trans_9 | There are worse things out tonight than vampires

This movie is supposed to be fiction, he offered. However, I was hoping it would still offer some useful background on vampires.

She wasn't asking about the Omnicomm, but then, she had been there when he'd started to figure out what was going on. Still, he'd been hoping to avoid this meeting for a little longer, at least until the Magical/Mystical department could sort out his condition.

So what brings you here?

"I would say - if I'm remembering it correctly, this is the first in a series - that the older vampires: the dry ones, the ones who sit in the dark silence and make their plans, they are accurate to what I know about real vampires. Which, granted, is mostly pieced together from media recordings and their own testimony - and both might be lying."

She looked sympathetically at Zouichi. "Just stretching my legs and my neck after spending too many hours at the computer. I poke around at the Media Library, seeing what things are here that never existed on the Earth that I visited. I'm also looking to see if there are any fictional films about the Ohm, or the Daligig for that matter."

Zouichi blinked. So there are actual vampires on Earth, where you come from?

He shook his head. I don't think it's very likely that you'll find much information about the Ohm here. Alex mentioned that fictional works pertinent to the people aboard the ship are systematically removed.

"I was sent to Earth by the Vizsnunishne to find vampires - or rather, a vampire. And I interviewed offworld ones before I went there. There was this one alien vampire, flonk.flonk.flonk.," (she clicked her tongue after every 'k' to indicate the dots), "and he was quite well-mannered and willing to talk about himself and his species, except he just kept staring at my neck, much too hard." She demonstrated what this looked like - eyes huge and locked on Zouichi's throat - and then smiled to dispel the expression.

She didn't twitch, but she felt something inside her relax at his next words. A second confirmation that no records of her more - colorful - life experiences would be showing up here. "Why would Stacy not want us to have all the information we can get about the Ohm?"

It was a little disturbing how well Anwei pulled off that facial expression.

I do not know. The rationale behind pulling records of our personal lives is, apparently, that the ship wishes to avoid giving us knowledge about what will happen to our worlds in the future. It stands to reason that something similar would hold true for our experiences aboard the ship.

In fact, I rarely hear even crew members discuss the Ohm.

She'd seen that expression in the mirror often enough.

"What will happen to our worlds in the future? So the idea is that even if our realities are destroyed, there are parallel ones that run closely enough that such information would be strategically useful. Ah, I can see why Stacy might want to hide that. Think how tempted people would be to find that dimension just like theirs - or just like theirs but better - and stay there."

She leaned on the back of the flesh couch with one hand. "People just seem to get so - distracted. Nobody seems to want to keep any sort of record of what happened, they just keep it all in their heads. And our heads," she tapped her forehead with one finger, "are not the best place for them. Why isn't there a standard precis on the Ohm that's loaded into every omnicomm when we get them?"

I'm sure that not everyone would choose to do so, but I suppose the possibility is there. He paused. I can't see much problem with a crew member choosing to live in a similar dimension if their own was destroyed. Where else would they go?

Am I to take it, then, that you've made some progress in getting some solid recordkeeping going on the ship?

"The problem would be if we found such a dimension, and everyone was tempted to leave the ship before the Ohm are defeated. Which would be grossly self-destructive of course, because the Ohm could just show up and wipe them out, but - some species do not take well to being kept. Humans are one of them."

"Some," she said, see-sawing her hands in the air. "Billy Cranston in Engineering - have you met him? He seems very energized - put together an excellent inventory database, and I'm trying to get it adapted elsewhere on the ship. And he's also set up a timekeeping program that syncs over the omnicomm, so if someone leaves and comes back we can at least guess how long they have been gone. It's a slow process, very slow."

Obviously, once all the information about the ship was in one database format, it would be ever so much easier to move it elsewhere - if she had to.

He let Anwei's words sink in for a moment. I do not think that possibility is very likely, he said finally. There is no guarantee that any dimensions they might choose to stay in would be free from threat. Also, in theory, crew members could leave the ship when we arrive at a mission location and choose not to return. However, I have heard of no such instances of this occurring.

