A little time passes and I don’t know if it’s been ten minutes or an hour, but finally Quva returns and a new being enters the room. Its small, oblong, metallic body floats in mid-air. It has long arms hanging down its sides, but no legs. Rather than walking, it flies. It stops short of me, and Quva stands next to it.
“I requisitioned an attendant robot for you as I may be a little while analyzing the data.”
“Thank you? What does an attendant robot do?” I’m unsure if I should be grateful.
“It is programmed for ‘level one’ clearance and requisitioning. It can provide you with fresh clothes and food, nothing else.”
“Okay. Before it gets me some new clothes though, do you have a shower? I need to clean myself up.”
“I am unfamiliar with ‘shower’, but we have a purification system which will clean.” Quva points to a door behind me at the back right of the room.
He pushes the door and we enter a smaller room. There’s no sink, shower, or toilet. The only object in the small room is a clear cylinder with several buttons on the inside and outside of it.
“This is our purification system. We use it to clean ourselves, and maintain good health. It cleans both the interior and exterior simultaneously.” He presses a few buttons on it.
“Is it safe for me to use?”
“Our scan of your physiology shows while on the exterior we are different, internally we have much in common. You are compatible with this process.” He pauses for a moment. “When it initiates you will have the urge to struggle and hold your breath. There is no need. It is better to simply relax, and breathe normally.”
“That makes me nervous,” I chuckle.
“You will be in no danger. Simply enter and press the green button to start a basic cycle.”
Quva abruptly returns to the main room and I follow.
“How do I requisition things from this attendant?” I ask.
“Simply command it. If it is in the permissions of level one, it will have it created for you. I will demonstrate.” Quva turns to the robot. “Attendant, fabricate a white robe to the dimensions of Rain’s body.”
The robot holds out its hands over the desk, palms facing down and familiar beams of light appear from them. When the light dissipates, a fine white robe has appeared, neatly folded. Quva picks it up and hands it to me and I immediately notice its silky-soft texture.
“This is amazing. Does the attendant have a name?”
“Negative. The attendant is not sentient and therefore does not have a name. It has a numerical designation. You may just call it ‘Attendant’.”
“You’ll have to explain later how it can do what it does but not be sentient.”
“We can share some information with you, however we cannot share all things. I will leave you to clean up and rest for now. I will be back later.” Quva turns around and promptly leaves the room.
With the robe draped over my forearm, I turn to head to the other room, but am stopped by Quva returning hastily to the room.
“I forgot to mention. The attendant can be used to contact me in an emergency. Just say ‘Attendant, connect to Quva’.”
“Thank you.”
He nods and leaves again allowing me to enter the other room. Once inside I examine the tube again. It seems simple; a thick plastic tube which extends from the ceiling to the floor. There is no showerhead like at home, but both the ceiling and floor inside are perforated. The door is its own hinge, attached at an invisible seam, built into the rest of the plastic cylinder. When I pull it open it makes no sound. The robot hovers behind me and I feel awkward with it being here so I drape the silky robe over it and proceed to remove my clothes, necklace and the translator. I kick them off to the side.
I climb in, close the door, and press the green button. A soft locking noise can be heard and I get nervous. The tube quickly begins to fill up from the top holes, raining a clear gelatinous substance down over me. Before I know it, it’s reached my shins, then my hips and then my stomach. I begin to breathe heavily, nearly to the point of hyperventilating and when I push on the door to open it, it’s stuck.
“What have I gotten myself into?!” Fear clenches my stomach as it reaches my chest.
I try to keep it together, remembering Quva’s advice not to struggle, but when the gel reaches my chin I inhale deeply and hold my breath. The goo envelopes me and reaches the top of the cylinder. A current starts flowing from top to bottom across my body. Suction from the bottom holes clasps my feet, but not to the point where I’m stuck in place.
My lungs begin to burn from holding my breath and I struggle with the feeling they might burst. I give up and exhale and, while there is some relief of the burning, I now have no choice but to inhale. My mouth opens up and I gasp like a fish’s would while floundering on land. The gelatinous substance fills my lungs and the added weight on my chest brings me near panic. I cough and scratch at the door but after a moment of my lungs pulling in and pushing out the goo with ease, I cease my panicking. My heart rate drops when it sinks in that I’m not drowning. While the feeling is still unnerving, I am able to relax some.
Why am I so trusting of Quva? This could have killed me.
Because you are a fool. You need to escape while you can.
They haven’t done anything to indicate they’re hostile. If anything, I’ve shown them that I’m unpredictable and dangerous.
I am dangerous! These things should be bowing.
Tiberius’ thoughts grind against who I’m trying to be, and I’m thankful for the current massaging my muscles to keep me from becoming tense. I lean back against the plastic and it becomes quite enjoyable, making me forget about him. It seems to run through a cycle. The pressure and flow change in various ways and my muscles grow weak. My feet slip to the other side and I’m propped up. I close my eyes, and for a moment I’m lost to the sensation and nearly fall asleep, until the speed of the flow increases quickly and my body involuntarily expels my wastes. My eyes snap open and I am mortified.
