This caused Jaxon to release a quick but honest chuckle. “Indeed, it’s quite humorous at times how openly they talk about things under the guise of secrecy. They have no idea that nothing is very secret to a group of people accustomed to talking and hearing on a planet covered by water.”
Genos also cracked a small smile. “It’s part of the reason I don’t let it affect me too much. They simply do not know much about us. We are fascinating to some and terrifying to others. Until the novelty wears off…I suppose we can’t be seen simply as ourselves.”
Jaxon was silent for a moment, giving Genos some time to collect himself. “Forgive me once more, Genos, but why does this stop you from finding a partner for the Co-op test?”
“I suppose that I don’t really know where I really belong, so I don’t know who to ask to partner with me for the future. If I cannot ground myself, how will I help my partner through their problems and journeys?”
Jaxon stared at the engineer for a moment before his shoulders hitched and his chest expanded. Genos saw bubbles form and spin quickly around his infuser. He was laughing.
“I am happy that you seem to find some amusement in the situation.” Genos sighed. “I am at a loss.”
Jaxon continued to laugh for a few more seconds but stopped and collected himself after a moment, then cleared his throat. “Genos, your worries and fears are valid to me and true to you. I do not dismiss them. However, you seem to believe that the partnership you enter into for the cooperative test is for a long period of time.”
“Is it not?” Genos asked, repeating the same rapid blinking quirk that Jaxon had earlier.
“No, it is not, my kin. It is temporary and only lasts until the end of the test. If you happen to get along with your partner, that’s great, but it is not a binding partnership.”
“I… Ah…I…well, it would appear I may have let this put me into a bit of an emotional spiral as it were.” Genos looked fretful, his fingers returning to their habitual nervous gesture of joining and separating like they had a life of their own.
“It is reassuring to see you think about the wellness of others even as you contemplate your own issues. Your sensitivity and earnestness were always welcome traits in you,” Jaxon assured him.
“Thank you, kin Jaxon,” Genos replied with a slight bow of his head.
Jaxon reached over and grabbed the tablet from him. He pressed a few keys and showed it to him. “Since you do not have one, I would like to offer myself as a partner for the coming test.”
“You do not already have one?” Genos questioned. “You seem to be well respected among both the humans and the Tsuna. I would have imagined you would have been partnered long ago.”
“I too fell a bit behind while contemplating several options and my place here in the Academy,” Jaxon admitted. “Consider this an offering and a promise that we will both help one another find their place here.”
Genos looked at the tablet and then back at Jaxon. “Of course, my kin,” he promised, accepting the Co-op invite on the tablet.
“That was your suite?” Kaiden asked incredulously as he and Chiyo walked out the gate of the facility with the briefcase now on his back. “You can possess robots?”
“That’s one way of putting it.” Chiyo sounded nonchalant, which gave him pause.
“My suite simply slows down the perception of time and gives me what is essentially super-vision.” He shrugged. “What are the specifics of your suite?”
“It can be any piece of technology, and it’s more like interfacing with them. Kaitō creates an opening in the system of whichever device or droid I am looking at within the vicinity. Then, once that is created, my brain waves are enhanced by the suite and I meld with the device, allowing me to control it as if it were my body for a short period.” She felt a spike of dizziness and leaned against him for a moment until she found her footing. “Even that small amount of time was enough to make me nauseous.”
Kaiden tapped a finger against his chin. “What would have happened if I shot the Lancer down while you were in it?”
“It causes a mental dissonance. My body would shut down, and I would go into a coma until Kaitō was able to create a new link and essentially re-activate me.”
“How long does that take?”
“In the Animus, not long—anywhere from five to ten minutes. But in the real world, it’s much more dire. Some who were lost never came back, or their bodies expired before a new connection could be made.”
“That’s actually pretty damn frightening,” Kaiden admitted. “The worst I get is migraines and delirium.”
“I need to rest,” she muttered. “How much further to the extraction zone?”
“We’re here, actually,” Kaiden revealed, leaning Chiyo against a tree as they waited for the dropship to arrive. “So what did you think, all in all?”
“I might be able to give a better opinion if my head was not swirling.” She grimaced before looking up at him with a smile. “But we work pretty well together. It was an enjoyable first mission.”
“Even doing it my way?” he asked. The trees shook, and the grass flattened into a path when the dropship swooped in and hovered over them.
“That was enjoyable as well. And rather exciting.” Kaiden held a hand up to his ear to show that he couldn’t hear her over the noise from the dropship. She simply nodded as he helped her up and they scrambled on board. The world began to fade away as a “Mission Accomplished!” banner appeared.
Chapter Twenty-Five
It was Wednesday night, two nights before the beginning of the Co-op tests, and Sasha was busy at his computer, sending the final reports to the board before the actual tests began.
“Commander Sasha?” Isaac appeared on a small tree on Sasha’s desk.
