Moonstone: Scene 13
Bb Major Con Desiderio
I woke up in a med-pod. I recognized the warm ionic smell immediately. I opened my eyes.
"Oh good, you're awake. What were you doing? I find you at the side door, passed out! Your feet were all bloody! You're lucky I take early runs." Dune came over to my side. He had been reading an actual book, not a lumentext. What book was he reading? Why was he reading... I strained to remember what I knew about my brother. Did I know what he did?
I tried sitting up.
"Hey, take it easy. You haven't been in here all that long."
I rubbed my eyes.
"You haven't answered my questions."
"Right. I just wanted a hint of freedom before my life slips away from me. Oh and then I saw that sign - that sign that had plagued me. I had to destroy that sign, it killed me-my brother." Hellfire. I looked into Dune's eyes, yeah, he knew I slipped up. It only took him a blink of a moment to put it all together. Krietsit. I've got to watch my tongue.
"Living metal?"
"Apparently, from Darkyn's recollection."
"Well, now this makes sense." He was holding a vial.
Living metal?
"I didn't know what urged me to bring this to you. I guess I knew, somehow, in the back of my mind or something." He held it up to his eyes, staring at it.
How did he have a vial of living metal? I stretched my brain to remember what it was that Dune studied at the research academy.
"You know, all the intricate knowledge of the workings of living metal was destroyed with the annhilation of your, uh, race."
Energy Archaeology! That was his specialty! Darkyn did pharmaceuticals? Ugh. Why was this so hard to remember? Drendyn. Drendyn's specialty was chemistry. What the hellfire did Kellan study? I studied discrete mathematics. Was that correct?
"You're trying to remember something, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I've been having a rough time recalling information that I used to know like it was second nature."
Dune squinted at the vial.
"I can help you."
"What do you mean?" I stared at him, hard.
"I don't know the exact structure of the living metal that Darkyn gave you, but I know what this vial does."
I cocked my head to the side. "Where did you get that vial?"
"In a dig around Dryft's remains."
He had been to Dryft? Hellfire!
"This living metal structure was intact, in a special anti-vibration container."
"Didn't you report it to the academy?"
"No."
I sat there and stared at him.
"This vial contains a living metal structure that affects your neurotransmitters."
Uhhhh.
"This vial changes your brain chemistry."
Oh ok.
"I can give you an injection..."
An injection of living metal? How long would it last? What would it do to my brain? Was he sure it would only do what he thought? GAH!
He started to turn away. I put my hand on his shoulder. Why not? I hated my life as it was. I nodded to him. He smiled and prepared a syringe.
"This will hurt and then it will feel a little weird. Just relax, I'll be right here." He prodded around on my arm on the inside of my elbow. It already felt weird! Maybe he had studied pharmaceuticals and not Darkyn? GAH!
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
He put a tie around my arm.
"Breathe Lyte."
Oh yeah.
I breathed in and then holy krietsit I felt a sharp pain. Uhhhh. Then there was this cool weird feeling in my arm and I could feel it crawling? Ugh. I wanted to puke. Suddenly I felt this massive headache, like my head would explode. Holy HELLFIRE! I had been holding my eyes tightly closed but now they were wide open. My brain flooded with light. Color. Woah. I saw symbols in the lights above me. Dune had studied racial neurology with emphasis on the Energy race! I REMEMBERED! I KNEW! I KNEW!
"Dune! You studied racial neurology!"
He laughed. I felt strong again! For the first time since I died, I UNDERSTOOD! Holy hellfire. It made sense.
"Now, if you feel it slipping away from you again, take another injection."
"It doesn't last?"
"It will last, but I don't know for how long."
"So am I stupid without the living metal?"
"No, far from it. But since you've had living metal in your body since you were so young, I'm guessing, your brain hasn't learned how to cope without it yet. On the living metal, you were brilliant-and then it was instantly excreted, which must have caused you a great shock."
I knew he was right. I understood. I felt the strongest I'd ever felt.
"Did you study the various languages of the Energy race?"
"Yes, it was the only way I could piece together information about living metal, from what lumentexts I could recover."
