Line in the Stars

Day 072, 17:01:01

I am sitting on a metal chair under bright lights. All is silent. Still. My eyes are closed to indicate calm, but I remain...

Unafraid.

Even with my eyes closed, my eidetic memory can perfectly recall every detail of my surroundings with high resolution clarity. Bright light was easy for my advanced vision to filter out. The silver table before me stands in a room superficially pristine, but minutely flawed. Its dark silica floor is old, and worn. Its grey titanium walls are similarly aged. Passive Scanning reveals nothing outside, but only because a basic scan-impermeable material fills the walls interstitials.

They are cautious. (Or have anticipated my abilities.)

I would normally be patient. However, after all I had suffered to escape the dystopic Earth, having my fragile hope in the Outer's met with such ill treatment makes me angry.

When Obit had touched down in the Station's cleared silver parking bay, an escort of guards clad strongly in archaic power army was already waiting for us. This had confirmed my fear. Passive Scanning revealed several neighboring decks of fairly primitive design beyond, and all clear of Outers. Their technological simplicity gave me a jolt of self confidence, but mixed with caution. My Passive Scanning abilities could have been anticipated. And much more. It fostered paranoia, which further rose during the seemingly endless gauntlet of medical, psychological, and verbal tests that followed. Once they placed me alone in this interrogation cell, fear began burning. Anger slowly joined it. A rising tide of emotion, threatening to sweep away all I now sought to accomplish...

Caution.

All of this could be a ruse. Games within games. I must play by their rules to join. For that reason, I had left my personal shields down, and removed my Deepspace Integral Suit. This left visible my now crownless head, slender toga-clad body, and sandalled feet. "Anachronistic dandy" is hopefully what my classical appearance conveyed...

(This is wrong.)

My Sub Conscious just kept prodding at me to negativity over the last hour of waiting in here. I finally disconnect from all outside stimuli. My full suite of advanced post-human senses goes dark. An audio tripwire is all that remains, its purpose being to immediately re-activate all of those senses should any ambient noise rise above a certain decibel threshold...

Focus.

Breathing in. And out.

In. Out.

In...

Out...

My Sub Conscious finally mind grows silent. It begins syncing with my Conscious mind. Misgivings slowly fade away. All is- 

A sound. My full suite of physical/technological senses re-activate, and I open my eyes back up to see...

... a tall, bronze biosynth male standing before me.

Oh.

He is strikingly familiar. Lean, hard, but in this appearance wearing a subtly layered silver toga of office. Passive Scanning reveals his body to be ancient, but somehow almost as advanced as my own. Oddly, his mind reads curiously blank.

(He has prepared for you.)

After another long moment, this figure gives a thin smile. "Hello, Id. I am the Interlocuter, and we must have a serious discussion before this goes any further."