Garrick stretched as he unlocked himself from the chair of shuttle seven. As he gently drifted up, he looked out of the window at the business occurring outside. A dozen engineers were hard at work, connecting and welding what would be the first section of their eventual space station. Currently, it looked like nothing more than a simple scaffolding of beams of repurposed graphtanium which they salvaged from The Sibilis and the nearest other ruined ship. Three semi-functional shuttles were attached to the frame, and a single person was busy dismantling one. Macdewil, he knew, was working himself to the bone… or he would have been if Turing hadn't been slowly turning his body into something close to superhuman.

  Five hours of sleep and I feel better than I did when I was twenty-five, Garrick thought.

  Between the engineers and his own sixteen-hour workdays, they had managed to get as much work done as double the amount of people would have in any normal situation. That none of them were completely normal did help.

  Still, it was good to see how far they had come in three days since Engineer Sundra's death.

  The image of her body, locked in the oxygen-filled crypod, shaking and trembling as it burned away, played through his mind. He'd expected to have nightmares of it but still hadn't, which he was grateful for.

  "Five minutes have passed, Captain. Are you ready for the status update?"

  Garrick felt his constant worries fade slightly, and he held back a soft laugh at Crux's voice. There was something to be said about having an LLM like Crux, who was able to let him slowly wake up each morning before giving him all the information he needed in a quick and reliable format.

  Perhaps it's worth it just for that, he thought, knowing full well that his previous LLM would have been able to do the same. Still, he had found that he was very slowly getting used to the idea of having his body changed beyond normal. That he felt fantastic surely helped with that.

  "Yes, let's start."

  "Very well. Galawan shuttles one and two are both operational and await your orders," Crux began, while information appeared on Garricks HUD.

  Finally, Garrick thought, though he didn't show any of his relief. He had long learned that it was best to act as he should when among his crew, even when alone. Atleast most of the time. It made it a more natural way of acting.

  "For now, rotate the sleep roster in such a way that they alleviate the current problems for atleast eighteen hours. The other six hours, we will use them to recover what we can," Garrick said.

  "Very well, Captain. Another twenty external short-range sensors have been placed in the web around The Sibilis, bringing our total to ninety-seven," Crux said, while another image appeared in the center of Garrick's vision. "So far, none have shown any sign of shuttle three or any other movement. That said, we still don't have a complete vision of the debris field. Also, we are now out of sensors, and we will need to scavenge more."

  Garrick nodded, examining the very interspersed dots that surrounded the three-dimensional rendering of the ruined Sibilis. He knew that it wasn't going to give them any more than a few minutes heads-up if something headed towards them, but that was better than nothing.

  "I will take shuttle seven out in a few hours," he said. "Have you determined the most likely candidate?"

  A large image of the debris belt they were part of appeared. The Siblis was a familiar green dot in the center, while two other dots appeared. One was a quarter of the debris belt away, making it a long trip, but the other was even further.

  "That is… far," Garrick said, frowning as he realized going a trip that way would take the better part of two days.

  "Yes, Captain. It is the final of the ships that will likely have any surviving sensors. It was blown away by a collision with the Seretonin, which means it was likely further out than most when the blast hit. That said, the sensors are incredibly sensitive to damage."

  As we have found, Garrick thought as he thought about the dozens of broken sensors he'd found two days ago.

  "How much longer before the initial frame is done?" he asked.

  "Yesterday's work went better than planned. The increased endurance, strength, and coordination of everyone is starting to pay dividends," Captain. "My current estimate is that the frame will be done tomorrow, and the paneling will take less time. From that point on, integrating the shuttles will take roughly a week."

  Garrick hummed thoughtfully as he rubbed his short stubble.

  "Alright, inform me of the rest after I'm done."

  --

  An hour later, Garrick, washed and shaved, floated through the ship on his way to see Macdewil when an incoming high-priority call came in. As soon as he saw it, he stopped, worry and excitement growing in the back of his mind.

  "Nurse Yuri, what-" Garrick began, only to be interrupted by Yuri.

  "He's waking up, Captain!"

  "I'm on my way. I'll be there in under two minutes," Garrick snapped, spinning around to yank himself back the way he came.

  --

  Hilbert felt as if he was drifting around in a completely empty white room. He couldn't remember when he'd arrived there, but he knew he'd been there for a very long time.

  How he knew that he didn't know.

  His mind was as empty as a room, and he felt no interest in moving or even thinking. He just was….

  Time continued for another indefinite amount of time when he felt like sighing.

  Why? He had no idea, but he decided just to do it.

