Garrick floated out of the small room back into the medbay and froze.

  Macdewil was staring at him, one of the guns Garrick had brought from The Tealclaw strapped to his leg. The door behind him was closed, and there was no sign of nurses Yuri or Marryland. His friend was intently staring at him.

  "Jack?" Garrick asked as he grabbed the nearest handhold, a sudden worry growing.

  "It's good to see you, Captain. Are you… alright?"

  Garrick looked at the other man and nodded. "My brain is still not completely healed, but it's getting there. What is going on? Why do you look like you are about to deliver bad news?"

  "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just get it done," Macdewil said. "From what I could see of the few compromised systems that were accessible, someone tampered with them."

  Garrick felt his headache grow again, and he held back a loud curse.

  Why doesn't this surprise me? he thought, focusing on Macdewil.

  "Any idea who did it?"

  "None, Captain. I can't even be sure it's one of the crew we saved. It could just as easily be one of those infected who has been hiding in the ship."

  Garrick took a deep breath, his still foggy mind slow on the uptick.

  "Captain, it's worse. I've been going over the way our brain implants have been changed, and there's no guarantee any of us are truly uncompromised. None but you. Those automated systems that are now inside our implants might already be changing our view of things."

  "Is that why you have closed the door?" Garrick asked, glad atleast someone believed he was truly uncompromised.

  "Yes. Now that Sibilis is back to normal, I think we can't postpone it, Captain. We need to start making the same changes to other implants similar to those done to yours. It would prevent us from being taken over."

  Garrick looked at his friend, fearing what was coming.

  "Engineer Macdewil, you can't be suggesting that we try this on you, our most senior engineer?" he said slowly.

  Macdewil snorted, raising an eyebrow. "It would be the morally right thing to do, but no," he said. "Brandon, one of the junior engineers, is standing outside. He has volunteered. I would have done it, but…"

  Macdewil let out a weary sigh. "There's nobody that can truly replace me. Which, by the way, sucks!"

  Garrick stared at his friend, slightly stunned. He'd never been one for cursing, and vehemency of the final word felt like an attack on someone.

  "The gun is for if things go wrong?" he asked.

  Macdewil just looked at him, and Garrick nodded sadly, looking at the door behind Macdewil.

  "I would prefer waiting till my brain is healed, but… Crux, Sibilis, your opinions?"

  "I agree with Engineer Macdewil's plan," Crux said. "Before the salvaging of the other ships can be started, more people need to resist potential implant hacking. Between the hacking, integration, and potential upgrading that needs to be done, it will already take days to weeks. Although I can keep your body in working order, without similar changes, the other surviving crewmen will rapidly start experiencing muscle atrophy and other issues. At the same time, the potential for radiation overload grows with each day."

  "Crux is correct, Captain," The Sibilis said. "Your implant was heavily modified before The Tealclaw retook it, and it is unclear how long that modification had been going on or how much your initial location had something to do with the changes. There is a non-neglectable chance that changes similar to yours might take months."

  Garrick let his mind go over the idea, not rushing himself but taking the time to find flaws. There were a few- but mostly because he kept having the lingering worry that he, Crux, or The Sibilis were compromised. Eventually, he pushed those worries away. If that was the case, there wasn't anything he could do about it now. With those gone, what he was left with was the ethical dilemma of experimenting on another human being and a junior engineer. The problem was they would need to do this soon, and the option to wake the dormant LLM within Hilbert to check that wasn't something he wanted to risk, not after what happened last time.

  "Fine. Let's do this," he said, wishing that he could come up with a better plan.

  Macdewil nodded, and a few minutes later, a young, blue-eyed, brown-haired, and tired-looking engineer hovered in the room with them.

  Garrick faintly remembered the man, Brandon Mulligan. He had a drink with him and the other junior engineers a few months ago. He was a top-of-his-class, witty, and humorous man who was incredibly happy with his first job aboard a starship. He faintly reminded Garrick about how Macdewil had been at the start.

  Right now, his arms were bound by a cable, and he grinned at Garrick.

  "It is fine, Captain. I'd always wanted an upgrade to my brain implant. Besides, who knows? I might become smarter than Senior Engineer Macdewil like this!"

  Garrick raised an eyebrow. "Please stay calm, engineer Mulligan."

  "Of course, captain!"

  Garrick looked at the man for a little while as he hovered in the middle of the room before sighing and nodding at Macdewil.

  “Sibilis, Crux, start.”

  "Commencing," Crux and Sibilis said almost in unison.

  Macdewil took out the gun, and together, they watched as engineer Mulligan's eyes rolled up in his head.

