TO and DH watched from the weapons bay as they approached the portal. While neither of them knew exactly how the portals worked, they knew a few basic things; they knew the portals used wormholes created by black holes, that King Decon was the only one with the technology to stabilize these wormholes, and that working around the portals was a dangerous job.
While TO knew working with portals was dangerous, it was only now that they truly understood why. The black hole that they approached seemed to warp everything around it, twisting light and reality into itself and into the unfathomable darkness that hurt to look at. Around it was a strange modular shield, something which relied on the gravitational pull of the black hole to hold it together, but which was strong enough to keep from collapsing. THe pieces of the shield interlocked and pressed together to reduce the pull of the black hole and allow ships to approach the portals without getting sucked in. All around the circumference of this shield was a series of gates, connected to long tubes which would lead ships through the shield and to the wormhole. Before each tube was a large ring; big enough to encircle most ships. This ring would anchor their ship in place, holding it and ensuring that they didn’t go off track.
Once they anchored to these rings, they’d have to power down. They’d then go through the tunnel, through the gate, and then the anchor ring would release them. The gravity of the black hole would pull them through to the other side where a second ring would then catch them, locking them in to prevent them from being pulled back through the wormhole, or even into the black hole. The ring would then pull them through the tunnel on the other side until they got past the shields.
When they were safe from the gravity of the black hole, the ring would release them.
It was a game of galactic catch; an apt but unnerving analogy that made TO shiver. As they looked at the portal-docks before them, and eyed the ships that were waiting at all the different docks, they shivered and wrapped their wings around themself. What if it went wrong? What if they got caught in the black hole? What if they went through the wrong portal and ended up somewhere dangerous?
DH leaned into TO’s side and wrapped a wing around them. “It’s going to be fine.” they said, “I mean, there haven’t been many accidents since scientists perfected the shield, right?”
“There’s been some.” TO muttered. It wasn’t the shield that they had perfected, it was the introduction of the rings. Before, there had been more guesswork in the trajectory of how ships approached the wormholes, and sometimes ships would miss and get sent into the black hole. Now, it was only due to rare mechanical failure that such accidents happened.
Still; Accidents happened.
“Some; but not many. We’ll be fine.” DH said, though TO caught the slightest flick of DH’s ears.
TO looked at the mesh, “That just looks too delicate to control the gravitational pull of a black hole.” TO said, “I mean, it’s made of unconnected pieces being held together by the black hole. If one of them were to break, then there’d be a breech, and everything would get sucked in.”
“Not everything.” DH said as their ears flicked down, “I mean… it would be utter chaos for a little, and any undocked ships would get pulled to the breach, but the rest of the shield should stay in place, right?”
Should stay in place; TO didn’t like that.
The ship slowed down, and alerts came up on TO and DH’s communicators, “Preparing for docking.” They looked outside, and could see the flexible tendrils with the thrusters on the end retracted back into the ship itself. They could now see the actual docking bay that they were heading to, and though the other docks were all filled and lined up, theirs was empty.
“... Does that seem odd to you?” TO asked.
“What?”
“That the docking bay for us is empty?”
“Maybe it’s empty because we’re going through?” DH asked, “Maybe it’s a security thing?”
Their communicators beeped again, and gave them another message, ‘Please prepare for screening; you must activate your armor and leave the ship to converse with wormhole security.’
“... We’re going to talk to a civilian.” TO said. They looked at DH, “We’re actually going to talk to a civilian.”
DH sighed as they pulled their wing from TO, “I guess we better get ready.” they muttered, “I don’t want to go though; why do we have to talk to them; Civilians are awful.”
“Maybe not? I mean, maybe not all of them?”
“If they weren’t awful, there’d be no insurgency.”
“Well, maybe individuals aren’t awful, and these are Galactic security, so King Decon must have approved them, right?” Still, TO’s wings tightened around them; what if the civilians were awful? Well, even if they were, there wasn’t much that a civilian could do to them; yes, they were low-level synths, but even a low level synth had more prestige and authority than the highest level of civilian.
“Well, let’s see.” DH muttered. They got into the elevator, and TO followed them.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I’m a little excited.” TO said, “I’ve never met a civilian before, I mean, of course we haven’t, but I thought we wouldn’t see one until we got to Arkane!”
“I just don’t see why we need to be checked.” DH muttered. “But I guess we have to do this.”
=======
It was only about ten minutes later when they left their ship for the first time in two periods. While TO loved being on the ship with DH, it was nice to see something new, and refreshing to see people moving about. They were inside the station, so nobody needed to wear space suits here.
TO froze. Yes, there were people moving about, but none of them were synths! Of course, TO knew that; they knew that there wouldn’t be synths working here, but they hadn’t expected such variety… They didn’t know where to look! There were so many people who looked so different from one another and going from an environment where everyone more or less looked the same to such a chaotic and in uniform mess was jarring. There was a person with four animalistic legs and two arms-
The filter on the screen of TO’s helmet activated and highlighted the four-legged person. A notice flashed at the top of their vision;
=Anarian; origin - planet Erana. Specimen is an adult. Ask pronouns; likely She/He/Them=
“Did you see that?” TO asked DH through the communicator; they had to speak to each other in Common, but at least that way they weren’t being oddly translated and the civilians couldn’t hear what they were saying.
“See what?” DH asked back, and though tone was hard to pick up on in common for them, TO could tell by the speed of DH’s speech that they were somewhat panicked, “See all the random, strange looking-“
“The information!” TO said. They looked back at the Anarian, but the data had vanished; a small marker was next to them, and TO was certain that if they activated the controls, they could bring up that information again. Still, now that they were looking back at the Anarian, they felt slightly uncomfortable; the Anarian was far too large on their bottom half with the extra legs; TO was used to other synths, all of which had slender legs and wider shoulders. Everyone around them looked far too stocky, too bottom heavy to TO.
