From Petra's diary
Atlas: Override all orders, collect terrestrial CO2.
Techna: (worried) Atlas! Are you okay?
Atlas: How strange… It seemed like a signal from the Great Network, even if its content was very uncommon. Why would they ever decide to help you with that illogical plan?
Petra: You mean that-
I was interrupted again by two other events happening in rapid succession.
First, the CO2 filter, the same one that disappeared a few minutes earlier, suddenly reappeared. I should have analysed it to be sure, but from the change in colour I was pretty sure the CO2 had been released, making it possible to reuse it again.
Before I could understand what had just happened, the last totally unforeseen event of the day suddenly occurred.
There was a loud noise coming from the garden, the same noise made by the old teleportation machine we had used to go to and from Sixam and that we hadn't put back in the closet yet, and shortly after we noticed old cat Nacho walking into my workshop. For some reason, he seemed to have a very satisfied expression on his little face.
Petra: Nacho, you're back! Hope is worried, where did you go hiding this time?
Ignoring my comment, Nacho went straight to jump on the desk and then on the laptop (our inestimable last working PC left in the house, to be precise).
I didn't have time to yell at him to get down, and he jumped down by himself. It was impossible not to notice the few new command lines in the middle of the screen, right in the middle of the console:
>(base) python ../Nacho_hidden/victory.py
>>> print('You're welcome (ﾐΦ ﻌ Φﾐ)∫')
And, at that point, we didn't know what else to say. The command Atlas received, the teleportation machine noise, Nacho writing lines of code on our laptop...
As absurd as it seemed, the only way of connecting the impossible episodes that occurred in those ten minutes was that it was all Nacho's plan.
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It took us a lot of time to connect all the points, it was just too absurd for us to accept it. Yet, at that point all the information in our hands pointed in that direction: Nacho followed us on Sixam using the old teleportation portal we opened, sneaked into the robots' base and somehow hacked the Great Network to oblige them to help us reduce our atmospheric CO2. At this point, it doesn't seem too far-fetched to hypothesise that he also wrote that fake email just to convince us to open the portal to Sixam.
The point is, every single thing in this list of actions should be impossible for any feline. How could Nacho do any of this?
Emma: I think it's time to figure out who you really are, you know, Nacho?
Nacho: …
I don't know if Nacho understood what we were planning for him. I mean, a normal cat most likely wouldn't, but at this point it's clear he's all but a normal cat. He somehow managed to reach Sixam, survive its harsh climate without any special clothing like the one I was wearing, and also demonstrated to be a computer genius. Not to speak about his unexplainable longevity: how old is he again? I actually have no clue, but for sure he's been around for quite a while. No, I'm sure he understands our plans way too well, he just decided to be cooperative.
Vet: What a cute cat! He seems healthy, why did you bring him here?
Petra: … Lately he's acting a bit strange.
Vet: Um, I see… Now that you mention it, do you have a wood stove at home? He's all covered in a weird black dust!
No, we don't have a stove, but if there is a place full of black dust, that's Sixam.
Petra: Thinking about it, he might have ingested some metal object in my workshop, he's very curious, you know… Do you think it's possible to take some X-rays of him, just to be safe?
Again, Nacho had not shied away from the examination. Maybe I was overanalysing it, but I was starting to suspect that, at that point, he was the one who wanted us to understand the truth.
Vet: … How strange. It seems that your cat contains several metal prostheses!
Petra: Really? He must have had them before we adopted him…
And, saying this, I had taken a closer look at the results of those X-rays. Surely Emma will manage to make a more precise analysis, but it was immediately clear that most of the internal organs had been replaced by robotic devices, and only the muscles, skin, fur and nails still seem to be the original ones.
A combination of organic and robotic structures… Could he be some kind of cyborg?
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It was time to read those diaries that Techna talked about so often, the ones my ancestors had written.
Mom always said that Nacho had an extraordinary longevity, and that it was actually her grandma who found him, but she wasn't used to comment about it. Was it possible someone else noticed something odd about him before, and noted it in their diary?
Petra: From what I read here, it was great-grandma Alba who found Nacho, shortly after she moved to Sulani. She wrote that according to a friend of hers he must have been a “reincarnated spirit of the islands,” but this doesn’t really make sense, does it?
Techna: No, I agree. Considering the circumstances Alba was involved in, though…
It was strange talking about it with Techna. For me, Alba is the name of a distant ancestor, so it’s so strange to be discussing about those old events with someone who met her in person. Sometimes it’s hard for me to visualise how old Techna is, and how many events they've experienced in their long existence.
Petra: What do you mean? What happened to her?
