Nori led the way back to one of the streets I’d passed over in order to get to the bleachers, leading us to a small transporter.

  It was like a car, most of them were just large enough to fit four mecharas in them but the one she led us to was different with a much larger side door to it along with a large flat bottom.

  Nori pushed Lampro’s wheelchair up the small ramp on the side and closed the side door behind him. She and I got in the front two seats.

  Nori sighed, rubbing her beak in frustration. I was about to ask if something was wrong but she spoke before I could get a word out.

  “Artemis” she said loudly in a frustrated tone.

  I perked my ears at the name. I recognized it from the person I’d seen in the vision.

  “Yes Nori how can I help you?” a familiar voice came through the speaker of the car. It was the same voice, but his tone was different. His authoritative presence I’d felt before was gone, replaced with what felt like a helpful assistant.

  I looked at the center console, a cartoon depiction of a white melodian’s head was on the screen speaking to Nori.

  “Take us home please” she said.

  “Right away” he replied as the vehicle backed out of the spot and started driving us along the street.

  “And Artemis” she spoke up again.

  “Yes?” he asked in a helpful tone.

  “Are your circuits crossed or something? I asked you where I could take my dad without getting bothered and you said the windows were almost empty! We got swarmed!”

  She closed her eyes, rubbing her beak some more.

  “I’m sorry I truly do apologize Nori, it’s just that it’d been a while since you’d last been there and I thought you’d like to see the view” he said, his cartoon eyes turning toward me.

  Nori shook her head and took her hand away, the cartoon Artemis quickly turned to look at her once more.

  “Yeah well next time let’s find someplace a little quieter, okay?” she said, glaring at the screen.

  “Absolutely!” he exclaimed before the screen turned off.

  The transporter turned, going off the main road and slowing down as it started making its way through the city streets.

  With the slower speed and the larger crowds, several mechara’s turned and waved toward our vehicle, pointing at it and bringing other’s attention to us.

  Nori didn’t look too pleased about it but she reluctantly waved back to them as the little car brought us slowly in the direction of the central ring.

  I’d only explored the main city area, circling around the entire structure but I hadn’t ventured into the place with the taller buildings. They were huge, towering over us on all sides, reaching far up toward the center of the ship. The strange shape they had with the smaller bases and mushroom like tops made them feel bigger than they actually were.

  We approached one of the buildings situated right next to the central ring. Right next to it there were tracks for large trains that ran the circumference of the ship. The larger ones traveling in one direction with much smaller, single car trains traveling in the other. I wanted to get a closer look but as the car came to a stop Nori got out of the car and started taking her father out from the side of it.

  I quickly followed, turning back to look at the trains moving next to the central ring and the forest on the far section of the ship. I promised myself I’d explore it at some point.

  Nori led the way into the building, the inside.

  At the center of the lobby was a circular couch that looked like it could fit at least a hundred people on each side. In the center were three circular seating areas with small desks with a few Mechara’s sitting at them. The lobby itself was a large circle with small circular tables spread randomly around it, each with four soft looking chairs surrounding them. The floor was a white marble looking material with a matt finish on it.

  I looked upward, seeing hundreds of stories from the lobby. Each floor had a view looking down onto the lobby but strangely enough, the circle got a little smaller for the first twenty or so floors but then started getting wider, revealing a massive window at the top allowing light from the central pillar to spill into the room.

  Artificial looking light came from the light strips that covered the bottom corner of each floor, making them blend together like rings as I looked upward toward the top.

  Nori hadn’t noticed I’d been left behind since it looked like nearly every Mechara was trying to get her attention, some starting to follow.

  I was able to catch up to them before they got to the elevators, squeezing in right before the doors closed behind us.

  Nori leaned against the back window of the elevator, sighing, putting her foot against the window as she slouched.

  “I just… I need this to be over. I don’t know how much more of this I can take” she said quietly “They’re expecting so much and I just… Oh what would you know” she said dismissively.

  I felt myself shrink a little, taking a small step away from her. She sounded frustrated.

  “Ugh… sorry…” she said, noticing I’d backed away “I’m… I dunno.”

  The door opened and she pushed her father forward once more, leading us down a large row of doorways before stopping at one of them and opening the door, leading us inside.

  The door was similar to the ones I’d seen earlier in the ship. They always slid to the side rather than opening on a hinge.

  Once inside the door closed behind us, the sound of the lobby quickly disappearing the moment the door closed.

  The room was quiet, the only sound permeating through the room was the ticking of a clock on the wall. It had four dials with a lot of exposed gears and levers showing in the design.

  The room itself had extravagant displays covering its walls, with shelves and swirling contours covering every available surface. Each shelf holding some trinket of some kind, mostly looking like they were made of metal and wood.

  On the far wall two fake windows took up the majority of the wall, each one showing a pale artificial light illuminating the room. Above was a circular ring with a post coming down from the center and a large gold light bulb at the bottom.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  On one side of the room was a circular table with a single chair on one side and on the other side of the room a big green couch sat facing away from the wall.

  One thing that stood out to me was how much they loved their curves and circles. Nearly every aspect of the architecture I’d seen since arriving had curved surfaces to them.

  Nori moved her dad to the far side of the table and turned to me.

  “Honestly I just need you to synchronize for a bit and watch after my dad while I’m working. I’ve never seen him react like that before so if he comes around again could you let me know?” she asked.

  “I… Can do that, yeah” I said, still getting used to speaking their language.

  “Good good, okay now where did I leave off…” she said as she made her way over to the couch, pulling out a large pair of goggles and putting them on, her hands reaching up as though she was touching something in front of her.

  I turned back to the old man who was staring off in the distance, a blank look on his face.

  I got up on the chair across from him but he didn’t seem to notice.

