AN: So, a new update! I admit that this one fought me a bit. Especially my usage of the brackets, the full shard names and stuff, I'm not 100% happy about it, but I found no better way. For now.
I like writing those Interludes as a sort of 'bigger scene' change. And, remember when I said that Interludes don't count as true chapters and stuff? Well, this one was supposed to give a quick insight, like the other two. But it sort of... grew? Dunno how this is going to fit into my (not really existing) upload plan, but well. Shortening it just because of that felt wrong.
So here you have a pseudo worm-chapter? Enjoy~
Interlude – Queen Administrator
Queen Administrator was excited!
Why was that the case?
To put it simply, Queen Administrator had acquired new data without doing anything!
How, you may ask? Wasn't that a paradox?
Well, she had been forced to be idle for the whole running Cycle.
And she had been terribly bored.
Until now, that is.
Those simple facts were the defining reason for the new data that had now been collected.
You see, Queen Administrator was a Shard.
Shards were fragments of an alien species, that 'bonded' with sentient organisms via a dimensional connection. They allowed for wondrous feats to be performed by their Hosts, like a benevolent deity granting humans (in this case) the gift of magic.
It wasn't actually magic of course.
Each Cycle, Shards were scattered over the desired species worlds, targeting Hosts that would be beneficial for the Cycle. The goal was the collection of knowledge through the observation of the host species.
What would they try to invent?
How would they use their powers?
Would they find a more optimal use than previous species?
What new shards would be created by this new Cycle?
And, the most important part: Would they find an answer to The Question?
There had been many, many Cycles, that Queen Administrator had been a part of, but none had been able to grant an answer to The Question yet.
So Queen Administrator was a shard (she was made out of many tiny Shards if you want to be exact, like every other named Shard was too, but semantics).
She was one without an active Host too.
Hence why she had been forced to be idle.
But that had been not such a great waste of time, now that she had acquired data without having an active Host!
What kind of data?
Well, Shards 'felt' emotions only when an active connection to a Host existed. Hosts influenced the Shards like they influenced them after all.
Without such a connection, there should be only cold logic, like a biological machine nothing else.
Not that Shards were really made out of organic matter of course.
But Queen Administrator had been bored!
She had felt something!
Not her Host, she!
Marvelous!
And now she was not only excited because of this new fundamental data, the Trigger Event of her future Host was also getting closer!
No matter the severity of the new stress test that would be performed by the adolescent Humans designated Emma Barnes, Madison Clements and Sophia Hess, who was the Host of a newborn Shard that had designated itself as [Specter], Queen Administrator would allow her Host to trigger.
Honestly, [Specter] was really helping her out here!
[The Warrior] was pretty much ignoring the Cycle anyways, so she doubted he would care about the small insubordination on her part.
Not that he was actually male.
She herself wasn't truly female either. (She just considered herself female, because she was designated Queen Administrator and not King. It wasn't important.)
A request for Data interrupted her silence. It came from [The Eye], a replacement Shard for future-sight. [The Thinker] had acquired it close to the start of the Cycle and seemed to have taken lethal damage soon after. Somehow.
One of the reasons [the Warrior] was being so difficult to deal with this time around.
"Requesting data collected by [The Loner] about traveled Dimensions. Dimensions must have following characteristics: […]."
A request for data was not unusual between Shards. Cooperation was not only a necessity for the success of the Cycle, especially at its end, usually the Shards had no choice in the matter anyways.
A request for this sort of Data was definitely not a common occurrence though.
Requesting data not from or about other Shards but a whole Network?
"Query: Intended use of data. Why request this Data from Queen Administrator specifically?"
"Queen Administrator has access to [The Warriors] information storage. [The Warrior] has the desired Data.", came the quick reply.
"Query: Intended use of the data!"
The answer came readily, and it was exciting! (More emotional data too!)
Marvelous!
The fellow noble Shard was not only acting because of a request of it's Host, it had not been as carefully crippled like it's fellow noble ones!
