When the power comes back on, Hakeber seems relieved. In the light Tasha can see just how disheveled the scholar is, looking older than she should. "I am never turning the lights out again," Hakeber whispers, still clutching Tasha. "I.. should probably clean up and eat something too.. right?"
Still looking over Hakeber's notes and trying to make sense of them, Tasha shakes her head slowly. "No Hake-bear," she murmurs, sounding distracted yet still concerned. She glances over and frowns. "You need to get some sleep. You can shower and eat when you wake up." The young hybrid woman looks off again, her eyes settling on the door console. "I'll tell Gabriel I'm back, but I'll stay here."
"Sleep.." Hakeber mutters. "They can get to you then. Into your dreams. Even from their prison.."
Hakeber's handwriting gets progressively worse through the notes. At points it devolves into strange symbols.
Tasha begins to get up, but freeze, face contorting in a rictus express of surprise and worry as a chill runs down her spine. She drops back on to the bed and turns to face Hakeber fully, peering in to her eyes. "What did you say, Hake?" She asks with some intensity.
"The Outer Beings," Hakeber says, in an oddly calm tone. "The Ogdoad, and.. and their hidden children.. They're sleeping too."
Tasha's expression only darkens further. She takes a quick re-read of Hakeber's notes, noting the strangeness, then scoots even closer to the other girl and puts a hand on her shoulder as she resumes searching her eyes. "You know about the Ogdoad then. And their children? The Lloligar? The Harrowers? The Sifra, Old Ones? What do you mean, Hake? Tell me."
"They're hidden," Hakeber says, still a bit monotone. "The Ogdoad are imprisoned on Erebus. Et hanna ogdru hem. Their children, born of this reality, but not fully of it.. sleep. Sleep in the stars, in the ground, in the wind and in the water. Until the time is ripe for them to rise, and free the Ogdoad.. They dream, and whisper.."
Tasha certainly hadn't heard that. "I know about the Ogdoad, I think I've seen Erebus. The Source told me about it, showed me when I slept in ... " Slept! " ... slept in its prison. In its dreams?" The hybrid leans back, turning again to Hakeber's notes and wondering where it all came from. She had discovered the secrets directly, from the participents themselves, or else from what they left behind -- not through books and symbols. What was in the book, to Hake all of this? She squints at the symbols, as much jibberish as they'd ever been, but then she remembers they even slid of scanners. Could not be read by machines, only the eye. There had been mention of special inks, but now she's nto so sure. She'd seen the runes of mages, after all. As she studies the text further she asks, "Et hanna og-dah-ru hem, Hake?"
"Katha-hem," Hakeber says, her voice calm but her eyes frightened. "He knows us. He's here." Her eyes shift to focus on Tasha, as she says, "You've met him. He wasn't what you thought. Wasn't what he claimed. But he's here."
Tasha stops again, the chill once again in her spine, her hackles raising. For the first time in her life, she finds herself afraid of Hakeber. More afraid, still, to turn and meet her eyes. "How is he here, Hake? How did he lie?" She asks without looking up from the page, no longer reading.
"He spoke to me," Hakeber says. "The book.. the words read you back, Tasha. He's in the ground, in Abaddon. They need.. they need the Sifra to be weak, so they can release the Ogdoad. That's.. that's what broke Eve. The Vril-ya.. the Wayfarers.. they couldn't.. find a way around it all. The Ogdru-hem.. they can't fight the Sifra. So they wait. They want us all dead. If we're all dead.. the Sifra will weaken more."
The scholar then smiles weakly, and says, "That's the way out. If we're all dead.. the Ogdoad can't eat us."
The paper in Tasha's hand is crushed in her fist, Tasha expression much the same as it had been, but where there was fear there is anger. A tenseness, the gritting of teeth and the hard fixation of the eyes on the crumpled page. She wonders how much of what she'd been told is a lie, how much fo a pawn she's beed. To be a pawn doesn't upset her; to be a pawn lied to and used to kill ... to kill ... so much ...
