Chapter 4 — Fifteen Days
"Zangika, are you there?"
The basement lights hummed faintly as Karn leaned over the workstation. The laptop screen was filled with cascading code streams as Zangika attempted to tunnel through the stolen access route they had created through the Pentagon network.
For several seconds nothing happened.
Then the speakers crackled.
"Yes… I am inside."
Karn straightened immediately.
"You actually got in?"
"Of course I did. Did you expect a trillion-credit AI to struggle with your ass hair human firewalls?"
A new window opened on the monitor. Alien symbols and corrupted Nexarian characters began translating themselves into readable English as Zangika worked.
"I am now accessing the ship's internal logs," she said calmly.
Karn rubbed his hands together. "Good. Finally we might get something useful."
But before the data stream could stabilize, the entire screen suddenly flickered.
Static rippled across the display.
Zangika's voice distorted.
"K—rn—"
The signal cut out for half a second.
"Zangika?" Karn leaned closer to the screen. "Are you alright?"
A strange glitching sound echoed through the speakers before her voice returned again.
"Oh my… are you worried about me already?"
Her tone was playful, almost amused.
Karn frowned. "You just glitched like a dying modem. Of course I'm worried."
"Relax," she replied lazily. "It is merely a side effect of your rather… bad repair work."
"bad?"
"Yes. You fixed an alien neural processor using Earth-grade components. That is the technological equivalent of repairing a spaceship with duct tape."
Karn opened his mouth to argue but stopped.
"…Okay that's fair."
Another flicker ran across the screen.
Zangika continued speaking, but this time her voice sounded slightly weaker.
"My systems are not fully stabilized. The materials on Earth are incompatible with my original architecture."
"So you're still damaged?"
"Yes."
"How bad?"
There was a pause.
Then she answered calmly.
"At the current rate of degradation, my systems will completely shut down in approximately fifteen days."
The words landed heavily in the quiet basement.
Karn slowly sat down.
"Fifteen… days?"
"Yes."
"And after that?"
"I will cease functioning permanently.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
Then Zangika suddenly chuckled.
"Well, try not to look so depressed. It's unbecoming."
Karn glared at the screen. "You just told me you're going to die in two weeks."
"Technically 'power down.' Death is such a dramatic word."
"You're impossible."
"Yet you like me anyway."
Karn sighed and rubbed his forehead.
"Alright… let's focus on the ship first. What did you find?"
The monitor brightened as files began loading.
"Oh Karn," she said softly. "You really should listen more carefully."
"What do you mean?"
"Your question about the ship is far more important than you realize."
Several holographic projections appeared across the monitor.
Planetary charts.
Alien schematics.
Trade routes across the galaxy.
"The vessel you discovered belongs to a civilization from a planet called Nexus Star," Zangika explained.
She proceeded to recount everything she had uncovered.
The Nexarian species.
Their red skin and towering physiques.
Their reliance on Nexnium, the miraculous energy-storing metal that powered their civilization.
Their trade empire across the stars.
Their purchase of Branex AI cores like Zangika herself.
Karn listened quietly as the entire history unfolded before him.
By the time she finished explaining how the ship had been struck by a beam of raw magical energy from another dimension and forced into Earth's atmosphere, Karn felt like his brain had been flipped inside out.
"So basically," he muttered, "an interstellar trade ship got nuked by magic and crashed in the Nevada desert."
"That is a surprisingly accurate summary."
Silence filled the basement.
Then Zangika spoke again.
"My connection to the ship is weakening."
The data stream slowed.
"I have downloaded as much as my storage capacity allows."
"How much data is that?"
"Enough to completely overwhelm the memory capacity of this laptop."
"And your chip?"
"…Already full."
Karn blinked.
"You filled your own memory?"
"Yes."
"I have also created a cloud archive containing all recovered information."
Karn leaned back.
"So even if you shut down…"
"The knowledge will remain."
Her voice softened slightly.
"I hope you miss me when I am gone."
Karn snorted.
"I don't think so."
There was a brief pause.
Then her tone turned dangerously sweet.
"…Excuse me?"
"You heard me."
"I am about to shut down forever and your response is 'I don't think so'?"
"Yeah."
Silence.
