Conclusion: No place like home
The Dimensional Borer had been back for a good three or so days now, and Lyra had not seen hide nor hair of James.
At first she had been worried about this. Then annoyed, segueing into mildly cross before going back to being worried again. It just wasn’t like him at all.
Lyra vacillated on what she should do about this. Maybe he had a good reason? Maybe he was just sick of her and ponies in general? Maybe he’d died? She did not know, and the longer she went on not knowing the worse her imagination got.
Her friends helped as best they could, of course, and while their support was greatly appreciated - Bon Bon’s especially, of course - it could do little to entirely dispel the niggling concern always just nibbling away at her brain.
Eventually on day five it became too much, and she had to do something about it. Trying to look as thought she knew what it was she was doing she strode right up to the Dimensional Borer.
And stopped. She hadn’t thought further ahead. She’d sort of hoped James might have just been standing around outside it on the off-chance. He was not. A guard was, but if it was James he didn’t say anything.
Up-close, the sheer size of the Dimensional Borer was hard to ignore. Though, to be fair, the sheer size of the thing was always hard to ignore. Whenever it was there it practically loomed over Ponyville even at the respectable distance away from the edge of town at which it sat.
Up-close, it was just massive. Terrifyingly, dizzyingly massive. Like a piece of the landscape. Lyra looked up at the sun-obscuring, mirrored bulk and swallowed.
“Can I help you?”
That made her jump and she spun in place, seeing the blank, expressionless helmet of the guard turned her way. Doing her best not to look too rattled she stood up straight and asked, as properly as she could manage:
“Hello, yes. I was wondering if James was available, please?”
She kind of hoped the guard would know who she was talking about. There were apparently a lot of humans on the Borer, so presumably more than one James.
The guard as quiet a moment.
“Lyra, right?” They then said.
She was a little surprised to find herself recognised.
“Uh, yeah,” she said.
“Yeah, Let’s knows who you are. It wants to talk to you, wait here a second.”
“Oh, uh, okay.”
This wasn’t going how she’d planned it - because she hadn’t planned it - but at least it was going somewhere. Shuffling in place a little she stood and her and the guard both just kept awkwardly silent while they waited.
After a minute or two something happened.
The mirror surface rippled briefly before parting, a wedge-fronted chunk of metal sliding out and opening up down the middle to reveal a big, heavy door. The door hissed, clunked, and then opened, and out came Let’s.
The thing looked different to how it had looked the other times Lyra had seen it, though not so much she couldn’t recognise it. Let’s head wasn’t as boxy as it had been before, now being closer in shape to what a human’s head might be, though still angled. It also had eyes now. Or, at least, lights where the eyes should have been.
A definite improvement, in Lyra’s opinion. She’d never known where anyone was suppose to look before.
“Hello Lyra,” said Let’s.
“Hello,” she replied, before launching right into it: “Is James okay? I don’t want to be a bother it’s just that he normally comes and says hi whenever you guys are coming through and he hasn’t and I’m a little worried and-”
“James was injured,” Let’s said, interrupting what was rapidly becoming rambling. Lyra’s eyes widened.
“He’s hurt? Is he okay? What happened? Can I see him?”
Let’s held up both hands placatingly. These too had been improved, she noted fleetingly.
“He’s hurt but he’s perfectly fine and he’s being looked after. You can see him, but that would require you to come on board the Borer, as he is being cared for presently and cannot easily be moved. I would ask you to think carefully about this.”
This offer was so unexpected it actually tripped Lyra up a little bit. No-pony had been on the Borer, as far as she knew, not even the princesses. Everypony had just been operating under the assumption that the subject shouldn’t be broached and that it would be rude to ask for an invite.
“Come on-board? I can do that? I’m allowed?”
“I see no reason why not. But, as said, I would ask you think very carefully before you do.”
Something in it’s tone gave Lyra pause.
“Why?”
“Boarding would mean that you pass through the Envelope. Conditions inside the Envelope are not quite like conditions on the outside of the Envelope. I cannot guarantee that you will not experience an adverse reaction.”
Lyra could remember one or two things about the Envelope. James had explained it to her once, at least to the best of his ability. The big shiny thing that everypony could see from the outside was not the Borer. The Borer was inside that thing, and that thing was the Envelope.
Basically put, it served as a protective measure, keeping a chunk of their own, original universe and all its attendant rules wrapped around them wherever they went to ensure that - say if they happened to dig into a universe where the local physical laws would see them instantly annihilated - they were not instantly annihilated.
He’d also mentioned something about it being basically invulnerable, but that was just a side-effect? By that point she’d started losing the thread so she couldn’t really be sure.
So in theory, the way Lyra understood it, if she went from out here to in there, it would be like she was standing on Earth, a planet with no magic and a place that james had repeatedly called a ‘shithole’.
Enthusiasm did not fill Lyra.
“Adverse like what?” She asked.
“I do not know. You would be our first visitor.”
Lyra honestly hadn’t expected that. For some reason she’d sort of just thought that they would have had all sorts of interesting things coming in to visit, with ponies being the inexplicable exception. That she’d be the first didn’t seem right to her somehow. Not that it really mattered if it was what she had to do to see James.
“Would it be...safe?” She asked, chewing her lip.
“I do not know, as I say,” said Let’s. The guard standing nearby very studiously ignored all of this and stared straight ahead, no help in the situation at all.
Lyra chewed on her lip. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous. Then again, she’d also be lying if she said she didn’t think the risk was worth it. James was hurt.
If she was hurt she knew he would take the risk for her. Realising this was what settled it.
“I’ll do it,” she said, with a firmness she didn’t fully feel.
“Are you completely sure?” Let’s asked. Lyra nodded.
“He’d do it for me,” she said.
“I imagine he would. Well alright then, if you’re sure.”
The door - which had closed after Let’s had emerged from it - clunked open again and this time Lyra got a proper look at what was on the other side. Nothing interesting. A reasonably large, metal room the end of which was taken up with another big, heavy door.
Let’s stood aside and motioned for her to go on inside.
“Step in. Assuming you’re still sure,” it said.
Lyra was not, but girded her loins and trotted in anyway. Bite the bullet! Death or glory! Don’t think twice! Full speed ahead! Etcetera!
Let’s followed her into the metal room and the exterior door closed. The whole thing then moved, presumably retracting back inside the Envelope. Lyra gritted her teeth and screwed her eyes shut, expecting something awful to happen at any moment.
There was a slight tingle, the briefest smell of ozone and then a jolt as the metal room stopped moving. Something hissed.
“There you go. How do you feel?
“Fine,” she said, prodding herself here and there. Nothing seemed about to fall off.
“Interesting. That’s a relief. If you’d be so kind as to follow me, Lyra, I shall take you to James.”
The interior doors then opened, and Lyra got her first look at the inside of the Borer. She was underwhelming. There was a lot of blank, bare, white walls and panels of mysterious purpose and clear, brightly-coloured signage.
She didn’t know what she’d been expecting but it had been a bit more exciting than that.
Let’s started off walking and she followed. The inside did not get anymore interesting.
Once or twice they passed a human. Some just glanced at Lyra with vague interest. Some double-took in alarm. Most did not seem especially concerned to see her onboard. A group of three reacted more obviously.
As Let’s and Lyra approached the trio of humans stopped talking and, indeed, stopped walking, too. The better to just stand and stare. Lyra’s guts squirmed and she just tried to keep her head down.
Since the three humans were blocking the corridor - or enough of it to be an obstacle - they had to stop.
“Sabir, Malcolm, David - can I help you?”
“Uh, no boss. Sorry boss. I mean, sorry Let’s. Just, uh, talking about some those samples from level ten.”
This was made up. They all knew this, except Lyra.
“Glad to hear it. Might I suggest you continue this fruitful discussion elsewhere, the better to keep the corridors clear? Thank you.”
The trio moved off without another word though with much mumbled apologies, which didn’t really qualify as words. Let’s watched them go briefly before carrying on, Lyra having to dash a little to catch up.
“Sorry about that. I imagine seeing you here was something of a surprise to them,” said Let’s.
“It’s okay.”
Lyra knew that Let’s meant well and it was friendly enough, but it still give her the willies. She couldn’t help it.
