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"The greater the mind, the greater the propensity for madness. Those who would fight the tide must be the most brilliant, but they also will be the most mad." -- Dr. Alber Fontene, Professor of Psychology, Institute for Insoluble Problems, Ganfrey, AS 2285 |
2781.181-186 Gateway -> Riden |
Ciernan tries to figure out what planet he's on, but it's not one he's visited before (which is pretty unusual). Xanthippe waves hello from where she's fretting over Mirris, which gives something of a hint as to where they all are.
Xanthippe explains that before going back, they can decide what to do with each of the three "sleeping" people. She gestures up the hill to an austere figure sitting in a chair, and explains "He's more about the absolutes, I get to handle the special cases."
"This one is evil, though he's been good; this one is good -- well, she's good turned evil trying to be good; this one is very broken." - Xanthippe about Vance, Dylanna, and Mirris.The party is a little surprised that these three are the only ones there.
"What happened to Stone?" - CiernanCiernan thinks that Stone must have survived, because he's in the "next game". People wonder where Padira is - she's on the Hippocrates babysitting everyone else.
"Stone is not our responsibility." - Xanthippe
Xanthippe explains that Mirris exploded because of something she had put in her head to keep her from being used for things she didn't want to do. This blew apart all her "Mirris Lessons", as well as a lot of the buried "Jessica" personality that had been covered over by the previous personality restructure.
Her memories now come in three categories: those Mirris Lessons recovered by the party in their reveries, those Mirris Lessons not recovered by the party, and Jessica Lessons, from her previous memories. For every Mirris Lesson of the second type that is put back into her personality, they will also have to pick a Jessica memory (and assign it a lesson) to add as well, in order to maintain the integrity.
The current crop of lessons are examined:
Mirris (Recovered)
- It is the Acession of the Hegemon, in the Palatium Tamarch. The crowd is dressed somberly, in mourning for Hegemon Gabriel Nomarche, until the Vocari kneel and Vissarion lifts the circlet to his head. Then there is a great shout of jubilation, and the black coats and cloaks drop to the ground, and the people are a sea of gold and silver and white. The chorus and brasses start the ``Fanfare Astralorum'' and you shut your eyes for a moment.
(We must return to greatness!)- You've knocked over the ceremonial armor in the vault on Highguard, distracting the guards while Eva dabs the blood on the amulet of verification. On the good side, nobody catches you and arrests you. On the bad side, nothing seems to happen.
(Sometimes it's necessary to embarrass yourself to achieve a greater goal.)- You sit with Hegemon Attar, poring over the later pages of the Book of Hegemons. It is a pleasant day, and the breeze stirs your hair. You would rather be out with the hunting party, at least today, rather than this interminable squinting over nearly illegible symbols, but you try not to show it. Hegemon Attar notices, though, and fixes you with a level look. ``They are providing for the tribe for a week. You will have to provide for the tribe for your lifetime.''
(Being hegemon is a duty, it is not a happy thing, and your personal life is completely subsumed by it.)- In the dream of the Omphalos Dust Wyrm, the old man retreats from you, he cannot withstand you. Eva asks: ``What happens if we don't wish [to save All People from the Flames]?'' He answers: ``When we met again, you were the ones who had saved all. If you do not, no one else will.''
(If you do not, no one else will.)- It is the first time you have actually held an active plasma brand in your hand. It is not yours, it will not be yours for many zed yet, but the weight and the strange momentum of it feels oddly familiar. For a moment, you imagine - Hegemon Vissarion, beset by foes, and you leap down from a balcony, plasma brand blazing. You cut down the villains, faceless and menacing, until you stand (gravely wounded but still up) before Vissarion, foes at your feet. A moment later, the daydream has passed, but the echoes remain. Someday, you will be there to save him. Someday.
(It is our dreams which ennoble us.)Mirris (Not Recovered)
- You are being escorted from speaking to the Patriarch of Vircus to the great feast, when Vocari Donaris shows himself to be 'a follower of the cult of the Strategos' and tries to kill Sophia. You cloud everyone's mind to see the Strategos there, ordering Vocari Donaris to stop, but, unfortunately, the cult of the Strategos does not seem to have included portraits.
(When mind controlling people, use things that they will understand.)- You're in Klothos's throne room, and Xanthippe has finished her presentation of the {\em Hippocrates'
(Being nice in political circles doesn't hurt, and can be a good thing.)- You're on Creek, speaking to [NOT PRESENT IN MEMORY], who explain [NOT PRESENT IN MEMORY]. You find this somewhat unbelievable, that the others don't know about it. You also think it's something of a cop-out that they won't fight against the others, but at least what the [NOT PRESENT IN MEMORY] are doing has some reason behind it.
