002 Jenghe/Regina (1810) C799663–9 [056/1085]

[terrymixon]

Doug can't believe what he is seeing on the boards. Captain, we've got a problem here. I'm seeing green lights on the sensor controls when I should be seeing red at this point of the jump. Checking sensors which should be blank might be a good idea.

“On it.”

Flighty will hurry to the bridge and see what’s going on. He’ll make sure the systems are recording everything so he can check it later.

[joertexas]

Zaki sees the increase in respiration and heartbeat, the rise in blood pressure, and the shift in brainwave patterns from mostly theta to mostly alpha now. Karcsi is in a deep meditative state now. His mind is alert and active, but he is still by all appearances still unconscious.

"This is incredible," Zaki murmurs to Sigrun as she watches her displays. "I'm recording this for later study, after I clear it with him, of course."

[helvorn]

Donovan watches with wonder as the ceremony proceeds. He continues talking steadily although his voice has grown hoarse and low. Donovan gives a thumbs up to Sigrun when she hands Karsci his spear. Now Donovan speaks of a journey of 13 odd companions and wizard as they travel through the wilds in search of adventure, revenge and ultimately friendship.

[Tiglath]

Zaki sees the increase in respiration and heartbeat, the rise in blood pressure, and the shift in brainwave patterns from mostly theta to mostly alpha now. Karcsi is in a deep meditative state now. His mind is alert and active, but he is still by all appearances still unconscious.

"This is incredible," Zaki murmurs to Sigrun as she watches her displays. "I'm recording this for later study, after I clear it with him, of course."

Sigrún replies "He travels between the realms. It is known - except in the Imperium".

Donovan watches with wonder as the ceremony proceeds. He continues talking steadily although his voice has grown hoarse and low. Donovan gives a thumbs up to Sigrun when she hands Karsci his spear. Now Donovan speaks of a journey of 13 odd companions and wizard as they travel through the wilds in search of adventure, revenge and ultimately friendship.

Sigrún avidly follows the telling of a story she seems to know. She comments "I think the wizard was a Zhodani. They are... are..." she winces and rubs her temple "... always wise and helpful...". She trails off lost in brooding thought.

[joertexas]

Sigrún avidly follows the telling of a story she seems to know. She comments "I think the wizard was a Zhodani. They are... are..." she winces and rubs her temple "... always wise and helpful...". She trails off lost in brooding thought.

Zaki reaches out and takes Sigrún's hand.

[Eris]

Not part of Karcsi's Journey, directly.

Doug can't believe what he is seeing on the boards. Captain, we've got a problem here. I'm seeing green lights on the sensor controls when I should be seeing red at this point of the jump. Checking sensors which should be blank might be a good idea.

“On it.”

Flighty will hurry to the bridge and see what’s going on. He’ll make sure the systems are recording everything so he can check it later.

Flighty enters the bridge and sees the flashing green lights on the control board. That's not malfunction, it's the sensors picking something up! Intermittently, but picking something up.

Current Sensor/Comm status:

Radio is off, all Comms are off. (Normally off in Jump.)
Active sensors are off. (Normally off in Jump.)
Passive sensors are on...flashing intermittently green and amber. (Normally on in Jump and glowing steady RED.)
Viewscreens to the cameras around the outside of the ship are off. (Normally off in Jump.)
Windows are covered by blast shields. (Normal in Jump.)

The passive sensors are NOT suppose to be acting like this. Even when the ship is approaching the transition back to Normal Space, the sensors don't behave like this. They slowly begin to go amber from the red and then at transition flash to solid green.
---
Doug has double checked and the sensor controls are not malfunctioning. The green and amber flashing and the sounds they are making lay down a nice background beat to "Is anybody out there?" as Doug continues to hum Comfortably Numb in his head. No, it's "Hello? Hello? Hello? Is anybody in there?" isn't it?

But then Doug thinks of the proximity sensors on the hull. They should answer those questions...assuming the anything is out there, but inside the jump bubble. He doesn't even want to think about if it's actually in here!

So, what do Flighty and Doug do about it all?

[trawets]

Doug checks t he proximity sensors from where he is and contacts flighty, The proximity sensors. Check those and maybe listen on the radio. You might want to check the view screens as well. I've got a bad feeling something may be in here already.

[Eris]

The whispers grow fainter in Karcsi's mind as one grows stronger. Not of fear, pain, loneliness, but joy, ultimate joy! It is like an angel joining a choir of angels. Karcsi, could not be a happier man!

He laughs with joy, for life, for here, for this, for...well for it all!

