Chapter 17: Chapter 16 – Bugs (3)

Miyon and Sylen were escorted by two soldiers from their room, towards the hangar, where the Suit of Ares was docked in, laying on the metal floor like a giant corpse. 

 

“Omega!” Sylen shouted, rushing towards him when she recognized his back. 

 

“You look pumped up!” He chuckled, turning towards her.

 

“You bet! Finally out of that hole called a room! This is it? It is bigger than I thought!” She exclaimed, watching the armor with shining eyes.

 

“It looks… imposing!” Miyon nodded, also arriving next to him.

 

“Do you have it on you?” Omega asked and Miyon just nodded, knowing he meant the little disc, still in his pocket. “Good. Keep it close. Do not lose it.”

 

“How do we open it up?” asked two voices at the same time. One belonged to Rururin who walked towards them, the other belonged to Sylen.

 

“Not with force!” Omega answered, looking at the dozen technicians surrounding the suit, trying to get readings, aiming their scanners at it.

 

“We wouldn’t want an explosion like the previous one, especially not on the ship!” Rururin sighed, agreeing with him for once. “So?” She asked, raising her hand with the bracelet still attached to it.

 

“What… explosion?” Sylen asked, twitching her mouth.

 

“The shaking…” Miyon mumbled, quickly realizing what really happened when they felt their room rock back and forth.

 

“Relax, it should be safe.” Omega was not bothered by the chances of a second explosion, so he simply reached out. He tapped on Rururin’s wrist before she could react. By the time she blinked her eyes the control bracelet switched owners, already blinking in a green light, attached to Omega’s hand.

 

“Hey!” Ruruin shouted, storming after him. Slyen just smirked, watching them before following suit, not wanting to miss an opportunity like this. 

 

“First things first,” Omega continued, manipulating the holographic images projected before him. “I want to see what is in its head!” 

 

With a loud hiss, scaring the technicians around the headpiece, it started to move. Its front opened up into four partitions, sliding apart, revealing the insides of it. Many were quickly bringing over mobile lifts and ladders, to climb up on the machine.

 

“Usually, suits like this are stored in a standing position, this is not ideal!” Omega murmured, easily climbing up the giant robot from the side, running up on its arm like a monkey, reaching the head before anyone else.

 

“Damn you!” Rururin stomped in place, watching him climb up, waiting for an arriving lift. 

 

“Why are you so angry all the time?” Sylen asked, provoking her as she and Miyon also stepped into a small basket that had just arrived. Holding the bars on the sides it was slowly lifted upwards, carrying them along as she continued. “Even your eyes are completely bloodshot!”

 

“That-!” Rururin gasped, but in the end, she gulped back everything she wanted to say. Her eyes and head were still hurting from that blinding explosion from before. Maybe after everything is settled down, she should see the doctor of the ship for a correctional surgery. If they survive…

 

When they finally reached the top, and looked into the opened up helmet, it was surprisingly simple. In the middle was the pilot’s seat, while from its back half a dozen, thick cables were connecting it to the ground, disappearing into the suit’s body. It was like the human brain’s nervous system connecting to the spinal cord. Everything else around it looked like polished metal. There were no consoles, no switches, monitors, nothing. Omega was standing before the seat, watching it without a word, seemingly lost in a trance.

 

“Hey, are you okay?” Sylen jumped over without hesitation, nimbly landing on the giant robot, climbing in, standing next to him. “Hmm?” She focused her eyes, watching a handful of ash spread out on the black, leather seat and its surroundings. “It is pretty dusty here!” She coughed, waving her hand.

 

“Yes… it is…” Omega whispered, his voice weak. Hurt. Sad.

 

“Hey… Omega…” Sylen patted his back, making him flinch as he hurriedly recovered his calm mood. 

 

“Let’s get this thing checked!” He said, swiping his hand in the air as all of the dust and ashes were blown away as if they were never even there. By the time Rururin and Miyon climbed over, they only saw the clean cockpit and Omega sitting in the pilot’s seat.

 

Just sitting down already initiated a connection and the bracelet on his wrist came truly alive. A low, humming voice echoed from the suit’s chest as it powered up after a long sleep. From the headrest two projectors displayed a holographic image before him, a green screen, running through walls of texts as the ancient machine’s computer was booted up after many millennia of hibernation. At the end of the armrest were two sticks that quickly drew Sylen’s curiosity over to them. 

 

“This is what you control it with?” She asked. 

 

“Those are the emergency manual controls.” Omega replied. “Originally the suits are specifically tailored to its pilot and his or her mind.” 

 

“Like a real suit?” Sylen smiled while Rururin came closer, listening and also recording everything he was saying.

