Mindworms Part 1: The Ultimate Betrayal
Chapter 1
Wealth, Power, and Psi Talents
In the years since our arrival, we have foolishly disrupted so many of Planet's ecosystems that entire species may vanish without our ever having understood, or even known them. We must halt this plunder, and halt it immediately, for our own survival as a species depends on our ability to strike a balance with this world.
-Commisioner Pravin Lal
Mindworm, Mindworm
Humans: Correct in making leap from wealth as currency to wealth as energy. But: logic failure. Wealth ultimately is extension of desire, fluctuating with emotions and state of mind. Desires: When all are supported in purely adaptable system, true wealth is achieved.
-Usurper Judah Marr
Human: Nature
I wish The Prophet would stop goofing off and get his transports here! My unit hadn't received a new assignment since the attack on The Hermitage. When the drones attacked in their masses with their lasers turned on full power, we knew we were in trouble. The attack had come swiftly, and it was only Psi Talents like me that were able to conquer them. At least, temporarily. When Datajack Rose and her pathetic minions tried to cross our continent, they used formers to literally create a canal, and that had isolated the land The Hermitage was built on, and it was turned into an island. That had created a whole lot of problems for the residents of the base, the main one being that we were easy targets for Domai or that insane Cybernetic, Aki Zeta Five. It was insanity. The only good point about it all was that The Propet, Cha Dawn himself had promised transportation for all Psi Talents. Why it was just us was beyond me, but I didn't care. As long as I got off this rock, I was fine. Unfortunately, what I didn't anticipate was the waiting. The only thing I had to do to occupy my time was to send my mind worwms throughout the secret nooks and crannies throughout the base and find out people's secrets through their minds. Then again, there was also some gambling on the base for resources. Different things had been assigned values, and my skills as a psi talent gave me an almost unlimited amount of cash on the gambling tables. Each of my fact finding services and every piece of information my mindworms gave me were each valued at at least 400 energy units each, and that was only the basic things.
Thinking about it, I decided to head over to the gambling tables and see what I could win. When I got there, the smell of dead mindworms was prevalent, and from that, I was sure I was at the right place. To keep us Psi Talents from using our mindworms, the gambling owner set up some automatic flame devices to kill any mindworms that tried to render anyone incapable of thinking. I felt sorry for the unfortunate souls who had tried it, because when a mindworm dies, Psi Talents feel the death and pain of death from miles away. As I entered in, I instantly scanned the tables for some new, fresh meat.
I instantly saw them, and walked over to their table. The newbies were my favorite target because they didn't understand the unwritten values of their items, and they underestimated me because I was a Psi Talent. I sat down, and when I had, the dealer handed out the cards.
The ante was 50 energy units and I paid up. Then, the strange bets came in. We played a hand of Terran Poker, a simple game of chance that the new guys thought was their best game. I started out with a two pair. Two kings, two tens, and a 6. My best chance was probably for a three of a kind, but I didn't want to give up my two tens. It took a while, but I finally decided what I was going to do. Before we switched our cards out, the bets were 640 energy units from the base loansealurk, a new laser personal handgun from the engineer, 300 megabytes of hacked access to Svensgard's datalinks from a probe team member, and my services as a Psi Talent to gather 3 cubic yards of xenofungus for the winner. I felt sorry for them. The loan-sealurk probably wanted the energy that could be extracted, and the engineer and the datajack just wanted it to study. I already knew, though, that they didn't have the proper supplies to extract any value from the fungus. At the switch, I changed my two tens and my six. I was hoping for a three of a kind, but Planet was with me, apparently, because I ended up with a full house. Two kings, three nines. How in the world I got that lucky hand I don't know. I raised a double on all items except the handgun, which would be upgraded with a laser sighter. Everyone agreed and laid down their hand. The loansealurk had a three of a kind, aces high. The other two simply got pairs. I didn't believe my luck! I'd won! I gathered the possessions of the other men, then I walked out the door, smiling with all of my newfound wealth in hand.
My first new job, now, was to test my assets for their value, and that wasn't too hard. Gathering my mindworms together to defend me, I went outside and found a patch of xenofungus. It wasn't that hard since there was no two square yards on this base that didn't have a little bit of xenofungus. I targeted my laser, then fired. The xenofungus was instant toast and as I inspected it, there truly was nothing left of any worth. I smiled and reached into my pocket for the datapad with the hacked line. That datajack had no idea what I could do with this line. He had installed a program that would limit me to the 600 megabytes that were originally agreed to. I smiled and tapped the screen. The screen lit up and I was shown the Pirate flag. Then, I was led through a screen to the spoken of information. Leaving it there, I shut it off, then reached into the back of the device. There it was, the logon-data chip. I pulled it out carefully, then reset the system. Instead of giving me the boring starting dialouge, it simply led me to the storehouse of information contained within. Without the limit block, I gained access to the full possibilities contained within the databad. I had a link to the entire datalinks of the Pirates themselves.
I headed off to my room to examine it by myself. After all, a man standing outside reading a datapad surrounded by mindworms would be rather suspicious. Crossing the halls, admiring the stalks of xenofungus, I passed the Rec Commons. All was normal. The people had gathered there to engage their mind, dance, plant xenofungus and terran plants in the outer garden, whatever suited their fancy. However, the planting and dancing dominated over most of the other activities.
When I got to my room, I quickly linked up my VR Visor to the datapad and put it on. It really was a fascinating device. It took the data inside the datapad and gave it a physical appearance in the VR world. When the Visor initialized, I was thrown into the most in-depth virtual world I had entered. Skyscrapers were on either side of me, each labeled, and full of information. Then there were the people, standing in line on the streets. They were each people that had a dossier on them, and about seven eighths of them had no clue it existed. It was great to be me. I tapped several people on the shoulder just for fun, and read up on a couple of interesting folks, one of them was a Psi Talent just like me, which explains why there was such an in-depth dossier on them. I whispered into the device,
"Revert to all data on The Hermitage."
For a second, nothing happened, but then the world seemed to vanish except for a small city in the distance which I was suddenly teleported to. I browsed through, entering a building called "Facility Espionage" which led me to learn more information about the city then I had ever learned, including the location of the presiding governor's 'special' getaway retreat. Information like this was invaluable, and considering that the Pirates were the most powerful faction on the planet, this knowledge would be second in depth only to the Data Angels' datalinks. I was worth billions, and all because some newbie Datajack decided he could give me some information in a card game. Suddenly, an urge hit me.
"Computer. Access all data on The Hermitage's Psi Talents."
The computer was rudimentary in form, but it knew what I was trying to say. Instantly, almost all of the city vanished, except for a building and a group of people. Instantly, I walked over to myself and read my dossier. They had a surprisingly large grasp of who I was, and they even had the schedule that I had uploaded into the main computer so that I could access it from anywhere. However, that wasn't what interested me. When accessing people, there wasn't normally a whole separate section so large that the computer would give it even a hut, let alone the two story building it assigned us. I walked into the room, and suddenly, two pictures hovered in the air. One was of The Propet, and the other was of Captain Svensgard. The pictures started talking, as though the building was a recording of a conversation between the two. That was odd enough, though, because there was a great deal of animosity between my faction and the Pirates.
"So, Captain Svensgard. You contacted me for a reason?"
The child asked. I was amazed at how The Prophet, a child barely in the double digits seemed so apathetical to the situation.
"Yes, Prophet."
Prophet? With the hatred between them, there should never have been any respective terms in that conversation.
"Very well. What do you want."
"I know of your weakness."
"Oh? Which one?"
I smiled at this. I gained a slight bit of respect for my leader for his ability to use humor in the face of such an adversary.
"Your base. The Hermitage. It contains a great number of your greatest Psi Talents."
"And?"
"Well, they are vulnerable. I suggest I liberate them from your protection and shelter them."
Oh no. That wasn't good.
"Stop beating the fragging xenofungus bush, Svensgard. Tell me what you really want."
Another point on the respect scale.
"Very well. For another year of peace, I would like you to transport your Psi Talents off of the base and have them transmitted to my laser cruiser 14 miles off the shore. Here are the coordinates."
He seemed to press an invisible key and a picture appeared between them. A map with a highlighted area. An area along my supposed path of transport. If this conversation had happened, say a week ago, then that means...
