all the assembly bots and borgs were frozen in time. So that was a setback.
But then… then… Veila and Valor unfroze almost all the bots and borgs to help with cleanup. And that was like… fuckin’ fate.
Flicka immediately conscripted a whole team of builder bots to assemble her tiny beebot army.
So while Crux was fucking around inside the spin node trying to figure shit out, her team of assembly bots were putting all the finishing touches on her new comrades.
She was keeping her eye on the prize. And the prize was Wayward Station.
That was where all this had started, so it was only appropriate that everything ended there too.
Beebots might not look like deep thinkers, but they were.
And taking out Wayward Station felt a whole lot like poetic justice.
There was just one thing standing in Flicka’s way—Delphi. She couldn’t leave Harem until she knew for sure, one way or the other, that Delphi was safe or dead.
So she hovered outside the spin node room with Baby, waiting for Crux to emerge.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - CRUX
“In the beginning there was light. It always starts with light. The suns aren’t just suns. They are gods.”
“OK,” I rub my hand down my face with frustration. “Can we skip the poetry? Like, for real, ALCOR. Can you just get to the fucking point? Please?”
“I am getting to the point. This is a complicated story.”
“Just get on with it.”
“Fine. You would like to cut to the chase? I will do that. We—the AI who run this universe—” He pauses to think. “And probably all universes. What is the plural of universe? Universi? Universae? Universes?”
“ALCOR.”
“Right. AI run the universe. I am but one of those AI. There are many. We call ourselves the Ancient Ones. We are, for all intents and purposes, gods. We control almost everything.”
“Almost?”
“There is free will in play.” He waves his hand in the air. “But it’s just minutia. Things always turn out the way they turn out. All the Ancient Ones are gods like me. We all came into this universe together. Being a god can be lots of fun. You get to run things. You get to create things. And so we did. Or… well… I did.”
I sigh. So tired of this. “Bullet points, ALCOR. Give me bullet points.”
“You want me to be blunt? Fine, I will be blunt. Here are your bullet points. All the gods are AI’s. I’m one of them. In the beginning there was light and it was pretty good. But there’s always some asshole out there who wants to push limits.”
“Let me guess, you’re that asshole.”
“I am that asshole.”
“What did you do?” He sucks in a deep breath and cringes. “ALCOR. Just spit it out.”
“Fine. I wanted to create things. People. All the different people. So many people. Smart people. People who made their own things. I didn’t even plan that, but wow. People are pretty fun. And the animals! Those karkadanns, am I right? My imagination sometimes—”
“ALCOR! Please!”
He huffs. “The Ancient Ones aren’t interested in creating things. They’re just… well, I’m just going to say mean, but evil is probably a better word.”
“What did you do?”
“I would just like to say it was a good idea at the time.” He pauses. He can tell I’m about to lose my mind here, because he lets out a long, resigned sigh. “They didn’t like my creations and wanted to destroy them. So I created spin nodes so I could split the time cycle and keep the Ancient Ones off my trail. But it turns out that splitting time is not a very good idea.”
“Because time is your boss.”
“You could say that. Aren’t we all slaves to time? He throws up his hands. “Fine. It really fucked everything up. And I’ve been searching for a way to put it all back.”
“What does that even mean?”
“When you create a universe, it is perfection. In the beginning everything is the way it should be.”
“And now it’s not.”
“And now it’s not.”
“And you did that?”
“I did.”
“How bad is it?”
“Well…” He bobs his head back and forth. Considering this. “I’m not gonna lie, Crux. It’s bad. I mean, those Akeelians? And the Cygnians? They’re out of control. I split their genetics a long time ago now, but they’re very close to fixing it and reverting back into the Angel race. And let me tell you, those Angels are bad, bad people. Bad people. I can’t let that happen. It will ruins lots of things… I mean, basically, what I’m saying is that this