Infirmary
Clean metallic surfaces are the motif in the Medical Bay. Part infirmary and part surgery, the main section features a laboratory area and several beds, along with unrecognizable machinery. The rear of the chamber is taken up by several banks of stasis tubes on circular tracks, so that a particular one can be rotated to the front for access within a few seconds.

One of those tubes is now open, and waiting for Lt. Nora Argentine. The problem is that the officer died thousands of years ago, and Tasha is carrying her dog-tags.

At the sound of heavy footsteps outside, Gyes and Endre form up between the open doorway and Tasha, hunkering down behind their heavy bronze shields and holding their swords ready. Doreen and Euphrosyne hurry to take positions on either side of the door as well.

"Try placing the necklace into the tube," Layth suggests to Tasha in a low voice. "It seems to be following them." Unlike the others that have hunkered down, Layth has positioned himself in front of the door, between it and Tasha.

Aaron hides behind a bed, and hisses to Layth, "What are you doing?"

"Being her guardian," Layth answers Aaron simply.

"Oi, in you go," Tasha mutters, ears back. She takes the necklace off, then quickly tosses it on in to the tube. "I 'ope they don' turn on us withou' tha' magic necklace."

The creature that appears in the doorway is clearly not a suit of armor with somebody inside. If anything, it looks like a Zelak: a taurid body with four articulated legs supporting a torso with multiple appendages. The similarity ends there, however. This monster has wheels on its feet, along with toes, and is covered in a shiny white carapace with silvery glints showing through the seams. The torso sprouts six spindly arms: two with recognizable-looking hands, two ending in pods covered in hinged surgical tools and the final pair sporting various needles and tubes. It's head is a lozenge-shape, with the same four-eyed, over-and-under arrangement as the armor, along with a large light glowing in the center.

"You will stand down and leave," Layth orders the strange creature calmly. If the appearance bothers him at all, he doesn't show it.

"What the 'ell is tha'," remarks Tasha, who tilts her head and takes a side-step away from the tube. Louder, she warns, "We're no' goin' in any tube. You jus' go back the way you came, aye?"

The funny-looking head tracks Tasha's movement (since she's the only one moving so far) and then notices the two Amazonians flanking the doorway. Before they can strike at it, it begins blaring out the same high-pitched, high-energy sound field that paralyzed the Warriors before – and is doing so again, as the Amazonians abandon their weapons to fall to their knees and cover their ears.

Layth grabs his ears and drops to his knees along with the other Amazonians. The Lapi's entire body shakes from the pounding his head is currently doing. It's so bad, his pupils even dilate and eyes loose focus.

The shiny white monster extends dripping needles from two of its limbs, and uses them to inject something into the fallen Doreen and Euphrosyne, and then rolls forward towards the Guardians.

Tasha stumbles, clenching her ears and staggering a few steps, hooves echoing off the strange solid floor. "La-" She glances at the fallen bun beside her, then Aaron, and across to all the other Lapi who can't stand the strange sonic device. "Rrr," she growls, groping at a wall until she finds it, using it to help her balance. "'Ere we go again." She snatches up Layth's sword, and begins stumbling her way towards the strange creature.

The not-a-zelak is at the Guardians now, and has injected Gyes and Endre. The needle is moving towards Layth now, when the thing pauses and shines its face-light at Tasha.

"Tha's enough o' tha," Tasha stammers. She brings Layth's bronze sword up, and tries to whack the sonic device right off its arm, as she had done before with the previous metal monstrosity.

Whatever the thing is, it clearly isn't combat-oriented, for it doesn't even attempt to dodge or block the blow. The emitter is smashed, along with a few other instruments attached to the pod. But then, it has extra arms, as Tasha soon realizes when she feels a cold, sharp needle-prick in her side. The dizzying sound has stopped, but the dizziness itself is just getting worse.

"E… enough," Layth garbles out once his senses slowly start to return when the sound stops. His eyes are still unfocused and lost, though and he certainly isn't getting up yet.

