Fanfic: The Last Kidnapping, Part 17
When I posted Part 16, I figured I was done, but a continuation has inserted itself into my brain, so here you are, fandom.
Title: The Last Kidnapping, Part 17
Author: Joan
Length: 3638 words
Summary: The visitors from Earth get to work.
Warnings: Nudity, lots of OCs
Links to previous chapters under the cut
Links: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16
The meal was just ending when an elderly Yi#vi swam up to their table. He seemed to have some sort of eyeglasses that consisted of bulging lenses attached directly to his skin all the way around. They were completely black inside, not with the texture of a black iris, but a featureless black as if they were all pupil, without iris or white. Surrounded by aliens, this one seemed to Roxanne the most alien of all.
"[Hello, everyone,]" he said. "[My name is Evodel Niuirn. Tsveö, would you please tell my story?]"
"[Sure,]" said Tsveö after translating. "Evodel Niuirn was the first person ever to set foot on Harolup. We'd sent probes before, but he was the first Explorer. That's actually what he would have been even if the Home Star Group hadn't been destroyed. He trained for it and he was on his way here. In a lot of ways, this colony owes its survival to him. Roxanne, you'll probably be working with him later on today, getting trained on the recording and sampling equipment that you'll be taking into the field." Everyone at the table greeted Niuirn.
"[Thank you, but I'm not here in my professional capacity. I am also a member of the Glau Study Group. There is a study group for each of the other peoples, working to maintain knowledge of it, and adding to that knowlege where we can. I am here to request that you, Wayne Scott, participate with us, answer questions and demonstrate your unique qualities. You may be the only Glau this generation of young people will ever meet.]"
When Tsveö finished translating (and Roxanne was pleased to find that she had followed it correctly in the original), Naüÿng added "That includes personal body stuff. Like, they'll probably want to ask questions during your medical exam."
Wayne had been about to give a cheerful "Yes, I'd be happy to," but then he remembered some of the really rude questions he sometimes got back on Earth, usually from boys. He looked around, wondering if anyone here would understand, then realized there was one person who probably would.
"Roxie, do you understand why I'm uncomfortable with this?" he asked. Tsveö translated for Niuirn, and kept on translating as the conversation went on in English.
She nodded. "Once I figured out how to get my messages, I got grilled about my biology."
"But were any of the questions, you know, nasty?" His volume dropped to a murmur, even though he knew everyone could hear him. "Like, remember that kid who asked me if I could stick my head up my own ass?" Minion laughed. Megamind tried to stop himself from laughing, thinking that it wouldn't look dignified, and failed; the laugh emerged as a snort. Tsveö and Naüÿng looked shocked, as did Niuirn when Tsveö, recovering himself after a moment, translated.
"I remember that kid," she replied, "and I've had that kind of questions thrown at me. Back on Earth, I mean. Here, no. People are just really curious." She frowned, thinking, during the translation. "Tsveö, Naüÿng, do people here ever ask a question, not because they want an answer, but to express some, ah, inappropriate emotion, like anger or lust?"
"Once in a while," said Naüÿng after translating and then replying in Tseri#uu. "But people having inappropriate emotions aren't just left to flounder here the way they are on Earth. Someone would intervene."
"So people wouldn't do it because they'd get grief for it," Wayne responded. Translation.
"Not grief, necessarily," Naüÿng replied, after giving Niuirn a very short response, as if the former explorer had already heard it. "Like, my friend Arvarvin. She's a couple of years older than me and when she reached puberty she started getting really aggressive. It's a biochemical thing. Some gene just lines have that potential. So they sent her and her Yi#vi to Second Seed and made her a hunter. Second Seed hasn't got the bugs worked out of their farming operation yet, so they still depend partly on hunting to get enough protein. And it's worked out pretty well. She likes hunting and she's getting good at it."
"It sounds like the odds of Wayne getting that kind of a question are pretty small," Roxanne concluded. Translation.
"Very small." Translation.
"Okay," said Wayne. "Tell him I'll do it." Translation.
"[Thank you,]" said Niuirn. "[This has been a very interesting conversation.]" Before the translation was over, he turned to go.
Megamind spoke. "[One more thing, if you don't mind.]" Naüÿng translated. "[I have never before seen optical prostheses permanently attached to a person's face, if they are prostheses and not equipment for augmentation of normal eyesight. Would you mind telling us about them?]"
