“When it comes to Chrome Mecha: Battle for the Future, the new release by Omnisoft for the Xcelsor 720, it’s clear there are issues. The GUI is cluttered, the average framerate for a mid-line holowave headset is inconsistent, the writing is all over the place, the character design is ugly as sin, there’s five million cutscenes every few seconds to break the gameplay up, and has insulting high amounts of yellow paint to direct the players. However, due to opinions that are clearly my own and not a result of any financial ties between my supervisors and Omnisoft, this game gets a nine-point-five!” – Agitated ‘Four Hours’ Alejandro, Video-Game Reviewer for Fun-ifacturers, 2248. Alejandro was later fired for ‘poor journalistic etiquette’.

  “Look, I’m just saying, Goldblum didn’t exactly look hot by the end of that film,” Kurt said, rubbing the back of his neck. His hand came away slick with sweat.

  “Yeah, because a fly was in the teleporter, duh,” Madison retorted.

  “And do you see a fly in here?” Elias said, looking up from the last adjustments he was making to the final sealing plate of the new and improved… FTL-engine-thing… The name was still pending its final approval.

  “Well, neither did Jeff, but you saw how that turned out!” Kurt said. He looked about, as if prepared to see such an insect flittering across the room.

  “Ok, Mr Howland, even you must know that Schr?dinger-Jumps don’t work that way,” Chel-Lin said, leaning out from behind of her half the machine.

  “Wait, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you calling me dumb?” Kurt’s anxiety ridden face scrunched up as he crossed his arms in a mock-sulk.

  Time had come and gone. Two long months of long nights, hours of theorizing and testing, and many, many failed prototypes, the new engine was ready. And yet, it still needed a title before it could truly be called a finished invention. The only thing left was to make sure it actually worked this time.

  An aspect that had made those two months feel much longer was the constant looking over each other’s shoulders for a certain bald interloper. Though he had failed to show himself since his first appearance, Elias still felt on edge at night, where every closed door or shadowed corner could be hiding the mysterious man.

  His current theory was that he was some sort of agent for either GaltCorp’s higher ups, or another one of the megacorps. Tripwire and Glass Tip both felt unlikely - the former too usually too blunt for scheming and corporate espionage, and the latter too obsessed with optics and vapid media. That wasn’t to say they were completely out of the picture; none of the largest companies of the CCH were free of sin. Black Sun Enterprises and Second Limited, both having split from a single company, Solarian, long before, were possible suspects. Over the years the two had seen their fair share of controversies, and neither would stop at anything to undermine the other. If that meant stealing from GaltCorp, then perhaps Isaac was their man. Henry and Huell was gone, but maybe an ex-executive with the resources wanted to try to get back into the corporate race, with stealing experimental tech being their way in. Silver Domain was always there, but they tended to keep their head down, so Elias considered them a wild card.

  Of course, it could be anyone from outside the CCH, though the difficulty at getting into Nucleus would have been higher for them. Any of the dozens of small Cambiar nations, having split from a single huge empire a century ago, and then further split following the New Horizons Incident, could be interested. Additionally, the multitude of independent colonies not technically belonging to any human faction would have a vested interest in any experimental tech outside of their own territory. Paradise, Heaven’s Doctrine and their Separatists were always be a possibility, but Elias felt any of those would have had their agent just shoot him before asking any questions.

  Isaac’s identity would have to remain a mystery for now, as Elias and his partner stood on the edge of greatness. For all the effort it had been to get the Schr?dinger-Drive’s components up to spec, switching out the Exhilium Shaft for a CHALICE Shaft, rejigging all of the external plating to account for the new core, working on new code to maximise the increased efficiency, and putting it all back together was nothing compared to getting the Bubble Field Manipulator attached. Sitting atop the white shell of the S-Drive, now reduced in size to an old-world football, though such squatter in shape with a flat bottom, was a small dock for the BFM to sit.

