LF Friends, Will Travel

Our Clockwork Children: Chapter 6

Scellestra was, of course, lying. The Woolean AI, along with ODIN, had known Ivan was getting lost. Frankly, it was funny, watching the human both pretend with bravado that they knew where they were going while getting more desperate as they tried to find their way back on track.

Ivan spluttered for a few more seconds in an attempt to complain, before eventually giving up and looking around at the small settlement they had finally found themselves in. It wasn't a large place, the entire population of the planet barely reaching 500 thousand people, most preferring to settle deeper into this planet's biome away from the spaceport and the only modern building or piece of technology in the entire world.

The settlement imaginatively called "Spaceport town", was a useful stop-off for people entering Creta. A small grouping of thirty to forty basic hand-made buildings, logs and vines weaved into sturdy structures making up the 'town'. Occasional redirected streams pulled waterwheels for various tasks. Small fires sent wisps of smoke into the sky, bringing with them the smell of burning wood and cooking meats.

All in all, it was a standard town on any Cassiopeia system planet. The inhabitants of this place gawked and stared at the new trio as they walked along the dirt path that led through the town. Scellestra was clearly the source of this curiosity. While Ivan stood out like a sore thumb, the synthesized clothes a far cry from the hand-woven and tanned coverings most people native to the planet wore, the occasional tourist coming through the town was hardly that uncommon. But a mass of swirling nanobots vaguely formed into a person was... well that was something none of them had seen before.

People stopped what they were doing as the trio walked through the primitive place; various people stuck between wanting to interact with the strange new entity, and not wanting to be rude. Instead, they decided to just stare while pretending not to, as Ivan eventually slumped over on a nearby tree stump, catching his breath as the Terran looked around.

"So is this it? I was expecting... something different."

Ivan couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment as he saw what was effectively a normal set of people, albeit ones without modern technology.

"What were you expecting? The people here to be riding dinosaurs down the street?"

There was a pause as the judgemental statement from ODIN caused Ivan to shrug.

"Maybe? This is one of the few planets in which dinosaurs actually exist! Can I be blamed for expecting the planet to feature them?"

"Logically speaking, any settlements made by intelligent life will be built away from common dangers, such as wildlife." Scellestra added, causing the disappointment in his Terran companion to grow.

"Let's just find this guide and go" Ivan sulkily said, getting back up once again, ignoring the now crowd of people pretending to just hang around the area, but instead desperately curious about the strange newcomers.

Finding the one called Kaiser had been a simple task, being directed to the right location after asking around for the name. Supposedly it was a common request for anyone new to the planet who was just planning on staying for a few weeks. Those they asked talked about an enthusiastic fellow, willing to show people around Creta in exchange for interesting stories from the people they guided.

Eventually, the trio came to a small simple shack, clearly handmade like everything else, including a small garden of flowers out front and a handful of hollow branches for chimes. As the only one with a proper physical form, Ivan stepped up to the simple wooden door and gave a short sharp set of knocks

"Hold your horses, I'm coming, I'm coming."

The new voice was strange, a deep primal clicking formed into words. As the door opened, it was clear this new person was just as strange as his voice.