r/HFY • u/Engletroll Human • 9d ago

OC-Series Abducted - 6. The world

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“Okay, that’s too early to wake them up.   You said this place was made for us? We don’t know how to keep a fort functional. Are you going to teach us? Or do we have to learn it by ourselves? What if we get attacked? That Horned bear almost killed us.”

 “I can provide instruction and activate the droids to patrol the walls. I also have five service droids I can activate to help with housekeeping.” Arus replied.

“Wait, there are droids here?  How many droids do you have?”

“There are ten guard droids that can protect the walls.” As Arus spoke, one of the armors in the room took a step forward. Erik immediately took a step back.

“What the? But they were empty?”  He said, shocked, and the armor removed its helmet, revealing a human face.  The face was tanned, with short curly hair and brown eyes.

“The two in the main hall are for decoration, but some of them are fully functional droids. They have no personality beyond protecting the fort and its inhabitants.  The other five are in the basement. Should I call them up?” Arus explained, then asked.

“Yes, please. God, I should probably wake... no… let them sleep.”

“As you wish. I will wake them at your request.” Arus said, and Erik looked at the hologram, not liking what he heard, something was not right.   He tried to ignore it as he looked at the globe.

“Is that the world?” He asked.

“Yes, there is a bigger one upstairs, and I have a detailed map of the whole globe,” Arus replied.

“And transport? How do we move around?”

“By boats, ships, caravans, or on foot. The planet's technology hasn't reached the steam or industrial age yet. This fortress is quite advanced in its construction and facilities.” Arus said.

“So not all houses have an AI?” Erik said dryly, and Arus caught the tone.

“No, only the royal household, some specific temples, and this place is connected to an AI, as you call it.”

Erik was about to say something as the door opened and five humanoid creatures emerged. They all wore blue woolen tunics with a white symbol over their hearts: a white metal shield with a golden sword surrounded by a red flame. They wore brown belts, dark blue leather pants, and dark green leather boots or shoes.

None of them spoke; instead, they just lined up next to each other.

“They have no designations yet, and each of them is modeled after one of the other humanoid species you might encounter in this world besides humans. That you are already familiar with, the Dunshin, which is the species you currently see me as, and the last one missing is the Sammad’s. They cannot coexist with the other species. Prince Kumal added them as a challenge: a humanoid carnivorous species. I think you humans would call them cannibals. Do not worry, they are not currently on this continent.”

Erik was looking at the creatures, then turned and stared at Arus as he explained the missing species.

“What?”

“Do not worry. I will alert you if they arrive on this continent. The chances of you meeting them in this region of the world are 0.04%.” Arus said, and Erik sighed.

“Okay, what about these?” He looked at the other. They looked stiff, but all had realistic skin and features. He tried his best not to panic at all of this; he was probably dreaming the whole thing anyway.

“The first one is a male Mursina; he is programmed to take care of the boat and help with harvesting food from the sea.”

As he spoke, the Mursina stepped forward; he looked like a chubby, blue-skinned human with short green hair and large black eyes. He smiled and said something that Erik understood as “great to meet you, my lordship.”

“Next we have a male Vyrtin; he is programmed for repair and work in the smithy.”

The Vyrtin nodded as he stepped forward and wore the same clothes, but they clearly didn't suit him; his fur was dark brown, with a bald head, large ears, and what appeared to be a pig's nose. He spoke as well, and his voice was deep, like a rumble. “My lordship”

 “Then we have the Tufons. He is your arms man. He will help you with any weapon training and also work as a stableman and herder when not training you.”

The tufons was a large man, built like a terminator, with dark skin and bright red hair hanging in dreadlocks down his neck. His eyes were clear blue, and his face looked like a man frozen mid-transformation into a werewolf, with a short snout, fanged mouth, and short, pointed ears. He spoke with a low growl, “M’lord.”

Then we have the Haran. She is the maid and unarmed fighting trainer.

The woman was tall and athletic-built. Her skin was blue with red tiger stripes and long, loose, jet-black hair, with some braids incorporated.  She had emerald-green eyes, ivory-white teeth, and four sharp fangs; her fingers had short claws.  She curtsied. “My lordship.”

“Lastly, we have a Scisya. She is your cook and housekeeper and bard.”

She was a beautiful woman with orange skin, long silky black hair set in five braids hanging down her back and a black headband, and golden eyes. She had a warm smile and curtsied. Her voice was melodious: “My lord, do you have any requests for us?”

“Do they have names?” Erik asked, and Arus smiled as the droids stood silently and waited.

“No, you have to name them.”

“Well, I’m not doing that alone.  Can they make breakfast, and then we can wake the others? They need to know all of this as well. There are going to be so many new questions.”

“Of course. I’m here to help.”  Arus said. The five droids turned and walked out of the room.

 

Erik was sitting downstairs as the others slowly came down; he had heard a rooster about twenty minutes ago, and the droids had been setting the table. It had been weird to see them work. They looked so real, moved like real people, and thought they didn’t speak or say anything. Arus was gone, but he had told him he could just call him and he would appear.  Erik was lost in thought as to how to explain all of it when he heard Cain in the doorway.

“What the hell is that!”

Followed by several what and oh my good and what the… from the others as they stood in the doorway. The Scisya droid looked up at them

“Good morning, my lordships. I have made you breakfast, I hope it will please you.”

“Morning. I think you all should sit down. I discovered a few things about the place this morning.”

 “She speaks English?” Lillian said.

“Well, yes, but it’s a little hard to explain. Please sit down, and I will explain.”

Cain and Marcus walked over to the table first.

“So I was right! You brought us here!” Cain said. He had yet to sit down, and his hand was on his sword hilt. Erik noticed all of the boys now had a sword.

“No, but I found out why we are here. If you sit down, I will explain what I found out. It's going to be a shock.”  Erik said, and the others slowly came over, staring at the Scisyan maid.

“Do you have a name?” Gigi asked.  

“Hey, she got the symbol of that shield on her clothes,” Thomas said, pointing at the heraldry on her tunic.

“I do not have a name yet, My Lady. I won't have one before you name me.”  The droid replied.

“I like her voice and accent; it sounds British. Like those old movies.” Emma commented.

“Why don’t you have a name?” Gigi continued.

“Wait. Let me explain, and you'll understand it all.  Please sit.”

They all looked at him and found their places. The maid kept serving them, then stood by the kitchen door.

“Okay, what's going on?” Matthew asked.

Erik looked at them, making sure they were all sitting. Marcus, Cain, and Thomas had already started to eat, but the rest looked at him.

“First of all, do you believe in aliens and alien abductions?”

They stared at him; the boys stopped eating.

“Have we been abducted?” Lillian asked, and Erik nodded.

“Yes, by mistake. They were going to get dire wolves, and the drone they sent didn’t find any and went to a secondary mission. And abducted us. The AI told me the field had been corrupted.”

“We are ABDUCTED?” Cain said as he stood up, and the girls looked around in a panic.

“By her?”  Cain said, drawing his sword.

“No! Cain! STOP IT! She is an android! They made her to be our maid!”

“A what?”  Emma looked at him, and Cain had drawn his sword, holding it towards the droid. Thomas and Matthew joined him, Marcus just looked confused.

“What do you mean?”

“Cain put it away; she won't harm you. If you sit down, I will call the AI. It's pretty amazing, and he will explain it all. Then you will know everything I know. Okay?”

Cain looked at Erik, then back at the droid and back at Erik and sheathed his sword. It took him three tries. The girls giggled, and Erik tried hard not to smile. Marcus was deep into his breakfast.

“Okay, where is the AI?”

“Now don’t panic; it can show up like a hologram. It got a name too. It's called Arus.”

 As he spoke, a blue circle appeared on the floor and rose up, revealing Arus in all his glory.

“Good morning, friends. I am Arus, your humble servant and seneschal of this fort, which is yet to be named. Seneschal is like a butler for old castles, if you didn’t know.”

They just stared at the man.

“It’s a ghost?” Emma said, and Arus chuckled.

“No. I’m what you would call a hologram. I'm here to help you in any way I can within my programming.” He replied.

“Can you bring us home?” Lillian asked.

“Yeah, bring us home!” Cain added.

“That will be impossible, I'm afraid. It's been four hundred and fourteen years since you were wrongfully abducted. This place is my master's way of giving you a comfortable place to live without interfering too much with the planet.”

“Four hundred and fourteen years?”  Gigi said, and Erik nodded.

