Within the cage, which had to be carried in by several Lawbringers, floats an alien. It looks a bit like a crab that's been infested with glassy barnacles and deep-sea worms, which cluster around a belly-beak. The only motion it makes is when one of its many eyestalks extend or twist to follow someone.
Vasterlion is there, having his own people lay claim to one of the crates. Like everyone else he's wearing a biohazard suit (often referred to as a Canal Suit). Several Eeee technicians are checking the air around the cage with odd semi-organic looking devices, while Captain Frane stares at the shiny monster as if trying to kill it with his mind.
"Amazing creature," the Viceroy notes to Tasha. "I doubt we'll be able to get much use from its biology, but the knowledge will be worthwhile at least."
Tasha is in her own armor, complete with helmet, and flanked by Shojo in his. Together they look like life sized models or statues from the same production line. With her helmet on it's hard to see her smile. "I'm glad you like them, Mr. Vanderlion. I hope our combined research will prove useful to what we're trying to accomplish here." She cranes her neck, turning to stare up at the floating anomaly of a being. "And maybe more? That would be nice."
"Those odd growths on the back, they are the crystallized spacetime?" Vasterlion asks. "We'll definitely need to see how they're connected, and if they grow from the creature itself. I don't see how it can generate the power needed to defy gravity though. But from your other reports.. these things may be more machine than creature."
"They may be," Tasha confirms, lifting the glove with only three fingers to point at the indicated structures. "We can't even say they're recieving power from an outside source unless they can harness gravity, but even that would just equal out, wouldn't it? They could be some sort of Sifran automation as the Sifra are well known to use crystalline structures. I've heard they even embedded them in their Clients. Maybe these creatures are older models pulled out of storage because their infrastructure has been crippled, and represent an older form of Sifran crystal. But who knows, really?" She turns and the Eeee can just make out her smirk. "Well, maybe you will, sir?"
"I'll have my best xenobiologists on it," Vasterlion says. "We weren't able to figure out how Tesla generated its power, but this time we'll crack it for sure.. assuming we can figure it out without literally cracking this thing open. Is that also an option, or do you have plans that require it be kept alive?"
And then tasha frowns. "I don't like the idea of killing it. The truth is they've done nothing to us and we don't understand much about them, including if the large one was sentient. It may have been curious, but we destroyed it because we couldn't communicate and seemed to have no choice. That's not really acceptable and I don't want to see it repeat." The woman shakes her head, three-fingered hand waggling towards the creature. "Try to keep it alive and don't hurt it if you can help it. If the situation deteriorates we might have to push farther, but until then lets show it some respect. It may not understand but something that communicates it might."
"We'll limit ourselves to minor biopsies, and assume for now that this creature is made of the same stuff as the big one.." here the Eeee gestures to the hazard-labeled crates, ".. which we have ample samples of. I'm not sure it's safe to use x-ray scanning on the thing, either, if that could be turned it something else by the toporgic."
Tasha has been thinking, long and hard, on what it means to be a leader and what, exactly, her role and drive are these days. While she's only scratched the surface one thing became clear: She had intended to make things better. Better became nebulous and her methods increasly uncertain in their result or desirability and that lead to frusteration and resentment, but at least one thing was and remains clear in retrospection, she had wanted to do bring beings together and improve things for all. Letting this creature be tortured seems unpalitable in a way it hadn't pre-reflection, she she renews her effort to improve on at least this front.
"You should coordinate with remiel on effective scanning, he was the one most involved in analyiss of the creatures. I will give you the control frequencies that I came up with -- with help of course." The young woman gives the man a nod and tehn lifts her hand, indicating the Titans should get ready to move. "Anything else, sir?"
"Since the Templars are hosting this creature, the signatory bylaws require all research to be publicly available," Vasterlion explains. "Of course, the 'public' still needs to get it through their respective governments, so we can assume things will be kept quiet for the immediate future. The toporgic samples have been distributed to the local embassies, which will presumably pass them on to their host nations. Since we'll be expected to share info, I am hopeful we will find out something about the stuff. The mages are their own keepers though, for now. We don't have any home-grown ones with enough experience to tackle this."
Tasha waves the Titans on and then turns to face Vanderlion fully, nodding her helmeted head. "I'd have prefered to keep things quiet a while longer, especially given what all of this ties in to, but it can't be helped -- and maybe internatioanl review will give us the edge we need?" A roll of the shoulders, then she glances to Shojo. "Of course we'll be busy with focusing on the problem itself. That will definitely require combined assistance, even if it might have been done in rough secret. I can't say that I miss having to be secretive, anyway. I do think I might return to my ship and see what planning can be done, leaving Shojo to be my agent down here."
"Any large joint offensive would be hard to hide," Vasterlion says with a chuckle. "Ah, so you aren't taking the stuff to the mages yourself then?"