I have not, he said, But if you approve of him, I will consider him highly recommended.

Another vampire was summarily dealt with onscreen.

I do not understand why the vampires explode.

"I am probably underestimating how tightly the crew has bonded with each other, and with the people who may or may not be waiting for them in the pods" she admitted. "I am used to an environment with people constantly shuttling on and off."

"He's a department head, so far as I know he's standard human stock, and he's managed to survive and remain sane on this ship while carrying an incredible workload," she replied dryly. She had definitely noticed how often Billy was in Engineering, and how little he seemed to sleep. "He doesn't need my recommendation."

"I think the explosions may be a cinematic addition. While a biological analysis suggests that a vampire needs to absorb energy with incredible efficiency - they are depicted as being able to live very extended lifetimes on a rather minimal diet - I don't think they would really release it all at once like that. But on a movie set, if the vampires were not exploding and turning into ash, the hero would soon be waist-deep in dead vampires. Which would rather inhibit his movements. Hopefully if there actually are exploding vampires on board, Security has non-lethal tools to subdue them."

Some of them may also be staying aboard out of a sense of responsibility, said Zouichi. Or perhaps they simply had nowhere else to go, as in his case, and staying aboard the ship seemed like the most likely way to one day return to their own worlds.

Human... stock? He'd never heard that particular expression before. Many human professions require extraordinary workloads. But it is true that those careers don't usually involve fighting interdimensional aliens.

If I were waist-deep in dead adversaries, I would move, said Zouichi, blinking. Anyway, it would take a veritable mosh pit of them to pile up that high. Usually they only reached knee-high, at best.

"I have...thought about that. Thought about my responsibilities and my duties...for the moment I don't see any great contradiction between what I am doing here, and what I would be doing back with the Fleet."

Stock was a slaver's term of course; it had just slipped out. "Humans are one of those species that seems to blend with others very easily, it's even in their media," she said, gesturing to the half-human on the screen as he fought, leather coat flaring around him like a cape. "I can only hope that the humans here have been chosen not just for their talents, but for their endurance as well."

Anwei put both elbows down on the back of the couch, resting her wide chin on her hands. "Yes, but it's part of the film - part of its design - that the half-human hero is standing still at the center of the screen while his enemies come to him. It happens again and again. Or he moves and they are struck down in his path. The smoothness of motion, that is a part of the movie. It wouldn't be quite as graceful if the actor was constantly hopping over dead bodies."

He nodded. Yes. For now, it is an extension of my usual mission.

Zouichi followed Anwei's motion back to the screen. Blend...? he asked, blinking in confusion. A beat.

Ah! Now he appeared visibly embarrassed, looking away from the screen and Anwei both. After a moment, he began typing again. I wouldn't really know. However, I believe that in this case, no... blending was involved.

Do you think so? he asked. He had to step over dead bodies all the time, but he'd never really considered whether it would be more or less graceful to do otherwise.

"I feel much the same," she said, thinking of a certain oath she had taken.

"Yes, if I recall his mother is bitten, just before he is born? I imagine that if that worked in reality - or the reality I know at least - people would be hunting down vampires to take their saliva and dose pregnant people with it. This character seems to have been considerably enhanced by the exposure, with very few negative side effects."

She laughed. "Maybe. Or maybe the actor had sore feet and refused to hop. I spent several thousand hours studying Earth media before I went there; it rather ingrained their film techniques into my memory. I'm looking forward to exploring the Library in more depth, once I have more free time." With a half-smile, she asked, "Are you enjoying the films so far?"

That sounds extremely likely, he typed, with a wry look on his face. After all, wasn't that basically what they'd done back on Earth? Perhaps the process was not very stable, and it was tried on other humans offscreen.

I'm not sure, he said. Watching some of these films, I get the distinct impression that some old Earth countries operated with an ingrained distrust of technology or created beings, like myself. In fact, the fictional characters that most closely resemble those like me are often portrayed as the most threatening.