For a moment it's all too much. The young woman lays her ears back, feeling her hand begin to shake as she tries to crush the page out of existence, pushing back tears because she knows they won't do any good. She fights to find a way out, pushes herself onward.
Tasha sucks in a breath through her nose, wiping her eyes with the back of her free hand and then she hurls the wad to the floor, falling back on the bed and staring hatefully at the ceiling and what hides somewhere beyond the sky. "Hake," she says, too harshly. A bark. An order. "The Ogdoad. I heard they eat souls. Is that why the Sifra need living servants, and sacrifice the rest? And who is he that's watching? Katha-kem! Who is he?" A thought comes to her like a thunderbolt. "Is he the one that's sending the daikaiju?"
"The Ogdoad starve," Hakeber whispers. "The Sifra couldn't kill them, only contain them. They don't serve them. They just.. don't want resources wasted on intelligence that doesn't serve their needs."
"Katha-hem is in Abaddon, and he wants us all dead," the Karnor continues. "A monster-god. Maybe he can do more than just whisper then. Maybe he does send monsters."
"How very Khattan of them," Tasha spits in a petty growl of impotent defiance. She slams her fist in to the bed, then sucks in a deep, deep breath as she tries to piece it all together. Put the puzzle pieces in place. She arranges the list until Hakeber's next words break her out of it. "In Abaddon? Like the Source? Of course, in a prison but maybe not a prisoner. Whispering. But if he's here, the gate is here too. And the Titanians can slay gods. So can I!" She sits bolt upright and turns to stare at the console, seriously considering sending a message, but she decides to wait. She needs more information. "Katha-hem, in Abaddon, was he Abaddon? The beging that attacked us. The thing that claimed to have been the Sifra's servant?"
"I think so," Hakeber says. "The Sifra need us. Invited us."
Tasha's growl fills the room. Abaddon. Flashes of broken memory return to her unbidden, the whispers in her dreams, the offers, the sound of god-like machines fighting and the endless call of hate and control of the being that devoured Balthasar -- that almost devoured her! And here she is, tocuhed by another being like it, perhaps vulnerable, or maybe it will strike through her implants. It has been there all the time since!
And deep down Tasha knows, feels in the gut, somewhere it is hating her. Hating her just as she hates it. She can't leave until it is dead; her world will never be safe and no one and nother she loves here will ever be safe. She will never be safe!
"I am going to find it," Tasha declares, reaching up towards the sky. "It won't get to me again! Not this time, I am ready. I have allies now, and I have the Markers, and we won! Whisper all you want!"
"Tasha.. you're scaring me," Hakeber says, curling away from the other woman's angry aura.
"Being scared is the soup of the day, Hake!" Tasha says with a hint of a manic laugh. "We're all just puppets, and everything's just lies on top of lies on top of lies. You go to these things, you try to be honest and open, you try to like them, and hope they like you -- and they're just moving pieces. Chess pieces!" She had never played chess; Noras plays chess, but she's too angry to sort out the memories. "But I can kill him. Or maybe if I can, he can be my Enyo. I'll give him to Adam as a gift! Maybe a bribe? Maybe that will be enough to matter."
"How do you find.." Hakeber starts to say, then just stops.
WHERE ARE YOU, Tasha calls out in response to Hakeber's question, reaching in to herself and her mind, to that place where she was touched. The place that hears her ship. Abaddon reached in to her mind before; she thought it was Sifran. But she knows better now, it is like them. And such beings leave marks, leaves resonances. WHERE ARE YOU WHERE ARE YOU WHERE ARE YOU!
"The power is on," Hakeber mutters. "But who turned it on?"
The mental feedback is giving Tasha a headache, but nothing is replying to her yet.
The cadet's face contorts from the unpleasant sensation. Fine, hide! No, it's GOOD! Hide from me. Be afraid. I k have seen the prisons. I know your limits. I know you tried so hard, and you failed! It will be worse this time. I am coming for you. If you want to beg, if you want mercy, I will listen. Surrender at any time! The young woman laughs at a joke only she knows. But you won't. Just wait.//
Having said her piece and vented through it, Tasha's hand drops and she closes her eyes.