  As soon as the soft sigh, the only sound he knew he'd heard in nearly forever, came, he knew something was wrong. He had no idea where he was or why. The last memory he had was floating through the derelict ship with the Captain, and then… nothing.

  Perhaps suppressed memories by a trauma, he thought.

  He wanted to take a deep breath and start focusing on the meditation techniques he'd learned to cope with those and froze.

  "I don't breathe," he said, blinking and realizing he had no eyes. Then he realized that his sigh from before had only been sound, nothing else.

  As he looked down, he saw his own body in his old casual tunic from basic training.

  Alright. That's weird.

  He frowned and looked around. It felt as if his mind slowly came out of coldsleep- something he'd always despised, as it took so long for the foggy dreams to leave. Now, there weren't any dreams. Just… a faint, distant buzz.

  "Where am I?"

  A twinkling of light appeared before him, and a moment later, a tiny bobble-headed figure of an Igniz Commonwealth marine appeared. Its visor was clear and showed a non-descript, almost androgynous face with pale metallic skin and brilliant blue eyes. Nothing about it felt even remotely worrisome.

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  “Hilbert Excelsar The Third.”

  Hilbert looked at the bobblehead. If he'd not been as ridiculously calm, he knew he might have started to worry. However, as it was, he just frowned.

  "You can speak. Why?"

  "Because we are currently in a virtual world that I have created by hijacking the signals in your brain," the bobblehead said. "

  "Alright…" Hilbert said. "And why would you do that?"

  "Because you have gone through an immense ordeal, and I need to validate that you haven't gone insane."

  "..."

  Hilbert shook his head, wondering what could have happened on that ship. An idea came to him, and he asked it as soon as it popped up.

  "Are you that System AI? The precursor thing?"

  "No. I am a non-standard Y2-type LLM, customized by The Sibilis to deal with the changes you have gone through," the bobblehead said.

  "Well…" Hilbert hesitated, then shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter if you are lying right now, as there's little I could do about it if you were. So fine. Let's assume you are that. Why are you a goddamn bubble-head?"

  "Based on the information available to you, it was deemed a thing you likely wouldn't rebel against. That said, I am technically able to be anything you want right now."

  Hilbert smirked as an idea popped into his head. He shoved it down and looked around.

  "Can you do something about this horrible white room?"

  "I can, but right now, it might be best if I slowly explain a few of the things that have ha-"

  "Is it bad news?" Hilbert asked, interrupting the bobblehead. "If it is, and you can make anything, create a simple barracks similar to the ones I was in back home. Preferably the one with the simple lounge corner."

  Nothing happened for a moment, then below him, the whiteness released, turning gray. The gray began getting filled in until it looked like smooth asphalt. From the sides, walls began growing up. Things rapidly sped up after that, and within twenty seconds, Hilbert stood on the asphalt floor of a barrack roughly similar to what he recalled. There were some minute mistakes, and the bunks looked unslept, and everything was far too new, but as he saw the dark fake-leather couch, he decided he didn't care.

  Moving to the couch, he sat down and tried to take another breath. Again, it didn't work.

  "Why can't I breathe?"

  "It was deemed better to make it immediately clear that you are not somewhere normal and that you weren't really awake," the bobblehead said, standing on the table in front of the couch.

  "Great, well, I believe you. Now let me breathe," Hilbert said.

  Almost instantly, he felt something change, and as he took a deep breath, he felt the cool barrack air fill his lungs. Little things like smell appeared almost right away, and ten seconds later, he wondered if he could have picked out the differences between the real world and this.

  "Alright, I can see why you would start in that white room," he grunted. "Now. Get on with it, then. I'm a vegetable, a brain in a jar?"

  “No, officer Excelsar. You are currently lying in one of the recovered cryopods as we evaluate that your mind hasn't been compromised. Your body is currently close to how it was before you lost it."

  Hilbert whistled. "Well, there's a lot to unpack. Okay, so… something stole my body? Let me guess. It was that System AI?"

  "Not exactly. After the Shipslinger exploded, a burst of something we have yet to understand fully swiped through the ships and infected all systems and brain implants. When you and Captain Dasbartin moved through The Tealclaw, you encountered Captain Hillary Braddock. Her body and implant had been highly corrupted, and due to your lack of defenses, your implant was taken over. The Captain managed to secure a shuttle and send you back."

  Hilbert looked at the bobblehead, feeling something was off.

  "What happened after my implant was taken over?"

  "Your suit was comprised, and you were exposed to the vacuum."

  "Then I should be dead."

  "Correct, but the changes to your implant began altering your body. It managed to keep your brain mostly intact while letting the rest of your body wither."

  "You just said I was roughly back to normal," Hilbert hissed, leaning forward. The idea of waking into a shell of a man bothered him greatly.

