2022-01-16: To Serve In Heaven

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Note: Due to technical problems at the time of the scene, this is an incomplete log and may be replaced with a more complete version at a later time. 


<Pose Tracker> Lune Zoldak has posed.

Quarters to the bridge is a direct and spinal run, and Lune moves at a gravity-assisted full-out arm pumping sprint. Her thoughts race with her, though mostly stormy and dark. Mischief is not within her thoughts at all - her instincts find this as an attack. Confusion, the fog of war.

She ran, a physical activity, and so her thoughts worked through the possibilities: an enemy powerful enough to simply rip open space and deploy things. Not just things, but things into specific places. Not just specific places, but shielded locations.

Computer core. Bridge.

Tearing up a staircase to the access hallway corridor, and the path that the mysterious figure of Tall, Dark, and Horny occupies. He is already speaking to her.

Her voice rises in challenged distress at the very point he crushes with his first words. Confused, Lune starts advancing deliberately towards the tall man, between her and Mitsuba, bridgeward, as the twins level their guns and tell him to make tracks.

She walks, though her blade doesn't rise or even move from ready as she advances on the stairs. He's raised. The sightlines will stay good for the twins, behind her, and if he charges down, she'll have the defender's advantage. As good a check as they'd get.

It was still bad. "What's your intention?" Lune asks, even toned, her focus on a battle-ready poise rather than cerebral questions.

This may prove a mistake. 

<Pose Tracker> Az Sainklaus has posed.

"Probably," Az answers without really thinking about it, despite thinking about that exact thing just a moment ago. The concern on her face is overriding, and the moment the doors open up, she's dashing at full speed.

The fact nothing has actually blocked their way is worrying in its own right. It calls to mind that whatever the driving force behind this may be, they're not particularly concerned about even attempting to stop them. Because they're confident they don't have to? Because they don't see them as any kind of threat?

The answer of 'because they're not actually hostile in the first place' doesn't even cross her mind.

"Captain! Are you alright!?" The first thing she does as they hit the scene is lock her attention on Mitsuba's injured leg, and then her face--she doesn't look worried at all. But to Az's memory, she also hasn't ever let herself look like she is when on duty, so that fact does little to deter the fierceness in her gaze when she joins her brother in leveling their weapons at the intruder. Lune's arrival should make her feel less tense about the entire thing, another person - and definitely a better straight-up fighter than her - at the ready.

But it doesn't. And this man looks far, far too calm for showing up unannounced right in the midst of all of them. That awful feeling hasn't gone away. "And what do you want with the captain? ...You didn't show up in front of her after causing chaos around the whole rest of the ship for no reason, did you?" 

<Pose Tracker> Caruleum Vaull has posed.

"I see. I did not intend to cause offense," the humanoid alien says. In tone and in spirit, this is far from an actual apology. Immediately afterwards he confirms, "You are correct. I am not an Earthling, and it is necessary that I speak to those who are or pose a strong possibility of becoming significant figures guiding the fate of Earth. The Captain of this vessel would necessarily constitute one of these figures. My previous subject died attempting to destroy the planet, and would no longer be a helpful contributor even if he were not."

The purple Haro is released only to the extent necessary to kidnap it. "Em! Em!" it exclaims, apparently unconcerned with this handling. When its secrets are demands it declares, "Seekers of Truth! Seekers of Truth..."

Getting on the intercomms does prompt a few messages about strange haros. It seems like a fair few of them showed up along the transport lines... it looks like Em will have plenty to work with.

In the background, the secured Purple Haro says, "There is a trolley, trolley! Five people tied up! Five people tied up!"

It continues to pose the Trolley Problem in a very Haro way.

Back in the bridge access staircase, the humanoid alien smiles benignly in answer to the criticism flung by Mayvy.

"If you insist," he says. Either he doesn't understand, or he doesn't care, and it's impossible to tell which. Every delivery of his is made with the utmost confidence.

The arrival of Edge Sainklaus gets an extremely curious look out of the alien. He looks from Edge, to Az, and back to Mitsuba, raising a hand to rub at his chin in a thoughtful gesture. His interest only spikes with the simultaneous appearance and interjection of Lune Zoldak.

"I am not here to fight. Neither will I leave until I have conducted my business, and the manner of my attire is hardly your place to dictate or criticize," The humanoid alien says. "But I did not expect to find so many subjects of interest in this place."

This, it seems, makes him sincerely happy. He beams, and adds, "I will have to visit you again in the future. You are right, though. This is becoming especially protracted, and that is to no one's benefit. I am conducting an experiment, and wish for the Captain to answer a question. You are all welcome to give your answers, of course."

