I fell into the upblast of the Prominence and was sent tumbling upwards. Since I didn’t have a stomach or inner ear to make me sick all that happened was my view was sent spinning. I closed my eyes and actually found that it was possible in this digital form. It was really strange to do biological things, like blinking, without actually having eyelids. It was as if I willed a dark filter over my vision.
“Num! How do I stop this?” I asked as I briefly opened my eyes to find the spinning to have gotten far worse. I seemed to have broken the limited programming of the AI’s tutorial by having control of the robot’s cr. I wondered if there was a reason behind this like someone was skimping on spending the needed currency to have a functioning prison system. I briefly considered going back into the menu and clicking the “Skip Tutorial” button but after a second I decided to wait to see if it managed to get unstuck once I figured this roller coaster ride out myself.
I had complete control of the cr around me, so much so that I could wiggle each of the eight little arms independently. It honestly felt more like I was wiggling my fingers more than my arms. Moving them did nothing to alleviate my crazy spinning so I kept my eyes closed while I tried to feel what this little body of cr could do. I could reshape the legs, even the entire robot if I wanted to, but I didn’t yet understand how to propel myself without a surface to move on.
There had to be a way to visually stabilize my vision so that even while my body was tumbling I would still be able to maintain a steady horizon. I focused on what I wanted and willed the cr around me to comply before tentatively peeking at my surroundings. “Yes! That is so much better!” I said as I found that I could finally look around without my vision being linked to the orientation of my harvester robot. It was still tumbling and spinning in a crazy and random pattern but at least I didn’t have to try to orient myself through its crazy motions. There really wasn’t an up or down side to my robot anyways since I could invert the legs on a whim.
I looked around and studied the area of the sun that I had been thrown down to. I could just make out some odd cargo container-looking satellites that slowly hovered at various strategic points around what little area that I could see. I tried to focus on one for a while, making my vision zoom in so I could get a better view of the slowly moving craft. It appeared to be a cargo vessel. Perhaps it was the turn-in location for any cr collected?
Sure enough, there were dozens of little robots moving up to the lip of the vessel, unloading something, before launching themselves back down towards the surface of the sun again. It was strange because the robots barely looked like my robot at all. Each that I managed to see was adorned with different attachments, coloring, and even shaped in various different ways compared to my bare-bones frame. They also seemed to be grouped together for some reason. Different groups would stay away from others. I really needed to get the AI working again so I could ask him what I was seeing.
My earlier explosive yet short-lived trajectory away from the sun was rapidly decaying and I was speedily falling down towards the chaotic surface of the sun. I knew that there had to be a way for me to fly, I just had yet to discover it.
When I was a child I always was amazed by how my grandfather could wiggle his ears independently and together. His ability was so fascinating to me because no one else that I knew could do it. They always seemed to have lame excuses like “only people with certain genetics can do that,” or some such nonsense. It was similar to learning how to whistle or to juggle, someone always had a crazy reason why they couldn’t learn how to do it.
One day after we had arrived home in the car I stayed sitting in the back seat while everyone else went inside. I honestly don’t know how long I sat there for, touching my ears, lifting them up and pulling them down, trying to train my mind to learn which muscle would need to be pulled in order to raise each of them in turn. Eventually, I got it. I had learned a genuine useless ability and I was very proud of it.
At least I thought it was useless until I discovered that you could train your body to do other strange things as well. I always was fascinated with unique talents or quirks that only some people could do.
Do you remember those 3D images that came out a long time ago? They were called something like Magic Eye and you had to cross your eyes to see the hidden image inside. I learned quickly that you could cross your eyes in both directions to get the image to appear to jut out or bend inwards.
Why am I spending so much time telling you a story about how I collected useless quirks? Well, it is more informative than explaining everything I had been trying for the last hour or so to get this little robot to fly. I probably looked a bit special, like a guy who wanted to make snow angels all over the surface of the sun, because I spent a long time just wiggling my eight limbs without any success. It wasn’t until I decided to try to imagine jumping that things began to improve. I mean explosively improve.
You know that feeling that you get the moment you go to jump? Your toes and leg muscles are tightening and your body gets ready for your upward movement? Well, that was the action that did it, all I had to do was add the image in my mind of achieving that pressure but against a wall that remained always close to my feet or rather any surface of my robot body. The first time it worked I thought a bomb had gone off. The churning lake of fire that I had landed in and had been making useless eight-legged fire angles in all of a sudden exploded apart as I was flung upwards.
I was so stunned the moment when it worked that I relaxed my mental muscles which caused me to fall back down into the surface of fire again. Splatting against the surface like a small rock hitting a pond.
