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far from nowhere
"the trees rustle in the evening when we stand uneasy before our own thoughts."
With the events of Del Pascia behind the Moira, things are only now beginning to settle—and not very well. Through the combined efforts of some of the crew, D-E-L and her permanent residents were incinerated into the dust of space. While it’s not the most peaceful end, it is one, and not many are going to be thinking back on how nice Del Pascia’s facilities were for quite some time. Repairing what they could of the ship’s interior and putting as much distance between the Moira and the prison as possible, those aboard are informed by Navigation that they are approaching another planet. This means, of course, the potential for better supplies, as some things are beginning to dwindle, and the Captains elect to dock so long as the crew follows protocol. WELCOME TO AMISSIS-RE
Amissis-Re is an unregistered planet with no documented histories or signs of life. The Moira’s Navigation crew have scanned the planet for any usable resources and have discovered a faint signal emitting from beneath the surface of Amissi-Re. Using the transporters and any other crafts located in the Cargo Bay, the crew are able to travel to the source of the signal. Upon arriving in its exact location, they’ll find a small series of lakes that lead to a tower-like structure that appears to be in use. Crew must cross a poorly assembled bridge system that sways and dips when weight is applied to it in order to gain access to the entrance. Once there, a woman comes out to greet them and explains, excitedly, that she is so very happy that they have come to Amissis-Re.
Everyone can go home.
Their host insists that she has done the impossible and has somewhat fixed the Ingress that’s been built on Amissis-Re a long time ago, and what’s more, she can send crew home for short bursts of time. Upon following this woman inside, crew will find that the planet is not, in fact, barren at all. Diving deep into the underbelly of Amissis-Re, it’s like an eternal factory of machines, and while vast, for whatever reason, it also seems incredibly welcoming...
☄ LEAP OF FAITH ( 05.01 and on ) The barren planet of Amissis-Re is devoid of vegetation and organic life except for a lone woman, and the planet itself is an intricate honeycomb of machines that go for miles below the surface. Yet, that seems insignificant and unimportant in comparison to the news that the crew has just received. After Thán has looked at the Ingress, he tells the crew that he cannot say for certain that it is properly functioning, but Emiri native, Ben Link, will volunteer to test it out.
An elevator takes crew down to a glass platform that overlooks an inverted Ingress portal. In order to return home, the Moirans will have to take a leap of faith and jump in. Ben, in order to show his commitment to the crew and willingness to help get them home, takes that jump with Captain Thán seconds behind him. Jumping feels like dropping through wind; lights swirl, it’s warm, and a soft buzzing encompasses you as you fall. You don’t feel the landing. One moment you’re falling, and the next, you’re in a new world.
A few hours pass before a similar elevator rises from below and to the left of the Ingress, stopping beside the platform. Ben and Thán step out unharmed.
It works, and everyone can temporarily go home. Will you jump? ☄ COMBINE THE EXTREMES ( 05.01 and on ) The woman that greeted the crew and led them to the platform will allow anyone that wants to go home the opportunity to go. There’s only one catch: it’s not permanent. She’s worked for years to fix the Ingress so that she can return to her own home but hasn’t been able to make the trip an everlasting one. Everyone always comes back. Always. They go for a few hours, at first, but that amount of time increases with each visit.
The one guideline, she says, is that you can’t go alone. Each trip requires a partner, or it becomes too much for the mind to bear. These rules are simple: the world takes shape depending on who jumps first, but if crew go hand-in-hand and leap at the same time, the worlds combine. This new world will be populated with people that existed in both and may appear to be a jarring combination of both worlds. It may seem unusual, but if the woman is asked, she’ll explain that the combined world does exist as there are more universes than can be imagined. The Ingress tries to take the person to their own home, their original home, but when jumping together, it finds the closest possible match and deposits them there instead.
From that point on, you can travel the world together or split up, but remember, this world is a living, functioning world. It doesn’t matter if it’s the home of one crew member or a combination. You meet other people. You can get hurt. You influence and are influenced by others.
