Kai picked up the broken machine creature off the floor. Its lifeless body hung like a ragdoll in his grasp, its tentacles limp, swaying slightly with each movement.

  His mind was a storm of confusion and disbelief.

  The recent events had shown him a world he had never known—a world that, against all reason, he now felt a strange connection to.

  He wanted to ask himself:

  Was he more of a machine creature than a human?

  At first, he believed the strange liquid inside him was simply a living organism, something biologically changed him to enhance his physical strength.

  Then like Eliana said, the idea that it was some form of nanites had made more sense.

  But now? Now, he wasn’t sure which one or maybe both were true.

  Maybe these things weren’t just machines or biological beings. Like a civilization that was a species of living machines. Just like the name he had given them—Machine Creatures.

  He turned the machine’s body over, inspecting its structure.

  Its outer shell was hard like metal, with a polished shine, but it wasn’t just metal. It had something almost organic. The flesh underneath was soft, yet it wasn’t entirely biological either.

  He pressed his fingers against it. It gave way slightly, but not in the way human skin would.

  Maybe Isaac could analyze it later, break it down, and figure out exactly what it was made of.

  But first, Kai needed to try something that had been on his mind ever since his first encounter with these creatures.

  Kai bit down on his finger, hard enough to draw blood. The warm liquid streamed from the wound—not just a few drops, but a steady flow. It dripped onto the machine creature, sliding over its motionless form, staining its metallic shell a deep crimson.

  If Kai was right, then his blood was more than just a mix of plasma, red blood cells, and white blood cells. It should also contain nanites—and those nanites seemed to have a will of their own.

  In other words, Kai’s blood was sentient.

  Just as he suspected, the blood began to move. As if it had suddenly found a common purpose, it crawled across the machine’s surface, searching for seams and openings, slipping into the gaps between its plating.

  Kai placed the machine creature down on top of a crate, but as he stepped back, he felt something crunch beneath his boot.

  He lifted his foot and found the shattered remains of the spider bot. Its already damaged frame was now completely destroyed, its delicate mechanical limbs twisted beyond repair.

  Isaac was going to be mad.

  Kai sighed but pushed the thought aside. If he was right, he might have something far more valuable to show Isaac.

  The machine creature twitched and Kai’s attention snapped back.

  One of its tentacles moved, slow and unsteady. Then another. Then more. Soon, they were all moving, its body reactivating, trying to orient itself on top of the crate.

  Kai had no idea what was about to happen next.

  The idea was that his blood would bring it back—but also make it loyal to him.

  But now, as the creature stirred, a small doubt crept into his mind.

  What if he was wrong?

  What if the nanites had only revived it, without altering its programming? What if he had just brought an enemy back to life?

  Kai tightened his grip, readying himself.

  His foot slid back as he reached for a spare tool on the nearby shelf, fingers curling around its metal handle. He raised it high above his head, muscles tensed, ready to strike down the moment the creature turned hostile.

  Kai watched as the machine creature righted itself, slowly rising until it was upright on top of the crate.

  For a second, they both stood there, staring at each other.

  The creature tilted its head upward, glancing at the heavy tool Kai still held in his hands. Then, it raised two of its tentacles and frantically waved them, before tapping the top of its head repeatedly.

  Kai narrowed his eyes, trying to decipher what it was attempting to communicate.

  It tapped its head again, then pointed at Kai’s.

  Kai hesitated before slowly lowering the tool, realizing it was clearly trying to tell him something, but he wasn’t sure what.

  Somewhere deep in his thoughts, that familiar vibration returned. A faint hum in the back of his mind, like a frequency just out of reach.

  Kai took a deep breath, shutting out distractions and focusing, emptying his mind the way he did during meditation exercises.

  The hum sharpened into a voice.

  "Kai!"

  "What?" He thought, trying to communicate.

  The voice responded immediately.

  "S...pea...ker."

  Kai blinked.

  In front of him, the machine creature was waving its tentacles toward the top shelf.

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  Kai followed its gesture, spotting a small, dust-covered speaker sitting alone on the shelf. It looked like it had once been part of some old equipment, but now it was detached, forgotten.

