1:4:5 Negotiations (Part 7)

Midpoint made his way towards the back of the room. There were four tables, each with a single, helmeted clone, sat by themselves. He scanned the four helmet’s patterns before moving to the one closest to the corner. He sat down beside the lone clone and gave a light nod as greeting. The clone returned it. Neither of them spoke, they both just watched the room together. Midpoint removed their helmet from its pouch and equipped it. They made themselves comfortable in their chair but not too comfortable as to intimidate the other clone. The markings on the other clone’s helmet were remarkably similar to those on his own. Three lines adorned each air filter but unlike his, which featured a longer middle line in both cases, the line furthest from the centre of their face on either side was extended. Midpoint placed his hand on his chest, his fingers splayed in such a way that there were two groups of two either side of his middle finger which he tapped with his other hand. The other clone performed a similar action but they kept their thumb and little finger separate, grouping their index, middle and ring together. They tapped at their little finger. Midpoint nodded. Under his helmet, he smiled; a strange idea he had, one he never shared with any of his siblings, seemed to be a universal idea between the clones like him. He pointed to the clone then showed them their hand symbol before removing a knife from his belt and running his little finger along its blade’s edge. Edge nodded. With their identity confirmed, the two of them sat in silence. The other three clones who were sat by themselves eventually moved towards the centre of the room, leaving Midpoint and Edge alone at the back. Edge shuffled their chair to create a slightly larger gap between themselves and Midpoint before removing their helmet. Dyed black hair. He wasn’t expecting that. It curled as it travelled down her face, just scraping her collar at its terminus. Midpoint followed suit.

“Nice helmet.” Midpoint nodded at her helm. “Good patterns.”
“You too…” Edge replied instinctively.
“Have you heard anything interesting recently?” For some reason he found it hard to talk.
She waited a moment then responded, equally as shaky. “Platapuses glow teal under ultraviolet lighting.”
“Oh. I didn’t know that.” It was an answer to his question he thought. “How about anything interesting to do with the Lores?”
“I’ve heard that your Lore is a lot different than the others… Not sure if that’s good or bad. I’ve also heard that the others seem to think keeping them in the dark is an excellent way to ensure their loyalty. They say it worked for the clones so it’ll work for them.” Midpoint’s ears pricked up. “They also seem to think it works for us but it doesn’t. Most of the clone groups have talked about what they would do if they could leave this part of the ship.”
“You don’t like the Lores?” Midpoint tried not to sound like he had been told to ask about it. “I’m not asking for them… I need to know because my Lore wants to try and get a lie of the land and they think you guys must know something.” They blurted out in a panic.
Edge smirked. “Then I know which type your Lore is. We don’t really know anything, just what we overhear.” Her voice was so soft. “Apparently, Centre was hauling crates for Potts with The Tether printed on them; huge capacitors. Then Origin overheard Clayton and Emm; apparently they were worried that The Slingshot wouldn’t be operational after so many years.” She returned her helmet indicating that the conversation was over.
Midpoint did the same, gave her a polite nod and then, slowly at first but speeding up when possible, he made his way back to his original table.

