NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Culture Shock
After piling a mountain of mashed potatoes, corn, and two fried steaks, he escorted the group to an empty table and sat down.
"I wanted to ask… how has your tribe accumulated such knowledge and tools?" Caelu asked, waving her metal fork at various objects within the hall: the lights, the refrigerator, the stoves, and even the glass on the saltshakers. "I have never seen such things, but I can understand they require knowledge far beyond what I know."
Captain Moore raised an eyebrow. "I thought you gave her a basic rundown, specialist?"
"It is difficult to cram the entirety of human history, society, culture, and… politics into a single night, sir," Specialist Smith replied impassively.
"And what information did you go over with her yesterday?"
"... As much as I was able. Caelu was in isolation for the past two days due to biological concerns. Due to all the vaccines and tests she endured, she had been asleep for the past twenty hours."
Caelu's ears and cheeks blushed. "I was drowsy… but the berths were very comfortable and fluffy. It felt as though I was sinking into water."
"Good old memory… material." Captain Moore nodded approvingly. "Can't go wrong with that."
"I apologize if it is improper, but I wish to ask my question again. How has your tribe accumulated knowledge and tools to create all these things?" Caelu asked. She expertly sliced the fried battered meat and bit into it, prompting her bronze eyes to grow brighter. "This is delicious! This crunchy outer layer… and the sauce! Do you eat this every day?"
"No, the meals aren't this good every day." Captain Moore ate his own meal and eyed the lieutenant, who was wolfing down his with gusto. "To answer your first question, our people's history is old: thousands of years old."
"So is ours, though much has been lost due to the War three hundred years ago."
"The War?"
Caelu tilted her head; her cleaned green hair failing to hide the onslaught of eating behind it. She downed a cup of water, inspecting the glass with wide eyes, before answering. "Have you never heard of it? According to the elders, it was the biggest war this world had ever seen."
"I don't think I have, no. We are… from very far away."
"I would happily share what I know since it is not a secret. However, I request that you answer my question in full."
Captain Moore dug into his mashed potatoes while he answered. "Our people consists of… well, thousands of thousands of thousands of individuals. We live in many worlds, with many different tribes often competing against each other. Many of our tribes were like yours for thousands of years. Over time, as our knowledge accumulated and our tribes began to compete more intensely, our knowledge and tools vastly improved to where we are today. It was not only until the last three hundred years or so that we improved beyond the recognition of our ancestors."
"Well put, captain," Specialist Smith remarked, with Lieutenant Doe continuing to eat and Caelu pondering upon his words.
"Thousands of thousands of thousands?" Caelu asked again.
"Twenty thousands of thousands of thousands last time I checked, yes," Captain Moore affirmed.
Caelu's mouth gaped open. "We only have… so many in our tribe. How, what?"
"We grow plants and animals and can feed that many."
"But that many!?"
"We have about thirty thousand for our journey here."
"How large is your… ship?"
"Very large."
"On multiple worlds? What does that mean?"
"... We'll show you when the time comes. For now, I believe there are other things you need to learn about before we show you… our ship."
"I see… I believe the elders would be more than interested in hearing your stories and knowledge," Caelu answered. "As I have mentioned, they are wary of outsiders due to the stories involving the destruction and enslavement of our people from stories written hundreds of years ago. But they will certainly be interested in your knowledge and tools."
"So, are all of you from different tribes?" Caelu glanced at the female synth and the other male officer nearby.
"No, we're all from… ""America,"" Captain Moore replied, switching to English towards the end.
"Number one in our world," Lieutenant Doe spoke up, finally finished with his meal.
"Correction, one of the leading tribes in the world. In certain important country rankings, America still lags behind…" Specialist Smith said.
"Don't care, we're still number one."
"America," Caelu muttered the word under her breath, attempting to pronounce the English word correctly. "America… It is a unique name."
"It was named for the explorer that found the… land that our homeland currently inhabits."
Lieutenant Doe stood up from his seat. "I have to go, captain. I still have some paperwork and things to review with the first sergeant."
"Make sure to submit the report about our mission by today." Captain Moore stood up from his seat and stretched. "As for you and me, specialist, we'll be giving a tour of the camp to Caelu."
Within a few minutes, the group slowly walked toward the center of the camp, eyeing different buildings, machinery, and people. Hundreds of people were milling around, participating in manual labor, construction, or training as the UN base slowly took shape around them.
"What do you call that beast?" Caelu asked, pointing towards the Butterfly 1119K, a behemoth exoskeleton used for construction and heavy-duty work. The machine and its pilot were lifting a large crate filled with medical supplies to the storage area, its pipes and tubes emitting immense pressure with each step. "When I first saw it, I thought it was a metal beast powered by a human sacrifice."
Captain Moore blinked. "The Butterfly... but wait, human sacrifices?"
"It's not powered by magic, so what is it powered by?"
"Lightning," Specialist Smith said. "Our people have harnessed the power of lightning itself and can use it to power everything you see around here, from the lights to these… metal beasts."
"Beasts would be the wrong word, though, since they're not really alive and are controlled entirely by humans," Captain Moore mentioned. "More like… really big tools. In our language, it's called a "machine." A machine is…"
He glanced at Specialist Smith, who answered in his stead. "A tool that applies force changes the direction of a force or changes the strength of a force. They are… advanced tools. Tools that can completely reshape society and nature."
"Change nature?" Caelu's voice rose a pitch. "Are you planning to…"
"Cut down or destroy the forest? No, at least from what I have been told."
