Utopia War

Chapter 20 - Sparkle Unleashed

Elder Thirdgonad, Twenty Seventh Brood of the Third Waxing of the Eleventh Moon stewed in the brew of frantic last hexacycle preparations and simulation reports. The waters of his starshell were cloudy with the chemical chatter of the barely-worthy.

Elder Thirdgonad signaled the shell's AI with his control growth and it flushed away the cloudy water, replacing it with clean. To this he added his own chemicals, which spoke all the more strongly in the clear water.

"There will be no more flitting about like preyfish," Thirdgonad's chemicals spoke "It lacks dignity. The humans are beached, their organs laid bare. If such a lowly people frighten you still you have not the honor to call yourselves Old Ones. You know your places in the grand design, tend to them and don't pollute my water with your cowardice."

The chatter ceased. Additional battle simulations completed but none of the crew had the pancreatic fortitude to report it.

* * *

Caesar had not seen a proper Concensus Ring city since arriving on Ran; as far as he knew everyone lived in the tiny little communities favored by Sparkle and Min-ji.

This turned out not to be true. As much effort as they might put into denying it Consensus humanoids were still humanoids after all. Social creatures of a certain level of sophistication could be counted on to build something that could be categorized as a city. Finally he was going to get his chance to see one.

The flier he and Sparkle occupied swooped down out of the clouds and Caesar got his first good look at the place. Built in three dimensions the city bloomed outward like a sphere. The buildings were small and eccentric, and floated atop one another using AG fields. Despite the haphazard look of the buildings everything was arranged very orderly, and there were many wide and straight passageways through the sprawl for air traffic.

Caesar was surprised to see what at first he assumed to be ads. Beautifully colored holograms shone between buildings, and massive screens flipped between different images. He was struck with how nice the ads here looked, and wondered what they could be advertising. It took Caesar a few minutes to realize that they weren't advertisements; they were art installations. They existed for no other reason than because people thought they'd look nice. For the first time since coming to Ran Caesar reflected on his home ring with a feeling of shame.

"What's this place called?" he asked Sparkle.

"Requited Love's Moment of Sublime Recognition," she replied "It's less clunky in the original whalesong."

"Why is the name in whalesong?"

"I don't know," admitted Sparkle "It's a pretty name."

She took another drink from the brightly colored liquid she was drinking. Caesar had a similar glass in his own hand and copied her. He found the drink unpalatably sweet but the intoxicating effect more than made up for it. It had him feeling buzzed, warm, and happy.

"So how far do you think it is to the concert hall?" Caesar asked.

"A way still," said Sparkle "It's right at the center of town. The city is a sort of bubble around it. It's the third nicest performance venue on Ran so a lot of people want to live here and other people want to live where a lot of people are. It's fun to visit but I wouldn't want to live here."

"Have you been here before?" asked Caesar.

"No. But I anticipate having great fun today," she leaned over and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder "And I wouldn't want to live in any big city. But this is the very last thing I need to do before I can leave, right Ran?"

<If you recall,> signaled Ran's avatar <We spoke about unnecessarily including me in casual conversation.>

"I'm going to miss you, you grumpy old machine."