Jimin focus

They were pressed into the seats when the transporter shot out of the starting lot into space, and Jimin held his breath to withstand the pressure on his chest. This vehicle was slightly bigger than the one they had used for Pride because now they were two more people who had to fit in. But it did not feel like more space because their armor made them look enormous.

Jimin had not known how to put on the full-gear when they had changed in the hangar's changing room, so Jungkook had had to help him dressing properly. He had felt like a part of a dangerous squat when they had marched through the hangar hall. Their chest, neck and shoulders were covered in a special layer of bulletproof material, thicker than the rest of the jacket, making them look brought and muscular, and their underarms and kicking-shins were shielded by protectors to allow them attacking and defending themselves against punches without having to hold back. And of course, the two rubber bands on the trousers were littered with pockets for magazines and a drop-leg-holster for every leg, holding guns. The tightness of the bulletproof jacket and the weight of the guns on his legs had felt reassuring and almost had made him forget they were a bunch of scientists and technicians.

[This is full-gear.]

Except for Taehyung. The V had a long knife on his waist and a drop leg holster with Kunais, little throwing knifes, and Jimin wondered what more talents the pilot had kept secret from them. But apart from looking dangerous with the knifes, Taehyung had added another gimmick to his and his lover's uniform. In big white letters he had written TAEGI under the white emblem of Earth II Space Agency. Hoseok had scolded the two for wasting time, but Jimin had found it cute. He would also like to have JIKOOK written on his chest, albeit he knew how silly this was. It would have felt good.

Absently, he stared at the helmet in his lap whose black glass visor threw back a distorted reflection of himself. He looked pale. But Jin had looked worse when they had changed into armor. The physician had had shaking hands and had looked like he would throw up every second, but somehow Namjoon had been able to keep the doc calm. A look towards his left showed him that the hazel-haired tried to gather all the energy he could bring up to mentally steel himself for his job. Jimin was slightly envious. Their oldest just had to stay in the transporter and pretend to be the pilot while they had to follow the captain without getting caught and maybe had to face Hoseok's sister. The thought of using his powers so offensively scared him.

A strong hand pressed his shoulder from behind and he relaxed again. Jungkook was with him. His lover would protect him, and he would protect his lover. They could do it. Combined, they were the perfect weapon: psychological distraction and precise handling of guns.

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"Get into the flooring," Hoseok grumbled lowly when they passed the hangar door ten minutes later.

Jimin, Jungkook and the Taegi-team got up and opened the small lid that was almost invisible if one did not search for it. When Jimin saw the small dark box they were supposed to climb in, he felt his chest tighten. No, he would not let his claustrophobia ruin this. He would not panic. But no matter how often he told himself that this was just for some minutes, his chest became tighter and tighter and his throat felt like someone suffocated him.

"I...I..." he breathed heavily, "I can't." He shook his head viciously. His hands were fisting the helmet and he felt like crying. Why had he not thought of this earlier? Well, maybe he had been a little distracted by the giant black space ship in front of the window, and there had been little to no choice regarding the plan, but how the fuck could he have forgotten about his problem with tiny dark spaces? But there was no other way. He had to backup Hoseok, so he could not pose as pilot.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Taehyung asked concerned, poking his head out from the sardine box they had to fit in.

He nodded frantically.

"Shit!" Hoseok hissed. Then he took a deep breath and spoke calmly. "Jimin, in about thirty seconds we'll have to open the door and get out. You have to get in there, or we're fucked." This was not calming at all. But Jimin anyways could barely hear the captain through the ringing in his ears, not to speak of seeing through the white mist that clouded his vision. But suddenly, he felt two strong arms around him and was pulled into the dark box.

"No, no, no, no..." he mumbled like a mantra while shaking his head. Then his body denied breathing and he had the feeling of being squished between the metal walls. The door felt shut.

"Jimin you have to breath," he heard Jungkook's voice miles away to his left, but stars already danced in the perfect darkness in front of his eyes. "Breath, Jimin, please!" his lover whisper-shouted, but he did not hear it anymore.

Suddenly, a big hand grabbed his face and he felt soft lips on his. The suffocating grip around his chest and throat loosened and he gasped for air. Soft lips kept littering his face with small kisses and kept his chest rising and falling. It still did so much to fast, but at least the kisses distracted him enough to not blackout. When his breathing became too fast, the lips caught his to stop him from hyperventilating, and then continued showering him with pecks.

"Hey, lovebirds," Taehyung's deep hushed voice sounded from his other side. "Time to move."

