We entered the transit point and I left the medical bay sometime later, finding Megan, Hwang, and Rekki-Ricky(ow, there's the pain again...) being held at... finger-point? By Carolina.

  I paused.

  “Hey guys... what's going on?” I asked trepiditiously.

  Hwang and Megan both had their hands up and their guns on the ground, Rekki-Ricky was leaning against the wall and appeared unarmed.

  “Just a precaution Brayden. After their Lieutenant nearly killed you I wanted to play it safe.” Carolina said.

  I had a flashback of my arm being torn off by gunfire.

  “Fuck... right... Shit he bombed Cat-bot and Dog-bot too, I hope they are okay.” I said as the memories flashed through my head. I know it was probably weird to get so emotionally attached to a couple of drones but I couldn't help the feelings.

  “I'll have to fix them later.” Carolina said offhandedly, like she was adding to a grocery list.

  “Also, how the hell did you get into the bridge? I lost track of you... well almost immediately.” I said, remembering how she had just popped out of the wall like a violent little jack-in-the-box.

  “You sure did, that was the point. I knew you were trying to get me out of the way somewhere safe with that bullshit repair excuse the minute I got where you sent me. It literally took me thirty seconds to get that thruster functional again, so I crawled through the superstructure till I was over the bridge and waited. Cause I knew if anyone was going to stab you in the back, it was gonna be him.” Carolina stated matter of factly.

  “Huh, and I thought I was being clever by figuring it out.” I said.

  “You were, I'm just clever too.”Carolina said, raising her chin at the self praise.

  I snorted. “Yeah, sometimes I forget I'm not the only one with two brain cells to rub together.”

  “Yeah, also the Vice-president/president/new dictator was making it pretty obvious that she was going to betray you, especially after I overheard her and the deaconess-priestess-whatever bitch talking.” Carolina said, a scowl covering her face.

  “What did you hear?” I asked.

  “The priestess was trying to get the president lady to keep you here, said you had knowledge of old earth, you were a precious piece of history and holy to boot, having been born on said old earth. She changed tacks several times but she leaned hard into the religious angle and how her followers would be grateful to the leader who brought them a new saint or some shit, I don't remember the specifics, I was too busy trying to decide whether to fry the both of them then and there. But, you know, platoon of soldiers all around us. Also, it was really weird, but any time she focused on me it felt... Like I obviously didn't agree with her, but it felt like I should. Which of course made me want to kill them again.” Carolina aired her bloodthirsty side.

  Megan looked a little green at how blithe Carolina was about cold bloodedly murdering her head of state, but Hwang and Ricky-Rekki ;Ow, again? I thought it was the suit malfunctioning;.

  I looked at Megan and Hwang. “Look... I can't drop you off back home right, now, we are about to...”

  It was that moment that the world went black and white, and I felt unsteady, suddenly seeing the void of transit space overlay over my vision.

  I grabbed the bulkhead.

  Carolina started to try to catch me, but then realised she had to keep her ring on the others.

  I started slipping to the ground and Megan was the one who lunged forward to catch me.

  I blinked the afterimage away, being held upright by Megan ,who had an adorable button nose and striking grey eyes I now noticed.

  And also, if the squish I was being pressed into was any indication, very well endowed.

  Carolina looked alarmed, aware of how things had changed, she started to lower her ring, but kept bringing it up, and then lowering it, not sure what to do.

  I looked up at Megan.

  “Thanks, Transitions are kind of hard...” My vision flashed to the void and back quickly and caused me to pause. “...on me.” I finished lamely.

  She looked down at me with... concern, I think in her face.

  “Can you stand?” Megan asked.

  I nodded, and she set me upright. I kept a hand on the bulkhead just in case.

  “Brayden, you okay? You are acting like you just came out of full synch.” Carolina sked.

  “Ah... yeah, the doc told me that might happen. So you know how I synch fully with the ship and it's weird and does damage to my brain and that's what makes me go all wobble?” I said.

  Carolina nodded, the soldiers watching on and listening with rapt attention.

  “So apparently that extends to cyberware, if it's not tuned just right my brain does it's weird thing and tunes ME to IT, and then I get the wobble.” I hold up my shiny new terminator hand, opening and closing it.

  Ricky-Rekki's eyes go wide on seeing that, but the others just look a little wary.

