Bored...
So bored...
Galena was the head of the Hibernation Department, which really meant that she was a glorified babysitter whose babies were always asleep. Making sure that the nutrient ratios were consistent took some effort, but once she figured out everyone’s basal metabolic rates, it was simple. It gave her time to think, poke around the changeling network, and see what Techbird was doing.
With the network being as it was, manipulating the mental net was a lot like locks in a canal system – the locks were individual connections and the water was the stream of consciousness or thought. Because of this, Galena had to be careful when navigating the network when Techbird was involved. To make this easier for everyone Galena devised a way to ping Techbird before she opened up the connection. That way when the locks were open for that brief moment, the stream of consciousness didn't flood out into the network. The princess figured that is what happened when Epiphany tried to link up with Luna – there were no safeguards in place, or the guards were too weak for the stream. Once it hit, it blew apart everything and collapsed the network.
When Galena pinged Techbird over the network, she felt the sympathetic bond echo back to her as well as the underlying emotions of love, adoration, and concentration. She knew that Techbird was just finished with her debriefing with Wandering, Starry, and the Captain, so maybe she was asleep? No harm in just taking a little peek?
Cosmic Dawn, (Unicorn), Doppler Effect (Thestral), Gravity Wave (Chrome Changeling), I need everything we have on our work right now! Techbird ran into the main lab and started to pull up everything she had on various topics – diffraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, current gravitational theories, current laws of physics both with and without magical inputs. At the same time, the two ponies and the one changeling ran around gathering scrolls and maps and putting them in the center of the room.
Techbird’s team did things... in a rather strange manner. They were atypical thinkers, much like the Pif think-tank back on the lunar colony, and this was no different. Once Wave levitated the scrolls in the correct orientation, Cosmic Dawn lowered the gravity spell in the room. With a slow flap of her wings, Techbird started to slowly move around the sphere of constantly moving data. She ran over every fact and every figure over and over again.
“Hypothesis: what if our hypothesis on our universe was wrong the entire time?” Tech barked out.
“Negating Data: none of our all-sky surveys have detected anything beyond the Far Star.” Gravity Wave chimed in.
“Query: have our sky surveys indicated a hard barrier or a gradual barrier?” Doppler spoke up.
“Analyzing.... Analyzing.... Out of our understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum, gamma rays, X-Rays, ultraviolet, visible light, infrared, and microwave show an abrupt stop,” Techbird said.
“Query: what about radio waves?” Gravity Wave asked.
“Analyzing... Analyzing...” the griffon stated as she flew around the many many scrolls of raw data. “Hold on – I need to utilize the link in order to come up with a conclusion.” She searched her mind for the link to her mate-in-secret and smiled when she felt her pinging her lightly “She must have been able to tell.” She opened the link wide open and let the multiple threads of computation flow.
Galena’s eyes went wide as the connection was forced open. She had not been expecting the sudden flow, and the only thing she could do before she was swept away by it was send out a warning ahead of the shock to Wandering. She could not serve as the barrier this time.
Wandering suddenly stood up in his chair and sent out a warning ping to every other ling on the network. He tried to bolster his mental defenses against the might of Techbird’s mind, and he let out a gasp before everything went white.
“What...what happened?!” Ixia cried out as she looked around. This was not where she had been a few moments ago. Now when she tried to figure out her surroundings, she was in what looked like a large planetarium. On the ground with her, the changelings in the crew were waking up, along with Wandering Path.
“Okay, what in Tartarus is going on!” Wandering bellowed out.
Galena walked up to the group when a sheepish look on her face. “Okay... so you are all going to be mad at me, but this time it’s not my fault. I was going to ping Techbird before I connected with her but I kind of forgot, and right when I opened the link, she pinged me, and that kind of sent us here.”
Wandering helped everyone else to their feet. “So where is here?”
“Whenever Tech gets a huge problem she has to deal with, she starts multiple threads of thought, and each train of thought is given license to work out its issue. This is how she innovates at such a startling pace... well that and time in here isn’t like the normal world.” Galena went into lecture mode as she walked toward the center of the room and pointed up.
“For every second in the real world, a much larger amount passes here. That is how she’s able to come up with answers so quickly.” The purple princess nodded as she made sense of the situation. “Because I was surprised, I could not stop her from drawing everyone into our world. However, I am still shouldering the entire mental load so you should be fine. Because there is that disconnect, while you can see her, she can’t see you... I think. If she did, she would most likely try to force tasks onto you.”