 

“You could say that.” Omega smiled. “Back then the people piloting something like this were akin to old knights… Embodying all that made humans… Noble.” He said, looking at Sylen through the still running projection yet his eyes were distant. Unfocused. Before they could ask about it, he shook his head, returning to reality. “When activated, the chair does something that is called ‘melding’. It connects the pilot’s brain to the mainframe of the armor and lets him use it as… Well, a suit. To calibrate it to another pilot, it would need to be readjusted many, many times over and let the machine’s programming and the human component get used to each other! The melding works as if the user wears the machine as a second skin. If for whatever reason this is not possible, there are still the manual controls.” He finished, drumming on the armrests with his fingers.

 

“Hmm… and these?” Sylen asked, walking next to his chair, watching the constantly flowing texts on the projection.

 

“Debugging.” Omega replied. “The core programming is self correcting right now while doing a complete reading of its own sub-systems’ status. 

 

“Is it an AI?” Ruruin gulped, asking even though she remembered Omega saying it was not an AI piloted machine. Yet what she just heard was making her feel as if this machine was much smarter than what the man in the pilot’s seat let them in on.

 

“No.” Omega shook his head, answering simply.

 

“Then… What about that part of getting used to each other?” She countered, pressing on.

 

“The suit compensates for the wearer’s weaknesses. Sight problem? Adjusted. Bad hearing? Adjusted. Slow reflexes? Adjusted. The pilot got paralyzed while on a mission? Adjusted. If the computer does not know what it needs to compensate for, it can’t work perfectly! And that takes years of constant deployment and tweakings!” Omega explained, with a serious tone.

 

“How did the pilot see anything from here?” Miyon asked suddenly, finally walking in, making the cockpit stuffed as it was already filled with more people than it originally should be.

 

“Like this.” Omega answered as the texts suddenly stopped and the projection turned off. The helmet quickly closed in, plunging them into complete darkness.

 

“What are you doing!?” Rururin yelped out.

 

“Watch.” Omega said as the darkness only lasted for a brief second and they were surrounded by the image of the hangar the next moment. They were as if they laid on their back, looking up at the ceiling, making all three of them disoriented. Inside, wherever one looked, it was the image of the outside world, providing a 360 field of view. He held onto the two joysticks and with slowly moving hands he pushed them and the Suit of Ares trembled. 

 

“Ah?!” Grabbed onto the chair both Rururin and Miyon, while Sylen simply fell into his lap. She was mesmerized with what was happening, not even minding the sudden closeness.

 

“The servos in the joints are in a good condition. It won’t be as fast as it was before, but good enough for me!” He murmured as the massive robot slowly sat up in the hangar.

 

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“Careful!” Rururin shouted as the left arm bumped into a shuttle, knocking it sideways.

 

“Whoopsie.” Omega smiled. “Sorry about that!”

 

By now, in the hangar, hundreds of workers were gathering around them, leaving their posts to watch the machine spring back to life and slowly stand up. Lucky for them, the Veil’s hangars were tall enough to accommodate something like it, even when it stood straight. With the long, golden plume behind it, and its still shining armor plating, it was awe inspiring to watch it move.

 

“I hate this…” Rururin said, looking “down” watching the image of the machine’s shoulders and the ground. It was as if they were floating 20 meters above everything else, with some crushed machinery at their feet. The ones that Omega accidentally stepped on.

 

“So cooooool!” Sylen squealed, hitting Omega’s face with her wagging tail but he just chuckled. The nostalgia that suddenly washed over him, sitting there and feeling the machine awaken, moving as he willed, it gave him a weird satisfaction. Like a parent meeting with his child after a long time and still seeing him strong and healthy.

 

“Maybe I was a pilot?” He thought but there was no time to try and guess. They had to prepare the Suit of Ares as best as they could, while they could. With a raise of his hand, the green projection returned, now displaying the full schematics of the suit. “Xanthe.” He said.

 

“Hm?” All three looked at him and Sylen was the first to realize it.

 

“Oh, that is its name?” She watched the projection, recognizing some words but most of their meanings were eluding her. 

 

“Yes.” He nodded and he looked on with surprise as Sylen reached forward, grabbing onto the 3D image of the suit, enlarging, twisting and turning, examining it closely. “Oh?”

 

“Easy, I saw how you operated the bracelet, I guessed this is the same, just on a bigger scale!” Sylen grinned. “These are the damaged components?” She pointed out, tapping on the parts that were flashing in red, bringing them up piece by piece.

 

“Yes. The ones we need to focus on are-” He tried to explain it but Sylen was faster. She was dismissing dozens of error messages and keeping only three before them in the end. A piece from the suit’s hip, the utility belt surrounding it and another on the left leg, at the ankle’s position. “...” Omega just raised his eyebrows, looking at the girl, sitting in his lap.

 

“She has a knack for machinery. She is the one who keeps the Dawn running through long journeys.” Miyon said with a proud voice. 

