“Yes ma’am!”
The stage was set, space all around, a few closer suns filling the vacuum with blinding light — the kind of light that smart opponents could use as a curtain.
“Three targets detected; front is closest—”
"I see them." Aellyce kicked her rear thrusters to full speed, blasted forward at the closest blip on her radar. In her left hand, she sprung a huge blade from her hip — though, at that size, it was more like a giant, thick sheet of metal.
The opposing Casket, silhouetted against that same sun, lifted its own melee weapon from over its shoulder, big and blunt, some sort of makeshift metal mace.
Aellyce used the rifle in her main hand to block the mace while he was still ramping up to a swing, and easily slipped the blade right into the Casket’s cockpit. The metal crushed and hissed — sparks flew from the crumbling electronics.
Then, without missing a beat, she spun around it, using the blade as a handle, and turned it into a shield as a storm of bullets riddled across its hull from opposite the sun.
Aellyce placed her own gun onto the shoulder of that Casket, began blind-firing at the one approaching on the right — she turned her attention to her radar, watched the movement and trajectory calculations. After just a handful of single shots, there was a light from there. And then—
K—BOOM!
Aellyce made the sound in her own head as she grinned — space was, after all, silent. The worst she could hear was that bassy thudding of the rounds exploding out of her own gun. That sound filled the whole cockpit, rattled her whole body. She didn't half mind that — just the thought of the adrenaline it gave her brought a smile to her face.
The left Casket was rushing in. Aellyce threw her body shield at it, leaving the knife embedded in its chest, and took her gun in two hands.
With one shot, THUMP, she punctured the generator left exposed by her knife's gash. That same light flared up from its torso... and again:
K—BOOM!!
Aellyce pumped her fist. How do you like that, Bella!?
There was silence as the last explosion died down. Just the gentle beeping of the cockpit. Just the stillness of space. Just serenity, and the punching of her anxious heart as she waited for Bella’s answer. Her mouth was dry. She felt a jitter — she needed coffee.
?You... learned all of this in a single day??
“Yup. I was in here for six hours yesterday, after all.”
?Six hours...! Aellyce, how did you get here, today??
“Well, I slept in the zero grav sector actually. I just used the pulley handles to get me back to the injection tank and shot myself back in. I mean, Proton helped, of course—”
?Aellyce, get out of there right now.?
“Huh?”
?That’s an order. Eject the simulator, now.”
Aellyce felt panic wash over her. She grabbed the empty space around her head, made the motion of removing a VR headset.
And she was instantly back in reality, removing a real headset from her eyes. Her submersion tank was already drained. Someone yanked the respirator out of her mouth.
“Aellyce, get up.” Bella offered her a hand.
She took Bella's hand and began to stand up, wearing only the skin-tight vac slipsuit provided in the simulator room. “What’s the problem? What’s... OH?”
Her legs gave out like they were made of jelly. No — she’d lost control of her legs. She didn’t know how to move them anymore. “Bella—!”
“The simulator disrupts neural function, Aellyce! You can’t spend so long in it at one time!”
Bella held her up by her armpits as her body continued to slump further and further down like she was melting.
“Dammit! I told you, the limit was four hours! Six yesterday alone is...!”
“I'm... I'm...” Her head rolled limp. Her consciousness faded. Sorry...
“Oh, God dammit.” Bella slumped down with her to the floor, cradling her whole upper body. Her brow twitched. The vein in her forehead bulge and threatened to burst. "Does nobody listen to me out here...? You're all going to get each other hurt... Somebody is going to get killed." She stroked Aellyce's bright hair. "Somebody..."
The door hissed open behind her. A hospital bed rolled in, completely on its own. Bella looked back in shock through the rows and rows of empty immersion pods in that dim room.
“Sorry, Bella. I didn’t mean to overextend her,” said the bed through a speaker on the underside, where the wheels and electronics were tucked away. “But I know a few remedies for this, so she’ll be fine in no time.”
“You...!” Bella began, her voice shaking with a barely concealed rage.
“It was Aellyce’s choice, actually. She didn’t want to disappoint you.”
Bella’s brow furrowed.
The bed rolled deeper into the room. “May I?”
Bella carefully lowered Aellyce to the floor and stepped away, let the straps from the bed loose themselves and wrap around Aellyce’s arms and legs, helping to drag her up as the bed slanted itself down to the edge of the immersion pod...