"No, I don't think so. Shojo can use the practice of handling things for me and there's not a lot of need for me to be there personally. Any response I can do more with where I'll be at. I think the term is centralized." The hybrid studies her second -- her apprentice as Katherine Vesuvius calls him -- and then asks, "Got the hang of the datapad then, Shojo? All set for delivery? I'll be up in the sky, working things out, meditating. You remember our discussion."
"Yes, Ma'am," Shojo replies. "Miss Neesa offered to escort me to the mages' camp and help me locate whoever I need to locate there."
Tasha beams. "Wonderful. Speaking of datapads ..," the young woman pulls out a black case, then hands it to Vasterlion. "This is for you to use. You'll have to put up with the Vartan version, but it can be commanded by voice and provides full instructions on its use and repowering options. Please don't take it apart." She winks. "With it you can reach me, so for both of you I'm always available as long as you have reception."
Vasterlion accepts the case. "I will endeavor to use it within the Pit," he says. "Can't be broadcasting from any secret locations after all!"
A nod. "Right, I don't want to be accused of ruining secrets after all." She smiles again, then steps back and begins walking off to where Melchior awaits. From there to the Basket, and from the Basket to the bridge. "Keep me informed, don't get eaten -- either of you!" She gives a wave over her shoulder. "Good luck!"
The ride back to Harmonia is a bit quicker than the ride out, since the frigate has gotten closer to the Pit and her old established back-and-forth route between there and Tartarus. "Welcome back, Tasha," the ship greets her, making an effort to not call her captain this time. Katie and Remiel are still on board in the laboratory.
For Tasha it's straight to the bridge; she can say hello from there. "Hello Harmonia. Please prepare the research we discussed -- the topogoric weapons, my notes on the Ogdru-hem, on the Progenitors, annnnd ... Well. That's enough of a start. Tell the others I'm heading to the bridge but will be working. I have a lot to do." She makes her way across the bay, knowing the route by heart.
Once in the command chair, the various notes come up.. although the toporgic weapon and Ogdru-hem ones are rather slim, given the overall lack of information on each. "We are in range for broadband contact with Tartarus and Bellerophon once again," the AI reports. This is mentioned when the Progenitors data file is made prominent.
"Great!" Tasha leans back. The bridge's actual veiw never changes but her own internal one does; the bridge vanishes and is replaced to the dias seeming to float over the landscape, a myriad of windows displaying various things appear to hover in the virtual sky. Among them are her notes, communications, the ship's sensory and system data as a security precaution, and even her own vitals to ensure she's not over doing it. From here it feels like she's the center of things, even this far above the world. "Inform Belle we're in place and I'm on the bridge; go ahead and add that Hakeber is free to work with me. Tell Remiel I'm available too, for project work. And tell Katie I'll be busy for a while." She rubs her nose, this done in actuality. "Lets see if anyone has made any progress and wants to talk and I can focus on their work first."
It's Remiel that replies first. "I've got something," he reports. "Took some digging, but there are tiny seeds of exotic matter within the flesh of the island monster. I suspect they're the energy source for it, or somehow related to the toporgic production. Can't tell a lot about the stuff yet though, it has similar physical ephemerality to dark matter, but I'm pretty sure it isn't. I suspect these creatures may be native to a zone of dimensional distortion."
"'A zone of dimensional distortion'?" The question is spoken aloud but echoes in her mind, sent via the ship's systems straight to Remiel. "Some sort of interdimensional pocket or area, like a warp bubble or, I don't know, a hyperspace? Or maybe highly bent areas within one of those?"
"Well, we don't the physical laws of whatever universe these things come from," Remiel says. "I'm going off Eli's notes relating to the toporgic. It could be a region close to the ergosphere of a galactic-core black hole, or twistor space between binary neutron stars, or something called fractalized space that I've never heard of before and Eli didn't elaborate on."
Tasha scrunches her muzzle up; not from around here at all, but at least they might not be from the beyond. "Well, it's more than we knew about them before, so that's progress. Maybe the Titanians have heard of them, but I have the feeling we won't know for a while. They can clearly exist here though, at least for this long, so they seem to share our laws or something like them. Anything else?"
"I was able to detect them via asymmetrical particle production," Remiel notes. "That is, particle-pairs that spontaneously generate from the zero-point field are being separated before they can annihilate eachother, like you'd see at the event horizon of a black hole. The exotic matter is 'eating' the antiparticle somehow, leaving free electrons."
"Other than that, the tissue is largely inorganic semiconductor, as noted before," the doctor concludes. "We might be able to do a better analysis on Belle, but I haven't found anything bio-reactive in the stuff yet, so it may be safe to handle."
"'Power from nothing.'" Tasha has heard of things like a perpetual motion machine, it was one of the examples Fred provided as an example of entropy and how no machine is or can be 100% efficent due to various failures. Several pseduo-examples were give along side with real-world examples -- none of them were infinite. She doubts these tiny exotic -- she isn't sure what to call them -- things are infinite, but like the may as's power and other alien power sources may as well be for their purpose. "So, wow, do you think we could reuse them? Create our own zero-point generators?"
