Torchworld: Akha (2 page)

"Really? I'm bald! I'm not supposed to be bald, Ke'rekh!"

Her reply took a few seconds to travel back to me. "Oops. Give me a second to fix it." I ran my hand over the smooth-skinned skull. I looked like a rock mole. As I stood glaring at the hologram, I saw the hair propagate through. I reached up and felt soft, curly hair.

"Better," I replied, pausing to check the back as well. "Thank you."

"My fault entirely, no need to thank me. Have fun!"

Ke'rekh then closed the connection, leaving me alone in the tower. Independent. Left to my own devices. I looked around the empty room. I'd have to generate new rooms for usage. There should be a podium somewhere, but I couldn't find it. After pacing around the floor, I came to a stop on a circular tile in the centre. Raising a brow, I realized I'd been standing on it.

"Er, host?"

A white post rose out of the floor, followed by a female holo-host. "Good evening, Companion Alastair. I am Serena."

"As in, Serena Emet?"

"The one and only."

I nodded and tilted my head to the side. "You're dead."

"Organic death, yes."

"Ah. You're all there?"

"I'm as I was in life. Except for the body, that's a bit of an inconvenience. But I have good company, so it's not so bad."

I grinned. "I take it you don't mean me. I can sense another personality in here too."

"Yes, that'd be my husband, Alere."

My eyes widened. "I don't have to ask who he is."

Another holo popped up beside Serena, who turn and smiled at the newcomer. An older man, with a friendly but somewhat gruff face, lined with deep crow's feet. Silvered hair neatly combed back, a sharp suit and cane completed his business-like demeanour.

"I should think they told you at least that much!" Alere said. "I think I've done enough to not be forgotten that easily, I hope."

"I apologize, Guideflame Valerius."

"Hmph." Valerius held his chin high, looking me up and down. "You're the new Companion, correct?"

"That would be me, yes."

"I expect much of you. My granddaughter needs a smart companion. She'll tear you to pieces, given the right excuse young man."

I looked to Serena, who rolled her eyes at Alere, glaring at me with a grim expression.

"Don't be such a crank, dear." She wrapped a dark arm around his waist, her silvered metal cuff a stark contrast to her skin.

"Hmph." Alere gave me a sideways look from under heavy brows. "We'll see how he does."

I bowed my head and saluted him, raising my palm to him. I see what Ke'rekh meant about needing some confidence. If my Guideflame was anything like Alere, I'd be in for some contentious conversations.

Serena stroked Alere's back. "You should get back to work dear."

The old man nodded and dissipated.

Serena sighed and gave me a tired smile. "He's still a bit cranky about retiring."

"I understand. I'd be cranky too."

She paced around the bright room. "I think Alere thought that he could just outlive the next Guideflame."

Crinkles appeared around my eyes as I started to laugh. "He does seem like the type that would, given the chance."

"Ah well. We all die, you know. Even Akha, it's just a longer path for you. How old are you, Alastair?"

"Nearly 300 of your Earth years."

"And how long is a Companion lifespan?"

"It depends. We have to outlive our Guideflame, after that, it's our choice if we return to the Core as pure information, or live on as an organic form. I've read about anything from a century to a millennium."

Serena gazed at me in silence for a few moments. "Well, I hope you get along, in that case. I'll try to warm Alere up a bit. He really is a wonderful man, once you earn his respect."

"I would expect nothing less from a renowned Guideflame."

She smiled, and raised her hand in farewell. Serena soon disappeared, once again leaving me alone in the room. I pulled up a screen, scrolled through the default room setups I could use. Standard tower? Hmm. I tapped the preview button and a boring monochromatic study room ghosted in around me. Well, if I ever feel nostalgic about my school years, I'll be sure to try that one. For now, I wanted something warmer, and more stimulating. I browsed to a small list of Earth themed rooms. Minimalist, art deco, swinging sixties? I frowned at the cheesy example pictures. The sixties one was making me nauseous. As I scrolled through, they were further back in Earth history. Renaissance inspiration room? I hit preview. A large number of assorted artistic pieces appeared around me. This was definitely better than monochrome. I'd come back to this one. The last one was a 'Viking long-house.'

