Sacrifice

Chapter 8; Shadow of doubt

Zero smiled at the flashing patterns of Cyrus’ core. It was now verging on being as complex as Andromeda’s core except it was a single personality and didn’t have the massive memory banks for database information or ship control routines. Cyrus reminded him of a child still and his obvious affection for Zero as a father figure warmed Zero’s heart immensely. Cyrus had asked Zero yesterday if he could have historical files so he could learn about the Commonwealth that Zero had told him Dylan was trying to recreate and he’d given them to Cyrus who had hugged him in the virtual matrix before vanishing, becoming an immense network of lights as he ranged through the files. He was storing it in something close to a separate memory base and not trying to absorb any of it but on occasion Zero could see that he was copying parts of it. Absorbing concepts and language attributes from the historical files to add to his personality. Like deciding he liked somebody’s hairstyle and deciding to change his own.

He jerked as he felt somebody touch his physical shoulder and his reaction made Cyrus stop moving through the files. “It’s alright, Cy. Just somebody outside. I’ll come back tomorrow.”

With that he jacked out of the matrix and pushed away from Cyrus’ bank of consoles and turned to look at Beka. “What’s so interesting in these consoles, anyway? I’ve been calling you for ages.”

“You really want an explanation?” Zero asked with a small grin, still slightly nervous about being recriminated by his Captain.

“Uh... maybe not.” She laughed.

“What’s up, boss?” He asked.

“The Maru is playing up a little. Something about heavy load balance.” She shrugged.

“I’m going to pretend I know what that is.” Zero frowned.

“It’s so the ship can adjust its thruster output when the cargo pod is full.” She explained. “According to Harper. You think you can have a look at it today?”

“Sure...” He frowned. “Thrusters sound more like Harper’s style though.”

“He says he’s already looked and it’s a computer thing.” She grinned as Zero groaned. “Harper and I are taking the Maru to collect stores tomorrow so...”

“It’s at the top of my list already.” Zero smiled at her. “Right next to the relay substations on deck 18 that Harper fried the other day.”

“How many engineers did this ship have in her hayday?” Beka asked and the hologram of Andromeda appeared beside her.

“Eight hundred and twenty engineers, five hundred and fifty electrical and computer specialists and sixty computer analyst engineers.” She said proudly.

“And now you have two.” Beka deadpanned.

“And she’s still running.” Zero pointed out with a pleased grin.

“A testimony to your skill.” Andromeda smiled at him.

“You’re just saying that to make sure he doesn’t stop fixing you.” Beka smirked.

“Says the woman who just asked me to fix her ship.” Zero laughed and Beka gaped at him at being caught out. Andromeda laughed and vanished.

“Tell Dylan that I’ll be jacked into the Maru’s core until I have the problem fixed.” Zero told Beka. “Just get Andromeda to contact me if anyone wants me for something.”

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Zero looked at a figure across a massive cavern. Fire lined the bottom of the cavern and he could see hundreds of Magog in entrances like his own all worshipping a figure in the centre. Zero could see it clear as day and this didn’t feel like a vision like his dreams normally did. This felt more real. For a moment he couldn’t recognise what species the figure in the centre was, it was like he just couldn’t actually focus clearly on him and then suddenly he was looking at himself across the fiery cavern and then standing in darkness looking over at a perfectly lit image of himself wearing loose grey combat trousers and a tight black t-shirt.

“Why?” The image of himself asked him and suddenly his eyes were red. Zero staggered backwards when he realised that it was blood in his eyes, then blood from his nose and mouth and then seeping from a cut on his throat. Then the figure of himself was shirtless and there were dozens of cuts on his chest and arms, all seeping blood. “You’re doing this to us, you know? Why did you do it?”

“What did I do?” Zero gasped out. It was the first time he’d managed to speak in one of his dreams, at least by choice.

“You should just kill us.” The figure told him. “Before you kill all of them.”

Then the figure seemed to deflate, looking tired with all of the blood on his body, soaking into his grey combats. “It’s too late for you to do anything.” The figure’s voice was tired and strained but before Zero could even think of reacting the figure leapt at him but it wasn’t himself that hit him but a massive black Panther. Zero tumbled backwards under it and felt his throat being torn out.

He screamed as he came awake and his lights flashed up as Andromeda appeared as a hologram. Zero stared at her and then swallowed the bile in his throat only for it to cause pain. “Zero, your throat.” Andromeda prompted him.

Zero pulled his hand away from his throat and looked at the blood on his hands and on his fingernails. “What?” he rasped out touching at his throat again. It didn’t seem to be massively bleeding but by the feel of it he’d tried to scratch a hole in his own throat. He choked as his chest tightened up and he pulled himself back across his bed, putting his back to the wall and tucking his knees up. He broke down utterly and completely like he never had before because something about that nightmare had really struck his emotions. It wasn’t like a premonition, it was judgement on Zero himself.

