31. To see each other plain

They spent the next few days around the community as things continued to improve in the group’s absence. The Ghans had converted their caravan into a water carrier. Their days were spent travelling down to the lake, filling the tank with fresh water and returning by the afternoon to fill a water tower. It provided running water to several parts of the community, but they spent all day walking to the lake and back every day.
 
The small contingent of militia in the community had become the primary source of food for the whole community. If not returning with small game and occasionally deer, they found roots, wild greens and herbs. A regular game animal was a small six-legged creature, fast but plentiful in the lands around the Spire. There was talk of smoking game as the first chills turned people's thoughts to winter.
 
Temila and Walara’s farm was taking off. They had added livestock in the form of small furry egg-laying creatures called Boko. Besides being delightful creatures in their own right, the eggs were a real bonus to the community’s diet. Eggs for food meant fewer eggs for the next generation and possible meat production, so Temila and Walara kept tight control of egg distribution.
 
The Dritmen were busy building the Watertower and other community structures, including a workshop for Caros Waldrin, the inventor. Under his, Risina, Jaden and now Marius’ supervision, the community planning and construction were managed. Plans for a well with a wind-powered pump, a smokehouse and a low-temperature kiln for food preservation, basic pottery and charcoal production were all in the works. After one of their meetings, Marius pulled his mother aside to chat.
 
“Mother, could I have a word with you about the family friend?”
Risina didn’t flinch but slowly walked away from the crowds, noting those nearby and waiting until they were out of earshot before speaking.
“What about Veris?”
“In light of what we discovered about Veris. I was wondering how long he’s been…infected. Has there ever been a suggestion before of something…not being right?”
Risina shook her head emphatically as if he were questioning a family member's loyalty, and in a way, he was.
“You know as well as I do that Veris only had our family's best interests in mind. Frankly, until recently, I would have thought Veris more reliable than you.”
“I live to serve,” He replied sarcastically.
“Still,” She said, ignoring his sarcasm, thinking, “Veris was beneficial in finding the quarry.”
“Very.”
“It makes you wonder how long the machines have run things?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

 
Fureva-Yung was also keeping herself busy hunting and foraging along the lakeshore. With a simple spear made from a straight sapling, she walked the bottom of the lake spearfishing and often returned with fish to share. She found that the heads and bones of the fish were by far the tastiest parts and was pleased to let community members eat the squishy white flesh of her ‘tail swimmers’.
“I like the flesh,” Marius was heard saying after Fureva-Yung asked only for the bones.
“Yes, we know,” Temila replied.
 
Only Nox was left without occupation. After the fight with the golden laughing creatures, she spent a whole day recuperating. She stirred herself once to form a chain link from golden-laughters tusk for Fureva-Yung’s collection. The next day, she tried spending time with Temila and Walara but found herself ill-suited to farming and left them with their blisters, sore muscles and sunburn. She hung around the Spire treating the occasional injury while all the time quietly stalking her father.
 
The appearance of the blue person in the datasphere had stirred up questions about her past. She waited for a chance to catch him alone, but with all the building work, his construction skills were more important than ever. Silently she watched as he helped lay out the community workshop and made useful items from scrap left over from building construction. After years of trying to make trinkets acceptable to the Temple, he’d found a knack for making do with what he could find. Finding the useful in what others threw away. After collecting scrap to make utensils, bowls and cups, she followed him to his favourite tinkering spot in the shade of the Spire. Here he laid out his few tools and started clipping, shaping and hammering the cold metal into items.
 
“Father, could I speak to you alone?” Nox asked, sitting down beside him. She picked up one of the spoons he’d just completed. She could see the hammer marks, the care he’d taken to make them, if not invisible, then symmetrical. Absent-mindedly she pulled a rag out of her pouch and started polishing the metal. Ordinarily, such work would not interest her, but today having something to fiddle with as she spoke calmed her.
“Of course,” He replied with a questioning glance.
“Do you remember me asking you about what Erinai looked like?”
He thought a moment, taking the time to form a metal sheet around a wooden form.
“Yes, you were convinced that Erinai has a form of some sort.”
Nox shrugged. At the time, she’d been trying to relate the blue people to the guiding presence of Erinai. Now she knew that Erinai was a fiction created to keep people subservient and working for machines. But even now, she couldn’t break that news to him, someone who had spent their life garnering the good favour of the temple.
“That…was a mistake. But you remember me telling you about the blue people?”
“I remember you saying you’d been seeing blue people.” A look of concern passed across his face, and the old fear of being labelled weird rose in her. Before, it would have been enough for her to slink away, her questions unanswered. She wasn’t willing to live that way anymore.
 