The alien pulls his gaze from the protectors to meet Mitsuba's gaze in particular, clearing his throat.

"You are approached by an unknown civilization. This civilization makes claims to godhood, and demonstrates it through a variety of feats that may be called miracles," He posits, gesticulating smoothly into the air. "They are able to relocate large quantities of matter with minimal effort, cure diseases and genetic defects, ascertain information that was thought lost or otherwise hopelessly concealed, and even resurrect the long dead. The leaders of this civilization are willing to share these things with yours, in exchange for deference, and acknowledgment of their divinity. If you refuse however, it is intimated that your civilization will be subjected to posthumous and eternal punishment."

"What do you do?" He asks. 

<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.

People, at last, start to get to Mitsuba. She glances back to everyone assembled, and says, "... He could have killed me easily. As he said -- my ankle is injured. I'm not happy about this, but we at least ought to hear him out." Lune gets a particular look on that point, though it doesn't seem to be *exclusively* targeted at her. The sensation of personal safety increases a *lot* as people start to gather. "... And -- thank you, for moving so quickly," she says, a little more tenderly.

She turns again to fully orient toward the mysterious man before her. "... You're permitted to answer," she affirms, to the rest of the group. "As for my answer..." It's not hard to see the parallels that this draws. This isn't far off from humanity's engagement with religion... but it's also a colonial question, in a sense.

"The ethics of dealing with uncontacted tribes," Mitsuba reflects. "I admit this has only come up in passing in Philosophy of International Law..." In the end, though, this puts her right back in school. She doesn't look fully comfortable, but neither is she fully *un*comfortable -- part of her missed this type of studying.

There's a long silence, though. Mitsuba needs a lot of time to think (and not at all to check a walkthrough). "I would refuse," she eventually says. "This isn't a gift given mutually; there's no long-term sense of freedom attached to the gifts given, here."

Mitsuba shifts position slightly. She rolls her ankle a little more in the process, and winces. It doesn't delay her answer, though:

"This is a threat, and I'd treat it accordingly." 

<Pose Tracker> Lune Zoldak has posed.

He menaces by simply standing there. He will remain until his business is concluded. He has already 'won'. Lune's instincts tell her he is not a simple foe to face. Her eyes narrow at his stance momentarily. He was here, and made no effort to close. If she advanced to him, if his speed was even similar, he'd take the Captain, and then it would be one attack - maybe - on one mystery invader, for the Captain of the ship.

She couldn't make that trade. It isn't the question Tall, Dark, and Trolley posits.

"Haah?" Lune asks, chin jutting forward. "That's easier than the usual. Some being shows up on our ship, proves he can move stuff around, and reach our most sensitive areas. He says 'listen to me, or I will harm you'. There is no choice. There's just a self-serving logic of the 'being'."

Lune shakes her head. "They start at 'serve us, or suffer', and even if service feels good, it's still ordered. It's still at-threat."

Lune narrows her eyes. "So you can threaten all of us, and make crappy allusions as to your powers and what'll happen if we don't believe you, but if you need to compel respect you're clearly not worthy of it. Some 'hypothetical' gods those already are." 

<Pose Tracker> Mayvy Hawkins has posed.

A frown crosses Mayvy's lips as the question is posed to Mitsuba, and moreso as she realizes exactly what Em's Haro is talking about. "Is he-- Em? Is he seriously posing a trolley problem to *us*? With Haros?" She flips her comm to the tech team. "I'll handle it. Stand by."

Keeping her ear open to the captain's response, she brings up the transport control interface on one of the big monitors. She smiles as she hears Mitsuba's decision. "Right. For us... if this is the classic setup, going by where the DBDs appeared... we'll have four each on these tracks," She brings up four adorable, panicking Haro icons on the left-hand track of each affected tramway, rolling and crying, "And one on this side." One each on the right-hand tracks. The trams are currently on the left-hand tracks. They're moving at speed, and won't likely stop in time, even if she hits the brakes now. But there's time before the switch.

Mayvy looks over at her young charge, and the Haro next to them. "What do you think? Do we divert the trams, consciously dooming two Haros but saving eight?" It takes a bit of an eye to spot it, but... she's taking this more seriously than the game she's making it out to be. 

<Pose Tracker> Edge Sainklaus has posed.

Edge listens to every word that Caruleum Vaull very eloquently lays out, constructing an elaborate hypothetical for the lot of them to answer. The guy he's talking about ... he can't be referring to Axis Shock, right? Or maybe he means Operation British, or the Dublin Drop .. - no matter who he's talking about, it's bad news, though. There's only so many people who could have tried to destroy the Earth, and all of them are real heels. Edge thinks to himself.

