Post by kyleaveryx on Feb 2, 2024 15:28:12 GMT
Tick.
Tock.
The silent screech of the electronic alarm sends an electric shock through the spine of the sleeping figure – literally. Modern alarms had an option to stick a chip into your body so that someone would never sleep through their alarm. Consequently, the loud screeching noises that plagued ancient designs were made unnecessary.
Caden Murdoc’s face shifts from surprised and wide awake to groggy and tired within the span of about 15 seconds. The zap, or shock, always felt like the muscle jerks she used to get right before she fell asleep, though the spasms might actually have been caused by the alarm system. Vicious cycle.
Too tired to think about that, or wait, was she? She didn’t even know anymore.
Still sitting on her bed, she swipes out the projected screens from her bedside and reads through the day’s news. Nothing much going on – a surprise, given the hustling nature of the inner planets. What’s the time? 4:50AM Vertigo Time, 5:05AM Glass Time.
Looks like she was about to run 4 hours of sleep. Somehow it felt refreshing. Maybe it was the implants?
She would feel more refreshed if she sunk her head into the ice cold water sitting in the sink.
Okay, that’s better.
Toothbrush, paste, in and out in 3 minutes. A hard, crunchy but ultimately tasteless protein bar mixed with a glass of syrup-water follows. She put in too much that time, and now it tasted like sugar instead of the slightly metallic taste of water.
A fully assembled set of clothing waits for her in the automated wardrobe, having been pre-selected the night before. Today was a mix of casual and formal, with a preference for the latter. Big meeting.
Actually, would that be the best idea? Maybe these Alteerens* preferred something else… or maybe she was just overthinking an interaction that hasn’t even happened. No one that Caden knew had met an Alteeren before, and very few actually knew what they looked like. Not since the black-out anyway…
Check each corner of the house. Make sure that the automated system is working nice and efficiently and isn’t trying to insert liquid into the electrical sockets. It wouldn’t necessarily be bad if that happened, but highly inconvenient. Sometimes one bad socket tends to disable the entire home network.
Step outside. The scent of fresh rainfall mixed with the green spaces has spread throughout the air. Nice, looks like they finally managed to move the clouds into the cities, huh?
The few minutes she spends on the sterile, minimalistic metro car is enough for her to mentally plan out the day. There wasn’t a lot to do, except for that meeting. Why were we meeting them again? Right, for re-establishing connection with the Alteeren industrial base, and in doing so gaining an advantage on their competitors.
Their competitors – wish this stupid race would end already. But it was systematic, and she chose the quick, restless life by moving here. Would it have, perhaps, been better if she had stayed in Fremont? Nah, her ego wouldn’t have allowed that. Who knows? Sometimes it did feel good.
“R451, They should be here any minute now.”
“Right, thanks.”
“Hey, you look tired. Another late night?”
“You know me.”
“Just don’t kill yourself.”
“I won’t.”
“Sure, good luck.”
*Alteeren — Cascadian for Alterian
All personnel accounted for, all machines reporting nominal operation status, uplink set up and showing no signs of interference, meeting room cleaned, core fully charged, and spirits higher than ever! The 7th consecutive check of everything confirmed that nothing was out of order, an exciting and motivating way for the first rank dawnseeker Elianna Leitner. Excitedly reporting back to her comrade, third rank dawnseeker Laenard Alixer.
-"You’re here early, did you really go through all the systems, machinery, and the meeting room so quickly?"
-"Yep! I didn’t miss a single detail, we don’t want to give a bad impression to these guys now don’t we? I made sure that everything was just per-fect!~" Elianna exclaimed, her joyful tone of voice accompanied by a highly expressive and almost exaggerated body movement.
Laenard let out a sigh, his goal of gaining a few moments of solitude crushed by the avid enthusiasm of his partner. She had not been too distracting, but he preferred absolute silence to work, a type of silence he was already missing and thinking of as a long-gone memory.
-"Hey, come on, I’ve been working all day, getting things done unlike you staring at that thing all day long, there’s no programming to be done today so what are you doing?"
-"I scheduled the meeting and gave our future associate our current location."
-"Oh. Fine, can’t argue with that."
-"Got you there." Laenard stood up from his seat, grabbing the cup he had been drinking from an energetic drink to keep himself awake, and the tablet that would help him keep track of the situation. -”Now listen, this is a very important mission, it’s not just exploration or surveying stars, we’re speaking for Rayakan systems, the biggest manufacturer of automated work equipment in the Altarian Systems Authority, and this, this is our chance to get new allies, ensure production on safer planets, and re-establish trade between nations.”
Laenard would have continued speaking, but he glanced over to his companion and to his surprise, her expression had changed from quietness to nearly uncontained excitement, with her industrial commanding equipment in hand, staring at him with wide-open, shining cyan-violet eyes, even squealing after a few seconds. To Laenard, this was yet another dawnseeker mission, an important one, yet part of his interstellar routine. But to Elianna this was the greatest adventure of her lifetime, something she made sure Laenard had clear after she shouted those exact words not being able to contain her amazement at the situation she was in.
The agreed meeting place was far from formal. In fact, it was far from the city itself, while Caden must have been expecting an office in the inner portions of the city in a big apartment, where she was heading instead was an open terrain with a small office nearby, seemingly arranged to have a small formal meeting besides a flat, open terrain with a big storage building containing what seemed like machine arrays and construction material. On the distance, in a proper docking area was the “scoutstar” that the dawnseekers had arrived in, a 180 meters blocky, grey yet accompanied by bright cyan, silver, gold, and white decorations, and very long in design, with visible windows, hangars, extensive sensors, and small weapons mounts. However, as she soon arrived into the meeting grounds, she would have to switch her attention to the two dawnseekers awaiting her arrival.
She got off the phone and checked the distance. Basically almost there — a few more metres for the automated roadcar, which she took after getting of the metro, to traverse.
Caden was a bit surprised when she saw where the meeting was taking place. Looks like these people didn’t care too much about where they had their talks. They had the option to take any official meeting room within Glass City, but didn’t. What's up with that?
Maybe they just liked the open spaces. She did too, though the lack of buildings made things feel empty, both in a good and bad way. Or it was because the ship they used to get here land just outside the meeting area and they didn’t want to take the train into the city. That might be it.
