Eleven Unveiled (Imortum)

by Kord Stone

  Calia was lying in bed astounded that she had actually fallen asleep. She had never fallen asleep before. That was a benefit of being an AI. She figured the ship must have noticed an issue with the body and shut it down to let it regenerate or something. For a moment, she had thought all the love play might have damaged the body, and she was wondering where Justin had wandered off to. She was just about to get up to search for him when he arrived in the bedroom.

  Justin smiled seductively at her and asked her how she was feeling. She crooked a finger at him, indicating she wanted him on the bed with her. As soon as he got to the bed, she grabbed him and flipped him onto his back. One minute he was clothed, and the next he was as bare as she was. She could feel the passion of the night before rekindling and wanted to see how it would be without the stimulus of the ambrose. She had his hands pinned above his head.

  Justin was at her mercy, and he was about to say something when she silenced him with her mouth. He must have figured she wanted him to remain where he was, for when she released his hands, they stayed put. She felt his unyielding shaft beneath her and began to glide along it. As she did, she could feel the tingling and the wanton need build up again. She was about to insert the tip and go for a nice hard ride when she heard one of his brother’s voices calling out.

  “Justin…Justin, we need you over here now!”

  Startled at the panic in Jason’s voice, she sat bolt upright and looked around in confusion. Justin was standing, fully clothed, next to the bed. “But…you were just here… How are you there and dressed?”

  Justin had a confused look on his face and raised a finger, indicating he would address her in a second, “What’s wrong Jason?”

  “I don’t know, Alise just got up and she is freaking out about something. I can’t make any sense of it.”

  “We’ll be over as soon as we can.,” Justin looked at Calia and asked, “What’s the matter?”

  She was shaking her head. “I do not know… We were just about to have sex again when your brother’s voice sounded. One second I was straddling you; the next I was sitting up in bed and you were standing there fully clothed.”

  Justin thought he knew what was going on and hoped he was right. He said, “I went down to the first level almost an hour ago and you were sleeping—”

  “I do not sleep. I have never slept.” Calia interrupted him.

  Justin continued, “You might not have ever slept before, but you were most definitely sleeping when I left you… You must have been having a dream.” He was about to ask if she was up to going back to Jason’s ship when she cut in again.

  “I do not dream either,” she stated with a baffled look to her face.

  Justin wasn’t sure she would be up to the trip and said, “I need to get to Jason’s ship and find out what’s the matter with Alise. I’ll be back as soon as possible and we can try to figure out the dream thing, okay?”

  Calia looked confused about the sleep and dream thing but she said, “No, I will go with you. Wait a moment while I get dressed.” She stood beside the bed and got a concentrated look on her face, then she looked down. “What? Why am I not clothed?” She closed her eyes again.

  Justin thought about what his brother had said and wondered aloud. “This might be what’s happening with Alise too.” Remembering what Jason had said about Alise freaking out, he had a nagging suspicion about something. Deciding to nip this in the bud, he rushed over to Calia and took her into his arms. “I need you to remain calm, please.”

  Calia looked as if she was about to come unglued but once Justin had her in his arms she seemed to regain herself enough to follow the track of his conversation, and she calmly nodded to him.

  He pulled back a little to look into her eyes and calmly stated, “I need you to do me a favor. Try to communicate with the ship and my disk.”

  Nodding, she got a focused look that was immediately followed by a worried one, and she asked, “What is going on?”

  Justin saw the panic begin to rise in her eyes and knew her attempt had failed. “I’m not sure, but I think we need to confer with Jason and Alise to figure this out. Agreed?”

  She nodded and Justin continued to speak as he focused on clothing her. “I still have control of the ship, so don’t worry. We’ll figure out what’s going on.”

  A moment later, he looked down at her clothing. “Not as I would prefer you, but it will do.”

  She looked down with a sniffle and asked, “What would you have preferred?”

  Justin cracked a smile and replied, “I prefer you in the nude,” Then he bent down and placed a soothing kiss on her lips.

  His declaration made her blush and chuckle. Justin could feel her tension ease a little, and a moment later she seemed to force a smile and said, “I am ready.”

  A moment later Jason’s voice boomed out, “Justin, are you coming?”

  Justin could hear the panic in Jason’s voice and he replied, “Yes…we’re having issues here too. We’ll be over in one minute.” Never losing contact with Calia’s hand, he led her to the master control room. The archway was up and they entered TDS 1. He called out, “What level are you on?”

  Jason responded immediately and he could hear Alise sobbing in the background, “We’re on level three.”

  “Okay, we’re on our way up.” They exited the engine room and used the lift. As soon as the ceiling on level two opened, they could hear the commotion above. Peering over he saw Jason and Jerren standing as close to Alise as she would allow them. Alise was in the corner wrapped in a sheet, sobbing and yelling at them to stay away from her. Once they set foot on the third level, Justin and Calia rushed to Jason’s side and Justin quietly asked, “Did she lose the ability to command the ship too?”