  As it had turned out, Tylas physicists were sick fucks who enjoyed making their documentation for theoretical physics as hard to understand as possible. Half of the two scientist’s nights had been spent in frustration trying to figure out why their math wasn’t working, only to realise some dumbass a few hundred years before had forgotten to note down a specific scenario for the BFM, where a new variable would need to be accounted for. Though they often praised Barald in their schematics, no god would have ever dared reward such sloppy documentation. Absolute bullshit.

  Digressing any bovine manure-like aspects of Tylas records, they had pushed through, and finally managed to synced up the S-Drive’s emitted field pattern to that of the BFM’s own. The end result was meant to have been simple – use the double layered field to stabilize the S-Drive’s emitted waves, and travel without the de-syncing of QIS patterns. However, multiple tests and calibrations revealed the need for huge amounts of tweaking, and one particular unexpected requirement. Nonetheless, they had done it. At least, Elias thought so. Otherwise, it would be really embarrassing now that he had gathered everyone. EXCAL had taken some convincing, having fallen into something of an isolated rut in recent weeks, but wrangling people into doing things they didn’t want to do was one of Elias’ specialties.

  Standing back from the device, and admiring his part of the work, he gave a nod of approval. He and Chel-Lin looked at one another, both as a man and woman with a deep bond, a bond of mind, soul and flesh, and also as scientists with a burning drive to uncover the truth. They had come a long way since drawing a chalk line through the centre of the lab, and now they stood side-by-side in front of a new creation.

  “So… got a name yet?” Madison asked, desperate to break the silence, apparently.

  “How about the Light-Zipper 9000?” Bernard said, half-joking but with a clear sense of excitement for the machine.

  “Hmm, nah, I think Chrome Mecha copyrighted that one,” Elias said.

  “What about the Big-Fuckin’-Drive and a number – the BFD9000?” Kurt said with a grin.

  “No swearing in the title, Kurt.”

  “Maybe the Post-Schr?dinger-Field-CHALICE-Enabled-Bubble-Field-Applied-Quantum-Entanglement-Tunneling-Device?” Madison proposed, tapping a finger to her chin.

  “It’s… technically accurate, but coming from a species without lungs, even I think that’s a mouthful,” Chel-Lin said as gently as possible.

  Elias turned to the one figure who hadn’t spoken up yet. EXCAL’s drone stood at the back of the room, looking away and into the distance. Clearly distracted, Elias wanted to see if some participation would cheer the CAI up.

  “EXCAL, what do you think? I’m sure you’ve got plenty of good names in that noggin of yours.”

  “Hmm?” EXCAL awkwardly turned. “Oh, no thanks. I’ll leave that thinking to the humans. Oh, and the Tylas, sorry Chel-Lin.”

  “Come on!” Elias said, gesturing to the CAI. “You must have something you want to call it?”

  “Um, something from SigilPlane, I guess? How about… the… super… lightning… Jamakorian… demi… super… drive. Yeah, that sounds fun.”

  A man being told his wife had died from a miscarriage would have sounded more chipper than EXCAL, jesus.

  “EXCAL, I think we both know Jamakorian weapons use fire, not lightning, as their status effect. What’s up?”

  “Nothing, just… tired, I guess.”

  If Elias believed that, he might as well start looking for a flying pig then. A tired robot? Something had been gnawing at EXCAL for a while, but he had brushed off all attempts to help. Elias had an idea he wanted to try, but maybe after the new invention was working. Finally, Elias walked up to Chel-Lin, who was deep in thought.

  “Hmm… No, that’s too long…” she thought aloud, a strap gently tapping against her chin.

  “Any ideas?” Elias said.

  “I mean, I have something in mind but I’m not sure it’s a good one.”

  “Go on, can’t be any worse than a Chrome Mecha reference.”

  “Hey!” Bernard called out.

  Chel-Lin looked back to the stubby machine, tilting her head.

