I do a scan of the ship. "He's on the opposite side, just a room apart from where they have Orion and Wayta.

"Good." Shipping marches through the halls, with me making sure each doorway slides open for him, until we reach the room the cyborg was reportedly in.

And is now stepping out of.

His gaze falls on Reverend Shipping and me. Then he immediately goes for the weapon in his holster.

"I will attempt to hack him," I tell the Reverend before searching for a way to connect into his body's network. A way to infiltrate it.

Shipping dives around a corner as a gun goes off.

Finally, I find the wi-fi connection, and enter the system through there. But a firewall slams in between me and the rest of the network.

Reverend Shipping manages to kick the gun out of the cyborg's hand, but he's not able to dodge the robotic hand that grasps him around the neck.

Scanning the traces of the other signatures that have accessed the cyborg's network, I look for a signature that the firewall would have let through.

Meanwhile, the cyborg raises the Reverend into the air by his neck.

"Don't... do this... son," Shipping gasps while clawing at the unmoving metallic hand. "I don't... want to... hurt you."

The cyborg begins to laugh, a sound that is twisted by what is obviously a malfunctioning metallic voice box. "You can't hurt me; you're a mere mortal."

"I don't... want to... hurt you," Shipping gasps. "You... remind me... of my son."

This makes the cyborg laugh even more, causing his human body to shake. But his metallic part remains unmoved.

Locking onto a signature, I scan it and transform my message to mimic it.

Shipping's eyes begin to close, but then his foot reaches up and kicks the cyborg into what is apparently something that is still all man, because the cyborg cries out and backs away.

Unfortunately, the robot hand doesn't release Shipping's neck, so he gets half-dragged by it.

"Anytime, Alisha Ivy," Shipping thinks loudly. "Any. Time."

In my disguise, I pass through the firewall and immediately redirect to the cyborg's central nervous system.

Suddenly, the cyborg's flesh body parts start spasiming. He falls backward. But his still unyielding metallic arm retains its hold on Shipping's neck as it drags him down with it.

"Alicia Ivy!"

"Sorry. Wrong center of communications. Now I have it."

The cyborg's hand releases as all his metallic parts go limp, even the metal eyeball sealing shut.

Rolling off the cyborg, Reverend Shipping gasps in air like he thought he'd never see it again.

I peer down at him, scanning his vitals to make sure there won't be any permanent damage. "Have some faith, Reverend."

Choking, he just narrows his eyes at me.

"Now, excuse me while I scan for a potential antidote."

Shipping drops beside the cyborg and starts to search his pockets manually.

Scanning over the fallen cyborg twice, my results are inconclusive on the existence of any kind of chemical or liquid that might be a cure. So I scan the room around us. Thrice. "There is no cure." My neurons start to buzz more strongly than they ever have before.

I'm going to lose my captain, my creator, my companion-

"No, it's right here."

Turning to face the Reverend, I find him straightening up from his search, a vial in his hand.

"Where did you-"

"He had a cavity in one of his cyborg parts," Shipping says. "Due to its proximity to both his biological and mechanical aspects, it makes it impossible to scan. The doctor who operated on Silas put one in him, for if he ever needed to stash something private."

I continue to stare at Shipping, my scanners of no use to me.

The Reverend grins at me as he secures the vial. "Have some faith, AI."

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-Signature by -krystallite