Unipsi, lovely entity
chapter 76c: surface
“mangiati e impachettati, pronta? (eaten, packed. Ready?) said Iris once she returned from her room after breakfast.
“you still know that I can’t understand a single word you say in your language right?”
“you’ll get used to it. T’insegno (i’ll teach ya)”
“yeah… exactly that”
“now ready to go? It’s a fairly long train journey to Iridana. Long and boring.”
“I won’t mind.”
the journey to Iridana was indeed long and the only one that required to at least change train one time. Iridana was the most secluded zone of the megastructure. It was located 1255 km north of the defense wall. There was no surface connection and the outpost had its own defense wall with a 30km radius.
So 50 minutes of train later they arrived at an empty station. It was far more desolate than any other and was literally falling apart or at least it was built to look that way.
“are you sure this is the right place?” asked Scilla confused. She had never seen such destroyed zones that looked abandoned centuries before.
“totally sure. It was made to appear this way.”
“why?”
“to keep you away from the entrance… and the tunnels”
“tunnels?”
“there are special service tunnels that connect everything with Iridana.”
“could you give me some more details?”
“after 6 more flights of stairs, we will be at a ghost level that doesn’t appear on maps. It’s called technical floor n1. It’s basically an entire network of tunnels but mostly rails that connect all major structures inside the base. The purpose was to move around large cargoes on dedicated lines that would not interfere with people. Over time as the base became less active, the standard over-lines became more than enough. So this place is now empty. Iridana was connected to said network. You will see soon”
After those 6 flights of stairs, they reached a rail interconnection. As Iris said the tunnels were unimaginably large with tens of train tracks fading into darkness. The north tunnel was blocked by a door that extended to the ceiling. From the skulls drawn on it, the bloody hands, and deep scratches it was obvious that they wanted people to stay away from it. The access terminal was small and hidden as well. Going into the door there were 6 train tracks so the place must have seen a lot of supplies.
Iris activated the door that screeched its way open with a loud alarm in the background. All screamed danger. One by one the 16 containment doors opened leaving them staring into an infinite tunnel devoid of any light. From it, a big reinforced locomotive emerged. It had few lights and no windows. It was covered with spikes and cannons probably up to 80mm.
“our transport has arrived”
“I suppose it wasn’t always this way right?”
“nope. There used to be just 2 doors. You know in case of a breach in the tunnel. But once I was moved to Iridana they built the others and this kind of reinforced train”
“I know… I shouldn’t ask…”
“you want to know if it hurt me. Not really. I mean without control I am dangerous… well what are you waiting for board the train”
Iris entered the machine that had arrived and opened its doors. Scilla followed to be welcomed by a cramped space overflowing with more weapons. There wasn’t much space if not some seats and 2 small bunks, one had already been occupied by Iris who was looking at her.
“I suggest you to… lay down. It will take a lot of time. I mean it’s 1200km. I didn’t really have time to move here a supersonic speed locomotive. So instead of 30 minutes at 3000 km/h we are stuck at 300km/h for well more than 4 hours”
“do you really have supersonic trains?”
“yep. Magnetic levitation has been retrofitted on all tracks long ago. But you will not find any supersonic things at the standard level. Tubes are not meant for such speeds”
“yeah I remember not seeing tracks inside the… standard stations”
“we used magnetic levitation for them as well.”
after some minutes of silence, Scilla asked.
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“so what so special about Iridana… other than being your home? Why was it built?”
“it was a stand-alone research plant on gravron, gravitational anomalies, swamps, geothermic activities and special flora. It also acted as a bunker and spaceport.”
“oh. So it’s a big place. I was imagining like a small house… sort of… even if now that I think more it’s kind of stupid to have 6 train tracks for a small house.”
“well it’s not as massive as the central structure, but it’s big. Just wait and see for yourself”
4 uneventful hours later and the train reached Iridana. Disembarking from it brought them into a small underground station. The tunnel however didn’t stop with them. It instead went further into a proper storehouse and factory. The station was in clear contrast compared to the hostile architecture used before. However, among its clean design, an effigy stood out. It was made with carved bones and teeth that appeared both animal and human in nature.