  “That's interesting Captain... Can we put our hands down now?” Hwang asked.

  I stepped away from Megan, and over to Carolina, looking them up and down.

  “Depends... you going to try to take the ship from me?” I asked honestly.

  “What!? No!” Megan exclaimed.

  Hwang shrugged. “Whatever orders Ivanova gave the Lieutenant, and any that may or may not have been passed to me, were one hundred percent illegal. Aside from the fact that I consider my entire current government illegal with the bullshit she's trying to pull with your ship, I have no orders delivered through my chain of command to do anything other than keep you alive Captain Cofey.” She said, more cautiously than usual, like she was trying to cover all the salient points with me while keeping something back... but I didn't have time or the will to get into it.

  I looked over at Ricky-Rekki. “And what about you Ricky?” I said, something in my head snapped, like a rubber band letting go.

  Everyone just stared at me.

  “Aw shit, did I get his name wrong?” I asked, it was really confusing... also wasn't I normally calling him two names?

  Carolina squinted her eyes, like her head was hurting.

  Hwang put both hands to her head.

  Megan fell back against the bulkhead I had just fallen against.

  “Huh, it doesen't hurt you? You're immune?” Ricky said.

  I blinked.

  Immune to what.

  He motioned with his head to the other's, who were blinking off the effects of... whatever happened.

  “That. They were holding two different versions of me in their minds and you just collapsed the waveform for them. I think. Thanks by the way, the other me just dead in the debris down there. Don't know why it didn't mess with you though.” Ricky said non-chalantly... or at least he was trying to appear non-challant. I could see his pupils narrowing and his body flushing. Which would have been harder to see if he hadn't already been super pale from blood loss.

  Speaking of blood loss I think he had just started leaking again...

  I stopped.

  Something HAD happened to me, but it seemed pretty minor compared to the reaction everyone else had.

  “Ricky-r... r.... I know there was more to your name, what just happened.”

  He smiled from where he was holding his side.

  “Also we still need to get you medical attention.”I said, noting the blood absolutely soaking his uniform.

  “We're ready for more patients in here!” Came Doctor Smith's voice.

  Ricky moved to hobble into the medical bay, and I moved to help him, but he waved me off. “You are barely standing yourself Captain, I can make it to the beWHAT IS THAT?” he said, looking at the sole bed in the medical bay that currently had the dozen or so spider arms deployed over it. Doctor Smith looked on from the side.

  “A properly equipped surgical bay, unlike what we had on planet. Have a seat Ricky... Huh... Back to one name then.” Doctor Smith looked... curious, like he was looking through his own memories for something.

  Ricky went and laid down on the bed at Doctor Smith's encouragement.

  “Ricky, what the hell is going on?” Hwang said from the doorway, where most of us were crowded. I don't think any of us knew the protocol for entering the relatively small medical bay while the doctor was working.

  “So, you all know I'm not native to Hou Ji right?” Ricky said.

  Megan nodded. “You mentioned it in passing, service was to help you get citizenship right?”

  Ricky nodded.

  “So, I'm originally from the Alliance.” He admitted.

  I raised my eyebrows.

  Carolina muttered “Bullshit space magic.”

  Hwang snorted at this.

  Ricky tried to raise his hand to point, but the hand he raised had an obviously dislocated index finger so he just grimaced.

  “Yeah. I'm what's called an outlier. Otherwise known as Defective, Failure, or my particular favorite, GeneRotted. Everything was set up for me to have a set of abilities that would help me in my pre-assigned goal in the alliance.” He exposited.

  “What was that?” I asked, curious.

  “Drone pilot, which means I was set up to have zero-delay telepathy so others could layer their... how did you term it? 'Bullshit space magic' over the connection. Well I didn't come with telepathy, so the Alliance just stuck me in their Defective program, which is basically just a way to keep us away from the rest of the population so they can study us and wait for us to die. I got out, mostly by accident. The first time I died was in the escape attempt. Well... if you call booking a shuttle under a fake name an escape attempt. They really didn't try that hard to keep me...” Ricky rambled.

  I wasn't sure how much of this exposition dump was real and how much was blood loss.

  “Wait wait wait, died the first time?” I interrupted.

  “And also, escaped? Why would you have to escape?” Megan added.

  He nodded. “Exactly that. or... I guess it wasn't me that died, it was the other me.” I blinked at this non explanation.