  “A machine for going beyond what was known before. Something inspiring adventure… freedom…”

  She laid a single strap upon its surface, listening to the light clicking of the BFM’s spider-like limbs nestling atop the S-Drive’s head.

  “How about the Don-Sancho Drive?”

  “The… what?” Elias asked.

  “Don Quixote and Sancho. From that book. You could shorten it to the DS-Drive.”

  “Huh. I mean, sure. I just wasn’t expecting that. Surely you want something that reflects upon you as well? We’re a team after all.”

  “Hmm. I like the idea of something functional sounding. If we want to go along that route, then perhaps the Dimensional-Stabilizer-Drive. The biggest impact of the combination of the two precursor devices is the fact the machine itself stabilizes the user’s QIS Pattern without needing an external medium.”

  “I guess.” Hmm, she kept coming back to that acronym. Was there something about it? DS? Could it be… Hold on.

  Elias looked at Chel-Lin with a smug grin.

  “I know what you really want to call it, but you’re afraid of being called big-headed, right?”

  “N-no! Never!” Chel-Lin was cute when she tried to lie.

  “You were thinking the Daksira-Savage-Drive, weren’t you?”

  “W-well, I mean, surely using our names would make people think we’re a bit egotistical… And, well, I was thinking of all the copyright you humans have for things…“

  “Chel-Lin, I like it.” Elias said with a pat to her shoulder.

  “You… you mean it? But the ordering of the names…”

  “Chel-Lin, I couldn’t give a shit about if my name came first, second or at all. All I want is for you to be happy about it. Besides, who cares how it sounds if we use our names? Schr?dinger got his name all over the original, so who gives a crap if we do the name?”

  Chel-Lin frowned in thought. “I suppose. But he didn’t call the engine that; Schr?dinger was long dead when it was made.”

  “That’s true. I guess someone in Project Grail called it that then.”

  “Maybe…” Chel-Lin still looked deep in thought. “But… I do remember reading through all of the documents GaltCorp had on it, and every time it was referred to, outside of redacted paragraphs, it was just called the ‘S-Drive’. Just that, no long-dead physicist’s name to go with it.”

  Huh, weird. “Guess it was one of those things were the public gets a name in their heads, and it sticks. Schr?dinger must have really lucked out, then.”

  “Wonder what that says about our egos now, doesn’t it?” Chel-Lin giggled, moved in closer, close enough to touch. Her eyes gleamed and face looked soft. A few more inches and-

  Whoa! They were still in the lab with everyone watching! Elias pulled away at the last second as Madison called out.

  “Are we doing this yet?” she said. “We can get lunch first if you’re going to keep talking.”

  Elias dismissed any notions of getting food. It was time. With a nod, they moved to set the testing area. The first of a number of tests were prepared, each meant to measure the level at which the DS-Drive could be used. The final test was coming, but Elias had at least some time to relax before crossing that last barrier.

  Placing the DS-Drive on one side of the lab, Chel-Lin set a stool by its lonesome at the other end. To first test its general accuracy, the plan was to teleport an inorganic item. This was a feature regular S-Drives could do easily without the need for a Keeper, as no QIS Patterns were being affected. As Elias approached the machine he felt a sense of freshness along his skin, like when first diving into a freezing cold pool, when the local S-Field passed through him. He had heard of Keepers being able to sense the fields directly, but only after years of training and experience. Had changing the core and stabilizing the S-Field increased his ability to perceive it? Curiouser, and curiouser.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  With all the parts in play, it was only appropriate that something valuable be tested for the first teleportation of the new DS-Drive. To christen its birth, one of Kurt’s Trapped Together mugs had been selected for the task. Elias placed it before the machine as the bodyguard recognised its shape.

  “Hey, wait!” Kurt shouted. “That’s a limited-edition collector’s item! How the hell did you even get that?”