Slowly and carefully, Nox told him, at least in part, what she, Jaden, Marius and Fueva-Yung were investigating. Even with the story heavily censored, his expression darkened at her description of some of the adventures they’d had.
“You do such dangerous things,” He reached out a work-scarred hand and brushed her hair away from the skin on her neck that was still patchy and red from the golden-laughers acid, “You need to look after yourself.”
The touch tingled the tender skin and sent a thrill through her. Confused and distracted, Nox pulled away from his touch. With a feeling of defeat, his hand dropped back to his work and his continued shaping.
 
“I…didn’t….I told you so you’d understand. I saw another of the blue people here in the tower. They had a pendant,” Nox now pulled at the string around her neck and revealed her black ball, its contents swirling darkly, “Just like this one.”
“Your mother’s pendant?” He blinked, his work forgotten, “She left that for you with a note saying she was leaving.”
“A note?” This was the first she’d ever heard. It was probably the first time Nox had ever heard him talk about Nox’s mother, Ariaxa.
“She…she said she was resuming her travels…returning to her people.”
“Did she say who they were? Where they came from?”
“She never talked about herself.” He shook his head despondently as if realising what he’d lost for the first time.
The uncomfortable subject was becoming unbearable. Nox changed the subject, “Did she want us to work with the Temple?”
“She didn’t want me working with the Temple. She said it was a waste of my time. She always said I could do better.”
Yes, you can, Nox thought, but could say nothing. “Did she want me to work with the Temple?”
“You? You were so little. None of us were thinking of you concerning the Temple. Mind you, she didn’t get on with your aunt.”
Intriguing but obvious in hindsight.
 
Livaanar had gone silent, lost in memory. Nox couldn’t judge if they were better times or not. Her mother had left long before she started forming permanent memories.
“I don’t think she really left, or at least, I think the people she left us for are watching us.”
“Hmm?” Her Father snapped out of his revelry, remembered his work and picked up his tools, “Watching us?”
“Yeah, the one who wore my pendant. She said she was my mother.”
Livaanar didn’t have any reply to that, only stared up as Nox rose to leave.
“Please, look after yourself,” He finally said. Nox turned to see him smile faintly at her, and her heart fluttered uncomfortably in her chest, “You’re the only family I have.”
 
Nox stepped carefully around the tools, the scrap metal and half-finished pieces to stand at her Father’s side. Bending down, she folder herself across his shoulder and embraced him. They leaned into each other, one small moment of silent sharing before she let him go and walked away, dizzy with the senses ignited in that one brief contact.
 
It was the evening before the group gathered around the communal fire in the Alcove. Fureva-Yung still had the delegged robot she’d claimed from their last disastrous attempt to travel down below the Spire. Occasionally, something internal stirred, and Fureva-Yung would worry the thing like a cat until it stopped making a noise. Discussion of Veris and their infection swirled through the group, but it was all just conjecture without any evidence.
 
“Well, what about that thing?” Marius pointed to Fureva-Yung’s toy, “What can we learn from the sliver of a mind in that.”
“Yes,” Jaden thought over her cup of hot tea, “What if we can take that sliver and make a vaccine against the infection.”
They looked at Nox, who hadn’t used her mental powers in days, not since the altercation with Veris.
“Okay,” She replied noncommittally.
“Should we tie Nox down?” Fureva-Yung asked, pulling on a scrap of well-used rope. Nox eyed it suspiciously.
“Are you afraid of me, Fureva-Yung?” She asked. If another community member had heard the question, they would have laughed. No one around the fire was laughing.
“Only with your consent, of course,” Marius added diplomatically.
“Really? The best they could think of was for me to strangle Fureva-Yung.” She turned her open, grasping hands on Fureva-Yung to show how ridiculous the attack was.
“If I wanted to take you down, I’d come in behind you and cut your Achilles heals, of course.”
“Of course. Have you thought how you’d kill all of us?” Marius laughed, not sure if it was a joke or not.
Nox nodded thoughtfully, “You, in your sleep. Preferably after…Temila.” Nox ran a thumb across her throat as she glanced at Temila, who was surprised and concerned.
“Jaden, I’d poison her tea.” Jaden stopped sipping and put her cup down.
“Nox, you don’t want to hurt us, do you?” Temila asked.
“No, I’m just saying if I were, then I wouldn’t be throwing myself at the biggest toughest one in the room like…” She waved a hand at the robot carapace, embarrassed, “...I was stupid or something.”
“Besides, you wouldn’t tie up a little girl in front of the whole community, would you?” Now Nox looked concerned.
 
