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+--- Thread: Conception (/showthread.php?tid=150153)
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-12-2017
DUPLICITY
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-12-2017
The sun and the sand are warm and soft. Everything is pleasant, there’s a gentle breeze.
You hear the sound of ocean waves softly breaking on a beach.
There is no pain. No coercion.
Everything’s fine.
You hear the sound of ocean waves softly breaking on a beach.
There is no pain. No coercion.
Everything’s fine.
A sailing ship has brought you from far over the horizon.
Away from suffering. Away from fear. Away from war.
Where you are now, they are no more.
Away from suffering. Away from fear. Away from war.
Where you are now, they are no more.
You’re not alone. Friends surround you.
You’ve journeyed safely onboard the Alliance Sleeper Ship Liberty.
We’ve arrived at our destination and found more than we dared to hope for.
You’ve journeyed safely onboard the Alliance Sleeper Ship Liberty.
We’ve arrived at our destination and found more than we dared to hope for.
A paradise… a habitable planet untouched by humans.
Far from the reach of those who wanted to harm us.
The Coalition will be nothing but a bad memory.
A distant history to our children and children’s children.
Far from the reach of those who wanted to harm us.
The Coalition will be nothing but a bad memory.
A distant history to our children and children’s children.
We’ve already settled in the most abundant and temperate region of the new world.
A world unsullied. Without hate. Without guilt.
A garden of Eden.
A world unsullied. Without hate. Without guilt.
A garden of Eden.
We want to welcome you to your new life.
We who awoke before you have prepared everything for your coming.
We’ve built shelter, acquired resources, farmed food, and we’re eager to meet you.
Come, see the new world, and let us live as friends, happy, and free.
We who awoke before you have prepared everything for your coming.
We’ve built shelter, acquired resources, farmed food, and we’re eager to meet you.
Come, see the new world, and let us live as friends, happy, and free.
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-12-2017
An acrid smell made me cough. I gasped for air.
“Breathe deep and slow. The air is fine. The gas was just to wake you up. Don’t worry.”
There was a burning in my lungs but breathing made it better, not worse.
The voice didn’t lie. Relax. Everything’s fine. But it's so bright here...
I decided to wait before opening my eyes. I remembered how they told me they’d wake me up like this before initiating the cryogenic sequence. They told me to just accept death, not to panic no matter the circumstance, and to let myself be pleasantly surprised if I ended up living. Then it dawned on me.
The voices said: A habitable planet! They said we actually found a habitable planet!
I squinted through my eyelids. Real planetary sunlight touched my eyes, for the first time in my life. It’s so amazing.
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-12-2017
The woman’s voice spoke to me again.
“Glad you’re with us. Welcome back to life. And the new world. The audio sequence told you something about that, right?”
She paused.
I've been frozen. And shot towards the stars. Because that was the only hope. There was not hope. There is none. We lost the war.
“I remember waking up like you. Pretty awesome to find out we actually made it, huh? Try and lift your arm.”
Damn right it is. Slow and clumsy, I lifted my arm. I let the sunlight flow through my fingers.
“Aweshome. AmAIzzzzinggg…”
I sound drunk.
“Don’t worry. You’re just high on painkillers and mood lighteners. Being frozen and brought back to life can be a scary and painful experience. The MRS shows you’re completely undamaged. Everything’s fine. You want to stop staring directly at the lamp though. It may feel ok for you now but it’s better not to.”
I closed my eyes again. It's nice of her to tell me. She cares for my well-being. I like her. I thought she was really swell. Everything is so fantastic. So it’s a lamp and not a sun, and I’m not really on a beach. But what a Zen way to wake someone up anyway. Whoever put together that audio sequence must have been really swell too.
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-12-2017
“Hey… don’t go back to sleep on me. Sit up. Say hello to Chris here.”
I groggily pushed myself up and sat. I was in a small room that seemed to have no windows, inside a sort of coffin with an open glass lid. That’s my stasis pod. The thing that kept me safe. I wanted to hug it, and would’ve done it if I wasn’t sitting inside. I wanted to hug the woman standing beside it too, but she stood out of reach. She looked in her fourties and had a name tag on her chest. When she saw me look at it, she smiled and moved closer so I could read it properly.