"I pulled down some information from the Water mesh-x that I can't translate, that was archived from the Energy mesh-x controller."
"How the hellfire did you do that? I've been told repeatedly that they do not have any other information!"
"I, uh, scanned in... and... "
"You scanned in?!"
"Shhh! I don't want anyone to know."
"They gave you access? What did you get?" He whispered.
"They gave me access as Triandis Suiryoku. I pulled down everything I could find related to the Energy race. I didn't understand most of it, because it was in a language I'd never seen before."
"Triandis Suiryoku? Oh the texts were probably in Tai-Zyukkaen, that's the glyph language the Energy race used for many of their technical documents. Were they funny circles and lines?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, that's Tai-Zyukkaen. I'd love to see what you pulled down... "
"Do you have your localized scanset working?"
His orange eyes lit up. He had been working on a scanset that he could take with him and have access to the mesh-x controller anywhere he wanted.
"Don't you have to pack?"
"I can do that later. Do you want to see what I pulled down or not?"
"We'll have to take it to the atrium- that's the only place I can use it without interference."
"Fine, we'd better hurry, everyone will be up soon." He helped me out of the med-pod.
We snuck through the house to his room, quietly giggling to ourselves. Neither of us could help it! We pulled his localized scanset project together from his room and nearly ran to the atrium. He started climbing the big tree in the center of the atrium.
"You didn't tell me we had to be up a tree."
"It has the best connection."
Why hadn't we gotten along this well before? What had I been missing?
We worked out a system for getting all of the equipment up the tree without destroying it.
"This is a lot faster with you helping."
I laughed. "What do you normally do, climb up and down the tree and take up everything in multiple trips?"
"No! I'm smarter than that! I use a pulley system, but I'm always afraid I'm going to smash my components into the tree."
I laughed again and climbed up the tree now that everything was loaded into the tree.
"Ok, you scan in, and I'll give you a place to put everything on the local side." Dune pulled out a cartridge of optrix prisms. I nodded and put the ear pads over my head. I initiated contact with the Water mesh-x controller. Flash. Warm. I had scanned in as Triandis Suiryoku again. I opened up my account.
"I have it open Dune."
"Ok, I've loaded an open entry under hack-home-hack-triandis."
"Got it. You have a secure code?"
"Yeah, use 'D-R-A-R'."
"Ok. What does that mean?"
"That was your mother's name."
GAH!
"Well, the shortened version of your mother's name."
He knew my mother's name? Yeah, I guess he would, studying the Energy Arkhitecture.
I copied the files onto the optrix cartridge.
"Looks like you have stuff I've never seen- living metal documents, some biology and chemistry, and some other stuff I can't translate. I knew the Water mesh-x controller had more than they said they had!"
"Will you be able to translate all of it?"
"I've never met a document I couldn't master." He laughed.
"What the hellfire is that?"
"What?"
"That file, the one that keeps changing."
"I don't see one."
Uhhhh. He didn't see the file? I grabbed the file and pried it open. Flash. My collarbone felt like it was on fire. I tried scratching it but I couldn't. Flash. Crawling in my brain? HOLY HELLFIRE. What did I just open? Flash. Flash. Dizzy. My ears were on fire now. Crawling in my ears? Crawling in my ears! GAH!
"Ok we're done."
I ripped the scanset off my head. Breathe.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I opened the file you couldn't see, and I got sick."
"Put the scanset back on, let me check you out. Why didn't you tell me?"
I went to put the scanset back on my head, but found that I was already seeing the interface in my eyes.
"Am I in?"
"Yeah why? Don't you see the interface?"
"Yeah, I do, but I don't have the scanset on."
"WHAT?!"
Dune disappeared from the mesh-x. I looked down and could see the scanset still in my hands, behind the mesh-x interface projected in my eyes.
"Holy hellfire. You're fully in the mesh-x, but sure as hell you're not using the scanset. Let me look at your brain scan."
I felt the warm flush of the scan.
