Don't Look Back

Participants:

rajas_icon.gif tmonk_icon.gif

Scene Title Don't Look Back
Synopsis One world-weary technopath to his younger counterpart, and a divergence of beliefs.
Date July 17, 2009

Global Telecommunications Grid


The net is vast and infinite.

Spreading across the world like roots of some great tree, the global telecommunications grid ensures connectivity to countless people across a myriad of nations. To some, the Net becomes a thoroughfare by which travel to anywhere is but a matter of thought. High above the world, the overseers of this vast network of ethereal information — angels of the modern age — hang silent in their starlit void.

That's it? We're done?

Across a distance so vast, their voices carry out unheard by most, nothing more than the whisper of 1's and 0's against an unseen carpet of data. Today, there is disquiet in heaven.

That's it. Thelonious Monk — Richard Drucker — he has gone by so many names in his time, so many faces and identities. Now, the moniker of T.Monk serves as his identifier to the world below, to the scrambling ants that stare up in wonder at the lights in the skies.

We should help them. Why are we just sitting back and letting this happen? People are going to get hurt. Long ago, or so it feels, Micah Sanders wanted to grow up to be a hero. He wanted to change the world, one mind at a time. But life is far harsher than any comic book reality could have prepared him for. I don't understand. We— you had me do all these things, and now we're just leaving them?

You will understand in time. The answer isn't a satisfying one.

I want to understand n R.Ajas hesitates, his words clipped and silent as the satellite he inhabits drifts over the Pacific ocean. I want to understand, but I can't see the logic in it. In any of this. Why did we help them locate the people from the future, if we're leaving it all to chance?

For a time, Monk's voice is silent in the void of space, only returning to that digitization after a few moments of quiet thought are afforded to R.Ajas. Nothing is left up to chance. Nothing happens without reason. There is a design, and we are architects of it. Pinehearst, the Company, and every permutations that will follow is unavoidable. After a while, the sins of mankind begin to blur together. It is not the individual evils that makes a difference in combating.

I don't… follow you.

Like the Hydra of Greek Mythology. To sever one head, two more sprout up in its place. History has shown us this, R.Ajas. It began with the Nazis, and has only propagated across time. Perhaps eventually, even Phoenix will become those with power and those with guilt. One topples the other, and rises in their place. To Monk's philosophizing, R.Ajas seems taken aback.

You— Are you implying that Phoenix is going to become like the Company?

Possibly. All things considered.

Then why help them at all? Why take all this time, why all the effort of gathering people to their cause? Why did we try and track down Sparrow, and Rosen, and Rickham and Washington?

Silence. The satellite turns its solar arrays, angling towards a more optimal view of the sun in the same way some plants turn their leaves towards the light, machine imitating life.

Because, my student, there is always room for the most frail strength of humanity. Hope.

…I think I understand now. But, why leave Pinehearst standing? Couldn't we help?

The child must learn to walk on their own. Must learn that fire is hot. Must learn their limits. If I protected them from their own ambitions, what lessons would they learn?

…I understand.

You are learning quickly.

Once more the heavens grow quiet, as satellites dance in their silent orbit around the blue sphere of Earth. Between here and the moon, these digital-age angels stare down at Earth's surface impassively, much as the spirits inhabiting them do. But like all things distant, finding the detail in them is difficult — just as scrutinizing the actions of the purusha is difficult.

We must go. The next phase of action is coming, and we have much to be readied for, and you have more yet to learn. Monk's voice barely is given time to fade, before it rises again. K.Apila's apprentice has turned away from her. We must be ready for him and what will come…

So we just turn our backs to them? On Phoenix?

For now.

I feel conflicted, master. Youth, optimism, hope; So many things conflicting in the whole.

It is human to feel in such a fashion. But there is advice, my student, to be heeded on events such as this.

What would that be?

Don't look back.


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