This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/jpitha on 2025-12-17 12:14:48+00:00.
After the history lesson 458 left, saying she had “important work” to do. Alia was allowed to explore the station as much as she wanted, but was warned again against meddling.
“458 I’ve been awake for less than a week. I wouldn’t even know where to begin meddling.” Alia said as they stood at the entrance to 458’s offices.
“I know. That’s why I’m letting you wander.” 458 smiled thinly. “If you wind up becoming a threat, that will change, but for now-” She patted Alia’s shoulder “-you’re welcome here.”
Divergence told Alia where to find Viv; inside a bar near 458’s offices. She was nursing some kind of brightly colored drink with a piece of fruit sticking out of the side, and not paying attention to anything. When Alia sat next to her, she jumped.
“Al-Eternity, you’re back, you startled me.” Viv said
“Sorry I kept you waiting Viv, 458 was showing me things.”
“Anything you can share?”
“I don’t know.” Alia admitted. “It’s about the nanocaust. Not here, but I’ll tell you about it aboard Tontine.”
Viv’s eyes widened slightly, but that was her only expression change. Alia gestured towards her drink. “What’s that?”
“It’s an Eternal Sunrise. Made with Karokan Rum and a fruit even I’ve never heard of.” Viv took a sip. “It’s too fruity for my usual tastes, but I didn’t know what to order, so I asked the bartender to make me his favorite.”
“I’ll take one too” Alia said as she gestured towards the bartender. He nodded and hurriedly mixed one up, the customer that he was attending went from surprised to upset to amazed when she saw Eternity ordering a drink. Alia smiled apologetically and nodded, and the woman nearly fell out of her seat.
The drink was placed before Alia with great ceremony, and bowed slightly as he backed away. She couldn’t help but notice that hers was slightly more elaborate than Viv’s. Taking a tentative sip, Alia found that it was fruity, sweet, and had a unique taste. Almost familiar, but not quite. At least it’s not bourbon Alia thought as she took another sip. She turned to the woman who had her drink interrupted to offer to buy hers, but she was gone.
“Eternity.” Tontine was calling over her comm. “I have intercepted another encrypted message with an unknown hash.”
“Just now?”
“Yes and the originating transmitter is close to you.”
Alia stood. “Where?”
“I’ll show you.”
“Come on, Viv. We’ve got a lead.” Alia said and looked at her drink, and then the door. She shouldn’t, but she sucked the drink down quickly. “Thank you for the drink!” She said to the bartender who could only weakly bow again. On her comm she said “Make sure this bar has a generous donation from Eternity.”
“Yes, Eternity.”
Alia was the only one who had the path overlaid in her vision so she led Viv across the square and through some alleys until they reached a pressure door. She touched the dogs to remove the door, and was struck with a memory. This is exactly the kind of door that they had planned on using aboard the colony ships. Ether the deign hadn’t changed in three millennia, or this was a very old part of Divergence. “Tontine, does Divergence know you’re doing this?”
“Yes, they’re helping me with your movements and the encrypted messages.”
“They’re helping? How did you convince them?”
“I might have said that I didn’t think they could do it.” Alia heard the amusement in Tontine’s voice which was surprising enough, but “Tontine, you used reverse psychology on them?”
Tontine said nothing, but Alia could feel their smugness.
She worked the dogs on the pressure door and it swung open with well-oiled ease. Inside was a small communications room. Stepping in, Alia saw a very old comm console, lit and blinking as if it wasn’t a piece of kit so old it was from her era, and the readout showing a message being sent. It was nearly complete, and Alia needed time.
Fortunately, she had almost all the time she needed. With Tartarus engaged, the countdown slowed nearly to a stop, at 99.58%. There was no way that the console would be able to operate at her speeds, but there might be something Tontine could do. “Tontine, can you do anything with this console in the time we have left?”
“I will try Alia, but even though you are operating at this speed, and myself and Divergence can keep up, we are still at the whims of physics.”
Alia smiled at Tontine calling her Alia instead of Eternity. At these speeds, it would be the only thing that could hear.
“Why did Tontine call you Alia, Eternity?” Except for Divergence. Alia swore to herself.
