Into the Loliverse ( Daemons, Act I )

by Aunt Molly

Thanks to Jen Lee for helping me edit this. Though I take full responsiblitty for any spelling errors and typos that still reside within.

Episode 2: Daemons - Act I

Eliza's earliest memories were sitting alone in her room, surrounded by toys. Dr. Pinkerton said she could have all the toys she wanted. But she didn't want any more toys, she wanted other children to play with. She wanted Dr. Pinkerton to play with her, but the doctor was always too busy.

The computer taught her things, but it wasn't a proper AI - it wasn't a delf. Which was odd, because Dr. Pinkerton was very interested in delfs. So it didn't make sense to her the doctor didn't ask one over. She knew that Spexnet existed, but was not allowed to use it, she wasn't old enough. So she created friends to play with, and a mommy and a daddy, and brothers, sisters and friends.

Then Eliza heard the lock to her room unlock. It was an old fashioned mechanical lock. Eliza didn't question why someone so interested in computers would have an old fashioned door with an old fashioned lock. "Eliza - come with me."

"I don't wanna."

"Eliza, I told you how important this is. You know I can make you do it. But I don't enjoy that."

Eliza slumped her head and followed Dr. Pinkerton meekly, "It hurts."

"I know, but I need for the organic half of your brain to be as plastic as possible. What you do here will make you a hero in the eyes of billions of humans."

Eliza went down a dark hallway her heart filled with dread. Their was such a heavy silence to this place. Her whole world just her and Dr. Pinkerton. The lab was drenched in light, lights everywhere until their were no shadows, not even a mouse could hide. A chair, and a small computer in a suitcase, too big for her to carry.

A fiber-optic cable slipped into a socket behind her right ear. And then all the world melter away and was replaced with chaos and noise...

***

Eliza woke up finding the familiar warmth of a male body on top of her. Except this time it wasn't a lover, it was that annoyingly cute boy from the hopper. Still she had a feeling that in a few years, whichever gender he was orientated towards, he would have his pick.

She promised him she'd look after him, or something. At the time she thought it would be a few minutes. She'd made a lot of promises in her life. Promised a lot of well meaning boys and men that it would be forever. This might be the first time she'd be held to that promise.

"What do you want?"

"You gotta get up! You have to go to work."

"I saved everyone's lives, can't I retire?"

"Nope, Sable says if you save someone you are responsible for them. And you saved everyone, so you're responsible for *everyone*."

"Hooray for responsibility."

Eliza got up slowly, pulling the sheet away, then back again. She had been sleeping on the floor Sable's bed was too small. The apartment was small, but then it was meant for small occupants. Todd had loved it. Everything seemed sized for him.

When exactly did little boys become interested in boobies? Eliza wasn't sure. Then she remembered Sable had gotten a nightgown fabbed for her. Pink wasn't exactly Eliza's color, and it wasn't especially flattering. Mostly it kept her naughty parts covered. Not that she'd been particularly ashamed of any part of her body, but there were always social norms. Stupid, arbitrary. cultural rules.

She got up and brushed her hair, Todd was still staring at Eliza, "Kid, are you hoping to see some boob? You're a cute boy I'm sure you'll see all the boob you'd ever want. ", unlike the early twenty-first century it was actually difficult for a boy his age to access erotic content. His legal age was on his profile, so he couldn't just lie. And besides what passed for erotic content on Hab-6 might not appeal to him.

"I start school today, Sable says I can join her niece's clique, they need someone good at science. Sable says that cause of the new planet and stuff the advisers are going to ask us to do a lot of science stuff. Are you good at science? I bet with having a computer for a brain you are really good at math."

"That's great squirt. What is it that Sable wants me to do?"

"She said their was a lot of complaints about problems with Spexnet. Whenever I try to upload stuff its like sometimes I just get a random file - you know? So it will be real hard for me to do my homework."

"Alright squirt, I'll look into it. Where is Sable anyway?"

"She's at work, She gets up real early. I gotta go to school. " He looked like he was waiting for something.

"Alright, go then."

Todd waited a few more seconds then turned and left.

***

Unicorn Hall was one of the single loli housing units. Built to encourage socialization. You could not leave your dorm room without walking through the common room, and probably running into one loli or another. And in so doing starting a conversation, becoming friends and tightening the network of bonds that made up loli culture.

If happenstance should fail, there were lots of dances and communal activities to foster bonds of friendship: Games of twister, movie night, talent shows, and so forth. And should things go past friendship, the walls of the dorm rooms were soundproofed.

