"Ugh…"

  Garrick looked at Macdewil, who'd been blinking and shaking his head for a few minutes. He'd even gone as far as to remove his helmet, rubbing his head and neck.

  "You have a few more minutes," Garrick said. "Better have Turing reduce the pain and put your helmet back on."

  "Yes, Captain," Macdewil grunted as he looked up with bloodshot eyes.

  "Crux, Turing, a status report on Macdewil," Garrick asked.

  "Not funny," Macdewil muttered.

  Garrick ignored him as he watched a few graphs on his friend's condition appear on his HUD.

  "Engineer Macdewil should be fine as long as his brain isn't put under any undue stress again," Crux said.

  "Like getting hacked by the precursor AI in Engineer Sundra's implant?" Garrick asked as he watched the rapidly approaching ruined frigate.

  "No, Captain. That shouldn't be enough. However, if the precursor AI managed to take over enough systems to stage a thorough attack, Engineer Macdewil should return to the shuttle as soon as possible."

  Garrick frowned, glaring at shuttle three, which hovered near a section of the frigate. With the hull plating ripped apart, he could see parts of the corridors and a small section of what he guessed was the recreation deck. Both were cracked and filled with shattered hull plating, cables, and other debris.

  They would reach it in just under three minutes, but Engineer Sundra had already exited shuttle three.

  "Alright, let's get ready," Garrick said as he pushed himself up. "Shuttle Seven, lock all systems to either Crux or Turing. Nobody else is allowed to board."

  "Yes, Captain," the shuttle's emotionless voice responded.

  "So, what's the plan?" Macdewil asked as he floated after him.

  Garrick looked at his friend, whose helmet was secured and who looked a lot better than a few minutes earlier. He'd let him recover for as long as possible, but that meant he didn't have any idea what he and Crux had planned. Luckily, Turing knew.

  Really incredible what these enhanced implants can do, he thought.

  "We will go inside and find engineer Sundra. If we can, Crux and Turing will hack her, cleanse her, and we will bring her back. If we can't-" he hesitated before steeling himself, using the tricks he'd learned over the years. "If we can't, we will kill her as painlessly as possible. After that, we are going to try to cleanse all the systems here, check on the cryopods and shuttles, and bring as many back with us as we can."

  As he stopped talking, the two of them hovered before the shuttle exit, and Macdewil let out a weary sigh.

  "Garrick, I think we both know the chances of getting Engineer Sundra back are slim to none."

  "I know," Garrick said, looking at the countdown and the small view in his HUD that showed their shuttle docking beside shuttle three. He took the Glock out of its holster, holding it ready. "Get ready."

  A few moments later, they sensed a soft tremor through the hull, followed by a soft warning as the doors behind them closed. Tree beeps later, the door in front of them slid open.

  Garrick floated out, ready for anything. Although there were no signs on the cameras and scanners of anything wrong, he knew from experience that didn't mean that everything was safe.

  As he floated further out of the opening, he held onto one of the handholds and looked around the debris and the part of the cruiser. It barely resembled a cruiser from this closer, the parts that floated around making it look like one of the ship graveyards for the ancient ships.

  "No signs of any danger, Captain," Crux said. "You are clear to continue."

  Garrick turned to shuttle three and frowned.

  "Crux, can you connect to shuttle three?"

  "No, Captain. It's systems are compromised," Crux said.

  Garrick frowned, glaring at the shuttle. They didn't have time to waste, but leaving it behind sounded like a horrible idea.

  "Captain, I can prevent it from leaving," Macdewil said, floating beside him. He pointed at the side of the shuttle. It was cracked, and some of the plates had been removed. "See that hole? I was working on it, and didn't get around to closing it. If you can hit that red tube, it should blow up some critical systems."

  "Which will ruin the shuttle," Crux said.

  Macdewil snorted but nodded when Garrick looked at him questioningly.

  "Yes, shoot that, and I'll be unable to salvage it. Also, we might wanna hide inside the corridor… don't want to get punctured by flying debris."

  Garrick sighed and waved Macdewil into the corridor. He moved in as far as he could before taking his Glock from his holster and aiming. Taking full advantage of the information Crux added to his HUD, he fired a single round.

  The red tube exploded into a soundless ball of fire, debris blasting everything.

  Garrick ducked back into the corridor and sighed.

  "And we are down another shuttle," he said. "Let's go."

  He pulled himself further into the corridor, and soon, they were floating forward, hopefully following Engineer Sundra's path. Garrick kept his Glock at the ready while a small view in his HUD showed Macdewil floating behind him while any moment was being tracked.

  As they floated into the hallway, he wished he could have left Macdewil behind. His friend had no weapon and no combat training. The problem was that Crux would not be able to hack Engineer Sundra's implant as effectively on his own.