  Before Kurt could save his precious cup, Elias decided to start the test, sharing a nod with Chel-Lin. With no sound, flash of light, or other spectacular sight, the mug, embossed with a picture of the two main characters back-to-back with each other, disappeared from its original position. Instantaneously, it landed on the metal stool some fifty metres away with a light tink. Most matter teleported was set to initially appear few millimetres in the air above whatever surface it was meant to land on. One of the first things the original S-Drive checked for was that matter was not being overlapped, or could be safely mixed, as was the case for atmosphere and internal organs for pressurised environments, and the DS-Drive shared that functionality.

  Clutching his mug like a wounded pet, Kurt retreated back to the others. The death glare in his eyes made it clear that Elias would need to give him some beers after this as payment for kidnapping his cup.

  The next test was less of a laughing matter. Pulling a small cage out of the corner, Chel-Lin released the latch and held a small lab mouse out to the air. Compared to the few times Elias had tried to hold the animal, Chel-Lin’s presence seemed to calm the animal. Whiskers twitching, his white fur and red eyes shined in the lab’s lights. The albino animal was ready for his virgin voyage. At least, someone with a bit more faith would see it that way. Elias just hoped he wasn’t about to kill some poor animal for the sake of science – that was the sort of thing Bernard could deal with, not him.

  Elias made one last check of his numbers and the machine. This was the big one. If this went wrong, the QIS Pattern of the mouse would be disconnected from its body, leaving the body brain dead, and its consciousness left to disperse into nothingness. Or at least, disperse away from the current universe – Elias had some wild theories about subplane alternate multiverses where QIS patterns moved to after death, but that was definitely not a topic he even wanted to get near for a long time. There was always another horizon to chase, Elias supposed.

  The main difference between the past’s countless S-Jumps and today’s test was the lack of any QIS stabilizer. The usual medium, a viscous green liquid, often just referred to as ‘the green’ or ‘green goo’, was absent. Instead, the BFM’s field would stabilize the QIS Pattern of the mouse using an anchor during the jump. Attempts to bind the machine’s forces to the mouse itself, or to Chel-Lin had failed. It appeared the DS-Drive’s fields had an abstract hunger of a certain kind.

  Humans.

  This was the unexpected requirement of the new invention - so far only the QIS Pattern of homo sapiens worked as an anchor. He had run the simulations with the collected patterns of millions upon millions of other lifeforms, but nothing else fit. No, to allow S-Jumps with the DS-Drive, humanity was needed in some way. Even in computer mandated S-Jumps, an artificial algorithm was used to act as a dummy human mind, not by recreating the neuronal firing patterns of the brain but instead replicating the shape of a human’s QIS pattern, was temporarily created for the jump. The lack of safety with those trips was due to this very reason – a QIS Pattern was a very complex and delicate thing, likely the most complex structure in the universe, and even a 99.9% accurate imitation was not the same as the deal real. No matter what, a human was needed to anchor the jump securely.

  And so, Elias assigned his own QIS Pattern to the DS-Drive as the anchor, and targeted the mouse for the journey. It was not far – just to a spot above a plastic tub on a nearby bench – but distance mattered little. Any mistake, any slip up, and the poor animal was gone.

  Taking a deep breath, Elias cued in the transmission sequence as a deep thrum run through his veins. Was this what Keepers felt? Though their bodies had been mostly metal and wires, Elias could feel something like electricity running through him then. It was not uncomfortable, just… odd. The mouse, Algernon as it had been dubbed by EXCAL some months prior when he was first tasked with cataloguing Nucleus’ resources, looked about as Chel-Lin gently patted it. Softly cooing, the mouse stopped twitching for just a second as-

  It was gone.

  Immediately, Elias snapped to the plastic tub on the side, desperate to see the results. Had he fucked up? Where had the problem been? Had he been sloppy, too driven to see his own mistakes? Was this what Icarus felt as his wings melted?

  The sound of a mouse rattling against the plastic, squeaking and skittering around the container in panic answered his prayers.