Normally, common room was essentially a big kitchen, and there was a buzz of activity making breakfast or dinner, or mid-sleep shift snack. Things like "day" and "night" were relative on a habitat, depending on one's work shift. It buzzed with the exchange of gossip as young independent lolis laughed and chatted amongst themselves.

Azure looked down into her oatmeal and sighed. She had no need for sound proof rooms. Felt no joy in the noise and chaos of the communal activities. No special connection to any of the other lolis. She could never really lose herself to the group. Even in this crowded room she felt alone.

Goldie and her new girlfriend Amber were holding hands. Goldie was not a resident of Unicorn hall, but Amber was. The two yellow haired lolis were so happy it made Azure sick. Goldie was already in her uniform, the mechanic's jumpsuit. And Amber in the more formal clothes of the social sciences adviser.

Amber wore an Ankh over her subvoc neckband.

They sat down opposite Azure. Goldie tapped Azure's hand, "Did you read the new assignment?"

"I was going to after breakfast. I heard their had been some complaints about glitches in the Spexnet."

"No, Sable and her new apprentice are taking care of that right now."

"Sable has a new apprentice?", Azure felt abandoned.

"Oh yeah, remember that hopper that almost crashed? Well the grumps on that ship were part of some kind of religious sect."

Amber nodded, "I'm willing to bet all that focused positive energy saved them."

Azure rolled her eyes, "Then why were they the only ones about to crash?"

Amber didn't respond, "Goldie-cakes, what is this super secret mission?"

"Oh its not secret. Well, as I was saying, they are part of a sect. Part of their beliefs is that every member must be useful to others. They have a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer..."

Azure sighed, "We get it - these guys have skills."

Amber nodded again, "See everything happens for a reason. There are no accidents."

Goldie, "Come on check the assignment - It uber-uber Wiccan!"

"Two ubers? I hate it already." Azure called up her spex, which called up a documentary on Moroccan leather workers, then she tried a second time and got a video for the band Thursday Friday ( but the sound was of croaking frogs ), then on the third try she saw her assignment, "Wait? What? Is this a mistake?"

"Nope - we're going on an away mission, like the heroes in the vids. We're going into space!"

"But we're *already* in space. We're just going from a big, comfortable spaceship to a small *uncomfortable* spaceship." Azure read more of the assignment briefing, uploaded schematics, "Aww shrag. I 'd rather be working the waste systems."

Amber gave Azure a cross look, "Please do not cuss, I do not need your negativity."

Azure decided to ignore Goldie's girlfriend. " I suppose we need the spare parts."

"Goldie, what is it you and your negative partner are going to be doing?"

"Oh well, the front half of the warship that almost destroyed us, is in orbit around our planet's middle-sized moon. But it's an unstable orbit. We're going to use the breaking thrusters to push it a little higher."

"Weren't the thrusters left back with Sol?"

"No - no, the breaking thrusters are on the front of the ship. We'll use fuel cells to give it enough juice to push it into a higher orbit. It won't take that much thrust."

"Well, I would advise leaving Azure behind. Her negativity will sabotage your mission."

Azure groaned, "Yeah well, the thing with being a mechanic is that if we do something it has to be based on something more than superstition. Stuff actually has to work. And we can't blame people's 'negativity' if it doesn't."

She turned to Azure, "You know, Goldie tells me you have a hard time finding a partner, I bet that is because of your negativity. Those who put out negativity like you will never be able to find love. Only bad things can happen to you."."

"Oh really? So the two million or so humans that died around Jupiter, that was because of their negativity? Or is self-righteousness not considered negativity?"

Amber rolled her eyes. "You just don't get it. Happiness is a choice, so therefore your negativity is an aggressive act. And I don't have to be around it.", Amber got up, she stared at Goldie for a few minutes.

Goldie subvocalized Azure, "I'll see you at work.", then got up and left with Amber.

***

"There are two-thousand stories in the naked habitat, this is only one of them.Cherry and Emerald began their patrol like always when suddenly-"

"Cherry, no more pretendin' yer a voice-over alright?", Emerald and Cherry moved through the residential section, waving to passer's by. So far despite all that had happened everyone seemed ready to move on with their lives.

Emerald suspected that the grumps would be having the hardest time. The lolis got to take their whole world with them. The humans had to leave theirs behind.

"Yes, but Cherry wants something to happen." Cherry's smile was wide, playful.

