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]

"Amil? I went and got Bella and took her to a safer place. Did you get the note I left? And the note Rúmil left?"

"Oh, Fëanáro," she says. "I did. Are you okay? Are all of you okay? We're petitioning to get Bella let back into Valinor-"

"No," he says, "this world is nicer anyway, it has another Bella and it has starships and we're getting a planet and saving everyone in Materia and founding an alliance and there are billions of languages."

"And no danger?"

"Nope."

"...can I talk to Rúmil about that? Not right now, maybe later?"

"Yeah. He's here. We're in a starship. I'm sorry for scaring you but I had to get Bella."

"I know you felt that way. We love you. We just want you to stay alive."

"Well. I'm alive."

"Fëanáro, please come home. Just to visit, if you really like your world better. Come home and tell us about it and we'll talk."

"The Valar might not let me leave."

"Then you could build starships here."

"I don't want to come home until I'm grownup."

"And we don't want to miss you until then."

[subtly_artistic]

(The bystanders are not privy to this conversation because that is not how earwires work. Bella and T'Mir chat about Bella-and-T'Mir things.)

[lintamande]

After a few more minutes he hands the earwire to Rúmil.

[subtly_artistic]

"What'd she say?"

[lintamande]

"She loves me and is glad I'm safe. Uh. I said this realm was perfectly safe. It pretty much is! The universe doesn't eat people, there are no dragons..."

[warpfairy]

"It's not perfectly safe! There are all kinds of anomalies if you explore deep space long enough, there are hostile cultures with advanced weapons, I'd be legitimately terrified if we met Klingons or Cardassians."

[lintamande]

"Why? What are they like? The Klingon language is weird but that doesn't make them bad people, just ignorant..."

[warpfairy]

"Their language has nothing to do with it. They're a warrior culture, very easily provoked and very good at fighting."

[lintamande]

"We can teleport."

[warpfairy]

"It takes a little while to cast a spell. A disruptor beam is fast."

[lintamande]

"What's a disruptor beam?"

[warpfairy]

"Klingon energy weapon."

[lintamande]

"No, I mean, what do they look like? What do they do?"

[warpfairy]

She pulls up a picture. "Same basic principle but different underlying technology compared to phasers, which the Federation favors and which have stun settings. Point, pull trigger, energy shoots at the target and they're stunned or injured or dead."

[lintamande]

"So if we see one of those things, we teleport out right away." He shrugs.

[warpfairy]

"Which works if and only if you can do that faster than the Klingon can draw and fire."

[lintamande]

"I'm really scared of dying," he says, "but I'm not going home where I'll be safe. Anyway, I died there too, in the fated version."

[warpfairy]

"It's still probably a good idea to avoid Klingons. They have a well-documented language for a hostile species, you can learn it without meeting any. And listen to their opera if you like."

[lintamande]

"Okay. Why do they not get in trouble, if they randomly shoot people?"

[warpfairy]

"Well, the people who are authorized to get them in trouble are other Klingons, so they need reasons that are satisfactory to them, but not to us. And Klingons find many reasons for violence satisfactory."

[lintamande]

"Our world shouldn't find any reasons for violence satisfactory."

[warpfairy]

"What, any? What if Klingons attack us, what do we do?"

[lintamande]

"Teleport them to another planet with wards so they can't teleport right back out."

[warpfairy]

"...so, put them in prison against their will but it's not violence because we aren't injuring them?"

[lintamande]

"Not a prison, a planet! A really pretty planet."