Category: Wrote in 365 Parts

Written in 365 Parts: 129: Comms Relay

The organic who had leapt onto the relay satellite had less than a minute to complete their next objective. They unrolled a small set of tools and flipped out a plasma cutter. Three seconds later they had cut a slice along the cable housing underneath the relay aerial. Inside there was a thick sheath that held the communication cables. The figure opened a pouch and attached a device around the sheath of cables and activated the primary switch.

The device was a military infiltration droid. Equipped with hundreds of small manipulator arms it set to work opening and connecting to the mass of fibres in the cable sheath. An organic would have taken hours to separate the cables, attach a bypass, cut the cable and insert the diversion cable to allow monitoring. Then the bypass of each one had to be removed after the insertion was tested and the slice resealed. The droid was able to do thousands of them a second and had managed to totally infiltrate the whole cable system in less than five seconds. 

The figure attached the infiltration droid’s output to a secure battle computer from their backpack and started the system. This computer was a set of highly specialised artificial intellects. Each one had a defined set of protocols. 

The initial intelligence was designed to breach security systems, being attached to an internal communications system made its job significantly easier. It was aided by the series of backdoors left in the system and the monitoring system running tests at appropriate moments.

Seconds after it breached the main system firewalls the next intelligent system started to clone the main code modules of the monitoring system and security detectors. Another series of programs attached themselves to all communications. 

The third system was a decryption intelligence and it was soon busy decoding the many secure communications that were being fed into its network. The last intelligence was a specialist in counter-infiltration. It was soon busy capturing and re-programming any stealth systems that were sniffing around the other intellects and their activities.

The figure completed the final task just moments before they were to move to active infiltration. It opened a special port on the battle computer and activated the systems own secure communications relay. Far away from the city in a geo-stationary orbit a communications drone suddenly burst into life, it started passing traffic between the security systems of the main building and an eager slicer who had been waiting impatiently for the relay to open.

Less than a second after they had opened up the drone’s relay the slicer was in the system and starting to compile the overlays for the companion program. Once the active signal started they would open the secure communications channel and start to transmit the data to the operatives on the ground. This had to be as fast, accurate and comprehensive as possible. They smiled and loaded an appropriate client program for their mind to enjoy as they assembled the system.

Written in 365 Parts: 128: Synchronised Plans

Four of the five remaining stealth vehicles drifted past the roof and moved slightly away from the main building complex. Silently they descended to the four compass points of the complex and came to rest in positions that gave them at least one hundred degrees of view each. Together they had a clear view of every plane of the building. 

Inside the stealth vehicle pods the four organics were ready. They had started to assemble the complex equipment that surrounded them. They would have very little time to complete the final construction once the exterior of the vehicles opened. The equipment they had to operate was coated with camouflage armour, active detection avoidance and anti-infiltration systems but the initial confrontation would make most of that defunct. The camouflage and detection avoidance was primarily as a deterrent for active laser targeting, visual identification, and not stealth. They would not be using subterfuge. The anti-infiltration was a necessity, there was a cyber assault as a component of this mission so aggressive computer defences would be active on all sides.

They were using synchronised plans but were still operating using total communications blackout. If any one of them was discovered the others would not know about it unless a significant amount of commotion was created. They all knew the risks of this operation. The targets would be doing their best to eradicate them as a threat, whereas they would be using weaponry and techniques to cause maximum disruption with minimum loss of life. As for their own lives it had already been taken into consideration.

Each of the occupants checked the special rounds for the weapons they were using and made sure that all the missile and projectile shots were in the ready mode but with safety locks activated. 

The fifth stealth vehicle had come to rest on its allotted position even further away from the main building. It was on the roof of an adjacent block of apartments that overlooked the compound but not the roof of the main building. It was not the most ideal spot but it would suffice. Its occupant was also busy preparing for the mission and their role. They had readied the screens and made sure they were able to accept information from the drones that would arrive after the infiltration began.

All of them were waiting for the mission countdown to flick from the negative preparation stage to the active mission stage. The numerals counted down in one colour in anticipation of counting upwards in another colour. In a matter of seconds they would begin the assault, once that began the comms blackout would end and they would use the encrypted channels and coded signals.

Written in 365 Parts: 127 First Penetration

Three of the stealth vehicles landed, without a bump as they actually came to rest before touching the surface, on the roof of the main offices. They held their position. They were a mere centimetre above the gravel covering but since they hadn’t actually touched down there was no pressure to the surface. The roof was fitted with an expansive sensor array to detect even the presence of small creatures.