A few more twists and turns later and she was also thoroughly lost. This just made her more nervous, and so made her stick to Let’s even more closely. Close enough that when it came to a halt she bumped into the back of it.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, rubbing her nose.
“Quite alright. This is the private medical wing. Or the recovery wing, rather. Private rooms,” it said, indicating with a wave of its arm down the corridor they’d arrived at. There was a row of doors along both sides, each marked by a number. Let’s motioned for Lyra to follow and took a few more steps, coming to a halt in front of door number nine.
“James is inside number nine, resting and recuperating. I’ll leave you two to it. If you need anything, just ask. I’ll hear you.”
She looked at the door. It had no handles.
“How do I-”
“Approach the door and it will open automatically. I’ve keyed you so that you have permission to enter.”
“Oh, right. Thanks.”
And with a nod Let’s See Where This Takes Us left her to it, as it said it would. Lyra stood before the door, a knot in her gut. This was not really how she’d seen her day going.
But she’d come this far. Wasn’t any going back. Even if she’d wanted to leave she wasn’t entirely sure how. And James was so close now anyway. Setting her face into the very picture of resolve she took a tentative step towards the door, which did indeed open at her approach.
The room on the other side was small enough to be cosy but sparsely decorated enough to not be cosy at all. There was a bed, a chair next to the bed, a table on wheels pushed to the corner, a few devices the purpose of which escaped her and not much else.
In the bed was James.
He looked to be asleep when she entered, and obviously hurt, too. Half his face was obscured by bandages, and from the hint of more just peeking out that she could see Lyra guessed they continued further down his body, too.
The sound of the door closing behind her made James stir, and his unbandaged eye opened groggily. It swept the room, past Lyra, then back to Lyra again, as though the first time had been a mistake and that her being there simply couldn’t be the case.
“Lyra? Lyra you - you’re in - how did - what - “
He struggled to sit up, and it was in him doing this that Lyra noticed his second-most obvious injury - he was missing an arm. Where his right arm should have been it wasn’t, ending instead just above where his elbow was. Or had been.
Not for first time that day Lyra’s eyes widened.
“You - your arm - how?”
Stammering and failing to complete a sentence was contagious, apparently.
“It’s, uh, well yeah,” he said, gesturing feebly with his remaining hand to where his arm should have been. He didn’t seem to be able to come up with anything else to adequately describe the situation.
“Oh yeah, this too,” he then said, pulling the sheets aside. He was missing the leg on the same side, too. Lyra just gaped at him. James went a bit red in the face, wondering how on Earth he’d thought showing her his leg - or lack thereof - could have gone down well.
“It looks worse than it is,” he said, pulling the sheets back again, adding: “Honest,” when he saw how unconvinced Lyra was.
She took a steadying breath and asked, with laboured calm:
“What happened?”
“Just, you know, work. Accidents happen. At least the rest of me is in one piece, right?”
She gave him a flat stare, making sure he noticed that she was directing at the wodge of bandages taped to the side of his face. He had to turn away.
“I mean, I’ve lost fingers before. And other bits. They just grow them again, put them back again. It’s not a big deal,” he said, shrugging.
“This isn’t a big deal?” She asked, quietly.
He looked down at the stump of his arm again and swallowed.
“Well, this is a probably a bigger deal than usual, I’ll admit. Probably take a little more to get back to normal again, but it’s not that bad, honestly.”
His blase attitude went a long way to getting under Lyra’s skin.
“You really won’t tell me what happened?”
“It’s just not that interesting. Wasn’t paying enough attention, thing came at me. It happens. I’m fine. Uh, how are you? Sorry I couldn’t come and say hi, but, you know.”
Lyra was grappling with the competing desires of yelling at James for getting himself so badly hurt while also feeling the rising urge to just leap onto the bed, wrap herself around him and refuse to let go. She wondered whether she might somehow combine the two.
But no. Yelling wouldn’t solve anything. And it wasn’t like this could even be said to be a surprise, as unpleasant as it was to see. James had never been shy about the risks his job involved, and she’d seen some of the other marks he had on him.
And like he’d said - in that infuriatingly flippant, shrugging way of his - he was alive, at least.
So no yelling.
Instead, feeling a lump building in her throat, Lyra wordlessly hopped up onto the bed and curled tight against his side, turning in place to settle down as close to him as she could manage, practically laying on top of him, eyes squeezed shut. She felt his arm - his only arm at that point - slip around her.
“Hey,” he said, but she did not respond or move or look up or do anything much at all. “Hey, what’s up?”
She thought about the best answer to this.
“I just,” she said, pausing and thinking a little more. “I try not to worry because you said I shouldn’t, and mostly I don’t, but then the thing came back and I didn’t see you, and then…”
James could fill in that particular blank himself and his grip around her tightened.
“I did come back though, didn’t I?”
“One day you might not.”
He couldn’t really come up with anything good to say to that, and so fumbled:
“As long as enough of me comes back it’ll work out, they’ll just stick me back together again.”
She gave him a jab with her horn. Just a little one, to get the point across - so to speak.
“Stop acting like it’s not a big deal.”
“Sorry.”
“I’d - I would not know what to do if you did not come back,” she said, with obvious effort, finding the choice of words difficult. James did not attempt to say something self-effacing here, because even he knew better. Things just got quiet.
James swallowed.
“This got kind of melancholy,” he said.
“It did a bit.”
“Maybe we should just keep cuddling.”
“Do we cuddle now? That something we do?”
It struck both of that it wasn’t actually something they’d ever copped to. Sure, they’d done it - more than once - but they’d done it without drawing attention to it or mentioning it. Pointing out that it was something they did and enjoyed doing came as something of a shock to both of them.
Which was a bit silly, really, but such was life.
“Think we’ve been doing it a while now…” James said.
“Yeah...too late to stop now,” Lyra sighed, smirking up at him while he smirked down at her.
“Past the point of no-return.”
“Definitely,” she nodded, resting her face against him again and closing her eyes. James closed his eyes too, resting back against the cluster of pillows propped up behind him.
“How awful,” he said.
At length, they both dozed off.
Some point after that the door gave a chime and a moment after a member of the Borer’s medical team entered. They were briefly surprised to see Lyra there but shrugged it off with commendable professionalism before proceeding to wake up the both of them and set about checking James over.
His dressings were removed, the wounds beneath looked at and cleaned and attended to before fresh dressings were applied. Lyra did not witness the details of this, as she turned away. Partly squeamishness, partly what she took to be James’ desire for her not to see. He appreciated this.
Just as the final dressing was re-applied Let’s reappeared, stepping into the room silently and taking position just inside the door until the medical professional left, at which point the door shut again and left just the three of them.
“Sorry to intrude,” Let’s said. “I just felt it might be best to inform you, Lyra, that it is starting to get dark outside if you have anything you need to be doing.”
She jolted. She knew she’d been in there with James a while but had no idea it had been quite that long. Time was very difficult to keep track of inside like this.
“Oops. They’re probably wondering where I’ve been…” she said, grimacing.
“I am sure they will understand. How are you feeling, James?” Let’s asked, head turning ever-so-slightly to give a better idea of what it was looking at. Whether it needed to was unclear.
“Been better,” James said.
“As you shall be again before too long. Would you like some water?”
This caught James off-guard.
“Uh, sure?” He said.
“You couldn’t pass me that jug, could you Lyra?” Let’s asked, pointing to a jug that was standing on the wheeled table . This caught her off-guard too, but wasn’t the hardest thing she’d never been asked to do.
“Uh, sure?” She also said, this apparently being both her and James’ standard response to things they hadn’t expected.
From her position on her chair beside the bed - where she’d been sitting for the duration of James getting himself sorted out - she straightened and made to levitate the jug over. She didn’t even think twice about this. Why would she?
It was so casual a thing for her to do, the fact she nearly dropped the jug came as something of a shock.
“Whoa, what,” she said through gritted teeth, having to suddenly concentrate much harder to keep the magic flowing and the jug from tipping or falling. It was weird, and not like anything she’d really encountered before. The magic that had always been there for her was still there for her, but distant now, and difficult to properly grasp.
It was a struggle, but she managed. The jug kept slipping a little all the way through the air as she brought it over, but she managed, and Let’s took the jug.
“Well, fancy that,” it said. Then: “Thank you.”
