"Boredom is the Bane of Immortals, and Ennui is their Chiefest Foe"
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Rae started to pass her hand over the bay’s door panel when she felt a wave of dizziness crash over her. She swayed, slapping the wall above the panel with both hands, leaning hard on the wall until the disorientation subsided. When she felt able, she went inside and put her back against the door, shaking from head to toe. Interacting with others now was so hard. Taylor was tolerable, but even Chayse was hard to bear despite their long history. Anyone else in the Family would be just impossible. They'd demand answers she wasn't prepared to even contemplate.
Pushing off the door, she made her way to a nearby bench. Insistent beeping at her feet alerted her to a swarm of cleaning drones before she stepped on them. Awkwardly she danced around them as they skittered away. She managed a less than graceful landing on the bench, hearing the struts groan as her near metric ton of weight slammed down. Trying to control her breathing, she watched the drones gingerly emerge from hiding and return to their work chipping hardened stone from the deck. Lava slag, from my boots… she realized.
Flying drones worked on the ramp, folded up against the bow. A grav platform bumped into her knee, with several metal ingots stacked on top, obviously sent by Taylor. She was still close to her max density, but her unsettled nerves were burning through her mass reserves faster than usual. Eating all this… ugh. Rae telekinetically lifted the bars in a sphere of mind force and heated the metal to a sludgy molten state. Once it was glowing a cheery yellow, she shaped a spout on the bubble and drank down the contents with a sigh.
She telekinetically fetched an inventory pad from the wall and looked it over. She imagined herself already there… clambering over moss speckled rocks under the shade of tall green trees... What did she want to bring with her? She didn‘t have the concentration for a speed run, and wasn't interested in challenging herself with a limited tool trial.
She decided to take more tools than she usually did, besides her basics. Skipping over the neolithic tools, she added forging implements and an initial set of hardened metal tools to use until she set up a forge of her own. Then it was several types of hover drones, some with surveying equipment to collect data, a pocket analysis lab, and a mini-mainframe to run it all on.
Shifting her feet, Rae accidentally nudged the platform, making it bobble. Nodding, she put a skyboard on her list, the platform’s more powerful and sophisticated cousin. Needing a supply of clothing, she included hiking gear, a light and a heavy coat, and extra footwear. Speaking of which, she listed the usual contents of her boots; a pair of daggers, one for each, a narrow flute case, and a keyed harmonica. For her waist, the heavy Damascus bush knife she'd made a dozen camps ago, and an energy sidearm.
She wouldn't need her energy sword because she had… 'Oh.' She looked at the pale band of untanned skin on her right index finger where her ring usually sat. The Crysfire Gem itself acted as the Chief's crown, but she usually split the sword aspect into a ring she wore, so it was always… near to hand. When she'd sent the Gem away, the sword-ring went with it. Dragging her eyes away from her finger, she put the energy sword down on her list as well.
That was enough to start. With a deep breath, Rae got up to pull her supplies.
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When she’d prepped her gear and taken that nap Chayse had suggested, she stepped back onto the bridge feeling slightly better. Her eldest was working at the port command chair. “Hi, mom," Chayse gave her a small smile, "I’ve been busy working on your project.” He swept scores of holo screens into the room with a broad gesture, each with a percentage number over an image of a terrestrial-type world.
Rae cocked an eyebrow at him. “The numbers combine all of my criteria for choosing a camping world for you,” he explained. “You don't usually see this stage of the process, as I have more time and information to narrow the search before I select one for you."
Gesturing at the screens, he said, "These examples are 70% optimal or better, and the pictures give an indicator of the dominant biomes. The original flybys showed no humanoid lifeforms or artificial energy signatures on any of them. Once we narrow down the selection, we can perform a current survey.”
She nodded and gave each screen a closer look. She dismissed the marginal worlds that were too icy, oceanic or marshy. Likewise, she swept away the overly toxic, arid, or volcanic. There were times she enjoyed a challenge like that, but she didn't want the stress this time. She gathered the half dozen ones rated 90% or better that had pleasant temperate zones with the occasional snowy mountain range or island archipelago. ‘I like these,’ she thought to him. Giving one a second look, she grabbed a corner of it and pulled it back to him. ‘Why does this one have an asterisk?’
“Ah. About that,” he said, “this one meets all the specifications, but a starship crashed there over a century ago. The survey detected what seemed to be a distress beacon.”
‘But what happened to them?’ she thought. ‘You said there were no humanoids.’
“Why don’t we find out?” he said. “If you don’t like it, you can always pick one of the others.”
The corner of her mouth twitched into something like a smile. She was always a sucker for a mystery. She nodded to Taylor, and her pilot set course for the planet.
"Taylor," Chayse said, "While we're under way, you might want to send some probes towards the local polity, please. See if we can access a network of some kind, so we can pick up their trade language."