Inside the suits the occupants waited as one of them prepared a short burst transmitter. It was set to broadcast onto a very narrow frequency at just one of the many relay dishes on the roof. The unit fitted with a powerful emitter that would project a highly specific wave of energy across a thin slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. It was a pulse which for a fraction of a second would overload that dish. 

This attack had been prepared for in advance by a previous intrusion and was part of the phased assault to gain access to multiple computer relays and networks that were separate to each other.

The transmission would happen at the moment the dish would be shut down, running a maintenance reset which had been programmed in by a corrupted recovery stack protocol in the janitor system of the building. This burst would allow the firewall protecting the main reciever to be overcome so that a second wave could carry a stealth package directly into the active maintenance program running security status. Once the code was internal it would release a plethora of smaller systems programs that were set to clone and replace some low-level mechanical assistance software in the repair programs of the security self governance systems. 

The maintenance program had been altered significantly in advance especially in its logging and data integrity analysis. Its monitor protocols would normally report any changes, including regular updates, to an overseer system. This time they would instead open up a small relay and report to an auxiliary broadcast system that was linked back to the pods hovering on the roof. This would open up a secondary backdoor access and allow the infiltrators to send a second package of stealth software into the overseer system.

The penetration of low level systems was completed in microseconds. A few picoseconds later the overseer program was breached and internal systems cloned, reformed to respond to specific triggers, and to ignore others. The system responded to its new masters with a welcoming prompt.

Inside the pods the occupants kept radio silence, but a small sub-system activated and received a single packet transmission which alerted them to the success of the first penetration. All three occupants set to work on the next stage of the plan. Each would have to be ready, the systems they had breached could only be controlled for very short periods without alerting a higher system. That was until they had completed the next stage of the plan.

Silently the pods opened to reveal darkness. Three figures raised themselves slowly but almost unseen to sensors and the naked eye. The stealth coating of their suits revealed them only as a slight distortion at the edges, less than a millimetre in thickness where the planes of light were angled around their forms. An observer stood greater than a few metres away would be hard pressed to see any difference, even within a metre or two the effect was barely visible.

As one, the three moved into position and adjusted their gravity compensators. The first figure leapt at the main comms relay of the cluster of satellite uplinks thirty metres away. The other two leapt towards the doorway of the emergency roof access. They all landed softly, instant adhesion gloves and boots stuck them firmly to the surfaces of their respective targets.

Written in 365 Parts: 126: Unknown Occupant

“…was to be expected. Look, I really don’t care for too much small talk, this game you want to play is annoying. We don’t have that relationship anymore. I wish you’d move on.” Susa sighed and took a drink. “Look, Minch, I get it that you still have feelings. But you and I both know that those feelings originate and end in your pants. So let’s keep this as a purely business thing and quit with the hopeful small talk and crude innuendo. It won’t get us anywhere and it is a little embarrassing. I could have used anyone for this job, you are not the only Ganger with the right skill set, you just have the advantage of my trust.”

“Right,” Minch growled, “you know I don’t always have motives. I thought we worked okay together. I’ll try to back off you were the one being friendly and I got the wrong message. Don’t lose your cool. Doesn’t change that I am interested in what’s going on. I have nothing more than what you have said and I’ve been asked to do some pretty dirty work. It’s my neck on the short leash. I think I deserve more.”

“You were well paid. There are further payments once the job is complete and potentially future work. What’s the problem? You got enough to do what you needed to do. You are getting more than I would normally give.”

“I just want to make sure I have a better chance of survival. Knowledge is power and all that. Look what i just had to do.”

“A little knowledge will free you, too much will get you buried. It is better that you know as little as possible. You know what they asked you to do. You knew enough to get it done. The only thing you have to do now is tell me how it went?”

“They were right. Your mysterious friend.”

“So there was a switch?” A pause and the sound of a drink being consumed, “I assume they still passed you the authentic materials?”

“Seems to be legit. I ran the analysis that you said I should on the mini kit you gave me, and it came up green. There was a bunch of other numbers but that was stuff I couldn’t make out, and that’s knowledge that you are not paying me to learn.”

“So what happened? I’d like the whole story but it can be edited for minor details.”

