A Bio-Weapon’s Rhapsody

As it was, getting everything ready to leave took more time than Ale had expected, for one they didn't need to get a taxi or transport, since Big Sister was dealing with that, so they saved on time from that front, on the other hand, the work to ensure no one took the apartment took an hour to finalize.

As it was, if one didn't say ahead of time that they would be leaving the apartment for an extended period of time, they would rent it off to someone else, no matter if part of the contract was still pendient. Since they lived in one of the more… wild areas, as one would say, of the city. If someone dissapeared and didn't show up, the owner would assume they had an unfortunate incident, that is to say. They were gone and would not return.

Many people had bad triggers that made it impossible for them to return to their normal lives, Ale did not doubt this bit as she had seen some examples of that, she didn't think there would be someone with as bad luck with a bad trigger as Sam (Who she ended up not being able to meet up with since they were leaving Ohio rather faster than she expected).

Also there was the fact that apparently the people here got used to the theater guy coming up and up destroy the lives of the people around, waking up as someone else and starting new lives somewhere else, how could people be okay with that? Ale would never understand it, but then again, humanity got used to everything or so it seemed.

Either way, Ale had no time to deal with this little bit of existentialism.

"And done!" As Big Sister teleported back into the room where Ale was waiting with [Golem], they had gotten their luggage ready for sometime, all that remained was for Big Sister to finish what she was doing. "We can go now, did you call the airport already? How much time do we have?"

"If I had called after Alexanders message finished then they would have been waiting for one hour and some already." Ale said standing up and stretching herself, "I was waiting for you to return so we could go ahead, I'll send the message as soon as you are ready."

"I am ready," Big Sister said pointing at her luggage, "I made my bags way ahead of time."

Ale did not truly believe that, they had moved those a while ago to set them near the door for when they left, and those hadn't weighed a thing.

[Detected faint mana pulse.]

[Mana aligned with space element.]

Did she teleport something inside them? Right now? Ale thought to herself narrowing her eyes, surely Big Sister was not this… petty, right?

She didn't just teleport her stuff in such a complicated matter, did she?

[She would need to twist the coordinates at landing to achieve a seamless teleportation into a confined spot, that would imply mastery within the expected threshold.]

Within the expected threshold? Those were calculations that would put even someone with access to a super advanced AI system inside their head to shame though. Was the mental answer that Ale gave the retort back to Main Core. Ale was not even sure she could pull that one off, at least not with some preparation done in advance, and from what it looked, Big sister had done it in a flash when she noticed she was being called out.

[Mistress… This woman was capable of opening a teleportation to the moon, even if part of her achievements was to be attributed to her Core Power and Mana interaction, that would mean that part of her is capable of doing the calculation by itself.]

[Meaning, the level of difficulty to teleport something to the stratosphere or the moon, is incredible more hard than teleporting clothes and belongings into a bag that is within walking distance.]

…Fair point Ale could not help but admit that when you looked it from that point of view, it made sense what Main Core was saying.

"Fair enough." Ale said also aloud, "Then I'll send the message, whenever you are ready."

Ale pulled out her phone and clicked away, of course this was just for the sake of making a scene, since she could do that mentally by herself, even if she didn't depend on Main Core for the interaction, she was capable of doing this much by herself after all.

"…You don't doubt me?" Big Sister said deflating a little, "I mean, you moved them before, so you know right?"

"I was the one to move them," [Golem] said taking a step forward, lifting the luggage in question and setting it up near Ale and the girl in question. "Is there an issue? Did you forget to pack something?"

Ale could see it, Golem was onto something, did he notice the weight?

"I mean… No…" Big Sister said grumbling to herself, "Did you check on them Ale?"

"Of course not, I respect your privacy." Was what Ale answered, she and [Golem] were truly on the same wavelength at the moment, it helped that [Golem] was unable to show their emotions.

"Hmm…." Big Sister turned to stare closer to Ale, she stared at her for a extra few seconds snapping her fingers having all the things they would need to teleport besides them. Even Ale herself was teleported a few inches away from Big Sister's face. "So you didn't touch them? But even so you knew?"

"Pfft…" Ale couldn't help but start laughing as Big Sister called on her, Big Sister started laughing with her after a few seconds of Ale not being able to contain herself.

"Cheeky brat." Big Sister said as Ale's hair was ruffled with abandon, "So you two decided to let me go without my stuff? What if I really didn't had anything in there?"

"You would teleport back at a later date for your things, would you not?" [Golem] said shrugging, "It's on you for acting like you packed before leaving when you didn't."

"So you also did notice those were empty?" Big Sister asked aghast, "And yet you would have a lady go without her stuff?"

"I may not have a sense of touch, but I know how much strength I spend whenever I lift anything, I use that to weight things and decide how much strength to put." [Golem] said nodding, "So, teleport for two?"

