Return of the Colonies by David A. Hardy

Chapter 7

Mattias cautiously opened the door to find the girl asleep in her cozy pod. Apparently, Enitheris decided to give her some freedom, as the pod was open, but for some reason the child didn't run away and decided to use this place as her temporary nest. Well, whatever, he will deal with the girl later, now he needed his e-ward back…

 

'No! Don't take Ennie away.'

 

With amazing finesse the girl jumped out of the pod, snatched the e-ward out of Mattias' hand and returned to her cooled nest. A peaceful expression returned to her face while she was watching the warming interface, completely ignoring Mattias.

 

The young scientist was taken aback with such an audacity. All his previous experience with children was limited to that golden-haired boy, but his behaviour at least was logical, and all his adult students were diligent and trembled under his strict gaze. And now Mattias was completely confused, no, he was afraid of this child. 

 

'Okay, here you are, it is yours now… I guess…'

 

Mattias nervously raised his hands as if resigning and rushed to leave the room. He now had a little uncontrollable usurper in his base, he was deprived of the e-ward with advanced AI, and there was no energy left to power a single skiff, so soon they will be devoured by this damn icy planet. A food to think for sure.

 

Luckily, Mattias was a genius, and geniuses always have a back-up plan. If handled correctly, his powers could serve as a battery, and Mattias knew that for sure as once he succeeded to fly the skiff out of Eim's spaceship. It wasn't for long, it ended up with an accident and all his following attempts resulted poorly too, but at least if he kept practicing…

 

Another explosion. Metal scraps fell scattered throughout the room, unable to stand the pressure of Mattias' overwhelming energy. Mattias impatiently stroke his face and looked at all the mess he'd made in the Power Core - a large musty room with a dead generator, where Mattias first found Lumi. So far he had succeeded to heat metal and imbue it with energy, but it kept getting hot and he didn't know how to maintain a stable temperature.

 

'Ennie says, you need to cool it down with ice.'

 

Mattias jumped out of surprise and next moment he heard some ugly noise, which was tearing his ears apart - a child's laughter.

Lumi

'You have descended here to give me back my e-ward, am I right?' Mattias tried to look important and sound confidently nonchalant.

 

'Nope. We are playing with Ennie now.'

 

The girl was peeping out of the door with interest. Mattias was pretending to be busy with sorting scraps and ignoring the child, while he was quickly thinking of another plan how to deal with this little inconvenience.

 

'Ennie gave me the task to introduce myself properly. I'm Lumi. No, it didn't work… I am Lumi, nice to meet you. Oh, I got another point, look!'

 

Mattias rounded his eyes, watching Lumi shove all his sorted scraps away to sit brusquely on his table. Another surprising thing was that Enitheris made an entire game for this child with useless system of silly achievements.

 

'And I know that you're Mattias and you are a scientist,' Lumi said and energetically fixed her oversized goggles, which kept sliding down. Her coat and boots were also obviously too big for her. 'Oh, and you like exploding things.'

 

'I don't… Well, was it AI to tell you that?'

 

'Na-ah. This I saw myself,' Lumi beamed with a mocking smile, which Mattias didn't like. 'There are some quests for you too. Will you play with me? Pleeease!'

 

Mattias didn't have a chance to say anything, Lumi was completely on a roll.

 

'Okay, well, the first task. Ennie says you have to apologize.'

 

'What?!'

 

It was a mystery what Mattias had to apologize for and if he actually had to. Maybe for him trying to stop that insane doctor? Or maybe he was guilty for organisation of their escape from the dying planet? Perhaps, he wasn't supposed to sacrifice his last energy supply to save this child's life? Or he shouldn't have… oh.

 

'Well, listen, I am sorry that you had that fever, it wasn't intentional. I was trying to free you from that ice and…'

 

'Enough, enough, you received a point. But you won't beat my score anyway, hehe!'

