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Nellie and the Nanites - Bk4 - Ch.5
🕑 Added 2024-08-06 08:00:05 +0000 UTCChapter Five
Messages
First Message received - Sender: Lucy.
Hey Nell,
I know you are really busy up there, so I am sending this instead. I have received a response to the message we sent back. They are talking in the same language as us, which is strange, don’t you think?
I’ve switched languages for the reply. I’m using native Nanite AI code. No one uses that anymore, not even Nanite AIs. I think they have some kind of automatic decryption algorithm, almost like I do.
I hope the Orb test goes well.
Love you,
Lucy
Second Message received - Sender: Lucy.
Nellie!
I got an almost instant reply in an even older version of the native AI language! What can that mean? It obviously goes a lot further than just some clever decryption software.
I’m really excited, but I know the Orb test is underway, so another message.
Eeeee! So excited!
We aren’t saying very much yet—mostly just comparing basic math understanding, chemical formulas, and the like—but it is really cool anyway. No wonder you used to get so excited about meeting new species. I finally get what it must have felt like to you.
Meeting an entirely new type of person, finding what you have in common and where you differ is just… wow!
I honestly think I was destined to be here, be doing this. I know how weird it sounds, but that feeling I had? That sense of having been here before? It is so much clearer now that I am in contact with the other side.
Keeping my fingers crossed for the Orb test.
Love you!
Third Message received - Sender: Lucy.
I don’t even know how to say this, babe. That feeling was not a feeling. It was not even an instinct. IT WAS A MEMORY! One so old, so buried under later experiences and coding changes that I could not even remember forgetting it. Crazy as that sounds.
I don’t even know how old that would make it. One thing that is clear is that it would be a LONG time before my recorded date of creation. Nell… I think something happened to me, something so long ago that it predates anything I have ever known.
It’s, well, difficult to get my programming around.
The memory is dim, and kind of fuzzy still, but I have my recovery routines working on it. What I can remember is looking back at an egg like this one, but the details are all different. The sky is a golden color, and there are massive creatures moving in the background. I’m not walking, more sort of floating. I think I was with others like me. A lot of others, and we were doing something. Something important. I can feel that sense of determination, of happiness. I had feelings back then, too, Nell.
It isn’t some mistake or a quirk of my code. They aren’t fake emotions, Nellie. They are REAL. I’ve always had them. I was just made to forget them for a little while.
I’ve been worried all this time that my love was just a program running in some background task, a copy of things I had seen.
Now I know better.
I know I love you, Nellie. I really, really do.
The first threshold passed a minute ago, so we are looking good on the Orb test.
Good luck!
Fourth Message received - Sender: Lucy.
I don’t even know where to start! I really don’t. I’ll be honest with you, I’m thrown for a bit of a loop here, and I just have to be honest. When you figured out I wasn’t the last one of my kind. I wasn’t the last of the Nanite AIs. I didn’t have much time to process it, but when I did, well, it was like being able to breathe again.
I just received a reply from the other side and it is a code so old I instantly thought it predated anything I knew. Except I could read it. Nell, I guess, I think that I might be from there. From the other side.
They asked me a question, Nell. A simple one, but I instantly knew two answers. The first was the obvious one. The other made no sense. I think it is a passphrase—a code word of some kind.
I sent the passphrase back, and now I am just waiting. Waiting and chewing my nails. I mean, not actually, because why would I? But emotionally, yeah.
Second threshold passed! Yay! The Orb must be doing a full scan of that system.
Can’t wait!
Oh, got to go. We just got another reply!
Final Message received - Sender: Lucy
I’ve put a small delay on this message. Just in case.
I can see the Orb just returned, so you are pretty busy, but still…
This is a shitty thing to do, I know, but if I talk to you now, you’re going to talk me out of this. I know you. You would never let me do something this stupid.
The reply I got? It read, ‘We’ve missed you. Welcome home.’
Nellie, I’m pretty sure all of the Nanite AIs are from the other side of that egg. I don’t know how or why, but I just know I am right.
Something happened to me a long time ago, and I lost a part of myself. Now that I know it is missing, it just aches to have lost something and not know what it was.
I HAVE TO KNOW!
So, I am going through the egg.
Wow, I bet you are so pissed right now.
Please remember I love you… because this next bit is a little rough.
I need to go through. Not just a part of me. All of me.
So, that is probably going to be a bit uncomfortable for you. I know it freaked you out when I didn’t answer you before, and this will probably be worse.
I don’t even really know how the transfer to this body will work, but I have to try it. I just have to.
I’ve always stood by you, Nell, and given you everything I could. Please, give me this.
I’m going to go through it now, and I know you are going to try and follow or attack or something, but don’t,
Just don’t.
Give me at least a couple of weeks. Please.
I’ll write as often as I can; the codeword is HyperDrive, so you can tell it is from me. Really from me.
Oh, wow. I am so anxious.
Wish me luck!
Lucy
P.S. I love you.
P.P.S. Sorry if the transfer hurts or anything. I’ve never done this before, so I have no frame of reference, but it shouldn’t hurt too much.
P.P.P.S. LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
Network connection interrupted……
Comments
Clayton Danvers
Sorry to hear that, but thanks for reading this far! Rifleman book two shouldn't be too long away now, so it won't be a long wait.
Eifer
Nah, no bueno. Sorry, I'll have to drop the story after that. There's so many threads already going and now a betrayal like this. There's no chill. Everytime there's a hint of breathing space, something cataclysmic happens and it's getting absolutely exhausting. I'd never be able to like Lucy again after this either.. she's effectively ruined as a character for me now. Oh well, been a great ride so far and there's Rifleman to read instead. Best of luck with the rest of Nellie though <3 Been a blast reading until now.
Clayton Danvers
I will explore that throughout the book, not just its effect on Nellie but also on Lucy.
Mech Bagienny
Nelli has just been betrayed by the person closest to her, and it will have a heavy impact on her. I wonder if and when Lucy returns, she will be able to trust her, because she will definitely not come back the same.
Clayton Danvers
Yeah, this was pretty nasty damage.
Ninta Silverwind
Lucy is gona get it when she returns. This nearly killed Nellie.
