2023-08-28: Path-Integral Formulation
- Cast: Harmony Chord, Rita Bernal
- Where: The Ptolemaios, Orbital Ring
- Date: U.C. 0097 08 28
- Summary: Following the Celestial Being briefing on recent events at Industrial 7 and Denver Colony, and the growing global destabilization, Rita Bernal and her companion descend into the recesses of the Ptolemaios, looking yet farther to the future than Celestial Being's combat forecaster can plan.
<Pose Tracker> Harmony Chord has posed.
Aboard the Ptolemaios, Celestial Being's agents and assets had assembled at VEDA's behest. Though it would normally be hiding in plain sight, moving inconspicuously, with shipping logs edited, dock transactions spoofed, and dockmasters hoodwinked, this much foot traffic generated more risk than standard protocols would reduce. No, this meeting was as fraught as it was necessary, and it took concerted manipulation, detectable network footprints, for VEDA to keep its agents of change under its protection. The meeting, however important in its own right, was simultaneously a means to an end for one of VEDA's other campaigns. Two of the more enigmatic members of Celestial Being had broken away from the crowded briefing room.
One, a ghost, reflected onto the physical in a resplendent transmission of spiritual waves. Those waves were translocating and transmuting, propagating down the hallway as they swirled with complex emotions. The imminence of Denver Colony, and the strain of communicating without alienating, asking without demanding.
The other, a lithe creature of corporeal grace, their every detail precise and refined. From their three piece suit and copper hair, to even their gait and facial structure--everything was tailored to a perfect fit. It was a little unnerving, honestly--or so the sentiment had wafted from the dockworkers and commuters of the Orbital Ring encountered en route. Noteworthy, but no matter. They were not born for such purposes.
It was not until the duo had retreated to the annals of the Ptolemaios, VEDA's sanctuary admitting the strange visitor, that Harmony addressed their ethereal companion.
"Rita." Though there was no /need/ to speak, transmitted in waves other than air pressure, they touched a wall of VEDA's sanctum, steadying and turning to be face-to-face. "Are you so uncertain of the future?" It was small talk, more or less, oblique to their purpose here. After all, if the domesdays Rita has seen come to pass, there is no point in laying this egg, here and now, if it would never come to hatch.
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
Making an effort to stay at the same height of Harmony, the spirit of Rita Bernal accompanies her beautiful companion. She doesn't want to draw undue attention to them, waiting for Harmony's cue to know when it is safe to communicate.
I have followed a singular path since I was a child. Things have irrevocably changed. Things are... uncertain, now. Blurry. And with Yuliana involved, I can't see anything.
Rita pauses, watching Harmony touch the wall. Even this decision is uncertain for her. VEDA is mysterious, and its motivations confusing. How does Rita fit into its machinations? The prize offered to her is precious beyond measure. What will be required of her to balance the scales?
I've spent a very, very long time gathering the heroes of the living. We have to put our faith in them. It's not so different from Celestial Being's operation, I think. Putting their faith in a few pilots.
Rita smiles softly, not bothering to disguise the worry lingering in her eyes.
I'll fight to preserve the path to humanity's future. The future I dream of for them. I won't allow anything else to happen.
<Pose Tracker> Harmony Chord has posed.
Among the concrete and steel husks of that island in the Pacific, Rita had shared with Harmony--and with VEDA--some flashes, some fragments of her history. For Harmony, it was a novel, a unique experience, markedly different from the methodical, metered terminal of calculations and information. The gulf between 'records' and 'recollections' was greater than her...'vocational training' had prepared her for.
"Things have irrevocably changed," they mirrored, instructed in the connections it forms, "I have never been unmoored from such confidence, yet you still have ensured the protection of the Unicorn despite the disruptions to your predictions. When we have reached the limits of the possible... It is then we can move towards the impossible. That's exactly why I was sent to you--despite the challenges, you ensured humanity can take an additional step forward towards the dialogues to come. Just as you put faith in heroes... VEDA--and I--have put our faith in you."
"It is for that... please, Miss Rita, step forward into the Vedic Terminal... You can still refuse," perhaps, Harmony's nerves may actually exist--they've slipped back into more formal nomenclature, after it took Rita such insistence on 'Just Rita'. "That is, of course, your right."
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
With a smile, Rita reaches out to Harmony, placing an illusory hand on their shoulder. It isn't a tangible feeling, more a sensation of warmth and connection. Something positive, Rita trying to reassure her companion.