Be cautious, and enjoy your visit “home”. ☄ LINGER ON ( 05.05 and on ) The more times the Amissis-Re Ingress is visited, the more it seems that your trips last longer and the experience becomes even more vivid. More real and harder to distinguish from the current reality that you know. It’s difficult to explain why, but you get the feeling that maybe if you went without the aid of the host, that perhaps you’d be able to stay. Forever. It takes some subterfuge, but in time, you see your chance: she’s nowhere in sight, and you take it.
The world you are in now is completely your own, whether another crew member accompanied you or not. The people you know are there, everything around you is exactly as you remember. A few hours pass, and you don’t feel that familiar tug, that invisible hook at the base of your spine that signals that your visit is over. Even more time goes by, and you’re still in that world, your home. When the first day has passed, you begin to question if you’ll ever go back, or if life on the Moira was all a dream. The person with you won’t be able to convince you otherwise, and they’ll start to feel less real, a stranger that you used to know.
There’s only one way to go back to the Moira. Someone from the other side has to come in and retrieve you both. Once in, contact with a third will jump-start a link through the Ingress, and it will pull all crew back to the platform.
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thisavrou_log2016-05-01 09:04 pm
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Let me guess. You're from some kind of desert planet?
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My mother's from a desert planet. Beta Colony. [ and if luke paid enough attention to the label on the hypospray, he'll recognize that name. ] The surface is too hot for human habitation, so they mostly live in domes underground. I'm told that when she first came to Barrayar, she couldn't get enough of the open sky and all that water. The lake behind one of my family's houses is bigger than the largest body of water on Beta.
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[He thinks, after hearing Miles' story, he can sum up the situation on Tatooine very succinctly:] On Tatooine, my uncle, who lived there his whole life, was a moisture farmer.
[And, if fate hadn't been fate, Luke would have been as well.]
When I saw that... well, you saw what happened.
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Just couldn't help yourself, eh? [ he chuckles slightly. his eyes light up with a sudden thought, and his grin widens. ] This place is...kind of drab, as far as planets with water go. How'd you like to see some real water? And the green to go with it, to boot.
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[However, the offer's tempting. And, Luke reasons, if he does it knowing full well what he's about, that's completely different than running off on a hunch. And isn't a Jedi supposed to learn other cultures and see other worlds, to widen their understanding of the universe?]
[Luke grins in return.] You- you mean your planet, through the portal?
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That's right. I'll take you to Barrayar, if you like. I need a jump partner, anyway.
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Sure! If you don't mind the risk of ending up on Tatooine instead.
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[ he flashes a wild grin in response, brilliant and a little manic. he waves luke over to the reverse-ingress and holds out a hand. ]
Count of three, or should we just go for it?
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[Luke ultimately decides he probably knows his own limits best.] I'd race you, if it didn't mean we might end up in different places. [Great plan.] Count of three.
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...and they're most definitely not on tattooine.
the area is a mix of earth-imported green vegetation and barrayar's own native reddish-brown flora, but it's all set beneath a bright blue sky. miles and luke find themselves between what looks like a comfortable, well-furnished residence built out of the remains of a castle and a sprawling, shimmering lake. miles shakes out one still-wet boot absent-mindedly and beams up at the sky, eyes lighting up. ]
Ah. Vorkosigan Surleau it is, then.
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[Luke realizes his mouth has dropped open. How charming. He laughs despite himself.]
It's paradise. I'd never want to leave, if I were from here. [A heavy statement, for someone who longed to leave home as much as he did.]
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Well, you haven't met the people. [ he's joking. mostly. well, there is a reason he wanted ship duty so badly. but miles loves barrayar and its people, for better or for worse, even if its society has tried its level best to trample and suffocate him. he's still proud to call barrayar his home -- it's a part of him, just as much as his own skin. ]
Come on, I'll show you around. I grew up here -- sort of -- we split our time between Vorkosigan House here and our residence in the capital. My father's Prime Minister, so most of his work is over there, but he's the district Count here, too. And my mother's got plenty of philanthropy projects going out here as well.