All of a sudden Zero had it all laid out in front of him, he was an alright person now as far as he knew. He trusted Dylan, Beka, Trance, Rev and even Tyr to be the good guys and he especially trusted Harper. Those were people that had their own thoughts and feelings, their own concept of right and wrong and they judged him to be ‘right’. But what did Zero know about right and wrong? Sure, he’d done what he’d thought was ‘right’ by sabotaging the ships he’d hacked into because he’d felt that it was wrong to steal them but who was to say that that was the right decision. He’d forced Beka to take him away and he’d even hijacked the Andromeda Ascendant but those had been for good reasons. He’d rescued Joseph and Izus after all.

So even if he was a good person now did that make up for any past that he might have? No matter what he’d done in the last four and a half years it couldn’t possibly compare to the eighteen years before. Had he grown up on Earth? Had he been like he was now? For all Zero knew the massacres he’d witnessed in his mind weren’t something he’d witnessed but something he’d actually caused. For all he knew he could have been a monster. If that wasn’t the truth then why was he telling himself in his precognitive dreams that he was a monster? Was it really too late for him to redeem himself? Was killing himself the only option to save the people around him? Why was he suddenly telling himself all of this?

Zero cried out as warm hands touched him and he scrambled out of bed and crawled into the corner curling himself up. Someone followed him and tried to turn him onto his back. “Leave me alone.” Zero hissed out, assuming it was Harper. Andromeda must have let him in but then he remembered that Harper and Beka had left in the early hours of the morning for their stores and parts run. Joseph then.

“No, Zero.” Joseph’s soft voice told him. “Look at me.”

“No.” Zero shook his head. “I’m a monster.”

Joseph grabbed him and yanked him around pulling his arms away from their position wrapped around him. “You are not a monster!” Joseph argued before gasping as he spotted Zero’s still bleeding neck. “We need to get you looked at. Andromeda, could you...”

“No!” Zero shot up. “I deserve it.”

“Why do you deserve it?” Andromeda asked as a hologram.

Zero breathed steadily facing off with the two of them, hologram and human. “I don’t know.”

“You’ve done nothing to deserve anything bad, Zero.” Joseph tried to reassure him.

“Prove it!” Zero snapped.

“What?” Joseph flinched.

“Prove. It.” Zero hissed. “You can’t! Nobody can. I can’t. I don’t remember three quarters of my life. How do you know I don’t deserve to be blown straight out of the airlock? I see so much in my dreams and some of the massacres....” He choked down bile before he continued. “How do we know I didn’t do all of that?”

He crumbled to his knees and vomited onto the floor as his dizziness, exhaustion and panic caught up to his body. He was blacking out before Joseph could get to him and he slumped to the ground unconscious.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Seamus gritted his teeth as his back arched off of the darkness he was lying on. It was like he was being tortured and Zero could only watch in horror, unable to do anything at all.

Zero stood on the bridge of the Andromeda Ascendant and it was so clear to him that he could feel the cold metal of the railing that ran around the raised ramps at the back. Dylan and Rommie were watching Beka’s concerned looking image. “You need to tell Trance to have med deck ready. Harper’s going to need attention. Whatever that Perseid did...”

“Trance is already waiting on med deck.” Zero heard himself say and saw Dylan’s eyes widen slightly.

“We’re already on our way to scoop you up. It seems Zero already knew what was going to happen.” Dylan glanced back at Zero even as he reassured Beka.

“Sorry, Beka.” Zero shook his head when she looked over Dylan and Rommie to look at him. Her eyes confused. “I didn’t see it until after you’d already left.”

“Zero’s been pretty out of it this morning.” Dylan explained.

“Hurry, Beka.” Zero warned.

Zero found himself standing in a vast white space and had the urge to look down at his hands only to cry out in surprise as flames burst into existence on his hands and then spread up his arms. He panicked, only just realising that he couldn’t feel it at all. He spotted something far beneath his feet and then suddenly he was falling, or at least that was how it felt. Instead of hitting whatever it was he seemed to fall into it. A building to his right exploded but the whole bombed out scene was like a film.

“Get it out of me, Zero!” Harper was in front of him, his teeth gritted in pain.

“I’ve got all of this in my head, Zero. It’s amazing. Everything in here!” Harper cried happily from his right. “Imagine what I could do with all of this.”

The scene changed and Zero found himself looking at a chaotic town. He was standing among crowds of screaming humans, all jostling him as they ran past. He turned as he heard a snarl and flinched back as three Magog appeared grabbing humans and killing them, slaughtering all of the humans. “Zero!” Harper gasped desperately and Zero spun to find himself face to face with a panicked Harper. “He.... That man, he tried to... Help me!”

Zero was thrown to the side and when he hit the floor he knew he was in one of the workshops in the Andromeda. A big man had Harper pinned to the side of a strange metal machine and he had his hand around Harper’s neck. Zero tried to help Harper but he couldn’t move.

Zero was standing in the white space again facing a blank-faced Harper who had his arms held out to the sides and behind him, breaking the white space into millions of pieces were flickering images of billions of films, documents, events. Every kind of record imaginable. All of them seemingly going into, or out of, Harper.

