Chapter Text
Beta awoke with a silent gasp and tears swelling in her eyes. She wiped them away before anyone could see
It was only when she heard birds singing that she remembered where she was. That she was far away from the Odyssey and everyone on it.
She stood up with a groan and too many popping joints. Everything hurt and she was thirsty, but she remembered seeing a creek just past the trail before she stopped at the sunset.
Beta hadn’t taken note of the white around her before, had seen it and automatically brushed it off as metal. As the walls she could never escape.
But now? Under the light of morning and sleep fading from her eyes, Beta knew what it was. The beautiful, blinding white was snow. She wanted to reach her hand into the soft looking material, but knew it would be colder than anything she had ever touched. She didn’t need to risk frostbite.
When she cupped her hands and reached into the creek, she realized the snow wasn’t the risk. The water was already freezing and her fingers hurt after just a second. She pushed the pain aside and drank multiple handfuls of water. She didn’t know how much longer she would have access to it.
It was only when she stood once more and moved to leave that she realized Nibbles wasn’t with her. She wanted to yell out its name, but didn't even think her voice could carry more than a few feet. She would whistle, but she didn’t know how.
She was alone and surrounded by white.
Her vision blurred. She stumbled over to a tree before her legs gave out. Her breathing became erratic.
She knew she was spiraling, but didn’t know how to stop it. The thought only made her spiral farther.
Beta couldn’t see past the tears in her eyes. She couldn't hear past her own frantic heartbeat. She could barely breathe.
For that moment in time, she was floating in a panicked nonexistence.
It was only when something cold brushed against her arm that she snapped back to herself. How pitiful must she have looked at that short point in time, teeth bared with tear stained cheeks.
It was only when the cold left that she realized what she'd done.
“I apologize for my behavior. I will accept any punishment you deem fit.” The practiced words fell from her mouth easily, even when she didn’t know which Benefactor she had bothered.
But instead of swears or one of the awful simulations she was far too used to, the only response was a mechanical noise.
Her eyes snapped open to green lights shining in her face.
Nibbles. Beta was okay. She wasn’t on the Odyssey. They couldn’t hurt her. She was free. She had to be free.
(She would never be free.)
Beta dragged herself to her feet and started walking. She couldn't deal with any of the thoughts rushing through her brain. Not yet.
All she could do was push them to the side and pretend that they didn’t exist.
And if that didn’t work she would just have to act like it did. She had more important things to do.
While Beta walked, she saw new machines that she made sure to keep clear of. One had looked like a crab, another some sort of bull, a horse sized machine that was almost an exact replica of a deer, what seemed to be a crocodile, and a massive machine that seemed to be some sort of t-rex.
If she walked faster past the last one, there was no one but Nibbles to see it.
She could see some sort of ridge in the distance, and as she approached she could recognize it as man-made. That meant people were advanced enough for stone construction, at the very least. And as she got closer, she could see them; people .
When she was standing right in front of the structure, she called out to the two people standing on top.
“Where are we?” Her voice cracked at her poor attempt of yelling, but a response came anyway.
“The edge of the Sundom.” That didn’t help. What did that even mean?
“Thanks, I… I guess.”
The two guards, and she could tell that’s what they were, held some sort of metal weapon. That meant that people were able to smith.
When Beta walked through the opening, she noticed that the wires– antennae, maybe– on Nibbles’ back dragged against the top. They seemed fairly long range, and the sabertooth wasn’t using them anymore. If she could remove the part and add a cover, maybe she could sit on the machine’s back to travel faster. She would need tools, though.
Following the trail, she eventually came to a pause. Going straight seemed to lead towards a massive settlement far off in the distance while going right led to a much closer, much smaller settlement.
She turned right and spent so much time staring at the construction of the metal-topped stone wall that she didn’t notice the woman approaching her.
“You seem to have a follower with you.” What?
She turned to look where the woman was pointing, at the large machine standing by her side.
“I named it Nibbles.” Beta’s voice was more timid than she wanted it to be, almost shaking.
“Every friend needs a name. Speaking of, I’m Petra Forgewoman. I run the heap of junk behind me.” She was in charge?
“Forgewoman… Do you have tools?” Her voice was full of so much enthusiasm that it didn’t tremble at all.
"I might. You a tinkerer?" Beta didn't fully know the answer.
"Maybe I am." She liked being able to speak without false respect and much too real fear.
“Well, maybe a tinkerer. Do you have a name?” She almost wished she didn’t.
“My name is Beta.” She hated knowing what it meant. An initial draft filled with issues. Unfinished.
“Strange name. But I’ve heard stranger. You said you wanted tools?” Petra seemed nice. Nicer than anyone she had met, anyway.
“Yes. I want to remove the antennae from Nibbles so I can use it for transportation. I haven’t actually looked to see exactly what I would need, but I’m guessing a wrench and screwdriver at the very least.” She never really got to talk about what she was interested in. She never really got to talk.
“Seems you have a bit of spark in you. I have the tools, but your friend is gonna have to stay outside the walls. Don’t want him scaring anyone.” Him? Beta shook the thought away. Another time.
When she hesitated, Petra reached forward as encouragement. It only served to make the clone flinch, but she appreciated when the smith pulled back and didn’t try again. When the smith didn’t grab her and drag her along. It was nice. Nice enough to convince her that it would be okay.
