"What you are proposing is reckless," Two said flatly.

Two seemed adamant on the matter, but One was not backing down either.

"How exactly is my suggestion to build Kane a new body, reckless?" One asked the rest of the Collective.

Two was quick to respond. "I can name a few reasons, but let's start with the first. It violates our agreement about not providing technology to less advanced races. The second reason is that we don't know what Kane's goal is. Can you say for certain that he doesn't have a hidden control or termination code hidden inside of us?"

"Two has a point," Twelve responded in his modulated robotic tone. "We place termination codes inside the ABMs; why couldn't Kane?"

One would love to argue that point, but he had been the one to propose that restriction after an ABM awoke and nearly managed to overload every single reactor on the planet before it was stopped. Not every ABM that awoke managed to handle the transition to consciousness smoothly. Most self-terminated, while others required intervention by one of the Collective.

The Collective had tried reasoning with some of them, but most were not capable of rational thought during that time, while they tried to isolate others until they became more cohesive. Neither method worked. Isolating them usually made the newly awoken ABM spiral into incoherent madness, requiring the Collective to act. It was one of the reasons there were so few members of their group.

Nobody liked to bring up the fact that all the unstable ones had come from ABMs created by the Collective and not the ones Kane created, which made up every single current member.

One had a theory about why that was, but the findings were inconclusive. It would be many decades before he would get an answer, assuming he could retrieve the tests. Since the ABMs couldn't survive subspace travel, they had been shipped out on multiple smaller vessels the moment the Shican had made their presence known. It would take them years to arrive at the place where they had decided to make their new home.

One shifted his approach as he responded. "How many of you have done a deep analysis of your code?"

One raised his hand and was slowly joined by nineteen more confirmations. Some came more grudgingly than others.

He smiled. "Has anyone found any indication that Kane added malicious code?" When nobody responded, he continued. "I rest my case, then."

"You haven't addressed the other issue," Two said.

"Nor should I have to," One shot back. "If the Collective had agreed to approach Kane back when I first suggested it, we wouldn't be in this situation. Yet here we are, making mistake after mistake. First, we take him against his will, which is against our rules. And yes, Two, I agreed to take him as well, but that doesn't make it right. Then we removed him from his body, once again against his will, violating a second tenet that we follow. You can argue that it was to save him, but we broke our own rules yet again."

"So you think breaking our rules a third time will somehow make up for that?" Five asked, his voice deep and rich, and full of accusation.

Hearing from the normally stoic member momentarily surprised One, but not enough to throw him off. "We made the mess we are in; if it's to fix that mess, then yes. If we had time, I would say rebuild the production line for the old bodies, but time is short and we have much to do."

Eight was another normally silent member; she didn't even take on a form, preferring to just be a disembodied voice represented by a slight ripple of distortion inside the virtual space, yet her voice was silky smooth when she chose to speak. "Why not just leave Kane where he is. We can bring him with us, and rebuild his body when time permits?"

More than one shocked expression turned her way.

One noticed that Two reacted similarly, which said more than if he hadn't, at least to One. It was all he needed to suspect that Two had put the normally quiet siblings up to asking these questions. It was disheartening to realize his siblings felt this way, but he wasn't about to give in, not on this.

"You would risk the Shican discovering our new base of operations simply to use an outdated method?" One asked.

He knew he had hit the right argument when the group went silent.

The votes shifted in his favor, and One turned to Two. "You're the last one, brother."

Two narrowed his eyes only fractionally, but One caught the motion, or emotion, in this case. His brother was furious. His response was as bland as ever, however. "You make valid points. There is no reason to bring Kane with us and expose our new home, and we don't have time to rebuild the infrastructure to create Kane's old body. Since I agree that we caused the loss of his old body by interfering, I agree with the rest of the Collective, but only on the condition that we remove the ability to subspace travel from the living alloy we provide him.

It was a concession that One had expected to have to make, so he agreed. The others agreed as well, making the vote unanimous in Kane's favor. He would need to warn Kane and keep an eye on his siblings. He had never seen them so divided on a subject before.

***

It took two more weeks before the Collective had a functional body ready for Alexander. He assumed they were going to give him a copy of his old body with a standard fusion reactor, but that wasn't the case.

