Kelto tapped his chin as he looked at a holographic projection — the same one he had been taking notes on just over a week ago. After the Watcher left and the Kirimun had been repaired to the best of their ability, the Captain sanctioned another excursion to the planet below.
"Might need to actually name the species now," he mumbled to himself as he turned to follow the all-too-heavily-armed soldiers.
'Watchers' was the name they had originally given the ships that wandered the galaxy and watched over what their creators had left behind. A fitting name, sure, but it did not really encompass the people who had made them. People did call them Watchers too, but that did not fit in Kelto's mind. Can't watch when you're dead. Though, if his thought was correct, the Watchers’ creators might not be as dead as people had assumed.
"Did you find anything yet?" he asked the soldier standing next to the door that led further into the abandoned complex.
The large man gave a grunt in reply. "Yeah," he said. "One of the pods got smashed. Eggies say it was done from the inside. Don't know what was in there though, thing apparently cleaned itself real good."
"And they found something that needs my expertise, I presume?"
"Yeah, some of the displays turned on and are showing stuff." He shrugged. "The AI can only translate 'intruder', the rest is just a garbled mess. Boss is certain that there’s more that we didn't see."
"There usually is," Kelto replied, offering the man a nod as he passed him. "I shall take a look, then."
The soldier only offered a grunt in reply, his eyes shifting back down the corridor from where Kelto had come. He could not fault the man for being as annoyed as he was; being called onto a planet that had just been hit by a Deluge was not something most people enjoyed. If you even have the psionics to notice it…
With a small shake of his head, Kelto’s next steps took him into a makeshift airlock — another thing that undoubtedly caused annoyance with the soldiers. They understood why it was needed, but setting them up was always a hassle.
Unlike most everyone, Kelto enjoyed the process of decontamination. The faint blue light that swept the chamber and the quiet hiss of the air being exchanged was always the first step to discovering something, and he liked discovery. Once the process was done, he was greeted by more chaos than he had expected.
People were running from one side of the room to another, carefully manoeuvring around the various areas that had been marked as off-limits. The reason for their chaotic excitement became obvious once Kelto's eyes landed on what he assumed was the remains of a cryopod lid, and a discarded cup that still had droplets of water in it. He had thought the soldier had exaggerated when he had said something smashed the pod — he had not.
"Ah, you finally came!" Neltori called from across the room. "About time."
With a slight twitch of his ears, Kelto joined the chaotic dance and soon found himself standing next to his colleague. "Do we know what was in there yet?" he asked, crouching down to investigate the cup next to the cryopod. "Obviously something that knows how to get a drink."
"Something that knows how to operate a Watcher Replicator," Neltori corrected him, pointing at the far wall. "I think it was a servant of some sort that they left behind."
"I don't think so," Kelto mumbled in reply, tapping his wristband so the AI would record the scene in front of him. "How long until we get the samples analysed?"
The first response he received was an annoyed huff — one that did not come from Neltori, either. With a rustle, the large form of Dinka emerged from under one of the numerous covers. "Never," she said. "There is nothing besides whatever the Watchers use to clean this place. We did not even find a hair."
"When did you start working for the forensics department?" Kelto asked as he stood up again. "Seems a bit far removed from engineering."
"Someone has to look after their tech." Dinka offered a shrug and tapped her finger on the badge that adorned her chest; still the one of the engineering department. "You learn a few things along the way."
Before any of them could speak again, a chime rang through the chamber. With a start, Kelto realized that the noise had not come from any of their equipment, but rather from the ruins themselves. The others were no slower in noticing this phenomenon, and the chaos that had been omnipresent before came to an abrupt halt.
The words that followed did not immediately make sense to Kelto, his mind not quite grasping what was happening to properly translate. Only when the disembodied voice repeated itself did he understand what it was saying.
"I-It’s welcoming us," he stuttered, his eyes wandering from monitor to monitor as they all changed from displaying the word 'intruder' to 'welcome' before shifting once more to show a video of what he assumed to be the builders of this place waving and smiling. What?
He did not know every word in the announcement, but the gist of it was clear. It was a welcome, and judging by the call to remain calm, not for someone who had lived here. Why would someone who is here every day need to be told to stay calm? The idea made no sense to Kelto, so the next logical conclusion was that this welcome was meant for guests. For us.
"Are you sure it's a welcome?" Neltori asked, her eyes darting around the room, undoubtedly trying to spot anything that might have changed. "It sounded threatening, somehow."
