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"True wisdom lies in growing younger as you grow older." - Li Tsevernal, Court Mocker, Highguard, AS 2581 |
2780.133 - 136 Bastion |
Ruehan gets ready to radio back to Davira, when the intercom announces "Security lockdown. Intruders please remain in your quarters." Oh, no! More teleporting people! Probably because the Hippocrates hasn't reported its position to Bastion Navigation Control since it teleported. Doh.
Sharra, getting out of a Kaufman tube, hears a page in the Kaufman facility: "Captain Bellarion report to the bridge!". Captain Bellarion does not, unfortunately, report to the bridge.
The bridge receives a message from the Inopportune Moment.
"Hippocrates, this is the Inopportune Moment. Please state the nature of your emergency - we think the enemy just blew up."Hippocrates locks down the doors, and keeps paging Captain Bellarion from the Kaufman facility. Sharra fills people in on this over the radio - the Hippocrates-bot is in the Kaufman facility, but it's not answering or reporting, of course. The conclusion quickly jumped to is that Hippocrates has somehow reverted to his pre-run state. He doesn't recognize anyone on board except for the Bellarion bot, Cassandra (in the tubes), and Jim. Hippocrates contacts Jim to tell him to report in, but Jim seems to have gotten lost in the very long ship hallways, and says he'll be there in a little bit. Sharra and Sophia get the doors open between Engineering and the Kaufman facility, while someone calls the Inopportune Moment to say that they'll have the emergency under control really soon.
Hippocrates calls Deep Blue on the emergency channel, reporting that most of his crew is gone and there are several intruders on board. Deep Blue doesn't have forces available to go liberate the Hippocrates, but tells Hippocrates to keep him advised.
Eva fails to break her way out of her room, being locked down by Hippocrates, but then remembers her Official Skyguard Commission, which she takes from the captain's safe, and brandishes it at the intercom.
"Captain Von Thorsten, what's going on? The ship is filled with intruders, and the captain is incapacitated!"Hippocrates finds this all somewhat implausible. Meanwhile, up on the bridge, Ruehan contacts the "Vertaki Expeditionary Force" (Davira calls Ruehan "cousin", which he steers her out of doing further). They're pleased to have finally found one of the planets they were looking for; Ruehan suggests that they go attack the Deciders.
"That's not Captain Bellarion, that's your android body, and the intruders are your crew."
Hippocrates seems to think that it's 2435.188, the day before Sophia and Janzur came on board. Deep Blue insists that it's 2780.133, which Hippocrates also finds implausible.
"One or both of us could be compromised. We should both run full system diagnostics." -HippocratesDeep Blue is happy to do so; system diagnostics are always mildly gratifying.
Eva insists that everyone has authorization to be aboard, and tells Katya to take out her contacts. She does so, and shows her holopictures of the Nomarches, which show the blue-starry-eyes as well (Hippocrates had not previously met any Nomarches close enough to see the details of their eyes). Maury suggests that Hippocrates compare Jims - that should add credence to the idea that time has passed. Jim should look older (though surely he doesn't look three hundred years older...). Jim is still lost in the corridors, but Hippocrates notes that he has let his hair grow out a lot since yesterday...
Hippocrates asks if someone can please give Captain Bellarion medical attention? Sharra demonstrates that it's not Captain Bellarion, it's a robot, by opening up his front panel. Creepy.
Eva declares a state of emergency and assumes command of the ship. Hippocrates accepts this as she is the ranking Skyguard officer aboard. Sophia explains her warrant officer credentials, and remembers a bit more of her chain of command than she did back when she needed it on Vircus, so he accepts her too.
"Have him do a diagnostic and find the modifications we've made." -AceRunning some internal diagnostics, Hippocrates discovers that some of his core code has been compromised - various imperatives have been turned off!
