In all, the people of K’aresh were unusually responsible – although, in part, they probably wanted to make sure that the Withering didn’t follow them and become a spreading plague. Compared to the mismanagement of entire worlds such as Gruenn and Keora back home, these leaders were practically saints. The fact that their entire civilization was on the verge of annihilation was a point against them I suppose though. For all their faults, the Sith and Faded typically didn’t destroy galactic civilization unless they stumbled upon some really nasty technology or technique. The largest most could manage was a planet or two. So I guess that is an advantage of having a civilization on the scale of one or more galaxies.
Which did mean we potentially had the upper hand in negotiations despite the locals have relatively superior technology to our own. The economies of scale meant we could take over the bulk of their food and manufacturing requirements, evacuate most of their population, and start funding extremely impractical counters to the Withering and have it all amount to a line item on the family budget.
At least if we could get around the issues with the Censor….
Until that problem was solved, most of what we could offer amounted to empty promises. Jacob was able to make an offer of Federation/Starfleet assistance in the meantime since we had access to his universe. He was quite adamant that appeals to the Federation and Starfleet on just moral grounds frequently won out. If there were some sort of economic or scientific advantage than he was certain such requests were likely to go through with very few problems.
(Vanatica) Well, we can help expedite contact with the Federation and make an appeal on your behalf to render assistance. And of course, once I can get around the issues blocking me from my home universe, I have the authority to offer significant amounts of aid.
(Gentleman) The Censor does sound awkward – but while this “Censor” obviously must possess fantastic power reserves, it equally obviously must spread them pretty thinly to blanket a galaxy. There’s not much hope of stopping it if it focuses, so the key is to keep it from noticing that it needs to. The best possibility is probably illusion magic, possibly covering a mild mental screen since you wish to avoid inspiring it to probe in the first place.
(Katlyn) Jacob has had some thoughts on creating artifacts along those lines, and we have been taught a means to absorb said artifacts when we manage to make them. Still, an outside opinion is always valued!
(Woman) The complexity would be quite high – you’d want to present a fair facsimile of your mental processes on the surface, linked to your own mind so as to maintain a match with your actual actions while filtering out – and covering up – specific information. Now, we do have illusion experts available – their powers have proved fairly useless against the Withering, which doesn’t even seem to have a mind of senses – but it would take some time.
(Vanatica) We understand and we thank you for considering our request.
(Gentleman) Looking into it is not an especially large favor.
(Jacob) I will start composing a request to send to Starfleet. As a warning, lower ranked members will scan and poke their head in anything interesting or dangerous. Please warn them of any ways they might get themselves killed doing so.
(Woman) I am unsure why that might be required, but safety warnings are a normal thing anyway. Are your people normally that reckless?
(Katlyn) As best as I can tell, people from his universe are safe until they are not. It seems like a weird ignorance is bliss sort of power.
(Woman) Ah, a rare adaptation, mostly seen in worlds where the laws of physics are very loose indeed on the small scale.
(Katlyn) And when it fails…. well, let’s just say that it makes a mess.
(Woman) I suppose it would!
(Katlyn) Lower ranked individuals haven’t had time to…. mature this ability and thus are prone to weird accidents.
(Jacob) It is not reckless! If you don’t go out and try new things, you get stuck never advancing anything and then the world just stagnates till your star explodes or someone invents a device that destroys your entire civilization! If you are out there learning how others got themselves killed, you can learn how not to do it to yourself and stop others from doing stupid things like that in your living space! It would be reckless to not stick your nose in every dangerous place in the universe!
I just smiled and shrugged at the delegation. It wasn’t like our own experience didn’t agree with Jacob to some extent, but I had a feeling that a lot more caution was called for in most circumstances when dire urgency didn’t demand answers now. Plus the Censor threw a number of complications into investigating dangerous things. Some of those complications worked in our favor, and some of them did not.
(Gentleman) Uhm…. there’s some validity to that, but we think there is a place for caution over under “fewer casualties”.
(Vanatica) I think they use the transporter to clone themselves for more meat for the grinder.
(Woman) Now I am SURE that there is something wrong with THAT unless the rules there are very loose indeed!
(Vanatica) I can’t prove it for the rest of them, but we have substantial evidence that HE is cloning himself.
(Jacob) Hey, I am not cloning myself! It just happened once in a way that created a lot of me!