There were several people who looked like bugs to TO, with multiple legs covered in exoskeleton and feelers off their heads-
“This is a lot.” DH said. “It’s a lot. I don’t like this; I want to be back on the ship. Is this what it’s going to be like on Arkane?”
“Maybe?” TO said; they were getting nervous but as their wings started to wrap around them, something stopped them; a part of the armor at their back kept TO from being able to wrap their wings around themself and instead kept them back, just barely touching their shoulders in an almost aggressive gesture.
“Let’s get to the security, get checked, and get back on the ship.” DH said, “I don’t want to be here.”
TO nodded and looked around for the security station, trying to ignore all the different people they saw around them. Because they were looking for a sign or a building, they didn’t notice the two uniformed people coming up to them. It wasn’t until they were in front of TO and DH that TO paid them any attention at all; They were both bipedal, though one had arms with fins on them, greenish skin, and large black eyes; TO didn’t know what their mouth was like because they had a strange mask covering their mouth and nose.
==Lepomian; Specimen is an adult. Specialized pronouns; Fe, Ma, Ra. Ask pronouns. Note; this species requires a specialized mask when out of high humidity/aquatic environments.==
The other one was human as far as TO could tell, with cropped black hair and contrasting blue eyes-
==Human; Specimen is Adult. Ask pronouns; likely He/she/Them. ==
They both wore uniforms that were much more elaborate than TO was used to; gone were the plain jumpsuits in different colors; these uniforms were almost extravagantly fancy to TO; a suit with a badge pinned over the center of their chest, fancy metal buttons with designs etched into them, and decorative stitching at the hems.
Were these uniforms standard issue? Did King Decon allow this?
As TO looked more carefully at the badges, more information came through. Over the human, TO saw the alert say ‘=Galactic ID: Ark435-4956956734. Name; Morra. Pronouns; She/her. Occupation; Galactic Portal Security Agent.‘ and over the Lepomian, ‘=Galactic ID Oca 654-495566832. Name; Bubura. Pronouns; Ma/Mer. Occupation; Galactic Portal Security Agent =‘
The civilians slowed as they approached TO and DH, and bowed their heads once they were before them; they were shorter than TO had expected; the human coming up to TO’s chest, and the Lepomian falling a little shorter still. Morra the human spoke first, but TO couldn’t understand what she was saying; it wasn’t Common, and it wasn’t any language that they were familiar with. A moment passed, and the sound feeding through the helmet dimmed as the translation played; it created a slight lag between TO seeing her mouth move and the actual words that were now coming to them through their helmet.
“Excuse me.” Morra said, “Might I assume you are Ark-87 and Ark-88?” Even as she spoke, a strange overlay appeared on TO’s visor, creating a pair of fake ears to appear around Morra to help TO understand the tone. The ears were down and out, not sad; scared and passive.
“Yes, that’s us.” TO said. A moment later, they could vaguely hear the translation play for the civilians. They both seemed to flinch, but TO wasn’t sure why.
Wordlessly, the Lepomian, Bubura came forward and with two hands held out a scanner. “Apologies for the inconvenience, but new security protocols require a direct read of your security credentials.” Morra said. The Bubura didn’t speak, but just held the scanner up as ma looked away.
“... Why aren’t you speaking?” TO asked. They expected the same lag between the time they spoke and the time that the question left their helmet, but a warning flashed before TO instead.
==INFORMATION== Lepomian’s have difficulty speaking on dry land; Civilians normally consider it rude to comment on this.
A jolt of worry ran through TO as they thought that they might have offended the Lepomian, but then they realized that the suit and the system had caught the mistake, informed TO, and refused to translate what they said.
With a breath of relief, TO looked at the scanner. The civilians had asked for security credentials, and TO assumed that meant they needed to scan their chip. TO held their hand to the scanner, which suddenly flashed green. Bubura moved towards DH, who did the same. Once the light flashed green once more, Morra started speaking into a microphone clipped to the collar of their grey and black suit.
“This is Morra, section 45-ark-1. Requesting permission to send a Synth Carrier ship through; sending security information.”
There was static over the line, and after a while a voice came back, “Approved; send through immediately.”
Once the order came through, Morra breathed a sigh of relief. Even Bubura seemed to relax.
“Is there a problem with sending people through?” TO asked, “Is that why there’s no line here?”
Morra flinched as the words came out, “No no, no problem.” she said, and the digital ears that superimposed over his head twitched with anxiety- no, they didn’t twitch, they signaled; it was less a tone and more a statement; this person is anxious.
The artificial ear movements were awkward, but they got the point across.
“Over the last day or so, all transports that tried to go through here have been diverted.” She explained, “I’m just most grateful that you will not need to be diverted.”
Bubura stepped back, putting the scanner under one arm, and signaled with mer hand. As ma gestured, the words flooded into TO’s ears.
“I thought it was a technical issue.” ma sighed, “But the last transport to go through was the synths that came before; maybe they’re keeping the location clear for transport?”
“We, of course, wouldn’t dare to assume!” Morra said. “Neither myself nor Bubura here! We just… well of course we wondered-“
“It’s fine.” TO said, “We’re cleared to go?”
The translation went though, and once more Morra seemed to flinch; they wondered if maybe the translations were too loud.
“Yes, of course.” she said, “Please, go ahead; you’re cleared for passage.”
The two civilians bowed, and then backed away until they were at least six feet away from DH and TO; at that point, they turned and left. As they headed back to their ship, TO could only think of how scared the civilians had been, and how they flinched with every word TO spoke.
They’d have to check the translator; something had to be wrong.