  The light from outside dimmed as they floated further into the corridor. There was no sign of any movement, but Garrick hadn't expected it. His guess was that the precursor AI was making engineer Sundra head to the cryopods. Those were the only things that could even the fields for it.

  "Engineer Sundra has a six minutes and forty-one seconds headstart," Garrick said, glancing at the timer. "We are going to need to move as fast as we can. She will be."

  "Right behind you," Macdewil said.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Seconds of floating through the horribly mangled corridors turned to minutes. Neither of their two LLMs warned of being attacked or detected active systems, while a three-dimensional representation of where they had passed and could go was forming in Garrick's HUD.

  "The cryobay is beyond the next corridor," he said. "Get ready."

  As the corner came closer, Garrick's worry faded, and his heartbeat slowed as the singular goal crystallized in his mind.

  He grabbed the final handhold and pulled himself forward and around. His feet hit the wall, and he floated into the partially destroyed cryobay. Dozens of cryopods hung between cables, shards, debris, and broken machinery.

  Before Garrick could even see any details, his HUD was highlighting four open crypods, one of which had a hand clasping the edge. Hair-thin wires of metal were leading out from it and into the crypod, but it was too angled to see inside.

  A fifth outline showed Engineer Sundra, or what must have been her, only a day ago. All Garrick now saw was a spacesuit with odd bulges and finger-thick tendrils of metal flailing a hand length from its grubby surface.

  "Captain, I advise-"

  Garrick was moving before Crux could complete his sentence. His body moved as if on its own, thousands of hours of training taking over as he pointed the Glock at Engineer Sundra's helmet and pressed the trigger. With no sound, it was odd to see the bullet drill into the back of the helmet and the plummet of pressurized air shoot out a millisecond later. Engineer Sundra's head was shoved forward by the force, slamming soundlessly into the crypod she'd been in the process of opening. Her hands clamped around the sides of the cryopod. Except for the occasional shudder, she didn't move.

  "We are under attack," Crux said.

  "My defenses are holding," Turing piped in.

  Macdewil grunted something that sounded suspiciously like 'thank fuck’.

  Garrick grunted in acknowledgment as he shot another four bullets into the helmet. As the fourth one hit, the tendrils of gleaming metal began elongating and flailing around. Those around the neck reached up as if to plug the hole.

  "Macdewil, close that crypod," Garrick snapped, his eyes glancing at the hand, still clasping the edge. He had no idea how long it would take the precursor AI to change the body enough to be able to move through the vacuum without a suit, but he'd prefer not to find out.

  "Crux, Turing, any chance that…" his voice trailed off as Engineer Sundra spun around, finally facing him. A mist of blood was covering the inside of the helmet, but through it, he saw two burning blue eyes glowing from the inside, glaring at him. Little humanity was left in the face as angular bulges of metal and plastic were shoving through the flesh.

  "The System AI has taken over four of the pods and is using their systems and the implants of the four crewmen to resist our attempts to hack Engineer Sundra's implant," Crux said, the usually emotionless voice showing a hint of worry.

  Macdewil was beside one of the open crypods, hovering beside the ripped-open panel.

  "That bastard destroyed the controls," he shouted over the line. "It's going to take me a minute to close them!"

  Garrick shoved off, gliding forward, keeping an eye on Engineer Sundra. The precursor AI seemed to be busy staving off the loss of atmosphere, but it probably wouldn't take very long. As he reached the open crypod where Macdewil sat, he glanced inside. A young male face, warped in a rictus of pain, stared back at him, eyes crumpling as the oxygen tried to drain away in the atmosphere.

  "Sorry," Garrick whispered before aiming and shooting the young man in the head.

  A jet of blood burst out of his head, just missing Garrick, who was still floating forward. The tip of the jet expanded rapidly, almost instantly turning to a red mist of tiny bubbles as the lack of atmosphere vaporized the blood. Within two seconds, a ruddy cloud slowly floated away, still spread out.

  "Garrick…" Macdewil whispered.

  "There's no way to stop all of them," Garrcik said, focusing on Engineer Sundra and taking aim. He had to make sure she wouldn't get a chance to heal up. A bullet struck the front of her visor, drilling a hole inside and causing a burst of blood to fill the inside.

  A quick glance at a counter in his HUD showed that he had twelve bullets left. Hopefully, it would be enough because the nearest reload was back on The Sibilis.

  He floated to the next open crypod, but as he looked inside, he saw that whoever had been inside hadn't survived the initial explosion. The inside of the crypods had crumped inward, crushing the lower half of the person inside. With no signs of life, he moved to the next one.

  "Crux, status," he barked as he saw another unmoving shape. Like the other crypod, it hadn't survived, and a beam of a part of the ship had pierced it from the blow, ripping apart the chest of the person lying inside.

