Loyd examined the limbless possessed in front of him as it tried to escape its restraints. "Alright, plug it into the dive equipment. Let me see this thing's brain in action."
"Are you sure that'll even work, Loyd? I mean, this thing is going crazy already and you know how painful your first dive is. What happens if it starts turning the cable into crystal?" Griffon asked.
"Then you disconnect it from the wall. I don't think it hurts as much as you remember," Loyd responded, circling to the back of the possessed's head.
"You want me to dive with it?" Ragnarok asked. "I have the most experience of diving with a wide variety of people."
Loyd looked up at Ragnarok. "Yeah, that'd work but I'll still be in the pilot's port. In case this thing starts taking you over I want to have the ability to try and fight it off."
"That works for me. Just don't fall to it yourself," Ragnarok warned.
"You see husband material in that? He's mentally and emotionally unstable and you want to spend the rest of our life with him?" Madeline asked Sara pointing at Loyd.
"I wouldn't call it husband material but yes I do want that. Why do you ask?"
"Girl, sometimes even I can't understand you."
The girls watched as Ragnarok and Loyd paired up. Ragnarok laid down and waited as Griffon inserted the connector jack. The possessed was less inclined to sit still while Griffon plugged it in so Tiny took over and stabbed it.
"That was risky! You could've killed it!" Griffon complained.
"You underestimate my skills," Tiny said coldly.
"Hey! Stop arguing and initiate the link already!" Loyd yelled.
Griffon walked back over to his computer and pressed the big red button.
The possessed stopped struggling as Ragnarok and Loyd invaded its mind.
"Well, this is odd," the possessed said in Loyd's voice. "It appears to be copying me. Almost as though it had broken its previous mind and now that it's found one it's trying to repair itself. Hey, Tiny, have you ever experienced hunger?"
"No, that feeling is completely irrelevant to my race."
"That's odd because this thing does."
The red glow of the possessed faded and turned a deep purple.
"Alright, it's finished copying me and Ragnarok, let's see if it wants to chat."
Griffon hit the red button again and ended the connection between the three.
The possessed didn't move as it finished implementing its newly repaired mind.
Ragnarok let Loyd exit the cockpit before standing up.
"Morning, you piece of shit," Madeline taunted the possessed as it blinked.
"I'm sorry about what I did before. I don't know what came over me," it apologized.
"Hey, cut it some slack, Madeline. This is probably the first time a Crystalid has felt hunger. Assuming you don't count Ragnarok over there," Loyd retorted.
"Oh, you're only defending that thing because it copied your personality! Not to mention you always had an affinity for defending all of your hair-brained schemes!"
"And memories. Don't forget about that," Loyd said stepping into one of the dive pods, the group had built. "And I defend my work because it's the only way any of us are going to survive Earth."
"You're not planning to dive with it again, are you?! What happens if it takes you over?! You just said it copied you. What keeps it from acting like you until the direst moment and kills us all?!"
"I'd like to know my own past. If it could copy me to kill all of you, it would've already," Loyd fumed, hitting a switch on the wall of the pod and initiating a dive.
"He's your guy! Talk him out of this!" Madeline stormed at Sara.
"Nah, if he kills himself, I'll just bring him back. He can't get away that easily. Just think, I could make him better looking in the process! The possibilities are endless!" Sara exclaimed turning to Madeline, a sinister expression crossing her face.
Madeline stood there as no one did anything; her mouth open in astonishment. "I signed up for Earth, not watching people kill themselves by diving with an alien robot!" she screamed storming out of the room.
Loyd and the possessed eidolon were sharing a quiet moment reliving the entirety of their lives up to that point.
"Damn, you had it rough," they declared in unison.
"Hey, Tiny! I found you an assistant for when we get to Earth!" Loyd declared disconnecting from the pod. "It'll take till then to train her though."
"Wait, why do you refer to it as a her and me as a he?" Tiny asked.
