Something else to bond my puppet body to? A solution? Or a sacrifice?
Shifting Gales looked at Sky with an uncertain expression, her digital eyes slightly glitched out. Her voice appeared bone-dry and thirsting as if her non-existent throat hadn’t seen any water in many cycles … which was not that far from the truth.
“Is … that really the only idea we could investigate? L-let me boil it down to the barest of essentials.” Gales’ speaker rattled in barely concealed frustration. “We all know just how many Neuron Flies are needed to contain our self, memories, abilities; everything? Millions upon millions of Neurons. Let us be reasonable and imagine we can somehow design an alternative of let us say … the size of a house. Installing a miniature version of the Memory Array in it … how many could we hold in it? Thousand? Probably less.”
“Gales …” Whisper’s glowing antennas drooped. Her friend knew quite well just how conscious she was about her lacking abilities. “But …”
“I … I struggle to accept an option that would gut me down to the barest essentials. … Even if it would save my existence.”
Silence washed over the group as the other participants realized that finding a solution would be more difficult than anticipated. Finding a solution that would also render Gales's future a desirable one.
Gales barely managed to stay in eye contact with her, their faces too telling of the situation. Nobody had an idea she would be alright with. Nobody but … Lives? Sky and Whisper both had their right hands outside of the screen in typing motion. She assumed that they were frantically chatting with each other, trying to figure out an alternative that could satisfy her.
Five Lives Unbound instead leant forth, placed her head in her hands and tilted the same. Gales felt bewildered by the odd smugness of her idol, now looking at her with barely concealed joy … and a smidge of envy. How curious.
“Gales, honey. I understand fully why you are upset. But honestly, I was thinking of something different than Sky did. Sure, we won’t get around the frustrating fact that we will have to somehow limit your self if we want to save you. Time and available workforces are working against us. But might I expand the thought just a tiny bit further? If I may?”
“…Y-you may.”
“Splendid. Let me go back to the bonding idea of our dear administrator. Forget the details for a moment, we will figure them out. Follow my trail of thought.
What if we use that opportunity to create something lightweight? Something that actually is able to get moved around, with your puppet being at its helm. I assume you know of my desire to become mobile, to be closer to my peers, able to help them out with more than just long-distance drones. How does that sound, Shifting Gales? To be able to move around, leave your corrosive fate behind and embark on a destiny no other Iterator could even dream of!”
Put like that, the idea of embracing her unique situation didn’t sound that bad to Gales’ audio ports. Especially the added hint of bitterness from a person like Lives, one she looked up to since, well, forever helped in sprouting a smidge of contempt with the proposal of mobility. If not for the fact that Gales was still an Iterator and despite her research in terms of emotions and empathy still a purposed lifeform following the laws of logic and critical thinking. She tilted her head in question.
“It does sound like a dream, undeniably so. But a dream is still a dream. If we reduce size even more then the memory issue is even more apparent. Not to mention the danger of housing a rarefaction cell that close to the core workings.”
She sighed deeply and raised her useless flimsy legs into the camera, touching the very small flat surface she would be tiptoeing around on, less than her thumb even.
“Balance would be a whole other issue. Because at the dimensions we are theorizing in subjecting whatever blast furnace I would be strapping on my back to the impossible act of balancing on the surface of two thumbs is nothing short of impossible. Can’t rely on antigravity without the truly massive area needed to maintain it.”
Gales felt bad for crushing the suggestion sprouting from countless cycles of a desire to be more than what Lives was designated to be. She braced herself for the outlash from the grey Iterator but got interrupted by the silent murmur as Far Whisper cautiously attempted to get the attention of Gales.
“Yes, Whisper? Spotted an error in my estimation?”
“Not quite. But there is something else that could render this theory applicable. While you were discussing I remembered a small experiment Approaching Sky worked with my assistance on many major cycles ago. We deemed it a useless but enticing experiment, but in this situation, it could be a game changer.”
“Oh?” Gales’ voice pitched higher, a sliver of hope? “What kind of experiment?”
“We asked ourselves the question in which way we could optimize a Neuron Fly. The process was surprisingly easy. Add mass and density to allow the Fly to store way more processing power. The results were however a dead end, as the Neuron Fly lost its ability to fly even at only double the capacity. We however went further because we could.”
