SS572S | VOICE | D009

[2199]

[American, vaguely East Coast, female, an adult voice with a harsh cadence; she speaks in the dull tone of someone accustomed to terse military communication.]

This is Sierra-Sierra-Five-Seven-Two-Sierra, requesting Libra. I say again: Sierra-Sierra-Five-Seven-Two-Sierra, requesting Libra. Requesting November-Sierra-Charlie. Requesting... Requesting unknown station.

Possible India-Foxtrot-Tango bleed. Proceed with caution. Do not interact with any nonhuman organic life. I say again: do not interact with any nonhuman organic life, under any circumstance. This priority overrides all other orders. Authentication: Deep Waters.

Report... Report. [A long sigh. Something like fatigue creeps in, but it's quickly banished.] Reporting buildings on the horizon. Will attempt reconnaissance.

Please hail if assist is needed. Location unknown, but... well, if I can hear you on this thing, I should be able to get to you.

Sierra-Sierra-Five-Seven-Two-Sierra, over.

Comments

[hyakuoku]

Or future technology. I don't know which one yet. Neither is more or less plausible in my mind, but I can't prove it either way just yet.

[2199]

How could future technology come to your present? [How preposterous.]

[hyakuoku]

[ He laughs, almost a genuine sound and not his little habitual one. ]

Really? That's the thing that gets you? How could someone invent something that petrifies the whole world for thousands of years? How could aliens exist and come to Earth after billions of years without proof that there was other life out there?

That's the ten billion yen question, isn't it? Aliens seem slightly more likely, but only slightly. Especially now that I've seen proof of the multiverse coming here...the possibility of time travel or even multiversal crossover bringing us that tech...I can't write that off.

[2199]

[Moss keeps her voice even, but she lets it warm slightly at the edges-- inquisitive, the sound of a woman who wants to listen to a man talk.]

You're aware of the Fermi Paradox? Aliens seem more and less likely, simultaneously, as time travel. I thought it was impossible to travel backward, anyway. Isn't that due to... relativity?

me trying so hard to understand wild ass quantum physics after 10 mins on wikipedia

[hyakuoku]

Of course I am. Which step of the Fermi paradox is humanity on earth actually at, if it's really a thing? Which of those steps is where other life must actually break down or stop being able to exist? We don't know. We never found out.

Maybe we can go back to trying to answer that question when I revive everyone. But there's the imminent threat of everyone just being petrified again, so I gotta solve "where did this come from and why" before I just go waking everyone up. I only wanna do that one time, not repeatedly. Being petrified over and over is a pain in the ass.

[ He should know! He's done it a couple times. ]

Yeah, spot on. Ten billion points to you. General relativity doesn't allow for it. Some sort of difference in how spacetime is shaped or formed would have to happen for us to travel back in time.

Though there's Hugh Everett's many worlds interpretation, which goes back to something you brought up earlier, right? What's the difference between time travel and universe travel? Could just be semantic. We don't know, since neither one is "possible."

[ You can hear the air quotes here. ]

If a "time" traveller really just arrived in a parallel universe, then they didn't technically travel back in time.

This is all me spouting bullshit based on shaky quantum physics, though. I know what it sounds like. It's a little psuedo-science. But a lot of modern science sounded like sci-fi before someone proved it.

Basically, I don't have the real answer. Alien tech seems more likely, but…is it? Dunno! It's exciting to think about!

[ And you can hear the exclamation point there, too. ]

This whole situation is exciting to think about! It's a shame there's almost no one back home actually awake that could appreciate the whole multiverse thing.

Either way, the endgame here is the same.

Figure this stupid ass island thing out. Get everyone back where they came from without accidentally nuking us all in some wormhole or…whatever.

Then for me, solve the answer of where the petrification tech came from and revive the rest of humanity.

[ He makes it sounds so easy. ]