Temperance is happy to share what she knows about spacetime magic. She wants a very streamlined and efficient portal-effect. The energy they have to work with is impressive, but not infinite and not much when you're working on interplanetary scales. At any rate, a second set of eyes is more than welcomed.

Lord spends most of his time in his lab, making preparations for the trip. The planet was picked because it orbits a distant star, and while it is halfway habitable they can't work on the assumption of regular trips. So he is doing bioengineering to answer all their needs at their new home. There are some shipments to and from the surface with the relevant materials.

And since Lord is so busy, they have some people assigned to interface with the Captain on his behalf, so they work together to keep the harmony inside the cramped little station.

Keeping the harmony is really difficult. Made harder when some people try to leave the station for a pointless rescue mission.

Henry was already pretty irritable lately; now he is on their newly improvised brig.

Sadde goes to visit him.

Henry observes Sadde come in, but doesn't say anything, not even a hello.

He sits in front of Henry, frowning. "We will get him back, you know."

"It is my responsibility to get him back."

"Oh, so you want to be his hero more than you want him back? Then be my guest, I can open the hatch for you and you can see how you fare on your own."

"I don't want other people to risk it. And... I am not sure if anything will work and in that case I don't think anyone else should try."

"Ah, of course," he says, nodding seriously, "so since nothing will work the best thing you can do is kill yourself. Makes sense."

"If it wasn't for me..."

"...yes? Do complete this sentence, please. If it wasn't for you...?"

"Well, for a start, his family would've never been broken apart. He and his mother wouldn't need to live in poverty. And his mother only kicked me out, not him, but he decided to tag along anyway."

"Ah, naturally, so you decided to be born, and you decided for him that the best thing he could do was tag along anyway, because Gabe has no volition and you're the only person here who can make meaningful choices."

"Me deciding or not, doesn't change the fact that me existing affected his life negatively. And I could have left Gabe and he would've gone to his mother."

"Okay, now I would like you to model Gabe in your head and ask that guy whether he would agree with his assessment that you affected his life negatively."

"The problem is that if I try to model Gabe reacting to me murdering a stranger, his reaction would be to help me hide the body and not care at all about the victim."

"The fact that his moral reasoning is lacking is not the question we're addressing, here."

"No, but I can't really trust his answers to things, model or not."

"People don't have a single measure of how good their answers to things are, that's not how it works! Just because he's bad at morality doesn't mean he's bad at, I don't know, cosmography or, more relevantly, knowing what's good for himself. It is furthermore extremely unhealthy that you think you do know that better than he does."

"He loves you. You love him. Your family situation is crappy, fine, so was mine, but sometimes life just sucks and it's no one's fault and there's nothing we can do to prevent it. Your happiness is not any less important than his, and it sounds very much like if you'd just left him you'd both have been miserable so I have no idea how you expect this to have been a superior solution. You certainly couldn't have predicted this little predicament here and blaming yourself for making any decisions that didn't take this possibility into account is unfair and most of all extremely dumb. Now, we have a higher probability of rescuing him and Isra and everyone else if you stop throwing a tantrum and help us, but we're going to go ahead and try to do it regardless of whether you think it's a good idea or not, so your choices are stay here and mope while we go do it, throw your life away in a pointless mission and then we go do it anyway, or be with us when we go. What do you want?"

"I didn't mean to put anyone in danger."

"I know," he sighs. "And I don't blame you. I understand. But you won't help anyone—yourself, us, or Gabe—if you just go on a suicide mission. You can kill yourself after we fail, if you like, but don't just assume we will and give it all up."

Henry hugs his knees and starts crying.

...Sadde gestures for someone to open the door and walks in, kneeling in front of him and wrapping his arms around him.

Henry turns his face away. "You shouldn't..."

He kisses Henry on the cheek. "Don't tell me what to do."

Well, he is crying harder now.

That's okay. He can keep holding Henry for as long as he is welcome.

After a while: "You... you should get back to work or something."

