Introduction

Without reason or purpose, a man can strive to be more than he is. Without knowledge or ability, however hard a man may strive, he may never know or reach his true worth. Sometimes to begin again can be as difficult as to continue down the path you have already started. Does destiny stand at the end of the path, or some other, darker force?

Chapter 2

Working title: Of Beginnings and Continuations

This is a sneak preview: This chapter is still in development

06 April 2538

Hurry up and wait

A memo just arrived at my Pidit from Central advising me of the necessity for secrecy regarding my allocation. It went on to explain that, due to the need for secrecy my movements about the subsector would be restricted to certain areas and certain times. Outside of those times, I'm to remain in my dormer. The list of places I can go and times I can go there is VERY short!

Communication functions are restricted too. I can only access official channels on my Pidit. Oh, and the GO game...but I can't play against anyone...only practice my strategy.

Guess it's gonna be a long few days.

Just a thought: In my research into dreams the other day, I found some related info about something called meditation. I might do a little more digging into that. Could be a way of occupying my time. After all, nobody plays GO on their own!

Received from Lucien at 12:16

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06 April 2538

Waiting may not be so bad

Hmm...digging a little deeper. This meditation thing looks really quite interesting. Learning to understand and control various aspects of one's own mind and body. I tried a couple of the techniques I found descriptions of, and was quite surprised at the difficulty involved in achieving what's described as a "quiet mind". I don't get how one can both think about something and not think at the same time. I think I should do some further study before I try again. Wonder why this stuff isn't common knowledge on SegWorld? The data I'm searching seems to be coming from a Terran achive, but my comms are restricted, so I'm not sure how that works.

Received from Lucien at 18:46

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07 April 2538

A Quiet Mind

Success! I spent the rest of yesterday evening reading up on all the meditation-related material I could find. The more I looked, the more information seemed to become available. It's almost as if I'm being fed this stuff! I read a little text on "counting breaths". Apparently, the brain doesn't have to do much work at all to count to three, so the idea is to breathe in for a slow three-count, hold for three and breathe out for three, keeping the mind focused on the counting and ignoring everything else. So, I tried it. And you know what? It worked! It took about twenty minutes or so. Thoughts would keep creeping into my mind: about Hana and her friends, my upcoming transfer, Tolly, the Celebration, my hatchery-buddies, but I just had to notice them and return to counting and it all just melted away. I started to feel incredibly peaceful and serene.

Then I fell asleep! Hah!

I dreamed again, but it was only brief; a couple of flashes. One was of the Hiro guy and another 600. The other one seemed to be in a kind of Sector Security uniform, but different. He had an odd-looking weapon at his side. Then the scene shifted, and I saw the second guy in a really busy place, wearing some kind of sleeveless tight overgarment over a long-sleeve shirt and dark-coloured trousers. He was carrying an odd-looking metal platter with clear containers of what looked like synth. He put one of the containers down in front of a dark-haired girl and walked off. The dark-haired girl looked down at the container and then up again. She was smiling. I recognised that smile. Hana. It was Hana, in some kind of recreational place. There were tables with strange devices on them, and small plastic-looking rectangles, decorated with patterns and numbers. The place had the feel of a GO tournament, but different.

I guess the dream ended there, because I don't remember anything after that. It probably doesn't relate to anything happening now that I know of. Future? Past? My imagination? Someone else's thoughts? I don't know. Much of the research I've done has suggested that dreams are no more than the churnings of the unconscious mind, but some has pointed to them being a way of sending, receiving or collating information.

Received from Lucien at 07:13