"Very well, Svensgard. If it is the will of Planet, then I will assist you."
My respect for him went down about forty points. The conversation ended and a number of datafiles appeared, documents explaining the conditions. The pictures dissappeared, and then I was left alone to read the documents.
"The call for the target units to prepare, mission year 19.7.16"
I gasped. Today was 19.7.18, and the message that they were gaining transport came two days ago. Then, the big kicker came. The final destination.
"After transmission to reciever through aqueous vessel A147, targets to be taken to Fisherman's Horizon."
That was a shock. Fisherman's Horizon was the location of their Psi Corps Headquarters, and their Empath Controllers, their elite empaths that could even control other people's minds. Her fears were confirmed.
"Targets will be initiated into The Nautilus Pirate's Psi Corps through mental control."
Chapter 2
Betrayal
We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solopsism?
Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat7
Activity recorded M.Y. 2302.22467
TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED
As I ripped the Visor off, I passworded the datapad and stuck it into my pocket. It was still worth billions, and I might need it. I strode out of my room in a hurry, my anger exciting many of the mindworms. I could almost feel the surprise of the citizens as my mindworms lashed out in my anger. How dare that fragging kid sell me like some off-the-wall toy. I was deceived into thinking I'd get transportation off this rock, and that little... pup played me like a fiddle! Ack! I felt like killing him, and if I ever got the chance to, I would. He deceived me! He deceived all of us! Through my anger, I sent a simple message through all of my mindworms to the other mindworms on the base, and therefore, through their Psi Talents, to meet me at the Garden. Considering the stir my mindworms were making, it didn't take long for the Psi Talents to realize this was important. In almost two minute's time, every Psi Talent on the base was at the Garden with their mindworms. I climbed one of the many xenofungus-covered rocks in the Garden and addressed the gathering.
"Listen to this, fellow Psi Talents!"
I yelled in my anger. I activated the datapad and played the video file, allowing the figures to congeal in the air through the holographic display imaging on the pad. I felt their minds go through the same ups and downs that mine did during the time I watched the conversation. However, through my mind, I kept a subtone of anger in their mind about a sense of danger, and a pure anger. When they hit the part about the transfer, suddenly, all the mindworms starting hissing and spreading their fear-waves far into the base. The gathering started in an uproar.
"This is insane!"
"He'd never do this to us!"
"Where did you get this?!"
"Planet help us!"
"When I get my hands on that son of a sporelauncher, I'll kill him!"
To quell the doubts, I showed the specifications of the mission, and mentally explained how I came across the data through my mind. That was it. The gathering exploded. An outcry of
"Down with the Prophet!"
exploded. After barely being able to calm them down, I said,
"Fellow Psi Talents! We must have a plan, or this will all go the way of Svensgard's will!"
The others agreed, and with a great deal of encouragement, most left the room, except for the Psi Elders of which I was one.
"We have seen the events."
Said a woman by the name of Jacquelyn. Her hair, which was normally brown and flowing was ruffled by the events that had transpired.
"What will we do about them?"
The next to speak was a man my age, about two inches taller, but about 50 pounds... heftier.
"I say we kill the poor sporespawn!"
I calmed the man down, nearly threatening to kill him in the process. The bodies of the other Psi Talents may have been somewhere else, but their minds were certainly focused on the conversation, and I wouldn't have Pike get them angrier than they already were. Jennifer was the next to speak.
"We don't even know what base he's in. If you listen to the recording well, there is the constant sound of terran and planetary animals. Considering that our primary base has no terran animals, that would mean he would be elsewhere."
This led the group, including me, to contemplate. No one knew where to go, and, truth was, getting out of the current situation was more pressing a demand that extracting revenge on Cha Dawn, as much as he deserved it. Then, from the opposite side of the table, a voice spoke up.
"I have an idea."
My ears pricked up. Taik rarely ever spoke, but prefered to communicate his base emotions through telepathy. He had rather obviously thought his answer through before he said it, which added a great deal of value to what he said. It was better than anything I could say.
"Okay, Taik. What's the plan?"
As I walked out of the meeting room, I couldn't help but think Taik was insane. Then again, that's what everyone said of me. The team had assigned me to acquire a whole mass of wealth and perhaps even several Psi Manuals if I could. That wasn't going to be easy. Even with the money I gained gambling the other day, we needed over 5000 energy units, and that wasn't chump change. Also, Psi Manuals were some of the rarest documents. After genetic testing had shown that Cha Dawn had an inhuman level of aptitude with planet, he became The Psi Talent and wrote a series of manuals. These pieces contained information that no Psi Talent would ever learn in the normal course of one's career. I had found one in my datapad, and donated it to the cause, but there were 9 other Manuals, and there was a specific one I needed... As I walked down the hall, I went to put the first piece of the puzzle into place.
The gambling room held that same faint smell of dead worms that it always had when I walked in. I walked in silently, making sure not to disrupt any of the games that were going on. I had to find a high stakes game, and that was final. I was given 2000 energy units by the Elders to use in the games. I just hoped that it would work. I walked into the back corner, where an illegal game was going on. I knew it was in the back corner back I had been there before. I knew it was illegal because the rules said no antes above 500, and I knew the people there because I had beaten them before. I stepped in, sat down, and waited for the dealer. The others eyed me cautiously, and they didn't like the fact that I actually had the 600 energy unit ante that was requested. I was a veteran at the game, and there was no denying it. I tuned into my mind, feeling for any sense of deceit. I wasn't going to lose this game to a cheater. Then, the automatic dealer laid out the cards. There were eight of us at the table. Six males, two females. I had a pretty good hand to start out with, but it wasn't good enough to win a game. I had a three of a kind, three twos, one heart, one spades, one clubs. An ace of spades, and a three of the same suit. As I looked at my cards, the bet went around, and when it got to me, I looked at the table, and at the whopping amount of wealth being bet. 7520 energy units, interest in a genetically engineered bioforest worth at least a thousand credits, and a prototype particle impactor rifle, a model that wasn't even legal. I new I really didn't have much that was worth that, except for my services as a Psi Talent, and the invaluable wealth I held in my coat pocket. Luckily, I had made copies of the data, because I was going to do something inside. One of the men was an ex-curator for the primary Prophet base, and he just might have had the Psi Manual I was looking for.
As they all snickered at me, knowing that I didn't have any cash wealth worth the current bids, I mentally grinned. The fools! They had no idea how much wealth I had in my coat pocket. I reached in there, tapped the screen, and then I closed my eyes shut. I reached into the device with my mind and made a mental footprint, as well as a physical lock. I looked up and said,
"I can't call. I raise you in information, 1700 terraquads of information from the Pirate datalinks."
I could have sworn that their eyes had bulged out of their sockets. The monetary value of what I had offered, a third of the Pirate datalinks was nuts. Luckily, the datapad was simply a direct line to their entire datalinks, so it didn't take up that much memory. Around the table, they all folded, and I thought I would win by default, until I reached the curator. He simply blinked and said,
"I call."
He reached into his briefcase and carefully brought off a datapad laced with Terran gold, one of the most valuable substances in existences.
"The physical value of the gold on this datapad ranges at about 14000 energy units."
He nodded to me, however, and said,
"However, to a Psi Talent, this is worth much more than that. This is the most valuable Psi Manual in existence. This Psi Manual contains knowledge on how to directly tap the power of the planet to supplement your own and..."
he seemed to whisper,
"how to speak to Planet itself."
One of the women at the table fainted. At the table was a total of 36000 plus energy units' worth of data and raw energy, not counting the value of the Psi Manual. Added to my own manual on segmenting or focusing the mental link with mindworms (to avoid pain or see clear, focused images through your mindworm) this would be a point of total wealth. I had to act.
"I call."
At the card switch, I was sweating like a recon rover pilot in range of a fungal tower. I had only two options. One, I could swith the ace and the three and hope for a four of a kind or a full house, or two...
I put my two cards into the automatic dealer. If anyone had ever prayed, I was praying right there. I switched out the two of clubs and the two of hearts. Technically, that gave me a trash hand, but if I could only get the cards I needed. Then, it happened. The dealer seemed to shuffle the cards around inside itself, then it spit them out. I kept them upside down as they came to me. There was a four and a five of spades! A straight flush! It was all I could do to keep a stoic face. I simply glanced at them. With no further bets, the automatic dealer said in that same electronic tone,
"Lay down your hand."