"Krietsit. Your brain structure has completely changed. The living metal has grown and extended into nearly every portion of your brain, but you have another trace in your brain that I don't think I've ever seen. It's similar to the hybridization net that all Flowers have, but it's not right. This is so interesting."
I was a freaking object again.
"DUNE! Am I ok or what? Stop studying me!"
"Oh yeah, sorry, habit. No, you're fine - as far as I can tell, you just don't need to use a scanset to access the mesh-x anymore."
What the hellfire was I?
"We'd better keep this just between the two of us."
"Oh yeah. I'm sure as hell not going to talk to anyone about it."
"Don't let anyone brainscan you either. They'll be able to see that you're not a normal Flower, and the living metal will show up and you'll be executed as a Weed."
Great. More to worry about.
"When you translate those files, will you secure them to me?"
"Yes, of course. Triandis Suiryoku, right?"
"Yeah, I guess that's my scan entry."
"At least now you don't need to worry about sneaking a scan-in."
No, I had MANY MANY more worries than that now.
"What do you think those files contain?"
He shuffled around the files in front of me.
"Well, some of them look like they might contain laws or cultural information... but then there are these special files. These files contain information, but they have glyphs I've never seen, and the structures of the glyphs I understand do not make any sense."
"Example?"
"Well, this one says, 'Flower black for silver going.' Which is a rough translation, but you get the idea - it doesn't make sense. I can't even imagine how to translate that correctly."
"Could it be a slightly different form of Tai-Zyukkaen?"
"Well, I guess it could be, but if it is, then I have no idea what ANY of these files are."
"Are you thinking it's a code?"
"Yeah. Where did you find these?"
"I was searching for Energy customs, laws, and culture relating especially to Flowers."
"Some of these files are definitely what you were searching for, but these other files, those I do not believe belong in that group."
"What an excellent method of hiding them."
He perked up. "What do you mean?"
"You've been asking the Water mesh-x controller for technical and various scientific files from the Energy Arkhitecture, but you've always received negative results. Anyone else looking for the same information is also going to receive negative results - but if you ask the controller for documents pertaining to Flower relations, which no one is going to search for, because, frankly, who cares, then you *will* find the files. The only person looking for files like these would be someone like..." Oh duh.
Dune stared at me, his head cocking to one side.
"Oh krietsit! I will be late to academy!" He ripped the scanset off his head.
Uhhhh. How do I disengage from the mesh-x?
He looked around. "I'll leave all this stuff up here so I can work on the translations after I come back... but I will be taking this with me." He popped out the optrix cartridge.
"I'm still scanned-in."
"What? The transmitter is shut down."
"I'm telling you, I'm still able to converse with the mesh-x. I still see the interface visible over my sight."
"Try connecting to the Metal controller."
"I'm in."
"No way! Absolutely no way! The transmitter is down, and you can't possibly have a transmitter inside of you!"
"Well, I'm engaged with the Metal controller, ask me a question, I'll prove it!"
"Tell me when was my last scan-in on the research controller."
"First Twilight."
"Holy Hellfire! How are you still engaged? Krietsit, I will be so late for academy, but I just can't believe you can transmit still!"
"That's all lovely and everything, but how do I disengage?"
"Ok, when did it pop up without the scanset?"
"When I went to put it back on so that you could peek at my brain scan."
"Ok did you do anything different?"
"No, I looked down at the scanset, and I went to put them on, but I could seee the interface already."
"What happens if you imagine taking a scanset off?"
I imagined removing the scanset.
The interface disappeared, but I could see the active marker, just barely, at the bottom of my vision.
"The interface is gone, but I still see an active marker."
"It may be that you never really disengage from the mesh-x."
Uhhh. Never disengage? What was I, the DPU's mutated love child?
"Ok, I really have to go now. Just leave everything up here and I'll contact you later ok?" He started climbing down the tree. I followed him.
"Hey, thanks for not weirding out on me."
"No way! Besides, you're excellent research material. heh." He was laughing. "Hey, I'll contact you as soon as I get back." He was running down the hall.
What if I never disengage? Hellfire! I still have to get everything ready to leave! GAH! Now *I* was running down the halls.
