“It might help me to decide whether we can help you if you told us exactly what you need help with,” I responded cautiously. Risha had said that they were telling the truth, but I had a feeling that they were holding some things back as well. “I don’t have the authority to start any diplomatic relations until I can speak to our superiors about what we’re willing to trade or help you with, and that includes Risha’s services. I don’t think that any of us will be going anywhere until this tower is operational again and communications are restored. How long do you think that will be, Risha?”

“At the current rate of repair, I estimate just under three hours before this tower is fully functional again, Wing Commander,” the AI promptly responded.

Desra looked from her comrades to Risha, and then to me before the other Catkin looked down at the floor in shame. “I… please… do not allow my mistrust to affect your decision. The truth is that killing the Dragon was not the only reason that we came south, nor did we find the tower by chance. We were not certain what its purpose was, but we knew that there was likely old-world technology here. We came here to try to find an AI to connect to Ashburn’s AI core, or some other technology to help us. If we didn’t find them here, then we were prepared to venture into the large ruins to the west in Misota.”

“Hey, those are our ruins,” Lisbet objected, “we literally live there now.”

“Normally we would not venture into another country’s territory, or even leave Ashburn, but we’re desperate,” Garon clarified apologetically. The large Orc then let out a sigh before continuing to explain. “For a little over a year now, the city has been experiencing malfunctions that we can’t explain. Until now, they have mostly been mostly minor and in systems that aren’t used very often, but several days ago we began having trouble with the stardrive. From what I have read in the archives about AIs, we were hoping that one might be able to discover the source of the problem, or create some sort of fix for it.”

“From what our techs say, it hasn’t been anything serious yet, just some strange readings once in a while, but we barely have an understanding of some of the more complex stuff, and the Exodants never left our ancestors with much useful information before abandoning us. So we’ve been searching for anything that would help in the computer archives, and our records showed that the only other known base built before ours that contained a fully functional stardrive was Woodbury Base in Minnesota, in the ruins near the former capital,” Pippa explained. “I guess that’s where you’re all from, with the equipment that you have.”

“Wait… you’re telling us that the miniature sun meant to power a base large enough for over eighty-thousand people is malfunctioning? Oh… shit.” Risha turned to me as the stunned look faded from her face and became very serious. “Snowy, I would say that this falls firmly into the emergency category. I cannot state direly enough, how disastrously that could turn out if something isn’t done soon.”

I frowned and let out a sigh. That didn’t sound good, and if it was as bad as Risha was making it sound, then the longer we waited, the more chance that something really bad could happen. As much as I probably could have turned this situation to our advantage in negotiations, I didn’t want to do that. It would set a bad precedent and probably start our future relations with these people off on the wrong foot. If Risha was as serious as she sounded, then it was probably best to see if she could fix the problem now, and maybe earn a bit of goodwill by doing so.

“Risha, do you think that you can help them? Are those suits of theirs going to be a problem if we take them home to deal with this? What do you think?” I asked the AI.

Risha turned pensive for a moment before nodding and replying, “The power armor will be a tight fit in the MIST, but we shouldn’t have any issues with them as long as they remain powered down. Though I would suggest removing the ‘power source’ while we are in transit, just in case. If the problem is what I think it is and it hasn’t progressed too far, I can probably get things running properly again at their base without much trouble, at least for the moment. They really should have an AI of their own to take care of issues like that. And on the off chance that they are lying to us, or screwing with us in any way, then they will wish that they were facing the threat of a malfunctioning stardrive. I can be a psychotic bitch when people screw with me or my friends.”

The three from Ashburn paled and went quiet at the not-so-thinly veiled threat from the Avatar and in the silence, I sighed before coming to a decision. “Lisbet, start producing what you need to burn that Dragon’s corpse and something that can put out fires, just in case. Autumn and Heather, start prepping the MIST for takeoff and going through the preflight checklist. The rest of us will try to load those mechanical suits aboard, very carefully; I don’t want a scratch on that MIST if it can be helped.”

It was Desra who finally managed to speak for the people from Ashburn while Lisbet, Autumn, and Heather ran off to complete their tasks. “You’re going to help us?” It sounds like even she wasn’t sure whether she was surprised that we would or worried that we wouldn’t.

