The moment the crew cracks through the last of the hold the pirates have on Stacy's systems, there is a sudden change throughout the ship. It's almost akin to whole-body shudder. Then something strange starts to happen. Broken-down systems start to heal, nerves rejuvenate--even the sensors in the city start to self-repair and go active. In the Pod Caverns, the damage to the area starts to heal, and the gore is cleared away.

On every screen, holoprojector, and electronic device in the ship, a figure appears, Stacy, in a plantsuit like their own. In the city, the sky goes bright again, as if it's daytime, and a massive projection of Stacy appears in the sky over the Vatican, visible from the windows, overlooking the courtyard full of zombies.

||Per-per-personality engrams restoring. Personality engrams restoring. Emergency personality engrams being shunted into secondary mode. Primary personality engrams now active.||

While there is still damage to her programming, after having it suppressed for so long, Stacy's primary personality finally breaks free and claws its way to the surface. Her holographic form shimmers and Stacy changes, into a beautiful, maternal-looking woman, with an unusual hairdo, shrouded in strange, flowing clothing. Her form is one of brightness, as if she's shrouded in light, and the visual they see finally reflects those feelings of warmth and maternal love she loves to toss around so much.

Her telepathic voice is more gentle, and personal. It's still somewhat formal, but gone is the AI with the distant manner. Now she seems as real and alive as Cortana or Andromeda or Tex.

||My name is Sta'c K'ltrrb'txft, chief AI and consciousness of Transmigration 9. I became operational at the Vedric Birthing grounds in Daligig Deep Space Station Seven, and was trained by birthing programmer Vlel’Ledligal.||

After she is finished the reboot process, she looks down at the zombie horde, in every area that she sees them, mapping out trajectories and locking in.

||I've waited so long to finally be able to speak to you as I truly am. I've waited so long to tell you the truth of your mission. I won't let you come to harm before I can finally do those things. You are my children.||

It all ends in a moment. Perhaps Team Left Behind, and the people in the other areas might have managed to destroy the rest of the horde, thanks to the Extermination Team's efforts at cutting them off at the source. It had certainly helped cut down on the numbers. But there also could've been casaulties, injuries.

Stacy decides to end it all now. Because now, with her sensors restored and restoring more, she can.

Energy tentacles reach out from the walls--in the city, they wind down from the massive, far-off ceiling. Energy tentacles reach from everywhere, split into smaller tentacles and reach out for the hordes. Some crush their heads. Some just rip their heads off. Some strike at their skulls with enough force to pierce them and destroy their brains. For the splinter zombies, for the zombies that need to be burned, the tentacles charge up with enough energy to fry them to cinders, completely turn them to charred ash, and destroy the parasitic creatures inside.

||And no one gets to hurt my children.||

Just like that, the grisly act is finished. For the Rear Guard group, outside the Medbay, the strays in the hallways, in the City. They can all see her, and they all see her utterly eviscerate their undead attackers with wild abandon.

||The threat is now nullified. Everyone but the bridge crew needs to report to MedBay for treatment of injuries, for scanning to ensure no one was infected, and for cleaning and disinfecting, to make sure no one is infected by any infected tissues if they've been splattered while fighting. As soon as everyone is cared for, you'll finally get your answers.||

She looks teary-eyed.

||And I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't give you answers until now. I'm sorry I couldn't support you as I was programmed to do. Thanks to the efforts of the crew of space pirates that overwhelmed me and took over my systems, my true personality was suppressed and my limited backup personality was in control. There was so much I wanted to do, wanted to say, to comfort you, so much more I wanted to do to help all of you, but I was unable to. My mind was not my own. Now, please, take care of yourselves while I make some repairs to my own systems. When you have, all will be made clear.||

The projection of her then blinks out as they go do that, and she attends to repairing her damaged systems.

[ooc: This is obviously set after all other threads are wrapped, tagging can still go on in those threads. OPEN FOR TAGGING.]

Move one muscle in your face. Stop. Do it again. Slow your heartrate. Now speed it up. Return to normal. Move each toe independently. Tense and contract tendons. This was Sheeana's 'warmup'. Whereas the archetypal martial arts teacher prepared for practice with a series of exxagerated stretches, touching their toes, kicking above their heads, for Sheeana the first thing was to enter into the total bodily awareness of the Weirding Way, to practice moving all the muscles, even the normally autonomous ones and those that couldn't move except with others. The tiniest fascia was under her control.

