Microstory 1079: Ada

< > Table of Contents

I have seen first hand what Viola could do. She never used her gifts to help me directly, though one could argue that being included on some of her missions was exactly what I needed. She was capable of transporting herself, and others, to far away locations. It wasn’t quite instant, but it was a hell of a lot faster than flying, that’s for sure. She would later tell me she actually could indeed teleport instantaneously, but it took too much energy, and it wasn’t worth it. She chose to travel all over the world, solving other people’s problems, but she didn’t have to wait for them to cry for help, or anything. She could also see the future, so she would be able to be at the right place, at the time time...mostly. For my second mission, we helped a guy who got stuck in the snow when his wheelchair seized up. He was buried up to his waist by the time we found him. Her orientation skills weren’t always perfect, otherwise we might have stopped it before it even got that bad. I didn’t understand why Viola chose me to be part of what she used to do. She implied I would take up the mantle once she was gone, but I wasn’t born with powers, so how would that even work? It works...because I absorbed her gifts upon her death. She never said that I wasn’t meant to reveal myself to the world. Of course she never said anything, but you must be one hell of a field reporter, Alma, because I just can’t lie to you. Right now, I’m in training. Viola didn’t leave any instructions on exactly how I was meant to use my new abilities—mostly because she didn’t tell me about this at all—so she also didn’t do much in the way of instruction. When I was on those missions, I had no idea she was grooming me to be her replacement. I’m actually working with Martin, Margaret, Mae, and Mattie, since they apparently have some experience with this kind of thing. I guess we’re going to start a team? Maybe I am giving away too much. No, people should know about this. Viola’s story deserves to be told, and if my story is part of hers, then I’m just going to have to deal with those consequences. Now I’m getting all worked up about this. I’m headed to the gym to blow off some steam.

Microstory 709: Death of the Firstborn

< > Table of Contents

For the few years, ever since the revelation that we will now be working through a new taikon path, parents have been worried over this one. The Death of the Firstborn seemed like a pretty clear warning. Though, the passage on it in the Book of Anseluka speaks about family as a more general concept, rather than literal genetic links. We should have, therefore predicted what would happen. As far as we know, no parents have recently lost their firstborn children, at least not beyond casualties of our war with Thuriama. Those deaths have been happening since the Light Wars began, and no recent losses could be characterized as being different, or more exceptional, than the others. No, this was not what the taikon was referring to. Ileana Ulaire, the replacement for Eido Andrea was the only notable death since what we consider to be the accomplishment of the taikon before. She was the first eido replacement since the taikon began, and was actually appointed before Sotiren Zahir was even resurrected, as was Seamus. After millennia of progress, we have developed safeguards, and technology capable of curing nearly all diseases, and of treating just about ever injury imaginable. Still, there are some freak accidents that even we cannot fix. Even if we could, those who discovered Ileana’s body quickly realized this to be the fulfillment of a taikon, and would have been forbidden from saving her. As explained, a group of Irritants, which mysteriously disappeared from the galaxy years ago, came upon Fostea before the taikon started, looking to cause trouble. They ended up gifting the Belt of Andrea to Ileana, however, evidently seeing their constant meddling to be inappropriate. Ironically, we have now adopted some of those people’s principles, as some of them originated on Earth. We do not believe their gift to be a tool for deadly subterfuge, but that does not make Ileana Ulaire any less dead. She was one day using it to pass through walls, as her predecessor would do casually, when it experienced a literal catastrophic failure. Something in the device became corrupted, and disengaged while Ileana was in the middle of a cement wall. Only the front part of her body managed to exit the other side before this error, or loss of power. We know there to have been preventative redundancies in the design, so we don’t know how this could have happened,  but experts do not suspect foul play. Many have attributed this event to the New Light itself, but the resurrected Sacred Savior sees it differently. It has caused him to fly into a rage.

