Chapter 85: Changing fate?

The day when a representative from USEG came like it had in Lud’s dream, with the same problem to solve. The representative was impressed by how calmly Lud took the information in. What surprised the representative even more was Lud’s acceptance of the job without further comment.

For Lud, this felt like a chance to change fate, or at least, prevent what he saw in his dream from happening again. He felt like this time, there wouldn’t be any sacrifices.

When Lud started the meeting that soon followed, he started by saying "You’ve all heard what the issue we have been dealt with, so I hope that you all think carefully on how to handle it."

Tifa says "Yes. But to reiterate the danger of this operation, whoever goes near Babylon 12 risks their own selves from being replaced by the one who shall not be named. For simpler terms, you will effectively die and be replaced by this being."

Lych says "Why don’t we blow the station to smithereens? Doesn’t USEG have some sort of plan if one of their space stations becomes dangerous?"

Elisia says "Quite a brute force solution coming from you. Didn’t quite expect that."

Illi asks "Do we know if this thing can survive the vacuum of space?"

Tifa is about to answer, but Lud says "As far as USEG is aware, yes."

Illi says "So if we blow the place up, the hivemind will be at risk from spreading. Why not just leave it quarantined to their dwelling? Or do they have the capacity to traverse space somehow?"

Tifa says "Arcurus’ notes state that the hivemind prefers that people come to it, so it hasn’t shown any signs of trying to infect others by traveling themselves. In his notes, however, he did mention the possibility to adapt and evolve in a way that allows itself to do so, though Arcurus thought that it would take quite a long time."

Tear says "Then I’m with the dwarf. Let’s just make it impossible for anyone to get there."

Lud says "Unfortunately, some people calling themselves researchers went there already and haven’t been allowed to leave the place."

Tear scoffs and says "As expected from elves. Long ears will always be long ears."

Lych says "Hey, ambassador guy over there, how keen is your government on saving those researchers?"

The ambassador is about to answer, but Lud says "Saving them would mean we have to wipe them out in a way that doesn’t allow them to reach afterlife since they are probably already infected by the D."

The ambassador is shocked by the confidence of Lud’s words and asks "How can you be so certain? There is a chance that they..."

Lud lets out a little of his killing intent leak out as he says "I’m confident enough to wager my life on it, as such, if someone has to go near it, their lives will be forfeit. Do I make myself clear?"

The ambassador stammers a little and the rest of the table is shocked that Lud would show killing intent on something like this.

Then the ambassador says "I understand. You have a unique constitution, so I’m sure you somehow know. I apologize."

Tifa asks "Does this confidence stem from the dream you had?"

Sarah asks "Dream? What dream? I see a lot of dreams, so why would hubby’s be... Oh right."

Xu states "As a machine who can only simulate a dream, I’m uncertain of the likelihood of dreams telling what will happen. But I have heard tales of people having prophesies as dreams, so it could be that this could be the case."

Lud says "I wouldn’t be so sure of machines being unable to dream. In the dream realm, Song Bai’s dream has manifested and shaped the space there like god’s dream would."

Xu is surprised and says "Is that so? Well then, I suppose I have more reasons to be proud of my children."

Brutus asks "But how does Bai dreaming confirm anything about whether the boss man has dreamed about a possible future?"

Lili retorts "For once, you actually use your brain for something useful."

Brutus shouts "My brain can think of useful things! Like how to move myself as well as my forces in battle!"

Lili says "And the rest is your wife’s work, right? How sad."

Brutus stands up and shouts "You little...!" But Li says "Stop it you two. Let’s stay at the topic at hand."

Brutus sits down quickly, but his hands crossing tell his opinion about letting Lili’s comments be. Lili even smirks a little, which infuriates Brutus even further. Li says to Lili "You shouldn’t provoke other people for entertainment. If you have time for that, you should use that energy to think of ways to solve the issue we came here to discuss."

Li closes her eyes and says "Right right. I’m sorry."

Marco says "Since this hivemind is just biomass, can we assume that it doesn’t have an effect on machines?"

Tifa says "The hivemind might not, but the notorious D might."

Marco mutters "So the thing that we might not be able to prove to exist might."

Brutus says "Honestly, we have a word from one person that this ’D’ exists and we are going to take it as a proof? I mean, I get that Maumar is a big deal, but it isn’t like he hasn’t made mistakes before."

Tifa says "As much as I’d like to agree with you, the risk that the ’D’ brings to the table if it was true is far too great to be ignored. If you don’t trust my or that waste of space’s words, then you should trust your king’s."

Marco asks Lud "You seem quite confident that the researchers are done for no matter what we do. But in your dream, did you confirm this ’D’s existence?"

Lud stays silent for a moment and says "I can’t say that I confirmed it, since the symptoms are hard to perceive, but..."

Xu asks "But?"

