Tree and Star
Paul Lee
andromeda series science fiction
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It is time for the Remembering.

Innocenti
(Enter "ABOUT" to see the game menu.)

November 21, 2012
IFID: B5A03D9E-7656-44C3-902C-EAFF8A430E39

Hugo v3.1 / Library 31031

Beneath the Heavens, sitting in the stands
Seating in three tiers half encircles a round platform.
Completing the circle around the back of the platform are the endless stars of the New Heaven, which stretch above the transparent dome that forms the ceiling. A small arch opens above the center of the top tier of the stands, on the port side of the room.
Sitting in the stands is Veritas.
The stars of the heavens silhoutte the silver figure of the old Storyteller standing upon the platform.

The old Storyteller looks slowly around at the people gathered.
His gaze lingers on you and your friend Veritas, sitting boldly in the front row, away from the adults. He smiles, and then begins his tale with clear, serious diction.
You examine Veritas
She's gotten taller than you, the sneak!
"The Ancestors did not live like this, stranded between
artificial walls, wandering aimlessly with the stars out of reach."
You examine Storyteller
People say a lot of things about the Storyteller. They say he's the only one who remembered the stars were real, back in the Great Journey. Some of your friends say he's crazy, but you like him.
The old man looks down at the platform beneath his feet, and then gestures toward his surroundings. "Before these ships first embarked upon the Great Journey through the Starless Path, the Ancestors explored many shining worlds, filling them with their great cities and their forgotten wonders. They roamed freely through the stars of the Old Heaven, and nothing was impossible to them."
You look at the stars
The heavens hold endless mysteries, infinite tales.
Beside you, your friend Veritas catches her breath, her large
almond eyes wide with wonder.
The Storyteller looks at her and nods seriously. "But nothing
that the Ancestors created could compare to the wonders of the most ancient world of all, where it is said all life originated, the planet called Land."
Inventory
You're not carrying anything.
"There the first Ancestors communed with the Fey folk that dwelt
in the elemental Forms. The trees stretched as high as a hundred men are tall, and spread their many arms to shade the living ground. The winds gathered in the canopy of the Lower Heaven and bent down to kiss Land with their sweet breath. The roaming beasts, great and small, ruled the wilds where the people did not walk, but begged at the feet of the Ancestors."
Examine stands
They're like the stairs going up from your parents' Cube, only way bigger.
The Storyteller nods, his eyes distant. "And there was the
mighty sea, a great expanse like the heaven above, but formed of the gathering of all the waters of Land, encircling the planet in its embrace." The Storyteller turns his head up to look at the stars.
You examine the stars
The heavens hold endless mysteries, infinite tales.
The storyteller brings his gaze to the audience and clasps his
hands in front of him, turning slowly to look over all the people in the stands. He begins to speak again, firmly. "But the Ancestors became arrogant..."

Heavy boots clang against the metal stands. Vertias yelps, and
you turn to see men in black uniforms trample down the stands to the platform, shoving people out of the way. One of them steps right over you and Veritas and corners the old Storyteller on the platform. "Chronos Han, you are under arrest for disobeying the sanctions
of the Council and for spreading sedition." The man speaks fast and mechanically.
You examine Veritas
She's gotten taller than you, the sneak!
"The Ancestors did not live like this, stranded between
artificial walls, wandering aimlessly with the stars out of reach."
About yourself
You hate the snug, long-sleeved yellow shirt your mother makes you wear, a hand-me-down from your cousin Sam Amerik.
The old man looks down at the platform beneath his feet, and then gestures toward his surroundings. "Before these ships first embarked upon the Great Journey through the Starless Path, the Ancestors explored many shining worlds, filling them with their great cities and their forgotten wonders. They roamed freely through the stars of the Old Heaven, and nothing was impossible to them."
You examine Storyteller
People say a lot of things about the Storyteller. They say he's the only one who remembered the stars were real, back in the Great Journey. Some of your friends say he's crazy, but you like him. Beside you, your friend Veritas catches her breath, her large
almond eyes wide with wonder.
The Storyteller looks at her and nods seriously. "But nothing
that the Ancestors created could compare to the wonders of the most ancient world of all, where it is said all life originated, the planet called Land."
Wait
Time passes...
"There the first Ancestors communed with the Fey folk that dwelt
in the elemental Forms. The trees stretched as high as a hundred men are tall, and spread their many arms to shade the living ground. The winds gathered in the canopy of the Lower Heaven and bent down to kiss Land with their sweet breath. The roaming beasts, great and small, ruled the wilds where the people did not walk, but begged at the feet of the Ancestors."
The Storyteller nods, his eyes distant. "And there was the
mighty sea, a great expanse like the heaven above, but formed of the gathering of all the waters of Land, encircling the planet in its embrace." The Storyteller turns his head up to look at the stars.
The storyteller brings his gaze to the audience and clasps his
hands in front of him, turning slowly to look over all the people in the stands. He begins to speak again, firmly. "But the Ancestors became arrogant..."

Heavy boots clang against the metal stands. Vertias yelps, and
you turn to see men in black uniforms trample down the stands to the platform, shoving people out of the way. One of them steps right over you and Veritas and corners the old Storyteller on the platform. "Chronos Han, you are under arrest for disobeying the sanctions
of the Council and for spreading sedition." The man speaks fast and mechanically.
You look at the men
They're silent and imposing in their black uniforms, the blood-red Serpent coiled around their right arms.
The Storyteller raises an eyebrow as two other black-uniformed
people grab his shoulders forcefully. "That arrogance is not dead, I see," he says in a low voice, soft but dangerous.
You wait
Time passes...
They pull the Storyteller up the stands. He turns and looks back
as they push him through the narrow door, catching your eye. "Remember," he says, and then he is gone.
You ask veritas about Storyteller
(Plese use the command "TALK TO (CHARACTER NAME)" to initiate dialog.)
You talk to veritas
"No..." Veritas sounds stunned and frightened. "They have
come." Suddenly, she looks like a grown-up.
You look
Beneath the Heavens, sitting in the stands
Seating in three tiers half encircles a round platform.
Completing the circle around the back of the platform are the endless stars of the New Heaven, which stretch above the transparent dome that forms the ceiling. A small arch opens above the center of the top tier of the stands, on the port side of the room.
Sitting in the stands is Veritas.
Imposing men and women in black uniforms are here, pushing the audience away, herding them out of the room.
You go outside
You wander toward the exit, dazed by what you witnessed.

[....]
You rub your eyes and shake your heard to clear away the memory.
It is far into your sleep rotation, but you still haven't finished debugging the new demographic compilation program that you were assigned to write.

hold the assortment of terminals and screens. The automatic door opens between the girders in the fore wall.
The terminal at which you have been working displays your glitchy code.
One of the Guards lays a hand on your shoulder and roughly pulls
you up the stands toward the exit.
"Rood!" You look back to at the sound of your friend's voice as
a Guard unceremoniously grabs her and carries her away. You struggle against your captor, trying to get to Veritas, but you are lost in the storm of bodies.

