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	Rubicon Volunteers - Hard Vacuum
	Posted By: Steve Levinson	Date: 8/11/02 1:20 p.m.
	Regardless of whether we come here directly from Sucking Cherries or from Drinking Vitriol, the Jjaro bring us here to dream yet again as we drift off into stasis. In this dream, we visit the Salinger once more, perhaps hundreds of years in the future. The Salinger is of no more use to humanity, other than to serve as a museum of past mistakes. It is open to the vacuum of space and there is a real danger that the player will run out of oxygen before reading all the terminals. There is also a single maser turret to keep us on our toes. Here, we will read of the events that followed the end of the war: The pfhor capitulated soon after the Dangi Corporation's treason was revealed. When the invasion force finally landed around the high pfhor citadel, they found the slaver ranks in total disarray. Order had collapsed when word of a human land assault reached the high council, striking the final blow to the sovereignty of the pfhor gentry. This sounds strikingly like what happened at the end of the Pfhor Plank, the only difference being that we did not eliminate the Pfhor High Council. I wonder what became of them in the Salinger Plank . . . In the years that followed, client races and slaves rose up in rebellion against their former masters, creating a power vacuum that many aspiring ex slaves and ex pfhor military commanders tried to fill. Over the next century, governments on the former pfhor systems would rise and fall in a constant struggle for power. This sounds pretty much like modern American warfare, doesn’t it? We came in, bombed the heck out of them, destroyed the old order and left a power vacuum that would lead to endless struggles. Did we even think of sticking around, investing some resources, time and effort to help the Pfhor rebuild their society in a way that could get them beyond class struggles. For a modest investment, we could have helped democracy to take root in the old Pfhor empire, creating a civil society and a major trading partner. We did all that at the end of WWII with Germany and Japan, but then we had to protect them from our new enemy, the communists (actually, a very real threat back then). But, no, the UESC decided to walk away from the Pfhor, just as we did from Afganistan and Central America. No doubt that the UESC will be mopping up after their shortsightedness for a long, long time. Pfhor Prime itself was stripped of all installations and technologies that could conceivably be used to start a new empire. All databanks were emptied, and the pfhor-controlled AIs were transported to UESC labs for study. You know what that means. Tycho was brought home! Now that sounds like an interesting starting point for a Rubicon 4th party scenario! The researchers and directors of the Dangi Corporation were long gone by the time the UESC finally gained control of the Salinger, and UESC forces found the onboard computer databanks to be empty. The only information left on the Salinger's mainframe was the location of Dangi's secret refuge planet, text that was prominently displayed on every functioning terminal in the station and echoed over the stationwide intercom. Looks like the last person to leave forgot to turn out the lights. When UESC dropships landed on their refuge planet, the Dangi directors and managers were arrested after a brief battle with the remains of Dangi security. The ensuing trials were a spectacle that lasted nearly three years and enthralled viewers on all of the human worlds. In the end, all of the Dangi executives were found guilty of treason and publicly executed. Only executed? After they tortured countless thousands and threatened humanity’s very survival? I’m no death penalty proponent, but these evil-doers should have had their tongues excised, as they did to their own prisoners, and been injected with the most painful of imaginable ailments. While most of the Salinger's secrets were revealed over the course of the trials, a single mystery remained unsolved. The Dangi virus researchers were absent from both the refugee planet and the station's decks during the UESC takeover. No theory has since been able to convincingly explain their disappearance. But we know who abducted them. The end of the war removed the need for remote weapons testing facilities such as the Salinger, and the UESC eventually cut funding to the project. The Salinger station was left intact and sealed off, an abandoned reminder of the great risk greed and corruption can pose to any civilized society. But will humankind truly remember? Do we ever? After reading these terminals, we will find a rift into which we may jump. This leads to a surreal landscape, where we’ll encounter yet another Jjaro terminal, finishing the story of Kate: Maybe fate likes fools. Or maybe fools are the only ones smart enough to like fate. Simple game theory dictated that they couldn’t fire on me. I had the formula in my mind and they’d have to tear it out one neuron at a time. They would, so I ran. Out the door, past the cameras, past the guards, and into the alleyway. Living it all as though I’ve done it before, and as though it couldn’t have happened any other way. Down into the sewer, back out onto the street, and running towards the horizon. The horizon never gets any closer. You run and you run and the only thing you can think of after three days is the knife strapped to your shin. And then it’s all you can do to keep yourself from reaching down in the split second of that insanity they call heroism, pulling out the knife and cutting your own legs off, knowing that if you don’t you’ll keep on running. You can’t run away forever. So ends Kate’s story. But what does it mean? The formula is in our mind and nowhere else. The Achilles formula is in Durandal’s mind and nowhere else. If we take this literally, it is Durandal who must run, but I don’t think that we’re supposed to take this literally. The Story of Kate is a parallel story, but it’s an analogy only. At some point we had to say, “I will not be a part of this.” We had what no one else had – the knowledge from the Jjaro that could tie everything together. We also had the ability through the Jjaro to alter time, to change direction and to change fate. In the Pfhor Plank, we ignored our knowledge, blindly followed Durandal and we ran. In the Salinger Plank, we heeded the warning given to us by the Jjaro in our dreams, we put an end to evil and, in the end, we ran. When all is said and done, we’re still Durandal’s lackey. He keeps saying he’ll let us go, but he never does, and this time he doesn’t even pretend to restore our freedom. But in reality we have something he cannot even dream of – a relationship with the Jjaro that gives us the ability to alter time. Does Durandal know about this? Does he even suspect? And in that respect, who’s really controlling whom? Let’s go take a look at the final screen for more insight on this. But first there is a bit of unfinished business to take care of – a terminal picture that, as far as I am able to determine, does not appear anywhere in Marathon Rubicon. I have not included all terminal picts, as many of them were either pretty generic or more of a curiosity that seemed to have little relevance to the story. This one, however, shown at left, did not appear anywhere. In the resource fork of the Rubicon Map, it is labeled “Jjaro Me Young.” What an interesting name for a picture. What we see is a young person of in determinate gender – if I were to guess, I would say a woman, but possibly a young man. There is also superimposed on this a circuit board and some numbers. In the lower left, there is some print that is really too small to read with the exception of the words people, just and you. In the lower right are the words, in multiple resolutions, “Sean's Mom is Robert Blake.” Looks like the Rubicon Team is having some fun with us. After we examine the final screen, we’ll take a look at the history of the Rubicon project, as revealed in the terminals of the vidmaster levels, Drinking Vitriol and Blasting Cherries.

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Replies:

	Rubicon Volunteers - Hard Vacuum	Steve Levinson	8/11/02 1:20 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Hard Vacuum	Yossarian	8/11/02 4:35 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Hard Vacuum	Steve Levinson	8/11/02 6:30 p.m.
	Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Hard Vacuum	Yossarian	8/11/02 10:58 p.m.
	misc. thoughts on this...	Yossarian	8/11/02 11:24 p.m.
	Re: misc. thoughts on this...	Steve Levinson	8/12/02 7:37 p.m.
	Re: misc. thoughts on this...	Yossarian	8/12/02 8:59 p.m.
	one more thing...	Yossarian	8/12/02 9:15 p.m.
	An interesting Note	Ernie	8/12/02 1:36 a.m.

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