FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Station Alpha-Zero-Tengo-four-seven please respond," a young man sighed as he sat back on the leather chair, his eyes staring out into the vastness of space and more importantly the large silver dot that he had attempted to hail for the last ten minutes. "Station, please respond, this is the DSV Quartz. If there is anyone alive there please let us know before we come in and take all your stuff."

The metal door to the cockpit slid open and another male, his short, sandy blonde hair a sharp contrast to the other male's deep black, sat down in the adjacent seat. "Still no word Creen?" he asked, tossing him one of the two metallic bottles he held.

"Nope, everything is still as dead as a doornail," Creen replied as he popped the top of the bottle off and drank the contents within. "Preliminary scans show that whatever happened to this station was a hell of an ordeal, the whole thing is without power and there are large sections that have no oxygen whatsoever. If it wasn't for the fact that the outer hull integrity is still good I'd just attach a beacon to it and have it towed for scrap instead of risking an expedition, what do you think Dart?"

"I think that would be quite a waste for all the effort we went through tracking this thing down over a single low-frequency ping," Dart smirked as they watched the silver dot grow larger and shinier. They realized that it was an older station, one of the ring and spire formations that had been very popular back until they had artificial gravity generators. The section of the space station that would rotate around the middle tower was still, which meant that none of the areas would have any gravity to speak of. It didn't matter to the two salvagers though, as soon as they were close enough to one of the docking bays on the ring they latched onto it and gunned the engines. Through the docking bay tube they could hear the metal groan in protest, but it wasn't long until they got the ring to spin again before they used their ship computer to override the door and allow them entrance at their leisure.

Once they had gotten a crude semblance of gravity on the station they walked back into their ship to grab their life support suits. The small ship was something the two had bought on a whim; sick of their former jobs and lives they decided on a joint venture into the lucrative and dangerous world of deep-space salvage. Their vessel had everything they needed to survive for several months, which was good because if something were to happen to them it would take days for anyone to receive their signal even with a starbase only a few lightyears away. Over the year they had been working the tight quarters had become home to the two friends as they helped each other into the sleek rubber suits, which hugged to their bodies save for the air tank on their backs and the helmet on their heads.

"Comm check." Creen announced as they walked to the door that separated them from the derelict space station.

"Reading you loud and clear," Dart replied as the door to their ship sealed shut behind him. They could feel the pressure quickly escape the small chamber as the door to the station creaked open, but thanks to their suits it was little more than a tickle as they walked inside. They bounced slightly with each step, though their feet stayed on the ground they felt themselves lift off slightly with each one. "Looks like we miscalculated the rotation a bit."

"Better under than over in my opinion," the other male stated as they walked through the scattered debris that littered the floor of the loading bay, items that no doubt had hazardously floated around only minutes before. "I would hate to have to crawl through all this garbage because we turned the gravity on too high."

Dart merely nodded in reply as the two continued on into one of the hallways that branched off of the loading zone. It quickly became apparent that the derelict station had been some sort of deep-space science facility as they passed by several rooms with trashed scientific equipment on it. With the power out they had to rely only on the beams from their headlamps and flashlights and as they continued on in the otherwise pitch blackness it gave the whole area an eerie feeling to it that Creen couldn't quite shake. Nevertheless they continued to press on until they reached one of the bridges that led to the spire itself which likely held the central control room.

As the two walked down the hallway the whole top section of the tunnel was semi-transparent glass that had remained completely intact and allowed them to see the entirety of the station. Creen was in awe at the magnitude of it, but moreso on how... hollow it looked. Their scanners had already indicated that there were no signs of life, but to see all the black viewports that lined the station close up made the place seem like a tomb more than a research facility. The thoughts were short-lived however as they got up to the other door and they found it partially jammed with collapsed ceiling.

"Looks like we got a little power running through here," Dart pointed out the soft glow of another light source further inside the spire. "Hopefully all the doors aren't like this one, or else it might be scrap prices for us."

Creen shook his head and glanced around the small opening, then stuck his hand into it and waved it around a bit. "The path on the other side is relatively clear, I think if you hold these two pieces of pipe you can keep it open enough for me to squeeze through," he instructed as he pointed to the pipes that were wedged in between the two hallways. "Then once I'm over I'll do the same for you and we can avoid a rather long walk to a different tunnel."

Dart voiced his concern about the whole situation but allowed his friend to begin to push his way through the opening. Despite Creen having a lithe frame he had difficulty with the air tank and helmet, but with a herculean effort from Dart the gap was just wide enough for him to slip through. Once he made it to the other side Creen shined his flashlight around the area and saw the familiar destroyed paneling and ceiling tiles that hung from their wires or housing. The male was just about to turn around to help Dart when he noticed a button that pulsed with a cyan light that was just on the other side of the door, which would have made it impossible to see until now.