What? Oh! Gross!
The waste is gone before I can shatter the tube with a shockwave. I don’t know what to think. After a minute of the quick flow it returns to normal, then stops completely.
The cylinder begins to drain. When it reaches my mouth oxygen is reintroduced and I cough to expel the mess from my lungs. By the time I’ve finished clearing my airways, the cylinder is drained and warm air blows through the tube. Instinctively I put my arms out and let it dry me off. The air stops and I search myself. I’m completely dry, my skin soft like a baby’s.
That was…I don’t even know.
The door unlocks and swings open with a hiss of pressure change. The robot attendant is still there, hovering in place with the robe draped over it. I chuckle. Feeling a little exposed, I pick up the robe and spin the robot around, despite it not being alive. Pulling the robe around my shoulders I tie it off and pick up the translator and necklace.
“Attendant –” I start, but it cuts me off.
“Attendant at your service,” it replies in a monotonous voice.
“Can you scan those clothes and replicate identical new ones?” I ask while turning it toward the clothing pile.
“Understood. Replicating.” It sticks its hands out above the floor.
Within seconds it replicates my ensemble of clothing, down to Ami’s embroidered orange chrysanthemum. I dress quickly with my back to the robot, the robe blocking its strange black gaze.
In the main room, I drop my dirty clothes and the robe on the desk in a heap.
“Attendant, replicate a copy of my shoes and socks too.”
It does as I ask and then follows and hovers near me, waiting for more commands. I have none to give now.
I lie on the bed. My whole body sinks into the soft, pillow-like surface. My eyes get heavy and I become sleepy.
The girls would love this. But I’m glad they’re not here. I don’t know enough about the Vraditi to want them in this situation.
&nb
sp; It’s only a matter of moments before I drift off to sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The room is exactly as I left it when my eyes open, except for the robot now hovering in the back corner. My body feels heavy. My muscles are reluctant to follow my commands. I fight to push myself up. Dangling my legs over the side I take a moment to adjust before standing and stretching.
As usual, I have no idea how long I’ve been asleep, but it feels like I’ve been asleep for days.
Walking over to the robot, it’s lifeless, its arms at its sides. Poking it causes it to come to life, but it only ‘stares’ at me. I shrug it off.
Though I am supposed to stay here, I am interested in seeing life aboard this starship. I head to the door. The glass pane opens automatically, giving me a start. It closes and I step forward again causing it to pull up once more. Poking my head out, I see one of the large armored beings to my left. It doesn’t seem to notice me, or maybe doesn’t care I’m here.
The ship is a lot less busy than it had been before. There are still many Vraditi moving about on the different tiers, but it appears to be a quiet time. That doesn’t stop the few walking by to stand and observe me for a moment before moving on. I wave and they hurry off, making me wonder if I’ve just offended them with some sort of rude gesture.
I suppose I’ll have to keep my hand movements to a minimum, just in case.
There is no sign of Quva though. I want to step out, but I feel the guard would stop me from doing so. I return to the interior of the guest room and find the robot hovering near the doorway.
“Attendant, can you create a light snack?”
“Unable to identify ‘light snack’,” it replies.
I have to think about it a moment, “How about bread with strawberry jam?”
“Permission to access your memory.”
“Wait, what?”
“Permission to access your memory.”
“Okay?”
It hovers up, reaching its arm out to grab my temple. I flinch and back away but it insists, chasing me around the room. When it succeeds in grabbing my head I feel a light vibration. It stops and moves to the table, creating an entire loaf of unsliced bread and a jar of preserves.
“Wow, that’s some light snack.” I laugh. “Can you create a knife?”
“Error. Unable to comply,” it replies. “Request does not fall within granted permissions.”
“Well, how am I supposed to put the jam on the bread?” I huff.
I rip a piece of the bread off, open the preserves and try and scoop some out, however the bread is too soft and the jam is too stiff for it to work. I’m left to use my fingers to scoop some jam onto the bread in order to eat.
“Attendant, create a glass of water,” I tell it before taking a bite.
A glass of water materializes on the table under its hand. While I am gorging myself a noise startles me in the room – the sound of many voices echo off the walls.
“Rain, please turn around.” I recognize Quva’s voice.
Wheeling about quickly to see where it’s coming from, I notice the black rectangle has somehow come to life. I can see Quva through it like a window. He’s in a room with many other rectangles with images on them. Moving over to it, I marvel trying to figure out how it works.
“Are you all right?” Quva asks. “There were reports you had left your room.”
“I’m fine. I didn’t actually leave, just went to the door and it opened automatically so I stuck my head out to have a quick look around.” I run my hands along the large moving picture of Quva. “I had the Attendant create some food, but it wouldn’t give me a knife to spread my jam.”
“Understandably so. A knife could be used as a weapon and does not fall under level one clearance,” he replies matter-of-factly.
“Is this some sort of window?” I ask, stepping back from the rather large image of Quva.
