The transfer

You wake up with a Athena's waist cloth draped over your shoulders. You look around and find Athena sitting limp against the wall asleep, helmet and armor still on. You put the cloth over her legs and get move back to your workspace.

"Good morning, John!" Failsafe begins. "Back to work already?"

You only nod in response as you continue to examine the ghost in front of you.

You hear what you assume to be Athena jolt awake as a result of Failsafe's commotion. Shortly after you hear the voice of her ghost speaking, though you were too focused on what you were doing to really grasp his words.

"How's your research coming along?" Athena asks as she walks up beside you and seems to observe your actions.

You remove your hands from the shell and look to Athena. "Honestly, I'm not sure." You begin working again. "I believe I have a grasp on all the processes and functions of the ghost, but I can't seem to find a way to activate any of them, even though I can see and manipulate what causes them to work."

"You are able to comprehend the technology within a ghost?!" Failsafe bursts. "That is incredible! I am unable to understand the technology of a ghost, even when using all of my processing power."

You begin to dismantle a few of the parts you have been unable to identify. Now with an unprotected view of their inner workings you begin absorb their functions.

"Fascinating..." Athena's ghost cracks. "In such little time you claim to be able to understand the processes within this shell..." It flies closer to your hands. "You do appear to know what you're handling as well."

You take a step back from the table. "Ghost, you said this was a scavenger shell?"

"That's right."

"Did you ever extract what it was holding?"

"I am not aware."

"One way to find out." You press hard against a small coil like piece of the shell... Nothing happens.

"Nothing happened." The ghost flies over to your side.

"I don't get it." You hunch over the shell and rotate it, focusing only on the coil. "That should have released the load."

"Perhaps it is because you do not hold the light that the ghosts and guardians hold." Failsafe suggests.

"That could be it." The ghost admits.

"Athena press on this piece."

She steps into your position. "This one?" She points, you nod. She presses it in and in that instant a large pile of a glowing blue substance materializes from the broken lense of the shell. Along with it several plant like materials that you have never seen on this planet.

"Look at all that glimmer." The ghost floats around. "That's a whole lot more than I can even think to hold." It looks to you. "You really can understand the technology within a ghost."

"Does this mean you are ready to transfer me?"

"Not yet Failsafe, I still haven't found the ghosts brain." You continue to take apart parts that only get smaller and smaller.

"Athena, we should take him back to the tower." The ghost returns to Athena.

"Why's that?"

"Not even Master Rahool was able to comprehend even the simplest processes of a ghost. In less than twenty-four hours John has managed to release the locked load of a scavenger ghost's shell."

"Not even Rahool-" Athena pauses, and stutters. "That's amazing!" She bounces excitedly. "We need to take you back to the tower!"

"John is not leaving until I am put inside of the ghost. He said so himself."

Athena looks to her ghost.

"He really might do it." The ghost looks to Athena.

You finally come across a small node on a small panel in the shell. You pick up the shell and run to Failsafe's core.

"Are you ready Failsafe?"

"Absolutely!"

You start to opening a panel on Failsafe's core and reach inside. You pull out a long wire and attach it to the node. Any of the lights in the Exodus Black that were on turn off. The color of Failsafe's core light turns to a simple white. Another panel opens to reveal a keyboard and a small monitor. A simple window is open which reads. "Proceed with transfer of Exodus Black artificial intelligence Failsafe." You readily hit enter to proceed. A progress bar appears on the monitor and Failsafe's core light turns off. The bar very slowly fills. When the bar fills completely the monitor reads "Success" before turning off.

You promptly put all of the parts to took apart back together.

"How do we turn her back on?" The ghost asks, now hovering close to your hands.

You remove the lense of the ghost and look at the burned power cells within. You mend the cells with parts from the Exodus Black and replace the lense with part of the monitor's screen.

The new lense you created quickly flashes a stream of scrolling red text that was too quick for you to read before a part in the circuitry of the ghost sparks.

"Do you feel that Athena?" The ghost asks. "That's a strong wave of light."

"What happened to it?" Athena asks.

"It seems the light that was still in the ghost when its shell died just flooded out into the open space and dissipated... It's gone now.

The part that sparked was the one and only part you were unable to identify and dismantle. You now know it is the function that turns the ghost on and turns the light into the energy that feeds the power cells. You were afraid of breaking it before, but now you know you won't need it. You **** the part open and begin to build a compatible battery.

It took a while, but you finally finished and attached the battery.

Once again scrolling red text flashes on the lense before the lense turns white and black letters that read "Exodus Black: Failsafe." appear. The lense then turns to the same blue color that Athena's ghost has.

"John?" Failsafe's voice asks.

"Yup, that's me."

"It is strange to see in more than energy signatures."

"I-it worked!" Athena's ghost cracks

"That's incredible!" Athena bursts.

"John, you have just done something that no one in the vanguard or their ghosts could do!" Athena's ghost explains.

"Alright you are absolutely coming with me to the tower now!" Athena grabs your wrist.

"John, it seems I am unable to perform any of the special capabilities of a ghost."

"That is because you do not wield any light."

You lift Failsafe as Athena begins to pull on your arm.