She should just stop trying to speculate. Not that she would be able to, because the roadcar appears to have pulled over at the destination.
Okay.
She steps out of the vehicle and begins walking toward the two Alteeren dawn seekers.
Put on your smile and relax. They seem like the more casual types, despite the seriousness of their mission.
From the perspective of Elianna and Laenard, they saw a tall, slender woman with glasses, though it was most likely for decorative purposes. A short ponytail collected most of her brunette hair locks, but a few adorned the side of her face near the temples. Light makeup coupled with her cheery smile made her appear a bit brighter. Obviously not as authentic as Elianna’s.
”Hi there! Are you two the Dawnseekers from Alteere?” The Cascadian dialect gave the word “Altarian” a slightly funny twist in the vowels.
Heavily contrasting with Caden’s look, she would soon realize as she stared at the Altarians that even their clothing was not as she would expect of a so-called “formal” meeting. While Laenard seemed to wear a suit resembling proper business clothing, it was accompanied by a variety of both technological gadgets and decorations, some of which merely looked to be purely adorning. On the other hand, Elianna’s wore a mixture of engineering equipment, a scientific lab coat, and far less formal techwear-like clothing. Despite her messy appearance, it was evident by the looks of her clothes that she had made some attempts at presenting herself in a more appropriate manner, not fully disregarding the “formal” nature of the meeting.
-”Actually, it’s Alta-”
-Indeed we are. Allow me, my name is Laenard Frieden, dawnseeker of the Altarian Systems Authority, and this is my companion, Elianna Maroko, also a dawnseeker. -Laenard presented himself and Elianna, stepping forward to silence the latter’s rude comment. As he spoke, he reached out with his right hand to Caden to shake her hand, and curiously, she could see that Laenard’s hand had very subtle cybernetic augmentations.
On the other hand, Elianna’s cybernetics were present all over her body, spreading across her eyes, neck, reaching the point where Caden would notice that her arms are fully cybernetic, not organic.
-As dawnseekers, we represent our nation across the stars! And today we arrive at Cascadia with an offer, to take the first steps to thriving economic cooperation!
Elianna’s interruption of Laenard’s presentation was so sudden with her loud tone of voice, that he simply allowed her to continue, after all, she was not harming their discussion with the representative.
-It is not within our interest to set foot on your nation and exert an invasive dominance over the local industry, instead, we are looking to devise economic development plans from which our nation, and your associates will benefit. I take it you have been dealing with an ever more dangerous competition?
Caden was a bit surprised by the the sheer amount of energy that the female Alteeren had. Elianne, right? She could use someone with an ecstatic energy like that. The other one, whose hand she was shaking with her own synthetic-but-made-to-feel-organic hand was called Laenard and seemed to behave more like the older workers she found around the city — cool, calm and (mostly) collected but lacking a bit of that explicit motivation.
Maybe she should make a connection deeper than the standard “one-time partner” with these people. Something told her that they would be very helpful in the future…
”It started a few years ago. The changes in the corporate environment were small at first and none of us really foresaw it. But over time foreign investment and internal disruptions from start-ups has caused quite the upheaval.”
For some reason, she felt that she enjoyed the more competitive nature of these recent years. She’s not entirely sure she would have wanted to have been a corporate worker during the Big Ten era…
“Anyway, It’s great to see you guys. We’ve been waiting patiently for your arrival since the day our organization informed us about a potential meeting! As I understand, you have some productivity tools for us?”*
She looks over to the machine array.
Looked more advanced but also more affordable than anything they had.
-That’s right, as a first step into our cooperation together, we have brought a selection of machines and other utilities that I believe will greatly benefit your organization and your allies. Now, I’m not as knowledgeable as my companion when it comes to the capabilities of our machinery, so I will allow her to guide us through it all.
-Right, Laenard can do all the fancy talking, but I’m the one that knows how to operate our little treasures back there! Painful, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else! -Having jumped to lean on the side of Laenard as soon as she heard his comment about her, Elianna then turned to Caden again.
-Follow me miss! -She exclaimed, walking towards the building behind them, seemed like a simple, large storage for their tools and anything else they might have brought with them. Elianna’s steps led the way alongside the loud tapping on the ground that her cybernetic legs did with her jumpy walk.
Laenard decided to stay back, accompanying Caden.
-I’m sorry for my companion’s impulsiveness. Most Altarian dawnseekers display similar attitudes, but not as energetic as her’s. Daily life back in the ASA has become more static and difficult with the blockade, so the idea of being able to help our people break out of that, and the chance to explore the galaxy really excites most of those approved for the program. -He commented, looking up as he walked, remaining as composed as he had been during the entire meeting. -And besides, she grew besides factories and machinery, so this is her passion.
In front of Elianna was now the large door to the storage building, it was large, and looked very heavy. Laenard moved forward to help her, but had to stop halfway through as Elianna simply pushed the door away like it was made out of paper.
Inside the storage room, a lot of utility tools, computers, and machines were seen, some models quite familiar, simple tools that are so fundamental that wouldn’t change in appearance anywhere in the universe, but the more intricate and complex machines and drones would prove to be far more alien and peculiar. Elianna launched herself into the room before speaking again, accompanied by a bright smile and very expressive body language, giving both Laenard and Caden a tour.
-Optimized, computer and AI-assisted work offices and posts with the latest in Altarian ergonomic designs, but don’t worry! They accommodate humans just as perfectly! Our latest, mass produced models of photonic computers, because 0.5 milliseconds of lag is too much these days! Whether you need enhanced strength, a portable AI for management support, a heads-up display, or a way to connect to computers and machinery remotely, control them with your own movement, voice, or even thoughts from afar, we have the gadgets and implants for the job! And of course, no exhibition of Altarian work technology would be complete without a display from our automated work robots inventory! -Elianna ended her presentation by falling on her back, only to be picked up by her own machines, several surrounding them, each taking on a different task, holding her, moving her up again, adjusting her clothes and hair, and all without a single input from her. Now, she was walking towards Caden as her machines stood still. -Back in Altaria we believe that no one should throw away their potential, and work on simple, mundane routines, we’re smart, as are you miss! So, we’re also willing to offer courses in Altarian work and management plans! So, see anything you like?
