planetary

[dark_light]

Over the next week, Isabella gets the alethiometer to tell her that the planets they looked at don't contain microorganisms that know what to do with a human body (although the one with the giant bugs has some multicellular parasites that might be able to make do with the foreign macro-scale features of a human body if they got the chance). "The present", it includes in one of its answer phrasings, which is kind of worrying. But Adarin makes enough progress with his scry in little enough time that it's worth the double-check.

Isabella also hires ticket-takers, gives them little pots of ink to verify the authenticity of the passes she handed out, and opens the Los Angeles - New York route for the employees of her three companies of choice and anyone who shells out a cool fifteen thousand dollars per round trip (ten K for a one-way). This is steep, but it's within an order of magnitude of what people sometimes pay for short-notice first-class cross-country flights - with less novelty and more hassle. Albeit she doesn't supply inflight meals. She expects to have to raise the price when more people hear about it in response to volume and then be able to drop it again.

By the time the thing has been open for a few days she's fired and replaced one ticket-taker and the others have settled into a routine that she's willing to try out leaving unsupervised for awhile.

If Adarin's up for some up close and personal planet shopping and his results suggest it'll go well, anyway.

Comments

[prodigal_miser]

"All right," he says carefully. "I'll avoid scrying if I can but use it if something seems suspicious. Should we -" (He winces.) "use the limited time we have here to investigate the cities? I am kind of uncomfortable with it, but we do need to be economic with mana."

[dark_light]

"I want to go talk to at least one robot some eventually, and if you're up for it being today it can be today. It did stop aiming weapons at us after we repudiated those no-good unpronounceable scum invaders blah blah."

[prodigal_miser]

"... It can be today," manages Adarin. He does not look happy, though. "But if we see anything off we get my sister to teleport us back. I very strongly don't want you to get hurt."

[dark_light]

"Do you want another few minutes to calm down a little farther?" Isabella asks gently.

[prodigal_miser]

"That might help. I need to logic my emotions into submission."

[dark_light]

"Okay." Snuggle.

[prodigal_miser]

Snuggle.

The robots are dangerous, certainly, and this is risky. But he cannot see a logical reason for their actions if they didn't mean what they say. Maybe he's missing something, maybe he doesn't know the entire picture, but he's starting to get the feeling that he will never just know the entire situation before getting involved. If he tried to force impossible standards on Isabella's safety, he would be oppressing her.

He does not want to be the type of person that's clingy and over-protective, keeping Isabella in some kind of metaphorical box because he loves her. It would make him happier, certainly, but he's personally seen what that sort of control does to a person. Adarin very strongly doesn't want to do that, especially to the woman he loves.

Well. That kind of clears things up.

"All right," he says quietly. "I've calmed down, reasonably enough, anyway."

[dark_light]

Isabella gives him a kiss, and gets on the cloud-pine.

[prodigal_miser]

Kiss! Then, onto the cloud-pine. Snuggle. "I love you."

[dark_light]

"I love you too."

Cautious flying back into the city.

There are no other obvious robots besides the quiescent one they met before. It doesn't react to them this time when they approach.

[prodigal_miser]

The entire way, Adarin is paranoid and on alert for any obvious robots, or less obvious maybe-robots. If it looks even vaguely threatening, he'd like to know about it.

When they come across the one they met before, Adarin gives it a bit of a cold glare.

"Should we try talking to this one?"

[dark_light]

"It talked before," Isabella says. She coughs and switches to the tongue-twister language: "Will you t-" She switches words for easier pronunciation; it's really a wretched language to force out of a human throat. "Will you converse with us?"

"REPEAT QUESTION FOR VOICE RECOGNITION"

"Will - you - converse - with - us?"

"THIS UNIT IS EQUIPPED FOR VERBAL COMMUNICATION - THIS UNIT IS NOT OCCUPIED"

"Does that mean yes?"

"YES"

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin nods, then switches to the language, enunciating carefully. "Why - is - everyone - gone?"

First priority; why is everyone on the planet dead. If it's cosmic rays that kill people every other hour he thinks it's very, very important to know that now.

[dark_light]

"THIS REGION HAS BEEN EVACUATED AS A QUARANTINE BUFFER"

"When was that?" asks Isabella.

"FOUR HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN AND THREE QUARTERS YEARS AND SEVEN DAYS"

"Adarin," says Isabella, and she switches back to English, "can you tell how long the years on this planet are without using up too much mana or should we save it for when we go home?"

[prodigal_miser]

"I can, it's not a big spell," he says, more at ease now that the robot isn't acting like it's going to point weaponry at them. He's still on edge, but less so now. So, he checks.

"One-hundred and forty-seven days," pronounces Adarin. "But they're days from here, and those're - ugh, about twice as long as days on Earth. That's annoying."

[dark_light]

"Well, two is a reasonably convenient fraction for math, even if it'll give people sleep cycle oddness." Back to Terrible Alien Language. "What are your orders?" she asks the robot.

"PREVENT C'THKBRRI INVADER SCUM FROM TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE QUARANTINE EVACUATION TO OBTAIN NOBLE NNSARXPH TERRITORY"

"Over what time scale?"

"UNTIL OUR ORDERS ARE RESCINDED FROM THE CAPITAL COMMAND CENTER"

Isabella decides to push her luck. "Where's the capital?"

"TBLRRSAM" answers the robot.

English: "You want to see if we can find their capital and reprogram these things, maybe find other data on the invasion and get an idea if there are more robot factions?"

[prodigal_miser]

"Hmm. Yeah, that seems like the best idea. I would like to know if there are robot factions and if I need to break any of them."

"Can you give directions to the capital?" asks Adarin in the robot's language, carefully pronouncing the awkward words.

[dark_light]

"TBLRRSAM IS ON THE ISLAND OF NNSARXPHAGLURVVRTW"

"...We don't have any units in common with the alien robot, do we," says Isabella in English. "Distances, speeds..."

[prodigal_miser]

"And I doubt they have a version of Wikipedia," sights Adarin. "That's a bit annoying."

[dark_light]

"How far," Isabella asks the robot, "am I from you right now?"

"TWELVE MRR"

"How many mrr is it from here to the nearest shore of - the island with Tublurrsam on it?"

"ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-NINE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN - AT HIGHEST TIDE"

[prodigal_miser]

"Which direction is it? Please point," says Adarin.

[dark_light]

The robot extends a pokey sharp thing and points it in a direction.

[prodigal_miser]

In English: "Well, that works. Do you want to ask it more questions, or should we try going there?"

[dark_light]

"I have a few more questions..." Horrible tongue-twisting language. "How many robots belonging to the Nnsarxeph are there?"

"NINE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-EIGHT CONTINUE TO REPORT THAT THEY ARE OPERATIONAL"

"The others are - broken down?"

"OTHER UNITS HAVE BEEN DECOMMISSIONED - CANNIBALIZED TO ENABLE PROLONGATION OF THE SERVICE OF CONTINUING UNITS - DAMAGED BEYOND FIELD REPAIR - DESTROYED - OR LOST"

"How many robots have had one of those things happen to them in the last - four hundred years?"

"TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN"

"All nine hundred and eighty-eight of the operational robots are working at full capacity?"

"YES"

"How many are in this city right now?"

"ONE HUNDRED AND THREE"

[prodigal_miser]

"How many of them are in the capital?"

There are quite a lot of robots. It was probably a smart idea to not break the robot, if that many would have attacked him and Isabella.

(That doesn't mean he regrets wanting to.)