"[Oh. I don't mind at all. These are prostheses, made by cannibalizing lenses and circuitry from secondary and spare equipment.]" Translation. "[They were made for me after my natural eyes were destroyed by a member (the first member ever encountered by the Paired Peoples) of the species that is now officially known as Evodel's Acid Squirter.]" Translation. "[The acid produced is a strong hydrochloric, quite useful. One of my jobs now is maintaining a population of them in confinement and harvesting the acid.]" Translation. "[Wrist unit, show a domestic Evodel's Acid Squirter producing.]" A hologram appeared of a round, ungainly creature like the missing link between toads and lizards, about as large as one of Wayne's fists, striped in dull orange and green, with a growth on its head that looked a bit like a tiny medieval jester's cap, without the bells. As they watched, the growth aimed and squirted. The acid flew until it struck something that hadn't been there until that moment: a nearly round oval of grey-brown color, slightly larger than the creature itself, with two black spots placed to represent eyes, if this oval were a face. The acid hit in a line that crossed both eyes, then ran quickly down into a finger-wide trough and flowed away. "[Each of them can do that twice a day, when it's well fed, and we make sure they are. Yield is about twelve iei[squish]i per day per animal.]" Twelve iei[squish]i was determined to be about fifty mililiters, a little more than three tablespoons.
"[So you have achieved complete domination over your nemesis,]" concluded Megamind. The old Yi#vi laughed.
"[Yes.]" And then in a fair imitation of Megamind's voice, he added in English, "My brilliant plan has ultimately succeeded. I have revahnge!"
#####
As soon as Megamind and Roxanne were back in their room, there was a knock on the door. The outer door, the one that led to the hallway.
Roxanne, oddly, had a moment of panic. Someone was at the door and she was naked! Intellectually, she knew that opening the outer door while naked was perfectly acceptable here and, in fact, the polite thing to do, but the urge to cover herself was overwhelming. Megamind's hand was already on the door handle. The only thing she could think to do was to plop herself into her chair, which put her sideways to the door, and draw one knee, the one nearest the door, up to her chest, resting her heel on the seat and wrapping her arms loosely around it. She was still appropriately naked, but nothing was visible that would have been concealed by a string bikini.
At the door was a blue teenage girl in a strangely Earth-like outfit: long, loose trousers, a loose hip-length vest and a bag like a bicycle messenger's bag but about six times larger, slung diagonally, all a dull light brown. Shoes or boots of the same color, with greenish black soles, were just visible under the trousers.
"Hi," she said as she stepped inside, and that was all the English she attempted. "[My name is Eëx Ãhädl and I work in Central Supply. I'm here to bring you your regular work clothes.]" While Megamind asked Roxanne if she needed a translation and Roxanne assured him that she didn't, Ãhädl stepped inside, reached into her bag and began pulling out more light brown cloth. The fabric was a canvas type, like denim. Megamind closed the door after her and Roxanne stood up, much more relaxed now that the initial moment was over and the visitor was female.
Out of the bag came two outfits exactly like Ãhädl's, plus sleeves that attached to the vests with buttons made of some little flat seed. The fabric (which had a kind of irregular color, like old-fashioned grey sweat pants) was of double thickness on the front of the vest, with pleats and cuts and seams creating multiple pockets like a fisherman's vest.
"[Made from a local plant fiber?]" Megamind guessed as they put their new outfits on. Ãhädl gave the name of the plant and a hologram of it appeared on a nearby wall. The couple from Earth were amused at its close resemblance to marijuana. The trousers had drawstring waists, not much need for fitting, but the measurements that mattered, the shoulder and hip widths and leg lengths, fit perfectly. So did the hazard-orange hard-toed boots that came out of the bottom of the bag. Roxanne had a moment of wonder at that, then realized that their measurements would have been in their medical reports, which the whole colony had access to. The hems of the trousers also had drawstrings so they could be drawn tight against the uppers of the boots. Yeah, there are insects here.
As soon as Ãhädl was gone, they checked their calendars. Roxanne would be getting trained on the recording and sampling equipment that she'd be taking into the field, and practicing by using them to check some of the crop plants for signs of disease, so she was to meet Niuirn in one of the agricultural bays. Megamind would be going to the colony's machine shop to assemble the first brainbot body.
"[I'm assuming that Minion will be assisting me. Where is that fish? Wrist unit, show me Ilu Amnang and request conversation.]" A hologram of Minion, suitless in open water, appeared next to the empty gorilla suit.
"[Yes, conversation]," said the piscene, then switched into English. "Wow, those are some ugly outfits."
"Practical, Minion," Megamind replied. "This design is obviously the optimal balance among simplicity of construction, functionality, durability and the limitations of the material."