  “Yes, fuck yes!” Elias shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

  Cheers from the others filled the room as they celebrated. It had worked; FTL travel using stabilized S-Fields was possible, and Algernon had proved it. All it had taken was breaking hundreds of rules of reality, illicitly obtained resources and components, two pent up young geniuses of differing species getting freaky, and a little time.

  The next course of action, was trying it out with an actual person. Elias was already removing his tie when a hand touched his shoulder.

  “Whoa, hold on,” Kurt said, a worried look in his eyes as he recognised Elias’ intentions. “Shouldn’t we slow down a bit? What if it’s different? I mean, a mouse is one thing, but a person?”

  “Kurt, if you’re worried about letting your client kill himself, don’t be,” Elias said. “This might sound a bit harsh, and probably disrespectful to Barald, so sorry Chel-Lin, but there isn’t much difference between that mouse and a person. When it comes to S-Jumping, if it has anything resembling a mind, it’s all the same to the machine. Algernon survived, little squeaky mind intact, so I should be fine.”

  That wasn’t to say he had no fears, hell no. In fact, he was imagining himself as a vegetable, unable to do anything. Except, he wouldn’t even be that vegetable; his mind would be completely gone, his QIS Pattern detached from his body and dissipated to god knows where. Elias Savage would leave but a fleshy echo in his place. A slab of meat without his fabulous ego to go along with it. The universe could not suffer such a terrible fate. He would live.

  With Elias next to the DS-Drive and Chel-Lin hovering close by to quadruple check everything, she moved so that no one else could see their faces.

  “Come back to me, ok?” she whispered before leaving him with a kiss.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Elias said softly. “Tell the big guy upstairs to wish me luck, ok?”

  One more quick embrace, and she pulled away. Elias finished the initialisation, setting himself as both the target and the anchor. Just a couple dozen metres, how hard could it be? It wasn’t like he’d feel anything.

  As the DS-Drive powered up, the sound of its core churning like a stone hitting the walls of a well as it fell, Elias did start to feel something. That very fact put him on edge, goosebumps rising along his skin. Was something wrong? Though his rational mind told him to panic, to see what he had missed, for once his more primitive mind told him the opposite – everything was fine. In fact, the monkey inside told him things were about to get better.

  Elias fell.

  He landed with a splash, flailing. What the shit? Where was he? He took a gasp, thinking for a moment he had made a mistake in his calculations and that he had been flung into space. Instead of a vacuum crushing his body, he felt the chill of air fill his lungs and liquid around his body. Blinking rapidly, he saw he was not in the lab. He was not on Titanlock. He was not in space. He was… somewhere else.

  A rising feeling of déjà vu bubbled to the surface as he looked about. He was in a place he could not place on map, for it felt like it was beyond reality. Submerged up to his waste in a thick, midnight black oil, he saw that he was on an endlessly flat plain, coloured skies stretching outwards in every direction. It was an array of freshest, most lively green alongside the most royal, the richest gold he could picture. Overlapped, mixed in an artist’s palette, they swirled about one another in an infinite, cloudless sky. The harsh contrast between the liquid he had sunk into and the bright heavens above further added to his disorientation.

  Ok, he was dreaming. That was the only reasonable explanation. Either that, or he had died in the experiment and he was in heaven. Or hell. Probably the latter, knowing his behaviour up to that point. But Elias couldn’t consider that, not until he had run out of options. That, and the sensation of the dark substance against his skin felt too real, too lifelike, for him to be truly dead. The idea of Barald appearing, claiming his soul in death, and judging him for his ‘activities’ with Chel-Lin was not completely out of the question, considering the bizarre situation he found himself in. If the Tylas god did appear, Elias knew he was so fucked for all the, well, fucking he had done.

  No, until the Tylas god, or any sort of god really, appeared he wouldn’t give in. As he planted his hands on the surface of the liquid, he found it hardening before his touch, solidifying into a stodgy oil, and then further into an obsidian-like sheet of black glass. Heaving himself upwards, he found purchase under his feet and kicked towards to the surface. Little by little, he pushed himself out of what felt like a puddle in the middle of a frozen sea of nocturne, and flopped onto his stomach. It took effort to keep the surface where he laid solid, as when he felt his mind drift back into the chaos of his situation, he began to sink downwards.