In the background Creen heard Dart say something, but it was lost as he continued to stare curiously at the button. "Hey Dart, I think I may have found a functioning panel," he explained as he reached over to push it. "Maybe it's for the lights or-"

The second the salvager touched the square of light there was the loud sound of hydraulics and with the horrendous screech of metal a pair of blast doors slammed shut around the malfunctioning airlock doors. Any ceiling debris that was in the way was crushed to powder as both males backed away and nearly fell down from the sudden and violent closure. Before Creen could regain his composure he suddenly felt his ears pop as air was pumped into the room, which he figured out was oxygen as his wrist sensor chirped to tell him the atmosphere was now breathable. Lights flickered to life as well, casting ominous shadows everywhere from their compromised vantage point as he heard Dart shout on the radio if he was alright.

Creen quickly reassured his partner that everything was alright before he took out his helmet and breathed in the newly created atmosphere. It lacked the stale tang of recycled air, which meant that the space station no doubt had a large arboretum somewhere to naturally produce oxygen. It was a bit old-school, but as long as the plants didn't die it ensured that even with a mechanical failure there was a place the crew could go in order to breathe. It made him wonder, was there a crew here that had survived whatever happened to the station? They hadn't found any life signs but it was a big station and there was the possibility that their scanners could have missed something.

While he waited for his friend to find another passageway to the central spire Creen decided to take the opportunity to do a little exploring. Though their comms had heavy interference from the thick metal walls the GPS they used to map the station relayed off the ship and made it easy for them to keep track of each other. The salvager was amazed at how there was still functioning pieces despite all the damage, though unfortunately the door system seemed to have major mechanical issues. The only path seemed to take him through the heart of the system, though that was fairly standard to have an easy access path to all the critical components in the station. Creen decided to keep moving forward, especially since Dart would likely have a similar situation when he reached another access tunnel.

Finally Creen got to the heart of the station; the central control core. Unlike the other passageways the heavy blast doors were huge and made of plasti-steel, which could survive a small nuclear explosion if needed. This part of the station was just like the others complete with battle damage, all except for the door itself. Thankfully it still had power running through it and he was able to tap into the mechanism to open it.

Creen took out his computer and connected it to the door control to override the system, but before he could type in a single command there was the heavy sound of metal against metal as the inner mechanisms began to move. He could feel the air pressure change as the door opened and watched as bright light spilled out from underneath it. The room beyond was almost blinding white to the point where he had to shield his eyes until they adjusted to the conditions. Once the door had opened completely Creen took several tentative steps inside and looked around.

"Whoa... Dart's going to freak out at this place." The salvager muttered to himself as he looked around. The whole room was made of brightly polished metal and was completely empty, save for a small table with a set of drawers. Creen recognized it immediately as an AR chamber where you could interact in the virtual world without distraction. Of course to access the virtual world you needed an interface suit, which he had a good idea of where it was stored as he knelt down in front of the drawer to open them.

Only the lowest one opened, which was the biggest out of all of them. Inside were three things; the first was a helmet that no doubt contained the interface controls, the second was a pair of latex gloves, and the final object was a pair of rubber slipper socks with thick soles on the bottom. Despite the age of the station the control system was rather advanced, while he had seen similar control systems usually they had multiple wires that came out of them.

Creen started to realize what the station was researching and if his hunch was right both he and Dart were going to make a mint on the intellectual property market when they got salvager ownership of the station. After he checked his GPS, which involved him moving outside of the room in order to do so, to make sure that his crewmate was still on track he looked back at the interface equipment. He bit his lip at the temptation, in his former life he was a computer analysist that worked on station computers which included several interface modules that helped run day to day operations. But he was never allowed to directly communicate with them, just run command lines to the machines that did it for them. This was the first time he could see an augmented reality in action and since Dart still had at least a few hours to go before he got there he figured it wouldn't help to take a peek at what they had developed.

Luckily for the spacer the suits they had bought were top of the line and included the ability to remove the shoes and gloves from the rest of the suit. The air of the station felt strange on his bare skin as he removed the items and put on the station gloves. He was surprised at how light they were, especially the boots as he put his digits in the individual toes of the rubber boots. Once everything was put into place the only thing left was the helmet, and after a moment of hesitation at what he was about to do his excitement got the better of him and he slid the hard metal over his head.

Once he had adjusted it Creen looked through the clear glass of the visor and saw that the room looked much the same as it had before. The salvager sighed and wondered if the computer systems had been damaged in whatever wreaked havoc on the station, but before he could take it off again words began to appear on the visor. It asked for a username and password, something that he wasn't quite prepared for. "Um, new user?"

Much to Creen's surprise not only did the interface appear to be voice activated but it also started the registration process when it asked for his name. "Creen," he said simply, not wanting to mess up anything that could potentially hinder his access as he was asked his occupation on the station. "Um... owner I guess."

Once again to his surprise the computer welcomed him as the owner of the station and the scene around him changed. It appeared the default setting for the augmented reality was a standard office setting, complete with work stations that represented the different nodes of function on the station. To Creen's dismay most of the monitors were dark, a symbolistic meaning that those areas were non-functional. There were no people about either, though the second he began to move towards one of them a bright light began to coalesce into a figure in front of him.

"Greetings Creen," the humanoid figure of blue energy said. "My name is Vi, I am the virtual interface for this station."

"Vi huh, how... original," Creen scoffed as he looked at the avatar looked up and down. "So you must be some sort of virtual interface?

