T(h)rust(er)

A familiar sight, a familiar process, Zachary entered once more into the camera system and stared at the images. He hesitated for a moment before touching the first one. He didn't know if the others began to recover their memories as he did, and it could spell disaster for him. Worst case scenario would be that everyone else turns against him for going against the protocol.

"I came this far already." He whispered to himself. "I already broke the rules, anyway." With a resolute gleam in his eye sockets, he tapped the camera. "Unit 9901, requesting status."

[Unit 7843. Reporting.] 7843's voice sounded once more. It walked towards the camera with its rifle in hand. [No anomalies. No noteworthy incidents.]

"Understood…" Zachary stood there in silence, looking at the screen in contemplation.

[…]

"…"

[Do you require assistance. Unit 9901?] 7843 monotone voice broke Zachary from his stupor.

"Unit 7843…"

[Yes. Unit 9901?]

"Do you remember…anything before master left?"

7843 stood still in silence, making Zachary's worries skyrocket. With each passing second, his fear of retaliation became more and more real, as he began to regret his decision. Just before he could terminate the conversation, 7843's voice came once more.

[No memories found. Unit 9901] the skeleton shook its head. [Is there anything else. Unit 9901?]

"Inform me if you recover new memories, Unit 7843." Zachary said with relief. "Unit 9901 out."

[Unit 7843. Out] The robot returned to the shadows once more, seemingly not bothered by his strange question.

Zachary crossed his arms in thought. He appeared to be a special case from his interaction with 7843, but he couldn't be so sure before talking with 0099, or even the slumbering guardians of the armories. There was one in the floor he was in: the second floor, but those activated only in case of a breach with the intention to dispatch any threat. Zachary didn't want to try his chances.

"Unit 9901, requesting status." Zachary pressed the next camera after making sure that nothing changed in the hallway feeds.

[Unit 0099. Reporting. Test tubes 1 to 31, 33 to 35, and 37 remain in a broken state. Requesting for repair personnel.] 0099 repeated the same routine as every day, but Zachary didn't interrupt him.

"Repair personnel is unavailable, Unit 0099. Please note that down." That didn't mean he would continue with the same rigidity.

[…] 0099 stood in silence for a moment before nodding at the camera [Understood, Unit 9901.]

"Unit 0099, do you have memories of the time when the master was with us? About the experiments performed at the laboratories?"

[Access denied.] 0099 answered, not missing a beat. [Information available only to class 4, class 5, and class X personnel.]

"You do remember…" Zachary whispered to himself, feeling the need to narrow his eyes. "That is all, Unit 0099, return to your post. Unit 9901 out" He then diverted his attention, looking intently at the [ONLY AUDIO] cameras when something unexpected happened.

[Abnormal behavior detected. Possible breach in progress.] 0099 took several steps back and pressed a button on the wall.

[Aaaaaaaaatt-ttention.]

[Sseeeecurityyy breeeach in progresssssss.]

With the Mainframe's declaration, a loud noise began blaring through the base, emergency lights tried to turn on, and several doors locked themselves. The security system began booting up as a surprised Zachary stared at the camera where 0099 was.

"0099, what did you do?" Zachary pressed once more the screen towards 0099. "Did you activate the alarm?"

0099 remained in silence, looking at the camera intently. He heard a click coming from the door before a turret broke through the ceiling. It had 8 muzzles that glowed in cyan light, a length of at least half a meter, and a laser pointed directly at Zachary's skull. The skeleton sighed, unperturbed by the sight, and introduced the password before his bones turned into Swiss cheese.

"There is no breach on the base, Unit 0099." Zachary stated, crossing his arms. "Do not use the alarm system this way."

[…] 0099 stood still as if looking at him directly across the 8 floors that they were apart. [Understood, 9901.] After several seconds, it finally relented. 0099 limped forward a couple of steps closer to the camera [Your behavior is strange, 9901. Is your time approaching?]

"It is not, Unit 0099." Zachary rested his chin on his hand as he stared intently at 0099, feeling…as if something was odd with him. "But Unit 1279 died."

[Understood. Anything else, Unit 9901?] It stated, showing no emotion for the loss of a valuable comrade like he did.

"Nothing, return to your post." Zachary pushed those questions he wanted to ask to the back of his mind with a shake of his head. "Unit 9901 out."

[Unit 0099 out.]

Zachary stared at the cameras for some more time before finally leaving the control room. It wasn't the worst-case scenario, but the result wasn't satisfactory. He picked up his rifle and returned to the charging quarters thinking about what happened with 0099. By that point, the base returned to its normal dormancy, in complete silence.

"Is he acting? Or something else is going on? I have to deal with that sooner or later." He murmured to himself, unsure about how to proceed. "My change…is more noticeable than I thought initially…"

He looked at his hands for a moment before closing them into a fist. Living day by day in a daze or becoming more and more self-aware as time passed on…he wasn't sure what he would choose if he had to. After the show of distrust from 0099, he began to have doubts about his plans ahead and situation.

"Even if I do nothing, my memories, mannerisms, emotions, everything will come back." He then shook his head. "doing nothing would only delay the inevitable, I will have to eventually leave my identity as 9901…and reclaim Zachary Marks."

He sat cross-legged inside the charging station to meditate and clear his mind. He had a lot to think about and work around. Carelessly approaching 0099, or even 7843 will be a disaster. Something else he had to properly internalize was a new influx of emotion. Fear, guilt, pain, even happiness, were all alien concepts before his memories surfaced. Zachary wanted to explore them…but ironically, it scared him. The fear that it would change him and shape him into something else terrified him, which in and on itself was a blatant contradiction.

"Who am i, in the end?" He whispered to himself, immersing himself into his own thoughts once more. "Such is a question that i feel i once had, but i think it fits better in this context." His mind began to wander once more to a trance as his energy flowed through him. "Such is life, is not it?"

//

Far away from the base, inside a battered, old ship, there was a small crew of 10. They didn't have the nicest clothes, but were dressed, well-fed, and carried weapons on their sides. All of them human, nothing would say that they had a relation other than the emblem they had on their jackets: A burning cog.

"Captain!" One of the younger ones screamed from the bridge. He was in front of a console showing a map with several white dots and a small red one. "Something's on the radar!"

"What?!" The oldest of them all, a man with a beer belly and white hair spoke in a confused tone. "Isn't this a dead sector?! Wilson! You brought us to one of the crystal freak bases by mistake again?!"

"This ain't on me, cap!" The man identified as Wilson answered from another, larger console. HE had olive skin, black hair, and brown eyes. "These are the right coordinates! Double checked before the warp!"

"What could it be then…" The man murmured to himself, scratching his chin. "Anders! Is it moving?!"

"It disappeared!" The young man, Anders, answered back with a baffled expression. "It was in the radar and then it was gone!"

"Was it a ship? And how far was it?"

"I don't think so…" Anders stared at the map intently, prepared if the signal appeared once more. "Sent you the location, Will."

"Got it." Wilson returned to his console and studied the new set of coordinates. After a couple of seconds, he looked at the captain again. "It's not that far, couple of days at max."

"Belinda!" The captain screamed to his wrist. "You there?!"

"Don't yell at me, old man!" A voice came in response, it was sweet and full of youth. "What do you need?!"

"How much food do we have?!"

"If you continue snacking away like the pig you are…at least a month or so. Why?"

"Great." The captain smiled and nodded to himself. "Wilson! Tell all the lads and gals! We going on a trip!"

"Got it, cap!" Wilson nodded with a smile. He turned on the comms of the ship and said in an energic voice. "We're going on a trip! Buckle up! It's going to last for some days!"

His voice reverberated through the halls and everyone inside heard it clear as the day. Finding a signal meant that they could get an extra pay-day if it was valuable enough. There was the risk that it was a trap, but such was the life of a pirate of the rogue states. You never know until you find out by yourself, you only get rich if you gamble with your life at stake. The engines roared and a blue flame erupted from the back thrusters, as they prepared to take that gamble once more.