“Yes?” Sasha asked, paying only partial attention as he sent off a message to Head Monitor Zhang and began writing another to board member Fargo.
“It is the professor. He’s here to see you.”
Sasha nodded. “Send him up.”
“He’s already—”
“Good evening, Commander.” Laurie greeted him loudly as he walked into the office.
“Your continual lack of patience and the inability to wait for permission is a constant irritation in my life, Laurie,” Sasha grumbled, continuing to type furiously as the professor walked over to his desk and took a seat.
“I like to believe that I’m on your list of friends who can come in whenever they please.” Laurie smiled as he placed an EI pad on the commander’s desk.
“I don’t have one of those,” Sasha retorted.
The visitor frowned, tapping a finger against his chin. “Open-door policy, perhaps?”
“I don’t have one of those either.”
“Well then, I’ll make it a personal privilege,” Laurie countered with a smile.
“I have no control over your fantasies, so I suppose I’ll simply have to agree with you there.” The commander sighed and stopped typing to glance at him. “Either way, I’m assuming you’ve come to inform me of new developments concerning our findings?”
“Indeed.” Laurie nodded, activating the pad. Aurora appeared, awaiting instructions. “Aurora, would you please show the commander the video of Kaiden’s run-in with the Lancer?”
The EI nodded before disappearing. A video screen took her place, displaying footage of Kaiden running through a parking lot while chased by a winged machine. Sasha watched it for a few moments, analyzing the battle. “An Asiton Lancer?”
“Correct. The second time Kaiden has had to deal with one,” he confirmed.
“When was this taken?”
Laurie paused the video. “A few weeks back.”
“And you’re only now informing me of this?” Sasha inquired, his tone slightly agitated.
“I was slightly busy with the various experiments and projects the board has been boring me with, not to mention our own little project. I’ll get back to that in a moment, but when Aurora completed
that task, I had her do a sweep through the Animus Center archives. That’s when she found this.”
“What’s the background?” Sasha asked as he reached up to the video screen and began to scan through it slowly. “Was this another map that Kaiden was provided?”
“No, I took those away from his available options and locked them out for the time being,” Laurie informed him. “This was actually a Co-op scenario that he was running with his test partner Chiyo Kana. She was the one who set up the scenario for them.”
“The last time Kaiden faced an Asiton robot was during the loadout training. He didn’t create that scenario either, obviously,” Sasha muttered, more to himself than out loud.
“I looked through the coding again. Another set of new code was in place, but this one was more subtle and less structured.”
“How so?” Sasha asked, moving back from the screen and looking at him expectantly.
“It was a simple trigger. When a certain event took place on this map, the Animus would load in an Asiton Lancer to appear and attack the initiate who was participating in the mission.”
Sasha glanced at the video screen again, taking a long look at the Lancer. “The initiate? A specific initiate and not merely any student?”
“That event was triggered when a particular ID matched with the system and was the one in the map.”
“Kaiden,” Sasha said. He balled his fists and rested his chin on them, releasing an exasperated sigh. “They’re still going after him? They have to figure someone is catching on, even if it’s not specifically us.”
“I believe they are trying to get as much data as they can before they have to lay low. My guess is that they are keeping the technician and Animus support channels tapped to see how much ruckus is being raised. Since Kaiden is coming to me personally each time one of these events happen, I’ve been able to keep that to a minimum and see how this develops.”
“Have you checked that channel for taps?”
Laurie nodded. “It’s standard protocol for my team to check it every six hours, with constant detection and firewall plugging. We are not simpletons.”
“And the Animus support?” Sasha pressed, considering all the implications and searching for answers.
“I’m going to need you to be the one who checks that,” Laurie stated. “It’s not my usual practice or even a standard request for me, so my doing it would probably raise a few eyebrows. However, you could have it checked more thoroughly as a board member and raise little suspicion if you simply played it off as maintenance or something like that.”
“I’ll have it done tomorrow morning,” Sasha promised. “But since you’ve brought it up, have you checked other less technological means of spying?”
Laurie leaned back, a small, knowing smile forming on his lips at the commander’s words. “You believe that we may have a spy amongst us?”
“It would not shock me, though we’ve only gathered a little information on this Arbiter Organization. They are obviously interested in Kaiden for whatever reason and seem to want to use the Animus and the ark academies for their own ends. Having a few moles—or, at the very least, agents working for Nexus—would further their agenda, however vague it might be for us currently.”
Laurie held up his wrist, showing his companion a circular device he wore. He pressed a couple of buttons on it and the video screen disappeared, replaced by several lists and logs which appeared in the air. “I would agree, which is why I am personally going over the backgrounds and recommendations of all transfers to the tech department. Aurora is also checking their logs for anything that looks like it could point in our new friends’ direction.”
“It’s a good start,” Sasha said, studying the different screens as if searching for anything immediately suspicious that he could find with a cursory glance.
