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Chapter 26

Toast twitched and opened his eyes, causing the visor display to light up with an expression of confusion. He was clearly in a surgery unit.

"Info: Brain activity satisfactory," a servitor robot intoned. "Recovery complete."

At that moment a face loomed into his vision, peering down at him. Toast let out a piercing scream and Lord Cyra quickly withdrew.

"I am not here to kill you," he said hastily. "And I'm so sorry about lynching you earlier. If you'll come with me, I'll lead you back to the Emperor."

"But... That's you," Toast gurgled, staring with confusion as the other protogen helped him out of the surgery bay.

"The Vengeance is under new management," the purple protogen explained. "I have abdicated and am hoping to get back into the hero business, if I am permitted to keep my life and my freedom. I'll admit that escorting you back to his majesty isn't exactly the epitome of valiant deeds, but as you can see, I need all the practice I can get."

"What's that symbol...?" Toast asked, pointing at the device on his shoulders.

"A smiley face," Lord Cyra said. "I should probably have it too, but I'd rather keep my stars for now. When my future is clearer, I will decide what to do with it. Assuming I have a future."

"What about the others...?" Toast asked unsteadily. "If this isn't some kind of trap... Tell me... Are they all okay?"

"Well, I didn't actually see what happened on account of being blown to pulp," Lord Cyra said. "A very hard reset that has finally brought me back to my senses.
"But I understand the others are safe except for poor Eris, who unfortunately perished in the blast as well. Oh, and of course Oram lost his brains to my snipers, so his resurrection has been unusually involved. However, I believe he should be regaining consciousness soon as well and I will be attending to him next, once you are safely back with the Lord Xerian."

"I am glad to hear that," Toast said, and began to remove the maid dress with a worried glance at the former emperor.

Lord Cyra sighed. "Well, if you're sure... But it does look good on you," he added wistfully.

* * *

"Toast!" Lautrec said, bounding across the throne room as the red protogen entered, and prancing around him like an excited dog.

"This is all very confusing," Toast admitted, taking in the scene of Xerian, who sat on the throne uncomfortably, dressed largely in the shiny black uniform of the Emperor.

"You have no idea," Lord Cyra said, hovering awkwardly at the side of the room. "I am so used to sitting in the throne. I hope I don't forget myself and accidentally commit treason."

"I want to replace the position with an elected council," Xerian said, waving a black-gloved hand. "But I'll need to figure out the details first. We can't have your old supporters winning a vote to invade the Outer Rim or taking the Vengeance to embark on a career of piracy."

"I can probably help with drafting that," Niall said. "Any news on the others?"

"Regarding 'Zuki, we have three candidates roughly matching your majesty's description," Cyra said. "But none of them are a precise fit. My... er, Your subjects are arranging to have them released from stasis. The Vengeance has enough charging infrastructure to support them for now, and your plans are to eventually relocate them to the planet anyway.
"However... I fear that... it is possible that your consort may have been... processed. I am striving to find out whether this is the case."

"Ah yes, your hideous experiments at creating a Synth army," Xerian said, eyes narrowing. Some of the officers present cowered. "And that's another thing that needs fixing. Is it possible to revert them to their prior behaviour and personalities?"

"I'm not sure," Lord Cyra admitted. "I had already ordered research into this in case it became expedient to form a truce with the planet... Or with you."

"It will not make contacting the authorities easier if we still have zombie Synths roaming around listening to imaginary slugs," Lautrec pointed out.

"I will do what I can, majesty," Lord Cyra said, bowing nervously. "And now, I should check on the other revivals! By your leave, Majesty...?"

"Go on," Xerian said offhandedly.

"I'm going with," Quirk announced. "I don't trust him on his own."

* * *

"Do we need to contact the planet?" Toast asked, bowing before Xerian. "You have command of the ship, majesty. You have only to click your claws... Er, if Synths can do that, I mean... and the crew will begin defrosting the prisoners and transporting them back to the planet. Can't we just quietly return them all..?"

"It's not quite that straightforward," Lautrec said worriedly. "As I understand things, the authorities in the Outer Rim know roughly who's been reported missing, since that's why they arrested us. If those missing persons all start randomly reappearing in the capital cities at once, the authorities might suspect that they've been replaced with android replicas!"

"One, rude," R. Niall said. "Two, Synths are androids anyway."

"It's a good point, though," Xerian pointed out. "We will have to contact the authorities to arrange the transfer. It won't help us if we startle them, or they start arresting the people we've returned too."

At that moment, the door opened and Lord Cyra returned, bowing profusely. His expression was nervous. Quirk slunk in, with an odd expression on his features.

