16th August
06:50 GMT
While I technically have the day off, I think that I should probably at least do a basic check on the station's facilities. It's mildly gratifying to my ego that even after so much direct exposure I still draw a crowd when I go out in public, but it does get a bit distracting when I'm trying to work. Fortunately, with the hour still being early -at least for most of the residents- my only encounter as I walk through the gardens is a quick mutual wave with one of Jade's fellow joggers. The gardens are something I'm particularly pleased with; people don't function well in purely artificial environments and plants grow perfectly well on space stations. And heck, we wanted to build a synthetic arcane structure anyway, might as well make best use out of it.
As a result, rather than cabins coming off a corridor Star Trek style, everyone living here has a habitation unit in the middle of well-tended grasslands. Patches of succulents with purple flowers provide colour, though not in a direct line between places people are likely to want to walk. A small effort on Euanthe's part keeps the grass growing strong in those places, but I'd rather not trouble her…
I hesitate, crouching down in front of a flowerbed. Actually, I… I don't remember what these are called. The flowers come in clusters of six, the petals arranged in a five-layered spiral pattern with long purple stamens extending out from the centre. There's what I assume to be the seedpod just behind each flower, and each cluster then connects to a thick, fleshy vine. They're quite pretty, but I'm really not-.
No, no, they're just one of Abra's synthetic plants. Silly thing to worry about.
I stand and turn away, heading towards the nearest portal gateway. Magic-based teleportation is so much mechanically simpler than anything technological, particularly given that we already had full control of the station's arcane framework. The transportation effect can just piggyback on the existing connections, unlike the networks on Earth which still have to bind individual gates together.
"Root Bed."
Though I wasn't foolish enough to not include some security, the arcane networks of the station monitor… Well, not monitor-monitor, but they're in constant touch with the souls of all residents. Again, using that as the basis of the security system just seemed like an obvious and logical step. As such, despite this being the most important place on the station there isn't any sort of fortification at the far end. Just a platform around the edge of the room in which the Root of Yggdrasil grows. Part magic and part biotechnology, it binds our little space station to the magics of Earth and allows an isolated space station floating in the void to function as a proper living world rather than a lump of unliving metal. Well, technically, if this place was inhabited for few thousand generations we would get a similar effect but I've never been keen on waiting like that.
It also means that anyone who dies here gets to go to their preferred afterlife. The prospect of permanent purgatory had been making people more than a little uncomfortable about this.
The Root itself is a tall green tower spotted with purple blisters, and it sprouts from the soil below and spreads its vines out across the ceiling. Each vine plugs into a runic tile which serves as the physical aspect of the ongoing connection. I give the whole setup a quick scan, but there doesn't seem to have been any unintentional change-.
"Paul." Abra shimmers into visibility to my right, following my gaze as I consider the Root. "I thought you were taking today off?"
"Just wanted to give the place the once over before I left."
He smiles, patting me on the left shoulder with his right hand. "Paul, I designed this system. It's working fine. And the moment anything goes wrong about thirty people who could actually do something about it will charge through the portals. If you're so eager to put off seeing your Mother, why don't you go and look over Ted's shoulder instead?"
I… Suppose that he's right. I nod, bowing my head slightly afterwards. "That was my next stop. I'll… Leave you to it." I frown. "Wait, how did you know I was here?"
His face freezes for a fraction of a second, then he smiles the relaxed smile I've become familiar with. "Only one man on this station doesn't trigger arrival wards when he uses the gates. I think all the department heads have a spell set to alert them when you appear."
"'Look busy, the boss is coming?'"
"I wouldn't put it quite like that. We've all got as much invested in this place as you have. But you brought us all together, and none of us want to disappoint you." He glances away for a moment and clears his throat. "Or send you on a cross-galaxy rampage, assimilating everything in your path."
"That would never happen, Abra."
"Excuse me if I choose not to take any risks. But! Since you're so concerned…" He walks towards the edge of the platform, glances back to make sure that I'm watching, then draws his wand from thin air. He holds it out like the baton of an orchestra conductor, then with a sweeping motion conjures up an illusion of the station's arcane networks. "The sun still shines, the plants still grow, the links between every part of the station and their anchor points in the Earth-sphere remain strong." The arcane energy flows related to each shimmer as he announces them. "Spare energy bleed through is well under maximum tolerances and network stability is… On track."
"On track?"
"I had hoped that it would go a little faster, but it seems that Sephtian was right. It scales in a linear fashion and not quadratically. At least we are not behind."
"No reported problems?"
"Euanthe tells me that it still doesn't feel quite right…" He shrugs. "Part of the Green's nature is the habit of unrestrained growth. At this point we need to keep it too controlled for it to feel natural to her. The sooner that wildlife areas can be completed the happier it will make her."
I nod. "I'll mention it to Ted. You need anything else yourself?"
"An oracle, if you can find one willing to work here. I'd like to update my arcane analytics programs before the next stage, and someone with an ability for parsing the future from ambiguous inputs would be an interesting case study."
"I'll ask, but I can't promise anything. You know how most Amazons feel about space."
"At least they're prepared to leave their island now."
I smile as I walk back towards the portal. "Yes, we are. Fabrication."
I step out of the portal on the far side and look out across the workshop floor. My ring keeps the noise down, but unlike the Root Bed the Fabrication section keeps going twenty four hours a day. At the moment we're using every bit of orichalcum we produce here ourselves, but once the station is complete we'll be in a perfect position to export it or use it for ship building. A lot of the machinery here was blessed by Hephaestus when it was first assembled, but sadly I wasn't able to persuade him to move here full time. His followers on Earth and his duties to them simply take up too much time for it to be practical for him.
"…through here is where daddy works." I look around as Ted follows me through the portal in his dressing gown, young Damon held firmly in both arms. "And where daddy's going to be late this morning because daddy needs some sleep if he's going to get any work done."
"Morning Ted."
"Hey Paul." He walks past me and tilts his son so that the boy can look out across the foundry. "See all the fancy machines? I always find them all working like that kinda hypnotic and I'm kinda hoping you do too because your mother isn't letting me back in the house until you're asleep."
Damon extends a small hand in the direction of a machine extruding an orichalcum girder. "Gah?"
"Is everyone having an early morning today?"
Ted sighs, then turns towards me. "I wasn't planning to, but Damon had other ideas."
"Lose the coin flip with Io?"
"Not after she caught me using a weighted coin that one time. I get mornings, she gets evenings."
I give Damon a smile. He responds by hugging his father closer and putting his right hand in his mouth. "They're supposed to settle down after a couple of months."
"Looking forward to it. Ever think about having one yourself?"
"Given my personal circumstances-"
He nods. "Right."
"-it could be a bit complicated."
Ted looks around the room and then back to me. "You wouldn't be putting off-?"
"No, clearly that's not an option." I turn away from the workshop and head back towards the portal. "See you tomorrow."