Caden walked with Laenard towards the building and took in his comments regarding the... behaviour and attitude of Elianna.
"No, it's completely fine. Everyone could use someone like her."
Right, the blockade on the ASA. That's why they were to begin with. She wondered what the cause of the blockade was though, and how the Alteerens were planning on getting out of that. Were they on borrowed time? Probably, otherwise this initiative wouldn't be here, talking to her. Whatever happened, she would have to find out later.
Inside the room with the machines, Caden took a quick inventory of everything that was in sight of her. They already had that. That other in front of it was new, but not novel. Same with the one across the room. But amongst all the mature designs and improved versions of those designs, she saw exciting tools and elements of productivity architecture that were hard to come by in Cascadia or were simply non-existent.
She listened to Eliannia's gleeful introductions and displays of prowess and picked out the ones that she liked. When the moment came, she confidently answered with a list:
"Impressive. This will be of great use to us."
...
"Say, I would like to see the connection between Alteeren implants and the machines they can control. Can you show me the details?" While she was not an expert in this regard (unlike the small team that she managed over at her "startup"), she was aware of some of the intricacies that surround these neural connections -- mainly input delays as well as the likelihood of the connection being severed through distance, just to name a few.
Elianna stared ad Caden with a lot of interest and curiosity, setting aside some of the bigger machinery she had with her. She looked far more serious now, before bursting into laughter and turning back to face some sealed containers.
-"But of course! Such technology is nothing but impressive, the peak of Altarian communications and command developments I'd say. had I not been able to get my hands on these devices, none of these machines would ever follow my commands, because I refuse to spend hours and hours coding instructions into a computer, not moving from an office in all day, nah!"
Elianna's rambling continued as she had submerged herself on a huge box containing all sorts of far smaller, more delicate tools and small computer units, after a few more seconds of sorting out every single component inside, she pulled out a few gadgets, some seemed to be designed to be worn on one's head, like headphones, while others resembled gloves. Elianna approached Caden now with a much more composed pace, and a gentler voice.
-"Altarians do not need gadgets like these anymore, at this point, the commanding units we need for the control of most machines are inside our bodies already." -Caden, looking at Elianna's eyes, could see from up close that her eyes were glowing. And upon closer inspection, she would notice that something similar to a HUD was present in Elianna's pupils. Elianna winked before continuing her exposition of her technology.
-"But that was not the case in older times, and while we haven't exactly made control units for Cascadians, I can show you the basics."
Elianna put on a small device on her left ear, that displayed a screen in front of her left eye, while also equipping a glove that seemingly had various buttons and similar things around it. She pointed at a humanoid robot, and with just speaking a few commands, or pressing a few buttons, the robot began moving, and followed Elianna's commands.
-"Now I know gadgets like these are very common in Cascadia, this isn't super fancy technology, but the premise is simple, we can manufacture for you heads-up displays to keep track of your surroundings, we can provide management AIs that can communicate directly to your computers, phones, and command devices. And as for the last, we can provide you with the tools to control many machines at the same time, we can make it so that they follow voice commands, body gestures..."
"With time, we could implement neural connection devices, but, I'm afraid we would need a Cascadian volunteer for direct testing of our technology, and studying of your cerebral anatomy." -Laenard added. Speaking a point that Elianna was apparently skipping. -"Neural link devices won't work with you, as they're suited for Altarian use only, but our R&D teams can surely fabricate something with the right tools."
-"Y-yes." -Elianna said, continuing her presentation with a softer tone. "-And...we also have other technologies you might be interested in, to not lose connection over distance, we can equip our machines with radio receivers, or more advanced laser communication devices, and just like this one I'm holding, we have laser comms relay, so you can communicate with your machines even behind obstacles! These relays can also serve many receivers, so, fit in drones, they can provide datalink capabilities to entire facilities! But yes, all this technology is simply integrated into our biology, so that's why I can't offer neural link tech yet..." -Elianna seemed embarrased she had avoided the lack of available neural connection technology until that point.
In spite of Elianna’s wavering confidence, Caden continued to give her the occasional nod of approval and the same interest and excitement that took ahold of her the moment she first met with the Alteerens. She briefly turned her attention to the other Dawnseeker, Laenard, when he mentioned the fact that Alteeren neuralink wouldn’t work with Cascadians due to potentially differing cerebral anatomies.
So they won’t get the benefits immediately. She would have to get back to that. But the other technologies still seemed quite interesting.
Once Elianna finished this part of her presentation, Caden continued on with their inquiries, starting off with the point made by Laenard.
”Do you think these devices can interface with Cascadian neuralinks? Or do they need to be calibrated to our hardware through specialized software?”
Direct neural interfaces were somewhat of a common technology in Cascadia, though perhaps not as widespread as Alteeria and definitely not as advanced.
While the two Dawnseekers formulated their answer, Caden began thinking about the potential applications for the laser and radio receivers — perhaps they could license its patent and develop a better version for Cascadians, while importing and selling the original to fund this research initiative?
-"None of the machines being displayed here are capable of interfacing with anything that does not employ Altarian technology. I don’t doubt that the creation of software designed to connect them all to Cascadian hardware is possible, but it would require a lot of time to research, develop, and test." -Laenard responded almost annoyed, looking at his partner waiting for her to confirm what he said, but instead, he was met with her smug smile again, this time to his utter confusion.
-"And that’s where you’re wrong!" -Elianna shouted in response, taking one step ahead, winking and snapping her fingers as she pointed at Laenard, who looked at her without a single drop of enthusiasm, believing Elianna was about to screw up the meeting with another of her antics.
-"You see, playing with my beloved machines isn’t the only thing I have been doing while on our stay in Cascadia. Our time here may have just started, but I’ve dedicated every second of my free time into developing the necessary protocols and programs to adapt our machinery and other controllable devices into Cascadian networks! -Giving herself a few seconds to catch her breath, Elianna continued after picking up a small device and playing with it across her hand. -In short, I have already taken care of our little compatibility issues~"
A fascinating effort from Elianna, she did not have to deal with any of these issues, yet she did, knowing it’ll make both the dawnseeker and Caden’s efforts much easier. Yet all Laenard did as a response was to sigh with the sound of pure exhaustion coming from his voice.
