The One that Got Away

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Enigma"]

"We tried something along those lines," Selka admitted. "I probably shouldn't tell you even this much, but the problem we encountered was S-thread diameter. A hypercomm transmission uses a milimetre-wide hyperspace wormhole on the high bands. Expanding that, you start running into exponential power troubles before you get into the centimetre range, and that's just if you want an unstable one, a single jump if you will. We had a scientist lose a finger on a planet a light-year away from where he was standing." She sipped at her R'alla, washing down the leftover taste of Hapan salad dressing. "Keeping something operational for minutes? Hours? Exponents on top of exponents."

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

"Which would require a new or exotic form of power system. What about something to allow for stable transit into and out of otherspace? Such could potentially provide for stable access into the pocket dimension. I know there's some sort of monstrous creatures that exist there, but I'm sure that a powerful enough fleet would have nothing to worry about."

Of course such a project could prove to be difficult, but then again, what else was there to expect?

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Enigma"]

"Otherspace? I've had the chance to use an Otherdrive, and so far as anyone I know can tell, there's no reason to suppose that it can be used for faster travel than hyperspace. Otherspace travel, by those standards, is really slow. It can be done, but there's a reason the Empire didn't analyze it, weaponize it, exploit it...it's just got too much distance, radiation, and desolation to be worthwhile without a one in a million chance. Out of hyperspace, otherspace, realspace and subspace, the four planes we know about, hyperspace is absolutely where the weight of evidence lies, if we're talking about speed. Think of Sith Force Storms -- taking minutes to rip a target from Coruscant to Byss, thousands of parsecs and millions of dense-packed mass shadows away."

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

"We were thinking more along the lines of resource storage and other such things there. From what I've heard, there's a reason the Charon aren't able to get anywhere outside of the bubble - the otherspace drive doesn't cut it. I do still believe that a device could be made to allow for the stable creation of an artificial wormhole between two points - just need to figure out the best way to do it."

There had to be some way to allow for such to exist.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Enigma"]

"As it happens, I can clear that up for you. Getting to Other space requires only the right kind of hyperdrive accident - that's what an Otherdrive replicates. The transition damages the hyperdrive that it's attached to. Getting back from Otherspace to real space can actually be done with a normal hyperdrive, either by repairing yours or bringing a backup. The only reason there haven't been more Charon incursions, and I know of four, is that nobody's stupid enough to let them get their hands on hyperdrives.

"Oh, and it's not a bubble. It's a whole other plane with full galaxies in there. The speed of light is different there - the Charon just run around at sunlight killing entire galaxies and looking for more to kill."

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

"I meant 'bubble' metaphorically. That is, it's an accessible pocket dimension separate from our own. From what I understand about the Kathol Rift, when that one launch gate exploded, it tore open a rift to the Otherspace pocket dimension and trapped the Charon in there, or something along those lines. I don't fully remember the story of how that worked out and the like." At least, she figured such was the case. Using an otherspace drive was like two bubbles - different dimensions - meeting at the same time, with where they connected being tee route between.

"Could still be useful for storage."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"These things get twisted. Can't believe everything you hear. As for storage, I'll concede that, for cargo that might be tracked in one way or another. Directional tracking doesn't work so well when the target is literally nowhere. Otherspace isn't a game changer. I wish it was, but it's not. Useful from time to time, no question there.

" You want dessert?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

"Gladly." She smiled. "House special seems nice." A true statement, in a manner of speaking - it appeared to be chocolate cake, and she always did have quite the sweet tooth. "So Selka... Anything else we could discuss together? Any questions for me? Would be glad to answer them regarding Emeritus and any inter-corporation work we could get done."

After all, it was always nice to not have a faction chasing after you and everything you loved.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Enigma"]

Selka flagged down the waiter and placed their dessert orders. For her, she opted for sparkbee-honey pie with blue ice cream. An adventurous choice, by some standards.

"Well, that's only the Silk side of things. Like I said, I'm on the board, but I'm not central. If you want to talk actual business..." She pitched her voice a little lower. "I'm in the middle of negotiations to take over as CEO of Akure. Rave Merrill left her company in a mess, and I'm being brought in to fix it. Let's cut to brass tacks, Miss Vantai -- how much do you know about alchemy?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

Now this was an opportunity. A chance to work with someone who was gaining control over Akure, the company of the woman that had caused her so much trouble? She was admittedly interested, though she had no desire to give away copious amounts of her identity, her information, or anything that could be explicitly utilized in order to reveal her true identity. "I have knowledge of alchemy to a good degree, yes. Why do you ask?" If this was some sort of roundabout question, it was likely to be a good opportunity to prepare for it.

Then again, it was Velok orchestrating this. Who knew what he was going to try and do?

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Enigma"]

After a moment, Selka nodded. "I was going out on a limb there, but I see I guessed right. Materials or biological alchemy? And what about mental manipulation? The alteration and healing of memories, specifically. There's a unique and almost insurmountable problem, and frankly, if you're half what I suspect you to be, you may be part of the solution to that problem."

The dessert arrived. She dug into the blue ice cream.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

"Both, but quite a bit more focus on biological than material. As for mental manipulation, well..." She chose to say nothing in response - as though the answer was already given and well-understood by both parties. "I've done my fair share. From what you're getting at, you have a project you're working on that needs someone with a very rare and specific set of skills. It seems almost... pre-planned."

Then again, this was a pretty unusual scenario.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Enigma"]

"I bet there's a placque on your office wall that says 'It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.' Selka smiled fractionally, honey pie poised on her fork. "As I'm sure you know, Merrill took all alchemical knowledge from her staff when she vanished - those that she left alive, anyway. They're on staff still, and both they and I are vitally interested in putting together the pieces in time for the 844 Spring Line. There's a question of trade secrets and copyright. I suspect you may have insight."

 

[Onrai]

[member="Selka Ventus"]

Circe raised an eyebrow just a fraction before listening to more of what the issue was regarding Selka's own work. "Depending on what you need, I should be able to help out, certainly." She paused, considering the repercussions of Rave's leaving - it was unlikely that the company could synthetically reconstruct Rave's experiments to produce goods of equal quality without an alchemist. Or without an alchemist at all, from what she could tell.

"And there's no way to recover the data that you know of... When did she disappear and wipe everything, exactly?"