I've begun working on a story project I'm currently calling Eternity. It'll be different from other things I've done, and essentially be a story with multiple branching paths if everything goes well. It'll be science fiction, with a bit of action, horror, and romance mixed in. I've completed character introductions for the main cast, but those might be the only writing related to it released for a while (mainly because I'm a fool and juggling two projects right now). Still, I hope everyone enjoys the glimpses into these characters for now!

Stuck with a job he doesn't like that often feels like an afterthought, Arc tries to make sure things at least run smoothly.

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Eternity Prelude: Arc
By: Rye

Arc stared at the cabin layout on the screen in front of him, once again rethinking his life. The caramel-colored crow switched a cabin from one housekeeper to another, and back again, remembering how poorly Ryker handled any room without enough space for him to crouch. But Selene was the only one who didn’t complain about doing the suites, so maybe he should…

He sighed and accepted the existing plan. He wasn’t in the mood to waste too much time agonizing over housekeeping of all things. Or wait staff. Or luggage handling. Or any of the other half-dozen random things his job of Chief Steward made him responsible for. Arc felt it was a pointlessly important-sounding title that only meant he’d been stupid enough to take on responsibility of the service side of things on the freighter Columbia.

The pay was decent, but the job didn’t give him an ounce of joy. And neither had his previous role as a regular housekeeper slash waiter slash errand boy. Seven years he’d been on that ship, and while he often felt he’d been going nowhere, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. So he continued to let himself remain unsatisfied by both his work and the limited resources he was given.

The Columbia was—first and foremost—a freighter. It transported cargo to and from frontier systems like Vone and Theon, trips that took days and felt endless to people accustomed to intersystem traveling that usually took hours at most. But the ship also happened to take on a number of passengers each voyage as well, almost as an afterthought.

The cabins weren’t spectacular and there wasn’t exactly much in the way of entertainment or activities onboard, but Arc did his best to ensure things went smoothly for passengers. Well, maybe not his best, but he put in a modest amount of effort all things considered.

A sharp series of chirps echoed from the clear, wide bangle on Arc’s right talon. He winced at the noise. It was obnoxiously loud, but so were all notifications on the ship. Something about not being drowned out by other noise in an emergency. He accepted the call, ending the chirps and projecting a small screen.

The face of Captain Sloane stared back at Arc. The antelope’s muzzle was marked by a series of deep scars that always reminded Arc of cracks in a statue. Her left ear was mostly gone, and her left eye was suspiciously pristine despite being surrounded by more scars.

“Captain,” Arc said.

“Archimedes.” The crow’s face twitched at the sound of his full name. The Captain was the only one on the ship who insisted on referring to him that way. “I approved the new linens you requested. I’m sending you the tracking number so you can get them sorted out once they arrive in a couple hours. Try to have the old ones sent to recycling before we depart.”

Arc gave a quick nod. “Of course. Thank you Captain.”

“We’re passing on replacing the custodian drones. I’m prioritizing an overhaul of the life support systems so our air gets less stale. Encourage Ryker to work on repairs of the current drones if needed,” Sloan said.

Easier said than done. The last time Arc had let Ryker toy with a drone he’d “upgraded” it to launch forks and claimed it could act as a security guard. Arc couldn’t believe the amount of effort he could put into such pointless pranks if he got bored enough.

“I haven’t had the time to read through your suggestions for changing the decor in the common area yet,” Sloane continued. “I’ll let you know I can’t make any guarantees on that, though. Working on the cargo holds is more important right now.”

“Understood.” For once Arc was thankful it was difficult to tell the difference between his default expression and his annoyed expression. “Service-side prep work is nearly complete for tomorrow’s departure. Shouldn’t be any problems on our end.”

“Wonderful. If anything changes keep me updated.” She nodded and they exchanged swift goodbyes before the call ended.

Arc wasn’t surprised by the Captain’s decisions. The cargo was always more important than the passengers, that’s just how it was. Investing in the holds would make more in both the short and long runs than updating the decor. And none of his suggestions had necessarily been vital. But the crow still found himself overly frustrated by the decor plan being ignored. And overly frustrated about being frustrated with it.

