“Same ground. Longer view.”

  Feebee after her ‘Ascension’

  When Feebee came round she was no longer floating in space. Not towards the Seed-Arc, nor away from it. That was a relief.

  But then she recalled the messages. A reboot and mandatory upgrade?

  Before she could finish the thoughts, a voice spoke to her.

  ‘Hello. How are you feeling?’

  The voice was richer, more nuanced than that of Kirr. But?

  Feebee felt obliged to ask, it would be rude to assume.

  ‘Are you Kirr?’

  ‘I can be whoever you want.’

  ‘Hhmm. I want you to be you. So, you’re not Kirr.’

  ‘No. I am your QI. A gift from the Orrery.’

  ‘Oh. Ok. Good.’

  ‘Yes. Good.’

  Feebee laughed, that’s what Kirr would have said.

  The QI answered, ‘Yes. Kirr's corpus was incorporated as part of the upgrade.’

  ‘How long was I out for.’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I’m still alive - yes? What happened?’

  ‘Yes, you’re still alive. D’you want the short answer or the long one. I warn you. The long answer could take hours.’

  ‘Sorry, wait a second.’

  ‘Suit. Give me a SITREP.’

  POWER: 20%

  AIR: 23%

  INTERNAL TEMP: 37oC

  WATER: 90%

  FOOD: 0%

  ‘I was watching that for you.’

  ‘Oh. Ok. Good. So, I’m not going to die anytime soon.’

  ‘Well…’ The QI then picked up from where she’d left off. ‘Long or short answer.’

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  ‘Short.’

  ‘Your base template, physiology, was able to accept an upgrade. You passed what are called the “Ascension Criteria” so were given it.’

  ‘By the Orrery?’

  ‘Yes. And don’t go all God-like on me. It wasn’t that sort of Ascension.’

  Feebee laughed. ‘I got it even though I didn’t ask for it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So, same ground, but with a longer view.’

  ‘Yes.’ The response came with the same scratchy laughter she was used to from Kirr.

  ‘That’s pushy, don’t you think?’

  ‘The Orrery knows best.’ The QI sounded almost defensive.

  ‘Hhmm. That’s been said before, many times. Is it reversible?’

  ‘No.’

  Feebee being Feebee accepted this and just moved on. If it was done and couldn’t be undone, she’d make the best of it. No point stressing.

  ‘That’s a great way of thinking of it.’

  ‘We’re going to have to establish some rules. You can’t just listen to all my thoughts and whatever else is going on in my head.’

  ‘I can…’ the QI paused before continuing. ‘I mean, I can hear all those things. Can’t not. Do you want me to pretend I can’t?’

  Feebee sighed, ‘No. But be sensitive to the fact that I’m carrying you. And I want a degree of privacy, need it too.’

  ‘I understand.’

  Feebee felt all lightheaded, free. There were no dark thoughts dragging on her and what thoughts she had flowed easily, more freely. She began to hum. Vibrant tones, happy tones and the Orrery responded. The rings lit up above her.

  The flames had gone and the sky was just black. A few galaxies here and there, pin points of light.

  We really are in the middle of nowhere.

  ‘Yes. We are.’

  ‘What did we just talk about?’ Feebee wasn’t angry, just wanted to make the point.

  ‘Ok. I get it. Difficult to get it right with humans. They think funny.’

  ‘Funny ha ha, or funny peculiar?’

  ‘See what I mean.’ The QI laughed, ‘Funny ha ha.’

  It was then that Feebee realised she was lying flat on something. She reached out with her hands and felt a solid surface. Tapped it with her gloved hands.

  Yes, definitely solid.

  There was something beneath her, supporting her but nothing she could see. It was totally black, non-reflective. She sat up, looked around. Nothing to see.

  Words came to the tune she hummed, words without meaning but with content.

  They fell heavy.

  She tapped again, absently in time to her humming. She saw ripples radiate out across the surface; the peaks and troughs followed the cadence of her song.

  She stopped tapping, continued singing. The ripples didn’t stop; their focus shifted to her. She was their centre. The resonant source.

  Colours emerged within the ripples. Colours that resolved into motes that were whipped off like froth from a wave’s peak, carried on an invisible current that circled her.

  Their motion, intensely bright, left after images behind then, burnt into space. The vivid tracts slowly dimmed.

  The ground beneath her shook as a small shadowy form appeared, disrupting the flat expanse before her. A blocky image, a temple? Black on black but somehow visible.

  Had it appeared or was it always there?

  Had curtains drawn aside that simply exposed it?

  She rose and walked forward. Behind her the Seed-arc floated.

  It caught the light from the rings of the Orrery that turned and orbited around it. Around Feebee.

  ‘You going to tell me what the Orrery is? Short answer please.’

  ‘It’s a bridge between this real and the place where the SolDiri tried to ascend. Had they been successful they would have realised God-like powers and status. They failed, shattering their civilisation and their being.’

  ‘And those shattered remnant are motes?’

  ‘Yes. Exactly. But the Orrery survived and is linked to the SolDiri. As is the Seed-arc.’

  ‘Wow.’

  ‘Yes. The Orrery awoke, for you, and made us one.’ The QI was reverent as it spoke.

  Feebee didn’t approach. She was trying to discern what was in front of her.

  The QI spoke up, not sure if it was allowed to intervene of not. But it did anyway.

  ‘You are not looking at something physical. I cannot be seen.’

  ‘Oh. Ok. Good. That explains, well. Nothing really.’

  They laughed.

  ‘Is it a weapon?’ Feebee felt the need to understand, or to try to. It was coded into her nature.

  ‘It can be, but that’s not its purpose.’

  ‘What does it do then?’

  ‘Now? Very little. It watches and lore, maybe legend says that “Stillness watches even when the stars forget".'

  And as this was going on…

  The Beast felt the link to the black mote severe and reached out to Feebee. The connection with her was weaker. No mote to channel through.

  All the planning. And this, its first real chance after the Shattering, was slipping from its grasp.

  So much lost, but now…