2. Rocks fall, Nobody Dies.
2.1
Time is subjective.
Or rather, a person's perception of the passage of time is subjective. Lock someone in a room without any clock or natural light source, and sooner or later their perception of time would be skewed. She was well aware of that.
However, that little piece of trivia took on an entire new meaning in here.
She had spent what felt like hours explaining the Dead Sea Scroll, the Angels, Instrumentality, and SEELE's plot to the Mind. She had, of course, tried to hide as much of her true plan as possible, though she was not sure how much it could deduce about that. It was mentally exhausting, trying to dance around its questioning to avoid accidentally revealing anything unwanted.
At the very least, the thing was very much against SEELE – though not for the reason she expected. Apparently, dissolving the "selves" and merging a group into a single mind was OK as long as everybody involved gave their consent.
But forcing billions to take that action against their wills amounted to a gigadeathcrime.
And the process of this "Instrumentality" was too fishy to be trusted, too.
Then she found out that the whole thing, from when she woke up to the end of their lengthy conversation, had happened in less than a single second.
Then, time flowed "normally" again when she talked to Shinji. She hoped that he would understand why she'd had to leave him for his own safety, and the truth was, she did miss her son. Still, the kid was understandably unhappy about the whole conspiracy-plotting-for-human-extinction thing, and that both of his parents were involved.
And then, she had opted out of having her biological needs simulated, and spent subjectively months - and objectively less than a second - studying what essentially came straight out of science fiction.
Hyperspace, Field manipulation, Exotic matter, Worm hole, Nanotech… and the occasional break to travel whatever imaginative landscape the Mind could think up. She was amazed. Even if it took centuries to fully go through the process of building the tools to build the tools to fully make use of the knowledge the Mind showed her, they would still greatly benefit mankind, possibly even more than the discovery of EVA related techs.
Of course, the Mind had also informed her that it was entirely possible that this universe had different laws of physic, and so much of its scientific knowledge could be inaccurate.
"Still, since I am functioning just fine, whatever differences there might be shouldn't be too drastic."
Well, at this rate, Yui felt that she could spend an entire lifetime reviewing this information, and still wouldn't be done, assume that there was even enough room in her memory to remember it all (though she supposed she could just ask for more space. After all, whatever limitations her brain had were just simulation), and she was aware that she might get bored. Maybe next "month", she would consider asking the Mind to slow the simulation down to real life speed, though the Mind and Yui herself agreed that letting her use Shinji's senses to view the outside world would be intrusive, so maybe she'd choose the alternative of "pausing" the simulation "until something interesting happens", in its words.
The blue Renault Alpine sped down the deserted road connecting NERV headquarter and the main city. It was a peaceful summer evening - the roar of the engine was the only sound that could be heard by the three passengers aboard the vehicle. An uncomfortable silence went on inside the car, mostly because of the troubled expression on the face of the Third Child.
The newly promoted Major had tried to find out the reason behind her charge's sudden change of mood by gently starting a conversation about it, but the kid has been strangely evasive. The first explanation she could think of for that was the result of the harmonic test; but from what she knew about the Third Child, it was unlikely he would be that upset about something like that.
The Second Child had tried to use those same results to annoy the boy, gloating about her "victory" and how a professional like her would surely beat an amateur like him, but again, his detached attitude had quickly deflated the girl's enthusiasm.
The Mind felt somewhat bad about this, but until it could be sure that neither of them worked for the conspiracy, it had no choice but to advise the kid to be cautious.
Being a veteran of the Idiran war, it was no stranger to the foolishness of meatbags, and thus, it wasn't in the least surprised that they could murder billions of their fellow humans in their search for power. Still, such uncivilized barbarism, such idiotic greediness, and, in some cases – it suspected, such blinded zealotry. Trusting a, by all accounts, unverified, untested document of dubious origin, hoping that they could control machineries far above their technology level, to engage in a process that was only vaguely described.
That last part bothered it a lot. The Mind still could not figure out the exact nature of this Instrumentality. Could be an effector effect, forcing every mind to join a group mind, with the one controlling the machine being the dominant personality. Or it could be some kind of forced Sublimation – this one was much less likely, for no one had ever successfully forced a sentient being into joining the Great Enfolded against their will, but with the Sublime, one could never tell.
Either way, it needed to get to the bottom of this. And, regretfully, that meant it needed the help of the kid. First things first, they needed to make sure that their place was safe.
"It's a shame that the kid is too young to drink beer. I miss myself some."
"If you want, I can perfectly simulate that particular type of alcoholic beverage for you."
"It wouldn't be real, though."
"Technically speaking, it would have the same atomic, and even quantum, structure as the real deal. Beside, you don't actually exist in real space, either."
"Still. The party looks pretty fun. The major seems to be enjoying herself. She doesn't look the part of a SEELE spy. No way anyone can keep secrets if they drink that much."
"Maybe. But consider what's at stake here; I wouldn't like taking any chances. And there's still the girl."
"Ah, the girl. I thought you made it very clear you don't like putting children in these kinds of things?"
"Well, I don't. But I still have to take into account the possibility that she had been indoctrinated."
"I knew her parents. They were not with SEELE."
"And we know that she is currently not with her parents. And quite possibly not for a long time now. She might not even know the full extent of their plan - they would only need her to report for them."
"What if she was? Shinji is rather… fond of her, isn't he? That would hurt him."
"That's something you should ask him directly. Either way, I'll try my best to leave all the Children out of this. The involvement of your son is very unfortunate, but unavoidable," the avatar turned to her and smiled broadly,showing two rows of perfect silver teeth, its great height loomed over her, "given that you dragged him into this in the first place."
Yui made a "Tsk" sound. By now, she had come to expect this kind of attitude from the thing whenever the topic came up. It still annoyed her greatly, though she supposed that was the whole point.
"And I told you I wouldn't do that if I had any other choice."
The kid was pretty surprised when they talked again after the sync test, and found out that Yui and the Hub Mind had this kind of banter going on between them. In Yui's case, that was the result of spending months with no one but the damn thing to talk to.
For the Mind, that was just natural, it would say.
Nevertheless, the party went on without any incident, then two more people showed up.
~What would he be doing in Antarctica?
~I don't know. If Fuyutsuki is with him, it's possible that it's just some research.
~Shouldn't we inform him about you?
~Too dangerous. SEELE no doubt keeps an eye on him all the time. That was the reason why I couldn't inform him about my plan even back then. There was a pause.
I hope he would understand in the end.
~Hey, can I ask you something?
~Never hesitate, my dear.
~This… Instrumentality. Is it really a bad thing? I mean, a world with no pain, no suffering, everybody gets what they want. Isn't that supposed to be good?
~Well, I'll admit that I don't have enough to tell exactly what it is, but from what is described; it will have no change, no running process. Life is change, development, movement. If you remove the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances, and that must include the possibility of altering them for the worse, you no longer have life. You just have death.
~You chose death.
~Yes. And I'll respect the same choice from other sentient beings – remember, I had respected the choices of those who were in the three Orbitals, despite my misgivings. But forcing that same choice on other people - the term we use for that, I believe, is genocide.
~And you must also remember that if you ever consider taking that path, ask yourself if life still has anything to offer, if the possibility of happiness still exists.
~And you should try to catch some sleep, kid. Tomorrow, we need to go find the components for our scanner.
Of course, high up in orbit, a certain piece of alien tech had another plan...
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