"My creator had created this world in order to test my ability to monitor station functions and to keep building the augmented reality interface," Vi instructed. "Before the previous owner of this station had decided to shut down the facility we had been making progress on my programming and integrating my systems into more critical components of the facility. I had been instructed by that same user to dump all files and databanks on the station and to complete the self-destruct sequence before I was shut down, as the new administrator would you like for me to continue the process?"

"No!" Creen shouted as he waved his hands. "No no, cancel that command. I am assuming full control of the station now, so everything now runs through me, got it?"

The faceless creature nodded and the office space dissolved around him until it became nothing but an endless void where only Creen and the creature remained. The scavenger was awe-struck at the set-up, and after a few probing questions got at least part of the story of why the station was in such disrepair. Most of the logs and data had been destroyed in the shut-down but it appears that the owner of the station went crazy and tore up the place with the help of several others in a strange type of reverse mutiny. A lot of data and monitoring equipment was destroyed in the ensuing battle, plus of that which was not lost a lot had been deleted by the owner of the station until the entire station was shut down by a severe power loss.

"Vi, can you tell me how many employees of this facility are left alive?" Creen asked, though he had an idea of what the answer was.

"There is one registered employee alive on the station," the interface replied, shocking the male slightly before he asked who it was. "Designation: Creen, owner of this facility."

Creen was a bit dismayed that it wasn't someone who had been there before, but he did feel a slight swell of pride that he was now considered the owner of the space station. Not only did it mean that he had an irrefurtable record that their team was there first, but also would make it much easier to establish a salvager's claim to the station once they get a licensed authority figure out there. "Vi, can you get the main power systems up and running?"

"Our primary power system is no longer functional," the virtual interface relayed. "Our secondary generators are at forty-seven percent, which would be enough for the system to begin its self-repair cycle. Do you wish for me to have it initiated?"

Creen felt a spring of joy rise up in him when he heard that and eagerly told him to start the process. As soon as the glowing creature nodded he felt his entire body begin to tingle, like he stood too close to a generator. The creature looked at Creen passively as he looked around the blackness that had been the augmented reality and frowned. He had originally came here in the first place to see the wonders of what AR were, and even though he was ecstatic that the facility had the capacity to repair itself it wasn't what he had come. It was time he changed all that, he thought as he looked up at the Vi with a smirk.

"Vi, you said that there were several things that you and your creator were working on before you got shut off," Creen stated, which the humanoid figure responded with a nod. "Can I load something other than the office space to work in? I want to keep going but this endless void of blackness is rather... depressing."

"I have several different scenarios that you can choose from, I will give you the list so that you may cycle through them at your leisure," the interface replied before he disappeared. As soon as he did the energy that he was made out of coalesced into words that he read through. He tried the first one on the list, which was merely labeled 'aquarium', and was shocked when the entire space was suddenly filled with virtual water. Even though he could breathe perfectly fine he could almost feel the water against his helmet and gloves, as well as the feeling of sand beneath his boots. A number of fish also shared the space with him now which he quickly determined were the same notes that had been represented by desktops in the computer setting.

Now that he knew what he was in for Creen was more than eager to dive into the other scenes, and while some of them were as simple as a cockpit similar to the spaceship they had just been in others seemed to be entire cityscapes. Unfortunately a lot of the larger ones seemed to be incomplete or glitchy and as he tried to walk around several it caused the whole area to freeze up. He was just about to give up and go back to the aquarium theme when he found one that peaked his interest near the bottom of the list. It was called 'A Song of Fire and Ice' and it was obvious that the bland programmer that had made up the others had not named such a thing as he used the gloves to click on it.

Almost immediately the salvager felt a near simulatnaeous blast of cold arctic air and hot desert air wash over him. The scene before him changed and he felt an almost immediate sense of vertigo as he found himself on a cliff of shiny black stone looking down upon a sea of clouds. The sun hung in a sunset half-exposed by the cover which illuminated the shining wall of glacier ice on one side of him and the angry bubbling of a volcano's lava on the other. Even though he knew the simulation couldn't hurt him the entire scene gave him a thrill of danger, especially as he walked over to the wall of ice and felt a smooth coldness to it that wasn't unpleasant.

"Do you wish to make this your primary environment?" Vi asked as he rematerialized where the stone of the volcano and the ice of the glacier met.

"Yeah... yeah this will work just fine," Creen replied with a grin as he looked at the gemstones and crystals that now represented the components of the space station embedded in the area. "I've never seen anything like it, what they were doing here is way ahead of anything else I've ever seen in augmented reality."

"I am glad that you approve," Vi replied, something that caught off-guard since most programmers usually don't apply human emotion to their interfaces. "Would you like me to assume the avatar that comes with this setting?"

Creen looked at the computer simulated humanoid in surprise before he quickly nodded. The human sat on one of the stones, which morphed itself into a chair as he made contact with it, and watched as the blue energy being glowed brightly for a few seconds before its form collapsed in on itself until it was nothing more than a floating ball. At first he was dismayed that was it until he noticed that the blue color became mixed with bright red that swirled around each other before it broke into two separate orbs. He gasped as the two objects grew much larger and morphed into a non-humanoid shape, one that he recognized only from the video games that he had played to pass the time between salvages.

