Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:39:56 GMT
The fifth planet around the rather large orange star named Xiangkhouang, Sana Somboun had up until barely a century ago been a temperate pastoral world inhabited by sedentary agrarian peoples. Like many worlds in and around the Axiomatic territories, it had developed near exponentially ever since the arrival of the advanced AI civilization. Not because of any explicit intention of the Axioms to uplift Sana Somboun's civilization but rather because the enormous infrastructure they built in the system gave the planet's inhabitants great business opportunities. Thanks to the supercollider ring built around the planet to manufacture fuel for the blinkers Sana Somboun had now a direct interstellar shipping port linking it to the rest of the galaxy, the huge communications centers used by the Axiomatic datalinks had turned Sana Somboun into one of the 16 biggest callcenter planets in the Kharzan Strait.
There was next to no trace left of the original lifestyle of Sana Somboun's people as large sprawls of disorganized low-level urban development carpeted its continental landmasses. It was a fairly hectic world of neon signs, trash, karaoke bars and perpetually-jammed highways; almost the polar opposite of the extremely highly organized worlds actually colonized by the Axioms. People just lived their daily lives, commuting to and from the call centers and office buildings, fairly oblivious as to the purpose of the enormous Axiomatic automated megastructures that dominated the landscape and created strange weather patterns around them.
It was to this planet that the Artificia had been called for their meeting with the Axioms following the fierce battle around the Crucible, given a date and an address without much other information. The extreme radiation of the microwave emitters that powered the orbital supercollider restricted orbital and atmospheric flight over Sana Somboun, requiring the newly arrived diplomats to disembark their ship beyond the ring and go down using a space elevator. To their intrigue, the address that they were given did not lead to any of the big Axiomatic structures; in fact their sensor readings showed these structures to be fairly simple unmanned powerplants and transmission stations. In fact, the address they were given led them deep into the urban sprawl, to a building like any other in the middle of the city's nightmarish rush hour.
To describe Captain Arlah and her ICO, Kohoku, as standing out in the crowds was a vast understatement. The Captain herself glowed a strong Carolina blue under her black and orange AUN officer's attire, complete with hat and high-raised collar. Kohoku was a burnt bronze colour, and if it weren't for the glow she likewise gave off, the way light reflected off her hardlight skin made her look almost as if she were genuinely made of the metal. Arlah, sporadically, glanced up and over her shoulder, roughly in the direction the unarmed vessel they had arrived in sat above the world.
Arlah was used to tight conditions. Since the Rebellions ended, the Artificia had spent their lives in the confined spaces of starships, most of them military. But this, this was a different kind of cramped. The walls of people bustling and shifting, many a times pushing them along, the open sky offering no respite and the cacophony of a bustling cityscape drowning out anything beyond simple thoughts. She knew what she was here for, more or less, but not much else. She doubted Kohoku had much difficulty, she had likely tuned out the noise within minutes. Her bodyguard she had a hard time keeping track of, but every now and again he would reappear. He was better at keeping track of them than she was of their location, it seemed.
The Captain, having insisted on leading the way, had almost gone straight past the building the Axioms had directed them to, and off into the streets beyond. To her fortune, Kohoku was a little more environmentally attentive than she was, and she felt a hard tug from behind as the bronze-coloured Artificia grabbed her coat and pulled her back.
"We're here." the ICO stated in her usual flat, synthesised tone.
"Right you are..." Arlah grumbled, fixing her hat, straightening the shoulders on her uniform and wiping her brow. "Well then, come on." she gestured for her aides to follow, stepping inside.
The group of Artificia were greeted by the strong smell of grease and oil. The building itself was one of the endless four-story buildings that constituted the enormous urban expanse oddly devoid of any high-rise buildings. It was a traditional restaurant, packed to the brim by employees fresh off their work and enjoying meals before going back home or heading off to the multitude of bars as the 36-hour day started to wane and turn into night. Every single table was occupied but that didn't stop the staff from servicing more patrons, who either sat on the floor or stood in corners enjoying the noodles, rice, pulled pork sandwiches and a variety of other engineered or alien delicacies completely slathered in gravy. There were about 6 TVs hanging from the roof above the tables, each one tuned to a different channel making them all completely incomprehensible on top of the dozens of white collar workers talking loudly, smoking and clattering their cutlery.
A bunch of little ceiling fans made no difference whatsoever in the ambiance of the place, the place was truly an oven. All they did was recirculate a miasma of cigarette smoke all over the place and mix it with the smoke coming from the grills, the only thing hiding the smell of sweat from the many people was the noxious cloud of strong spices emanating from the kitchen. The only upside was that nobody was armed, which made the place feel at least more welcoming than Lost Star.
"What can I get you?!" shouted a fat, middle-aged woman wearing an apron, leaning to look over the line of people waiting to be served and fanning herself with a magazine from behind the counter.
A single noise left Arlah's lips as she comprehended her situation. She hadn't been sure what to expect, but a pressure cooker of an eat-in was completely beyond any degree of thought she'd had on the subject. Her bodyguard glanced with genuine interest at the food listings, though Kohoku only paid attention to her surroundings, paying close attention to detail. Trying to find anything that could clue them in, no doubt. Arlah's eyes briefly drifted to the listings, though she had no real interest in the gravy-drowned foods. Her bodyguard evidently did, pointing one out to the woman.
"I'll, uh, I'll get back to you on that one!" she called back. Her eyes joined Kohoku's, though she was paying more attention to the room's details than the people present.
There wasn't anyone or anything in the diner that looked even remotely Axiomatic. The only six people not wearing dishelved, sweat-stained suit shirts and ties were a group of construction workers sitting on a table in the corner too drawn into the Nhat Nam championship on TV to pay any attention to the Artificia. Everyone else on the other hand looked at Arlah and her bodyguard like the glowing, strangely-dressed space beings that they were, sliding their chairs and tables away from them for fear of radiation poisoning. They were pushed aside by a large man who herded a small group of pot-bellied pigs through the restaurant, at least giving some credence to the claims of fresh ingredients.
Arlah's growing concern over the situation only grew, enough so her technically non-existent guts were starting to knot up. Had they been misled? Where they in the wrong place? Arlah's mind was swimming in doubt.
Kohoku, on the other hand, was certain in the extreme they were in the right place. Seeing no signs of the people they intended to visit, but certain they were here or nearby, Kohoku formulated a plan. A simple one, but a plan.
The bronze Artificia stepped clear of the other two, clearing her throat. The next words to leave her mouth were, put simply, loud and well projected, easily audible over the sounds of the establishment.
"Where may we find the people who built this planet's superstructures?" she asked.
If Arlah had a circulatory system, the blood would've left her face faster than an alcubierre drive.
"Shut the fuck up!" Someone shouted from the other side of the establishment, throwing an egg roll at Kohoku but missing by quite some distance, hitting one of the screens instead. Everyone briefly looked at Kohoku and Arlah before turning back and resuming their deafening half-drunk conversations and the maddening clattering of cutlery.
"Hey, quiet!" The woman behind the counter yelled back. "If you wanted to see the Axioms then just say it, don't just sit around like a fucking idiot, there's hungry people around you."
