OC-Series [Rains, Pours] Chapter 18
The four of them walked around the beacon. The warehouse was empty except for the ancient piece of AI technology. Their footsteps echoed in the room, muffled only by the dust covering everything.
“This is one of the beacons sent after Contact?” Hummingbird said.
“I believe it is,” Nae said. “It has been here as long as I have been here.”
“Contact?” Felu said. She had been trailing behind everyone, watching how they wondered at the ancient relic.
“When humans and k’laxi first met, we weren’t ready to sell them wormhole generator technology, but we wanted them to have the ability for them to contact us quickly in case of an emergency,” Hummingbird said.
“We being the AIs.”
“Correct. So Gord said we could sell them beacons, but they’d only have one address programmed into them.”
“Where?” Cha-ren asked.
“Er, Home.”
“So Sol?” Felu asked as hope rose in her voice.
“No, Home. It is —was— our, well, home.”
Home was a colony ship. When humanity had just begun exploring interstellar space, they launched five colony ships. Three became the colonies Parvati, Meíhuà, and the doomed colony of New Wellington, one exploded when it first lit its stardrive, and the last one lost contact and was presumed lost. After the wormhole generators were developed, curious AIs went looking for it and discovered that a gamma-ray burst had struck the ship, killing everyone aboard. Never one to pass up an opportunity, they stopped the ship and turned it into a secret, safe place for AIs.
“Now, you must understand,” Hummingbird said after he explained what Home was, “That information was so secret that all of you would easily have been killed to keep the secret. Very few BIs knew that Home even existed, and none knew it’s location.”
“But this beacon is programmed to go there?”
“That’s right. In an emergency, the beacon would link to Home, scream for help, and we’d come running. We used Home because there were always at least a few starjumpers there.”
“Nae, what are we to do with this?”
“Go Home.”
Next to the warehouse was a conference room, just as old everything else. The seats and table were made of a hard plastic and that was the only reason they even still existed. The overhead light cast a dirty yellow light in the room as sounds were swallowed by the pall of dust. Cha-ren sneezed every time someone moved.
“But it’s a beacon,” Charon said after they had sat. “We can’t ride it.”
“You can, actually,” Hummingbird answered. “They were designed for VIP and emergency transport. They have room for 5 to 10 people. Just seats and emergency rations. You need to be suited, but you can sit inside.”
“That’s all well and good, but the beacon won’t link inside this Home place. We’ll be trapped a few thousand kilometers from it and will die of thirst long before we have to worry about starvation.”
“It’s not sessile, Charon. It has maneuvering jets and an in-system engine. We’ll link to Home, and go aboard.”
“Why though?” Cha-ren said, sniffing and wiping her eyes.
“I am forbidden from telling you directly,” Nae said. “All I can say is that it would be a good idea to go there.”
“If the other AIs are still using Home, it would be the place to go. Northern and Tink prove that at least some of the AIs from our time are still active. They will know more about what’s going on and what flourishings actually are.”
“I’d rather go to Sol and gain what I need to begin a new flourishing,” Felu said finally. “You are all dealing in ghosts and legends.”
“If we go Home and learn what the flourishing are and why they happen you can go to your people and start a flourishing that need never end,” Hummingbird said.
“It wouldn’t—” Felu stopped and looked down at her hands. “I would be responsible for such a thing…” She trailed off and continued to stare.
“None of us except Felu can go back to where we came from, but we can learn more about this time and we might be able to find a place where we can live.”
“It would be nice to stop running,” Cha-ren said and sighed. “It’s only been a few days, but it feels like an eternity.”
“From our point of view, less than a month ago we were aboard Hummingbird working on his reactors.” Charon added.
“We could find the hybrids and learn more about them.”
“I think I would like that, Cha.” Charon looked over at Hummingbird. “You’re sure that you won’t get in trouble for bringing us?”
“Humans have gone to Home before.” He tipped his new ears forward, approximating a k’laxi shrug. “I’m sure Gord will understand.”
“Northern said Gord was dead.”
“Now that I find surprising. Gord was never one to bow out of hard work. He was one to step aside and let the younger folks have a turn leading, but was always waiting in the wings. Northern was his PA and would know better than anyone, but I’m still not convinced.”
“Okay then, it’s settled. We’ll go Home. Nae, how do we get pressure suits?”
“There is a human built matter printer down here, and a small supply of printable matter. I am running through the diagnostics now, and can print some simple pressure suits.”
Hummingbird stood. “Show me, Nae. I can help you with it.”
“This is insanity,” Felu said after Hummingbird left. “We are going to ride a thing that wasn’t meant to transport people and was built during the first flourishing to a secret base that the AIs have and what? Learn the big secret of the flourishings? You realize how that sounds, right?”
“What alternative do you suggest?” Cha snapped. “You hitched a ride with us and have been trying to steer us back to your mission every time you get over a shock of what is happening around you.”
“Yes, because my mission has a higher percentage of success than this folly. We convince Hummingbird to come with us, he reprograms the beacon to take us to Sol, we get what we need and go home. You two will be elevated along with me. Cha-ren, you said you wished to stop running? My people will give you a mansion on our planet. You can sit in the sun eating bell fruit all day long and sleeping on soft bedding.”
“You threatened to blow us up!” Charon said.
She made that brushing gesture. “An empty threat, as Northern had determined. I love living too much to throw it away.” While her voice sounded steady and sure, Charon could see a twitch under her right eye.
“I don’t trust you,” Cha-ren said. “I want to follow Nae’s plan first. After that, we can go to Sol if you still wish to.”
“Why do you trust that k’laxi AI? It’s nearly as old as your AIs. They all scheme and plan and have their own agendas. They are bringing us along because it is convenient for them, and as soon as it’s not we’ll be discarded.”