“Well they were in the correct place. I watched them go from the mag-train station and head out into the plains. I followed them on a scope and they weren’t followed as far as I can tell. So I waited as instructed. When I went to the tent I knew that something was wrong. You were wise to get that material that reacts to body chemistry and set it to our friend as there was a visible line of an unknown occupant on the outside seam. I went in and they were all masked up. I obviously kept my mask on. The person was close in build and look, from the outside in heavy clothing and a mask, to our contact. They were using voice modulation to sound like them. We exchanged packets. I left and got to a safe distance and made sure they didn’t leave the tent. Then, kablooey. Razed the area to the ground with the targeted strike as instructed. There was nothing but a smouldering crater. I waited but there was nothing moving except fragments of dust. The heat scans showed nothing except a rapidly cooling impact zone. Whoever they were, they are dead.”

“They were likely to be a justice operative named Hooper. A clever guy but clearly not as smart as our mutual employer.”

“Who is still a mystery to me.”

“Which is the best thing for you. You don’t want to owe them any more than you currently do. You also don’t want their attention. They won’t appreciate your loyalty like I do. They are likely to just see you as a liability. They tend to eradicate those. They don’t like threats or loose ends.”

“Must be someone high up to have access to that kind of smart technology, the tent and the missile?”

“Nope, just someone with impressive connections. The tent and missile were not government, they were from a private organisation. So don’t go sniffing around as you don’t want two organisations considering you a liability.”

“What do you want me to do? Am I a liability to you?”

“You’re a friend. I still like you and you confuse that. But it doesn’t stop me knowing that I can trust you. Lay low. Take a long holiday in the lower levels or a marginal city, maybe take a spa holiday in the sky cities. I don’t care, just keep a low profile and don’t break any laws and I will contact you in forty days at the agreed location. I will not need your services until then and you need to hide while the situation cools off. “

“Right. And if I have a problem?”

“Deal with it. Don’t become a problem as you are aware of how those we serve solve their issues.”

Written in 365 Parts: 125: Real Mixed Blessing

”Time for us to go dark,” said the security guard as they switched off a bunch of audio-visual circuits. “We did a detailed scan as they both came into the building. We know they have detection equipment and it looks like they are going to use it. The data dump on the broadcast interfaces for their implants say they are security monitored. If we hook straight up to them they will be aware of it.”

“Can you get around that?” asked the watcher.

“We can. The first step is to go dark and give them enough time to sweep the area for bugs. We have left a couple of passive devices for them to find and circumnavigate so they don’t get too suspicious. There are actual eyes on them from a doppler shadow on their privacy screen. Once they have settled we will turn on some of the more esoteric devices. They will have a monitor activated but it will not be able to pick up the passive systems. We will only get large file transfers and voice. Little visual, but we can get shadows and densities and have some good software that can reconstruct based on that.”

“That will have to do. It is much more than I expected so I am still impressed and grateful.”

“The system is subtle and complex like so many of our more, interesting, relationships.” the guard gave a cautious laugh.

“I can imagine that there is a high level of discretion needed in some of the more creative Union relationships.”

“Like you wouldn’t believe. However we are tasked with the occasional monitoring even of very private conversations, for security purposes.”

The watcher was impressed that they could keep a straight face while having this conversation. “That must ease the conscience for having the systems available.” The watcher smiled at the guards sideways look of embarrassment.

“Don’t worry I won’t be passing any information of what is said or seen in here. I am deeply indebted to your bosses for this favour and I understand how discreet this is. I simply want to know what they are saying. Anything I use will be based on information gathered outside of this room.”

“Good to know. We were wondering.” A long pause, “Considering who you represent.”

“In this instance I am simply a colleague of Drick’s. Which I think carries the appropriate benefits and costs.” There was light laughter from both of the guards. “Do you know them?”

“Only by reputation, but Jay there once tried to throw them out of a club.”

“Really? Do tell.”

“Not much to say,” said the, until now silent, Jay. “I was working on the door. There was a fight inside and by the time we got there it was pretty much over. We had two bleeding, one unconscious and a fourth screaming quite loudly. There was a good reason for them to scream, they had the remains of a barstool right through their stomach. Front to back. Your friend Drick stood in the centre of a circle of shocked onlookers who were all doing their level best not to get any nearer. We were paid to keep the peace, and foolishly we didn’t assess the scene, or the mood of that hellspawn, before we tumbled in.”

“Oh. I guess Drick refused to come quietly.”

“They put two of us in hospital and a third into a long rehab. I got off lucky with broken ribs, just needed straps and a couple of bone-meld boosters. To be fair to Drick we jumped straight in without any restraint.”

