"Alex, I'm glad you're back. The STO has been contacting us every hour to try and reach you," Vigbrand said as soon as Alexander stepped off the shuttle.

"They have?" he asked. "What did they want?"

"They want to schedule the inquiry as soon as possible. It seems something crawled up their butt recently and now they are in a hurry."

"It probably has something to do with the Xin attacking the STO," Alexander revealed as he pondered the request. If the Navy was mobilizing for a war against Grand Admiral Xin, they probably wanted to get the whole inquiry over with and out of the way so they could focus on other concerns.

That actually worked in Alexander's favor, but he had a problem. "I planned on showing Yulia around Earth some more for the next few weeks, then meeting with them right before leaving. I take it by your expression that you doubt they will want to wait."

"I couldn't say," Vigbrand said blandly, "but I know they have been calling every hour on the hour. I assume they won't stop until you give them a set time."

As amusing as it would be to see how long the STO would keep up the pressure, Alexander wouldn't do that to his XO.

"Fine, I'll speak to them when they call next."

Alexander's plans would need to be modified. He would be stuck in more meetings with the STO, but he wasn't about to deprive Yulia of a chance to see the sights. He wouldn't be sending her out there without proper protection, either.

It was time to recall the strike team that had been trying to figure out what Willard was up to. They hadn't had any luck in that department, so their skills would be put to better use guarding Yulia while he was occupied. With Galloway leading the team and having lived on earth for a time, it also provided her with a guide, one that had more recent knowledge than Alexander did.

"You also have a message from a man by the name of Reto," Vigbrand added.

"I do?" That was a surprise. Alexander had assumed the man had forgotten or simply not found anything of note since it had been nearly two weeks since his visit to the archives.

Since he had to wait for the STO to call again, he headed to his office and pulled up the message from the archive attendant.

Mr. Kane, I apologize for taking so long to get back to you, but your request took far longer than I initially anticipated. My diligence paid off, however, and I did find information on the missing time. It was only available in old newspapers and some very old books that had seen better days.

Why nobody sought to digitize them is beyond me, but perhaps that had more to do with the sentiment back then. This

chapterfirstappearedonM|V|L^EMPYR.

It appears our ancestors had a bit of an AI issue, or so the articles claim, but I know they tended toward hyperbole back then, so it was likely just an advanced computer algorithm that was poorly programmed. This is both surprising and illuminating. I always assumed the first AIs were created during the twenty-third century…

Alexander kept reading even though Reto seemed to go off on tangents when he found a new piece of interesting information, which in this case seemed to be every sentence.

…It also might explain the total technology blackout during that period… Oh, I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Where was I? Right. It seems that whoever created the AI or program, no name was ever mentioned as far as I could find, was a bit insane. He turned it into a weapon and tried to take down the United States government at the time.

I'm honestly surprised he failed. From what I gathered, the attack was a complete surprise. The final newspaper covering the conflict stated that the US defeated the individual after a short but bloody conflict in the Arizona desert, where some sort of explosive was detonated, killing the man and the hardware where the program resided.

I wonder if they are referring to the Frieberg crater. Anyway, that is all the information I was able to gather…

Reto went on for a few more paragraphs where he discussed the uniqueness of such a historic find, but Alexander only skimmed over the remaining message, wondering what it all meant.

He still had plenty of memories containing tech from back then, and humanity had what they called AI, but everyone knew those were just advanced filtering algorithms. Certainly, nothing that couldn't be dealt with easily by the armed forces of the US.

Had the aliens, who built him, given someone on Earth the ability and knowledge to program a true AI? What did they ask in return? Is that why he was abducted and stuffed into a robot body?

Another uncomfortable question came to him. Was he the AI?

Alexander had dismissed the possibility long ago, but the new evidence brought it right back to the forefront of his mind. And if that was true, what had he done? And why had he done it?

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If anything was going to shine a light on those questions, it would be that crater that Reto had mentioned. He had to know if it was connected to him. A quick net search gave him the location.

Without a word, Alexander left his office and strode toward the shuttle again. On his way, he told Vigbrand to forward the STO call to his comm and that he was heading to the surface to look at something.

His XO confirmed the message as Alexander was stepping aboard the shuttle. He hadn't even stopped to gather his security detail, he was in too much of a hurry.

He wouldn't be without protection, though.

The shuttle exited Yulia's Grace and headed toward the surface. He fought the urge to push the vehicle to its full power, but he held himself back. That was a trump card he would hold for an actual emergency.

The view burned as the shuttle plowed through the upper atmosphere. Once the air was thick enough, he pressed a button on his console that primed the field generator.

It worked the same as it had every time he had used the shuttle to land, but he double-checked the system anyway. The capacitor was charging.

If someone wanted to attack him, now would be the best time, but he was betting on the suddenness of his trip to prevent that from happening.

