OK, so Novus pitched in, and I think it offers more dramatic opportunity because gets to make choices rather than live the dream. However, that would make it the middle of the story rather than the end.
In order to clear out some brain space, I'm going to write out the now alternate ending (safely contained within a Spoiler tag), before attempting to grapple with the version of Tempo who's worked out what's going on.
Author's notes:
- please note that orbital dynamics do not work well in this dream. Because it's a dream. Future androids may well dream of elliptical sheep
- techincally, they should take a pod each for redundancy, but I didn't want to get hung up on piloting
- autocorrect keeps changing "lidar" to "liar." This does not bode well
- in the absence of different font choices, I'm using (bad) German to represent Alex speaking a language the Loroi can't understand.
EDIT: typos
----------------------------
SpoilerShow
"Well, " Alex said, "Mission Control really isn't going to like this.
"We've got about ninety minutes until they get back to us with instructions, so we should work up the passive observations while we wait."
There followed about 4096 solons of disgustingly primitive measurement and geometry calculations. With Tempo operating the telescope while Alex took down notes with a primitive pencil and paper. He then proceeded to manually do the calculations with reference to a booklet of mathematical tables. If humaniti was still doing important calculations on paper, they were likely useless militarily.
"All right, it's 2.0 kilometres long by 0.9 kilometres wide by 0.2 kilometres thick. Near as damn, thats a 1 to 4 to 9 ratio again. Just like the one on the moon."
One on the moon? There's more than one of these in humaniti space?
----------------------------
Mission Control first issued instructions to do nothing, then instructions to observe the object, then instructions not to approach the object, then instructions not to retreat from the object. Following the latter two would prove difficult, because they were on a slightly different orbit.
"Right," Alex said. "I'm calling it. We'll coast ballistically for now, and wait for Mission Control to make up their minds. In the mean time, how about lunch?"
I just ate a few hours ago, how could we have an... "Yeah, lunch would be good." Tempo was surprised at the words coming, unbidden, out of her mouth.
Lunch turned out to be something called 'stroganoff.' It was bland, and Tempo confirmed once again the apparently universal law that military food was terrible. Alex commented, "Aren't you glad we saved one of the nice breakfasts for this morning?"
----------------------------
At long last, instructions came to approach the Monolith in an EVA pod. Tempo and Alex rushed to the pod bay - an the largest space she'd seen on the vessel so far - and put on ugly flight suits with clunky life support packs. The crude construction and - ugh - sanitary undergarment left a lot to be desired, but there was no way Tempo would miss out on a closer look at a Soia artefact.
The EVA pods were, surprisingly, a good idea. Alex and Tempo squeezed into one via a simple bulkhead hatch, closed up the hatches, closed up the EVA pod hatch, and launched. That's a good design. Maybe these humans aren't as useless as they look.
"Alex Jardin and Tempo Poole out for EVA in pod 1." Alex said. "We are proceeding to the monolith."
As they approached, the Monolith got larger and larger. The text disappeared from the side, leaving a rectangle of absolute black. Tempo stared, overcome by the sheer size of it. This featureless expanse was the least comprehensible Soia artefact she'd ever seen, but it was active and she was visiting it and - human body or no - she would damn well learn whatever she could.
Alex piloted the EVA pod closer to the Monolith, eventually making a careful circuit. "It's totally opaque. I don't see any reflections." He glanced at the crude instruments. "No radar returns."
"Any lidar return?" Asked Tempo.
Alex stared. "The lidar wasn't ready, and you know it. What's up with you today, Tempo? You've been acting weird."
Oh damn... Tempo thought. He mustn't find out. "I..." she briefly considered killing him and taking the pod, but she didn't know how to fly it, and who would believe an accident killed just him, and there might be surveillance in the pod, and...
"... didn't sleep well?" Alex asked. It was remarkable how he kept offering conversation...
"Yes!" Thank goodness he can't sanzai.
"A lidar would be nice, but we have to make do with a strobe light." Equipment shortages were clearly not just a Loroi specialty. He reached out and flicked some toggle switches. A faint whineeeeeeeeee-click-whineeeeeeeee-click filled the cabin. "Well, either the strobe's broken or the Monolith doesn't reflect. Going in closer."
As they got closer to the Monolith, the surface remained absolutely black. It almost hurt Tempo's eyes to know that there was something very large there that could only be seen by occultation.
"Alex..." she began, trying to gauge the object's size. It didn't help that she was very hazy on exactly how long a meter was. "... are we too close?"
