"Maybe we need to figure this out." Justine started pacing. "I don't understand what's going on..."
She knelt by the chair, patting his knee. "It's all right," she said, hoping she sounded reassuring. Justine snorted. "Yeah. It's all right. It's just fine. This is fine." She looked at Justine.
"We have seventy-two hours, right? From the deployment of the..." She swallowed. She was not going to say clone. "From...the deployment?" she finished awkwardly. Justine shrugged. "I have no idea. There was no timeline given."
"I thought there was."
"Not that I heard."
"From when the repli..." Damn. "Um..."
"STAN," said Hiro. "Is there a time line, fo...uh..."
"STAN," said Justine. "How long until 'Tannhäuser Gate Closing' is activated? Has Phase 2 been completed? When does Phase 3 start?"
She stared at the dark screen, then looked at Justine. Justine looked at the screen. "STAN?"
Nothing. She cleared her throat, suddenly thick with worry. "So...any test results yet?" Justine stared at her. "Emilly...did you get my comm earlier?"
A sudden low mechanical voice. "STAN," it said. "You have 5171 minutes until completion of Phase 2."
"About, um...STAN," Justine added. Emilly nodded. "I did, and...wait. I should know this."
A click. The voice. "You have 5169 minutes until completion." She blinked. "So...three days? Give or take?"
"Em, could you--could you come over here a minute?" Justine walked towards the door. She shot a glance at Hiro, then walked out to meet her in the central hub.
"I don't think STAN can be trusted," Justine murmured. "That was the right answer to the security question. I'm not sure the orders it's carrying out are the ones Hiro installed." Her eyes widened, listening. "I think we've been compromised," Justine continued, and the problem is worse than...[f*ck]." She looked over her shoulder.
"I'm...not either. And the screen shut off, it's never done that befor--Hello!" she finished brightly, as Hiro walked in behind them.
"Yeah, the screen--the screen, it shouldn't have--" They both watched as Hiro ran past them and down the hall, away from the flight deck. "Oh, no!" she said. Justine just turned and ran after him.
"Hiro, wait! Stop!"
She ran after, risking a few near-falls as she tried to keep them in sight, slowing down only when she saw he'd stopped in one of the observation domes. The one with...
Oh, no. The mage's chair.
"Hiro, what the he--" Justine started, and she cut her off. "Hiro! What did you do?" Hiro turned and ran past her, out of the dome. She just watched the glowing sigil on the floor, spinning rapidly. Her lower lip trembled as she heard the whispers from the center.
Justine edged closer. "Emilly...what..what is it?" She waved her hands at the sigil. "I do tech. This is all you."
"Please, tell me he didn't open a hell portal," she breathed. She looked up at Justine. "Where did he go?"
Justine stared at her. "A...hell...portal...You've got to be kidding me." She just shook her head, looking back at it.
"I'm going after him," Justine stated, and stalked out of the dome.
She sighed. "I'm really, really not." Justine paused near the opening, whispering. "Can you...do something? While I get him back?"
She took a deep breath, calling on some simple stabilizing spells, muttering under her breath while the sigils on the floor began to form into letters. When she saw they were the same ones on the witch bomb, she ran to find Justine.
(Continued in part XII.)
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