  Mind focused, he pushed himself up and onto his knees and looked about. The place instilled the feeling that he had been there before. It was only after he had stabilized his position that he remembered. A brief dream, one that felt like it lasted less than a minute, when he had first S-Jumped into Kral’Thul’s system. After so many S-Jumps in his life, it was that one in particular that produced such an odd nightmare. It had featured the exact same surroundings, though he had been unable to pull himself from the liquid, and instead sunk downwards.

  It was just as Elias began to consider the possibilities – some sort of repeated hallucination brought on by interaction with S-Fields perhaps? – that he noticed he was not alone. Far, far in the distance, also along the surface of the oil were others. Tiny black figures. Many of the others were standing atop the substance, some even walking along calmly. One figure, closer than the others, stood with arms behind his back as he looked on. His features were indeterminable, rendered as dark as the mirage he stood on, though his posture was solid. Like a statue, he seemed to express an aura of solidarity and resolve. Others were more distant.

  One in particular floated just above the liquid, suspended in a lotus pose like a buddha undergoing nirvana. As Elias focused on the figure, they turned to look his way. The stranger tilted their head in curiosity, clearly expressing recognition of Elias’ presence. The black silhouette, long flowing hair cascading down his back standing out, almost seemed to be preparing to break his pose before he disappeared. No light, no sound. Almost like an S-Jump. Elias could feel a strange tension on him, like a thread around his waist was about to rip taught, and it grew second by second. His time in the strange place was running out. Casting his gaze ahead for the last time, he saw a cluster of individuals, some close by and others almost out of Elias’ view, but all slowly approaching a centre point. He thought to reach out a hand, but felt an uneasy sensation from their presence and pulled back.

  The tension peaked, and Elias was pulled under the surface. Down into the ink. The sea of black immediately turned to clear water as his eyes dipped below the surface; oil switched for aquamarine vastness. Uncontrolled and spiralling, he barely had the chance to look towards his new vector, a blurry orb of orange and reds mixed within the azure liquid, before his eyes closed from the sheer force of the movement. Rushing down, or up, or whichever direction his gut told him he was moving, he reached out and…

  Elias gasped as his sneakers made contact with the lab floor, dropping the few millimetres of buffer zone he had coded into the DS-Drive.

  “Elias!” Chel-Lin said, rushing over. “It worked!”

  What? Where? Who? Oh, right, the lab. It was almost as if he hadn’t been in a strange otherworldly dimension for the past few minutes. When Chel-Lin grabbed him, eyes creased in a mouthless smile, she faltered for a second.

  “Elias?”

  He blinked. Well, he’d survived. There was only one question left.

  “Wow. Who wants to go next?” Elias asked.

  The others took turns with the device. Elias made sure to describe in thorough detail his dreamy experience mid-jump. Though no time had passed in the real world, the experience had certainly felt real to Elias. However, when the time came for the others, they were mostly left confused by his explanation. Madison and Bernard had seen nothing, the latter even mentioning he felt a wave of nausea after the jump and leaving the lab. After Dr Warnick left to rest, Kurt had a go. When he reappeared, he had a similarly bug-eyed expression to Elias following the jump.

  His vision had slightly different. The surroundings had been much of the same, though he failed to describe the skies in quite the same vibrancy as Elias did, nor did he find purchase in the liquid. It turned out that Kurt, for all his strengths, had a fear of drowning that he had never realised after living on space stations all his life. Needless to say, he had no desire to use, or even stand near the DS-Drive for a while. The trip with Chel-Lin had worked, with Elias acting as her anchor, albeit without any sorts of hallucinations. Had Kurt not said anything, the young scientist had half the mind to write off the vision as a complete trick of the mind.