[....]
You rub your eyes and shake your heard to clear away the memory.
It is far into your sleep rotation, but you still haven't finished debugging the new demographic compilation program that you were assigned to write.

hold the assortment of terminals and screens. The automatic door opens between the girders in the fore wall.
The terminal at which you have been working displays your glitchy code.
You examine terminal
The tiles on the screen displays your data-crawler routines, debugging information about where in their execution the routines failed, and technical specifications about the inner workings of the universal Fleet Cloud and the local networks.
Fore
You'd feel better if you at least try to patch the most recent errors in your crawler routines before giving up.
Debug code
You make a small correction in your database generation function and run the program again. The workstation display instantly fills with output text.
You examine the text
The strings of text form small combinations of letters and symbols, none more than several characters long. It looks like an encrypted document, or one being viewed with the wrong encoding scheme.
You take text
You try to trace the root directory of the file, but all you can tell is that the indexing protocol on one of the statistics mainframes directed the crawler to a low-level packet torrent. The data could have come from anywhere in the entire Fleet.
Unable to download the file directly, you connect your datapad
into the port where the workstation terminal is mounted and carefully copy over the entire active memory of the workstation. You preserve the curious symbols by saving them in your editing app. Too tired and distracted to do more work for the time being, you turn off the terminal and disconnect the datapad.
Inventory
You are carrying your datapad.
Fore
Just as you are about to store your datapad in the pouch built into the shoulder of your overcoat made for holding the device, you hear it emit a three-tone beep, indicating that you've received a personal communication.
You read the communication
The comm was pre-recorded just a moment ago. You open it, and your wife's face fills the datapad's display.
"Chronos left his quarters for too long again," she says wearily.
"I'd better find him before another Militia member does, and he ends up in more trouble. He's apparently at the Dome right now, unless he managed to fool his transponder." Her full lips purse into a tight line. "So, I won't be home this sleep rotation, if you were planning on coming home at all. Love you."
Now that you think of it, Chronos might be able to help decode
the file you found. At least, you're willing to bet he'll be interested in it.
Fore
You leave the Data Center and follow the network of twisty little corridors built on top of each other, rotely finding your way to the ship Commons.

and spans 200 meters from one wall to the other, encompassing nearly the entire mid-deck. The residents of the Godspeed hurry up
and down the white rectangular artery, entering and exiting the rectangular openings that are spaced sporadically along either wall. Among the many places accessible from here, you know that a short
walk aft will take you to the convoluted maintanence
corridors where you can find the Data Center, while the observatory dome can be accessed to fore.
Fore
Your feet plod silently, the white polyplast absorbing the impact. Eventually, the distant sides of the vast chamber constrict, leaving a corridor where the white covering is replaced by the older metallic panels.

Removed from the central passageways of the Godspeed, no
more than two travelers could pass with comfortable distance between them. The walls here are panelled in strips of the unknown alloy of the older parts of the ship, but the homogenous white material of the newer renovations begins just meters down the corridor to
aft. To fore, the corridor narrows further and
angles upward in a ramp, leading to the observation dome.
You examine the alloy
The vertical gray panels stretch along the walls of the corridor from floor to ceiling. Each panel is a little wider than your hand.
Fore
You climb the narrow ramp and enter the small opening to the right.

Seating in three tiers half encircles a round platform.
Completing the circle around the back of the platform are the endless stars of the New Heaven, which stretch above the transparent dome that forms the ceiling. A small arch opens above the center of the top tier of the stands, on the port side of the room.
Chronos Han is standing at the opposite end of the platform, his
back toward the seats, hands clasped behind his back.
Veritas is sitting in the stands, watching Chronos silently.
You look at Chronos
Chronos Han looks like a white specter from one of his fantastic stories. A soft white beard adorns his gaunt face, while his full head of pale hair falls about his shoulders in dissaray. He has a large beak of a nose and thick, angled brows, beneath which his dark brown, slanted eyes peer earnestly. His light skin is marked by scars and wrinkles, but he stands tall and firm.
You examine Veritas
You managed to catch up to her, but barely; you and Veritas are almost exactly the same height. Her brown complection is smooth and clear save for a scar on the left side of her face, beautiful despite looking tired and troubled. Her thick red hair spills over the shoulders of her Militia uniform top, which she wears sloppily with soft lounge pants.
The seamless, long-sleeved silver tunic that conforms closely to
her torso is a different color than the uniforms of the thugs who broke in to that Remembering service from your childhood, but you've never quite gotten comfortable with the circular emblem of the serpent swalling the star, stitched just below her left collarbone.
You talk to Chronos
Veritas looks up abruptly as you approach, and then smiles,
walking over to your side. "I think he's been like that for entire cycles, just lost in the stars. I doubt he's eaten or spoken at all," she says, reaching to grasp your hand in hers.
You and Veritas approach the old man together. "Rood and I are
here, greatfather. It's time to go home." She lays a hand gently on his shoulder.
A silent moment passes, Chronos still standing with his back to
you. "Time," he says at last. "A time for all things under the Heavens." He turns slightly, head downcast. "I thought I would see greater things than these in my time."
"I have something you might like to see, and I'm hoping you can
help me figure out whether or not it might be great," you interject before Veritas has the chance to argue with the old man. You open the file in which you saved the encrypted document and hold out the datapad for the others to look.
Chronos hesitantly turns to look at the datapad's display. He
closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his large nose, and then opens his eyes to scan the display.
Wait
Time passes...
Chronos arches an eyebrow and blinks, raising a hand to rub his bearded chin with his thumb and index finger.
"Rood, is this really necessary? Come on..." Veritas pleads, but Chronos throws up his open hand authoritatively, cutting her off. "Wait a moment, this is interesting. Very interesting, indeed." Chronos clicks his tongue, and Veritas sighs. "I've seen this kind of character map before. Very old." He continues to study the text intently.
Chronos arches an eyebrow and draws in a sharp breath. "This...
could be important," he says slowly, looking at you intently. "I can't decode the text on sight, but I should be able to crack it with a little time. The Council won't let me near any public terminal or networked end-user device, but your datapad isn't registered. They should be none the wiser if I work with it in my quarters, as long as I don't keep it long enough for them to grow suspicious. What do you say?" he asks, holding out his hand. "I'll bring it back soon, with the text of the document deciphered so you can know the mystery you uncovered."
Yes
That was a rhetorical question. (Although you sound rather positive.)
You give the datapad to Chronos
You hand Chronos your datapad. He takes it carefully by the grip at the end and tucks it under his coat. "Very well, then," he says, reaching to grab your shoulder affectionately. "Thank you for reminding a dreary old man about his purpose. I'll be contacting you shortly." He steps back and looks between you and Veritas. "Now, children, you'd better go home. Time for bed."
With that, he turns on his heel and marches accross the platform
and over the stands, exiting the observatory.
You talk to veritas
Veritas stands quietly for a moment, looking stressed. Then she
turns to you with her arms crossed, an exaggerated, jokingly stern expression on her face. "The two of you with your weird theories and rumors!" She smirks. "Well, you got him to go home -- more than I could do. Now we really should try to get a little sleep." She leans forward to kiss you lightly and then walks toward the exit as you follow in a daze.

When Veritas awakens for her patrol shift, you are still too
tired to do anything but lie back blearily in the sleeping alcove as she dresses. You drift off again into a light slumber, and then you force yourself to stagger out of the recess, stepping on your uniform, which she must have laid out neatly for you along with your nutrition packet on the table.
You dress.

The white walls, floor, and ceiling are all of the same
dimension, about four-and-a-half meters square. The sleeping alcove is recessed into the port wall. The desk folds in or out of the starboard wall, beneath a built-in terminal display. The floor is mostly free to bear your and Veritas's spare uniforms and undergarments.
The exit opens in the aft wall, while a deep step in the
opposite wall descends to a sliding screen, concealing your hygiene alcove.
A small circular table stands in the center of the room with two narrow chairs.
On top of the small circular table is a nutrition packet.
Examine packet
Your meal ration is a rectangular block covered by a brown wrapper.
You open the packet
You run your finger along the pressure strip on the rectangle, disecting the wrapper neatly. As you pull away the sides to reveal the block of food-matter, a small sheet falls out of the wrapper.
You take the sheet
Taken.
You read it
(assuming you mean the sheet with markings)
The small, square piece of paper is folded down the center. Several uneven, erratic appear on the sheet in depressed, red markings:
Meet me at the garden.

