Workmates?

Mysteries of the Past

"Our expedition to the domains of the dead has been eventful. The Queen is damaged, and in grievous need of repairs and supplies. We're returning - in haste! - to the Reach, where I hope to make port at Cyprium"

-Log of Her Majesty's Locomotive The Odious Queen, March 14th 1905

N frowned slightly as he read the last entry in a book he'd found on the ground. "Hey V? Do you know anything about the Reach or a place called Cyprium?" The male disassembly drone placed the book on a control station, which to his suprise was completely analog. No digital screens, not even LED lights. Nothing. The entire command center of the machine was made up of gauges with needles, big levers and some cords dangling from the ceiling, also connected to some contraptions. V still stood at the thick bulkhead door they'd just come through and scanned the environment.

"N?... Doesn't this place give you... the creeps?" V blinked at the male drone who was rummaging through various storage boxes and shelves in hopes of finding more information. Apparently he didn't hear his companion speak up to him. She shook her head, turned away from him and also began to investigate. The female drone eventually came to a door that read 'Hallway One' the number being spelled out as a word instead of a single italic number wasn't new but different from what she was used to. Did the humans back in the day really care that much about astethics and looks? All she was used to was the minimalized and efficient arrangement of basically everything to make them as ergonomic and space saving as possible.

She sighed quietly and grabbed the large handle on the door. A gentle push was all it took for the handle to glide. Simultaneously with the handle moving a bunch of gears began clicking inside the Bulkhead. Then with a loud locking sound the door creaked open by what looked like an inch.

Was this heavy and thick piece of steel fully automated via mechanics? There were no wires going in or out of the door anywhere on it's surface, so there could only be a complex mechanical system inside. She gave it a gentle nudge and the heavy door swung open, without making a sound.

Infront of her lied a steel corridor, not as fancy as the control station she was about to leave. There were pipes running all along the walls into the dark ahead. She turned her thermal imaging system on.

Nothing... just cold greyscales... atleast she could make a few objects like crates and barrels out.

„Oh what the heck" V muttered to herself and began walking down the corridor. There were doors to the left and some to the right. There was a sign above another heavy bulkhead that read „Boiler Room". Just as she was about touch the handle she heard something from the other side. It sounded like slithering... alot of slithering.

N was just about finished rummaging through the various books and folders containing documents like cargo manifests, when he spotted a small leather book. It was smaller than the rest and layed upon a large swivel chair right in the middle of the cab. The male drone picked it up and began flipping through the pages. „Huh?" he noted audibly as he opened the book to a random page.

The Guests

The Guests are recent arrivals to the High Wilderness. They keep to the skies, avoiding ports. Some say they are cunning; others that they are shy. Some say they are drawn to mirrors. Probably best to turn yours to the wall, just in case.

The Guests crave the particular warmth associated with places that have been lived-in - they like stoves, and keepsakes, and knicknacks. A wriggling colony of them will fill a locomotive like a snail fills it's shell. Best to keep watch...

N gulped as he read the description. „Black-blueish, tentacle-like beasts of the skies? So... space worms?" his train of thought was abruptly derailed as he heard an ear-piercing scream from hallway one, followed by an explosion.

V had opened the bulkhead to the boiler room and stumbled upon an elder-guests hive that had been thriving off the once hot surface of the boiler. Now they were viciously looking for a warmer and newer place to live in. A place that could house them well, like the interior of a disassembly drone.

They craved for the ever so warm interior of her framing, trying the crawl under her armor plates. „N-No! G-GET OFF!!" she yelled and fired another rockt at the worm-like beasts wriggling all over the corridors roof, walls, and floors. The explosion blasted some of them to smithereens and splattered the robot with bits of them. The Guests were unrelenting in their attack. Soon they began crawling up V's slender stilts. She screamed and jumped back, the beasts trying their best to hold her back.

Finally N arrived and he too yelped in shock as he saw the entire corridor now filled with a raging black-bluish mass of worms. „V! Come on!" he screamed as he grabbed the thick bulkhead she had opened.

The female dashed back towards him, zipped through the doorway and N pushed it shut. The mechanism locking and sealing the door once it fell into place. Both of them heared the worms slithering around the bulkhead, trying to find an entrance...

V, still out of breath and in a state of shock gasped uncontrollably, she had almost become a prime new guests home, as their current one grows colder by the day. The female was covered in black-bluish worm bits and liquid, some still faintly wiggling about.

N exhaled and walked up to her. She only looked at him for a brief moment before embracing the male very very tightly. N thought for a moment. „It's okay... everything's okay, you'll be fine." he returned the gesture and they shared the moment for a prolonged periode of time before V came back to her senses.

She cough and pushed N away. „G-Glad you helped me out there N... B-But I could've handled it. It wasn't anything too nasty." she almost gagged at the thought of the guests. N just looked at her and squinted his digital eyes, but refrained from saying anything.

„So!" V clapped her hands awkwardly. „We should go, the others are probably waiting for us." the female added before walking past N towards the door they entered from. „You coming?" V asked, her hand already resting on the handle.

„O-Oh! Sure!" N waited for V to leave before he picked the small leather book from the floor and flipped back to the guests page. In bright red writing at the bottom of the page stood a message.

To whomever may be reading this, evict the guests at all costs. They are too dangerous to be kept around for long.