The inside of the settlement was so much louder than she was expecting, noise assaulting her ears and making her flinch. Beta wanted to reach up and cover her ears, but they had always hated it when she did things that proved she was alive. She kept walking.
Petra led her up a set of stairs– Beta immediately decided that she hated stairs– to a small work station covered in shards of metal and various tools. On another table there was something larger, but it seemed unfinished. At her staring, Petra looked almost proud.
“Something I’m working on. A cannon. Should fend off the bandits well enough.” What had gone wrong with APOLLO that would lead to cannons being reasonable defense?
“Bandits?” They had to deal with bandits?
“Nasty fellas, they are. Steal our scrap whenever they can. They’ve been moving closer recently, so I decided to make something to help us.” Why the hell was a cannon a reasonable solution to bandits ? Petra was suddenly much more terrifying than she had initially thought.
Beta quickly turned towards the table covered in tools and started scavenging for the right ones. She found a few wrenches easily and had to move some random pieces of metal aside to find screwdrivers and what seemed to be close enough to pliers for her use.
She returned to the sabertooth and asked it to lay down so she could actually reach the component. With the better view, she realized the metal sections between the antennae and the storage container moved. The gaps were to keep the metal from getting crushed or bent.
Beta couldn’t sit there, not without risking injury. She would need to figure something else out.
For now, she began to work on removing the antennae, all they did was help things see where the two of them were, and that was dangerous. The wires connected to a piece of metal that was formed like a corner, and the more she looked the more an idea grew.
The metal parts were positioned so that if she could rotate them just a little and fold them down they would make good edges for a seat. When she tried, though, the metal didn’t budge. She could feel that it would, but she just didn't have enough strength to be the one to move it.
Petra had muscles, Beta could clearly see them because of the woman’s exposed arms. She trudged back into Free Heap and up the stairs to ask the smith for help.
“You’re back quick. Based on that look, I’d bet something didn’t work. But that’s how we get better. I know half of Mainspring couldn’t put hammer to steel when they first started.” Was Mainspring a place? It didn’t matter.
“Could you help me bend something? I tried but…” Beta awkwardly held up an arm to show the cause of her problems.
“I tend to do more banging than bending,” did Petra just wink? “But I should be able to do it.” She definitely did.
When they approached the docile sabertooth, Petra seemed wary and kept her distance at first.
“He’s not gonna bite me, is he? I’ve seen the damage a sawtooth does.” She’d never heard that before.
“Sawtooth?” Was that the name of the machine type?
“Your friend is a sawtooth. What did you think he was?” Again, Petra was saying he. Maybe people just gave things pronouns because they felt like it now.
“I’ve been calling him a sabertooth due to his appearance and long canines.” The lack of recognition was worrying.
“Sounds like a word the Old Ones would use, but I’ve heard some of the strange words the Carja call things.” Maybe the Carja were one of the current ethnicities.
“The Old Ones?” Beta had a feeling she already knew who they had been.
“Fire and spit, girl! If you tell me you’ve never heard of the Old Ones, I might start thinking you aren’t real.” Petra had strange phrases, and Beta was sure she would hear more.
“I have! I just… I could never learn what I wanted about them. No one would tell me and I couldn't find anything. They said I shouldn’t try.” She had tried so hard, but every attempt just ended in worse punishment than the last. She gave up when she couldn’t take it anymore.
“You could’ve told me you’re Nora, I wouldn’t have gotten on you for not knowing much about the Old Ones.” Her name was not Nora, and Petra knew this. Beta assumed it was like the Carja. “I’ll answer any questions you have while I work on your buddy here.”
Beta fumbled her way through an explanation of what she needed Petra to do and thought about what to ask first. Anything about groups and people would probably be suspicious, but asking where they were would be worse and most likely unhelpful.
“Are you from here?” Her question should be vague enough to not raise any flags.
“I’m from the Claim. Up north. If I’d stayed, I’d be Petra Forgewife.” Beta mentally noted that the Claim was misogynistic.
“I think Forgewoman suits you better.” Her voice was small. No one ever wanted to know what she thought.
“I think so too.”
Beta kept asking questions as Petra worked, and she learned a lot. The smith was Oseram– one of the current tribes– but was now in Carja territory. People hate the Carja because the last Sun King was raiding the nearby tribes– Nora, Oseram, Tenakth, Banuk, and Utaru– and sacrificing those they took. The Sing King had been deposed by his son.
Current society was tribal, but also much more advanced than ancient tribes had been. There was no electricity, but Meridian– the Carja capital– had a fully functioning elevator.
It was such a strange mix of modern and primitive. Something had to have gone wrong with APOLLO for the world to be what she'd seen.
With the parts bent, Petra stood to the side and watched as Beta worked. The clone had never physically done what she was doing, but the courses with Aspasia and Aristotle were in depth and had virtual labs for her to do. If she was good she got to experiment however she wanted. (She was never good enough.)
As Beta worked on removing the floppy wires, she thought about what she could use them for. If she could weave them between the two metal pieces, it would make a decent seat. Probably.
When she walked away from Free Heap, it was with more knowledge and a new acquaintance.
(She couldn’t fully block out the hopeful voice screaming that she had a friend.)