I layed mine down. Against a straight flush, the curator had four aces. A straight flush beats a four of a kind! I won!! I was so excited that I literally jumped for joy. I grabbed a carrying case I had brought and stuffed the energy casings into it. I took my datapad, as well as the deed to the forest in my pocket, and I carefully placed the manual in there as well. The curator was just standing there, sobbing. I couldn't believe it! In my mind, I heard a blast of cheering from my fellow Psi Talents. I had won, and that meant Taik's crazy plan just might work.
Gave all the cash I'd earned, 7520 energy credits, as well as the deed to the land, to the elders. They asked for the Psi Manual, but I asked if I could keep it for a week before I gave it up. After all, it could not be copied between files through any conventional method, and after it was given to the Elders, they would try to teach it to the others, and after each teaching, the quality of the lesson would diminish through forgetfulness. They reluctantly consented, and I went to my room. It was a great thing to have the feeling of victory that I felt. I pulled out a datapad from the wall segment, then pulled out the Psi Manual. There were 146 pages of information, and I had a week to copy it all. I had my work set out for me. I read the contents of the manual out loud. The datapad, acquipped with voice recognition software, congealed onto the screen the words I spoke. I have the mindworms sweep the place for bugs and, strangely, found them. Literally. There were twelve mindworms hidden in niches in my wall. I sighed and continued. After about a minute and a half, I finally got to the end of the page. I blew a deep breath and kept going. This was going to take a while.
"Planet is a living organism of fields and individual thoughts. These thoughts, combined, contain limitless power. Tap that power, fellow Psi Talents, and rule this planet!"
That was page 60. I had been talking for about an hour and a half, and I had learned more about Planet, and about the power I wielded, than I had ever had hoped to know, or wanted to. If The Prophet was right, a Psi Talent drawing on the power of Planet itself could control a fungal tower, or command a multitude, a legion of millions of mindworms that could only be stopped by the strongest, most numerable defenders. I brought my hand up, looked at it, then focused into my mind. I wielded so much power, but what did it mean. I decided to stop and take a break from my studies and copying. I decided to practice what he said, and then get a bite at the Rec Commons. I closed my eyes and felt where my mindworms were, then I reached out past the mindworms, to the next level, the way The Prophet said. There, I seemed to hear a consciousness, weak, like that of a baby, with emotions and thoughts and feelings. I took my thoughts and melded them around the consciousness, inspecting it. I noticed rather quickly that the thing, Planet, was quickly realizing my presence. Suddenly, pieces of it came towards my thoughts, inspecting me. I didn't push them away, but brought them closer, so that I could see them closer. Then, it seemed to get deep into my thoughts, my fears. It saw something in my mind that made it recoil, and I felt it enter into a state of turmoil.
With my mind, I tried to say, Calm down! It's okay! I'm your friend! Just then, I saw a picture of The Prophet. I snarled, and the collective consciousness I was dwelling in surrounded it. It was odd, looking at the thing in its state of dissarray. Then, I saw a swirl of emotions surrounding The Consciousness' thoughts about Cha Dawn. Denial, acceptance, hatred, attraction, every emotion in existence. Then, suddenly, the consciousness split, half of it going towards me. It had seen The Prophet through my eyes, and it was split on how to deal with it. Suddenly, I was thrown out the vision, and in my mind, I felt a little niche held by Planet itself, but that niche was half of the very Planetary consciousness, embedded in my brain. I reached out to my mindworms, and I saw through their eyes more than I'd ever seen before, and each one of them seemed to command a power of their own, all of it controlled by me, and my niche in Planet. What would happen if the other Elders got hold of this information? Would they gain as much power as I did, or was Planet limited, so it would have to divide? I didn't know and, for now, I didn't want to. I was content to cross that xenofungus field when I came to it.
I walked over to the Rec Commons, smiling because I held more power than I'd ever had, and I had over 10 millions units of value in my coat pocket, and no one would ever know. I walked in, and smiled at the activities that were going on. Most of the people were tending to the xenofungus and the trees, and some were reading manuals on xenofungus and its qualities. Others were eating, and there were even a couple of Psi Talents communicating telepathically, practicing for the plan, most likely. I smiled as they turned their heads to welcome me. I was the key part of the plan, and I had succeeded. As I spoke, someone was probably off buying the supplies required for the mission, a command hack for a cruiser and a lot of guns, laser and particle. I was allowed the rights to keep the particle impactor, so I was already set and well off. I gave my laser gun to one of the other elders. If the hack cost a thousand, we would have 6520 energy units to buy 200 guns. That meant most of the people were getting shredders, but it didn't matter. After all, the guns were only backups to the preliminary Psi Control. I walked up to the nearest window and ordered some Chiron soup, a mix of Terran herbs, spices, and vegetables, combined with a touch of grenade fruit (the organonitrates extracted, of course), and for the very daring, a touch of xenofungus. After it was created, I went to my seat and plopped down. I ate it, tasting the extreme spice of the xenofungus, letting it go down my throat, bubbling and burning like good xenofungus does. After the meal, I joined the Psi Talents which now numbered three.
How is the training going?
I communicated to them telepathically.
Pretty well. Why?
Oh, just wondering.
Great, what was in the Psi Manu...
The trainee stopped. Suddenly, she got up and backed off. About a hundred or so mindworms entered the room.
What's wrong?
"What ha...penned... to you?"
I frowned, and then smiled. When she asked about the Psi Manual, my mind shifted to thinking about it, and she felt my power. I smiled and said,
It's okay. I'm the same old Rol'in as you've always known.
She didn't believe me, so I decided to show her. I walked over to her and patted her on the shoulder. This time, I spoke audibly.
"Read my mind if you'd like."
She nodded, quaking, and then she closed her eyes. I felt the mental probe hit on the niche in my mind, frightening her, but then she started shifting through my memories, and then there was a mental sigh.
"Sorry, Ro'lin. It's just that I felt the power, and I thought The Prophet had come in disquise or something."
I smiled. She was naïve, but she knew the situation.
"No, I'm not the Prophet. The information in the Psi Manual... taught me to grow my power. That's really all I know or can say right now."
She nodded, and walked out. The others simply followed, picking up, after a time, on what had just happened. I knew this was going to happen a lot more.
Chapter 3
Difference of Thought,
Change of Alliance,
Shift of Power
Juvenile Sealurks, when isolated from the collective planetary conciousness, perform astounding feats as underwater sheep dogs. Vast schools of calorie rich sporefish may be herded by only a few well trained specimens. Just don't let them get too close to the fungus, or they'll turn on you like a razorshark.
-Captain Ulrik Svensgard,
Tending the Sea
Without sensibility, no object would be given to us, without understanding no object would be thought. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
Immanuel Kant,
"Critique of Pure Reason," Datalinks
The next day was the day of truth. The Isle of the Deep that was supposed to transport us was due then, and when it came, it was the time for the mission. It wasn't all that complicated, but it there was an 'if' or two that scared the pants off of me. For example, if the empaths were on the cruiser to start out with, we would all be in deep water because the Elite Empath Squad was, as of now, more powerful than us. We had four hours before the Isle came, and before it came, we had to get together to finalize our plans and distribute the guns. The meeting was to take place in an hour, in the Garden which, strangely, we had set aside the day of the announcement for a celebration. Lucky us.
When the time came for the meeting, I eagerly went to the meeting. There, the first course of business was food. After all, you can't go on a mission on an empty stomach, and it would look odd to passerbys to have a celebration without food. The fountain was on, and we dipped our cups into it for water, a tradition among the Psi Talents. Since there was xenofungus filtering it at the top, the water was some of the cleanest (and tastiest) water on the base. After everyone had water, and had taken some food, either cake or sporefish, we settled down. A couple of times, the events at the Rec Commons were repeated, but they were quickly calmed by all who had gone through the diatribe before the Elders could be alerted. I didn't want the Elders to know because, with their power, they might not like the fact that I had past even the greatest of them with little difficulty, other than the pain that comes from focusing in on a vast, fragile consciousness, and the constant feeling of having that consciousness contained into my not-so-vast, fragile consciousness. I guess it didn't really matter. It was time for the dissemination of weaponry. It went along as a wave, almost. People secretly passed guns to the next person, making sure that no one on the outside could see the transfer. If that happened, all was for naught, because all of the people who hadn't seen The Prophet's treachery wouldn't believe us, and even if they did, they wouldn't care because it didn't apply to their life. Sometimes, I hated people. Just people in general.
