Fly Away - TheFatRat
Backdated to August 20, 2025
WC: 2,166

It'd been a little under a month now, since Almadel pulled the data drive out of who knows where and put it in her hands. Solaris had wasted little time before she'd gone back to her world, back to the island plateau with the old metal hangar and the small house next to it. The place she'd unofficially taken up as her residence since finding it a few years back.

The old computer systems in the hangar were… spotty at best. Most had been destroyed, though if it had been by Solarian hands or merely time, she wasn't sure--at least when she'd originally found it. The bent and broken smooth blue-silver metal panels and reorganized pulled guts of circuitry and wires bound together neatly in front of some what within majority of the stations had been her doing. One unit worked, at least, a simple collection of four screen generators where only one was actually consistent about staying on, and a slightly angled table where the keyboard and interactive reader would hover to allow access and user input.

The flow of energy for the hologram was weaker than it surely had once been, but it offered enough resistance for her to feel a tactile response when she hit keys and buttons. An old familiarity she cherished.

She could easily recall the stress of scavenging parts from the various broken systems around the hangar, trying to repair the one station that was the most intact. It hadn't taken her long to enlist Realta, the Mauvian more able to work with and adapt technology from what she'd seen.

It wasn't that Kyrie didn't know how to fix things--she did, to an extent. She'd been forced to learn over the centuries. But this system went well beyond that small familiarity. She'd mainly worked with simpler, later models and systems. This one utilized a lot from Solarian prime technology, though she also realized there'd been ample adjustments and patches to refurbish them at a later time.

Realta had had a field day with it all, really. Well. Field month. Year? Kyrie had nearly screamed when they struggled to get a computer keyboard to connect with the system, since they couldn't get the hologram and interactive reader to function yet. Never mind trying to figure out how to best set up a generator to fuel the thing. One for the hangar and house's lights, one for strictly powering the computer terminal, was eventually solidified.

She stood now at the unit, watching the hologram-formed screens warily as she woke the system up and checked energy statuses. Two screens didn't feel like waking up, apparently, while the third questionable one flickered here and there. She didn't pull up anything on that one.

Kyrie glanced down at the small box sitting open and waiting on the table beneath where the hologram hovered, the Solarian text glinting in the pale blue-white light of the screens. Above her, she could hear the low sway of rain against the roof of the hangar, the sound echoing through the open door to the vast main area that stretched up higher than even her control room up on the second story.

Her back was to the windows and door, not minding the typically concerning position. Nothing else was on the planet with her. Even the ship that sat cold and silent in the hangar didn't even make a sound. Well. Nothing hostile, anyway.

Above her shoulder, her usual companion of the golden wisp hovered, the warmth of its energy gentle against her cheek. Beyond its small hums, though, there was no other movement or voice to be found on that world.

But…

Tentative fingers brushed against the data drive, some part of her still braced for the moment to be shattered and she'd wake up from the dream. She picked it up, though, and it didn't vanish into dust. Slotted the device into the main body of the terminal, and nothing jostled her from sleep. Didn't even notice she'd held her breath till her chest began to burn, eyes locked on the reliable screen as information flickered and crept across it. The system was unused to needing to put so much energy into something. But it… it did.

Streams of data rolled past rapidly, some automatic setting in the data drive taking over to open necessary programs, install what it needed from itself, fly past authorization screens-- Kyrie could only stare, eyes wide and brows furrowed at the rapid stream of flickering channels and folders, something else controlling their flow and redirecting information as it needed. For a moment, her blood went cold, a horror making the hair at the back of her neck stand on end. What if Almadel was wrong? What if the data was corrupted? What if her computer was shot from this? How could she get it running again? What could she even do to---

Something moved slightly out of the corner of her eye, and Kyrie's head snapped towards it.

She immediately sucked in a breath to the relief of her screaming lungs, limbs still tingling and cold as she stared back at the small, small panel that had opened up. A camera. A scanning port, really, moving slightly in its socket like an eyeball, rolling up and down as it stared back at her, then side to side as it took readings of the room and probably what it could register of the hangar beyond the windows.

A few more windows popped up on the digital screen, more Solarian script she caught briefly--information on the hangar, from what she could tell. Then another window, and that script streaked by in a blue blur till it finally settled for a split second on… her name?

" < I greet you as I would the wings of the dawn. > "

The speakers in the terminal crackled and clicked, but the old, old formal greeting in Solarian broke through the air. Kyrie shook, the sound alien at this point. Centuries.

Centuries.

She didn't have the strength in her hands or forearms when she tried to catch herself, crumpling to the floor in a heap as she could only stare agape at the hologram that was the primary digital screen. A face had formulated itself, nearly featureless but there in a algorithmic attempt to make interactions with the program less awkward if users wanted the more… living facade to be given to the AI.

The camera tried to roll and follow her movement, but she fell down below the edge of the slanted table, just barely in its view.

" < Do you require medical assistance? One moment. > " There was more crackling clicks as the program tried to reach out to communication channels--none that existed any more, since she and Realta had known that would be pointless. Small error pings echoed in the room. " < I apologize, I am unable to reach medical personnel, I will notify security-- > "

" < N-no need. Stop. > "

Her own voice sounded fractured as she forced her tongue to move. She was used to speaking Solarian, maybe hearing the playback of her own voice reciting songs or stories.

She could barely remember the last time she'd heard anyone else speak her native tongue.

There was something of a recollection, a chance encounter with a haggard looking youth, gaunt and torn from the lack of proper food. They'd been trying to hunt, but so far away from other main settlements that Kyrie had known of lingering at that point, it was clear they didn't have the proper strength or stamina to pursue anything alone.

She'd offered help. Some of her rations. There were small game still that she could snare for them, if they would accept it.

The youth's ruddy skin had turned remarkably pale when they'd seen her, her approach long announced over a rocky field. But then they'd turned even paler, started saying words that she didn't even know, interlaced with the old Solarian tongue. It'd unnerved her to realize eventually that new forms of the language had evolved over the centuries and turmoil and attempts to scrabble together an existence. Words that youth threw at her and she couldn't comprehend.

But she'd understood < plague > and < calamity >, and < Solaris >.

She'd understood the shrieks were about her, some realization that she wasn't merely a piece of whatever stories the youth had learned about the history of their world and people. A commonality she'd found for the newer generations, those who hadn't been alive when the world began to fall apart, and whatever recollections their elders still possessed blurred and muddled into fabrications of dire warnings against a woman that would bring about their misfortune or worse.

She'd heard various renditions of < catalyst to our deaths > over the many. Many.

Many.


Many.



Many years.



She could remember the totality of the situations and stories, but someone speaking the language to her? Someone greeting her?

Kyrie couldn't remember the last time that had ever happened.

It grated on her nerves. Felt… wrong. She wasn't one to be greeted so formally, so respectfully. She was the least deserving of that.

" < There's no need for any of it. > "

She heard the soft whirls of static from the speakers as the AI's program processed the auditory and visual data it was receiving. In the same neutral, polite tone, it responded, " < Understood. Communication attempts ceased. How may I assist you? > "

"Giving me the strength to stand would be great," Kyrie mumbled, aware of the tingles and cold that still zinged and singed her nerves and muscles.

The digital face on the screen seemed to tilt slightly. A programmed mannerism that almost made her laugh that someone had put that much detail into it. " < I am sorry, I do not understand your request. Can you please repeat that? > "

" < Ignore that, I was talking to myself, > " was given instead, Kyrie still just staring up at the screen. It worked. It ******** worked. " < …give me your designation, please. > "

The digital face straightened, and the voice lost some of its simulated respectful tone. " < I am designated the Artificial Intelligence and Assistance program, > Environmental Nuance Observation and Cohabitational Helper, < in accordance with the common trade language system. Abbreviated as ENOCH. >"

The sudden inclusion of English slightly jostled her, but that was the way of integrating the language that had been a common trade language back then… but the idea of switching fully to English right then just… she closed her eyes as she felt the sting growing there. " < Thank you, Enoch. I will refer to you as your abbreviated name. Do you have any user profile data on me? " > She'd seen her name, she thought, in the flash flood flow of Solarian script that had sped across the screen earlier, so certainly would suggest it did…

She waited as the digital blank face tilted slightly, another window popping up on the screen that flickered and filled with streams of data. " < Designation accepted. Searching database …. user profile found. > "

The information stilled and solidified, bright blue script appearing over the hologram screen in neat lines. Her data. Brows lifted as she scanned the information, only rising higher as she realized the not only extent of information but the age of chunks of it. Her heart squeezed despite herself.

" < User name overridden by user direction. Name to be used is Kyrie. Other names and designations are to be ignored, per directive. > " The simple statement brighter small bubble of a laugh to her lips, the pop tingling across her skin. " < User last accessed system… > " The pause continued to swell as the program worked to calculate time, only for the head to tilt slightly the other way. " < Apologies, my system cannot seem to access any current date information in this terminal. …. No other data systems can be detected at this time to amend missing information. Are other networks available? > "

Ah.

Kyrie blinked once. Twice. Stared. A third blink. Fourth. Time.

What… what even was the date now, on Solarian calendars?

The sudden return to aimless passage and uncalculated time made Kyrie's stomach churn. She was grateful she was on the ground, at least. There'd been attempts at cataloging the passage of time, sure. Many of Aelith's journals included dates she could still recognize. But as more people died off and settlements became smaller, less organized….

She had no idea.

" < …there aren't any other systems, Enoch. You're the only one. On the whole planet. > " Her voice sounded distant to her ears, still unused to the conversational Solarian moving about. Her head tipped back, she stared at the unmoving screen and let out a soft breath. " < I… have a lot of things I need to catch you up on, so we can figure out what to do next. > "

And… she did.

Sort of.

Eventually.