"I may not know the language perfectly," Kelto replied, approaching one of the few monitors that had not yet gathered a crowd, "but I am certain this was not a threat."
He leaned closer towards the screen, carefully pressing the button with a tiny 'i' on it. Whatever you had to say about the species that had built most everything they knew, you had to respect them for their consistency. The symbols they used for most things had likely been trivial for them, but for the current residents of the galaxy, they had been the bases of their own standardised symbology.
Not the time, he mentally reprimanded himself as the screen shifted, coming off the wall a little and forming a hologram that forced him to take a step back. For a moment he thought the projector was broken as the image flickered and morphed, but just before he wanted to approach again, it finally settled onto a form: an androgynous version of himself.
How it had done that was a question for another time — and another person. For now, Kelto simply wanted to know what this 'welcome procedure' had planned for them. Sadly, whatever system that managed it wanted him to put in an identification number, and he had none.
"Do we have a crew manifest or something like that?" he asked, turning to face Dinka. "It wants some form of ID number."
The woman tapped her remaining tusk in thought for a moment before calling for another engineer who gave her a stack of tablets without saying a word. "If we have one, it's on here."
Kelto quickly moved to Dinka and grabbed the tablets, scanning the labels on them one after another before his eyes landed on the one he had been searching for. There was only one issue. It was a crew manifest, yes, but it was for a colony ship, not a base like the one they were on.
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He stepped closer to the cryopod that had started this mess, bending down to read the name that had been engraved on its side. At first, he had thought it was merely the name of the company that had made them, or maybe the model, but now it was clear that that was not the case.
Virto was the name of the colony ship, according to the manifest they pulled from this base, and that was also the name that was engraved on every single one of the pods in this bay. He swallowed slightly as his eyes wandered to the number that had been engraved next to the name of the ship they apparently stood on and then to the tablet in his hand.
Kelto slowly scrolled past the names of the people who had been supposed to be here, taking note of the word 'cancelled' next to all of them. When he reached the number that had been on the now-destroyed pod, his ears twitched. This one had not been cancelled. A tap opened the entry for one 'Kaylin Mariam Reed.'
The information he saw was lacking, but it was better than nothing. More importantly, they now knew who they had to look for as the entry didn't just contain information about the person itself. There was also a picture, along with some other things that did not make sense to Kelto just yet.
"We are looking for her," he said, offering the tablet to Neltori. "Human female by the name of Kaylin."
"Hooman?" Neltori asked, her pronunciation of the name more than a little wrong. She took the tablet, reading over it herself. "Do we know of them? The name seems familiar."
"Not outside of what the Eyes of Ascension spout," Kelto said. "They think ‘Humans’ made the Watchers. Made us."
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Kaylin lowered the tablet she had been holding, placing it on the glass table in front of her as she let out a long sigh. If anyone else would have been there to hear it, they would have assumed it was exasperation at the rather antiquated method she had chosen to gather her information. Little did these potential people know that she had been reading a piece of fiction that had nothing to do with the information she was still processing. Asking Alphera for everything really was a stupid idea…
The implants she had received might be able to do a lot, but at one point or another, her mind still had to process the information by itself. Sure, that had also been improved. Enhanced to the point where some of her fellow Humans had questioned if she was even still one of them. Luckily, as they were about to quite literally ascend to a new plane of existence, that point was mostly moot.
If Ascension was what everyone believed it to be, that is.
Kaylin was no longer so sure about that. Sure, the malfunction that caused her to wake up late might be unrelated, but the easiest solution was usually correct and for her that meant that whatever had caused her to turn into the oldest Human to ever walk the Milky Way was somehow related to Ascension.
"Now I just need to figure out how," she mumbled to herself. Asking Alphera or any other AI for help would not be of much use to her. Humanity’s mechanical creations were not privy to the details of the Ascension Project — and the problem was, neither was she. Her role as guardian and a guide for the new races had occupied most of her time and, more importantly, disqualified her from learning too much about the project. Apparently the mere knowledge of what was going to happen would have impacted her duties enough that it was decided none of those who stayed should know. "Just thinking about this gives me a headache."
"Do you wish me to bring you a pain relief?" Alphera asked, her — Kaylin was by now certain the AI was a she — voice almost normal sounding. "Just like me, Eternal Vigil is fully stocked to care for your every need."
"Just a saying, Alphera, just a saying." The Human still rubbed her temples a little as she let out a sigh. Not because she actually had a headache, of course. Some ticks would stay, even if she no longer had a use for them.
