No updates for the weekend, so I'm forced to update today to keep up the pace. I'd originally planned for the whole LP to be over and done with within a year but, eh, fucking life.
A1 wins, narrowly.
***
Interlude in the Cracks of Reality
It takes two more days for me to remodel the Anhur Mk II. The fusion reactor was replaced with the prototype generator I had built for the power-suit. Running at full power, it would be able to power the frame's basic systems and allow it to move close to 50% efficiency. There would be no time to construct the necessary casing required to contain a generator with a higher yield. The gravity-based armaments of my suit are powerful enough to pose a threat even to CFs, and I integrate these into the frame, mounting the weapons on the torso and limbs. Erec was not happy that I appropriated the CF for my own usage, but I painstakingly convinced him that his goal of humiliating the Federation had already been achieved, and that the mech would now do more good in 'our' hands than his alone.
Next, I turn the quantum computer into Yua's new core. I would need her to manage and stabilize the wormhole. With that, all the preparations for departure are complete.
***
"You don't have to do this, you know." says my father.
"It's no problem. I don't plan to be a freeloader forever." I'm sitting in Anhur just a few clicks away from the Gate of Ean, getting ready for the jump.
"It's okay, dad, I'll take care of him," chimes in Emiri from aboard the Independent Spirit of Adventure (New). The White Fang were undermanned after losing a fair number of their crew during the hijacking, and Emiri had volunteered to be one of the bridge officers.
"Dad?" I sigh and turn my attention to Yua. "How're you feeling?"
"Exposed," she moans. "It feels like I'm in this great, big empty room that stretches out forever. My coding wasn't built to operate on this type of hardware. No offense, Master, but the technology far outstrips what you can do. It's like... like... jamming a slug into a turtle shell!"
"No offense taken. You still can handle the creation and stabilization of the wormhole, though?"
"Yeah, I can do that. There's probably a lot more I can do with this computer eventually, but I'll need to adapt my programming to exploit its capabilities to its fullest."
"That's alright, Yua. I'll help out when I have the time. For now, let's focus on getting that wormhole started."
"Aye, Master!"
A control ring detaches from the back of my frame - a disposable gravity-generating construct which Yua would use as a focal point for the wormhole. Once Yua adapts further to the quantum computer I would probably be able to dispense with them, but for now they are needed. I had built about six of these, and have the materials for at least a dozen more onboard the Independent Spirit of Adventure. No harm in having backups.
"Are you ready, Captain Garland?" I ask the captain of the White Fang's ship.
"As ready as ever, man!"
"Well, let's do this then." I mutter.
The space around the ring begins to warp, folding in on itself. The effect is barely noticeable in the blackness of space. I keep an eye on the frame's power level - the generator is coping with the drain, but it'll probably be a week or so before I have enough power to pull such a stunt again. The ring distorts and wavers, and then shrinks into a single white pinprick which vibrates violently for a brief second before being engulfed by an expanding hole in space.
"The connection is established. Stabilizing and widening the passage." reports Yua. The edge of the hole glows a brilliant blue as it expands to a size large enough for the Spirit of Adventure to pass through. Streaks of purple lightning flash around the hole.
"Well, we're ready. Captain Garland, I'll go through first. Follow my lead."
"Roger that, Hoshikawa. Whenever you're ready."
Anhur's thrusters activate at my command, gently nudging the frame forward, into the tunnel wrought from the fabric of space-time.
***
I find myself sitting in a sunny, well-kept garden, on a white, iron-wrought chair. I blink my eyes in surprise.
"What the-"
"Pardon me, but I took the liberty of... ah, shall we say, nabbing you from the tunnel when you stepped through." The speaker is a handsome middle-aged gentleman with neatly groomed black hair and a pencil-thin moustache. A monocle rests on his right eye, glinting in the sunlight as he stirs a cup of tea with his white-gloved hand. "Now, I am sure you have many questions..."
"Aren't you going to offer me some tea?" I ask.
"Hm? Oh, forgive me, where are my manners? The cup is right in front of you." The gentleman makes a gesture, pointing at the table in front of me.
Indeed, the cup is right in front of me, where there had been none before. I pick it up. The tea within is steaming.
"Would you like some milk to go with that?"
"This is perfectly fine, thank you." I incline my head in appreciation. "Bloody good tea, by the way. This delicate taste and distinctive, light fragrance... Dorje, I presume?"
"You are indeed a well-learned man after my own heart," smiles the gentleman. "You are correct. This is tea from the land of Dorje."
"That's quite impressive, considering that the area was nuked by the Shinar Empire a few years back. Every single leaf became more valuable than gold. Of course, after the Gray Death swept the planet, Dorje tea is now thought to be non-existent."