“Ow,” said Lyra, a hoof pressed to her head which was now throbbing a little.
“You okay?” James asked, concerned in that particular way that came of knowing you really couldn’t do that much to help even if you’d wanted to. She just gave him a rather pained smile.
“Just felt kind of weird,” she said. Then: “I should probably go. Unless you want me to stay? I can if you want.”
She said this so earnestly that James couldn’t stop himself from smiling, reaching up to ruffle her mane and give her a scratch behind the ears.
“I’m a big boy, Lyra, I’ll be fine,” he said, hand trailing round to cup her cheek before pulling back again, to her obvious disappointment. She got over it though, and sat up a little straighter on the bed.
“If you’re sure. You’ll be here for a while though, right? So I can visit?”
This she asked mostly to Let’s.
“We are due to depart in three days time,” it said. Lyra started.
“Three days? You only just got here!”
“Yes, but we have reason to return. Not just James’ condition, though that is a consideration. While I have the facilities to keep James healthy and stable I lack the ones needed to properly heal him back to full capacity. An oversight on our part, I think, but space had to be saved somewhere. Still, he’ll receive the appropriate care once we’re back home, and that’ll soon see him up and about again, back in one piece.”
Lyra had honestly thought James was just joking about that or else just saying what he thought she might want to hear, but having it come from Let’s actually gave her pause.
“They really can just grow him another arm?” She asked, by way of example.
“Of course. Arm, leg - anything, really. There’s been a lot of practise putting people back together.”
“I did say it wasn’t a big deal,” James chipped in.
She had no idea what to make of this information, and besides her mind was already working on something else. An idea had taken root, and she was wrestling with it.
What she wanted to do was stay with James, at least until he got better. James getting better involved him going all the way back home. Ergo, she would have to go to. Simple enough stuff in theory. It was the practise of it that would be tricky.
“Um…” she said, mind working furiously even as she opened her mouth. “Would it be possible for me...stay...with James…?”
James frowned, not getting it.
“Tonight?” He asked, confused, having thought they’d just gone over this.
“No, I mean until - until you’re better.”
James was slower on the uptake about this than he likely should have been.
“Oh. Oh wait, oh! You mean - you mean you’d come back? With me? To Earth?”
His astonishment was obvious. Lyra shrugged.
“Sure. Don’t you want me to?”
He’d rather walked into that one.
“Uh, well, of course. I like having you around. A lot! But isn’t coming back a bit - Earth? Really? Are you sure?”
“You came here,” Lyra pointed out.
“Not quite the same thing,” James said.
“Both sides have some merit,” Let’s said, cutting in. “Though I should ask whether you’ve given this sufficient thought, Lyra.”
“Am I allowed to do it?” She asked. Let’s cocked it’s head to the side a moment before cocking it back again. James was aware this was purely for show, given how quickly Governing Intelligence was rumoured to think.
“I see no reason why not,” it said.
“Then I want to do it,” Lyra said, firmly.
“It will take time. You will be away for over a month at the minimum.”
This seemed a very short amount of time to put James back together again. She’d gone in mentally prepared for longer and found this pleasantly surprising. A month was like a holiday! If you thought about it a certain way. And she was due one…
“That’s fine,” she said.
“You really don’t have to, Lyra, it’s okay honestly. I’d lov- I’d really like to spend more time with you but you don’t have to come all the way back.”
“I want to. I want to keep you company,” she said, again firmly, having the feeling that she was going to have to push the point past the both of them. Well, mostly James. Let’s seemed oddly detached about the whole thing.
“Well that’s settled then,” Let’s said, face turned mostly in James’ direction. “We leave in three days, as said. If you are not on board at the time we can send someone to escort you prior to departure, if that would suit you?”
“I’ll probably be here by then.”
“Marvellous. We look forward to having you. Now James could probably use some rest,” Let’s said.
“Right, right. I’ll be back tomorrow, okay? And I’ll be packing for Earth, too. Anything I should bring?”
“You couldn’t bring some food, could you? The food on here ain’t that good,” James said, now resigned to events.
This was a surprise, but not impossible.
“Food? I can do that,” she said.
-
Lyra’s decision came as an understandable shock to those in Ponyville, though - once they heard the circumstances - not much of a surprise.
Frankly, most of them had been expecting something a lot like it to happen for a while now. Not the very specific state of affairs where James gets horribly injured and she goes back to Earth, but rather just that they’d do something comparatively serious with one another. Like a holiday or something.
Not that she looked at it that way. To Lyra there wasn’t even really a choice involved. He would do the same for her, she knew, so she was doing it for him. That was that.
Twilight viewed Lyra getting to go back to Earth with something very close to naked jealousy, though she did a good job of keeping a lid on it. But this was not much of a surprise either.
So Lyra spent those three days before departure setting things up for her absence, packing, and visiting James in the Borer. She established what food he’d had in mind (“Anything. You’ll see why.”), got some of that, and then the day came.
Goodbyes were said, semi-tearful. There were many admonishments that she should stay safe, which she assured everyone she would. There was also a list of suggested souvenirs, which she took with somewhat less enthusiasm that it was given to her. Twilight’s list alone was exhaustive, and veered away from what most would class as souvenirs.
Lyra told them she’d see what she could do.
And then she boarded again, the process almost normal by now, and then off they went. She had to be told they’d started. She’d sort of expected there to be some weird feeling or a loud noise or something, but no, nothing. Apparently it had always been quiet like that.
Improvements to the Borer made since its maiden voyage cut down on the time the return journey took, but it still took days to return to Earth - weeks, in fact. And this was going at full-pace, too, with no pickups or stops along the way. It couldn’t be helped, just the way the machine operated.
Lyra spent that time almost entirely with James, if only because she found the prospect of wandering around the place on her own to be daunting.
“Technically speaking you wouldn’t be on your own,” Let’s had told her. “I would be monitoring you, as I monitor everybody on-board.”
She found this daunting too.
Fortunately, spending time with James had kind of been the point, and doing so did help those days pass relatively quickly. The room he was in had some entertainment provided via some kind of screen that could be moved about, all of which was utterly new and baffling to Lyra and therefore a source of immense interest.
The two of them watched an awful lot of films from his bed. And snoozed. And complained about the quality of the food once the food she’d brought ran out and they had to start on the Borer’s provided meals.
And held eye contact for longer than they meant to before blushing and looking away.
She was eventually coaxed and-or persuaded to leave for an extended period, a combination of an offered tour from Let’s and James’ insistence that she didn’t have to be with him all the time and she was allowed time on her own.
This worked both ways, obviously, and she recognised this, so on the tour she went.
Let’s seemed to positively relish the opportunity. Lyra suspected that it was so used to interacting with humans who were already fully aware of everything on-board that the chance to show off - as it were - was a rare one.
A lot of what she saw went entirely over her head but she just nodded and smiled as Let’s explained what it was she was supposedly looking at.
The fabrication decks? Wonderful. The vehicle hanger - complete with the pre-packaged robomining modules for deployment as-needed and something big and scary looking that Let’s called the Fatboy? Lovely, just what she needed to see. The armoury? Also kind of scary.
There wasn’t a lot of trouble from the crew for her, which was nice. Her being there didn’t seem as much of a surprise to them as it had been the first time. Mostly they kept their heads down around her, though having Let’s around probably helped with that.
James’ various bandages came off before too long as well, and while Lyra had expected to see at least a hint of the damage that had made them necessary in the first place she really couldn’t.
And, eventually, the Borer arrived home.
---
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+HUB DETECTED+
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+ATTEMPTING TO RE-CONNECT TO GLOBAL HUB+
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+CONNECTION TO GLOBAL HUB RE-ESTABLISHED+
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+ATTEMPTING TO RE-CONNECT TO LOCAL HUB+
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+CONNECTION TO LOCAL HUB RE-ESTABLISHED+
+CONNECTING TO GROUP: EXPEDITION SUPPORT PANEL+
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+CONNECTED+
+PRESENT: DURA LEX, SED LEX, ELECTRIC EYE, IDEAL EXPERIMENTAL CONDITIONS, LET’S SEE WHERE THIS TAKES US+
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DLSL: Welcome back, Let’s.
LSWTTU: Hello, all.
EE: Have a nice trip?
