The Good, The Bad and the Princess

by BorealStargazer

Five

She should probably go get some rest. All things considered, sorting out the escapees was not on her schedule.

Luna loved mysteries. Especially the ones that resonated with her. And now she felt something inside of her jingle, barely audible, trembling like a tight string.

When she returned to the hangar the work was well underway. Third dock was sealed off, three unicorn technicians in dark blue overalls tinkering with the apparatus and terminals, the purpose of which she could only guess.

“Your Highness,” one of the few security ponies stepped forward and bowed his head.

“May I ask what are you doing?” she asked innocently.

“Captain ordered us to inspect the charging station and the rest of the gear. Maybe we'll find something pointing out to where this...” the guard stumbled on his eager explanation, “pony went. Are they even ponies?”

“Wish I could know,” Luna managed a weak smile. “Alas, my wisdom has its limits.”

“They say you've dealt with them before.”

“So they say,” the princess confirmed absent-mindedly, taking notice that one of the mechanics gave his place behind the terminal to another one after having some words with her. The new pony looked back, and Luna portrayed herself to be completely immersed in discussion. “I'd like to skip the details if I may, officer. These are not the memories I would eagerly recollect now.”

“The Umbrum are Darkness,” the guard echoed understandingly. The phrase sounded crammed.

“No,” the princess countered thoughtfully. “They are something entirely different. Darkness is my domain.”

“You won't mind me watching them work, now will you?” a change of topic was very timely. “A rare opportunity for me.”

The guard was conflicted, a clash of emotions plain on his face.

“Princess... I wouldn't want...”

“I have no intention to obstruct their duties, I assure you,” Luna smiled encouragingly. “It's just royalty has boring days, too.”

“All right, fine,” he yielded, giving way. “But only on the condition you won't be interfering. We have a job to do.”

She did not approach at once. First she took a look at the charging cable, then at the metal manipulator claw (a technician was tinkering with its controls).

“Beg you pardon,” she said, addressing the unicorn mare in the working suit sitting behind the terminal, “whatever is this?”

She could be pretty quiet when she wanted to.

Unicorn started, turning around. Her hooves twitched, series of opened interface panels vanishing from the terminal, leaving a blank screen.

“N-nothing. I mean...” she stumbled, thinking. “I was in the middle of checking if there were any modifications in SRV software modules preceding its disconnection, Your Highness.”

“What's your name?” Luna frowned.

“Tyre Iron, Your Highness,” the unicorn bowed her head.

“Tyre, imagine that I have a... superficial understanding of technical things,” Luna smiled embarrassingly. “Could you explain it in laypony's terms?”

The pony scratched her nose with a greasy hoof and threw back a thick curl of lilac hair obscuring her face, the curl immediately falling back.

“Any kind of machinery aside from mechanical parts has some software utilities at its disposal.”

“Like a clock widget on a PC rig,” the princess nodded in encouragement.

“Exactly! So I was checking if the programming of the repair vehicle were changed prior to its disappearance,” the unicorn said, picking words. She turned to face the monitor, chewed on her lip a little and restored an interface panel she had just hid. “Any changes in vehicle's firmware are logged in the system journal. So if there is a glitch we will always know where to look first.”

“And did your search bear any fruit?”

“Nope,” the unicorn shook her head. “Nothing. According to the log all systems weren't changed since the last check.”

“Princess,” the guard was quickly approaching them. There was disappointment in his voice. “You promised...”

“...not to interfere,” Luna finished before he could have a chance. “I do keep my word. Tyre here couldn't find anything relevant, am I right?”

The most difficult in all of that was to wait, mimicking a bona fide involvement in the process. Luna never expected she had to revive some of her college skills here. Once she tried to explain that the sleep was her duty. Professors weren't moved by her argument about the subconscious learning though, so sometimes she had to resort to more... trivial techniques. One of them proved to be very useful here.

When the maintenance crew began to move, turning the displays off one by one, Luna shook her wings.

“Tyre,” she exclaimed cheerfully, stopping the unicorn short of escaping. “Could you please explain another little thing?”

“I... er... sure, Your Highness,” she froze.

“No, no,” the princess shook her head. “I'm not going to rob you of your well-deserved rest. We can talk on the way.”

The guard she talked to earlier was already gone, probably to report the findings. The rest of the security were also lazily dispersing. If Luna got the basics of the local routines right it was the time of the evening shift change.

“I've been thinking,” she confessed, “why would one want to change vehicle software anyway? Is the factory-made firmware not good enough?”

“Not at all,” the unicorn giggled, quick to assure her. “The problem is their software is pretty standart. SRVs are multipurpose machines used everywhere from full-scale construction to cable system repairs. Our work has its quirks, so we need to revisit inner modules from time to time. Sometimes the operators have requests...”

“...to unblock networking,“ the princess lightly backed her up. “Put in a player with their favourite music...”

“Your Highness!” the unicorn looked injured. “It is a blatant policy violation! I can lose half of my monthly pay for something like that!”

“I won't tell anyone,” Luna calmly informed. Serenity silently followed them, never showing he heard anything from their conversation.

There was a momentary awkward silence.

“There are players... occasionally,” Tyre admitted. “But no Net! We have an understanding of what is safe play, after all. But we also improve programming!” she quickly added. “Calibrate the controls. Add in and tune filters and sensors. Sometimes we even install some of our in-house dev projects! You might have noticed our equipment here is not exactly top-of-the-line... And not all of it was designed for mining in the first place.”

“So how was it? Did you find anything?”

“Nothing,” the pony quickly shook her head. “Not a trace.”

Luna stopped and watched her intently for some time. Servicepony was clearly feeling uncomfortable under her scrutiny but she never moved.

“It's okay, Tyre. I believe you,” the princess nodded slowly. “And what did you expect to find?”

The unicorn didn't say anything. She nervously threw the bun of hair back and rubbed her nose again, leaving a trace of motor oil on her muzzle.

“You've entrusted me a secret, Tyre,” Luna decided. “And I will disclose something in return. Captain Lash didn't ask me to question anyone. On the contrary, I believe he would prefer no questions asked. Prefer to see me at the honorary banquet surrounded by his lieutenants,” she let out a weak smile. “Yet the life eternal has its drawbacks. Two hundred banquets later the novelty of it is gone, replaced by routine and wearisome rite. Cely, perhaps... No. Even to her.”

She drew closer.

“What do you think of Celekh?”

The pony wavered.

“She's queer,” she managed finally. “Maybe she's bonkers. Maybe all umbrum are.”

The princess kept patient silence.

“Didn't have any friends, even among us, although we worked together. Always a gloomy one,” Tyre threw a lock of hair back again.

“Your tone suggests she's dead,” the princess slowly said. The unicorn nodded in return.

“Everypony knows you need a shelter from the storm. To willingly leave the shelter during one... The guards said she could spy for the marauders, prepare an escape or even help the umbrum. I'm not sure. Got a message from her half an hour ago...”

“Half an hour ago? But then she was already...”

“Outside, yes,” Tyre nodded. “I guess she scheduled the sending from her terminal. The last few weeks she was working on an underground vehicle positioning utility.”

“I don't get it,” Luna scrubbed her chin with her hoof, thinking. “I saw worker markers tracking back in administrative section. How can you possibly get lost in a mine with a technology like that?”

“Getting lost doesn't exactly nail it...” the unicorn bethought. “The thing is... Amber is a constant source of tracker interference. They say the last models have a nice shielding from it, but, as you've probably noticed, princess, we don't have the last models here. Trackers are good for dwelling levels but the deeper you get, the more toasted circuitry you encounter. It would be nice to have at least a quarter of them running at the lowest layer.”

“The captain...”

“Knows, obviously,” Tyre made a wry face. “He repeatedly tried to get us to fix them. But we don't know how to make spare parts from sand yet, and he had no luck pushing the funding through for that. The richest layers here are worked out. Guess the Senate believes it is more profitable to invest in more promising mines elsewhere.”

“So what is that program Celekh was writing?”

“She wasn't writing it as much as adapting it. I'm... not a wiz on the thing. She said it would help machines find the course and keep it in case positioning sensors are not responding. The message had her groundwork files as an attachment but I doubt I'll get a grasp on them soon.”

“That's what you were looking for,” the princess smiled. “You wanted to check if the repair vehicle had a copy of this program.”

Tyre nodded.

“When I said I found no sign of changes I wasn't lying. Maybe Celekh wiped the system logs. Maybe I was worrying about nothing.”

“Can a CRV with such a program navigate in a sandstorm?” Luna inquired thoughtfully.

“No idea,” the unicorn shuddered. “You may want to ask the comms engineer in the admin, Celekh was working with her. Rose... Rosy... something like that.”

“I believe I know who are you talking about,” the alicorn nodded. They stopped at the aperture leading to one of the civilian tenant sections. “One more question if I may.”

The pony stared at her questioningly.

“How did the umbrum start the vehicle without a private key? The captain even ordered an investigation on that.”

Tyre smiled.

“Oh, that's a simple one. You see, princess, you either play by the book or do your work in here. If you'd need to do all the paperwork our instructions prescribe just to run a couple of simple tests...” her horn sparked with a small discharge, “...you would quickly adjust.”

Author's Note:

Sidenote: Is it possible for a story to be interesting if it has no action whatsoever?