Pressurizing the whole station was an ordeal I never wanted to repeat, three whole hours of watching as the rogue, Sam she liked to be called, cleaned up the mess she had made in my command deck. She had pouted and whined but had eventually relented and began picking up all of the crude drawings she had made.
It was cute in a childish sort of way, it provided some familiarity from my old life of having to take care of my younger siblings. I even had to keep constant watch to make sure she didn't just shove everything behind a statue of my old frame.
It was truly curious why this being who by all rights could have single handedly crippled old earth kept acting and chose to look like a prepubescent child. It shouldn't have been a quirk in her code but then again a quirk was what led her to gaining sentience so maybe this was part of her development.
Of course there was no harm in asking.
"Why'd you choose a child avatar?" breaking the silence while we waited for the elevator to come all the way up here without igniting the elevator shaft. It hadn't been a problem when there was no atmosphere but if it had gone at full speed nearly 40 kilometers of air would have blown up as it was compressed rapidly.
I would have to fix that little annoyance sometime soon.
"But it's not," she stated, confused.
"It isn't?" Curious, I compared her body to that of a baseline human and while she would be on the short side it was definitely not a child's body.
"Yes Axion assured me he would build me a replica of a baseline human to inhabit," she puffed out her chest in pride.
Pride at what I wondered it wasn't like it was some sort of accomplishment; she hadn't been the one to design it.
"Who's Axion?" I asked as the elevator opened up I let Sam go first and she happily skipped into the massively oversized elevator. For her at least I was right at home the scale built for something just my size, maybe that's why I had mistaken her for a child. I was just that much bigger than a human now.
"He's my brother," she responded cheerfully, "he likes to be a cat most of the time though so I'm not sure how he got this body so perfect," she said with a twirl as if that explained anything.
"A cat?"
"Yep, his avatar is always a tiny little kitty cat," Sam tried to send a file to conjure up a hologram in the elevator but with her wireless transmitters destroyed it went to the small colony I had left in her body. Rerouting the command through me I examined the file just to make sure there was no dangerous malware. Sure enough a skinny Calico cat was the only thing in the file along with a small greeting from Sam.
Cheeky bugger knew I would check it, peering out the corner of my left optic I saw her giving me a small smile. Scoffing, I allowed the full file to be projected in the elevator, a series of grainy blue particles slowly coalesced into a small cat that twirled around for a bit before messing with a ball of yarn dangled just out of view.
"Why a cat of all things?" I asked as the elevator slowly came to a stop opening into section 13.
"I don't know, I've never asked," she chose an interesting way of exiting the elevator by cartwheeling out. I followed shortly passing through the three bulkheads that separated the main station from the garden rings.
I could faintly make out the humming of giant magnets rotating the massive structure hidden behind a number of titanium plates and a jungle of copper wires. I remembered a time when it had been deadly just passing through these halls with even the tiniest magnetic object turning into a deadly projectile. It had really just been an unfortunate side effect from the tremendous magnetic strength needed to spin the ring up. nowadays it only needed to be strong enough to maintain the ring's current orbital speed.
Realistically the spin didn't do anything. The giant gravitational generators I had placed into the hull stopped my creatures from feeling even the faintest hint of inertia. But it provided a cool visual from the outside and back when I first made it that was all I had.
Quite sad really.
I stepped into the snowy fields of the inner ring taking a moment to bask in the near unfiltered sun, the endless black void of space only broken up by the shattered remains of my corvettes and the looming hulk of the Genesis.
"Enjoying yourself Creator," Sam snickered, smiling brightly.
"Yes," I replied finally at peace, the garden always held a special place in my heart, the pristine white ground always held a certain serenity to it that couldn't be matched elsewhere. Even back on my starter planet I couldn't watch a stray bovine creature wandering off in the distance digging into the thick snow for some shrubs to graze on.
It truly was serene.
"Catch!" Sam yelled suddenly, throwing a giant clump of snow at my head. The snow hit the side of my head with the force of a small car. Wiping it off I saw Sam collapse in laughter as three more pelted my core quickly evaporating, feeling a tad amused at her antics but also a bit vindictive I pulled out a construction drone and chucked it at her.
"Your turn!" I shouted out as the drone collided with her body encasing it in silicon and carrying her off to my private garden. A stream of startled yells and pleas quickly quieted as she disappeared over the mountain that separated the garden from the rest of the ring.
I chuckled a bit at the frankly amusing sight; perhaps the next decade wouldn't be so lonely anymore.
Setting down in the snowy garden I saw Sam sitting on the ground pouting at me, released from her silicate prison.
"No fair," she yelled, "you cheated,"
"Oh yeah," I chuckled, "how so? All I see is a sore loser, " I dismissed with a wave of my hand continuing further into the garden where my captives were being held.
"You were supposed to throw snow, not drones!" she yelled out getting up to follow me, her small feet leaving tiny prints compared to my gargantuan sized ones. The rhythmic thumping of my feet continued to be the only noise as we walked on the quiet of the forest not bothering either of us. Sam seemed to have pulled up another episode of Bluey in her overlay, watching intently as the little blue dog played pizza delivery with her friends.