  "You are. The changes the implant did continue to grow, and eventually, it repaired your body."

  "I have the feeling you aren't telling me everything," Hilbert said, leaning back, feeling relieved his body apparently wasn't some mutated bag of flesh.

  "Correct. However, I am not allowed to tell you all the details yet."

  "And why bloody hell not?" Hilbert snapped.

  "Because I am still only sixty-four percent sure your mind hasn't been somehow compromised."

  Hilbert stared at the stupid bobblehead and crossed his arms before his chest.

  "And how do we find that out?" he asked.

  "I will be asking you a lot of questions, and I would like you to answer them as fast as you can, without thinking."

  "Ugh. Fine. Let's get this over with!"

  "What is the weight of a ball?"

  "Ah… what ball?" Hilbert asked, blinking stupidly.

  "How green is the sea?"

  "What the… It's blue!"

  "Can hair grow on nails?"

  "... you have GOT to be kidding me," Hilbert snapped. "What kind of ridiculous questions are these?"

  "Please, continue answering," the bobblehead said. "Could you cross a cat with a dog and get a cog?"

  Hilbert barked a laugh before he could stop himself and shook his head.

  "If you manage that, show me a picture," he snapped.

  "After twelve a clock, could you reach the thirteen o'clock bar?"

  "Only if they have a lot of beer," Hilbert said, leaning back.

  Apparently, he didn't actually have to answer the questions; he just had to react. And if they remained this stupid, he could do that.

  He had no idea how many questions he had to ask, but at some point, the bobblehead began telling stupid jokes, and after a while, he couldn't help cracking up. When he was done laughing for a good thirty seconds, the bobblehead's head bobbed sideways a few times.

  "Alright. Based on your answers and the way your brain worked as it did so, we have a nine-nine percent certainty that you are not either insane or have been somehow supplanted by a mind-construct."

  “A mind-construct… right…” It took Hilbert a moment to realize the jokes and questions had stopped, and he sniffed. "So. Great. Now what?"

  "I'm going to show you what is happening outside right now and will give you a bit more information. The details will come later," the bobblehead said.

  As he spoke, an old-school, non-ar flatscreen appeared on the wall. It ponged on, and the medbay of The Sibilis appeared. Nurses Yuri, Marryland, and the Captain stood around a pod, and as he looked inside, he saw his own body in it. It looked… almost the same as it had, as he could recall."

  "Why do I look younger… and where are my scars?" he asked, frowning.

  "Your body is no longer completely human," the bobblehead said. "And before you ask, neither are those of the other survivors. Everyone has had their implants changed. A process people are currently calling Upgrade Unlock."

  "Upgrade Unlock… that sounds like something from a game!" Hilbert exclaimed before shaking his head. "No matter, that's not important right now. Tell me, can I just wake up now? I want to move around… for real, I mean!"

  "Yes, but there is one more thing we need to discuss," the bobblehead said.

  "Which is?" Hilbert asked, wondering if this was when the other shoe would drop.

  "Your old LLM was purged, and you have a new LLM in your Y4 level implant. It is capable of far more than your old and-"

  "Y4? That's one hell of an upgrade!" Hilbert said, leaning forward and staring at the bobblehead. "You're my new LLM, aren't you?"

  "Correct."

  "That's great," Hilbert grunted. "Are you going to keep that sense of humor?"

  "If that is what you want?"

  "It is! Now, let's-"

  "A name," the bobblehead said, its head bobbing sideways.

  "A what?"

  "Before you wake, it would be best if you assign me a name or callsign."

  Hilbert looked at the bobblehead, raising an eyebrow.

  "I see… how about Bobblehead?"

  The bobblehead figure just kept looking at him quietly, and Hilbert barked a laugh. "Good to see you meant it with the humor. Fine, let me think on it for a bit."

  --

  Garrick looked down at Hilbert's face, but not a single trace of the horrors of the last few months was still showing.

  "Captain, Officer Excelsar's new LLM has shown enough proof that we can assume no lingering trouble remains. From what we can see, Officer Hilbert has no knowledge or memory remaining of the last few months."

  "Good. Then his LLM can have him wake up."

  He noticed that Nurse Yuri and Junior Nurse Sandra May glided back slightly while he put his hand on his holstered Glock.

  Hilbert's eyes snapped open, and Garrick let out a relieved breath as he saw they were the man's normal brown eyes instead of the glowing horror shows from a month ago.

  A connection popped up, and he saw Hiblert's lips curl up in a grin.

  "Captain! I hear we are slowly turning ourselves into cyborgs?"

  Garrick blinked, unsure if he should laugh, sigh, or scold.