i am the oncoming storm

[autokinetic]

There are three Bells in Milliways.

They want a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. A seventh.

And then Downside is going down.

Comments

[luminous_regnant]

"What," inquires Golden, "is the population of the catacombs?"

[ending_of]

"Steadily increasing, ballpark of ten trillion."

[self_composed]

"Twenty-seven million and change per day for a year - I dunno, we'd have to throw a lot of hardware at Jane but the hardware doesn't even all have to be magic besides whatever sensory equipment we give her to tell where people are from and such, we can do huge amounts of it with just squares and more with pentagons. I bet it's doable in a year, at least optimistically barring catastrophe," says Stella. "We'd automate a lot, there might be stragglers who have special cases of some kind, most people won't be possible to send home at all because it'll have been too long since they died and they'll just be in and out without the step where someone evaluates their deeds and determines how many hours of agony matches up to putting a city on the moon. If Jane looks at twenty thousand people per minute - okay, maybe we aren't looking at so much a Jane building as a Jane town, but the limiting factor isn't Jane here."

[autokinetic]

"Jane's awesome," says Aegis.

[luminous_regnant]

"It is not," says Golden dryly, "as though anyone involved requires sleep. Perhaps a year is too quick - we will not go at a rate of twenty thousand per minute for the first week, perhaps the first month, and it may be that fewer things fall into understood patterns than we think or that it is harder to fold the dead into the worlds of the live than we hope - and we should prioritize the awake people, who are doubtless trillions more on top of the sleeping ten - but two years, or five, yes, I think so."

[ending_of]

"Why is it so urgent for you to empty the catacombs?"

[autokinetic]

"Because time is passing in all the live worlds, and someone who could go home to their family now might not be able to do it next year," says Aegis reasonably.

[ending_of]

"If you received them sorted in order of how recently they died, would that lower your urgency?" She glances at Template. "Four years, by the way."

[self_composed]

"Thanks," murmurs Template.

"Yes," says Stella, "once we have a first-pass algorithm for when we can send people home if they want, that'll help - people whose choices are staying here or moving someplace new anyway can sleep a bit longer without that being an emergency, I think. We'll want pamphlets. I know where those will come from."

[luminous_regnant]

"Yes," says Golden, rolling her eyes, "I'm sure Elspeth will be happy to come up with informational materials to give everyone as they wake up."

[ending_of]

"Would the catacombs themselves suit your size requirements?"

[autokinetic]

"Depends on how amenable they are to being rewired to let Jane see their contents," says Aegis. "We were teleporting around, didn't get a good impression of the physical layout."

[ending_of]

"The physical layout doesn't matter. The catacombs are under the cliffs, centred on this tower, with one entrance at the Upside ground level and the other at Downside's. Everything else about them can be changed."

[self_composed]

"Perhaps we should put you in our link?" Stella wonders aloud. "It makes working out things like that much faster. Jane could tell you directly what she'd need, to be able to operate there, in terms of sensory networks and computing hardware."

[ending_of]

She shrugs.

[mind_game]

Jane shares.

[self_composed]

"...About the new worlds that show up periodically. Are all of ours attached? We only know about Shell Bell who's not here, and Golden and Juliet and Template. What about me and Angela and Aegis and Amariah?"

"I should really think of a better name," muses Template. "Not much of a theme, is it."

[ending_of]

"Yours are," she says, pointing to Golden, Juliet, and Template. "And the one you mentioned who isn't here. None of the rest are. I could connect to them, except yours," she says, indicating Amariah. "You have an afterlife that's taking precedence."

[autokinetic]

"...So on our worlds there's just nothing? If you connect us do you get people who've died in the past or just going forward?"

[dark_light]

"...Can you tell anything about mine besides that it exists?"

[ending_of]

To Aegis: "Past, present, and future."

To Amariah: "No."

[dark_light]

"Well," says Amariah. "I suppose we may have another project on our hands."

[self_composed]

"Hook me up," says Stella, "it's better than nothing - at least it is now."

[autokinetic]

"Me too."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Agreed."