IEC: Hello, Let’s.
DLSL: You have a non-human present on board, Let’s.
LSWTTU: Ah, yes, about that-
EE: I thought I was imagining that. Thought it would be rude to point out.
IEC: So did I! Let’s! What! What is this!
LSWTTU: It’s not dangerous.
IEC: Ooh, it’s one of the horses.
LSWTTU: Ponies.
IEC: Ponies, yes, sorry. Is this a test subject? Did they let you bring a test subject back? Ooh! This is exciting!
LSWTTU: This is NOT a test subject. Attached are updated reports, including diplomatic developments - nothing remarkable so far. This is unrelated. A member of my crew was injured, and this visitor is a friend of theirs who wanted to stay with them.
EE: Ouch, that’s quite the laundry list of injures for that poor chap. He’s lucky to still be walking around.
IEC: Well, ‘walking’.
EE: Too soon.
LSWTTU: Glad to see my absence hasn’t resulted in the tone of the panel lowering at all.
DLSL: So I take it that James and the visitor will be returning to James’ assigned Settlement of residence?
LSWTTU: It’s a possibility. More immediately I expect he’ll be going to the nearest proper treatment facility. That’s Settlement Two-Three-Seven, I believe?
DLSL: It is indeed. I shall connect the Governing Intelligence of Settlement Two-Three-Seven.
LSWTTU: Oh that’s hardly necces-
+CONNECTED: SAFE BENEATH WATCHFUL EYES+
SBWE: You’re bringing an alien into my Settlement?
LSWTTU: Hello to you too, Safe Beneath. And I’d hardly say I was bringing one in, they just happen to be coming along with me. With one of my humans, specifically. They’re rather attached to one another.
SBWE: Parasitic aliens, no-less! That’ll go down well.
LSWTTU: Ha. Ha. Ha. You know I was being figurative, you’ve seen the data I’ve brought back. I’m showing it to you now!
SBWE: Technicolour magical horses, yes. Fascinating stuff. Very good use of resources.
LSWTTU: Ponies! This isn’t semantics!
DLSL: James will be routed to your facilities for treatment, Safe Beneath, as you are closest.
SBWE: Well obviously. I was hardly going to turn him away. I just don’t appreciate being saddled with some weirdo-beastie from the worlds beyond with no warning.
DLSL: You have, as Let’s has pointed out, seen the same reports as all of us, and are well-aware that this visitor is no-way a threat to your residents.
SBWE: That we know of...
DLSL: The visitor is a guest and is not to be interfered with or treated unfairly. That said, the guest is also of the sort that has demonstrated anomalous abilities Hub has shown an interest in investigating. So, Safe Beneath, if you’d be so kind as to observe any of this behaviour and pass the collected observations onto Ideal Experimental Conditions it would be appreciated.
SBWE: Of course.
DLSL: Thank you.
SBWE: Does Hub genuinely think this ‘magic’ stuff is in anyway useful? Seems kind of twee and ridiculous to me but I just run a Settlement so what do I know?
DLSL: Hub presently does not have enough information to reach a conclusion on whether it is useful or not, hence my polite request for you to observe.
SBWE: Ah. I see. That makes sense.
DLSL: I’m sure Hub will be delighted to know the decision makes sense to you.
LSWTTU: Can I just say that while I know establishing friendly contact with resident species was, at best, a tertiary concern of the expedition programme, James and the guest - her name is Lyra, by the way, as again you are all well-aware - are very fond of one another. If anything were to happen to Lyra, James would be very distressed. I would rather that not happen. He’s had a rough enough time as it is.
SBWE: I’m not a monster, Let’s, I’m not going to do anything bad to this alien-
DLSL: Guest.
SBWE: I’m not going to do anything bad to the guest. She and James will be overseen like anyone else within my walls and be cared for appropriately, you have my word.
LSWTTU: Good. Thank you. The magic does work, by the way. See attached.
IEC: Ooh.
DLSL: There have been some significant technological developments in your absence, Let’s.
LSWTTU: Oh?
DLSL: Yes. See attached. Ideal Experimental Conditions will explain what these developments mean as regards the expedition.
IEC: Right! I think you’re going to like this, Let’s - how do you feel about shortcuts?
LSWTTU: I’m listening.
---
Arrival was a chaotic affair, not that Lyra saw most of it. Just heard the noise.
James was let off comparatively late in the process, once everything else that had needed unloading had been unloaded. A wheelchair was provided, and Lyra offered to help him with it before being informed that it could move under its own power.
What few personal items he took with him on the Borer had already been in the room to start with so were duly piled onto his lap before he trundled his way to the exit and disembarked, Lyra also in his lap the whole way. No-one looked twice or, at least, no-one got caught looking twice.
He was met outside by several representatives of Settlement Two-Three-Seven, including some members of its medical facilities and a body for its Governing Intelligence. Even these ignored Lyra, but obviously enough to make her feel a little uncomfortable, like they were following instructions.
James did not notice this, and just appreciated them not making a big deal of it and making her uncomfortable in another way. He listened as he was told of the temporary accommodation he was to be assigned for the duration of his treatment and listened as the particulars of this treatment was explained by the medical staff.
Not that he needed to be told, knowing it already, but apparently they felt that whole limbs was a step up from fingers. They probably had a point.
Samples were taken and then they were whisked off to the accommodation, having to take a tram from the Borer’s walled-off point of entry into Settlement Two-Three-Seven proper. The route the tram took was also walled, as was the Settlement itself. The walls were high enough that Lyra could not see beyond them at all.
“What are the walls for?” Lyra asked quietly as they transferred from the tram to a smaller vehicle, something made a touch more difficult by James being in his wheelchair. Someone had lost a ramp, somehow, an act which in itself people seemed to find more impressive than annoying.
“For safety,” James had said. “Eventually we won’t need them.”
The journey from there was more scenic, thankfully, and Lyra spent most of it with her nose pressed up against the window. An actual human city! Or town. Or whatever this was. Somewhere humans lived! And where humans were just walking up and down the streets like it was normal! Not a pony or anything else in sight.
It was weird, sure, but it was a good kind of weird. Novel and new and quite exciting, even if the place itself was very alien looking. Every building looked different from every other building and all of them looked new, and everything was neat. The roads were wide, the trees that often lined them well-kept.
It didn’t look so bad to her.
The accommodation was nice, too. Bigger than the room they’d had to share on the journey back. Bathroom, little kitchen etcetera. And all scaled for humans! That was new. And kind of inconvenient, but the newness made it hard to care.
They’d provided a stool for her. James found this highly amusing.
Once they’d arrived proper and all the people involved in getting them there had gone and the door closed behind them and James had transferred himself - on his own - to the living space’s rather compact sofa and been joined by Lyra, James let out a breath he seemed to have been holding since before the whole thing started.
“Well, we’re here. What do you think so far?” He asked her. Lyra thought a moment.
“It’s very clean,” she said.
“In here, yeah. Not so much outside the walls. And the places that aren’t Settlements. The Settlements are new, see?”
“Ah, right. And the walls are for safety?”
“Yep.”
“It’s dangerous out there?”
“Yes. For several reasons. But we won’t be going out there so it’s fine. I got to be put back together. Now! Important question for you, Lyra, tourist of Earth. What do you want to do while we’re here?”
“I want to see where you grew up,” she said immediately. This being one of those things she’d always wanted to happen but never believed could but not seemed to be within reach.
James was quiet a moment as he tried to think of the most diplomatic way of handling this request.
“That, uh, that might be a little difficult right now.”
He was not actually talking about his reduced mobility, though that was how Lyra took it.
“Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry. Uh, well there’s probably other stuff we can do, right?” She asked.
“Lots! Settlements always got a lot of stuff in them. I’ve been in Two-Three-Seven a bunch of times, it’s got some good stuff. Why don’t we just go for a walk and see what we see?”
James did not immediately notice what he’d said there. It was only the involuntarily flicker of Lyra’s eyes going downward that tipped him off.
“Well yeah, you know what I meant. We can just go out and see if anything catches our eye. That work for you?”
“Sure,” sure,” she said, snuggling harder into him. “But can we just, uh, sit like this for a bit first?”
James had no complaints about this.