You only know of one person who would care to learn the Ancestor technique of writing characters by hand, or who would have cause to meet with you. The secrecy, however, is confusing.
You eat the food
As you perform the boring task of eating, you ponder the strange document that you discovered last rotation. With each bite, the material turns into a slimy foam in your mouth.
You examine the uniforms
Several garments of various types belonging to you and your wife are strewn across the floor.
Search uniforms
You rummage through the clothes on the floor a bit. Throwing aside one of your dirty uniforms, you find a small metal cylinder, which you take.
You examine the cylinder
The multi-purpose tool fits comfortably in your hand. Narrow grooves set at different depths along the cylinder make it easy to hold the tool between your fingers for detail work. The beam emitted at the end covered by a non-conducting nozzle when switched on can cut, polish, or weld as you see fit.
You examine the sleeping
You and your wife sleep in a small recess set into the wall of the cube and accessed by a small manually-sliding hatch. The inside is cradled in polyfoam and has internal environment controls.
You look at the desk
Built into the wall directly across the room from the sleeping alcove, the desk surface slides outward perpendicular to the wall, accompanied by a small bench that pulls out beneath it. The desk and the bench are both retracted right now, appearing as horizontal wedges sticking out of the wall.
You use the desk
Be a little more specific about what you'd like to do with the desk.
Aft
You step out of your home and onto the system of metal-lattice walkways attached to the outside of the stacked columns of identical cubes. An elevator whisks you up past the massive grid of dwellings, and then you navigate the network of straight little corridors, all identical. Finally, you reach your destination, just a few corridors removed from the central Commons.

ceiling illuminates this large, open room. The ground beneath your feet is black and rough, made of some semi-pliable material that emits a faintly bitter odor. A few rectangular tables rise out of the uneven ground, the pliable covering folded away at their legs. Spacious arches in the four walls grant access to the park; the exit to port leads to corridors that soon let out at the ship
Commons, while the way to the elevator leading back to the Grid is opposite.
The tables are nestled among a haphazard arrangement of poles
sticking out of the ground material, representations of the fabled trees of Land.
Chronos sits at one of the tables, a beverage in a white cup
sending up whisps of steam in front of him.
Another cup rests on the on top of Chronos's table, at the vacant
seat across from him.
Chronos squints in your direction, and then nods faintly.
You sit
You walk over to the table where the old man sits.
"Sit down," he says, gesturing at the seat across from him at the table.
You sit down
You step over the pole connecting the seat to the table and sit down, swivelling in the dingy red seat.
"You've done well, lad," Chronos says, taking your datapad out
from under his coat and setting it before you on the tabletop.

In the Garden, sitting at one of the rectangular tables
The tables are nestled among a haphazard arrangement of poles
sticking out of the ground material, representations of the fabled trees of Land.
Chronos sits at one of the tables, a beverage in a white cup
sending up whisps of steam in front of him.
Another cup rests on the on top of Chronos's table, at the vacant
seat across from him.
Also on top of Chronos's table is your datapad.
You examine the cup
The cylindrical cups are made of a thin white material. Tendrils of steam waft up from both of them, the liquid inside bubling.
The steam from the cup set before Chronos caresses his lined, beareded face. The other cup is set in front of you.
You look at the datapad
Clear when not being used, the narrow rectangular pane is fitted with handgrips on its short edges, while the long edges are rounded. The device serves as your personal communicator and computer, although it is inadequate for testing most of your code.
Open on the datapad's displayis an ancient document.
You read the document
MISSION LOG11.24.61.1300 (median statistical date approximation)

There has been no update to the mission log for 24 years, as the situation has not changed. Since the death of Captain Iero, the yonger generation raised by the military has formed a militia and has seized control. The bridge has been closed off. Study of the cosmic radiation is being officially terminated, although most research was abandoned long ago.

It is my belief that the radiation is intrinsically tied to the anomaly that overtook us, that it may hold the key to our deliverance. A synopsis of the knowledge acquired about the radiation through research and about the circumstances that lead to our present situation follows.

The emissions are similar to the cosmic noise left over from the birth of the universe, but more intense and focused in a single vector, as if it were a transmitted signal. The radiation spans the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It must also run much deeper than the known spectrum, because dark matter distortions were registered in frequencies corresponding to the emissions.

We first discovered the signal emanating from the exact same vector in which the ancient artifact had been travelling before it was lost, originating from an unknown point outside of the galaxy. This is too vastly improbable to be coincidental. We do not know what happened to this artifac, which has served as our beacon, leading us to and in this journey in the dark. Nor do we know the relationship between the artificat and the radiation. All we know is that when we synchronized our propulsion drives with the frequency of the signal, the stars disappeared from the viewports, and our navigation systems failed.
Our propulsion system was functioning until the photon generators were salvaged 8 years ago, but attempts to travel through this void have yielded no results, as there is no frame of reference to determine motion.

I expect that this will be the final entry in the mission log. This file will be added to the bios of the system synchronization network, to be displayed whenever the network is activated. It is my hope that the next generation will one day renew the study of the emissions, and that our descendents will one day find a way to return to normal space. Good luck, and God speed -- to you and to those whom we left behind.

--- Lewis Yuan, Captain of the Galilei and Liason to the
Council of Thirteen

[....]
You talk to Chronos
In the Garden, sitting at one of the rectangular tables
A harsh yellow light mounted high in the upper corner of the
ceiling illuminates this large, open room. The ground beneath your feet is black and rough, made of some semi-pliable material that emits a faintly bitter odor. A few rectangular tables rise out of the uneven ground, the pliable covering folded away at their legs. Spacious arches in the four walls grant access to the park; the exit to port leads to corridors that soon let out at the ship
Commons, while the way to the elevator leading back to the Grid is opposite.
The tables are nestled among a haphazard arrangement of poles
sticking out of the ground material, representations of the fabled trees of Land.
Chronos sits at one of the tables, a beverage in a white cup
sending up whisps of steam in front of him.
Another cup rests on the on top of Chronos's table, at the vacant
seat across from him.
You lower the datapad and look at Chronos, who nods seriously. "Someone in the Council, or behind the Council, doesn't want the knowledge of the signal to get out," he says, running his index finger over his moustache.
Drink cup
The thick liquid becomes hot an instant after it enters your mouth, but not fast enough to fully create the illusion that it had been hot before. Whisps of steam puff out of your lips as you swallow.
"The document was intended to ensure that future generations understood how we began the Great Journey." Chronos looks at you seriously. "This may be more important than ever now that the Journey has ended but our wandering has not. The signal that drew us here, and the artifact of the Ancestors that came before us.... it is our guide, our beacon to a new home where we can live as we were meant to live."
Wait
Time passes...
Chronos takes a gulp from his cup, a few remaining tendrils of
mist curling about his lips. "Rood, we must distribute the document over the Fleet Cloud. We may not have much time; the Council will be looking to suppress this by any means."
You wait
Time passes...
Drink cup
The thick liquid becomes hot an instant after it enters your mouth, but not fast enough to fully create the illusion that it had been hot before. Whisps of steam puff out of your lips as you swallow.
You talk to Chronos
"We can go to the data center where I work and see if we can hack
the domain protocol," you offer. "The room might be empty right now." "Good. We shouldn't be seen entering at the same time, just in
case the Council is already on to us. You never when they may be watching." Chronos stands with a loud sigh and ambles over to the artificial trees, smiling. "A fine morning!" he exclaims, tossing his empty cup into a receptacle built into the wall.
You examine the trees
They are constructed out of different materials, cast in various shades of green, brown, and yellow. The poles stick vertically out of the ground, although a few are flat beams rather than rods. Each pole or beam is intersected by a shorter pole or beam, the point of intersection ranging from the very top of the verticle pole to near the middle. The intersecting limbs are diverse; some are tilted diagonally, some are sticking out more to one side. Many of the cross-pieces are horizontal and evenly divided along the vertical shaft, forming the geometric shape that is commonly assosciated as the emblem of the Ancestor Tree.
You stand
You get off of the rectangular tables.
Port
You step out of the arch and turn right down a corridor, which you follow for a modest distance before turning left to follow a short corridor that soon terminates in an opening.
Aft
The white ceiling feels alarmingly close as you pass beneath it, low compared to the vast expanse in which the chamber extends laterally. Near the aft end of the Commons, you take a door to starboard, descending as you navigate the maze of twisting little corridors, your feet following their programmed path.

