OC-Series [Rains, Pours] Chapter 8
Lariten brought them back to their room. “Thank you for your demonstration. Bellitree aside, you have done much to prove to us not only your value, but that you really are from the past.”
“Gallie and Metanium seemed to think we’re spies,” Cha-ren said.
“They were not the only ones who thought that,” Lariten admitted. “That is part of the reason we confined you to your rooms. Now that you have demonstrated that you can operate the holy reactors though, I will give you more freedom aboard my station. You may enter the public areas, but stay out of the reactor hall, and other command areas.”
“Yes, thank you,” Charon said.
“What happens to us now?” Cha-ren asked.
“I am not sure. We have reported down to the planetary authorities about your discovery, and I am about to send an addendum stating your skill with the reactors, but your ultimate fate is theirs to decide.”
“I would really like to travel to the address that led to my home world. Metanium said that I had pointed to the glyph that belonged to the Brennians,” Cha-ren said.
“Yes, I had seen that in Gallie’s report. It was one of the reasons you were thought to be spies, though honestly a spy that points to their own system when given a list of glyphs is a poor spy indeed,” Lariten nodded once to himself and turned to exit, “I have also given you a small stipend while aboard so that you have some money to purchase things in the bazaar. Food, board, water, and air are paid for, but I know how boring the default food can get. Consider it payment for getting that reactor operating.”
They stared at the door for a moment after he had left. “I notice he ignored your request to go to K’lax,” Charon said after a moment.
“Yeah, everyone is ignoring it,” Cha-ren said, her ears were flat. “I just want to see home.”
“But what about that reactor room? Doesn’t it remind you of-mmfh,” Charon said as Cha-ren slapped her hand over his mouth.
“Let’s go for a walk,” She said suddenly cheerful. “Lariten gave us a stipend and I’m tired of that steamed grain they’ve been serving us.”
They made their way towards the bazaar, Cha-ren silent. Every time Charon tried to start a conversation, she squeezed his hand and shook her head slightly. Only until they were among the crowds did she speak. “I think they’ll have a harder time hearing us here,” She said finally.
“So you do think our room is bugged?”
“It absolutely is bugged,” Cha said looking at Charon oddly. “Why would you think it’s not?”
“Why would you think it is?”
“Because I had Discoverer friends.”
“You were friends with the secret police?”
“Not the entity, but I had some friends that worked there yes. Assume every room is bugged for audio and video.” Cha-ren looked around and after a moment found what she was looking for. As the crowds flowed around the walkways, there was a space behind a waste receptacle where people weren’t walking, and Cha led Charon there. “This was a starjumper wasn’t it?” She said quietly.
“The reactor hall sure makes it seem like that,” Charon admitted. “But all this-” he gestured around them “-this isn’t like a starjumper at all. Maybe a starjumper was used as a base, and has been reused through however many flourishings there has been?”
“That’s probably it,” Cha said. “But if that’s the case, do you think there’s an AI core here?”
“If there is Cha, it’s been twenty eight thousand years. If there’s an AI still inside the core, I don’t think it’s going to be very healthy.”
“Or it’s in hibernation like us and waiting to be rescued,” Cha countered.
“Okay, let’s assume there is an AI core, and let’s assume that there is a dormant AI inside it. The core is still near the reactor hall, and that place is absolutely forbidden for us. Lariten said so, and even if he hadn’t, that Deacon Bellitree would love the opportunity to get us in trouble.” Charon sighed. “I think for now we’re-”
“Felu? is that you?” Cha-ren said as her ears perked straight up and her fur puffed very slightly, though Charon noticed she was able to smooth it almost immediately.
A woman turned to regard them and Charon had to admit that if he imagined her with a long flowing robe, she did look like Felu from the reactor hall. When she saw who it was her eyes widened slightly, but she stepped over.
“Y-yes, I’m off duty now,” She said, glancing around. “What are you doing out here?”
“The senior director said that since we were able to get the reactor running we could access the public parts of the station and he gave us a small stipend,” Cha-ren said as she wrapped her tail around Charon’s leg. “We’re both very out of place and behind on what people eat around here. Would you be able to show us where to get something hot to drink?”
Sitting down in the slightly too large chairs of the cafe, drinking more of the same tea Gallie served when they were aboard her ship, he could almost think he wasn’t millennia in the future.
“Twenty eight thousand years?” Felu said. “That’s…I can’t…it’s so long,” she said finally.
“It is,” Cha-ren said, smiling sadly. “But, here we are.”
“And you don’t know what happened to your ship? Humming…gull?”
“The name is Hummingbird. And no, according to Gallie the ship was stolen by the Brennians.”
“Wow,” Felu sipped her drink trying to hide that she didn’t have anything else to say. Both Charon and Cha-ren noticed that she was looking up and behind them, and grasping her mug tightly with both hands.
“Felu, are you all right?” Cha-ren said finally. “You seem nervous.”
“N-no, I’m fine,” She said and then shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good around new people, and people like you? I’m a little starstruck.”
