Forums » Role Playing
Crossover
The tune was so old that it was ancient by the time the Luna colony had been established on the moon of Terra I. He didn't pay any mind to that, he just hummed it merrily as he refit the control console of yet another new ship. This time a TPG Raptor, the kind fitted with extended scanners for ion storms. Raptors were both a kind of dinosaur and a class of preditory bird on Terra I and the name had survived for millennia. He knew that too, but not how.
"The DAR outs are connected to the Aaax-Baffs, the AxBaffs are connected to the Uuu-C-N, the mhh-mm m-m-m...", He added into the humming, cross connecting a point interface with the main control bus. Two years ago he didn't exist. The BioCom implant techs told him he shouldn't exist now.
"Exist is a funny word", The Little Voice in his head pointed out, "it's sort of like 'exit' but means it hasn't yet".
"You're right", Xenolux paused and thought about it.
For a moment or more, Xeno Escaton stared blankly into the exposed control boards, power couplings, and neural paks. Time didn't seem to work right for Xeno, it has a flexible quality in his perception. So the moment lingers, the stare continues.
The station dock workers had organized a pool on when he would sleep. Eventually the money holder returned everyones bets. They all knew him on sight, he was always stripping out the interfaces on new ships. Sometimes expensive ones. He never slept, so he never requested quarters while in station. Some of the 3rd shift workers noted that beyond vending machine snacks and coffee, the only thing Xeno seemed to consume was alcohol in large quantities and water he distilled himself from the stations grey-lines. But the real break-room buzz was speculation about the ship he arrived in.
It seems he arrived, requesting docking at Asuin Tech station in a ship design so old the station guards had to archive-translate the hails. The protocol had never been in UIT use and dated back to the original experimental explorer comms from before when the Neutrals had left Terra II. The ship was warped and battered like it had been through hundreds of ion storms, it had no home registration, and the gravitic pulse drive it used was so old and crude that the engine's powercells collapsed when the docking bay was pressurized. The station's con-team reported it had not jumped into the sector as far as they could tell. Being a Biocom research station, Asuin seized it "in lieu of medical treatment payment", though from all appearances Xenolux Escaton was normal and healthy. Except the odd neural implant he had, he was physically as healthy as an Itani.
His mental condition was another matter, though he had no seizures or the shakes, his speech was sometime slurry and his cognitive abilities were disjointed. He couldn't remember how he arrived at the station, or any details of his journey. He had a vast amount of remarkably arcane and eclectic knowledge, but couldn't recall details of his life, how old he was, were he was from, childhood friends, details of the current political state of the universe. Just his name.
The Biocom implant techs argued back and forth as to wether it was Deep Space Delirium (DSD) or some kind of implant psychosis. The implant's function was undecernable and the design was advanced, but the techs couldn't hold him for long enough to interface it. It's position in his brain was precarious and made experimental attempts at access dangerous to the patient and thus the implant. After 3 days observation he was remitted as a ward of the UIT and sent to the capital stations for basic training.
"Ahh, man!", Xeno cried suddenly realizing that the Axis Baffles *aren't* connected to the User Control Network. At least not the way he liked it.
As he started to fumble around for a RP nanoprobe in the engineering kit, he looks up at the coffee cup he keeps in the cockpit. On it's side was a bright yellow circle with two black dots and an upturned arc to form a crude face. He knew this was a symbol from Terra I. Yellow is the UIT national color. He also knew the symbol was popularized during a brief turbulent period of transition from war to peace, as well as by an evil mega-corporation long, long ago. He felt the symbol was apropos. Apropos is a funny word, too.
"It is a happy face", The Little Voice said.
"Yes, and it makes me happy", Xeno agreed.
Since his arrival into UIT space, Xeno had taken up odd jobs. At times mining, hunting the rogue Hive drones for various factions, even a little gun-running, but his aptitude seemed to lie in trade and credits soon were little issue to him, and allowed him to more heavily modify his ships.
As the molecular sized robots busily undid the recent connections; Xeno's mind, as it often did, played with meandering associations, "Cross connect... cross beam... burning cross... hot crossed buns... cross... over?"
