• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Chapter 11: Decision Making

Ray of Meep

Ray of Meep

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Solaris Lihana (Dawn Star System), Planet Lihana (Planet Vermillion Bird)

Outskirts of occupied Hillsong (City Cloud Watch), Evening

Lady Han piloted the flying shuttle to gently land next to Lake Obdurate's Solace, allowing the three Aos Si to step out. The human city loomed behind the sillouette of the shuttle and the treeline, as Solaris Lihana in all its golden glory set to the left of their point of view. Despite all the humans' intrusion upon this planet, they could never quite snuff out the presence of the planet's star. There was something to be said of the magnitude of the universe, so great that these people who create their own stars cannot even conquer.

Shi Cheng followed the Aos Si out, briefly, handling them a white, plastic box with small rectangular holes in it. "You'll need this to charge up your datapads. Give me a call whenever you're ready." He paused, looking away for a moment, then looked back. "I hope the Governor didn't completely snuff out your desire to join us on campus. To be able to host students of an entire different species, that would be a great personal honor." He put up a smile.
 
Sai stepped out, awkwardly taking the additional item as she looked around awkwardly. It was not the best day, it would be wrong to insist upon that, or to lie to one of the few people they consistently spoke who seemed to be honest about his intention. "It would be best if she not interfere further, without being prompted." She responded plainly, not managing to smile in response. "If needed we can wait until someone more understanding takes charge. You'll have to forgive my willingness to lean on our one remaining strength." She tried to put levity into her voice but could barely manage it. She was tired, and it showed.

She paused, flinching at some sudden thought that she recalled all at once, one more hefty than she anticipated. "Professor, I do believe we may have to... Consider the arm you have repeatedly offered if I am to take education in your artistic fields. I don't believe we've had many opportunities to discuss it." She finally stated after a moment, the words feeling... Easier, away from the city.
 
Gwaed looked at the box handed to them both, turning it over and trying to figure out how it worked. Despite that distraction, they did respond accordingly. "I concur with my ally, if necessary I will just wait for you all to die and then do what I must." The way he said it, it was more that it had entered his mind and by spiteful reflex he had said it. With a reluctant sigh, he mumbled. "I apologize. That should have stayed in my head." He finally started to look around, nature itself resplendent with contrast to the alien world they'd just visited. "Your machines work from so far away?"
 
"You wound me." Shi Cheng made an exaggerated show of pain, clutching his heart. He was actually hurt by the remaining hostility shown by the Aos Si, but pretending to pretend that he was hurt was a coping mechanism at this point.

"Yes and no." He first responded to the immediate question by Gwaed. "The box is need to keep your machines powered, and itself won't last forever. I would say a day if you all are glued to the datapads like my people are, longer if you use them sparingly. However, The datapads communicate with satellites orbiting above us." The professor pointed upwards to the sky, the space beyond sight. "They then relay information back to the city, and elsewhere. In ancient times the vegetation on this planet would've required an antenna that reached above the treeline, but now the datapads can communicate on their own." Another reminder that humans have conquered the environment, and that keeping this planet pristine was more an act of mercy, mutual benefit, rather than any real love. It seems they've even conquered the sky itself.

He then replied to Sai was an excited smile. "Yes, indeed, we will have to discuss this matter further. You can first look online through your datapad to see if any of the off-the-shelf, cybernetic arms interest you. Then we can talk about integrating it with your Aos Si anatomy." His eyes were bright. Having an opportunity to interact with the Aos Si biology in a practical manner tingled the curiosity that brought him into xenobiology in the first place. "I'll send you information throughout this evening and tomorrow as well."
 
The city was loud, filled to the brim with its own overflowing ambiance that one simply... Got used to. In the buildings, it was less extreme, but walking about in public as they largely had been assaulted the senses with a miasma of conversations, arguments, laughter, noises, machines, and every conceivable action within the square, further sullied by the louder sounds of above and echoing from the outer shells of tall buildings in the strange tesseract structure. Sai almost didn't realize how deafening it all was until she stood here in the relative quiet, accompanied only by the voices of those present and the wind rustling against nearby water and vegetation. It had all drained on her stamina like a great syringe had sucked it out, and she was left tired and spent.

She did not smile back, unfortunately. She found difficulty in finding reason to smile, feeling more overwhelmed than anything. Crushed by an immediate political dogma that cared little for their own wants, flooded by the noise of a city unlike any they had seen, all of which the Professor seemed to take in stride. Suddenly she had difficulty putting one foot in front of the other, and wished to hide away and keep that exhausted weakness from sprouting enough to be visible. The Professor was... Better than others, but part of her still felt that something was disconnected between them, that all could not be shared so easily.

