Scarlet Steel

In the center of the capital of Earth stands a proud tower. Once a bastion keeping citizens safe from sandstorms that ravaged the planet, it now sits quiet. In the years before Earth separated itself from the wider universe, it became a memorial, each floor standing in proud remembrance of a generation gone by. - Earth, an Oral History 

Moving parts in zero-g is incredibly easy, as long as you don’t get crushed. Momentum is a bitch. Actually working in zero-g, on the other hand, is incredibly hard. Exa ends up doing most of the work, her being anchored to the floor makes things easy. As soon as the motor is in place, however, she turns gravity back on and I take over. Bolting, welding, wiring, testing, we swap out part after part.

We end up having to undo a lot of my adaptors. Any braces I made to allow non-standard parts to fit, every quick fix, it all needs to be replaced. We even scrap all three computer systems and put in a single unified one.

I have mixed feelings about all of this. I want Hoppy to be her best of course, but I can’t help but feel like I’m losing something, like years of work are getting tossed out for nothing. I guess it’s not nothing though, I learned a lot, and I’m still learning. I wouldn’t even know where to start if I hadn’t already built her once, and all my mistakes are worth far more than anything I’ve read.

I fall into a routine. Every moment I’m awake I’m with either Janus or Exa, and Exa has to force me to get as much sleep as I do. It’s funny, Juno was so worried that just twelve hours of work would be too much for me. Working on Hoppy is the only way I want to spend my time.

Janus focuses purely on the basics and getting used to piloting a working mech. Turns out I missed an awful lot of foundational skills while teaching myself. Regardless, I get faster and more confident with every passing day. It takes a lot of falls, but I slowly learn the mech's limits. The whole time, Janus drills a single fact into me.

“Your limits are set in steel. How close you can get to them determines how good of a pilot you are.”

I do my best to take that to heart. He’s right after all. He demands I push the simulation to its limits, and the second I pass what my mech can do? I crash every time. All I have to do is ride that line and never slip over.

“This is your wakeup notification.” I wake up the same way as always, with Andromeda pulling me out of an already forgotten dream.

“Thank you.” I climb out and quickly get ready, grabbing a breakfast bar from my stash before heading downstairs.

As always, I'm the last to wake up. Everyone else are watching the window screens. A sun is visible towards the edge of the view, and a small blue dot is slowly growing.

“Scarlet, come here.” Juno orders.

“Look, the engine was already seized when Exa and I pulled it out of storage!” I quickly explain. “We didn’t break anything!”

“What? No, that’s your problem. Just take a look.” She turns back to the windows, and I take a seat on one of the couches, next to Exa.

“Is that where we’re going?” I ask.

“That’s Earth.” Juno confirms. “That’s our ancestral home.”

I watch as the small orb quickly grows as we approach over the course of a few minutes. The planet soon dominates everything. A semi-opaque, flickering blue sphere surrounds the entire planet. Below it, vast stretches of desert are broken up by large, green circles. The center of each large island is faintly glowing from city lights.

“What do you think?” Juno prods.

“The shield keeps ships out, right? What’s it made of? How is it powered? How is it projected?” 

“You won’t find any answers. What about the planet?” She asks.

“It’s fine?” I guess. “The shield has to be similar to a Photon Lock Shield, right? Can I drop a few things out of orbit? I want to see how it reacts and see if I can get some data.”

“Just fine?” Juno asks.

“It’s cool?” She’s looking for something more than that. “All the green is pretty neat, but it doesn’t really mean anything seeing it from up here. It’s just like looking at a picture.”

Juno sighs, pinches her nose, and shakes her head.

“Look, I don’t know what I’m expected to feel here.” I say. “So if I’m missing something, sorry? But I’m ready to get into the simulator, or work on Hoppy if Janus wants to stay here.”

“I’m trying to get you to think. Everything started on Earth, and yet it almost entirely separated itself from the wider universe generations ago, only showing its power to help civilians. Why?”

“I know basically nothing about history. Safety maybe?” That’s the same reason a Photon Lock Shield exists around a mech.

“Shame.” Juno answers. “Shame of the wider Spur, shame of what humans have created, shame of what we do. Humans and, to a lesser extent, AI, go out and exploit the universe. They explore, they use what they find, and they leave things worse than they found them. We enable that. Is that a problem?”

Dad was a good person, and Mom wouldn’t support him if he was doing evil. He trusted Juno, and I can too.

“No.” I say honestly. “If Dad thought it was ok to follow you, I will too.”

“And when I tell you to kill for a soulless corporation? When your morals and my orders come to a head? Is that a problem?”

“I know I haven’t seen you in years, but you couldn’t have changed that much.” I say. “I trusted you as a kid, and I trust you now. Mom trusts you enough to let me come here. You’re not going to make me do something truly evil.”

“And when I do?” Her words come out slow, heavy. “If I tell you we’re working with horrible people for no other reason than they have the deepest pockets? If they want us to capture an innocent runaway and return them, almost certainly to their deaths or worse?”

I don’t immediately respond. Could I do that? Fighting other people in mechs is one thing. They have armor and can escape. That I can understand, I can sign up for that danger and know they did the same. But ruining the life of someone entirely unrelated?

“What if I say no?” I ask.

“Will you?” She asks.

