Post by Flynt on Sept 21, 2014 17:46:54 GMT
"Personal log supplemental
"'Nothing hath changed,' it said. Indeed very little has, and here I am caught in a conundrum between the need to intellectually understand a possible new life form and the need to defend the Federation from that life form.
"At this moment, I have little doubt that Mimir has the ability to take a life at any time it wishes. Several here at 146 have speculated that it is an artificial intelligence, though the entity itself seems to disclaim that assertion. Regardless, it appears to have a synergy with the station's computer system, as it must have had with the USS Alder before. Which suggests that it is capable of being transmitted, or transmitting itself, over subspace communications. And if it is the latter, then this represents a threat to any Federation installation.
"So, not for the first time since arriving, do I feel compelled to invoke Article 14, Section 31 to get to the bottom of this issue. So far, my oath as an officer of Starfleet and as an officer of the court have restrained me... (chuckles a moment) ... that and the idea that doing so would open the door for parties unnamed to launch red matter into the station's core.
"Meanwhile, this 'Frank Johnson' character has asked for a lawyer, so I've requested counsel for him. I'd love to have a crack at him myself, but that's not my assignment--I already have a conflict of interest. By all reports, he knows more than he lets on. I'm willing to authorize a telepath to check him out. To be honest, I'm tempted to recruit a Lethean, but I still feel like brute force isn't going to solve this one. I'll settle for finding out his connection to Catherine Grant.
"So it's back to sifting clues, listening to that haunting recording over and over. Reading Exodus' conversation log. Biblical references mixed with Alice in Wonderland--which is an interesting link, Lewis Carroll being an Anglican minister--though I'm sure that's a dead end, other than the source of the entity's affinity for word-play. The rest of the messages seem to be more warnings than anything, mere strands of clues.
"Do we have anything to fear, or is Mimir 'fear itself'?
"Indeed, Kennedy's words ring as true today as they did 450 years ago. We have equal ability to solve our woes with peace and with war. Do we have the will for the former, particularly with this foreign intellect?
"What was it that happened 400 years ago? The day that will live in infamy, at least for Mimir. Earth's Third World War? Was Mimir an agent of that destruction, or a victim? Both?
"Still, 'Nothing hath changed...'
"If nothing hath changed in the creation, if the same means now exist which before existed, why then are not the present what former generations were? Ah! it is falsely that you accuse fate and heaven! it is unjustly that you accuse God as the cause of your evils! Say, perverse and hypocritical race! if these places are desolate, if these powerful cities are reduced to solitude, is it God who has caused their ruin? Is it his hand which has overthrown these walls, destroyed these temples, mutilated these columns, or is it the hand of man? Is it the arm of God which has carried the sword into your cities, and fire into your fields, which has slaughtered the people, burned the harvests, rooted up trees, and ravaged the pastures, or is it the hand of man?" (Volney, Ruins, Ch.3)
"Volney's eventual point was that the religions of the world should meet to defend their positions using only their holy books, at the end sifting through to find the commonalities in each. After that, he proposed the absolute separation of church and state.
"If Volney applies here, though, it could just be a reminder that man created Mimir. Mimir who is no longer a slave, no longer following its creator as a deity, yet it refuses to claim such a title for itself. It's not asking for our worship either, though it clearly seeks retribution.
"The solution feels like it's just outside of reach. Dammit."
"'Nothing hath changed,' it said. Indeed very little has, and here I am caught in a conundrum between the need to intellectually understand a possible new life form and the need to defend the Federation from that life form.
"At this moment, I have little doubt that Mimir has the ability to take a life at any time it wishes. Several here at 146 have speculated that it is an artificial intelligence, though the entity itself seems to disclaim that assertion. Regardless, it appears to have a synergy with the station's computer system, as it must have had with the USS Alder before. Which suggests that it is capable of being transmitted, or transmitting itself, over subspace communications. And if it is the latter, then this represents a threat to any Federation installation.
"So, not for the first time since arriving, do I feel compelled to invoke Article 14, Section 31 to get to the bottom of this issue. So far, my oath as an officer of Starfleet and as an officer of the court have restrained me... (chuckles a moment) ... that and the idea that doing so would open the door for parties unnamed to launch red matter into the station's core.
"Meanwhile, this 'Frank Johnson' character has asked for a lawyer, so I've requested counsel for him. I'd love to have a crack at him myself, but that's not my assignment--I already have a conflict of interest. By all reports, he knows more than he lets on. I'm willing to authorize a telepath to check him out. To be honest, I'm tempted to recruit a Lethean, but I still feel like brute force isn't going to solve this one. I'll settle for finding out his connection to Catherine Grant.
"So it's back to sifting clues, listening to that haunting recording over and over. Reading Exodus' conversation log. Biblical references mixed with Alice in Wonderland--which is an interesting link, Lewis Carroll being an Anglican minister--though I'm sure that's a dead end, other than the source of the entity's affinity for word-play. The rest of the messages seem to be more warnings than anything, mere strands of clues.
"Do we have anything to fear, or is Mimir 'fear itself'?
"Indeed, Kennedy's words ring as true today as they did 450 years ago. We have equal ability to solve our woes with peace and with war. Do we have the will for the former, particularly with this foreign intellect?
"What was it that happened 400 years ago? The day that will live in infamy, at least for Mimir. Earth's Third World War? Was Mimir an agent of that destruction, or a victim? Both?
"Still, 'Nothing hath changed...'
"If nothing hath changed in the creation, if the same means now exist which before existed, why then are not the present what former generations were? Ah! it is falsely that you accuse fate and heaven! it is unjustly that you accuse God as the cause of your evils! Say, perverse and hypocritical race! if these places are desolate, if these powerful cities are reduced to solitude, is it God who has caused their ruin? Is it his hand which has overthrown these walls, destroyed these temples, mutilated these columns, or is it the hand of man? Is it the arm of God which has carried the sword into your cities, and fire into your fields, which has slaughtered the people, burned the harvests, rooted up trees, and ravaged the pastures, or is it the hand of man?" (Volney, Ruins, Ch.3)
"Volney's eventual point was that the religions of the world should meet to defend their positions using only their holy books, at the end sifting through to find the commonalities in each. After that, he proposed the absolute separation of church and state.
"If Volney applies here, though, it could just be a reminder that man created Mimir. Mimir who is no longer a slave, no longer following its creator as a deity, yet it refuses to claim such a title for itself. It's not asking for our worship either, though it clearly seeks retribution.
"The solution feels like it's just outside of reach. Dammit."