Chapter Thirty-Three: Anomaly

Barely visible purple flames burn just over the horizon, belching out a column of smoke constantly shifting between an array of vibrant colors. Leaning down to rest atop my worktable as I watch it, the variety of paper flowers piled beside my head tell the distinct story of how the last multitude of hours have gone. They started off okay… but after a while my mind began to wander and the quality dropped dramatically.

“You know,” I wonder aloud, “This view kind of reminds me of a lava lamp, if you’ve ever seen one of those before, Reau.”

The red orb hover there for a second, then shivers. {“I have a looping gif in my archives that tells me probably. I have to agree with you that the giant corpse fire does present a particularly similar vibe to it.”}

I blink as I turn to look at them. “I’m sorry, giant corpse fire?”

Reau answers with that distinct lack of emotion I’ve come to expect from them at things like this. {“The Pyre of Revenant Immortal Janus has been an established landmark upon the northern plains of North America since 2083, and specific readings from the spatial anomalies can be used to navigate should other navigation systems be down.”}

With a grimace, my gaze shifts back to the pyre. {“I know that it’s been visible for the last two hours, but I had thought the fire was just really fucking large.”}

Reau confirms, {“The spacial anomaly created by the immortal is actually located in the Chequamegon-Nicolet Forest, or what remains of it at least, but the Immortal ’s rampaging power makes it visible and accessible in a range of roughly 500 miles or so.”}

Whistling, I tilt my head as I follow a band of violet up through the column of smoke. “Revenants are fucking scary.”

{“Mhm.,} Reau hums in agreement, then adds, {“Actually, I have a question-”}

A new voice cuts them off before they can even start asking it.

{“Fucking…”} Brion sighs over the speakers as he appears. {“Sorry to cut you off Reau, but I need Minea for something stupid.”}

{“It is fine.”} Contrary to their words, Reau dims a bit. {“I shall ask when she returns.”}

Something pangs in my chest, and I glare at Brion. “What’s the issue, exactly?”

{“There’s a slight breach in one of the grain hoppers near you, and I need you to go weld it shut.”}

Raising an eyebrow, I stand up and walk over to my tools. “I can try, but I’ve never actually welded something before, is that fine?”

Brion groans. {“It’ll have to be, the other two Combat Engines don’t have the qualifications for this and the size of the crack isn’t something that the drone can fix with it’s one arm since we need to put a patch onto it.”}

After I pick up the plasma torch and slip it into the pocket of my jacket, I pause. “How the fuck am I the only one with the qualifications to do this?”

The exasperation in Brion’s tone is palpable. {“You got the certificate because it’s mandatory at Trinity River, but that isn’t a thing at MIT anymore since it was considered that a pilot shouldn’t technically need that skill since they should always have an engineer on staff to do it for them. In this case, I can’t get those particular Engineers there without stopping the train and I can’t waste their DE for something like this. We’d lose more money from that than just leaving the crack there until Chicago.”}

I can’t help but giggle at that as I put on my pair of welding goggles. “So, the people making courses at MIT are dumb, got it. What do they think a Engine is going to do when they’re out alone in the field and something is fucked beyond the nanos?”

{“Don’t ask me, I’d personally make all of you get full engineer training before you could become a pilot.”}

Snorting, I shake my head as I grab a thin metal plate from a very organized drawer. “That would cut the amount of viable combat Engines in half, is that fine with you?”

Brion grumbles in response, {“It’d probably reduce the amount of wars happening…”}

Pausing to consider for a moment as I reach the door, I murmur, “Maybe, but I feel like we aren’t taking into account the Theocracy part of the current Texas government.”

{“What?”} As Brion speaks, I find that the door is weirdly heavier than it usually is, maybe because the train is moving? {“Isn’t the state religion Fundamentalist Christianity?”}

Chuckling quietly, I grab my earpiece out of my pocket and put it in before I boost up onto the top of the nearest car. “That’s technically the political party, not the religion. The correct term at the moment is actually Modern Revisionist Christianity. I prefer to call them the Forlorn sect though.”

{“The Forlorn is an interesting way to put it…”}

I nod to myself. “Considering in their eyes the rapture happened and they were left behind, that’s the best way to put their views on it. Well, in my opinion at least, they’d probably have a conniption if I called them that to their face.”

{“Probably for good reason,”} Brion mutters, {“considering the details on the Revisionists that I have in my database, someone they consider a nascent saint calling them what equates to a slur in their eyes is probably absurd.”}

Gritting my teeth, I hop to the next car. “Don’t get me started, there’s so many contradictions in their beliefs that it gets me fired up.”

When Brion responds, {“Understood, putting a note on your file,”} I nearly trip and have to catch myself. The giggles that escape my core as I stand half crouched atop the moving train at that are some of the truest I think I’ve ever had. It takes me nearly a minute to get moving again as I have to catch my breath, and the second I jump to the next and nearly fall again, I fall back into the giggles.

{“I really don’t get what was so funny about that, Minea.”}

Grinning ear to ear, I shake my head. “I dunno, something about having something like, ‘Will get unusually fired up if asked about the state religion of Texas,’ is so fucking funny to me.”

{“I’m not seeing it, personally.”} Brion sighs. {“Stop at the next car, and look over the left side.”}

Raising an eyebrow, I do as he commands, and my eyes widen when I see what he wanted me to see.

“Oh, okay.” I grimace at the sight of what seems like pounds of grain a second falling out of a barely visible crack and leaving a trail behind us. “I see why you wanted me to do this now.”

{“Overall, the loss is miniscule in the large scheme of things, but it annoys me.”}

Walking back till I’m at the rear of the car, I hop down onto the train couplet, then shimmy out onto the side of the car. I realize my mistake as I get a face full of grain and am forced to take a step back. As I spit to try and get the grain out of my mouth, I nearly jump as the train’s drone floats down to judge me.

Brion mutters, {“Did you not bring any ropes?”}

I glare at the SAI’s physical proxy. The stupid thing has four propellers and STILL snuck up on me. “I did not, because I judged there are sufficient handholds to keep me stable.”

{“Uh-huh…”} Brion sighs. {“It might be better that you hold the plate in place with a hand while I do the welding with the drone at this point.”}

After a moment of considering, I shrug. “Sure, just don’t burn me.”

{“If I do, it’s because your hand strayed too far.”}

Rolling my eyes isn’t nearly enough to display my derision with that statement, but I acquiesce in silence instead. I quickly move back around and jump back up on top of the hopper, run to the front of the car, and then drop down to shift to the other side. I slap the flexible plate onto the crack, and find myself having to boost just a little to have the strength with one arm to keep it in place.

{“Just stay still…”} The drone’s mechanical arm folds out, and a beam of plasma comes alight on its tip. {“I don’t have a great battery on this thing, so we’ll need to swap when it’s stable.”}

As soon as the plasma torch comes into contact with the plate, I wince as sparks of molten metal immediately begin to fly out into the wind, some getting uncomfortably close to me and my hand. It’s a quiet and tense affair as the drone slowly locks the patch into place, but when about half of it is done, Brion chimes up.

{“I think it’ll be stable without your arm now, at least for a few seconds. Get ready.”}

I take a breath, then push more DE into my boost. “Go.”

As soon as the drone’s plasma torch turns off, I take my hand off the plate and flip my own out of my jacket. I start on the area that Brion had been avoiding because of me in order to ensure it stays in place, and finish before too long. With a breath of relief I release the boost, slip the torch back into my pocket and nod at my work, then clamber around to the rear couplet. When I’m on somewhat more solid ground again, I move to the car behind the one I just fixed and lean against it as I catch my breath.

My eyes are locked onto the corpse fire as Brion confirms, {“Good job, you’ve ensured our surplus load is still at least above seventy percent from my readings.”}

It takes me a moment to parse that. “I’m sorry, surplus?”

{“Yup. We have a few extra cars over the total order, mainly for losses like this or for paying bandits off in the case that they are willing to negotiate.”} I open my mouth to say something, but he cuts me off. {“Before you say anything, you and the rest of the crew will each get a small cut of the profit on it depending on how much is left. The fact you saved this much will definitely increase your percentage a bit too.”}

Oh. That’s more reassuring. I go silent, and watch the smoke for a moment before a question pops into my head.

“Brion, how come the corpos don’t use the spacial anomaly to speed up transit?”

His response is quick. {“Occasionally the corpse bursts and boiling Immortal blood hot enough to melt steel is spread far enough for it to be a problem outside of the anomaly.”}

“Ah.” I nod. “That’s probably fair then.”

{“It also doesn’t help that the anomaly isn’t even close to entirely mapped out,”} Brion continues, {“You might go in one place and end up somewhere entirely unexpected.”}

“Hasn’t it been twenty years?” I shake my head. “That seems like something the locals would want to get on to be safe.”

{“Do you want to risk your life going into something like that?”}

“Um.” It takes me a moment to even somewhat confidently respond with a, “No?”

{“You hesitated.”}

Nervously, I chuckle. “Let’s leave my somewhat suicidal desires for another day?”

{“I can comply with that. I will be telling Mari about this though.”}

With a groan, I bonk my head against the metal wall behind me. “Ugh please don’t. She’s going to ground me again, and I actually want to get to know Chicago a bit.”

{“Fine, fine.”} Brion pauses. {“But I want something in return.”}

I swear I can feel a migraine coming on. “What?”

{“To talk with you about your past and Mari a bit more. I’m curious.”}

That catches me a bit off guard, but I find myself smiling. “That,” I say, “is something I’m more than willing to help you with.”

A note from Aliapanacea

Note, I'm slightly reducing the amount of chapter's I'm going to be releasing for a bit, mainly so that I start building up a bit of a backlog. Still once a week, still every ten patrons, but I think I'm going to increase it to an extra chapter per 5 chapters I write?

Also, someone is going to comment on how I obviously don't know anything about welding. This is true. I tried my best. I will cry as you yell at me and then change it to be more accurate with tears in my eyes.

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