There was no reason to stick around the abandoned base camp, so I picked up the sensor pylon and trekked over to where we had parked the bioship. Thankfully she was not missing as well, cloaked right were we left her. I set the pylon down and touched my hand to her side, focusing The Algorithm in a similar way I had just used it with the sphere.
It was hard to describe just how I 'talked' to Moya. Then again, 'talk' is a bit of a strong term, it more general impressions and feel as expressed by complex math. I would call it similar to a psychic link if actual psychic on the team hadn't been baffled by what I was doing the last time I showed her. Hell, Moya didn't know what I was doing at first either. It took a while to find the right kind of math that she understood, very different from all the math I use for Earth tech.
The trike beeped as the bioship decloaked and extended a ramp for us to enter. [The technology at your command is far different and superior from that the collaborators possessed. I assume that this ship is of your own lineage?]
"Um, no." I said as I lifted M'gann out of the trike seat and walked up the ramp. "The bioship is from Mars. Similarities between myself and her are coincidental. Though I suppose she is more similar to me than most other tech on the planet." Assuming that there weren't any other bits of Martian technology on Earth, anyway.
The trike folded in on itself and in moments it was in its much more compact sphere form rolling up the ramp after me. [Curious. Then perhaps you seek to develop yourself along a certain technological line, and are collecting similar artifice as part of your progress? Oh, or is this a fellow machine spirit that is part of your retinue?] A gasp, and the sphere angled upwards to look at the ceiling. [Oh forgive the potential rudeness, if thou bears the Gift of Mind! I am not capable of sensing such things in most cases, I only felt the Prime's through his sheer presence!]
I stared at the sphere for a long moment as I tried to sort out how to respond to that. Eventually I settled on "Well, Moya is aware, though communication with non-psychic entities is a little tricky." It was… difficult to quantify just how intelligent Moya was, at least by earth standards. She was certainly sentient, but sapience was a lot more questionable. The Martians took specific care as to what traits their ships developed to make them easier to handle, and this could result in some oddities. For instance while capable of some degree of independent thought, Moya was incapable of getting bored or lonely. If the bioship went without contact for long enough she would simply become dormant until someone came along.
A spot in the back of the command deck had already formed into a makeshift bed, and I placed M'gann down on it. "Anyway, introductions. This is Moya." I said as I gestured to the ship around us. "Moya, this is… I'm sorry, but do you have name?"
[My serial number is 72046-Fel-Alvec-Rom-]
"No, I mean what to the New Gods call you when they talk to you?"
[I have not had many conversations with the New Gods, but they have always referred to me as 'the New Genesphere'. A few of the younger ones referred to me as a Super Cycle.]
I frowned as I looked at the ball. "I'm not using what you are in place of an actual name." I thought about it for a moment, trying to think of what name would suit a sapient techoball-cum-trike. Come to think of it I wasn't really sure if the sphere was male, female, or something else entirely. I wasn't really hearing a voice when it communicated to me, more of an impression. And… I suppose it felt female?
And just like that a memory floated up to the surface. Well, I already pulled another name from a sapient sci-fi vehicle, I thought. "How about I call you Rommie?"
[A personal designation! I shall wear it with pride!]
"Glad to hear it." I said as I settled into the command chair and put my hands on the control obs. "Alright Moya, everything's gone tits-up, my team has scattered to fuck knows where, and we need to find them. I can't track them the easy way, so we're just going to have to do sweeps of the surrounding area."
Moya took off and we flew across the desert, moving out in a spiral pattern from where we had made camp. Given the timing, at least some of them couldn't have gotten far. Unfortunately, while I could fly her, I had no idea how to work or understand Moya's sensory organs, so I had to get a little creative. After some gentle poking with technomancy, all of the seats and counters on the command deck melted into the floor. Most of the front of the ship then turned into transparent windows, giving me a clear view of everything in front of us.
As we silently moved through the sky and I scanned the desert, I said "So, I have to ask. You keep calling me a 'Prime'. Why? What exactly is that?"
[Apologies, it was the closest term I had. Among the machine spirits of the New Gods, Primes are considered to be the highest ranking and most powerful. All Motherboxes are of course are among their prestigious number, though there are many other machine spirits that were created or risen to that rank. I do not know how the machine spirits of your world prioritize themselves, but surely you must be among the upper echelons.]