His stance with his handgun doesn't change as he glances behind him to make a check of those present, including Lune and Mayvy, about at the time that Caruleum finishes up.

Edge pauses for a beat. "That's..."

Mitsuba provides a really well-thought out answer. It's a mild shock that she was able to consider a response without, seeming, to really have to think about it.

If he had to provide an answer to something like that, he wasn't sure he could do so with the same level of pointedness that she had. Then again, she had more or less asked them all to humor their impromptu invader's question, so it seemed like maybe an answer would be expected?

- not that he'd been specifically asked for one, but it felt like he probably should say something, instead of just leaving it all up to her.

"I'm not a leader, so I can't say I'd be any good at making calls at that scale. All I can say is how I'd react to someone putting that food on my table."

In a way, he suppoed he'd already had that supper, he continues in his head, with his own euphamism. 'That' place that he and Az spent their formative years could be said to be the same as this proposition if on a much smaller scale. The general framework was close enough that he could roll it around in his head.

"Getting sick, getting shot, starving to death, freezing to death, sweating to death, drowning or even being shunted out an airlock, or getting mugged and killed for the clothes on your back - at least these things'd happen on your own dime."

Edge shifts one hand off his gun to pull his scarf down with a mean look on his face, "People aren't just tools for - " the government " - the 'gods', or anyone else."

"That was an impressive crock of crap you just proposed, though." 

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

"It might be, to him," Em notes, tapping away at the keyboard. They put the pilfered comm unit down on the table, and keep squinting at increasingly convoluted screenfuls of machine code and hardware settings. They briefly glance up at the surveillance window kept on the mystery visitor, letting Mayvy handle yelling at them in the interim. The Haro continues to talk about... ethical problems? What kind of Haro is this, a misplaced class monitor?

Em keeps enough attention on what's going on that it actually takes a couple of passes before they spot it. "This isn't completely factory standard, but it's really, really close. I should be able to narrow down what has been changed besides the obvious --" A brief glance towards Mayvy, and then a double-take at the tram setup. Em looks momentarily concerned. Is this really how one should treat such an adorable mascot character...?!

"Well -- of course we do. Choosing not to do anything is still making a choice. We should minimize our losses. Even if they're actually invader-Haros." Under their breath, they mumble, "And we should definitely kowtow to such 'gods' until we've safely extracted their secrets, too. Seems like the sensible choice to me."

Briefly, Em looks up and away, sighing. Their chair is missing entirely from the room. They're getting tired of having to stand on tip-toes to comfortably access the elevated keyboard. 

<Pose Tracker> Mayvy Hawkins has posed.

"Right." Mayvy pulls the proverbial lever, issuing a command. The left-hand split darkens, and the right-hand side brightens. "We've made our choice. And that's a thought, Em--but that assumes their retribution won't come down on top of us first. There's too many unknowns, and you know as well as I do what colonialism does."

She casually grabs her comm back. "For the record--I've studied enough history to know the answer. Being honest about fucking us over is still fucking us over." 

<Pose Tracker> Mayvy Hawkins has posed.

"Right." Mayvy pulls the proverbial lever, issuing a command. The left-hand split darkens, and the right-hand side brightens. "We've made our choice. And that's a thought, Em--but that assumes their retribution won't come down on top of us *anyway*. There's too many unknowns, and you know as well as I do what colonialism does."

She casually grabs her comm back. "For the record--I've studied enough history to know the answer. That's just gunboat diplomacy: they want something we've got, badly enough to rattle a very big sword at us over it. I'd call their bluff." 

<Pose Tracker> Az Sainklaus has posed.

Az, upon hearing 'not here to fight, neither will I leave', gets her tightening the hold on her weapon. That, and the look of interest on his face that didn't go unnoticed, and...a lot of things, honestly. Even including the fact he can look so genuinely joyous in a situation like this.

It's only Mitsuba's words that get her to lower the handgun, regardless of the fact she still likely wouldn't shoot someone who's not an active threat - one gets the impression she'd much prefer to have it at the ready even so. It's probably for the best though. And there's no way she'd be able to maintain seeming threatening with her confusion at the question being presented to them. "Wh...?"

At first, at least. Part of the way through, she catches on to the very likely point of this, with Lune driving that point very much home. Even without that, she's frowning and furrowing her brow very much entirely off of her own feelings by the end of it, with a narrowing of her eyes at the ultimatum given between the two decisions.