hold the assortment of terminals and screens. The automatic door opens between the girders in the fore wall.
Your favorite workstation stands vacant in your favorite corner, compelling you to start hacking.
Hack
With the special access afforded by these terminals, you navigate the network's security protocols that restric and interpret all access to the lower-level operations and peer-to-peer communications. You try to hack into the original domain protocol, but the codes are ancient and unfamiliar.
You look at the workstation
The terminal waits patiently for your input.
Hack
On a different display, you quickly code an emulation program for the original kernel upon which the layers of protocols have been built.
Hack
Holding your breath, you run a code-cracking virus through your emulation front-end. A few tense moments pass, and then you are in!
Hack
Not wanting to take even the slight risk of sending the document to the terminal through the security-laden upper layers of the Cloud, you reach to plug your datapad into the terminal dock.
The door whisks open, and footsteps clang in a rapid cadence. As
you turn your head to look, your wife rushes into the room, leading four other Militia Investigators. Her gun is levelled at your chest. You only have time to lurch away from the terminal.
"Rood!" Veritas exclaims, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"
Her eyes narrow again as suddenly.
Hack
All that remains is for you to upload the file through the emulation environment you created on that specific terminal.
You talk to veritas
You take a moment to gather your words, glancing at the other investigators. Do you want to tell Veritas about the contents of the document?
Please answer YES or NO:
No
You cross your arms. "I'm just working," you say. "What are you doing here?"
"I want to believe you're just working, Rood," Veritas says,
"because I'm just investigating an unauthorized breach in network security." She walks toward the terminal, her gun half raised in your direction.
The blond-haired female Militia Investigator fidgets anxiously, glancing at the tall male Militia Investigator and the tattooed female Militia Investigator and then staring at Veritas.
You talk to veritas
"That's none of your business!" You protest, trying to move to
turn off the terminal display.
Veritas groans. "Are you trying to make me arrest you?"
Veritas frowns deeply, her forehead creased heavily, as she
continues to hold you at gunpoint.
You talk to veritas
You stare at Veritas. "Have you forgotten what happened to you father? Are you so blind?"
Veritas glares at you venemously. "My father was a hero! How
dare you..."
"And you would subvert what he sacrificed his freedom for, just
to ensure safety? Now I know why you've worn that uniform all these years!" you fire back, breathlessly.
"What the hell is this about? We've got the bastard," the tall
male Militia Investigator says with a snarl at you. "Tora, this had better not be some personal hangup of yours, or else more of that 'truth' shit."
You throw the cup at male
Which male do you mean, the tall male Militia Investigator or the black-haired male Militia Investigator?
You talk to veritas
You stare at Veritas. "Have you forgotten what happened to you father? Are you so blind?"
Veritas glares at you venemously. "My father was a hero! How
dare you..."
"And you would subvert what he sacrificed his freedom for, just
to ensure safety? Now I know why you've worn that uniform all these years!" you fire back, breathlessly.
The blond-haired female Militia Investigator fidgets anxiously, glancing at the tall male Militia Investigator and the tattooed female Militia Investigator and then staring at Veritas.
You turn on the tool
The nozzle at the end of the cylinder emits a faint beam of light, as narrow as a single hair. Then, the base of the nozzle emits a few sparks, and the beam pulses several times. The beam dissapears, replaced by a broader, pulsating blade of light, extending only a few inches out from the nozzle.
Veritas frowns deeply, her forehead creased heavily, as she
continues to hold you at gunpoint.
You turn off the terminal
You'd feel better if you at least try to patch the most recent errors in your crawler routines before giving up.
Veritas frowns deeply, her forehead creased heavily, as she
continues to hold you at gunpoint.
Hack
All that remains is for you to upload the file through the emulation environment you created on that specific terminal.
Veritas frowns deeply, her forehead creased heavily, as she
continues to hold you at gunpoint.
You talk to tall male
The tall male Militia Investigator is listening.
Veritas frowns deeply, her forehead creased heavily, as she
continues to hold you at gunpoint.
Veritas looks at you with dull eyes. "I have no choice but to
arrest you." she pulls
the datapad and the laser tool out of your hands. She nods to the black-haired male Militia Investigator who binds your wrists tightly behind your back.
You throw the cup at veritas
You ultimately decide that throwing the steaming cup at Veritas Tora isn't such a great idea.
The blond-haired female Militia Investigator fidgets anxiously, glancing at the tall male Militia Investigator and the tattooed female Militia Investigator and then staring at Veritas.
Veritas looks at you with dull eyes. "I have no choice but to
arrest you." she pulls
the datapad and the laser tool out of your hands. She nods to the black-haired male Militia Investigator who binds your wrists tightly behind your back.
You throw the cup at the terminal
What exactly are you hoping for?
The blond-haired female Militia Investigator fidgets anxiously, glancing at the tall male Militia Investigator and the tattooed female Militia Investigator and then staring at Veritas.
Veritas looks at you with dull eyes. "I have no choice but to
arrest you." she pulls
the datapad and the laser tool out of your hands. She nods to the black-haired male Militia Investigator who binds your wrists tightly behind your back.
You turn on the tool
The nozzle at the end of the cylinder emits a faint beam of light, as narrow as a single hair. Then, the base of the nozzle emits a few sparks, and the beam pulses several times. The beam dissapears, replaced by a broader, pulsating blade of light, extending only a few inches out from the nozzle.
Veritas looks at you with dull eyes. "I have no choice but to
arrest you." she pulls
the datapad and the laser tool out of your hands. She nods to the black-haired male Militia Investigator who binds your wrists tightly behind your back.
You close the door
The automatic door is already closed.
You turn on tool
The nozzle at the end of the cylinder emits a faint beam of light, as narrow as a single hair. Then, the base of the nozzle emits a few sparks, and the beam pulses several times. The beam dissapears, replaced by a broader, pulsating blade of light, extending only a few inches out from the nozzle.
Yes
You look firmly into her hazel eyes. "I'm restoring what was
lost," you say.
"Veritas arches an eyebrow quizically and glances at one of the
other Investigators. Then she walks over to the terminal, looking at the screen. "What is this?"
You talk to veritas
You show her the datapad.
"A message from the first generation of those who embarked upon
the Great Journey. A message that we were supposed to keep and remember. Someone deliberately tried to destroy it, and there are still people who want to censor the truth."
"You're sounding like Chronos," Veritas says. Her eyes move back
and forth, reading the text on the datapad, but the corner of her mouth turns up in a smirk, like the woman you've always known.
"Hm..." Veritas taps her lips with the index finger of her left
hand as she looks up from the datapad. She stares at you for a long moment, her expression unreadable.
You talk to veritas
"Veritas, you have to believe me. The people have to remember,
or we'll never complete the journey that our ancestors began. We have to patch this file..."
"Do it. Now," Veritas interrupts in a hurried whisper, glancing
back at the other Investigators. You stand shocked for a moment, too surprised to move.
Veritas glances significantly at one of the other Investigators,
the black-haired male Militia Investigator. She nods faintly. "Investigator Veritas, what are you doing?" the tall, scruffy man
says in a nasally, whiny voice. "If you have personal conflicts, step down from this case without wasting more of my time.
"Now..." she says softly.
Hack
All that remains is for you to upload the file through the emulation environment you created on that specific terminal.
"Drop your weapons!" The man nearer to you and Veritas bellows, turning on his heels to point his gun at the tall man in the back as Veritas and the blond-haired Investigator do the same, holding up the tattooed woman, who gasps.
Veritas straightens, looking more confident. "I'm sorry, Sadt, Umund," she says to the two Investigators who have dropped their weapons and are slowly raising their hands. "You're just doing your duty. But my duty to uphold the law compelled me to investigate the abuses of authority and censorship that the Council denies, as much as I wish they weren't there." She looks at you. "I'm sorry I never told you, Rood. I thought you were too content to support my cause -- I know how you hate politics. I didn't want to distress you." She looks at you earnestly.
"Oh, so that's it, is it, bitch," the tall male Militia
Investigator says to your wife, a leer contorting his face. "Always snooping where you don't belong, sending your squad into restricted levels without authorization, carrying on about that 'truth' shit. This is the end of you, Tora!" he screams.
You cut tall male with the tool
(First turning on the laser tool.)
The nozzle at the end of the cylinder emits a faint beam of light, as narrow as a single hair. Then, the base of the nozzle emits a few sparks, and the beam pulses several times. The beam dissapears, replaced by a broader, pulsating blade of light, extending only a few inches out from the nozzle.
You don't see any purpose in damaging the tall male Militia Investigator.
Hack
All that remains is for you to upload the file through the emulation environment you created on that specific terminal.
The tattooed female Militia Investigator lets out a constant
string of obscene curses under her breath, glaring spitefully at Veritas, the black-haired male Militia Investigator, and you, although her most hateful looks are reserved for Veritas.
"Veritas draws a slow breath. "We will be presenting our
accusations before the Council and before all the people," she says with composure. "Sadt, Umund -- we'll have to hold you captive for now, I'm afraid, but we'll release you after we've publicized our evidence."
Hack
All that remains is for you to upload the file through the emulation environment you created on that specific terminal.
The blond-haired female Militia Investigator groans faintly as
she points her gun at the tattooed female Militia Investigator. Tears collect at the blond-haired female Militia Investigator's eyelids. "Step away from your weapons, turn around, and keep your hands
up," the black-haired male Militia Investigator calmly instructs Sadt and Umund. They comply with much cursing.
Upload document
You thrust your datapad into the port on the bracket dock of the terminal. You force the strange cicumstances out of your mind and efficiently transfer the file onto the terminal before proceeding to type the console command to patch the file onto the Cloud's operating domain protocol.
Before you can finish, one of the women Investigators swears
loudly behind you. "Get in here now!" Out of the corner of your eye, you notice, the blond-haired female Militia Investigator lower the comm-link on her wrist, raising her gun toward you.
"No, Rin!" Veritas yells, jumping in front of you at the time
that the black-haired male Militia Investigator curses, both he and Veritas aiming at the blond-haired female Militia Investigator.
You whirl back around and finish typing the command. As you jam
the key to send the command to the terminal, the doors whisk open behind you once again, and again you hear the thunder of footsteps. You see the terminal's display clear and flash the statistics of the Fleet Cloud's architecture, indicating that the command was accepted, and the screen explodes in front of your face. Veritas grabs you from behind and pulls you down to the floor.
You wait
Time passes...
Guards immediately grab the tall male Militia Investigator and
the tattooed female Militia Investigator, who comply rigidly and jerkily. The guards begin to escort the blond-haired female Militia Investigator out as well, but she turns back to look at Veritas, her green eyes wide. The guards start to push her back, and she turns and runs out the door, weaving among the members of the squad.
One of the guards at the front of the formation speaks into her
wrist. "Security breach targeted. Confirm neutralization order?" Veritas closes her eyes, and then smiles faintly. "Well, if
we're all going to die together, we might as well get to know one another," she says, looking between the black-haired male Militia Investigator and you. "Rood, this Euros Markon. Along with Rinaldi Fletcher -- the woman who turned on us -- we were investigating the abuses of the Council. We were sent to look into your security breach, but unfortunately Stadt and Umund were assigned with us."
You give the tool to Veritas
Veritas Tora politely refuses.
"Euros, my husband Rood," Veritas says, smiling softly at you.
Euros Markon nods.
You wait
Time passes...
"Affirmative," the guard at the front of the formation says.
They all raise their weapons. You and Veritas hold hands.
Shining white figures suddenly appear throughout the room,
darting around rapidly without moving their legs. "What in the name of the Thirteen?" one Guard cries, joined by a chorus of surprised gasps and yells. A few shots are fired, sending sparks and flames from the girders along the walls and from unlucky terminals.