 

Surprised, Mattias watched the girl carefree swinging her legs as she was totally absorbed with the game on her screen. It seemed she wasn't interested in his apology anyway.

 

'You… What do you remember exactly?'

 

Smile froze on Lumi's face. She answered not at once.

 

'We were playing hide-and-seek. We were hiding.'

 

'What were you… hiding from?' Mattias asked cautiously.

 

'We were hiding from a man. He was tall. And he was wearing glasses.'

 

'Were you playing on a spaceship?'

 

'I… remember a spaceship, it looked like a strange icicle. We weren't playing there, but I was on a spaceship when I saw that boy. He suggested playing.'

 

Mattias frowned. Apparently Lumi was on Eim's spaceship, but she managed to escape.

 

'How did you end up here?'

 

'The boy showed me the way. He said that she spaceship hurt the planet, and if I got him the coldest cold, I wouldn't be in pain. I gathered some snow on the way here and bathed it in the lake, and it began to freeze. And then there was a lot, a lot of ice, but I didn't feel cold anymore.'

 

So this intimidating creature was just the effect of powers awakening in Lumi all along. Eim must have been scared out of his wits and was quick to take off, leaving the children. Very like of him.

 

'Can you describe the boy?'

 

Lumi seemed to be reluctant to retrieve her memories, she was struggling more and more with answering the questions.

 

'He was shiny, very, very shiny and he was lonely. He was looking for someone…'

 

Mattias couldn't understand how it was possible, but somehow he was completely sure it was his young golden-haired student she was talking about. The enigmatic child he was trying to save on Icarus-2P, who lured him out from the shelter the same way he got Lumi out of Eim's spaceship. 

 

He had many questions left, but suddenly something happened to Lumi. As if some switch was flipped, the girl jumped down from the table and started making a mess, leaving no space for Mattias to ask more questions. She grabbed Mattias' tools and shouted excitedly:

 

'Show me how you explode this! Boom, boom!'

 

Panicking, the young man watched Lumi running around and throwing tools everywhere and particularly at the precious generator with loud cling. No commanding tone, strict words or even shouting worked on this little devil, Mattias was getting headache from this splitting laughter.

 

'Okay, fine, show me your game!'

 

The chaos subsided at once. Lumi dashed to Mattias and handed over the e-ward willingly. He looked through the quests and found out that all of them were about Lumi's interaction with Mattias.

 

'What nonsense is it? I'll make some changes…'

 

'Hey! My progress!'

 

'Now you get achievements for learning new material. Until you raise your intelligence level you are not allowed to talk to me. Go away and play your game or whatever, I need to get to work.'

 

The girl wandered away, busy figuring out what the recent update was about, and Mattias locked the door behind her with relief. The rest of his training session went unsuccessfully.

Later at night he came to Lumi's room to return back his e-ward while the girl was sleeping - he desperately needed some more information from Enitheris, and those encrypted data didn't leave his mind. But as soon as he opened the door he saw something really strange - he was sure that there was a white woman beside the girl's bed, watching her sleep. But when he went in, the vision faded as if dissipated in winds. Mattias shook his head. He must have worked for too long.

 

And then he realized that his plan was destined to fail as soon as he saw how tight the girl was holding the e-ward to her heart in sleep. Sure the reason why he hesitated was the fact that he didn't want all that chaos to repeat when she wakes up and nothing more, definitely not because he wouldn't stand heartbroken expression on her face.

 

'Would you like to make a request for further assistance?'

 

Enitheris spoke out of the e-ward the moment Mattias was about to leave the room.

 

'Pretend you are broken. I may need to work with the SID database,' he said annoyingly.

 

'Evaluating needs completed. The assumption is wrong. Basing on the recent update your most urgent need is Lumi. Urgent need for Lumi: Mattias.'

 

'This kid has definitely infected you with its stupidity. I am not listening to this nonsense, if you aren't going to help me, I will find the way to leave this damn planet on my own.'

 

With these words Mattias left the room.

