Sunday 2 February 2014

S6.208 - Familiar Ring



The Story So Far: The inhabitants of Fractal City have been teaching personified math about the nature of their existence. Very soon, a decision will be made as to whether the high school functions are reunited - or recycled.

Everyone was back in the Council room, below the X-Mansion. At least, all the high school functions were there, plus Weierstrass, Julia, Can-Tor, Henon, Hill, and Pinski. Howie was off briefing Popcorn and Flora about how the Jump Gate system was about to be affected. The other fractals had not yet arrived, assuming they were even coming.

"This is your fault!" Hill shouted towards Logan.

"Possibly," Logan yielded, looking uneasy. On the trip over, ParaB had made contact with Para, and the sharing of information led to the conclusion that it was the Math-Tans' newly activated Jump Gate that was the culprit. It would overload and explode within a matter of hours. "Except according to Elly, there may be this being called 'Q' who engineered--"


"Transcendental Pi-Type Beings have no interest in us fractals," Henon interrupted. Her voice was calm, but cold. "Or they certainly did not until you arrived, which again points the finger back at you."

"Rather than attempting to assign blame," Weierstrass interjected. "Let's talk about how we're going to fix things. Candice?"

"Right!" Can-Tor said, stepping forwards. "In the last hour, me and Pinski have managed to design and invent this!" With a flourish, she held out a curious looking device. "Simply place it on one of the central bars for a Jump Gate, and the bar will be blown off. Without those bars to hold the wormhole stable, it will explode out of the ring. And we've never seen a wormhole sustained on it's own beyond 38 minutes."

"So the entire gate network will no longer be compromised?" Julia affirmed.


Can-Tor bobbed her head so fast, her hair pieces almost slid out of alignment. "Precisely. If the singularity is not in the ring during the overload, no implosion taking out the network, and by extension, sizable regions surrounding each Gate. That said, there's a problem." She shifted her gaze towards the high school functions.

"You need to be at the Jump Gate in the Math-Tans' Purgatory in order to do this," ParaB observed.

"Ayup. Meaning we've got to get the device there, and set it up within the next few hours," Can-Tor agreed. "Fortunately, there will be a period of wormhole stability, allowing us to make the transition."

Cosecant crossed her arms. "Hold on. Wouldn't a wormhole exploding out of this contained ring completely devastate our community??"

"Obliterate, more like," Henon said dryly.

"That... is another problem," Can-Tor yielded. "So, once we get there with the explosives, you'll need to evacuate everyone. Fast."

"Except the ring is situated in the midst of a chasm," ParaB objected. "Not exactly easy to reach."

"Back up - evacuate everyone to WHERE, exactly?" Radik interjected. "Here in Fractal City??"

"NO chance," Hill shot back, darkly. "Our gate will be Irised over, to minimize the damage if you fail. You'll have to go elsewhere."

"Could we simply stay in hyperspace?" Logan mused, rubbing his chin.

"Maybe. We wouldn't recommend that for too long, or you may lose your way out," Weier noted. She shrugged. "How did your meeting go with the characteristic function? If you go to Statistics, you won't die." Right after the words tumbled from her lips, she paused, then looked towards Koch's empty chair in irritation.


Hate it when he does that...


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