The Wyvern Street Irregulars

In the kitchen of Marie and Marny's apartment, Wyvern Street Coven convened for after-circle snacks. Their new dedicant Mary was there, and also a guest whom Mary had invited to her Dedication: Brian, a Minor Adept associated with Maurice the Charioteer.

Marie looked up from her laptop. "A third Tale is online," she said.

Brian smiled. " Under the Stars?" He asked.

Marie grinned at him. "How did you guess?"

Brian grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, shrugging.

Mary, having watched this interaction carefully, raised her eyebrows at Marie. "A third tale?" She asked.

Marie smiled at her. "Tales of D'ydii," she explained. "Not everyone believes that their television talks to them, but "Tales of D'ydii" is said by some to have been designed precisely for the purpose of talking to us." She turned her laptop so that its screen faced Mary and slid it toward her a few inches invitingly.

Mary, of course, realised instantly that this must be a hint. Accordingly, she reached toward the laptop.

Marie grinned approvingly and, with a nod, slid it to her.

"Read any Starhawk?" Brian asked before Mary could quite settle down to reading.

Mary looked at Brian with raised eyebrows.

Brian grinned. "Go ahead," he said, with a wave at the laptop. "I am thinking of the fourth Tale." He looked at Marie. "Between the Worlds," he said.

Marie raised her eyebrows. "The thot plickens. Does the Goddess Kim read that stuff?"

Brian grinned mischievously. "Who knows what entities peruse the pages of the web?"

Marie nodded slowly. "HEN and Halifax Earth News wasn't a consciously deliberate coincidence though?" She ventured.

Brian smiled wryly. "We have tended to operate on that assumption," he admitted. "The Net Marketing Forum folk show a lot of promise but initially we had thought it was innocent; unschooled talent or potential rather than schooled premeditation. They have learned enough now though that it is probably time to start watching for deliberate stuff, not just Jungian Petticoats."

Marie wiggled her eyebrows. "Seen any doubles of Seven lately?"

Brian grinned and wiggled his own eyebrows. "Need to know," he replied. Looking around he turned his attention to Marny. "That tea ready yet?" He asked.

Marny raised his eyebrows. "I prefer to let the water actually boil," he suggested, glancing at the kettle.

Brian shrugged. "So anyway..."

Marny quirked a grin and looked around. "Leave if you must, stay if you will. Scott has responsibilities regarding Wyvern Street North or North Wyvern Street, Marie and I are carrying out our responsibilities right here right now. We have managed to arrange our lives in such a way that we actually get to do this stuff. Just now we started with air and worked our way around the circle to earth. With first degree training though we like to start with earth. Does everyone have food, clothing and shelter, can we sustain our food, clothing and shelter. How much disruption is the quest for food clothing and shelter going to cause us. That kind of thing. Scott is involved quite directly in the shelter part by working with the Wizard on an actual building, but what about sustainability? It happens that Mary here is already involved in one of our sustainability projects, but so far it has not progressed to the point where it alone can actually sustain her." He looked at Brian. "We are in the same business as Maurice, not the taxi business, the networking."

Brian grinned. "Me too," he said. "Same as Mary though: its not enough to support me yet."

Marny nodded. "Its long term," he agreed. "But its something that helps us all, and helps support the Wizard's projects too." He looked at the kettle. "Water's ready, if you're up for a while I'll make two pots, one for those who want to sleep, another for the night owls."

Brian and Mary exchanged glances and smiles. "We're up," she said, and went back to reading.

Marny filled two pots. "Alright then." He looked at Brian. "Are you familiar with Freeciv and or Linux?"

Brian nodded. "Of course. Not deeply familiar, but I know of them."

Marny smiled. "Good. We are involved in a project developing a galactic milieu for Freeciv. So far it is kind of Trek based, but it also has made some initial moves toward the idea of also including Stargate type stuff."

Brian grinned. "This is earth based stuff?" He enquired.

Marny grinned back. "We don't know yet," he admitted, "but it seems unlikely it will be an income source. Call it part of the background reading thus part of the air stuff. Mary already uses Linux but casual mentions of Freeciv never seemed to perk her interest so that is something we will have to get her to take a look at."

Mary raised a hand. "Let me read the stories first," she said. "Make my tea a strong one, when I'm done with this you can explain Freeciv."

Brian quirked a smile. "Civilisation should be free," he said. "I can see some people taking that the wrong way. White man's burden. We're going to civilise you for our own purposes so charging you for the privilege would be excessive."

Marny grinned. "Yeah. Well, thats what she gets for becoming a dedicant."

Brian nodded and shrugged. "Yeah, me too. You and Maurice seem to be in synch well enough." They busied themselves with tea and finger-food for a while.

Janet looked at Marny. "Scott should stay on dayshift," she suggested. "But I'd hate to miss an important powwow."

Marny smiled at her. "No problem," he said. "If anything comes up that you haven't already covered we'll bring you up to date. Keep Scott in working form." He looked at Brian. "Means, motive, opportunity. I guess driving taxi gives you opportunities to meet people."

