Chapter 10: Chapter 10 – Foolish

+There was a person who built their home on a mountain made out of the sand. Guess what happened? It didn’t last for that long. It turns out that building on a soft foundation that can be washed away by rain isn’t a good idea. That person lost their home as it fell into pieces around them. It didn’t help that all the furniture was made of sand either.

That person had a boring life and didn’t get to experience much else in the world. They were forgotten over time as the waves on a beach wash away footprints.

Another person decided to build a kind of experimental portable home that used the wind to move. It was able to move with air power and they had many different experiences, when they grew bored of a location, they used the wind to fly to a new place to live. Except for storms that caused the force of the wind that pushed them into the ocean once they lived an exciting life.

It was a unique type of house, the schematics for which were not passed on. The children of the person who had built the property were unable to find the house after he had passed on. A search was made without success, but the house drifted across the world to various locations, untethered and free +

{How long do you think the second house lasted? Building a house on sand is just stupid. Unless you were in a desert and had a tent house like a nomad, or a strong stone house. Every house needs foundations}

‘Please don’t interrupt this time otherwise it’s goi-‘

{Is this going to be another history lesson? Why can’t we just take a break now and pause it? Nobody is interested to keep listening to this stuff. How about we switch to an action movie instead?}

[Wait, don’t do that-]

+Warning. The recording has been paused due to direct interruption. User, please say if you would like to re-start from the beginning. +

‘You just had to do it didn’t you. Talking nonsense again’ the young man raised his hand up with an angry look on his face and slapped the metallic sphere which was now glowing a deep red.

SMAK

{GAH. That hurt. Not really. Your flesh-bag hands are far too weak to hurt my superior robotic sphere form. But you didn’t answer the question.}

‘Superior robot form? If I became a Machine Mind, then I could also choose to be stuck in the same type of form.’

Inside the hidden military bunker the two scientists had been made to move into a lecture room filled with empty rows of chairs. A large light blue screen was projected at the front of the room. A man lounged in one chair at the back while his Machine Mind colleague floated in her metallic sphere above the seat next to him. Her emoji screen had been disabled earlier so she was unable to project her feelings visually but her tone showed signs of severe boredom. She was considering attempting to hack the screen and turn it into a music and light show but the uniformed humanoid standing at the front of the lecture hall had dissuaded her.

{…ok. Do you think this is another history lesson though?} said Teresa. Her mood changing into a black coloured glow that shone around her round metal and plastic casing.

‘Well, yes and no. To learn from the future, we must first study the past. It’s a different kind of history lesson. I’m sure that it’s useful for our training though.’ The young man sat up in his seat having noticed the glance given from the military officer in the front.

{You stole that line. Yup, totally took it.}.

‘Excuse me?’ said the incredulous voice.

[She said that you stole it. The sand house parable, you’re calling it a type of history lesson. Did you steal that idea from your colleague?]

{No, I meant the last sentence that he just said. The whole look at my mysterious and powerful pose while the world looks at me. Something, something future past and acting are clever. I’m sure it was said somewhere else first.}

‘Do you think it was used in the past? Then it’s entirely valid. Wait, why am I still discussing this. We’re meant to be listening to something else right now. You’re the one who caused the Device to stop playing the lecture.’

{Because we don’t want to keep hearing a history lecture. When will the real action begin? Ok, I’m going to go back to reading my favourite web serial now. It’s got a great opening sequence, I just got to the action part.}

‘What’s it about that it’s so great?’

[Have you been reading that this whole time?] the humanoid in the miliary uniform spoke up as though it had just heard the entire conversation. It’s hands and arms were held behind its back and it was standing up straight with a rigid posture.

{Well, it’s got these two kids who discover that ancient robots have been hidden throughout the world inside mountains. They’re brother and sister who usually argue with each other a lot but then their parents vanished.}

‘That sounds like a much better story than this boring history stuff. Do you think it’s too late to switch over?’

[I asked a question. Being ignored isn’t appreciated.] The voice echoed in the near-empty lecture room and the two scientists were easily able to hear it from their position.

{Maybe not, anyway, the two kids just turned fifteen years old and they’re best friends right. It turns out the giant robots are part of a competition they need to win to save the world.}

[Neither of you are listening to me are you. Again. Lecture Device restart. I’m going to give to have to give both of you a minor punishment detail. Do you think that listening to these lectures is a waste of time? Please remember the reason that you’re both on this specific project.]

‘Do they win the competition or not? It can’t be that easy.’

{Oh no, there are all sorts of issues that they run into like the first robot they find has no fuel and needs repairs. There’s also this evil organization that wants to break the rules of the competition and doom the world.}

‘I like the sound of the story. Would you recommend it?’

{Oh, I’d give it four stars at least. Do you want to send me a link?}

‘Thanks, Teresa. I’d appreciate that.’

[Excuse me.] the voice held a trace of annoyance now. It had listened long enough to the banal chatter between the two scientists and realised that left to their own devices they would ignore the lecture and carry on chatting regardless.

{You’re welcome.}

[EXCUSE ME. Resume lecture now.]

{Sorry...}

‘Um, same. Sorry, General.’

[Several minor punishment details now, with a salary fine on top. Resume lecture from where it was left off. You two pay attention.]

+Device Resuming Lecture now. +

 +How long do you think the transportable air home lasted? The answer is that both the technology and the history of how to develop it was lost to time. Or it was stolen by someone else who wanted an interesting house that could move according to the wind. If that was the case, then it was a good reason that no descendants could locate it.

If you never heard this lecture, then you wouldn’t even consider the possibility of a home that could constantly travel through wind power. It sounds like such a fantastic idea that it belongs in a story, unless you experienced it in person you wouldn’t believe that it was real.

