They were machines, towering higher than anything Nicole had ever seen in person. Yet despite how impressive they might have been, it was what they represented that spoke most clearly to Nicole. These weren’t machines gifted by the invaders to instill false hope and collect data, these were hope itself.

  “They aren’t ready to deploy,” the being continued, crushing her dreams before they could take flight, “there are still numerous systems to be tested and bugs to be ironed out. They operate on a completely closed system as well, to prevent The Prime Administrator from assimiting them into their network.”

  The idea of a skyscraper sized machine getting hacked by the Syn Empire was not something that Nicole wanted to entertain, and now she understood why this information was being kept from Maraline. Nicole trusted her, for the most part, but this ancient being had no reason to do the same.

  “How long until they are ready?” Nicole asked.

  The being hesitated. “That depends on how long it takes to clear certain factors.”

  Great, that was nerd talk for ‘not anytime soon’ unless a literal miracle happened. Well, Nicole knew someone who could probably help with that. Of course, she wouldn’t offer that right away without some form of assurance that this intelligence wasn’t the beginning of a worse Empire waiting for their chance to arise.

  Nicole sighed. “Alright, you’ve made a compelling argument. Can my friend be let back in on things before she’s convinced she’s stuck in another simution?”

  Without preamble the room shimmered, once more turning into the generic sci-fi space it had been moments earlier. Well, aside from the pouting Syn standing about a dozen feet away as her foot tapped against the floor.

  “Was the hold music necessary?” Maraline asked.

  “It felt culturally relevant,” the crustacean snarked. “I do not trust you with sensitive information. That I am allowing you to view this space at all is already straining my ability to extend a cw in faith.”

  Maraline scoffed. “I’m already marked for death from my own creators. My enhancements are down, and with it, the kill switch built into my skull. I think it’s obvious what would happen if I were to return to my people.”

  “You still call them your people despite being b grown.”

  Nicole had enough, and stepped between them. “Okay, calm down before this all devolves into nothing but hurled insults.”

  The two both huffed and turned from one another, and Nicole had to actively bite her lip to keep from ughing at the childish dispy. A bit of snarking wasn’t the worst thing in the world, they could be attempting to kill one another. Something told her this mysterious entity could manage it easily with their holograms.

  “Do you have a name?” Nicole asked instead. “I can’t keep calling you crab man in my head if I’m going to take you seriously.”

  The being’s face twisted into a look that could only be described as absolute horror.

  Then Maraline ughed.

  Tension successfully broken, Nicole walked up to the hologram. “Okay, that was a bit of a fib, but a name would be useful.”

  Gathering their wits, the holographic crustacean gave Nicole a ft look. “That was mean spirited.”

  “I needed to do something to get you to put the cws away,” Nicole answered.

  They each ignored the continued giggling of the Syn defector in their midst.

  “My original name is long since lost, but I have taken on another,” the being said. Was that a trans allegory, or were they just being dramatic? “You may refer to me by the name that the Syn came to know me as. The Progenitor.”

  Maraline’s ughter died almost immediately as she sucked in a breath, then immediately began to cough. Nicole moved to her side, patting her back as she got it under control. That name obviously resonated with her in some way, but an expnation could wait until her friend wasn’t choking on her own spit.

  “The Progenitor,” Maraline hissed between hacking coughs. “How? Your location was considered a Priority One threat. How have you remained undiscovered on this world despite decades of observation?”

  The projection somehow managed to look smug. “Forest for the trees. If you were aware of the location of this wayward vessel, you would be quite amused.”

  Well, if that wasn’t ominous…

  “Fine, be mysterious,” Nicole snapped. “You’re offering help, yet keeping secrets. I get that, given everything, but it still makes it difficult to trust you.”

  “Nicole,” Maraline said, her voice warbling with an emotion that she had never heard come from her friend before. “This is not some chartan, this is The Progenitor, custodian of their entire Republic. The amount of knowledge likely contained here is simply impossible to fathom.”

