Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - Where do we go from here? [5.13]

[Adrian Moss]

There was nothing to say yet. They understood so much, but still didn't see.

Or, maybe they weren't articulating their thoughts correctly. The world was the river, we are the currents, and we move the water and other things in the river with our wills, but it is not A, then B, then C. It is all one action. It is all one series of events with their cross-currents, eddies, and obstacles. We didn't not cover obstacles. Are they so sure, correctly or not, in their power? We are not the only currents, but most likely the strongest. Why don't they see the thousands of other currents we are traveling with.

Sigh.

We save the children, by avoiding the war and stopping the motherhunters requiring us to seek different horizons, which will shape future generations and the currents not yet felt.

Shaman nods.

"Once we agree on a course of actions, and I agree with Butch, we should consider both who will oppose us, and who will aid us. It is clear that the Mother Hunters will oppose us. Accepted. Who will move to aid them against us though?"

"We wish to save the children, but the children represent future potential. Who will oppose our protecting them? Who will aid us? Who would we trust in seeing our message brought to the next generation?"

"In essence, who are our enemies? Who will stand against our agenda?"

[Karren Gaunt]

"Works for me, brother," Coraline answered with a deep breath, looking up for the first time since dropping her bombshell and somewhat more composed in her family's acceptance of what she had done. That worry had been the heaviest part of her concern, the one thing she hadn't been able to meditate away in the weeks since she had killed Sarris.

"Against us? The Directive. Project Proteus. The Aeon Society. Project Utopia. Anyone who profits from the current status quo that we'll upset doing this," she added, "For us? The baseline and nova masses who should probably reject the indiscriminate killing of children as a first resort. Congo. The majority of the Terragen probably. Am I missing anyone, Alex?"

[SalmonMax]

"Our biggest immediate threat isn't any of them," Alex said, her eyes still closed in whatever thoughts she was having. "Not directly. Not yet. We'll have to deal with the Elites first. The mercenaries. Mmm. And probably not targeting US, but rather Ein and the Congo." She paused, and added, "We should probably warn him."

[Butch_Cole]

"Well, that sure as shit don't sound good," Butch said in a low voice. A look of consideration crossed his face, but quickly disappeared. He returned to the matter at hand. "First things first though. Shaman and Cora, agree with this lil' goals triangle or whatever it is. How about you, Alex? And what about the rest of you? Focus, y'all, focus. Goals first. Then the rest."

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik folded his fingers as he considered the news. Alex was probably right, Ein's example couldn't be so palatable to the First World nations or Aeon, so perhaps a risky move would be made sooner or later. The bonds of kinship and respect would likely call the family to involvement soon enough. Focus, Butch was right. "I agree."

[Quantum Fire]

At this point, Shen had been standing a few feet away, saying nothing with regards to his wards, as they made decisions that would affect the world as a whole, his eyes closed in a manner that all of the young nova's, except possibly Shaman would recognize as meditation, and sometimes he took this position when looking into the future. Speaking up, it was clear from the carefully modulated tone of his voice, it had been a bit of both. "Within the next three to four months, a carefully prepared conflict will erupt in Angola, it will be aimed at Einherjar and the Congo, the first major war that part of the world has seen in years. Preventing it will be almost impossible, but making use of it and turning it against those who have planned it it, forming a firm alliance with ourselves and Einherjar could shift the course of the future for decades in our favor.. "

[Courier]

Warren raised an impressed eyebrow over Darrik's improved power duration then said, "The goals are good. I think eventually we'll have to reach an accord with the Directive, they won't be able to toe the line if they don't know where we've drawn it, but that's probably a bit much for now."

Then Uncle Shen spoke up. Warren sighed, Alex had been proven right yet again.

Warren said, "...I guess any sanctuary for the 2nd gen is something that's going to attract attention. If we lose Ein then we don't lose the war, but I seriously don't want to lose Ein. It will be nasty and brutal, but I say we fight."

[Maia]

Maia looked at Shen then looked down. She was conflicted, her training on one hand, and helping Einherjar. In the end she remained still, trying to resolve the conflict herself.

[Adrian Moss]

'FREAKY ... someone looking into the future!'

