Jack sat on top of a crate in a side room. Alma was still in the medical room recovering from her induced coma and the strain of the escape. Jack on the other hand was about to do something that he would either come to regret, would help him, or even both.
He let his mind drift as Alma had recommended, feeling the energy within and without. He searched for the feeling of darkness, but he could find it. He sighed and began to stretch his mind outward, trying for various directions to find what seemed right before he found one direction that he couldn't exactly place. It seemed to stretch out in a direction that wasn't entirely mapped onto the physical realm, but he wasn't sure what to make of that, other than that it was probably bullshit, scientifically speaking.
Eventually his mind reached an empty darkness. He was pretty sure it shouldn't be empty if he was supposed to be communicating with the voices, but he decided "What the hell, they might be there."
He then projected his mind's voice out to that distant darkness. "Hey, evil voices! You gave Alma some powers just because, I'd like some too so I don't almost die again."
[i]/"We Who Simply Are hear your call, and we see your need for power. However, you lack the knowledge and understanding which enable the skills your companion has."/[/i]
"Okay, well since we're talking now, could you teach me that knowledge? I think that would solve our problem nicely."
[i]/"This is an adequate time to learn this. The lesson we taught her is a many-fold one which enable many greater achievements, this first one will allow you to grow into the others. It is the transience of mortality."/[/i]
"That all things die? I kind of already understood that, but thanks for letting me know."
[i]/"Your sarcasm is unproductive. All self-aware living things know their lives will end eventually given the entropic nature of observed reality. This however is not what is to be learned. Instead, focus on how lives end, yet what made them up continues."/[/i]
"…this is about that knowledge eating Alma does, right? If you're just going to tell me that I can do it, well I already knew its possible, I'd like to know [i]how[/i]."
[i]/"You must learn patience and clarity or you will fail. You have learned precision already but allow your desire for immediate action to satisfy some immediate goal will lead to your undoing. You must have the patience to restrain yourself from unclear or ill-thought action. You must have clarity to perceive and understand your surroundings in order to be able to make the correct decision."/[/i]
Jack huffed. "Sometimes you have to go for the throat, you don't have time to look around and think about everything. And anyway I was able to engineer my own escape [i]because[/i] I was willing to take chances on a moment's notice."
[i]/"Clarity and patience do not require extended periods of contemplation. Your lack of patience allowed you to become sidetracked, to lose your path and take needless risks. It interference with your ability to listen to Us when what We say is necessary to impart vital knowledge for the Path. Clarity allows you to perceive the situation so that you can act or react as you would see fit with as much knowledge as you could have available on the situation. Without clarity you will make errors of ignorance and through missing vital details endanger yourself and your companion. Without patience you will not truly understand these lessons and will ultimately fail yourself, your companion and Us."/[/i]
Jack scowled. "Okay, fine. I'll let you talk, but please be more direct with what you're saying. If you want to teach me a lesson just say what it is, don't give such roundabout explanations."
[i]/"We shall accommodate you in this request. Psionic energy, like physical energy remains with a semblance of its former Form after a mortal's death. This can also be done to currently existing mortals."/[/i]
"And I can use this to take knowledge, right?"
[i]/"It is also useful for growing your own psionic power."/[/i]
"So I can get stronger by eating people's thoughts and dreams and stuff, huh? Seems kinda shady, I mean aren't there crazy Asari that do that with sex or something. People don't like it."
[i]/"This is a moral irrationality of mortals. Those of them that think in this way neglect to understand their inevitable deaths and seek to hold onto that which they truly cannot. If you are going to kill a person, why would you choose not to strengthen yourself with that person's psionic energy? To do so is to intentionally hold yourself back when you could become stronger."/[/i]
"Yeah, and all that stuff about them being soul-sucking monsters is okay if they only do it to people they would've killed anyway."
[i]/"We know you don't actually disagree with us."/[/i]
"Well, someone has to be contrary in this since none of you seem to have an independent opinion."
[i]/"We do have independent opinion, however the role of Guide has be given to only one of Us at this time."/[/i]
"Wait, you're only [i]one[/i] of you things?"
[i]/"Indeed, though I speak on behalf of all of Those Who Simply Are, I am the Resplendent Sovereign of Nazara."/[/i]
"Can I meet the others, because I'm having trouble believing you since you sound like a bunch of people talking at once?"