Brian shrugged. "Yeah, but I don't like to push. I'm a dealer not a pusher. I've met a few people through the taxi driving that seemed reasonable prospects for the business but no signups yet. Mostly I've just been using the products and selling a few here and there. I tried to recruit Mary but she was already in. I think I did help convince her father to join though." He smiled at Mary; she smiled and nodded.

Marny quirked a smile. "The business should be handy in the long term because it is something anyone can do. It gives us a way of bringing in money from outside our own ranks, and a way that outsiders can help us without having to get involved in our other practices. It is all very well to have jobs or businesses but too often such things get in the way and draw us apart. Maybe we should all look into getting licensed to drive taxi, that is something else that offers a flexible timetable."

Brian grinned. "Worth exploring," he agreed. "It also provides an excuse for having a vehicle. Cars are expensive, they can be hard to justify. Have you read Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth?"

Marny nodded. "Of course. Another piece of required reading. It is why the Wizard doesn't own a car."

Brian smiled. "Exactly," he said. "But someone has to own one else there won't be one to rent."

"Which brings us back to Freeciv," Scott volunteered. "The State could own them, depending on the type of government." He smiled at Janet. "I'm ready for bed."

Janet rose. "Me too. Good night folks."

When they were gone Mary raised her eyebrows at Marny. "Government type?" She enquired.

Marny smiled. "Yeah, the basic game offers despotism, monarchy, republic, communism and democracy."

"Ah," she said. "Communism. In a commune people wouldn't rent stuff, would they? Wouldn't it be more like Star Trek, if they need it they use it?"

Marny grinned. "Maybe they'd rent it with need-tickets or something. Who is to decide whose need? Finish your reading."

Brian quirked a smile at Marny. "The Federation as a communist government, eh? Interesting."

Marny shrugged. "The galactic ruleset hasn't messed with the government types yet except to remove the rapture effect and start to re-implement the Fundamentalism government type. Rapture didn't seem to match the timescale very well, in the modern era it seems to depend too much upon multitudes of people lost between the cracks, who suddenly get counted only when rapture attracts them into the functional economy of a city."

Brian nodded. "Yeah, I can see getting rid of rapture if you are going to colonise previously-uninhabited worlds with modern or future technology. The timescale is problematic enough without all those people appearing from seemingly nowhere."

Marny grinned. "Where we come into it is the Missionaria Protectiva wonder, the Chronodynamics tech, and Fictonics. Chronodynamics is the science of temporal mechanics: can the past, the present, or the future be changed, and if so how. Chronodynamics is much akin to magick: the causing of change in accordance with the will. That should be bread and butter stuff for people in the magick field. What I am looking forward to is the treatment of Fictonics. It seems likely that Chronodynamics is going to be one of the precursors to Fictonics."

Brian smiled. "Ah yes, Fictonics. The science of fictons, presumably?"

Marny nodded. "Exactly. Fictons as in Number of the Beast and other Heinlein classics. It seems likely that the so-called Q/H Nexus will turn out to involve Fictonics."

Brian grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Ah yes, the Q/H Nexus, of course. Do tell." He lifted his teacup carefully, little finger for some reason or lack of reason notably stuck out away from the other fingers, and sipped daintily.

Marny grinned and gave a slow little shake of his head. Right, left, right. "Of course," he replied. "The so called Quizatz Hatrack or Q-continuum / Home-continuum nexus. With great power comes great responsibility. If it is true that truly godly gods might choose to permit or implement free will, and that if gods do not exist it is necessary to invent them, then maybe it would be appropriate to permit the factuality or fictionality of various things to be a matter of choice. Which would, of course, mean being able not only to provide them but also to withhold them. Maybe part of the so-called Liminal Nexus, the Light Speed Barrier so to speak, might involve Chronodynamics and or Fictonics, so that whether or when you manage to achieve warp speed, and maybe even whether warp speed is possible at all, could vary from timeline to timeline, or at least from ficton to ficton. Are we in the Q continuum, and if not are we in a continuum in which Q-type continui are possible, and if not why not and can those who are in such continui help us make such things possible in our own continui?" He grinned, and imitated Brian's dainty tea-sipping.

Mary looked at Marie and raised her eybrows. "Mortal Lords?" She asked.

Marie grinned. "Shhh, its a secret," she replied, reaching for her teacup. Raising an eyebrow she smiled. "You don't have to be a Mortal Lord to visit the Tearoom though, its a Royalty or Nobility room not a Mortal Lord room."

Mary grinned and nodded. "Ah yes, of course. Royalty is kind of temporary too compared to being a Mortal Lord. I'd better get back to my reading."

Marie smiled. "Good idea. I think we'll probably look into the 1626 Cornish Resurgence before worrying about the Tearoom Royalty too much. The True King theme. The Tearoom assumes the King is hard-coded, although it does offer players the opportunity to become a Princess or a Queen."

