[Just A Little Further] - Chapter 25

First / Previous / Next

It was still early, so we went to find a cafe and eat lunch. Once again, I didn't have to use my voice, they just gave us our meal for free. I really should get an idea about how money worked here. I knew they were called skys, I knew at least some of them were small green metallic coins - actually they looked like the same metal the Throne and Chairs were made out of, I wondered if they were - and I knew that everyone used them here to buy stuff. That's for later though. For now, we worked our way to the dock, and found the internal docking bay Omar discovered earlier.

Walking in, it became clear that we had a lot of work ahead. High Line was here and it was junk.

Even when - if? - it was operating it was clearly made up of a hodgepodge of at least three different starships. It looked like this thing had been limping along on patches and ad hoc repairs for centuries. Human ships tended to be very personalized. Riots of color, patterns, little flourishes here and there that spoke to the operator. It was probably a function of the fact that all our ships were AI operated. It's their body after all, and they decorated and personalized it.

High Line was downright drab in comparison.

Grey on grey with streaks of soot and...was that rust? It looked like rust. What would rust on a spacecraft hull? High Line was all boxes and blocks stuck together where they fit or where a need was found. I'm much more used to the sweeping, flowing shapes the starjumpers had. In addition to looking fast, they looked much more elegant. Even our smaller ships, the Frigates and Destroyers, tended towards looking more like living creatures than a box.

As I walked around staring at things and - apparently - making a sour face, Starlight, Ocean and River were standing there, looking nervous and worried. "So Empress... Here is High Line. We admit, it's a little worse for wear than the ship you came to us on, but-“ Starlight stood a little taller. "It brought my forebears here all those years ago and through all that time many light-years were put on it shuttling people around the system and still it held air and gravity. It's not much to look at, but it was ours."

I mean, they're right. Maybe I was being too hard on it. They got centuries of use out of it with barely any maintenance. All the more reason to refit it right and make it soar once again. I looked over at Omar and he was smiling, walking around, taking measurements, examining the ship from all angles, having a great time. "Melody, it might not be much to look at now, but it’s a good foundation! We can add some improved thrusters, beef up the armor, add a wormhole generator and some laser batteries and while we won't be able to take on a dreadnought or even a Starjumper, we'll be able to hold our own against anything local we've seen.

I smiled, his enthusiasm was infectious. “At this point a starship is better than no starship so I'll take what I can get. How long will the refit take, Omar?"

He looked at the ship, at the Aviens, and then at me. "It will depend on their printer and how well we can integrate the designs from my copy of the database, but maybe a month? Hopefully less?"

"Well then, you had better get started. You spend your time getting High Line up to your satisfaction, and let me know about your progress. For now, we will be staying at the Royal Dawn. I don't know if there's other royal quarters that we just haven't found or if the hotel is made out of the original royal quarters, but I'm satisfied with our current accommodations. Make your own schedule and if you need something or someone, just let me know. Starlight" - I looked pointedly at them - "can help you with any personnel needs you have." Starlight bobbed their head eagerly. "If you need to speak to me or the others, you should be able to though the Reach. Just... concentrate and it should work."

"Okay Melody, I'll get on it." He turned away from us waving to the Aviens, "Come on Starlight, show me the printer. Ocean, go see what kind of help you can find for us. River, go see about the condition of the other starships. Some of them have to be operable, how else is food getting here?" Omar looked up at us as the Aviens run off in different directions to obey Omar. "What happened to Ottarn, that Mariens who took their ship and tried to run? If nothing else, we could use that ship."

I reached out with the help of the Reach and scanned the local area. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but I assumed the nanites would tell me.

<There. Over by this edge. Do you see the drive emissions?>

I did! I could see it in my minds eye as some kind of pink smoke or fog. I concentrated on that area, zooming in and found their ship. It looked like it was drifting, with that pink fog venting.

<Do we have a way to see if anyone is alive?>

<Reach out to the ship, use your abilities as Empress.>

<That doesn’t mean anything. How do I do it?>

<Think about wanting to do it. How else have you been doing anything with our abilities?>

Fine. I reached out and thought about wanting to see who was still alive aboard the ship. I had a feeling like an itch on the back of my brain, but, there! There were three lives on the ship.

