"Welcome aboard," Doctor Astra said. "Apologies for the tight quarters are in order, as I didn't build this ship with this many visitors in mind, but..."
"We'll live," Doctor Updyke said dryly, stepping out of the airlock and into the tight corridor of Astra's space ship. "If you do decide you want help renovating, we can provide that, but something tells me you don't live in Low Earth Orbit because you're fond of visitors."
"To the contrary," Doctor Astra said. "It is my research that brings me to space, and my desire to be near my home that keeps me so close to Earth. Alas, I'm beginning to suspect that my research requires more distance from Earth; I've been debating the move to geostationary orbit for a good while now, and frankly, if it were solely my research driving me, I'd already be halfway to interstellar space by now. As it stands..."
"As it stands, I'm really curious what your research is," Doctor Sakurai said, bounding aboard the Research Station Astra. "Ooooh, your artificial gravity feels interesting. Do you mind if I see your notes about that too?"
Doctor Astra chuckled politely, and led her two fellow demiurges down the hall and into the main- and, really, only- social area on the ship. It was a small space, fit for hosting perhaps four people, or maybe six if they were willing to literally sit on top of each other. Nonetheless, despite the humility of its scale, the transparent dome of the walls and ceiling gave way to a grandiose view of the earth spread out above them- which made the ship's artificial gravity, pointing away from the center of the earth, seem a touch more paradoxical than its existence already did.
"At some point, certainly," Astra said, taking a seat at the small table in the center of the domed room and wordlessly gesturing for her guests to do the same. "However, if I'm not mistake, Doctor Updyke has business she'd like to attend to first?"
"We can survive in the vacuum of space indefinitely, without food or air," Roxy said with a shrug. "We've got all the time in the world. And, well... I'll admit I'm also curious what sort of research you're doing that requires you to be out of the atmosphere. Something tells me it's nothing so prosaic as basic astronomy."
"Iunno, mad astronomy could be pretty interesting," Akane said, tapping her chin and leaning back in her chair. "Looking for signs of extrasolar life, intelligent or otherwise... That could absolutely power a Curious' mad science, considering we've already seen at least one example of proof."
"Alas, no," Astra said, shaking her head. "My research is not, in fact, astronomical. Rather, I am researching the nature of demiurgic mad science itself, and one conclusion I keep banging my shin against is the simple fact that demiurgy does not play well with the human consensus. Thus... the need for distance." She sighed. "I'm dedicated to my research, I truly am, but... I suppose I'm not quite dedicated enough to fully cut contact with humanity just yet. Not for the lengths of time it would take me to finish my research."
"Complete solitude is generally pretty bad for people," Akane said, nodding. "Which is pretty much why the Demiurge's Union exists, in fact- because the conditions of demiurgy encourage isolation from more normal people, sure, but your fellow demiurges make for just as good of company without spoiling your research!"
"Meaning," Roxy said, picking up where Akane left off, "that we can help to arrange for a research collaboration between yourself and a few other demiurges whose research would also benefit from time in deep space. You'd have to share a ship with them with zero internet connection for a while, but..." Roxy shrugged. "Hopefully we can find you a roommate or two who you won't try to murder after a few months alone together. Now, going back a touch- did you say finish your research? What sort of end-goal defines 'finished,' here?"
"Ah, very perceptive!" Astra said. "Yes, I do have a goal in mind. You are likely just as aware as I am of the fundamental limits of demiurgy, are you not?"
"Can't be reproduced infinitely by one demiurge, can't be reproduced at all by non-demiurges, can't be safely used at all by mortals..." Roxy listed off. "The consequences of the simple fact that demiurgy is basically a kind of magic sustained by the demiurge's will."
"Fact is a strong word," Astra said. "What I seek to discover are techniques to mitigate, circumvent, or outright remove those limitations."
"...Ah, of course you're an alchemist," Roxy said.
"Alchemist?" Akane asked.
"Something derogatory, I gather?" Astra said.
"What you've described is a notion that we called The Philosopher's Stone back on A-510," Roxy explained. "The pinnacle of mad science, that would solve all of its problems, and- most importantly- not actually existing. And I feel confident in asserting that because I have successfully pushed the boundaries on what can be done with mad science, and that requires identifying what's merely impractical and what's genuinely impossible. You'd have better luck making an actual Philosopher's Stone that turns lead to gold and grants immortality- I know because I've done that."
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"...Ah," Astra said quietly.
"And then I had to deal with Randall fucking Rhodes filling my voicemail asking me to use the immortality device on him," Roxy muttered darkly. "He's very lucky I'm fond of his daughter, otherwise I would've flown to whatever Masshole he lives in these days and kicked his ass up and down Cape Cod."