"The inertial navigation unit says we should be a couple of kilometers away. Unless it's moved."
She stared at black edge of stars going out. "It's moved! Back away!"
Alex slammed on the controls, causing the pod to lurch backwards. "Gonna be tight! Emergency!"
They stared out the viewport as the black line seemed to extend across the whole universe. As it got closer and closer they could finally see something in the darkness. Alex kept talking "I don't think we're clear. Seeing depth inside the target, like a black tube. Something at the far end. Light emitting. My god, it's full of stars!"
And the blackness enveloped them.
----------------------------
Tempo woke suddenly, horribly. Her ear hurt, and there was a lot of sanzai happening.
Fireblade: We might have to kill it
.
Berly: No! I am in charge of him, and we're not killing him
!
Fireblade: Yet
Talon: This is my shuttle, and I don't want anyone getting killed
.
Cloud: Why is this such a big deal. You talk in your sleep all the time, Fireblade
Fireblade: This is a totally different situation. You have no idea what shell trick this might be. And I wake up before someone nearly rips my ear off.
Tempo shouted "What is going on?"
Fireblade: You're awake! Good
What did that thing do to you ?
Now that Tempo opened her eyes, she saw Fireblade glaring at the sleeping outsider. He was pushed over towards a bulkhead, Cloud was aiming her pistol at him, and everyone else had cleared off to the opposite bulkhead. This was a mess.
He groaned. "Uhhhhhhhhhh. Was passiert?" He opened his eyes, saw Cloud's pistol, and hurriedly asked, "What is happening?"
Beryl, excitable as she is, jumped in: "Tempo was calling out and we couldn't wake her up! We thought you had done something!"
Alex looked around the room. "What? I was asleep. How could I do something while I was asleep?"
Tempo stood. "Stop." I was trying to see under his Lotai. I fell asleep and woke up on a human ship and saw a massive Soia artifact - it was thousands of mannals long and active
! She paused. "What was that artefact, captain Jardin?"
"What artefact?"
"The Monolith*"
Alex stared. "What monolith?" His eyes flicked from Tempo to Berly to Fireblade and then back, solidly, to Cloud. Tempo wished she could see his mind.
"The one we just visited."
"We didn't visit anything." He was definitely hiding something.
Tempo glared. "We were just there moments ago. We were on a space station and went to see the monolith in some kind of maintenance pod."
"Tempo, we didn't go anywhere. I lay down on this shuttle, I went to sleep on this shuttle, I just woke up - after far too little sleep - on this shuttle." He rubbed his face and took a deep breath. "I had a traum**..." He looked up and stared hard at Tempo. Fireblade shifted a little closer to the imaginary line between them, brows furrowed.
"Tempo, what did you see?"
"I saw a great black prism, it was 2 tilometers long." Thousands of mannals. I'm not sure I said that right.. Alex's looked anxious. Tempo found it strange that he was clearly thinking, but she couldn't sense any of it. Time to press. "Humaniti clearly has a number Soia artefacts in your native star system. At least one of which is active. You somehow took me there to see it."
Now Alex looked sad.
Beryl - damn her - helpfully sent You didn't go anywhere, Tempo.
Shut up. "It was an active artefact, it had writing on it. The artefacts never operate on their own, so somewhere the Soia are alive and monitoring it. This information is of upmost priority, and I need to know everything about it." This would be the assignment that made her. Not just a new species, but new Soia artefacts, maybe the Asoka themselves!
"I understand now," he said. He prepared to stand up, but stopped at a small noise from Cloud. He sat up instead. "You broke into my dream." There was a pause. "You broke into my dream! That is a major invasion of my confidentiality - nein.... - privacy!"
Tempo scowled down at him. "You have not been honest with us. You told me humaniti had no contact with the Soia, but I saw the proof myself."
Fireblade stalked closer, and Alex twitched back. He spoke fast; "No. I haven't hidden anything, Tempo. You broke into my head - which most humans would consider criminal assault - and got back disinform... fiction***. An old story, made up."
Fireblade: Lying scum. Say the word and I'll break his legs.
Beryl: Don't! I'm responsible for his well-being.
Tempo: I can get the information out of him. If nothing else, he'll have to sleep eventually. "Captain Jardin, keeping secrets from us is not the way to succeed in your diplomatic mission. Loroi do not lie," Shut up, Fireblade, "and we demand the truth from others."
"I haven't lied, Mizol Parat Tempo. I have a question for you: what happens when you sleep?"
"That's not relevant."