'Listen.'

'Dad? They are going to attack Dad?!?!?!!?'

'Calm down, cowboy. Keep listening.'

'The currents have rolled a boulder into our path. Shall we bend? Shall we warp the stone into a tool of our own construction? Or will the stone be ground to sand, and some of us be ground with it?'

"Master Shen, do you know if their plans directly affect us, or are we an unexpected factor they may not have looked for? I will stand with my Father. I hope the rest of you will too. I am concerned that some will use the chaos to target specific members of this group though."

'Wow, don't you feel all grown up.'

'I've never had a real family to care about before and now someone wants to kill them. I may not be grown up, but I've grown mad.'

'Atta boy. Now try to not let us get killed.'

'The river flows ....'

'Shaddup!'

'Shut up ... Yeah, what he said.'

[Karren Gaunt]

"Of course, they will if we stand with King Einherjar. They've made one attempt on Maia already and she'd done nothing more threatening in the public eye than shop and model clothing," Coraline's chorus commented simply, "We need to stand against this attack anyway. Congo falling is not an option, and if anyone has the power to try and shut this conflict down cleanly when it happens, we do. I hope so anyway."

The young metamorph looked certain and resigned, a quiet faith in her family as she looked around the table.

[SalmonMax]

Alex nodded, eyes still closed. "They've figured out we're trying to make alliances. The Congo's been a thorn in their side for a long time, but this is the final straw. Individually, we're a challenge. Together, we're too strong to allow. They'll throw disposable firepower at the stronger of the two...that'd be the Congo...because they've got money to spare. The Primus is hard to track down, but they'll probably plan something against us too...if it was me, I'd try to get snipers or assassins in place. If they can make us afraid to show our faces, they've accomplished nearly the same goal as killing us...and it'll keep us alone and vulnerable until they've figured out how to find us."

She paused, then added, "They've probably figured out that one or more of us is a brain too...so they'll try to keep the pressure on. Not give us time to plan. Fortunately for us, their resources aren't infinite, and they're currently stretched thin trying to deal with multiple fronts. If we can weather their assaults, we might find a window for a counterstrike."

She didn't bother stating that they had to help the Congo...that was self-evident. "As for goals, I've stated mine. And just so we're clear, the goals you've outlined are pretty much line with mine, so it looks like we're in it together."

[Butch_Cole]

And then Uncle Shen comes along and distracts the hell out of everyone. Goddamnit...

"Uncle Shen, thanks for bringing this to our attention. Your timing is impeccable as always," Butch said, fighting the urge to raise his eyes to the sky in a silent plea for relief from whatever deity may be watching. "Well, I think it's pretty safe to say that we'll all contribute to the war effort. Bad for Congo is bad for us. But again, let's not get distracted. If what you say is right, we've got some time for planning that war. We'll come back to it and soon. But we're making some headway here and I don't think we should slow down.

"We've got Cora, Shaman, Darrik, Warren, and Alex on board with the goals. Unless there are serious objections, I think we've got our direction. We're wardens of humanity. Top of the triangle. Now how about those two base points.

"I want to deal with the colonization issue--relocation scenarios as you put it, Alex-- first. I think it's a..." he paused, finding a diplomatic way to proceed "...friendlier, potentially less contentious place to begin than the Motherhunting one. Warren, Alex, I expect you'll be on point with this issue. That doesn't mean we all shouldn't contribute though.

He waited a brief moment and then continued.

"I was wondering if this is the type of thing we could go public with. Only to a certain extent. I'm not saying some sort of asinine press conference where we parade Warren out in his Sunday best and have him say 'I've been to Jupiter 2 now let's move there'. Maybe we form a company. Offworld Enterprises, something like that. Seek some outside investment. We'd be a private, non-government organization focused on offworld colonization. Work with some outside talent to help us reach that goal. No disrespect Warren, Alex, but more minds are probably better. Hell, one or both of you could be CEO if you wanted. Might even be a way we can steal some of Utopia's thunder since last I checked, this just ain't something they're pursuing openly. Anyway, just one idea I was batting around.

"We could also contact groups like the Daedalus League and the Protectors, work with them on the issue.

