Elfin Brunch

Posted on Fri Dec 28th, 2018 @ 1:52am by Commander Rita Paris & Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Rear Admiral Farenia Meowlith

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: The Golden Donut, on the Worldship
Timeline: 2395

Flumia was an able guide and was quickly able to lead the group of starfleet officers to the restaurant called the Golden Donut next to Farenia's inn that she had been staying at since she had arrived. The trip was mostly accomplished on another of those dragon styled trams, then across a streetcar in a similar style. Everything so far had been on the 'surface' so there was plenty of light and open air and even though there was a dome, it still felt like they were on an amazingly well done recreation of a planet, if not a planet itself. Wandering the streets there were a few elfin peoples wearing fancy clothes and some obviously higher tier summoned beings, but other than that, it seemed this part of town was reserved for the upper class and VIPs.

As they arrived at the Golden Donut, Flumia bowed graciously and announced their presence. "Captain and crew of the USS Hera, arriving." With that, the wait staff called out warm greetings and Farenia, who had been sitting at a special taller table, looked up from an old tome she had been reading and smiled warmly.

Closing the large book, she handed it off to an identically dressed elfin woman standing next to her. "Thank you, Flumia. Please take care of this for me." With a nod and a smile, the woman rushed off with it to stash it away safely. "'Nalia, it's great to see you. I knew you and your crew would make it." With that, she tackled the spotted captain in a tight hug.

"Ah, well, if you were crazy enough to do it in an Oberth and I wasn't going to do it in my ship, I'd never hear the end of it, now would I?" Enalia returned the hug, then held Farenia out at arm's length to look her old friend over. "You're looking well at least."

"I feel great. Everything about this place is fascinating. They've taken energy flow to a level we can't even imagine reproducing for at least another... Six hundred years? Maybe? The tech behind everything is amazingly advanced, yet they live as if they're in a pre-computer boom era. It's..." Farenia flailed her hands about for a few moments before motioning to the table. "Let's sit down and talk over brunch." Looking over at the wait staff, Farenia waved at them. "Full course brunch for four, please."

While waiting for the senior officers to sit first, Sonak scanned everything around them; not with his tricorder, as it could have been interpreted as intrusive, but only with eyes, ears and nose, relying on his photographic memory and analytical mind to sort out the bewildering array of forms and colors, noises and voices, odors and fragrances that were mixed all around them. Quite experienced with alien worlds, he sorted out the trivial from the significant, ever watchful for opportunities... and risks.

Since everything in this environment was artificially implanted for a purpose, he made a conscious effort to find out that intent.

Active while Sonak was passive, Rita Paris was the counterpoint to the somber scientist. As he silently studied their surroundings, she had been chatty with the locals the entire trip, taking in the sights, asking questions of points of interest and interacting with the locals to get a feel for them, their culture, their society and whatever might lie beneath the surface of the Worldship. Charming and positive, she had a way with people, and she felt as though she had made inroads with her guide, although she was surprised to see an identical guide tending to the Commodore.

"So as this is seemingly the source of the energies that are summoning back the gods of the galaxy, I assume that's our mission here? Or did you have something else in mind, Commodore Meowlith?" Paris inquired. As the Captain had been passive, Rita assumed that was to observe and analyze while Rita ran point, not unlike how she partnered with Sonak for away missions, so it hadn't fazed the anachronistic astronaut. She naturally stepped up to ask questions and try to plot a course for interactions.

"There's a lot that we need to discuss. Like the fact that Flumia isn't so much a name as a title? I think? It's confusing. I've met like six of them now." Sitting back down at the table, she glanced around at the locals as the servers brought several trays to their table loaded with pastries and four large mugs of hot chocolate. "Also, everything here is made of sugar and spices. Even the meats are sweet."

She then pointed out another local entering the shop surreptitiously and lowered her voice. "That's another Flumia. They're like assistants or priestesses. You can tell by the gold striping on the collar and lapels. Anyway, this is definitely the source of the energy. I tried talking with... Ah... Log Yerm... I have a hard time pronouncing that name... But I didn't get very far."

"We spoke with him as well and thanks to Rita's pure heart, I think, we made some headway with him." Enalia ginned as she picked up one of the more sugary looking pastries and bit into it, her eyes widening as the sugar rush hit her tongue. Washing it down with the hot chocolate, she gasped a bit. "Holy... Yeah, we're going to need to get checked for diabetes after this mission..."

“Mmmm, I’d have to disagree, ma’am,” Paris said quietly, knowing that the sharp ears of the Vulcanoids would be able to hear her regardless, and Captain Telvan was close enough to pick up what she was saying. “He didn’t really give us any answers, and he stalled us. Friendly enough and a seemingly generous host, but he was almost exclusively evasive, and we learned far less than he did in the exchange.” While she was an optimistic explorer who came in peace, Rita Paris was also nobody’s fool, and she was a canny judge of behavior and interactions.

