Arnheim the Station Monitor's Story

Tinker called in to the Overseer as he overheard the footsteps, remembering the notes of the Aschen attendees.

Come in Arnheim, we've got a situation.

Arnheim present. What's going on down there?

he called. The voice was clearly audible from the nearby participants, which he was able to hone in on now that his drones had made their deliveries.

Trouble on the big night?

GeneCorp Blue Heaven Branch Office

The GeneCorp office and manufacturing facility in Blue Heaven has changed quite a bit over the centuries the corporation has maintained a presence on the asteroid. The current friendly, polished, carpeted and tastefully-decorated office, dormitory, and living spaces are a far cry from the endless rows of cloning vats, training barracks, chemical tanks, and windowless high-security research laboratories of the original installation. While some laboratory spaces remain, they are now bright sterile places viewable from behind glass on the visitor tour.

The offices of GeneCorp handle some of the day-to-day business of the multi-system corporation. Besides the research laboratories, the rest of the facility is given over to the Genetic Marker program. Sample subjects are brought up from isolated regions of Terra, inducted and trained in the GM program, and either remain on Blue Heaven, or are deployed to satellite offices in other star systems.

To this end, there are well-appointed dormitories, classrooms, dining, exercise, and recreational spaces, for wards of the corporation. GeneCorp GM employees are often inducted as children or youth in order to maximize their useful service period, and they often come from isolated or impoverished backgrounds. GeneCorp provides a secure and supportive youth training environment that meets the needs of all program inductees.

It is not--as some detractors claim--an orbital prison designed to keep unfortunates and orphans as corporate slaves beyond the reach of Terran law.

At least not at first glance.

“Hey, don’t sweat it, stations freak me out too.” The Aeros girl sitting across the table from Aishe said conspiratorially. “No sky!”

“Wh-- Who are you?” The blue-eyes of the youth dropped from the picture window looking out over the interior of Blue Heaven to the winged person who had taken a seat in front of her.

“I’m Miiya Aether!” The girl chirped. “And, before you ask, yes, these are real.” She louvered the feathers on both wings. “And, also yep, I can fly in up to one-and-a-half gee’s.” She grimaced apologetically. “Sorry, I can’t carry you, though, except maybe in quarter-gee or lower, but you can pretty much fly on your own, then.” The grimace became a grin again. “I’m an Aeros. Ever seen one of us before?” Be fore Aishe could reply the girl went on, “I’m human, like you, this is just a gene edit I inherited. You could get it done too, but then you and I would both get fired. Haha.”

“Because I’m a…” Aishe made the connection immediately, but was cut-off by Miiya once more.

“Yardstick! Haha, they tell us not to use that term, but you might as well get used to it.” The winged girl bubbled. “Yeah, you’re a pureblood… um… ugh hair?” Miiya ventured, looking down at the tablet in front of her.

“Ughyr” Aishe corrected, possibly for the hundredth time since she had left Urumqi. “From Xinjiang.” When Miiya’s eyes crossed a little, she added: “Asia? …on Earth? …Terra?”

“Oh yeah!” Miiya jerked a thumb over her shoulder, as if indicating the actual direction toward Terra. “That one! All yardsticks come from Terra.” At least that’s what her materials had said. “Well, I am your Personal Youth Ambassador. PYA. Miiya the Peeya.” She quirked an eyebrow, looking up and back. “Doesn’t sound all that flattering, actually.” The grin returned. It seemed to be her default expression. “I’m not sure why they call it “personal”, I have, like, five other kids assigned to me.”

Aishe was taken a little aback by the person before her referring to her as a “kid.” The winged girl seemed to be at least two years her junior. But maybe that was another mutation? Decreased ageing? Miiya had not stopped talking, and she did not seem inclined to do so anytime soon. Aishe had never known anyone so exuberantly loquacious, but there were many things off Terra that were new, some that she liked and some that she found disturbing. She decided that she liked this noisy, irreverent mutant.

So far, her experience as a ward of GeneCorp had been full of wonder, and this she--when able to get a word in edgewise--related to Miiya. Aishe had never been farther than Kashgar. While her village was ostensibly electrified and had a few network connections, they still relied on truly ancient tech like solar and solid-state batteries, cobbled onto practically-prehistoric stone, wood, and brick buildings. She knew of starships, cybernetics, Genetic Engineering, and off-world colonies in theory from teachers and the village tinker, but experiencing such a massive flood of tech firsthand all in the span of a few days had been a bit overwhelming.

“I know! That’s why I’m here! To help you adjust!” Miiya chirped. “Don’t worry, I’ve never lost a kid yet!”

Over the course of their meet-and-greet luncheon, Aishe learned not to take Miiya’s somewhat-unnerving proclamations too seriously. She also discovered that Aeros were voracious eaters. “H-how…?” She began, when her ‘mentor’ returned with a fifth plate piled high from the buffet.

“I know, right?” Miiya said around a mouthful of sandwich. “I used to think thmm wamf sumffn…” She swallowed. “...wrong with me, too, cuz I didn’t grow up around Aeros.” She cocked her head to the side in a dismissive gesture. “But, no, this is just the way we are. I’m REALLY different--and not just the wings. I can see a lot farther than you, my blood is thicker, my bones are lighter and more flexible, even my muscle tissue is different from yours under a microscope.” The Aeros girl was getting into her role now, genuinely excited about the talking points she had been encouraged to cover with her charge. “And there’s soooo many other edits out there; people who can see in ultraviolet, people who can live in high-radiation without medicine, miners, sailors, soldiers, swimmers, and flyers, like me!” She paused both talking and taking in food on the inhale for a moment. “And this program--you--make it all possible. GeneCorp helps other companies baseline their genetic engineering; keep us all in the same Genus--at least--and make sure we don’t edit in any mutations that could result in problematic hybrids.” She paused and took a swig of a fizzy orange drink. “Whoo. That was a lot, and I think I got it right. Essentially you’re here to make sure I don’t grow a beak and start laying eggs!” She amended: “Or my kids, someday, I guess.”

Apparently the only silences Aishe could expect were awkward ones, and that was what ensued. Miiya filled it by eating, Aisha was simply grateful for a moment’s peace.

The lights of all public areas in the interior cavern flickered, then began to blare red and then blue, red and then blue, red and then blue. A voice calmly blared through the sound system for all to hear above the din.



Any security alarms (as installed according to code and the respective business owner's preference of alarm) within private establishments such as GeneCorp, Club 47, and Hotel Zafiro would receive the message of alarm and react accordingly

Miiya Aether
Miiya was a few weeks into her rotation through Blue Heaven, and she had mixed feelings about the posting. The work--if you could call it that--was great! Essentially she was just a liaison with the Genetic Markers being brought up from Terra. Her “job” consisted of socializing with the newcomers and helping them adjust to life as a GeneCorp ward. She was not even responsible for arranging schedules or transportation--that fell to a pair of full-time employees. When on shift and not with the GM’s, Miiya was the gofur. That had her running around the station doing odd pickups, deliveries, and occasionally setting up or tearing down events for the GM’s. None of the work was difficult, and most of it was pretty fun. Further, she had now had a pretty good sense of Blue Haven from all her comings and goings.

While the work was good, the environment was not. Miiya did not like life in a tin can or a hollowed out rock. Blue Haven’s warren of skyless decks, pods, towers, and lifts brought back memories of home, and those were not welcome. She really wanted to be out under the sky again--or at least somewhere you could fly without drawing attention. It was still fun to aviate in narrow spaces like Blue Heaven’s interior, but changing decks by flying felt like showing off, so she often took the lifts during the busiest hours of the day. Which sucked.

She also did not have a lot of down time during which to visit Cahron. Even when she wasn’t working, she was often scheduled to be on-call or at least present on the GeneCorp campus. When she did have empty time, she was encouraged to spend it with her half-dozen charges. That was all well and good during the honeymoon phase when everyone was fresh-faced and full of wonder, but as she and the GMs became more comfortable with one another, some conflicts of personality arose. On the whole, the Aeros girl was glad she would only be here for two months.

Even if she didn’t like the environment, or if she sometimes groused to her brother about having to play nanny to the Terrans brought up by the corporation, Miiya never showed her disquiet to her charges. She liked them all well enough--even the somewhat bossy ones, and Aishe in particular. The Ughyr girl--though she basically grew up in a prehistoric agrarian village--seemed like a kindred spirit to the city-born flyer. Though they both shared a deep resentment of the circumstances of their upbringings, each still possessed an unshakable core of filial piety. This kinship made for quite an excess of complaining that would sound eye-gougingly whiny to any eavesdropper. Their bitchfests conversations were almost a form of superpower, generating a repulsive field around the two girls that was an almost tangible wave of brain-melting tedium to any outsider who came within earshot.

Miiya was delighted, then, when Aishe’s quarantine came to an end, and she was allowed on escorted outings around Blue Heaven. “I have SO much to show you!” She bubbled when Aishe approached her about leaving the Genecorp compound together during her free period. “So, there’s a group attending the opening of Zafiro hotel--yeah, boring, I think so too.” Miiya interrupted her own suggestion as Aishe cocked an eyebrow. “Or, I can show you the best spots on the promenade.” That got a smile. “I mean, there’s docks, external station tour boats, and other dumb shu, but we can do them another time.” She nodded when Aishe suggested they visit the bazaar. “Right! Let’s do it!”

The GM’s were not allowed out without an employee--Miiya did not count--and the GM handlers were busy, so the pair had to wait until security could detail them an escort. In the meantime, Miiya listed the places that--in her opinion--were the best for food, fun, and shopping, which stores had the hottest clerks, which pubs had the most lax door policy, and the like. Somewhere in there, she thought she probably mentioned security and how to use the nets in case there was an emergency or they became separated. Maybe.

They were about thirteen paces from GeneCorp’s front entrance when the PA system chimed.

“Attention; Due to a disturbance in the station, the campus will be sealed until further notice. All employees are requested to observe status Charlie. Youth program participants please return to the core areas. Nonessential personnel are released for the day.”

Miiya scowled as she looked up “at” the disembodied voice. “Ahh… Frett me! Really?” She folded her arms, feathers louvering involuntarily in annoyance as their escort excused herself and headed for the security desk. “Welp, there goes that plan.” She could see--beyond GeneCorp’s glass entryway, station alert lights flashing blue and red. “Wanna head back to the commons and see what’s up?” She suggested to Aishe.

Miiya Aether

Miiya was bummed about being stuck in the GeneCorp campus for the day, but there were far worse ways to spend an afternoon. One of the more net-savvy interns had found out the lockdown was crime-related, so no one was particularly bothered. The head of an influential family had been killed--at least that was the most widespread rumor--and the authorities were trying to keep incoming and outgoing ships from docking or undocking, respectively, in an attempt to trap the killer on the station.

“Why?” Miiya wondered, aloud. “Do they really think they’re more likely to catch them here on Blue Heaven?” The Aeros girl had been all over the station and she knew just how broken and inadequate the neglected surveillance system was--and that was in the safer parts of the station. It had been the same in New Warsaw ghetto--in the rare event that the scanners, cameras, and microphones worked--they were usually unmonitored except by discount AI’s. Police and security--public or private--preferred to spend their money on salaries,
“And Donuts.” She added, laughing,
rather than on infrastructure, tech support, or actual repairs to their monitoring systems. ”After all, if they actually solved crimes and locked up criminals, they’d put themselves out of a job.”. She opined to the group, failing to keep a hint of bitterness out of her voice.

Miiya’s experiences with law enforcement had rarely been positive. There had barely been any sort of police presence in the neighborhood where she grew up. What she learned in school, of civic structure, clashed jarringly with the reality of gang-dominated life in the lower levels of New Warsaw. Later, while on the road with her brother, on some of the wealthier worlds and stations, there seemed to be no limit to the amount of resources local police would direct against street theater performers and buskers.

Nobody seemed to want to debate Miiya on her low opinion of law enforcement, so the handful of GeneCorp interns and some of the younger GM’s in the commons, instead, decided to play a murder-mystery party game, in irreverent honor of the murders keeping them locked down.

When Miiya happened to draw the card to be the interloper, she gleefully slaughtered the digital avatars of her fellow ‘corpers and GM’s alike.

Miiya Aether
The lockdown ended and GeneCorp resumed normal business routines. The company returned to Asset Protection Condition Alpha; the exterior doors were opened, extra security personnel were relieved, and the internal security doors to non-sensitive areas were unlocked. Unfortunately, it was too late in the cycle for Miiya to take Aishe out to the Promenade, so they agreed to a rain check until tomorrow after work.

Miiya, herself, left the GeneCorp campus in the evening. With the lockdown, she decided she had been around the GM’s and her fellow interns enough for one day, and decided to see what Cahron was up to. They had been in communication during the lockdown, and she knew she could find him on the Causeway between the luxury residences and the Bazaar. The wide plaza provided a good place for busking, and Miiya suggested they perform one of their comedy and acrobatic routines as a duo. She could use some extra scratch for when she took Aishe out on the Promenade.

Miiya Aether
(OOC: From - The Causeway, and after the night cycle ended)

It had been a busy morning at GeneCorp, that extended into the afternoon. Miiya had been pretty submerged in a term paper after working through the morning on various GM-related tasks and bookkeeping.

“Heck yes!” the Aeros girl chirped, when Aishe found her study nook and asked if she had time to go out on the Main Promenade. “Best thing about this job; pushing deadlines!” Miiya smiled as she closed up her files.

It was true; she could--and often did--push back the “study” part of her work-study program. GeneCorp sponsored her tuition and remote sessions at a Wing-City-based secondary school. She could use work as an excuse to delay deadlines and due dates. After all, this IS work. she thought to herself as she headed out with Aishe.
(OOC: To - The Bazaar)

"Likewise," Belle replied with her best attempt at a curtsy, recalling the graceful gesture she had observed in old videos during her time at the facility.

She smiled, her first attempt at conveying more intricate communication, and it appeared, at the very least, to have some success. A hint of something stirred in Miiya's eyes, though Belle couldn't quite discern what it was. Had she said something unusual? Then again, everything around her seemed peculiar, yet it held a captivating allure. Everything was new to her: every experience, every interaction. In a way, being one-of-a-kind was liberating; it meant she could adapt to fit into any piece of this life's intricate jigsaw puzzle, or perhaps reshape any piece to fit into hers.

However, what transpired at the old research center still haunted her. She had been nothing more than a subject to them, a curiosity to be probed and examined. Yet, she never harbored any hatred towards them. If she had possessed the means at that time, she would have fought tooth and nail to safeguard their lives, but that choice had been cruelly stripped away from her. In time, she discovered the capacity to grieve, to truly mourn what had transpired.

Miiya's effort to provide comfort was appreciated, yet Belle couldn't help but feel that it was her own responsibility to offer solace. She offered a warm smile, but Belle couldn't shake the feeling that Miiya's gaze held a hint of lingering curiosity or perhaps a perplexing impression of something. She certainly hoped it wasn't anything negative. Miiya's description of her home sounded immediately more inviting than Belle's. Billions of people? The thought was utterly dizzying to imagine, and it piqued her curiosity.

Then, in the midst of their conversation, her new friend presented a thought-provoking possibility: Could Belle's size be causing fear or unease? Belle considered Miiya's suggestion carefully. While it was true that some humans had an affinity for bears, even though they were large predators, she couldn't help but acknowledge the fundamental difference. Those affections were often directed towards bear-themed toys or representations rather than encountering a living, breathing creature like herself. Mulling over the idea, rubbing her chin in a way she saw the researchers do, Belle pondered whether adopting the appearance of a less predatory mammal might alleviate some of the concerns or apprehension she might unintentionally evoke in humans. Certainly, she had contemplated assuming a human form, but the question of safety loomed. She couldn't ignore that humans often responded unpredictably to entities attempting to mimic their appearance and mannerisms. Furthermore, the prospect of taking on a human form presented another challenge: she would be considerably larger than the average human.

"I suppose... something even big wouldn't be... too much," she said, gesturing with her claws and teeth.