Through their shared days in the Secret Laboratory, Rita and Harmony have grown close -- at least from Rita's perspective. She considers Harmony a friend, all their odd quirks aside. After all, Rita herself has the oddest quirk of all: being dead.
I did terrible things to ensure the Unicorn reached the end of her journey. I wish I could go back and change them, but I can't regret what I did. Not now. Not when we're so close to the end of our own path.
Rita nods gravely, half to reassure Harmony, and half to reassure herself. She tries to look the part she's needed for, the confident Goddess of Possibility, with flowing golden hair and miraculous green eyes. While Harmony's slip back into formality grants Rita pause, she moves forward all the same.
No. This is what must happen. And--
A little smile, as she looks away, almost embarrassed.
...I'd like to be alive again. There's so much I never got to do, or see. Even if I spend my next life in service of VEDA, it would be...
Rita laughs, covering her face, as if her spirit could blush.
It's selfish, isn't it? But I want to wear a dress. A real one. There's so much more... But if I could wear a dress, I think I'd be happy.
Floating gently, making sure her spiritual feet are touching the bottom of the Terminal, Rita closes her eyes briefly. She wonders what this will feel like. What it will /be/ like. So many pieces of being alive have slipped away from her over the long months of her death.
Thank you, Harmony. I'm ready. Please do what you need to.
<Pose Tracker> Harmony Chord has posed.
To Harmony, Rita's encouraging contact is like being...amplified, the rhythm of waveforms reaching coherence with their own. Like a warm viola added to a piano's steady solo. They've gained a much more practical understanding of Rita, and humans, since tracking her to that Pacific island; observing the idiosyncrasies of her companions shed additional light on Rita Bernal, The Entity that had seemed quite irrelevant to what they had been taught about Rita Bernal, The Possibility.
Harmony Chord was not a computer, nor a program, but they were young and inexperienced enough to know humanity only through its footprint on VEDA. Humans were transient, and humanity was a propagating pattern that must be guided around the obstacles that might terminate it. VEDA's need for Harmony and their kind was elegant in its simplicity: an adapter, an interface between the exclusively digital and the exclusively material. A bioterminal. Others gathered information on human life, never knowing the truth of their own creation until the impelling need to return, but Harmony knew the meaning of their own existence: to nurture the seed of transformation--of Innovation--bourne by the Phenex's Beloved. Yet... they discovered a unexpected investment in the girl who burned herself, who took on pain and grief time and again for the sake of the future.
"You're still calling them terrible?" It was still a somewhat alien thought, for Harmony, regret and discontentment with ones actions despite moving closer to the predestined goal. "Humanity's future was protected by the Unicorn. Banagher Links was able to reach consensus despite gulfs of experience and understanding. He would surely aid in the dialogues to come." Individuals and patterns were both preserved by Rita's actions. How could it spawn regrets? It was strenuous mental exercise to think beyond the paradigm, that the imperative ends justify the necessary means. After all, that was VEDA's path--Aeolia Schenberg's path.
To Harmony, VEDA was alike Earth's sun Sol, the guiding light that illuminated the paths they could take, symbolic of both the journey and destination. Rita, then... held within her both the will to chase a destination, and the sorrow of sacrifice for the steps taken. How strange, to be discomforted by ones own goal, achieved. For VEDA, such a thing was impossible, and until now...Harmony never considered such impossibilities to be drawbacks. Having reached the same conclusion through such different vectors... does that make Rita like Earth's Luna? Obviously, stellar bodies of such different magnitudes, yet occupying remarkably similar symbolic presence in humankind's subconscious.
("Does that make me an astronomer?") The influence of Rita and Zoltan and Michele had generated new patterns in Harmony's thoughts. It was hard to identify whence the wonder came, harder still to realize that they had done the psychic equivalent of muttering under their breath.
"So much you didn't get to do? That sounds perfect. My understanding is that VEDA intends not to restrict you, Rita, but to learn from what it is you do next." They drew closer to Rita, reaching out in turn, a physical hand nearing Rita's shoulder in synch with the emotional projection of reassurance. "I hope to learn from you as well, to accompany you. I'm looking forward to this new life from here on. Hold still."
They step back, and with a flick of thought to the Vedic sanctum, lights begin to gather around Rita, measuring and quantifying, adapting into instructions, crafting into parameters.
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
For all Harmony knows of Rita, Rita knows very little of Harmony. She has tried to leave VEDA's secrets alone, as they had very little to do with Rita's path. In the beginning, she intended to use Celestial Being as part of her army to destroy the monstrous Neo Zeong II, but now... Things have changed, irrevocably so. What once was an army now is a collection of loved, trusted friends.
