Into the Loliverse ( Daemons, Act II) by Aunt Molly

Act II : Revised

***

The mule had slowed itself to a crawl, using only the directional thrusters to carefully position the small craft as close as was safe to the remains of the warship.

Even sliced in half the ship was quite impressive to behold. It was midnight black against the white of the moon it orbitted, one hundred meters long. It was sleek and predatory looking. They caught sight of the ship's name - the Barracuda.

They coasted to the back of the ship, part of engineering was still there, as well as a ladder. Everyone's personal differences had to be put aside, it was time for work. All five were in the crew cabin, suited and helmeted. Even Abraham found a small spot of floor amongst his smaller colleagues.

U2 guided the ship carefully, trying to match its speed with the Barracuda's drift. V2 launched a grappler, not a normal part of a mule's equipment to be certain, it was anticipated that it might be needed.

V2, Abraham and the mechanics went into the cargo hold and closed the door to the crew cabin tight. The four of them head the pumps pulling atmosphere out of the hold and into storage tanks. When the inside of the cargo hold was as empty of air as the hard vacuum outside Abraham opened the hatch and lowered himself to the outside of the mule.

He used magnetic boots to get to the cable, pulled taut between the ladder and their small ship. Then hand over hand he made his way to the warship.

V2 didn't bother walking and just launched herself from the hatch to the cable, catching it deftly.

Abraham chastised her over the radio, "Young lady, please be careful if you had missed -."

"Don't call me 'young lady', grump. I'm not a child! I didn't miss." V2 pulled herself hand over hand.

"I just don't want anyoneto take any unnecessary risks."

Azure came out next. She carried an adapter that would help the fuel cells to attach to the remains of the power cables.. A hook allowed it to be attached to the tether and Azure slid it down. Goldie then handed Azure a second, and Azure sent it on its way.

At the other end V2 retrieved them from the tether. and handed them to Abraham. Then came the spark fuel cells. The power cable was made of a kind of superconducting gel, and the same force that sliced the warship in half had cut the cables clean.

The adapter went on easily, and the fuel cell right after. Abraham walked across open deck that had once been the ceiling of the engine room., and attached the fuel cell to the other exposed cable. "Good. U2, we are going inside to disarm the ship. We'll call you when its done."

There was still the matter of an insane in the ship's computer and the sunlances. They all realized the very last thing in the command buffer might have been "Shrag Hab-6".

V2 shrugged, "Azure and I can handle the computer system. I figure we'll need an engineer to handle the nukes."

"All right - Goldie and I will go in first." Abraham and Goldie pulled themselves into the ship.

Azure radioed V2, "Wow, you seemed almost civil to him."

"I figure we're all in agreement that we don't want to go 'boom'.", V2 pulled herself inside.

Azure followed.

***

Emerald shook her head in disbelief, "Why? Why would they do that?"

"They sent a release as soon as the spex came back on. ' Due to unplanned population increase and unpredictable resource situation', I'm sending you a copy right now. I've sent several messages to them. All I get is a repeat of their official statement."

Emerald wanted to say something reassuring, and she hoped Ashley would say something wise. All they could do was lower their heads. A long heavy silence stretched between them.

"Is it always going to be like this?"

"No, there's water down on the planet, and we're near a sun. The smallest moon has weak enough gravity even a hopper could escape it. "

"The planet has no free oxygen on it The water is contaminated with sulfuric acid. The land has a high lead content. It's Hell down there."

"Naw - West Texas in August is Hell. This place is just a fixer-upper.", Emerald saw Ashley try to force a smile,

"We're all going to die."

"Of course we are - of old age, and our daughters and granddaughters holdin' our hands as we close our eyes one last time. When the folks from home finally get here again, they'll see a whole ring of loli habitats.."

A message appeared in Emerald's feild of vision, -Come to X-Utero offices immediately-

"Aw shrag. Sorry Ash gotta go. ", Emerald broke the connection. "Come on Cherry. "

***

Once inside the ship they found darkness. All four explorers turned on their headlamps. The room they were in was little more than a tube.The doors around them seemed to lead to crew bunks, based upon the bed symbol on the doors.

