Garrick was pulling himself through the ship, heading toward the medbay, when the warning he'd been worrying about came. Just not out about who he'd worried about.

  "Captain, shuttle three has been removed from my systems and is currently flying away," Sibilis said, projecting slight worry.

  Garrick's hand clasped around the handhold in shock, causing his entire body to float sideways and into the wall.

  "How did Engineer Harvest manage to get away from engineering?!" he snapped, seeing a call from Macdewil.

  "Engineer Grayson Harvest is still with Lead Engineer Macdewil, Captain."

  "Then who is taking the shuttle?!" Garrick said as he enabled the connection with Macdewil.

  "Engineer May Sundra," Macdewil shouted, sounding out of breath.

  Garrick felt confused as he stared at the wall. He knew May Sundra; she was one of the older engineers and had been with his ship for a few years. Had she been acting odd? He couldn't recall, but he didn't think so.

  "Captain, I'm heading to shuttle seven now. If you meet me there, I'm sure Sibilis can inform you," Macdewil continued, jolting him out of his momentary surprise.

  Kicking himself for getting distracted like some first-time captain, Garrick turned and began pulling himself back to where he'd just been, halfway across the ship.

  "Sibilis, explain. Fast."

  "Nearly fifteen minutes ago, Engineer May Sundra moved from the engineering bay to shuttle three to assist with a repair. It is unclear how she was the one scheduled for that maintenance as she was also supposed to be getting ready for her UU," Sibilis said.

  "Unclear?" Garrick asked, shaking his head. How could she have done anything without Sibilis or someone else noticing? "Her implant was checked by Yuri, wasn't it?!"

  "I've begun analyzing the systems and data, but-"

  "Found it," Crux said, interrupting the other LLM. "She has used normal malware, which is very simple to the point of barely registering. It is an ingenious thing, looking like nothing but a simple scheduled task that does barely anything. It didn't even have a delete switch, which is one of the reasons it didn't get flagged."

  How come Crux found it faster? Garrick thought as he was sailing through a corridor, quickly grabbing a handheld to swing himself around the bend and using his feet to keep from colliding with the wall. He barely realized his movements were as smooth, if not better, than they had been when he'd been in his prime.

  "She was in the first group to be checked, and there was nothing abnormal about her implant at that time, Captain," Crux continued.

  "Going through all system logs now," Sibilis said.

  If Garrick didn't know better, he'd have thought the ship's LLM was flustered. A split second later, one of the icons on his H.U.D. flickered, and he saw he'd gotten a data package.

  "Done. Captain, I've sent you the summary of the logs, but in short, Engineer May used some straightforward tricks to incriminate Engineer Harvest. From the datestamps, she started manipulating things the moment Officier Hilbert's body arrived on the shuttle. Every single tiny action wasn't enough to raise any flags, and only now that I'm going over the entire pattern is clear. To do something like this requires a great deal of computing power."

  Garrick gritted his teeth as he opened the package and let it scroll across his vision. It took him a minute to realize what he was reading.

  "She probably planned to take shuttle seven first," he muttered, quickly extrapolating the plan. "Then, when I returned, she switched to shuttle three."

  "Yes, Captain, I agree with your analysis," Sibilis said. "I also ran a check on all people that survived and their likelihood of getting away with this. Engineer Sundra is number two on the list of people able and number one on the least likely suspect list."

  "Who is number one among the people capable of this?" Garrick asked, eyes wide.

  "Probably me," Macdewil said. "You almost there, Captain?"

  "Almost," Garrick said, just as he reached the corridor that led to the breach in the hull where shuttle seven was docked.

  Ahead of him, Macdewil flew in through a side corridor, colliding with the wall before pushing himself off toward the entrance. He must have come from mid-repair as he still has his oversized toolbelt around his suited waist.

  "Correct. Number one would be Engineer Macdewil," Sibilis said. "If it wasn't for his already upgraded implant, I would have locked him out of the shuttle."

  "If I had thought there was any chance of me being it, I would have locked myself up," Macdewil snorted.

  Garrick watched his friend reach the entrance and felt a slight relief as he waited for him. As he slowed down with the wall bracers, he slammed into the side of the ripped-apart hull, looking at Macdewil.

  "Did you suspect you would be a good target?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Was that why you wanted to be the first?"