Mary shook her head. "At least Princess and Queen are unambiguous, unlike Prince and King which keep getting confused with Knight." She grinned, and went back to her reading.

Marny looked at Marie. "Another interesting one is the Gilgamesh quest. The planet known as E9 is supposed to have Sumerians on it, and they are also supposed to be on M23 in fifteen hundred and something. The Gilgamesh quest is for a longevity drug, is it totally different from the Grail quest or are they related?" He looked at Brian. "The quest for longevity is a link to D'ydii as well as to the Dune mythos."

Brian smiled. "In the Freeciv legends about each nation the Sumerians were displaced or replaced by the Babylonians, but is Babylon's Hanging Garden the Tower of Babel or is Babel unrelated to all this?"

Marny grinned. "The confounding of the languages might have something to do with the confounding of timelines involved in Fictonics. The Babel quest was to build a tower to heaven. A step by step quest, maybe? A formal system? Godel, Escher, Bach. Any formal system sufficiently powerful to represent general recursive relations, etcetera etcetera etcetera."

Brian nodded. "Is sufficiently advanced magick distinguishable from technology?" He grinned and performed the tea-sipping kata again. "Star Trek has us achieving faster than light travel in 2063, whereas Isaac Asimov has us already expanding through the galaxy slower than light in this century and developing a faster than light drive on the planet Aurora. Both agree that we get it in this century, and don't disagree much as to which year of this century, but clearly both timelines or fictons are still up in the air, so to speak, from where we sit right now. Do we favour either plan or do we have a different plan entirely?"

Marny smiled. "As Nova Scotians, maybe we can choose to take that as meaning New Scottish, and thus identify with the Scottish. That would put us supposedly on at least two planets: E10 and M4. As far as I know E10 is still potentially fictonic but the Martians on M4 developed subspace communicators in 1570 and in 1579 they built Starfleet Academy and started organising settlers to send out in their first starships. They built Cochrane's Flight in 1583, gaining Force Fields and Holodecks, and colonised M5 in 1586 using a cloaked ship. In 1588 their cloaked ship was back and another had been built, so they were able to send two more units of settlers to M5. In 1589 both those ships should be back from M5 ready to pick up two more units of settlers. That is the bleeding edge of the timeline, it is not yet known when E10 is was or will be colonised."

Brian nodded. "Scottish is a nice idea, I like that. Maurice, of course, as a taxi company, has it in mind to be something along the lines of the Guild, as in the Dune mythos. As one of his drivers I'd be involved in that project. In the Dune mythos the Guild handles interstellar travel. The so called Great Houses, the families that have Family Atomics and rule planets, generally seem to use the Guild for their interstellar travel needs."

Marny grinned. "Maybe we can combine the two. Think of the Scottish as being famous for their engineers, like Star Trek's Scotty. The Martians are one of the most advanced people discovered so far, if they support the idea of having the Scottish handle public commercial interstellar shipping for them..."

Brian, too, grinned. "I like it. There is no Guild yet in the nation sets for Freeciv, none of the Great Houses exist yet either, so if we can use the Scottish for now that would be great. Presumably the Atreides would be the Greeks or some variant of Greeks, the Corrino some kind of Persians or Iranians and the Bene Tleilaxu would be one of the Moslem nations, the Arabs or something like that. Where are the Harkonnen from?"

Marny shrugged. "We can < HREF="http://www.google.com/">Google it if you want. Meanwhile, back on M4, the Byzantines are purportedly dead. So lets leave the Byzantine machinations of the Harkonnen out of it for now." He smiled. "The Martians did discover the Manchu though, if they are anything like Fu Manchu they should provide plenty of machinations for those who like that kind of thing. As the Scottish, our first order of business should be to make peace with the Martians. The M in the M-series planets stands for Martian, it is basically one of their planets, size four, that we are on. That is what the designation M4 represents. Everyone there, except the Martians, has been run by artificial intelligences in the Freeciv software. For some reason the artificial intelligences on M4 are set to use the novice level of capability, maybe we should upgrade the Scottish to use the hard level or the experimental level so that if or when the timeline is extended forward without our input the Scottish will at least have an edge over the run of the mill intelligences controlling the other unplayed nations."

Brian shook his head. "Chances are the novice setting was not intentional. Once you point it out the Martians will probably upgrade the whole planet to use the hard level of artificial intelligence."

Marny nodded. "Okay then, we'll report it and let the Martians decide whether to give it to everyone or only to the Scottish." He grinned. "I guess I should've said 'for some reason or lack thereof'."

Marie spoke up. "Our capital is Motherwell, with Palace and City Walls. It is on tundra attached to the pole, with ivory in reach on the ice. At end of turn we will have Amphibious Warfare, our tech choices then will be Anthropology, Industrialisation or Refrigeration. A I or R, I guess this must be air stuff, eh. We are a Democracy, and have only one other city: Weldiya, on an island with two Ethiopian cities and one Martian-controlled city. We have an embassy with the Ethiopians but their attitude is genocidal and our diplomatic state is war. Our leader is listed as Donald Dewar, but the Martians are willing to change that for us, we are thinking of changing it to Marie Marny."

