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Post by The Union of Tinis on Dec 15, 2006 23:54:44 GMT -5
"There was something else," said Kam after a few moments. "He wanted me to tell you specifically that he's run out of options with regards to Advanced Parts."
"Well that just kicks it," replied Doron.
"This was actually what sent him on his urgings about infection. He believes they'll attempt to use a hardware system equation wired device to simulate the required conciseness, with a bio-engineered life form as the link between the stone and the hardware."
"Did he say when that would happen?" asked Sana whom had been watching the scene unfold.
"He did not, but he said they'd have their bio-engeered bit back in a matter of hours."
"Well," mentioned Ryuqi. "From what Diiy and Doron have been mumbling about they probably wouldn't be able to do such without the first two folios."
"Yes," added Doron. "The key components for that were dropped in the third and public folio." After a quick flip through some papers. "Yes, this part. If expressed in resonant basis operators it can demonstrate how to mesh quantum chaos with classical brain function models. It also removes some nasty parts from quantum field theory but all the same an obscure but useful trick."
"So do they have access to the first two folios?" asked Kam semi-rhetorically.
"Not necessarily," mentioned Sana. "Advanced Parts doesn't need to have it. But whom ever built the hardware they plan to use would."
"Which would of required unlocking of those folios..." Doron trailed off. "Either that dragon lied to me about the accessibility of their copy, or something isn't quite right."
"I'd say," came Yangno. "And I thought things were interesting at the Hadron Test Beam facility. This place is totally nuts. I'm going for a beer."
"I'll see if I can call him up," said Kam. "There's one other thing he wanted to know about so he's probably expecting my call anyway. About that infection thing he thinks the sys-eq gives, he thinks he's got it and wants to deal with it, and thus wanted to borrow the trippy-sphere for a few moments at some point. If you like I can hand the phone to you Doron and you can chew him out."
"I think I'm going to follow Yangno with that beer," said Lipner.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 16, 2006 16:11:14 GMT -5
"I don't want or need to do any chewing out. Get that dragon the freaking sphere now.", said Doron
"If Advanced Parts wants to play doomsday project, then I suppose we should show them how we don't tend to play by the rules.", said Diiy.
"Precisely, how much do you want to bet Blinn or his ilk know about this and are working on something to neutralize the threat?", said Doron.
"Does this involve me?", said Ryuqi
"Yes it involves you. The Malych have had an accidental, involuntary incident with the stones before. Of course you all are interested in seeing them not used for anything ever again. Kind-of", said Doron.
"Kind-of", asked Ryuqi.
"Damn it, I hate it when politics interfere with science. Even up here, in an apparent academiocracy, there is trouble with those wanting to make things to end the world.", said Doron.
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Dec 16, 2006 23:11:24 GMT -5
"In a system like the one in Tinis," commented Yangno. "Information being present so that people can see what needs to be done is of the upmost importance. When things are secret things can't happen as easily to stop them. Its unfortunate but true."
-----
Kam was waiting with the box when Izixs came back from the roof.
"I heard you were up top," said Kam. "Isn't it a little cold, especially with just shorts?"
"Not at all. In fact that's part of the point. Being out in the elements calms the spirit and the strife filled mind. I was actually not expecting you to be back so soon."
"Well I brought it."
"Before that," said the dragon. "How'd the visitors take my bad news about Advanced Parts?"
"Doron's obviously not happy. Is there anything we can do?"
"Yes. Of course there is. I just can't legally encourage you to do so as it would mean I'm asking you to reveal potentially classified information. And what about what else I talked with you about?"
"They weren't impressed. They seem happy to forage on with our without warning. Maybe they believe they won't suffer a fate like you or Genius."
Izixs nodded. "It is possible. I'd still be cautious if I were them. The pattern of it all... its not quite right. Maybe it is their differences, their otherlyness that will keep them from resonating with it. Or it could be worse and they resonate too well with it."
Kam gave a quiet laugh. "They are a peculiar bunch. I'll give you that."
"But the sphere."
Kam nodded and opened up the box. "They asked me to bring it back as soon as I could when you were done."
"Have you managed to learn anything about it since your encounter?"
"Yes we have," answered Kam. "It is as we would describe it a self contained PDS system with what seems to be several resonant pass points for energies. It activates using at least one of these frequencies and induces an altered state. Of that state we are a little less certain."
"Perhaps I'm being greedy using such a wonder then," admitted Izixs.
"They seemed quite happy to let you use it."
"Maybe they think it will knock some sense into me. I guess we'll see. So what sort of energies are needed for the pass points?"
With a smile Kam explained that they had encountered what seemed to be a Fibonacci series for most of them with a couple odd exceptions but that 4.193 Hz at nearly a tenth of a volt will suffice to activate it.
Izixs grinned while taking the sphere with his claws only, not letting it touch his fine finger scales. "Well, I can certainly do that. And possibly hit some of those higher frequencies if need be."
With that Izixs proceeded to place the sphere between his front teeth. "Weess hooo eeisss." A moderately powerful discharge of electricity from the dragon's biological capacitors in his horns for a full two seconds arched between his teeth, providing quite the light show. Izixs' eyes closed as he did this. After the electrical jolt the sphere rolled from his maw and dropped to the floor. He just stood there.
"First Speaker?" asked Kam after a few moments. "Are you alright."
"I... don't know..."
-----
What had transpired for the dragon was indeed different from the visions thus experienced by others.
It began oddly enough, with Izixs watching as his body weakened and neared collapse. A vision of Kam attempting to help him. He crawled away from him. The skunk's paws hurt when they touched him. Burned. The sphere was gone, destroyed by the electric bolts. Izixs crawled away, tormented by the mathematician. He was cornered. He reached up and grabbed a hold of something. It came loose and fell into his hand.
The dragon looked in horror at the weapon that was in his hand. Kam attempted again to help him up. The burning, the powerful burning struck again. Izixs swung the sword and with out any effort decapitated Kam. Things threaten to become less real and more real at the same time. More now, and less now. The burning grew from where he had touched him.
The blade undulated and spun in his hand. The small streak of blood upon it began to corrode it. The sword melts before him. Melts all over him. Encases his lower body in its burning hot metal. That's the burning now.
Still paralyzed.
"Why must you torment me?" asked Izixs with his teeth clenched.
There was no answer. The burning continued. Torturious heat. Eating away at his flesh. His lower half was gone completely. Izixs tries to punch the ground but his hand is gone as well. It had been gone and he didn't notice it.
Izixs looked over to Kam's body. The body gets up and puts its head back on. Izixs watched. The body presently picks up the dragon and carries him to a nest. Izixs looked into the lifeless eyes of the apparent zombie.
"Shhh..." goes the animated Kam.
"Why?" asked Izixs.
"You are hurt," says Kam.
"How though?" asked Izixs.
"Silly, she warned you," says Kam.
"I know," admitted Izixs.
"Now stop being in the past," commands Kam.
"I'm trying," answered Izixs.
"Come on, its easy."
"Sure it is."
Izixs closes his eyes and falls a sleep.
When he awakes he's somewhere warm and wonderful. The feel of fur all up and down his very intact body. At first he thinks the animated Kam was with him in the nest, but his nose tells him differently.
"I've missed you," he says to her.
"I know. And you thought you were over me. You were. But I come back randomly it seems. At times like these. To torment you again and again."
"I know I've loved since you, but you were never there to torment me. Some lament love pulling them in and making them total fools and followers of its tides, but not I."
Genius nuzzles him gently. "I know. But I've hurt you so much. I'm sorry. I wish I could stop it. To fix your world. To fix you."
"I know you would like that greatly."
"I'm just glad this device allowed us these few moments together again."
Izixs giggled as only he can, "So you are completely aware of what's going on here."
"Yep. I'm no fool. Not like you love."
"Yeah, not like me."
"I must tell you. You're right. I am in work. To much of me is in there. I stop being objective. I sought it to greatly. It ate me. But I contained it I think in the equation. That pattern most destructive and corrupting. I see that now. The entity here helped me learn. But now it has Tinis in its grasp."
Izixs shook his head. "Tinis is full of good people. They won't fall for this thing."
"Izzy, please. It doesn't need the current people to do its work."
"I don't understand."
"Of course not. Patterns are neither good nor evil, but one who can arrange them can create things that are good or evil. I've read all you have read and known all that you have known and this place helps me realize it. Though there's just a little bit of me in you thanks to your ventures to form your nation, its enough. I see a greater danger to Tinis than mere destruction or subversion. Do not let corruption unite the system equation and any of the three. Not until the equation has been completed properly and both myself and the other removed from it." The concern in her voice had increased with each word.
"Very well. I will not let it happen."
"You're laws be damned if need be."
"What are the three though?"
"I... I don't know the other two, but the heaven stone must not unite with it. You can stop that now. Existence itself is in danger if its given that sort of leverage over the real world. If I could I would expel you from this dream right now but I can't."
"How many of us are in here?" asks Izixs.
She hugs him tightly. Light disappears and all Izixs can sense was her. The feeling of his lost love fades.
He eventually lands on a small out cropping for rock. The sky is blue above him, but there is nothing but darkness beneath the platform. He turned.
There was another outcropping of rock. Atop it stood a creature of flesh and blood intersected by metal and wood.
"Who are you?"
The creature extended three arms and pointed at the dragon. Izixs looked down and saw that he once again was holding the mechanical blade. When he looked up, the creature had taken flight, extending its gory wings to give it lift. Izixs braced himself with the blade at the ready. The creature swept down at him and attempted to swat at the dragon. Izixs blocked the first three strikes but the third sent him hurtling off the rock.
Izixs took to the air and began an aerial dance with the creature. Cuts and breaks were had by both. Finally Izixs sent the blade spinning and jabbed it into the creature's chest, drilling into it. The creature fell. It was swallowed by the darkness.
Izixs rested on one of the rocks for a while before flying off to find anything. He flew towards the horizon and the rising sun. After what seemed to be hours he heard a sound from behind him. He turned and saw the creature once more, but bathed in the darkness of the void below. At first glance it seemed to be of the same dimensions as before, large but not indomitable. But upon focusing he realized that it looked the same size only because it was many miles off.
