Log:Bound for Eternity

Bound for Eternity 2022/02/13 Dialydd Magda Arthur 1

Magda has an enormously vast jump-distance, though in universal scale, it's still small -- only a galaxy and its satellites, really. She can, however, jump well into the big empty patch of space right 'next' to the Local Group of galaxies, and after the debacle on Tranquility, decided that Something Should Be Done. So she went searching for hypervelocity stars deep inside the Void -- by preference one with a planet that didn't support life, and such a planet with a moon and/or materiel for her to work with. She found one ... and has started to get to work.

Thing is, the reason for the star's expulsion from the galaxy wasn't because of simple gravitational interaction, but because of what are the rotting remnants of a civilization on the lifeless and life-incapable planet's surface ...

There's a FLASHffzztt of light and temporal energy as Arthur and Dialydd appear. Arthur is in mid speech, excitedly talking to Dialydd. "Wonderful people, the Lapsorians. Six-limbed centauroid race. About a thousand years ago, I think, it was a while ago, they tried to turn their sun into a starship engine with their planet being brought along with it. They were dabbling with Progenitor tech they didn't fully understand. Science is all well and good, but not if you don't have the wisdom to use it properly. There's a process to these things before you're ready to make those sort of leaps. By my calculations, they would've flung their whole world into the void and destroyed themselves and their whole civilization. Even without Progenitor tech, they were quite advanced. The food is amazing, and all vegan. It's a gorgeous lush planet. Imagine the cultural progress they've...made...since."

In typical fashion, Arthur was swept up in his memories that he didn't even notice the devastation of the dead planet, and what should've been their capital city. "No. No no no, this isn't right! What happened!?" he starts running, but there's nothing left to run to. He slows to a stop and just stands as he looks the grave of an entire civilization. Again. It's not a new sight, but it's something he'll never become numb to, he hopes.

The Jerin youth takes in the lifeless world with its dead plant life, the ruined buildings, the emptier than expected sky, then says in a breath of air that mists, "It seems they did not thrive, Professor. I am sorry to have not met them." He then touches the silvery bracer on his arm. The cerulean blue traciereis on it glow for a moment and then a golden-silver haze forms around his body.

In the sky, the blue-white star burns with its typical fierce brightness -- though somewhat dimmer, somewhat smaller, a little more distant, a little more colder than Arthur recalls. Though the stone structures remain (albeit somewhat worn down), the living technology, the lush foliage, the food -- all absent. The temperature is twenty, thirty degrees Centigrade (or Kelvin, take your pick) colder than it should be: from a balmy 30 degrees down to near freezing.

The only sign of anything is a steady multi-frequency radio transmission from the Lapsorian moon ...

... one that suddenly cuts out several different frequencies, and begins to doppler towards the freezing planet.

Dialydd sighs after a moment and runs his fingers over this bracer again. "I keep forgetting," he murmurs as the golden-silver haze fades.

He moves to stand beside the Professor again. "As I said, Professor, I am saddened you cannot show me these Lapsorians. It seems they did not listen, in the end, to your advice." He hesitates then adds, "Would you desire me to see if I can find any trace of them?"

Arthur sighs. "I could. But it would have to be a point prior to when I...-thought- I had saved them from themselves." He motions to the planet. "But this...I can't fix. Can't touch. It's a fixed point now that it's become part of my timeline." Though rules have been broken before. With consequences. He rubs his face. "...it never gets easier, in all these centuries." His gloved hand drags down his face and his head turns to the sky as he senses the radio transmission.

The Jerin youth opens his mind to the Dream of Reality. His consciousness if flooded by information as his cosmic awareness expands outwards. Dialydd then looks up at the moon in orbit. "Cha, there is a signal coming from that moon, Professor. Modulated, not natural."

Well, not modulated, exactly, but ... extremely broad-band. One that the Jerin youth has seen before, in many of its myriad configurations: the EM signature, as unique in its nature as any star, of the human superpower 'Korkoro'. The planet's moon is ligther and closer to its 'parent' than Luna, it is still some distance, but the signature is nearing /very/ quickly.

"That is a surprise," says Dialydd looking up at the moon. "I feel sera Doctor Gutzu's presence approaching. Her unique, cha, energy signature."

Arthur looks to Dialydd. "Maybe something survived. I had thought maybe you'd have a chance of better understanding your bracer. If I'm not mistaken, I believe it also to be of Progenitor-make." When he hears Dialydd's answer, he frowns faintly. "Desecrating a civilization's grave again, no doubt. There is another example of one lacking the wisdom of the science they wield."

The 'sera' pauses at some several hundred kilometers' height, then resumes her flight, descending into the atmosphere with barely a heat trail about her as she heads towards the site of the tachyonic burst. In only a few more moments, she is floating there, alloy cape rippling in magnetic concavities about her, blinking down at the two. "Well. Dialydd ni'Bres ti'Emer and Professor Arthur Aevus. While you are not the last people I expected to encounter here ..." she glances around, and frowns. "These are buildings," she realizes.

Dialydd looks over at the Professor with a slight smile. "She rather reminds me of my mothers, Professor."

He bows when the sera shows up. "Greetings, sera Doctor Gutzu," he says as he bows Jerin fashion, at the waist with his hand held open, palms towards her. As he straightens, he adds, "And yes, ser Professor Aevus brought us here. He was shocked to find this world dead."

Arthur tries not to look at Dee apologetically and restrains the urge to say 'I'm so sorry' at that revelation. "Yes. Buildings. Once a lush world. You're the last person I expected to see here."

Dialydd looks around at the ruins. "Do you believe one of these might have a table in it? Or chairs?" He looks at the Professor. "No, you said the Lapsorian were centauroid, yes? So, cha, no chairs are likely." He regards the ruins while his elders speak.

Magda's eyebrows lift as she stares at a hollowed-out ridge with what are clearly ramps, doors, windows. "I didn't expect to see /anyone/ here. This is, by its orbital mechanics, summer. And," she adds, glancing into the sky in a direction towards neither the planet's moon nor its sun, "we're most of half a million light-years away from the Milky Way, and getting more distant by the moment." She finally looks back at Dialydd and Arthur. "/How/ did you get here??"

The Jerin youth gestures vaguely to the Professor as his senses expand once again.

"They enjoyed a sort of...chaise style chair option," Arthur explains to Dialydd before looking back to Magda. By her explanation, perhaps the Lapsorians really went ahead with it. "They were rather advanced. Well beyond Guild tech. Perhaps they managed to survive by abandoning their surface-side cities and went subterranean. Which is sad, considering their love of running and frolicking," he says with a mix of hope and lament. He finally answers Magda, "Freak transmat accident." It's clearly not the case, as it's delivered with a pointed look and droll tone as to say he doesn't trust her to answer.

Dialydd nods absently to the Professor then murmurs, "Cha, that is unusual." He moves his bracer clad arm back and forth a in looping spiral fashion. "...interesting..." he adds softly after a moment as a smile graces his lips.

Magda eyes Arthur. "Certainly. You must experience a great number of temporal Transmat accidents to places you clearly knew well, albeit ..." She inhales slowly, then exhales. "Well. This clearly won't work as a location after all." A sharp glance is given to Dialydd. "Yes?"

"What -are- you up to, Magda?" Arthur asks, expecting no answer.

"I'm assembling the successor to Tranquility Prison, Arthur," replies Korkoro absently. "I thought at first to put it in the middle of nowhere in the Local Void, but it needs a power source, and better to have one that needs no control systems, has no moving parts -- so, solar panels. So I thought to find a rogue star -- and one with a planet for stability, and perhaps a moon for materials, because I cannot create something out of nothing. So I went looking for one. Found this one. Clearly I should have looked closer at the landscape."

Dialydd murmurs with a gentle smile. "My bracer is, cha, singing. At least that is how it feels to me," murmurs the youth. "Something that direction makes it sing," he says as he begins to move towards the ruins to the east.

As he looks down at the bracer, he asks, "Did you ask the UE government if they wished for a new Tranquility, sera Doctor Gutzu? Humans seem to revel in bureaucratic, cha, discussions almost as much as CCR. I am still waiting to hear back about my offer to use Unending Dreaming on the most uncontrollable prisoners at Tranquility. But, cha, I am not a, cha, influencer like yourself." His tone distracted as his gaze moves from his slowly swirling arm and back to the distance.

