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> Consciousness was like a pebble that rippled the surface of the unconscious. As consciousness widened, there was still more unconsciousness beyond. There was always more, just beyond reach. [...] What was Norman’s shadow side doing now? What was happening in the unconscious, denied parts of his own brain?
>
> —Michael Crichton, Sphere
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Arc 3: "Descent"
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"Did you find it?" the human asked over his shoulder.
"No," Rsh replied.
He sat awkwardly in the small bucket seat behind the main console. His program scanned the starfield and piped its output to the screen. As he watched closely for a sign it had detected something, he drummed his fingers on the console's surface on either side of its built-in mechanical keyboard. Its keys, sized for human fingers, mocked him with how tiny they were. The more the long seconds stretched to infinity, the more the program annoyed him. Its GUI was utilitarian and hideous, spelling errors were all over the place, the function calls needed another round of bugfixes for stability and efficiency, and missing files spammed the log with errors. The unnamed program got the job done, but it nagged him almost as much as the human looming behind him.
"How about now?" she asked.
"Still … nothing."
Philomena quieted, but he could practically hear her body vibrating uncontrollably. Full of energy, heated up with excitement, unable to sit still. In his head, he counted down the seconds until she pestered him with the exact same—
"Anything yet?!"
Six seconds, he thought.
"No, Philomena."
Long ago, he'd caged up his peoples' brutish instincts. But they still lurked in the depths of his mind, ready to get loose. They whispered in his ear, told him he could shut the puny human up permanently. Wrap his hands around her frail, squishy body and rip it apart, end that obnoxious blathering forever …
No, he thought. I will not listen.
Recently, Rsh had gone home for the first time in forever. And it had left him with … complicated feelings. He shoved the thoughts of his homeworld out of his mind and focused on the screen—
"Find it yet?" Philomena asked.
He growled to himself.
"Still. Nothing."
The human woman's foul mood had lifted completely. A sense of excitement and wonder, like that of a human child, took its place. The prospect of finding a rogue planet caused her to flit around the alcove behind him, like a tiny bird flapping its wings while it stuck its beak into the flowers in search of nectar.
Although Philomena was always … difficult to deal with, she had good days and she had bad days. In Rsh's estimation, the bad days came about when she unconsciously perceived herself as a failure. Her bizarre psychology attempted to protect her ego by retreating into a fantasy world where she could dodge any and all blame for her actions. On the other hand, when things were going well, she could delude herself into thinking she was a competent executive, and a sense of optimism prevailed in her.
Even then, she was still annoying. But her annoying traits were on the same level as what the humans dubbed a 'yappy dog.' That was their name for a pint-sized canine which barked endlessly, yet was so small and non-threatening they found it adorable.
Rarely … on the absolute best of days … she was almost tolerable …
"Come on!" she whined, grabbing his right shoulder and shaking it. "Find it already!"
Almost.
He brought his left hand up, reached across his body, and pinched the sides of her hand. His own movements were exceedingly delicate. If he squeezed just a bit too much, he'd pulverize every single bone in her hairless little meat slab. When he lifted it, the hand came up effortlessly. He moved it a foot to the side and then let go of it.
"Relax," he roared.
Tsking loudly, she stomped away from him. But, since the flight deck was very small, she didn't get that far before she was forced to turn around and stomp back to him.
"I'm just trying to run a business here," she snapped.
Rsh rolled his eyes at the blueshifted starfield in front of them.
The business would be much better off if they kicked her out. She contributed nothing of value — aside from her name being on all the documents and bank accounts, allowing him to spend the company's money as he saw fit while shielding himself from liability and risk. But she and Blaze had one of those volatile, passive-aggressive relationships where they argued endlessly even as they relied on each other like codependent parasites, while their sexual tension boiled under the surface. And Luci Ramirex also wished to pursue carnal relations with the woman, so if Rsh wanted cheap repairs, he needed to put up with Philomena and her stupidity.
Philomena herself only had eyes for exquisitely-handsome male humans. It was strange; by human beauty standards, she was fairly plain. Certainly not the 'bombshell' she imagined herself to be. But she was formerly rich, and from what he gathered she had used her wealth to surround herself with the finest specimens of male beauty in the galaxy. And her baffling psychology — probably wishing to protect her fragile ego — convinced her the 'hunks' were interested in anything besides giant piles of cash.
These strange hairless rodents, he thought, amused and annoyed in equal measure.
She opened her mouth and drew a breath.
"WE HAVE FOUND … NOTHING," he said.
Philomena sighed. "Why didn't you just … go look for it first, and then come get me?!"
He slammed his foot into the deck and swiveled the bucket seat to face her. The human hopped back to avoid his knees sweeping her legs out from under her. Stopping the swiveling by putting his foot down dramatically, he glowered at the puny pink human.
"So our mechanic may find us."
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
He nodded over to Ramirex. The tinier, darker human sat in the port corner of the aft alcove, on top of the sealed hatch that allowed them to climb down the landing leg. The ship was in flight now, though; the leg was tucked firmly under the ship's neck, blocking the hatch and securing the ship's integrity. Hardware interlocks made it physically impossible to open the hatch in space. When she noticed Rsh looking her way, she raised her head and glanced at them.
"If the engines should fail," he said to Philomena. "We would be stuck."
Philomena put her fists on her hips and raised her head. Aiming her chin at him while she looked down her nose.
"As the boss around here, I think we need to take some risks if we want to make money."
"The largest risk is … heeding your business advice," he said curtly.
After his clumsy mouth finished spitting out all those syllables, he paused to catch his breath.
The bullheaded human stared him down.
"I think you're a great businesswoman, Philomena!" Luci said with a dopey, simpering smile pushing up her cheeks.
