update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<p>“It is several of them, yes. It has spun off a few projects of its own. Ah! Jonas. Which are you?” she said when one of the men blipped into existence, already seated in one of the chairs.</p>
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<p>He grinned, crossing his legs in front of him at the ankles. “Di5.” He nodded toward Tycho. “Just call me Jonas, though. True Name is just being a snot.”</p>
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<p>The skunk kicked out at one of his ankles.</p>
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<p>“Deserved that,” he said, grinning. “You must be Mr. Brahe, yeah? Nice to meet you.”</p>
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<p>“Deserved that,” he said, grinning. “You must be Dr. Brahe, yeah? Nice to meet you.”</p>
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<p>He nodded, said, “Just Tycho is fine.”</p>
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<p>Jonas nodded absently. Without any visible signal a cone of silence fell over the area, dimming what noise remained outside of it to the barest murmur.</p>
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<p>“I am Why Ask Questions When The Answers Will Not Help,” the woman said in a tone that seemed to sit just shy of laughter. “Answers Will Not Help will do.”</p>
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@ -41,12 +41,12 @@
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<p>“We are not the astronomers,” Answers Will Not Help said, shrugging. “That is your job, is it not?”</p>
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<p>“Don’t you want to control the situation or something, though?”</p>
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<p>True Name shook her head. “It is not our job to control.”</p>
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<p>“But the History–“</p>
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<p>“But the <em>History–</em>“</p>
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<p>“Do you remember the motto of the Council of Eight, Tycho?”</p>
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<p>He frowned. “To guide but not to govern, right?”</p>
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<p>True Name nodded. “We are not controlling anything. We are guiding. Of what use would be control in a place such as this? People can do whatever they want.”</p>
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<p>“Was the History wrong then? That you didn’t control Secession and Launch?”</p>
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<p>“We guided them both,” Jonas said, waving his hand. “Just as we guided the History. Even the Bălan clade knows this.”</p>
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<p>“Was the <em>History</em> wrong then? That you didn’t control Secession and Launch?”</p>
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<p>“We guided them both,” Jonas said, waving his hand. “Just as we guided the <em>History.</em> Even the Bălan clade knows this.”</p>
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<p>“Why, though?” Tycho asked.</p>
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<p>“Social engineering,” True Name said, then nodded toward Jonas. “We should not get too sidetracked, though. Jonas, you had more questions?”</p>
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<p>“I did, yeah. First off, can you give me an overall breakdown of the time frame involved here?”</p>
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@ -75,14 +75,14 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>“This is,” he said, took a slow breath in, then continued, “A lot.”</p>
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<p>“Talk us through your thoughts,” True Name said. “That will help you process, and you may catch something that we have not. This is your role here, Tycho Brahe.”</p>
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<p>He nodded. “Okay. So, from the top. They suggest we make some course alterations to, I suppose, keep us traveling parallel with them, and then accelerate to get closer to their velocity. Does that sound right?”</p>
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<p>Jonas nodded. “We’ve talked with the perisystem engineers who work with the attitude thrusters and propulsion. They say that they can accommodate the maneuver. We can accelerate a little bit if we use half our fuel, but we’re beyond the point where the solar sail is doing us much good, and we want to preserve some.”</p>
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<p>Jonas nodded. “We’ve talked with the parasystem engineers who work with the attitude thrusters and propulsion. They say that they can accommodate the maneuver. We can accelerate a little bit if we use half our fuel, but we’re beyond the point where the solar sail is doing us much good, the HE engines are too slow, and we want to preserve some fuel.”</p>
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<p>“How much acceleration? I mean, I don’t have any training in the physics of spaceflight–“</p>
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<p>“We’ve got that covered.”</p>
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<p>“Oh. Well, how much acceleration, then?”</p>
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<p>“About a third of what they asked. It’ll extend the period of time that we’re in useful Ansible range by a few days.”</p>
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<p>“If you say so.” he shrugged. “I guess this is to help extend the duration that we can transfer back and forth?”</p>
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<p>“Yeah, basically,” Jonas said. “Do you have thoughts on that?”</p>
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<p>Tycho frowned. He wasn’t sure why they kept asking him questions about his sentiments on things far outside his area of expertise. Of what use were his thoughts on the matter. “I mean, it makes sense, as far as any of this done.”</p>
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<p>Tycho frowned. He wasn’t sure why they kept asking him questions about his sentiments on things far outside his area of expertise. Of what use were his thoughts on the matter. “I mean, it makes sense, as far as any of this has.”</p>
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<p>“How much astronomy you hope to learn from the Artemisians will rely on how long we stay in contact.” Answers Will Not Help grinned at him. “Does that bit make sense, at least?”</p>
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<p>He sat up straighter. “Oh, uh…you mean someone will be gathering all that information? Will we be able to request it via radio?”</p>
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<p>True Name smiled, and this time there was pity in the expression. “I know that you said starting from the top, but Tycho, you must understand that you are ideally situated to be the scientist among our party of five. You were the one to answer their call, were you not?”</p>
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@ -97,10 +97,10 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>“Two of you?”</p>
