The construct Part 2
25 Nov 2021Rain Ocampo
Antal / Deep space - 24.11.3307With the drives switched off, my Crusader drifts through space.
The loneliness and silence of this place makes my thoughts wander back.
...
Antal / Lobachevski Station - 21.11.3307
"Regeneration 67 percent complete." The soft computer voice drowns out the gentle hum of the skin regenerators.
A few more days and I can resume my duties on the guard.
My plasma burns, which normally would have remained as ugly scars even after prolonged treatment, have all but disappeared.
Utopian medical technology almost borders on miraculous in so many ways.
Jin and Sharon came to see me today to see how I was doing. Both of my 'aunts' were seriously worried about me. Sharon in particular ... She also has a strange talent for always getting into hopeless situations and putting herself in danger.... Must run in the family. But it was so good to see her again. I am so happy for Jintosh. She's finally reunited with the love of her life.
"You two should search for a nice little moon and live there, away from all the trouble that's going on in the galaxy right now." All three of us laughed at that sentence, knowing full well that would probably never be the case....
That was the last time I saw the two of them....
Sharon had received a tip on how to find one of the last remains of a very old and very dangerous android... or at least a lead.
She was determined to find and destroy anything that might be left of Theon. Against her own 'programming'. The artifact we had obtained in the Coalsack sector was probably effective against the Guardian network after all.
The trail of clues led to HIP 116360, where Sharon was to meet a contact in Maine Arsenal who would provide her with further instructions.
Sharon's team was probably supposed to infiltrate a settlement to perform a download and recover a memory card. But that's where everything started to go so incredibly wrong. The group was already expected and immediately came under fire. Sharon was shot in the leg and arrested while trying to retrieve the encrypted data chip.
Fortunately the others escaped from this trap.
Jintosh traveled as fast as she could to the prison ship to get her wife out.
...
What had happened to Sharon Valerii during that time? Was it the GPLC Resurrection that had jumped into the system during the events? Aurelia Davidson, the XO of the carrier always seems to be involved somehow.
I find it hard to believe what is in the logs of that day....
Sharon forced Jintosh at gunpoint to travel to Resurrection, which had already prepared a hyperspace jump to HIP 17519.
She ordered her friends back to Maine Arsenal. When they realized what was going on it was almost too late. Only commander Hans v. Volldampf managed to dock at the carrier in time. But he was sealed in the hangar by Aurelia and locked up.
Helplessly he had to witness how Jintosh was put into the 'resurrection device'. This seems to have another function, of which nobody had suspected anything so far. It could overwrite a consciousness...
Tears of anger spring to my eyes when I think of not having realized this. I studied that device until Aurelia threw me off the carrier.
HIP 17519. Sharon's retreat since she found Salome's Requiem there on her travels. My aunt had been allied with the main faction, the Into the Black Gang, for years. Was there a long-term plan afoot???
Jintosh came out of that infernal machine completely changed. She said that now she would understand everything and realize her task. She did not say a single word about the violence done to her.
On the way from the carrier to the asteroid base Hans v. Volldampf started a desperate attempt to stop Jintosh's ASP and to prevent the catastrophe. In the end he couldn't bring himself to do it and both women reached the 'safe harbour' of 'Pirate's Lament'.
...
Even if it seems that I have lost the last of my family, I am not ready to give up!
I have taken a leave of absence from active duty in the Utopia Guard and will try to find out what really happened. Because I don't believe that Sharon Valerii suddenly turned evil. I think she was manipulated and I will find the one in the shadows who is responsible for it....
to be coninued...