Waiting Shapeless

Chapter 18. Gnumus

Jirabi: Kelpar

"Well Heva," said Jirabi, putting his hands on his hips and gazing out across the dunes. The scorching sun was still high in the sky. "...Looks like it's just you and me for a while." The Kelpar said with a smile, trying to maintain a positive attitude.

It wasn't that he was unhappy to be there. He felt a lingering unease, something he was having a hard time shaking. If anything happened, he was completely useless out here.

Heva expressed nothing to signify she was even listening to him. Her little eyes remained transfixed on seemingly nothing.

Jirabi looked down at her. The two of them stood in silence.

"What are you always looking at?" Finally asked Jirabi curiously. It was a bold question, but he asked with sincerity. He tried to follow her gaze as it led out across the horizon, but he could find nothing of interest.

The little ball stayed silent.

Jirabi wasn't one to push. If the small Terilli didn't want to talk then that was fine with him.

The two of them once again resumed their silence.

Jirabi turned to study the large burned out breach in the hull of the ship, trying to keep his mind off his perturbation.

He had always taken a fascination with mounted weaponry; to be specific, ship artillery. He knew a thing or two about the subject, though unfortunately for him the CSC usually had nothing to do with any kind of weaponry.

The Circuit ship had taken a lot of hits before finally being taken down, that was obvious. There were several spots near the tail end where the ship had been shot at with a weapon similar to whatever caused the large hole near the front. But the damage near the back end was older than the hole at the front.

That was curious. Did that mean the newest shot was the one that took the ship down? He turned his attention to the rest of the hull.

The entire ship looked to be deteriorating rapidly, probably due to the beating sun and the dust tossed by winds. It did not look like a stable place to be climbing around in.

His mind began to drift back to his teammates. He didn't feel right about staying behind while three of them were in the hazardous wreck.

"How do you think" said the small blue Heva suddenly "a being that is invisible can achieve a sense of belonging if it cannot be seen by others?" Piped up Heva, her small voice piercing though the stillness. "Or maybe an invisible being would evolve without psychological needs?"

Jirabi looked at her stunned. "Um... I'm sorry?"

"Do you feel the need to belong?" She asked, her tall feather bobbling as she glanced up at the Kelpar.

"Well... Yes, I suppose I do." Responded Jirabi, confused as to the origin of this sudden conversation.

Heva looked back down, resuming her stare into the distance. "I do too." She said softly.

Jirabi blinked. The silence was back again.

"Heva, what...?" He hesitated, not sure of what to say. There seemed to be only a select few topics that Heva was willing to participate in. "What made you think of invisible beings and psychological needs?"

"I just like thinking about different evolutionary paths that beings take throughout their existence." She said slowly, thoughtfully.

"I have something I've been meaning to ask you about." Stated Jirabi, pleased with himself to be having a running conversation with the most mysterious member of the group. "As a species expert, what do you think of the Aiter epidemic?"

Heva stood in silence. She let the question hang in the hot air for several moments before tilting her bubbled body-head to the side.

"It is certainly odd." She said slowly with her eyes squinted. "That type of malfunction is perfectly reasonable with artificial intelligence, but to have a species change so drastically after centuries of a proven behavior is puzzling. I suspect that in solving the conundrum, an unknown factor will be revealed that will change the current paradigm of the Pentaverse."

Jirabi nodded, trying to follow along.

The blue ball glanced back up at Jirabi.  "Why do you want me to talk?" Her voice was surprisingly stern.

Jrabi faltered. He wasn't expecting that question. "Well I... I want to get to know you better, Heva." He spouted honestly. "We haven't ever really talked before and... now is a good chance to get to know each other. I guess I just like to talk to people."

Heva looked back into the distance. She seemed very thoughtful, more than usual. "I know the others think I'm a bit strange," her words came out slow and controlled, "but I am more content then I let show. I am happy being here, part of this team.

"Sometimes..." she continued, hesitating slightly, "I pretend like I am invisible. Because I don't say much and I am not very big, I pretend that people can't see me, even when they look at me. But I am not an invisible being lacking a sense of belonging. I like all of you guys."

Jirabi smiled, though slightly concerned. "I'm glad you are happy... but Heva, you are not invisible to us. I know that the others... well, they like you. A lot. And although I don't know you as well as they do, I like you too. And I think you are good for the team, Heva."

Heva stood still, her face still expressionless. "I don't think that the Aiter's are dealing with a contagion epidemic like the PPF suspects." Continued Heva, pressing on with the conversation without missing a beat.

Jirabi blinked in the sunlight. That was a quick transition.

"Their symptoms show evidence of tampering, almost as if the malfunction was intentional. The real mystery is who would perform such a heinous act on such a peaceful species. The entire species no less."

She continued on, not pausing to let Jirabi respond.

"There are many theories suggesting that the Alomp species created a software virus that mirrored their own corrupt behavior and implemented it into the Aiter communities, but I find this highly unlikely regarding the extremely tight captivity the whole Alomp species has been under for the past several centuries. Though this is a popular theory because Aiter species actually faced something similar to that back in the early years of the Pentaverse.

"There was a case where a deranged being of the Human species was caught and arrested for hacking into the software of an Aiter. The Human was justifiably punished for its act of misconduct, but studies done on the victim Aiter proved that though the hacking was successful initially, in the long run the hacking had no affect. The Aiter's internal system was advanced enough to realize the intruding force and reprogram its software to block out anything that wasn't original to the native system. Almost exactly like a biological immune system but for artificial inelegance software.

"It is my own personal belief that if a similar circumstance arose, the Aiter's system would be even quicker at disposing of the intruding virus, which is obviously not the case in this instance."

Heva stopped abruptly.

Jirabi smiled broadly. "Woah, Heva" He said with a chuckle. "You sound exactly like my history teacher back at the university I studied at. I would like to hear you two have a logical debate. We just need to teach you how to scream all that at the top of your lungs."

Heva glanced up at the purple Kelpar and shrugged. "You wanted me to talk."