“So …” Moonlight shone into the room we all sat in, munching on our personalised foot I made for each and every one of us. “you really want to tell me that you can sent a letter over a hundred million kilometres with this sub-compressor thingy?” I asked, my fork in my bit of bloody beaf in shock.
“Yes?” He said, already halfway given up on trying to explain his technology to us.
“Okay … and if you write this letter with your machine, who carries it over?” Hannah asked curious, but also quite tired because we took far too long to get what a touch screen was.
“That’s … naturally the message is relayed through sub space.” He explained while I put a bit more meat into my mouth and chewed on it while thinking about what he said.
“Yeah. I get that. But how?” Hannah asked, clearly not getting what he wanted to say. I mean, how could he. I knew what the sub space was … but I had no fucking clue you could sent a letter through it either.
“Its like … a glass fibre cable! It’s the same principle.” And another new word nobody of us knew. He kept throwing them into the room, not even realising that it didn’t help at all.
“And what is that?” I asked and tilted my head.
“A cable to transmit information.” A cable could transmit information? Would they mark it? Or run on it to hand over the letter?
“So you have to install this cable for hundreds of million kilometres, just so you can sent a letter? That sounds quite tedious. Why not use a horse instead?” I asked which made him look at me as if I was dumb.
“Because … oh gosh is this hard. It is not physically written onto paper.” He said, holding his head in desperation.
“And how is the other person to read the message then?” I asked curiously. Were they making smoke signs instead?
“Because our written word is transformed into bits which is then transformed back at the other end.” Bits … was that a material I didn’t know?
“Bits? How many?” I asked, wondering how much more complicated he could make sending a letter. First were these machines, then alchemy to transform it into these bits and afterwards someone had to carry them as well.
“A million? Depends on the message.” A million? Wouldn’t that be quite heavy?
“Okay … I might get it now. They communicated with their other ships through cables they then used as a bridge to transport bits. Am I right?” I asked, finally feeling closer to the truth.
“No? Its not a physical cable either! It’s a wireless system!” He explained, completely desperate at this point.
“But you just said that its like a cable?”
“Because I … why is this world so backwards?”
“Hey? Just because we didn’t get to the moon yet?”
“No its everything. No social security, no healthcare, no universal basic income … nothing!”
“That’s sounds a lot like communism to me.”
“You know about communism?”
“Sure. Who doesn’t?” Looking around, I could see only questioning gazes, which did weird me out a bit. “Oh, come one. I’m sure I read a book from Karl Marks sometime ago. Never heard of him?”
“You know … Karl Marx?” That was the guy who wanted to incite a rebellion, wasn’t he? Well, he was also responsible for a lot of social progress, which was pro by why I was given his books in the first place.
“Jup.” I said and nodded right away, wondering where he knew that name from.
“Albert Einstein.” That sounded a lot like Albert … but no, I haven’t heard of him.
“Never heard of him.” I answered truthfully.
“Nietzsche.” He asked which made me think a little.
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” I answered, remembering the book I read around four hundred years ago.
“Adolf Hitler.” He asked, raising his eyebrows a little.
“Never heard of him.” I said and shook my head right away.
“Aristoteles?” Grabbing my chin a little, I thought hard until I remembered a few of his quotes.
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies … couldn’t agree less though.” I said. This was the quote that killed him for me.
“Immanuel Kant? Socrates? Confucius?” He asked, slowly figuring out a trend I didn’t know existed.
“Jup.” I said and nodded, still questioning wether he knew them from Solaris, or from his old world.
“Picard?” He asked shortly afterwards.
“Nope.”
“Adam Smith?” The invisible hand of the market … a classic to justify polluting the environment. Because the market will solve it themselves.
“Was that the guy with this hand metaphor?” I asked and tilted my head. Maybe there were others in his world who were called the same? After all, I read a lot of books … but the probability was rather low.
“How do you know all these people, but no person who etched their mark into history where I came from?” He asked after a little bit of thinking. He really did figure out the trend behind my knowledge.
“Huh? They are from your world?” I asked, just to confirm.
“… yes.” He admitted, looking at me very strangely.
“Fascinating.” Well, I didn’t knew anything about their history because it was quite frankly speaking unnecessary. But I knew their thinkers, who were important to understand the human mind.
“That’s all you have to say?” Yeah? Oh, nobody told him so far that I didn’t like to speak about my past at all.
“I have never once thought in my life that all the books I read were from Solaris. So yeah, that’s all I have to say.” I answered and looked at him a bit strangely as he ate the last bit of his pasta on his plate. “Going back to this machine gun thingy you were talking about.”
“Still haven’t understood it, slut?” The whore asked, revealing the nickname she had for me for the first time. Albert immediately stopped eating and looked at both of us shocked. “Its doing ‘pew pew pew’ and everyone is dead.”
“That’s the thing you understood from my explanation?” Well, even I had to admit that it was the gist of it …
“Ignore her. She is a bit dumb sometimes.”
