Move 3.3 Recap

Requested reports: messages involving Alaric, Jedao, Reshad, Sasha, Sulen, and Xiulan

After the meeting, Xiulan sends a report to Sasha on evacuation plans. There are three different timing scenarios:

1. Timing for an outright emergency evacuation (aka, under attack scenario)
2. Planned evacuation, taking what supplies they can, getting out quickly.
3. If the base needed to be destroyed.

Xiulan recommends keeping sufficient supplies aboard the moths and having people ready to handle the weapons on them. She has flagged a request for information about people who can use the Cantata's weapons. She also asks whether the base has critical supplies other than food. Sasha shares the plan with Sulen, who prepares analyses of needed supplies and team members' skills.

Early in the morning, Jedao sends a report on the known abilities of Heptarch Nirai Kujen to Reshad and Sasha:

Known abilities:

• Immortality by jumping into and possessing other people, range unknown; ability usually drives the host mad in short order unless they are specially chosen to fit an unknown psych profile
• Notably, can survive the death of the initial host body. Unknown whether he can persist in ghost form without a host.

Known skills:

• administration (R&D divisions)
• psych surgery, including drastic personality modification
• calendrical mathematics
• stardrive R&D, specifically as relates to mothdrives
• gate-space mathematics and mechanics
• warmoth weapons R&D, including threshold winnowers (experimental)

Notes:

• I have seen tests and demonstrations of his weapons research and can attest his effectiveness. I am unfortunately unable to assess the extent of his knowledge in mathematics and physics as I lack expertise in those subjects.
• I have strong reason to believe that Heptarch Kujen is responsible for the prevalance of torture in the high calendar ca. 850 (my timeline).
• Kujen is highly risk-averse, and terrible at small-unit tactics even in simulation.

Reshad sends a quick thank-you.

Sasha forwards the report to Sulen and Xiulan. She also sends it to Alaric, with an added question: "can u figure out mechanism? need defense vs. undying ghost. lmk if u want to task Remi/Shess/Cantata to help w/ details." Alaric reflects that this strategy is "obviously inferior to ripping out your heart and placing it in the care of a reputable institution, but fascinating." He promises to work on the problem, adding, "when you say defense do you mean 'prevent hijacking slash infiltration' of individuals or 'best defense is a good offense' where you want to kill the ghost. more than the ghost is already killed." Sasha replies, "def. A. possibly also B, depends on assigned mission + ongoing threat level assessment + difficulty of implementation."

In response to the report, Sulen messages, "In my time the Nirai seemed baffled by the rifts. Perhaps worth considering if this secret heptarch had more information than the Rahal were led to believe." Sasha replies, "Or if he found more information, later. Thanks."

Around 06:00, Xiulan responds to the report with thanks: "Good thing we’re a small unit. You brokering questions or want to meet with involved individuals later?" Sasha, who has been checking the new team members' augments and electronics, replies, "Pls. share questions. Meetings TBA pending briefing. ~S." She dry-swallows a caffeine antagonist, digs a blanket out of her bottom desk drawer, and curls up under her desk to nap.

Breakfast arrivals: Dar, Gerae, Istradez, Jedao, Remi, Reshad, Sasha, Sulen, and the mothlings

Dar lays out a breakfast spread, working quickly and repurposing some of the leftovers from the previous night's party. Istradez looks extremely grateful; he takes duck buns and coffee. Dar offers him a lopsided smile and a little bow. Gerae takes sweets and more coffee. He watches Fluffy and the nestlings on his slate.

Sasha and Xiulan arrive around a quarter past 08:00; Sasha drinks black tea with a stim, while Xiulan chooses green tea. Xiulan quietly introduces herself to Istradez and Gerae. Sasha thanks her for the report on evacuation options.

Jedao follows a few minutes later; he has already exercised, and looks for protein. Remi appears shortly before the meeting is scheduled to start. He has made a sort of mesh torus that allows him to wear the mothlings around his neck. Reshad greets Remi and the mothlings, noticing that he has chosen not to be separated from them.

Sulen arrives, carrying the magenta pseudo-dragon. They add a large quantity of powdered stimulants to a mug of black tea and ask Sasha, "Any updates since last night?" Shrugging, Sasha says, "You saw the reports. Do you have any sense of where they're leaning?"

