text: [Themes: Science Fiction]
  
  > 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.
  
  > go outside
  You get out of the depressed area.
  Veritas looks around slowly, her eyes wide.
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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."
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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."
  
  > 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.
  
  > 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.