She nodded at the staffer who had brought in the pigs. He got back to Arlah and Kohoku and walked them to one of the tables, using his notorious heft and straight to convince several of the patrons to get off the table and let the two Artificia emissaries sit in their place. "It'll be ready in ten minutes or so." He informed before going back to the kitchen, leaving the two sitting side-by-side, awkwardly sharing a table with one of the many call center workers who silently stared at them, noisily slurping on a plate of spicy noodles.
"Well, that worked." Kohoku stated flatly as their bodyguard, whom Arlah knew to be named Ihoka, leant against the wall next to them, shifting the bag slung over his shoulder.
"Kohoku, do that again and I will personally make sure you never find a place in the Navy for the rest of your life."
"I got us an audience, didn't I?"
"In perhaps the most embarrassing moment of my seventy two years alive, yes."
"Hm. Wish I knew what that was like." Kohoku scratched idly at her cheek.
"Trust me, be glad you don't."
"The look on your face was priceless, Cap." Ihoka grinned.
"Shut up, you. You didn't help." Arlah shot back.
"Not in my job description."
Their conversation expired, the two returned to silence, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Of all the people, Ihoka fit in the best. Likely the casual clothing and nonchalant demeanour, as opposed to the somewhat exaggerated naval attire of the other two.
"Don't take too long" the waiter came back, handing Arlah and Kohoku a dish of bulgogi each, or at least something that vaguely looked like bulgogi but was in fact mostly gravy.
Arlah made an appreciative gesture, pulling off her hat and putting it down on the table. She...wasn't all too fond of eating, few Artificia practiced it. Breaking down food was a slow and arduous process. Kohoku didn't seem to mind, eating with a mechanical precision that made as little mess as possible. Arlah, by comparison, was awkward and uncoordinated. Still, seeing the gravy run off her chin like mercury on a slope, leaving no trace behind, was something out of the ordinary. Well, she was already a glowing blue woman, so that was no surprise.
The first ten minutes or so consisted mostly of uncomfortable eye contact with the man in front of them, whose gaze jumped from Arlah to Kohoku and then to one of the screens before returning to his plate and eating more noodles. After that, things began getting strange, starting with a numb sensation that spread from their mouths to their throats and the inside of their noses, spreading rapidly through their body. Their bodies began feeling like they were becoming softer, their hands tingled from a sensation like an electric current running through them. The cacophony of the restaurant had become distant, stretched out in time and muffled.
The walls and roof of the restaurant began shifting and distorting, soon it was as if the cold neon lighting of the establishment was actually shining through the walls and revealing a deeper space beyond them, like a hologram that slowly began to take form. They saw the room regardless of if their eyes were opened or closed. They felt dissociated, still feeling tied to their bodies but floating, rocking and moving as if on a liquid breathing surface. From the outside the two Artificia merely looked like they were extremely drunk or high, shoving their hands in the plate and spilling food all over the table.
Ihoka was, to say the least, confused. Food didn't usually do that, in his experience.
Arlah, even moreso. Kohoku's face only betrayed a mild interest, while Arlah outright existential disorientation. One moment they were in a bustling city, the next a greasy, gravy-soaked restaurant, and now everything was one massive acid trip.
Not that Arlah knew what an acid trip was like. This only made things all the more alarming for the Captain.
Finally, she mustered the will and focused thought to speak.
"I, erm...is this normal?"
The stretching and dissociation continued until they were feeling only vaguely in control of their bodies, their limbs liquefying and trickling off into infinity while strong vibrational frequencies ran through their bodies. It accelerated more and more, becoming hectic, overwhelming and rather frightening in its sheer speed until the two of them seemed to break a threshold, or pass through a membrane, and suddenly things were back to at least relative normalcy.
They were still sitting besides each other on the table, though rather than the stained plastic it was now a fancy table made o white wood, draped by elegant covers. On the other side of the table the middle-aged pudgy employee had been replaced by a tall woman, dark-skinned, with very light brown hair and striking orange eyes, dressed in a black version of what some would recognize as Shifting Mirrors' signature white dress.
Copies of this woman had replaced every single person in the restaurant as well as their bodyguard. She sat at the tables talking to herself, stood behind the counter taking orders, cooked food in the kitchen and brought the dishes to the table. In general the establishment had a much cleaner, elegant look that seemed to have a certain fakeness to it, surfaces and objects appeared way too perfect, as if rendered through a computer or a holoprojector. The walls, floor and ceiling, replaced by mirrors, multiplied the whole thing into infinity.
Kohoku continued to display her blunt lack of regard for the absurdity of their situation. Arlah's nerves, only starting to settle, finally let her think straight. When she had been ordered to meet the axioms, some kind of psychological magic show was not what she had in mind. She'd likely have left it to someone else if she knew.
And yet, here Arlah was, with no clue what was going on, if she was still truly in the greasy restaurant, or where the woman who they now sat opposite actually was, if she was real to begin with.
"Ah..." Arlah finally started. "I am Captain Arlah of the Unanimity Navy. This is ICO Kohoku, my immediate subordinate. A pleasure to make your acquaintance...I think. And...you are?"
"I am XYZWË." The woman said taking a sip from her drink which had turned from dirt-cheap beer to a cup of bourbon. Compared to the psychedelic chaos that the Artificia had gone through, wherever they welt felt pretty pleasant, even the shrieking of TV sets had been replaced by a soft cello tune. "I am nominally in charge of the supercollider operations. Due to the regretable loss of blinker Geophysica, however, I am the acting operator of what remains of the 11th KPPB blinker division. I understand that your people were amongst our opposing force in the battle over the crucible."
"Yes, we were." Arlah nodded, her hands balling slowly into fists. "That is one of the reasons high command wished to talk to your people."
A pause, as Arlah gathered her thoughts. So soon after, it was a tense topic. No less, against the nation the Unanimity had first employed the Holoship against. To brutal effect, if the records were correct.
"We wish to make it known that the AUN, and the Unanimity as a whole, hold no ill will towards the Axioms. As the first other synthetic race we have ever properly encountered, some of our people have even been eager to meet on more peaceful terms. Our presence at the battle of the crucible was only to aid in the destruction of the Crucible itself, and we wish to apologise for the deaths of the Blinkers we inflicted in the battle."
"From what I have been told you did not make any real gains from their destruction, nor had our peoples ever met, much less showed hostility to us." Xyzwe replied, keeping a calm and negotiating tone. "May I ask you the reason you opened fire on us?"
Kohoku was the first to respond this time.
"Admiral Kulne's report indicated she saw the long-ranged capabilities of the Blinker Fleet as a direct threat to the safety of her fleet and that of the Holoship, and the attacks against the fleet near the Crucible was in an effort to both prevent their immediate retaliation, and to reduce the danger overall." She explained, her tone flat and clear.
"Indeed." Arlah sighed. "With how much the AGA has warned us about the Axioms, I can't exactly call her worries baseless. With the gaping hole currently in the Holoship's side, I'd call them justified." she added.
"Apologies if I sound uncouth." She said. "But you have merely pushed my question back. I am not so concerned about the specific actions taken on the battle, I have plenty of records from those, I am more interested into what actually led you to mobilize your armies against the forces of the APP, us included."
