From Cassy's diary
Cassy: Maybe I'm starting to understand how to mix the colours… What do you think, Toq?
Toq: It looks like those flowers in the neighbour's garden.
Cassy: Yes, it's a sunflower.
(from the other room) Sirio: Hey, are you using my easel again?
Cassy: Just for five more minutes, I promise!
The more time passes, the more painting becomes important for Sirio. He spends a lot of time thinking about what to paint, what are the best ways to represent what he has in mind, and so forth.
Techna: What animal are you painting? The best match in my database is an albino lemur.
Sirio: (thoughtfully) Uhm… I don't know exactly what species it is. But I don't think that's the point, no...
His paintings also become more and more abstract, and sometimes we struggle to understand what they might mean... Basically, the more time passes the more he becomes like one of those artists who exhibit their paintings at exhibitions. Perhaps we should try to make some research on the topic and see if it is possible to bring some of his works to the art gallery? We're really undecided about this, because none of us really understands much about true art.
Sirio: What, an exhibition? Nah, I'm not that good...
Not to mention the fact that not even Sirio seems convinced by the idea of exhibiting his paintings. Uhm, maybe it's really too soon for that, after all...
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The weeks went by, and slowly our new project for the exploitation of the resources contained in the Sixam's Star was proceeding both at the offices of the space exploration centre and in the engineering laboratories of the university. At this rate, the project will soon be officially accepted and the construction of the first prototype will start.
But that's not what we want to talk about today. It's the harvestfest, and therefore talking about work is banned today!
As you can see, dear diary, we have decided to invite some friends as well. There's Antaan, Toq's former captain we met not too long ago, as are Florian and his father Edward, we didn't want to let them celebrate alone. And then there's also Sophia, now she and Halley seem inseparable friends and spend most of their time together, including holidays.
Edward: (cautious) Florian explained to me that, in your opinion, Arizhel would have wiped a lot of memories from us both before leaving. Do you think that was really the case?
Toq: It was Sirio who noticed it, but it is obvious to us too.
Edward: … and do you really think you'd be capable of returning those memories to us?
Cassy: He hadn't any problem at all when he retrieved my lost memories, you don't have to worry about that!
Toq: … Technically, their case may be more complex, though. Much more time has passed, and I cannot say I know your mind as well as Cassiopeia's. I cannot assure you that I would be able to recover all your memories, that would be unreasonable.
Edward: Ah…
Antaan: Toq has always stood out for his modesty, I have seen him recover fragments of memories in much more critical situations than this one. The real question should be, instead, whether you intend to get your memories back, or whether you do not.
Edward: Yes, we know.
Florian: Are you really sure you want to remember everything, dad? Honestly, remembering all those things now that Arizhel is gone would only make me feel worse. At this point, it's better to think of something else and try to move forward…
Sirio: But…
Florian: You're always so curious about everything, but sometimes it's better not to know.
Sirio: If you say so…
It wasn't easy to avoid talking about difficult topics that day, not after all that happened in the previous weeks... Yet, the celebrations weren't over yet.
Both Venus and I would have gladly skipped this part however, inevitably as always, our birthday had arrived too.
Techna: I think I may finally be close to the right calibration line for the viscosity of this admixture...
Geez, what a back pain! How is it possible that New Sixam's medical technology hasn't found any solution for this yet?
Toq: (polite) Happy birthday, Cassiopeia.
Back pain or not, I can't avoid thinking that I'm being lucky after all. Old age can't really be avoided, but I wouldn't trade our weird family for any other one.
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From Sirio's diary, a few weeks later
Sirio: Hey, you look really sad this morning. What happened?
Halley: Well, of course I am. Sophia and I barely received 10% of the vote in the student elections, everyone thinks we're a boring bunch of nerds! And don't make me think of that idiot who won, because...
Sirio: I'm sure next year you'll do better, don't worry too much!
Halley: Have you ever been told that you hug people a bit too often?
Sirio: Just a couple of times.
Maybe Halley didn't have much luck as a student representative, yet she managed to put assemble a quite close group of people who, otherwise, would have ended up spending quite a lot of time alone at home. People like me, for example.
Maybe the rest of the school didn't acknowledge her achievements, yet I think she has all the right to be proud of what she did.
Driiiiiiiiiin!
Sirio: Hey Florian, how are you? What? One second, you're talking too quickly… Yes, of course you can come, don't worry!
Cassy: So Arizhel would have contacted you two again?
Florian: Yes. She said that "she needs to evaluate the project on the new prototype, the one that uses the Sixam's Star".
Venus: C'mon, does she really want to steal our idea so blatantly! That's too much even for her!
Cassy: Um, I don't know... There are many ways she could use that information.
Edward: I mostly agree with Cassy on this one. However, I don't think I remember enough to be sure.
Florian: (tired) Same for me.
Toq: So you have decided?
Both Edward and Florian had been reluctant to recover their memories for a long time. After all, now that Arizhel was gone remembering the time they'd spent together would only make it more painful, in some ways not remembering seemed like the easier choice to move on with their lives.
However, the more time passed, the more they realized that their memories could also contain useful information to understand what Arizhel's true intentions were, and therefore of strategic importance for New Sixam. As difficult as it was for them, they had therefore decided to do what they considered to be "the right thing to do", and I strongly respect them for this.
