TheStarsAreRight:JakeNote1
Idle Conversation
While scarfing down breakfast, Redland casually asks Jake, "So, I understand you played minor league baseball. With which team were you affiliated? Did you ever get called up?"
Eyes quickly flashing up over his coffee cup, Jake gulped some of the overly sweet liquid before smiling and setting it down with a satisfied click. He was finally glad to talk about something he knew.
" Played center-field for the Elmira Colonels. Used to be the Red Jackets" He stated matter-of-factly before reaching for his third roll, " Not too far from here really, Played AA for a few years." Pausing a moment he added, "But to your point, I did get a non-roster invite from the Yankees a few years back..." after a moment longer his smile faded a little and he added, "That didn't pan out."
"Well, getting an invite is still pretty impressive. That means you were one of the best ballplayers in the world... not many people can say that about anything they do."
Clucking his tongue once his smile returned, "Found out I'm decent at coaching though. If everything doesn't go to hell, I hear there is big opportunity in the first national Negro league starting up next year. Can you imagine that? Those boys are finally getting a big league of their own! Not a lot of Negro coaches yet...." Gesturing vaguely with his fork Jake arched an eye brow, "Imagine leading all that raw talent."
"It's a good thing to have a plan for the future. If you end up getting sucked in to ... er, all of this stuff," he waves his hands vaguely, "I hope you retain that. I know that when all of this is done, I'd like to get back to just researching and teaching ... like I used to do."
"You enjoy competition Jack?"
Redland gestures at himself and chuckles, "Well, it won't surprise you to hear that I'm not particularly gifted at athletic pursuits that require strength or toughness ... I was not a terror on the rugby field. That aside, though, yeah, I would describe myself as maybe overly competitive."
Jake took the confession at face value. Mouth full of food, he motioned for Jack to go on.
His voice drops a bit, "A good sportsman likes to win, and he likes to win in the right way, you know? I, on the other hand, hate to lose. I'll do pretty much anything short of cheating to gain an advantage." He shakes his head. "Anyhow, I like sports and games where success resides on cunning and quickness of body and mind. I used to punch above my weight in tennis, of which I am, perhaps, inordinately proud."
Jake nodded as if he fully understood what "inordinately" meant and thought about that Jack was saying otherwise. He was glad Jack liked to play within the rules, but had no doubt that if there were no rules, Jack would thrive.
He pauses for a moment. Jack does not appear particularly skilled at eating and talking at the same time. He seems to get too invested in what he's saying and forgets about what he's doing. After a moment he continues.
"I've only known you for a short time, but you strike me as the kind of guy who'd be a good sportsman."
He took the compliment in stride, there had been something on Jake's mind and he finally figured out how to say it. "You know what you remind me of Jack? A Catcher." Jake had stopped eating for the moment and seemed as though he was looking for the right words words.
Redland also stops eating to give Jake his full attention.
"You see, the catcher has a very special place on the team. He's the only player on the diamond who has a view of the entire field without really turning his head. He's aware of the pitcher's strengths and mechanics you know, helps call the right pitches, finds weakness in the batter,and, by the rules, is the only player allowed to be in foul territory when the pitch is thrown." Jake wiped his mouth with a napkin and continued.
Jack stares down at the table.
"He's not the most offensive position on the team, and never a heavy or frequent hitter, but never the less the last line of defense before a run comes in."
Redland almost says, "I know Mary thinks I'm the most offensive person on our team," but he catches it with his internal filter and merely glances up.
Jake gave Jack an honest look, and tried his best to say what he wanted to say "The thing is Jack, is that catchers tend to wear themselves out before the end of the season." He leaned back to explain.
"Maybe it's being on your knees all day, or getting hit by wild pitches or run over by gung ho runners....maybe it's just stress. Catchers get burned out. When it comes time for post season, a lot of teams are in a world of hurt because their number one Defender is on the bench." Tilting his head a little Jake wrapped up his prolonged metaphor, " I'm not a smart man, Jack, I play center-field. Sure, I'm good for the footwork, and need to keep an eye out for fly balls, but I'm no catcher. Your team needs its catcher whether they know it or not."
