Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 65: sides

Once again their journey resume and stopped once Scilla felt too tired to drive. As the evening before they parked, ate and then Scilla read the novel that Iris found. Chapter wise It was fairly short, with only 4 of them. However they were about 30 pages each to compose both a short book and a long fairy tale. The second chapter went deeper into the fall of the forest dwellers civilization. Once mostly peaceful creatures fought back but they were overwhelmed by numbers. Of all of them few remained and ran away to distant forests. Among the survivors there was the dweller’s princess. As most characters she was left unnamed yet a few description were provided. The Princess was a slim and pale creature with big yellow eyes. Nothing more, nothing less. She decided to stay behind. At the edge of the zone exploited by humanity. Hoping to alleviate the forest pain with the little she could do. The book was slowly going toward the fairy tale as it should.

Exactly as the night before they returned to their seats to sleep and Iris started glowing.

“not going to sleep?”

“I can push on for a while.”

“plan to avoid sleeping until you collapse?”

“sort of. I hope you’ll grab be when I fall”

“nah, I’ll let you slam your pretty face on the concrete. So how long can you stay awake?”

“in normal conditions I need to sleep each 33 to 37 hours. Depends on how much energy I burn during the day. As far as I know I can avoid up to 7 cycles. So pushing myself I can stay awake for more or less 7 days”

“that’s more than 10 days”

“what days are you speaking of? Weeping Sky’s days are 37 hours long, if you refer them to earth”

Strangely enough most inhabited worlds with natural biosphere usually operated with a 24 hours rotation time. Of course differences existed but most planets had between 20 to 28 hours cycles. Weeping sky was definitely an exception. It’s rotation time however was the least impressive and bizarre quality it had.

“how the fuck can you stay awake for so long?”

“you would stay awake all the time too if as soon as you close your eyes you start having nightmares”

“… I suppose so. Always had them?”

“since the day I was built”

“how did… you coped with it?”

“drugs…” said Iris with a cheerful tone.

“it’s a joke. Drugs are bad. I just kept having them. Woke up scared, cried my eyes out and back into sleep. What I don’t understand is how little sleep I require. I mean can’t really go for more that 2 hours without waking up. Yet just one little break pushes me for days”

“it’s strange indeed. But it’s not like you are normal…”

“are you saying that I’m abnormal?”

“umh… well I… didn’t mean it in a bad…”

“it was a joke again. I’m doing jokes right?”

Scilla was a bit confused by Iris’s behavior. Since they come to peace Iris had been pleasant, yet she had never been so overly friendly. Looking at her, Scilla notice that she was hugging the plushy she gave her while multitasking reading the novel and giving directions.

“well. Yeah those were jokes… kinda…”

“what do you mean by kinda?”

“that the drugs one was funny. The second one not so much and it was sort of hard to understand that it was a joke”

“oh…”

“are you alright?”

“yeah?? I’m not injured.”

“I know that… I mean emotionally. You are less protective of yourself and definitely more talkative so I assumed…”

“you assumed wrong, if you don’t want me to speak then I won’t” Iris turned herself on the right and her pouting face was reflecting on the window.

“come on. That’s not what I meant…”

“mh. I’m not speaking to you…”

“you just did”

no response.

“I just want to be sure you are… stable. Sudden changed aren’t usually a good sign…”

“I could be better. But me speaking has nothing to do with… you know. I just wanted to make conversations. You seems to like them…”

“why? Is it because of the toy?”

“yeah. I like Procione a lot. So I wanted to do something we both could like. So speaking it was. From what I understand you like speaking and being spoken to. I like the knowledge I could get from it.”

“I don’t speak just to make sounds. I do so to exchange knowledge and wisdom, just like you. I like to know stories about others lives. Not just empty talk about… I don’t know the weather.”

“mmmh. Not empty talk. I see. You told me your story after meeting 511. what was before?”

“you really want to know about me”

“well sort of. I mean you are basically my only source to get outsider’s knowledge”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“I kinda had a boring life compared to yours. Born in a lower income family. What used to be my mother gradually moved to political extremism and snapped me out of my ‘blissful’ childhood if I can say so. At the time my little sister was just 2 years old. So I decided to protect her from that shit. As you can tell I’m kinda good at nothing. Nothing special about me, just one of many…”

Iris was staring enthusiastically but also like a creep at Scilla. To her it was all unknown. She wanted to speak as she believed that Scilla was definitely special yet she stared silently. Just like she always did while her sisters spoke to her.

“of course we became poorer with time. You can guess why it’s harder to sustain a family of 4 if you keep refusing jobs for ethical reasons. As the tension with the Droxi increased I moved from already labor based jobs to the military. Joining the army gave us more money and compensated for the losses at my pama’s job. She used to be a bartender and as the war approached there were less people who wanted to waste money in overpriced juices and non-alcoholics…”

“that’s some impressive dedication.”

“it’s less impressive when all you can do is construction”

“construction is not a bad job. Usually it doesn’t require to be a genius but it provides people with homes”

Scilla smiled. She didn’t know if Iris was saying that just to be cordial or because she believed it.

“thanks. Now back to where I was. Well when you were about 7 the war started. I was immediately deployed on the front lines. Turns out I ain’t that stupid. I was kinda good at war. Not really a strategy prodigy more a see and adapt kind of girl. Instinct helped me stay alive while my comrades perished. As war progressed I was moved up in ranks but more importantly I started to follow my instinct even against the orders. I was bringing home results against all odds and soon I was free. I became the commander of an independent unit that gradually grew bigger as I collected survivors from wiped out divisions. Turns out I was not the only one unsatisfied with army leader. Among them 2 powerful friends. The daughter of a big ass corporation and more importantly a girl with the mark…”

“what’s a mark?”