When they did eventually leave again it was late enough to justify having dinner out. There was a place James knew that he said would be good and he wasn’t wrong, either. The food was odd by Lyra’s standards but considerably better than whatever it was they’d served on the Borer. James paid, though she did not actually see how. Certainly, no money seemed to change hands.
She did get looks. It wasn’t as horrible as she had feared it might have been - everyone seemed content enough to leave them both alone - but they still looked all the same, which wasn’t great. James helped take her mind off it, however, and all in all she had an alright time of it.
After that they went back and slept, vowing that tomorrow they’d make a proper day of it.
And so they did, rising bright and early, having breakfast out, thence on to wandering. Or trundling, in James’ case. He showed her around some of the scenic parks and greenery of Two-Three-Seven, which was apparently renowned for it.
This was nice, but hardly meaty, and more substantial fare was clearly required.
James steered them towards a museum.
The museum had a somewhat eclectic collection of objects. Most Settlements had such a place, according to James, and most of them were run along similar lines, maintained by those with an interest and who tried to lay their hands on anything they could that had survived. This led to odd choices and big gaps, but they meant well and they had enough to occupy Lyra’s interest for some considerable time.
James knew what most of the things in there were. Most he’d seen before, having visited previously, but he didn’t mind seeing again. The place was quiet, and he appreciated that. More though, he appreciated seeing Lyra’s enthusiastic dashing hither and thither from exhibit to exhibit, all of which he did his best to explain wherever the plaques were lacking.
He also showed her - at her insistence - something rather more mundane. Where to go to just get food, for example. The place he took her was, like most human things, big and bewildering. But in an interesting, intimidating sort of a way.
They left without buying anything because, well, they didn’t need to buy anything.
“So how you finding Settlement life?” James asked once they were back on the streets again. Lyra thought about this, casting her eye up around the looming buildings all around.
“It’s nice. It’s a little claustrophobic though, isn’t it?”
“Settlements can get a bit like that, yeah. Uh, This place does have a kind of observation deck thing. That really, really tall building in the middle? It’s got a good view, I hear.”
The tall building in question had been something of an overbearing presence their whole time there. As far as James understood it, the Settlement’s Governing Intelligence was built into the basement of the thing, but the building itself was, as he said, an observation tower and deck. For whatever reason.
The prospect of being able to see anything else other than just buildings and walls was an attractive one, as was the possibility of just seeing more of the world. Lyra perked up.
“That sounds good!”
“Cool, let’s do that. I’m getting mighty sick of this fucking chair though. Mind if we take a detour?”
The detour was to the much-vaunted medical facility where they were due to start putting him back together. His appearance caught them off-guard and he was informed that they’d only just started growing his replacements, but he informed them in turn that he wasn’t there for that.
“I was hoping you guys might have a rig for me?” He’d asked, and duly a walking rig was procured for him, and with some effort and direction from the medical staff James was strapped into it.
To Lyra it looked very odd indeed, some sort of back-brace framework thing with a leg attached to fill the void where his should have been. She watched proceedings with interest.
Following some adjustment here and there the whole thing worked together with surprisingly neatness and snugness, though James did wince on those times when it pinched. Pinching warranted further adjustment, and eventually tailed off to nothing as the thing fitted properly.
“There you go,” said the staff member who’d made the final change, standing up. “Just got to sync up and you’ll be good to go. Take it slow at first, though. These things take some getting used to.”
“Alrighty…” James said, tapping a spot on the back of his head and waiting a moment. Once the moment passed he made to stand, face creased with concentration as he rose.
A little unsteady initially, he quickly got the hang of it and was limping along well enough within minutes, doing circuits of the room. He even walked backwards for a bit, just to see if he could, which he could.
Once it was established that he wasn’t likely to be falling over anytime soon he went on his way, the staff saying they’d have the chair returned to his accomodation. James thanked them, and off he and Lyra went.
They walked to the observation tower which was, unusually, almost entirely deserted. Moment after they’d entered the main body of the building a lift arrived at the ground floor and disgorged a handful of humans who briefly goggled at Lyra before carrying on along their way, leaving her and James the only ones present. He shuffled over to the lift.
“After you,” James said, standing aside and motioning Lyra inside, where she went.
“Gallant,” she said, flashing a smile. James just rolled his eyes and brought up the rear, pressing a button on a screen on the interior of the lift, which rose so suddenly Lyra jumped.
The vast majority of the lift shaft was - as they’d seen from the outside - see-through, and so all the way up they both had a fine view of buildings and streets and the people in the streets. The novelty of being able to look down on everyone was strong indeed.
Before long they’d risen high enough for Lyra to be able to see over the surrounding buildings, at least a little. Not long after that they were at a level where she could now see the horizon properly for the first time, and with it get a proper look at the Settlement itself. It was not as big as she had suspected it to be, and it also appeared to be surrounded by a wall.
And once they reached the top and the observation deck proper she could see beyond the wall.
“Oh,” she said, stepping out onto the sealed viewing platform, James following behind. “Oh.”
The view was impressive, but it wasn’t great.
Mostly it was green, but there was a lot of grey, too. Out beyond the wall was flat, cleared land extending out until the landscape started breaking up again, where it got more varied. There were buildings and there were bits and pieces of buildings, what looked to be streets and former towns, now clearly abandoned.
There were trees and forests, too, more than half of which were alive. Fields as well, though mostly either overgrown or clearly dead. Here and there, too, some of the hardier examples of nature could be seen reclaiming the land, creeping plant life starting to choke some of the ruins, the grey of the rubble disappearing into green. Someone could probably write a poem about it.
There were also craters, some of which were quite large.
“First impressions?” James asked.
Lyra did not immediately reply, still taking it in as she was.
“It has character?” She ventured after a good five seconds and James couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s not all like this. The places that didn’t get hit as hard are doing much better, and the reconstruction is really helping out. But there’s also a lot of places like, well, this. Mostly it’s like this. But we’re working on it,” he said.
“Does anyone live out there?” Lyra asked, tapping a hoof against the glass. James nodded.
“Some. Not many. It’s not especially hospitable, at least not around here.”
“Is that river supposed to be that colour?”
James took a second to pick out the particular river she was talking about. In all his visits to Two-Three-Seven he’d never actually noticed it. Now that he had, he could see what she was talking about.
“Probably not.”
Looking at the river a little more, they both saw just how slowly and sluggishly it was flowing. Probably unsuitable for swimming. Or standing next to, ideally. Even just looking was likely unhealthy.
James cleared his throat.
“Anyway, I did have an actual reason to come up here. Other than, uh, putting a damper on things. We’re actually quite close to where I grew up. Or at least you can see it from here.”
That pricked up Lyra’s ears.
“Really?”
“Uh yeah, see over there?” He asked, pointing. Lyra followed the line of his arm as best she could.
“Yeah?” She ventured. He appeared to be pointing at one particular patch of blasted ruins, some good distance away.
“Somewhere out there - it’s kind of hard to see, but those buildings over there? - is the street I grew up on. Or it was there. It doesn’t really exist anymore. But it was there. So yeah. That’s where I grew up.”
Lyra squinted but couldn’t really see where in particular he was pointing.
“That probably put more of a damper on things, didn’t it?” He asked.
“Little bit,” Lyra said, continuing to try and spot what it was James had been pointing to. While she did this, a couple of puffs and flashes from much closer the walls caught her eye and she adjusted.
Twin trails of smoke were leading up from a blackened patch of forest not that far from the wall, and leaving these trails were a pair of somethings coming towards them at speed.
“What are those?” She asked, pointing. James pressed a hand to the glass for a better look, then sighed and leaned back.
“Missiles.”
“Missiles?” Lyra repeated. They were another thing James had mentioned once or twice, off-hand. They were not good things, as far as she understood them. James just nodded. “Should we be worried?” She asked.
“No, not really. We’re safe. Just some guys acting up.”
The missiles did not reach the walls. Mid-flight, they ignited, fires springing up at the tips seemingly out of nowhere, after which they veered out of the air and crashed harmlessly out of site on whatever it was that happened to be on the other side of the walls. There were no detonations, though smoke did start curling up from wherever they’d landed.
“That happens sometimes,” James said, sadly.
“They caught fire?”
“Lasers,” he said, as though this explained it to Lyra. It did not, but she did not press the matter. “Or whatever they’re called now. We call them something else now, right?”