Peterson.
Beside me was another pod. A guy in a light blue jumpsuit, with messy hair and puffed up face was sitting on the ledge. He looked hung over and terrible, but he was grinning at me like a schoolboy. I hope we'll all stay together.
“Hi, I’m Kara. Do I… know you?” I extend my hand. I must have been grinning like an idiot too.
“Christian Gorman. I don’t think so. Really happy to meet you. Call me Chris.” His hand was strong but gentle.
“Good, now that’s taken care of, I’m Dr Andrea Peterson. We’ll be working together closely. To start, I need both of you to do some coordination tests with me. I know you’d rather lie down again, but it’s important we stick to the waking schedule. You need to work your neurons and circulation. You’ll be glad we did it now when the drugs wear off. First you both need to stand up. Kara, let me help you climb out.”
I complied. This woman knows what she’s doing, and she does it well. It was a bit tricky to keep my balance, but standing was surprisingly easy. Those meds were doing a pretty good job. Better living through chemistry.
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-13-2017
“Ok. Now both of you, slowly raise your arms until your hands are over your head. Now lower them again so they're level with your head. Good. Now lift your right leg. Good. And now the other.”
I almost fell over, but managed to catch myself and stayed standing. I laughed. Chris grinned at me. He’s better at this than me.
“Great! Chris, you’ve been frozen before, haven’t you? I think Kara's really awake now. Let’s walk over to these seats and talk a little.”
I used my arms for balance as I swayed towards where she was pointing. It felt like I was flying. Man, these meds are awesome.
“Are we on the planet, or still on the Liberty?” Chris asked.
“Can we go… outside!?” I blurted out.
“You’ll get to ask questions later. First you’ll have to answer mine. We should stick to the routine.”
“Alright.”
Andrea sat down behind a small desk facing a bench reserved for Chris and me. Everything looked smaller than I imagined open atmosphere accommodations would be like. But who am I to know.
She carefully laid down her notepad and arranged it to be exactly aligned with the rectangular desk top. She then laid a pointer pen next to it, exactly parallel to the edge of the pad. She looked at them for a while, then up at us.
“You’re doing great! We’re ready to begin. I’m going to ask you some questions about yourselves and your qualifications. Your answers will help plan a first set of briefings and tasks, to help you integrate easily. We already have some information from the database, of course. But we wouldn’t want to sign you up for anything without your consent. Did you understand everything I said?”
We nodded.
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-13-2017
“Very good. Now for the first question. How do you feel?”
“Awesome.”, we answered simultaneously. I stopped myself from giggling as we looked at each other.
“And I’m glad to hear that. I’ll now ask you questions individually.”
“Sergeant Christian Gorman. Twenty-six live years. Spacewalk specialist. Trained in rescue, salvage, demolition, and weightless infantry combat. Veteran of the Ceres campaign. Absolved tours of duty in the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune sectors. Distinguished Service Cross, Good Conduct Medal, two Purple Hearts. Chosen for Interstellar Colonization as reward for prolonged service. Correct?”
“Yes, ma’am!” He seemed to snap into some sort of robot-mode while hearing all this.
“That’s a very impressive record, which shows great dedication to your nation and its citizens. Your ticket on the Liberty was certainly well deserved. Tell me… what are your plans for the future, now that we’ve left the Coalition behind?”
Andrea placed her hands on the table, palms down, eyeing him in a challenging manner. Chris had to think for a while. He obviously wasn’t used to being asked what he wanted.
“I… sometimes thought about being a farmer. My grandpa was one, in the Biodomes on Europa. Growing vegetables for rich folk, mainly. Cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins. And… peas.” He pronounced the names carefully, as if he was trying to remember something he learned a long time ago.
“Do you have any experience in farming?”
“No ma’am!”
Andrea put on a comforting smile.
“I’m sure you’ll have time to learn about it, eventually. As for now," she opened and closed her palm in a manipulating manner "if you were asked to use your current expertise to assist in an exploration mission, would you accept?”
“Yes ma’am!”
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-14-2017
Andrea nodded with satisfaction, and noted something on her pad.