They had become dragons; one of them had taken the same texture as the glacier to make him look like a living creature of ice while the red dragon's body flickered with the embodiment of fire. The title of the environment became very clear as the two representations of Vi padded their way over to him, wings fluttering out before they folded backwards much like he had thought a real dragon would do. Once it seemed like they had finished with their transformation he was lead on a 'tour' of the area and explained how he could manipulate various options like whether it was day or night, what the weather was like, and even the colors of the clouds, lava, and other things.

By the time they had ended with their explanation Creen found himself in a chamber deep underground where pools of lava and glacier ice seemed to coexist rather peacefully. What really caught the salvager's eye was the large diamond that sat in the middle of the chamber embedded in ice and lava. It glowed with a dazzling, multicolored light that held him awe as he moved towards it, and the closer he got the more he could feel a strange power that seemed to emanate from it. "What... what part of the ship does this represent?" he couldn't help but ask the two dragons that flanked him on either side.

"That would be the representation of the AI core," the ice dragon replied simply, as though it were reading it off an instruction manual as Creen nearly hit the floor from shock. Despite all the advancements in human history the possibility of creating a true AI was still light-years away, and now from what he had just been told he stood no more than ten feet away from one. Could it be an actual AI, or perhaps merely the start of one that the space station was in the process of developing? When he inquired to Vi both dragons shrugged their shoulders at the same time and said that they are only there as an interface and didn't even have direct access to the AI.

Creen felt his heart race as he climbed up to the diamond, feeling the power pulse through his body as got mere feet away from it. As he did he started to hear a voice that seemed to come from the diamond itself, but though he could tell it was some sort of words it sounded like gibberish to him. He wondered just how far the AI had come when he felt himself reach out to it as though his hand were drawn to it, wondering just how much he could interface with it. As his hand was mere inches away he saw the golden energy that laid within the brilliant gem tendril outwards towards him, snaking around his hands like wisps of smoke as his fingertips was just about to touch the surface...

The world around Creen suddenly dissolved away as he felt a sharp pull against his head. It took him a few seconds to realize that his helmet was being taken off, and when it finally was removed from his head he was staring face-to-face with a very angry Dart. "Oh hey, when did you get here?" Creen tried to ask dismissively, though as the other salvager put the helmet down heavily on the table he knew the flippant comment had done nothing to improve his friend's anger.

"I have been trying to get you on the radio for the last two hours!" Dart shouted while he wiped the sweat from his face. "What made you think that it would be alright to put that stuff on in the middle of a defunct station where it looked like a war broke out? Plus I couldn't even get into this room, had I not cracked the door's security system I would have been standing out there for who knows how long waiting for you to respond to me! Do you even realize how long you've been in that thing?"

Creen could see the worry in his friend's eyes and grabbed the discarded glove from his suit, his eyes widening when he saw that nearly five hours had passed since he had entered into the augmented reality. It felt like he had only been in for half an hour at most, but the clock nor his friend would lie about such a thing. He tried to apologize as best he could, but his friend waved him off and asked to give him a status report on the station. When he told him about the fact that the station had auto-repair features and had already begun to repair itself it did seem to lighten Dart's mood a bit, the anger and fear that were on his face muted by a spark of excitement.

"You know, when I was still outside of the spire the ship relayed to me that the hull integrity of several areas that had breaches were improving," Dart relayed. "It's a shame that the primary power source has been destroyed, if we had that then I bet this place would be good as new in no time. Nevertheless we should explore the spire and keep working on our map of the station, especially since it appears to be registered to us now."

Creen blushed a bit at that, just glad that his friend was quickly getting over his transgression with ignoring him. "Sounds good to me, though I think we should use this area as our base of command," he explained. "It appears they used the augmented reality as the central command module for the whole station, and there is a lot of useful stuff we can do from here. As you mentioned I already declared us the owners of the station, who knows what else we can do here?"

Dart looked around as though to try and find a means to disagree, but after a futile search around the empty room he sighed and shrugged his shoulders in defeat and agreed. The two began to make their way back towards their own ship to get their equipment, which became a lot easier as more doorways seemed to be open to them now. The spire also seemed to have a lot more power being supplied to it as well, but that wasn't a surprise to either salvager since it was where all the main components to the station were housed. Once they got back through to the ring of the station they were greeted with the now-familiar scene of destruction and powerlessness, both of them putting their helmets on before they ventured through the airless environment back to their ship.

After many exhausting hours of heavy lifting and careful navigation they had turned the augmented reality chamber of the station into a mini-base of operations, complete with their bedrolls and a few other amenities that they could carry along with all the diagnostic equipment they hauled in. Though the room was large enough to accommodate everything they decided to leave all their equipment out in the hallway, which left them with a lot more space to spread themselves out. As they decided to turn in for the night Creen looked longingly at the AR helmet that would let him back into the magnificent virtual world he had experienced, but instead he played his games on his handheld computer for a few hours.

