Luceti Appointments

[i_speak_softly]

Need a thread with Don, but don't have a post for it and don't feel like starting one? Stick it here. Please note date, time of day, location, and any relevant circumstances.

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[daisy023]

[SPARTAN-023 looks at Donatello as he describes the vegetation of the jungle, her pen unconsciously writing over the sheets of paper. She had heard rumors and comments over the locked network about this world absorbing others. She sketches some of the plants... looking far too much like those she had seen over at her world.

With a pause, she spends the time to analyze the information.]

You think this is an alternate Earth?

[i_speak_softly]

[Don points out some places where the sketches don't match what he saw, apologizing for describing the plants badly.]

I don't.

[daisy023]

[She makes these corrections as she goes. Many of these plants were from Earth, other simply unknown (to be expected)... but others Daisy could swear she saw from the jungles of the Insurrection. She would have to revise the logs of her helmet.]

Well, it grabs from worlds that don't even have Earth... but still humans.

[Daisy puts her hands in front of her, deep in thought.]

What are your theories?

[i_speak_softly]

[It would pain Don too much to say "Because humans are such a successful design that they arise in many worlds", but - the problem has been bothering him since he saw the Federation.]

Maybe... something about human technology... makes human essence more likely to leak from world to world.

[Subatomic Utrom particles, left behind by interplanetary teleportation, mutated ordinary animals into humanoids. Who's to say those same particles didn't get scattered elsewhere, seeding some world's primordial soup and priming it to evolve Utrom-like creatures?]

[daisy023]

Human essence...

[Could it be that option? After all... It was the dominant shape. Daisy-023 would never expect a xenotype to ever speak well of the human race. Up until Luceti, she never had.

Again, up until Luceti.]

I remember String Theory back at school. [The one for the protectors of Earth, so to speak.] It said every possibility existed. But this place, and humanity...

[Is that why the Covenant is hunting us?]

[i_speak_softly]

But if every possible world exists, you wouldn't see an equal distribution of outcomes, right? It would be weighted by probability. Maybe something about humans just makes them more likely.

[daisy023]

[Daisy looks at Donatello, blue eyes big with curiosity, then continues.]

Possibly. But could there be another factor? [Her mind is burning with theories at this point.] Even the Third Party and the Malnosso have the forms of humans.

According to Catherine, we can't leave the barrier, because this world may be unstable for us. Life forms depending on the environment. One alien species from my world breathes methane. For all we know, there could be species that simply don't live according to our laws of reality.

[Not that she trusts him. But the possibility is too great in eyes to dismiss it at the moment.]

[i_speak_softly]

[He nods slowly.] It could also be that Luceti just isn't a representative sampling of all the multiverses. Everyone's noticed that there are certain biases in what kind of people end up here.

[daisy023]

Most here are human-shaped, and powerful. I don't think it may be a sampling but...

[A thought dawns into her. She remembers the Commandant's accidental word to describe Luceti.]

...Maybe there are more humans, baseline ones, in the other "regions".

[i_speak_softly]

[Don gives this due consideration: the idea of multiple enclosures, each biased towards different kinds of people. Sample populations...]

Daisy, I think we're starting to give the Malnosso too much credit.

[daisy023]

[Her head tilts upwards.]

It's usually dangerous to underestimate an enemy. What do you mean, sir?

[i_speak_softly]

[He sighs, giving up the train of thought.]

Look, it doesn't really matter. There's nothing we can do to or about the Malnosso, so our estimate of them is irrelevant.

[daisy023]

...Understood.

[Unfortunately, he is right. She sits.]

There's just so much I'd like to know... I hate being kept in the dark.

[Daisy-023 turns to him, with a look of curiosity. She had never imagined she'd have a talk like this with a xenotype. Guess this place opened minds, after all...]

Thank you for your ideas, sir... Sorry I went on with my paranoia.

[i_speak_softly]

It's all right. [He smiles a little.] After being here so long, sometimes I need to be reminded to keep fighting back.