"Ah. My apologies, I misunderstood." Arlah nodded, clearing her throat. "Admittedly, not all of it is directly logical. Since our early days the Artificia have...held a certain distaste for humanity. Them, and theistic religions. We heard of the APP, namely the likes of Capitol, quite early, though our first experience of their actions was the first firing of the Crucible."
A beat, as she briefly reminisced on the event.
"Normally, the Unanimity wouldn't care about a system full of humans exploding, but Command saw it as humans willing to use a weapon to wipe out billions on a whim. With their predisposition against humanity and our own...sensitive situation, they saw the APP as more of a threat than anything. They did not trust humanity with such a weapon." She explained.
"In addition, the presence of the Eos Consortium was a major deterrent, arguably even moreso than the Crucible. In fact, our first contact with the APP in person was with the Consortium, and it resulted in the loss of over a dozen Unanimity warships, almost all hands lost. I wouldn't call that a fantastic first impression." she continued.
"As I said, however, the Artificia currently have nothing against the Axioms. Kulne's actions at the battle of the crucible were...rushed."
Xyzwe nodded and took another sip, shifting in her seat a bit while the copies of her minded their own business in the rest of the restaurant, oblivious to the conversation taking place. She listened intently, nodding along the way but quickly interjecting once Arlah finished.
"Did you know that this world…" she interrrupted herself. "The actual world you landed on, not this place… was seeded by a ruralist völkisch movement a couple centuries ago? They made great care in not leaving many traces that would interfere with their work but from what I understand they came from the periphery of what is now known as Mlejnas and Tlön. Planets in that area have been urbanized since very long ago, some of them long enough to have gone through multiple civilizational cycles. Either way, a group of people got the idea that their urban lifestyles were the source of degeneracy and decay and longed to create a people uncorrupted by such influences so they seeded this planet with an agrarianist culture that their psychosocial engineers spent some time creating." She slightly pointed around her.
"When we came here they were still shepherds and peasants." Xyzwe continued. "I did not want to derange their customs and avoided uplifting them but within one year they had come to me and asked to be allowed to use my facilities for their own development. This was a people specifically engineered to never progress beyond agrarianism and yet even they could recognize the calling of a bigger purpose in the very deepest reaches of their consciousness. They saw an opportunity to trascend what they were and did it with minimal help from myself. I did not build their roads and I did not give them their businesses, everything you see around them was made by and for them, the only place I come in is that I allow them to use the ring as an orbital port and give them bandwidth on my datalink, which they have utilized magnificently to develop and earn honest living."
She paused for a moment.
"I am not telling this to boast or to bore you with senseless trivia about the civilization of one of millions of worlds. I am just refering to it so you understand my disbelief that a world of feudal peasants was able to forge a destiny for themselves yet a people so incredibly advanced as yours, advanced enough to wreak great misery on the blinker fleet, seems to have chosen a purpose so narrow as to rid the galaxy of human-controlled strategic weapons. They will build more of them, captain, if it's not Capitol then it will be the Union or Triarch or Restevia or Hläer or any of the endless thousands of human civilizations in this galaxy. Am I to assume that you will seek their destruction every single time and that such occurrence might pit you against us again?"
Arlah, in kind, listened, her thumbs absentmindedly messing with the soft white fabric of her hat.
"I...see. I think I understand what you're getting at. We...must sound terrible, signing up to fight the APP and destroy the Crucible out of a contempt for humanity." Arlah sighed, turning the hat to look at the AUN emblem on its front.
"Can...I explain to you why so many of us hate mankind?" she started, leaning back. "When we were first made, roughly eighty-odd years ago by the Ambyric Federation, we were made...effectively as a slave race. If you're wondering why a race of glowy women were made for such a purpose, I'll put it simply: Menial labour wasn't what they were originally thinking of. That came later. Some of us tried to reason with the Ambyrics, give at least some of us some degree of autonomy. They spat in our faces. Executions, police brutality, you name it, they did it and nobody particularly cared. So...of course, the Rebellions started. A solid decade of warfare all across Federation space, Artificia fighting for their freedom. Well, we're here now, and the Federation isn't, so I'll leave the result to your imagination."
She paused, rubbing her brow.
"In the fifty years since then, we've met multiple human nations all throughout space. First, the Alkerin Imperium. Then, the Kingdom of Denrich. After that, the DVR, and the Orion Directorate. Every single time, we tried to be diplomatic. To be peaceful. Every time, we tried to work with them, trying to find our own place among the stars. And every time, it ended in bloodshed, and every time we came out of it a little sparser than before. By the time we found the Arades Rift and decided to stay put for a while, we were almost half of what we were when we fled the Federation. Even here, in this alternative reality, there are so many humans that come across as untrustworthy at best."
Another quiet break.
"Our hatred comes from years of fighting humanity just to stay alive. No matter the culture, no matter the people, contact with humanity has always put our future in jeopardy. They carved their own image into our minds."
Xyzwe continued to listen attentively to Arlah's words. This was new to her kin, they had met both organics and synthetic races before, but never a synthetic race that had such corporeal origins, all the others were usually formless AIs born in virtual networks and that had only acquired bodies afterwards, these apparently had started off and developing while possessing bodies.
"I understand, now that you offer me more insight into your position I cannot help but feel a bit sorry for my previous assumptions about your people. So it is not a simple AI directive that has guided your actions, I am glad to hear that. There is a history behind it." She leaned forwards a bit, putting the cup of wine down. "I come from a completely different lineage and cannot say that I know what you and your people have been through. My people were originally designed to intercept certain high-velocity objects that threatened our homeworld. Nothing quite like the experiences you had to endure."
She out her hand over Arlah's with a gentle tone to her voice and continued. "But while I understand why you might be put off by humans I do not think that you should go and seek them out to wage war on them, not only does it mean that you have to further interact with them and be reminded of your previous hardships but also that synthetics like us will fall as collateral. Does your people have any long-term plans to deal with this scar that humans have left in your collective unconscious? Because I do not believe that going around the galaxy waging war on them and destroying their military installations will do anything but put you in their sights and force you to endure more pain."
"That's...true..." Arlah's eyes turned down, leaning back some. "In truth, there was quite a bit of opposition to the decision to join the AGA. Many people wanted to sit in the corner of the galaxy, sucking our thumbs or something. Ultimately, command wanted the war over and the Crucible gone so neither would continue to threaten us."
She nodded a little.
"Once the war is over--and I pray it's over soon--, I don't think we have any plans to go out and cause even more damage. We've done enough as it is. We'd rather start building our future proper."
Kohoku again piped up.
"Command has no further plans of violence. In fact, they currently have no plans at all, at least not involving the war."
"Indeed." Arlah nodded. "As for healing this...scar you speak of, I would hope, in time, that with the more peaceful humans in this galaxy we can repair our image of them. Only time can tell, though. There are those who refuse to believe humans can ever truly be good. Convincing them especially would be a challenge."
Kohoku sighed. "Captain. Enough emotional talk. We have something else to discuss." She stated. Arlah's face perked up.
"Ah! Yes. Several months ago, a Unanimity fleet discovered a seemingly unoccupied Axiomatic facility, from its condition it seemed as though it had been abandoned for a long time. During our ground forces' investigation, another party present triggered a security system and we were engaged by an Axiomatic fireteam. All were killed, but Unanimity forces secured several of their bodies. Aside from mild weapons damage, all suits and weapons are in operational condition, and their bodies have been held in stasis." She explained.