"Exactly," Enalia set the sweet aside and chose one that looked slightly less sugary. "Which is why you're here to tell us what wasn't said."

Cocking an eyebrow in a manner that was striking reminiscent of one of Sonak’s expressions, Paris frowned slightly, then after a few second’s consideration she forged ahead. “The locals are at an evolutionary standstill since he’s been maintaining this contained ecosphere for generations, thousands of years apparently. The excess energies that our host ‘leaks’ is apparently sufficient to be harnessed to use some sort of summoning stones- which we haven’t seen nor analyzed yet, but that needs to happen- to summon beings of mythology or even imagination. So a coalescing of mental energies to form lifeforms would be one theory, but Hera has full memory of a very long life and was actually summoned from the afterlife, whatever she called it, I can’t recall right now.”

“So, the locals are summoning using stones, which implies ritual, which is often just a mental exercise to channel energy, as I understand it. Which doesn’t jibe all that well with the data we got from New Texas, which indicates that just a little bit of wishful thinking goes a long ways, as I accidentally summoned Hera from her imprisonment on the Odin’s Breath. Which will likely be a diplomatic incident to deal with later,” Paris noted to the Commodore. “Mister Sonak, anything to add?”

"If thoughts can take actual form here, I would recommend to be very cautious; ideally stay very focused on the mission at hand, and avoid any stray thought," answered the chief science officer.

"If our ride in the tram was any indication, the locals didn't take well to a lack of mental discipline." Enalia added. "And the culture thus far doesn't seem to be particularly advanced, either, which would lend credence to the idea that it's a mind based society."

Farenia nibbled on one of the pastries as she listened. "Yeah, from what I gathered from the creator of this worldship, he made it to save these people from the destruction of their homeworld and they worship him as their god and in return he powers everything about this whole place. Sounds like the whole mount olympus fallacy to me, but with the sticking point of, he literally keeps the ship running. Anyway, from their history books I've managed to get my hands on, I've seen the same names repeated over and over for the past several thousand years. Either these people use titles for names for everything, they're immortal, or they like to use the same names over and over. It's only the past two hundred years that they've been trying to summon outer beings like Hera - the book I was reading detailed the early history of those summonings using the early circles and stones. Apparently, now, they have it down to an art and can summon them almost at will in the underbelly of the ship according to one of the Flumia's I've spoken with."

"Anyway, one week galactic standard with these people searching through an early industrial revolution level society's records... That's what I've got." Farenia stuffed another pastry in her mouth and washed it down with some of her hot chocolate.

"Have you seen it done? The summonings? Have you had the chance to record some scans of the energy interchange and such?" Rita asked, dropping a few more marshmallows into her hot chocolate. "If not, it seems that would be a priority. Other than that, I guess the mission is to convince Log'yerm/// to seal the breach between our realities so those energies and beings will stop affecting our universe. Which he seems inclined to do. Since he seems willing to let us depart before he does so, this looks like an exploratory mission, other than trying to avoid trouble with the gods. Aye?"

Glancing around at each member of the assemblage, Rita Paris sought input.

Enalia poked at the air with another pastry. "I have to wonder how much the Prime Directive applies in this case. One one hand, they're interfering with the rest of the galaxy in a rather massive scale with these energies in a way that has the potential to destroy all life as we know it. On the other, their society is now based on this internally."

"It's exactly because of their involvement with the rest of the galaxy that the prime directive no longer applies," the Commodore clarified. "We'll do our best not to interfere, but we still have to try to convince them to not destroy the rest of the galaxy. After all, we live in it. As for scans, I haven't been able to talk my way into one of the summoning chambers yet. I'm hoping that your crew are more resourceful. With an Oberth class from Intel Command, they only gave me a crew of six so we've been stretched pretty thin."

"We'll find a way to observe one of the summonings, and we'll work to stay in our host's good graces," Paris offered, assuming the portion of the mission for which the hard-luck heroine would be responsible. "We got a lot of very thorough scans on our side to share with him, so assuming he's serious about helping to close the interfacing of our reality, hopefully those will help. We're allowed to scan freely, I recall someone mentioning?"

"As far as I can tell, they don't even have scanner tech, so they've been curious about that as well so feel free to conduct as many scans as you like." Farenia punctuated the air with a particularly tasty looking pastry before munching on it. "Besides, I'm betting they'd love to see things the way we do with our sensors. A new point of view seems to be what the people here crave."

"Then, with your permission, Captain, Gentlebeings..."

Saying so, Sonak activated his tricorder and began a full and thorough scan of the area around them.

