Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Travellers (Semi-Open RP between Tara and Catrin)

Tara listened intently, her eyes twinkling with curiosity. Unfortunately for Catrin, Tara was very good at teasing meanings out of what people said, even from the smallest piece of information, and a thousand years of experience only heightened that analytic astuteness, "No connections with anything in this universe? That's an interesting way to phrase it. Do your people have contact with other universes?" She smiled slightly at the thought, "Is your civilisation that advanced? My people only have myths and legends concerning creatures that can walk between worlds, and such powers were lost a long time ago. It is said that my own race once had this ability, i'm not sure if it is true, but if it is, we lost it a very long time ago, when the First Kingdom fell and our world fell into the Second Great Dark Age."

The AI spoke again, "The legends of the Way of Worlds are not very well understood. It is possible the tales simply referenced the Thanatos Gates the Ancients built so that their armies could travel to the Realm of the Dead and fight against the Old Gods."

"Possibly." Tara said, "But I rather like my interpretation. Imagine what i'd be like to wander between different universes! All the weird and wonderful cultures I could study!"

The computer sounded rather exasperated, "Mistress, you must really get some other interest besides just studying other cultures."

"But it's so much fun!" She said, "What else would I do with my time?"

"Well... you could always try and curb your wanderlust long enough to actually teach the students you always leave behind back on Aerin."

She snorted, "Lock myself in a class-room? You know me better than that!"

Catrin experienced a surge of mixed feelings at actually meeting someone who could make out meanings from relatively small details in her speech, which was good, and this quality being in someone like Tara, who was improbable to stop asking questions at any reasonable point, or so it seemed from her thirst for knowledge so far.

She took a deep breath before answering Tara's first question. “Well, we do, to put it simply. Although it's subject to much theological debate what a lot of these places actually are.” It didn't have anything to do with technology, but she'd keep that piece information unrevealed for now.

Then she shrugged. “It depends on what you call an advanced civilization, really.”
She chuckled slightly at the exchange between the AI and Tara, but wasn't particularly interested in their legends, and she asked her own question after they were finished. “Would you happen to know of any planet that I could go to where I could just appear out of nowhere and start functioning enough to be able to travel on my own? Highly developed worlds have this annoying habit of registering every new citizen at birth, and it's very difficult to just come out of nowhere and start functioning.”

Catrin was quite certain Tara would mine lots of data out of her questions, but knowing where to go next would make her next attempt at becoming a free galactic citizen and learning about the local magic so much easier.

If Tara did mine data from he questions, she apparently chose not to reveal that fact and instead answered her question, "There are many such worlds, even in some of the most technologically advanced civilsations there are always places where people need to appear and disappear, where you can gain an entirely new identity." She smiled slightly, "Or so I've heard anyway."

"The closest world to meet such specifications would be Ilphinus Prime. It is a very old colony of the Terelain race, a pleasure planet given over to the estates of the wealthy nobility, however much of its populace is comprised of those who actual work the estates, and it would be the matter of a moment for me t slice you into the records."

Tara frowned at that, "I thought I deleted that subroutine from your programming."

The AI hesitated slightly, "It's a useful subroutine."

"Any other military-grade software you;ve hidden from me?" She asked mildly.

"My old IFF codes, for sentimental reasons." The computer answered.

Tara's tail twitched, and one eye shot up in surprise, "You kept your military access codes? Do you mean to tell me hat you could disguise this ship as a battlecruiser!?"

"Yes. If we wanted to... but only through the IFF beacon. This pitiful little thing wouldn't fool anyone's sensors for a nanosecond if we tried to pass ourselves off as a warship."

Tara growled softly, "When I'm done here I am so going to reprogram you."

"If you want to go the boring, legal option, we could drop her off on one of the other worlds closer to the border. Most of them don't keep track of immigrants that well, considering the sheer number of them." The AI said.

Catrin wasn't as surprised as the last time when Tara seemed incredibly generous, but... wanting to drop her off? She cleared her throat in order to get Tara's attention when the AI was done speaking. “I can arrange my own transport. I really don't want to inconvenience you with getting me anywhere.” Plus accepting transportation would mean that she would be asked a couple of thousand questions.

“But I do very much appreciate the sentiment. I only need some information about the potential destination, and a few pictures would be helpful. I certainly didn't mean to imply you should transport me somewhere.”

“Although having an established identity could be useful,” she added after a second, as an afterthought. “But not necessary.” It was good to know there were many such worlds. And she did agree with the AI that legal options were boring.

Tara sniffed, shooting her a look, "Don't encourage him, it only makes him worse."

"I have the feeling that you have formed something of a low opinion of me, mistress." The AI said mildly.