---
Suddenly, Donovan, Sigrun and Zaki see Karcsi open his mouth and begin to laugh. By all signs he is still unconscious, his EEG readings still show mostly alpha waves, but with theta flashing like lightning from cerebellum to cortex to parietal lobe to occipital lobe...Zaki thinks Karcsi is seeing something in his mind and trying to figure out what it is...where it is!
---

From somewhere deep in Karcsi's ancestral memories an image forms of large dogs running beside him. Karcsi, still holding the chain, is standing, yes, Standing! He's standing on a kelkka, a sled, sliding through clean packed snow with kaksi poroa pulling it and several hunting susia loping along beside him. Kotiin is just ahead, he can see the circle of tents in the far distance...the forests, the mountains, the clean clear air. Warmth, comfort from the long, long cold beckon him home. Home to family, to completion.

Home! The shard is taking him home to the Luomisen Henget, where all things began and everything was created!

Ahead Kotiin, not his he realizes, but the Shard's kotiin is alive with song. It is like a choir of angels rejoicing over the return of a lost angel. It is the return of a lost angel!

There was a sense of speed before, but now everything slows down to status, to zero, to nothing. The susia, the kelkka and the poroa pulling it fade to into nothingness and Karcsi is floating holding a limp chain with nothing surrounding him but the Shard as merges into its kotiin. Karcis knows that the chain, the thread, he is holding extends back to his place in things but he doesn't think it is yet time for him to pull himself back.

What are you?

Why are you here?

The questions appears in Karcsi's mind like ringing bells. The thing, the kotiin... Luomisen Henget? He doesn't know what vibrates in time to the thoughts in Karcsi's mind. "What am I? Why am I here? What do I want?", oh so reasonable questions...so easy to ask, so hard to answer...

---
Zaki's eyes go wide....Frontal Lobe! Broca's Area! is now active. That is speech and translation of speech to thought and vice versa! Is Karsci talking with someone in his head?

Sounds come from Karsci's open mouth. Words? Language? None any of you know...the phrase "he speaks in tongues unknown to man" come into your minds... You know what the sounds mean, though...Zaki, Sigrun and Donavon all hear them in their native tongues, or do they hear them at all? Do they just simply know?

What are you?
Why are you here?
What do you want?
---

OOC: Flighty and Doug have their own thing going on to investigate. Karcsi, Zaki, Sigrun and Donvan have this to deal with.

[terrymixon]

Doug checks t he proximity sensors from where he is and contacts flighty, The proximity sensors. Check those and maybe listen on the radio. You might want to check the view screens as well. I've got a bad feeling something may be in here already.

"Good idea."

Flighty will activate the proximity sensors and see what is going on.

If he activates the cameras, how dangerous is that for him?

[Eris]

Doug checks t he proximity sensors from where he is and contacts flighty, The proximity sensors. Check those and maybe listen on the radio. You might want to check the view screens as well. I've got a bad feeling something may be in here already.

"Good idea."

Flighty will activate the proximity sensors and see what is going on.

If he activates the cameras, how dangerous is that for him?

It's a rite of passage for a Spacer to take a look at Jump Space and it does you know harm. You are assured that if you look too long , though, you will go mad. Too long would be hours and hours.

[terrymixon]

Doug checks t he proximity sensors from where he is and contacts flighty, The proximity sensors. Check those and maybe listen on the radio. You might want to check the view screens as well. I've got a bad feeling something may be in here already.

"Good idea."

Flighty will activate the proximity sensors and see what is going on.

If he activates the cameras, how dangerous is that for him?

It's a rite of passage for a Spacer to take a look at Jump Space and it does you know harm. You are assured that if you look too long , though, you will go mad. Too long would be hours and hours.

Then he will activate the exterior cameras as well, recording everything.

[helvorn]

Sounds come from Karsci's open mouth. Words? Language? None any of you know...the phrase "he speaks in tongues unknown to man" come into your minds... You know what the sounds mean, though...Zaki, Sigrun and Donavon all hear them in their native tongues, or do they hear them at all? Do they just simply know?

What are you?
Why are you here?
What do you want?
---

Donovan rocks back on his heels as Karsci speaks something. He looked at the others with eyes wide open. Donovan whispered; "I heard…"

He decides to answer. "We are travelers fleeing from our enemies. We seek knowledge in order to travel to safety."

[joertexas]

---
Zaki's eyes go wide....Frontal Lobe! Broca's Area! is now active. That is speech and translation of speech to thought and vice versa! Is Karsci talking with someone in his head?

Sounds come from Karsci's open mouth. Words? Language? None any of you know...the phrase "he speaks in tongues unknown to man" come into your minds... You know what the sounds mean, though...Zaki, Sigrun and Donavon all hear them in their native tongues, or do they hear them at all? Do they just simply know?

