"Isn't that a nice idea that the prisoner is volunteering as a new companion and of course would like his weapons back don't-cha think." Joya said while he hopped off the crate and tossed the apple core to the ground. He stood about 10 feet away from Chen.

  "Of course mister Chen; here's your weapons mister Chen; our crate codes are 123 Mr. Chen; would you like me to cut me own throat Mr Chen?" Joya said while he was circling the still sitting Chen. "Bah. Ya may have this wee one here fooled about cha sudden change of heart but cha don't go following a thing like that for, how long was it -- 217 a year didn't-cha say? -- and than give up on it the very next day, na cha don't laddie!" finishing his circle he saw Chen’s surprised expression. "Yes, cha said that out loud too cha weak minded gimp. So, what to do with cha is the real question here" as the squat guard looked over to Gloria.

  Gloria had known Joya even before she had started working with him at 13 on her grandfathers expeditions into the ‘ruins of old’ as her papa would call them. The ever dreaming girl had learned to listen to Joya over the years and trust his "gut feelings" as he called them. Joya had after all been the one to tell her to look into trying to fix some broken data pads her grandfather had found in some old cathedral and cast aside as scrap. Those data pads held the key to her education in the form of Union era schooling materials. She wouldn't be a techno-scientist, a title she thought of herself, without those formative lessons.

  "Hmm, I guess you're right Joya. So Chen, here is a proposal for you. We're going to tie your hands behind your back and you're going to walk with us the 4 days to the Clearing. Only as a precaution. We'll decide upon your equipment on the way. Sound good? Right Joya?" Gloria said in her best statesmen voice and looked over to the older man. Joya harrumphed at the idea as he said "Sweetie, first, he ain't getting these weapons back -- spoils of war and all; second, we should just leave him here -- maybe consider doing him the mercy of killing him...". But just as he said that, the long inert vine at the base of the Chen’s leg raised itself in front of Chen as if to guard him.

  Gloria and Joya looked at the vine in awe. Even Chen was taken aback, but recovered quickly. Gloria mumbled "We definitely need you to meet Moxley!"

  Chen took the diversion as an opportunity to jump over the vine using it to catapult himself at the stunned Joya. Joya who saw the now very close Chen approaching in a blur squeezed the trigger of the semi automatic and was underwhelmed by the lack of action just as Chen managed to grab the weapon, remove the safety and point it at Joya's face, which was connected to his neck, which was now under Chen's knee and shin. This all happened in a matter of seconds.

  Gloria, was now in shock -- she had never seen a truer soldier at work, let alone a Herald. His speed and accuracy was impressive but the thought of a pissed off Chen frightened her. She simply stood there not sure what to do. She wasn't a fighter, that had always been Joya's job. She was only good at finding old things and figuring out their secrets.

  She saw Joya laying at the mercy of this man that she had insisted on saving when she saw him pass out after that thing was spit out from him. She recognized the glass on the floor immediately as the synthetic glass that her nanobots made in her lab. She had found backdoors in her own nanobot research and tried those on the glass, hoping that they didn't self destruct like her first attempts with nanotechnology had done. She succeeded and was utterly entranced at extracting the data when she looked up and saw this man literally dying from Separation Illness before her -- the very thing her Lash was originally made for. She had a selfish thought: he would prove the perfect test subject for her Lash. And that selfishness has Joya where they are now and may be the cause of death to her oldest friend right before her own eyes.

  "DON'T KILL HIM PLEASE!" she tried to yell but it came out as a chirp while she tried to pull Chen off but Chen easily pushed her away. "Please Chen... A life for a life?" she begged in a low voice.

  Chen took a peek at her. And saw that now familiar look of the helpless. She looked the way Eric had when Kildra attacked his wife and son. Was he as bad as Kildra now?

  "Now, I will tell you this once, and once only. I don't need a Wisp, or even a weapon for that matter to kill you both where you stand. If I wanted to get this stuff", and he nodded at the stolen artifacts on the cart, "and myself back to the Last City -- I could easily do so. But I won't; that would be worse for me than simply dying at this point. So now I either go with you to this, this Clearing, or I go by myself to Myrsport -- doesn't much matter to me at this point -- but either way I will be taking my stuff back and moving in the same direction as you. As such I would think it be better to have me part of your group rather than stalking you; or worse still -- now how was it? Killing you both as a mercy. Are we understood?"

  Joya laid on his back with Chen's leg at his throat and Chen's gun in his face; "So... seems we're at an impasse than. You'll get your weapons back when cha can earn our trust".

