"...and so children all the Humans died. Fortunately, it was kind of quick for most, taking only 100 years maximum per person."
The noobs liked Mrs Doransky she did not try to sugarcoat things from history or pretend that the history itself mattered. She would quickly change from being a chillaxed storyteller to a bit of a Karen though. This change usually occurred when it came to derived tech lines and direct correlations to how entities lived now.
Basically, she cared about the things that mattered, the cool stuff, not so much the dreary stuff. Her favourite was how particle physics morphed into Quantima - and you would best know to watch your back if you ever utter the common term for it, magic.
Mrs Doransky was one of the best minds in the field of quantima and many say it is because she can see beyond even the particles. Whatever that means. That is one of the reasons she disliked people calling it magic, she felt people discounted her hard work and just assumed she has a natural affinity with no effort.
After noob training, Caroline would usually head to the manipulation sphere in orbit. "Mrs Doransky, wait a moment." one of the noobs called after her as she left the noob training plane.
"Yes?" she asks, waiting patiently for the noob to catch up to her.
"Sorry to interrupt, I know you are heading to the manip-ball, but I just wanted to ask whether you could give me an extension on the 'thoughts in time transference test'. I am having some trouble linking with my chosen entity." The noob rambles off as quick as his breath allowed.
Caroline considers the request for a moment, "What is your chosen entity?" She asks, hoping to help if possible and avoid any provisions.
"A sheep."
With a frown and slight tilt of her head Caroline considers the idea. Transferring to animals is not un-heard of but it takes a lot more constraint to not get lost. Although their species is not considered human per se, their minds are still very much similar.
"Ok, I will give you the extension but you will need to do 100 days in a sensory manip sphere. I did an animal as my noob transfer, and you will not be able to do it if you do not have full awareness of your own existence." Putting her Mrs Doransky "Do you understand," face on she lets the weight of the instruction sink in for the noob.
"Ok, I can do it." the noob says and waddles off.
Watching the noob leave, she noted their exaggerated proportions, although their species are not different from humans in what they were made of. They were vastly different in how they are made, and more importantly how they evolve.
This noob is only 50 years old and has been able to change its cell structure in a way to almost resemble a penguin. "Awe cute," Caroline says as she watches it waddle away. Then she heads off to the manip sphere.
There are many Manipulation Sphere types, and the one she ordered the noob to would best be described as a Sensory Deprivation Chamber. That would force the noob to interact more closely with their cells and dive deeper into internal processes which serve as a signature of who they are.
One of the biggest challenges in the universe is to know who you are. This may be a what, or anything really as new methods are discovered but for now, it is mostly, who. Regardless the same concepts apply.
Being able to change and being able to reach back in your own timeline to essentially become another being can truly blur what is reality and or a dream.
Everyone needs to learn to master it though, or there will be no progress. Those who fail must fail early, they then become dreamers and they fade away eventually. Many adopt the lives of someone or something on their timeline so completely that the death of that thing makes the entity implode.
Caroline materialized inside the manipulation sphere brimming with excitement, today she will be attempting a new technique. The spheres were mainly used to protect outsiders from what is inside, they are blobs of space that no one truly understands. The best explanations are that they are just out of sync with linear time and space.
There are vast quantities of these Spheres and they are discovered and indexed similarly to how blackholes get discovered, by noticing that something is amis. Fortunately they are less destructive, and the thing that is amis, in this case, is not light but instead a single particle's quantum history.
Caroline could still not fathom that on such a small scale something so vast could exist. She always made sure to enter right in the centre of the sphere, then she would release herself. This caused her essence to expand, like the billion billion stars from the ancient big bang. She would rush to the edge.
Another reason Caroline hated the word magic, is because it just is not. She could not create something from nothing, and those rules applied to everything. Binding her essence again she stood inside the darkness, floated, or just existed. gravity was not evident inside the spheres unless you brought it there.
The simplest way to explain it Caroline always thought was with archaic technology, virtual reality. She always giggled when she thought, "If only they knew."
Breathing in, feeling herself exist, she looked around again, not seeing, not hearing, just nothing, she started her physical processes again and a loud thud came from her heart. A calming thunder storm she mused. Although not required, she liked the more quaint organ structure of humans.
"Home!" Caroline said in a loud command. Light snuffed the darkness and hills rolled in from the distance. Lightning struck off to the side as thunder clouds appeared over a coastline. Caroline turned around and watched a house be built out of logs by an old man and young boy.
She slowed it down to realtime and stepped onto a mud path out the dry field she found herself in. She never told anyone but the spheres had history. You just needed to know how to tap into it.
Carolines favourite command was "Home". Never truly having one as such a concept has been all but forgotten, she found the idea of it enthralling. In time she has learnt what it meant on a deeper level and each time the spheres respond beyond expectation.
She theorised this is what makes Dreamers get lost and sympathised that their need to feel whole destroyed their whole existence.
"Hi!" Caroline called out as she walked towards the old man and boy, "Where am I now?" She asked politely.
"Cambria." The Old Man responded as he let the log drop to the ground. Mud splashed a bit more than the man expected and he quickly jumped a way but still got stained. "Hehe, I am sorry to bother you." Caroline said with a giggle.
"Oh that is no problem young lady." The man responds, then walks up to her wiping his hands on his denim. "Mack is the name," then he does an awkward wave after having decided mid handshake that maybe that was not appropriate.
"Lovely house you are building here," Caroline says, "my name is Caroline. I am just passing through you could say."
The young boy stayed back slightly but at the mention of her name quickly came closer and nodded at her as he came to stand next to the old man. Caroline could see he was observing her intently, studying her even.
Keeping him in her peripheral she looked out to the coast line not too far down from the hill side they were, she could not decide whether the thunderstorm was coming in or going out but was merely trying to decide what next.
"Mrs Doransky?" The boy spoke up,
"Yes?" Caroline replied, trying to keep her voice even.
"Will you come find me?" The boy says as he stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I am here now." She replies slowly considering his request. "Are you here?" She asks tentively.
"I don't know." The boy says, his hand having slid down her arm to take her hand.
A billion billion stars expanded before her then and darkness snuffed the light.
Caroline felt herself shift and closed her eyes to control her mind. She opened them again only to be back at Origin. "Where are we," was the first thought in her head.
All her life she has been obsessed with the who or what. The where never seemed questionable. If you knew the who, you would know the where. As a noob she always told herself "You are where you should be when you know the who you are." Smiling briefly, she always thought that was a very clever line.
"Clearly the boy had an idea of who he was," She quickly ran through the synopsis of all that just happened. "He just did not know where he was..." Caroline thought as she pressed her back to the closest wall and slowly slid down her thoughts to the ground.
"Where is home...?" She said aloud, letting the words linger before getting up and deciding to head to her assigned "home" to rest.