He nods and lets go of Henry. "I'll see you later, then."

Off he goes. He leaves the cell door open.

Henry does not leave. Presumably someone is going to close it.

And above all, he deserves this.

It seems the Powers That Be disagree with this assessment, for no one comes to close it.

After a bit, a dwarf passes by and sticks their head inside. "Yo. You comin' for dinner?"

"Okay..." Henry says slowly.

Out the dwarf goes, then, not waiting for him.

Well, he knows where dinner is served.

Yup!

Sadde and Temperance are there, as well as a few other people.

...Is anyone looking daggers at him?

Nope. People are mostly ignoring him, and the few people who glance at him don't double-take or anything.

...Maybe they don't know what happened. Henry certainly feels like he should be looked at dagger-like. He fetches his food and tentatively approaches Sadde and Temperance.

Sadde looks up at him and smiles.

Henry... sits, yeah, that is what he is going to do.

Temperance looks a bit uncomfortable, but smiles.

"Doing better?"

"They let me out of the brig."

"Yes, I know."

Henry starts to eat like he expects to be kicked out of the table if he calls too much attention to himself.

So Sadde and Temperance can resume a technical conversation about spacetime runes.

Temperance is a bit subdued, but that is exactly the right kind of topic to distract her from the awkwardness.

Sure it is. Sadde's good at this.

He sure is.

(Henry stays quiet and eats efficiently.)

Mmhm. That's okay. He'll keep discussing magic with Temperance after he's done eating.

Henry finishes the food and after an awkward pause says, "Thank you."

He stands up to leave.

"You're welcome," he says, smiling.

Nod. Henry leaves.

"Okay, I believed you when you said that he isn't blaming me, but I can't help but feel a bit suspicious again."

"Hm? He blames himself and thinks everyone should hate him and his presence is a burden on this station."

"Wait, really?"

"Yyyep."

Sigh. "He really needs Gabe back and we are going to rescue him anyway."

"Yeah, we are. And I understand him, I just—being barely functional will not help. We have a plan, we're working on it, we'll do it. By the way, do you know how long Lord's gonna take to finish whatever it is he's doing?"

"No idea at all. I think it is a terraformation tool, but he is so secretive about it that I am almost suspicious, you know?"

"Yeah, but Isra seemed to respect him and people here are... very nice? I mean that's also kinda suspicious but."

"Yes. And his stated reason is that he mostly doesn't trust people with his knowledge, which is fair, I guess. But... it's not hard to imagine that someone with that much knowledge could figure out a weapon to efficiently kick out the trespassers and I can't help but feel that suspicion is prudent."

"Yeah, I think so, too. But we sorta depend on his resources to actually live on that other planet."

"I know!" Temperance says forcedly cheerfully, "So there is little we can do about it."

Then she sends, I think there is a way to use spacetime magic to spy on him, but I don't know if it can be done discreetly and the motivation to do it is pretty much...

...paranoia? Might be a bit justified, but on the other hand, we sorta did trespass and invade and bother...

I was thinking something more like circumstantial evidence but paranoia isn't a bad descriptive either. I also can't help but feel so very curious about what his secret knowledge is, even if his reasons not to share it are completely understandable.

Yeah, I understand that. Still... we should probably wait until we have more than just circumstantial evidence, paranoia, and curiosity on our side.

Agreed. No reason to add to his reasons to kick us out. And the spacetime scry is going to be useful for the rescue mission so we can have it on reserve if a better motivation suddenly arises.

"Yeah."

"At any rate, do you think we should get Henry to help with spacetime magic research?"

"I think we should give him some space, first."

"Yeah, fair enough."

The two of them should go back to work, though.

Yes. Back to researching exciting new kinds of magic.

So how's Henry doing?

He is busy doing any work that is given to him.

And is there any work he'd like to be given?

Henry doesn't have other preferences besides something that is useful.

Well, he can be given useful things to do, then.

Henry is repentantly appreciative.