Microstory 638: Celebration of Guardian Appreciation Day

< > Table of Contents

The successful achievement of the thirty-eighth taikon was less about fulfilling it as it was fulfilling all the ones before it. There are very few holidays in this galaxy that are observed across more than one or two star systems. Only one of these is observed in all systems. Sotiren Zahir’s extraordinary gifts manifested themselves at a very early age. He was able to see and know things that no one could explain. He was not an amber, or an anomaly. He was no witch, time traveler, or basic old world prophet. He was something different; in a class of his own. People around him rarely believed his truths, even as he proved them before their eyes. They chalked it up to coincidence, refusing to see reality, and reject their old religions. His parents were not like them, though. They supported him in everything he did, they always believed him, and they encouraged him to explore his shocking understanding of the universe. He speaks of them at length in the Book of Light, and how beneficial their reactions to his—sometimes disturbing— visions of the future. He demanded a Guardian Appreciation Day, to be celebrated annually all across the galaxy, on the day that splits the difference between his parent’s respective birthdays. Though a few worlds have attempted to ignore this tradition, they always end up falling in line the following year after their trade deals suddenly turn sour. It is one of our founder’s few commandments, so the least anyone can do is be part of it. And for the most part, even planets dominated by rival religions continue the tradition. As with any year, Guardian Appreciation Day was set to be observed during the taikon year. It cannot be moved up or down the calendar, and if all of the previously thirty-seven taikon were not reached by the time this day rolled around, the entire prophecy would be forfeit. It was positively vital that the taikon be experienced in the right order, and under this deadline, or everything Lightseers and general Fosteans alike worked for would be meaningless. Fortunately, now-Eido Wurnti Kaddow presented herself in just enough time to let this happen. Guardian Appreciation Day was observed, and all was well.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: [Error]

« < » > Table of Contents

Kayetan Glaston, a.k.a. The Merger was a young fellow, probably in his very early 20s. He was eager, feisty, and way in over his head. Following the disgustingly deadly Gladiator games that The Cleanser forced them to participate in, they were both sent to the staging area together, and left alone. Kayetan was placed in a special set of handcuffs that suppressed a chooser’s ability to use their temporal powers, just like the ones Darko had on in the prison those many years ago. They didn’t speak for a long time. Mateo was still reeling from the ordeal. Lucius had prevented him from having to choose who would die—and the Cleanser seemed okay with this—but it was only a matter of time before Mateo would have to kill someone. It was incredibly powerful and admirable of Lucius to postpone that terrible moment at the cost of his own life, but it wasn’t like he would be able to avoid it forever. Sooner or later—and probably in two years, if not tomorrow—Mateo was going to have to follow through in kind on his promise to honor his contract.

Finally, he decided he needed to break the ice. “Do you prefer to be called The Merger?”

“Why would I prefer that?”

“Many other choosers I’ve met like their nicknames.”

“Kayetan will be fine. Or Glaston.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

He laughed, but also shook his head, because it wasn’t funny ‘ha-ha’. It was funny ‘oh-God’. “You piece of shit.”

“Pardon?”

He kept shaking that head. “The noble and majestic Mateo Matic of Topeka, son of a Shaper and The Kingmaker.”

“Who?”

He continued, “everybody loves Mateo for his future. Mateo will not defy the powers that be, but he will not surrender to his fate. He takes his so-called ‘gift’ and uses it for good. I’m gonna throw up.”

“You’re mad at me for shit I haven’t done yet?”

“Seems as good a time as any.”

“Seems like nonsense to me.”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Time is malleable, right?”

“What?”

“The things you’ve seen me do in the future, those aren’t set in stone, I can change them.”

“Theoretically.”

“Then instead of being angry about whatever that was, how about you use your gift to help me make a better future.”

“I’m not upset about your future itself. I’m just pissed off that everybody loves you, but I’ve seen first hand that you don’t do anything. You just let the river of time flow over your back. You let other people make decisions for you. You’re just along for the ride.”

“I’m a salmon, but I don’t expect you to understand,” he echoed, like a child.

“You have more choice than you think.”

“Great. Let me know when you’re done being just vague enough to be saying absolutely nothing of value. Look, I was going to let Lucius kill you. He deserved the victory more than you. All things being equal, you were the inferior opponent. He just didn’t give me a chance. I didn’t know he was gonna  kill himself!”

“Lucius did what he had to. When you finally reach the point he did, when you have to choose between life and death, and there’s no one around to fix the game, will you be able to do it? Will you man up?”

He waited the appropriate amount of time to make it clear that he understood the seriousness of the situation. “I do not know.”

“Well, you’re nothin’ if not honest.”

“I just don’t understand what you want from me.”

“I want you to get me out of here.”

“Why?”

“What kind of question is that? See, this is why I don’t like you.”

“No, I mean why would I do that? What would I get out of it?”

“I can protect you from the Cleanser, and anyone else you want to get away from. I can put you and your girlfriend in a pocket reality. No salmon, no choosers, no powers, and best of all, no pattern. You’ll be able to live out your days in this perfect little universe, and no one will be able to touch you there.”

“Sounds too good to be true.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “There’s a price.”

“Go on.”

“You’ll be living in a place beyond time. Once you enter, no one can get in, and no one can get out. It doesn’t exist for them, and we don't exist to you.”

“But I can bring anyone with me that I want?”

“Yes, in that moment.”