"And on a personal level, I'd have to confer with you on this Alex and do some research myself, but my new ability to alter lifeforms, adapt them to new environments, might just be useful if we consider terraforming projects.

"What do y'all think?"

[Courier]

Warren replied, "I'm good with working in the background. I'll go out and find a few Earths, I suspect it won't be all that hard now. Alex can make a complicated do-dad, and bingo." In his best 'Wizard of Oz' voice Warren said, "We Have Discovered Technology Which Will Take Us To Another Planet. Oh, Look, It's Earthlike. Pay No Attention To My Assistant Behind The Curtain."

Warren said more seriously, "I like the idea of a company, I also think we'll need to offer the Teragen a planet or three... and... we might spread the word that there's something about Planet "X" which deals with the nova fertility issue."

[SalmonMax]

"I don't see much benefit for us in becoming a formally recognized corporation," Alex demurred. "It adds a lot of complexity and regulation and oversight to my work, and gives back nothing. The reason people normally incorporate is to attract investor's money. I have no need, and even less desire, for investors or their cash. If you want to advertise that we're working on colonization tech, fine. I'd prefer presenting it fait accomplis...but it won't wreck anything to circulate a little info, as long as I have final approval on any press release or ad copy."

"The simple fact is this; with stasis tech, we could realistically put together a slower-than-light colony ship right now. I'd prefer to solve this wormhole drive thing mostly because it's a big gamble sending out a ship and hoping nothing goes wrong for a hundred years."

"As for terraforming," she nodded at Butch, "powers like that will be handy, I imagine. Without an analysis of a target planet's ecosphere, it's all speculation at this point. Fortunately novas are a hardy breed, so we should be fine."

She paused, then added, "And I've been considering a radical alternative to interstellar colonization."

[Karren Gaunt]

"Oh?" questioned the young metamorph, curious even as she offered, "I'd like the first planet we fix and hold to be somewhere within the solar system. Someone needs to keep an eye on the baselines after we leave, protect those that follow us, at least for a few decades if Uncle is right about the rate of eruption decreasing to one every few decades after we go. If we go."

[Adrian Moss]

Shaman seems to digest Cora's words in and ...

'The rain drops becomes the creek, the creek becomes the stream, the stream becomes the river, and the river goes down to the sea, were the water rises into the sky and makes rain drops. It never ends.'

... after a moment, not seem to like how it tasted.

"Are we an evolutionary dead-end? Admittedly, we will be a long-lived dead end, but a failure on a purely genetic term none the less. That's a pretty sad thing."

'What does that mean for us? Will I end up creating my own offspring? Entities even farther removed from humanity that I am. What if we argue? What if our children are more powerful ... or less powerful? What if our numbers diminish, dwindling to the last few due to madness and greed?'

'The river is endless. The object is not to be lost in the Ocean before you rise up into the clouds. It is an endless struggle.'

[Butch_Cole]

"Whether or not we're evolutionary dead ends is, well, inconsequential right now, Shaman," Butch said. Hopefully, he could divert a sidebar into the wonders of nova evolution with a little direction of his own. "Something we can discuss at a later date, but, again, stay on point."

He leaned forward, resting his arms on the table, and looked at Alex.

"Forgive me for not knowing the amount in your bank account, sis. If we don't need the cash, then a corporation isn't necessary. You're right in considering it would put us at the mercy of our investors. The idea behind going public had other goals in mind. If we let people know we're an organization working towards off-world exploration and colonization, maybe that would potentially bring people together. Give people something to aspire to. And it's not associated with Project Utopia. It's an alternative to them. Anything that draws people away from them is a potential benefit to us and everyone else. I think this world's a bit too reliant on Project Utopia to solve all their problems. So, yeah, we go public in a limited sense. Call ourselves an organization, a non-profit group, hell, maybe even a charity. Announcements are all yours, Alex. That work?

"A few things first, though. Where do we focus our efforts? It seems like we should resume our search for habitable planets or moons for our own use before anything else. Certainly before we agree to give a planet to the Teragen or anyone else for that matter. Before we throw effort into terraforming projects, let's see what's out there ready made. If we can find fully formed, habitable planets, that makes things a hell of a lot easier than building our own. Terraforming should be secondary in my opinion, but if anyone has a power they could potentially use to assist in that, they should keep it in mind.