"Well, nothing is ever truly free," Remiel says. "A lot of energy must have gone into making this stuff, and entropy assures that once that amount has been 'radiated' via the pair breaking the stuff will dissolve or become inert. As for generating useful power.. it would take a lot just to harvest enough from the corpse. I'm still not sure about the function either. Could be part of the nervous system.. an FTL nervous system. Something that big would need one."
"It's like looking at the brain of a god, or something like one," Tasha observes, recalling her time raised to the speed of Harmonia and Melchior. A mind that's faster than light might well exceed either of them or even their minds in combination. She doens't know if that's truly the case -- much of their thoughts may be taken up by maintaining their lives or they nay have very simple minds no matter how fast -- but it's still a dauting prospect. More dauting still, having seen a glimpse of it. "If only our current godlike beings said so much, but I'm not interested in taking them apart -- except maybe old Katha-hem. Anything else, maybe something we can use?"
"Well, the thing is made of semiconductor crystal," Remiel notes. "That in itself is valuable for making advanced electronics and computer systems. The Abaddonians should be able to make good use of it. No more vacuum tube transistors."
Tasha has to laugh at that -- a revolution powered by the brain of a dead alien horror. It's awful and amazing all at once, sad and hopeful. It's such a mess of emotions she isn't sure how to ultimatelyf feel about it other than wishing there had been a better way. Ultimately she decides what's done and done and it's for them to make what they can of it. "Well, um, I'll leave it to people like Mr. V. to sell alien horror brain computers. I'll also forward your summary to Vasterlion Industries so they can do trials and make sure it's ready for distribution. We might even have to consider sales and having local warehouses and ... Well one thing at a time right?"
"More likely a private company will contract out to mine the materials, once the space-crabs have been figured out," Remiel notes. "We just find the resources, not exploit them."
"Well ruin my dreams of wealth, Remy." Tasha shakes her head and grins. She doesn't need the wealth, but it would be nice to feel established on this world. To have a home that doesn't fly or isn't outside of their ultimate control. With the potential of children on the horizon and with so much else to consider the desire stability keeps hounding her. On the other hand ... "But shame on me for thinking of profit. You're right, we're not supposed to be exploiting things. Is that it, Remy?"
"For now," the man replies. "I'll probably link up with PC Eli on Belle and see if can suggest tests I can run with what we have here."
"I'll leave you to it then. Say hi to Katie for me." Tasha would do it herself but she's come to realize Katie has an effect on her. In particular she's trying to avoid the urge to abandon her profesionalisim and foist responsibility on to the other woman and so has been politely avoiding her. "I'm going to see who else needs my attention and do some work of my own."
And with that Tasha turns her mind back to Harmonia, inquiring if anyone else has put in a request to speak to her.
There's a waiting request for an encrypted link from Bellerophon.
"Put it through." At the same time Tasha glances to the floating window displaying the tree of her Proegnitor notes in anticipation of needing them, expanding them until a peculiar fractal-like pattern extends from the window out in to space -- the visual depiction of the interconnected database of her notes and something she learned to make from her time connected to Mel's mind. The fractal flickers, drawing further links within itself. "Tasha here."
Yue's face appears, smiling while still looking inscrutable. "Hail, Goddess of the Air and the Shadowed Places," she says. "Discovered anything useful? Hakeber has translated more of the book - I've been letting her work on it in short chunks, and never alone."
Tasha's muzzle wrinkles, her hooves clacking together in a hint of anxiety. With broadband re-established Yue gets the full image of Tasha sitting on the dias, not helping the impression any. "Don't get me in troubles with the gods, Yue. Or worse, inflate my ego." Still, her curiosity is piqued. "But why Air and Shadow? Is this something from the book or have you lost it along with Hake-bear? I'm not sharing my sleeping pills." She leans forward. "We know more about the hover snails and have people analyzing the lot of remains and artifacts as we speak. I'm here to put to it all together and recieve their findings."
"Oh I just made that title up to mess with you and make sure you're not brain-fried," Yue claims. "Now, what I've got is a bit scattered, since I make Hakeber work on different pages instead of going linearly. That's to avoid any weird brain-worms setting her off again. But I found the Hall of Souls reference and the Seventh Heaven. I'm not sure that the preceding six planets of the Primus System make up Heavens one-through-six though. They may refer to other bases. Not too sure if the Hall of Souls is in the Seventh Heaven, a passage to somewhere or the actual base."
"Well you messed with me and I'm not brain-fried. Probably." The last said with a hint of doubt. "Anyway. We've heard a bit about the Seventh Heaven: Scouts on Arcadia have mentioned a 'walking fortress,' but there's no other detail than that and it seems to relocate often enough that there's not a lot to go on. It may not have been approached yet, but it's our best bet. We also have an old scan of the planet performed by the Cult of Ahriman back when they were still with the Expedition Fleet. Aside from blaming the Khattans for something that wasn't their fault -- probably? -- they recorded the scan in detail along with a time. We can't translate it, maybe you can make some sense of it. I'm sending it over. Oh," a brief pause, " ... do you know anything about a Daltoona Station?"
