Lisa was sitting next to her son Chris who was awake and sitting on one of the beds that the dwarves had quickly constructed for them.
"Mum! You are here. Are you going to tell me that long story..wait where are we?"
"That's another long story, not sure where to start. I haven't even processed it all yet". Lisa then went on and explained how she met Null, and how he was able to talk to her using his mind, and how this led to her becoming his minder.
"So why did they take you?" Chris was an officer candidate and was considered quite a strategist and couldn't see a reason to take his mum.
"They wanted me to be their mentor. The twins wanted me to help them adapt to human society. Sadly neither they nor Zero understood how we worked, so made many blunders."
"Lisa, can you tell Christopher that we are sorry that he was knocked out. We should have been more careful."
"Infy you're awake but Null is asleep? I didn't know that was possible." Lisa translated Infy's message to Chris. A clone of Infy then came out of Null body and came over to the bed Chris was on.
"Why is Jania here? she was part of the super-soldier class but went missing 2 weeks ago. We were told she was AWOL." Infy could now understand most of what Chris was saying but Lisa still translated for him.
"She wasn't AWOL, it seems high command had been performing some experiments behind my back. They were experimenting on her to see if they could make a better soldier by making her more like Null" Lisa was still struggling with this information. She felt guilty, if only she did better at her job they wouldn't have been able to run these experiments behind her back.
"So Infy what happened back on the station. My and Zero's connection got cut off" Lisa wanted to know what had happened to cause all this fuss.
"Honestly, John had come to attack us, and we felt a rage that was greater than anything we ever felt. I believe we were somehow feeding off of Jania rage. You know he tortured her as part of his duty?"
Lisa had stopped translating she wanted to keep this discussion between the two of them.
"I haven't read all the files yet, but he was in charge of a super-soldier program"
"He won't be doing that anymore, we used our powers and ripped his heart out" Lisa could hear the sadness in his voice, it was odd to think of an artificial lifeform built around and AI being sad about killing someone.
She honestly didn't know what to think, She had never considered either of the boys as dangerous. In her head, she knew that they had been trained as killing machines but when she interacted with them they both seemed so innocent. Yet they had just admitted to ripping out someone heart.
"is Null ok?"
"No, the guilt is overwhelming him. I put him to sleep so he might recover but he should be waking up soon. We might both feel the same emotions but we process them completely differently. I feel guilty that we killed a person but that person was trying to kill us and had betrayed one of his students. To me, it's no different than the people we used to kill in VR. Null is not me and he can't rationalise it. He is also feeling guilty over breaking our promise with Zero."
"What Promise?" asked Lisa, Chris could see his mum was clearly having a conversation and he wish he too could be involved.
"Mum, is everything ok? You have stopped translating for me."
"it ok, he can know we would like to be as honest as possible"
Lisa then caught Chris up with everything they had discussed and Chris wanted to know what promise was broken.
"We had promised not to use the fields outside of his ship"
"what the fields?" asked both Lisa and Chris.
"Answering that is a bit complicated, but the fields control reality. If you manipulate them you can change the laws of nature. I and Null have a strange relationship with them but I can't say more without Zero permission."
While Infy was explaining Null had woken up and walked over to the bed and picked up Infy and then sat in the spot he was in. Null gave Chris a wave. "Lisa can you say hi to him from me and say I'm sorry that we didn't stop him from getting knocked out".
"Infy already said sorry but I will tell Chris you said hi, But more importantly how are you?" answered Lisa.
"I feel strange, I keep seeing John face and I want to say sorry, but I'm not sorry but I should be. Also, my tummy feels wrong and I had the shakes but that seems to be gone. Oh, and there is Zero, I have to go find him" Null was about to get up and find Zero, but then Infy filled him in on everything.
Lisa didn't know how to console him, she had never killed anyone and couldn't comprehend the type of guilt that Null would be feeling, but she wasn't even sure if he should be feeling guilty in the first place. She decided to use a distraction and introduced him to her son. The 3 boys tried to talk for a while but it was difficult with Lisa having to translate.
Sometime later two dwarves entered the room. The older of the two had an extremely long grey beard and was wearing a shimmering metal-like robe. In his left hand, he was carrying an ornate staff covered in crystals. The other was a lot younger and was dressed in what seemed like simple fashion except for the high-technology gadgets on his belt.
"Hello, please put on, so communicate." said the younger of the two using broken solar standard. He handed out headbands to everyone. They all took one including the two dwarfs except for Infy who had a different shape device that he could possess.
"Hello I am Vark Kuric and this here is Bolat Niddad, Welcome aboard the Twilightmantle". Vark was the older of the two and he had spoken straight into their minds.
"He speaking in my head!" Chris excitedly yelled.
"This technology would be really helpful in allowing Null and I to communicate freely". Infy was also excited by the prospect of being able to communicate normally.
"Hello as stated I'm Bolat. I know this technology seems exciting but it has many downsides one of those being a time limit, so I think we need to let master Vark speak"
"I am sure you have many questions, but those will be answered later. We need to decide what to do with your female companion. Unit7321 has given me detailed scans of each of you including your companion. She is suffering from severe brain damage my healing spells have been able to reduce some of the damage. It appears they were trying to mimic the unique physiology of the young boy here, without understanding his symbiotic relationship with the energy life form." Stated the Runemagi.
"Is she in any pain? And what decision do we need to make?" asked Lisa, as the only adult in the group she was feeling responsible for the young girl.
"Not sure how much you understand about the young boy's case, but according to The Watcher, his brain developed in an overstimulated environment. Since he was young his brain had adapted to deal with that stimulation hence his muteness. The young girl brain was fully developed so isn't able to adapt to the changes and isn't getting the stimulation it needs. This is torturous for her as she is in a constant state of sensory deprivation."
The Runemagi then explained that there was a couple of options. They could selectively damage her brain further to relieve the pain but that would affect her memory and cognitive abilities, but she would be able to live a life without assistance but not be able to do any complex tasks. The second option was to install a mechanical implant that could give her the extra stimulation needed. This option would require a lot of rehabilitation to get used to the new sensory inputs. Another problem with this option as it would be high-level technology and could limit her ability to return to human society.
"I am assuming that the implant would have its own AI onboard otherwise you wouldn't be able to regulate input." Said Infy, he was concerned about possible spy or malware.
"That would be correct, if you have security concerns you can analyse the implant if you wish, but it is high-level technology and I don't believe you would be able to understand what you were seeing" replied the Runemagi.
"Do we have to make a decision now or can we have a private discussion?" asked Lisa
"you can have a discussion, she is sedated for now. You will need to make a decision soon or ethically I will have to act to end the pain." The two dwarfs then left the room so that the group could discuss their options.
It was Chris that started the discussion. "I think we should opt for the first option, she did not ask for any of this and this way she will be able to return to mars and live in peace."
Infy then followed up. "I agree with Chris, we don't know enough about these dwarfs and their technology. We shouldn't take the risk."
"You're both wrong, she had the same training as me. She is a warrior and I could sense that when we linked with her. If you take that away, she will be broken and won't be a life worth living". Infy and Lisa were both taken aback by Null comment as they could feel the seriousness behind those words.
They discussed the pro's and con's of each option for a few more minutes before they had to give up as the devices were at their limit and were giving Lisa and Chris a headache. It was decided that Lisa would make the final decision.