There was a sense of… intent from it.
He walked over to the screen. Khoth joined him, arms crossed at the wrists behind his back, as they both regarded the screen.
“There’s no way to type anything in,” Jace said as he cast about for a keyboard. “But something this sophisticated shouldn’t need a keyboard. We should just be able to talk to it.”
“You were able to access parts of the ship before. Are you not currently able to?” Khoth asked with a Vulcan-like eyebrow raise.
“Uhm… I don’t know. I don’t feel any connection to the ship.”
But almost immediately Jace felt that wasn’t true. There was this echoing silence in his mind as if someone were listening. But it wasn’t like a friendly listening. More like someone that was stalking him was listening very hard for him. And it wasn’t Gehenna. He heard her muttering to herself as she fought with the Osiris’ code. So it was someone else.
“Perhaps…” Khoth flattened his lips as if he did not like what he was about to suggest. “Perhaps if you spoke to it? It might wish you to address it.”
“It being… the Osiris?” Jace asked.
Khoth gave a cursory nod.
Jace considered this. The blinking cursor was a very Earth-thing. It was something he would understand. He doubted that Khoth had any idea what it meant.
So it’s a signal to me?
“Okay, well, here goes nothing,” Jace said and he sincerely hoped it wasn’t nothing. “Osiris?” The silence in his mind seemed taut with possibility. “I want you to open the doors to… to ah this room.”
The blinking cursor changed to a single word, No.
Jace let out a breath. “N-no?! Why no?”
But there was no answer.
Gehenna, why isn’t it letting us out?
It’s annoyed with me, I think. But don’t worry, Jace. I’ll figure this out. You just keep calm! Gehenna assured him.
“At least it is responding to you, Jace. That is more than it would do for me,” Khoth told him.
“Great. It likes to sass me while giving you the cold shoulder,” Jace quipped.
“Sass?” That was accompanied by another eyebrow lift. “You think the Osiris is similar to Gehenna in that it has feelings?”
“Gehenna said it wasn’t like her, but clearly, it has a personality. Can’t you feel it?” Jace asked.
He expected Khoth to say no. After all, he wasn’t connected to the Osiris. He wasn’t the Pilot.
Whatever that means. I thought I would wake up with all this knowledge, but not a bit more. In fact, I have more questions than answers. And I’m still naked.
There was a sliding sound and suddenly a shoot opened in the wall. Two items slid out that Jace caught. One was a towel. The other was a synthskin suit in cream and green along with a pair of boots. Jace let out a laugh as he recognized it from his dreams. It was the one he’d worn in them.
“What is the cause of your amusement?” Khoth asked even as he was inspecting the wall where the shoot had opened. It was closed now.
“Nothing… I mean… I dreamed about this suit. I dreamed about so much of this.” Jace frowned. “I hope this isn’t a dream.”
“It is not a dream,” Khoth assured him.
Jace smiled and started toweling himself off completely. “Well, if this were a dream, you would be part of it and you could just be saying that.”
“I do not think I would lie to you even in a dream,” Khoth stated simply.
“But I don’t know you that well,” Jace pointed out as he remembered how to put on the synthskin suit. He stepped into it and brought it up over his arms and shoulders and then touched a spot over his chest. The synthskin immediately form fitted to him. He then simply stepped into the boots that snicked around his feet and calves neatly. He held up his right foot. “Hey! I did it!”