Zero woke up and knew instantly that he was in med deck and he turned his head and saw Trance on the other side of the room. He was breathing heavily and knew he was a little on the panicked side from his latest vision. Some of his dreams were rather vague but on other occasions it was like he was seeing an actual event as if he was actually there. He hated seeing Harper in pain and the sense he got from the vision crept him out.

Trance was trying to give him time but Zero could see in the way she was moving that she was focused on Zero. “I know you know I’m awake, Trance.” Zero sighed as he let his head fall back onto the bed with a thump. She turned around and was at his side quite quickly.

“Good afternoon.” She smiled at him. Zero groaned at that news. “Andromeda’s nanobots have fixed up your neck.”

Zero sighed, not wanting to think about his nightmare last night and focused instead on the vision of Harper. He sat up. “Can I go?” He asked quietly taking Trance by surprise though when he touched her arm she seemed a little less upset by his abruptness. She nodded. “Dylan says you’re to take it easy.”

“Something tells me we’ll all be busy enough soon.” Zero told her before acting on intuition. “You should probably stay here. Harper and Beka will be back soon and Harper’s going to need you.”

“You saw something?” She asked.

“I...” Zero shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Go on then, but take it easy.” She warned. Zero nodded and slipped off of the bed.

“Andromeda?” He asked as he walked out of the room.

“Yes, Zero?” Her core personality appeared on a screen.

“Position of the Maru?” He asked simply.

“They should enter the system soon. They had a small run in a nearby system before they could Slip to us.” She informed him.

“Is Dylan on the command deck?” He asked and she nodded as she flickered to a new screen in front of him.

“Can you suggest to him from me that we close on their predicted exit position?” Zero asked. “I’m on my way up now.”

She vanished from sight and Zero sped up. He knew by what he’d seen himself say that he wouldn’t be in time to stop whatever had happened from happening but he could at least play out the vision as he had seen it. He walked into the command deck a few minutes later just in time to see a slip stream portal open on the viewer. Where it was in relation to their position he didn’t know though.

“Zero?” Dylan asked simply in way of wanting an explanation.

“I don’t know what happened.” Zero shook his head but was interrupted from saying anything when, as soon as he touched the railing unconsciously, an image of Beka appeared on the screen.

“Beka, what’s happened?” Dylan asked.

Beka frowned having obviously expected the Andromeda Ascendant to be in a different location and not heading straight at them and also she couldn’t have expected Dylan to know anything was wrong. “You need to tell Trance to have med deck ready. Harper’s going to need attention. Whatever that Perseid did...”

“Trance is already waiting on med deck.” Zero said word for word. He wondered if he could say anything else in this situation but never actually got the urge to really test it. Could he actually just blurt something out?

“We’re already on our way to scoop you up. It seems Zero already knew what was going to happen.” Dylan glanced back at Zero just as he had in Zero’s vision.

“Sorry, Beka.” Zero shook his head when she looked at him. “I didn’t see anything until after you’d already left.”

“Zero’s been pretty out of it this morning.” Dylan explained and Zero winced at the reference to last night. Clearly everyone but Beka and Harper knew.

“Hurry, Beka.” Zero warned but then decided to elaborate but since that was when the vision had ended he might have said it anyway. “Whatever this is it’s going to really affect Harper.”

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Zero sat on the bed next to Harper’s in Med deck as Trance looked his friend over and worried his hands. “I’m fine, Zero!” Harper rolled his eyes but winced when Trance lightly touched his interface where the Perseid had done whatever he’d done.

“I’ll be the judge of that.” Zero announced jumping up and yanked out the cable from the coil built into the back of his databoard. He stopped at Harper’s side and met his eyes.

“What’s the delay?” Trance asked glancing at Dylan, Rommie and Beka. Tyr and Rev were who knew where not to mention Joseph and Izus. He knew that Andromeda was teaching them both what they had missed as slaves but Zero spent at least three hours a day with them although that time was normally spent with him using a data board or a flexi.

“Accessing somebody’s interface is an extremely personal matter amongst both humans and AIs.” Rommie spoke up.

“AIs have the advantage that when interfacing it has the capacity to overcome the intruder. The base computer holds all control.” Zero explained. “If I interface with Harper’s port I have unprecedented access through this data board.”

“It’s kinda creepy.” Harper shuddered.

“I don’t have...” Zero frowned.

“Maybe Rommie can...” Dylan started.

“No, I trust Zero.” Harper nodded to him. Zero smiled at the truth in Harper’s eyes. After the night before it made him feel so much more alive to hear that trust in Harper’s voice, his face, his eyes. He moved closer and slotted the cable into Harper’s port and watched Harper’s eyes roll up.

He waited for something to happen but was surprised when none of the programs in Harper’s interface surged into the data board. He frowned. “What?” Beka gasped.

“His firewalls and protective viruses are down.” Zero frowned.

“What’s the chances they’re faulty?” Beka asked.

“None.” Zero shook his head.

“You’re sure?” Beka frowned.

Zero nodded. “I wrote them.” He didn’t look up as he tapped away at the board, forcing it to understand Harper’s unique method of thinking and processing information. As soon as it connected there was a fizzing sound and the screen died. Zero frowned. “Well that was bad.”