“Kind of you to say.”

“On the other hand, they are a cold hearted piece of work. You gain as many issues as you do advantages knowing someone like that. They are a real mixed blessing, and that is putting it very politely because I have been instructed not to cause any angst.”

“Time to turn the sound back on,” said the other security guard. The watcher silently thanked them for their timing. The last thing they wanted was to discuss the advantages and problems of being associated with Drick.

Written in 365 Parts: 124: Union Cooperation

The watcher didn’t have as long to wait as they had feared. It was just another fifty minutes before a second organic turned up at the booth. The watcher turned to the two security guards that they shared the control booth at the club with. “Do you know who that is? Did they scan in with an identity graph?”

“They did,” said the more conversational of the two guards, “iconograph registered them as a Union member, ident registered as Susa Camile, and what is more they are a registered Union representative to an official organisation.”

“Which one?” the watcher was secretly elated this was a real break. A Union Rep, if the graph was real there would be a lot of info that could be gathered and their loyalty would be to the Union. Having the Union on side for this investigation was a real bonus. Yet another favour to tally to Drick.

“Justice Department. They are the Rep for planet based administration staff. Oh, but they used to be based on the Justice satellite where they did Rep work for ancillary workers. Looks like they still represent some organics and artificial intellects up there.”

“Can you find out when they were last on the Justice satellite from this system?”

“They are Union and if they were there officially then someone will have made a note of it. I will pass the request up the chain. I don’t have that access but we were told to give you all the help we could and pass every request otherwise to a superior.”

“It is much appreciated and I will make sure it is also repaid on a personal level.”

“Well that’s also much appreciated,” the guards smiled and the watcher was surprised at how that made them look so much more unfriendly. It must be something they practiced.

There was a small beep on the console in front of the security guard. “They have activated the full privacy screen.” Said the guard. “They have paid for double security and marked it as Union business.”

“What can we do?”

“Give me a moment,” said the guard, “I will tag a request to monitor onto the request for information. Hopefully someone will clear it soon. But they may not. If it is Union business then we have every right the Union have in their charter, and there are a lot of those.”

The watcher nodded, it was to be expected. The Union would set their own level on the involvement and cooperation. They were surprised when an answer came almost immediately.

“We have permission to monitor.” said the guard, “and they gave me the travel itinerary for the last six months. Looks like they go up there often. They only got back here a few days ago.” They passed a data readout onto the watcher’s screens.

The watcher studied the times and dates carefully. It was curious that the last date for travel to and from the Judicial Central tallied with the arrival and departure of Marsh. It wasn’t exact, but it was within a few hours. It was far too coincidental a timeframe to ignore.

“The monitor is coming online now,” said the guard and pushed the feed onto a main screen. There was a small warning beep on the Security Guard’s screen. “Looks like they are doing a scan for observation devices.”

Written in 365 Parts: 123: Death Head

The music in the room below was loud enough to make the small particles of debris dance around on the smooth lino floor of the upstairs bar. The noise was felt more than heard as the bar had sufficient sound suppression systems, but the vibrations still passed through the ceiling. 

The patrons of the bar didn’t seem to care so much as it at least kept the insects away from scavenging the scraps of food that inevitably ended up mixed with the various pools of sticky liquids. The bar was washed about once a year and was the only time it closed.

There were a number of booths secreted around the wall, most had privacy screens in place to keep the denizens secluded in their own affairs. There was a lot of business that was conducted in the seclusion of the bar’s private booths. It was a safe place if you were a fully paid up Union member, and if you weren’t then you could buy the same status on an hourly premium.

The rest of the bar was a mix of large and small tables and the long expanse of a bartop. The patrons liked an organic to serve them when they sat on barstools. It was tradition. You needed to sometimes chew the world to rights with a fellow sufferer. Other times all you wanted to look at a pretty face who was moderately happy to see you. The bar, like most of the planet, didn’t judge you based on your preferences and the staff came in a variety of shapes and choices. Beauty was thoroughly a preference that could be selected if so desired based on criteria you set yourself, gathered from others or assumed from a social grouping.

There was a vending machine complex in the corner where you could purchase a variety of legal narcotics and sat next to that a small collection of droids and organics who could sell you just about anything else. The sale was backed by a Union promise of quality and retribution, and the dealers were regulated by the force of retaliation.