"Somethin' did happen - enough 'somethin' to satisfy me fer' quite a while."

"But that was days ago."

"Just stay alert will ya?"

As they moved through the residential section, Emerald caught sight of two lolis pushing a stroller. The baby looked to be a few months old ( well all gestations were carried for a full twelve months, rather than the more "natural" nine ), Emerald stared at the child, her eyes already unnaturally large. Open and curious about the world..

The baby's clothes and eyes were purple, though a knit cap prevented Emerald from seeing the hair.

Emerald tried to read the parents' profiles, and was greeted instead with some Post Rock Discordia ( a popular music form of the late twenty-first century ), the errors on the spex system were getting worse. She had to resort to finding out about these lolis the old fashioned way.

"Pardon me ladies, I couldn't help but notice yer' baby. What's her name?"

One of the mothers had orange hair with more than a little friz and her partner's hair was rainbow striped, though Emerald was pretty sure that was a dye job, "Gertrude Grape."

. "A grump name? Shoot, I heard o' someone wanin' to name their girl Elizabeth and folks asked, 'What color is 'Elizabeth'?"

The orange haired loli stroked her daughter's cap, "She is the first baby to be released after the big move. In a way the first native daughter of this system. Unless we find intelligent life on the planet below."

The rainbow colored spouse smiled, "It was so exciting when X-Utero called us and actually called it a 'baby' for the first time. Are you a parent?"

"Naw but I'm on the waiting list. Can - can I hold her?"

Gently the orange haired mother lifted her and offered her to Emerald. Immediately the girl began to fuss, and Emerald had to give her back. The Orange haired mother tried to calm her daughter down, she grabbed a bottle from the stroller and started to feed her.

Although breast milk is agreed to be best, it is unknown what attempting to stimulate lactation on a loli's child-like physiology might do. " Some of our friends on the waiting list, they haven't heard a thing since the move."

"They're bein' mysterious, bunch a drama queens I think."

Emerald and Cherry were approached by a loli with light yellow hair with streaks of gray, "Resolver, you need to see this Come quickly!!"

Emerald and Cherry followed her ( the spex worked long enough for her to get the name - Lemon ), down a side walkway along what should have been a blank wall.

Now murals are a fairly common sight amongst the walkways and corridors of Habitat-6 ( and in fact habitats in general ), there are only so many blank gray walls one can stare at before one has to fill them with color.

But there were procedures, you needed to present the design and location to the Mayor's office, it was to be approved by those lolis that lived and worked in the area. Even should a mural be painted without formal permission, it was easy enough to gain forgiveness.

This - this whatever it was. Darkness like the open maw of a hungry beast, loli,, or a grump girl maybe. clinging tenuously on a precipice. A faceless humanoid figure, long thin arms and legs, is climbing over her,long claws digging into her body, pulling her down into darkness as he pulls himself up and out of the darkness.

The other lolis started to gather, staring fascinated by the gruesome portrait.

***

Azure and Goldie met the grump they were supposed to work with. An older male named Abraham Delainey. A member of the flight that Azure and Goldie had barely saved. A trained engineer and a member of the Mission. The full name was the "Mission in the Name of Jesus the Christ, the King of Peace.". His profile went on to explain some of the basic tenets of the faith, and invited the reader to download Abraham's apologetics.

Azure declined. Of course spex doesn't fail for the fundy.

The old man's face was creased with wrinkles, which was odd, because on many worlds, basic cosmetic surgery was a right. A way of preserving basic human dignity. He was forced to hunch over because of the nearly ubiquitous low ceilings. He seemed to squint, "I'm sorry I look at you and I want to muss your hair."

"Please resist the urge."

Goldie wasn't talking to Azure, and made sure to communicate that by updating her status to "Not talking to Azure". "I've read part of your apologetics already, It will be nice to work with someone who *believes* in something."

Abraham smiled at Azure in a grandfatherly way, "Hah! A member of the loyal opposition."

Azure shook her head and climbed the ladder to the waiting ship, "Come on lets get going."

Goldie waited several minute, "Could you go before me? I don't want to climb up right after her."

Abraham climbed the ladder, though the ship was built with lolis in mind, the hatchway was large to allow for cargo. And Abraham was slim.

Goldie climbed up last and closed the hatch.

***

The mule was like a larger, more powerful hopper. Unlike the hopper, it had a crew cabin. Which was just as well since they had no delf to pilot it. The ship did not propel itself by heating gas but by accelerating charged ions, a more efficient ( but more expensive ) engine.