(Sometimes people won't do what needs to be done even though they see it, and you have to work around that.)- You're standing in front of your grave, or at least, your memorial.
Elite Janzur Therive
As we are many, so are we one.
If one of us falls, there we are diminished.
But so long as one of us stands, so shall the fallen stand.
It's very disconcerting.
(But so long as one of us stands, so shall the fallen stand.)- You are ready to take your departure. It will be a journey of long months to reach the nearest human-inhabited inworld, and no one of your kind has made the journey in nearly a generation. You think this is foolish, that without contact or at least observation, you keep yourselves blind. But your kind grow cautious and insular in age, and it is the old ones who make the decisions.
(Always go looking to learn new things.)- You and Nikolas are in the wardrobe in the upstairs sitting room. You discovered at age eight that this is the place to listen to your parents talk, when you're supposed to be in bed. Your mother is trying to convince your father to come to the country for some weeks to help with the spring turnover, but he says he has to stay near the court. There's no acrimony, but both you and Nikolas seem to think that Father is not being as helpful as he might. Nikolas whispers to you ``You'd come if I needed you, right?'' and you whisper back. ``I'll always come if you need me. No matter what.''
(Always stand up for family.)Jessica
- You stand beside Quinn, in front of his family and friends, in front of the Anuncio. He takes your hand in his - part of the ceremony, before he slips the ring on your finger. Then he takes a moment to squeeze your hand -- not part of the ceremony - and you can see the happiness in his eyes. Your eyes are happy too, you are happy. This is just what you wanted.
- You curse and bear down again, panting and drenched with sweat. Then, finally, the pain is done, and the doctors present you with a tiny, frowning form. For a moment, your heart warms, and you smile at the baby, wondering at her tiny face and hands. Yours -- a little piece of you. But then you push such nonsense aside, and remember: she is a key, and nothing more.
- Citizen Archibald paces back and forth, thinking furiously. ``The Proteges are dangerous,'' he tells you, ``but they have a lot of power. Hidden power. If I'm going to get involved, I have to know that you can handle steering them. That you can keep them working for us instead of the other way around.'' He fixes you with a level stare. ``I know I haven't asked for anything of this magnitude before. Can you do this for me?'' You lift your chin, fierce and resolute. ``Yes,'' you say. ``Yes.''
- You and your brother play in the crechegreen. Your next Shaping won't be for hours, and the sun is warm even through the glass. You used to have more brothers and sisters, but after each Great Shaping there are fewer. Now there is just you and him, but that's enough to play. You won't have to worry until later.
- It's your first assignment. Nothing serious, just to join a family vacationing at Joyous Gard. You insert yourself seamlessly as the third of their two children, and spend the day wandering the dome with them. The easy familiarity, the shared jokes, the concern - it's like nothing you're used to, but you can pick it up with no problem. And... you kind of like it. It doesn't seem fair that other children get to have this sort of thing and you don't. For a moment, you wonder if you could just stay with them, and not return... but that would never work. You'd be picked up, and you'd never be trusted again. But still... you can wish.
- You sit in the chair. You have always been here, and you will always be here. The lights blink, and you feel the fizzing in your lungs and in your veins. The voice whispers to you, has always whispered to you. Finally, you stand, and leave the room. You were never there.
"You're usually in charge of rifling through people's pockets, so I'll just give them to you." -Xanthippe, to AceKith wakes Mirris up, to get her opinions on the issue, but without her personality, she is strangely blank:
"Reconstitution of the Mirris personality might lead to further attachment, leading to further danger. Classification of the Mirris unit as cargo might enable safe containment." -MirrisShe explains further what happened to her:
"Message received, triggering a long-dormant trigger to act against the infiltrated group. But Mirris had developed a 'poison pill' defense mechanism, so the Mirris personality is not currently viable." -Mirris
"I have to do it - I can't do it - Bleah" -Ace, translating
"There's a lot of that going around." -Xanthippe
"What do you want?" -KithAs people compare the lessons they remembered from their reveries, Mirris notes that she's the only one who has "If you do not, no one else will." But that memory is mixed up with "a wedding and someone who causes virulent and extreme reactions."
"'Want' would imply a set of goals and priorities." -Mirris
"One asks that if one is going to be removed from viability, one not be shot in the back." -MirrisEach of the Jessica memories also comes with a good thing, and a bad thing. Mirris examines these, and tells everyone else.
"I don't have a gun." -Ace
Wedding to QuinnSome of these don't seem so bad - loyalty and overconfidence is just fine, as far as Ciernan is concerned.