He took flight once more towards the sun, and then up. The creature walked casually. Izixs grew tired as he reached thinner and thinner air. It was thinner than any he had ever experienced, even when he had jumped from an airplane. The creature reached up and enveloped him entirely.
Constricted Izixs could feel his bones snap. As his rib cage was imploding and his horns being pushed into his skull, he found himself at a party.
He was sitting at a table sipping some water, watching the goings on. He turned to the fur sitting next to him.
"Nice place you have here, mind if I ask why you insist on torturing me?"
"Excuse me?"
"Don't play with me sir."
"If you're friends weren't having such a field day here I'd be more evasive."
Izixs grins. "Its good to be in the now. So what is this?"
"You tell me."
"Bah, ok, so we got revelers. Looks like someone's home. Don't think I know anyone here."
"Alright," replies the stranger.
"Is that it?"
"Sure."
Izixs glances around. "I see. You forgot a few things to. There's no chips in that bowl over there."
"Drat."
"Drat?"
"Ok," says the stranger. "I need you out of here quick like. You've got me a bit flustered and the other two are not helping."
"I know Genius's fragment is here, but what is the other?"
"Stop being so present!" yelled a voice from across the room.
"And I thought this was going to be a joyful event," says the stranger. "Deal with him and I'll help you out as you wanted."
"Deal," says Izixs. "Assuming helping me out involves me not loosing myself again."
"I can't remove her from you entirely, it would be cruel and you'd loose way to much of yourself. But the other, yes I can pull it off you. But you need to pull it off me first. Such pattern slip entities are not to be incorporated with living minds, nor entities like myself."
"Pattern slip entities?" asks Izixs.
"Mistakes basically. Things that fall between the seems of the patterns when the patterns are not sown properly. Its complicated and if that skunk was here she could explain it to you, but she's busy right now herself. Now get it off me!"
"Ok."
Izixs turns and faces an empty room. Its a very large room. The walls stretch up to either side for many floors. There's a glass window on the far wall that ends a few floors up with a series of terraces that extend further out into the main room.
Izixs sees on the top terrace an armored figure wielding a mechanical blade just like the one that had once again found its way into his possession. Izixs was without armor.
The figure on the terrace will spread his wings and dive towards Izixs.
Izixs didn't have a chance. He looked down at the blade sticking from his chest up toward the helmet of the attacker.
"I am the real future," the warrior would say.
The blade sunk deeper. Blood trickled from Izixs's mouth as he attempted to cough.
"I will fight your future," says Izixs with what little strength he has.
"You don't understand, I am inevitable. I will be."
"I fight the future. There is always a better way."
The warrior will take off his helmet. The face is Izixs', the eyes glow red with an powerful fire.
"You monster, you hurt her so much."
"She asked for me. She asked for to much. She asked to know everything."
Despite the blade in his body, Izixs no longer felt he was dying.
"But that did not give you the right to invade her and to subsume her work. To infect it with your slime."
The warrior of the future will push the blade in as far as he can, and will activate a different mode of the weapon, rending the flesh of Izixs further.
Izixs lifts his blade and puts it to the throat of the warrior. "And she will not be burned by the fire in my eyes. I surrender and forfeit your claim over me and my soul."
"Souls? Weak patterns those. So fragile. So easily taken. Like I took hers."
"I will not be you," says Izixs as he slides the blade through the attacker. "And you never had power over her. She was your master in the end. She held my hand when I could of slaughtered thousands at your request on the fields of Arx. She awoke you to save my life when I faced Sicarii. You are data. You are no demon, no genie. You may torment but you do not command."
The warrior dropped dead and vanished altogether.
"Now get out!" roars a voice.
----
"I... think I might be ok," says Izixs after a pause. "Thank you. Yes. Now then..."
Izixs spins. "I feel like being a maverick," he says as he heads over to the phone. After dialing, "Yes, announce that I'm calling the chamber back into session for an emergency meeting. Seven this evening. And I don't care if no one shows up. Then call up Epshrin and tell him he better test the new system again pronto because I'm picking up my blade and going to call him to a special meeting if he doesn't. Now use my exact words there. Yes, yes good, bye." He puts down the phone. "Good, now Kam. Remember what I said earlier about not encouraging you to get people to reveal classified information? Well I'll be upfront. Do it. The world may be in danger if you don't so I think that falls under that one part of the constitution that calls me and the government to take actions when the fate of all sentient life is in danger. Wait world... no cosmos... yeah that works better. So yes, tell Doron, Diiy and the whole crew as well as your own staff that if they feel that uniting a heaven stone with a device capable of pattern slip mechanics or worse then they should feel free to break any contracts or agreements or laws they need to to prevent such from happening. And if their own laws, then I'll be happy to offer them asylum but I kind of doubt their laws would interfere. Anyway, do what ever you need to do to make sure the world doesn't end badly."
"First Speaker?" asks Kam. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Maybe."
"Because pattern slip mechanics is something I don't even understand and some credit me with discovering it."
Izixs laughs. "Actually I don't know what it is either, I just know its a buzz word to get things going right. Yeah. Don't tell me how I knew it either. I don't think I understand. Wow... actually I feel great right now. Let's bust some heads."
----
Kam returned to the office shortly after the visit with the paxisphere in his possession.
"Well?" asks Doron semi-interrogatively.
"He seems... happier. He also says we should do what ever we need to do to prevent Advanced Parts having its way with the heaven stone. Laws be damned."
Lipner took the opportunity to whisper to Sana. "Told you, it made Kam strange, now our First Speaker's gone nuts."
"Oh you, Kam was always strange," she replied.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 17, 2006 6:57:25 GMT -5
"What exactly prompted such a sudden charge of enthusiasm?", said Ryuqi.
"Well, Izixs did some paxisphere", said Kam followed immediately by Doron saying, "Oh, you make it sound like something you buy for 30-per-kilo and have to hide inside the door panels of your car when going through customs check."
"And he says that this apparatus being put together at APC is using Pattern-Slip Mechanics and thus is more dangerous than we thought.", finished Kam.
"Pattern-Slip Mechanics is something I came up with to make the C multiplier stuff work for Coaxial. It resolves the conflict of infinite acceleration. It's harmless unless maybe you are totally insane.", said Doron.
"No, I'm pretty sure I invented it, and I'm not 100% sure of what it does. Well, at least there are a lot of people out there who credit me with it's invention.", said Kam.
"Okay, this is stupid. You both invented it, and there is a simple explanation as to what's going on here. Doron stumbled across it as a compromise to patch up a hole in some stuff for CoAx. But that's the extent to which Doron has done anything with it. You guys probably got it from something from the system equasion I suppose. There, resolved. Now, what we need to do is process this as a group.", said Ryuqi.
"Ok, so what do we know about the heaven stones in regards to their effect on intelligent organisms.", asked Ryuqi.
"It causes them to produce large quantities of adrenoline, ramps up musculoskeletal growth. Interferes with psychological stability. Basically makes someone into a Hulk.", said Lipner.
"Okay, now while this may be usefull for military applications, it is inefficient, since there are not that many heaven stones and they are impossible/impractical to manufacture. There are more efficient and safer ways to make super-soldiers. So we can conclude that this is probably not what the APC folks are trying to build with their apparatus.", said Ryuqi.
"Ok, so now what do we know about inorganic interfaces to heaven stones?", asked Doron.
"Inorganic interfaces will loose their existing control systems and will default to a state of destructive ferality involuntarily, even against the will of the control system. An inorganic interface to a heaven stone is more than just impractical, it is suicide", said Ryuqi, "Alright, so it most definately is not an inorganic control system, otherwise all hell would have broken loose by now."
"Ok so what is happening here, is they are using an organic interface to convert the cumbersome potential energy in the heaven stone into usable, controllable energy.", said Doron.
"So where does the Pattern-Slip stuff come in?", asked Sana.
Doron looked at Kam and then Kam at Ryuqi and then Ryuqi at Doron.
Finally Ryuqi said, "I think it's time we all get to the same page here."
Doron said, "I have no reservations with showing you guys stuff from the second folio."
"What about the last one?", asked Kam.
"At this time, the last folio exceeds my capacity to pay attention. As far as I can tell right now, the last folio is the unintelligible writtings of a distressed, inaccesibly complex and unreachably super-intelligent being which went stark, raving mad shortly before reconciling her revelations, making a version she saw as practical based on the politics of the time and then finally disappearing from the world all together.", said Doron.
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
"Are you saying the last folio is... just gibberish?", asked Fran.
"Surely I was expecting a more momentous... or grand sort of discovery here. For one, I didn't know you had the the last folio as well as the second. And additionally, I was expecting... a bit more.", said Kam
"Sparhow copied more than just notes to the memory stick.", said Doron.
"Ryuqi, I would expect you at least to tell us about this. I didn't know we basically had a verbatim copy of the last folio. I mean, I suspected such with the second, but the third too? This isn't secure. We can't just have the entire system equasion just sitting here in this reletively unsecured office! We only have two locks on that door! And what about the windows!", said Sana
Ryuqi wasn't sure how to respond to this, but Doron spoke for her.
"Perhaps you may not understand. The Malych are archivers. They seek information and material, and they store it. Sparhow knows this, she's married to one. That's why she had Kagidoro deliver it, she knew Ryuqi was here, and knew that she would handle it properly. It is in her nature to automatically store data without actually knowing what it is. She didn't know. But I did. So blame me.", he said.
"God help us, the Malych have the complete system equasion.", said Sana quietly.
"And so does Ciata and Tinis!", said Ryuqi. "Sure we're a bit behind but on this world, having the system equasion is having eyes. If we can't tell if our allies are still our allies or if they may be our enemies then how are we supposed to do defend ourselves effectively?! How can we expect to negotiate diplomacy when we aren't on the same level. If we all know the same things then we are unified in a common condition and it seems that is the only way to have a sustained peace when you're dealing with beings of varrying degrees of rationality! Those... those ecclesiocratic felines over there in Ciata have the access to the entire equasion! Who knows what they might do with it? What they are doing with it?! ... This scares us. Regardless of Emporer Stormwake's pacifism and the the pacifist ideology they adhere to, they still had a civil war. Their system, as well meaning as it may be, is not able to deal with rogue elements effectively and therefore it is entirely possible for such knowledge as the extended system equasion to fall into the possesion of those rogues who are morally inferior to us as well as the Ciatan status quo. This is why we are concerned. ...
