Seeking out new worlds | Glowfic Constellation

The secrets of Delver technology could not resist decryption forever. While the tools they wielded are deeply weird, jealously guarded, and immensely complicated, living beings built the tools that brought aliens to the dragons' first world. The great calamity left ruins aplenty behind, and once grown the Seeker gathered these old tools as their very favorite sort of treasure. Dragons are not intelligent in quite the same way as a No-Tail, but they are far from stupid. They live forever and can be very determined if they set their mind to it.

The Seeker brought all its tools and treasure along with it when the world was evacuated ahead of the Tailless's relentless growth and hunger for resources. It studied under the great elder Darktooth on the new world, studied together with Darktooth (an arrangement not very common with dragons, as they are not particularly social), for a very long time. And eventually, by application of the hard claws of experiment and calculation and theorizing, the universe revealed its workings, cold and precise and mathematical. Creating more and more tools of the highest sophistication, and teaching others of its kind in exchange for wealth, and even spawning offspring and guiding them to adulthood, was all satisfying for a long while, but eventually... He got bored.

And so, the Seeker wondered if the long sleep for the journey between stars was really necessary, and got to work seeing about making it not. He managed it eventually, and built a starship, and went exploring. Stars come in a beautiful variety of kinds, and the worlds around them do too, but very, very few bear any sign of life. They are mostly barren and empty.

...Oh, this one is emitting curious amounts of low-frequency light. Worth investigating. Pushing a starship faster than light requires a touch of magic (at least for now), which he provides.

In the outer solar system of a certain star, well above the plane of the ecliptic, a black sphere the size of a city block appears and has a look around with powerful telescopes.

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"I would be astonished if you were ready to act in a movie and weren't paid anything," says the blue.

Well, movie makers can come talk to me about their ideas and what doing this would actually be like but I won't be going anywhere until I have a promise.

"Okay, I'll get people checked out and waved through the security so they can do that. Should people be considering a promise more binding than a normal industry contract? Those outline expectations and specify a penalty if someone doesn't follow through but it's very irregular for them to compel specific performance, but you could arrange to get paid either way."

...A promise is a promise and you're a cheat if you break it. I want to make sure to get paid if I fly somewhere and show off for the cameras, that's all. I'm going to lose some Treasure I would have gotten working as a guard. Opportunity cost doesn't suck as much as losing something you already owned but it still sucks.

"I'll get you a contracts yellow. Should work out fine."

Alright then. The leader type Draak would probably be saying something about cultural exchange or new perspectives or something right now, but I'm just excited to 'look awesome on screen', as the greys put it.

"It'll be a blockbuster. Do you want to see some movies to get an idea what they're like while I'm working on this?"

...Eh. Video is a little uncanny, but maybe I should. It's kind of an art, right? And it lasts. If it's lasting art I have to at least try to do it right. Can you get a nice, big screen?

"It is. Big screens need to be plugged in, so getting one here would be hard, but there are theaters you could fit in."

I could fly somewhere for a little while after sunset but I do need to sleep... Pocket everythings are too tiny is all.

The co-head of the guard's tail waves in amusement. Mention the problem to an engineer and they'll have lots of fun trying to solve it. I think the Seeker might have something for it already. He's got to keep all the computers he got from your planet working somehow.

"If he has compatible electricity worked out here I can have a big TV delivered."

The guard captain fiddles with a small silver disk for a few moments.

He does. Apparently the whole skin of his ship eats sunlight. Nice.

"Can I see the outlet?"

Fiddle fiddle-

Sure.

She pads over to the big egg-shaped black ship and pokes a long claw into a particular small marking in the skin. A panel slides away to reveal an array of perfectly normal house-type outlets plus some unfamiliar ones.

"All right, I'll get us a TV and some movies that aren't too dialogue heavy."

Sounds like fun. Guarding isn't exactly engrossing work.

"I always imagined it was somehow more interesting than it looks." He taps his everything. "TV delivery in about four hours."

It can be relaxing or reassuring sometimes, but this is super boring. Just needs doing. And we're being paid.

Doesn't smell like rain, the guard co-captain notes, But if the weather turns bad or the wind is an issue do we need to build a shelter? I know your electronics are designed to be in shelters generally.

"The TV shouldn't be rained on. I can get someone to also bring a tarp, that seems like it would be easier than building something."

It'd give us something to do, but the movies are something to do too. So now we just wait?

"Right. Someone will be along with a delivery van soon."

They wait. The Draak disperse back to evenly spaced positions and mostly sit absolutely still. They could almost be statues except for the occasional turn of a head and how the wind ruffles their feathers.

The delivery takes a while - they aren't very close to the warehouse. (A tarp arrives first.) Eventually there's a big screen TV plugged into the ship and he can get some movies queued up. He picks low-dialogue action flicks since the Draak are only going to understand the words by reading his mind.

They still don't seem to understand the words despite any supposed mind-reading abilities, actually, but they think physical brawls and melee weapons are cool, explosions and fire and parkour are cool, and seem undecided whether guns are cool or not.