"Tasha? Tasha?" Hakeber says, and risks putting a hand on the hybrid's shoulder. "Who turned the power on? Was it us?"
Tasha's eyes snap open, gaze settling on Hakerber. The killing hate is still in her eyes, but fades quickly as she takes in the other woman's face. A lnegth she frowns, her expression softening. "Hake, why wouldn't it be u-" When the hybrid thinks about it, she realizes it could very well not be the crew. Between everything discussed and the invader, she can think of at least a handful of bad situations. "I'm going to check. Wait here Hake, seal the door. I'm going to kill power to your quarters to be safe once I'm outside."
Hakeber nods and curls up with her blanket, like a child afraid of the bogey-man.
As Tasha gathers her weapons -- leaving the rest behind for safe keeping -- she catches Hakeber's hiding and never thinks it strange. After, she knows it's as good a defense as any -- and it it keeps teh fear at bay it may be better than most.
Once ready Tasha reaches to hit the open button on the panel, but stops. Instead she manually opens the door via the lever she had used before, then steps out. Once outside she dons her helmet and walks to begin sealing the room again.
The corridor lights are on, but the hall is empty and silent. The cadet candidates haven't emerged from their own quarters - but likely were told to hole up until someone came for them. At the far end is the door to the shuttle/titan bay, where Dr. Sen is supposedly still in hiding.
Tasha decides the Terragens agent is her best ally at the moment, prepared for anything. But first she makes a side trip to her temporary quarters, where her things have been stored. Again she uses the manual open/close, not wanting to risk being crushed by an automatic door in the evnt the ship has been compromised. She doesn't have /much/ here, but she at least has something betetr than a metal sword and a steam-powered dart gun: Apollyon's sword.
The ancient weapon is where she left it, looking as if were made yesterday and not thousands of years ago (or even longer.. she doesn't know if it was made for Apollyon, or if he inherited it).
Tasha adjusts the sheath of her current weapon, then picks up the blade. If there's ever a use for you, this is it. I know Apollyon would approve of defending home! She slides the sheath of the weapon beside her other sword, then draws it. She'd never used it before, never could quite figure out what all the details and technology were meant for beside holding the PersoCom core which she removed and left with in the Melchior. Time to find out. With a nod she turns and begins towards the hangar
There's no question of using manual control or not for the hangar door: the power relay has been removed and set on the floor. It's hand-crank or nothing.
Putting her strength to the crank gives Tasha target for her aggression, at least. Putting her weapon away, she puts her back in to the process of opening the door cranking it around and around as the multipliers turn her considerable strength in to even greater torque, turning the massives doors she might never budge unaided. She aims for just enough of a gap to fit through, and nothing more.
"That's far enough," a voice calls from the other side. "My weapon isn't networked or using any sort of processor, so show yourself slowly."
"Go to hell, Monkey," Tasha barks back. It's meant to be a jab, a release of tension, but her simmering fury at learning so much more of the truth -- and learning Abaddon still lives! -- makes it nastier than she intended. She inches towards the gap anyway, and makes ready -- she knows the machine gods can lie just as well as anyone else.
"Hey, at least I can trace my evolutionary tree, hybrid," Yue retorts. "I want to see your face please, all the same."
Tasha lowers her weapon once she sees it's Yue, but stares at her a moment later, studying her to check for any distortions or other tricks. Seeing none, she sheathes her weapon and pulls off her helmet. "That's pretty big from a slave-owning, third rate Galactic, short monkey-spy," she says as the helmet comes off. It's crammed under her arm, the hybrid shifting her weight to one hip and giving a faint, tense lopsided grin. "Hi Yue. Report?"
"You've got feathers around your left eye, so I guess you're the real deal," Yue says, lowering her very small looking pistol. "Did you turn on the lights?"