“God I’ve worked here too long,” Arc mumbled to himself. Not wishing to linger on the Captain’s call, he focused back on his job. When the linens arrived he’d need assistance, and Ryker—despite his faults—was the best option.

He brought up the screen on his bangle and found Ryker on the contacts list. His first attempt at a call went unanswered. So did the second and third. It wasn’t hard to guess Ryker had turned off his communicator. He did so often. Fortunately there weren’t too many places to hide on the ship.

Arc headed towards Ryker’s room first, using his master key to open the locked door once there’d been no reply to knocks. Aside from the usual scattered junk it was empty. Next was the laundry room Ryker had been tasked with cleaning. Also empty—aside from a little custodian drone wandering around—and not cleaned, either. The equipment storage rooms, then.

There were quite a few, filled with spare parts and fixtures. Compared to the actual cargo holds they were tiny, though, and Arc knew exactly which ones Ryker favored when he didn’t want to be found.

The keycard was swiped and the storage room door slid open. Arc took one step in and nearly jumped.

Against the wall was a towering figure, nearly eight feet tall and so lanky it was practically skeletal. Light reflected off it’s orange-red metal surface. Where its eyes should’ve been were two pools of black. Its head was titled down slightly, giving Arc a crooked look.

Arc scowled and took a deep breath. “Can’t believe I still get startled like that,” he grumbled. Androids weren’t uncommon, but most weren’t easily mistaken for a cryptid in poor light. And Arc knew the maned wolf had very gradually increased his height by at least another foot in the last year. If he kept that up he’d have to bend down to get through even more doorways.

“Wake up Ryker!” Arc shouted as he approached the android. There wasn’t any response. A knock and a shake didn’t provoke any, either. “Power saver mode, eh? What the hell are you up to now?”

Arc forced a connection between his bangle and Ryker, and brought up a display of the program the android was running. An aerial view of a city came into view. It wasn’t any Arc was familiar with, just generic skyscrapers. In the middle was Ryker, who was taller than most of the buildings.

The android pressed his metal paws against a tower and pushed, windows shattering and beams buckling. Eventually he applied enough pressure to snap it almost in half, stumbling as the top portion toppled over and through other buildings. He caught himself on the lower half of the tower, which couldn’t handle the weight he was putting on it. Within seconds it collapsed, and Ryker went with it.

He let out a panicked yelp, paws smashing through the sides of every building he tried to brace himself on. His impact with the ground shook the city, damaging a small nearby tower enough for it to fall over on the downed android. Ryker cursed and whined.

Back in reality, Arc just sighed. Watching the android flail around in his own fantasy gave him second-hand embarrassment. “You’re as clumsy in a simulation as you are in real life, this is just sad,” he muttered. Uneager to witness anymore of the spectacle, Arc forced the program to shutdown.

The screen blacked out, and Ryker’s eyes lit up, a piercing bright blue. Confusion was on his face to begin with, and he cringed when he noticed Arc below him.

“Good to know no city will ever have to fear you,” Arc said.

Ryker frowned and looked away. “Dude, you can’t just peek in on me like that.”

“You turned off internal and external comms. It was either that or toss you around until you jolted back awake.” Despite their difference in size, it was a threat Ryker took seriously. “And since it looked like that program had been running for quite a while, I’m wondering if you actually cleaned the laundry room like I asked.” He didn’t bother telling the android he’d already checked.

“Well.” Ryker was still avoiding eye contact, which was easy since he had to look straight down to actually see Arc. “I mean, I started, but then one of the drones was rattling so I came down here to look for a spare chassis for it, and then it was break time and I guess I forgot to set my alarm.”

It was one of the android’s better lies, sadly. “Or you fucked off to hide down here because you knew I wasn’t likely to actually check the laundry room until tomorrow morning. Too bad it all fell apart because I happened to need your help moving crates of linens in a bit.”

“Why do I have to move all that stuff?”

“Not all of it, just a lot of it,” Arc corrected. “And I chose you because you’re strong enough to lift stuff without needing the aid of heavy equipment.”

“Well you are too—” Ryker’s mouth shut suddenly, silencing him.

Arc was glaring. “We don’t talk about that. Now let’s get you started on the cleaning again.”