  This question drew Jason’s full attention. “I don’t know. She refuses to speak to me. Did that happen to you?” he asked Calia, who nodded.

  Justin could feel Calia’s concern rising and gently squeezed her hand as he inched his way close to Jason’s ear and whispered to him, “Can you still control the ship?”

  Jason got a concentrated look a second then replied, “Yes, why?”

  Justin was not sure if it was going to work for Jason, but it had for him, so he whispered, “You need to make physical contact with Alise and try to calm her down. Let her know you can still control the ship and we will all work on the problem. She probably can’t clothe herself either. Calia had problems with that this morning too.”

  Jason nodded and approached Alise despite her objections, took her in his arms, and began whispering to her. She thrashed around and began screaming. Jason shook his head, signaling it had not worked and Justin began to worry. Then Calia squeezed his hand and a sense of calm came over him. A second later, he became lightheaded, and speaking with a reverberating voice he said, “E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e needs to c-a-l-m d-o-w-n.” His focus returned and every eye in the room was fixed on him. He looked at Alise, who seemed to be more composed. He said to Jason, “Try again.”

  Jason immediately forced Alise to look into his eyes. Cupping her cheeks in his hands, he told her he could control the ship and they would figure this all out. He got a concentrated look and a moment later he pulled the sheet away to reveal she was fully clothed.

  It took about ten minutes before Alise was finally calm enough to speak, and her first words were harsh and directed at Calia. “What did you do?”

  Justin felt Calia shy away and he came forward to defend her, “She didn’t do anything Alise. She’s in the same boat as you. We need to sit down and figure this out like rational people. “I saw the meeting room is still set up. I say we gather there and try to reason out what has happened.”

  Jason was quick to agree and hugged Alise close to his side. Justin gestured to his and Calia’s hands, indicating that he was keeping physical contact with her.

  Jason nodded his understanding of the silent message and they all proceeded to the second level.

  Once the five of them were all seated, Justin
opened the conversation. “Okay, we’re going to start from the beginning. Could the nuke that went off have affected your programming?” he asked Calia and Alise.

  Alise frowned and said, “I do not know. That was a large EMP that we had been exposed to, it—”

  Calia cut in. “These ships are protected against EMP. We have experienced far greater events in the past with no side effects. I would have to rule that out.”

  The group nodded and Justin continued, “Okay with that ruled out. Is it possible the database was tampered with during the attack or while we were charging?”

  “No, it is not possible to access any programming from outside of the ship unless you have a binding disk. Any attempts to glean a signal from us or access our systems will activate alarms immediately,” Alise said firmly.

  Calia confirmed her statement.

  “Okay, so we’ve ruled out that.” Justin paused a few minutes thinking and was a bit startled when Jerren piped in.

  “When was the last time either of you used your connection with the ship successfully?”

  Calia said, “When we were on our way to this ship yesterday. I uploaded myself to the binding disk… No…it would have been when this ship made a body for me. I thought, ‘I wish I could sit next to Justin’ and I was transferred into this body.”

  Alise seemed to ponder the question and replied, “The last time I accessed the ship was when I created our dinner.”

  Jason groaned. A pale and panicked look crossed his face and he closed his eyes. A few seconds later he opened them and asked both Calia and Alise, “Was there anything different about the dinner last night from the last time you had ambrose?”

  Alise shook her head. “No…uh actually yes. When we shared it before it tasted different from the other times I made it. And last night I had two bites whereas before I only had one.”

  After her explanation, they all looked to Calia.

  Calia paled a little before saying, “In the past, I have made ambrose three other times. It never had the effect on me before that it did when I had it last night. I told Justin it was the best I had ever experienced, and I thought my recipe must have been missing an ingredient.”

  Jason let out a sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m almost certain my having you eat the ambrose is the cause of your issues. We’ll know in a moment.”

  Justin asked, “What will we know?”

  Jason closed his eyes then opened them. “We have about thirty seconds until the scan is complete. I think the myth about ambrose making you immortal might be a reality. Meaning when you ate it, your consciousness became bound with the bodies you both are in.”

  Jason closed his eyes again. After a moment he opened his eyes and spoke. “I’ve reviewed the results and it’s as I suspected. Alise and Calia are no longer AI. Both of you are in fact very much biological life forms now. The scan I just performed confirms that your bodies are now composed of fifteen percent triple helix DNA. The ambrose appears to be converting the double helix DNA your bodies were made of into triple helix. And the process is not complete.”

  Justin looked at Calia and softly squeezed her hand. “That explains why you couldn’t upload into the disk last night, and why you were able to leave the ship.” He hoped she was not going to get overly angry at his brother about the ambrose.

  A moment later Calia burst into laughter and asked, “I am alive?”

  Jason nodded and replied, “Yes, you are alive… Both of you are.”

  Alise took a few deep breaths and appeared to regain her composure, then she spoke up. “I am feeling much better now that I know what has happened. It still does not rectify the problem we have with not being in communication with the ships however.”

  This statement drew a groan from Calia. “You are right. How do we get connected again? Can we at all?”