(Katlyn) Over a length of time spanning thousands of years….
(Jacob) Exactly!
Once the formalities of an agreement for long term cooperation and assistance had been hammered out, things moved towards the day to day minutiae of providing assistance to each other. It was immediately agreed that we would host a delegation from the locals in Stormkanal so that they might study the Anomaly and our capabilities up close. Vanatica asked if she could copy some spell formulas while Jacob was hoping for pointers into his efforts at creating magical artifacts. For myself, I was able to procure a number of books regarding magical clothing and architecture to study. I had already learned quite a few things along those lines in my personal studies, but it was always helpful to see a more rigorous study of such topics for my own education.
There was a brief discussion as to whether it was safe to try to open a gate to another timeline back home where we could at least try to leverage our magical resources into resources and manpower. It wouldn’t be on par with what we could do with the full backing of the Protectorate, but it would help alleviate some of the deficiencies we faced with that army to the North of Stormkanal. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest that the Censor of other timelines wouldn’t sense our knowledge of the Stygium Crystals and thus leave us be. Plus there was quite a bit of evidence in the other direction as well. About the only options were timelines where the Censor had effectively broken down like in the Codifier Galaxy. Except even there the restoration of the Republic Remnant at the galactic core had reasserted the Censor to at least some extent. Most of the other timelines we knew of with a broken Censor were unpalatable for other reasons like out of control droid rebellions and other disasters.
I suppose the Black Hole Galaxy was an option, but that had massive problems of its own and didn’t necessarily help us much either.
Only other option we could think of was to open a gate to Itaint. While that neatly solved a lot of the issues all the other options presented, it also meant we had a difficult to secure point of access to one of the biggest family secrets. Plus there were the issues with how the defenses might respond to a unknown gate appearing unannounced. I suppose that might be a good fallback plan if Stormkanal was in danger of being overrun at least.
So we were going to have to wait it seemed before opening gates to any of the timelines back home. While sitting and waiting until the people of K’aresh finished their investigations, it probably more profitable to be doing something with our time while we waited. On that front, there weren’t really a lot of obvious choices beyond Vanatica’s suggestion that we look for more pieces of her teacher Lindral. Not that simply picking a random direction and seeing what we could find wasn’t an option, but it helped to have multiple levels of goals in play at once. And if we did find something that was immensely valuable, well it paid to be willing to alter such plans at a moment’s notice when opportunities arose.
What pieces we knew of were in Leros, Nichtfel, Northern Avrinthos, and at least two in Orrot. Northern Avrinthos was occupied by a hostile army at the moment and we’d have to go through the army (or around it) to reach the right area. Leros was a land of river deltas, light hills, and marshes that was aspected to divine magic, something called hydromancy, and mechanics. The reports on Nichtfel spoke of fjords backed by impassible mountains aspected towards vampirism, blood manipulation, and industry. Orrot was supposedly a land of drifting sky-mounts, storms, and elemental forces or technologies.
(Vanatica) Do we take the castle with us, or try for the airship which is still being rebuilt?
(Jacob) Leros sounds better than the others for navigating. I am also leery of leaving the castle for too long.
(Vanatica) Just move it to Leros and then use an airship or some other means of transport from there?
(Jacob) Yeah, get in the general area and then some other vehicle from there. So let’s prepare for takeoff.
It looked to me like the others were forgetting something important or I was missing something.
(Katlyn) Problem! The castle is under a layer of wood and thorns a hundred meters thick….
The obvious solution was cutting, but that was going to take a long time. Fire also posed its own issues too. Given the rate the stuff was still growing (admittedly slower than before) either of those options might not suffice for a long while. On the plus side, the castle was very well camouflaged as a hill covered with vegetation. That wouldn’t protect against precognition, probability analysis, or other supernatural means of bypassing mundane means of cover though. While we had reason to suspect that probability analysis and precognition wouldn’t work well on the Anomaly, there were many other supernatural abilities that we hadn’t even discovered or even fathomed existed.
Kinda like the tricorder….
(Jacob) We could try getting a phase shifting cloaking device.
That phrase meant nothing to me, and a quick glance at Vanatica indicated it meant little to her as well.
(Katlyn) A what?