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[Now that he can tear himself away from the scenery, he notices something about the houses. The architecture is... off. It's not what he expected at all. He frowns. Maybe he'll ask Miles later.]
[Anyway, he's still talking. Luke tries to pay attention; it's not that Luke finds him boring, simply that he's always had a short attention span, and gaping at the local flora is a magnificent distraction.] He's a politician and a count?
[It sounds like Alderaan, a core world and bastion of civilization in his galaxy. He stands up a little straighter.] Wouldn't that make you...? [Something? He's not sure how their nobility works, but isn't that thing usually hereditary?]
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He used to be a solider, but he retired. [ a wry grin. some retirement. some people just don't know how to stop. it's kind of a vorkosigan family trait.
but talking about his father is always...a bit of a sore spot. it isn't that he doesn't love his father -- he does -- it's just that his father is such a monolith in their culture. before he was prime minister, he was lord regent for sixteen years until gregor reached his majority, and before that, he was admiral count vorkosigan, the butcher of komarr and the putative mastermind behind escobar. miles has been trying to run out from under his father's shadow all his adult life. something in him goes slightly stiff. ]
His heir, yes. I'll be the next Count Vorkosigan after him. [ he hurries to add: ] But he doesn't have anything to do with my military career. That's all me.
[ he'd just like to be clear on that point. ]
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[Whatever it is, it's unworthy. Luke tries to move past it.]
The military, hm? I almost joined the Imperial Academy when I was nineteen. I always wondered what would have happened if I had. [He'd probably be dead.] What's it like?
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[ aral vorkosigan is a great man, alright. someone miles deeply respects and admires and wants to emulate -- wants to surpass. there's never been any doubt in his mind about it. that's sort of the whole trouble with it. ]
The military, you mean? [ he shrugs. ] Well, it's about what you'd expect from a military force, I think, but your take on it probably depends on where you're assigned. I'm assigned to Imperial Security, and admittedly, I don't have the average posting, doing covert ops work. I like my work, though. It's... [ he waves a hand, groping for the right word. ] Fulfilling. It's service, and that's what the Vor are about. Supposed to be about, anyway. And it's sort of the family business.
[ considering the last two generations of vorkosigan counts are military masterminds well-known not only on barrayar but across the nexus, that's a little bit of an understatement. big shoes to fill there. ]
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[But when he thinks about it for two seconds, it does make more sense.] Then again, I guess it doesn't matter on the Moira, no matter where it seems like we are now. [This is, after all, just an alternate universe, not their true home. At best, it's an illusion.]
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It doesn't really, no. I was keeping it under wraps for a while, but it was really moot. If anyone else from that part of my life happened to show up on the Moira, keeping up any pretense would be just about impossible. I'm a little too distinctive-looking to pull that off.
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[Which brings us to Luke's initial assumption, that everyone from Miles' planet is Ugnaut-sized.]
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Did you think I wasn't human?
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[He takes a step back, and looks upward, thinking. Miles is a man deserving of a thoughtful answer, so Luke takes a moment to drudge one up. Words have never been his element, much less coming up with the right ones at a second's notice.]
I guess, I... didn't think anything at all. [Which is a weak answer, he knows, but it's the deserved truth.] Tatooine is a trading hub at the best of times; the people who come by are too varied for me to really know everything about them. You spoke Basic, so I didn't really think about it until we got here. [Whatever Miles was or wasn't, he'd assumed it was the norm for his planet.]
[More fool him.] I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed.
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Don't worry about it. [ he glances around at the perfect sunny summer day around them, the lake, the house, the stables off in the distance. they won't be here long -- better not waste it bickering. ] C'mon, I'll show you around.