“What?” Dylan asked in concern.

“His mind overloaded the data board.” Zero frowned.

“Always said I was a genius.” Harper grinned with his eyes shut.

“I’m going to jack straight in, Shay.” Zero told him. “That alright?”

“Whatever you say, boss.” Harper grinned. Zero rolled his eyes and pulled the cable from his fried data board and slotted it into his neck. His eyes flickered as the world vanished around him and he plunged through the link and into Harper’s interface. The programming was an utter mess and he’d have to completely wipe it and build it up from scrap but Zero could get past them without much problem. When he linked with Harper’s mind though it was like seeing a nuclear explosion go off. For a split second he could see an image of Harper watching him with a white expanse around them and suddenly he realised it wasn’t just white but filled with images swirling around them and flickering into existence behind Harper. Then it was gone and Zero had to wrench the cable out to stop the information dumping itself into his mind too.

“What is it, Zero?” Dylan asked as Zero regained his balance on the edge of the next bed.

He pulled the cable out of Harper’s interface and Harper looked at him with a wince. Zero glanced at Dylan and then Beka. “That Perseid downloaded so much information into Harper’s mind. So much there isn’t all that much room left.”

“What do we do?” Beka asked. “How do we get it out of him?”

“I’ll have to run some programs.” Zero shook his head. “The sooner it comes out the better. Harper’s going to start absorbing it into long term memory soon and it’ll be harder to remove then, if not impossible.”

“What does that mean?” Beka asked. “For those of us that don’t understand as much as you two.”

“You see a film of something you know you didn’t actually take part. The memory of watching it is stored in your memory but not the actual event that is on the film.” Zero tried to explain in layman’s terms. “Harper’s mind will try to actually absorb the events themselves. Probably mostly as dreams and then he’ll start to think he was actually witness to the original events. I saw a few of them just now and last night in my own dreams about this. They’re not pleasant.”

“How do we get them out then?” Beka asked.

“Give me a few hours to work something out with Harper.” Zero told them. “Rommie, I’m going to need in on your core.”

Beka caught his eyes and he knew that he could ask her for anything right now and she’d go out of her way to get it. Dylan backed out of the room and then eventually Beka left to. Rommie studied him for a moment before nodding to give permission and Zero used his wireless link to connect his interface to one of the consoles in the room that could handle linking him through to the core AI.

He glanced around and when he was finally looking forward again the Core AI was standing in front of him. “Are you alright, Zero?” She asked.

“It’s Harper we’re supposed to be worrying about.” Zero pointed out bluntly.

“Yet I am concerned for you also. As is Dylan.” She retorted. “What happened to you last night?”

“It’s just a dream, Andromeda.” Zero explained. “Maybe even just a normal one.”

“Your heart rate and blood pressure spiked exactly as they do during every one of your prophetic dreams leading me to believe that it is of the same description.” She told him brutally.

“So prophetically speaking I’m going to turn into a Panther and tear out my own throat?” Zero asked sarcastically making her frown. He hadn’t told anyone the details yet, not even Joseph.

“Not all of your dreams are to be taken literally.” She pointed out logically.

“I can’t explain what the dream was about, Andromeda, and we have more important things to worry about right now that don’t involve my sanity.” He said bluntly and reached out for the interface logic that governed everything when Zero jacked into her Core.

“What is it that you have in mind?” She asked.

“Right now Harper has a massive amount of information in his brain, more than it can handle and soon it’s going to start compressing itself to settle alongside his own. I opened up my own sense readout from when I was linked to Harper’s interface. Take what you can from that and run a simulation so we get an idea of time for when he starts getting permanent brain damage.” Zero added in his request. She could easily talk to him and do a million different simulations at the same time without straining herself. “You’ve got plenty of space in your Core for all of the information currently residing in Harper’s mind and as a bonus there really is an argument for not deleting it completely. That Perseid wouldn’t have downloaded it to Harper unless he had a reason.”

“Then you are suggesting a download into my core?” She asked. “Something like that has never been done. Transfer of so much information through your interfaces is not possible.”

“I know.” Zero nodded. “Perhaps something else will work. I’ll start working on reception software as soon as I can and talk to Harper. If anyone can come up with a device then it’s him.”

She nodded and Zero jacked out again with a sigh as he entered the real world. He pulled out his wireless device and started explaining what he wanted to Harper.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Four hours later

“It’s impressive, Cy.” Zero told him with a smile. Cyrus grinned at him proudly and held out the matrix of information currently held in his hand. Zero had come into Cyrus’ core to write a program that would allow Andromeda’s core to absorb the massive amounts of information with barely a delay. Cyrus had done most of the work using the fact that he could write parts of himself without hesitation whereas Andromeda wasn’t permitted to do such a thing. And even if she could it was one of her very few limitations. She just couldn’t write programs for herself. It was something that showed how advanced Cyrus really was. He was the first AI that Zero had ever discovered who could self-write parts of himself. He could evolve and he’d just proven how effective that was.

Zero downloaded the program into an external drive. “Is Harper going to be alright?” Cyrus asked.

“I hope so.” Zero told him. “My dreams didn’t show him being permanently harmed by this.”

Cyrus was fascinated with Zero’s prophetic dreams and Zero had even started using his interface to show them to Cyrus who now had something similar to Andromeda’s core database and in his spare time, when he was writing parts of himself or with Zero he was running simulations using the database, literally witnessing history and trying to change it in hindsight. Ever since he’d heard of Zero’s connection to Earth Cyrus had become obsessed with Harper’s link to it and also to anything to do with Earth and was trying to piece Earth together in his mind and more often than not the matrix that Zero appeared in was some Ancient part of Earth. Currently they were standing in what Cyrus called the ‘Las Vegas Strip’, whatever that was supposed to be.

“I’ll be back soon, Cy.” Zero promised before he jacked out and back into his body in his lab.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Four hours later

Zero was working in the med deck on the machine that he and Harper had designed rather quickly. With Harper’s enhanced mind and Zero’s knack for creating things like this they’d come up with a safe way to remove the memories without damaging Harper’s mental synapses in the process. He’d already installed the program that he’d written with a lot of Cyrus’ help into Andromeda’s core and she’d been very impressed with the program.

He was a little concerned by the man that had arrived with a warrant for the Perseid and had watched the man using Andromeda’s systems as he’d come and gone with the body but Zero knew he’d be back and had warned Dylan. Rommie was keeping an eye on Harper at all times so that eased Zero’s concern a little bit.

“Tyr, get to hanger 5 now!” Dylan’s voice called over the ship’s tannoy and Zero dropped his tools and was half way down the corridor before he could really think about it. Hanger 5 was where Harper was working, building something from Ancient Earth and Zero could remember his dream.

He ran into the room ahead of Tyr and drew the High Guard Lance from the holster on his leg and powered it up, pointing it at the Bounty Hunter who turned away from where he’d been backing Harper into his contraption to look directly at Zero. His lips turned up into a sneer and Zero fired the Lance.

His shot missed as the man leapt to the side and forwards and before Zero could react the man slammed into him and Zero found himself hurtling backwards into the wall. The man stayed standing in the centre of the hanger sneering at him as Zero caught himself before he could fall to the floor. Zero looked up with a glare, baring his teeth with a vicious snarl that surprised even him. A loud growling filled the air and the man was clearly shocked but he didn’t have time to kill Zero, or whatever he’d had planned, before Tyr ran into the room and instantly started battling with him.

Zero knew that this was the end of the threat to Harper for the time being and let the pain in the back of his head take precedence. He pushed off of the wall as soon as Dylan appeared and the Bounty Hunter decided that he was outnumbered. He glanced once at Harper before his form faded and he sunk through the deck.

Zero winced as he prodded at the back of his head before heading over with Dylan to check on Harper as Tyr ran out of the room to try to track down the Bounty Hunter. Dylan glanced at him. “Pre-warning?” He asked.

“Harper wasn’t in any danger.” Zero frowned. “I was here in time.”

“You were though.” Harper frowned at him and grabbed his right shoulder to turn Zero to have a look at the back of his head.

“Med deck, Zero.” Dylan ordered. “Harper, take him please.”

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The next day

Zero had been surprisingly tired throughout the rest of the day and night as he worked in the med deck. They came under attack from the Bounty Hunter’s ship and even though Harper drew him off Zero had to spend four hours in the middle of the night fixing the Slip Stream Drive where the Bounty Hunter had shot a hole straight through them with a Point Singularity Bullet and then gotten straight back to work with a concerned Trance watching over his shoulder, possibly waiting in case he fell asleep on his work.

Dylan and Beka had gotten Zero back and lost the Bounty Hunter and seeing how close Harper was to actual brain damage it was time to put the machine to work. “Ready?” Beka asked her friend and engineer.

Harper nodded and Zero tapped a few buttons on the data board attached to the machine to power it up. “Lie still, Harper.” Zero commented.

“I know.” Harper nodded. “Just get it out of me, Zero.”

“Gladly.” Zero nodded and activated the machine. Light struck Harper in the head from the ring around the bed and his body twitched slightly. Trance checked his statistics and nodded to Zero who dialled up the machine. He saw information being uploaded into Andromeda’s core. “Rommie?”

“Download rate acceptable.” She nodded. “Your program is permitting download at eight times the speeds I am used to.”

“Tell me to back it off if you need me to.” Zero told her though he didn’t need to tell her that the shorter the time the better for Harper. Zero watched the progress constantly over the next two minutes using every function of his data board to monitor the massive transfer rate. He planned to make this sort of transfer rate normal for Andromeda by making the program that Cyrus had written a bit more permanent and applicable for other types of information transfer. A message flashed up on the data board to tell him that the machine couldn’t detect any more transferred files and instantly the download cut off.

“That’s all of the transfer.” Rommie reported.

“Start comparing files against your database.” Dylan told her. “See what is new.”

“Keep the files isolated though, Andromeda.” Zero added without looking up from his data board. “We don’t know what’s among the files to prevent just this sort of thing. I’ll have to check it myself for viruses.”

