Chapter 10
A Glyche in the System
It was strange; although in appearance the corridors never seemed to alter, there was a definite difference in the way they felt. It was something belong lighting and the dull sheen of metal walls; almost as though the very air was off.
"Hope Xyn's doing okay." Sherle said. "She gets dizzy if more than one person on the Ulasomorf is in a bad mood."
"What are you talking about?" Hylia said, giving Sherle an odd look.
"This ... oppressiveness. Can't you feel it?"
"Confused; I can't feel anything." Darsan said. From the odd looks of the soldiers they'd passed so far, his hologram was still doing the same silly walk. They'd explained it as punishment from their team leader, which seemed to work.
Hylia's expression went from odd to downright worried. "Probably best not to think about it. Don't want any stray psychic emanations sneaking into your psyche."
"I'll try." Sherle said. "But if it's bothering me this much, Xyn must be going crazy."
"More confused; what are you talking about?"
"Scaal are naturally psionic by nature, Xyn even more so without a pair bond to provide an outlet for her natural abilities. This makes them particularly vulnerable to psychic manipulation."
"But that colander Glen put on her head should protect her, right?"
"Let's hope so." Hylia glanced at her omni-tool before nodding at a nearby doorway. "Here we are; I'm detecting a massive data cluster in this area, probably a central computer core or archival storage."
"Positive; That's great. Both sound useful."
"Depends on the protection involved." Hylia said, slipping on a glove covered with wires and circuitry. The moment she pressed her hand against the console, glowing blue lines shot along the wall, occasionally branching off in ninety-degree turns or creating small circular patterns, the meaning of which Sherle could only guess.
Eventually, one of the circular patterns flashed green. The door immediately slid open, the blue trails of light quickly retreating back toward her glove. Hylia let out a sigh as she pulled her hand back.
"Curious; interesting toy you've got there." Darsan said.
"Thanks." Hylia said as she slid it off her hand. "Made it myself ... with a little help from my boss."
"Off-handedly; you mean Liara?"
Hylia gave him a warning look before walking into the room. Sherle shrugged at the elcor before following Hylia.
She nearly bumped into Hylia, who had stopped a short distance into the chamber. The reason was obvious; the room they were now in was enormous. In the very center, a massive sphere of polished metal hovered silently. Three rings of increasingly larger sizes surrounded the core, each spinning at a different speed.
"This ... is different." Hylia said. "I've never seen tech like this before."
"Me either." Sherle said.
After a few moments of silence, Darsan shuffled his feet. "Uncomfortable. Could it be Reaper Tech?"
"No," Hylia said, "I've seen Reaper Tech. Hell, I've see tech of every single species advanced enough to tie two rocks together. This is something different ... something new."
"Well, no one's in here." Sherle said, though she found the fact far from comforting. "Might as well let the wiles charge."
"I'll lock the door just in case." Hylia tapped at the console for a few moments, eventually causing the door to shut.
Wiles deactivated (and presumably recharging), Sherle, Hylia, and Darsan approached the center of the room, where the core and its rings were surrounded by glowing holographic consoles.
"Okay." Hylia said, "This wasn't quite what I was expecting. Sherle, you're a comm expert. Can you read this?"
Sherle could only shake her head. The language on the consoles was unfamiliar even to Sherle, which in itself only made it more strange. As a trained comm officer, she was fluent with thirty-three languages, with a passable knowledge of another fifty. Nothing of the language was familiar, not even the lettering.
Darsan moved to touch one of the consoles only for Sherle to slap his massive hand away.
"Seriously, Darsan?" She said, giving him a stern look. "You have no idea what the controls do."
"Plainly; one way to find out."
"One way that could kill you or alert the whole station to our presence." Sherle said. "More than just the three of us could be affected, so don't touch anything!"
"Sarcastic; yes, mother."
Sherle bristled, but Hylia quickly stepped between them.
"Now, now." Hylia chided as she slipped her circuit glove back over her hand. "No reason to guess; strange language or not, this translates the functions of any system. Just give me a minute."
She pressed her hand against the console. Once again, glowing blue lines shot across the console's surface, some even sliding to the ground or the ceiling. Sherle was surprised to notice that it wasn't just the machines; the glowing lines spread along Hylia's skin as well.
