Gales was not even fully able to finish the statement that she returned to the realm of the active and living before Sky’s Overseer suddenly vanished and reappeared right next to her, its wispy electric tail now emerging out of the crevices of the modular wall. The faces of Far Whisper and Approaching Sky analysed her as if she couldn’t exist, optical sensors within their eyes struggling to focus on her, hindered by the rollercoaster of emotions she put them both through. Gales smiled warmly at her friend, addressing her first words to her long-term peers she values over everything. Her audio track was filled to the brim with gentle warmth.
"I am well, I promise. Allow me however to finish this first, so we may speak in privacy."
Waiting for their affirmative nod, she let them observe her silently while first addressing the brave Scavenger who saved her life. Gales gently adjusted his personal gravity so that he stood once again firm on the ground. She descended a bit, digital eyes opening up fully, showing a friendly expression to him.
The Scavenger stopped shaking and trembling as gravity was for him finally normal again and looked up with curious and slightly greedy glowing red eyes, eyes opened fully in complete attention to his machine goddess.
“I have to speak out my most humble thanks to you, brave Scavenger. I hope my friends assisted you in your quest.” A reluctant nod, well that explained Whisper’s state at least she thought. “Oh, well, good enough at least to reawaken me. I don’t want to stretch your patience any further, so allow me to fulfil the end of my bargain.”
Gales looked inside her Memory Array, opening a compartment a few hundred meters away at the other end of her circulatory brain space. A compartment containing a selection of pearls she deemed nice to have, but not essential to keep. Her gaze wandered to the circulating stream of Neuron Flies, waiting for the pearls, now introduced into her thought stream, to complete their half-lap to Gales’ position in the Superstructure.
A few moments later she spotted the chain of pearls in the stream and ordered them via gravity control, by outstretching her hand, to part with her neurons and fly towards her position. They shot like protons out of the neuron accelerator but got halted with a small impact sound right in front of Gales' hands.
There were four pearls arranged on the sorting string. One of them was a personal memory of Gales, the pearl glowing in a soft blue. Another one sported a deep lilac and the remaining two had a more generic whitish colour to them. Gales allowed herself a fraction of a second to quickly read the content out to determine if she could part ways with that stored data.
Let’s see … Hmm … Neither of the colourless pearls contain anything worth keeping.
A faded report of one visitor of my city. Dating a few thousand cycles before Mass Ascension.
A clear recommendation of the Silent Monastery … ‘Especially Shifting Gales’ Animal Preservatory was worth the visit. No danger from the purposed wildlife, [REDACTED]’
Huh … I have no clearance to read the full recommendation. How … odd. That makes it worthless to me. What holds the next one?
Equally faded. Void, this message is ancient. I can’t make out anything. It is even predating my construction. Probably a concept manifest of my body. A shame.
The lilac pearl is well preserved. What intricate inner workings. The work of a true master, created to last. The content is however not that interesting to me. I know these words, quite well even, dislike their content however even more.
“In our duty as sanctified mechanics we regretfully inform our divine Iterator Shifting Gales that the centi-cyclical maintenance of the experimental rail system is due. Please lower your pupp-“
Nope, that memory can go as well. The insolence to do that degrading procedure all hundred cycles. And that while my Rails are now working perfectly for far over a hundred thousand cycles straight. There is no full disconnection necessary thank you very much.
The last pearl she had written herself countless cycles ago. It contained a brief interaction with Far Whisper she held dear to her enormous heart. Why did it land in the ‘nice to have’ container? Upon closer inspection of the text she quickly knew why. The pearl contained a sweet exchange of words between the two Iterators. A special memory for certain, but Gales inscribed literally every early chat with her best friend over the countless circles. The reason she sorted it out was because it was basically a duplicate with a 99.8% accordance to a pearl in her essential pile.
Gales grabbed the complete chain of four pearls and offered it to the waiting Scavenger, who appeared surprised that there were now more pearls than what they agreed on. She smiled with her eyes at him.
“Three pearls for a job well done and this additional one because you didn’t freak out around my friends and Sky’s Overseer is still intact. Now, may I get back my communication orb as agreed upon?”
The Scavenger’s eyes widened in joy as he got offered more than initially promised and even a few uniquely coloured ones. Without much hesitation he pulled out the now deactivated and dark communication orb, outstretching both hands to do a timed trade. He still didn’t fully trust her she noticed with a smidge of amusement. The exchange was as brief as it was effective. Gales finally had regained her memorial at last and the Scavenger got paid for his duties.
“I will summon an Overseer to guide you out of my body. You will recognize it from its light blue colour. Now, please. I have left my friends waiting long enough. Let me guide you to the exit.”
Gales waited a moment to receive a happy nod, then pulled the massive scavenger up in a gravity hold and gently pushed him to the exit he originally came through. The Scavenger grabbed hold on the edges of the pipe and one moment later he was finally gone, leaving Gales alone with an even bigger responsibility.
“Look-“
“D-don’t say anything, Shifty.” Whisper hijacked the first word immediately, her guilty feelings still very much painted on her face. “ I … I am just glad y-you arare back. Never scare m-me like that EVER again.”
Whisper’s voice sounded by now a bit better, but the sheer strain she put on her vocal box glitched it out beyond recognition. Gales could see that there was something she wanted to say, but at the same time didn’t want to mention. Her screened gaze wandered to Sky, a silent plead to keep some things for themselves.
Gales pointed at the screen and made a comforting motion with her palm, simulating from afar how she would caress her chin to make her calm down. Not many options were there to go further, especially with her own technology having issues projecting the solid vision screens the more powerful Iterators used.
“I won’t. I promise. I have already started running system checks to identify faulty paths I shouldn’t take anymore … quite a few new impassable paths had opened in the past cycles.”
“Speaking of…” Approaching Sky’s optics scanned the Memory Array, concern appeared on his face. “Far Whisper told me that the communication broke off at a critical point. It pains me to ask that immediately, but time is of the essence. How … much worse did the situation get while you were out?”
“Nothing serious-“
“Shifting Gales!”
“…Fine. Let me assess the damage. Give me a moment to run a system-wide check.”
Reluctantly Gales opened her mind to her whole structure, a circle of blinding light appearing behind her back, bolts of energy tapping into the structure surrounding her. Tapping into her inner workings should usually be a pleasant experience of full functionality, going after her ancient duties as an Iterator. But … feeling herself now was a depressive revelation if anything.
The pain is unbearable. I feel the acid in my veins, it has done great harm to the Microbe Strata. The walls of my lower labs are busted, my work flooded and dissolved. No connection to the upper labs either. I have to repair the rail I was stranded on, it cuts me off from integral structures. My assemblies are luckily still functioning … Void knows how long that will remain true. As for my core workings …
Memory Array: Intact, working at 90% efficiency. Unexplainable memory loss. That is concerning.
Heart: Lockdown reinstated, was flooded with acid the past cycles. That explains the unbearable pain.
General System Bus: Lockdown reinstated. Breach is now getting compromised. Senses numbed, not great.
Communication Network: Flooded. Estimated time to repair … no data. The Strata is suffering. I won’t be able to rejoin any modern communication network for a long time. I have to ask my friends if they still have access to Chat 1.0
Rarefaction Cells: All three are still working. The lower had first contact with the acid. Light damage, luckily no malfunction or explosion.
And at good last … the oh so dreadful Filtration System.
…
No connection. That … is bad. That is AWFUL! I can’t repair what I can’t feel! Overseers? Has anyone visual connection to the Filtration System?
…
You have … fully exposed. Entirely corroded. What happened to the mountain below? … Accessing Overseer logs … Hmm … my body vented out as much acid as possible while I was out, a constant downpour. No wonder the Scavenger accessed my body. He probably searched for an answer.
Accessing Vents … good, I can return the rain to an end-of-cycle occurrence. Anything else?
…
Not surprising. I have no signal to either the Observatory or my external Research Farm. The communication tower is however still operational, barely. I still have options. But no solutions.