-"So that was the noise that didn't let me sleep."
Caden chuckled at the comical difference in attitude and mood between the two dawnseekers. Despite whatever annoyance they might have with each other, the two clearly brought out the best of their colleague - Elianna's enthusiasm and endless energy was roped in by Laenard's caution and patience, while his apparent inaction was supplanted by her innovation.
'Quite simply, that's amazing." If Elianna was right, they could get the machines working and interfacing with her in no time. Imagine the possibilities! Even a few months of unfettered supremacy over their opponents would rake in profits! Perhaps that might be all she needed to take the next step...
"Can we try it out now?" There was a heightened sense of elation in her voice.
Noticing the growing enthutiasm on Caden, Laenard couldn't help but smile, relieved that Elianna's hard work was finally paying off and that his own sleepless nights were not in vain. He wanted to congratulate his partner in a subtle way turning to face her, but was immediately stopped by Elianna's reaction to Caden's request, one that could not be described as anything other than immeasurable enthutiasm, her eyes were noticeably shining brighter than usual, squealing and barely noticeably, shaking from the excitement. Laenard knew another outburst was about to come from Elianna, but despite his long time with her, he could not have anticipated being thrown in the face dozens of papers so suddenly.
-"Laenard! Set up and stabilize all the controllers and verify the integrity of all the nodes I'm gonna be turning on!" -Elianna exclaimed from the depths of another one of the massive stored boxes containing a myriad of other devices she searched through.
-"How many will you be using?"
-"All of them!"
-"Please take a seat miss Caden, this is going to take us a while." -Laenard insisted, despite Elianna's objections, reasurring that they wouldn't take more than 5 minutes for all the 45 minutes it took them to get all the machinery working and ready for use. Once they were, Elianna approached Caden with a device that could only be described as a mechanical halo, a circular communications device that would help her interface with the Altarian equipment.
-"Since this is going to be the first test of our technology here with a Cascadian, I will be interfacing with you." -Elianna commented. -"Don't worry about any failures, I'll merely serve as a middle point in your connection to our machines to better translate your commands, and correct any errors in command."
After the instructions were given, among the many other movements in the hangar, lots of drones were raised into the sky, cameras and other sensors could be seen activated, workstations with construction equipment were brought to life and androids stood tall on two feet. Caden's vision was then met by the appereance of Altarian holograms, small, non-invasive and easy to read holographic user interfaces highlighting the functions of every machine around her, wherever she looked, small bits of text would appear describing the role of each machine.
-"Now this may sound a little overwhelming, but from now on I want you to simply voice or think of any command, you can link your vision to a camera node, or selecting one of our droids to move, carry an order like writing a log on the nearest computer, and taking your time, you can add more tasks, or set one on loop. I bet you've seen all of this though, miss Caden, but have you ever had this level of control with nothing but your thoughts?"
The moment Caden put on the halo was the moment her world would never be the same ever again.
"Woah!" She chuckled a little bit.
"You guys have one terrific command interface here." Caden took a look around. She wanted to know more about each unit. She simply concentrated and...
The readings came in fast, but not to the point of overwhelming her with information and reducing her productivity. She could see everything, even the tiny angle readings on the high-tech engineering machines and the power level of the androids. It was almost like playing a video game - just in real life.
Condense the information.
The display responded, giving her the same information but now packaged differently.
Then she pointed at one of the androids and muttered some words.
"Crouch." A simple command. She thought it wouldn't be a question of whether the robots could do it, it was whether or not the command would be given through the halo.
Through her voice, to the cables of her own devices, flying through the laser links between her mind, Elianna, and the machines, Caden's instructions arrived to the selected unit in less time that she could process, and the android responded as expected, crouching as ordered. In the distance, Laenard didn't pay much attention and focused on other matters, and Elianna clapped congratulating Caden for such a tiny action, stopping to sit back and teach Caden a lesson, sensing further orders flow through the datalink, even though no one had said anything.
Mere seconds later, the robot did other movements, slight gestures with its arms, taking a few steps seemingly in random directions. The event was very short, and the movements were subtle too, coming to a stop as soon as Elianna acted as a middle point in the datalink again. She stands up and walks towards Caden.
-"As you can see the response time of our equipment is top-notch! However, it is also quite sensitive, and even the smallest of intrusive, background thoughts can be detected as input." -She pointed out, walking around Caden as she spoke with an observant look on her eyes, focused on Caden's face and her mechanical halo.
-"When I first got my hands on one of these halos, I was told to practice moving a cargo vehicle, it was boring, and I couldn't help but wonder how fast it could go, I even wanted to drift with it!"
-"Guess who got fired that day." -Laenard commented from afar in response to Elianna's disastrous tale.
-"Anyways, Caden, I want you to try simple orders again, but focus only on the action performed, and then, move to something more complex. Focus on the machine only, it will listen to you, so listen to yourself and don't let intrusive thoughts take control, c'mon, I believe in you!"
"No intrusive thoughts? I can manage that."
The fact that any kind of distraction could mean an unintended action, or worse, serious injuries, was a point of concern for her. She thought about what measures might be taken to avoid such unintended actions, everything from simple willpower to immersive virtual reality machines that constrained the user's thoughts to increase focus.
Caden imagined the robot holding its arms forward, like those zombie movie artifacts found in the Pre-Colonial archives.
Then she thought about it walking forward, with its arms out, like a zombie.
New orders came through, the datalink activated again and as Elianna pretended to see Caden's thoughts fly through the air and into the robot, the unit rapidly responded, and followed Caden's command! This time there were no sudden movements or instability in the actions performed by it. At such a sight, Elianna couldn't help but clap in celebration.
-"There we go!" -She exclaimed, focusing entirely on looking at the robot, the movements were simple, but flawless. -"Now, I bet you can do this with Cascadian tech too..."
Before continuing, Elianna rapidly approached Caden, holding her close, but making sure not to distract her much, making another group of machinery surrounding Caden's unit start moving performing up to dozens of small tasks at the same time. Caden had demonstrated that a Cascadian could take control of a machine, but now Elianna showed just how far this technology could be pushed.
-"But I darling can provide you with enough automatas and links for your entire corporation and associates to control, with training programs...for free!!" -Elianna finished her statement forgetting to control the volume of her voice as she grew more excited about her own advertisement.
