The Core: The Dark Enemy

50. Back to the Beginning

Friends were coming to see me, my first Tela friends even. I smiled at the thought of seeing them again and nodded to Meditati, letting her know that we would manifest avatars for them at the after party.

For now, there was still too much going on.

Currently, everyone was off roving around Sublimis, either by getting a gentle ride on her head or on craft that allowed users to navigate seamlessly around her moving form while she moved. The second option wasn't limited by speed, which greatly pleased plenty of the younger attendees and made their parents naturally fearful. Their Tutors would keep them safe, for the most part, and for the most part, that was enough.

Regardless, after the amusement park ride events, Meditati would invite everyone back for a meal inside the newly manifested massive dining hall and give those watching an update on what was next concerning Earth's Uplift progress. Something structured after all the fun going on. Something grounded for those watching back home.

Hailey and Ess were inseparable. They were currently blasting off through open space, each on their own smaller rides, miniature versions of Leva that better suited them as mounts. Space in one direction already looked like a fun kids' disco party, and I was sure they were blasting fun music through their suits.

It felt right to let it continue.

I had already dealt with the less pleasant speaking parts. Well, shall I say, I let Meditati deal with them. It seems that powerful people had this itch inside them that demanded they speak to the most powerful person in the room, to rub shoulders in some cases, and in others to soothe their egos.

People like that had to feel better than those around them. Had to feel more powerful. More successful than others.

What I did was, as soon as they approached, I simply manifested duplicates of myself for them to converse with and walked off. Meditati handled the conversation from there, which was easy, since my visage and voice were constructs she had devised anyway.

It worked surprisingly well.

I wasn't bothering with intrigue, in how I could make someone a fortune, or whatever they thought they could offer me. At this point, I just wanted two things, my health and my friends back. No one on Earth could offer me either, so I wasn't interested.

Play lasted a couple of hours, not because there were limited rides, but because of the number of activities that Meditati had dreamed up and the fact that everyone wanted a ride on Sublimis. Some, the wealthiest again, wanted to monopolize her time for photoshoots while everyone else was removed from the frame. I had Meditati put a stop to that, almost to the point where they were told to shelve their entitlement or be removed from the event. That message spread quite quickly.

I sighed as I made my way past five copies of myself and headed into the entrance of the massive dining hall through the airlock.

Food had already been delivered from the surface, depending on the different cultures present, and everyone would have a massive selection to choose from. There were chefs on hand as well, but that was to be expected in an event like this.

The transition from open space to contained atmosphere was immediate, but not jarring. Just... different. I had wanted to make the inside environment grand and memorable, and Meditati had delivered.

The extensive walls were decorated with holographic dioramas of various alien species in their original natural habitats, set beside their modern forms. It was interesting to see Herv, the great slothlike creatures, standing at the helm of a spaceship next to their more primitive forms holding stone sledgehammers planetside.

The various mutations, juvenile to adolescent forms of the Jaz'era, their sabertooth mantis hybridlike species, took up more space than most, simply due to their complex ecosystem.