Redland looks at Jake intently for a moment. "Hmmm. I think you are a smart guy. It may be true that you aren't extremely intelligent ... you know, able to, say, calculate differential equations in your head or whatnot, I can't speak to that. But I think that being smart is more important than being intelligent." He gropes around for a moment trying to find an appropriate metaphor. "I figure intelligence is, er, something like the power of the motor on your plane. More of it lets you go faster. Being smart is like knowing how to pilot. Both things are certainly advantageous when you're in a dogfight. I would, however, take the smart guy every time."
Jake's brow was furrowed. He'd a slight inclination that he'd been insulted, but couldn't really put his finger on it. Somewhere in there he had the impression that he was receiving a back-handed compliment....light on the compliment.
He pauses for a moment looking embarrassed. "I apologize, I'm pretty sure that sounded enormously condescending. Ugh." Jack rubs his head.
It only took a second for Jake's feathers to unruffle. It occurred to the ball player that though Jack may be intelligent and smart, but a foot in the mouth is a foot in the mouth.
"Anyhow, what I mean to say, is that I think you've handled yourself well, so far, for having been tossed in with a bunch of weirdos."
"Well, Thanks." Jake itched his nose. "I've got to say that I'd probably be happier not knowing any of you, but not better off." shrugging he continued, "We'll see how well I handle myself if things get weirder. Which brings me to this... Jack, sounds like things might get a lot weirder before they get less weird. What are you going to do? What would it take for you to stay, or what do you hope to gain by leaving?"
"Well, Thanks." Jake itched his nose. "I've got to say that I'd probably be happier not knowing any of you, but not better off." shrugging he continued, "We'll see how well I handle myself if things get weirder. Which brings me to this... Jack, sounds like things might get a lot weirder before they get less weird. What are you going to do? What would it take for you to stay, or what do you hope to gain by leaving?"
"Hmmm. That's something that I've been thinking about a lot, recently. In fact, after you guys went to sleep last night, I went to meet my friend Meridon to set up the, er, operation against Gramps. We ended up talking about this issue for sev..."
The Solution
Redland trails off.
He stands up, speaking excitedly, "Oh! I think I may have it... Er, sorry, one second."
He runs over to his bag and rummages around for a second, before pulling out an item and putting it on. Realizing how irritating his behavior must be, he tries to explain.
"I was just putting on a 'signature shifter'. If I understand it properly, it should make it harder for some people to locate me and eavesdrop on what I'm saying."
He sits back down.
"I think I may have just figured out how we can save the world, in the right way, with a minimum of casualties."
He glances around nervously before continuing.
"Earlier, when we were talking to Henrik, we discussed Pentheus a little bit. Let me just rehash a couple of relevant points pertaining to the so-called 'Pentheus Plan'. Their plan basically involves three components:
"1) Making a deal with some number of Outsiders to stabilize the areas of incursion and space out the rate of people dying "2) Constraining the Outsiders in 'reservations' with a technology Pentheus has developed and tested "3) Developing weapons to destroy the Outsiders, using the time bought through the deal they made
"We've run some projections (probabilistic and mystical) on what would happen if Pentheus is allowed to proceed unimpeded. The positive part of the projections is that it is probable that humanity will prevail, and the world will arrive at a new golden age.
"The negative part of the plan, is that it takes so long to come to fruition, around 20 years or so, that far more people die than initially anticipated.
"Now, while talking to Meridon last night, she mentioned that some of our allies have developed two large areas in the New York / New Jersey vicinity where time runs differently. From what I understand, it sounds like a nearly 30:1 compression. That is, for every month you spend in one of these affected areas, only one day passes in the rest of the world."
He continues rambling on, alternately standing up and pacing around and then sitting back down in an agitated manner.
"If Pentheus developed their weapons in one of the affected zones, this alone could reduce casualties to around 1/30 the amount we saw in our projections! Furthermore, we asked in our projections what would happen if Pentheus proceeded unimpeded. This, of course, doesn't take into account what would happen if we helped them. We might be able to reduce casualties to an almost negiligible number!