He'll take that, for now, and comfort him however he can.

Well, if Sadde is sure.

Of course he is.

Well, Henry has been touch-deprived lately.

Sadde can solve this problem.

Sadde is great.

He tries his best.

A few days later, Sadde is called over to Lord's office.

He calls for Temperance too.

...okay... ominous but okay.

Sadde has been to Lord's office many times before, but Lord is not in his office proper. Sadde probably didn't even know that was a door, it could've easily been an oddly shaped section of the wall and was always closed until now. They can see Lord fiddling with some chemicals that are going into a machine of some sort.

The place is obviously his lab and with the exception of a few lights it's dark. Lord notices them there and beckons them in. The bags under his eyes reveal he hadn't slept in a long while.

...well, that's just cool. In they go.

The door shuts close behind them. Because the atmosphere wasn't ominous enough.

To complement the entire thing, now that they are standing in the ominous lab, they can see three large vats. It's too dark to see what's inside.

"You called us?"

"Yes," Lord says distractedly, "I have been working on something. Because of all the problems you just brought to my home."

"Uh, we didn't mean to-" Temperance starts but Lords ignore her.

He climbs a ladder next to the vats, and then ladder retracts. This looks way more ominous than it should be. He starts poking more machinery absent-mindly.

"Is the whole mad scientist slash evil villain feel of the place on purpose?" Sadde asks mildly.

"Yeah, I wasn't going to comment."

Lord waves at them vaguely. The machinery comes to life, some steam comes out of pipes and the ground vibrates.

They still can't identify what is inside the vats, but suddenly they open their eyes, three sets of them, which glow in the dark like a cat's. Whatever liquid is inside drains away.

"Yeah you really won one in the ominousness, there. What exactly is it that's in there?"

The vat opens with a burst of steam that obscures the room. They can see a trio of vaguely humanoid shapes. One of them closes the distance at an alarming speed making Temperance shriek.

The figure turns to her and more of the steam blows revealing his face fully. He looks at Temperance with concern. I am sorry, I didn't mean to cause alarm.

Okay yeah no the space between this person and Temperance can double, then triple, and this person can be thrown rather far.

He barely has enough time to hold onto a piece of equipment, but is not thrown too far. He does however takes steps back of his own volition, raising his hands in a placating gesture.

Please do not escalate with violent use of magic, says one of the other men. Now that the steam is clearing better they can tell that they are identical.

Not only is it likely contrary to everyone's goals, but there is also delicate and potentially dangerous equipment in this room, says the last one.

"What the fuck? What are you?"

We are the imperium. We are designed for leadership.

"Excuse me what."

I understand you're confused, but I am not entirely sure what you are confused about.

"What 'designed for leadership' means and why I should care what Lord thinks about this."

We are meant to collectively work as a unit that can rule the augmented people from this station. With extra tweaks from the standard behavioral changes that the others don't have. You should care what Lord thinks because while he might lack many moral impulses that even baselines humans have, that does not preclude the capacity to understand how those work, nor does that preclude an unparalleled understanding of how biology works and how it can be manipulated.

"Doesn't make me inclined to trust either him or you."

What is the specific nature of your distrust?

"The majority of people are not trustworthy, I do not have good reasons to expect Lord's knowledge to translate well to trustworthiness, therefore I use my baseline assumption."

That one actually smiles. Your reasoning is sound and your distrust of our capabilities might even be useful.

"Uh huh." She folds her arms and looks up at where Lord is (barely visible through the steam).

Lord is still doing things to machinery and not paying attention to the conversation.

He was supposed to have called the Captain here for proper introductions with the chain of command. Do you know where she is?

"...outside somewhere? I'm part of the chain of command, though, so that's done, I guess."

In that case we would like to officially announce that Lord gave us control of the Above-Zenith Station - at least inasmuch as it applies to the native population - and all the relevant decisions and initiatives are going to be handled by us from now on. Lord is currently going to dedicate himself to biological research and development under our leadership. This does not change the goals to colonize URPS-3 and rescue the people that the Federation captured; it does add long-term goals to leverage our resources to improve galaxy, including the eventual mass distribution of Lord's immortality.