Brian nodded. "You're the boss," he said, performing his tea-sipping kata again.

Marny smiled. "The Martian leader is listed as Isaac Asimov," he said, "so maybe they are hinting that they support an Asimovian rather than a Trekker version of the Liminal Nexus, in that human faster than light travel will happen on some planet other than Earth before it is available on Earth. In this case, for example, it might turn out to be available to the humans known as Scottish on the planet known as M4."

"Ouch!" Brian exclaimed. "Isaac Asimov! Robots develop time travel, prune all timelines containing intelligent aliens, prune also all timelines in which humans obtain time travel, retaining time travel as a monopoly of the robots. If I recall correctly?"

Marny nodded. "Something like that, I think. I have proposed that at least one of the worlds the Martians settle should have Michael Valentinus as leader of the Martians. Or some such name anyway."

Brian smiled. "Michael Valentine makes sense, just don't suggest putting Becka Valentine in charge of the Martians, please and thank you."

Marie chuckled. "Becka belongs in the Commonwealth, not with the Martians." Pause a beat. Continue. "We are at peace with the Czech, their attitude is worshipful, and we have an embassy with them. They already have Anthropology and Industrialisation, they also have Communism. We have three techs they don't: Atomic Theory, Electronics and Tactics. They don't want to give us all three for the three we have that they don't have." Pause a beat again. "Our world map seems to be almost complete but out of date, it shows at least two cities as Byzantine even though they are listed as dead. So I don't know when which sections of our map were last updated."

Brian smiled. "Fog of war," he said. "Unless you own the Apollo Program wonder or its owner shares their vision with you your map will always be potentially out of date in any areas you don't presently have cities or units near enough to see."

Marie smiled and nodded. "We also have an embassy with the Texans," she said. "Their attitude is neutral, our diplomatic state is peace, and we have three or four techs they don't have. They have Refrigeration and are willing to give it to us in return for any one of our techs they don't yet have. We plan to give them Leadership. Then we'll have four techs we can give the Czech for their three. But the Czech, like the Texans, have over a dozen cities so if we can get either of them to throw in a city or few to sweeten the deal so much the better."

Brian nodded thoughtfully. "Which states of the United States are Commonwealths?" He asked. "I know Virginia is a Commonwealth and Texas is the Lone Star State, famous for thinking big and being the location of NASA's famous city Houston, but there are other Commonwealth states. Is Texas one of them?"

Mary looked up from the laptop. "Virginia spawned the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and two New England states are also Commonwealths: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania."

Brian smiled. "The thot plickens. Pennsylvania is also a Railroad, as distinct from a Station. Another Railroad, as distinct from Station, is Reading. Is the difference between Stations and Railroads something to do with Literacy? Or is it more akin to the difference between Sephiroth and Paths on the Tree of Life?"

Marie shook her head. "Oh great, next someone will be asking whether Short has a Mart in it." She looked at Marny. "Speaking of which, wasn't Art the leader of the Cornish on some world or other?"

"Hmm," Marny replied thoughtfully. "Is that one of the worlds where Arny is the leader of the Americans?"

Marny shrugged. "Meri Dian, Ameri Dian, Meri Dian again?"

Mary grinned. "Merry Arny, Amerry Arny, Merry Arny again. I like it, that sounds like an American leader I might be able to put up with."

Marie smiled. "Coincidentally enough, it happened that one of the various civil wars on M4 that led to the spawning of new nations when existing nations fell apart spawned Americans. Probably spawned from the Texans. If you are a Heinlein fan maybe you'll be able to put up with their leader even though it isn't Arny. Guess who?"

Mary squinted in thought, Brian beamed a jaw-dropping grin. "Woodrow Wilson?" Mary ventured.

Marie confirmed it with a yielding-shrug gesture, although Mary couldn't quite pin down what exactly differentiated it from a helpless-shrug gesture until Marie completed it with a little nod.

Brian grinned, shaking his head slowly from side to side. In wonder, maybe?

Marny quirked a one-sided grin. "The Martians took the capitals of the nations that refused to make a ceasefire with them," he said. "That is probably how the Scottish ended up with their capital in Motherwell instead of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness or some such city now controlled by Martians on the mainland north of the island they now share with Ethiopians and Martians. The current settings of the Freeciv configuration on M4 gives a free Palace when you lose your Palace, otherwise we'd be really crippled. Chances are the Americans don't have a Palace and thus don't have a capital, because it was Texans, not Americans, who lost one and thus got an automatic replacement somewhere else."

Brian shook his head again. "I often figured the so-called Americans should be called the Disunited States or the Purportedly United States rather than the United States," he admitted.

Mary flashed him a grin. "Might that be Southern Canada you're referring to," she enquired.

