Every reporter in the room erupted to their feet when the Dietman stepped aside to introduce 'Admiral Halloran', shouting questions at the top of their lungs. She winced at the noise - not much, just barely enough to be noticable to instincts trained for politics' most cutthroat arenas, but there are the same - then gestured soothingly for silence. "Please, gentlemen! I will be happy to answer your questions, but there are a few remarks I need to make first."
It took a moment, but when they had settled, she smiled and continued. "Thank you. Much of what I have to say will be introducing needed background, so I must ask that you bear with me.
"The structure of the universe consists of a finite number of coexistant planes, each consisting of an infinite number of adjacent points. These planes do not interact with each other naturally, and so are able to occupy the same inherent space, and impose subtly different physical laws on things interacting with them - in short, there is an entirely factual basis behind what your scientists and science fiction writers have dubbed 'hyperspace'.
"However, natural laws also vary within planes, depending on location, which is why most civilizations envisage the question as one of traveling between 'dimensions' - different areas posessing particular, identifiable laws which are seperated from each other yet still occupy the same plane.
"One of the characteristics which varies is the amount of energy required to induce a planar interaction. This threshold is never high - in fact, even at its highest recorded point, it is low enough to be attainable by the electro-chemical discharges of a living brain. All animal life, then, regardless of other characteristics or indeed its awareness of the fact, interacts with more than one plane at all times.
"Some species take this a step farther, and use their interaction with other planes as an additional sense, or other survival tool, even to the extend of creating multi-planar energetic effects which, viewed on only one plane, may seem to violate the laws of thermodynamics - among others. Others may learn to do so - including humans like you and I."
"You're saying that magic is real," said an anonymous voice from the crowd.
"I am saying," the lady Admiral said in an even tone which implicitly but strongly discouraged further interruptions, "that there is a natural phenomenon whose practical applications may and have been conveniently referred to by that title, yes. Those sciences never evolved on Earth because your local interaction threshold is sufficiently high to be outside the reach of all but a small fraction of untrained individuals - literally less than a thousandth of a percent. More, spontaneously developing the ability to perceive such things is even rarer, making a combination of both traits a statistical impossibility.
"A civilization of comparable development to your own with access to such knowledge, however, will find a number of things possible - include the transfer of a given object's references entirely out of its natural plane or planes, and various physical laws bearing thereon.
"Including the speed of light." She took a deep breath, then changed the subject. "At one point in the distant past, there existed a civilization which had achieved what our archeologists believe was a near total understanding of all physical laws - which had brought literally anything possible within their reach. They settled colonies of people across thousands of worlds... before they were destroyed. Whether this was due to complications from some natural disaster, to war, or simply to accident is unknown - but their civilization, along with the physical world which it inhabited, was destroyed utterly.
"Their colonies were cast on their own, and eventually lost all but the most basic rudiments of the knowledge their ancestors had had - if that. In time, however, they built new civilizations to replace what they had lost. As these grew, they began to contact one another, to trade, to interact.
"After an unsettled period, these nations convened to establish an impartial, international third party organization which could regulate trade and interaction and safely deal with any of the immensely dangerous ancient artifacts which were - and are - still occaisionally encountered. Its name would translate to your language as 'Time and Space Administration Bureau.'
Boy, this is just a big honkin' wadge of exposition, isn't it? Weber would be proud.
Anyway, depending on y'all's input, I may or may not keep all of it - if I don't, I'd like to know where I should cut to when I splice it into Fate and Hayate's scene. (Yes, I changed my mind. I thought of a way to handle it.) I'd also like to know what questions you think folks should be asking, once she gets done with the background and explaining what she knows about the Gray Man Incident.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
It took a moment, but when they had settled, she smiled and continued. "Thank you. Much of what I have to say will be introducing needed background, so I must ask that you bear with me.
"The structure of the universe consists of a finite number of coexistant planes, each consisting of an infinite number of adjacent points. These planes do not interact with each other naturally, and so are able to occupy the same inherent space, and impose subtly different physical laws on things interacting with them - in short, there is an entirely factual basis behind what your scientists and science fiction writers have dubbed 'hyperspace'.
"However, natural laws also vary within planes, depending on location, which is why most civilizations envisage the question as one of traveling between 'dimensions' - different areas posessing particular, identifiable laws which are seperated from each other yet still occupy the same plane.
"One of the characteristics which varies is the amount of energy required to induce a planar interaction. This threshold is never high - in fact, even at its highest recorded point, it is low enough to be attainable by the electro-chemical discharges of a living brain. All animal life, then, regardless of other characteristics or indeed its awareness of the fact, interacts with more than one plane at all times.
"Some species take this a step farther, and use their interaction with other planes as an additional sense, or other survival tool, even to the extend of creating multi-planar energetic effects which, viewed on only one plane, may seem to violate the laws of thermodynamics - among others. Others may learn to do so - including humans like you and I."
"You're saying that magic is real," said an anonymous voice from the crowd.
"I am saying," the lady Admiral said in an even tone which implicitly but strongly discouraged further interruptions, "that there is a natural phenomenon whose practical applications may and have been conveniently referred to by that title, yes. Those sciences never evolved on Earth because your local interaction threshold is sufficiently high to be outside the reach of all but a small fraction of untrained individuals - literally less than a thousandth of a percent. More, spontaneously developing the ability to perceive such things is even rarer, making a combination of both traits a statistical impossibility.
"A civilization of comparable development to your own with access to such knowledge, however, will find a number of things possible - include the transfer of a given object's references entirely out of its natural plane or planes, and various physical laws bearing thereon.
"Including the speed of light." She took a deep breath, then changed the subject. "At one point in the distant past, there existed a civilization which had achieved what our archeologists believe was a near total understanding of all physical laws - which had brought literally anything possible within their reach. They settled colonies of people across thousands of worlds... before they were destroyed. Whether this was due to complications from some natural disaster, to war, or simply to accident is unknown - but their civilization, along with the physical world which it inhabited, was destroyed utterly.
"Their colonies were cast on their own, and eventually lost all but the most basic rudiments of the knowledge their ancestors had had - if that. In time, however, they built new civilizations to replace what they had lost. As these grew, they began to contact one another, to trade, to interact.
"After an unsettled period, these nations convened to establish an impartial, international third party organization which could regulate trade and interaction and safely deal with any of the immensely dangerous ancient artifacts which were - and are - still occaisionally encountered. Its name would translate to your language as 'Time and Space Administration Bureau.'
Boy, this is just a big honkin' wadge of exposition, isn't it? Weber would be proud.
Anyway, depending on y'all's input, I may or may not keep all of it - if I don't, I'd like to know where I should cut to when I splice it into Fate and Hayate's scene. (Yes, I changed my mind. I thought of a way to handle it.) I'd also like to know what questions you think folks should be asking, once she gets done with the background and explaining what she knows about the Gray Man Incident.
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."