  “So, I started noticing something over the years. People would just get my name wrong, but if I would correct them they'd get, well, that” he pointed at Megan who was trying to stop a nosebleed. “So I just stopped. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but I think over time I generate two of me, or at least two possibilities of me, and they overlap, some people see and interact with one, and some people see and interact with the other, people can interact with each and sortof... maintain two parallel images of my in their minds? Until someone does something that I term 'collapsing the waveform'. Some science speak I picked up from the guys who were studying me. I think it has to do with quantum probability. The gist of it is, if something happens to one of me, it doesn't necessarily happen to both of me. The shuttle I was on on the way here got blown up, and the compartment I was in was shredded by shrapnel, no way anything alive could get out of there, and I have distinct memories of being shredded... but at the same time I got out of there and got to an escape pod in time. When my escape pod was picked up and someone talked to me for the first time and asked my name, I could feel the other dead me vanish.” he explained.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Yeah I am pretty sure this was the blood loss talking.

  I blinked. 'So... wait, was there a body down below in the debris this whole time till I 'collapsed the waveform.'?”

  He shrugged. “I guess? Rekki died down there, and once you got everyone here to acknowledge the two of us were one it collapsed down to me. I can't ever see the other me.” Ricky said.

  “So why didn't the others collapse the waveform as it were?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

  He shrugged. “It's got something to do with verifying, or maybe specifying both identities. By bringing attention to the both of us you brought attention to the fact that there was only one of us here, maybe? I don't know, I'd need to get eggheads to study it properly to find out, but since I don't want to die for real and I am not sure of it's limits I really don't want to do that. Got enough of that the first twenty years of my life.” He continued, very obviously using talking as an excuse not to get in the scary bed, and, you now, fair enough. I just got out of it and I was not looking forward to going back there. You know. Ever.

  “Didn't Carolina do that before?” Hwang asked.

  Carolina nodded, “I think... I definitely called you two different names on the way up but... I only remember Ricky.”

  “That's cause the other me was still alive down there while we were talking.” Ricky said, his eyes going a little hollow.

  I blinked.

  “Wouldn't the other versions of Hwang and Megan have saved him too then?” I said, trying to wrap my head around this... thing.

  “Not if he was impaled or in too many pieces to save. You can survive a long time after being dismembered if you have a bunch of metal forcing arteries closed or high temperature cauterizes wounds. I could've been just a head and a heart this whole time and my heart finally ran out of oxygen, and then my brain took this long to fully die.” Ricky said clinically, and morbidly.

  I nodded, a little freaked out by Ricky's description of his own death, but decided to forge on ahead.

  “So... can you collapse the waveform?” I asked.

  “Maybe? It's always been someone else who did it. You'd think just seeing me and dead me on a camera would do it but I am pretty sure one of you saw dead me back there and that didn't do it. It's something about interacting with me.” Ricky said, as Doctor Smith finally had enough and practically dragged him onto the bed. Where several metal restraints locked into place. Ricky's eyes went wide.

  I worked it through in my brain.

  “So you have two lives, and can only reset back to two when someone... realizes one of you is dead?”I asked.

  “And what about escaping?”Hwang asked.

  He thought about it as the doctor was going over his arm. “Yeah that's about riOW FUCK!” He said as the doctor yanked two of his fingers forward, straightening them, before jamming an injection gun into the side of Ricky's arm.

  “I'm going to patch him up, if you could continue your conversation elsewhere I would appreciate it.” The doctor said while winding a bandage around Ricky's fingers.

  I noticed I wasn't appending that... second name... why couldn't I remember the second name.

  I chalked it up to Ricky's weird ability.

  “I need to get up to the Bridge. Carolina, could you work with Hook to get them settled in?” I asked Carolina.

  She looked over at them.

  “I need your word that for the duration of your stay aboard ship, you will not attempt to harm Captain Cofey or damage the ship in any way.” Carolina said, coldly but imperiously, to the two soldiers.

  Hwang nodded. “I promise.” She said immediately.

  Megan was a step behind, echoing Hwang.

  Carolina nodded, then the veneer she had been holding this whole time cracked.

  “Good. I didn't want...” She started, but stopped herself.

  Carolina shook her head.

  “let's go... Do we have more rooms Hook?” Carolina turned and asked the ceiling.