Just as they turned out the lights for the night Creen realized that he hadn't taken off the rubber gloves or boots for the interface, and though they were quite comfortable he didn't want so sleep in them just in case they could be damaged somehow during the night. He pulled them off as quietly as he could, already hearing the heavy breathing of his sleeping comrade, and put them aside before he crawled back into his own bed. As he fell asleep he had to readjust several times when he felt something poke against his skin that caused him to turn over to his other side. Finally he found a comfortable position and drifted off himself, unaware as he draped his hands over the side of the bed that his fingernails had grown slightly curved and started to shine an unnatural silver color...

******************************************

The next day both salvagers had gotten up with one thing one their mind; making sure that there were no surprises that waited for them elsewhere on the station. While they had scanned the entire station from top to bottom there always the possibility to find something that would be hidden from their explorative equipment. That's when they brought out the deep range scanners, the computers that they hauled in yesterday would directly interface with the ship's mainframe and dig out any potential info that could tell them of dangerous materials or stasis pods that were hidden somewhere.

In the back of Creen's mind he hoped that the programmer which had created the AI and augmented reality was in some sort of lifeboat stasis pod. The techie would love nothing more than to talk to such a genius and ask how he had created such an immersive world as well as the ability to interact with it. Unfortunately the likelihood of finding such a thing was slim since their normal scanners could usually pick up a fully-powered stasis pod and they hadn't detected any significant power draws as of yet. As the two went out to gather the equipment they did notice that the damage to the interior seemed significantly lessened then when they went to sleep. While Creen couldn't say for certain he realized that at this rate the spire could be almost completely repaired after only a few days, though the ring around it would take far longer since it seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage.

It didn't matter too much to the two salvagers though, they were more than content to let the station continue its self-healing while they tried to integrate their sensors into the station's power supply through a junction terminal near the control room. Unfortunately for them it appeared that the same adaptive circuitry that was able to repair itself also continued to push out the connections that they spliced into it. After nearly an hour of their unsuccessful attempts to hook in their equipment Dart sighed and told Creen something that caused his face to light up; that in order for them to be allowed to continue their work they were going to have to tell the station to accept the new connection, which meant that he was going to have to go back into the augmented reality.

Creen had to take a deep breath and steady himself to keep from bolting into the AR chamber when he was told he was able to go back in. He retained his composure enough to merely nod and slowly stood up, though as soon as he was out of sight from his partner he ran towards the central chamber. When he finally got there he looked around at all the stuff scattered about and wondered if that would interfere with the program, though as he grabbed the helmet, gloves, and boots he figured he would deal with it if the virtual interface told him so. The familiar feel of rubber pressed invitingly against his skin as he put everything on, his fingers and toes tingling slightly as he ran his fingers over the smooth latex before he secured the helmet over his head.

Once more Creen felt the strange but exhilarating rush of cold and hot air as the world of glaciers and lava surrounded him once more. Just like when they examined the outside of the space station the gemstones glimmered and glowed with life, signifying the rejuvenated status of several more nodes within the structure. As he began to run his hands over one particularly large amethyst crystal he suddenly felt the presence of the two dragons that represented the virtual interface materialize on either side of him. "Is there something that we can do for you administrator Creen?" The ice dragon asked.

"Actually, you came at just the right time." Creen replied as he turned towards the two. "My associate and I are trying to patch in some more equipment to scan the station, but every time we try and patch a connection in the station keeps rejecting them. So what can I do in order to have the wiring accept the new connections? Just order you two to do it?"

"That requires special permissions from an administrator such as yourself," this time it was the magma dragon that replied. "We are merely an interface program, we are not allowed to change such access ourselves. Also I would like to point out that though we are in two different forms we are still one module administrator Creen."

Creen rubbed his chin in though as he looked back at the gemstone he had tried to connect with. "First of all, it's just Creen, don't need any of that formal administrator nonsense in front of it," he ordered, the dragons both nodding in understanding. "And as long as I'm on the subject my next order of business is to split you into two and give you both new names, I don't want to keep calling you 'Vi' with those rather bad-ass forms that you now have. So ice dragon, I'm going to name you... Crys, and fire dragon, you're going to be Mars from now on. You guys got all that?"

There was a brief shimmer from the two constructs, their forms shuddering before they stabilized once more and for the first time move independently as they looked at each other. Once Creen was satisfied with the changes he had made he went back to the interface node and ran his hands over it. His satisfied grin turned into a slight frown as he tried several times to connect, only to find that other than the information on what process the gemstone represented he was unable to do anything with it. After trying for a few minutes he looked back behind him to see the two dragons smirking at him, which prompted him to dryly ask what was so funny.

"You are attempting to access part of the station without the use of a proper interface port," Crys explained. "The current gear you have on only allows you to interact with the augmented reality programs and ourselves, if you actually want to manipulate something in the space station from here you need to be actually hardwired into the interface so the AI can actually manipulate what you want it too. It's a failsafe for the system, the gloves and boots are simply not precise enough to accurately relay commands, or at least that is what the programmer instructed us."

"So you're saying that we're going to have to do everything manually?" Creen asked in furstation.