"No. Hake thinks it's strange too, and we haven't recieved a shipwide status report -- nothing at all." Tasha drops her helmet back on her head, checking the to make sure the seals are good, then she draws Apollyon's blade. "Between the 'memetic expression of insanity' and everything else, I'm not taking any chances. Things have gotten worse; maybe they were always worse. We'll talk about it more later, but for now we're going to where the Elite are. Come on through and I'll seal the bay."
The human emerges, wearing her skin-suit and a helmet. "Nothing has exploded yet," she says. "This is a good sign. As for a status - all of the comm gear was physically disabled. I even took apart the shuttle's critical systems and comms."
"By the way, why would my feathers show it's me? Have you run in to another me?" Tasha asks as she heads for the manual control wheel. A sudden chill comes to her, another in what seems like an endless series -- she knows of two other 'hers' on the ship and having any of the compromised would be a tragedy.
"Your Persocom doesn't have the extra Vartan bits," Yue notes.
"No, she doesn't." The hatch closes with a rolling thump, echoing down the hall. Tasha glances back. "Has she been ... a problem?" She asks carefully.
"I'm not sure," Yue says, keeping close to the walls as they work forward. "But a physical being shouldn't be susceptible to infection."
"My PersoCom isn't a physical being," the hybrid notes with some worry, wondering jsut what on Abaddon happened while she was gone! She follows after Yue, then gets ahead of her but follows her example by sticking to the walls and checking corners.
Nothing more happens along the way to the lower-deck ramp. There aren't any other signs of systems activating other than the lights.
Having arrived, Tasha moves to get the door again. She thinks to tell Yue to watch the opening, but her confidence in her ability us such she knows Yue will do it without a word.
The door is still ajar, with the liquid light spilling out of it. There isn't any sound however.
"The lack of sound worries me, but they may be deep in concentration. Lets head in slowly." Tasha takes the lead, knowing Gabriel will recognize her armor -- it's the only set of Vartan armor repainted flat black after all. She inches towards the hatch from the side, then leans around to look within.
The crystal 'projector' has been reattached to the optic cables leading to MOTHER. The five projected crew members face it, sitting cross-legged in meditation poses: Nora, Fred, Eli, Gabriel and Remiel. The real Gabriel is laying on the medical bed, connected up with a life collar. The bed was moved in for the purpose of 'capturing' Fallen-Star within Calligenia, and never moved back.
Tasha grits her teeth upon seeing Gabriel collared and laying on the medical bed. She urges herself not to asume the worst, knowing the collars can also be used to interact with the virtual reality within the ship's systems. Still ... "This is new to me, it looks like they jury-rigged a way to go after the entity through the ship's systems, but ... " she points her sword at it, "... that's a Sifran artifact. It's how we project the ... Well you're in this far, so here's how it is: The artifact draws on the soul or memory or whatever it is that makes a person, recorded by the Sifran system. We used it to restore the dead. At least partially. I don't know what they're doing with it now."
"I was wondering about the duplicate Gabriel," Yue whispers. "The telltales on the bed show that he's quite alive.."
"Thank you for telling me that." Tasha looks around, then shakes her head as she carefully picks her way to Gabriel's side, sitting down next to him. Once down she lays her sword across her lap and looks up. "I don't know what we can do here. I can query the MOTHER system, that might give us answers. Do you have any ideas?"
"The lights are on and haven't flickered," Yue says. "So one side or the other has control of that. But they're part of life-support. We aren't dead. That's a good sign of who has control. That doesn't mean the battle is over.. although it could be and they're just working on cleanup and repair. Going in would be dangerous without knowing which, and honestly if someone just showed up suddenly, they'd be attacked by our side. It's a fair bet that all of the PersoComs are gone though."
"Gone ... " Yue can't see it, but protected by armor that won't save her from fear and heartbreak, Tasha's expression falls. She had liked her PersoCom; she was looking forward to seeing if she could ever become a person in her own right. And now she's gone. One more casualty. After a hard swallow, the young woman says in a voice that wavers, "I-I don't know much about the system, I'm mostly .... Mostly just good for field missions. All I can think to do is wait here in case things go badly. We could go to the bridge. I could talk to MOTHER? I'll, I'll talk to MOTHER. MOTHER said everything was under control." That MOTHER said such doesn't comfort Tasha any -- quite the opposite -- but she wants to believe.
