busy"The Liberty Stones"
Gao Fei was a gifted pilot
in charge of the hiveship Jaculum,
a mistico of great speed and agility
working the courier service
from the Annula to the Fimbria.
He did not realize that
there was anything unusual
about his biochemistry or personality
until he had to transport
a critical shipment of medical supplies
through the Weiji jumpgate.
Now Weiji was known for being
semi-functional at best, risky to transit
because you never really knew
where (or if) you'd come out the other side
but it was the shortest, fastest route
between Gaenari and Tanuki.
So Gao Fei and Jaculum made the jump,
and Gao Fei felt a sort of curious tap
against his mind as they passed through.
There was Tanuki on their forward screen,
and they swiftly offloaded the cargo.
That's when Gao Fei noticed that
his game of go had been advanced
by one move, even though he had not
signaled the computer to make its play.
He asked his crew if anyone else
had noticed something odd
coming through the gate, or later,
but nobody had.
When they went back through,
it happened again, a fond nudge
like a friend bumping against his shoulder,
only inside his head -- and sure enough
one of his weak groups had been killed.
So Gao Fei stayed at the console,
this time keeping an sharp eye
on the liberties of his stones,
and he played the game
through until he won.
He shouldn't have been able
to beat the computer at that level,
but whomever he was playing
was evidently not the program itself.
It was Jaculum who confirmed what
Gao Fei suspected: he had been
playing against the jumpgate Weiji.
The pilot had known, of course,
that jumpgates were people
just like hiveships and humans;
but they were very odd and alien people
who had a hard time communicating
anything other than "this destination, please."
Even that was erratic, hence the semi-functional gates.
Yet from that day forward, Gao Fei
never had trouble getting a jumpgate
to work for him, whatever it did
(or did not do) for anyone else,
and whenever he came through Weiji,
they always played a game of go.
* * *
Notes:
Gao Fei is a Mitaman pilot who can make semi-functional jump gates work normally. Due to quirks of biochemistry and personality, the gates just like him and have an easier time understanding what he wants. This is basically background for the Season One story arc.
Jaculum is the Latin word for "dart."
Weiji is a Chinese word for "crisis" whose components mean "danger" and "critical point" (the latter often mistranslated as "opportunity").
Gaenari or 개나리 is Korean for the flower forsythia.
Tanuki or タヌキ or 狸 is Japanese for raccoon dog.
Go is a strategy game played with black and white stones on a grid.
December 6 2014, 05:50:09 UTC 6 years ago
I could occasionally beat him at something like a 15-stone handicap.
Wow!
December 6 2014, 05:57:45 UTC 6 years ago
December 6 2014, 08:31:45 UTC 6 years ago
I enjoyed reading it.
:^)
You're welcome!
December 6 2014, 08:34:30 UTC 6 years ago