“Nathan! What are you doing?” Lana shrieked as the floor started rising around him, slowly covering him in metal plates.

He gave her a grave look. “What I should have done sooner.” He turned to look at the Navigator. “Bring us down, Captain. Unity will take care of the rest.”

The other three crew members looked at him in pure astonishment, hardly believing the change in Nathan’s demeanor. Then Nori met his determined eyes and nodded.

“Thank you.” He smiled, then the final plate slammed over his face and the blob of metal that covered his entire body descended, reabsorbed back into the floor.

***

Once again, alone in the darkness, far from distraction, Nathan could finally focus. All this time, refusing to surrender to the Tec in fear of becoming a Warped had only stopped them from healing his mind. Now unleashed, the minuscule machines were merrily doing their job, adjusting the fragile parts of his overwhelmed brain, fixing him, bringing him back.

His connection to Unity flashed in his mind, growing brighter and brighter, strengthening, reaching all the way to the deepest reaches of both their souls. The fragile union they had established was finally complete.

Man and ship were now one.

The process, however, was not without its toll. Nathan’s consciousness started to fade, claimed by darkness. With his final waking thought, the Technomancer reached out and called for his partner’s true form.

***

The remaining consoles went blank.

“What the hell--” Bulco started to say, but a screeching sound interrupted him. The ship’s bulkheads began to move and stretch. Then a humming noise, like a high voltage line, filled the bridge.

Alter Mode engaged

As one, the consoles righted themselves, once again showing critical ship data.

“The ship’s changing!” Bulco exclaimed. He grabbed and pulled at the sides of one of his holo monitors, extending it for all to see. The monitor displayed the ship’s schematic from a third person perspective. But the image it was showing now was very different than normal. Unity’s main body had sprouted six giant insect-like legs and its triangular bridge extended even further from the main body and was moving freely, like a head connected by a neck. A hole started opening at the bottom of the head and the humming sound intensified. The hole extended, transforming into a gaping circular maw filled with intense bright energy.

Lana gasped. “The excavator! It wasn’t just absorbed, Unity merged with it!”

“Good,” Nori grunted and plunged her hands downward.