Before the meeting: Ashari and Seyli; Ashari and Sasha

Seyli arrives for the morning meeting early. Noticing Ashari's agitation, they ask, "Is everything all right?" Ashari tells them, "I'm as all right as any of us are. I don't know who started rumormongering about the emptiness of this timeline, but I suppose it's hard to get people not to talk. You're military, right? It's good to have some more practical people in the mix." With a ferocious grin, they add, "I would never be accused of being practical, of course. Not in public." Seyli confirms, "Ex-Kel," reflecting that they are not about to "throw Sasha out of an airlock like that" for her part in information-sharing.

Ashari says, "Both halves of that are good. We have a few too many foxes...but of course, one fox is a fox too many, isn't that the saying? At least the party gave people a chance to blow off some steam, and me time to make some inquiries." Seyli says, "I'd agree with that statement. It was...unconventional, but I enjoyed the chance to dress up." Apparently pleased, Ashari says, "Good, good. I always appreciate someone who knows how to have a good time. It'll probably be your last chance for extravagance for a little bit." Seyli says, "Not something I indulge in often, but it was...good."

Sasha joins the conversation, bowing hastily to Ashari and nodding to Seyli. She asks, "Is there an agenda for this meeting?" Seyli nods in return and moves away. Baring their teeth, Ashari says, "One: the very empty universe. Two: our need to evacuate the base. Three: a plan for your crew to get the hell out of here. Four: your next mission. Anything you'd like to add?"

Stepping closer to Ashari, Sasha asks, "Are you familiar with the situation involving the heptarch Remi na Kujen?" Eyebrows raised high, Ashari says, "I am not. Pray do tell. I presume, since you are bringing it up now, that it's a matter of some urgency." Sasha explains, "Jedao was in contact with a Nirai who was pushing him to test the threshold winnowers. This Nirai was a ghost, able to possess the bodies of others, and to jump into a new body if the old one was killed. I don't know if he possessed the official Nirai heptarch, or if they shared power in some way. We learned last night that Remi is the person who became, in Jedao's timeline, this ghost Kujen. I don't think Remi is a danger to us. But I think we have to ask why Quill wanted him, and if she knew of this secret heptarch."

Eyes narrowing, Ashari says, "Quill does seem to be collecting heptarchs and hexarchs, doesn't she? You were right to flag this for my attention. I want you to put it to the science team--is there some kind of high-and-mighty calendrical attack that would involve the heptarchs like this, or is this 'merely' timeline meddling?" Sasha confirms, "This ghost might still hold power, in Mishka's day. I will ask." Ashari says, "Good. Anything else? Please say no." Despite their words, they are clearly listening. Sasha tells them, "Nothing that we can't cover during the meeting."

More breakfast: Ione, Remi, Seyli, and the mothlings

Seyli chooses a selection of food and some sweet black tea and takes a seat beside Remi, asking, "Can I help feed them? I had fun last night spending time with them." Ione sits near them, smiling at Remi's mothling necklace. Remi nods to Ione and Seyli, looking a little bit tense. He tells Seyli, "I'm sure they'd enjoy a chance to interact, if you don't find them too distracting." He places the mothling ring in his lap, and a few tentacles reach toward Seyli. Seyli enjoys playing with the moths and feeding them breakfast.

The meeting: an evacuation plan and the next mission

After Ashari calls the meeting to order, Sasha asks, "What timeframe do you envision, for complete evacuation?" Reshad is surprised, but infers that the matter is not yet an emergency. She adds, "Evacuation to where?"

Xiulan asks, "What’s the viability of leaving a monitoring system behind, in case there’s eventually something ‘interesting’ to detect here? Or would the only way to retrieve data be to physically return to this timeline?" Alaric says that in terms of viability, "Ansibles are pretty much out. You might be able to use an invariant tight-beam or laser if your parked a relay at each end, but rifts tend to throw off all sorts of garbage on the EM spectrum and you'd need a pretty powerful transmission to have a chance at punching through. It'd be pretty noisy, but only at light-speed. Maybe some sort of drone, hardened enough to survive the rift transit could work. The question I would have is still whether it'd be a good idea. How thorough of a survey has been done to verify the lack of civilization? Right now it's not clear to me on whether this is just spoooooky emptiness, or whether there are a bunch of radio shells that terminate suddenly." Sasha says, "I am specifically concerned that the threat might be a creature related to the moths. We know that their dimension contained predators, that they can consume energy of many types, and that they are sensitive to small gravitational signals. I find that last particularly worrisome, because I don't know how the fuck to hide that mass is moving."

Ashari says, "Timeframe for evacuation: as soon as we can make it happen after this meeting. I need an estimate from your people as to how soon that will be, so that we can coordinate with the other groups. I myself will be taking the Sedulous Eel with Ankat in command in search of a less dangerous long-term base of operations. Kaliyan will be taking the Typhoon to negotiate with some of our other-rift suppliers. Sasha, your team will relocate to a rift in 1211, in a timeline where Hexarch Mikodez takes power and, apparently, proves how dangerous he is by murdering two of his own cadets. Some of my sources indicate that Quill may have contacted the hexarch or his people; we want to find out what she's up to, and what she hopes to gain. Is the incident with the cadets related? What does he know about the source of the rifts, or about Quill's motives?" Regarding Alaric's questions, they say, "The base's science team could only tell me that we were caught up in a vastly resounding emptiness. We frankly don't have the instrumentation to determine much beyond that, and I'm not sure I want to stick around to find out. What do we know about moth-predators, anyway?"

Sasha asks, "What role do you expect us to play in dismantling the base? And how long is the transit, between here and 1211? What sort of contacts do we have on the other end?" Ashari says, "Unfortunately, completely dismantling the base without leaving a trace for people with the right kind of detection equipment is not feasible in any short timeframe. We especially can't blow it up. So we aim for an 80% job by dismantling and recycling the modular habitat units, and accept that we won't be able to get rid of the last 20% if someone comes sniffing around." They ask Sasha "how long it will take to scrub the local grid," then answer her other questions: "Transit from here to 1211, via a nearby rift, will take approximately three weeks. You will have two contacts on the other end who are not aware of each other. It will be up to you to decide whether to make them aware, although I advise against it. One is an alt named Kesser who works as an analyst/clerk for Hexarch Mikodez's own assistant, Shuos Zehun. The other is a disaffected non-faction freelance assassin--the best type, if you ask me--a woman named Mae." Reshad is intrigued by the reference to Mikodez. She offers, "I'm from a timeline where Mikodez is Hexarch. If there are substantial deviations in history from mine, I might be able to help spot them."

Avoiding eye contact with Ashari, Sulen says, "There are some supplies we should restock on, and items we could make use of, when the base is dismantled. I have a list." Deyna offers, "I can probably handle at least some of the supplies. Unless you need me for something else, of course."

Xiulan reflects that the moth predators might be connected to the "starfish and sharks" of her own timeline. She sends Ashari her report on evacuation planning, observing, "Time estimates are in the first section. Sounds like we can ignore the third option," which would have entailed destroying the base. Sasha displays the summary portion of Xiulan's report on the conference room screens, together with Sulen's lists. She tells Ashari, "Just wiping the base grid would take about half a shift. But that would still leave clues about when and where we're from, and how many people were present. It might be possible for someone to recover our files, though they'd still have to decrypt them. It would be better to overwrite the nodes a few million times with junk data, where we can't arrange their physical recovery or destruction. Of course, at that point we'll see significant degradation of the base's capability. We have a tradeoff between speed and noise, here--say another half shift to a shift if we're quick, and if we aren't worried that something out there might notice the nodes grinding away."

The meeting: the other moths

Maintaining eye contact with Ashari, Sasha says, "The other tradeoff is the moths. We don't know much about the moth predators. The Cantata says the moths wondered why their enemies aren't seen in the heptarchate, though I doubt they would have heard about a ship lost here or there. It's possible that alert moths seem tastier. But a moth that is awake can sense predators, and run. The Cantata says they're faster than the things that eat them. We should unharness the moths on the Typhoon and Sedulous Eel, as soon as we can."

Ashari tells Sulen and Xiulan that they "appreciate the reports," adding, "We'll go for speed when it comes to wiping the grids, and hope that we can get away before anything notices." They say to Sasha, "Tell me, do you or your people have contingency plans if something goes wrong with the moths on the Typhoon and Sedulous Eel? If unharnessing causes one to fall into a coma, or run away, or turn hostile?"

Nodding with respect for Xiulan's planning, Reshad suggests, "If movement of matter is attractive to the predators, what if we jettison a data core after its wipe? Let it draw the hunters, and if they destroy it..."