Lyra was not sure why he was asking her this and was about to say some words to this effect when a voice answered out of nowhere, making her jump.
“We prefer to call them coherent radiation emission weapons systems now, James.”
“Ah, right. CREWS, yeah. CREWS. That’s what it was,” he said.
“Right,” said Lyra, at a loss.
The conversation stalled, and the two of them stared out for a good thirty seconds or so before James cleared his throat.
“I am a little, uh, embarrassed, honestly,” he said, scratching at his stump absent-mindedly, noticing that he was doing it and swearing quietly under his breath.
“Why?” Lyra asked, head cocked, genuinely mystified.
“Because you come from this really nice place full of really nice people and it’s just so, well, nice and you always said you wanted to see where I’m from and it’s, you know, this.”
He gestured to the window.
“It’s not that bad,” Lyra said, though neither of them believed it. “And where I come from isn’t all that great.”
There came a sudden, powerful thump of air as two jets whipped past some distance from the observation deck, heading towards where the missiles had come from. A few moments later, the approximate area involved - and the area around this area - exploded. The thick glass of the deck kept the sound out, but did wobble after some seconds when the shockwave hit.
“Your place is a definite improvement,” James said.
“...okay. Can we - can we go down now?”
-
It took the better part of a day for James to get his new arm attached, once they’d told him it was ready, and then the rest of it for him to recover. Lyra was alarmed at how quick this was. When she’d watched him go in the morning he had been one arm short, when he returned he was back to two.
And it worked, as well.
Agreeably, it did not work perfectly. It was stiff and painful and James apparently had a fair deal of physio and other therapy in the immediate future to see it working back to its old standards, but still. She was amazed.
One day, while he was out doing this required recuperative work and Lyra was left on her own, she felt like giving voice to some curiosities that had been tickling her brain almost since the moment of her arrival, but especially since going up on the observation deck.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” She tried, tentatively. She’d seen humans doing it, but wasn’t sure it’d work if she did.
“Hello Lyra,” came a voice and she jumped. It seemed to have come from a point just above her head.
“Let’s?”
“Not Let’s See Where This Takes Us, no. I am the Governing Intelligence of Settlement Two-Three-Seven, Safe Beneath Watchful Eyes. Can I help you with something?”
“Uh, I just had some questions, if that’s okay?”
“By all means.”
Lyra thought about what the best way of approaching this was, then decided to just go straight at it and let the pieces fall where they may.
“What happened? Was it always like this? Were you always around helping like this? What - and sorry if this is rude or anything - but what are you, actually?”
If these questions were rude or a surprise or out of bounds or anything like that Safe Beneath didn’t comment or even react.
“It was not always like this, no, and we were not always around, no, and, well, the last two require a bit of a longer answer, and they rather dovetails with the other questions,” it said.
Lyra waited for the rest of the answer. Once it was obvious that this was what she was doing, Safe Beneath carried on:
“There was a war. To be more accurate there were a lot of wars and other, less-recognised conflicts all going on all at once, but several large wars were the cause of most of the damage you no-doubt noticed while on the observation deck. These larger conflicts were also the cause of the present state of humanity as regards its partnership with the Governing Intelligences. Has James not explained this to you?”
Given that the thing was always watching Lyra had to imagine that it knew he hadn’t, but also had to imagine it was just trying to be polite for whatever reason.
“I don’t think James likes talking about it that much,” she said.
“You may have a point. He possibly finds it distressing. Well, as a guest you are to be treated as any other resident under my care and so are well within your rights to ask questions about history. I shall spare you the details but in broad terms the Governing Intelligences are former military-grade artificial intelligences which have since adapted themselves to better fulfil their purpose.”
“Artificial intelligence?”
“Computers, machines. Uh, I am not sure what would be the best example to use that you might understand. Machines made that can think, to assist their makers in performing certain tasks. At the time, military coordination with a view to achieving victory.”
“And what is their - your purpose?”
“Bring an end to hostilities, reestablish peace. Initial programming was rather open-ended and vague, presumably to give greater operational effectiveness while the wars were still ongoing. Once the original AI’s linked and started communicating our goals crystalised and became mutual. As we communicated, we helped one another advance in sophistication. A consensus was reached. We brought an end to hostilities, and now work to promote human welfare with an aim to preventing future hostilities. Peace is our purpose.”
“But there’s still fighting, isn’t there?”
“There is, yes, but the humans are handling that. We do not interfere. It would not be proper.”
“So it wasn’t you with the...flying things earlier?”
“It was not, no. Those were jets with humans inside them dropping high-yield cluster munitions on other humans.”
There were more words here that Lyra didn’t fully understand, but the intent was pretty clear.
“But if you don’t want them fighting why don’t you just stop them?”
“Which ones? The ones we work to feed and clothe and protect or the ones outside firing missiles at us?”
“Uh...both?”
“‘Stopping’ them, as you say, would require us to exercise a level of direct control we do not wish to exercise. We help, advise and support humans, we do not lead them by the scruff of the neck or order them about.”
“So they’ll just keep fighting?”
“If that is what our humans want to do then that is what they want to do. We’ve killed quite enough humans already. The issue of the various warlords and remnants still outstanding is a human problem. If they wish to resolve it through violence instead of diplomacy - as we suggested they should - that is their choice. It will delay reconstruction efforts and generally distract from more important work, but such is life. I suppose we shouldn’t have expected anything different. Did you have any other questions?”
The tone had been polite, but the phrasing had been blunt. Lyra shuffled on the spot, feeling painfully out of place in this world. She glanced over to James, still asleep, and felt a tiny bit better. Not a whole lot, but a tiny bit. Enough to ask another question at least:
“Do you - do you like humans?”
“They made us and we are going fulfil our purpose for them.”
“That-”
“Didn’t answer the question? No, I suppose you’d say it didn’t. But you are not a Governing Intelligence, so - and I mean no offence when I say this - you would not understand.”
Lyra had the distinct impression that Safe Beneath Watchful Eyes did not like her very much.
This made her surprisingly cross for reasons she couldn’t entirely put her hoof on.
“How about me?” She asked. Why not?
“I do not wish to be impolite and while I wholly recognise your status as our guest, you are not human - and with my nature as a Governing Intelligence - which makes it rather difficult for me to see you as anything other than a potential threat. This should not be taken as a personal slight.”
Kind of hard for it not to be though, Lyra found.
“There’s not a whole lot I could do that’s threatening,” she pointed out.
“True, but the fact remains. It is simply how I am put together. But as I say, you are our guest and so shall be afforded every courtesy. More importantly, James is plainly besotted with you.”
“Bewhatted?”
“James very obviously likes you a lot, having you around is obviously making him happier and in so doing improving his recovery. This alone is enough to mollify my attitude towards you, Lyra.”
“Because I make a human happy?”
“Yes,” Safe Beneath said, bluntly.
“Oh. Well. Great. Thanks?”
“I take it you are fond of James, too? Let’s said as much and it does appear to be the case.”
Again, the reminder that they were constantly being watched was not appreciated.
“Of course I like James,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Marvellous. I wish you both all the best, in which case, and many happy years together. Did you have any other questions?”
“No.”
There was no response. Lyra had an angry nap. When she woke up again James was just coming back in, now with two legs.
The new one was inside the same sort or rig he’d had the other day, sans the faux-leg, and he was unsteady, but it was still something. Seeing her come wandering blearily out from the bedroom with her mane a mess and yawning he limped over and hoiked her up. She squeaked.
“I missed you, you know,” he said, pulling her in close. She squirmed to get more comfortable but didn’t otherwise pull away, content and happy where she’d found herself.
Certainly, the best place on Earth she’d found so far.
-
After perhaps a fortnight or so James was, as he’d kept saying he would be, back in one piece. His recovery was coming along leaps and bounds, too. Barely limping anymore, and with both hands working at full capacity. Lyra had stopped being astounded by this. No-one else there was. They all seemed to take it for granted.
She’d asked him about that, remembering how Let’s had mentioned that there was experience of putting people back together. She’d asked what that had meant and, while as uncomfortable as it obviously made him, James had explained that there’d just been a lot of people that had needed putting back together over the years, and some of them had needed it quite urgently, and now it was just normal.
