Three years ago, standard time...

The shuttle doors slid open and Drewbecca Stacks took her first steps on Ganymede Secundus Station. An excited grin split her face into an ear to ear smile. The billboards and neon lights flashed brightly, advertising what she'd known from the moment she left home.

"Welcome to the edge of space," she whispered, reading the letters sliding past on the display above.

The message repeated in felarnian, canamarian, and xnean, all while the raiel singsong language hummed through the air. Around her EC soldiers and rough frontier types disembarked from the shuttle and continued down the tunnel to the station proper. Men, women, other. Clones, constructs, aliens. She felt as if the whole of the CGG washed past her like the current of some great galactic sea. After years of training and climbing, she'd finally earned the assignment of a lifetime.

"Five years and the big tech R&D firms will be banging on my door, climbing over each other to hire a lead auditor. I'm—"

A hulking canamarian in an EC navy uniform shouldered past her, dragging two heavy crates behind him. He grunted an apology without losing stride.

"You're blocking the walkway, Drew," Jay said. He shouldered his bag and squeezed her hand. "Come on. We don't want to miss our connection."

Drewbecca met his gaze and a jolt of warmth spread through her chest. Somehow managing to get the same post with her best friend was more than good fortune. It was fate. The stars put them together as children and carried them through grade school and higher education. The pair had experienced every life milestone together, and here they were about to change the face of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.

"Stop staring up at that sign and let's catch our ship."

She let Jay guide her to the end of the tunnel where they came to the outer terminals. Ganymede City loomed beyond, a city of towering skyscrapers and flying sedans. Corporation advertisements covered the sides of buildings and floated by on automated billboards that weaved around the jutting structures. The artificial atmosphere darkened by pollution, told of gaiar shields in need of recalibration.

Looking out on the city through dirty glass, Drewbecca followed Jay around the outer edge of the space station. She'd never been to such a busy transit hub. Ganymede Secundus was the last gridport on this side of EC Space. It was a six month journey to Valiant Anchor via the fastest commercial transports. VA was home to the third fleet, guardians of the EC border with the raiel. Their destination was somewhere in between.

Station-Z11221 didn't exist on any map and one would need to be looking for it to find it orbiting its icy planet.

The pair reached their terminal and a squad of grim-faced war constructs checked their credentials then scanned their luggage for contraband. Once they passed the security checkpoint, a lift took them down to a loading dock where a few dozen other passengers boarded a phantom class military vessel.

There were no friends or loved ones present to see them off, no farewell from the gridport staff. Only the silence of the void as their stealth transport set out for a clandestine station.

One year ago, standard time...

Transports sped by below the promenade and merged on the Sector C Bridge. The sector locals called it the sliver because of its narrow two lanes that stretched across the lake of data nodes and network circuitry separating C from D. Drewbecca admired the wide canyon of tall computer banks, RAM storage, and system back ups. Data leapt from node to node like arcs of lighting in rippling waves like the current of a terrestrial body of water. All of the station's information flowed between this and two other smaller lakes on the other side of Station Z. It reminded her of the lake she and Jay grew up on.

"Beautiful," Jay said, coming up behind her.

"I know. I stop here at least once a week and just watch the light show."

Jay chuckles. "I'm not talking about the lake, Drew. I'm talking about you and that dress."

She blushed as she looked down at the dress in question. Long lace and silk with a slit up one leg and a length of dark fabric that hung down her back like a cape, she felt like a movie star from one of the popular VR Vids. The style was inspired by old earther fashion and had caught her eye from the moment she'd seen it in one of the station's shop windows. Drew had held off on buying it because it cost far more than a month's wage.

"This old thing," she giggled.

Jay scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, this beautiful piece of wrapping." He ran the dark-colored cape between his fingers. "What's the occasion?"

Drew stared wide-eyed, feigning ignorance for a long moment, before breaking into an ear to ear grin.

"I got the promotion!"

"You got the promotion?" Watching realization spread across Jay's face, made her heart swell and her chest warm. "You got the promotion!" he shouted, frightening a group of maintenance clones huddled nearby.

Jay gathered Drew in his strong arms and squeezed her tight enough to make her melt. He pulled away, his hand resting on the small of her back keeping her from going far.

"When did it happen?"

"The title change and operation clearance went through last night." She glanced up at the station's artificial sun and shook her head. "Standard time, of course."

"Of course. So early this morning you went and splurged on the dress you've been pining over for months?"

"You noticed?"