"No." -Maury (thinking showing him how he's been reprogrammed might not inspire trust)
As this all is considered, everyone notices that something seems to be wrong (to the tune of losing a point of a stat). Maury teleports to the medlab in consternation, and Sophia heads back that way. Her initial diagnosis of both him and herself indicates that there's no damage or illness - no virus, no weird radiation effects. They both seem to be entirely healthy, just a little less buff.
Hippocrates asks Deep Blue to confirm Captain von Torsten's commission document. Deep Blue thinks it is an interesting historical document that was probably valid on its face when it was issued, but that was a long time ago.
Ace takes a look at Hippocrates' memory databases. The last-run state appears to have been directly overwritten with an old restore of some sort. Ace thinks he might be able to link in some "new" files, which are there without pointers, but it won't be possible to just fix things, as the "restore" has overwritten current state.
There's much fussing as to what is going on with the crew losing stats and what could be causing it and whether it's tied into what happened to Hippocrates. Clearly the answer is yes, but the cause is still unclear. Maury scans the blackliner debris - there isn't any active radiation, just some fading energy signatures and residual heat.
Then everyone gets a little younger-looking, except for Sophia, who suddenly looks wrinkled and white-haired. Ahah! They're getting younger, Sophia declares! This baffles the couple of people who hadn't already heard that Sophia went through rejuv back in the Hegemony. The Inopportune Moment radios shortly thereafter, and arranges to dock and confer with Sophia. Janina sees Sophia, and says that they're getting older, too. Like Sophia.
"No, I'm getting older because I'm going back in time." -SophiaAce and Eva get a briefing from Aristotle about where they've been. They cloaked along with the remnants of the Decider fleet as they left Sparta, and managed to get to their Secret Staging Area. That fleet continued on, but they snuck around the staging area, where there were two more full fleets - one arming for combat and one still "un-configured." They followed the armed one as it headed towards Bastion, sent their warning and were detected. Ace gets a navigator's route from Sparta to the staging area, and a route from the staging area to Bastion, in Aristotle's highly-evolved shorthand.
"I'm getting older going forward in time. Like most people." -Janina
Ace also asks the Tinoori for their perceptions on how much younger people are getting. They think everyone appears to be younger than they were when they first met the Tinoori, and thus they are unable to judge very accurately, but they do think that First Frost of Autumn and Jim are un-aging more slowly than they are. So hopefully the young people will not all vanish first.
Meanwhile, most everyone else is in on the conversation between Sophia and Dr. Salvador about the strange time effect. It seems to have been cause by the Maury metaconcert teleporting him out of his temport. ("As you discovered the first time you met the Inopportune Moment, it is bad when temporting forward if something else is there when you arrive. It appears that it is equally bad for you to not be there when you leave.")
In the end analysis, the ships will need to go back to where they started, and then try and get to where they appeared, faster than the time they spent heading there, in order to get them back on the right side of the temporal schism. So, they could go very slowly and then come back less slowly, but that would take days and many people would either die of old or young age by then. So they need to do the whole thing much, much faster.
Sophia thinks The best way to pick up enough speed will be a slingshot effect around the sun, which will be a tricky piloting roll; Sophia will also need to set up some spatiotemporal plasma conduits around the ships, to both channel the sun's plasma directly into engine power, and to add the appropriate amount of madness to the plan. In addition, the Bastion teleporters are missing, probably lost in space or time somewhere, and Maury will need to yank them back into their gathering during this transit; Deep Blue will attempt to provide targeting data for Maury to use.
Meanwhile, Ruehan, who's been trying to get the Vertaki Architects (ritual masters) to assist, loses more stats and gets a lot hungrier. Maury lets him snack. Also, during the trip back towards the space battle, Maury installs redliner defenses on the Inopportune Moment. There is some squabbling between the teenage Ace and the pre-teen Jim as to who is the better pilot, for the fly-around the sun maneuver, and there is some squabbling between the semi-kitten Maury and the teenage Sharra as to who is the better engineer ("Please leave the communication channels clear for tactical updates." -Hippocrates). The second argument is inconclusive, but the first settles out to Ace for the space battles and Jim for the solar maneuver.