He grinned back at her. "Aye lass, might maybe happen that it is," he admitted.

Mary turned the laptop toward Marie. "What is actually involved in doing those tech trades you spoke of?" She asked.

Marie grinned. "Shuffle around so you can watch as I do them," she suggested, accepting the proffered device and preparing to settle down to some keyboarding and pointer-wielding.

Brian looked at Marny. "While they go shopping for technology and maybe even a city or few, lets shoot some more breeze. Brees? As in strange news? Hmm. Whatever. If the Scottish on M4 don't have Anthropology yet I don't suppose they have Ancient Secrets or know where any Stargates are?"

Marny grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "That would be telling. I mean that; it would be a telling blow indeed. Currently the Ancient Secrets technology enables the Missionaria Protectiva wonder instead of enabling some kind of search for ancient Stargates that might have been lying around on your planet since ancient times. I suppose if your world had so-called huts you could explain away some of the hut effects as being due to Stargates. For example when a hut swallows the unit you move onto its tile to investigate it you could claim they vanished through a Stargate, or if the hut yields a technology you could claim you got it through a Stargate. But basically Stargates have not yet been implemented. The plan, as I understand it, is to implement transport of units from world to world in the software, so that the software will enable the Starships to do their thing, before worrying about enabling Stargates. The code routines that enable Starships to jump the gulf between worlds will also be useful for enabling Stargates. Until that code is in place multiplying the number of entities that expect to use the capability seems discouraged by Occam's Razor if nothing else."

Marie looked up, grinning a pleased grin and wiggling her eyebrows. "The Martians gave us a cease-fire, The Czech are willing to give us all three techs in return for Refrigeration," she said. "Plus 33 gold too. Nice." She went happily back to bargain-hunting.

"Michael VIII Paleologus?" Mary enquired. "Michael ate paleo logos? The Demiurge, maybe? Ouch. It doesn't seem hard to grok a wrongness in a name like that. No wonder the Byzantines are dead. I hope the Martians don't grok a wrongness about the entire planet unless Freeciv can implement an asteroid belt. VIII is Strength or Justice, depending who you ask. Michael Strength Paleologus? Michael Justice Paleologus?"

"Numeralology, like Numerology, hasn't seemed to work all that well for the First and Second Millenia," Marny suggested. "Maybe in the Third Millenium the Number Assigning Authorities will make numerology more obviously useful. In fact one of the potential dangers the Third Millenium might pose is increasing mechanisation of applied numerology. Even though the number 1492 might not seem to automatically imply ships will sail across oceans blue the number 2492 might automatically imply or force whatever it is that our precise configuration of Big Bang automatically implies for that year. Or not. If the Big Bang's precise configuration didn't pre-code the precise occurences of 1492 maybe it therefore cannot pre-code the precise occurences of 2492. Hmm. The danger some speculate might be 'out there somewhere' is that of falling so far into some kind of system that, like Freeciv worlds run on full auto with no players playing them, each world, timeline, universe, multiverse, ficton or whatever is totally pre-determined ab initio - from the beginning - and the only thing that can ever change any of them is an impact of some kind from some other or others of them, or, of course, so called 'players'. Influences from 'outside the game' so to speak."

Mary nodded and returned her attention to Marie's activities.

"An occupational hazard of workers in the field of artificial intelligence," Marny quoted, "is that of becoming artificially intelligent."

"Speaking of Amphibious Warfare," Brian volunteered, "I picked up a Gordon R. Dickson volume recently second hand, two bucks for two complete novels in one volume. 'Alien Art' and 'Arcturus Landing'. From what I know of Oceania's Otter in the D'ydii ficton the alien otter in 'Alien Art' might not be much like her but the novel turns out to be very relevant to this Freeciv project. I don't know whether the initials Gordon used for the villianous interplanetary corporation make great sense interpreted as their corresponding Atu but for what its worth the initials were K and R. Gold on blue. 'KR or on a field azure' maybe, in heraldic terms. Both novels seem nice bits of synchronicity, both at once like that especially so. I said speaking of Amphibious Warfare because I was also thinking of that ivory in reach of our capital, reminding me of teeth. This alien swamp otter, Charlie, carves statues with his teeth. They all have to keep working their teeth on stone to keep them from growing too big, but Charlie is particularly artistic. I don't recall ever having regretted reading anything of Dickson's, so as to the quality of them maybe it suffices to say hey, they are by Gordon R. Dickson. If that isn't enough maybe I could add hey, thats a Canadian author, if you Scotts want to settle in Canada at least have the decency to read some decent Canadian literature. Then too just the very name Charlie is an interesting choice. It could give whole new shades of meaning to terms such as Charlie's Angels, for example."

Marny smiled. "Maybe its Maybelline?" He shook his head slowly again. "Oh wait, is Maybelline a Cover Girl this year or was that last year? Hee hee."

"Art was the leader of the Cornish on A9 up until at least 3786bc", Marie announced. "At that time the Martians on A9 were led by Michael Valentina, the British by Winnie Churchhealth, the Canadians by Pierot Truedough and the Antarcticans by Tux. As far as the Martians are aware, or maybe I should say as far as they seem willing to admit to me at this time being aware, A9 seems to be or to have been the most advanced planet involved in the so-called Neoancient Nexus. The cutting edge or bleeding edge of the Neoancient Nexus. Presuming, of course, that the Pliocene / Galactic-Milieu Nexus doesn't interfere or conflict with the Neoancient Nexus."

Brian smiled. "Ah yes, the Pliocene / Galactic-Milieu Nexus, nice, nice. Freeciv can handle the forward end of that but the Pliocene is a bit too far into the past for the current standard distribution of Freeciv to handle isn't it?"

Marie shrugged. "If the ficton isn't sufficiently compelling it might not get implemented," she suggested. "But its limitation of timetravel to one single gate or wormhole type of channel might make it a good candidate for a cutting or bleeding edge of temporal mechanics."

"It is certainly an interesting version of psionics," Brian admitted, "and maybe a lot less complicated to implement than the Aftermath / I.C.E. system the Antarcticans have thus far seemed to favour."

Marny raised his eyebrows and nodded thoughtfully. "It could be worth checking, at some point, whether anyone has actually started to implement that system," he suggested. "Meanwhile though the Tearoom Swedes as well as the Antarcticans seem to favour systems at least somewhat influenced by I.C.E."

Mary smiled. "The frog with the iron crown," she said. "A hint?"

Marie nodded. "Marny and I have always thought so," she admitted. "Though the Tearoom Swedes aren't exactly noted for their adherence to pre-existing standards or systems. Maybe someone just happened to hit upon iron as a cheap metal to make a crown out of. What is known is that the standard releases of Lars Penzig's that Fooland was based on had no such frog in it."

"The Pliocene is relatively recent," Brian pointed out. "Televisors have lately been reporting temporal anomolies they refer to as primeval. As distinct from primordial? Not sure; that distinction or potential distinction isn't one they've yet seen fit to bring up. Also I'm not sure offhand to what epoch their usage of the term primeval refers. Could be its Jurassic, the Jurassic seems to be a pop-culture staple nowadays. I admit I haven't been paying very close attention yet to those particular anomoly reports but maybe its time to take a closer look. Whatever epoch it is that those people are messing with seems likely to be further into the past than the Pliocene."

Marny raised an eyebrow. "Didn't the Galactic Milieu already stop exiling people to the Pliocene and maybe even try to ban the practice of private parties making use of that temporal wormhole?"

Brian shrugged. "That does ring a bell but I admit I'm no longer as familiar with that ficton as once I was," he admitted. "From the sound of it though the Primeval Nexus is more likely to cause problems on A9 than the Pliocene / Galactic-Milieu Nexus is."

Marie shook her head. "I'm not so sure of that," she said. "From the little I know about the Primeval Nexus it seems to involve dinosaurs at the trailing edge - its past end - and at the leading edge - its present or future end - humans no more advanced, or not much more advanced if at all, than we are right here right now. Whereas the Pliocene / Galactic-Milieu Nexus involves some pretty advanced psionic technologies and, I cannot recall for sure, maybe some other advanced technologies too. Are the anomolies associated with the Primeval Nexus naturally occuring or is someone creating them?"

Brian shrugged again. "I'm not sure whether that has been determined, if so I missed the announcement of the answer to that question. As I said I haven't been following the reports very closely so far. I just know that televisors have seen fit to air reports of such phenomena."

Marie grinned wryly. "Well if someone involved in that phenomenon sticks around in the past long enough to increase their technology level significantly I'll worry about it but until then I'll continue with the theory that the most advanced peoples we're likely to run into are the Antarcticans and the Martians. The Antarcticans had Genesis Device technology as early as 4000bc, most worlds whose history begins at that time, that is to say during the Neoancient Nexus, were probably created or terraformed by the Atlanteans using a Genesis Device or some technology beyond and derived from Genesis Device technology. For all we know the people encountering the primeval anomolies might even be Chronodeck characters on someone's Chronodeck. There is some speculation that the most common way of implementing so-called Fantasy milieus, or at any rate Fantasy milieus that include prescience or time travel, might be by means of a Chronodeck. Actually it might be that fictons in general are implemented by means of Chronodecks. I'm not familiar with Fictonics yet, or even Chronodynamics for that matter. I'm told that the README.chronodynamics file is only provided to people who aquire Chronodynamics, maybe even only those who actually build the Institute of Chronodynamics wonder."

Brian grinned. "The British have Chronodynamics," he revealed. "They haven't built the Institute yet because it wasn't implemented in the first three pre-alpha versions of the Galactic Ruleset. It is in the fourth pre-alpha, which was only released a day or few ago. Winnie Churchhealth is probably building it on B29 right now, or rather he probably will build it on B29 sometime in the nineteenth century. I guess the Antarcticans and the Martians probably built it during the Neoancient Nexus?"