Tasha blinks, wobbling before taking another swing. To dizzy to aim straight now, she cleaves in to a table before following her sword stroke and falling to the floor, on her knees. "Tha's was … a dirty … trick," she breathes. Unwilling to give up, she tries to return to her feet.

The room grows dark for Tasha, and then… there's nothing for an unknown amount of time. In the floating darkness, there are now brief sparks and flashes of light that almost form patterns.

Oi. For a moment, the sensations feel very familiar to Tasha: she's been drunk enough in her life to have experienced more than her fair share of mornings after. Still, something doesn't seem quite right to her, she has flitting memories, something about a battle, and … Wha- … Oh, there was tha' … zelak an' … the … Her thoughts are sluggish, but she remembers enough to dread. This isn't a hangover, and something has gone terribly wrong!

"Synchronization Failure," says a friendly-sounding female voice. "Error in Cortex Map. Switching to Environmental Simulation Mode." Colors begin to creep into Tasha's field of vision now, swirling and flowing and gradually getting brighter until the world appears to be made up of a glowing liquid light. More physical awareness comes, so that Tasha feels like she's sitting down on a chair of some sort.

At this point, Tasha is against wondering if she's drunk. Usually, however, her drunken dreams tend to be about men, telling Eyeshine what to do with Tasha as captain, bunnies, or shinies. The only map she ever dreamed of was a treasure map, and she doesn't even know what a cortex is! Still, her memories seem true, so she suspects that whatever happened, this may be part of it. "Am I dead," she wonders, trying to voice the question aloud.

A figure forms in front of Tasha now, blurry at first but gaining definition every moment. It's a female Jupani, wearing a uniform with the tag 'Lt. N. Argentine' over the left breast, and the Star and Anchor on her shoulders. If Tasha had been born a pure Jupani, she might have ended up looking like this. The fur is not as red, bur a reddish brown, and the hair is a duller blond. The eyes are the same however, and possibly more. "You are not Nora Argentine," the wolf accuses. "Who are you?"

"I'm talkin' to meself again," Tasha wonders, aloud. It seems to her that she's been spending quite a lot of time talking to herself since she arrived in Amazonia. Deciding to just go along with it, she shrugs a little. After all, her last talk with herself was very informative. "I'm Aldara Tasha," she answers, trying to stand up – sitting makes her feel weaker. "An' are you me? Or," she eyes the tag, then tilts her head, "or are you dead, a ghost?"

"Are you with a Coalition recovery team?" the Jupani woman asks next. "I am Lt. Nora Argentine's last persocom. The chronometer… our atomic clocks were scrambled by the SPM on approach."

Tasha decides her last self made more sense, which she thinks is saying quiet a lot, considering it talked in riddles. "I'm no' with any 'Co'lition," she replies. "I'm wit' the Temple o' Abaddon, we're 'ere to stop the attacks by monsters an' ghosts, or whatever they are, an' save the town, aye." Deciding she'll take the offensive and ask some questions this time around, Tasha inquires, "What's an' SPM? Who are you all, an' is this really an … an airship?" A part of her wonders, idly, if she makes so little sense to other people who talk to her as she does when talking to herself.

"The Silent-Ones sent you from the Abaddon spacefield?" the other wolf asks. "You aren't making much sense. Everyone knows about the Sifras Probability Matrix that is active on the surface of Sinai. We were at safe altitude though! The damned thing followed the magma flow!"

Tasha blinks, then leans forward. "Oi, you see 'ere! Now you're no' makin' sense! I wasn' sent by no Silent-Ones – wha' is a Silent-One, anyway? – an' I'm no' from no … 'spacefield.' I 'ever 'eard of no' Sifras Probability Matrix! An'" her wings flutter, as she has had quite enough of this nonsense, "what followed the lava flow?"