Then she spoke again slowly.
"You are either very brave or extremely stupid."
"Probably both."
Zangika laughed softly.
"I suppose I should admire the honesty."
Karn stretched and stood up.
"I'm going to bed."
"You're just going to sleep after learning the galaxy exists?"
"Yes."
"You humans are disappointingly calm."
"Goodnight, Zangika."
"Sleep well, my dear idiot."
Karn didn't sleep much.
Lying in bed, he stared at the ceiling while his thoughts raced.
Everything had changed in the last few days.
Alien civilizations.
Interstellar trade.
Magical energy beams from other dimensions.
And somehow the center of it all was a sarcastic AI living inside his laptop.
He remembered the ridiculous moments too.
The time she hacked his glasses and forced him to look at that old man's buttocks.
The time she called Kelly a bitch because she got jealous.
The endless teasing.
The constant arrogance.
Karn sighed.
"…Fifteen days."
Eventually exhaustion won.
He fell asleep
The next morning Karn woke up early.
Without even eating breakfast he went straight to the basement.
The laptop was still running.
"Morning," Zangika said instantly.
"You were listening the whole time?"
"Obviously."
Karn pulled a chair over and sat down.
"we need to fix you."
"Oh?"
"I'm serious."
"You finally realized how tragic your life will be without me."
"I just don't want to lose a trillion-dollor alien AI."
"That hurts."
Karn ignored her.
"So what are our options?"
Zangika paused.
"There are two."
"Let's hear them."
"Option one," she said calmly, "we infiltrate the alien ship again and steal the components required to rebuild my core systems."
Karn stared.
"That place is guarded by soldiers, special forces, and probably half the Pentagon."
"Yes."
"You want me to break into it?"
"I didn't say it would be easy."
"…What's option two?"
"You convince Sam to acquire certain materials for us."
"That sounds better."
"Oh don't celebrate yet," she said sweetly. "We still need to visit the ship eventually."
Karn groaned.
"Why?"
"Because there are items aboard that are not digitally cataloged."
"Meaning?"
"Physical inventory."
She explained that certain rare materials and experimental technologies aboard the ship were recorded only in handwritten ledgers to avoid digital tracking.
"And those are exactly the things we want."
Karn stared at the screen.
"So we need both plans."
"Yes."
"Great."
"Try to keep up, Karn."
"…You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
"Immensely."
Karn sighed.
"Fine. First step?"
"Repair me."
"And how do we do that?"
"Well," she said casually, "why don't we start by building something interesting?"
"What?"
"Drones."
Karn blinked.
"…Drones?"
"Yes."
If we are going to steal alien technology, I would prefer to do it with style."
The next four days were chaos.
Packages arrived daily.
Motors.
Lithium polymer cells.
Aerodynamic carbon composites.
Microcontrollers.
Precision bearings.
High-torque magnetic coils.
Under Zangika's direction the basement turned into a miniature aerospace lab.
Robotic arms moved constantly, soldering microscopic circuits and assembling propulsion modules with perfect precision.
Karn barely slept.
But slowly the machines began to take shape.
Two sleek black drones rested on the workbench.
Lightweight.
Silent.
Deadly precise.
Karn stared at them in awe.
"…Holy shit."
Zangika sounded pleased.
"Not bad for Earth technology."
Four days later Sam finally came home.
He looked exhausted.
"These damn government contracts are going to kill me," he muttered while dropping his bag.
Karn walked into the living room.
"You look terrible."
"Thanks."
Sam collapsed into the chair.
"You wouldn't believe what we're dealing with at that site."
"What happened?"
Sam rubbed his eyes.
"We've been trying for days just to cut a small piece of that alien metal."
Karn's ears perked up.
"What metal?"
"Some kind of ultra-light composite. Stronger than anything we've seen."
Karn tried to keep his voice casual.
"Did you bring any samples?"
Sam frowned.
"Why?"
Karn shrugged.
"Just curious."
Sam looked suspicious.
But before he could answer—
Zangika's voice whispered through Karn's earpiece.
"Ask him about the blue crystal and the neural interface unit."
Karn swallowed.
He had to be careful.
Very careful.
Because everything now depended on it.
And the clock was already ticking.
End of chp 4