"It's really big and gaudy and overcompensating," Yue says. "And most certainly a front for high-end criminal activity and smuggling, but nobody is too keen on cracking down because it's one of the few places that produces stators for non-Khattan use. And.. huh, that's an odd picture."
"'Stators for non-Khattan use.'" The information is squirelled away in Tasha's mind, there for when it's time has come -- for when they turn their attention from Katha-hem and even the Progenitors back to Galactic space and House Khomen. "Well, that's something." She also wonders if mentioning it near Harmonia was a mistake, but if House Khomen or -- and? -- the Ogdru-hem have been listening it's long past the point where she might have hidden her motives. Now she can only shade them, avoiding detail rather than concealing them entirely. "So, have any ideas about the image? I thought it might be the multi-spec of the Hall. It's strangely uniform though, for eee-em and other radiations. Like a magnetic field."
"Very symmetrical," Yue agrees. "The definition is poor though. Either extreme range or sub-standard equipment. The cultists took the image, right? Do you know if they had their own scanning gear or used the ship's? If they were keeping a low profile they might have had their own telescope."
"Not a clue. They were secret, uh, clandestine to begin with and nearly the entire lot of them died in the mutiny during the fleet wide disaster that happened around planetfall. None of them survived beyond a span of what we think was a hundred years or so. I only found this record because they hid it and made an effort to help us find it." Tasha glances up and the image of the scan appears. Harmonia, can you do anything with this data? Clean it up, figure out what angle it was taken from? Or even know if it was taken by satelite and which one it migth have been? "I'm seeing if Harmonia can do anything with it now."
"There isn't enough reference data for extrapolation," Harmonia reports. "The numbers do not correspond to a coordinate system that I am familiar with. However it is possible that the Expedition Fleet had already established a system for use within the Primus region, or that it is encrypted."
"Nothing useful," Tasha reports after a moment of appearing to do nothing, though she's sure Yue is well acquinted with mind-interface systems. "Encrypted, a code, a system-- Your guess is as good as mine."
"I'd hope mine was a little better," Yue notes. "I'll check it against known cyphers of the time. If it was a cult objective, it may have just been enough for them to confirm that it existed."
"That'd be big for them if they knew its significance. It does strongly sugegst they know about the Hall of Souls in some way -- maybe this scan matches with another they have or maybe they already knew the Hall was in the planet somewhere. That they know any of this at all seems to tell us that the Celestials have a group that is well informed and possibily seperate from the Khattan ones." Tasha then sticks her tongue out and says, "Don't knock my guesses!"
"Well, could also just be that they hoped to find it, and needed to confirm it before they could proceed. If the Hall wasn't here, then no reason to continue their mission within the Fleet. Then again, it could have been what triggered their mission implosion as well," Yue suggests.
Tasha nods to this, feeling that must be the case. "I know there was an element with them that had an eye on their activities and sabotauged them when they got too close." Lord Yama, destroyer of the Expedition Fleet and her judge. A judgement she passed, though whether that remains the case she no longer knows, though she has every intention of inspecting her motivations and determining if she has truly lost the way in. It's part of why she's heer after all. "So what'd you learn from, what ddi you call it? The universe's longest suicide note?"
"The Progenitors are also the Archons, if that's the proper translation," Yue notes. "They didn't call themselves Progenitors after all. Vril-ya seems the formal term, but Archon may be a role or title. Some of what's been found suggests they split themselves.. hmm. They aren't alive, it seems. They've got a 'shell', like a cellular membrane, but they're energy beings. They can literally split themselves in half to create two smaller beings that are different from the original and from each other. This seems to be how they were created from Atum."
"Haven't found it yet, but reading 'between the lines' suggests they can go in the opposite direction too - joining back up to create a larger entity. Not sure of the identity it would have though," Yue adds.
"Now that is interesting." And it is, it so is. Tasha can feel the thrill of discovery race up her spine, finally, something that seems solid! Something that encompasses their nature! "'All and many he hath full sure, but all of one nature.' All and many. All the Progenitors -- the Archons -- are Atum, even though they're different. That means that all the Progenitors are Atum and Atum ultimately did the uplifting. So much of the stanzas make sense now. 'Know er well you begin, what he is and all his kin.' He is all his kin. And his kin's shells are said to be made of stone like material. Remember what we were talking about, the Markers? Well, they're stone and they react to each other. Do you think they could be 'energy being containers'? That knitting them reforms an energy being?"
"After this, I figured they were more like skin flakes," Yue admits. "But.. since the Archons all had different forms, it's certainly possible that that's the origin of the Markers. If they were budded off of their respective Archons... they might retain something. No idea what this Vril energy is though. We can't detect anything from the Markers, but you said the Vartan one allowed your Gryphon to act without a pilot."
