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Robin rose out of bed feeling like a zombie this morning.
Last night she barely slept due to the storm ragung on the surface.
The storm made the wildlife under the waves more restless than usual. Brute sharks bumped against the base and she had to fix the haul twice.
AL-AN took to just fixing the haul for her the rest of the night as an attempt to let her rest.
Something she was beyond grateful for.
If only noise and vibrations of the fauna knocking against the walls could have been sated as easily last night.
She dragged her feet to the main room.
Alan was sitting with their legs folded under them near a window scrolling through a pda.
"Morning." She mumbled.
They turned to her at the grogginess in her voice . They scanned her with one of the robotic arms as she made a beeline for the coffee machine.
"Robin, did you not sleep? Your energy levels are lower than what is considered operational."
Robin pressed the button on the machine. Sweet, sweet coffee would soon be hers.
"Not as much as I hoped." She answers.
"You should go back to sleep. You won't be functional out in the cold as you are." Al-an said as Robin took her steaming hot mug out of the machine.
"Not a chance. Penglings will be hatching on the surface today. I need to see how the parents behave once they hatch compared to prior." She said stubborn as she sipped the coffee sharp bitter heavily caffeinated liquid.
"But your energy level-" Al-an stopped mid sentence as she now gulped her coffee down.
"I'm good!" Robin said with a bright and wide awake smile.
"See you up there!" She said running to the moon pool.
AL-AN sat there a little loss for words.
They still had he under the scanner as she drank the dirty bean water and her energy level went from low to optimal in seconds.
They heard a splash and the hum of the seatruck drive to the surface at break neck speed.
Silence.
AL-AN turned to the now empty cup on the table.
How did this work?
There was nothing odd about the mug but the contents of the small drops that lingerd at the bottom interested them.
Some kind of highly caffeinated bean water.
They looked to the coffee machine.
Now, being from a race ruled by science, their people were very much the sort that asked questions. Especially when it was of interest. As this was Robin, it was of extreme interest for AL-AN.
That being said however, they never touched this object befor. Dirty bean water didnt seem interesting, Till now.
Humans needed sleep to function and Robin didn't get much and was groggy. The she drank this and was wide awake so quickly.
What was it about this stuff that made Robin wide awake after no sleep.
AL-AN walked to the machine with the mug in hand.
They looked at the buttons. There were options.
They tested one, watching the hot brown liquid spill into the drain under the dispenser.
They grimaced not sure what to make of it. It smelt funny too. Earthy but sweet.
They looked at the buttons. They were labeled Decaf, Regular and DeathWish.
They scanned the contents of the machine and saw that the contents the matched most with what was previously in the cup was the last option.
AL-AN placed the mug under the nosal and pressed the button called DeathWish after assessing it probably wouldn't kill him.
The liquid came out black and frothy and the smell was far earthier than the first button they pressed. Not unpleasant though.
They removed the cup and peered down in it.
It was like staring into an abyss.
It stared back.
AL-AN curiously dipped one of there bodily fingers in the liquid.
One hundred sixty degrees Fahrenheit.
AL-AN withdrew their hand. Temperature was optimal for drinking.
Now to Tasting it.
They sighed and picked up the mug.
They were skeptical but in the end, curiosity and scientific exploration always won.
They took a sip.
The world stopped.
From AL-ANs perspective, the fish that were buzzing by outside were now swimming in slow motion. The normal humming of the machines in the base slowed to the sound of turning gears and electrical currents.
AL-AN took a piece of titanium off the table and dropped it on the ground.
It fell in slow motion, almost hovering.
Taste wise, it was extremely bitter, almost unbarable but the over all effect left him amazed.
It slowed time down to a crawl for the architect. Meaning from he outside perspective, he could move and work faster than ever.
How much could he get down now with time being slowed by three hundred percent?
And this was after only one sip.
AL-AN looked down at the cup.
It was risky. One sip did this, what would the whole 16 oz mug do?
Once again scientific exploration won.
They drank the whole cup.
________________________1 hour later.
Robin was shuffling her way back to the seatruck through the snow. The newly hatched baby penglings were cute enough to halt a snow stalker.
A group of them even snuggled up against her. They were labeled the most deadly thing for her here by her pda as she almost died of cuteness.
She hummed as she hopped into her seatruck and plunged into the water.
She drove down but stopped imeadiatly.
"What the Freaking Funk!??"
She could only stare dumbfounded at what looked like a base wall constructed of altars and architect technology. It expanded to wind through the corral bridges in impossible twists and turns. In expanded to other bioms beyond what she could see.
It was like a whole city.
She descended, weaving around the columns and rooms to where the beacon signal on her pda labeled her base.
It now looked like a sky scraper.
Robin stopped the seatruck. Looking around she could already see this an architects doing.
