Grey watched as Jupiter's small face was lit by the holographic display of the main interface of the Planetary Core.
Her face was tight, as she read carefully. The pen she had in her pocket moved quickly across the small notebook she had at the bottom of the bag. Her writing was in some sort of short script, stilted and boxed. It didn't look like English, nor did it look like the language of Oros. But, Grey saw, that the youngling's script was getting clumsier.
"You are tired."
Jupiter gave a shrug, eyes still forward. Deliberately, she took a swig of lukewarm water from the bottle that was leaning against her hip.
"Youngling, I think we have done all we can at this point. Perhaps it is time to return to the Planetary Lift?"
Her little hands shook across the page. She pursed her lips for a second, her eyes tightening. After her exploration of the History of the Keepers, she had moved into the standing orders of the control of the population of the Earth, then to the history, and now she was examining the changes done to the planet itself since the death of her previous self. Grey could estimate that the trip from the Planetary Lift had taken over six hours to reach the Planetary Core. Jupiter's own exploration of history was reaching the four-hour mark. Grey knew that a youngling was exhausted.
"... Do you have a spare sheeve?" she asked, looking pointedly to Grey's hip pouch.
Grey sighed, expelling excessive amounts of air through their pores to expose their frustration. But silently, they reached for their hip and unclipped another empty sheeve. At this point, Jupiter had used five, so far, taking necessary information for the larger archive. There was a fail-safe, apparently, that would send alert when the information was accessed remotely that made it necessary to take the information from the core rather than to attempt to set up a relay connection. It was a precaution she was taking to keep them protected from the attention from House Abrasax. Jupiter took the sheeve without looking away, one hand flying across the command controls as the other pulled the input cable into the sheeve.
"Thank you," she said quietly, "I just need to download the last of the information so I can review it later. I promise. We can leave soon after that. Give me two hours…Oh- give me your command sheeve too. I need to reprogram it so we can keep an eye on the movements of other Keepers."
Grey handed over all of the empty sheeves they had left, and then passed their command sheeve as well. In the blue light of the holographic display, and the light of the planet's core, she looked purple, the color of her skin washing away, but it did not hide the tired pull of skin underneath her eyes.
"Your DNA Unit will be worried," Grey told her, gently.
She let out a long sigh.
"I know. But I don't know how long it will be until we can come back."
Jupiter hopped off of her perch, bringing out more appropriate cables to the empty sheeves, and beginning the transfer of the data. The transfer was a slow process, closer to three hours rather than two, the screen declared. Jupiter tsked at that, annoyance on her face. Then, using their multitool, she began to reprogram Grey's command sheeve. It usually relayed Grey's orders as L-0182, but Grey watched as she changed it to become a simple monitoring device. It was still connected to the Keeper Network, but would no longer be limited to any given district, or be visible.
"I had no idea Queen Seraphi had so much technical knowledge."
"She lived for a very long time… And had a lot of different hobbies," Jupiter got a faraway look in her eyes, "And technology became important to her in the end. It was the only way she thought she could save Humans."
Grey hummed and silently received back their sheeve.
"You should rest, youngling. You can sleep properly in the Lift, but it would not hurt to have a moment now."
"But I can still-"
"It is a waiting game at this point, and it would be better for you to review the data. I will wake you if there is any change to the transfer."
Jupiter sighed.
"Can I use your legs as a pillow?" Her voice was small, and when she rubbed her eyes tiredly with one hand, Grey was reminded again of her age. And that again, Jupiter was asking for permission to touch their person.
Wordlessly, Grey patted their lap in the invitation. With a sleepy grin, Jupiter rested her head across their lap. Curiously, Grey began to run their hands through the long fur on her head. It was silky smooth, and despite the tangles, was very soft. Carefully, Grey started to untangle the fur. Watching the youngling preen at the grooming made them smile. They began to sing- a song that their Elder had sang to them as a youngling, softly.
Jupiter was asleep before Grey had reached midway through the song.