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

[dark_light]

"They seem to have a shared consciousness, and they take each other apart routinely, it sounded like."

[prodigal_miser]

"That helps. I'll have to see, if it's a shared consciousness thing, then I guess morally I might be fine. I'll check, though."

[dark_light]

"Yeah. We'll see if the ones around the command center remember the conversation with Juniper, that'll be a clue."

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin nods. "Thanks. Wow, I was not expecting to tackle the moral issues of robotics when I woke up this morning."

[dark_light]

"Exciting surprises!"

[prodigal_miser]

"Very! So do you think the inevitable huge revolution from this will be filed under me travelling here to begin with and the revolution that came from that, or is it another category just because I didn't personally have anything to do with it?"

[dark_light]

"What, you mean stolen tech from our noble robot-army-having predecessors and their wicked enemies? I think it's close enough in time to the other revolution that it'll be in the same history book chapter."

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin giggles. "Pfff. I wonder how they'll manage to write it. 'And then a guy from another plane showed up, teamed up with a gorgeous witch, they made lots of money and found some robots that they used to their advantage in miscellaneous ways.'"

[dark_light]

"They'll probably be a touch more long-winded than that."

[prodigal_miser]

"Almost certainly, yes. But you understand my point, right?"

[dark_light]

"'In the year 2007, several exciting discoveries all happened at once due to the activities of witch Isabella Amariah and her consort Adarin Evaniel Sorelas. Together, they brought portal magic to the world, revolutionzed robotics, and applied the proceeds from these activities towards dozens of others. In this chapter we will limit our focus to...' Like that."

[prodigal_miser]

He snorts with laughter. Adarin teases, "What, I don't get an entire footnote to myself? I'm reduced to consort? I was the one who made the portals!"

[dark_light]

"I do consort with you a lot," she says merrily. "Do you want to take credit for the portals sooner rather than later?"

[prodigal_miser]

"I will take credit for the portals eventually," he says loftily. "When we have a proper stranglehold on the transportation economy."

[dark_light]

"So between now and then somebody might write a textbook, in which case you probably don't even get a line item, I suppose, you'll be in my little biography insert."

[prodigal_miser]

"Awww. Such is the price for patience, I suppose. I only get a small note in a little biography insert. But eventually, my dear, I'll get a chapter to myself. Bwuahahaha."

[dark_light]

"I will be very happy when you have a chapter. Then I can get proper credit for the things I actually did. Captain of industry! Co-founder of colony! Senior equipment maintenance specialist!"

[prodigal_miser]

Adarin takes a little while to be lost to giggles. He'll need a minute.

[dark_light]

Isabella grins. She likes it when he laughs.

[prodigal_miser]

He manages to recover enough to breathe and says between giggles, "Yes, that's -" (Snicker.) "- definitely the main thing history will remember you for." (Giggle, giggle.) "Nevermind the possible immortality, or anything. Senior equipment maintenance specialist."

[dark_light]

"It's a very important title! It's gonna get me a robot army!"

[prodigal_miser]

"True! But it still sounds... Quite absurd."

[dark_light]

"I actually like it, what with the fact that it's a robot army. Equipment maintenance seems appropriate. But yes, eventually, one day, after 'senior equipment maintenance specialist' in my textbook it'll read 'developer of immortality'."

[prodigal_miser]

"Yeah. If all goes to plan we will be horrifically famous, you realize. For the rest of eternity."

[dark_light]

"Yeah. Probably people will want to interview us on television and ghostwrite our autobiographies."