"We must hurry." You turn at the sound of the voice to see
Chronos standing beside you, holding out a black rod.
"Where did you come from?" Veritas asks.
"No time to explain," Chronos says, looking to you. "Is it
done?"
Fore
A whole unit of armed Guards stands in your way.
"They're just light!" A guard yells. "Ignore them."
"There, in the corner!" You instinctively turn at the sound of gunfire, compressing your body behind your outstreatched arms. Your heart counts several rapid beats, and then you notice that the charges are being deflected harmlessly, the air shimmering in a broad arc around the meter-long black rod that Chronos holds with each impact. Crouching behind the meter-long black rod, Chronos leads your
small group along the back wall of the room, ducking behind the girders for cover.
A brilliant, featureless humanoid figure suddenly appears out of nowhere in your corner of the room, proceeding to zip outward toward the guards.
You examine the figure
Humanoid in shape, the figures look like the brilliant outlines of men and women. They glide about rapidly across the floor, appearing and disappearing at random.
Someone yanks you away from the ruined console, and you find
yourself huddled together with Veritas, Chronos, and Euros Markon. Chronos holds his rod vertically in the center of the group, and you notice that outside of your small circle, everything looks distorted and hazy.
"I entered through a secret hatch," Chronos says, looking around carefully. "That's the problem with invisibility fields; they make it difficult for you to see, as well," he mutters quietly. He leads you silently along the girders, gunshots crashing around you, until you come to a wall bracket that has been folded down to the floor, revealing a square opening at its base.
"Well, I might as well go first," Veritas says quietly. She
lowers her body feet-first into the opening and disappears into darkness.
"You go next, Rood," Chronos tells you. "Then Euros will follow,
and I will go last. Quickly, now."
You enter the opening
You fall for about a meter before your feet catch on rungs. You begin to climb down, your back rubbing uncomfortably against the wall of the tunnel. The dim light from above flickers as Euros begins his descent above you, and you continue on for a long time.
At last, the vertical tunnel ends in a low horizontal tunnel.
Hearing movement ahead of you, you crouch and proceed. You soon find a place where the metal wall has been cut away crudely, leaving rough, rust-coated edges. You crawl into the hole, leading to a narrow shaft that branches out in many directions. The only branch wide enough to allow passage ends in rectangle of light. You push yourself through and stumble to the floor.
A familiar hand grasps your arm, helping you to your feet.