Plus: Capacity for Affection
Minus: Ulterior MotivesBirth of Linnet
Plus: Mother/Daughter Bond
Minus: Willingness to Sacrifice OthersWith Citizen Archibald
Plus: Loyalty
Minus: OverconfidenceOn the Crechegreen
Plus: Origin Story Hints
Minus: Underlying Doubt: are you even human?First Assignment
Plus: Adaptation
Minus: EnvyIn the Chair
Plus: A lot of KS: Brainwashing
Minus: Brainwashing
"Envy isn't so good..." -AceMirris continues to argue that building her a desirable personality isn't necessarily the best idea - if you build an undesirable personality, then it won't be as hard to kill her if she starts being a problem. Katya maintains that maintains that spaceship Hippocrates heart Mirris and Mirris heart spaceship Hippocrates and they want Mirris back.
"But capacity for affection is required" -Ciernan
Ace gives Mirris the five "free" lessons back, and she stops talking in the third person. Whew. Sharra and Kith like the idea of stuffing everything back in - that has some aesthetics to it, but stuffing back being brainwashed is kinda iffy to some of the others.
If the brainwashing Jessica lesson gets left out, what Mirris lesson will get left out? "Being nice in political circles doesn't hurt, and can be a good thing" is the front-runner as least necessary.
"We have Ace and Akito, how many smooth politicos do we need?" -MirrisCiernan confirms that the brainwashing is Terran.
People continue to brainstorm what is good to keep and what lessons can be drawn. "Willingness to sacrifice others" is a little ominous, but Ciernan points out:
"We are the Spaceship Hippocrates, who will sacrifice anyone and anything for the good of all people."The giving-birth lesson has several suggestions. Ciernan likes "With Great Sacrifice Comes Great Pain", and Sharra likes "Love always involves pain".
"I was a little worried about the imagery of chains and knives and altars" -AceMaybe the pain idea isn't the best thing to integrate; Jim suggests "Once someone is a part of you, they'll always be there" but then promptly forgets what he said, and Katya has to try and remind people in icon imagery.
"That's Kye" -Mirris
Oh - does someone have to stay behind, like Xanthippe and Padira did before? Xanthippe says that's covered this time.
"Remember, when we say 'we're sacrificing one of Mirris's memories', we really mean 'we're not giving her back one of Ruehan's memories that she used to have.'" -CiernanLessons are assigned to each of the non-brainwashing Jessica memories:
The original lesson of "being nice in political circles doesn't hurt, and can be a good thing" is punted, as is the brainwashing lesson. (Katya picks it up and takes it as a psych lim herself).
- You stand beside Quinn, in front of his family and friends, in front of the Anuncio. He takes your hand in his - part of the ceremony, before he slips the ring on your finger. Then he takes a moment to squeeze your hand -- not part of the ceremony - and you can see the happiness in his eyes. Your eyes are happy too, you are happy. This is just what you wanted.
Treasure love where you find it.- You curse and bear down again, panting and drenched with sweat. Then, finally, the pain is done, and the doctors present you with a tiny, frowning form. For a moment, your heart warms, and you smile at the baby, wondering at her tiny face and hands. Yours -- a little piece of you. But then you push such nonsense aside, and remember: she is a key, and nothing more.
Once someone is in your heart, they'll always be there.- Citizen Archibald paces back and forth, thinking furiously. ``The Proteges are dangerous,'' he tells you, ``but they have a lot of power. Hidden power. If I'm going to get involved, I have to know that you can handle steering them. That you can keep them working for us instead of the other way around.'' He fixes you with a level stare. ``I know I haven't asked for anything of this magnitude before. Can you do this for me?'' You lift your chin, fierce and resolute. ``Yes,'' you say. ``Yes.''
Always remember who are your friends and who are your enemies.- You and your brother play in the crechegreen. Your next Shaping won't be for hours, and the sun is warm even through the glass. You used to have more brothers and sisters, but after each Great Shaping there are fewer. Now there is just you and him, but that's enough to play. You won't have to worry until later.
Sometimes you need to enjoy the present without worry for the future.- It's your first assignment. Nothing serious, just to join a family vacationing at Joyous Gard. You insert yourself seamlessly as the third of their two children, and spend the day wandering the dome with them. The easy familiarity, the shared jokes, the concern - it's like nothing you're used to, but you can pick it up with no problem. And... you kind of like it. It doesn't seem fair that other children get to have this sort of thing and you don't. For a moment, you wonder if you could just stay with them, and not return... but that would never work. You'd be picked up, and you'd never be trusted again. But still... you can wish.
Heart-with hole
Mirris with tool box constructing a clock with hands going forwards.
Mirris wonders if she can write down more memories and give them to people. Xanthippe points out that nobody else exploded leaving memories laying around the psychic landscape the way she did.
The Mirris/Jessica memories are returned to Mirris a few at a time. Starting with the "If you do not, no one else will" wedding, they all seem to have specific application to Dr. Kye. Ace points out that the crechegreen lesson about seizing the moment is clearly relevant.
