A most remarkable event took place: a membership interview of Nauplius. In the past few months, he has sunk deep into heresy by promulgating sedevacantism, denying the authority of the Throne and of the Theology Council. That man had the temerity to come to Mehatoor and apply for membership of LUMEN. In PIE, he would have been vaporized before he could knock on the front door.
Instead, the LUMEN leadership decided to explore whether he could be reclaimed.
The interview was held in the tribunal room, rather than the bar. Nauplius appeared on stage proud and self-centered, and proceeded to brag about his merits. He proclaims himself a great scholar, but although he is prolific and fluent writer, his manuscripts do not pass peer review anywhere in the cluster. I still recall our conversation on archeology, where he acted more as a grave-robber than as a scholar. What a nightmare it would be, were he to reap the fruits of my meticulous and lengthy research and put them to ill use.
He proceeded then with accusations of moral degeneracy among our ranks. Board members dating criminals, heretics, even witches? I do not know what he means but the venom from his snake tongue had me somewhat shaken and worried.
Lastly, he refused to recant sedevacantism, penance was not even discussed. He esteems himself so highly that he thinks he can be the judge of the Empress. He cares not about uniform thought, worshiping the ramblings of his own free thought instead. Thus, he begets disorder and instigates sin.
The peaceful Reclaiming of Nauplius failed miserably.
I am glad there was no violence. I tried to remember the lyrics of a song Ishta let me hear, “slow your roll”, so I could recite it to her to prevent the public evisceration of Nauplius. But she was in control of herself. It was one of the directors, Gah’Matar, who almost lost his calm.Post scriptum: Lord Garion was present, and I used the opportunity to talk to him afterwards in his office. I wanted to get his opinion on the ethics of bringing a thousand-year-old mummified Takmahl cyborg back on-line. He cautiously agreed it might be in the interest of science to do so.