Rows of racks stick out perpendicular to the panelled walls, a
hole in which provided your entry. The racks contain a varied assortment of peculiar objects. An aisle between the racks runs down the middle of the long room. The floor is covered with a strange soft, textured, light-brown material, sort of like the polyfoam of a sleeping alcove or a seat cushion, except rougher and less pliable. The two exits on the ends of the room are sealed fast, plates of
metal welded over them. Your datapad's orientation app shows that the sealed doors face fore and aft.
Veritas Tora is here. Veritas carries a handgun.
You look at racks
The inside of the shelves are filled with lots of strange things -- reams of paper bound by vertical spines and lined in horizontal rows; screens and other digital devices that look completely foreign; and miscellaneous small objects, such as a little spindly contraption consisting of a white dish with an antenna sticking out.
Euros Markon's upper body appears in the hole in the wall. You
and Veritas help lower him down.
You examine paper
The small, square piece of paper is folded down the center. Several uneven, erratic appear on the sheet in depressed, red markings:
Meet me at the garden.

You only know of one person who would care to learn the Ancestor technique of writing characters by hand, or who would have cause to meet with you. The secrecy, however, is confusing.
You look at objects
The inside of the shelves are filled with lots of strange things -- reams of paper bound by vertical spines and lined in horizontal rows; screens and other digital devices that look completely foreign; and miscellaneous small objects, such as a little spindly contraption consisting of a white dish with an antenna sticking out.
You talk to veritas
You and Veritas reminisce about the time you first realized you were in love.
You get all
Veritas Tora: Veritas Tora probably wouldn't be too big on that idea. Euros Markon: Euros Markon probably wouldn't be too big on that idea.
You examine Euros
Average of both height and build, this man wears his gray Investigator uniform with sharp precision. His black hair is trimmed neatly around his ears. His hard, square face bears an angular black goatee, leaving his cheeks perfectly shaven. His eyes are stormy gray; his complection lightly pigmented.
Chronos carefully extricates himself from the hole in the wall, passing his rod off to Veritas and then collecting it again after you help him down.
You examine the rod
The black rod appears to be several centimeters thick, gradually tapering off along its length so that both ends are narrower, covered in identical, silvery reflective caps. The central portion of the rod is riveted for secure gripping, while nearer to both ends are dials that encircle the diameter of the rod.
Chronos straightens his long coat and looks around, a faint smile
on his face. "Welcome to my library," he says, turning to face Veritas, Euros Markon, and you. "I'm afraid we won't be visiting here long," he says, beginning to walk down the aisle, looking fondly at the items on the racks.
You talk to Chronos
"Those holograms were yours I take it," you say.
Chronos grins broadly. "I can do many things with the systems
onboard this ship that they don't teach you in Tech training. Holograms are quite easy to program, really."
Chronos picks up one of the bound reams of paper. You notice the symbol of the Ancestor Tree embossed in silver on the flexible back cover before Chronos sets the bound ream back, shaking his head softly.
"I've lived for a very long time, and now I don't even have time
to save a few books and artifacts from my library," he says, looking wistfully along the racks. He turns back to you and the others, his voice becoming deep and serious. "I was unable to completely disable the transponder implant they put in me. They'll find us soon, and we need to move on. Now," he says, looking you in the eye, "did you suceed? Is Lewis Yuan's letter back on the Fleet Cloud protocol where it belongs?"
You talk to Chronos
"I think so," you say, "but I can't be sure it worked."
Chronos nods. "Then we will proceed as it we knew it did, and
trust to fate. That is, after all, all we can ever do. So, people are becoming aware of Yuan's message by now, as they check their daily communications, research the approved databases, view their entertainment, and waste time playing adventure games." He twirls the meter-long black rod in his hands and spreads his feet. "Many of those people are becoming rather upset right now. They may support us, if we can offer more proof, if we can show them a tangible way to do as Yuan suggested. Our course of action is clear," he says, enthusiasm spilling through his voice. "We must find the Bridge!"
You cut the fore panel with the tool
You haven't encountered any "north panel". (If you're sure you need to refer to that, try putting it another way.)
Fore
The way is sealed fast.
You talk to Chronos
You ask Chronos about some of your favorite stories that he used to tell when you were a child. Chronos explains the Ancestor myths and the legends about the beginning of the Great Journey that he combined and embellished for those stories.
You cut aft with the tool
You set the laser tool to provide a concentrated beam for cutting. Then you stab at the metal sheet, turning your head as sparks fly.
Continue
The sheet of metal offers significant resistance as the laser blade bites deeply into it. When you've inserted the beam to its full length on the current setting, you pull up with difficulty.
"Chronos, why do you call this place your library?" Veritas asks. "Because I saved it," he replies, stroking his beard with his
left hand. "Back when I served on the Council, I fought to keep old places like this maintained and open to the public. I was not particularly successful, but I did, at least, prevent my opponents from dismantling this room."
Keep going
You cut a jagged, roughly vertical line up the side of the metal plate, and then turn horizontally inward toward the bolts. The resistance increases.
"After this room was closed and sealed, I never brought it up
again, counting on their short-sightedness to forget it," Chronos continues. "And so, by the time they threw me out of the Council, this place was utterly forgotten."
Continue
You dig the laser beam into the center of the metal sheet and then adjust its setting, making the beam less intense but increasing its resonance. The sheet begins to glow, molten metal dripping down as you slowly move the beam around the reinforced center.
"And what of the secret entrance?" asks Euros, leaning against
the racks.
Chronos nods. "Some time after that, I built the secret exit
from the Data Center to access restricted areas, using old ventilation shafts. I used to come here ever so often, up until they rigged my skull with that accursed transponder." He looks at you and Veritas, smiling faintly. "After they arrested me for conducting that Remembering service, when the two of you sat in the front row and listened to the word of what came before us."
Keep going
You switch off the laser tool and readust its setting. Turning it back on, you cut along the opposite side of the door from the part where you began, now making quick, sweeping motions.
You keep going
You connect the cuts that you made, digging multiple grooves to fragment the door into smaller and smaller sections. Despite your efforts, the scarred barrier remains intact. You struggle, thrashing the metal sheet almost randomly.
"Maybe you've weakened it enough." You turn your head to see
Euros standing beside you, his gun raised. You step back, and Veritas lays a hand on your shoulder, smiling encouragingly. She guides you behind her, and then raises her own gun. Euros nods to her, and then both begin firing at the door, each impact scouring a dent.
The metal sheet buckles, and its center begins to crumble. Euros
and Veritas take aim at the weakest point, blasting a jagged gap and revealing the blockade to have been nearly a meter thick. They shoot along the welded arch but succeed only in knocking off a little more material.
Veritas stops shooting, and then Euros gives up a moment later.
"We just a need a little more," he says.
Continue
(First turning on the laser tool.)
The nozzle at the end of the cylinder emits a faint beam of light, as narrow as a single hair. Then, the base of the nozzle emits a few sparks, and the beam pulses several times. The beam dissapears, replaced by a broader, pulsating blade of light, extending only a few inches out from the nozzle.
The laser beam grinds edge of the hole blasted through the
center. With much effort, you widen the gap, loosening and then slicing off chunks of metal.
Chronos approaches. "Allow me," he says, gesturing for you to
step away. He points the meter-long black rod at the door, and then turns one of the dials on it. A humming sound grows steadily louder, and the aft arch begins to vibrate and tremble, causing the whole room to shake. Chronos rapidly adjusts something else on the rod, and the sections that you cut into the sheet collapse inward with a loud crash.
Chronos lowers the meter-long black rod. "The way is clear,
Euros. You should be able to lose them in the old ventilation shafts, but I will let you form your own plan. Take care," he says to Euros, and then turns to you and Veritas. "Come here, and stay close to me," he says, moving to the corner next to the cleared aft exit.
"If I do escape, I'll try to rally support," Euros says, looking
from you to Veritas to Chronos. He turns abruptly and ducks through the jagged opening, just as the rattling of guns charges against the other side of the fore-door increases in intensity."
You turn off the laser
The lazer blade pulses and then disappears.
"We'll hide here," Chronos says, crouching with his back to the
port wall, between two of the racks. You and Veritas beside each other, Veritas propped against the aft-facing rack and you against the fore. The sound of shearing, scourging impacts continues.
Chronos turns a dial on the meter-long black rod, and the space
beyond the back end of the racks suddenly looks hazy and distorted, as during your escape from the Data Center.
Wait
Time passes...
The room shakes with an explosion, followed by footsteps.
"They should be here," a gruff masculine voice says.
The footsteps thud the length of the room. You hear the contents
of the shelves being thrown roughly out of the racks. A guard wearing a shock-suit comes into view at the end of your rack. "They may have escaped," the guard says, gesturing at the aft exit with her gun. "Search this room first," says the first voice. "I'm reading
life signs."
The guard standing at the end of the two racks between which you
hand suddenly yells, dropping her gun as a point on her arm erupts in flame. As the guard jumps to the side, the retort of gunfire resounds several times more, coming from the aft exit.
"Proceed! The lifesigns must be coming from the other side of
the wall!" A guard runs past your rack, firing through the aft exit. He steps to one side of the opening as the rest of the guards file quickly past.
The guard holds up his fist, stopping the last two of his
underlings from leaving. "Burn this stuff," he says, firing his weapon into the racks of artifacts. The other two guards follow his example, blasting the contents of the racks. You and Veritas pull Chronos down to the floor, flattening yourselves as charges explode over your heads. As they turn to leave, the guards shoot the floor, igniting the soft material.
Chronos rises stiffly and brushes himself off. He looks over the devastion and grimaces.
You talk to Chronos
Chronos listens as you tell him the technical details about your demographics program that turned up the ancient document.
"I know a thing a two about programming, myself," Chronos says.
"The Ancestors used to have a special title of honor reserved for the very best programmers. I would say, Rood, you just might be a regular 'wizard'!"
You look at the racks
All is destroyed.
You talk to veritas
The two of you speculate about what the meaning of the name that was randomly selected as your surname at the time of your melding from the pool of the names of your ancestors in both of your families.
Fore
You follow Veritas past the ruins of the sealed-off portal.
Chronos takes a step through as well, but then turns back,
looking slowly around the ashes of the scorched library. "This too will arise again," he mutters, and then turns and enters the tunnel. "Onward!"
Your journey through the sealed tunnels is long and dark. You
pass unchallenged, relying on Chronos's knoweldge of the route, until you arrive back in the less clandestine corridors. Chronos activates an invisiblity field with his rod, but every turn seems to be occupied by Militia Guards. As you gradually progress toward the Commons, you see increasing signs of chaos.

