The Ascension

12: Aster and the divines

 When Aster asked the name of Artemis' ship, he told her it didn't have a name. Many ships didn't. It would be like naming a car, he said before asking if she knew what a car was.

She grumbled a yes and tried to look pouty. There wasn't a point to whining, she decided a minute later. But she had decided she didn't like Artemis very much, and was greatly hoping that if she looked angry enough, he'd pick up on it.

He had, unbeknownst to Aster, and didn't care.

Artemis called for Eii using a method of communication that resembled a phone, but quite obviously couldn't be. The calling part was truthfully pointless, as Eii generally came whenever someone was thinking of her. The exact science behind this was generally classified as 'magic' by many, but Artemis tended to claim 'inter-dimensional powers' as an explanation.

Artemis dialed a long string of numerals. In Artemis' culture, they had been the numbers of Aoxch'li the death spirit who would devour Seltiabah into the dark pit of her mind's soul.

Today, these numbers summoned a girl-like creature to the bridge who giggled the moment she saw Artemis. She was laughing at him for his number joke, and he knew it immediately. Psychic powers weren't real, but something was up with Eii.

"What are we doing here?" Eii asked with an odd gesture. She was obsessed with watching young cultures on various worlds, and was constantly adding poses and words that she found 'cute' into her vocabulary. "We're always busy, you know."

"I don't know how you don't find your job tedious. Or lack of one, I should say." Artemis glanced once at Aster, knowing he had to focus, but he couldn't resist throwing a short attack out at Eii.

"And you? We don't suppose you've found the meaning of life yet trapped in this little box. How's Garth doing?"

Eii had this thing, it may be clear, for referring to herself in the plural sense. She'd catch herself, eventually, and fix it without a word. People never really talked about it with her, but it was one of the reasons Artemis detested her.

Artemis exhaled slowly and changed to a straight tone. "Ioro gave me a girl. Teach her how to create life."

"Does she have the potential for it?" Eii crept towards Aster with exaggerated movements, like she was sneaking but wanted to ensure a cartoonish silhouette. Aster couldn't quite make sense of her appearance- unlike Artemis, something did seem alien about her. She had sort of nubby fingers with little black spikes between each joint, and her large eyes resembled dirty pond water.

"No." Aster offered. "I don't understand all this upper science, and I don't really care to."

"That has nothing to do with your potential." Eii said. She squinted her eyes, looking carefully at Aster, who noticed her eyes changed color very slowly through a cycle of muted shades. "...No. You definitely don't have the capacity."

"The capacity for...?" At this point, Aster didn't want to sound like a fool by assuming anything.

"Creating life!" Eii said. Aster had expected her to snap, but instead she was quite cheery about the subject. Her muddy eyes seemed to change to brighter hues to reflect this. "It's a skill few creatures posses, changing matter by hand, and we were hoping that if Ioro had chosen a human like you... perhaps you carried a mutation that granted such power. I'd love that! I've never seen it occur naturally before, life-giving, so I was hoping..."

"No. Artemis was trying to teach me through a machine."

"The poor man's substitute, I'm afraid. And a cruel man's as well." Eii sighed, but combined it miraculously well with a quick glare towards Artemis. "It's like a sewing machine versus hand stitching."