When it finally came time for the move, we walked outside into a stormy sky. This wasn't just a normal storm, but a turmoil in the sky, a roiling sea. What is going on? I thought. It didn't matter, though. Two jeeps came to move us. Armed jeeps. I smiled. For all of his psi powers, Cha Dawn was rather naïve. After all, you don't send military units to transport units from friendly territory to friendly waters, which would supposedly go to friendly territory again. It was sad how my ex-leader and hero was so stupid. When the jeeps got to the Isle of the Deep, they loaded up, dropped us off, then sped off at full speed back towards the base. I smiled and thought, The Prophet must have told us who we are, and how angry we were going to be. The Isle was actually pretty cozy, except for the fact that there were thousands upon thousands of mindworms that were controlled by a single person, and were prying into our minds. I jumped when I felt the first probe. I shut off portions of my mind, locking them from the controllers' probe. That fool! If only he or she knew what The Prophet was going to do. I probed deep into the mindworm base of the Isle, looking to find out what loyalties the mindworms held. I reached into their mind, as I had done with Planet, but on a lesser level. There, I saw the mindworms thinking, feeling. I interjected a picture of me and The Prophet. All of their thoughts coalesced on me, on my thoughts, on my philosophies. I didn't believe it! Luck was with me again. I smiled, pulled out of their minds, pinpointing their point in the niche in my mind, then headed off to find the controller.
That task wasn't hard, and once I found him probing our minds, specifically my mind since he was trying to break through the blocks I had set up, I pinpointed where he was. From the look on his face, and from the sudden jump he made when I came up to him, he was trying to be silent in his probings. Was he pathetic, that it was obvious he was probing, or was I more powerful? I couldn't tell, and I didn't care. My eyes flashed with artificial but potent anger.
"Stop this foolishness! I sensed you the second you probed!"
He was obviously surprised, but he didn't seem to be fearful.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"What do you think?"
He frowned, and smiled.
"Your mindworms are pathetic. I can feel how many you have. I control thousands, and you make a stand against me with half that many?"
I smiled.
"If you're speaking of your precious Isle of the Deep, I'm afraid you're mistaken. I control those precious mindworms as well as my own."
He laughed almost uncontrollably, then raised his hands as if summoning them. A mass of about a hundred of them squeezed through the hard paste that made of the floor of the Isle.
"What was that about control?"
Suddenly, they all turned on him, snapping, hissing, and emitting veritable waves of fear that slammed into him. I put my hand in front of me, ordering them to stop. They immediately complied, and then sunk back into the bottom of the paste to grow, multiply, and continue building on the Isle.
"You were saying?"
The man was contained for the rest of the journey, if you could call it containment. He was in a state of pure fear from the mindworm attack. His legs pulled up against his chest, he kept saying,
"How? How? How? How?"
Several people raised an eyebrow when I brought him into containment. I didn't make a big deal of it, though, and they ignored him.
In about an hour, the cruiser appeared. Another fifteen minutes and it was lined up parralel to the Isle, ready to pick us up. On the side was painted the sign of the Planet Cult, though we knew who was really in there. It was obvious, actually. The tech of armor on the ship, plasma steel, was barely in the experimental stage in the Cult's science sect. If I haven't said it yet, than I'll say it now, The Prophet was as naïve as strategically failing as any other child, even if he commanded immense power, or regularly talked to Planet itself. Now that I thought about it, he probably knew about me and hated me personally for what I'd done to turn the mind against him. I know that that's egotistical, but it would be fun if that was the case. Anyways, it didn't matter. The cruiser let out its two docking bays for us to board.
We came out slowly, nothing in our hands, making us appear less threatening. Through the use of a mind trick, I made us appear absolutely nil-threats in the minds of the guards watching us, pointing their deadly laser pistols at us. This caused them to lower their guns. When we fired at them, it would be impossible to keep them thinking of us as non-threats, but that didn't matter, because they'd be disabled long before then. Our mindworms came with us, acting as tame as we were. The plan was that we would suddenly send a single, massive blast of fear at the ship. However, I had a trick up my sleeve that no one knew about. Everyone stopped as they felt the Isle of the Deep quiver and masses of mindworms came out of it and joined me. It took a lot of my power to keep the guards thinking of non-threats with over a thousand mindworms joining the force. The Elders were shocked, and thought that they were attacking us, but when they swarmed around me, following me, they only stood dumbstruck. After that, however, I sent the command. Like a pin in the middle of the quietest room, my command struck.
"Go."
Suddenly, all of the mindworms screamed out and let loose blasts of fear, all at once, onto the ship. I let go of my mental control over the guards and felt as the guards collapsed in fear. The few who miraculously remained unaffected, we distracted or took care of with our mass-fire of laser, shredder, and particle guns. Then, suddenly, we felt a presence.
Out of the cabin came three women dressed in short-cropped white dresses. Their hair was flying free, and they seemed quite calm. I frowned.
Again.
I said in my mind and, again, the mindworms unleashed a wave of mental fear. However, the newcomers simply stood there with that same stoic expression I had during one of my poker matches. There was only one way they could withstand that power, and that would be that they were members of the Elite Empath Squad. At once, as if guided by one mind, fear, my assistants pulled up their guns and fired. The women frowned and raised their hand. In front of them, a green shield arose and, though it was obvious that they were stressing a little but from blocking the shots, they weren't being hit whatsoever. In my mind, I called a retreat order. All the Talents next to me rose an eyebrow, then quickly retreated to the now-smaller Isle of the Deep. I slowly walked up to the deck, the three women watching me with picqued interest. Slowly, without showing emotion, like them, I went up to the deck and faced off with them. One of the women spoke.
"Let me guess. Rol'in?"
"Yes."
Two of the women mentally hissed at me. I smiled.
"Have I earned a reputation already?"
Either the women didn't have a sense of humor, or they sincerely didn't care.
"We have orders from Cha Dawn himself that when you are found, you are to die."
All of this was being transferred to my friends on the Isle. There was a feedback of
"No!"
"Retreat!"
"Are you nuts!?"
"I'd like to see you pull your butt out of this fire."
I recognized that last one as Taik. He didn't much like me. I smiled and said to the women.
"Okay. Go ahead."
They didn't seem to believe me, but when I just stood there, one of them raised her arm, and a telekinetic fist came through the air. Apparently, they thought that one of them was enough to kill me because the other two stood back and watched. Without even blinking, I raised a wall to block. The fist came through the air and stopped two inches from my faces, blowing my hair. I didn't care. For some reason, I felt powerful, and these three were mere whims, weaklings. In my mind, Planet was roiling, and I felt as if I was calling upon the power of my half of the neural net. This power, concentrated, was impossible, and it was more than these empaths could ever hope for. On the Isle of the Deep, there came a wave of shock from the Psi Talents there. I smiled.
"Is that all you've got?"
She screamed and sent a scathing hot wind blowing towards me, intended to either blow me off or burn me, one of the two. Just waving my hand, the winds dissipated. Again, it was inches from my face. This time, though, my hair wasn't even ruffled. The woman fell back a little and consulted with her friends. All at once, they raised their hands. In their hands, a telekinetic fist, a much more powerful one, was created. I raised an eyebrow. With that much energy built up, I just swiped my hand downwards. The women were thrown to the ground, and the energy they contained in the air lost its control and detonated, blowing them into the ship, where they rebounded to a point almost a mile up into the air. Feeling merciful, and knowing they were unconscious, I raised a hand and hung them in midair. When they woke up, if they had any air left, they would use what little power they had to bring themselves back down.
The others came on the boat, slowly. The only one to come up to me directly was Taik.
"Wow."
Was all he said before he settled back into the line walking onto the cruiser. I knew what would happen. We would command the ship, head to the land we now owned, and we would build a niche there until we were powerful enough to face The Prophet, and then, we would exact our own little form of punishment. All was well.
Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind.
Have you drunk your fill?