“it’s a strange symbol that appeared on rare individuals that basically grants them access to government positions”

“why? Isn’t it stupid to let a birthmark ruin your civilization?”

“it would be. However the Mark only appears on individuals that always become like super intelligent. The one I know is also kind of an awkward dork but she is funny. Her element is war not really politics, but she managed…”

“then what happened?”

“we went rogue. Took down the old incompetent leaders and placed our friend as Liin. It’s like an emperor with absolute power for a limited amount of time. With that the war started to move in our favor yet we kept being too weak. During a scout mission I come upon a member of your species. It was so bizarre. The man was unfazed that he landed into a battlefield. He didn’t care. Scared I approached him. At the time we knew mostly nothing about your kind. Only that they were aggressive. Turns out it was not really the case. I managed to trade the future permission to explore a ruin totally unbothered with a biochemical weapon. With it we won the war, kill all the existing Droxi and I became and Ittira...”

“a what?”

“a permanent member of the government. I also got in charge of any relation with the Esterians and I became the captain of the ‘only’ scavenger vessel of the federation.”

“so you are like a big piece?”

“a big shot. That’s the correct way, but sort of. I mean I don’t have much power, just the only one brave enough and I’m friend with the Liin. I don’t have a space yard or a tank factory. And I’m certainly not like you.”

“what am I?”

“I mean the Founder granddaughter. As far as I know you are basically above all the laws of your people”

“oh. I don’t know about that”

“511 knew a lot about it”

“well I do not. I never left this place. As you can have guessed I don’t even know where this planet is compared to the rest of my people”

I get that she was kept out of a lot of things. But she speak almost as if she would never leave. Why? We can just find the NDU and fly away.

“you… said a lot of time that you are stuck here and so am I. Why? I mean I came here on a ship. We can just find it and go away. Can’t we?”

“not really. I suppose you flew in an NDU. Natrix models are genetically locked. Which means they will recognize orders only from a creature with the same genes that the NDU can recognize.”

“shit… but aren't you a 511 but of a different universe?”

“indeed I am. This doesn’t exactly means that we are completely equal. There is a reason why 98 of my sisters died before me even if we shared the base DNA.”

“fuck… well there must be a ship yard to build a new spaceship right? And maybe projects and automatons to…”

“there was none. Not it my reality. They totally cut me away. But in this reality there is hope. Especially because 511 gave me some memories…”

In one of their conversation they had exchanged the memory alteration. Yet 608 remained adamant to have received nothing at all.

“WHAT! But you said...”

“ENOUGH!. You where not in there. You asked me of you over and over again. You were not there. I didn’t saw a linear time. I saw confused fragments. All about her inventions. Nothing more. You were not there. Her life was not there. Not the people she met. Not her sisters. Not a single memory of anything. Just consufed science. As you should have expected from her.”

Scilla, hurt, struggled with a reply.

“I… I… guess… you are right”

“but your almost illogical talking just gave me hope. I mean I was cut away, but 511 was able to fly around. So maybe she saved her projects somewhere. Maybe there is knowledge on faster than light engines somewhere. The only issue is that it will take us time. I don’t have the ability to manipulated nanomachines.”

“so what will we doing?”

“I don’t know about you. You can assist me of course. But first the generator. Then the other generators. Then we look for a way to build an engine and for a way to deactivate the collar. In this universe it’s power is way higher so it will took me a while of trial and error until I find a solution. Then finally we will be able to build our spaceship and go somewhere is suppose.”

their conversation concluded soon after.

They spent the rest of the day driving around and as all evenings after dinner Scilla read the third chapter of the book. Now the focus of the story was on the humanity desperation. Without the dwellers the forest became cursed. Poisonous plant and ferocious animal never seen before started attacking workers. The forest became a constant source of danger but humanity folly had no end. Instead of understanding their own errors, humans decided that it was easier to blame the few forest dwellers that had survived. Desperate for a new normality humanity venture further into the forest to never return. Each death fueled their moral yet all it achieved was to fertilize the magical forest. It evolved and became more and more aggressive. Desperate humanity decided to burn down as much forest as they could, hoping to find the last dwellers remained. Among those the forest princess. The chapter ended with a group of humans spotting her and started a chance into the burning forest. After that they went to sleep, or at least Scilla did.

Her night was mostly peaceful yet instead of waking up gradually she jumped up. All she remembered was a distant humming and a starting sensation. She looked around but all she could see was Iris that had stopped reading and was looking at her concerned with tired eyes.

“what happened? Are you good?”

“I think so. I don’t remember having a nightmare. I just remember humming in the distance and a stare of something”

“mmh… it’s kinda concerning but I think those are delayed side effects of the HBE. Can’t really tell if they are dangerous”

“… what are the others side effects?”

“I'm unsure. After all there was only 1 other activation in history. From what I was able to read the Founder changed a bit, but it could also be due to the head trauma. As for Elvira’s word, the Founder became more agitated and more decisive. I suppose he saw something just like you did, and started to act differently”

“it doesn’t help much…”

“well at least we know he kept his sanity. So I suppose the same will apply to you.”

“I hope so. I would like to keep my sanity… also how far do you think is the generator? We are kinda low on fuel”

“it’s close. I think about 20 more kilometers. We will be there soon.”