Toq: I was not able to retrieve a few details, but I estimate I recuperated at least 95% of the original information. However, this is a considerable amount of memories, so I advise you to go to sleep early to give them time to settle down.
Florian: (confused) Yeah, my head definitely needs to settle down now...
That evening we accompanied Florian and Edward back home in person, to say they were "a bit confused" was a real understatement. But the next day, after a good night of sleep, they rushed back to us, whatever they remembered made them decide they needed to talk to Arizhel as soon as possible.
But how could we think of reaching her, in the old bunker laboratories on Sixam where she was hiding, after she made it very clear she would at the very least wiped everyone's memories if we even just tried?
Techna: Are you sure she won't format my hard disk too? It took quite a while to refine my AI, I'd hate to start over.
(over the radio) Steve: Don't worry about this, your elaboration unit is completely incompatible with our brains and telepathy.
Techna: Good to know.
Yes, eventually we decided to send Techna, with a radio connected to our house so that we too could communicate with anyone we might meet. High-speed interstellar communication was definitively another very interesting invention made by the original sixamians, that's for sure.
Techna: I'm unable to locate anyone in this area.
(over the radio) Toq: Try to move northwest from your position, from that position you should be easier to locate for them.
Techna: There she is! She's been quick, after all.
Arizhel: so this time they sent a robot?
Techna: I'm connected by radio with New Sixam, there are a lot of people who would like to talk to you.
Arizhel: Your government's answer has been clear enough already. We do not need your help, nor do you want to receive ours.
(over the radio) Edward: Arizhel, can you at least explain to us why you erased those memories? They didn't really contain any information to keep hidden, just the time we had spent together as a family.
Arizhel: …
(over the radio) Edward: Actually, if I had to make a hypothesis, I would say that you just didn't want us to decide to join you in your mission.
Arizhel: …
Arizhel: (upset) Toq, what have you done? It was not none of your business.
(over the radio) Toq: I just did what they asked me to, Arizhel.
Arizhel: …
(over the radio) Florian: Yes, we asked him for help! You really tried hard to make us hate you, but in the end you just wanted to help the sixamians, isn't it?
Arizhel: … This was the most rational choice to take. The models show that we need to find a new planet to live on, and I have the training to do so. But it was not necessary to involve the two of you, instead.
Even Arizhel was starting to lose his normal composure. The more that conversation went on the more it was evident that for her it had been a really difficult choice to take.
At home we all know it well thanks to Toq, but after all the situation in their family didn't seem that different from ours. Ancient sixamians like Toq, Arizhel and the others had grown up in a world very different from Earth, and this was also affecting their ethics. And, above all, they had always been taught to repress their emotions and sentiments and to prioritize objective and tangible data instead. And Arizhel was very prone to this mindset even by the ancient Sixamians' standards.
We all were way too aware of this, and at that point it was clear to us all that the best way to convince Arizhel to change her mind was…
(over the radio) Edward: You contacted us asking for the projects of the new prototype, the one that uses the Sixam Star to recover rare elements and produce energy. I'm sorry, but…
Arizhel: This is intel of strategic interest, I did not expect that you would really disclose it.
(over the radio) Florian: But there is some data we can give you, Techna has them on a flash drive.
Techna: Yes, here it is.
Arizhel: What kind of data?
(over the radio) Florian: Basically they took your old simulations, and… ehm…
(over the radio) Cassy: Actually, I would like to explain this part, considering that I ran the calculations myself. We introduced the data relating to our new project as a variable in the model you simulated a few months ago, the ones you thought said the only alternative was to look for a new planet to live on. The results have changed significantly, considering the new prototype the probability that the Earth can avoid an environmental catastrophe has risen to 58%. Our new prototype will produce a lot of electricity without pollution, for sure it will speed up the energy transition a lot!
(over the radio) Florian: Well, yes, that's it. So that means now there's no need for you to stay up there looking for another planet, right?
Arizhel seemed undecided about what to do, evidently she hadn't considered this possible scenario and didn't know what to do. Eventually, all she could reply was:
Arizhel: I will analyse your new model then, and draw the most appropriate conclusions from it.
We can't say to know her all that well, but Edward would swear that she seemed relieved thinking that there may be a reason to return back to the Earth. She really wasn't that unreasonable, after all.
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§HermioneSims§ corner:
Was the development in the last two chapters too quick? Probably yes, but as you can see almost all the characters from Gen 5 are elders at this point, and also Sirio is closer to be an adult than you would probably suspect, so I had to accelerate a bit the closure of this generation.
As for the ending of this chapter instead, everything seems a bit too "happy ending like", isn't it? I had in mind the most horrible plans before writing this chapter, and the main reason why I decided to go with this ending is that, after all, one of sim-Arizhel's traits was (drumroll...)
Good. Yup, below the surface Arizhel was a good sim all along, I didn't expect it either...
The Stoic trait instead is a custom trait by Kuttoe (link), and it is the one that makes many ancient sixamians look so inexpressive most of the time.
I like the way gen 5 is wrapping up and I'm trying to adopt Toq's opinion about them aging too. It isn't sad because they're gaining wisdom and other good things as they age. The reveals have also been great (Toq is moving in. Arizhel has a son! She's Toq's sibling. She's good! She's also stoic and has other very fitting traits). I really like how you had Venus and Cassy living together this generation especially because it doesn't normally happen in legacies. All but one sibling always seems to be kicked out as soon as they turn into young adults.
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