"I should sleep with him and then say I'm not going to marry him?" -MirrisIn the end, the final lesson regarding Dr. Kye is summarized to be "Sleep with him, break up with him, and then regret it forever, because love is pain."
"Yeah." -Ace
"But I should be careful with him, because once someone is in your heart..." -Mirris
Meanwhile, Katya (having recently lost a husband) has stopped finding the taunting over Mirris's love life amusing, and Ace finds himself mysteriously slapped by a gust of wind. He glares at Ciernan.
Next, there's Dylanna. People wonder if she can be rebuilt like Mirris, but no, she didn't explode. Xanthippe says the choices are to take her back, or leave her here. Could she be sent back to the Old Hegemony? Xanthippe admits "Technically, yes, but there are rules." So, both Dylanna and Vance will get brought back - someone will have to carry them through the door.
As everything has been decided, Xanthippe explains that they can hang out and enjoy the scenery, but it does get boring pretty quickly. Then when they're done with that, they can talk to Oompy, and they get one question each, as before.
There is a brief amount of enjoying the scenery - Ciernan amuses himself by blowing the cloud around, which produces visible swirlies in the air. Mirris interrogates Kith - when she slept with Kye before, was it worth it? Kith allows as she wasn't entirely in her right mind at the time, but admits that she enjoyed it.
Can the party ask Xanthippe questions? Sure, but she's been stuck in the Dust Wyrm without being omniscient. What will she do after this? Oh, she's coming with them. Really? What about the staying behind part? Xanthippe says there's one exception.
"When he's done." - Ciernan
"Everyone is going to think it's a story. I've been eaten twice and nobody is going to believe me." -AceMirris ponders asking the Dust Wyrm if she should marry Dr. Kye, but nobody is convinced that this will provide a more definitive answer. Xanthippe warns them not to call him "Oompy" - nobody gets to call him that but Xanthippe.
"I don't think that's going to be a problem" -Xanthippe
"I disrecommend questions of the form 'what's up with'" -AceKith asks Xanthippe: so many people died during the Flames. Is there anything that can be done to fix that?
"There's no way to fix that without breaking the rules." -XanthippeThe party proceeds up the hill, where they meet a gaunter, paler, greyer-haired Leonard Nimoy.
"Is breaking the rules bad?" -Kith
"So I am constantly told." -Xanthippe
"I see it is time for us to meet again. Well done. Are you prepared to leave?" -the Dust Wyrm
"We are." -Ciernan
"This is the - from your perspective - last time that we will be meeting, so if you have anything you wish to know, now would be the time to ask."
| Ace Q: | The guys coming back from the future, what are they trying to do? What are they hoping to accomplish? Why? |
| A: | He is a self-created alternate future that stands in opposition to the one you strive to create. |
| Hippocrates Q: | Hippocrates: What are his vulnerabilities? |
| A: | Due to the circumstances of the irregularity that allowed him to create himself, he is vulnerable to those who are also related to that irregularity, mostly the one you know as "the Guy." |
| Mirris Q: | What are we overlooking so far in planning for the next coming of the flames? |
| A: | Having done it myself, you will find that it is far more complicated than you can ever imagine to perserve specific instructions that people will follow in the distant future. And you might give thought to the physical security of the necessary material components. |
| Kith Q: | What are the consequences of preserving First Frost's "puce" line? |
| A: | Well, if you intend to do your distastefully modified ritual, you're going to need one of those. If you manage to preserve it to the extent that it gets at least reasonably charged, it will be easier next time. You could of course go back to the original plan and abandon the outworlds... <Xanthippe pats him on the hand.> |
| Sharra Q: | What unexpected obstacles will confront the next attempt to stop the flames? |
| A: | They would hardly be unexpected if I tell you about them, will they? Give some thought to those who are staying in the outworlds, and the problems caused by the unexpected ascensions. |
| Ace (second) Q: | What's going to happen when you die? |
| A: | <smile> The first thing I do when I die, I'm going to go back and eat you. |
| Katya Q: | A group of stick figures in black cloaks with yin/yangs. They have a checklist. Each item has a heart with hole. Clock with hands going forwards. |
| A: | A group of stick figures in black cloaks with yin/yangs. They turn on each other, shaking their fists. Some throw off their cloaks and storm away. Some of them shoot at each other. Some of them take out swords and start chasing Spaceship Hippocrates. Many of them come back to the chekclist, and tear it up, then go off in different directions with the various pieces. |
| Jim Q: | The person from the alternate future - what alternate future is he trying to create? |
| A: | The one in which he survives the next Flames. He stands in opposition to your plan to make everyone survive the Flames. |
| Ciernan Q: | Why did the people on Hippocrates start exceeding human maximums? |
| A: | It was a side effect of your people being unable to properly contain the amount of energy needed to drive the ritual. It was considered a beneficial side effect, so not ameliorated. In short (looking at Katya), "They leaked." |
"Will you come with us, Sir?" -KithAs before, everyone has to make a line, and then Xanthippe directs Sharra to make a door. Everyone starts heading through (Jim carrying Dylanna, Sharra carrying Vance). Xanthippe, as before, is the last - she bows to the Dust Wyrm, and says "Goodbye, Onderel." He opens the door for her, and she goes.
"I have a different journey."
"Is there anything we can do to ease that journey?"
"You have already done it."
"Have a good lunch." -Ace
Everyone reappears on the bridge of the Hippocrates - it is at red alert. Everyone is in their previous white robes, except for Xanthippe, who seems to have acquired a long purple dress and a fan somewhere in the transition. From behind them, the Dustwyrm seems to fly forward and up - it turns and bows its head to them, and then vanishes.
As for where they are - they seem to be about two hundred meters above the Bowl, completely surrounded by the Red Fleet.
Once back on the ship, Katya flies off at top speed to search. Kith follows after, but isn't nearly as fast. Everyone else, left behind on the bridge, gets a hail from Commodore de Gaulle. Apparently, the Great Omphalos Dust Wyrm has been hovering in the Gateway system for about four weeks, and has been covered by the Red Fleet during that time.
Kith and Katya determine that all the expected NPCs and remaining party members are on the ship, though Akito is in the tubes. They seem to have appeared earlier, about the same time as Padira did. A quick scan of the on-board tapes indicates that the tiger can walk through walls.
"Oh, it must have traded up for Soul." -CiernanXanthippe announces that she will be in her cabin, and starts towards it. Sharra hurries after her...
"In the intervening years, I'm not sure your cabin is still unoccupied. Years..." -SharraSure enough, her room seems to have been taken over by Akito. And her stuff was sent back to her parents on Gateway, Hippocrates remembers.
The Red military invites the Hippocrates to land at a nearby high-security slip. (The bowl itself appears to be empty, but surrounded by marines.) Hippocrates asks about the casualties at the bowl first. There were apparently a lot of casualties at all three sites - the ones from the bowl are at the investigation center. Hippocrates insists on going there first. The military concedes the point.
A Starguard lieutenant is in charge of taking the party through the facility, though he suggests perhaps just Hippocrates should come, as many of the casualties were... somewhat ugly. There appears to be some confusion over Martan's status, as he was tentatively classified as one of the thugs hired by Terrans, due to some evidence of criminal misdeeds... Hippocrates stomps all over any suggestion that Martan was one of the bad guys, and arranges for the delivery of his body to the Hippocrates morgue.
Then, it is off to the debriefing. This seems to have a number of investigators on different matters, with one guy in overall charge. In general, he lets them ask whatever questions they want to, but in the end he's the one in charge of making sure that they don't ask any questions that the Hegemon doesn't want asked.
The first questions are about the casualties. Why are so many people dead - what were the failure modes, and why did they happen? Ciernan carefully explains that Terrans attacked with a psychic weapon in the bowl, causing amnesia. Plus there were battlemechs, which were quite troublesome. The details of the psychic weapon are somewhat fuzzy, and Ciernan declares that the Dustwyrm took care of it all anyway and pursuing that line of questioning isn't very interesting.
How did the ship get from Craterrock to the Bowl? They have no idea. Can the fleet look at the ship's navigation records? Sure.
How did they destroy the Great Omphalos Dust Worm? Ciernan says that it was more that it was dying of old age. This is not entirely convincing.
"The Great Omphalos Dust Wyrm died of old age just after we surrounded it with our fleet?"Ciernan clarifies further - it was just waiting around for the 'plague', and then its purpose was fulfilled.
Someone shows them a picture of Vance - did they know he was a brainwashed Terran agent? Yes. Did they know he wasn't at the site when Blue investigation troops arrived. Ciernan does a careful job of suggesting that perhaps Blue isn't telling them everything - Vance is an important Blue family member, so why don't they look into what the Blues did with him?
Next is a picture of Martan: "How did this Terran agent infiltrate your crew?" The investigator explains that he was classified as an enemy hostile. The picture explodes at this point, causing guns to be drawn all around, and Katya stands up and glares at the investigator. Hippocrates tries to smooth things over - he was mis-classified as an enemy hostile. The investigator tries to explain - this was based on criminal activities, and the Terrans were known to recruit from the criminal element as thugs. Katya shows the investigator her wedding ring. Er. He was her husband? The guy in charge starts cutting off the questioning. The investigator is unhappy - he still needs to investigate the stolen - at this point, he notices Katya's fancy jeweled bracelet, and gets cut off more strongly. Katya takes the bracelet off and puts it on the table. The guy in charge says that they'll deal with that at another time.
The conversation moves to Dylanna. Unlike Vance, the crew admits to having possession of her: she's in the brig. What are their intentions? She's wanted in Blue, so she's being brought there.
There are lots of technical questions about the psychic defense, and the casualty patterns (they seem random) and Kith gives the standard psi projection / ritual lecture, omitting mention of the Hegemons.
Where is the Star? Um. Good question. They don't know. Over the neutrino radio, Hippocrates checks with the Tinoori, who say it's in the cargo hold. Nobody mentions this to the investigators.
Where have they been for four weeks? In the Dust Wyrm, in a psychic journey of self-discovery. Well, that's fascinating. What did they discover? Ciernan discovered that the Terrans are still active and that's a bit of a problem, that Dr. Cain is on the loose out there again. They wonder if Cain and the Terrans are related - Ciernan thinks probably not, and Ace thinks they're working against each other. Ciernan also mentions that the Tarn are potentially still a threat, and there's another more unknown threat out there.
Anything the party feels they should add? No, not right now. Ciernan is charged with getting together any further details they think of and sending it to the investigation.
The return debriefing is given: 4% of everyone died. There was some chaos, but due to most governments being warned, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There are still large cleanup efforts underway, which are going better in Red than in Blue; the Hegemon had emergency measures in place, whereas Blue had some difficulty with central command just before the emergency. All the Hippocrates crew were reported as missing, but the other associated non-crew NPCs remained behind and are mostly okay. Shortly after the emergency, the Great Omphalos Dust Wyrm laid siege to Gateway. The bowl is no longer active, and was not active after the ritual as soon as it was checked. The Bellarion was probably the thing that the Terrans broke during the assassination attempt. Elmer is now holding "a floating celebration in poor taste."
"He's sure that the noble crew of the Hippocrates saved more people than they killed."All the outworld psis are accounted for. Apparently, nobody who participated in the power-projection part of the ritual suffered from the 4% attrition. No goverments fell, with the possible exception of Nurl, but Blue is still talking a good game.
The list of bad-guy casualties does not seem to include Stone (no big surprise).
"Do not engage him, he is terrifyingly dangerous." -CiernanBut now, they are all invited to Riden by the Hegemon.
Once out of the briefing room, Katya slaps Ace across the face and stalks off. Ace retrieves some paperwork from his cabin, and gives it to Hippocrates - it's from a seedy shop on Sparta which indicates that the jewelry in question was bought there. Ace claims that ignorance is bliss, unless Hippocrates wants more details. Hippocrates says he doesn't, but says that if anyone deserves them, it is Katya. Ciernan says hello, there is a government on Sparta that cares about this sort of thing.
Then, it's off to Riden.
"Ciernan and Mirris could have nanite-free children. Er. But that's not the immediate plan." -MirrisOn the trip to Riden, it becomes clear that both Padira and Xanthippe can walk through walls. Yup, she has a Soul stat now. Xanthippe says that Oompy was worried that it looked like they were going to send Donella to Rupert's Hole, which would make an awful lot of people in the outworlds demigods like this. Apparently this is what happens when you don't quite ascend.
Dylanna is permitted to wake up, and Jim talks to her for a little while.
"Did it work?" -DylannaAce asks Ciernan to check his piece type. He's a small Family Business card (like Belle). Hey! Why doesn't he get to be a Hippocrates piece? Ciernan doesn't think Hippocrates has a specific piece type.
"Yes." -Jim
"Everyone is saved?"
"Ninety-six percent."
"Oh."
Jim goes through Dylanna's backpack: it contains several data cubes, (one of them he has the password to). There are four Scout manuals: two standard Girl Scout, one Girl Scout with mad electrical cabling attached to it, and one Boy Scout. There are also various kits (disguise kit, burglary kit, etc).
Once to Riden, the crew is informed that the Hegemon wants to keep a tight rein on their security until the ceremony. That will allow there to be a public display of the Hegemon's confidence in them, and quash any rumors. Er, what sort of rumors? "That we did it," Ciernan accurately guesses.
Sharra takes a look at Dylanna's hacked Scout manual - it seems to have some sort of complex loopback system set up, so it's like it's networking to itself somehow.
At the spaceport, Estelle shows up to speak with Ciernan. She fills him in on recent events and asks about his dust wyrm adventures. Then she gets to the heart of the matter. She's following someone, who is following someone, who has been trying to hire a good hacker. So she's here to ask Ciernan if the crew has any local hacking contacts she should stake out. She has the hacking scene on Tinara pretty well covered, but doesn't have many contacts in that area here in the capital.