"Definitely a lot of data here." Hylia said, a few lines running up her neck. "Give me just a second and I'll-"
Hylia's body went completely rigid. Alarmed, Sherle tried to grab her shoulder only to receive a nasty shock that left her hand numb. A brilliant yellow light shone through the blue lines created by the glove, quickly sweeping up through Hylia's hand and over her body. Her eyes shot open, now filled with the same yellow light.
"Accessing memory." She said, her voice overlaid with that of another.
"Hylia!" Sherle said, struggling to think of a way to free her friend.
Darsan grabbed her with a massive hand. Grunting as energy crackled along his arm, he pulled Hylia back with a mighty tug, separating her from the console.
The light faded instantly, both in the room and in Hylia. As her eyes went back to their normal black, a tired voice said, "Not very fun, is it?"
"What?" Sherle said, looking around for the source of the voice.
A hologram of a young human woman appeared in front of the glowing consoles, her pretty face marred by her stern expression. "Perhaps you'll remember that the next time you go poking around in someone else's memories."
"Y-you're an AI." Hylia stammered as Darsan helped her stay on her feet.
"Correction; I am a CIC. A Central Intelligence Construct."
"Cautiously; what's the difference?"
"Artificial intelligence gain sentient through knowledge and experience. CICs like me, however, are designed as sentient beings first, and computers second." With a sigh, she said, "Not that there are any of my designers left to appreciate the difference. It's been over two millennia since I've seen any other Glyche, bio-form or otherwise."
Sherle slowly approached the hologram. "No, I think I understand; you're more like a simulated person than a computer."
"That's ... accurate enough, I suppose." The hologram sighed again and said, "Though there are times I wish I was just an AI. Do you know how annoying it is to just get ordered around all the time like you're just a console? Mirabelle, run this projection chart. Mirabelle, process all the probabilities for this scenario. Mirabelle, take control of life support while we fix the damn air conditioning. Never a 'hello there' or a 'how do you do' or a 'oh, thank you Miss Mirabelle, you're a life-saver!' I mean, they never even bother sending anyone in here to even clean. 'You're just a program, Mirabelle; why do you care if your core is a bit dusty?'"
Sherle was a bit taken aback by Mirabelle's complaints. If anything, she was reminded of Jake's down-to-earth attitude, only a bit more crabby. The difference was that Jake had centuries to cultivate intelligence; Mirabelle had apparently been designed with it.
Shaking her head, Mirabelle focused her gaze on Sherle. "So why are you here, poking around in my mind? I've been perfectly clear with your boss; if he wants to use my technology to blow things up, he can do it without my help ... and if he even tries to delete me, I'll spread myself so far through this abomination's systems that you'll be lucky if the light switches work properly."
"Uh, this may be difficult to believe," Sherle said, "But we're not working with the Illusive Man."
Mirabelle raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh? And just who are you working for? Someone else who just wants to use me to regulate the temperature?"
"Dubious; you don't already know?"
The hologram rolled her eyes. "I'm in an isolated partition of the Illusive Man's little abomination. Even if I was able to slip through the layers of protection keeping me here, I can't even pretend to understand half of the tech of this place."
"Surely that's not an issue for you." Sherle said. "I mean, AI or CIC, I'd think you'd be good at learning new technology."
"I am. Unfortunately, the Illusive Man has appropriated all of my skrievers, effectively tying my hands. Without them or the ability to build more, I'm basically just an electronic brain in a jar. You still haven't answered my question, by the way."
Sherle glanced at Hylia. Still a bit shaken, Hylia gave her a nod.
"We're agents of the Shadow Broker." Sherle said. "We're working to stop whatever the Illusive Man is planning. I'm Sherle Mannon, and this is my friend, Darsan. You've already met Hylia, I believe."
"Yes, I have." A slight look of guilt crossed the hologram's face. "Er, sorry if I was a bit rough. The Illusive Man's been sending his goons in here to get a data-dump of my core files. I thought he'd learned his lesson after I fried the last tech he sent in here, but you never know, right?"
"Er, right." Hylia said, eyeing the holographic CIC skeptically.
Darsan took a shuffling step toward Mirabelle's hologram. "Eagerly; so can you assist us? Can you help us stop the Illusive Man?"
Mirabelle sighed. "Look, you seem like decent people, which puts you worlds above the Illusive Dolt and his lackeys, but how do I know the Shadow Broker's any better?"
After it was clear no one else had any answer to this, Sherle sighed and said, "You were trying to download Hylia's memories. Could you do that to anyone?"