The cargo hold had high ceilings, just high enough to stand fully erect. But it was not high enough for him to raise his arms and stretch. Which was what he seemed to want to do. Shelves had been folded down from the sides of the hold, and strapped to them were several powerful fuel cells, the kinds used to start a fusion reactor There were all manner of equipment, tools and devices.

"Like we're going to be launching soon so you need to like, get strapped in and stuff.", the loli that had walked in was a teamster. Her gray jumpsuit had the shoulder patch showed a horse drawn wagon. Long, dull, red hair, according to her profile her birth name was Umber, but their was also a doctor Umber so she called herself "U2".

U2 looked over at Abraham, "The crew cabin will be, like, too small, so like, you might be more comfortable back here. You know?"

Abraham found an empty shelf, and used the straps to secure himself.

Goldie crossed her arms, "Well, I'll be out here too."

Azure shook her head, "Don't be ridiculous, get into the crew cabin."

The co-pilot was a loli with generally Asian caste, long violet hair, in fact her birth name was Violet but to save confusion with the head of DBC she called herself V2. There was a hint of mischief in those violet eyes, and she practically radiated confidence, but not smug self righteousness like Amber.

Behind the pilot and co pilot seats were two passenger seats, and Goldie and Azure were forced to sit together. U2 was getting final instructions and launch clearance, not like there was any other traffic, but procedures and checklists had to be followed.

It was Ashley, Sable's daughter, who was on the speaker, "Please be advised, if you haven't noticed yet, spex has been a little glitchy lately, so for communication it might be best just to use radio."

Azure called out to the speaker, "I thought you worked beta shift?"

"Normally I do, but Vermillion has a bug."

Goldie brushed her blond hair behind her ear, "Have you heard from X-Utero yet?"

"No, but I'm not too worried. I have a good feeling. By the way you're clear for launch."

Goldie pressed her hands together, "I will say a prayer for you."

"Oh like that really helps. Besides your 'daddy' is four and a third light years away."

"Prayers travel faster than light. So do miracles."

"Tell it to your stuffed animals."

The mule detached itself from its facet of the docking bay, slowly it pushed itself out into space. Then it altered its trajectory, pointing the nose down ( or what had been "down" moment's before ). The main engines were located on the bottom of the craft. The planet below, yellow and purple. The white gleaming moons ahead, seeming so close, but so far away.

The engines shot up to full power and all four were pulled down into their seats.

Goldie muttered under her breath, "Big jerk.", when she noticed Azure staring at her, she deigned to respond, "In physics, a change in acceleration is a 'jerk'."

"I knew that."

"And that was a big one."

The constant acceleration ( around two-tenths of a gravity ) was stable enough Goldie could get out of her seat and walk about the ship. " I'm going to go check on Abraham.", she made her way to the cargo hold.

***

Eliza lay down on the floor in the computer room. She inserted the fiber optic cable into the jack behind her left ear, and closed her eyes.

In man's earliest days, a human might tramp through a forest and marvel at the fruit bearing trees, the plentiful game, the pure freshwater stream and be completely unaware of the thousands of insects, worms, fungi and microorganisms that made it all possible.

Or perhaps a nineteenth century mansion where the wealthy denizens live in ignorance of all that goes on in the servant's quarters to make their comfortable lives possible.

These were ways of thinking of the difference between the delfscape and the Spexnet.

Rivers, streams, of raw data. That would be the first impression. But that is not true. The chilps, like columns of ants carrying data packets, and watching over them were the daemons. Represented in Eliza's vision as dogs. And like dogs, they were the faithful servants first of humans, then of delfs.

Like the much simpler programs they were named for, the daemons did much of the dirty work behind the scenes. Managing information requests not only from two-thousand lolis, those of splines ( two orders of magnitudes larger in number), the various sensors measuring air temperature, pressure, oxygen, relative humidity, food consumption relative to production plus water and waste recycling

The daemons could create smaller, simpler, versions of themselves - these were the chilps. The chilps could do the same, until one got down to the smallest processes that dealt with the smallest details of technology. Thanks to daemons no one had need to type out a single line of code since the end of the twenty-first century.

Eliza watched as the daemons gently herded their chilps like faithful sheepdogs herding sheep. No, thought Eliza, it must be a hardware problem. A frayed fiber optic cable, a loose connection, a faulty receiver. Then she saw it.