"Yes, it is relevant. It is very relevant. Do you see things in the night?"
Beryl spoke: "Yes. We see memories in the night. We sort them for later recall."
"It's similar in humans. Sometimes we see whole memories, sometime disorganised fragments. Other times, we see things which aren't true and don't make sense." His face suddenly softened, and his voice became calmer. "They can feel very real, but when we wake up and examine them, they don't make sense."
"It must have been a memory. It was so perfect. The artefact is an amazing opportunity. You. Should. Have. Told. Us."
Now Alex looked a little sad. "Ohh, this one has really stuck to you." He looked at Beryl, then continued: "Are the images you see in the night just memories? Not fresh information?"
"Of course. Where would fresh information come from?"
Tempo waited. Let the humaniti try more lies.
"It was memories of an old fiction story, mixed up a bit. You broke in and got a role to play. The thing about dreams is that you don't have your full mind working on a problem. You ignore ... Unstimmigkeiten ... uhh, facts which do not all agree with each other, you don't think about other options.
"Didn't you think it was strange you could speak English?
"Didn't you think it was strange we could eat the same food?
"Didn't you notice how we moved from one time to the next with nothing in between?"
He stared at her again. She suddenly realised that, like other aliens, he would be adept at reading faces and bodies. And that, unlike other aliens, he was effective very familiar with Loroi faces and bodies.
"Yes, you know it. But you don't want to admit it to yourself. So, Tempo Poole, who is Jack?"
"My Ehemann****." Oh no, that's not right.
"Where did you heiraten*****?"
Tempo had nothing. Even Beryl, who normally was as subtle as a hand grenade, had picked up that something was badly wrong. Tempo's Jack, with the tight pants and the motorbike and the read smile, had not broken his leg. He didn't exist.
None of it existed. The station, the artefact, the idea of Jack, nothing. She had been taken in and tricked by this human, who claimed to have no telepathic skill. She was a senior Mizol operative, and she had taken the bait.
Beryl: Are you all right, Tempo?
No. Stillstorm would never let her forget this. And Beryl, naive, excitable Beryl, would remember everything. Stillstorm was sure to ask for a viewing...
* It turns out to be the same in English and German. I love it when that happens. English is such a mish-mash that there are all kinds of 'friendly' words, but you've got to keep an eye on 'bekommen' or you'll get what's coming to you.
** Dream. I'm betting Alex doesn't know this vocab.
*** My head cannon: the words are 'disinformation' and 'fiction' are close in Trade.
**** Husband (explicit form, generally just shortened to Mann)
***** Marry (I have no idea what to do in terms of conjugating this example, because English and German conjugations don't really line up and English doesn't support du / Sie)
"We've got about ninety minutes until they get back to us with instructions, so we should work up the passive observations while we wait."
There followed about 4096 solons of disgustingly primitive measurement and geometry calculations. With Tempo operating the telescope while Alex took down notes with a primitive pencil and paper. He then proceeded to manually do the calculations with reference to a booklet of mathematical tables. If humaniti was still doing important calculations on paper, they were likely useless militarily.
"All right, it's 2.0 kilometres long by 0.9 kilometres wide by 0.2 kilometres thick. Near as damn, thats a 1 to 4 to 9 ratio again. Just like the one on the moon."
One on the moon? There's more than one of these in humaniti space?
----------------------------
Mission Control first issued instructions to do nothing, then instructions to observe the object, then instructions not to approach the object, then instructions not to retreat from the object. Following the latter two would prove difficult, because they were on a slightly different orbit.
"Right," Alex said. "I'm calling it. We'll coast ballistically for now, and wait for Mission Control to make up their minds. In the mean time, how about lunch?"
I just ate a few hours ago, how could we have an... "Yeah, lunch would be good." Tempo was surprised at the words coming, unbidden, out of her mouth.
Lunch turned out to be something called 'stroganoff.' It was bland, and Tempo confirmed once again the apparently universal law that military food was terrible. Alex commented, "Aren't you glad we saved one of the nice breakfasts for this morning?"
----------------------------
At long last, instructions came to approach the Monolith in an EVA pod. Tempo and Alex rushed to the pod bay - an the largest space she'd seen on the vessel so far - and put on ugly flight suits with clunky life support packs. The crude construction and - ugh - sanitary undergarment left a lot to be desired, but there was no way Tempo would miss out on a closer look at a Soia artefact.