-Lady Deirdre Skye,
Conversations with Planet
Chapter 1
Wealth, Power, and Psi Talents
In the years since our arrival, we have foolishly disrupted so many of Planet's ecosystems that entire species may vanish without our ever having understood, or even known them. We must halt this plunder, and halt it immediately, for our own survival as a species depends on our ability to strike a balance with this world.
-Commisioner Pravin Lal
Mindworm, Mindworm
Humans: Correct in making leap from wealth as currency to wealth as energy. But: logic failure. Wealth ultimately is extension of desire, fluctuating with emotions and state of mind. Desires: When all are supported in purely adaptable system, true wealth is achieved.
-Usurper Judah Marr
Human: Nature
I wish The Prophet would stop goofing off and get his transports here! My unit hadn't received a new assignment since the attack on The Hermitage. When the drones attacked in their masses with their lasers turned on full power, we knew we were in trouble. The attack had come swiftly, and it was only Psi Talents like me that were able to conquer them. At least, temporarily. When Datajack Rose and her pathetic minions tried to cross our continent, they used formers to literally create a canal, and that had isolated the land The Hermitage was built on, and it was turned into an island. That had created a whole lot of problems for the residents of the base, the main one being that we were easy targets for Domai or that insane Cybernetic, Aki Zeta Five. It was insanity. The only good point about it all was that The Propet, Cha Dawn himself had promised transportation for all Psi Talents. Why it was just us was beyond me, but I didn't care. As long as I got off this rock, I was fine. Unfortunately, what I didn't anticipate was the waiting. The only thing I had to do to occupy my time was to send my mind worwms throughout the secret nooks and crannies throughout the base and find out people's secrets through their minds. Then again, there was also some gambling on the base for resources. Different things had been assigned values, and my skills as a psi talent gave me an almost unlimited amount of cash on the gambling tables. Each of my fact finding services and every piece of information my mindworms gave me were each valued at at least 400 energy units each, and that was only the basic things.
Thinking about it, I decided to head over to the gambling tables and see what I could win. When I got there, the smell of dead mindworms was prevalent, and from that, I was sure I was at the right place. To keep us Psi Talents from using our mindworms, the gambling owner set up some automatic flame devices to kill any mindworms that tried to render anyone incapable of thinking. I felt sorry for the unfortunate souls who had tried it, because when a mindworm dies, Psi Talents feel the death and pain of death from miles away. As I entered in, I instantly scanned the tables for some new, fresh meat.
I instantly saw them, and walked over to their table. The newbies were my favorite target because they didn't understand the unwritten values of their items, and they underestimated me because I was a Psi Talent. I sat down, and when I had, the dealer handed out the cards.
The ante was 50 energy units and I paid up. Then, the strange bets came in. We played a hand of Terran Poker, a simple game of chance that the new guys thought was their best game. I started out with a two pair. Two kings, two tens, and a 6. My best chance was probably for a three of a kind, but I didn't want to give up my two tens. It took a while, but I finally decided what I was going to do. Before we switched our cards out, the bets were 640 energy units from the base loansealurk, a new laser personal handgun from the engineer, 300 megabytes of hacked access to Svensgard's datalinks from a probe team member, and my services as a Psi Talent to gather 3 cubic yards of xenofungus for the winner. I felt sorry for them. The loan-sealurk probably wanted the energy that could be extracted, and the engineer and the datajack just wanted it to study. I already knew, though, that they didn't have the proper supplies to extract any value from the fungus. At the switch, I changed my two tens and my six. I was hoping for a three of a kind, but Planet was with me, apparently, because I ended up with a full house. Two kings, three nines. How in the world I got that lucky hand I don't know. I raised a double on all items except the handgun, which would be upgraded with a laser sighter. Everyone agreed and laid down their hand. The loansealurk had a three of a kind, aces high. The other two simply got pairs. I didn't believe my luck! I'd won! I gathered the possessions of the other men, then I walked out the door, smiling with all of my newfound wealth in hand.
My first new job, now, was to test my assets for their value, and that wasn't too hard. Gathering my mindworms together to defend me, I went outside and found a patch of xenofungus. It wasn't that hard since there was no two square yards on this base that didn't have a little bit of xenofungus. I targeted my laser, then fired. The xenofungus was instant toast and as I inspected it, there truly was nothing left of any worth. I smiled and reached into my pocket for the datapad with the hacked line. That datajack had no idea what I could do with this line. He had installed a program that would limit me to the 600 megabytes that were originally agreed to. I smiled and tapped the screen. The screen lit up and I was shown the Pirate flag. Then, I was led through a screen to the spoken of information. Leaving it there, I shut it off, then reached into the back of the device. There it was, the logon-data chip. I pulled it out carefully, then reset the system. Instead of giving me the boring starting dialouge, it simply led me to the storehouse of information contained within. Without the limit block, I gained access to the full possibilities contained within the databad. I had a link to the entire datalinks of the Pirates themselves.
I headed off to my room to examine it by myself. After all, a man standing outside reading a datapad surrounded by mindworms would be rather suspicious. Crossing the halls, admiring the stalks of xenofungus, I passed the Rec Commons. All was normal. The people had gathered there to engage their mind, dance, plant xenofungus and terran plants in the outer garden, whatever suited their fancy. However, the planting and dancing dominated over most of the other activities.
When I got to my room, I quickly linked up my VR Visor to the datapad and put it on. It really was a fascinating device. It took the data inside the datapad and gave it a physical appearance in the VR world. When the Visor initialized, I was thrown into the most in-depth virtual world I had entered. Skyscrapers were on either side of me, each labeled, and full of information. Then there were the people, standing in line on the streets. They were each people that had a dossier on them, and about seven eighths of them had no clue it existed. It was great to be me. I tapped several people on the shoulder just for fun, and read up on a couple of interesting folks, one of them was a Psi Talent just like me, which explains why there was such an in-depth dossier on them. I whispered into the device,
"Revert to all data on The Hermitage."
For a second, nothing happened, but then the world seemed to vanish except for a small city in the distance which I was suddenly teleported to. I browsed through, entering a building called "Facility Espionage" which led me to learn more information about the city then I had ever learned, including the location of the presiding governor's 'special' getaway retreat. Information like this was invaluable, and considering that the Pirates were the most powerful faction on the planet, this knowledge would be second in depth only to the Data Angels' datalinks. I was worth billions, and all because some newbie Datajack decided he could give me some information in a card game. Suddenly, an urge hit me.
"Computer. Access all data on The Hermitage's Psi Talents."
The computer was rudimentary in form, but it knew what I was trying to say. Instantly, almost all of the city vanished, except for a building and a group of people. Instantly, I walked over to myself and read my dossier. They had a surprisingly large grasp of who I was, and they even had the schedule that I had uploaded into the main computer so that I could access it from anywhere. However, that wasn't what interested me. When accessing people, there wasn't normally a whole separate section so large that the computer would give it even a hut, let alone the two story building it assigned us. I walked into the room, and suddenly, two pictures hovered in the air. One was of The Propet, and the other was of Captain Svensgard. The pictures started talking, as though the building was a recording of a conversation between the two. That was odd enough, though, because there was a great deal of animosity between my faction and the Pirates.
"So, Captain Svensgard. You contacted me for a reason?"
The child asked. I was amazed at how The Prophet, a child barely in the double digits seemed so apathetical to the situation.
"Yes, Prophet."
Prophet? With the hatred between them, there should never have been any respective terms in that conversation.
"Very well. What do you want."
"I know of your weakness."
"Oh? Which one?"
I smiled at this. I gained a slight bit of respect for my leader for his ability to use humor in the face of such an adversary.
"Your base. The Hermitage. It contains a great number of your greatest Psi Talents."
"And?"
"Well, they are vulnerable. I suggest I liberate them from your protection and shelter them."
Oh no. That wasn't good.
"Stop beating the fragging xenofungus bush, Svensgard. Tell me what you really want."
Another point on the respect scale.
"Very well. For another year of peace, I would like you to transport your Psi Talents off of the base and have them transmitted to my laser cruiser 14 miles off the shore. Here are the coordinates."
He seemed to press an invisible key and a picture appeared between them. A map with a highlighted area. An area along my supposed path of transport. If this conversation had happened, say a week ago, then that means...
"Very well, Svensgard. If it is the will of Planet, then I will assist you."