“Good. We’ll talk more later, Sergeant. Now to you, Kara Zelman. Also twenty-six live years. Enceladus colonist until Saturn sector was overrun, then evacuated to Triton. You are listed as an expert in archeology, civilization studies, xeno-psychology, and you also have a class two spacewalk license. Your background is mostly theoretical and academic, as one would expect in these subjects. The Colonization Committee chose you for disciplinary diversity, cultural inheritance/sustenance, and research potential. Correct?”
“Uhm…”
Andrea raised an eyebrow as she looked up at me.
“Xeno-psychology? Is that what they called it?”
She looked back onto her notepad.
“Yes. Xeno-psychology. And civilization studies, and archeology. That’s what it says here.”
“How does one become an archeologist on one of Saturn’s moons? And an alien shrink when there’s never been alien contact?” Chris grinned from ear to ear.
“Well basically, Chris, you have to be a huge slacker.” I demonstratively leaned back as I turned towards him.
“But I learned to make a pretty good vegetable-pie while chillin’ on Enceladus. We had major hydroponics there, you know. If you provide the ingredients, I may let you taste some one day.”
“I’d like that.” I wondered if the guy ever stopped grinning or said no to anything.
“Hello?” Andrea waved her hand to regain my attention. ”I’m not done with the questions yet, shlomo. So, is the information correct or incorrect?”
“Well, xeno-psychology is just… overly specific. I’d call it the psychology of what’s other-worldly. What could intelligent non-humans theoretically be like, what would they think, what would we think about them, how would we inter-act, and why do we even care? A better word would be… theology.”
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-17-2017
“Theology.” Andrea slowly repeated as she looked straight into my eyes.
“The “science” of… religions, gods, and other superstitions?”
I made a nerd face. “Uh-huh, yeah.” She didn’t find it funny. It wasn’t the first time people weren't impressed with my vast knowledge about the proto-scribblings of Neolithic temple carvers.
“So you have no real experience…” Andrea cringed, then picked up her pointer-pen, almost as if it was a weapon “of course you don’t… but… real training in… theoretical… extra-terrestrial… psychology?”
“As I said… I wouldn’t say that. I’ve studied the subject of theoretical beings from other worlds all the way to the earliest… uhm… authors, and philosophers. Sure… mock it as “superstition”, but before people understood about Earth’s orbit around Sol, hypothesizing a merciful spirit who held up the sun so it wouldn’t fall on our heads was as scientific a theory as any. It tells us something about ourselves and how we interpret things we don’t understand. If we met aliens from another world, they’d most likely seem unnatural or super-natural to us.”
Andrea looked at me blankly, slightly helpless.
“ The application had a bunch of multiple choice questions, and I just selected whatever came closest to…”
“Yes, thank you, I think I see the connection.”
She stopped to think, then placed her pointer pen back in its perfect position on the table. She rested her hand next to it, ready to pounce back any time.
“And what are your plans for the future? Where do you see yourself in our new society?”
RE: Conception - Karlotta - 05-17-2017
“I want to open a restaurant by the seaside. And have a bunch of kids who would work for… I mean… work with me… there. With wooden folding chairs, hammocks, and parasols on a sandy beach and some coconut and bananas trees nearb…”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible right now, as we have different priorities. But you’re free to aspire to that once you’ve raised the funds to start your own business, as a freelancer. For now, if you were asked to use your expertise in an exploration mission, would you accept? You would be compensated for your work, of course.”
I was genuinely puzzled. So they’re actually offering a job because of what I studied? “Why? Did aliens show up and steal our bananas?”
Andrea’s gaze grew cold. “No. No live aliens, ghostly spirits, or fruit-conniving divinities showed up in the Sirius sector. But your knowledge of archeological methods may be of some use.”
I had to chew on that for a while. “So you want me to look for things that may have been made by an extraterrestrial civilization? Are we talking about the same exploration mission as Chris?”
Andrea relaxed visibly. She looked almost relieved… even triumphant. “Yes. That’s pretty much what we had in mind for you two. So, are you interested?”
I shrugged. “Sure. I wouldn’t mind doing something practical for a change.”
Andrea took a note.