Despite the floor lights keeping pace, Mina felt the darkness press in like humidity, as she attempted to outpace the truth.

  Shouting—commotion—she entered the Razorback’s hangar winded but alert. Snake found the crew, it seemed. Suraj Murphy towered over everyone, and when he spotted her, the room stilled and all eyes turned.

  “Did you see it too?” She asked them.

  They quested wordless permission from each other then nodded. Roman rubbed the back of his neck, hesitating before Val spoke abruptly.

  “It was him.”

  “We don’t know for certain,” Suraj said.

  “We know what we heard,” Cenn retorted, “it was his voice, but we barely got a look at him through the static.”

  “A hologram,” Mina cut in, her nod sharp, impatient. “What did he say to you?”

  Suraj measured her with a glance. Roman, too, seemed uncharacteristically uneasy. Their hesitation prickled her—were they hiding something, or was it just pity?

  “He just told us to come,” Val said. “then we ran.”

  “You ran,” Cenn said.

  Snake rapped a table with his knuckle, traced a circle around himself and Mina, then pointed his thumb back down the hallway she’d come.

  “Yeah, he told us to come too,” Mina hesitated, unsure how to begin, but like any equation, started with the problem, “we found his body.”

  Snake turned sharply toward her, hands still at his side for once.

  “Or at least… I was sure at the time.”

  “If you found Daiko,” Roman said,” then who gave us the message?”

  A buzz swept through the hangar, swelling from both ends. The lights flashed as the presence spiraled inward, coalescing above the podium before the meck pod.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  “It’s about time,” the distortion of light said.

  Its uniformed torso pixelated into being—arms folded across its chest. Hips formed, shoulders squared, a face emerged from nothing. Edges sharpened as pixels fell away like marble shavings, or dandelion tufts on the wind. A strong chin. A mouth. A nose. Mina had only seen this man in pictures…The Dragon.

  His gaze carried only contempt. When it passed over her, it lingered, freezing her lungs and stealing her breath.

  He walked down invisible stairs until he stood at the center of their gathering.

  No sound accompanied his passing—no shift of cloth, no exaltation, and—strange as it was to notice—not an ounce of love.

  It spoke—and it was her father’s voice.

  “It was predicted you’d be difficult to cow, hence the fanfare, but now isn’t the time to tally scores. We have work to do.”

  That did little to break the spell of awe and silence.

  “I have all your medcharts. None of you have lost your hearing, or your ability to speak.” His gaze swept across them, electrifying.

  Val edged closer, extending a finger through the hologram. He looked down at it, then stepped toward her, his image briefly swallowing her whole. Bug-eyed, she burst out the other side a second later.

  “Satisfied?” he said.

  “You’re not real.” She gasped.

  “I’m not human. There’s a difference.”

  “Daiko Hitori,” Murphy said—his voice a simple, heavy command. “Mons Daiko Hitori?”

  Mina felt a contagion of fear beginning to spread.

  “Just Hitori—as my tag is named. No Daiko. You’ll find I’m more than a hologram, though perhaps less than you expected or hoped.”

  The face, the eyes, the expression—all perfect. A replica of every photo and recording she had ever seen of her father in his prime. The palette likely matched a precise color code. Even the flaws—the cracks in uniform and skin were worn like artifacts.

  There was a disjointed clack as Arthur hobbled out of the tunnel to join them—it seemed he found his crutch. His eyes jumped from hers to the imposter, lost.

  “Daiko, sir,” we thought we just found your body…what’s happening?”

  “My father’s dead,” Mina meant it as fact, yet to her own ears it sounded like an accusation.

  Arthur walked closer to the hologram, “then what are you?”

  “I’m an artificial intelligence variant created by the late Daiko Hitori in his years marooned upon asteroid DK94-2002, aboard the RTR Razorback.”

  It spoke without anguish, without pause.

  “I am his every thought—his will and testament incarnate.” The hologram straightened, as if shedding a weight. “That will serves as an introduction. Now, as I told you, we have work to do. You’re running out of time.”

  Patreon

  HYPERBOREA by Studio Zolo: In the desolate desert of the North American Sector, the government harvests the Soul Energy of siblings Eos and Maxima in secret. When their powers attract the attention of a dangerous criminal organization, their routine lives are shattered. Eos and Maxima must search for freedom and the truth about their past as hostile forces close in. The answers they seek lie behind one word—HYPERBOREA!

  RICKSHAW RIOT by Ben Wolf & Luke Mensa: Video game mogul Erik Shaw wants nothing more than to make money off of gullible gamers, so he creates the AllVerse–a world where gamers can play any game they want at any time. But when Launch Day goes horribly wrong, Erik and 1.3 billion gamers get stuck inside this new digital world with seemingly no way out. With literally no other options, Erik adopts the worst game and class ever: Rickshaw Riot, a fetch-quest game which has hidden benefits–if he can find them.