Re: [Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror
Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 2:42 pm
Chapter 7, part 1
“Sir, none of the files that the Loroi sent us have any sort of malware or executable in them.” Operation’s officer lieutenant Gina Vinica reported.
“Are you certain lieutenant?” Captain Asteios asked.
“All of it is raw text with attached pictures and the format is pretty straight forward; almost like a printed encyclopedia.”
“Alright then, take it out of quarantine and send it to the doctor.” The Captain ordered.
“Yes sir.”
Captain Asteios turned his attention back to his screen and the video feed from Lieutenant Allerberger’s space suit.
“Doranzer Needle asks if it is acceptable to restrain your subordinate?” The Loroi diplomat, Torimor Shadowcloud asked.
“Is it necessary?” Lieutenant Allerberger asked, his voice’s tone enough for the captain’s imagination to draw a deep frowning picture of the lieutenant in his mind.
“It is best that the patient doesn’t move at all during the procedure. It helps to avoid mistakes thus limiting the time of the procedure itself.” Torimor Shadowcloud explained.
“Private Gomez?” Lietenant Allerberger asked the naked marine that was laid on a medical examination bed.
“I would prefer not to be tied up sir, I will stay still even if it hurts like hell.” Private Gomez replied in trade.
“There is no need to worry, the procedure itself is painless.” Torimor Shadowcloud explained and Private Gomez visibly relaxed; although for some reason the Loroi seemed confused about something. “Does ‘hurt like hell’ have a special meaning?”
“It’s a metaphorical figure of speech, meaning unbearable pain. Why do you ask?” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.
“We Loroi find it confusing when words with an unrelated meaning to a conversation are used in it.” Shadowcloud explained.
“I understand, it’s something that humans do in their conversations without thinking about it.”
“But why use unrelated words in such figures of speech? Saying the literal words is far less confusing.” Torimor Shadowcloud asked.
“Humans like to add some flair to our vocabulary when conversing since we find bland conversations boring.” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.
“Flair, Bland?” The Loroi asked, still confused.
“Like food, no one likes to eat food with little to no taste, so we add spices to make it taste better.” The marine lieutenant explained.
“I understand, the Loroi at the planet I grew up on do the same with their food.” Torimor Shadowcloud replied. “But verbal speech is vastly different from food which is a necessity for survival. Comparing the two seems far-fetched to us.”
“It can be argued that socialization is a deeply ingrained psychological need for humans.” Lieutenant Allerberger said after some thought. “I have never really thought about it but I think that we do this in all our forms of communications because we find them lacking otherwise.” The Loroi’s face lit up as if in understanding as the marine said that.
“We Loroi also have this need for socialization but our telepathic abilities allow for very detailed, precise and emotional communications even from some distance away.” The Loroi replied.
“So, metaphorical figures of speech fly over their head…” Captain Asteios said out loud once the conversation they overheard ended.
“Sir, I once read a fantasy book in which a telepathic race of humans had trouble understanding metaphors and abstract meanings because of their telepathy.” Lieutenant Vinica commented.
“Go, on.”
“In the book the telepaths communicated with each other using their raw thoughts. Thoughts however are always flagged as true or false on the mind of the one who ‘speaks’ so the one who listens would always know if what was being said was true or false. This led to the telepaths always speaking the truth to each other, even when the truth itself would be problematic.” Lieutenant Vinica explained.
“Earlier, Torimor Tigomenial looked ready to attack one of the Teidar.” Lieutenant Lucas Martel commented.
“Perhaps she didn’t like the ‘truth’ that Teidar said…” Captain Asteios said out loud.
“Perhaps it was something to do with her coming in physical contact with one of us.” Lieutenant Martel commented.
“Which reminds me…” Captain Asteios said as he tapped a command on his console. “Private Westwood, do you read me?”
“Yes sir, loud and clear.” The Marine on the Loroi vessel replied.
“What were you thinking?”
“Sir?”
“What were you thinking when the Loroi diplomat scanned you?” Captain Asteios explained.
“Ah…well…”
“I was the one who suggested that the volunteer should think ‘something that would cause a reaction’.” Captain Asteios admitted.
“Well…the Loroi didn’t react sir.” Westwood said with an embarrassed voice.
“That bad?”