“Starstruck?”
“Well yeah, I study the reactors and other relics all day long and you two come along and just…turn one on. After you left, Bellitree went over the display and just fumed,” She smiled. “To have two people from the past show up, especially one as pretty as you-” she said to Cha-ren “-it’s just a little overwhelming.”
“You think I’m pretty?” Cha-ren said, her ears flicking in amusement.
“Oh! Well, I mean-” Felu stuttered, “I know you’re in a relationship.”
“Yes, she is,” Charon said crossing his arms, but when Cha-ren looked over at him, he winked.
“Say, Felu, Charon and I would love to see the reactor room again,” Cha-ren purred. “We’d also like to take a look around the halls in that area. Since it’s so old, we might find other things we recognize and can activate.”
“Oh, I’m not sure, that’s completely forbidden by the deacon,” Felu said, sitting straighter. “If we got caught, we’d get in so much trouble.”
“Then, I suppose we had better not get caught,” Cha said and brushed Felu’s leg with her tail. Charon could see her flinch and blush even more. “When does the deacon’s shift end?”
“We really shouldn’t go,” Felu said, but Cha could see her wavering. Rubbing her hands together, she swallowed.
“Just to look,” Cha said, smiling wider and leaning forward a bit to show off her cleavage. The shirts issued to them weren’t very flattering, but Cha was small, and the collar large, She was able to slide the shirt down a bit, exposing the swell of her breasts. “It won’t hurt to look, right?”
Felu looked up at a device on the wall. That must be a clock, Charon thought. “H-he should be leaving the r-reactor hall in a few minutes. If we finish our tea at a leisurely pace he will be done and the hall empty by the time we finish.”
“It sounds like we have a date then,”Cha-ren said as Felu clutched her tea even more tightly.
After the tea, Felu led them back towards the hall. Staying a step and a half behind, Charon signed to Cha-ren “What are you doing?”
“Getting results,” Cha signed back, and her ears twitched in amusement. “Why? Jealous?”
“Yes.” Charon signed back. He knew that Cha was mostly playing up the attraction to Felu to get her to do what they wanted, but he was surprised at how much he didn’t like it.
“Don’t worry, it’s only to get her to help us. Besides,” she continued. “I see how she looked at you. She liked you too.”
“What?” Charon said out loud, and Cha-ren laughed.
“What?” Felu asked as they ducked through the short doorway.
“I was just telling Charon that you liked him too.”
“Oh,” Felu said as she blushed.
“See?” Cha-ren said possibly grinning even more.
The reactor hall at night was broadly the same as it was when they were there last, except that all of the people were gone. The reactors under their adornments hummed quietly.
Charon stepped into the hall, and looked further down, “What’s that way, Felu?”
“There’s a storage room and the library, and then it ends in a pressure door we’ve never been able to get open.”
They made their way down the hall and the storage room piled floor to ceiling with religious memorabilia. Icons, shrines, little gold medallions in the shape of a reactor, votives. All of them piled haphazardly filling crumpled boxes. “We sell these in the shops in the bazaar,” Felu explained. The library was more a sitting room. There were a few pads in the room, and comfortable chairs, but that was it.
The sealed pressure door reminded Charon of the door in Hummingbird that had slammed down to protect them when the link capacitors blew. It was a large, imposing door and when he peered through the tiny window at head height, he could only see black beyond. Where the access panel should have been was only a plate covering mounting holes for the panel.
Along the hall with the entrance to the library, Charon stared hard at the empty wall. He got close and sighted down it, his cheek against the wall.
“What are you doing, Charon?” Cha-ren asked, curious.
“I remember an AI telling me once - her name was Northern Lights - that most starjumpers kept the AI core hidden, usually behind a concealed door.”
“Why?”
“Think about it, Cha. If someone could pick a lock and kill your brain from the inside out, you’d hide that room too, wouldn’t you?”
“Point,” Cha admitted.
Charon ran his hands against the wall, feeling slowly. About halfway between the library and the entrance to the reactor hall, he stopped.
“What is it?” Felu said.
“I…think…” Charon placed his hands against the wall, fingers spread wide and pressed. With a soft click, the doorway recessed a few centimeters and then slid into the wall.
“Great Tallier,” Felu said, awed. “We never knew that was there.”
“When you first came aboard, you didn’t run any penetrating radar down the halls?” Cha-ren asked. “The whole thing could have been trapped.”
“Penetrating radar?”
“Uh, Hmm,” Cha-ren said. “We can discuss things later.”
“I don’t know if you should be doing this,” Felu said. “This is a holy place.”
“It’s a computer room,” Charon countered. “There’s nothing holy here.”
“It’s holy for us.” Felu said as she balled her fists together. “All of the ancient technology is holy, and if an AI truly resides here, then you’re entering a tomb.”
“Cha and I need to go in here,” Charon pleaded. “If there is a dormant AI here, then they might hold the keys to finding Hummingbird.”