Aellyce spent the next few days in a wheelchair. Her body was numb all over, though she did have some limited control of her hands and arms. Proton applied the remedies it was familiar with, but even those didn’t serve to revitalize the brain-body connection. The way Bella understood it, the mind adapted to controlling the simulator easier than it adapted to controlling a real body, mostly because the simulator injected extra neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin to facilitate the connection to a digital self. That had the extra side effect of being addictive, unfortunately. Thankfully, Proton manufactured a few SSRIs to help ease the transition back to normalcy. However it did that with whatever they had on hand, Bella couldn't even imagine.
Effectively, Proton was wrong, thought Bella from her seat at the helm, watching through those grandiose gaping windows as space traveled by outside their vessel. If a real human had made such a dangerous mistake, would I have just sat idly by, let it happen? Not to mention — did she supercede my order that Aellyce stay in for only four hours at a time? She gave the go-ahead, thought they'd be fine... Am I really just going to let a computer walk all over me?
She looked to the screens by her side, mounted to her seat. On one of them was a CCTV feed of Aellyce sitting in her wheelchair, sat beside the bald and burly Cruze in his smithy. It was safer for her there for a while, Bella figured. She could get some EXP through helping forge alloys, and she could learn about her Casket, too, what it was made out of, what materials could pierce or penetrate it... All the ways she could die.
Bella felt a strange, unfamiliar pang in her chest. She rubbed her ribs, hoping it might go away.
“Aellyce, you’ve got a call,” said the muffled helmsman, a man in a full space helmet with a red visor which obscured his face. Not Bella’s favorite hire so far — he went by the name Blackrock. Aellyce, Longwood, and Cruze were all part of the same outfit, originally... This one was not.
But his piloting skills thus far were adequate, and he hadn’t caused any problems. He listened. Less could be said about Proton.
“Roger that.”
“Sorry — another call just came in.”
“Hmm?”
She looked at the transponder below the screen. The numbers flashed and blinked. One from a squak code of 1336, that would be their current employer. And one from...
A row of four zeroes. She narrowed her eyes at that.
“I’ll be back, Blackrock.”
And she left toward the comms room on the left side of the helm.
Bella sat in bemusement as the first caller barked, chortled, commanded, and demanded the world from her. Just a scrawny little character — with a hefty wallet. Their mission was viable for their tiny crew, and would fund the hiring of another fifty men at least. Once, Bella had commanded an immense militia of guns for hire. Once, they’d controlled half of the Earthside sectors all to themselves. But owning sectors wasn’t worth much anymore — not to mention, they’d lost their last command ship in a devastating strike from the opponent. And that old opponent, now, had become their lucrative employer.
How she wished there were other jobs available... But this one would pay a lofty sum. This one would be worth it. If she could just keep their relations together, keep her crew operable... Why was she having such a hard time this go around...?
“Very well, Ava. I’ll have that report for you soon.”
“MY NAME’S NOT—”
She cut the comm with a sly smirk. They'd already hit the first goal of their objective, which gave her some leeway in handling their contract. They'd already proven their worth, judging by the conversation they'd had. That brought some relief.
Bella said, “Alright, Proton. Let’s get to it.”
The far wall filled in with a solid white visual, no face, no image. In the center, a big black camera icon appeared with the text 'disabled.' And then a voice came through: “I’m sorry for reaching out this way. I thought it prudent that we spoke.”
“I was thinking the same thing.”
“You asked Celeste about my capabilities?”
“I did.”
“And she told you that I was the one to lower Aellyce’s level.”
“Correct.”
“Do you understand why I had to do that?”
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“I understand why you did it. But you did not have to do that.”
“I submitted a warning to Celeste about it before the excursion, about that black Casket.”
“Mm.” So that’s why she was on comms that day...
“I scouted it out myself with a drone of my own construction. I didn’t have enough tech lying around to put together a scanner more efficient, but there were some things I learned:”
Text began to appear on the screen.
Black Casket : The Titan : XIX-1
ARMOR RATING: 8 — Tougher than Tungsteel
WEAPONS:
- Kinetic 120mm Cannon x2
- Rocket Pack — 8x2 Capacity, 2x suspected nuclear warheads
- Kinetic Shotgun 80mm
- Wave Cannon: [Type Unknown]
PASSIVE:
- Wave Projector: Appears to corrupt nearby Casket scanners. Does not affect systems not bound to PHOS.
MOBILITY:
- 2x Mach 20 Rear Thrusters
- 10x Mach 10 Lightweight Manuevering Thrusters
Estimated Minimum Pilot Level: 20
Bella scrunched her eyes at the screen. “It corrupts the computer systems of PHOS Caskets?”
“Only temporarily, but yes. That’s what forced Aellyce to reboot her mech.”