  “Leave it to the Syn to grasp the magnitude of what they have stumbled upon,” The Progenitor said, their voice almost petunt. “This is why I will not be revealing many of our secrets in your presence, Syn. There is too much at stake here and the knowledge locked away here could doom the entire universe if The Prime Administrator were to gain access.”

  “The entire universe?” Nicole asked, unable to keep the skepticism from her voice. “That seems a bit much, don’t you think?”

  The hologram turned to face her. “If you understood the magnitude of what the Source truly is, you would not question the scope of this threat. You can feel it, can’t you? Beating within your core with every breath you take? That is what the First Ranger felt when they called upon it by chance. We made great strides in understanding over the millennia following that discovery. When the Syn Empire rose up, we were ready to defend ourselves against the encroaching might.”

  “You still failed,” Maraline said.

  “Yes,” The Progenitor admitted. “Our preparations were cking because we did not start until the enemy was at our gates. This time, we had thirty thousand years to prepare for the coming war.”

  Maraline blinked, understanding crossing her gaze. “You’re responsible for the anomalous Rangers.”

  “That is a word for it,” The Progenitor said. “Echoes of past Rangers persist within the Source, and can call out to potential successors. Nicole is one such Ranger, as are others spread across your pnet.”

  Maraline sat in silence for a moment and even Nicole could admit that the information was a bit much. Literal ghosts of the past reaching out across time and space to pass on their abilities was a hard pill to swallow.

  Well, at least it wasn’t haunted meat moons.

  Not wanting to even consider such horrors, Nicole shook those thoughts away and focused back on what she had been told. The vision and voice made more sense that way, especially with how the words carried more meaning than sound, as though her mind were interpreting abstract concepts rather than nguage.

  “So, not directly responsible, but still connected,” Maraline said, her visage turned thoughtful. “Still, that only serves to raise more questions than it answers.”

  Nicole stepped forward, gring at the hologram. “It certainly does, but I think one should take precedence. You snatched us away to parts unknown. My girlfriend is no doubt worried sick about me. I need to get back to her before my team decides to attack the Syn mothership in orbit or something.”

  “They would fail.”

  Nicole blinked as she heard the words in stereo, Maraline and The Progenitor both shared a look that suggested nothing but animosity between them. It would have been amusing if it weren’t for the fact that less than an hour prior, this strange being hadn’t been trying to ‘test’ one of her friends.

  “I need to get home,” Nicole reiterated. “Is that possible, or did you one way trip us across the stars?”

  “You’re still on Earth,” The Progenitor said with a scoffing click. “This vessel is more than capable of transporting you anywhere on Earth. The issue is returning you here.”

  Of course it wouldn’t be that simple. As much as Nicole wanted to get away from all of this, she also knew that she would need to return if she wanted to get a chance to pilot a giant anime mech. It was too tempting to pass up on, which meant she needed to py along with the designs of this otherworldly being. Maybe one day they would earn her trust, but that wouldn’t be happening for some time.

  “I’m guessing you have a way to deal with that,” Nicole said, gncing at Maraline. “If the Syn figured it out, I doubt you haven’t.”

  “Where do you think they got the tech from?” The Progenitor said, if a touch smugly. “I can easily convert your damaged Sy morpher into a communication and teleportation device.”

  Nicole shrugged, because it wasn’t like she needed it at present. Taking the broken thing off, she held it out. The Progenitor raised a ridge of carapace where its eyebrow would be and Nicole quickly realized the problem, as did Maraline.

  “Not going to give yourself a non-permeable design to accept it?”

  “Sarcasm, how quaint,” The Progenitor said, then accepted the device in one of their non-cwed hands. “Just know that doing this for myself is horribly inefficient.”

  “Yet a dozen machines attacking me wasn’t?” Maraline asked sweetly.

  The Progenitor coughed.

  “How long will it take to make the modifications?” Nicole asked. Something told her it would take just as long as The Progenitor needed to verify that Maraline could be trusted. “Something tells me you don’t have cell service here, so I do need to get back sooner than ter.”

  “Cell service?” The Progenitor asked. “I’m afraid I only have limited access to the Earth’s own networks. Without a working device to model after, all attempts to parse the data have been trial and error.”