The Hippocrates and the Inopportune Moment dash through a portion of the battle in progress between the Deciders and the Bastion fleet. There is much shooting, and much dodging, and a yellowliner or two is even blown up in the process. However, the crew is substantially younger by the time they reach the Decider backfield, which, unfortunately, has only Decider ships and no friendly Bastion ships for support.
"How come I always have to watch Jim? Why did we bring such a little kid?" -SharraDeck four gets hit by a yellowliner, but luckily, there's nobody on it. More argument ensues about who's flying. Ruehan says it should be him, as everyone else is stupid babies. There is much outrage by the five-year-old and the eight-year-old, who are both sure they're old enough to fly. Sophia thinks she certainly isn't a baby and is clearly cooler than Ruehan.
"You don't have to watch me! I'm not a baby!" -Jim
"A big boy ought to be able to settle arguments by himself." -Sophia
"You can't make the sun stuff do the sun stuff stuff." -Sophia.The battle in the Decider backfield is bitter, and both the Hippocrates and the Inopportune Moment take a lot of damage. ("Janina Megaera casts unpain, and the ship keeps flying." ) The Inopportune Moment is forced to make a number of death checks that look like they will leave some lasting damage. Jim can't reach the pilot's chair now, as he's about three. Maury is nearly tempted to pounce on him and knock him down, except he's in the middle of a gathering with a bunch of nonexistent Bastion teleporters. Ruehan tries to mind control him in to sitting under the chair instead of in it, but is thwarted by Katya, who flies Jim around the bridge and then into the chair. Hippocrates quizzes him to make sure he remembers things like the ship's atmospheric drag, but he does. Ace puts a bag over Katya's head, causing her to burst into tears.
"My point exactly." -Ruehan
The Great Zooshing commences. Aristotle and Jim both end up rolling for 11s; with Hippocrates' reliability, Jim gets five, but Aristotle only gets two, even with the Moment's reliability. Sophia's mad science plasmatemporal conduits protect the ships from most of the damage, but the Inopportune Moment doesn't go fast enough, and therefore her crew doesn't regain all of their original youth. During the transit, various people have flashbacks of events of their past, with the lost Bastion teleporters sort of floating in them - Maury manages to pull them out and back to the ship.
In the meantime, the battle for Bastion has finished, and the good guys have won. The Decider fleet is vanquished; the Bastion fleet has lost a lot of ships and a lot more men, while the Vertaki/Red fleet has been more defensive and lost fewer.
A shuttle from the Vertaki Fleet asks permission to come aboard - on it are Davira and several people in Red Hegemony naval uniforms, wearing Dalari house sashes over them.
Davira explains that due to Ruehan's warning (and Ace's, she adds, on seeing him), the Vertaki were able to ready themselves... Eva invites her into the conference room, leaving the Red officers behind in her ship. Davira asks if it is safe to talk in front of all of these (gesturing to encompass the rest of the crew). Eva glares, but Ruehan blandly says that it is, and introduces everyone.
"I see you keep all the good ones for yourself." -DaviraDavira provides a quick briefing on what has happened on Vertak since Ruehan and Ace and Ruehan left.
"Indeed." -Ruehan[over a mind link]
"You should warn her to behave herself." -Ace
"That's what the word 'indeed' meant." -Ruehan
There's some discussion about the Red naval crew. Are they slaves now? No, they work for the Vertak. Were they given terms of service? No, they swore to serve loyally. There was not the option given in the oath to cease being loyal at a certain time. Ruehan suggests that it might be wise to let them leave now if they want to. Davira supposes that can be arranged, though they will need to adhere to their agreements to finish training the Vertaki to use the ships.