Thrusting a hand at the dark-haired human sitting in her shadow, the redheaded woman gave Rsh a smug smile.
"See? She knows the truth."
He replied, "As reward for her loyalty … perhaps you should kiss her."
The tiny human shot to her feet, her features lighting up faster than a supernova. But grooves of disgust appeared on the face of the object of her affections, stretching her pink-white features into a grimace.
"I'm not interested in other women," she said.
Luci's face darkened like a black hole had opened in her heart and sucked up everything inside her.
The nominal boss stomped past Rsh, went down the short flight of stairs, and tromped onto the footpath around the empty pilot's seat.
Once she was out of earshot, Luci rushed forward until her flushed, fuming face was six inches from Rsh's muzzle.
"Don't toy with my emotions!"
"Do not feed her ego," Rsh grumbled back. "It is large enough … to attract satellites."
Luci straightened up. She folded her arms and turned sharply to the aft bulkhead, her cold shoulder deliberately thrust upward.
Humans! Rsh thought.
He spun the chair around and gazed at the blueshifted universe drifting towards them. Philomena stood at the fore of the flight deck, staring at the abyss beyond the ship's nose—
The program chimed.
His eyes zeroed in on the screen. Philomena, out-of-focus past the console, twirled to face him. Leaning over the tiny keyboard, Rsh rammed his ungainly fingers into its keys to look at the output. He sensed Luci hovering over his left shoulder. After she bounded up the steps, Philomena hovered over his right. His keen, predatory instincts sensed them as threats, but he sternly reminded them that the two women were just coworkers.
When it first spotted the rogue planet, the program isolated a large slice of the galaxy where it might be found. Rsh had set the flight computer to fly the ship perpendicular to the slice, hoping to catch the planet from another direction and triangulate its position.
And it appeared to have worked.
Onscreen, vector lines bracketed a star and an infobox flashed a message.
> MICROLENSING EVENT DETECTED
He hit the button to start resolving its position. The two humans edged forward while he sat back. As they shook, they brushed the coat on his cheeks. Neither seemed to notice, or care. The program showed an outline of the galaxy. The slice got narrower, reducing the search field.
A successful hunt. He allowed his keen predator's instincts a moment of savage triumph before he buried them again.
The humans struggled to control their giggles. But as Rsh watched the calculations running down the screen, he noticed something. He punched a few commands in and switched to a new screen. It was a dump of planetary data from across the starnet.
"Hmm," he said.
"What is it?" Luci asked.
"It is close to Egadoro."
"You mean the system with Croshaw-Morton?"
"Yes." His eyes scrolled down the data until he found what he was looking for and pointed to it. "Ah. The Egadoro system has orbital irregularities … consistent with a missing planet."
"So it got knocked out of orbit somehow."
Rsh ran a few more commands, and the program simulated the galaxy in reverse. Time unwound by millions of years with every passing second until Egadoro and the projected path of the rogue planet intersected. The simulation froze.
"Likely," he said. "Its proximity to our route … probably made it easier to see." Out of breath, he spat out one last word by way of explanation. "Parallax."
The program finished its calculations and presented a rough sketch of the rogue planet's path through the galaxy. He ran a command to calculate the optimal path to narrow its position down further, and then feed that data to the flight computer.
"It is close," he said. "Should not be long."
Philomena hummed happily. "Rsh, find us that planet!"
She puts no effort into doing anything, Rsh thought, yet she makes a simplistic comment and deludes herself into thinking she's in charge here.
Humans.
Philomena and Luci pulled back and stood up straight, right behind the bucket seat.
"Somebody get Corvo out here," Philomena said. "I need him … to sacrifice his life saving mine, if things get dangerous."
"Where is he, anyway?" Luci asked.
"Common room," Rsh remarked.
He minimized the astronomy program and navigated to the ship's operating system. From there, he entered the media system and effortlessly breezed around Blaze's laughable attempts to conceal what he was doing. Within fifteen seconds, he threw up the media file Blaze was playing in the common room onto the monitor.
Lesbian porn.
"Eww!" said Philomena, the woman who mentally undressed every hunk who'd ever crossed her path. "Pervert!"
Rsh looked over his shoulder at Luci. The tiny human stared at the screen, transfixed by the sight of the naked woman. Their writhing bodies reflected in her sparkling eyes.
"Umm … I-I-I'll go …" she blubbered. "Bring him out here."
Her boots thudded heavily against the deck as she clomped back, unable to tear her eyes off the monitor.
"But i-it might take a while … to convince him to stop."
She backed into the aft bulkhead while her excuses filled the flight deck. Once her body recovered from the impact, her hand crawled across the wall like a spider until it found the intrapanel. She tapped the screen, but since she wasn't willing to look down, she struck the icon to turn off the overhead lights by accident. Only the computers and the dim emergency lights lit up the flight deck now.
"Luci," he barked.
Yelping, she hunched over the intrapanel, turned the lights back on, and opened the door. Once it slid aside, she broke and ran out of the flight deck. It snapped shut behind her.
Limbs moving with a weary slowness, Rsh swiveled the bucket seat back to the console. He dismissed the porn and made the astronomy program come back up.
"What are you doing?" Philomena asked him.
Although she was prone to barking questions, this time she sounded genuinely curious. He answered her plainly, without exasperation or sarcasm.
"Altering our course … to better locate the rogue planet."
"Right," she said. "Well … I'll supervise."
"As you wish," he said, the sarcasm coming back full-force.
He punched commands into the main console and started to pipe the astronomical data to the flight computer—
"Type a little faster," she said. "We need to boost pruck-tivity."
Rsh growled under his breath. His irritation from the presence hovering over his shoulder mounted with each passing second.
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