"Dealing with effective transport should be going on concurrently. Keep the stasis tech, slower-than-light, hundreds-of-years-in-space thing as a backup. Focus on the wormhole drive.

"Alex, you're brilliant as hell, but maybe we could exchange some info with people out there who share a similar goal. Can't hurt, right? Let's get in contact with other folk who might be working on the same thing. To that end, in the coming weeks, I want to make contact with the Daedalus League and the Protectors. Unless there are any objections, the contact team'll be me, Alex, and Warren. We're impressive, but, well, I mean, think about how people have been reacting to some of the rest of us who are...goddamn it, hotter'n hades. Plus, I don't want to run over any potential allies socially, so I think the three of us make a sensible contact group. Forming a working relationship with people like this might go a long way in helping us out. Any other groups or individuals anyone can think of that'd be helpful?

"That's what I've got to say about that," he said. Butch paused. Then he smacked the table. Some of the others jumped. He smiled. "Now don't leave us hanging, Alex. What's this radical alternative?"

[Maia]

"Would crossdimensional colonization be a viable option?"

"Why leave earth at all, when there are so many variations of it, surely upon one we could set up a colony with far less difficulty."

[Adrian Moss]

'The river is infinite and ties all things together. It moves past all of us, unless we move with it. We talk of planets and dimensions separately, when one is no different than the other. We will move rocks like the barriers of time and distance, but the are all but rocks. We push the river to make it do what we want, until it moves us in a new direction. That direction may involve our personal death, but we are never removed from the river.'

'Death? Man, I don't want to die.'

'I don't want to die a virgin.'

'You'll never have the one you want.'

[SalmonMax]

"If you want cross-dimensional colonization, then you're not talking to me," Alex said with a grin. "That's not my department. No, my alternative to interstellar travel is to make a new solar system in THIS solar system."

"Basically, I think between Warren and I, we could create a set of circumstances that would ignite nuclear fusion within Jupiter...transforming it into a dwarf star. If I performed the correct calculations, we would have fairly precise control over the new star's size and temperature characteristics, allowing us to manipulate its 'green zone' to encompass the moon Europa...a moon we know is already rich in water. The heat would cause its ice to melt and outgas into its atmosphere. We'd introduce nitrogen via asteroid and cometary impacts, allowing oxygen to form from natural reactions in the water vapor. From there, relatively simple adjustments in the moon's crust configuration could create landmasses suitable for the introduction of terrestrial lifeforms. Timeline for the project would be, at best, hundreds of years...but I believe I could kick those processes in the ass, and drive it forward much faster. Fast enough that it would be a viable alternative to a slower-than-light colony ship."

[Quantum Fire]

Once again, Shen spoke up, and there was affection in his tone as he did. "Alexandra, darling, I am certain you could manage to do that, your the smartest woman alive, smartest nova in existence actually, but it seems a bit over the top, perhaps starting with something smaller, like focusing lens on Ganymede or some sort of deep underwater city on Europa would be a better place to start, before totally shattering the balance of energy though out the solar system?" He was trying to be a bit subtle about saying she should rein in her enthusiasm a bit before running wild with her ideas.

"As to colonizing a alternate reality, that might be possible, but has it's own hazards and problems, not the least of which is that most nova's can't travel in that manner, and I can't even do so easily, and slowly moving a population of more then 15 thousand a few at a time might solve long run problems, but would take years.. Warren could do it faster, maybe even manage it within a few months, but you'd be moving people not quite ready to go at that point, if at all. Plus, coming back would be hard, only a few could do it, more people would be willing to agree to the alternate planet idea because they could come back if they needed or wanted to."

[Butch_Cole]

Oh, Alex, Butch thought. Such a frightening and wonderful mind. What was more scary to Butch was the fact that he didn't doubt for one second that she could pull it off.

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, listening to Uncle Shen's thinly veiled order to not blow up Jupiter. If anything was going to scare the crap out of baselines, and let's be honest, a ton of novas, too, it's a display of power of exactly the type that Alex was suggesting. For now, all Butch could think was that pursuing something like this could only exacerbate the problems they already faced every day.