"It seemed that way. The Magi are based off old designs, so they might be something like the original designs of Proegnitor bodies. The Titanians say they looked like empty armored giants and the one who had the Magi ordered told me they're in "the image of the gods,"" Tasha replies. A window pops in to existence, then another, showing the poem lines. The view of the sky vanishes and is replaced by a copy of the ground, as if the bridge were resting on it. One by one indistinct giants form, all shadow, no definiton. "This also explains why they're numbered. There may be an order to returning the pieces, like assembly instructions."
"Ordered? You mean the number of sides?" Yue asks. "That could be the case! We're assuming they're all unique in the number of sides they have."
"It also explains why they didn't want to return. Atum may have been recalling them to recombine and lose their identities, abandoning their children forever. It may not have been an attempt to meet and work out a strategy, or even retreat from this universe, but to do something more." Tasha glances offscreen as several figures form in to clear identities: The statue form of Ahriman and Eve, the Titan form of Horus. "Why else order them? Maybe it's a kind of emergency plan if they fail. If they fail, take these back and assemble them for help. Or maybe it has some other purpose, we don't know what their intention was and they might be hostile to Atum."
"They left them on worlds near the homeworld of each species - as far as we know," Yue says. "Haven't found anything about why they did that though - no mention of the Markers at all yet. I'm wondering if maybe they're messages for Atum, or.. Last Will and Testament, memory-stores, who knows. If they didn't want to return, maybe returning the Markers was the other option."
One by one the other Progenitors get labels even if they're nothing but fourty foot shadowy outlines without detail. Tasha isn't sure she has assembled them all, but they're all the ones she knows of. Each is assigned a personality and a voice, very rough AI aproximations. Ahriman is aloof, cold, proud. Eve is caring but high strung. Horus is young and peaceful, but with the mind of a prince. Those she doesn't know well are flat and without characteristic. Much is guesswork, but even having these aproximations helps bring them down to the level of person, makes them more real and less all-powerful by virtue of their fill-in-the-blanks vagueness. "That could be. Three are needed, anyway, and it seems like we'll find out sooner or later. Anything else?"
"This tickles my memory," Yue says. "One of the old myths of Terra was the legend of Atlantis. A powerful nation blessed by the god of the sea, Poseidon. The rulers were descended from the god, but with each generation their 'divinity' was diminished, until they became corrupt and Poseidon destroyed the continent in single day and night of disaster, sinking it beneath the sea."
Tasha frowns deeply at the story, leaning back and sinking in to her chair. "I've heard too many of those stories lately, but they could all be true for all we know. If Atum's children have been dilutd they could be us, that would explain why we can see the Markers and other beings cannot. We have, uhm--" The young woman's brow crunches and she bites her lip as a word in answer comes to her. "Souls," she ventures. "We can see them because we are them."
"Your Titan can see them," Yue notes. "So far it seems that the Ogdru-hem maybe can't see them, or at least can't sense them without seeing them, according to the way the battle with the possessed Balthasar went. We don't know for certain that the Sifras can't detect them, since we can't ask them."
"You're right. But we do know they can probably be diluted into regular beings if these begins weren't just, um, mini-Archons. Eve's first children had the 'divine spark' and then self-destructed." Tasha turns her gaze on to Eve. Of all the Progenitor's she's the one they know of the most and also the most falliable, as far as the hybrid can tell. She might even go so far as to say she doesn't like Eve, a being who faced disaster and eventually gave up, leaving her children to make it on their own after complaining and disappearing. To Tasha it's like she--
It's like she ran away. The realization sends a chill down her spine. Does she dislike Eve because Eve seemed like a failure, or because she seemed so familiar? Both? The though they have a little too much in common makes the young woman shift in her seat, distinctly ill at ease. The logn winded rant, the running, the apparent relationship with the high being -- like she and Gabriel, she and Katie -- is unsettling. Unsettling more because she dismissed her.
In a heartbeat Tasha finds her faith in their power sundered; her need for it. How can she long for the deliverance of gods so like her? So surrounded by problems and failures? In a moment their flaws explode infront of her and it seems like they might need her.
That as Apollyon told her, they're all too like people. Like Yue, like Katie, like Mr. V., like her.
"You okay over there, Tasha?" Yue asks. She probably doesn't need any empathic intuition to notice the look on Tasha's face.
"No," Tasha replies, sinking further in to her chair. She got what she had hoped for, but the taste is bitter. Her saviors have turned in to beings as deep in their problems as her own people. As herself. Eve could be the Archon version of her, yet Eve gave up -- destroyed herself. It disgusts Tasha, made worse because they seem alike in all the wrong ways. Worse still it means that a long shot rescue has now turned in to another problem, making her feel alone against the night. Not individually but as a whole along with her friends, family, and world. "But I think someone would be glad for it."
"Who would be glad for what?" Yue asks. She then wags a finger at the camera, and says, "No more letting teenage angst eat your brain, young lady. This isn't the time for that."
