[X] Tell her the truth: that you lost her memory and that while you might once have been Chalita you aren't anymore.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you." You look at her down the barrel of her pistol. It's not a particularly big gun, a standard sized military pistol of the kind most Chrysanthemum troops carry as secondary weapons, but it's big enough to kill you. "My telos stack and biological memory are both wiped. I have maybe ten percent of Chalita's memories and some access to her exocortex and feeds. If we were friends or lovers, I don't remember."

The mask is aimed at you, assessing. Grey Shift does a lot of the social side of special forces work, though they're also a direct action unit. She's probably wired with all kinds of additional empathy and social enhancements. Of course, humans are too well adapted to lies for such systems to ever be fully reliable. She nevertheless lowers the gun. Behind her, the door opens and a dozen security troops in full battle armour flood in, weapons at low ready and weapon drones floating at their shoulders.

"That would explain why you're willing to come here." The agent says. "You didn't leave us under the best terms. What should I call you?"

"I'm Stella. This is Juketta." Aletta has once again dropped below the surface again.

The security troops move over to check the bodies, then one shakes her head. "Their queues are blown out. Destructive transmission."

"Reload them from what we've got on file. I doubt those were actually Fenne and Jasminka, but we'll need to investigate them anyway. I'll leave that to you."

"Of course, mistress. Leave it to us." The security troops mouth sets a serious line at the bottom of the snowy impermeability of her face mask. "What about them?"

"They'll come with me. Have them checked and restrained."

"Yes mistress." The security trooper curtseys and four of her troops step forward. Sensor wands come out, then tight nanobonds. Your hands are restrained behind your backs. You consider resisting, or protesting, but there doesn't seem to be much point, especially with one of the security troops pointing an atom laser at you.

The Agent reloads her pistol and holsters it on a thigh. The top seals the gun in. Only once it's fully secure does she step forward and lean into your personal space, on hand coming up to cup your chin. "If you're not Chalita, I trust you're not going to cause me any trouble." She's so close you can feel her breath against your skin. Juketta glares at her.

"No trouble. We're just here to talk."

"Good then." She snaps her fingers and the four security troops fall in around you. You expect she'll lead you out to another conference room but instead she just walks towards one of the walls and it hinges out of the way. The building opens up before her like folded paper, furniture and walls moving out of the way to provide a direct route to the outside. Juketta was right. The Chrysanthemum sure does like to show off.

Waiting on a landing pad projected out over the garden is the sleek shape of a Tulpar lift VTOL, electro-grav thrusters idling in the heat. A squad of troops in armour are sitting and standing around it in apparent relaxation. Their light powered bears similarity to what the security troops wear but there are major differences, most notably the helmets, which rise to five pointed crowns of sensor gear rather than the smooth globes and small sensor horns of the standard armour. Up close you can see the material is different too. Not the solid black of engineered carbon but a shiny, opalescent substance translucent enough to hint at the wearer underneath. They carry a mix of short CQB rifles with heavy under lungs and the same strange weapons carried by security troops.

"Trouble in paradise?"

"Yours wasn't the first security incident we've had."

You send a possibly final message to your party. <<The Chrysanthemum have taken us into custody. May not be able to communicate further.>>

The Agent looks over at you. "Telling someone you'll be out late?" With all the detectors in here she can obviously hear the squad link, even if it's unlikely she can decode it.

"Something like that. Wondering what I call you and where you're taking us?"

"Medea Virgo, and we're going to see your old boss." Two of the Grey Shift troops grab you and push you in through one of the Tulpar's side doors, then into a seat. The Agent gets aboard, her troops a few steps behind, the gull wing doors on either side dropping down and sealing. You sit back with a sigh, then blink as Medea sends you a feed to the external cameras. Apparently she wants to make an impression.

The Tulpar lifts up away, and a moment later you notice another VTOL, this one an automated gunship rising off the one of the other pads. They really must be expecting trouble.

Both aircraft circle upward over the city, then turn away towards the sea. A moment later there's a grey flash of an FTL short jump and you're emerging into sunlight above a flotilla of warships. A pair of large carriers and a smaller one that might be an assault ship, float and a gaggle of civilian transports including one massive industrial ship. Around them, an array of crewed and automated surface vessels watch the skies with missiles and cannons. You can feel the touch of the great witch hat radars in the centre of their hulls. Below their keels, the rainbow ocean is calm.

You expect to vector in towards the carrier but instead, the Tulpar slips sideways towards a yacht near the back of the formation. The vessel is just as oversized as all the other vessels in the formation, but riding on an expensive set of electro-grav thrusters, only partly in the water. They must be designed to smooth out its ride. The VTOL dips in and touches down on the helipad on the boat's bow, and Medea and four of the armoured troops rise to take the you and Aletta down onto the pleasure craft's gleaming front deck. The rest of the troops stay in on the craft, perhaps ready for a rapid lift.