"I haven't seen your life before you turned Crystalid. I've seen hers, and I'm glad I was born on Mars instead of the outer colonies!" Loyd declared chuckling. "And I don't plan on doing it any time soon."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"I've seen that this was originally a girl and the process of seeding her drove her insane with the rest of the humans you tried it with. He and him can be used as a gender-neutral pronoun when someone either has both or neither genders. You can always hook up to the simulator with someone and check for yourself," Loyd offered.
"Maybe later. Right now, I'd like to see why an eidolon would glow like that," Tiny said pointing at the possessed.
"Uhm, I heard the other guy that looked like you say something about a leak? Does that help?" the possessed asked fearfully.
"Yes, it means your life span will be much shorter than the standard lifespan of an eidolon. Which in human terms is still several hundred thousand generations."
"Holy shit! You guys live that long?!" Griffon asked sitting down.
"That's less than one percent of an eidolon's expected lifespan."
"Well then, looks like we've got a time capsule," Loyd said.
"What do you mean by that?" The possessed asked still scared.
"Well, now we just need to give you a new name. Having two Sara's would just be confusing. Something with time…"
"Aevum. It means eternity in Latin," Linda piped in. "And it sounds pretty as a bonus."
"Aevum? That does sound pretty but I don't know how easy it will be to remember," Aevum said.
"If it works for you, then it works for me. I agree having two of me would be quite confusing," Sara joked, wiping the drool from her mouth that had accumulated with her fantasizing.
Jim popped through the door trying to catch his breath. "We've got trouble! Loyd, I need you to come with me to the command module."
"What's up?" Loyd asked walking over to Jim.
"The elevator. An explosion occurred about a mile up the cable and caused the platform to crash back into the launch facility."
"Perfect," Loyd said shoving past Jim annoyed.
The tube network they had set up between each of the rooms led him straight to the command module with its long-range radio. Loyd flipped a switch and listened to the static for a moment before adjusting the knobs.
"We are here at the Greeley space elevator where just moments ago an explosion occurred roughly a mile up the cable. As some of you may know the cable is under massive amounts of tension and connects Mars and Phobos. When the cable snapped, it destroyed both of the landing platforms and is hovering between the two celestial bodies. Many of the experts present, say that it is starting to move further to the south and directly above the colony where it will come down and crush the dome. An evacuation of the colony is currently underway as there are no ships willing to push the cable in the other direction."
"So, Loyd. How much do you want to play the demon, or can we be heroes for once?" Jim asked.
"Well, we need the cable to stay in orbit for us to get to Earth but what happens if we just bring it with us?" Loyd asked Madeline as she entered the room.
"We don't have enough rocket fuel for that. If we can use some of your mag-thrusters I think it can be done," she replied, still angry with him.
"Then that's what we do. Get the nano-lathe ready to make some, Griffon."
"Wait, that things still not ready! It might blow up!"
"And?"
Griffon stared at Loyd. "I'll get it ready."
Loyd turned back to the radio. "This isn't going to be fun is it?"
"Probably not. But hey, we get even more materials for free," Jim said, trying to cheer Loyd up.
"That we do." Loyd switched the radio to broadcast and held the microphone to his mouth. "This will not change our plans to ascend the elevator. We will also be taking the cable with us, so you can stop the evacuation. If there are any ships in orbit around the elevator, I recommend you clear our escape path, or risk joining us."
"Who is that?!" the voice on the other side of the radio asked.
"This is the leader of the Martian Swarm. Clear the area around the northern edge of the colony."
Panic could be heard over the radio as Loyd turned it off. "We have ten minutes until we reach the far point crater. Everyone, get suited up. We only have an hour here, so get the kids ready too."
"You've already done the math?" Tiny asked poking his head into the room.
"I did it before we left. The explosives are lower than I had imagined but that still leaves us roughly an hour and a half of spare time. Even with us stopping at the crater."