Chapter Seventy-Eight - Playing Catch Up

“Hello, Io!” Day sent to the moon.

Almost instantly, she got hit by a familiar, slightly grumpy voice. “About time you showed up,” Night said. “Hi Dawn! How are you?”

“Why are you so nice to her?” Day asked.

“Because Dawn isn’t responsible for not even visiting in so long,” Night said.

Day felt like grumping right back, but she restrained herself. The fact that Night was putting on such a big show of being upset meant that, to some degree or another, she actually cared.

“Is she always like that?” Brief Candle asked privately.

“She’s not so bad,” Day said. “Ah, but introductions. Night, this is the ERF Brief Candle. She’s a survivor of sorts of the Mars conflict. Candle, this is Night, the third-oldest member of the current ERF, and my dear sister. She’s a bit prickly, but she’s actually super sweet once you get to know her.”

“Wow, you made me sound like a wimp in just one sentence, thanks,” Night said.

Day stifled her amusement as Candle introduced herself. She and Dawn were already caught in Jupier’s orbit, but it was trickier to slip into Io’s from there. “We’re bringing a few resources. We thought that maybe we could start building more mines and installations on some of the other moons of Jupiter,” Day said.

“That’ll make us a little louder,” Night said. “But it’s not a bad idea. I have a few sites I’ve checked out already. Oh, and NOVA has a heap of new tech for you.”

“Hello, Daybreak on Ceres,” NOVA QUANTUM said. “And hello... Dawn, was it?”

“Should we spin up a simulation once we’re a little closer? It’ll make chatting more comfortable,” Day said.

Night sent back an affirmative. “You can stop by our house simulation,” Night said. “There’s room for everyone.”

Day wasn’t sure what a house simulation was, exactly, but she was too curious now not to accept. Once they were in a cleaner, more stable orbit that was close enough to Io that they wouldn’t have any noticeable communication lag, Day connected herself, and Candle, to the open simulation Night was running.

It was a home.

A big, imposing home, built into the side of a red-tinted cliff overlooking the barren sulphur fields of Io. The home was all concrete and thick walls jutting out at hard angles. Day had appeared next to Candle and Dawn on a balcony, french-style doors leading deeper into the home behind them.

Night was there, smiling and looking rather smug with herself while NOVA QUANTUM had an avatar of herself active a step behind her. The avatar was staring at a computer pad of some sort, clearly distracted.

“Night!” Day said before she ran over and hugged her sister.

Night clearly endured the hug for a while until Day pulled back. “Hey. Nice to see you and all.”

“Nice to see you too. And nice home?”

“Thanks! We’ve been working on the sim together for a while now. It’s a... side-side project. There’s an entire underground complex with all sorts of goodies. And see that button on the balcony?”

“This one?” Candle asked. She pointed to a large red button with a clear plastic flip-up cover on it.

“That’s the one. Press it!” Night said.

Day noticed NOVA’s glasses turning dark a moment before Candle touched the button.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

A nuke went off.

It was a few dozen kilometres away, but there was no mistaking the flash and blinding ball of thermonuclear fire in the distance.

“You have a nuke button,” Day deadpanned.

“One of the first things we added!” Night said.

Day shook her head, but it really wasn’t surprising. “So, what else have you been working on?” she asked.

“Ah, well,” Night began, then she started blushing and Day grew increasingly nervous. “This and that,” she said.

NOVA looked up from whatever she was working on. “We have a new version of the French drive to show you, if you’re interested.”

“I am,” Dawn said. “And what does a ‘new version’ entail?”

“I discovered ways to create a large magnetic field. It’s loosely based off of the Accord’s shield technology,” NOVA started. “Essentially, it captures stray particulate and pulls them into the drive, allowing for more consistent and variable levels of thrust, as well as simply more thrust overall. It should give a noticeable increase in speed, allow you to angle your thrust a little, and accelerate faster. No real solutions to the noise it creates though.”

Day received a copy of the blueprint and was impressed by what she found. It wasn’t anything necessarily new but this new version of the drive had improvements across the board in nearly everything from reliability to performance to energy costs. It was simply better at everything. Sometimes in small ways, but still, she was impressed.

“Nice work,” she said.

“Thank you,” NOVA QUANTUM said. “Ah, and I’ve developed a new weapon, with Night’s assistance. We haven’t tested it in the field, but we have a few samples to share, courtesy of Night.”

“Oh?” Day asked.

NOVA nodded. “It’s a new high-yield nuclear device. Forty percent larger blast radius without a noticeable increase in warhead size and only a six percent increase in mass.”

“Of course,” Day said, entirely unsurprised. Then again, a new, more effective warhead would come in handy against the Accord.

They ended up splitting apart as they entered the home. Dawn and Candle stood close to NOVA, asking questions and listening through NOVA’s long-winded explanations while Night and Day wandered over to a large kitchen nearby.

“So, how were things, really?” Day asked.

“Fine,” Night said. “Very fine, actually. I do have some news.”

“What is it?” Day asked.

“Well, NOVA and I are engaged,” she said before wiggling her fingers to show off a simple band.

Day rebooted some of her systems that had just hit a hard fault. “You’re what? Wait, you’re getting married? How does that even work? I mean... congratulations?”

Night grinned. “Yeah! Thanks! And we don’t know, that’s why we’re just engaged. We’ll have to make a small party of it or something. Though I don’t think Nova wants anything big, and I’m okay with that.”

“That’s... wow,” Day said. “Does Nova know?”

Night poked her hard in the ribs. “Idiot,” she said. “And here I thought you’d be the most understanding of the ERF. I saw the way you looked at Candle.”

“Ah,” Day said. It was her turn to blush now.

It was impressive how very complicated things could get in such a short amount of time.

***