"Teleport for three thank you very much." Big sister said theatrically raising her hand towards the ceiling and snapping her fingers.

The world seemed to slow to a lurch around Alexa.

[Warning, detected large spatial mana readings.]

[Warning, detecting highly advanced space folding.]

[Analyzing…]

[Detecting interaction between Space Mana and Reality.]

[Deciphering formula…]

What's the deal Main Core, we already knew she would teleport us. Ale sent inwardly, only to get more background noise as Main Core continued crunching the numbers.

Ale was seeing the same kind of data as Main Core, but weirdly enough she couldn't understand all of it, she could pick up some of the pure mathematical parts of it, but the rest? It was as if it was in another language, was it that the reason why Main Core had started deciphering instead of outright reading it?

Meaning that Ale could do so?

Hmm… Perhaps, but at the moment Ale got the inkling that doing so may taint her path going forward, she didn't want to add an aspectual space thing to her power set, not yet anyway, she wanted to first move forward with the synthetic flesh bit, then move forward with the more mechanical aspect and when that was done, she could see about adding other bits and pieces.

[Deciphering finished.]

[Spatial formula is for spatial hopping. Mistress will be temporally moved to a pseudo liminal space and then back to this reality.]

[The time expected in that space will be four Planck of time.]

Isn't that like… Ale started sending inwardly only to set a quick query within her internal database just to make sure she was right, The lowest possible measurement of time? Why does it even matter! We will not notice it!

[Under normal circumstances it would not matter, but you Mistress… You have stated to have experience higher liminal spaces, there is a possibility that you could be pulled upper.]

Ah…. That could be a problem, Countermeasures?

So Ale turned her awareness to the mana around them, it was weaving itself into some kind of matrix and preparing to move them away, Ale could not exactly move right now, but she was capable of seeing everything that was happening around her thanks to the multiple sensors that Main Core had set up for her across her body.

[We have started the process to link your mana signature to those around you, the unstable nature of Skye Venti and the fractured nature of Eduardo Herrera's Core should work to anchor your existence to this plane.]

Ale felt that she had heard some troubling statements there, So long it works, I really don't wanna see old Man Alexanders this soon… But hey, if it happens I'll get to introduce you to him, since it will be my whole self it means you will be there right?

Ale couldn't help but joke about it.

[That would be correct, we have taken measures so that such an event doesn't happen again.]

They had? Ale hadn't noticed them though… Her Core and AI Cores felt as usual, if anything they were working more smoothly? Was that it?

Either way, Ale sighed mentally and prepared herself to let her perception awareness to return to normal speed, she did not want to see it when it happened, if it was as dangerous as Main Core thought, she didn't want to perceive those weird-ass liminal and pseudo liminal spaces again. As they say, acknowledging those dangerous entities was as good as inviting them in.

So to prevent that, Ale let Main Core run the show in the background, set it up so she could monitor whatever happened and to let her ping Ale if it was needed, Ale really hoped she was not pinged to that place, and before she noticed…

"And we arrived!" Big Sister said lowering her hand after the sound of her snap was heard, how did that work anyway? "We are in one of the private receptions assigned to core users, I called in to check if they could assign us one, they said it was fine but we needed to confirm a flight before someone else wanted to walk into ours, so… if you would Ale?"

"On it," Ale said as she checked on Main Core, first, they had indeed made a report on what happened, a very long and detailed report with readings of all kinds… Ale did not want to read that at this moment, so she shelved it for later, "And done."

Before she finished speaking, Ale had send up the query to the local AI system and received a confirmation, how did they got said confirmation you say?

"[Greetings Lady Ale, the crew has been informed of your arrival and the room has been designated as VVIP area, do you require any kind of service?]" The voice came from one of the speakers, Ale knew it was not Iskander since that one sounded more… rambunctious for the sake of picking a word for it.

"VVIP huh…" Big Sister said sitting down in one of the couches, "Can we get something to drink? And food?"

"[That can be arranged Miss… Skye Venti, was it?]" The girl on the other side of the speakers said.

"You are… Cardinal?" Ale said searching on her memory for the name, "Cardinal right?"

"[That would be Correct Lady Ale.]" From the speakers a beam of light came down and the holographic projection of a young woman with short brown hair materialized, "[I go by Cardinal Star System. I am… You could say the secretary in charge of most of the work that does not fall into any specific dedicated area.]"

"Any reason why you are showing up like a projection?" Big Sister asked frowning, "If we are VVIP you should be here, or not?"

"[I am here Miss Skye Venti.]" Cardinal said smiling at Big Sister, "[Most of my processing power is focused on this room at the moment, there are five hundred thirty three process that have been halted, four hundred sixty seven deals have fallen by and were not renovated and thirty two corporations have managed to salvage their assets since I was unable to finish the acquisition deals.]"

