The Nature of the Child

The mix of confusion and disappointment on Chestin’s face was hard to deal with. Trick looked away from his friend and started towards the center of the building again, determined to at least get a good look at what kind of computer required such a massive supply of lumi to function. At least he assumed the reservoirs in the field existed to power the complex. He didn’t know enough about lumicraft to say for sure.

He had to admit, if the endlessly looping voices of the computers in the Steel Perilous was the source of legends about a Child Eternal he could understand why. Even on Earth computers could be whiny, needy little things. They had the patience to complain endlessly and a single minded focus only rivaled by infants.

So it might explain why the Casparians had that particular legend. It didn't really help in the moment, though.

The computer itself was located near the back of the building, a huge bank of transparent crystal panels and dark, shiny ceramic. It was much larger and more impressive than the computer he'd seen before. At least physically speaking. It wasn't surrounded by banks of holographs or text reports.

The only indication the system was active was its constant repetition of, "Attention, attention, user input needed.”

Figuring his channel glove was an important part of using the device Trick walked up to it immediately. His first guess was that the crystal panels were the interface. That proved correct because, as soon as he put his guide ring onto the panel, the voice cut off mid word. Then it said, “Please stand by for biometric verification.”

A thin beam of violet light swept over Trick from head to foot. In the middle of the process Chestin grabbed him and dragged him away from the console, deploying a ward between them and the machine. “What is it doing?”

“Calm down!” Trick grabbed the other man’s arm to steady himself, off balance after the sudden intervention. “It’s checking to see if I’m allowed to use the device.”

“Are you?” Sari asked.

“It hasn’t said yet, but probably not.”

As if it had heard him the computer announced, “Iris pattern not recognized. Phrenology not recognized. Scan of epidermal print disrupted, sample not recognized. Reinitialize print scan or present further credentials to access systems. Attention, attention…”

“Phrenology?” Trick whispered. “Why is it looking at my phrenology?”

“What’s that?” Sari asked. “Whatever you just said didn’t translate.”

“It scanned the shape of my skull to try and identify who I am,” Trick said. “I don’t know why you would do that…”

“It sounds like it’s back to saying what it was before,” Chestin said. “Do you know why it needs user input?”

“No. The last computer I saw down here had holograms and readouts giving reports but this one doesn’t.” Trick studied the displays for a minute but nothing stood out to him.

“You’ve mentioned computers before,” Sari said. “Do you have them on the tenth sphere?”

“Yes, although these are pretty different.” Trick pointed to a vein of glowing yellow light running through the floor towards the back of the computer console. “They don’t run on lumi, for example. These are much bigger than the ones I’m used to using, although this facility isn’t that different from what we’d call a server farm back home.”

“How big are the computers you’re used to?”

He held out his hands to show the size of a laptop. “About so big. I also had one that could fit in my pocket, although I had to leave that in a locker at the Escape House so I can’t show it to you.”

Chestin walked slowly around the entire console, studying the back of the structure with obvious curiosity. “If this was a computer from the tenth sphere what would it be doing right now?”

“It would be in lower power mode, waiting for someone to create an input and give some kind of passcode to it. In this case, it scans the prospective user like you just saw instead of asking for a code.”

“Could it use the genetics craft as a code?” Sari asked.

Trick frowned, thinking it over. “Yes, genetics are defined as a kind of code but you can’t test genetics using a simple scan. It requires some kind of chemistry.” He glanced at the lines of yellow lumi, then over to Sari’s hair. “Although lumi does a lot I wouldn’t expect regular light to do, so I guess we don’t really know. Still, this looks like it runs on topaz lumi and that’s the realm of thoughts and sensations, right? Genetics define physical traits.”

“Yes,” Chestin said, looking at the part of the console that had scanned him. “But it illuminated you with amethyst lumi. That combines the power of cobalt to halt motion with the power of crimson to create motion to synthesize a boundary that defines territory. If genetics sets the physical boundaries of a living thing it would be amethyst by definition.”

“That’s… interesting.” Trick still wasn’t used to thinking in terms of lumi and how they might interact so he wasn’t going to question Chestin’s logic. Still, the whole thing was so obtuse it frustrated him. “I suppose phrenology was initially proposed as a way to trace inheritance. Maybe that was a mistranslation of the term genetics?”

As he’d been talking Sari had removed her channeling glove and now she offered it to him. “Trade with me.”

He stared at it blankly. “Why?”

“Because Chestin and I think the brightest might be descendants of people who had the right genetics to use the lumicraft in the Steel Perilous.” She jingled the rings of her glove meaningfully. “But I need to be able to guide the lumi to activate this computer, correct?”

“Probably?” Trick worked his own glove off and handed it to her. “I don’t know as that will fit you very well, though.”

“It doesn’t have to go on the hand to function,” Chestin pointed out.

Sari cupped most of the glove in her hand, holding the guide ring between thumb and index finger, then reached for the crystal panel with the ring. “Wait,” Trick said, putting a hand on her forearm. “It’s probably going to want to run the same scans it did on me on you. I think your veil is going to get in the way.”

“Oh.” She started to reach for the hairband holding it in place, then hesitated. “I… could you two turn around?”

“Turn around?” Trick asked, incredulous.

“...it’s embarrassing.”

“Embarrassing?” Trick threw his hands in the air. “Embarrassing? Why would it be embarrassing? I’ve never even seen your face, Sari. Have you? You could look beautiful under there and you’ve never bothered to check!”

She slapped him once in the chest. “You aren’t helping!”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Before he could dig his heels in deeper Chestin grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly turned him around to face towards the temple’s entrance. Annoyed, he spent a few seconds glaring at the cobalt eye outside. It still looked peeved at them and he didn’t feel bad throwing it the finger right back, although Chestin was clearly confused by what he was doing.

“Iris pattern not recognized,” the computer announced. “Phrenology match 82%. Epidermis scan not recognized. Lineage access granted at the magus caste, operator functions available, diagnostic functions available, transportation functions available. Navigation calibration required. Please schedule a timeslot at a full service facility at your earliest convenience…”

The computer ran down a lengthy list of things that required a full service facility at the earliest convenience. Finally, at the end, it announced, “Environment unsafe. Relocation suggested.”

Then the computer was silent. A moment later Sari said, “You can turn around. It’s showing me something now but I don’t know what it is.”

When they turned back Sari was once again wearing her veil but the entire console had transformed. Holographic displays ran from the console up almost all the way to the ceiling. While he’d made great strides in reading Casparian and Balthazari over the past few weeks the writing on the displays weren’t in either language so he still couldn’t make anything of them. There was one thing he did recognize. A diagram of ten concentric rings near the center of the holographic display. A point on the seventh ring had a bright square of light on it that blinked in a steady rhythm that he presumed pointed out where they were.

“What did it say?” Sari asked. “Did it tell you what any of this is?”

“Mostly it said there are problems that need fixing and we should find someone who can. It also said we’re in a dangerous place and we should relocate.”

Chestin was still watching the entrance to the temple. “Well it’s not wrong. That cobalt eye is still out there and it will probably get its friends to help kill us if we try to leave.”

“Did you see that?” Sari pointed towards a diagram that had just appeared on the far right of the console. It looked vaguely like some maps. “It appeared when you said we should relocate, Trick.”

“Interesting.” Trick frowned, wondering if the console was voice activated now that they were cleared to use it. “Computer, what destinations are available for relocation?”

“There are two locations within range. Staging ground T-87 on the seventh sphere and maintenance facility J-1104 on the sixth sphere. Would you like to proceed?”

Trick folded his arms and glared at the displays. “We can get to the sixth sphere from here? How?”

“Do you wish to depart for maintenance facility J-1104?”

“What is it asking?” Sari asked.

“It’s offering to take us to the sixth sphere, I think? Or we can go to another location on the seventh, although I have no idea where either of those places are.”

Chestin shrugged helplessly. “Well, given the circumstances I suppose it makes the most sense to go to the sixth.”

“I thought you wanted to go back to Harbek,” Trick said.

“I don’t have a map of either sphere in total,” Chestin said. “Going to the sixth sphere is full of unknown dangers to be certain. But it might be even more dangerous to move to another part of the seventh sphere if we wind up in Balthazari or worse, Melchior territory. At least on the sixth sphere we’re not likely to look like spies from Caspar.”

“Sari?”

She sighed, running one hand along the console, clearly uncertain. “I suppose it can’t hurt. A trip to the sixth sphere is going to take a long time, though.” Her finger traced a series of circles on the ceramic as she thought. “I… I hadn’t thought I’d have to leave father as the brightest for more than a few days.”

“Forgive me if I’m blunt,” Chestin said, “but I don’t see any option that gets us back to Harbek in just a few days. If this computer thing can take us elsewhere, or even show us another way out of here, we need to take it. The way we came isn’t any good.”

Sari nodded. “You’re right, you’re right. Let’s go to the sixth sphere.”

Trick turned to the computer. “Okay then, take us to the sixth sphere.”

“Confirmed,” the computer announced. “Departing for J-1104. Stand by.”

The lights around them surged with topaz light and the doorway behind them sealed shut with a clang. The whole room was quiet for a few seconds. Then the building lurched with a feeling like an elevator in free fall and the holographic displays vanished.