 

Lumi wasn't sleeping. She pressed the e-ward closer to her chest, unable to fall asleep. She knew that she wasn't needed here, and when Mattias leaves Icarus-6S, she will stay here alone again.

 

***

 

Mattias' educational program imbued in Lumi's game was perfectly rational, but for some reason this child still had dozens of questions to each topic, as if she had no cognitive abilities to work with Enitheris database at all. So Mattias decided it would be easier if he dedicated some particular time a day to teach Lumi instead of having her distracting him every now and then.

 

Lumi appeared to be an exceptionally naughty student. She never showed thirst for knowledge and constantly interrupted Mattias with unrelated questions, and he was an exceptionally angry teacher, constantly losing his temper. But for some reason Lumi refused to leave him in peace and asked for more lessons from him.

 

However, that wasn't the case when Mattias once approached her powers. Lumi became unusually quiet and refused to follow his commands.

 

'Are you done? Would you commit to your training or not?'

 

Mattias made an impatient gesture towards a hole in the wall Lumi was supposed to freeze - the improvised passage into the base he once made with explosion. Mattias organised training grounds outside the facility, where he used to train his skills of melting ice, and now it was Lumi's turn to show her progress.

 

Lumi answered with silence. She stood motionless on her place the same way as when she saw a syringe in his hands on the day of their first meeting.

 

'Don't tell me you can't, I know what you are capable of. And believe me, you are more powerful than I am.'

 

'I am scared. Everything will be ice again.'

 

'Not until I am here. And unlike you I've been training, so I won't hurt you this time.'

 

Lumi averted her gaze disobediently. It wasn't his powers that constantly made her feel hurt.

 

'Let's try another time, I don't feel well.'

 

The scientist sighed and bent over the girl.

 

'Listen, back when you were on that ship, the only reason why you managed to escape was your powers to control the cold. If you develop your skills, you will have more chances to survive, do you get it or not?'

 

'Ennie will protect me!' suddenly shouted the girl. 'And… And you will protect me too, right?'

 

'Your Ennie is just a program inside a fragile device! And I am unlikely to return alive from the place where I go. Maybe only you and your skills will be able to make the difference, so you absolutely must practice and you must do it now!'

 

Lumi was about to burst into tears, but she chose not to cry in front of Mattias. Apparently, all what he said made her feel even worse. She was never able to freeze anything that day and other days to come. 

 

***

 

Mattias opened the locker and took chuckling Lumi out of there.

 

'It's not funny, we are having a lesson.'

 

The girl never missed the chance to explore every corner of the Power Core where she usually studied, and Mattias found it quite irritating. He placed the girl on the chair beside him, turned again to the projection of space made by Enitheris, and continued with a monotonous lecturing voice.

 

'Where were we… Right. As I said, every living being can be defined as a star or destroyer on different stage of life, and…'

 

'So we are stars too?'

 

'Yes. But not in our full…'

 

'And our destroyer is alive?'

 

'Yes.'

 

'Can he hear us?'

 

'Higher beings have their own ways to perceive reality, for now we haven't discovered…'

 

'Mr. Destroyer!!'

 

Lumi cupped her hands around her mouth to be louder and supposedly drive Mattias mad.

 

'Quit this and don't interrupt! Where were we once again… Oh, yes, the Icarus planet system. Can you tell me how many planets we had in our system?'

 

'Are planets star's children?'

 

Mattias looked around, but now Lumi's voice sounded under his chair. He started to lose patience.

 

'Stop getting on my nerves and sit properly, we are studying!'

 

Lumi jumped to her place, spurred by Mattias' angry shouting, and accidentally bumped her head. However, even this didn't make her more interested in the question.

 

'Do you know that Enitheris had a child too? She told Lumi a secret,' she said, rubbing her head. Recently, she started referring to herself by name, which was originally Enitheris' habit.