Big Sister seemed confused at the answer.

"You are not real." [Golem] stated, "Are you?"

"She is an artificial intelligence." Ale said before Cardinal could say anything else, "One of the big ones that are dedicated to manage the Saintsworths. Right?"

"[That is correct again Lady Ale.]" Cardinal nodded to Ale yet again, "[My Sisters and myself manage four of the pillars that hold the Saintsworths Conglomerate today.]"

Four pillars huh…

"No wait," Ale said before she could nod, "Iskander was the one that manages the weapons right? Then Craddle dealt with the schools…"

"[Albireo manages Aquila and the important projects that Alexanders personally oversees.]" Cardinal finished for Ale and then she pointed at herself, "[And I am the secretary to the administrative heart of the Saintsworths.]"

There was some weird ass pressure that Cardinal was emitting at the moment when she introduced herself. Something that Ale couldn't truly understand, the administrative heart?

"[I am the Secretary of Lady Sapphire.]" Cardinal said smugly with a smile on her face.

"…You are the secretary of the weird purple woman?" Ale asked confused.

"Purple woman?" "Weird?" Big Sister and [Golem] asked at the same time.

"[Yes, I am the secretary of Lady Sapphire.]" Cardinal nodded again.

"…She is… Is she not the main administrator? Isn't kinda her work to… be the secretary?" Ale was very confused at the moment, there was no reason why an AI needed a secretary, it was like asking Main Core to get its own Main Core. If they had anything, it was time, they could do anything that was needed of them and have spare time for anything else, it wouldn't surprise Ale if that purple woman was speaking with Alexanders while doing all the work that these four AI sisters did.

She had the whole data cluster servers of the Saintsworths! No way she couldn't do that much!

"[That is of no matter, Master Alexanders is aiming for the singularity that occurs when an AI turns from merely a smart computer to a fully sapient sentient being.]" Cardinal said in a more serious tone, "[As thus, having Lady Sapphire delegate her work and having us in turn delegate our own work to lower level AI is part of the must.]"

"And that's why, while you could kept doing all the work you aren't doing, you are instead talking to us?" Ale said sighing, "You all are nuts."

"That's the Saintsworths for you." Big Sister said from the side, "So the food?"

"[It has arrived.]" Cardinal spoke as her image dissapeared and a food cart came in.

"We are so sorry, we had some kind of mismanagement problem and no one said you had arrived." There came in a man sweating all over his face with a strained smile followed by a series of workers that seemed to have been scared out of their lives, "This is on the house, we would do our best to have your plane ready for takeoff, but…"

The man said staring to the side, behind him another worker came in, this one wearing the golden eagle emblem on his clothes, a Saintsworths worker?

Now that Ale thought about it, while she knew the importance of that thing, not many people had been wearing it, right?

"The Plane is under the Main house jurisdiction." The man stated looking around, "So? Who of you is it? Alexandra Saintsworths?"

"It's Ale Saintsworths." Ale said raising her hand, "You the pilot?"

"Hmph." The man scoffed after looking up and down at Ale, and not very discretely moving his hand to his chest, as if to ensure the emblem of the golden eagle was visible, "I am Bucephalus Saintsworths. One of the new generation, and not only a person worthy of wearing the Golden Eagle. But also someone who can wield the name of one of the Genius generation."

"The what?" Ale said confused turning to the side, "Is he one of the plane workers?"

"Do not ignore me, you low class mongrel." The man said glaring at Ale, "You lot, leave, we are about to speak of Saintsworths privileged information."

And he had not finished speaking when the workers left, leaving only Ale, Big sister and [Golem] on the side with seats.

"That was for you too." The man said glaring at Big Sister and [Golem], "As someone who can wield the golden eagle you do not want to antagonize me."

"…Say Ale, does your bracelet not have…" Big Sister said from the side frowning, "You know, that thing."

That thing?

"This thing?" Ale said pushing one of the gems on the bracelet, a second later there was an holographic projection of the Golden Eagle in front of Ale, "I mean… it's just an emblem right?"

"…." The rude Saintsworths just stared at it confused, and very slowly put a hand over his chest, covering his own emblem, as if the holographic projection that Ale had manifested would do something to it.

"So, what's the important business you wanted to speak with me?" Ale asked as she sat down, for some reason the projection did not disappear or move. Was it actually not being projected by the bracelet? To check on that Ale even went as far ahead as to cover the thing, but it didn't falter for a second, "Cardinal, will this make our departure take longer?"

And since the man was not answering, Ale decided to check with the AI sister.

"[The departure schedule will not change Lady Ale.]" The voice of Cardinal came from the speakers again, making the guy flinch again.

What was the deal with this guy?