  Justin had an idea. “Can more than one person receive a binding disk?”

  This statement drew a grin from Calia. “Actually yes, the binding disk was made to allow control of the ship. As you know you had control over the ship even though I had not bonded with you. I think if we both have a disk we will be back to some semblance of normalcy.”

  Alise asked, “How can you be sure?”

  Calia smiled and said, “Because it has been done before. Although the last time the other person had issues.”

  Jason looked concerned and asked, “What issues?”

  She explained about her first host. How he got married and brought his new wife to the ship. “Well, about eighteen years into their marriage the stress began to build and the fighting increased to a boiling point. One night Hyais talked me into creating a secondary binding disk for his wife Enyali. I was not sure about doing it. You see there were rules about not being married as a commander. In the end, I relented and created a disk. The problem occurred immediately after she applied the disk, and that’s when the issues I spoke of began.

  “My consciousness was automatically transferred into the second disk and once there, it paralyzed her. My consciousness suppressed hers and we ended up having to deactivate the disk. Two years later, she killed my host and I returned his body to Lantis for pyre ascension and delivered Enyali to stand trial for his murder. She was sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a prince of Lantis. She was executed for her crime, and that is when Atlas became the next commander of TDS 3.”

  Justin shook his head. “So it didn’t really work, did it?”

  “It did work in a way, showing me that I could bond with the second disk. I could sense my surroundings with all of her senses. I just could not move. I believe it is because there were two consciousness beings in a mind that could not handle it. I believe it will work… I am going to try it. If worse comes to worst, we can just deactivate the disk as we did with Enyali.”

  Jerren spoke up. “Was it the bonding with the disk that caused Enyali to kill Hyais?”

  She shook her head. “No, Enyali was a violent psychopath. In the beginning, she was a delight toward Hyais, but she never really warmed toward me. After her true nature showed, Hyais told me he thought that having her bound by a disk would bring them closer together and make her more tolerable.”

  Jason asked, “You would have been able to read her mind. Didn’t you see how dangerous she was?”

  Calia lowered her head. “Before Hyais brought her onboard he forbade me from looking into her thoughts and memories, and made me promise not to. I followed his orders to his detriment. After his death however, I took a deep look and what I found was pure evil. I informed Atlas of what I had seen, and told him that she was well…you know…crazy. Her family felt they were honor-bound to carry out the sentence. Her grandfather was on the Ennead, so he was the one who cast the deciding vote, and was allowed to perform the execution before the Lantin populace.”

  Justin asked, “What is the Ennead?”

  Calia smirked, “The Ennead was the formal council of nine who advised Atlas and subsequent kings on the issues arising on Lantis for hundreds of thousands of years.”

  Jason asked, “Are you going to try the binding disk? If so I can have one made.”

  Alise nodded. “Make the disk. I will think about it a while. As long as I know you can control the ship, I am fine. I am sorry I panicked earlier.” Alise turned toward Calia. “I am sorry I accused you of being responsible for all of this.”

  Calia smiled back at her compassionately. “It is not a problem. I was just lucky Justin figured something was wrong and kept me calm. Otherwise, it might have been me apologizing to you.” She turned to Justin to ask, “By the way, how did you figure it out so fast? I had only just realized something was wrong when you distracted me and kept me from losing control.”

  Justin said, “The first clue was when I woke up. You were in a deep sleep and I thought that was odd. You did tell me you never had a bedroom before, so I just figured you didn’t regularly sleep. Then when I was on my way up to the room, I tried to see if you were awake and I could not sense you, which I’ve been
able to do since your program activated, and it was even more pronounced after you bonded with me.

  “I made it to the bedroom and saw you on the bed apparently dreaming, then Jason called and said there was a problem with Alise, and we needed to get over here. Needless to say, I was very alert. When you awoke confused, then tried to get dressed, I saw your panic and rushed to calm you down. It snapped into place for some reason and didn’t surprise me.”

  She smiled warmly at him and kissed him on the cheek. “I am lucky you did not panic.”

  Jason closed his eyes a moment then got a very concentrated look. Opening his eyes he asked, “Calia, how did you make the secondary disk?”

  “I just focused on creating a secondary binding disk and it appeared. Why?”

  “I did that and it didn’t work for me,” he said with a frown.

  Jerren spoke up. “Since the master control room is where this all originates, maybe we should try it in there. What do you think?”

  Both Jason and Justin stood and spoke at the same time. “Sounds good, let’s go.”

  Alise let out a chuckle. “Your minds are so alike it is funny… It sounds good to me as well. This will be my first time leaving the ship of my own accord.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  All five of them arrived in the master control room and Jason asked, “Who’s first?”

  Calia said, “I will do it first since I have done it before, and I should know right away if there is a problem.” She looked around the room apparently to see if anyone disagreed.

  The only one with obvious reservations was Justin, but he kept them to himself.

  She looked into his eyes and said, “There is no need to worry. If something goes wrong, just deactivate the disk…okay?”