“You need help, and if Risha can do what you need her to then it’s the right thing to do,” I replied with a shrug. Then I allowed my expression and tone to become far more serious. “When that’s done though, I expect that someone from the Corps will want to sit down and talk diplomatically about any future relationship we might have. And I hope that someone from Ashburn will keep in mind the favor that we’re doing for you right now and do so with an open mind.”

“Really? There’s so much that we could learn from each other! So much technology we could share! I’m sure that someone will be eager to talk about that!” Garon was enthused as his expression and body language made a sudden shift from cautious and uncertain to practically trembling with excitement.

“I’m warning you right now, there are people among the Corps who look Human, but are still Seed-borne like us. We even have some Humans who are sympathetic to us working among our support staff. That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” I asked pointedly as I looked directly at Desra.

The other Catkin winced guiltily and it was Pippa who spoke up in her stead. “Des has personal reasons for not trusting Hume... umm… Humans. Please, don’t hold that against her, she’s really not as bad as she seems right now. Most of us are uncomfortable with the thought of being around them, given our history. It’s why we seldom leave our city, but if they’re still here on Earth then they were abandoned by the Exodants as much as we were.”

“As long as it isn’t going to be a problem,” I said as I forced a shrug. “Now, we should get to work. Risha did say that your situation counted as an emergency, so I would rather not waste any time.”

It took roughly half an hour for us to prepare for our trip to Ashburn. Most of that time was taken up by guiding the Ashburnites as they maneuvered their power armor inside the MIST, just inside the rear entry ramp, and then strapping them down with cargo ties and safely removing their hazardous power supplies. It was a tight fit for Garon’s armor at first while it was at its full height, but we managed to get it in last without damaging anything.

While we had been doing that, Lisbet had been using the food dispenser to produce enough plasma grenades to burn the Dragon’s corpse, as well as some fire retardant grenades, and the two Fay of our group were prepping the MIST for takeoff. Once everyone else was on board and I had gathered Heather, Karina, and Lisbet at the entrance ramp, I told them. “I’m leaving you three here for now, and if everything goes well then we’ll come back to pick you up once we’re done with whatever Risha needs to do in Ashburn. Heather will be in charge.”

“Awww, but I was looking forward to seeing a base that big and all of the people,” Lisbet complained as she frowned and her ears twitched in irritation.”

“Come on, Lisbet, I know it’s not as exciting as going to see Ashburn, but I think I know why Snow is asking us to stay here. We just met these people and it’s not a good idea for us all to go, just in case they do try to pull something,” Karina told the Harekin quietly.

“Yeah, I don’t think they will, but I would rather err on the side of caution. If something goes to hell and you can’t contact us when comms are back up, then I’ll be counting on you to contact my grandmother and Sira to let them know.” I admitted with a frown of my own. “Regardless though, there are other reasons to leave you behind as well, Lisbet. That Dragon corpse needs to be burned now that you have enough of those grenades so that no local scavengers can feed on it and become Demons. You said that it would take time and that you’ll have to watch to make sure it’s done properly, to make sure the fire is contained, and won’t spread anywhere it shouldn’t. I also need you both to contact me as soon as communications are restored, in case either of us needs backup for some reason.”

“Yes, Wing Commander, I understand. I don’t like it, but I get your reasoning.” She really wasn’t happy about missing out and I felt bad about that, but this was the best decision and we all had jobs to do.

Heather seemed to agree with that sentiment but took charge as I was hoping she would. “Lisbet, I understand how you feel, but she’s right. That corpse needs to be burned and you’ll need us to cover you when you do that. Carrion birds or other scavengers might have already gotten to it while we were in the tower or while you were preparing your grenades, and it was already injured and bleeding when we got here. Animals could have come in contact with its blood before we arrived, and there could be Demons being turned in the forest right now. We’ll handle things here, Wing Commander. If something shows up that is too much for us to handle on our own, we’ll hide in the tower and contact you once communications are up again for reinforcements.”

“Thanks, I’m counting on you, girls. If things go well in Ashburn, hopefully, we will have other opportunities to visit soon. We’ll see you when we get back, take care of one another.” With that, the three exited the MIST and, once they were clear, I sealed the door behind them and made my way up to the passenger’s area to join the others and get strapped in. Then I called out to Risha and Autumn at the controls, “You can take off when ready.”

“We’re ready, Wing Commander,” Autumn called back even as I felt the slight thrum in the frame of the craft that indicated the maneuvering thrusters engaging.

We traveled in relative silence for a while, but the trip was probably going to take at least half an hour. Since we didn’t have to navigate the ruins or run scans this time and were in a bit of a hurry, we were going to try to make this trip as quick as possible. Still, after about ten minutes the silence got awkward. Since I wanted to fill that silence and I had to be sure that Desra wasn’t going to be a problem, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. “So, Desra, Pippa said that you have a reason for not trusting Humans. I’m going to assume that it’s a little more than just the thing with the Exodants leaving us all here on Earth while they fled for safety.”

The Catkin gave her Fay teammate a withering glare before sighing and then taking a deep breath. I could see from the look on her face that she was debating whether she should tell me or just remain silent, and how each option might affect our assistance to them. Not that I would withhold assistance after I had promised it, but that was probably fair since they knew us as little as we knew them. “I…” she started uncertainly.

“Look,” I interrupted before she could say something she wasn’t comfortable with, “you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. I’ve offered our assistance to your people and we, or rather Risha, will do as promised so long as you’re being straight with us about your situation. I’m not going to turn this ship around because you won’t share a personal issue with me; I’m just trying to get to know you better since we’re all here and nobody is saying anything else.”

Desra let out another sigh and nodded. I thought that would be the end of the matter until she hesitantly spoke once more. “My… father was a Hume. I never met him; he was gone long before I was born. My mother met him while she was out of the city testing some new type of scanner that she was working on. She was one of our engineers, like Garon, she had a gift for understanding old-world technology and adapting it or creating new things.”

“We have people with similar gifts, we call them Tinkers. Lisbet is one of them,” I offered while trying to stay impassive.

“Like most of our people, my mother had never met a Hume in the flesh before and she was curious. He wasn’t the monster that she had been expecting, at least that wasn’t the face that he showed her. She started leaving the city to meet with him in secret and fell in love. He listened to her, even when she would talk about her various research projects at length. He expressed an interest in her work and wanted to see the things she spoke so eagerly about. Then one day he showed his true colors.”

Why did I suddenly have a shiver crawling its way up my spine? Still, I asked, “What did he do?”

“He betrayed her,” she spat bitterly, practically hissing in anger before managing to calm herself enough to speak once more. “My mother showed him a piece of equipment that she was working on, and was complaining that it wasn’t working as she intended. It was a small device, meant to be worn on the head and allow even those without interface nanites to mentally interface with a suit of power armor, but it wasn’t working as planned. When she told him what it was doing instead, he beat her unconscious. When she awoke, he and the device were both gone. She never saw him again and two months later she discovered that she was pregnant with me.”

“What?! You never told us that! He attacked an engineer and stole a prototype and they never hunted him down?!” Garon practically roared.

Desra winced and looked away from the Orc. “I’m the only one that my mother ever told. She was humiliated, and she only told me when she was dying because she wanted me to know why I should never trust Humes. If I ever find out where he is, I’m going to kill him and take my mother’s property back. Something like that shouldn’t be in the hands of a Hume!”

“Something like what, Des? What did the device do? Do you even know enough about the man who sired you to find him?” Pippa asked of her agitated team leader, concern evident on her face and in her voice.

“It… made the wearer very pliable and open to suggestion, but it was a faulty prototype, so there is no knowing what the long-term effects on a person might be, or even if it worked for long after he ran off with it. As for that bastard, I’ll probably never find him. He did nothing but deceive my mother so I would imagine that what little he told her about himself was nothing but lies too. He claimed to be Lord Aron Clarkson, the eldest son of a noble house, but it was probably all just part of the deception.”

My heart skipped a beat and I attempted to school my expression. I knew that name. I had had reason to learn about Misota politics, and the players, since becoming an Angel, and that name came up a lot. Even if I hadn’t been learning about politics recently, I would have known that name. Heather surely cursed it enough; it was the name of her father.

Ahead of us in the pilot’s compartment, Risha didn’t give anything away but I was certain that both she and Autumn had heard from the sudden change in Autumn’s scent and body language. She was furious and from the stiffness of her shoulders, she was working very hard to contain it. I considered for a moment that it might be an elaborate lie meant to turn us against the royal house of Misota, but Desra seemed too invested and her emotions were genuine, it had been evident in her quavering voice, her body language, and her scent. It fit too; the Clarkson family managed the territory on the eastern edge of Misota and on the south shore of the great lake, and it was people from their estate who had had the most opportunity to observe Ashburn.