-15 years Thanks to Ruehan and Ace, House Dalari gains ascendance in the council. -14 years Davira becomes suspicious of the events surrounding the above, and confronts the Name. Her brashness is appreciated and she becomes the Name's confidante and protege in the absence of the Heir. -10 years House Dalari, under the Name and Davira's management, takes control enough that they can announce "secret communications" from Ruehan (forged, of course) in which he warns of a coming invasion around the end of the next decade. Vertak begins preparations of ritual psionic space defenses. -1 year Things are getting tense, as the threat has not arrived and the vast use of resources on the defense project is about to wear House Dalari's impressive political leverage to nothing. -0.3 years Success! An invasion fleet arrives! As was later determined, the Red fleet had been pursuing a Tarn force from Lendt, whittling down its numbers, but the Tarn turned to engage when they reached the Vertaki system. A large number of the of the Tarn ships were destroyed before the battle turned against the Reds, when they were hit by a number of yellowline beams. As the Red fleet ships lost maneuverability due to losing crew, they grew ever more vulnerable to the yellowliners. Vertak decided to intervene, and though they were initially surprised by their long-range psi blasts having no effect, more physical effects such as telekinesis were able to destroy the remaining Tarn. -0.25 years Interrogations have been difficult due to a lack of the language, and psionic incompatibility, but the "warning" Ruehan gave about the Tarn threat is confirmed. The force the Vertak destroyed are in fact part of a fleet of Tarn intent on wiping out all Artak in the Nebula. The Red ships are claimed as salvage and the surviving crew given the choice of serving the Vertak fleet commander loyally, or remaining on Vertak. The Name sends his Heir-in-waiting (Davira) out with a restaffed fleet to find and assist Ruehan in combating the Tarn threat. -0.23 years Political outrage at the plan to have both his true Heir and Heir-in-waiting off-world mounts. But the Name trusts no one else with the fleet and so is forced to declare himself Immortal in order to silence detractors. -0.22 years The Vertak Expeditionary Force heads out into the nebula.
Despite the meat of the issue having been resolved, there continues to be much fussing over how immoral it was, or wasn't, to take the fleet as salvage even though 80% of the ships were essentially found to be crewless thanks to yellowliners, and not give the remaining crews the additional option of being returned on separate ships.
Jim calls Deep Blue to ask for tactical data on the battle, and suggests a game of Counter Commander. Deep Blue is busy coordinating the aftermath of the battle, but could be roused to play later if Hippocrates thinks Jim is reasonably skilled.
During the tidying of the ship, two pages of the Book of the Hegemon are found to have been transcribed (from while the book was younger!) Though that doesn't actually make any sense, since the book is on Jayla and the program is working on the data... perhaps the data got younger? but nevertheless, there are two new entries:
And, before this madness started, Cassandra had finished an experimental self-portrait:Hegemon Ilia AS 2631.083 For a fortnight, since her daughter died, Mera has awoken with dreams. Visions. She says that outside of the Hegemony, there are those who can cut the body open and stitch it together again without fail, that there are those who can join their healing magics to cure the whole body of infection and poison. I weigh her words and they hold only truth. But I cannot permit contact past the Sentnal Gate. I see the life she hopes for there, but beyond that, I see the end of all things. The Gate must stay sealed. Hegemon Rannal AS 2312.278 The Sentinal of the Stars has walked among our small Hegemony once more. He urged me to bring my folk back, but he speaks from fondness and sentiment. He looks at us and he sees only the distance, the smallness - he cannot see that to keep a fire burning through the night with no fuel, it must be banked and low. But though I cannot accede to his wishes, we have need of his service, and that of the Elite, both for protection and for the illumination of honor they carry.
A woman sits, her back to you, looking in a mirror and drawing a portrait. The ``real'' woman's face in the mirror is pale and skeletal from illness, and her hands bony. She wears a robe (much like Cassandra's shift), with a faded circle of green and blue, over which are five stars in a peculiar pattern. She holds a palette with only red, green, and blue on it. In the painting she draws, a strong and tall Cassandra, dressed in the hyperstatic float-enabled dress paints on yet another canvas; the crew is before her, posing, and she paints something in bright primary colors. Tacked up about the edge of the large canvas are sketches and pictures matching some of her other paintings.