Everyone gives their own answer. Az's has her addressing the alien directly and curtly, even if he's not focused on her. "...You're the kind of person who likes listening to his own voice way too much, aren't you? We're not lab rats in your experiment, or 'subjects of interest' for you to size up. Captain, Edge, you don't have to answer loaded questions like that."

Despite her sharpness, she's shuffling in place and very much on edge herself, no pun intended. "...But if those 'gods' want acknowledgement before they'll do anything to help anyone and will throw a fit if they don't get their way, then they're some awful gods who don't deserve it." 

<Pose Tracker> Caruleum Vaull has posed.

The alien humanoid continues to smile while he listens to the answers given to him. There is the tiniest adjustment in his expression at the first answer -- Mitsuba's -- which might be some sense of approval, but he is quick to erase it. Once hers has been delivered he looks between all the rest in interest. It is unusual that he has so many relatively cooperative test subjects.

There is a moment, however, where HE looks a little bit offended. He answers Lune, "I am not a god, and my civilization makes no such claims. There are many species in this universe that will extort you in such a way, but mine is not among them."

Em's investigations reveal a fairly simple fact: The 'factory default' on these Haro is in fact some sort of educational model. But it's definitely been flashed so that there isn't a default to go back to other than what the Mystery Alien put on it. There's nothing really DANGEROUS in it, though. It's all philosophy and some nonsense about seeking the truth. It's even period-appropriate electronics, which is a hell of a downgrade for anybody casually making DBDs for transportation.

The Haro that are in danger out on actual tracks are extremely alarmed by it, flapping wildly.

Between Edge, Mayvy, and Az's rebuke it would seem as if there are plenty of things to be unhappy about beyond the comparison that Lune made. But it's only Em's voice on the intercomm that actually makes his expression falter a little. Exactly what he felt in that moment isn't particularly obvious, though those sensitive to such things could tell that he was disappointed.

"A fascinating response, from each of you. I could not have hoped for better," he says. "Subordination in exchange for power is a natural interaction between the powerful and the weak, and one in which all of you are already actively engaged. Some of you are not even tapping the fullness of the power with which you have been endowed. The benefits of unlimited power in exchange for unlimited subordination... it is worth the exchange for many. Think of every individual who has lost someone, offered the opportunity to reverse it. But there is great danger in embracing such a bargain."

That last sentence is delivered with the alien's gaze firmly locked on the intercom. Yes, he means you, Em.

"Even so," the alien concludes, "it is foolish to stand in defiance of unlimited power. That has tipped the scales to the right."

"My experiment is complete for today, so I will be on my way. I will eagerly anticipate the next time," the alien says. The dimensional boundaries around him begin to warp...

Even as it does so, the alien blinks over towards Az. "But," he says, a little wide-eyed, "you ARE interesting." 

<Pose Tracker> Mayvy Hawkins has posed.

Mayvy keys her comm. "Why did you pose us a literal trolley problem with Haros? I know the exercise, but it's all a little *academic* if it's just... poor little Haros at stake..." 

<Pose Tracker> Mayvy Hawkins has posed.

Mayvy seems genuinely, if only *slightly*, upset. 

<Pose Tracker> Em Gelfand has posed.

Em looks momentarily pensive at the thought of the lost Haroic lives, sacrificed in the pursuit of inquiry.

This does not stop them from commenting, "The Haro is very much focused on seeking truth. Maybe it was intended to be an example of a question without a true answer," they suggest to Mayvy. "Sort of like the western equivalent of a koan. Provoking thought and dialogue, gauging character."

"Or someone's homework assignment got left in the onboard memory." Em sighs. "They are literally education models." 


<Pose Tracker> Mitsuba Greyvalley has posed.

The fact that most of the assembled parties *agree* on this point makes Mitsuba feel even more at ease -- enough to forget the pain in her ankle for the moment. She closes her eyes -- and now that they've fully exchanged the pleasantries, she seems just a hair colder on her interaction with their mystery guest, despite his seeming approval.

"Next time, open a comms channel before you stop by," Mitsuba says, before her lips purse a little. "That's the way we do these things on Earth. You don't need to invade my ship."

She takes a few moments to re-center herself, adjusting her hair before taking a seat on the steps. "Before you ask, I'm fine," she reports, adjusting her boot. "It might hurt more tomorrow, but I just rolled it a little. I was trying to do too many things at once, which is -- a little dangerous, on stairs." There's a bit of an awkward hitch in her voice as she adds, "It -- seems we have a new enemy. ... I wish I'd thought to ask his name." 