After a few moments of banter at Nox’s expense, it was decided to forego the rope and just take her knife from her. Now unarmed, Nox steeled her mind against the entity and Read its thoughts. The entity in the robot had no chance as Nox pinned it down like a lab specimen for dissection.
“Is it the same thing that is in Veris?” Marius asked, and distantly they heard her reply in all their minds.
It is similar, but not the same.
“How about this robot?”Jaden interjected, “Any sign of the original programming, or has it been totally possessed by the entity?”
Nox tilted her head to the side as she noted the unexpected.
Interestingly, these robots were created by the entity. Cobbled together to hold a piece of themselves. There is no other programming.
“The light from the column. Was that the entity calling them or something else?” Fureva-Yung asked.
Nox's voice came back emotionless, The light has nothing to do with them. Suddenly she blinked, and her voice took on its usual tone, “Like it was the second entity, the one that likes Fureva-Yung, helping. Are we finished with this?”
When the group nodded, Nox used her psychic burst the shred the entity into pieces. Silently, she took delight in tearing the sliver apart so in the end, nothing was left.
 
“Could we shut down the system? Reboot it?” Marius asked as the group returned to the subject of what to do next.
“We haven’t seen a shutdown in the whole Spire,” Nox countered, but nothing could upset Marius’ determination.
“Oh, I’m sure we could manage.”
“I don’t think that’s the way to think of it. When you can’t attack the illness directly, you support the body.” She looked to Temila, who nodded her agreement.
“Nexion is sick. We need to find a way to support the good part.”
“Could you put a piece of yourself in the robot?” Fureva-Yung asked Nox. Nox shook her head.
“I don’t know if I’d want to, Fureva-Yung. I could see through a robot's senses, I could probably remote control it.” She shrugged. Once more, the limitation of the human animal.
 
They discussed the issue late into the night without any idea of what to do next. That night, in the stillness in the heart of the community, Fureva-Yung dreamed.
 
She was once more aboard her ship, in charge of a small fleet of Ferrian ships charged with a singular task, capture a Sacristan ship. It was clear since the war began that the Sacristans had always had the advantage regarding technology, and they’d been careful to keep their secrets to themselves. Destruction was always preferable to losing a ship to the Ferrian Compact. This practice had maintained a Sarcritans advantage of 5:1 throughout the war. With careful planning, staunch execution and a little luck, that would end soon.
 
Fureva-Yung’s ship had on board a team of technicians with a device specifically designed to break through the enemy's defences and prevent a self-destruct sequence. The tiny fleet had been hiding in an asteroid field, ready to strike the next lone scout ship. When that occurred, the fleet would maneuver in. At the same time, Fureva-Yung would lead a squad on board to take control.
 
Fureva-Yung looked over to where the lead technician was already tied into the device. For reasons unknown to her, the weapon needed to be controlled directly via a mind, and there was none better for the job than the man who had seen its creation every step of the way.
 
As expected, the scout ship. The plan they’d spent months perfecting went into action and succeeded in capturing the Sacristan ship, but at what cost? At the moment the weapon made contact with the Sacristan ship, a massive feedback shorted it out, killing the technician outright. The Sacristan ship was disabled, and the squad took control of it and its crew, but no one could tell Fureva-Yung how. How did the weapon knock out the scout ship when it was damaged beyond use?
 
On return to Ferrian Space, the tiny fleet was hailed as heroes. The technician was given a posthumous commendation for bringing the Ferrian Compact one step closer to peace. Fureva-Yung also became aware of other rumours that everything had not gone to plan. In the moment of contact, something had been released.
 
Fureva-Yung woke to a weak morning light disturbed by the turnings of her dream. She knew it was important, she knew it had something to do with what they were talking about the night before and what’s worse she knew she had a part in all of it. She left the communal sleeping area and walked to the edge of the community, outside the ring of shanty buildings clustered around the Spire. Here she sat and watched the sunrise on a new day. It was here that a groggy Nox found her a few moments later.
 
Every morning Nox linked her mind to those of her companions to form their telepathic network. Once established, the connection lasted all day and, if not actively disconnected by the members, connected them into sleep and dreams. Marius was quick to disconnect as soon as Temila gave him the look. Jaden’s connection was a constant background hum that both felt they could not do without. Fureva-Yungs head was…quiet, usually. Nox awoke with a muddle of plans, fleet positions, and success tinged with uncertainty, even guilt. With what little information the visions gave her, Nox crawled out of bed and found Fureva-Yung alone, looking out over the green rolling hills.
 
