after the Waking World log

[claudiometer]

Hoo boy. I realise this phrasing may be treading on thin ice right now, but strange things are afoot at the Aratta Skyhook.

First things first. Leah took the news that she was chosen to be the first Conductor deliberately... about as well as we figured she would. She has a theory as to why and asked me to run it by you guys. [And so she does, letting the memory play out from the linked point until Leah says she'd like to talk to the Oracle who uncovered this.]

So yeah, Thace, if she hasn't found you already, find her.

Second. I made sure to get a planetside view while I was out and about. Alexandra had never bothered before, and apparently wouldn't have understood what she was looking at anyway, and for an uninhabitable planet there's a shitton happening on the surface. And, uh, I found the source of the mysterious ticking noise, probably.

They're building a computer chip the size of fucking WYOMING.

Comments

[truerevelation]

Computers in computers, huh. I wouldn'ta thought of a giant weapon bein' Hecatite style, but ... damn.

[reallymean]

It seems like the least likely option, from what I know of them - though if knowledge of the Starmovers has spread in the Waking World as well, fear of that kind of power can drive people to act in uncharacteristic ways.

[truerevelation]

...

Shit. Like... goin' to blow Starmovers up?!

[reallymean]

Possibly. If it's a weapon, and not something...

'More benign' doesn't fit if they're harnessing people's minds to run it. Less martial, perhaps.

This is all far too reminiscent of the conflict between the Aurigan Empire and the Terrans...

[claudiometer]

...or the Umbrian Protectorate.

[reallymean]

Or that. Three Jaunts where living minds were used to power technology.

...Unless it's the other way around? Maybe the Conductors were a test case for enforced consensus that went awry.

[claudiometer]

Keeping people in line through force isn't really a Hecatite thing. Happens when 'force' can literally shatter you into tiny pieces. I could definitely see them enforcing Correct Paths via technology, though.

So: Why now, and is the interference with Questing Country intentional?

[reallymean]

[There's the psychic equivalent of a rueful grimace.]

I remember.

Morganite's memories are badly faded, and she was never a Dreamer, but it's difficult to imagine Orthopraxic Hecatites believing in Questing Country strongly enough to attempt to interfere with it. Unless we find evidence that it was deliberate, we should probably proceed with the assumption that it was a side effect.

As for why, has anything changed in the governing of Hecatite space or Arratta Station recently? Or has there been a rise in unrest?

[claudiometer]

Yeah, whether they'd take it seriously enough to exploit it is the real question... but there's a non-zero chance a former Dreamer moved into the kind of circles that they would listen to. We can't rule it out until we know one way or the other.

Alexandra doesn't get out enough for me to have good answers there. We'll have to find someone else who calls it home. Leah or Paraiba or someone.

[reallymean]

Or both. They must move in different circles, that might mean they both have different pieces of the puzzle.

[claudiometer]

Very true.