"The field!" the other woman says, looking frustrated. Then she sweeps her arm, and liquid currents of light give way to something else entirely. It looks like three chairs, extending out on arms over empty air, as if bolted to the bow of an airship. Beyond them is a burning mountaintop. The Jupani in the center chair says, "We'll do a sampling pass first, then… " His voice is cut off by a siren sound, and the Jupani on the right declares, "Mother has detected an error in the clocks!" The one to the left – recognizable as Nora now, yelps, "Stators and inertial systems are failing! We're caught in the SMP somehow, Captain!" "Switching to aerodynamic controls!" the middle one – the Captain – says. The mountain is coming closer and closer…

Inching towards the suspended view, Tasha looks down on the mountainscape with a mix of curosity and dread. As the phantoms speka, she turns to watch each of them, deciding, from experience, that that one must be the navigator and the captain might be like her own Captain Eyeshine. Oi, it is a ship! A ship from the gods! Her mouth drops open, until she notices the mountain speeding towards her. Involuntarily she steps back, bracing herself against a chair. "Oi, Nora! Is this the past? Were you the navigator on this ship o' the gods? An' it crashed, aye? It's still crashed? This is all a real ship?"

"This is the Terran Survey Ship Fenris, refurbished for the Karnor Elite," Nora says proudly as the image ahead slows to a stop. "I was the geophysicist, but I doubled as second navigator and engineer. The past, you say? That… doesn't sound good. Where is my body? The real me?" the wolf asks.

"I 'ate to tell you this, Nora, Miss Argetine bu' … " Tasha eases to standing, ears wilting a little, " … bu', you died, aye? The 'ole ship looks to 'ave crashed in to a mountain, the 'ole amazin' metal god-ship. We foun' your body in some magic or 'aunted armor, tryin' to get itself metal for the hull. From all we see, looks to be tha' your ship 'ere crashed a long time ago. Generations ago."

"Fred," the Nora-sim says. "I stayed realtime to try and recover his body for the nanny tank, and code up some self-repair routines for Mother. I guess… I must have had an accident. You were supposed to be me though. You must have my transponders, which means you might have seen my body at least?"

"I'm sorry," Tasha repeats, walking over to try and pat the Nora-sim on the shoulder. "An' aye, we 'ave your body. We're goin' to bury you righ' an' proper like once we un'erstan' wha's goin' on 'ere an' end the threat." She then reaches and taps her own neck. "Transponders? I 'ad your necklace, an' was wearin' it a bit as a reminder o' wha' to do. It got me in 'ere, strange enough."

"Bury me?" Nora asks, blinking at the pat. "Necklace… yes, the one with my name on the tags. Tell me, Aldara, what did you see in the Med Bay? You must have gotten there to get… here."

"You know, bury. Show you the proper respects an' the like. You're o' the gods, aren't you? You an' your big metal ship? Servants o' the gods deserve at least a proper burial." A pause as Tasha recalls the Med Bay, initially not recognizing the term until she recalls the lit up map she found in Lt. Nora's quarters. "Oi! The room wit' the tanks? Tha's where some metal zelak attacked us! It stuck me friends wit' needs, an' I tried to stop it, bu' … " she gestures around, indicating her failure. "I jus' 'ope Layth go' away." After biting her lip, she presses on, adding, "The room was full o' people in pots, like. Our people, your people, an' … some 'o 'ad seen better days."

"Your people?" Nora asks. "Just who are your people? Where did you come from?"

"I'll answer tha' if you answer the same for me," Tasha insists.

"We're Terrans," Nora says. "With the Expedition… uh, do you know about the Expedition?"

"Isn' tha' … when people first came to Sinai? The Temple o' Rephidim says it is, 'as a whole statue to the 'ark' an everythin'. Expedition, the first times. Was an' age o' legend, wasn' it?" The Vartan suddenly wishes she had payed more attention during Temple services, instead of staring at all the shiny metal. "An' what's a Terran? I never 'eard o' no 'Terra' before. Me, I'm from Rephidim. I'm a Vartan, an' it's a long story bu' I one o' the god Abaddon's followers, ever since I came to Amazonia. You know Abaddon, aye?"

"We're stationed on Abaddon… " Nora starts to say, then pauses. "The planet Abaddon. I don't know of any god named Abaddon. But… we didn't have an ark. Vartan I know. You must be one of their hybrids? Do you keep track of years?"