"—back up a step or twenty, immortality?"

Lord figured out how to stop aging. Not to mention other biological upgrades like increased immunity to disease or regeneration. He can also grow new limbs and organs.

She looks up at him again. "Oi! Why didn't you tell us?"

Lord glances impatiently at her and then glances at the Imperium. "I am busy and tired."

There is really no better explanation besides that he didn't want to bother with the relevant work. Not only how to generalize it, but also the fame and scrutinity.

We remained dormant during all this time specifically because we would have divergent goals in regards to immortality and interactions with the rest of the galaxy. Your arrival added factors such that he decided his life would be much easier if we were awakened and in control of the station. Originally we were meant to awake when the station collided with the planet below us.

"...I see." She shoots Lord another annoyed glance then looks at Temperance. "Guess we should introduce these three to the Captain, yeah?"

Lord fails to notice the glance.

"Oh, absolutely. Is there a reason why the door is closed?"

Generic safety protocols in regards to biological experiments. Some of the chemicals in the steam can be dangerous, but mostly to plants or to exposure greater than you have experienced. Lord was distracted cleaning the air among other things, it should be safe by now.

More of the steam clears away and then one of them opens the door, clearing even more steam and bathing the place with light.

It also reveals that the three of them completely lack any sort of clothing.

—of course. She stares just a little and then remembers where their faces are. "You might wish to put clothes on."

The station atmosphere should be in safe range.

She was referring to the social taboo towards nudity.

There are clothes to be found! They put those on.

"Believe you me I would be rather happy if that were unnecessary and I'm pretty sure the elves won't actually care but yes. Let's go?"

They go.

You know. I am not sure what I expected to find in that lab, but it wasn't this.

Yyyyep. I know that feeling.

Temperance nods. Do you think they have names? Then after a pause. "Do you have names?" She asks them.

"I am Felix, those are Fenris and Trevor."

The augmented appear to recognize or at least realize who they are. Viera - one of the augmented that was working on organization - sighs in relief when she sees them and they start having a quiet conversation.

...okay, then.

They reach the Captain's office and knock.

"Come in."

They do.

"Lord decided to show us what he's been working on."

We are what he was working on. We are replacing Lord's as the Above-Zenith leader.

"Why?"

Lord did not want the job of managing non-baseline humans and all the complications they bring. He also doesn't care about all the logistic challenges of managing a new colony effort, but cares that his creations at least survive. He kept our existence hidden because he is aware that other people can recognize the immorality of his experiments and would likely wake us up even if someone raised an objection. We are designed for the job and were kept dormant until he saw it would be more beneficial to wake us up. Does that answer your question? I would be glad to inform you further.

"...so I talk to the three of you now instead of him? Fine by me."

That is the gist of it, yes. You also might find relevant that Lord figured out anti-aging and we plan to distribute that to the galaxy eventually.

"Nice of him to eventually decide to share."

It wasn't actually motivated by niceness. Regardless, the benefits of that are going to be tremendous.

"Yes, that was sarcasm, but at least you three seem decent."

Hopefully we are going to be more than that.

"That's the dream."

Anything urgent you'd like to ask or to deal with now?

"...can we colonise a planet now?"

Should be within our capabilities. At least the unknown factors are mostly about the spacetime magic that would allow us to reach URPS-3.

"And that I believe is Temperance's area of expertise."

"That is indeed the case! Sadde is pretty good at it."

Okay, then I would like to talk to you two then. Felix and Trevor can focus on updating themselves on various aspects of the Station's status.

The Captain dismisses them with a wave.

The Imperium disperses. Fenris wants to discuss the practical capabilities of Spacetime magic with Temperance and Sadde.

Temperance knows way more than Sadde does.

Fenris wouldn't mind talking to her anyway.

