Shifting Carbon

Welcome to Ogiki

          On the one hand, every construct could be programmed with a series of instructions or even taught a series of instructions, depending on the level of intelligence. On the other hand, Brain-in-a-Jar cyborgs could not learn anything more, but they retained much of the rote memory actions they had gained in life. Thus a steelworker-turned-cyborg was infinitely more valuable than a construct trained to rivet joints together. The additional expense, however, was enough that constructs were more regularly used than their brain-in-a-jar counterparts. 

 -The History of the Meccas, pg 6

Quetzal's insides seemed to sink all the way to the floor of the crater that was far below them. He wasn't afraid of heights, but the suddenness of it gave him an adrenaline spike and he stepped back a few paces. During their time on the canon they had orbited around this huge hole a couple of times before Bask showed up, but once they had landed his brain had forgotten about it. His class had taken a high-definition virtual tour of the Grand Canyon as it had been before Anti-Mecca partisans had colonized it. This crater easily rivaled the biggest part of that. Small dots and shapes could be seen moving all over as mining operations continued to make the hole bigger. Incredibly, the center of the open expanse rose toward the sky in a literal mountain of metal and buildings. The 'town' that Quetzal had thought they were headed to, was just the top third that was sticking up higher than the rim of the crater. In fact, in the context of the larger construction it was possible that instead of just looking like radar antennae, those structures on top were just that or something of equal utility.

Bask spoke, breaking the quiet of the moment. "It would be best if you and Sundew do not shift while here. If at all possible. Neither of your forms are considered 'common', and you are likely to end up in a zoo or other facility.

Quetzal smiled inwardly. Even without that pronouncement, it seemed common sense to hide their shapeshifting abilities. If this Olav character was determined to raid meccas, then he most likely already had people watching and listening within the meccas. He turned to Bask to distract himself. "I don't suppose you sense any carbogenics in the area? Would we be that lucky?" He turned back to the vista in front of them.

"Two actually," monotoned Bask.

Quetzal turned sharply around again to face the construct "Two?!" At a short hiccup laugh from one of the triplets he redded slightly. "Other than us?" For a construct, Bask was continually proving to have a rather humanoid sense of humor.

"No, Quetzal. I have detected nothing." Bask's limited tonal voice did not convey anything; not contrition, not gloating, nor anything a human friend would do after pulling that sort of joke.

The construct continued "Also, I have searched the local area, there are many companies that deal in power systems, but only two are likely candidates."

"Two are better than, say, five hundred." interjected Venus dryly. Quetzal tried to glare at her, but couldn't really pull it off.

Bask continued unperturbed. "The first is Krasus Corp, it is located on the far side of the city from this point. The second, Akku Research Group, is on level fifty, this side of the mecca."

That seemed like a cut and dry decision for Quetzal. Even though Ogiki covered a lot less square mileage than Ulteca–because most of its bulk was in the hundreds of levels sitting stacked like a terraced mountain in front of them–it still made more sense to try the closer one first. He turned to Bask "The nearest one then, but how do we get there? You already stated shifting and/or flying 'aren't the best ideas'".

Sundew beat Bask to it. "OOOH I read about this once! Never thought I would see one let alone use it. Bask, take us to the closest one, but don't say anything else about it." She grinned impishly.