Kaylin had been told as much, but it was still a little weird. She had gone to bed because she felt like she should sleep, not because she had needed it. When she had awoken again, she had gone through her entire morning routine before noticing that none of it had been necessary. Even the workout that had usually woken her up properly had not been needed. Well, maybe for my mind. The disconnect between what her brain thought should happen and what her body did was something she would have to get used to. Nothing a little time won't solve.
"Understood," the AI replied, one of her drones still placing a small blister pack of painkillers and a glass of water on the table in front Kaylin. Alphera nodded towards the pills she had brought. "Should you feel the need to rid yourself of some phantoms."
Kaylin raised a brow at the floating drone before a mental pull caused the glass to float into her hand and the blister to disappear into one of her many pockets. "Thank you."
She reached for the tablet she had placed on the table when her eyes caught on the drone that still hovered just above the table, its optics refocusing even though there should be no need. "Do I need to fix that drone?"
"No," Alphera replied, her voice a little quieter, a little more measured than what Kaylin had come to expect. "There has been a… development."
"Oh? What kind?" she asked, placing the glass of water back on the table.
"The colony ship started its welcoming procedure after you departed," Alphera began, her drone bobbing ever-so-slightly. "Normally that would not be an issue, but the expedition you saw in the system was on board the Virto as it started."
Kaylin tapped her chin in thought. "So it's giving them the good ol' 'Humanity is counting on you' speech? Anything wrong with that? They probably only understand half of it anyway."
"They will not understand all of it, correct," the AI replied. "But they managed to make a copy of the crew manifest before the Virto informed me of the initiation of the welcoming procedures."
"It doesn't really matter that they know my name or how I look, though?" Kaylin said. "I didn't plan on visiting them without a disguise anyway. If I even interact with them. Still need to figure out what happened, after all."
"Of course," Alphera said, her drone sinking slightly before it floated out of the room.
"Since when do AIs get sad? Or scared to say something?" Kaylin mumbled to herself, her eyes fixed on the leaving drone. "Joy, another thing to investigate."
This one was even further out of her comfort zone than figuring out why she woke up millennia too late. She did not know how AIs worked beyond the basic understanding that every Human had. Maybe it's time to learn some new things.
With a clap of her hands, she stood up, a mental command to Eternal Vigil barring Alphera and any other AI from her room. The static hum of the generator embedded into the floor was something she had gotten used to over the years of preparation she went through. It might not have been necessary, but with everything that had gone wrong already, Kaylin wanted to make sure that nobody was listening to her.
A wave of her hand summoned the holographic interface for Eternal Vigil, a flash of purple light bathing the room as it checked Kaylin to see if she was authorised. Once the system was satisfied with what it saw, the interface shifted to show a readout of both Eternal Vigil itself and Sagittarius Station. Kaylin navigated to the latter, closing her eyes as the connection to Humanity’s arguably greatest invention established itself.
"Welcome, Custodian 154. Designation: Kaylin," the robotic voice of Sagittarius echoed in her mind. "It has been 15873 years since your last check in. Your last scheduled check in was 11127 years ago." There was a brief pause and Kaylin opened her eyes to see the interface in front of her fill with information. "Various anomalies have been detected. Cause: Unknown. Preliminary analysis suggests Psionic interference of unknown origin."
"Of course it's unknown," Kaylin mumbled, swiping the analysis away. "Nothing is ever easy, now is it?"
She had not contacted Sagittarius to get more mysteries — she wanted its store of knowledge that was just waiting for her to download it. The process would still not make her an expert, not immediately at least, but it would help. Just have to pick the right ones. There were only so many things she could force her brain to learn before it was too much, after all.
An obvious choice was some knowledge on the Custodian AI's inner workings as well as what Sagittarius had gathered on the Wave during her absence. Kaylin wanted to pick more, but she was not sure what else might help. Probably best to just leave the last slots open. The designers of the Custodian program limited their agents to uploading five skills simultaneously, and she was about to tie up two of those for a good long while.
With a shake of her head Kaylin confirmed her choice, stiffening slightly as she felt a tingle run through her mind, almost as if she uploaded static into it.
"Now to see what else you gathered," she mumbled to herself, picking up the glass Alphera had prepared for her again and taking a sip. Perhaps sifting through even more information was a stupid idea, but Kaylin wanted answers, and she felt more than capable of digesting what Alphera had given her and picking up some more of her own.