RECV EDC:    07FEB2019
COMM MODE:   QEC OP SREF
CODED ABST:  D/M/C
CRC:         2014139095      1391
============================================================
Stay put Wells! We've been  chasing you all over the sector,
one step  behind the  entire way. Don't  worry, the  Corp is
either giving  up or they're  so far behind that  they don't
even  matter at  this point.  Seriously, we're  right behind
you, just sit still a little longer and we'll be there.

Needless to  say, we got  your message. Yeah, I  realize I'm
being cryptic, and  that you don't know who  "we" are; don't
worry, it's someone you can  trust. At least, I think you'll
trust him, you never know.

But I'm getting ahead. We got your message. Actually, I got 
your message  first. I was searching,  alone and desperate, 
without any  success. I turned  to the Xero-mods,  who I've 
been friendly with for a long,  long time. Dr. Sossial is a 
wonderful and powerful woman in their ranks, and I was glad 
to read that you had interacted with her directly.          

I went to  see them in person; the only  way to really speak
with them is  on their own very-secure turf.  She only spoke
highly of you- she was present  for all of the research done
on you,  you should  know. She  particularly like  your sub-
conscious. Don't  worry about the  last episode at  the lab,
she has seen far worse in her espial of the Corporation.

After  you  escaped,  Sossial  took full  advantage  of  the
position that you had placed her in.All of her colleagues in
the room were  dead, and you had broken out.  The only thing
left  to do  was  to  explain her  survival  and steal  your
fully-copied consciousness  from the  Corporation's computer
banks.

The  Xero-mods  always work  in  pairs-  no more,  no  less.
Sossial's  comrade was  in security,  and she  knew that  he
would be  sure to personally  respond to any event  in their
lab; indeed, it  turned out that he was  viewing the hallway
video-feed when you escaped (as you know, there are no feeds
in the labs  themselves,) and had  diverted  the images away
from his  team's monitors. I  thanked him in-person  on your
behalf.

He arrived shortly  after you left, and  with Sossial's help
he prepped and de-banked your  memory units and their backup
power rods,  taking them  to a smuggling  portal of  his own
making where  he stowed them  to be passed to  a trustworthy
recipient later. He returned to his post.

Sossial,  while  he was  out,  set  to work  self-inflicting
enough bodily harm to make it  appear as if she were as much
an object  of your rage as  the others. When she  lifted her
hand to pull  the alarm it was with genuine  despair for her
life. It's an ugly business, but it's one that she is expert
in; she survived.

If  you  haven't  guessed  already, the  smuggler  that  the
Xero-mods  hired  to  retrieve your  consciousness  was  me.
Shortly after  you escaped,  the Corporation focused  all of
their effort on your capture, believing that you had escaped
with all of their research and  effort. I slid in and out on
a false  wetware reclamation permit,  and grabbed a  copy of
you while I was at it.

I've had  you with me  since shortly after you  escaped the 
Corporation.                                                

Of course,  I was afraid to  interface with you in  any way;
who would want  to be the one  to wake up a  version of you,
Wells, to  the reality  that you've  been encapsulated  in a
machine? I don't  think you'd even want to be  the one to do
it. Still,  at this  point I  felt I had  no choice.  No one
could find  you better than  you. The Xero-mods  agreed, and
with their  help I interfaced you  with the ship that  I had
named  in your  honor. The  Xero-Carbon Wells  is now  fully
operational, just the way I figured it would be someday.

That was  around the  time of  your last  transmission. Your
consciousness was a kanthorgian dog  to deal with, but after
the initial shock wore off,  you accepted your new fate. The
fact that you're still alive out there was a huge help; your
consciousness now seems to see  itself as the only protector
fit and capable  enough to do you any justice  in your fight
against the  Corporation, and probably everything  else that
you'll ever face. Honestly, he's as  bad as you are, and now
he has direct control over the ship.

With his (your) help, we've  tracked you pretty closely. The
ship now seems  to be acutely aware of  your decision making
process. But it's not just  that- the Xero-Carbon version of
you "feels" (can it do that?)  that it can see what you see,
that you're  somehow linked.  I don't  know much  about that
possibility, as this Prigoginic stuff is so new.

The rest we can catch up on, just stay put for a bit, let us
come to you.