How does Celestial Being fit into that group? Rita isn't sure yet. Offering Rita a priceless gift as they are, she can't help but love them. But such things are never without a cost, and that knowledge keeps the spirit of the Phenex wary.
Yes. I caused so much suffering. Even if it was the right thing to do, I can't view it as anything but a sin. I sacrificed someone I love, someone who was only ever kind to me. Kinder than I deserve.
Harmony's words, in turn, are far kinder than Rita deserves. She smiles at their belief in her. Rita doesn't want to destroy it. Not yet, anyway. Not unless she has to.
My sisters and the princess... They will be the lights that guide humanity to the future I dream of. We must protect them, Harmony, and ensure their wishes come true.
Rita pauses, looking down at her spiritual form as Harmony prepares the odd terminal. She's never had much understanding of computers. It's more than a little frightening to float inside, though Rita won't admit it.
Whatever it takes.
Harmony's words gently brush against Rita's mind, and the Heart of the Phenex laughs softly.
Do you /want/ to be an astronomer, Harmony? The sun, the moon, the stars... The universe itself sings, as it moves through time. All of it glowing. There's such beauty waiting for us, just beyond the inner Solar System. I've seen it... It's waiting for me.
Rita's voice turns dreamy, and her eyes go faraway, overtaken slightly by that miraculous, otherworldly light.
I've been told it's important to have dreams. Things aside from our goals and paths. I'm not sure if I believe it yet, but... I really like the idea.
With a smile, she places her hand 'atop' Harmony's. Again, that sensation of symphonic unison passes through the Innovade, Rita experiencing it from them in echoes of connection and light.
I'd like that. I'd like it if you could stay with me.
Rita nods, then goes perfectly still within the sanctum. Her eyes close, a gentle sort of acceptance radiating from her spiritual form. Terrible memories of past tests and experiments threaten to crawl into her awareness, but a wall of sacred flame keeps them back. She must remain focused on the present.
<Pose Tracker> Harmony Chord has posed.
Harmony, for all their knowledge and determination, had little else beyond their own objective. It was only recently, set loose upon the task of observation, that they had liberal time to consider their own reflection of self; to consider usages of downtime beyond synchronizing updated data from the mainframe over the quantum transmissions. There wasn't yet terribly much to know about them... even their own purpose is itself to be an extension of VEDA--a limb, an organ. Harmony's secrets were, with one exception, VEDA's secrets, and not theirs to share.
That one remaining secret, instead, was wormed deep below their conscious consideration most moments, and pushed from their mind the rest.
"A sin..."
Sin. Bounded actions requiring avoidance. Why? On what metric was it wrong to sacrifice less to gain more? To accept an inevitable loss of one, to stop the loss of that one and more? VEDA prepared them with the concepts of negotiations, recordings and transcripts of a millennium of moving speeches and diplomatic poise. Many spoke of righteousness, but the word was just a word. Many spoke of evil, but removed from its context and trappings... How does one discern it?
"I understand little of sacrifice and less of sin, Rita, but I will try to understand... I /want/ to understand." In an echo of Rita's determined thought, Harmony agrees, "Whatever it takes."
They pull from their suit's breast pocket a slim box, drawing a packet out and gloving up to transfer a few grams into a glass cuvette. The cuvette with the powder slips silently into the console.
"Astrono...oh, I hadn't meant to--" A touch flustered at the thought leaking through, though relieved--relieved? Why?--that Rita seemingly had not perceived the semiotics behind the thought. That worry and relief is swept away with a magical notion that Harmony cannot help but be enraptured by. "It...sings? The stars...Would I be able to hear it?"
There are no windows in the Ptolemaios's terminal sanctum, but Harmony still gazes beyond the hull.
"VEDA hasn't told me what's out there. But I want to see what is."
Harmony lets their awareness expand to encompass Rita, embracing Rita's quantum wavelengths with their own, feeding their own perceptions back to the Vedic terminal. For Rita...For Rita's ressurection, Harmony Chord will make it as close to perfect.
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
Rita waits, expression soft, as Harmony wonders over the concept of sin. It's not something she particuarly wants to explain. It'd be kinder if Harmony remained ignorant of it, Rita thinks. This knowledge has been only a burden for the Heart of the Phenex.
If you're sure, Harmony. Some things, once you learn them, change you. And you can never, never go back to the way you were. It's okay if you don't want to know. And it's okay if you do. I'll respect your choice.
Whatever it takes... The phrase that's echoed through Rita Bernal's existence, repeated by her fellow Miracle Children. Another heavy burden, once she understood the true weight of the chains the mantra placed on her.