“My girlfriend back on Earth didn’t like it at all when I suggested that…” Captain Asteios couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Some things would cause a reaction...”
“What I thought definitely would sir.” The marine replied with an embarrassed laugh.
“You looked a little nervous as well.” Captain Asteios commented.
“Thinking ‘That’ when your brain is probed by a telepath would do that to anyone sir.”
“I can only imagine.” Captain Asteios said and closed the channel.
“I am torn between asking for details and bleaching my brain to wash away my imagination.” Lieutenant Vinica commented.
“He is a marine.” Lieutenant Martel pointed out.
“Brain bleach it is.” She replied with a laugh.
“So…in that book.” Captain Asteios begun. “The telepaths never spoke falsehood?”
“Among themselves no, they explained that false thoughts were used for jokes and for teasing someone. They also preferred to speak the truth even with non telepaths but they had to relegate negotiations to people who were trained to hide the truth and tell lies.” Lieutenant Vinica replied.
“Interesting…” Captain Asteios said as he pondered the Loroi diplomat from a new point of view. “What if something that they thought was true was proven false?”
“That was a key plot point of the story sir, although they were more than capable to accept a situation where the truth was proven false, they did so only for mundane, everyday situations. However there were huge social problems when one of their core religious beliefs was proven false. The telepaths even reacted violently to those who challenged that belief.”
“Religion does that to people.” Captain Asteios commented.
“In the end the telepaths overcame that hurdle by admitting that their tenant of truth above all else held a superior position than their religious beliefs did.”
“Sounds interesting… did the book have any insights about telepathic ‘speech’.” Captain Asteios asked.
“The normal humans in the story discussed that it would be impossible for them to really understand telepathic ‘speech’ since they lacked the necessary telepathic senses. The telepaths themselves admitted that even if they wrote down everything they spoke, there would still have trouble with passing the full meaning of the conversation. I think that it was the writer’s way of saying ‘that’s why I don’t write down the telepathic speech because even if I did, it would at best be just an approximation’.”
A communications alert flashed at the Captain’s console, drawing his attention and making him sigh when he saw the caller’s ID.
What does she want now?
Chapter 7, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 103#p19103
“Sir, none of the files that the Loroi sent us have any sort of malware or executable in them.” Operation’s officer lieutenant Gina Vinica reported.
“Are you certain lieutenant?” Captain Asteios asked.
“All of it is raw text with attached pictures and the format is pretty straight forward; almost like a printed encyclopedia.”
“Alright then, take it out of quarantine and send it to the doctor.” The Captain ordered.
“Yes sir.”
Captain Asteios turned his attention back to his screen and the video feed from Lieutenant Allerberger’s space suit.
“Doranzer Needle asks if it is acceptable to restrain your subordinate?” The Loroi diplomat, Torimor Shadowcloud asked.
“Is it necessary?” Lieutenant Allerberger asked, his voice’s tone enough for the captain’s imagination to draw a deep frowning picture of the lieutenant in his mind.
“It is best that the patient doesn’t move at all during the procedure. It helps to avoid mistakes thus limiting the time of the procedure itself.” Torimor Shadowcloud explained.
“Private Gomez?” Lietenant Allerberger asked the naked marine that was laid on a medical examination bed.
“I would prefer not to be tied up sir, I will stay still even if it hurts like hell.” Private Gomez replied in trade.
“There is no need to worry, the procedure itself is painless.” Torimor Shadowcloud explained and Private Gomez visibly relaxed; although for some reason the Loroi seemed confused about something. “Does ‘hurt like hell’ have a special meaning?”
“It’s a metaphorical figure of speech, meaning unbearable pain. Why do you ask?” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.
“We Loroi find it confusing when words with an unrelated meaning to a conversation are used in it.” Shadowcloud explained.
“I understand, it’s something that humans do in their conversations without thinking about it.”
“But why use unrelated words in such figures of speech? Saying the literal words is far less confusing.” Torimor Shadowcloud asked.
“Humans like to add some flair to our vocabulary when conversing since we find bland conversations boring.” Lieutenant Allerberger replied.
“Flair, Bland?” The Loroi asked, still confused.
“Like food, no one likes to eat food with little to no taste, so we add spices to make it taste better.” The marine lieutenant explained.