I woke up in a med-pod. I recognized the warm ionic smell immediately. I opened my eyes.
"Oh good, you're awake. What were you doing? I find you at the side door, passed out! Your feet were all bloody! You're lucky I take early runs." Dune came over to my side. He had been reading an actual book, not a lumentext. What book was he reading? Why was he reading... I strained to remember what I knew about my brother. Did I know what he did?
I tried sitting up.
"Hey, take it easy. You haven't been in here all that long."
I rubbed my eyes.
"You haven't answered my questions."
"Right. I just wanted a hint of freedom before my life slips away from me. Oh and then I saw that sign - that sign that had plagued me. I had to destroy that sign, it killed me-my brother." Hellfire. I looked into Dune's eyes, yeah, he knew I slipped up. It only took him a blink of a moment to put it all together. Krietsit. I've got to watch my tongue.
"Living metal?"
"Apparently, from Darkyn's recollection."
"Well, now this makes sense." He was holding a vial.
Living metal?
"I didn't know what urged me to bring this to you. I guess I knew, somehow, in the back of my mind or something." He held it up to his eyes, staring at it.
How did he have a vial of living metal? I stretched my brain to remember what it was that Dune studied at the research academy.
"You know, all the intricate knowledge of the workings of living metal was destroyed with the annhilation of your, uh, race."
Energy Archaeology! That was his specialty! Darkyn did pharmaceuticals? Ugh. Why was this so hard to remember? Drendyn. Drendyn's specialty was chemistry. What the hellfire did Kellan study? I studied discrete mathematics. Was that correct?
"You're trying to remember something, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I've been having a rough time recalling information that I used to know like it was second nature."
Dune squinted at the vial.
"I can help you."
"What do you mean?" I stared at him, hard.
"I don't know the exact structure of the living metal that Darkyn gave you, but I know what this vial does."
I cocked my head to the side. "Where did you get that vial?"
"In a dig around Dryft's remains."
He had been to Dryft? Hellfire!
"This living metal structure was intact, in a special anti-vibration container."
"Didn't you report it to the academy?"
"No."
I sat there and stared at him.
"This vial contains a living metal structure that affects your neurotransmitters."
Uhhhh.
"This vial changes your brain chemistry."
Oh ok.
"I can give you an injection..."
An injection of living metal? How long would it last? What would it do to my brain? Was he sure it would only do what he thought? GAH!
He started to turn away. I put my hand on his shoulder. Why not? I hated my life as it was. I nodded to him. He smiled and prepared a syringe.
"This will hurt and then it will feel a little weird. Just relax, I'll be right here." He prodded around on my arm on the inside of my elbow. It already felt weird! Maybe he had studied pharmaceuticals and not Darkyn? GAH!
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
He put a tie around my arm.
"Breathe Lyte."
Oh yeah.
I breathed in and then holy krietsit I felt a sharp pain. Uhhhh. Then there was this cool weird feeling in my arm and I could feel it crawling? Ugh. I wanted to puke. Suddenly I felt this massive headache, like my head would explode. Holy HELLFIRE! I had been holding my eyes tightly closed but now they were wide open. My brain flooded with light. Color. Woah. I saw symbols in the lights above me. Dune had studied racial neurology with emphasis on the Energy race! I REMEMBERED! I KNEW! I KNEW!
"Dune! You studied racial neurology!"
He laughed. I felt strong again! For the first time since I died, I UNDERSTOOD! Holy hellfire. It made sense.
"Now, if you feel it slipping away from you again, take another injection."
"It doesn't last?"
"It will last, but I don't know for how long."
"So am I stupid without the living metal?"
"No, far from it. But since you've had living metal in your body since you were so young, I'm guessing, your brain hasn't learned how to cope without it yet. On the living metal, you were brilliant-and then it was instantly excreted, which must have caused you a great shock."
I knew he was right. I understood. I felt the strongest I'd ever felt.
"Did you study the various languages of the Energy race?"
"Yes, it was the only way I could piece together information about living metal, from what lumentexts I could recover."