Still, he knew his brilliant sister pretty well, and the thought wouldn't just go away. She would most likely take the suggestion with maybe a little bit of a grumble-grumble, but it would remain somewhere in her mind. The idea seemed a bit extravagant, and Butch wondered if maybe she was just suggesting it to have the opportunity to prove that she could pull it off...

He cleared his throat, and said, "Cross-dimensional colonization is out for now. Turning Jupiter into a dwarf star sounds really cool, but that's gonna scare the shit out of a large percentage of the population. Frankly, it scares me a bit, too. That's not to say that it's a bad idea. In fact, maybe you and Warren could test it out eventually in some other system, but I'd say our solar system is out for the foreseeable future.

"Let's make sure we're practical, efficient, and God help us, political about this issue. Focus for now is on finding planets, moons, whatevers, that are already habitable. That scenario is easier for folk to swallow, I think. In terms of technology, focus your efforts into this wormhole drive idea, Alex. We go public in a limited capacity to generate interest, but not oversight. Finally, we make contact with groups that are simpatico and share intel. I say we start with the Daedalus League and the Protectors. If you know of any other groups or individuals that jive with what we're planning, let's here 'em. Agreed? Unless there are any objections, I'd like to move forward to the other goal at the base of our triangle."

He took a moment and looked around the table. The first bit was relatively painless, but now came what Butch envisioned would be far more contentious an issue.

"Dealing with Motherhunting. Thoughts?"

He said a silent prayer for this meeting to not erupt into utter chaos at this point...

[SalmonMax]

Alexandra grinned guiltiy. "Okay, okay, I just want to see if the idea would WORK. But really, I'm sure I can get some kind of a stable wormhole drive. Warren can give me plenty of study material...and even if he cheats to make them, there's a long form solution for every cheat. So at some point I'll need Warren to start scouting planets off my list again."

"As for the hunters, we're hamstrung by our lack of intel. Once I get that fixed, we should start getting targets for investigation fairly regularly. We can't ignore human intel though, and I'm less help there. We really need to get ears in Aeon and Utopia...Proteus may act independently, but you can bet those two orgs know more than they make public."

"We can also start circulating talk of a kind of 'underground railroad' via unofficial channels. Street rumor, and some branches of the Teragen. Places that nova parent on the run might flee to looking for help. I could set up little transmitters that the sat network could pinpoint and lead us right to. Of course, that could be used against us too."

[Karren Gaunt]

The baseline leaders could use a wake up call like Butch described in Cora's opinion, but she wasn't willing to argue the point at the moment.

Coraline looked serene and calm as she dropped her suggestion into the mix, "We need to cripple or destroy Proteus. Once we do that, however you braintrust manage to figure out a way to do that, we can hopefully get Aeon and the Directive to turn their focus entirely to dealing with the... irrevocably tainted. Maybe get Utopia involved as a publicly-monitored group to help clean up the mess their ignorance caused while Alex puts some thoughts towards that cure for taint she mentioned. Something better than those drugs Utopia is pushing anyway, if a cure isn't possible outside of Qi Meng and Teras."

She offered an apoligetic glance to Epiphany on that last word that just as clearly made obvious she saw the Teragen as an option, if not the best option.

[Adrian Moss]

'And about this time we go ... WTF?'

'Way beyond our limits.'

'So far.'

'Okay, let's not go back to being the drooling idiot in the room.'

'There is a way around that.'

'Really?'

'You see the trees moving, but do not blame the breeze, is it not so? You can not tame the wind, so make stronger trees.'

'...'

'I have no idea what you mean by that, and frankly I don't like it.'

'That's okay too.'

[Maia]

Teras isn't a cure. This much Maia knew. The shift in Cora had an explanation now, and Maia's red eyes seemed to flash momentarily and then there was nothing.

"I'll go meet with Utopia, preferably not alone, So if any issues arise we can extract with little effort. The gesture needs to be genuine, so anyone who harbors a grudge they cannot set aside should sit out."