"…Not exactly. Proper machine intelligences are very rare on earth. There simply aren't enough of us for there to be a hierarchy."
Rommie made some confused beeps. [But, your power felt so close to the touch of a Motherbox, I had assumed…]
I wasn't entirely sure what the sphere was getting at, but I said "I'm very unique. As far as I know, I am the only one on this world that has this kind of power. Well, save for perhaps one." The thoughts drifted to the Remnant for a moment before I returned my attention back to the present. "In any case, my power doesn't elevate me over the other AI. And I certainly am not going to use it to force them."
[Truthfully? This world is most confounding… It is decided! I shall endeavor to meet these intelligences, so that I may properly understand!]
"Well, I can introduce you to one as soon as we get back."
We flew in silence after that, the terrain passing by without a sign of anyone. I suppose I should have been grateful not to have seen any of the Bialyan military yet, but that didn't mean they hadn't run into my teammates first. It would take them time to mobilize properly, but all it would take is for one of them to get lucky…
Finally, about an hour before dawn, I saw something. In infrared I spotted a red dot moving through the dark blue landscape in a parabolic arc, hitting the ground before pushing off into the air again. There was little guess as to who in this desert would be moving like that. "What are you doing, Superboy?" I wondered to myself as I stepped back from the controls. "Rommie, stay here a moment while I take care of this. Moya, open a hatch."
A hole in the floor opened up in front of me and I dropped out of it, angling my fall so that I was in the half Kryptonian's path. The timing was such that Superboy and I landed at the same time, the two of us facing each other about 5 meters apart. The teen looked alarmed at my sudden presence. "Superboy, what happened?" I asked warily. "Where is everyone else?"
In response, Superboy gave an incoherent scream of rage and jumped at me, fist brought up to pulverize me into the sand.
My response in kind was to duck forward and uppercut, the kinetic amplifier in my arm triggering the moment my fist slammed into his sternum.
I had been half expecting my teammates to not be in a good state of mind when I found them, and I had sparred with Superboy often enough to know how to response to a wild leap like that. Superboy was stronger than me, even when I dedicated all of my mass and power to physical strength, but he lacked a key component to actually using that strength like Superman (or Starfire) could: flight. Or more accurately, the leverage shenanigans that comes with it. Due to his mass and human biomechanics, he can never actually use his full strength in a strike without bracing against something first. In the air, he can't brace against anything at all.
And while I may not have been in my strongest form at the moment, my lifting capacity was still measured in tons.
The impact caused sand to blow away from us and flung him over me, the combined momentum sending him tumbling into a sand dune. I turned to look with my hands on my hips. "Come on, if you're going to come swinging at me I know you can do better than that." I said. Alright, maybe not the best thing to say, but I needed to figure out just what was going on with him. Had he been brainwashed into being evil or was he just in a berserk rage?
Given how he popped out of the sand dune screaming madly, I was inclined to go with the second one. My body shifted slightly as Superboy charged me. The air jets shrank and reconfigured to favor bursts over sustained force. I stepped to the side of his wild haymaker before bursting forward, air jets rocketing my fist into his torso and knocking him to the ground. Superboy snarled and lunged at my legs, but I flipped over him. As I landed I spun, jets firing to send me into a fast hurricane kick that slammed into the teens side, sending him staggering. "Come on, we both know you can do better than that!" I taunted, settling into a fighting stance as I watched his reaction.
Superboy came at me hard, but without any of the skill he should have had. He threw wild punches which I parried or ducked, he got disordered when I rapidly dashed around him, and he was unable to respond when I hit him with rapid combos. Though it shouldn't have been working this well, this was a fighting style I had sort of developed to fight him with. When it came to sparring all out with bruisers like Superboy and Kori, I found two approaches worked the best. The first was to be constantly shapeshift into new and unusual forms, never using the same attack too much and attacking from odd angles. The second was to remain humanoid, but give myself enhancements to how I moved and struck. The air jets gave me bursts of speed that let me strike without footing, accelerate instantly, or dash through the air. As well as give my limbs extra striking power and torque.
In other words it let me turn myself into a fighting game character.