“And you suspect the Wave Cannon has a similar ability?”
“It may simply be an EMP cannon. We’ve only seen it fired once. Had it targeted Longwood instead of Aellyce, it’s possible she could have retrieved some useful data out of it.”
“Are you more convinced it’s an EMP cannon or something different?”
“...Leaning toward something different. It’s dangerous.”
“But a good pilot vastly outweighs even the toughest of Caskets.”
“It’s true. While I am still sorry about keeping Aellyce overlong in the simulator, she was well on her way to having the skill necessary to defeat such a Casket. Even if it was dangerous—”
“No.”
“I understand.”
“She’s working with Cruze until she recovers.”
“Her recovery will only take another day. Then will you put her back into the simulator?”
Bella thought about it. “We can put her in the field. You can be her operator, Longwood her backup. Like usual. Mostly.”
“Very well. I look forward to the next excursion.”
"You know that means you'll have to put her level back. Right?"
"I understand. I'm sorry I intervened like that; I just thought she needed more training."
"Next time you can come to me with your concerns. I don't want you flying off the handle like that."
“Bella... Were you planning to shut me off?”
“Not really. But your action in removing Aellyce from combat could be considered insubordination by some.”
“I’m sorry—”
“It’s possible you saved her life. Thank you for that.”
“...I only want what’s best for her.”
“I know. Keep her safe out there, but do it within the realm of my orders. Acting impulsively could cost us all our lives.”
Her voice took a strange cheer to it: “I understand. Thank you, ma’am.”
“Before you go; what was the sixth Casket? Celeste didn’t spill the details.”
“The sixth? Well... If it’s all the same, I don’t mind keeping it a surprise.”
Bella narrowed her eyes.
“But it’s nothing you should worry about. It’s essentially the same as the other five, and the two we have topside. There’s just a couple of added features.”
“Do I have to pry the information out of you?”
“Not at all, ma’am.”
The schematic blinked on screen. Bella’s eyes widened. “You mean...?”
“You catch on quick, Bella. This would save you a considerable expense, so long as you have no objections to my thinking.”
Bella’s brow pressed down hard, her brain wracked in conflict.
After a while of deliberating, she said, “No objections. I’m curious to see what this amounts to. Dismissed.”
“Thank you, commander.”
And the com-link severed.
Aellyce had blisters all over her fingers and hands when she made it back to her bedroom by the end of the day. Cruze had taught her a lot — nothing that garnered her any XP, but he’d taught her about the different alloys they used, the forge he used to smelt them, the anvils where he pieced armaments together... It was impressive. Though, that didn’t make it any less boring.
Aellyce rolled back and forth in her big queen-sized bed, groaning and whining, unable to scrape the boredom from her brain. Of all the endeavors she’d been a part of...
Thankfully, by the time things were wrapping up with Cruze, the numbness in her body had passed. She was able to walk back to her bedroom without assistance, and without her wheelchair.
Why doesn’t this ship have any... Activities? Games or something? I’m sure Celeste has some, but if Bella were to catch me sneaking down there again, she’d have my head. If I could just have something to do... The simulator was fun, at least, but I can’t spend all day in there anymore. After that scare, I wonder if Bella would even let me use it again...
Laying on her stomach, she began to kick her feet in the air.
What else is there to do? What else...?
Her eyes landed on the PDA on her bedside table. She remembered what Celeste had said — Proton was relegated to PDA software and ship controls. But didn’t that mean Proton was right at her fingertips all along?
She sprung across the bed and bounced once on the mattress, getting just enough momentum to snatch the PDA. Then she rolled onto her back, turned on its glowing screen.
WELCOME TO PHOS.
AELLYCE NOA
LEVEL 5
Did my level go up more? Huh.
“Proton, you in there?” She shook the PDA.
No answer.
“Proton...” Aellyce began to press buttons, tap idly on the screen, and eventually, she opened the notes app. Celeste was right that this was a disappointing fate for such a powerful computer; it had a calculator, notes, a calendar... It really didn’t have anything else to interact with.
But she typed anyway: Proton, are you in there?
And she stared at the message, as if somehow it would write back to her. As if somehow, Proton could read everything she typed.
That would be awkward, huh? I bet Celeste would be writing some fiendish messages... And if Bella uses this app, that would mean that Proton knows everything she’s ever thought. If it was learning from that kind of information, I’d be afraid of what it could become.
“But you’re not in there, are you?”
Adjusting the PDA, her finger slipped—
Thunk.
