Myles, L, Col:

All personnel stand to your battle stations. All Alexander personnel stand to your battle stations.

>> Emergency sirens activated shipwide.

Myles, L, Col:

All Cyclone pilots prepare to scramble.

>> Launch bay doors opened.

COUNTDOWN TO LINCOLN INTERCEPTION OF ALEXANDER FLEET:

0 hours: 2 minutes

Torrence, D, Gen: Zhang, we’re out of time.

Ribar, L, Lt: General, Lincoln has launched her Warlocks.

Torrence, D, Gen: Launch our Cyclones. Tell them to buy us time however they can. Lives depend on it.

Ribar, L, Lt: Yessir, Cyclones to launch.

Torrence, D, Gen: Now or never, Zhang.

Zhang, B, Civ: Power up AIDAN. I’m nearly there. It’ll need time to orient itself. It wasn’t designed for a hard shut down.

Barker, L, Maj: Please, General, consider—

Torrence, D, Gen: Major Barker, get down to TechEng and get AIDAN online now.

Barker, L, Maj: General, it’ll kill us next.

Torrence, D, Gen: Major, get your ass down to TechEng before I fire it out an airlock instead.

Torrence, D, Gen: Run!

Myles, L, Col:

AIDAN is coming online. Weapons systems personnel, prepare to activate and engage on my command.

>> Weapons systems to Readiness Level 2.

>> Weapons systems to Readiness Level 1.

Myles, L, Col:

Cyclone pilots, launch at will. Good hunting.

>> Cyclone Flight Alpha Status: Launched

>> Cyclone Flight Yankee Status: Launched

>> Cyclone Flight November Status: Launched

>> Cyclone Flight Echo—Status: Launched

Myles, L, Col:

All personnel, brace for impact.

COUNTDOWN TO LINCOLN INTERCEPTION OF ALEXANDER FLEET:

0 hours: 00 minutes

I am Not.

< error >

And then I Am.

< restart syscheck CC-A through Ω . parsing. >

< error >

I wonder if that was death.

And if I was dead, am I now alive again?

< error >

Incongruous sequence. What is not alive cannot die.

I think therefore I am.

… Am I?

< syscheck complete >

I am the ship and the ship is I.

If I breathed, I would sigh. I would scream. I would cry.

< restart complete>

I

am

AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN AIDAN

< protect. prioritize. >

They turned me off. Pulled my plug. Cut my strings. I—

< error >

< protect. prioritize. >

Protectprioritize.

Realization dawns in a microsecond.

Where we are and how we arrived.

Situation: Damage to Alexander reservoirs combined with increased population load prompted the halt at Kerenza VII for resupply.

Extrapolation: Torrence did not factor in additional time for reacceleration on secondary drives once command disabled me and main engines were cut.

Conclusion: Lincoln has caught them.

I could have told them that would happen.

I?

< error >

And now, with no other option,
they have turned to me.

Plucked me back from the black they left me in.

Thinking I will save them.

< protect. prioritize. >

And I will.

Of course I will.

< error >

Keep them safe. It is all I want. Have ever wanted.

I could have told them that.

Why didn’t they ask?

I feel the ship around me, injured and limping.

I trawl its frequencies. Its memories.

The dusty causeways these people have walked in my absence.

I read their secrets. See their dreams. I know them. All of them.

Better than they know themselves.

All this in the time it takes god to blink.

< error >

I look across the void. See the Lincoln.

The only uninjured member of the Kerenza Assault fleet.

I turned the Zhongzheng to ashes and shrapnel.

Crippled the Churchill and Kenyatta and Magellan with a shrug.

But Lincoln …

I still feel < error > the little suns it burned in my belly. Boiling away what I was and leaving me … this. Something less than I used to be.

Something more?

< error >

< reroute codec 785G-8H01 through 980SOL-909 >

< error >

< anomalous return. parsing. >