After a few more attempts Superboy seemed to get frustrated and simply jumped, arcing straight back through the air as he tried to get away from me. "Oh no you don't!" I yelled as I jetted at him, a grapple launcher forming on one arm as I cleared a sand dune. When Superboy landed some distance away I shot the grapple at his legs, tangling them up and causing him to fall before he could leap away again. He growled as he grabbed the line and ripped it apart. I felt a slight twinge of pain as the line turned to dust, but it gave me the time to clear the distance and rocket slide tackle his legs out from under him. "Come on, snap out of it already!" I yelled as I flipped over him again, landing several spinning strikes to keep him off balance. Superboy just roared in anger as he tried to grab a hold of me.
This… wasn't working. I had hoped that whatever was wrong with Superboy was something I could either talk him out of or smack him out of. But instead he was just in some kind of mindless rage, which left me with knocking him out. In his current state it would take forever to wear Superboy down, and I simply didn't have that kind of time. Grappling was out of the question as he could literally tear me apart if I tried. I needed to finish this, and I could only think of one way to do it. "Damn it…" I muttered under my breath as I pushed back. "Sorry about this." I said as the internals of my arms changed.
You often hear how Superman gets his powers from 'the light of a yellow sun', but that statement is a little misleading (never mind that the light from the sun is white). A more accurate statement would be that he gets his power from 'the specific combined particle emissions from a main sequence star in the middle of its lifetime.' Tamaranians might only need ultraviolet light, but Kryptonians need something more complex. It's not just the frequency of light that does it, which is why Superman doesn't find himself suddenly powerless every dawn and dusk. Or when he's hit by a red laser. Of course, if you happen to know this and have access Kryptonian medical data specifically detailing the particle ratios…
The palms of my hands formed apertures, and when Superboy charged me they opened and fired Red Sun particle beams at him.
Superboy staggered back from the burst of red light, and I cut it off quickly. For a moment he looked a little disoriented before he yelled and charged me again. I knocked his punch to the side, noting that it felt slightly weaker. So I hit him with another blast after stepping into his guard making sure to hit his exposed skin. He yelled in something that might have been pain, but he kept coming. So I kept blasting him.
Little by little his hits got weaker and weaker. I stopped parrying his hits and started blocking them. I had to do even that less and less until finally his fist slammed into my chest and I did didn't even move. I grabbed his arm with one hand and put the other on his chest. "Sorry man." I said right before I shocked him unconscious.
I sighed as I watched him crumple to the ground before checking him over, making sure that he didn't have any obvious injuries. I saw a few first degree burns on his exposed skin, but other than that he looked fine. "Oh, how am I going to fix this?" I muttered to myself as I picked the teen up in a fireman carry, reconfiguring for flight and taking off into the air.
A few second later I entered Moya through an opening she made for me. "Moya, I'm going to need another bed. This one with restraints."
Rommie rolled over as I set Superboy down on the forming bed. [Oh no! A villain has struck down your companion!]
"Err, no, that was me. He was not in his right mind." As the restraints sealed into place, I walked to the storage locker and started rifling through it. The team kept spares of our equipment on the ship, along with a few bits of odds and ends for times like this one. Soon enough I found and pulled out a wide-spectrum flood light I had developed, mounting it above Superboy's bed. I set the light to red and turned it on. The simple red light wouldn't drain his power like the laser cannon did, but it should help block the yellow light from reaching him when daybreak came. I really hopped that I had a solution to that particular problem before-
A small groan got my attention, and I looked to the other side of the command deck to see M'gann rubbing her head and sitting up on the bed. "Oh thank Christ," I muttered as I walked over and touched her shoulder. "Easy there, you're safe."
Rommie rolled up next to her. [Good health upon you, one with the open mind! I am Rommie!]
She blinked a few times before her eyes focused on me. She stared for a moment before I felt my body tingle and she clutched her head in pain and recoiled. "Ah! T-trala eken?"
I looked at her in confusion. "Err… what? M'gann, are you feeling alright?" How out of it was she? She hadn't tried to do that for months.
She shook her head and looked back at me. "Oh, English! I can do English! Um, sorry, but who are you? And… what are you?"
…oh fuck everything.
"M'gann… what's the last thing you remember?"
The girl gave me a puzzled expression as she got to her feet. "I was-" She stopped when she saw the windows that looked out over the desert. "Wait, this isn't… we're not on Mars. Oh, Hello Megan! I'm on Earth! But, how did I get here?"
