First Rule Broken ★ Video/ Voice

[unregulated]

[How to work inferior tech? Right. All you see is a nice shot up Kirk's nose and a disgruntled noise before it just goes to black. What is this? Really?]

Right, so some city. I'm sure you all get the same yammering, but seriously? There's an earth ending crisis I'm in the middle of and need to get back to. Now. [There's a pissed off Romulan he needs to go punch.]

So tell me who is in charge and how we go about leaving this place.

Also, did I somehow timewarp into the past, because I've only seen a device like this in a museum.

Comments

audio;

[candothat]

Capt-- [No, no, not yet, not if the Earth is still in trouble.] Cadet Kirk? This is Ensign Chekov.

[Kork. The pronunciation alone gives Chekov away.]

audio;

[unregulated]

Acting Captain. [He should know this.] I heard you were here, kid.

audio;

[candothat]

Acting Captain, yes sir, sorry. You spoke to Doctor McCoy? Have you been told about the City?

audio;

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I'm talking to him now.

I know a little of it. Curses, deities, can't leave.

audio;

[candothat]

Talking to, sir, or is he yelling at you?

[Because McCoy gets mad at Kirk periodically even when he isn't in the same universe. It stands to reason that the good doctor would give Jim an earful now that he has him in person.]

Then you have heard that it is a City which is, according to most, located within a self-contained universe? Many refer to this as a pocket universe, but that is, I think, inexact, as a pocket universe would simply be a subdivision of one universe and not an intersection of multiple places and times as the City is. The exact nature of this universe has not been verified, but I would guess it is artificial; not all natural laws apply all the time and the stars do not move in regular patterns, so we are clearly not orbiting a star... or not in a traditional sense. There is a curvature of the horizon, as well, but barriers prevent anyone in the City from exploring this planet more completely. I thought, at first, there were only holograms beyond the barriers, but I have heard that creatures sometimes enter the City from outside.

[He pauses, but don't get your hopes up, Kirk; the ensign is nothing if not thorough and feels a need to share all of the knowledge ever with his commanding officer. He starts up again, speaking quickly and enunciating with great care.]

The City appears to be patterned after twenty-first century Earth, although there are many here from other times. Some from the same universe are from different points in their universe’s history. I can see no reason for this and there is nothing to explain the temporal dissimilarities in those from the same world. There are explanations, maybe, but this universe’s technology is ancient and I spend more time adjusting it so that it is usable than learning about the City’s structure and resistance to natural order.

The deities—you have heard of them already, I am sure—are maybe a technologically advanced race, or—there are many theories regarding them and none of them are easily tested, but they are capable of returning the dead to life, which I have witnessed. They appear human, when they appear at all, but that means nothing. I think it is most likely that they are race with knowledge beyond even that of our time and abduct sentient creatures for their amusement. It is believed that they afflict us with curses… “unexpected compulsions,” as they were explained to me, or anomalies. Sometimes these anomalous events may be repeated, some may be predicted; most are, it seems, random and inconvenient.

From what I have learned, memories formed within this dimension do not go with us when we return home. There have been attempts to escape in the past; they were unsuccessful and there is no known way of leaving the City before a deity permits it. They will not allow you to go home if you ask, sir, but I spoke with one deity and found him true to his word, if not friendly. I know that the deities themselves are capable of altering memories, but I do not know if they alone have this power. Some talk of the City as if it is a sentient thing that the deities simply pretend to control, and there are rumors about an underground clock, and I have been told that the carousel is evil and the fountain can read minds. It is all speculation and, I think, a lot of that speculation is nonsense.

This universe lacks the raw materials to recreate phasers and replicators. I have had some success improving available technology, but I have not yet been clever enough to create anything significant. [Like transporters or even (comparably simple) replicators. It turns out that making a machine that assembles available molecules in a very specific and stable manner is not so easy to build from scratch.] But there is magic in this universe, and some can use it to make life here less primitive.

Also, there are old machines in apartments here called microwave ovens. They look like replicators, but they are not. [This is worth mentioning. Chekov has developed a personal grudge against microwaves for looking so much like replicators while lacking the ability to produce food.

And he has either run out of information or breath because the feed ends there.]

audio; 1/?

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audio; 3/?

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[That is a lot to process, Chekov. Give a bro a second.]

audio; 4/5

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Thanks for the debrief, kid. [A lot of what he's said Kirk has either heard or Chekov has expounded upon.]

audio; OKAY DONE

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[He sits back, replaying certain bits.]

So what exactly is the next step? With the gods, with this place... the anomalies...

I am so sorry... and enjoying your icons.

[candothat]

[Kirk is Kirk. Surely he can process a small wall of information.]

The next step, sir? To learn, I think, and to wait until a means of escape is found.

I AM SORRY FOR BEING OBNOXIOUS~

[unregulated]

I like that you're not giving up. [Because people here seem to be against this escape plan.]

If by "obnoxious" you actually mean "awesome"...

[candothat]

There would be little to do if we did not try to find a way of escaping.

But there is no hurry. Time that passes here does not pass at home; we could be here for a hundred years and still return to our universe in the same instant we left, and the City is not all bad.

haha, he's getting more~ thank you glitch

[unregulated]

That's a plus.

Wait, people have been here a hundred years?

Missed out on that darn glitch, darn it.

[candothat]

Yes, sir. You will not miss anything.

Ai--no, no. Ginny has been here for nearly four years, maybe? Five, six years... that is longest. I have read old guides that indicate that the deities even leave.

it's still going on. upload icons to an ij journal (it allows 100) then import ij journal icons

[unregulated]

I've met her.

Then who runs this place if the deities leave?

Spasiba!

[candothat]

Ginny Weasley? She flies brooms.

[Yes, Kirk, you needed to know that.]

Other deities, from what I have gathered. One may leave, but the rest stay. A new deity has arrived since I did.

[unregulated]

Yes, I know. She told me.

How many are there?

[candothat]

[He would like to ask if Kirk also knows that Ginny can teach others how to fly on broomsticks and that she used to live in a sentient castle and--

But Chekov is well-trained, Kirk is the captain as far as he's concerned, and he deserves a serious answer.]

I have seen four on this network, sir--Laszlo, Fice, Lina, and one other woman, I forgot her name. Laszlo is the only one I have spoken with. I thought that he was reasonable.

[unregulated]

Reasonable enough to keep us here? [He raises an eyebrow.]

[candothat]

Reasonable for a definition of reasonable that allows for abduction.

[unregulated]

Which isn't reasonable.

[candothat]

How reasonable is defined must be changed, sir, or we will need to accept that very little is reasonable here.

[unregulated]

And you're willing to bend your definitions to their standards, Chekov?

[candothat]

No, sir.