"I am good at obtaining things that do not exist." says the gentleman, taking another sip from his cup. "Like you."
"Are you proposing that you are insane?" I grin, before taking a sip myself. "What, then, is drinking your tea?"
"An exceptionally lively illusion. You should not exist, whether in your reality or ours. We have not allowed for it."
"Should not is no 'does not'. If you're convinced I do not exist, why take the trouble to invite me to tea, then?"
"The work you have done with the calculator that we gifted to your reality was... interesting. Interesting enough that the moment you used it to open that portal it grabbed my attention. Then, I grabbed you. Imagine my surprise when I ran the checks on your identity." He raises both of his immaculately shaped eyebrows to articulate the sheer surprise he felt. It comes off as quite insincere.
"You mean, you found out that I do not exist?"
"Yes, exactly that. I have never seen anything like you."
"How about 'we'?" The man had been referring to I and we throughout the conversation; clearly he was part of a people far more advanced than even the Star League. "Have 'we' seen anything like me?"
He laughs in a polite yet gregarious manner. "No, neither have we. 'We' do not know of your presence in my garden right now. Only I know that."
"It's not nice to keep secrets." I say.
"If you do not really exist in the first place, how can it be a secret?" he winks.
"Point taken. Now, what will you do with this exceptionally lively illusion?" I continue smiling and acting casually. Being able to grab me in the middle of a wormhole means he probably possesses god-like power. I activate my ability surreptitiously. To my surprise, no blue lines appear anywhere within the garden - not on the chairs, or the teacups, or on the gentleman himself. This is not a normal reality I am in.
"We are in a temporary space where the system holds no sway, where It will not observe us." grins the man. There are a lot of teeth in that grin. "Do not bother, non-existent one."
I narrow my eyes.
"What do you want?"
"Well, in all honesty I just wanted to speak with you. You do not qualify for participation in the game, despite the voices that lie dormant inside you. However, your very presence is telling me that the game might no longer be important anyway. You could change everything. If that is so, should I inform the others of this little predicament?" wonders the gentleman out loud. "That is why I wanted to meet you first, so that we could sit down and have a nice cup of tea and introduce ourselves."
"That suits me just fine. I have no objection to non-violent discussion, particularly when it involves superb tea." I shrug. A space where 'It' will not observe us, he says? That means this is probably a pocket dimension of some sort, separated from the regular multiverse, if there can be said to be such a thing. And if it is temporary... Blue flecks begin to float across my vision, with more and more appearing the longer I focus. It seems that he is not wrong. This is only a temporary space.
"That's the spirit, dear boy. Now, we've made our introductions-"
"We haven't exchanged names. That is no proper introduction."
"There's no need to. We know who we are, and that is sufficient. You are an illusion, a shade that should not exist."
"You are... the gods of the Star League. The ones awaiting at the center of the galaxy."
"That we are," nods the gentleman. "We play a great game, one that you can only be a pawn in... but at the same time you are outside of the game board. I am undecided what to do about that. Now, I will return you to your comrades, and you will proceed with your mission as you see fit, but before we part, I have a question to ask. Be truthful with your answer. I will know if you lie. Power or knowledge. Which do you truly desire? Is it power, which you so clearly lack? Or is it knowledge, to cure your ignorance?"
***
A. "Power. I can do nothing without enough power to back up my words."
B. "Knowledge. Ill-advised application of power can backfire spectacularly."
C. "Both, of course. Hey, you didn't say I couldn't pick both. That's clearly the best answer, right? ...right?"
D. Finally, the lines come together. I cut apart the pocket dimension in a demonstration of my strength. "You were saying?"
E. There is only one way to answer this. "Power! UNLIMITED POWER!" I attempt to assault the gentleman - already I can see blue specks floating on his monocle and over his being. He will be as vulnerable as any man once I get my hands on him. Then I can make him answer all my questions, thereby gaining KNOWLEDGE!
F. "I choose neither. What I truly desire is something else." I smile enigmatically. He will never understand.
), to not knowing who cyber jack was (bye-bye chance to kill Shulgi and take over his network
), to not chasing down our other self or learning his secrets (thereby losing Kyrie, destroying the earth, and gaining a rather gruesome show model for the price is right...
). Knowledge IS what we need. That said, seeing as how this is going to be the truth and will therefore shape Senya and his future goals, we need to choose POWER as well as KNOWLEDGE in order to apply what we learn. Otherwise our boy wonder will while the years away accumulating knowledge without the power to back it up and that knowledge will be useless. Senya's goals should be to seek knowledge AND the power to apply that knowledge.