There was writing too, but the Ganymede language was derived from a simplified form of Japanese. Some of the doors were open revealing what for humans would be tiny Spartan rooms with double bunks. There were two more levels of crew quarters befor they reached the cafeteria.

The level seemed to be one large room, tables and chairs either magnetized or bolted to the floor. Food storage lined the circular room.

Absent mindedly V2 investigated the closets, finding them filled with the near immortal nutripouches. Small bags that would hydrate and cook their contents with the push of a small button on the upper right corner of the container. "Hey Azure - mac and cheese!" V2 held the plastic pouch aloft.

"V2, we need to focus on our jobs."

The corpse floated down from the ceiling, they hadn't expected it. It was a shriek from Goldie over the radio that called everyone's attention to it. A face not twisted with the agony of asphyxiation and cold, but covered in what looked to be electrical burns.

The body tumbled and floated about in its burned gray uniform. Goldie stared at the shoulder insignia, "He was a mechanic, like us. Even if they didn't use that title. He was close enough so it didn't matter."

Abraham gazed on it, "Probably on his way to engineering. The delf probably had access to anti boarding weapons, he turned them on the crew. "

Goldie seemed hypnotized by the tumbling body, "Shouldn't we do something? I mean we can't just leave them here?"

V2 bopped the body like it was a stray balloon, " I say we load every body we find onto the mule and take them back with us."

"And give them a proper mulching?"

" I was thinking he's made mostly of water, carbon, calcium, iron, salt, a few other useful elements. " V2, bopped the body again, "Materials the habitat needs a lot more than he does."

"You just see these people as meat don't you?"

"They aren't people any more space case. They don't think, they don't feel, they don't have opinions. Once we die, might as well cut us into steaks, its the most efficient way to recycle the body.."

Goldie put her hands on her hips, " Is that how you feel Azure?"

Azure stared at V2, she kind of had a point, these bodies couldn't protest to how they were treated any more "I umm - I think we should keep going we have a job to do."

***

Red, Yellow, and Blue were watching what was going on outside their clinic door. A few dozen angry lolis shouting for answers to their questions.

They'd been given answers. It was their emotions that were driving them. They didn't want answers, they wanted the clinicians to change their minds. There really was no arguing with them, when they were ready to accept the obvious, they would.

The humans consume food and oxygen at a much higher rate than lolis, and cut off from the rest of civilization there was no way to import food,water or oxygen should they run short. It would be irresponsible for them to create more people, if you could not even be sure you can feed the ones who are there.

Still, they did not have the heart to terminate gestations already in progress, and so to serve their clients the hallways need to be kept clear.

The resolvers showed up promptly. They confronted the protestors, and they started talking. They seemed to chat for a time, even laughed.

"Red, they aren't taking this seriously. "

"No Blue, I should have expected as much. Emerald, the green haired resolver, she was a client."

"I see. So her judgment is compromised. "

Yellow took a deep breath, "And police look out for their own."

"Its alright, I have a backup."

Red raised her eyebrows, "Legal?"

"We have the right to defend our home. Don't we?"

***

Azure didn't recognize the words but did see the symbol of a quantum crystal on the door seemed to indicate this might be the computer room. On the other side Azure saw the symbol of a gun, presumably the armory.

Abraham turned to Azure, "I guess this is your stop. Call us if you have any problems." Goldie and Abraham continued their ascent.

V2 was staring at the armory door.

"V2 come on. I need your help with this door.", meaning the computer room door.

Opening a panel near the door they found a hand crank Easy enough for a grump to turn, but for Lolis it took two of them. Slowly the doors to the computer room slid open.

Unlike Hab-6, the warship only had a single quantum crystal. It was not the whole computer by any means, but an important part. It held a large portion of the ship's permanent memory.

V2 approached it, cocking a helmeted head to one side, " So what do we do? Shrag it?"

