trans_9 | checking out the threads

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checking out the threads

Aldrea didn't enjoy the feelings of claustrophobia several sections of the ship seemed to exude. Esplin didn't mind, but the idea of a Yeerk minding tight spaces was absurd in his mind. Yeerks not liking the sensations and capacity they expanded into while in a Host body, certainly. He didn't personally understand that, but he was at least aware that not every Yeerk enjoyed life beyond the pool.

He was, however, currently acting as an Andalite, and the tension she felt was something he displayed in subtle ways as he moved toward the sensorium containing this "Tapestry" he'd read about. The omnicomm's messages were interesting reading, and this Tapestry, paired with what he could find in the Media Library, was one of the things he'd decided he needed to see for himself.

He wasn't sure what he expected, but the reality of the Tapestry in the middle of so much white space was starkly different from anything he'd had in mind. For a moment, it was like reliving his first experience in a host, seeing again for the very first time.

This device could help guide them. If they were patient, and Esplin knew on some level he wasn't as patient as he used to be. There was some battle coming up that the crew on this ship was expected to fight in, if he wasn't all that concerned about that -- yet.

Moving toward the Tapestry, Aldrea nodded her head toward the very thing that seemed to fill the room with presence. Everything was meant to be recorded in here, wasn't it? Best to keep that in mind.

He greeted the Tapesty politely, one stalk eye focused on the entrance while the other tried following the patterns of the Tapestry itself. < Greetings, Tapestry. >

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He would feel a vague, strange sensation in response. Like the Tapestry was acknowledging his presence.

It was its way of greeting him.

Grand. Esplin observed the Tapestry, wondering if sensations were going to be the way this... technology communicated. Records indicated it was important enough to be at least worth taking into consideration.

< You're what we're meant to be learning from, if we look to understand you long enough. >

Where to begin? Aldrea had a better sense of this than he did, if shuffling through her memories wasn't coming up with easy explanation. The trouble when neither he nor his host had dealt with this kind of not-quite sentience before. < To help guide us into making decisions when the time is right? >

There was another sensation, this time something of a "yes" in not so many words. It was then followed by a longer response of sensations and images whose meaning were somehow clear enough to be conversation.

What is needed when it is needed.

< According to whom? You? Your creators? > He kept that thought private, eyes narrowing slightly as he contemplated just what it really meant.

Don't like hearing that some things can't be commanded?

He ignored Aldrea for the moment. < Was warning of a coming battle meant to make those here decide to prepare to face it? Or is the decision in joining that fight even knowing it comes at someone's personal cost? >

Many choices. Many paths. Some chosen before they are known.

Super helpful.

Incredibly. Esplin found himself moving, starting to pace. Of course paths and choices were decided on before being known. It puts him in mind of the choices he needs to make, and soon.

< Some paths and choices that may possibly allow our worlds and universes to be brought back? > That was merely reaffirmation. The one writing over the omnicomms had already stated that the Tapestry said this was possible.

Possibly. Given the right path.

< Is it also possible that we can return to our worlds and universes? >

If you choose to take that path.

< If we do, will we return knowing all we've learned here? >

Yes.

Simple enough.

Aldrea was silent.

Esplin was silent.

Then they were both less silent.

How can you account for the time discrepancies?!

< And would that let us change anything that once happened in our time? >

The path that one has traveled is set, but the path before you lays open.

Aldrea hated that she couldn't think with anything approaching privacy. She tried shutting down her own thought process, focusing on anything expect the question of, Is that the path we find from here or What of the path we don't remember traveling?

Esplin considered this quickly, even if he'd be better advised to take more time. Contemplate, slow down. The Tapestry wasn't leaving anytime soon.

< Is the path one doesn't remember traveling still set? Are there open paths in returning to the places that we're from? >

Past is past, the path traveled is the path traveled. But choices remain on the paths yet traveled.

Esplin knew without a doubt there were better Yeerks to be asking these questions. The scientists, perhaps, if there was some strategy involved.

The past was past. The Ohm destroyed whole timelines. The Daligig saved from all along a timeline.

If people were ahead of them in their own timeline, what kind of knowledge being carried back would matter, if it was someone else's past? Did that make it traveled, unalterable?

Aldrea might see that as confirmation that there was no way to have stopped the Yeerks from leaving their world, or stopping Alloran from creating the Quantum Virus, or even stopped the Hork-Bajir world from falling to the Yeerk invasion.

Esplin saw that as an irritating lack of importance in events that happened now -- outside of the idea of there being no choice should this other species manage to obliterate the multiverse. Hard to exist with nothing to exist in, really.

< Are those choices that remain found only on paths where we don't choose to return home? >

One could never argue he wasn't self interested. Or that he was a great study of Tapestry question-answer logic.

All paths have choices. All paths lead to further paths.

< Even the future I haven't lived through back home? >

Aah, but he was Aldrea. < Or do the Hork-Bajir remain lost. > Her tail swayed at that thought, unhappy (she was, Esplin knew she'd be).

The path is not linear. Branches upon branches upon branches. Where your path leads is not where another will.

< Then there's a chance. > Such a quiet thought. Such a profoundly disturbing possibility.

< For now we walk a path together on this ship. Is that so? Or do we branch apart even while we're here? >

Moving around, watching the Tapestry from another angle, one stalk eye trained on the door.

All paths lead along a greater path, connected, towards either destruction or salvation.

It was too bad destruction really did nothing for anyone in this situation. < Are we headed more toward one or the other right now? >

The future is always in flux. But unless the path is chosen wisely, destruction is the only choice.

Aldrea's full attention came around to the Tapestry. That wasn't much of a choice.

< You exist to help us make the right choices. Are the right choices the wise choices? >

Wisdom leads to the right choices. But the right choices may not always seem the wisest.

Based on what review he'd done of the crew on written network and in the media library?

That wasn't saying much. < That leaves much up to guessing and chance. >

Aldrea's tail was quivering, not happy with any of this, but listening, and thinking. < Does this crew working together fall along the wiser paths? >

What few there were.

Cooperation will be necessary, in time. But division is also a useful tool.

< Division means we question. >

He borrowed that directly from Aldrea. Division means we weaken and we fall.

< Divison means you don't see the Quantum Virus happen again on a multiversal level. Multiversal. It's a shame for something so vast to cease existing before it's had a chance to be properly examined. >

You mean exploited and destroyed until nothing is left except the Yeerk ideal --

< Exploited is such a harsh term for practical adaptation. > He was considering other implications, if Aldrea's assumptions and berating made it difficult. Her forehoof stomped, and he quelled all motion in response.

< Is cooperation the wiser choice for this upcoming conflict? >

Edited 2011-07-07 05:56 (UTC)

Yes. The path ahead is difficult. Dangerous. For now, it is necessary.

Advice from a shifting mass of lights and destiny and past, present, future. He was skeptical, but there were some facts he needed to digest about all of this anyway.

< Of course, > he said, distracted, and not all that close to thankful for that estimate. < For now, it's necessary. >

But not always. Good to keep that in mind.

He turned to make what more or less stood in for an Andalite bow to the Tapestry itself. < Thank you. We'll have to continue to study you as best we can, to recognize what you can offer us in the future. Especially if there's so little to keep us away from total destruction. >

That choice was one Esplin was in no hurry to make, if now there were others he needed to. He kept those thoughts from Aldrea, if she was fretting over the entirety of this odd conversation. Angry, calculating, redirecting what she could back at Esplin.

Cooperation for now. What a prospect. Especially with this crew.

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checking out the threads

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