“At a memory capacity of a hundred times the capacity of a normal Neuron Fly, we stopped. But in my notes I have underlined that limit not as a hard limit. The Fly was still able to move, although inert and slow. Optimizing that process I am positive we can create a static neuron fly with thousand, maybe even ten-thousand the process power.” Sky pointed at his dome. “Akin to the biological brain of an Ancient, probably slightly above it even. We can however assume that the Neuron Fly won’t be able to move like that anymore. But if we can render this little experiment of ours into a stable state of living, we can compress the area required. Sizing down the Memory array to the size of my head.”
That sounds too good to be true. Convenient even. This may put this ludicrous idea from impossible to … improbable. Possible? No, that is too much, keep your hopes humble, Gales. But with the memory issue being accounted for, this feels doable. And given my … ill-equipped configurations lowering my cranial capabilities to that of a boosted Ancient would not be THAT much of a downfall. For them, however, that would be a fatal trade-off.
Alright … we are getting somewhere. Now what about the dangerous aspect?
“I do like this option, great idea, Whisper, Sky.~
But what about the energy issue? My arguably small Superstructure runs on three Rarefaction Cells, Sky’s even on six. How much power would be necessary to keep me juiced up? Also a size question. Can we size down a Rarefaction Cell to render it portable?”
“Do not worry your pretty head about that part, in particular, Gales.” Lives beamed over to her, her long antenna vibrating in happiness regarding the development. “Given I optimized my dear drones for countless cycles I have already put quite a bit of effort into creating portable Rarefaction Cells. I think … yeah, I probably could reduce the size a bit further even!”
“I will continue to train our acidic messenger to become a dependable ally. As suggested, will I establish contact with Seven Red Suns to ensure the success of the delivery. If Suns still has a copy of a chat 1.0 device, we could even stay in contact with you.
Trust me, Gales. This nightmare will soon be over. I am not ready to give up on anyone in our group!”
“And I will keep these two in check, Gales.” Whisper beamed at her best friend, all her face markings lighting up in regained confidence. “Make sure that our solution will be the best for you, tailored to your preferences. We will make it happen!”
This was one of the rare situations where Gales regretted having such an expressive face. While her peers could hide their emotions behind their unmoving mask of a face, only able to express feelings by narrowing the shutter slits or only moving the upper or lower lid, were her digital eyes able to project a whole array of emotions. Moved by the actions of her friends she broke down in tears, her superior voice-box accurately interpreting the sobbing as such instead of an unintelligible interference scramble.
Her friends stayed silent while she had her emotional moment, all three smiling with their bodies at her, radiating confidence. She could trust them, and that with every circuit of her body.
“I-I … thank you so much. Whispy, Sky, Lives. I can trust you with that. But … what can I do in the meantime? I am certain I can’t expect a solution in the next major cycle at least, given we want it to be perfect and our Slugcat needs to grow up and get trained.” She did her best to force her screen to stop the tears flow, however with not much success. “Am I supposed to twiddle my thumbs? How can I help?”
“How do you want to help, Shifting Gales?” Lives asked with a tilt of her head. “Hmm … given your isolated situation … I have a request for you. You already confirmed that the Chat 1.0 system still functions with only a broadcast antenna being intact. But what if that would break down as well? Moon’s collapse is currently, excluding your situation, the only case where the means of communication ceased. We still haven’t confirmed her current whereabouts as all communication requests end in the data void.”
“I think I know what you are trying to imply. I heard of the quite real theories of the accelerating pace of equipment degradation. In before long Coordinators like you, Lives, will be unable to maintain the global network keeping our forums alive. Fast forward from that point of over-regional isolation would the personal communication array from older Iterator models meet their point of no return. Our reach will whittle down from regional to full-on isolation.
…
I think I can keep myself busy with that question … a way to stay online even when going offline. … A way to stay online even when going mobile! This is crucial. Thanks for pointing me in that direction, Lives.”
“Alright.” Sky looked at the time remaining and decided to bring the chat to an end to allow his Overseer to preserve some energy at least. “Let me summarize it for the record. Lives and Whisper will work on the design, Whisper and me on the Neuron Fly, me and hopefully Suns on the Messenger and Gales on the question of communication. We all have our part to fulfil. Anything left to discuss?”