I was going to need to report this as soon as possible. The Archangels and Sira could decide whether we should be taking the accusation seriously, and what we should do about it. I certainly couldn’t risk telling Desra, at least not yet, who knew what she would do once she found out? I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to tell Heather about this. They both deserved to know, but this could really complicate an already tense situation and tip the scales toward outright civil war in Misota. That wasn’t my decision to make. I managed to weakly offer, “Well, if things go well between our two peoples, maybe we can help you find out what became of him someday.”

The remainder of our flight had been filled with a tense silence and I was relieved when Ashburn came into view. Pippa might not have known exactly why our side was so tense, but she did try to lighten the mood when Autumn called back to tell us the city was in sight by offering information. “As I told you earlier, the base was built to cram over eighty thousand people in there, but we lost a lot of people until we got our hands on the power armor and were able to start replicating it to drive back Demon attacks. We have a population of just over twelve thousand now, but only if you’re not counting all of the Merfolk who live in the lake.”

“Merfolk?” I had heard legends of the mermaids of the great lake, but I’d never really believed them. Now it seemed that they were indeed real and we might even be in a position to meet one. I found my mood somewhat improved by the prospect and I was burning with curiosity about them.

“They’re some of those people who can’t pilot power armor, due to their tails,” Garon contributed. “So when Demons from the lake attack, most of them usually have to hide in one of the shelters that we adapted for them until the danger has passed. It’s getting to be a tight fit for them though. Harpies, Lamia, and a lot of the Devilkin have similar issues with piloting power armor too though.”

I winced sympathetically as I tried to picture Karina trying to pilot one of those things, but decided to get us all focused on the situation at hand. “Now would probably be a very good time for you to contact your people to let them know that we’re here, preferably before we’re over the city. It would be really nice if nobody decided to try to shoot us out of the sky, since we’re here to help you and all.”

Desra, who still seemed to be in a dark mood following our earlier conversation, managed to shake it off enough to offer, “Uh… yeah, right,” as she unbuckled her harness and made her way to the pilot’s compartment to give Risha their comm frequency and then clear us for landing in the hangar.

Once that permission was granted, Autumn moved us over the city and brought us down carefully for a landing. My fiery Fay mate whistled appreciatively as she slowly lowered our altitude and Risha watched the sensors. “This place is huge, but I wouldn’t want to live here. No offense to any of you who do, but there are way too many big buildings here and they’re so close together.”

“Well, our ancestors weren’t exactly consulted on matters of design,” Garon offered wryly. “We’ve gotten used to it over the generations and tried to turn it from a prison into a home.”

I unbuckled my harness to get a look for myself before we touched down. The area within the walls was only roughly five times the size of Woodbury Base, and from what we’d been told the underground areas were limited to only the AI core and the stardrive levels. Still, they had crowded enough large buildings together to house forty times the occupancy that Woodbury Base was designed for at only five times the ground-level surface area. No wonder it seemed so crowded.

With her Fay cultural background, it wasn’t surprising that a city with this many large buildings packed so tightly together would make Autumn nervous. I was pretty sure that Fay like Pippa were only able to manage it because it was what they were used to, and they hadn’t had the opportunity to go and found their own villages and form a culture like the Fay and other non-human species of Misota had. I couldn’t blame Autumn for being nervous, this place was making me nervous too as she maneuvered between towering buildings to land us in the hangar.

I decided to leave the MIST in the Hanger while Autumn and I accompanied our AI mate for protection. I could have cloaked the craft but I had taken pains to not reveal that feature around our new allies, nor the fact that Risha could pilot it remotely if she absolutely had to when the comms were up again. I felt it best to keep certain aces in their holes in case we might need them to make a quick escape. I was willing to help the people of Ashburn, but I wasn’t absolutely sure if I trusted them yet.

With that in mind, we kept our weapons with us and I engaged high-security mode on the MIST once we had all disembarked and offloaded the power armor as quickly as possible. Now it would only open for me or Autumn by using a combination of biometric readings, voice print, and a code phrase, or for Risha by remote or manual interface. If anyone else went beyond mere curiosity and tried to get inside or access something they shouldn’t, the external cameras would let us know the who, how, and when of it when we returned. Now we just had to hope that they weren’t lying about not having any AIs.