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<p>“Sending two members of the same clade who look different will give us an idea of how they view forking.” Jonas shrugged. “That’s why I cheated to win the coin-toss, at least. I want to see what they do with one skunk Odist and one human Odist, as Why Ask Questions is.”</p>
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<p>“And I will run interference here,” Answers Will Not Help added. “I will be learning much the same as Why Ask Questions so that I can interpret messages from the DMZ and Artemis. She is better at working crowds.”</p>
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<p>Tycho nodded. He felt slow, somehow. He felt stupid. It wasn’t even that they were speaking about things he didn’t understand because he hadn’t learned them yet so much as they were speaking as though their actions took place on some higher plane of existence, some place completely inaccessible to him.</p>
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<p>Tycho nodded. He felt slow, somehow. Stupid. It wasn’t even that they were speaking about things he didn’t understand because he hadn’t learned them yet so much as they were speaking as though their actions took place on some higher plane of existence, some place completely inaccessible to him.</p>
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<p>“Apologies for sidetracking your top-to-bottom reading. Please continue,” True Name said.</p>
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<p>“Uh, alright.” He shook his head to try and clear it. It did not work. “Instructions for transferring a consciousness-bearing system…I’m assuming that’s their version of the Ansible?”</p>
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<p>“Yes. We received the specifications for that immediately after this message. I will not bore you with their contents, but the sys-side Ansible techs assure us that it works much the same as ours and will require only software changes, nothing physical. That will be ready within a few weeks.”</p>
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<p>“Yes. We received the specifications for that immediately after this message. I will not bore you with their contents, but the sys-side Ansible techs assure us that it works much the same as ours and will require only software changes, nothing physical. That will be ready within a few weeks, if not sooner.”</p>
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<p>He hesitated, then, seeing no possible reply that wouldn’t make him sound like an idiot, continued. “Alright. Then they want us to prepare a space for them. I don’t know what airgapped means, though.”</p>
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<p>“We’re assuming they mean as in a DMZ. Something completely separate from the rest of our System, which is what we were planning, anyway.” Jonas grinned lopsidedly. “It’s a tech term which means that there is no physical connection between two devices, so they can’t possibly communicate unless one intentionally does so. Maybe that’s what they meant? We’ll just have to hope we get it right.”</p>
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<p>“So, a secure place to meet, which we were planning on anyway. Do you think they’re worried we’ll attack them or something?”</p>
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@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>He sighed, slouching further down into the couch. “Right. Okay. Twenty by twenty by five meters for the conference room and their rest area. Uh…maybe that says how big they are?”</p>
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<p>“And maybe just the size of their DMZ so that we can meet on equal grounds on both sides,” Jonas said. “We won’t know until it happens. It does show us that they rest, though, or at least expect to take breaks from the talks. That they say two means that they think we will as well.”</p>
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<p><em>Rest,</em> he thought. <em>Rest sounds good.</em></p>
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<p>Aloud, he said, “And I guess the next bit we’ve talked about some. Maybe four races. They say ‘consciousness-bearing systems’ and don’t name their races, so maybe it’s complicated. If they’ve picked up three other races before meeting us, maybe very, very complicated.”</p>
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<p>Aloud, he said, “And I guess the next bit we’ve already talked about some. Maybe four races. They say ‘consciousness-bearing systems’ and don’t name their races, so maybe it’s complicated. If they’ve picked up three other races before meeting us, maybe very, very complicated.”</p>
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<p>“I have been thinking,” the woman next to him said, sounding thoughtful. “Perhaps some of them were not biological races. They did not say people or species.”</p>
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<p>“AIs, you mean?”</p>
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<p>She shrugged. “Or something. It might also be a caste thing. You will notice that there are two firstrace emissaries, one of which is the leader, and then secondrace and fourthrace only get representatives, no titles. There are many possibilities.”</p>
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@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>True Name laughed. “It is, yes.”</p>
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<p>“Any thoughts on the names?” Jonas asked.</p>
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<p>“Well, I guess it’s interesting that the two firstrace people…individuals…er, consciousness-bearing systems share a name. Maybe they’re a clade, like…I mean…”</p>
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<p>“Like me?” Jonas said, smirking. “Don’t worry, Jonas Ka and Ko already had their laugh over it. But no, we don’t know that one way or another.”</p>
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<p>“Like me?” Jonas said, smirking. “Don’t worry, Jonases Ka and Ko already had their laugh over it. But no, we don’t know that one way or another.”</p>
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<p>He felt heat rise to his cheeks, but nodded all the same. “The rest, I don’t know. They all sound different, I guess. The fourthrace one is the only other one with two names.”</p>
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<p>“We cannot make any real guesses, ourselves,” True Name said. “We have been told that a stolon is a botany term, but that is likely only a coincidence.”</p>
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<p>“Well, only other thing I can think of is that they ask for confirmation on all actions taken. What are you going to say to those?”</p>
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@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>Jonas stood, dusting off his slacks, and shook Tycho’s hand. “Welcome aboard. And hey, congrats on first contact.”</p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-28</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-12-19</p>
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</footer>
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