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Speechless -- Chapter 7
1. The
world looked so peaceful and serene from above. But down below
was another story.
2. The angel unfurled it's wings to begin its descent. The
first signs of resistance attacked in the upper atmosphere where fallen
light machines struggled to escape their prison. Those beings
were not deliberately attacking the angel, but clawing at the memory of
an abandoned potential.
3. As the angel rocketed through the air in purposeful flight,
darker anti-beings waited like vultures to devour a dying
child. The anti-beings were full of conceit and hatred that
sucked into the abyss of their spiritual feces. The result was
dread, fear and loathing.
4. The polar contrast prevented the two from touching, like a
flame in the darkness: Where one is, the other isn't.
5.
The angel removed itself to a thick forest of dark, scraggly
trees, where
on a cabin rooftop a young adult is laying on his back staring at the
twilight
sky.
6. Gliding across a northern mesa is a species not indigenous to
this
world, homing in on the teenager's thoughts.
7. "Shall I intercede?" the angel asks. "Only observe," a
voice
replies, "the teenager is responsible for his own thoughts. He is
attracting this event."
8. As the alien ship approaches, the teenager contemplates
'fight or flight.'
9. He thinks he's alone, so he jumps off the roof and is
suspended in mid-jump by the visiting species.
10. They
examine him for two hours and return him to the exact moment of his
leap
from the roof, so that in his mind -- no time has passed.
11. The kid doesn't notice that it's much darker when he lands on
the ground because his mind isn't conditioned to accept such
things. It will be months, possibly years before he
remembers the encounter, but the observing angel will
remember
everything, including what transpired during the examination.
"Thank-you for believing in us," the aliens tell him in a dream, "You
had a rock in your aorta -- we dissolved it." The teenager thinks
he hears, "...but that's not all we did..."
BLUE
FUNNEL
12. "There's
got to be some way to crack these frackin'... 'shellans'," DeLaney ranted with
contempt, "Money rules the Universe! That's us! We own
it! All of it!"
13. "Not with the Psionic Guard in charge," Kid Tholon replied,
"and it's been that way for at least a thousand Dans."
14. "Who is this... 'Kor' character?" DeLaney sneered, while
tapping
Kor's image on a tablet laying on his desk.
15.
"Some usurper," Tholon replied, "supposed to be highly talented in the
mystical arts."
16.
"Enough to rival the Guard?" DeLaney asked, a little more
composed.
17.
"He's caught the attention of Seven Gates," Tholon said, "the Kids are
watching..." he stared at Kor's image, "... he's pretty ellusive."
18. "That might be our angle," DeLaney said, "Does he want to
start a revolution?"
19. "The
Guard isn't talking," Tholon said, which wasn't mysterious, "The
savants seem to think that 'revolution' is his goal. He has a
growing fold, and many of them
are not very good at
guardianship." DeLaney nodded, "I've heard the Kids are...
rather loose on the topic." Tholon acknowledged. The
'obvious' wasn't hard to figure out.
20.
DeLaney spun his tablet around so that Tholon could see the bad photo
of Kor in his face paint, bow and arrows, "Pretty, young females?"
DeLaney roused.
21.
Tholon spread his hands to suggest, 'probably,' and chuckled somewhat.
22. "I
wonder if we could arrange a meeting?" DeLaney pondered while staring
at Balipor through his window. A few ideas ran through Tholon's
mind. They were at Blue Funnel's office in the commerce quarter
because Blue Funnel was forbidden to operate anywhere else. "Do
you think Kor would come here?" DeLaney asked.
23.
"Unless we go off-shell -- this is the only place where you
can hold a meeting," he answered. He joined DeLaney's review of
Balipor, "And even then, nothing drawn up
here..." Tholon pointed out the window, "will be enforceable out
there." He picked up a hint of
"not necessarily" in the strata, and cocked his head as though the
position of his head had something to do with psionic reception.
"I got it," Vicar Hera told him
psionically, "Leave the quarter now, and Thank-you for your assistance."
SEVEN GATES
24.
"This is the most grotesque, unheard of thing I have ever seen," Dean
Sailin said. It wasn't meant to be an accusation. Kid
Prophet had a knack for making outlandish predictions that came true,
so they called him Prophet, even though his prophecies had nothing to
do with religion. "The entire shell
reserve?" Sailin asked incredulously.
25. "You've always been right," Sailin said sternly to Prophet,
"Do the Guards know about this?"
26. "What could they do, if they did?," Prophet answered.
That was the problem. This was the financial equivalent of
Vaprous 3 smashing into Vejhon
and extinquishing all life. "Where's the money going?"
Sailin
asked. "I don't have those details," Prophet
answered. He would have gladly divulged more if he knew.
27. "He's
very clever," Prophet offered, "He's being managed by nightmares in the
background. Some of the Kids think he's going to take over the
entire
shell."
28.
"Well, the Guards must be involved then," Sailin said with
certainty. The Guards and the savants occasionally had
overlapping areas of concern. "He wants to control the entire
shell?" Sailin
contemplated, "How's he going to do that?" He spoke softer in
'think-tank' mode. "I can theorize," Prophet offered.
"Please do..."
Sailin coddled.
29. "Kor will plant seeds of
dissent that metastasize into a catastrophic reinvention of
government," Prophet explained. "Just like a fiction novel,"
Sailin
injected. "We've got Kids going to their meetings," Prophet
continued, "Here's a quote: 'The so-called necessity
of friction-induced imbalance is pure rubbish and rooted in
fear.'" "Kor said that?" Sailin interrupted. "He
did,"
Prophet confirmed. It sounded a bit Cacci Daiish, and they both
had the same thought.
30. "The Kids are plants?"
Sailin had to verify. "They volunteered," Prophet answered,
"they'll keep their oaths," he reassured him, "but they're damn good at
playing the part." Sailin masked a mischievous chuckle,
"That's what we do." Prophet nodded, no argument.
31. About the
only thing stronger than Kor was the
obsession of his adoring cult followers to worship him. He
attracted followers who didn't care about religion, and would be
flattered to have two savants among them -- it would confirm that a
chink existed in Seven Gates' umblemished image.
Tactically: "Who doesn't love a challenge?" That was their
'in:' They joined a cell. Nobody knew any
better.
32.
"Where is the money going?" Sailin asked again. Prophet made no
reply but had some ideas. "Is something cataclysmic going to
happen? Is Vaprous going to hit us?" Sailin asked. Savants
are psionic, but known for rigid professional tact. A
slightly less vague thought came to Prophet's mind:
33.
"Somehow or another... we leave," he said with a shrug. He was as
amazed at himself as Sailin was. The idea was so preposterous
that both of them laughed out loud. "Did we buy passage from
someone... are we buying a rock somewhere: Where's the money
going? We're talking about the
entire shell reserve!" He spoke in past-tense because he believed
Kid Prophet was right.
34. "To an
apsionic
species, possibly," Prophet ventured. That eliminated half the
known Universe, probably more.
35.
"To Cacci Dai?" Sailin asked in disbelief, "They don't even use money!" Lots of species
are not psionic, and psionic species can typically read them, but the
Cacci Dai network to a completely different drum. The scenario
fit a hypothetical set of deductive tactical equations. That's
how fast a savant's mind can quantify layered information. Sailin
felt a little better; horrified at the remaining unknowns, but
better.
36. "I don't know," Prophet suggested with a shrug, "Maybe
they'll be doing an expensive upgrade?" It sounded sarcastic but
in their business, the absurd and the plausible were
interchangeable.
37. "We have Kids in the exchange program -- I'll ask them to pry
a little," Sailin said. Historically, The Cacci Dai favored SGK's
because they learned Cacci Dai customs and technology
faster than others. Prophet nodded and agreed, "Yes, do that," he
encouraged him. Sailin looked away in thought, "That's the
golden thread that keeps our society unified," he conceeded
psionically, "but this usurper..." He again made eye contact with
Prophet, fearing that spoken words would ruin everything.
38. They had a cryptic exchange with their eyes and understood
each other perfectly.
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