  “Yet you knew my name,” Nicole muttered.

  “Pulled from the Syn’s own network,” The Progenitor said, seeming to enjoy the look of shock and surprise painting Maraline’s visage. “Your security protocols haven’t changed significantly since we departed for this world. It is how I disabled your impnts mid-transport.”

  Huh, maybe Becca’s computer virus idea would actually pan out after all. She would just need to access their protocols and get something that could accept the… Shit, how did she expin it again? Eh, not important right now. Once teleportation was established she could always bring Becca back with her to check things out. No doubt her best friend would absolutely lose it over all the technology avaible.

  “If I was pnning to return, that might trouble me,” Maraline said. “Now it is only a reassurance that I might be safe from their intrusions.”

  The Progenitor eyed her carefully. “Would you consent to the removal of your impnts?”

  “I would,” Maraline said without hesitation. “Obviously these impnts are easily compromised, which makes them less than worthless.”

  “Interesting,” The Progenitor muttered. “I’ll admit, I’m surprised you’re willing to give up such an advantage. Most would cling to power in my experience.”

  Maraline huffed, looking away. “The Prime Administrator approved a pn likely to see me dead within the year, five at most. If they wished it, those impnts could fail at a critical moment and leave me vulnerable.”

  Which was a fair concern. The moment Nicole learned that their morphing ability had come from the Syn, she no longer trusted in the power, because if there was a kill switch for Maraline’s impnts, there was absolutely one for their morphers.

  The question then became, why hadn’t Bartran used it each time he set off to kill a Ranger? Was it a warrior’s pride? Did he welcome the challenge while also seeking to give his foe a worthy death? It was a bit Klingon for Nicole, but she could understand it to some extent. She would keep that in mind next time she faced the monster, because there was little doubt that he would come for her the moment he was able to do so.

  Which meant she needed to be in complete control of her ability to morph.

  Learning to control her morph was a lot like meditation, with breath control being a major factor. She could start there, then branch out. Odds were she had another day or two stuck waiting with all the hemming and hawing going on, which meant making the most of her time hidden away in the mysterious ship from the stars.

  As Maraline and The Progenitor spoke of her impnts and what it would take to remove them, Nicole settled into a lotus pose. “I trust that you’ll actually help Maraline. If you want to win mine, that’s a good pce to start.”

  “Noted,” The Progenitor said.

  Maraline grimaced, but seemed determined to prove that she wasn’t the proud Syn General anymore, but just a woman who wanted to do the right thing, even if it wasn’t easy. Nicole offered her friend a reassuring smile.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Nicole promised. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  Maraline’s eyes shimmered as she nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  Nicole grinned back, pushing the nervous butterflies down as she settled in for what promised to be a long wait.

  A breath flowed in, power swelling with it. She held it within, letting it suffuse her entire being, flowing freely through her form until it returned to her lungs to be exhaled back into the world. Nicole could feel it now, how she was drawing in power from somewhere else. The Source wasn’t natural to her reality, yet her body was tuned to receive it.

  Had The Progenitor taught ancient humans how to harness the energy? Was that where tales of superhuman feats had come from in different cultures? She could always ask, but it didn’t feel quite right to do so, not yet. Maraline had been out of surgery for hours now, and still wasn’t awake, which was concerning to the Ranger.

  If she didn’t wake soon, Nicole would test just how much damage she could inflict upon a smartass hologram. Nicole was beginning to understand that whatever The Progenitor was, it wasn’t strictly biological anymore. The being hadn’t slept once, which might not be unusual for their species, but something about it felt off to her.

  One of her favorite sci-fi stories featured people being kept alive by machines for far longer than was usually possible, was that what happened with them? Was there a husk of a crab person in a tube hooked up to a neural interface somewhere? Those thoughts would need to wait for ter as her friend finally stirred.

  Nicole was by her side in a blink, grasping her hand as Maraline groaned.

  “Easy now,” Nicole said softly. “Just stay ying down for now, you need to rest and recover.”