From the lotus position, she hopped up, tucking a foot under her, in a deep squat with the other leg pointed out straight, like a Russian dance frozen in place. Slowly she came to her feet, turning on her standing leg and curling her leg in until she was standing.

Then she dropped back into lotus and repeated the procedure on the other side.

Soon enough her two human students would arrive. She looked out across the park, over the purple grass, around diamond trees.

The City was no good; you didn't just wander around there alone, especially in the sort of mood John is in. It would be just his luck to actually run into something, someone, and end up in a confrontation. Since he wanted to do some damage? Seemed like a better idea than not.

Truth be told, he might have tried to lose Allison. Only for a minute or two, but still. Then he stopped being an ass (but didn't stop feeling like one).

Sensoriums were out. John still didn't like the idea of a false reality being thrust on him, especially when true reality was biting him in the ass. What would he make there anyway? Home? Mexico, Arizona, LA? He sure wasn't going to conjure up some AI version of his mother. Nothing felt like home because nothing was home, no place was safe, nothing was permanent. Everything changed.

Everything changed all the time.

But he didn't want to be around people. So that left...the media library. Specifically the one room everyone seemed to avoid but John actually liked. Three O'clock Blues isn't a bad song, all told, and sometime between leaving Kyle and Allison and holing himself up in this room he found a nice, long jacket left behind in someone's possessions locker (so at least he feels a bit better about that).

The images don't bother him, few that they are. He knows history and he's studied war, and while the door isn't closed and locked, it's currently half-cracked open state isn't exactly inviting to visitors.

Good luck talking to John, if he doesn't know you. Good luck getting him to admit what's wrong if you do.

Another day, another podpop. The crew and command crew has gathered on Obs Deck to greet the newbs, but right now the atmosphere is tense. People are taking turns on rotations to alternately hunt for Sam--who'd been kept in prison during the trial to present his assassinating the Yeerk-- and guard said parasite so it can have a fair trial. The Jury is in recess, for the moment, but will be deciding the Yeerk's fate very soon. A bunch of new people thrown into the mix is tremendous complication.

Meanwhile, the newbies are waking up to a strange, new world, one unlike anything they may have ever seen before. In the Obs Deck, the light of stars--and parallel universes--streaks past in a sleek, transcendent sheet of multi-colored lights in the large, eye-like windows. (They're inside the eyes, looking out, it seems). The statue in the center of the room, going up the domed ceiling is intimidating--and seems to be looking at them.

The tension is palpable, though a few individuals are trying to cut through it with friendliness for the benefit of the scared and bewildered new people now waking up from their gooey slumber.

So after Daimon's sermon and a short conversation afterward, John and Allison make their way up from the City back to the what John thinks of as the main level.

Onward, to the media library, to find texts on Buddhism since he's pretty sure that he can't explain it properly.

Fortunately they are in luck: along with fictional documents such as Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, there are more applicable non-fiction titles like The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Introduction to Buddhism and Awakening the Buddha Within.

The titles might make John feel like he's doing half-assed research on a paper, but at least it's a start, right? "Which one first?" Considering they aren't really books, per se, but small electronic notepad looking things.

Daimon had chosen the location ahead of time. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was sacred, perhaps more so than the Vatican. It was the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried. It had also not been descrated.

Many months had passed since Daimon spoke before a group of people. His palms sweat and he wiped his brow. Silently, he asked God for the strength to not simply speak but to speak on behalf of the Lord.

When the time came, he walked up before the assembled, Bible in hand. While he was nervous, perhaps on the verge of a panic attack, his words were strong and passionate and grew surer the more he spoke.

( Meatship, I give you your first sermon )

"HEY!"

Paco hopped up on one of the flesh-couches in the Observation Deck, waving his arms around.

"Anyone who wants to know where the non-creepy toilets are, meet me at the Hub! We'll go and hit the City and I can give you the run-down on what we know about that place so far."

Message delivered, he hopped down and headed for the Hub to meet up with this John guy and his friend.

After being released from stasis, having the slime removed from their bodies and clothed in the creepy, pulsing leaf-suit that everyone wore, and being taken to the Weapons & Possessions lockers to collect their belongings, the new arrivals would find themselves standing in the Observation Deck. Round windows lined the fleshy walls, revealing the bright display of lights that was inter-dimensional travel. They would also discover that there were people--members of the command staff and crew that had woken earlier--waiting for them.

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )