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The preparation for a dive is always a tense time

by Void

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1.
Object_01 08:23
Yuri hasn't seen many rocks in gravity before. She's more familiar with spinning asteroid clusters, clouds of debris fragments--everything she encounters while hauling ships back to station for salvage. This planet's crags of limestone, or even the shining pebbles on the river bank, are completely new to her. Flux's ahead of Yuri on the trail. She's shed some of her humanoid form for convenience, and she's hauling most of their camping gear with her tentacles as she sets the pace. They've both fantasised about this trip for a year, planning it during their brief moments of downtime. It's the best they can do within their budget--a cheap camping trip on a secluded planet, somewhere they can sit and watch the sun move across the sky, see some stars from planetside for once. Even the leg cramps from the rough terrain seem worthwhile--a bit of physical pain is a small price to pay just to be away from work. "Hey," Flux calls out to her from ahead. "There's a weird rock around here, it's got stuff on it." "What kind of stuff?" "It's got a pattern on it, maybe it's a landmark or a warning or something?" Flux motions impatiently with a free tentacle. "Just look at it and save me the trouble." "Yeah, sure." Yuri's boots crunch through gravel as she picks up her pace. The rock is a boulder overgrown with moss, with a carving on one of its flatter surfaces--two concentric circles intersected by gridlines, with an upside-down triangle symbol aligned in the centre of the grid. Yuri traces the triangle with her finger. It's machine-etched, and the moss growing within its deep grooves means it's been there for quite a while. "Graffiti? It almost seems like it's pointing to something below..." Flux locks her tentacles around the boulder, lifting it up with a mighty heave. "See anything there?" "Flux, what the hell--" "Don't worry, I'll put it back, just check under there--god, this is heavy--" Yuri decides to save her criticism for later and looks beneath the boulder. A basic scan shows there's a non-reactive cylindrical thing buried in the soil. She pushes the soil out of the way and grabs it. Flux sets the boulder down, then extends a few tendrils and begins prodding the object. "Metal-ish, I think, mostly hollow...there's something clunky and solid inside. No obvious hazards. Wanna crack this baby open?" "Go for it," Yuri says. "If we explode, at least we won't have to go back to work." "Here's hoping." Flux twists off the top of the cylinder and reaches in. "Oh, look, I still have no idea what this is. Some kind of stone carving?" "Hmm." Yuri gently weighs the carving in her hand. It's obviously meant to depict a mountain range--there are little dips and valleys engraved onto its sides, and there's even a human figure near one of the peaks for scale. "Looks like a souvenir, maybe? They're usually not made from real rocks, though. And this place doesn't look like any landmark I've heard of." "Maybe it says where it's from on the bottom?" Yuri flips it over. There's a series of symbols carved into the bottom, divided into chunks that look a bit like the standard format for coordinates. The language isn't familiar. "Know what this says?" "No, but Rittenhouse would, he's got like ten zillion language databases--if this is some kind of souvenir he'd probably know where it's from too, he gets all kinds of junk in that shop. Wanna bring it back with us? If it isn't worth anything we can just junk it stationside. "Sure," Yuri says, placing it back into the container. "I'll keep it in the meantime." The rest of the day goes as planned--they wash up, have dinner, and set up their tent, flicking its domed top to low opacity so they can see the stars. As Flux drifts off beside her, her body gently rippling and morphing as she settles into sleep, Yuri opens the cylinder again and tips the carving into her palm, running her thumb over its surface. It's probably a piece of space junk, something worthless, something that isn't even worth the trouble of bringing back to the station. It's probably nothing. But she hopes it isn't.
2.
Object_02 04:50
"Hey, Ritt," Flux says, pulling up a seat at the counter of Rittenhouse's antique shop. "How's it hanging? Remember the camping trip you didn't go on?" [I'm not capable of remembering events I wasn't present for,] Rittenhouse says, using a sharper synth tone to emphasise his sarcasm. [So no.] "Remember the camping trip that you didn't want to go on because soil gets in your joints or whatever--okay, whatever, long story short, we found this thing sitting around under a buncha rocks. Think it's worth anything?" Flux twists the container open and places the trinket on the counter. "Wait," Yuri says. "Weren't we going to ask him about the language?" "Oh, right, sorry." Flux flips it over. "It's got some symbols on the bottom, you know what this says? 'Made In Europa' or something?" [Hmm,] Rittenhouse says, extending his claw to grab the object. His optical reader whirs into action. [The carving itself depicts a mountain range that doesn't turn up in any geological databases. Difficult to date inorganic objects, but the symbols on base are an archaic coordinate system, Early Settler period. If it was found in this sector, it's likely to use this station as the frame of reference.] Yuri leans in closer at the mention of coordinates. Pilots, so predictable. "Mind pinpointing?" [Location is an area of PX-34. Do you want the map data?] "Yeah, that'd be great. Pretty nearby, huh..." Yuri drums her fingers against the counter, probably working out the best route in her head. "There's some circle thing carved on the inner lid of the container too, do you have any idea what that is?" As Yuri shows Rittenhouse whatever's inside, leading Rittenhouse to nod his head and conduct even more scans on the object, Flux spends her time looking around the shop. As usual, it's cluttered with collectibles and merchandise from old shows. Nothing she'd buy, personally, but somehow Rittenhouse's made enough to pay the rent for three years straight and take over the neighbouring unit. Guess there are more fans of obscure shows in this sector than she thought. "So the circle thing's a kind of waveform encoding? What sort?" Yuri sounds increasingly interested, and Flux can tell that selling the trinket and its container have become completely out of the question. [Either sound or image, but this would be the image.] Rittenhouse pulls up a garbled, pixelated hologram. [Unlikely, so let's try sound. Playing...] The initial screech becomes a more listenable sound as Rittenhouse adjusts the levels--a quiet voice, speaking in what sounds like a corrupted version of Inglese. None of them are fully fluent in the language, but they can all pick out words here and there--"mountains", "sky", "family", and there's one word that keeps coming up, over and over, as the voice keeps talking. Earth.
3.
The planet PX-34 is covered with the scars of orbital bombardment. Its terraformed buildings have mostly turned to glassy slag, with bits of scaffolding jutting out. It's not completely dead--some carapaced insects scuttle across the ground, and the croak of an avian lifeform can be heard in the distance. The coordinates specified a general location planetside, and all three of them are on the lookout within that radius, their handheld scanners configured to detect anything similar to the previous object. Rittenhouse steps through the ruins, gripping the scanner in his claw, primed for something to happen. Old instincts die hard, and Rittenhouse finds himself observing the marks on the buildings. Primitive wide-scatter weaponry, probably plasma, judging by the melting patterns. That part of his programming hasn't been accessed since his days in the Jovian Army, but it resurfaces from time to time--battlefields tend to cause that, even if they're ancient ones. He's losing traction. As he bends down, preparing to change his treads to something more suitable, the scanner starts pinging. Some digging and chipping away at the debris with his pick attachment reveals a container externally identical to the previous one, buried several meters below the surface. Rittenhouse cracks it open. The object inside is a carving of a building. It's Early Settler period architecture, the kind of soaring spire that ancient humanoids considered the height of modernity. The circular waveform encoding is easily mapped for playback. Rittenhouse readies his Inglese directory and sets his speakers to external broadcast. It seems only right that a message that survived eons and wars and the glassing of the entire planet should be played out loud. "--modelled after the cities of Earth," the voice says. "We hope that the person who finds this capsule will bear witness to the success of our initial foray into terraforming..." The voice continues for a time, enthusiastically detailing the plans for the colony, as well as the speaker's faint memories of Earth. The predominant sentiment is one of hope. Hope that this settlement will be better than Earth, hope that their terraforming efforts will bear fruit, their vision of a new period of peace and prosperity in human history... [Sorry,] Rittenhouse says. Only the insects hear it.
4.
Object_04 05:20
The object on PX-34 directs them to a sector within an ocean on the planet Panthalas. They've rented an aquacraft from a nearby beach resort, but they've been cruising for hours along the shallow coral reef and the detector hasn't even pinged once. The only part of the sector they haven't investigated is the part where the reef drops off, where brilliant sun-dappled turquoise becomes empty blue water. There's no way the rental aquacraft can go further down without hull damage, and it's not like they have access to marine research equipment. Flux stares into the vast depths and flexes her tentacles. "You guys surface and I'll dive with the scanner," she says. "It's probably down there if it's anywhere." "Are you sure?" Yuri asks, her hands hesitant on the depth controls. "At maximum depth--" "Relax, I'll be fine," Flux says, forcing bravado. "The army built me for this." As they ascend, Flux prepares herself for the dive. Her military training favoured usage over adaptation--mechanics didn't need to learn how to survive extreme environments when they could learn how to sprout enough tentacles to wield ten tools at once. Most of her knowledge about adapting her body comes from half-remembered briefings and a few practical experiences. [You don't have to do this,] Rittenhouse says as they break the surface. The top hatch of the aquacraft slides open, and Flux reaches one of her tentacles out, stretching it into the water so she can grab the scanner. The water's slightly warm at this depth, but it'll get cold enough to require reconfiguration, and that should be done before immersion... "Don't worry," Flux says, lowering the rest of her tentacles into the water. "I've survived worse." She slips into the ocean. Everything gives way to weightlessness. Her tentacles are free to reach in all directions with nothing weighing them down, and she feels the eddies and currents of water push against her skin, cradling her as she descends. Little multicoloured fish flit around her as she scoots through the coral reef, and the light on the scanner flashes red as she hits the dropoff, going further down into the dark blue depths. She jets around--she's never been in the ocean before, and she wants to experience as much as she can before she inevitably has to surface. She shifts her skin to neon pink dappled with cyan as she passes through a school of dull brown fish, waves a tentacle at a passing creature, and stirs up sand in her wake as she does loop-de-loops for the sheer joy of it, stretching and shifting her form as much as it can take-- The scanner flashes green. Flux is tempted to ignore it in favour of staying down, but eventually duty calls. She winds a tentacle around the buried cylinder, shaking it free from where it's buried, dragging it to the surface. They listen to the recording when they're heading back in Yuri's ship. It's a person's memory of Earth that seems to be half imagination, an account of a "marine conservation aquarium" with small striped fish hiding in fronded plants, gigantic flat fish that could only swim in circles, and how it felt when they reached their hand into a tank to touch a marine creature--the shock of the cold giving way to warmth, the pebbled feeling of the star-shaped animal against their skin. Flux goes back to her bunk, half-lost in the world of the story, half-expecting her usual nightmares to jolt her back to reality. That night, she only dreams of swimming.
5.
Object_05 05:45
The Atlas is making the putt-putt-kchhhkk noise that means something's wrong, and Flux is busy grumbling in frustration while examining the jump wires. To be honest, Flux's been grumbling in frustration since Yuri and Rittenhouse discovered their mutual fandom of Star Odyssey and spent all night locked in a heated debate over its ending. "Ugh," Flux says, rooting through the driveblock with her tentacles. "This is gonna take, like, half a day minimum to fix." "Anything we can do to help?" Yuri offers. "We can get parts for you, there's a market nearby..." "To be honest, it'd go faster if you both went to find the object. S'not like all three of us need to get in the skimmer anyway." Flux waves them off, spanner in tentacle. [We can wait for you. By the way, Yuri, I've been meaning to talk to you about the Star Odyssey remake--] "Please," Flux says, morphing her jaw so she can grit her teeth harder. "Let me work." Despite Flux's absence, Yuri and Rittenhouse somehow manage to rent the cheapest waterskimmer available, get it operational, and jury-rig the waterproof scanner to its hull. The coordinates of the object indicate that it's somewhere in the murky, coffee-brown river. Halfway along the route, the skimmer stops working. After ten minutes of grappling with the engine, both Yuri and Rittenhouse agree they should probably message Flux. [fluxxx] what is it? i'm buying parts before the market closes [yuriL] The skimmer stopped working in the middle of the river [yuriL] It's an Aquila LX1210P [fluxxx] do you know how to access the control panel for a factory reset [yuriL] Is there another way? I don't want to risk bricking it [fluxxx] ok fine hold on [fluxxx] most older aquilas have manual mode, dial the power consumption waaaaaay down and it should autoconvert [fluxxx] probably, anyway. if you tip over sorry in advance [fluxxx] brb bargaining, the prices here are ridiculous Yuri cuts the engine's power and turns off most of the skimmer's subsystems, leaving the scanner on. Oars slide out from both sides of the skimmer, and both of them suddenly realise what "manual mode" means. "Okay," Yuri says, staring at the left oar like it's a large centipede. "I should probably know this, but Rittenhouse--how waterproof are you? You know. Just in case." [My base model, the Alexandar Systems RH-745, can tolerate sustained immersion in non-reactive liquids, is impact resistant, and also has been proven to be able to withstand hard vacuum for up to twenty minutes.] Rittenhouse pauses. [I'd prefer not to experience any of those today.] "Let's hope we're good at rowing, then." After a period of trial-and-error and hastily consulting tutorials on the infoweb, both of them settle into a steady rhythm that doesn't rock the skimmer too much. "So. What do you think this object will be?" [It is likely to be something relevant to its immediate environment, with a recording about a related experience. It will likely be similar to the others in the series.] "Rittenhouse," Yuri says. "I might not have spent five years serving in the army with you, but I spent all of last night listening to your bonkers theories about how Star Odyssey should have ended, and I can tell when you're pretending to be Mr Emotionless Robot Beep Beep Boop. What do you think this object will be?" [All right. By request, I'll venture into the realm of conjecture. Perhaps a carving of something that was once present in Earth's rivers? The attached vocal recording might be about the speaker traversing across a river, perhaps in a powered vessel.] "I'm hoping it's got details about Earthian animals--I've been listening to that one about the 'aquarium', and I couldn't even imagine some of that stuff." A pause. "Oh, by the way...I've been meaning to ask you, but isn't there some big antique fair on PX-165 this weekend? Are you missing it for this?" [Yes, the Annual Multi-System Antiques and Collectors Fair is currently occurring.] "Oh no, Rittenhouse, I'm so sorry." [As an expert in antique analysis and evaluation, taking part in this excursion was a logical course of action, allowing me to use my programmed abilities to the fullest. There is no need to apologise for my decision to maximise my utility.] Yuri takes a deep breath. "Let's put this another way: I really appreciate you coming along on this wacky treasure hunt instead of examining antiques on PX-165. Also, are you interested in going for the immersive remake of Star Odyssey whenever it's out? Think it's released stationside next month or something." [Spending money on a ticket for first-run immersive cinema is illogical. As a robot, my sensory experience would be significantly limited as compared to other audience members.] "Okay, that makes sense," Yuri says. "But what would you do if an illogical human bought you a premiere ticket at the fancy cinema, just so she'd have someone to watch Star Odyssey with?" Rittenhouse's oar stops in the water. The scanner beeps.
6.
Object_06 06:14
The plus side is that the cylinder is right there. They can see it in all its metallic glory, just waiting for them to take it. The carving's positioned next to it too--a large roly-poly animal, adorable in its own Earthian way. The minus side is that both of these things are located in the middle of the Lucky Loot casino, floating in an antigrav display case. The holosign next to it explains the history of the objects--a mysterious cylinder found decades ago by the casino's owner with a carving of an unknown animal inside it, believed to have been his good-luck charm when he made his way from rags to riches. "Okay," Flux says. "When we began this, I wasn't imagining that we'd have to steal something from a casino." [Technically we don't have to take the item,] Rittenhouse offers. [We just have to view the coordinates on the base of the carving. It should only take a few seconds once we have physical access to the cylinder.] "And how are we going to do that without robbing the casino," Yuri says. "That part seems kind of like a missing step." [But is it really considered robbing if the item is returned almost immediately? I believe it would fall under borrowing.] "I'm really not in the mood to argue definitions." Yuri sighs. "Okay. How would you borrow the thing, then?" [First, we'll have to obtain the blueprints to the casino and figure out the loopholes in their security--of course, that won't be easy, but with Flux's expertise--] "Okay," Flux interrupts, holding up one of her tentacles. "Just checking, the only thing we absolutely need right now is the coordinates--we don't need the actual object or the stuff engraved on the cylinder lid or anything, right? Those are just nice bonuses?" [Yes, that's accurate.] "Yuri," Flux asks. "Do your glasses have a 'record' function? How high-res can it go?" "300 hypervoxels, I think." "Good enough. Hand them over, I'm going to try something. You guys come grab me later, okay?" [What do you mean?] "You'll figure it out," Flux says, perching the large glasses on her nose, her skin slowly shading a deep blush-pink. "Just wait till then." She starts pacing around the casino, her gait gradually altering as she goes, shifting from her normal stride to erratic bobbing and weaving. After completing a full round, Flux stumbles into the middle of the casino, her legs suddenly faltering as she crashes straight onto the display case. The objects in the display case sway and teeter as the antigrav malfunctions, coming loose from their fixed positions to careen within the transparent shielding. The security guards rush towards Flux, who has turned a peculiar shade of green. She wobbles semi-upright, and promptly vomits on one of them. "Oh god." Yuri rubs her temples. "What if she gets arrested? How much does bail even cost on this planet?" [I'll go talk to the staff,] Rittenhouse says. [I have experience in getting her out of trouble. Are you able to cry on cue?] It takes a full-blown sobbing session about Yuri's "beloved friend, bless her, it's not her fault she can't control her drinking, you just don't understand what happened in her past" as well as a written agreement that none of them will ever return to Lucky Loot Casino, but they eventually retrieve the faux-drunk Flux from a backroom. The instant they're a safe distance away the casino, Flux whips the glasses off her face and grins. "High-res, baby! All the angles, definitely got the coordinates, and we miiiiiight even have got a scan of the lid's interior, depending on how much we can enhance the footage! Admit it, this was way faster than a heist or whatever Rittenhouse had planned!" Yuri sighs and takes her glasses back. There are so, so many things she could say about today. She settles for saying "thanks".
7.
Object_07 06:00
The trees in PN-606 are taller than megaships, and the deep grooves in their trunks remind Flux of wrinkles in aging skin. She reaches some tentacles out to gauge the diameter, but even at full extension she can't wrap them around half of a single tree. [Is that a hug?] "Do I look like the hugging sort? How long have these things been alive, anyway?" [A few millennia, judging by their height. This particular species of flora is capable of lasting for thousands of years without any intervention. If left undisturbed, no one is quite sure how large they could grow.] "Are they often left undisturbed?" Yuri asks. [Remember that wooden table? The one we saw in the VIP area of that immersive cinema?] "That incredible rainbow thing came from these trees? But they're so...brown." [Their true colours are hidden beneath the bark. Older trees are more valuable for that reason--with every cycle of growth, a different coloured ring forms around the trunk, depending on soil conditions and moisture levels.] "Ritt, you're sure we can dig here?" Flux probes the ground. "I mean, these trees are way old, their roots are probably deep by now. Will we even be able to find the thing without chopping one of these dudes down?" [All of them have very shallow roots. Once we get past the surface layer of soil, the rest should be easy.] "Hey, wait," Yuri says. "This planet gets hurricanes during the off-season, right? How are these trees still here?" [The root system of an individual tree is shallow but spreads a great distance. When growing in thick groves like this, each tree twines their roots with another--this method of interdependence allows them to weather harsher conditions than they would be able to withstand as a single tree.] "Oh." They continue on in silence. Shafts of sunlight filter through the breaks in the thick canopy of leaves, and the air smells thick and green. The scanner starts beeping when they reach a clearing with a single tree--its trunk is much wider than most of the others and oddly-shaped, like an unseen hand took a few trees and idly braided them together into one. Flux checks the cylinder's position within the root system, and extends her tentacles through the dirt and past the complex tangle of roots on the surface, reaching downwards. She reaches a few more tendrils into the root system to help her steady the cylinder, closing her eyes so that she can better concentrate, and it almost feels like she's become part of the forest itself, like she's rooted herself in the dirt in this place where a single moment seems like it could last forever, a single being merging with something much greater than itself. The container breaks the surface. Flux takes a deep breath, trying to recenter herself in her body, but the borders keeping her form in place seem a lot more malleable than usual. Her skin ripples and reforms, and she can't seem to maintain a consistent shape. "Hey," Yuri says. "Hey, you okay? Breathe with me, in, okay, now out--Rittenhouse? Rittenhouse! Get over here!" "Don't worry about me. The container," Flux says, wheezing. "What's in it?" "Forget the container--okay, come on, you're going to be fine," and Yuri wraps her arms around Flux's body, steadying her. "Just breathe with me, okay?" [Flux, I'm going to scan you now--] Flux feels the cold metal of Rittenhouse's claw on one of her arms, the tickle of his inbuilt pulse sensor against her skin, and that plus the warm weight of Yuri's body pressing against her back lets her get back to reality, remember the boundaries holding herself in. [Pulse is reverting to normal rates.] Rittenhouse's optical sensors are flickering in the I'm-really-worried-but-trying-not-to-show-it way. "Are you okay?" Yuri peers at her, brow furrowed in concern. "Yeah," Flux says, catching her breath. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She's regained control over her tentacles, so she reaches them out to brush against Rittenhouse's claw, Yuri's hand, coiling around both of them, twining all three of them together as a reassurance. [Is this a hug?] "Shut up and take it," Flux says.
8.
Object_08 07:21
Defragmentation cycles are unfortunately necessary during maintenance periods, and force Rittenhouse to reprocess memories that are best left buried in sub-sub-folders. Most of these are minor embarrassments--being upbraided in basic training for errors while taking inventory, unwittingly losing an auction by underbidding--but on occasion, one particular memory resurfaces. Rittenhouse remembers every moment of his last mission with Flux in the Jovian military in acute detail--the catastrophic hull breach, the sickening countdown that started in his head while watching the humanoid members of the crew succumb to uncontrolled decompression, wondering how long it would take for Flux to succumb as well, the relief he felt as she managed to warp her body enough to avoid death-- He forces himself to ride the memory out, and gets to the point where they reach the escape pod together before deciding to cut the defragmentation cycle short for once. He steps out of the recharging bay. As he approaches the main control area of the Atlas, he hears a voice. --and the forest was absolutely still--I know, I know, forests don't really move--unless you're from a planet where they do? It wasn't normal for them to move on Earth, anyway. Just then, a bird landed on one of the trees. None of us had seen a bird in years... Yuri pauses the recording. "Couldn't sleep?" [As a robot, I don't require sleep. I should say the same thing about you, really.] "Yeah...I was just relistening to all the stuff we found. All the other objects we've found have been planetside, so this kind of feels like...we're reaching the end of something, I guess." [Agreed.] "And I was just thinking...what would make someone do this? It's such a big project--you can tell that they put a lot of effort into it, but that rock we found the first object under had been there for ages, what if we hadn't looked under it, or figured out the coordinates, or whatever? Would this stuff just lie around forgotten forever?" [But that didn't happen.] "Yeah," Yuri says. "I guess it didn't. It's two hours till we arrive, wanna watch some Star Odyssey before we wake Flux up? It's not the remake, don't worry." [That would be fine. Not the filler arc, though.] "Never the filler arc." They view a few episodes in comfortable silence. The object's located in the middle of an empty sector--it's a simple mission, no spacewalks required--just enough clear space for the Atlas to use its grabber arm and bring the object in. As they get closer to the coordinates, they realise something. [That's a debris field, isn't it.] "Oh fuck." The Atlas is a heavyweight ship designed for towing, and hangs in space like a sledgehammer. It's far too unwieldy for situations that require pinpoint precision-- navigating through debris fields, for instance. "There's no way we'll get through this, and the grabber arm won't work without a clear radius...I'll navigate a bit closer to check, but it's very likely that we'll have to turn back." [I'll wake Flux up and let her know.] After briefly summarising the situation for Flux, Rittenhouse sits on her bunk. Her skin flashes deep purple, a warning sign that she's upset. "It's just...fuck, Ritt, I really wanted this. We've come so far, and...I just want to see this through, you know?" [I know. I wanted it too.] "Let's talk to Yuri about it, I guess." Flux's skin ripples purple before shifting back to normal. "I think I know how we can do this." Flux's explanation of her plan fails to reassure anyone. "--and I'm definitely decompression-resistant, so even if the spacesuit gets punctured by debris I'll be fine for a while. That should give us enough time to grab the object and get reeled back before bad stuff starts to kick in--" "No," Yuri says flatly. "That's ridiculous. Look, I want it as much as you do, but I'm not risking your life for this." Flux turns dark purple-red. "And I'm fucking saying I'm willing to do it for this! We've come this far, what's a little more? Unless you're too--" Rittenhouse considers all the factors of the situation. An alternative solution comes to mind. [I'll go,] he says, modulating the emotion in his voice so it seems like a rational statement. [I have been proven to be able to withstand hard vacuum, and in the event of any damage, my consciousness has been backed up in multiple locations.] "No," both of them say at once. [Flux, you wish to obtain the object. Yuri, you are concerned about the possibility that Flux might have to risk her life to obtain the object. I have no need to worry about a puncture in a spacesuit. It's the logical choice.] It takes half an hour to convince both Yuri and Flux, and Rittenhouse silences the internal subprocess informing him of all the ways the situation could result in catastrophic failure. Yuri navigates as close as she can manage--the larger pieces of debris are avoidable, but they eventually reach a point where they can't go further without risking a hull breach. "Stay safe, you idiot," Yuri says. "Be careful, okay?" Flux checks the tethers. "We'll reel you back if it looks too dangerous." Rittenhouse nods, and exits the craft. He's never been on a spacewalk before--there wasn't any need to do extravehicular activity on arms resupplying missions, and after resigning his commission and starting the antique store, there was even less chance to do so. The space around him is mostly blank and black. Everything around him is soundless. He activates the jet thrusters on the harness, moving slowly to avoid the debris chunks. The Atlas’s engine nacelles glow white, illuminating his path to the cylinder. Instead of the dull black-chrome of most of the objects, this one is a warm yellow-gold, like a sandy beach or sun at dawn. Rittenhouse reaches out to catch the cylinder, wrapping his body around it, holding it close to his chest as he begins the journey back to the ship. The debris around him floats in the vacuum, catching the light of the ship's engine, glimmering like stars.
9.
Object_09 06:56
Once Rittenhouse is safely inside the ship and checked for signs of damage, they open the golden cylinder. It's larger than usual, with many more items--while the past cylinders contained a single carved object, this one is packed to the brim with mementos and circular grooved disks. They listen to the sound file encoded on the cylinder's lid first. --and we spent years hand-picking planets, machining objects, coming to agreements, in the hope that someone would one day find our trail and learn what earth was like from our tales of it and the breadcrumbs we scattered. This was, to be honest, a foolish whim on our part. an illogical, selfish desire, a deliberate inconvenience for whoever found it. Even recording this now, I doubt that anyone--anything--will follow the trail we've laid. I half think that our words will never be passed on, and that the last memories of Earth will all die with us. Perhaps we deserve it, for the mess our kind made. The other half of me will burn this recording into the cylinder, and leave it in the hope that someone, somewhere, will hear it and know us--will be curious enough and foolhardy enough to follow our trail where it might lead. If you are listening to this, thank you. Thank you for being willing to look. After emptying out the objects--engravings of Earthian animals, personal notes from the designers of the project, what seems like a large tangle of jewellery--they examine the container itself. A series of coordinates is carved into the absolute bottom of the cylinder. They're absolute coordinates, not relative--they'll need a warp-capable ship in order to reach anywhere near there. Beneath the coordinates is a message--five symbols in ancient Inglese characters. Earth. "Why the hell," Yuri says, "would they leave us the coordinates to it?" "It just doesn't make sense," says Flux. "From what they said, there's absolutely nothing there." [They said they ruined the planet, yes.] "It would be really, really dumb to spend our limited time and money going to a ruined planet with absolutely nothing there," Yuri says. "Are we all agreed on that?" [Definitely.] "Stupidest thing ever." For a while the three of them stare at the cylinder, the ship’s engine whirring in the background. The viewports around them gleam with endless stars. "Sooooo," Yuri says, drawing the word out, letting it hang in the air. "How about it?" [I know where we can get a warp-capable ship. I can sponsor the deposit as well.] Flux shrugs her tentacles. "I've already taken all this time off, what's a bit more? You'd be useless without me anyway." "Well then," Yuri grins, her eyes sparkling with adventure. "Time to head to Earth."

about

"Yuri hasn't seen many rocks in gravity before. She's more familiar with spinning asteroid clusters, clouds of debris fragments--everything she encounters while hauling ships back to station for salvage. This planet's crags of limestone, or even the shining pebbles on the river bank, are completely new to her.

Flux's ahead of Yuri on the trail. She's shed some of her humanoid form for convenience, and she's hauling most of their camping gear with her tentacles as she sets the pace.

They've both fantasised about this trip for a year, planning it during their brief moments of downtime. It's the best they can do within their budget--a cheap camping trip on a secluded planet, somewhere they can sit and watch the sun move across the sky, see some stars from planetside for once. Even the leg cramps from the rough terrain seem worthwhile--a bit of physical pain is a small price to pay just to be away from work."

Read while you listen:
medium.com/alexandar-sound/the-preparation-for-a-dive-is-always-a-tense-time-2f50e936784c

---

credits

released February 24, 2018

Produced and Artwork by Voislav Dimitrijevic

Object_03 produced by Voislav and Marija Dimitrijevic

Mastered by Saso Puckovski at Earworm Studio

Story written by Audrina Lewis

ALXNDR001

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Void Singapore

The black void of space and time.

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