  Looking around the room, I saw more complex looking objects lining the walls. I couldn’t tell what they were supposed to be for.

  On the other side of the room Nori cleared her throat “I… would… like… go… eat the food” she said in the most broken English I’d ever heard in my life. I could barely understand the individual words since she was using the wrong sounds for the words as if she was speaking a broken version of her own language.

  I wanted to help her but I knew I couldn’t blow my cover. I looked over to the old man again who seemed to be caught in his own head, so I decided to take a closer look at some of the things on the wall.

  I picked up a metal cube. It was about the size of a baseball and was fairly heavy in my hands. Every side had an intricate design on it with circles, gears, interwoven parts and small buttons. I pushed on one of the buttons and marveled the different parts of the cube all moved together. When I released the button they all swung back into their original position, clicking back in place. It didn’t seem like the cube actually did anything, it was just a collection of gears and moving parts, like a complex fidget toy.

  I placed it back down and moved on to another item which was similarly complex but was in the shape of a cylinder.

  Looking closer, I noticed the small toys were what filled up most of the wall. There were a few pictures and practical items here and there but it was mostly a collection of small intricate toys.

  One thing caught my eye. A large sculpture that looked like it was made of a ubiquitous type of wood. It didn’t have any rings in it like wood did, but it felt similar to the touch. It had two giant fan-like structures with a spiraling shape to them. Behind them were several sets of gears and a rope that wound through the whole structure.

  The whole thing was about as tall as me and just as wide.

  I reached up and started pushing one of the blades but nothing seemed to happen.

  “You need to lift the weight in the middle” came Nori’s voice from the other side of the room.

  I quickly turned to see she’d lifted the visor up and was watching me looking at the sculpture.

  “Oh…” I said as I looked down, following the string down near the floor where there was a fist sized sphere at the end of the string “this one?” I asked.

  “Yeah just lift that up and it’ll start. Lasts about sixty five rotations” she said, sounding quite proud of herself.

  I lifted the weight as high as I could and when I let it go the entire structure started to move with the two fan blades spinning in opposite directions.

  I stepped back, watching as the structure made patterns form where the blades visually met with each other, making it look like it was pulling them in toward the center. It was quite beautiful to watch the whole thing moving. A gentle ticking sound went off every few seconds from somewhere inside the mechanism.

  “Made that a long time ago. I’ve made better ones, but that was my first so it felt special. Well, first one that didn’t fall apart at least” she said.

  “And you… try to make it last as long as it can?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “That’s the idea” she said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  She smiled for a second and let out a short laugh.

  “Typical melodian” she said as she put the visor back on.

  I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be insulted or not but by the tone of her voice she didn’t seem to mean any harm by it.

  I sat back at the table once more, entertained by Nori as she tried speaking phrases that were almost too broken to understand.

  I just sat and listened to her, watching the sculpture doing its dance as the seconds turned to minutes, the minutes into hours. The weight kept moving down slowly, the machine continuing to make its gentle ticking noises.

  Lampro just sat there without doing anything. Whatever personality he used to have it seemed like it was completely gone due to his old age. I didn’t know anything about these mechara people but he definitely wasn’t entirely there anymore.

  A long groan came from the couch as Nori pulled the visor off, rubbing her eyes and leaning forward for a few seconds before looking up to Lampro and I.

  “Anything?” she asked as though she already knew the answer.

  “Uh, no, nothing” I said.

  “I’m not surprised. I don’t know what happened out by the windows but it was worth a try” she said as she stood up, her hands reaching high into the air as she stretched out.

  “Sorry I couldn’t help” I sad as I got up from the chair.

  “No no, thanks for coming. I'm sure he was happy to have the company” she said with a smile.

  I nodded, giving her a quick smile before turning to leave.

  “Oh hey one question” she said.

  I turned, seeing her hand was reaching out to me as she asked me to stop.

  “Yes?” I asked, stopping just before the door.

  “Are you… Doing okay?” she asked, sounding concerned.

  “I’m doing fine, yeah. Why?” I asked.

  “It’s just… Usually when melodians are doing this stuff they’re using the assembler. Was just curious if there was a reason you’re not using it” she said.

  “I…” I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “You remind me of my friend. She also doesn’t use it. Says it ‘clouds her mind’ but it doesn’t seem to bother the others. You remind me of her. She’s the only other melodian who’s taken an interest in my sculptures” she said.

  “Oh. Well… I like them. It looks like you put a lot of work into them” I said.

  “Can I show you my most recent one?” she asked with a bit of excitement in her voice.

  “Uh… Sure yeah I’d love to see it” I said as she motioned for me to come back to the table.

  I made my way back, hopping up on the chair again as she reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a pocket watch.

  “I’ve been working on this for half a kilorot and I think I think it’s just about perfect” she said as she held it out for me to see.

  It was a metal watch with four moving hands on the front but a whole collection of small dials underneath them. The front and back were made of glass to make it so you could see through the entire mechanism.

  “What’s the little moving thing there?” I asked, looking at a small sphere on the inside that seemed to be spinning in the center with several moving parts around it.

  “That’s the heart of the whole thing” she said, “I’ve been trying to make one my whole life but they’d always just sputter out or I couldn’t get them to move at the right times. This one’s been going since we first heard the signal with nothing but the movement of me walking around keeping it going.”

  “Wow…” I said quietly as I watched the insides move.

  She smiled, putting it back in her pocket before looking to me once more.

  “What was your name again?” she asked.

  “Oh… Tess. My name’s Tess” I said.

  “Huh… Never heard that one before. Well it’s nice to meet you Tess. I hope you come back sometime. It’s not every day I meet a melodian who doesn’t just turn their assembler on as soon as I mention this sorta stuff. I’m sure my dad would love to see you again too” she said with a smile.