Chun Liao was not used to the concept of babysitting. She did have a younger cousin who she had sat watch over a few times in her younger years, but once she transferred into the Administrators and took a job in space... there were a lot fewer kids around, and none of the people she was close to had any. The only friend she had back home in that age range was a roaring drunk, and she wasn't interested in long-term relationships.

Somehow, the task of monitoring Elaine had been split between her and Ken Thompson, an affable but insincere white man who, Liao had eventually found out, was pretty solidly gay, and was a lot less interested in talking or interacting with her than he was male colleagues. That didn't mean that they didn't get along... it was just kind of a surface-level thing. This assignment, though, was driving them closer by sheer necessity.

Yesterday, after the end of Ken's watch, he stayed around and vented a little bit about watching Elaine. "I don't know how she found that place," Ken said, "but you can just see in her face, in every detail of how she acts that it is driving her crazy. She's terrified; it's like watching a little girl alone in the woods. I want to just grab her and give her a big hug and tell her things are going to be alright..." he stopped and shook his head. "Except she's like the second oldest person alive today, and maybe the single most dangerous. And... I don't know."

"Also volatile, and she probably doesn't know we're spying on her," pointed out Liao, as she studied the so-called camera footage that was being reconstructed from some kind of sensor in orbit. "Which she might not appreciate."

"I know." Ken sighed. "I mean... everything I've read said that Archons were monitored and all kind of made peace with that. Maybe she knows or doesn't care, but we can't do anything to piss her off. I don't know what weapons she still has in her... inventory? Is that the word? But I'm sure she could take on anyone but Ciddia and not fear for her life at all."

"That is how Archons work, in my understanding, yes," said Liao, a little amusement in her voice. Right now, a copy of Elaine was stacking the two... decommissioned was the word Teddy used, and it was acceptable. The two decommissioned archons were on the couch, now thankfully both fully dressed, and Elaine was making one more tour of the place, looking for any secrets she hadn't found. She missed one or two, according to sensors, but Ciddia's word on the subject was to monitor only, and to not interfere.

"Great. I just hope Cid doesn't expect us to restrain her, ever." Ken sighed and stood up. "I'll be back in a few hours. I don't think I'm going to sleep any time soon, and I want to know what she does next."

"I can handle it," said Liao, aware that she sounded a little hurt. Most likely, Elaine would just take the bodies back to Teddy's, probably rest there for a few days. "I don't think anything exciting will happen for a while, anyway."

"Maybe. She just... I don't know." He moved to the door, but stopped and stared at the screen again for another few minutes. "She reminds me of my sister, when she was young. I hated my sister. But... she was family, and it hurt to watch her..." he shook his head. "Never mind."

So Liao sat quiet watch over Elaine for hours, as she hauled the two bodies across half the planet--much slower than her flight over, though Liao thought it might only have been sentiment, since certainly the bodies weren't going to fall apart, and she had the power to spare. She watched Elaine unload her cargo, then step into the portal gateway to an area that the Administrators couldn't monitor. In their most recent staff meeting, Liao had asked if they had any ability to peek into or control spaces like the one Elaine was now climbing into, and Ciddia had just... given her a blank look.

"I have a lot of capabilities that I don't share," was all her boss said before moving on.

Liao had just raised a cup of coffee to her lips when Elaine ripped out of the portal like a gunshot. She didn't quite spill the hot drink all over herself, but she did have to scramble for the controls in order to keep the woman in focus. She'd played with the camera angle a little to see if she could sneak a look inside, but predictably, all that had done was knock it out of auto-follow mode for no other benefit.

She located Elaine quickly enough--but then realized the woman had already split, and not just a few times. In fact, Elaine had quietly taken every one of Teddy's anti-nightmare weapons, obsolete though they were, plus the two automatic ones she had been given, and was aggressively searching through the wastes.

Liao spent probably ten minutes of scrambling around trying to keep a camera on every copy of Elaine before she had time to stop and actually consider the face of the woman she was monitoring. Elaine didn't look right. Her face was compressed with stress in a way it had never been, and not a single one of the Elaine copies that were out was acting composed or measured in any way. It was clear that Elaine was hunting nightmares, but... why? Stress relief? Was she really deadly enough that she was intending to pick fights and just assumed she would win?

After studying the display for a moment, Liao paged her boss. At this hour, Ciddia would be taking some time off, but probably not sleeping, not indisposed in any way. She was surprised, though, when the response came back almost instantaneously.

