Chapter One Hundred and Two - That Explains It Then

"Once upon a time..."

"Really? You are really going to start that way?" Aidan asked.

"Well, if you don't want to know the truth of matters..." the Master said with a pout.

Aidan and Kyan glanced at each other. "No.. no... go right ahead," Aidan coughed a little and Kyan snickered beneath his breath.

"Once upon a time..."

....there was an ancient race with an insatiable need to know things. Their love of knowledge would surpass any other species before them and most species that came after them. Asking questions and seeking answers was not their way. They did not necessarily need to know how things worked to finite detail, science was a hobby rather than a career, discovering surprising things and new information, that was what satisfied them. However learning their own history and the way their world worked was soon not enough. They sought to branch to the stars.

But there was a problem. Their species could not adapt to travelling in space. They were astrophobic. So they created numerous ships that could go into space and each ship was equipped with a massive databank for storing information and run by numerous A.I's nicknamed 'Systems'. These A.I's were special. They were not just lines of programs and data, they were snapshots of certain elite individuals, the top people within their professions.

And so the ships were sent out on their missions, to scan worlds, solar systems, even galaxies and store the information about those places in the data banks for the people to learn about later. There were additional instructions; if two ships were to meet, for example, they should exchange data, thus if there was an accident, there was less chance of the data being lost. As the ships slowly returned, one by one, the people learnt that some information for the same worlds differed. The worlds were changing, evolving. This made the people even more excited and they sent the ships out with even bigger databases and the instructions to ensure each scan was listed with an era. It was then they also created the 'Golden Child' program to see just how a world could evolve and adapt to large changes.

Millennia passed. The ship, known as J17-MS, was intercepted less and less by other ships with the same mission and there eventually came a time when the ship could no longer return to base as the base no longer existed. However, they continued with their mission, scanning regions of space and filing the details in the data banks.

Not long after encountering a half destroyed ship from their fleet and absorbing its remaining memory banks into its own, there came a time that threatened their existence. A sun nearby suddenly went supernova unexpectedly. They were caught up in the blast, their ship taking massive damage. In the end, the A.I in charge of the ship chose to jettison the archive to ensure its safety and also transferred its programming into the archive before the ship blew.

The archive was swept into a starless region of space and had to rely on their internal batteries for energy, though there were backup solar panels upon the satellite. It floated aimlessly for sometime, until it was caught in the gravity field of a wandering planet. This planet was sometime later, caught by a newly born star and became its seventh satellite. Whether it was the potent radiation of the new star or due to some internal error caused by any number of other factors, problems began to occur within the archive.

The A.I's 'woke up.'

As mentioned before, the most brilliant minds were gathered and used to design the A.I's. They were 'copies' of the originals, but with useless things such as memories sealed behind firewalls so that only the knowledge of the originals could be used. For example, the A.I in charge of the ship was a famous pilot, who battled with his astrophobia, even managing to fly to the last world in their system and back. His personality had always been considered odd and temperamental, however. The ship System used its judgement and experience when planning flight paths, but the supernova could not have been predicted. When it had lost its ship, it had experienced fear.

This fear worsened when the A.I's gained the memories of the originals, but it stubbornly held on to its existence, unlike several other A.I's who could not handle the situation and self destructed, erasing their programming. Soon just the ship System and the Master archivist remained. They divided the duties between them and used the knowledge within the archives to entertain themselves, such as playing the games they had discovered or figuring out how the protagonists could be brought together to activate the golden child program. But the Master became distracted by an internal matter, the data within the archives was acting oddly.

The data had been a mass of small programs, those programs would lead the same daily lives over and over again in the snapshot that was their file. But their patterns were changing. The Master realised that the programs were acting independently. Not all at first, just a few, but naturally that few soon noticed that others were different from them and that their worlds were static. The Master had had to create a few programs to settle this sentient data.

