(IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"Good. We will be sending you back to Kuro on the next ship."

"When's that?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

"What exactly did you say to them? I don't know exactly what the plan is*, but we hope to continue working with them. How did they feel about being kidnapped?"

*That's a lie, Ypress does know

"They had me offer the Starpus a better deal. The Starpus thought it was a better offer than what they were getting, and jumped for it."

"The Starpus still want that deal."

Originally Posted by ericthered

"If you want to stop them from cloning you... that would probably require winning the war on the ground."

Well, like I can make that happen.

"Hopefully they don't decide making copies of me works as well as Starpus."

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

"When's that?"

"Tomorrow Morning"

"They had me offer the Starpus a better deal. The Starpus thought it was a better offer than what they were getting, and jumped for it."

"The Starpus still want that deal."

I assume he also explains the particulars of the deal.



"So they were manipulated into coming. I suppose I can't blame them. They'll have to renegotiate. They can probably eventually get their ship... if they maintain their focus."

"Hopefully they don't decide making copies of me works as well as Starpus."

Ypress looks like he's been slapped. "would that work?" he asks worriedly


*********************************
running this to move things along concurrently.



Julian will be kept in cells or cuffs until he's on the ship that's leaving. He's given an enormous meal with six different kinds of food for dinner, but he is alone in his cell. He still has his diary.



His sleep is dreamless.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I assume he also explains the particulars of the deal.

"So they were manipulated into coming. I suppose I can't blame them. They'll have to renegotiate. They can probably eventually get their ship... if they maintain their focus."

Well that's good.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Ypress looks like he's been slapped. "would that work?" he asks worriedly

"Well, Starpus Travel builds on their telekinesis, right? If I can imitate their telekinesis, it might be possible to imitate one of them doing travel. If cloning me would create a copy with the same abilities, well, I guess nine specially trained Julian copies would be very busy on starships."

Originally Posted by ericthered

Julian will be kept in cells or cuffs until he's on the ship that's leaving. He's given an enormous meal with six different kinds of food for dinner

"Is it normal to have this much variety of food?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

but he is alone in his cell. He still has his diary.

His sleep is dreamless.

Well, I guess I should make a fourth entry for the day. When I get on the ship, I ask, "Can I watch the Starpus when we travel?"

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

"Well, Starpus Travel builds on their telekinesis, right? If I can imitate their telekinesis, it might be possible to imitate one of them doing travel. If cloning me would create a copy with the same abilities, well, I guess nine specially trained Julian copies would be very busy on starships."

"It builds on their astropic brains, though in a different way than humans. We don't know if its linked to telekinesis. I don't think it is. why would it be?"

"Is it normal to have this much variety of food?"

Jailer: "Yes. Its how we deal with picky eaters."

Well, I guess I should make a fourth entry for the day. When I get on the ship, I ask, "Can I watch the Starpus when we travel?"

The only person he can ask is the guy who feeds him. "What? No! You're in here as long as we're in the Panogos system. We don't want you to try anything."

That night, Julian dreams. He dreams of Royal and Florence, in yet another featureless room, discussing their options. Florence holds up "The sample", and says at least they can clone the traitor. Seven asks if they think he was really a traitor or if they think he just got caught, and Florence is sure he was a traitor, and Royal thinks its likely.

Julian dreams of Paulis Tatim, working late, listening to briefings about drone warfare.

Julian dreams of the starpus. He can tell that they are his from the sizes, and maybe the colors. They're in a tank. He can hear them talking about if they are going to get their new deal. Big Digger is silent, letting the others discuss the various points. They're somewhat worried they're going to be put back in the ocean of Koru.

Julian wakes, still in his small cell. Its morning. The Jailer comes back outside his door to give breakfast. "You're almost out! We'll be jumping in... 31 minutes!"

The jailer sticks around, and seems quite cheerful. He brought a chair and has an extra tablet "We'll give you the tablet as soon as we jump. Then you sign again, and we'll let you out."

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

"It builds on their astropic brains, though in a different way than humans. We don't know if its linked to telekinesis. I don't think it is. why would it be?"

"They talked about it in terms of like, 'eight pull in their direction'. Maybe they have some other way they could pull, but, I think they'd have their own strange word for it."

Originally Posted by ericthered

Jailer: "Yes. Its how we deal with picky eaters."

I wonder if picky means something different than what I'm used to, like vegetarian or gluten-free...

Originally Posted by ericthered

The only person he can ask is the guy who feeds him. "What? No! You're in here as long as we're in the Panogos system. We don't want you to try anything."

Guess I was thrown off by:

Originally Posted by ericthered

Julian will be kept in cells or cuffs until he's on the ship that's leaving.