The EVA pods were, surprisingly, a good idea. Alex and Tempo squeezed into one via a simple bulkhead hatch, closed up the hatches, closed up the EVA pod hatch, and launched. That's a good design. Maybe these humans aren't as useless as they look.
"Alex Jardin and Tempo Poole out for EVA in pod 1." Alex said. "We are proceeding to the monolith."
As they approached, the Monolith got larger and larger. The text disappeared from the side, leaving a rectangle of absolute black. Tempo stared, overcome by the sheer size of it. This featureless expanse was the least comprehensible Soia artefact she'd ever seen, but it was active and she was visiting it and - human body or no - she would damn well learn whatever she could.
Alex piloted the EVA pod closer to the Monolith, eventually making a careful circuit. "It's totally opaque. I don't see any reflections." He glanced at the crude instruments. "No radar returns."
"Any lidar return?" Asked Tempo.
Alex stared. "The lidar wasn't ready, and you know it. What's up with you today, Tempo? You've been acting weird."
Oh damn... Tempo thought. He mustn't find out. "I..." she briefly considered killing him and taking the pod, but she didn't know how to fly it, and who would believe an accident killed just him, and there might be surveillance in the pod, and...
"... didn't sleep well?" Alex asked. It was remarkable how he kept offering conversation...
"Yes!" Thank goodness he can't sanzai.
"A lidar would be nice, but we have to make do with a strobe light." Equipment shortages were clearly not just a Loroi specialty. He reached out and flicked some toggle switches. A faint whineeeeeeeeee-click-whineeeeeeeee-click filled the cabin. "Well, either the strobe's broken or the Monolith doesn't reflect. Going in closer."
As they got closer to the Monolith, the surface remained absolutely black. It almost hurt Tempo's eyes to know that there was something very large there that could only be seen by occultation.
"Alex..." she began, trying to gauge the object's size. It didn't help that she was very hazy on exactly how long a meter was. "... are we too close?"
"The inertial navigation unit says we should be a couple of kilometers away. Unless it's moved."
She stared at black edge of stars going out. "It's moved! Back away!"
Alex slammed on the controls, causing the pod to lurch backwards. "Gonna be tight! Emergency!"
They stared out the viewport as the black line seemed to extend across the whole universe. As it got closer and closer they could finally see something in the darkness. Alex kept talking "I don't think we're clear. Seeing depth inside the target, like a black tube. Something at the far end. Light emitting. My god, it's full of stars!"
And the blackness enveloped them.
----------------------------
Tempo woke suddenly, horribly. Her ear hurt, and there was a lot of sanzai happening.
Fireblade: We might have to kill it
.Berly: No! I am in charge of him, and we're not killing him
!Fireblade: Yet
Talon: This is my shuttle, and I don't want anyone getting killed
.Cloud: Why is this such a big deal. You talk in your sleep all the time, Fireblade
Fireblade: This is a totally different situation. You have no idea what shell trick this might be. And I wake up before someone nearly rips my ear off.
Tempo shouted "What is going on?"
Fireblade: You're awake! Good
What did that thing do to you ?Now that Tempo opened her eyes, she saw Fireblade glaring at the sleeping outsider. He was pushed over towards a bulkhead, Cloud was aiming her pistol at him, and everyone else had cleared off to the opposite bulkhead. This was a mess.
He groaned. "Uhhhhhhhhhh. Was passiert?" He opened his eyes, saw Cloud's pistol, and hurriedly asked, "What is happening?"
Beryl, excitable as she is, jumped in: "Tempo was calling out and we couldn't wake her up! We thought you had done something!"
Alex looked around the room. "What? I was asleep. How could I do something while I was asleep?"
Tempo stood. "Stop." I was trying to see under his Lotai. I fell asleep and woke up on a human ship and saw a massive Soia artifact - it was thousands of mannals long and active
! She paused. "What was that artefact, captain Jardin?""What artefact?"
"The Monolith*"
Alex stared. "What monolith?" His eyes flicked from Tempo to Berly to Fireblade and then back, solidly, to Cloud. Tempo wished she could see his mind.
"The one we just visited."
"We didn't visit anything." He was definitely hiding something.
Tempo glared. "We were just there moments ago. We were on a space station and went to see the monolith in some kind of maintenance pod."
"Tempo, we didn't go anywhere. I lay down on this shuttle, I went to sleep on this shuttle, I just woke up - after far too little sleep - on this shuttle." He rubbed his face and took a deep breath. "I had a traum**..." He looked up and stared hard at Tempo. Fireblade shifted a little closer to the imaginary line between them, brows furrowed.
