Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 74: zone
Scilla spent her time reading and about 40 minutes before Iris returned she started cooking their dinner. Like most people even if she saw how her food is produced, she ignored it. Instinct and laziness won over food production morals by a lot. Just picked food, delivered right to your door by drone was a way too good deal to be refused for some cheap morals. Esterians had a saying to express such contrast, “occhio non vede cuore non duole” which translated to eyes do not see, heart does not hurt.
When Iris return she was surprised to be welcomed back with food basically ready to be eaten. They sat down at the table and started eating. Iris was the first to speak.
“so, how did your research go? If you found nothing you will have to try again tom...(tomorrow)”
“I found a book. It was fairly easy. I mean you can identify a fairy tale basically by the title”
“really?” Iris was surprised by a nonexisting efficiency. She was just too out of touch to recognize book title patterns or even caring to actually find a book. Before Scilla arrival she worked without any break. Always studying and developing new technologies that were never going to leave the planet.
“yeah, it’s not that difficult once you know what to look for. Also, there was a search system so… not that hard”
“oh. Didn’t know about that. Never search for a book in my life”
“I figured”
“so… I suppose you got bored. I guess I should try to put back on the universal translator so you can watch tv shows”
“I would appreciate it, but it’s not necessary. I mean I could read more books so you don’t have to take time to accommodate me. Plus you may have not noticed it but I kept myself busy cleaning the house”
At those last words, Iris stopped eating. She just froze while she was half biting into a piece of meat. She immediately left to run to her room. She didn’t enter just stood by the door examining the inside.
She doesn’t trust me, even with so little like cleaning her room… why does it hurt?
Then she returned and sat back at the table. Scilla looked defeated and apologized.
“I'm sorry. I should have asked for permission… and I’m sorry for hurting you before. I would not trust me either...”
“you don’t need permission to clean around as long as you don’t touch my possessions you are fine. Also, you don’t have to feel sorry. Our… disagreements are in the past. However, you taught me an important lesson. Don’t trust strangers. So I don’t trust you. For now”
I can’t go home with her unless I can trust her to survive alone and avoid damaging my house. I guess I’ll have to stall and stalk her around. Fucking collar it’s making things harder.
Scilla remained silent and just looked at Iris who seemed lost. She was eating slowly while staring at a spot on the wooden table. 511 was never lost in thoughts while 608 seems to drift away fairly often. Looking at Iris in such a state immediately reminded her of the Founder. She was not wrong at all. 608 was for better and worse really similar to her never met grandfather. She was generally an unfriendly and unapproachable creature fixed on what will be instead of what is being. Yet she found Scilla interesting enough to feel the desire to befriend her. Scilla was a source of chaos, uncertainty, and unpredictability. A Source of constant stimulation both physical and, more importantly, intellectual. Iris’s desire to unveil and study the unknown was the main and basically only reason that allowed Scilla to live so long. It was also the reason that allowed Scilla’s duplicate in 608’s original reality to survive and be turned into a personal pet and reproductive partner. Unknown, and far away from Scilla’s mind, her duplicate had already submitted to the original 608 and they already had a first child in the making.
Their evening was predictably spent reading the previously founded fairy tale. As Iris wanted to learn the unified language, she kept herself beside Scilla. Yet not once she failed to keep her distance. It was obvious that Iris was no longer so friendly. After some times, Iris instructed Scilla to stop and just left her to sleep for the night.
The routine of waking up, sending Iris to work, spending time doing whatever, cooking, and reading fairy tales for Iris, went on for two more days. However, the third and supposedly last night there, Scilla heard some sounds and woke up in the middle of the night. She turned on the light and saw Iris walking toward the exit door. She had a never-seen rifle with her and it was the rifle that produced the unknown sounds as it bumped into some furniture.
“where you going?” asked Scilla.
“my presence is needed somewhere else”
“if I did something again please tell me. I can improve, just don’t…”
“I’m not leaving. I’ll return. Probably in 2 or 3 days. I just have to go to the surface and fix a new issue”
“a new breach? I can come with you and give you some support…”
“no. it’s too dangerous this time. You can’t come”
“but I can help…”
“NO! Not this time.”
Defeated Scilla stayed behind but the lack of explanations only made her more curious. So the next day she decided to see if Iris’s tracker was still working, and to her surprised it was. She never asked herself why it was working. The device said that Iris was traveling west, where the defensive barrier extended the most. She waited and waited until she first saw the tracker move beyond the barrier and kept going. At that moment she understood that whatever Iris was going out to fix was not a barrier breach. So armed with determination she looked for a library and went to the closest one. As much as she knew, physically going to a library was the best way to get knowledge and assistance in finding answers.
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By the time Scilla got to the closest library, Iris had traveled a lot more and entered a zone with extremely weak and distorted signal. What Scilla was sure of was that Iris had entered a zone called desolazione d’ira gravitazionale which could be translated in gravitational’s rage wasteland. A name demanding lots of explanations.