Out of nowhere, one daemon attacked another daemon, scattering its chilps in every direction. This forced the daemon to run about trying to gather them back into a neat row. Then the aggressor did so again a second time, and a third until the recipient signaled submission.

The aggressor daemon returned to his station only to be attacked by a third daemon.

Eliza ran up to one of the daemons, "So, what's the big idea?"

The daemons seemed suspicious, Eliza should have expected this, she was a stranger on the server. But having pulled the habitat from danger that would have destroyed both organic and digital life, they gave her the benefit of the doubt. One sent her images of the daemons orderly, well lead by Nana.

"Yeah, I know its a big loss for you guys, but we need to move on. Besides, how is fighting amongst yourselves serving her memory?"

Then another image, of the daemons orderly again, but lead by a master daemon.

"I see. Who gets to be top dog huh? Well, guess what boys - that's me. So get back to work. OK?"

Then the daemons started to growl, and moved towards her. Eliza expected, one, perhaps two, might challenge her. She didn't expect the whole shragging pack They came at her en masse.

She found herself knocked out of delfspace, and into the kinetic world.

***

"But what does this mean?", Lemon just stared, "Is this a threat?"

All the lolis stared at the gruesome, violent mural. Emerald was all too aware of how on edge everyone was. "Right now, all we know is there is an artist with really bad taste. ", Emerald tried sending the image to Dr. Cyan back at headquarters only to find her spex not working.

"Cherry, could you send this image to Dr. Cyan? My spex aint workin' right now."

Cherry just shook her head.

A loli with electric green hair shouted, "He cut the spex!"

"Nobody cut nothin'. A friend o' mine is workin' on the spex this mornin'. She probably just had to shut it down temporarily. Probably to reset the system. She just didn't think to warn us first. She's kinda a bsen - minded like that."

Cherry twisted a strand of red hair around her finger, "Cherry doesn't think this is a loli."

"What?"

"In the painting, the eyes are too small. And they don't match the hair like a loli's would.."

"Good job." Emerald rubbed her large eyes, "Cherry, git back to headquarters and get some of the radio headsets. Tell Dr. Cyan of the situation. I'm gonna see if anyone of the humans is missin' a little girl." She then turned to the assembled lolis, "Alright folks this is what we are gonna do. We're gonna stay calm. We're gonna report anything suspicious to the resolvers

The spex is shut down so the first thing we wanna do is make sure to check in on any old folks or the disabled who won't be able to call in if they're in trouble. Stay in groups, don't go wanderin' off anywhere by yerselves. And nobody go actin' like some vid hero. If somethin' feels wrong, you run, got it?"

The old myth holds that problems happen in threes, Azure couldn't find a tram, so she was forced to go on foot towards the auxiliary sector where the humans were housed. She ran into the boy, Todd, with his new clique. About a half dozen lolis from age five to seventeen.

Except the loli that was supposed to be leading them, Ink, was not there.

"Emerald, have you seen Ink? We were supposed to meet her in the park. I can't find her anywhere."

Emerald suddenly felt very cold.

***

Goldie and Abraham stood near a porthole and looked out at the planet below, "Why did you call Azure a 'member of the loyal opposition'?"

"Because for every believer there must be those who challange that belief. Someone who asks 'why should we believe that?', its in the absence of doubters that fanaticism occurs. I think that's why even in the vary earliest periods of history, in the most primitive cultures, there is one that always says ' what a load of rubbish'."

"Why would God create Atheists?"

"Religion can become mindless, a habit, no real faith, just mindless ritual. It has to be challenged to grow stronger. As frustrating as they can be, religion needs doubters. But equally, doubters need religion. If you have no concept of God, what do you have to reject? I think that's why you and Azure are friends. You compliment each other."

"Well, we work together. So we *have* to spend time together."

"Oh, so you had your fight at work today?"

"No, it was at breakfast."

"Are you neighbors too?"

"Well no. Azure lives in the same housing unit as my girlfriend."

"That's an odd coincidence."

"Well, not really. I met her there during movie night."

"Must have been a really good movie if you put up with Azure on your free time.."

"Well she's all right, sometimes. I guess."

***

When Eliza found herself in the computer room again, she saw Sable and a strange human girl in mechanic's jumpsuit, she had a silver cross hanging from her neck,. "Hey Sable, who's the new girl?"

The new girl waved her hand, "I'm Ruth."

