Space Royalty 4
"Sage, have you heard of the outside world?" Colleen asked her brother, who was hiding in his room again.
"Never. Hey, meet Eight. Eight, my sister. She's playing too."
Colleen glanced around her brother's cave. It was blue and contained no people.
"You have a friend hiding under your bed?"
"No, here," Sage tugged her over to his bed and gestured broadly at the black sphere on his bed, on which was written, Hello, princess. Would you like to play a game?
That was deeply suspicious.
"What the hell is this?" she asked Sage.
"You wanted alien stuff. Ta-da."
"I wanted a gun. You can't just mess around with-"
"Alien junk? I know. But I've already touched it, so."
"Right. What are you, Eight?"
I am a game.
"What sort of game?"
A learning game.
On the one hand, this was deeply suspicious and messing around with alien tech got you melted. On the other hand, Sage was obviously already involved.
"We should really turn it in to someone," Colleen sighed. "The Guild, I guess."
"I am not giving him to the guild."
"Her."
"Him."
Colleen glanced down at the sphere, which said, A game, once started, is not optional. Also, I am a game and lack gender.
"I've been going back and forth with Eight for a while now about what sort of game it is," Sage continued a short time later, over cocoa and cookies. It was winter and windy outside, cocoa was required. "No straight answers. There's nothing like it recorded in any of the remnant databases, either."
"You actually want me involved in this?"
"...no. No, probably safer for you if you aren't."
"Too bad for you I don't care about safe," Colleen lied wildly, with a theatrical yawn.
She cared a great deal about her brother's safety, for one thing.
"I'm not being left out," she concluded. "Okay, Eight, I want to play."
The black sphere did not respond with words. Instead, it split silently in half, right down the middle. Each half fell sideways on the table, and then reformed into a smaller, fist-sized black sphere. Both twins stared at it.
"That's nanotech," Sage said flatly. "At least it narrows down which civs it might be, most of them don't have working nano."
Colleen studied the sphere nearer to her. It was black. In violet letters, that matched her sweatshirt, it said, This will be fun. You seem out of breath, princess. What have you been learning today?
"I-"
Sage touched her hand.
"It seems to focus on keywords."
Colleen rolled her eyes, but reconsidered her glib answer.
"Survival skills. This morning was beginner self defense."
"You didn't invite me?"
"For girls."
"I could be a girl."
Sage could, indeed, imitate a girl very well, given the chance and personal inclination. Colleen shrugged.
"I asked you if you were busy this morning and you said you had stuff to do."
"Dave said he wanted to meet up. Ta-da."
"Sketchyyyyy," Colleen hissed to herself.
But if the sphere already knew she'd been working out, and it was nano, it's not like she could get away, could she?
She grabbed her half of Eight before she could think better of it.
"So, are you still named Eight?" she asked it.
Yes. What is your name?
"Colleen Elizabeth MacNamara. That's personal, middle, family names."
Thank you for being precise.
Creepy, creepy, creepy.
"So, what do you want to do today?" she asked the alien object.
Observe.
Let's just repeat: creepy!