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Cities in the sky
Lost pen and Terence in Cloudbank
Permalink Mark Unread

There is a planet where all life larger than a mote of dust is well over a hundred miles above its surface.

This planet has humans, who have ships and farms and cities, even if the whole floating around thing causes some issues. And on one particular city in one particular back hallway of one particular building, there is a door that is misbehaving.

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"Stupid - broke - door -" says a small winged person repeatedly slamming and reopening the door and scowling at the empty unremarkable room beyond.

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Terence is walking briskly toward the source of the commotion. Repeated thumping sounds are rarely a good sign.

He comes around the corner and pauses. He cleans his glasses and looks again. Yep, wings.

"Excuse me."

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She looks at him, pausing short of slamming the door again.

"Door break," she explains.

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"Yes, it might if you keep doing that. Why are you-" not quite human, "-upset at a storage room?"

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"Is not supposed being storage room. And is not me trying break it, already break!"

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He walks closer, near-shouting down the hall is mildly annoying. "Well, what's it supposed to be doing?"

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"Was supposed going home but go here instead."

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"This door, was supposed to go home? It's a dead end. Does it look like your house's door?"

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"No, no, is, went from home to nice bar, then, door out supposed putting me right back where came from, but, instead put me here."

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Uh oh. "The nice bar's door goes to more than one place? Oh dear. This sounds like lost technology."

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"No is magic."

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"...As someone whose name is lost to time once said, 'sufficiently advanced technology looks identical to magic'. Lost technology does all sorts of unfathomable things."

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"...okay, but, Milliways actually magic."

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Okay, fine, go along with the little kid about the magic. "If I knew things about Milliways other than its name and that it has multiple-destination doors I might be able to help you better."

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"Think maybe a person not close door all the way, can finding who come out this door before me?"

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"I can try, but there are hundreds of people who work here..." And someone using a secret teleportation device for unknown ends sounds like a political problem. Not the sort he's best at.

"Right, before I go looking, you have wings, how bad is it if people get very excited over that fact?"

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"Don't petting me."

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"Well people will think anyone can get wings and some of them will probably ask me how to get their own. I'll say it's impossible and not explain, that's probably simplest. How do you have wings, precisely?"

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"Am angel, like Mommy."

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"Hereditary. Designed?"

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"Genetically engineered."

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"Someone genetically engineered from offworld. I want to talk about that but let's go look for your door's previous user before they have more time to get further away. Your parents aren't here and likely no other family or friends, correct? Could be tricky, that."

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"Yeah, did check for ones of parents, sisters, Jane, everybody."

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He walks off. "Ones of? Nevermind, explains will wait, what did Mr. Door-Breaker look like?"

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"He a human, wearing blue, did not see face very much."

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"Taller than me? Hair? Skin color?"

He stops at a little box. "Jeeves, stop anyone from leaving for a couple minutes if they're wearing blue."

"...Why? Thief? There's plenty of other ways out you know."

"Not a thief. I'll explain later, please just do it."

"Whatever you say, boss."

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"Maybe little taller. Hat. Was bad light did not see much skin."

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"Well, let's go look."

This guy has enough authority around here to ask weird questions and get puzzled but immediate answers. They talk to one guy wearing blue and with a hat but he's not the guy when Pen gets a good look at him.

After about ten minutes, "I don't think I'm going to find him. Sorry, kid."

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"Rats."

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"So we went looking right away because he's important to this but now that it's pretty clear we're not going to find him is there anything else you know about, um, Milliways? Other ways it breaks?"

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"Milliways doesn't breaking usually!"

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"Most things don't break usually. It's my job to make sure of that and fix things when they do break, you see. But I don't know anything about how Milliways works so I can't try and figure out if it's maybe different than the guy before you making the door wrong, if there's anything else you can try."

If that's even how the door really works.

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"Dunno what else could be."

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"If you're sure... How did you get to this Milliways?"

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"Door from home."

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"And how do you get that door?"

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"It just happen. Milliways sometimes happen to doors."

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"Well, zero for two ways to help you." He sighs. "...Could you explain that comment about ones of people?"

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"My mommy and daddy at home, but, other worlds sometimes have more of them, other people too. But not here, checked first thing."

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"More of them in other places in what sense? Other worlds. Other planets? ...Do you know anything about star gates?"

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"Not planets, worlds, is different. What is star gates?"

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"We have come to the point where I have to decide if you are somehow very deluded or playing an elaborate joke, or are in fact from somewhere completely different. Since acting like the first thing doesn't help I'll try to make myself think the second thing and believe you. Star gates are old devices that let you move incredibly vast distances in a single step. There used to be one on this planet, but it broke and nobody can visit or leave anymore."