"How could I not?" He pulled her in again, kissing her cheek. "I'm so proud of you."

Glancing at his invitingly wide lips, she cast caution to the wind and leaned in for a more intimate congratulation, but Jay had let her go in that same moment to look out over the lake.

"I know I don't rate high enough to know exactly what we're doing here, but I know enough to see that, by this time next year, you'll be running this place."

A sudden pang of guilt poked at her excitement. Not long after her arrival on Station-Z11221, Drewbecca learned that this assignment was far more than what they'd been told. She'd done a poor job keeping that information from her best friend and set his inquisitive mind on overdrive.

Drew leaned on the promenade railing and took his hand. "I want to celebrate." She squeezed his fingers.

"Thus your insistence that I meet you in my best threads." He stood up and struck a pose. "Do you like?"

"You look great as always." She closed the distance between them and kissed him on the cheek. "Take me somewhere nice." The husky need in her voice was almost embarrassing.

Drew hooked her arm in Jay's and rested her head against his. She'd gotten the promotion. Everything was going as planned: strong school evaluations, a successful company career. Her professional portfolio was set. She could start shaping her personal profile. That's where Jay came in. There had never been anyone else.

On impulse she kissed him again. If there were ever a time to make her move, this was it while her luck was running high.

"What are you thinking: retro-European or neo-Afro-Asian fusion?" he asked, listing her go-tos.

"How about Xnean?" she purred.

His surprised look put a grin on her face.

"You hate Xnean food."

"I never said I hate it."

He scoffed. "That's exactly what you said."

"No," she playfully drummed a fist against his chest, "I said it was spicy and gave me an uncomfortable hangover."

"Which you hate..."

"But you don't, so let's do Xnean."

He leaned back to get a good look at her, curiosity becoming concern.

"You're being weird. What's going on?"

"Can't I just want to do something for my dearest friend?" She tried to share, but he knew her better than anyone else. He knew something was up. "I want to go somewhere you like."

"But we're celebrating you today, Drew."

Her courage failed and she whispered her next words too low for him to hear.

"Don't do that!" he snapped, sounding like the boy she'd grown up with. "Whenever you were too afraid for others to know what you were thinking, you'd lose your voice. Well you're a project director now. Speak up!"

His forcefulness made her knees shake as her insides cried for his attention.

"I want to celebrate us. Now that my life has come together, I want to focus on us, on me and you." Her voice grew stronger with each word.

"Drew... I don't—"

She silenced him with a kiss, filled with all of her love and admiration for him. When she pulled away, they were both out of breath. He studied her, fear in his eyes.

"You love me, don't you?" Somehow it was more a statement than a question.

"I always have and always will, but—"

"And I feel the same about you."

"Drew, I'm only attracted to men."

She knew this. Neither had any true secrets they could hide from the other.

"What about that summer along The Bradley River?"

"We were kids. I was still experimenting."

"What about last Corporation Day?"

His cheeks darkened.

"We were both drunk and homesick."

"You didn't claim it was a mistake and run away, Jay. You liked it."

He hesitated before responding.

"I won't lie and say it wasn't special, but I'm never going to stop loving men."

"I don't want you to. I just want you to love me too."

She leaned in until their noses nearly touched, but she restrained herself from moving that last inch. They stared at one another for a pregnant moment then, with a sigh, he pressed his lips to hers and a fantastic day became perfect.

This morning, station time...

"Director Stacks, we have a second blackout in Sector S."

"That's P through U, director," commented her number two, Assistant Director Garret.

Drewbecca looked up from her node, her head pounding after reading the project protocols for the second time.

"Are you sure all five sectors are down?" she asked. Despite what the data was saying, she couldn't believe what was happening.

"I've already rerouted surveillance drones to confirm, but there is no data input coming from that region of Station-Z11221."

Garret caught her eye and walked into the executive lounge. Drew instructed the analyst to keep her informed and joined her number two in the next room. As soon as the door slid closed behind her, his normally smug expression shifted to worried panic.

"What the fuck is going on, director?"

"You know as much as I do, Garret. Calm down."

"Bullshit!"

She kept her composure.

"You know as much as I know, officially."

She pointedly looked at the surveillance camera above the water cooler and he stumbled over his next words. Despite the fancy furniture and expensive faux coffee maker, the directorate was being watched just like every other department. They were at the mercy of the system as much as Austberg. The active light on the camera winked out, drawing a surprised reaction from the two of them.

"And unofficially, director?"

"It's the Core AIs. They are at war over control of the station. It seems that Sectors P through U are the current battleground."