You notice there are several Chrysanthemum heavy infantry posted around the deck, each with a pink heart shaped badge on their armour pauldrons. There's a woman waiting, with finger length platinum hair. She's wearing a light blue bodysuit, made of what you think is genuine alien leather. Lacings up the side alternate dark skin with gleaming buckles. She's struggling to hide a sour expression.

"I thought you were going to bring back the Charybdis files."

"I found Chalita's ghost instead." Medea pushes her hair back in the sea breeze. If there's anything else she and the woman are saying it's on a private link. You can only assume they dropped the phrase "Charybdis files" deliberately. "Taking her to see the boss."

The platinum blonde falls in beside you without introducing herself and you're led across the deck and then down into the central well of the ship, where a pink haired figure you vaguely recognise is reclining. You remember. You saw her on a screen in the city, giving an interview (was that it?). She's shorter than you expected, reclining on a divan between a pair of concubines wearing nothing and feeding her grapes. Flared sleeves and platform thigh-highs and a one-piece more cutout than not. Perfectly formed hand playing with the foxglove and honeysuckle dripping from the walls. Perfectly formed hand playing with the hair of an attendant.

"Mara." You know her name. You didn't see it on TV. You know her name.

"Chalita." The Liaison smirks, looking at you upside down as she rolls over. She taps her platforms up the living wall behind her. "Welcome to my humble abode. I must admit, I never thought I'd see your face again." She turns right side up and then waves you to a seat, as she stretches her legs up and plays with dancing her feet before the lights. The chair is made of living wood with living blossoms. You suspect it can grow very quickly if she wants you to stay there. "Or is it Stella now? Though I suppose that for Chalita wiping one of her beta emulations isn't much more than using her own personality as a disposable asset in the first place."

"What?" The twitch of emotion is unexpected and irrational.

"Didn't you even know?" She rolls over to lie on her stomach, propping her head up with her arms. "Chalita loves to use copies of herself to lead missions while she stays at home, then she sometimes wipes them. Or they die on the mission. Honestly, if she was still in Grey Shift I'd bust her for such self destructiveness."

"So she's– she's still out there?" Why do you feel this way? It's crazy.

Juketta squeezes your hand. Alex's hands knead your shoulders. "Calm love." She whispers. "Isn't it better this way? Now we can have revenge."

Calm. Yes. There's more here than your sudden burst of feeling towards your other self. "If you know I'm a copy, then you must know where the original is."

"No, but I believe you about you about being wiped. You see, I'm packed to the gills with social sensors. You're pretty evasive, and you've obviously run your anti-identification programs but those can't stand up to me. You're not her. Chalita is way too self obsessed to ever wipe her own telos and memories, so the version of her who was recently seen on Hera must have been the alpha. Or at least another beta copy. What I don't really know is what she's into."

"Well…"

You tell her about the diplomat, its corrosive effects on posthumans, the higher powers on Scythia, and the pictures of the diplomats that were found here. You carefully tell her nothing about Alex, relying on your memory of the mission against Everdancing Flame to buttress your claims about the Diplomat. You've rehearsed this in your mind before. What you might have to say to avoid detection.

"An anti-posthuman infohazard, huh? Intriguing." She looks sceptical. "I can see that, from her."

"I have no idea about what her history even was. I assume she was a Grey Shift operative?"

"No. She worked for me directly." Mara gobbles a grape from the hands of one of her concubines. "As one of my agents. She was from some important shamanic family on one of the core worlds, and wanted excitement in her life, but then I guess she got the bug and started to think that her skill set would save the universe. Happens to a lot of girls. Before she left she had been more and more interested in post-humanity. Wanted to know what we knew. What we could do. If we were prepared… but it's rude to talk so much about you in the third person." She winks.

You ignore it. "ECHO CHAMBER is working for her. I assume they're starting a war in order so nobody else can learn what the Nereidi know about the Diplomat."

"Yes. She's definitely working with at least one faction of the Chrysanthemum. The inspection division is definitely partly subverted towards her, and is allowing ECHO CHAMBER a lot of freedom to operate. Still, Grey Shift can take an interest."

"So you can just arrest them?"

"You must remember enough about being on the inside to know that's not how it works. Also, it's unlikely that ECHO CHAMBER represents the full extent of their assets in the organisation. We've heard they have extensive ties to Lemnosi exile groups for instance. We need a full picture before we can even consider moving ourselves."

"You obviously have footage of ECHO CHAMBER behaving in a way that links them to the conspiracy, or at least portrays them in a bad light. Maybe it puts you in a bad light too, though I assure you your secrets are safe with me." She grins and bites a finger. "So give it to me, edited or unedited, and I can use that as a way to open an internal investigation on ECHO CHAMBER."

