Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 66: power

The next morning they woke up as usual. Iris looked more tired as the days passed but somehow she managed to still be awake. They resumed driving and finally after days of absolute nothing Iris broke the silence in excitement.

“stop the car, we have arrived”

With the car parked they stood before a metallic double door. Iris walked to its side where the commands were located. Unfortunately they had no power.

“fuck. Hey big girl, can you help me?”

“sure little girl. But I can’t force open a door that has no handhold”

“don’t worry I’ll fix that”

From the side of the door Iris opened a panel that covered some gears.

“here, push his gear toward the ground”

Scilla followed the order and with some resistance she managed to make a long stick of metal pop out of the door.

“now grab the stick and pull, or push. Just make the door move”

“got it little girl”

“I thought you would like it, big girl”

“I kinda do little girl. But It’s funnier to tease you”

This time Scilla had to use all her strength to barely open the door. She kept pushing it regretting the unfortunate position of the lever that would make it almost impossible to use the car for a little help. After 30 minutes the door was open enough to let her and Iris squeeze inside. They were welcomed by a new dark corridor and by Iris’s words. She immediately ran toward the other end that was closed with a similar door. She clashed with it and started pushing all kinds of buttons on the terminal by it’s side.

“NO, no no! Fucking NO! Are you kidding me!?!?!?”

“don’t tell me that were are doomed?”

Iris turned to Scilla. She didn’t looked defeated nor particularly concerned, just angry.

“Nah, we will live. It will just be a massive pain in the ass. This door should be working, but it’s not. So the auxiliary power supply is off or damaged. I can fix it. It’s just a long process.”

Scilla forced open the second door and finally they were inside the reactor core. The door brought them into a connector that had a map of the place. The generator was built into a spherical structure encased in a cube. They were at the middle of the cube height. At the edges of the cube, filling the space between the cube side and the sphere surface, there were rooms. Their objective span from control rooms, to auxiliary generators, to storages and so on. Iris guided them inside the main control room. Before them, closed off by screen of what appeared to be glass, the generator. Even with the little light that Iris emitted it was obvious that it was no fusion reactor. It was no big ass metal donut. It was totally different. Pieces of metal were all around but for now Scilla was unable to see clearly the monstrosity that was standing in front of her eyes.

“no luck at all. Whatever had powered the few lights of the previous days if completely gone. There is no current even to run a check.”

“so we are dead?”

“no. we just have to go to the upper levels and restore the auxiliary generator”

“sounds easy enough… right?”

“well… yeah cause it is easy”

few staircases after and Iris’s irritation become physical manifestation under the form Celle Energetiche a Ricompressione Nucleare CERN (nuclear recompression energy cells). A crazy yet brilliant idea that allowed the storage of huge amounts of energy in the form of compressible elements while avoiding atomic fusion. The only issue of such big cylindrical cells was the weight. A single cell was usually around 500kg and Scilla had to move about 12 of them.

It was a long torture that forced her to wonder.

How the fuck could they moved this things around? They are immensely heavy.

“Iris?”

“this one goes in this socket. And yes what do you need?”

Scilla pushed the second cell inside hole that Iris pointed at.

“how the fuck were you suppose to even move this things around?”

“oh. I don’t really know. I suppose there was some device to move them, like a small transport platform that follows you.”

Scilla was dumbfounded. What did she meant by I don’t know.

“Iris… little girl…”

“yes?”

“just to be clear… you know…”

“speak”

“how many reactors did you operated in your life?”

“none”

“emh… simulated?”

“none. I have never been inside one. All I saw were schematics and some manuals.”

Scilla gulped loudly.

“so you have no idea of what we are doing”

“what? No… of course not… I have a vague idea.”

“we are going to die”

“well maybe not. Just don’t drop the cells and we will be fine… maybe”

“you are not that reassuring”

“reassurance was not a chapter of the manual”

“what manual?”

“conversations basis for dummies”

“ha ha. Really funny, really funny”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Iris, believing somehow to have learned comedy jumped in front of Scilla in excitement. She was happy.

“no, you didn’t mastered comedy. It was not a funny joke.” continued Scilla. Iris looked disconsolate.

“I don’t understand. Why are you so fixated with comedy and joke. 511 was the same. She wanted to learn irony”

“I don’t know exactly. I think I just want to be more humane.”

“you don’t have to worry about that, you are full of emotions”

“you think so?” Iris’s eyes were shining with hope.

“yeah. Just now I can tell that you were happy. So you are good on the emotion side”

“fuck yeah.”

“would you mind if I ask you if you were mute as a kid?”

“oh… I kinda was. Not fully mute, but I used to mostly just emit sounds and some times a word.”

“then maybe you want to learn more about different way of speaking to compensate for the lost time”

“maybe… stop slaking off… I get that we are chatting but it’s not an excuse to stop working”

“yes, yes boss.”

“why so many muscles if you don’t put them to use?”

“they are to flex on girls, not to work.”

“what?!”

“it was a joke. But I was kinda buffed from day one. Being in the army only helped improving. No other reasons. Just pure adaptation to survive better”

“oh. Interesting”

They went on chatting about whatever came to their minds while Scilla did all the heavy work. It took her several hours to complete it and now it was time for the grand reveal. They returned to the control room and Iris started to play with the main terminal.

Few minutes later and with not so promising sounds the room lit up. The lights returned to work and gradually the inside of the generator became more visible.

As Scilla initially saw, it was totally different from a “standard” reactor.

