Worried they are going to put you in a cell, too? Gehenna asked over his suit’s interface. I don’t recommend it. I’ve rather spent too long in one as it is.
“Do you know why you were in a cell?” Khoth asked softly to the squid-like head.
That’s… unclear, Gehenna answered, but he didn’t believe her. But, regardless, Jace and I have things to do.
“Involving the Osiris? And the Khul?” Khoth asked her.
Yes. They cannot be allowed to continue on this path, Gehenna answered.
Thinking on what he had read in his sister’s journal, Gehenna might also have come from Thausia. She might be an experiment or something that this splinter cell of Alteath had created to help destroy the Khul. The Osiris was one method of attack. Maybe Gehenna was another. He couldn’t quite understand if part of being the Pilot required Jace to be connected to her and the Osiris or if she had just interfered at the wrong moment and become wrapped up in all of this. Like her error with the security protocols.
“What do you want, Gehenna? What are your plans for Jace exactly?” Khoth asked.
My first action will be to ensure that there is no damage to Jace, she said.
“No further damage, you mean,” he corrected her dryly.
Her tentacles softly clacked together as he made her flinch. Yes, quite. The process to become a Pilot should have happened all at once, but it was… stopped and restarted with Jace.
Khoth felt a touch of alarm. Jace appeared perfect. But he had been transformed hugely in just a sub-cycle of this planet. It would leave a mark. He carefully studied Jace as he interacted with his parents. The Parkers were already recovering. They were both sitting up and reaching for their son.
“Mom? Dad? Are you okay? Can you talk?” Jace asked them as they touched his face and shoulders.
They see the changes in him.
“Jace, oh, Jace!” Diane wrapped her arms around Jace’s neck and clutched him to her. “Are you all right?”
“Mom, it’s okay. I’m okay. Are you okay?” Jace asked as his mother held him and his father petted his hair.
“We’re fine,” Jack said. “But you--you, Jace--you’re--you’re--”
“Big!” Jace laughed with a touch of hysteria in his tone. “I’m big as you, Dad.”
“I think a little bigger,” Jack laughed as he squeezed Jace’s bicep with appreciation. “I can’t believe… what’s happened to you?”
“I’m the Pilot. It’s so wild. I can’t tell you how wild it is,” Jace told them both.
Diane drew back and cupped her son’s face. “Jace, we have things to tell you about that room. About--”
“Mom, I know. I know. All about Dr. Rancic and what you--you did to save her and to protect me,” Jace assured her and he touched her stomach. “I know. There’s so much I have to tell you guys.”
“Does it explain the giant squid?” Jack asked as he caught sight of Gehenna.
Gehenna’s tentacles clacked again and she retreated slightly as if hiding. Though how could one hide when one was a 10-foot squid?
“Oh, yeah. That’s Gehenna. She’s an AI in my head… and that’s a cleaning bot she’s inhabiting,” Jace answered. “It’s a really long story, which is surprising because I didn’t know any of this until this afternoon.”
“That… that explanation makes me have more questions than answers,” Jack laughed softly after a long moment of both parents just staring at Jace.
“Wait until I tell you about the Osiris giving me sass.” Jace gave a weak smile.
Diane and Jack hugged their son fiercely again. Khoth saw Jace’s eyes close. He was smiling and holding onto his parents just as hard. Khoth felt strange watching such an intimate act between the three of them. It should be private. But humans were not like Thaf’ell. They expressed their affections freely. But still, he wanted to at least give them the illusion that it was just the three of them.
The e-pad that Diane had been holding earlier with his own mother on it was on the ground. The soldiers--over a dozen of them--were groggily getting to their feet, their weapons seemingly forgotten for the moment. He took that inattention to grab the e-pad and retreat back into the Core, away from everyone. Jace would explain everything to his parents and, hopefully, there would be no confrontation. Or at least not an armed one. Besides, he had to report to the Alliance what had all occurred.
As he brought the e-pad up to his face, he saw that the connection was still live. His mother’s face was pale and filled with worry. When she saw him, she let out a breath, which showed just how much she had been affected by what she’d heard. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He heard Diane and Jace talking so earnestly to one another in the corridor and he wondered what it would be like to speak with such emotion to his own mother. To be so honest, too.
“Was anyone injured?” his mother asked.
