{"id":3928,"date":"2025-03-12T12:49:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T19:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/?p=3928"},"modified":"2025-03-12T13:03:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T20:03:34","slug":"staying-grounded-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/staying-grounded-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"STAYING GROUNDED – PART TWO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo by LericDax<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PART TWO<\/b><\/h4>\n

Now:<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s true, then, that the Fae had no homeworld? They lived on Servitor ships?\u201d The Gertan girl \u2013 she seemed so young! \u2013 looks at Clare quizzically. \u201cOr\u2026 I guess that means they lived <\/span>in<\/span><\/i> Servitors? Since the ships are Servitors?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot all of them. Well, some of them \u2013 like Bram \u2013 believe that they came originally from the magical world of T\u00edr na n\u00d3g. Where magic worked and they could fly using their vestigial wings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat just sounds like religion? I mean, we had legends of T\u00edr na n\u00d3g back on Kuru.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clere chuckles. \u201cSo did we, on Earth. I bet you had legends of faeries too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gertan aide looks thoughtful, rummages in her box, and starts taking notes. Then she stops. \u201cThen where <\/span>did<\/span><\/i> they come from?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clere shrugs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then:<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThere, suture it good and tight.\u201d The old crone pointed her bony finger at one edge of the cut on her leg. Blood oozed past the stitches, and her skirt was flung immodestly up her thigh, but she didn\u2019t seem to care.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae grit her teeth and pushed the needle through the crepey skin. It tore when she pulled the thread tighter. The old woman winced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae flung the sewing kit down. \u201cThis is ridiculous. There has to be a better way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta stared at her. \u201cWhat better way? We\u2019re out of ointments, child.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to get infected, you know that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta tsk\u2019ed. \u201cAnd if it does, I\u2019ll catch the blood fever, and I\u2019ll set out some offering to the spirits of the ever night, and I\u2019ll sing my way through the veil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae sat back on her heels. \u201cAnd if it does, I\u2019ll be cleaning up your piss and wiping your arse and then dragging your stinky body to the nearest disposal chute.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAh, don\u2019t do so poorly by me, Shae! Drop me in a recycling vat, please, let me return to the cycle of nature.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae sighed exasperatedly. \u201cWhat nature? We live inside a giant robot that doesn\u2019t care we\u2019re alive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta\u2019s eyes narrowed. \u201cOh, they care. It is part of the Bargain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae kept her face impassive. \u201cOf course, the great Bargain struck with the Old Ones.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u201d Rosmerta said, drawing herself up. For a moment she looked like the witch from the House of Magic that she once was, before dwindling away to frailty. \u201cThe Servitors keep us all alive, because that was the Bargain struck with their masters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what we did we give those masters, in this bargain, eh? Because if I\u2019m to believe these bedtime stories, we must have struck a deal. We are bound by bargains, aren\u2019t we? Isn\u2019t that another part of all these old stories?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta looked at her, then came to a decision. \u201cHere, help me up.\u201d Shae got under the old Fae\u2019s arm, and Rosmerta grabbed her walking stick. It was a prized possession, made of actual wood and worn smooth with handling. \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time you understood some of the House of Magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The paths through the Servitor ship were dark, because they did not need light to follow their programming. Rosmerta led Shae on an unerring journey, up levels, past huge empty spaces where drones floated in endless zipping rows on endless inscrutable journeys. She led her past cathedrals of circuitry that glowed in colors Shae could not name. They stepped over a river of liquid that folded their souls as they passed over it, like fingers running along the inside of their spines.<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole way, the stitches came loose, and the leg bled more, and Rosmerta limped more and moved more slowly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe should go back,\u201d Shae said. \u201cI\u2019ll never find my way home if you can\u2019t guide me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta cackled. \u201cJust follow the trail of blood, my dear! But worry not, we are here. This is our chamber of mysteries on this ship.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And there past the doorway, was the dazzle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae hadn\u2019t seen it since she was a child and was orphaned \u2013 and never like this. The glittering black velvet and spray of gemstone stars. The diffuse tendrils of heated gases billowing in cosmic winds. The room was a semi-circle, with vast windows onto space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Standing around the room were Servitor types she had never seen before. Some were shiny and clean, and some were rusty. They had blades for feet and vicious corkscrews for fingers; antennae like insects and energy pulse cannons as forearms. Some hovered folded into balls, and others loomed, frozen mid-gesture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe House of Magic tries to keep the memory of our magicks from T\u00edr na n\u00d3g alive. But none of it works here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause magic isn\u2019t real,\u201d Shae said sourly. All this mysticism talk was ruining her amazement at the view. She gingerly walked past all the immobile Servitors. They were powered down, and she had learned early in her life to recognize when the robots were blind to her passage. When she reached the windows, she laid her palms and the tip of her nose against the window and stared into the abyss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNone of it works <\/span>here<\/span><\/i>,\u201d Rosmerta said. \u201cBut any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And with that she took her cane and rapped it smartly across the head of one of the Servitors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae turned in horror. \u201cWhat are you doing?!?