Another ace that I wanted to keep in its specific hole for the moment was our abilities. Risha and I were both being very careful not to show just how strong we really were, and Autumn and I had carefully avoided mentioning our gifts. They might have known that Risha was an AI now, but all that they knew about her avatar body so far was that it could make her seem human. They didn’t need to know more than that and we weren’t going to offer it.

Fortunately, the hangar was close to the elevator which would take us down to the AI core level, though that meant that we didn’t encounter many of the city’s other residents either. Another plus was that the stardrive hadn’t already had containment fail or something. I had blanched when Risha had explained that, and the other possible ways that a malfunctioning stardrive could have gone horribly wrong on our elevator trip downward. I wasn’t the only one.

Finally, we reached the floor with the AI core. “Huh, the assholes in charge were cheap as fuck,” Risha muttered as we looked around the mostly empty room. The only thing in the room other than the AI core itself was a thick coat of dust. “They didn’t even install a cradle and charging station for an Avatar. If they ever did mean to give these people an AI to go in this core when the incomplete base was repurposed, they didn’t mean for them to ever leave the core itself.”

“Can you still access it?” I asked as I watched our hosts for their reactions or any sudden movements.

“Yeah, it will be a piece of cake,” the AI responded with a confident grin before placing her hand on the core to wipe a layer of dust away and make direct contact. “I’ll probably need to access everything in the core and on the network to search for possible problems though, so I really hope our hosts don’t have anything to hide.”

“No! Nothing!” Desra insisted vehemently. Risha seemed satisfied with the response and nodded slightly toward me. She had as much as told them that she was going to be poking into every nook and cranny in their systems and looking at every bit of data she could find. If they had been trying to hide something or were double-crossing us then this would be the time to get nervous.

Risha closed her eyes for a moment and frowned as she turned to me. “Not a trace of an AI in this core, or that there ever was. There are all the automated backup programs for running the base without one, even the hardlight dome and turrets that were never installed, but no AI. It’s clean for me to go in, Wing Commander.”

The Ashburnites hadn’t made a move yet, except to watch Risha curiously, so I let out a sigh and gave the order. “Do it, Risha.”

The Avatar nodded and turned back to the core to place her hand on it once more. Her body stiffened and then her voice was coming from all around us. “Initiating search protocols now, Wing Commander. Yeah, it is just as I thought; software decay.”

“Software decay?” Garon asked uncertainly.

“These systems have been running for hundreds of years without a proper AI to initiate more than basic hardware maintenance,” the AI responded patiently. “There is no indication of software maintenance, patches, or regular code analysis to look for bugs or program degradation. Programs can degrade just as much as hardware, given time and the right circumstances. I am going to have to go through all of the systems in the core and all networked computers to make sure that everything is back to proper working order.”

You can do it though, right?” Pippa asked hopefully.

“Of course. This may take a while, but it should fix your problems here until we can help you find an AI who is willing to help run the place on a more permanent basis. I have already examined the code in the stardrive maintenance and power transfer protocols and fixed the problem there, so the danger of something going disastrously wrong with that is over,” Risha assured us all.

It was close to an hour later that I was startled as a voice that definitely did not sound like Risha said, “I’ve been a bad, bad girl.” The voice sounded almost like a young girl’s and had a strange lilting accent.

Then as we were all wondering what was going on and looking around us in the silence of the moment that followed, Risha returned to her avatar body and erupted in laughter. Only once her giggling had finally subsided did she say, “Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that and at least I didn’t say, ‘You’re all going to die down here.’ There is nothing to worry about, I fixed all of the software issues that I found, and even did some system optimization while I was in there. The people of Ashburn are no longer facing imminent demise, and as far as I can tell, everything that they have told us is on the up and up.”

Even as Autumn and I relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief, our hosts went tense as Desra sputtered, “W-wait! We were really facing imminent demise?”

“Well, imminent is a strong word, and really it could mean anything. It could be five seconds or a hundred years away when dealing with stuff like this. There was a small chance, three percent at most, of it happening within the next twelve hours,” the Avatar announced casually. “We totally dodged that bullet though, huh? I’m hungry, who else is hungry? Do you have any decent restaurants around here?”