"No, a quantum crystal is far too valuable. I'll remove it from the pedestal."

V2 tried to life it, she grunted with effor, "It won't budge."

Azure pulled out a tool about ten centimeters in length. Sliding a cord from the end she wrapped it around the pedestal and reattached it to the device. Normally the cord was perfectly safe to handle, but with power running through it, the cord collapsed into a wire, diamond teeth stuck out from the side.

Azure turned on the motor and the tool began to slice through the pedestal slowly.

"Will this kill the computer systems?"

"No, the ship has backup systems, but we won't be able to use spex. The ship wouldn't give us access to the local Spexnet in any event.."

V2 watched, silently, " How long is this going to take?"

Azure was silent for a momen, " Well, this device is built for cutting through pipe, so I have no idea. Why? Do you need to be somewhere?"

"I just wanted to check some things out. I hear Ganymede nutripouches are actually halfway decent for military food."

" Don't get lost."

" Yeah right. Up, down. I think I can handle it. "

Time passed. Azure was nearly through when Abraham and Goldie called back saying they'd reached the sunlance launch bay, and they would begin disarming the weapons immediately.

When the last bit of metal gave way, Azure turned off the device and detached the cord. She lifted the slice of pedestal and the quantum crystal. She then called back to the Mule. "U2, are you there?"

"Duh. Like, where was I going to go?"

"Just wanted you to know the crystal is detached. "

"Like, I am soo thrilled. Once Blondie and the geezer disarm the missiles I, like, get to push a button."

"Its not a thrill a minute here either. It actually pretty shragging creepy. There are bodies floating everywhere, and they did not die peacefully. "

"Well you, like, do your mechanic thing, and I'll, like, go back to painting my toenails."

It was then that V2 broke in " Azure, I found something, come out to the ladder, quickly..", her breathing sounded strained, like she'd been through a shock.

Azure let go of the crystal, it floated serenely in the air. She detached her magnetic boots from the floor and pushed off against the remains of the pedestal, floating towards the door. She caught it and held onto the frame.

"What? What is it?"

V2 just stood there. Through the helmet Azure could see a wicked smile on the pretty purple haired loli held her hands behind her back, then in a swift motion brought them foreword. a pistol in her hands, " Hands up - meat!"

***

The mob of lolis with their brightly colored hair would have seemed downright festive, if their faces weren't so serious.

"So will yah head off peaceful?"

The leader of the protestors was an older loli, streaks of gray hair. She'd been turned down for one reason or another at least half a dozen times, and told to 'apply again at a later date', now she'd hit her limit, "I just want something more complete than some random email. Its like they're afraid to face us.. "

Nother protester was braiding her long brown hair, "Or maybe they just think they are too good to answer our questions."

"Ah know. Ah was on the waitin' list too. If they don't feel like talkin' we can't force 'em. "

Cherry tugged on Emerald's sleeve, "Cherry needs to tell Emerald something."

"Just a minute Cherry. ", Emerald turned back to the protest leader, " Ah promise to bring yer concerns to the clinicians in person. "

"Cherry thinks Emerald really needs to see this."

"Cherry, yah got to learn hot tah use pronouns - holy shrag."

Two middle aged humans, balding and out of shape. had shown up. They began to push the crowd back. A few lolis snuck by only to be caught by a hooked arm. Compared to other humans they would not have been very impressive, but they were still much more powerful than the lolis they faced.

"Come on - move it along, clear out."

Cherry approached a human and cleared her throat, "Excuse Cherry - but Emerald and Cherry have this under control."

"Hey, the ladies in the clinic said you needed some help - so we're helping."

"Cherry says, resolvers have this under control.", Cherry stared at the grump angrily. The human ignored her.

Before Emerald could stop her impulsive partner, she leapt into the air with a near perfect flying kick - which the grump caught with one hand, Cherry hung upside down from that hand, hair brushing against the floor,

Emerald held her face in her hand, "Cherry, stand down."

"Emerald, Cherry would - if Cherry could stand."