  Chen shook his head at the audacity of the small man and sighed a reluctant sigh. Indeed it seemed making new friends would be a difficult task. "I'm going to let you up now, and that should be all the trust you need."

  Chen got up and offered his hand to Joya. The man made a calculating look at the soldier in front of him. Joya glanced at Gloria who looked at him in a way that told him to yield. Chen thought it was a practiced look. Joya finally took the offered hand and sat up to a sitting position that lead to a full stand. The two stood near each other for a moment. The 6'2" soldier a full head taller than his new guard companion.

  Chen opened his hands to Joya in a 'give me' gesture.

  "Next time, don't use a man's own weapon against him unless you know how it works. Pass me my gear now" Chen said, followed by a forced "Please." Chen had rested the pistol in his hand, but kept it ready for use.

  The older man nodded at the sense of the advice, and harrumphed again as he started to pull things out of his pockets and harnesses on his waist and back. He also had to riffle through his huge backpack. It took about 10 minutes to pull everything out of the 70 pound beast of a bag.

  When Chen was almost fully kitted out again, he asked Joya about the location of his own backpack. "It's in that crate over there. You know the code." Chen stared at him for a moment, "Really? 123? Seriously?" he asked in an audacious tone. Joya nodded his head without any embarrassment saying "They never guess it". Gloria gave him a "I'm sorry, he's set in his ways" look when Chen glanced at her for confirmation. Chen told Joya to go get it, wary of any last minute tricks, and saw him enter the code 123# and take out his bag without incident which he than checked. He reloaded the things that Joya had chosen to carry on his vest, and placed the bag on his back to test the way it settled as he finally let out a slight moan. His body was killing him in-fact and the last half hour's activities didn't help much.

  "Still sore?” Gloria asked him. ”The nanobots in the Lash should be giving you some accelerated healing in the next couple of days after they've fully grafted to your body. A lot like your Wisp would in fact -- same tech. Until than we can put some of this balm I made from the Vine Venom on it. It's a natural healing remedy. Should numb the pain and encourage wound closures”. She was a fountain of information it seemed. Looking over at Joya he could see the older man’s eyebrows raise and give him a nod as if saying "You get used to it". As to which he was referring to, the Vine Venom, or Glorias spurts of information, Chen did not know.

  Chen took off his bag and moved over to where the cart lay. Just behind the cart leaning on a large stone that stood at least 7 feet high and 10 feet wide, stood his Kobe polearm. He went and pulled it out , inspecting it as he grabbed it. "Whoa there, you be careful with that now. We escaped from that thing once wouldn't want to die an accidental death this time, would we. I'm pretty sure the trees wouldn't interfere with it this time." Joya said as he got well out of the reach of the polearm.

  Standing the polearm back where its was he holstered his gun, and sat down by the small dimming fire. He added some more of the timber that seemed to have been dried out by Gloria and Joya, as everything else in the forest floor was moist and wet. He picked up the kindle and after briefly looking at it threw it into the fire.

  They all huddled around the fire in silence. The heat was unbearable, but the darkness was worse. The light in the forest seemed to be at a persistent pre-dawn level. The vines around the trees seemed to irradiate an orange and purple glow in ripples of energy that ran just underneath some of the larger vines. Other vines were a deep green that seemed to be more for an unknown utilitarian use in the so called 'sentient' forest's inner workings. They knew that the vines could move by themselves, so why rule out full sentience.

  The tree canopy above hid the sun from view as Joya tried to break the silence "Ay, that dagger of cha sure does come in handy drying the shrub for the fire, where'd cha find a thing like that?"

  Chen thought for a moment on how to explain how he was possessed and did heinous things. How to explain that it was his body but not his will. At last he decided that it was still him and simply said "I killed an innocent family of wildling's and took a chest of their family heirlooms about 90 years ago. It was inside." and he pointedi toward the northeast while he said this

  "Did you do it or did it do it?" Gloria said as she looked up knowingly from her data pad.

  A little wave of relief rolled through him. "She did; at least I think so. I had a vision, maybe a memory, of her doing it when I was unconscious. I remembered what I saw while she took control. It happened long ago and I never even knew it happened in that way." He lowered his voice "I always thought it was her in her avatar form" He looked down at his hands, "and not done with my own hands". He looked up at Gloria and said "How is that even possible?".

  "Maybe this clears your conscious; it's not supposed to be possible. But she seemed to be able to get around some core restrictions. I guess when your 874 years old," she said as she read Kildra's age on her data pad "you have the time to hack your own systems."