Like, say, the Terminator.

"Without more information on the vampire virus itself, we can't predict how well it would work on other subjects. It's entirely possible that this character's mother had some rare bloodtype or Rh factor that meant success. Without a broad enough experimental subject base, that might never be rediscovered."

She considered. "It's a cultural bias, I think. Certainly there are other species, the Penn'ae for example, where the synthetic character or AI always ends up saving the day, after the Penn'ae people around them are struck down by disease or dehydration or excessive emotion. Maybe films from later in Earth's history, when more people have met and accepted synthetic sentients, would be more realistic."

Zouichi inclined his head in agreement, but there was a slight trace of bitterness in his smile. If the virus in the movie were real, he was sure there would be scientists chomping at the bit to recreate the exact process that had produced those superhuman abilities.

Perhaps, he agreed, Although films from more current periods of time seem few and far between, at least here. Another curiosity.

Anwei was a bit ambivalent about medical testing on sentients: on the one hand it was a gross abuse of their rights, but if breaking down one vampire into his or her individual cells meant finding a cure for cancer...

"That must be what you mentioned before - that films that might show our futures are taken out." She sighed. "I'm sorry if you are getting a negative impression of how humans feel about synthetics from these records, Zouichi. They are the product of a less enlightened time."

And of course, without extensive testing on organics, it would have been impossible to create someone like Zouichi in the first place. It still wasn't a very pleasant thought.

He shook his head. No, even in my time, there are those who treat Synthetics with suspicion and distrust. Particularly those from rival corporations. That isn't the only thing, though. There appear to be many elements my world has in common with these films.

And without dissection of a fair number of living sentient brains, the perfection of the AI might never have been reached. So in Anwei's mind at least, the price was worth paying.

"Do you think that these films were made in offshoots from your dimension, or vice versa? Or that your story, or Threads or whatever you want to call it, has influenced them?"

He shook his head. I believe it's more of a case of similar worlds following similar lines of development. For example, most of the magic users I've met, despite coming from disparate dimensions, tend to activate their powers through a spoken spell or physical gesture, similar to the supposed "spells" in my world.

"I've been uncertain about the magicians here," she confessed. "On my world only priests and their gods worked magic, and it usually was not...nice magic. With the mercenaries there was the Swift Death, and Her clerics, but I never heard of a magician-mercenary. Although it certainly seems to be a valid skill, so maybe there just isn't as much magic where I come from."

"Have you considered learning if you can control your - stun-word power? It seems like a good thing for a member of Security to know."

The magicians I have met here have been nothing but courteous, he said. But I can certainly believe unscrupulous magic users also exist.

[Awk, I'm actually not sure how to deal with the stun thing now that its plot was ended, so MAKING STUFF UP LIKE WHOA]

He looked a little uncomfortable at the mention of the stun spell. Actually, after my conversation with Signum, the occurrence of those spells has dropped off precipitously. I cannot explain why, but I have experienced no additional effects in my conversations with Fuyu. I was considering a return to speaking on a trial basis.

And at least, since it had apparently been someone else behind the magical effects, it wasn't actually his fault what had happened. That helped.

"Of course, it's also possible that Stacy has only selected polite magicians to be here." Which would be a very intelligent thing to do. The crew was in enough of an uncertain situation, they didn't need people being rude as well.

She smiled. "That's good to hear, Zouichi. Maybe the spell cast on you just ran out of power? Because you aren't a magician, or some other reason." And hopefully that did not mean that somewhere some scientist-magician was taking down their last notes on Effects of Casting Random Magic Spells on People.

"I have no objection if you'd like to try talking now."

It was possible. Most of the people aboard seemed to be reasonable to work with, and not actively trying to destroy everyone else.

Well, it was probably safe to talk now, right? Right.

"I--" He cleared his throat, then began again. His voice sounded a little husky from disuse, but nothing exploded or disappeared or anything, which was good. "I don't know. If someone wanted to find out what effect such a spell would have on me, they might have just asked."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject