Aberrant: Phoenix Rising - Book 2: Chapter 6a: Lost for Words

[SalmonMax]

Ashley glanced at Raider and Doug with growing suspicion. Her eyes narrowed.

"Guys...you want to bring your little conversation out where everyone can hear it?"

[Courier]

Doug replied easily, "Just weighing risks here. And you joining the link is a standing offer, even now."

[Mr Fox]

"Fine. Lets do this." Raider made the bomb solid. "I'm done with waiting."

[Courier]

Doug eyed the bomb for a moment, then turned away. I could do it. I'm much quicker than Raider, faster too. Zoom. One punch to the gut and he's out. Heck, I could just sever the cord between the dead man switch and the bomb. Boom, justice.

Or maybe revenge. Whatever. They're pretty much the same here. James would die too... but he has it coming too over what he did to KB. Ash... would be a loss. Raider a tragedy. My own death I could live with, but Raider could make a real difference in the here and now.

The correct way to handle this is as I said. Raider teleports away with Ash, James and I die here. Of course he's smarter than I am... but he's also bought into this hope thing... seductive, dangerous. The rest of humanity runs a good chance of dying because Raider isn't down there teleporting them to the city.

...and I don't see how to get to there from here.

While Doug monitored the flow of time, he mulled over current events and tried to see angles for opportunities. For right now he'd wait.

[jameson (ST)]

"Goodbye. You will not see us again. We will have been long dead in 1000 years." Time gelled. Doug felt like he was standing in molasses. The others didn't seem to notice a thing. The molasses became tar which thickened further until finally ...

Time returned to normal.

The process had taken perhaps a few seconds, but the time change was now obvious. The damage to the room had been repaired, and waiting for them were three different people in the familiar red, yellow, and blue robes. "It is done. One thousand years has passed since you came to us," states the woman now wearing the blue robes which were adorned with a lack stripe this time.

[Mr Fox]

"And will you continue forward into the future leaving us here to discover what has happened to humanity?"

[Courier]

Doug had a strong sense of discontinuity. He'd been expecting the whole facility to move forward, not just him.

Raider, this room is a time box. That's their trump card.

[Mr Fox]

Yes, I've realized that, they double crossed us. Now the only thing we have left is to find out if they kept their word and did not commit genocide... again.

[jameson (ST)]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

"And will you continue forward into the future leaving us here to discover what has happened to humanity?"

"It is done, and we will trace our own path from here. You will find what is left of the human race on the planet below, though they may not recognize you or greet you as you expect. They have been watched and shepherded and even now there are those who protect that world and its inhabitants."

[Courier]

They've had a 1000 years plus any time dilation to prepare for us. We need more information on what's changed.

Doug bowed and said, "Thank you. Are you leaving the solar system? And... watched by whom?"

{3q for good first impression... if possible.}

[jameson (ST)]

"We have already left the Earth, and it's moon, behind, but we remain in this solar system. You will find it changed, just as the Earth has been. There are great powers on the Earth consciousnesses that have broken mortal bonds to become forces of nature. Remnants of the mutants you dubbed aberrants we assume. Now we must go, our duty here is done, and our people's favor to you has been completed."

[SalmonMax]

"For what it's worth," Ashley said sincerely, "Thanks. You've been better to us than we've been to you."

[Mr Fox]

To Ashley, "I very strongly disagree with that statement, but yes." He turned to the new moonies, "Thank you for keeping your word. We will take our leave of you now."

To the others, "I will take the nuke and dispose of it then come back for you unless our hosts can provide transport." By dispose of it he meant planting it on the moon someplace it could be retrieved if needed. No sense in taking it to Earth and being viewed as an aggressor by their descendants or the aberrants there.

[Courier]

That'd be why the moonies didn't try for the Earth again after they took us out. Powerful, maybe bodyless, abbies on the Earth.

But they're still in the solar system... and they're not saying where. Bet they won't either.

Wait, Raider, if they're giving up the Dome then we might want to see what they've left behind.

Doug said simply, "Good bye then."

[jameson (ST)]

Raider popped to the other side of the moon and deposited the nuke there, shutting off its timer and the dead man's switch. It was as good a place as any really. He looked up at the Earth hanging in the vast ocean of darkness and was shocked at how different it looked. One thousand years before the earth had been brown and blue, with only sparse sections of healthy vegetation still showing from orbit. Now the seas were a brighter blue than he recalled and all the landmass was covered in lush green that spoke on teeming forests and vast grasslands. Only the poles and a few broad swaths of desert stood in contrasting color.

Raider returned to the chamber and ferried his freinds down to the city that had promised new life a thousand years before. First Doug, as much to prevent further incident as to put their most able defender on the ground first. Then James, and finally Ashley.