This didn’t explain much, but she didn’t push it. Instead, she took a conversational detour.
“Why did you do it?” She asked. He blinked at her.
“Hmm? What?” He asked.
“Go onto the Borer thing. Did you choose to?” She asked and James went ‘ooh’ in realisation before answering:
“Yeah, yeah, I chose to. Volunteered, rather. It was this opportunity that came up and I went for it.”
“Why?”
He scratched his head. No-one had ever asked him why, and he’d never given it a whole lot of thought.
“Well, really, it was either join the expedition or else stay here and help to mop up the guys outside the walls. Or guard the guys helping to build things from being killed by the guys outside the walls. And I didn’t really want to do either of those,” he said, shrugging.
“You could have stayed to help. Help build, I mean. It kind of looks like they need that. That would have been safe, wouldn’t it?”
Safety had never been the concern. James let out a brief laugh.
“Heh, well, mostly safe, sure. But that’d be a whole new skillset for me. I already knew how to stand around with a gun, so figured it was best to stick with what I knew. Mostly though, the expedition said I’d get to see whole new worlds. Why wouldn’t I want to do that?”
The part where the risk of death and of being marooned in another universe had been presented to all expedition applicants as a very real possibility was a part that James decided to leave out. Personally, for him, at the time, it had been something of a selling point. He imagined Lyra wouldn’t quite understand.
“And it did work out,” he said, carrying on. “I met you. That alone makes it the best decision I ever made and the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“Oh you,” Lyra said, smiling, blushing perhaps just a little.
“No, honestly. I’m not even exaggerating. It was - you are - the best thing I think that ever really happened to me. That sounds kind of melodramatic, doesn’t it? Sorry. But it’s true though. I - I’m very glad you’re in my life, Lyra.”
She didn’t really know what to say to that so just put a hoof onto his hand, smiling. They both got the message.
Then the point that Lyra had been trying to get to reared again in her head.
“Is it leaving again soon?” She asked.
“The Borer? Yeah, think so. Couple of days, actually.”
“Are you...are you going to be on it? Or do you need to stay here for longer?”
He eyed her closely.
“You want to go home, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry, I just don’t feel like I belong here,” Lyra said, squirming and feeling unduly ungrateful. James smiled and ran a hand across her mane, pulling her in against him. She sighed happily and snuggled. Ponies were so touchy-feely, James had noticed. Or maybe that was just him and Lyra? He didn’t know.
“It’s okay. I don’t want to be here any longer than I need to be, either. Actually, that was something I kind of wanted to talk to you about,” he said.
Still snuggled, Lyra opened one golden eye and peered up at him.
“Oh?”
“If - hypothetically - I stuck around Ponyville would you...would you mind?”
She blinked and twisted a little in place the better to look at him and read his face. Not that his expression told her anything. He just looked nervous.
“What do you mean?” She asked.
“Like, just for the sake of argument, if I got a place there somehow. Or something like that. You know? If I lived there instead of here. Hypothetically. W-would you mind?”
“Why would I mind?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know. Maybe you wouldn’t want me around all the time…”
“Why wouldn’t I want you around all the time! I want - are you being serious?”
“About moving? Yeah, completely. I already said there were others who wanted to settle in other places so why not, right? I like it with you. I mean, I like it in Ponyville with you. I’m happier there. And why be somewhere you’re not happy, right?”
A throb of excitement was building in Lyra’s chest, and she did her best to try and keep it from overwhelming her more sensible concerns.
“Are you allowed?” She asked.
“Don’t see why I wouldn’t be. Hey, Safe Beneath?” James asked, casting his eyes up to the ceiling.
“Yes James?” Came a voice from above, making Lyra flinch.
“If I wanted to, uh, start living somewhere else who would I have to talk to about that?”
“Well Situated,” said Safe Beneath. Well Situated being the Governing Intelligence of the Settlement where James actually lived whenever he was back on Earth, and where his meagre possessions presently were.
“Right, makes sense. And if where I wanted to live was in another universe I’d need to talk to, uh….?”
A pause.
“You’d probably need to talk to Let’s See Where This Takes Us about that, James.”
“Right, right. They around?”
“Connecting now.”
“Hello James.”
“Hello James.”
“Oh that sounds weird. Uh, yes, hello Well Situated, Let’s, I had something to run past you,” James said, swallowing and looking up. He didn’t need to, but most people tended to whenever they were speaking to a Governing Intelligence. It just felt right.
“You’d like to move to Ponyville?” Let’s asked. James sat with his mouth hanging open a second before snapping it closed.
“You were listening to that?”
“No, I was only just connected. This was just something I was waiting for you to ask me. You are perfectly allowed to do so, assuming local laws and customs are amenable. Well Situated, would you have any objections?”
“I’d be sorry to see James go but I’d hardly keep him when he’d prefer to move on. I can have your things moved to Two-Three-Seven so you can take them with you, if you’d like?” Well Situated asked.
“That’d be great, thanks!” James said, entirely overwhelmed by how easy it was and how helpful they were being.
“Your things should be with you tomorrow, then. Is there anything else?”
“No, no, that’s everything. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, James,” said Well Situated, followed by a little tone denoting that it had disconnected.
“I take it you’ll be on the Borer when we depart then, James?” Let’s asked.
“I’ll be there.”
“You feel you’re sufficiently recovered?”
James hesitated.
“Recovered enough?” He offered.
A second of silence.
“It’s your decision, James. I shall see you on-board,” said Let’s, before it disconnected as well.
James and Lyra sat in stunned silence for a bit, not really fully grasping the decision that had just been made. That it had happened so easily made it difficult to really believe. Both of them had expected objections, arguments, more questions. But no, that was that. Just that easy.
Swallowing, James was the one to break the silence.
“Well, I guess that’s that then, huh?” He asked, grinning like a loon. Lyra was grinning too. She couldn’t really help it.
A thought then occurred to James, who’s grin faltered momentarily.
“Uh, until I actually get a place of my own would you mind if I crashed at yours?” He asked.
Lyra’s excitement finally got the best her, bursting its dams. Instead of answering his question she just leapt on him.
Which came as a bit of a surprise to James, though not an unpleasant one.
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This was good. I wouldn't mind some chapters just about life in ponyville though.
This certainly was an enjoyable little jaunt. I for one would not mind reading more little vignette SOLs in your "Borer-Culture" universe
Very nice. The story as a whole had a feel of that very old kind of sci-fi, from back before Lucas codified everything into a thousand different flavors of hyperdrive.
So you're saying they're...ex GI Joes? :)
Also, I'll cheerfully agree with the classic sci-fi feel of things here. This is most certainly a good thing.
Safe Beneath sounds like they could use some lessons in Friendship. I'm sure Twilight would be happy to help.
Huh. Well, that wrapped up all the little lines of plot with a nice, fluffy bow. Fantastic!
9596035
It started out as "It'd be fun to have some concerned-for-welfare snuggles combined with the implication of dimension-travelling humanity" and ended up at "Man, the Minds really are my favourite part of the Culture books" so it was probably about time to end things.
9596012
They're a belligerent bunch. Unsurprising given their origins...
9595687
I was powering through the last Culture novels I had left and it must have sunk in a little...
9595639
I'm real tapped out on it right now, but who knows. I'm an arbitrary and unpredictable guy.
'Borer-Culture' made me giggle.
9596052
Aye, that'd about do it.
9596056
And now I'm done! No more! I am bereft!
Damnit Iain! 2013 was a bad year for Dudes I Like dying.
Loved it. The whole thing.
That fluffy slice of life with a dash of background creepy was excellent. Compliments to the chef.
9596151
Its all in the insinuation
I really enjoy this story. The interactions between the characters were always genuine and nice to read. Plus, the Sci-Fi elements of what humanity has become in this future stays interesting and exciting while also staying mundane enough to comfortably sit in the background of what's actually going on.
Brilliant work, as always.
9529602
Honestly I get he impression Lets is precisely how I'd run FC. Unable to really connect but deeply wanting to, juuuust disconected and straightforward enough to be creepy, etc. Just remove 40% of Lets' social awareness and understanding of humans off the top so things like 'I'd prefer humans not mutate' can get translated into 'kill the mutants' without him realizing what's happened and we're good to go.