  Macdewil nodded, a worried grin on his face. "Yeah. I did the same likelihood test after Hilbert came here and made sure to keep a good check on things."

  "And why did you want to come along?" Garrick asked, a tiny sliver of worry worming up in his mind.

  "So you don't have to potentially confront a hostile situation on your own," Macdewil said, raising an eyebrow. "Captain. You are planning on following shuttle three, right?"

  Garrick sighed as he pulled himself through the entrance and toward the shuttle. The hatch opened as he arrived, and he rushed inside with Macdewil close behind.

  "Yeah, though I hope we don't have to actually confront her," he said.

  "Still, it's a good thing I brought these," Macdewil said, removing the two holsters and Glocks Garrick had brought from the Tealclaw from his toolbelt.

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  Garrick nodded.

  "Shuttle seven, prepare to pursue shuttle three," Garrick said as he accepted one of the glocks.

  Now, where are you even going, he wondered.

  --

  Twenty minutes later, he and Macdewil were watching shuttle three move toward the place the precursor ship-flinger had been at.

  "Why would it be heading there?" Garrick asked, frowning.

  "There's still something there," Macdewil replied, sitting in the co-pilot seat. "It must mean something."

  "But there's nothing besides that. Not a lot of debris, no ships. Even if it changes Engineer Sundra's body to some complete android so it can stay there… why?"

  Neither Macdewil nor their LLMs responded, and they continued following the other shuttle, though at a slower speed. Who knew what they could expect?

  At their speed, it would take over an hour to reach the center mass, but another ten minutes later, warning symbols began flaring up on Garrick's HUD.

  "Captain, we are under attack by the precursor AI! Please stop and turn around," Flux said, his voice loud.

  Garrick reacted immediately, piloting the ship in a tight arc and speeding up.

  The holographic image of his brain returned, and he saw bright red images around the edges that began fading slightly as they shot away.

  "That was multiple factors more powerful than anything we have yet experienced," Flux said.

  Garrick nodded, looking to the side at Macdewil. His friend was lying back in the chair, his helmeted head lolled to the side, eyes rolled up.

  "Macdewil?" Garrick shouted, worried as he got no response or reaction. "Crux, what is happening?"

  "Turing is holding back the attempted hack, but he is having far more issues than me, Captain," Crux said. "He is using Engineer Macdewil's brain to assist him, and from what I can tell, he is successful."

  "Can you help him?" Garrick asked.

  "No, Captain. I don't think you need to worry. The attack is progressively weakening as we distance ourselves from the artifact."

  Garrick nodded as he watched Macdewil drool on the inside of his helmet. After a minute, his eyes fluttered and closed, and his face regained some color. The slackness vanished, and he looked to be sleeping.

  "How is he?"

  "Shall I connect us to Turing?" Flux asked.

  "Yes," Garrick said, wondering what Macdewil's oddly named LLM would say.

  Turing began speaking as soon as the connection icon flashed up.

  "Captain Dasbartin, there is no need to worry. Macdewil's brain has suffered no permanent negative effects, and I am keeping him unconscious until most of the damage is repaired."

  Garrick blinked at the slightly louder, energetic voice. He'd heard Turing before when Macdewil had introduced him, and he was still confused by Macdewil's choice to change the LLM's speech patterns as he had.

  "So there was damage," he said. "Was it due to you using his brain or from the attack?"

  "Both, Captain," Turing exclaimed. "The attack was very abrupt, and it managed to do a little damage through taking over an external system part-"

  "Flux, validate that Turing is not compromised," Garrick said, interrupting the LLM. "Turing, cooperate."

  "Yes, Captain," the two LLM chorused.

  A moment later, Crux gave the green light.

  "Everything is fine, Captain. I've also sent you a quick report on what exactly happened on Engineer Macdewil's end," Crux said.

  Garrick sighed in relief before listening to Turing finish his explanation. He had barely finished when Garrick noticed the red around his brain vanish.

  "The attacks have stopped, Captain," Crux said. "However, from what I can tell, it ended too abruptly while, judging from the previous attacks, it could have continued decreasing in intensity until we were considerably further away. I think the Precursor AI is likely able to still attack, but has deemed it a waste of energy."

  Garrick held back a sigh of relief and looked at the screen.

  "Alright, what is happening to shuttle three?"

  "It is still heading for the artifact and the center of the gravity well," Crux said.

  Garrick looked at Macdewil and hesitated. If they returned, they would not be able to get proper readings on what was happening, but Macdewil still didn't look too well. After a minute and going over the report on his friend, he decided it was worth the risk. Macdewil was stable, and the worst waiting could do was make it cost a bit more time before he was fully healed up.

  "We will keep going back to the point we can still detect what is going on," he ordered. "If anything worsens with Macdewil's condition, tell me immediately."

  "Yes, captain," both LLMs chorused.

  We really need to get communications with Sibilis up and running within this system, he thought.

  Time continued to pass slowly, with Turing keeping him up to date on Macdewil's improving condition. Finally, an hour later, Crux piped up.

  "The ship has reached whatever remains of the Precursor Shipslinger, Captain. The size estimation based on the shuttle shows that it is roughly ten times the size of the shuttle. The shuttle appears to be docking to the side… it is either powering down or cutting off systems."

  Garrick crossed his arms, trying to understand what could be happening. What would the System AI do with the shuttle and engineer May Sundra?

  It took twenty-three minutes before something happened.

  "The shuttle is powering back up," Crux said, followed by. "Captain, it is moving away from the artifact and heading toward the debris field that contains two of the Astra Concord smaller frigates."

  "Try to cut it off, but don't get too close to that artifact," Garrick said. "Is there a way for us to somehow disable shuttle three, based on its existing damage?"

  The shuttle began speeding up, and a rendered approximation of the debris field appeared on Garrick's H.U.D. with two moving images, one red and one blue.

  "Captain, the only ways to disable shuttle three would require major sacrifices in shuttle seven's integrity," Crux said.

  Garrick gritted his teeth as he glanced at the debris field.

  "Highlight the areas of the debris field most likely to have intact shuttles," he said.

  Four hotspots appeared, two behind them and not too far from The Sibilis, while one was precisely in the direction shuttle three was going. The final one was far away from their current location.

  Perhaps it's heading there because of the shuttles, Garrick thought, before another possibility occurred to him, and his hair stood on end.

  "Show the most likely surviving crypods and overlay them on the current image."

  Six hotspots appeared, with four overlapping the ones that held potential for shuttles.

  "It's going to wake and infect more people," Garrick thought, his hands clasping around the armrests. "Crux, suggest ways to disable shuttle three before it can reach the debris."

  "Impossible, Captain. There is no way for shuttle seven to overtake shuttle three."

  "Any way to overcharge shuttle seven?"

  It was quiet for a few seconds.

  "Even overloading the engines to the maximum, which would cut shuttle seven's lifetime down to moments after we arrive, wouldn't get us there in time," Crux said. "We would be there an estimated four minutes and twenty seconds too late."

  "And if we continue like this?" Garrick asked.

  "Shuttle three will arrive an hour and seven minutes before us."

  Garrick felt his thoughts skip a beat, and then his decades of training kicked in. He'd been in these situations before, where no single way was the correct one, and each one could cause death.

  He couldn't allow shuttle three with the infected Engineer Sundra to arrive there an hour before him. It would give the Precursor AI enough time to reach and infect the potentially surviving people in the crypods. Even if they were Astra Concord's people, nobody deserved such a fate, not to speak of the danger more infected people would cause.

  He glanced at Macdewil, closed his eyes, and centered his mind.

  "Follow shuttle three and get us there as fast as possible," he said.

  The imagery on the screen instantly began changing, while he sensed the engines flare up- the seat below him vibrating more.

  "The two of you need to fix Macdewil," he said. "Also, we need to figure out a plan. Can you hack into Engineer May Sundra's Implant and stop what is happening?"

  It was quiet for two whole seconds. Not a good sign.

  "Captain, I might be able to hack her implant if the precursor AI doesn't have the time to spread through too many systems," Crux said. "However, based on Officer Excelsar's implant and state, I'm afraid hacking her in such a way to stop her might require me to deal potentially irreparable damage to Engineer Sundra's brain or implant. Potentially both."

  Garrick stared at the screen, thinking about that for a moment. He knew his mind had gone into crisis mode, something it was trained to do, and that he might regret his decisions later. However, he'd also been trained not to think about that too much.

  "We need to stop that Precursor AI in her implant," he said. "Find a way to hack and stop it."