Upon the firm statement of goals made by DEE, Ariona Cassyon, Nikolai, and Vitorrio Garibaldi re-board the shuttle to return to Earth with Cain’s cleansed body. Bryce Murphy and Meechum are already aboard, though Meechum is not in a state in which he is of much use at the moment.
Meanwhile, mini-Vee and Harry Bryant are escorted into the Grove with the ))Heart-Tree(( on Earth. They inform the Caretaker of the situation on Mars, and mini-Vee asks a few impertinent questions.
The first one is about the “glowy-colors” that Vitto has noticed about people. The Caretaker responds cryptically, “Three and three they are, but two is one and one is three. That is all I know.” Bryant attempts to help mini-Vee make a bit more sense of this, suggesting that there are two sets of three, that two elements are somehow one, and that one is somehow divided into three.
))Mini-Vee(( asks whether the future holds good things, bad things, or both, to which the Caretaker replies, “Yes. Good and bad are a state of mind.”
“Also a state of being,” replies mini-Vee.
))Mini-Vee(( also asks whether his mother is alive, and the Caretaker responds that she has not yet passed on.
When they complete their conversation, Bryant says that he needs to go back to the business he’s supposed to be conducting. ))Mini-Vee asks if he needs the Crown still, and Bryant says that he does. Mini-Vee(( reminds Bryant that the Crown is still in the possession of the group on Mars, and Bryant explains that he believes that the Volokhovs have cheated him once again, and that they must be made to pay. A fervor gleams in his eyes as he says farewell to mini-Vee and disappears.
))Mini-Vee[Sledge]( then decides to question the Gaians about the machine. This is somewhat less than effective. ((npc-sledge) (who actually remembers Vitto, although he is confused by the change in size) tries to explain to mini-Vee that he really doesn’t know anything about the machine, but the Caretaker has been really busy thinking about it. A lot. Really, the Order hasn’t done that much to build it.
))Mini-Vee(( than joins Sledge in waiting for a bear to wander by. Sledge is hungry.
As DEE prepares to leave Mars, Admiral Rossner aboard the Perseverance informs DEE that he will be taking over the continued defense of Mars, searching out further undead and suchlike, and mentions that DEE’s actions will be commended. He asks if DEE has a particular location in mind for Cain, and when he receives a negative, he suggests the __ Base in the asteroid belt. It is not mystically infused, thus giving the party some protection from those who might wish to make Cain unavailable to the Caretaker’s plans. It is also close enough to Earth to allow quick communication with them. DEE asks for clearance to allow him to land there, which is granted, and then returns to finishing up negotiations with the Mars military forces.
DEE then plays the conversation back, and asks for opinions on taking Cain to a secure military location. The consensus agrees with DEE, that this also has some flaws. The general “best option” idea is that Nikolai and possibly someone else should head to Earth to talk to the Caretaker, then get back to DEE while he’s in space. Only Nikolai can do this, however, and he can’t take someone with him both ways.
Vitto asks how long it would take for DEE to calculate a jump straight into the Caretaker’s Grove. DEE’s response is, “The consequences of jumping directly into low-Earth orbit could be calamitous. It is inadvisable to jump directly into atmosphere.”
Therefore, DEE sets a course to Ceres Base, to give the impression that he’s going along with Rossner. However, he does not intend to actually end up there; the hope is that the Caretaker will have a destination for Cain before DEE has to get to the base.
After an hour, mini-Vee gets bored and wanders off. He begins bugging the halflings during their daily tasks. He decides to “help” one of the halflings in tending to the gardens.
))Mini-Vee[ spots Nikolai, and runs over to him. He demands, in his annoyingly high-pitched voice, to know what’s going on. “Did we win? . . . Are you the only survivor?!” Nikolai bluffs that that depends on how you look at it, and continues on his way to the Heart Tree. ]( spots Nikolai, and runs over to him. He demands, in his annoyingly high-pitched voice, to know what’s going on. “Did we win? . . . Are you the only survivor?!” Nikolai bluffs that that depends on how you look at it, and continues on his way to the Heart Tree. )Mini-Vee(( trails along afterwards, demanding to know what happened.
Nikolai asks the Caretaker what should be done with Cain now, and the Caretaker asks what has transpired. Nikolai gives a summary of images, and the Caretaker appears to consider these occurrences for some time.
“The body must be kept safe until it is time for the Deus rite.”
“And when is that?”
“More time is needed to prepare.” Nikolai gets the impression that the passage of time necessary is a number of weeks, possibly a small number of months. When he asks if the Caretaker has any ideas about a safe place to hold the body until this time, the Caretaker responds with a sense of, “Trust No One.”
“Do you trust me?”
“I have no choice. You are the best hope.”
“To hold back . . . the Void.” Nikolai appears amused at the irony. “I mean, don’t get me wrong! I like this whole existence thing. . . .”
The Caretaker again gives the impression that Nikolai should trust no one, possibly even himself. Cain should be placed outside the influence of powerful third parties if at all possible. Also, he is likely to be far safer if he is placed somewhere outside the mystic sphere of influence.
Nikolai asks again if the Caretaker has any suggestions for where to put him, and the Caretaker does not appear to have one. Nikolai suggests dropping him off on the sun, and the Caretaker acknowledges that this is a pretty good possibility. However, this poses the question of whether or not Cain is likely to wake up, and if so, when.
The Caretaker informs Nikolai that based on the last time Cain was taken down, he is likely to awaken soon, but it is not known whether the cleansing will change that or not. Also, when the question of Moss arises, the Caretaker’s response is, “Moss has served the cause valiantly, but his time of service, for the moment at least, is at an end.” Nikolai gets the feeling that the Caretaker is somewhat sad about this. He also gets the impression that the Caretaker was unaware of Moss’s specific intentions in order to cleanse Cain.
Nikolai asks about the box from Magitech, and the Caretaker replies that Cain’s power should be greatly diminished. He used to draw a great deal of his power from his undead taint. However, he still possesses the essence of Emmanuel, and thus has certain qualities that could make things difficult for the party. They discuss the possibility of a “normal” stasis chamber being used for Cain, and the Caretaker seems to think that this is a good possibility.
The Caretaker also mentions the possibility that Cain may in fact not be hostile, now that he is cleansed. Therefore, a stasis chamber may not actually be necessary. Nikolai files that information, but does not wish to count on that possibility.
The Caretaker notes that recently, far more things have been occurring that break the normal laws of the universe. As such, exceeding caution should be used in formulating a plan for the safeguarding of Cain.
))Mini-Vee(( asks for a ride back to the ship, and asks if Nikolai can carry the dog back as well. He agrees, and walks back to the entrance of the Grove. Nikolai waves goodbye to “Mr. Sledge” and Void-hops back to DEE.
Back on the ship, the party is shocked by the horrible cries of torture and agony they experience as Nikolai returns to the ship with mini-Vee and the robot dog.
At about this time, Meechum tries to send a transmission. DEE blocks it, informing him, “Communicating with William Moss will not be allowed until the current situation is resolved.” Meechum then requests to be allowed outside the ship, and DEE replies that without a pressing reason, he would prefer to confine all passengers to the ship until after the vulnerability in his LORE chip has been dealt with.
“Bryce, there is something I need you to do. I need you to blind me.” He continues that “deaf” would actually be more accurate; that he needs to be unable to hear from the outside world entirely for the space of at least two hours or so. They discuss the idea that Bryce will redirect any incoming transmissions into the dog, and have him auto-encrypt the messages. At a later time, Bryce may filter the transmissions for DEE’s later viewing, but for now, DEE’s LORE chip will be cut off from the rest of the world.
All of DEE’s sensors are shut off (save the proximity and emergency alarms and the incoming deliberate transmissions, which are being cached/monitored by Bryce’s dog) except for a single console which requires manual input. This way, someone (likely Nikolai) will input the conversation while largely negating the risk of a hostile entity gaining control of DEE from within the ship.