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-Error bypassed-
“Well done Kevin! Looks like you are quickly getting the hang of how to move using Tela cr propulsion technology. Be warned however that using this means of propulsion can and will in most cases cause permanent damage to biological life and non cr constructed physical structures. Continue to practice moving up and down and when you are ready you may want to try to move from side to side as well.” Num’s voice started to say to me once I landed back on the surface of the sun. That was very fortunate. Moving with a cr based body was different from my experience in VR. While in VR I simply had to will something to happen. With this small robot body, I had to physically and mentally do something. It was hard to explain. VR was the idea of swimming while working with cr was the action of pushing and paddling with your feet.
"Now that you are learning how to move it is at this early stage that I need to warn you that any registered attempts to breach the inner Core's prison boundary without first having paid your debt to society will lock out your ability to trade and globally black list you from all establishments and services." Num warned.
Wow, they really knew how to lock someone up and they had the power to back it up.
It took me another hour to learn that I could direct this propulsion with any part of my body, my eight legs included. This realization led me to some crazy moments where I was blasting the liquid fire around me in different directions just for fun. I learned how to moderate the overall power of the propulsion on one side of my body while blasting everything away on the other side. If I really flexed, I could launch fire away from me like a flame thrower. That is if the flamethrower was as big as the empire state building. I think I went a little bit crazy because it got the attention of a group of miners. They all came to investigate, falling down from the sky where they had been resting on the lobby of one of the harvesting carriers.
I quickly noticed something was very different between myself and them by how they coasted in towards me. Their propulsion was like little soothing jets of force compared to my massively explosive blasts.
When they got close I could start to hear their voices chatting together. The lead one, a massive robot with a spike for the main part of his body, was the first to speak to me. “Oy! What is going on here then? Is the Upstairs testing a new mining technology? I’ve never seen anything like it, have you Jark?”
“Me neither. Must be a new prototype. I don’t see any modules installed, however.” The one called Jark replied.
I decided to quickly tone down my propulsion and to raise myself upwards away from the surface a bit. I wobbled at first but quickly leveled out while the group of miners came closer and hovered around in a loose formation near me.
“So who are you then? Kevin, it says? New entry? Your AI seems to have something wrong with it, it isn’t displaying much useful data. You might want to get that worked on.”
“Hi there. Yes, I am a new entry. I was trying to work out some kinks.” I said, unsure how much I should reveal. “As for new technology, I am not as of yet at liberty to discuss its features,” I said as I thought about my different and secret cr.
“Ah, under a nondisclosure agreement? I get that. Well, my name is Telf, and I and my boys are part of the 21st Tunneling Corps.” He said as my interface was pinged with his contact information. I sent him mine as well, keeping the information as simple as I could. It appeared that the interfaces had a very limited ability to send messages to other mining robots. “Hmm…” He muttered for a second when he read the line that I was a convict. He continued after a moment, just with less enthusiasm than what I had detected before. “You are welcome to the shops and upgrades section of our carrier, even though you are a convict. Currency is king down here and we will accept anyone’s cr if they can get any. Just know that we won't work with you to harvest cr. Your kind has their own delegated carriers nearer to the south pole of the sun.” He said as I could tell his team had already lost all interest in me. It seemed that the mention of me being a convict had made me become a degenerate in their eyes. They were already slowly lifting themselves back upwards towards their carrier by the time Telf finished his sentence. I even heard Jark ask one of his coworkers what kind of a convict has a nondisclosure agreement clause.
“May I give you a bit of advice Kevin? Since you are new here.” Telf asked me once his guys had gotten out of earshot.
“Sure. What is it Telf?” I asked as I watched him. I wondered why his robot had such a big spike attached to the top of the frame. Was it possible to dig with?
“Whatever you do, don’t steal from other miners or convicts. Or rather, don’t get caught if you do choose to steal. You see that up there?” He asked as he waved one of his little legs up towards the carrier. I looked upwards and zoomed in to try to make out what he was waving at. Along the bottom of the carrier were strapped at least 3 harvester robots held in place by bands of cr. “That is what happens to thieves who get caught.” He said as he reached under the bottom of his octagon and pulled out something that looked like a tiny spark. It only looked that way because of how all the radiant light of the surrounding fire was reflecting inside it. “All cr pulled from the sun are unregistered. It is fair game as long as no one catches you. If you can take it from someone and get it registered before they tell on you then it is fine as well. But if they realize this and tell on you, it will make a name for you. A bad name here is impossible to get away from. Just produce the cr that you need to pay your bill to society and go.” He said as he backed away from me. “Also, one last word of advice. Never, ever, ever show anyone how much cr you collect. As soon as you can, get a carrying case like this so you can deposit what you have mined without anyone seeing it. Just as we have thieves here we also have too many liars who will turn another in if it means that they can get free cr out of it.” He said before slowly rising upwards towards and away from me.
“Thanks, Telf, I appreciate the advice!” I yelled after him as he left. My being thankful seemed to surprise him because he waved his limbs back at me for a moment.
That was pretty good advice. I had never been to prison so I had no idea how cutthroat it could be. This sun was massive though, surely there was enough room for everyone?
Little did I know that there were sharks even in the fires of the sun, just waiting for easy meat.