Sequel

The speech in here was kind of fun to write and you get the verbal and then the physical because Rel took it all in and then translated verbal and then the physical.

The product is unleashed! But... what do they mean by 'it will never come to that'?

This chapter has got me going "uhoh" but we'll see if it is an uhoh.

Read, Review and Enjoy.




Muan slept three days.

Three days.

Completely abnormal for Rel or a people, but apparently for Sidhe that was normal, no one said anything about it. When Muan woke he was in a good mood, like he had just gotten laid. And for Muan, Rel supposed, he had just gotten laid.

On the third day Muan awoke and they went down to the pool room with their parents. Mari was waiting there and was teary eyed. Worried the partners to no end to see the strong woman crying, as she had hardly even called at Mik’s funeral. Rel stepped beside her and pecked at her mind. Nothing but grief.

He settled beside Muan as the male stripped off shirt and pants and dove into the pool. So, technically speaking he settle by Muan’s clothing. Una finally appeared, hat and cane adorned. He stopped beside Mari and set a hand gently on her shoulder for a moment before the hand settled once more on the cane.

“The tribe has been given an old time tree, thanks to the gracious generosity of Mik’s mother.”

“Where’s Paw?” Koln snapped, moving away from Essuan’s side, “he’s not here.”

“Paw, Auhi. Whisper, has decided to follow Mik.”

Dead silence. And then it dawned on Rel what exactly that would mean. Just as every partner in the room burst into a shouting match, all demanding to know who or what was going on, why hadn’t anything been done to stop it, how could they.

Una held up his hands for silence, “it is his right, it is his choice. To follow his lover wherever the lover goes. As sad as it is for the program to lose Paw, we must accept his freedom and his choice. We should follow the Sidhe’s example and stay calm at this time. Least we worry the younger ones.”

There was a small murmur of agreement from the partners.

“Now. Mari.”

Mari took in a breath and spoke, although her voice still broke a bit from the tears, “the Tele corporation has kindly allowed us their newest product for all of our rooms. It is currently being installed, free of charge. The product involves nanobots which are programmed to respond to specific receivers. Each of you will have a receiver and a hundred thousand bots. This sounds like a lot, and it is double the single portion bots that each person will be receiving when they purchase the product, but it is only enough to do minor jobs. Hospitals are being given the exact same thing, only with fourteen million bots. Per operation room.”

“Awesome. Given the bad news. That is still kind of awesome,” Taln muttered, “what can we do with it?”

“Repair fractures, in furniture, inanimate objects. Clean glass, dishes, disinfect wounds. I must tell you,” Mari said, adjusting her stance, “that given the right use of these bots a person can pick locks, steal vehicles, change channels, hack computers, override passwords and cause as much damage as they can fix.”

“How long before that happens?” some asked, “total anarchy.”

“The Tele corporation has made it very clear that it will never reach that point. If someone is caught using their nanobots for such a thing, the police can shut it off remotely and send off a huge alarm, alerting everyone within a hundred foot radius of where the user is.”

“Gods.”

“Unofficially, this is the most dangerous and most useful tool ever used.”

“How in the hells did they get it past the-” Rel started, seeing the look on Mari’s face, “the priest lines didn’t okay the product. Did they?”

“No,” Mari responded, “They are currently fighting amongst themselves and with the Illuen, searching for the original records stating that the land they are living on is a temple in some fashion or form. The government has okayed the product because of how freely the Tele corporation is giving it out. The poor are getting it, the communal services are getting it. The middle class is paying less for it than the rich are.”

“Why sell it at all, why not just give it to everyone?” Rel muttered, “making me go bankrupt and for what? A freaking product that is going to magically make us a utopia? Make us link hands and sing songs about peace ever lasting?”

“Rel. Your hatred of the Tele Corporation is understandable given your position, but I must say, highly unnecessary,” Mari said to Rel directly.

“Lel,” Una corrected Mari out the side of his mouth, “suspicion can go a long way. But this … product. I am told, will allow us to use anything, to do anything. For you people it is an amazing thing. There is nothing you cannot do with this product.

“Now. If you will excuse me. I must gather my troupe and speak with them as to our departure. Mari.”

Mari clenched her jaw but followed Una out of the room. The partners gathered on one side of the pool, the Sidhe and Rel on the other. Taln and Koln started off with the partners but slowly drifted over as Muan pulled himself out of the pool, butt naked.

Rel admired Muan’s form in the light filtering in from the windows. Smiled at Muan as Muan grinned at him and winked before accepting a towel from Nave and covering himself.

“Te,” Muan motioned to the water.

“Water.”

“Auh?”

“He said we needed a key.” Rel jerked his head around as the Sidhe began talking.

“How. None of us know enough about how these things work to shut them down and now this?” hand motions implying the first speaker was crazy. A motion towards the rest of the tribe, meaning that the person was even crazier for thinking that they would find a solution amongst themselves. At ‘them’ the speaker motioned upward and away, a general motion to a corner of the room, implying either the people or the technology or everything in general. The last motion was towards the ground, a stomp of the foot and a finger grazing down the jaw line as if stating a name that Rel didn’t recognised.

“Lel knows ‘lecktums,” Raoh spoke, knocking his knuckles against the center of his chest as he said ‘Lel’ a tap to the forehead just to the left of the temple and a spinning motion as if saying that the last word was everywhere around them.

“Without Auhi to explain to this one what to do, how to explain to it that needing such a thing is so important to our silence? How to tell this one that race of this one matters less. That thousands of this ones race must die so this one may live?” Another Rel didn’t know the name of had spoken. Fingers drew together and down as if drawing Auhi into the conversation while Auhi was go away, as if mentioning the name would bring Whisper’s attention to them. Fingers came up, still drawn together and pressing against her lips and then away in a speaking sort of motion. A flick of the other hand towards Rel, indicating that the first ‘this one’ was him. A swirl of the hand motioning towards Rel in the air, creating a circle then that hand repeated the motion from the lips away. Meaning that from the lips and away translated as ‘explain.’ the hands both made a downward motion at ‘it’. A clutching at the chest for need, emphasizing the need of the Sidhe. Then the female rapped her knuckles on the center of her chest at ‘silence.’ Which suspiciously sounded like Sidhe. The motions for the next ‘this ones’ made it clear that she was speaking of him. That they were talking about his race. The final this one was a rapping on the middle of her own chest again.

Adamant that all have the right to live, unhappy that whatever the Sidhe had planned involved the people dying.

“This one can understand these ones. Explain to this one what is needed.” Rel said, mimicking the hand motions as best he could.

To which the Sidhe fell silent and stiffened, pulling away from Rel as if he had grown a second head.

“What’d I say?”

Raoh blinked at Rel, then looked at Ashun desperately. Ashun sighed and stepped forward.

“We,” She looked over Rel’s shoulder then lowered her voice, “agreed upon a plan with the last Whisper, the one before Paw. When Paw took over, he backed the plan and said that to achieve this we had to destroy technology everywhere at once. But I say it’s impossible and- Hullo Koln.”

At which point every Sidhe tried to look about innocently.

“I’ve heard about this plan and I doubt you could get it to work,” Koln responded quietly, jabbing a finger at Ashun, “they. Are looking for some poor sap to basically download themselves into and then spread out, thusly shutting down technology.”

“Why?” Rel muttered in response, “all you would have to do is destroy the Sidhe bone technology in all of the power plants. It’s what all but a few run on and those few would automatically take on the burden of the others, thusly melting down the other power plants.”

To which Koln and Taln both looked at Rel like he had grown a third head.

“Uhm. Power plants have upgraded.” Taln said as if Rel was stupid.

“Has your bill gone up?” Rel asked in the same tone.

“No…”

“Then they haven’t done anything. To upgrade their systems would take fourteen billion dollars and six years. Then your bill would triple, if not quadruple. They are using Sidhe bone technology. Just burn it out.”

“Or…” Ashun said, “have someone talk to the bones and get the Sidhe left in them to move on and render them useless.”

“Or. That. If it will work.” Rel shrugged, “talking to dead stuff, who can do…”

Everyone was looking at him.

“That…oh shit.”

.