GRANDMOTHER AND TODD
She was sitting on a light chair on the terrace outside the upper rest. It almost felt like home. Not Home Square, but her other home, the Speedwell. When she was younger she liked to sit on the eastern terrace and watch the sun rise. It was early afternoon, but the light filtering down through the heavy trees was pretty. There was a slight chill in the air. Grandmother thought it might be early winter. Spending too much time inside the structure made her lose track of the seasons.
At one time she tried to run the structure during the winters and go back to the Speedwell for the agricultural season. As the automated systems stabilized, she started spending more time at the Speedwell in the winter, doing maintenance while the agricultural equipment was offline. The mining and refining equipment and the automated manufacturing were next up for the maintenance rotation. No particular season was better for that work than another.
When all the crafters were ready to go back to Home Square, Grandmother almost panicked when Betty wasn’t with them. She found the hunter watching the selkies swim back to their square in the evening light. “They are so free,” Betty told Grandmother. Grandmother offered to go with Betty to OpenSky, but the proud woman refused. Grandmother told her how to find the outer door in case no one was there to greet her.
After they got back from Seagrass she made a quick trip over to OpenSky to check on Joe. The square was surprisingly busy. A number of store fronts were already occupied. Joe went on about Betty like he was a teenager. The hunter herself was out on the surface. Grandmother didn’t bother to wait for her to come back in. It was clear to her that the situation was working out just fine.
The last few days were hectic as they ran salvage runs in the tier three space below the square. They sought out arcades and searched them for specialty vendors. They didn’t find one that sold totems, but to Todd’s delight they did find one that sold plant containers. His search of Seagrass’s pottery shop did not yield any. When questioned the potter said he could make them, but he didn’t have any on hand since there was no demand. Todd didn’t think there was time for another trip to Seagrass before they left. Todd was also oddly happy with the vendor they found that sold spoons.
Todd came out of the rest and set a glass mug of tea down on the table next to Grandmother. He settled into the other chair with a drink of his own. Grandmother heard the mumble of voices escaping from the rest until the door swung shut. The door completely blocked all sound after that.
“How is it going?” Grandmother asked.
“Alex is supervising the placement. He argued that if it doesn’t work and no new rooms are built, we will need to be able to use the space as is. Everyone agreed that was a valid point. Someone touched the bag cart, the bag was offended and puked its load out into the dead hallway. Luckily no one was in the way. Ellen started talking about how that would make a great trap for invaders,” Todd reported.
“So it is going well?” Grandmother replied.
“Seems to be,” Todd reported. “When things settle down, we need to take Muriel down to that ruined sanitary facility and see if she can get a cutting. She is fascinated by the tree roots in the collapse. I expect her to pop out the top anytime. The only thing keeping her from coming out here was your presence.”
“I don’t think we will keep her inside for very long,” Grandmother observed as she sipped her drink. She looked out through the trees in the direction of the Speedwell.
“I’ve been thinking about retiring and having a child,” Grandmother said suddenly. Todd, in mid-drink, almost swallowed his tongue. The idea of Grandmother pairing up with someone and having babies was slightly blasphemous. Todd thought his brain might have broken.
“Do you have someone in mind?” he asked.
“For what?” Grandmother asked. The total puzzlement in her voice made Todd rethink the conversation. Had he just misheard her?
“For the father,” Todd elaborated.
“The love of my life died at Redfalls,” Grandmother said quietly, “but he was part of the landing generation like me. His DNA will be on file in the Speedwell. If I name a father, the ship’s systems will produce two children for me, or it will give me a single clone. I don’t know if I am worried about the child genetically being mine or not. The computer will produce genetically unrelated children without limit. It is part of its programming to increase genetic diversity and limit inbreeding.” Todd didn’t understand most of that. It was like the old days when he first walked out of the structure. The one thing Todd understood from that speech was that Grandmother wasn’t actually planning on giving birth to a baby. She was thinking of having the ship make her one. Maybe his brain did break. When they got back to the ship he was going to do some serious research on how children were born on the Speedwell.
