Axy Stormforge and her Journey to the Edge of Reality

Chapter 5: Boarding the Cinder

Chapter 5 - Boarding the Cinder

Hair still drying from the barbershop just a few hundred feet away, Axy joined C-crew congregating on the elevator platform edges harnessing into seats and rails that now protruded from the platform floor. Very little luggage was present - personal effects were usually limited to sentimental items and specialized implant-related tech. The ship had 3D printers that would produce food, clothing, exo-suits, even vehicles and spacecraft needed for roving on unexplored worlds, all designed by soft AI and produced on-demand. Everything except her specific shade of Starlight Silver quick-dye, which Axy carried with her to hold her over until they got to Nuric.

Joining them on the platform at the last minute were two Novoids. Nearly identical to the ones she saw flying the day before, their robotic bodies were very close in proportion to humans, plated in a matt-finish grey-tan color, and extremely refined in design. Their gently white-blue glowing eyes were calmingly circular, almost curious in static expression. They were identical twins, except one wore metallic blue wrist wraps, and the other had a few extra sensors on his head.

"Able! Seraph! Glad you could finally join us!" shouted Jym, speech slurred slightly.

"I'm amazed your still standing, Jym." piped back Able. His voice was obviously synthesized, but extremely natural in intonation, but layered under effects that clearly differentiated a Novoid's voice from a human's, like a speaker played through a unique metallic resonator of sorts.

Seraph said nothing.

As soon as they were on the platform, they all harnessed in - some seated and some standing - then held their grips. Axy selected a standing spot next to Seraph. Despite being a Novoid, Axy could spot another introvert when she saw one. A transparent dome canopy descended from the ceiling and locked into place over them.

This elevator descended right through the floor and through the outer hull of the station, into a spindown ring that wrapped around the entire outside of the habitat. This ring gently decelerated the crew - which felt like acceleration - to a standstill, at which point they were no longer spinning with the cylinder, and were stationary in zero-G.

Ugh, the nausea again.

Then the elevator then indexed to a telescoping shaft that projected away from the cylinder for miles and miles all the way to the Cinder cargoliner below.

As they descended, Axy took in her surroundings... surrounded by what looked like infinite webbing of cables and tethers and docks and miles-long robotic arms... small spacecraft of all different sizes were docked, entering, or departing. The tether they themselves were riding down was a "tube" of 6 parallel cables the platform descended down, and two metal arms that held them straight. It, and dozens of others, all tentacled-out from the spindown rings of the habitat they just left. Everything was coldly illuminated against the black backdrop of space; a faint cold glow of the star Stoic, their distant sun, shone through the tinted canopy that protected them from the void.

Taking in the awe of her surroundings, she remembered her earlier contemplations...

"It's... really kind of beautiful down here" she offered. She was hoping to maybe begin a conversation with Seraph about concepts like beauty and meaning, to probe her Novoid shipmates... but also play it cool.

"It is" Seraph responded, with a voice just a little lower and grittier than Able's.

Seraph said nothing further.

Well, that was... unsatisfying, to say the least. Despite getting an answer to her deepest question, it proved only to open up ten more. Was Seraph just "programmed" to say this as part of a conversation program, or was there actual emotion inside? Or, maybe THIS Novoid simply didn't consider public transportation noteworthy enough for conversation? Axy figured she herself didn't find those white transport pods noteworthy.