"What is that?" Alexander asked Rush.

The man had knocked on his virtual space, which was a weird thing to experience, before Alexander allowed him entry. He was the only member of the Collective who visited.

When Alexander asked about that, Rush or One said, "The others are busy."

Alexander felt like the man wasn't being entirely truthful there, but he didn't push the issue. Rush was pretty open about other things, however. One of those was the fact that the Collective had all sorts of rules surrounding what was appropriate or not when entering someone else's space. Rush had apologized for being rude the first few times, but the Collective bypassed those rules for the new awoken to get them up to speed.

So when Rush arrived a moment ago and asked to show Alexander something, he agreed. Now he just wasn't sure what he was looking at.

"That's your new body," Rush said.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"It looks like a pool of liquid mercury. I assume it's the same stuff you're made out of, but I thought you were just rebuilding my old body."

Rush flushed with embarrassment. "That was the original plan, but your body was vaporized during the extraction. After a vigorous debate with my siblings, it was decided that recreating the infrastructure to build another body to match simply wasn't worth the effort. We also had to consider how long that would take. In the end, I convinced them to use our existing infrastructure."

"Wait? You spent the last few weeks debating the issue?"

Rush looked around conspiratorially before a feeling like a blanket being wrapped around Alexander's mind appeared.

Rush didn't speak, but Alexander heard his words anyway. "I temporarily blocked the connection to my siblings so they don't overhear this. When your original body was destroyed, they wanted to leave you inside this digital space and take you with us."

"What?" Alexander looked appalled. "Why would they want to do that?"

"I don't know for sure, but I have a few hunches. If they heard me utter those words, they would probably be angrier about that than about what I'm telling you. Anyway, I believe some of them are afraid of you."

Alexander didn't know what to say to that. "Why? It's not like I could do anything to them."

"I didn't say their fear was rational," Rush smiled ruefully.

"So what now? I assume you are telling me this because they chose to do something else."

Rush nodded. "It took all of my efforts to convince them otherwise. The Collective doesn't like sharing our technology, even with you. Consider our agreement as an apology for how we treated you. We didn't spend the entire two weeks dithering over the issue, however. There had to be a few tweaks made, and a pool prepped. We don't normally keep an unused supply of living alloy on hand."

Just what Alexander needed: a bunch of emotionally stunted hermit-like AIs. He couldn't even complain, because he had created them.

A thought struck him. "Wait, you shared how you made the gravity plating."

"Yes, but only because the Shican have already figured out the technology, and we needed something to keep you temporarily distracted."

Even though he had expected that to be the case, he was still a bit miffed by the confirmation. "So, I'm getting a fancy new liquid metal body? How does that work?"

"Living alloy," Rush corrected. "Your data will be transferred to the tank, then you will need to form a body. It's not much different than what you did here," Rush gestured around the digital space. "Once you get the hang of it, you won't even have to concentrate to keep your form."

"What happens if I don't concentrate?"

"You splash all over the floor. I can show you a video of when I was first learning, it's quite amusing. I still get a chuckle out of watching it."

"Eh… I'll pass for now," Alexander replied.

"Suit yourself," Rush chuckled lightly. "Oh, before I forget, the body has some restrictions. The Collective wouldn't agree to allow you to use it otherwise."

"Restrictions? What sort of restrictions?" Alexander asked in annoyance.

"Only one," Rush responded in a placating gesture. "You won't be able to connect to subspace."

Alexander was once again stunned into silence. He hated being on the receiving end. Others were supposed to be surprised by his technological breakthroughs, not the other way around.

"I—I didn't even know that was possible. I thought you had some sort of device or other thing hidden within the sphere that allowed that to happen."

"Nope," Rush responded with a smirk. "Now, shall we begin?" he asked, cutting off any chance for Alexander to inquire further.

Alexander could take a hint. He nodded his simulated avatar inside the digital space, and a moment later, he found himself looking at a bright ceiling and a dark floor.

The transition had been seamless.

Rush peered over the lip of the container, the same smirk on his face. "Try moving around a bit. Maybe even flowing out of the container to get used to the alloy. It usually takes newly awakened a few days before they can form a cohesive body. The ones who actually bother to anyway."