My respect for him went down about forty points. The conversation ended and a number of datafiles appeared, documents explaining the conditions. The pictures dissappeared, and then I was left alone to read the documents.
"The call for the target units to prepare, mission year 19.7.16"
I gasped. Today was 19.7.18, and the message that they were gaining transport came two days ago. Then, the big kicker came. The final destination.
"After transmission to reciever through aqueous vessel A147, targets to be taken to Fisherman's Horizon."
That was a shock. Fisherman's Horizon was the location of their Psi Corps Headquarters, and their Empath Controllers, their elite empaths that could even control other people's minds. Her fears were confirmed.
"Targets will be initiated into The Nautilus Pirate's Psi Corps through mental control."
Chapter 2
Betrayal
We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solopsism?
Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat7
Activity recorded M.Y. 2302.22467
TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED
As I ripped the Visor off, I passworded the datapad and stuck it into my pocket. It was still worth billions, and I might need it. I strode out of my room in a hurry, my anger exciting many of the mindworms. I could almost feel the surprise of the citizens as my mindworms lashed out in my anger. How dare that fragging kid sell me like some off-the-wall toy. I was deceived into thinking I'd get transportation off this rock, and that little... pup played me like a fiddle! Ack! I felt like killing him, and if I ever got the chance to, I would. He deceived me! He deceived all of us! Through my anger, I sent a simple message through all of my mindworms to the other mindworms on the base, and therefore, through their Psi Talents, to meet me at the Garden. Considering the stir my mindworms were making, it didn't take long for the Psi Talents to realize this was important. In almost two minute's time, every Psi Talent on the base was at the Garden with their mindworms. I climbed one of the many xenofungus-covered rocks in the Garden and addressed the gathering.
"Listen to this, fellow Psi Talents!"
I yelled in my anger. I activated the datapad and played the video file, allowing the figures to congeal in the air through the holographic display imaging on the pad. I felt their minds go through the same ups and downs that mine did during the time I watched the conversation. However, through my mind, I kept a subtone of anger in their mind about a sense of danger, and a pure anger. When they hit the part about the transfer, suddenly, all the mindworms starting hissing and spreading their fear-waves far into the base. The gathering started in an uproar.
"This is insane!"
"He'd never do this to us!"
"Where did you get this?!"
"Planet help us!"
"When I get my hands on that son of a sporelauncher, I'll kill him!"
To quell the doubts, I showed the specifications of the mission, and mentally explained how I came across the data through my mind. That was it. The gathering exploded. An outcry of
"Down with the Prophet!"
exploded. After barely being able to calm them down, I said,
"Fellow Psi Talents! We must have a plan, or this will all go the way of Svensgard's will!"
The others agreed, and with a great deal of encouragement, most left the room, except for the Psi Elders of which I was one.
"We have seen the events."
Said a woman by the name of Jacquelyn. Her hair, which was normally brown and flowing was ruffled by the events that had transpired.
"What will we do about them?"
The next to speak was a man my age, about two inches taller, but about 50 pounds... heftier.
"I say we kill the poor sporespawn!"
I calmed the man down, nearly threatening to kill him in the process. The bodies of the other Psi Talents may have been somewhere else, but their minds were certainly focused on the conversation, and I wouldn't have Pike get them angrier than they already were. Jennifer was the next to speak.
"We don't even know what base he's in. If you listen to the recording well, there is the constant sound of terran and planetary animals. Considering that our primary base has no terran animals, that would mean he would be elsewhere."
This led the group, including me, to contemplate. No one knew where to go, and, truth was, getting out of the current situation was more pressing a demand that extracting revenge on Cha Dawn, as much as he deserved it. Then, from the opposite side of the table, a voice spoke up.
"I have an idea."
My ears pricked up. Taik rarely ever spoke, but prefered to communicate his base emotions through telepathy. He had rather obviously thought his answer through before he said it, which added a great deal of value to what he said. It was better than anything I could say.
"Okay, Taik. What's the plan?"
As I walked out of the meeting room, I couldn't help but think Taik was insane. Then again, that's what everyone said of me. The team had assigned me to acquire a whole mass of wealth and perhaps even several Psi Manuals if I could. That wasn't going to be easy. Even with the money I gained gambling the other day, we needed over 5000 energy units, and that wasn't chump change. Also, Psi Manuals were some of the rarest documents. After genetic testing had shown that Cha Dawn had an inhuman level of aptitude with planet, he became The Psi Talent and wrote a series of manuals. These pieces contained information that no Psi Talent would ever learn in the normal course of one's career. I had found one in my datapad, and donated it to the cause, but there were 9 other Manuals, and there was a specific one I needed... As I walked down the hall, I went to put the first piece of the puzzle into place.
The gambling room held that same faint smell of dead worms that it always had when I walked in. I walked in silently, making sure not to disrupt any of the games that were going on. I had to find a high stakes game, and that was final. I was given 2000 energy units by the Elders to use in the games. I just hoped that it would work. I walked into the back corner, where an illegal game was going on. I knew it was in the back corner back I had been there before. I knew it was illegal because the rules said no antes above 500, and I knew the people there because I had beaten them before. I stepped in, sat down, and waited for the dealer. The others eyed me cautiously, and they didn't like the fact that I actually had the 600 energy unit ante that was requested. I was a veteran at the game, and there was no denying it. I tuned into my mind, feeling for any sense of deceit. I wasn't going to lose this game to a cheater. Then, the automatic dealer laid out the cards. There were eight of us at the table. Six males, two females. I had a pretty good hand to start out with, but it wasn't good enough to win a game. I had a three of a kind, three twos, one heart, one spades, one clubs. An ace of spades, and a three of the same suit. As I looked at my cards, the bet went around, and when it got to me, I looked at the table, and at the whopping amount of wealth being bet. 7520 energy units, interest in a genetically engineered bioforest worth at least a thousand credits, and a prototype particle impactor rifle, a model that wasn't even legal. I new I really didn't have much that was worth that, except for my services as a Psi Talent, and the invaluable wealth I held in my coat pocket. Luckily, I had made copies of the data, because I was going to do something inside. One of the men was an ex-curator for the primary Prophet base, and he just might have had the Psi Manual I was looking for.
As they all snickered at me, knowing that I didn't have any cash wealth worth the current bids, I mentally grinned. The fools! They had no idea how much wealth I had in my coat pocket. I reached in there, tapped the screen, and then I closed my eyes shut. I reached into the device with my mind and made a mental footprint, as well as a physical lock. I looked up and said,
"I can't call. I raise you in information, 1700 terraquads of information from the Pirate datalinks."
I could have sworn that their eyes had bulged out of their sockets. The monetary value of what I had offered, a third of the Pirate datalinks was nuts. Luckily, the datapad was simply a direct line to their entire datalinks, so it didn't take up that much memory. Around the table, they all folded, and I thought I would win by default, until I reached the curator. He simply blinked and said,
"I call."
He reached into his briefcase and carefully brought off a datapad laced with Terran gold, one of the most valuable substances in existences.
"The physical value of the gold on this datapad ranges at about 14000 energy units."
He nodded to me, however, and said,
"However, to a Psi Talent, this is worth much more than that. This is the most valuable Psi Manual in existence. This Psi Manual contains knowledge on how to directly tap the power of the planet to supplement your own and..."
he seemed to whisper,
"how to speak to Planet itself."
One of the women at the table fainted. At the table was a total of 36000 plus energy units' worth of data and raw energy, not counting the value of the Psi Manual. Added to my own manual on segmenting or focusing the mental link with mindworms (to avoid pain or see clear, focused images through your mindworm) this would be a point of total wealth. I had to act.
"I call."
At the card switch, I was sweating like a recon rover pilot in range of a fungal tower. I had only two options. One, I could swith the ace and the three and hope for a four of a kind or a full house, or two...
I put my two cards into the automatic dealer. If anyone had ever prayed, I was praying right there. I switched out the two of clubs and the two of hearts. Technically, that gave me a trash hand, but if I could only get the cards I needed. Then, it happened. The dealer seemed to shuffle the cards around inside itself, then it spit them out. I kept them upside down as they came to me. There was a four and a five of spades! A straight flush! It was all I could do to keep a stoic face. I simply glanced at them. With no further bets, the automatic dealer said in that same electronic tone,
"Lay down your hand."