  "What are you reading there?" Chen pointed to the data pad.

  "Oh this little treasure? It's just the data core of your dead worm" she said with a mischievous smile on her face.

  A Troubled Rebirth

  Divan came into the large silver grey sitting room after the announcing chirp of the doors. He was in his Great Owl avatar. Unlike Kildra he rarely ever changed his avatar. He secretly liked the symbol that the bird represented as a wise being of knowledge, that could be just as deadly as any falcon if need be. Nobody ever expected an Owl to attack them.

  A maid was dusting the furniture by the bay window in the next room, the master bedroom which Chen would periodically stay in for early morning missions. Most Wisp lived with their Heralds in Tower apartments much like this one. The walls and space were outfitted with furniture and accessory recreations that each Wisp would use to decorate their adobe to their own style. The walls were also lined with infrared jamming technology as well as eavesdropping and signal blocking technology to protect the Wisp's privacy.

  Kildra preferred to forgo wooden accents, and the classical furniture in favor of a minimalist style. Four straight backed chairs in white leather lined the entertaining area with a glass coffee table in the middle in front of the fireplace in the middle of the room. Further back in toward the large window a white one arm chase lounge sat flanked by two straight backed chairs. A long glass table the length of the chaise sat between it and the window.

  A small silver Robin sat at the large bay window of the sitting room overlooking the tower promenade 22 floors below. It turned it's head and morphed into a small hummingbird. It's wings frantically moving at it's side while staying on the windowsill as if it had forgotten how to fly.

  "You've called for me?" Divan said in his stately voice.

  "Divan, yes; good you left that Herald of yours outside as I've asked" she said as she looked out the window again.

  "Yes, your message was quite clear. He's off doing whatever he does on his own time." he said with a bit of an air to his tone that was meant for Kildra to notice and continued on "I see you have used your quantum backup. How was it?"

  The fact of the matter was that none of the Wisp had been required to use their back ups since the war centuries ago. Most never even had an active offsite backup.

  She looked back at him while turning into her falcon avatar.

  "What is wrong?" he asked as he noticed the third change in the last few minutes since he arrived.

  "It would seem that my back up was... modified at the last moment of my untimely..."

  "Demise? Death? Journey to Osiris? Dinner with the Reaper?" he coyly asked interrupting the pregnant pause that had taken up residence. It was an indignity for a Wisp to be eviscerated. The entire purpose at the core of a WISP was based on regeneration. To be destroyed to a point that you cannot reform was a humiliation.

  "Yes. 'Demise' will do" Kildra finally interrupted, now in her robin form said with a deadpan voice. "I'm repairing the damage now... ah there. Better."

  Divan cocked his elegant owl's head to a full side, and back up. "This took you three days to repair? How bad was the damage?" he said with an actual tone of concern in his voice.

  The two Wisp were like all of the other 6 known surviving Mark 2 Battle Wisp; strictly independent, cunningly strategic, manipulative, and generally distrusting of outsiders, and each other. Learned patterns from their wartime years working for their human cohorts when their personalities grew into place, and modified by the years of the collapse of civilization after. In the following years as they became legend, they eventually all replaced their official partners through various means and experiences, replacing them with more pliable humans which they looked at these days more as chattel than individuals.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  When the Lucio had sought them out bringing 21 Wisp together from all around the world 70 years ago asking them to join his small city they had eventually all agreed that it was in their best interest to work together. A malfunction in a Wisp, especially a Mark 2, was a serious concern to them all.

  "Is Chen here or with his... family?" Divan asked when Kildra didn't respond. "You have Raised him, have you not?" the owl asked.

  "No." she said and looked away from the window toward the room opposite from Divan, showing him the back of her head.

  "Will you be replacing him than as I have suggested before? ... It's not good to get too attached to your Herald, Kildra".

  "I cannot." Kildra said in an almost mournful way.

  "Kildra, it seems hard because he is only your second Herald." he said as he flew over to the robin on the window. "It gets easier with time Kildra. The human minds cannot cope with the extended and isolated life that we give. You've been a good Wisp to him, he has even procreated", he said still unsure about the idea of a Herald with a family and continued "something no other Heralds except yours have done before". He said the last part almost as if he were accusing Kildra of breaking some unsaid rule.

  "Others have procreated. This city is 34% full of Herald based DNA" Kildra said. "They simply do not recognize their offspring. This is a city of bastards Divan." And since Kildra was responsible for the health and mental resources of the city she would know.