"Yeah, but they're so plain! You gotta let me nice 'em up as soon as we get a break."
"Maybe," said Roxanne, "you should check on whether customizing work clothes is socially acceptable. [Wrist unit, what percentage of the work clothes currently worn at First Seed have had, um, pause] honey, what's the word for ornamental, or decorative or something like that?" Megamind provided it. "[Resume, have had ornamental modifications?]"
"[Twenty-eight point four percent.]"
"See?" said Minion. "[Wrist unit, select at random and display six views of work clothes with ornamental modifications currently being worn.]"
At the sight of the half-dozen holograms that appeared around the room, the Opuluu's expression changed to dismay. All the Yi#velit wearing ornamented work clothes were kids. There was one of a group of six or seven little ones in what appeared to be a classroom, but all the others showed kids at work: maintaining machines, helping in the kitchen, picking bugs off crops. Several were in a tree, wearing hazard orange harnesses attached by ropes of the same color to its limbs, harvesting small teardrop-shaped red fruit. The modifications seemed limited to drawings on the cloth, in only a few colors (hazard orange was strongly represented), and natural items such as feathers and shells, tied on. They all looked like they might have been done by the children themselves. "Huh," he reacted. "[Wrist unit, are there any formal or informal rules about the decoration of work clothes?]"
In the air in front of the holograms, the words appeared: "[No formal rules exist. Questions about informal rules require consultation. Please wait.]"
"[If it's calling U[click]hani Vöhryeh,]" said Megamind, "[there will be an extra minute or two of delay. She's in orbit. Menang, why aren't you suiting up to come and help me in the workshop?]"
"[I'm not going to be there with you, sir. I'll be in the lake, working out the first task.]"
"[Oh. Well, I hope I'll have someone to assist me. Maybe I sh-]" The holograms of the kids all shrank and moved aside as one of U[click]hani Vöhryeh, now dressed (in a white jumpsuit like many they'd seen in Harolup High Orbit) and measuring some liquid in a lab, appeared in the center.
"[Hello, Menang, Amnang, Roxanne. What is your question?]"
Minion replied. "[We see children with decorated work clothes but not adults. Is there a rule about that?]"
There was a long pause before she reacted, a result of the ground-to-orbit transmission time."[Children will decorate any surface they're allowed to, and we encourage that. It help develop aesthetic perception, initiative, and so forth. For adults, it's regarded as inappropriately frivolous.]"
"[So there's no such thing as clothing style? Wait. That can't be right. We saw a lot of style variety at our arrival dance. Is it just clothes for work that are supposed to be plain?]"
Long pause. "[Yes. Exactly.]"
"[Huh. Well... listen, do you think maybe that could change once the colony gets a little more secure?]"
Long pause. "[Why, Menang, it sounds like you're very attached to this idea.]"
"[I'm a designer. Back on Earth, I designed and made all our outfits. The only time either of us would even think of going out in public in something this plain and ordinary would be for a disguise. When we're going out as ourselves, presentation is important. I just can't believe my Yi#vi is going out there in, well, stuff that looks like it's made out of the bags that seeds are shipped in, on Earth.]" (Roxanne failed to follow this and asked for help. There was a pause for translation.)
Long pause. "[Our own ages of mass production and mass population were like that. Personal style was used to express identity and stand out in the crowd. But now we're in a different kind of age, an age when everyone is known and nearly everything is hand-crafted. It is our work and our interpersonal behavior that speak for us now. Personal style will not die out, but its place is in our ceremonial and recreational garments.]" Once again, Roxanne asked for translation. When it was done, she had a question.
"[Vöhryeh, you're talking about the present like this is just another age, like being reduced to a little tiny group of survivors is almost...] Honey, I need an expression like 'par for the course'."
"Meaning the sort of difficulty that is to be expected, taken in stride, that sort of thing?" asked Megamind. She nodded. "How about --"
Vöhryeh interrupted. "[This is not the first time our civilization has been very nearly wiped out and had to begin again from remnants. I wouldn't go so far as to say we're used to it, but we know what to do. And one of the things we know to do is to remember that work, in this age, is not a matter for individuality. We do not work to express ourselves. We work for the survival and restoration of our culture, of the Paired Peoples. The clothes we wear for work reflect that. Do you understand?]"
#####
Ãdi[click]ose Likchel, the Yi#vi in charge of the machine shop at First Seed was the oldest one they had seen yet. His white eyebrows bristled and he had hair in his ears like some old human men get. He was also missing two fingers from his right hand.