A battle rages in the Commons, concentrated near the aft end. At
this end, people can be seen running from point to point, careful to avoid each other. The ground is littered with signs of chaos and death.
Chronos Han is here. Chronos holds a meter-long black rod.
Fore
You encounter no one as you pass through the commons. As you reach the corridor beyond, all is unusually quiet, except for the echoes of the distant chaos.

Removed from the central passageways of the Godspeed, no
more than two travelers could pass with comfortable distance between them. The walls here are panelled in strips of the unknown alloy of the older parts of the ship, but the homogenous white material of the newer renovations begins just meters down the corridor to
aft. To fore, the corridor narrows further and
angles upward in a ramp, leading to the observation dome.
Chronos Han is here. Chronos holds a meter-long black rod.
"Here!" Chronos says, rapping on the wall panels with his
knucles. "I believe the entrance corridor leading to the bridge can be found behind this wall."
You cut the panel with the tool
(First turning on the laser tool.)
The nozzle at the end of the cylinder emits a faint beam of light, as narrow as a single hair. Then, the base of the nozzle emits a few sparks, and the beam pulses several times. The beam dissapears, replaced by a broader, pulsating blade of light, extending only a few inches out from the nozzle.
You cut a broad rectangular outline through the wall panneling.
You prise up the severed panels and toss them aside, raising your laser tool to work on the material underneath.
"They've caught us!" Veritas lays a hand on your shoulder,
distracting you from your excavations. You look to see Guards run toward you from the direction of the Commons, while others thunder down the ramp from the observation dome."
"They knew we were coming," Chronos growls, brandishing the
meter-long black rod. "Well, perhaps they will get more than they bargained for!"
Keep going
You slash through the inner wall material as fast as you can, sending sparks flying as you shear circuitry.
You continue
The powerful beam emitted by the laser tool digs deeper into the wall. You discover a hollow area beyond and widen the hole. Now you should be able to pass through to whatever may lie on the other side.
You enter the hole
field. Chronos turns on his heel and jumps back to the port wall as you and Veritas crouch behind him into the crude opening you carved through the wall. Chronos falls to his knees, cranking the dials on the meter-long black rod. He looks up at you. "Remember."
You fall backward, shielding Veritas with your body. The wall of
the corridor collapses on top of you.

[....]
You look
It's too dark to see anything.
Go east
You no longer have enough motivation or strength to explore the other end of this dark hallway. This end terminates in an opening right here. You may as well go that way.
You talk to veritas
You flex your feet, and the mild pain informs you that they
obeyed. "Yes, I think I can stand," you tell her.
"Good." You feel her grab you under your arms, supporting some
of your weight.
You leave
The guards are probably still out there.
Go inside
The room is open and rectangular, with a high ceiling and almost
as many stations and terminals lining the walls as in the Data Center. At one end, the floor descends three steps into a depressed cockpit, where the wall arches out elliptically, containing three seats built into displays and terminals. The other end is mostly taken up by a large door, its two sides clamped together. On either side of the door are two small open archways; you don't even know which is the one you came through.
Above the depression, a wide arch spans from wall to wall.
Displayed prominently on the center of the arch is an emblem, at once familiar and different.
Veritas looks around slowly, her eyes wide.
You examine the emblem
Mounted high on the arch is a depiction of the circular Serpent emblem. Instead of devouring a star where its head and tail meet, as in the symbol used by the Militia, this serpent is swallowing its own tail, closing the circle completely.
You examine the cockpit
Beneath the arch at the end of the room, the depressed area contains three chairs between its curving walls with ample room between them.
A ledge runs along the curve of the wall, flaring out toward the two chairs that are closer to the sides. The central chair rests at the center of a broad view of the stars, covering half the arc of the depression's wall.
Veritas walks forward, gazing up at the plaque of the Serpent
emblem. Then she touches the patch of the Serpent devouring the Star on her Militia Investigator uniform.
You sit on the central chair
You haven't encountered any "central chair". (If you're sure you need to refer to that, try putting it another way.)
You enter the cockpit
You get into the depressed area.