"You're an irascible, incorrigible old war-horse who has no respect for the laws of half a dozen sapient species." She said, "If you weren't a computer you'd be exactly the sort of man my mother warned me to stay away from when I was a kit."

"You must be less serious about these things mistress." The AI complained, "Maybe if you let me have a little more freedom I could show you some of the funner places in the galaxy."

She groaned and shook her head, "You are bad influence on me and the first chance I get I'm swapping you for a different computer!" She turned back to Catrin, "Other transportation? Oh, you have a ship nearby?" She frowned, "That's too bad. It would have been nice to have somene else to talk to on the trip than...him."

"I'm still here... in fact I am here." The AI said.

"I know." Tara replied with a slight smirk.

The AI stayed silent after that.

Catrin smiled. “Well, at least he's fun,” she answered. Even his very creative attempts to find a way to kill her were kinda funny.

She tilted her head for a moment, thinking about Tara's question, sensing she really had to make a decision about communicating with her in more detail...or not. Otherwise, if they continued speaking, she'd just keep pulling out new information from her. Catrin felt unusually bad about simply withholding answers from Tara, probably due to her ingenuous thirst for knowledge.

After a moment of silence, she breathed in deeply and began speaking. “There's a part of my culture... an innate disinclination to share any information with anyone. At the same time, you're a scientist and it's obvious you have a desire for knowledge. What are you going to do with the information I may give you? You keep asking for more and more, while you're distracting me with your bickering, and you don't even seem to be doing it on purpose. You must be an excellent xenoanthropologist.”

Tara smiled, "Oh, thanks. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm something of a leading light in my field." She then frowned slightly as she thought over what she was going to say, "Well, I can certainly understand that your culture doesn't allow for sharing of the secrets of your kind, it's something my own people have in certain aspects of our magic and technology, though such restriction have relaxed over the past few centuries." She blinked and sighed, "Sorry, I always go off topic... anyway, I'm not sure what I'd do with the data. Whilst it would be of interest to the academic community, I can't exactly publish anything with a sample size of one, can I? Too much bias, not enough diversity of viewpoints and a limited amount of data that can be retrieved... so I guess I'll be keeping it to myself."

Tara gave Catrin a warm smile, "I might mention you to colleagues, but if we don't even know where your world is and no one there will talk to us then there's not much danger of a horde of academics descending on you." She gigged at that thought, "But if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine... sorry if I made you uncomfortable... it's kind of an instinct for me to gather as much data as I can from conversations, I'll try to stop myself in future, okay?" She gave her another smile.

Catrin smiled at Tara when she mentioned she was a field leader, but frowned slightly as she mentioned she might mention her to colleagues, and her expression didn't relax when Tara promised to try and stop herself in the future.

“See, the problem is exactly of the kind you mentioned when I asked you if it was fair not to share technology with the locals. You do have magic, and the question is, what will happen if I give you some of my knowledge of it... something that I haven't really done so far.

And another thing - it's not like with your culture, which doesn't allow sharing secrets. Imagine a culture where everyone keeps secrets to advance their own interests, and if you make a useful discovery, you make sure you don't let the information leak, otherwise it will be used against you. No-one has to bother with forbidding sharing secrets. The greatest problem is finding someone you can pass your knowledge to without them betraying you after they get it.

Therefore, I would need you to keep anything you gain from me exclusively to yourself, and never pass it on to anyone else. Ever. The same would go for your AI, but I'm not even sure AIs are capable of guaranteeing that, plus yours seems to be keeping secrets from you.

And trying to stop yourself probably wouldn't help very much, as you can't know in advance which questions can be problematic. As an example, I'll answer your last one – I don't have a ship at all. I can just walk to a different planet.” She stood facing Tara, her expression quite serious, but her legs starting to hurt a little from the long standing – it occurred to her if it would be OK to sit down somewhere.

She broke the seriousness of her expression with a small smile. “Do you want to just keep standing here? It's obvious that you weren't planning for a long discussion. Is there a place where we can both sit?”

As Catrin explained about her culture and why they didn't share their knowledge she nodded and seemed to be about to speak, but she stopped herself when asked about sitting down, "Oh yes! Of course, here!" She walked over to her divan-like chair and reclined on it, gesturing to a spot near it, where a second chair, exactly the same as the first, flowed out of the floor and assembled itself before their eyes, "Have a seat!" She said with a smile, but as soon as Catrin sat down her expression turned very serious, "I understand, Catrin. My people know the dangers of magic, we have seen entire civilisations, entire star systems, destroyed in storms of flame and death because their inhabitants meddled in things beyond them. We have always been cautious in our explorations of technology and magic. So cautious in fact that it took us fifteen thousand years to rebuild our civilisation when the First Kingdom fell. We had the tools and the means to rebuild and relearn the lost secrets of magic and technology, but we dared only learn slowly. There are things, even now, we dare not try to delve into lest it bring our destruction."

