Aeva
“By all the stars in the universe this thing is heavy!” I practically shouted as I tried to lug the Terran’s ‘mech’ back to his room. “What is even in here? Stones used for combat rituals?”
I heard Alex chuckle on my shoulder. “Well, if you want to know, there’s a water filtration system, an air filtration system, the ocular system, enough rations to survive a month or so, the moving parts that actually make the mech move, some extremely proprietary technology that I’m not supposed to even know about, the power generator and its various backups, and the batteries that run the thing.” I took a brief break as I leaned against a wall and looked at Alex. “Oh! That actually reminds me! You remember when we were talking, and I mentioned methane?” I nodded. “Well, like I said earlier, we don’t breathe it. But, the batteries and power generator on this bad boy actually runs on methane, which is why you see it being put into the suits every now and again. These things may run forever, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t require fuel every so often.”
I grunted in surprise. “Really? You actually use methane? And how is it that you are able to fit so much into such a small package? If we tried to fit everything you just mentioned it would probably be half the size of the ship!”
“Yeah, we actually use methane. I don’t really understand the science behind it, but something about it is a kind of super fuel for some kind of chain reaction or another. But as to why we can fit so much into so little space, it really has to do with size being the main factor. Us humans, being so small, make things so small and efficient that when you build on a scale like the mech, it’s kind of hard not to follow that design philosophy. This case, like all cases in human history, results in each system except for a couple being so redundant that it never sees use. But, like I said, humans don’t really like empty space in their creations, hence the redundancies in the first place. Does that make sense?”
“I suppose it does,” I said as I tried to pick the mech back up. “But couldn’t you have made it lighter?”
That got a loud laugh out of tiny human. “Well, there’s only so much that the research and development department can do to make it this lightweight.”
“THIS is lightweight? I can barely carry this thing!” I shouted as I rounded the final corner. The goal is in sight. Just a bit longer.
“Well, compared to the first generation mechs that were made when humans still fought wars against each other about half a century ago, this is a feather in comparison,” he said as we finally got to the door. He thought for a moment as I punched in the commands for the door to open. “Come to think of it though, mechs really didn’t have a military advantage to them because all it would take to destroy one is a single dickhead with a way to call a stonk on your position.”
I stopped. “A stonk?” I asked slowly.
“Yeah, a concentrated artillery bombardment. Do you guys not have those?”
“No, we do,” I said defensively. “We just don’t call them that.”
“Well, what do you call them?” Alex asked.
“Just concentrated artillery bombardments, I guess. We don’t really have a term for it.” I said, finally having gotten the door open.
“Well, that’s boring” said Alex with a snort.
“Oh wow!” I said as I looked around the room. It looked like the workshop of a tiny creature that just happened to live in this space as well. Considering Alex, that assumption wasn’t all that far off. In the corner nearest to the bed was a stand that had hooks on it. I immediately registered this as where he must have put his mech whenever he wasn’t using it. Next to the stand was what looked like a tiny elevator that not only serviced the mech stand but the bed as well. And since these Terrans seemed keen on having redundancy after redundancy in their systems and objects in general, right next to the elevator was no less than three sets of ladders that ran the height of the tiny structures. My eyes were then drawn to the rest of the room. The closet was almost completely empty except for some boxes that were clearly meant to be openable by someone of Alex’s height. The desk, on the other hand was a completely different story. It had the same elevator ladder situation as the bed did. It was also absolutely covered from end to end in various tiny machines and gadgets that I didn’t even begin to understand what they were. The bed was the only thing that looked normal in the entire room.
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“I like what you did with the place,” I said, slowly taking it all in. “You’ve got a lot of stuff going on here.”
Alex shuffled around nervously. “Well, it’s not like I have very many visitors here. And considering with how bad at cleaning I am, this is extremely clean for me!”
“Riiiiight.” I said making my voice drip with as much sarcasm as I can. “Sure, I believe you. Oh, by the way, where do you want this?” I asked as I hefted up the mech and tried not to drop it, for fear of denting the floor of the ship.
“The mech you can leave on the stand.” Alex said. “It should automatically connect with the diagnostic system that I have on the desk to give me a more accurate diagnosis of the problem than the onboard computer will.”
I didn’t even bother answering him as I strained and struggled to get the machine onto the hooks along the various parts of the stand. After a couple of minutes of struggling with that, I finally managed to get it to stand on its own. With that out of the way, I collapsed onto the bed with a groan, accidentally throwing Alex off my shoulder only for him to land harmlessly on the pillow. “Remind me to never do a favor for you ever again! My muscles are on fire!” I groaned. I looked over to see Alex still trying to regain his footing on the unstable pillow.
“Well, I’m not going to apologize for you being too nice to say no!” he retorted with a laugh. As soon as he got his balance, he made his way over to the elevator and made his way down to the floor. I couldn’t help but look down at him as he slowly made his way to the desk, up the elevator, and finally to what appeared to be a central computer sitting on the desk. He started to furiously type as he closed various programs just as quickly as he opened them again. I started to dose off for a couple of minutes when he clapped his hands rather loudly and said “Aha! That’s the issue! This shouldn’t take much time to fix at all!”
“What?” I asked, jolting awake while not fully processing what he said.
He quickly turned around and looked a bit shocked that I spoke up. “To be honest, I kind of forgot that you were here. But I was just saying that I figured out the problem. Like I was saying before, the battery got hit, and that’s not very good because it kind of needs those to run. In any case that should be easy to fix, it shouldn’t take any more time than it would to just fabricate a whole new battery. The tricky part, however, is the movement matrix for the lower half of the mech was damaged a lot, and I don’t have the schematics to fabricate another.”
“Couldn’t you just get the schematics?” I asked.
He thought for a moment. “Well, I could, but that would take jumping through more legal loopholes than I would care to go through.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “I mean, at this point it would probably be a lot faster and cheaper to just fabricate a wheelchair or something like that so that I can stay mobile without the lower half of the mech working.”
I thought for a moment. “Getting a wheelchair will be a bit difficult because medicine has gotten so good that needing one is kind of a thing of the past. But I’m sure that the fabricator can cook something up for your needs.”
“Yeah, your probably right. I wonder if-“ Alex was cut off by the sound of his personal communicator going off.
I sat up and looked at him curiously as all the color in his face seemed to drain away, leaving him whiter than fresh snow on a mountain. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“It’s a message from the United Terran Security Council. It says, ‘Due to a confirmed Scenario 7, effective immediately, all nonessential Terrans not in Terran space are required to report to their nearest embassy.’” He looked up at me. “This is bad, very bad.”