I know that you all know and love that!Part one: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=301044
Part two: http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=301210
Changes In The Wind – Prologue pt3…
Ha! They say that an armament, the larger the better, is a Splits best weapon but I say its instinct! Where the council were sat with their guns! Here I Sry’akl was creating history here at the old curio of a museum! I knew the Redhead was different, as she stepped across the bridge over the liquid matter and into the nanite exhibit, the pool that had been solid like stone since the supernova swirled and rippled like water! Was she Saisho-kagi? Why did I spend so much time listening to that damned drunken Paranid, my mind was spouting crazy. The split pride themselves on believing what they can see and touch and until the day I stand shoulder to shoulder with my ancestors on the eternal field of battle I would not abandon those principles to fanciful thinking! She noticed nothing… or was all this all her plan? The empty exhibits sprang to life as she came near, dormant machines begun to ripple with unknown energy for the first time in decades, slowly fading to silence as she left. We stepped past sleeping curators as she moved further and further into the heart of the building towards the obsidian core. We turned the corner and there it was, it’s deep blackness hung in the air, its mirror-like finish reflected infinity into the room, within the sphere you could see forever this was the distilled heart of this city. As I quietly stepped into the chamber I could feel it exerted a strange unnatural pressure, a deep sense of disquietness entered me, this was a bad place... Why was she here? Her eyes glanced down. She was reading the guide book.
NO… I saw it… begin to bubble, the cores once still surface began lose cohesion… she did not see it. I had thought that she knew but this one was blissfully unaware… it knew not of its significance! This core was contained by its inertness… it’s fields were down but it was stirring to life without the safeties in place. The blackness was beginning to steam, a low growl began to emanate from the furious sphere, why had she not noticed? I called out for her to look at the core but she did not hear… what was wrong. She had an audio guide… she could not hear! The sphere began to shake… there was little time. My feet moved without thinking, pounding against the metal floor. Grasping her and placing myself between the core and her as the core turned white with heat. The light was blinding even though I had shut both inner and outer lids of my eyes, it felt as if I was being burned with countless unknowable pricks of sand… What had she done? What had I done? Stupid!
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I had never been to a proper museum before, exhibits whizzed and sparkled with life, these were truly amazing objects… but nothing prepared me for the Obsidian core! I had heard of it… it’s blackness really did seem to fill the room, you could feel its presence as you entered the central chamber, my mouth fell open and I stared into what seemed like infinity… the blackness was infinite and yet it was also like a mirror. A Paranid voice began to grumble with barely restrained resentment at me through the audio guide, “And this is the Nanite Core. Such as you could not comprehend its purpose, nor realise the intricacy of its design, for you are NOT PARANID! For you see it is not simply a store of nanites, it was power core, factory, and central processing core for the entire city. The design is unique… each core it birthed from the Grand Torch of Paranid Prime, becoming a colony where Paranid may dwell! While you will have experienced AVI’s you cannot comprehend the vastness of what the core was… Nor can you comprehend that a core in not made! Some ask why we cannot simply ‘make a new one’ BUT only a lesser life could not understand what such a core is… for I do not have the patience to drag your putrid minds into the light! Suffice to say it is born not made! Now turn and look at your hand guide, it will show a representation of the core as it was! The blackness you see today is an unbreakable shell of nanites… formed in the supernova… Look NOW at your guide as the representation begins!"
The little slide popped up on the lethyl plate I held showing a bright white core, it seemed to fill the room with a soft flowing light, its surface in constant flux unlike the solid looking black ball I stood next to now. I felt the force before I felt the hand… something grabbed hold of me and held me close… the room shook with force. The cores surface seemed to expand outwards like liquid sand, it flowed as if not affected by gravity… suddenly a field came up around the now bright white core… and its tendrils dropped to the floor like water! Wow! It began to slowly pool on the floor at my feet… then I realised the pool was shrinking… it like the disk… it was entering me. My mind whined in embarrassment I remembered that I was being held by a stranger and forcefully pulled myself away! As I caught sight of the Split’s face I recognised him at once! It was the guard from the gate the day before! As he slumped to the ground my anger and embarrassment turned to fear… perhaps this had not been a normal thing! His entire back was burned and ashen as if he had been incinerated! What had happened? Had I done this? Suddenly staff were coming in from everywhere. An elderly looking Paranid came hobbling up to us “By the holy trinity! What by all that is holy is happening here… get these kids out of here!” Why was no one getting an apothecary for this split? I looked back down at him. His skin was fine now… as if nothing had happened although he seemed to be sleeping. The Paranid gave him a kick in his shin and the Split started awake! “HA! Damned Split! Go play with your lesser-life whore elsewhere!” I fumed trying to vocalise my sheer rage but the split grabbed my wrist and my anger evaporated when I saw the look of urgent sorrow in his eyes he pulled me out of the museum and out into the street.