Wandering was going to ask what exactly that meant when Techbird came up to them, or rather it was an unusual version of her. She was smooth, strong, and alluring, and she moved in a very sensual manner. Oblivious to the others, she wrapped a wing around Galena and drew her into an ardent embrace. While she couldn’t kiss because of her beak, she nibbled and crooned against the chitin around the changeling’s neck, her tongue moving up against her chin before speaking in a lustful and blatantly sexual tone, “And how is my Queen doing tonight?”
The princess’s eyes went wide and her wings buzzed slightly in response. Galena started to stammer as she searched for a way to explain what was going on to the rest of those in the mindscape without giving Techbird the idea that they were there. “Separating yourself into your core components to do a computation again?”
The Techbird that kept chirring around Galena nodded a few times. “Full Techbird can’t fully focus on things this complicated, too many distractions you know this. She has to separate herself to get things done. It’s not that bad – it means I get to have you all to myself while the others work on their projects.” She gestured up at her other aspects before she let out another deep croon. “Now...where were we? Shall I get the toy you lik-”
Galena's horn lit up to silence the catbird while Wandering and the other changelings looked up to see what looked like twenty other Techbirds all flapping around some kind of construct. While it looked like some strange geometrical figure, none of them could shake off the feeling that it was something greater than that.
Galena sighed a bit. “How many dimensions is she working in?”
The lusty Techbird was about to say something when a strange Techbird landed by them. One of her eyes was tinged like a Violet drone and it spoke in a cold, matter-of-fact voice as it paced back and forth. “Currently there are eighteen core Techbirds working on each facet of the problem; the maximum she can work on her own is four. With your help she can work in six, which still pales in comparison to her capacity when she’s a part of the Pif Network.”
Why does she need six dimensions – the problem isn’t that complicated is it?” Wandering said out loud.
The strange Techbird stared straight at him. “It’s not a function of complexity – it’s a function of capacity. Each dimension adds a new vector in which one can work, reducing the total time required for the task.” Wandering was about to speak when the strange bird spoke again. “Yes, I am a part of Techbird; no, I’m not going to use you to run calculations, and yes, I can see you because I’m the one directing the Techbird algorithm within the mindscape. I can see you but I can’t use you... such a wasted resource. Your sole virtue of being here is to distract the useless aspects of Techbird.” Strange Techbird gestured in the direction of the lustful Techbird aspect who was still basically groping an embarrassed Galena as Wandering closed his mouth.
Gravity Wave finally spoke up as he let out a whimper. “How long are we going to be in here for?”
“As long as it takes for Techbird to finish the calculations. However I don’t think that will be long, what with how many vectors we are working in and the relative simplicity of the problem. Maybe a few minutes in here, which equates to a few seconds in real time.” The griffon-ling sighed. “It was not our intention to drag you in here with us. Actually, the reason why this happened was that of coincidence. Right when Techbird pinged Galena to use her for the link, Galena pinged Tech wanting to come in. The result was similar to somebody running into a door right when somebody opens it. Galena is quite the Queen being able to maintain a connection with this level of strain and keep you out of my grasp.”
“Your grasp?” Wandering asked?
“I only care about two things, the Queen, and solving the puzzle. I will use everything in my power to keep her happy and solve the puzzle. That is why I was created,” the strange Techbird replied.
“What aspect of Tech are you?” Gravity asked.
Galena was the one that responded. “That is Techbird's Loyalty and Ambition,” she stated rather warily. “She’s the one you need to be afraid of.” The Princess moved in between the group and the one fragment of Tech. “Go back to the threads; we will wait here until you are done so I can reset the connection.
“As the Queen wishes.” Strange Tech smiled and flew back into the air to join the others, all working on the task at hand.
“Why do we need to watch out for her?” Wandering asked.
“When Tech is fragmented like this, you get pure versions of all of her sides, good and bad. This one is neither... in theory. But she’s pure ambition and loyalty – no restraint, no compassion. It’s why she and I have such an... intimate connection. When the link was first formed, I had to win over all of her cores or she would overwhelm me. Pif had herself, Free Agent, and all of her drones on her side, so it was rather quick. I only had myself, so it was a battle I just barely came out on top of. It’s why when you saw me in the cafeteria, I was so winded.” Galena sighed and looked up with a sudden smile. “The construct is almost done. That means she’s almost found her solution.”
The group of changelings looked up with wide eyes at the strange flowing construct created purely out of equations and proofs. A few of the lings shook their heads, utterly confused by what they were seeing.
All of the Techbirds suddenly froze and faded away, but after a few seconds one Techbird appeared with a smile on her face. “Conclusion: the exponential increase of dust strikes is because we are nearing the inner edge of a dense dust sphere. The Equus system is inside a hollowed-out portion of a cloud light-years across. Supporting data includes deep sky radar surveys, infrared surveys, point triangulation analysis, and physical theories seven, nine, thirteen, and thirty two pioneered by Cosmic Dawn. The Far Star is twenty light-days away, and the wall is approximately twenty five light-days away. Potential course needed to enter a high inclination elliptical scientific orbit is calculated.” She nodded once, and with the strain on the network reduced to practically nothing, Wandering started pulling the other lings out of the rather intense sympathetic system and into the less taxing parasympathetic system, leaving Galena and Techbird to themselves for now.
Techbird blinked a few times and looked around, sensing the change but not being able to notice what happened. Within a few moments, she shook it off and wrapped a wing around Galena. “So, now that the calculations are done, why do you seem so annoyed?”
The Princess huffed. “It still bothers me that I am not the Queen of the Cosmic Lotus changelings. I should be able to handle it. I have been getting stronger thanks to your sheer brain power, and they pale in comparison to you. Maintaining all of them would be a simple task. But no – I am not to be a Queen on the Lotus, and when we get back home, I am not to be a Queen there either.” She slumped slightly in sadness.
This melancholy mood, however, was countered by the love the griffon was feeding her. “How long have we been together, Galena?”
“Since Ixia had you talk to me, about three years ago.”
“And for this entire time I have felt that you were sad about this fact, the rightful queen cursed by being the youngest, never able to achieve her true destiny.”
Galena frowned a bit, not liking how her sadness was being trivialized. Before she could vocalize her opinion, Techbird stopped her by nibbling on her neck.
“Don’t you think I have been working on a solution for you? Pif and I have been working on a side project. You know one of the House mantras is to keep going forward, and this is the natural progression of this. Would you like to see?”
“What does this have to do with anything?”
Techbird started to grin as the mindscape around them started to shift. “Everything!”
When Galena looked around again, she was floating through space. When she turned around she was staring at a bright white ball in the pitch void of space.
“What... what is this?”
“This is what we think the Far Star looks like. We are still very, very far away so we can really just get a feel for its color and its intensity. Other than that, it’s a lot of speculation. But that’s not why we are here,”
The griffon held onto Galena's hoof as they shot toward one strange light point in the sky. As they zoomed toward it, the star became a little smaller but the star-like point turned into a large ring-like structure. As they floated around the structure, the silver outside gave way to a truly large settlement. Dwellings and buildings lined the edges with a central green strip of land going through the center. Down along the central way, they could see a tram-like object and beings walking along side it. Tech did not have the capacity to form mindscapes too intricate, so the beings had no form to them.
“Tech... what am I looking at?”
“The Far Star Colony. Free rules the Chrome Hive on Equus, Pif administrates the Lunar Colony, and we were thinking that you would be the Queen of the Far Star colony. Pif and I realized that from a single fly-by mission, we would not gather all the science of this feature. It would take a prolonged scientific mission, and with a mission such as this, we would need to be able to tackle new problems, and formulate new ideas. One of the reasons why I was picked as the Chief Scientist was because I had no problems with never returning to Equus if it meant an answer to my puzzle. When you combined that with the potential of a permeable dust barrier, it means that we would have so much to study before we were able to push past that. Pif and I have a few ideas, but it’s just been side notes to the data transmissions.
The pair landed on the roof of one of the taller buildings while Galena gawked at the scene in front of her. “We could live here. I could be the Queen of changelings here?”
“Not to begin with. First we need to get the colony in the right orbit and then construction begins. This is a massive project – so much larger than the Lotus.” She motioned to the stationary point in the center of the ring.
“What’s that?”
“The transport beacon hub – that’s the Cosmic Lotus. If we started construction right when we reached capture orbit, it would take twice as long to build as the lunar colony. But, if we can get approval it will be done.”
Techbird smiled for a few moments before she was tackled by Galena in her dark griffon form. She crooned and nuzzled into her neck fluff.
Galena let out a happy sigh. Maybe her destiny to be an unknown princess could be changed somehow, but for now she was just weary from having to host so many minds at one time. “Can we leave now? I’m kind of tired.”
The catbird just smiled. “We can, yes, and when I get back to our room, I’ll make you some love tea. How does that sound?”
Galena nodded before she nuzzled her companion. “Sounds good to me.”
With the computation completed and the last two occupants shifting to the parasympathetic network, the scene slowly faded into the void.