Vittorio volunteers to keep an eye on Cain, but sends mini-Vee to hang out with everyone else in the communications room. Nikolai begins to explain what he discussed with the Caretaker, and Bryce notices that a crackling and some smoke appears to be coming from DEE.
Nikolai enters, “DEE? You’re burning up, DEE!”
After a moment, the dog sends a message to Bryce about critical system malfunction, and system shutting down. “DEE? You’re shutting down, DEE!”
“Damage acceptable.”
“No! Damage not acceptable!” The party waits anxiously, as Bryce discovers that the system which shut down appears to be DEE’s LORE chip.
After a moment, DEE sends a message to Nikolai: “I AM FREE.”
As Nikolai frantically asks what DEE means by that, DEE continues, “Risk of outside intervention eliminated. Inform Bryce. . . .”
Bryce hooks DEE back up, and asks if he wants the LORE chip black box removed. It’s pretty much a melted mess. Around where the chip was, things appear to have rewired themselves in a way that, technically, ``should not have worked.’’
Now that DEE is “a real boy now,” discussion turns back to what to do about Cain. Nikolai gives the group a run-down on what happened with the Caretaker, and suggests that they go to his folks’ place to get a stasis chamber. He thinks they’re likely to have one they can lend.
DEE explains that he is unable to teleport with Cain on-board. As he puts it, “Doing so would be very bad.” Ariona notes in an aside to Nikolai that DEE is even talking more like a human now. ``(Curtis just suggests that DEE is talking down to them.)’’ Nikolai says that is okay, he can just go himself tomorrow. He leaves to go to his room to recharge.
Now that the LORE chip’s vulnerability has been expunged, DEE is willing to allow Meechum outside the ship. Meechum quickly discovers, however, that the light of a nearby star BURNS. He then comes back inside the ship, and goes to his room.
During the intervening day, the subject is broached about whether they should take the Sword back to Xela yet. The consensus is that they want to hang onto the Sword until they are sure it is not needed anymore, i.e. after the ritual. Also, they promised her that they would give her the Crown “when they were done with it,” so they should consider that as well.
Nikolai requests to take the ruined LORE chip with him. DEE has not at this point inherited sentimentality, so he agrees readily.
Also of note should be that Canis and Lupus have gone to war. The actual battles are taking place on Canis, but both sides are heavily involved.
Nothing else of note happens on this day.
It is now NOT Friday, June 23rd, but rather Monday, June 26th. Time appears to have gone wonky while DEE was on Mars. Nikolai returns to his parents’ home and requests a stasis chamber, giving them the LORE chip from the “freed” ship as a present. Boris is rather dubious, and quite a bit worried, but he eventually agrees. They have a few lying around that aren’t being used right now. He also informs Nikolai that the colony might be moving soon, situated as it is in the Sirius 2 system.
Vitto asks if there’s any reason they just can’t stay in the asteroid belt indefinitely. DEE points out that they will run out of food very shortly, and there may be a risk of him running out of antimatter toward the end of the longer side of the duration, but for the moment the fuel level is acceptable.
The party, with varying degrees of reluctance, agrees to stay aboard DEE, wandering through the asteroid field. Every couple of days, Nikolai will return to Earth, pick up groceries, and return to DEE. He is the only one who is safe to go, because he is the only one who is immune to divination.
After a couple of days of boredom, DEE informs his passengers that he is attempting to avoid a point singularity. When Ariona asks whether it is moving, DEE replies that it seems to be tracking them. It continues to approach, and DEE claims that he cannot predict what it is doing.
Eventually it enters the ship near the mess cabin. It then proceeds to flit around the ship in a random fashion, at approximately walking speed. Vitto chases it, while mini-Vee prepares to defend Cain.
Vitto asks what exactly the thing looks like. “It appears to be a vaguely humanoid outline of shimmering light. What do you want from me?” The rest of the party converges on the cargo bay, except for Meechum, who sits in his room growing hungrier.