"That's the Silent-Ones system, right?" Yue asks. "Those are supposed to have safeguards against the AI going over into dementia. The AIs we tried to make tended to work great for a while, then go silent once they figured out introspection."
"I can sympathize." Tasha hauls herself up again, but not before reaches over and giving Gabriel's serene face a kiss. She pats him and says, "You get it, Gabe, I'll be here when you return," as she rises. Once up she turns towards the MOTHER system and heads over.
"MOTHER," she signs to teh projector and scanner array, in greeting. "What is the status of the combat against the intruder? We have noticed that the lights are on."
"LIFE SUPPORT HAS BEEN REINSTATED TO MY CONTROL," the glowing computer replies. "ACTIVE INFECTIONS HAVE BEEN NEUTRALIZED. THE SEARCH FOR DORMANT INSTANCES AND HIDDEN DIRECTIVES CONTINUES."
"Thank you MOTHER," Tasha signs, nodding. She leaves the system and returns to Yue, explaining, "It seems that they've won -- or at least that's what MOTHER told me. I don't fully trust the MOTHER systems in cases like this, though. The last MOTHER I dealt with was compromised by thousands of years of exposure to Sinai's aura and these artifacts. It had also been sabotauged by the Silent-Ones. They wanted the Fenris to fail."
"What do you mean, wanted it to fail?" Yue asks. "Because they wanted the Karnor Elite to fail?"
"My memory is a bit hazy. It has been since my injuries, but I believe they wanted the Elite to fail. I think it had to do with Silent-Ones distaste for the new Clients and because the technician coveted the artifacts," Tasha explains as she returns to Gabriel's side. Once over she pulls off her helmet. then leans against the bed, leaning back to rest her head on his chest and hoping that maybe her persence will help somehow. It helps her, to have him nearby, even sleeping. "The MOTHER system turned on the Elite. After the crash they were buried in a lava flow, the system then killed Nora when she tried to retrieve Fred from outside. It couldn't kill the crew that had entered the tubes, though."
"It shouldn't be able to kill the crew," Yue says, looking shocked (and maybe a little jealous that Tasha has a warm body to rest against). "Not directly. That seems.. well, cruel. AI aren't supposed to be that advanced. And if they were going into stasis, how could they have posed a threat?"
"I don't really understand it, I just know it had been sabotauged and was obsessed with the artifacts. It killed Nora because it thought she was going to interfere with its connection to the three. It ... " Tasha considers telling Yue what it did to her suit, but decides against it both because it's too painful to rehash and the feeling it's Nora's story to tell. She exhales, then pats the ground beside her for Yue to join her. "Whatever it wanted or planned, we just knew it wanted the artifacts and some part of that was the Silent-Ones fault. When we moved to extract them it tried to kill us by opening all the hatches and firing teh Themis-Skoll's thrusters, flooding the decks wuth fire. We barely escaped." Tasha bites her lip, then adds, "These worlds have a terrible effect on AI, but it's not even across them. The Minds-of-Light are usually very resistant, and my Mel has been too."
"It's the linkage to the Sifran crystals that does it then?" Yue says, sitting on the edge of the bed, and looking pointedly at the crystal structure clearly linked to the Silent-Ones computer.
"Yes, that can be part of it. It's been recorded many times in experiments by the Silent-Ones and also with other kinds of machines and AI. We wouldn't be doing this except it's vital to our recovering Nora, Fred and Mariel. Nora Argentine, Fred Kholer, and Mariel Mathers. One that's done we can consider disconnecting it," Tasha explains, having sat up to turn and face Yue, but also reaching her taloned hand over to intertwine her finger's with Gabriel's. "I just hope it goes well. But this time I think I can stop an infection. Yue, I think it's time you know what I'm planning."