With that worry alleviated, he checked the FE cannon turret concealed inside the shuttle's hull. The scan inhibitor made the concealment of the turret possible. The weapon was the same one he had outfitted the Stingrays with, giving it enough punch to go through ship armor if necessary.

It took about half an hour to deorbit into a glide, which required him to circle and avoid air traffic and angry air traffic control people yelling at him.

That wasn't the first time, and Alexander ignored them like he had before. The shuttle may not have a computronic running its systems, but it had the best sensors that a ship of its size could fit and Alexander at the helm.

He had his framerate jacked up to max to avoid any accidents as well, but even so, he blazed dangerously close to the rear of a large airplane, the wake of the craft shaking his ship slightly as he zipped by. He was doing his best to arrest his speed, but orbital velocities took time to bleed off unless he wanted to fire up the maneuvering thrusters.

Alexander held off on doing that. He didn't want to accelerate, but he didn't want to waste time either.

It was much smoother sailing once he was over the Pacific Ocean. He had easily overshot Arizona, but he knew that was going to happen due to his descent speed. Alexander fired up the maneuvering thrusters and guided the shuttle into a long curving arc back toward the West Coast and the Isle of Cali. The island was what remained of California after the San Andreas fault finally split the state from the rest of the country.

Alexander only knew about that bit of geologic history because it came up during his search for interesting places to visit. He had chosen not to visit the island simply due to the fact that it was a tourist trap.

He zipped low over the Sierra Nevada mountains, kicking up a trail of snow from his wake. Thankfully, he had slowed down enough that no sonic boom followed.

Before leaving the ship, Alexander had looked up the location of the crater. It wasn't necessary; he could see it in the distance.

The thing was massive, but not nearly as large as the Barringer crater, which lay a few hundred miles to the North and East. The crater he was heading for was also weirdly close to Las Vegas, which, despite hundreds of years, seemed to still be doing well.

There was an inconvenient parking lot, filled with cars, next to the crater, and it appeared that someone had turned the site into a local attraction that was quite popular.

People looked up and pointed at the shuttle as Alexander circled to try and find a space to land. He really should have waited until night to visit the location, but it was too late now.

A few people decided to leave, and Alexander took their parking spots.

The shuttle touched down, denting the roof of the truck next to it and setting off the car alarm from the vehicle on the opposite side.

Alexander would send them some money for the inconvenience, but now that he was there, he could feel that he had been there before. He needed to see the crater with his own eyes to confirm that feeling and see if he could jog any more memories loose.

A small crowd of people gathered, some angry with the disruption of their visit, some intrigued by who might be aboard.

When Alexander stepped off the back ramp of the shuttle, anyone who might have been angry quickly quieted. Others made a hasty retreat while the rest made room for him as he strode toward the visitor center.

Alexander overheard one man mutter. "Must really like craters." Before he entered the building.

The man behind the ticket counter looked practically frozen in terror until Alexander handed over a data chip with some credits. "I put some extra on it to make up for any inconvenience my visit might cause your establishment."

Without waiting for the man to respond, Alexander strode past the booth and through the gate to the crater.

He passed a series of small holo screens that showed video and speculative information on what had caused the crater.

As Alexander stepped out to the overlook, he could see the molten edges of the walls, the sand had formed glass rivulets that coated the sides and looked like hardened candle wax. He was no expert, but he was pretty sure an impact would have thrown the debris away from the crater. The damage he saw looked like something had melted the crater in place.

He knew of only one thing that could flash-melt solid rock, but he had a hard time believing a fusion device was involved. For one, it would have had to have been at least as powerful as the reactor aboard Vanguard, and two, it would have been built nearly fifty years before humanity had ever harnessed fusion. The damage left behind matched what he saw in the sections of Wayward Soul that got hit by the plasma missile, though.

It was more evidence that the aliens who had built his body had been there. Alexander could feel his connection to the place as well. While the crater didn't spark any memories within him, he could feel it, the tickling at the back of his mind as he scanned the desert horizon in the distance. The backdrop of mountains was the one thing that hadn't changed in four hundred years.

He didn't know what it all meant.

If anything, it just brought him more questions. Why were the aliens here? And what was their goal?

He was shaken from his thoughts as someone timidly cleared their throat behind him. Alexander focused behind himself and found the attendant standing there wringing his hands.

"Yes?" Alexander asked gently, not wanting to startle the young man any more than he had already.

"You paid way more than a ticket cost, so I figured I should warn you. Someone called the police on you."

Alexander plastered a smile on his avatar before turning toward the man. "Thank you. I'm done here anyway."

He was able to leave the site before the police arrived, which allowed him to avoid any unnecessary questions about his actions. He had enough of his own questions rattling about in his mind at the moment.