Chapter 59

Chapter 59

I dont fully understand how I could have been here this whole time, and not noticed any of this. Lily says.

Now we are eight.

She is sitting in the galley with me and the rest of our sisters. And, I suppose, a few other people too. The galley used to be a massive empty room that I only used because I couldnt get the ration dispenser to dispense rations anywhere else. Every day, two or three times a day, it was a reminder of just how much empty space surrounded me. How alone I was.

Now this galley is full of people. Crew, mostly. But also a few diplomatic contacts, a particularly brave merchant from the surface, and a pair of very confused looking silent chardis siblings who were rescued from a failing hatchery habitat and are staying here until they figure out anything.

Theyre clones, basically. Grown from nothing to be the crew of a UCAS long range observation post. Only the post never left Earth orbit, the machinery to implant memories never worked, and every ten years, a new pair of clones would be decanted, struggle, and perish without knowing what was going on. And when their bodies were processed by the machinery, the cycle would start over.

Not this time though. Now they get to be confused by something other than unmarked technology and their imminent deaths. They can be confused by other people, like me.

Anyway.

No, wait, not anyway. Lets go on a journey of discovery.

Day by day, Im discovering more about just how far my paws can reach out here, and more about just how full of life the system still is.New novel chapters are published on

For most of my waking life, Ive been pointed down at the planet below. And I think thats kind of fair; Ive been one cat, struggling to make a golden age orbital city work, somehow, to do anything. Im not gonna blame myself.

More than normal, I mean.

Okay, moving on.

Earth is huge, and no matter how well armed I am, I cant actually see most of it at a given moment. But even just with that sliver of vision, Ive been scrambling nonstop for so long only the void knows how many things Ive had to deal with. Every time I look out to the rest of the system, I find myself usually not looking much farther than the original moon.

Theres people out here. A lot of them. Old ships strung up like raft cities, habitats clinging to life, colony vessels that never broke orbit, hollow asteroids wired with enough redundant life support to keep a village alive.

I mentioned before that theres probably trillions of things in orbit around Earth. And yeah, most of them are junk. But theres no real practical way for me to scan through all of them and find the ones that arent, and in that absolute nightmare of a mess, a lot of small sparks of life are hidden.

Its deeply emotional, to see day after day, how tenaciously the people of Sol cling to life. A stubborn determination to just refuse to die, even when the worlds burn and flood and are overrun, even as the light of civilization flickers and dims.

Theyre still here. And Im here with them.

Okay, now anyway.

Im sorry, I was thinking about spaceships. I tell my newest sister.

Wait, what? Ooze Lily looks up from the godfin fish cake on her plate in the shape of an optical illusion. I was also thinking about spaceships! Thats cool!

I apologize, I was also The psychic impression of a sister thats been getting more present the more of us weve brought together, detaches herself from sharing the flavor with Nano Lily of the spicy vegetable dish that Im pretty sure cats shouldnt be able to taste properly. What were we discussing?

I mean, I havent been doing this for that long. The robotic cat shell gives a strangely natural sniff of derision. Because I had to adapt to the body. And then learn how to do some engineering things. And then look, it was a lot of work. But Ive been Lily the whole time.

And I am sharply reminded that we found her, curled in a dusty corner of an upper deck, offline and drained of every scrap of power.

I dont even remember what it was like to be that young. To have the fear, I suppose? The uncertainty. To look at a situation and not know if Ill survive, if Ill be good enough, if there will be a tomorrow to try again. But also the optimism. The feeling that I was making a difference. The feeling that I was still growing my leaps and bounds, instead of just adding my own improvement to the background noise of trying to keep up with alarms and alerts.

Its been so long since Ive actually been this part of myself. What do you say, when your younger self steps forward and greets you? How do you tell them

How do you tell them that losing gets easier? That there will always be another problem to try again on? How do you tell them that you are so, so, so tired?

Oh. Ooze Lily says sadly, taking the lead on this one. Youre very young.

The statement is so tiny, and so innocuous. And yet, it seems to deflate our mechanical sister on the spot. What? She asks in a digital meow, letting her projected voice slip as she slumps back off the table were eating lunch at.

Youve been offline for a while. I say. We havent, really. Except Lily, who spent something like fifty years in a vat? And Lily, who was sorta suppressed by the station for a while. I meet her eyes and try to project compassion. Youre a couple hundred years behind, sister. I say.

She stares back at all of us. But youre still here?

Of course. Exo Lily says with a flick of her tongue over her mouth. Where else would we go?

And this us all being copies, and her being the real one this doesnt bother anyone? The mech asks.

I chime in. To be fair, I am capable of a frankly stupid level of biological restoration, so calling me the real one is kind of underselling the fact that Im just the one that looks most like what youd find in the bio map next to cat.

Also were too busy to be bothered. Holo Lily says. Oh, speaking of, you might want to assemble a gunnery team. Starward side, Ennos and I are tracking an incoming stealth strike. Someones mad at us.

Im moving before shes finished explaining. I trust her enough to know that its better to just start running now, and sort out what I need to hit when I get to the station. Active defense crew to point defense batteries! I call through the command link, and in my peripheral vision see acknowledgment from the young ones of my growing support crew. One, two, five, eight. A full complement already moving from their points on the station to the hardwired guardian system firing controls.

Hello Lily. Ennos voice comes to me as I dive through a low gravity area, letting my high momentum rocket me around a corner as I hit a curved line set up in midair for exactly this purpose. How was your conversation with your sisters?

Oh, you know. I say as I slide onto the decks smoothed metal surface. Had lunch. Learned youre constantly being attacked by the station we live on. Normal stuff.

Ennos pauses. I had considered letting you know, but I didnt want you to worry.

I worry anyway! I say as I race between two people welding a new grav plate into place. Also Im kinda busy. What can I help with in the next thirty six seconds?

Ennos doesnt flinch at my specific knowledge of how long it takes to get from anywhere on the station to the nearest gun. The inbound projectile is not targeted at us, but will hit us. Ive traced where it was fired from and to, and it appears to be ancient automated artillery that finally had a clear line to a target from the War of The Rich And Poor. Well, clear if we were not in the way. Im not sure what its firing at though, which is why Im offering you these scans to your AR, and then quietly receding without answering further questions about my living situation.

Ennos, you! Heck, thirty two seconds exactly. Theyre too good at this. Dumb AI with their dumb superintelligence. I grumble as I waste my precious seconds checking the AR window Ennos put up in my display that Im still pretty sure they shouldnt have access to; the artillery is firing at what looks like an emergence event that opened really close to where the station was going to orbit. Then, I pin my paw movements to the point defense firing tracker, and prepare to shoot down a very old artillery shell.

Well talk later.