 

“It is only logical! The rest that gave back warnings are at a place which won’t impact the maneuverability of the machine! We have limited time to work on it, so I picked out the most obvious issues!” Sylen exclaimed, proudly grinning.

 

“I am impressed!” Omega nodded, waving his hand again as the helmet opened back up and two cables extended downwards, ready to lift the pilot up and down. With another hand gesture, not just the headpiece was opened the next time. With a loud, hissing noise the outer layer of armor on it disengaged and slowly parted from the body, folding towards different directions.

 

Its chest opened up like sliding doors, revealing the inner machinery and never before seen, complex servos and hydraulics, all running up and down like the muscles under a human’s skin. Where a human’s heart would be, a round, slowly rotating sphere was visible. It gave out a constant, deep buzz. Next, the modules on the suit’s hands and legs moved, rising upwards before sliding onto one another, exposing everything under them. Omega was looking down from his vantage point before turning towards Rururin. 

 

“Now your men can access the damaged parts. With Sylen here, I’ll work on its generator in its chest. Miyon is going to stay here.

 

“Am I?” He flinched. 

 

“Yeah.” Omega nodded “I will need your help! You have to read me back what the suit shows you while we work at it! I can’t be at two places at once!”

 

“I can’t read it!” He protested like a child.

 

“Worry not, you just need to describe it to me or read it phonetically and I’ll get it!” He grinned, patting his shoulder, making him slump down with a heavy sigh. “I leave your people to you.” Omega turned towards Rururin. “But I need the servos on its ankle fixed and the utility belt removed! And the hip joints patched up! As best as you can!” 

 

“Haaaah… we will see what we can do! No promises! This is a relic from the past! We had to research human technology for centuries before we managed to build our own ships!” She replied, rubbing her head, pulling on her bunny ears nervously. 

 

“It should not be a problem, it is a simple design. You’ll see!” He said as he nodded towards Sylen. 

 

She was already overly excited, hugging onto his neck as he lowered themselves, soon climbing into the open chest of the Suit of Ares.

 

“Uuuu… This makes me feel sick!” Sylen said, standing close to the humming core of the machine. 

They were standing on a narrow ledge, clearly made for maintenance purposes, but for only one man at a time. The constant buzzing of the sphere was shaking up Sylen’s insides and her sensitive ears were hurting from it, standing this close to it. In the end she pulled her ears down, trying to muffle the buzzing noise.

 

“I’ll put it in standby mode, worry not!” Omega chuckled, accessing it through the bracelet’s functions. A few seconds later the humming of the core finally stopped and only periodically buzzed, only after every 5 minutes. 

 

“Everything is connected into it…” Sylen murmured, looking around, watching the countless tubes and cables, connecting to the sphere from either the top or from the bottom. 

 

“It is its hearth.” Omega nodded. “This is a dark matter converter. On paper it should make dark matter that is passing through it, interact with it and that process is what makes the whole thing work!”

 

“Dark… matter? But… I am a little lost here!” Sylen said, playing with her hair. “I am not a scientist, okay? Isn’t dark matter undiscovered? It is dark because we don’t see it!”

 

“Huh… not in my memories…” He whispered before explaining the things that popped into his mind. “It simply does not interact with normal matter. This generator creates a field inside of it that makes them interact on a subatomic level! Are you familiar with antimatter?”

 

“Kinda.” She nodded.

 

“This core is filled with anti-dark matter. What happens when matter and antimatter meets?” 

 

“They extinguish each other.” Sylen answered.

 

“They create dark matter.” Omega said “Now, if dark matter and anti-dark matter meet? What happens?”

 

“They create… matter?” Sylen asked, tilting her head, biting onto her nail.

 

“Yep! And that is used up as fuel! The problem we have is that this suit was sitting immobile for thousands of years! It barely has any anti-dark matter in it anymore! Not to mention it was not cleaned of residue of unused matter, clogging its systems.”

 

“What, should we open up some valves and let it pump out the smudge, right onto Rururin’s head?” Sylen asked, grinning widely. 

 

“Ahaha, no, I am talking on the subatomic level! I am going to initiate a cleansing protocol from here! It should do it for now… I need you to check the cabling at the bottom, I will do the top! Just make sure all of them are connected to the core. If you find that some are loose, tell me!”

 

“So…” Sylen said, smiling innocently. “If none of them is sticking into this big ball of highly dangerous piece of tech that could blow up into my face at any moment, I should call out so you can come down and plug it in place, bare handed mind you, so maybe we don’t die?” She asked, telling it with one breath, tilting her head keeping the innocent smile.

 

“Exactly!” Omega laughed. “Worry not!” He patted his back before climbing upwards, pressing his body through the narrow spaces, filled with the aforementioned forest of cablings, heading into the thick of it. “If it explodes we are going to be dead before realizing it!”

 

“Great…” She shuddered, shaking her head as she headed into the opposite directions, trying to not blow themselves up in the process.

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