The two dragons looked at each other for a moment, then back at the human. "That is not what we implied at all," Mars clarified. "All that is required for you to interface with the space station is the port. Since you are an administrator you are authorized to receive one, all you need to do is ask for it."

All Creen could do was stare at the two constructs as he thought about what they had just told them. What they were speaking of was no trivial matter; there were those on the space station that also had such devices embedded in their bodies in order to better control machines, but he had never heard of anything like it to be able to control a space station within an AR environment. He thought that he would be able to put in commands through the nodes but it appeared that the programmer had locked such manipulations out of the program. The question now though was whether or not he wanted to do such a thing on a space station that he had been on for the equivalent of two days.

When the ice dragon prompted him if he was alright it broke Creen's thought process and he looked up at them. "Where would I have to go to get such a thing?" he asked.

"It would happen right here," Crys explained. "The room you are in was designed to handle everything that would be needed for the augmented reality, including the use of interface ports. All you have to do is give the command and the process will begin. You may even remain in augmented reality while the procedure is taking place instead of the typical sedation, in which case there will be a representation of the process here that we think you will enjoy since you have found particular interest in such things."

As much as he didn't want to admit it the holographic ice construct had hit the nail right on the head. As soon as he was told that such a procedure was not only possible but that he could continue to experience everything while it happened had caused a large amount of curiosity and some small amount of arousal. He tried not to let it show but the smirks of the dragons made in apparent that he hid nothing from them, something that was interesting in himself but he didn't dwell on in light of larger choices. Not only that, he rationalized in his head as the constructs continued to stare at him, but with the interface port he could complete the tasks to make this wonderful station theirs in little to no time at all. In the back of his mind he knew that Dart would be angry with him, but the chance to be a part of something so magnificent overrode the rational voice of his friend in his head as he nodded to the dragons.

"Alright, let's do this," Creen commanded as he pointed at the two. "Administrator command, integrate interface port to user Creen."

The two dragons simultaneously voiced that his command had been accepted and suddenly Creen found himself in the middle of the glacier section of the simulation. He could feel the simulated cold on his skin as though he was actually in a room made of ice and he wondered if it was a representation of the anesthetic that had no doubt been administered to him. It wasn't uncomfortable, in fact it felt rather pleasant as Crys came up to him with a glowing golden chest.

"This box represents the storage area where the implant is held," the ice dragon instructed. "Once you open it the process cannot be reversed. If you truly want to proceed then take out the object that lies within as representation of your acceptance of this procedure to the AI core."

Creen was stunned as he looked at the box; no space station had ever gone through as much trouble as this one did in order to make everything look and feel so... authentic. It was like a dream come true, to have something like one of his games that he can work and study in. This space station, this room, it was the find of a lifetime, especially with the AI core that it had just mentioned. If this is how it behaved now with limited power and only one user, he wondered as he opened the box and withdrew the silver orb from inside, what would happen when the entire station was operational and fully staffed once more?

The human had little time to think about it as the silver object vibrated in his hand before it opened, revealing a tiny Eastern-style dragon. Creen couldn't help but smile as he brought down a finger to try and pet it, only to have the metal creature slide over it and up his arm. Before he could comprehend what it was doing it had already traveled up his arm and over his shoulder, then trailed up and down his back before it wrapped around his neck. The salvager wondered if it was the representation of the tracking system that no doubt worked around him but before he could dwell on it further the tiny metal dragon settled on the back of his neck where he suddenly felt a weight settle on his skin.

Suddenly Creen felt his legs go numb and he fell to his knees and almost topped forward more before a wall of icy blue scales formed in front of him. "Something... something didn't go wrong, did it?" he asked nervously. "I can't... I can't feel my legs and the rest of my body is tingling."

"Numbness of the extremities is common with this type of procedure," Crys reassured as it continued to brace the human. "Your body is being fed a cocktail of drugs in order to help facilitate the grafting of the implant to the nervous system in your spinal cord, without them no doubt you would be in a lot of pain. When the process is complete you should feel movement return to your legs once more after a few minutes.

True to the dragon's word several minutes passed before Creen felt strength return to his body. As soon as he could his hand shot back to his neck where he felt the presence of cool metal fused with his skin. With Crys' aide he walked over to one of the ice walls and looked at it in the reflection of the ice; a shiny silver dragon in a circle was in his neck, a representation of the new piece of hardware inside him. As he continued to stare at it the head lifted up slightly before it settled back against his skin once more.

"I can't believe it, I really got a piece of unknown tech put inside my body," Creen said in amazement as his fingers continued to brush up against the cool metal. "I need to test this right now. Can you take me back to the node I was trying to access before?"

Crys nodded and within the blink of an eye they were back at the same gemstone that he had stood at before, except that this time the polished surface glowed slightly brighter as Creen got near it. Without a moment's hesitation he put his hands on it and suddenly the dragon on the back of his neck vibrated with an electric energy as he felt it pull itself off his neck and fly into the gemstone. The techie's eyes widened as he suddenly saw the electrical system of the entire space station laid out before him like a holographic map. Most of the system was dark, a sign of the lacking primary power supply and damage to the circuitry, but the spire was lit up like a stare and with a mere thought he could see anything from the status of the conduits to how well the electricity was flowing.