Before Ryker could reply, he began to float. The android’s paws lifted off the floor. He swung his arms as if to stop himself from falling, though it did nothing to help. “Wait, I can walk on my own! Come on man, this is embarrassing!”

Arc kept concentrating on Ryker. He rarely used his telekinetic powers in public, but was willing to make an exception to chastise Ryker. “You only get walking rights when you don’t slack off.” He forced the android to curl up into a ball. Ryker resisted a little, but Arc kept a firm hold on him. “Getting around the ship’s easier when you’re this short, anyway.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my height,” Ryker mumbled. He’d stopped struggling, but was still moping. “And this is only contributing to negative stereotypes of psionics users as abusers of power!”

“Yesterday you put a pillowcase over a drone and urged me to make it float around like a ghost to scare Selene,” Arc said as he started to leave the storage room, with Ryker floating behind him. “So I doubt you care that much about me abusing my powers.”

The few crew members the pair passed along the way got a good laugh at Ryker’s expense, waving at or teasing the android as he floated past. He actually tried to curl up tighter and hide his face some. Not that there were any other eight foot tall androids on the ship he could be mistaken for.

“Can you let me down now?” Ryker asked, sheepishly.

“No.”

“Please? I’ve learned my lesson, I swear!”

Arc shook his head. “All the way there, and in exchange I won’t write you up.” While the crow’s motivations were—at least in part—meant as a punishment, he also considered it good practice. Just because he erred on the side of caution when it came to using his powers didn’t mean he’d let his skills fade.

It was a hard deal for Ryker to turn down. “Alright.”

“And you’ll be doing maintenance on all the custodian drones. Just maintenance, no unofficial upgrades.” Arc put as much emphasis on the last part as he could.

“But that’s boring.”

“It’s not boring, it’s practical,” Arc said. “Custodian drones don’t need to multitask, just clean.

“I mean the maintenance is boring.”

“You fucking love tinkering with them!” The crow looked over his shoulder, wondering if the android was just being contentious out of revenge.

“Yeah, as a hobby, not as a job. Otherwise it takes all the fun out of it,” Ryker insisted.

Arc didn’t feel like the android was lying to him—mainly because he would’ve made a far less believable claim if he had been, like pretending to not know anything about robotics. “Okay. Then you don’t have to do it. But I’m sure fixing the drones up a bit would be a nice way to spend any extra free time you happen to have since you literally don’t seep. And as long as only one is missing at a time I won’t make a huge fuss about it and hunt it down. How’s that sound?”

“Now you get it,” Ryker grinned faintly. He was disappointed Arc couldn’t see it.

“God you’re terrible.” Arc threw his arms into the air, prompting Ryker to blank his eyes out of fear he’d be hurled into the ceiling. His position didn’t change.

At last the pair arrived at the laundry room of the ship. Arc gently lowered Ryker to the ground and released his telekinetic hold on him. The android slowly stood up, Arc’s gaze tilting upward as they returned to their usual, towering height. A series of repeating beeps drew their attention towards a corner, where the small custodian drone had ended up wedged. The disk-shaped robot beeped again for help.

“I can’t believe you abandoned one of your own,” Arc said. “What if it’d rolled out into a corridor and gotten damaged?”

“I thought I’d put him back in his charger!” Ryker hurried over to the drone, crossing the room swiftly thanks to his long gait. He freed it, looking it over for any sign of damage. He then switched it to standby mode, the drone beeping cheerfully in response. “He’s fine!”

“Okay…” Arc held back on saying anything else. He honestly almost considered Ryker a friend, but there were times the android was just plain weird. “I’m going to post assignments and grab something to eat. I’ll give you a call when the linens arrive so we can get them stored right away. Just...just try to be productive. In a good way.”

“Sure, sure,” the android mumbled, carrying the custodian drone over to the charging cubbies with all the rest. “Hmm, we need to work on your sensor little guy…”

Arc left before Ryker started to baby the drones any further. The crow’s stress hadn’t been relieved, but he knew it’d pass eventually. The days before departure were always like that, a frenzy to get everything prepared. Once the freighter was underway the journey would be a smooth one. At least he hoped so.