\u201d She ran towards Rosmerta, but the old woman waved her off. It was too late anyway, as light flickered on under the joints and in the oddly shaped face of the Servitor. Limbs reconfigured with sine wave slides and servo smoothness, and the vast head turned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOrganic,\u201d the Servitor said. His voice was metallic, and Shae shivered. <\/span>They talk?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rosmerta inclined her head. \u201cServitor. I invoke the Bargain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no justification. Statistical models show that a sustainable population of your species exists on many worlds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta calmly said, \u201cOur local communal knowledge store is at risk of criticality threshold loss. Information transmission must be permitted to preserve cultural identity, per the Bargain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Servitor paused. \u201cLocalized knowledge of historical data is not critical to maintaining species level knowledge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur social structure requires one node to maintain privileged data for each established population center.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Servitor nodded. \u201cThis is in our data store. Clarify the risk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta hiked up her skirt, and extended her leg. \u201cThis node is at risk of neural collapse, in the event of contamination by foreign organisms causing systemic collapse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Servitor extended one of its impossibly jointed arms, then extended a projector digit from its forearm and played a beam over Rosmerta\u2019s leg. \u201cOrganic entity is correct that invasive species have begun colonization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta said again, \u201cI invoke the Bargain. I must have time to transmit knowledge to a new node according to our traditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOral transmission is inefficient. If this younger organic is the destination node, we could simply copy your neural net and overwrite.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae shrank back. She couldn\u2019t quite follow the conversation, but that didn\u2019t sound good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta shook her head. \u201cNot acceptable within our cultural norms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVery well. We offer a solution.\u201d The servitor extended his arm towards Rosmerta\u2019s head. Once extended, the forearm unfolded into a fan of six hyperprojectile cannons, and they began to spin around his arm. As they sped up, they charged up with an eerie glow.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as Shae screamed, the Servitor vaporized Rosmerta\u2019s head. Then he vaporized the rest of her.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he did it, Shae kept screaming, eyes shut, weeping, curled into a ball on the floor. She braced herself for the heat of a beam, for the sensation of molecular disassembly. She screamed until a hand came down on her shoulder. \u201cHush, girl.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was Rosmerta\u2019s voice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae opened her eyes. The Servitor was quiescent once more. There was a carbonized shadow on the floor. And outside the windows, peaceful endless space floated as it always had.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2026 how\u2026?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosmerta grinned. \u201cThe House of Magic never has figured out how to make our spells work here. But we have learned something of the magic of the Old Ones, and how to make the Bargain work for us. This, we call ReLifing.\u201d She looked better than before, less drawn, less ill. She tugged up her skirt and showed up her unblemished leg. \u201cSee?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Shae looked at the grinning old woman, and was suddenly <\/span>furious. <\/span><\/i>\u201cYou mean, you have had healing here this <\/span>whole time?<\/span><\/i> You have had the ability to <\/span>bring back the dead?<\/span><\/i> Like those children\u2019s <\/span>mother?<\/span><\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The grin faded from Rosmerta\u2019s face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean you could have <\/span>saved my parents?\u201d <\/span><\/i>Shae was weeping now, pounding her fists against the old woman\u2019s chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHold, child,\u201d Rosmerta said, and took her in an embrace. \u201cIt is time that you heard some difficult truths. This is not truly power. We exist by sufferance, and by the will of vanished gods. We can rules-lawyer at the edges of the Bargain, but not much more. And this, I will teach you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And with that, Rosmerta and Shae talked into the night, and Shae learned what was traded by the Fae, how to bargain with the Servitors, what became of the Old Ones, and, some say, she learned the location of lost T\u00edr na n\u00d3g.<\/span><\/p>\n

She also called Rosmerta a fucking asshole at least five times.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":217806712,"featured_media":3934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1462,1457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-lore-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Leric-Dax_Ship-Interior.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdLeGO-11m","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217806712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starsreach.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}