Her grave expression lightened, "Your culture sounds similar to the Royal Arcanum on Aerin, it is a school of magical knowledge and research founded almost twenty thousand years ago by King Erisad the Wise. The magiscientists there jealously guard their findings and research, and it is very rare that they'll actually tell anyone about it. But it's understandable, by now they're delving into the very fabric of magic itself, seeking out its final secrets, and such dangers there are not revealed lightly."

The AI decided to interject at this point, "Tara might be a scientist, but my mistress also understands the dangers of revealing things that should best be hidden. In her work she has... heard secrets shall we say, things certain cultures should never know, things the wider galaxy should never know."

Tara sighed, "You're making me sound terrible! It's not that bad... okay, so if some of what I know got out a few civilisations would collapse, it's no big deal... um... okay, it kind of is, but..."

"Quite." The AI said dryly, "But revealing to a theocratic society that their priestly caste has been lying and manipulating them for centuries is never a good idea if you want to stop that particular society imploding, and we both know you've got similar secrets you're not supposed to tell anyone, so a few more aren't going to make much of a difference."

Just as Tara was about to say something else she suddenly relaised something, "Wait wait wait, you can walk between planets!? That's... um... well, obviously not impossible...um... that is seriously cool!"

Catrin thanked Tara with a smile and nod and sat down to listen to her, her body language suggesting that she was listening with full attention throughout, but she gave no signs of agreeing.

When Tara got to the part of walking between planets, she smiled. “Yes, it's very convenient.” She cleared her throat before continuing. “But, I feel you might have a rather, shall we say, idealistic set of values – I may well be wrong here – and do not quite understand what could happen. Also, you might have a tendency to approach other beings from the perspective of someone who is old and wise.”

Trying to be as diplomatic about it as possible, Catrin continued, “It's easy to forget one is a product of one's own culture, as well as the fact that the mind cannot encompass all the various outcomes of events, even if it thinks it can. And no, my culture doesn't quite sound like the Royal Arcanum, unless the researchers there are in a habit of not doing research at all and the few ones who do are trying not to reveal anything to their peers.

In any case, feel free to tell anyone anything I've told to you so far, but if you want any more information, it's not negotiable that you mustn't tell anyone about it.” Catrin shrugged. “I'd love to explain why, and will, if you agree, but obviously doing so will reveal even more things, so I'm not going to do that now.”

Taa frowned, considering it carefully, on the one hand, her innate curiosity was screaming at her to accept the deal and learn more about this strange, unique woman. On the other hand her academic training was shouting at her that she couldn't just keep such a valuable finding to herself. Tara rubbed her temples nd sighed, coming to a decision, "Alright. Knowing and not telling anyone is better than never knowing at all. Besides, if I don't find out more my curiosity will drive me insane." She smiled at that and then her expression turned serious, "Catrin, I swear never to reveal what you tell me about yourself or your kind to anyone." She looked Catrin directly in her eyes and said, "If it will satisfy you, I will swear it by my blood and by the Light of the Three Sisters in the tongue of my Ancestors. That is the most binding oath my people can give, and one we dare not break."

Catrin smiled. “Good,” and then her expression turned neutral for the oath. She looked back into Tara's eyes and nodded. “And yes, in the spirit of your promise, I would appreciate the oath, but there's also the matter of your AI – I don't suppose your oath would be binding to him?” Catrin asked, tilting her head sideways.

Tara nodded, and then glanced off to one side, thinking, "Hm, well I've never had to test if such an oath binds a synthetic intelligence... I could program a security subroutine to prevent him from revealing your secrets?"

"No need mistress." The AI said, "I too will swear the oath, and program the blocks myself. You may inspect them if you wish, and ensure that I don't leave any loopholes for me to exploit."

Tara nodded, her expression uncharacteristically serious, "There we are then. We will give you our most solemn oath, and we will install blocks on my AI's data banks to prevent him accessing the information you reveal or sharing it with anyone that we don't authorize him to. Will this satisfy you?"

Catrin smiled. “Excellent. That should do.” Fortunately, she didn't tend to be overly paranoid, which would mean that she wouldn't be able to reveal anything to anyone, ever... but not taking precautions would have been stupid. And then she would have to deal with the resulting mess.

