The sheer scale of the Truth's Razor boggled the mind. From bow to stern, the great ship measured nearly twenty kilometers in length and was nearly five kilometers at it's widest point. The great buttresses and filigree that graced it's dark hull were merely a second skin grafted on to the hide of an ancient beast. The Gloriana Class Battleships, that the young Imperium used as flagships for it's Space Marine Legions, were behemoths that had been pulled out of the darkness of the Dark Age of Technology. Humanity did not have the shipyards, nor the technology, remaining to build ships of such scale. Ajax had been an engineer in his previous life. The thought of the internal stresses of a ship that was twenty four times longer than the height of humanity's tallest skyscraper, at the time of Ajax's death, caused him to blanch at the ludicrous numbers running through his mind. Ajax knew that his scientific understanding was woefully incomplete, in comparison to even the young Imperium's standards, but he knew of no technology no scientific principle that could prevent this ship from tearing itself asunder. And yet, here he was safely aboard it traveling the stars. 'Amazing'.
His mind wandered as he observed the ancient technology of the Dark Age and the modern Imperial technology grafted together. It all sped by as the maglev train he rode traversed the main spinal thoroughfare of the Razor towards the Archivum.
'It's hard to know what logic and knowledge I can even apply to this new universe. Do gravity, the speed of light, electricity, and physics in general bear any resemblance to my first life? In fact, I guess I am not even sure if I have died and been born into the same universe. Is this my original universe thirty thousand years in the future? Or have I been transported to another universe in which reality is fundamentally different? Everything seems to be the same on the most basic level. Things on a grander scale make no sense, but how do I know that's not just sufficiently advanced technology appearing like magic? Obviously, the Warp and it's sundry consequences were not known in my time, but is that because it didn't exist in my old reality or because my society was blissfully unaware as the Emperor and other Perpetuals existed in the shadows?'
Ajax pondered the nature of his reincarnation/transmigration with no clear way to determine which had occurred to him, as he disembarked from the maglev train. Aside from the basest forms of logic, Ajax could not be certain any of his 'real' life knowledge would apply to his current situation. He was adrift in a sea of uncertainty.
In some sense, he had always been adrift in the sea of uncertainty that was arguably fundamental to the human condition. In the past, he had been able to cling to bits of knowledge that had been proven, at least to his satisfaction, to ground him in reality. Ajax churned through his thoughts and feelings of being adrift in a time and place where he did not belong, as he followed his personal vox device's directions towards the Archivum.
'I guess the only thing I can do is take my previous knowledge as dubious assumptions, and be willing to discard it as truth when faced with contradictory evidence. I no longer have a model of the world through which I can understand it. My only hope is that I can find either where truth differs between my past and present and build my model anew. Or find the connective tissue between the knowledge of my past and the truth of the universe? Perhaps it will be like a scientific theory. General Relativity didn't make Newton's theory of gravity entirely useless, it merely proved to be even more accurate. The scientific community of my time also knew that General Relativity wasn't perfect as it conflicted with Quantum Mechanics. Those scientists hoped to find a deeper more perfect theory than superseded those theories like they had replaced older theories. Perhaps, my problem is that I am believing in truth as an absolute thing, when it's only a matter of degrees in reality. But deep down, I want to believe that there is a perfect truth out there, one that can be known. I really don't want it to be turtles all the way down.'
With a heavy sigh, Ajax realized he had arrived in the anteroom of the Archivum. In his disquiet, he had arrived here seemingly carried here by his own two feet, but not really remembering how he got here. Ajax took a deep breath, adjusted his uniform, and entered the Archivum to meet with Uxor Loretta Vorn.
The Archivum, like most things on the Razor, was built to a staggering scale. It was a hall many hundreds of meters long, with shelves of books at least a dozen meters tall. Each tome of knowledge on the shelves were bound in rich dark brown leather. The shelves all seemed to be carved out a rich dark brown wood with strong grain patterns. The air smelled of paper, leather, and wood. It was a leather that soothed Ajax and reminded him of going to the library as a young boy. Those were bright highlights in his turbulent youth. He scanned the tables that dominated the center of the Archivum. He saw a few readers each dominating a table spaced far out from each other. It seemed each was in deep research as they had multiple tomes laid out across their table, with servo skulls ferrying more books back and forth between the shelves. Sitting at one table, Uxor Loretta Vorn, the Uxor who had inspected 10th Company, was studying two large tomes and multiple large charts or maps. She seemed deep in focus as Ajax swiftly approached and stood at attention.
"Hetman Kjarrick reporting as ordered, ma'am. Apologies for my tardiness. I was … indisposed." said Ajax softly, not wishing to disrupt the quiet of the Archivum.
"Indisposed is certainly accurate, Kjarrick. If a little misleading, seizing from poorly made contraband alcohol is technically being indisposed." muttered the Uxor under her breath.She looked up at him with a mixture of worry, frustration, and indignation crossing her face in equal measure. Returning her gaze to the book she said, "Drop the formalities, Drogant. They seem out of place here and you don't usually stick to them anyway. It's unsettling."
Ajax sat down across from the Uxor. His guesswork hadn't been completely accurate during the formation as he did not yet have the memories of Drogant Kjarrick. While he hadn't fully aligned with the memories of the former inhabitant of this body, he did now know that Drogant Kjarrick had been a man spiraling from the trauma of his military career. Ajax didn't have the moral high ground to criticize a man drowning his sorrows in the drink, as if he had never done the same, but it was obvious to others that Drogant's military discipline had been slipping. Ajax's departure from that stood out as a result. The Uxor looked up at him after about thirty seconds as if she was waiting for him to speak.
'Fuck man, I feel awkward and ashamed even though I'm not the person that inhabited this body when all the stupid shit happened. I guess I've gotta say something.'
Ajax cleared his throat and said, "Well uh Loretta, I can't say that I am particularly proud of my actions of late, but this incident has shifted my perspective. I feel frustrated by my previous lack of discipline and overall drunken behavior. I am taking steps to correct that."
Uxor Lorretta Vorn's eyebrows raised a fraction. "Do you honestly expect me to believe your words, Drogant?" she asked.
'Damn, my memory of Drogant's life is hazy except for Tharsis Station's boarding. How bad was Drogant in the past? I knew it was a bit bad, but this seems worse than I suspected."'
"No, I can expect nothing. My hope is that you will give me a chance to prove that I mean those words. Only action will have meaning. If I fail to meet expectations, I can only expect censure." replied Ajax.
The Uxor nodded at his words. "Considering your effort in your studies of High Gothic before your seizure, I can see your intention to change. I will give you a chance to show me you've turned around your career. Do not expect another chance. I will also expect your High Gothic to keep improving, so I had better see you in this Archivum studying while your duty is restricted due to your injury. You may take your leave, Hetman."
A screen popped up across the Ajax's vision saying:
>>[Quest Complete: Alleviate the Uxor's Suspicions + 10 AP]
Ajax stood, saluted, and tried to walk, calmly, away without seeming like he was running away from a postponed execution. Ajax went to a table across the hall and sat down. At the Archivum table was a little terminal with a monochrome screen with green text and a black background. The terminal was an index of the Archivum's tomes.
'I should probably expand my knowledge about how to function as a psyker, considering I am starting to gain AP. I need to know what I can do as I increase my powers via the System. The books I read in my past life never expanded in great detail or anything concrete on how to use psychic powers. Generally, the books read as flowery prose to describe how psychic battle could be understood so those without the gift could understand. I need techniques, theory, and training methods. My knowledge of the arcane will be a weapon with which I can battle the forces of Chaos. So I must sharpen this weapon for battle.'