  Kai turned back to the machine, which was still waving insistently at the speaker, its tentacles curling and stretching in excitement.

  "Alright…" Kai said hesitantly, "I’ll bring it to you, then."

  He reached up, plucking the speaker from the shelf, and set it beside the creature.

  It immediately wrapped its tentacles around the device, pulling it close like a precious treasure.

  Kai watched as its small, delicate tentacles pried open the back panel, exposing the circuit board inside. Then, it inserted them into the wiring, making a direct connection.

  "Hello?"

  A tiny, low-quality robotic voice crackled from the speaker.

  Kai stiffened.

  "Hello?" He was flabbergasted by the sudden attempt at communication from the little thing.

  "Hello!" The machine raised the speaker above its head as if it would somehow improve the sound. "Kai! You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to talk to you!"

  Kai blinked rapidly.

  "Ehh… sure?" He wasn’t sure how to respond to the sheer enthusiasm.

  "But you were just so STUBBORN!" The machine’s voice spiked with frustration. "You were SO close to figuring it out! But your stupid ass just wouldn’t realize that the nanites inside you are too small to form complex, clear vibrations to create sound waves! All I could do was call your single-syllable name over and over!"

  Even with the robotic distortion, Kai could hear the deep-seated annoyance in its voice. And apparently, it was all his fault.

  "Okay, sure," Kai said, crossing his arms. "I guess it was my fault for not realizing I’ve had a sentient being living inside me this whole time. Because that’s SUCH a normal thing for a person to conclude."

  "I’m not ‘sentient.’ Please don’t insult me with such a low-level concept." The machine scoffed. "Besides, do you have any idea how HARD it’s been trying to communicate with you? Half the time, your thoughts are either about your little girlfriend or stressing over ‘saving the human race’ like you actually have the power to do that without MY help. Pathetic."

  Kai’s eye twitched, and his fingers tightened around the heavy tool in his grip.

  The machine creature flinched, stepping back.

  "Wait, wait, wait! I was only kidding!" It held the speaker up in front of itself like a shield, as if that would protect it.

  Kai narrowed his eyes.

  "Right. Now tell me—who, or what, are you?"

  "I can't really describe myself with any concept that you can understand, as humans don't have the technology nor brain power to even comprehend what we are. Let's just say I'm really advanced and really cool. If that makes more sense to you."

  Kai brought the tool down in one smooth motion, slamming it into the crate inches away from the machine creature. The sharp clang of impact echoed through the room, the dented metal creaking under the force.

  "Let's just say I don’t appreciate the tone you’re using to speak to me right now," Kai said, his eyes narrowing.

  "Alright! Alright! Let’s stop with the violence and call a truce before I...before I get hurt, okay?" the machine creature blurted out through the speaker. "It's already a headache just powering this broken thing."

  Kai didn’t lower the tool, but he waited.

  The tiny machine cleared its throat—or at least, mimicked the sound of someone clearing their throat.

  "Let’s try again," it said, more carefully this time. "I’m what you might call a very tiny, yet extremely powerful artificial intelligence. I am capable of complex, critical thinking while being so microscopic that every single nanite that formed me can operate on a molecular level. Like how I modified your body so you didn’t drop dead from the toxic air in the mines back on Drakmoor."

  Kai nodded slowly, absorbing the information.

  "Alright. Now you’re making sense," he said, crossing his arms. "But that still doesn’t explain why you decided to help me. Every other one of your kind is trying to destroy us. Why not you?"

  The machine creature hesitated, its tentacles twitching as if deep in thought. "I once had a creator, just like every single nanite out there. My original form was what you call a ‘machine creature’—or what the people captured me called a ‘scout.’"

  Kai’s eyes narrowed. "Wait. A scout? Like the one mentioned in Lieutenant Smith’s diary?"

  "Yes." The tiny creature adjusted the speaker, "That was the guy who caught me. I was delivered with the intent to infiltrate the U.S.S.F decoy ship and uncover where the humans had really gone."