What did AL-AN do?
She went to the hatch to figure out what just happened.
When she entered she saw a wide range of high tech computers and screens hovering around a large room and the architect buzzing the middle.
Literal buzzing, vibrating.
The large main room now had hallways apon hallways attached going in all directions. The ceiling now had many different laders going up to a wide range of upper floors and hatches plumiting down to caverns below.
Robin called to them.
"AL-AN!"
"GrEetNgs rObiN!" Thier voice sounded like glitchy static.
"What Are You Doing?!"
"DeVelOpiNg"
Robin looked around. It was chaos. Machines were moving faster than whe could comprehend, hammering, phasing and taking resources hover to were the were needed. Things were flying everywhere and the shear activity of it all was overwhelming. Lumps of titanium and quartz whizzed by her head, and a scanner dropped from the ceiling scanning her in five different rays of light. Her craft station was working at a rapid rate shooting out titanium ingots like bullets. Everything looked like it was up graded. The only thing that remained the same was the coffee machine.
"AL-AN Stop!!"
AL-AN heard her.
The Architect closed all screens imeadiatly stopped everything. Machins stilled and the area became dead quiet.
"diD YoU NeEd sOmeThiNg?" They inquired.
"AL-AN, what's going on? Why are you vibrating and building things up like this? Are you ok?"
AL-AN voice still sounded like glitchy static like parts were almost spoken to quick to make out. Their lights flickered and changed from shade to the next like strobe lights in a club. They were all over the place.
Even as they stood still, they shook.
"i'M pErfeCtlY fInE rObiN."
"AL-AN, you don't look fine. You don't sound fine. You shaking and your voice sounds weird." Robin picked up their hand and held it in hers.
"You can tell me. You can always tell me. What did you do to day?"
"i tRiEd CoFfeE."
Robin eyes went wide enough for her eyeballs to fall out.
"it Is aMAZING!"
"Exactly what button did you push?" She asked fearfully.
"DEaThWisH."
Robin's mouth hung open. She could not believe her ears.
This highly intelligent ancient being. A highly productive architect scientist drank Deathwish, the strongest coffee in existence, for a first time try coffee.
"RoBiN?"
She looked up.
"CaN I HavE AnotHer cuP oF DeAthWisH?"
"FUCK NO!"
"WhAt dOes fUcK meAn?"
"Don't worry about it. How about you lay off the coffee and try to relax." She said taking the mug.
After little while AL-AN stopped vibrating and went into what Robin could only describe as Rest Mode. They would stand, sit or lay down perfectly still and the light in their body would dim down to a soft gray tone.
AL-AN caffeine crashed hard. Normaly the rest mode only lasted three hours but they slept till morning the following day and didnt remember what they did the day befor. That was untill they walked around the new parts of the base.
Once they remembered, they turned neon green with shame. One should never harvest resources from the environment like this and create such excess.
The base now spread to every biome. But there were columns and rooms built in their side, and halls that twisted and turned and went narrow in places to pointlessness. Most of the base didn't even have power.
Titanium was now a rare mineral because it was all used for this mess.
They didn't know what came over them at the time while they were under the influence of that stuff but they swore never to drink Deathwish again.
Robin comforted them and helped in cleaning up the mess.
The following few days were spent deconstructing the base down to smaller more manageable bits. While AL-AN destributed the resources back where they were.
After this AL-AN sighed satisfied knowing that the mess of a masive base was gone and the environment wouldn't suffer it.
They settle down in the base that was now back to it original design and made a cup of decafe with some concentrated dairy product and refined glucose crystals. The PDA just called it cream and sugar for some reason.
Compared to what they had that day. This was far better taste wise.
They settled infront of a window with some floor pillows and waited for Robin
Robin got out of her wet suit and into some sweats and a t-shirt. After a long day in the water, a warm cup of decaf was just what was needed.
As she got to work fixing herself a cup her friend asked.
"Why is it you could handle the Deathwish coffee but I couldn't?"
Robin looked up to see AL-AN waiting for her by the window.
" Well, the main component in coffee is caffeine. I'm somewhat immune to it as I grew up drinking coffee. To get the same effect of being awake after a sleepless night, I need something stronger. It doesn't effect me to the same extent as you because my body is used to it."
"I never ingested that chemical compound befor yesterday. I was not ready."
"With any luck you will never have need to drink it. The taste is so bitter."
"I'll stick to decaf, thank you."
Robin smiled as she plucked her cup out of the machine and settled infront of the window next to her friend.
She leaned her head on his arm as they settled.
"You did good today and I forgive you for the Deathwish coffee mess."
AL-ANs lines turned a bright happy pink as they lifted their arm and held her to them in a hug. They rested their head lightly on hers.
"Thank you Robin."
They stayed like that for longer than expected and fell asleep under the waves.