The system that had meant so much to Seraphi was a wreck.
Jupiter Jones saw the remains of what Seraphi had been so proud of. Even more so from up close, the destruction was devastating. It wasn't even gone or cleaned up. Mountains of hardware had simply been torn out of the Mind of the Earth from their vital positions. Some were even in the correct places... But they weren't saveable. Melted to sludge, or shattered beyond repair in place. The hallowed shells of what used to hold the most advanced computer system of Seraphi's holdings, possibly the Verse, were tossed on their sides, ripped in half, melted to slag. Broken, their inner component spilling out of them. Scattered pieces of the Mind of the Earth lined the glass-like floor. In her mind, Jupiter saw a ghost of what had once been here. A mirage of the once magnificent system passed through her eyes as she and Grey made their way to the main interface.
It was like a great ruin of an ancient culture.
Delicate equipment that had taken nearly twenty years to perfect had been destroyed. Balem hadn't even done the practical thing, she could see. He hadn't removed the system to reuse it in another way. He simply demolished it, violently, to erase anything that had been connected to what Grey had called the Great Experiment. And left it to rot in place. Out of sight in a place that no one would ever see. Keepers were kept out as a rule, unless it was a security measure and they were given permission to enter the Entitled space, and they were the only beings that would ever really need to access this space. And the only Entitled officially able to enter the Core at the moment was Balem Abrasax.
He didn't just reuse the resources as he would have been taught too. He just destroyed it and left it here where no one could ever see it again.
The part of Jupiter that was the most like Seraphi despaired at the sheer waste. How short-sighted of him, that cold part of her whispered, the technology itself would have been useful for him. The part of Jupiter that was young didn't understand how someone could be so horrible to the memory of someone they claimed to love. But mostly she just felt angry. Angry that someone would push against changes that were so badly needed. That someone would cling so desperately to something so horrible. Angry that Balem justified genocide to fuel the immortal lives of the Humans of Oros… Even if it wasn't the only way to have immortality.
Just the way that kept those that called themselves Entitled on top of the system.
Jupiter felt herself grit her teeth as her fingertips hovered over displays. One of the random shells that used to house machines provided a convenient chair for Jupiter to access the slightly too tall interface. Grey hovered near her, looking over her shoulder as Jupiter went through the steps to keep her actions anonymous as she accessed the records that dealt with the Keepers.
Even with the audio override, she didn't want to take any chances for the changes she made for Grey being traced back to the Planetary Core. If that happened, there could be an investigation, and if the investigation brought enough attention it could be very very bad. One Keeper death was nothing to be examined too closely. But if they traced it back here, they could lose access to the Planetary Core. It wasn't the Mind of the Earth anymore, but it still held vital controls and history records that Jupiter would need in the long run.
Not to mention the bomb that Grey confessed to setting off back in the hospital would need to be explained. Having any attention to where Jupiter was, and her family was too much of a risk that Jupiter could not take.
"You really know your way around the security systems."
"Seraphi designed this. And Balem kept the software mostly intact."
"The system hasn't been truly updated in nearly the two hundred cycles since Seraphi's passing. Only equipment on the planet's surface needed for the control of the Earth's population."
"Better for me," replied Jupiter, simply, even as her stomach twisted at the reminder of what the humans of the Earth were considered, Terrestrial… Livestock. She kept her eyes on the holographic display, "I don't have to learn a new interface to navigate just yet, and that's even if it has advanced that much since Seraphi died. Functional technology for the Entitled doesn't tend to innovate as much as pleasurable technology."
Grey gave a soft whistle of agreement, their eyes flickered across the screen of Oros's text, something that Jupiter could read fluently, despite her less than perfect mastery of speaking it aloud.
"You intend to blame the explosion on my letter and number?"
"Well, you technically did it," she gave Grey a grin. Before she turned back to the display, "Accidental removal of the device from the Keepers's Hall, and setting it off when it came in contact with some of the new computer equipment on the fifth floor, it's plausible enough that most won't look into it. Only one casualty, L-0182 the Keeper. All records that the S Keepers should shift to match this within their initial observations, and I can place an order for the S's of the district to simply clean up and close the case."
"It seems too simple," said Grey, and there was an anxious tempo to their high voice.
Jupiter turned back to the computer with a shrug.
"Simple explanations are usually the hardest to argue with. Overly complicating can bring attention."
She felt Grey's eyes on her, as she examined Grey's file to confirm the loss of their life and that another Keeper would take their letter and number.
L-0182, Brood number 01. They were ancient, she realized, as old as the Seeding of the Earth by Seraphi's hand. Jupiter tried not to think about the fact that the Humans of Oros had killed the Dinosaurs. It had happened before Seraphi had purchased the Earth, but it was still unsettling to know. Grey was a part of the first Brood made for the Earth. They would have been present when the placement of the most ancient form of common ancestor of sapiens would have been placed on the Earth, their evolution rapidly accelerated to form the earliest modern ancestors of humans for the sake of genetic diversity. The Keepers were a long-lived species. It was what made them so useful for labor. Seraphi had prided herself greatly on hardly cycling through many Broods on her holdings, no more than five on any of the more hostile production planets. But knowing that the person behind her had lived through all of her home Planet's History awed her.
And then she was confused by the low status of her friend, even as she seamlessly had someone else take their place in the hierarchy, a necessary evil. As fun as it would be to sow chaos now, especially since she was so angry at Balem, she would take her predecessor's lesson. She would be a whisper of wind right now, not the roaring gale she longed to be.
Someone so old should have risen in the ranks.
"Why were you only 0182?"
Grey gave a gusty sigh.
"Look at the status of Brood 01, Jupiter Jones."
Curious, but hearing the sorrowful tone of their friend, Jupiter did just that.