This is why we had to copy the folios.
Ciata has a working Carruthian Field box of the likes we've never seen before or at least, that's what it seems. We picked up a disparity of -8.2 dns. charge for a period of one second around Loran somewhere.
A disparity of -8.2 dns is 10^8 times more powerful than the most powerful of naturally occouring pucon discharges.
There is no way that was an accident.
You know what -/+8.2 dns is? Doron?"
Doron, somewhat surprized by Ryuqi then said, "That's like, really hard-core Co-Ax except not through space, but rather through time."
Ryuqi continued, "That's something we don't know how to do. AT ALL. We can theorize it, but it is so vastly far beyond the limits of our current engineering capabilities that it is currently considered to be probably impossible to use Co-Ax to travel through time exclusively and not space. This is the equivalent of using an arc-welder for a bottle of ketchup. To us, this totally doesn't make any sense.
But it's here. It happened. So we have to find a way to make it make sense. That's why we copied the folios. I'm sorry. I didn't even realize what it was until it was too late. Even then, I'm not sure if I would have stopped it."
There was a pause for a while, then Kam spoke up, "Well, that's a perfectly reasonable reason. Except to us, a nation which has basically entrusted a copy of the extended system equasion to Ciata's Shuey Baw Monastery, this is a bit of an unexpected breach of security. Izixs is pretty sure what's in the other two folios is stuff which is pretty dangerous. The Genius of Pargalo was pretty sure of the same thing and that's why she made the primary system equasion. I'm not sure where you all are when it comes to how complete of an equasion, but from what I've gleaned it seems that you all have a few functioning parts from all three folios, but simply haven't ever cared to connect them together. Some of these are things the Genius of Pargalo left out, and honestly, I'm beginning to wonder why she chose to leave a few of these out because they seem to be as constructive as they are usefull. But my point it, everyone above us has buried this for a reason. Perhaps... Who are we to uncover it?"
Ryuqi's tail stopped moving, as did Doron's at nearly the same time. Ryuqi's then began moving again as she was able to override reaction with rationale, and Diiy and Kiyake started poking her and asking what was going on. She explained very quickly and quietly, as compactly as possible what Kam had just said.
Kiyake's tail stopped moving as well, Diiy however said something back.
"800 years ago on Dincota there were two kinds of people in the world. Two major ideologies which finally released a thousand years of tension in one massive world war. While up north, we practiced Spartan-style eugenics for two-thousand years to breed more intelligent people, in the Empire of Mokdoratchai in the south, on the other side of the world, built an empire based on old vestiges of the deities of the past. It was practically their mantra, 'who are we to ..." They poisoned their offsprings' minds in their indoctrination farms with such ideological venom. They beleived that victory lay in obedience. Blind and thoughtless actions. Superstition. The pedagogy of the Mokdoratchitian propoganda machine instilled in the people the notion of "Who are we, the common people, to do something about our condition?".
The largest war we ever had started when the Mokdorachitians tried to conquer the Allosaurs of Doringanton. The empire of Norlarco faced a poorly equipped army of peasants. Convinced that divine providence would save them from a obvious defeat. Something must be said for courage, but not in this war. General Stover of the Kohtohkhan army offered the Mokdoratchitians a humane surrender. He would allow them to walk away unharmed and unimprisoned with their dignity if they layed their crude and almost useless iron weapons down. It was a part of the Kohtohkhan tradition. That there is more honor in allowing your enemy to surrender and showing them mercy than there is in simply slaughtering the insufficiently armed conscript. While the Norlarcois had no problem with opening fire with their cannons and mortars upon their enemies until they simply couldn't take it and would retreat, The Kohtohkhans were less accepting of bloodlust and beleived that preserving their moral superiority was more important than killing their enemies.
That was the bloodiest war in the history of that planet. Because the Mokdoratchitians didn't take Stover's offer. They beleived that "Who were they to question their leaders?"
Legend has it that Stover took an arrow to his own chest, and allowed 40 arrows to be fired at his lines before he reluctantly ordered his cannonry lines to begin firing.
In case your wondering how it ends, Doringanton is defended, ten eventually granted independance from the Norlarcois. Then Kohtohkhoh seizes control of Norlarco because the Norlarcois decide that the Kohtohkhans were far more chivalrous and honorable in their method of combat. By having the armaments to utterly destroy an army and still, offering them a humane surrender and a chance to walk away. Having great power but choosing not to use it to create tradgedy.
Anyway, the point is, if we don't question these things, then we have failed as scientists."
Ryuqi then said, "The phrase, 'who are we to...' is a direct referrence to that conflict in the Kohtohkhan language. And many of the bloodier battles of that war are not something they are proud of at all."
Sana then said, "So what's in the last folio? Besides craziness."
Ryuqi said, "The third folio contains some very unsimplified, unorganized material which I don't think Doron or the raptors can really... decode. The problem for the raptors is: Dincotian mathmatics are extremely organized and orderly. Their algebraic language, while equivalent in meaning to yours, has some different conventions which make it absolutely necessary to keep it very organized and simple. I don't suppose you have 'Mark-up Validation' in your math do you?"
"That sounds like programming", said Lipner
"Their... our approach is like that. Mark-up Validation means that the variables must be classified or tagged as either undefined or defined. If the type of the equasion is unknown, and the variables are provided, then the entire 'equasion' can only be considered an imcomplete data set. The variables can then be analyzed to see if they fit a pattern. Then from there, an equasion can be construed. However, this equasion must be validated by an equasion format or else an accurate solution is not guaranteed. If the equasion cannot be validated sucessfully against an equasion format, and the equasion is purported to fit a type of format, then the equasion is totally invalid or sometimes it may be unreliably convoluce, which means that there are unecessary variables which need to either be consolidated into functions that output one variable so that one variable can then be used in a valid format equasion along with others, or that the data source, or the asumed format of the equasion is invalid, misleading or just plain wrong.", said Ryuqi.
"I can't imagine what your kids must have to deal with on math tests using that.", said Sana.
Kiyake then said something and Ryuqi interpreted it, "Actually, teaching and testing math proficiency using this Mark-up Validation notation method results in more students acheiving a better understanding of the concepts according to our statistics. When you make it a simple set of rules and tools, which check and prove themselves constantly, sure it's a bit more stuff, but it also makes more sense to more people."
"Also, it makes it easier to furnish things to a computer when you basically use computer formatting for your equasions from the beginning.", said Doron, "We had mechanical adding machines and such as far back as 2500 years ago. The Rotoriayl was a cog-wheel device originally used to keep track of time, but pretty much immediately after getting it to do that, it was reapropriated as an adding machine. Then not to long after it, pretty much they made a machine for every arithmatic function, addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. And the dudes that 'invented' algebraic notation for us basically invented it for the purpose of writting down a list of instructions to enter into the machine to solve complex equasions. Then I guess one day they sat down and realized, 'hey, this is far easier to understand then the unorganized notation we were using before. Maybe we should write down all equasions as sequential programs'"
"There are some drawbacks as I'm sure you've seen.", said Ryuqi
"Like how equasions take up more physical space on a piece of paper. And how if you need to change the variable to be solved for, you have to rewrite an entire program and then validate it... which actually I don't mind. I find that validation catches simple errors and locates mistakes a lot faster and results in more consistently accurate equasions. I have a feeling that Genius of Pargalo was experiencing some sort of neurological cross-talk that resulted in her cryptic output", said Doron.
"I have a feeling that Genius of Pargalo was beginning to experience a blurring of lines when she produced the last folio too just from what I've read of her. I have a feeling that using the paxisphere may help in decoding it though.", said Ryuqi while she took the box from Kam.
"I'd rather not personally consult it.", said Kam.
"Well, Doron. It's either you or me. It all comes down to who it will be more direct with. You or me.", said Ryuqi.
"Well, the bug was very direct and rational with me... but you on the other hand. You've got resources. You can call up the data on demand and present it to him accurately and completely. Not only that, but you can record and play the 'experience' back and analyze it. I nominate you because I can't do that.", said Doron.
Ryuqi showed minor trepidation when opening the box. The impossibly-solid, flawless surface of the ball didn't reflect all that much, and yet had no defining color of it's own.
Kam then said, "I should tell you what happened with Izixs.
He activated it using an arc of electricity in his mouth. And... maybe this is just a supposition. But I think we all leave a little bit in there. And whatever that is we leave in there is probably capable of communicating to other people when they go in. ...
And I got this feeling that Izixs put at least a little bit of the Genius of Pargalo in there when he did it."
Ryuqi then said, "Well I hope so. Then I can ask her herself about it. Doron, plug me into a wall, I'm going to need some extra wattage to stay in there long enough to get answers."
Doron found a standard power-supply plug from a computer and then found the panel on Ryuqi's back which had a myriad of various other kinds of ports, plugged the power supply cable into Ryuqi and then into the wall.
"Take a seat folks, this may be a while", she said. Then picked up the ball out of the box and forced into it, through the metal contacts of her claws, an 800-watt 4.193 hz RF blast.
It must have been sucessful, because her entire body locked up, still holding the ball. And the tiny orange lights in her multi-lensed eyes turned off as her mouth creaked open and froze.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 18, 2006 0:08:35 GMT -5
Ryuqi was in a train station. From the looks of it, one she was slightly familiar with.
The walls were all glass tiles and floor as well.
Looking down and being able to see light coming from, and stuff beneath the glass floor whe knew this had to be some kind of train station in Holyoke.
The only species with an obcession with creating artificial vertically-suggestive elements to simulate height like glass floors were birds and raptors.
The station was fairly empty though. The lower area of it was similar to the upper section. Except it serviced the underroute lines. Noticing the rounded-cornered metro card in her hand, she realized that this was not Holyoke or Hokyldaryon. But rather this was Hakaron.
