was there that the Intelligence felt a tinge of  recognition – inceptualized fragments of potential hidden deep within the double helix of human DNA.