In his mind, like a sudden reel of motion picture film being projected, he sees himself alone in space in the experimental explorer. He is piloting the craft through space but staring at a luminous object to the port side. The frames of the projection in his mind slow and distinguish themselves without loosing fluidity. Distantly, he recognized that the nanoprobe had slipped from his hand and now resided on the floor by his feet. There is a flash of consuming light, and the film continued, once more he is in the explorer, staring at the luminous object... but this time is before the last time. The object is in a different position, vaguely he can recall a stronger sense of self, memories he had not had before.
Again the consuming light, and now another him, another time, another luminous object. Each flash slipping into the next further and further back into himself, into who he was. Memories he no longer possessed, becoming stronger with each passage. 'How many times has this happened', he thought. Or was it the self-that-was he was now viewing who thought that. Dozens and dozens of flashes, dozens and dozens of selves, each one more aware than the last. Faster and faster the scenes came until they were the frames in the film.
Then the first frame, Xeno was Xeno and he had never seen the luminous object before. He remembered his family on Terra II and and the recent triumphs of the Neutral peoples in space exploration. He was an explorer, one of the many, that had designed their own ships for the annual contest promoted by The Propeller Group. He was considered a formidable flight controls designer by his peers. He (or the he-that-was) remembered the excited cheers of hundreds of Neutrals as the contestants launched for this years contest. It's AD 3370 and being a space explorer is every Neutral boys dream, Xenolux was finally realizing that dream, he is finally launching his ship into space...
"Xeno! Wake up... Xeno!"
The frames were now caught in the projector and cellulose melts and burns before the intense bulb. In losing the film in his mind, Xeno lost also the grasp of the memories of all the selves-that-were, until he was himself-as-is again, wondering why Elvis is shaking him violently.
"What's up Elvis?", Xeno spoke weakly. Still wondering why he felt like he had returned from someplace far away.
"Man, you gave the dock workers a scare.", Elvis replied, smelling strongly of scotch, "You've been zoned out for 5 or 6 hours. They came and got me from the bar."
"I need a drink," Xeno smiled, "let's go back to the bar."
"The DAR outs are connected to the Aaax-Baffs, the AxBaffs are connected to the Uuu-C-N, the mhh-mm m-m-m...", He added into the humming, cross connecting a point interface with the main control bus. Two years ago he didn't exist. The BioCom implant techs told him he shouldn't exist now.
"Exist is a funny word", The Little Voice in his head pointed out, "it's sort of like 'exit' but means it hasn't yet".
"You're right", Xenolux paused and thought about it.
For a moment or more, Xeno Escaton stared blankly into the exposed control boards, power couplings, and neural paks. Time didn't seem to work right for Xeno, it has a flexible quality in his perception. So the moment lingers, the stare continues.
The station dock workers had organized a pool on when he would sleep. Eventually the money holder returned everyones bets. They all knew him on sight, he was always stripping out the interfaces on new ships. Sometimes expensive ones. He never slept, so he never requested quarters while in station. Some of the 3rd shift workers noted that beyond vending machine snacks and coffee, the only thing Xeno seemed to consume was alcohol in large quantities and water he distilled himself from the stations grey-lines. But the real break-room buzz was speculation about the ship he arrived in.
It seems he arrived, requesting docking at Asuin Tech station in a ship design so old the station guards had to archive-translate the hails. The protocol had never been in UIT use and dated back to the original experimental explorer comms from before when the Neutrals had left Terra II. The ship was warped and battered like it had been through hundreds of ion storms, it had no home registration, and the gravitic pulse drive it used was so old and crude that the engine's powercells collapsed when the docking bay was pressurized. The station's con-team reported it had not jumped into the sector as far as they could tell. Being a Biocom research station, Asuin seized it "in lieu of medical treatment payment", though from all appearances Xenolux Escaton was normal and healthy. Except the odd neural implant he had, he was physically as healthy as an Itani.