“Tontine is allowed to use my name when we are not around others, or when I am aboard ship.”
There was a pause. “How shall I address you?”
“When I am using Tartarus, you may call me Alia. When I am operating at normal speed, please use my title.”
“Yes, Alia. How are you able to move this fast?”
“Divergence, we don’t really have time for this.” Alia looked over at the progress meter: 99.69% “Tontine, anything?”
“It may be the same encryption we intercepted on Maplebrook, but without more of the hash we can’t be sure. Tracing null signals is very difficult, but I will say that the transmission was aimed in the same general direction as the other two.”
“Any idea what is that way?”
“Within ten thousand light years there are over fifteen thousand cataloged star systems with an estimated half a million more not cataloged.” That was Divergence.
Okay. She would have to narrow things down. “How many are inhabited, Divergence?”
“Three hundred.”
“That many?”
“Thirty belong to the Eternal Empire.”
Even while slicing deep time with Tartarus, Alia felt cold. “What do you mean thirty?”
“The Eternal Empire claims sovereignty over all settled systems in the Milky Way Galaxy, but the reality is much more… subtle.”
Alia didn’t have time to process this revelation, but she was going to have to come back to it soon. “Tontine, catalog the location and receive the list of settled systems. We can try to narrow down options when I’m aboard.”
“Yes Alia. What are you going to do about the bomb?”
“The Bomb?” Alia frowned “What-” She looked down, and could see that what she thought was a forgotten case was leaning up against the console suspiciously, almost as if it was set to do the most damage possible. Reflexively she dove deeper, and reached down for the case. Even if I trigger it now, I can probably escape the blast, she reasoned. Viv though… Fuck.
The case was a standard hard case for carrying equipment of all kinds. Alia herself had handled thousands of them. She bent down and worked the latch, and they sprang open with glacial slowness. At least that part wasn’t booby-trapped. Carefully she lifted the lid and saw one of the largest blobs of explosive polymer she had ever seen in person, and a small timing mechanism next to it. She wasn’t fortunate enough to have a countdown timer on the front, but if she assumed that it was set to go off when the transmission completed, she only had a couple seconds of clock time to act.
“Tontine! Divergence! What do I do?”
“Yooooouuuu muuuuuussssttt deeeetttteerrrmmmm-” Tontine’s voice was so slowed and deep as to be nearly unintelligible. She was slicing deeper than even her ship could follow! This was going to come with a cost later; she could already feel flush and hot.
“Tontine. Actions, fewest words possible.”
“Dissssconnnnect caaaables frrooooom exploss-” Alia didn’t wait for them to finish. She yanked the cables out of the explosive clay and she saw with horror the blasting cap begin to glow.
She tossed it as hard as she could away from Viv, and felt something in her shoulder go pop. Pain washed over her with the relentlessness of ocean waves. She could see the blasting cap soar away, the explosion trailing behind like a shooting star. She then turned and stood, and launched herself at Viv. This was going to hurt both of them, but alive and hurt is better than blown up.
Alia put her arms out and did her best to scoop up Viv under her arms. Trying her best not to put too much pressure on Viv’s limbs, Alia lifted Viv off the floor and walked both of them out of the open pressure door. When she was relatively sure that they were out of the blast from the cap did she put her down and rise back to normal speed.
Even outside of the confined space, the snap of the blasting cap was deafening, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as a whole pile of explosive polymer going off. Viv fell over outside of the hall, and shrieked in surprise.
Alia was pretty sure she would be bruised, but that was it. She sat down heavily next to Viv. “You all right?? She asked, still panting. She felt clammy and hot and couldn’t catch her breath.
“My arms hurt.” Viv said and gasped. One of them is numb. “What happened.”
“Bomb in the room. I pulled out the blasting cap and threw it away from the main explosive and then carried you out.” Alia said, and Viv noticed how pale she looked, her hair matted to her head and neck.
“Eternity, are you all right?”
“No, I went too deep. I’m- I’m” Alia slumped over
“Eternity! Alia!” Viv touched her and nearly pulled her hand back in shock. Alia was feverishly hot.
****
“27?”
Alia blinked and shook her head once. 30 was standing over her. She had fallen asleep in a carrel in the I...
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