Cillian (waterrunsdeep) wrote in cotic, @ 2017-07-18 17:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | cillian, kyle |
hotwired
Who: Cillian and Kyle
Where: The train station
Cillian sat back and looked at the controls, a pleased little smile on his face as the train hummed. It had taken him a while, longer than he'd expected actually, but he'd figured it out. He'd actually hot wired a train. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing he could put on his resume, but it felt like an accomplishment. Now he just had to figure out how to drive it, but that shouldn't be too hard. It only went one way, so only one track, but he wanted to make sure he knew how to stop it if there were people on the tracks. That part scared him, that someone else might be climbing the tracks when they went to use the train. He'd need to make sure they moved as slowly as possible, and maybe an emergency way to pick up the people if they ran into them. Thinking through all that could go wrong, maybe hot wiring the train had been the easy part.
The sound of the monorail train caught his attention, and Kyle headed over, curiously. None of the robots were working still, so he had no idea what was going on. The last thing he expected was to see Cillian at the controls. "Does it work?" he asked, tentatively, trying not to get his hopes up that they could all just go home.
Cillian looked up and gave Kyle a smile. "I think so, but I'd like to run a few tests before loading it up with passengers." If something went wrong then he didn't want to risk anyone else getting hurt. Not that he wanted to end up stranded halfway down, but he thought he could handle it if it was just him.
"Or that there's nobody coming up," Kyle said, his mind already going there. "Adam and a couple of other people climbed the monorail - I.. don't know if anyone else is brave or stupid enough to do that, but if they think they're gonna get stuck down there, people might start getting ideas." He thought for a moment, then suggested, "Maybe make sure a notice goes down? If you get it working - can we send a public message to everyone before we start the descent?"
"Exactly," Cillian said. He knew about Adam, Tris, and Blake. He'd seen the reunions. "If it's working, if I can stop it and make it go when we need it to, then I'll post something to the net and make sure the path is clear. I figured I'd still take it slow, just in case, you know?" Because even if they posted something, someone might not see it.
"I'll be glad to get home," Kyle said with a relieved smile. "Riley needs to be able to sleep in his own bed. We've managed to convince him so far that this is camping, but I'm not sure how long that lie will reasonably last before he gets bored of the novelty."
"I think everyone would," Cillian smiled. "But I'm sure it's especially hard with Riley. I didn't want him to be scared." For his own part, Cillian had tried to remain calm, to bring back food that a child would like without it being high in sugar. That part had been difficult. "I'm sure someone has to be working on things down below, but I've no idea how long it will take."
"I'm sure MABEL wouldn't allow things to go on this way indefinitely," Kyle said. It didn't make sense to think the robot supercomputer would let that happen. "But, if we can all just get back to the city - things can go back to normal again. That would be nice."
"Lately I've been thinking that we don't want to put too much trust in MABEL," Cillian said. "Not if we don't know who runs her, or how she's come to certain decisions. But, that being said, I don't think this was her." MABEL wanted them to trust the system and the robots. This disrupted that trust. It didn't make sense. "Normal would be good, though. You still want to stay here?"
"I never want to leave," Kyle said with utter certainty. "This is the first place I've found where I can be myself. This is my home. And even more so, now I have Adam and Riley. I get that we don't know who runs MABEL, but I don't think that this island or whoever runs it mean us any harm." He hesitated, unable to avoid thinking about the threats. "I'm sure the silly nonsense about Connies will get sorted out soon enough. As will this." He frowned a little, considering. "Who or what do you think did this?" he asked.
Cillian nodded, feeling a lot of that himself. Something about New Eden allowed him a freedom he'd never felt back home, yet there was still the occasional ache of homesickness. He'd never felt quite as alone back home. "I don't think it means us harm either, but I guess I'd feel better if I understood it. I'm glad you intend to stay though," he said with a little smile. He wasn't sure what to say about the Connies, but wondered which part Kyle thought was nonsense, their existence or the attacks on them. "I think it feels like a hacking? Or what I know about them. Just because of the way it's all the robots, but nothing else. I don't know who, though. The only person I know that might be capable of doing this wouldn't, so... I don't know."
"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," Kyle said, before consider what else Cillian had to say. "I don't know much about hacking - you think it's someone else who lives here? Do you know anyone who is that good with computers?" he asked.
It was nice to know that Kyle was staying, that Adam was staying, no matter what happened. It made Cillian feel better about his own decision to stay, even when he knew their decision had nothing to do with him. "I don't know. Maize's good enough, I think, but she wouldn't do this." He didn't know why he was so sure of that, considering everything. They barely knew each other, but something in his gut told him this wasn't her. Still, he should talk to her. It was just the last thing on earth he wanted to do.
"I don't know Mazie," Kyle said, thoughtfully. "If she could do this, but wouldn't - does she know anyone else who would?" he suggested. If they could find out who did this, maybe they could find a way to undo this.
"I could ask her," Cillian sighed. He didn't want to. He'd almost rather wait it out and hope something else fixed the problem, but there was this tug inside him that made him feel responsible. Right now he hated it. "I just don't know why anyone would. Just to cause chaos? More distrust of the system? Of the robots? It doesn't make sense."
"I don't know why anyone would, either. We all live here - why would you want to ruin that?" Kyle asked. "I don't know what they're trying to achieve. You're right - it makes no sense at all."
"None," Cillian sighed. It was frustrating that this kept coming up, that someone kept on insisting the robots were problems or making them so by turning them off. "Right now I'm just focused on getting everyone home. Then I might look into who or what might've caused this. Maybe." It was a lot to take on by himself. He had no authority and didn't know what he'd do if he actually found out.