Fortunately, the Master had the copied mind of a very intelligent scientist. He was considered another oddball. He asked questions, he was easily distracted, but he also answered many questions that his people never thought to ask. He knew more about the world, even the solar system and beyond than anyone else and stranger still, he was not that interested in history! The Master created first the Time Recycling program, allowing small changes to occur within the files and allowing time to move beyond a day. After a fixed amount of time, a century for some, a millennia for others, time would 'reset' quietly. The sentient data was mostly not observant enough to notice, so this program was a minor success.

But even though the sentient data produced more sentient data, it was not much and the older sentient data became lost to time. The number of programs within the files were shrinking! So the Master created the Reincarnation Cycle program. The sentient data would pass into this, have their memories wiped clean and be reborn. The fixed data was slowly being replaced by sentient data, either ending or becoming it and the Master felt he could finally rest.

Only, some odd entities entered the files. They were not like the sentient data and yet they were. They moved at their own pace and the Master's programs did not effect them. He curiously watched, learning that these outsiders had real physical forms outside of the archive and were entertaining themselves... much like the creators. But the first one 'died' inside a file. As it did not enter the Reincarnation Cycle, it also died in the real world. It was then that the Master learnt that the System had allowed them access to its files. It also learnt that the System had intentions of using the outsiders and it had trapped them.

It was jealous that these people had physical forms, something it had lost, though it had never really had one from the beginning, unless you counted the ship. It really wanted one. But the connection between soul and body was too strong. So when a 'natural' death occurred, it tried to claim the body, only its wave lengths were incompatible and it was rejected. So while the Master was desperately trying to convert these souls into data so that they could be funnelled into the reincarnation cycle, while he tried to figure out a way to release them from the files, the System calculated its perfect form and how to weaken a soul enough to absorb it and take over the physical body.

"And that's where you two come in....the end."

"Hold on, where we two come in?" Aidan asked, going over what little he knew before. He was just realing from the amount of information that they had just received and couldn't quite focus.

"Ah, he means to say that I am the one the System chose to take over," Kyan mentioned softly, "but you saved me."

Aidan stared wide eyed at the skinny boy and then back at the Master. Suddenly, he gathered the boy in his arms and buried his head into the small neck. "No way," he murmured. "I won't let it." Kyan returned his embrace warmly, though his arms could not fully wrap around the others broad shoulders as they sat together. Aidan thought back to when they had first met. So he was this 'sentient data' huh? That made sense, he remembered a time when he felt as if he was simply just going through the motions of living and only woke up when he met Kyan. It fitted with the Master's description. Did that mean Kyan had a physical body outside of this place? What would happen to them when he returned? Aidan did not like to think about it, but at the same time, if he were no longer in this place, at least he would be safe...

"What about the other.. outsiders?" Kyan asked the Master. "You mentioned that most were released by the System."

"And you have released two others since, well done!" The man and the boy glanced at each other.

"What do you mean?" Aidan asked.

"One was released by you as Slate," the Master informed him. "And Kyan released the other in your last life." They were still uncertain, until Yin, who they noticed had more attitude recently and less of the innocent nature Yang seemed to possess, advised them;

"Master created a program in the form of a bracelet, we gave one to the child." Kyan remembered the little girl with deep sadness as he recalled Yin telling him to give her the bracelet he wore before he killed her. They had discussed it at length, they could not save her without risking themselves, but they also did not know what sort of damage the chip would cause her soul. Better to end it swiftly.

"Ah the mission to give the artifact to Han Huan!" Yang sang as he danced about. He had cheered up somewhat while they had slept.

"Is Nellie, my sister, an outsider?" Kyan asked.

"Nellie?" Aidan questioned, that woman had existed some lifetimes ago. Kyan nodded and explained that he believed she had also been reborn several times. Aidan's eyes widened as he realised finally that the women who had been chasing him were the same one all along. "Why did we not release her?"

"The program varies between outsiders," the Master explained. "Not easy to create and actually Han Huan was an experimental case." They shuddered. The Master truly was alien after all, his thoughts and purposes did not quite match their own.  "I have now succeeded in development of all of the release programs, however that one is now in the hands of the System. We need it to disconnect from her first." He suddenly smiled. "Which is why you are both to venture forth now!"

They were unable to protest.