Volume 2 - Chapter 58 - Signs
| “... Repeat that for me. Just one more time.” A beat. Then a sigh. “I said: It has an Ability inside it. The System recognizes it; even has an Interface and a heads-up description. If you use it, you get the Ability—then the shard dissolves, or so it says.” Silence stretches. “...Fuck.” Another pause. Heavier this time. “I don’t think we have any precedent for that. Where did you even fucking get this?” Wild gesticulation towards the shard in question. “A System Mission near Liurnia Septis. Dominion and Accord both on site. Big Emperor-damned mess. Pretty sure I’m the only one who made it out with one. Came straight here, Sir.” More silence. “I don’t… I genuinely don’t know what to do with this. That shouldn’t exist. But it’s right here. I can see it. I can scan it. I just—this is above my weight class. Like several orders above, really.” Typing, fast and frustrated, fills the room for several minutes. “Nope. Nothing. No precedent, no protocol, no chain-of-command routing for ‘oh hey we found Galactic War-breaking System artifacts today’.” “So… what now, Sir? Do I just—use it? And we forget it existed?” “If you use it, you’ll get Zero’d. Instantly. Do not even think about triggering it. I do not have the kind of clout to delete the logs of your existence in my lab, nor the recordings of what is being said right here, right now. They will find out.” The Legate exhales, shaky. “R… Right. Okay. So… what do we do, then?” “I flag the ship AI and hope it knows who to wake up. That’s all we’ve got. The AI should have direct lines to people we don’t even get to know exist.” “You’re telling me we’re just handing this off to the ship?” “Yes, Legate. Because I don’t want to be the idiot who tries to report this manually and ends up on a damn dissection table. This is… potential Galactic War-altering—nay, winning—information. The kind of thing that’s going to wake up the entire O-13 Council and not let them rest for several weeks, if not months. If the wrong branch thinks this is too important to leak, we’re both dead by tomorrow.” A beat of stunned quiet. “S...Sir?!” Another sigh. Longer. Resigned. “If this gets classified as too dangerous or too valuable to leak, we disappear. That’s it. Simple as that. We suffer an accident; maybe a Void-leak on the ship. Maybe get sent to a death-world. Who knows. Point is, there’s no exceptions for that. I don’t think that’ll happen, since it’s System-origin and not our meddling—but get your personal affairs sorted anyway. I’ll give you twenty-four hours before I push the alert.” “T—Thank you, Sir. I’ll… I’ll leave it with you then. I… I’ll… go, then?” “Yes. Do that. And thank you for reporting it. If things go well, your career is about to become very interesting. If not… well. Let’s hope we don’t both get called up by the ship AI in the next coming days. If you receive a summon, ask if there’s any debriefing officers going to be present. If not; send your last words to whoever you trust most.” The Legate freezes momentarily, then rushes out. The door hisses closed. The research officer stands alone for a long, heavy moment. “...The System just had to throw a curveball again, didn’t it,” he mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Damn Allbright’s waking up. And we’re all going to bleed for it, even more than usual...” — [UHF Excerpt: Initial Ability Shard Investigation, Unknown Researcher, PFC905]
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