All the procession stopped before even stepping closer to the entryway and took pictures of the two captives while there still was enough light for it: this was to find them in the Center database
It was le flira cu le jaspu—or your face is your passport, as the law stated after all
After that, Trinat pressed some buttons on an ATM-like computer, that was the entryway itself, and let his own face scanned by the machine; the computer disappeared and now there was a dark hole instead: that was the entrance. Two police officers seized the criminals' arms and they all immediately stepped in what seemed to be an underground bunker. The two captives were led to the detention facility while Trinat went to write a report on them. It took him a while though to accomplish this: it was usually Goe who took responsibility to write all these reports...
He was so good at statistics and math... Once Trinat praised him for having successfully written a new annual report with saying, "You're just like a true accountant!" That made Goe shiver and only mumble something like, "That's weird you don't have a real one in here though..." And Trinat just agreed without paying too much attention to such a reaction of his friend he now perfectly knew the cause of...
After a million of efforts, he was finally done and told a junior officer he just met to go send it by post. Then Trinat was getting ready to question one of the two criminals, waiting for their record to come up any time soon, as this time a junior officer ran to him and, gasping, whispered
doi lo jatna pa lo pinfu cu morsi1
Stunned and preoccupied the very moment he heard it, Trinat was already rushing out to the detention facility with the junior officer and saw just one of the captives: the other had mysteriously disappeared as if he never was there, just another chair was brought in there by mistake
xu do birti lo nu lo drata pinfu cu mrobi'ose'i gi'e na se vimcu2
doi la jatna su'o ti noi lo pinfu ti cu cusku3
.i le vreji be fu kacma cu selplibre ca ma4
de'e doi lo jatna5
Trinat nodded and looked closely at that captive through a glass. After a few moments, he said
ko zgana .i mi interviiu lo pinfu tu6
The police officer nodded and sat down near the door so that he both could rush out to open it the fastest way possible and see what was going on in the detention facility while Trinat, holding the door knob, sighed and went in
The captive heard Trinat walk in and turned around in their chair; their hands were seemingly trembling and they couldn't bring themself to look up, violently twisting their own fingers, painfully anticipating the entire procedure. Trinat sat down where the other captive presumably was just sitting and began:
ma do cmene7
mi me .fiug.8
xu do nanmu ja ninmu ja nunmu9
mi nonmu10
ma do jibri11
mi enge be le zdani je le kumfa12
.i do se zbasu ca ma13
.i mi ca'o citno .i ku'i mi na djuno lo mivyselna'a noi
satci14
.i do tolcau lo jibri noi mutce zabna zi'e dirba .i ku'i
do ca ti noi no drata zmiboto se e'hande lo ka zvati15
(he made a small pause here) .i ko ciksi fi mi ni'i ma16
(then he hurriedly added:) .i mi cusku ma kau do pu
djica lo nu do casnu ca lo kansa lo zmiboto tu17
Fugue swallowed, their hands trembling even more, and answered
doi lo pulji fau lo nu mi troci lo ka ciksi fi do ku ba
ckape18
.i ni'i ma .i .oi ko ciksi19
Trinat was starting to lose his temper a bit because he didn't much care about the poor AI and their reluctance only annoyed him
.i xe'o mi terpa lo nu se jersi mi20
His eyes opened wide at the last replica of Fugue's and he hurriedly asked:
mo jersi do21
lo za'u zmiboto noi terpygau ro ma'a22
Trinat's eye now started twitching and he was trying to hold himself from grabbing them by their armor and giving them a series of shakes, fishing out the information out of them as to when, how, and why they'd gotten involved with them, but took a series of deep breaths instead and continued:
.i ku'i do na ciksi ni'i ma kau do pu djica lo nu do cmibi'o lo girzu vau23
Now it was Fugue who took a deep breath and said with a bluish and enraged expression on their face:
.i ri'a .ei mi ca gunka secau le jefsurdei gi'e na kakne lo ka litru gi'e .oi mutce djica
lo nu viska lo munje .i .oi ju'onai mi na ba ca'o jmive24
Trinat really was surprisedly enlightened now, after he'd put two and two together and finally found at least some sort of a trace to find whereabouts of his dearest friend—but he hid his feeling under the rug of his firm stone face and calmly said:
xu do djuno lo nu mi kakne lo ka
gafygau do pa lo mi'a fau lo nu
do sidju do lo ka sispe'i lo girzu
vau25
His statement of claim wasn't useless after all: they'll surely let him go travel around the Federation as long as he was perusing to find the bomb gang and at the same time... Just wait, Goe! Just wait! We'll meet again soon...
At that moment as Fugue nodded, the Federation seemed like a small lake to Trinat, who'd never even seen it whole in his entire life though, a lake that can be crossed in just twenty four hours of a single day with absolutely no problem, no difficulty... His loving heart spoke naively and happily as it never did before and there wasn't any Goe to turn him back to Earth: Trinat wanted to go outside of the station, back to the surface, feeling a strong urge to see the black cloudless sunless sky of theirs—just when he felt something as if dripping off the chair... Looked at it and it turned out to be sand: just black sand... "What the hell it's doing here?" he wondered, coming out of the detention facility and asking a junior officer to take care of it. Trinat was barely aware of what the world outside of the Capital held, so a senior elderly officer who happened to pass by assured him easily that was the sand from the desert outside
"The desert? How could there be a desert with no biosphere at all?" He wondered, but decided to drop that: it was none of his business and he had to proceed with his—to just see Goe... And feel calm again
1. Sir, one of the captives is dead
2. Are you sure that the other captive died himself and wasn't killed?
3. Sir, this is what this captive says at least
4. And when the camera records will be ready?
5. Soon, sir
6. You watch and I'll question them
7. What's your name?
8. I'm Fugue
9. Are you male, female or you have another gender?
10. I'm agender
11. What's your profession?
12. I'm an architect for buildings and rooms
13. When were you launched?
14. I'm still young, but I don't know my exact age
15. You have such a nice and respectful job—but you're here now, where no other AI is allowed to be
16. You explain me why
17. And I mean what you wanted to discuss with that AI
18. Sir, if I try explaining it, it'll get dangerous
19. Why? Explain!
20. I'm just afraid they'll come after me
21. Who'll come after you?
22. Those who scare all of us here
23. But you haven't explained me why you wanted to join the group
24. Because I have to work now without weekends and can't travel and I want to see the world so much—besides, I may still not be alive
25. Do you know that I can make you one of us if you help me find the group?