“I-” Will I? If I say yes and she decides to send me home, that’s it. Following Dad is impossible. On the other hand, lying is just as bad. What would they do if I said no to an operation? If I refused to do what needed to be done? I can only imagine how much that could put everyone else at risk.

“You’re scaring the poor girl.” Xenia says.

“Good.” Juno doesn't take her eyes off me, waiting for a response.

“Yeah.” I can barely force the word out of my mouth, but I keep my eyes locked onto hers. “Yeah, I’d say no.”

“Good.” Juno nods and turns back to the screen. “I expect you to be nothing less than the human Earth expects you to be. If I make an unjust decision, I expect you to hold your ground. For anything less than that though, I need you to follow my orders.”

“Ok. Hopefully I won’t have to.”

“Agreed. It’s my own failure if you do. Andromeda, open the central console.”

“Order confirmed.” A section of the floor directly in the center of the living room slides open, and a large metal table rises from the ground. The surface of it flickers to life, and maps get projected into the air above it.

“Everyone, we’re having a meeting.” Juno walks directly towards the table.

Exa has to tap me on the shoulder to get me moving.

“Finally. What’s the plan?” Graff asks.

“We’re not going far, 82 G. 20 light years away, we’ll be there in a week. Quantum is about to freeze over, lots of business is going to be opening up soon.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

“I’ll show you. Elara, are offers up to date?”

“They are.” She confirms.

Juno reaches into the holograms above the table and quickly swipes her hands through it. With just a few movements, she pulls up multiple long lists. She taps one right at the top and a page opens, the reward front and center. A billion arc reward, with options to redeem the value in any number of local currencies. All that just for retrieving a few pieces of technology.

“Scarlet, why are you here?” Juno asks.

“What?” Anger burns in my chest. “Everyone else is here, why wouldn’t I be? I’m a part of this group.”

“Not this meeting, in a wider sense. Why did you join?”

“Oh.” I shrink back a little in embarrassment. “To follow in Dad’s footsteps. Because it feels like I should be here, that nothing I’ve ever felt has matched up to the first time Hoppy stood up.”

“You’re not here to make money?” She asks.

“I mean, Exa mentioned building a project mech from nothing, and I want to do that. And I want Mom to not have to worry about money, but beyond that? No, not really.”

“Good, you might live then. If a job looks too good to be true, it is. The third planet, Nair, is a quantum planet. One of them colonized it and spread across the entire planet, inside and out, dedicating everything to improving itself. When a quantum gets that big, they can affect the space around them. You don’t fuck with planetary-scale quantums. Fundamental laws of the universe can be ripped apart at the seams, reshaped into whatever form its whims demand. There are limits, but I’ll be damned if I want to find out what those are. Whatever dream logic the planet is running on, you don’t want to experience it. It’s not often a lesson you get to live long enough to put into use.”

“Does anyone take those jobs?” I ask.

“The stupid, the desperate, the lucky, and the opportunistic. All of them are going to be flocking to 82 G. The planet the quantum took over leaves the habitable zone for 200 days out of its 600 day year. When that happens, it hibernates, conserving power until the planet warms up again.”

“I still don’t think I want to go there.” I say.

“And you shouldn’t. It’s asleep, not dead. Sure, it’s whims get less directed and it’s not going to actively choose to ruin your life, but that’s almost worse. The star has two other planets, both orbiting close to it. Those have underground mining outposts. They stay off the surface to avoid the quantum’s attention, and the hibernation gives them a chance to go outside. That’s where we do our work. We’re going to be operating carefully until you’re up to speed, low risk, enough payment to break even.”

“Not all quantums want to kill you.” Xenia adds. “Some of those planets have entire cities living on them, overwatched by a quantum. It’s not common though, and rarely lasts more than a few generations. We can be a fickle bunch. This one is more so than most.”

“Any concerns?” Juno glances around at all of us.

“Yeah.” Graff says. “How long are we going to baby the new kid?”

“Until I can rely on her. In the meantime, you’ll get your minimums. I need your mechs ready. Optimize for 2 g and temperatures in excess of 100 c on the hot side, deep in the negatives on the cool side. Make sure your survival systems are running, and check your suits. Scarlet, Exa, is your Hopper going to be ready?”

“I’ll get it done.” I answer before Exa can.

Juno just looks to Exa for an answer. Exa, on the other hand, just folds her arms over her chest and stares back.

“Ensure you do.” Juno says. “Exa, get Scarlet fitted in a survival suit. All of you have your orders, you’re dismissed.”

Technically I’m supposed to be in the simulator with Janus, but I can’t do anything without a working mech. I head straight for the warehouse and the airlock opens for me. 

A set of footsteps follows behind me, is Janus going to be mad that I'm skipping the simulator? Is Juno going to be mad? It doesn’t matter, I just have to tell him.

“Look, I know-” I look over my shoulder and see Exa following instead of Janus.

“I told him you would want a break.” Exa answers the confused look on my face and strides right past me.

“I didn’t hear you say anything?” I shake off my confusion and rush to catch up.

“He’s half AI, we don’t talk much in the Physical.” It’s a short walk to Hoppy, and she stops in front of her. She’s mostly dismantled, and there’s endless work to do. “I know how important this is. We’ll get her ready.”

“Andromeda has a body, right?” I ask.

“Yeah.”

“Good. I’m going to start sleeping out here, and I’ll need someone to bring food.”

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