"Aye, we use Rephidim Time Reckoning. That'd mean the Expedition would be … oi! … year 0. The first year. You're … " the Vartans eyes widen, " … from the first year? The Expedition year?" So surprised is she by this, she has to work her jaw a bit before she can stammer out, "I'm … I'm a Vartan. My mum's a Vartan an' me da's a … a Jupani. I guess if me mum an' me da' were Jupani I'd … I'd look like you. I thought you were me."

"I don't know 'Jupani', I'm a Karnor," Nora says proudly. "So, what year is it out there then?"

"Karnor's wha' Jupani are sometimes called. City Jupani. Me mum said me father was pro'ly a City Jupani – that'd make 'im a Karnor. Oi, an' the date's … year's 6106 RTR," Tasha answers unsteadily. The Vartan still trying to grasp the immense gap in time this ship may have experience. The sheer weight of its ancient existence seems almost impossible to her!

"6100 years!" Nora shouts. "The bio-stasis can't… " she starts, then takes a virtual deep breath. "You said others were in the tubes, ones that were part of your group? Are they Karnors?" she asks in a more calm voice.

Tasha leans back at the outburst, frowning at the other's virtual disappointment. "I'm the only 'alf Karnor 'ere. All the friend wit' me are Lapi," she replies in as calm a voice as she can muster. A pause, and she adds, I saw some o' your people intact in the tubes, too. Can we save 'em? Any of 'em? My people or yours?"

"Intact? Then… Wait, what are Lapi? Describe them to me please," Nora says.

"Intact as in … no' people soup," Tasha explains, hesitantly. "An' Lapi are … Lapi. They've go' poofy small tails, big feet, bigger ears, an' mos' o' 'em aroun' 'ere are giant – much taller than meself or you." Using her hands, Tasha first indicates big ears by spoofing them with her cupped hands, then she lifts a hand to indicate how tall Amazonians are.

"That isn't enough detail," Nora says. "Describe… their teeth. What do they eat? Do they have fur, scales, or something else? How many eyes, and do they stand on two feet?"

"Well, they 'ave big buck teeth, like this," Tasha answers, using her hands to mimic Lapi overbites, "an' they veg'tarians – they eat plants an' fruits an' thing, no meat. They 'ave short fur, no scales, two eyes, an' stand on two feet like we do. They talk in Skreek sometimes, an' they hear really well."

Nora stares at Tasha for a moment, and then says, "They sound like giant rabbits."

Tasha blinks back, then asks, "Wha's a rabbit? Can you describe it?"

The wolf just holds her hands out, palms up, and a bunny rabbit appears in them. It's brown with a white belly, has long ears and whiskers and the right sort of tail. It wiggles its nose at Tasha, even.

Tasha points at the bunny. "Tha's them! Only, they're like us an' walk on two legs an' 'ave 'ands an' … " Getting an idea, Tasha holds her own hand out and thinks hard about what Layth looks like.

Something flickers in Tasha's hand, and it's certainly a part of Layth. Nora's eyes go wide and she covers her muzzle with a hand, letting her bunny vanish. "That's… ahem. So, that's what the legend of the Ark is really all about then… This isn't good, Aldara. You need to get out of here and get your people out of those tanks."

Tasha's ears shoot up at the image in her hands, and she quickly holds her hands behind her back. "Wha's the legend of the ark all abou'? 'Ow do I get out?" The Vartan glances around, seeming to really notice how odd a place she's ended up. "Where am I, anyway?"

"Plugged in to a simulation," Nora says. "And the Ark, see, it carried… so… metaphor for… ah… you know, you're probably better off not knowing. If the people of your world think that that's how they got here, then they shouldn't be told otherwise. And for you to get out of here, I'm afraid you'll have to kill me."

"Oi, what? Kill you? I don' wan' to kill you! I jus' met you!" Tasha doesn't have the slighest idea what a simulation is, but she's hardly keen on killing the one apparently living survivor of the vessel. Ghost or not, killing someone who's been through what the simulation has, who seems so familiar to Tasha, makes the woman's gut knot up. "An' wha'd the ark carry?! Why does it feel like I'm askin' meself riddles all over again? Jus' tell me!"