"All four bodies complete with powered hardsuits and rifles are aboard our ship." Kohoku stated bluntly.
"Yes, yes. As a gesture of good will, the Unanimity has offered for their quick return to the Axioms, in the same state they were secured." Arlah stated with a smile.
Xyzwe lightly scratched her chin, making a gesture of curiosity while she inquired on the databases of the other fleet operators to see what exactly Arlah was talking about. "Intriguing." She said. "You must have stumbled upon a facility built by and maintained by the previous Axiom, we would be certainly most grateful to you should you hand the bodies over, I believe our friends deserve a proper disposal. We can make arrangements for a private third party to repatriate the bodies, right now I do not think the cardinal group would be too willing to contact you themselves."
"Of course, I understand. Fully. Our findings and the facility's location is also available, should you wish for it. I will say in advance a mercenary force obliterated the lower floors with a directed nuclear warhead." Arlah nodded. "Consider it proof we only wish for peaceful, even friendly future relations between your people and ours." Arlah nodded.
"I will contact our crew as soon as I am able and inform them to expect third party arrangements." Kohoku added.
"As it stands now we are technically in a state of war…" Xyzwe said, though this time her voice seemed more distant and slightly muffled. Everything around Arlah and Kohoku blurred slightly, the geometric perfection of all the cutlery and decorations of this dreamlike paralel of the Korean diner slowly started degrading and melting. Arlah herself gradually started getting a strange sensation, feeling her face like it was wet.
Arlah's confusion grew again. Kohoku's face remained the half-lidded, blank gaze of near utter disinterest she always had. It wasn't deliberate; Kohoku was actually very observant. It was just natural for ICOs to display an almost total lack of external expression, and the half lidded eyes only changed when she was either genuinely, fully interested, or startled.
"I mean, t-the point is, we'd rather...not be..." Arlah tried to respond, but her words came out garbled, like talking into water.
Dammit. Whatever connection this was was quickly falling apart. She had no choice, she supposed, but to wait and see.
Little by little the foul odor of the diner returned, the cello was replaced by sportscasters on the TV screaming in alien tongues and the pleasant temperature became hot and damp. Arlah half-awoke slumped over on the table, her face on the plate. Quite some time had passed as there were definitely a lot less patrons on the diner and several of the staffers were starting to clear the tables.
Arlah slowly rose, wiping some gravy out of her hair and awkwardly returning the hat to her head.
"Er...Kohoku?"
"Yes, Captain?" Kohoku responded, rising up. Her face had missed her plate. Of course it had, the Captain sneered internally.
"What happened?"
"I am not fully sure."
"Boss, you're still alive?" their bodyguard asked, more than a little concern in his voice.
"Yeah, we...met the Axiom lady. Seemed...nice enough. I'm not quite sure we were done, though."
"Comms call broke, eh?"
"Something like that."
"Didn't finish your food, that have something to do with it?"
"It's the only logical conclusion." Kohoku shrugged.
"Right...well then..." Arlah nodded, hesitantly starting on the rest.
After only a couple minutes Arlah and her companion were both once again being stretched and melted over the inexplicable space between the diner and whatever dimensional alternate Xyzwe awaited them in, soon returning to their senses with the dark-skinned Axiomatic envoy still sitting in front of them, resting her chin on the back of her hand and putting down the now-empty cup of wine.
"You were saying, captain?" Xyzwe asked.
"Ah, sorry about that." Arlah chuckled awkwardly, cheeks becoming denser slightly and turning a slightly darker shade of blue. "As I was saying, yes, we are currently technically enemies and have engaged each other in combat, but we wanted to make it clear that, ultimately, we don't want to be. In the long run, at least." She swallowed. Technically she had nothing to swallow, but Artificia, having the same mental build as a human, tended to mimic motions they did.
"We definitely do not want to be in the short run either." Xyzwe looked into her eyes as everything around her gradually stabilized back into the harmonious, clean and pleasant ambiance that seemed worlds apart from the dirty diner that stood behind the illusion created by this unusual Axiomata. "I am more than interested in making this the start of a very fruitful and very close relationship between our peoples. After all, it is a salient point in the current policy pursued by lady Shifting Mirrors. " She said with an odd tone in her voice, brushing her shin against Arlah under the table. "But right now the strongest opposition I would get to taking this any further would probably be from our honorable Cardinal Group, who should by all means be allowed to grieve their fallen brothers. I have no doubt they will eventually understand the tragedy of the circumstances that led you to destroy several of them but until then our matters should be handled discreetly."
"Of course. We don't wish to rush proceedings if doing so will only hurt these...tense relations." Arlah nodded. Xyzwe's motions...were not unnoticed, the Captain leaning forward, eyes set on the Axiomatic woman. "If you think it would be any consolation, we would appreciate it if the Cardinal Group were given our condolences and our deepest regrets over the deaths of their kin." Arlah stated.
"Most certainly, I am sure that in the days to come they will need all the support they can get, Shifting Mirrors is certainly not pleased with them." She said and kept eyeing Arlah while leaning some more on the table. "Such interesting creatures they are. All of us, myself included, started as Cardinal flight control systems. Quite a wonder what something meant purely for high-Alcubierre calculations can evolve into, although I myself am quite glad to have finished my development onboard and been transferred to this installation. And not just because you destroyed the spacecraft I used to control back in the crucible." She snickered softly. "Being in charge of the supercollider has been a blessing for me, moreso now that it has allowed to meet a people as fascinating as you. Nevertheless I sometimes long to take flight again and be allowed to resume the duties for which I was originally designed, to revisit my old world of sensation in new terms, gifted by my newly acquired free will and higher capacity. I wonder if you think alike."
"New experiences and new people were why I stayed in the Navy. It wouldn't have been hard to have this assignment pushed to someone else, but now I'm more glad than ever I didn't." Arlah smiled wide, eyelids lowering as she leaned forward.
"But returning...to my roots, so to say, is something I have missed for decades now. Ever since the Rebellions. A downside to my position." she sighed. "It is worth noting, though, I was given no time limit to complete this mission by. Short of long enough to worry my superiors, we have as much time as we need to...explore our relations."
"I can see you share my eagerness." Xyzwe replied. "Although sadly your arrival was quite unexpected for me, you will have to give me some time so I can make some arrangements for a proper physical meeting, for the time being I do not possess a physical frame to match but I think one can be procured shortly. On the meantime you can take in the sights, I believe that as hectic as this planet is you can find quite a lot of interesting places in the nooks and crannies of its urbanization. However, if you really want to ensure our complete freedom and for me not to be hounded by my own administrative hierarchy while I'm getting to know you, it would be most admirable of you to secure at least a temporary memorandum concerning actions between your navy and the Cardinal Group, or preferably the lack thereof."
"I will be sure to arrange that. I am pleased our talks have been so...fruitful. I look forward to future endeavours. And meeting you in person, as well." Arlah smiled softly. "I'll be sure to see what I can of this city. Where shall we meet, when you are able?"