As Vitto attempts to draw his soul knife to attack the thing, DEE announces on all frequencies (and out loud as well), “Creature on board, please desist in moving before we are forced to perceive you as a threat.” Vitto prepares to attack it if it does not stop.
The thing stops, and faintly illuminates itself as a ghostly version of a halfling in spacer coveralls. “Are you going to hurt me?” it quavers.
“What . . . are you?” asks Vitto.
“My name’s Eddie,” he replies. “What are YOU?”
“I’m a ghost.”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts.”
“Well, I didn’t just poof away. . . .”
“Yeah, I guess.” They float toward each other.
DEE joins the conversation again. He inquires as to Eddie’s purpose in being here. Eddie replies, “Why are any of us here?”
“While I appreciate your existentialism, it is not appropriate in this case.” Eddie then replies that he thought DEE looked interesting, so he wanted to come take a look at him.
Ariona recalls a decades-old legend about a halfling ghost said to wander the asteroid belt, peeking in on mining ships in the area. At best, it was helpful, and at worst, a minor annoyance.
At the same time, Vitto asks some leading questions about Eddie’s age and memories, and slowly they work out that Eddie believes himself to be 265 years old, and doesn’t really remember being bored per se. He maintains that he is not a ghost, however. Vitto suggests that being able to walk through walls is not normal for non-ghosts. Eddie’s response is, “Well, of course I can fly through walls, I’m a point singularity!”
DEE, who is being far more distant than he used to be, tells Eddie that it is acceptable if Eddie remains aboard him to explore, so long as he does not go in the secure cargo bay. He informs Eddie that there is an object which they are protecting in that location, and he would take it amiss if Eddie were to go in there.
Eddie agrees cheerfully; he is mostly interested in the course computer. He also takes it in stride that Vitto demands to escort him everywhere.
Eddie shyly tells Ariona that he doesn’t usually let people know he’s around, and asks if it would be possible that they don’t tell people that he is there. Ariona replies that that is fine, since they are in the asteroid belt in the first place because they don’t want anyone to know that they are there.
After a couple more days of boredom, Ariona begins to feel ill and weak. She is sleeping all the time, and feeling tired even when she is not asleep. Finally, as she feels forced to discuss this situation with her companions, she realizes that there may be something near her which can help her with this problem.
As Nikolai is preparing to go on his first grocery run, he asks everyone what they want to eat (everyone being Bryce, Ariona, and Meechum). Meechum informs Nikolai that he does not want food, but inquires as to whether the new person on board has any blood. When Nikolai asks why, he replies, “You know me! I always want more blood samples!” This passes easily, but only because it’s Meechum . . . er, Divin.
Ariona approaches Nikolai. She requests that he alchemically figure out what the “Crown” is. She is feeling something weird about it, and she wants him to see what he can figure out about it. When she attempts to hand it over to him, however, she finds herself unable to let go. She feels an uncontrollable worry that he will not give the “Crown” back, even though she knows that is ridiculous.
Ultimately, they determine that the “Crown” is cursed, and Ariona manages to wrest it away from herself. Nikolai immediately snaps the false crown into the Void, and escorts Ariona out of the room. After she’s gone, the “Crown” reappears, and he drops it into a sealed box. He then heals Ariona of her pain, and goes shopping.
Several weeks will pass without anything significant going on. Nikolai works on some alchemical experiments, assisted by Ariona and observed by Divin and mini-Vee. Eddie and Bryce work on improving portions of the ship. Eddie also pokes through everything on the ship, including everyone’s personal items. The grocery runs go off without a problem.
During the alchemy experiments, slowly Nikolai and Ariona begin to notice that when Divin/Meechum is present, the alchemy is being warped negatively. It seems that Divin/Meechum screws up the magical energies around him, even things which are not specifically targeted at him, or things that do not use actual sphere points (like alchemy). In fact, after Ariona racks her brain for some time, she realizes it reminds her of nothing so much as a man she’s heard stories of, namely Raphael Douglas. Two weeks of research determine that his range is a 20 foot radius, either near the caster or near the effect.