“What about your friends? Were they able to find anything from the letter you gave to them?” Laurie asked.
“I’ll be meeting with another after the tests, but one of them was able to get back to me last night.”
Laurie scoffed. “And you were all ruffled about me keeping things from you.”
“It’s not a lot. Otherwise, I would have summoned you right away,” Sasha responded, “I’m gracious enough to figure that you may have other, more important things to do.”
“That all depends on what you found, Commander. I might think it was plenty important,” Laurie countered.
Sasha flipped the screen of his computer around, showing Laurie a letter.
We will be prepared. Should these aliens prove to be hostile…assume the worst. Even if they are truly…the same cannot be said for whatever else lies beyond. We are no longer alone. I find that…frightening than when we believed that we were.
~AO
“What is this? It seems unfinished.” Laurie frowned his annoyance.
“I believe that it is as well.” Sasha turned the screen around to face him. “It appears to be another message to the organization, but this one was created more than fifty years ago.”
“That was around the time of the first contact with the Tsuna, correct?” Laurie pondered this, considering its significance.
“It was. My informant was able to gather this message from declassified documents from around that period, using the same system you did with the World Council newsletters and messages. Since this message is missing a number of lines and words, he felt that they were either in documents still classified or possibly other messages or files from the time that he could not find or get access to.”
“It appears I’ll have to widen Aurora’s search parameters.”
“Were you able to find anything new in what you did sort through?”
Laurie reached into his coat pocket. “I did. About two dozen other messages were hidden in over ten years’ worth of pamphlets, news articles, and the like. Nothing that said anything any different from what we found from the first message” Laurie retrieved a small drive and handed it to Sasha, “but feel free to look them over. You might find something I didn’t.”
Sasha took the device and placed it in a small drawer. He closed the drawer and pressed his thumb to a small scanner on the front, locking it.
“This one is quite interesting, however,” Laurie continued. “The other letters always said ‘we’ or ‘us’ like the messages were for the group as a whole. This is the first one I’ve seen with someone referring to themselves with ‘I,’ a curious development.”
“I would suspect that at one time, this was overseen by a single individual, or at least an organization with a head official,” Sasha commented.
“So that ‘AO’ at the end may not mean the Arbiter Organization but someone’s initials?”
“I believe so,” he confirmed.
Laurie grimaced, thinking about the implications for a moment. “Considering how long ago this was…it could be possible that whoever this was is still very much alive. Perhaps they are the leader of this new organization or offshoot?”
“Potentially, but we’ll have to dig deeper. I would argue that whoever this AO may have passed some time ago, and the Arbiter Organization are carrying his ideals forward.”
“And they are apparently theatrical enough to name their organization to incorporate this fellow’s initials.” The professor chuckled. “Should make for a fun challenge should we ever meet them face to face.”
Sasha looked at the open messages, reached over and closed them, and opened the video screen again. “What did Kaiden have to say about the fight?”
“I couldn’t tell you. He hasn’t bothered to drop by since the last time I saw you,” Laurie confessed.
The commander raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Really? You would think he would find this to be something that warrants concern.”
Laurie coughed slightly and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, there are a couple things that may have caused him not to think so.”
“Which are?” Sasha inquired, leaning forward.
Qu
ickly, the professor brought up the mission details window for the video. “One is the map, which is based upon a raid of the Axiom Industries towards the tail end of the Asiton War. My guess is that either Kaiden or Chiyo probably chalked it up to that. Surprise enemies aren’t abnormal in certain scenarios.”
The commander looked it over briefly before looking back at Laurie. “Perhaps, but considering his previous fight with the Reaver, I would assume he would put two and two together.”
“That would be the other reason…which is to say me.” Laurie shrugged. “I’ve told you that I’ve tried to dissuade Kaiden from thinking too deeply about these anomalies, chalking them up to glitches and the like. I would say that this has worked out quite well. Alarmingly so, as he seems to not even bat an eyelid in this encounter, although that may be due to the fact that he’s running around so much.”
“If this escalates, that could prove to be a fatal thought process,” Sasha pointed out.
“Oh, don’t be so melodramatic. It’s obvious that who or whatever is doing this is not out to kill our dear boy Kaiden but seemingly trying to test him to some degree,” Laurie refuted.
“The fact that you of all people are telling me not to be melodramatic is an irony that I’m well aware of,” the commander muttered. “We already discussed the fact that it was the implant that was tampered with and not anything concerning Kaiden himself, so what exactly are they looking to test in your theory, Laurie?”
“The integration and uses of the implant, for one. Also, the advancement and improved sentience of the EI would be the other.” Laurie shrugged again, raising his hands in apparent impotence, then lowering them back into his lap where he clasped them firmly.
“Improved sentience? What are you talking about?” Sasha’s voice hiked up a slight pitch in annoyance and surprise.
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