"I pulled down some information from the Water mesh-x that I can't translate, that was archived from the Energy mesh-x controller."
"How the hellfire did you do that? I've been told repeatedly that they do not have any other information!"
"I, uh, scanned in... and... "
"You scanned in?!"
"Shhh! I don't want anyone to know."
"They gave you access? What did you get?" He whispered.
"They gave me access as Triandis Suiryoku. I pulled down everything I could find related to the Energy race. I didn't understand most of it, because it was in a language I'd never seen before."
"Triandis Suiryoku? Oh the texts were probably in Tai-Zyukkaen, that's the glyph language the Energy race used for many of their technical documents. Were they funny circles and lines?"
"Yeah."
"Yeah, that's Tai-Zyukkaen. I'd love to see what you pulled down... "
"Do you have your localized scanset working?"
His orange eyes lit up. He had been working on a scanset that he could take with him and have access to the mesh-x controller anywhere he wanted.
"Don't you have to pack?"
"I can do that later. Do you want to see what I pulled down or not?"
"We'll have to take it to the atrium- that's the only place I can use it without interference."
"Fine, we'd better hurry, everyone will be up soon." He helped me out of the med-pod.
We snuck through the house to his room, quietly giggling to ourselves. Neither of us could help it! We pulled his localized scanset project together from his room and nearly ran to the atrium. He started climbing the big tree in the center of the atrium.
"You didn't tell me we had to be up a tree."
"It has the best connection."
Why hadn't we gotten along this well before? What had I been missing?
We worked out a system for getting all of the equipment up the tree without destroying it.
"This is a lot faster with you helping."
I laughed. "What do you normally do, climb up and down the tree and take up everything in multiple trips?"
"No! I'm smarter than that! I use a pulley system, but I'm always afraid I'm going to smash my components into the tree."
I laughed again and climbed up the tree now that everything was loaded into the tree.
"Ok, you scan in, and I'll give you a place to put everything on the local side." Dune pulled out a cartridge of optrix prisms. I nodded and put the ear pads over my head. I initiated contact with the Water mesh-x controller. Flash. Warm. I had scanned in as Triandis Suiryoku again. I opened up my account.
"I have it open Dune."
"Ok, I've loaded an open entry under hack-home-hack-triandis."
"Got it. You have a secure code?"
"Yeah, use 'D-R-A-R'."
"Ok. What does that mean?"
"That was your mother's name."
GAH!
"Well, the shortened version of your mother's name."
He knew my mother's name? Yeah, I guess he would, studying the Energy Arkhitecture.
I copied the files onto the optrix cartridge.
"Looks like you have stuff I've never seen- living metal documents, some biology and chemistry, and some other stuff I can't translate. I knew the Water mesh-x controller had more than they said they had!"
"Will you be able to translate all of it?"
"I've never met a document I couldn't master." He laughed.
"What the hellfire is that?"
"What?"
"That file, the one that keeps changing."
"I don't see one."
Uhhhh. He didn't see the file? I grabbed the file and pried it open. Flash. My collarbone felt like it was on fire. I tried scratching it but I couldn't. Flash. Crawling in my brain? HOLY HELLFIRE. What did I just open? Flash. Flash. Dizzy. My ears were on fire now. Crawling in my ears? Crawling in my ears! GAH!
"Ok we're done."
I ripped the scanset off my head. Breathe.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I opened the file you couldn't see, and I got sick."
"Put the scanset back on, let me check you out. Why didn't you tell me?"
I went to put the scanset back on my head, but found that I was already seeing the interface in my eyes.
"Am I in?"
"Yeah why? Don't you see the interface?"
"Yeah, I do, but I don't have the scanset on."
"WHAT?!"
Dune disappeared from the mesh-x. I looked down and could see the scanset still in my hands, behind the mesh-x interface projected in my eyes.
"Holy hellfire. You're fully in the mesh-x, but sure as hell you're not using the scanset. Let me look at your brain scan."
I felt the warm flush of the scan.
"Krietsit. Your brain structure has completely changed. The living metal has grown and extended into nearly every portion of your brain, but you have another trace in your brain that I don't think I've ever seen. It's similar to the hybridization net that all Flowers have, but it's not right. This is so interesting."