"Tempo, what did you see?"
"I saw a great black prism, it was 2 tilometers long." Thousands of mannals. I'm not sure I said that right.. Alex's looked anxious. Tempo found it strange that he was clearly thinking, but she couldn't sense any of it. Time to press. "Humaniti clearly has a number Soia artefacts in your native star system. At least one of which is active. You somehow took me there to see it."
Now Alex looked sad.
Beryl - damn her - helpfully sent You didn't go anywhere, Tempo.
Shut up. "It was an active artefact, it had writing on it. The artefacts never operate on their own, so somewhere the Soia are alive and monitoring it. This information is of upmost priority, and I need to know everything about it." This would be the assignment that made her. Not just a new species, but new Soia artefacts, maybe the Asoka themselves!
"I understand now," he said. He prepared to stand up, but stopped at a small noise from Cloud. He sat up instead. "You broke into my dream." There was a pause. "You broke into my dream! That is a major invasion of my confidentiality - nein.... - privacy!"
Tempo scowled down at him. "You have not been honest with us. You told me humaniti had no contact with the Soia, but I saw the proof myself."
Fireblade stalked closer, and Alex twitched back. He spoke fast; "No. I haven't hidden anything, Tempo. You broke into my head - which most humans would consider criminal assault - and got back disinform... fiction***. An old story, made up."
Fireblade: Lying scum. Say the word and I'll break his legs.
Beryl: Don't! I'm responsible for his well-being.
Tempo: I can get the information out of him. If nothing else, he'll have to sleep eventually. "Captain Jardin, keeping secrets from us is not the way to succeed in your diplomatic mission. Loroi do not lie," Shut up, Fireblade, "and we demand the truth from others."
"I haven't lied, Mizol Parat Tempo. I have a question for you: what happens when you sleep?"
"That's not relevant."
"Yes, it is relevant. It is very relevant. Do you see things in the night?"
Beryl spoke: "Yes. We see memories in the night. We sort them for later recall."
"It's similar in humans. Sometimes we see whole memories, sometime disorganised fragments. Other times, we see things which aren't true and don't make sense." His face suddenly softened, and his voice became calmer. "They can feel very real, but when we wake up and examine them, they don't make sense."
"It must have been a memory. It was so perfect. The artefact is an amazing opportunity. You. Should. Have. Told. Us."
Now Alex looked a little sad. "Ohh, this one has really stuck to you." He looked at Beryl, then continued: "Are the images you see in the night just memories? Not fresh information?"
"Of course. Where would fresh information come from?"
Tempo waited. Let the humaniti try more lies.
"It was memories of an old fiction story, mixed up a bit. You broke in and got a role to play. The thing about dreams is that you don't have your full mind working on a problem. You ignore ... Unstimmigkeiten ... uhh, facts which do not all agree with each other, you don't think about other options.
"Didn't you think it was strange you could speak English?
"Didn't you think it was strange we could eat the same food?
"Didn't you notice how we moved from one time to the next with nothing in between?"
He stared at her again. She suddenly realised that, like other aliens, he would be adept at reading faces and bodies. And that, unlike other aliens, he was effective very familiar with Loroi faces and bodies.
"Yes, you know it. But you don't want to admit it to yourself. So, Tempo Poole, who is Jack?"
"My Ehemann****." Oh no, that's not right.
"Where did you heiraten*****?"
Tempo had nothing. Even Beryl, who normally was as subtle as a hand grenade, had picked up that something was badly wrong. Tempo's Jack, with the tight pants and the motorbike and the read smile, had not broken his leg. He didn't exist.
None of it existed. The station, the artefact, the idea of Jack, nothing. She had been taken in and tricked by this human, who claimed to have no telepathic skill. She was a senior Mizol operative, and she had taken the bait.
Beryl: Are you all right, Tempo?
No. Stillstorm would never let her forget this. And Beryl, naive, excitable Beryl, would remember everything. Stillstorm was sure to ask for a viewing...
* It turns out to be the same in English and German. I love it when that happens. English is such a mish-mash that there are all kinds of 'friendly' words, but you've got to keep an eye on 'bekommen' or you'll get what's coming to you.
** Dream. I'm betting Alex doesn't know this vocab.
*** My head cannon: the words are 'disinformation' and 'fiction' are close in Trade.
**** Husband (explicit form, generally just shortened to Mann)
***** Marry (I have no idea what to do in terms of conjugating this example, because English and German conjugations don't really line up and English doesn't support du / Sie)