She also had the folded time-table for the route L8...
L8 was the dirtiest route in town. The one which managed to hit every sleaze-center in the metro area.
Down the tube, the cylindrically-shaped subway train was audible. The occasional screech of the wheels and crackle of the overhead lines detoning its approach.
Then came the typical warning horn.
The subway didn't really stop so much as it simply rushed by, sparks flying off the contact piece and overhead lines.
But there was something wrong with this train, the entire back half of it simply ended in a mass of wires, whipping around.
Ryuqi thought this was a bit funny. An obvious symbolism of the worst underroute in town being a monster...
Well it was funny until the wires came her way and grabbed her, dragging her into the railwell and then behind the train as it sped along.
The wires were attempting to pull her into a some kind of maw in the back of the train.
Naturally she tried chewing her way out of it, but the little that the train did communicate was that she had something it needed. That it was hungry. It wanted to devour and absorb her. The wires became very thick around her mouth so that she could no longer bite down on them. She made one slight attempt at shooting something from her mostly vestigial mouth-cannon, but it was hardly anything beyond a slight melting of plastic on the wires.
Ryuqi was pulled into the train.
Ryuqi was none too surprized to find herself in the organic equivalent.
She weighed a fraction of what she once weighed, and lost all of the mechanical systems and quantitative sensors.
She was in an unknown location. Inside a fairly nice house. The only other person there was a skunk.
Ryuqi thought that the organic condition may prove to be a problem though. Seeing as this was a female Skunk, in a house with decoration congruent with that of old Pargalo.
She cut straight to the point, "If I don't have access to data services and recording when in contact with you, then this is a waste of both of our time."
The Skunk then said, "Data services? I must be missing something."
Ryuqi simply stood there and said, "Listen. This is a data-gathering excerise. I'm doing it because I can record it and because I have a perfect image reproduction of your folios in immediate access."
At this point there was a scuffing around and then a slightly humanoid, slightly insectoid creature tore through one of the walls as if it were paper.
The skunk simply stared in disbeleif.
"Pardon miss", he said, then he turned to Ryuqi and said, "You are still recording, you still have data access"
"Not like this I don't", said Ryuqi holding up her now organic claws.
The insect paused a moment and then said, "Well, I'll be frank, I chose to make you organic for her sake." he then pointed to the skunk.
"I'm sure she can handle it", said Ryuqi, "She will have to handle it"
"She came in here when the last guy visited. She's... a very strange one and I don't think she would be willing to talk to a machine.", said the bug.
"Would one of you be so kind as to tell me what's going on?", said the skunk.
"Listen... unknown named person running this place, I need my services if I'm going to do this right.", said Ryuqi.
"Very well", said the bug.
And with that, each component of Ryuqi changed back to her original Blue-and-white, boxy mechanical allosaurus form one at a time. The entire thing complete in under 3 seconds.
Ryuqi made sure she was recording everything, and that she could call up the image reproductions of the folios.
The skunk let out a slight yelp and took a step back.
"Fear not madam", said the bug before departing the room through the tear in the wall that he made to enter. "This thing is incapable of causing harm to you. I know this for certain."
With the bug gone, and the tear sealed back up on it's own. Ryuqi was left in the room alone with the Genius of Pargalo. But it they were sharing more than just the visual space. They were able to see into eachother's thoughts.
"So in the future it seems they've made computers that think like something halfway between organic life and programming. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprized. My entire life has been devoted to turning everything into a form of programming.
I'm sorry, I've seen a lot of very strange things here and you're one of them.", she said.
A moment passed and she read Ryuqi and said, "The folios that I tried to bury. You have them and the scientists of your time are interested in understanding them."
Another moment passed and then she said, "I see. You fear that it may be misused and thus you must understand it to stop it."
Ryuqi finally said something, "Our inaction will allow something potential terrible to happen."
"As I think Izixs caught that drift.", she said, "You seem to differ though. Yours' is a rationale which is liberated of piety and I can see that there is no way to argue you out of your pragmatism."
Another moment passed, and then she said again, "You do not fear the consequences of the process do you. The warnings you have received. I can see that there is no sense in attempting to warn you again but, as much as you may be intrinsically capable of understanding a great deal of knowledge, I'm afraid an attempt to fully conceptualize this would be impossible for a machine of your limits. You seek the impossible."
"I'm but a means to transmit information from you to the scientists on the other end.", said Ryuqi.
The bug was cooperating with keeping the channels open, he knew that Ryuqi was coming in here with a purpose and he also knew that his role was now more clearly defined as a means of facilitating otherwise impossible communication.
And so the discussion began. Ryuqi brought up the image reproductions of the folios and Genius could see them in her mind.
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Post by miokalia on Dec 29, 2006 23:19:13 GMT -5
Meanwhile in Erenmor:
Sparhow was occupied with trying to figure out exactly what the Erenmoren experts were building here.
At the same time, she was working on ways to possibly refine what the others had already put together based on their notes and papers on it.
The Erenmoren approach was something different than she initially expected. The use of mass-subtraction using some various exotic bosons seemed to be the preferred method for everything.
It was a form of engineering which had never been explored that much by Dincotian science. However Sparhow was a Daeronese Miokalian. And she was slightly familiar with the method which typically involved fantasticly astronomical amounts of energy with minimal conversion. This approach to engineering relied heavily upon induction and projection. Inducing the desired form of particle radiation by applying enough of another 'supply' form.
Well that seemed to be where the papers were going.
It was basically a matter of choice. The Dincotians discovered Pucons first, then radiation induction later. Two routes to the same thing, each with different qualities.
It seemed that the Erenoren had comparable technology for space-faring as the Dincotians had (kind-of). The main difference being that the Dincotians got stumped when it came to getting past their planet's Van Allen radiation belt. And once they figured out how to do it, chose to do atmosphere-to-atmosphere interplanetary travel instead.
Erenmoren engineering seemed to be formed around the availibility of different technologies. For one, in her stay thus far she had seen a lot wider use of hovering and photon-constriction technologies. Technologies which existed in Miokalia, but were typically not used in favor of other more availible technologies and also, of all things, aesthetic choices.
Sparhow's computer, an imported portable desktop was an example of this. While photon-constricting monitors do exist, the physical-surface, roll-out OLED monitor was the monitor of choice for just about everything for Miokalians. The problem with the translucent holographic screens was: they were translucent. Their opacity was limited and thus they tended to have almost adequate color reproduction and almost adequate contrast, because they aren't opaque. Things which bother Miokalians enough that the technology isn't as prevalent down there.
She was using the computer heavily for translation purposes.
Additionally, the old double-daisy-wheel type-writter she had just wasn't really sufficient here.
What made an interesting challenge was that she had to solve the singularity-transportation issue using things that work with the technology availible in Erenmor.
The biggest lead she had at this point involved Higgs Bosons. A particle which is involved in defining the effect of gravity on matter.
These were the particles involved in compensating for C (speed-limit of light) in physics having to do with pucons. A device that catches the momentum of pucons also tends to suck the Higgs Bosons because the matter can't be destroyed, and it doesn't end up as energy (when pucons are involved, because they tend to inhibit rapid matter-to-energy conversions).
In the Erenmoren device thus far, the problem appeared to be that the Higgs Bosons were being induced from matter so quickly that it was incredibly difficult to control.
There were a lot of factors involved here, enormous amounts of energy. Her instincts from her Dincotian science background led her to think that there had to be a way to do it with less energy and with less risk.
Of course the problem was, less energy means less load. The whole point of this was to make something to transport a practical (and large) amount of load.
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Post by Erenmor on Jan 3, 2007 20:26:58 GMT -5
Sparhow got the chance to meet the project leader, doctor Morgan, some two days after her arrival. Kristen Morgan, as it turned out, was a human woman, middle-aged, though a more precise estimate was impossible. She had dark skin, had her head shaved bald and was dressed in the ever-present jumpsuit under a simple lab coat. It was then that Sparhow also got to see what the project at hand was actually about.
Led by doctor Morgan, the pair entered the large hall located two levels below the small lab Sparhow had been shown on the first day. The central part of the hall was taken up by a ring-shaped collection of various mechanical and electronic elements, surrounded by a circle of half-spheres set into the floor and ceiling. There was a smaller door opposite to the one they entered through and a viewing window could be seen high up by the ceiling.
"The smaller rings you saw on your first day were the first phase... this, as crude as it might seem, is what our current research focuses on," Morgan explained, leading the way up to the observation gallery. "Allow me to explain... I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of a singularity as an event in space-time where conventional laws of physics don't function quite as they should? As you may have guessed, we have to an extent worked out how to generate and, more importantly, control such singularities. Thus far such control has been for one of two applications," the explanation went on as they stepped into the viewing gallery. Currently all the computers and consoles were powered down and they were the only two there - aside from the ever-present guards, that is.
"As can be guessed from the name, the first application, the Singularity Engine is used to provide power to most of our installations. The second, as can be expected, is weapons technology. It really is fascinating the damage a second-long singularity can do to living tissue..." Morgan shrugged. "Recently, we've began exploring the possibility of using a singularity as a transport medium, however. You'd be familiar with the concept of wormholes, perhaps? The idea is that while a black hole sucks in just about anything within range, an opposite white hole somewhere is supposed to toss it back out again, if you'll excuse the oversimplified definition."
"The main problem with using this as a means of transport is that, as logic would suggest, anything going near a black hole would first get crushed down to an infinitely small size before the white hole returns it. Thus, rather than generating a black hole proper, we've focused more on probing the connection between the ends of a wormhole," here doctor Morgan smiled. "With a considerable amount of success, at least in the theoretical aspect. As must have been explained already, the main problem presently lies within fine control of the particular singularity in use here. Right now, even a stationary end point has proven problematic with regards to controlling all the properties. Not quite what we're looking for in the replacement to our existing interstellar travel medium, as you can imagine..."
Doctor Morgan paused here, waiting for any questions, occasionally looking out to the inert ring structure in the hall.