Marie grinned a wicked grin. "Probably. Maybe that is what they are doing on A9. The Antarcticans and the Martians are pretty cagey about their Galactic Capitals, aren't they? I haven't heard anything about any A29 or M29. Maybe they just don't like huge planets."

Brian smiled. "It is early days yet, the Galactic Ruleset is still in pre-alpha. Design phase. There are only three size-29 planets: the British planet B29, the Canadian planet C29, and the 'if someone evil was manipulating the ancient egyptians, maybe it was these guys' planet E29, where the E stands maybe for Egypt maybe for Evil. It is part of the start that has been made toward accomodating the Stargate mythos, its Egyptians aren't intended to be thought of as actually Egyptian, they might be humans taken from Egypt for use as hosts for symbiotes or something like that. It is the fountainhead of villiany, for example the Illyrians are there. The Illyrians have been cast as villians. Partly because of the design on their flag, which has an inverted pentagram of sorts. Partly because the word ill is a substring of their name. Notice that the British leader is Churchhealth rather than Churchill. Whats in a name? Sometimes, maybe, quite a lot. Finally because Tuxette met them on A4, granted them a ceasefire, then when it expired they refused to renew it and have been at war with her ever since. The fact that they turned up on E29 merely confirmed the theory that they are good candidates for typecasting as villians."

Marny smiled. "Interesting. Who else turned up on E29?"

Brian grinned. "English led by John Lackland and Cornish led by William Bligh, I remember that much. If there are any good guys there at all maybe it would be the Israeli, led by David. Then again, David had his flaws too and whoever the others there are that I'm not remembering weren't names I was particularly familiar with. Remember though at this early stage of development the Galactic Ruleset is just a ruleset, not a modpack. It has no nations of its own, and has not yet made any use of nations from the Fantasy modpack. So anyone on E29 could be orcs, goblins, trolls, jaffar, unas or whatever. Maybe any or all species that can serve as hosts to villianous symbiotes. When the project gets to the stage of using more than just ruleset files and whatever comes with the standard distribution of Freeciv more colour can be added. More graphics, more flags, more nations and so on. Then these initial playtest nations can be retrofitted with better representations of whoever they end up 'really' being or representing. It is possibly the most experimental of the playtest planets, it even has experimental level artificial intelligences."

Mary shook her head. "So anyway," she said, "back on planet D'ydii, that Zaladar they keep mentioning. Is he from our world or some ficton very similar to our world?"

Marie shrugged. "How to tell the difference? Was Zaladar his name in the world he came from, a name he was given on D'ydii, or a name he chose to go by on D'ydii? Is D'ydii, like M4, a world we can in some sense enter and interact with?"

Brian grinned. "I heard a rumour, or maybe it was a speculation, that the D-series worlds might be associated in some way with D'ydii. Maybe the intention is that D'ydii will turn up in Freeciv as a world designated DD. Maybe it is hexadecimal, and actually stands for D14. Then again I hear it is a particularly large world, because in addition to the continents of Eos and Nord, and the archipelago of Sud, it also has a dark side. So maybe it is D29, or so big that Freeciv cannot handle it. I have heard rumours too that people have been encountered in the Tearoom, or the Bird Temple near the Tearoom, who not only have heard of D'ydii but seem to know quite a bit about the place, more than what I have been able to glean from the various tales I have heard and read." He wiggled his eyebrows. "I do know of a few more Tales though. For example I have read the fourth Tale, Between the Worlds, and the fifth, The First Day of Autumn.

Marny rose to fetch more hot water to top up the teapot. "The galactic civilisation project isn't urgent, Mary," he said. "In fact it might not go anywhere at all. There are plenty of other ways of encouraging large-scale imagination. There is even some reason to believe that television might not be quite as inducing of passiveness as some have feared."

Mary smiled at him. "Star Trek fandom?" She asked.

Marny grinned and shrugged. "Maybe," he admitted. "It can hardly be denied that the show has had at least some influence over the years."

Mary shook her head slowly in wonder. "Television might actually be good for people, helping develop imagination?"

Marny shrugged again. "Why not?" He asked. "It has come a long way over the years. There are a lot more channels. Television doesn't have to be bad television."

"What was that bit about television talking to you?" Mary asked.

Marie shook her head, smiling. "That doesn't happen to you, does it?" She asked. "It is sometimes considered a symptom of mental illness or unbalance. The Wizard thinks it could also be a kind of divination. Maybe not everyone who thinks their television talks to them is crazy; some might be having a kind of mystical or magickal experience."

Mary looked dubious. "How would you tell the difference?" She asked.

Marny grinned wryly. "Aye, there's the rub," he admitted. "We certainly don't want to encourage people to be crazy. On the other hand, I am certainly interested in experiencing the phenomenon myself. It might give me more insight into, and compassion for, those whose experience of it is distressing."

