Riley Gendreau
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Deepspace: Orin and the Ventilation Entrance (Ea)(Com)
🕑 Added 2025-07-01 15:42:50 +0000 UTCA commission for last_of_workers
After walking around the desert trying not to think about the fact that she could grow a real-life baby and/or clone of herself inside her new body, Orin came across an entrance to Zeta-13, which was some sort of large, rounded tunnel.
Orin walked inside until she could no longer see anything because of how dark it was. Orin stopped to think about what to do, which was hard when she had three AI assistants in her head talking to each other.
Of course, as annoying as that was, it also meant she had three AI assistants to help her think of ways to solve her problems, though in this case Orin wasn’t super thrilled about the idea Rosha came up with.
She said that Orin should create a mining drone, as they had very bright lights on them, and it could lead Orin through the tunnel. It was a good idea; however, it meant Orin would have to create it inside her.
Orin tried to think of another way, but all that did was waste time, so she gave in and told Rosha to make the drone. Orin then sat there awkwardly feeling her insides move around and began putting together the drone.
The closer it got to being completed, the more her stomach started to bulge out as if she was pregnant, which made her really worried about how this thing was going to come out of her. Luckily, when it was done, her back opened up and the drone flew out of her.
Her back then closed up, and the drone flew over to her face. Orin thought this whole thing was going to leave her annoyed, but as soon as she saw the drone in front of her, her heart started to melt.
For some reason she found herself suddenly super attached to the drone and wanted to hug it like it was her child. It seems like her motherly instincts kicked in because she created it inside her, which was a bit confusing for her emotionally.
Of course the drone didn’t seem to feel the same; instead, it seemed happy to be beside her and was waiting for it, almost like a loyal dog waiting to go for a walk to the park, which, while it made sense, she for some reason didn’t like, but she didn’t get a choice in the matter.
Having made it, Orin asked Rosha to have it get in front of her and lead her through the tunnel. That worked perfectly fine up until they got to a part of the tunnel that split off in five different directions. Orin looked down each tunnel and couldn’t see a thing.
She had no idea which way to go, and she didn’t have time to check each one, yet she couldn’t afford to pick one randomly and go the wrong way. There was only one real thing she could do, and that was to make more drones.
Orin sighed and asked Mayve to make five scout drones. Mayve sounded happy and got right to work creating the five small drones. Like before, Orin felt her body creating them, and her stomach expanded a bit right before they all came popping out of her back.
Orin looked at the drones, and they were so much smaller now, but they were super adorable. She just wanted to take them and give them lots of hugs and kisses, but again, they weren't really her children, even if they felt like it.
Orin watched the five of them fly off in different directions, and she stood still awkwardly until Mayve asked Orin if she wanted to see the feed from the drones. Orin was surprised to hear she could and said she would love that.
Suddenly she stopped seeing what was in front of her and was seeing in night vision what was in front of the first drone. It seemed to be more tunnel, at least all the way up until it got to a collapsed part and couldn’t go any further.
Orin asked Mayve to have it come back, and then she switched over to the second drone. It had managed to find an end to the tunnel, but the problem with its route was that at some point the ground was gone and replaced by what looked like a quicksand pit made of some dark energy.
That seemed too risky for her, so she had that one come back as well. Drone number three, which was in the tunnel next to drone two, had also managed to get to the same area, but with nothing in the way.
The area that the drone was in seemed to be the control station for the ventilation for this side of Zeta-13, which was a good sign; a place like that should have something connecting it to the main parts of the facility. That seemed like the best choice, but Orin wanted to check out the other drones.
Drone three was unresponsive, and Orin asked Mayve what happened to it. Mayve said she was unsure. She reviewed the footage from the moments before it became unresponsive, and it seemed to just be traveling through the tunnel when suddenly it stopped.
She said there was only one frame, but it does look like an anomaly was happening as it flew by, so it could have been destroyed or taken somewhere out of range. Orin felt her heart sink hearing that hurt; she didn’t want it to be gone.
It made her want to start crying, but she managed to stop herself and focus on her mission. She checked out the other two drones; another one had reached a dead end, while the other had found a massive fan.
Orin gulped; she hadn’t realized she was in the ventilation. It was a good thing it wasn't on, as if it was, depending on where she was in it, that fan would pull her towards it or push her away from it with ease.
Once the scout drones returned to her, Orin had them all follow behind her while she followed the mining drone down the right tunnel. All was going well until Zeta-13 did what it does best, that being anomalies that ruin your day.
Over by the control station for the ventilation, one occurred. It not only charged the reactor core for the station, but it also flipped all the switches in order to turn it back on. Orin stopped when she heard the noise echoing through the tunnels, then she felt a slight wind pick up.
Orin didn’t realize what was going on until the wind picked up and one of the scout drones started to fly back into the tunnel. Orin’s three AIs all told her that it seemed the ventilation had restarted and she needed to get out of there quickly.
Orin nodded and grabbed all of the drones that hadn’t been pulled away yet and started running towards the exit. She almost made it to the safety platform and got away from being pulled, but she was just a second too late.
She ended up getting swept off her feet and pulled through the ventilation shaft. Orin, still holding the drones, asked her AI assistants to come up with a plan before all of them were chopped up by the big fan at the end of this tunnel.
The three of them talked and came up with a plan, but in order to do it, they needed Orin to put the drones she had in her arms back inside her so they could use the parts from them in order to make a different type of drone.
Orin nodded and managed to get the remaining drones into her back hole. Once they were all inside again, Orin felt them being dismantled and their parts being used to make something new. As they were being built, Orin continued to fly through the tunnels.
The sound of the giant fan got louder and louder, and Orin knew she was getting close to it. She looked down at her stomach and noticed it was quite large again, which meant it was almost time for them to come out and hopefully save her.
A few seconds later, Haylea said they were ready and asked Orin to flip herself around so that her back was facing the direction the fan was pulling them. Orin nodded and did so, and as soon as she was facing the right way, her back opened up.
Ten small fighter drones came popping out of her back, and one after another they all quickly flew towards the fan, using the wind to get there quicker. Orin couldn’t see it, but as soon as they were out of sight, she heard several explosions.
As soon as the tenth one happened, the wind completely stopped, and Orin fell to the ground right on her face. She let out a groan from the pain and flipped herself over and just stared at the ceiling. Once her body stopped hurting, she sat up and asked the AIs what they had done.
They’re silent for a moment as if they didn’t want to say anything, but Haylea spoke up and said they destroyed the fan. Orin cheered and said that was great but then noticed the AIs getting silent again, so she asked them what they weren’t telling her.
Haylea admitted the only way to break it quickly enough was to use the drone's self-destruct mode, which causes a small explosion. Using all ten, they were able to break the fan enough to make it stop working.
Orin didn’t say anything after that. She just laid back down and closed her eyes, and for a few minutes let her tears pour out the sides of her eyes. Once she had gotten her sadness out about losing her little ones, she sat up and asked Rosha to make a new mining drone.
Rosha got silent once again before admitting that she couldn’t since Orin was out of material to make things. Orin would have to find more parts and store them inside her before she’d be able to use any more drones.
Orin closes her eyes and sighs, saying she wasn’t liking how this was going at all. Then, with nothing else she could do, she put her hand on the side of the tunnel and started walking forward, hoping to somehow find the ventilation station in the dark.
Comments
Riley
Yeah, I hope so as well.
Michael Halpern
I think they both are and aren't, they don't have their own distinct personalities, not the drones anyways, but she still has the attachment, i think she needs to use her ability to make an actual child to direct her instincts towards over the drones, making future use and loss of the drones easier to manage, potentially.
last_of_workers
so Orin is faced with the problem that no one has talked about... are her robots her children? can she be a mother if just yesterday she was a guy who never thought about family life... this situation is already very difficult, because her emotions and the need to survive are mixed in with this, and somewhere on the horizon looms the fact that in theory she can create not only robots but also living beings! and one more thing I really really liked the result... I'm barely holding back tears now... This story evoked truly deep emotions in me... I don't even know what else to say here, so I'll just say that this story is really very good... Damn, I still couldn't hold back and cried... Riley, you're brilliant!!
Michael Halpern
hopefully she doesn't get too jaded about this,