Techna: Scroll forward a few years. You should find some pages where she wrote about when she discovered she had been the victim of various experiments involving telepathic artificial devices, and even further ahead when she realised that robots were behind it.
Petra: What, the robots? Are you serious?
So I scrolled through the pages, trying to fight against the urge to get to the end as quickly as possible in the fear of missing some important detail.
In fact, great-grandma Alba's house had been filled with small robotic devices, aimed to intercept her thoughts and convince her to follow their orders. She had been a guinea pig for that new technology, which the robots then brought to Sixam with them.
Petra: Did you know about this? And you didn't do anything?
Techna: … My hard disk data related to many of those years had been compromised, so my evaluation can only be partial. However, I can't say I agreed with every single action of the robots committee of the time, my calculation has been more of a compromise of pros and cons. Also, I tried to repay Alba and her family for what they had to endure, before I left for Sixam.
Petra: …
Techna: But these details shouldn't be relevant as for now. Considering all we just read, do you have any idea about what Nacho could really be?
Petra: Let's see...
Nacho appeared out of nowhere at my great-grandma's place around the time robots started to fill her house with experimental electronic devices, this is indeed a remarkable coincidence.
Petra: Do you think Nacho was originally part of those illegal experiments?
Techna: I don't know any more details than what's written here. But it seems at least plausible to me.
Petra: What was the robots' plan for him, then? He behaved like a normal cat until the other day, and now I'd say it's quite clear he's on our side!
Techna: Most of their earlier experiments actually failed, maybe Nacho also ended up behaving differently than they initially expected.
I noticed at that moment that Nacho was dozing on the table, he must have jumped on it a little earlier. The vets had also put a cone around his head after the check-up, he seemed rightly very annoyed. But all I could think was: “I wonder what could be going through his head”.
Petra: I don't see anything interesting in the more recent diaries… Every now and then, they commented on how strange it was that Nacho never really ages, but nothing more.
Techna: I think we should go back instead, to the first pages I found.
Petra: What do you mean by "further back"? That he's even older than that?
Techna: I pointed out a possible weak connection, but I want to make sure you also come to the same conclusion as me before I expose it.
Petra: (perplexed) I see…
So I went back, to the oldest diary we had available, that of a certain Stuart. He was referring to so long ago that the sixamian had just shown up on this planet, what could I find in a diary that old?
But then I noticed the photos of the cat that my ancestor had adopted. A large brown cat, whom the author kept referring to as Nacho. Within the natural life expectancy cycle of a common cat, however, Stuart himself sadly reported the passing of his beloved big cat. Whoever this first Nacho was, he seemed like a normal cat, not a cyborg or anything else. And he seemed very attached to his family, too.
At that point I was too tired to read each remaining page of the other never-ending diaries, so I just quickly skimmed through the other pages. A couple of those writers had claimed to have seen furry cats wandering around the house when there shouldn't have been any, but this kind of report usually happened when they were approaching their last days. A bit of dementia seems like the most likely answer to this, right?
Petra: At this point we're already quite sure Nacho is some sort of feline cyborg able to hack the largest computer net in the universe, but I have to draw my line before calling in ghosts and reincarnation.
Techna: I agree, that part is probably just a remarkable coincidence.
Nacho didn't seem really impressed by those last remarks, but his big yawn made us understand he was getting ready to sleep. So, we put down the diaries and called it a day too. Tomorrow we'll have more than enough to do already, trying to understand the real consequences of the new order received by the Sixam robots because of Nacho's actions. As far as I'm concerned, this was definitely enough answers for today.
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Petra: Well, Nacho, I think we have you to thank! How would we Millers do without you?
Nacho: (proud) Mh.
Petra: We have some of your favourite food in the pantry, for celebrating tonight I can give you a double dinner portion!
Nacho: Meow!
I will never underestimate that cat again. I still don't understand how he did it, but it's clear he's on our side.
And we certainly won't waste the opportunity he gave us, it's time to get back to work!
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§HermioneSims§ corner
What a crazy way of advancing Nacho's storyline, isn't it? XD XD XD
Of all things I could say, today I'm here to share a funny screenshot that I think perfectly sums up the absurdity of the last few chapters: the family portrait I screenshot when temporarily moving Nacho into the robots' household (step I needed to take Nacho's screenshots on Sixam):
Nacho always looks comfortable, no matter the situation he's in XD
Also, talking about these robots, I think I forgot to share where I found this cc. In short, I used some skins converted from TS3 into costumes for TS4 you can find here. (Beware it's a very old link, I can't assure it still works).
Finally, if you enjoy Nacho's lore and you haven't read that short story yet, I remind you about a short Nacho origin story I wrote a long time ago for a monthly writing challenge here.
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