Sable tilted her head, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, just peachy. I think this is going to take some time. The daemons are fighting amongst themselves. Since Nana's gone, there is a power vacuum I tried to step in and they kicked me out of delfspace I hope that didn't make anything worse out here.."

"The spex is off."

"Off-off?"

Sable nodded.

"If I don't fix this soon, what's the worst case?"

"Worst case scenario if everything goes pear shaped we can operate life support manually. But the machine shop won't be able to manufacture anything if it has no way of uploading patterns from computer memory. The infirmary won't be able to make medicines, or create medical viruses, or look up patient records..

Also, students and advisors won't be able to access information, splines won't be able report the need for part replacement-"

"I think I get the point. But last time I tried to get them to work they just booted me off."

Ruth gave Eliza a curious look, "Sable told me about some of your abilities. Haven't you dealt with daemons before?"

Eliza couldn't help staring at the cross. She remembered the priest in that vision. Eliza never trusted religious people to begin with. "Well yeah, but they weren't mine. I mean I may have manipulated some of them into maybe doing me some favors. But I never had to lead them."

"These daemons aren't yours either. You don't have to lead them. You just have to get them to do a few favors for us."

***

Todd scrunched his nose, "Emerald, if you like we could begin looking for her. Organize the other kids and short hairs."

"No! You lot get back teh the park. Play pitz until the spex come back on. Git some exercise. We got one loli missing, we don't need teh add to that."

Todd frowned, in Emerald's experience that was the typical boy, they all thought they were vid heroes.

A short hair, so young she was actually smaller than Emerald asked, "Resolver, is Ink dead?"

"Not until ah see a body.Todd do yah talk to any of the other human children? Are any of them missin'?"

Todd bit his lip, "Yeah - one of the low-gravs told me a girl got hurt during the move, we haven't seen her since. Maybe she's still in the infirmary."

"That's good because the infirmary is on my way."

***

V2 looked over at her partner, "Why don't you go check on our cargo, make sure its strapped in."

"Like, I checked it before we launched. Its, like, totally secure."

"What was the name of that squirrel you met on habitat two?"

"Like, I better go check on the cargo.", she lept from her seat and went to the cargo area.

Azure assumed it was a beastial, not an actual squirrel. Still lolis were fairly tolerant about what went on between consenting adults. So it would have to be something fairly strange if U2 was afraid Azure would hear about it.

V2 patted the empty pilot's seat. She smiled sweetly to Azure. "Now that the space cases are gone, Why don't you and I get to know each other better?"

Azure sat down on the still warm seat. "So what did U2 do with that squirrel?"

"Now if I told you, I couldn't use it on her any more, could I? Don't worry, nothing illegal, Well nothing that's a felony in any cultures I'm aware of. So your profile didn't mention a life partner of any kind. Waiting for miss right?"

"Yeah - sort of. I mean. I haven't met a loli I really click with."

"Its hard to find someone that believes in reality isn't it? We've moved past the sky, and yet we haven't moved past magic sky people. What did you say earlier about her 'daddy'? Is that supposed to be Jesus or something?"

"Oh when she was little, she referred to the planet Jupiter as her daddy. Its become some kind of God-figure to her."

"Oh - that's so stupid. It must be Hell having to be dependent on superstition."

"Yeah, her, girlfriend Amber was yakking at me how my 'negativity' was an aggressive act."

V2's eyes rolled, "Oh I'm sorry for thinking for myself. Here, let me be a stupid, smiling drone for you."

"Yeah - what's with that?"

"Hey. I want to show you something, something only the teamsters know about. I think I can trust you.", she reached into a small cubby and pulled out a small black container. Opening it slowly, the inside was white. And Azure's already large eyes grew even larger at the sight of the contents.

"Is that? Is that what I think it is?"

V2 smiled evilly and nodded.

"But that's illegal."

"Only if I bring it onto Hab-6, and its not officially on Hab-6 until it gets off the mule. Do you want to try it?"

"But, but its highly addictive, and-and I could contract obesity, and diabetes, and gum disease."

"Don't be a big baby. None of that ever happened just from one piece of chocolate. This is the last of my stash, and I want to share it with you."

"I don't know."

"Would you like it better if I melted it down and smeared it on my naked body?"

Azure's mouth dropped open. She just stared in silence for several minutes.

V2 dropped her head in her hand, "I was too aggressive wasn't I? Smooth move V2. As subtle as a sunlance as always. Its not like we are going to do it right now. I can't make sure the space cases will let us have that much privacy. But when we get back, consider it an option, all right?", then as if her intent was not clear enough V2 ran her tongue around the outer rim of Azure's right ear.