Marie topped up Mary's teacup. "I don't think we're talking about hallucinations," she said. "That is, I don't think the television is saying anything different. Its relevance, or its apparent relevance, is what changes, I think. It is possible to see relevance in almost anything. Then too there is the idea of the muses. They are an ancient idea, but maybe there is something to them. Maybe we do have some kind of racial subconscious or something, a racemind of some kind. Or maybe just some mechanism that produces effects than can be confused with such a thing. Our own experiences have led us to think there is some kind of unconscious telepathy among at least some people."

"Just the fact that it made me think more when watching television was useful," Brian interjected. "Regardless of any spooky talking-to-me stuff I became more aware of television as propaganda. I notice the messages of tolerance and so on that shows like the various Star Trek shows are promulgating. Television has come a long way."

"The Wizard has never favoured hallucination," Marny explained, "but sometimes we do seem to have touched upon an edge, a state, beyond which merely psychological effects might not explain things in a satisfactory way. We are pretty sure that psychokinetic effects are possible, but we generally try to avoid them. Our comfort level seldom extends beyond telepathy and coincidence. In our workings we do not usually intend any effects that could not be accounted for by telepathy and coincidence."

Mary smiled. "So the 'Supernatural' television series is a bit beyond the pale, eh?" She asked.

Marie grinned. "Absolutely," she confirmed. "We don't deal with anything that cinematic. I guess from our point of view that kind of show is maybe deliberately far enough out to be clearly intended as fiction. Our idea of conjuring something to visible appearance is more prosaic, like making someone laugh or making them cry as a conjuring to visible appearance of a spirit of mirth or sadness."

Mary smiled more broadly. "Got it." She sipped her tea. "That makes sense. It takes an idea that sounds kind of wierd and makes simple sense of it. Nice."

Marie nodded. "I'm not big on games either, in a way I am looking at this galaxy game thing as a kind of divination too. That city name of Motherwell for example seems a bit coincidental. Supposedly it wasn't rigged that way, it just came out that way. Maybe we're grasping at straws, looking for messages everywhere."

Mary smiled. "Like the Ghost Hunters," she suggested.

Marnie nodded. "Yeah, like that, I guess," he admitted. "That is an interesting show. Not the show itself, but the fact that it is apparently quite popular. I guess the makers of thermal imaging cameras and such have a good motive for it but the shows themselves seem so uneventful that their popularity seems a bit strange."

Mary looked around. "So basically something is out there somewhere that I am to somehow tune myself in to, but no-one knows what it is?"

Marie grinned. "Something like that. Actually though the biggest thing your dedication should do is integrate you into our groupmind, strengthen your links with all of us who are are your Coveners."

Mary nodded. "I sense a pool of energy I can draw on," she said. "If I think of doing the Lesser Banishing ritual I feel way more power behind it than I used to, as if I am wielding the power of many instead of being so alone."

Marie smiled. "Good. That is as it should be. We are family. More than that, we are a Coven. We work together. We are never alone. Like on the Enterprise, no-one ever has to be alone."

Mary grinned. "Like on the Enterprise. I like that. I guess we're all Trekkers."

Marnie nodded thoughtfully. "I guess we are," he admitted. "Maybe its not technically part of our Tradition, but then again, maybe it kind of is. Hmm."

Brian topped up his tea. "Unarmed Forces," he said. "Our Unarmed Forces idea has it that we might all be here for a reason, and if so maybe it would be handy to find out what that reason is and act on it. We've been beamed down to this planet, in this century. What for? Why are we here? Is there a job we're here to do?"

Mary looked at him. "We've been at it for centuries? We meet again at last?"

Brian smiled and raised his eyebrows. "Has it been so long since we met before? Did we miss each other last time around or something?"

Mary frowned slightly in concentration. "Hmm," she hmmd. "Maybe not. I don't know. I don't think I've ever had a very strong sense of having had other lives."

Brian shrugged. "I don't think about that much either," he admitted. "We're here now. If we're up for the night maybe we can wander a bit before breakfast at the One World Cafe. Maybe I can show you where I live. Maybe we can explore the night-time streets a bit. Wandering at night can be interesting sometimes."

Mary smiled, squeezed his hand. "I'd like that," she said. They looked at Marie and Marny.

Marie made a broad waving motion with her right hand. "Go ahead," she said. "Don't let us hold you back. Maybe we'll see you at One World."

Marny nodded. "Sounds good," he agreed. "We'll see what Maurice is up to. He mentioned he'd likely be up, maybe we should find out why." He raised an eyebrow at Marie.

Mary and Brian stood. "Help you clear up?" Mary offered.

Marie shook her head in negation, waved them on their way. "Thanks, but we'll take care of it," she said. She and Marny stood to take care of that as Mary and Brian left.

"So," said Marny as they tidied up. "A good day's work I'd say, and an interesting night still ahead."

Marie nodded thoughtfully, setting the dishwasher. "Between the Worlds. Maybe something really is afoot between the worlds. Lets see what Maurice is up to."