Where the city had been was now a deep forest of evergreens and bamboo. The occasional geometric shape made itself known through the blanket of dirt, leaves, and evergreen needles that coated the ground. Sections of stone or brick wall that were coated with moss and lichen. They found the area nothing like what it had been. The fountain was little more than a mound of assorted low lying shrubbery and grass, the paving stones of the courtyard were covered so thick that they were essentially gone. The only two things that stood in hard contrast to the unadulterated natural life and pristine forest were two holes in the world. Adam's portals. One thousand years later and they still breached space like a hole drilled through the fabric of reality.

OOC: Fox is down QPs = to 7 uses of teleport, so 14 QPs unless you added an extra that I can't recall.

[Mr Fox]

Raider spends the first few seconds trying to determine if the world is still flooded with quantum.

Looking about he can only marvel at just how much the Earth has returned to a pristine condition. He had expected that possibly it would have returned to barbarism with the Aberrants ruling over the baselines in a 'might makes right' kind of way. A garden of Eden was not one of the things he had imagined. He was however, sad to see that the one shining example of technological progress had been not only abandoned but destroyed as well.

He looked to Ash, "So what do you think? Anna was still alive when we left, should we look for her? If she can be found, she will know what happened."

As he waited he cast his mind out searching for the city's AI. If anything had survived it would be the AI.

[SalmonMax]

"I can't believe these gates are still open," Ashley said. "How can they be if Adam's gone?"

She looked at Raider, registering what he'd said.

"She hated the city. She probably went through one of the gates. The one I didn't go through."

[Courier]

Doug struggled to bring his mind forward, so much had changed. The city... power gave out, then the jungle took it. Or maybe the AI died with no one to repair it. What a loss.

Ditto Adam. Perm Gates. That's amazing... if he'd survived... then I'd be out of business. No one needs a one man air shipping firm if there are gates around. I'd adjust and he'd still be amazingly useful. Hmm... presumably Anna is long dead, but this right here is a natural, unique feature. Maybe seriously useful depending on where they both go.

Doug said, "Let's see what's on the other side. It used to be ground zero. Even if it's more garden of Eden, it should be closer to people. There was no one around here before and the city was located here because of natural barriers."

Doug stepped through the gate to Goodwood.

[jameson (ST)]

Raider cast out his senses but found nothing. If any tech remained it was unpowered or far from here. The expenditure of energy fatigued him slightly but the energy did not return as it had before. For good or ill the world was no longer a Quantum hot spot. They had sacrificed the past for their chance at a future and their gamble appeared to have paid off.

They looked through the two gates and it was instantly clear which was the former site of Goodwood. The one was a lush woodland, the other was a grassy savanna dotted only occasionally by clusters of trees. Passing up that place they proceeded through the other portal. From the middle of the night to the middle of the day time the traveled fully halfway around the earth in a single step emerging into a verdant green paradise. The one feature dominating the scene was a massive oak. It's trunk was dozens of feet in diameter and it reached impossibly high into the sky, its leaves providing a canopy that could have been measured in acres.

The Tree of Life. The Millennium Tree. Gaia. Anna. The great force of life stood towering over the landscape, from the ground its scale was almost impossible to perceive, only the other trees in the area put any sense of scale to the great Tree. There was no breeze of note but the great Tree seemed to stir regardless. They approached it, leaving James to lie in the downy grass by the gateway, and as they neared they saw the Tree's trunk pucker and from it emerged a figure.

The figured approached them, clad in a gossamer weaves of grass and dew, leaves and vines. It appeared human and yet was also clearly not. As the distance between her and the group closed they realized that they knew this figure, her appearance had been different before, but still the liquid amber in her eyes, the pale green skin, the golden hair entwined with green vines and wild flowers. This was Anna, or whatever Anna had become.

[Joani]

The avatar of the Millennium Tree settled her eyes on the Novas looking indifferent at their shapes. Any semblance of human emotion or behaviour seemed… detached and as if drawn from a long forgotten memory.

„You’ve returned sooner than I expected. What is the reason for your presence here? I have purged Earth from the poison humanity has brought upon her.“, Anna’s voice was unsettling and deep. She spoke with the many voices of all nature surrounding them and her former friends could feel that she was omnipresent. They have just entered her domain…

[Courier]

Doug hesitated. Jarring to find Anna alive. And that she's claiming credit for cleaning the world. And that she might be right. How powerful would I be after a thousand years? She would be why we don't have a triple settlement on each side of the gates. No one comes here. No one survived on the other side. And the last gate might not lead anywhere useful.