Jimin turned his head in surprise and saw a small trap door were Yoongi had been. Almost manic, he robbed towards the light and let himself fall out like a bag of potatoes. Greedily, his lungs sucked in the oxygen, and he felt his muscles relaxing. With deep slow breaths he forced his system into normality and let himself be pulled up to his feet by Taehyung. Well, not that they were truly on their feet. They crouched under the vehicle with their heads brushing the metal because the small transporter was too low to stand underneath.

"Ready?" the V asked with sparkling eyes when Jungkook had landed next to them. Jimin saw the same spark of excitement in Jungkook's eyes and wondered what it was with soldiers and battles. But then he had to admit that he felt much better than back on the BT21 as well. He would make a toast on adrenaline should they survive today.

The two pilots apparently had left their helmets in the transporter because he could see them nowhere, so guided by their example, he put his back into the vehicles stomach as well. Then he crawled out from under the box and followed the V and the Switcher towards the closest exit. From the open load ramp of the transporter he could hear voices and wondered if Jin was talking to the enemy.

But he only wondered until they were in a long hallway that led parallelly to the giant hangar, and a cold female voice spoke.

"Who are you?" it asked from the off, the sharp tone echoing between the dark metal walls and shimmering pipes.

"Shit, Jimin!" Taehyung said turning around to him while running down the hallway, "Tell me I'm wrong and we're not confronted with an AI," The V's eyes were filled with panic, but Jimin did not feel any better.

"This makes no sense. It's impossible," he pressed out.

Yoongi took a sharp right-turn at the end of the hallway staring at something in his hand, and they followed the white-haired who checked every door on the way through the intimidating metal tunnels.

"I am an artificial intelligence. My name is Grief," the female voice introduced herself. For some reason Jimin could hear that this one was much younger than Bang. It sounded stiff and unexperienced.

"What a shitty name," Taehyung growled. "But how can you destroy planets? Don't you have the three laws?"

"I have the three laws," the voice answered without further explanation.

Jimin tortured his brain for a solution as to why his prediction was wrong and how an AI could possibly kill humans while having the first law when suddenly Jungkook spoke up. "A modified first law," the raven said and looked at him with questioning eyes.

"Of course," Jimin blurted. "Tae, it has a modified first law. Just like in Asimov's book."

"What?" the V asked with furrowed brows and glanced at his colleague to not lose track. The Switcher was unexpectedly fast.

"If you take away or limit the second part of the first law, an AI can watch people die, it can stay inactive," he explained, and Taehyung's eyes widened in horror. "It can prep the weapon, and then it can watch a human push the red button and simply sit back."

"Holy Jupiter," the V mumbled, but the shock was cut short by the other pilot.

"Here," Yoongi suddenly shouted and opened a door into a small broom-cabinet-sized room with two interactive consoles on both sides. "That's out way to plug in."

The programmers sat down on the floor, took off their slim backpacks and pulled out two tiny devices Jimin had never seen before. They looked like an ancient version of bablets, bendable tablets of intelligent glass. A thick keyboard with actual buttons was attached to a screen. They looked bulky. But all that was slightly pushed to the back by the perfect synchronous movements of the two computer scientists. It looked like a choreography they had learned. Both pushed a slim cable into one of the many slots on the consoles and began to run their fingers over the keyboards.

"I will not let you in," Grief said determined.

Taehyung chuckled. "Do as you like. But do you know what's great? You're still just a computer." Yoongi chuckled at his boyfriend's remark while his ebony eyes never left his screen. Jimin looked at the Taegi-team in awe. Those two seemed like it was just a nice game for them. They were so optimistic and calm.

"We'll head off," Jungkook announced and was answered by a simple nod of the pilots. Then Jimin felt a hand around his arm and was pulled after his lover.

"How are we supposed to find the bridge?" he asked the younger. Only now, the thought that this ship was giant came to his mind and that they would take ages to find the right path. How stupid of them to think they could simply follow the captain and the commander.

But his boyfriend grinned. "Sleuth," the raven said and showed him a small device that indeed read SLEUTH in big white letters. He must look very confused because the younger began to explain that this little device had memorized Hoseok's scent and could read the air for it, just like a tracking dog. Jimin was amazed by the technic they had already invented.

On the other hand, an AI had confessed to them today. Compared to that the little tool was rather boring. When Bang had made his confession, he first had been amazed, but then he had understood that by the way he had made him simulate love the AI had had to come to this conclusion. Still, it was adorable and extraordinary.

But he had understood something more important as well. There was no way to determine where a simulated intelligence ended, and consciousness began. There was no way to tell whether Bang just thought he could feel or indeed felt. Because what else was a brain but a computer that sent and received electrical impulses between knots of a net; what else were neurotransmitters and hormones but hardware settings that could be regulated by the brain? He had found his ghost in the machine. He had found a soul between cables and processors.

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