What are you?
Why are you here?
What do you want?

Zkai keeps quiet and monitors Karcsi's vitals, but she's ready to counter the mismash of chemicals with a injection of filter nanos and antidotes.

[ateno]

Picturing his Shaman in his mind and hearing his words and seeing his stature in his mind, he speaks:

""I am Karcsi Filep, son of Ice and Fire, of the Tribe Drumbeat and Wind. I came because I must.
I walk the thread not to return home—but to carry home with me.
The shard remembered its song. Now I will learn mine as the Shamans before me did.
I want to be the sled, the chain, the rider, and the hum."

Karcsi

Go big or go home.

[Tiglath]

Sigrún replies "Korvettenkapitän Sigrún Völsung. Ég er að elta uppreisnarmenn í sjóræningjaættum og leita hefnda. Ég vil vita hvar ég finn Tostig Þorvaldsson".

(OOC: Swordy Trans Service or quite possibly in this case Automatic Psionic Comprehension!
Lieutenant Commander Sigrún Völsung. I am hunting renegade pirates and I seek revenge. I want to know where I can find Tostig Thorvaldsson).

[Eris]

"Good idea."

Flighty will activate the proximity sensors and see what is going on.

If he activates the cameras, how dangerous is that for him?

It's a rite of passage for a Spacer to take a look at Jump Space and it does you know harm. You are assured that if you look too long , though, you will go mad. Too long would be hours and hours.

Then he will activate the exterior cameras as well, recording everything.

Doug, who I presume is also following the readings from what Flighty is doing, and Flighty see the following:

• Proximity Sensor shows a small object (about 1 meter across) near the ship and as you watch it leaves the jump bubble and disappears toward what is on your passive sensors.
   
• Passive Sensors show a large planet sized object roughly [1d100]=96 thousand kilometers ahead of the ship. This large object looks like it was once a sphere, but is now jagged and broken in shape. The ship and this object are holding this position relative to each other.
   
• Exterior Cameras, in all directions, show the swirling mind bending colors of Jump Space that you don't want to look at very long. However, 8 degrees off port forward the large object on the passives is visible floating within the swirl. It's hard to look at, but it appears that many of the swirling lines of color are bending into this object. You can't say if they are going in, coming out, or both, but they are interacting with it in some way. On the cameras you can see that this 'spherical' object is hardly there at all! The shape is the swirls of colors...they sort of look like threads...that are interacting with an area of ?space? There are small ?solid sections? where the colored threads are not part of the spherical shape, but only a very tiny bit of the spherical area is actually solid. You think solid because those tiny bits are pure white with no swirling colored threads interacting with them.
   
• Radio is receiving some static, should be nothing at all, but it's picking up something. So whatever is out there, wherever this is, there is radiation. At least, some of this radiation is in the radio wave frequency.
   
• Radiation Sensors, because I know you'd look, show normal levels inside the ship and within the Jump Bubble around. That's all you can get from them.

Suffice it to say, you've never seen anything like this before...not even close!

OOC: I hope I described this well enough for you to get the idea.

[terrymixon]

It's a rite of passage for a Spacer to take a look at Jump Space and it does you know harm. You are assured that if you look too long , though, you will go mad. Too long would be hours and hours.

Then he will activate the exterior cameras as well, recording everything.

Doug, who I presume is also following the readings from what Flighty is doing, and Flighty see the following:

• Proximity Sensor shows a small object (about 1 meter across) near the ship and as you watch it leaves the jump bubble and disappears toward what is on your passive sensors.
   
• Passive Sensors show a large planet sized object roughly [1d100]=96 thousand kilometers ahead of the ship. This large object looks like it was once a sphere, but is now jagged and broken in shape. The ship and this object are holding this position relative to each other.
   
• Exterior Cameras, in all directions, show the swirling mind bending colors of Jump Space that you don't want to look at very long. However, 8 degrees off port forward the large object on the passives is visible floating within the swirl. It's hard to look at, but it appears that many of the swirling lines of color are bending into this object. You can't say if they are going in, coming out, or both, but they are interacting with it in some way. On the cameras you can see that this 'spherical' object is hardly there at all! The shape is the swirls of colors...they sort of look like threads...that are interacting with an area of ?space? There are small ?solid sections? where the colored threads are not part of the spherical shape, but only a very tiny bit of the spherical area is actually solid. You think solid because those tiny bits are pure white with no swirling colored threads interacting with them.
   
• Radio is receiving some static, should be nothing at all, but it's picking up something. So whatever is out there, wherever this is, there is radiation. At least, some of this radiation is in the radio wave frequency.
   