  Didn't that thing look before it started opening? he thought, slightly confused.

  "The attacks slowed when you shot the other crewmen," Crux answered. "The crypods are still functioning somewhat and boosting whatever the system AI is doing."

  "Macdewil shut down those systems!"

  "Working on it, captain!"

  "Turing?"

  "My defenses are holding, but I can't be sure for how long. I am splitting my attention between healing and defending."

  "Shut down those crypods," Garrick grunted, floating over the final open crypod. Another set of blue, unnatural eyes were glaring up at him, dozens of hair-thin tendrils running from an older woman's face to the sides of the crypod.

  "Sorry," Garrick whispered again as he shot her in the cheek. He turned away from the second geyser of blood, focusing on Engineer Sundra. She was still hovering in place, showing no indication of being able to attack.

  "Captain, the system AI is trying to contact us. I would highly suggest ignoring it," Crux said. "I'm also noticing a drop in its ability to resist our hacks. If you can hit Engineer Sundra's implant, I think Turing and I can hack through its defenses."

  Garrick hesitated, but it lasted for only two seconds. He fully recalled how it had felt when the precursor AI had attacked him before. Even with Crux, he had no interest in risking his mental health.

  "Block the contact, and get ready. I'm going to keep shooting at it till you tell me the defenses are down," Garrick said. He pointed the Glock at engineer Sundra's helmet and shot bullets into the quickly riddled visor. He only stopped when the Glock began heating up his glove.

  "No luck?"

  "It's using the systems on the four crypods to somehow boost its own defenses," Crux said.

  "Almost done with the first," Macdewil shouted. "Just this… little…there! One down!"

  Garrick glanced back to see his friend float toward the next open cryopod.

  "We are breaking through," Crux said.

  Garrick pushed himself back, staring at Engineer Sundra. He couldn't see anything but the blue glow of her eyes through the bloody, cracked mess of her visor.

  Seconds ticked by, then a minute.

  "Another one down, Captain," Macdewil shouted. "Oh, and just so you know. It's changing these bloody things!"

  Garrick didn't react.

  Half a minute later, Engineer Sundra slumped down, her hands releasing the cryopod.

  "We have hacked her and are trying to cleanse her systems, Captain," Crux said. "But Captain, the chances of a full cleanse are only forty percent."

  Garrick frowned. "You sounded more certain before. What has changed?"

  "Whatever happened in the ruins of the precursor shipslinger changed Engineer Sundra's brain implant much more than the limited time would suggest," Crux said. "It's even more integrated than Officer Excelsar."

  Garrick grimaced. "Suggestions?"

  Crux was quiet for a full three seconds.

  "Full bodily destruction. Engineer Sundra's entire body is riddled with foreign materials, and from what I can detect of her organs… very little of her remains. Even with The Sibilis's help, I don't expect any recovery is possible."

  "..."

  Garrick frowned as he looked around. "How do you suggest we destroy her?"

  "We can either tie her to the shuttle and slingshot her with enough force to propel her toward the sun," Crux said. "Or we can attempt to find backup oxygen canisters and burn her."

  Garrick looked up as Macdewil floated beside him, and they shared a look.

  "Let's burn her," Macdewil said. "I don't want nightmares about her coming back somehow haunting me."

  "I agree," Garrick said. "Turing, guide Macdewil to the most likely location for oxygen canisters."

  "Yes, Captain."

  Garrick glanced at Macdewil, seeing his friend's eyes flick around, probably looking at whatever Turing was showing him.

  "Be careful… that thing only had five minutes, but you never know."

  "I'll be fine, Captain," Macdewil said, grinning before he turned and floated away.

  When he vanished into the mutilated ship's corridors, Garrick focused on Engineer Sundra or what remained of her. His adrenaline had gone down faster than he'd expected, and as it did, he began going over the things that had just happened.

  It took him only a few minutes to come to a simple conclusion.

  "This was too easy," he said over his private line with Crux.

  "Captain?"

  "Why would that AI head to the ruins of that shipslinger, stay there for a short while, and then head out here? It could have stayed there to upgrade Engineer Sundra's body into something we couldn't deal with."

  "There are many possibilities, Captain," Crux said. "Perhaps there wasn't anything of use in the ruins, or Engineer Sundra's body couldn't take being there? Or-"

  Garrick quietly listened to Crux list dozens of options, but with each one, his worry increased instead of decreased.

  "- Or maybe it took something from the ruins and brought it here, or-"

  "Shit," Garrick growled. "Shuttle Seven, show me the feed of Shuttle Three!"

  "Yes, Captain."

  An image of the empty spot where the burning shuttle had last been appeared in Garrick's HUD.

  "It was a trick..."