"[Been wanting to set this place in order for years now, but the colony could never spare the ten or twenty days of labor it would take,]" he said to Wayne through Naüÿng. "[Now you can do it in a day.]" So the former hero, still wearing his Metro Man costume, flew around the place, moving machinery and tools and supplies at the old guy's instructions. Every once in a while, he'd be interrupted by Megamind, who was the center of a little group of observers, about half of them hologrammed in from Second Seed or Harolup High Orbit. The former villain, working at a counter, would call for something in Tseri#uu. Naüÿng translated, but Wayne stopped bothering to listen because the system would highlight the object itself, putting a layer of blue glow on it if it was visible, a ball of lavender or pink on whatever was on top of it if it wasn't. He didn't need to know what it was called to fetch it.
The thing Megamind was working on was a lakebot body. The lakebots were a type of brainbot that swam rather than flew, very much in demand for the colony's extensive underwater farms. This would be the first of the brainbot cores to be given a new body made on Harolup. The assembly process was being closely studied so that mass production could be initiated as soon as possible.
Wayne had expected that, the first time he had to take orders from Megamind, his old rival would use the opportunity to tease, humiliate and generally assert dominance over him. That is, in fact, what Megamind had planned to do -- but not while he had the attention of, literally, every engineer in the world. Knowing that his own engineering skills, self-taught and based on Earth technology, were in many ways horribly behind those of his audience, he had made up his mind to behave with a far greater degree of dignity and professionalism than came naturally to him, in the hope that this would help him win a little more respect. He didn't say "Please" to Wayne when he wanted something. He wouldn't go that far. Instead, he was terse and efficient, calling out the name of the thing he needed next in the fewest possible words. Sometimes he didn't know the name in Tseri#uu, but after he described it to his audience, someone would figure it out. Most of the tools provided for him were blessedly intuitive in their use, and assembly went smoothly, though there were long pauses when something had to be made.
It was that way with the exterior casing. The shop manager provided a sheet of the plasticine material used to make external casings for underwater equipment of all sorts. There was no mold suitable for the vacuum-casting process normally used to shape it, but the old Yi#vi advised him that Glau strength was a more than adequate substitute. Megamind ended up sculpting the desired shape out of plain clay from a local river bank, and Wayne massaged the plasticine into a shape that matched. The color of the material was an orange close to that of prison jumpsuits back in Metro City, an irony that wasn't lost on him. Then Megamind marked circles where the holes for the arms, lights and sensors should be and guided Wayne's head and hands so his laser vision could burn those holes at just the right angles. Then Wayne went back to moving things for Likchel while Megamind drew the core out of the suspension medium it had been transported in, then carefully fitted it into its housing, mating each of its axons to a hair-thin conductor wire, and sealed the unit. While it gradually woke up from its artificial hybernation, he performed the final assembly.
Once that last bit was done, Likchel, through Naüÿng, called Wayne to come and watch as the newly awakened bot was lowered into the testing tank at the end of the counter. The former hero felt a strange kind of nostalgia as he watched it move in the water. Back on Earth, the sight of an active lakebot was a cause for apprehension because it meant another evil plot was afoot, but this was a lakebot turned, like its maker, to good.
It came to the surface and bowged at Megamind.
"That's a good little cyborg," he said, then switched to Tseri#uu. "[Are you interfaced with the system?]"
It bobbed its orange body in a nod as Naüÿng translated the first bit.
"[Good. Now stretch your arms out to your sides. Flash your light red. Now white. Now yellow. Now blue. Now scrutinize your surroundings and send them to the system.]" The little bot complied without comment until the last sentence. When it turned its snaking lens eye over its own back to look behind it, it bobbed, startled, and let out a few more bowgs. The view through its lens appeared projected on a nearby wall, with text over it Tseri#uu. Naüÿng translated it: "Daddy! Why am I orange?"
"[You get a new color for our new lake,]" he replied. "[Minion will explain. Go down to the far end and push the dark spot. It's the button that opens the tunnel to the lake. Go through it and meet Minion.]"
The orange cyborg did as instructed. A square hole opened beneath it. With his X-ray vision Wayne could see that the hole was, indeed, the entrance to a water-filled tunnel that dropped about five yards, then went all the way out past the shore. The little bot plunged in. About half a minute later, a hologram came up showing it next to Minion, another Opuulu and a rack of tools under the water. Behind them was a tall stand of some underwater vegetable. Minion gave the bot a few more instructions. It took a scissors and a net bag from the tool rack, moved back to the first row of water plants and began pruning. There was ree'ing, not only in the machine shop, but from all over First Seed.
Title: The Last Kidnapping, Part 17
Author: Joan
Length: 3638 words
Summary: The visitors from Earth get to work.
Warnings: Nudity, lots of OCs
Links to previous chapters under the cut
Links: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10; Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16
The meal was just ending when an elderly Yi#vi swam up to their table. He seemed to have some sort of eyeglasses that consisted of bulging lenses attached directly to his skin all the way around. They were completely black inside, not with the texture of a black iris, but a featureless black as if they were all pupil, without iris or white. Surrounded by aliens, this one seemed to Roxanne the most alien of all.
"[Hello, everyone,]" he said. "[My name is Evodel Niuirn. Tsveö, would you please tell my story?]"
"[Sure,]" said Tsveö after translating. "Evodel Niuirn was the first person ever to set foot on Harolup. We'd sent probes before, but he was the first Explorer. That's actually what he would have been even if the Home Star Group hadn't been destroyed. He trained for it and he was on his way here. In a lot of ways, this colony owes its survival to him. Roxanne, you'll probably be working with him later on today, getting trained on the recording and sampling equipment that you'll be taking into the field." Everyone at the table greeted Niuirn.
"[Thank you, but I'm not here in my professional capacity. I am also a member of the Glau Study Group. There is a study group for each of the other peoples, working to maintain knowledge of it, and adding to that knowlege where we can. I am here to request that you, Wayne Scott, participate with us, answer questions and demonstrate your unique qualities. You may be the only Glau this generation of young people will ever meet.]"
When Tsveö finished translating (and Roxanne was pleased to find that she had followed it correctly in the original), Naüÿng added "That includes personal body stuff. Like, they'll probably want to ask questions during your medical exam."
Wayne had been about to give a cheerful "Yes, I'd be happy to," but then he remembered some of the really rude questions he sometimes got back on Earth, usually from boys. He looked around, wondering if anyone here would understand, then realized there was one person who probably would.
"Roxie, do you understand why I'm uncomfortable with this?" he asked. Tsveö translated for Niuirn, and kept on translating as the conversation went on in English.
She nodded. "Once I figured out how to get my messages, I got grilled about my biology."
"But were any of the questions, you know, nasty?" His volume dropped to a murmur, even though he knew everyone could hear him. "Like, remember that kid who asked me if I could stick my head up my own ass?" Minion laughed. Megamind tried to stop himself from laughing, thinking that it wouldn't look dignified, and failed; the laugh emerged as a snort. Tsveö and Naüÿng looked shocked, as did Niuirn when Tsveö, recovering himself after a moment, translated.
"I remember that kid," she replied, "and I've had that kind of questions thrown at me. Back on Earth, I mean. Here, no. People are just really curious." She frowned, thinking, during the translation. "Tsveö, Naüÿng, do people here ever ask a question, not because they want an answer, but to express some, ah, inappropriate emotion, like anger or lust?"
"Once in a while," said Naüÿng after translating and then replying in Tseri#uu. "But people having inappropriate emotions aren't just left to flounder here the way they are on Earth. Someone would intervene."
"So people wouldn't do it because they'd get grief for it," Wayne responded. Translation.
"Not grief, necessarily," Naüÿng replied, after giving Niuirn a very short response, as if the former explorer had already heard it. "Like, my friend Arvarvin. She's a couple of years older than me and when she reached puberty she started getting really aggressive. It's a biochemical thing. Some gene just lines have that potential. So they sent her and her Yi#vi to Second Seed and made her a hunter. Second Seed hasn't got the bugs worked out of their farming operation yet, so they still depend partly on hunting to get enough protein. And it's worked out pretty well. She likes hunting and she's getting good at it."
"It sounds like the odds of Wayne getting that kind of a question are pretty small," Roxanne concluded. Translation.
"Very small." Translation.
"Okay," said Wayne. "Tell him I'll do it." Translation.
"[Thank you,]" said Niuirn. "[This has been a very interesting conversation.]" Before the translation was over, he turned to go.
Megamind spoke. "[One more thing, if you don't mind.]" Naüÿng translated. "[I have never before seen optical prostheses permanently attached to a person's face, if they are prostheses and not equipment for augmentation of normal eyesight. Would you mind telling us about them?]"
"[Oh. I don't mind at all. These are prostheses, made by cannibalizing lenses and circuitry from secondary and spare equipment.]" Translation. "[They were made for me after my natural eyes were destroyed by a member (the first member ever encountered by the Paired Peoples) of the species that is now officially known as Evodel's Acid Squirter.]" Translation. "[The acid produced is a strong hydrochloric, quite useful. One of my jobs now is maintaining a population of them in confinement and harvesting the acid.]" Translation. "[Wrist unit, show a domestic Evodel's Acid Squirter producing.]" A hologram appeared of a round, ungainly creature like the missing link between toads and lizards, about as large as one of Wayne's fists, striped in dull orange and green, with a growth on its head that looked a bit like a tiny medieval jester's cap, without the bells. As they watched, the growth aimed and squirted. The acid flew until it struck something that hadn't been there until that moment: a nearly round oval of grey-brown color, slightly larger than the creature itself, with two black spots placed to represent eyes, if this oval were a face. The acid hit in a line that crossed both eyes, then ran quickly down into a finger-wide trough and flowed away. "[Each of them can do that twice a day, when it's well fed, and we make sure they are. Yield is about twelve iei[squish]i per day per animal.]" Twelve iei[squish]i was determined to be about fifty mililiters, a little more than three tablespoons.
"[So you have achieved complete domination over your nemesis,]" concluded Megamind. The old Yi#vi laughed.
"[Yes.]" And then in a fair imitation of Megamind's voice, he added in English, "My brilliant plan has ultimately succeeded. I have revahnge!"
#####
As soon as Megamind and Roxanne were back in their room, there was a knock on the door. The outer door, the one that led to the hallway.
Roxanne, oddly, had a moment of panic. Someone was at the door and she was naked! Intellectually, she knew that opening the outer door while naked was perfectly acceptable here and, in fact, the polite thing to do, but the urge to cover herself was overwhelming. Megamind's hand was already on the door handle. The only thing she could think to do was to plop herself into her chair, which put her sideways to the door, and draw one knee, the one nearest the door, up to her chest, resting her heel on the seat and wrapping her arms loosely around it. She was still appropriately naked, but nothing was visible that would have been concealed by a string bikini.
At the door was a blue teenage girl in a strangely Earth-like outfit: long, loose trousers, a loose hip-length vest and a bag like a bicycle messenger's bag but about six times larger, slung diagonally, all a dull light brown. Shoes or boots of the same color, with greenish black soles, were just visible under the trousers.
"Hi," she said as she stepped inside, and that was all the English she attempted. "[My name is Eëx Ãhädl and I work in Central Supply. I'm here to bring you your regular work clothes.]" While Megamind asked Roxanne if she needed a translation and Roxanne assured him that she didn't, Ãhädl stepped inside, reached into her bag and began pulling out more light brown cloth. The fabric was a canvas type, like denim. Megamind closed the door after her and Roxanne stood up, much more relaxed now that the initial moment was over and the visitor was female.
Out of the bag came two outfits exactly like Ãhädl's, plus sleeves that attached to the vests with buttons made of some little flat seed. The fabric (which had a kind of irregular color, like old-fashioned grey sweat pants) was of double thickness on the front of the vest, with pleats and cuts and seams creating multiple pockets like a fisherman's vest.
"[Made from a local plant fiber?]" Megamind guessed as they put their new outfits on. Ãhädl gave the name of the plant and a hologram of it appeared on a nearby wall. The couple from Earth were amused at its close resemblance to marijuana. The trousers had drawstring waists, not much need for fitting, but the measurements that mattered, the shoulder and hip widths and leg lengths, fit perfectly. So did the hazard-orange hard-toed boots that came out of the bottom of the bag. Roxanne had a moment of wonder at that, then realized that their measurements would have been in their medical reports, which the whole colony had access to. The hems of the trousers also had drawstrings so they could be drawn tight against the uppers of the boots. Yeah, there are insects here.
As soon as Ãhädl was gone, they checked their calendars. Roxanne would be getting trained on the recording and sampling equipment that she'd be taking into the field, and practicing by using them to check some of the crop plants for signs of disease, so she was to meet Niuirn in one of the agricultural bays. Megamind would be going to the colony's machine shop to assemble the first brainbot body.
"[I'm assuming that Minion will be assisting me. Where is that fish? Wrist unit, show me Ilu Amnang and request conversation.]" A hologram of Minion, suitless in open water, appeared next to the empty gorilla suit.
"[Yes, conversation]," said the piscene, then switched into English. "Wow, those are some ugly outfits."
"Practical, Minion," Megamind replied. "This design is obviously the optimal balance among simplicity of construction, functionality, durability and the limitations of the material."
"Yeah, but they're so plain! You gotta let me nice 'em up as soon as we get a break."
"Maybe," said Roxanne, "you should check on whether customizing work clothes is socially acceptable. [Wrist unit, what percentage of the work clothes currently worn at First Seed have had, um, pause] honey, what's the word for ornamental, or decorative or something like that?" Megamind provided it. "[Resume, have had ornamental modifications?]"
"[Twenty-eight point four percent.]"
"See?" said Minion. "[Wrist unit, select at random and display six views of work clothes with ornamental modifications currently being worn.]"
At the sight of the half-dozen holograms that appeared around the room, the Opuluu's expression changed to dismay. All the Yi#velit wearing ornamented work clothes were kids. There was one of a group of six or seven little ones in what appeared to be a classroom, but all the others showed kids at work: maintaining machines, helping in the kitchen, picking bugs off crops. Several were in a tree, wearing hazard orange harnesses attached by ropes of the same color to its limbs, harvesting small teardrop-shaped red fruit. The modifications seemed limited to drawings on the cloth, in only a few colors (hazard orange was strongly represented), and natural items such as feathers and shells, tied on. They all looked like they might have been done by the children themselves. "Huh," he reacted. "[Wrist unit, are there any formal or informal rules about the decoration of work clothes?]"
In the air in front of the holograms, the words appeared: "[No formal rules exist. Questions about informal rules require consultation. Please wait.]"
"[If it's calling U[click]hani Vöhryeh,]" said Megamind, "[there will be an extra minute or two of delay. She's in orbit. Menang, why aren't you suiting up to come and help me in the workshop?]"
"[I'm not going to be there with you, sir. I'll be in the lake, working out the first task.]"
"[Oh. Well, I hope I'll have someone to assist me. Maybe I sh-]" The holograms of the kids all shrank and moved aside as one of U[click]hani Vöhryeh, now dressed (in a white jumpsuit like many they'd seen in Harolup High Orbit) and measuring some liquid in a lab, appeared in the center.
"[Hello, Menang, Amnang, Roxanne. What is your question?]"
Minion replied. "[We see children with decorated work clothes but not adults. Is there a rule about that?]"
There was a long pause before she reacted, a result of the ground-to-orbit transmission time."[Children will decorate any surface they're allowed to, and we encourage that. It help develop aesthetic perception, initiative, and so forth. For adults, it's regarded as inappropriately frivolous.]"
"[So there's no such thing as clothing style? Wait. That can't be right. We saw a lot of style variety at our arrival dance. Is it just clothes for work that are supposed to be plain?]"
Long pause. "[Yes. Exactly.]"
"[Huh. Well... listen, do you think maybe that could change once the colony gets a little more secure?]"
Long pause. "[Why, Menang, it sounds like you're very attached to this idea.]"
"[I'm a designer. Back on Earth, I designed and made all our outfits. The only time either of us would even think of going out in public in something this plain and ordinary would be for a disguise. When we're going out as ourselves, presentation is important. I just can't believe my Yi#vi is going out there in, well, stuff that looks like it's made out of the bags that seeds are shipped in, on Earth.]" (Roxanne failed to follow this and asked for help. There was a pause for translation.)
Long pause. "[Our own ages of mass production and mass population were like that. Personal style was used to express identity and stand out in the crowd. But now we're in a different kind of age, an age when everyone is known and nearly everything is hand-crafted. It is our work and our interpersonal behavior that speak for us now. Personal style will not die out, but its place is in our ceremonial and recreational garments.]" Once again, Roxanne asked for translation. When it was done, she had a question.
"[Vöhryeh, you're talking about the present like this is just another age, like being reduced to a little tiny group of survivors is almost...] Honey, I need an expression like 'par for the course'."
"Meaning the sort of difficulty that is to be expected, taken in stride, that sort of thing?" asked Megamind. She nodded. "How about --"
Vöhryeh interrupted. "[This is not the first time our civilization has been very nearly wiped out and had to begin again from remnants. I wouldn't go so far as to say we're used to it, but we know what to do. And one of the things we know to do is to remember that work, in this age, is not a matter for individuality. We do not work to express ourselves. We work for the survival and restoration of our culture, of the Paired Peoples. The clothes we wear for work reflect that. Do you understand?]"
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Ãdi[click]ose Likchel, the Yi#vi in charge of the machine shop at First Seed was the oldest one they had seen yet. His white eyebrows bristled and he had hair in his ears like some old human men get. He was also missing two fingers from his right hand.
"[Been wanting to set this place in order for years now, but the colony could never spare the ten or twenty days of labor it would take,]" he said to Wayne through Naüÿng. "[Now you can do it in a day.]" So the former hero, still wearing his Metro Man costume, flew around the place, moving machinery and tools and supplies at the old guy's instructions. Every once in a while, he'd be interrupted by Megamind, who was the center of a little group of observers, about half of them hologrammed in from Second Seed or Harolup High Orbit. The former villain, working at a counter, would call for something in Tseri#uu. Naüÿng translated, but Wayne stopped bothering to listen because the system would highlight the object itself, putting a layer of blue glow on it if it was visible, a ball of lavender or pink on whatever was on top of it if it wasn't. He didn't need to know what it was called to fetch it.
The thing Megamind was working on was a lakebot body. The lakebots were a type of brainbot that swam rather than flew, very much in demand for the colony's extensive underwater farms. This would be the first of the brainbot cores to be given a new body made on Harolup. The assembly process was being closely studied so that mass production could be initiated as soon as possible.
Wayne had expected that, the first time he had to take orders from Megamind, his old rival would use the opportunity to tease, humiliate and generally assert dominance over him. That is, in fact, what Megamind had planned to do -- but not while he had the attention of, literally, every engineer in the world. Knowing that his own engineering skills, self-taught and based on Earth technology, were in many ways horribly behind those of his audience, he had made up his mind to behave with a far greater degree of dignity and professionalism than came naturally to him, in the hope that this would help him win a little more respect. He didn't say "Please" to Wayne when he wanted something. He wouldn't go that far. Instead, he was terse and efficient, calling out the name of the thing he needed next in the fewest possible words. Sometimes he didn't know the name in Tseri#uu, but after he described it to his audience, someone would figure it out. Most of the tools provided for him were blessedly intuitive in their use, and assembly went smoothly, though there were long pauses when something had to be made.
It was that way with the exterior casing. The shop manager provided a sheet of the plasticine material used to make external casings for underwater equipment of all sorts. There was no mold suitable for the vacuum-casting process normally used to shape it, but the old Yi#vi advised him that Glau strength was a more than adequate substitute. Megamind ended up sculpting the desired shape out of plain clay from a local river bank, and Wayne massaged the plasticine into a shape that matched. The color of the material was an orange close to that of prison jumpsuits back in Metro City, an irony that wasn't lost on him. Then Megamind marked circles where the holes for the arms, lights and sensors should be and guided Wayne's head and hands so his laser vision could burn those holes at just the right angles. Then Wayne went back to moving things for Likchel while Megamind drew the core out of the suspension medium it had been transported in, then carefully fitted it into its housing, mating each of its axons to a hair-thin conductor wire, and sealed the unit. While it gradually woke up from its artificial hybernation, he performed the final assembly.
Once that last bit was done, Likchel, through Naüÿng, called Wayne to come and watch as the newly awakened bot was lowered into the testing tank at the end of the counter. The former hero felt a strange kind of nostalgia as he watched it move in the water. Back on Earth, the sight of an active lakebot was a cause for apprehension because it meant another evil plot was afoot, but this was a lakebot turned, like its maker, to good.
It came to the surface and bowged at Megamind.
"That's a good little cyborg," he said, then switched to Tseri#uu. "[Are you interfaced with the system?]"
It bobbed its orange body in a nod as Naüÿng translated the first bit.
"[Good. Now stretch your arms out to your sides. Flash your light red. Now white. Now yellow. Now blue. Now scrutinize your surroundings and send them to the system.]" The little bot complied without comment until the last sentence. When it turned its snaking lens eye over its own back to look behind it, it bobbed, startled, and let out a few more bowgs. The view through its lens appeared projected on a nearby wall, with text over it Tseri#uu. Naüÿng translated it: "Daddy! Why am I orange?"
"[You get a new color for our new lake,]" he replied. "[Minion will explain. Go down to the far end and push the dark spot. It's the button that opens the tunnel to the lake. Go through it and meet Minion.]"
The orange cyborg did as instructed. A square hole opened beneath it. With his X-ray vision Wayne could see that the hole was, indeed, the entrance to a water-filled tunnel that dropped about five yards, then went all the way out past the shore. The little bot plunged in. About half a minute later, a hologram came up showing it next to Minion, another Opuulu and a rack of tools under the water. Behind them was a tall stand of some underwater vegetable. Minion gave the bot a few more instructions. It took a scissors and a net bag from the tool rack, moved back to the first row of water plants and began pruning. There was ree'ing, not only in the machine shop, but from all over First Seed.