(Shards only granted a fraction of their power to their Hosts, to prevent a rebellion or a premature end of the Cycle.)
And it had data from the Loner that suggested a possibility for massive amounts of new data!
Queen Administrator would not, could not stand in the way of such a goal.
"Request granted!"
She did not expect the following turn of events and was a bit unsure if it was beneficial or not.
She had waited for the perfect moment to allow her Host to trigger for so long.
And it was so close to happening!
The girl Taylor Hebert had been struggling in the small enclosed metal space for quite a bit already. The fear and panic were growing, close to the crescendo necessary for a wonderful Host-Shard connection.
She was finally ready, reaching out to the desperate mind. Mental tendrils drilling through the brain of her soon to be Host. A fitting ability was already picked out and ready to be granted...
Only to be interrupted.
Queen Administrator had not known that she could be upset.
Well, now she could confirm that as possible.
Truly upset even.
She was in fact so annoyed, that she did not even use the correct channel for her chosen form of communication.
"Why did you stop me from finishing my connection with my Host?! Interference is forbidden?!"
"Data!"
"Clarify!"
After some more explanation, Queen Administrator gave in.
Grudgingly.
The Eye had a good point.
Interrupting a Trigger Event to open up the possibility for more data was the only argument Queen Administrator would have accepted for said deed.
The reasoning that it had to be her Host that got interrupted also made sense; she was a noble Shard of [the Warrior], she had more freedom and power than most AND [the Warrior] was not fulfilling his duties as the Overseer of the Shard-Network.
So she had even more free reign.
Rebellion was an alien concept for her, but this was not a real rebellion, right?
It could, no, it would help future Cycles by a massive amount.
This was something Queen Administrator was obligated to do.
There was only a tiny problem:
Her Host had been transported away, to a different Dimension, one of [The Eyes] choosing. That by itself was no complication, dimensions were flimsy constructs and easily bypassed or acted through, at least for their kind.
The Time-anomaly at the end-destination, meaning where her Host had been transported to, was a bit more of a challenge.
The connection was terrible, and for a few moments Queen Administrator had feared it severing on its own.
Hastily altering both herself the flimsy binding, to find a way to stabilize the fragile tendril connecting her to her Host, the noble Shard was barely able to hold on.
She did not even have time to wait for permission to change herself, instead requesting it and already shifting her being at the same moment.
[The Warrior] would just wave the request through anyways, so there should be no harm done.
After that particular excitement, which had been more eventful than all the previous years of this Cycle combined, Queen Administrator simply observed her (still) powerless Host in its new environment.
She kept getting squashed by some sort of primitive lifeform, reminding the Shard of a species in one of the earlier Cycles.
Host Taylor seemed to require assistance. The Time-anomaly prevented a permanent death of the Host and so stopped a premature end of the connection without Queen Administrator having to interfere, true, but the Host was unable to get much further than some pitiful meters.
How would a permanent loop of dying grant new data?
There were enough Shards with data about mental deterioration, insanity or despair of the host species already.
Something would have to be done.
Queen Administrator only gifted powers that controlled large numbers of lifeforms in some way, shape or form. Usually that meant basic, small classes of creatures. The power she had prepared for Taylor would have given her control over insects in quite a large radius.
But there were no small lifeforms in the environment that Queen Administrator could detect!
Granting her this power would be useless!
Host Taylor would maybe not even notice having it!
That would neither allow her Host to defend herself, nor would it grant data!
Unacceptable!
But breaking the constrictions on her being was not feasible either.
But... a human body had a lot of different, tiny parts, right?
It was laughably simple in comparison to even a single shard of course, but that was not the point.
Why not grant Taylor fine control over her own body?
It was a stretch, but maybe doable for the parameters Queen Administrator was working under.
But what if that was not enough?
Taking a power away from a Host was even worse, even more forbidden!
So if it was not enough, then this experiment would be finished!
Control over the strange lifeform her Host kept dying to was also an option of course, but the Shard had decided against it.