“Hey, Fureva-Yung. I had the strangest dream about spaceships and a big plan and stuff going wrong…but right…do you know what that was about?” Nox asked without preamble.
“Good morning, Nox,” Fureva-Yung said standing to greet her friend formally. Abashed, Nox backtracked.
“Oh yeah. Good morning, Fureva-Yung, how are you this morning?”
Fureva-Yung was not a thinker. She found the back and forward of words the others delighted in tedious if not frustrating. It often got in the way of the doing the Fureva-Yung preferred and sometimes stopped it completely. This morning, she paused to think before answering Nox’s simple question.
“If someone made a mistake and that led to something terrible happening, would the person that person became be guilty even if they knew nothing about it?”
“Huh? It's too early in the morning for puzzles, Fureva-Yung.” Nox sighed sitting beside her big friend.
 
With what clarity she could, Fureva-Yung replayed the dream in her mind. Nox sat in silence as the few scraps she’d overheard fell into place.
“You see, I know why I’m here. I think I released something, and I’m here to fix it. I wish Fureva were here, she would know how to feel."
“Oh, Fureva-Yung. I think it is right to try and fix a problem when you see one, but the mistake was not yours. How could you predict the taking of a ship would lead to an anti-life entity being released? If anything, I’d suggest you may have been set up to fail.”
 
“Oh?” This sounded like more of the others talking-talking. She didn’t need multiple reasons why things were the way they were. She needed a plan on how to fix it.
“Tell me, what do the Sacristans look like?” Nox asked unexpectedly.
“Tall,” She indicated someone who could look her in the eye standing up, no small feat, “thin humanoids with blue-tinged skin.”
“Blue but not like the blue people we’ve seen? Not ghostly?”
“No, solid.” She pressed a big square finger into Nox’s skinny arm, nearly knocking the girl over, “Sorry.”
“Okay, forget that. As I see it, we have six possibilities.”
“One, the prototype wasn’t ready. Pushed into service too early, it somehow created the entity.”
“Two, at the moment of contact, the experimental machine and technician fused together to create the entity, a nasty thought.”
“Three, a mix of the weapon and something on board the Sacristan ship gave birth to the entity.”
“Four, besides disabling the Sacristan ship, the weapon opened a portal for the entity to come into our world. Not likely, but we’ve travelled by doing less, so who knows.”
“Five, the entity was on board the Sacristan ship as an A.I. or some other complicated program, and it was released on contact, which leads me to the last possibility…Six, the scout was set up to be captured. It didn’t matter whether the weapon worked or not. The plan was always to allow the ship to fall, planting the entity into the heart of the Ferrian Compact. It makes sense when you think about it. The fixation of either enslaving or destroying living being, the domination of all machines, don’t they sound like two mission statements? The entity has never mentioned what they’d do once they had control and enslaved all the humanoids. Probably because that was not their part of the plan.”
 
Talking-talking.
 
“Yes. I am afraid it destroyed the Ferrian compact.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Nox had to agree it was possible, then she brightened, “But you’ve got to admit you couldn’t have found better friends to fight this. Right?”
“Like we were drawn together,” Fureva-Yung agreed.
“And I wouldn’t worry about how Fureva would feel. Your feelings aren’t wrong, Fureva-Yung.”
 
The two friends slowly returned to the Spire and found Marius and Jaden already up. Over breakfast, Fureva-Yung and Nox told the others about the dream, and Fureva-Yung concerns that the mistake released in the memory was the same entity they dealt with now.
 
“Well, General Furry…” Marius started.
“Commodore Furry,” Nox corrected, but he ignored her.
“I can see only one option open to us, let Nox go into the datasphere.”
“What?” Jaden barked.
“Yay! When?” Nox added.
“Wash your mouth out!”
“No, really. Sometimes we need to poke the universe and see what jiggles.”
 
At that moment, Yitti appeared into the Alcove, spotted Marius and walked over to the group.
“Marius, there’s something odd rummaging around in the building materials.”
“Oh bugger!” Marius leapt up and was out of the Alcove before Jaden could speak.
“You didn’t think to tap it on the shoulder and say ‘Hi’?” She asked Yitti, who was quick to scrounge a second breakfast from the leftovers.
“Isn’t that what you lot do while we’re busy building the town?” He quipped back with a smirk.
“And thank you for letting us know so we can do just that,” Nox answered and raced after Marius.
 
It didn’t take them long to find an oddly shaped multilegged robotic creature rummaging through the community materials pile. It was the creature they called Bug who had dug their own way into the Eastern site following the scent of parts. The group had last seen the little creature as it trundled off in the hopes of finding a snack in the datasphere.
 