Tifa reads Lud’s mind, puts her hand on his shoulder and says "There was a person darling knew quite well that seemed off in his dream, so it caused him some trauma."

Sarah asks "Who was this person? One of us?"

Tifa isn’t quite sure what to say, but Lud puts his hand on Tifa’s hand that was on his shoulder and said "I got this."

Then Lud looked at the people there and said "I would rather not say who was erased in my dream, to not cause any discomfort."

Li jolted a little as he heard the weight of Lud’s words. Like in the dream Lud had, he had already thought of ways to solve the issue and came to the same conclusion as himself in Lud’s dream. So when Lud said those words to them all, he was confident he knew what Lud might have seen. He just needed to ask one question to confirm Lutah’s dreams having prophetic qualities from a trusted source to be sure.

Then Liz says "So back to the topic at hand, do we have any solutions to our problems? Li, you are a smart guy, have you thought of any?"

Li says "I have considered four possibilities, with what our lord said in mind. May I share them, my lord?"

Lud says "Go ahead."

Li explains solutions A, B and C like in the dream before. But this time, Solution D was different. "Solution D is to quarantine the entire Wefantz system. Not letting anyone in or out. Even the possibility of entering the afterlife will be barred. The system’s isolation from the rest of the lower realm will serve as a shield of sorts."

The ambassador says in a worried tone "But if we do that, then people at Babylon 13 and 15 will be isolated from the rest of the world and all the research that was done there will be effectively gone."

Li says "Those are the solutions that I came up with, your government trusted us to handle this issue, so if you aren’t willing to choose that path, then you should hope that we don’t choose it or in case we do, that your government approves of it."

The ambassador is sweating a little, then he pulls out a handkerchief to swipe the sweat off his head.

Lud is surprised that Li didn’t even mention the previous solution D and was a bit confused. Then Tifa said "Should we proceed with the votes?"

Lud gathers himself and says "R-right. Let’s proceed."

Sarah says "I’d like to up my record and go with the solution C. I can’t wait to be able to get overcharged and blow a whole damn moon sized shit to smithereens!"

Xu says "I consider solution C to be the most optimal solution. The solution D would be great if we didn’t have to leave so many people to suffer for the rest of eternity. I vote for solution C."

Illi says "I mostly agree with my creation, but solution D leaves a possibility for nothing actually happening and the star long ears in that system developing a new culture or something. I vote for solution D."

Tear says "Solution C would be the fastest way to solve this, but I’d like to see what comes out of solution D so I’ll vote for it."

Elisia says "As ruthless as always, but there is some resemblance of peace in that option. Still, I choose to vote for solution A."

Lych says "A bit of a risk, but not too big. I also vote for solution A."

Marco says "I personally go for solution B because I want to see that scumbag suffer."

Tifa says "We aren’t really sure if the victim suffers from it. As far as we know, we think it is quite a peaceful exit."

Marco says "I still vote for it."

Liz says "I also vote for solution B."

Brutus says "I vote for solution C. As long as I can see it, that is."

Lili says "For the funsies, I vote for solution D."

There is a slight silence for a moment before Tifa asks "What about you Li? You haven’t casted your vote?"

Li contemplates for a moment before saying "Since it is a tie between solutions C and D, I have to side with solution D."

Brutus asks "Any particular reason?" To which Li says "As mentioned before, solution C has the chance of spreading the issue elsewhere. While solution D sounds cruel at first glance, I see potential in it also."

Tifa says "So, since we have casted our votes, what do you think darling?"

Lud thinks for a moment and then says "Alright. Let’s go with solution D. Our ambassador will have to go chat with his superiors to put the plan in action, though if there is resistance, Elysium will cut itself from the issue it was put in entirely. Are there any objections?"

No one says anything, but the ambassador is sweating profusely as he dries himself with a handkerchief.

Lud then says "If there are no objections, this meeting is over. You all are dismissed."

After the meeting ended, Li went to Tifa and asked "Could we talk for a moment, Ms. Zolotifa?" Tifa nodded and let the others leave the place before they talked.

Li asked Tifa "Since you can read minds, how much do you trust these dreams of my lord?"

Tifa says "While I’m not an expert on dreams and don’t know if they have prophetic qualities at all, what little I had seen from darling’s mind showed me events earlier than they happened. Up to a point anyways."

Li says "So you suspect there is a possibility of him dreaming of our future?"

Tifa says "I’m not sure that he dreamed of the future exactly, but..."

Li asks "But?"

Tifa shakes her head and says "There is too much we still don’t know. But we do know there is something going on."

Li says "As I expected. Thanks for your time, Ms. Zolotifa."

Before Li and Tifa parted ways, Tifa said to him "As for whether your inference about the person darling lost in that dream... you were right, but it wasn’t only her that he lost."

With that, Li left the room and was now on his way to talk to some chatty gods.