Taylor looked at his Captain, and when Rae nodded again he launched the probes. She passed the time expanding the world's image and swiping it to take in the full globe. When the probes returned their data, Taylor gave his report, "They have a real-time interstellar data net. I am sending you the local common language files, First Kin."
Rae waited for Chayse to process the data for her. She had a special gift for learning languages, but she learned them best from spoken examples or organic minds, not as data. Chayse's status as an embodied Kin allowed him to absorb the tongue as data so she could take it directly from his thoughts. She forced her mind into a narrow focus, to subject Chayse to as little of her instability as possible. When he was ready, he nodded, and she gingerly read him as he concentrated on the new language.
Once she had it, she went over it, quickly splitting it into a variety of language families as there were several very different root tongues involved. 'They're a multispecies alliance as well, it seems,' she sent. Her eyebrows raised, causing a brief flicker of pain from her injured forehead, 'And, hey, they've had contact with Earth. English, German, Mandarin… Only a few words of each, but it's there.'
"I saw that, too," Chayse said. "We're awfully coreward from the Sol system, though, so I wonder how that happened?"
She shrugged. 'Taylor, do you have a read on that beacon?'
Taylor turned to them, an uncharacteristic look of mild surprise coming over his face. "This is the most recent entry, a continuous live broadcast, begun just under a century past."
"...attempt to land. This planet has a lethal and virulent plague, and we survivors of the crash are succumbing to it one by one. Federated Sentients General Order 14 prohibits landings on an identified plague planet. Warning! This is the ISS Daring, an Exoterran freighter out of Vassold. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt to land..."
'Exoterran,' she mused. 'That message had more Terran root vocabulary than the trade tongue.' Sitting back in her chair, she stretched out her long legs. 'I don't care about the plague or their General Order. It would have to be some kind of superbug to cross the elemental barriers between a carbon-based illness and something that affects a silicon-based biology, so I'm not really concerned. I do suppose I'll need to eventually send this "Federated Sentients'' a copy of my databases for whichever local world I camp on.'
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Perhaps," Chayse said. "The biological and geographical studies you undertake are usually intended to let nearby sentients colonize the world easily after you leave. That seems pointless for this one if you select it, as Federate records say the system was interdicted when the plague message was received. Maybe you can synthesize a cure for whatever it is if you want to."
She stared off as she thought. The Qard were a silicon-based Inferus lifeform, with internal temperatures that could instantly incinerate any carbon-based contaminant. Native to hot rocky worlds where softer materials burned or turned molten, it took a lot of effort to bundle that inner heat so far down she could safely interact with the type of world she wanted, one like the planet of her birth.
Rae was born on Terra in the mid twentieth century AD, for the simple reason her parents had been born there, back in the Triassic. They lived secretly in and around hominids from the time those evolved from the lesser primates. The only reason her parents were there was that her people came to live on Sol III when it was still a molten rock, fleeing the Devastation that caused Qardos to be abandoned. She'd taken well to the necessary adaptation techniques while still an infant, able to go outside the protective habitat her parents built for her and interact with the fragile biosphere of her homeworld.
She toyed with an old Earth copper coin she wore on a necklace. She'd grown up playing at being human, but the fact she developed three times slower made it hard to maintain a peer group. Rae learned to keep two calendars; one, her actual chronological age in Solar years, and the other was the age she appeared to be compared to an average human. When she reached her age of adulthood at 45 chronological years, she was developmentally a gangly teenager in appearance, with most of her eventual height but only around half her adult physique...
...She blinked, suddenly confused, and shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose as she struggled to recover her chain of thought. It was Terra's pristine greens and blues that she sought when she went camping, but the world she remembered was long lost to pollution and over-development. Now she lived halfway across the galaxy, and hadn't returned to Terra in several centuries.
'Actually, the beacon might be to my advantage,' she sent to Chayse. 'I dislike anyone interrupting me when I camp, and I may be here longer than usual. The plague warning will inspire them to keep their distance, without me doing anything overt that might catch the attention of a passing ship. Taylor, put out some satellites when you enter orbit, please. I want a higher resolution surface map and detailed scans.'
"Yes, Captain."
Worrying her lip with her sharp teeth, she turned to Chayse. 'Can you control the scans? If I do, I might spoil myself.'
"Certainly, Mom, what do you want to know?" he said. The look on his face told her he hadn't missed when she'd zoned out. He'd always had a sharp eye, and like Taylor, was sensitive to her moods and frailties.
'Do some detailed atmosphere scans and take some bio samples. I'm interested in knowing if there are any easily detected carbon-based pathogens confirming the beacon's report. Secondly, track down where the Daring crashed down. Refined metal scans, etc, etc. I'd also like you to double check for humanoid remains, specifically Homo Sapiens.'
"Pathogen scans on-going." Chayse fiddled with the data until the surface was rendered on the main screen as a topographical map. The shipwreck was soon located among a scattering of low hills surrounded by vast flatlands. Closer up, the mineral readings of the crash site showed advanced materials under the disturbed surface of the northernmost hill.
"Hmm." He generated a flashing series of diagrams analyzing the movement direction of the displaced soil and the damage they detected on the Daring's bow. "Seems she was headed Northeast at a fairly low speed and clipped into the hillside, stopping most of the way through. I'm assuming she was heading for the flats, and missed."
Chayse put up bio-scans next over the topographic lines, thick with life-sign symbols in the valleys around the Daring's resting place. "Quadrupedal mammals, and a lot of them, averaging a bit over the mass of a human."
Next, geo-scans showed a series of low rises nearby, with relatively recent excavations containing remains. Details revealed they were mostly human-variant remains, with a few aliens. "The oldest is a mass grave, probably from just after the crash," he said, "followed by a series of graves and tombs with only a few bodies each. The last holds only one, and was sealed roughly around the time the beacon was updated."
'Are they all accounted for?' she asked.
Chayse dug into the Federated data records for the crew roster of the Daring on its last voyage. "Yes, that's all of them." He bowed his head, "The Light rest their souls."
She absently nodded in agreement with his prayer. 'So, no functional ship, and no survivors. Can you do an Energy scan?' she sent.
"The only active power readings are from the beacon in orbit and ourselves. There's nothing here at the crash site." One of his screens beeped, and he checked it. "No trace of widespread dangerous pathogens. That doesn't prove anything, it could just be the wrong season for anything to be detectable. The nearby creatures don't seem affected, however, and the planet's overall life density map seems typical for a world of this type and size."
She shrugged. 'Good to know, even though it's not really important for my purposes. Now, please give me live views from the middle atmosphere. I'm looking for a nice mix of biomes.' Chayse sent the main screen a real-time view from far above the landscapes of the crash site. She controlled the camera, focusing on an odd curving line of mountains northwards of the crash site, stretching east to west. 'Is that all the same range? They seem so… blocky and discrete from each other. Most ranges flow more organically from peak to peak.'
"It seems to be," Chayse said. "Many of them seem to be plateaus, mesas, or the like, rather than proper mountains." He performed a geological scan that revealed they were mostly made of dense granites, carved separately from each other by glaciers long ago. Symbols showed that abundant minerals ran through the range, with scattered geothermal pockets underneath.
"Each one primarily consists of closely related shades of stone, but over the extent of the range there's a whole palette of colors." Blocks of color laid over the plateau images, ranging from shades of ivory to the far west, to deep grays and blacks on the eastern end. Many spurs branched out from the main range in a wide variety of colors. Mostly they were warm hues, in yellows, reds, and browns, but more rarely there were cooler colors represented.
Rae maneuvered the view-point to the eastern trailing edge of the range where the darker plateaus stood even further off from each other, the ancient glaciers having ground deeper between them. The jet black one at the very end captured her attention. It was small compared to those in the center of the range, measuring just a kilometer and a half in length, and about half that in width and height. 'I could carve a nice compound out of that. Right on a river, scrub and grasslands on the near shore, woods and rocky hills on the far side. I like it, this is where I'll camp.'
Chayse shut down the other screens, and gave her his full attention. "Do you want to talk about whatever happened that triggered this, maybe get someone to help you?" She sighed and slowly shook her head, a warning expression in her eyes. He frowned, but changed the subject. "Are you keeping the Question with you?"
She shook her head again. 'That would defeat the point of camping, wouldn't it? I'm already being indulgent with the amount of gear I'm taking.' She turned to Taylor, 'Once I'm down you can park her somewhere in the system. Maybe transfer your consciousness home for the decades it'll take for me to signal. Spend some time with the Kin.' Taylor bowed his head, acknowledging her words.
Rae stood, taking a step towards Chayse, but he met her halfway. When he lifted his arms she flinched, so he reached over slowly to touch her upper arms. "May…" his voice turned rough, eyes glittering with suspicious brightness. "...May you find the peace you're looking for."
Oh, Chayse. Her own eyes burned, and she impulsively took one of his hands and laid her cheek into it briefly. 'Thank you, child, for everything. Tell the Family... tell them I'll be alright. I just need time.' He nodded, and she briskly walked away and up the ramp before she dashed away the tears that threatened to fall.
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Chayse sat heavily in the chair he'd been using, and rubbed his face with his hand. He could feel Taylor's level gaze on him. "You're not going to transfer, are you?" Taylor gave a single shake of his head. "I've offered before to upgrade you to a Kin instead of a bespoke ship's intelligence," Chayse said.
Taylor subtly tilted his head. "Then you wouldn't be First Kin." Chayse sat up but before he could speak Taylor raised a hand. "Once we both stood behind our maker, united in her support. When you began your new life, of necessity you stepped away from that role to live for yourself. I don't blame you for that, you deserve your happiness. But, someone still needs to look after her. To protect her..." He turned back to the front of the bridge, quietly murmuring words Chayse didn't think he was meant to hear.
"...even from herself."