  An image of a brain with an implant, the center orange, the sides blue, appeared. From two sides, the blue spread inward rapidly until it reached the core. There, it stopped as long lines turned dark red.

  "We have encountered some resistance, Captain. There is definitely an automated system present that should not be here, but it can be easily hacked," Crux said.

  "Commence."

  Garrick waited, his mind clearer, but a headache formed at the back of his neck.

  A minute later, the red began vanishing rapidly.

  "We have broken through, Captain," Crux said. "We are now wrapping up the last automated system, and…"

  There was a blinking blue light in the center of the implant.

  "The implant is completely cleared, Captain. Commence installing an altered and limited Y5 LLM?"

  "One moment. How many changes have been made to Engineer Mulligan's implant and brain?" Garrick asked.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "Far fewer than with yours, Captain. There are no tendrils, but the base changes have been made, and the LLM is capable of growing to the level required to hold a small version of the Y5 LLM," Crux answered. "It is going to take a while before it grows to the level yours was at when I integrated with it."

  Garrick nodded. So, the position he had been in, or the encounter with Captain Braddock, had changed his implant far more than that of some of the others.

  "How long until it is capable of protecting Engineer Mulligan from external hacks?"

  "A bit over two weeks, Captain."

  Garrick looked at Macdewil, who nodded.

  "Fine. Install the new LLM and have it show Engineer Mulligan the same intro that was shown to me. However, make sure to upgrade what is needed to protect his implant from any external influences."

  "Commencing, Captain."

  Just under eight minutes later, Engineer Mulligan opened his eyes, blinking rapidly. "Wow… that is…" he grunted, raising his bound hands to his head. "Did it hurt that much for you to, Captain?"

  "Sadly, it did," Garrick said. "How are you feeling?"

  "Like I drank two bottles of strong Frostscotch, sir. But I'll live. The changes are… interesting. How many of these proposed changes am I allowed to make?! Having my bones and tendons strengthened seems interesting! It reminds me of those old comics from the pre-AI-agent age."

  Garrick looked at the younger man, holding back his nearly instant denial response. He should have thought about this beforehand. Still, his mind was speeding up, and he thought for a few moments.

  "For now, no other changes but healing old wounds and what is needed to prevent external hacking," he said. "We will draft a set of allowed changes as soon as we have time."

  Macdewil floated forward, examining Engineer Mulligan.

  "Engineer Mulligan, explain to me exactly how you are feeling right now and what you remember of the moments after Sibilis and Crux started."

  "Yes, Lead Engineer," Mulligan said. "In the few moments after they started, I saw my H.U.D. flash, and there was some warning message that vanished a moment later. Shortly after, I lost consciousness. When I woke, my head seemed afire, and it took a moment for my mind to pick up. Then the H.U.D. returned, now with the spiffy Y features! So, after that, Ceasar began explaining his capabilities, and when he was done, I woke up."

  Caesar? Garrick wondered what had caused the younger man to use such an ancient historical figure.

  "Wait, you got the introduction before waking up?" Macdewil asked.

  "Ah, well. I guess I'd already woken up, but I only felt my body and was able to move after that," Mulligan said.

  "I think I can answer that, Captain," a calm, smooth voice said.

  "You are Engineer Muligan's LLM?" Garrick asked.

  "Correct, Captain. I was designated Ceasar by Engineer Mulligan. When he woke, to comply with your initial order, I kept him partially asleep to make the initial few inches of the tendrils as painless as possible. This has sped up the initial assessment by a few days."

  Garrick saw a few images and graphs appear in his H.U.D., together with a quick line from Crux.

  "He is correct, Captain. From what I can tell, doing it in this order puts slightly more initial strain on the brain but will work out on all accounts in the long run."

  "Very good," Garrick said. "Sibilis, is there any reason to be worried?"

  "No, Captain. From what my readings tell me, Ceasar is performing up to specifications, and Engineer Mulligan's brain and implant seem clear of any signs of uncontrolled foreign systems."

  "Garrick, I know you want to wait and see for a while, but we don't have the time."

  Garrick looked at Macdewil, who'd perfectly determined his course of action and held his friend's gaze.

  "The fox and turtle," he said calmly. "We will wait one full day. Twenty-four hours. After that, if nothing goes wrong, you will be number two. If that goes well, we will have two people per day for a week, and after that, if there are no problems, we will start speeding things up."

  Garrick saw Macdewil wanted to complain, but he just held his friend's gaze until he sighed.

  "Yes, Captain."

  "Good. Then, if you two don't mind, I'm going to need a bit of rest. My brain feels like it's been bouncing around," Garrick said.

  "Ah, the shuttle is free for you, Captain," Macdewil said, grinning. "I'd warned everyone that as soon as you would wake, everyone would be pushed forward. Nobody disagreed, and, honestly, sir? You like horrible."

  Garrick snorted. If he'd felt even marginally better, he'd have rejected the idea for its mere principle. Now, he just pulled himself toward the exit.

  "Engineer Mulligan, report to nurse Suziki. She is to do a thorough examination of you and your brain."

  "Yes, captain."

  Garrick waved as he pulled himself out of the medbay, the movement aggravating his headache. There was a beep, and the icon of an open connection terminated.

  "How long till this headache is gone?" he asked.

  "If you go to the shuttle and sleep, I can have it fixed before you wake up," Crux said.

  "I take it that doesn't mean I'll be asleep for a week?" Garrick asked.

  "Six to eight hours," Crux said.

  "Good. Also… work together with Sibilis to create a set of rule suggestions and guidelines for changes that could be made by the… what do we even call the people that have the changed implants and new LLM? Ugh. Never mind. Just come up with a name and those guidelines. I'll review them when I wake together with Macdewill."

  "Yes, Captain," Crux said.

  --

  Garrick woke, stretching in the chair before looking around. His H.U.D. showed him he'd slept for a bit over six hours. He felt a slight tension starting as he thought about what would happen in a few hours.

  Almost three weeks had passed since Engineer Mulligan had gotten his implant hacked free of the alien precursor systems. Nearly all of the awoken crew had followed him by now, and today would mark the last group of four.

  And we still haven't found the person that tampered with the systems…

  He knew the chances were there that the person who did it had already been cleared, but there was also a small worry. In the group of four, one of the people had somehow managed to delay their Upgrade Unlock, as the engineers had begun to call it.

  Engineer Grayson Harvest…

  The name still caused him to frown, as did the situations that had kept him from being delayed. After the second time, Macdewil and The Sibilis had kept a close watch on him, but so far, he'd done nothing odd.

  "Good morning, Captain," Crux said after what he knew was exactly a minute.

  "Good morning," he replied, something he'd started doing a few weeks ago.

  "The muscle atrophy has been completely reverted, and I have slowly started augmenting your ligaments for future increases," Crux said.

  How did I let him talk me into this? Garrick thought, recalling his heated conversation with Macdewil.

  "You need to get as strong as possible, Captain! Perhaps we are all humanity has left in the future, so we can't fail," his friend had snapped at his dismissal of increasing his physical abilities beyond what was normal for regular humans.

  "Alright, make sure not to overdo it," Garrick said as he headed for the shower.

  "I won't, Captain. Your readings show you are stressed… are you worrying about Engineer Grayson Harvest? He has yet to do anything suspicious."

  "I'm worried about what happens if it's not him," Garrick said.

  "If it's not him, there's a sixty-three percent chance that we have already Upgrade Unlocked the perpetrator," Crux said.

  Leaving me a far too big chance of something lurking about my ship without my knowledge, Garrick thought.

  As he finished showering, he caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection of the cabin. He stopped and blinked. He'd not looked this good since he'd finished G-AD. The only thing really highlighting his age were the crinkles around his eyes and lips and the gray in his hair, but even that seemed less than it had been.

  "Crux… did you do something to my skin?" Garrick asked.

  "No, Captain. The changes you are noticing are due to better moisturizing of your entire body. However, if you want, I can rejuvenate your epidermis. It won't take much away from my processing or your body's resources, and-"

  "No," Garrick said, shaking his head and deciding to quickly change the subject. He'd been somewhat vain back in his early twenties, and one of the good things about getting older was that he'd lost that streak. He wasn't interested in reliving it.

  "Instead, tell me the status of Officer Hilbert's body."

  An image of Hilbert's body, arms, and legs, but regrowing, appeared on the screen.

  "Ever since Nurse Yuri has commenced refilling his suit with nutrients, it has been slowly regenerating. At this rate, it should be fully functional in another month."

  "And still no signal of brain or implant activity?"

  "None. There are two UU's with him at all moments, but none of their LLMs have detected anything, nor has the Sibilis."

  Garrick looked at the only true combattant on the ship besides himself. Would Hilbert still be there if they hacked his implant? He'd decided to delay it until everyone got their Upgrade Unlock, which meant it was another thing to do today or tomorrow.

  And after that, we go to the next ship, he thought.

  It was going to be a busy couple of days after a busy few weeks of rebuilding and scavenging all they could do.