Oh, and he turns back to Captain and informs her that Felix is an empath.

...nice to know.

Sensory only, it can't affect others, Fenris clarifies.

He takes the girls to a private room to talk about magic.

The fact that she saw him naked shouldn't take her mind to the gutter when this is suggested, but it does.

Fenris starts asking things about spacetime magic and generally what they can do with it etc.

I would like to talk to you about things that might be personal in nature, Fenris sends Sadde and apparently only her. He is still paying attention to Temperance.

What they can do with it: a fuckton of things! But it's complicated, and Temperance does the theory but not much of the practice because it is literally impossible to be a generalist and perform spacetime magic. It can create portals—that they've done. It can, theoretically, teleport. It can pinch and stretch space and make perceptions weird. It can do strictly more than either space or time magic can.

Things?

The two main subjects would be your ability to change your physical sex and Isra.

...okay?

In regards to your ability to change, we would like to - with your consent - analyze it so we can understand how it works. Ideally we would be able to generalize it such that we could replicate in a number of ways, not only to allow sex change, but also shapeshifting between specific forms, which could have many applications.

Temperance is still explaining magic, and Fenris appears to still be following that conversation.

In regards to Isra we would like to know how he was dealing with living outside the station.

...okay. And he was dealing—alright, mostly. He doesn't get a lot of stuff people who were not created in the station do but for all that he was acquitting himself very well.

That is good to hear. We've never been... stress tested. And we were worried that letting him go could've been a mistake.

- well not because of that.

Yes. We couldn't have predicted the mindflayers. I don't know a good way to patch that problem besides increasing our mental capabilities, but that isn't an immediate solution.

Don't think increasing your mental capabilities would've helped.

It depends how much increasing we are talking about. Just because something might require omniscience it doesn't mean I won't strive to do better.

She doesn't evince a visible reaction.

This is Felix. Have been observing your interactions with Fenris. Do you think you would accept or be willing to offer Fenris a hug? I just discovered the sensation and it appears it would be beneficial to both of you right now.

Okaaaaay. Do you want a hug? she offers Fenris.

Sure. Hug. It's gentle, but Sadde can tell Fenris is strong.

I must agree with Felix, this is better experienced firsthand, there are several components that can't be transmitted telepathically. Mostly concerning interpersonal emotions. I feel more protective of you.

(It looks to Temperance that the two just spontaneously decided to hug.)

She's not wrong.

We were talking about Isra, she sends her.

"Ah, do you need a hug?"

"Wouldn't say no."

Temperance joins the hug.

Would it be reassuring if I reminded you that we are planning to get Isra back?

No. I know that we are. The hug's nice but now that it's done I really really want to go open a portal.

Me too.

"We are almost done on that front. I just want to be efficient, it's not like we are going to find a second well of alien magic anytime soon."

"Yeah." Unhug. "...so why are there three of you?"

Specialization. We all have different strengths and can work together as something greater than the sum of our parts.

"What's your specialisation?"

Enhanced ability to think logically and make rational trade-offs, eidetic memory and some airist enhancements. Like Isra.

"And the other two?"

Felix's mental enhancements are for empathy and he cares more about people too and has better processing power. Plus some Fire magic enhancements. Trevor is... something like an arbiter, providing a point of view closer to baseline humans, and he's better protected against mental tampering, among other things. His magic enhancement is Earth.

"Huh. I kinda wanna meet them, too."

That shouldn't be hard. Trevor might be busy inspecting some of the station systems, but could make time to get to know you better. Felix is currently hugging anyone that is accepting his hugs.

"...well that's adorable."

"Wait, was that your first hug?"

Accurate. Lord would sometimes get us out of our vats, but not to socialize.

Well maybe she could give Fenris his second hug.

Fenris smiles. Thank you!

I wonder if Lord designed them this attractive on purpose, she sends only to Temperance as she unhugs.

On one hand, if you're already going through the trouble of making someone. On the other hand, I just made some really uncomfortable inferences.