“I understand, the Loroi at the planet I grew up on do the same with their food.” Torimor Shadowcloud replied. “But verbal speech is vastly different from food which is a necessity for survival. Comparing the two seems far-fetched to us.”
“It can be argued that socialization is a deeply ingrained psychological need for humans.” Lieutenant Allerberger said after some thought. “I have never really thought about it but I think that we do this in all our forms of communications because we find them lacking otherwise.” The Loroi’s face lit up as if in understanding as the marine said that.
“We Loroi also have this need for socialization but our telepathic abilities allow for very detailed, precise and emotional communications even from some distance away.” The Loroi replied.
“So, metaphorical figures of speech fly over their head…” Captain Asteios said out loud once the conversation they overheard ended.
“Sir, I once read a fantasy book in which a telepathic race of humans had trouble understanding metaphors and abstract meanings because of their telepathy.” Lieutenant Vinica commented.
“Go, on.”
“In the book the telepaths communicated with each other using their raw thoughts. Thoughts however are always flagged as true or false on the mind of the one who ‘speaks’ so the one who listens would always know if what was being said was true or false. This led to the telepaths always speaking the truth to each other, even when the truth itself would be problematic.” Lieutenant Vinica explained.
“Earlier, Torimor Tigomenial looked ready to attack one of the Teidar.” Lieutenant Lucas Martel commented.
“Perhaps she didn’t like the ‘truth’ that Teidar said…” Captain Asteios said out loud.
“Perhaps it was something to do with her coming in physical contact with one of us.” Lieutenant Martel commented.
“Which reminds me…” Captain Asteios said as he tapped a command on his console. “Private Westwood, do you read me?”
“Yes sir, loud and clear.” The Marine on the Loroi vessel replied.
“What were you thinking?”
“Sir?”
“What were you thinking when the Loroi diplomat scanned you?” Captain Asteios explained.
“Ah…well…”
“I was the one who suggested that the volunteer should think ‘something that would cause a reaction’.” Captain Asteios admitted.
“Well…the Loroi didn’t react sir.” Westwood said with an embarrassed voice.
“That bad?”
“My girlfriend back on Earth didn’t like it at all when I suggested that…” Captain Asteios couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Some things would cause a reaction...”
“What I thought definitely would sir.” The marine replied with an embarrassed laugh.
“You looked a little nervous as well.” Captain Asteios commented.
“Thinking ‘That’ when your brain is probed by a telepath would do that to anyone sir.”
“I can only imagine.” Captain Asteios said and closed the channel.
“I am torn between asking for details and bleaching my brain to wash away my imagination.” Lieutenant Vinica commented.
“He is a marine.” Lieutenant Martel pointed out.
“Brain bleach it is.” She replied with a laugh.
“So…in that book.” Captain Asteios begun. “The telepaths never spoke falsehood?”
“Among themselves no, they explained that false thoughts were used for jokes and for teasing someone. They also preferred to speak the truth even with non telepaths but they had to relegate negotiations to people who were trained to hide the truth and tell lies.” Lieutenant Vinica replied.
“Interesting…” Captain Asteios said as he pondered the Loroi diplomat from a new point of view. “What if something that they thought was true was proven false?”
“That was a key plot point of the story sir, although they were more than capable to accept a situation where the truth was proven false, they did so only for mundane, everyday situations. However there were huge social problems when one of their core religious beliefs was proven false. The telepaths even reacted violently to those who challenged that belief.”
“Religion does that to people.” Captain Asteios commented.
“In the end the telepaths overcame that hurdle by admitting that their tenant of truth above all else held a superior position than their religious beliefs did.”
“Sounds interesting… did the book have any insights about telepathic ‘speech’.” Captain Asteios asked.
“The normal humans in the story discussed that it would be impossible for them to really understand telepathic ‘speech’ since they lacked the necessary telepathic senses. The telepaths themselves admitted that even if they wrote down everything they spoke, there would still have trouble with passing the full meaning of the conversation. I think that it was the writer’s way of saying ‘that’s why I don’t write down the telepathic speech because even if I did, it would at best be just an approximation’.”
A communications alert flashed at the Captain’s console, drawing his attention and making him sigh when he saw the caller’s ID.
What does she want now?
Chapter 7, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 103#p19103