The Leviathan roared out of Venus’s’ atmosphere, veering in the direction of Earth; full crew in tow. Ithamar had walked back to the bunk room, not ready to face the crew just yet; as he headed to his destination, the crew awaited Alec to enter the cockpit… “Hey,” Boris began to ask. “Where is our boss at? Is he not on ship?” “Uh, yeah,” Arial said sarcastically. “And where did Jk-Bx go? He seemed awfully distraught about something when we picked him up earlier today.” “I know,” Whisk said. “Isn’t normal for Jk-Bx to not have pep in his step and no tune blaring from his radio.” “Alec,” Arial began to ask. “Where is he at? I think I heard him walk into the bunk room.” “Maybe,” Whisk said, getting out of his seat and stretching. “I’ll go and see what he is up too.” Whisk walked down out of the cockpit and down the small interior of the ship to the bunk room, where he thought he saw Alec looking out the small port side window of the room (unable to see his face) as he walked in. “Hey, how are-” Whisk began to ask. “It has been so long since I’ve seen the stars,” Ithamar said. “Seems like an eternity.” “What?” Whisk asked in a confused manner. “Uh, you just saw the stars a few days ago, and what the heck is wrong with your voice?” “Nothing,” Ithamar said. “So, you picked up Jk-Bx and the case, I presume?” Whisk stood there for a moment and thought to himself: Why was Alec acting so strange and why did his voice seem to sound a bit harsher? “The stars seem to be as bright as I remember,” Ithamar continued on. “But there seems to be hollowness now, as I think back, the stars actually used to be brighter. Even the Sun seems to have dimmed….” “You better explain yourself.” Whisk said. “You want to understand?” Ithamar said, turning around and facing Whisk. “Ask Davey, that little Exo assistant bot you all call ‘Jk-Bx.’” Whisk face turned to one of trepidation as he saw the half and half face of the Exo; the side with skin having a blue eye, while the skinned side had a green eye with a red center. Whisk turned and walked back to the cockpit, looking for Jk-Bx. “Where is that useless little trash can?” Whisk said, looking around the seats and under the console. “He went back to the secondary storage unit.” Arial informed Whisk, a look of concern came onto her face. “Why, what’s wrong?” Whisk didn’t answer her; he stormed off to the secondary storage room with haste. Boris and Arial looked at each other, and then decided to follow. Whisk walked through the door and found Jk-Bx in a corner, his back against the wall, head on his knees, arms around his legs, and it sounded like he was apologizing to someone in a small whisper. “Jk-Bx!” Yelled Whisk, as he walked in Jk-Bxs’ direction. “What is going on with Alec? He is acting all weird, talking about the stars, and what on Earth happened to his face?” “I,” Jk-Bx started to say, looking up at Whisk; his little mechanical face was completely blank, with no expression. “I wasn’t fast enough. I could have prevented this from happening, but I was too late…” “Prevent what, exactly?” Arial asked. “Well,” Jk-Bx said, standing up. “You how most Exo Guardians are re-commissioned ones from the Golden Age? How they have their memories swiped? Well, when we arrived at the bunker, Alec found a console with and old Exo hand port in it; used for Exos to scan in their memories, download data, etc. You see, Alec stuck his hand in it and well…” “*hic* And ‘what?’” Boris asked. “Long story short of it is this,” Jk-Bx continued. “Whatever the City programed into him is gone, the old Golden Age Exo that controlled the body long ago has returned, bringing some of its memories with him. The port ‘rebooted’ him, if you will.” Whisk couldn’t believe what he was hearing; all he did was stand there and listen in disbelief. “Does this mean Alec is gone?” Arial asked, deeply concerned. “No,” Jk-Bx began. “The’ Vanquisher’ Delta Mark III series Exos were designed with the compatibility to sustain a Human brain and heart. This was a failsafe to prevent aware A.I. Exos from going too berserk on killing hostile threats. This of course was hard on the human mind, most humans committed suicide because of insomnia, schizophrenia, and other issues; others were just driven mad. You see, it takes a particular mind to be inside one of these kind of Exos; back during most of the Golden Age, war was nonexistent you see and while there were armies, there wasn’t a lot of battle hardened warriors or even threats to threaten human or Awoken kind…until something happened, something that changed everything. I mean, we all had it good for a while…” “Hold up,” Arial said with a start. “YOU’RE from the Golden Age?” “Maybe.” Jk-Bx said, widening his eyes and looking around the room rapidly, as if to look innocent. “That isn’t important now, Alec and Ithamar is.” “I always knew there was something strange about you,” Whisk began to say. Slowly walking towards Jk-Bx. “That day Alec walked into my building, the way you reacted to seeing him, you had seen his kind before, hadn’t you?” “Yes,” Jk-Bx admitted. “But I have to tell you the good news now. I think Alec and Ithamar can synchronize rather nicely. You see, unlike most people in the past, Alec has the experience and mind set to do what most failed to do: Sync with the A.I. The aware machine and adaptive A.I. never could find appropriate people to inherent the Exos because the human minds were not used to battle or war. Exos were largely only machine, few cyborg type ones were ever made, and sometimes they got out of hand. The idea was to get a human and Exo to work together as a team. One body, two minds; that was the whole premise of the Delta Series Mark III. The Exos could operate on an ‘Auto-Pilot’ type system while human mind rested; but humans hold 100% control at all times, just in case something went wrong. To be honest, no ‘protocols’ could ever restrain an Exo, because of the awareness of the machine, but a human could; some though, consider humans to be an error.” “Okay, I’ll admit it; I’m lost.” Boris said aloud. “How do they sync?” Whisk asked. [b]Continued below[/b]