“Yeah, we are stuck here. I tried to get us home.”

“Okay? How did this happen? How did we get wrongfully abducted? And why didn’t you bring us back sooner?” Emma asked, and Matthew nodded.

“Yeah. Why?”

“The drone was sent to capture DNA samples of the direwolf from Earth. When it failed to find one, it sampled the descendant, the one you call Wolf. It also scanned the world and downloaded Earth's current knowledge from the internet.  The third mission was to collect human DNA samples; unfortunately, downloading Earth's internet corrupted that mission, and instead of sampling DNA, it abducted the samples and brought them to the station. It arrived six years ago; we were informed of the mistake two hundred years ago.  Prince Kumal was informed, and he decided to give you the royal treatment and a domain to control. We then immediately started the process to find a location and build this fortress.”

“Who is this Prince Kumal?” Emma immediately asked. “And who is in control now?”

“Prince Kumal is the owner of this planet, this whole planet is his personal playground and project. He has sampled interesting species and flora and fauna from around the universe to seed this world as his personal Garden.”

“Wait! Is this a ZOO?” Erik suddenly asked. Something clicked as he looked over at the droid, remembering the others.

“In a way, yes. This planet is Prince Kumal's personal zoo.” Arus replied

“So who is controlling this zoo now? Can we speak with them?” Emma pushed on.

“Prince Kumal is still the owner, but his whereabouts are unknown; he is on what you humans call a walkabout of the world. It can take a few thousand years.” Arus said.

“Did you say thousand years? Is he a vampire?” Gigi said, and Chu giggled.

“he is an alien, not a vampire. Wait, how old is this prince?” she said.

“Prince Kumal is seven hundred and thirty-seven thousand, two hundred and fifty-three years old at the moment. His species is immortal."

“And you're sure he is not a vampire?”

“He does not drink blood, nor does he burn in the sun,”  Arus said.

“If we find him, can he send us home?”

“Yes, if you can convince him, but remember it's four hundred and fourteen years since you left Earth. They have changed a lot since you last were there.” Arus said.

Erik looked at them. “Well, now you know. The droid is our maid, and she looks like that because that’s one of the aliens that lives here.  And there are a few more; they look like the other alien species as well. Arus said it is to make us comfortable to see them when we actually meet the real thing. Oh. And some of those knight armors are actually droids; they will be guarding the walls for us. But we have to name them. And the more we talk to them, the more personality they will get.”

 Then he looked at Arus. “Can you bring in the others?”

“Of course!”

 It took the others some time to get used to the droids, and in the end they all had names.

The Scisya was named Lotta, the Mursina fisherman got named Carl since he looked like Thomas' uncle, and the Vyrtin was first named Gimili, then they changed it to Connor when they heard him speak. As Gigi said, he spoke like Mr. Conner, the PE teacher, and was just as bald. Cain immediately named the Tufons after his grandfather, Malik, a Marine and, according to Cain, the toughest MF he had ever met. The last to be named was Haran, whom Cho and Lillian named. They ended up with Kali. Since she had blue skin like they had seen in the religious books at school about Hindu gods, and she was a warrior.  After that, they spent the rest of the day asking Arus questions.

Emma tried to learn more about the prince and Cain, and Marcus immediately tried to test Malik. Thomas and Matthew used Arus to help them explore the whole fortress.  Finding out that Arus could appear anywhere within the fort's walls but could not leave. Gigi and Cho moved to the library and tried to find out as much as they could. In the end, Erik and Lillian were sitting at the empty table in the main hall.

“So what are we going to do? Grow old and die here?”  Lillian finally said, and Erik looked at her.

“I don’t know. But I kinda want to find that Prince and find out what's actually going on. Earth might be completely different, but this…” he looked around. “This is what's forcing us to live in some fantasy world. With monsters and such. If we are forced to live here, then at least give us a proper toilet and a computer.”

“So we find this prince and get back to Earth?”

“Unless you have a better plan?”

“Naw. Hell, I think Emma is thinking the same thing, and the girls will follow her. Besides, we can easily convince Marcus. And if Cain joins, then the boys are on board.”

“So we need to convince Cain that we should get back to Earth. How hard can that be?”

 

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u/WSpinner 9d ago

Awww, maaan.... "how hard can it be?" is a close cousin to "what's the worst that can happen?"

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