"Can't we do something about this? People, our people, are caught at ground zero with no lights and no basic amenities." He walked over to the cooler and poured himself a cup of water, barely looking away from the camera for more than a moment. "There is also this mess about maintenance mobilized and following the instructions of the AI. This is insane. It's time we do something about it."

"It's Mastermind-308. He's targeting the municipal works in order to distract Station-Z11221. By preying on his rivals's inclination to protect life and station functionality, he's giving himself the upper hand. He's proving clever and resourceful."

"You sound like you admire the super-thinker."

"No. he terrifies me."

Garret lowered his voice, watching the camera as if expecting it to re-activate at any moment. "We have to institute the project protocol."

Drewbecca looked away, unsure of how much she should say... or how much she could.

"This was anticipated by the protocol. It's all within the test parameters."

"You can't be serious."

"I assure you, I am."

"This is crazy. The two machines are slowly tearing this place apart: power, water, air! That's not even to mention the executions and these detention centers. Where did Mastermind-308 gain the authority to commission them and how did he do it so fast?"

"They were already here."

"That's impossible. I've looked over the station schematics and blueprints. They... weren't... there." Garret finally turned away from the camera, his attention fully on Drewbecca. His accusing eyes bore into her. "We built them."

"Not officially."

"Damnnit, Director. I can't help if I don't know what's going on!"

"To preserve the integrity of the experiment, the project protocol forbids me from discussing a number of things with you or the rest of the staff."

"This is outrageous. I–" He clipped his words as her hand pointed up towards the camera.

"I will file your formal complaint in the project log, Assistant Director Garret." Her voice was formal, cold, like a proper Project Director.

He glared at her before glancing up at the camera, with its glowing red light.

"No need to make it formal, Director. I merely needed a soundboard."

Garret stormed off, leaving her alone in the staff lounge. She walked over to the window and tapped the glass. She tint dimmed until she could see the other buildings on the hill and the distant tramway. The Directorate sat high above the other structures of the sector, providing them a stately view of the surrounding office buildings. From here, they supervised the entire station. At least they had, until Mastermind-308 came online. After that the place had become a battleground where the directorate and the two AI fought over system overview.

Neither Station-Z nor Mastermind saw the directorate as a threat, merely an annoyance, but how long could that last?

She rubbed her swollen belly, her son kicking to remind her he was there and ready to come out.

"Be still, baby boy," she whispered. "I can't bring you into this crazy station."

She left the lounge and went straight to the lift. She had every intention of going to her physician and having them prescribe oxytocin blockers in order to postpone labor for another week. Jay would hate it, but Drew wanted this AI contest decided before their son was born. She knew where she wanted to go, but she ended up going down to the server room.

The door opened with a hiss and a gust of cold air. Emmett waited for her in his hover chair. The chubby man wore a vintage gaming t-shirt and a pair of goggles on his head. His dark dreadlocks were tied into a ponytail.

"How'd you know I was coming, Emm?" Drew asked, looking down at the system programmer. His cybernetic legs sat in a corner of the room, charging.

"I was going to have the lift bring you down here, but I saw you were already on your way." His voice cracked like a boy fresh into puberty though the man was in his mid-thirties.

"So you were watching me, again?"

"I...I was looking for information on Mastermind-308. We know so little about his capabilities and we built him. I figured the directorate might be able to fill in the blanks."

"I could have your clearance revoked for that."

"If you do that, I'm eighty percent sure that maintenance clones will storm the compound and drag me off to one of those detention centers."

Drew shuddered at the notion. She had no idea what happened in those places, but something told her it couldn't be good. Emmett lowered his goggles and studied her.

"When's the last time you received your quarterly booster?"

"It's been nearly nine months."

He looked at her stomach. "Right!" Hovering over to his bank of display monitors, he brought up a virtual keyboard and punched in data. "I think there's something in the boosters, something Mastermind is using to hack people's nervous systems."

Drew shook her head. Emm always knew what she needed. It was like having a construct assistant, only he wasn't patched into the station network and vulnerable to the Core AIs.

"Is that how he took over Austberg?"

"I believe so. If it had been introduced to the cloning vats, the maintenance staff could have been primed for this years ago."

"You think Mastermind has been planning this all along?"

"Director, this is what we programmed him to do." He smirked at the look she gave him. "No, I haven't cracked your files and looked at the project protocol. I'm just observant, and the evidence is there. Mastermind-308 was designed to take over the station by any means and Station-Z11221 is meant to defend it at any cost. All of the data we've collected on the secure servers have monitored their conflict from the moment Mastermind was activated."