<There are three people still alive aboard.>

<They have proven themselves unworthy. Take care of it.>

<Take care of it, wha->

Before I could finish my thought, there was an alarm. I had never heard any kind of alarm like this, but it sounded important. Clanking and hooting, and had a bit of a crackle and a muffled sound as if the speaker was covered in dust. Everyone looked up and around as the alarm sounded, and then there was a massive thump.

The entirety of the Reach vibrated, as if the biggest person ever was stomping around upstairs. Looking inward, I found that the Reach was firing on Ottawa’s ship. <What are you doing?>

<We cannot have anyone escape to warn of your return until you’re ready.>

<The ship is junk, there’s no need to kill them!>

<We are doing them a kindness Melody. This death is swift and painless. Otherwise they will either starve, or suffocate - neither of which are especially pleasant.>

The nanites continued to fire on the ship until I saw a purple white explosion as something important was struck, and then just a rapidly expansing cloud of debris and gas.

<There.>

Ava looked over at me, and saw me looking inward. “What is it Melody?”

“The nanites, they- we- I- they fired upon Ottawa’s ship, destroying it.”

“Why would they do that?” Um’reli asked, “We could have used a mostly working ship.”

“It wasn’t really working by the time they- we- I- fired upon it.” I said. That was odd, I was having a hard time saying that the nanites did something on their own. Every time I tried, I stuttered and said some version of ‘we’ or ‘I.’ “It was more of a kindness, really. Their fates otherwise were to starve or suffocate.”

“Much kinder,” Ava agreed. “I know I’d rather just go all at once in a big explosion than suffocate.”

“We still could have used the ship after the crew was gone.” Um’reli said, her ears flicking in thought. “But, what’s done is done.”

Omar had looked up from a panel on High Line when the firing started, and gave me a troubled expression, but then Starlight asked him something and he put his head back down.

I grabbed Ava and Um'reli, "Come on, let's leave Omar to his work. We have other things to take care of. I think we're going to have to hire on some help, but before that we're going to have to figure out money."

Ava scoffed as we walked, "You're still going on about money? Just make people help us out."

"Ava we're looking to help out here, not be overthrown in a couple weeks. If I make people help us, the moment we walk away people will start to wonder why they're helping us at all."

"Melody has a point Ava. What is it that we do here?" Um'reli was really good at throwing cold water on Ava's plans. I'm glad she came. Without her I had a hunch that Ava would have talked me into all kinds of bad ideas.

<Ava would have talked you into proper Builder ideas.> It really sounded like the nanites were pouting.

"Builders seemed to work like the AIs on stations back home. So it's not like we have no job." I said as we walked.

"Well then, let's go back to the Throne and do some work. I'm tired of walking around trying to mooch free stuff from people because they're scared of Melody." Um'reli turned towards the Throne. I really didn't have anything else to do, so I followed. "You coming, Ava?"

"I guess. I don't have anything else to do." Ava looked around somewhat wistfully and followed. I wondered what she was hoping to do instead. Probably have me order people to give her something. As we walked into the entryway to the Throne - I still couldn't find a back door, I really needed to find one or make one - something caught my eye. I walked over and... "It's a shrine." I said, bending down to get a better look at it.

"What?" Ava peeked over my shoulder, "Oh, it's beautiful."

It really was. Someone made a drawing of us in some kind of pastel medium, like pencils or chalk. It was me at the top, my wings spread wide and I was glowing. Below that, Um'reli, Ava and Omar were standing tall and proud looking up. Under that was a decent representation of hundreds of people bowing before us. Written on the bottom in the same local script I see all over it said, "May They Protect Us." The drawing was on a little easel and there were flowers and candles all around it in a semicircle.

Protect them from what though?

"These flowers were amazing! I've never seen ones like this before" Um'reli bent down to get a closer look. She took a deep breath "And they smell so good, Ava, Melody, you should smell them!"

Well if Um'reli - a K'laxi - could smell them and not immediately break out in allergic hives, it was probably fine for us to smell too. I bent down low and they smelled... familiar? Why was that?

