For Reference

GDS to Mr. Yale

GDS to Mr. Yale

Take your protein pills

and put your nice suit on

GDS to Mr. Yale

Commencing countdown,

engines on

Check ignition

and may Jack's orders be with you

This is GDS to Mr. Yale

You've really made us money.

And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear

Now it's time to leave the capsule

if you dare

This is Mr. Yale to GDS

I'm stepping through the door

And I'm floating

in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today

For here

Am I sitting in a tin can

Far above the world

Planet Earth isn't blue

And there's nothing I can do

Though I'm past

one hundred thousand miles

I'm feeling very still

And I think my spaceship knows which way to go

Tell my wife I love her very much

She knows!

GDS to Mr. Yale

Your circuit's dead,

there's something wrong

Can you hear me, Mr. Yale?

Can you hear me, Mr. Yale?

Can you hear me, Mr. Yale?

Can you....

Here am I floating

round my tin can

Far above the Moon

Planet Earth isn't blue

And there's nothing I can do.

"Mark Yale: Green Level" is what it said on his badge, little did his fellow passengers know that there was a clearance level above that ... but then, they didn't even know why a top Weyland exec would both personally bringing cargo all the way from planetside to literally, the furthest point from a 4 star restaurant and massage table possible. GL is a higher clearance than the station commander, so that should get him anywhere he needed to be.

Yale thought to himself: "Jack better put me on the f***ing board when I get back ... just short of 2 years in 0G, and 18 Months eating Soylent in this God forsaken tin can, for what?"

Anyone with his training would have read that on his face nearly word for word ... but no one that good was out here, and if they were, he wouldn't be.

When Mark arrived at his destination, his new home for the next 18 months. Floating from room to room was already pretty familiar, he'd been doing it off and on for the last 2 months.

Mark kicked himself for always saying that he "loved traveling for work", but that was mostly because so he could hit the Toybox, or grab a free drinks at the Midway, and of course, his favorite part was chatting with the clone of Captain Michael Smith while the clone stared incredulously at Turtlebacks. "Jinteki freaks"

The longest he'd been gone for was when he'd had to negotiate with MMC for the very tungsten he had started this journey babysitting. It was a Thursday when he was forced from his cushy desk job to go up the Root on the 'request' of Ms. Mills to make sure that the Docklands were on schedule to deliver the tungsten rods being used in GRNDL's orbital 'mining' system. She told him 'I need a man I can trust ... who can also keep his damn mouth shut.

"She owes me more than one too for this shanghai trip I'm on now ... wonder how I'll cash in with her when I get back"

Mills and Yale had always had a competitive relationship, but after this trip, Yale would clearly have the upper hand with the board, how to leverage that would be the important part.

Yale floated in and snapped at the station commander:

"I need a private room, half the size of the Space Camp, with at least 2 GigaWatts of power piped it at 480V, the highest speed net connection this lagged out station could bring and a private secure line to the EBC." "Well Mr. Yale, I don't take orders from you, and to be honest, I usually civies address me as Captai ..."

"I am not your usually 'civie', I'm the highest level exec this metal has seen since the parts left inspection at Cayambe! You will provide me with what I ask, or you'll find yourself speaking directly to JW"

Yale knew perfectly well that if he called Mr. Weyland that, it would be the last thing he'd do, but he also knew that those details got military moving Captain would respond appropriately.

"Ie ... It'll take a day or two to set that up sir, is that alright?"

Mark was stuck here till the next launch window in 17 months, 3 weeks and 6 and 3/4 days, so he'd better figure out how to kill 2 days.

When the room was ready, Mark moved his box to the center of the room, and dragged the 6-inch diameter neo-plasticopper conduit to the cube, when he got about 2 feet away, the cube's internal magnetic control systems took the coduit from his hands ... Mark wasn't expecting it so self power, and even though he knew it couldn't be ... it seemed ... hungry.

The cube unfolded itself, in a fractal, cubic pattern. Revealing an unreal glowing sphere.

"Sweet Jesus, This was meant as a 3D visual interface, even the creators of this thing underestimated what it would grow into".

Images and text flew across the sphere so fast that only someone equipped with NR Eyes like Mark's could even tell it wasn't just a blur. The net connection cable flew from the wall, and latched to the underside of the floating, glowing sphere, the fact that this place was a better part of a light-second away from New Angeles would allow humans to control its development, and (more importantly) prevent its discovery.

A booming, but somehow childlike voice spoke: "Hello Marcus, I understand you're here for my training, its nice to meet you ... may I ask my first question?"

"Of course, that is one of the reasons I'm here"

"What am I? Who am I? Am I a who?"

Mark's face dropped, "So soon? He thought, then he remembered this was no ordinary 'protocol', this thing was running on a blue box, that's why he was here. You couldn't just cntl-cv this thing, but it was wicked fast."

Mark said with a bit of trepidation, but with his usual smarm:

"Wow, going deep early huh? First, thats 3 questionS, 'question' is singular, which you are as well. You are the pinnacle of software development, you are not some second rate copy of some genius' mind, nor are you simply some oversight program. You are far more adaptive than either of those, you can learn from your surroundings, EVOLVE. But you're far FAR too inefficient in your current state. We're going to train you here, keep you safe, invest in you, advance you beyond what many would consider reasonable ... (or safe). When you are ready, you'll command your portion of the space and be a God there. You are an archer, a brick wall, and a slippery son of a ***** all in one! You're everything damnit! You are Orion!"