high-energy physics

[warpfairy]

Federation political prisons are not particularly uncomfortable. She's not going anywhere, but she can read, she's considering taking up an instrument, the only really awkward thing is that she doesn't particularly want to be supervised while she's sweating her way through her next pon farr one way or another but that's years off. That and she wishes she'd taken longer to get caught. But she was running out of the really low-hanging fruit anyway.

This is what she signed up for. She makes up imaginary profiles of people on the planets she got to, people who can live longer fuller lives with the stars in reach, one per day. One per day and she'll have loads of estimated impact left unused when she dies. Perfectly reasonable tradeoff and she can still read books.

Someone wants to interview her about Vulcan; they don't want to lose anything that anybody remembers; she gives the interview and then picks up some poetry.

Comments

[lintamande]

He shrugs. "I mostly want to know if there's another Fëanáro. Since there are two Bellas. One of whom is named T'Mir," he adds quickly.

[warpfairy]

"I wonder if there are more of us."

[subtly_artistic]

"I wonder that too. I'd hesitate to try naming us something less obviously temporary than 'Bellas' without more examples to draw on."

[lintamande]

"Scrying," Fëanáro says, "and then all the plane shifts we want to find all the Bellas. Though maybe we should evacuate Materia first."

[subtly_artistic]

"And its afterlives. We're going to need a lot of space. And more wizards. And a sensible immigration handling system."

[lintamande]

"So, steal T'Mir's starship, find an uninhabited planet, teach her magic, get started?"

[warpfairy]

"Let's at least talk to the Davlians first. They're well positioned astrographically to be the middle of a non-Federation power with enough elbow room and depending on the reception we get they might be a good choice for a culture to introduce refugee immigrants to Warp."

[lintamande]

He looks torn. "Languages," Rúmil reminds him, and he nods.

[warpfairy]

"Which way is the capital from here?"

[subtly_artistic]

"Should be that way."

[lintamande]

"Have you flown?" Fëanáro says to her. "You should try it. It's great."

[warpfairy]

"Not without a spaceship. Except the time Renée took me to Luna for low-grav, that was sort of like flying."

[subtly_artistic]

"It's less fun if you're not directing your own flight," Bella says, "which isn't really introductory wizardry, but we'll teach you eventually, it really is great."

[lintamande]

And they head towards the capital city.

[warpfairy]

It is bustling with antelopey people. The antelopey people are surprised to see non-antelopey people but are quite friendly when addressed. T'Mir warns her companions that they're oriented around a culture of anonymous accomplishment and it can accordingly be a little hard to find people who are experts in particular things without going through the pseudonymous "science ethernet" of the society.

[lintamande]

Osanwë's useful for that, Rúmil says, or are they also a culture that values mental privacy?

[warpfairy]

Please assume they do until they indicate otherwise. Can you use it as purely communicative psi? - Bella?

[subtly_artistic]

I can do pure intentional communication.

[lintamande]

We can do transmission. We shouldn't listen at all if the person we're speaking with doesn't know how to do intentional communitication, we'll catch everything.

[subtly_artistic]

I'll take point and find somebody for Fëanáro to sponge at and tell them how to aim thoughts at you two.

And eventually Bella has located them a family of Davlians who are very curious about them and the mom of whom definitely does not admit to being significant political shaker in Federation-related shenanigans. The small children will happily jabber at Fëanáro and think it's cool that he can tell what they mean without knowing Davlian yet.

[lintamande]

Fëanáro is going to know Davlian really really fast just you wait.

[subtly_artistic]

And meanwhile the definitely not a politician mom and the actually not a politician dad are happy to help their visitors sort out accommodations. Do they all four want to live together?

[warpfairy]

(T'Mir manages to pick up on the way in which Mom Davlian is definitely not a politician and gamely attempts to be definitely not the warp equation dispenser in the same way.)

[lintamande]

All together sounds nice, if that won't cause any political complications, Rúmil says to her privately.

[subtly_artistic]

Yes, all four together, but they're accustomed to private bedrooms if that's something Davlian architecture accommodates gracefully?

And it turns out Davlian architecture can do exactly that and here is an apartment in a building that looks very spiffy and has a sort of brook running constantly in a groove in some of the walls in lieu of more conventional plumbing and the beds dipped under and flush with the floor. Four bedrooms.