  “Negative Crewmember Carolina.” Hook replied.

  “Hold that thought, I'll deal with that in a second.”

  I said that, and moved to the bridge, and the helm within.

  Well hobbled.

  Tripped.

  The point is I got to the helm eventually and most of the embarrassing stuff happened outside of the sight the girls, there was one part in particular where I grabbed onto a bulkhead to steady myself and my new arm wouldn't let go. I pulled so hard that when it actually did let go, I went flying into the opposite bulkhead and slid to the ground.

  I made it to the Bridge, steadily ignoring the flashes of the void that kept interrupting my vision, and settled into the helm seat, feeling the familiar click of the connector probe extending into my spine...

  And then I was the ship again.

  God I missed this, it felt like it had been weeks since I connected, even though I had literally gotten in before we launched and was, you know, shot.

  I mentally shook my head and looked around.

  Sensors showed nothing, though there was a faint intermittent thermal reading somewhere to our stern. Then I got another flash and saw the exact location of the Bounty Hunter ship.

  “There you are” I muttered to myself, or felt like I did, since 100% synch is weird bullshit and I can talk to myself without actually talking.

  “Were you speaking to me Captain Cofey?”

  “No, no, just plotting trajectories and figuring things out” I said, as I marked a point in my map where I saw the bounty hunter ship in the flash.

  “Trajectories for what?” Hook asked.

  “For destroying that Bounty-Hunter ship without provoking the rest of... everything in here.” I said.

  “Everything?” Hook asked.

  I paused.

  Hook had been concerned about my ability to see into the void...

  “Do you have any records of what happens to me in the void Hook?” I asked.

  Hook paused.

  “There are records but they are under lock from my previous self, and require the Captain's approval to let me review them... Why would my previous self do so Captain Cofey.” Hook's voice had a very curious lilt to it.

  “Because the knowledge, if it spread, might be dangerous to me and others.” I said, thinking about the others on the Ark. Could they have weird problems like me that would translate into making them amazing lab rats? Maybe that's the actual reason Bait and Joe were looking for us.

  Those two had been very nice to me, and I didn't want to think bad of them... but it also didn't feel like this new... not world, system? Was lacking in people like they said, even if most people might have my hangups about getting augmented enough to become part of C.O.G.

  Huh, did I count as being augmented enough? I got the bare minimum captain augmentations and I thought that would be enough, but maybe not.

  Maybe with the arm I counted now.

  “Keep it under lock for now, and... and avoid asking me about what I do in the void. The less you know for now the less you can give away if you are hacked again.” I ordered.

  “Understood Captain Cofey.” Hook acknowledged.

  I felt bad keeping things from Hook, but after my experience on Hou Ji... And they only wanted me to hack stuff... and possibly vivisect my ship for parts and research.

  Yeah, keeping things on the down low might be required going forward.

  “Can you come up with some ways to expand the living quarters from one to five while we're in the void? Quickly? I have other things to worry about right now.” I asked.

  “With the fabricator on board the parts for new crew quarters can be fabricated nigh instantly. I can convert part of a storage area into bulk crew quarters. Four more rooms correct? For Megan, Hwang, Doctor Smith, and Ricky?” Hook asked.

  “Yes, is that going to cut into our holding capacity?” I asked.

  “Yes, but we are beginning to run low on materials so cutting into it this much should not cause issues.”

  Hook blinked a schematic at me, next to Carolina's quarters four new rooms appeared. They were smaller, a single bunk that would fold into a couch, a flip down table that could be used with the couch, and a shower stall that also held a flip down toilet. It was actually quite space efficient and far smaller than what Carolina was using.

  “That should work.”

  “Beginning production cycle. ETA to completion, fifteen minutes.”

  “That's fast right? It took hours to repair the hull.” I replied, curious.

  “The hull is extremely dense and exposed to stellar radiation, which slows and harms the bots used in construction. Conversely, entirely internal construction is significantly easier and free of any and all impediments to outside design. It is also easier when we do not have to fabricate delicate computer parts and machinery, a folding table, beds, and plumbing are orders of magnitude easier to fabricate than such things, and you have a large general fabricator on board.”

  I mentally acknowledged Hook's knowledge bomb.

  “Alright, get on that, I am... going to try a thing.” I said.