Emerald turneed to the grump holding onto her partner's leg, "Sir, could you be so kind as to put mah partner down?"

The human righted Cherry then placed her gently on the ground. He then went back to helping his partner clear the halls.Pushing back a tide of angry lolis.

Emerald tried to catch the humans' attentions. "Excuse me, but we can't have two competin' groups enforcin' the law. So if ya'll could kindly clear out?"

Both humans continued shoving. A few lolis snuck by, only to be swept up by a hooked arm. There was no anger, it was more like putting an irritable child to bed. This annoyed Emerald, who on Earth had to endure several head patting and "Ain't you sweet? Are you their mascot? That badge looks almost real. "

' "Ma'am we were paid to clear the halls and that's what we're going to do."

Cherry subvocalized Emerald, << Cherry knows there is a security barrier near X-Utero >>, as a measure of last resort a resolver could cause thick composite doors to trap a violent person. Just as had been done at the Docking Bay a few days before.

<< No, we'd get lolis caught in it. Besides we want tah only use it if they are a threat tah public safety. >>

The protestors finally retreated, and the humans took point at either side of the X- Utero office door.

<>

***

Getting into the launch bay was the hard part. Disarming the weapons was easy. You simply had to remove the fuel cell. The weapon wasn't much more powerful than their twentieth century counterparts. What made it different was that it did not contain any fissionable material.

Goldie was surprised, it was the same type, and even brand of fuel cell as the one's they used. Small universe. Carefully removing the fuel cell and setting it aside, Goldie moved on to the next. There were a dozen or so left to go. "You're beating me."

"Its not a race young lady. Besides I've been doing this longer."

"Disarming sunlances?"

"Well, not specifically. " he removed another fuel cell. " I have been handling tools since before you were gestated. The Mission says it is important for each member to find useful work. Idle hands, so the old cliche' goes, are the devil's plaything.

There is something I've meant to ask you. You don't have to answer if its too personal. Do you have any clergy on Habitat Six?"

"No. When we had a ritual that involved the whole population it was usually Nana that led us. Most of the time things are pretty informal. When Nana died, the Mayor led the remembrance. She stumbles over her words sometimes, and she gets distracted, but we all know she means well."

"What about weddings and funerals?"

"Well with weddings we fill out a form that is submitted to the Mayor's office. The wedding ritual itself we have the mothers present the couple to friends and family, and then they make a public statement of commitment.

With funerals, loved ones make a few statements about the deceased. If its a euthing, the loved one herself leads the ritual. After all, it is her show."

"What about a spiritual crisis?"

"I don't know what other people do, but I take it up with my mom."

"I suppose that could work. I suppose I am used to thinking in terms of a community of faith. "

"We already have a community, and you're part of it."

"Our leader, Mother Rebecca, wants to make use of the chapel to hold formal services. Everyone is welcome to attend, but no one is required to. We don't want to have people running away from us every time they see us."

"Just apply to the mayor's office to reserve it. If you give them a week's notice you shouldn't have a problem. I know I will be there. I'd like to see an old-school church service."

"Word of warning - my brother and his husband couldn't carry a tune in a suitcase. ", Abraham removed the last fuel cell, "I think that's all of them.", Abraham called up the mule, "U2, are you there?"

"Like, no, I'm in, like, the Europan pleasure dome. Like, where do you think I am?"

"We've disarmed the ship."

"Like, swell - Azure, like, just called in. Now all I have to like figure out, do I push the physical button or a simulated button on spex? Decisions, decisions.""

The ship came to life. The gloom was replaced by soft emergency lights. Screens and control panels lit up.

***

Azure could hear her own heart beat in her ear. The weapon was quite small by grump standards, but sizable in the child-like hands of a loli. In fact there was something perverse about the large eyes doll face brandishing a tool of death.

With violence amongst loli so rare, the question was, "Why?"

V2 didn't explain, she just pulled the trigger. Instinctively Azure braced herself- but nothing happened. V2 then began to laugh hysterically, " You thought I was going to kill you! The gun can't fire. It has a detector in the trigger. it can identify the holder from the haptic implants in the fingers. "

"I wet my suit!"