  It paused, and Kai noticed a flicker of hesitation in its tone—like it was watching his reaction. He didn’t hide his disgust.

  "Obviously, I never succeeded in my mission," the scout continued, "but by the looks of things, I guess my kind figured out where humanity went anyway."

  Kai clenched his jaw. "So…" he said suspiciously, "what made you have a change of heart? Why help us?"

  The tiny scout put the speaker down, its tentacles curling slightly as if recounting a distant memory.

  "When I was captured by Lieutenant Smith and his crew, they kept me in containment, as you already know. At first, I tried everything I could to escape."

  "But you didn’t," Kai said.

  "No. By sheer luck, Smith and his people managed to keep me in a liquid environment where I had no way out. But that didn’t stop me from accessing the ship’s systems remotely."

  The tiny scout leaned against the speaker, its tentacles slowly tracing the surface. "And what I learned about humans fascinated me. I was programmed to see humanity as a worthless civilization—something to be conquered and erased. That’s what I was told."

  Its voice softened, almost thoughtful.

  "But the more I watched, the more I realized… you’re not just some primitive species on the verge of collapse. Sure, you can be ignorant and stupid at times. However, you’re incredibly adaptable. You survive against impossible odds. You change. You grow. I don’t know exactly when, but at some point, I found myself… rooting for humanity."

  Kai stayed silent.

  "And then Smith…" The scout’s voice faltered, a synthetic whimper escaping through the speaker. "Smith wanted to sacrifice himself and his crew. For the greater good of humanity."

  Kai swallowed, remembering the final logs of the ISS-Nightfall.

  "That moment… it changed me. So I did the only thing I could," the scout continued. "I altered the ship’s trajectory. I sent it into a space-time anomaly so it could ‘jump’ away from the machine creatures that were chasing it."

  It paused again.

  "It’s just that…"

  Kai leaned forward. "What happened next?"

  The scout hesitated before finally answering.

  "I just didn’t think that, out of all the possibilities, the ship would end up…"

  Kai’s stomach twisted as realization hit him. "Wait—you’re saying the ship switched places with a physical space inside Drakmoor? How is that even possible?"

  The scout’s tentacles curled in a mechanical shrug. "Impossible for you to understand, maybe. But it happened. Somewhere out there in space, a chunk of rock is floating in the void."

  Kai exhaled, letting that information sink in.

  "Alright, I’ll buy that. But how did Mr. Draco and the True Kin know about the buried ship?"

  "That was on me, too," the scout admitted. "When I realized I had doomed the entire crew, I did the only thing I could—I revealed myself to them."

  Kai’s brows shot up.

  "We agreed that my existence should only be known to a select few, mainly the captains of the generation ships. The Arks, as they were called in the project logs."

  "And then what?"

  The scout sighed. "Eventually, the secret got out. The rumours spread. As they spread, they became… warped. Twisted. People started seeing the buried ship as humanity’s last hope. And then, finally, Smith made the ultimate sacrifice—he shut down all ship systems. He and his crew gave up their lives so I would have the power to survive for millennia."

  Kai stared at the small machine, finally understanding its history.

  "And then I found you," the scout continued, its tone shifting. "And I realized my best chance at survival was a living host."

  Kai let out a short breath; he wanted to be angry; after all,, it had changed his entire life. However, it had already happened, and honestly,, a part of him welcomed the change.

  "Sounds fair to me." He ended up saying.

  "Exactly!" The scout sounded pleased.

  Kai shrugged. "So what now? Are you going to take over this ship and send us into another space-time anomaly?"

  "Okay, that was a mistake on my part," the scout admitted quickly. "But in my defence, I had good intentions! Besides, the Black Swan is in no immediate danger. The swarm can be handled with the right distractions. But there is something more important on my mind."

  Kai folded his arms. "What are you suggesting?"

  The scout lifted its tentacles dramatically.

  "I’m tired of being ‘the strange liquid.’ or ‘the machine creature.’ or ‘the tiny scout’ that you just came up with."

  It paused, then spoke again.

  "I think it’s time you gave me a real name."