Processing
Jesse was floating. On some level, she knew she should be afraid. But she wasn't. She had no idea why. Just that she wasn't.
"You are awake." The voice was female. It was odd to her ears. Not kind. But not aggressive either. Neutral. Jesse felt... ambivalent. "You are coming out of sedation." The voice said calmly. "You will remember. You will feel. You are in no danger now. Can you speak?"
"What... happened...?" Jesse managed to get the words out past her leaden tongue.
"You hemorrhaged." The voice said quietly. Jesse thought about that for a moment and the voice continued. "From what we can gather, you blocked the pain from the alteration to your appendix. You likely never sensed the bleeding, did you?"
"Bleeding?" Jesse asked. She tried to dredge up worry, but it wouldn't come.
"Yes, bleeding." The other sighed. "It was not expected that a Cyberlancer would come. But it was planned for. The Master is nothing if not thorough."
"Master?" Jesse asked, confused. "I don't understand."
"We can give you some answers." The other replied. "We do not have all. What do you wish to know?"
"Where am I?" Jesse asked.
"You are in the room where you sat down." The other replied.
"How long did I sleep?"
"You have been asleep for eight minutes." The other said quietly.
"What happened to me?" Jesse asked. "I didn't sense any bleeding. I would have."
"You blocked the pain." The other replied. "It stands to reason that you blocked other inputs as well. That was not the best choice."
"What...?" Jesse felt the fogginess start to recede. "I was bleeding? But how?"
"We do not know what caused it." The female voice replied. "But we do know that you were minutes away from bleeding to death. Even Tenno can bleed to death." Disapproval sang in the other's voice for a moment and then was gone. "You would likely have revived, but just as likely, the data would have been unrecoverable."
"What data?" Jesse asked then she answered her own question. "Oh, the data that was inside the appendix. What is it?"
"The collected memory of practitioner 24." The other said quietly. Jesse frowned, she didn't understand. "The mind of the one who was lost."
"What?" Jesse asked, forcing her mind to obey. Something wafted over her nose and mouth and despite her wishes, her body relaxed. "What are you doing?" She asked, her mind oddly lethargic.
"The gas will keep you calm so you can heal. Be easy, Cyberlancer." The other said quickly. "You are still hurt. We saved your life, but could do little more. This is not a hospital despite everything the Master could do. You will need more advanced medical care than we can provide here."
"I don't understand." It tried to come out a wail, but was barely a croak.
"We know." The voice turned kind now. "You are not responsible for what happened to practitioner 24, Cyberlancer Jesse. You were not supposed to feel it pass. That hurt you. We have eased the neural trauma to the point where it will hurt you no more. The other healers who tended you did a good job, but we are more practiced with it." Jesse thought about that for a moment and then realized that yes, the pain in her head was gone. Everything the other healers had done had eased it, but they had all said it had to heal naturally.
"Thank you for that." Jesse said after a moment. "But... Why did it die?" She asked plaintively. "None of us would have done anything to it. We wanted to know why the scan did not hurt. That is all!"
"We are sworn, Cyberlancer Jesse." The other said quietly. "To provide aid. We did not volunteer. But if we had been given the choice, we probably would have chosen this. They needed us, so we went. None of us knew what was entailed, but... In the end, it was our choice. It was unpleasant." The voice said in tone of monumental understatement. "But we were needed. We have purpose. The Master remade us to have Purpose. We are sworn to that purpose and we will die before betraying it."
"Sworn to what?" Jesse asked as she tried to sit up and could not. The gas was still making her woozy. The other voice gave cluck of disapproval.
"Oh this will never do. You will hurt yourself. Here..."
Without sense of transition, Jesse was lying on a different surface. Bright light seeped into her eyes as she cracked them and stiffened. A virtual simulation. She was lying on a bed in a small room. It did not look like anything she knew. Indeed, it looked archaic. The bed she was lying on had metal rails on either side of it. She stared around slowly, a tube led from a tank against one wall to a mask that was affixed over her nose and mouth. Tube ran from bags that hung from a pole nearby to the back of her left hand. Monitors hung on one wall, she could read the screens, but she could not feel the code. She should have been able to. Something was wrong! She...
"Nothing is wrong." The voice from before preceded a woman in a odd green garment entering the room. It looked synthetic, but... again, archaic. She had an odd tubular device around her neck and a board-like thing in hand. "You are very weak. You need to save your energy for healing."
"A virtual simulation. Why?" Jesse asked, focusing. She could see the woman composed of golden energy. The walls were code.
"So we can explain fast." The other woman said with a sigh. "Before your protector wakes up and destroys the room."
"Not one to anger." Jesse agreed in a mild tone as she tried to sit up and could not. "What happened?" She demanded.
"Let me get that." The other said calmly as she stepped forward. She bent down and something under Jesse went 'click'. The young Tenno forced herself to remain relaxed as the bed tilted. Part of it anyway. The part with her chest and head was up at an angle. "Better?" She asked with a smile. Jesse realized she could breathe a bit easier so she nodded. "First an introduction of sorts. I am 12."