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"Oh. We not using those, just teleport instead. I can't though, having almost no magic."

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"You probably need food, a place to sleep, other things, yes? That means money. I could probably help with that if you have nowhere else to get it... What magic do you have?"

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"Don't need need food but rather having. Have brainphone, and wards."

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"To ward means to delay or prevent. That's defenses and protections? And, brain what?"

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[Brainphone.]

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[Fascinating.] "You know what, I can take the rest of the day off for this. Nothing's leaking or on fire and there's only an hour left in the official workday anyway." [How many people can you do that to?]

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[Um however many?]

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[So it doesn't run on something that has a limited capacity, or limited fuel, or anything like that? How does addressing work? ...I mean, how does it find who should receive the messages you send?]

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[It just do? It magic.]

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[Everything bigger than a quark has moving parts. If you don't know them you don't know them, though.]

"We should probably go get you some food, local clothes, whatever it'll be. I have an extra room, I can set up a hammock, will that work for sleep?"

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...she waves a wing dubiously. "Maybe, never tried."

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"Almost no rigid beds here, hammocks are so much less heavy. Extra wide, rigged to be flat-ish, maybe it'll work. I could maybe hunt down a proper bed if you really need it."

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"Can try hammock."

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"Let's go try it, then."

He fends off a couple people who want to talk about wings off and walks to a door. When he opens it, it leads to the city. Flying buildings dot the sky for a fair distance out, connected to each other by metal rails and ropes. People and big containers zip around along the rails, and airships roam the sky as well.

He turns left and starts walking, not remarking on this marvel.

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"Flying place!"

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"...Yes, it is. Is your home not?"

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"I living inside mountain."

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"A mountain is what, precisely?"

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"Sticking up pointy part of land."

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"Aha. Well, we can't get to land here. The air is too hot and also acid if you keep going down. So there are floating places instead."

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"Oh, make sense. How places fly?"

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"Same way a balloon flies. There's lots of very tiny gaps in the rock we build everything with, filled with the same stuff balloons use, like a thousand tiny balloons in every pebble so it floats."

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"Oh cool!"

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"That does mean we have to be careful about how much not-floating-rock stuff we have, or else we'll stop floating."

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"That sound hard."

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"We have practice. If you're fast at flying you could probably follow me from the air, but I'll be taking a railcar. You could get more lost than you already are if you lose track of me."

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"Brainphone do pictures if get lost. Fly about forty miles an hour not carrying things?"

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"Yes, I think you can keep up with the railcars given that they stop pretty often. I can only assume you like flying and would find a crowded loud box annoying, is why I mentioned it."

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"Yes, flying fun. Could carry you."

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"No. No, but thank you for offering. I prefer to be carried by the law of buoyancy."

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"Okay. ...Bad place to live if scare heights."

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"Not heights. Potentially unreliable carrying-things."

Here is what is more or less a bus stop. The twisting network of rails overhead branches to one hanging just overhead.

 

There's a teenager wearing a big elaborate glider backpack thing half folded up waiting there, he stares at Pen with wide eyes.

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"Hi," Pen says to the glider backpack guy.

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"...Hi. That's - not a backpack or anything?"

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"No." Flap flap.

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"How?"

Terence stifles a laugh at this exchange before explaining, "Genetic engineering a long time ago apparently. This isn't a piece of lost tech, nobody's getting wings I'm afraid."

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"Is kind of lost? Not knowing how genetic engineer things any more."

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"Lost technology means to us things that you find that still work but we don't really know how anymore, and can't make more of. Like the stargate, water-rocket engines, or good computers."

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"Genetic engineering like that! Except angels can having angel kids."

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"Yes, but it usually means things that you can have. I suppose you sort of count but if there were a box that turned people into more angels that would definitely be Lost Technology."

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"Is not a box. Was not box even when settlers making first angels."

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"The box isn't important. Don't pay attention to the box. It's just something I made up to try to illustrate what those two words next to each other mean here. Oh, here comes the railcar."

It's loud and looks uncomfortable, even just approaching. "You should follow this until I get off and-" [*Picture of the destination station's surroundings*] "-I'm sure you can find me anyway if you lose it."

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"'Kay."

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He walks into the railcar and pays with a small see-through coin. The teenager boards too, carefully moving so as not to hurt his glider. And it trundles off, joining a lot of other things going this way and that on the rails. She might not want to fly too close to those, or risk hitting something.

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Pen gives all the railcar accoutrements a wide berth and follows the vehicle by air.