[ ] Give her the footage (unedited)
[ ] Give her the footage (edited to remove the stuff that might show Alex)
[ ] Give her the footage (edited to hide your capacities and Alex)
[ ] Give her the footage (edited to hide your capacities, Alex and the fact you let the monster attack ECHO CHAMBER)
[ ] Don't give her the footage.

You think you also have a chance to get some more information out of Mara

[ ] Ask about Chalita's past
[ ] Ask about Chalita's activities on Hera
[ ] Ask about Mara Herself
[ ] Ask about Grey Shift

The Chrysanthemum and the Rose

The Chrysanthemum and the Rose are long term organisation structures of Gardenian society that claim to stretch back to the original exile, during which two competing philosophies of transhumanism were developed.

At this point in history, the two are both philosophical concepts, organisations and civilizations, with numerous smaller states, groups and entities existing at a lower level within them. We will cover each in turn below.

The Chrysanthemum

Philosophy

-If Nature is Unjust, change Nature
The Chrysanthemum philosophy is Promethean in its core ethic. It believes that the universe does not conform to human notions of justice, but that it may be impelled to do so via human reason, will, and technology.

This has led to human modification for reasons of medicine, enhancement, and aesthetics, and a civilization whose ethics revolve around notions of freedom, social justice, individuality and collective decision making. However, Chrysanthemum ethics tend to lead to prejudice against systems of transhumanism which seek to abandon basic human notions such as the idea of the individual as a single bounded entity. It can also lead to a kind of xenophobia, especially against beings who do not seem to share human ethics.

In practice, Chrysanthemum augmentation sets tend to be less radical, though not necessarily less varied or effective than those used by the Rose, though individuals may choose more radical transhumanism, there is little support for radical abandonment of the human form across most Chrysanthemum worlds.

Organisation

Ancient history suggests that the Chrysanthemum's organisation was originally fleet based, and served as a linkage between the original colonies. While it now has developed several core worlds, this legacy of original sisterhood of trade and service remains.

The Chrysanthemum organisation is roughly divided into "core" populations, who grew up on a Chrysanthemum habitat, and "recruited" population, who come from outside. The two populations tend to mix fairly freely but different enhancement sets are used by each. In a military context, most Chrysanthemum troops are recruits from outside, however the elite light infantry units who guard Chrysanthemum ships and installations are always recruited from core population.

The emissaries of the Chrysanthemum are known as Liaisons, who are usually recruits, and are equipped with the Chrysanthemum's best social and physical enhancements. Liaison's have broad discretionary authority and tend to be seen in command of anything that moves beyond day to day operations. Most Liasions have a retinue of soldiers, staff and other support people who may act as their agents, warriors or trusted companions. They make up the most visible part of the Chrysanthemum hierarchy to most of the Garden, but are also part of a parallel structure that reports directly to the Chrysanthemum Leadership, while the main organisation rises in a series of conventional delegate councils from its various ships, stations, enclaves and industrial combines.

The Chrysanthemum Organization's leadership is conducted by the Interfacers, a council of highly augmented individuals who are meant to produce an "interface" between normal, public institutions and councils, friendly posthumans that exist within the Chrysanthemum megastructures, hidden and unhidden organisational institutions, and the vast number of disembodied virtual souls and AIs that exist in various AI havens. Around a third of the Interfacerate are elected by the public Chrysanthemum councils, but the process of election for the other two thirds is murky. They are often selected from high ranking Liaisons, though some appear to be specifically created for their positions.

This model of leadership has undergone much criticism over the years, and several splinter groups governed under a more conventional councilist structure remain or have grown up. The Interfacerate tends to put a great deal of emphasis on ritual, though the current head is known to be notably critical of the Chrysanthemum's more conservative elements and pushing a more radical promethean line.

The Chrysanthemum organisation's upper reaches are seen by many Gardenians as somewhat sinister and conspiratorial, with little transparency as to who exactly the Interfacate are interfacing with to make their decisions, and a great deal of secrecy being conducted.

Civilization

The Chrysanthemum Worlds represent a slice of around fifty percent of the Garden, mostly concentrated from the Exile Gate edge and then running into an arc that borders the Riverward edge of the Garden.

Most worlds in Chrysanthemum space are self governing, with Chrysanthemum Enclaves at various points. These enclaves are often surrounded by gardens of Terran plants, the provision of which was one of the original Chrysanthemum services.

Most Chrysanthemum worlds are named for female historical figures or locations associated with the ancient amazons of lost Gaia.