Midpoint was the last back to the table but not by long. The other two groups had only sat down a few moments before he arrived. “Find anything interesting?” Ace beckoned him over.
“The other Lores are keeping our Lore in the dark on purpose.” Midpoint mounted his seat from the back, swinging his leg over as if mounting a horse.
“I’ll repeat, learn anything interesting?” Ace was momentarily confused by the seating manoeuvre and then by the statement.
“There’s something called a Slingshot and some of the Lores are worried it’s not going to work because they’ve been gone for so long." Midpoint added.
Ace nodded. “That’s something. I’ve heard about this Slingshot too. Apparently, we should expect a fight when we get there.” Ace paused. “And apparently, some of the other clones are itching for a run out.”
“We could use the extra help.” Curve looked over at the fabricator. “I don’t know how we’re going to get all of that on a cup though.”
“I think that’s where I come in.” Destiny smiled. “Just be glad we use fabricators and not those Electricity to matter replication devices. Sure they save on space but they just aren’t as nice.”
“And that helps us how?” Magpie tried to think what she could have been hinting at.
“Tell Lore to order a new shirt from the fabricator.” Destiny muttered something to herself and started making circles with her fingers and thumbs. She brought her other hand into the picture, created a circle with both of her hands then nodded. “A T-shirt should do the job. As big as they like though please.”
“And how does that help us?” Curve started. “Are we going to write on the shirt?”
“Nope. I’m going to force my way through the tubes.” Destiny sounded so proud of herself. “I should be able to worm my way through the fabricator system; whole thing relies on pneumatic tubes to shunt the raw materials about to make whatever you need. Just as long as I don’t get stuck in the Quantum Flux Storage then I’m fine.”
“But how are you going to know which tube leads to Lore… Oh… That’s clever.” Curve had a revelation mid statement.
“Exactly!” Destiny jumped from her seat. “Come on then.” She grabbed the cola cup from the table as she turned to walk to the fabricator. “I’ll need some help getting in.” She put the cup on the fabricator’s tray and started to pour herself in.
Curve tapped at the monitor, first modifying the water cup recipe for the second to last time and then preparing the T-shirt. “What should it say?”
“Mind your toes.” A mouth formed in the cup. “Once you’re done, just hit recycle and I’ll be on my way.”
“Please never do that again.” Curve shuddered.
“Never say never now let’s get going!” The mouth receded into the cup of Macrocomps.
Curve hit the button and the cup and its contents were sucked up and into the fabricator.

Tubes. Miles of tubes sprawling like a spider’s web between the bulkheads; an elaborately planned and engineered superhighway that connected the entire ship. At first she was moving too quickly to control but a controlled expansion allowed her to slow the roller coaster ride that she had found herself on. Various items were flitting through the network, encased in metal tubes that allowed for course corrections to be made. Destiny watched as a couple of food orders came close to colliding with her before their casings redirected them around her. She returned to her tube and rode it until it nearly reached its terminus. She spilled from its bottom and watched as it vanished into the Quantum Flux Storage. She was now in position to watch every order and every return from every fabricator on the ship. She took a moment to scan the device. It was huge. Hundreds of pipes and kilometres of relays fed into and out of it and those pipes and relays spread mostly to the two main areas of the ship, where she had come from and somewhere in the opposite direction. The storage system took up a large portion of the ship either through the area required to store everything or through the power generators it required to maintain the system.
“Tell them to order the shirt.” Destiny hoped the tubing wasn’t impacting her communications signal.
She waited, worried that the plan wouldn’t work but she got her confirmation as a plain white T-shirt was dispatched before her sensors. She extended a tendril and latched onto the T-shirt’s capsule. It quickly ground to a halt and refused to continue. Destiny released her grasp and it shot off once again. She slithered behind it, snaking her way through the rabbit warren like tunnels as she made her way to Lore. She travelled for kilometres, the whole time wondering if she had correctly calculated her scaling; she then remembered what The Razor looked like from the outside and realised that the other Lores were probably holding Lore on the other side of the ship to further limit their movement and communications but even so, she found the whole system rather impressive. Destiny was so preoccupied with moving forward that she nearly didn’t notice the cannister drop and exit the system. After a quick reorientation, she shot back and poured herself out of the same tube she had seen the T-shirt leave.

Space. There seemed to be endless space around her; an atmosphere too. The pressure of the tubes had been somewhat uncomfortable but wherever she was now, it was a vast improvement. There were two life signs in the room but without her eyes, they were just that, life signs. To them, she was little more than a puddle of metal icosahedrons but from that puddle, she reformed herself. Feet first, then the ankles, then the legs and torso. Arms came at the same time as the head but didn’t reach completion until the details of her face were present. She opened her new-born eyes and saw Lore and Char both wearing the same confused expression, the T-shirt that had led her to them was now a screwed up mess on the floor.
“Surprise?” Destiny waved her hands about to jazz up her entrance.
“I didn’t expect that.” Char looked to Destiny then to Lore in disbelief.
Lore looked to Char and then to Destiny. “We thought you were going to start flooding the room.”
Destiny looked down and saw that both of them were standing on upturned plant pots, the plants safely removed and placed elsewhere. “Hmm.” She thought. “I suppose I could see where you’re coming from there… But you thought: flooding, better stand on plant pots?”
“Not plant pots specifically, we thought you were going to flood the place so we made higher ground.” Lore gestured all around the room; all of the surfaces that were elevated off of the floor had spaces cleared on them large enough to seat Lore and Char should they have needed it. “Why are you here though?”
“To pass on what the clone’s have gathered. There was a little too much to fit on the bottom of a cup.” Destiny chuckled. “Shall we?”