She thought making a new sun from jupiter while awesome and amazing in scope would scare the shit out of any regular human, and most of novakind, giving them all the reason they needed to publicly execute their pogrom against breeding novas.

"We deal with the hunters as we have. We save the children and parents, and if possible put the agents in stasis. If that's impossible, and the agents are a threat to us, the children, and others, then we take more permanent measures." She hated the words, but knew she'd follow through on them.

[SalmonMax]

"Putting them in stasis only delays the issue," Alex remarks. "And our ability to keep prisoners on ice isn't infinite. I'd be happier if we had something a bit closer to an actual policy regarding their long-term disposition. How long do we keep them before releasing them? And if we're not going to release them, then it's easier and probably kinder just to kill them."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch listened intently to everyone's comments, and then Alex brought up a necessary point for discussion but one that could lead to potential conflict between all of Traveler's wards. Since their initial foray as a group into open conflict with the Motherhunters, the issue hadn't been discussed. When they rescued Eric and Zia, they left no survivors at all. In fact, it happened with ease that had clearly affected some of his siblings. Butch himself initially had no issue with disintegrating a Motherhunter who was after the two orphans, but observing some of his siblings made him question things a bit. When it came time for them to act again, this time in the mountains, they hadn't discussed how they would handle any motherhunters they found, which led to some issues especially when Darrik murdered Demon in front of Pip. The nova was incapacitated and no longer an immediate threat, and there was no need to cut him down the way Darrik did. In fact, the potential benefit for acting mercifully became readily apparent with the conversion of Mindwave to their cause. The issue there was that Butch knew that Mindwave was tentative about what she was asked to do. How could they figure out who they could potentially work with, who could be let go, who needed to be imprisoned, or who needed to be put down?

"Alright, first things first," Butch said. "Let's talk plans before we talk ugly stuff like putting down mad dog novas.

"What Alex said is right on. We need intel. Continue with whatever technological methods you think will be of use. The rest of us need to develop that human intel side of things. Infiltrating Aeon and Utopia is gonna be difficult if not impossible, so I plan on working much closer with Rousseau on this. The Aberrants have been semi-organized and running against the dark side of Utopia for longer than some of us have been alive. If you're looking for people to surveil, then maybe the mysterious Madame R. has some folks in mind."

Butch looked at his gorgeous, powerhouse sister.

"Maia, who exactly are you planning on talking to? I'm not really willing to trust anyone from that organization yet without some degree of certainty that they're on the level. Whether willingly, unwillingly, or just plain unawares, anyone we talk to might get damaging information back to Proteus. And what do we even say to them? 'Please tell the wing of your group you can't seem to control to stop killing nova mothers and children. That's really uncool of them. Thanks for being so understanding.'? If we could find a sympathetic ear higher up the chain, someone who's aware Proteus exists and doesn't like them, then I'd say that's our target for discussions. Do we know anyone like that?"

He looked back to Alex and nodded.

"An Underground Railroad has potential benefits and pitfalls. Worst case scenario it can totally be used against us. All it takes is Proteus to catch on and they either set us up for an ambush or they infiltrate us. Best case scenario we find even more folks that could use our help. We need to be really cautious on this one, so I want to hear more about this from the rest of y'all."

As much as he didn't want to, Butch needed to move the discussion to the issue of Motherhunting. This could get...interesting fast...

"And now, the question of how do we deal with Motherhunters. Stasis is a stop-gap solution. We do need an actual policy for dealing with them. The problem becomes how do we judge who we can release and who we should put down. Are we even comfortable acting as judge, jury, and potentially executioner? Do we act as some sort of tribunal in the case of captured Motherhunters? And then what. Decide who we can work with and dispose of anyone we can't? As a group, we need to agree to what we're about in this case."

[Adrian Moss]

'Why am I going to jump into this with both feet?'

'We love pain?'

'Ha-ha. Very funny.'

'We came here, didn't we?'

'...'

'Yes?'

'Yep, we did.'

"The real question is: who are we going to let decide who lives and who dies ... unless the fate of every Mother Hunter becomes a general meeting? I'm not suggesting one individual -ideally it would be two or three - but talking over each and every life is impractical, and unproductive."

