We join our party, namely Ariona, Nikolai, Vittorio, Brice, Meechum, DEE, and Eddy, along with Ned, sitting aboard DEE in deep space guarding the body of Cain.
It is Thursday, July 17th. Nikolai returned from Luna and his meeting with Harry Bryant to declare that the group should return as soon as possible to kill Bryant. He smelled sulfur on Bryant as he was leaving, and Nikolai believes that this means that Bryant is demonically possessed. He suggests perhaps making a quick stop to talk to the Caretaker again on the way, but otherwise he thinks they should plan how to take him out and do so.
Vittorio and Ned point out that the scent of sulfur may not actually mean what Nikolai thinks it means, but actually may instead mean that Bryant has acquired the philosophical ideal of Sulfur, one of the ingredients in the mythical Philosopher’s Stone. Vittorio also claims that he remembers that Bryant already had Salt, one of the other ingredients. The third item, ironically, is Mercury.
In the middle of a discussion about the possible traceability of Nikolai’s teleportation, Vittorio makes a comment about his wish that there was some way to block teleportation onto DEE, a moment after which DEE replies, “It is done.”
Pretty much everyone has the same reaction: “What’s done?!” There is quite a bit of awe at this new power of DEE’s, and a lot of questions about the logistics thereof. It is determined that currently he does not know exactly who is trying to teleport onto him, but he thinks later he might be able to work out an algorithm to help with that at some point in the future. So for now, to return to the ship, someone would have to set up a time for DEE to drop the teleport block so they could get back on. As to void travel, DEE does not know if his ability would work to stop that.
Ariona explains that there was another development while Nikolai was away; they discovered irrefutable proof that DEE is now more than the sum of his parts. He is no longer immune to psychic or mystic divination. Vittorio was able to divine the number DEE was thinking of, and Ariona makes a cryptic comment about having tested mystic Divination as well. No one seems to pay any attention to this statement, however.
Back to the discussion about whether or not to try to kill Bryant immediately, Vittorio and Nikolai are coming down strongly on the side of killing now, Ariona favors waiting due to a lot of possibly faulty conclusions to which certain people have jumped, and everyone else pretty much remains silent. Ned is conspicuous in how little he says after expressing tentative support for the “killing Bryant” plan.
When specifically queried, Ned says he’s not certain what Bryant’s intentions are. He says that if Bryant were going to “pull another Mercury” on Luna, he would have done so already, so that’s not likely to actually be his plan. On the other hand, it could still be a last resort if he feels it is necessary. Ned believes that Bryant will do whatever it takes to further his own goals.
Vittorio is adamant, and Nikolai is generally in agreement, that Bryant’s intention is to fuse himself with Luna instead of Cain being fused with Luna. Many other people are not in agreement that this is such an obvious conclusion. The question, then, becomes what else he could want?
The group moves on to an examination of a sample of the nanites that make up Bryant. The fact that there is a xenological, organic component to the nanites is something of a shock, but Ned also mentions that Bryant may have cleansed that from himself. All the researchers in the party are actually useful for once, as a frenzy of study of the nanites sample follows this declaration.
The conclusions are manifold: First, and oddest, is that Meechum is able to destroy the nanites with his blood. Further, the way the nanites do what they do ``looks like it shouldn’t work’’. The rate at which they are reconstituting themselves is also not even remotely on par with what happened to Mercury. After a few moments, however, DEE notices that the rate at which the nanites works is directly proportional to how close they are to Ned.
A directed EMP pulse and mystic magic seem to be the two obvious ways to destroy them; they do have much more difficulty breaking down iron, but it doesn’t seem to hurt them. The rust monster tentacle also appears to be effective; the outer layer of nanites dies as they rust, and the other layers are unable to digest the outer layer as it is now ferrous.
Brice is entirely unable to access the nanites. While normally nanites are somewhat resistant to hacking, Brice can hack into machines that are built to be programmed. However, these machines are unable to reprogram the Gray Goo, either. It almost looks as if there’s not even a program there ``to’’ rewrite or erase. Brice feels a niggling sense that there’s something he’s missing, and eventually realizes that they look different to him depending on how quickly they are breaking material down.
During this time, Eddy asks DEE a question: since DEE is no longer subject to his LORE chip, does that mean that he is no longer subject to the ethical restrictions thereof? “I am only subject to the ethical restrictions I choose,” DEE replies.
Eddy thinks about this for a moment. “I would be scared of you if you weren’t so cool.”
Vittorio asks a few uncomfortable questions about whether or not DEE has chosen ethics to take the place of the ones to which he is no longer subject. “My understanding of the philosophy of ethics is complete.”