"Any idea what she's upset about?" the text message flashed across her holo-interface, instead of going through the console in front of her.

"No, ma'am. She was fine until she went inside one of the Pandora Engine units with the scrappers." Liao used the console in front of her to type, because she wasn't nearly as fast with her mental or wrist interfaces. Again, as soon as the message went out, Ciddia responded.

"She is most likely wrestling with the changes in the world. Probably needs someone to talk to, and not me. If you think you can talk her down, you can start a text chat with her at this address. I trust your judgement."

Liao reviewed that message once, twice, three times, thinking about it. As Ken said, they were not supposed to interfere... as much for their own safety as anything. But she also couldn't help feeling that the woman was vulnerable now, and miserable. Everyone had moments like that, whether they be human, kin... or Archon, she supposed.

So Liao started a new text chat using the link that Ciddia provided, and offered only a single line: "Let me know if you need to talk."

The reply from Elaine was instantaneous, as it had been with Ciddia: "Yes."

Elaine blinked. Then, slowly, she nodded. Her fingers fumbled with the keys, feeling like she was far too slow to be doing things this way. "I'll be down in a minute. I can't fly, unfortunately. Do you have a place you'd prefer? I assume not the compound."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Find the Me you first met." On the screens, Liao watched a copy of Elaine split off, wearing that same thin white shirt and sandals. She found a mostly-intact section of rooftop on what might have been a large warehouse building ages before. She looked around for a moment, then nodded to herself, and pulled something odd out of her inventory--a large cloth blob, which she set down on the ground and then collapsed into.

So Liao paged Ken to come back and take watch, sent a note to Ciddia that was doubtless superfluous, sent the coordinates over to the technician on watch, and went over to the departure gate. The tech had the gate ready by the time she got there, and Elaine simply nodded and stepped through as soon as the man pushed the button.

Elaine was... laying down in the cloth blob. This close, Liao could see it was holding its shape, as though it was filled with some kind of foam, or small beads, or something. "That looks comfortable," she offered as she stepped closer.

Elaine, in reply, pulled another one out of nowhere and threw it at her. Liao caught it, feeling it in her hands. Beads--small, soft beads. Had she read about that somewhere? Maybe even seen one in a store? She had never touched one, that was for certain. She tossed it down next to Elaine and sat, feeling the thing molding to fit her shape almost effortlessly, if not instantaneously. It took a moment, but her every small motion made the thing shift to accomodate her new position.

"Oh my god," breathed Liao. "Why isn't every chair this comfortable?"

Elaine laughed. It started with a little chuckle, but after a moment, it was definitely a full laugh, one that took a good long moment to pass. It wasn't too loud or too long, but it seemed like she really felt it, and she really needed it.

"I know exactly what you mean," said Elaine, flopping around on the cloth blob in an undignified fashion until she was facing towards Liao. "Imagine the person who invented the hard plastic chair defending his choices in the face of such majesty. 'Oh, its practical. Oh, it's portable. Oh, it's waterproof.' Pfft." Elaine burrowed her face into the cushion, smothering her next words, but Liao thought it was something like "Nobody cares".

Liao twisted her body back and forth a little, sinking deeper into the fine beads, and realized she was looking up at the sky, something she had not taken the time to do in her last visits to the planet. It wasn't completely cloudless; the planet's weather was not completely broken, although the spatial rifts made weather forecasting all but impossible. For the most part, though, the pale skies were unmarred, by signs of life or technology. It was, frankly, a little lonely. Mars had little air traffic, but because the colonies were compact with very little in the way or rural places or sprawl, you were never that far from an airport, or spaceport. Suborbital flights around the planet left just a bit of a mark in the sky, whether from exhaust or vapor trails. Not having that...

"I can't stand it," said Elaine out of nowhere, snapping Liao back to the present. "Everything that makes me, me..." She didn't finish the sentence, and let the silence stretch out.

Liao was quiet for a long time, wondering what she would say next, but she didn't seem eager to continue. "You mean, the insides of an Archon?"

"All computers. Clinical. Boring." Elaine clenched her fists tightly, gripping the fabric side of the bean bag chair, but stopped as soon as there was the first sound of a rip. "Shit," she said, pulling the fabric towards her to examine what she'd done. "Don't want to tear that. No telling where I'll get another."

"What's so great about the insides of a human?" asked Liao. "Do you really want to be filled with mystery organs? A careful balance of bacteria and chemical soup?"

"No..." Elaine drew the word out very long, as though she knew that the argument would come up, but it was not what she wanted.