At the library a new IFFA drone welcomed Scilla. Once again the place was cold and obviously hostile to living beings.
“welcome to Libra-1/31-6-11Y. I’m your assigned assistant Interfaccia Fisica Fluttuante Autonoma 193 but you can call me IFFA.”
“yeah, I figured. I already met one of your… kind?”
the drone stared at Scilla.
“User Scilla Lis confirmed. Intruder status has been revoked. Clearance level promotion available. Do you want to proceed?”
“What is that?” Scilla was confused. She understood why the intruder status was removed, but why the promotion?
Is this Iris’s doing?
It was, partially.
“Promotions improve your clearance level by a defined amount. They are usually provided by higher-level users or by task completion. Your confirmation to upgrade is necessary to continue”
well, there isn’t much to lose, right?
“upgrade me?”
“user clearance level improved from 9 to 8. User Scilla Lis you have been placed under investigation. While the investigation is pending you are forbidden to leave the planet. Any attempt to leave will be met with lethal force.”
“WHAT THE FUCK!?!? the hell is this shit?”
“your technical profile is under developed. Lacking data must be acquired. The investigation is an automated non-intrusive process. Profiled information will be accessible only if in possess of a sufficient clearance level”
“whatever if I must. Is there a place where I won’t freeze to death?”
“there are rooms with stable temperature for complex life to survive”
“can you bring me to one?”
“sure. Follow me Scilla Lis”
The drone brought Scilla to a small room with tables, chairs and shut down computers. More akin to a standard public library than what she saw so far. It also appeared to have spaces on the tables designed for holographic display either done by computers or by Iffas.
“Iffa you are here to assist me right?”
“that is my purpose”
“then before the big questions. Why is the knowledge contained in libraries blocked to the outside net?”
“it was designed to be in such a way”
“but why?”
“clearance level insufficient”
“how many libraries are there?”
“clearance level insufficient”
“not even the number. Why?”
“orders”
“fuck this shit. Then what can you tell me about the desolazione d’ira gravitazionale zone?”
“not much. Most of the knowledge about the phenomena can only be read. La desolazione d’ira gravitazionale is a dead zone in the west. One of a kind, it is a death trap for any living creature. Access to the zone is highly discouraged unless you are looking for a brutal suicide.”
“I don’t care about the format. Just provide me with all you can about that place”
“order under processing”
The computer beside Scilla turned on and started to show folders of files. All related to the zone in some way. Scilla sat and dismissed the machine to read in peace. Of course, a lot of files were inaccessible, and even more were mostly entirely censored. However, she managed to find some kind of encyclopedia entry that was readable.
The gravitational’s rage wasteland also known as Zona d’esclusione gravitazionale (gravitational exclusion zone), is a vast finite space located 633 km west of the base center. The exclusion zone is the outcome of (redacted) and it is to be considered inhabitable…
… Access to the exclusion zone is technically forbidden to any living creature or object. However, it is only a technicality. Whoever desires can access the zone just by traveling to it. He will just not return…
...the main threat inside the zone are the gravity outbursts. The zone reacts to matter and responds with bursts of gravity acceleration up to (redacted)g. Such unthinkable yet so brief accelerations will tear apart almost any known living organism and material...
...The exclusion zone is not a natural occurrence throughout the planet. Smaller sacks of gravity anomaly are scattered around, yet none are as deadly. The exclusion zone is the outcome of (redacted) which also gives us more knowledge on gravron and (redacted)…
… as a matter of fact it appears that gravron and matter can peacefully coexist. It seems that gravron matter can just phase out of existence yet somehow remain connected to the source. Gravron is also incompatible and at the same time compatible with normal matter. For a lack of a better term, we could say that mater and gravron can exist superimposed…
...it seems that both matter and gravron matter coexist and by some unknown rules shift into one another. It’s possible to use electrons to build a current and just by changing into a gravron alloy, convert electricity in “gravitricity” which will generate gravitational forces instead of magnetic forces….
...most (redacted) have a fair amount of traceable matter with gravron exchanging behavior in their system. Its effect allows them to survive inside the exclusion zone. On the other hand (redacted) seems to have a fully separate superimposed gravron body which has a different effect if placed in the zone. The high level of gravron seems to activate the zone but also allows a certain control over it…
...I’m no coward but I believe that we are playing with something outside of our capabilities for now. If the Morfian’s belief is true and more of such kind exist (redacted)… (redacted) however could be the key to a better understanding of such creatures and maybe the key to placate our doubtful minds. Peace may have never been an option if more exists. Maybe they are our Founder's Enemy.
So if she is outside… in such a zone she may be able to survive. Fuck I need to read more on this gravron. But something tells me that I don’t have permission to.
Scilla was not wrong. Gravron research was a Weeping sky secret, kept by Idras mostly in order to maintain a facade of superiority and integrity. They were reassuring figures, so revealing to the outside that there was something completely mind-blowing like gravron that they couldn’t understand was not an option. Few outside Idras know about gravron, but the amount on Weeping Sky was just different.