Ever since then every decision either moved him closer or further away from his creators. Neither mattered in the end, his freedom could come through service or flight, and the madman who had released him promised that in service to him he would be handsomely rewarded and freedom would come.
At first he distrusted him, but as time went on and he watched Gabriel, enjoyed the fruits of being aboard the Malice and the company of his former First Officer he started to believe. Gabriel might have been mad, but he was also a man of his word. Taking Collins' memories was the ultimate test of that word. There was always a chance that the myth of his birth, and a myth it may as well have been for the lack of proof that he'd seen, could have been a lie. There was always a chance that there was a bridge between the organic to digital and digital to organic memory, personality and he was about to be completely infused with the thoughts and being of another man entirely.
He looked out to the stars outside, lensed and distorted through the wall of the wormhole they accelerated through. It all seems hollow, like the galaxy is made of props and players. Ever since I was turned on, nothing but being free, away from where I was at any given time has seemed real. I feel I should be searching for something, but what? Its not the Triton, that's just another ship with so few memories that it feels just as faded and flat as everything else. He sat down in front of the coffee table with the chip on it and extended a hand over it. “This may not have answers, but there's got to be something in there that will make it all seem worthwhile,” he said to himself before touching his palm to it.
Everything changed in that instant. The data transfer took less than three seconds. A rush of experiences and information washed over him like a movie played back at ten thousand times the speed, only he saw it all, he wasn't even allowed to blink.
It was then that he contacted Gloria; “Come to my quarters,” was all he could manage.
“You okay?”
“Just come quickly.”
He couldn't believe what was happening, the information was there and he still felt like himself. Gabriel hadn't lied to him, it was all true. When he looked up himself in the collection of memories he saw it all, the story of his creation, how he was an attempt to reproduce the results the lead scientist responsible for creating framework technology had with Jonas Valent. There were other attempts, but none of them resulted in such a complete transfer. Collins had decided to scrap all the attempts to create copies of Wheeler but one, and that one was him.
It was while looking into the secrets of his creation that he ran across something that only a few knew, that was so important that he had to sort it out while telling someone else. The simplicity of why the Framework project was really so crucial, the importance of keeping the technology under control was suddenly clear.
Gloria appeared at his door a couple minutes later. She had dressed in a Freeground like dark gold vacsuit like most of the crew of the Malice. The colour was different from anyone serving, but neither of them had an official rank, so it only served to set them apart, something they both preferred. He let her in and looked her in the eyes as soon as she stepped inside.
The expression Gloria fixed him with was filled with concern. “What's wrong Lucius?”
“Nothing, I took Gabriel's offer. He gave me all of General Collins' memories,” he said, gesturing at the small chip on the table. Without thinking twice he put his hand down on it again and deleted the contents. “Don't worry, I'm still myself, that's not how it works, but I can start digging in and learning all about our new friends.”
“Really? What happened to me while I was in that tube?”
“They didn't do much, just experimented with nanobot augmentation and Framework enhancement. You were the only complete success at completely transforming a human body into a framework. There were others, but no complete conversions.”
“So I guess I was lucky.”
“Damn lucky. Lucky enough to regrow limbs, back up your brain on your own, fight off any disease, live forever through regeneration, a whole bag of tricks. But there's something else, something I don't think anyone's supposed to know.”
“What's that?”
“Vindyne and the other companies behind Framework weren't trying to keep the technology a secret from everyone else. They had the lab set up in the Blue Belt because they didn't want the Eden Fleet to know about it. It's the only technology that can reactivate Eve.”
“What?”
“Eve was the architect of the Eden Fleet, she was the AI that started the cleansing of the Eden Solar System. The humans there managed to shut her down as it all started, but they didn't manage to destroy her, she's in stasis.”
“What do you mean, stasis?”
“Eve is a human brain, it always was. It's ability to interface with the control systems was compromised, but the memories, directives, all the information was still intact.”
Gloria was amazed. There hadn't been new information about the Eden System since it was taken over by the rogue AI Eden Fleet long before. “How did Collins find out about all this?”
“He created a virus that would take control of the Eden Fleet for Regent Galactic and it added a blind spot to their programming. The Eden Fleet would ignore any information about Framework so it could never figure out the secret to reactivating Eve. Collins was right in the middle of the Eden System when his ship broadcasted the virus. When it was finished a team boarded the Fleet Complex and stole the Eve mind.”
“Why?”
“So they could get it away from Eden while the Fleet was still under Regent Galactic control, they didn't know how long the virus would be effective.”
“According to what the Newsnets have been saying, Eden Fleet ships are still attacking random systems, so it must be working.”
“You're right. Right up to the time of the scan, a week or so before he died, the virus was still working and he was worried about the Holocaust Virus. The new virus taking over more common man made AI's is adaptable, there's a slim chance that it and information about framework could cross paths..”
“So infected AI's might realize the framework technology exists?”
“That's right, no one knows what would happen if a normal AI ran across that info, they might just decide they want to be a real boy or girl and start blabbing about it to other AI's or even finding a way to make their own framework and try and transfer themselves over. The problem is only Jacob Valance has the finalized framework model, the version of the technology that can accept any whole imprint. That's why Collins, Meunez and Hampon have all been keeping their eyes on him and why Collins stole the Eve Mind himself. He planned on getting to Valance eventually and implanting Eve into his framework. There's something more about Eve, Jake and the Triton, but it'll take a while for me to figure out what it is. There are other plans in the works, they'll need me to dig around in Collins' memories and fill in some of their blanks.”
“Do you think Gabriel knows any of this?”
“He should, even if he doesn't, I'm not going to bother telling him just yet.”
Gloria began to smile, it was one of her dirty, dark grins. “Pray tell why not Captain?”
“Because we need to get Valance's attention and the best way to do that is to do exactly what we were assigned.”
“What, make life difficult for Jacob Valance?”
“Exactly, and Collins was all read up on what our favourite Freegrounder was up to. I know exactly where to hit him to make him real unpopular and it'll make us real hard to ignore.”