All participants of the chat shook their heads, each however insisted on a small private moment to wish Gales good luck before closing the chat. Gales looked at the off-coloured Overseer and outstretched her arm, pointing to the shore, where Sky’s superstructure was located.
“Time for you as well to go, lil buddy. I wish you safe travels. Take this with you.”
Gales connected to the Overseer’s tendrils and left a small note in its memory storage, a formal request not to fully reset it. The off-colouring was her fault, and she didn’t want to put this brave Overseer through that frankly quite unnecessary process. The zappy eye gazed back at her with a strange flicker in its golden iris. Was it … thankful?
The Overseer did leave a few moments later, zipping out of her sight and soon out of her bodily awareness as well, leaving her behind. And the pressing silence of solitude washed over her. Shifting Gales was now alone; alone with the nagging feeling of the
acid in her veins. But also left with a glimmer of hope in her metaphorical heart and a task she could focus on without any worries. Her friends got her covered and she trusted them with everything she got.
The gates opened! Can I leave? But … why would eye-thing free me? … hm? What is, handplants? You want me to follow you? … It is not like I know what is past this box of mine. One moment, a little snack.
The Slugpup dashed back to her half-finished meal. The sludge was by now glowing as strongly as her own fur. The sourness of it ceased a few cycles ago and was replaced with a pleasant taste she quite enjoyed. The sizzling sensation in her tummy grew into a feeling she looked forward to as well.
She finished the meal, having noticed that the Eye returned to her place and impatiently observed her doing. Licking out the bowl, her saliva left marks in it, the burning effect of her tongue now stronger than the food it appeared as such. Knowing how much it annoyed her spectator when she damaged their stuff, she continued to lick at the bowl till the metal fully dissolved and the bowl ceased to exist … like every bowl prior.
Took more licks this time. The bowl got stronger. But I am the strongest. Is that why you release me? I bet I can lick my way out of the box. Watch me!
She winded her hind legs up and jumped up, lunging past the shaking handplants. Meeting with the transparent wall she began to brattily lick it, hoping to tick eye-thing off. But she quickly realized that the wall was unlike her bowls. Not even a marking, aw. Looking back at the handplants they both had now one finger risen and wagged it in a wave motion back and forth. Forming then a fist, they pointed at the open exit, ushering her to follow finally. She complied.
The handplants guided her through the facility. With them growing out of long arms from all over the place the plants having taken care of her quickly got replaced again and again with fresh pairs. The longer the walk went the weirder the handplants looked like. While they had four fingers at the beginning the number of digits periodically lowered down to clamp-like two-digit claws. But she still followed them, because the eye-thingy never left her side, signalling her that all these weird things were under its control.
The stroll was a long one through many winding corridors. Some ended in an array of pipes, through which the hands guided her, pointing at the openings she should squeeze her slender frame through. Travelling through the pipes felt oddly right, but she just couldn’t put her finger on the reason why. The walk through the weird system of pipes ended in a dead end, with a weird chamber at its end, a place that looked oddly … inviting.
The glowing eye zipped next to her and projected a few simplistic symbols in the space between them. It didn’t take her genius-level intellect to deduce what it wanted.
A pictogram of my bed. A me sleeping in that bed. You want me to rest here, I assume. Well, first time the charm. A new sleeping spot. But this better not be the end of our journey. The spot is nice, but also so … depressing.
She nodded to the Eye and opened her maw, letting out a few words she herself interpreted as ‘Thank you’.
“Wawa wa.”
She then squeezed herself past the opening into the chamber. Looking back at the opening she was able to see how it closed and sealed her existence away from all harm.
So that must be a safe spot. Wonder if there are more?
Approaching Sky observed the screen as the shelter door closed. He ordered his overseer to return to the upper levels of his structure to not get fried by the upcoming electric storm. He scratched his chin and shook his head.
“What an irritating yet fascinating creature. Well, at least she managed to follow me and didn’t run away. Gales wouldn’t have forgiven me if I had had to rely on force. One more cycle and you will be here. I better should prepare myself.”
He sighed and opened the folder he prepared for the night. All dissociation of his protégée, readied to be read and dissected. He was about to embark on territories he never cared about. But he could imagine nobody but her to change that point of view.