Tock.
The silent screech of the electronic alarm sends an electric shock through the spine of the sleeping figure – literally. Modern alarms had an option to stick a chip into your body so that someone would never sleep through their alarm. Consequently, the loud screeching noises that plagued ancient designs were made unnecessary.
Caden Murdoc’s face shifts from surprised and wide awake to groggy and tired within the span of about 15 seconds. The zap, or shock, always felt like the muscle jerks she used to get right before she fell asleep, though the spasms might actually have been caused by the alarm system. Vicious cycle.
Too tired to think about that, or wait, was she? She didn’t even know anymore.
Still sitting on her bed, she swipes out the projected screens from her bedside and reads through the day’s news. Nothing much going on – a surprise, given the hustling nature of the inner planets. What’s the time? 4:50AM Vertigo Time, 5:05AM Glass Time.
Looks like she was about to run 4 hours of sleep. Somehow it felt refreshing. Maybe it was the implants?
She would feel more refreshed if she sunk her head into the ice cold water sitting in the sink.
Okay, that’s better.
Toothbrush, paste, in and out in 3 minutes. A hard, crunchy but ultimately tasteless protein bar mixed with a glass of syrup-water follows. She put in too much that time, and now it tasted like sugar instead of the slightly metallic taste of water.
A fully assembled set of clothing waits for her in the automated wardrobe, having been pre-selected the night before. Today was a mix of casual and formal, with a preference for the latter. Big meeting.
Actually, would that be the best idea? Maybe these Alteerens* preferred something else… or maybe she was just overthinking an interaction that hasn’t even happened. No one that Caden knew had met an Alteeren before, and very few actually knew what they looked like. Not since the black-out anyway…
Check each corner of the house. Make sure that the automated system is working nice and efficiently and isn’t trying to insert liquid into the electrical sockets. It wouldn’t necessarily be bad if that happened, but highly inconvenient. Sometimes one bad socket tends to disable the entire home network.
Step outside. The scent of fresh rainfall mixed with the green spaces has spread throughout the air. Nice, looks like they finally managed to move the clouds into the cities, huh?
The few minutes she spends on the sterile, minimalistic metro car is enough for her to mentally plan out the day. There wasn’t a lot to do, except for that meeting. Why were we meeting them again? Right, for re-establishing connection with the Alteeren industrial base, and in doing so gaining an advantage on their competitors.
Their competitors – wish this stupid race would end already. But it was systematic, and she chose the quick, restless life by moving here. Would it have, perhaps, been better if she had stayed in Fremont? Nah, her ego wouldn’t have allowed that. Who knows? Sometimes it did feel good.
“R451, They should be here any minute now.”
“Right, thanks.”
“Hey, you look tired. Another late night?”
“You know me.”
“Just don’t kill yourself.”
“I won’t.”
“Sure, good luck.”
*Alteeren — Cascadian for Alterian
All personnel accounted for, all machines reporting nominal operation status, uplink set up and showing no signs of interference, meeting room cleaned, core fully charged, and spirits higher than ever! The 7th consecutive check of everything confirmed that nothing was out of order, an exciting and motivating way for the first rank dawnseeker Elianna Leitner. Excitedly reporting back to her comrade, third rank dawnseeker Laenard Alixer.
-"You’re here early, did you really go through all the systems, machinery, and the meeting room so quickly?"
-"Yep! I didn’t miss a single detail, we don’t want to give a bad impression to these guys now don’t we? I made sure that everything was just per-fect!~" Elianna exclaimed, her joyful tone of voice accompanied by a highly expressive and almost exaggerated body movement.
Laenard let out a sigh, his goal of gaining a few moments of solitude crushed by the avid enthusiasm of his partner. She had not been too distracting, but he preferred absolute silence to work, a type of silence he was already missing and thinking of as a long-gone memory.
-"Hey, come on, I’ve been working all day, getting things done unlike you staring at that thing all day long, there’s no programming to be done today so what are you doing?"
-"I scheduled the meeting and gave our future associate our current location."
-"Oh. Fine, can’t argue with that."
-"Got you there." Laenard stood up from his seat, grabbing the cup he had been drinking from an energetic drink to keep himself awake, and the tablet that would help him keep track of the situation. -”Now listen, this is a very important mission, it’s not just exploration or surveying stars, we’re speaking for Rayakan systems, the biggest manufacturer of automated work equipment in the Altarian Systems Authority, and this, this is our chance to get new allies, ensure production on safer planets, and re-establish trade between nations.”
Laenard would have continued speaking, but he glanced over to his companion and to his surprise, her expression had changed from quietness to nearly uncontained excitement, with her industrial commanding equipment in hand, staring at him with wide-open, shining cyan-violet eyes, even squealing after a few seconds. To Laenard, this was yet another dawnseeker mission, an important one, yet part of his interstellar routine. But to Elianna this was the greatest adventure of her lifetime, something she made sure Laenard had clear after she shouted those exact words not being able to contain her amazement at the situation she was in.
The agreed meeting place was far from formal. In fact, it was far from the city itself, while Caden must have been expecting an office in the inner portions of the city in a big apartment, where she was heading instead was an open terrain with a small office nearby, seemingly arranged to have a small formal meeting besides a flat, open terrain with a big storage building containing what seemed like machine arrays and construction material. On the distance, in a proper docking area was the “scoutstar” that the dawnseekers had arrived in, a 180 meters blocky, grey yet accompanied by bright cyan, silver, gold, and white decorations, and very long in design, with visible windows, hangars, extensive sensors, and small weapons mounts. However, as she soon arrived into the meeting grounds, she would have to switch her attention to the two dawnseekers awaiting her arrival.
She got off the phone and checked the distance. Basically almost there — a few more metres for the automated roadcar, which she took after getting of the metro, to traverse.
Caden was a bit surprised when she saw where the meeting was taking place. Looks like these people didn’t care too much about where they had their talks. They had the option to take any official meeting room within Glass City, but didn’t. What's up with that?
Maybe they just liked the open spaces. She did too, though the lack of buildings made things feel empty, both in a good and bad way. Or it was because the ship they used to get here land just outside the meeting area and they didn’t want to take the train into the city. That might be it.
She should just stop trying to speculate. Not that she would be able to, because the roadcar appears to have pulled over at the destination.
Okay.
She steps out of the vehicle and begins walking toward the two Alteeren dawn seekers.
Put on your smile and relax. They seem like the more casual types, despite the seriousness of their mission.
From the perspective of Elianna and Laenard, they saw a tall, slender woman with glasses, though it was most likely for decorative purposes. A short ponytail collected most of her brunette hair locks, but a few adorned the side of her face near the temples. Light makeup coupled with her cheery smile made her appear a bit brighter. Obviously not as authentic as Elianna’s.
”Hi there! Are you two the Dawnseekers from Alteere?” The Cascadian dialect gave the word “Altarian” a slightly funny twist in the vowels.
Heavily contrasting with Caden’s look, she would soon realize as she stared at the Altarians that even their clothing was not as she would expect of a so-called “formal” meeting. While Laenard seemed to wear a suit resembling proper business clothing, it was accompanied by a variety of both technological gadgets and decorations, some of which merely looked to be purely adorning. On the other hand, Elianna’s wore a mixture of engineering equipment, a scientific lab coat, and far less formal techwear-like clothing. Despite her messy appearance, it was evident by the looks of her clothes that she had made some attempts at presenting herself in a more appropriate manner, not fully disregarding the “formal” nature of the meeting.
-”Actually, it’s Alta-”
-Indeed we are. Allow me, my name is Laenard Frieden, dawnseeker of the Altarian Systems Authority, and this is my companion, Elianna Maroko, also a dawnseeker. -Laenard presented himself and Elianna, stepping forward to silence the latter’s rude comment. As he spoke, he reached out with his right hand to Caden to shake her hand, and curiously, she could see that Laenard’s hand had very subtle cybernetic augmentations.
On the other hand, Elianna’s cybernetics were present all over her body, spreading across her eyes, neck, reaching the point where Caden would notice that her arms are fully cybernetic, not organic.
-As dawnseekers, we represent our nation across the stars! And today we arrive at Cascadia with an offer, to take the first steps to thriving economic cooperation!
Elianna’s interruption of Laenard’s presentation was so sudden with her loud tone of voice, that he simply allowed her to continue, after all, she was not harming their discussion with the representative.
-It is not within our interest to set foot on your nation and exert an invasive dominance over the local industry, instead, we are looking to devise economic development plans from which our nation, and your associates will benefit. I take it you have been dealing with an ever more dangerous competition?
Caden was a bit surprised by the the sheer amount of energy that the female Alteeren had. Elianne, right? She could use someone with an ecstatic energy like that. The other one, whose hand she was shaking with her own synthetic-but-made-to-feel-organic hand was called Laenard and seemed to behave more like the older workers she found around the city — cool, calm and (mostly) collected but lacking a bit of that explicit motivation.
Maybe she should make a connection deeper than the standard “one-time partner” with these people. Something told her that they would be very helpful in the future…
”It started a few years ago. The changes in the corporate environment were small at first and none of us really foresaw it. But over time foreign investment and internal disruptions from start-ups has caused quite the upheaval.”
For some reason, she felt that she enjoyed the more competitive nature of these recent years. She’s not entirely sure she would have wanted to have been a corporate worker during the Big Ten era…
“Anyway, It’s great to see you guys. We’ve been waiting patiently for your arrival since the day our organization informed us about a potential meeting! As I understand, you have some productivity tools for us?”*
She looks over to the machine array.
Looked more advanced but also more affordable than anything they had.
-That’s right, as a first step into our cooperation together, we have brought a selection of machines and other utilities that I believe will greatly benefit your organization and your allies. Now, I’m not as knowledgeable as my companion when it comes to the capabilities of our machinery, so I will allow her to guide us through it all.
-Right, Laenard can do all the fancy talking, but I’m the one that knows how to operate our little treasures back there! Painful, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else! -Having jumped to lean on the side of Laenard as soon as she heard his comment about her, Elianna then turned to Caden again.
-Follow me miss! -She exclaimed, walking towards the building behind them, seemed like a simple, large storage for their tools and anything else they might have brought with them. Elianna’s steps led the way alongside the loud tapping on the ground that her cybernetic legs did with her jumpy walk.
Laenard decided to stay back, accompanying Caden.
-I’m sorry for my companion’s impulsiveness. Most Altarian dawnseekers display similar attitudes, but not as energetic as her’s. Daily life back in the ASA has become more static and difficult with the blockade, so the idea of being able to help our people break out of that, and the chance to explore the galaxy really excites most of those approved for the program. -He commented, looking up as he walked, remaining as composed as he had been during the entire meeting. -And besides, she grew besides factories and machinery, so this is her passion.
In front of Elianna was now the large door to the storage building, it was large, and looked very heavy. Laenard moved forward to help her, but had to stop halfway through as Elianna simply pushed the door away like it was made out of paper.
Inside the storage room, a lot of utility tools, computers, and machines were seen, some models quite familiar, simple tools that are so fundamental that wouldn’t change in appearance anywhere in the universe, but the more intricate and complex machines and drones would prove to be far more alien and peculiar. Elianna launched herself into the room before speaking again, accompanied by a bright smile and very expressive body language, giving both Laenard and Caden a tour.
-Optimized, computer and AI-assisted work offices and posts with the latest in Altarian ergonomic designs, but don’t worry! They accommodate humans just as perfectly! Our latest, mass produced models of photonic computers, because 0.5 milliseconds of lag is too much these days! Whether you need enhanced strength, a portable AI for management support, a heads-up display, or a way to connect to computers and machinery remotely, control them with your own movement, voice, or even thoughts from afar, we have the gadgets and implants for the job! And of course, no exhibition of Altarian work technology would be complete without a display from our automated work robots inventory! -Elianna ended her presentation by falling on her back, only to be picked up by her own machines, several surrounding them, each taking on a different task, holding her, moving her up again, adjusting her clothes and hair, and all without a single input from her. Now, she was walking towards Caden as her machines stood still. -Back in Altaria we believe that no one should throw away their potential, and work on simple, mundane routines, we’re smart, as are you miss! So, we’re also willing to offer courses in Altarian work and management plans! So, see anything you like?
Caden walked with Laenard towards the building and took in his comments regarding the... behaviour and attitude of Elianna.
"No, it's completely fine. Everyone could use someone like her."
Right, the blockade on the ASA. That's why they were to begin with. She wondered what the cause of the blockade was though, and how the Alteerens were planning on getting out of that. Were they on borrowed time? Probably, otherwise this initiative wouldn't be here, talking to her. Whatever happened, she would have to find out later.
Inside the room with the machines, Caden took a quick inventory of everything that was in sight of her. They already had that. That other in front of it was new, but not novel. Same with the one across the room. But amongst all the mature designs and improved versions of those designs, she saw exciting tools and elements of productivity architecture that were hard to come by in Cascadia or were simply non-existent.
She listened to Eliannia's gleeful introductions and displays of prowess and picked out the ones that she liked. When the moment came, she confidently answered with a list:
"Impressive. This will be of great use to us."
...
"Say, I would like to see the connection between Alteeren implants and the machines they can control. Can you show me the details?" While she was not an expert in this regard (unlike the small team that she managed over at her "startup"), she was aware of some of the intricacies that surround these neural connections -- mainly input delays as well as the likelihood of the connection being severed through distance, just to name a few.
Elianna stared ad Caden with a lot of interest and curiosity, setting aside some of the bigger machinery she had with her. She looked far more serious now, before bursting into laughter and turning back to face some sealed containers.
-"But of course! Such technology is nothing but impressive, the peak of Altarian communications and command developments I'd say. had I not been able to get my hands on these devices, none of these machines would ever follow my commands, because I refuse to spend hours and hours coding instructions into a computer, not moving from an office in all day, nah!"
Elianna's rambling continued as she had submerged herself on a huge box containing all sorts of far smaller, more delicate tools and small computer units, after a few more seconds of sorting out every single component inside, she pulled out a few gadgets, some seemed to be designed to be worn on one's head, like headphones, while others resembled gloves. Elianna approached Caden now with a much more composed pace, and a gentler voice.
-"Altarians do not need gadgets like these anymore, at this point, the commanding units we need for the control of most machines are inside our bodies already." -Caden, looking at Elianna's eyes, could see from up close that her eyes were glowing. And upon closer inspection, she would notice that something similar to a HUD was present in Elianna's pupils. Elianna winked before continuing her exposition of her technology.
-"But that was not the case in older times, and while we haven't exactly made control units for Cascadians, I can show you the basics."
Elianna put on a small device on her left ear, that displayed a screen in front of her left eye, while also equipping a glove that seemingly had various buttons and similar things around it. She pointed at a humanoid robot, and with just speaking a few commands, or pressing a few buttons, the robot began moving, and followed Elianna's commands.
-"Now I know gadgets like these are very common in Cascadia, this isn't super fancy technology, but the premise is simple, we can manufacture for you heads-up displays to keep track of your surroundings, we can provide management AIs that can communicate directly to your computers, phones, and command devices. And as for the last, we can provide you with the tools to control many machines at the same time, we can make it so that they follow voice commands, body gestures..."
"With time, we could implement neural connection devices, but, I'm afraid we would need a Cascadian volunteer for direct testing of our technology, and studying of your cerebral anatomy." -Laenard added. Speaking a point that Elianna was apparently skipping. -"Neural link devices won't work with you, as they're suited for Altarian use only, but our R&D teams can surely fabricate something with the right tools."
-"Y-yes." -Elianna said, continuing her presentation with a softer tone. "-And...we also have other technologies you might be interested in, to not lose connection over distance, we can equip our machines with radio receivers, or more advanced laser communication devices, and just like this one I'm holding, we have laser comms relay, so you can communicate with your machines even behind obstacles! These relays can also serve many receivers, so, fit in drones, they can provide datalink capabilities to entire facilities! But yes, all this technology is simply integrated into our biology, so that's why I can't offer neural link tech yet..." -Elianna seemed embarrased she had avoided the lack of available neural connection technology until that point.
In spite of Elianna’s wavering confidence, Caden continued to give her the occasional nod of approval and the same interest and excitement that took ahold of her the moment she first met with the Alteerens. She briefly turned her attention to the other Dawnseeker, Laenard, when he mentioned the fact that Alteeren neuralink wouldn’t work with Cascadians due to potentially differing cerebral anatomies.
So they won’t get the benefits immediately. She would have to get back to that. But the other technologies still seemed quite interesting.
Once Elianna finished this part of her presentation, Caden continued on with their inquiries, starting off with the point made by Laenard.
”Do you think these devices can interface with Cascadian neuralinks? Or do they need to be calibrated to our hardware through specialized software?”
Direct neural interfaces were somewhat of a common technology in Cascadia, though perhaps not as widespread as Alteeria and definitely not as advanced.
While the two Dawnseekers formulated their answer, Caden began thinking about the potential applications for the laser and radio receivers — perhaps they could license its patent and develop a better version for Cascadians, while importing and selling the original to fund this research initiative?
-"None of the machines being displayed here are capable of interfacing with anything that does not employ Altarian technology. I don’t doubt that the creation of software designed to connect them all to Cascadian hardware is possible, but it would require a lot of time to research, develop, and test." -Laenard responded almost annoyed, looking at his partner waiting for her to confirm what he said, but instead, he was met with her smug smile again, this time to his utter confusion.
-"And that’s where you’re wrong!" -Elianna shouted in response, taking one step ahead, winking and snapping her fingers as she pointed at Laenard, who looked at her without a single drop of enthusiasm, believing Elianna was about to screw up the meeting with another of her antics.
-"You see, playing with my beloved machines isn’t the only thing I have been doing while on our stay in Cascadia. Our time here may have just started, but I’ve dedicated every second of my free time into developing the necessary protocols and programs to adapt our machinery and other controllable devices into Cascadian networks! -Giving herself a few seconds to catch her breath, Elianna continued after picking up a small device and playing with it across her hand. -In short, I have already taken care of our little compatibility issues~"
A fascinating effort from Elianna, she did not have to deal with any of these issues, yet she did, knowing it’ll make both the dawnseeker and Caden’s efforts much easier. Yet all Laenard did as a response was to sigh with the sound of pure exhaustion coming from his voice.
-"So that was the noise that didn't let me sleep."