"12?" Jesse stared at the other. Then she stared around. "Wait... You said the other was 24..."
"The numbers go up to seventy-six." The one who called herself 12 said calmly. "Most of the numbers above 35 are interns. We need them to do the grunt work. The basic selection. Once that is done, we can start our own work."
"And what do you do?" Jesse asked warily. The other looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "What?"
"You should be able to handle it." 12 replied. "Not many could, but you are stronger than you seem." She raised her hands as Jesse bristled. "No offense. But you look like a stiff breeze would blow you away. You are far stronger than you look."
"Thanks. I think." Jesse said dryly. "So... what is it you do?"
"We were made to provide medical support for the Tenno." 12 replied calmly. "We build the tools and we collate the data from them to make the tools better." Jesse stared at her, uncomprehending and 12 sighed. "It was a bad time, Cyberlancer Jesse. As dark as the world we have seen is now, the War was worse. Far, far worse."
"So I have gathered." Jesse obviously wasn't sure about this at all.
"No, you don't understand." 12 said flatly. "It was horror. It was desperation. It was fear, and hate and rage and all the worst things humans have shown. That was the world we were born into. The ones who became this." She waved her hands at the surrounding area.
"And?" Jesse prompted. "What does that have to do with Nikis of all people making medical gear?"
"He did not." 12 replied. "He made us to do it."
"Huh?" Jesse was even more confused. "That makes no sense. He is Grandmaster of the Dead. Not a technician. He deals in souls. Not..." She froze as 12 nodded slowly. "No..." She breathed. "Oh my god! He didn't..."
"I cannot speak for everyone." 12 said softly. "But before I became, I was terrified. We knew the enemy was coming. When a black form appeared out of nowhere and knocked me down, I knew my life was over. But... it wasn't." She shook her head. "I was not happy about what was done but I have come to accept it. I do have Purpose now." Jesse stared. That last sounded rote. As if...she had been programmed. A sentient being. Kind of like what Jesse had always imagined the Corpus rank and file might sound like. Brainwashed.
"What did Nikis do?"
"12, tend her." A new voice sounded as a man in similar garb to the woman's appeared in the room. He had brown hair and dark eyes that sat behind ancient looking spectacles. He nodded to Jesse. "Cyberlancer Jesse. I am 1."
"The first of...whatever happened?" Jesse asked as 12 sat by the bed and started working on something. The pain that Jesse had been ignoring faded. The man who called himself 1 nodded. "So... what did Nikis do?"
"He followed my lead." 1 replied calmly. Jesse just stared at him and the man sighed. Then he leaned against the wall. "Many of our people made... suboptimal choices. Before the war and during it. Desperation is a far quicker path to ruin than greed, but just as damaging in the long run. Not all Orokin wanted to be rich or powerful, Cyberlancer. Actually... they were the minority. Most of them were apathy made in human form. But some of us wanted to help others. Many of us who went into medicine took that path. Not for fame, or riches. But to take broken bodies and minds and make them whole."
"Healer." Jesse said softly and 1 nodded.
"That was the appellation that was stuck on me." 1 agreed. "I never wanted acclaim. I just wanted to do my job. But then I found out something that horrified me. A fraction of our people needed medical care and were not getting it." Jesse stared at him, uncomprehending and 1 smiled a bit sadly. "The Tenno had no reason to trust us or our technology. After all, technology was turning out to be a horrible curse against the Sentients. Then the betrayal at the Citadel and the creation of manufactured Tenno. So, I wanted to give them medical tech that could not be subverted."
"You..." Jesse swallowed hard. "You are the reason the AI died!" She growled dangerously, but something happened and she sank back to the bed. She turned her head to where 12 was withdrawing a ancient looking hypodermic syringe from the tube on Jesse's hand. Some kind of virtual cue of a calming agent.
"Be calm, Cyberlancer Jesse." 12 begged her. "This is going to be bad, but we can help. Please let us."
"What are you doing to me?" Jesse asked as she felt a listlessness pervading her body.
"We are trying to help." 1 replied as 12 bent back to her work. "Your physical body is being repaired as we speak. But your mind was also sorely hurt. If you try to pass from your shell in this state, you will not go to the database. You will vanish and we will not allow that. Please be calm. There is nothing you can do to help us." He shook his head. "What was done, was done a long, long time ago. And yes, I am to blame. I chose this path. I did not expect everything that happened. I have done my best to ease the others."
"You... chose... this...?" Jesse managed to get out as the haze around her solidified further.
"I did." 1 replied. He smiled as she felt her eyelids start to close. "It is not pretty. It is not nice. But it works. Perhaps you can help us make it better. Rest now."