No, that was a bad idea. It sounded less like a safe haven, and more like a trap. He would never be able to convince his family to go in there with him. They would first have to find his half-sister, Aquila. And everyone has people they want to keep in contact with, but not all the time. No, this was a completely impractical solution to a problem they didn’t understand. “No, I can’t live in a place like that. It would never work. This life may be hard, but it’s mine, and I’m not letting it go.”

“Yeah, I knew you’d wuss out. I don’t know why I bothered asking.”

“I never said I wouldn’t help you, just that I’m not down with a pocket dimension.”

“Well, what do you want?”

“Tell me what you did.”

“What do you mean?”

“To get yourself locked up. You must have done something.”

Kayetan’s jaw literally dropped. His eyes widened, and if he had been holding a glass, he probably would have crushed it in his hands. “You really are clueless. That’s bloody brilliant. That’s the greatest thing I’ve ever heard.” He lowered his voice to mock Mateo, even though his own voice was already deeper, “you must have done something.”

“What’s the problem, Kayetan?”

“The powers that be…hate the choosing ones. We didn’t do anything, idiot! They’re just pissy about how powerful we are, so they lock us up, suppress our power, and sometimes even kill us. Because that’s what they’re so mad about. They chose to call themselves powers that be because they’re actually impotent. They have no real power, but they have ways of exploiting and using us. The only reason choosers like Meliora and the Cleanser aren’t dead right now is because they don’t have specialities. They’re the most powerful of all of us, so they can’t be tamed. And the only reason you’re not dead is because they have use for you, and they know that you’re so weak, you can’t stop them.”

That all sounded very true.

Kayetan went on, “you keep getting bad information, but I’m here to set you straight. There are only two kinds of people in the world; those with power, and those without. The humans have none, the PTB steal theirs, you salmon are burdened by yours, and we own ours. You could become one us with the proper training.”

“You mean like Makarion?”

He tilted his head in consideration. “Makarion’s different. He’s not really one of us, and that’s not bigoted or elitist, he really isn’t. He’s in a category all his own.” He thought about it some more. “He’s more like the powers that be than anything, actually.”

“Then that’s what I want.”

“What…Makarion?”

“No, I want you to teach me how to be a choosing one.

“I thought you didn’t want to let your life go.”

“I’m happy to do it if it means getting a better one.”

He smiled.

“This was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

“Assuming you have any idea how to get me out of these handcuffs, yeah it sort of was.”

Mateo stood up and started ruffling through his bag. “Rule Number Seven: pack the essentials, and always keep them within reach.” He took out the key Leona used two weeks ago in the salmon-chooser prison to free brother Darko from his suppression cuffs.

“My man!” Kayetan said under a dramatic change in attitude. After Mateo removed the cuffs, Kayetan rubbed his wrists in that same way people on TV do, as if the restraints were so painfully tight that they lost feeling in their fingers. He breathed deeply too, as if he had been held underwater. “Thank you so much for this.”

“You better create one of your merge points and get us somewhere safe.”

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that. But first I need to get you to your place beyond time.”

“What! No!” Mateo screamed, but it was too late.

He was standing on a small patch of desert that spanned only maybe twenty feet in all directions. The edges were rough and uneven, in some places fading out to the nothingness, but in others ending quite abruptly. Everything that wasn’t either a desert or a Mateo was a great big void. There were no stars or planets, so he wasn’t in space. There were no sounds or winds or life. There was nothing. He was in hell. For a few seconds.

A hand reached out and took his. He looked over to find his love, Leona on the other end of the arm. But she wasn’t the same Leona he had left behind. She looked a bit older, and definitely a lot more jaded. The most notable difference was her face. She was wearing an eye patch on the right side. She spoke in a northern English accent, “trust me. I’m the Doctor. Run.”

They jumped into the abyss.

« < » > Table of Contents

Microstory 204: Species

There were a number of genetically engineered races across the galaxy, and the universe. They were all created using human DNA, sometimes mixed with that of a different species, but often just altered manually to mimic the properties of something else. If the new species was created from scratch, and guided as it went along its journey of billions of years, then we call it a superspecies. It is human, but it’s what humans would have become under slightly different environmental circumstances. If the DNA is taken from a live originator, and changed to form a separate human line, then we refer to it as a tangent species. It will only take thousands, maybe millions, of years of evolution to stabilize the new race. But if the genetics of a Generation Alpha is adjusted, with the material remains within the bloodline, then we end up with a subspecies. There are many reasons to create a human subspecies, but usually scientists did so in order to create something tailored for a certain job, or way of life. Here are some examples from the Lactean galaxy:

The Laieran were sort of made accidentally as a way to prolong a normal human life. It was not their intention to create an infectious new race. Werewolves were actually not originally human. They began as experiments to find a way to increase the intelligence of animals. Few of the test subjects survived, but the ones who did passed on their intelligence to their children, and their descendants were later subjects of further experiments to give them the ability to become human. This was a long process, and an often painful one for the highly unstable generations that had to endure life as outcasts before being accepted into society. Dwarves were bred to be short and stout so that they could mine for desirable materials on heavy worlds. Giants were...really just made to see if it could be done. Theirs was a disastrous failure, resulting in great deal of extremely large people with a host of medical problems, causing them to die out rather quickly. Savons were also formed out of sheer incompetence. They were wise, and valued for their ability to speak profound truths, occasionally with a hint of precognition, but they also somehow had the side effect of aging rapidly until resembling the elderly, and being forced to remain in this state after death, which usually occurred a bit later than it did for standard humans. Like Tabachi, Elves too were created to be warriors, but their lower bodies were disproportionately muscular, and their upper bodies were dangerously dense, preventing them from being able to swim. All of these subspecies had their benefits, as well as their design flaws. But in the end, many scientists came to the decision that natural evolution had already picked the best possible outcome.

Microstory 203: Self-fulfilling Prophecy

James Smith laid out careful measures to make sure that he could pass as a normal person. He moved from one monotonous temporary position to another, never settling, and never so much as attempting to find a career. He lived in a world where the majority of people had special abilities, but most of these abilities were common. Some could see beyond the visible light spectrum, others had superior memory, and a few were superhumanly strong. James, however, had an incredibly rare gift. He could read the thoughts of those around him. And even though he could choose whose mind to read at any given time, he generally preferred to be alone. Knowing what people were really thinking gave him a perspective few could understand, and it soured him on humanity. To make matters worse, there were two separate camps when it came to telepathy. There were those who admired telepaths, and even worshipped them. They were sometimes hired to visit long-term care units of hospitals, and translate the thoughts of coma patients. But most people, of course, feared people like James. The world was an extremely dangerous place for him. On the one hand, he could sense every move before a theoretical attacker makes it, but at a certain point, he’s still being attacked, and is at risk of being physically harmed. He lived in constant danger, knowing that anyone around him could hate him for his ability, and try to act against him for it.

One time, James was sitting in an interview with a potential employer. He left his telepathy on a rather mild level, really only concerned with how his responses were being received, but not interested in hearing the interviewer’s exact thoughts on the matter. A woman walked into the room and handed the interviewer a clipboard, asking him to sign a document, but this was a lie. By reflex, James focused his ability to pick up more details from the interviewer’s thoughts. The woman had shown him a single slip of paper with the words, He’s a telepath written on it. She must have had the ability to sense the abilities of others. This too was a rare gift, and people like her were often hired by governments and paramilitary organizations as recruiting tools. Without hesitating, the interviewer removed what was supposed to be a decorative bayonet sitting on the counter behind him. He quickly swept the blade over the table and ran it across James’ throat. James had predicted that this would happen, and pushed his foot against the desk to fall backwards, but it had not been quite enough. The interviewer had done enough damage to ultimately kill him. Fortunately, the ability-senser’s job was to inform her client of interviewee abilities; not to kill people. She disarmed the interviewer, placed pressure on James’ wound, and called emergency services. James was never the same after this incident, as one would imagine. His bitterness grew inside of him day by day, and after moving away and buying a new identity, he himself became violent and deadly. What the murderous interviewer feared most about a telepath was coming true, because of his own actions. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Microstory 15: The IQ Trick

I always tell people that I have an IQ of 185. Then I laugh and admit that it’s only 130. You see, intellectually, they know that I have normal intelligence. They will never expect me to do anything particularly outstanding. But subconsciously, they will always be looking to attribute everything I do to my genius. So when I do something that they would consider wrong, they won't look down on me too much because, in the back of their minds, they’ll wonder whether I had it right the whole time, and if they aren't simply incapable of fathoming the logic. The trick is to use this on any given person only a single time. Don’t ever mention it again. The more they think about it, the closer their subconscious impressions get to the truth. And it is absolutely imperative that you never reveal your deception to anyone. Which, I know, sounds ironic, because I've just revealed it to you. But here’s the thing, a truly gifted individual can maneuver their way out of the inconsistency. And I’m gifted. Obviously I am, since I came up with this on my own, at a very young age. And that is the true irony. Because the fact is that I've been joking with you the whole time. I actually do have an IQ of 185. Just kidding. It’s only 180.