  As if reading her mind, a wooden cup filled with water materialized on a table beside the bed and Nicole was quick to help her friend drink the cool liquid. That was one of the more interesting things about the room they were in, The Progenitor had perfected true matter replication with permanence. Sure, most things present were holograms, but anything meant to be consumed was faithfully replicated, from the food to the drinks.

  Now she just needed to get the replicator programmed with modern dishes, because the things it could produce were rather underwhelming. Beans and stews were common, as were rice dishes, and she was thankful they had more herbs and spices to them than just salt and onions.

  The less she thought about how the restroom could vanish biological waste, the better, as she didn’t like the idea that she was sitting in a room that could completely break her physical form apart on the whim of any ancient being. Would she be able to resist if The Progenitor attempted it, or would her body simply be torn apart in an instant?

  If it came to it, Maraline was the more likely target.

  “This hurts less than I expected,” Maraline said after a moment.

  The form of The Progenitor flickered to life beside them and it was only through every ounce of discipline that Nicole possessed that she didn’t jump in surprise. That didn’t stop her from gring at the prankster’s smug expression when Maraline did exactly that and let out a sharp hiss for it.

  “Could you not?” Nicole demanded.

  “I could have left her conscious for the operation,” the asshole said. “That I did no such thing should speak to my magnanimity.”

  Nicole groaned, wishing she could smack a projection but knew it was a futile endeavor. “How long will her recovery be?”

  Twin pincers ccked as The Progenitor seemed lost in thought. “She is ready now, though if you remained another day, perhaps two, the lingering soreness would be dealt with much quicker than it would otherwise.”

  Nicole could only gape in surprise at how short the turn around was.

  “Does that mean I can return home now?”

  “Excuse me?” Maraline said, gring at Nicole. “What do you mean you will return home?”

  Nicole couldn’t help but shuffle as she nearly wilted under her friend’s harsh gaze. “I thought you wouldn’t want to put yourself at risk.”

  “I have every intention of going with you, or did you think I would elect to stay here with someone who despises me for the circumstances of my creation? If I am to be marked for death for treason, I would sooner spend my remaining time free than a prisoner in all but name.”

  Well, when she put it like that…

  “Is that allowed?” Nicole asked their custodian.

  “Sending two will require more power than one, and I’m sure you can accept that I refuse to hand over a second transporter to a potential enemy.”

  Even if she didn’t like it, that was a reasonable precaution.

  “Perfectly.”

  “Good,” The Progenitor said, then her old morpher was there in their hand along with something else held in a cloth bag. “Take this, it is ready, as are the transponders needed to teleport additional persons to this location.”

  Nicole accepted the device, along with the bag full of additional markers for the transport system. She was both nervous for what she missed, and excited to see her team again. The problem was the woman currently holding her hand. How would everyone react to Maraline returning with her, not as a combatant, but as a defector? Would they accept her? Would the team face a schism over it?

  How would Sincir and his people react to her?

  Nicole found that one much easier to parse, if Sincir came after her, she would stand in his way. It wasn’t as though she needed his armor anymore, not with her ability to morph now restored. Nicole was stronger than she used to be, but the risk of over-stressing herself had grown. That was one feature of the morpher that she would miss, it didn’t allow her to push beyond her limits to the detriment of her health.

  Perhaps The Progenitor could come up with a more refined device, but that was a question for ter, it was past time that she returned home.

  “Thank you,” she said, bowing slightly to the hologram. “I promise I’ll be back once I’ve caught up with my friends.”

  “Bring them with you,” The Progenitor said, much to her surprise. “We will need pilots for the fighting machines, and people you trust are a good starting point.”

  Nicole could only gape at the decration, her mind already racing with possibilities. “Can I bring someone close to me that isn’t on the team? She’s one of the leading experts on Syn tech among humanity.”

  “I do not have any issues with that.”

  Oh, that changed things. If Becca could make sense of their technology… Well, Nicole didn’t want to get ahead of herself, but things were starting to look up when it came to humanity’s chances in the war for survival.

  Pendragoon