update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<p>Ringing this bank of cubicles were walls of frosted glass, broken at regular intervals with doors which ey supposed must be offices. Between those doors were couches, looking pleasantly soft in his exhaustion, and an array of padded stools or chairs with interrupted backs which he supposed must be perfect for those endowed with tails, given the occasional skunk or man — Jonas, perhaps? — relaxing in them, chatting amiably during what must be either breaks or informal meetings.</p>
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<p>And yet, for all that activity, it was incredibly quiet. There must be dozens of cones of silence set up, spanning cube walls, covering banks of couches, even hovering over those walking the aisles.</p>
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<p>“What is this?” he asked the skunk standing beside him.</p>
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<p>She gestured him to a couch already containing a young woman, picking at her nails. Short, curly black hair framing a round face. “Headquarters, though that makes it sound far more formal than it really is. It is a place for Jonas and I to work together in our various instances.”</p>
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<p>He sank down into the couch beside the woman. “That sounds kind of formal to me. What are you working on that requires cubicles?”</p>
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<p>She gestured him to a couch already containing a young woman, picking at her nails. Short, curly black hair framing a round face. “Headquarters. Though that makes it sound far more formal than it really is. It is a place for Jonas and I to work together in our various instances.”</p>
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<p>He sank down into the couch beside the woman. “That sounds pretty formal to me. What are you working on that requires cubicles?”</p>
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<p>True Name laughed, claiming a stool facing the couch where she sat, straight-backed. “The informal aspect of it is that we are working on essentially whatever we want. Co-working space, perhaps? It is a space where we can have conversations, write, think. If there are a dozen of us, there are three dozen projects.”</p>
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<p>“And the message from Artemis is one of them?”</p>
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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 Dr. Brahe, yeah? Nice to meet you.”</p>
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<p>“Deserved that,” he said. “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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<p>“Answers, in a rush,” Jonas said, at which she kicked his free ankle.</p>
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<p>“If you call me Answers, I will beat the shit out of you,” she said though that near-laugh took any sting out of the words.</p>
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<p>“Answers, in a rush,” Jonas said, to which she replied with an ankle kick of her own.</p>
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<p>“If you call me Answers, I will beat the shit out of you,” she said though that near-laugh took most of the sting out of the words.</p>
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<p>“To business, then.” True Name gestured towards Tycho. “Tycho, here, is the one that answered the message, as you all know, so I have encouraged him to fork and join us. Tycho#Artemis will be working here, and Tycho#Tasker will be working with–“</p>
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<p>“Codrin?” Jonas asked, grin turning sly.</p>
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<p>“Of course.”</p>
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@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
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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 <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>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 control be in a place such as this? People can do whatever they want.”</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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@ -61,12 +61,12 @@
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<p>Jonas nodded. “And that approach isn’t all that close, is it?”</p>
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<p>“Oh God no. Three light-seconds is, uh…nine hundred thousand kilometers? Something like that.”</p>
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<p>“Good, thanks for confirming. I’m going to ungate the next set of messages. Ready?”</p>
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<p>Jonas did not actually wait for confirmation before Tycho was given access. Or, rather, access was forced upon him. Rather like a sensorium message, the text from the perisystem architecture forced itself into his mind.</p>
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<p>Jonas did not actually wait for confirmation before Tycho was given access. Or, rather, access was forced upon him. Like a sensorium message, the text from the perisystem architecture wedged itself into his mind.</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>If possible, in 900 hours orient down 0.3142 radians relative to your sun reference point source of this transmission to align courses. If possible, accelerate 0.00029c to approach matched velocity. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Instructions for matching consciousness-bearing system transfer mechanism to follow. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>If possible, in 400 hours orient down 0.3142 radians relative to your sun reference point source of this transmission to align courses. If possible, accelerate 0.00029c to approach matched velocity. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Instructions for matching consciousness-bearing system transfer mechanism to follow. Confirm actions taken upon receipt.</p>
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<p>Prepare airgapped area with locked-down edit permissions dimensions 20m by 20m height 5m and two sandbox areas for rest for us and you dimensions 20m by 20m height 5m. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Prepare party of five consciousness-bearing systems containing one element of leadership, one to record in any capacity, one scientist, two of own choice. Duplicate, prepare to send one set to us, and send other set to above location. Prepare to receive five in turn, similar roles. Expect four categories of consciousness-bearing systems. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>Prepare party of five consciousness-bearing systems containing one element of leadership, one to record in any capacity, one scientist, two representatives of own choice. Duplicate, prepare to send one set to us, and send other set to above location. Prepare to receive five in turn, similar roles. Expect four categories of consciousness-bearing systems. Confirm actions taken.</p>
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<p>We welcome you.</p>
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<p>Turun Ka of firstrace, leadership<br />
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Turun Ko of firstrace, recorder<br />
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@ -77,18 +77,18 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>A long silence stretched over the group while the others waited for Tycho to digest the sudden onslaught of information.</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>He nodded. “Okay. So, from the top. They suggest we make some course alterations to, I suppose, get 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 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 of that 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>“About a third of what they asked. It’ll extend the period of time that we’re in useful Ansible range by a week.”</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 has.”</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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<p>True Name smiled, and this time there <em>was</em> 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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<p>He couldn’t tell what expression or expressions crossed his face, but it must’ve been amusing, as Answers Will Not Help laughed and slapped him on the knee. “You will be fine, Tycho.”</p>
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<p>“Why me, though?” he stammered. “There have to be smarter people on board! People who would love to meet aliens and know just what to ask them.”</p>
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<p>The skunk across from him waved her hand to dismiss the comment. “You will be the scientist. We do not want someone who is smarter than you. We do not want someone who knows just what to ask them. We want you because you are the type of person who grants consent to join us without consulting anyone first. That and a few other factors that we have taken into account leave our decision clear.”</p>
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@ -113,14 +113,14 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>“This wasn’t part of your calculations or whatever?”</p>
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<p>“It was,” Jonas said. “But the fact that you thought of it so quickly was not.”</p>
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<p>He shook his head. “I still don’t understand why me, though.”</p>
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<p>“You are in absolutely no way special, my dear.” Answers Will Not Help slapped his knee, her voice once more full of smiles. “You are in absolutely all ways average. This allows us to use you as a barometer for how we can expect the rest of the System to react.”</p>
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<p>“You are in absolutely no way special, my dear.” Answers Will Not Help bumped his shoulder with hers, her voice once more full of smiles. “You are in absolutely all ways average. This allows us to use you as a barometer for how we can expect the rest of the System to react.”</p>
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<p>“I mean, I guess I’m average, but that doesn’t seem like much data. Aren’t you asking more people?”</p>
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<p>She was back to laughing. “How many people do you imagine know about this, Tycho?”</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 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>“I have been thinking,” Answers Will Not Help. “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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<p>After a pause, he asked, “And is that “We welcome you” an invitation to join them?”</p>
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@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ Artante Diria of fourthrace, representative</p>
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<p>Jonas stood as well, 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 2022-01-09</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2022-01-16</p>
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</footer>
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