I don't know how long we were in a staring contest with the creature eating the carcass. I'd say five minutes at most. Still, just seeing the creature was enough to leave us on edge...until it lowered its hand axe.

Then, still looking at us, it made a strange sound.

...I had no idea what it meant - hadn't thought to being along a universal translator.

The creature made another noise.

At least some of our group started tilting our heads.

Taking a deep breath, the creature did something I wasn't entirely expecting: it spoke. In English.

"N-no harm."

"...What?" Asked a survivor we'd picked up on the Island - Milo was his name, and I felt like in another time, he'd be really important.

"I-I m-mean no harm to y-you."

"Oh. We mean no harm either."

"I see. T-thanks."

"No problem."

Vivian decided that now was a good time to interject. "I apologize for intruding on the conversation, but what is your name?"

"...Ah. Yes. Knowing that would make things easier. I am Nebo."

"Nebo?" I asked, somewhat confused.

"It's shirt for a different name. One too long for common conversation."

"Oh."

"Would you offer your name?"

"...Nate."

"Vivian."

"Milo."

Soon our whole group was introduced.

"Nice to meet you."

"Thanks," was Milo's response. Then his expression grew hard. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but we were looking for something that was supposedly watching others from our group that aren't here. I don't mean to imply anything, but - "

"That was not me. It was my kin."

Milo was visibly surprised by that. "W-what?...That was surprisingly forward."

"No reason to antagonize the people with the laser guns."

"...Oh. Makes sense...I guess. But why were you watching us?"

"...Would you follow me to my home? All will make sense there."

Everyone glanced at everyone else. Wordlessly, an agreement was made. "Sure."

"Then follow."

XXXXXX

I expected us to find either a primitive village or a tek settlement when we followed the creature.

What we found instead was a giant gash into the walls of the ARK, where rock gave way to metal and circuitry. At the outermost part of the gash were more of the humanoids, some farming fungi, others butchering carcasses. Further in were more of them, trying to do something with the walls of the gash. Lastly, in the furtherest parts of the gash were drones, which appeared to be trying to fix the gash. Somewhere trying to repair circuitry, while others were offering supplies to the humanoids.

This was WAY more complicated than what I was expecting.

As we approached the settlement, I couldn't help but noticing the heaps and heaps of reapers and nameless that lay dead around the gash. Evidently, this area had seen plenty of fighting.

Several creatures that I assumed were guards noticed our approach, but after making some strange noises toward our guide, who replied in kind, they relaxed their aggression and let us pass.

"What happened here?" Wondered Sarah.

"Other comes before you. They stayed here for a while, did things, then vanished. Strange things happened when they vanish - land act weird, caverns shake, creatures become aggressive. This gash opened when the wall exploded. Soon, we occupy it."

"Where were you before that happened?" Asked Milo.

"...Only the elders know. And they want me to bring you to them."

Well that wasn't shifty sounding. Though he did seem sincere in meaning us no harm.

Oh, yeah, he's male. Forgot to mention that.

Slowly, Nebo lead us through the settlement, where we passed others of his kind just...well, living. Playing games, eating food, making their own music - I even saw a few kids wrestling. It was cute, all in all.

But we were not destined to have much time with the young ones. Instead, we were filetered into the gash, where machine and creature parted so that we could be lead into the inner workings of the ARK.

I was pretty sure Rockwell had done this - we'd found the Explorer's Notes that explained how things had gone down with the past survivors, so the rest of our group was aware of Rockwell replacing the Overseer, but how exactly things had gone down remained a mystery. Though I had a feeling we would soon find out.

XXXXX

We ended up in an atrium where what looked like an overseer was resting. Its form was markedly smaller than any we had seen before, though. Once Nebo had finished escorting us, he returned to the gash, leaving our group alone with the elders and the inacive drone.

It didn't stay inactive for long.

"So, another group of survivors has come."

That stopped any of us from getting in a question as to why we were here.

With measured effort, the Overseer chassis activated and began to hover in the air. "So you are the newest batch of survivors."

"Is that a question?" asked Milo.

"No. Merely a statement."

"Oh. Um, can I ask a question?"

"You are permitted."

"How did we all get here?"

"...You either were selected for this ARK and were pulled from your time...or you died and your mind was taken here and put in a cloned body. You are of the former category according to my databanks."

"Oh."

"Please, do not asks further questions. I will explain all. But first, I must ask: do you know why this ARK is, well, a mess?"

"Some other survivors blew up the Overseer with nukes, and then a guy named Rockwell took its place?"

"Correct."

Suddenly, the walls around us changed, revealing diagrams of the ARK.

"In the process of the destruction of the Overseer, several key systems for this ARK were damaged."

On system, in particular, was highlighted - one that was located near the gash.

"In particular, this sytem suffered catastrophic damage."

"What exactly does this system do?" was Sarah's question. I was keeping quiet so the other people in the group could feel smart. Vivian was doing the same.

"It determines potential survivor candidates for this ARK, and communcicates with others to monitor when they are transported over."

"Oh."

"The system occasionally receives abberances that result in oddities, like sophonts other than humans being selected as survivors. It also occasionally pulls creatures from other timelines in to use for the ARK."

Screens flashed images of creatures I recognized as an arrowtongue, a nexu, a spiderant and...was that a metroid?

"The damage it received may have resulted in oddities in your efforts to reach this ARK."

"...How did the abberances show up?"

"Unclear - sometimes they just appear. However, in the wake of the damage to this ARK, additional methods of repair were determined as necessary."

The screens changed once again, revealing a set of tubes that were apparently used to grow creatures. Several tubes in particular were growing reptilian embryoes, which matured rapidly before emerging fully developed.

Somewhat surprisingly, they turned out to be the humanoids we had seen earlier.

"These creatures work with the drones to maintain the ARK. However, we have reached an impass."

"Before we talk any further, what are you?" I inquired.

"I am meant as a back up to this ARK's Overseer. I suppose that makes my designation Underseer. As for these creatures around you, they have no name. Going off of human literature, I believe that Morlocks would be an appropriate term for them."

"Okay. Carry on."

"So long as Rockwell remains as Overseer, this ARK will continue to degrade. It will take a significant amount of time, but it will fail eventually."

"So you want us to kill him?" asked Vivian.

"Yes. No need to sugarcoat things."

XXXXX

Somehow, I wondered if the universe enjoyed throwing something at me that didn't do anything except waste time.

XXXXX

AN: I am going to admit that I did a lot of writing by the seat of my pants with this chapter.

I had the Morlocks planned out going into this arc, as a sort of native sophont race for the Abberation ARK. It was only after I finished the last chapter that I I decided to have them work as living engineering drones on the Abberation ARK, alongside the Underseer.

I briefly considered having the nuking of the Overseer be what caused all of the beings from other universes to end up on the ARKs, but I decided against that. Stuff has arrived before Rockwell took over. The reason will be explained in Extinction.

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!