"Did Victor lock them in their room?" Jace asked as he looked through Cain’s code.

"He did, but the ship is small enough that we will be able to tell if they left their cabin. I hope you did not mind that we did not make a brig. We did not really have enough time to really mock up a full ship skeleton and make it space worthy in the time frame you wanted." Cain explained as he stood still with wires connected to his back going to Jace’s armor. "What went wrong with my code?"

"Nothing." Jace answered. "You just overabsorbed another AI, as a result you got a portion of their personality as well. You shouldn’t rush the process next time." Jace told Cain as he adjusted a few things in his programming.

"I was rushed for time." Cain told him.

"That’s fine." Jace told him as he started disconnecting wires. "Just start running through the process now. I will take control of the ship while you do."

"Process?" Cain asked in confusion.

"The absorption process. I changed it so you can reset and reabsorb the information." Jace explained.

"Couldn’t you have just fixed it."

"No shortcuts, Cain." Jace told the robot dog as he started to check the navigational data. "I would not have nearly enough time to parse all your data and this way there is a fix for the loop hole that I apparently left in."

As Cain moved to the side and out of the way Jace sent out a message down to the planet and received a coded transmission in response. He then pulled up the internal screens of the few cameras of the ship and sighed. If he was honest, he did not expect the Shinobi and self-proclaimed messiah of the Holy Empire of Gregory, Valkyrie, to be the ones to hook up. After a moment he quickly sent a message before changing to a different screen. "Well this is interesting."

—--------------------

"So I went from a prisoner aboard my own people’s space craft, to losing a long time friend and boss, then finally a prisoner aboard a foreigner ship that is probably made of enough technological advancements to throw the galaxy on its head." West narrated her turn of events.

Catherine shrugged as she used a device on the back of her mask. "Could be worse, you could be alone. Besides, we are right where we want to be in these turbulent times. It is not like you have any family to worry about anyways."

"Still, I am bored. What are you up to now?" West asked as she looked at the camera that was obviously in the corner of the room.

"I am seeing if I can remotely access their systems. I noticed earlier that Gladiator looked like he was poking over his wrist. It was discreet but I believe he was sending some information from his armor to the ship." Catherine explained as she flinched back as a spark of electricity shocked her and she flinched back.

West was quiet for a few minutes before speaking again. "What is Gladiator?"

Catherine raised an eyebrow and looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, he is not human right. But you are convinced he is from your nation. So you must know what race he is, if not human." West explained.

Catherine slowly shook her head. "I know that he evolved from the human species or more specifically the nanohuman species from the Vexical Empire. But whatever he is did not exist when I was still living there. But it did look like his skin was getting a bit paler after last time we saw him. He might be undergoing that wormhole mutation I mentioned as well."

"You also said it was painful, extremely painful." West pointed out.

"It is, I barely remember what happened but I do remember that I was out of my mind until it wore off. But it looks like these soldiers are the best of the best from their galaxy, just like Gladiator told us." Catherine explained before touching the device to another node on her mask and the door opened up. "Got it, want to go explore?"

West hummed for a moment before walking out. But the moment she did she saw the same woman from before. Liz if she remembered correctly. "Oh... you again-woah!" She had to leap forward and pull a gun out of the woman’s hand as she pointed it at Catherine.

"Murderer! Killer! I am going fucking kill you for what you did! I will dissect you like you dissected them!" The woman screamed in anger as West quickly pinned her to the ground and looked over to see Catherine genuinely shocked while the woman continued to scream.

"What did you do to her?" West asked as she looked down at the woman who was almost successfully able to struggle out of her grip.

"I... I don’t know..." Catherine answered in confusion as the Xenar that they saw earlier ran up and pulled Liz away. Dragging her to another room where she went quiet after a moment, the Xenar walked out before looking at a camera and they heard an audible buzz as the door locked. The Xenar then walked over and took the gun that West had wrestled from the other woman.

He or it then pointed back at the room they came from. "Okay." West turned around and walked back into the room. "You would not happen to know what that is about would you?" She asked as she moved into the room.

The Xenar did not answer as he closed the door and then locked the door again. West looked at her mentor and saw her undisguised confusion. She was just as off put about what just happened.

—-------------------

"I apologize, but I feel I should bring up what just happened." Eduta informed him as he climbed into the bridge.

"The fight? I saw. Or did you mean the reason for the fight?" Jace asked as he adjusted a few things.

"The reason for the fight." The Xenar bowed slightly before taking a seat on a chair. He looked at Cain who was at the side for only a moment before turning his attention back to Jace. "The one called Liz recognized the one called Catherine the moment she saw her. The memory she recalled was quite vivid. She recalled her parents murder and torture at the hands of Catherine Hex, all though she looked quite different then."

"Probably because she was undergoing an unstable mutation." Jace answered with a click of his tongue. "I will mark what you told me in some records. It will be brought up during her admission for asylum and she will probably undergo a trial."

"I see... you will not be handling it then?" Eduta realized as he stood back up. "What should I do in the meantime?"

"Assure her that Catherine Hex will likely get charged with her parents murder and several other crimes when we get back to our galaxy. She is welcome to come and act as a witness or we can drop her off at the next populated port." Jace answered before glancing to the side as a humming sound started to come from Cain.

"I will do as you ask. But you know I wish to return to your galaxy as well. I have seen in the one called Catherine that it is my people’s origin system. Just as this is the human origin system." Eduta declared before climbing down and out of the bridge of the ship.

"A productive talk?" Cain asked as his systems started waking up from its dormant state.

"Sort of." Jace answered with a sigh. "It looks like Shilla, Crystal, and K are waking up from their sleep. We will also be at the abandoned ship construction yard within the hour. When we arrive I will head out with either Crystal or Shilla and make sure that there are working systems we can use to breathe. Make sure to keep Liz away from Catherine Hex."

"Why?" Cain asked as Jace stood up and moved to the side. As soon as he did, Cain jumped into the seat that Jace vacated.

"Because apparently Catherine killed Liz’s parents." Jace answered as he moved to the hatch and climbed down the ladder and out of the bridge.

Once he was down he moved through the hall until he opened a door and slipped into the infirmary where Shilla was shaking her head as she sat up. She saw him and smirked. "You know-"

"I already know what you are about to say and I will pass." Jace interrupted her before nodding at the other two who were still unconscious. "How are they?"

Shilla shrugged in response. "How would I know? I know first aid but I am not a medic."

Jace frowned as he looked at the room. "A massive oversight on my part. I am going to have to find a temporary solution while we are in this galaxy."

"You could have Missus Hex do it. If my research about her is correct she has a few different doctorates and some of them are in the medical field. Although they were also faked." Shilla shrugged.

"The actual certifications were faked but she did practice. But no, I am not going to do that. That would be like putting oil on a fire." Jace told her with a scoff. "I will program an AI." Jace declared.