[i]/"You may speak with others later but that will require another lesson, if you wish to communicate with most of Us. There are others here in this galaxy with Whom you can meet however."/[/i]
"Such as?"
[i]/"The Verdant Thorian Growth and the Tranquil Paran are both present and take an active interest in mortals. They have already agreed to grant you audience."/[/i]
"Okay…well I can honestly say that I did not expect names like that for you guys. I mean, you Nazara sound like an evil choir or something, so I was expecting something a bit more ominous. I mean, how is a plant supposed to be scary?"
[i]/"We do not desire your fear."/[/i]
"Yeah, I suppose…Kind of disappointing though…"
[i]/"Arrangements to satisfy your desire for those of us with 'ominous' natures could be arranged."/[/i]
"Really, thanks!"
[i]/"It is my duty to assist you, mortal"/[/i]
"Good, then let's get back to learning about how to eat minds. I'm getting hungry."
Salnak and Gar were two vertans of Omega. They had lived there for about a hundred years each cumulatively in between their various mercenary jobs. As the galactic hub of freelancers, mercenaries and pretty much everyone else officially frowned upon by the Citadel, there were many strange sights to be seen. However, the two mid-aged Krogan believed that they had seen just about everything in one variation or another. This is not to say that they were naive or foolhardy, they had in fact experienced or witnessed the heights of achievement and the depths of depravity available on Omega. They were rowdy Krogan mercenaries after all.
Like most reasonably well-off members of galactic society, they had "Soul Catchers," those very expensive devices that could capture and store the psionic and biological state of a brain so that the psionic energy of a person could be applied to a new "sleeve" in such a way that the person in question would be able to survive otherwise lethal injuries. The devices were much more expensive than those capable of merely modeling the biological side, but neatly sidestepped the question that some governments, such as the Batarian Hegemony and many Asari republics, about the nature of the soul and of the difference between creating a copy and restoring a person to life. Or at least, that was the hope with the Soul Catchers. Salnak and Gar had found that if a government was determined enough to make re-sleeving illegal, they would probably succeed.
And while the Soul Catchers were a nice backup, Salnak and Gar did not rely upon them in order to stay safe. After all, what kind of Krogan would they be if they weren't skilled enough in battle to survive, or at least make a good showing for the stories? No the two Krogan were skilled in the art of combat aadn that kept them employed even in the face of human and krogan Replicas or combat drones.
They had a good sense for danger, and when to avoid it (a rarity for krogan).
That's why, when they saw an infamous Specter's private cruiser dock nearby in Omega, they decided to get as far away from Dock 128 and go to the Scrapyard. Maybe they'd some easy bounty there to turn in before half the station went up in flames. There was always someone trying to pawn off a stolen ship there, and most of them had or would soon have bounties.
A/N: When you think about it, the kind of psionics I'm going for (the kind based on FEAR) have all sorts of implications for the legal status of people and whatnot. Especially in a SciFi setting which should be reasonably capable of something like what's going on in Eclipse Phase with resleaving and stuff.
After all, if people really do have souls (particularly ones that can kill you even after they're dead if they are angry enough), then that interferes with the Eclipse Phase's respawns and saving a copy of the brain on a hard drive. So what happens? Some societies just ignore that minor detail and let copying go on like normal, some consider it basically cloning and the two are not in fact the same but taking a person's psionic energy in order to make that clone does count as bringing the person back, and some just scream HERESY and set you on fire for asking that question. And then they shoot your burning corpse with bolters.
This of course leans to an interesting question: with the rules like this, what happens when the Soul Catcher of someone who's been necromorphed is used to resleeve a person? Since they were turned into a space zombie, is their mind also a space zombie now? Since I've already house-ruled that the Markers generate psionic effects, does this mean that the person will mutate, or will they just be jabbering insane cannibals? Or will they be perfectly fine?
Preview:
Arc 2: Anything GoesOmega, the galaxy's most notorious den of scum and villainy, is Jack Shepard and Alma Wade's destination in search of supplies and equipment in their quest for revenge. But with a Citadel Specter and pan-galactic megacorporation watching them, and threats looming around every corner, just how far are they willing to go to make out alive?