Kagu uploaded a hologram before K, a large solar system model hovering midair,

"I’ve scoured through Meredith’s Planetary Science database and about six...seven planets match your description although I didn’t find a planet where it actually rains diamonds..."

"Seven planets...run me through each one and you pay attention" he flexed his shoulders, throwing the last part at Shira.

"Yes yes"

"The first planet, Rombis II, is known for its inhabitable atmosphere where it’s constantly rains hails but possesses no water bodies"

K waved the screen away, "I asked for diamonds not hails."

"K, it’s impossible for the clouds to produce diamonds, and even if they do they’d be hails and not actual diamonds"

The Matyr groaned and motioned for Kagu to continue her search,

"Xalax-O1P, is home to natural disasters...including hailstorms and tsunami prone waterbodies."

Shira yawned, "that sounds too stressful a place to keep a body."

"That’s not it"

"Hmm... this planet is quite remarkable! According to research data, Planet

X-Nythera, is home to both sea life and wildlife. Animals more evolved than the ones on planet Earth"

"So?"

"The waterbodies are as clear as dsy but I don’t have any records of hailstorms but weather reports show that there have been sightings of a phenomenon of rain they’ve never seen before"

"And what phenomenon is that?"

"Showers of light"

Shira slid down K’s shoulders, scooting closer the holographic map, "it’s this one. I gave my body to the habitants of this realm"

"She says it’s this one, her body is being protected by the habitants of this planet"

"B-body? K, what exactly are we even doing?"

The map glitched as Kagu paced the outlet nervously.

"Long story short, I have to help someone get their body back so I can get my memories back and that body is on that planet"

"Memories?"

"Since the day I removed my pellet, I lost my memories of the day prior to that. Kagu, as I’m standing infront of you, there’s a huge gap in my memory and I need to get it back"

"I should have that information! The day your pellet was detected absent from your body was—huh?" The Ai glitched again but this time she looked bewildered and confused.

"What’s the matter?"

"I-I can’t find it. There’s nothing in my database about the day you removed your pellet...t-that’s impossible! It should be in my database!"

"That makes us two"

K smiled mirthlessly.

This hole seemed to dig itself deeper. At this point he was starting to get tired of it.

"The only person who has access to my database is..."

"Thira"

"N-no. My memory file probably got corrupted, my master would never hide anything from me!"

"Same goes for me but there’s only one way to be sure of it," he paused and pointed to the map, "we get on a ship, get to that planet, meet the people and get her body"

"I have so many questions but I’ll ask the most obvious"

"..."

"Let’s say this ’woman’ you claim to see is real...What if she’s just using you? What if she doesn’t give you whatever it is that she might have promised you"

"Kagu...it’s a shot in the dark but I’m willing to take it if it means getting my memories back"

"..."

"You can’t back out now, ever since the moment you’ve cut comms with Thira, you’ve chosen to be on my side for the moment being...I need your help, Kagu"

"..."

"..."

"I’ll map a route to X-Nythera. As for a ship, I’ll have one ready on standby for whenever you’re ready"

K nodded and made his way inside the house, searching and packing suitable clothes and supplies,

"Looks like I’ll have to leave my armor behind"

"Since you’re temporarily out of commission, your armor has been legally confiscated by Command"

"Damn Bak"

"The hatred is mutual...between you two I mean"

"He can shove it up his ass for all I care"

Kagu sighed as she dismissed the holomap, slumping to the space beneath her. She felt horrible, she was keeping secrets from her master and what was even worse was that there was a chance that he could be hiding secrets from her as well.

"You don’t have to beat up yourself about going against Thira."

K knelt close to the outlet,his palm gliding over the outline of her head trying to imitate a head pat.

"Promise me...promise me that no matter what the truth is, you’ll never hate Vae’Thira"

"...I promise"

"Thank you"

"Dear me, are humans usually this sentimental? Talkless of an entity that isn’t human." Shira whined but K didn’t pay her mind.

"Ah...K," Kagu hopped to her feet, "we can’t route your ship to Nythera!"

"Why not?"

She summoned another holomap showing multiple routes that several ships had taken to travel to other planets, mostly explorer ships.

"We can take a scavenger ship but there’s a catch, we take two scavenger ships"

"Why two?"

"According to info I was able to extract a while back, there’s a space expedition with three ships starting in two days. I need you to take me to the docked ships so I can copy their tracking IDs and overlay them on our ship."

"So it looks like we’re taking the same route but we aren’t"

"Yes! While the tracker reports that three ships are en route to their designated planet only 2 will make it there"

"Wouldn’t that raise suspicion?"

"Not if it’s a false flag ship"

K scratched his head. There was limit to things he knew about technology here on Meredith, if it’s didn’t go boom , pow or pew pew it wasn’t his thing.

"I’ll leave you to figure it all out"

"Oh, you should check in on Lex before you leave"

"Why?"

Kagu raised her head from the screen she was working on, a glare forming,

"I don’t know maybe because you beat her? What kind of man hits a lady anyway?"

"In my defense—"

"Nope, I don’t want to hear it"

"Oh~you hit women? I don’t mind you hitting me~"

Shira leaned onto his arm, pulling at the rim of her open top and shooting him suggestive winks.

"Fine, I’ll check in on her tomorrow and then we leave the day after"

"Roger that..."

———•———

Vae’Thira peeled off his surgical gloves as he stretched and popped his stuff limbs into place.

"Shall I mark that as another failure?"

"Yes"

He pulled a data pad, placing it next to the one his assistant handed him,

"Rapid cell degeneration and rogue plasma were spotted in each specimen"

The Vashki nodded and waved the lady away.

Headache was starting to set in from all of it. He needed a perfect donor sample. That was all he wanted!

"Doctor?"

Thira yelped, clutching the data pad. His startled form slowly eased when he saw the familiar outline of his Ai.

"Where have you been?"

"With K-0-0-1"

"I see you two are having fun... I told you being friends with him isn’t so bad"

The ring on his ankle hummed pleasantly.

"Yes"

"That’s good"

"...uh, I wanted to ask if it’s okay if I followed him"

"Followed him? Is Khae’el going somewhere?"

"Yes, I suggested traveling with the space expedition team to get his mind of the whole situation and also have time to collect himself"

Thira clapped happily, "as expected of my girl, yes, you can go with him."

"Thank you"

"Anything for you, you’re such a smart girl! Make sure to have lots of fun! Speaking of which, I’ll upload some outfits for you so you can tour in style!"

Kagu nodded and rubbed at her shoulder,

"Wait, did Bak approve of Khae’el leaving?"

"Yes, it was approved before I came here"

"That’s good"

"Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"You’ll never hide anything from me, right?"

Thira’s head tilted in confusion, "I would never hide anything from you...why do you ask?"

"It’s nothing, I’ll head out now"

"Have f—"

He barely got to complete his sentence when she vanished into the outlet.

"Ah! I forgot to ask her about the audio and video bug!"