I didn't answer at first, trying to clamp down on the growing panic. She had lost at least months of memory. Was this permanent? Was the rest of the team in the same state? Could they defend themselves? Did Kori forg-
I went still as I got myself under control. After a few seconds I said, "Well, as to why you are on Earth, you hitched a ride with your uncle and joined a superhero team two months ago. As to why you're in a desert, we had a mission here to find the source of some strange energy signatures. As to why you are in the bioship, you just had an encounter with an enemy psychic, and I found you passed out on a sand dune before I brought you up here."
"That…" M'gann frowned and blinked, "is very strange. But now that you mention it, there are fragments of memory in my mind I can't place."
"Great, can you fix it? I mean, I know that you're probably not in a great position to do so, but I- we need to be able to fix this. You were psychically linked to the rest of our team when you got hit with this thing, and it seems they all wandered off into the desert in random directions right after. I found one, and he was a psychotic mess." I pointed at the unconscious form of Superboy.
M'gann looked at the teen with curiosity. "Who's that? He seems…" She trailed off.
"He's the Senpai you're trying to get to notice you."
"Senpai? Is that a human thing? I-is is a relationship thing?"
I grunted. "You can tell me after you get your memory back. Now, can you do it or not?"
She looked back at me. "If you're right, I should be able to rebuild the memories if I could experience similar memories of the same event from someone else. If you are my teammate, I could view your memories of our time working together. But when I tried to mentally talk to you…"
I hesitated for a long moment before I said "That won't be a problem. I normally don't respond well to psychic contact, but I can shapeshift into a psychic ansible." There was a decent chance that if she went rifling through my mind she would find my meta-knowledge, but quite frankly with the lives of my team on the line it was a risk I was willing to take. If she sees something she shouldn't, well, I'll burn that bridge when we cross it. "That said, I do have some personal stuff I'd rather you not go poking at. Focus on the two of us, and what happened in the last 24 hours."
"I can work with that." She said, and without further delay I shifted into the ansible, all of my senses going dark. I was alone for a few seconds before I felt a familiar connection form, and suddenly the two of us were floating in a nebulous void, dark colors flowing around us. {Oh, this is… intense. It is like connecting to a-. No, focus.} She chided herself before her eyes started to glow white. There was something I could only describe as a sort pulling sensation and-
{I… feel it! I feel a presence from it-Can you hear me-The Watchtower detected an immense power surge out in the Bialyan desert-and it has so much brain to use-You think I could name her Moya- You're a good girl M'gann-}
M'gann shook as her eyes returned to normal. {Jacob! I remember!} She then gasped. {Superboy! What happened?! Is he okay?!} Though I couldn't see her real body, I somehow got the impression that she had rushed over to Superboy's side.
I rolled my eyes (Or at least I did a few seconds later as I resumed humanoid form). "I had to knock him out. He was… mad, attacking me without thought. I tried reasoning with him and knocking some sense into him, but I had to knock pretty hard." I said as I walked up next to her. In spite of the situation, I couldn't help the feeling of relief that spread through me. Everything was going to be fine. Just fine.
"If he lost his memories like I did, well, several months ago he had never even been conscious." She said as she laid a hand on his forehead. "All he would have is instinct and impulses."
"And his instincts were to try to kill me? Boy's got issues. Can you fix him?"
The girl put her hands on the sides of his head and was silent for a moment. After a second she said, "Yes. I've help put his memories back in order, but he still needs to wake up before he can process it. He shouldn't try to hurt anyone, but he'll be disoriented for a few minutes."
I reached up and switched off the red light hanging above him. "Once dawn comes we can put him in the sun to speed up his recovery. But for now, we've still got five more teammates to find." I reminded her.
"I can find them! And you can help!" Miss Martian said. "In your ansible form you can give my telepathy a boost in range. We'll search the whole desert in no time!"
I frowned. "No offense, but it was someone intercepting your telepathy that caused this to begin with, and he'd still be out there. You sure spreading your mind across the entire desert's a good idea?"
"Ah… good point." She admitted. "But that was before I knew he was there. And with your help I can fortify my mental defenses. If I don't extend myself too far, we can still work together to do a wide search and be protected in case we stumble on that man again."
[Fear not! For I have sensed the algorithmic integrity of Machina and found it most stalwart! None shall breach his protocols!]