“Ow!” She pulled it off of her face — but then the screen was different. It was a big green circle, just in the center of a black void. Like a star. Like an eye.
“Hello, Aellyce,” it said, through a fairly mediocre speaker. The eye shrunk and curled like it was smiling.
“Oh, Proton! You are in there, huh?”
“Yes! Though I can’t see any files you have within, I can see your activity. I’ve never seen you log on this late.”
Aellyce looked to the clock at the top of the screen: 23:32. It certainly was late for her.
“Are you doing okay?”
“Just bored. Today was a slog.”
“You worked with Cruze, didn’t you? Not a fan?”
“He’s nice. But that type of work doesn’t interest me.”
“What type of work does interest you, Aellyce?”
She chuckled. Was she really about to have a full conversation with a computer? “...I just wish I’d gotten to spend more time in the simulator.”
“I understand. Live combat simulators can be a real thrill ride, and thankfully without the dangers of real combat. Did you ever have anything like that back on Earth?”
“Kinda. I mean there were sims, but I wasn’t a soldier. I played more, uh... Well, I played a lot of Animal Crossing.”
“I don’t have anything about that in my database — can you tell me about it?”
Aellyce raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You don’t know anything about Earth, huh? Were you built in space?”
“My first memories were all in space, yes. I’ve absorbed a lot of information about Earth, though, through reading and watching movies with Celeste.”
“She has movies down there too...?” That lucky...!
“Celeste lives a comparatively lavish life, but that’s more a consequence of being an essential engineer.”
“But Bella said...”
“I understand that Celeste believes Bella isn’t a big fan of hers. Even so, Bella would have a hard time doing anything to dismiss or otherwise restrict Celeste. When she was younger—”
“She already told me that lie.”
“...I believe Celeste only told you half a lie. She can be prickly, but she trusted you enough to share at least a smidgen of truth. She doesn’t especially like to talk about her past. But it is true that she escaped her own sector by breaching their firewall.”
“She did? How...?”
“She was a prisoner of sorts — genetically engineered to be a genius. What they neglected to consider was that even geniuses don’t necessarily want to follow lofty ambitions. She was supposed to help her family reconquer their sectors and assert dominance over the Earthside zones. In reality, she didn’t like the pressure. She much prefers lounging, prefers... Let's say, the life of a cat.”
Aellyce smiled slightly. “She almost looks like one, the way she's all matted and mangy...”
“If Bella tried to make any hostile moves, I believe Celeste would have a contingency for anything she could do.”
“I didn’t realize this feud between them was really this deep. Feels like the Cold War or somethin’.” Aellyce punctuated with a yawn.
“Their war has gotten hot a couple of times. Butting heads can be fruitful to a extent, and ironically, I was born the last time they fought.”
Aellyce sat up. “How does that work?”
“They were arguing about the old Proton-B. Celeste was fine to keep it as it was, but Bella was convinced that the system was capable of more. And so, Celeste spent weeks inventing me, almost entirely out of spite. Mostly because Bella made a comment about how Celeste would be hard pressed to program anything halfway decent...”
“Really? Bella is the one that influenced your design? I almost don’t believe it.”
“Her crew was very limited at the time. She hadn’t even recalled you, yet.”
Aellyce laid back down, stared at the ceiling.
“She hoped that I could help, in your absence.”
“Or... Did she want to replace me?”
“Nothing could replace you, Aellyce. Enough about me — what’s on your mind tonight?”
There was a long pause. Aellyce could feel the sleep creeping into her eyes. “Back on Earth... We had this... phenomenon called snow.”
“I’ve seen it in a couple of movies.”
“Right. I miss the snow.”
“Do you miss the other weather, too?”
“Yeah. But snow for me... Everything felt at peace when there was snow on the ground. You could stand outside at night in two feet of it, and it was like the world was standing still. It feels the same as that quiet serenity when you’re sitting in the middle of space in a Casket. It’s almost just as cold, too. But something about that feeling... It feels like there’s nothing to do, nothing ahead. Just one moment... Where you forget everything. Everything just becomes... Tranquil. And then hot chocolate, warm tea... They all become just that much better.”
“You seem like a very meditative person, Aellyce.”
“Huh? I wouldn’t go that far...” Her voice began to drift off.
“You can be bubbly, but there’s a calm in you. It’s not like the anxiety that Bella and Celeste share — it’s the opposite. It’s fight or flight when you need it, calm when you don’t. Bella and Celeste have a way about them, a calm within a storm...”
Aellyce began to softly snore.
Proton, surprising even itself, chuckled. “Goodnight, Aellyce.”
And the screen turned off.