"Interesting; I see much similarity with those readings and those taken on other such constructed places like Organia and the Starfleet Academy mock up of Species 8472 and what the USS Enterprise D recorded beyond the edge of the known universe during the experiments of The Traveler. Without such previously recorded data, my reading would have seen all this as totally genuine and not the mind-directed materialized energy constructs that they are."

"We are all motes in the eyes of the gods, praying they don't blink," Paris quoted. "Okay, data exchange is a go, we'll ask them to perform a summoning so we can watch, it isn't taboo so it shouldn't be a problem as long as we summon something harmless. I've set an investigative team to work, we'll see what they come up with through unconventional channels. Do you have clearance to explore local space with your starship, Commodore? Get some long range external scans of the rift from this side as well as the Worldship itself?"

"Once we finish repairs, we should be able to get all the scans we need. If you can spare a few engineers, we should be up and running in a few hours instead of a few days." The Commodore eyed Enalia hopefully.

Enalia chuckled at the not so subtle hint. "I think we can spare enough crew and supplies to build you a whole ship if you need it. Just send me a list and we'll get everything sorted. We'll scan from inside and you can scan from outside. And remember to think happy thoughts. It seems to help." Finishing her tea, the spotted Captain stood and looked around the quaint little pastry shop once more. "That being said, I'm going to head back to the ship. Commander, Lieutenant, you two conduct further research here as discussed. Commodore, if you would be so kind as to discuss those repairs with me? Unless there's anything else we need to know about?"

Farenia thought about it a moment before replying. "Well, we've estimated that our sensors could be wrong about the scale of this place. There were closer to twelve billion sentients living aboard this worldship at one time. And I have a theory that it's originally more of an ark than a replacement for their world but that they decided to stay here rather than resettling a new world for some reason. I found mention of that in the oldest book I read but Flumia snatched it away from me not long after I started reading it. There's apparently some history that they refuse to even acknowledge. It likely has no bearing on our mission, but there's a chance that the people here are also constructs, like the surroundings and the people actually did resettle... Or they perished... Or they're the real people and have really been stuck like this for over a million years for some reason... Who knows..."

"On that note..." Enalia frowned suddenly, realizing something. "Have you seen any children since you've been here? I know we haven't been here long, but normally, even in an upper class neighborhood, you'd see some sign of children... Or elderly..."

"No... Neither... Everyone looks about the same age." Farenia stated it as a simple matter of fact, but the implications of it ran much deeper than she needed to speak. There was far more mystery afoot.

“It’s a fish tank,” Paris observed, then noted the strange looks she got from the Commodore and Captain. “He’s sustaining all of these people like one would pets, and their lives and activities he observes in order to keep him entertained and interested. Or at least that’s my thought,” Paris opined with a shrug. “I mean, he’s maintained this ecosystem for how long? Clearly he has no intention of relocating the locals to a planet to colonize, so it looks a lot like he’s just watching them swim along. I could be wrong…”

Farenia definitely had to think about that analogy, but after a moment she couldn't help but concede it. "No, I think you may be on to something. Even in slowly evolving civilizations, progress is made. Here there has been none apparent over the course of a million years. Logically, an outside influence such as Loggy would be the cause for this since there doesn't seem to be any other obvious source of suppression."

"You really have a hard time pronouncing his name, don't you?" Enalia asked softly.

The Vulcanoid Rigelian glanced around and leaned in, softening her voice. "Actually, I have a theory that he takes notice every time you say his name. My Betazoid science officer noticed a tingle in the back of her mind every time she said it so I've been trying to avoid saying it outright."

Sonak nodded.

"This would be consistent with the supernatural theme regarding these encounters and events. In many worlds' superstitions, the True Name carries magical powers; in our case, actual powers, be they psionics or transmutational in nature. Something more to be cautious about. it would suggest that language as much as thought has effective consequences on reality here."

"Great, watch my mouth, and my thoughts AND my ass," Rita Paris grumbled. "Well, here's hoping he's planning to work with us. Meanwhile those scans should give us some options. Captain, you and the Commodore will be absconding with Thex I assume to get the Commodore's vessel up and running, while Mr. Sonak and I investigate?"

Enalia nodded in affirmation. "She'll likely have her hands full with our own repairs, but I'm sure she'll be able to spare a few hands and one of the industrial replicators."

"We weren't damaged in transit, ma'am. A little turbulence was the worst of it- Lieutenant Dox guided us through like a surfer off Maui. By now what there was her damage control teams have cleaned up. So, with that said," Paris rose and offered a snappy two-fingered salute to the Commodore and a nod to the Captain. We'll get to it, then."

"In a land where what we say and think can cause catastrophe, it seems the sooner we're out of here, the better!"

 

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