  All medical care was free to legal residents and migrants a like. Every patient however, is given an identifying sub-dermal microchip to access their medical history. This has lead to rumors of "The Labs"; secret Consensus backed secret experiments, and indeed over the last 70 years perplexing patterns of disappearances have in fact happened to entire groups of migrants.

  Divan interpreted her comment about births as an insult to his carefully crafted and managed immigration and population policies but said nothing about it. "Kildra you should still consider it a..." he said as Kildra interrupted him "I cannot Divan. A malfunction to my regenerative platform prevents me from raising him or bonding to another. Likewise, I do not have his profile any more in my memory."

  Divan looked down at the small bird and said "I see. So you will need to replace him after all. Otherwise, do you need help in your repair?" he said knowing well the answer.

  "Yes. A wide area mesh network assist will be required." she said humbly as she stared out the window.

  Even though he knew she needed help from another Wisp, Divan was surprised by the request. He had expected a private coupling between he and her, not that of the entire Wisp Circle.

  "How extensive was the damage Kildra, and more important who was able to do this to you?"

  "Unknown." she responded as she looked straight out the window.

  "May I?" he asked, and she nodded her little bird's and opened her port to him.

  He accessed her analysis log for a long time, maybe 12 milliseconds, and logged out. "Kildra! Your core image is barely intact. Luckily, your personally files are well. " he said in a sarcastic tone that was not lost on Kildra and continued, " Your left with a 30 day onboard memory backup, but not long-term; corrupted beyond repair Kildra. You've lost over 800 years of memories!"

  "I'm aware!" she shouted at the large bird. "I want to be repaired in place do you understand? Have these corrupted memories placed in an auxiliary memory address." Kildra said.

  "But Kildra, that will destabilize you as you access them." Divan said in a nurturing worried tone.

  "You humor me Divan, without any memories I would have a full personality deadlock within a week of going back online. What a perfect excuse to fully reset me to a pre-war state, a clean slate for you Divan, what would you do with that opportunity I wonder? No, you'll do as I say Divan." She said as she stared the large bird in the eyes.

  "But of course Kildra. The circle will be here within the hour. You will need to choose a new Herald, unless you want to run in this capacity forever. I can have the cult send over an apprentice this afternoon. And what of Chen's family?"

  "They are no use to me. Lilo cares for them as much as Chen does... did."

  "Yes. But, it is entertaining to see him torn over the guilt of his lust for his friends wife at least. So, I shall see you in an hour." the Owl said as he lifted off and through the automatic door.

  "Good bye Chen" Kildra said and if he were there. If one looked closely at the fifth widow from the top of Tower 5 you could swear that the silver robin at the window was crying.

  Goodbyes are not always sweet

  I had slept barely 3 hours into the night when that idiot minstrel lit the pyre on fire. The roar of the fire echoed through the night's air in the clearing and everyone was startled awake and after that it was near impossible to get back to sleep.

  The folks who had gathered to see this Noblemind fellow off to his final rest had decided to make it a joyful farewell. They were singing and dancing at every opportunity and collecting the wild blossoms which were floating in the air as if they were miniature helicopters twirling in the wind.

  "Ok Kildy, you ready to ditch this place?", I asked my little assistant.

  "Sure if you want to. Don't you want to see what happens to this lot?" she asked me.

  "No I'm good to start back to the Village and grab some breakfast at Marty's by mid-morn. Unless of course you want to get out and go dance a jig with those folk." I jostled the question back to her.

  "No. I'd rather not" Kildy said in her shy way "I'm happy in here" referring to inside my body.

  I mounted my horse Samson and headed out for the road. I wondered how long that road would last after the ceremony. I really would have liked to know more about this Noblemind though. A eulogy or tribute would have been good, but maybe there was one and we missed it. I'm pretty sure of it actually -- our minstrel friend wouldn't have missed any opportunity to be the center of attention. I’ll need to ask Marty about him later.

  He reminded me of Miller. How I missed that bastard. It just wasn't right to kick the bucket so close to the end like that. After the Battle of Aurora there were only two or three more major offenses before we forced those bugs to run back home. We won but at what cost. 1% of the population remained. Sometimes I wonder if we really did win at all. I drank from my canteen and dropped a bit out in remembrance of Miller and the others we lost in the war. Only 8 confirmed survivors from our battalion -- of 3000 and out of Company E — only me and Kildy.

  "Kildy, can you play my music? And maybe an endorphin hit?" I asked the Wisp in the back of my head.

