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[hostage]

[This post goes up very shortly after Jesse comes out of his catatonic state, on the evening of the 23rd. He's a little frenzied, a little wild-eyed and panicked, but he has to know he didn't imagine all of it. There has to be someone else who saw it, too.]

Did anybody - Did anybody else just get back? I mean, like... Were any of you guys ported out, too? To the future, or whatever it was. I can't be the only one. I mean, I saw some of you there. It was De Chima, right? We were just in De Chima? But our bodies got left behind here, I guess. I dunno. What was it? Was it a dream, or... Like, did we seriously just see the future? Because I think that's what it was. I think that was the future. I wasn't alone. I mean, I know I wasn't alone there.

...Right?

Comments

[hostage]

I've had nightmares. I've even had people get inside my head with their powers. This wasn't like that. This was... This was the same as getting ported out. I wasn't just there for a little while, I was there for days. It felt just like being here, right now.

[andgoliath]

But predicting the future is impossible. Unless you believe that our actions and destinies are completely foretold, there's no way to know that it's what will always come to pass.

What do you think caused it?

[hostage]

I dunno.

But as for the future... There's somebody here who comes from my future, from back home. I'm not sure it isn't all written already. If I could know about the future in my world, why wouldn't the same thing happen with this world?

[andgoliath]

That's an interesting philosophical question. Time travel to the past should be possible, because it's already happened. [He knows for a fact.] That doesn't take away from our concept of free will and destiny, mind you; all that happens is that we make the same choices we'd already made.

I prefer to believe that the future, though, is ours for the taking.

[hostage]

I ain't taking philosophical. I mean for real. It just makes sense: If we know the future in one world's set, it's probably set in every world.

[andgoliath]

If it's happened once before, perhaps.

It's certainly possible, but I hate the idea of a destiny. Perhaps it was an extremely vivid hallucination.

[hostage]

I hope so. Not because of destiny or whatever. Just because it was so bad. Everything... Everything was so bad.

[andgoliath]

It certainly sounds it.

What did you do to get back here?

[hostage]

Nothing. I was there for a few days, and then I just blinked and I was here again.

[andgoliath]

I see...

Well, if it was a glimpse of the future, now we know how to avert it, do we not?

[hostage]

Do we? I mean... If they can control us through the nanites, there's nothing we can do about it. I tried cutting them out before.

[andgoliath]

Cutting them out? Of course not, they're much too small for that. But they're technology, Jesse.

And technology always moves forward.

[hostage]

The tattoo, I mean. I tried when I first got here. It was stupid, I know, but - You really think there's a way to beat 'em?

[andgoliath]

Even if you could, it wouldn't change much. The nanomachines are all in our blood and body, aren't they? You'd need some kind of full transfusion.

But they are, after all, only technology. Which means they can be controlled.

[hostage]

There was this technopath I knew... No matter what she tried, she couldn't override 'em, either. I think we'd have to build our own nanites and get those to go after the ones we already got.

[andgoliath]

See? Now you're on the right track.

Perhaps the research facility we're building might be able to help accomplish that.

[hostage]

You think they're just gonna let you do that?

[andgoliath]

You think I plan on asking them?

[hostage]

Sure they won't find out anyway?

[andgoliath]

There's no such thing as being completely sure, Jesse. There's always the possibility of something happening or not happening out of pure luck.

I didn't get where I am by refusing to take risks.