"Hmm." I'd always been interested in that part of Earth's history. A unique civilization, far ranging and ethnically diverse, strange for the time.

"Give me the Viking long-house with art pieces from the Renaissance and onward to the present day, Serena."

"An interesting choice," her voice replied from the podium. "This tower is located in what used to be the Scandinavian part of Europe."

"I know. It's a personal favourite, I'm not sure it's a coincidence though, that Ke'rekh dropped me here."

"Akha never do anything on a whim, I've learnt. Even if it looks like it."

"I'm sure it's not her only reason. Maybe I'll ask her one day."

Serena laughed. "I'm sure you will. Otherwise the curiosity will drive you mad. Will that be all for now?"

"Yes, thank you Serena. I think I'll look over the situation on ground level."

Several holo screens popped up along the table's length. "There you go, have fun. I'll go check on Alere, it's amazing how much trouble he can get into without having a physical form to impede him."

"Hah!" I replied. I was beginning to like Serena already.

The first screen was a file on Aquila 'Markin the Outsider' Emet. Basic stats were normal enough. Middle aged. Standard amount of regeneration treatments. First gen human, alive at the moment of Restore. Trained in various Earth sciences - Regeneration and Biotech. Married Serena Emet at the standard age range. Did not remarry after her assumed death. One child, also assumed missing or dead. Mostly behind the scenes type; Alere was the face of Sky Farms. Markin didn't look like anything special, but something caused him to leave the city and start that outside force. Before the Restore, I'd say paranoia. After? I'm not so sure. Mental illness was a non-issue now, in the later generations. First gens might still have holdovers, though. There was only so much you could do with an existing organism, we preferred not to change much in those cases. We had mental health facilities for cases like that.

Serena might know, but I'll ask her later after I dig around a little more.

I skimmed over her file, before pre-digital life. She'd never mentioned her child in our conversations, although I'd never asked anyway. Jakob Emet, approximately age 5 at time of disappearance. We had nothing on him after that, but no death registry. Which means he was hidden from the Core in some way, or wasn't human anymore. We only tracked humans on this planet, another dumb resource restriction. Even if he was an interspecies - probably an Akha-human mix, we couldn't see him.

I sighed. The Core could only watch so much at a time. Usually we'd be devoting more resources to this, but with the impending war, it just wasn't possible. I'm sure he'd pop up at some point though, so I'd keep him in the back of my mind.

The last file was on the suspected Second aberration. I knew Ke'rekh didn't want to see it that way but she didn't exactly discourage me from pursuing it like that either, which I planned to.

"Lilith, Outsider." Strange name, and no much background information. Showed up briefly in Opalesk as a small child. No birth record, no biological family. I skimmed over the data and noticed that she only spent 24 hours in Opalesk before being found. How could that be possible? It's like she was just dropped in there from the sky. From that date onward she was always tracked within close range of Markin, right through their subsequent exit outside the walls. It appears that Markin spent several weeks gathering supplies and a vehicle before leaving through the Prod-Sec wall.

"Serena, we really have to find a way to fix that power cycle bug. Why hasn't it been patched?"

The holo-host popped back up, shaking her head. "I have no idea. The resident Phoenix agent isn't exactly on top of things. She's more interested in being famous, the little slacker. We've brought it up before, but she said it wasn't a priority. The number of people escaping is a mere trickle, and not a real threat."

I pressed my lips in a tight line. "A trickle eventually adds up to a flood. The last thing we need is a misguided rebel force on the ground."

Serena crossed her arms and frowned at me. "Can you really blame them for being misguided? They have no idea what's really going on."

"In that case, maybe we should tell them, when the time comes, but that's the Guideflame's job."

She nodded. "For now, all we can do is contain it. There's one more person involved in this, we didn't see him as a problem until now, though." Serena pulled up another personnel file. "Kharl. Former Mil-Sec Commander."

"Former?"

"His entire unit disappeared. Just dropped off our network entirely. He was the only survivor and escaped through a wall glitch."

"We don't know why they disappeared?"

"No. You should ask the resident Phoenix agent."

"I'm sure that'll go over well. Hey agent, sorry to bother you, but did you murder some innocents lately?"

