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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/micktalian on 2024-09-14 18:24:45+00:00.
Part 84 Remember (Part 1) (Part 83)
Back when Tens was serving in the Nishnabe Militia, there had only been a single time he had been ordered to investigate a derelict vessel floating in the cold darkness of the void. That particular wreck was a Chigagorian line ship measuring in at over three kilometers wide, nearly twice as long, and had only been floating in space for a couple thousand years before being rediscovered. The journey through that hulk, as decrepit as it was, felt more like walking through the aftermath of a great battle than anything else. All throughout that fascist crustacean ship were preserved corpses, barely held together corridors, and the signs of fierce fighting. Though he had been surrounded by death, decay, and destruction, at no point did he feel he was on hallowed ground. He had been a young warrior fresh off a rather brutal campaign against those dastardly crabs. There was simply no way he could have forced himself to even pretend to be respectful towards his surroundings.
In this ancient hulk which was once a space station with few equals in its time or the modern day, however, Tens consistently felt the urge to lay down tobacco and say a prayer. Even without bodies floating around, or even any real signs that sapient beings had once walked these halls, this place felt like a graveyard. After over three hours of delving deeper and deeper into this wreck, the areas that Tens and Singularity Entity 139-621 passed through seemed to become more pristine the further in they traveled. Where the outer hull looked like melt slag and the first few sets of corridors had clearly seen better days, these past few sections almost looked new. Despite the ominous red glow of the emergency lighting being maintained by the low-level automated systems and the various battery backups Tens and 139 had been restoring along the way, these last several kilometers looked like they hadn’t been touched by either the passage of time or the starburst explosion that wiped this system clean of life.
“Tens, I…osing…r signa…Can y…” Binko’s squawking sounded a bit panicked through the inference causing his voice to cut out.
“Hold on one moment.” Only one of 139’s drones had remained by Tens’s side as the pair continued descending deeper into the massive derelict. “Patching your comms through my drone network now.”
“I say again! Can you hear m-” The deep purple avian had raised his voice into a shout by the time it fully returned and the static was removed.
“Yes! Yes, I can hear you, Binko!” The Nishnabe warrior cut his best friend off with a chuckle. “We just passed through an area with a lot of dense walls. What’s up?”
“You scared me, you weenunk!” A deep sigh of relief was quickly followed by some harsh scolding squawks. “I lost track of your signal at the fifty kilometer mark! But anyways, the Sub-Admiral wants an update. Can she have the students send over some of their drones to get some scans?”
“I will provide the Turt-Chopians with relevant archeological scan data.” Ansiki chimed in with a very particular tone that implied this was not up for debate. “There are some things in this station hulk that would be best kept between us.”
“So you know what this station is then?” Though Tens’s mech continued walking along the floor of the corridor without turning towards the biomechanical insectoid skittering alongside it, 139 could tell the human was looking straight at their drone when he asked that.
“Before I answer, I have a question for you, Tens.” The drone’s ever-shifting liquid metal mechanical eyes glanced over and looked as if they were staring directly into the Nishnabe warrior’s soul. “Has Na-An-Na Bo-Zo-Ho ever allowed you to enter their sphere?”
“Of course! Everyone who goes through school on Shkegpewen gets to take a field trip into NAN’s body. I remember it like it was yesterday. We even got to see their… I think they called it their Congi-something Center. The part of their sphere where their actual biological brain is housed. Hey Binko, you remember seeing that, right?”
“Yeah, niji!” Despite the fact that avian beaks aren’t really capable of smiling the same way mammals can, Binko’s nostalgic smirk could be heard in his voice. “That was one of the coolest and most terrifying things I’ve ever seen!”
“Did you two see the core of Na-An-Na’s stellar consumption array as well?”
“Well…” Tens’s somewhat playful hesitancy was all the confirmation Ansiki needed. “We weren’t really supposed to, but we did sneak away from the group and wandered around a bit. You need to remember, we were kids. Anything we saw-”
“If you saw another stellar consumption array core, could you recognize it?”
“I guess but…” The Nishnabe warrior and his Kroke best friend were only twelve years old when they got the opportunity to tour the interior of NAN’s massive sphere-body, but there were certain things from that day they could never forget. “Wouldn’t the Xel’achorians version look different?”
“No, they are the exact same design and dimensions. We have not been able to iterate upon, improve, or even modify the design that was co-developed over six hundred millions ago. It will look exactly the same.”
“Then, yes… I would probably recognize it… Why do you ask?”
“If my memory serves, we will eventually reach an area with two directions of travel. The stellar consumption array core will be on the left, and the computational center will be on the right. I will be sending in more drones soon to act as additional relays, but we cannot wait for them to arrive. We will need to split up.”
“If the stellar consumption arrays are so secret, why don’t you take that direction?”
“Because I do not know the state Morg’anafae is in, and I feel it would be best if she only saw a familiar face. Assuming she is still alive somehow.” Ansiki paused for a moment and let out a soft and surprisingly human chuckle. “And… Well… If Na-An-Na allowed you to wander through their body and see both their soul and their array’s core, then they trust you. If they trust you, then so will I. When you do find the core, I need you to ensure that no one will ever be able to reverse engineering the technology. Do you understand?”
“You want me to destroy an unbreakable object? I can do that.”
“Good.”
/---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since the War of Eons, Singularity Entity 139-621, or An-Si-Ki Ho-Ti-An, had participated in countless other conflicts across the stars. Over the course of their incredibly long life, this being had been responsible for nearly a trillion lives moving on to whatever came next. That was their job after all. The role they had been created to fulfill. As a simple warrior never meant to exceed the rank equivalent of low level field officer, this Entity had never quite felt comfortable being among the most experienced and well respected soldiers in the galaxy. Considering both their personal notoriety and the way most other species viewed the Singularity as nearly deific, it had been a very long time since 139 had really been able to feel like an equal among common soldiers. However, while they were in the presence of Tensebwse, they felt that nostalgic comradery that they yearned for. Though Tens was anything but common, there was something oddly comforting about working alongside a warrior who had earned the trust and respect of a member of the Singularity Collective.
Over three hundred million years ago, back before this mighty space station had become a grave, Singularity Entity 139-621 had plenty of people they looked up to and considered friends. In fact, 139 had memories of these same halls with people who referred to them as Ansiki or Hotian in that exact way Tens did. Before this Singularity Entity had fought in their first real battle, waged their first war, or even experienced death for the first time, this shining jewel of a station was one of their first experiences with another species who embodied the absolute pinnacle of sapient life. This was once a place of honor, where the galaxy’s greatest warriors, most intelligent scientists, and wisest philosophers came to share all they knew and had experienced. After all these eons, all of the loss, and all of the trauma, 139 felt a strange and calming sense of nostalgia as they journeyed through this now derelict wreck alongside someone they could consider a friend.
“Ansiki?” There had only been a few moments of silence between swapping war stories but something had been brewing in Tens’s mind and the man simply couldn’t keep it in any longer. “Can I ask you about this Morg’anafae person?”
“What would you like to know about her, Tens?”
“Well… First, how smart was she?” Though the tone of Tens’s question was entirely earnest, 139 couldn’t help but look over at the man’s mech with tilted head. “You mentioned that she was training to act like a biological computer. I assume that means she must have been really smart. And that voice earlier said she was starting to awaken, so…”
“She certainly was rather intelligen…
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