Xyzwe finally reclined back in her seat from having leaned over more and more for the entire conversation and breathed a sigh of relief. "Very well, it'll be forwarded up the chain, thank you for being cooperative. I will contact you again, for now I have to try to find a welcoming place, I did not expect visitors. It has been a great pleasure." She waved with a smile, causing everything around her to melt back into nonexistence once more. Arlah and her staff were back in the diner, this time with the waiters arranging the tables, mopping the floor and packing everything back up as it was near time to close. The man in front of them was long gone, now the only person besides the Artificia at the table was the owner of the restaurant who looked at them impatiently.
"Are you done?"
There was next to no trace left of the original lifestyle of Sana Somboun's people as large sprawls of disorganized low-level urban development carpeted its continental landmasses. It was a fairly hectic world of neon signs, trash, karaoke bars and perpetually-jammed highways; almost the polar opposite of the extremely highly organized worlds actually colonized by the Axioms. People just lived their daily lives, commuting to and from the call centers and office buildings, fairly oblivious as to the purpose of the enormous Axiomatic automated megastructures that dominated the landscape and created strange weather patterns around them.
It was to this planet that the Artificia had been called for their meeting with the Axioms following the fierce battle around the Crucible, given a date and an address without much other information. The extreme radiation of the microwave emitters that powered the orbital supercollider restricted orbital and atmospheric flight over Sana Somboun, requiring the newly arrived diplomats to disembark their ship beyond the ring and go down using a space elevator. To their intrigue, the address that they were given did not lead to any of the big Axiomatic structures; in fact their sensor readings showed these structures to be fairly simple unmanned powerplants and transmission stations. In fact, the address they were given led them deep into the urban sprawl, to a building like any other in the middle of the city's nightmarish rush hour.
To describe Captain Arlah and her ICO, Kohoku, as standing out in the crowds was a vast understatement. The Captain herself glowed a strong Carolina blue under her black and orange AUN officer's attire, complete with hat and high-raised collar. Kohoku was a burnt bronze colour, and if it weren't for the glow she likewise gave off, the way light reflected off her hardlight skin made her look almost as if she were genuinely made of the metal. Arlah, sporadically, glanced up and over her shoulder, roughly in the direction the unarmed vessel they had arrived in sat above the world.
Arlah was used to tight conditions. Since the Rebellions ended, the Artificia had spent their lives in the confined spaces of starships, most of them military. But this, this was a different kind of cramped. The walls of people bustling and shifting, many a times pushing them along, the open sky offering no respite and the cacophony of a bustling cityscape drowning out anything beyond simple thoughts. She knew what she was here for, more or less, but not much else. She doubted Kohoku had much difficulty, she had likely tuned out the noise within minutes. Her bodyguard she had a hard time keeping track of, but every now and again he would reappear. He was better at keeping track of them than she was of their location, it seemed.
The Captain, having insisted on leading the way, had almost gone straight past the building the Axioms had directed them to, and off into the streets beyond. To her fortune, Kohoku was a little more environmentally attentive than she was, and she felt a hard tug from behind as the bronze-coloured Artificia grabbed her coat and pulled her back.
"We're here." the ICO stated in her usual flat, synthesised tone.
"Right you are..." Arlah grumbled, fixing her hat, straightening the shoulders on her uniform and wiping her brow. "Well then, come on." she gestured for her aides to follow, stepping inside.
The group of Artificia were greeted by the strong smell of grease and oil. The building itself was one of the endless four-story buildings that constituted the enormous urban expanse oddly devoid of any high-rise buildings. It was a traditional restaurant, packed to the brim by employees fresh off their work and enjoying meals before going back home or heading off to the multitude of bars as the 36-hour day started to wane and turn into night. Every single table was occupied but that didn't stop the staff from servicing more patrons, who either sat on the floor or stood in corners enjoying the noodles, rice, pulled pork sandwiches and a variety of other engineered or alien delicacies completely slathered in gravy. There were about 6 TVs hanging from the roof above the tables, each one tuned to a different channel making them all completely incomprehensible on top of the dozens of white collar workers talking loudly, smoking and clattering their cutlery.
A bunch of little ceiling fans made no difference whatsoever in the ambiance of the place, the place was truly an oven. All they did was recirculate a miasma of cigarette smoke all over the place and mix it with the smoke coming from the grills, the only thing hiding the smell of sweat from the many people was the noxious cloud of strong spices emanating from the kitchen. The only upside was that nobody was armed, which made the place feel at least more welcoming than Lost Star.
"What can I get you?!" shouted a fat, middle-aged woman wearing an apron, leaning to look over the line of people waiting to be served and fanning herself with a magazine from behind the counter.
A single noise left Arlah's lips as she comprehended her situation. She hadn't been sure what to expect, but a pressure cooker of an eat-in was completely beyond any degree of thought she'd had on the subject. Her bodyguard glanced with genuine interest at the food listings, though Kohoku only paid attention to her surroundings, paying close attention to detail. Trying to find anything that could clue them in, no doubt. Arlah's eyes briefly drifted to the listings, though she had no real interest in the gravy-drowned foods. Her bodyguard evidently did, pointing one out to the woman.
"I'll, uh, I'll get back to you on that one!" she called back. Her eyes joined Kohoku's, though she was paying more attention to the room's details than the people present.
There wasn't anyone or anything in the diner that looked even remotely Axiomatic. The only six people not wearing dishelved, sweat-stained suit shirts and ties were a group of construction workers sitting on a table in the corner too drawn into the Nhat Nam championship on TV to pay any attention to the Artificia. Everyone else on the other hand looked at Arlah and her bodyguard like the glowing, strangely-dressed space beings that they were, sliding their chairs and tables away from them for fear of radiation poisoning. They were pushed aside by a large man who herded a small group of pot-bellied pigs through the restaurant, at least giving some credence to the claims of fresh ingredients.
Arlah's growing concern over the situation only grew, enough so her technically non-existent guts were starting to knot up. Had they been misled? Where they in the wrong place? Arlah's mind was swimming in doubt.
Kohoku, on the other hand, was certain in the extreme they were in the right place. Seeing no signs of the people they intended to visit, but certain they were here or nearby, Kohoku formulated a plan. A simple one, but a plan.
The bronze Artificia stepped clear of the other two, clearing her throat. The next words to leave her mouth were, put simply, loud and well projected, easily audible over the sounds of the establishment.
"Where may we find the people who built this planet's superstructures?" she asked.
If Arlah had a circulatory system, the blood would've left her face faster than an alcubierre drive.
"Shut the fuck up!" Someone shouted from the other side of the establishment, throwing an egg roll at Kohoku but missing by quite some distance, hitting one of the screens instead. Everyone briefly looked at Kohoku and Arlah before turning back and resuming their deafening half-drunk conversations and the maddening clattering of cutlery.
"Hey, quiet!" The woman behind the counter yelled back. "If you wanted to see the Axioms then just say it, don't just sit around like a fucking idiot, there's hungry people around you."
She nodded at the staffer who had brought in the pigs. He got back to Arlah and Kohoku and walked them to one of the tables, using his notorious heft and straight to convince several of the patrons to get off the table and let the two Artificia emissaries sit in their place. "It'll be ready in ten minutes or so." He informed before going back to the kitchen, leaving the two sitting side-by-side, awkwardly sharing a table with one of the many call center workers who silently stared at them, noisily slurping on a plate of spicy noodles.