Doug replied, "Well done Anna. It's been a thousand years, we only just go back and were wondering what had happened to you."

{Spend one q on first impression... which might or might not work.}

[Joani]

Anna’s eyes settled heavily on Doug’s shape piercing eerily through him. As if she had forgotten how social interaction worked she lacked any sign of bodylanguage or facial expression, her mouth spoke words that came from all around them, „A thousand years hold no meaning for me… Doug.“

She spoke his name with a very slight hint of the former Anna, the Nova they had known. She remembered her conversations with him, his attempts of being supportive were memories Anna fondly treasured.

„Doug… why didn’t you listen to me? And why have you returned? You did not care about me when you left, why should that have changed?“

[Courier]

Doug closed his eyes and hung his head. Anna was one of his failures, like KB. He couldn't even say that he'd gotten justice, or even vengeance.

Doug replied with some remorse, "I cared Anna. I tried to help, but ultimately I failed. My teachings were inadequate. We left you behind because you would have died away from the Earth. I'd thought I'd end up dying on the moon by myself... but the moon people talked Raider us out of it."

[SalmonMax]

"He wanted to nuke them," Ash says darkly. "Cooler heads prevailed."

She looks from Doug over to Anna, and her frown lightens to a bemused expression.

"I have to admit...I didn't expect to see anyone I knew still alive. It's good to see you, Anna. I know you wanted me to come with you way back then, but...I felt like I still had a job to do. I guess things turned out okay without me after all though."

[Mr Fox]

Raider smiled despite his misgivings. They had argued but they had been friends and he had never expected her to survive as far gone as she had been. "Hello Anna, I'm glad to see you survived, it gives me hope. You've done amazing work healing the world." But had the healing destroyed mankind, or did they survive and flourish in this new garden of Eden?

[Courier]

Doug thought, Let's not bother saying that They Deserved It. It's true in the abstract but I'm not sure how the no doubt awesomely powerful tree goddess would feel about it.

Anna isn't dead. Somehow I always thought if you went far enough into taint you'd eventually die. Anna is obviously still alive. Ergo, KB is still alive somewhere.

[Joani]

Anna’s gaze settled on Ashley and Raider, the warmth she had left for Doug evaporating replaced by a distant almost cold undertone.

„I’ve taken care of the taint-touched and those who opposed the Earthmother. This Earth is not the same place you’ve left behind…“, the Anna-Avatar briefly tilted her head to the side then resumed her proud stance. „I can feel it coursing through your bodies – have you returned to continue your warmongering and destruction of Earth? I won’t tolerate any trespassing that will destroy the balance I’ve established. You are not welcomed here if you seek to rebuilt civilsation with it’s many faults and affronts towards nature.“

She looked back to the mighty Millenium Tree from which her body emerged briefly setting her amber eyes on it and then continued to speak inpassionately, „You can stay if you want to purge yourselves from the taint – I shall watch over you as long as you abide to my rules.“, the certainty of her words left no doubt that she would keep her promise to watch over them but it also implied that she would take any measure to get rid of them if they decided differently.

[Courier]

Quote:

I’ve taken care of the taint-touched and those who opposed the Earthmother...

Doug thought, She's king of the hill. Someone had to be, she's a better choice than most I guess. What are the baselines like? Are there any people around within her area of influence? And is she a local king... or is she global?

Doug replied warmly, "We didn't come here to fight Anna. We certainly didn't come to fight you. If I may ask... what has happened to the people? Where are they? And what does 'purge yourselves from taint' mean? Do you have a cure?"

[Joani]

„The children of man have settled in parishes and I tend to their needs. There is no war only peace and growth. I’ve taken Earth back how it was supposed to be before civilisation destroyed her and I shall watch over her eternally.“, there was a brief ‚flash’ of anger in her voice and shortly after that she shook her head as if to clear her mind of something.

„There is no cure because you are not sick. There is only peace of mind if you finally accept your true nature. The children of man are to blame for your mismatched self-awareness – they are the ones who taught you to deny your true nature. Denial is the only cancer and I cannot cure you from that – it’s something you have to do yourselves. The truth is, you are Nova – stop thinking you are human.“, as Anna finished those words her proud stance shifted slightly and it looked as if she was shrinking a few inches. Her verdant leaf-like skin paled slightly and a few strands of her „hair“ withered away and fell to the ground turning a brownish-yellowish color.

„You can stay…“, she added quietly either unaware what was happening to her body or not caring about it. It seemed that the form she chose wasn’t permanent and it was difficult to tell how long she would be able to talk to them.

[SalmonMax]

And that was that. Ashley looked away, a sick feeling in her stomach. Humanity lived as pets now, eternally under the thumb of an all powerful 'benefactor.' At least, after so long, they were probably happy.