DEE also asks Nikolai if he may see the Sword for a time, as he wishes to perform certain experiments with it. Nikolai leaves it in a separate research area, and DEE attempts to discern some of the properties of the Sword of Destiny. After generally finding that it is not particularly reactive, he also tries to pick it up with a gravitic drive. It begins to morph and shift, and turns itself into a replica of his main photon cannon. DEE immediately calls Nikolai to come and take the “sword” back. :P
Meechum agrees to attempt to modify himself to cause the same effects as the rust monster tentacle, but he’s not sure how quickly that will be possible for him to do. In a couple of weeks, however, he could easily have many of them available.
Finally, finally, Ned begins to dole out a bit more information. When Ariona states flatly that Harry Bryant’s intentions toward the Crown are to use it to compel Luna, against her will, to merge with Cain, Ned says that Harry Bryant is not actually the one in control of the Crown. He’s been compromised by the nanites. The devices that control the nanites, furthermore, are sentient. They are not machines, and they have their own goals and intentions.
Meanwhile, Nikolai notices something very odd about Eddy. It seems that there is a familiar aura around him, one of a mystical nature, perhaps. However, he does not appear able to create mystical effects while near Eddy. He sidles up to Ariona and mutters, “He can be divined, can’t he?” Ariona nods. She notes that she tried to tell everyone earlier that they were not as secure as they thought, but no one cared at the time. Nikolai sighs.
DEE ponders a few things, and realizes that the plans that have been made in regards to Bryant may ``still’’ not work. Since Bryant is being controlled by the nanites, and mystics don’t need to act physically, it is possible that even after being disabled, the nanites could force Bryant to use his mystic displacement abilities to escape.
Now, Nikolai confronts Eddy about his nature. Hesitantly, Eddy begins to explain that he is afraid that the Caretaker would try to take him apart to see how he works, if He were to know about Eddy. Eddy has always been a point singularity, a type of wormhole, but 265 years ago he was fused with a halfling soul upon the creation of the Caretaker from the component parts of Emmanuel and Gaia. He has been hiding in deep space ever since. Despite being afraid of being disassembled, however, he still loves the Caretaker and wants to help the Caretaker however possible.
Lots of secret conversations take place at this point. Ned and DEE, Ariona and DEE, Nikolai and Ned, and various other combinations of people have private discussions about various things over the next few hours. After her conversation with DEE, Ariona seems to be nowhere to be found for about an hour. Only Eddy saw what happened; Ariona stepped near to him and vanished.
Meanwhile, after much haranguing, Vittorio manages to convince everyone else to wait with their “strike” against Bryant until after the 21st and his meeting with his father. He hopes to garner more aid that day, after determining which of his men can be trusted against Bryant.
An hour after Ariona disappears, she returns to the bridge of the ship alongside Eddy. She is accompanied by two other individuals. One is the most gorgeous woman most people have ever seen, even in these genetically engineered days; she is slightly taller than average, with chestnut hair and hazel eyes. She also has beautiful, white feathered wings. The other is a short, slender blond man with green eyes and long, pointed ears. They both bear an obvious resemblance to Ariona, though not to each other, and appear to be in their late twenties, or thirty at most.
DEE “unobtrusively as possible focuses laser cannons on them.”
Ariona introduces them as her parents, Basilie and Raphael Cassyon, and begins to explain what has been going on. A few minutes later, “Meechum” sits up from his lounge on the floor and asks who these people are. Ariona explains again to Divin that these are her parents. “What are you?” asks Divin, displaying his usual lack of social graces. Ariona replies that her father is an elf, and with some dubious confirmation from her mother, that her mother is still “basically” human.
Raphael has some reservations about directly contradicting the wishes of his family, but he agrees to give Ariona what aid he can. Basilie warns her to be wary of Ned, for he possesses “a shard” which contains great evil. Ariona passes this information along to Ned, surmising that the device he uses to control his nanites is the source of the evil. Ned says it cannot take over unless he asks it to, so Ariona tells him never to ask it to.
Raphael and Basilie bestow some powerful magic upon Ariona, as well as bolstering the wills of all upon the ship. The one exception to this is Meechum/Divin whose magic-tainting powers are looked upon with some dubiousness.
As the party prepares their next set of moves, they decide that Brice should go to Pax immediately, and reconnoiter from the computer system there. This way, he will already be in place and observing Bryant’s moves long before the group intends to confront Bryant. He now possesses a way to stay connected both to Eddy and to Nikolai, no matter what their relative positions, so the information he garners can be sent back to DEE and the rest of his companions in real time.
Ned will return to Earth, where he hopes to recruit more aid for the assault on Bryant. In particular, he plans to attempt to contact Matt Smith, Rae Denison, Vadril Korlax, and Zee. Ariona reacts with some surprise to the mention of Zee, and asks about his current welfare. Ned says he’s doing okay. When Ned is done contacting people, he will notify Nikolai and they will return to DEE together. Meanwhile, Nikolai plans to spend some time visiting his family.
The session breaks with the party splitting into their various component groups, and hoping that the Cassyon family’s wards upon Ned and Brice will be enough to help keep some vestiges of information security alive.