Ciernan tells her that he'll make some inquiries and get back to her. After she leaves, Ciernan talks to Ace about hacking possibilities and he says he'll think about it.
Garan Hans comes by to let them know the medal ceremony is set. Mirris asks him for contact information for Murdoch, so she can talk to him, and he says he'll send her something. Sharra and Mirris work on putting together a Hippocrates dress uniform. Mirris is somewhat distressed about the ceremony though, and says she doesn't want a medal. She didn't help at the bowl. Other people point out that she helped a lot before that.
"Near as I can tell, Jessica didn't do dick to save the universe. Mirris did dick." -AceShould Xanthippe come? She doesn't think she did so much... Well, she helped ensure there were two Hegemonic lines, way back at the begining. That's right! Okay, she and Padira will come. Hippocrates quickly calls Garan Hans to point out that there will be a tiger meeting the Hegemon too.
When the time comes for the ceremony, Viktor Marchant escorts the kids to the VIP waiting area. The Hegemon makes a speech about the noble service the Hippocrates and its crew has done for the Hegemony and other people of the Linked Worlds. Meanwhile, Ciernan is scanning the crowd with fortune looking for piece type - the thing that he notices is that Viktor is a Red Colonel who someone is trying to move like a Red Sergeant.
After the speech concludes, there's a presentation, with medals. Shaddam makes an off-microphone comment that he will know better than to ever use hyperbole in front of them again, after seeing the Great Omphalos Dust Wyrm show up.
"Thank you for being a good man. We couldn't have done it without you." -AceThen, it's back offstage and back to the ship. Garan Hans thinks that the ceremony will take care of general public opinion after a day or two of the publicity machine. But there are still people who are crazed with grief and looking for targets. He offers to leave security in place if they want, but they don't want.
At Ciernan's behest, Ace continues his investigation and finds out
some good local 133t hackers and contact methods:
Byterot - at the Cyber Kaffe
Styng - via the 309 BBS
/kevlar/null - at the greygreyhaus
Ciernan passes that to Estelle, who says that she's going hacker-hunting. Does Ciernan want to come? Ace wants to make sure that the hackers aren't going to get burned. Ciernan thinks that if the hackers were hired by Terrans or something, Estelle might burn them, but right now she's just after information. Well, Ace thinks if they were so dirty as to get hired by Terrans, good riddance.
Meanwhile, Kith, Sharra, and Jim discuss what to do with Vance. Kith can try to help him, or Jim could try an emergency field de-brainwashing, but that's somewhat stressful.
Jim looks around the city for places to traverse for his Starglazing merit badge, and notes that there's a first-tier marathon coming up soon.
Meanwhile, Ciernan and Estelle head to the Cyber Kaffe to watch the hacker. They indentify him pretty quickly, and then watch as another man, unknown to both comes up to talk to him. Ciernan eavesdrops and discovers that the new mark wants to hire the hacker to decrypt something. He pages Ace to get a clue about the kind of encryption, and Ace thinks he's talking about government codes. Around this time, Estelle and Ciernan notice that there's another man with a floppy hat watching their mark. Estelle is shocked! By her reaction Ciernan deduces that this other observer is Viktor! The mark departs to meet with his people and get money, while Ace arrives. As they pass each other, Ace pick pockets the mark, and acquires a data crystal from him. Ciernan is convinced that this crystal is the Grey Lego. Meanwhile, back on the ship Sharra and Kith wake Vance up, and chat with him. He cheerily explains that he had to get rid of the interlopers for the real people. Sort of like clearing slugs out of a garden. Sharra tries to argue that Vance's family isn't slugs, but he's pretty convinced. (He thinks it's sort of like fighting the Reds, but just on a larger scale). Eventually, Kith pushes really hard and suppresses the brainwashing, at which point Vance is appalled at what he tried to do, and also apologetic. Unfortunately, he doesn't know a lot of details about where he was held - he can describe several of the doctors, and thinks they were in New Light before they were in Craterrock, but they didn't really discuss major tactics in front of him. He wonders if his med-bed has a chart. But Kith can't hold it forever, and after the conversation, she seems to be a bit self-biased and thinks that NOBODY IS A SLUG and EVERYONE IS A PERSON WHO SHOULD LIVE.
By this time, the mark has stopped in a seedy bar, and the floppy hat guy has followed him there, followed by a pigeon, which was followed by Estelle and Ciernan, who were followed by Ace. The mark is talking to a group of his goons, while floppy hat (Viktor) watches. It's around this time that th emark notices his crystal is gone and starts looking aroudn the room hoping to spot someone responsible. He fixes on Ace. Ace decides to call back in for reinforcements. "Jim, can you come distract Viktor for me? I'm in a seedy bar, and he's in disguise... " The goons start moving on Ace, and so Ciernan and Estelle decide that they need to set up a distraction.