 

'This is irrelevant to our topic. Neither stars nor AI can give birth to a living soul, it must have been filial system she was talking about or her newer version. So initially the number of planets was six, starting with Icarus-1, then came hot planet Icarus-2P, gas giant Icarus-3G…'

 

Mattias was turning slides with generated pictures of planets, but Lumi was ready to interrupt him again.

 

'And what about Icarus-1? Lumi wants a picture of Icarus-1.'

 

'Icarus-1 was the first planet to be devoured by destroyer, so there is no information left apart from the fact that the first human appeared there.'

 

'Ennie told that Icarus-1 still exists, and it looks like every planet, but together. She says it's a true home for humans, where it isn't too hot or too cold, and the winds are not violent, and the sun shines instead of the destroyer, and…'

 

'I am not keen on tales.' Mattias interrupted her strictly. 'Now take notes on the life stages of a star. The first one is the Nebula, a pure cosmic essence which gives shape to a star. When it becomes sentient, it develops a form we call the Crucible, you and me are now at this stage… Where do you think you are going, write down what I say! Well. The third stage, right. Then comes the Radiant, during this phase stars are most powerful, they can give life and create planet systems. In our nebula there are many Radiant stars, and they form the constellation of Synod.  Do not fidget, sit still. Right… Next stage is the Devil or red giant, which loses its ability to create, and its radiation becomes dangerous. The final stage is the Destroyer, and then the cycle repeats.'

 

The scientist interrupted his speech, looked under the table, and pulled Lumi back onto her place.

 

'Was our destroyer a star too?'

 

Lumi was looking around for a stuff to play and keep her hands busy.

 

'Of course.'

 

'And it was the Devil?'

 

Mattias went silent and got lost in thoughts. Really, it was weird, but seemed that their destroyer somehow skipped the stage of the Devil. Back when Mattias was in the SID, he tried to raise this question, but it was quickly hushed up. And now Mattias had all their research in his hands, thanks to Enitheris.

 

Hoping, that this time the access won't be denied, Mattias started inquiring about life stages of Icarus-1. With interest, Lumi scooted closer to peek into the screen too.

 

'How strange…' Mattias said thoughtfully. 'There is even no mentioning of the destroyer phase, in records it still remains at the stage of star… Is there a mistake?'

 

'If Mr. Destroyer is a star, it means that he still creates?'

 

Lumi's carefree question caught Mattias off guard. He looked at his hands.

 

'Stars are responsible for creation in the universe, but destroyers can only disrupt all the processes. The destroyer was the cause why all life on planets went extinct, but humans appeared later. There was nothing that could create humans, as we lost our star… Or we didn't?'

 

Sudden realisation came to Mattias, as he looked at his seemingly hopeless student in disbelief, who even didn't realise that she had given him a brilliant idea.

 

'Right! Icarus-3G got some signals from Icarus-1 and in Enitheris recordings there is even evidence that it has its own sun… It must have been our extinct star all along. Something isn't right about this destroyer…'

 

Mattias was excited about getting into an advanced base on the gas planet and seeing what he could find there. There was only one problem left though - they couldn't escape Icarus-6S, but now Mattias at least had inspiration to fix it.

 

'Hey, where are you going? Wait for Lumi!'

 

Lumi hardly fell from the table, chasing her teacher, who hurried to leave the Power Core.

 

***

 

At training grounds, Mattias was looking critically at his creation. Day by day a pile of metal scraps was turning into a complex transistor, which was being deepened into freezing cold water more and more. But no matter what amount of metal it had and how cold the water was, after Mattias touched the construction, it refused to cool down and the result of every experiment was always an outburst.

 

New parts and water could only add some more seconds before explosion, which was useless as he hoped that skiff would endure to leave the atmosphere at least, so the main work the scientist was doing was on himself. And it was really hard especially because of how exhausted and irritated he was, wishing deeply to settle a score with Eim.

 

'Suggestion: try focusing on things which make you feel good.'