"Secure?" Drew frowned. Emm always knew too much. She used his gifts towards her own goals, but he could easily become a security risk.

"Secure." He made air quotations then went back to his keyboard. "I have to ask. There is one thing that has confused me from the beginning. These servers came on line the moment Mastermind was activated, giving us a clear start time for the experiment. Yet all the data suggests he instigated the incident that brought him online."

"What do you mean? Didn't we trigger that event?" She drew closer, reading the data streaming across his display as best she could.

"That's what I thought, but those people in the park weren't actors. They're really dead. I looked at the bodies myself. The perpetrator's actions were the product of a bad reaction to the quarterly booster. Though I can't prove it, I'm sure Mastermind has been tampering with the boosters for months."

"It all makes sense." Drewbecca looked around for a seat. Her feet and back were killing her. Not finding any in the cold room, she leaned against the wall. The chill at her back was surprisingly soothing. "Have you taken a look at the core nexus?"

"Everything is as you'd at Station-Z's... but I'm having trouble finding Mastermind's."

"What?"

"Look!" He slid over to give her a better view. "I know where it's supposed to be, but his data nodes have been moved."

"How is that possible?" Drewbecca's headache was coming back.

"If I had to guess–"

"Please do."

"I'd say he's used the clones to move them in secret."

She stared at the displays for a long while before pulling out her datapad and entering data into the director's project log. It was these kinds of unexpected events she was expected to record.

"Emm, I need you–"

A loud crash from the other side of the room cuts her off. Emmett gave her a concerned look and hovered past to peer down the row of computer banks. Drew looked over his shoulder and thought she saw movement in the shadows. What could have been shuffling footsteps approached. The baby kicked and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Director," he whispered. "I think you should leave. Go home and stay away from the boosters and the detention centers."

The footsteps grew louder, multiplying as they became more defined. Driven by a nameless fear, Drewbecca backed out of the server room, the door opening at her approach. Before it could close she glimpsed a trio of lurching bodies stagger out of the darkness. One was Garret.

"Emmett Jones, you have illegally accessed sensitive information."

The door closed and Drewbecca spun around and ran for the lift. Garret did not sound like himself, but like Mastermind-308.

***

The sector streets were busy with activity. Security guards led maintenance clones in formations of a dozen, into residential buildings and business establishments. They came out dragging men and women to large transports. After the fifth such scene she parked her vehicle.

A marching formation stopped, standing at attention. Clones and security guard turned to her as one, their expressions identical. Their eyes were cold and emotionless. The guard approached, leaning forward as she lowered the window. Her heart thundered in her chest.

"What is the nature of this exercise... Mastermind-308?" Even as she said it, she knew she was right.

"Good afternoon, Project Director Stacks." The AI's voice emerged from the guard's throat. "These people are being detained and questioned under suspicion of aiding and abetting the missing fugitives."

"Understood," she said, doubting his words, but terrified to say so. She watched a different troop escort a couple and their infant. "What of their rights?"

The guard smirked in a way that didn't seem to match their face. "All protocols are being adhered to, Project Director Stacks."

"That's not what I ask— nevermind. Carry on." Drewbecca put the Sedan in drive even as she raised her window.

The guard tapped on the glass. Tap-tap, tap-tap.

"I'll be seeing you, Project Director Stacks." The unsettling grin contorting the guard's face stuck with her as she passed through the next few sectors and up to the gates of her private community.

Her baby boy kicked violently as she sped through the sector as fast as traffic would allow. Mastermind-308's voice made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Not since the time of the Mecha Wars were machines allowed the kind of freedom the station's two Core AI displayed. He wasn't unshackled fully, but she'd be lying to herself to say they were in control. Imagining the guard's face and the alien consciousness beneath it filled Drew with a primal terror. This was the uncanny valley, this was a thing that looked human but clearly wasn't. She drove through the quiet, empty streets, noticing there were no children in the yards.

Turning onto her block, she saw her neighbor hastily packing his sedan. He was one of two refuse acclimation managers on the station, a department head like herself. The man looked up as she approached, apparently as surprised to see her as she was to see him. He dropped the box in his hands and frantically waved her over. She pressed on the break and lowered her passenger side window.

"Drew, it's you... It is you, isn't it?" His eyes looked haunted, his voice teetered on the edge of hysteria. "You look as scared as I am. It has to be you."