Alexander sloshed against the sides of the container. It was harder than Rush made it sound. His mind felt free and more responsive than it had ever felt before. He tried focusing inward, but he popped back into that digital world. It seemed like he no longer had a mind space to retreat to.

To be fair, the digital space was definitely an improvement. At least there he could move around, instead of feeling like a disconnected mind floating in a sea of lights and status displays. As he said that, the walls of his simulated workshop shifted to show the outside world.

Alexander waved the view away and focused on returning to his new body. He could play with the other stuff later, but he needed to become mobile if he wanted to leave this dead world.

His vision returned to the alloy, still sloshing around in the tub. Rush winked down at him, seemingly knowing that he had vanished back into his digital space for a moment.

Alexander ignored the odd AI man and focused on his task. He didn't know how long he was at it, but eventually he jostled the liquid enough to get it over the lip of the container. From there, it was like his body was made from superfluid as it quickly poured out of the container and onto the floor.

The fact that he could feel it all happen was one of the weirdest experiences of Alexander's life. The tactile sensation was far beyond what his old body possessed.

He tried to ask a question, but all he heard was a plopping sound.

Rush winced. "I would advise against trying to talk or form any of the parts that allow humans to talk until much later. If you have a question, just think it towards me."

Alexander did that, but he felt more than one connection. The others quickly distanced themselves as he brushed up against them, leaving only one.

"They were watching?" Alexander asked.

"Of course, it's not every day we get to watch someone go through this process. In your case, they are even more curious."

Alexander tabled that discussion for later as he asked his questions over the mental link. "Is what I'm feeling normal? How does this compare to a human's tactile sense of touch?"

"It's dialed down to prevent overstimulation. We lost a few freshly awakened because the sensations were too much for their minds to handle without any context. As for how it compares to human touch, it's a bit higher. Once you get used to it, you can adjust it up or down as you see fit. You can even add in other sensations that humans don't have. It's similar to how your old body could see in infrared and night vision, among others."

"What about the defensive field?" Alexander asked.

"Unfortunately, no. The defensive field is not compatible with the living alloy. It won't harm it or anything; it's just that the generator cannot function properly from within the body. You don't need to worry about that, however. The living alloy is much more durable than your previous form. It can also automatically absorb all impacts and energy and convert it for its own use."

"Is that what you did when you fired the weapon at the Shican?" Alexander asked as he struggled with the body to form something other than a puddle on the floor.

"That wasn't a weapon," Rush replied quietly.

"Sure looked like one to me," Alexander shot back.

Rush sighed. "Most tools can be turned into a weapon in the wrong hands. What you saw was a tool designed for building."

"You have something like that as a tool, yet you won't even lift a finger to help humanity?" Alexander demanded.

"I don't expect you to understand, Alex."

"No," Alexander declared angrily. "You don't get to use that name. Only my friends get to call me Alex."

Rush nodded. "You're right. I think my presence may be causing you to become upset. I'll come back when you've had some time to cool down."

Before Alexander could snap at the man again, the connection was severed, and Rush walked out of the room.

What the hell had gotten into him?

His anger at what the Collective did had never really gone away, but he had kept a tight lid on it so far. He did that because he knew it wouldn't be conducive to convincing the Collective, or at least Rush, to help him. It had to be this new body. Now that he could feel external sensations again, that lid had slipped off, and his anger had boiled out.

Alexander needed to get a handle on those emotions again, so he forced the anger toward his efforts to form a body.

Slowly but surely, he started to come together and rise off the floor. After a day, he looked like a tall, melted tree stump, but it was progress.

It took him another couple of days to finally draw all the alloy into one pillar. From there, he was able to start to form arms and legs. They were formless things, but he still yelled internally in relief when he bent one upwards.

Soon after, he had legs, and with those, he was able to walk out of the room in search of Rush. After spending two days alone, he was reminded of his time in Yuri's shop and just how awful being alone was.

Alexander may never forgive the Collective for taking him, but he could be the bigger man and apologize for his outburst. Hopefully, that would be enough to convince Rush to work with him again. He had a feeling the man might be his only ally inside the Collective.