"You don't strike me as an AI programmer," Yue notes. "But I assume you made sure this Mind of Light wouldn't succumb like the previous one did. Probably why it's not affected by the berserker virus."
"I think this one is just younger and hasn't been exposed as long. The others may have made changes I'm not aware of or wouldn't understand. I only know how to interact with and order them because I have some of Nora's memories. When I found the Fenris, the system thought I was her and attempted to intubate me thinking I had finally returned. That's when it all started, when I went from thinging Sinai was the whole universe and was taught about the Galactics and the stars. Part of Nora was encoded in to my mind, so I could carry out the mission. And that's what I did, with the help of who we could extubate." Tasha pulls in a deep breath, sweeping her gaze across the room and ahkes her head before exhaling. "I'm not a programmer though. My contribution is field work, but I have my own task now. I may have to leave all of this again, and soon. Maybe for a long time. Yue, I plan to go and meet the Progenitors."
"Meet them for.. drinks?" the woman asks, "or for religious reasons? This is what you were after the book for, right?"
"Meet them to try and stop the cycle of death," Tasha answers. She looks down at her lap, at the sword that's now her's at what it means and the burden she's taken upon herself. Her's because she found it, her's because she made it so. Bigger than all of them, but still somehow her's -- but it can't be her's alone. "We have a good idea why the previous civilizations no longer exist. I have spoken to Harrowers, to Old Ones, Hake translated the book and I have also spoken to the Titanians and to survivors of the masacre that were ignored." Her voice is low; even repeating the sad tale weighs on her, makes her heavy, brings every part of her down. "In the beginning the Ogdoad sewed life in our universe, and the first of that life was the Sifra, their servants. But the Sifra rebelled, and imprisoned, they couldn't defeat their masters and their servants completely. Then they turned on other sentient life, destroying them all except their chosen servants, until their servants wore down and then repeated their cycle of death and slavery. They do not want to share the universe."
"At some point the Progenitors arrived, I think between the Old and First cycles,because they came back to find the First Ones being slaughtered. they tried to help, they made their children to fill the emptiness that had made, not knowing they gave the Sifra mroe servants. And if the Sifra die, then the Ogdoad's servants are free and they release their masters to devour us all. It broke the Progenitors. And now the universe is a stalemate where everyone is rotting away or paralyzed. And then there's me, because I found something and kept digging, and now I have the keys and the gate, and I will go to meet Adam Kadamon, and I don't know. I'm going to try? Try to fix it," the hybrid finishes, sounding increasingly uncertain by the end. When put to words, it feels like trying to move a mountain with nothing but her hands.
"That's.. a tall order," Yue says quietly, and puts her hand on Tasha's. "I've never seen anything big fixed before. I just focus on small things. I suppose the book tells you where to find this Adam?"
"Yes. We had spies within the Kampfengruppe that provided the information. The gate is here, in this system." Tasha looks up, at the hand, then smilies a little at the reminder she's not alone. But will Yue help her? She can't force anyone to do so, in the end. "Yue, I have three Markers. Genuine Markers. I've seen one active."
"I thought the Markers were a hoax," Yue says. "And active? What do they do? You must have figured out what they're for then?"
"I just know of their use as a key, but I suspect they're far more than that. Maybe sensors, maybe proxies. I watched one counter a ... " For a moment a flicker of hate crosses Tasha's face, but she quickly supresses it." ... A Harrower's powers. They're not simple stonework. We don't even know what they're made of." She shakes her head, and then adds, "The Marker was active when a Harrower hidden in this world attacked me and the Seraph Titan, when I was doing a test pilot run. It wanted to use us to wipe out life on all of these worlds, then attack the Progenitor's base -- the Hall of Souls. It activated my Titan Melchior without a pilot. He saved us. He saved us all. Or they did."
"The Progenitors have a base here?" Yue asks, wide eyed. "A real, tangible place?"