Caden chuckled at the comical difference in attitude and mood between the two dawnseekers. Despite whatever annoyance they might have with each other, the two clearly brought out the best of their colleague - Elianna's enthusiasm and endless energy was roped in by Laenard's caution and patience, while his apparent inaction was supplanted by her innovation.
'Quite simply, that's amazing." If Elianna was right, they could get the machines working and interfacing with her in no time. Imagine the possibilities! Even a few months of unfettered supremacy over their opponents would rake in profits! Perhaps that might be all she needed to take the next step...
"Can we try it out now?" There was a heightened sense of elation in her voice.
Noticing the growing enthutiasm on Caden, Laenard couldn't help but smile, relieved that Elianna's hard work was finally paying off and that his own sleepless nights were not in vain. He wanted to congratulate his partner in a subtle way turning to face her, but was immediately stopped by Elianna's reaction to Caden's request, one that could not be described as anything other than immeasurable enthutiasm, her eyes were noticeably shining brighter than usual, squealing and barely noticeably, shaking from the excitement. Laenard knew another outburst was about to come from Elianna, but despite his long time with her, he could not have anticipated being thrown in the face dozens of papers so suddenly.
-"Laenard! Set up and stabilize all the controllers and verify the integrity of all the nodes I'm gonna be turning on!" -Elianna exclaimed from the depths of another one of the massive stored boxes containing a myriad of other devices she searched through.
-"How many will you be using?"
-"All of them!"
-"Please take a seat miss Caden, this is going to take us a while." -Laenard insisted, despite Elianna's objections, reasurring that they wouldn't take more than 5 minutes for all the 45 minutes it took them to get all the machinery working and ready for use. Once they were, Elianna approached Caden with a device that could only be described as a mechanical halo, a circular communications device that would help her interface with the Altarian equipment.
-"Since this is going to be the first test of our technology here with a Cascadian, I will be interfacing with you." -Elianna commented. -"Don't worry about any failures, I'll merely serve as a middle point in your connection to our machines to better translate your commands, and correct any errors in command."
After the instructions were given, among the many other movements in the hangar, lots of drones were raised into the sky, cameras and other sensors could be seen activated, workstations with construction equipment were brought to life and androids stood tall on two feet. Caden's vision was then met by the appereance of Altarian holograms, small, non-invasive and easy to read holographic user interfaces highlighting the functions of every machine around her, wherever she looked, small bits of text would appear describing the role of each machine.
-"Now this may sound a little overwhelming, but from now on I want you to simply voice or think of any command, you can link your vision to a camera node, or selecting one of our droids to move, carry an order like writing a log on the nearest computer, and taking your time, you can add more tasks, or set one on loop. I bet you've seen all of this though, miss Caden, but have you ever had this level of control with nothing but your thoughts?"
The moment Caden put on the halo was the moment her world would never be the same ever again.
"Woah!" She chuckled a little bit.
"You guys have one terrific command interface here." Caden took a look around. She wanted to know more about each unit. She simply concentrated and...
The readings came in fast, but not to the point of overwhelming her with information and reducing her productivity. She could see everything, even the tiny angle readings on the high-tech engineering machines and the power level of the androids. It was almost like playing a video game - just in real life.
Condense the information.
The display responded, giving her the same information but now packaged differently.
Then she pointed at one of the androids and muttered some words.
"Crouch." A simple command. She thought it wouldn't be a question of whether the robots could do it, it was whether or not the command would be given through the halo.
Through her voice, to the cables of her own devices, flying through the laser links between her mind, Elianna, and the machines, Caden's instructions arrived to the selected unit in less time that she could process, and the android responded as expected, crouching as ordered. In the distance, Laenard didn't pay much attention and focused on other matters, and Elianna clapped congratulating Caden for such a tiny action, stopping to sit back and teach Caden a lesson, sensing further orders flow through the datalink, even though no one had said anything.
Mere seconds later, the robot did other movements, slight gestures with its arms, taking a few steps seemingly in random directions. The event was very short, and the movements were subtle too, coming to a stop as soon as Elianna acted as a middle point in the datalink again. She stands up and walks towards Caden.
-"As you can see the response time of our equipment is top-notch! However, it is also quite sensitive, and even the smallest of intrusive, background thoughts can be detected as input." -She pointed out, walking around Caden as she spoke with an observant look on her eyes, focused on Caden's face and her mechanical halo.
-"When I first got my hands on one of these halos, I was told to practice moving a cargo vehicle, it was boring, and I couldn't help but wonder how fast it could go, I even wanted to drift with it!"
-"Guess who got fired that day." -Laenard commented from afar in response to Elianna's disastrous tale.
-"Anyways, Caden, I want you to try simple orders again, but focus only on the action performed, and then, move to something more complex. Focus on the machine only, it will listen to you, so listen to yourself and don't let intrusive thoughts take control, c'mon, I believe in you!"
"No intrusive thoughts? I can manage that."
The fact that any kind of distraction could mean an unintended action, or worse, serious injuries, was a point of concern for her. She thought about what measures might be taken to avoid such unintended actions, everything from simple willpower to immersive virtual reality machines that constrained the user's thoughts to increase focus.
Caden imagined the robot holding its arms forward, like those zombie movie artifacts found in the Pre-Colonial archives.
Then she thought about it walking forward, with its arms out, like a zombie.
New orders came through, the datalink activated again and as Elianna pretended to see Caden's thoughts fly through the air and into the robot, the unit rapidly responded, and followed Caden's command! This time there were no sudden movements or instability in the actions performed by it. At such a sight, Elianna couldn't help but clap in celebration.
-"There we go!" -She exclaimed, focusing entirely on looking at the robot, the movements were simple, but flawless. -"Now, I bet you can do this with Cascadian tech too..."
Before continuing, Elianna rapidly approached Caden, holding her close, but making sure not to distract her much, making another group of machinery surrounding Caden's unit start moving performing up to dozens of small tasks at the same time. Caden had demonstrated that a Cascadian could take control of a machine, but now Elianna showed just how far this technology could be pushed.
-"But I darling can provide you with enough automatas and links for your entire corporation and associates to control, with training programs...for free!!" -Elianna finished her statement forgetting to control the volume of her voice as she grew more excited about her own advertisement.