“Whatever. I have no plan of building these.”
“I wouldn’t want you to do that anyway.” I had no way of defending against these after all. “I just want to ask you if it is hard to make these, and what materials are needed.”
“Well … the metal steel used in this world doesn’t have the right quality yet, so they would need to substitute most of it with adamantium. But otherwise, its not that hard to build one of these. I can give you a list of all the materials that they need if you want.”
“Yeah, that would be nice. Please, do hand it over to Tom right away.”
“Okay … is there anything else you need me for?”
“That depends … Tom, how many did the smith produce?”
“The three ballistas were made by a friend of his, but we couldn’t get our hands on enough mithril, so we only have around six spears done.”
“Hmm … hopefully that’s enough.”
“I don’t want to do any weapons …”
“I don’t think there have been many instances where someone said no to Lucinda’s requests. Do you know why?” Hannah asked, looking at him a bit condescendingly until he shook his head. “That’s because she knows your answer before she even asks.”
“But I just said no?”
“So you want your old friends to die if they cannot win against Olivia? I will not show them what I can do, so they are really on their own without your help.”
“You would let them die? I thought you needed them?”
“Not enough to shown the public what they don’t need to know. I am nothing but a mere saint, a moral compass for them, bit still powerless in the face of danger. Something they need to protect.” I answered and smiled brilliantly. Shortly afterwards, Albert had finished his meal, using the time he had gained this way to think.
“Okay … I’ll do it.” He said, looking at his plate a bit defeated. Standing up and walking over to him, I hugged his head and pulled it onto my bosom. He didn’t resist at all, but still went stiff as I did so. Letting go of him shortly afterwards, I went though his hairs with my fingers and patted his head.
“Thank you so much.” I said friendly squatted down a little to kiss his cheek lightly. He looked instantly, embarrassed by my behaviour but before he did so, I could see that he had enjoyed my actions, even though he wasn’t aware himself.
Looking over towards Hannah, I could see envy and a bit of fear in her eyes. This was apparently something she wanted me to do with her for a long time already, but showing her familial love would feel … fake. Doing it to Albert still didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t see him as my son either. Just as a distant relative.
And showing these feelings towards Hannah wouldn’t end well. She would know right away that they weren’t genuine unlike Albert who was naïve and hopefully would stay like that. Well, the chances for him staying the way he was weren’t that bad either. After all, the two hundred years Tom had lived through, he didn’t change at all.
“So …” Moonlight shone into the room we all sat in, munching on our personalised foot I made for each and every one of us. “you really want to tell me that you can sent a letter over a hundred million kilometres with this sub-compressor thingy?” I asked, my fork in my bit of bloody beaf in shock.
“Yes?” He said, already halfway given up on trying to explain his technology to us.
“Okay … and if you write this letter with your machine, who carries it over?” Hannah asked curious, but also quite tired because we took far too long to get what a touch screen was.
“That’s … naturally the message is relayed through sub space.” He explained while I put a bit more meat into my mouth and chewed on it while thinking about what he said.
“Yeah. I get that. But how?” Hannah asked, clearly not getting what he wanted to say. I mean, how could he. I knew what the sub space was … but I had no fucking clue you could sent a letter through it either.
“Its like … a glass fibre cable! It’s the same principle.” And another new word nobody of us knew. He kept throwing them into the room, not even realising that it didn’t help at all.
“And what is that?” I asked and tilted my head.
“A cable to transmit information.” A cable could transmit information? Would they mark it? Or run on it to hand over the letter?
“So you have to install this cable for hundreds of million kilometres, just so you can sent a letter? That sounds quite tedious. Why not use a horse instead?” I asked which made him look at me as if I was dumb.
“Because … oh gosh is this hard. It is not physically written onto paper.” He said, holding his head in desperation.
“And how is the other person to read the message then?” I asked curiously. Were they making smoke signs instead?
“Because our written word is transformed into bits which is then transformed back at the other end.” Bits … was that a material I didn’t know?
“Bits? How many?” I asked, wondering how much more complicated he could make sending a letter. First were these machines, then alchemy to transform it into these bits and afterwards someone had to carry them as well.
“A million? Depends on the message.” A million? Wouldn’t that be quite heavy?
“Okay … I might get it now. They communicated with their other ships through cables they then used as a bridge to transport bits. Am I right?” I asked, finally feeling closer to the truth.
“No? Its not a physical cable either! It’s a wireless system!” He explained, completely desperate at this point.
“But you just said that its like a cable?”
“Because I … why is this world so backwards?”
“Hey? Just because we didn’t get to the moon yet?”
“No its everything. No social security, no healthcare, no universal basic income … nothing!”
“That’s sounds a lot like communism to me.”
“You know about communism?”
“Sure. Who doesn’t?” Looking around, I could see only questioning gazes, which did weird me out a bit. “Oh, come one. I’m sure I read a book from Karl Marks sometime ago. Never heard of him?”
“You know … Karl Marx?” That was the guy who wanted to incite a rebellion, wasn’t he? Well, he was also responsible for a lot of social progress, which was pro by why I was given his books in the first place.
“Jup.” I said and nodded right away, wondering where he knew that name from.
“Albert Einstein.” That sounded a lot like Albert … but no, I haven’t heard of him.
“Never heard of him.” I answered truthfully.
“Nietzsche.” He asked which made me think a little.
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” I answered, remembering the book I read around four hundred years ago.
“Adolf Hitler.” He asked, raising his eyebrows a little.
“Never heard of him.” I said and shook my head right away.
“Aristoteles?” Grabbing my chin a little, I thought hard until I remembered a few of his quotes.
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies … couldn’t agree less though.” I said. This was the quote that killed him for me.
“Immanuel Kant? Socrates? Confucius?” He asked, slowly figuring out a trend I didn’t know existed.
“Jup.” I said and nodded, still questioning wether he knew them from Solaris, or from his old world.
“Picard?” He asked shortly afterwards.
“Nope.”
“Adam Smith?” The invisible hand of the market … a classic to justify polluting the environment. Because the market will solve it themselves.
“Was that the guy with this hand metaphor?” I asked and tilted my head. Maybe there were others in his world who were called the same? After all, I read a lot of books … but the probability was rather low.
“How do you know all these people, but no person who etched their mark into history where I came from?” He asked after a little bit of thinking. He really did figure out the trend behind my knowledge.
“Huh? They are from your world?” I asked, just to confirm.
“… yes.” He admitted, looking at me very strangely.
“Fascinating.” Well, I didn’t knew anything about their history because it was quite frankly speaking unnecessary. But I knew their thinkers, who were important to understand the human mind.
“That’s all you have to say?” Yeah? Oh, nobody told him so far that I didn’t like to speak about my past at all.
“I have never once thought in my life that all the books I read were from Solaris. So yeah, that’s all I have to say.” I answered and looked at him a bit strangely as he ate the last bit of his pasta on his plate. “Going back to this machine gun thingy you were talking about.”
“Still haven’t understood it, slut?” The whore asked, revealing the nickname she had for me for the first time. Albert immediately stopped eating and looked at both of us shocked. “Its doing ‘pew pew pew’ and everyone is dead.”
“That’s the thing you understood from my explanation?” Well, even I had to admit that it was the gist of it …
“Ignore her. She is a bit dumb sometimes.”
“Whatever. I have no plan of building these.”
“I wouldn’t want you to do that anyway.” I had no way of defending against these after all. “I just want to ask you if it is hard to make these, and what materials are needed.”
“Well … the metal steel used in this world doesn’t have the right quality yet, so they would need to substitute most of it with adamantium. But otherwise, its not that hard to build one of these. I can give you a list of all the materials that they need if you want.”
“Yeah, that would be nice. Please, do hand it over to Tom right away.”
“Okay … is there anything else you need me for?”
“That depends … Tom, how many did the smith produce?”
“The three ballistas were made by a friend of his, but we couldn’t get our hands on enough mithril, so we only have around six spears done.”
“Hmm … hopefully that’s enough.”
“I don’t want to do any weapons …”
“I don’t think there have been many instances where someone said no to Lucinda’s requests. Do you know why?” Hannah asked, looking at him a bit condescendingly until he shook his head. “That’s because she knows your answer before she even asks.”
“But I just said no?”
“So you want your old friends to die if they cannot win against Olivia? I will not show them what I can do, so they are really on their own without your help.”
“You would let them die? I thought you needed them?”
“Not enough to shown the public what they don’t need to know. I am nothing but a mere saint, a moral compass for them, bit still powerless in the face of danger. Something they need to protect.” I answered and smiled brilliantly. Shortly afterwards, Albert had finished his meal, using the time he had gained this way to think.
“Okay … I’ll do it.” He said, looking at his plate a bit defeated. Standing up and walking over to him, I hugged his head and pulled it onto my bosom. He didn’t resist at all, but still went stiff as I did so. Letting go of him shortly afterwards, I went though his hairs with my fingers and patted his head.
“Thank you so much.” I said friendly squatted down a little to kiss his cheek lightly. He looked instantly, embarrassed by my behaviour but before he did so, I could see that he had enjoyed my actions, even though he wasn’t aware himself.
Looking over towards Hannah, I could see envy and a bit of fear in her eyes. This was apparently something she wanted me to do with her for a long time already, but showing her familial love would feel … fake. Doing it to Albert still didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t see him as my son either. Just as a distant relative.
And showing these feelings towards Hannah wouldn’t end well. She would know right away that they weren’t genuine unlike Albert who was naïve and hopefully would stay like that. Well, the chances for him staying the way he was weren’t that bad either. After all, the two hundred years Tom had lived through, he didn’t change at all.