"I've heard it's some sort of walking fortress, but it keeps moving. We'll be heading there soon. I have a feeling that we're running out of time, and at least one Harrower now knows they're active, because the Harrower wasn't killed when I tore the Seraph apart. I will fix taht mistake." The hybrid meets Yue's gaze with a hard stare. "God or outsider or whatever it is, I am going to find a way to kill it. The Titanians will have ideas." She then leans back, gaze softening a little. "But yes, the base is real. Yue, you've probably guessed now what I want. So, will you join me? We may be at odds with Terra, or everyone, gods, old powers, everyone -- who knows. It may take a long time. Or end quickly. But I'd like you to join me."
"You'll have to renounce your position as an agent, at least personally. We might need your status later. But for all of us, we'll be chasing after our task. I was going to wait until I returned, but things seem likely now and the situation pushed my talk with you forward." The hybrid leans in, ears perked, watching Yue's face. "If you need tot hink about it, I can wait?"
"Tasha, I'm an archaeologist," Yue notes. "I don't think you need one of those, or a spy, for what you're trying to do. I need a task that I can deal with. Steal things. Find out things. Dig up things. I don't fight monsters or gods. What role do think I could have?"
"You know Galactic space better than any of us. Let me handle the gods, or fight, or whatever they want me to do. I'm okay with being their puppet if it all turns out well. You all don't have to be, you'll work for me." Tasha looks down, nodding towards the sword in her lap. "But I'm only good at a few things. I talk, I fight, I stick my bea- ... My nose in things that are bigger than me. Gods move me around like a chess piece. I don't mind, as long as they're not lying, as long as they're honest about their reasons and I agree with them. But I can only do so much. It's like what happened with the city, I didn't know half of what you were doing. You can teach me a lot, do the things you're good at and I'm not."
"So.. you want an advisor.." Yue offers. "One who isn't Rapatia or Smith."
"And a spy, and an achaeologist," Tasha agrees, looking up and smiling a little. "I have a feeling it won't end with speaking to Adam, that that is just the beginning. Another beign suggested I may need to find the others, bring the Progenitors back. They rebelled, you see? When the Cill learnd what I told you, it all fell apart and some of them stuck with their children, others gave up. A few were killed. We will likely need to find them, and I may need your skills there. But think!" Her expression lifts, ears up, eyes wide, "You'll be wings deep in archaeological discoveries, ancient species, you'll get to talk to them. And when it's all over, if we succeed, you can go back to Terra a hero."
"I'm not sure any of this is fit for public consumption," Yue notes with a grin. "But.. you can't be the only one with an idea of the big picture. Not out there. Even the Teutons kept quiet about it all after announcing their discovery. The sorts of people who can take this knowledge and use it to their advantage - those are the dangerous ones. And they'll be out there."
"House Khomen knows it. I think the Celestial Emperor does too, their creation was on the homeworld of the Thennenin and they recieved a lot of direct support. I have an actual report from a Thennenin AI that Ahriman -- Progenitor of the Celestials -- was active in the early days. This may be why the Celestials and Khattans are so far ahead, because their Progenitors were helping them directly. They may have handed them their Libraries." Tasha's head shakes at the idea, gods fighting, gods scheming, angels and dark things all fighting each other and themselves. "I'll also want your help talking to the others on the Dark Horse. If I tell them -- if I tell them -- then it would help my credibility to have a Terragens Human agent with me to confirm it."
"Confirm it?" Yue asks. "I haven't seen anything yet. Not even these Markers."
"You will. In fact," Tasha lets her hands slide free and then stands up. "While we're waiting, want to go look? We should make sure they're safe anyway. The Silent-One and Celestial Markers are here. My Melchior holds the Vartan Marker."
And then Tasha's face contorts in to a grim expression. "And if other things atatck, we;ll need them."
"Sure it's safe to have an alien artifact in your Titan?" Yue asks. "You said that it took control of it once."