"My Lord," the purple protogen reported, "I bring news. But you won't like it."

"Yeah," Quirk said. "Do you want the good news first?"

"Please," Xerian said. "And then the bad. But a teaser would be helpful. How bad is it...? Has anyone d-died...? It is about... 'Zuki?"

"It is not about 'Zuki," Quirk said. "And no-one has died. The opposite, in fact. The good news is that Eris has been revived. But there were... complications."

"Oh," Xerian said. Quirk opened the door and Eris walked in.

"Hail, Emperor Xerian!" she said crisply, snapping a salute with gauntleted hands and kneeling on the carpet before the astonished Synth. The face on her visor was glowing green, and she had the smiling face device on her cheeks and shoulders.

"Eris...?" Xerian asked, appalled. "Is that really you...?"

"I... I don't know," the protogen said, sounding terrified. "I... died. Now half of my body has been rebuilt or messed with... I have a head-up display, computers wired into my brain and I feel strange! I don't know how much of me is still real! How much of me is left... How much of me is just a computer program running in the reanimated corpse of the real Jane Eris...?"

"You have a soul," Niall said firmly. "We know Xerian does, and it would be nonsensical to assume that he does and you don't. So calm down."

"But... I saluted the Emperor," Eris sobbed. "I know he's just Xerian... But the voices told me to!"

"You learn to ignore them," Quirk said helpfully.

"It might be better if they were silenced," Lautrec pointed out. "Even though she arrested me, I don't we want her enslaved. And if Xerian actually does want that, I'll eat my tail. Or his."

"This is all normal," Sorg said. "Newly-converted protogens... They usually need some kind of calibration. By default they don't know what to do so the conditioning is turned up high. But since she is an honoured companion of our new Emperor, I shall turn things down so that the voices only disturb her in emergency situations."

"Thank you," Xerian said. "Please see to that shortly. And I would prefer it if you used less aggressive default settings on future conversions."

"Anyway, there's no need to panic, Eris," Niall continued. "Even if you're right and some of you is compromised, that will fade. Your soul will assert itself over time."

"Oh!" One of the officers said. "Is that why we kept having to reprogram the mooks? They kept gradually recovering their personalities, we never did figure out where it was coming from."

"Most likely," Niall agreed. "Ms. Eris, I was an android construct duplicated from someone else. I have his memories and personality. So I definitely know a thing or two about existential crises, and if you need help in that regard, just let me know and I'll do what I can for you."

"Thank you, sir," she said, moved her hand as if to salute him, and then stubbonly forced it back to her side.

"See, you're improving already!" Niall smiled.

"But can I return to the planet like this...?" she asked plaintively. "What if I need medical help?! I may never be able to go home!"

"Unless the Outer Rim s-shoots down the Vengeance, I suspect we'll be in orbit for a while yet," Xerian said reassuringly. "Worst case, I would hope you could return for repair. Maybe we could even get one of the healing suites installed on the surface if all goes well."

* * *

"Cat...?" Oram said faintly as he opened his eyes to see Lautrec looking down at him from the side of the surgery unit.

"That's right," Lautrec said. "I am a cat. Are you a cat...?"

"I don't think so," Oram said, struggling to sit up. "But I don't appear to be a mook either. What happened? You're moving again! Did they manage to get the unlocking device from the planet...? I guess I was shot..."

"You were," Lord Cyra said, reaching down to help the protogen from the surgery unit. "And before you panic like Toast did, a lot has changed. I have been demoted and Xerian is now in control of the ship. I am acting as his flunky until such time as he is able to decide my fate. I have left him a lot of messes to tidy up, unfortunately."

"You just stepped down willingly...?" Oram asked doubtfully. "I didn't think you would cede control as long as you lived!"

"Funny that," the protogen said. "They stopped me living. Afterwards... well, it was like waking from a dream. Except you gradually realise that all that stupid and horrible stuff you saw yourself doing in the dream... Really happened," he sighed. "So I surrendered."

"Turns out they had a bunch of clones," Lautrec said, padding along as they went down the corridor towards the throne room. "They revived one, put his implants in it and... Well, I suspect P3T3R may have finally reverted the changes that drove him mad in the first place."

"That's basically it..." Lord Cyra said and then stopped abruptly in his tracks, causing Oram to bump into his purple cloak.

"What the f..." Lautrec asked, eyes wide, he pointed down the corridor with one paw to the figure marching down towards them, flanked by a large group of armed protogens. "But... But that's..."

"Oh dear," Lord Cyra said, looking appalled. "A bad thing has happened. Lautrec, Oram... Warn Lord Xerian."