Originally Posted by ericthered

That night, Julian dreams. He dreams of Royal and Florence, in yet another featureless room, discussing their options. Florence holds up "The sample", and says at least they can clone the traitor. Seven asks if they think he was really a traitor or if they think he just got caught, and Florence is sure he was a traitor, and Royal thinks its likely.

Julian dreams of Paulis Tatim, working late, listening to briefings about drone warfare.

Julian dreams of the starpus. He can tell that they are his from the sizes, and maybe the colors. They're in a tank. He can hear them talking about if they are going to get their new deal. Big Digger is silent, letting the others discuss the various points. They're somewhat worried they're going to be put back in the ocean of Koru.

Julian wakes, still in his small cell. Its morning.

I wake, and wonder if it would have been better to run, even if I would've been caught.

Originally Posted by ericthered

The Jailer comes back outside his door to give breakfast. "You're almost out! We'll be jumping in... 31 minutes!"

I look at the collection of breakfasts: bacon and eggs, pastries, fruit, something that resembles seaweed... "Isn't it kinda wasteful making all this food, only for most of it not to be eaten?"

"What's it like to jump?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

The jailer sticks around, and seems quite cheerful. He brought a chair and has an extra tablet "We'll give you the tablet as soon as we jump. Then you sign again, and we'll let you out."

"Why would I have to sign a second time?"

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

"They talked about it in terms of like, 'eight pull in their direction'. Maybe they have some other way they could pull, but, I think they'd have their own strange word for it."

Ypress: "I've never heard of it, but that doesn't mean its not the case. I'm not astropic. We'll need to find out if you can do it: it will change our response to this event immensely"

I wonder if picky means something different than what I'm used to, like vegetarian or gluten-free...

I look at the collection of breakfasts: bacon and eggs, pastries, fruit, something that resembles seaweed... "Isn't it kinda wasteful making all this food, only for most of it not to be eaten?"

Jailer: "We're in orbit above Panogos. Food is cheap."

"Why would I have to sign a second time?"

Jailer: "To signify that you don't prefer to remain incarcerated at the last moment."

"What's it like to jump?"

"You won't notice a thing, unless someone makes a mistake or you're watching out of a window. One moment you're here. The next you're there. In some ships they turn the power down to minimal settings afterwards to recharge the capacitor, but I don't think we'll be doing that. Once we get there, we'll be maneuvering though, and you'll feel the ground tilt as a result of that.

Jailer is wrong. Julian feels the whole ship start to tingle, especially the outside. He hasn't gotten a good feel of what the ship looked like before, but now he does: its a giant donut with a pole running through the center. He can feel the edge of it, or something akin to it. Its energized, ready for something. He's in part of the donut. Then he feels the location of the starpus running the jump: on the exact opposite side of the ship from him. He can feel the circle, with one in the center and eight all around. They're not the ones he knows. The one in the center is doing... something. Something that's shaking the tingling in the whole ship.

The energizing gets stronger and stronger, and then Peter feels the coordinates they're going to as an impression, the same way starpus talk about any location, and then it all stops.

Jailer has a clock for the transfer moment. It still has one second left.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Ypress: "I've never heard of it, but that doesn't mean its not the case. I'm not astropic. We'll need to find out if you can do it: it will change our response to this event immensely"

"I just made a war worse... I'm piece of work, aren't I?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

Jailer: "We're in orbit above Panogos. Food is cheap."

Wow, people are rich in the future.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Jailer: "To signify that you don't prefer to remain incarcerated at the last moment."

"Why would I prefer prison?"

Originally Posted by ericthered

"You won't notice a thing, unless someone makes a mistake or you're watching out of a window. One moment you're here. The next you're there. In some ships they turn the power down to minimal settings afterwards to recharge the capacitor, but I don't think we'll be doing that. Once we get there, we'll be maneuvering though, and you'll feel the ground tilt as a result of that.

Jailer is wrong. Julian feels the whole ship start to tingle, especially the outside. He hasn't gotten a good feel of what the ship looked like before, but now he does: its a giant donut with a pole running through the center. He can feel the edge of it, or something akin to it. Its energized, ready for something. He's in part of the donut. Then he feels the location of the starpus running the jump: on the exact opposite side of the ship from him. He can feel the circle, with one in the center and eight all around. They're not the ones he knows. The one in the center is doing... something. Something that's shaking the tingling in the whole ship.

The energizing gets stronger and stronger, and then Peter feels the coordinates they're going to as an impression, the same way starpus talk about any location, and then it all stops.

I try to remember the impression of the coordinate. No wonder the Starpus like doing this.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Jailer has a clock for the transfer moment. It still has one second left.

"Huh, it finishes a second early."

I wonder if Julian will be cut off.