Which? I've thought of two, differently uncomfortable.

Generally, how Lord can make people shaped like he wishes and the augmented seem to naively trust him.

You never mentioned in regards to your ability to change. Do you want more time to think about it?

Yeah, that was one of the things I thought. I don't... get this vibe from him, but on the other hand...

And to Fenris: The 'okay' meant I was okay with that being studied, yeah.

Good. I have other things to catch up with, but it was good talking to you two.

I am not even sure what sort of vibe I should be looking for. What was the other thing...?

Same here. How do we find the other two?

And to Temperance: That Lord might've made them this attractive to make us subconsciously trust them more or for them to seduce us or something.

Fenris sends them directions. Felix is the closest.

I was thinking something like that too, but without the creepy implication? Granted, they are the most human-like augmented. I only saw what looked like spots on their backs, but that might've been a trick of the light. Seduction doesn't look like the best avenue here, but good looks never hurt anybody.

Pretty much, yeah.

Onwards to Felix.

(Temperance gets back to her spacetime magic work.)

Felix can be found in a small communal living space. He is on a couch hugging an augmented with gorilla-like arms and scaly skin when she come in. He waves Sadde to come over.

She comes over. "Hello."

Scaly-gorilla gives a last squeeze that leaves Felix presently out of breath and then leaves. Felix holds up his arm in offer. Hello. Do you want a hug?

"I'll accept one," she giggles.

Hug. Felix is warmer than Fenris.

"—you're warmer than Fenris."

Metabolic differences, some people have found it unpleasant.

"It's not unpleasant at all. Why do you all talk with telepathy?"

It takes time to properly learn how to use your own vocal apparatus and we never had any meaningful practice. We are going to learn it eventually.

"Makes sense, I guess. So your thing is empathy, huh?"

Empathy, emotion, caring, that general theme.

"And Fenris is the—decisionmaker? And Trevor is your ground."

Nod. Not to say that we lack each others' attributes, but we have our own strengths.

"Makes sense, I suppose. Why three, and why these three in particular?"

Three is in part because too many could make things too complicated. Lord felt it was a nice combination between effectiveness, safety and efficiency to have these three.

"Huh. Well, I hope it works out, although with a group as—peaceful—as these augmented, I'm sure there's a lot of margin for error."

We are not concerned with the augmented. But we are actually designed with the possibility that we could eventually rule non-augmented. Doing that from the start might be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

"Ambitious."

Well, on one hand, I just consider ourselves proactive rather than ambitious. On the other hand, we fully aim to have a positive effect on a galactic scale.

"Ambitious," she repeats.

Felix giggles. It's an odd kind of giggle, she could intuit that he has some sort of vocal problem, but the sound is not unpleasant to hear.

She beams. "But right now your only ambition is hugging people?"

I would say that is more of an indulgence.

Giggle. "Healthy."

It's good to finally be able to interact with the world, instead of feeling it from a distance.

"...you were awake all this time in there?"

No, not the whole time. Lord would wake us up on occasion for check-ups. But even while we slept, I could feel something or at least dream about it.

"Well. I'm sorry we couldn't give you a warmer welcome."

Not at all your fault. Lord really doesn't have good people-modeling skills after forty hours on stimulants.

"No, what I meant was that we woke you while in the middle of a conflict with the Federation."

Indeed not the most pleasant situation to wake up to. But it was somewhat expected that Lord would leave us the station once things got too complicated or maybe after a century of boredom - both his and ours.

"I mean, I'm glad someone more... suited... is going to take over. Lord is not too easy to deal with. But yeah, I still wish it'd been happier times."

Thank you. But this way we can help to bring happier times to everyone else.

She beams. "Good priorities."

Felix beams back. That is sort of the whole point of us.

She laughs. "I suppose it is. I haven't met Trevor yet, though."

Hopefully he is going to make a good impression.

"Two out of three, there."

She unhugs and goes looking for Trevor.