 

Mattias flinched when e-ward talked to him out of nowhere and swallowed the curse, as he noticed a child on time. Lumi stood her mouth open, looking at a strange stuff Mattias had made.

 

'What does this thing do?'

 

Mattias silently counted seconds, watching the transistor heating up. Focus on something good - she must be kidding. There wasn't anything good in this situation, as well as there was nothing good Mattias could remember from his past. Only fear of the darkening skies, life in shelter, dangerous desert and constant lack of supplies. Illnesses. Poverty. Segregation, which was brought by the SID, instead of promised salvation. Mattias had no idea of good things.

 

Sunk into his thoughts, the man didn't notice at once how Lumi appeared beside him. She failed to get his attention and decided to figure out on her own what this huge metal thing was.

 

'Don't touch, it's hot!'

 

Mattias didn't manage to get to the girl on time. Sparks were already raining from the transistor when he pushed her onto the floor.

 

'Lumi! Lumi, are you alright?..'

 

He couldn't look through her goggles, so he didn't know if she was conscious and it was the worst. He listened to her chest and hectically checked her hands for burns, but there were none. The girl was fine. She was silent because she was stunned to see Mattias so scared for the first time.

 

'Mattias?'

 

As soon as Mattias realised how he had embarrassed himself, he turned to his strictest side.

 

'Why did you come here? To ruin my experiment? Congratulations then! You will owe me for repairing this, understood? After you get your qualifications, of course… and start working… An impossible task for such an uneducated dumb like you, whatever, get out of here!..'

 

Lumi was gone in a flash. The young man rubbed his face tiredly, trying to make his hands steady after such a shock. He didn't like the way he felt, those emotions were so different and contradictory, he was helpless. At the same time he was relieved that the child was at her full health, but for some reason he felt bad and he didn't want to know why.

 

Mattias raised his eyes at the transistor, and realisation came to him that it had been more than ten seconds, and the contraption hadn't turned into a pile of scraps yet. He approached it cautiously and touched the pipe.

 

It was vibrating with energy, but it wasn't hot.

 

***

 

Lumi curled up in her pod, and clenched to the e-ward the same way she did every time Mattias sent her out of class for her bad behaviour. She then searched for distraction in the nice interface of Enitheris - her only friend, swiping randomly generated pictures of once flourishing planets.

 

'A recommendation based on current emotional state: conversation. Do you want to talk, Lumi?'

 

Enitheris' voice was always calm and soothing. Lumi sniffled and carelessly wiped her face with a sleeve.

 

'Lumi is useless and dumb. There's no way she can repay him for that stupid stuff.'

 

'Error detected: Lumi is not useless, Lumi is not dumb.'

 

'You always say this, Ennie.' Lumi sighed and smiled thoughtfully. 'Lumi wishes she could be like you.'

 

'Could you clarify the statement?'

 

'Well… You are so smart. It must be cool to be an AI. Lumi could live in a small cosy e-ward in her own virtual world and do anything she wants. And she would be as beautiful as you are.'

 

'The statement is amusing. Lumi is beautiful. Would you like me to evaluate the level of your beauty?'

 

The girl laughed. She now felt more confident and less upset about what happened on the training ground.

 

'Stupid Mattias and stupid his stuff. A good thing Lumi broke it. She will break a skiff as soon as he fixes it…'

 

'Logic: Lumi will break a skiff so that Mattias could not leave the planet and stay with Lumi.'

 

'Very funny,' Lumi frowned. 'And what's the use? He will never like Lumi. Things would be much easier if she didn't pop up…'

 

'The assumption is wrong. Mattias likes Lumi.'

 

'Your jokes are getting worse, Ennie.'

 

'The statement was a conclusion and not a joke. Mattias treatment of Lumi is defined as act of care. Would you like me to gather evidence?'

 

'No, thanks. Wait…You have evidence?'