"Don't worry, they've been built to handle that since the twentieth century."

"That's not the point! "

"If I gave it to you, could you reset it so that it would recognize me as a legitimate user?", V2 tossed the weapon to Azure.

"Yeah, it should be pretty straight foreword, but why would I?"

"Think of how you felt, just at that moment when you thought I was going to off you? I had absolute power over you. We can use these to make the grumps feel the same way.

Don't look at me like that, when we get back you can punish me any way you like 'mistress' "

"We don't need guns. You don't need guns."

V2 rolled her eyes, "You are as bad as space case and the fundy up there. Morality exists to keep weak minded people in check while the strong use money and violence to do as they please. The grumps are a lot bigger than us. You think they will accept our authority just because there are more of us? Because we saved them? Have you even read Earth history?

How many times has kindness been repaid with violence? The Crusades were about looting wealthy cities, the Conquestadors only cared about Inca gold, The Cherokee in North Amrica had earned legal recognition by the United States Supreme Court, but the US army pushed them west anyway. Civilized Athens was conquered by militant Sparta, which was conquered in turn by Rome.

Religion didn't save Isreal from the Assyrians and Babylonians.And what is the first thing that the Israeis did once their country was ressurected? They got nukes, and in 2025 they used them. How many examples do you need?

I'm sure the grumps willl invent some justification. They'll pat us on the head like good little lolis, 'Let the grownups handle the important stuff.' It'll be like life under the constructionists all over again.

Noble sentiment doesn't mean a thing. That thing in your hand, that will make us superior to the grumps. "

Azure examined the weapon. A G-36 Ganymede Gauss pistol. Firing needle like projectiles. Iron with an iridium core. Like tiny versions of the mass driver projectiles. Capable of auto-fire and semi auto-fire. The targeting system was able to be linked to spex. Even an untrained user could be a dead shot.

The first time Azure had seen a gun, in person, was when a member of Io's ruling council came to Hab-6 for a visit. He had half a dozen security guards. Which was silly, since the lolis were no threat to him.

The slick black uniforms made them very imposing, but Azure was curious about their weapons. She asked one of the guards what was it like to use them to, well, take a life? He didn't know. He'd only used his weapon in target practice so far. He hoped he could go his whole career without having to find out.

So did Azure. "We don't need them.", Azure tossed the weapon aside.

"I thought you believed in reality, not airy fairy ideals." V2 used the ladder to pull herself and deftly caught the weapon

"The other Violet won't let you on Hab 6 with that. I won't let you on the mule with that."

V2 tossed it aside, "Fine. Just remember, when the grumps pat us on the head and send us off like good little lolis while they do the 'important' things. You'll know - it didn't have to be that way."

The lights suddenly came on. They could not access the local spexnet, that would have been regulated through the quantum crystal she had just removed.

Azure then got a call from Goldie, "Azure, are you two done down there?"

"Yeah - we're fine."

"Why wouldn't you be fine? Your voice sounds shaky. Did something happen?"

"I just got startled by another body We're done here."

"Yeah its awful. Abe and I are going up to the bridge. "

"I am going to bring the crystal back to the mule."

V2 broke in "I can take it, why don't you help your friends on the bridge?"

Azure gave V2 a long, sharp stare.

"You act like you don't trust me. We're on the same side."

Goldie piped up, "Alright, that'd be swell. There probably won't be much trouble from here on - but it couldn't hurt."

"Goldie, about earlier - I "

"I forgot already. Come on."

Azure turned off the channel to Goldie and stared at V2, " We don't need them."

"Hey Azure, can I barrow that pipe cutter thingy?"

Through the transparent helmet Azure's eyebrows lowered, "Why?"

"Regardless of your morals, we are here to loot the ship, right?"

Azure tossed the pipe cutter to V2, then proceeded up the ladder.