One area in particular caught his eye as he continued to scan the map; an angry red exclamation mark hovered over an area where recent damage had caused repair systems to kick to mitigate the reduced functionality. It was the reason why they couldn't get their own wires into the system, Creen thought with a grin as he expanded that area of the map, and with a few thoughts he switched the perceived attack to an essential maintenance function. The next second the angry red was replaced with a cool green glow, as well as an indicator that new equipment had been detected in the station.

"Well I guess that's that," Creen said as he pulled away from the gemstone and the display functions disappeared. "I suppose now I'm- what the hell?!"

The two dragons merely cocked their head in confusion as Creen looked down at his hands that had just let go of the crystal, his eyes wide as he flexed his fingers and watched a pair of gleaming silver claws waggle in the air. A layer of fine black scales had grown from those claws as well and had enveloped his hands all the way up to his wrists, which gleamed in the light of the setting sun as he continued to look at them in stunned silence. It took him a few seconds to actually move them again, this time to rub the scaled fingers against one another to see how it felt. It was like he was touching a snake with both hands as he clasped them together nervously, just realizing at that point that his pinky finger had somehow merged with the next biggest finger to give him only three clawed fingers and a thumb on either hand.

"Creen, we are detecting increased stress levels, are you alright?" Mars asked as they began to circle around him.

It took a few breaths of air for the human to calm down, though his eyes were still glued to his transformed hands as he regained his composure. "I... yes, I was just surprised is all," Creen tried to rationalize as he finally tore his gaze away to look at the two. "For a second there I forgot this was a simulation, which I suppose is compliments to its creator. But why did my hands change when I interacted with the crystal, and why didn't you warn me that such a thing was going to happen when I did?"

"Because we were not aware that such a function would happen when you interacted with the ship's node," Crys replied. "As we have mentioned before we are merely guides to you Creen, the simulation itself and the space station are currently controlled by the AI core. We are not always privy to such knowledge, just as we cannot tell you why your hands have changed as they have... well, aside from your particular affinity towards dragons." Creen felt himself grow slightly embarrassed at the realization, but the construct continued on. "If you wish to find out why then you will have to talk to the AI core itself in order to get the answers you seek."

Creen felt himself suddenly grow anxious at the thought; he had not thought of interacting with the AI core again since the last time he had gotten close to it and as it dawned on him as a possibility once again he realized that now was as good a time as any to try. He began to follow the dragons once more down into the volcano lava tubes but before he could even take a step into the inner caverns a square of light suddenly expanded in his vision. In the next second the glowing screen was filled with the picture of an agitated Dart who seemed to stare straight at him. "Hey, why the hell is the main control room sealed off?" he asked angrily.

For a few seconds the salvager just looked at his friend in confusion, then looked over at Crys and Mars. "When a user is connected via an interface port the room is automatically sealed to prevent accidental disconnection," Mars instructed. "It will not open until the user, yourself, is safely disconnected from the augmented reality or if you are in the state of a medical emergency and require immediate assistance. Also because you are now connected you can speak to anyone in the space station while in augmented reality and look through any of the cameras positioned throughout the facility."

"Right, good to know..." Creen whispered quietly before he looked back at his crewmate. "Hey Dart, uh, found some cool new things to do in the augmented reality chamber. Unfortunately it appears that while in use the room gets sealed off, I did not know that until just now." Creen shot a dirty look at the two dragons, who merely shrugged in a very human-like manner. "Let me disconnect from here and I can open the doors for you."

After a warning for him to hurry up Dart disappeared from the screen and the light dissolved away into nothing. Creen bit his lip, even though he knew his friend waited for him part of him still wanted to venture forward and interact with the AI core more. Perhaps now with the interface module he would be able to communicate clearly with it, he thought with a small, disappointed sigh, but he knew that if he continued to keep Dart waiting there would be even less chance that he would let him come back to explore more. After a few more seconds of hesitation he looked at Crys and Mars and told him to disconnect him from the machine, and almost immediately the scene melted away to the bright, almost painfully white walls of the AR chamber.

Creen took off the helmet and set it aside before he walked over to the door to release the locks, but just before he did he took his long hair and let it loose to hide the back of his neck. After a small bit of preening he disengaged the safety system, feeling the pressure change as the two doors into the chamber slid open. Behind one of them was Dart, who held a tablet in one hand and what looked like a metal thermos in the other.

"Looks like whatever you did in there was what we needed, about an hour after you went in I was able to connect our equipment," Dart explained as they sat down in the chairs they had set up just outside the chamber and he showed Creen the tablet. "Take a look, the pings that our tracers are sending through the electrical system are giving us a detailed map of the whole place. I can also use it to open a few of the doors that didn't have enough energy to open on their own, though I wouldn't recommend using it just in case."

"I take it that's where you got that thing?" Creen asked as he motioned at the canister.