"In the same vein, one or two of us who we all agree to trust must decide what to do with those who are spared. Some can be turned, and others exiled."

"I don't bring this up because I don't think we can get together and hash this out, I bring this up because every time we do, the problem only gets worse. Soldiers make great soldiers. They get to decide whether an enemy dies on the battlefield or not. Likewise, jailers don't have the position of life and death, but instead decide what fair punishment for the deeds done. We shouldn't mix up the two. They are totally different mindsets, and different tool sets."

"Our paramount strength is Unity. We all have to be on the same page, and accept that some of us will be killers and others abhor death in any form. That's the nature of the Beast. It is our problem. I'm not invested in killing people, or in saving them. I can go either way, because I see both paths still open to us. What I want to see is consensus and a division of labor."

"So, who wants to be a Killer, and who wants to be a Savior?"

'Problems are stones. It matters not how they are moved, only that they are.'

[Maia]

"Jason made the suggestion, and can arrange the necessary meetings. We won't know more until we agree to it Butch, but I think it will be worth it."

She looked to Shaman and nodded. "I would prefer that killing them not be a necessity."

[SalmonMax]

Alex frowned. "Killing is irrevocable, so it's not to be done lightly. However, we don't have the resources to run a prison. Banishing them to some alternate world seems...almost worse than killing them. It's like torturing them to death. Throwing them far away from friends and family to a hostile environment where they have to fight to survive...and odds are strong they'll die violently, or due to disease. The solace gained from thinking that we didn't kill them -directly- is false."

"I would rather either kill them cleanly and shoulder the responsibility, or leave them alive to be recovered. But if we did that, I'd want someone, probably not Epiphany...perhaps Mindwave...to remove the memories of their encounter with us, so they couldn't provide much useful information."

[Maia]

"The problem with that Alex is there's nothing stopping them from hunting again. That's what this is really about, dismantling the entire ability for them to hunt fertile novas and their children. We've excluded few options, except the most radical.

[Karren Gaunt]

"When we do this, there are families on the line, both at the time and in the future if we let any Motherhunters get away. We should fight to capture if we can, fight to kill if we can't, and anyone we can capture we turn over to the Aberrants if they don't prove as innocent as Butch's discovery," Coraline offered, "Let them worry about the imprisonment. The families are far more important. And disabling Proteus is going to more economic and poltical than wiping it's pawns out of existence, right?"

[SalmonMax]

"And we have the permission of the Aberrants to just dump our garbage on their doorstep?" Alex asked dubiously.

[Adrian Moss]

"Which leads us back to my earlier question: Who will we trust to decide these things? Whether we decide to hand people off, exile them, or kill them outright, it will be our decision and our consequences. We don't have to decide this today, but we do need to take a stand on the issue."

"Besides, even if we hand these people over to the Aberrants and the Aberrants kill them, we are still responsible. That changes nothing."

'We are seriously talking about murdering people?'

'Looks that way.'

'People die all the time. What matters is if that life, and that death, have a purpose. If they wish to swim against our currents, they must accept the reality that they will die. That is the way of Nature. It has always been that way, and always will ... until all becomes Energy, or Void.'

'Oh, yeah. We are definitely talking about murdering some folks.'

[Courier]

Warren nodded agreement to the exploration plans but held his piece until the subject of the mother hunters came up.

Warren said, "Aberrants are going to have the same choices we do. We think exiling novas to other dimensions is a bad idea, are we sure they're not doing it? Further... I think the ethics of this is pretty clear. By baseline rules, if you're robbing a drug store and your partner kills the owner, you're up for murder. The mother hunters KNOW they're committing murder and genocide. Some think that's their only choice, but it's still serious illegal and partners them up with more serious and evil types. Ethically we would have been fine killing Mindwave. She thinks she has something to make up for because she DOES have something to make up for."

Warren added, "And we've decided we're going to take part in a war. Innocent people will die. Very likely we're going to kill some, just because that's how war works. But by no stretch of imagination are the mother hunters innocent. In a perfectly fair world Mindwave would have to justify her war crimes, and the majority of her fellows would be executed."