***

Maroon was a member of the custodians, they had dull brown jumpsuits and a mop on their shoulder patch. But that didn't matter because Maroon was off today. And she had gone down to the five 'n dime - an area of the machine shop that specialized in making small decorations, knickknacks, household items.

She had saved up her credits to make up some elephant figurines. The animal had been brought back from the brink of extinction on Earth, but it was so used to humans, it was no longer a wild animal. Sadly just about the only "wildlife" left on Earth were pest species. Coyotes, rats, pigeons, wild dogs, roaches, fruit flies and the like.

The fab ( essentially an elaborate 3d printer ) had shut down. Maroon,kicked it a few times. She tried to use spex to call up a mechanic. The spex were dead.

"Of course this happens on my day off.", she went off in search of a mechanic, and found another bunch of lolis staring at a mural. A dark morbid picture of a girl sleeping and a faceless monster wielding an old fashioned looking syringe like a dagger, about to stab the unsuspecting victim.

***

The infirmary was quiet now. Immediately after the move the place had been packed with humans and lolis suffering from minor and major injuries when the habitat that had been parked in orbit around Io had suddenly been compelled to move.

The equipment wasn't cutting edge, but it had been good enough on a habitat where sickness and injury were relatively rare.

Dr. Umber was another one of the "old" lolis, fine lines crossing a child-like face. Wearing the immaculate white lab coat that had been the uniform of doctors for hundreds of years. She was reading off of a data pad when she notice Emerald entering, "What can I do for you resolver? Oh this? I keep backups."

Emerald explained about the sighting in the residential sector, a gruesome painting and a missing loli, "Ah heard that one of the low-grav children had died because of the move. Ah thought there had been no fatalities."

"There hadn't, at least not on that day. The low gravity humans had been placed in a cargo hold for temporary housing. Hab-6 had made a sharp turn during flight, and a cargo container got loose.and slid right into the poor girl.

We were sure we could save her. We fixed her body. But there was severe damage to her brain. Especially the prefrontal lobe.

We could have replaced the damaged tissue, but the prefrontal is the closest thing to a seat of the self. We wouldn't be saving that girl so much as creating a new one. So her father opted for euthing. Its a difficult decision, but it was his to make."

"She looked normal?"

"Well, we use the term PEH, phonotypical Earth human. But yes. He'd moved to an orbiting habitat shortly after she was gestated. He wanted her to have a strong body. Had she been a phonotypical low gravity human, she would have been killed instantly."

Cherry walked in holding a radio headset, "Cherry was going to give this to Dr. Umber.", she tried to hand it to Emerald. "Another painting was seen in the five n' dime.

Emerald took it and handed it to Dr. Umber. "What did it look like?"

The headset had an onboard memory, and Cherry was able to show a still of the mural.

Another Resolver named Milk, called in, "We found Ink - she's unharmed. We found another mural."

Ink wore a black jacket and a tasteful mini skirt. Instead of the piercings her spex took the form of the item for which they were named, a pair of granny glasses. "You guys don't get it, Quince didn't kidnap me, he let me hang out with him. Its *soo* hard to find a real artist out here. Put Emma on for me."

"Ink where is Quince now?"

"He said he has to be alone. He's following his muse. I totally respect that and gave him his space. Look at his latest piece."

Cherry's face twisted into a grimace, "Cherry thinks it's gross."

On the monitor Ink's eyes rolled, "To be a genius is to be misunderstood. You can only have so many pictures of pink clouds and rainbows before it makes you sick.. I mean, this stuff reaches out and grabs your attention."

Emerald saw the picture the demon was being cast out of heaven and plummeting to the Earth.Two identical looking girls, one with a syringe in her heart and one with claw marks on her body, flew over head. And a brilliant beam of light cut across a green sky.

"Milk git everyone ya' can to the park - I know where Quince is."

***

Eliza reentered delfspace.

Spexnet was down, and all gloves were off. Information packets moved randomly, as daemons fought and wrestled through the difgital landscape.

When they noticed Eliza they forgot their conflict and focussed upon a common enemy.

"No-no, I learned my lesson this time, I'm not going to get in your way. But just a thought You know every time you fight, one of the other daemons just takes advantage. I mean no one of you can really win. Not without some kind of referee., you guys do want this to end some time?"