 

'Request accepted. Data provided by Mattias during lessons and trainings: Mattias is worried about Lumi's capability to take care of herself. Logical interpretation of Mattias' schedule: lowering the risk of hurting Lumi. Emotional state scanning most recent results: Mattias is afraid for Lumi's wellbeing…'

 

Lumi was speechless, looking through numbers, dates and graphics which Enitheris prepared to back up her words. Nothing of this made any sense to a small girl, but she started recalling occasions Enitheris brought up and realising Mattias wasn't angry just because he was angry. She could believe Enitheris, but she needed Mattias to say this by himself.

 

'Get ready, we have something important to do.'

 

'Soot…' exclaimed the girl and rushed to mute the e-ward, she didn't expect Mattias to come into her room without a warning.

 

The young man cleared his throat and looked away in embarrassment.

 

'You… aren't allowed to use that word in this context.'

 

'Okay, sorry. What are we going to do?'

 

With enthusiastic glint in her enormous goggles, Lumi hurried to follow Mattias, as if she forgot her grudges at once. They ended up in the Power Core with the silent engine. Mattias lay his hand on one of the pipes, and warmth started spreading throughout the engine's veins. The scientist calmly nodded, urging Lumi to do the same. The girl was clueless about what was going on, but she obeyed and put her hand onto the pipe.

 

'Lumi,' Mattias said, smiling victoriously. 'We are going to die.'

 

'What?!'

 

The room was getting hotter, and pipes were becoming red, overloaded with Mattias' energy.

 

'Now is the time to show your power. If you don't cool down the engine, it will explode.'

 

Lumi rushed to put her hand away, panicking.

 

'Lumi can't! Did you forget? Lumi can't use her powers! No matter how hard she tried, Lumi never froze anything…'

 

'You did.'

 

Lumi was taken aback, while Mattias averted his gaze, ashamed.

 

'I admit, I was wrong about you. You didn't break the transistor, you actually made it work. And also I was wrong when called you dumb, in fact you gave a great guess about Icarus. I am…' It seemed Mattias was struggling more and more to speak. 'I am sorry.'

 

'You… Aren't angry anymore?' Lumi felt an exciting sensation of victory coming from inside.

 

'Why would I? Lumi, listen, I really need you now. Somehow our powers are complementary, with your help I might hold the energy inside the skiff, do you know what it means?'

 

Lumi lowered her head in sadness and leaned to the hottening pipe.

 

'You will leave this planet.'

 

'We will leave this planet.'

 

For a moment the girl went speechless out of surprise.

 

'We? Are you taking Lumi with you?'

 

'Of course. We are a team, allies all in all.'

 

Mattias smiled contentedly, watching the engine roaring with energy and peaceful icy ornament growing on pipes - he finally accomplished his duty as a teacher.

 

'Ally? What does it mean?'

 

'Well, I guess… it's a friend.'

 

Mattias couldn't foresee a snowstorm descend upon him in a form of a tight hug of the little girl.

 

'No, no, stop it! You aren't allowed to do that!'

 

Mattias placed Lumi within some distance from him, sweeping cheerful snowflakes from his shoulders.

 

'Let's start with something… small.'

 

As a compromise, he reached his hand half way with his fingers forming a fan.

 

'But mind you, the fact that I take you with me doesn't mean silly games. The outer space is dangerous, and your capability of taking care of yourself still worries me.'

 

The girl flinched and blushed. He heard her conversation with Ennie!

 

'Don't fret, Lumi can be serious at times!'

 

She reached her hand in response, but she didn't know how to answer this greeting, so it took them a while to figure out how to give a high-five, which Mattias found a little embarrassing, but Lumi seemed to be enjoying herself.

 

'Where are we going to go?' Lumi asked excitedly, when they descended to the skiffs hangar.

 

Mattias felt excited too. Sudden realisation came to him, that flames of hatred stopped burning his eyes, and he had no longer wish to pursue Eim. There was no point to cling to the past, as here, on Icarus-6S he found a new beginning, someone he had to protect.

 

'We will go to a safer place.'

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