"I will... Try." She admitted, though she already felt that such attempts would be rather fruitless. She had searched through various products already, like the tablets and other machines sold in the city. Each one had been accompanied with various words and phrases that either appealed to extreme technical knowledge or emotional grabs to try and cause an impulsive action in whoever was reading. Something as complex as a mechanical arm was bound to be slathered in both, and she had little use for either. She looked tired, already, but there was something else weighing there too, though she did not speak of it.

"Is that all?" She added after a discomforting silence, her gaze not following the Professor.
 
Gwaed's gaze wasn't so easy to avert, watching the Professor carefully. "Sparingly then," he said. "I have little use for it anyway." He wasn't sure what to do with this machine when he got home, and honestly he wasn't looking forward to the odd looks he'd get from the people under his protection. Few would care to ally with the Parasites, or Humans as they would prefer to be called.
 
The professor looked back at Sai with visible concern. At the end of the day, the Aos Si were... animals, just like humans. It seems they share base instincts: flight or fight, fear of the unknown, and prone to stress under new environments, especially one filled with creatures that have previously wronged them.

"If you need any help, food, other resources, give me a call. I..." He stopped short. It was becoming patronizing, and he had his own selfish reasons for helping the Aos Si. "No, that will be all." Shi Cheng nodded, and put up a polite smile.
 
She wished to pull away and rest, to collapse in the nearest hidden structure and sleep until she could no longer. However, she knew things still weighed on them, questions that would be asked the moment they reappeared, and to answer those questions, they needed more than they could find in the archives of these strange devices. "Professor, I think we should talk a bit more on... This agreement." The word 'deal' seemed wrong suddenly, though she couldn't quite figure out why. "You want us to learn with you, to take part in your education systems, but admittedly we've spoken little of it. I find difficulty agreeing to something I do not fully understand, as you've no doubt come to grasp."

"We cannot speak for our kin. We are ambassadors, but we cannot, nor shall we ever sign away the decisions of others. All we can do is simply pass along offers and information. For something else, something more sturdy? We'd need... More time. Years, perhaps, for the oaths and promises of your kind to hold weight to us. Words bind us, and a fissure has been driven deep between our people. The best we can hope for in the short term is to serve as stitches, and with enough, we may yet close it." She swallowed, glancing briefly to Gwaed before continuing.

"Please tell us, in detail, about your offer."
 
"Right, we should go over it again." Shi Cheng put his working hand in his pocket, leaning against the flying shuttle. "You are to enroll in the Cloud Watch Institute in a program of your choosing. We will provide you the basic rights of citizens, shelter, medical care, and sustenance, on top of the education. The Governor... has her political reasons, but I'll do my best to keep her out of the way as much as possible." The professor said the last sentence with some uncertainty.

"What is for sure, however, is that we expect you to one day become productive members of the city and integrate into our society, either directly participating in the city itself or developing your own separate communities with economic and cultural relationships with ours. In short, we will aid you to rebuild your society. In return, we'd like help from you to help us grow our own."
 
It was a heavy deal, strings connecting concepts to ideas to promises. Heavy words, things that the Humans simply didn't seem to hold in the same esteem. It was a difference that would have to be crossed eventually, and she slowly nodded. "Those are... Hefty goals. Carries the flag of the future on its back." She ignored the strange connotation of 'productive members of the city,' as if currently they were an outlier than needed to be fixed, that somehow acted as a stain. "A trial run, a test to see if we are compatible. We will walk among you, talk among you, and live among you. And yes, we will... Learn, among you."

She disliked the idea of continuously emphasizing it, but she knew it was the olive branch that had to be handed to her. It was something she could give nothing in return for that they would value as equivalent exchange. "I will need the arm, though. Difficult... Impossible to play music without it. Some instruments may work, of course, but... I would not stack upon myself every challenge possible if some are unnecessary. I would also ask that you... Help me choose one." She grimaced. "I'm afraid I've no clue where to start."
 
"Certainly." Shi Cheng waved at the flying shuttle, indicating to Lady Han of his intentions to stay with the Aos Si a little longer. The pilot seemed to get the memo, looking down at her datapad to entertain herself in the meantime. The professor looked back at Sai, drawing out his own datapad. "Observe." With his good hand gripping his datapad, he spoke to it, greeting it first. "Bangbang (帮帮, little helper)." The datapad lit up with the human symbol of a question mark in the corner. "Give me available off-the-shelf cybernetic arms, minimal invasiveness, women's, age 20 to 22 range." He gave Sai a look up and down, noting her muscular build, thus adding on to the verbal request, "High physical fitness."

It took less than two seconds for the datapad to produce a long list of colorful products, false arms roughly the same size but subtley different in shape, each having their own variant of color, from plain monochromes to dichromatic to more eye popping floral patterns. Some only included the forearm, others included the elbow, shoulder. Each was also accompanied by dizzying numbers, specifications, and prices.

"Well then," Shi Cheng gave the list a look over, then showed it to Sai. "Let's try to narrow this down."
 
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