(Jacob) It is a cloaking device that hides you from physical interaction as well. It lets ships pass through solid matter. I can’t develop one for Starfleet as the Treaty of Algeron with the Romulans bans cloaking devices developed for the Federation or deployed on Starfleet ships. But those are not problems here.
This sounded vaguely like the hyperspace shields of the Tree Galaxy. We tended to not use those as the effect was easy to bypass with conventional weaponry, but it did allow us to deal with the silting problem of the gate network. Attempts to incorporate it into the more standard hyperdrives tended to turn test ships into scattered subatomic particles for reasons I didn’t understand. That hadn’t stopped the engineers and scientists on Itaint from running various weird and arcane experiments with the things to see if other uses might be conjured up.
(Katlyn) So like the hyperspace shield system? It puts you out of sync with normal space and lets you pass through stuff? I think Vanatica knows how to build those, but I don’t know if the physics of this place are compatible or not.
(Vanatica) Well, our version doesn’t cloak things.
A quick consultation of the records of previous experiments by the builders of this castle indicated the technology could work, but required massive amounts of power – and has erratic effects on anything with it’s own personal reality; some went through, some went splat against the castle, some got partially phased and could wind up inside, and a few just disappeared.
(Katlyn) Aren’t we all carrying our own personal reality on some level?
(Jacob) Yes, although it is apparently compatible with Stormkanal, Federation Space, and Protectorate Space.
(Vanatica) Given that Federation space has a very different notions of hyperspace, this is more than a bit odd. We do have plenty of power crystals, and we could even build a nigh perpetual matter-antimatter reactor in the worst case.
(Jacob) Oh yeah, it won’t go through the Psi-Stone stuff.
With that the two of them got to work attempting to rig up a phasing system that was compatible with the local laws of physics using the technologies of the Phase Cloak and the Hyperspace Shield as guides. Not of much help on that front, I left them to work on it for the next few days.
Getting the delegation from K’aresh settled didn’t take long. Still no word on reinforcements from the Federation or Starfleet beyond the occasional transmission that discussions were “ongoing”. The technicians and Untremi were meanwhile getting systems repaired across Stormkanal. The recent influx of supplies and materials was helping with that, but the amount of destruction wrought by millennia of conflict and neglect was considerable. Most systems were liable to be online again soon, although the full functionality was expected to be impaired for some time. That was to say nothing of the architectural details.
It was on the second day of “supervising” the repairs that I got the notice of a visitor at the front door of the castle. Not really doing anything of value, I went ahead down to the door to answer it. Upon opening the door, I was confronted with a person whose getup just seemed to scream “courier”.
(Courier) Package delivery for Jacob Hatfield!
I cocked my head as a signal to THELOS to send the next communication as a transmission to on the general internal broadcast frequency.
(Katlyn) Jacob! Package for you!
(Jacob) Ok, who would send me a package?
No idea, and the courier didn’t seem to know either beyond “some guy in a suit of armor sending a wedding present”. I took the offered package and briefly inspected it before setting it aside on a table and turned back to the courier.
(Katlyn) So the Anomaly has mail service? Color me surprised. How would addresses even work? Giant flying castle trapped under a mountain of vines and plants a thousand kilometers that way?
(Courier) They provided excellent directions Ma’am.
(Katlyn) So is this payable on delivery? Pre-paid? Or is a tip customary? Sorry, not from around here, so I am not familiar with the local customs!
(Courier) There is usually a tip Ma’am!
I rummaged in my pockets for some sort of a tip. I initially thought to give him some gold or silver coins, but decided our supply of “common” currency was limited without access to the fleet. With that, I elected to give him three obols. The courier seemed pleased with that and bid me farewell as he headed off to wherever his next destination was. With that I closed the door and took the package to Jacob.
(Katlyn) So are wedding presents a thing in your society? How does that even work if there is no money? I mean, it makes getting the gifts easy, but it also kinda renders the whole exercise pointless if you can just replicate everything.
(Jacob) Hmm, I guess it is sort of pointless in some ways, but it is the thought that counts. They might get you something you’d never think to replicate.
(Katlyn) Tell you what, we’ll pay for a honeymoon for you two back home once we get gate access going. You can see the sights of the Galaxy or whatever.
(Jacob) That sounds nice, but I will have to discuss that one with Kuroko when the time comes.