“It is not. It is a screen which transmits images and sounds,” Quva says diverting his attention to something out of my view for a few seconds, and then back to me.
I wave my hand.
“Yes, I can see you.”
“Okay, I have to know. Do you usually host technologically underdeveloped species on board your ship? Because if my life hadn’t been a strange ride of insane occurrences already, I might have lost my mind.”
“We rarely bring a sentient being on board who is not up to our technological achievements, simply for fear of theft. However you have no means of theft and would be easy to locate on the planet if you had.”
He makes me laugh at his frank response, mainly because there’s no malice behind it. “Interesting. What’s next for me?”
“If you are rested, we can move forward with the next test. We are going to map and test the capacity of your brain while monitoring your response.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“There is minimal risk associated with testing the limits of mental capacity.”
“But there is a risk?” I hesitantly respond.
“It is minimal. I will be down in a few minutes. Please be prepared to depart.”
The screen becomes black once more, and I’m left to twiddle my thumbs until Quva arrives. The glass door opens up and Quva appears with another Vraditi.
“Rain, this is my colleague Xera. She will be assisting me in data collection, as is her specialty.”
Xera puts her hands up, facing outward and in front of her chest before nodding at me. As a female of her species, I can’t discern any noticeable outward differences from the Quva, except for a possible light ridge on her forehead which Quva doesn’t have.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Xera.” I nod at her.
“Are you ready?” Quva asks.
“Yes.”
Quva and Xera exit, and I follow. We walk a small portion of the length of the ship, reaching a floating platform stationary at our level just off of the walkway. Quva presses on his pad several times and the platform doesn’t just go up, but pulls away from the outer ring along this section of the ship.
I wonder what the capacity is of this ship. Will we ever reach a technologically advanced age like this?
As the platform ascends rapidly I’m given a bird’s eye view of the numerous levels. I grip the rail, fearing the fall. Though it’s nice not having to walk, I become anxious. In the enormous expanse I am tiny. Several levels up, the platform stops ascending and moves horizontally. The rooms up here are larger than below and I’m curious to why.
Still far out in the center of mostly empty space, I strain to see what’s inside. There are a multitude of different colors inside many of the rooms; strange animals I don’t recognize, exotic flowers, the lizard-men.
“They look so harmless behind glass.” I point at the lizard-men.
He halts our advance and brings us near their enormous chamber.
“Do they thrive?”
“I don’t know what repercussions telling you will have on the timeline of my world.” I tell him candidly. “It might be detrimental to tell you anything pertinent.”
“We are hopeful for their species to become self-aware. Is there no way to learn of their outcome?” He speaks with empathy for the creatures.
“I have some information, but if I were to tell you, it must stay between the three of us. You can’t deviate in any way from what you intended to do. You must continue forward as if we had never met. Can you agree to this?”
He looks at me then to Xera for a moment. She exchanges a glance with him and nods.
He introduced her as a colleague, but is she his superior? Or his significant other?
“Yes, this is agreeable.”
“I encountered them recently – last month, in my timeline. I can’t tell you how long that is from now though. There was a tribe of humans, mostly primitive, who were caught in a catastrophe where the earth opened up and swallowed many. I ended up down below the surface in an intricate network of tunnels where I encountered the lizard-m
en.
“I hadn’t seen anything like it before and they were eating people, alive and dead. I had to fight to save them. We hid as long as we could before one of the tribal people cracked the code on one of your cylinders and activated it to send us topside. But I think she activated all of them in the area. The tribe and I had to kill a great number of the creatures, including one of immense size, for my people to survive.”
Quva stands there absorbing the information and then to my surprise, he smiles and returns us to our flight. “I must hear more, but for now we should continue with your testing.”
“Wait. You aren’t disappointed – or mad?” I am perplexed.
“Certainly not. To hear they survived long enough for your species to encounter them is still better than their fate on their home world.” He doesn’t look back as he guides the platform to our destination.
We reach a large room with a few chairs mounted on poles in the floor; one dead center in the room and two off to the side behind a desk. There are seven of the black screens in the room. Four on the far wall and three attached to the desk. Quva opens the glass door and we step inside. Xera walks to the chair in the middle of the room and places her hands on the back.
“Please sit,” she instructs.
I follow her command, and she joins Quva at the desk, behind the screens. They are there a moment before Quva stands back up and brings something over. A dome shaped like a helmet is placed over my head. I look up and see several cables attached to it, leading back to behind the desk. It startles me and Quva notices my stare.
“Do not worry. It is simply a device to aide in imprinting and measuring,” he reassures me. “I need you to keep your eyes directly forward and on the screens as much as possible.”
Quva moves out of the way and the screens flicker to life with white. Through the helmet I begin to hear white noise. It almost sounds like something, but scrambled. The noise begins to increase in volume and new tones can be heard when random images appear on the screens. They change, and each time it does, the noises change. Beeps and tones, hums and vibrations, garbled language.
R.E.solve (Rain Experience Book 2) Page 35