Investigate the Infusion of Stability instead
It physically hurt Twilight to leave information behind. But there was no way to rationalize sitting down in an alien device that was covered with warnings she could barely translate. It’s okay, Twilight. It’s still going to be here. I know exactly where this thing is, I can come back to it if I need to. Or they could come back and rip it right out of the floor for study. There didn’t seem to be any Signalers around to tell them otherwise.
The “Infusion of Stability” was back down the glass stairwell, then down the central hallway that led straight through the building. This time the path took a significant time to walk not because of any hazards along the way, but because of the abundance of information waiting for her. The Signalers who had built this place did so with intricately carved bas-reliefs, each one apparently laser-etched in glass.
The first image seemed like nothing to her, until Node explained. “This is the local galactic supercluster seen from the viewpoint of a hypothetical observer.”
“You have that, but you don’t know what your creators looked like?”
“I was given only relevant information. The appearance of beings I will never encounter is not relevant.”
With each new image, the hallway narrowed just a little, and the lights got brighter. The second image involved incredible mathematics, which at first she thought was some kind of display. While approaching from the side, it seemed like she was seeing a single galaxy. But as she walked, the little stars went out one after another, until there were only the last wisps of gas and stars along the edge. There was no mechanical action involved, however, it was just a matter of her position.
“Is this… a progression of time?” Twilight asked. “Is this… infusion… about deep time?”
Node sounded uncertain. “Then the positions would be different, and the stars to remain would belong to the same luminary class. This image depicts a… systematic deconstruction. Not of this galaxy, however. I do not recognize this pattern.”
You wouldn’t. Not if it was deconstructed. Twilight passed to the next image. The hallway had gone from wide enough for the prospector to wide enough for five pones to walk abreast, and still it narrowed. Towards a central point half a kilometer ahead.
The next image was a sheet of black glass, which she thought might be completely blank. Except… no, there was something in the very center. A sharp depression, so steep she wasn’t sure how the glass could hold together like that. “What do you think this one is?”
“Unknown?” Node stared at the depression. “I am not familiar with this.”
“You must know something.” Twilight said, and she didn’t even try to keep the annoyance from her voice. “When we first spoke to you, you kept saying how much danger we were in. You said that my crew and I would die without your help. Is this not the danger you were talking about?”
“No,” Node answered. Not even a split-second’s hesitation. “If this is dangerous, I am not able to protect you from it. But that is an assumption. Perhaps this is a construction plan. Perhaps it is a threat, or a warning. Perhaps it is a creation myth. Or an apocalypse myth.”
Twilight continued down the path as it narrowed still more. Further galaxies were depicted, a sweeping image of billions of stars going out. Until she reached the end, and the sculpture dropped down into a lightless void. An almost perfectly-clear platform stretched out over the darkness, without any visible supports or railings. Twilight spread her wings, ready to catch herself, and lit her horn with a faint purple glow.
She didn’t have much further to go. An object hovered in the air at the very end of the hall, perhaps as large as a pony’s head. Something like a magic field held it perfectly suspended in the air, a dull metallic sphere with various protrusions along it. As she approached, the object seemed to animate, unfolding various tendrils until it was nearly her size. Yet there was nothing like weapons pointed at her, no openings or even cameras. “I don’t understand…” Twilight stopped about ten meters from the object, lighting up her horn a little brighter to get a better look. “Do you know what this is, Node?”
It resembled a probe, the smallest possible type that could survive incredible accelerations.
Node didn’t stop where she did, but continued until it was directly beside the object. After a few seconds where Twilight guessed it was interfacing with the object digitally, it started to shrink again. The many little fins retracted, and the machine closed up to something resembling a sphere.
Then it dropped, right into one of Node’s waiting hands. “It is… gift? No, not quite. Emergency… countermeasure. If you fail as…” Node stopped. “As we did.” Node extended its clawlike hands, offering the object to Twilight. She took it in her magic reflexively, and instantly the sphere began to shimmer along its edges, displaying thousands of little outlines. Almost as though it had been constructed to respond to magic, waiting for it. Twilight could feel… gravity.
Twilight attempts to resist the pull. Success
Her stomach nearly fell out from under her as she looked at the object, as the floor seemed to shift to its shimmering surface, even though her hooves were still firmly on the ground. She could let that gravity pull her in, if she wanted.
1. Stop fighting. There’s something down there. I have to find out what it is. [dangerous]
2. Give the Countermeasure to Node, then investigate Perpetuity. It didn’t seem to have any trouble carrying this. So long as nopony goes near it, we should be able to study it safely.
3. Leave the countermeasure behind, then investigate Perpetuity. I don’t know what this is, and Celestia knows it’s too dangerous to bring back with us.
4. Destroy it. This thing is dangerous. I don’t care why the Signalers made it, it’s not getting anywhere near the ponies I love.
(Certainty 210 required)
Yeaaah, carrying around the device that tugs at your mind, placed at the end of a hallway with holographic displays of galaxies getting eaten and what looks like the space-time distortions of a black hole, and that responds to a force that you use a lot more than its alleged creators...