By the third day, Vanatica and Jacob thought they had rigged something they thought would work. First steps were to run a series of tests at increasing power levels to verify we weren’t going to scatter our own atoms turning it on with us inside the field. First test was a partial success as it fell several centimeters and then promptly merged with the deck. At which point the device smoked and then exploded in a shower of sparks.
(Katlyn) No offense, but I am not impressed.
(Jacob) Well, this type of thing always has some problems. The last ship to use one that I know of got merged with an asteroid.
(Katlyn) And we’re doing this again WHY?!
(Vanatica) Are there any experts in the Federation on this sort of thing?
(Katlyn) He mentioned some sort of a ban on developing this technology earlier.
(Jacob) Yeah, we would have to get Klingon or Romulan assistance, but their cloaking devices don’t make their ships intangible. It was a loop hole that was removed in later negotiations I think.
To the best of my knowledge, I was unaware of any treaties in Galactic history that outright banned one party from developing or using a specific technology. Supposedly the JLA and the Grenkay Corps were sharing information about Censor banned superweapon designs so that they could effectively watch out for anyone looking into those technologies, but that about it. Actively banning a specific technology was something the Censor usually did instead.
(Vanatica) Well, I don’t think the Romulans are happy with me at the moment anyway.
(Jacob) Yeah, that could be a pain, but we don’t need experts. I am sure I can get it working.
It was eventually decided that further tests needed to be all or nothing as we were liable to simply tear sections out of the castle when it worked. We were going to have to encompass the entire castle and hope nothing broke. While I was apprehensive, I couldn’t think of any concrete objections beyond simply expressing concerns about the quality of the engineering. Which earned me a few dirty looks from my cousin in response.
The generators whined and sparks flew in most peculiar colors as the lashed-together system warmed up – and the castle trembled as it free-fell for an instant before the reaction drives opened up. Almost instantly we were surrounded by a bath of white-hot plasma. Needless to say, this did NOT feel good as I was flash blinded and received minor burns. As the drives accelerated upwards, the sounds of crunching stone and rending metal shook through the castle. Alarm klaxons sounded as the ship was rocked by thunderous shudder and what looked to be flaming bits of wood flew through the walls, floors, and ceiling at extremely high velocities.
Amazingly enough, we all still seemed to be alive, but no one was entirely happy either.
(Katlyn) What the hell just happened?!
Vanatica was reading diagnostics and camera pickups off a nearby terminal at this point. Moments later she seemed to come to some sort of realization and swore loudly in Rakata.
(Vanatica) I suppose I should have predicted this might happen.
(Katlyn) What happened?
(Vanatica) The exhaust from the reaction drives phased back into normal space once it left the field of effect. There it was trapped inside an immense container made of wood, vines, and other vegetable matter. So constrained, the pressure built up until it exploded the whole mountain of vegetation in an immense fireball of kindling. Worse yet, I understood the notes the builders left behind to mean that phased matter only couldn’t pass through Pis-Stone, not that Psi-Stone couldn’t be phased at all. So when we moved, the Psi-Stone kept moving on its original momentum and tore through the castle on its way out. So we’ve got structural damage on all levels and we’re at the center of a massive explosion that can be seen for hundreds of kilometers.
At times it was nice to see my cousin not be as infallible as she liked to project herself as. Unfortunately, it was usually those occasions where it was the most unsafe to be around her either. Being at the center of a multi-megaton blast was not what I considered a fair trade for seeing my cousin’s ego deflated a bit.
(Jacob) The blast seems to be being reduced by at least the cube of the distance though. Possibly by the fourth power even.
Yet another instance of the Anomaly dampening really powerful blasts.
(Jacob) Oh well, it seems fine for now. Let’s get clear, turn off the cloak, and fly normally as this is hardly any good with the obvious plasma trail. At least then we can turn on the crystal drives.
My cousin got a lecture from the Untremi as well. They rated it as fairly minor damage for testing out a new experimental system. The Jacob’s and Ben made much bigger messes sometimes apparently. Still, the scolding tone in their chittering at her was definitely obvious. Vanatica kept her tongue, but I could see the frustration on her expression as she was visibly kicking herself over this.
Meanwhile I was considering the providence that we were now mimicking my aunt and uncle regarding setting off gigantic explosions at our feet and then walking away from them mostly unharmed. I wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Creative Nonsense 
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