I layed mine down. Against a straight flush, the curator had four aces. A straight flush beats a four of a kind! I won!! I was so excited that I literally jumped for joy. I grabbed a carrying case I had brought and stuffed the energy casings into it. I took my datapad, as well as the deed to the forest in my pocket, and I carefully placed the manual in there as well. The curator was just standing there, sobbing. I couldn't believe it! In my mind, I heard a blast of cheering from my fellow Psi Talents. I had won, and that meant Taik's crazy plan just might work.
Gave all the cash I'd earned, 7520 energy credits, as well as the deed to the land, to the elders. They asked for the Psi Manual, but I asked if I could keep it for a week before I gave it up. After all, it could not be copied between files through any conventional method, and after it was given to the Elders, they would try to teach it to the others, and after each teaching, the quality of the lesson would diminish through forgetfulness. They reluctantly consented, and I went to my room. It was a great thing to have the feeling of victory that I felt. I pulled out a datapad from the wall segment, then pulled out the Psi Manual. There were 146 pages of information, and I had a week to copy it all. I had my work set out for me. I read the contents of the manual out loud. The datapad, acquipped with voice recognition software, congealed onto the screen the words I spoke. I have the mindworms sweep the place for bugs and, strangely, found them. Literally. There were twelve mindworms hidden in niches in my wall. I sighed and continued. After about a minute and a half, I finally got to the end of the page. I blew a deep breath and kept going. This was going to take a while.
"Planet is a living organism of fields and individual thoughts. These thoughts, combined, contain limitless power. Tap that power, fellow Psi Talents, and rule this planet!"
That was page 60. I had been talking for about an hour and a half, and I had learned more about Planet, and about the power I wielded, than I had ever had hoped to know, or wanted to. If The Prophet was right, a Psi Talent drawing on the power of Planet itself could control a fungal tower, or command a multitude, a legion of millions of mindworms that could only be stopped by the strongest, most numerable defenders. I brought my hand up, looked at it, then focused into my mind. I wielded so much power, but what did it mean. I decided to stop and take a break from my studies and copying. I decided to practice what he said, and then get a bite at the Rec Commons. I closed my eyes and felt where my mindworms were, then I reached out past the mindworms, to the next level, the way The Prophet said. There, I seemed to hear a consciousness, weak, like that of a baby, with emotions and thoughts and feelings. I took my thoughts and melded them around the consciousness, inspecting it. I noticed rather quickly that the thing, Planet, was quickly realizing my presence. Suddenly, pieces of it came towards my thoughts, inspecting me. I didn't push them away, but brought them closer, so that I could see them closer. Then, it seemed to get deep into my thoughts, my fears. It saw something in my mind that made it recoil, and I felt it enter into a state of turmoil.
With my mind, I tried to say, Calm down! It's okay! I'm your friend! Just then, I saw a picture of The Prophet. I snarled, and the collective consciousness I was dwelling in surrounded it. It was odd, looking at the thing in its state of dissarray. Then, I saw a swirl of emotions surrounding The Consciousness' thoughts about Cha Dawn. Denial, acceptance, hatred, attraction, every emotion in existence. Then, suddenly, the consciousness split, half of it going towards me. It had seen The Prophet through my eyes, and it was split on how to deal with it. Suddenly, I was thrown out the vision, and in my mind, I felt a little niche held by Planet itself, but that niche was half of the very Planetary consciousness, embedded in my brain. I reached out to my mindworms, and I saw through their eyes more than I'd ever seen before, and each one of them seemed to command a power of their own, all of it controlled by me, and my niche in Planet. What would happen if the other Elders got hold of this information? Would they gain as much power as I did, or was Planet limited, so it would have to divide? I didn't know and, for now, I didn't want to. I was content to cross that xenofungus field when I came to it.
I walked over to the Rec Commons, smiling because I held more power than I'd ever had, and I had over 10 millions units of value in my coat pocket, and no one would ever know. I walked in, and smiled at the activities that were going on. Most of the people were tending to the xenofungus and the trees, and some were reading manuals on xenofungus and its qualities. Others were eating, and there were even a couple of Psi Talents communicating telepathically, practicing for the plan, most likely. I smiled as they turned their heads to welcome me. I was the key part of the plan, and I had succeeded. As I spoke, someone was probably off buying the supplies required for the mission, a command hack for a cruiser and a lot of guns, laser and particle. I was allowed the rights to keep the particle impactor, so I was already set and well off. I gave my laser gun to one of the other elders. If the hack cost a thousand, we would have 6520 energy units to buy 200 guns. That meant most of the people were getting shredders, but it didn't matter. After all, the guns were only backups to the preliminary Psi Control. I walked up to the nearest window and ordered some Chiron soup, a mix of Terran herbs, spices, and vegetables, combined with a touch of grenade fruit (the organonitrates extracted, of course), and for the very daring, a touch of xenofungus. After it was created, I went to my seat and plopped down. I ate it, tasting the extreme spice of the xenofungus, letting it go down my throat, bubbling and burning like good xenofungus does. After the meal, I joined the Psi Talents which now numbered three.
How is the training going?
I communicated to them telepathically.
Pretty well. Why?
Oh, just wondering.
Great, what was in the Psi Manu...
The trainee stopped. Suddenly, she got up and backed off. About a hundred or so mindworms entered the room.
What's wrong?
"What ha...penned... to you?"
I frowned, and then smiled. When she asked about the Psi Manual, my mind shifted to thinking about it, and she felt my power. I smiled and said,
It's okay. I'm the same old Rol'in as you've always known.
She didn't believe me, so I decided to show her. I walked over to her and patted her on the shoulder. This time, I spoke audibly.
"Read my mind if you'd like."
She nodded, quaking, and then she closed her eyes. I felt the mental probe hit on the niche in my mind, frightening her, but then she started shifting through my memories, and then there was a mental sigh.
"Sorry, Ro'lin. It's just that I felt the power, and I thought The Prophet had come in disquise or something."
I smiled. She was naïve, but she knew the situation.
"No, I'm not the Prophet. The information in the Psi Manual... taught me to grow my power. That's really all I know or can say right now."
She nodded, and walked out. The others simply followed, picking up, after a time, on what had just happened. I knew this was going to happen a lot more.
Chapter 3
Difference of Thought,
Change of Alliance,
Shift of Power
Juvenile Sealurks, when isolated from the collective planetary conciousness, perform astounding feats as underwater sheep dogs. Vast schools of calorie rich sporefish may be herded by only a few well trained specimens. Just don't let them get too close to the fungus, or they'll turn on you like a razorshark.
-Captain Ulrik Svensgard,
Tending the Sea
Without sensibility, no object would be given to us, without understanding no object would be thought. Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
Immanuel Kant,
"Critique of Pure Reason," Datalinks
The next day was the day of truth. The Isle of the Deep that was supposed to transport us was due then, and when it came, it was the time for the mission. It wasn't all that complicated, but it there was an 'if' or two that scared the pants off of me. For example, if the empaths were on the cruiser to start out with, we would all be in deep water because the Elite Empath Squad was, as of now, more powerful than us. We had four hours before the Isle came, and before it came, we had to get together to finalize our plans and distribute the guns. The meeting was to take place in an hour, in the Garden which, strangely, we had set aside the day of the announcement for a celebration. Lucky us.
When the time came for the meeting, I eagerly went to the meeting. There, the first course of business was food. After all, you can't go on a mission on an empty stomach, and it would look odd to passerbys to have a celebration without food. The fountain was on, and we dipped our cups into it for water, a tradition among the Psi Talents. Since there was xenofungus filtering it at the top, the water was some of the cleanest (and tastiest) water on the base. After everyone had water, and had taken some food, either cake or sporefish, we settled down. A couple of times, the events at the Rec Commons were repeated, but they were quickly calmed by all who had gone through the diatribe before the Elders could be alerted. I didn't want the Elders to know because, with their power, they might not like the fact that I had past even the greatest of them with little difficulty, other than the pain that comes from focusing in on a vast, fragile consciousness, and the constant feeling of having that consciousness contained into my not-so-vast, fragile consciousness. I guess it didn't really matter. It was time for the dissemination of weaponry. It went along as a wave, almost. People secretly passed guns to the next person, making sure that no one on the outside could see the transfer. If that happened, all was for naught, because all of the people who hadn't seen The Prophet's treachery wouldn't believe us, and even if they did, they wouldn't care because it didn't apply to their life. Sometimes, I hated people. Just people in general.
