"What is the problem now?" Youri asked as she leaned back into the leather Captain's chair, putting her face in her palms, overwhelmed by everything she had just learned.

  "Two ships are about to drop out of warp; the warp signatures indicate a destroyer and a corvette. Something is going on." Albert said the longer the mission went on, the more he got suspicious

  "What do you mean?" Mark asked the AI who took over the ship.

  "We have MA11-2 tanks on the ground that Henry disabled, and now we have two ships about to drop out of warp. All of our intel stated that reinforcements were weeks out and that no ships could respond to this location for at least a standard 24 UHC hours. The resistance planet side is also far heavier than we were originally led to believe," Albert explained to Mark. "Captain, order your crew to battle stations." Albert told Youri as he primed the missiles and rail guns for the fight.

  "All hands report to battle stations, I repeat all hands report to battle stations," Youri ordered before subconsciously looking at the intercom. "Are you going to give control back to my crew and me?" She asked Albert.

  "Oh, darling, I would never let a beautiful lady such as yourself miss the show that I am about to put on. Besides, my goal is to ensure the survival of Henry. The mad lad might not say much, but he wants to protect the crew of the New Dawn since your crew hasn't treated him terribly," Albert said just as the two Altherium ships dropped out of orbit. Albert put the ships up on the bridge's view screen for Youri to see.

  "The half almond with the four arm-like thrusters that house the weapons along with propulsion, that's the classic Altherium design. Not a single sharp edge besides the nose. His royal pain in our ass doesn't like sharp edges on his ships," Youri said as she leaned forward in her chair.

  "Yes, now sit back, keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times, and last but not least, enjoy the show," Albert said as he launched a full volley of missiles at the destroyer. He immediately started to perform evasive maneuvers, and not too soon. The moment that the missiles and railgun shots were launched, the Altherium responded in kind by firing their massive nose-based laser. The Corvette pulled out of the fight and headed to the planet. After twenty seconds, the missiles hit the destroyer, knocking out its shields and damaging one of the four arms.

  "Damn it, I picked wrong," Albert chided himself as he dodged another laser strike by the destroyer. "Hold on, things are about to get rough. Albert told the bridge crew as he went full thrust towards the local asteroid field.

  "Hey AI, what the fuck are you doing? Are you trying to kill us?" Nani asked as she held onto the arms of her chair for dear life.

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  "If I wanted you dead, you would have been that way, I am trying to save everyone's life, plus the ship. Now, if you don't have anything useful to say, kindly shut it," Was Albert's reply. It took him three whole seconds to talk himself down from going on a tirade against her.

  A few minutes later, after three laser shots that Albert maneuvered the ship out of the way of, the New Hope entered the asteroid field.

  "Why did you go into the Asteroid field?" Youri asked Albert, perplexed as to Albert's plan.

  "That destroyer will see our next volley and be able to outmaneuver our shots. We need to get them to close the distance to where they don't have the time to outmaneuver us. Pay attention, Captain, this will be valuable for later. Altherium Cruiser class ships and smaller vessels forgo any point defense weapons in favor of a more powerful laser and maneuverability," Albert explained as he burned full speed to try and get the Altherium destroyer to pick up speed, not wanting to lose their prey.

  "Yes, this one should do nicely," Albert told himself as he activated the maneuvering thrusters to circle around a ten-kilometer asteroid. Albert ignored the groans of the ship and crew as he kept the turn as tight to the asteroid as he could. He came around the asteroid just as the Altherium destroyer started to pass where he had started the turn. "Another lesson, Captain, their sensors can't detect heat when you're close enough to the rear of their ship. Their thrusters put off almost 120% more heat than a UHC ship of the same size. This does allow them to travel faster than their counterparts however," Albert said as he launched another volley of rail shots and missiles. This time, the shots rang true, knocking the ship out. Albert watched as the explosions rocked the ship all over. The ship started to spiral and moments later collided with an asteroid, finishing off whatever chance the crew had.

  "Now time for us to start making our way back to fight the Corvette, and by the way, the lot of you can pick your jaws up," Albert said over the intercom as he started to make his way back to Tak-Val.

  "Hey Albert, can I ask you something?" Youri asked.

  "Shoot." Was the panicking AI's reply

  "Why try so hard for Henry?" Youri asked. She could feel Albert staring at her.

  "Because he needs someone to have his back. Did you miss the part where the project called all of them disposable? If he can't trust his own kind to have his back, I will," Albert said with annoyance. Albert looked around the room through the bridge cameras and saw everyone besides Captain Youri sporting looks of confusion, while Youri held her head down. "If you all want to see what the UHC turned a five-year-old kid into, look at Ningamu's monitor," Albert said, still irritated at Youri for her question.

  "I thought you said..." Youri started before Albert cut her off.

  "Youri, I am pure data that thinks at light speed, I remember what I told you twenty minutes ago, and I remember what I told Henry almost a decade ago," The AI said, scolding the captain. "Now, the rest of you get over here and look if you want to," Albert finished as he adjusted the monitor, putting a half inch black line between the UAV's footage, and the live footage from Henry's helmet.

  "Holy shit how did you do that?" Ningamu asked, amazed by the split feed.

  "It was simple, I rode back down the radio signal, and communicated with myself to turn on the helmet feed, and now I am back. I did share the data from our ship fight also," Albert explained.

  "How long did all of that take?" Nani asked.

  "Five seconds," Albert said as he changed the view from the small monitor that Ningamu used to the large view screen.