LF Friends, Will Travel

Our Clockwork Children: Chapter 4

This was the single most frustrating thing Scellestra had ever done. It should have been simple. It should have been a quick five-minute conversation with any human, in and out, information gathered. Instead...

"Don't go there! That place is lame and full of rules. Visit the Sagittarius system if you really want to know what being a Terran is about."

Scellestra had spent the last week with Ivan and ODIN, travelling around the cities scattered around the surface of Titan, the moon that orbited the sixth planet around the Sol system. Ivan had been born here, had grown up here, so starting at this location on the Woolean AI's tour of humanity seemed like a logical choice.

"Look, we want to show Scellestra the best of humanity, not send them to a weird libertarian hellscape where they can get addicted to crack and or guns. Go to Alpha Centauri B instead, it's the cultural centre of the Terran Conclave for a reason. The Philharmonic Orchestra of Yelta are currently touring the planets there and you can go visit the galleries. Hugely popular with AI."

This week had been spent touring the oceans of the small moon, both sailing on top of the great lakes and visiting the cities built in the oceans under the thick layer of ice that covered the entire planet. The real surprising thing had been how much... effort had been put into the small moon. The atmosphere and terraforming were done in such a way as to keep the original planet's composition, just changed slightly enough to still be livable by humans. The deep dark waters were filled to the brim with a carefully maintained ecology, filled with Earth-native wildlife; an idealized version of what a world of ice and oceans would be like.

"No no no, no need for that. Leave the hustle and bustle of modern life and visit Cassiopeia. Not a lot of people see the beauty of simple natural life, as Terrans were supposed be. Also, we have dinosaurs, which people often overlook."

Every Terran Scellestra had met had been overly friendly and enthusiastic. Practically, and in some cases literally, falling over themselves to show the Woolean AI the home they inhabited. AI, human or uplift, it didn't matter. But now was the time to work out where to go next, and with 31 systems under the Terran Conclave's control, there were plenty of options.

This led to the current situation, of tens of Terrans crowding around Scellestra as they stood in the middle of the spaceport's waiting room, all suggesting their home systems to visit next; each providing the reasons why the Woolean should visit their homes first.

Ivan was stood by the AI's side, but the pair had long since given up trying to stop anyone from coming near the new and exciting lifeform that was visiting the Terran Conclave. Although Scellestra had modified some of their nanobots to provide a painful, if harmless, electrical shock if touched. This had stopped most people from interacting with the AI's form.

"An AI would prefer something more structured. The logical choice is New Haven, in the Orion system. Structure, order, the perfect representation of being a Terran."

The electronic voice coming from a set of invisible speakers told of a passing AI joining the conversation, yet another confusing voice to be added to the mass of voices and opinions that surrounded Scellestra, the crowding on this spaceport creating a murmur and a mass of sound, a quiet conversion that had very quickly gotten out of hand.

"Please! Nobody wants to go to any of your weird fascist planets! Sagittarius is the only place with real freedom in the universe." The Terran male from the Sagittarius system shouted back in anger, pointing a finger out randomly at the rest of the crowd. "Freedom for all, that's what it means to be a Terran."

"Just because we have an actual functioning government does not make it 'fascist', go back to worshipping Ayn Rand and let the adults help this newcomer."