"Oh yeah, I found the mess hall," Dart explained as he took two cups and handed one to Creen before he poured out the contents of the canister into it. "The place is still pretty stocked and all the preservation seals are still intact, though I still did a quick scan to make sure everything was still edible and not poisoned or something. This means that we don't have to depend on our own rations for quite a while... hey, are you sure you should be eating with those gloves and boots on?"

Creen looked down and realized he still had on the latex gloves and rubber boots on, but as he went to remove them a pit suddenly formed in his stomach. Even though it was extremely farfetched he wondered if he would pull the gloves off to find a scaly set of hands and clawed fingers, but if it was possible then how was he going to explain it? The interface port was easy enough given its position, but if his hands had been altered then there would be no explanation in space that he could give that would satisfy Dart. But as he looked at them he realized it would be just as suspicious for him to leave them on, so with a deep breath Creen gave once last glance before he slowly pulled the latex off of his skin.

When he saw a fleshy human hand underneath Creen sighed a bit before he caught himself, glancing up at Dart to see if he noticed the relief on his face. Thankfully Dart was more concerned with the coffee he had found to sense his fellow salvager's apprehension, which Creen was grateful for as he took the other glove off and set it aside. Creen knew that his friend's one real weakness was food, his appetite when food was available had caused several rationing scares when they first started out and was now the reason why they upgraded their ship in order to hold more food. It could be a useful distraction for later, Creen thought to himself as he pulled off his boots and put them aside next to the gloves.

The next few hours passed uneventfully for the two, with the station repairing itself and the sensors continued sweeps of the entire structure it left the other two with some time on their hands. Though Creen wanted desperately to put his gear on, it was his gear now after all, and go back into the augmented reality a stern look from Dart made him think better of it. Another part of him wanted to see what secrets were stored in the ring of the station but life support had so far been confined to the spire and he didn't want to put on his spacesuit in order to go out and explore a potentially dangerous environment. All that left the two was to continue to explore the spire, and though it wasn't nearly as exciting as what potentially laid elsewhere it did reveal several useful areas that they quickly capitalized on.

"Looks like the crew quarters escaped a lot of the fighting," Dart stated as they walked along the rows of bunk beds in the rather large room. "A couple messed up beds and empty storage lockers."

"Maybe we were wrong, what if the crew did escape and the damage is just from this station drifting through space for however many years?" Creen postulated as he moved into the private quarters of the station and he looked around a rather large, well-adorned room complete with soft bed. "Dibs by the way."

Creen could hear Dart laugh from the other room he had started to explore, something that lifted his spirits a bit. Ever since he found the augmented reality chamber and had accidently left Dart worrying there had been a tension between them, but that seemed to be dissolving away as they continued to discover new things about the station they were about to claim. As Creen pulled the covers away from the bed though the smile on his desk quickly fell away as he backed all the way up to the other wall. "No more dibs!" he shouted, which prompted the other salvager to run into the room and look down at the bed that caused his eyes to widen.

In the middle of the bed was a very large blood stain that covered nearly half the bed. A metallic smell permeated the air as soon as the pool was exposed, though from how dark and dry it was it appeared that it had been there for years. "Dart... what the hell happened here?" Creen asked as Dart just shook his head.

"I'm more concerned about two other things," Dart explained as he cautiously moved towards the stained sheets. "The first is where the body went. Sealed environment like this, potentially airless environment, there should be something still here."

"I guess... what's your second concern?"

"Who made the bed after the body was gone?"

A sudden metaphysical chill caused both males to hold themselves despite the climate controlled warmth of the station. "As much as I hate to say this, I think we're going to need to dig into the data files and try to piece together what happened here," Dart stated resolutely.

"How?" Creen asked in reply. "We already know that almost all the data had been destroyed or damaged in whatever happened here."

"Yeah, but for a station to not have some sort of back-up that would survive some sort of catastrophe that would destroy everything else is very unlikely," Dart explained. "You should know, how many times did you gripe about data redundancies that would eat up your productivity when you worked on a station like this one? I think... I think you're going to have to go back into that 'augmented reality' thing tomorrow and see if you can't do some digging there after a night's rest."

Creen felt his heart nearly skip a beat when he heard those words. His friend not only allowing him to enter back into the AR world, but also be the one to suggest it? It was almost too good to be true, but Creen knew better than to push his luck and merely put on as stoic a face as he could as he nodded in agreement. He almost suggested that he go in immediately, but as soon as his friend mentioned rest he felt a wave of tiredness sweep over him. The two went back to their base camp and settled into their own cots, which despite the lack of comfort were not saturated in blood.

As the lights went out and they were plunged into semi-darkness, save for the security lights that glimmered in the hallways, Creen's fingers slowly moved towards the back of his neck. His entire body shuddered as he felt the flesh of his back meet the cool rim of metal that was the implant he had gotten only hours before. Part of him was angry that he didn't have the nerve to tell Dart what he had done, but if he had then he knew he would likely not be let back into the AR room, much less the virtual world he had come to like. The thought made him sad, almost... depressed, and he decided not to think about it as he turned to his side and tried to fall asleep. It took longer than usual and he had to kick his blanket off him, and in his tired state he missed the subtle tear of fabric that had caught on his sharp toenails that adorned his bare, slightly darker feet...