We sat silently in a café, his hands shook, his voice strained and raspy, his eyes never leaving me, it was as if he had stared into his worst nightmare, a strand of my hair fell down into my eyes… I looked in horror realising it was no longer even slightly dull… it was a perfect replica of my mother’s fiery shade. I brushed it aside… That was almost enough for me to know what had happened but I didn’t want to accept it… how was it even possible? It made no sense. I looked out upon the space port in the distance… it was changing… there was a line of light slowly spreading up the towers… nanites were slowly spreading up the tower and out as well as out into the city. The exciting news was being broadcast on every station. The Paranid had finally managed to contact the core after decades sealed within its impenetrable shell it was finally active but I wasn’t so sure it had been them, and judging how the split was acting I don’t think he thought so either. What had my father started? What had my mother? What had I? It would be almost an hour before he spoke to me directly. “So…” his voice wavered slightly “So…” He paused again. Trying to regain composure… I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk either. “I don’t know what happened” I blurted it out all at once, he stood up with a start, the chair flung behind him, he slowly righted it and sat down again. Taking a deep breath. “That was not right… It was… not right.” He almost whispered it. I wasn’t sure which of us was more traumatised by all this… him or me. We must have looked the odd pair, sitting there saying nothing having drunk after drink.
As I slipped into the hall, Mrs T swept out of nowhere, taking my coat from me “Yoooouu’re alllmost LaAate! YoOoooou beaaaarly have Ttttime to wasssSSSssh uP Be-Fore dinner!” It was 5:37… 6-sharp must mean washed and in my best clothes sitting in the parlour before dinner. As I stepped into the bathroom I caught myself in the mirror. My freckles had gone… in fact every blemish had gone even the scar on my forearm where I had slipped and caught myself on the fence when I was six was nowhere to be found. My skin was like porcelain, pale and blemishless as if I had never caught the sun in my life. So… the nanites had ‘fixed’ me and him… apart from my hair nothing else seemed different… part of me was relieved… another part disappointed. The parlour was warm and inviting, Mrs T had laid out a tasting platter for me with all manner of little morsels to try… as I finished one dish another even more outlandish one would appear! From plankton soup, Split Kran cakes, Spice buns, Custard tartlets, creamy Telsha egg stew… Each one seemed to become more and more delicious as the meal went on. Mrs T seemed to float effortlessly despite the parlour being full of customers… Yesterday I had not known that Mrs T was a famous for her cooking but tonight it was plainly obvious. The little parlour was packed with customers, yesterday I had arrived after dinner service and Mrs T had rustled up a meal for me out of kindness but tonight the sheer scale and mastery of her cooking was everywhere to be seen! Council dignitaries, local shop keepers and workers all crammed round the small tables for the honour of partaking a meal at Mrs T’s! The entourage of the Paranid high priest was shewed away by her fierceness at “sSSSSix-oh-Ssssseven”, the priest himself was found a place setting between an argon merchant and split guardsman much to his relief and disgust. He had “Booked a Jazura in advance and was not to be dissuaded by lower-life”. No customer left Mrs T’s unsatisfied. By Ten most of the madness had subsided and Mrs T brought out tea for the guests who were left and came to sit out in her parlour chair next to the little heating stove with a small bundle of knitting, her nimble claws working the fabric skilfully.
As I awoke in the morning it was strange to realise that all this hadn’t been a dream… I looked at myself in the mirror... it was strange seeing myself without freckles I sort of missed them... No. No I didn't. My dreams had seemed saner than reality… the presence of the Split… the strange silver ship. We stood in the hanger, staring at the shimmering ship.
As I slipped downstairs I noticed the Split sitting… he was waiting for me!
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The Redhead had invaded my mind! I was sure of it! NO! It must be so! She tempted me with that blasted ship! A SHIP! She knew my deepest darkest fantasies of flight! Those sleek lines... The solid plate armour, plasma pulsars hiding their true destructive power, that hair and the way her hips swayed as she walked… WHAT?!!? No… she is an Argon… I dishonour myself thinking thoughts like that! It was HER influence! I had awoken on the ground with her staring at me… That crimson horror! My sleep had been poisoned by thoughts of her and that ship. At the suns rose up in the sky I stood in the hall awaiting that blood demon. As she stepped nimbly down the stairs my eyes fell to her hips for a second… they weren’t like a split female… it was thick and ugly in comparison but it did move differently… yes… differently that’s it. “Split want know why you invade mind!” I spat each word out… at first she looked confused! “Damn you crimson demon! Answer!” her face looked shocked. “I’m not a demon! I sorry I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Now that shocked me. It wasn’t her words. It was the fact that I had forgotten myself and spoken in Split. “You speak Hu’shin dialect?” “Speak what?” “SPLIT! You speak split” her eyebrows rose “You’re speaking Split?” She was truly stupid wasn’t she? Well she was Argon what could I expect from her. She didn’t know a thing or what she had done. Then my mind turned… this could work out. “Tell me about the ship?”