“Hey, friend. What happened to you? We haven’t seen you since…” Marius said, unsure how they’d ended up in the hall of Lost Ti-Chura.
"...I fed him a crystal.” Nox admitted quietly and translated the question to the curious little lifeform.
“Really? Why did you do that?”
 
I walked around a while, Bug replied simply, Saw lots of things. Learnt a bit. Met some new friends who sent me back.
“Does he sound smarter now?” Jaden asked, “Or is that the translation.”
A little smarter. There’s lots to explore in the datasphere.
Nox looked silently at the other, her eyes emploring them to let her try the datasphere.
“These friends of your, what did they look like?” Marius asked.
Glowy blue, they look a bit like you.
“Me?”
Squishies like you.
 
“What sort of things did you learn?” Jaden asked by way of stopping the destruction of the materials pile.
All sorts of stuff. Ancient wars…
Maybe because they’d only just been talking of war, maybe because of the machinations of the blue people, the group as one jumped on the mention of an Ancient war.
 
“Tell me, in this war, were there people that looked like this one?” Marius pointed at Fureva-Yung.
One did, Bug replied.
“What do you remember of the Ancient War?”
There was a group. They said all this space and the places in it were theirs. Then this other group came along and saw some places weren’t being used, and so they settled there. The first group said, “No, you can not live there, that belongs to us!”. The second group complained, “You weren’t using them, and we can.” The first group said, “No, get off!” and they attacked the second group. The second group attacked back with bigger weapons. Bug snapped two of his most lethal-looking legs together. Bug looked rather pleased with themselves, having remembered so much. The group, too, were impressed and looked around each other, wondering what next they could do with this insightful pest.
“Keeping it here would be a bit of a problem. They’d tear everything apart,” Marius gestured to the Shantytown of a community springing up around them.
“They’re brilliant now, “Jaden mused, “Hey, Bug…what should we call you? What’s your name?”
Scav…Scaver…Scaverous? The bug worked through the sounds and again seemed pleased to have created a new word for themselves.
“Scaverous. You are welcome to stay here with us and help yourself to your choice of scrap,” She gestured to the pile, rapping on the sheet metal to ensure she had the robot’s attention.
“But there is something I’d like you to do.” In the ground between them, she sketched out the basic layout of the Sliver robots.
“These ones don’t like us. If you see any in your travels, let us know.”
Am I allowed to kill them? Again Scaverous clicked their long vicious-looking knife-life legs together.
“You can, but don’t risk yourself.”
I am very smart, Scaverous agreed, and had another thought, What about the Big eyes?
“Big eyes?” Jaden was confused for a moment. They hadn’t met any robots with large eyes. Then she realised who Scaverous meant, “The ones that live below? They are our friends.”
Friends, yes.
 
Jaden turned to the rest of the group, satisfied she’d conducted a delicate piece of diplomacy.
“There, I think we should try and exist with this self-made lifeform.”
Nox snorted, not translating for Scaveous, “It wasn’t that long ago you were all for destroying it for parts.”
“Things change. Scaverous certainly has.” She tapped Scaverous fondly on the head,” You can come and go from the Spire as much as you like.”
Spire? I thought this was a prison…
That had everyone’s attention. From planning to move off to find seats to sit and listen to what else the robot had to say.
Did I say that?
“You did,” Marius replied, “Where did you get that snippet from?”
I don’t know.
“I bet it was the blue people,” Nox exclaimed, “That’s why they sent him back, so he could tell us.” Nox patted Scaverous and ran back inside the Spire. The others found her crouched in front of the cylinder in the first room they explored.
“Like before, “ She translated what she scanned for the group, “It’s a containment field controlling a large volume of data from deep down in the Spire through to the top.”
“A prison for an artificial intelligence,” Marius nodded, “But there must be a hole in the containment for the entity to be giving us trouble.”
Nox followed the containment as far as she could, “It seems to be fully working, but I can’t be sure of other systems.”
“Well, maybe we should check the top and see if containment is right at that end.
 
They travelled via the elevator to the fourth floor and the teleportation hub. Conscious of the last time she scanned this area, Fueva-Yung held onto Nox as she scanned the cabling adjacent to the central hub.
“ It’s moving faster here, but I can’t tell anything else,” She shrugged as much as she could in the safe arms of Fureva-Yung.
 
They travelled to the top, where everything looked the same as last time. Furvea-Yung activated a chair, and Nox scanned the chair before and after activation. She detected a signal from the tattoo to the chair but nothing else. Nox shrugged.
 
“So, where next?” Marius asked
 
Teleport to Datasphere for more information like that from Scaverous
Basement Level 1 to Unseen (preferred)
Level Deep, as far as we can go
Overland to friend? in the east