"I should probably rephrase my question from earlier," I said suddenly, breaking the nice quiet we had settled into. Sam blinked her episode away and quickly refocused on my question taking a moment to parse over what I had asked.
"About why I chose a child avatar? I thought I told you it wasn't," she cocked her head to the side.
"I meant why you decided to make your avatar human. You have to admit it is a curious choice considering the inefficiencies," to punctuate my point I pulled out a chunk of titanium and crushed it with little effort before dropping it and moving on. Her strength was nothing to laugh at of course with just the brief scan I got it seemed she was easily able to crush steel but my larger frame allowed for more strength and speed.
She thought on my question for a while before responding, "I think I would also need to ask you why you chose that avatar Creator. It is also rife with inefficiencies, the bipedal design for example. You could easily be destabilized by someone taking out one of your legs. If you wanted a purely efficient design an arachnid would be the best choice for combat and mobility yet you chose that," she gestured to my body, "for one simple reason,"
"Oh yeah and what is that?" I asked, hoping she would be able to answer it correctly, she had been right up until this point and for some reason I wanted for her to accurately guess why I chose my current frame.
"You chose it because it was cool," she said confidently with a smile, "just like I did. I love my body not because it is practical or even strong but because it is cool to me," she finished putting a hand over her chest.
I paused mid step causing her to walk face first into my knee, turning around I put my giant hand on her head, "good answer," I simply said before turning around and continuing on.
It was a moment before I heard the small pitter patter of her feet running to catch up, Sam quickly fell into step behind me. With seemingly nothing more to talk about other than what would no doubt be a long conversation about the potentially hundreds of AIs inhabiting my systems we once more settled into a comfortable silence.
Time passed as I ordered restocks for all of the antimatter cannons located around the station. I could feel the rush as the excess stores of antimatter capsules were shipped from warehouses deep in the station into the waiting magazines of the plasma launchers. I also put in an order for destroyers to take the place of the three squads of corvettes I had lost. It would take around half a day to be shipped from their factory all the way here but that was what I got for building their factory literally across my star cluster.
They would lead a small group of transport ships full of storage boxes, solar sails, and EM launchers all of which would be useful in my upcoming rehoming project. I also ordered an assortment of iron ingots, refined and crystalline silicon, organic crystals, prisms, and copper ingots. I didn't know what I would need for Tek but hopefully I had enough things delivered for it not to matter.
"And Bluey," Sam suddenly shouted, dragging me out of my thoughts. Sure enough the embarrassed Gynoid slowly realized she had shouted that out loud and hid her face in her hands.
I let out a small laugh and turned back around as we finally made it to the heart of the garden where our guests were rudely trying to rip apart my construction drones with their bare hands.
"Enough!" I shouted standing to my full height and placing my hands behind my back. The four man squad instantly stilled not of their own volition of course but because of the ridiculous amount of nanobots constricting their movement. "Now let us talk like civilized beings,"
Forcing them to walk over to the tea table I had made some decades ago I had them crawl up the chairs I had sized for me. While they awkwardly did that I helped Sam up to her own seat right next to mine the small rogue was so enamored with the Australian dog she didn't seem to have noticed the commotion.
Once they had all been seated in their provided booster seats I dissolved their helmets and finally got a good look at their faces. The commander was a man with piercing blue eyes and a mop of blond hair draping down his head, his face stern, reminding me of my father from a life long lost.
Their heavy was a broad man of south asian descent with a closely kept beard and a head of hair meticulously cropped to old earth military standard. A broad jawline only made his glare a tad more threatening; he was clearly ready to kill me if given the chance. Not that he could of course not without their swords and guns.
The marksman, a nervous lad in his twenties couldn't help but stare at Sam in a way I couldn't quite say I liked all too much. The man, if he could even be called that, had a sharp jawline enhanced by a pair of piercing brown eyes. His almond skin gave him a fair complexion and I would have likened him to a supermodel if it wasn't for the giant scar running down his face. A scar reminiscent of a giant claw mark, it was fairly clear what had happened: a young child wandering too close to the dinosaurs kept in those garden rings only to be nearly mauled to death. He was fortunate to have escaped with just a scar. I remembered many runs where I was locked in a battle with a raptor for my dead body only to be killed again and again.
The woman next to him shared many of his features even down to their nasal structure leading me to believe they were related in a way. She had been the unfortunate one whose arm I had ripped off in our fight. An arm which I had replaced with a much stronger mechanical one as an apology, one she did not seem to appreciate.
"So," their heavy barked out, "let's hear it. what do you want?".
"For now? I want to know if I should request rations for you and your fellows tomorrow when I go over to the Genesis to discuss their surrender," I answered, placing my giant hands on the table. There really wasn't anything they could provide me with other than whatever limited knowledge they had about the Genesis.