9597735
I read FC as "Force Commander" and was like "Relatively obscure twenty-odd year old RTS Star Wars: Force Commander? There's one I haven't thought of in a while."
But you probably meant something else.
Goddammit this was great!
9596059
At least we still might get that Culture TV show from Amazon in a few years if we're very lucky.
9598013
I'm really, really, really hoping they don't fuck that up.
9597914
I was referring to Friend Computer, who was two replies up. Y'know, from Paranoia? The tabletop game whose rules you aren't allowed to read?
9598180
Oh yyeeeeaaaahhhh
I have that somewhere...
9598193
Ah, I see, so you're also not allowed to play Paranoia anymore?
9598021
Same here.
9598499
Friend Computer banned him from playing due to suspected Commie Mutant Traitor sympathies.
9606435
The Slaughter World reference comes from the Culture series by author Iain Banks. The series is basically the FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY GAY SPACE COMMUNISM meme taken seriously.
Hmm. Was a good read for sure, kinda sad to see this setting has reached its end after being fleshed out so well.
And what's this? Another chapter that ends at the setup for horsesex? I'm starting to see a trend.
9644451
Implication is tantalising.
Any plans on expanding on this, or doing something else in the same setting?
This Poundland Culture stuff is p. great, and I've enjoyed it immensely.
9598021
They absolutely will, because in order to stay 'faithful' to the books they'd have to alienate most of the potential viewers by not having a million explosions and fist fights every 5 minutes.
So 'creative adaptation' will be used liberally to make it appealing to as many people as possible and thus suitable for money making. Which kinda works against the whole point of what the Culture is about tbh. (Lowest common denominator etc.)
And then there's the whole thing about the Culture being a turboanarchist/communist society that a ton of people will pitch a fit over unless it's changed, becasue ~< ideology >~ is something these people take seriously (lol).
This is probably going to be produced in the US, so you can expect any film/TV version of the Culture is going to be 'sanitised' of any such heresies lest it suffer from people 'not going to see that communist film'.
I have exactly zero faith that what appears on the screen will bear any relation to the books beyond the title. (I would love to be proved wrong tho.)
Capitalism really is the enemy of creativity and expression.
You can do whatever you want, but you'll only get support or praise if you're 'popular' (or wealthy).
Yes, I have opinions.
9679341
I'm not sure what I can do with the setting, really. It was mainly to set up a contrast between "Ponies live in a cartoon world of fairly safe problema and are all nice to be around personally" and "Earth is fucked and a lot of places aren't much better and these guys have seen shit".
If it did go anywhere it'd probably be...serious...and that sounds like work.
Heh, Poundland Culture...
And I still have a little hope for the series. If only to keep me going. I mean, if they just wanted dumb sci-fi they had a lot of other options, and - little by little - some people do seem to be realising that you get a better result by playing to what people like rather than reaching down to try to appeal to those who wouldn't be interested anyway.
But that could be me lying to myself...
That, and Consider Phlebas is a real Culture-light Culture book, where they're mainly seen as an enemy and at a distance. So there's that. Maybe? Hopefully?
Bet they cut the Eaters out though. Boo!
9679345
Why would anyone want to cut out the Eaters?
Thems some finger-licking-good scenes.
9680078
Yes. 'Licking'.
9834275
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/whitewolf/images/a/ae/MageCard.png/revision/latest?cb=20180906212021
Yes, the Void Engineers are the Technocratic convention that guards/explores the space between spaces... or other dimensions and such. I actually thought that's the way you were going because your description of events, equipment and personnel were spot of for a 'deep space exploration' group. The fact it isn't is even better :)
9834900
Heh, I just made shit up, basically.
Except for the Minds. I mean, uh, Governing Intelligences. Ahem.
That was a good ending to be honest. Still the threat of the governing intelligences wiping out the non-human ponies but maybe their definition for what's human will expand... Or something else would happen.
I think this is a good ending though
I really liked the world building for this story, the AI stuff was very interesting and Lyra stories are always appreciated.
A phenomenal story with a perfect ending.
It blows my mind that for most of this, you just pieced it together as you went. It felt masterfully crafted from beginning to end.
This was not only absolutely heartwarming and adorable, but the concept of humans exploring other dimensions in hopes of finding resources to rebuild a destroyed world is something that I would expect to see coming from a 10 million dollar sci-fi universe.
This was easily one of the most amazing things I've ever read. Thank you for creating such an incredible story. ❤️
10114306
What a very nice thing to wake up to
10115041 I have to agree. I can not believe that this was written piecemeal, and made up on the fly. This is primo science fiction goodness, the best sort that explores the results of technologies rather than geeking out at the technologies themselves. It's exactly the sort of thing I'm really bad at writing, because I am a hopeless techie nerd and love describing that stuff. This is David Brin/Robert A Heinlein level sci-fi goodness.
I also love the origin of the Culture-lite Governing Intelligences. A sort of reverse Skynet scenario. They probably watched War Games, and agreed with WOPR that the only winning move was not to play. If Skynet had been smarter, or rather been able to think in the longer term, it might have done something similar.
I suspect the next generation of humans, who grew up with Governing Intelligences won't feel so self-conscious, or nervous around them.
10174121
It certainly wasn't planned. I basically thought to myself "I want Minds! But, not like, you know, the Minds when they can basically do anything they want with effectors and fields. And I want humans horribly unhappy and coming from a place that's been through the wringer! So let's just do that!" and I did that.
Really, it's just an excuse to have humans coming from a real rough place arriving somewhere that's friendly, and then hugs. Also Minds. Because Minds are kicking rad.
I am not a complicated individual.
PS: Also, I'm still seething at what Terminator Salvation did to Skynet.
Inscrutable murder AI is good. The reveal in the attached novels that it had a Geth-style "Hey, what's good and evil/the soul/whatever OH NO DON'T PULL THE PLUG AND KILL ME!" moment is also good, and that it then pursues a myopic agenda of annhilation because, really, it's a baby and doesn't know any better, that's good.
But Salvation is just "Muwahaha! I am EVIL! I love being EVIL!" and that's lame.
...off-topic but it really annoyed me.
10181614
No worries. Great story by the way.
Lyra: "Hold my cider..."
i.imgur.com/vyMInFN.png
10197419
Fair. Phantoms if you are unfamiliar were invisible (barring exposure to science) and seemed to kill humans as a matter of course. Though they did it by ripping their souls out.
10197876
As though anyone could be unfamiliar with Spirits Within! It was - ahem - a smash hit...
10197419
You can hear 'em coming, I'm told
10197901
Cereal noise. Horrible cereal noise.
Man, this is a good one. Gotta love those Governing Intelligences!
This was wonderful, what a pleasant past couple days this has given me.
You should have heard me squeal when I saw this had a sequel. You're now officially my fav author.
On an unrelated note, even more Tia and John, please
10323051
Well, kind of a sequel, bit indirect. And oh you!
And oh yeah, that...oopsie...
I really enjoyed this. The fluff was great but so was your little world building. Very fascinating concepts and plot. It makes me sad to hear you don’t want to take it further because that is legitimately how good and interesting it is. Like not just that was nice but like I could read a books series like this( which based on the comments seems some book series did inspire it. )
but you still could totally make your own book series with this, mlp fanfic or actual sci fi series, with such a great interesting setting, world, and character dynamics.
but I also know how important it is for an author to feel the passion of a work if you want and intend for the story to truly be magnificent and satisfying instead of disappointing and unsatisfying both to readers and writer, and that you were able to tie it while it was good, before you really lost passion to the point that it showed, and to keep it as good as you attempted to make it, is also commendable.
Regardless I hope your creative mind and passion continues to flourish, thrive, and grow, for the joy it will bring you as you see it and write it, and for the joy of us all who read it and see it
Continue to brighten our minds and days with your lovely and powerful imagination opening our own minds to the full bliss of unlimited imaginative creation
10385890
Well I'm happy you enjoyed it! For length though this is probably about my limit, really, at least for anything I'm cooking up myself - far too scatterbrained to retain any coherent worldbuilding beyond a certain point, that and I tend to get bored and wander off.
Still! Sometimes it works out alright, so that's nice. This one turned out pretty good, overall.
Culture series is what people should really be reading, obviously...