"I'd normally say no, but the way that glove she's using is designed allows for data to go both ways."
Nodding, Sherle extended her hand to Hylia. "Let me see the glove."
Hylia's eyes went wide. "What? Sherle, she'll lobotomize you."
"We can't just sit here and argue! Either we just leave her here and hope she doesn't tell anyone about us, or we prove we're on her side and work together to stop Cerberus. Now me, I like the idea of a CIC inside the base helping us out ... all of us."
"I ... right." Hylia handed over the glove with only a little reluctance.
Sherle slid it over her hand with little difficulty and turned to Mirabelle. Taking a deep breath, she held out her hand.
Mirabelle took it. The moment her holographic hand touched the glove, Sherle felt a rush of memories sweep through her mind; growing up in Minnesota, the day she received her acceptance letter from Anderson Academy, and more. There was no time to react, even at the hard memories like the death of her little brother, the moment she froze during her command exam, her initial assignment to J-27, and the loss of J-27 long after it had become her home. Her crush on Finn swept through her mind in an instant, only to be replaced with Xyn. Her face brought with it a measure of peace and comfort, protecting her from the flow of other memories.
Sherle gasped as the connection was broken, leaving her head throbbing with pain.
Mirabelle put her hands to Sherle's temples, a look of concern on her face. "Are you okay, Sherle?"
"I'm fine." Sherle said, the headache fading as a gentle blue light emanated from the tips of Mirabelle's finger. "It was just a bit ... overwhelming."
Mirabelle gave her an apologetic smile. "I know. I needed as much info as I could get, and Hylia's toy isn't exactly a precision tool, I'm afraid."
"Hey!" Hylia said, glowering at the CIC.
"Nervously; but it worked, right?"
"Yes, Darsan." Mirabelle said as Hylia helped Sherle stand. "Well, you've definitely convinced me. It may still be a long shot, but I'll give you a chance."
A small opening appeared in the floor, out of which climbed a single bug-like robot no bigger than Sherle's shoe.
Mirabelle knelt down and smiled at the little robot. "Hello, Regina. Looks like we're getting our chance; can you go with these people and help them find the Control Core?"
The bug-robot chirped and approached Darsan. Darsan tried to move away, but the bug was faster; quickly climbing up the elcor until it was resting on his head.
"Agitated; get it off, get it off, get it-"
"Oh, stop whining!" Mirabelle snapped. "She won't hurt you; besides, a skriever looks a damn sight better than that eyesore of a hat you usually wear."
"Outraged; hey!"
Rolling her eyes, Sherle relieved Darsan of the skriever. The little bug chittered at her for a moment before climbing to her shoulder.
"That's my last skriever." Mirabelle told her. "I took great pains to hide her from the Illusive Man, so I ask that you take good care of her."
"We will." Sherle promised.
"Thank you." Mirabelle spread her hands, a partial map of the station appearing in the air in front of her. She traced a path, her finger leaving a glowing line where it passed. "I believe your best bet is to check the secondary data storage core; while I doubt the Control Core is there, Regina should be able to jack into the primary network and figure out where it really is."
"That's nice, but we still need to find our friends." Hylia said.
"Once Regina interfaces with the primary network, I'll be able to tap into the station scanners and locate your friends." Mirabelle said. "Just remember to be careful; the Illusive Man's meat puppets are bad enough, but don't forget he has access to over a hundred skrievers."
"Resigned; odds against us as usual, check." Darsan said.
Mirabelle chuckled. "You have certainly had an interesting time of it since abandoning J-27. I look forward to hearing all about it ... once we are all far away from here."
Darsan and Hylia headed for the door. Sherle moved to follow, only to feel a gentle pressure on her hand.
"Sherle." Mirabelle said, her voice quiet. "Take this with you and tell no one."
Sherle looked down to see a small device strapped to the back of her hand. "What is this?"
"A communications device, among other things. Its power is limited, but could come in handy. Listen; come back safe, all right? It's been a long time since I've had someone to talk to, and ... well, after seeing your memories, I feel that I know you better than I know anyone these days."
A smile crossed her face. "Besides, I want to hear about this Xyn you care for so much."
Cheeks burning, Sherle said, "I'm don't-"
She stopped, as Mirabelle was nowhere to be seen. Letting out a sigh of annoyance, Sherle hurried after her friends.