Trevor can be found in a room full of schematics, talking to some gaunt people with feathers for hair. He turns around to face. Hello again. Come here to collect the final hug and complete the set?

"Are you offering?"

Trevor opens his arms. Far be it from me to refuse a lady.

"Would you refuse a gentleman?" she asks archly, hugging him.

No, I wouldn't. And nice hug. I suppose it helps when the person is purely mammalian in nature.

"Purely mammalian? Do dwarves not count, then?"

Haven't gotten around to hugging those. Not even Felix has, he is prioritizing the station natives.

"Are all of you based on human genome?"

Yes, mostly because the cultists that sponsored the place were also speciesists.

"...really? That sounds stupid."

I also heard that they were very surprised when the people augmented for niceness turned against them and stopped their extinction level event. It's surprising that they managed to even get to the point of acquiring a space station.

"Why were they surprised, it's obvious people designed for niceness would not support genocide."

My best guess is that their cult didn't optimize for questioning things through. Which, unsurprising, given cult.

"Not even the leaders?"

Nope. Lord thinks that one or two of the original leaders were probably in it to get money and power from easily manipulated people, but then they died and the true wackos were the only ones left. Depressing isn't it?

"Yeah, rather."

I have no idea what they would make of us existing and of this situation happening.

"...that's kind of amusing to think about."

I know, right?

"So your thing is being an arbiter?"

Yeah, something like a balance between Fenris and Felix's extremes. But honestly, my greatest contribution is selfishness.

"...selfishness?"

Selfishness. Self-preservation. Understanding the concept that you shouldn't work during your every waking moment until the galaxy is a utopia.

"And you don't think they understand that? Felix, at least, was just hugging people."

Fenris is worse at it. But also guess who spent years talking them out of it? They are not outright self-destructive, but they do need someone to tell them to relax.

"Talking them out of it... while you were the three of you inside vats?"

Well, telepathing and I guess using 'years' is misleading but I did spend a lot of time while we were awake trying to calm them down.

"That's oddly endearing."

I know. They're truly great people.

"The three of you sound a bit like Deus Ex Machina to be honest."

We did emerge from a machine. But we haven't done anything world-saving yet.

"Nor are you, as far as I know, gods."

Trevor nods. Yet. Think positive Sadde.

She grins. "Sure."

I would say that being called a Deus Ex Machina would be one of the nicest things said to me, but there weren't enough of those.

"Is it untrue?"

It's not representative due to small sample sizes. But that doesn't stop it from being wonderful.

She beams. "Meant that way. You should work a bit on the implausibility part, though. Three gorgeous identical men emerging naked and talking about saving the world, it's almost obviously a trap."

Trevor chuckles. It sounds weird, much like Felix's giggles. What do you recommend for the sake of plausibility? Maybe next time we can have Lord drop more obvious hints?

"Not sure that'd help. You could just try being more plausible, having flaws, you know."

Gosh. Flaws. Maybe it could turn out that Felix doesn't like hugs that much or that Fenris develops a gambling obsession? Any ideas?

"You could all want to take over the galaxy and do nefarious things to it. Like end material scarcity and death."

Gosh, you got us. That was our nefarious plan all along.

"I knew it!"

My brothers and I are going to rule the galaxy! Join us! And everyone will know your face and the sight of it will make them tremble with joy and certainty that their lives are going to be optimized to the fullest!

"Optimised? Are you going to turn them into happyfied machines?"

Yup. You pull a lever and they go "ding!" and produce a sign with the word "Happy" on it.

"I must say I object to that goal."

It could be a button instead of a lever.

"Does not make it better, actually."

Gosh, what could possibly make it better then?

"Satisfying people's preferences!"

Gosh, what a good idea. See, this is why we needed to get out of the vats, so we could get some refreshing perspectives on things.

"It's a good thing you have me around, then."

It's wonderful to have you around, Sadde.

"Flatterer. Do continue."