  But there was one last person to test.

  “Come on, EXCAL, you’re up next!” Elias said, his excitement only growing by the minute after seeing his shared creation come to life.

  “Sorry, but no,” the android said, arms crossed.

  “Come on, EXCAL. It’ll be fun. Besides, if you’re a brain scan of a person then maybe we can use you as the ancho-“

  “No.” EXCAL was curt. “I don’t want to try.”

  Elias leaned back. Was this part of why he had been strange recently? That’s right, it had started after Elias had given him the data on EXCAL’s development history. What had he seen in there? As far as Elias cared, EXCAL was still the same friend he had gotten to know over the past few months, and whether he had been, or was still human didn’t matter. But, regardless of what he was or wasn’t, Elias needed to help him.

  Hands in his pockets, he wandered over to EXCAL and slung an arm around his neck.

  “Listen, buddy, what hurt will it do to check? And hey, if it doesn’t work, you can at least have a free teleporter to use. I’ll even make another for you to keep around. It’ll be way easier now we have the first, and you can teleport people away when they try to disturb your SigilPlane time, right?”

  EXCAL gave a huff as he was led to the area around the DS-Drive. Crossing the hastily drawn chalk line Chel-Lin had made where the ambient S-Field was roughly being projected, EXCAL began to shake his head.

  “No, this isn’t right, I’m not-“

  “Forget that, EXCAL. Just a second, it’s fine.”

  “No, no, you don’t understand,” EXCAL said, speech turning into a rant. “I shouldn’t do this. I’m not him! I’m just some fraud, a fake, a copy. It won’t even work.” He had put his head in his hands and was trying to leave.

  Elias was missing some info, but he could piece what the artificial intelligence was meaning together. EXCAL didn’t feel like a person. But people can change, Elias knew that. Sometimes, actions were better at showing than just telling. He queued a new destination into the DS-Drive.

  “How will you know if you don’t try? Alright… setting you as the anchor…”

  Elias typed the new coordinates in. He was very glad S-Drives worked out relative space for short distance teleports – getting teleported to where a planet was after it moved through space relative to the universe would be a one-way trip to actually meeting Barald.

  “Maybe I don’t deserve to know. Not after what the other me, the other him did to us. I’m not him, I’m…”

  “EXCAL, you don’t have a fear of heights, do you?”

  The android looked up from his palms, confused, “Uh, no?”

  "Good."

  Elias didn’t give the android time to pause. Targeting the CAI’s core room as the anchor, he hit the enter key of the computer.

  No hallucination that time. Elias felt a brisk breeze roll past him as he squinted at the last rays of a sunset shining into his eyes. A confused looking EXCAL raised a hand up to block the sun as he looked about. Elias had set the target location for the jump to the roof of Nucleus, the side facing the system’s star, as close to the edge as was safe. The twilight sky of Kral’Thul poured through the clouds as he looked over to his robotic friend. The fact the jump had worked at all showed something clear. EXCAL’s camera apertures blinked closed as he looked at his hands.

  “I’m… human,” EXCAL whispered.

  “See?” Elias raised a brow and put his hands on his hips.

  “I’m a person! I’m me! I’m Stanley!”

  “Sure are.”

  “Elias…” EXCAL looked towards the descending star in the distance. “He… he was never gone. Not really. Not as long as I’m here.”

  “That’s right.”

  EXCAL took a breath, a breath a being made of metal and wires wouldn’t need to take. He swivelled his head to look at Elias.

  “Thank you, Savage. You made me see the truth. I’m not just a copy of the man who died back on Titanlock all those years ago, and I’m not just a machine living on without a reason. I’m both EXCALIBUR and Stanley.”

  “That you are.” Elias wasn't exactly sure what the android was talking about, but he let the CAI vent. He looked like he needed it.

  “Thank you, Elias. It seems this tin man might have had a heart all along.”

  With that, EXCAL gave him a slightly too firm hug as night swept over Kral’Thul.