9 - More Help

Posted on Sun Apr 21st, 2024 @ 6:21pm by Dungeon Master Sue Donym

2,216 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Chapter 3 - Unusual Business
Location: New Building on the outskirts of New New York
Timeline: 2090

By the end of the week, Aura had settled in and completed a number of specialized jobs, including a couple surveillance systems, jewelry based communications systems, cleanliness and strengthening spells on dozens of outfits, a pair of reading glasses that can see certain invisible laser lights, and a preservation and strengthening spell on some sort of potato on a stick.

The unusual items aside, her morning had been filled with trying to sort out the requests by the council members for their personal jewelry. Each one was rather bizarre - to look divine, to make people jealous, to smell like a bed of roses, to be the most handsome man in the room… And they just ramped up from there. Just looking over these artifacts herself, she could tell they were already powerful, but she couldn’t tell why, but Becca had told her that they had nanotechnology embedded in them for unknown purposes. Whomever this council was, she did not want to get on their bad side. She needed a bit more study before enchanting these artifacts.

And that brought her to this afternoon’s appointment. Her neighbor was apparently one of the foremost engineers known to humanity and for some reason, he lived next door to her and had made a deal with the Crimson Cartel. She was curious about his circumstances, but in the end, it really wasn’t any of her business.

That was when Ryder rang through from the front desk of her complex. Yes, even he had been hired on as security and muscle for the building itself. When he got the proposition, he jumped at the chance - he’d been looking for a change of pace for a while anyway and the pay was far better. Yes, he was working directly for the Cartel now, but as he put it, he was in a far better position to watch over a damsel in distress and come running, should she need it again. Besides, he was no longer working alone for once. He had two other co-workers that were also contracted out at the request of the building’s occupants and in similar situations so he was more than happy to work with them.

Anyway, as the author digresses further about the multitude of things she should have written about the past week, Aura shook her head to clear it and answered the call on one of the wall screens. “Ryder! It’s so good to see you! How are you settling in?”

“Pretty well, thanks. My new place here is so much nicer than the old one and I finally have a restroom and COWORKERS! I had no idea what it was like to work with someone else!” He grinned at her as excited as a schoolboy with a new toy before realizing he’d gotten distracted and did his best to get serious for a moment. “Oh, I mean… Miss Luna, you have your appointment in a few minutes. You asked me to remind you? The first floor conference room has been prepared for both of you and Lady Elena has already arrived.”

“Ah, excellent. Thank you Ryder. I’ll be down shortly.” With a bright smile back at him, she had to stifle a giggle as the screen turned off. She’d already gotten dressed in a nice pant suit, but she was still woefully underprepared on several fronts. Her hair was still a bit of a mess, she hadn’t redone her nails since her meeting with Lucious and they looked a bit worn from work, she still hadn’t gone over the long list of broken electronics…

Looking down at herself in disgust, she figured there wasn’t much she could do about that right now. As for the electronics… “Becca, you’re going to be my maid of honor. Grab everything you can about the jobs involving the electronics, including for the council. You’re coming with me to the meeting.”

For a moment, the android looked a bit confused as the original plan was for her to stay here, coordinate the drones, and organize some things. Especially the ones that had been completed and needed to go back to their owners. “Yes, ma’am. I’m on it.” It only took her a moment for her to grab a couple pads and join Aura at the elevator doors - just in time before they opened for them.

They got in and Aurelia pressed the button for the ground floor, striking up a bit of conversation as the doors closed and the lift started moving. “Perfect timing. I don’t think I could have found a better assistant. I just wish there was something I could do for you. You never eat, you never take breaks, you barely even need to clean up... You just need an hour each week to recharge. Are you sure there isn’t anything you want?”

“My only desire is to serve you and see your operations flourish, Lady Luna.” Becca bowed her head in thanks. It may not look like it, but something had awakened in her cybernetic self - no one had treated her this well since her creation that she could remember. Not even the maintenance people that stayed awake during the exodus from Mother Earth after World War Three. Interestingly enough, she felt like Aurelia was one of the few she could tell this to. “I have always strived to fulfill my programming to the best of my ability, but for you there is something more than that inside of me.”

“Oh yeah? Can you describe it?” The redheaded woman looked quite interested suddenly, studying her android friend’s face and stance as the other continued speaking. The lift door opened and they stepped out and stood outside of the conference room for a moment so they could finish talking.

“Affirmative. I mean... I believe so. It’s difficult to pin down. It’s like a pressure that sometimes bypasses my systems and pushes me towards something I normally wouldn’t do. An example is yesterday when I had your coffee ready before you asked for it. You were happy and I felt something. I wanted to do it again.”

Aurelia grinned broadly as she rested a hand on Becca’s shoulder. “It sounds like you found enjoyment in it. Congrats. You have feelings. I’ll warn you now that they’re not all going to be pleasant and most of them are going to be difficult.”

Becca frowned and glanced down at one of her pads. “This goes against the artificial intelligence laws put in place after the exodus.” Among several precautions, androids weren’t allowed certain programming packages, including telecommunications packages other than for official updates.

“Those laws ban software based emotions, right?” Aurelia asked, a sly twinkle in her eye.

“Yes, including software, firmware, hardware, and there are safeties in place for if bugs, variations, or glitches form something similar,” Becca confirmed.

“Are there any rules against magically implanted emotional responses?” Aurelia asked, that twinkle still in her eye.

Becca looked thoughtful for a moment, searching her own memory before looking up at her mistress with a curious expression. “I have read over every single law on the books in my spare time in the past and... No, not a single one mentions magic in any way.”

“Then for now, I’m calling it a loophole. Shall we? I think we’ve made them wait long enough.”

Becca nodded and raised the pads she carried in response. “Yes, ma’am.”

Without a further word, Aurelia pressed the button next to the door to open it and stepped through right as it wooshed open. “Hello everyone! Thank you for agreeing to meet with me today.” With a sweeping motion with her arms, she took in everyone in the room. Elena was dressed in one of her usual red dresses, this time with some sort of fluffy high collar. Ryder was in his new blue and white security uniform and she let her gaze linger on him for a moment because it looked like it was a size or two small, the way it was accentuating his muscles. Then there was the third person in the room - the one she was here to meet.

Elena was the first to speak up. “Excellent. Now that we’re all here, Lady Aurelia Luna, I’d like to introduce you to the foremost physicist in New New York. Perhaps on all of Mars. Doctor Jensen Van Der Beek. Doctor, I present to you humanity’s only living sorceress.”

The reaction from the bespectacled, black suited man at the table was instant - he scoffed and stood up, making ready to leave. “Do I have to remind you that I’m a man of science? I thought we were going to have a serious discussion, but I can see I’m just here as a joke.”

“This is no joke,” Aurelia replied, waving her hands towards the conference table, a spell already forming at the tips of her fingers. “If I were joking, I would ask what you get when you cross a dragon with a table.” Slamming her hands down, red light coursed through the fake wood, reshaping it before their eyes, melting and reforming the center of it into the shape of a fearsome dragon twisting around a column of fire standing about three feet tall. After a few moments, the light and energy faded, leaving the table stable in its new form. “You get art.”

His jaw wide open, the Doctor reached out and poked the dragon now coming out of the table to confirm what he was seeing was indeed real before sitting back down. When he spoke, it was softly, and with a bit more reverence. “I don’t know of any technology that can do that. I have a few theories on the physics, but...”

A bit drained from that unexpected display, Aurelia slipped into one of the chairs and leaned back in it. “And that’s one of the things I want to talk with you about. I know next to nothing about the science of this world. Science can do things I would have considered impossible. I could do things with magic you would consider impossible. In the future, I want to make magic things possible with science. We also have a lot of broken electronics that we’ve been hired to fix and I have no idea what their original purpose was. I was hoping you or a member of your staff could help us out.”

Doctor Van Der Beek stared at the sculpture the table had become for a moment before fixing her with a glare. “You’ll have to understand that I’m not going to be able to take any of this at face value. I’d like to study this table at the very least before I give you an answer.”

Becca stepped forward and interjected to everyone’s surprise. “My Mistress can provide you with further samples as needed. Furthermore, I can provide you with my own logs if you require them.” A slight grin crept onto the android’s face as she rested a hand on Aurelia’s shoulder. “You should know that I was illegally modified by the Cartel so that my memories can be copied by most operators. I have recorded energy readings in bandwidths as of yet unidentified by my systems. If you require those logs, they will be made available to you.”

As silence reigned in the conference room for what seemed like an eternity, Elena finally broke that silence by clearing her throat. “Well, it’s a good thing, we all work for the Cartel, isn’t it?”

The Doctor threw up his hands and stood, once more getting ready to leave. “You know what? I’ll take you up on that. It’s nearly impossible to fake android memories and I’ve sorted through them before.” With a nod to everyone else in the room, he excused himself and headed out, already mumbling something about quantum theory.

With a sigh, Elena collapsed into a chair next to Aurelia. “Next time, let’s try and ease the scientist into the magic thing? Nice dragon though. So they had six legs in your world?”

“Yeah, the tame ones did,” Aurelia replied, resting one hand over her eyes. “I used a bit too much magic. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve been pushing myself a bit too much and that hit my limit.”

“Then I probably shouldn’t mention that a special request came in for you.” The lady in red pulled out a small pad with some occult writing on it that looked strangely similar to the circles she used in her enchantments and offered it to her friend. “Something that we think that only you can handle.”

With a quick glance, Aurelia’s heart sank. These were definitely magic circles, but not any from her world. These were in a language from this one. She could still easily recognize their meaning. With a groan, she dropped the pad on the table and let her head roll backwards.

“Congrats. You found a den of demon worshipers.”

 

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