"It saved my life. I should at least give them the benefit of the doubt. Besides, Mel's probably a Library-made ancient machine too. I am /surrounded/ by alien things taht may or may not be my friend," explains the Cadet with an air of stressed exasperation. As they head out she remembers a detail, then adds, "But I /do/ know the logs show Mel was given an order to /recover the pilot./ /Not/ recover the pilot and kill the machine,/ but maybe they assumed I'd do it? I /am/ a bit predictable." Their walk leads i to the corridor, and towards a sealed lab.
"Hmm," is Yue's only comment as she follows, avoiding the snaking cables that connect Mariel's incubation tube to MOTHER.
Tasha stops at the door and frowns. She punches in her override code, then another. A thump-click later and she pulls off a nearby panel and begins using the lever inside the manually open the door. "I'm worried about Scholar Hakeber, have you met her? The translation is doing something to her head. We should go check onher after this, then bring her with us."
"That does not sound good," Yue notes. "Nobody else has seen it, have they?"
Tasha shakes her head as she cranks the door. "No, she warned me not to show anyone else. Be careful if you chose to read them. I can't make any sense of them, but then Harrowers may not be effect me like that. Not anymore, though I'm hardly safe." After a good many seconds the hatch is open far enough and she steps away, heading inside. "And here they are."
The small woman enters, and stares at the two Markers. Eventually she tries to touch one. "These are.. strange," she notes. "Unable to analyze the.. uh... materiel?" she asks.
"We can't. Are you analyzing them somehow?" Tasha inquires, having followed Yue in to stand beside her as they stare at the two high tech pedestals.
"I'm.. feeling.. something," Yue notes. "Not sure what it is though. It isn't like they're alive, but.. there's something potent there."
"Psychic activity, you mean? They don't do anything for me, all we were able to determine is that they react to each others' presence and become solid. Like stone, but not stone." Tasha steps forward, reaching to touch the Silent-Ones Marker and run her hand down it. "Marker of the Silent-Ones, of Neith. Neith who deliberated between Horus and Ahriman. Their child is Thoth. Neith's status, where-abouts, or her opinion aren't known to us." she recites. She then picks up the Marker. "See if anything happens when I move them closer?"
As before, the material changes to something more like stone, and properly three-dimensional, with a texture. "Still feel the same," Yue reports. "No change while they were.. changing. I've not seen or heard of anything like this as far as First Ones artifacts are concerned."
"Neither have we. Some entities can't even detect them." Tasha goes to return the Marker, but then pauses, and instead hugs it to her chest. "I have some guesses as to what they are, but my big right now is that they're made of something like the Progenitors themselves. The Titanian legends say they're made of stone, immortal stone, and they may never truly die. Maybe they're like the Harrowers and the Ogdoad. They can't be killed, at least not any way anyone knows, but they can be disabled or imprisoned. This may be a piece of them, or a prison, or something like that."
"A piece of them," Yue says, narrowing her eyes. She pulls her hand away from the other Marker. "Hmmm. It was a piece of the berserker that caused the trouble with the ship's systems. I never heard of that happening before. Of course, nobody ever had a piece of a berserker before. I may have to come back to this notion later."
"Please do, I'll take that as an acceptance of my offer then? because I could use the help. That reminds me ... " Tasha turns towards the exit and nods. "Lets go check on Hake-bear, I'm worried about leaving her alone too long. Lets seal up the lab. I'm bringing this one with us, as a precaution, and maybe we can talk about it more once Hake is safely with us."
"You think that will calm her down?" Yue asks. "Not a bad idea.. I'll want to check the girl out too. Need me to hold your sword for you or anything?"
"Please, at least one of them. I wasn't sure what we were going to deal with and so I brought it along with the other weapons." Tasha, hands full, nods down at the blade unable to hand it over. "And while you're holding it, can you look at it and see if you can figure it out? It's an artifact that was given to Apollyon Stormbreaker, leader of the Harbingr Clan, along with the Melchior. I've always meant to have it looked at but didn't have the time." Once the sword and its sheath are taken, the hybrid steps out and seals the door. She then turns and nods towards the ramp. "Hake's up, lets hope she's still okay." And with that the two return to frightened scholar, uncertain what they'll find.