ten_fwd | Boldly going where one should not (OTA)

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Boldly going where one should not (OTA)

Grainne had been hard put to think of who or what she should ask about it. She wasn't experienced with the formal sounding, personality-less artificial intelligence the ship boasted. It made her miss Jeffers, surly as he was at times in that particularly sardonic British way; he never gave her nonsense about parameters or needing to define them.

Engineering seemed like the place to go, and it didn't occur to her to ask the computer to send a request. Even Jeffers hadn't been relied on to that degree. Besides, who knew the ship better than those who tended the engines? But she had also been told it was restricted, so she hovered about just outside, fidgeting with her tablet and trying to make up her mind.

As a result, she seemed to waver back and forth in front of the entrance, gathering courage and making a bit of progress, then thinking better of it and going back.

They probably wouldn't let her, anyway, but what harm would it be to ask?

Finally, gathering courage again, she settled on a compromise. "Hello?" Perhaps she could catch someone when they weren't busy. Besides, she was insatiably curious to see the engine.

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"I think they're busy," a red haired man with a strong County Cork accent said wandering up next to him. "I really don't think they want any of us near their so very lovely technology."

He grinned at her. "I know I wouldn't want me near it if I were them."

Kale had been slowly making friends with the computer. It's been exceptionally reluctant to talk to him and he's been making slow progress. It's been even more reluctant to talk to him in engineering.

"Oh." Grainne sighed, glancing at her tablet with a slight frown. "I was going to see if there was some sort of reception where I could request help with this." The tablet, interestingly, doesn't look anything like one would find in the twentieth century, though her clothes were.

"Are you from Munster?" Though Grainne's own accent was Received Pronunciation courtesy of Waver being her master and thus her first knowledge of English, and the Grail's, well, obviously twisted sense of humor, she could recognize the style, though her knowledge of the modern place names were lacking.

Ooh. Shiny.

"What's wrong with it?" Kale asked, his eyes gleaming with gimme. So much different technology here.

As to her second question, "I was raised in Blackthorn, it's a small town in County Cork, but I live in Tara on the Hill."

He doesn't explain the second one because to him it's obvious to him that everyone knows what Tara on the Hill is. It's the capital city of Eire where the king lives. Kale hasn't quite caught up to the fact that certain things he thinks are on his Earth aren't on other people's yet.

Grainne lifted one eyebrow at his claim to have been raised in Tara, but she had no idea what era he was from. The multiverse had taught her long ago anything was possible.

"It was tied in with Jeffers, an artificial intelligence, and many of the functions were processed through him. I was wondering if it could be synchronized with the ship's intelligence and tied into communications, and it would not be their bloody technology they are so skittish about. I'm not sure how to do it myself because she... doesn't really seem very personable like Jeffers." And downright rude at times. At least Jeffers hid his behind snarky comments. "And it needs a new power source."

She gave engineering a glance, and sighed before putting the tablet away in a pocket. "I wonder, is Teamhair not in ruins? I grew up, ah, close to there myself."

From his clothes he certainly looks like he's from the twenty-first century; jeans and a long sleeve shirt with trainers.

"I seriously don't understand their skittishness about us and their technology either. If they didn't want us to figure out how to replicate it then they shouldn't bloody well let us use it," Kale said with a mild growl before cheerfully adding, "Not that it's stopped me. From what I can tell, the computer isn't an actual artificial intelligence. She just has a nice voice. I'm good with technology, maybe I could take a look at it?"

He held out a hand if she'd let him.

At her question Kale gave her a bit of a funny look. "Not the last time I checked and considering I live there, I think I'd know."

Grainne's eyes popped open in surprise. This was the first time she heard someone coming from a universe where Tara was intact.

"It has been long abandoned in my universe and fell to ruins over a thousand years ago. I am surprised it has survived somewhere... it happened such a long time ago most universes seem to have only ruins." The thought made her sad, when she had once known it in the golden age of kings and when hospitality had been at its height. She took the pad again and held it, looking down at it with curiosity. "Would it be all right? There is data on it I might like to save."

Kale's eyes open wide in surprise as well. That's the first he's heard of something like this happening in another universe. He's not even sure if Trever knows - if he did know and didn't tell him, well there's a fight brewing right there.

"How...?" he asked, not exactly sure if she could answer such a question., not even sure if he knew what the question was. "Did they change locations of the royal holdings?"

As for the pad, Kale nodded. "I'm a technomage. I promise I won't look at any of the data on there. But if I can figure out how it works, maybe I could build you a power source."

Technomage. That was the first time she had ever heard of a practitioner of technology and magic in such a way, though she supposed the ancient people of Quadratus had mixed them.

Giving her tablet another look, she handed it over.

"The Christians came, and converted the people and killed the druids, the Tuatha de Danaan went to Tir na nOg forever. Then the Norsemen came in droves, and then Normans came, and the Kings of England claimed sovereignty, and now Ireland stands divided between self rule and the United Kingdom."

He carefully took the tablet and ran his gloved fingers over it, whispering a quiet word of "hello" that invoked his ability to "read" technology and see what made it function, the "nuts and bolts" of the machine.

"What are Christians?" He's never heard of the term before. Though his expression turns sour at the very idea of someone coming over and killing the druids. That's just wrong. Though the Tuatha de Danaan in his world have retreated to Tir Na nOg, it wasn't completely. They did show up at the showing of his eldest brother after he was born.

