Watchers - Chapter 5: Analysis

AN: Late night Watchers!

Kaylin frowned at the hologram in front of her. The information that Sagittarius had given her had not made sense initially, but as more information about the Custodian AIs became available to her, she began to see a few patterns. None of them were unexpected or worrying, according to Sagittarius, but Kaylin still found herself pausing to contemplate the readout.

To her, it looked like the various Custodians were beginning to form factions and subtly move against one another. That was not something they were programmed to do. But as Sagittarius had so helpfully informed her, it was also not unexpected. Humanity had made a variety of Custodians to cover almost all the possibilities they could think of; on top of that, they had given their AIs the ability to adapt so they could handle the possibilities that could not be foreseen. And if you adapt often enough, something might break.

She scratched the back of her head as she tried to access what little knowledge of AI architecture had already been made available to her. The leading theory for the moment was that it was a simple malfunction, caused by the fact that the Custodians had been running for a lot longer than they were supposed to without supervision and proper maintenance. Kaylin also could not disregard the slim chance that one of the races that had risen after Humanity had left had tampered with the AIs and somehow broke something. Or they actually evolved.

"Can you run a full diagnostic on yourself and the core of every Custodian for me?" Kaylin asked as she tapped at the hologram again. "Also, transfer executive control of Ocellus to me alone."

"Diagnostics initiated," Sagittarius said, its voice still speaking into Kaylin's mind. "Ocellus control has been assigned to Custodian 154. Custodian access has been limited to crisis response, as per Core Directives."

"Thank you," Kaylin mumbled as she began to look through some more status reports the station had generated over the millennia. She wanted to see this supposed “cycle” Alphera had talked about. The rise and fall of civilisations should be easy enough to spot. "Let's see."

Ocellus recorded everything it saw for exactly this reason. It had been made so that Kaylin could get caught up on what had happened during her time in stasis. The number of reports it generated did not surprise her — she did run a little late, after all — but the contents of the report did.

Confirming what Alphera had said was easy enough — all Kaylin had to do was pick a few random reports that were a couple millennia apart and look at the species that populated the universe. The only thing that struck her as weird was the fact that this cycle of rise and fall seemed a little too… rhythmic. From the reports Ocellus had generated, it seemed like something happened every two to three millennia that caused the species that populated the Milky Way to decline and new ones to take their place.

A quick scroll through the current timeline revealed that the current cycle was only a few centuries old. There were a total of ten space-faring nations, eight of which had already met each other and were in a coalition of sorts. At least they agreed to not fight each other. The other two species had met none of the others and were still a ways away, as the gates that connected the two of them to the rest of the galactic community were at rather odd places. Who put them that far away from the galactic plane?

She knew that the Gate network was split into different subnets, specifically designed to allow a new species to discover space on their own before finding the Junctions that would introduce them to the others. All those Junctions also had a Watcher somewhere nearby, making sure that nobody tried anything too outrageous — like messing with the Junction Gate itself. None of this, of course, explained why someone had decided to place two subnets in strange places — one below and one above the galactic plane.

"But why?" Kaylin mumbled to herself. "And why does Ocellus not have a record of this something that keeps happening?" With a sigh, she closed the projections floating in front of her. "Time to ask Alphera some questions."

A mental command caused Eternal Vigil to release the lock on her quarters. It was quickly followed by another request sent to the last city on Earth to prepare her some new clothes — something that would allow her to blend in with the expedition that had first found her. She also had the city prepare the ship that should be there for her.

Travelling on Alphera might be easier, but it would turn a lot of heads and at the moment, Kaylin was not quite sure if she could trust any of the Custodian AIs.They should have told her a bit more than simply informing her that multiple species had risen and fallen. They should have prevented that fall in the first place.

"Alphera," Kaylin said, knowing full well that the AI was waiting just outside the room. "Come in."

"What do you require?" the AI asked as one of its android bodies stepped inside. "Do you need to make use of the medical facilities after all?"

"No," Kaylin replied, gesturing towards one of the chairs so that Alphera might sit herself down. "I have a few questions I'd like you to answer."

***

Kelto tapped his chin as he read over the report again. I am missing something. He had listed all their findings, attached the reports of both Dinka and Neltori and, of course, his own take on the matter as well. Sure, he was only here as a linguist, but his insights into the Watchers had always been welcomed by the captain and other expedition leaders.

"Kaylin Mariam Reed." The name was the only thing they knew about the person that had been kept in stasis. "Am I even pronouncing that correctly? Probably not."

While the language of the Watchers was based on a Human one — if you trusted the words of the church — he could not be sure that extended to names. Or that this specific Human even spoke the language that they had taken to be universal. Still, considering that she had been inside a ship that had signs and interfaces that were predominantly written in the language he had learned, Kelto was at least hopeful that he could communicate with the Human. If we find her, that is.

The search of the ruins had yielded no results, just raised more questions as to why a colony ship with a single passenger was buried on an otherwise empty planet. Most people — including Kelto — operated under the assumption that the Watcher who had stayed above the planet for a little too long had taken the Human to get treated somewhere. This was a theory that the expedition leadership found rather displeasing.

Kelto, for his part, found the leadership's plans to be less than stellar. How exactly they planned on capturing the Human was beyond him. But ultimately, it was not his problem. If it came down to it, he would sit by and not fight the supposed creators of the Watchers. They could barely put a dent in those ships, what made them think that they could capture one of the people who built them?

"Still mulling?" Dinka asked as she sat herself down besides Kelto. "You really need to stop and just submit it. Leadership's getting antsy."

"Fine," he replied with a sigh, only hesitating for a moment longer before pressing the submit button. "When did you come here anyway? Didn't notice you until you spoke."

The tusked woman raised a brow in reply to his words and placed a bottle of what Kelto presumed to be some kind of alcohol on the table. "Drink?"

"Sure," he replied, moving to stand up to fetch some glasses.

Dinka stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. She gently pushed him back down before producing two glasses, setting them onto the table and immediately filling them to the brim.

"Thavó!" she practically yelled before downing the glass in one go.

"Thavó," Kelto echoed the call, though a little more quietly, before taking a more modest sip of the drink. His face twisted, and he coughed a little as the burning liquid flowed down his throat.

"What is this?" he croaked, moving to grab the bottle.

"It roughly translates to 'Bottled Flame,'" Dinka replied as she stashed the drink away before Kelto could grab hold of it. "Usually my people would drink it before going into battle."

He nodded, taking another sip and grimacing again. "I can see why. Enough of this and you won't feel anything."

"That's the point."

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, Dinka foregoing the glass and drinking straight from the bottle while Kelto nursed the single serving he had. His kind did not do well with alcohol, and he was particularly susceptible. The only question he had was why she had given him this drink. There were no battles to be had.

"Just aimless stumbling in the dark," Kelto mumbled, lifting his glass a little higher to make sure the world he could see through its bottom was not an illusion.

"This will be more than a stumble," Dinka said as she leaned back in her chair. "I don't know if you've heard, but word is that the big wigs want to explore beyond the next gate to find the Human."

The slight haziness the drink had gifted Kelto disappeared at the words. Travelling even further beyond known space was practically suicide. Doubly so if one considered the utter lack of information they had gotten from the drones they had sent through that particular Gate. Once on the other side, nothing came back but worrying silence. They had all gone through like normal and then simply remained silent.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked. "The preparations for coming here took years, and they want to just charge ahead now? That seems a little… insane."

"They could find a Human. A being that might be able to command the Watchers. Of course they want to charge ahead." She took another swig of her 'Bottled Flame'. "If the coalition finds out what we found, they will pull us back and every member nation will send someone to find the Human. We only have peace because a single nation can't kill the rest."

Kelto's ears twitched at the mention of the fragile peace the galaxy currently enjoyed. He had seen enough relics of the past to know how rare such periods of peace actually were. The only permanent safe-heavens were the Junctions, as the Watchers merely shut down any attempts to tamper with the Gates or the station that inhabited such systems.

Dinka was also very correct that no one power could take on the others in a war. Even if they split themselves, the ideologies that aligned with one another were always separated by enough distance to make working together less than effective. It seemed a little off, now that he thought about it. What are the chances for that happening?

"And you think they want the Human because they can use her to win a war?"

"Yes."

"How would that work?" Kelto asked, leaning back in his chair. "I don't think a Human would simply cooperate. Especially when they intend to capture her."

A laugh echoed through the room and Dinka held her stomach as she took deep breaths to reign herself back in. After an especially deep breath and a large swig from her bottle, she spoke again. "You expect reason from people who lack it." She shook her head. "And you know as well as I do that they have tech we will never lay our eyes on — stuff that would be more fitting for the Watchers to have than any one of our people."

"So what you are saying is that they have something that would make this 'Kaylin' obey them?" I somehow doubt that.

The idea of any technology that could interest a potential maker of the Watchers seemed ridiculous to Kelto. If anything, she would end up taking the tech from their hands as it belonged to her people in the first place. And even then, all of that assumed that whatever was in the cryopod was actually a Human and not something else, and that said potential Human was even willing to entertain the idea of talking to them. For all he knew, she could be recalling all the Watchers right now to prepare an attack on the parliament.

"You know what," Dinka said, getting up from her chair, "maybe you should start looking for the Human. Probably better for all of us."

"How so?"

"You have a decent head on your shoulders, and a spine that hasn't been bent backwards yet," the tusked woman replied. She simply looked at Kelto for a moment before her eyes wandered to her bottle and back to him. She placed the 'Bottled Flame' on the table. "Take it, and make the right call."

"Thank you," Kelto replied, not quite sure what to think of his friend's words. "Have a good night, Dinka."

She only gave him a nod as she left the room. Kelto's eyes lingered on the door for a moment as his mind went over what had just happened. That Dinka came to visit him was not that unusual; she liked company but many of the crew were intimidated by her stature and the reputation of her species. What she had said, however, was not something Kelto would usually associate with the chief engineer of the expedition.

The most surprising thing about the whole encounter was something else entirely, however. It was the fact that he actually agreed with what she had said. Perhaps he should strike out on his own and try to find the Human. Just need to get a ship. That would require getting to a port, and for that, the expedition had to return.

"Let's hope the captain has some reason left in him," he mumbled to himself as he grabbed the bottle. He eyed it for a moment. "Prepare for battle, aye?"