Sunday 20 April 2014

S6.219 - Heart of Gold



The Story So Far: After leaving Fractal City, personified math must deal with a wormhole that could bring them to Statistics... help point the way back home... or destroy them outright.

"All we need now, is to see if our distance and direction pair can spot mathematics," Dr. Nisano concluded, careful not to speak too loud. "If so, we hop on the gazebo and go!"


Magnitude & Sign reunited
Maud and Signum eyed each other. Then they both extended out an arm, joining hands and pointing towards the crack in the air. "We'll be tapping into our latent abilities in order to search for Versine," Maud told his sister. "Her essence will be the same as Cosine's appearance now."

"Of course, her hair will be arcing the other way," Cosine quickly added. Signum nodded, moving her head in to touch it against Maud's forehead. Their eyes closed. Their index fingers began to move about in the air.

"We're not going anywhere though," ParaB said, disengaging from QT. "None of us."

"Beg to differ," CanTor said, pointing at the wormhole, which was now visibly pulsing, the rails of the Jump Gate starting to warp. "No way can we stay."

"On the contrary," ParaB said, tight lipped. "After a bit of time to think, I've figured out what Koch meant. If we go somewhere else, we won't die... but we'll still be at the mercy of higher powers. I'm done running. So, we're staying! And once Maud and Signum find mathematics, we'll act by bringing our subject BACK TO US."

For a moment, there was stunned silence. Then electricity arced out of the wormhole, got deflected by temporal energy from the rift, and very nearly took out the flux capacitor. Dr. Nisano yelped, and Tangent was unable to keep from screaming. "ParaB, staying isn't safe!!" QT pointed out.


"Safe is boring," the conic countered. "Safe is uninteresting, safe is not where the learning happens. We have to demonstrate that we're self-sufficient - and we'll probably never have a better opportunity than right now! Besides, we still don’t know what’s waiting for us in our subject, and I wager our accuracy chances haven’t improved THAT much from the original 1%. On the other hand, QT, I'm guessing you're somehow interfacing with statistics. How much access DO you have to probability?"

QT eyed her large factoring fork. "I-I'm not sure... why?"

"You want to take advantage of the warped reality in order to increase our chances of something crazy working," Hyper reasoned. "Now that's some good conic thinking!" Her eyes narrowed. "Wait, how crazy, exactly?"

ParaB took in a deep breath. "Infinite improbability."

QT's eyes went wide. "Wow. Give me a moment..." She closed her eyes, and the crystal on her bow shone a bright red for a moment. "Sigma thinks it can be done! We just need a fresh cup of very hot Student's t-distribution. As many degrees as possible!"

"I'll get Para to bring one out," ParaB concluded.

"Hm! Mixing normal with abnormal to pull infinity into a finite space," CanTor mused. "How very fractal of you. Unfortunately, I don't think your improbability field will last very long."

"We won't NEED it for long," ParaB shot back. "Now, when will you have no choice but to blow the Gate, in order to save the network?"

"In 47 seconds."

ParaB grimaced. "QT, is that enough--"


"Shooting Mode, Acceleration," came a female electronic voice from QT's forked staff. The inset crystal pulsed with light. "I can be shot."

"S-Sigma seems to be good to go," QT stammered. "Moreover, she thinks that with infinite improbability in place, a blast aimed into the crack, directed precisely towards mathematics... would initiate transference. Our subject could be channelled back here, while this Purgatory would be sent over there. Same basic idea as the original Cone of Science, but with a concept, not our physical selves."

Tangent leaned in towards Cosine. "Uhm, should we maybe ask about the possibility of success for this plan??" she muttered.

Cosine shook her head. "NO. Never tell me the odds."


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1 comment:

  1. QUIZ SOLUTIONS FROM PRIOR EPISODE! Let's go in order.

    -"Look at the time! You've got less than four minutes!" -Doc Brown, Back to the Future
    -"Flux capacitor... fluxing." -Marty, Back to the Future (BTTF)
    -"I have such a deep regard for you" -Mr. Peabody, Peabody & Sherman
    -Gate chevrons, Jumper, Dial Out Device: Stargate adaptations
    -PIC: Gate design based on a "Time Tunnel" in a "Babylon 5" Jump Gate.
    -"Do you have no concept of time?" "Hey, come on!" -More BTTF
    -"Don't ever take sides with anyone against my family!" -The Godfather
    -"I got shot through a wormhole. I'm in a distant part of the universe!" -Farscape
    -"It's morphism time!" -Power Rangers
    -The large crack and 'Doctor... Who?' -Doctor Who, 11th Doctor
    -"I seem to be having a tremendous difficulty with my lifestyle." -Arthur Dent, Hitchhiker's Guide

    That last dovetailing very nicely into this episode with the infinite improbability drive. I'm also not sure if the Time Lords are trying to break into my serial prior to heading off to Trenzalore. Anything's possible I guess. So, how did you do?

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