Illion
4:37am
The harsh glare of my watch screen sears the numbers into my eyes. I turn it off before the light wakes Aurelia too.
I don’t have time to be sleeping. Not while there’s an infestation of cybernetics.
Quietly, I slide out of bed, pull the covers over Aurelia, and sneak to the door, feeling for the handle in the dim light.
I find it, and ease it open, tip-toing into the empty hall.
“Captain on intercom one.” My watch glows at the activation phrase, “contact Miith.”
A yellow symbol of a planet flashes on my wrist, and a robotic voice responds: “dialling Miith.”
She doesn’t pick up. Not the first time, nor the second. By the time she does, I’m in the elevator, tapping my foot impatiently.
There’s a flash of green, and then her raspy voice crackles through the intercom, “Captain, respectfully, why are you calling me at four thirty in the morning?”
“Cybernetic infestation. Not sure how many, approximation is between two to three hundred, rapidly multiplying.”
“Since when?!”
“Yesterday.” I check the time, “2am. Duste-V-Peggle expelled forty nests from the upper floors, but they’re still off limits. We need to fix that before departure – once people sober up from last night, they’re not going to be happy about the compromised living arrangements.”
“Right, right.” I can hear her cursing under her breath, “I’ll get a team together. Please tell me Lolli-N’s not going to be there.”
“No. She’s resting, like the good android she is. I’ll meet you in the engine rooms.” With that, I end the call, just as the elevator reaches the top floor.
***
Three hours in, and we scraped about twenty nests off the insides of the engine room. That’s twenty nests out the airlock, floating happily in space as they slowly freeze into cute little balls of wires. Ah, what a productive morning.
“Captain, wakeup call in three minutes.” Miith’s voice calls from the metal balcony overhead. I see her massive eye staring straight at me, her pink iris drill into my soul. “And main engine starts up in two.”
“Right, right.” I shove the emergency cybnetic axe back into the glass case and follow after her.
We speed walk across the balcony, just as the reactor growls to life, sending vibrations through the floor.
“Find Duste will you? He’s on milkshake duty this morning.” I have to yell over the noise of the engines, but I see her nodding.
Out of the engine room, into the side halls, along a narrow pathway winding around and around the ‘brain stem’, until we’re standing in the bridge, in front of the cerebral computer.
“Captain on deck!” Announces Miith, and the crew jumps to attention.
I wave them to sit down, “yes, yes, your favourite Captain is here. Let’s get to work.”
Falling into my captain’s seat, the commands begin to roll of my tongue, “right, open the announcement channel, we have a bunch of hungover guests to surprise.”
“Announcement channel open.”
“Initiating signal.”
Miith hands me a microphone.
“Well, good morning my lovely passengers!” I pause; let them wake up a second before I torture them some more. “I hope you all had a wonderful time last night, especially with the alcohol. I saw a few of you were really going for it…anyway, it’s a big day today! Departure from Osticara is in fifteen minutes, and we don’t want any of you to miss it. So, once you hear this message, get out of your beds, and calmly make your way to the nearest observation point; the homebots will guide you.”
I hesitate, “oh, and don’t take this as an invitation to go free exploring on The Marillion. The last time someone did, we had to scrape them off the walls…but anyway, have a merry morning, and a peachy day! Lots of cheerios, Captain out.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
I slam the microphone down and breathe a sigh of relief. First major announcement this trip, and I didn’t mess it up.
Aurelia
“Lots of cheerios, Captain out.” The crackling loudspeaker dissipates into silence, and I groan, falling off the bed onto a fluffy rug.
Gods, the tequila really isn’t going over well.
Oh shit.
Last night was the wedding.
My breath hitches in my throat. Heart pounding in my ears, my hands fly to my chest, and my thighs– and find I’m wearing my pajamas.
Even my socks are still on.
I’m not naked? Wow. Good job Aurelia, managed to keep your pants on despite the hot captain-
Shut up, brain. I don’t have time for this.
Where am I?
I scramble to my feet, eyes darting around the room, taking in the strangeness of it all.
Illion’s room. I do remember this, but otherwise my memories are fuzzy and…
A quick glance at the bed, shows that it’s empty.
Stupid, he just gave an announcement. How could he be here?
Groaning, I stretch my neck slowly. I should probably be going to the nearest observation centre then, like he said.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzt.
Bzzzt bzzzzt bzzzzt.
I turn to the bedside table, where my phone is ringing. Apparently it’s Lolli-N.
I snatch it up, “hi?”
“Aurelia! Have you left the room yet?” It’s Illion voice, excitable and tired.
“No, why? And why are you calling me from Lolli-N’s number?”
“It’s a bit of a boggle, I’m borrowing her phone, mine is…. I gave you a locator device, it’s a gold bracelet on the side table. Make sure you put it on. Then come up to the bridge.”