Ahh, the Morrigan and Brigid trying to play nice. Apparently it was pretty spectacular the non-hostilities.

And then he snorts. "As if England could ever claim Eire. The McCallums would have kicked back any sort of invasion... in my world."

"It was a cult that came out of those areas Rome had conquered and ruled now called the Middle East and believed in one god only, and any who did not believe were evil. It was purported to be about brotherly love and peace, but I..." Grainne frowned, slightly discomfited by speaking of it. She had gotten caught up at the earliest possible convenience with history, but only skimmed through it. It was particularly distressful to her. "History says otherwise. It was enough to weaken alliances and politics, and magic became anathema. That's how it is told, anyway."

The confusion continues.

"How could you believe in only one god? There's so many of them around you could throw a brick and hit one."

These people are clearly delusional.

Clearly. Clearly delusional.

"Why would magic become an anathema though?"

Grainne shrugged. She didn't really understand it, herself. "It was against their doctrine. Anything that was outside their beliefs were evil, and their god was the only one that was allowed to perform miracles, so therefore magic was evil. Knowledge itself, sometimes. I was not there for everything, so most of the history has been written from their viewpoint. When the gods left, people began to doubt they existed, yet it doesn't stop their belief in a single, invisible god. There has been a revival of the old ways, but with so much of the oral history lost, most people can only guess. People only believe in science now. If it is not like this in your Eire, at least that is something."

"Considering trying to get rid of magic in my world would be trying to get rid of the need to breathe...?" he said drolly.

"I'm... rather glad to hear that." Grainne admitted, feeling a small spot of relief. An Eire that had never been conquered or erased. "I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. Grainne O'Brian."

"Kale McCallum, prince of Eire," Kale said with a bit of a bow. Since she seemed to be so worried about the lack of Eire things existing.

"And I can make up something to charge your tablet, if you'd like."

Edited 2015-07-25 03:52 (UTC)

Grainne really shouldn't be so skeptical, but she couldn't help it. His claim could just as easily be a lie as it could true.

"Aye, that would be very kind of you. Seems a strange thing for a prince of Eire to mess about with, though." She was honestly curious, as well as skeptical, with Ireland's royal lines long gone she had no basis to judge what modern customs might be had they gone uninterrupted.

"Oh? Why's that? I like tinkering with electronics," Kale said, though what he didn't wasn't exactly tinker per say.

And everyone knows that Kale and his siblings could hardly be called normal royalty.

"All the history that must be taught, would it not take a great long time? I mean, if all three thousand years were still passed down, and all the laws and politics. Technology just seems very time consuming." Grainne pointed out, waving a hand upward. "Especially if one plans to rule.

"I'm third in line, so I have no intention of ruling," Kale said, with a bit of a grin. And with any luck, Nat will have kids so he'd be even further back in line. "And I've still got plenty of time to work on my tinkering and study."

She considered that, then nodded, curiosity satisfied for the moment. "I see. There is more leeway with a younger prince, that makes sense." Grainne seemed to accept the idea more, now that she had a few details. "It must be a quite lively place, what is it like there?"

It's probably a good idea that Kale doesn't mention that the crown prince, Nat, is off in Paris working as a chef. He has about a year or two left before he goes home to work on official things, but...

You know that blank look a person gets when they contemplate something so overwhelming that they just can't focus on anything else...

Kale gets one of those right then.

"Well. When mum's family visit da' has to offer some of the staff hazard pay," Kale said slowly. "Apparently some of them threatened to quit after my parent's wedding. Something about terrorizing the staff..."

He blinked coming out of that mental fugue state. "But other than that, it's fairly calm. We occasionally have tourists running off into the off limit areas of the castle, but nothing too big."

Watching his reaction, Grainne couldn't help but feel there might be a very visible question mark over her head. The description eventually clarified, and then she was laughing softly.

It rather sounded like whenever the Deisi had shown up.

"Ah, family is much like that, especially the in-laws and cousins. You give tours?" Now she was interested. His world sounded wonderful, and a place she would have loved to visit to see the contrasts between her world.

"There is a reason why mum's family is called the knife of Eire... or OH GODS NO THEY'RE COMING..." Kale said cheerfully.

"Yeah. Of certain parts of the castle. The older, historical parts that aren't used in everyday life. We've got some rooms mocked up to look like how they used to when the castle was built, and a museum of the history of Eire, the royal family."

Shoving his hand into a pocket he pulled out a his keys and showed her a key fob. It had a picture of the castle on one side and 'Castle Tara, Tara on the Hill' on the other. "We've even got a gift shop."

Oh. The key fob...

The smile on her face faded a moment as she recognized the skyline, the shapes... changed, but after centuries of use that was a given. But it was there, whole and-

Grainne had to hold back the tears, drawing on all her practice to keep herself calm.

"Ah... it looks amazing. Is that the Grianan? And Cormac's additions are still there? The ruins on my world are little more than the bases of rock walls.@

"Are you okay?" Kale asked worriedly. She sounds like she's seen it personally. "But yeah... Treasa McCallum completely scorched the bell tower, melted the stones and managed to numb all the magic in the area... which is pretty standard for a McCallum... but the rest of it still stands. With additions, but you can't see it from this side."

Really, it's not a McCallum rescue unless something gets set on fire, or something similar.

"I can't imagine it being so... broken and dead..."

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Do you want Kale to be able to help her with her tablet?

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