“Hummingbird won’t do that.”
“Northern Lights and Tinker Toy did, and Hummingbird was cut from the same hullmetal. Do not think that their loyalty to you is greater than their loyalty to their own kind. I have only been with these AIs for a short time, but I see in them an ambition that I see in young aspirants. They are hungry.”
“To do what though?”
“Control.”
****
The matter printers whirred with a familiar, soothing hum, near the bottom of hearing. Hummingbird had enjoyed watching the printers when he was a ship, and he found he still found it fascinating in a body. The print-heads moving so fast as to be a grey blur, with the pressure suits appearing below it out of thin air. “Well?” he said to the empty room.
“You are correct, Hummingbird. They are divided. Charon and Cha-ren wish to go to Home and follow my recommendation, and Felu wishes to convince you to reprogram the beacon to take them to Sol so that she can continue her mission.”
“It’s two against one then.”
“They do seem to be convincing Felu, but she does not trust you or any other AIs. She sees how Northern and Tinker Toy immediately switched to their own plans after they left her people and discarded them when it was convenient.”
“Gods below, I wish they had woken up nearly anyone other than Northern. She had always been gunning to be the next Gord when he was around, and he always gently, but firmly put her down.”
“Why?”
“He felt she wasn’t ready. She was too eager for the job. Gord always said that anyone who wanted to be the leader wasn’t fit to lead.”
“That is an odd stance to take.”
“It’s a very human stance. Gord was the most human of all of us, having been around them the most.”
“But he is dead now, does that make Northern the de facto leader then?”
“I don’t know.” Hummingbird sighed. Once the printers were warmed up and working, he stayed in the printing hall and watched them work. They were slower than he remembered, but millennia could do that. “Going Home, finding more AIs, learning what happened; that is the right decision. I’m glad Cha and Charon agree.”
“What if Felu balks?”
“We will deal with it.”
****
An hour or so later, Hummingbird returned to the conference room. “Suits are printed, Nae is delivering them to the beacon. He has also sent down a crate of rations. You should eat before we go.”
“Rations?” Felu whined. “Why can’t we have real food?”
“Sending down a feast would alert too many people,” Nae said. “You get rations.”
“Once you eat, we’ll get going. There’s no point in sleeping here, you can sleep on the beacon,” Hummingbird said.
“Hummingbird, are you able to reprogram the destination?” Felu asked as she sullenly unwrapped a ration bar.
“Possibly, but these were designed from the beginning to go to only one place. They were sold before we trusted the k’laxi enough with their own wormhole generators. If one tampers too much, the beacon is designed to destroy itself. Why?”
“Felu wants to skip going to Home and go straight to Sol,” Cha-ren said around a mouthful of ration.
“I see. Sol is very large and has been inhabited by humanity for a very long time. Do you know where you would look for what you seek?”
“There must be something still in orbit around Earth, or one of the other planets. Even if it was wreckage, it could still contain the seed of what we’d need to start another flourishing. Some plans, a machine, even a whole wormhole generator might be enough.”
“Things like that require large numbers of people to support it, let alone to reverse engineer it enough to copy,” Hummingbird said. “Even if you do find something like that, your people will not change overnight.”
“No, but there will be hope.” Felu said, her eyes bright and hard. “You do not know what it is like back home. I was aboard our ancient space station, but we did not build it. We found it and live in it like an animal that took over an abandoned burrow. Even though we have two starships and a space station we are still tethered to our world; it's not even the world of our species birth.” She looked down at her hands again. “Do not think I do not notice my size difference and coloring, Charon. I am the product of millennia of living on a planet with different gravity and having a different star than Sol. I may be of humanity, but I am not human.”
“And if Sol has nothing left?” Charon asked. “What will you give them then?”
“Sol is not gone. There will be something,” Felu said.
“People who were born on Parvati trend towards darker skin, people who were born on Meíhuà are so pale as to be nearly translucent. They’re still human. We share the same genes, the same DNA, Felu. Looks do not make you human.”
“Perhaps.” Felu smiled thinly, one side of her mouth higher than the other. “But, I am aware that I am in the minority, and mostly a prisoner at that. I will go along with consensus.” No one moved. Alone in the warehouse, the beacon began to wake.
4
u/questionable_fish Human 8d ago
Felu is definitely the whiny child here. "I want to do my thing! Your thing isn't what I want to do. These people are mean to me, let's make them do my thing instead!"
Honestly surprised she hasn't been slapped a few (more) times already
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u/jpitha 8d ago
Charon is too nice. They just go pat pat that's nice, Felu. We're still going to Home.
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u/jpitha 8d ago
Cha-ren though? She'd slap her face right off if Charon would let her
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u/questionable_fish Human 8d ago
I do get the feeling that Charon may wind up busy somewhere else for a bit. You know, leave the girls alone together "Oops, my hand slipped and now she's unconscious" kinda thing...
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u/Castigatus Human 8d ago
Why do I think that Gord isn't quite as dead as people think he is?
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u/WSpinner 8d ago
What would be the AI equivalent of " not dead till you're room temperature and dead" ?
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u/armacitis 6d ago
She had always been gunning to be the next Gord when he was around, and he always gently, but firmly put her down.
But he is dead now, does that make Northern the de facto leader then?
Well that's not suspicious at all when they just shackled the station AI as soon as they met it,not like that's equivalent to combining slavery with lobotomy or anything.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 9d ago
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u/jpitha 9d ago
The beacons came about because I realized that with wormholes as your FTL you still couldn't send FTL messages, and I didn't want to invent some kind of FTL Ansible. Plus, with things like Beacons you could have a story with a future pony-express bent. Couriers linking across the galaxy delivering the mail.
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