"The forest won't be touched unless we receive approval from your god. We have all the materials we need to construct the camp, and we can build tall instead of wide," Captain Moore assured.
Caelu nodded, though her expression still seemed hesitant. Regardless, she continued to marvel at the sights around her. As she gazed at the buildings, a BXM-90 flew overhead, its massive engines echoing through the camp. It streaked into the airfield of the camp, presumably carrying supplies and materials. "I still don't understand how you can fly so freely! Bie is known to be a very selective and demanding Goddess. She despises anyone that enters her domain without her approval."
"Well, if she exists, then she's probably never seen anything like those… "planes" before. Who's to say she's not interested in checking out some of the greatest things our people invented?"
""Planes?""
"Yep, that's the name of those things. Well, there are different types of "planes," but most of the metal things that can fly in our world fall under that name."
""Planes."" Caelu repeated the English word. "And they work like that… "machine?" With the power of lightning?"
"Well, it has lightning within it, but it's powered by other things. A plane is also a machine. That machine you saw on the ground earlier has a different name."
"Is that how you traverse worlds?"
"Well, somewhat."
"I think I understand, though this is much for me to remember and think about," Caelu admitted.
"Did you want some parchment to write on?" Specialist Smith interjected.
"Parchment?" Caelu blinked. "For what?"
"To write."
"Oh, writing? That's only for the elders."
"Your people have a written… language."
"Yes."
"But you can't write."
"No. Only the elders can read and write."
"Specialist," Captain Moore chided in English.
"I apologize, captain, but it may be useful information for future reference."
"Fair enough, but your tone..."
"My tone was as impartial as possible."
"Can you both read and write?" Caelu inquired.
"Almost everyone from every tribe in our world can read and write," Captain Moore answered, switching back to the Danj Elvish language. "Everyone here has received at least ten rotations of learning."
"But why?"
"Well… for us warriors, and everyone else really, it's so that we can read each other's knowledge and improve upon it. It's easier to accumulate and discover new knowledge if everyone can write down their knowledge and share it with others, who can then read it, no?"
Caelu scratched her head. "I'm not sure if I follow."
Specialist Smith stepped in. "For example, if someone discovered that a certain metal was too weak to be used for a sword and wrote it down, then other people would know not to use that metal for swords because someone else wrote it down, showing that the metal was unsuitable for swords. Thus, you can know what leads to failure and find a way to succeed by avoiding failures."
"... I think I understand. If we can exchange knowledge with others, they will absorb my knowledge and be more knowledgeable. Which can lead to more knowledge accumulated by avoiding failures and finding more successes?"
"That would be an apt way to look at it."
"Then I would assume that your tribe has perhaps thousands of parchments regarding knowledge?"
"Thousands?" Captain Moore smiled. He pulled out his iPad, spurning another curious look from Caelu. "Iris?"
"Hello!" the AI greeted. Her hologram form appeared on the captain's shoulders. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Caelu."
"What in Tesa's name is that?" Caelu shouted, prompting a few curious looks from people nearby "Is that some sort of… spirit?"
"She is… a living machine."
"Like a golem?"
"You have those?"
"I've heard stories about them: statues of rocks given the breath of life by Tesa. They were rare even back then."
"Interesting. Well, Iris is… I guess it is a golem with no physical body? Actually, spirit could work, though a cross between a golem and a spirit? If that makes sense.," Captain Moore replied. He looked over at the specialist, who shook her head. "Well, Iris, can you inform Caelu how many… parchments of knowledge we have?"
"If we're to put it into numbers, I would say the number would be somewhere about thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands…"
"... How many thousands of thousands? How much…" Caelu tried to count with her fingers, though she gave up after going through them five times. She bit her lips as her head swayed from side to side. "Are there that many parchments in existence? They aren't easy to make and use a lot of magic…"
"Well, "science" always has a way. By the way, about magi…"
Caelu cut him off. "That word… I heard it from Elize yesterday. What is this "science?""
"The sum of all our knowledge. To put it simply, Ms. Caelu, it's our study of the world and attempting to expand our knowledge by trying to understand the world through… "experiments" and evidence."
"Somewhat like… alchemy, but focused on the world's natural order, and discovering its laws and limitations," Specialist Smith suggested.
"I don't know much about alchemy either, unfortunately. I think I understand somewhat more, but it's still very… complicated."
Captain Moore rubbed his chin. "Specialist, how about you teach Caelu how to read and write?"
"Reading and writing… in your language? I think it was called "English," right?" Caelu said.
"Right. And if you're able to read English, you can read all of our parchments on various things. In our world, they say it's better to learn by reading and writing than listening."
"I could do that, captain," Specialist Smith affirmed. "It will take some time, but it would be useful. Should anything happen to our electronics, it would be necessary to have a living being translating for us. She'll most likely be with us for the near future, and she is receptive to learning."
"Yep. But before we send her down that path… Caelu, is there anything you want to take a closer look at or try?"
"... There is!"
Ten minutes later, a Cherokee gunship was zipping through the air with three new passengers. The green-haired elf laughed with delight as she looked down at the forest below. "Maybe Bie does favor your people and your machines! These things are wonderful!"
"Would you look at that, specialist? She's enjoying flights better than Lieutenant Doe already."
"Anyone is better than the lieutenant at enjoying flights, captain."
"Specialist Smith, telling a joke? Iris, save that recording."
"You got it!"
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AN: Shoutout to Demoniose Oculus, Rémi Dufour, and deathraven181 for their support on Patreon. Thank you so much
As always, thank you for the support. Any comments, criticism, and suggestions are always appreciated.
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