07 - Holt Sweet Holt

Moth dreamed a dream that is a memory.

I was just a boy, running, 9 years old. My sibs and the farmhands' kids and I were playing "running to the dark" on Sonhandra.

It was said that there were structures in the darkness, but I never saw them. You couldn't see them, because the darkness somehow extinguishes all light. In that dream of a memory, I ran faster and faster into the darkness, further than I ever had, my lungs burning, exhilirated. 

That's when I tripped on something, I never could tell what, and fell. And in the darkness, as the panic set in, I heard a voice. I always swore I'd heard a voice. But it's only now that I recognize it as my own adult voice, saying something I don't think I said yet. 

It makes me think of the speed of light, going so fast into the darkness that light cannot catch up to me. 

And also in that dark, I dream of...the cube. With Pesh, Merk, Yoth, and Dorn.

As we enter the Holt system, we reflect. 

Meade reflects on the recording he has, from 20-odd years ago, an HNN propaganda blast about what needed to be done to put down the dangerous Memmish rebels.

The depth charges, the reddening sea. 
The screeching of the slowly dehydrating special captives of the Malklaith lord.
A world and a people subdued ... for now. 

Mpho reflects on her kinship with the star of the Holt system. It, like her, has been altered and scarred and aged somehow. 

Franky reflects on his unvisited relatives on Mem, for Mill was Memmish, and Franky has a sister on that word. 

Just before the meeting is called, Moth (Mevakor Ortcutt) is investigating the artifact in a desultory fashion. Meade Grey is having a steam followed by a lukewarm plunge (a true ice plunge doesn't agree with his sensibilities). Mphoentle Begin the is sharpening her weapon, and disassembling and reassembling her blaster in preparation to kill Laxx.

That's when Frank "Franky" Heather starts playing a jaunty Christmas journal to invite us all to the conference room. 

Frank has toasties and coffee for us. Meade admits he may have unknowingly smuggled some Memmish roe. Mpho reveals that her friend Blish knows of an artifact called the Cube. Moth, having seen it in his dreams, is thrilled and excited. 

With Franky and Meade's help and encouragement, Moth tries to activate The Cryptex using the symbols from the cube in his dreams. However, Moth's memory of exactly the correct symbols may not be accurate, and also some of those symbols are already ones that the Crew has discovered to be not in the proper sequence for opening the Cryptex. Moth speaks to the Cryptex, imploring it to reveal more to him.

The result is that the Cryptex asks Moth what he's willing to give up, and he says he's willing to give up his youth (again). With that, the Cryptex rewrites some of his memories, taking away childhood up to about aged 7, and replaces that with knowledge, certainty, that the cube will now grant 40 seconds instead of 20 (whatever that means).

The crew agrees to travel to Planet Mem to connect with Blish and pursue the Cube. We've heard that Memmish conscription is being increased, because of the uprising on Planet Indri.Mphoentle Begin the is dead set on killing Laxx. Meade and Moth try to talk her into taking a less direct path, at least talking to Laxx first, but Mpho reminds us of the wise adage, "a bad fish don't flip twice."

In the end, Franky, Meade and Moth all consent to help Mpho get her vengeance on Laxx.

At Mem, we see a large Hegemony station orbiting with many patrol ships. There are big orbital stations in the upper atmosphere and many, many oil derricks on the watery surface. 

The planet now has multiple artificial islands, foremost among them kayan, where Victor Krummel, the governor of Mem, rules. 

The crew has a conversation with Jonny, our new Urbot AI. Jonny can fly the shuttle for us to help manage our access to the surface in our new Submersible, but Jonny says he won't fly really great ... unless we gave him atmospheric control of the Firedrake. We decide it's best not to accept that. 

As we see the surface near the Soda Shoals, we see concentric rings of chalkiness on the surface of the water. As we descend, we see crablike creatures, molluscs, and limestony volcanic formations belching forth this soda-like substance, and dense kelpy forests with farmers.
The "roads" here are marked with regularly placed biolumen orbs. We see Memmish riding on the top of underwater craft. 
We descend along a shelf to a cavern. 

We enter a moon pool, where the Memmish use candles to test for the presence of sufficient oxygen. 

The initial smell is like sniffing a club soda, and then there is the pungeant fish scent natural to the Mem. 

We meet omarda, first hunter of Soda Shoals. Moth tries to make a good first impression and mostly makes a fool of himself. Frank "Franky" Heather on the other hand has mechanical finger-tentacle extensions to enable him to communicate fluently in the language of the Mem. Franky also has built-in gills, which means he doesn't require a face-mask for breathing underwater, like the rest of the crew do.

Equipped with breathing masks (for 3 of us), we dive into the water. We see Memmish family homes. We have stop for a while to avoid getting the bends.

Franky reflects on the overexaggerated facial expressions of Mill, which he seems to have used to counteract the normally flat expressions of the Mem. 

Then we arrive at what seems like the base of the building, with big tunnel corridors made by the precursors, but since lined with stone and sediment. 

We meet Blish in a room known as the Circle of Reflection. There are giant chairs here around a massive table. Blish remarks that this room is more suitable for a formal conversation and invites us to another room with the equivalent of giant couches and chaise lounges. 

Although the precursors seem to have been sometimes giant and sometimes small, Blish says that he believes they were like us: they ate, they slept, they walked (or swam), they rested. 

Blish also remarks that the precursors seemed to have no need of language, written or otherwise, to communicate with one another. So why did they create the symbols at all? Blish implies that it was to communicate with us, who come after (or perhaps before) the precursors. 

Blish lets us know that the Nightspeakers are here, seeking for the cube in a place known as the Abyss. They have with them Malklaith guards, and also 6 indentured Mem guides, who bear "loyalty collars." 

We begin to research. Frank "Franky" Heather and Moth (Mevakor Ortcutt) work together to research the indentured guides and the loyalty collars. We know that 1 device controls all 6 collars, and also that even after the loyalty collar has been removed, the experience of pain and pleasure from it may be so ingrained in the prisoners that it still compels them to obedience. Moth prepares a beta blocker injection to free them of that. 

The 6 indentured Mem are:

1. Thorpe - An upriser, equivalent to a noncommissioned officer, an expert in small unit tactics.

2. Grell - A sniper, experienced as an independent underwater lurker to kill the invaders.

3. Farem - An Oceanographer

4. Ventris - A skilled survivalist

5. Malissa - A Way mystic and precursor researcher.

6. Auraphan - An animal expert. 

We also learn that the leader of the Nightspeakers here is Ismissa, a deadly wielder of the Way. 

We know that some of the shoals are just rubble now.

We also realize that the artifacts the Nightspeakers seek are 5 components of the Raiment, and the cube is not one of those items. Which leads us to believe that Malklaith has hired them. 

As we creep through the corridors, we hear sonic gunfire under the water, and get our first glimpse of the Guardians -- fish-like Ur machines with serrated jaws and fins. 

Mphoentle Begin the sets out to find the Nightspeakers, and sees Ismissa in her fleshy, organic underwater suit. Frankie sets Tyranosaurus Rex to have a signal that will lure the Guardians toward the Nightspeakers. 

Flashback: Meade made contact with Ismissa the night before, and discussed the Aleph key, heavily implying that he would send it to her with "a friend", and in return she would let us get the cube.

Back in the now, we realize that Mead's ruse has failed, as Ismissa crushes T-Rex, and the Guardians begin to close in on Meade Grey and Mphoentle Begin the. Meade rushes past the crushed corpse of T-rex, but Mpho stops to rescue him, and then swims dextrously to evade the Guardians. 

Sneaking up behind the Malklaith guard (and the Mem prisoners), who are skirmishing with the Guardians, Frank "Franky" Heather unleashes an EMP to deactivate the loyalty collars, and then Moth scrambles forward to inject Malissa with the beta blockers. Malissa's eyes change, she takes the loyalty-collar control device and shatters the faceplate of the guard who was holding it. 

Meanwhile, Mphoentle Begin the uses Psi-dancing to make the shattered corpse of Tyranosaurus Rex seem to be the cube. She hands it to Meade Grey, who uses a harpoon gun to launch T-Rex down the corridor toward Ismissa. Ismissa is fooled, despite her Way affinity, and picks up what she thinks is the cube. That's when Franky detonates it. 

In the submersible, Moth tries to activate the cube based on what little he knows about it, and as a result somehow visits Meade doing calisthenics in preparation for the mission 30 minutes ago. Meade just remembers that this happened now. My visit was only 20 seconds. 

Realizing the time-travel implications of this Ur object, Frank "Franky" Heather says "Oh, so we could save somebody." So he uses it with the intention to save T-Rex. But instead Franky somehow sees himself with his original parents (before Mill). They are running together -- running from something. But they aren't fast enough. Their pursuer catches up to them, and executes Franky's mom and dad. But instead of killing child-Franky, this murderer shoots the adult Franky, who returns to our present time with a nasty blaster injury in his chest.