I was a freaking object again.
"DUNE! Am I ok or what? Stop studying me!"
"Oh yeah, sorry, habit. No, you're fine - as far as I can tell, you just don't need to use a scanset to access the mesh-x anymore."
What the hellfire was I?
"We'd better keep this just between the two of us."
"Oh yeah. I'm sure as hell not going to talk to anyone about it."
"Don't let anyone brainscan you either. They'll be able to see that you're not a normal Flower, and the living metal will show up and you'll be executed as a Weed."
Great. More to worry about.
"When you translate those files, will you secure them to me?"
"Yes, of course. Triandis Suiryoku, right?"
"Yeah, I guess that's my scan entry."
"At least now you don't need to worry about sneaking a scan-in."
No, I had MANY MANY more worries than that now.
"What do you think those files contain?"
He shuffled around the files in front of me.
"Well, some of them look like they might contain laws or cultural information... but then there are these special files. These files contain information, but they have glyphs I've never seen, and the structures of the glyphs I understand do not make any sense."
"Example?"
"Well, this one says, 'Flower black for silver going.' Which is a rough translation, but you get the idea - it doesn't make sense. I can't even imagine how to translate that correctly."
"Could it be a slightly different form of Tai-Zyukkaen?"
"Well, I guess it could be, but if it is, then I have no idea what ANY of these files are."
"Are you thinking it's a code?"
"Yeah. Where did you find these?"
"I was searching for Energy customs, laws, and culture relating especially to Flowers."
"Some of these files are definitely what you were searching for, but these other files, those I do not believe belong in that group."
"What an excellent method of hiding them."
He perked up. "What do you mean?"
"You've been asking the Water mesh-x controller for technical and various scientific files from the Energy Arkhitecture, but you've always received negative results. Anyone else looking for the same information is also going to receive negative results - but if you ask the controller for documents pertaining to Flower relations, which no one is going to search for, because, frankly, who cares, then you *will* find the files. The only person looking for files like these would be someone like..." Oh duh.
Dune stared at me, his head cocking to one side.
"Oh krietsit! I will be late to academy!" He ripped the scanset off his head.
Uhhhh. How do I disengage from the mesh-x?
He looked around. "I'll leave all this stuff up here so I can work on the translations after I come back... but I will be taking this with me." He popped out the optrix cartridge.
"I'm still scanned-in."
"What? The transmitter is shut down."
"I'm telling you, I'm still able to converse with the mesh-x. I still see the interface visible over my sight."
"Try connecting to the Metal controller."
"I'm in."
"No way! Absolutely no way! The transmitter is down, and you can't possibly have a transmitter inside of you!"
"Well, I'm engaged with the Metal controller, ask me a question, I'll prove it!"
"Tell me when was my last scan-in on the research controller."
"First Twilight."
"Holy Hellfire! How are you still engaged? Krietsit, I will be so late for academy, but I just can't believe you can transmit still!"
"That's all lovely and everything, but how do I disengage?"
"Ok, when did it pop up without the scanset?"
"When I went to put it back on so that you could peek at my brain scan."
"Ok did you do anything different?"
"No, I looked down at the scanset, and I went to put them on, but I could seee the interface already."
"What happens if you imagine taking a scanset off?"
I imagined removing the scanset.
The interface disappeared, but I could see the active marker, just barely, at the bottom of my vision.
"The interface is gone, but I still see an active marker."
"It may be that you never really disengage from the mesh-x."
Uhhh. Never disengage? What was I, the DPU's mutated love child?
"Ok, I really have to go now. Just leave everything up here and I'll contact you later ok?" He started climbing down the tree. I followed him.
"Hey, thanks for not weirding out on me."
"No way! Besides, you're excellent research material. heh." He was laughing. "Hey, I'll contact you as soon as I get back." He was running down the hall.
What if I never disengage? Hellfire! I still have to get everything ready to leave! GAH! Now *I* was running down the halls.
posted by Peach @ 8:35 PM
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