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It's pretty fast - a bit faster than Pen once it gets up to speed. But it turns a lot so she can take shortcuts and catch up, and it stops every minute or so too. At one point it stops completely and goes into a special railcar elevator that lifts it straight up about two hundred feet before it continues on. It's about ten minutes before Terence gets off the thing.

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Pen lands at the place matching the picture he showed her and is waiting when he gets off.

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"No problems, good. My building is just over there."

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"Okay." Follow follow.

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It's an apartment building. There's one door on each floor and they walk up to it on the third floor. He ascends one flight and uses a glass key to open his lock.

There's a small room with a table and two chairs, and a little kitchen, and a hallway with four doors.

"Anything you need urgently? Also would you mind brainphoning more people or telling me how to do it? It could be incredibly helpful."

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"You can't putting people brainphone, I only put people, not put putting people. Can put more people for you though. Don't need things now."

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"I will say, I have very little idea how to take care of a little kid. If you'd rather be somewhere else, by all means say so and I can try to find someone who actually is a parent."

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Shrug. "Already having parents. Just need place to be until they finding me."

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"You're quite sure they can find you, even though your door malfunctioned?"

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"Problem with door is door make time stop. While time stop they not doing anything, because, time stop. But once it go at all they notice I gone and come get me right away."

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"So time is stopped in any other worlds relative to this one? Relative to Milliways? Unless someone opens a door between them, then it'd have to sync or you'd have - all sorts of exotic problems."

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"All worlds we visiting all synced by Jane. Without Jane, time do whatever. Milliways have Jane, but Millways not sync with itself. And here not have Jane. So, I go in Milliways, time my world stop, time all Jane worlds and Milliways backyard stop, time bar part of Milliways go because I in it. I come out here, time still stop my world and synced worlds all."

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"I... See. You mentioned Jane a lot, is she special?"

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"Yeah. She a computer-person."

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"An artificial intelligence? Wow. There's stories about those here. What's she like?"

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"She not exactly artificial, she happen by accident. She sort of my sisteroid because she have a mommy who a one Mommy and a daddy who a one Daddy, except not having her the regular way, so isn't a one Dars. Dars my oldest sister. Jane nice and very smart and have gems to see through and can teleporting people."

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"Except you don't have one. Twenty to one odds I'd bet you get one after this little adventure."

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"Not sure. If walked into mean world might have broke Jane, that happen once."

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"How does a communication device walking into a weird place break an entire network?"

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"World is mean!"

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"Yes, but, 'mean world' is not an explanation. Unless it- I don't want to confuse you saying why I'm confused here."

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"World is a no science world. And Jane always talking herself all parts to all parts."

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"No... Science. As in, no experiments, no consistent rules. What a horrible place."

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"Yes is very bad."

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"...Anyway. I'm going to have something to eat. Stuffed bread, pasta, or crackers?"

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"Stuff in bread is what?"

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"Cheese or vegetables or fruit jam."

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"Fruit jam bread!"

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Cute kids are cute. "Sure thing, it'll be like five minutes to make."

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"Okay."

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Cooking happens. His fridge looks weird but does contain cold food items. Food happens. "Milk, juice, water?"

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"Milk."

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Milk for two, soft toasty pop tart-ish things for two. Terence scribbles into a notebook while he eats.

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Omnomnom. "What writing?"

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"Ideas on how to fix broken things, more or less. I keep computers and electricity working for a lot of people for my job."

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"Cool. Most parts Samaria not having computers but there some in oracle mountains and Jovah."

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"Computers are far from simple, yes."

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"Keziah's friend liking computers."

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"Is she your friend too?" Is this a 'computer games are fun' or real 'computers are cool', he doesn't ask.

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"Junia? She okay, she five years older than me though."

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"Well maybe I'd like to meet her. Not many people here think computers are cool, more like they're confusing but useful."

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"Could, I guess, after people finding me, Junia knowing all about stuff."

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"Hmm. Otherworldly computers probably work differently. The Lost technology I've been able to scrounge is strange already. Should be interesting."

Back to scribbling.

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"Did having an Earth here?"

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"The old stories say so. Probably a safe bet if Earth is multiversally common."

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"Is yeah."

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"Will your mother be able to fix the Stargate, you think? ...Did I already ask that, I have trouble keeping track sometimes."

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"Yeah probably doesn't sound too complicated for wishing."

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"Wish magic? What makes things too complicated for that?"

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"Being magic already, sometimes. Or very big."

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"Big like galaxies or big like gods?"

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"Gods very magic. Galaxies big, galaxy needing big wish."

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"Do tell me if my curiosity becomes an irritation. I like having a sense for things. How does a wish get a size?"

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"Wishcoins exponentiate. And having more corners when bigger."

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"Three would presumably be a minimum. What's the exponentiation ratio? Two, ten? Do high numbers become circles?"

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"Ten and dunno, pointiest coin only ten corners."

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"I can see why galaxies aren't a problem for big enough wishes. Orders of magnitude bigger than three are hard to even conceptualize properly."

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"Am too little to be carrying wishcoins," sighs Pen. "Soon triangles and squares."

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"Yeah, too bad. Is the brainphone given to lots of people where you're from? ...Is there any way to get a door to that in-between place?"

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"Not too many people my world, in Samaria magic a secret mostly. Doors to Milliways sometimes happen at regular doors. Some people get them on purpose, mostly is random and not very much."

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"Something to try at least, open doors, aim for Milliways. Are there non-secrecy reasons not to give out brainphone? You can't give it to everybody, that'd take years, but if enough people in enough places have it things would probably be safer and easier in some ways."

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"Oh in worlds where everybody knowing stuff lots people have."

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"Aha. The thing it would be really good for is air traffic control, weather warning, and maybe arranging trade. Radios are our best way of talking to people far away, but they can break, and storms block them sometimes too."

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"On Samaria angels control weather."

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"How so? More magic?"

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"Actually not! Is a spaceship that listen for singing."

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"That is actually much more sensible than magic!"

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"People mostly thinking is a god, but is a spaceship."

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"Angels being a religious term, they are mixed up in it somehow?"

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...Pen bats his leg with a wing.

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"Yes, you are one too, I was using the general 'they'."

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"Oh. What you mean then?"

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"How angels were made has something to do with the ship pretending to be a god."

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"Yeah, both were when settlers settlered Samaria."

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"They say there's ships that are smart enough to talk on Cloudbank somewhere, too."

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"Jovah talk but isn't person smart so Jane eat it."

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"I don't know if the Moonbeam would be person-smart. Ah, that's the name of one of the ships that's supposed to be smart. It's an old story but who knows, maybe it's true."

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"If a person can brainphone! If not, need extra wishing to talk by brainphone."

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"...You know suddenly I am really really curious. Could you try it?"

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"Okay." Pause. "Don't go."

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"Oh well. That would have been really cool if it did."

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"Why, who Moonbeam?"

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"The U.S.S. Moonbeam is the smart spaceship there are stories about."

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"Stories like what?"

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"Keep in mind it's a story I heard, could be wrong, but..." Here is some backstory about how the USS Moonbeam flies high, high up, listening for pirates and people in danger, and swoops down to frighten the pirates away and rescue people from fires and picking up ships that were falling into the poison lower atmosphere and putting them somewhere safe.

"Want to hear my favorite slightly longer story about the Moonbeam?"

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"Okay!"

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"It's about a group of technology-hunters, adventurers, who wanted to find the Moonbeam and board it, for lots of different reasons. Some just wanted to meet the ship. Some wanted to help it help people. Some wanted to learn about the stargate and other technology. Some just wanted to get rich. The leader of this group was a princess from a city called Ettal. The princess was a bit sick in some way nobody could understand or fix, but just a little bit sick, just enough to make her need to rest a lot and not as strong. Not too many people liked her because her father the king was kind of greedy, but she was clever, and she was very rich. She heard about the Moonbeam and what it does to help and decided that maybe it doesn't understand what people need all that well. So she decided to find it and help it help people better. But how is she supposed to do that, when she's a little bit sick all the time and doesn't know where it is?"

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"How?"

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"She didn't know either, but she knew the right person to find out."

And he describes the princess's miniature and amusingly sidetracked quest to find a good librarian for about five minutes.

Once she meets one, "The librarian was interested in the Moonbeam too, but she wanted all the books its computer surely had stored. They had the same goal for different reasons, so they could work together. The librarian found old stories about a piece of lost technology that could find the Moonbeam, and the princess set out to find the man who had it. This man turned out to be a retired captain. He was much too old to go off on an adventure, but when the princess explained her quest he was happy to sell her the scanner that could do it."

 

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"Why he not already find it before that?"

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"The princess wondered that too, and she asked, and he said 'I tried to, but my ship wasn't nearly good enough. It couldn't go as high, or as low, and it was slow. Eventually I just gave up.' The princess asked, why not sell it, or make a deal with someone with a better ship? The old captain said that he was maybe a little suspicious of everyone when he was younger, but there's no good reason to hold on to it now that he's old. So the princess got the tracking device, but the old captain stayed behind."

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"Okay."

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The story goes on to find a ship and a bold captain who's in it for the adventure and glory, a genius engineer to help them run it who wants to have a look at the Moonbeam's engines, and a strong and reliable brother and sister who come along when the princess promises to pay them well for their help. Six people are not a lot to run a whole ship, especially if it's going to go to dangerous places looking for the Moonbeam, but they manage it and have lots of various adventures. From rescuing slaves to negotiating with pirates to distracting a herd of puffers so a stranded ship can get away safely...

...The end of the story has them return home with no Moonbeam, though they did get close once, but having learned a lot about each other and friendship and other positive aesops, and the group parts on good terms.

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"Is Moonbeam even really real."

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"I think it really is. There's a few pictures and videos of a mystery ship doing Moonbeam-like things here and there, and lots of stories by people who think they actually saw it. Plus, you can see large ships in orbit with good enough telescopes. Some of these are satellites we know about, or the stargate which is a dead station, but some of the things we see in orbit nobody knows what they are, and they move around. If the Moonbeam does exist, it's a good explanation for the occasional mystery dot."

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"Okay. Pity is not a person."

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"Yeah... I should probably go get that extra large hammock for you now. Want to follow me or just stay here?"

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"...is anything to do here?"

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"Books? I have a computer, music and more books and a few movies on it but not many games. You'd better not go into my workshop - could break something or get hurt."

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"Books and computer and music and movies is good. Can't get hurt am safe."

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"Let me show you the computer real quick then..."

This is the computer, this is how to keyboard and mouse, he does something complicated which will prevent her from breaking anything on it by accident, here is a menu of available books and music and movies. And the real physical books are on that bookshelf. "Anything else I should look for while I'm out?"

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"...If find a door Milliways don't letting it close just brainphone me where. Or brainphone Jane that I here."

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"Right. See you later, then."

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"See you."

And Pen amuses herself on the computer, singing to herself.

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Maybe twenty minutes later, someone knocks on his door. Pretty loudly. "Hey smarty pants! I'm here with the... Thing you wanted! What is this anyway?!"

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Pen goes and answers the door. "He gone off to get a hammock," she says.

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"...Uh, who are you and why are you in Terence's house?"

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"Am Pen, am lost, he helping."

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"Does sound like him. Wings? Super jealous." She waves what is probably some complicated machine part in their general direction.

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"Am angel."

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"Isn't that a thing that lives in space? Or something? And do you know when he'll be back? This - transformer I think - 's heavy."

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"Dunno. Could put down? Or I hold for you? I live in mountain on other planet in other world."

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"I'd put it in his workshop but he locks it. Probably not good for the table. Floor will have to do. But if he's not gonna work on stuff I can't watch him and ask questions, maybe oughta just go home, except you're strange and interesting so maybe not."

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"Can ask him when he coming back?"

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"Oh, phones are working again? I thought all the wireless ones were rounded up for the air and traffic control crew."

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"No, is a magic thing, not a phone phone."

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"Magic. Prove it."

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[Magic.]

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[Wicked cool.]

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"Yeah."

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"Hold on..."

[Testing. *Picture of what Walta is seeing. Picture of a technical drawing. Text in cyrillic alphabet.*]

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"...Why sending those?"

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"This is cool and I want to try a ton of stuff with it is why!"

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"Does words and pictures," shrugs Pen.

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"I'm going to try stuff on the borders of that anyway..."

She puts on a thinking face.

None of it goes.

"Oh well. Who made this?"

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"The ones Mommy wish it."

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"Ones mommy?"

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"Yeah. Don't know which one doing brainphone."

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"Soo I meant, you have two moms?"

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"No, have one mommy, but, other worlds have ones Mommy. And ones Daddy. And sisters, but not me, am only Pen."

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"Two worlds. With two of the same people? Or more than two. Sounds unlikely, that."

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"Is dozens. Worlds, less than dozens Mommies."

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"I wanna see that."

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"They finding me eventually."

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"Mm, eventually's a long time. You know, it's been something like two hundred years since the stargate died? Maybe three. I forget."

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"...hoping it not that long."

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"...Yeah. Cut off from both parents. Sad, innit?"

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"Yeah."

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She moves to pat Pen on the shoulder, then hesitates away from it. [Terence on this thing? Nevermind I'll just check.]

[Hi smarty-pants.]

[Oh, our little angel likes you enough to brainphone you apparently. You have the transformer?]

[Yep. Sitting on your kitchen floor. So what exactly...?]

Terence starts explaining.

"Yeah, I'm talking to him now. Terence is a smart dude, you made a good choice of someone to find you when you got stuck."

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"Did not pick."

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Giggle.

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"But seems pretty good yeah."

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"I'm not so good at reading and sitting in class and stuff. I learn by watching people do things. So since he lets me watch him fix things, it's a pretty good deal."

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"Sounds nice."

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Sheeee has run out of things to say here.

"Maybe I should leave? I dunno."

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Shrug.

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"If I stay I'll ramble about electricity and computers at you," she warns.

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"...um, why?"

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"Not good at thinking of things to talk about. So I go with what's interesting to me or nothing mostly."

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"Computers kind of interesting but I only knowing about about other worlds kinds."

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"Bet all computers work the same in the end. Interface, processor, memory, and hard storage. What I find interesting are microcontrollers - they're like really tiny computers that are, well, tiny, so they can't do as much, but they're cheaper and lighter than full big computers. So better for really simple things that don't need a full big computer."

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"Like what?"

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This is how you control valves on a weather balloon without a full, big computer! 

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Oooh.

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She's not great at explaining... Possibly because she doesn't actually have a microcontroller to show Pen right now. But she could show her some of the ideas on Terence's computer and, [Ask him if I can use it so you don't think I'm doing it without permission?]

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[You can conference call.]

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So she does.

[Terence I can show her stuff on your computer right?]

[What stuff?]

[Programming, logic gates, maybe just watch a movie or find a book if we get bored.]

[Alright, feel free.]

"Great. Computers are really neat though."

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Nod nod.

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This is how to program, more or less. This is how to program microcontrollers! Terence has a thing that can simulate them, for testing. It's pretty different from other kinds of programming and probably too confusing for a little angel unless she's quite clever.

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She's pretty bright but this isn't her thing.

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Eventually this becomes clear to her. "Okay I'll stop confusing you, sorry."

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Snort. "Am not from computers place."

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"What do ya do for fun then?

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"Sing, and fly! And play."

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"Ooh of course you like flying. You can do it without an engine. I want to show you the air race course maybe."

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"There a race course?"

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"Yeah. Flying race. Flying is kind of a sport here, but we do it with gliders and balloons and engines."

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"Wings is better."

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"Probably yeah! But if I show you there you will get so many questions. About how to get wings."

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"Was born with!"

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"Mm, bet someone is a meanie and doesn't believe it and does something mean."

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"Mean like what?"

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"Try to steal your or my stuff to see if a thing to give wings is in it. Try to kidnap you maybe. Try to get hair or spit or blood and look at your genetics. Or just yell a lot, extreme stuff is not likely but possible."

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"Is in my genetics."

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"If you want to go we'll go, just saying there's the small risk having to scream for police and hit things or people who are being mean."

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"Am allowed hitting people who hurt me."

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"Good rule."

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"Yeah-huh."

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"So, flying race course or not?"

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"Sure!"

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Conference brainphone, [I'm taking- Hey what's actually your name? I'm Welta he's Terence.]

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[Am Pen.]

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[I'm taking Pen to the air races, should be fun, going to grab my zephyr on the way, I'll yell at anyone who's mean to her.]

[No objection here,] Terence responds, [It'll be another hour or two until I get that hammock. I underestimated it.]

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[Why is so complicated getting hammock?]

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[I thought that my favorite store would already have some. They didn't.]

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[Oh well.]

And she follows Welta to the racecourse.

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Walta stops by her place to grab a big glider. Or miniature airplane. It's not quite clear which.

The air race course is a big open air area, with a thick web of rope at the bottom and various hanging signs, rings, flags, and so on. They don't race at the same time, that's asking for crashes, but they time people completing the described aerial path.

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Pen wants to fly it!

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Lots of people want to talk to Pen! Lots! And they really want to talk to her!

Walta shouts at people out that no, nobody else can get wings, you should all shut up and not bother the wing kid if she doesn't want to talk to you.

This only gets rid of most of them. A few want to talk about how her wings catch air, how the feathers work and so on. "I'm pretty curious about that too actually."

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"I dunno physics stuff!"

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The people at the flying course know a lot about the physics of flight! Does it seem more like this, or this, does she tilt down one corner of her wings to turn, what's her stall speed...

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She doesn't know much of what they want to know but she will show them how she flies around.

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Can they take pictures and videos? Would she be willing to hold this thingy that measures her speed while she does it?

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Sure why not.

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Thank you, angel kid!

(Walta fends off the most pushy people during all this, but also pays attention to everyone's questions and analysis).

"Easy course, medium, hard, or so hard it's silly? Easy one is just four gentle turns, medium is more sharper turns and a dive, and so on."

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"Start medium?"

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Medium course it is! Follow all the yellow signs and stay inside the yellow rings (they're plenty big to go through, even if she was an adult angel) and make sure to go between the yellow flags, that's it.

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Swoop!

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And how fast is she?

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On a straightaway with some time to accelerate, 40MPH.

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She gets pretty close to the record for the 'unpowered flight' category!

...Which starts off a big argument about whether Pen really counts as 'unpowered'.

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"Am not have an engine."

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But the wings and strength probably make her meaningfully different from a baseline human!

(They probably aren't going to decide one way or the other any time soon.)

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Her only substantial opinion on the subject is that she does not have an engine. She will be faster when she's grown up.

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"While the rules people yammer on we can keep flying."

Walta's flight method has no less than eight wings at odd angles and does not technically have an engine. It's powered by a bunch of springs wound up so tight they'd snap if they were just steel - some kind of technology.

She wait in line for the hard course, then, "WHOOO!"

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Pen wants to try the hard one next too.

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It is: Hard! But not impossible. It was designed to be hard for things less nimble than angels.

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She will do this one twice!

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This is a fun place.

There's an open flight area, no course and no timers, Walta heads into that and cruises around practicing stunts. Her thing is pretty slow but good at not losing much speed even in absurdly sharp turns.

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Does she want to play tag?

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[Sure! Only a couple minutes at a time though, zephyr can't fly by itself long.]

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[It run out of fuel?] guesses Pen.

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[Sort of.] And she explains the spring-driven mechanism that keeps it so light and streamlined from lack of proper engine.

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[It run out of springiness,] concludes Pen.

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[Haha yep.]

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So they play tag until the thing runs out of springiness.

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Walta is good at dodging, not so great at chasing.

[I can charge it back up easy though, just have to land.]

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[What happen if try to charge midair?]

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[Could do it, if you put the charger in a bigger flying thing and held it up while it charged. Haven't tried to do that yet. Though technically even this whole city is midair!]

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[I notice that! Not have flying cities other worlds.]

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[I didn't build this flying city but I'm kind of proud of it anyway]

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[Seem pretty nice.]

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[Good things and bad things most everywhere, but yeah.]

Her glider thingy is done re-springing now. They play tag some more.

 

Eventually Terence tells them both, [I have the hammock. Welta, I'm not likely to do any tinkering today, you could probably just go home unless Pen wants an escort.]

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[Can find own way.]

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[Okay. Will watch for milliways. See you tomorrow, Pen?]

She starts packing up her flying rig.

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[Okay.]

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Everyone who bothers Pen about her wings on the way back to Terence's place can be deterred by cuteness and/or flying away.

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Convenient.

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Here is: A pretty large hammock, strung right across the open-ish front room of Terence's apartment. It's big enough that it's practically square, not the usual rectangle.

"Time to see if this will work for you."

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Pen clambers into it. It's a little awkward, but sort of okay if she has her wings only partly open.

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"I can look into getting a real bed if it's too uncomfortable... They're just harder to find and more expensive than even extra-large hammocks."

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"Is okay..."

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"Is the problem the bendy middle part, or that it's too small, or something else?"

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"Bendy middle part. Makes my wings be up and the rest of me be down."

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"Hmm... The bendy middle is so it doesn't tip over. How about I un-bendy the middle and tie either side to the wall?"

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"Maybe that work."

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So he tries that. Weaving strips of wood across the middle part, bundling up the fabric at the edge, tightening the central ropes.

After ten minutes it will still bend in the middle a little bit, but not much more than a full bed.

"Before I nail it to the wall, try it while I'm holding it steady?"

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Flop. "...now is kind of hard in parts with wood. Put pillows?"

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"I haven't got a dozen pillows, how about a thick blanket?" He fetches it and lays it out.

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"...close enough..."

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"I can take out some of the wood if you want to trade some soft for some bending."

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"...Yeah take out like half?"

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"Certainly."

This action robs the hammock of somewhat less than a quarter of its newfound non-bendiness.

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"Good enough."

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"Glad to help. I'm thinking about how to go about brainphoning people... I don't want to charge money for it, that seems unfair, but it might also be unfair to only give it to emergency responders or traffic controllers and so on. I don't usually deal with political questions like this."

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"Brainphone is political?"

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"Any time you have to answer the question 'who gets this' or 'who is best for that' it can get political very fast."

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"Oh. Why not charging money?"

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"The point of charging money is either to make it worth it for you, in which case we set the price at close to nothing, or to make it so not many people want it that you're overwhelmed, which means we set the price relatively high. A high price is a little unfair to poorer people who could also benefit from the brainphone is the thinking. If we set up a charity with whatever we charge that would get around it. I also don't want either of us to feel like I am exploiting your magic brainphone."

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"If get bored of giving it out just stop," she shrugs.

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"How long do you think it will take you to get bored of it? I could probably get something to show you all the names of people who want it on a computer, faster than saying them."

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"Dunno, probably get boring fast if not doing any other thing."

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"I could set up short batches, get you toys and things? I should probably do that anyway..."

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"Sure."

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"Okay then, I think I will charge some money for brainphone, not a lot, and use it to pay for things I get for you. Food. The hammock was kind of expensive. What kind of toys do you like? Should I show you a toy store?"

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"Yes toy store."

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"Toy store, sure... Hm. I might actually have to look up where one is. I don't use them often myself, you see."

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"Course not."

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"Could you please add Hans Kimmel to the brainphone? I sent him messages to expect it, and he's going to help me set up brainphoning lots of people. The Hans I know, if you need that."

 

And then he looks up a toy store on his computer and then takes the railcars again. Pen can fly for most of the trip but they have to walk the last part, because the toy store is indoors next to a lot of other stores.

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[Hi,] Pen tells Hans.

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Says Hans to both Pen and Terence, [Hello. Thank you little one. My sister has a child about your age who might want to play with you if you feel like you need a friend, Pen.]

And then Hans starts having a planning conversation with Terence as he walks out the door toward the railcars.

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Flap flap. [Maybe that be good.]

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[She plays the violin,] Hans reports, [I'll leave you be for now though.]

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[Ooh violin. Can singing along. If know any of same songs, guess wouldn't...]

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[There's always sheet music. Or karaoke.]

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[Depend on sheet music kind, are kinds! What karaoke?]

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[Which karaoke? Oh, never mind. Karaoke is - A video of some kind timed to a song, with the words scrolling by on the screen so you know what to sing. You keep tune with the song, mostly, so no sheet music required.]

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[But if not know song might not guess note right in time.]

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[I suppose you'll have to listen to it once, to learn it. Mistakes are expected in karaoke, it's almost a party thing.]

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[Okay.]

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They arrive at the indoor mall soon enough. Terence leads Pen into the toy store past a bunch of other stores. Though the place was not expressly designed for angels it's roomy enough. 

The toy store contains a lot of brightly colored signs with arrows pointing to different parts of it. Not separated by intended gender - or at least only partially separate. The major sections seem to be children's books, various kinds of building blocks, dolls and models of ships and similar things, and arts and crafts or science kit type things. 

"Here we are, a toy store."

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It's a pretty good toy store. Pen indicates the good toys because grownups cannot always tell which those are.

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Terence will amiably agree on which toys are good, though he does subtly talk up the science kit stuff.

He will buy her five or six medium price toys. That's probably enough for now, yes?

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Sure, okay.

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And on the way back, [You mentioned 'ones of' people. What's up with that?]

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[Different worlds having different people except sometimes have same people instead. Lots Mommies and Daddies and stuff.]

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[Oh, now I understand. You mentioned this earlier but I was still trying to get your door back. So two copies of more or less the same person despite what must be severe environmental differences. That's kind of cool. Strange, ertainly, but interesting too.]

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[Yeah. And Mommies especially like finding more ones all helping each other.]

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[I suspect I will be the same way. Five of me with different specialties could get a lot done.]

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[Mm-hm. What yous doing?]

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[Fix all the things.]

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[Allllll things?]

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[All computer, electronic, and mechanical things that come to our collective attention.]

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[Oh, that different from taking over the world fix things.]

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[I like showing off how smart I am and interesting challenges and fixing things other people say are impossibly broken. I think it's the kind of thing other mes would have to share. We'd be the inter dimensional tech support team.]

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[Could maybe fix Jane if she breaking again.]

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[I would definitely need to learn a lot about how Jane works first. And how she broke the first time. And what 'fixed' looks like. And... You get the idea.]

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[So not all things, just things already knowing.]

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[Yes, yes, I was being dramatic. And, not necessarily. Knowing makes fixing so, so much easier. Sometimes you learn as you try to fix, but I prefer not to do that, easy to mess it up or take way longer than it ought to.]

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[Like how?]

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[Hmm...]

[Fixing a computer, but you barely know what it's supposed to actually do and have no idea how it does it. So you try things for an hour or two until something looks like it's about right, then show it to the person you're fixing it for. They complain that it's all wrong, you broke it. Well, what is it supposed to be doing? And you let him explain and think some more and then try more things to fix, and eventually it works to the guy's satisfaction. But if I already knew this computer, I know that probably the problem is this thingy, and if it's not then it could be that one, and I can undo any bad changes I make by doing that... Sorry. It's hard to explain simply.]

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[Guess so.]

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[Anyway, it's better to know more about what you're trying to fix than less.]