Her expression turned serious to match Tara's. “If by 'we' you mean that we both have to authorize him for him to reveal anything, than yes, I agree.” Having a lot of experience with ceremonial occasions, Catrin's whole posture and expression changed and she now had the airs of someone about to officially accept a binding oath, which was in sharp contrast to how she must have seemed to Tara so far.

“What can I do to give you my respect? Stand for your oath, or something else?” she asked.

Tara nodded, "Both of us, agreed." She then smiled, "Well, if we go for the full oath and you want to make it so binding as to be completely unbreakable, then It'll have to be a blood oath. All you have to do is cut your hand with a knife, using a ceremonial knife is preferred but not necessarily, I will do the same and take your hand so that our blood mixes together as I swear my oath in the tongue of my Ancestors, the AI, lacking blood, will just have to speak a few extra words to make my blood stand in as his blood." She gave Catrin a wry smile, "So for the purposes of this ritual, I'm technically adopting the AI into my family. That's probably a new one."

Tara stood up then and said, "Activate holographic interface." Next to her the ar shimmered and a featureless humanoid made of blue light appeared.

The AI's voice issued from it, "I will utilise this hologram to simulate my presence in the room, so that the oath is taken to include me as an individual entity."

Catrin stood up as well and bowed slightly to Tara and the AI's hologram. Then she smiled, slightly wryly. “Quite a sacrifice. Well, let's hope there won't be some sort of a wild chemical reaction. Do you have a suitable ceremonial knife? If not, I can provide one.”

Tara nodded, "I've got one somewhere... but I've not had the occasion to use for a while."

The hologram turned to her, "It's in he third storage chamber along the dorsal axis."

Tara smiled, "Oh, yes! i'll go get it!" She left the room and went somewhere in the aft section.

There was a loud crashing sound, some thumping and the hologram shook its head, "She stores a great deal of souvenirs in this ship, from all the cultures she studies. I put most of them in that storage chamber... unfortunately he current inclination of the ship puts it on the ceiling. She's buried herself under a mound of rare cultural artefacts from approximately seventeen thousand six hundred and forty three cultures." The hologram seemed amused by this, "Ah, she's found the knife."

Tara walked in a moment later, grasping a silver knife with golden sigils etched on to the blade. She seemed no worse for wear from her apparent encounter with a mound of junk, though there was a ring of what appeared to be carved bone or ivory dangling at an odd angle over one of her feline ears. She walked over to them, "right, let's begin, shall we?"

Catrin nodded and smiled at Tara's excitement. It occurred to her if she was always this excited about things.

She raised her eyebrows when the AI spoke. “Really? Shouldn't we go help her?”
“Oh, OK,” she said when the AI mentioned she found the knife.

She looked over towards Tara when she came in, and smiled when she noticed the carved white ring over Tara's ears. “Certainly. Unless you'd like to remove the no doubt culturally significant artefact from your ear first?” She managed to stop smiling and look serious again as she was finished speaking.

Tara blinked, her expression confused, "What?" She felt the top of her head and took the ring off, examining it for a second, "Hm... oh! Yes! Very important! Sacred in fact!" She looked slightly guilty as she said that, "I'll just go put it back." She walked out with the ring and returned a moment later, empty-handed, "Okay! So, the oath!" Her expression went serious, "Let's begin."

She stepped closer to Catrin and the AI, "As the oldest here, I shall lead he oath-making... Catrin, when I hand you the knife, cut your right hand and then give the knife back to me so I can do the same, then we will clasp hands, I will be speaking the words of the oath whilst we do this and invoking my blood and my Ancestors as we do this." Her expression was very serious now, "This is not something lightly done... if I break this oath the consequences are very serious."

She looked towards the AI, "Speak with me now, brother." She said formally. The hologram turned to face her and they both began to chant solemnly in a strange language; it resonated in the air, the words were song-like and pure, as if the entire language was simply sung, as if a conversation was a chorus. As the wods rang out in a solemn chant, the air seemed to hum with a faint energy, and it almost seemed as if something, somewhere was listening to the words. Then Tara passed the knife to Catrin, still chanting in that strange tongue.

Catrin shook her head slightly when Tara incorrectly assumed she was the oldest person here, but didn't say anything, not wanting to lead the oath-making anyway, and not sure if she could – after all, it was Tara who was making the oath. She nodded gravely when Tara told her that the consequences upon breaking would be very serious. “What consequences?” she asked.

She then watched them chant, her attention captured by the beauty of the language, and took the knife when it was passed to her into her left hand, held out her right hand and made a deep cut across the palm, being careful not to sever anything important. A flame erupted from her hand and she frowned at it, closed her eyes and focused for long enough for dark red blood to start flowing. She handed the knife back to Tara after that. The cut had just stung, but now she felt a dull pain and throbbing in her palm.