Serena shrugged. "Her name is Ego. Fitting, don't you think."

"Well then, we'll have to find a way to approach this in a non-threatening way, because something is plainly wrong in Opalesk."

We both stared at the video clip of Ego Phoenix doing her torch lighting ceremony.

"It's very flashy."

Serena laughed and clapped her hands together. "Humans like flashy. We're all about the spectacle down here."

"Spectacularly horrifying, I'd say."

She tilted her head at me, green eyes regarding me thoughtfully. "Don't Akha have entertainment?"

I grimaced. "We do, but not like this. Often it's displays of new technological prowess, or celebration of a new race passing the Species Awareness markers."

"That's like having a birthday party without inviting the person having it."

"Now that you mention it, that is quite strange," I replied, raising an eyebrow. "Everything about this whole situation is strange."

"So what's next, Lilith?"

I stood up, stretching from head to toe and yawning. "We head for the Cinisesk district, of course. I thought about which settlement is likely to still be intact, from what people have told Markin, and there's one about 100km from the city. Should be far enough out of drone range, they don't go far. No reason to really. Cinisesk doesn't have the same security problems."

Kharl nodded and scratched his jaw. "Alright, let's get going." He reached behind him to fiddle with the mini-Replicon machine. After a brief whirring it popped out a protein breakfast bar in a silver wrapper.

"You can literally make anything you want and you choose a protein bar?"

Kharl shrugged. "I got a craving. You develop a taste for these in training, takes the edge off the heavy work days." He unwrapped it and munched away on his chocolate protein, grinning at me with stuffed cheeks like a proud chipmunk.

"Weirdo." I started the Mercury's computers back up and it began to hum softly.

Kharl swallowed his mouthful and pointed at me. "I thought we established our weirdness already, no need for repetition."

I rolled my eyes. "Would you prefer enemy of the state instead?"

He laughed, spraying crumbs on himself. "Bit fancy. You're all about names, aren't you?"

"Maybe. Names are important."

"To some people, maybe."

I looked at him, frowning. "Names are how people know you. What you did, stuff like that."

He shook his head. "No. People will know you by your actions and reputation, your name will be forgotten over time. Unless you did some very big things."

I smiled at him. "I plan to."

"Again with the crazy."

"You're the one that trusted me enough to run off with a Mercury into the wilderness."

Kharl brushed the crumbs off his shirt. "I trust your plan, I don't know about you, yet."

"Fair enough," I replied. "And I trust what I've seen of you so far. You don't lie without good reason, and you knew well enough to lie when Markin asked you about your background. I think it's prudent to lie if you're not sure what will be done with the information. Honesty could be used to your detriment, people don't always think about that part."

He grunted and pulled up his pilot controls. I pointed to a section of map near Cinisesk, a valley tucked away in the mountains.

"There was a city here, before the Collapse. Some of our refugees mentioned they had a settlement there, so I know that there's some bare bones structure there. We'll take the long way around, avoid the perimeter drone patrols."

Kharl looked over the route I'd plotted through the mountains, and dragged a couple points around so it lined up with the coast.

"Let's take the scenic route. I've never been to the beach."

I looked at him as he plotted the new course. "Really? This is your first time outsider?"

"Yup. Apart from a brief escape attempt, I've never seen anything outside the walls of Opalesk. Not in person anyway. My command required me to stay very close to Ego Phoenix."

"Hmm. What's she like?"

Kharl moved the craft outside our overnight cave hideout. We started gliding along and he leaned back, relaxing a little.

"Honestly? She's insufferable. Total little kingdom complex."

I laughed. "Somehow I'm not that surprised. She's ostentatious. Sure likes massive attention. I mean, grandfather was a people person, and a bit fancy. He used a cane despite his full ability to walk, just for show. But not like that."

"She likes the circus act, I think. Being seen as some sort of mythical figure, like an old world goddess or something. She hated the less flashy parts of her job, and mostly delegated it to me and the unit. Up until a few days ago, it was me and 11 other people running Opalesk Mil-Sec. I was worried about how things were being run before that, but my hands were tied. I only had power within Mil-Sec."