There are several large interstellar nations within the Chrysanthemum Worlds, including Sakura, which occupies the space facing the river, which is known for its industrial power and for its provision of mercenary troops, and Sampaguita, a large and high tech polity that has made many advances in physics and is currently in dispute with the Chrysanthemum organisation over aspects of its transhumanism.

Chrysanthemum aesthetic conventions, focus on geometric forms, pleasant environments, and the exaltation of the human form. Non-combat personnel mostly wear white offset with other colours, and Liaisons in particular have a tradition of 'one piece per limb and then the torso', interpreted according to the wearer's personality.

The Rose

Philosophy

-A planet is the cradle of mind, but one cannot live in a cradle forever.

The Rose believe that the human body and mind are fundamentally ill suited for the universe that they find themselves in, and that they must be modified to thrive. They do not reject all human ideas of justice, but believe that such ideas are naturally flawed by being made by flawed humans. Only by rejecting humanity with all of its flaws can a truly just and proper life be lived.

In practice, this has lead to biology and psychology that integration insights drawn from alien biology and alien psychology, and an interest in new philosophical paths. Several now Garden-wide traditions such as Eternalism originated in Rose-affiliated territory. Rose augmentation sets tend to be more alien than Chrysanthemum ones, integrating additional senses, emotional change and mind modification. This has led to many powerful results but they do tend to be somewhat more fragile than the well understood creations of Chrysanthemum biosciences. Rose humans, even ones that retain a fairly standard human form are usually recognizable due to their wide range of skin colours, with blue being the most common. The building of posthumans of various kinds is still more common in the Rose, but Rose philosophy of the current era rejects the notion that merely hyper extending the abilities of a human will create a being that is truly greater than its antecedent.

While Rose philosophy does tend to be more accepting of difference and strangeness than the more conservative Chrysanthemum, it sometimes falls prey to powerful interests who may use the rejection of human moral intuitions as a way to to justify exploitation in the name of efficiency or some other objective. Of course, Chrysanthemum critics and propagandists say the idea that these incidents are a deviation from Rose beliefs rather than its most authentic expression is a convenient delusion.

Organisation

Unlike the Chrysanthemum, the Black Rose was structured more like a church or a brand of philosophy with a central school. Mirror-masked Rose Philosophers serve as advisors and counsellors across most Rose worlds, and they operate many schools, hospitals and other organisations. However that has changed in the last two centuries, as events of the thousand banner wars lead to the emergence of a more powerful and centralised Rose organisation based on the need to reorganise local states that had fallen into chaos, and oppose River, and potentially Chrysanthemum, expansionism into traditional Rose space.

Despite this organisation, which saw Black Rose and its surrounding allied states build up a large space force and military organisation for the first time, the Rose retain a less strict hierarchy than the Chrysanthemum, preferring to allow numerous schools of thought and individual priestesses to foster their own innovations. This is caused not least by intense and sometimes violent opposition from its constituent bodies to any suggestion it do otherwise.

The most commonly seen types of Rose Emissaries are Priestesses, who can be recognized by their mirrored face masks. Like Liaisons, most priestesses use very high end augmentation sets, but are more often seen preaching philosophie or debating with Eternalists and Religious groups than conducting business deals or political machinations. That said, the idea of the conniving priestess is one that has much play in pop culture, and not without reason, as the Rose's network lends itself to intrigue.

In war, the Rose can call upon both volunteer forces raised from across their space, but also on warrior sects of those who have fully embraced its philosophy and undergone extensive body and mind modification.

However despite the Rose's affirmation of alienation most of its nominal supporters are not very far from the human median, and admire those who transform themselves without necessarily having the courage or honest desire to follow in their footsteps. Many are motivated more by an abstract sense of independence or various lurid and occasionally false conspiracy theories about the Chrysanthemum than a positive commitment. But their words and actions can tell in support of the strange dream all the same.

Civilization

Rose territory is mostly along the Garden's trailing edge somewhat further from the entry gateway. They were settled somewhat later than most Chrysanthemum worlds, and are slightly more likely to be arranged in multi-system polities. However, Rose worlds exist throughout the garden, and a majority of them are administered as single system polities just like those settled by the Chrysanthemum. Rose schools, libraries and clinics are a common site on these worlds, as are various precursor symbols now used as venues for contemplation.

About seventy percent the non-human populations of the Garden make their home in Rose space.

Rose worlds are often named after ancient feminists, especially transhumanists.

Rose Priestesses often wear mirrored masks, which are their symbol of office, and have become so ubiquitous a symbol of spiritual enlightenment that they have been nearly adopted by several parts of the Chrysanthemum. Besides this one symbol it is harder to identify a consistent trend in Rose-influenced aesthetics besides a fondness for the alien and the unusual, which can be carried to extremes in those places and people who do not need or care to recommend themselves to the common person.