His mental condition was another matter, though he had no seizures or the shakes, his speech was sometime slurry and his cognitive abilities were disjointed. He couldn't remember how he arrived at the station, or any details of his journey. He had a vast amount of remarkably arcane and eclectic knowledge, but couldn't recall details of his life, how old he was, were he was from, childhood friends, details of the current political state of the universe. Just his name.
The Biocom implant techs argued back and forth as to wether it was Deep Space Delirium (DSD) or some kind of implant psychosis. The implant's function was undecernable and the design was advanced, but the techs couldn't hold him for long enough to interface it. It's position in his brain was precarious and made experimental attempts at access dangerous to the patient and thus the implant. After 3 days observation he was remitted as a ward of the UIT and sent to the capital stations for basic training.
"Ahh, man!", Xeno cried suddenly realizing that the Axis Baffles *aren't* connected to the User Control Network. At least not the way he liked it.
As he started to fumble around for a RP nanoprobe in the engineering kit, he looks up at the coffee cup he keeps in the cockpit. On it's side was a bright yellow circle with two black dots and an upturned arc to form a crude face. He knew this was a symbol from Terra I. Yellow is the UIT national color. He also knew the symbol was popularized during a brief turbulent period of transition from war to peace, as well as by an evil mega-corporation long, long ago. He felt the symbol was apropos. Apropos is a funny word, too.
"It is a happy face", The Little Voice said.
"Yes, and it makes me happy", Xeno agreed.
Since his arrival into UIT space, Xeno had taken up odd jobs. At times mining, hunting the rogue Hive drones for various factions, even a little gun-running, but his aptitude seemed to lie in trade and credits soon were little issue to him, and allowed him to more heavily modify his ships.
As the molecular sized robots busily undid the recent connections; Xeno's mind, as it often did, played with meandering associations, "Cross connect... cross beam... burning cross... hot crossed buns... cross... over?"
In his mind, like a sudden reel of motion picture film being projected, he sees himself alone in space in the experimental explorer. He is piloting the craft through space but staring at a luminous object to the port side. The frames of the projection in his mind slow and distinguish themselves without loosing fluidity. Distantly, he recognized that the nanoprobe had slipped from his hand and now resided on the floor by his feet. There is a flash of consuming light, and the film continued, once more he is in the explorer, staring at the luminous object... but this time is before the last time. The object is in a different position, vaguely he can recall a stronger sense of self, memories he had not had before.
Again the consuming light, and now another him, another time, another luminous object. Each flash slipping into the next further and further back into himself, into who he was. Memories he no longer possessed, becoming stronger with each passage. 'How many times has this happened', he thought. Or was it the self-that-was he was now viewing who thought that. Dozens and dozens of flashes, dozens and dozens of selves, each one more aware than the last. Faster and faster the scenes came until they were the frames in the film.
Then the first frame, Xeno was Xeno and he had never seen the luminous object before. He remembered his family on Terra II and and the recent triumphs of the Neutral peoples in space exploration. He was an explorer, one of the many, that had designed their own ships for the annual contest promoted by The Propeller Group. He was considered a formidable flight controls designer by his peers. He (or the he-that-was) remembered the excited cheers of hundreds of Neutrals as the contestants launched for this years contest. It's AD 3370 and being a space explorer is every Neutral boys dream, Xenolux was finally realizing that dream, he is finally launching his ship into space...
"Xeno! Wake up... Xeno!"
The frames were now caught in the projector and cellulose melts and burns before the intense bulb. In losing the film in his mind, Xeno lost also the grasp of the memories of all the selves-that-were, until he was himself-as-is again, wondering why Elvis is shaking him violently.
"What's up Elvis?", Xeno spoke weakly. Still wondering why he felt like he had returned from someplace far away.
"Man, you gave the dock workers a scare.", Elvis replied, smelling strongly of scotch, "You've been zoned out for 5 or 6 hours. They came and got me from the bar."
"I need a drink," Xeno smiled, "let's go back to the bar."
/me claps. Bravo
Most excellent Master Xeno! Evokes images of Gibson, or some such thing...! Anyways, I like it, keep it up!!!