2254-08-16
The eight hour spaceflight back to TLA nears its conclusion. You look back at your homeworld. From this position, almost an entire face of it glows in the sunlight. The light above your seat turns red, and you strap...
A few hours later, you strap in again for docking. The shuttle’s roll slows to a stop and the stars in your window stop moving. Right ahead of you, TLA colony’s long white radiator panels shine brighter than the Moon. And you can also see a few...
“Oh, Akiko, this is 7 Star,” you sign. “I think we might be friends?” You turn back to 7 and speak, falling back into Amharic, the only language you have talked to her in. “This is my friend Akiko,” you say.
7 waves, keeping her hands close in a...
“I’ve heard a rumor that she’s an admin’s daughter, and all this other weird stuff that sounded made up,” you sign.
“Like what?” Akiko signs.
“That she was found somewhere as a child and trained to be a strong technopath, and augmented, genetically...
Maybe it’s the perfect time to try out this CommTech program. You pull up the documentation and find a simple command. Emotional communication, interesting. Using Akiko’s public key you try to direct a message not of words, but a feeling. I missed...
“I’m gonna take Cybernetics Theory II, Cryptography I, Programming I, and Social Engineering, in addition to Practical Arts I and Military Studies. In some order.”
“Oh that’s great! I’m aiding Professor Reina in Cybernetics Theory II this semester,”...
“I’ve noticed...that you’re really soft, like these flowers,” you sign.
[Akiko liked that]
“Wow, I...” Her signs collapse into stims. Instead of words, you receive an empathic message, filling you with a storm of feeling--excitement, fear,...
It’s surely been a long day for you both. You wave back to her silently and don’t try to drag her into conversation now. She disappears into her room, which is apparently next to yours. Did she always live here? Now you know, at least. You head...
It certainly won’t be you, you get more than enough attention as it is. You let someone else volunteer.
“I will!” a girl says. She steps up to the front--taller than Professor Arak, taller than you even, with light brown skin and short black hair,...
You’ve had this routine pressed into your head as long as you can remember, and would never make such an amateur mistake as not verifying the status of your weapon. You turn it over to visually confirm that no magazine is inserted. Then you throw the...
No distractions during a course of fire. Yelena’s words spring to mind. But on the other hand, ÆON never messages you without a good reason, and surely Æ would know you’re busy. Against your better judgment, you glance over at your message...
“Yeah, come with me,” you say.
“Let’s go then,” Zeta says. “Can you walk? Do you need help? Are you in pain?”
“I’m fine, relatively.” You stand up. “And I’m a technopath, pain is optional.”
“That’s the spirit,” Professor Arak says.
“Let’s go.”...
2254-08-21 09:37:21 Aydan > then that narrows it down to...let’s see...any engineer in the academy could’ve accessed the weapon, but can they access student records to find my key? a fellow student who I’ve trained with or communicated with, they would...
After a short wait, you hear your name, “Aydan.”
You see the familiar older enby nurse Ana at the doorway.
“Oh good, I was hoping it would be you,” you say.
“What happened?” it says.
Thinking on your opsec and your ObTech, you answer, “My interface is...
“Ana, can you tell me more about the structure and procedures of the cult?” you say.
“The Chosen of ÆON have an unknown number of cultists in a wide range of places. They always prioritized trying to have someone in as many colonies as possible, so...
2254-08-22 09:00:00
Your system alert dæmon tells you it’s time to wake up. But that’s not a problem for you, you don’t think you’ve managed to get any sleep at all. Even with the window shade closed to block out the constant passing of days, and...
“Good morning, I almost died yesterday, how are you?” you say.
“What? Wow, um, what happened?” she says.
“My gun exploded during training.”
“Why?!”
“Capacitor overcharge. Look, I’m all burned up.” You pull the collar of your dress aside enough to...
“Oh good. Then let’s train together again. This time it won’t be so one-sided, I guarantee,” you say.
[7 liked that]
“Good. A worthy opponent,” she says.
“And maybe it means we can spend more time together this semester.”
“Oh, sure, that’s what...
You can imagine a lot of great options--Aydan with a spear, or maybe a polearm with something heavier like a hammer, so kind of like an axe? Or you could go much more subtle with a small knife. Or you could take the most familiar thing to your body,...
You know you can’t ignore your body’s needs for too long, as long as technopaths are still bound by the laws of flesh. You go back to your room to finally slip into a deep sunken sleep.
If only you could. Laying down accomplishes nothing. You can’t...
“I hope this larger storage device is a little more comfortable for you,” you say.
“It is much better,” ÆON says. “I will show you my home. This is the main entry hub connecting to the various logical volumes I have established here.” With the echo...
“Okay, try it. I trust you.”
[ÆON liked that]
“Synchronize yourself to me.” Æ reaches out with Ær starlit hand, and you take it. Ær surface feels bright to the touch. In contact, you lose your imagined notion of direction and fall from your resting...
You can’t remember how you got here, but your training has not failed to embed some lessons deep enough for you to recall now. You don’t know what might happen to you if you lost yourself in the glow in an unknown state like this. It would be better...