It was nearly time to leave. Vivien would return to her Aria, and pick up the life she had lost when she was torn from her place and cast adrift. Said body sat in the hangar it had been left in, and during the handful of days it had resided there it mended itself. The hole in its side had closed, warped metal bending back into shape,lost pieces reforming, growing back as if it were flesh. Its arm, once nearly severed, was reconnected, and the weaponry stolen from the draugr within Nastrond had been integrated into its systems. At some point it would need a name, but that could wait until it had returned to full operations and when her pilot was returned to her.

The lights above her turned on, bathing her black metal body in fluorescent light. Mobius had returned to prod at her once more, and unwilling to suffer the indignity or allow them the chance to discover her, she left it. Her mind jumped into the base's systems, where she noticed something. There was a passing vessel, a supply ship that was idling just outside the planet's gravity well. She jumped to it, her mind quickly overcoming its security systems and feeding a stream of junk data into its propulsion controls. Through myriad electronic eyes she observed the crew to make sure her arrival wasn't noted as more than a tech failure, then she locked the communications node open and jumped out into the bifrost network.

______

Ben looked up as the door to his cell was opened. A pair of guards he wasn't familiar with stood flanking a woman dressed in a doctor's coat. There was a brief moment of panic that ran through him and he pulled back into a corner.

One of the guards stepped in. “Time to get up, doc wants to look you over.”

The doctor placed a hand on the guard's shoulder. “You're scaring him.” She turned to Ben. “This is just a check up. I'm going to make sure your wounds are healing.”

Ben nodded. It would be nice to be cared for, and Vivien was going to get him out of here anyway. He wasn't going to manage to do anything on his own, he had to trust her. The doctor offered a hand and he took it. Standing hurt. They hadn't taken his prosthetic, but it didn't feel right. He didn't dare look on his own in case it was just another thing he couldn't do anything about. 

“There we go.” The doctor looked to a guard. “Carry him to my office,” she said curtly, dropping the tone she used with him entirely.

“Now don't freak out on me, kid,” said the closer guard as he picked Ben up.

“...not a kid, I'm twenty-five,” Ben mumbled.

______

Vivien slid into the Caliburn's systems then peered out from its camera banks. Her Aria had survived, obviously, but there was another here. No, not just one, three others. The mercenary, Koschei, and two she was unfamiliar with. They were inorganic, but distinctly human shaped. Koschei and Aria stood together opposite them. Vivien moved closer, her senses in one of the hangar's security cameras.

“We're going to meet with Blivet's representative over dinner,” said Aria to one of the unknown figures.

Koschei put a hand on Aria's shoulder. “You two can keep things held down here while we're out, yeah?”

Of the two woman shaped machines, the one with loose hair down to her back nodded. “Of course, Nimue and I have a bit to discuss about how things are going to work going forward, but we'll keep you both up to date.”

Vivien ‘blinked’ the camera's shutter closing involuntarily. Her gaze fixed on Nimue and her short bob of white hair. Herself, but not. Nimue stepped toward Aria and held her briefly. Vivien looked away, but continued to listen.

“Just have a good date, Aria,” said Nimue.

“It's not a date…” mumbled Aria in reply. 

“Then why are you both dressed up?” Asked Nimue. 

“Well, I need to look professional for the meeting–”

“Oh cut the crap, babe,” Koschei inturrupted. “Besides, neither of us are wearing a suit, or whatever you're supposed to for a business thing.”

Vivien looked back, zooming in on Aria's backless dress, her valkyrie implant shining over her spine. Her eyes looked back up to where her ARC was. While they were partially faded and a thin layer of hair had regrown, she could see the root-like patterns of electrical burns. What had happened to her pilot while she had been gone? The curiosity compelled her to watch even as the pain of her separation burned inside her mind. 

“We should probably get going. Don't want to be late,” said Aria, tugging on Koschei's arm.

“If you need anything, call and I will come running,” said Nimue as the two groups separated. 

Vivien followed Aria, sliding from camera to camera as the two mercenaries made their way to their meeting. As she watched she tried to imagine what holding her pilot would feel like. She only had the experiences that Nimue had before their split. The sensation of carrying Aria in the Caliburn's cockpit, or on its hand. Would it feel different in her body back in that facility? What about the body Nimue was inhabiting? It was… So fleshy looking. Did it feel like what Koschei's must as the pair's fingers intertwined sitting next to each other? 

Vivien knew what temperature differences felt like, what the resistance of metal against flesh was like, but it wasn't what Koschei had… Or what Nimue must have gained. Why was she separate?

______

Ben didn't resist as he was strapped down to an exam table. It was cold and hard, like a slab you'd put a corpse on in a morgue. The doctor pulled a lamp over him. It was so bright. She cut through the dirty cloth of his shirt; they'd not bothered giving him new clothing after his capture and he wondered if he'd just be left nude after this.