"I could throw a drink in your face..." -CiernanKith, hearing this start over the neutrino radios and very worried about the non-slug people who might die, tries hard to convince Mirris and Sharra to let her rent a van to go to the firefight. They're a bit worried about her stability, so they claim that it's too far away and will be over soon.
"No, that won't work. I have a better idea." -Estelle
Estelle throws drink in Ciernan's face. "You bitch!-Ciernan
"I could instruct Hippocrates on Healing techniques" -KithWhile the neutrino radios keep the women updated on the progress of the fight, Mirris helps Katya write a letter to Ace to make her feelings clear. After a few minutes of translating several images into "Katya feels", Mirris asks Hippocrates, "Is this what it's like, when we're talking, you know, about stuff that doesn't compute?" Hippocrates notes "Actually, it is much like me talking to Katya." Then, as always, the conversation turns back to Kye.
"I think Hippocrates knows a lot of healing techniques" -Sharra
"What if I told him I wanted to have a meaningless, um, an affair..." -MirrisMeanwhile, combat has broken out full-scale at the bar. The goons go for Ace and also block the exits. The mark, who turns out to be their leader, starts passing out combat shticks to them and telling them to get the crystal. Jim keeps trying to get Viktor to hide under the table, but since Jim won't stay there, Viktor won't either. Jim finds this very frustrating.
"I think you want to say 'dating'." -Kith
The mark is an immediate target for neural disruption, but that doesn't make him completely useless, as he can still direct his minions and give them shticks, until Jim duct-tapes his mouth shut. After this, the party manages to wrap up several goons, but not until several of them are down to single digit hit points, and Viktor enters the fray himself.
Estelle declares the situation a catastrophe, and punches some numbers into a device in her purse. Hippocrates notes that all sorts of emergency places and the military and the like are converging on the bar now. By this point, there's only one bad guy left up, but he seems creepily buffed by being the last man standing.
Back on the ship Mirris wonders if she should cut out her psi permanently for the good of everyone. And to keep Quinn from taking Linnet away from her.
"Maybe in the future we should keep the anti-brainwashing sessions separate from the conversations with Mirris."Kith makes a chart for Vance with several labels: "We are not slugs" and "I am not a slug." So far, he's below "I am not a slug." Jim reassures Kith that he stabilized the dying goon.
Meanwhile, Katya and Hippocrates are on the way on Jim's scooter, and Katya is sniffling on his shoulder. Kith, who hears this on the radio, is concerned. Everyone assures Kith that she's not hurt.
Eventually, they arrive, but the fight is over. Katya, Ace, Jim and Viktor flee before the reinforcements show up, and it comes to pass that all the cops in the world arrive. Estelle is being threatened with all sorts of demotion for using a disaster code for a bar fight. All the bad guys are taken in. The good guys are questioned and released. No doubt Estelle will be let off the hook once she can get far enough up the chain to tell people that it was Viktor she was protecting.
Katya makes puppy dog eyes at Viktor to tell them what's going on. He says he'll explain when he gets his data crystal back. Everyone (inlcuding Viktor) goes back to the Hippocrates, and Viktor is given his crystal. He checks - it hasn't been copied. Whew.
Viktor explains - it was research into the beginnings of the Marchant line at the end of the Infowars, after the fall of the First Hegemony. Which is, he realizes, different than "the Marchant line, which has always been here." So he's looking into that, and the disinformation campaign.
Jim wants to know if Viktor knows who stole it, but Viktor is busy being distracted by how everyone else got to the bar. Estelle, and the whole Hippocrates crew... anyhow, he needs to go and check back in with his guards. Ciernan lets him know that the Juridicist he was following is currently in police custody. Viktor assumes that he'll probably get off for stealing the crystal, for political reasons, but he'll be held for a while.
Ciernan will look around for any more information on the Juridicist in question. He's opposed to the continuation of the Marchant line, but how much he's an active criminal is unclear. Though he did yell "get 'em" to start the fight.
Hippocrates asks if Viktor came across any records of Margot Bellarion? Or Simeon Bellarion? He found some on Margot, which they can discuss later. Now, though, he has to go. Ciernan tries to figure out what's up with Viktor's piece type. Most of the weird effect is gone now, but there's still a little left.
Ace talks to Kith about Glitter, which she's a new convert to since her experiences on Craterrock. She thinks it's great. He thinks it's poor for judgement. She thinks it's good for power. When it seems likely that this could go on indefinitely, they compromise, and agree that she'll pick someone else (she picks Hippocrates) to hold her Glitter stash, and he gets to decide if it's an emergency worthy of using it.