[Video]

[destinytobehere]

[The video feed flicks on to show a rather scruffy looking guy with his back to the camera. He writes something on the cement wall in chalk, adding to the array of mathematical formals and proofs covering it. Some of them make sense while some of them have very alien symbols.]

[He turns to look at the camera.Does anyone else understand this? Any

Comments

Video!

[makes_asteroids]

[Erik holds NV camera to sheets of ivory paper, carefully laid out, everything copies in very neat, almost Copperplate script, in black ink. Some of the equations are worked out in the same handwriting, in a medium blue ink, some of the distance formals worked out dark green ink, and some of the programing code translated and detailed in dark red. What he doesn't understand is in brackets in light blue, with question marks.]

[He turns it back to him] Some of it?

Video!

[destinytobehere]

[Here he was starting to think no one understood anything. It just almost got a smile out of him too.]

Well, well. I'm glad to see someone has at least a basic understanding.

Re: Video!

[makes_asteroids]

If I understood the other language - or languages - there I would understand more. That's not an Earth language, at least not from my world. It's not Shi'Ar, Kree, Skrull, certainly not the Brood or Symbiotes. Nor is it Phalanx. Could be the Beyonders or the Watchers, I don't know enough to identify if, although I doubt it is. If you could prove a translation, I would understand more.

Video!

[destinytobehere]

You are quite right, yet also wrong in a sense. This language-- [He points to it] --is the precursor to nearly every language known to man. The people that created it seeded life in many, many galaxies. Millions if not billions of years ago.

[He looks at the writing thoughtfully.] We call them the Ancients. They left our plane of existence eons ago. They evolved, you see.

Anyway, I can provide a translation. [He flips through his notepad then looks toward the camera] You may be the sort of person I need.

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[makes_asteroids]

Hm...[holds up a hand] This might flicker a moment...sorry... [he proceeds to fiddle with some buttons on his NV, pulling up an old image] The Celestials? [And a brief text file.]

A translation would be most helpful, you should be able to send to me over the network. I've secured it now.

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[destinytobehere]

[There's a pause as he reviews the information] Ah, not quite. The Ancients were quite human, originally. They evolved, you see. Eventually, they discovered the secret to ascension. They had little choice in the matter really. The alternative was extinction.

[He can be seen doing something with his NV remote. Then some basic translations come through. He's left out a great deal of the language, only what relates to what he wrote.]

There we are. This is merely it's most basic form, of course.

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[makes_asteroids]

Hm...interesting. We do not know much about the most ancient beings in our world. How did you discover this information?

[Erik saves it] Thank you. [Before he picks up his pen and gets to work...] Doctor Michael Xavier. You would be?

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[destinytobehere]

It was discovered long before I joined the program. We owe the majority of our knowledge to Dr. Jackson. We owe him quite a lot actually. Further discoveries were made by myself and a few others.

Doctor Nicholas Rush.

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[makes_asteroids]

And he left no notes on his discovery?

[half paying attention as he starts to write - the pens moving themselves across the page, a pale green translating, a dark grey working them out] Which flavor? MD, PhD, both, several?

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[destinytobehere]

Hah hah. His notes are quite extensive but unfortunately have little to do with what I am doing here. His areas of research are quite different from mine though we have crossed paths in some areas. He is the foremost expert on Ascension. The only man to achieve it twice and return from it.

PhD.

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[makes_asteroids]

I wasn't asking if they applied to the current topic.

[He continues to work, the pens moving, as he works the strap of his NV off his wrist with his thumb, levitating it above the tabletop to view the work. It's about a third translated, only just beginning to work it out.]

In which field?

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[destinytobehere]

Cryptography and mathematics. Which you should have been able to guess long before now or do you gain some joy over the obvious being stated?

Re: Video! (locked! Unhackable)

[makes_asteroids]

[He keeps working] I have extensive training in several fields, worth a PhD or two in each, but haven't had the time to formalize it. Which is why I ask.