Arthur folds his arms over his chest and frowns. "Given your history, I would think you would think better of using your intelligence to take it upon yourself to start creating prison camps on distant planets." Dee has (and will) witnessed Arthur behave this way against a variety of dangerous villains across the cosmos. And here he is, treating Magda with the same caution and distrust. He looks to Dee. "Sing? Perhaps there is some remaining technology or remnant of the Lapsorians yet! Follow that singing!"

There is quiet from Magda at Arthur's needling, and then she says quietly, "Arthur, I don't know where you came by your opinion and dislike of me, but be very, /very/ careful in regards as of what you accuse me. Make /absolutely/ certain you have /all/ of the pertinent facts, whether those are of my intentions, my actions, my plans, or my past. For all your apparent capabilities, I am growing more and more certain you lack my self-discipline, my drive, my intellect, my education, and -- most importantly -- my code of ethics."

She inhales slowly, then gestures forward. "Lead on, Dialydd. No, I am in early discussions with the UE Department of Justice."

The Jerin youth seems not to be paying a great deal of attention to his surroundings as he follows the 'singing'. After a minute, he says, "Cha, you mentioned something about the Progenitors, yes, ser Professor Aevus? Do you think my bracer is, cha, singing to other Progenitor technology?"

Arthur chuckles at Magda's threats, genuinely amused and no longer seeing her as a threat now. "You don't have ethics, Magda. Or any sort of self-discipline for restraint. You should do some more introspection. Your intellect and education aren't in question. Your drive is proven by your dark reputation among other worlds. I'm just shocked at how blind you are to your own transparency." He walks along with Dialydd. "I think it's possibly pairing with some tech here. May I have a look at your bracer? You don't need to take it off."

Dialydd stops so the Professor can look at the bracer on his forearm. It looks, to casual sight, to be a simple silver bracer with cerulean traceries in an abstract design on it.

Magda glances down at Arthur. "Then you really don't know me at all, do you?" she muses. She glances at the bracer, her cloak rippling around her as it amplifies her sensory capabilities, then rises further into the air, to look for the connection 'ahead'.

Arthur smiles. "Much better than you realize." He's been her, after all. He studies the bracer with ginger admiration. "Intriguing. It's sending and receiving transmissions to the east, so something must remain here that it's communicating with. I suppose we head that direction. We may be able to track it down once we get closer to whatever system it's connecting to. I knew the origins or your bracer and the Lapsorian's tech was the same, but I didn't suspect they would share communication networks. Or that your bracer had that functionality."

Dialydd looks at the Professor for a moment then murmurs, "You have never asked about the bracer before, ser Professor Aevus. I can tell you much about. It, cha, is a relic of my people. Cha, well, now it is. It was once the possession of the High Biologist. She discovered it she said. It, cha, aided her greatly in her pursuits."

He then looks down at the bracer again. "I wonder what else she found? Cha, far too late to know now." He begins to walk once again to the east.

Magda gestures herself forward, then slowly orbits above a declivity in the ruins, a half-collapsed passage between -- perhaps beneath -- two larger portions of the tauroids' hollowed-out dwellings.

Dialydd passes a group of roughly horse sized rocks gathered together in a clump. Beyond him stretches a dead field of grass beyond which is the area Magda moves over.

Arthur puts his hands in his pockets as he strolls along on foot, looking at the ruins about them, then up at the stars, brow furrowing. "If memory serves, that's the direction of the Imperial University. The Halls of Science there housed the Progenitor technology they uncovered on their moon after discovering a 500 million year old base. If this really is the capital city. It doesn't quite look as I remember, but the stars seem right."

Arthur wobbles his hand. "Ehhh, if my mental reverse calculations on the current rotation and distance traveled based on the current constellations. The planet is far off course from its original orbit. Its central star, even. They didn't just knock their planet off orbit. Whatever happened affected their entire system, leaving other planets without their sun...such as it is now. I suspect they wouldn't have survived even if it wasn't traveling across the galaxy and beyond. If it wasn't so tragically avoidable, it would be rather amazing. What am I saying? It's still amazing."