“I’ll be careful.” Rommie nodded speaking for her core AI. “I’ve set up an isolated archive for the time being.”

“How do you feel, Harper?” Trance asked.

“Normal?” Harper tried making Zero laugh.

“Nothing about you is normal, Shay.” Zero muttered before blushing when he realised that everyone had heard him. Harper laughed and reached over to touch Zero on the arm.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Two hours later

“Zero, when was the last time you slept?” Dylan asked him as he walked onto the command deck to find Zero working at one of the consoles.

“I just finished working with Andromeda to check that there aren’t any hidden traps in the information.” Zero defended himself.

“That didn’t answer my question.” He pointed out. “Everyone else got a few hours sleep.”

“The last time I slept was in the med deck just before Beka and Harper got back from their stores mission.” Zero told him truthfully.

“You need your rest.” Dylan pointed out.

“If I get tired enough to make a mistake then Andromeda will tell you.” Zero pointed out.

“That’s not the problem.” Dylan shook his head. “I’d trust your work even if you were doing it half dead.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Zero asked just as Rommie and Beka walked into the room followed shortly after by Trance, Tyr, Rev and a tired looking Harper.

“Nobody wants to see you like this.” Beka told him, clearly hearing much of the conversation.

“I’ll survive.” Zero argued before glancing around. “Why the gathering?”

“Andromeda says she found the file she believes the Bounty Hunter was after.” Dylan announced.

“I have found a file that the Perseid tagged as important.” She announced.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Zero asked, feeling a little betrayed.

“I told her to wait until we got up here.” Dylan chuckled. “Knowing you, you’d have tried to start analysing it already.”

“And?” Zero asked.

“You’re taking the rest of today off, Zero.” Dylan told him. “Harper too. As soon as we’re finished here both of you are to go to bed.”

“Dylan, there’s a sixty metre diameter hole straight through the ship.” Zero frowned.

“We can do much of the work on it.” Beka pointed out. “It’ll be a few days before you and Harper can really get into it.”

“Yeah come on, Zero, buddy.” Harper laughed. “You can take a day off.”

“Fine.” Zero grumbled before looking at the screen. “What’s the file about?”

“Preliminary information states that it is evidence of Magog involvement on Brandenburg Tor.” Andromeda’s image on the screen announced.

“There isn’t much to prove there.” Beka pointed out.

“Indeed that is true.” Rev mumbled sadly. “Most of my kind looks upon Brandenburg Tor with pride.”

“Wait.” Zero frowned. “What’s Brandenburg Tor?”

Everyone automatically gave him a surprised look before realising that he didn’t actually know. Sometimes they all found it far too easy to forget he didn’t have any memories older than four and a half years ago. “The first strike of the Magog invasion of the Commonwealth.” Tyr announced. “They massacred all of the humans on Brandenburg Tor. Three billion people.”

“Wait...” Zero frowned looking at the deck. “I saw it.”

“What?” Beka asked.

“My dream in the med deck when I was seeing Harper with the information in his mind.” Zero spoke still looking down at the deck. “I was standing in a street lined by houses and there were humans screaming everywhere being slaughtered by Magog. I haven’t really thought about it since.”

“Then this is important if we want to find out what happened here and what that Bounty Hunter wanted.” Dylan nodded and Harper looked suddenly intrigued. He probably wanted to know the reason behind all of this. “Andromeda, run the file.”

The image of Andromeda disappeared from the screen to be replaced by a dark street filled with people running and screaming. The image shook showing that it was taken by a camera. A Magog ran past the screen and it flinched as if knocked. The holder clearly wasn’t human, perhaps a tripod set up before the attack. Then the sounds caught up, screaming, growling. Zero watched it all even after the tripod was knocked over showing more of the square.

“There’s nothing new and incriminating here.” Beka pointed out.

“Run it from where the tripod was knocked over.” Tyr spoke up, moving down the ramp and closer to the screen. “I thought I saw something in the background.

The film started again. “Freeze it there.” Dylan straightened up slightly. “Zoom in on the back, in the shadows.” The film zoomed in and Zero froze, feeling himself go utterly still and cold. He couldn’t take his eyes away from the screen and he couldn’t move any part of his body. It was like his body wasn’t his own anymore, like his lungs had stopped pulling in air and his heart seemed to be having trouble beating. In the centre of the screen, and standing upright now that Rommie had corrected for the fallen tripod, was a being made up of what seemed to be fiery darkness. He seemed like just an empty space where there should have been normal air. He was aware that the others in the room were talking about it but Zero couldn’t even move.

For the first time in his life he knew he had a memory of this being. He didn’t have a clue who it was but his instincts were insisting that his current situation had been brought about through some involvement with this being. His hands tightened involuntarily on the railing in front of him and he felt the blood rush from his face and before he knew it his hands were shaking.

“Zero?” The screen vanished to be replaced by the core AI. Zero staggered away from the railing and slipped off the step behind the console he’d been at. He landed heavily on his back in a daze and scrambled back away from Harper who tried to help him. He threw himself up and backed away from them all.