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Jan 7, 2007 17:39:43 GMT -5
The first twenty seconds of the communication, of the exchanging of the imagery of the folios between Ryuqi and the incarnation of Genius, seemed to leave both a little flustered. Slight corrections were made to the system equation, but nothing that seemed substantial to either.
"Something feels wrong," said Genius after the first exchange. "Its... I see it now. Perhaps...."
The impressions of thought Ryuqi got from her was that her current incarnation was brought about partially not by the written component of her work, but the system of it directly. She may have used the system equation as a guide for self realization in the domain of pure thought, but it had instead of merely translating her into the method used by Izixs, it left an imprint of her elsewhere. And that imprint is what was able to get into the praxisphere.
And that imprint didn't see the equation as a bunch of numbers and formulas, but a sum of existences.
"The scientists. They use information from complicated systems to narrow down the domain and to find the coefficients yes?"
"You are right," replied Ryuqi who had just noticed the environment had changed slightly. Different coloring of the walls, slightly different sound to everything.
"This place is a library. Its information helped realize me and the excess components to the battle method. So let's have it complete the realization. First..."
The skunk stood up and came up to Ryuqi. Then she placed her paw on the metal allosaurus and smiled. "Let's remove what doesn't jive. I've been cleansed of the mistake. Now let's do it all right and proper. I'll need to use your data copy function though."
"Alright, but please, only one copy."
For both the folio images morphed quite radically. They combined into one tapestry which then transformed into an amazingly complex diagram. A second diagram appeared. It slid over and fit atop the first, almost matching perfectly.
"I don't think I'm seeing this right," said Ryuqi.
The thought passed on from Genius that the diagram was indeed infinitely complex in scope. That it was almost like a fractal that if you zoomed in you'd only find more structure. But even then, a difference could be found with a similarly structured idea.
"The new pattern manifold is my incarnation here. There's the system equation bare. Myself. And something else in the original folios. Something that gave me the power to create all this, but then decided not to go away. Sorry to go mystical but one doesn't mess with odd occult books that actually give results without finding oneself a demon or two."
"You have the system equation and your component in your cleaned copy," Ryuqi realized. "But you're still only partial in all of it. You don't have it all."
That's the beauty of the system equation, came the thought. Its self consistent. If you know a certain amount of it, you know it all. It just takes time to turn the crank for even the best of us. But here and with your help I can sort of use the reverse to remove the errors. Because the errors are self consistent as well. That's why just looking at the system equation you don't see them. Lets do it.
The environment changed again as both perceived directly the pulling out of errors where the smaller diagram overlapped the larger. The errors morphed back into equations.
"So, if this part is not true..." they said in unison.
In almost an orgasmic epiphany the system equation as they knew it shifted radically. Then it began to grow.
"You sure you know what you're doing?" said the guardian and keeper of the sphere whom had become illuminated in a spot light. All three where standing in a dark void it seemed except for the single light. "Because that seems positively viral."
They returned to their mind's eye and indeed the number of terms seemed to be increase exponentially. There was no more choice any more to it. The equation was in control.
"Did... did I fail again?" gasped Genius.
"Don't give up so easily," replied Ryuqi. "I think... I think perhaps there's something else at work here. We are beings brought about by data at the heart of it. And myself especially, am alive and can foster multiplication. Data growth and the creation of spring if certain things are done. I think that perhaps your system equation has simply tapped into that. But if you'll watch there is a self limiting process. It demands efficiency. Kam was wrong about the equation being alive. It wanted to be and possibly something else was hiding in it that was. But maybe now it will actually be."
All three seemed to be suffocating under the amount of information hitting their senses or sensors.
"You said it was infinitely complex. I guess we'll know for sure now," commented the guardian.
All three could see it then. There was no more room for it to grow. There was realization as the collection of data, suddenly forced to be aware. Realization that perhaps it should become efficient and compact once more so as to not snuff out those whom also inhabited this place.
The system equation entered a different mode. It broke itself into components, translated them into data, and forced itself through well... itself. The system equation through the system equation.
The pressure vanished. Ryuqi had it and so did Genius.
"Its amazing. Its only a little longer than my flesh based attempt at fixing it. A number of differences. And... a manual for conversions of all data... well at least more than I'm aware of. That's... very nice."
"I think those back outside will love this."
They were standing on a ledge overlooking a very large, many storied room. Glass windows revealed country side on two sides of the room while immediately across from them there was more concrete structure with windows to offices and box shaped ledges.
The keeper of the sphere was gone once more.
"A pattern slip is a very dangerous thing," said Genius. "It can be used in many technical matters, but a particular kind of pattern slip can destroy. Or create. Or it could do nothing. But its impossible to know unless you know what you are doing. I've taken from the memories here a great deal of information about the heaven stones and the PDS devices. Together they are capable of performing the unfortunate type of pattern slip.
"The world is full of patterns. The system equation describes how they interact. There's patterns for knowing and not knowing. A pattern slip in almost any other domain is harmless or even useful. Well almost any other. But if its used in the domains of knowing and not knowing, then anything is game. And the main issue, the one that frightens me, is that a PDS works very well in this domain.
"The heaven stone is liable to provide the energy needed to push the boundary of this domain. And it will cause a phase shift."
"What sort of phase shift? Are you saying that it will spontaneously generate the PDS barrier but not where its supposed to?"
"Partially. Though where it ends up is not exactly a place, but a when. The phase shift will be through time. And what's more, it will concentrate on a single point rather than a surface."
"So you get an invincible point generated somewhen relative to the PDS device. How dangerous could that be?"
"Plenty," replied the skunk whom had taken to sitting on the ledge, her legs dangling off. "Especially since if this point creates a change in the pattern of history for instance, then the region the effect occurs will only be inside a certain range of the PDS system physically. About five times the radius of the barrier's surface."
"You have an idea of what this situation will lead to don't you?"
"Of course I do. The PDS they'll try to use still has the errors in it. Its even more clear now that the perfected sys-eq is in my mind here."
"Heh, it seems you picked up some of slang since I've been here?"
Genius realized her shortening of system equation and laughed. "But yes. If you do not do something, there's a seventy percent chance that the errors will result in disastrous consequences. The point of the PDS will concentrate somewhere convenient to transform the central portions of the city of Arx into something monstrous.
"Perhaps it will hit a neuron in some far off alien a million years ago who then leads an invasion force of this planet and turns the area into a breeding colony for death spores. Or maybe its something simple like destroying a gene in a yet to be born famous person that resulted in them being unable to do what they did in our timeline. Or maybe its even simpler, doing that to someone who is seemingly unimportant, which, because they didn't exist, change history enough, the middle of arx is a radioactive wasteland. It may even try to fit well with the mode of what's going on in the world today. Turning someone in the city into a bringer of chaos and plague to the world. If the opportunity exists for something unfortunate to occur, then it most likely will."
"So you're saying that it will change history, but only for the area close to the device? That's very odd," said Ryuqi.
"There will likely be a small few second PDS barrier formed over the affected area while the transmutation occurs."
"So we got the full and corrected sys-eq now," said Ryuqi after a pause. "And we gotta prevent a possible disaster. Anything else you can do to help?"
"Two things, first off I'll be leaving this domain soon so you'll likely not be able to find me here again. I won't hitch a ride inside you, at least as an animated pattern. But if I am still here when next you or anyone visits and you did not succeed, I will be willing to help. Second, I'm sending you an interesting piece of information I picked up from the First Speaker."
Ryuqi suddenly realized the knowledge of the general layout, entry points, security, and anything else of use for the underground complex known as 'The Tower', which was buried under the city in a natural cavern discovered when the city was first being built.
"Thanks."
"Good luck," said Genius. She leaned over and gave Ryuqi a peck on the cheek. "I'll be seeing you."
------
"Think we should?" came a voice.
"Maybe. This thing has gone on much longer than yours did Kam."
"Like a thousand times. Five minutes now."
"I'm detecting a signal."
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Post by miokalia on Jan 7, 2007 21:13:04 GMT -5
Ryuqi came back up with nothing more dramatic than a flicker. She very simply said, "While I am willing to share the information I have just received, I am sorry to inform you that due to the nature of the project being constructed by Advanced Parts Council. Our team is not permitted to continue working on something which may contribute to it's completion".
"Is that what Genius said? Kind-of... not at all what I expected", said Doron.
"No, that's what I can determine based on what she told me.", she said.
"We kind-of figured out the whole doomsday device thing a while ago", said Kam.
"Yeah, but now this is specific. A PDS which physically alters 3-dimensional space as well as time, which is something that cannot possibly be controlled. I'm sorry but...
I can't prevent this information from finding it's way back home.
Perhaps this may be the pressure needed to stop it.", she said.
"We want to see this recording.", said Kam.
Ryuqi formatted it into standard audiovisual format and the entire team eagerly watched it.
Somewhat more abstract and less organized than they hoped, the recording was somewhere between watching some sort of cubist videogame and an expressionist music video without the sound.
But the gist of it was clear. Even if Genius herself was little more than an oddly arranged collection of seperated three-dimensional surfaces roughly in the shape expected, Some numbers on black background every once in a while and the occassional slice of a photographic-looking image of the correct piece.
The voice seemed clear enough though. Audio formatting seemed to be no problem.
"Is this what everything looks like to you guys?", asked Fran at one point.
"No this is what happens when we don't have time to reformat what amounts to a stream of consciousness so that it is intuitive. If you had given me a week, I could have maybe formatted it down correctly. This quick-once-over is going to be a bit... autistic because there's a lot of data competeing to be represented in a limited visual area.", said Ryuqi, "Deal with it."
The point came across and the discussion as to what to do with it soon started.
"It's not very hard for me to come up with a way to make this fit into the 'non-defensive weaponization of coaxial technology' criteria for halting everything here.", said Doron. A moment passed and then he said, "Actually it's not very hard at all because this is, conceptually not all that different. A device which uses astronomical quanities of pucons to cause a phase shift instead of just flinging something across space. That's basically like coaxial except it's the space that moves from point A to B instead of the vessel... and it involves totally different mechanisms. Plus there's too much space-time involved...
Who's idea was this? What do they expect to accomplish?"