She recounted everything the clones had gathered then looked at them both as Lore and Char processed the little new information the clones had been able to gather.
“So we’re heading towards somewhere called The Slingshot and the clones aren’t happy.” Lore was considering the information as they recalled it. “We could work with that.”
“What do you think it is though?” Char looked expectantly. “You think it has something to do with the Tether Project we’ve been working on?”
“That would be too on the nose, even for them. What’s nearby to The Slingshot?” Lore looked to Destiny.
“I have no clue where it even is. I just know that it’s likely our next destination.” Destiny shrugged. “No-one knows anything really. The Lores keep a tight lid on just about everything. We only know about The Slingshot because Aloe’s been told to prep for ground combat and some of the other clones have been shifting parts with the project name stamped on them. They’ve made friends but their friends know nothing.”
There was a trill coming from a panel nearby. “Speak of the devil.” Lore got up and answered the communicator.
“Emm will be arriving at your quarters shortly. They will escort you to the War room for the meeting. You and your Char are the only permitted members of your crew that will be allowed to attend this meeting.” The Lore sounded almost robotic in their delivery of the demands.
“Looks like you’re going to have to stay her then.” Char looked to Destiny. “Think you can find your way back to the clones?”
“I’ve got a better idea.” Destiny gestured for Lore to give her their wrist. “Come here.”
Lore hesitantly raised their wrist. Destiny’s hand distorted and stretched to fully encircle and engulf Lore’s Breacher. The light in Destiny’s eyes faded, leaving her body an eerily stiff corpse; her hand relaxed its grip as she fell to the ground. They were expecting her to dissolve into her Macrocomps but she retained her shape. A single Macrocomp struggled from under their Breacher and scuttled up Lore’s arm. They tried to swat it or catch it as if it were a flea or other unpleasant creature; they failed every time. It climbed further and further until it reached their ear and dug in.
“Can you hear me?” Destiny’s voice blared from Lore’s ear, deafening them and nearly doing the same to Char. “Sorry, this better?” Lore could barely hear her through their recently damaged ears.
Lore took a breath then answered. “I think I can. Just quieten it down please.”
“How about this?” Destiny spoke at a similar volume to a person whispering in Lore’s ear.
“Little bit quieter and you’re good… Wait, how are you doing this?” Lore itched their ear.
Their Breacher flashed blue twice. “I downloaded my program to your Breacher and installed a temporary communicator. There’s a Micro-Macrocomp in your ear. It’s allowing me to talk to you but it will also allow me to transmit whatever you hear to the clones.” Lore felt something spinning around in their ear causing them to stumble as they got up.
“What are you doing in there?” They felt sick but their ear did feel better.
“Just a mild anaesthetic. I just need to test to see if the clones can hear us.” She paused. There was a faint but annoying whining sound as the communicator’s range extender connected to the station’s communication network. “Curve? You there?”
There was a gasp and then she spoke. “Destiny, did you make it through?”
“I’m fine.” Destiny nearly said something just for Curve but remembered where she was. “I’ve linked my comms with Lore. They can hear everything we’re saying and we can hear everything they hear.”
“Curve, get the clones somewhere private and listen in…” Lore paused. “Actually, are there any clones you trust?”
“The First’s lot aren’t too bad.” Curve shrugged so loudly, Lore could hear it.
“Find yourself somewhere private with them and put your communicator on loudspeaker. I think it’s time things start becoming a little more transparent.” Lore put their hand on the door handle and turned it.
They couldn’t have been closer to the door if they tried. Emm didn’t look happy, not because of the act of having to escort Lore and Char but at what that act represented; they ushered Lore and Char out of the house and closed the door behind them. Emm checked over their shoulder and looked over at the neighbouring bungalows before talking. “Are you ready to find out why we’re really here? What’s really going on.” They spoke in a hushed tone. “Johned.”