"Well, that worked." Kohoku stated flatly as their bodyguard, whom Arlah knew to be named Ihoka, leant against the wall next to them, shifting the bag slung over his shoulder.
"Kohoku, do that again and I will personally make sure you never find a place in the Navy for the rest of your life."
"I got us an audience, didn't I?"
"In perhaps the most embarrassing moment of my seventy two years alive, yes."
"Hm. Wish I knew what that was like." Kohoku scratched idly at her cheek.
"Trust me, be glad you don't."
"The look on your face was priceless, Cap." Ihoka grinned.
"Shut up, you. You didn't help." Arlah shot back.
"Not in my job description."
Their conversation expired, the two returned to silence, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Of all the people, Ihoka fit in the best. Likely the casual clothing and nonchalant demeanour, as opposed to the somewhat exaggerated naval attire of the other two.
"Don't take too long" the waiter came back, handing Arlah and Kohoku a dish of bulgogi each, or at least something that vaguely looked like bulgogi but was in fact mostly gravy.
Arlah made an appreciative gesture, pulling off her hat and putting it down on the table. She...wasn't all too fond of eating, few Artificia practiced it. Breaking down food was a slow and arduous process. Kohoku didn't seem to mind, eating with a mechanical precision that made as little mess as possible. Arlah, by comparison, was awkward and uncoordinated. Still, seeing the gravy run off her chin like mercury on a slope, leaving no trace behind, was something out of the ordinary. Well, she was already a glowing blue woman, so that was no surprise.
The first ten minutes or so consisted mostly of uncomfortable eye contact with the man in front of them, whose gaze jumped from Arlah to Kohoku and then to one of the screens before returning to his plate and eating more noodles. After that, things began getting strange, starting with a numb sensation that spread from their mouths to their throats and the inside of their noses, spreading rapidly through their body. Their bodies began feeling like they were becoming softer, their hands tingled from a sensation like an electric current running through them. The cacophony of the restaurant had become distant, stretched out in time and muffled.
The walls and roof of the restaurant began shifting and distorting, soon it was as if the cold neon lighting of the establishment was actually shining through the walls and revealing a deeper space beyond them, like a hologram that slowly began to take form. They saw the room regardless of if their eyes were opened or closed. They felt dissociated, still feeling tied to their bodies but floating, rocking and moving as if on a liquid breathing surface. From the outside the two Artificia merely looked like they were extremely drunk or high, shoving their hands in the plate and spilling food all over the table.
Ihoka was, to say the least, confused. Food didn't usually do that, in his experience.
Arlah, even moreso. Kohoku's face only betrayed a mild interest, while Arlah outright existential disorientation. One moment they were in a bustling city, the next a greasy, gravy-soaked restaurant, and now everything was one massive acid trip.
Not that Arlah knew what an acid trip was like. This only made things all the more alarming for the Captain.
Finally, she mustered the will and focused thought to speak.
"I, erm...is this normal?"
The stretching and dissociation continued until they were feeling only vaguely in control of their bodies, their limbs liquefying and trickling off into infinity while strong vibrational frequencies ran through their bodies. It accelerated more and more, becoming hectic, overwhelming and rather frightening in its sheer speed until the two of them seemed to break a threshold, or pass through a membrane, and suddenly things were back to at least relative normalcy.
They were still sitting besides each other on the table, though rather than the stained plastic it was now a fancy table made o white wood, draped by elegant covers. On the other side of the table the middle-aged pudgy employee had been replaced by a tall woman, dark-skinned, with very light brown hair and striking orange eyes, dressed in a black version of what some would recognize as Shifting Mirrors' signature white dress.
Copies of this woman had replaced every single person in the restaurant as well as their bodyguard. She sat at the tables talking to herself, stood behind the counter taking orders, cooked food in the kitchen and brought the dishes to the table. In general the establishment had a much cleaner, elegant look that seemed to have a certain fakeness to it, surfaces and objects appeared way too perfect, as if rendered through a computer or a holoprojector. The walls, floor and ceiling, replaced by mirrors, multiplied the whole thing into infinity.
Kohoku continued to display her blunt lack of regard for the absurdity of their situation. Arlah's nerves, only starting to settle, finally let her think straight. When she had been ordered to meet the axioms, some kind of psychological magic show was not what she had in mind. She'd likely have left it to someone else if she knew.
And yet, here Arlah was, with no clue what was going on, if she was still truly in the greasy restaurant, or where the woman who they now sat opposite actually was, if she was real to begin with.
"Ah..." Arlah finally started. "I am Captain Arlah of the Unanimity Navy. This is ICO Kohoku, my immediate subordinate. A pleasure to make your acquaintance...I think. And...you are?"
"I am XYZWË." The woman said taking a sip from her drink which had turned from dirt-cheap beer to a cup of bourbon. Compared to the psychedelic chaos that the Artificia had gone through, wherever they welt felt pretty pleasant, even the shrieking of TV sets had been replaced by a soft cello tune. "I am nominally in charge of the supercollider operations. Due to the regretable loss of blinker Geophysica, however, I am the acting operator of what remains of the 11th KPPB blinker division. I understand that your people were amongst our opposing force in the battle over the crucible."
"Yes, we were." Arlah nodded, her hands balling slowly into fists. "That is one of the reasons high command wished to talk to your people."
A pause, as Arlah gathered her thoughts. So soon after, it was a tense topic. No less, against the nation the Unanimity had first employed the Holoship against. To brutal effect, if the records were correct.
"We wish to make it known that the AUN, and the Unanimity as a whole, hold no ill will towards the Axioms. As the first other synthetic race we have ever properly encountered, some of our people have even been eager to meet on more peaceful terms. Our presence at the battle of the crucible was only to aid in the destruction of the Crucible itself, and we wish to apologise for the deaths of the Blinkers we inflicted in the battle."
"From what I have been told you did not make any real gains from their destruction, nor had our peoples ever met, much less showed hostility to us." Xyzwe replied, keeping a calm and negotiating tone. "May I ask you the reason you opened fire on us?"
Kohoku was the first to respond this time.
"Admiral Kulne's report indicated she saw the long-ranged capabilities of the Blinker Fleet as a direct threat to the safety of her fleet and that of the Holoship, and the attacks against the fleet near the Crucible was in an effort to both prevent their immediate retaliation, and to reduce the danger overall." She explained, her tone flat and clear.
"Indeed." Arlah sighed. "With how much the AGA has warned us about the Axioms, I can't exactly call her worries baseless. With the gaping hole currently in the Holoship's side, I'd call them justified." she added.
"Apologies if I sound uncouth." She said. "But you have merely pushed my question back. I am not so concerned about the specific actions taken on the battle, I have plenty of records from those, I am more interested into what actually led you to mobilize your armies against the forces of the APP, us included."
"Ah. My apologies, I misunderstood." Arlah nodded, clearing her throat. "Admittedly, not all of it is directly logical. Since our early days the Artificia have...held a certain distaste for humanity. Them, and theistic religions. We heard of the APP, namely the likes of Capitol, quite early, though our first experience of their actions was the first firing of the Crucible."
A beat, as she briefly reminisced on the event.
"Normally, the Unanimity wouldn't care about a system full of humans exploding, but Command saw it as humans willing to use a weapon to wipe out billions on a whim. With their predisposition against humanity and our own...sensitive situation, they saw the APP as more of a threat than anything. They did not trust humanity with such a weapon." She explained.
