PaRARGdox 164
Strategies?: Kaycee is remembering the comment about Charisma’s injuries from Hans on page 7.90.
We’ve already seen Rochelle hacking into security protocols via her comms waaaay back in Lock(e)down – see page 6.15!
Olga must really be rattled, she pretty much slipped up on the fact she was once Gola, a much older, more powerful and skilled telepath… some of the power she is striving to regain since being de-aged in Redux.
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Next update: August 20, 2022: Moon Base Magellan!
Gurl, this is no time to hold back. Just do a mental emergency broadcast and worry about questions later.
The problem is that with so many various minds, many of them not human and all the cadets who don’t have much training in dealing with telepaths, on the island that Olga would risk frying some brains if she just reached out and tried to get to as many minds as possible. No ethical telepath will want to end up with people in comas even in an emergency situation.
IF Olga were not disoriented and rattled:
instead of broadcast you proposed. Telepathically signal her “Guardians” and they should already have sufficient trust in her experience and circumstances of Knowing Gola/Olga. And they should be able to use top down coms, with Council Authority.
I’m sure Olga would be broadcasting a warning if she could, but I don’t think she can. In panel 5 she seems to be starting to say something like “Maybe once I could do that” but changes it to “Eventually I will be able to do that”.
Vannex’ idea makes more sense to me.
Olga . . . maybe it’s just time to drop the facade? Has it demonstrated any benefit? Haven’t we seen ample examples of the secrets being held by higher ranks within Magellan have done more harm than good? The only notable situation that was made worse by some semblance of truth was Montana-Rose and her future self getting a chance to meet.
ugh . . . maybe there are yet examples of secrets being meritorious, but it kind of feels like one of the recurring morals of Grace’s story here has been that secrets do more harm than good. Or at least trust in those who are your friends and allies is more beneficial than doubting that they can handle something which you yourself are struggling with.
. . . sorry if I’m reading in to things not explicitly in the text, Grace. If I’m way off the mark, I apologize.
I suppose it’s just another testament to your excellent skills as a storyteller. I feel as though Olga (like many of your characters) is someone who can be spoken to, despite being fictitious.
Thanks, as ever, for all you do!
Maybe there might be some supervillains who were apprehended by Gola and her de-aging becoming public knowledge might trigger a cascade of villains trying to get her.
I know she’s at a very secure location at Magellan but they also have time off like summer vacay and what not where she’d be more vulnerable.
Good point, supervillains would see opportunity for revenge. So this particular secret has some merit… the question of whether it will do more harm than good is still open though.
That all seems like a reasonable reading to me 🙂
I don’t think I read this as morale of the story, rather just a facet of how this story stays very true to how real life works. I’m very much convinced that secrets do more harm than good in real life, there are a few instances where a truth does harm but even then the secret could’ve been just as dangerous.
But maybe that’s just me.
“Trust is more beneficial than doubt” (applies to friends, coworkers regardless of rank, and yourself) – if someone asks me what the take-home message from Magellanverse to our lives is, this is from now on my answer. Great thanks, to both VileTerror and Grace! 🙂 But your answer might be something else, which is very reasonable and another testament to the greatness of the story.
After all they’ve been through wouldn’t some cadets be eligible for high comms clearance? Jones and Kwan certainly have shown their maturity and resilience under pressure. Just don’t give it to someone like Sioni or Charisma.
Or if they still want to keep them off the AV (audio/video) how about a text message function to the higher ups which could then evaluate and give AV access for communication? Hack away, Rochelle!
Be fair Rochrlle, you rarely think your fellow students have useful knowledge to impart either. And it’s hard to set a com system to allow those with useful contributions through while screening out those who think they do.
I think prism2525 has the right idea: some cadets have proven themselves to be worth listening to in a crisis, maybe the system should have specific exceptions for those, to be evaluated each year.
I’m actually a bit surprised that Rochelle hadn’t already hacked the comms, just in case. Or maybe she did and Magellan security had just blocked her last hack.
My somewhat educated guess is that precisely because they will eventually block her active hack she doesn’t do it until she has a reason too.
With Rochelle around they are always upgrading!! 😀