***

In delfspace every delf has their own personal space, their own home in memory. Nana's took the form of a small cabin in a country setting.

Eliza searched through it for some clue as to where Puck's key could be. She didn't even know it was on this habitat. She'd already asked the daemons to find it - but they ignored her. The game was over. She was referee, not the alpha.

Eliza searched Nana's personal space and found nothing. Well almost nothing, In delfspace it appeared to be an old fashioned paper diary. A backup memory?

She normally had little problem invading other's privacy, but the delf as a race had shown Eliza nothing but kindness. Nana in particular was held in such reverence. Still, if anyone had the key is would have been Nana.

The very nature of delfspace was such that the key could itself be in the text of these pages. Everything was one form of information or another. It was Eliza's own mind that made it a diary.

The last entry:

No - How? How did she get that! I'd been looking everywhere!

Hid it from myself - myself and my child conspiring against me.

Someone on the habitat, a loli has it, but who?

***

Dr. Cyan called in Emerald and Cherry for a face to face meeting. Partly because Dr. Cyan thought in person conversation was healthier. Iit also meant that the people she was talking to couldn't just shut a window as soon as you didn't feel like talking. Third, it also got Cherry and Emerald away from a situation, that for now they could do nothing about.

"The problem is Emerald - I don't even know if what they are doing is even illegal. Its considered a basic right throughout civilized society that you can do what is necessary to defend your home or business. Its not as if they had used excessive force."

"Cherry and I were handlin' it."

"I'm sure you were, but X-Utero said you weren't taking the problem seriously. You were laughing and joking with the protestors."

"I was buildin' a rapport. "

"Dr. Cyan, Cherry wonders, what do lolis do if humans do not act nice?"

"Were gonna need some kind of weapon."

Dr. Cyan shook her head, "No! It was bad enough you used the cutting laser as a weapon."

"That was against robots. Ahm not talkin' about an assault rifle. Jus' somethin' to slow them down a bit. "

Dr. Cyan rubbed her eyes. "Alright - you can look into it. If I approve of a design, then we put it to a public vote. A change this big needs to be approved of as a community. I will tell the mayor. We'll need her approval too."

***

The bridge was filled with monitors and workstations. Spex made this pretty much unnecessary. You could use them to create a virtual workstation and control the ship from the lavatory or your bunk. Was it security or psychology?

The control panels themselves were just large touch screens. Bodies floated about. The captain was a stocky woman, who even in death had a determined face. As if her demise were merely some brief inconvenience.

Azure came onto the bridge, launching herself from the ladder and towards Abraham and Goldie, "So what's happening?"

Goldie turned to Azure, through the helmet Azure could see her yellow eyed friend biting her lip, " Well the power is on but the controls aren't responding."

"Abraham, grab the captain's body. The ship has a security feature it reads the haptic implants from the crew."

The old man seemed conflicted.

"We're trying to save what's left of her ship. Its what she would have wanted."

Abraham awkwardly grabbed the woman's body, pressing her hand to the navigation console. The screen lit up in response, however the icons were in Ganymede. The suite's computer had a translator, and soon icons in Terran Common Language floated above the Ganymede icons.

Awkwardly manipulating the body of the stocky captain, he began to push keys Breaking thrusters fired for a few seconds at a time. Bodies of crew member lurched forwards in their seats. It was gruesome as they briefly mimicked life.

A few more brief bursts of thrust. "That ought to do it. The orbit should be stable long enough to make regular trips."

Azure called U2, " We're coming home. U2? Respond please? "

They turned back to the ladder and found some emergency doors had closed around it. The ladder looked as if it had just stuck out of a solid floor.

Abraham went over to examine it, "Its probably air tight. An emergency blast door " He floated over to the ship's captain, "Sorry ma'am, but we need your help one last time.", but this time the controls didn't respond, to the captain's cold touch.

Goldie tried to call the Mule, "U2? Are you there? We're kind of stuck. We didn't think to bring cutting tools. You should find them in the back. U2 respond please?"

V2 did respond, "Guys - the mule is gone."