19 - Data Sorting

Posted on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 5:53am by Dungeon Master Sue Donym
Edited on on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 5:57am

1,429 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Chapter 5 - Travel
Location: New New York
Timeline: 2090

Thankfully this time recovery didn’t take too long and Aurelia was back on her feet that evening and looking over the results of her little trip. A lot of it didn’t make much sense to her, but thankfully she didn’t have to work on it alone. She had a team she could count on now. The biggest thing they were confused about was that the conversion of the simple flight spell from enchantment to program had somehow ripped her from her current location through a higher level of space-time in the blink of an eye to another location. None of them could explain that.

They had accidentally invented a single person faster than light method of travel that ran on batteries. The fact that the short trips that she had taken had almost put her in a coma in the process and the only thing that kept her awake was her own mastery of the mana circulation within her did not bode well for it being used by others.

Then there was the way she got home. The gate she had opened. Aurelia leaned back in her chair and groaned as she dropped the datapad she'd been staring at. None of the data even made sense when it came to that thing and she was barely conscious of it. “The mana on Earth has to be different somehow. I probably absorbed some mana there and it gave me just the right kind of boost I needed to do it or something because I have not been able to do anything but enchant anything since coming to this world.”

She pointed at the datapad as she continued. “But all the recorders, including the one I was wearing, say that it wasn’t enchantment. I did a proper casting and it sprang forth from the aether. While nearly comatose, barely able to lift a finger. That gravity was intense and I was about to pass out.”

“You also had elevated adrenaline readings at the time,” Eldrin pointed out, pulling up another chart. “In fact, most of your bio-readings were off the charts. It’s hard to make sense of most of them, really.”

“I have good news at least,” chimed in Ember as she entered the room with several dust samples suspended in acrylic. “The dust you were covered in shows no signs of radiation. It’s still toxic in other ways, but at least it’s safe to be around as long as it’s contained and everything is decontaminated..”

“Which should be done by morning,” Becca added, setting one of her datapads down. “Lady Elena has called in a professional team for the job and up-channeled the entire proceedings to the Ember King. I am told that he will be paying you a visit this evening to see to your safety personally.”

“That’s reassuring, I suppose.” Aurelia leaned further back in her chair and sighed once more, her eyes closed. She was tired and really could use some rest, but she also wanted to figure this out. The call of the research egged her on incessantly as it always did, but she also needed food and rest. “Ok, let’s focus on one thing at a time and move forward from there. I know the first question we’re going to be asked is if we can scale this belt up to the size of something like a shuttle. As far as I can tell, it just needs more power and the scale isn’t that bad. If it can move me and barely touch that tiny battery, it should be able to pull from a shuttle’s power, shouldn’t it?”

“In theory, we could connect it to one of the city’s fusion cores and move the whole solar system if we wanted,” Eldrin waved a hand in the air as he did some quick math. “We’d probably have enough power to move to another galaxy if we wanted. Power isn’t an issue. I built it tough enough to take just about anything. The problem is control. I’ll have to start writing a new targeting algorithm based on the logs. Realistically though, I could make a new version the size of my fist that could be installed into any space worthy vehicle.”

Ember laughed cynically as she leaned against one of the desks. “Great. We can make a car that can go anywhere in the universe. We just need a crew that can survive the trip.”

“Then I recommend the test pilots be the same as always,” Becca offered. “Androids.”

Aurelia stared at her for several moments as the realization sank in. In her old world for something like this the kingdoms would use volunteers and usually the first rounds were from the slums and dregs of society lured in by the promise of high rewards even with the risk of almost certain death. It was rare that they used golems or homunculi of any sort and by the time testing got to anyone of noble birth, it had been proven safe and they were doing it for glory. The fact that the humans of this world had literally created a mechanical servant race just to fill roles like this and they seemingly enjoyed it boggled her mind.

Becca interrupted her thoughts as she continued. “I can tell that you’re struggling with the concept, Lady Luna. If it puts your mind at ease, we can leave the selection up to someone else, but please keep in mind that as an android, we have sensor suites that would come in handy during such a trip.”

“She’s not wrong. I’d want at least one on the maiden voyage.” Eldrin pulled up a quantum map of the course that the red haired sorceress had taken from Mars to Earth and it looked like a ball of yarn made of light that traveled throughout the solar system several times with each tap of the controls she had made. One of the strings had even left the system and looped around it a few times for some reason. “They might be able to explain some of this. I mean, other than the fact that you entered a higher dimension where these insane lines were a shorter distance than just a straight line.”

“That explains why the belt has sensor logs of literally the entire system,” Ember muttered under her breath. She’d been the one tasked with downloading the flight recorder logs and it had taken her more than an hour just to get the system to pull them all.

“That data alone is an insane bargaining chip. If this much is collected every time this thing is used...” Eldrin’s voice trailed off as yet another revelation hit him.

Aurelia ran her fingers through her hair as the same conclusion hit her. “I think we’re going to need more security. We’re also going to need to make a deal with some of the bigger corporations.”

She then sighed heavily. “Scratch that. That’s not going to work. They’re just going to base everything on greed and profits.”

“Or to look good in front of their peers,” Ember added cynically.

“Yeah, that’s another thing I had enough of in my last life.” Aurelia grinned slightly and tapped a finger against the desk in front of her. “How about we start our own corporation and develop this ourselves instead of going to someone else? We have connections already. We know where we can get a warehouse we can build prototypes in for cheap. We’re already backed by the Crimson Cartel. What else do we need?”

The room was silent for several moments, save for the tapping of Becca’s finger on her datapad. Most of the people there were far too stunned to remark on her plans. Her android assistant however, was already crunching numbers. “Surprisingly little else is required. I can purchase the building and have teams ready by the end of next month. I would recommend that you discuss this with the Crimson King first and since he's going to be meeting with you shortly, I believe that to be an excellent opportunity. Would you like for me to draw up the plans and requirements?”

“Yes. Yes I would.” Aurelia couldn’t help but chuckle softly. She had a chance to change things for the better unlike any she had in her previous life and there was no way she wasn’t going to miss it.

 

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