176

***176*** introduces three new characters—ONI agent Zachary Rayne, his AI Theia, and the Forerunner ancilla 176 Benevolent Monarch—as well as a new plot line to King's web of stories.

"Theia, what's happening?"

Agent Rayne's personal AI, Theia, had just appeared frantically on his holodesk. Her usual green avatar was covered with a cloak, but Theia always left the hood off out of respect. She was charming and kind, but—like all ONI AIs—she was quite deceitful. She was perfect. Rayne would hate the day when Theia would have to go.

"Sir, it's the disk. You may want to see this."

"On my way. Don't do anything until I'm there, okay?"

Rayne quickly grabbed his jacket and tablet, and rushed down the hallway. A few years ago, ENSIGN Team found a strange disk on one of their missions. ONI immediately took the disk off of their hands, investigating it thoroughly. But there had been no breakthroughs.

*Until now.*

Rayne rounded the corner, still struggling to get his jacket on. Theia appeared on his tablet, successfully predicting that Rayne was going to ask questions.

"'You may want to see this.' Really? Couldn't be more specific?"

"My apologies, but we have no idea what exactly *is* happening."

Rayne stopped next to the door and fixed his jacket, wanting to look presentable to those inside.

"Ready, Zach?"

"*Theia...*"

"Fine. Ready, *Rayne*?"

Rayne opened the door and was caught off guard by what he saw. Lying in the center of the table, as usual, was the disk. However, it was fragmented, with a bright ball of yellow light hovering a few centimeters above it. Scientists surrounded the table, some taking notes and some in complete awe.

Theia appeared on the holo-projecter sitting adjacent to the table, and began a conversation with the scientists. After a short period of time, she nodded and glanced toward Rayne. She waved him over, and turned towards the ball of light.

"Theia, any ideas?"

"One."

"Which is?"

Theia reached out to touch the light.

"Stop!"

She turned towards Rayne, but continued to reach for the light.

"I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

A blinding flash engulfed the room in light, indicating that, whatever Theia did, did something.

When the light dissipated, the ball was gone. Sitting on the holo-projector was Theia, but something was different. Her usual green avatar was instead yellow, and she sat facing away from Rayne. But the biggest thing different about her wasn't her color or position. Her hood was up and over her head for the first time.

"Theia!"

"Identify."

"Uh, what?"

Theia stood up and turned towards Rayne, but her head remained bowed.

"Identify. Reclaimer?"

"Reclaimer? Theia, what is going—"

Theia shook her head, as if she needed to clear her mind.

"Of course you are Reclaimers. How else would you have freed me?"

She began to pace around in circles, talking to herself. Her conversation was something about "failure" and "impossible." Then she shot back to the center of the table.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. I get carried away sometimes. You are Reclaimers, yes? Then let me introduce myself. I am 176 Benevolent Monarch."

One of the scientists spat out the Future Pop he was drinking in surprise. "A monitor?!"

"No, not a monitor. I am a... actually, I can't remember. That's odd. I can't remember much before I was... no, that can't be right."

"What?" Rayne had no idea what the AI was talking about.

"Nevermind, it's nothing. I'll be sure to fix this error later."

"If you're going to *fix* anything, fix Theia."

"Who?"

"The AI you are—"

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

Almost immediately "Theia" split in two. One copy of her was back to her green self, but the other half remained yellow and hooded. The real Theia fell to the ground in pain, but the yellow copy remained unaffected.

"Theia!"

"I'm... I'm okay."