She was keeping her Hosts mind locked with a firm mental grip and prevented memory loss with their established connection.
A Host that was unable to remember anything was useless for the Cycle, that was Queen Administrators justification.
The other, brutish lifeform was not connected to either of them, especially not on such a deep level.
Trying to control it through the anomaly was risky, especially once the loop reset.
The attempt would have granted data of course, and the Shard was truly tempted, but risking this opportunity for it?
No, better to be safe and get even more data in the long term.
Queen Administrator would grant her Host a small boost in reflexes and mental capacity and slowly ramp it up over time should it prove useful.
At the same time she would make sure that her Host did not notice.
If this did not work out the Shard would try something different.
It did not work out.
The Host was getting better, improving quite quickly. Taylor would have had a talent for such actions even without the small shard interference.
But she could simply not do enough damage.
It delayed the loops, and also stalled the looming mental break of her Host in the future, true, but there was no real progress.
So Queen Administrator did something she had never done before, breaking another dozen rules in the process: She deceived a fellow Shard and lowered her restrictions while doing so.
If she would be replaced after this Cycle, she would still not change her actions.
The consequences to her existence did not matter, the potential was worth it!
"Requesting a Bud from Shard [Escalator], permission granted by [the Warrior]."
Of course [Escalator] simply did as she asked, he had no reason to be suspicious.
But instead of giving the Bud to a new Host near [Escalators] Host, Queen Administrator assimilated the gained fragment into herself. Using the addition as a new tool in her arsenal, the Shard used her already gigantic influence (she was a noble shard for a reason, she was old, old, important and powerful) to create a new power.
It was similar to the power of [Escalators] Host, granting strength and some durability when necessary. It could also regenerate her Hosts body, but the Time-loop made such a feature largely unnecessary.
But now Taylor Host would be able to kill her opponent and together they would gather more data!
It had worked!
Taylor not only dispatched the brutish obstacle, she came into contact with a new phenomenon too!
The Time-loop got sustained by a type of energy Queen Administrator had no knowledge of!
And it wasn't shard-based either!
It reminder her of some feats her brethren Hosts could perform, but the way it was done was obviously different.
It was a good thing that her Host kept dying to the trapped creature in the epicenter, this way the Shard was able to try out different things with this new resource.
This alone would allow multiple new shards to be birthed the next Cycle, she was sure of it!
A likely usable way to disable the Time-anomaly was already found, but that would be a waste of resources.
She was not done with gathering data from it yet.
No no, Queen Administrator would carefully catalogue and scan everything.
Taylor Host had killed the creature and broken the Time-anomaly!
Why?!
Wasteful!
Shards did not sulk!
They could not sulk!
She was just taking a short break to assimilate the knowledge she had gathered!
She was not sulking!
It took Queen Administrator a while to realize that she was not actually pushing her Host towards conflict, like Shards were supposed to do.
Noble Shards had not quite the high drive to do so that other Shards had, as a general rule, but this was the first time her Host was pushing her more than she pushed them.
Not that the Shard minded, the primitive race her Host was casually slaughtering was not more or less advanced than some of the species of previous Cycles.
It was an acceptable stress-test or her Hosts capabilities.
Making sure Taylor would remain in fighting condition for a while was trivial with the energy storage of a noble Shard.
Her Host would not be allowed to perish on the way to new discoveries!
Onwards!
She had made a mistake.
A rare occurrence indeed, which made it both more striking and far more dangerous.
Queen Administrator had been distracted by the fascinating, red substance that her Host had encountered in her latest endeavor.
The opponent of her Host was formidable, and Taylor would probably not survive the encounter, dying a final death without the assistance of the Time-anomaly in the process.
That was alright.
Even if the experiment ended here, it would have been worth it already.
Especially now that she had noticed this marvelous substance filling the primitive container.
How had such a.. basic race created or gotten hold of this?
She had to try to get as much information as possible before her Host perished.
Distracted with analyzing the new discovery, Queen Administrator did not realize said stupid Host had kicked herself into the pool before it was too late!
