"Um. My main theory prior to this con-ver-sation about what was going with Jovah was that Alleluia and other oracles were controlling it as a means to stay in power."

He looks vaguely apologetic as he says this.

"That is not what's going on. The other two oracles don't even know. Before Alleluia none of them knew, there was a break in the continuity."

"Mm. Uh, is your source on this Alleluia?"

"And her husband, and she showed me the ship, it can transport people to it."

"Mm, we have some transporter tech but doesn't work on my species."

"I think this story certainly doesn't sound like the one I'd expect Alleluia to tell if she were lying and se-cretyl in-charge. And she probably wouldn't know what story I'd expect - I'm basing it off of sorta similar cases of pretend gods that have cropped up before. So I'm leaning towards her having said the truth now I think."

"It also explained - I asked to study with her for a while and she turned me down with no explanation; I went to one of the other oracles, Peninnah, instead. Alleluia wasn't sure that it'd be possible for her to keep me from the information if I was around her that much."

"Heh, says good things about your ability to find things out I suppose."

"Some consolation in retrospect, yes."

Later that day, after Isabella is given the chance to settle in and have dinner, Lucien directs her to a room that was skipped on the tour. A thick archway with screens and buttons surrounds the doorway to this room.

"Uh, this is one of the fancier pieces of tech we have onboard, it creates simulated environments people can visit. I've reserved the room for the next three hours. You can fly around in the environments if you'd like."

Lucine presses a button on the arch.

"Computer, load program Vista 3, the Floating Mountains."

The doors behind the arch retract.

"- it looks like plenty of space to fly but - it isn't really, is it -?"

"It's not real but you're not going to be able to tell the difference. There's a combination of holomatter and momentum man-ip-u-lation that makes it seem like a real landscape that can go on in-def-inite-ly."

"Is it used to flying people? I'm a little concerned that it'll - confuse me with the wrong air currents and I'll crash."

Lucien presses some buttons on the arch's screen.

"Yeah, there's a jet pack program people use to fly around some on here. And uh, I'll put the safety settings on high - if you're close to crashing into anything it'll end the simulation and cancel your momentum. It'll be a bit dis-orienting but not hurt or anything."

"All right, then I'll give it a whirl."

She flaps.

The holodeck performs just as normal, unflappably flappable.

Yay!

After a bit: "There are some more exotic settings if you'd like to try one?"

"Exotic? What do you mean?"

"Interesting scenery to fly around, I have the bioluminescent ecosystem inside of a particular asteroid in mind, it's something of a default for wowing people new to interstellar travel. It's quite something."

"I'd love to see it."

"Arch."

The archway reappears near where Lucien is standing.

"Load program Mel'Mirrys Asteroid, interior"

"Wow. What's an asteroid, anyway?"

"Oh, a rock in space that's smaller than a planet but still or-bits a star. This one is hollow and we're inside it but you can sorta see the edges of the inside shell. I have the grav-ity on normal but in real life we'd weigh a lot less here. And also have trouble breathing since the atmosphere's all weird. This entire place is one giant creature we think, made up of an ecosystem of small-er creatures. Might even be in-telligent but we aren't sure."

"Most asteroids are just rocks in space though."

"It doesn't look like a creature, what makes you think it's a creature?"

"The light from the water is due to those wriggly crea-tures." he says, pointing to one that is briefly close enough to the surface to see.

"Also I think there's something going on with the clouds and the core that's bio-logical ish. Attempts to communicated had mixed results and we decided we don't have the re-sources to spend a bunch more time trying cause of the war."