So I was doing some thinking about the possible setup of the CTC as mentioned having been referenced far earlier in this quest, and how much I want to see an alternate history and go hunt some allies from.
And it occurs to me that there's a really cool potential option here to do both at once.
Let's say that the CTC loop needs to be closed- that in order for Jamelia's timeline to exist, she has to take her team and travel back to that point during the height of Control's dominance and do her thing.
Nichols is perpetually on the run from the VE's, doesn't have much in the way of allies, and almost certainly needs a significant amount of equipment to send Jamelia physically back in time.
There's two options here.
First, that she doesn't need to send Jamelia back in time. Jamelia's vacation that she remembers according to ES. Let's say, hypothetically, that she went to Tahiti. It's a magical place.
Which is to say that rather than physically sending Jamelia back in time, Nichols is sending her severed psyche back into the past to possess her own past self, and the reason why past Jamelia only remembers a vacation was because she was suppressed for the duration of it.
This would massively cut down on paradox since there aren't two Jamelia's running around, but also means that what she can do is limited. She may have access to her current spheres, or she might be limited by her previous self. She'll almost definitely be under INVISIBLE BEAR again unless Nichols can insulate her during the transmission so she isn't affected by it.
But ultimately, this would be something Nichols wouldn't need the rest of Jamelia's team for- and as I noted in my previous post, that goes against her suggested objectives- where she's stalling so that Jamelia's rescue party gets here so she can use them. Maybe she just needs transport, but I'm leaning more towards the idea of this being a team action.
Which brings me to the second option:
There is a knot in time says Control. Jamelia is the Adversary, and it hinges on her. Actions she's taken in the past, a CTC loop that needs to be closed, but Control wants to blast open.
So here's a question: What happens if they're successful? Let's say, hypothetically, that they use a Reality Deviant attack to sever Jamelia's Psyche from her body, killing her before she can close the loop. It explodes open. The past changes, or remains unchanged and the original/new timeline re/asserts itself. Destinies change and intertwine, and your result?
An entirely different, alien future.
An alternate timeline, if you will.
In the current Timeline, Nichols has made an enemy of most of space. It's unlikely she has any long term sanctum or base to man expenditions into the past. Maybe she doesn't need it, if she can get her hands on, oh, a hyperdrive she can modify to temporally translocate the vessel into the past. This is of course riskier than sending a mind back, but lets you bring sense and existence and firepower.
Risk versus Reward.
But also remember that she's told Jamelia not to trust anyone, that everyone could be lying, or that even if their true selves are the same, does that distinction really mean anything, or is it the most meaningful answer in her arsenal.
So,
@EarthScorpion, I give you this suggestion:
Jamelia chooses not to trust Nichols. There's too much at stake now to spend precious time galavanting around in the past when her present body is in danger and Control is moving ever closer to victory. When her rescue gets here, they'll load up- Nichols will ask for a ride earthside and Jamelia'll give her one as fair trade for the help, while mentioning that she really is telling the truth, but she can see that Jamelia is a trust but verify type, that even if she can understand the truth maybe she needs to witness it with her own eyes.
So they go. They head back to Earth. Things are going well- perhaps too well. And that's very odd. There's no hidden ambushes, there's no threat null attack squadrons trying to shoot them out of the sky.
And all the while, Nichols has that grin. Jamelia knows the one. Number Forty Seven. The 'You are about to know what I know but don't know it yet' grin. The one she uses on Henriette, watching the girl take her first stumbling steps into greater awareness.
She knows the grin, but what it hints at... there's a reason it's so effective.
They arrive in Earth orbit, and everything's different. Maybe the Dimensional Anomaly's gone, maybe the masquerade is broken. Maybe Control dominates North America while the traditions and the Night People fight a desperately losing battle against its endless tides.
Or maybe it's more insidious, a future where widespread human augmentation dominates, where dreams like those of Deus Ex are not simply amusing pasttimes, but actual realities. Where monsters like Alex Mercer fight smartmatter clad combat AI's for the hearts and souls- literally- of mankind.
A world where the technocracy has fragmented, where the Void Engineers' secret was exposed early, where Control came back and half the union split to return to join their former masters, while the more humanist conventions stared on in horror at the future of the world, forced to turn their backs on everything they believed in just to survive.
An alternate history- one where things are different and so very dire.
Jamelia made her choice, and this is the result. She turns to Nichols, and the smile is there. She knew all along. But there's still hope. If she can travel back in time and redo what was undone, retie the knot in time, then all of this will go away, becoming the stuff of memories. A false future, a doomed existence banished to the tesseract of unmade possibilities.
So Jamelia, her team, and Nichols visit an alternate timeline, gather allies, and then with Nichols' help, travel back in time to set right what was once done wrong, and save some completely so-deniable-the-don't-even-exist assets in the process. Allies and information from a doomed timeline.