There’s a tiny gold wrist band on the bedside table, just like he said. I put it on.
“But I don’t know how to get to the bridge, Captai-”
“Call me Illion.” He sounds annoyed, but I brush it off.
“Right. But I don’t know how to get to the bridge. And what about Enea?”
“Oh, oh, right.” I can hear him mumbling to someone else in the background, and then he’s back on the line. “I sent a homebot to collect her. And I’ll come get you in a few minutes, I just have to finish some things real quick. Shouldn’t be a boggle, but…”
He pauses, and I can hear more chatter in the background.
“Okay, Aurelia, be ready in five minutes.”
“It usually takes me longer than that to get read-”
“Five minutes or no breakfast. Okay byeeeee.”
He hangs up before I can even get a word in, and I stare at the red symbol on my phone screen in mild offense.
Five minutes passed quicker than I anticipated, but I managed to throw on my new uniform. I’m in the process of tying up my shoes when the door slides open and Illion the wild Marillion flounces in, waving a package of croissants at me.
“Come on, we have to hurry. Or we’ll miss the big show!” He grabs my wrist, dragging me after him.
I snatch the bag of croissants from him as we run through the halls. “How do you even remember where everything is? This ship is a maze!”
“No!” Illion laughs at that, “this is nothing! Floor two is a proper maze; lost five people in there one year!”
“What?!”
“Whoops, I wasn’t supposed to say that. I don’t think the NDA’s expired yet.” He gives me an awkward grin. “Anyway…”
“Any other dangerous floors I need to be aware of?” I’m falling behind now, mostly because I’m trying to shove a croissant down my throat as I run. I grab onto his arm, forcing him to slow a bit.
“A few. I can give you a tour if you like?”
“A tour?!”
“An excellent, invigorating, fantabolous tour! We may or not make it out alive!” He exclaims, spinning around with his arms outstretched.
“And you won’t get lost?”
“I’m Illion the Marillion! I’m always lost! Except when I’m not!”
At that second, he stops, and I crash into him by accident. He catches me just before I hit the floor.
“You know, the gravity’s not that different here, Aurelia.”
“Gee, thanks.” I stand up hastily, brushing myself off. “Why are we stopped?”
“This is the little brain’s back door.” Illion says and taps a button on the wall.
There’s a small door in front of us, yellow, with the words “Cerebellum” written on it in gold. It hisses open, and he drags me inside. A mess of wires and flashing discs tangle around my arms, but somehow, we stumble over it all to a second door; green, and plain.
Same as the other one, Illion touches a switch, and the door hisses open.
“And this is the room of the big brain!” He yells, and loud cheer erupts from the other side. Through the piercing light, I can see silver desks teeming with pulsing knobs and control panels. Crew members are busy at work, but they’ve paused to cheer at us.
“Come on, hurry, hurry!” Illion heaves me through the door, past the shiny tables, up a few steps to the top of the bridge. And there’s Enea, standing beside a massive round chair, dotted with buttons and levers and switches. A very fancy Captain’s chair, I must say.
“Auri!” She’s jumping up and down, with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. “Front row seats! Look at this! Osticara’s so tiny! I want to eat it!”
I turn, and freeze. A glass dome expands all around us. I can see Osticara as if it were a marble of swirling green and blue and orange. The dark blanket of space covers everything else, save for the pinpricks of light; stars.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Illion’s hand is on my elbow.
I can barely breathe, “beautiful.”
He guides me towards the captain’s seat, “you can have the seat.”
He’s offering to give me his Captain’s throne?
I stare at him in surprise, “sorry, what?”
“The countdown is in two minutes.”
“Auri, why are you looking like that?” Enea calls from the other side of the captain’s seat, “what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing.” I wave her away, and turn back to Illion, staring at where I imagine his eyes are behind those massive crimson glasses. “It’s your seat. I’m not going to steal it.”
He shrugs, “I’m giving it to you. If you want. But just for now, I kind of need it later. It doesn’t feel right yelling across the intercoms without a throne.”
“Are you sure?”
He throws his hands up, chuckling. “As sure as my eyes are violet!”
“…are they?” I narrow my eyes at his glasses.
“No…yes, technically in the disco light, but make your choice. We’re running out of time.”
“Thank you.” With his help, I climb into his Captain’s seat. He stands to the side, hand on the arm rest.
“Right. Prepare all systems.” Illion commands, suddenly firm.
“All systems in order.” Comes the response.
“Main engine reaching threshold potential.”
“Secondary engines undergoing hyperpolarisation; ready in ten…nine...eight…”
“And this is where it gets fun.” Illion leans over to whisper, “just make sure you hold on tight. We haven’t tested these babies for a while! But there’s only a 21% probability they’ll explode.”
“Excuse me?!”
But it’s too late, and Osticara is already gone.