“There always seems to be something else I should take care of first,” Grandmother said after a pause. “Not only do we have the coliseum to see about, but now there is the rumor of this Tinkerer. Not to mention the jeweler in Seagrass. Oh and totems, don’t forget the totems.”
“Ellen’s new teacher? What about him?” Todd queried.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Grandmother asked. She didn’t wait for an answer because obviously she hadn’t told him. “He isn’t selkie, neither is he human. He is something else.”
“What is he then?” Todd asked, intrigued.
“I don’t know. One of his amulets is cloaking his tier. I think he is tier five, but he could be six. I don’t really want to offend another six, so I am just letting that situation lie.” Grandmother took another sip of her tea. She set her tea down and flexed her hand.
“Then there is this,” Grandmother said, looking at her hand. She turned to look directly at Todd. “Tell me truthfully, do I look older than when you met me?”
“No,” Todd told his dearest friend, “you look younger.”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
The silence lengthened. Todd sipped his tea. It never seemed to get cold in the glass mugs.
“I’ve thought about this for a while now,” Todd said slowly. “Ever since I found out about your nanobots being active outside the structure.’
“Oh?” Grandmother said after he paused, urging him to continue.
“When you cast that tier five heal on the old woman in Londontown, you told her that she wasn’t young again. That she was only cured of the diseases of age. But what is aging if not a build up of those diseases? Companion said the true god pays in time. Obviously at the moment he meant the lifetime of a square crystal. What if that statement goes deeper? What if Control truly pays in time? With your nanobots active outside the structure, theoretically you could go back to Earth and carry that time with you.” Todd stumbled to a stop, knowing how odd that sounded.
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“You have been thinking about this,” Grandmother responded. She thought about it too, for a very long time. She’d never told anyone her theory because she thought it was a little crazy. Todd’s theory was very close to hers.
“Anyone can make it to tier four,” Grandmother said. “It is just a matter of using enough magic, with a wide enough diversity. You need diversity both in the kind of magic; utility, crafting, warrior or wizard, but also in the tree of magic. After that it seems like it gets more complicated. Control is always testing us in odd ways. It tests us for weaknesses; fear, pleasure, greed, power, fame. But I don’t believe it is looking for kindness or cruelty.” Grandmother explained.
This conversation seemed far afield from what Todd just said. Todd had a lot of experience dealing with Grandmother, he was certain it would come back around. He paid careful attention to her words.
“When my emotions leak, I think the nanobots near me are trying to follow a command they don’t quite understand. It is a direct command that has removed Control from the link. At tier four you can feel it because that is when the tuning starts. The magic trees; light, sound, force, temperature, electricity, chemistry, momentum, were picked to help form and control our thoughts to prepare us for using that direct control. I think Control is filtering and selecting individuals to control nanobots,” Grandmother proposed.
“That makes sense,” Todd said. “I can imagine a person not in control of their emotions or their desires could do enormous damage with nanobots.”
“Yes, there was a world-ending myth on Earth that concluded with nanobots consuming the planet,” Grandmother said.
“How would that work?” Todd asked. “I can see how I could pack a bag with nanobots and take them to another planet, but that wouldn’t be enough to consume the world.”
“They don’t come from nothing. It takes material to make them. If a single nanobot started making copies of itself without limit, it would start to consume the item it was sitting on to make them. If every copy it made was also set to make copies without limit, that rate of consumption would increase. If every copy they made…”
“That would be bad,” Todd said.
“Yes,” Grandmother said. “That’s what I think the prize is. Direct control of nanobots, including the ability to make them multiply. I am not there yet. I think getting to tier five and tier six are all about passing those self control tests. To reach tier seven I need to demonstrate direct control. It might just be direct control of the prewritten spells. I am pretty certain there must be more tiers, where a player learns more freeform control, how to power nanobots and how to make them reproduce.”
“Can you do it?” Todd asked. “Direct control?”