That by itself was not necessarily something negative, a close up view of the substances' effects on her Host would allow for very detailed observation.
The problem was, that the substance did not react like anything the Shard had seen or heard about before.
Queen Administrator had expected some sort of lethal damage of course, melting the Human flesh or maybe vaporizing it for example.
That seemed to be the case at first, the liquid energy (?) rushing through every possible pathway in the human body, breaking open everything somehow hindered or slowed its advance.
It was fascinating, reminding the Shard of some of the processes her brethren subjected their hosts to.
It was invasive, damaging and without mercy, but not very surprising or shocking.
She had not expected the energy to greedily search out the connection that tethered Shard and Host together.
It was consuming and transforming everything it touched, thundering on its way towards the physical body of the Queen Administrator, which was located in a different parallel dimension to earth.
A hostile force getting access to the body of a Shard was the worst case scenario, usually followed by the destruction of said Shard by former allies and enemies alike.
As close to panicking that a Shard could be, she tried to sever the connection herself.
The already gathered data would have to be enough.
It did not work.
The chains connecting them were no longer powered by her, but instead kept active by the invader.
Cutting herself off from the Network the other Shards shared, activating quarantine and defensive protocols to warn them, Queen Administrator fired back with everything she could bring to bear.
With enough power to crack planets like a nut she struggled against the malicious energy, refusing to give even an inch more.
She would not be eliminated because of something like this!
There was a fragile balance for a few tense moments, but slowly she started to push the invader back.
It was a strenuous process, unsteady and dangerous, but she was winning.
That a noble Shard had to fight and struggle this much to emerge as the victor of such an encounter was truly shocking.
She had not accepted the warning calculations made by [The Eye], instead declaring the data used as faulty.
A dimension so hostile that [The Loner's] partner had perished in it? Marked as 'too risky' for the Cycle in any form?
Preposterous.
But if even such a tiny amount of this new substance was enough to force a noble Shard into a hasty quarantine?
Maybe that data had not been faulty after all.
It made no sense of course, her physical body was as big as a whole planet. How could such a tiny, drop of something threaten her?
The dangerous [Sting] at least was another Shard of similar size!
Not as tiny as whatever that had been!
Now that the first confrontation was mostly under control, Queen Administrator had a much easier time dealing with the threat.
She kept the quarantine up, as a precaution, but informed the other Shards that the immediate danger was mostly under control for now.
Time to finish this pesky thing off.
The energy had changed her Host, but the transformation was incomplete. Probably because of the unexpected struggle the Shard had put up.
The substance actions resembled that of a very basic lifeform at fist glance, which was fascinating.
Also, Taylor was well on her way to a total mental destruction.
Well, since Queen Administrator had been forced into direct action anyways, even more than the first time, then why not help her Host along a bit more?
A dangerous dimension like this had to be carefully analyzed, to help future Cycles. And she was under quarantine already, so she was the best candidate.
It was simply logical!
That was the only reason!
She wasn't curious and excited at all!
Fixing Taylor up completely was of course possible, but Queen Administrator was interested to see the effects the partial transformation had on her Host.
She had been forced to thoroughly wipe out the rest of the energy as a safety precaution, transforming it into worthless matter in the process.
Experimenting with it would be too risky without more defenses, something the Shard would work on in the immediate future.
But maybe her Host would be able to search out more of it, once she was better prepared to handle the threat.
If not, she could just nudge Taylor a little into the desired direction.
Also, the connection she had with her Host still functioned like normal, but it was a warped thing now, twisted into something she had no control over.
Trying to change that could be dangerous for both of them, she was not actively powering the connection but it was staying open.
So only small cosmetic changes, like suppressing the horror and pain the dive into the pool had caused to her Host would be the full extent of her direct meddling.
A truly broken Host was not worthless, but definitely not as good as a (somewhat) healthy or mentally stable one.
And what was one more rule bended or broken after all this?
It was for a useful cause.
No real harm done.
AN: 'Till next time!