…
“Gales? Are you still there?” Approaching Sky tilted his head in the live call. “You have been absent for an entire minute. A concerning amount of time for a system checkup.”
“Yesyes, I am done.” Gales refocused to her puppet and was once again facing concerned faces. “I will send you the damage. You are right. There is no use in denying it anymore. I require all help I can get, even if it literally pains me to ask for it. … But less than what the consequences may hold. Overseer?”
One of Shifting Gales's tiny blue overseers appeared in the room, staring at the group from afar. If it was concerned by the development, Gales couldn’t see it. These purposed beings of energy and light acted according to her will and only had basic instincts while not on duty. She ordered it to share the report with the Overseer of Sky, a colossi, easily twice the size of her pitiful helpers.
The video call of her friends briefly ended as the Overseer approached each other and outstretched their tendrils, exchanging impulses of information. A new file appeared in her mind, the blueprints for the filters.
Little too late, more damage control by now. Thanks regardless, Whispy.
The screen opened once more as the green Overseer returned to her side, both Iterators currently reading out her report. Far Whisper first broke the silence, her glowing antennas dim of concern.
“Yeahhh, I don’t thihink that our filters will do that much in that state anymore. What do y-you think Skyky?”
“Damage control. Life extension. Still important to implement. But … the collapse of the Filtration System prevents us from doing any meaningful repair. Even Five Lives Unbound’s repair drones couldn’t do much … given they could arrive on time.”
“What do you mean with ‘on time’, Sky!? Don’t scare me!”
Approaching Sky let out a defeated sigh and looked at his old friend, his posture an expression of powerlessness. Whisper already fell into a work frenzy, having begun to iterate on an alternate solution, her body language a grimace of panic and frustration. She had stopped listening.
“I mean as I say it. You are on a clock, old friend. We have to find a solution. We will find a solution. But … that solution will … not include you getting back to 100% efficiency.
If there is one.
…
There is one! We will make this happen!
…
Do not worry.”
It sounds much less believable if you rely on my words, Sky …
Breaker squeezed himself through the pipework, possessing four new shiny pearls. His pride was overflowing, he did it! Saved their machine goddess and returned balance to the island. And that in the same cycle. And he had proof of his success in his possession.
Tribe will celebrate Unrelenting Wave Breaker. Tribe will support me. Soon I will lead tribe. Must return to new city. Announce success of my task.
Exiting the pipe Breaker saw himself opposed by the announced ‘Overseer’, a small being of nervous zappy energy, ogling him with its singular eye. In any other case he would throw a spear at that strange being, but his new awareness taught him the use of them. … And he had left his spear in the corridor.
You are machine goddess’ eyes. I will teach my tribe revelation. Show the way.
The Overseer led him as a first station back to his spear, zipping nervously from crevice to crevice. It projected a shining pictogram of an arrow, pointing at the spear. An obvious hint, so obvious that it basically offended him. But he swallowed his urge to pick a fight, given the zappy thing couldn’t throw hands to begin with, and picked up the spear.
Gales’ mobile eye led him afterwards through a series of tunnels and pipes spiral-wise down to the closest leg of the structure. Not the leg he took to climb the structure. But closer to the upper city. Not even a quarter circle later he arrived at the pipework leading to the leg as the Overseer projected yet another pictogram, leading Breaker through a secret … broken … path of the wall past the Karma Gate to one of the familiar shelters that existed all over the island.
Not trust me to be worthy of gate. Breaker is worthy. Breaker will show machine goddess. Next cycle.
…
Rainstorm stopped. Getting dark. Rain start. Still burning. Task fulfilled. Quest not finished.
After noticing that the rain still exists Breaker took the option and sought shelter in the hibernation chamber. The gates closed. He took out the few remains from his travel ration and gobbled them up. Sated, he eventually fell asleep, content with the development of the cycle.
He would return to the new Scavenger Hort the following cycle, leaving Gales' Overseer behind at the foot of the superstructure, stepping out of her vision for now.