"You were hoping for... what, then? Mystery? The Archons were an engineering project. If they didn't know how the body worked, they couldn't modify you, or rebuild you. They could only slowly screw you up."

"I wanted..." Elaine sighed. "I was hoping it was more like a cyborg. Like... a bunch of scaffolding placed around a living biological body, keeping it perfectly in tune." She paused. "And maybe it is, I don't know. But... argh." Elaine sat up, bounced a bit in the cushion, then flopped back down. "Hang on, I am gonna shoot this guy."

Liao's mind failed to process the sudden segue in time to not be scared off by gunshots to the south. She scrambled up, failing to get to her feet nearly as fast as she thought she ought to as the beaded cushion fought to keep her torso firmly but gently within its soft recesses. By the time she was up, the gunfire had stopped, and the resting Elaine turned to look.

"Sorry," Elaine said, although she didn't sound very sorry. "I'm still going to be blowing off steam by shooting those broken spirit things. In the old world..." she paused. "I didn't go looking for fights, but somehow, there always seemed to be one close at hand. If I didn't believe in the cause... I mostly just wouldn't kill anyone, but kicking ass is therapeutic. Shooting things less so, but, that's what I've got."

"With that kind of attitude, the people back home would hate you," admitted Liao, as she sat back down in the chair. "The news circulars love to call out every incident of violence as a sign that humanity is sliding back into corruption."

Elaine was quiet for a moment. "News circulars?"

Liao looked at her. "Yes?"

"As in published things that they actually distribute to people?"

"...Yes?"

"What happened to networks, decentralized platforms, all of that?"

"They are around." Liao felt a strange tug at her heartstrings. Was this something strange? It wasn't, really, was it?

"Weird." Elaine let out a long sigh. "I guess... we just didn't trust centralized media. With all of the wars and things, we ended up going to whomever we trusted for news."

That didn't make a whole lot of sense to her, but Liao let it go. Instead, she looked at the big blue sky above her, thinking about the past. Mars and its dome cities lacked this sense that the whole world was under one sky, and the space stations were the very definition of insular. But with the Two Worlds broken, the idea that this one sky connected humanity was wrong, too. If this area faced a threat, there would be no reinforcements from other places--only the Administrators could possibly get here in time.

"What do you think that the Two Worlds needs?" asked Liao into the long awkward quiet moment. "Not more Archons, I'm sure."

"...no." Elaine sat up enough to curl her body back to face Liao, then collapsed back into the cushion. "I have been thinking about it. We're planning to try to reverse-engineer some Mecha Archon code into a vehicle. Nothing too fancy, I think. Something that can fly, haul cargo, defend itself, and communicate. Isn't that what Ciddia said the world needs?" She stretched one hand off towards the sky. "Connect the broken world again. I might be a symbol, but I can't do that, not the across the one world, let alone two. But if we can get the code working, we should be able to fit together dozens of them out of the stock ansibles we have sitting around. As long as the cargo capacity is high enough, we can just zip around the world, facilitating trade. Maybe airlift medical patients to hospitals, too." She sighed. "All that good stuff."

Liao was quiet. It... still didn't really make sense to her, that she as an Administrator had the power to link two places together with a temporary portal--and that the Administrators refused to. Yes, on the one hand, they needed to rebuild on their own. But what Elaine said was so simple--a need, fulfilled. If what the world needed was so simple, why were they sitting there doing nothing?

"...I'm sorry," she said quietly, though she couldn't quite put into words what made her say it.

"For following Ciddia?" When Liao turned her head, she found Elaine looking her right in the eyes. "I'm used to it. And, heck, more than anyone else on the planet, I don't need you. If you're going to apologize to anyone, apologize to the ones who do." Elaine, suddenly, twisted in her cushion and floated into the air, one hand grasping the big cushion and dragging it up with her--until it suddenly vanished, back into some internal storage place of hers. "You can keep the bean bag chair, if you want."

Liao considered that for a long moment. "I don't have a place to keep it, really."

"Give it to Teddy, then. Or let me know if you want me to hold onto it. I'm just suddenly really feeling motivated to work. Gonna get to it before I get distracted again." She turned and tossed Liao a salute, and then vanished. Liao had a brief moment of panic before she remembered that any particular copy of Elaine was only that--and the main could be anywhere. Maybe she already was working, somewhere.

Liao sighed, dreading the prospect of getting out of her new comfy chair. Just another minute, she decided sleepily, and closed her eyes.