JP: Lt CMDR Promontory, LtJG Nilsen - A Question About Consciousness
Lhandon Nilsen
(( Arboreal Habitat Ring, Deep Space 14 ))
Lhandon had a question, or at least he had something that could be a question. At the end of the trial, just as he thought Lexiudex was going to find him guilty of a murder he didn’t commit, Promontory said something that seemed to have wormed into his conscience.
“Even death is just a transition for our consciousness.”
It had been a little while since the trial, and he had tried to process it as much as he could. He first attempted to do that by diving into his duties once more. He and Toxin were no longer on speaking terms, and Lhandon had been placed on the gamma shift.
After he was afforded the R&R time, it took a day or so for him to stop trying to do his duties and rest. Eventually, the order from Promontory to stop got through to him.
So he rested. Not one to disobey Promontory, he fixed up a bike, cut his hair short so that the curls were gone, attended a conference on DS14 (which he had planned to do regardless, as that had been organized weeks in advance), and planned the next JOPA meeting, partially enjoying researching the foods of every culture in attendance.
This made him content, happy, but…
There was still a question, that thought in his head.
Eventually, he couldn’t stand it anymore and had to ask.
He tracked Promontory down to the arboretum and the view of the Bajoran solar sails he seemed to be admiring. Lhandon called out from about 10 meters away as he saw Promontory.
Nilsen: Commander.
Avander looked back towards the familiar voice. It was that eager young helmsman. He gave one last look at Meander, who seemed to be content frolicing in the small pond, and turned his attention to the junior lieutenant.
Promontory: Mr. Nilsen, here for a relaxing stroll through this engineering marvel?
Nilsen looked anxious and Avander felt justified in the lieutenant's mandated R&R after the situation on Port Coray.
Nilsen: Sorry for jumping you like this, sir. I never got to say thank you for everything you did to help me on that port.
The trial was still burnt into Lhandon’s mind, and he would never forget the sound Sa Phto made when he was turned into a smouldering pile of ash and bones.
Promontory: Well, you’re certainly welcome, not that I did much for you!
As the first officer, Avander had been assigned to represent the ship and the Federation, but he had had no official role in the defense nor the investigation that ultimately exonerated their officer.
Nilsen: It, erm…
He sighed, as he thought about what to say.
Nilsen: I guess, at least if it went south, I wouldn’t have been alone.
Promontory: Well, happy to help.
Lhandon nodded but didn’t have a reply, so he joined Promontory in a moment of silence. He wasn’t playing one of his diplomatic games; rather, he had said at least part of what he wanted to say.
Yet he had reached a roadblock.
Promontory: Was there anything else Lieutenant?
Lhandon wondered where his confidence had gone; it seemed to abandon him whenever matters of himself came up, and this certainly was approaching that territory.
Nilsen: Yeah, there was something else. Erm... when we thought it was going to end, or rather I did, you said something about death being like this transition for our consciousness. What did you mean by that?
Promontory: Oh! (beat) Well, you’ve seen a lot of things in your short stint in the Gamma Quadrant. The crew of the Dow being outside our slice of reality for a few weeks to mention nothing of the proto-Bajorans of Alpha Brenkelvi, right?
Nilsen: Yeah, that was an experience and a half.
Promontory: And it’s not just that. Tralene, the Travelers, the Wormhole Prophets… even the Q.
The part El-Aurian made a disgusted face mentioning the last one. He still hadn’t forgotten.
Nilsen: We don’t…understand them I guess?
Promontory: One of those old earth writers said “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your nat’ral science.”*
Nilsen: Like there is something else right? Except, we know these things are real. We met the Proto-Bajornas, the Wormhole Prophets, like, I can believe in their existence, and that’s erm…different to what we know?
The poor boy looked like he was trying mightily to wrestle with concepts he hadn’t previously considered. Avander had to mentally check himself and remember his mom’s old adage: everybody learns at some point and if you’ve learned something earlier, help others discover it instead of looking down at them.
Promontory: Well.. yes, and. (beat) So there’s always going to be some things we don’t know. This we know: that there is more to discover. So, given how expansive what we do know is, it stands to reason that the unknown is full of more transcendent
Nilsen: It’s just…staring at death like that, when it was out of my control just got me thinking about all this, and thinking about Alpha Brenkelvi. Would I sound insane if I said there’s somethin’ beyond this?
Avander looked at the lieutenant as if thinking that he was a little mental. Not because Lhandon had insinuated that there might be some sort of existence after death, but because Avander thought that it was obvious that that was what the XO had been trying to explicate. Perhaps the Commander needed to be simpler and clearer.
Promontory: No, I think that much is–if not incontrovertible–highly probable.
Nilsen: I don’t know how much you remember from Alpha Brenkelvi, but when they took my conciseness out of my body, they put it in Commodore’s V’Airu’s mind. It was real. I was in a location somewhere. Am I making sense?
Lhandon perhaps was looking for some sense of assurance that he wasn’t going insane.
Promontory: Right, that’s a great case in point. You and the others interacted with entities that died an epoch or two ago.
Avander had been underground on the planet while the direct communication had been going on, but the mission reports had been engrossing.
Nilsen: Then, on the way back, something went wrong, and I was… nowhere, but also I definitely was somewhere. I moved from me, to the Proto-Bajoran’s dimension, to V’Airu, to this other place.
Promontory: (nodding) The word we saw in the ancient ruins is analogous to pagh. I think the Vulcan’s call it a katra. In standard, the word might be spirit or soul, but the concept is similar.
Nilsen: I had…some control over it, or at least whatever my conciseness or me or whatever went…But I was technically dead, in sickbay…but I wasn’t dead…there… wherever there was. I’m sorry sir, this isn’t making sense. I’m wasting your time.
The ensign, junior lieutenant was rambling a bit, but Avander shrugged it off. If a man had two near-death experiences in the last year, that entitled them to do a bit of rambling from time to time. Avander did, however, pity the man’s therapist.
Promontory: Nothing I’d rather be doing. (beat) But I wonder if you have a question in all of this.
Avander cast an eye to the side to ensure Meander was still nearby and out of trouble. Satisfied, he turned back to the younger officer.
Nilsen: I just wonder…would I have…gone somewhere if she killed me? Like I went somewhere before?
Promontory: What do you think?
Nilsen: I…I kinda hope so. I hope that there is somewhere.
Promontory: Perhaps. We don’t have enough scientific evidence to be sure, but there are several cultures who have some sort of articulation or faith in something beyond.
Nilsen: You believe in something along those lines?
Promontory: I do. It’s sometimes called Transcendimensionalism and, at its core, it’s an extension of the things we’ve been talking about.
Nilsen: I can’t say I know it.
Promontory: Well, consider an analogy. If there were a two-dimensional world, a Flatland as it were, then we, living in three spatial dimensions could easily see into it, poke it so that a slice of us appeared in their world, even in a locked room, and displayed all sorts of otherwise ‘supernatural’ seeming actions. If you’re following, just extend that out and imagine a fourth-dimensional being doing the same to us.
Nilsen: So to some…we’re just…I don’t know.
Promontory: Well, ultimately, I think we all exist on higher dimensional planes–we have a bit of 5th dimensional thickness, as it were. And so when one ‘slice’ of that being (the corporeal bit we’re used to) dies, then the rest of us–that soul or pagh or katra or whathaveyou–persists and can continue its multidimensional existence.
Avander raised his hand as if those pronouncements were self-evident.
Nilsen: That…certainly makes sense. Just because I’ve been there. Alpha Brenkelvi, those beings they showed me…I guess the next erm…dimension.
Promontory: Or one of them at least. If there’s a 4th or 5th dimension, it stands to reason there’s a 6th and a 7th and so on, more complex and mysterious then our little dimensionally-limited minds can conceive!
Nilsen: It’s been what? Nearly a year since that mission? I’m still processing it all. I don’t know that I’ll understand it all ::Beat:: But what you’ve said…It’s erm, making sense.
Promontory: Oh good, it’s not for the–
Before Promontory could finish his thought, Meander came over to see what was happening.
Nilsen: Hello there little buddy.
Lhandon kneeled down and held his hand out for Meander, who looked at it, then craned its neck back to Avander for assurance.
Promontory: It’s alright buddy. Lhandon’s a friend.
Nilsen: Who's a good little Demigorgon?
Promontory: Gormogon.
Nilsen: Who's a good little Gormogon?
Lhandon was smitten with Meander, and he scratched the six-legged Gormogon behind the ears, much like one would do with a puppy.
Meander: Cwoo!
Avander clapped a hand on Lhandon’s shoulder and Lhandon looked up in response
Promontory: If you’re interested, I can send you some literature on the subject. But for now, I got to get this little guy back to the ship.
~End Scene~
OOC:
*The correct full quote “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Methinks the old books on Avander’s colony might have had some typos.
Lt Cmdr. Avander Promontory
Executive Officer
USS Octavia E Butler
O239910AP4
&&
Lieutenant JG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen
Assistant Chief of Operations.
USS Octavia E Butler
O240007LN1
He/Him/His (Both player and character)