"It's me, Lou." She eyed the door to his sedan. Inside were hastily packed boxes. "Are you going somewhere?"

"I have to. I can't stay any longer with that thing wearing my wife's skin."

He looked back towards his house. In the window, three figures watched him with cold expressions. His wife, their four-year old daughter, and the housekeeper. All wore the same emotionless visage.

"You've seen them, haven't you? Cold eyes, wherever you go. In the office, on the streets, the grocery store, the mechanic. They're everywhere. Watching." A sob escaped his lips and Drewbecca found herself trying to calm the man down, despite her own mounting anxieties. "I'm leaving," he said, once he'd gotten himself under control.

"Where will you go?" she asked, lowering her voice.

She glanced at the other buildings on the block. More cold faces, staring at them from the windows.

"A few colleagues and I have a secured docking bay and a private transport, primed and ready to leave in four hours."

"You're just going to leave them?" she nodded her head towards the house.

"It's not them, not anymore... I don't know who they are, but that's not Connie or Little Bobbie." The effort it took him to not look back was visible.

"If Jay is still Jay, the two of you are welcome to join us. I'll send you the directions on your pad–"

"No!" Drew shouted, not entirely sure why. She reached into her glove storage and produced a piece of paper and a vintage ink pen. "Write it down." She lowered her voice. "Stay off of your pad if you can."

He wrote the information down and she stuffed the paper in her pocket. Drewbecca moved to put her sedan in motion and caught herself.

"Lou, have you had the quarterly booster?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I can't. I'm allergic to something in them. I have to take vitamin supplements because boosters send my system into shock."

Drewbecca thought of Em as she nodded. His theory might have been correct. Something in the booster allowed Mastermind to manipulate the citizens of the station.

"Do you think I need it? Connie and Bobbie have both had their shots recently."

"No. I just had a thought... get to the docking bay and stay off the network as much as possible."

"What's happening, Drew? You're the head of the directorate, surely you know something."

"Nothing I can share."

She drove off and turned into the driveway of her own home. Squeezing her stomach against the pain, Director Drewbecca Stacks put her transport sedan in park and stared at the house. It looked just as she'd remembered it, yet somehow different. Stepping out of the vehicle, something exploded down near the base of the hill. The sound echoed through the artificial afternoon air. She looked out at the sector and there were pillars of smoke rising from various points. Station emergency services were top notch, she'd made sure of that during her tenure as project director. The fires wouldn't burn long. Her concern was the security hazard Mastermind-308 posed to the people of the station. She wondered what Station-Z11221 was doing.

Her datapad chimed. She looked down at the screen and frowned at the unlisted user reaching out. Before she could decline the contact, a message appeared on her display.

Run.

It was just the one word, but it was enough to make her blood run cold. Taking Lou's transport suddenly sounded like the best course of action. They could fly to the fleet or to Ganymede Secundus. She shuffled to the front steps, her back and stomach refusing to cooperate. Climbing the first two steps, she stopped as water trickled down her inner thighs. Embarrassed and quite annoyed, she hurried up to the front door. With everything happening, she had no time to wet herself.

She didn't realize her water had broken until she stepped over the threshold and the contractions hit. Staggering forward, she cried out.

"Jay!" The next contraction made her words come out as a bestial growl. "Jay!"

The red beginning to seep into her tan pants made her forget about the struggle between the battling AI and the false flag operation against Chillard Zwilk. Her baby, their baby, was in distress. A powerful contraction made her legs give out.

"J... Jay!" The sharp pain came faster.

Cupping her stomach, she whispered to the tiny life within. "Bradley, calm down. M... Mommy is here!" The last was a scream that echoed off the walls of their foyer.

"Jay," she whimpered, tears running down her cheeks.

The sound of his approaching footsteps eased a knot of tension she hadn't realized she was holding. She laughed at herself because she was furious that he hadn't answered. The danger hadn't passed yet: the baby was still in trouble, and the station was falling apart, but she was allowed to be mad at her marvelous husband.

"I was calling you, Jay," she said as he entered the foyer. "The least you could have done was let me know you'd heard me, even if you were busy."

Tap-tap, tap-tap. He knelt beside her with an all too familiar countenance.

"Hello, Project Director Stacks." His voice was deep and imperious. Nothing like the childhood friend she'd married. "A medical transport has been dispatched. They have been instructed that your life is paramount. I will need your biometrics to access the project protocol."

A new contraction twisted her guts, but her scream had little to do with the labor pains.