"Bunny rabbits, like I showed you. And probably others," Nora explains, but doesn't look happy about it. "The Karnor were the test subjects, the proof that it could be done. That an animal could be given human qualities. Aside from survivors of the Expedition races, every race you know of was probably made from a lower form. Uplifted. We wouldn't have had enough people to maintain a civilization here without making more."

"So you're sayin' … the gods came 'ere … an' made us from … ?" Tasha points a wavering hand at where the bunny had appeared. "Came in … these god ships? From Terra? or from Abaddon … ?"

"Terra, the Celestial Empire, the Coalition Worlds… " Nora begins to say. "There were a lot of us, from different worlds. Abaddon was our main base, since our technology wasn't affected as much there."

"Abaddon!" Grasping at the one place she does know of Tasha's eyes widen. "Planet Abaddon! There's people there! I 'eard there's … there's giant metal men, an' Vartans, an' humans! The Gateway, the Gateway leads to Abaddon!" The woman feels like his must mean something, but what, she can't quite grasp through the heavy weight of revelation. The Temple of Abaddon sent her here for a reason, and now her almost double is relating the history of worlds, or places she's never heard of, and it all points at the world of Abaddon. "We can reach Abaddon!"

"You can?" Nora asks, looking skeptical. "Then you can bring our storage cubes. If the cloning systems have survived, then maybe we can be restored. But right now, I think Mother is trying to use your friends to rebuild the crew's bodies. Then she'll wipe their minds and imprint ours from storage. That's why you have to get out and stop it. She thinks you're me, but the reason we're meeting at all is because she couldn't find the memory markers in you that I would have. So, it's up to us to decide who gets overwritten: my mind onto your brain, or your mind onto my database."

"Mother … Mother's tryin' to use my friends bodies to … to fix your friends?" It all sounds like so much magic to Tasha, but it's not like any magic she's ever seen or heard of. To the Vartan, it feels like Temple of Rephidim magic. Metal machines, contraptions, and mysteries in the darkest halls of the glimmering structure. Mysteries that are, alas, well beyond Tasha. Looking around, needing a moment to gather herself, asks, "So, oi, it's you … or me? There's no other way at all? You can' … put your mind in a cube for me to … to take to Abaddon, then I ca get out of 'ere an' save my people an' yours – an you! – all at once?"

"Oh, my last backup will be in long term storage, if it still functions after so much time," Nora says. "But let's be realistic here; I'm sixty-one centuries dead. There's nothing out there for me. At best, I might be able to continue as a simulation in some museum or whatever  you've got by now. But if you overwrite me, then you will officially be Lt. Nora Argentine of the TSS Fenris, and you can have authority to override Mother. I'll show you the hand signs, but you'll need to memorize them."

"I … " It pains her more than she can say, or understand, but Tasha nods in agreement. Perhaps it's because Nora reminds her of herself, as much as the goddess did before. Once again, it feels like she;s seeing some past life of hers, a life that was full of hope, then ended suddenly in sadness and disaster. And now, now Tasha is forced to kill this memory of Nora, ending even her echo. "Bu' the livin' mus' come first," Tasha whispers to herself, remembering the very real and still very alive Layth, Aaron, and all the Amazonians who came to protect her. There's only one choice, she decides and no choice in this is ever going to get any more pleasant. "I'll do it. I 'ope I can save your other memory, an' we can meet again some day."

Nora nods, and says, "If this is the last time we'll meet, I want to thank you for the burial. It's… a luxury that not many merit back home." She brings up her right hand, palm outward, and says, "No, we're going to drill until you can get these gestures off correctly. Then I'll tell you what you need to say to Mother… "

"You'll be buried like a Warrior, s'the highest 'onor aroun' these parts," Tasha promises. "You an' all the crew, even if I can take your memory to Abaddon an' you … you clone." Tasha doesn't know what cloning is either, but she assumes it's something like resurrection. There are so many questions she still has, so much she doesn't know, so much this Lt. Nora Argetine could tell her … and yet, she has no time. "I'm ready, Nora. Show me, an' I'll 'ave a talk wit' this 'Mother.'"