<You’re remembering.>

<Someone else’s memories.>

<No, the Empress. You.>

Ava straightened and said, “Wait, these were grown. We need to find out where the gardens are and visit it!"

Um'reli stood as well. "After we get some work done Ava. We need to show everyone that we do something and aren't a drain on resources because Melody can order them around and they can't say no."

"What's the point of all this power if we don't use it!" Ava whined.

“We 'use it' like you want to and people will come after us with guns and knives. Who was the Empress before Melody?" Um'reli was looking hard at Ava.

"We have no idea."

“Her name was Janais.” I said suddenly. Both Um’reli and Ava turned and stared at me.

“How did you know that?” Um’reli asked carefully.

“I’m not sure. The nanites? Her name was Janais, and she had long silvery hair that she hated combing every day but knew it looked good when she wore her gown, and her girlfriend Aeche - she's the one who built the Reach - liked it, so Janais kept it long.”

<Why did I remember that?>

<We keep telling you. You Are Empress. Eventually you will have all of their memories and yours.>

<You’re overwriting my personality?> I sure as hell didn’t want that.

<No, adding. Improving.>

Um'reli’s tail swished, but she continued up the stairs to the Throne itself. Ava didn't say anything further and followed, and with one last look at the shrine, I went up as well.

In the Builder room, Um'reli and Ava sat down and their bodies went distant as they were integrating. "Uh, Melody there might be a problem." Um'reli's voice sounded worried over the speakers.

"What is it Um'reli?"

"After I integrated, I saw what looked like an alert. Ava and I checked it out and there's something going on at the main transit hub station."

"Oh neat! I haven't been there yet. I'll go down and check it out. You two stay here and be my eyes and ears."

I bounded down the stairs and headed out into the promenade. This time, I went towards the Administration offices but continued on past them. After a short walk I reached the transit station. It reminded me a lot of photos of transit stations back on Earth. Platforms, people milling about, advertising. But I saw no crowds or anything worrying. I connected to the station and thought to Ava and Um'reli "I didn't see any problem here, what's going on?"

"It's not here, it was at the main station. Get on the next train and ride two stops, you'll see it."

Oh, okay. Just as Ava finished speaking, a train rolled up. Like a lot of this place, it clearly was very fancy a long long time ago. The fact that it's still working was pretty impressive, even if it looked a bit run down. I walked on, and looked around. There were seats all along the walls of the train car and poles along the middle to hang on to. Mentally I shrugged and sat down near the door. After a moment, there's a trilling chime and the doors closed.

With a lurch and a hiss of brakes, we started moving. I wondered if this train was automated, or if someone drove it; I should ask later. I'm lost in thought for the ride through the first station stop, but then I looked around and realized everyone was staring at me.

"Oh, Hello everyone." I said brightly.

Immediately, the people closest to me dropped to the ground, bowing their heads. "Oh, thank you, but you don't have to do that right now, please just sit. I'm just riding the train over to the hub station. My Builders told me there's some kind of issue and I'm going to check it out."

"But, Empress... Surely you have people that you can send to do that for you?" It was a Mariens sitting across from me, looking amused.

"Oh not right now. I'm between retainers and assistants right now. One of my Builders, Omar is helping to repair the High Line, that Aviens ship, and my other two, Ava and Um'reli are sitting in their Chairs, assisting with the operation of the Reach." Oh wait. "Do you want a job? I do find myself needing more people to help out with-" I gestured "-all this. I'm not sure how much to pay yet or really where to get some money, but I'm sure I'll work all that out soon enough."

The Mariens chuckled "Thank you for the offer Empress, but I quite like my job. But, if you so order it of course I'd help.” Their skin flashed a muted rainbow of colors, the visual version of their chuckling. “If you're just asking though, no thank you."

"Oh, that's quite all right. I don't want to order you. But, if you know anyone that would like to help, have them come to the Throne chamber tomorrow, we'll see what we can do!"

And with that same trilling chime, the doors opened and I'm at the hub station.

Ah. Okay. I see what Ava and Um'reli were talking about, there was a riot.

I wish they had told me first.