Tasha glares daggers, but decides Yue is right. She pulls herself up and then hunches forward, resting her head on her hands as she rubs her face. "Okay, Yue, here it is: I was thinking about the Progenitors, about Eve, I have tehm all modeled infront of me at fourty feet tall, with all we know about them -- or at least everything in my notes. And I was staring at Eve, and I thought, maybe I don't like her. She complains a lot, she ran away in the end. Then it got me. She sounds like me." The hands fall and she seesm to stare Yue in the eyes. "And it hit me. What Apollyon said, they, "Just like us." Problems and more problems, all these mistakes, they fell apart. How can we rely on them for anything? How can I? They might need us. They fell apart knowing something we know, and we're still here. Mostly. Apollyon even said Atum might be in pain, so even he's got problems."
"Well.. did you actually hope to get help from them?" Yue asks. "I thought you were just looking for knowledge. According to Eve, the Archons couldn't do anything.. but, it also sounds like they couldn't do anything because they stopped cooperating. If rejoining makes for a more powerful being, then maybe they could have done something if they'd given up who they were. It sounds like they were contaminated from dealing with mortals."
"I can see how we'd do that. Sometimes I want to punch you, but then I remember you'd probably kick my butt across the ship." Tasha makes a face at where she knows the camera to be, the point itself being a feeling projected in to her mind to make communication easier. "Nora would probably start a revolution all by herself." She knows, however, that she is dithering to avoid answering the question.
Pushing herself to answer, Tasha explains, "As far as wanting something goes. Well. Um. I-- I'm scared." The young woman exhales, sitting up fully as she watches Yue's reaction. "I don't know when it got me so badly, but it did. I think it's everything, and realizing the truth was too much. The way I went after it didn't help. I started to feel like we couldn't do anything to these beings, that we could be wiped away and nothing would save us. We needed something as big as they are, more power, I don't know -- something. I think I was losing faith in myself. People belive ein me, I know that now, and it was hard to think I could do it. It was easier when I thought it all came to who or what I had, but they weren't following what I had, they were following me. And gods, Yue, I just fell apart."
"No military training," Yue says with a nod. "I didn't have any either. You just have to adjust your scale a bit. So, there might be an apocalyptic disaster.. but guess what? Those happen all the time, and have nothing to do with demon-gods from beyond time and space. The universe is uncaring to us fragile living things. Suns explode, beams of radiation from across the universe burn away atmospheres, the ground opens up and swallows cities and civilizations. And that's all stuff we understand. So worrying about Katha-hem targeting you personally is pretty low on the scale of things. You just have to learn that you can't be scared of all the stuff that can go wrong all the time. Harmonia could have a containment breach and explode as soon as I stop talking - she's how many thousands of years old? I could have an aneurysm in my brain and wink out like a candle in a hurricane. There's a saying about not sweating the small stuff. Well, you also shouldn't sweat the huge stuff. Stick to the medium stuff
."
It all sounds like it should terrify her. More problems, more sudden death, a cavalcade of ways she or people she loves could be annhilated. Dooms worse than death, the ends of worlds. It should. It should.
But to Tasha's great surprise, it doesn't. She isn't sure if she willed it or if her subconcious longing brought it up, but her view of all but Yue switches from the landscape of gods staring at her to the endless depths of gears. Harmonia's gears. The doomsday clock. But it isn't just the walls, it's everywhere, all around the dias. She realizes after the swap that this is what Yue's words remind her of. The clockwork of eternity. Everything in its place, even disasters. Somehow the metaphorical clockwork, the crashing together of the titanic and the minute -- big and little gears -- puts her at ease and she knows the truth in Yue's words.
"Hokay," she agrees at last. "I get it. I'm sorry. Medium stuff. I'm the Captain of the Doomsday Clock. I--" She pulls in a deep, deep breath, then exhales and settles back. "I can deal with it, Yue. Medium stuff."
"Right! Now, what do we really know about Katha-hem from direct experience?" she asks rhetorically. "First, he can influence artificial minds, or people connected to them. Second, he can detect generated EM transmissions and probably stator resonance. That's... about it. The big question though is why does it bother? If it's a living god under an unbreakable force field, it shouldn't care at all about mortals crawling around on the same planet. Why send monsters? Why try to create alliances? In short, it would only do these things if it was afraid of something. Afraid of the crawling mortals that are just ants to it. What weakness is it trying to protect?"
The image of the gears vanishes, replaced once again by Tasha's work area. Feeling a bit lighter in general, she amuses herself by putting the model of Katha-hem's eyeball-starfish model in the hands of Ahriman, who then engages in a game of tossing it back and forth with Horus, Thoth and Neith. The exchange isn't purely fanciful, recalling their connections. "Well, we think it's a scout. It's collecting information for something else. Maybe Ogdoad or maybe it's relaying it to an even more powerful Ogdru-hem. We also know it's greatly concerned with the Sifra who can possibly detect and capture or destroy it; it's in a precarious postion between Sifran crystalline structures. There may be even more to that region than we know, though. Mel and I merged our minds and came up with the idea the Sifra use two forms to recruit: The disperse Sifran crystals across the universe to see who is good at them and they open these worlds to judge more directly. But it's not trying to kill us, it's watching. So mayb
e information is all it cares about, waiting to see if the Sifra die. And we think it can't do much without giving itself away."
