xp_logs | Log: Askani's Legacy (Forge, Cable)

Forge comes to Nathan with questions about the book of Askani technology that Nathan left for him. Some questions are answered, more are raised, and an agreement is come to.

Back and forth. Left to right. Nathan told himself to stop pacing his
office, but sitting at his desk going over the latest material on his
Southeast Asian mystery was not helping him settle down at all, so why
not pace? Maybe he would wear a track in the hardwood, and Cain would
growl at him. That would at least be entertaining.

Rapping on the doorframe, Forge stuck his head in Nathan's office,
hair standing practically on end and face unshaven, a clear sign that
the boy was on the tail end of one of his twenty-four-hour
brain-taxing sprees. "Mr. D? Got a few for me to pick your brain?"

Nathan whirled towards the door, glaring. It was a glare that would
have sent most people who hadn't been up on twenty-four hour
brain-taxing sprees running for cover. Then, his eyes narrowed and
some of the tension drained from his posture. "Forge," he said. "I
suppose. Come in." He went back around his desk and sat down. "Why do
you have dark circles under your eyes? What have you been doing?"

Forge slid into a chair, dropping a dogeared notebook on Nathan's
desk. Opening the cover, he brushed his hands over the Askani
scribblings, now interspersed with Post-It notes and excited comments
in the margins. "This is the scariest thing I've ever seen, and I
kinda want you to explain it to me," he said plainly.

Nathan froze. "... explain what, precisely?" he finally asked, his
voice very low. Maybe it was just a translation Forge needed. He could
do that. His language skills were still fully intact.

"This..." he brushed his hands over the designs. "It's like... okay,
you know how you can look at any car and trace it back to Henry Ford's
design? Take a cell phone, and you can reverse-engineer it all the way
back to Marconi's principles. But all this..." Forge shook his head,
running his fingers through his hair. "It doesn't make sense.
Everything tech-wise appears to have sprung from the base technology
that I used in your psimitar."

"You can't make any sense of it?" Why hadn't Askani considered that,
when she'd kept him up that whole night making these notes? Nathan
sighed, rubbing his jaw. "Forge, I don't think I can help. It's...
that was..." He bit his lip, unable to force the words out past the
tightness in his throat.

Forge shook his head. "No, I understand ALL of it. It's clear as day.
It just... why all of it now? I mean, if it's all been in your head,
why put it all down now? Half this stuff... it'd take me YEARS to even
build the tech ladder up to it. It'd take ME years! I'm just... why?"

"Because it's not in my head anymore." Nathan stopped, blinking at
Forge. Who stared back at him, obviously waiting for elaboration.
"They're gone," he said, something very bleak and stark in his tone.
"They've been gone since... the night we brought Amanda back. And she
knew... that's why she had me write that. For you."

"Oh."

Forge let that sink in. Reading through the notes Nathan had made,
things had become clear. These weren't written by Nathan in some sort
of schizophrenic autologia. These were actual people, he'd realized.
Unconventional scientists - almost shamans of technology - who had put
their minds and souls into creating these things. People who wouldn't
be born for centuries, who would live and create and die - and then go
on beyond that in the mind of Nathan Dayspring. And then, die once
more.

"Would... would you like me to show you some of it?" he finally asked.
"I might not be able to build it, but as for how it works, I
can..." Forge tapped the side of his head. "I mean, if it'd help."

Nathan folded his arms on the edge of his desk, leaning forward. "Do
you think that you'll be able to do something with the designs,
eventually?" he asked, shying away from answering the question. "They
thought it was important. They..." He stopped, a ghostly smile
flickering across his face. "They trusted you, Forge. With this."

Thinking about it, Forge nodded. "Someday. It's... this isn't
something everyone could use. It's like... okay, this here?" He
pointed to one of the repeating glyphs, one Nathan hadn't translated.
"It's not a technical note. It's like... okay, your psimitar only
works for you, because it's built on this technology. But it's not
just because of your powers or..."

He looked up, realization in his eyes. "This is their word for
themselves, isn't it? Askani. It's not just how they think, how their
powers work. It's who they are. That's why it only works for them.
That's why it works for you."

Forge nodded, closing the book. "I... I appreciate that they, that
you trusted me with this. When the time's right, it'll be
ready. Whether or not I'm around, I'll make sure of that."

"Then I'll consider the hand cramps more than worth it." Nathan's eyes
went distant as he stared at the notebook. "There wasn't enough time.
Not enough time for half of it... I did what I could. Even if I didn't
understand why I was doing it, at the time..."

Standing up, Forge tucked the book under his arm, almost reverently.
"You've been different since you came back," he said matter-of-factly.
"I just didn't know why. If it's any consolation, this proves one
thing." Forge patted the book with a knowing half-smile. "Don't think
of yourself as their last survivor. You're their first progenitor."

Nathan raised an eyebrow at him, smiling faintly again. "Mmm. If you
need translation help," he said, "just ask. That, I can still do."

Nodding, Forge backed out of the room into the hall. "I'll give you a
buzz. Take care, Mr. D."