On the Bridge, in the depressed area
Veritas Tora is here. Veritas carries a handgun.
Look around
On the Bridge, in the depressed area
The room is open and rectangular, with a high ceiling and almost
as many stations and terminals lining the walls as in the Data Center. At one end, the floor descends three steps into a depressed cockpit, where the wall arches out elliptically, containing three seats built into displays and terminals. The other end is mostly taken up by a large door, its two sides clamped together. On either side of the door are two small open archways; you don't even know which is the one you came through.
Above the depression, a wide arch spans from wall to wall.
Displayed prominently on the center of the arch is an emblem, at once familiar and different.
Veritas Tora is here. Veritas carries a handgun.
You go outside
You get out of the depressed area.
Veritas looks around slowly, her eyes wide.
You examine the display
Some of them look passingly similar to technology that you've used, but most of the equipment here appears specialized, built around diagrams of ship structures or strange input interfaces. Lights flicker on and off on some of the displays, but the equipment doesn't appear to be activated.
Search equipment
You don't find anything new.
Veritas walks forward, gazing up at the plaque of the Serpent
emblem. Then she touches the patch of the Serpent devouring the Star on her Militia Investigator uniform.
You talk to veritas
"The Serpent devours only itself," you observe, noticing Veritas observing the plaque of the Serpent emblem.
"Yes," Veritas says. "Over and over again, forever." Her voice
is heavy. "Chronos would have had something to say about it, for sure." She quivers, and you put your arm around her.
You examine the chair
Displays and controls hang out over all three chairs, the ledge from the wall of the depressed command area flaring out before the left and right chairs. The center chair is positioned between and a little behind the other two, before the massive viewport that wraps around the curve of the wall.
You look at the viewport
Beneath the arch at the end of the room, the depressed area contains three chairs between its curving walls with ample room between them.
A ledge runs along the curve of the wall, flaring out toward the two chairs that are closer to the sides. The central chair rests at the center of a broad view of the stars, covering half the arc of the depression's wall.
You hear movement from halls behind the bridge. Scraping, and
the sound of footfalls.
You talk to veritas
The two of you speculate about what the meaning of the name that was randomly selected as your surname at the time of your melding from the pool of the names of your ancestors in both of your families.
Veritas stands beside you, raising her handgun veritcally
parallel to her face. "For Chronos," she whispers. "For truth."
You take the handgun from Veritas
There is more to firing a handgun than pointing it and pulling the trigger. Veritas is trained in its use, and you are not.
The sound from beyond the bridge quiets to a soft clammor. A
single person, a blond-haired woman, steps through. She looks up at you and Veritas and walks toward you, but stops and raises her hands as Veritas targets her.
"Rin..." Veritas says without emotion.
You examine Rin
This short young woman fidgets where she stands, her green eyes wide, her trembling hand holding her weapon in your general direction. Her fair-skinned faced is creased in a grimace, framed by sheets of long blond hair.
"Veritas -- you were right. It was... really hard to turn on you
like that... I'm sorry; I thought it was what I had to do. After... when I saw how they ordered your instant death and destruction of everything found with you -- and your husband too, and your greatfather...." Rin looks around, and then back at Veritas. "Oh... your greatfather! Is he... uh..."
Wait
Time passes...
Veritas snarls at the woman. "Then what are you doing here?"
"Coming to find you!" Rin exclaims, her eyes wide. "Before the remaining Council forces can get you. You see, the people of the Godspeed turned against the Council, partly due to the old
document you put on the Cloud, and partly due to the martial law and all the abductions and lock-downs that followed. Plus, many members of the Bureau of Investigation turned out to have been on our side, or else they turned to our side when they saw all the corruption. The Bureau of the Guard has been more stubborn; they're trained to obey and not to think about it much. But even some of the high-ranking Guard officers declared neutrality when they understood that we don't want to overthrow the entire government, just the people suppressing the truth."
You talk to Rin
"How can we possibly trust you?" you ask her.
The woman opens her mouth to speak, but a male voice from behind
her cuts her off. "I wouldn't have believed her either." Euros steps out of one of the hallways behind the bridge and walk to stand beside Rinaldi. "But when the Guards caught me, she found me and ordered them to release me." He looks at her, brows knit together. "There's a lot of questions I still want answered," he says, "but I believe we can trust her for now. At any rate, if she tries anything, the army of civilians and Investigators that she and I lead to retake the fore section is waiting just outside." He grins.

[....]
The process of restoring order is long and tense. You have never
been more glad to be a simple Data Tech, not one to be involved in the convolusions of politics and war. Veritas, on the other hand, played a key role in reorganizing the Militia, preventing the more radical supporters of the uprising from throwing out and imprisoning everyone who was loyal to the Old Council. The people recognized her efforts and elected her as the representative of the Godspeed on the
New Council. You know that the reluctance with which she finally accepted the position was no mere modesty; you've seen her anxiety and her agonzied uncertainty. Ultimately, her sense of duty to the law and to the truth lead her to accept, and you know that she will serve with honor.
The bridge has been undergoing restoration, the best scientists, techs, and engineers working constantly to discover how to use the sensory and navigation technology onboard the ship that has served as your home and the home of your ancestors. The signal that Lewis Yuan wrote about has already been rediscovered, exactly as he described all those generations ago. It is only a matter of time before the long-dormant propulsion system is attuned once again to the Signal, and then you will once again be following the Beacon toward your destiny.
You've had a hand in the renovations, helping to translate
between the ancient systems on the bridge and on other old and long-forgotten parts of the ship and the current operating environment, and to sift through and decode the vast amount of information stored in ancient snapshots of the Fleet Cloud and on ancient data storage devices. But you have a more important duty by far.

[....]
It is time for the Remembering.

Beneath the Heavens, standing on the central platform
People crowd the three tiers of the stands, some shifting
excitedly, others sitting still in a reverential bearing. Completing the circle around the back of the platform are the endless stars of the New Heaven, which stretch above the transparent dome that forms the ceiling. A small arch opens above the center of the top tier of the stands, on the port side of the room.
Rinaldi Fletcher is sitting with Euros, looking toward you and
smiling meekly.
Euros Markon is sitting in the stands, his arm around Rin's
shoulder. He looks at you with an intense gaze, joyful but serious. Veritas sits boldly in the front row, smiling at you.
You talk to the people
You look over the audience, drawing a slow, deep breath. Veritas beams at you.
"The Ancestors did not live as we do. They lived on and communed
with the very spheres of the Heavens themselves. We were never meant to go on living in these ships forever. We need Land. We need Sea. We need Wind. We need Trees.
"At least now we once again have the stars. During the Great
Journey from the Old Heavens, our ancestors saw no stars for many generations. Some thought that the stars were no more than a story told to ignorant children before sleep rotation. Most of those who knew that the Heavens really had once existed thought that the stars had actually vanished altogether. In our arrogance, we allowed ourselves to believe that we had no need for the stars. The Council declared that we were the only light, that our Fleet was the entire universe.
"But there was one man who remembered. His name was Chronos Han.
As a young Systems Tech on the Galaxy, Chronos saw the
ancient systems that had long since been shut away or ransacked. He dedicated his life to finding out the true purpose of the Fleet, of learning all he could about the Ancestors. He boldly declared that the Fleet was not all that is, that we came from the Heavens and that our fate was bound together with the Heavens.
"Chronos suffered many things at the hands of arrogant people.
He was imprisoned several times by the Militia and was tortured at the order Council in an attempt to make him recant. He and his family were threatened, his property confiscated, his name maligned. No matter what was done to him, he never stopped insisting that the Heavens were real, until he was proven right beyond all possibility of denial.
"The stars reappeared at last, after a hundred generations had
lived died without them. But sadly, our foolish arrogance is so great that we very soon forgot the Ancestors once again, and we went on living as if the Fleet itself were our only purpose. Chronos gave his life so that we could have evidence to hold on to, so that we can believe that we came from a better place and are still seeking a better existence.
"Be sure that we will forget again, because we are always
devouring ourselves in our arrogance. However, it is just as certain that people will always long for the depths of the past and the promise of destiny. That is why we will not utterly forget, until our feet tread upon the surface of the New Land."

You lower your head and step forward to sit down next to Veritas.
You look straight ahead, silently, everyone else doing the same. Already small with distance, you see the canister in which Chronos's body was laid, emblazoned with the motif of the Ancestor Tree. He will journey forever among the stars, until the Heavens are born again.