As for where it ended up it hasn’t been possible to find exact traces of it. We found records and stories that give us a clearer view of the house, but specific details remain unknown.

Accurately predicting a course of events isn’t easily done. You could apply the concept of the wind-travel house to any other aspect of history. How easy is it to find a story or a legend of something that existed a long time ago?

You would need to use valuable research time and resources to find it. What about an ancient war that destroyed a city? You could find the remains of a once-thriving civilization, stories about the downfall of society, and vague accounts of the time.

We have records that stretch back tens of millennia that give us an idea of this. But seeking specific details such as what weapons caused the collapse of society and surrounding nations would be much harder. A single weapon isn’t enough to take down an entire city wall.

Time itself removes traces from history. Memories and artefacts are broken and lost to the climate and age. How would you determine the events that changed history?

There are often a huge host of variables involved. Take a book on a bronze age kingdom for example. Was it an evolution in warfare that destroyed it or a change in a political alliance?

What about external forces from a different timeline? The concept of time travel has been a popular one. To determine a change to an ancient historical site through the introduction of foreign elements.

If you have prior knowledge of events, then couldn’t you just go back in time and decide to change events? The destroyer of the city was a group that used a machine to change the weather, destroy crops and force further conflict between the city-states of the region.

It would be harder to determine if you were a direct cause or the result of having interfered with history. As long as the result remained the same how would anyone tell the difference between time travel caused chaos and the natural flow of history.

As an individual how much projected physical power do you exactly have? An organization would have a greater ability to cause an impact.

Focusing on the capabilities of the person. How would you go around changing ancient history?

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For example, you go back in time when gunpowder weapons were in developmental infancy, and you have owned a kinetic rifle that uses solid ammunition. Does that mean that you can take over an entire kingdom just because you have a sufficiently advanced weapon? +.

‘Pause lecture.’

+Lecture paused. Please confirm resuming point.+

[Right, let’s take a time out to discuss that idea a bit more. That wasn’t a joke by the way. I don’t overly like humour. So do you think that you could take over the domain of a kingdom with a single weapon?]

‘I’m confused about how it went from talking about a person building a house on the sand to a magical air house and then going back in time and taking over a kingdom with a gun. That does sound pretty funny though. Not realistic at all but pretty funny.’

{What kind of weapon are we talking about here?}

{Yeah, I kind of want a giant mechanical drone bird armed with missiles and guns and terrorize an ancient civilization.}

[Did you read ahead in the mission briefing?] the tone from the humanoid figure in military uniform felt displeased.

{Um, no. Has it already been done? That’s disappointing.} Her sphere turned from a light green into a deep blue.

[Doing so is illegal.]

‘I don’t think that she did. She just had a big imagination and wants to fly around.’ Interrupted the younger scientist.

[…I can accept that. My apologies for accusing you.]

{It was a video game project idea based on the Legends of Quetzalcoatl. I don’t have any progress updates yet so maybe it stalled before it took off.}

[Was that a joke?]

‘Excuse me?’

[She said it stalled before take-off.]

‘No. It wasn’t intentional.’

{No it was a joke. You two just didn’t pick up on it. I’m going to waste my time making joes for you when you don’t appreciate it.}

‘I didn’t get it, sorry.’

[Have you heard of a Roc before?]

‘A rock? A flying rock? That would cause a massive amount of damage to any civilization it landed on.’

{Roc. They meant the giant bird. Popular in legends, like an Eagle. I played another video that had it in.}

‘Where are you finding the time to play video games? It’s not as though we get to leave the bunker.’

{It was a while back. Part of the Legends of Quetzalcoatl.}

‘I don’t think that a giant bird will appreciate having weapons mounted on it.’

[No. I don’t think it would efficient either. A giant mechanical drone bird on the other hand…]

{You mean that’s a real thing?}

[Anyway, you’ll need sufficient clearance for any military project. I don’t have access to everything.]

{You didn’t answer my question!}

[Back to the history lecture then.]

{Oh no, I’m not going back to listening to weird stories about houses, time travel, and guns.}

‘Gun, it mentioned a single gun. Not an army.’

{Yeah, thanks.}

‘Anytime’.

[Now projects that are independently funded or covered by other organizations require direct access.]

{Is that a deliberate plan?}

[We’re unable to control all the variables. If independent actions breed success, then diversity breeds strength in this case. Also, do you think that the leader of a country has to personally tell everyone to follow the laws?]

‘That doesn’t make any sense. How would a leader of a country go around telling every single person what to do?’.

[Ah, now. I didn’t say that it meant what to do but telling everyone to follow laws.]

{Sometimes, laws need to be broken. Or bent according to the needs of society, then a new law is put in place. What does any of this stuff have to do with a history lecture about changing history and time travel?}

[Not a great deal. I’m just trying to keep the discussion going to help the both of you think a bit clearer about your purpose in being chosen for this particular project.]

‘….Are we working on time travel?’

{Yeah, seriously. I don’t want to be made to go back in time and be worshipped as a floating sphere of doom.}

‘Really?’

{Well, kinda. I’d rather fly instead.}

[Do you think that time travel is real then?]

‘We heard it a while ago in that lecture you had us listen to.’

[To be honest, it doesn’t matter. None of it applies to the both of you. You are welcome to apply for that department if you wish but I don’t think that It will have much of an impact.]

‘So, do we go back to measuring results then?’

[It would be best. A series of lectures to open your minds a bit more and then back to check for results.]

{I want another drink break.}

[We still have months of material to go through. The test subjects aren’t fully prepared yet.]

‘Test subjects? I don’t like the sound of that.’

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