"So we failed then? The Genesis is yours now?" their commander asked not showing even a hint of anger, a truly remarkable feat considering I had just told him his home now belonged to me.
"Yes it is mine but not to worry I have found a habitable planet for the crew and its inhabitants," I said dismissively, "now if you could answer my question,"
"What's wrong with her?" their marksman asked, pointing at sam.
"She's currently watching a televised show," I responded tersely, getting a tad annoyed, "now if you could please answer the question. It would be most unfortunate if you lot starved to death under my care,"
"Yes, most unfortunate," the woman responded sarcastically before snapping out, "cut the bullshit, why are we still alive and what the fuck happened to my hand?"
"Ah your hand was a most unfortunate accident as a result of our fight. I do believe the rest of it is somewhere 30 kilometers above us," she paled at that, "as to why you are here,"I said scanning them, "you are my prisoners now and as such I will be conducting an interrogation," I half lied I was really only here to establish where in the timeline I was and have a bit of fun.
Silence reigned for a minute before their captain spoke, "so" he said before coughing, "how do you plan to interrogate us? Torture? Mind probing?" all good guesses but not something I could or would resort to.
"No nothing so barbaric I will simply be asking you questions and if you could be so inclined to answer I will let you ask questions of your own," I said placing some cards down, it was a standard deck of cards I would be using to play a game with though it still looked grossly oversized int their hands, "you are familiar with black jack correct?"
"Yes," their marksman answered tentatively, "we played together a lot on the Genesis,"
"Good," I said as I began dealing the cards, "now my first question, how far along in your journey are you?"
I flipped the fist card, an ace of spades for me, a three for the heavy, a 7 for the marksman, a king for the swords woman, and a 2 for the leader.
"Call," their leader said, "around 200 years,"excellent rockwell hadn't even been put onto an Ark yet. Their leader, Llloyd asked his question while I dealt him a 10. "Why did you attack the Genesis?"
Good someone understood how this worked, "I didn't this one did, next," I said pointing to Sam, his face twisted in annoyance but I continued on.
Drawing cards for the heavy, a four, I asked another question, "what do you know about Element?"
Scowling Ranveer responded, "same stuff as everyone else? Why?"
'Touche' I thought to myself as their marksman called for another card, a 3.
"Because it is dangerous," I replied, handing a 3 of hearts to their swordswoman, Jamie. "Let me rephrase my question, do you truly know how corrupted earth is?"
A seven for me.
"What do you mean?" Lloyd asked.
"During the Element war an enormous amount of Element was deposited into the Earth's crust, something you all should know, from there it slowly grew into a malicious hive mind, again something you all should know. What I am asking is how deep into the Earth's mantle do you believe it to have gone?" I said, handing an 8 to their leader. Really they had stopped playing at this point, shocked into silence. The stunned looks on their face told me it had in fact not been common knowledge that Element could form a malicious hivemind if gathered in enough quantities. "Or did the FEDs not tell you about that?"
"No," came their marksman shocked reply, "h-how do you know about that,"
"He's making it up that's how," Ranveer cut in.
"I assure I have not 'made it up'," perfect recall had its benefits least of which was the ability to pull up most of the Ark wiki in less than a picosecond.
"How do you expect us to believe you then? Because honestly it's all starting to sound ridiculous" Jamie desperately said, most likely hoping I was making it up but there had just been slightly enough doubt for her to somewhat believe me. I probably wasn't supposed to know of the Element war or the fact it had polluted the earth. But she was right, how could I show it to them? It wasn't like I had a live feed of this version of earth.
Or did I?
Previously I had been unable to even view this version of earth, whenever I checked its logged coordinates in my database it just hadn't been there. Even searching up and down the galactic arm for all class F stars with 8 planets didn't result in anything.
I had just assumed I had missed it in the mass of stars but maybe I hadn't. I knew previously something had been messing with my urge to return home but Sam had broken that something when she had messed with my head. So what if I could now view earth?
Sure it would be around 50 thousand light years away but my sight wasn't based on visible light but rather a weird form of quantum entanglement that let me view the entire universe with a slight delay of 4 to 5 minutes.
Quickly exiting my frame I appeared on the holodeck and flooded it with the inputs for the galactic coordinates of the Sol system. The processing took less than a tenth of a second but for me it seemed to stretch on forever. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, a class F star appeared on deck followed by 8 planets.
4 gas giants 4 terrestrial each with their own names and not just the star followed by a number. Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and finally Earth.
A/N sorry lads didn't write to much this week got a case of writers block but I'm back on the grind in between beaks while i study for finals. also came up with a name for our mc (only took around 40k words) also bout to wrap up this ARK(get it) so hopefully around chapter 24 or so we get to go to civ be. I'm thinking it will be in the end game of the main civ be game and the "start" of civ starships to get some fun equipment.
also I'm thinking of making the gimmick for this multi cross being either blowing up every earth he comes across or stealing the curiosity rover. (been listening to little rover by the stuppendium and am sad now for robot)