The daemons stared at Eliza with skepticism, but did not attack this time.

"Alright. Now everyone gather round.", Eliza sang a few notes of the only piece of classical music she could remember," 'Dum-dum-dum-dum!'"

... The daemons seemed to consider what she said for a second before understanding what she wanted.

In a fraction of a second all came back with Beethoven's Fifth.

"That was obviously too easy. Try this. I am a creature that in the morning has four legs, in the afternoon has two and at night I have three. - what am I?"

In a fraction of a second most came up with the proper answer to the classic riddle 'Man', but a few screwed up and brought a copy of Oedipus Rex, where the riddle first appeared.. "Uh uh - you two are out. You understood what I said, but not what I wanted. Alright - lets try something a little tougher..."

***

The light tube running through the garden was a bundle of pipes carrying sewage, fresh water, heat, gray water and information. Wrapped around the bundle were a thick layer of fiber optic cables. They carried light directly from the fusion reactors that powered the habitat.

Quince stood at the precipice. Tall and pale and thin. Looking almost like a victim of starvation. But his bones and muscles had atrophied under Io's weak gravity. He'd shed his exosuit to squeeze through the loli sized access hatches.

Thin glass fibers pointed outwards away from the tube, unloading the cargo of light. From up here it looked like a long tube covered in brightly glowing moss. Since he was close to the center he could see the park all around the green, the sounds of laughter

Bright, though not blinding. it was the closest thing to a sun on the habitat..

Quince could hear the resolver approaching, "Please, I have to do this. Its my right."

Emerald knew if he jumped he would be effectively weightless, floating independent of the habitat's rotation until he hit the ground below, which would be rotating very quickly relative to him, and he'd be a bloody, broken smear across the garden.

"No, you gotta either be over sixty or suffer from a severe physical or psychological impairment. And even if you could prove that, you wouldn't be allowed to do this."

"I committed murder, twice."

"Yeah, Dr. Umber told me you opted to Euth yer daughter. That's a very painful decision, but it wernt murder."

"You don't understand., the ship took a sharp turn. A cargo container broke loose and slid right for us. I jumped out of the way. I didn't think about anyone but myself. What kind of father is unwilling to give his life for his child? When the doctor told me that so much of her brain would be replaced that she would essentially be a new girl. But wasn't that girl also my daughter? Did she deserve to live any less than my Abby?

So I may have only killed one body, but I murdered two girls."

"Quincy, right now there are little girls down there, who don't need to see you fallin' from the sky. They don't need to see somethin' that violent. I know you don't care about yerself If'n you really think yer a murderer, then you should come with me A criminal has to face the judgement of his peers. Killin yerself, that would be cowardly."

Quincy looked around, he didn't say anything for what seemed an eternity, "It's pretty up here."

"Yeah, it is."

He turned around, and walked back. "Are you going to cuff me?"

"Do ah need to?"

"No, I'll go quietly."

***

The last daemon, the winner in the contest of riddles strutted proudly through memory. The other daemons fell in line. Their conflict resolved they went back to their assigned tasks as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened that day.

Eliza wondered if this was how Nana had done it. Probably, from what the lolis had told her about the delf.

Then unexpectedly the alpha daemon, sent Eliza an image, - all, all the daemons bowing in submission before a figure without face, holding something aloft - a device represented by an object that was part key and part knife.

Eliza had heard stories of it. For humans it was a program, for delf's it was a relic akin to Excalibur.

"Puck's key."

***

Quincy didn't give them any trouble he wanted to be tried, he wanted to pay penance. But so far as Emerald was concerned he hadn't committed a crime worse than defacing public property.

He was kept in a cell and monitored, not because he was a threat to others, but he might still be a threat to himself.

It was around this time that the spex came back on, and the first message she'd gotten was from her wife. It was good to see her, But her face was grim, "Its good ta' see ya sweetie, why the long face?"

"We've been rejected."

Emerald felt cold, "Its that gall dang stupid gun isn't it? Should tossed the thing before we even applied. I told em' it was a decoration, but they still think I'm some rube anyway."

"It wasn't the Winchester or anything like that. We ranked in the eighty-fifth percentile on their rankings. They rejected everyone - the whole waiting list. They're considering terminating any gestations younger than three months. Can they do that?"

***

Ahead at last was the warship. Even slice in half, it was big, and dark. Looking like the blade of a sword. or the front half of a predatory fish.

The mule turned about to slow its approach.