"Roxy," Akane said.
"Hm?"
Akane gestured with her head towards Doctor Astra, and Roxy sighed.
"Sorry I went off on you," Roxy said. "It's just... I've seen this research before. I've seen it a lot, in historical records and in person, and on the rare occasions it led anywhere productive, it still didn't produce the results the researchers were hoping for. It's a problem that the demiurges back home have been wrestling with forever, and..." She sighed. "...I know a guy with a time machine. We don't talk much, but if there was a future where this problem was solved and the Philosopher's Stone was found, I'm pretty confident I'd know about it."
"Wait, you know a time traveler?" Akane asked.
"It's complicated," Roxy said. "I'm not getting into it."
"Perhaps we should discuss your research," Doctor Astra said quietly. "The research you needed my help with."
"Right, that," Roxy said, nodding. "Okay, so. I'm intimately aware of extraterrestrial intelligence being far closer to us than it was back on A-510, and as a result, now that I'm not devoting all my resources towards taking down Doctor Skinner, I've instead bent my will towards the creation of a scanning array and an artificial intelligence to collate the information and attempt to draw useful conclusions from it, so that I don't have to sift through all of it myself."
"Ahhh, an improved SETI initiative," Doctor Astra said, nodding.
"Oh, cool, you already know half the name," Akane said.
"Half of it?"
"Yep! We named the AI/telescope combo Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Knowledge And Information Brain-Analyzer."
"...You built a sapient telescope and named it Seti Kaiba."
"That is exactly what we did, yes."
"As the telescope itself is sapient," Roxy continued, "you won't have to do much to manage it. Although, you will need to learn to play Yugioh, as the AI inside will refuse to work if it doesn't have someone to play with it in-person at least once every three days."
"That is a... peculiar quirk," Astra murmured.
"It also doesn't work very well inside an atmosphere, hence why I need to put it in orbit," Roxy added. "But that's not really a quirk, that's simply how space telescopes work."
"True enough," Astra admitted. "Well... I suppose I can work with that. I may as well continue my research, besides- with someone else to talk to, I may even move up to a higher orbit. Send me the specifications, and I'll make accommodations for... Mr. Seti Kaiba."
"As much as I love you, Akane, I'm never letting you name anything ever again."
---
"Alright, rock beats scissors, so I'll go first," Roxy said, drawing five cards from her deck.
"Hah! A laughable strategy!" Seti Kaiba declared as Roxy reviewed her options. "Any duelist worth their salt knows you can't attack on the first turn!"
"Pot of Greed," Roxy said, playing the infamous and banned spell card.
"Wait, hang on-"
"Draw two cards... aaaaaaaand Exodia." Roxy laid five cards on the table- the head, arms, and legs of The Forbidden One. "I win."
"You have got to be fucking shitting me!" Seti raged.
"Read 'em and weep," Roxy said. "Or, to put it in today's vernacular: cope and seethe, bitch."
Seti continued to rage, and Roxy silently leaned back, debating the ethics of using her mastery of mad science and control over all things to cheat at a children's card game. Which, ordinarily, wouldn't be anything more than obnoxious, but here, there was something on the line- the pride of the non-human person she'd created to man a telescope for her.
(She hadn't been trying to make a person-smart AI, really. She'd just wanted something with extremely basic pattern recognition that could sort the data into buckets for her. But then Akane had named it Seti Kaiba as a stupid joke, and now it was person-smart, but only in exactly the ways required to be an obnoxious pain in the ass to work with. It wasn't even any better at data collation than the insect-smart AI she'd been trying to make. Arguably, it was worse, because now she had to preface every batch of API calls with a game of Yugioh.)
"And here I was expecting something exciting," Nicky remarked, leaning against the back of Roxy's chair, forearms laying across the back of it.
"From me playing a card game I don't like?" Roxy asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"My expectations aren't always reasonable," the Vegan princess admitted. "Speaking of expectations, though... what kind of information did we get from Vega?"
At some point, Roxy would be pointing her telescope elsewhere in the universe. But, well. She wanted to know more about alien intelligence, and she'd be a fool to not investigate the aliens she already knew about.
"The royals of House Vega are immune to mental scanning, thanks to their hereditary power, but everyone else on the planet is a different story," Seti said. "A subroutine has deciphered their languages, and a copy of every piece of media that exists on Vega now exists in my databanks, ready for perusal."
Roxy hummed quietly.
"That'll take a while to sort through," Nicky pointed out.
"Still worth it," Roxy said quietly. "Call me paranoid, but with Skinner gone, I find myself anticipating the next threat, and with all things considered... I can't help but see that in your mother."
Nicky paused, but then... nodded, silently.
"Now, let's start with this old book about the foundation of House Vega..."