Cinder

22 - The Long Path

The dropship was silent save for the hum of the engines as Tobias waited for Kay to finish her analysis of the dropship's navigation system and history. The Simulacrum watched the monitor of the pilot's console as numbers flashed across the screen, separated consistently by brackets and commas.

After leaving Luma, they'd made a small FTL jump out of system to avoid being tracked by Spyglass should he have had another plan in place to record their movements.

He looked back towards the bay, where Al'cor was sprawled out on the floor, ignorant and blind to the rest of the world around her. Without any sure way to wake her up without aggravating her injuries, they would just have to wait it out for her to regain consciousness.

Waiting. So much waiting.

Finally, Kay seemed satisfied and plugged in a set of coordinates she'd selected from the list. "These ones seem to have a higher frequency of arrivals and departures than any other in the system; it's probably the Embers' base of operations."

"How long until we arrive?"

"At FTL speeds, no more than an hour. That's the best I can do; we can't warp without a Jump Drive."

He nodded his approval, and she bent over to confirm the course. Looking out the window of the cockpit, they were able to watch as the stars in space began to drag backwards against the wall of black until finally they entered the familiar sight of faster-than-light travel, nearly complete darkness. The ship's additional interior lights winked on as a result, and they were bathed in dim light.

"I can't wrap my head around this," he muttered, walking into the bay. Kay wasn't far behind him, and she nodded understandingly.

"I don't get it either. After what Carson said ..."

He looked at her. "Carson was wrong, Spyglass knows exactly what he's doing. Coalescence isn't about turning us into the perfect organism, it's about protecting us from ... from something."

"Make no mistake," Kay warned, "even if his intentions are to protect humanity, the Coalescence would still mean the end of you all. No more individuality, no minds of your own ... you would die just as much as by his hand as this unknown enemy's."

"What am I supposed to do about that?" he asked dryly, looking at her.

She shrugged. "One thing at a time; kick his ass, then this new threat's, and every one after that. Not much else we can do."

He shook his head at her gung-ho attitude courtesy of Virtus. "Man, I was so caught up with all this new crap to deal with that I almost forgot about you. If Spyglass vivisected Al'cor just to learn of what's to come, I can't imagine why he needed to break you apart."

She said nothing, recognizing that this was him thinking aloud. Indeed, he proceeded on without a reply from her.

"He guessed you were Virtus right off the bat ... and said he named you accordingly." He looked at her. "I thought the names were given to describe each persona's behavior, but I was wrong. He named each fragment based on the task they were best apt at serving."

"I noticed that too," she agreed, "and ran a net search for the names and their meaning. Maybe it could help-"

"Good thinking," he assured her, and she stood a little straighter at his praise. "Alright, let's go over them."

"First is Virtus and Pietas, which you've already met. Virtus is from ancient roman mythology, a deity that symbolized bravery and strength for the military. Pietas was a personification of that same culture's sense of piety, one of their core virtues. She often represented devotion or loyalty."