When it finally came time for the move, we walked outside into a stormy sky. This wasn't just a normal storm, but a turmoil in the sky, a roiling sea. What is going on? I thought. It didn't matter, though. Two jeeps came to move us. Armed jeeps. I smiled. For all of his psi powers, Cha Dawn was rather naïve. After all, you don't send military units to transport units from friendly territory to friendly waters, which would supposedly go to friendly territory again. It was sad how my ex-leader and hero was so stupid. When the jeeps got to the Isle of the Deep, they loaded up, dropped us off, then sped off at full speed back towards the base. I smiled and thought, The Prophet must have told us who we are, and how angry we were going to be. The Isle was actually pretty cozy, except for the fact that there were thousands upon thousands of mindworms that were controlled by a single person, and were prying into our minds. I jumped when I felt the first probe. I shut off portions of my mind, locking them from the controllers' probe. That fool! If only he or she knew what The Prophet was going to do. I probed deep into the mindworm base of the Isle, looking to find out what loyalties the mindworms held. I reached into their mind, as I had done with Planet, but on a lesser level. There, I saw the mindworms thinking, feeling. I interjected a picture of me and The Prophet. All of their thoughts coalesced on me, on my thoughts, on my philosophies. I didn't believe it! Luck was with me again. I smiled, pulled out of their minds, pinpointing their point in the niche in my mind, then headed off to find the controller.
That task wasn't hard, and once I found him probing our minds, specifically my mind since he was trying to break through the blocks I had set up, I pinpointed where he was. From the look on his face, and from the sudden jump he made when I came up to him, he was trying to be silent in his probings. Was he pathetic, that it was obvious he was probing, or was I more powerful? I couldn't tell, and I didn't care. My eyes flashed with artificial but potent anger.
"Stop this foolishness! I sensed you the second you probed!"
He was obviously surprised, but he didn't seem to be fearful.
"What are you going to do about it?"
"What do you think?"
He frowned, and smiled.
"Your mindworms are pathetic. I can feel how many you have. I control thousands, and you make a stand against me with half that many?"
I smiled.
"If you're speaking of your precious Isle of the Deep, I'm afraid you're mistaken. I control those precious mindworms as well as my own."
He laughed almost uncontrollably, then raised his hands as if summoning them. A mass of about a hundred of them squeezed through the hard paste that made of the floor of the Isle.
"What was that about control?"
Suddenly, they all turned on him, snapping, hissing, and emitting veritable waves of fear that slammed into him. I put my hand in front of me, ordering them to stop. They immediately complied, and then sunk back into the bottom of the paste to grow, multiply, and continue building on the Isle.
"You were saying?"
The man was contained for the rest of the journey, if you could call it containment. He was in a state of pure fear from the mindworm attack. His legs pulled up against his chest, he kept saying,
"How? How? How? How?"
Several people raised an eyebrow when I brought him into containment. I didn't make a big deal of it, though, and they ignored him.
In about an hour, the cruiser appeared. Another fifteen minutes and it was lined up parralel to the Isle, ready to pick us up. On the side was painted the sign of the Planet Cult, though we knew who was really in there. It was obvious, actually. The tech of armor on the ship, plasma steel, was barely in the experimental stage in the Cult's science sect. If I haven't said it yet, than I'll say it now, The Prophet was as naïve as strategically failing as any other child, even if he commanded immense power, or regularly talked to Planet itself. Now that I thought about it, he probably knew about me and hated me personally for what I'd done to turn the mind against him. I know that that's egotistical, but it would be fun if that was the case. Anyways, it didn't matter. The cruiser let out its two docking bays for us to board.
We came out slowly, nothing in our hands, making us appear less threatening. Through the use of a mind trick, I made us appear absolutely nil-threats in the minds of the guards watching us, pointing their deadly laser pistols at us. This caused them to lower their guns. When we fired at them, it would be impossible to keep them thinking of us as non-threats, but that didn't matter, because they'd be disabled long before then. Our mindworms came with us, acting as tame as we were. The plan was that we would suddenly send a single, massive blast of fear at the ship. However, I had a trick up my sleeve that no one knew about. Everyone stopped as they felt the Isle of the Deep quiver and masses of mindworms came out of it and joined me. It took a lot of my power to keep the guards thinking of non-threats with over a thousand mindworms joining the force. The Elders were shocked, and thought that they were attacking us, but when they swarmed around me, following me, they only stood dumbstruck. After that, however, I sent the command. Like a pin in the middle of the quietest room, my command struck.
"Go."
Suddenly, all of the mindworms screamed out and let loose blasts of fear, all at once, onto the ship. I let go of my mental control over the guards and felt as the guards collapsed in fear. The few who miraculously remained unaffected, we distracted or took care of with our mass-fire of laser, shredder, and particle guns. Then, suddenly, we felt a presence.
Out of the cabin came three women dressed in short-cropped white dresses. Their hair was flying free, and they seemed quite calm. I frowned.
Again.
I said in my mind and, again, the mindworms unleashed a wave of mental fear. However, the newcomers simply stood there with that same stoic expression I had during one of my poker matches. There was only one way they could withstand that power, and that would be that they were members of the Elite Empath Squad. At once, as if guided by one mind, fear, my assistants pulled up their guns and fired. The women frowned and raised their hand. In front of them, a green shield arose and, though it was obvious that they were stressing a little but from blocking the shots, they weren't being hit whatsoever. In my mind, I called a retreat order. All the Talents next to me rose an eyebrow, then quickly retreated to the now-smaller Isle of the Deep. I slowly walked up to the deck, the three women watching me with picqued interest. Slowly, without showing emotion, like them, I went up to the deck and faced off with them. One of the women spoke.
"Let me guess. Rol'in?"
"Yes."
Two of the women mentally hissed at me. I smiled.
"Have I earned a reputation already?"
Either the women didn't have a sense of humor, or they sincerely didn't care.
"We have orders from Cha Dawn himself that when you are found, you are to die."
All of this was being transferred to my friends on the Isle. There was a feedback of
"No!"
"Retreat!"
"Are you nuts!?"
"I'd like to see you pull your butt out of this fire."
I recognized that last one as Taik. He didn't much like me. I smiled and said to the women.
"Okay. Go ahead."
They didn't seem to believe me, but when I just stood there, one of them raised her arm, and a telekinetic fist came through the air. Apparently, they thought that one of them was enough to kill me because the other two stood back and watched. Without even blinking, I raised a wall to block. The fist came through the air and stopped two inches from my faces, blowing my hair. I didn't care. For some reason, I felt powerful, and these three were mere whims, weaklings. In my mind, Planet was roiling, and I felt as if I was calling upon the power of my half of the neural net. This power, concentrated, was impossible, and it was more than these empaths could ever hope for. On the Isle of the Deep, there came a wave of shock from the Psi Talents there. I smiled.
"Is that all you've got?"
She screamed and sent a scathing hot wind blowing towards me, intended to either blow me off or burn me, one of the two. Just waving my hand, the winds dissipated. Again, it was inches from my face. This time, though, my hair wasn't even ruffled. The woman fell back a little and consulted with her friends. All at once, they raised their hands. In their hands, a telekinetic fist, a much more powerful one, was created. I raised an eyebrow. With that much energy built up, I just swiped my hand downwards. The women were thrown to the ground, and the energy they contained in the air lost its control and detonated, blowing them into the ship, where they rebounded to a point almost a mile up into the air. Feeling merciful, and knowing they were unconscious, I raised a hand and hung them in midair. When they woke up, if they had any air left, they would use what little power they had to bring themselves back down.
The others came on the boat, slowly. The only one to come up to me directly was Taik.
"Wow."
Was all he said before he settled back into the line walking onto the cruiser. I knew what would happen. We would command the ship, head to the land we now owned, and we would build a niche there until we were powerful enough to face The Prophet, and then, we would exact our own little form of punishment. All was well.
Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind.
Have you drunk your fill?
-Lady Deirdre Skye,
Conversations with Planet