"It's a possible weapon, they're just exploring a possible technology to weaponize. I suppose that's their rationale.", said Kam.
"Oh okay. Alright. Well I'm going to make a suggestion for them. Dynamite blows stuff up. Blowing stuff up may have defensive applications. Let's shove dynamite up the arses of everyone in Arx and then *detonate* them all at the same time and see what happens?
Seriously, this is so incredibly stupid. Have they even begun to form a hypothesis of what they expect to happen? Or are they just okay with needlessly endangering so much?", said Doron
"Izixs knows all about this and is working on coming up with a way to end this project before it gets out of control.", said Kam
"That's not enough, something else needs to be done to stop this. This involves more than just Tinis now. This has universal implications and I suspect that it is no longer entirely in our hands...
Ryuqi?", Doron said.
Ryuqi got very quiet and then said, "Everything I see does get relayed to the system wether I realize it or not. Like I said before, we're archivers. ... And the system will defend itself if it beleives it's existence is in jeopardy. I'd say this definately qualifies."
"It's not going to start blasting is it?", asked Kam.
"No, but I think they are definately going to use whatever means necessary to apply pressure to stop this...", said Ryuqi.
There was a moment of silence and then Fran said, "Do you think Genius knows this?"
"I can guarantee it. She's practically planned it.", said Ryuqi.
----
The next day, there was one spam email which simply wouldn't delete or move to the spam folder in Cameron Omz's non-business email account. Since it was web-based. He decided to open this curiously stubborn file.
From: Hester Ingram <qjsbcu3n52@q1.mp> To: Cam Omz <c.omz@hotmail.com> Subject: considered father offer pants
surrender butterfly with project stone to Izixs or compromise project security can. respond before this happen to become international disputes. and project become cancel by external force.
Cam pretended that the email was just some kind of spam. Although the fact that it implied so much about his work, which was supposed to be secret, was of some concern.
He wondered if this was something worth contacting intelligence about... but then again, it was something they'd probably laugh at, and it could hurt his professional credibility as a result.
He began to wonder if this actually was something caused by TIPS. If in fact, Izixs was getting his way through some sort of even deeper-level organization. Still, it was in no way official. After all, it looked and sounded like spam. It couldn't prove anything. It was literally, an anonymous, suggestive coincidence.
The next day, there were three consecutive power-outages in the Butterfly project lab throughout the day. They seemed to coincide with anytime anyone saved a large amount of work.
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Post by miokalia on Jan 19, 2007 1:27:22 GMT -5
--- In a room in an old defunct military installation on an island off the coast of Cebyu.
"I assume there is a very good reason we're meeting in this forsaken, run-down hole.", said Blinn with a great deal of displeasure simply in having to be there.
The lights were turned down in the all-concrete building with no windows. It was quite dark. There was an over-turned desk on one side of the room and a pile of empty ammunition cases.
"We have a problem here.", said the black dragon in the corner, "As I'm sure you overheard the noise over. It seems some folks in Tinis are interested in scrambling things up..."
Blinn looked to the side a bit embarassed. He knew exactly what he was talking about.
"It's too bad the good doctor Tusoy is long gone. If not, possibly involved in the Butterfly Project itself.", the dragon continued. Blinn then became aware of another individual in the room.
"Tusoy would never threaten his country like that.", said Blinn.
"This isn't his country! Now, he didn't have the whole system equasion when he did his work on TTOS..."
"Before you start mentioning that little piece of sensitive, classified military information, would you mind telling me who your friend is there?"
"This is #H4T5C4. He has as much clearence as you and I. He is an... intelligence official", said the dragon.
"So... I guess you might know how far they've gotten with it?", asked Blinn.
#H4T5C4 was a bit unusual for a Malych unit. Mostly because it was a Malych OR-class unit that was not dinosaurian in shape. #H4T5C4 was a brown-and-black mechanical fox. "The RCD, or 'email virus' has revealed to us that the Butterfly Project is not actually 'intentionally' building what amounts to a 'space-time-blending' bomb, they seem to trying to make something that would bend time space for possibly purposes of tactical nature."
"So they're making a Tusoy's inaccurate and unreliable prototype powered by a heaven stone work?"
"Well, Tusoy's wasn't using a heaven stone. He was using a fairly similar, but far less powerful, and much less organically-friendly source. That's why it didn't work very well. The one in Tinis actually has the power to meet the threshold for a broad-scale event"
"Event?"
"Tusoy didn't have enough system equasion to make his device very efficient. It only modified space within 80 meters, for about 5 minutes. What did it do? Well, if you can imagine, the best way to describe it is to make one of these four basic perception dimensions: length, width, depth, and time switch places with another. It's very weird, and it's very dangerous. The Tinisian system will be all that much more powerful and efficient."
"Okay. What am I supposed to do about it, Tsahuo?", Blinn had figured out who the dragon was. The dragon, who was fairly pointy, and fairly impossible to tell if he was mechanical or organic leaned forward and said, "This is a briefing. You technically out-rank me... in military matters. But I outrank you in intelligence. The point is: now you know what we know. And now you have our authorization to personally and officially pressure Tinis to stop the project"
"Aha, 'This Unnamable Organization', right. The people I'm supposedly programmed not to mention to anyone? Not even Phong or Andertol?", said Blinn.
"I don't know. I'm programmed not to know.", said Tsahuo.
"I assume the same goes for the fox?"
"You know it does.", said #H4T5C4.
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Post by miokalia on Jan 20, 2007 21:39:54 GMT -5
From: Vllth <outgoing.filter@bdk.hrc> To: Cam Omz <c.omz@hotmail.com> Subject: Bail Out
I'm willing to keep this project of yours afloat. Even if Tinis shuts Butterfly down officially. I'm willing to fund your project and make it a private venture. I have the laboratory space, the funds and the security to make it happen, if you want to stop being hassled by Izixs or the Sys-Eq folks.
Regardless or not if you accept (which you really ought to consider accepting), I benefit from the development of this project and I want to see it transpire. Here is some of the data the Sys-Eq people have been withholding from you.
-Attachment: 32,802 KB: "output-1028.vmo"-
You'll have to use a VMO viewer, because it is a mathmatical construct file.
It is just a taste of the parts of the extended system equasion that I can possibly offer you. I'll leave the science of this to you, since you all are the experts.
If you agree to my offer, I require just one thing in return: a heaven stone, even just a fragment would be enough.
Please contact me so we can discuss this.
----
"Clever, those machines may be. But thanks to you, doctor, their thoughts are no longer inaccesible to me.", said Einterbaum.
The doctor, and old man with square glasses replied, "Their system of transmitting information is still very difficult to decode. They don't use conventional quantitative methods of encryption. Technically, it isn't even encryption at all. They use a form of steganography, hiding the datastream in seemingly innocous datastreams containing mundane content. The image format alone is incredibly difficult to reconstruct. It took us nearly a month to rearrange what we captured from Ryuqi Kohdat. Even then, once arranged, we had to figure out how the real image file was buried in there. However, every packet seems different from the others. We may have gotten only lucky with this one. It may be a coincidence we got it right. It's not like it's based on a prime-number key."
"English, doc", said Einterbaum.
"I don't know if we can really get all the data Cameron Omz may want. We may not be able to do it.", said the doctor.
"You did it once. You can do it again. I don't care how long it takes. We have a lot of resources here. And I have a great deal of investors who want to be sure that the Malych are stopped, and that Miokalia's Biszlocsun movement is stopped. Our investors don't want to lose their power and their economic dominance, they're willing to pay a lot to preserve that.", said Einterbaum.
"Our re-entry ship has been scrapped as ordered.", said Lady Valat as she peered into the room.
"Good. It won't be long until we start getting confronted by Miokalia's puppet mercenaries. Stay on your toes. We'll need to have a quick escape if within 400 miles of the border.", he replied.
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Jan 21, 2007 21:37:24 GMT -5
To: Vllth <outgoing.filter@bdk.hrc> From: Octagonal Movements <oct.mover@freemail.sl.co> Subject: Very strange
I certainly hope you are not just another bot address for the spammer that has decided to hit me up this week that just happened to have something interesting attached. But assuming you are real, I'd like to know how you found out about the small insect, as well as who you are. I'm a patriot and I don't plan on doing deals with shady characters anytime soon. Thank you for the data, but unless I know your identity I can't be offering anything.
Also, make sure in the future to use this address. Its more secure than my other ones.
-Omz
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To: Vllth <outgoing.filter@bdk.hrc> From: A heat index of pi <milton@notadomain.net> Subject: Dear sir
i would ask that you help me today with a matter of grave Importance. If you were to collect the Sum of all your ways, And know the truth of this transaction you would know that i must Plead with you to Not Interfere.
Know the danger to your person and, more if you, were to hand so much to the October Mover. I know your heart and I know you believe in great, and That is why you are no fool and you Are someone I can Trust to use good judgement.
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To: Mechanical Aussie <m.aussie@tmail.uot> From: Electrical Skies <electricalskies@tmail.uot> Subject: Re: Hello
So, let me get this straight, you're a component of the Genius pattern converted into a computer program and given a specific goal, and want to make sure I'm holding up my part of the bargain. I'm doing my best to continue the delay but I'm running out of things to pull out from under my tail. Push the Miokalians or whom ever you need to talk to the state department asap. I've asked them to do such but they seem to be holding back.
As for the other part of it, arrangements are being made. I hope to act on them tonight.
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To: Vllth <outgoing.filter@bdk.hrc> From: Octagonal Movements <oct.mover@freemail.sl.co> Subject: Re: Very strange
Well, there's a very good chance the information you gave me is forged, however, we have put your file to good use and have augmented our interface biomass accordingly. Cognitive processes were up over 80%. Another boost like that and we'd be ready for a real test run.
I've also been informed by a friendly gryphon that perhaps it would be acceptable to plan for an exchange and to make sure all was set in the event that one occurred.
-----
It was late at the office. Sana and Fran were the only one's still around. Sana happened to wander by Fran's desk. As she did, she noticed a series of hand drawn diagrams laid out.
"What's this?" she asked.
"I had an idea. I probably should of shared it earlier, but with all the crazyness going on I decided to study the feasibility of it before butting in."
