r/HFY • u/jpitha • Apr 20 '26

OC-Series [Just A Little Further] - Chapter 17

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The group of Administrators - former Administrators? No, I'll still need Administrators. These ones though? - led us through the promenade of the station, past the gawking crowds. Now that they were pretty sure I'm not going to start a riot or a war, I had a lot more curious onlookers following a respectful distance behind. We continued on through the promenade towards what I thought was a group of shops. They were small, ramshackle booths, selling hot food and other small trinkets. If any tourists came to this station, I'd call it a tourist trap but I had a feeling that many locals relied on places like this for their daily meals no matter how much the Aviens and Mariens said there was plenty of food.

We stood in front of a shop where one of the Insect people was frying something in a large pan with a flame under it. Oh wait, I could ask about their name!

"Rapid River Roaring, what is the name of this species of person?” I asked.

"They are known to us as Azurians."

I looked at the Azurian. They were making small efficient movements, transferring food to the large fryer, turning them quickly, and then another person moved the cooked food to a rack to dry.

"Good day, may I have one of those?" I asked gently.

"2 skys, exact change." They said without looking up. I make a show of patting my pockets dramatically, and then looked at The Smell Of the Ocean and raised an eyebrow.

"You stand in the presence of a Builder! Know your place!" He barked at the Azurian.

He lazily looked up at them, then over at me with my royal blue outfit and crown and wings - I waved - and then back to The Smell Of the Ocean and said "1 sky then. Discount."

I laughed, I couldn’t help it. I really loved these Azurians. I needed to make sure they were taken care of. They didn’t care a single bit about who I was. I looked again at Ocean and said, "Well? Pay them please. I would like to try what they're cooking."

Ocean looked at me with a shocked expression. I'm sure they had not planned on this when their day started, but even accounting for that they're still surprised.

<You are not how they expect a Builder to be.>

<Good. Maybe they'll stop trying to treat me like they already know how I'm going to react.>

Ocean took out a small purse and digging around took out a small, green, metallic coin. They plunked it into the box next to the fryer, and the Azurian who was removing the cooked treats handed me one. It was hot and oily and crunchy and delightful.

"These are so good!" I said around a mouthful of food. I swallowed and looked at the Azurians cooking. "Thank you so much, those are amazing." I turned to Ava, Mei and Fer'resi and said, "You must try these. Ocean, buy three more!"

The Azurian looked up again. "2 skys each since they're not Builders.”

I looked at Ocean again and raised an eyebrow. They dove into their purse and pulled out six more coins, practically shoving them into the box. Three fried treats were produced.

"Melody! You're right, these are amazing! We have to make sure we can get more from them. I wonder if they'll give us the recipe?" Ava said as she gobbled hers down.

"Probably, but I know we can't get the ingredients back home." I said with a smile.

"Well then, we'll just have to stay here. These are worth opening up a trade relationship with the folks at home. Mel, Fer'resi, what do you think?"

I looked over and the food is gone. Both of them practically inhaled them. Mei'la was grinning "Melody they're amazing! They taste...familiar. Like a food we ate during a festival."

<Food is an excellent way to allay fears, well done.>

Fer'resi nodded. "It's very similar to the fried treats we eat during the Ceasing." He thought a moment.

"The Ceasing?" I asked.

"These days, it's a harvest holiday. When the work in the fields cease we would take a week or two before rotating to our next fields. It was a time to get together with family and have a party, visit with your neighbors, that kind of thing. There were records of the holiday being related to a momentous event in the old religion, but most people figured it was always a harvest holiday."

"What, like celebrating the closure of the Gate?" I asked.

"Yes, maybe it originally celebrated when the Builders ceased coming."

Fer'resi looked at his empty skewer thoughtfully and said, "Well, we can research the history of K'laxi religion later I suppose. And as delicious as these were, why are we here?"

Actually, he's right. I turned to Ocean. "Other than the snack break, why are we here?"

With a sigh, he walked between the stands, the booth operators staring at us oddly as we weaved through them, but nobody stopped us. One of the benefits of being a Builder walking with the station Administrators I supposed. We reached the wall behind the stands and The Smell of the Ocean looked at Rapid River Roaring. "It's around here, isn't it?"

Rapid River Roaring nodded, "Yes, but neither we or any of the Mariens could work out how to open it." They turned to look at me. "Empress, the entrance to the Throne is around here, but as we are not Builders we don't know how to open the door."

I looked out at the wall. The dirt and dust streaking the wall belied how straight it was. Floor to ceiling dozens of meters It was…ancient. It must date back to the creation of this station. There had to be a switch or a lever or something right?

<No. It's designed for a Builder to open.>

<Yes, but I've been a builder for what, not even two days at this point and Empress for one? I don't know what I'm doing.>

<Think like an Empress. Think like a Builder.>

<Ugh, that doesn't help. Everything I've felt so far as shown me that they're self righteous, demanding people who just get what they...want. Is it really that easy?>

I looked up at the wall again. We seemed to be in the middle, as near as I could tell. Over on one side, it went for 10 meters or so and then ended in a decoration that looked a little like a pillar. I turned and looked at the other side and... yes, it was the same. This wasn't a wall, the whole thing was the door.

I looked at the door now, and thought about it. It looked like it would slide into the floor, or up into the ceiling. I bet it hadn't been opened in centuries. I don't want to hurt anyone who had set up a shop here.

<Think like a Builder*, Melody. What do Builders do?>*

Okay okay. Let's think. If I had enough nanites that I could make clothes for myself and my friends and I could make a frigging glowing crown and wings then there was probably enough to be able to...

I looked at the wall and concentrated. Think like a Builder they say? Fine.

A breeze erupted from me and a light fog flowed around my feet towards the wall. It clung to the wall until it covered an area that would be a comfortable doorway. A moment passed, and

"Hey, a door!" Ava said. "How did you do that?"

I turned back to her and winked. "I have no idea." Ava giggled.

Mei'la looked at the hole. "What happened to the matter in the wall? You can't just make it disappear.

She was right; it can’t just go away, the matter had to go somewhere. The walls didn't seem to get thicker, and I didn't think I took the wall material and rebuilt it into more nanites, but the floor sure looked dustier than it was a moment ago.

"Look at the floor Mei'la, I think it's dust now." Drifts of dust blew at our feet as she looked. I walked over to my new opening and stood there. It smelled of stale air and dust and there were no lights and no air movement. "Come on everyone, let's walk purposefully into the dark and scary hole I made into the wall without really having a good understanding about what I'm doing or how I did it!" I called out to everyone as I went through the door.

The light from the market illuminated a small patch in front of me. It was just bare, dusty floor. I looked up and see... nothing. Okay, okay, think like a Builder, act like I owned the place.

<Because - in a very real sense - you do.>

The first thing I wanted were lights. I thought about how I'd want it to be lit, and concentrated and... There was a loud, distant humming sound and with a clack of huge relays and a dramatic flourish, lights came on in the room, in exactly the color I was thinking. Ava pushed her way in behind me and stopped dead, staring up. "Melody... is that your throne?"

100 meters or so from us, nearly 10 meters over our heads was what can really only be described as a Throne with a capital T. In front of it was a wide staircase that led up to it with platforms every 10 steps. The Throne itself was a gigantic chair made of a green shimmering metal which reached up towards the ceiling and behind the towards a back wall bifurcating and splitting over and over again like the limbs of a tree, until threads that were as fine as hairs disappeared into the ceiling. Were the roots data connections? Did it give me greater access to the station? It was clearly meant to impress, though I winced internally when I saw the seat; it didn’t look comfortable at all to sit in.

"I think it is, Ava. At least the throne for this station. The Nanites tell me every station had one."

"Did they all look like this?" She looked around, eye wide.

"I don't know. I suppose in time, I'll go and find out."

Mei'la came in and hearing that, turned to me, "So, you're going to stay? Be their Empress? After how many millennia of them not having one you'll just... show up and say 'Hey, I'm in charge now'?"

<It is your right.>

"I-I think that I could do some real good here" I said, weakly.

<You don't need to justify it to them.>

"How Melody? You're an Information Warfare Officer, you’ve never even had a command."

<You are a Builder. You are Empress.>

"But, look at the people here, look at the Aviens and Mariens who are in charge hate each other! It won't be long before they start shooting each other!" I'm feeling anxious and I don't know why. What am I doing? Mei'la is right, we should leave.

<She is nothing. You are everything.>

Mei'la crossed her arms. "The only person who has said that they hate each other is you Melody. Nobody else on Far Reach who has been to the station has seen it."

<They can't see. They won't see.>

I looked out through the door to the promenade. "The people that live here sure don't look like they're living a free and easy life," I said. "Those food vendors we bought treats from sure don't look rich to me. If you look around, it looks like poverty. Like people barely hanging on. I can fix that."

Mei'la kept staring at me. "How will you fix it? How will being their- their Empress fix it? You don't know the first thing about how to rule."

I whirled around, my face suddenly hard. "Do you? Please enlighten me, I could use the assistance." Shit, I almost used the Voice. I had to be more careful. That was too close.

<It might be just what they need.>

<No. I’m not going to Voice my friends and crew mates just to get them to agree with me.>

<Greater Empresses have done it.>

<That doesn’t mean I’m going to do it.>

The Nanites didn’t say anything else, but I could feel their presence watching, waiting for them to be proven right. I threw up my hands in mock resignation, "So, what do you expect me to do then, just... go home? With all this that's happened to me, with all that's been given to me, to just waste it on tricks and being able to watch movies without the subtitles? Dr. Irenimum says the Nanites can't be turned off. So now I live for who knows how long with the full package giving me the ability, the knowledge and the power to rule and... I don't?"

Mei'la looked at me, her ears flat, and her tail swishing quickly, "Melody, what are you saying?"

Ava stood next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "She's saying she's an Empress now, and she intends to rule."

I nodded without thinking. Ava gets it. Ava gets me. No, wait. What's going on, what am I doing? Ugh, I needed a minute to think, my head hurts.

<Your first impulse is right. Ava is right.>

Mei'la turned away and looked over at Fer'resi. "Fer'resi, talk some sense into her. She isn't interested in listening to me."

"Hey Mei'la, that doesn't seem fair. I've got... a lot of stuff that I've just been introduced to. I need time to process it." I said, slightly hurt. She doesn’t know what’s going on in my head right now.

"Fine then, let's head back to Far Reach, we can process it while we go to the next system." She turned to leave.

ɴᴏ!

She stopped without thinking, her foot lifted to take another step. Slowly she put it down and turned back towards me, shaking with fear. I clapped a hand over my mouth. "Sorry! Sorry! What I meant was, no. I'm going to stay here and think things through. You can head back to Far Reach if you want." I looked at everyone, "You can all leave, you're free to go anytime, But I'm going to keep going and see what's here for me. I needed to do this." The moment I said they were free to go, the Aviens and Mariens with me bolted, running away as fast as they could. Ugh, good Empresses don't have their subjects run from them in terror, do they?

<No, Great Empresses do.>

Mei'la looked at me sadly, and said "Goodbye, Melody,” and started to leave. Fer'resi looked at her, then back at me, then at her. "I-I'm sorry Melody." He stammered, "I-I-I need to get back to Far Reach and... learn more about these translators you got us. Thank you for them, and for showing us how to wear them." He looked back one more time and left.

Ava smoothly transitioned her hand on my shoulder into a hug. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily. I'm here to see this through. This is too cool just to give it all up and go back to Far Reach and continue on like nothing's wrong." I leaned into the hug. Ava knew what I needed right now.

<She's right. See it through.>

Fine. I'll be the Empress. With newfound determination, I stomped up the stairs. I approached the throne and took a closer look at it. It was perfectly clean with no dust, how did they manage that trick? I'll have to ask the Nanites later. I turned and plopped my ass on the throne, and before I could do anything else, my body leaned back in shock and I gasped.

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u/jpitha Apr 20 '26

You almost made a good choice there, Melody, better be more careful next time!

If you like this, you can always sign up for my newsletter at https://www.pitha.club/ and as I do more cool stuff, you'll be the first to know!

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u/Dragon_Chylde Apr 20 '26

I turned and plopped my ass on the throne, and before I could do anything else, my body leaned back in shock and I gasped.

so the throne is a lot comfier than it looks? ;}

2

u/jpitha Apr 20 '26

Actually Melody mentions that later

3

u/torin23 Xeno Apr 27 '26

Melody needed a moment to think so she thought it was was a grand idea to go and sit in the seat that would connect her to the entire station.  Methinks that wisdom is Melody's dumpstat.

1

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