Luminous green eyes watch Harmony take out the packet. They treat it with such respect, it makes Rita smile. Even donating this much of her ashes was stressful. Rita has no idea what will happen to her should she lose the entirety of her corpse. But, if there was ever a time to take a chance, it would be now.
If you want to hear them, I can help you. I can show you the way I experience the universe, for a few moments. If you want me to, Harmony. Not too long, though, I think it'd hurt you. There's too much for a living person to withstand.
A gentle smile. It would be nice to have someone to discuss the song of the stars with, the glow of time. Harmony deserves that much for all they've done for Rita.
What's out there... Even I can't see all of it. But there are places and people so far beyond what we know. In other streams of Possibility, or so distant that we'll never even hear their voices. The Light is unending. There's not a single place in all the universe that's truly dark or silent.
With these thoughts, the temptation of eternity, swirling in her heart, Rita is still as Harmony spiritually joins with her. Without trepidation, she opens her heart to her companion. Every desire, every regret, every moment of her living existence is offered.
If it's not too much trouble. I'd really like it if my hair could be long, like when I was a little girl, before they found out I was the Miracle Child. Long, down to my waist, and wavy... It used to make me so happy.
Rita's hair was the one thing she had true agency over, before even that was taken away. Having it back... She never dreamed of such a precious gift. With a soft sigh, the Heart of the Phenex begins to glow with radiance, offering the entirety of herself to ease VEDA's process.
As if in answer to Rita's grace, something within Harmony's inner suit pocket glows brilliant blue. A precious handful of fragments of the Phenex's Psychoframe -- taken from the very heart of the Gundam. Despite their small size, they are most capable of resonating with Rita's spirit. Even one of them would be enough to anchor her to this reality.
<Pose Tracker> Harmony Chord has posed.
Indecision wavers out, an emanation of quantized emotions, not yet observed or collapsed from their superimposed ambivalence. There's a tremolo in their mind's voice.
"Never go back? Not...not yet. I want to understand, but it seems..." The mental emission of a squiggled, mixed up line. "...Seems like a heavier weight than I imagine it. Maybe...Maybe once I know my sibling won't be needed. Maybe once my task is done."
"The Light is unending... Even if it hurts, as long as if it hurts less than 'sin' hurts you, Rita, I should like to think such music is worth enduring for."
Falling psychically silent, Harmony carefully sifts through Rita's memories. Perhaps understanding the trust and private nature of things--or perhaps too unprepared an entity to take it all in as a singular deluge--they avoid dwelling upon the emotive content, taking note of instants like mirrors--or reflective panes of reinforced glass. Photographs, physical activity, and at Rita's earnest, 'selfish' yearning, hair care... Chemical and gravitic affects to developmental environment, even.
The Innovade was crafted with quantum bandwidth to spare. They were born for this, this very purpose, and their perceptive receptivity was tuned, a gift from VEDA takes the exclusive form of a charge of responsibility. Notations in spiritiquantum waves of memories and desires, sensations and imaginations; a careful balance between the body Rita imagines and the one that existed, all weighed against the gritty details of the equations VEDA uses to create a body like Harmony's own.
Disengaging from the channels with VEDA, Harmony was focused fully on the here and now. There was, of course, plenty of bandwidth leftover. Harmony does not have VEDA's own secrets to expose, their life thus far short and transmission-intensive, but once the recording is done, they carefully place their memories atop their consciousness, like photographs arrayed upon a desk.
The memories are not even pushed forward--it is no request, merely a silent willingness.
--of their eyes, fluttering open through polyglass tank, as a bubble rises through the fluid.
--of the automated confab unit stitching clothes tailored to their naked, androgyne body.
--of becoming aware; of being presented with memories, historic records, a name, and a duty.
--of piloting the shuttle, reaching open space for the first time, yet instilled with experience and confidence at a skill they had no right to be proficient in.
--of catching the first echo of the Phenex's--Rita's--wake, tracing it across the sky, walking in Rita's footsteps with a sense of singleminded anticipation.
--of the meaning of the life that is of an Innovade, staring at a tank, within which a perfected face lies sleeping, framed with copper strands that sway with the immersion fluid. The face is identical to the one reflected in the polyglass--the only difference is the eyes reflected without are open, and the eyes slumbering within are closed.
("Melody.")
"You can relax," that even cadence speaks--yes, speaks, somehow laryngeal air compression patterns feel more intimate than quantum transmission in this instant. "Thank you for your trust, Rita. My...friend."