Re: Inexorable Altercation [Round II - Armada]
03-05-2011, 06:12 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Pinary.
Another message echoed out through the multiverse, saying much and saying nothing. Once more, the cascade of energy plucked the delicate causal strand that described Will's life and shifted his relative position in time, swapping seventeen for eighteen and bringing more change than just a slight movement.
In his eighteenth run through the loop that defined him, this particular Will had made an exciting discovery. For nearly a year, he had edged ever-closer to a solution, building a device that would literally lock his atoms to their positions in the universe. It was more than just a stasis field- those simply reduced all motion to zero, something that wouldn't prevent outside forces from interacting with them in other ways. No, this device would lock him down, tying him to his place with literally unsurpassable force.
Except it wouldn't. Every test he ran failed, results varying from simple removal of the testing object from existence to a massive impulse of kinetic energy that nearly blew a hole in the side of the Timeless. It took him two months of tests to finally go back to the drawing board, double- and triple-checking his calculations to try and find the problem.
Eventually, he found it, and the realization nearly crushed him.
![[Image: png.download?\large&space;\dpi%7B150%7D&spac...F_%7Bmax%7D%7D)%7D]](https://latex.codecogs.com/png.download?\large&space;\dpi%7B150%7D&space;\frac%7B...%7D%7B1&space;-&space;(\frac%7BF_%7Bhold%7D%7D%7BF_%7Bmax%7D%7D)%7D)
A divide-by-zero error. He'd wasted more than a year of his life on a wild goose chase, all because he hadn't noticed that one error in his calculations.
He docked at the nearest city-ship, Bertrand City, and wasted yet another month losing himself in the finest beverages an interest-abuse scheme could buy.
He had six years left until he was abducted at that point, and while he did set up the loop to continue for another iteration, he didn't do any more work. Even the thought of researching methods of preventing his abduction sent him directly to thoughts of that damnable error.
In the end, he put on a decent show for the nineteenth Will, and when he vanished, that iteration of himself was as full of drive and determination as he himself had been fourteen years ago.
-
Anna certainly wasn't scared and confused. She had no reason to be, after all- sure, three sailors had just appeared and died right in front of her. Sure, the person who'd killed them was now about to go abovedecks and probably kill more of them. And sure, that Will guy had just appeared in front of her, holding out his gun and shouting at a rather empty corner of the room.
He whirled around, searching the room for the person he'd just been pointing his gun at. His eyes flicked to Annaliese as he looked around, then moved on, simply identifying her as "not Atrum".
After a moment, he swore and lowered the weapon. "Damn, he phased out." He turned back to the witch and sighed. "Whatever, he'll be back, and we can get rid of him then. For now, you just focus on getting that thing working. Hopefully we can get to Voitrach before Greyve and Twight finish butting heads."
"G-Greyve?" Anna had some very clear memories on the subject of that particular combatant, none of which were particularly compatible with the idea of him butting heads with anyone.
"Yeah. He's taken a special interest in that Creeper of ours, and I'm happy to have the two of them tied up with each other instead of trying to off the rest of us."
"Didn't you, uh... shoot him?"
"What? No. Can't say I wouldn't mind, but I haven't had that pleasure just yet. Your head on straight?"
Anna was fairly sure it was (sure as anyone could be), but Will wouldn't listen to her. He was already headed abovedecks and urging her to be quiet and come along, completely focused on just getting the two of them airborne as soon as possible.
Another message echoed out through the multiverse, saying much and saying nothing. Once more, the cascade of energy plucked the delicate causal strand that described Will's life and shifted his relative position in time, swapping seventeen for eighteen and bringing more change than just a slight movement.
In his eighteenth run through the loop that defined him, this particular Will had made an exciting discovery. For nearly a year, he had edged ever-closer to a solution, building a device that would literally lock his atoms to their positions in the universe. It was more than just a stasis field- those simply reduced all motion to zero, something that wouldn't prevent outside forces from interacting with them in other ways. No, this device would lock him down, tying him to his place with literally unsurpassable force.
Except it wouldn't. Every test he ran failed, results varying from simple removal of the testing object from existence to a massive impulse of kinetic energy that nearly blew a hole in the side of the Timeless. It took him two months of tests to finally go back to the drawing board, double- and triple-checking his calculations to try and find the problem.
Eventually, he found it, and the realization nearly crushed him.
A divide-by-zero error. He'd wasted more than a year of his life on a wild goose chase, all because he hadn't noticed that one error in his calculations.
He docked at the nearest city-ship, Bertrand City, and wasted yet another month losing himself in the finest beverages an interest-abuse scheme could buy.
He had six years left until he was abducted at that point, and while he did set up the loop to continue for another iteration, he didn't do any more work. Even the thought of researching methods of preventing his abduction sent him directly to thoughts of that damnable error.
In the end, he put on a decent show for the nineteenth Will, and when he vanished, that iteration of himself was as full of drive and determination as he himself had been fourteen years ago.
-
Anna certainly wasn't scared and confused. She had no reason to be, after all- sure, three sailors had just appeared and died right in front of her. Sure, the person who'd killed them was now about to go abovedecks and probably kill more of them. And sure, that Will guy had just appeared in front of her, holding out his gun and shouting at a rather empty corner of the room.
He whirled around, searching the room for the person he'd just been pointing his gun at. His eyes flicked to Annaliese as he looked around, then moved on, simply identifying her as "not Atrum".
After a moment, he swore and lowered the weapon. "Damn, he phased out." He turned back to the witch and sighed. "Whatever, he'll be back, and we can get rid of him then. For now, you just focus on getting that thing working. Hopefully we can get to Voitrach before Greyve and Twight finish butting heads."
"G-Greyve?" Anna had some very clear memories on the subject of that particular combatant, none of which were particularly compatible with the idea of him butting heads with anyone.
"Yeah. He's taken a special interest in that Creeper of ours, and I'm happy to have the two of them tied up with each other instead of trying to off the rest of us."
"Didn't you, uh... shoot him?"
"What? No. Can't say I wouldn't mind, but I haven't had that pleasure just yet. Your head on straight?"
Anna was fairly sure it was (sure as anyone could be), but Will wouldn't listen to her. He was already headed abovedecks and urging her to be quiet and come along, completely focused on just getting the two of them airborne as soon as possible.