The club was called Zwei Köpfiger Tod a name in a language mostly forgotten. The locals called in the Tod or the Double-Head. A few others who liked to think of themselves as regulars called it the Dead-Head. It was situated in Union territory between level one and level two of the lower city. The region was a neutral place for most of the gangers and organised groups, with the Union providing the enforcement of that rule. The Justice department was content to let the Union police the area as long as a level of cooperation on serious crimes was experienced.

The watcher had arrived almost three hours after Xavier Minch had taken up residence in a booth by the corner. They had been informed by the Union that Minch was there, though the stealth drone had made it a seventy percent likelihood anyway. The area was filled with clubs and bars, and very paranoid organics, so the drone had kept far back to avoid accidental detection. 

The watcher didn’t want to spook Minch. If need be they could take out Minch and break them. But they were hoping to use Minch as bait to catch a much bigger fish.

Written in 365 Parts: 122: Waste Nothing

The readout on the oxygen bottle showed it to be at ninety-five percent. That was good. It meant that with good breathing control, and the use of the rebreather, advanced chemical filtration of blood and body fluids, they could survive for close to sixty hours. This was much more preferable to minutes.

Drick flicked a camera view and watched the tail of the ship, now a speck to normal eyes but still clear on the suits telescopic sensor. They had started maximum burn which meant that there was literally no hope of sending any form of visual signal they were likely to notice, even if they did care. Drick was alone. In the bleakness of space with a small amount of propellant to move around and two and a half days of air. If Drick could have wasted the breath they would have used it cursing quite loudly into the blackness.

But they didn’t have the breath to spare. They couldn’t waste anything. It was time to start examining everything that was around and close enough to be used. Drick used the suit sensors and a visual search of all the objects in the immediate vicinity. It didn’t take very long, there wasn’t very much nearby. The only interesting item was the body of the person who attacked Drick. They were close enough to be reached with the last of the propellant.

Drick set the suits computer to once again working out the angle, trajectory and burst lengths that would take them to the body. While the suit was doing that Drick made sure to do a thorough check of the suit and make sure the oxygen supply was properly attached and set to the minimum usage.

A few minutes later Drick was once again propelling themselves across the empty reaches of space. This time it was an agonising seventy minutes to reach the form of the dessicated corpse. Drick took the journey slowly and carefully. They didn’t want to run out of propellant or expend too much energy on the task. 

The corpse was floating in a lazy tumble and Drick used the propellant to match the motion and then attach a safety line. It was a waste of energy to stop the corpse and so matching its spin was the wisest course of action. It took a few moments to search the suit. It was a soft suit of an old design which was inconvenient as it meant that the oxygen supply hadn’t turned off when the suit was damaged. There was no extra oxygen.

A check of the pockets recovered a short range mining radio, a small plasma cutter and a set of autokeys. So they were clearly part of the team that had boarded the ship and they used short range communication and lock  picks to get around. The plasma cutter was likely for any door or lock that the auto keys couldn’t manage.

Drick slowly unzipped and removed the suit. Inside the outfit they were dressed in a cheap jumpsuit. With some slight surprise Drick noted that they had a small projectile weapon strapped to their thigh. Clearly they didn’t think about moving it to the outside of the soft suit. Or maybe they were hoping to move around unrecognised. It didn’t matter now. Drick pocketed the gun.

The item that Drick found in the other pocket made them smile. It wasn’t a happy smile though, just one of grim recognition and slight relief. The item was a burst transmitter. A location beacon that would send an omni-directional signal. It would probably call some nearby compatriots of the corpse in front of Drick. With a sigh Drick triggered the beacon. It was the only real chance of survival.

Written in 365 Parts: 121: Slow Drift

The asteroid that carried the eight stealth vessels had burnt up in the plante’s Mesosphere. The final remnants had shredded the sky with violent fire at a height of fifty-three kilometres. The intended target for the vessels was a building in the industrial sector of the city, but in the high level compound area. The exact landing spot for the first wave was at a height of four kilometres. The stealth suits needed to slowly drift forty-eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine metres to that point.

The suits moved at a rate of fifty-nine centimetres per second placing their total journey time at eighty-two thousand six hundred and eight seconds. Which was a shade under twenty-three hours. This was in addition to all the time spent within the asteroid. At least in the cocoon of rock they had a limited communications relay provided by a fibre connection so they could continue to practice the assault and indulge in discussion. But all communication stopped twelve hours before the insertion into the atmosphere to reduce to almost zero any chance of being detected.