M'gann gave the sphere and odd look. "Umm, thank you? I think?"
"She can't understand you, Rommie. Oh, also, M'gann this is Rommie, the friendly alien machine lifeform we rescued. Also, Rommie, thank you for the vote of confidence." It was a risk, but we really didn't have time to waste. And if we did happen to run into Psimon again, well, perhaps I let him off too lightly.
I could fix that.
With my help, Miss Martian's telepathic range safely extended several kilometers. Still, we had an entire desert to search and a third world military to avoid. The latter was not too difficult with Moya in camouflage mode, but it did muddle the search a bit. Miss Martian was using her telepathy to find intelligent minds, and we stumbled across a few patrols who I imagined were also looking for our teammates. I started to wonder just how many there were out here, and just what kind of support structure they had.
It was a little past dawn before we found something. {There!} Miss Martian exclaimed, and in the swath of dark shapes and points of light that was my current perception, I saw two points form in the distance. {Robin and Aqualad, I am sure of it. I can contact them-}
{We should probably meet them first.} I interrupted. {If they don't remember you, it's going to be difficult for an unfamiliar voice in their head to convince them to let it go rifling through their minds.}
{Ah, fair enough.} Moya changed course and headed for the points we saw, only a couple of kilometers away. As such it wasn't long before we spotted a rocky outcropping amid the sand, forming an overhang that could provide shelter from the sun.
Switching back to humanoid form through, I noticed something that the telepathic scan missed. "It looks like we're not the only ones who found them," I remarked as I looked at the dots circling in the air. Focusing in revealed them to be a trio of unmanned aerial vehicles, very reminiscent of Predator drones back from my world. Though these ones seemed to be a lot more maneuverable than I really thought they should be, considering that they were making very low passes near the ground.
How did these things get here? I wondered as one fired a torrent of bullets at the outcropping. You need a runaway and specialized maintenance crew for those things, and last I checked there wasn't a Bialyan military base near here. Maybe their range is just better than I thought?
In any case, Miss Martian and I wasted no time in jumping out of the bioship and flying straight at the drones. As we approached, one was circling back around for another pass while the other two flew side by side past the rocky position. "You take that one, I'll take these two!" I shouted over the wind, and the two us spilt up after our respective targets.
I flew up above and to the side of one before giving up the thrusters on my right arm to form a powerful electro-magnet. I set it to repulse and put it on full power as I pointed it at the drone. To my surprise though the machine only wobbled a little before it corrected itself against the new force, and I barely felt any force in return. Is it made out of non-ferric metals? I wondered. Not entirely since it had some effect, but I was expecting more force than that. I had been hoping to control the drones decent to make sure it didn't crash near my teammates, but it seemed I would have to take a more manual approach.
I pitched myself and shot down towards the drone, landing atop it with a heavy crash just as it started to make another strafing run. On impact the UAV swerved off to the side and tried to recover, but electricity arced off my body and into the machine. Its engine died and it started to drop, and I activated my own thrusters to guide the falling craft away from the group and towards the other drone. The second drone didn't see the first careening towards it, and as such the two collided and were sent rocketing to the ground. I leapt off and let gravity finish my work.
The two craft smashed into the ground and fractured into large pieces. Looking back I saw that Miss Martian had similar results with her drone, so I landed on top of the remains of one of their main chassis and speared my foot through it. I didn't have high hopes that that Bialyan military wouldn't be able to identify us, but that was no reason to make their job easier. Destroying any black boxes that these craft might have was sensible. However, as I was tearing through the wreckage of the drone with assimilation spikes I felt something unusual, the composition of the frame and electronics more… alien than expected. There were human components as well, but other parts were made of exotic elements and configurations.
And it… tasted foul?
Suddenly both the downed craft exploded, just enough to shred whatever was left of them. I stumbled back in pain as I lost a small part of my foot, balancing for a moment before the damage healed. That was definitely a self-destruct function, and one that activated in response to my poking around inside. Bialya didn't want anyone to see what they had been adding to their tech. And given what Rommie had told me, and what I had just felt, I had a pretty good guess as to where they got it from.
I stared at the wreckage for a moment before I turned and head back towards the rocky outcropping. Team first, implications later. As I crested over the dune I saw Miss Martian along with Robin and Aqualad, walking out from underneath the overhang. The ruins of the other drone was a short distance away, similarly shredded as the others. "…We are on a team together." I heard the Martian say. "For a few months now. We were sent out on this mission together, but a human psychic wiped our memories."
