remote station

[synchrosyntheses]

Teytis tel Jobont is not living up to her lantelis.

She had been en route to her usual position after a rest-and-resupply period. Instead of the expected uneventful trip, somehow she loses her anchors, falls through a bizarrely shaped storm, then finds herself impossibly over land instead of water and with her upper antennas chopped off like they were never there.

She was able to stabilize with only minor damage to the uninhabited land, but she cannot hear a single intelligible signal, and a hundred other things add up to this is no place anyone has ever seen before. Or rather, reported seeing before.

So here she sits in the sky, relaying nothing, thinking about everything.

Comments

[synchrosyntheses]

"Safer than walking or riding, I would say. No chance of falling down."

[calescent]

"Sounds good."

[synchrosyntheses]

Teytis leads Kiri out the door she came in by this morning, and is joined by the stuff that was in Kiri's office. After they are outside, that stuff then reshapes itself into a cylinder resembling in general form the one Teytis is wearing; this one, however, has walls of plain glass, an opening one could step through, and a seat inside.

The seat is very contoured, has a full back, and is equipped with head-, arm-, and foot-rests, and a belt (made of heavy fabric where the rest is some sort of shiny material).

[calescent]

Kiri sits on it. "Am I meant to wear this part...?"

[synchrosyntheses]

The seat is hard and did not quite fit the proportions of Kiri's body. Now it does.

"Yes. That's so you can't fall out of the seat when we move around."

The opening closes up.

[calescent]

She wears the thing.

[synchrosyntheses]

And now they're moving up until there's a clear view of Teytis's tower, and flying over the tops of the wheat. Kiri is pressed into her seat.

Then leaning back a bit and feeling pressed forward against the belt and the floor. Now they're descending in front of the tower.

[calescent]

Kiri gets out, wobbly, and trips when she takes a step.

"That was something," she says, getting up and brushing herself off.

[synchrosyntheses]

“Are you all right? I’m sorry, was that too fast?”

[calescent]

"It was. Unfamiliar. I'm a little dizzy."

[synchrosyntheses]

Here is a seat that is obviously not going to go anywhere, if Kiri wants it.

[calescent]

Plop.

[synchrosyntheses]

Best attempt at companionable silence. Looking upon the tower.

(If it takes Kiri ten minutes to recover, then this will obviously have been an entirely bad idea.)

[calescent]

A minute and a half will do it. She gets up. "Right then. What now?"

[synchrosyntheses]

“Well, we’re here, and you know how you work better than I do. Most of the computer is just on the other side of the outer wall."

Also, there is a doorway where there wasn't one.

[calescent]

Kiri goes through the door.

[synchrosyntheses]

The middle of the tower is full of objects of diverse appearance but no obvious purpose, arrayed in the interior volume neatly but in complete disregard of gravity. Some of them seem to be solid lumps of glass, metal, or less identifiable substances, and some of them look like pictures of radio gear that were in the introductory books.

The walls around Kiri are covered in more objects, but these have cables connecting them to their neighbors, and are frequently covered in black panels with ribs on them.

The black panels and what is under them are a bit warm, and air flows into the tower through the door Kiri used.

[calescent]

And no mind.

Kiri comes out again after a long curious look at everything.

"Can't read it," she says.

[synchrosyntheses]

“Well, that's the least informative result we could get, at least if we want to know how computers compare to brains. Not very useful to you, either.”

[calescent]

"Yep. Oh well."

[synchrosyntheses]

“Er. How do you want to return? I'm sure you don't want a repeat of the last trip — sorry I forgot motion sickness was a thing — but I could go slower, or make something that you're in control of instead, or ask someone to bring your horse.”

[calescent]

"Going slower should do it for this time. I didn't suffer any permanent harm. But next time I'll probably just bring a horse."

[synchrosyntheses]

“If you're sure that's enough.”

The not-moving seat turns back into one that looks like it's going to be going places.

[calescent]

Sit. Belt.

[synchrosyntheses]

This trip will take more than one minute! It's more of a drifting along, comparatively.

“In case you're wondering, my understanding is that most people can get used to that sort of motion. I just forgot that getting used to it is something that has to happen first. It also makes a difference whether you're controlling the movement or just riding along. Sorry again.”