For Marsh the wait seemed like a lot longer, it gave him too much time to dwell on the events that had brought him to this point and too much time for worry. He would have preferred immediate action or some mindless drug-induced narcotia. Instead he was wide awake with the demons of his consciousness.

Drick was calm. They had used the first hour to organise their thoughts and run over the sequence of the plan once again. Making sure that they had given enough options to allow for unexpected events. A tightly scripted method of assault, a definite objective, agreed upon routes of exit, but enough leeway in the instructions to allow changes in the field.

Once Drick had done the required thinking, and made sure to script the changes into the combat log that would be run when they reached the objective, they spent another thirty minutes preparing the body for maximum rest. It was going to be a long slow journey so it was a good time to get some deep relaxation. Drick set an internal alarm to bring them out of rest in fourteen hours so they could prepare for the coming mission with body toning exercises. At that point they could also take the nutrients, supplements, medication and fluids needed to keep them as sharp as possible.

Written in 365 Parts: 120: I Wasn't So Cold or Dead Inside

“What went wrong?”

“People died. I just wanted you out, wanted you to be the last. Or at least the last that I was responsible for.”

“I am not sure if you really are that responsible for me. I cannot judge that much. I want to feel anger at you. I really do. I feel rage inside at all the lies, at what I am, at who made me.” Marsh looked away at the corner of the room, not really seeing anything but his own thoughts. “But that’s not you. You were as much a pawn as I was. You just had an illusion of freedom. Sometimes maybe that’s all we have.”

“You should be angry at me. I am not a good person. For centuries I allowed them to take away the children and not fully care about what they did with them. What type of person does that? I cannot in any honesty say it is a good one.” She took a sip of her drink and took a deep breath, letting it out in spurts. “I fooled myself into thinking I wasn’t at fault and they could have used someone else. But that isn’t wholly true. I was complicit. I agreed. I was paid. I allowed that to happen. I was, I am, as much to blame.”

Marsh took a while before turning to look at her again. When he spoke it was calm but there was a tremor in his voice. “I don’t feel angry at you. Not right now. Why did you change?”

“I would love to tell you that when I gave birth to the first child, I realised that I had grown a life in me and that it changed me and made me special.” She bit of a laugh that was close to a scream of hysteria. She took a moment and then spoke again, “But that would be a lie. I felt only relief that it was over. Months of sickness, of being distorted, of feeling so tired, and heavy. I was glad to give birth. Not at the time though. So much blood, and sweat. I don’t remember the depths of the pain but I remember the weeks of recovery and the months it took for my body to feel like my own again. Those people who think it is all a rosy joy should try it, the medical technology allows us all to give it a go, I suggest that if you think it is a miracle you should be forced to enjoy that miracle first hand.”

“Sounds like you hated it?”

“I didn’t hate it. It is just not a pleasant experience. Evolution is cruel and harsh. If there was a good design to this it would be a zip and a small fully formed person, who could walk and talk and run around and look after themselves. That’s why we use tanks. No one uses the traditional method unless they have to. Colonists and the devoted are the only ones who subjugate people that way anymore.”

“So what changed?”

“Nothing changed. I just remembered that I wasn’t so cold or dead inside. I realised that I was doing something. I  was creating life the old fashioned way for sure, but as I said any machine can do that now, the mysticism is for the inane. What was important was not that I was giving life. I was a part of taking life. Your life. Repeatedly, your life. A part of me knew I had the connection of being your mother. Your surrogate. But I was just a biological sack. The part of me that cared was the part that didn’t want to be the cause of so many lives lost. The same life lost. Again and again. I had to save one of you. The last one that I was a part of.”

“Why are you dying?”

“I am old.”

“I heard that can be temporary these days?”

“It can be. But I have a degenerative gene. I have to replace a lot of my biology every few years. Each time it decays faster and more severely. It is manageable and I can easily last for centuries more. But I do not want to. I have learned that I have done enough. I want to die. But I also want to make sure that, before I did, I saved one of you. It isn’t a recompense, it is just the very least I could think of doing. I have nothing else.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What for?”

“Your pain. That you feel only death will end it.” Marsh bit the inside of his cheek. “I cannot end your pain. You have chosen your path and I don’t feel that I know how to change that and it might be the worst thing to do, if I did. But I can do one thing.”

She looked at Marsh tear falling from her eyes, “there is nothing you need to do for me.”

“There is.” Marsh stood and walked to her, he knelt in front of her and took her hands in his. “I forgive you, mother.” he put his arms around her and held on until she no longer wanted to be held.