“No.” Zero shook his head. He was denying his very existence in that one statement. “No.”

“What, Zero?” Beka frowned. Zero backed up until his back hit the railing on the ramp and he ducked under it and onto the ramp. “Wait!” She called but Zero broke into a run and was out of the room before anyone could react. He threw himself down the corridors at a reckless speed and into his room. He hit the door controls and locked them.

He fell to his knees with a sob as his fingers scraped at the carpet. He was in pain but he didn’t know where it came from. He felt like he’d been betrayed. He felt as if he’d been pretending for the last four and a half years and that he wasn’t anything like who he’d made himself out to be. He looked up to see himself standing over him with a sad expression but he didn’t say anything in either direction.

“Zero?” Andromeda’s voice asked from his left and Zero turned to look at her holographic image.

“Please, leave me alone.” Zero begged.

“You want me to activate privacy mode?” She asked.

“Is Dylan on his way?” He asked and she nodded. “He’ll order you to release it won’t he?”

“If I know my Captain then yes, he will.” She nodded. “It would be for the best if you let him in yourself.”

“I’m sorry, Andromeda, but I just need some time to myself.” He told her. “And you can’t give me that when Dylan can just revoke it.”

“What are you doing, Zero?” She frowned as he forced himself to his feet and to his desk. He pulled out a small chip and moved to the keypad that locked the door and pulled open the front. He knew that she’d be warning Dylan that he was up to something so he probably only had a few seconds. He jabbed in the code that uploaded his virus.

“Sorry, Andromeda. Don’t take this personally.” He said looking back at her just as her image shut down. He’d kept this virus in his room just on the off chance that one day he just wanted to lock himself away in his rooms without anyone getting to him. A good idea in hindsight. It was a virus that completely shut down Andromeda’s sensors within his rooms and prevented her from manipulating the doors into his room. They could probably cut through the doors but hopefully they’d take the hint.

He collapsed onto the floor in the corner of the room, not feeling worthy of something like a bed, and just curled up into a ball asking himself one simple question. ‘How had that thing been involved in him being like he was now?’

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Two days later

Zero sat on the end of his bed as he pulled on his boots. He knew it was the middle of the night and although he had no access to what had been happening outside of his doors he knew that the others had to be worried about him after so long. He felt extreme guilt that he’d done what he’d done but he hadn’t really had much choice. It had been an entire day before he’d come out of his panic and another day to get his head around the fact that maybe he should be dead. That maybe he was a monster even worse that the Nietzscheans and the Magog. He knew he was good at electronics, he knew he was a brilliant fighter and he knew he had prophetic dreams. All of that didn’t equal up to a peaceful person.

He moved to the wall panel and deleted his virus from Andromeda’s systems and tucked the virus away in his desk again. He looked at Andromeda as she appeared as a hologram but she didn’t speak for a moment. “There’s no need to apologise for anything, Zero.” She told him.

“I know you don’t like being out of control.” Zero said. “But I needed the time to myself.”

She nodded. “Are you leaving your rooms?”

“Is Dylan awake?” He asked in way of answering.

“Everyone is asleep.” She told him. “Dylan did leave orders that I was to awaken him if you left your rooms.”

Zero winced. “Is he mad?”

“No, Zero.” She shook her head. “He is concerned for your wellbeing and curious about why you reacted as you did.”

“I’d like to talk to him if that’s okay.” Zero told her and she nodded.

“Head for his rooms.” She told him. “I’ll wake him and tell him you’re on your way.”

Zero took his time walking towards Dylan’s rooms and it took him ten minutes to get there only to find the door into his living room already open and Dylan sitting on a bench by the window wearing a set of combat trousers. Clearly that was all he’d bothered to put on after getting out of bed.

They stared at each other for a moment before Zero had to look away and out of the window behind Dylan. There was a planet there in the distance but it looked like a gas giant so they weren’t at risk from people on the surface.

“Are you alright, Zero?” Dylan asked.

Zero almost looked at him but then thought better of it and took to looking at a storm on the surface of the giant. Instead of answering the question he started in on why he’d come to speak to him. “I don’t know why I wanted to talk to you and not anyone else.” Zero told him. “I mean Harper and I are really close...”

“I spent years as a Captain, Zero.” Dylan told him. “I’m used to people coming to me to talk rather than to their friends.”

“I do think of you as a friend, Dylan.” Zero finally looked at him and saw the momentary flicker of Dylan’s eyes as he took in how red Zero’s eyes were. “It’s not that you’re the Captain. It’s more because you are as lost in this galaxy as I am.”

“The only difference is that I knew another home before this one.” Dylan agreed with him. “I’m here for you no matter what happens, Zero. Even if you put yet another virus into my ship.”

Zero winced. “I needed time.”

“Time for what?” Dylan asked.

“I don’t know. To stop panicking?” Zero tried.

“Do you want to talk about that film, Zero?” Dylan asked. “Do you remember something from it?”

“I...” Zero shook his head. “No. I don’t.”

“You looked like you did.” Dylan argued.

“I don’t remember it.” Zero explained. “I am certain that I know that figure though.”

