Fortuna Verto

35-Distant Travellers

After a quick lunch break, Kori and Rosa returned to the outpost to touch base with Velvet. Velvet had still wanted to discuss the entire encounter as a whole, though wasn't feeling inclined to hospitality during lunch itself.

"Why is Holi here too?" "Because Holi is always around. Why is Velvet having problems with Holi now?" "Rosa, I mean no offense. You just sort of missed what had happened back there." "Do you mean the part about the bike, or the part about the cross-fire barrage?" "Nevermind. Going back to our original discussion from before that DMA conflict, that was, again, still just a scouting party. Things will only get worse from here, enough to make it seem like that battle was easy." "Holi did make it seem very easy." "That was only 7 of their weakest. The worst part is that once they start coming in force, there isn't much to actually stop the tide. Not opening Pandora's box in the first place, that might have prevented so much of this, Mary and I were really striving for such a perfect solution. Now, everything has become far more complicated." Velvet paused for a moment to compile her thoughts, leaving Rosa to wonder upon the very subject. How exactly does one stop all of this chaos, anyway?

"The first DMA appeared near Diamond Falls. You may recognize the value of such a place too. These things are not just wandering here on their own, they are following one of their own, tracking their frontrunner in this whole operation. You two have become their beacon into our society, with Mary contending with the same base principle on her planet. It doesn't even matter if such was of your own will or not, you can't even stop simply being their beacon anymore. As long as their beacon remains, they will just keep coming.. in greater and more dangerous waves." "You make it sound as if this is only solved by our death." "Kori, if your death would have solved anything, I would have let you die when that thing tried to crush you. Even your death does not stem the tide, because the beacon is only a part of who you are. Having both of you around, you share the weight of the beacon. If one of you perished, the other would be eventually consumed by it. If you both perished, that still wouldn't remove the beacon. The beacon is one of their own that walks with you at all times, is basically a part of you both simultaneously. It is linked to you both, but remains safely behind each of you. If we could simply annihilate it, then we might find safety." Velvet sighed, visibly finding this very difficult, and leaving Kori to interpret what was being implied at the same time. This beacon, that would be the being they both shared. Did Velvet then have a plan to remove such a binding from them?

"So if you were thinking I was asking a lot before, I expect being asked to both walk together into a thermal core, to be consumed by a whole lot of energy.. that might be asking for a lot. Alternatively, if you're willing to save people but would rather not the quick death, we could send you two far into deep space. Sure, you would probably still obliterate another star or two eventually as a result, but that wouldn't leave billions of lives on your conscience. There is a potential third solution, but that one is a lot more complicated." "More complex than dying?" "Most things are more complicated than dying, that's always the easier solution. The hardest part about the third solution is not knowing if it will work, or even how to make it work. When you consider how much sacrifice will be needed either way, it's probably a good start to consider which of the first two plans are your favourite." So, no matter what, Velvet was expecting Kori to make significant sacrifices in order to appease the concern over such a beacon concept. Velvet wasn't kidding, this really was asking for a lot.

"Uh, yeah, sorry, do you even know how ridiculous you sound? Asking for us to die, or asking for us to willingly accept exile from everything we know. Have you ever stopped to consider how you would answer such a question?" "Considering my mother faced the first and I had to accept the second, it has been historically a family question already." "Wait, aren't you some bigshot from Aerospace's collective? Pretty sure that's a quite cushy form of exile, then." "I did what I had to, to get the resources I needed to be here today. Everything else was sacrificed long ago in the process. There is no chance of getting anything done without sacrifice, that's a lesson you'll be learning soon enough.. one way or another." Rosa had no idea what Velvet was explicitly not saying, but all of this secrecy was making it really hard to trust anyone. It certainly wasn't enough to compel her to such extreme sacrifices, either. Kori wasn't exactly impressed either, but Velvet hardly seemed surprised. In fact, it seemed as if they weren't expected to come up with answers right away. Regardless, this did put a damper on everyone's mood, Kori and Rosa didn't even want to be there anymore. Bringing their quick meeting to a close, Kori and Rosa quickly left the outpost, with Holi silently travelling just behind them.