Chapter 3

... Maybe they forgot to redact something? I mean, there may well be a literal ton of information to sift through, so it’s possible. Would I even want to find something like that? If the Spurs unanimously agreed to do this, then would it even be a good idea to undo it? It’s not like I really understand their reasoning for committing to something that monumental. Regardless of the similarities between my society and theirs that I may see there’s still such a massive gap between us that I don’t understand, one perpetuated by their deaths and the evidently unhelpful choices they made. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t be complaining ... at all, really. Building bridges across Grand Canyon-sized holes is part of my job, and this may as well be a crack by comparison. It might be better this way with my superiors being ... the way they are. A shame there’s less for me to study, but– Yuna’s eyes were brought from the ground as her train of thought was interrupted.

“Yuna, I’m sure you have questions of all sorts for just about everything to do with this ship, but there’s plenty of time for those. You’re not the only one that will be arriving with those same questions in mind I’d assume, so, while it’s just the two of us, and if you’d allow, it would be nice to get to know you.” The friendly half of Thenn’s tone won over, her words seeming to be chosen in the moment as opposed to her otherwise more deliberate approach.

Thinking on it for just a moment, Yuna wasn’t quite sure just how long it had been since one of them spoke. The experience not entirely foreign, she dragged herself out of her head as quickly as possible so she could respond. “Y-Yes, that sounds good. Sorry if I was interrogating.”

Thenn assures her that it’s no problem, questioning afterward, “So, who are you, exactly?”

Briefly and silently chastising herself beforehand, Yuna answered. “Ah. I’m ahem the lead member of an interstellar research team that finds, studies, and preserves alien artifacts. Field duty is typically my job, and my role is more to organize and make executive decisions than to be a ‘lead scientist’ of sorts. That’s not to say I didn’t have to take an obscene number of classes for a bunch of different things, but yeah, that’s me.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“Oh, we find more than you might think,” Yuna said, “It isn’t the fastest of jobs but there’s always something important that needs doing. I mean, hey, I found this place just randomly scanning for complex structures while I was traveling to another spot we’d recently found and thought looked promising. Ooh! Speaking of which, we found two other ships like this one a while before I got here. One probably got battered by a bunch of asteroids a long time before we got to it; the other fell into an acidic ocean. There was only so much we could salvage by then, but that’s why I could read the glyphs, if you were wondering.”

Not questioning her use of the word, Thenn went on to clarify, “Interesting. Certainly good to know, but I meant that question more personally. How’s the job working out for you? Why’d you choose it, do you like it, would you want a different one...”

Not expecting their conversation to go this direction, Yuna toyed with different bits of her suit as she stumbled to respond. “I don’t really know how I got into it, I was just always interested. Not in this job specifically, but space in general. Any opportunity to work up here would have been a dream job. So, lucky me, all my studying paid off and the application I sent in went through. They didn’t ship me off immediately or anything – my first position being far lower on the ladder than I am now – but it wasn’t long before I got to do what I always wanted to. Everybody said I was doing a good job so I just kept at it and kept getting promoted.” She paused, looking wistfully around her. “As for how I like the job now, as though you need any help figuring it out, it’s just about all I hoped it would be. Now, especially, is when I like it the most. The ambient noise, loneliness, and discovery, to be specific. That usually doesn’t last all that long once the higher-ups come to claim their prize, but at least it’s nice for now.”

“And what do you do besides work? Is there anything else that you’re particularly fond of?”

Yuna sat with the question, thinking it over. Drawing nothing but blanks, she opened, “I don’t think so?” more verbalizing a question for herself than answering Thenn’s. “If I’m not working then I usually just stay at home – lounging around and ... not much else. I’ll watch my fish and go on walks sometimes, but I never really know what else to do.”

Interjecting politely, Thenn asked, “Do you not spend any time with others outside of work? Friends, family, a partner, anything like that?”

Subconsciously crossing her arms and idly moving her body, a hint of unsureness slipped into Yuna’s voice. “No, not really. My mum and dad visit every now and again, which is nice, and I have been trying to talk with my co-workers more, but I prefer being alone most of the time. As for any partners, let’s just say that fact was made clear after the third girlfriend. Not that ... Never mind.” Clearing her throat, Yuna redirected the conversation and asked what Thenn did with her time.

“I similarly spent most of my time working on something or other, and if I wasn’t doing that then I was talking or thinking about something – the aforementioned ‘somethings’ being in too many fields to count. My favorites among the many were physics, behavioral studies, and biomechanical engineering.”

“Does that mean you made the mind-scanning thing, then?” Yuna wondered aloud. Upon Thenn confirming, Yuna’s mind was drawn to how something like that worked, her having already participated playing no minor role in this line of thinking. Curiosity overtaking concern for the moment, she asked, “How much of my mind did it read? And how does that even work if you’ve never met any other intelligent life?”

Seeming glad she asked, Thenn said, “The LRD – or rather, Local Reading Device – was specifically designed to only look for certain memory structures in a living thing. Though it scans the entirety of something’s brain – the closer to the front of your mind the easier it is to process – and only keeps the data it’s asked to look for. As an example, I looked for structures relating to your understanding of language, along with a voice to present myself appropriately. What I got back was just that. So, though I understand all the same words you do and could readily describe everything they do, I don’t have any specific memories of yours relating to either of the things I looked for. Sure, we have a near identical understanding of English, but I also can only describe the idea of a stage performance, whereas you can presumably recall instances where you’ve seen one. It’s more like a skill I can turn on and off as opposed to something that’s a part of me. As for how that works ... that’s complicated. I tested it on just about every living thing I could find, including having someone else come up with fake languages of varying complexities so I could fine-tune the LRD’s searching abilities.” Yuna not responding to what she said, Thenn shifted the attention back to her. “Does the idea bother you, Yuna?”