• Radiation Sensors, because I know you'd look, show normal levels inside the ship and within the Jump Bubble around. That's all you can get from them.

Suffice it to say, you've never seen anything like this before...not even close!

OOC: I hope I described this well enough for you to get the idea.

"Doug, are you seeing this?"

Flighty will make sure and get as much recorded information and scanning done as he can, all going onto tape for later replay.

They're in jump so there is no way to move closer to the object, but he wishes they could explore it. This was amazing.

He considered telling the others, but a disruption at this moment might be bad for Karsci. He and Doug will just have to keep an eye...

Flighty stopped, his thoughts coming to a screeching halt. Could he find out more? He had on occasion been able to see places where he wasn't, and oddly, that had been in jumpspace. It was akin to what their friend was doing, though different.

"Hey, Doug, I'm going to try something. If I don't respond for a bit, it's okay. Just go with me on this."

He'll make sure the bridge recorders are on and open the shutters to see this thing with his own eyes. It should be safe enough for a bit. Then he relaxed and tried to "see" more of this thing. What it was. What was inside it. Not with his eyes, but with the strange ability the statue had woken in him.

[Eris]

Sounds come from Karsci's open mouth. Words? Language? None any of you know...the phrase "he speaks in tongues unknown to man" come into your minds... You know what the sounds mean, though...Zaki, Sigrun and Donavon all hear them in their native tongues, or do they hear them at all? Do they just simply know?

What are you?
Why are you here?
What do you want?
---

Donovan rocks back on his heels as Karsci speaks something. He looked at the others with eyes wide open. Donovan whispered; "I heard…"

He decides to answer. "We are travelers fleeing from our enemies. We seek knowledge in order to travel to safety."

In his mind, or through Karsci's, Donovan doesn't know, but he knows his answers...

"...Little Spark you have travelled nowhere yet and know almost nothing. Do not flee! Seek!"

"Our returned Little Self has revealed your next drop of knowing. Those more Ancient that you fashioned it from what they learned from the sight of 'Heaven's Gate'. That creation is appropriate to your state of being, Little Spark. Follow Little Self's direction and more will be revealed near our Daughter."

[Eris]

Picturing his Shaman in his mind and hearing his words and seeing his stature in his mind, he speaks:

""I am Karcsi Filep, son of Ice and Fire, of the Tribe Drumbeat and Wind. I came because I must.
I walk the thread not to return home—but to carry home with me.
The shard remembered its song. Now I will learn mine as the Shamans before me did.
I want to be the sled, the chain, the rider, and the hum."

Karcsi

Go big or go home.

With pulses of maybe light, maybe something else, the jagged orb before him speaks in Karcsi's mind...

...little Spark, oh, little Spark, there is so much your kind have to learn. You are not the sled, the chain, the rider or the hum, you are a bit of existence destined to be part of your own Luomisen Henget, not ours. All those things you see are reflections of what you know. The path, the self, the call to Kotiin. Your kind have your own path, self and home. It is your why to seek your own!

Little Spark, you and all your kind have lukematon iterations to turn before your Luominen begins. Little Sparks can add only little sparks so don't give in to despair. Be what you are and know you are a step along your kind's path.

You are due a boon for returning our Little Bit to the Luominen. We will return you safely to where you were going and a gate to where you should be...

[Eris]

Sigrún replies "Korvettenkapitän Sigrún Völsung. Ég er að elta uppreisnarmenn í sjóræningjaættum og leita hefnda. Ég vil vita hvar ég finn Tostig Þorvaldsson".

(OOC: Swordy Trans Service or quite possibly in this case Automatic Psionic Comprehension!
Lieutenant Commander Sigrún Völsung. I am hunting renegade pirates and I seek revenge. I want to know where I can find Tostig Thorvaldsson).

...Little Spark, you are so sure of yourself. That is wise and that is unwise. To know with certainty is to refuse to know what is uncertain. You seek minor things when so much more is unknown and knowable by even a little Spark. We know you are a stubborn Little Spark and will seldom take meaning from truth you do not wish to take. This is a weakness of many immature sparks. Once it was our weakness, too. Many iterations passed before it was overcome. Many iterations must pass before it is overcome by your sparks.

You are owed a boon for returning our Little Bit. We give you a meaning. Take this meaning as Truth. The spark you seek by that appellation can not be found until your iteration is complete. Then that spark will be known to you as you will know all you can know, and then forgotten as you iterate...such is the cycle.

But knowing your bent, you will still seek the essence of that spark even in other sparks. You will see it in certainty. A second
Truth we give you...seek the uncertainty of that essence in others, that you not perpetuate that essence yourself when you iterate...