<Pose Tracker> Edge Sainklaus has posed.

Edge's expression tightens with some uneven and ugly scrunches at the ends of his face. He could practically taste bitter bile in his mouth as a very salient point is brought before him that he had, to now, done his best to ignore. Acknowledging it after all, would have done him no good - at least, he thought. But having it thrown in his face like this left him so unprepared that it stings.

At the end of the day, as much talk as he'd talked, where did he wind up? Right back with the Federation's rank and file, towing the line as he'd been raised to. "Gh .."

Although he was technically speaking, a freelancer under Nergal's employment, the Dreisstrager may as well have been the personal gofer of Commodore Fikes - that is, G-Hound.

"Don't talk to Az like that, you slimeball!" he calls after him, pointlessly, given Caruleum was well on his way back to wherever it was he came from.

With an irritated clicking of his tongue, he aggressively releases the hammer of his handgun and puts the safety back on.

He opens his mouth, but Mitsuba manages to catch him out before he could ask after her, "Uh .. right. At least it was nothing too bad, but I'm sure it smarts.."

Putting his pistol away, he shuffles awkwardly next to Az before pulling his scarf up to his nose. "I don't really care what his name is," Edge addends.

"I'll just keep calling him Gideon Goat." 

<Pose Tracker> Lune Zoldak has posed.

When he is gone - well and fully gone, without even a parting word on the way out from Lune, then, her posture breaks as her thumb loops up and clicks the hilt of her sword flush with the sheath.

"Cool. I'm going to get some sleep." Lune announces flatly, before dropping her stance, about facing, and walking past Edge. She stops.

"Who?"

SOME TIME LATER:

Lune wakes up, brushes her teeth, brushes her hair, goes to the hangar, and finds a shiny new Wanzer halfway through being painted in Dreisstrager colors where the Valsione should be.

The screaming just about manages to fill all of Hangar One. Almost. They're big hangars. 

<Pose Tracker> Az Sainklaus has posed.

Az's lack of ability to remain settled leaves the finer subtleties of the intruder's shifting expressions to go over her head. Even so, it's hard to miss that lean towards approval with how laser-focused she is upon both him and Mitsuba during the whole exchange...or the offense he takes to Lune. It's difficult to tell just how much she actually believes that.

Though there's no denying that he believes that, and he seems to have gotten exactly what he wanted. There's another furrow of her brow at his final conclusion, and a tinge of confusion at the mention of 'scales', but the tension in the way she's holding herself doesn't disappear even as he begins making his exit.

Nor does the look on her face change much when she's addressed, and she gets one last terse word in before he vanishes. "People don't want to be seen as interesting in that way. It's like you're viewing them as a resource more than as human beings." She holds that until he's entirely gone.

At which point she finally eases up some, letting out a brief sigh as she glances to Edge. "I don't think he was talking to me directly, Edge..." Her weapon is slowly stowed back away, with concern towards Mitsuba followed up with a nod after several seconds.

"...Only if you're sure, Captain," she relents, even though she'll be ready to help her stand back up if necessary. "He sounds like he's intent on showing up again, so you'll get the chance. But I don't think I'll mind if he takes his time with it..." That foreboding sensation she had has died down plenty, but she wishes she could say it was gone entirely. 

<Pose Tracker> Caruleum Vaull has posed.

The alien humanoid considers Mayvy's question. "I will pose the problem in a more useful way in the future."

His lips still curled into a self-assured smile, the alien looks towards Mitsuba. It might now occur to her, and to other onlookers, that he has pointedly remained elevated on the steps this whole time-- if only by a single step. Were they to stand evenly, he would still be taller. As it is, the decision to stand above and look down was...

Very much deliberate.

"Oh?" He asks, "That is hardly necessary. It is not possible for me to be an intruder anywhere on this planet. I am the King of the Earth."

And then, finally, the King of the Earth is gone. 

<Pose Tracker> Mayvy Hawkins has posed.

"First off, this guy's a fucking prick. Second, uh." There's several seconds of dead air, the line audibly open. "Sorry in advance if any of you end up tied to train tracks next time... and, uh, third..." She flicks over to the all-ship intercom, and takes on a perfectly calm railway announcer voice. "All hands, please be advised that all umbilical tramway service on deck six is currently suspended due to an obstruction on the tracks."

It's a little scary.

With a flick back to local, she adds, "Oh, Captain. --actually, any of you I can manage to grab, too. When we're all done, uh, getting our bearings back, I'd like to convene a meeting in the core."

To Em, she grins a little. "I think we might have the ultimate saferoom, kid."

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