"So it's basically Harmonia," Yue says, "just with a different audience and different thing to spy on."
Tasha blinks at that -- then instinctively ducks when the ten foot virtual model of Katha-hem sails over her head. She eyes it, then returns to face the camera. To Yue she appears to evade nothing at all. "Uh, yeah," she begins, straightening, " ... now that you mention it, it does sound like a big organic version of Harmonia. They even have similiar general shapes and a strong grasp on gravitation. Except now Harmonia works for us, unless she's still transmitting to someone else as well -- which we've never been able to determine. It's a bit late now anyway. But if we're right, then if we start mesing with its ability to spy, I think then it will react."
"As for that.. it all comes back to magic doesn't it?" Yue asks. "There's the 'Boomer' event, during which even Harmonia apparently didn't change her habits.. but that's presumably when Katha-hem started whispering in her ear. Then someone does something that causes magic to start up again on Abaddon.. and who knows what else with it. If Katha-hem were trying to hide from the Sifras, Abaddon is a great choice - so long as it stays a dead world. So.. you're Katha-hem. Your duck-blind is being shaken, or whatever, and pretty soon the ducks my notice you.. and you probably don't know what I'm talking about. In any case, what would you do if you were in Katha-hem's position and your safe little hidey-hole was about to become less hidden?"
"I'd depend how vital my mission was. Since we're fairly sure Katha-hem's mission is of high importance -- and if it's the only scout still active here I'd say its critical -- then it has to keep scouting no matter what happens, unless being caight would be worse than having no information. So I'd consider relocating somewhere; maybe one of the moons or another planet, or maybe in to space. Orbit, or an L-point," Tasha ansers. She glances off and a list of planetary bodies and Legrangian Points pop up, system map. Several planets vanish as unliley choices, others are marked unknown.
"Ah, but what if using your.. gravity drive.. would expose you?" Yue asks. "Katha-hem is in an impact crater. So it didn't come down for a soft landing."
Hrrm, goes Tasha who chews on her lip. At length she answers, "It could try moving by land, but that would be so limited that it's probably not even worth it. So, hmm, I think it must be cornered. It's inevitable now. I would consider sacrificing what I had -- either all of myself in a last desperate attenpt to get as much as I could done before self-destructing or else use my resources to build a small scout for launch and eject it at a target. Then I'd destroy what I left behind if I could."
"We can't know what Katha-hem is capable of, but its interaction with you and Harmonia suggest there might be another option," Yue suggests. "What if he could overwrite someone with himself? Escape into another body somehow? It's a long shot, but frankly I can't come up with anything else that fits the actions. And that still doesn't cover the monsters."
"I didn't think of that. I still find it horrible he can do that -- that anyone could do that. I'm not sure why it didn't /occur/ to me though, but maybe I just didn't want to think about it." Tasha has had several experience with the capacity to overwrite a mind -- mainly directed at herself and all unpleasant in one way or another. A few were horrible and nearly cost her identity. "I don't think he'd use a monster, they all seem to need it for power and control. If Katha-hem wanted to still control them afterward it'd need a powerful body. /And' its quantum entanglement control would be lost, unless its new body could make new ones from a distance. There are /very/ few entities or systems I know of here that could do that, and most can't do it all or even most of what Katha-hem can do now. Picking an individual like me would only work as a /stop-gap/. The worst part is it could be doing it now and we'd never know, because we can't track its quantum effects. They're not linear."
"That's the other issue.. we have no idea how this thing reasons or plans.. if it can be said to do either at all," Yue admits with a sigh. "Xenopsychology always assumes you're dealing with at least a few common reference points and evolutionary traits. Which is why we do oh so well dealing with the machine-life cultures."
Tasha grimaces at the mention of machine life, she had almost let the event slide from active memory. Now her turn at genocide flashes back, bright as ever. "I really needed to remember that. I'm okay though. I'm okay." Another deep breath, another exhale. "Well, I think that's all we know about it. What we discussed does make me think my idea if dealing with it as fast as possible is the right one, but as possible is the important part. We can't attack until we can actually be effective. I have some ideas about that, including using the topogoric to turn its powers against it and using myself as bait. If Harmonia agrees, she and I would make the best bait we have. All the power and gravitational abilities, two beings who have escaped it, and one that knows how to counter its influence. It probably knows at least I know what it is and what it's doing, too. If we came at it, I think it'd have to react. Then the real attack force can sneak in. Together we could catch it between us all."
"Can't ascribe too much knowledge to that thing," Yue warns. "It may not even know Bellerophon survived to land. Overestimating the enemy can be as detrimental to planning as underestimating it, especially when trying to predict its responses."
"For all we know, the real reason it's done any of this is because it's bored," the woman offers.
"Well, what do we do then? We know little and probably won't until we attack. It's not like we can just ask it, or sneak in to its mind," the Cadet notes. "I've heard a lot of 'we can't just's but not a lot of 'we can's."