"Even in high drama situations, we shouldn't neglect the appearance of good ideas. So what is this?"
Fran moved some of the papers around. "Basically, I've been looking at arrangements of domain barriers with PDS like passthrough capability. If a signal entering a series of barriers was tuned right, it could conceivably be sent into a particular arrangements of these things to give an output. Effectively computing by real time wave reflection, pass through, and phase development. Add in a changing set of barriers and it should be possible have a highly controllable computer. The only down side being the energy needed using current barrier generation methods.
"And the time problem."
Sana nodded. "The slight irregularity with the clocks. I read the paper on that again this morning."
"It would likely be amplified by changing barriers as most of the unusual effects seem to appear when there's changes in the situation. There's been confirmation for instance that the Ropogo blast caused a ripple in the PDS and if Multek Gem is right, that was the main contribution to the time difference. So I'd need to take shifting the barriers into account before I can make sense of this computer idea.
"But, it gives me an idea in how the praxisphere might be working there, especially with the time differences for the hallucinator vs what the rest of us see. If a barrier bounce-pass scheme is involved in part of its interior, the inside of it would travel at a different relative rate than the rest of us cosmically speaking."
The computer on Fran's desk dinged. "Now what's this," she mutters as she looks to check what's going on. A dialogue box had opened with the words 'Download from public wireless network complete'. "That's weird. I wasn't downloading anything."
Fran, with Sana looking over her shoulder, investigated the newly arrived file, checking its history, creation date, and where it had come from. It was soon discovered that they couldn't exactly pinpoint its location of origin as it had indeed been uploaded by a computer using the cities public wireless network. And the computer didn't appear to still be connected to the network. And there was the added issue of who requested the file as Fran professed innocence on its appearance.
The file itself was listed as being created Jan. 1 1900 and had a file type of UPNS, which was not a format either of the two ladies were familiar with nor seemed to work with any program they had.
Fran was about to drop the file into a hex editor about ten minutes into the investigation when out of no where the file seemed to open itself. A terminal window appeared for a few moments then closed. Before they could act the file had deleted itself.
"Now that was weird," said Sana.
-----
"Ryuqi?" said the voice from the bathroom while the Malych passed the door. Ryuqi turned and looked into the dark room, making out a shape of a person.
Stepping into the light from the hall the figure took on a more familiar form, dressed in a skin tight outfit. "You are alone presently correct?"
"I am, but what are you doing here?"
"I want to ensure that your CA has a first hand seat at the discontinuation of the butterfly project," said Izixs. "In the desk drawer by the bed is a pass to the accelerator complex in northern arx. There is also a TLD badge which you won't really need but will help you avoid a hassle. Once there, go with Lipner, who I've also given a pass to, to the transit terminal in the lower level. There's an underground rail that services the accelerator and which is presently in heavy use. Anyone asks, Lipner is showing you around. Your destination will be the booster ring which is back here in Arx. The train stops before the booster ring and there's another rail that takes one to the booster ring. Instead of using it, access maintenance area C and go down three floors. Behind the big boiler is a door with a passcode lock. Put in three and then the date of Commander Vinlia's seventeenth birthday and you'll be in. Follow the signs and you'll reach another door, with a lock. Lipner will get you through that one as I gave him the code for that one. Past that you'll be in the tower, first floor in the emergency shaft. You'll need to get to Zed level."
"I know how to get to Zed level from there," interrupted Ryuqi. "What's this all about really?"
"As I said, I want the CA through your eyes to see an end to this thing. I don't like it, the gal inside that sphere you've been playing with doesn't like it, neither did the other person in there either I felt. You won't likely have to do anything once you get to Zed level. Zed level has two areas, a power plant area, which you should avoid. And the other area should be the one you want to watch. Also, avoid being seen if you can. Don't want you and Lipner shot."
"This seems... reckless."
"Oh it is. But also highly needed with current circumstances. I'm afraid my word alone is unlikely to be enough on this matter with your people. Also, don't head over there until Lipner meets you and tells you 'Its about time to change the guard'."
"So you're going to have someone destroy the mini-PDS generator? Is that it?"
"Not necessarily. But it could happen. Depends on what I find out on a lead I'm checking up. Someone may have picked the lock on the Tinisian copy of the folios. If they have I may have to. But there's a certain timeline with how the butterfly project will attempt its little test. The energy secretary can be thanked for this little wrench in their plans. They probably would of done it already if she hadn't asked for an explicit safety check system which they then had to develop. But I know the schedule and it should give you enough time to get a front row seat." Izixs starts to walk out of the bathroom and towards the window. Ryuqi then noticed the slight pressure loss from earlier in the room. Somehow he had managed to open the sealed window.
"Wait," says the Malcyh. "How can I be sure you're not trying to make me complicit in all this."
"If you don't want to go, send someone else. I choose you specifically because you can send off your data the fastest and most directly. I choose Lipner because he's a little more grounded than Kam, or myself for that matter. Oh, and..." Izixs leaned his head over to the wall, pressed his teeth against the wall in seemingly random place.
Less than a second later the lights were blown out and the TV had exploded, filling the room with smoke. Much more smoke than one would expect from an exploding television. Like someone had added something to the mix...
When the smoke had thinned for Ryuqi to observe any details of the far side of the room in any spectrum Izixs was gone, and the window was seemingly still closed, with only the slight pressure difference to give any sign that the seal was cracked. Ryuqi wandered over and peered out.
There was in fact a very fain line on the window now near one side going from near the top to near the bottom where it met another line that went over to the right edge of the window. Ryuqi pushed the glass and it didn't budge.
It would be later when it was realized the seal allowed the glass 'door' to swing in only.
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Post by miokalia on Jan 24, 2007 9:35:38 GMT -5
to: Dueter Dosh <ddosh@ncab.gv.mrz> from: Piythageros Lewaan <plewaan@ncab.gv.mrz> subject: Shouldn't have put that in the press release
Not that it's that big of a deal here, but it technically we were not supposed to mention the information given to us by SPC Blinn's office to the press. You know, about the quantum-causality-wtf thing in Tinis. Your department wasn't supposed to put that into a press release, but then again, the military hasn't expressed that much consternation about it, so whatever.
Also: we don't actually use, much less even know of any natural or constructed coaxial hooks in Tinis. Just in case you haven't noticed somehow.
----
At the NCAB office at 4242 Kipling Pkwy, Zerushira Town, Dorigan
It was a very pointy, very glassy building. It really seemed more appropriate for an art museum than a government office, even by local standards. Although, apparently there is actually a hidden utilitarian reason for this.
The only identifying signage identifying the building was the mandatory address numbering printed in a clean, bold, sans-serif font reading "42-42"
Piythageros Lewaan was the yellow, mechanical dragon in charge of the bureau, which has many purposes, only some of them (the more superficial and public) include matters dealing with the strange matters pertaining to coaxial aviation.
"Well, I suppose it's fine. This is a Tinisian secret, but it has global consequences, and we are concerned about that. I think it's kind of interesting how this involves your department now, though.", said Blinn to Piythageros, "Well, it does... kind-of have the capability to... effectively annihilate coaxial hook points. A major function of my department is the discovery, preservation and maintainence of such points. I assume that's why the information came my way in the first place.", replied Piythageros. "Don't worry about Dosh though. He's what you call, an aggressive pacifist. As long as Lieutenant Chon is abroad, Dosh will have assumed reponsibility over the development of The Countermeasures. Tinis of course won't be very happy about Butterfly being publicly alluded to. But damn, the Harmonic Countermeasures stuff is practically public here. It involves heaven stones... I suppose the difference is it doesn't *use* them.", said Blinn.
"I was going to ask about that. Why is NCAB involved in the development of a weapon?", asked Piythageros.
"It's not a weapon. It's a defensive device. It doesn't inflict harm, it protects against it by disabling a source of power. This is the culmination of a great deal of research. After all, the last 30 years of military technology research... publicly-announced research at least, has been primarily focussed on countermeasures, deterrents and non-leathal disabiling devices. The Anti-Fission device? The device was engineered in a week, but the research behind it had been going on for 15 years prior. Thanks to a bio-hacked spy of ours, pragmatic scientists who know what's at stake here, and a certain deep-orbit observational satellite that belongs to NCAB... that we used for espionage purposes.", said Blinn.
"I wonder though. What makes this excusable if it's so much alike the project in Tinis? This seems like the makings of a cold war.", said Piythageros.
"The difference is: our device doesn't use the stones. It destroys them, or at least renders them harmless. Our project has a purpose. Ultimately the work on this project will lead to our answer to Antimatter Warfare, if and when it gets developed."
"I guess Erenmor's probably got to be the closest to such a thing right now."
"Yeah, but they aren't manufacturing it. For good reason too: they know as well as we do that using it would exterminate all organic life on this planet. And while we have different ways of doing everything, and probably different 'purposes' in the most simplistic sense. Such an extermination goes against our purposes as well as theirs. Even though I don't really know exactly what theirs' are."
"I wonder what they think of the stone countermeasure project we have. I know Tinis would be slightly bothered by it... well at least some politicians might be."
"I'm sure Erenmor is probably working on their own adaptation. I'm certain they are privvy to whats going on."
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Post by The Union of Tinis on Jan 28, 2007 2:46:04 GMT -5
"...And so if one interlinks the matrices and includes a tensor for the the coax particles, an improper balancing of a PDS transient structure could implode one of these 'hooks' and thus alter the coax pattern structure of the surrounding space. Thus the energy and navigational resources for their drive system will increase greatly, which they may not appreciate, and would of course increase the costs of such a thing if we began using it. Which we may be looking into, but that's not our office."
Cameron nodded. "I see. So... in Tinisan please?"
"If the link up with the PDS system basically reaches a certain complexity before the power output of the heaven stone activates, it could create a multi-particle pulse that damages the particle background the Miokalians need for their space travel. To say they'd be upset is a simple thing to assume."
"Is there any chance it could interrupt the shake down of the particle accelerator?" asked Melia Soolm, the required outside observer for Advanced Parts, whom also happened to be a particle physicist. "I mean causing a running beam to be deflected oddly?"