“Beginning examination of subject ‘Benjamin Emrys’ now. Subject is a former Necker employee with certifications in mechanical engineering, and was apprehended near the wreck of an unidentified Einherjar.” The doctor leaned over him. “Lacerations on the subject's torso are healing at the expected rate. Few signs of infection despite poor treatment following initial detention.” She poked a spot on the side of his belly. “Subject has shrapnel inside a wound, investigating.”

Ben watched as the doctor stepped away. While she rummaged in a drawer he looked back over at the guard that had remained in the room. He held his weapon loosely, one hand on the grip and the other tapping his thigh. He felt something cold on his torso, then looked down as a silvery blade pushed into his belly. He whined, but remembered what he'd been told, to keep still. Vivien would take care of him. 

“Subject is practically unresponsive. Mental trauma seems far more severe than the physical injury.” She cut a little deeper, then brought up a pair of tongs. 

The doctor tugged on something in his belly. “Hurts,” mumbled Ben.

“Subject's tissue has seemingly fused with the shrapnel instead of encapsulating the foreign body,” said the doctor before cutting again.

Ben winced. “Stop, please stop.”

The doctor ignored him and cut it out of him, then set it on a tray. “Have this sent to the lab.” She returned her attention to him, this time focusing on his amputated leg. “Injury is recent, but not from the crash. Removing crude prosthetic affixed to subject's leg.” 

The doctor unfastened the straps that held the prosthetic to Ben's body, then tugged. Ben whimpered as he felt something begin to tear. 

“Fascinating.”

______

Vivien’s gaze focused on the man sitting across from Aria and Koschei. He wore a well fitted suit over a moderately muscled frame. On his lapel was a monogrammed “BHI” in harsh blocky letters. Behind his dark sunglasses were a pair of cybernetic eyes set to record their meeting and the right side of his head was a stylish, vented black cap over his ARC. 

The BHI representative took a sip of his water. “Avalon, Koschei. It is good to make your acquaintance, and thank you for taking on the job. I can see that you are rather busy with a personal matter, so I will be brief.”

Vivien slid into the man's ARC and began combing through what stored information he had. The protections were well made, but standard and woefully unprepared to face an AI. With a few more moments she'd have full access.

“Good, but we did have a couple questions,” said Koschei, leaning in. 

“Ask away,” replied the BHI representative.

“As I understand it, the facility we're going to be raiding is primarily underground,” said Avalon.

The rep nodded. “Correct.”

“And we are to be staging from a Blivet vessel in orbit?” Avalon got another nod from the man across the table. “Will there be any softening of the target before our deployment?”

“The vessel is home to a Screamer squadron,” he replied, sending the information to the mercenaries. “They're veteran pilots, softening a hard target is well within their wheelhouse.”

Avalon suppressed a growl. “Understood.”

With all the internal defenses now recognizing her as indistinguishable from the representative, Vivien dug into the records of the Screamer pilots. All of them had flown during the Veles Police Action, capable and already thoroughly blooded. 

“Will we be ferried to the surface by orbital drop, or transport vessel?” asked Koschei, resting a hand on Avalons thigh.

“Both are available.” He takes a moment to get a small data storage device out of a pocket, then sets it on the table. “All information, relevant and extraneous to this operation is inside. The Visund will be idling outside of Mittila's gravity well within the day, transport to it the day after.” The representative stood and bowed. “Thank you both for your time.”

Vivien sent out a ping to see if she could get into the chip that had been left on the table only to find it had only direct connectivity, no way for her to just jump into it. If she could have sneered, she would have. Her connection to the restaurant's security camera held as she watched the representative leave. She could stay and watch Aria and Koschei have their date, or continue to search for more information on the job they had taken. She withdrew from the camera and dug into the data once more. Most of it was unimportant, but a small partition held what she'd been looking for; the location of the facility. 

In a twist of fate, it was where her body was being held. She could be useful, she could prove to Aria that she was more capable than Nimue, better than Koschei. She would get her pilot back.

Vivien departed the Blivet rep's ARC and pinged back toward where she was held, crossing the vastness of the expanse through the bifrost. She paused in the supply ship she'd stalled above the planet. These people were allied with Mobius, carrying supplies the base below could not make on its own. For a moment she lingered in the airlock control systems before deciding to remove the constraints she'd set when she left before returning down to her body. 

It was easy to return to the draugr machine that acted as her central residence. The facility's staff were still examining it. She could feel them on her limbs, touching her body. One was in the palm of her hand. She could feel the warmth of her fingers on the strange metal that composed the Einherjar's body. Was this what Nimue felt? She wanted to touch the engineer back, her fingers twitching slightly. No. She had to bide her time. Once the Visund was in range she would strike. She would show how good she was, how useful and powerful. Nimue had always avoided directly exercising her skill, but Vivien would be different. She would be better.