In the middle, floating between 2 cylinders there was an unknown object. For sure it was composed by a solid spherical core, but all around it there was a liquid. The fluid was constantly changing positions. To an expert eye it was clearly the behaviors of atomic orbitals just scaled to be visible. To Scilla it was a fluid behaving irrationally. Pointing to the fuel core about 32 long spikes, 16 hollow tubes of magnets, 8 metallic structure shaped like a droplet and 4 floating prisms. It was an absurd complexity not meant to be understood by organic minds.

“what the fuck am I looking at?” asked Scilla in amazement.

“it’s a gravron scission enchanted self dampening micro fusion reactor…”

“what not just a fusion reactor?”

“pure gravon fusion is… unpredictable.”

“like power surges?”

“like reality bending”

Scilla remembered for a split second 511 special bullet. They were based on gravon fusion and indeed bent space when activated.

“that… doesn’t sound good”

“it’s not. But I saw a video and basically there is like space distorting and disappearing. No clue where it goes, but it’s not a good idea to power up a base”

“yeah, who would have guess. So how long will it take to make it work?”

“probably 1 or 2 days”

“whoa. That’s a lot. Can I.. help you speed it up?”

“do you know how to align a laser cooling system?”

“no”

“then no. you can help me get inside the protective suit and push me into one of the maintenance vents. Stay here I’ll be right back”

Iris walked away to return about 7 minutes after with a bright orange folded suit in hand. It was similar in concept to a hazmat suit. Built to operate more easily within the reactor. Built to squeeze like an ooze through vents and small passages clogged with wires. Iris, without changing anything about her, wore the suit and asked Scilla to help her seal it properly. Then, using Scilla as a ladder, she ventured inside a vent in the ceiling.

“I'll return later. By dinner time I guess. Don’t touch anything”

“do I rick to harm you?”

“not really, everything is in an emergency block. But I would prefer to not have to fix your mistake”

“come on. Have some trust in me”

“nope. Not with this. Just go play with the car or something”

Scilla, scared to fuck something up, refrained herself from touching anything she saw around the control room. Instead she chose to explore the remaining space. She roamed around for some hours but soon lost interest in exploration. There was not that much she could do. At some point she even left the place but it was to no use. All around her there were no other small doors she could force open. In the end she spent some time in the car and some waiting for Iris to return.

As time passed and Scilla’s belly started to demand food, Scilla heard noises above her. Iris was coming. She placed herself below the vent where she pushed Iris in before, to grab her on her way out. However instead of falling out of the predicted vent, Iris fall out of a different one in the corner of the control room and face landed on the floor.

“auh”

Scilla rushed to her apologizing.

“fuck sorry, I thought you would come out…”

Iris was looking at her confused and surprised.

“you were going to catch me out?”

“well that was the plan. Sorry”

Iris smiled.

“you don’t have to. I never thought to even find you here on my way out. Not even that you would have tried to catch me. Thanks you, that was kind of you.”

“I didn’t really succeed”

“doesn’t matter. So… time to eat?”

“I was waiting for you”

As did all the previous days, they eat. This time not in silence. Iris kept speaking about the reactor physic. Long endless and completely incomprehensible lectures flooded the control room. Scilla understood absolutely nothing, yet she was happy. Seeing Iris so lively made her evening.

Once they finished they return to the car where Scilla proceeded to read the last chapter of the book.

The final chapter started with the forest Princess surrounded by humans. Then a man, who was literally described as Prince, arrives and fend off the harmful humans. He seek alliance with the Princess instead of mutual destruction. Guided by the dweller ruler, the Prince fend back humanity alone in a draining and bloody war. As days of conflict turned into months and years the Prince merged with nature. His bond with the Princess and the forest improved over time, unlocking new abilities while stripping him away of his own humanity. However as Scilla read more, it became evident that what was perceived as loss of humanity by his fellow people, was only a deprivation of the worst element of humanity. He lost his egocentric tendencies moving to altruism. He lost his need for peaceful beauty and embrace the sublime. He moved toward harmony. The same harmony that fuels the forest Dwellers. The book ends with a completely changed Prince, still human in his body but changed in his mind, ruling over the human’s city along side the Princess. Working to establish a new peace and a new balance in nature. A balance that would welcome both species and let both thrive shine under the light of the two suns.

“thanks for reading for me. I think I kinda understand your language now”

“it was a good story...”

“RIGHT!?!?”

Iris got closer to Scilla and they were face to face.

“yeah, right. You seem to like fairy tails a lot” Scilla pulled back a bit.

“cause I do. I love them. They are cool, give usually good messages and have funny characters. I can also really… put myself in them”

“… like?”

Iris took the book from Scilla’s hands.

“well I’m kinda a princess in distress. Left alone and scared… sort of. And and… you are like the charming prince… you came and helped me, sort of. Are you my prince?”

Iris was smiling. Was it a new prank?. Maybe a new joke that Scilla didn’t catch. Or was it something else?

“I… I don’t know. Am I? I mean I kinda kidnapped you…”

“not kinda. You did kidnap me. But we are cool now right? We put our differences aside right?”

“right. I would say so…”

“well… good night Scilla. I’ll go back to work on the generator.”

“are you sure you don’t want to try and sleep?”

“yep. And it’s just been 4 of your days. I can go for longer. Don’t worry.”

“I'll trust your words”

Iris left the car while Scilla remained alone in the darkness for the first time.

She will not run away right? I hope not or I’m dead here… I have to trust her.