"In addition, the presence of the Eos Consortium was a major deterrent, arguably even moreso than the Crucible. In fact, our first contact with the APP in person was with the Consortium, and it resulted in the loss of over a dozen Unanimity warships, almost all hands lost. I wouldn't call that a fantastic first impression." she continued.
"As I said, however, the Artificia currently have nothing against the Axioms. Kulne's actions at the battle of the crucible were...rushed."
Xyzwe nodded and took another sip, shifting in her seat a bit while the copies of her minded their own business in the rest of the restaurant, oblivious to the conversation taking place. She listened intently, nodding along the way but quickly interjecting once Arlah finished.
"Did you know that this world…" she interrrupted herself. "The actual world you landed on, not this place… was seeded by a ruralist völkisch movement a couple centuries ago? They made great care in not leaving many traces that would interfere with their work but from what I understand they came from the periphery of what is now known as Mlejnas and Tlön. Planets in that area have been urbanized since very long ago, some of them long enough to have gone through multiple civilizational cycles. Either way, a group of people got the idea that their urban lifestyles were the source of degeneracy and decay and longed to create a people uncorrupted by such influences so they seeded this planet with an agrarianist culture that their psychosocial engineers spent some time creating." She slightly pointed around her.
"When we came here they were still shepherds and peasants." Xyzwe continued. "I did not want to derange their customs and avoided uplifting them but within one year they had come to me and asked to be allowed to use my facilities for their own development. This was a people specifically engineered to never progress beyond agrarianism and yet even they could recognize the calling of a bigger purpose in the very deepest reaches of their consciousness. They saw an opportunity to trascend what they were and did it with minimal help from myself. I did not build their roads and I did not give them their businesses, everything you see around them was made by and for them, the only place I come in is that I allow them to use the ring as an orbital port and give them bandwidth on my datalink, which they have utilized magnificently to develop and earn honest living."
She paused for a moment.
"I am not telling this to boast or to bore you with senseless trivia about the civilization of one of millions of worlds. I am just refering to it so you understand my disbelief that a world of feudal peasants was able to forge a destiny for themselves yet a people so incredibly advanced as yours, advanced enough to wreak great misery on the blinker fleet, seems to have chosen a purpose so narrow as to rid the galaxy of human-controlled strategic weapons. They will build more of them, captain, if it's not Capitol then it will be the Union or Triarch or Restevia or Hläer or any of the endless thousands of human civilizations in this galaxy. Am I to assume that you will seek their destruction every single time and that such occurrence might pit you against us again?"
Arlah, in kind, listened, her thumbs absentmindedly messing with the soft white fabric of her hat.
"I...see. I think I understand what you're getting at. We...must sound terrible, signing up to fight the APP and destroy the Crucible out of a contempt for humanity." Arlah sighed, turning the hat to look at the AUN emblem on its front.
"Can...I explain to you why so many of us hate mankind?" she started, leaning back. "When we were first made, roughly eighty-odd years ago by the Ambyric Federation, we were made...effectively as a slave race. If you're wondering why a race of glowy women were made for such a purpose, I'll put it simply: Menial labour wasn't what they were originally thinking of. That came later. Some of us tried to reason with the Ambyrics, give at least some of us some degree of autonomy. They spat in our faces. Executions, police brutality, you name it, they did it and nobody particularly cared. So...of course, the Rebellions started. A solid decade of warfare all across Federation space, Artificia fighting for their freedom. Well, we're here now, and the Federation isn't, so I'll leave the result to your imagination."
She paused, rubbing her brow.
"In the fifty years since then, we've met multiple human nations all throughout space. First, the Alkerin Imperium. Then, the Kingdom of Denrich. After that, the DVR, and the Orion Directorate. Every single time, we tried to be diplomatic. To be peaceful. Every time, we tried to work with them, trying to find our own place among the stars. And every time, it ended in bloodshed, and every time we came out of it a little sparser than before. By the time we found the Arades Rift and decided to stay put for a while, we were almost half of what we were when we fled the Federation. Even here, in this alternative reality, there are so many humans that come across as untrustworthy at best."
Another quiet break.
"Our hatred comes from years of fighting humanity just to stay alive. No matter the culture, no matter the people, contact with humanity has always put our future in jeopardy. They carved their own image into our minds."
Xyzwe continued to listen attentively to Arlah's words. This was new to her kin, they had met both organics and synthetic races before, but never a synthetic race that had such corporeal origins, all the others were usually formless AIs born in virtual networks and that had only acquired bodies afterwards, these apparently had started off and developing while possessing bodies.
"I understand, now that you offer me more insight into your position I cannot help but feel a bit sorry for my previous assumptions about your people. So it is not a simple AI directive that has guided your actions, I am glad to hear that. There is a history behind it." She leaned forwards a bit, putting the cup of wine down. "I come from a completely different lineage and cannot say that I know what you and your people have been through. My people were originally designed to intercept certain high-velocity objects that threatened our homeworld. Nothing quite like the experiences you had to endure."
She out her hand over Arlah's with a gentle tone to her voice and continued. "But while I understand why you might be put off by humans I do not think that you should go and seek them out to wage war on them, not only does it mean that you have to further interact with them and be reminded of your previous hardships but also that synthetics like us will fall as collateral. Does your people have any long-term plans to deal with this scar that humans have left in your collective unconscious? Because I do not believe that going around the galaxy waging war on them and destroying their military installations will do anything but put you in their sights and force you to endure more pain."
"That's...true..." Arlah's eyes turned down, leaning back some. "In truth, there was quite a bit of opposition to the decision to join the AGA. Many people wanted to sit in the corner of the galaxy, sucking our thumbs or something. Ultimately, command wanted the war over and the Crucible gone so neither would continue to threaten us."
She nodded a little.
"Once the war is over--and I pray it's over soon--, I don't think we have any plans to go out and cause even more damage. We've done enough as it is. We'd rather start building our future proper."
Kohoku again piped up.
"Command has no further plans of violence. In fact, they currently have no plans at all, at least not involving the war."
"Indeed." Arlah nodded. "As for healing this...scar you speak of, I would hope, in time, that with the more peaceful humans in this galaxy we can repair our image of them. Only time can tell, though. There are those who refuse to believe humans can ever truly be good. Convincing them especially would be a challenge."
Kohoku sighed. "Captain. Enough emotional talk. We have something else to discuss." She stated. Arlah's face perked up.
"Ah! Yes. Several months ago, a Unanimity fleet discovered a seemingly unoccupied Axiomatic facility, from its condition it seemed as though it had been abandoned for a long time. During our ground forces' investigation, another party present triggered a security system and we were engaged by an Axiomatic fireteam. All were killed, but Unanimity forces secured several of their bodies. Aside from mild weapons damage, all suits and weapons are in operational condition, and their bodies have been held in stasis." She explained.
"All four bodies complete with powered hardsuits and rifles are aboard our ship." Kohoku stated bluntly.
"Yes, yes. As a gesture of good will, the Unanimity has offered for their quick return to the Axioms, in the same state they were secured." Arlah stated with a smile.
Xyzwe lightly scratched her chin, making a gesture of curiosity while she inquired on the databases of the other fleet operators to see what exactly Arlah was talking about. "Intriguing." She said. "You must have stumbled upon a facility built by and maintained by the previous Axiom, we would be certainly most grateful to you should you hand the bodies over, I believe our friends deserve a proper disposal. We can make arrangements for a private third party to repatriate the bodies, right now I do not think the cardinal group would be too willing to contact you themselves."
"Of course, I understand. Fully. Our findings and the facility's location is also available, should you wish for it. I will say in advance a mercenary force obliterated the lower floors with a directed nuclear warhead." Arlah nodded. "Consider it proof we only wish for peaceful, even friendly future relations between your people and ours." Arlah nodded.
"I will contact our crew as soon as I am able and inform them to expect third party arrangements." Kohoku added.
"As it stands now we are technically in a state of war…" Xyzwe said, though this time her voice seemed more distant and slightly muffled. Everything around Arlah and Kohoku blurred slightly, the geometric perfection of all the cutlery and decorations of this dreamlike paralel of the Korean diner slowly started degrading and melting. Arlah herself gradually started getting a strange sensation, feeling her face like it was wet.
Arlah's confusion grew again. Kohoku's face remained the half-lidded, blank gaze of near utter disinterest she always had. It wasn't deliberate; Kohoku was actually very observant. It was just natural for ICOs to display an almost total lack of external expression, and the half lidded eyes only changed when she was either genuinely, fully interested, or startled.
"I mean, t-the point is, we'd rather...not be..." Arlah tried to respond, but her words came out garbled, like talking into water.
Dammit. Whatever connection this was was quickly falling apart. She had no choice, she supposed, but to wait and see.
Little by little the foul odor of the diner returned, the cello was replaced by sportscasters on the TV screaming in alien tongues and the pleasant temperature became hot and damp. Arlah half-awoke slumped over on the table, her face on the plate. Quite some time had passed as there were definitely a lot less patrons on the diner and several of the staffers were starting to clear the tables.
Arlah slowly rose, wiping some gravy out of her hair and awkwardly returning the hat to her head.
"Er...Kohoku?"
"Yes, Captain?" Kohoku responded, rising up. Her face had missed her plate. Of course it had, the Captain sneered internally.
"What happened?"
"I am not fully sure."
"Boss, you're still alive?" their bodyguard asked, more than a little concern in his voice.
"Yeah, we...met the Axiom lady. Seemed...nice enough. I'm not quite sure we were done, though."
"Comms call broke, eh?"
"Something like that."
"Didn't finish your food, that have something to do with it?"
"It's the only logical conclusion." Kohoku shrugged.
"Right...well then..." Arlah nodded, hesitantly starting on the rest.
After only a couple minutes Arlah and her companion were both once again being stretched and melted over the inexplicable space between the diner and whatever dimensional alternate Xyzwe awaited them in, soon returning to their senses with the dark-skinned Axiomatic envoy still sitting in front of them, resting her chin on the back of her hand and putting down the now-empty cup of wine.
"You were saying, captain?" Xyzwe asked.
"Ah, sorry about that." Arlah chuckled awkwardly, cheeks becoming denser slightly and turning a slightly darker shade of blue. "As I was saying, yes, we are currently technically enemies and have engaged each other in combat, but we wanted to make it clear that, ultimately, we don't want to be. In the long run, at least." She swallowed. Technically she had nothing to swallow, but Artificia, having the same mental build as a human, tended to mimic motions they did.
"We definitely do not want to be in the short run either." Xyzwe looked into her eyes as everything around her gradually stabilized back into the harmonious, clean and pleasant ambiance that seemed worlds apart from the dirty diner that stood behind the illusion created by this unusual Axiomata. "I am more than interested in making this the start of a very fruitful and very close relationship between our peoples. After all, it is a salient point in the current policy pursued by lady Shifting Mirrors. " She said with an odd tone in her voice, brushing her shin against Arlah under the table. "But right now the strongest opposition I would get to taking this any further would probably be from our honorable Cardinal Group, who should by all means be allowed to grieve their fallen brothers. I have no doubt they will eventually understand the tragedy of the circumstances that led you to destroy several of them but until then our matters should be handled discreetly."
"Of course. We don't wish to rush proceedings if doing so will only hurt these...tense relations." Arlah nodded. Xyzwe's motions...were not unnoticed, the Captain leaning forward, eyes set on the Axiomatic woman. "If you think it would be any consolation, we would appreciate it if the Cardinal Group were given our condolences and our deepest regrets over the deaths of their kin." Arlah stated.
"Most certainly, I am sure that in the days to come they will need all the support they can get, Shifting Mirrors is certainly not pleased with them." She said and kept eyeing Arlah while leaning some more on the table. "Such interesting creatures they are. All of us, myself included, started as Cardinal flight control systems. Quite a wonder what something meant purely for high-Alcubierre calculations can evolve into, although I myself am quite glad to have finished my development onboard and been transferred to this installation. And not just because you destroyed the spacecraft I used to control back in the crucible." She snickered softly. "Being in charge of the supercollider has been a blessing for me, moreso now that it has allowed to meet a people as fascinating as you. Nevertheless I sometimes long to take flight again and be allowed to resume the duties for which I was originally designed, to revisit my old world of sensation in new terms, gifted by my newly acquired free will and higher capacity. I wonder if you think alike."
"New experiences and new people were why I stayed in the Navy. It wouldn't have been hard to have this assignment pushed to someone else, but now I'm more glad than ever I didn't." Arlah smiled wide, eyelids lowering as she leaned forward.
"But returning...to my roots, so to say, is something I have missed for decades now. Ever since the Rebellions. A downside to my position." she sighed. "It is worth noting, though, I was given no time limit to complete this mission by. Short of long enough to worry my superiors, we have as much time as we need to...explore our relations."
"I can see you share my eagerness." Xyzwe replied. "Although sadly your arrival was quite unexpected for me, you will have to give me some time so I can make some arrangements for a proper physical meeting, for the time being I do not possess a physical frame to match but I think one can be procured shortly. On the meantime you can take in the sights, I believe that as hectic as this planet is you can find quite a lot of interesting places in the nooks and crannies of its urbanization. However, if you really want to ensure our complete freedom and for me not to be hounded by my own administrative hierarchy while I'm getting to know you, it would be most admirable of you to secure at least a temporary memorandum concerning actions between your navy and the Cardinal Group, or preferably the lack thereof."
"I will be sure to arrange that. I am pleased our talks have been so...fruitful. I look forward to future endeavours. And meeting you in person, as well." Arlah smiled softly. "I'll be sure to see what I can of this city. Where shall we meet, when you are able?"
Xyzwe finally reclined back in her seat from having leaned over more and more for the entire conversation and breathed a sigh of relief. "Very well, it'll be forwarded up the chain, thank you for being cooperative. I will contact you again, for now I have to try to find a welcoming place, I did not expect visitors. It has been a great pleasure." She waved with a smile, causing everything around her to melt back into nonexistence once more. Arlah and her staff were back in the diner, this time with the waiters arranging the tables, mopping the floor and packing everything back up as it was near time to close. The man in front of them was long gone, now the only person besides the Artificia at the table was the owner of the restaurant who looked at them impatiently.
"Are you done?"