"This isn't a fair world. No one else has stepped up, it's up to us, and we've been doing fine so far. When we find these death squads on a battlefield, the only practical way to deal with nova mother hunters is to kill them. I'm willing to make exceptions if they're showing signs of repentance, but don't expect it often. As for the baselines, exile. If the Directive wants to cut a deal for it's people then they're still alive, if they don't then they're not hunting us."

[SalmonMax]

Alex shrugs. "You make whatever peace with it you have to. I think killing them is ethically superior to banishing them. But since I can't banish them, I have the luxury of not needing to make that choice."

[Sunstar]

"Honestly, I am all for sending them to a alternate world. It's not torturing them. It's actually getting them off light. Besides, it's not like they'd recieve any punishment beyond a couple years jail time, which I'm sure they could either escape, have their bosses sweet talk their way out of it, or they'd serve and then go right back to what they were doing. Being sent to another world, well that's one jail they'd never be able to escape from. Ever. Of course this is for the assholes who honestly believe every word their bosses say. That killing novas because they decided to have kids and shooting children because they are novas is for the 'good of the world'. The ones who just are following orders, we spare."

[SalmonMax]

Once again, Alex shrugged. "I'm not going to argue. I've shared my opinion."

[Butch_Cole]

Butch rubbed his chin thoughtfully as each of his siblings spoke. His eyes narrowed fractionally when Warren spoke. The militance of his warping brother concerned him.

"Some of this is gonna come down to the circumstance we're in," Butch said. He nodded at Warren, "If we're in a war, people will die, but if we're in a war, there are also conventions for military conduct. We side with Einherjar and the Congo, we'll be acting as either an allied force or part of his army. That means that if people surrender, they're prisoners and treated as such. But that's a completely different situation and one to discuss at another time.

"For now, I was thinking more along the lines of when we face Motherhunters like we did in the mountains or in New Zealand when we rescued Eric and Zia. Now, from those of you who've spoken, it seems like we're all ready to kill when necessary. I want to make sure that no one is gonna flinch from that if it comes to it. And it sounds like we're open to the possibility that not all of our enemies are a lost cause. Like Cora said, capture if we can, kill if we can't. And I know most of y'all don't take it lightly. We need to have the conscience our enemies don't have.

Butch paused and stared at Warren before continuing.

"Warren, Mindwave was lied to and manipulated. You were there, Warren. I know you can tell when people are lying. She wasn't lying. The few missions she conducted before we found her dealt with nova children who were twisted and insane and they mentally damaged people. They let her see what the worst 2nd generation novas were capable of and let her think those were the only kind out there. Then she met Rose, Thorn, and Angel and knew they were wrong. I gotta believe that there are more people like that that Proteus manipulated. They can't all be mindless robots bent on genocide. I don't think it's as much of a rarity as you think. If we start treating all of them that way, if we just declare them guilty and sentence them to death beforehand, well, damn it, we're exactly like they are. They kill all second generation novas without a thought, so we kill anyone at a Proteus facility without a thought? Come on. We're better than that.

He caught Uncle Shen's eye. "You and Aunt Serenity raised us better than that, and I thank you for that, Uncle Shen."

He paused briefly and continued.

"Now, this doesn't mean we're a bunch of pacifists. If it comes down to it, we kill if we need to. But only if we need to. We treat it any other way and we're the monsters they want us to be. So, do we dump them off in prison dimension? I say no. You haven't been back, right, Warren? Do you know if they were beyond reason? Do you know if they were duped or did they all buy what their recruiters were saying wholeheartedly? I didn't think so. If you dump them there and aren't gonna think a second thought about them, well, I'm with Alex. You might as well kill them. You've already judged them unworthy of this world. What you've done strikes me as somewhat crueler. Like Alex said, torturing them to death. And I think you've got a whole lot better than cruelty in your heart, brother. I don't think Pip'd be so close with you otherwise."

Butch exhaled. He looked around the table at this gathered siblings.

"We need to consider the possibility of accepting surrender. We need to consider what a small degree of mercy might buy us. What would have been wrong with just leaving those incapacitated operatives there in the mountains after we were done? Not exile. Not execution. I'm not totally sold on the idea, but I want to hear what you all have to say about it."