He saw her break through the fog heading toward the battle group and the helix behind it.

  She’s not going to make it.

  She wasn’t going nearly fast enough, what happened to the SharkSkin? He still saw the silvery sheen on the bottom of the hull. She was using it and going faster earlier, did it already break down? Damn. He had had too much faith in his grandfather’s trinkets.

  She valiantly dodged but hits were landing, maybe not directly but he could tell that her ship was hurting. He had been adjusting his ship’s targeting data, always just nearly missing. His crew was getting excited by how close they were getting.

  Honestly, her evasive maneuvers actually made it harder for him to miss, a few times he had even winged her ship.

  Then the commanding Corporate-BattleShip fired a massive salvo from its forward battery in a direct hit that blew her, and her .vessel apart.

  Three stood in mouth open shock before a small smile etched its way onto his face.

  Free watched her worm take a massive barrage and burst apart and she pushed the SharkSkin to the max as she cut past it. She heard A.m.e.m.d.o.n.n. use the infected Corpo-ships as toothpicks right behind her. It was arguable whether or not she was a CodeSea ship or an aeroplane at this moment as she skimmed above the surface in giant, wild skips.

  The Corporate battleship noticed that she wasn’t down as she continued to rocket toward the helix and their formation at its base. It had bought her time to close the gap though. Fire started to pepper her and her ship bits and chunks then in greater amounts as a pouring enfilade of malignant Code. Freeborn took damage but she sliced it off without a second thought. Her second thought had her slicing off all her cannons to lighten the load.

  Then the SharkSkin’s silvery sheen started to flake off and fade as it took shards and slices of her hull with it. She had the sinking thought that perhaps she did use it too early.

  Three watched Free’s speed drop noticeably. He hoped she had something else. Even if she didn’t, I do, as he stared at the red button in front of him. He had Coded this worm himself and spread it throughout his ship’s controls and firing stations.

  Then, it hit. A swarm of dead-eyed Bots erupted out of the water and spilled over the deck of an escort cruiser, the second largest type of ship in the Corporate-BattleFleet. The burned out husks of Employees’ wordless screams predicated their cooked brains in fried rigs as the Bots continued to swarm over some of the unluckiest ships. He was glad it hadn’t hit his ship.

  His mouth traced a grim smile as he hit the button.

  The BotBomb went off a bit early. She had missed the biggest threat, the Battleship. She didn’t have another nor the time to make one. Free watched it maneuver its cannons and batteries toward her position before one of the Corporate-cruisers cannons’ exploded among the fleet, and ripped through deck, sail, and Employee. Volley after volley of constant fire continued to send itself deep in the Battleship and the surrounding ships before it went full steam ahead and rammed the capital ship. Bots finally reached the wounded ships and swarmed over the both of them.

  She sliced through the gap, moving between Bots and detritus, her ship could barely be classed as better off than the flaming chunks she wove between. A Bot tried to pull its way up to her deck but she stomped its head and dodged its hands until it dropped.

  Then, the spiral helix took over and her ship was swept upward.

  Freeborn wasn’t going to make it, the data upload helix was rough. Hundreds, thousands, tens or hundreds of thousands of data-fish fought her, and each other, to climb the spiral helix up to the CoreStack. She had made two rough FreeCode copies of the SharkSkin and she deployed the first one that rocketed her briefly upward before the backend of her ship blew out in an explosion of splinters. Despite the damage, the forward momentum was worth the cost. But still, she wasn’t going to make it.

  She racked her brain as she glanced below. Whow. She was high up, and even then she could barely take in Amemdonn’s full size as it ripped through the remainder of the corrupted Corporate fleet.

  It roared below her and the fish dropped from the spiral en-masse. Something in its roar had caused the double helix to sever itself from the CoreStack. She was so close!

  She grit her teeth and slapped her final boost onto her mast as Freeborn slowed, then came to a stop before starting to fall with the rest of the data. She didn’t have time for a deep breath as she finished some final modifications and swiped her hand through the base of the mast to separate it from the rest of the ship. She waited a tense moment for it to line up.

  Arms wrapped around the mast, she slapped the button and deployed her last boost as a rocket appeared out of its base and fired off toward the blinding Sun.

  Still! Just short.

  The mast turned as it started to fall away. She jumped as it exploded in a boom of splinters and launched her into its surface.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  When Free opened her eyes she found herself attached to the surface of the CoreStack and her avatar slowly breaking apart. The more she pushed to enter below its boiling surface, the quicker her avatar decayed. It wasn’t painless. Then in a grimace, she remembered. Moving slowly as to not agitate the defensive matrix on the CoreStack she withdrew the glowing yellow egg from her chest and, holding it in her palm, placed it against the scalding surface.

  It sunk in and opened briefly before being absorbed completely, she caught a dark-looking Seed at its center before that too was swallowed greedily by the Sun.

  Superuser Authorization Token… Recognized.

  Welcome, Creator.

  The next… it could have been moments, it could have been hours. She opened her eyes to check her timer and it refused to display. She looked around, she was no longer in the CodeSea. She was beyond the CodeSea. This truly was uncharted waters. Various temple-like buildings rested in a giant courtyard, she felt a soft breeze greet her face and she took her first wary steps.

  Not seeing anyone she started to run. She passed a temple named, “Black-Operations”, “Confidential Programs”, “R&D Developmental Laboratory”, among many others. Then, she found it, a large square-ish building, “Personnel Database”.

  She slid open the door and entered.

  He had barely managed to get out of there, to either side of him were Supervisors with bloody drool dripping from their gaping mouths. Lots of Employees had gotten fried in those last moments. They hadn't seen anything yet.

  She had done it. She had done it!

  Three’s fingers danced over the keyboard as he executed a final few commands, he ignored the sounds of panic and alarm around him.

  ‘Click’

  Three’s fingers slowed and froze over the keyboard as something metallic pressed against the back of his head. Three’s pinky hovered a few millimeters over the ‘Enter’ key.

  “Was it worth it Employee #3,333,333?”

  A manic grin filled Three’s face, “Definitely.” His finger moved a hairsbreadth closer.

  “Don’t! Don’t even think about it.”

  “I already have-”

  A shot rang out through the room and his finger pressed against the key.

  “You! Find out what he just did!”

  “Welcome, Creator.”

  The golden figure turned toward her before tilting its head to the side, “You are not him. Are you his Inheritor?”

  She gulped then nodded, “Yes, I think so. I was given the Seed.”

  The golden figure’s head tilted to the other side, “Seed? The Key was what was required. The Seed is another thing altogether.”

  The image of the black seed that was located inside of it flashed through her mind. She had a goal and who knew how much time she had left. She dismissed the thought.

  “I want to see the Original Personnel File of Employee #3,357,921.”

  The golden figure looked at her for what seemed to be a long moment before an endless file cabinet poured out from one of the walls in between them. Its fingertips hovered over the drawer as it continued to expand endlessly into the distance. Then, it flashed its hand downward and plucked a particular file before the drawer instantly started to withdraw back into the cabinet. In its outstretched hand was a manilla folder.

  With shaky hands she accepted it from the golden being.

  Employee #3,357,921

  Birth Status: Free-Born

  Current Status: Employee-Asset

  The next line broke something inside her.

  Acquired by Corporation: Sold by Employee’s Mother during Legal Acquisition Period.

  Her mother had sold her. The sheet slid from between her fingers and wafted down to the floor. The quiet loomed in the space.

  “Is there a problem, Inheritor?”

  “Uh um… uh.”

  “Is there an error with that Employee File?”

  An error?

  “Umm yes, this Employee is supposed to be ‘Free’.”

  “An error is unlikely.” She sank but hid it. “Though, not impossible."

  The sheet was suddenly back in her hands as it placed a finger on the file and a flash of gold nearly overloaded her visual inputs.

  Current Status: Free

  The golden being interrupted her thoughts, “Is there something else you desire, Inheritor?”

  She could hardly breathe as she choked out, “Yes send it to Employee #3,357,921’s rig printer.”

  “Done.”

  She had another idea that brought a smile to her face, “There is another mistake, I want to modif-”

  The golden figure was looking at creeping black veins that had stretched into the space, “Inheritor, you must leave.”

  Before she could object, the golden being touched her forehead.

  Free was instantly logged out and when she removed her headset and opened her eyes she was greeted by a metal cylinder directly in front of her face. She looked over at her station’s printer and saw a high-level Security Agent surrounded by Security Personnel. The Agent plucked the still warm sheet from the printer.

  “'Free' huh. So you broke into the CoreStacks for this?”

  Free smiled, “That’s right, I’m Free.”

  “What a waste of time.”

  She smiled and then heard a click as the ‘blam’ echoed through the space. The Sec-Agent dropped the piece of paper onto her as it stained itself red.

  Free’s avatar floated upward to the white of the outworld, next to her was the fading avatar of Three.

  “I was hoping I wouldn’t see you here.”

  “I couldn’t leave you behind, it’d have been too boring without you.”

  “What they say is true, you persist here after you die.”

  Three looked at his increasingly translucent hand.

  “Not for long though.”

  “At least we’re Free.” She smiled at him.

  “Free huh? Feels kind of nice.”

  Three returned Free’s smile as they interlocked their fingers.

  “Watch this Free, look at what we’ve done. We are becom-”

  A blinding flash lit somewhere deep in the Core of the CodeSea before imploding into a black wave that swept through the world and into the void beyond.

  MeatSpace | Lost Ship of the Damned