Chapter 13: LEVIATHAN'S DEBRIS
Zero gravity was worse than dying.
At least death had been quick. This—floating in the cargo bay of a crippled timeship while the wreckage of a two-hundred-foot robot drifted past the viewports—was slow, disorienting torture. My stomach had given up trying to orient itself and settled for constant nausea instead.
"Stabilizers should be back online in three minutes," Ray's voice came through the comm, far too cheerful for someone currently wedged inside the ship's maintenance crawlspace. "Just hang in there, everyone."
Hanging is the problem, I thought, grabbing a cargo strap to stop myself from spinning. There's nothing to hang from.
The Leviathan—Vandal Savage's giant mechanized weapon, the trump card he'd been building for centuries—lay in pieces across Earth's orbit. 2166. The year Rip Hunter lost his family. The year that was supposed to be Savage's ultimate triumph.
We'd stopped it. Barely. Kendra had done most of the work, channeling four thousand years of rage into a single devastating assault. The rest of us had provided support, distraction, and in my case, very accurate predictions about weak points that I claimed came from "structural analysis."
Now we were picking through the aftermath, looking for anything that might help us track Savage to his next hideout.
And I was looking for something else entirely.
[TEMPORAL DEBRIS DETECTED]
[CLASSIFICATION: CLASS D — ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FRAGMENTS]
[LOCATION: DEBRIS FIELD, SECTORS 7-12]
[ESTIMATED YIELD: 40-80 ✧, 50-100 XP]
[NOTE: AI ABSORPTION PROVIDES UNIQUE BONUSES — COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT]
The system had flagged the opportunity the moment we'd entered orbit. The Leviathan wasn't just metal and weapons—it had been guided by an advanced AI, something Savage had stolen from a future even further than 2166. When we'd destroyed the mech, we'd scattered fragments of that intelligence across the debris field.
Fragments I could absorb.
"I'm going to check the external sensors," I said, pushing off toward the cargo bay's emergency hatch. "The readings might be clearer without the hull interference."
Sara's voice crackled back: "Don't drift too far. We don't have the fuel for a rescue mission."
"Understood."
The EVA suit was bulky and uncomfortable—1970s Soviet design, which said something about where the Waverider's fabricator pulled its templates. But it sealed properly and the oxygen flowed, which was all I needed.
The debris field was eerily beautiful. Chunks of metal the size of cars tumbled past in slow motion, catching the light of a sun that looked subtly wrong from this vantage point. Earth hung below, clouds and continents visible even through the suit's scratched visor.
[PROXIMITY ALERT: AI FRAGMENT — 15 METERS]
[RECOMMENDATION: APPROACH AND ABSORB]
I maneuvered toward the signal—a piece of the Leviathan's central processor, half-melted and trailing wires like mechanical intestines. The metal was cold even through my gloves.
[INITIATING ABSORPTION...]
The sensation was different from chronal debris. Sharper. More structured. Instead of raw energy flowing into me, I felt patterns—data, algorithms, processing architectures. The system converted it all into something I could use, but the source material left traces.
[ABSORPTION COMPLETE]
[+35 ✧ CHRONO-ESSENCE]
[+75 XP]
[BONUS ACQUIRED: PROCESSING BOOST — STACK 1/10]
[— MINOR ENHANCEMENT TO COGNITIVE PROCESSING SPEED]
[— CUMULATIVE WITH ADDITIONAL AI ABSORPTIONS]
[— CURRENT BOOST: +5% MENTAL PROCESSING]
The change was immediate and subtle. Like someone had cleaned a window I hadn't realized was dirty. My thoughts moved slightly faster, connected slightly easier. I could hold more considerations in parallel—the mission, the team's positions, the debris trajectories, my resource calculations—without strain.
This is what permanent enhancement feels like.
The Norway mission had given me the system. The checkpoints had given me infrastructure. But this was the first time I'd actually improved myself. Not just stats on an interface—a real, tangible change to how my brain worked.
[NOTE: ADDITIONAL AI FRAGMENTS DETECTED — SECTORS 9, 11]
[RECOMMENDATION: CONTINUE ACQUISITION]
I pushed toward the next signal.
The second fragment was smaller—part of the Leviathan's targeting system. The absorption yielded less:
[+15 ✧]
[+25 XP]
[PROCESSING BOOST: STACK 2/10]
[CURRENT ENHANCEMENT: +10% MENTAL PROCESSING]
Two stacks. Still subtle, but I could feel the difference compounding. Problems I would have had to think through carefully now resolved almost automatically. The EVA navigation calculations that had been giving me trouble became trivial.
Is this what intelligence enhancement feels like? Or is this something else—something the system is doing to my brain that I should be worried about?
The question mattered, but not enough to stop me.
"Bennett, what's your status?" Sara's voice cut through my planning.
"Still scanning. Found some interesting debris patterns—might indicate where Savage stored the AI core backups."
"How long do you need?"
I spotted the third fragment: a larger piece, wedged in the shattered remains of what might have been the Leviathan's command deck.
"Five more minutes."
"Make it three. Rip wants to jump before any local authorities notice a 22nd-century timeship parked in their orbit."
The third absorption was the largest yet:
[+40 ✧]
[+60 XP]
[PROCESSING BOOST: STACK 3/10]
[CURRENT ENHANCEMENT: +15% MENTAL PROCESSING]
[TOTAL XP: 205/1,000]
[TOTAL CHRONO-ESSENCE: 90 ✧]
Ninety essence. Almost back to where I'd been before the Chicago checkpoint. And the cognitive enhancement—three stacks—was making everything feel clearer.
I pushed back toward the Waverider, letting the momentum carry me while I processed the implications. AI fragments were rare—the system had flagged them specifically because of their unique bonus structure. But if I could find more...
Ten stacks would be fifty percent improvement. Half again as fast. Half again as sharp.
The numbers were seductive. Too seductive, maybe. The system had warned about cumulative effects, but it hadn't mentioned downsides. There had to be downsides.
Deal with that later. For now, use what you've got.
The cargo bay hatch cycled open. Gravity returned—Ray had fixed the stabilizers—and I stumbled slightly as my inner ear readjusted.
"Find anything useful?" Sara asked, already out of her own EVA suit.
"Debris patterns suggest Savage has backups stored in at least three other time periods," I said. The tactical analysis came faster than usual—the enhancement working in real-time. "1944 Germany, 1758 France, and something in the 2020s. He's paranoid about redundancy."
Sara stared at me. "You got all that from floating around in debris?"
Too much. I gave her too much, too fast.
"Pattern recognition," I said. "The fragments cluster around coordinates. Those coordinates correspond to known historical periods where Savage has shown interest."
She didn't look convinced. But she didn't push either.
"Rip will want that data. Good work."
The Waverider jumped. The temporal zone swallowed us.
I sat in my quarters, feeling the cognitive enhancement hum in my awareness. The Processing Boost stacks weren't visible—not like the checkpoint connections—but I could sense them. A sharpness that hadn't been there before.
[SYSTEM NOTE: AI ABSORPTION OPPORTUNITIES ARE RARE]
[RECOMMEND: PRIORITIZE ACQUISITION WHEN AVAILABLE]
[NEXT LIKELY OPPORTUNITY: NAZI OCCULT RESEARCH (1944)]
1944, I thought. The next mission. Another chance to grow.
The numbers kept climbing. The enhancement kept building. And somewhere in the back of my improved mind, a small voice wondered if I was still the same person who'd died in Norway.
I decided not to answer.
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