Well, I'm going to file that under "bad idea." This gift is probably best left in the box for the time being. The ponies haven't failed as the Signalers did, whatever that means, and hopefully they never will.
I see the poll name for option 1 and it is temting.😣
I'm beginning to get the sense that this civilization fell to an Outside Context Problem, and this place is their archive of ways to go out with a whimper rather than with silence. Set up with a greenbelt to make it immediately distinguishable from orbit, and made a holy place to minimize tampering with it as/after the End of Days arrived.
There's the digitization chair upstairs, and this one gives off the feeling of some sort of … stabilized black hole? Especially with the narrative earlier in the corridor. There are probably fates out there worse than choosing to get sucked in through an event horizon. (Granted, given the size of the black hole, you'd probably get spaghettified rather than "stabilized" in a perpetual fall into infinity — but given that it's portable, they've presumably solved that problem somehow.)
Touching it's another hard no. Giving the device to Node isn't *as* bad an option as getting in the chair was, but there's also no reason to. If we're investigating this place on the logic that the GIANT DEATH WORMS won't approach, then the countermeasure can be left here until Twilight's at least had a chance to discuss her findings with the crew, and that minimizes the risk of an accidental trigger.
Also: Geez, that poll last chapter was too close for comfort.
… and Twilight also appears to have this chapter's choice only due to a lucky roll. This place is a goddamn death trap.
We should just leave it there and continue on.
It may be dangerous, and it won't go anywhere on it's own (and if it does, they should not take it in the first place).
Leave it, and go investigate, I say. It'll be there.
So Stability has a slide show of them ending star systems and a single portable system killer as a gift?
Yeeeeeeeeaaah... Let's leave this little Pandora's box behind. It's looking like there isn't much hope packed away in this little gift of doom.
Perpetuity, hooo! But with this trips luck to this place, the descrition online makes me think of banking and loans.
1 is [dangerous] so that's a nope from me chief
4 is also a nope. We don't know how it works, it could just explode.
So the choice is between 2 and 3. I vote for leaving it here. It won't go anywhere, nobody's gonna move it, and it could be dangerous to have near.
9452212
Do we really know they don't use magic much? We've been assuming that. Isn't this one of the first active devices that is more than a display that we've come across? Maybe they use magic a fair amount and we just don't know much.
What we really need at this point is a Dr. Daniel Jackson.
Instead we've got Princess Nat-1.
WHAT WAS, WILL BE; WHAT WILL BE, WAS
Anyway, I'm certain that fiddling around with the eerie object of certain doom won't have any negative consequences, let's do it!
A device that is intended to reverse entropy? That's one way to do it, but...
Eh, slightly dangerous, but I'm curious so I say let Node keep it for now. Wonder what happened to having the winning percentage displayed, though.
2 seems to be the best balance of don't get Twilight killed and learning something from this trip.
Gonna play it safe and go with 3 here. We know next to nothing about this place and Node is less than helpful. It's not that he's being deliberately obstructive, it just doesn't know. The object has waited all this time, a little longer won't matter, and I'd not recommend any pony get drawn into something with out a good look, and some backup being available. This is a first mission, it is reconnaissance only at this point, not a trophy hunt. Need to talk this over with the others first. But why does Twilight depend on Node for all her info, is there no pony equivalent of a Tricorder, or anything like that?
Cool story. I just hope it has an endgoal.
9453030
It does. The story will continue until...
1. Twilight and her crew are all dead.
or
2. They return to Equestria.
The story just happens to have the same scope as the mission Twilight and the others are on.
I don't want to risk the other ponies accidentally touching this thing and getting sucked in. I'm voting to leave it.
Yeah, I do not think we can trust Node with this thing. Best leave it be for now.
9453042
You know, seeing as we usually have plot armor to cover us, the fact that the possibility of the first ending exists is chilling.
To know that it's our choices that decide their fate… *shudder*
Well, I'm not going to destroy an alien artifact, but I still want to see the last one before doing anything, so I'm not going to use it either.
I don't think it's neccesary to have Node carry around an object of unknown powers, though.
… still, it looks like everyone is starting to trust Node, judging from the poll.
So I finally gave this story a go.
I usually avoid stores with the SciFi tag (since it usually doesn't mix with with colorful pones). I am delighted to be so incredibly wrong about this one. This reads like the pulp 80s SciFi of my youth. A ship on an interstellar voyage powered by the best tech the late 70s and early 80s could think of!
This has hit me with all kinds of nostalgia bombs in all the best ways and look forward to each new chapter! I would also like to throw in that if this was somehow rewritten to remove ponies and have it be just humans it would be just as good! The material holds up that well :3
<3 Bear
This looks like a Grav bomb to use in case whatever is inside the IT HUNGERS chamber gets loose (you know, unless it’s the heart). Let’s check out the final chamber.
9453042
I know I am pretty late to comment, especially since I still have a giant load of chapters to finish, but I really hope no one significant like the Mane 6 and Spike end up dying and they land back to Equestria for everyone's sake.
I am still reading this... but gives me vibes of "The Worm" from Stellaris.