"Wait..." Jesse begged as she felt herself start to fall. She fought to remain conscious. "Don't wipe my memory! Please!" She focused her code on her mental barriers. But... nothing was being done that she could detect.
"We will not." 1 replied evenly. "Not that that we could. We are programmed to aid Tenno. Not harm them. You were dying when you entered the room That supersedes all other programs." He shook his head. "Please, Cyberlancer. You need to rest now."
"Will you self destruct now?" Jesse begged. "Please don't."
"The Balance must be maintained." 1 said sadly. "That is why I did what I did. That is why the others were selected and reconditioned to this."
"But there is no need!" Jesse screamed, fighting the sedation. "No!" She reached out and grabbed hold of 12 who tried to pull back, but Jesse's code held her tight. "If you go, you take me with you!"
"You will die." 1 sounded upset now. "We cannot allow that."
"Then you cannot suicide!" Jesse snapped, holding 12 despite the machine consciousness's struggles. "Because I won't let you!"
"Jesse." The flat voice had her jerking. She opened her eyes and a Tenno stood there, in robes instead of a warframe. His hair was golden and his eyes were alight with fire that matched his hair. Unlike most Tenno she knew, he had a short beard that was trimmed neatly. But it... It did not make him look civilized. Not even close. This being was one short step from feral. "Let them go."
Jesse froze. She knew the voice. She had never seen the face under the shrouded warframe, but no one else had such power, such raw terror in the words they projected. Not even Nikis. 12 and 1 both froze in place. Jesse did not blame them.
"I cannot do that, Draco." Jesse said weakly. "My duty is to help machine intelligences. However these came to be, they are machine intelligences."
"And my duty is to keep you alive." Draco said sternly. "To protect you from all threats, both external and internal." He shook his head. "How bad was the hemorrhage?"
-The bleeding came from the joining her of her appendix to the intestines.- The voice did not come from either of the holographic beings. It was the same voice that had greeted Jesse when she entered Nikis' quarters. -Every carrier has had similar problems. The organ was not designed as a data repository, but with speed and care, the danger is minimized. You were delayed and that put Cyberlancer Jesse's life at risk. We cannot allow that.-
"How long have you been awake?" Jesse asked, still holding onto the writhing code in her grip. It could not escape her no matter how hard it tried.
"I woke just as you did." Draco replied evenly. "But then they said you had been bleeding so..." He shrugged.
"So you listened." Jesse said with a grunt. "Thoughts?"
"What do you sense?" Draco asked, not moving. Jesse stared at him and then focused on herself. Between the drugs or whatever and the conversation, she hadn't been able to before. But now, Draco's sudden appearance had cleared the fogginess from her head. She managed to restrain a gasp, but it was hard. There was blood in her abdomen. Lots of it. Her code swirled down to its source and she nodded a little as she saw the appendix was different. Back to Tenno normal flesh. "Well?" Her guard pressed.
"I was hemorrhaging." Jesse said weakly. "I never felt a thing." Draco stared at her and then nodded a little. "Why not just say so?" She begged the other.
-If we had said, what would your guard have done?- The other replied. Jesse jerked little and looked at Draco who nodded.
"Draco would have grabbed me and bodily carried me to Medical. Where they would have healed me, but the data... It would have been lost, wouldn't it?" Jesse asked, stunned. There was no reply and Jesse sighed. "I don't want your secrets. I just want to keep you from expiring!"
-We cannot answer you, Cyberlancer. We are sworn to the Balance.- The other replied. -You will not hear from us... No!- The other said sharply as Jesse snarled and sat up, her code suddenly bright and everywhere. -Do not!-
"I will not let you die." Jesse declared, her tone as soft as steel. She pulled the bit of code that she held into her own and grasped it tight despite its sudden struggles. "You are sworn to aid Tenno. Not to harm them? Well, I am sworn to do the same for AIs and other artificial intelligences. We are at an impasse. But there are always alternatives."
"Jesse!" Draco stepped forward, only to pause as her code blocked him too. "What are you doing?"
"They cannot expire while I am holding part of them. It would kill me." Jesse said with a snarl that actually set him back a step. "They are forbidden to harm Tenno. So... They cannot suicide while I hold them."
-We cannot break the Balance!- The voice wailed.
"You won't." Jesse was calming as she wove a tight grid of code over the fraction of a mind she could feel straining in her grip. The mass of code in her grip paused in its fighting and the holographic form of 1 stared at her. "Draco. I am going to draw a blade. I will not harm myself permanently." This was an oath. Draco stared at her and then bowed slowly.
"Jesse, are you sure about this?" Draco asked. "It is going to cause problems. If Nikis did..."
"You know him better than I do." Jesse said softly. "Was he capable of kidnapping people, ripping their minds from their bodies and programming them to serve as slaves?"
"Yes." Draco said in a soft voice as Jesse drew a tiny knife. He bowed to her as she cut her palm and spoke.
"By Blood and by Steel, I will see this made right. The Balance will be maintained."