"Its possible, so I guess it would be ideal to give them notice that the test will be underway," replies the scientist.
"Of course I'm going to have to report this to the state department and TIPS Omzi," mentioned Soolm. "If the Miokalians think there's a coax hook destroyer device going on, they either have no idea and someone made up a story, or know more than is acceptable. We need to find out if this is a real leak or not and fast."
The scientist adds, "Of course. But this also means we need to move the test up. To today if possible. We will be ready in twelve hours. It might not work, but the safety limits will be in place and I can add in a complexity limiter to prevent the worst case, hook destroying condition, from occurring."
"How?" asks Cameron.
"In perviously, in simulations, when a certain complexity index is reached, information nodes appear in the hardware. By measuring the number of nodes, which is done by counting the rate of processor slow downs via the monitoring hardware, we should be able to figure out indirectly this otherwise unknowable figure. We have a rate vs node number equation ready actually and can relate that to the complexity index to within an appropriate magnitude. Just put in a cutoff at the appropriate index and bam, it shuts things down."
"Do it," says Soolm.
"I'm concerned it might not work if we have thing thing on," mentions Cameron. "It would be nice to have a full test without worrying about possible things that might not even happen if we did this right. But yes, lets get this thing going."
-----
"I don't know how long you'll be staying," says Sana to the guests. "I know the lot of you are not really happy with my government and all that. And I'm not either. I'm actually surprised you didn't split when we figured out that there were other folios, as that's all shady business. But, I would like you to have these."
Sana put on the table before the visiting scientists some credit card size, well, plastic cards.
"They're passes to the club, so I don't have to be escort. Its the least I could do."
Doron picked one up. "Thank you, it will be nice to not to have to bother you every time I need a visit."
Sana smiled, "Alright, well, I need to be going. Take care. And if you guys come back tomorrow, well, thanks for having faith in, well, this office at least."
Sana rushed off fairly quickly. They soon dispersed and were about to head off themselves when Lipner cornered Ryuqi.
"Yes?" asked the malych.
"Um... yeah... I can't believe I'm doing this."
"You have something to tell me."
"He's such a ba... yes I do. And if we get shot or arrested I'm testifying against that dragon. Yeah, yeah, its about time to... change the guard."
With a tilt of the head Ryuqi asked, "I was wondering how he got you to go along with this. You seem a skeptic to the last. What is it?"
"I'm still not convince of all this crazy crap, but he promised me that if things went badly, or if it turned out to not be the insanity everyone around here seems to think it is, then he'd do something for me. What it is, I don't want to say. But its something he can do, and would have no reason to betray."
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To: Octagonal Movements <oct.mover@freemail.sl.co>, Vllth <outgoing.filter@bdk.hrc> From: No WEP Violation <NOWEPV@genuine.ut.co> Subject: Repent good sir!
Would you like to have a wonderful time? Many now are seeing trends which they do not like and we must by the grace of the creator know that we must stand together against this injustices. I learned from good sources that you and you are persons of reasonable mind and good judgment and whom can be trusted and that would not betray a good lady who has suffered much.
You are making arrangements now to transfer large sums of DANGER so that GRAVE DISASTER can be made. The butterfly shall not work as you think it will as there are elements that you are unaware of. Those who seek power threaten to unstabalize the country and will result in the killing of many. As moral persons this can not be allowed, that is why I ask you to assist me.
Big action is needed to realize that you have been fooled into believing the opening of the gates of heaven will grant you power and energy. Such a decoupling is not possible with out an equal reaction from the other domain. You shall be consumed by the fires if you use the stone and the machine. The machine is part evil, and the stone is capable of evil if attached to evil.
They knew that. That is why they limited it.
Do not trade your death for your death. Even if you have all the completeness, you will not understand it enough to not error. Please good sir! Make huge gains by not meeting each other today. I know you may seek to move quickly but think about the poor and down trodden who have done you no harm that you will harm.
I am the former mate of a high profile ex-Pargalonian Tinisian and I seek your assistance in this matter of grave urgency.
Be warned, I know much now. More than you.
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Post by miokalia on Jan 28, 2007 20:30:09 GMT -5
Ryuqi and Lipner both got to the Zed level of the booster ring with reletively little difficulty. Lipner found the lack of heavy security a bit unusual. "I conjecture it may be an attempt to make it look like nothing is going on.", said Ryuqi while the two walked down the hallway.
"Either that or maybe it's becuase of radiation exposure. Right now, I'm a bit more concerned about that than being shot, based on what I've seen so far.", said Lipner.
"The radiation level down here is within safe range. At the most, background is a bit higher because we're underground and the electromagnetic is somewhat above normal because of equipment....", Ryuqi trailed off for a moment.
Lipner looked very concerned. "What? What else?... You're implying...", she said.
"I could swear this hallway just changed. In an almost intangible way. It's like it just suddenly became less... Hm....", said Ryuqi.
"What does that mean? You had be concerned about radiation... Well... I suppose this is it.", said Lipner as they peered through a mesh door into a larger room full of tubes.
"As I suspected based on the map. I suppose somewhere either above or below us is the generator. This is where it all happens?", asked Ryuqi.
Lipner pointed to a hatch and said, "we could go down there, but we're already at Zed level. Any further down is still Zed level, but quite a bit more dangerous. They could turn this thing on any minute, and... you wouldn't want to be down there when it turns on."
Ryuqi got quiet for a moment and then Lipner asked, "It's already on? is it? I'd figure the warning horns and lights would be going..."
At that moment the small flashing lights around the room began flashing and an electrical wind-up sound started. Seconds later a warning horn went off.
"They're starting the mini PDS. I guess we got here right on time... You sure heard that early...", said Lipner who then noticed that Ryuqi was becoming a bit nervous.
"It wasn't the PDS that I...", she said before completely involuntarily shutting down.
Ryuqi looked as though whatever power source she was running from had been totally yanked right out. She simply froze. The lights simply fading from her eyes.
"Ryuqi?... Oh shit... Maybe...", said Lipner as he looked around all over Ryuqi for a possible way to reset her. Then he realized how totally silly that would be. Ryuqi wasn't like a piece of consumer electronics, with a power button. The dosimeter in his pocket began emmitting a slight piezo hum. As though Lipner weren't already alarmed enough, now there was radiation to be concerned about. Lipner tried hitting Ryuqi. Maybe a few whacks might start her up again. He was about to just take off running. The way he figured, Ryuqi could survive the radiation while frozen, but he couldn't. He had to get out of there.
So he took off running down the hallway. The sound from the dosimeter was no longer a hum, but now a screech. He had to get as much material between him and the source as fast as he could, and it didn't seem to be working.
While running up the stair-well, he wasn't sure if it was his adrenoline or possibly altered perception as a result of running for his life, but there seemed to be an uneven number of stairs between levels. He wasn't getting anywhere. He had several levels to go, but his dosimeter was already indicating that he had just a couple minutes left before he'd be looking at being hospitalized. Perhaps 5 before he'd be fried. He had at least 10 minutes of stairs left.
"This was such a stupid idea. Damn it, Izixs!", he said with a heavy breath.
Lipner collapsed upon a landing between staircases. His pocket dosimeter wailing a piezoelectric screech indicating his doom. In a matter of seconds, the buzzer stopped. Quite suddenly. He wasn't dead. Ryuqi was on the landing with him now. She had rebooted somehow.
"What the fuck just happened...", was the first thing Lipner said.
"A whole hell of a lot more than just a miniature PDS. That's what.", said Ryuqi.
"You froze. You kind of died down there right after the whole thing started up. And then... and then there was a lot of radiation, so I had to get out of there... but I couldn't get away from it fast enough... I'm sorry I had to leave you down there, but I thought you would be able to survive it..."
"You assume correctly. Had I not froze, I would have removed you from the premises myself. But there is no way you would have been able to outrun that gamma burst had this been normal circumstances."
"I don't know how to... make you reset. I tried..."
"You're lucky to be alive. You shouldn't have tried, you were wasting time. You should have just started running immediately. I appreciate the concern. But you could have died right there."
"How did you come back online?"
"It's complex."
"What the hell just happened down there?"
"Well, we're now 3-hours earlier than when we left. And 3-hours of our universe have just ceased to exist... only down there though. If you want to see the 'light show'... just look over the edge of the railing."
Lipner stood up and did as Ryuqi said.
Below the landing, it seemed that the other levels were still existing in three hours ago. People would suddenly appear walking up the stairs and then dissappear as they came to the border. The lighting seemed like it was overexposed, as if the photons were being slowed down as they hit the invisible border, slowed down beyond refraction, but to the point of extreme delay.
----
to: Dueter Dosh <ddosh@ncab.gv.mrz> from: Piythageros Lewaan <plewaan@ncab.gv.mrz> subject: Accident of Hexakka Flight 12
At 3:02 pm today, Hexakka Airlines flight 12, inbound from Halcayton Int'l on Dincota entered our atmosphere over 400 miles off course and 2 miles higher than calculated. The cabin depressurized and the pilot had to basically glide the plane in for a landing at a small airstrip in Catahkhus. The plane was supposed to land at Hans. T Dovoroy Int'l in Dorigan. There were 5 casualties in the accident, some elderly people who probably experienced heart failure from the shock of the depressurization. There are 53 injured. The plane is severely damaged and it's coaxial drive is completely destroyed. It was forced into safety failure. This is the first coaxial-related accident we've ever had here, and the first coaxial-related flight complication since the removal of the Mohave Phone Booth from the other side of the world.
Hexakka has submitted the flight data recorder, as well as the navigational monitor.
Upon initial inspection: we discovered that at 19 hours into the flight, pucon pressure behind the plane failed and the pilot had to pull the emergency discharge for the coil's capacitor all at once to make sure that all of the plane got here.
I suspect that whatever the hell that thing is in Tinis probably blinded the navigational system. You will need to take a team out and do a tour of the major hook points to see if any of them have been degraded... and to report how.
I think we can say with certainty, that this thing they're working on up there is going to be trouble. I've already notified SPC. Blinn.
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