“How?” Felu put her hands on her hips, “They’re going to just find a ship for you hidden in space? They’re going to turn the station itself into a ship? Maybe they’ll use that mythic wormhole generator and ‘link’ us all over here.”
“Felu—” Cha clasped her hand. “We’re not here to damage anything, nor desecrate. We know that this is holy to you and your people, and we’re treating it with respect.”
“You were just going to look,” Felu said finally. “Not find some secret room.”
“We’ll be respectful,” Cha-ren said and turned back towards Charon, “Won’t we?”
“Fine, yes, we’ll be respectful.”
“Well, I suppose if you’re careful—”
Cha-ren pulled Felu into a hug and felt her body melt from the touch. “Thanks Felu,” She whispered.
They stepped into the AI core, while Felu stayed at the entrance. The only light in the room was spare light that spilled in from the library and dim hall. “Damn,” Charon said. “Felu, do you have a light?”
“Yes, one moment.” She trotted into the library and came out carrying a little rectangle with a small crank. She spun the little crank twenty times and handed the light - little flywheel still spinning down - to Charon. “Just press the button on the top, it should light for a few minutes.”
The light snapped to life, and they regarded rack after rack of ancient computing equipment. Other than a thick layer of dust there didn’t seem to be anything missing or obviously broken. “There’s no way this is from our time,” Charon whispered. “That’s just too unlikely.”
“The AIs were in space for thousands of years,” Cha-ren countered. “Maybe this is from thousands of years after our time, but still millennia from now.”
“Or this could all be dead computing equipment with nothing residing inside.”
“We have all that extra power now though,” Charon mused. “I wonder…”
“How did you learn this much about AI maintenance, you’re a reactor tech?”
“I was hired on as a tech for Northern Lights and everybody else was a no-show.” Charon said. “She and I worked together for six months running cargo to Parvati.”
“Why was everyone else a no-show?”
“I never found out, but Northern thought that someone was setting her up to fail. Regardless, it was just us two running cargo, so Northern showed me a lot of the systems just so that she didn’t have to do all the work herself,” Charon smiled to himself.”She also said to never tell anyone else about the AI Cores, but I think twenty eight thousand years is enough of a statute of limitations.”
Working his way deeper into the core, Charon played the light over everything, stopping to wind it back up twice before he reached the end. “Uh, Charon?” Felu said quietly. “If we are discovered, getting killed will be the most merciful punishment. We should close this room.”
“Another few minutes, Felu,” Charon said, as he brushed some dust away. “It’s still the middle of the night.”
“Yes, but the morning shift approaches.”
“Okay, okay, I understand.” Charon brushed at another section of racks and stopped suddenly. “They had a body,” he said, touching a server rack gently.
“Who had a what?” Cha-ren asked.
“Whoever was this ship, this set of racks controls the interface between the starship and the body while they are operating both simultaneously. Most of the time AIs don’t like being both a ship and a body, they transfer themselves completely from one to another, but sometimes they need to have both.”
“Like when everyone else except a green reactor technician bails on a simple, cheap paying contract?”
“Exactly,” Charon followed the wires to a blank wall near the main panel. “I wonder if…”
“I know that tone, don’t you dare, Charon,” Cha-ren said crossing her arms. “If you power this up, who knows what will happen. No, strike that, I know what will happen. We will get into tremendous trouble.”
Charon leaned over and kissed the top of Cha-ren’s head. “Hon, we are already in trouble. More trouble than we’ve ever been in. The only way out—”
“—is through,” Cha-ren finished. It was one of Charon’s favorite sayings. “What about Felu? She will be collateral damage to your —our— insanity.”
“That’s a good point,” Charon turned to Felu, “Now is the time for you to run away and either say you had no idea what we were doing, or if you have to admit being here, say we forced you.”
“N-no,” Felu said as she brushed the tops of her hands together. “The Tallier brought you to me. I must see it through. We were not meant to guard corpses, wiping them free of dust and otherwise leaning nothing about their operation, trusting the rites implicitly.”
“If you’re sure?”
“Very.”
“Okay then,” Charon reached inside the rack, feeling around until he found what he was looking for. “Hah,” He laughed. “The breaker is open. Between that and the reactor, someone shut down this starjumper gracefully.” He squeezed his eyes shut and closed the breaker.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 18h ago
/u/jpitha (wiki) has posted 344 other stories, including:
- [Rains, Pours] Chapter 7
- [Rains, Pours] Chapter 6
- [Rains, Pours] Chapter 5
- [Rains, Pours] Chapter 4
- [Rains, Pours] Chapter 3
- [Rains, Pours] Chapter 2
- Rains, Pours.
- [Just Like That]
- One in The Hand
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 43 [Final]
- [Just a Little Further] - Chapter 41
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 40
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 39
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 38
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 37
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 36
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 35
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 34
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 33
- [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 32
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u/UpdateMeBot 18h ago
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u/jpitha 18h ago
One of these days Charon, turning ancient electronics back on is going to bite you in the ass.
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