“Not really,” Grandmother said. “I think the emotion leak is direct control. That is also a failure. I need to learn to keep my emotions internal. When you feel me cast a spell, that is also a failure. I am directly controlling more than just the bots needed for the job. I need more focus and precision. I think my nanobots are using years of statistics to predict what I want. They are using not just data on my hand movements, but also my brain waves. To advance I am not certain if there is something I need to learn, or if it is something my nanobots need to learn. When I can cast a tier five spell and you can’t feel it, I’ll be getting close.”
“If it feels like any other spell, how can we tell if it is direct or still going through Control?” Todd asked. Grandmother thought about that for a while.
“I suppose if I took nanobots outside the structure's area of influence and could still make them do something, that would be proof. Although controlling a nanobot and powering them are two different things. Only the ones in my body are powered outside,” Grandmother observed.
“Something like camouflage?” Todd asked.
“Maybe, only I have always thought camouflage worked by making the nanobots in the other person's eyes remove them from the image,” Grandmother said.
“What about the tree six spells sprint and float?” Todd asked.
“I have no idea how they work, so I don’t know if it would be possible, but managing to cast those outside the structure would be proof, especially since I never learned them. I suppose if I can get the nanobots in the structure to do something outside of a known spell, that would be evidence too.” Grandmother observed. “I said all that like it is fact, but I have no proof. Since going back to Earth isn’t really an option, all I can really do is try to improve our lives here.”
“I can push you off a cliff and you can try to cast float,” Todd offered.
“For some reason that doesn’t sound that great to me,” Grandmother replied. Todd laughed.
“I know what you were doing when you reached tier six. Do you mind telling me what you did to get five?” Todd asked.
“I killed a man,” Grandmother said. “It is not something I talk about. It is how I know Control is not looking for people who are nice. Tier five is about making the hard choice.”
“Ok,” Todd replied.
“I think I got tier six because I worked with the group,” Grandmother said. At tier four Todd would be very invested in learning how to reach five. Since she didn’t think she could tell him that story, she thought she would give him more on the tier six transition from her point of view. “I spent most of tier five traveling alone. Working with the group proved that I could do that. I was careful to move away from the square before casting my ring of death. I kept all of you close enough not to kill you too. I took time out of the fight to cast a heal on you. I think it showed that I can remain aware of others and not be completely blinded by my own goals. If I killed the square or any of you, the migration would not have ended and I would have died there. One of you, probably Ellen or Sarah, would have miraculously survived to carry the tale back to Londontown.”
“Why Ellen or Sarah?” Todd asked.
“Sarah was the youngest and there is nothing better than a child survivor in a tragic Narrative. Ellen would have told the story of the death of the mad queen’s youngest daughter. That too is Narrative gold,” Grandmother explained.
“You said you think anyone can reach tier four. What do you think is holding Companion back?” Todd asked.
“He doesn’t cast enough. I also think he likes his ax too much. I was worried about you and your spear, but you started casting with your off hand, and that sorted it out,” Grandmother said.
“I was fighting with a knife when I hit four,” Todd remembered.
“Yes, it was likely a factor. I thought Companion's love of cold baths might push him over the edge, but I think he is also short on fire and lightning spells. We both managed to reach tier four without anything out of the sixth tree so not every tree is required. If we want him to reach tier four we need to push him to cast spells from the three, four and five trees or make enchantments from them.”
“What about crafting? Do you think if we got him interested in blacksmithing that would work?” Todd asked.
“It is a good chance. There are a lot of fire spells in it. On Earth aluminum was smelted with the use of electricity. If the aluminum smelting spell is from the lightning tree that would certainly help,” Grandmother replied.
“Since the bears wore aluminum armor that industrial area under south gallery probably has an aluminum smelter in it someplace,” Todd observed. “Seems like there would be aluminum scrap there too.”
“Put it on the list,” Grandmother responded. “Now you're starting to understand what I meant about there is always something to do.”
The door behind them opened and Alex stuck his head out. “We’re ready to go get the compost plant. Did you want to come along?”