And at least the lunars had escaped the trap and moved out into space.

"Thanks, Anna," she said simply. "For everything. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have had a home to come back to." The coldness Anna showed towards her, especially in contrast to the warmth she showed Doug, made her want to protest. HE's the one who wanted to fight! I went to STOP him! But she didn't bother. Fair...unfair...it didn't matter now.

Instead, having said all there was left to say, she turned and started walking away. "See you guys around."

[Courier]

Doug asked simply, "Are there other novas around? Is KB alive?"

[Mr Fox]

Raider didn't expect that Anna would be pleased to see him and the feeling was mutual. The one bright side was that Anna was apparently powerful enough to make the moonies give up all thought of retaking the Earth so now they'd moved on. That was a serious plus side....

The downside was that mankind would never flourish under her rule, they might be happy, they might content, but they'd never grow and achieve their potential. That meant it was up to Raider and Doug and Ash if she would join them. Maybe there was tech left on the moon abandoned by the departing moonies that could be used to build a place for the people who wanted a civilization not governed by an all powerful dryad, or a repressive isolationist regime. It might take another thousand years for Raider to grow his own abilities to the point of achieving that goal, but he would do it. All he needed was a place, and that was something he could get anywhere off of Earth. He didn't need atmosphere, ultimately he didn't need anything, he could build it all on his own if he must, it would just take longer if he had to build tools from scratch.

Looking to Doug and Ash, "Well, I for one will leave Earth. I am happy for Anna and the people here, but I want civilization. Not as Anna envisions it, but still, I want a choice in my future and that's not something we can have here or with the moonies. You are both welcome to join me if you wish. I still believe that there is a colony out there somewhere that left Earth before the Burn, and I'd like to find them and see what has become of the third branch of humanity."

[Courier]

Doug sighed and replied to Raider, "It's been a rough week." Two time trips, KB and humanity warped, the end of the aberrants, and now KB is dead or gone and I'm the weakest nova on the planet.

"I think I need a vacation. Assuming Anna permits, I'm going to join one of the local tribes and see if I can get my head into their culture. Maybe take up my old job as Courier again and try to built rather than destroy. Look me up in a year or so." You should explore the dome I think. No telling what the moonies left.

"That leaves James."

[Mr Fox]

"I think James needs to stay for now. He needs to heal. When he's well, if he doesn't want to stay in Eden he can join me on the moon. I'm sure I'll want company by then."

Raider looked to Anna, "I hope that I'll be welcome to visit, assuming of course that I don't bring any technology with me?"

[Joani]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Doug asked simply, "Are there other novas around? Is KB alive?"

The verdant shape stopped briefly looking back at Doug giving him a rather blank look. „She has embraced her nature – I haven’t seen her ever since the last time I saw you. As for other Novas... I cannot tell. I wouldn’t have made the endeavour to summon this form to talk to you if you were not the Novas I knew. We didn’t part in good standing but I do remember that you saved me and I’m grateful for that. Maybe some did survive – I didn’t make the effort to look for others. I wonder what became of poor Gregory…“

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

"I think James needs to stay for now. He needs to heal. When he's well, if he doesn't want to stay in Eden he can join me on the moon. I'm sure I'll want company by then."

Raider looked to Anna, "I hope that I'll be welcome to visit, assuming of course that I don't bring any technology with me?"

Anna was about to depart when Raider spoke up. She turned around and looked at him indifferently, „All I ask is to respect my domain. You are always welcome here.“, without waiting for a reply Anna walked towards the titanic Millenium tree from which her shape emerged slowly dissolving into leaves and humus until only a greenish verdant halo remained. Upon reaching the tree the light got absorbed by the trunk flashing briefly with verdant colour… then silence followed. Only the sounds of nature could be heard, the buzzing of insects, the call of various exotic birds and some distant shuffling from scurrying mammals. Earth was at peace.

[Mr Fox]

It took a few moments to shake hands with Doug and give him a brief idea what he planned, but then it was all over. Their time trying to save the world had come and gone and in the end they had somewhat succeeded, if not at all in the way they had envisioned. Now Earth was in the firm grip of an Eco tyrant and progress was permanently halted. It was time to go.

With a last wave Raider teleported back to the Moonie base. Not surprisingly there was little left by way of technology, but there was atmosphere and power and the green house. Raider needed none of those things to survive, but they would certainly make it easier and gave him a big head start on the long slow process of building a technological base. In time he would develop his powers and the technology to spirit away a group of humans from Earth and take them to the stars to fulfill their destiny.

Step one: Take control of the base. Raider found a terminal and sent his mind into the unit to begin the first of many tasks...