"And I can probably even sell this plan to our allies now. The beauty, is that it will largely allow them to continue doing whatever it is they are currently doing, as long as it doesn't infringe directly upon Pentheus. That is, anything they can do to strengthen humanity's position against the Outsiders will concomitantly strengthen Pentheus's bargaining power. The better we are able to defend ourselves against the Outsiders, the more they are likely to concede at the bargaining table, and the fewer the number of people who will eventually die!"
Redland sits back down, looking a bit embarrassed all of a sudden.
"Er, so, yeah, what do you think?"
Jake's mind cranked away like some ancient machine of wood and rope. It creaked along slowly and methodically, groaning under the strain of the burden it was beginning to feel. He closed his eyes to gather up his thoughts. He emitted a low whistle before taking a stab at it.
"Alright, so there are couple places that have slow time. Work inside is a month, outside a day...." Jake begun to whisper to himself, "That's what? 12 days for a year...and 120 for ten years...double that for 20...like 240 days." This was the extent of his math skills, he really wanted to know how many months 240 days represented on the outside...but that would require paper, pencil, and a more educated man.
"So what I'm hearing Jack, is that there could be a weapon in less than a year. That's a lot better than the 20 years of suffering." Jake nodded slowly, but then frowned some.
"It's a good idea....best I've heard...but doesn't this only work if the other plans fail or stall out? I mean, what good is this plan if there are people still awakening lands, or the world soul, or whatever. As far as I can tell, each one of these plans is an all or nothing plan. Who's working on the worse case scenario, if everything goes to hell?"
Barreling onward Jake suggested, "Could Pentheus possibly turn these reservations inside out? Instead of keeping demons in, keep them out? That sounds like a fair back-up plan to me."
Jack ponders for a moment.
"On your first question, I think the plans can largely coexist. For instance, we've talked about how the land has been 'awakened' in Russia. This may make it difficult to place a reservation there. I think, however, that this could strengthen our position. That is, we can say to the Outsiders, 'Look how difficult it will be to fight us. How about you take this deal instead. Half a loaf is better than none...' Thus, the stronger the other groups make the earth's defenses, the stronger will be Pentheus's bargaining position, allowing us to sacrifice fewer people, which is definitely a very unpalatable portion of the plan.
"You're certainly correct, though, that there is a danger of the various plans conflicting. Most obviously, a lot of people think Pentheus is morally objectionable and want to outright destroy them.
"Even barring an extreme like that, one thing that Pentheus needs is to gain the confidence of the people of the United States (and later pretty much every other country). The upcoming (supposed) disaster in New York is one event that will allow Pentheus to step up and protect people, making themselves look good in the process. The other groups (by which I mean the Spanish and French contingents) have talked about trying to step in, do a lot to deter the incursion, and then seize credit for themselves. Something as innocuous as this could have very negative results for Pentheus... not so much the deterrence (though Pentheus does need people to see the Outsiders as a danger), but who gets the majority of credit.
"Also, Pentheus plans to make deals with Outsiders. Our allies could cause complications by killing our Outsiders or just violating some terms that we've agreed to (or by making it impossible to fulfill certain terms).
"So, it would definitely require communication with these other groups so that we can try to avoid stepping on each others' toes."
He pauses and collects his thoughts for a moment.
"As to your second question, on turning the reservations inside out, that's something I hadn't considered, but it seems feasible. Well, depending on whether you mean turn them inside out to cover the whole world (and thus keep the Outsiders away entirely) or just turn them inside out to let us live on the reservations while they get the rest of the world?
"A potential problem with the former could be that it might be too difficult to gather the relevant materials and/or to generate sufficient power to operate the 'fence'.
"A potential problem with the latter might be that we would really need to make sure the area we chose was self-sufficient. If they get to occupy the rest of the earth, it would probably be the case that we couldn't count on ever getting anything of value (other than maybe sunlight?) from outside the reservation we were living in."
He takes a quick sip of tea.
"It's an interesting idea, though. And I think it is always good to have a viable back-up plan. That's how I've managed to keep my allies from alienating Pentheus (too much) so far. I've managed to sell it as a back-up plan, in case their favored plans fail."