Dylan stood up in a single instant and Zero barely restrained himself from taking a step away. “You’ve seen it before?”

“I don’t know.” Zero shook his head. “When I saw that thing it was like I was on the edge of remembering my life but I don’t remember anything more now than I did before. I think...” He trailed off.

“You think what?” Dylan asked.

“I think that somehow it is involved in how I ended up like this.” Zero looked down at the ground feeling tears on his face. Dylan didn’t say anything but he moved closer to Zero and put a hand on his shoulder. “Dylan? Am I a good person? Do you keep me here because you trust me or because you need me?”

“Zero.” Dylan started and Zero look up at him. “I need you here and I trust you to be here.” He answered the question literally. “As for you being a good person you hijacked my ship even though you knew that it would end with you locked up or dead, all to save your family.”

Zero studied him seeing the truth in his eyes. “Dylan, I don’t want to remember my life.”

“What?” Dylan flinched back.

“Dylan, I’m a good person. I’m proud of what I’m doing.” Zero stared at him. “What if I was a monster before?”

“You weren’t a monster, Zero.” Dylan argued back instantly.

“I...” Zero shut his mouth unable to put his feelings into words. “I dream of massacres that have yet to come true. What if those are in my past? What if I’m a monster? I knew that thing that was with the Magog. I know it.”

“You don’t know it!” Dylan snapped and Zero flinched and Dylan quickly calmed himself.

“Dylan. I don’t know what I was but think about it properly. I have always been able to fight and kill people. I have a knack for hacking and viruses and I can see the future. What if that all comes from my past life? You think I would have been a peaceful person?” Zero shut his eyes for a moment before opening them again. “I don’t remember anything from before that crash but who’s to say I wasn’t involved in that being. The first thing that even seems familiar to me is a creature that... that...”

“I know, Zero.” Dylan put his hands on Zero’s shoulders and Zero crumbled into him. He’d never gotten this close to Dylan before but right now he just wanted to break into a thousand pieces.

“I’m going to program some of Andromeda’s nanobots to erase my memory.” Zero muttered into Dylan’s chest a short while later.

“What?” Dylan asked pushing Zero to arms length.

“I won’t be a monster, Dylan.” Zero shook his head.

Suddenly the holographic image of Andromeda appeared beside them. “Such an erasing of memories would be complete. I’d have no way to target only the memories from before your currently remembered life.”

“I know.” Zero nodded. “But if I regain my memories I could be a monster and I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t want to be a monster.”

“I can’t just wipe your memories.” Dylan shook his head.

“You have to, Dylan.” Zero demanded. “I like who I am now as screwed up as I am. I don’t want to change. If I was a monster than I don’t want to remember that. If that happens you have to stop me. Erase my memories or kill me.”

“I can’t kill you.” Dylan shook his head.

“Or have Tyr do it then.” Zero demanded. “You can’t leave me to suffer like that. I want you to promise me.”

“Promise you what?” Dylan demanded in return.

“If I regain my memories and I’m evil you have to hunt me down and either kill me or erase my memories completely. You can’t lock me up. I don’t want to live if I’m evil like that.” Zero suddenly sobbed and tears streamed down his face. “And you can’t let me leave when I’m like that. You can’t let me do something bad.”

“What brings this on?” Dylan asked. “Why are you so convinced that you’re evil?”

“I’m not.” Zero closed his eyes and wiped at his face. “But I just feel that I was involved with that creature on the film. That I chose to be involved somehow.”

“That doesn’t mean you were evil, Zero.” Dylan tried.

“The dream I had the other night...” Zero looked up at him. “I was standing in front of myself and I told myself that I was the cause of all of what has happened to me.”

“That doesn’t make you...” Dylan started but Zero cut him off.

“I told myself that I should just kill myself, before I killed all of you.” Zero said with a sob. “I can’t hurt any of you, Dylan. You have to promise that if one day I try that you’ll stop me even if you have to kill me.”

Dylan turned to the hologram of Andromeda and Zero saw the anguished look in his eyes but when Dylan turned back he was calm. “I promise I won’t let you harm anyone you care about. I’ll stop you in that event. But I won’t give up on you, Zero. Ever.”

“Thank you, Dylan.” Zero nodded and suddenly Dylan hugged him again. “Please don’t tell Harper or any of the others about this.”

“No.” Dylan nodded in agreement. “This is between us but Zero...?”

“Yeah?” Zero asked as he pulled away from the larger man.

“I have faith in you.” Dylan told him. “You say your instincts tell you that you were involved with that creature but my instincts have never failed me and they all tell me that you were and always will be a good person. I knew that the first time we met. Just before we started that fight and you turned Andromeda’s guns on me.”

Zero couldn’t help but laugh at the mention of their first encounter and Dylan motioned him to a seat at the table where Zero noticed a bowl of fruit and dove in. He hadn’t eaten anything in two days. They spent the rest of the morning talking and Zero felt himself relaxing once more but the creature and the promise he’d forced from Dylan weighed heavily in the back of his mind.

He just hoped he never had to deal with either situation.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter