Starborn: Origin of the Stars

Robin's questions had to wait. He would have enough time to analyze his Neuro-Chip and eventual changes to his mutation later, once he was back at home.

In order not to appear too suspicious, Robin grabbed his head again, stumbled over to the table and took the last stim.

After a few moments, he called for the staff and thought over his strategy again.

“Mr. Tulward, you’ve worked hard. Thank you very much! While not expecting anything, I really hope you’ve found something.” Katlina Hutton began, as she entered the laboratory.

“How did it go?”

“The constant use of my mutation was quite the strain. Halfway through, it nearly knocked me out, because I took the stim too late - really don’t wanna experience that again.” he started with his little story, “But at least I’ve gained some insights that may be helpful.”

“Ah yes, overusing one's abilities can have severe side effects. You shouldn’t have rushed this. Take a good rest over the coming days.”, she easily accepted his excuse, “But before that, can you please give me a roundup and explain what you’ve learned?”

“Sure, while I don’t have anything specific, I think my report will be valuable for your further studies.” Robin explained seriously and handed her the datapad with his findings.

The censored version of what he had experienced, of course.

“From the start on, something felt different. It took me some time to realize what was throwing off my senses." he followed along, almost with the truth.

“I think you are right to assume that the devices are dead. But I have to disagree with the data generated by the analysis of your machines. I’m not an expert and never experienced something like this, but I’m pretty sure that there is some very little remnant energy left inside all the artifacts. Just not the kind of energy we are using…like, how should I phrase that...some other type of energy, maybe? Normally my senses are painting a picture in my head, highlighting the flow of power with blue lines. Here I saw nothing, but it felt like there were black lines all over in the darkness. It’s a little bit hard to explain how my mind processes the information coming from my mutation. Ultimately the energy was too faint to get anything better, that's why I do agree with the thesis, that the artifacts are long dead.” Robin finished, trying to sound professional.

“My report contains further details, I hope my work here was adequate for your standards, Mrs. Hutton.”

“Yes, yes, definitely! Those are some exciting new findings. I don’t know what we can make out of it, but it’ll give the teams at the headquarters some new directions.” she exclaimed happily, but Robin didn’t miss, that she passed over his theory about a different kind of energy without a single word.

‘Yeah, not my problem anymore. My story was pretty close to the truth, without giving them any reason to open up my head. I should get my money and be on the way.’

“Great! Good to hear that my analysis can make an impact. Now I should follow your advice and get home to rest. If I hurry up, I’ll be able to catch the next train.”

"Of course, my assistant will clear your contract and take you to the staff exit, because the museum is already closed.” she said and tapped her tablet a few times.

“I hope you will come to visit us again, Mr. Tulward. We will have an exhibition about old Earth technologies in a few months!”

“Sure, as long as it isn't just plants again, count me in!”

He shook her hand and left with the already waiting Mohait.

***

Finally back in the train and on his way home, Robin let go of the constant tension and took some deep breaths. That day was really tiring, looking through all the Wuranger bio-technologies and endlessly using his energy senses with the pyramids even after that. Pumping himself full of stims was probably also not a good long-term solution. His brain didn’t feel the strain anymore, but he sure as hell needed a good night’s sleep.

Having a long trip home ahead of him, it was finally time to take a look at his Neuro-Chip.

“Now lets see, what's going on here…” he mumbled and activated his Interface.

A few notifications popped up first and informed him of new transactions on his bank account:

[*** INFO ***]

Reference: Assignment with Hestor Ragweed completed

Value: + 300 cr

Tax: - 60 cr

New Balance: 13.751 cr

[*** INFO ***]

[*** INFO ***]

Reference: Assignment with Museum “Rucasur History and Art” completed

Value: + 800 cr

Tax: - 160 cr

New Balance: 14.391 cr

[*** INFO ***]

‘Quite the haul for a day. No reason to complain to Jim anymore.’ Robin happily read about his income, feeling a little more appeased.

Pushing the notifications aside, he accessed the Neuro-Chip and instantly got some new messages.

And he wanted to be damned, those clearly weren’t another reason to be happy:

[*** WARNING ***]

1 System breach detected;

2 Unauthorized access cannot be prevented;

3 You are under risk of data corruption;

4 You are under risk of data loss;

[*** WARNING ***]

[*** ERROR ***]

1 Stack overflow detected;

2 Failure of Neuro-Chip control service;;

3 Service restart initiated;

[*** ERROR ***]

[*** WARNING ***]

1 Scan results indicate a total loss of data;

2 Scan detected new data;

3 Neuro-Chip memory at 100%;

4 No storage capacity left;

[*** WARNING ***]

[*** INFO ***]

You have stored an unknown data type on your Neuro-Chip.

The automatic analysis provided enough information for an adaptation of the viewer. Simplified data visualization now accessible, for better renderings please contact support.

[*** INFO ***]

“Wow, that’s a lot to take!” Robin moaned, reading all the yellow and red flashing pop-ups.

His first impression was correct, his private data was all gone. For most of the lost data he had some backups at home, but even so, seeing all those warnings and errors, it was obvious that some serious shit was going on.

He closed the notifications and opened the viewer application, wanting to see what all this mess had led to.

What the Interface showed him was some kind of text-art visualization, using different characters to create an interactive image. The tool only provided some basic level of control, like zoom and moving the focus point.

At first Robin couldn’t make anything out of it. He was not used to this almost ancient type of visualization and all he could see felt like absolute chaos, as if someone had just randomly shuffled a few thousand characters and signs together. But as he began to zoom out, he finally realized what he was looking at.

'That's a map!’ he stated incredulously, ‘But why would a map use up so much memory?’

He kept zooming and zooming, until it suddenly hit him.

That wasn't just some map of a region, that’s a map of a whole damn solar system, packed with markers for points-of-interests all over the depicted planets and moons!