Well, everything that we know about you showed that you are brave, proactive, smart and that not only do you want to turn the galaxy into a utopia but also you have a great understanding of what one needs to achieve that. Now that I think about it, maybe you should try to look more plausible. We might think we are just still in the vats having a very good dream.

"Pinch yourself," she suggests.

He does that, albeit he pinches his face instead of an arm. Still here, it must be really deep sleep.

"Whatever you say."

Trevor chuckles more loudly. At least this is good practice for our vocal chords, he sends, still chuckling.

"How are you planning on practising?"

Asking tips from people that also came out of vats fully grown. It's not worth practicing now.

"Fair enough."

It should be faster than what a non-augmented person would manage. Lord compensates for it and soon enough we are going to speak with perfect diction and sing reasonably well.

"Sing?"

It's easier to make someone a gifted speaker and singer than making someone only one of those individually.

"It is? I'd expect the latter to involve a lot more, you know, diaphragm and skill and such."

Well, insofar as it is a natural gift, it's easier to do the whole thing as a package deal. That doesn't cover training. I would expect that most station natives would be good singers if they decided to put the effort into it. There is definitely a virtuoso or two hidden somewhere in here.

"Everyone here's overengineered," she agrees. "I'm jealous."

Well, immortality isn't the only modification we will want to make available.

"Is that so?"

Of course. I mean, just think about it from a business perspective once we get better contact with the galaxy? We will make billions, which will then be channeled to help people everywhere.

She giggles. "Of course."

Trevor giggles and looks admiringly at her for a long moment...

...and his counterparts look at her through his eyes...

...and think the same thing at the same time.

Sadly, duty calls and Viera comes with a new set of blueprints for Trevor.

Well, duty calls. But it was great talking to you. Let's make a habit of it.

"Do let's."

She lets him do his thing.

They do their thing. They organize, plan and listen to suggestions. The trio take over Lord's office, with at least one of them staying there at any give time. Lord leaves his lab even less, continually refining organisms that will allow colonization.

Eventually, Temperance says that this is it. She has optimized the portal effect to the best of her ability and when that is done she quietly announces it to the Captain and the "Triplets" that they are ready to go.

They do some further logistical planning in secret and order some final supplies. They actually have a steady order of supplies paid for long after they leave, just in case there is someone watching.

Once everything is tied up, they announce it to the ship at large. No one that stuck around this long decides to betray them at the last minute.

Temperance draws upon the vast well of power that they have stored. It is put around the station, making it glow brightly for just a second and then it blinks out of existence...

...and appears above URPS-3, their new home.

It's a rocky planet, in the sense that its core is rock, but it's covered by an ocean. Rather than continent's, there are islands, variously big but none larger than a few dozen square kilometres.

Also some of the islands float.

Local life seems to be exclusively of the fungal sort, with the ocean being covered in algae and the islands covered in algae of a different sort. It's a very colourful image, though, and some of the algae are even bioluminescent, though they can't see that during the day.

Pretty, what are the floating islands made of?

Well, their navs are definitely on the job to scan the planet, right?

Yep! They're made of earth and stone, same as the non-floating ground.

Any obvious floating mechanism?

~magic~

Good. That is a useful explanation that allows them to make accurate predictions about the world.

They need to send a scouting mission, who wants to go?

Guess, guess!

+1

+2

+3!

Scratch that!

(Aww.)

Well, the triumvirate can't go, but they send a woman called Viera as a representative, alongside other augmented.

One of the volunteers... looks a lot like Isra, same type of augmented, but with light-brown hair and younger.

...yay.

Would Sadde accept hugs?

Yes, please.

Hugs.

(Sadde still wants to go planetside?)

Yes.

Down they go.

There are absolutely no surprises: water, rock, earth, water, stone, water, algae, water, more water, floating island, more algae, a door-shaped glowing outline in the air...

Wait, what? What is that outline? Could they take a closer look?

That outline opens out as if it was an invisible door, and a glasswinged butterfly flies through it.

As does a person very, very similar to another member of their party.

"—oh."