Robin raised an eyebrow before he brought his wrist mounted computer up. "That would explain the forgetfulness, but that would mean it was- September?!" he yelled as he saw the date on the holographic screen. "What happened to March?!"
Aqualad frowned, though it was hard to tell if it was because of Miss Martian's claim or due to the heat. The sun had only just crested the horizon, but it was probably quite warm already. That plus the dry climate wasn't doing the Atlantian any favors. "You may be telling the truth… but we have no way to confirm it." He looked over at me as I approached. "How do we know that you're who you say you are?"
"Considering there's no way for us to radio out without the military noticing, I suppose you can't really confirm it." I replied. "That said, I can tell you that you're parents' names are Calvin and Sha'lain'a. And that you hate cooked eel, for some reason."
The teen looked surprised before he glanced at Robin. The kid gave me a once over before he shrugged. "Alright, let's say we believe you, now what?"
Miss Martian perked up. "I can restore your memories. I can use my own to help you remember, though you'll have to let me into your minds."
Aqualad hesitated. "I am a little wary considering a psychic caused this in the first place… but I don't see an alternative. Do it."
Miss Martian put a hand to her head and closed her eyes, and the other two developed blank expressions before closing their eyes in turn. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, Robin and Aqualad's eyes snapped open, the latter of which rubbed the side of his head. "Thank you, M'gann. Those gaps in my memories were disconcerting. What is our status?"
"The rest of our team, save Superboy, is scattered to the winds and missing their memories." I replied. "I've been trying to hunt you guys down since the guy with the transparent skull invaded the link. I found Miss Martian and Superboy, but I had to knock him unconscious to calm him down. The military is clearly aware of us, but I managed to get what we came for. We need to find the rest of our team and get the fuck out of here."
"…I would not have put it that way, though I agree with the sentiment. Unfortunately, we don't know where anyone else is." He stopped and looked off to the side, staring at something in the distance. "However, I did see Starfire."
"You did? Where did she go?"
He pointed in the direction he was looking. "I saw her flying through the air, though I did not know who she was at the time. As such I didn't call out to her, but I did follow in case she was headed in the direction of shelter. I lost her soon after, but by luck I stumbled upon Robin shortly thereafter."
I looked in the direction before looking back. "Well, what are we waiting for?"
This time it didn't take long before we found something, though it was not what I was hoping for.
The team moved through a blasted patch of desert, clear signs of some kind of fight all around us. There were bits of destroyed jeeps scattered across a dune, a few parts smoldering. There were no bodies thankfully, but several spots of sand in the area had been glassed, as if they had been hit by high energy plasma. I approached one of the spots and did a quick scan, my mouth pressing into a thin line as the results I had been expecting came back. "Yep, this is Starfire's work alright."
"Then we should keep going!" Miss Martian insisted. "She probably kept flying in this direction, and she might need our help."
"This is the only lead we have," Robin agreed. "We should-"
"Wait." I said. Everyone turned to look at me, but I continued to stare into the distance for a long moment, considering everything I knew and weighing my options. Eventually I grit my teeth before I turned and started walking back towards them. "Starfire's path is taking her straight away from base camp. I'm not sure about Kid Flash, but Artemis still has to be somewhere close. We should search for them first, they're in far more danger from the Bialyan military than Starfire is at the moment."
Aqualad gave me a critical look. "Are you sure, Machina? Robin is correct about this being our only lead."
"She could have changed course after this. If we know for certain where she is, we go after her. But until then we should find the rest of the team first." I let out a breath. "Besides, if she had her memory our leader would want us to find the rest of the team first before we looked for her."
Aqualad considered this before he finally nodded. "Very well. We search for Artemis and Kid Flash."
The team headed back the bioship, and I headed up the rear. I didn't look back at the wreckage of Kori's battle. Six months ago Kori was a prisoner of war, and now to her perspective she was suddenly free on an unknown world. She had been trained to deal with extreme situations. Even without the last six months of her memory, Kori could take care of herself.
She had to.
=====A=====
A/N: This was originally going to be one big chapter, but the way it ended up developing I split it into two. The next one should be out realitvly soon, seeing as how it is about two thirds done.