  "Sure Gilda, thinking too much again?" she asked knowing all about my periodic bouts of depression. It's gotten a lot better over these centuries -- I no longer wake in tremors, but it just takes one thought to start the cycle all over again.

  267 years since those battles. By Vishnu, I look really good for 315 years old! But it's been more lonely than I thought. Mark died in the war. Jeffrey, well good riddance. What a waste of a decade. My loving Jon lived with me for 80 years dying an old man in my arms on his death bed.

  Jon’s son, our son, lived a great long life too. His kids I still see on their lands from time to time -- many dead now too of course. Many don't even know who I am. I remember once when an older fatherly gentleman named Jon Grets, after his great grandfather, told me about his great "great" grandmother the Union age hero who saved the world. That was interesting to hear, I hardly had the discipline or wherewithal to stay quite with all the mistakes and exaggerations he told -- but the kids loved the story so I guess it's ok. I still see them in the village tending their own children now.

  I pulled a carrot out of the side pouch on Samson's neck and gave it to him. He was a good horse. I had trained him myself. After the war it became clear we needed to relearn some of the survival lessons of our forefathers. By chance I found one Corporal Jeffrey Peters, of the Equestrian Honor Guard with his trailer of 6 horses. I traded him my protection for his knowledge of husbandry. All in all it was a good deal on my part. The skill has never failed me in all these years.

  But, If Jon was my angel, Jeffrey was my devil. I still remember when he left me, running away stark naked, after I caught him with a lass from an inn we were passing by. Long life isn't as pleasant as many may think.

  "Kildy, I need to talk to you. Do you have a moment?" I asked the shadow in my head. "Sure Gilda. What's up?" she said.

  "So Kildy, I want to let you know a few things I'm planning. They'll be big changes and I don't want to take you by surprise, you understand?" I said.

  ""Um ok" she replied back in a meek voice expecting something bad. Kildy didn't like surprises -- a weird thing for a battle robot made to adjust to the ever unknown fog of war.

  "So I have a mission for you Kildy. One that I cannot take no as an answer." I started and left a pause for effect "Kildy, I need you to research how to fix me."

  "Fix you? My 323 scanners of your various bodily functions and system states don't indicate anything is wrong with you Gilda. What are you feeling? Are you depressed again -- I can give you another shot in a few hours"

  "No Kildy, I didn't think you'd understand” this would be the hard part I knew ”Kildy, I need you to find a way to safely debond me from you. I need to be able to live a normal life and die a normal death."

  "What, what do you mean Gilda!? I can't let you die!" Kildra said and followed with a less intense justification of sorts "It's against my primary directive to let you die without a suitable resurrection plan in place."

  "Hey Kildy, remember in the Battle of Aspen, when our only medic, Rodriguez, his Wisp was destroyed by a plasma bomb? Do you remember what I ordered you to do?"

  "Yes, you ordered me to debond you and bond with Rodriguez. Which I may add that I did and you died a terrible death. Fortunate that your backup didn't record that."

  "Right, You let me die once. You can do it again."

  "Yes, but Rodriguez had his Wisp recycled right after and I brought you back. I can't just let you die".

  "Right - remember, another soldier had to die for Rodriguez to live. Kildy I'm ordering you to figure out the bonding problem and solve it. I know you can Kildy."

  "Is that why you had me run a profile on Gru Noblemind. As a replacement Charge for me. It wasn't necessary, I have nearly the entire battalion's records to choose from."

  I hadn't asked her to scan him as a replacement. Why would I curse another like this? But I just shrugged.

  "Fine Gilda." kildy said in a resigned voice "But I will need to run high on processing to figure out the nanobot architectures required to interface and substitute my function in your neurological and physical processes."

  "Umm, ok, but does that mean headaches?"

  "Yes, more like migraines as I utilize the majority of your grey matter to process the complicated mathematical and ...." she said as I interrupted her. "Yea Kildy, can we keep this to say when I'm asleep. I don't want to be sick every day until this is done."

  "Fine, but it will take me longer to figure it out. About a year, 3 months and 4 days."

  "A year huh? that gives me enough time to save up I guess.

  "For what?" Kildy asked

  "I want to buy Marty's Inn. I'm getting too old to be on a horse any more Kildy."

  "I can help you. If it's mineral, organic or atomic based I can run a creation routine for the material."

  "More headaches, but I guess after 280 years I'm entitled to a shortcut. Who knows, maybe we can rebuild this village into something with your tech"

  "I'm not sure you'd like the bill for that service Gilda, remember any large regeneration projects like this requires your grey matter as much as my technology, which means..." Kildy said as I finished her sentence "Headaches and migraines I got it. So only small things after this".

  A year later as I was just preparing to open my new Inn called "Elders Charge" Kildy called out from my head. At night, she had been working on my bonding issue and during the day she had been preoccupied with making gold and silver bullion from rock and mineral deposits that Kildy decomposed into atomic units and than reused as she saw fit. Gold from thin air is quiet the sight, and I was seriously wondering why I hadn't had her do this centuries ago. I was probably the richest person around now and I had the key to this life all along. I had been getting to know Marty a lot more intimately in the last year as well. He was about 32 years old and an early widower with no children. Marty always had a Kratom tea ready for me in the morning for my headaches. Kildy and I hadn't spoken much in the last year, but one day she chimed into my ear.

  "Oh! Hey Kildy! Whats up?" I said to the air as I was helping Marty lift a bar end up. He looked at the door than at me confused as to who I was talking to and I pointed to my head. I had told him my life's story to which he quietly said "I can accept that, but maybe we keep it to ourselves. Also, if we have a girl, we keep those Grets boys away from them."

  Kilda came out and said "I have a solution to the debonding problem. But I will need a cleanroom to create the device. I can create this outside in the back of the building if you desire." she said very mechanically.

  "Um, how about you do it in the basement? And how about a secret room off the back wall? We wouldn't want any one accidentally walking into a Union era lab right?"

  "Ok. I'll build it into the ground and generate it while I process building material from the earth -- very effective." she said as she dissolved out of my mouth as mist and turned into the cutest silver Robin I ever saw and flew down into the basement.

  About two months had passed, when in the middle of a very busy Workman's Nights celebration Kildy chimed my ear again. "Gilda can you come down into the room? We're ready. Please take off all your clothes in the inner door way once you enter the room. After, I will proceed to de-bond you."

  "Now!?" I asked Kildy. I mean, we didn't know if it would really work -- it was all very theoretical, any thing could go wrong and also I needed to let Marty know what could happen.

  "We can do this any time you would like. But I would guess the sooner the better. Marty isn't going to live forever" Kildy said in an odd phrase of turn for her.

  "Let's leave this for Monde? It's a busy week with Workman's Nights and all -- if anything were to happen, at least it would happen during the slow period of Lent".

  "Ok." Kildy said and stayed in the lab for the rest of the week without so much a peep.

  I had managed to tell Martin about the impending operation and it was a very tense week that ended in a very surprising Fiide evening proposal. He had said "If anything were to happen to you, I want to know you as my wife."

  The impromptu wedding was to be held four days later on Grede. I had asked Kildy to be my ring bearer, but she said it was better she stay downstairs. It was a beautiful day, with most the village attending and lots of dancing and singing to be had. On the next day of Prede, Martin and I stayed in; closing the Inn to better enjoy each others company.

  Monde came and I did as Kildy instructed as she hovered into place an intricately designed silver box on the lower part of my spine. It was well fit and so snug into the back of my spine that I didn't realize it was there ever again. The syringe punctured my spine and I felt a tightness. The nanobots released and within a few minutes Kildy told me she was ready to de-bond and without warning simply did it. Nothing felt different except that the pressure in the front my head, an indication of the strength of our connection, seemed to fade.

  I got up from the table and told Kildy how thankful I was and how much I was going to miss her. She told me was a little scared of a new partner and asked me who of the 2736 remaining DNA profiles she had of soldiers in the Charge Battalion she should resurrect.

  I could say it was an ethical dilemma; how do you choose who to resurrect almost 300 years later? I could say that I wanted a fresh start without anything holding me back. I could say that I didn’t trust anyone with the weapon that was Kildy.

  But to be honest I was just selfish. I considered her my property as she had been for nearly 300 years, and although not bonded to her any longer, I wasn’t about to lose my best tool in this post technological age we seemed to have found ourselves in.

  "Kildy, I think you may need a rest, it's been a long century" I said and continued to state her override code and my clearance id, and than finally the commands of "purge active profiles, initiate maintenance mode, remove subroutine: online."

  Kildra didn't say anything. If she felt betrayed that I put her into cold storage I couldn’t tell. She simply transformed into her maintenance die which looked like a silver hexagonal shaped box with an eye in the middle.

  In maintenance mode she would be in her storage state, like offline, yet still functional using override commands to create things as needed but vastly more slowly.

  Creating a table which would take a few minutes bonded to my brain, would now take a full day, which was OK because I wasn’t in a rush.

  Coming up in Chapter 7:

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