“I see that there are still some… scary decorations around.”
“that’s mine. I made it when I was little”
“oh… oooh”
“you don’t have to like it. I mean I just made it for fun.”
“you have a twisted sense of fun”
“no I don’t. You know when you are a kid and you like to glue stuff together?”
“yeah… sort of. I mean too poor for glue reusable objects. But I remember gluing pasta together.”
“that’s the shit. I just never got the glue, nor the pasta, nor a sheet to glue it on. But instead, I was given… yeah definitively given, bodies to play with and I did.”
“didn’t you have toys to play with?”
“not really. I was allowed to play in designated rooms with logical puzzles only. The only thing I was ever given was a plastic small robot. I have it in my room. Unfortunately, a leg broke at some point so I don’t touch it anymore. But I still play with it”
Scilla was confused, how could she play without touching the toy.
“how did you do that?”
“… I just stare at it and imagine playing with it. Never did that?”
“no, never. But I guess I was in a better position. I would just leave the house and find something or someone to play catch with”
“what’s catch?”
With that “shocking” revelation they had arrived before a door. While speaking they had walked several flights of stairs up and now they were ready to get into Iris’s home.
After some manipulation, Iris moved beside the door control panel. So far Iridana seemed to have a different technological core compared to the rest of the structure. Doors were different. Control panels completely changed and way bigger. There were reinforced cameras at every corner. No rails on the ceilings that were lower in height.
“put your right hand on the left side of the panel. Your thumb has to grab on the side of the computer”
Scilla followed the command to be immediately struck by a stinging sensation running deep into her hand and reaching her brain like an ice freeze. She tried to retract the hand but it was sort of glued to the machine. Just a second later she was released from the contraption.
“what the fuck was that?”
“a scan. It was needed because you were about to be killed”
“killed?”
“yep. Guests who are with a registered user are granted temporary safety from the automatic defense system. It gives you 15 minutes of time and you are forced within 150cm of the registered user. If you leave or it gets to time out you are dead.”
“you could… no. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“it was unnecessary. Knowing would only put you at further risk. Also, this is the only terminal where I can register new users. All the others have stopped working”
“I understand. But I would prefer to know things you know…”
“fair.”
“what happened to the other terminals?”
“the program underneath died”
“oh.”
then Iris opened the door to her “room”. Before Scilla’s eyes extended an enormous room at least 90 meters deep by 30 meters. The room was flooded with a blinding natural light that she missed for so long. The entirety of the right side was composed of really deep multi-layered windows. They of course walked in to admire better the room.
The ceiling was located 6 meters away instead of the usual 3.5 or 4 meters. All of it was decorated with star maps or something akin to it. Those were no kid stars, they were dots scattered along lines mapping the space that was visible from Weeping Sky. There were at least 100k of those shining dots. On the other side of the room more doors lead away. The doors were basically at the corners leaving around 22 meters of empty wall that obviously was not empty. Machines, sockets, and smaller computer screens were all around a main empty zone. It was clearly a projector with a correlated computer to use it. Immediately on the left to the entrance door, there was an “open” kitchen that was at least 20x20 meters. One side was spotless as if it was never once used. The other composed of chambers that kind of resembled a fancy barbecue had clearly been used several times. Past the kitchen more doorways. The first brought to one of the many bathrooms. The other 3 to unknown rooms. The rest of the room was mostly empty. Just an endless table, several weapon racks, an ARAC-P1, a “living zone” facing the projection wall and a similar one facing outside. Beside the glass wall, there were doors probably going to the surface outside. Looking outside the snow was fairly low, just about 1 meter tall. From her height, Scilla could see near forests completely frozen. Majestic trees were unnaturally big and tall. She had seen many forests but never one with trees that appeared at a minimum 20 meters in diameter. Those magnificent creatures were frozen in immense cones of snow and shifting forms shaped by the constant wind. Weeping Sky surface immediately captured Scilla’s mind which was stuck looking outside.
“wanna go out?”
“what?”
“do you want to go out there?”
“won’t I… won’t I die?”
“depends on the day. We can wait for a warm peaceful day so we won’t freeze.”
“I would like that.”