"Well, what can we do then?" Yue asks. "And for that matter, why can't we sneak into its mind? Remiel's girlfriend can enter your dreams."
"Oh." Tasha wrinkles her muzzle. "We couldn't could we? There are mind mages too, mages that, well, deal with minds. I'm not sure why dreams are different than minds, but I never understood mages. If we could sneka in and have a look, maybe we could figure out what its plans are and how much it knows. Then we could make a real plan. Or win from inside!"
"Light Mages are the ones that see the future or.. clairvoyance, I think," Yue notes. "Getting a look at what's there would be handy too. At this point, I assume Katha-hem is vulnerable to magic if it's vulnerable to the Sifras."
Tasha rubs her chin, the gesture reminding her of Gabriel. "We have research ongoing, they might give us a clue as well. The topogoric could make useful weapons, like javelins that convert energies -- that's if we ever have to get up close. If we could defeat the gravity shield we might be able to just bombard it from Harmonia and Bellerophon at long range. That'd be the safest plan." She lets the hand slide, resting her hrad on it as she puts her elbow on the arm rest. "Magics expensive but maybe we don't have a choice. I hope Abaddon's governments can stomach the bill, it's going it be monsterous."
"You could always pay in toporgic, assuming the mages can actually use it," Yue offers.
"But they're not charging for their services on Abaddon, from what I gathered," the spy says. "It's all about fostering good will so the locals will accept Sinai's mages instead of trying to train up their own."
"We have someone looking at their uses. Right now they'd be very useful in replacing vacuum tubes, it seems. Maybe that will be enough to cover everything -- or at least to forgive everything." Tasha scratches her nose, head tilitng. "But who knows if free magic will dissuade them. I think I know Abaddonians well enough to know they're independent and probably won't buy it, but I'm a JEF Cadet not a Caroban envoy or Council diplomat." She blinks, then sits up a little, head raising. "Oh, tell Hake-bear hi for me? And that I'm sorry for scaring her."
"She's sleeping now. Still has some to catch up on," Yue says. "And I'm making her eat steaks. Never thought I'd have to cajole a Karnor into eating steaks! Even if they are purple."
"Poor Hake, this has really hit her hard. At least I got to slowly work my way to this point, she got it all at once." The cadet sits back and stops the tossing of Katha-hem, deciding the joke has worn thin and the topic has moved on. The Progenitors line up again and she stares at them as she thinks on her friend. "Have you spoken to Liza? How are the others holding up? You're trained to evaluate Karnors, aren't you?"
"The ghost-copy of Remiel has been making the rounds, but he's a bit shaken up from the whole PersoCom thing too," Yue says. "Gabriel's decided to wait until people are more recovered before rebooting the PCs. He's got Fred running deep diagnostics on the system to make sure there's no damage or traps waiting. Liza is.. a comforting presence. I admit it's nice to have a calm fluffy person around that you can hug. She's with Hakeber now, being a body pillow. I never would have imagined uplifting bunnies. Or mice or rats or.. the really threw caution to the wind on the Ark."
Tasha smiles at the thought of Liza being Hakeber's body pillow. A warm, gentle feeling she's had too little of in these last few months. The more practical side of her also finds itself pleased in having chosen the Lapi. She may be a mess now and then but she can't fault the choice of friends, allies and loved ones she's gathered -- it might be her single best quality. "I always wondered about that, how did they even do that? "You can't exactly uplift in a garage," Gabriel told me. Did they just get desperate and Uplift the whole Trade Library? And oh, what about that man, the one they call Doctor Moraeu?"
"I'm sure there were failures along the way, and plenty of shortcuts taken with hybridization," Yue says. "As for the 'renegade geneticist' he's only working gorillas. Legal uplift takes generations. But then, the Ark had access to a mix of technologies, including Celestial and Confederate systems."
"The Celestials were able to re-engineer their entire population, after all, and the Confederates treat DNA like a bartender mixing drinks," the woman says with a smirk.
"Interesting." Tasha seems to glance off, then returns to note, "Is there anything else to report? I need to check and see if anyone else needs me, check the reports, and then to go over the topogoric designs with Remiel, Harmonia and Fred if he can be spared. And I should eat before Liza materializes on board and sneaks up on me." A mental order is placed; delivery drones dispatched. The young woman think she'd eat more and better if she could just mentally order it as needed. She certainly gained a secret love of Khattan technology.
"Don't forget to find out if you can actually shape that stuff too," Yue says, then salutes and disconnects.
"Well that's easy, we already know we can," Tasha tells Harmonia out loud. The question then becomes in to what and for what. The hybrid leans back, her right hand reaching out to pick a snack bar off the tray of a server drone as it rolls up. With her direct connection to Harmonia, she doesn't even need to look to know where it is.
"Maybe I should make the Horse more Khattan," she muses as her view explods in to topgoric images, sets of ideas an proposed prototypes. "Leading from the rear has it advantages." The bar is opened and gnawed upon, the young woman starting to relax despite it all. But I'd probably just end up getting fat.