The vents were dark, damp, and smelled like rust according to Shelly. As we hovered though them we found little of note at first. It was a winding maze of similar turns. A fan here, a broken camera there, there were even a few damaged drones we might be able to repair eventually but nothing to make me want to write home. Taking a left at a cross point we began to find ourselves moving generally upward, my sensors also indicated that it was getting much warmer as we progressed. We were likely moving towards a radiator, which wasn’t quite our goal but there would probably be vents connecting it to the rest of the building. Our path was filled with many more turns twists and forks so that even with my perfect memory I was never sure if we were going the right way, it was also getting darker with more and more of the vent lights just plain not functional. The drones weren’t made for night vision only having a small light attached to the front. even with eight of them it was barely enough to go by I almost suggested turning back but we were already this far and if we ever wanted to see what was outside of our one room this would have to be the plan. So we trekked on. I would like to note that I have no idea how big this facility is, neither does Shelly, and she was the one who lived here for years before the… event. Just this vent system was like another world deep enough into it .
“these mushrooms are like nothing I’ve ever seen before!!!” Shelly gawked “they must have been evolved by long exposure to the leaking multiquantum generator”
{the multi-what…? What’s that?}
“hmmm… how to explain this kind of thing to a dummy” she thought aloud “have you read hitchhiker’s guide?”
{yeah, I read it the night before last while you were powered off or sleeping or whatever you do. Great book.}
“it really is. The multiquantum generator is kind of like the improbability drive from that but instead of sending a ship through infinite timelines it … I guess, runs infinite timelines though itself to generate energy. It was actually a collaboration between Doc and my… umm… mother… I guess… the woman I’m a clone of. She actually had chrono-manipulation as one of her powers. I don’t have it but maybe I’ll develop it one day, it seems so cool. I do have this weird ability to change how I perceive time in my head, which is how I keep up with you when you start dilating your perception but I don’t think that’s the same thing and its useful but-” she was rambling
{SHELLY! and that creates mushrooms… how?}
“Because if its leaking, quantum energy from other timelines is exchanging with our own. And that can affect how things play out in the general area of the generator, duh. Some weird or even impossible shit can happen after just a year of exposure. Who knows what’s in the facility now and days, after the thirty years it would take for the MQG to have ran out of fuel.”.
{That’s… that sounds incredibly bad}
“in some ways I guess it is. But Bac you aren’t looking at the big picture. This has NEVER happened before! Imagine the discoveries we could make. the things we could find, the science!!! If these mushrooms are just the beginning image what’s going on close to the generator on level five!? Or even deeper!? Quantum leakage tends to pool downward after all. Ooooooh! If I had a body right now id be drooling in more ways than one.”
Gross, what a revolting statement to here from someone who was practically your sister.
{yeah, yeah you know science stuff doesn’t really interest me. Will this be a problem for any metas we house in the future?}
“No, I mean… maybe it depends what got changed…” she conceptually shrugged “are we actually doing that housing thing”
{It’s what I was programed to do. Why do you want a body so much?}
“touché”
With the conversation coming to a close we continued our flight, Shelly much more distracted by every little detail searching for changes made by the multiquantum leak. the mushroom were not the only thing growing in our vent system as we went deeper in, as we moved she spotted ivies that glowed, a type of grass that grew upside down and even a very, very tiny form of oak tree. It was like our air ducts had been turned into a garden. I was worried about having to remove them but Shel insisted they would actually only improve the air quality. I chose to believe her. Less work for me.
Our path lead us finally to a large duct. The temperature indicated that this was the duct directly connected to the radiator for this floor we would have to figure out which vents lead nearest to the room we had been in if we wanted to do this properly. I had no idea but making an educated gues- [ERROR CAMERA FEED CUT
DRONE OFFLINE
DRONES ACCOUNTED FOR :49]
Pain. And a shift in my vision as I suddenly just stopped receiving a feed from one of my drones. It had felt like losing a limb and worse we had a finite amount only fifty, I had no way of repair them or making more. I couldn’t heal like an organic! What had destroyed it!? Searching around for the threat, pointing my remaining drones every direction I could, I noticed something dart behind a patch of mushrooms.
{Shelly!!!}
“I saw it.”
She said hovering one of her drones over to view. Making sure to stay as high as possible. Viewing through her perspective I saw something I could never have expected.
It was a ninja. A tiny robotic ninja. Its small frame was a metallic matt black, its steel morphed into a humanoid shape. Its arms were covered in tiny spinning blades. Rather than hands its wrists extended outward with long sword like blades were its hands should be. But truly the weirdest part about it was that, despite all the differences, it looked suspiciously… like one of my drones…
“its… kinda cute… in a sharp way” Shelly pointed out “you know, its more than likely a result of the multiquantum leakage. How does it work?! Is it alive?! I would love to study it!!!” she stated growing more exited and unintentionally flying closer to the oddity as she spoke.
{no! Shelly!} but it was too late she was already in range for -SLICE SLICE CHOP- her drone practically exploded into bits of mechanical gore.
We both screamed in pain. Shelly receiving the feedback too this time as she was directly connected to this one.
[DRONES ACCOUNTED FOR :48]
{Shelly, I need you to tell me something.}
“y-yeah?” se responded still recovering from the error
{we only have fifty drones right. How many did this place have before what ever plan Doc had!?”
Please say fifty-one. Please say fifty-one. Please say fifty-one. Please say fifty-one. Please say fifty-o-
“hun..hundreds… two hundred at the least.”
{Fuck.}
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