Patchwork Universe

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 9:38 pm Post subject: Oh no, not again...

Doctor Brainstorm woke up.

He was lying on the floor of the control room. The lights were dimmed, the monitors were silent, the silence was broken only by the reassuring hum of cooling fans, and clearly something had gone very badly wrong.

"Sakura, are you online?" he asked. There didn't seem to be any reason to get up just yet.

"I am online," a gentle female voice replied. "The base systems are currently in hibernation mode. No systems damage is detected. Reactor output is at five percent. The defence grid is offline."

"Huh. Okay. Bring the reactor back up to twenty percent. Activate the defence grid as soon as you have power. How are the batteries?"

"The batteries are fully charged."

"Interesting. Where's Fermion?"

"Fermion is in hydroponics dome two."

"Okay." Now for the difficult question. "What happened?"

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 7:44 pm Post subject:

"I have no data," said Sakura. "I was monitoring the mission, and then you were here. The base systems were powered down and the batteries were charged, but there was no evidence of any downtime. I am... confused."

"We've been reset, I suppose," said Brainstorm bitterly. "So we lost, huh? Who else is still around?"

"I can see six transponders. Well, six and a half."

"Six and a half?" Doctor Brainstorm sat up. "What do you mean?"

"The signal from Zaritza is very faint and intermittent. It's not signalling any errors, but I can only see it about ten percent of the time."

"Let me take a look. Redirect the logs to terminal one, please?"

Picking himself up off the floor, he moved over to the primary workstation and examined the display.

"Hmm, that is pretty odd," he remarked. "The timestamp's off by a couple of days. I don't see Jones's. And what's up with the Rose Garden?"

"I cannot say," replied Sakura tolerantly. "We know that time distortions are possible."

"Distortions, yes, but just look at the synchronisation. That's not a distortion, that's a jump. We... It seems most likely that we've been away for longer than I thought. Deploy a camera drone, won't you? Let's see what we can see."

He sat back in the Big Comfy Leather Chair and drummed his fingers thoughtfully.

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 8:11 pm Post subject:

On the surface, one of the smaller domes moved... Well, rotated at least. A hole not entirely unlike the muzzle of a cannon came into view, and it fired something vertically into the air before smoothly turning back into place.

The object it fired, a squat black cylinder a couple of feet across, soared into the air. It spun rapidly around its long axis, and a second or so after it was launched a rocket ignitied in the base, rapidly carrying it high into the sky...

...And down below in the bunker, pictures began to appear on the screens in the control room. Pictures of the wastelands outside, and pictures of the mists - Pictures taken in the visible spectrum and far beyond, pictures composed with imaging radar, pictures composed with ladar, pictures composed by yet more obscure means. Down at the workstation, a map started to appear. It was made up of little square icons, and very approximately chevron-shaped, with a couple of extra squares greyed out at each side. Several of the squares were blinking.

"We have been away a long time," Doctor Brainstorm muttered. "I barely recognise any of this. Is that an ocean to the north west?"

"Apparently," replied Sakura. "I can only see the corner, of course."

"Of course." He sighed with resignation. "I'm going to have to go out there, I guess. We need to know if Jones is still around, and I've got a really bad feeling about that Zaritza transponder. Can we call the Cardinal?"

"I believe so."

"Great. Give it a try, please?"

"Of course. Stand by..."

The Cardinal · Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:19 pm Post subject:

"Receiving a transmission now," Sakura said and her voice was replaced by the dry measured tones of the Cardinal.

"This is the Cardinal calling Brainstorm. Are you there?"

[ooc note: From The Chantry: 'The Poisoned Chalice']

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:21 am Post subject:

"Great minds think alike, I guess," said Brainstorm. "Okay, put me on."

"Cardinal, yes, I'm here. It seems we have some things to discuss..."

The Cardinal · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 10:23 am Post subject:

To say the Cardinal sounded relieved would be stating the matter too strongly. Nonethless he proceded to speak with a little more speed than usual and a certain tension behind his voice.

"The Chantry appears to have been rewound to a time before the war. I suspect the lower clergy of having had their memories expunged. I have yet to speak with the senior members of the church."

"Have you experienced a similiar distemporality?"

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:47 pm Post subject:

"Similar, perhaps. My monitoring systems still have records of the war, but many other things seem to have been, I don't know, 'tidied up' might be the best way to put it."

He looked around the control room with a slight paranoid suspicion, but dismissed the thought swiftly.

"I also notice that the map has changed. I think we've been gone for a while."

The Cardinal · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:00 pm Post subject:

There was a brief pause in communication and a rustle of sound from the other end of the transmission carrier before the Cardinal spoke again.

"I had intended to ask if our allies had been similarly 'reset'. But I've received news that at least one of the circle is active."

His voice became dryer as he explained:
"The Lobster has just crossed over from the north. Mercifully with only ten men, which suggests that at least some of the legions survived the battle. I do hope he's not going to be difficult."

"If all the circle are back, you may be about to have another Wizard Problem, my friend."

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:23 pm Post subject:

Brainstorm nodded thoughtfully to himself.

"I was afraid of that. Everyone else seems to be here, although I fear that something may have happened to Karl. I guess that means that Snark's back, too."

Even as he spoke, a quietly insistent beep eminated from the console. Looking over to it, he frowned in annoyance. The map had changed. Again.

"There must be something going on out there, and we have to find out what. Unless you have any better ideas, I'm going to see if I can find Jones, and check out Zaritza as well."

The Cardinal · Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 6:35 pm Post subject:

"Jones' can generally be relied upon to be somewhere central. As much as anything can be counted reliable in this world."

"I concur. And indeed, I think we need to have a conversation in person. I will make arrangements to travel and hope to find you at the tavern. If Jones is there he may be able to account for this time lapse."

"I'll try to deflect Smight along another route. Telling him there's some trouble in Zaritza may be the best way to do that. Watch out for him along your travels."

"Godspeed, my friend."

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:43 pm Post subject:

"Thank you," Brainstorm replied gratefully. "I hope to see you at the tavern before too long - For the moment, good luck."

He pressed the disconnect button, and thought...

Dr Brainstorm · Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:07 am Post subject:

"You're really going out there?" Sakura sounded genuinely worried.

"I'm sorry, but I have to," Brainstorm replied gently. "But I'll be fine, really. I'll be back before you know it."

"Please be careful. I - " She hesitated for a moment before continuing. "One moment, please. I'm picking up something moving outside. I think it might be the Janitor..."

"What? Can you let me see?"

"Of course." One of the other screens switched to display a picture of a man in some sort of protective suit walking through the wasteland outside. Brainstorm watched as he walked onwards for some time, stopped, and began to set up some sort of device.

"What on earth is he doing?" he speculated aloud.

"He seems to be deploying an instrument of some kind," Sakura ventured tentatively.

"Yes. Maybe it's got something to do with what's been happening recently..."

He came to a decision.

"Okay, I've got to go an talk to him. Keep an eye on him, won't you?"

Doctor Brainstorm hurried out of the control room...